President's Report - En

ACTS OF THE 7th EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY OF LAY DOMINICAN FRATERNITIES

ANNEX Ia

PRESIDENT’S REPORT THE ECDLF 2004-2008

The first meeting of the ECLDF after the Walberberg Assembly took place in Bratislava from 30 September to 3 October 2004. The elections of officers were as follows: President: Robert, Secretary: Eva, Treasurer: Chantal, Formation assistant: Tomas, Additional Office, Webpage designer: Nikolett. We also delegated special responsibility for contact with the various regions among council members. We collected translations and presentations to prepare the Walberberg Acts. We decided that Nikolett would continue to update the ECDLF webpage. The Council decided, after receiving the audit report from John O’Brien, to start from the very beginning. A new bank account would be opened with 2 signatories. Internet banking would be used. We also discussed the question of the venue for the next European meeting. We asked for more information from the provinces regarding the potential places for the Assembly that were discussed in Walberberg. These were Malta, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We heard from Jerry Stookey OP, promoter of the Dominican Laity, that there exists a fraternity in Sofia, Bulgaria, but the country does not belong to any province and is not yet officially founded. We began writing e-mails to the Bulgarian Lay Dominicans. They introduced themselves and we were very glad to hear that there was a living, active group of people whose intention was to do apostolic work in Sofia, in the city that is called ‘Wisdom’. They visited Fr. Jerry in Santa Sabina, Rome. They wished to join the Dominican Order officially, so they sent letters to the Master of the Order. They have been waiting for years for feedback regarding their official foundation. We had a second council meeting in Sopron, April 13/17th 2005. Nikolett introduced the result of the audit, done with Mrs. Dr. Margit Zillich Csutorane from Budapest. According to it, all the figures were correct. We weighed up once again the available information about the venue of the next Assembly. Since the information was not sufficient, we could not take the final decision. We shared information about some countries and we took some practical decisions to improving relationships with isolated European countries. Jerry would send a census form for Dominican laity members to Robert who would transmit it with a letter to each Province to be completed. Patricia, ICDLF member, informed the council about their activities and plans.

In 2005 Nikolett offered to visit them. Soon she was cordially invited to join their celebrations of consecration of a new church building. It took place on 22 October 2005 in Sofia. The Master of the Order signed the letter of foundation of the Bulgarian Lay Dominican Fraternity on 25 November 2005. The new fraternity in Sofia belongs to the Hungarian Dominican Vicariate. The next meeting took place in Santa Sabina, Rome from 3 to 6 November 2005. Carlos Azpiroz Costa, Jerry Stookey and the whole convent gave us an extremely friendly, warm-hearted and brotherly reception, which showed us once again that we laity are obviously seen as an integral part of the Order. We had the opportunity to discussed special questions relating to our work, and we also had the opportunity to exchange ideas about questions regarding the development of the Dominican laity and of the Dominican Family. Our next Assembly was one of the main themes of our meeting. But the International Congress of Lay Dominican Fraternities was supposed to take place in Buenos Aires in March 2008. However, there were compelling reasons for the ICLDF to defer the Assembly to March 2007. All the European Provinces would send representatives to this outstandingly important congress. For most Provinces it would hardly be practical to send delegates to the European Assembly only a few weeks later. We therefore postponed the next General Assembly to a time between April and July 2008. According to our statutes, the next Assembly should have been arranged for 2007 but the statutes allow for a departure from the three-year rule in the case of exceptional circumstances. We agreed unanimously that the time clash with the International Congress constituted an exception that justified the postponement of the Assembly to the following year. Our chosen theme was “Preaching in the secular world”. As regards the question of translations, we were not in a financial position to have more than two official languages – English and French – at the next Assembly. Finance was once again an important item on the agenda. Chantal Soligny had to give up her position as treasurer on personal grounds. We accepted her resignation with great regret. Nikolett Muranyi was chosen as her successor. We opened a new bank account. We originally intended to open an account in the United Kingdom. After a lot of problems, the plan had to be given up because of insurmountable obstacles with the British banking system. We therefore opened an account with the catholic PAX-Bank in Berlin. We also reflected on the evaluation of the questionnaire about the General Assembly 2004 in Walberberg. The fourth ECLDF meeting took place in Bratislava, Slovakia from 12 to 15 October 2006. Robert Kopfmüller-Knabe, President, resigned from the ECDLF in September. Therefore the Council contacted Hanneke Bemeer, from Holland, who received the next highest number of votes in Walberberg at the last Assembly. As she could not accept, the Council contacted Gabriel Silva from Portugal, who was second in the list of highest number of votes and he accepted. Patricia Robinson ended her four-year mandate as the European representative on the International Council of Lay Dominican Fraternities, and after nearly 8 years on the ECLDF. In accordance with the result of the elections in Walberberg, Patricia Kelly, from Ireland, succeeded her. Fr. Jerry Stookey would end his mandate as General Promoter of the Dominican

Laity in January 2007. The Master of the Order had already appointed Fr. David Kammler from Germany to the office. So he and Patricia immediately started working with the ECDLF at the Bratislava meeting. Patricia Kelly and Fr. David officially took up their office in Buenos Aires at the International Congress in March 2007. In Bratislava, the Council held an election for the office of President of ECDLF, Gabriel Silva was elected. All the other members remained in their current offices. After considering all the information that we collected from the different Provinces who generously offered to host the Assembly, we decided that the General Assembly of European Lay Dominican Fraternities would be held in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 29 May to 4 June 2008. We worked on the agenda and preparations for the Assembly. In March 2007, we had our fifth meeting in Walberberg, Germany. We tried to make an application form for RENOVABIS. We wrote the letters of invitation and we prepared the budget, the questions about fundraising and also finance issues during the Assembly. We established the final timetable and the individual tasks for ECLDF members and the local group. We made the necessary contacts about interpreters. We also shared experiences about the International Congress in Argentina, as some ECDLF members took part in this important event. Shortly after the meeting, we were informed that the original venue for the Assembly in Bratislava was cancelled due to last minute hassle. We tried to find another location very fast, with the help of lay Dominicans from Slovakia and Eva and Nikolett. Fortunately, we found this place, and after negotiations, we were in a position to make a new budget and send the final invitation letter to all the provinces. In January 2008, we held the last ECDLF meeting in Dublin, Ireland. Of course we tried to finish the final arrangements for the Assembly, especially the little, but so many details. We finished and approved the final programme, invitations, translators, liturgy schedule and financial support to delegates from some provinces. We approved the liturgy book and took note of our financial situation. During this mandate we published information on the ECDLF website. We also made hundreds of contacts with lay persons, friars, nuns and sisters around Europe, specially trying to find some information about lay Dominican activities, and also provided information about ECLDF and the next Assembly. This kind of connection and network is probably the main job and nature of a structure like the European Council of Lay Dominican Fraternities.