www.livestrong.com September

Volume VIII Issue No. 3 May-June 2020

Sr. Rosann

WE ARE DIFFERENT YET ONE“The way of Jesus…to walk united with our differences.” -Pope Francis

Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, Casa Santo Spirito, Via dei Bevilacqua 60, 00165, Rome Italy

The Generalate and the Casa Community, Rome

Panel exhibit by Sr. Marie Johann Heo, OSB

The Generalate  re-organized its 2020 schedule due to the effect of the COVID19 pandemic. Affected by this re-organization are the following: A. Cancelation: International Weeks of Encounter (IWE) in Rome/Tutzing: April 19-June1 B. Reset for unspecified dates: 1. Financial Council (FC) in Rome: June 15-17 2. International Treasurers’ Meeting (ITM) in

Rome: June 21-July 1 3. Prioresses’ Meeting Norfolk: August 19-September 2 4. Norfolk Visitation and Sorocaba Visitation

C. Re-scheduled: Peramiho Election Chapter: July 28-29, 2020 Seoul Election Chapter: September 14-15, 2020

GENERALATE RE-ORGANIZES 2020 SCHEDULE

GENERALATE APPOINTS FIRST INDIAN SUPERIOR M. Maoro Sye delegated Sr. Cecille Ido, the coordinator of the P u n a l u r Community, India and link to the Generalate to install Sr. Leoni

Joseph Manimala as the first Indian superior of the community belonging to the Generalate District. The installation took place at Vespers on May 13. Sr. Cecille shares the article below: Two decades and four years ago, Sr. Leoni and I met for the first time, when we, as members of the founding community for India arrived at the Trivandrum Airport on November 9, 1996. Three of us, M. Edeltrud Weist, Sr. Lioba Yang, and myself came from Rome. Sr. Leoni just arrived from the Philippines where she completed her formation years. Later, Sr. Veronica who was then helping out at the Mission school in Gujarat joined the group to complete the community. The rest is history. Sr. Leoni Joseph, is the third of 6 siblings, 3

girls and 3 boys. Originally, the family came from South Kerala, but they all grew up in Wynad, North Kerala where the family later migrated. She had a four-year Nursing Training and was a big support in the management of Sr. Isabella Mary’s school of nursing in Gujarat. Being a trained nurse and exposed to community health work, Sr. Leoni has a soft heart for the poor and the sick. During our early years in Punalur, Sr. Leoni and I volunteered to conduct family visits in the poor communities surrounding the convent. In one of the reflection sharings after each visit, I told her my impression of her. 'Sr. Leoni I can see that you are a prayerful person, I admire your love for the mission and your loyalty to our community and our congregation. You are hard working and dedicated to your work. I think you will be the first Indian Superior for the Punalur community'. By God’s mysterious ways, twenty four years later, I was called back to Punalur on a short mission assignment. Little did I know that I would be part of the May 13, 2020 installation GENERALATE APPOINTS, PAGE 2

Congregation Lifestream 2

TACLOBAN HOSPITAL OPENS COVID-19 TESTING LABORATORY

of Sr. Leoni Joseph as the first Indian Superior of the Punalur Community. Together with the community we recited this prayer:

We are facing a trying time in history. We are experiencing something that is

very difficult and unpredictable. We are all adapting to a ‘new normal. '

And although this new normal may appear challenging, and at times

scary, you are not alone. We, your sisters in community, promise

you our full support. Together, we will move forward and

survive this storm together.

