No. 86          15/XII/2007         
News from the General Council
 
The following appointments have been made in the Curia House for the period 2007 – 2010:

• Prior: Christian Körner, O. Carm.
• Sub Prior: Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm.
• Bursar: Pedro Murciano, O. Carm.
• Librarian: Kevin Alban, O. Carm.
• Sacristan: Pedro Murciano, O. Carm.
• Sacrist: Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm.
• Prior’s Council: John Keating, O. Carm. and Anthony Cilia, O. Carm.

The following appointments have been made in CISA for the period 2007 – 2010.

• Librarian: Edmund Caruana. O. Carm.
• Bursar: Andrzej Bartyzel, O. Carm.
• Prior’s Council: Edmund Caruana, O. Carm., Paul Chandler, O. Carm.,
• Claudemir Rozin, O. Carm., and Benny Phang, O. Carm.
• The appointments of prior and sub prior do not fall due at this time.

 
 
No. 85          15/XII/2007         
Carmel Azzopardi, O. Carm. (Mel)
 
Br. Carmel "Fra Karm" Azzopardi, a member of the Maltese Province and the community of Valetta, died on December 5, 2007. He was 80 years old. Br. Carmel was born on March 14, 1927. He made his simple profession on October 5, 1947.
 
 
No. 84          13/XII/2007         
News from the General Council
 
The new General Council continues to meet in Rome to set out a plan for the next six years which will implement the decisions made by the General Chapter held in Sassone in September. One of the key discussions the Council has had was on the subject of the Order’s priority areas and the members of the General Council responsible for them. One of the issues that the General Chapter asked the Council to consider was that of the General Commissions of the Order and after much thought the Council has decided to restructure these commissions so that they can work more effectively to meet the challenges of the changing world in which the Order lives and works.
Membership of the Commissions will be announced in due course, but the following members of the Council have been appointed to guide the work of the priority areas as follows:

    * Communications: Christian Körner, O. Carm. (Delegate)
    * Formation: John Keating, O. Carm.
    * Evangelisation: Desiré Unen Alimange, O. Carm.
    * Justice and Peace: Albertus Herwanta, O. Carm.
    * Nuns and Sisters: Josef Jančář, O. Carm. (Delegate)
    * Laity: Josef Jančář, O. Carm.

These councillors will be the presidents of their respective commissions and responsible to the General Council for their activities.
In addition, the General Council has decided to allocate to two new areas of responsibility. First, at the General Chapter, mention was made of the importance of Carmelite schools and of those who work with young people and for this reason the General Council has appointed Raul Maraví to be Delegate for Schools and Youth. He and the General Commission to be appointed will be responsible for organising a congress on this subject, as requested by the Chapter.
The General Chapter also asked the Council to organise a significant number of meetings over the next six years: on the Word of God, liturgy, schools, spirituality, the Carmelite Family, Justice and Peace, as well as the regular ones on formation for formandi, formators, and ongoing formation. Given the number and scale of the meetings envisaged, the Council has asked Kevin Alban, the Bursar General, to be responsible for the area of Meetings and Congresses to assist in co-ordination, planning and financing them.
The Council will now turn its attention to the intellectual and cultural life of the Order and to the membership of the General Commissions of the Order.
 
 
No. 83          13/XII/2007         
John M. Fitzgerald, O. Carm. (Brit)
 
Fr. John Michael Fitzgerald, a member of the British Province and the community of Llanelli, Wales, died on November 28, 2007. He was 80 years old. Fr. John was born on February 3, 1927. He made his simple profession on October 10, 1943, and was ordained a priest on March 15, 1951.
 
 
No. 82          12/XII/2007         
Domenico Danese, O. Carm. (La Bruna)
 
Br. Domenico Danese, a member of the General Commissariat of Mary "La Bruna", died on November 14, 2007. He was 84 years old.
Br. Domenico was born on March 14, 1923. He made his simple profession on November 1, 1939.
 
 
No. 81          11/XII/2007         
Spiritual Center for Cyclists Inaugurated at Castellina, Italy
 
A spiritual center for cyclists was inaugurated in our monastery of Santa Lucia alla Castellina in Florence, Italy, on November 25th. Many cyclists participated in this event including professional cyclists. Among the participants was the world champion, Paulo Bettini. One year ago, he promised the Carmelites of Florence that if he won the maglia iridata (the rainbow shirt of the winner), he would celebrate with the Carmelites in Castellina.
The Prior General of the Carmelites, Fernando Millán Romeral, presided at the Eucharist. He was accompanied by Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm. In his homily, Fernando, spoke about the human and spiritual values of the sport.
During the event, awards for the Coraggio e avanti (Courage and Onward) competition were made.
 
