For more than a year and a half the German Province has been preparing for its Provincial Chapter 2024, which would be the last Chapter in the traditional form, held from 1 to 5 April. In a participatory process, new statutes have been formulated, which reflect the growing weakness of a province that is decreasing in number and increasing in average age. The new statutes no longer provide for provincial chapters. From now on there will be two assemblies of brothers every year to meet, to pray together, to listen to the Spirit and to take communal decisions, to encourage one another in fidelity to the SSCC vocation and mission.
The first evening the capitulants voted in favour of the new statutes and the Superior General, Alberto Toutin, approved them. With this the provincial chapter 2024 was over and the next day the brothers gathered for their Province assembly with almost all the brothers of the province present, bar the few missing for reasons of age or health.
We had made our weakness the focal point of this meeting, trying to understand existentially the complete sentence of the 2nd Letter to the Corinthians: "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12, 10). That is why we wanted to look closely and concretely at two of the weaknesses affecting the SSCC community in Germany, namely the power and sexual abuses in the history of the province and the issue of leadership and animation of religious life in the provincial community. It is a question of looking realistically and confidently at the weaknesses of the community in order to find the sources of strength and change there. The days of the assembly were very intense and left a marked path to follow.
The assembly elected the new animation team according to the new statutes. They are three brothers who, in communion with each other and with the provincial assembly, reflect, decide and act. Brothers Wolfgang Jungheim, Martin Königstein and Manfred Kollig were elected.
In the photo: Wolfgang Jungheim, Alberto Toutin, Martin Königstein, Manfred Kollig.
04/07/2024