GENERALATE APPOINTS…from page 1

BY SR. AMADEA DONADILLA, OSB

Seated: Medical Technologists,; front row standing: Sr. Celeste Licas (l) Sr. Amadea (2nd from l) doctors; back row standing: doctors

The Missionary Benedictine Sisters of the Divine Word Hospital, Tacloban received the license from the Department of Health to operate the Virology COVID-19 laboratory testing on May 13, 2020. Our medical technologists were sent to Manila for a six day-training at the University of the Philippines National Institute for Health. All of them passed the proficiency test conducted by the RITM – Research Institute of Tropical Medicine with perfect scores. This application went along with a lot of structural and documentary procedures. The COVID-19 testing laboratory performs the Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction or RT-PCR testing of the virus SARS-COV-2 (name of the pandemic virus). The sickness is called COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease-2019). It can

detect even if there is only one virus present in the specimen. It is the specific and confirmatory test for the COVID-19. We opened our COVID testing lab on May 18, 2020. We first tested our front liners. These are our nurses and resident doctors in the emergency room, isolation unit for COVID patients and those in 4 triage areas. Triage areas screen all the people who enter the hospital if they have cough, colds, sore throat and fever and ask their travel history. All in-patients with respiratory symptoms and those who did not have respiratory symptoms but turned reactive to the Rapid Antibody Test were tested with RT PCR. Likewise we also test all major surgical, obstetrics and gynecological, ophthalmology, ENT (ear, nose and throat) and TACLOBAN HOSPITAL, page 3

Congregation Lifestream 3 TACLOBAN HOSPITAL…from page 2

Pope Francis urges everyone to take part in the just-opened Laudato si’ Year, and releases a special prayer to accompany the celebration. After praying the Regina Coeli on Ascension Sunday, Pope Francis recalled the 5th anniversary of his encyclical “Laudato si’: On the Care for our Common Home.” He said the document sought to “call attention to the cry of the earth and of the poor.”The Pope invited everyone to take part in the Laudato si’ Year, which is   promoted by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development  and runs from May 24, 2020 until May 24, 2021. “I invite all people of goodwill to take part, to care for our common home and our most

vulnerable brothers and sisters.”

Special PrayerPope Francis also announced a special prayer dedicated to the Laudato si’ Year.He encouraged everyone to pray it.Below ist he Vatican News English-language translation of the prayer :Loving God,Creator of Heaven, Earth, and all therein contained.Open our minds and touch our hearts,so that we can be part of Creation, your gift.Be present to those in need in these difficult times,especially the poorest and most vulnerable.Help us to show creative solidarityas we confront the consequences of the global pandemic.Make us courageous in embracingthe changes required to seek the common good.Now more than ever, may we all feel interconnected and interdependent.Enable us to succeed in listening and respondingto the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.May their current sufferings become the birth-pangsof a more fraternal and sustainable world.We pray through Christ our Lord,under the loving gaze of Mary Help of Christians,Amen.

POPE FRANCIS APPEALS FOR LAUDATO SI’ YEAR, RELEASES SPECIAL PRAYER

BY DEVIN WATKINSVatican News, May 24, 2020

aerosol generating procedures who will undergo general anesthesia and including local anesthesia for ENT procedures. We serve the whole Region VIII (the Eastern Visayas Region with a population of 4.4M). The Local Government Unit of the province of Leyte, which donated 3 equipments, signed an agreement with us. They also provided the test kits for their patients. They sent 650 nasopharyngeal swabbed specimens from the government employees of Leyte. The Petron and San Miguel Corporation sent about 600 specimens, for the Filipino overseas workers who come home to Leyte, those who come home from Manila and from other

provinces. We also serve requests from other hospitals and walk-in patients. We hope and pray that in our effort and courage to take the risk in building a COVID-19 laboratory, our hospital will play a significant role in the early detection of the virus and so assist the Local Government and all those who made their request to be tested, to contain, quarantine and stop the spread of the COVID-19. In addition, we pray that in so doing, we can save lives.    As of June 5, 2020 our COVID laboratory tested 835 total number of specimens, 829 of these turned negative and 6 were positive.

