The Missionary Cooperative Plan

Click here for the full 2010 schedule of missionaries that will be speaking in the Arlington Diocese.

Profile of the OFM Representative

Fr. Eduardo Armenta, ofm is a Franciscan priest originally from the Philippines.  He has worked in the Franciscan mission in Papua New Guinea for the last twenty years.  He is currently the major superior (Custos) of the Franciscan entity in Papua New Guinea, while at the same time serving in the Diocese of Aitape.

Country Profile 

Papua New Guinea is the eastern half of New Guinea Island.  It is a developing country of seven million people of the Melanesian stock, distributed among many tribes in a wide geographical area of four hundred thousand square kilometers.

Eighty percent of the population is Christian, and sixty percent Catholic, administered in nineteen dioceses.  The Catholic Church is a major player in the work of development.  It is responsible for delivery of more than fifty percent of the government services in education, health, and development.

The country is rich especially in forest, marine and mineral resources.  These have yet to be tapped, and ensure that people benefit from them through good governance and transparency, which, unfortunately is wanting in the hands of the present administration.  The churches play a major role in ensuring that the people receive proper moral basis in its evangelization work.

Profile of the Franciscan Presence

The Franciscan Friars in PNG comprise Independent Custody, under the patronage of St. Francis of Assisi.  There are thirty-two (32) friars spread around three regions in Papua New Guinea.  The biggest number of friars is in Aitape in the Sandaun Province, near the border to West Papua.  The friars are engaged mainly in pastoral work in parishes. The diocese adopted the MBW (Movement for a Better World) approach to building basic Christian communities.

Among the services we offer in the pastoral field are: Youth, Family life, HIV/AIDS ministry, Justice Peace and Ecology, Rehabilitation Program for people with disabilities.

We have two centers, which mainly operate as a counseling and care center during the day for HIV/AIDS sufferers, and a hospice that can accommodate up to twelve patients.

In maintaining all these services, we need to continue to maintain old structures and build new ones; we need transportation where there is road access, and most of the roads can be reached only by four wheel drive vehicles; some can be reached only by flying where there is a small airstrip, the size of a football field; otherwise we resort to the traditional way – walking. J

Handmaids of Reparation:  Overview:

• The Handmaids of Reparation was established in Italy in 1918
• The sisters’ USA ministries are in Steubenville, Ohio and Burke, VA
• The spirituality of the Order is Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
• The ministry of the Order is education, parish work and missions
• The Sisters in Ivory Coast, Africa work with the poor in Nassian and Abidjan They develop training programs such as farming, sowing, etc.
• The Sisters also are in the process of expanding their mission ministry in the Congo
• In Brazil, our Sisters operate schools in the poor area on Coromandel and do extensive work in rural areas.  They also teach catechesis in parishes

Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary:    Overview:

• The Sisters have operated mission schools in Peru and Chile since 1922
• Along with the private schools, the Sisters operate schools for the poorest of the poor, where meals are provided as well as hygienic necessities such as toothbrushes, etc.
• Founded as a community in 1845 with the primary work being Catholic education, the Sisters continue to teach and work in Religious Education in schools in North America, specifically in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Connecticut and our own Diocese of Arlington, specifically in St. Thomas More, St. James, St. Michael’s and Bishop O’Connell High School.

Columban Fathers:    Overview:

• The Missionary Society of St. Columban is a group of priests, sisters and lay missionaries whose special call is to cross boundaries of language, culture and faith to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.
• They endeavor to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, especially to the poor and the victims of injustice. 
• They aim to help Churches mature until they are able to evangelize their own people, and they actively promote dialogue between Christians and those of other religions.
• In the United States, the Columbans form and strengthen missionary concerns through educational programs and materials.

The Josephites:   Overview:

• This year’s speaker is Rev. Albert A. Adekeke from the Catholic Diocese of Ijebu-Ode in the western part of Nigeria, near Lagos.
•  Ijebu-Ode Diocese is a rural but growing diocese, which is predominantly Muslim (50%).
• Christians of other denominations comprise 25% of the population, Catholics account for 15%, and 10% of the people follow traditional African beliefs. 
• The diocese has 23 parishes with over 150 churches, 7 houses of formation, 12 religious houses for male and female religious groups.
• The Catholic population does not have enough material and financial resources to sustain her many developing programs of evangelization, such as sustenance of priests and religious, training of seminarians, and primary health care projects for the villagers.

