Indonesian Province Begins 100th Anniversary Celebrations in Jakarta

The largest province in the Carmelite Order began its celebration of the 100^th anniversary of its founding with a lively festival of prayer, music, dance, and a gala dinner. During 2023, the Carmelite Province of Indonesia is celebrating its foundation by three Carmelites from the Dutch Province. The first event took place in the parish hall of Mary, Mother of Carmel in Jakarta on Friday, August 11. Besides friends and co-workers from the various area ministries of the Carmelites in the Jakarta area, Carmelites from many parts of the world were in attendance.

The evening began with Carmelite students acting as hosts, introducing the variety of presentations and dances. Internationally known vocalist and harpist, Angela July, led the evening. She was a finalist of the second season of Asia’s Got Talent. At the Carmelite celebration, she sang a number of songs, including two duets, first with the Carmelite Prior General, Miceal O’Neill, and later with the Vice Prior General and member of the Indonesian province, Benny Phang.

The Carmelite formation students from Malang provided both religious moments as well as dance from the various regions that today make up the Indonesian province. A procession of a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel began the evening with it being carried to a place of honor on the stage of the hall.

For the intermission, the attendees were provided a delicious meal featuring local dishes. Although the Indonesian language dominated, conversations could be heard in a variety of the languages spoken in the provinces around the world. It was a genuine celebration of the internationality of the Order with representations from the Netherlands (the founding province of the Indonesian province 100 years ago), the Philippines (a nearby province also founded by the Dutch), Vietnam, India, Italy, the USA, Perú, and Ireland. Three members of the General Curia in Rome are participating. Besides the prior general and vice prior general, the General Councilor for Asia, Australia, and Oceania, Robert Thomas Puthussery, took part. Sisters from various congregations also joined in the celebration.

Afer the dinner/intermission, the Carmelite formation students took over the stage, performing dances from the various regions of the country where the province now has established communities. As the evening went on, the audience became more and more active in the celebration. Eventually the stage was crowded with the various representations of the Carmelite family who were present.

Following the restoration of the Rio de Janeiro Province in Brazil, the Carmelites in the Netherlands turned their focus to undertaking the work of evangelization in the Dutch East Indies. The mission-minded St Titus Brandsma, then a provincial councilor of the Dutch Province, played no small role in this decision. Carmelites Clement van der Pas, the superior, Paschal Breukel, and Linus Hemckens arrived from the Netherlands to take over the island of Madura and the Eastern part of Java with headquarters in Malang. At the time, less than 200 native Javanese were Catholic.

The province was officially erected in 1967. In 2022 the Province had 405 members in 77 communities in Indonesia. A number of members also serve in other provinces or are residing in other province while they pursue advanced studies.

Other celebrations in Jakarta will be reported on in the next CITOC online. The celebrations continue in Malang this week.  

Pictures/Videos of the Events:

Opening Mass (To Be Posted)

First Banquet (YouTube)

The Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria della Vita (SAR) in Sogliano al Rubicone, Italy, celebrated its triennial elective chapter on August 9, 2023. Bishop Nicolò Anselmi of the Diocese of Rimini presided.

The monastery was founded ib June 26, 1992 by five nuns from the Carmelite monastery in Ravenna. It was dedicated to the Our Lady of Life on April 4, 1992. The Congregation for Religious canonically erected the monastery under the local ordinary on June 30, 2017. 

The monastery website is: www.carmelosantamariadellavita.it

The results of the elective chapter were as follows:

Prioress | Priora | Priora:  
Sr. Maria Vania Spazzoli, O. Carm.

1st Councilor  | 1ª Consejera | 1ª Consigliera:
Sr Marilla Pia Fiumana, O. Carm.

2nd Councilor | 2ª Consejera  | 2ª Consigliera:
Sr Maria Simona Nicita, O. Carm.

Treasurer | Ecónoma | Economa
Sr Maria Eleonora Cicero, O. Carm.

Formator | Formadora | Formatrice
Sr Marilla Pia Fiumana, O. Carm.

Sacristan | Sacristana | Sacrestana
Sr Maria Benedetta Benvenuti, O. Carm.

17 August Optional Memorial

The year of birth of Bl. Angelus Mazzinghi in Florence, Italy, or nearby, is unknown but it was certainly before 1386. He was received into the Order in 1413 and was the first member of the reform at Santa Maria delle Selve.

He was prior there from 1419-30 and again in 1437, and in Florence from 1435-37. A lector in theology, he was particularly noted for his preaching of the word of God. He died in Florence in 1438.

