Displaying items by tag: Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Vietnam

Gathering of MSC Initial Formation Team, Cuskelly House, Blackburn.

Initial formators from Australia and Vietnam are meeting in Melbourne this week. They will discuss the MSC Initial Formation Document “Emmaus – Formation of the Heart”. This is an update of the previous document, “Valladolid (1992)”. The Australian Province’s initial formation process will be reviewed in light of Emmaus.  Please keep them in your prayers this week as they gather at Cuskelly House in Blackburn from 25-29 November.

Those gathered are Danh Nguyen Thanh Doan MSC Pre-Novitiate formator (Vietnam), Dominic Gleeson MSC – Pre-Novitiate Director (Australia), Thi Dinh Nguyen MSC - Assistant MSC Director of Novices of MSC Novitiate in the Philippines, Khoi Nguyen MSC – Novitiate Director (AUST), Quang Vu Bui MSC -   Post Novitiate Director (Vietnam), Mark Hanns MSC - Post Novitiate Director (Aust) and Krish Mathavan MSC (Aus).

Province Update on Formators’ Meeting 25-29 Nov 2024

Day 1 – 25 November 2024

We began our first day of meeting with an extended time of prayer, personal sharing of where we are this day, and listening to each other. In the second morning session, we entered into the Emmaus Document with some reflective reading time, reflective sharing from what we read, and communal discernment of where God spoke to us. In the afternoon, Dominic Gleeson and Danh Doan, the pre-novitiate directors in Australia and Vietnam, shared from their reflections on the current situations of the pre-novitiate in the relevant contexts and in the light of the Emmaus Document. We recognised some commonalities but also some differences in these places.

Reported by Khoi Nguyen msc

Letter from Vietnam… Uncle Bob

I hope you are all doing okay down there in UC, the Vietnamese word for Australia.

It is nearly the end of October so I thought I had better write you a quick note before we get to November's All Souls and All Saints Days (and Halloween).

Some rather lovely things have happened here this month for the MSC community: a retreat with Krish about Now that (we had a terrific gathering lunch with our parents from bowel lock, on the way), a celebration with the MSC Sisters Gen it from Rome, the outstanding celebration for Chevalier Day with many A MSC including a Commitment Ceremony followed by a fund lunch with good representation of OLSH in MSC Sisters, the donation by a generous benefactor of a new alter for the main chapel plus a crowd of new pre-junior (individual kneelers for the uninitiated), the approval by the Oz provincial and counsel of all the recommendations from the Viet community discernment in July, and, best of all, the gradual increase in the number of prospective candidates appearing on the scene.

For myself, things have hummed along. No more trips with the drivers from hell but did have a concern when the Vinh fast Electric Taxi lost power for five minutes in the middle of a busy intersection. A bit of a worry! The big drama for me this month was these are problems. My first EV is expired on the 17th, so the Bursar and I did a rush to Bangkok to get a new TVs are as you have to leave the country as it turned out there was no way the Visa would be ready in time for an important meeting back here… Thankfully, 10 arrive arrange for an agent to organise a Visa on arrival for me so I could get back into Saigon. The second EV's arrival five days later… Lesson, when you visit Vietnam make sure you order your EV is well in advance.

So I am back in the saddle with plenty to do, helping to write the terms of reference for all the new committees now approved. Individual work with seven of the students, English classes with other aspirants, weekend retreats each month for the six candidates for final (my hearing must be failing, quiet as depiction of God in his younger days was as a camera watching him)… I thought he made a model of God as a camel… It caused some hilarity for much of the day! As I mentioned before, these days most Vietnamese in the city are used to foreigners so you hardly get a second look except from the topless and, interestingly, some older teens wanting to practice English. A recent local bus trip had me being quizzed then photographed with a couple of 18-year-old boy owes, much to the bemusement of the driver and conductor and passengers. And then the next day a walk in the park had me in year 12 girls birthday group. It must be the and hat! (Large straw one from the Oz Cancer Council).

Enough… Don't forget the prayer! Take care of yourself. God bless. See you in December…

                                                              Uncle Bob.

Professions in Vietnam, Feast of the Assumption, 21^st Anniversary of the Foundation.

The text available was in Vietnamese and we used the Translation icon. Not the best so a lot of editing (and the hope that the translation rendered Vietnamese names correctly)

Together in the joy of the celebration of the Assumption (the translation read: Our Lady of the Dead Body), the Sai Thanh Tam community (MSC) in Vietnam conducted the ceremony of the profession for the students of Phero Nguyen Quoc Khanh and the ritual of renewal for Francisico Xavier Vu Quoc Vuong, MSC and Giuse Nguyen Lê.

