The members of the three US provincial Councils gathered at Riverside from January 21st to 25th for a workshop and meeting. The first day was used as a workshop by Peter Dikos our Procurator General from Generalate. to train and teach us to deal with “Nulli Stationi Ad Scripti” status and how to cancel them. He shared with us the various kinds of absences from the Society and its legal implications. He explained the process of laicization, leave of absence and dismissal and all its legal implications. Peter made these presentations simple, easy and interesting with a lot of examples. He also shared about the importance of protecting children and about child abuse. The Sexual abuse policies of the provinces need to be updated according to the need of the changing times and demands.
The three provincials made presentations on each province and the various. They also shared some of the challenges they face. Len Uhal our Director for Vocation shared on the vocation work. He urged the provincials and the councils to encourage and promote vocations in our parishes and ministry sites. We need to take vocation promotion as an individual task because it is the personal in individual referrals that nurtures vocation. The Dimensions Coordinator for the Sub-Zone Siprianus Rotok presented on the importance of strategic planning within the in implementing our dimensions. He is planning to call for an assembly of all the coordinators of the sub-zone sometime this year.
Peter Dikos also helped us to work in dealing with those Nulli Stationi Ad Scripti names in our province. He has made the process of getting them fixed easy and simple. We will be publishing summons in this newsletter as part of the first step in the process. We thank Peter Dikos for spending his time with us and for the valuable help.