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World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023

At the conclusion of the Holy Year of Redemption in 1984, Pope St. John Paul II invited young people from around the world to join him in St. Peter’s Square for an International Jubilee of youth on the following Palm Sunday. Some 300,000 young people attended. The first World Youth Day was announced in 1985 and the first official World Youth Day was held in 1986.

Its tradition comes from the practice in the Polish Church to have 13 day summer camps for young adults. It provides an opportunity for young people to meet people of the same faith and to share various prayer experiences over the weeklong “Day.”

Pope John Paul II explained his project at his final World Youth Day in Toronto. “When, back in 1985, I wanted to start the World Youth Days… I imagined a powerful moment in which the young people of the world could meet Christ, who is eternally young, and could learn from him how to be bearers of the Gospel to other young people.

The Carmelite Order inaugurated a Carmelite Day within the larger World Youth Day event after 2007. Although most young people were attending World Youth Day through their local diocese, the idea was to bring those from Carmelite ministries around the world together for one day to celebrate the Carmelite family.

The closing Mass for the 1995 World Youth Day in the Philippines, attended by 5 million people, set a world’s record for the largest number of people gathered for a single religious event. (That record was surpassed when 6 million people attended a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis 20 years later in the Philippines.)

World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023

Pope Francis met with some 800,000 young people in Lisbon’s Eduardo VII Park, the hub of many of the events during the 2023 World Youth Day. The Stations of the Cross were focused on prayer for those suffering the effects of mass shootings, wars, abuse, anxiety, eating disorders and persecution. The pope assured those who joined him in the park that Jesus never fails to be present, despite the hardships the youth of today's face.

"Jesus weeps with us," the pope said during the Way of the Cross. Speaking without a script, he said, "All of us in life have cried and we cry still. And there is Jesus with us. He cries with us because he accompanies us in the darkness that leads us to tears."

During the Way of the Cross, video were shown indicating some of the situations today’s youth find themselves in. There were also meditations and reflections on the everyday lives of young people in today’s world. "We live in a world of mirrors where all that matters is our appearance, our image. Selfies after selfies. The tyranny of the right body and the perfect smile," read one reflection. "Photos of us on social media in carefully studied poses. Artificial posts waiting for likes."

The cross of Christ, Pope Francis said to the young people, is a message of hope, one of victory over death, and shows that sacrificial love, while risky, is always worth it. The pope told the young people that despite these temptations, fears and distractions, Christ and the Church offer a message of inclusion and renewal.

It has been reported in various new media that the priests have been hearing more than 10,000 confessions a day. The pope has participated as well, beginning his day by hearing the confessions of three young people from Guatemala, Italy, and Spain. The event organizers have provided makeshift confessionals with simple wooden benches. The pope opted to sit in one of these rather than a larger confessional complete with a cushioned, high back chair.

The pope later went to meet charity workers. Here too he opted to speak spontaneously rather than read through the prepared remarks. He blamed the change being necessary because he was having difficulties with his glasses. However, the pope often put aside prepared remarks to speak to his audience.

"When I shake the hand of someone in need, or a sick person, or a marginalized person, do I do this right after so they don't infect me?," the pope asked while rubbing his hand on his cassock.

"Concrete love," he told the aid workers, "is that which gets one’s hands dirty."

World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023

Pope Francis flew from Rome to Lisbon, Portugal, to participate in the mega gathering of Catholic youth taking place these days in Lisbon. While the official theme of the gathering of hundreds of thousands of Catholic youth from around the world is Mary Went With Haste, a second but often repeated theme are the pope's words “Everyone is welcome in the Church.”

At his opening address to an estimated 500,000 young people on August 3 during the official welcoming ceremony, the pope said, "There is room for everyone in the Church and, whenever there is not, then, please, we must make room, including for those who make mistakes, who fall or struggle.

"The Lord does not point a finger, but opens wide his arms: Jesus showed us this on the cross," Francis continued. "He does not close the door, but invites us to enter; he does not keep us at a distance, but welcomes us."

"Let these be days when we fully realize in our hearts that we are loved just as we are," the pope told a sea of young people, many draped in their country's flags. Many waited several hours to greet the pontiff.

This theme of the Church being a wide tent, allowing everyone to have a place, came up during the pontiff’s talk to some 7,000 students at the Catholic University of Portugal as well. "Christianity cannot be lived as a fortress surrounded by high walls, one that raises the ramparts against the world," Pope Francis said.

When the pope was speaking with the Portuguese clergy and religious, he again pointed out that it is everyone’s responsibility to welcome everyone into the Church.