Opening the mass, Father Giuse Nguyen Huy Hoang, MSC on the MSC Vietnam congregation invited the congregation to give thanks to God with the congregation on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the MSC congregation in Vietnam.

Preaching during the mass, Fr Kimi Vunivesilevu, MSC representing the Australian Province invited the congregation to dare to follow the example of Mary, listen and implement God's plan in the life of each and everyone and he also invited the congregation to see the spirit of God at work in his brothers and sisters.

After the sermon, the ritual began with introduction, interrogation and free answers of the students about their desire to give themselves to God. Later, in the presence of God's congregation, Father Kimi, MSC received the vows. Next he gave the badge and constitutions to the students to help the new students discover and do God's will in the lifestyle of the Holy Spirit.

Welcome Quy BUI and Tien Nguyen:

Peter Hendriks writes:  Quy and Tien arrived in Australia last week for a two-week visit. They are here in preparation for the Safeguarding Audit that will take place later this year. As the Vietnam MSC Community is part of the Australian Province, it is also part of the audit that the ACSL will conduct.

Quy and Tien: Quy and Tien had a full day yesterday on the ACSL Standards—actually, just Standard One all day. They will continue to work their way through this document in the days ahead. They will then move on to other aspects of safeguarding and the impending audit. Fortunately for Stephen and me, they like to relax by cooking! Here is last tonight’s creation.

Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited conducts audits of Catholic Institutions. Our Province is to be audited in September-October

ACSL has been created to promote and oversee a nationally consistent, comprehensive and sustainable framework for the protection of children and adults at risk within the Church in Australia. We have zero tolerance of abuse and we work to ensure a safe Church for everyone.

The findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse place responsibility on the Catholic Church to demonstrate greater respect, care and protection for everyone who places their trust in the Church and to comply with legislative obligations in safeguarding and professional standards.

National Catholic Safeguarding Standards

The National Catholic Safeguarding Standards (NCSS) create a framework for Catholic entities to promote the safety of children and adults at risk.

The NCSS outline the policies and activities that will prevent, respond to, and support reporting of concerns regarding abuse. The Standards work together to ensure that every entity, ministry and organisation across the Catholic Church places the safety of children and adults at risk at the core of how they plan, think and act.

The 10 National Catholic Safeguarding Standards incorporate recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and also the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, contextualising these requirements for the Catholic Church in Australia. The Standards have been adopted by the Catholic Church in Australia.

The first phase in developing the Standards focused on safeguarding practices to protect children. The second phase incorporates care and protection of adults, with a focus on adults at risk, in keeping with the recommendations of the Royal Commission.

And a visual culinary reward for reading thus far!

From Hoang MSC in Vietnam

I would like to update 2 news of MSC Vietnam community:

On May 30th, 2024, there are two MSC students who graduated from Jesuit Institute in Vietnam.

VU Quoc Vuong graduated from the Philosophy program of 3 years 2021-2024. LE Van Thanh graduated from the Theology program of 4 years 2020-2024. They got a very good outcome from their study. Vuong will continue his Theology for 4 years. And Thanh will go for a one-year pastoral program.

Congratulations and we pray for them when they continue their journey. 

Vuong and Thanh with VN MSC

From Jun 3-5, 2024, we gathered all together for the whole community annual study.

 There are two topics in this gathering.

• The first topic is about the zeal for evangelization. We invited one SJ brother who spent more than 30 years working in evangelization for the minority peoples in Vietnam, to spend 1st day sharing his experience in this matter. He is a true missionary who has a heart for mission, esp. for the poor. This is really helpful for all of us MSC members in Vietnam to keep fire in our hearts for mission: bringing God's Heart to everyone everywhere.

Mission zeal with SJ brother

The second topic is about Safeguarding. Quy BUI, who has just come back from his study of Safeguarding in Rome, spent 2 days sharing his study about Safeguarding with many matters relating to.

He especially helped us to look into Undertaking risk assessment & Preparing guest and visitor policies; and the process of preparing for the Audit. We find it very very helpful from Quy's sessions, esp. for our students when they are to go for summer pastoral. The gathering is very fruitful and successful.

Qui Thion Bui MSC, Graduation, Safeguarding Course, Rome

In recent years, Tim Brennan MSC has been responsible for Safeguarding issues in the congregation. He has encouraged members from around the world to attend courses in Rome as background for their work in their provinces, unions and regions.

Qui Thion Bui began his course last September and has now graduated.  He notes that last Sunday (Feb. 04), the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh officially established the Office of Safeguarding. It is good news and a visible step that the Vietnamese church dares to challenge itself with the issue even though many things need to be done ahead of time.

I feel supported and encouraged to engage in this area in the future, at least with what I have learned from the course.