Congregation Lifestream 4

EXCERPTS FROM SR. PIA PORTMANN’S CONFERENCE ON STABILITY AND EVANGELIZATION

(Sr. Pia Portmann will be one of the three speakers of the American Benedictine Academy (ABA) First Bienniel Virtual Conference on July 17-18. at 10:00 (Central Daylight Time). The theme for this year is “2020 Vision: Seeing the World in a Single Ray of Light.” For those who wish to have a link during her talk kindly contact Sister Antoinette Purcell, OSB, ABA President, antoinettep1964@gmail.com)

When I talk about my experience of monastic life in Tanzania, East Africa, I have to explain this most fascinating piece of art, the UJAMAA. This carving created by the Makonde carvers is one piece of wood made of the famous ebony tree. It is my conviction that I need to give you an idea of the people we were blessed to evangelize. The people of

Tanganyika and Zanzibar (now TANZANIA) are an UJAMAA PEOPLE whose life style is very communal in every aspect of life, from birth to death. Do not confuse this way of life with Socialism. In an UJAMAA Style of life, no one person is important without the other members in his/her society. Here one has to accept the fact that "I AM BECAUSE WE ARE." One's success is largely due to the active and full participation of every member in the community. Remember the famous African saying: "It takes a village to raise a child." In an UJAMAA LIFE STYLE, every activity is performed on a communal basis, like

building a house, preparing a farm, harvesting all farm products, preparing young adults for marriage, raising and initiating children to responsible adulthood, taking care of the elderly, and finally, burying the dead. Every member of an UJAMAA Community must willingly and fully participate in all activities in his/her community. The UJAMAA tree or also called TREE OF LIFE illustrates this better than I can express it. These are the type of people we were blessed to evangelize in Tanzania from January 1888 to this day. Their way of life has inspired me and is very much similar to our way of life as Missionary Benedictines. It was, therefore, not so difficult for us to net in many vocations to the priesthood and the religious life in big numbers. "I AM BECAUSE WE ARE." Let me now first tell you how “I became because we are!” I have chosen the main theme of this presentation “Stability and Evangelization”. I belong to the Congregation of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. I love my congregation and our history. They formed me who I am today. “Blessed Guerric uses the image of a fruitful tree to show the need for stability. Just as a tree or a grain of wheat does not produce fruit unless it first puts its roots down into the earth, likewise the monastic will not grow in love if he/she does not sink roots in his/her cell or in his/her community” (From Centered on Christ by Augustine Roberts page 110). Having this image in mind, all our monasteries, and even more our Congregation can be seen as fruitful trees through the fidelity and rootedness of each member and community.

Historical background I cannot talk about my monastic experience in other parts of the world, specifically in Tanzania, where I lived for 27 years, without giving first EXCERPTS FROM, page 5

Congregation Lifestream 5

some historical background of our Missionary Benedictine Congregation. “Seeing the World in a Single Ray of Light.” I just imagine what St. Benedict has seen in a Single Ray of Light shortly before his death. Did he see how monastic life spread out through the centuries all over the globe, and the impact Benedictines had in the course of history and development? The vision of this conference brought to mind a picture painted by our founder Fr. Andreas Amrhein, a Swiss monk in Beuron, Germany who painted in 1903 the Sacred Heart of Jesus with a globe in his hand. I believe that our founder had a vision while he discerned his call to bring the light of Christ to the worlds that have not yet heard the good news and received the light of Christ. The founder of our two Congregations, the Benedictine Missionaries of St. Ottilien and the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, was convinced that priests, brothers and sisters work together. There were distinctive functions for the sisters; who cared for the women, girls, the sick, taught in schools and took care of the entire mission household. This was the model for almost 100 years in Tanzania. I will explain in bit how I experienced it and how the change came about. In 1887 Fr. Andreas received from the Propaganda Fide the territory of the apostolic prefecture of South Zanzibar – the entire territory south of Dar-es-Salaam. Soon the first group of one priest, eight brothers and four sisters left on November 11, 1887 going to Rome where they made their vows before sailing to German-East-Africa.