Although the pope recently spent time at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, students affiliated with Carmelite schools and parishes who are attending the weeklong event have described Pope Francis as energetic and enthused. It has often been noted that the pope appears most relaxed and smiling when he is meeting with the everyday people of the Church.

It has been reported that the pope took the opportunity during his time in Portugal to meet with some victims of the earthquake in Turkey, youth from war torn Ukraine, and victims of the sex scandals that have rocked the Portuguese Church.

World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023

You could not but be impressed by the hundreds of thousands of young people who have come to Lisbon for the 2023 World Youth Day. Like Mary who got up and went in haste into the hill country because she wanted to be with her cousin Elizabeth, these young people have travelled because they want to be here and it looks very much like they are enjoying every moment of it.

They walk for hours. They stand and sit and form human chains and dance all in the heat of the Lisbon sun. They join in the music provided by very good musicians as they wait for the religious ceremonies to begin and in every case once the call to prayer is heard silence, respect and participation take over. That’s the way it was at the opening Eucharist on Tuesday evening, the welcome for Pope Francis on Thursday evening, and the Stations of the Cross on Friday. Now we wait for the Vigil and the Mass for World Youth Day, also referred to as the Mass of Sending Out, on Sunday morning.

The Carmelite Youth Day on Wednesday gave us the same experience of excitement at seeing young Carmelites accompanied by sisters, friars, and older lay Carmelites, converging on the Parish of Sao Antonio dos Cavalheiros, some distance from the centre of Lisbon. They came from the four corners of the earth, Australia and Timor Leste, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, Malta, UK, Italy, Spain and the host country Portugal.

The hospitality provided by the parish was wonderful, which lent to the joy that people felt just in being together as people for whom Carmel is their spiritual home. We were all blessed by this way of visiting one another, attentive to one another, with words and expressions that are born of the faith and love we have received.

Photographic memories will abound, including those taken by a drone. The other memories of feelings and inspirations will also last for a long time.

World Youth Day | Lisbon, Portugal | August 1-6, 2023

On Wednesday, August 2nd, the Carmelite family from around the world—Carmelite friars, sisters, youth animators, and young people—gathered at Lisbon’s St. Antonio of Cavalerios, a Carmelite parish of the Portuguese Commissariat. They came to celebrate the Carmelite Day—a day for the Carmelite family to be together during the World Youth gathering in Lisbon, Portugal. There were 150 people representing each of the four geographic areas of the Order, along with prior general Miceal O'Neill, Richard Byrne, the general councilor for Europe, and Robert Thomas Puthussery, the president of the International Carmelite Youth Commission and general councilor for Asia, Australia, and Oceania.

“It was a grace filled occasion, with a diverse group of young people, all coming together to celebrate what it means to be a Carmelite in the world today,” said Fr. Robert. “Everyone was proud to be a Carmelite and delighted to be together. They shouted in different languages "Long Live Carmel," a great testimony to their joy and enthusiasm.”

The day began with a warm welcome from the Portuguese Commissary Agostinho Castro. There was then an opening prayer and a video presentation on the 600 year presence of Carmelites in Portugal. The prior general, Miceal O'Neill, gave a short but meaningful presentation on what it means to be a Carmelite today in the context of the WYD theme of Mary Went With Haste. He invited all to be "generous and determined" as Mary was to help those in need. He shared the stories of Carmelite saints, St. Nuno Alvares Pereira of Portugal, St. Titus Brandsma, and also referred to the inspirational example of Pablo Maria de la Cruz Alonzo Hidalgo, a young Carmelite from Spain, a model for young people today, who died on July 15 at the age of 21. He had just been professed on June 15 “in articulo mortis" and had hoped to be able to attend the Lisbon event.

The prior general asked everyone present to reflect on the question: what am I called to do or be right now? There was then time for group discussion and sharing after the talk. After lunch it was time for video presentations from each group which was enlivened by live music and dance from different groups.

At 4 pm, there was a concelebrated Holy Eucharist with the Carmelite family in the parish, complete with music and prayers in various languages of the Order.

“I want to publicly thank for Portuguese Commissariat for an incredibly well organized event,” said Fr. Robert. “Everyone enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Portuguese.”

It is quite the experience to see so many youth gathered and celebrating. Richard Byrne wrote, “There was a fantastic atmosphere through the city with all the young people around. To be honest, it was great to witness the young people.”

Pictures and Commentary on the Events:

John Toryusen
   August 1
   August 2: Carmelite Family Day
   August 3:
   August 4:
   Vigil and Final Mass

Matthew Janvier, O. Carm. Daily Blog

Living the Kingdom
(Matthew 14:22-33)

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