The Poor Sisters of St. Joseph: Overview:

• The Mother House for The Poor Sisters of St. Joseph is in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and all monetary funds are sent there for distribution in accordance with the needs of all our missionary works.
• The Sisters have houses both in Virginia and Pennsylvania, where they minister to the Hispanic community.
• Missions are located in Uruguay, Romania and Madagascar. 
• In all places, the Sisters’ primary goal is to bring the Gospel to the people while providing for their corporal and spiritual needs.

Apostles of Jesus:    Overview:

• 2007 was a special year for the Apostles of Jesus missionaries because it marked the beginning of our preparation for the 40^th anniversary of the order.  It is a time for spiritual renewal and re-commitment to Pastoral-Missionary Apostolate.  We want to advance the cause of the new evangelization so as to bring new hope, and vision into places that truly need to hear the Gospel.  As Pope Benedict XVI has reminded us, “As we follow Christ in this mission to be fishers of men, we must bring men and women out of the sea that is salted with so many forms of alienation and onto the land of life, into the light of God.  It is really so: The purpose of our lives is to reveal God to men.”  That is precisely how we perceive our vocation and mission as Apostles of Jesus Missionaries, and we pledge to invest the funds of the mission appeals to our mission of revealing God to men in Africa and all around the world.

Congregation of the Holy Ghost and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Spiritans):   Overview:

• The Spiritans came to the United States from Germany in the 1870’s to work with immigrants and people of color, beginning in Pittsburgh, then expanding to Philadelphia, Harlem, New England, Detroit, Wisconsin, Ohio, the rural South, the Southwest and California
• American Spiritan Fathers began serving in Africa in the 1920’s and now serve in East Africa, Tanzania, West Africa, Angola and South Africa
• American Spiritans have served for over 70 years in Puerto Rico, and recently started a new mission in the Dominican Republic and among the aboriginal people in Australia
• The Western Province works with Moslems in the Philippines and indigenous peoples in Mexico.  Vietnamese-American Spiritans have begun going to Vietnam and to Taiwan.
• Three hundred years of service to the poor and the lowly ones, with new beginnings constantly.  We possess a remarkable missionary history in the Holy Spirit.  Join with us, please, in thanking the Lord for these blessings.

Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ( Missionhurst):  Overview:

•  C.I.C.M. was founded in 1862 in Scheut, a suburb of Brussels, Belgium for the conversion of China
•  Missioners are now in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Zabia, Chad, Angola, Guatemala, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Mexico, Italy and South Arica.  The American headquarters is in Arlington, VA.
• We have cast our lot with the Lord in his search for the disadvantaged, the oppressed, the disinherited of this earth. This has always been the way of Christ. It was the way of the founder. It is the CICM way
• From the very beginning we have pledged our willingness to leave behind familiar surroundings, blood ties and country, language, culture, friends and possessions, in order to free ourselves more fully in the pursuit of our vocation in CICM

Brothers of St. Francis Xavier (Xaverians): Overview:

• We are the Xaverian Brothers, vowed religious who follow Jesus Christ through the lives of prayer, community and service.  Like Theodore James Ryken, our Founder, and Saint Francis Xavier, our Patron, we strive to know and live the faith, hope, and love rooted in the Good News of Jesus, and to teach others about that Good
•  In our service, we Xaverians are committed primarily to evangelization, to helping people know God and God's truth in all the ways it is present among us. We have a missionary spirit, following the example of Francis Xavier, opening ourselves to go wherever the Holy Spirit might lead us. We minister both at home and in mission countries.
•  You will Find Xaverian Brothers: Ministering in all the ways where God's Spirit calls us to serve not only those materially deprived but also among those who are spiritually impoverished; attempting to serve a variety of people, including minorities, the suffering and marginalized; trying to root all we do in lives of prayer, according to our Founder's vision of a life combining contemplation and action; praying, serving and sharing community life in the U.S., Belgium, England, and Lithuania, and at our missions in Bolivia, Haiti, Kenya, Zaire and Sudan; seeking to be prayer-filled, zealous brothers serving the Church and the spread of the Gospel.

Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales: Overview:

• Today you can find Oblate Sisters in France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, Namibia, South Africa, Ecuador, Colombia and the United States.
• Our Sisters operate schools, orphanages and retirement homes. We teach in parish religious education programs, visit the sick and elderly and minister to the poor. In all this, we strive to Live Jesus and to draw souls closer to him in love.
• Like our founders, Fr. Louis Brisson and St. Leonie Aviat, we listen to the cry going forth from our people today and reach out with a compassionate heart.

Oblates of St. Francis de Sales:  Overview:

• Founded in Troyes, France in 1871 by Father Louis Brisson, the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales are a Roman Catholic religious congregation of Priests and Brothers who are committed to imitating Jesus Christ in the spirit of St. Francis de Sales.
• The Oblates exist to follow and disseminate the spiritual heritage of their Patron, St. Francis de Sales. They are guided by the practice of their motto: "Live+Jesus" or "to live as Jesus lived," the motto that St. Francis de Sales wanted to inscribe in everyone's heart. Therefore, every Oblate strives to make of his life an "Oblatus" or "a complete offering to God."
• In addition to the ministries we serve in the United States and Europe, we also answer the call to serve people in need all around the world.  Approximately 125 priests, brothers, deacons, seminarians and novices are working or studying throughout the De Sales Oblate mission territories.  Thousands of people are touched everyday by the work of our missionaries.
•  In Benin and India, the De Sales Oblates are focusing on the future and helping young men answer the call to the religious life.
•  In Ecuador, Namibia, and South Africa, our missionaries are hard at work running parishes, training seminarians, and working together with the people to meet the most critical needs of their communities. 

Franciscan Friars of the Atonement:  Overview:

• The community first served those in need in New York along the Hudson River.  As the number of Friars increased, they were sent out to the "missions", first to Texas and then to British Columbia. It was not until 1949 that the Friars first went to serve the people in Japan. Shortly afterwards they opened the friary in Rome, Italy. In the late 50's they opened their first friary in England.
• The 60's the Friars went to Brazil and Jamaica, West Indies. Today the Friars serve in parishes in the United States, Canada and England. They also serve in Ecumenical Ministry in the United States, Canada, England, Japan and Italy. Friars serve in Social Ministry in the United States, Canada, England and Japan. 

The Diocese of Mandeville, Jamaica:  Overview:

• When the Diocese of Mandeville was formed as a vicariate in 1991, there were 4 parishes; today we are proud to say there are 20 parishes and 10 missions

•  Our first and foremost goal is to evangelize, educate our people in the Catholic faith and grow as a Catholic family

•  In our diocese we have about 600,000 people.  68% have no running water, only outside latrines
•  People need basic necessities of life-food, clothing, shoes, mattresses, and many need a home
• The average annual income in Jamaica is $1500, which is a little less than $29 a week
• There are an alarming number of destitute elderly and neglected/abused children. People are dying every day from diseases which no longer exist in the USA
• Fr. Gary Wiesmann, a priest of the Diocese of Mandeville, will preach about the conditions in Jamaica, and the need for all Catholics to answer God’s call to be missionaries

Sisters of Notre Dame India Mission:  Overview:

• On October 31, 1949 our first 6 missionaries arrived in Jamalpur to begin our misson work in India
• Now, 60 years later, our more than 275 Indian sisters are carrying on the work in India and Africa
• With the support of our generous donors, our missionaries touch the lives of tens of thousands each day, through education, health care, social work and spirituality

The Stigmatine Fathers and Brothers:  Overview:

• We are committed to follow Christ in a radical and absolute way.  As “right hands” to bishops, we live the spirit of abandonment modeled by our founder, while embracing a counter-cultural life as priests and brothers
• Because of our religious consecration, we are, in a particular way, immersed in the life and mystery of the Church, and we give a specific contribution to the solution of the world’s problems
• We work in Tanzania, Chile, Ivory Coast, Bostswana and the Philippines
• The purpose of our mission appeals are for the need of our missions in Thailand: support native vocations, the tuition of seminarians, schools, helping our farmers in the parishes and our health units