 
No. 80            10/XII/2007         
Technical Difficulties with CARMELITES.INFO
 
We apologize to those who were unable to access the CITOC-online #79 sent out on November 28. Shortly after the message was distributed, the internet company disappeared. This means that all of our websites managed by that company simply ceased to exist. Using a new internet provider, we have restored the web pages online from backups (some pictures are still missing).
However, there was no backup of the email addresses used to send CITOC-online. We are in the process of restoring the CITOC-online mailing list from existing mailing lists but we are sure we will miss some people. They need only send an email to citoc1 @ ocarm.org and their email address will be added back in. If you received this email, you need not send your email address in again!
To maintain better control of the list, we will be using a new mailing program. We hope that this will eliminate the problem of email addresses being dropped from the list without warning.
The switch in internet providers actually provides the opportunity to use some of the latest techologies on the websites in the coming months and years-- providing the Order with better communications!

No. 79          28/XI/2007         
The Prior General’s Recent Activities
 
On October 6, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral gave a conference in Toledo, Spain, as part of the Ongoing Formation course of the Discalced Carmelite Province of Castille. This year the theme was martyrdom with reference to the beatification of a considerable group from the period of religious persecution during the Spanish Civil War. Fr. Fernando’s conference was entitled: "Father Titus Brandsma: A Carmelite Martyr of the 20th Century."
Fr. Fernando gave another lecture on October 7 to the Jewish-Christian Study Centre in Madrid on Christian and Jewish liturgy. He was accompanied by Rabbi Moshe Bendahan, from the Jewish community in Madrid.
Finally, together with Fr. Christian Körner, the Vice Prior General, Fr. Fernando also took part in the General Assembly of the Union of General Superiors (USG) which was held in Rome from November 21-23. The main theme was "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of Religious." It was a preparation for the forthcoming Synod of Bishops which will also deal with this topic. Apart from conferences and discussion groups, there was also a presentation of the work of the various commissions of the USG.
 
 
No. 78          21/XI/2007         
General Council Begins Meetings
 
The General Council began a series of plenary meetings on 9th November, and apart from the ordinary administrative business of the order, the Council is studying how best to restructure the General Commissions, as recommended by the General Chapter. The Council hopes to have defined the new structure for the commissions by Christmas so that they can begin work in the new year.
The Prior General and his Council have made the following appointments:

• Postulator General: Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm.
• President of the Institutum Carmelitanum: Giovanni Grosso (01/01/2008)
• Delegate for the Nuns: Josef Jančář, O. Carm.
• Prior of the Curia House: Christian Körner, O. Carm.
• Sub Prior of the Curia House: Giovanni Grosso, O. Carm.

 
 
No. 77          21/XI/2007         
Stephen Bezzina, O. Carm. (Mel)
 
Fr. Stephen Bezzina, a member of the Maltese Province, died on November 15, 2007. He was 91 years old.
Fr. Stephen was born on March 28, 1916. He made his simple profession on February 26, 1933 and was ordained a priest on March 25, 1939.
 
 
No. 76          16/XI/2007         
María Inmaculada del Espíritu Santo, O. Carm (BAR)
 
Sr. María Inmaculada del Espíritu Santo (Elisa Yañez Barreiro), O. Carm., died on November 1, 2007.
She was born on December 8, 1925, in La Coruña, Spain. She made her simple profession at the monastery of L'Encarnació in Barcelona on May 3, 1956.
 
 
No. 75          2/XI/2007         
Carmelite Websites Update
 
We are happy to announce that carmelites.info is now working! Unfortuately the page has been "offline" since shortly after the General Chapter due to problems with the company that hosts the website. These difficulties have now been resolved and all the resources of the website are now available online.
During the General Chapter, our portal websites [carmelites.info, carmelitas.info, carmelitani.info] were heavily utilized. Despite the technical problems with carmelites.info, the three portal websites for the General Chapter served 21,017 visits during the month of September. Of these, 13,220 were unique visitors. These statistics represent significant increases over other months and over visits to the website for the 2001 General Chapter.
 
 
No. 74          2/XI/2007         
Aurora Torres Santos, O. Carm (MAD)
 
Sr. Aurora Torres Santos, O. Carm., died on September 1, 2007.
She was born on February 21, 1944, in San Pablo City, The Philippines and made her simple profession at the monastery of Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas in Madrid on December 8, 1979.