247 Vatican, December 5, 2008 CONGREGATION FOR INSTITUTES OF CONSECRATED LIFE AND SOCIETIES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE Message to the General Convention Most Reverend Father:1 On the approaching General Convention that will close the Year of Thanksgiving for the beatifi cation of your Founder, Fr. Stanislaus Papczyński, I would like to assure you, along with all the Major Superiors and representatives from various communities of your worldwide Congregation, of our spiritual participation in this important event. We unite with you in giving praise and thanks to the Most Holy Trinity and we express our gratitude to the Church for the faithful and valuable apostolate, which your community has been carrying on for more than 300 years since its inception and particularly during the past century, which endorsed the renewal of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Faithful to the charism of your Blessed Founder, continue spreading devotion to Mary Immaculate through your ministry of instructing the youth in schools and other institutions, where you carry out your apostolate. Therefore, it is an important reason to thank Our Lord in a special way. In the course of its history, your Congregation has lived through diffi cult times: political circumstances and regimes, opposed to faith and religion, which forced you to go underground; and when the end seemed imminent, Divine Providence gave you a new impulse and with blossoming vocations, your apostolate took on a new vitality. Thus, look with trust into your future and believe that the Lord, who guided you through so many events, will continue to support you with His gift of good and numerous vocations for the continuation of your ministry full of merit for the Church. 1 The message is addressed to the Superior General, Fr. Jan Mikołaj Rokosz, MIC.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==