Formation

The staff at our province formation communities report that they are all off to a good start. With the coming and going that is normal in formation communities, each departure and each arrival brings a new “chemistry” to the group dynamics. Therefore, the school year generally begins with retreats, community meetings, house cleaning, and planning for the year that has begun.

The statistics of this year’s province formation communities are in the table below:

Pre-Novitiate: Buffalo, NY	3
Pre-Novitiate: Tijuana, BC, Mexico	2
Pre-Novitiate: Miramar, FL	4
Novitiate: Godfrey, IL	7
Scholasticate: Chicago	6
Scholasticate: San Antonio	8

In his report to the Congregation at the beginning of the General Chapter in Rome, Fr. Wilhelm Steckling, OMI, Superior General, mentioned in more than one place the desirability of having international communities for the formation of Oblate seminarians. That is certainly true of all of our U.S. formation houses. Of the 30 men in formation in our U.S. province programs, several are members of other units in the Oblate world. In the scholasticates, there are three from the Zambian delegation; 1 from the Mexican province, and one from the Scandinavian delegation. In the novitiate, 1 novice is from the Anglo-Irish province and 3 are from the Zambian delegation. All of the pre-novices are from the U.S. province. However, of the 9 pre-novices, five are Mexican citizens, 1 is a citizen of Haiti, and 3 are U.S. citizens.

There are also three scholastics of the U.S. province in other countries: 1 in Rome, 1 in Canada, and 1 is doing pastoral internship in Zambia.

Our scholastic studying at St. Charles Scholasticate in Ottawa, Bro. Antonio Ponce, spent the summer in his native Mexico, working with the Oblates at the La Morita mission in Tijuana and visiting his family. He recently renewed his vows for another year along with other members of his community in Canada. In the photo, Fr. Ted Nowak, superior of St. Charles, receives Antonio's vows.

Scholastic Bro. Tony Ortiz left the United States in June to continue his theological studies at the International Scholasticate in Rome, Italy. After two months of language studies, he has been serving as a support person at the General Chapter, primarily working with the General Secretary, Fr. Tom Coughlin, OMI.

Besides the coming and going of candidates, there has also been some movement on the formation staffs. In San Antonio, Fr. Mark Dean has taken over as superior of Sexton House. His predecessor, Fr. Joe LaBelle, has gone to Rome for post-graduate studies in spirituality. Joining Mark on the Sexton House staff is Fr. Rolland Bennett.

Fr. John Collet has joined the team of formators at the novitiate in Godfrey, IL. On November 1, Fr. Jim Deegan will become Director of Novices to replace Fr. Louie Lougen who will begin to prepare for his new ministry as provincial of the U.S. Province.

Fr. Jim Erving has joined Fr. George Kirwin working with pre-novices in Buffalo, NY. He replaces Fr. Dwight Hoeberechts who has become vocation director, working out of Lowell.

The scholastics who study at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago will experience a major adjustment in their rhythm of life as CTU changes from a quarter to a semester system with this new school year. This change has been much desired by the various formation communities involved at CTU for a number of years. One advantage of the new system is that the scholastics in both Chicago and San Antonio will be on a similar calendar, making it easier to schedule periodic meetings for scholastics.