New Challenges in Tanzania It was greatly different in Africa. When I arrived in 1980 in the Ndanda Priory, Tanzania, I met

German speaking communities. We worked efficiently in the different mission stations, ministries, especially in hospitals, in schools and parish work. In the community everything was in German, even the divine office. All our institutions were owned by the monks or the diocese. We, the Sisters cooked for the monks and did the laundry. All donations and expenses were administered by the monks. We had good relationship with our brothers and with the people we served, but still we had our own culture. For example when I worked at Nyangao 25 miles from Ndanda, the hospital belonged to the diocese of Lindi and was administered by us sisters. All the donations went to the monks on our account. At the mission, we the sisters were in charge of the kitchen, the laundry, the garden and the chickens while the monks were in charge of the Parish, the workshops, the stable and the finances. With the decision to welcome Tanzanian vocations into our Congregation as well as in the men’s community of the Benedictine Missionaries in Peramiho and Ndanda, we had to re-think the structure of our life and prepare for the new challenges that will change the “face” of our two big mission centers. What could we do to become a monastic community with all the work on the mission? Slowly we were re-thinking our life and structure. We were aware that we sisters needed to become independent from the monks’ community. We had to have our own priory administration. We asked the monks to give us the land where we lived, and separate the kitchen. We decided to make real contracts about our responsibilities to one another. It was not an easy process to change what has been working well for almost one hundred years! EXCERPTS, page 6

PERAMIHO PRIORY – 1983 - 2019 NDANDA PRIORY 1983 - 2019

Number of Sisters by Nationalities

EXCERPTS…from page 4

Congregation Lifestream 6

Rest in Peace+Sr. Marie Pierre Kwon, 73, died in Seoul on May 2.+Sr. Rebecca Maglalag, 74, died in Manila on May 23.

THAT IN ALL THINGS GOD

MAY BE GLORIFIED. THE GENERALATE

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEWLY FINAL PROFESSED SISTERS

From left to right: Sr. Consolata Kiio and Sr.Lydiah Nyangaresi: Nairobi on May 2; Sr. Joyanne Morales: Manila on May 3: Sr. Veronica Nyondo and Sr. Ma. Goreth Gilles: Ndanda on May 16

I came back to Tanzania in 1995 after my one year in USA, attending the IRF Program (Institute of Religious Formation). When I finished the program I was ready to help in formation in the Ndanda Priory. To my surprise I was elected Prioress in Peramiho while I was still in Norfolk. I have never lived in Peramiho before. After arriving and before my installation I went for a friendly visit to introduce myself to the Abbot of Peramiho. He was happy to see me and greeted me saying, “Sr. Pia we, the monks just made the decision that we will give the Girl’s Secondary and High School to the Sisters and we, the Abbey, remain in charge of the hospital. The headmistress just gave notice.” What an introduction!!! Here I was, with the first big challenge. Later the abbey assigned the land of the priory house and the Secondary School to us. We opened our own bank account in 1997 and established our own priory business administration. Later we negotiated the

separation of the kitchen for the two communities, agreed to continue to be in charge of the laundry but would be paid for the service. Why was this all important? As we now formed our own Tanzanian candidates to be monastics and missionaries we needed to have clear structures, clear boundaries for our life as Missionary Benedictine Sisters. Inculturation We tried very hard together with our young Tanzanian women to give our faith, our stability and our evangelization a Tanzanian face and flesh. It was not easy, especially as the African Benedictine Sisters in Peramiho and Ndanda were present beside us and working in our institutions. During my twelve years of prioress in Peramiho our community grew from an almost exclusively German community with elder sisters and two or three Filipinas into a diverse community with fewer Europeans and more and more Tanzanians.

EXCERPTS…from page 5

Sr. Pia Rottinghaus returned from Jinja, Uganda to Norfolk after her short term assignment which began on August 19, 2018 and ended on May 28, 2020. Sr. Agnes-Maria Ngailo returned from Casa Santo Spirito, Rome to her home priory, Peramiho, after her four-year temporary assignment which began on April 2, 2016 and ended on June 15,

Sr. Pia Sr. Agnes-Maria