In the first days of April, a Claretian Provincial Chapter took place in Krzydlina Mała, a small village in Poland, where the Claretian Retreat Centre is located.
Fathers summarised their former four years of activities, and future prospects for the Polish Province. The crucial moment of that assembly was election of a new Provincial Superior and the Provincial Council. The results were a true surprise for everyone. A new Provincial Superior is now fr. Piotr Bęza CMF. This choice was a big surprise for everyone, since fr. Piotr is young in age and experience, however the Holy Spirit wants to, as it is the case also in the LCM, pour new wine into new wineskins.
For us, Lay Claretians from Poland, it is a double joy, since fr. Piotr belonged for many years to the same Claretian youth group as we did, and we have known him for ages. What is more, all the new members of the new Provincial Council are the fathers and one brother who used to be (this way or another) in that group. This is why we can hope that our cooperation will be joyful, energetic, and flowless.
On the last day of the Provicial Chapter, we were invited to come to it and tell a few words about who we are and what we do as Lay Claretians. We described some of the projects that we did, like youth meeting in Germany, or the meeting with Persecuted Church. We also discussed how our cooperation might look like. There were a few dozen of priests listening to us, and some of them were also asking questions, and approaching us to talk after the meeting. It was important, especially that most of them had not heard about our group too much before. How surprised we were to see fr. Emanuel Tamargo CMF among them.
The meeting happened in a very friendly atmosphere, with remembering lots of the memories of old times.
For the future, we plan to start having regular meetings open to everyone, and to organise a retreat in winter.
