Workshop at the Comboni Scholasticate in Pietermaritzburg

Bro. Daniele
Giusti

The idea of such a workshop was the brainchild of the meeting of formators in Palencia who deemed it fit for all scholasticates and brother centres to be given such a workshop. The scholasticate in Cassavatorre was the first to receive this workshop.

Our scholasticate is the second and in May the scholasticate and brother centre in Nairobi will be the third to receive the same workshop. On the first day the Eucharist was celebrated by Fr Jeremias, the Provincial of South Africa. He re-echoed from the rule of life 162.1 that when we talk of administration, we think of managing money and properties forgetting that it is right in the beginning of chapter five of the rule of life that we are reminded that the greatest gift we have in our institute are the confreres which the institute has to take greatest care of. Indeed it is true that we cannot achieve our goals as an institute if we do not give enough care and support to our confreres who are the very ones that are to bring the goals of our enterprises to fruition. Such an address put us on a strong footing conscious of a greater responsibility to be good managers and stewards of each other.

Infact the workshop was  in tandem with last year’s address  of Pope Francis to the Superiors of religious orders wherein he cautioned on the tendency to form ‘small monsters’ or ‘administrators and managers’ instead of forming ‘parents, brothers and travelling companions.’ This spirit of companionship and brotherhood was seen by the presence of some perpetually professed confreres who joined us from Johannesburg, Mahube valley, Waterval and Acornhoek. We had five days allotted to pray for each of the communities present in the workshop and the Eucharist of each day was presided by one priest from that community.

The timetable was very friendly in that it incorporated both theory and practise. We had theories in the morning hours, three sessions with a break of thirty minutes after each session. In the afternoon we had plenty of exercises to do in two sessions with one period of thirty minutes break. Br Daniele, covered extensively on legal issues and concepts, organizational setup, canon law and economics, the rule of life and economics, and the rule of life and administration. On the other hand Fr Claudio, dealt with issues on accounting such as the cash book, the excel software and how to use it, transferring data from cashbook into the computer, chart of accounts, balance sheet and financial reports, budget, projects and fundraising, general secretariat of finance, abuses as enshrined in the code of conduct, and Gnucash. Fr. Mariano, the Provincial bursar of South Africa covered the topic on fraternity and sharing, budget, and a brief history of the South African province.

Never have we had a workshop of this kind that has put us in touch with all that happens in the administration of our institute. We have learned many things, infact many things that we were heretofore taking for granted, such as the interplay between the Canon Law and the Rule of Life, have appeared to be quite indispensable for a better understanding of how our enterprises work. From these presentations, especially of the need to embrace living within a gift economy, we are able to appreciate the intricacies and the ideology behind the TCF.

Fr. Claudio
Lurati

The workshop came to an end with a post evaluation test in which the average response was 71%, an improvement from the Pre evaluation test in which we scored an average of 51%.  We are very grateful for the invaluable knowledge that we have received from this workshop. We are immensely grateful to the general administration, especially Fr Claudio and Br Daniele and Fr Mariano who took all the pains to prepare the materials for this workshop and for their patience and steadfastness to adapt to our reality. May God grant them the grace to do the same and even better when they will be visiting other scholasticates and brother centres.  Some proposals were made and especially, the need for the scholastics to start learning to use these softwares even in the managent of their monthly allowance. It was also observed that is good to work on practical and real life situations in the missions when dealing with matters of projects and fundraising. I believe that we are more empowered to be better stewards of what God has put in our hands, and we pray for the Grace to use this knowledge to make this year the year of ‘taking care of creation’.