General Assembly of Mother Superiors”The consecrated life – witness and collaboration for the Church and society today. The role of the mother superior”: that was the theme of the 19th General Assembly of the Romanian Conference of Mother Superiors Major (CRSM), held at Cluj Napoca in recent days. It was attended by 44 representatives of the women’s congregations present in Romania. “In a changing society characterized by individualism and globalization, the mother superior must be more a leader than a manager”, explained Sister Hanno Rolfes msc, in her intervention on the role of the mother superior in religious life. “Just as the leader must have a vision ever open to new horizons of hope, so the mother superior too must renew herself in the light of the Word of God, taking as her model Christ who became a servant in order to serve”, added Sister Rolfes. “The leader – she explained – is called to accompany the group. She must be attentive to the signs of the time; her aim must be to achieve the participation and co-responsibility of the members of the community in which she performs her mission”. No less than 77 women’s religious congregations are present in Romania; they operate in the fields of education, healthcare, catechesis and social welfare in the dioceses both of Latin and Byzantine rite. Prince Ghika ordained 85 years ago”I don’t know what the future reserves for me”, said Romanian Prince Vladimir Ghika a month after his conversion from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, in April 1902. “If God grants me life, (…) whatever I become, I’m sure I’ll be an Apostle”. And that he was. Born into a family of princes of strong Orthodox tradition in 1873, he studied philosophy and theology in Rome (Angelicum) and it was then that the desire was born in him to become a priest in the Catholic Church. In spite of the opposition of his family, on 7 October 1923 he was ordained priest by Cardinal Dubois, in the church of St. Vincent de Paul. He was 50 years old. To mark his ordination, Pope Pius XI sent him a telegram of good wishes and his blessing. Two days later, on 9 October 1923, the Pope went further and granted to Vladimir Ghika the extraordinary privilege of celebrating both in the Latin and Byzantine rite. After his ordination, Father Ghika dedicated himself for six years to the apostolate in the midst of the poor of Villejuif, near Paris. Even though on the day of his ordination he had made a vow never to receive high office in the Church, he accepted the Pope’s appointment as Protonotary Apostolic in 1931, and began a series of journeys throughout the world. He participated, as pontifical delegate, in six international eucharistic conferences (Sydney, Carthage, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Manila, Budapest). He returned to Romania in 1939 to dedicate himself to indefatigable religious, cultural, charitable and social activity. On the eve of the Second World War he refused to abandon his country. In 1952 he was arrested and accused of spying for the Vatican. He died in the prison of Jilava, at the age of 81, on 16 May 1954. His cause of beatification, opened by the archdiocese of Bucharest, is in progress. Twelve Franciscan friars ordained as deacons”St. Francis of Assisi, with his humility, poverty, purity and simplicity, is an example for all of us to live Christ’s teaching in an authentic way”, said the Most Rev. Petru Gherghel, Bishop of Iasi, on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi on 4 October, on the occasion of the ordination as deacons of 12 Franciscan conventual friars minor of the Romanian province of “St. Joseph”. Bishop Gherghel encouraged the candidates to the diaconate to seek inspiration for their life and service from the example of the Poverello of Assisi, to become “tools of the Kingdom of God on earth”. The solemn Holy Mass was celebrated by 100 priests, gathered round an open-air altar installed by the friars in front of the theological institute. The Franciscans minor have been present in Romania since the 13th century. Suppressed in 1948, together with all the religious orders in Romania, the province of St. Joseph was reorganized after 1990. At the present time the Romanian Province comprises 17 communities; the friars perform their mission both in the dioceses of Latin rite and in those of Byzantine rite.
