Convocation of 2010 Extraordinary General Chapter
15 February 2010
To all Superiors and Communities of the Order of the Holy Cross,
Confreres,
The great Jubilee year of grace has arrived. We opened the Jubilee year at the conclusion of the General Chapter held at the Holy Cross Priory in Pratista, Cisarua, Indonesia last August. We will celebrate an historic highpoint for the Jubilee year with an extraordinary General Chapter at St. Agatha Priory, in Cuijk Netherlands in September 2010.
The extraordinary General Chapter will take place within the context of the Jubilee celebrations at St. Agatha Priory. I warmly invite all capitulars to participate in these days of Jubilee and celebration at St. Agatha from the 8th through the 14th of September. The Jubilee chapter will provide opportunities for recalling the gracious providence of God to our Order for 800 years.
More particularly, when Master General Rein Vaanhold announced the Decade of Transformation, in a document entitled Celebrating Crosier Foundations, he anticipated celebrating the history of our 800th year of foundation in 2010 and, at the same time, a ten-year prospectus for pursuing the foundational values of our Crosier Charism:
The General Board wishes to use the wonderful momentum generated by the International Studies Days 2000 and channel the leadership energies of the Order, in view of our Order’s 8th Centenary in 2010, to reclaim and solidify the Crosier Religious Charism for building apostolic community.
In ten years time we wish to celebrate the gain among us of strong vital communities, in all our provinces, proprovinces, and regions.
The extraordinary General Chapter of the Jubilee Year will be dedicated to reviewing and celebrating the gain among us, achieved during this decade, through the energies expended to reclaim and solidify our Crosier Religious Life. Given the directives of the 2009 ordinary General Chapter – so clearly aimed at solidifying Crosier community life – the 2010 extraordinary General Chapter will serve to report, reinforce and plan the progress to be made in implementing the decisions taken at the ordinary General Chapter.
Additionally the extraordinary Jubilee chapter will mark the third reading and ultimate approval of the Crosier Constitutions. Our ceremonious Jubilee celebration at St. Agatha Priory serves as an historic occasion to exult and to publish the Crosier Constitutions, starting afresh at the beginning of a new century for our Crosier Charism. Without a doubt, one of the great accomplishments in our Crosier Religious Life renewal this past century has been the Crosier Constitutions, inspired, rethought and rewritten through the Spirit and impetus of the Second Vatican Council.
The actual dates for the extraordinary General Chapter work agenda will be largely concentrated on the 9th, 10th and 13th of September. But undoubtedly the full week of Jubilee activities (8-14 September), culminating in the solemn liturgical celebration of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, needs to be seen as comprising a continuum of celebratory moments within the context of the extraordinary chapter. Some details have already been given out by the General Jubilee Committee and further information will follow from the General Chapter Planning Committee.
In accord with the Constitutions (35.2), having received the consent of the general council, I hereby convoke an extraordinary general chapter for 8-14 September, at St. Agatha Priory, Cuijk, The Netherlands. I direct the provinces and proprovinces to make provision for the delegates to the extraordinary general chapter of 2010, recalling the norm of the General Statutes (35.3):
The body of delegates to the general chapter is as follows. From each province: three delegates for the first fifty professed members or fraction thereof, and one delegate for each additional fifty members or fraction thereof (not counting those who belong to a proprovince). From each proprovince: two delegates for the first fifty professed members or fraction thereof, and one delegate for each additional fifty members or fraction thereof. In calculating the number of members in each province or proprovince, those confreres who are assignati are to be included only in the province or proprovince to which they are assigned. The provincial statutes should provide for possible alternates for delegates and major superiors.
The number of delegates for each province and proprovince is detailed at the conclusion of this letter of convocation.
I note the norm of Constitutions 35.2 for extraordinary general chapters, which makes an exception to the ordinary provisions for suggesting specific agenda at an extraordinary general chapter (noted in GS 5.2). Nevertheless, I would welcome submission of suggestions for topics in conjunction with this Jubilee Chapter. Please submit these to me before Holy Week (29 March 2010), in time for the planning committee’s consideration. The planning committee meets during Easter week.
The Jubilee theme, Starting Afresh from A Place of Light, resonates in this Jubilee chapter as a hope and as a prayer. We pray to start afresh. We hope to draw fresh inspiration from our originating enlightenment and charism: the gift of God to the Crosier Order. May our places of community life become fresh and new places of light by the grace of God.
Fraternally,
Elected Delegates
Saint Odilia 4 delegates
Senhor Bom Jesus 3 delegates
Sang Kristus 5 delegates
Blessed Theodore 4 delegates
Wahyu Salib 2 delegates
Martyrs de Bondo 3 delegates
Ex Officio Capitulars
Prior Provincial of Saint Odilia
Administrator of Senhor Bom Jesus
Prior Provincial of Sang Kristus
Prior Provincial of Blessed Theodore
Prior Proprovincial of Wahyu Salib
Prior Proprovincial of Martyrs de Bondo
Master General Glen Lewandowski, O.S.C.
Elected Councilor James Hentges, O.S.C.
Elected Councilor F. X. Rudiyanto Subagio, O.S.C.
