General Treasury Office: EUR News n° 30

EUR News n° 30
Information Newsletter Treasurer General’s Office
Rome, December 2017

Dear Confreres,
we are at the end of a busy year full of events, above all the celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute. At the end of this December Consulta, I’m sending you the main updates.

1. Acts of extraordinary administration. In the June, October and December 2017 Consultas, the General Council (GC) authorised various extraordinary administrative acts:

a) Brazil: sale of the house in Guriri;

b) Malawi-Zambia: construction of the Chizongwe Youth Center;

c) Peru-Chile: sale of the house in Santiago.

2. Council for Finance. In October, the GC appointed Fr. Fabio Baldan as a member of the Council for Finances (CF) for three years as a technical advisor to replace Fr. Mario Locatelli.

In the meeting of November 22-24, the Council for Finances prepared the budget of the General Administration.

Other topics on the agenda were:

- Solidarity in the Institute and with the Local Church

- The revision of the charts for the annual reports

- The Statutes of the Provincial Funds

3. Solidarity with Mexico. The GA has promoted a collection of support among the provinces in favour of the victims of the recent earthquakes in Mexico. The province of Mexico took care of their distribution.

4. Scholasticates and IBCs: full involvement in the TCF. Besides the review of the budgets for Scholasticates and IBCs, the GC has approved some proposals towards a greater involvement of Scholasticates and IBCs in the life of the circumscription that host them.

a) Confirmation of the budget by the Provincial Treasurer: the budget of Scholasticates and IBCs must be confirmed by the Provincial Treasurer. If possible, also the Provincial Secretariat should be involved. However, this is not always possible, because the approval of the budgets of Scholasticates and IBCs might have a different timing from the communities budgets.

b) Restitution of the year balance: the positive balance at the end of the year will be returned to the Province or to the General Fund, in proportion to what each one has contributed.

On the basis of the final report of the previous year, when the second quarterly instalment is sent, the active balance will be detracted from the contribution and reassigned to the General Fund. The Province will do the same in the manner foreseen by its Directory.

5. Most Holy Redeemer Association in Tchad. Recently, the Council of the Delegation of Tchad gave life to the “Association of the Most Holy Redeemer”. This Association was established by St. Daniel Comboni in order to raise the resources for missionary work, in particular for the preparation of young people in formation.

The members of the Association benefit from a Mass celebrated daily by the Comboni Missio-naries and participate in the work of evangelisation of the Church, feeling each day in communion with all the missionaries who work everywhere in the world.

The Bursar of the Delegation has prepared a register for the offerings, an information brochure, certificates, envelopes for registering and thanking the benefactors. A Statute defines the methods of administration and management of the Association.

6. Appointment of Delegation Treasurers. In recent months there have been two new appointments among the circumscription treasurers:

Fr. Teckie Hagos for Eritrea

Bro. Mora Mora José Alberto for Colombia

After Ethiopia and Congo, we have thus arrived at four changes in the course of 2017.

7. Continental Assemblies. The cycle of continental assemblies ended with Europe and America-Asia.

a) Europe: from April 24 to 28, the Assembly of the provincial treasurers of Europe was held in Krakow. All the circumscriptions were pre-sent.

These are the concerns and urgencies that emerged from the discussion:

- the burden of responsibility for managing the financial investments of a significant part of the Institute’s assets (63%, 71% including the General Administration).

- the coordination of solidarity towards the provinces most in need; including the development of a common format for reporting on the founded projects.

- long-term sustainability for an aging human group.

With regards to investments, the Trea-surers arranged for two-day study session in April 2018 in Rome and asked the General Treasurer to organise this workshop.

b) America-Asia: From September 24^th to 30^th, the treasurers of the provinces and delegations of America met in Bogotá for their periodical assembly. Seven circumscriptions were represented: 4 provincial treasurers, 3 representatives and the administrator of a CAM.

As at the other continental assemblies, the main topics of the meeting were the examination of the Acts of the XVIII General Chapter (2015) and in particular the part concerning the economy and the new international guidelines that regulate the banking system.

- One morning, spent with the Deacon Dr. Alirio Caceres, consultant of Celam, was dedicated to the study of the encyclical Laudato Si’. Alirio offered the opportunity for reflection and a series of concrete proposals for our Comboni provinces for an ever greater commitment towards the respect of creation.

- The last part of the work focused on examining possible initiatives to increase the level of economic self-sufficiency of the provinces.

- From the discussion emerged the proposal to give greater continuity to the administrative training in Scholasticates / CIF with a continuous program integrated in the curriculum.

At the end of this cycle of assemblies it must be recognised that the fraternal and kind welcoming of the host provinces (Mozambique, Poland and Colombia) contributed significantly to the positive outcome of the assemblies.

8. Statutes of Provincial Funds and Limit of Net Capital. As indicated in the Guide for the Implementation of the XVIII General Chapter, the circumscriptions must prepare a statute for each fund administered to indicate its purpose, the management criteria and the ceiling. During 2018, the General Secretariat for Finance will send a special subsidy to the provinces.

9. Formation Courses for the Treasurers: a Course for the English-speaking Provincial Treasurers will be held in Kampala from April 16th to 27th, 2018. The course is open to confreres engaged in administration. Registrations must be sent to the General Treasurer by the end of February.

“The birth of Christ speaks to us of a different hope, a dependable,
visible and understandable hope, because it is founded in God.
He comes into the world and gives us the strength to walk with him.
This hope, which the Child of Bethlehem gives us, offers a destination, a sure ongoing goal.”
Pope Francis

From the equipe of the General Treasury warmest best wishes of a Merry Christmas!

Fr. Claudio Lurati
General Treasurer