Our confrere Fr. Konrad Mirke (CJ), member of the Community of the Generalate died on 22 December 2009 in Limburg, Germany. He suffered a cerebral stroke in the end of September and has been treated in the intensive therapy unit of the Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome. In the second half of October, he was transferred to the specialised House of Care of “St. Raphael” at Rocca di Papa and than to Limburg. We thank Fr. Mirke for his intense apostolate of prayer in the Church of SS. Salvatore in Onda and for his personal witness.

On 10 December 2009, the last meeting of St. Vincent Pallotti Institute was held, on the guiding-theme: “The Word of God in St. Vincent Pallotti”. In this fifth meeting, the speaker, Marzia Pileri, presented a reflection on“The holiness of Pallotti in the light of Canticle Benedicite”. From the meditation on the texts we were able to understand the mystical dimension of the spiritual journey of Pallotti. His life was really transformed into the life of Christ, to the extent of feeling, loving and desiring like Jesus himself. During his lifetime, he moved from the desire of the perfection of love to the desire to save all souls. Pallotti, taking the canticle Benedicite for meditating on his life, considered his nothingness and spiritual smallness in the light of the greatness of God, the Creator of the universe, the sun, the stars, the earth and the mountains.

From 4-9 November 2009, Fr. Z. Hanas, Vicar General, together with Fr. Susayan Sathyanesan, Provincial Rector of the Indian Province of the “Assumption of the B.M.V.” (BA) visited a diocese of the Island of Taiwan in order to examine the possibility of establishing the Pallottine presence in this country. The island of Taiwan is small and lies 150 km away from China. There is a rather big population of about 25 millions of people, out which only 2% are Catholics. The diocese that has invited the Pallottines is situated in the centre part of the country and has 26.000 Catholics. The confreres visited ten parishes, which present great possibilities for pastoral work. Before stating the pastoral work it is necessary to learn the local language and the Mandarin language, which will require at least two or three years of study. After the language study the Bishop is willing to entrust one of the parishes to the Pallottines.
After the visit, the Indian Province has decided to send two members in June 2010 to begin with the study of languages.

On 10 December 2009, Fr. Francesco Todisco, General Consultor and Rector of the Church of San Salvatore in Onda celebrated his 70th birthday. Fr. Franco has been rendering his valuable service in the Generalate community for more than ten years. During the community Mass he thanked God for the Pallottine vocation and the testimony of two important saints in his life, namely, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Vincent Pallotti. Continuing the feast, the community along with family members of Fr. Franco gathered together in the refectory for the festive meal and to express the gratitude. On behalf of all present, the Rector General underlined Fr. Franco’s extraordinary dedicated service to the Society, to the Italian Province and currently to the Generalate community. Fr. Franco, in the opinion of Fr. General, is one of the best experts on the life and writings of our Founder, St. Vincent. We wish him all the blessings of the Lord for a joyful and fruitful life also in the future.