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| Fr.
Mike Manning, SVD has just returned
from a meeting of communicators of our Society that took place in Quito,
Ecuador. Here are his reflections: |
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| Our mission house can be
seen in the lower right corner |
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| The
meeting brought together priests and brothers of the Society of the
Divine Word working in communications from Brazil, Argentina, Chile,
Ecuador, the Amazon area, and representatives of our superiors from
Rome. I represented North American media efforts. |
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| Quito
is a sprawling city of two million. Our mission house which also servers
as a conference center is situated high on a hill overlooking the city.
The scene is breathtaking. In the distance are large snow covered volcanoes. |
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| The
country of Ecuador is going through serious financial problems. Three
weeks ago there was a coup and the president was replaced. There is much
poverty with about 25% unemployment. Education and medical care are in a
sad state. This is especially painful since the land is extremely rich
in oil, fish and farming. |
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| The
morning after I arrived I took a bus to the city of Santo Domingo de los
Colorados. It was a three hour trip going down through mountains. Quito
is about a mile high and Santo Domingo is in a tropical climate. I
visited Fr. Joe Bitar who is a missionary pastor. In his parish I helped
with several hours of confessions and then on Sunday celebrated the 8:00
am Mass. I am enamored of the goodness and warmth of the people. Joe is
doing an excellent job. Later in the morning Bishop Staley came for
confirmations. |
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| Monday
afternoon I came back to Quito in a broken down taxi. The trip cost
80,000 pesadas which works out to just under $4.00 for the three hour
trip. |
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| The
meeting of the SVD communicators began Monday evening. After introducing
ourselves (in Spanish and Portuguese) we began a reflection on the
meaning of being a missionary today and how we can more effectively use
communication. The second day we each explained our work. I was
overwhelmed by the outstanding things that are happening in
communications in Argentina, Ecuador and Brazil - they are doing top
notch publications. |
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| I
was especially impressed by the pastor in the Amazon area who has a
parish of 30,000 and in addition has a one hour radio program five days
a week. He's been doing this for four years, now. |
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| Another
outstanding work is being done by "Verbo Films" in Brazil.
They produce grade A films that air on national television and deal with
social issues. |
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| I
got a chance to explain the ministries here in the States: Fr. Derek
Simon's, SVD work in using media to overcome racism through radio, story
telling and the Internet. I also explained the work of Fr. Jim Pawlicki,
SVD who does television productions of Society and Catholic
African-American themes. |
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| I
explained Wordnet and the work we
do to promote the Society's Biblical apostolate. This year we produced
15 programs dealing with the parables of Jesus. These programs are made
available in over 100,000,000 households here and around the world. Last
week I received an email from someone in our SVD parish in Bombay,
India. She says the programs are seen there every week. The same is true
in Manila and Thailand. |
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| The
rest of the time of the meeting was spent in planning more effective use
of media in our ministry. I have strong hope that SVDs in the Americas
will continue to do outstanding work in the communications apostolate
which was so close the Founder's heart. |
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| Fr.
Mike Manning, SVD |
| to
learn more about Fr. Mike and his ministry click here |
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| ©2001 Society of
the Divine Word, USA Western Province - All Rights Reserved |
