From 4-7 November 2015, a total of 50 bursars from each province, commissariat, and delegation, gathered in Fatima, Portugal, at Hotel Casa Sao Nuno, for the Triennial Bursar's Meeting. This included 12 lay people who also work and collaborate in this ministry in their given provinces.

The Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., opened the meeting with a talk pertaining to some issues on the economy of our Order and thanked the bursars for their participation. He also presided at the opening Mass.

Craig Morrison, O.Carm., began the meeting with a Lectio Divina on Acts 5 and spoke about "Luke, Pope Francis, and the Economy." He pointed out the numerous parables in Luke that have a reference to money and the poor, and shared Pope Francis' interpretation of these parables. Bernadette Porter, RSCJ, gave a talk on "The Community of Goods," and shared her experience of central financing with regards to missions and developing areas of the world. Albert Anuszewski, OSST, a member of the General Finance Commission, spoke about the Vatican document on the "Guidelines for the Administration of Assets in Institutions of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life." Time was also set aside for Jurek Borucki, advisor to the Curia, to give a global picture of the finances of Carmel throughout the world.

The meeting was held in a spirit of transparency and honesty, while also taking time to share together in language and regional groups. Masses, prayer services, and meals highlighted a spirit of openness to one another, including a mass at The Shrine and the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima.

Special thanks to Ricardo Rainho, O.Carm., and Agostinho Castro, O.Carm., and members of the Portugal Commissariat for their warm hospitality throughout the gathering.

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The Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey on Monday May 20, 2009 opened an investigation into an alleged miracle believed to have been worked by Servant of God Mother Mary Angeline Teresa McCrory, the foundress of the Germantown, New York-based Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm.

Mother McCrory spent her life caring for the elderly and ailing in long-term care facilities operated by the Carmelite Sisters, who now operate 17 elder-care facilities around the country and one in Ireland. Mother McCrory died in 1984 at the age of 91. "Sometimes you hear about somebody being an imposing figure," said Sister Kevin Patricia Lynch, a Carmelite sister who knew Mother McCrory, told MyCentralJersey.com. "She was very imposing, but very warm."

At a 20-minute ceremony at the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center, Bishop of Metuchen Paul G. Bootkoski formally opened the diocese’s investigation into the alleged miracle, the details of which are not being made public.

However, Mother Mark Louis Randall, superior general of the Carmelite Sisters, told MyCentralJersey.com that the reputed miracle involves a family in the diocese’s general area that prayed to Mother McCrory to intercede with God after their unborn child was diagnosed with a genetic abnormality. When the child was born, the defect was not as severe as expected.

About twenty sisters from Carmelite elder care facilities attended the ceremony, where Bishop Bootkoski and a panel of investigators took oaths promising to put God and the Church first. They also promised to keep the details they learn in the investigation secret until the process is complete.

Lori Albanese, diocesan chancellor and notary of the investigation, said the process might take about four months. Officials will interview family and friends of the child, as well as medical experts. The medical experts will include two people who are independent of the Church and the case.

She explained that the investigative panel’s task is to collect evidence, not to determine whether the case is an actual miracle attributed to Mother McCrory.

Mother McCrory’s home diocese, the Diocese of Albany, has also extensively investigated her life.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints will decide on whether there was an actual miracle attributable to her. If the miracle is verified, Mother McCrory can be beatified. If a second miracle is then attributed to her, she may be canonized.

Those who believe their prayers for Mother McCrory’s intercession have resulted in a miracle are asked to contact the Carmelite Sisters.

Recently, from the 26th to the 32st of October, the 4th Congress of the Association of Latin American Carmelites (ALACAR) took place at the retreat house of the Sagrado Corazón de Cantón Ayagualo (La Libertad, El Salvador). This gathering is held every three years. Up to now it has been held in Lima (Peru) in 2006, in Villa Leiva (Colombia) in 2009, and in Sao Paolo (Brazil) in 2012.

On this occasion, there were 130 participants, including friars, both O.Carm. and O.C.D., cloistered nuns, O.C.D., sisters of various congregations of apostolic life, and lay Carmelites from various groups (Third Order, Secular Carmelites, Youth groups, etc.) The main theme of the congress was, “Teresa of Jesus: woman, mystic and prophet: A window of hope for Lain America”. The speakers included, the Prior General, Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., who spoke about prophesy in Carmel today; the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, Saverio Cannistrà, O.C.D. who spoke about prophesy in the mysticism of Teresa of Jesus;  Fr. Oswaldo Escobar, O.C.D. provincial of the Central American province, who spoke about Teresa’s conversions, and Bishop Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, Nicaragua, who spoke about the relationship between Teresa of Jesus and “Evangelii gaudium”.

On the last day, the participants visited a number of places associated with the life of Bishop Oscar Romero: UCA (The University of Central America), where the group of Jesuits and their co-worker were assassinated, and where they keep the Scapular that Romero was wearing when he died; the Cathedral in the crypt of which the remains of Blessed Oscar Arnulfo Romero are kept; the little hospital where the house that Romero lived in is located, as well as the chapel in which he was assassinated and where the final Mass of this year’s congress was celebrated.

The meeting was organised and coordinated by Fr. Raul Maravi Cabrera, O.Carm., Councillor General for the Americas and Bro.Luis David Pérez, O.C.D., along with Fr. Francisco Javier Mena, O.C.D., Definitor for Latin America. The joint O.Carm.- O.C.D. commission will continue to work in preparation for the next meeting in 2018.

On the 15th of October, the feast of St. Teresa, a solemn Eucharist was celebrated in Avila to mark the closing of the 5th Centenary of the birth of the Carmelite saint. The Archbishop of Valladolid and President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Ricardo Blásquez, led the celebration, with many bishops and priests concelebrating. The concelebrants included the Prior General, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, O.Carm., and the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelites, Fr. Saverio Cannistrà, O.C.D., Following the Eucharist, the participants walked in procession with the statue of St.Teresa to the church on the site where she was born. 

Among the many participants there was a group of pilgrims from Australia, led by Dennis Andrews, O.Carm, the Provincial of Australia and Timor Leste, Fr. Greg Burke. O.C.D. and Paul Sireh, O.Carm.

While the Prior General was in Avila he took time out to visit the Monastery of Fontiveros (John of the Cross’ birthplace) and the interprovincial novitiate community in Salamanca, where he gave a talk on what is happening in the Order, to a very sizeable group of novices.  The previous evening the novices led a prayer vigil in the church of the Discalced Carmelites in Salamanca.

As well as that, in the monastery of the Discalced nuns in Alba de Tormes, on the 14th of October a solemn novena began to mark the closing of the Centenary. Fr. Alejandro López-Lapuente, O.Carm., from the community in Salamanca, led the celebration of the Eucharist and preached on the 14th and 16th of October.