Picture to Right
On the hill top sits the modern Basilica of St. Augustine, viewed from the ruins of his original cathedral, the Basilica of Peace.

Picture to Right
The Statute of St. Augustine that sits in front of the Basilica of St. Augustine in Hippo (Annaba, Algeria)

A Preferential Option for Mission

Ad Gentes, the document of the II Vatican Council, states that the Church, by its very nature, is missionary. Today the idea of mission has taken on a new an wider understanding than when it was seen mostly as going to non Christian lands to announce the Good News of Christ. Today the missionary dimension of the Church is understood to be expressed in various ways:
1) Announcing Christ in non Christian lands where an explicit evangelization is possible and permissible.
2) A silent “witness” of Christian values in lands that are not open to an explicit evangelization, such is most Muslin countries
3) An option for the poorer regions of the country or world where harsh physical conditions of the people make it more difficult for ministers of the Church to be present even though they be professing the Christian beliefs.
4) New frontiers such as Social Communications (radio, TV, internet) that require a sustained and difficult task of “retooling” for a new evangelization.

These are the basic areas of “mission” in the Church today. As such the Augustinians of the Vicariate of Chulucanas are in a territory of mission because of the great poverty that pervades the part of Peru where they minister. However, as the number of American Augustinians declines and the number of Peruvian Augustinians rise, one of the challenges is keeping alive the “missionary spirit” which allowed the Vicariate to be founded, namely promoting a willingness for some of the friars to leave their land and their families and go to a place of the Church’s mission that is far from home. This is never an easy choice to make, but it is one filled with much grace and blessing as the very foundation of the Chulucanas Vicariate gives witness.

In the light of this desire to maintain “alive” the founding missionary spirit of the Vicariate, the most recently Assembly made a decision to maintain a clear option for a mission where the needs of the Church will take us out of Peru and towards other lands. Two missions that the Order is trying to establish became the point of focus of the assembly. One is a new mission in Cuba where recently permission was granted for the Augustinians to return. Two friars, one from Brazil and one from the Dominican Republic have gone and begun pastoral ministry on the island of Cuba. Our Order, and the Villanova Province in particular, has a long historical relation with Cuba, but that ended with the expulsion of the last member of the province to work in Cuba, Fr. John McKniff. In 1968 he was expelled by Fidel Castro and since that date no other Augustinian has been able to return to the island. However, that recently changed and the Chulucanas Vicariate has opted to join that endeavor offering the service of a friar within the next two years to the Prior General for that mission.

The second mission is in Algeria, in the city of Annaba, where is Roman times sat the city of Hippo, the Episcopal See of St. Augustine. It is a muslim land where it is prohibited the explicit preaching of the faith. However, through a social apostolate, and reaching out to university students that study there from other countries, it is possible to give a “silent” witness of our faith to all those who live in the region. For many decades the Maltese Province of the Order has maintained a presence in Annaba, keeping the Basilica of St. Augustine open and attending both tourists and the few Christian faithful that came there for worship. However, the Maltese Province is no longer able to maintain friars there and so the Prior General and his Council have invited the whole Order to consider this as priority for the mission of the Church. To promote this, especially among younger friars, a program is being set up in Rome whereby friars will go there for preparation (including the finishing of initial theological studies) and then commit themselves initially for a five year period of ministry in this challenging environment.

In the light of that call, and conscious that the Muslim-Christian dialogue is surely one of the urgently needed “signs of the times” the Vicariate has opted to support this initiative. In the next few months possibly three students of the Vicariate will leave Peru to prepare themselves for this mission. This represents a major sacrifice since it would be 1/3 of the professed students we currently have. However, the mission of the Church would never advance anywhere if we wait until there are “enough” to attend our own immediate needs. The Church has always taught that the mission requires of us to “Give from our own poverty.” This means that although we lack enough friars to attend our present apostolic commitments in Peru, we should be generous with those who have even a greater need than ourselves. In the end, we walk in the faith that the Lord will bless us in the measure that we are generous to others.

And so the Vicariate has made a conscious decision to continue the missionary spirit of the American provinces which gave it birth. Now, with the great majority of its members being Peruvian, it is time to look beyond our borders towards new areas of mission where the needs to the Church and the world call us to make a generous and sacrificial commitment.