Backside, from left to right: Manolo Cortes, Miguelangelo Cortes, Cyprian Maigi, Frederic Bini, Georg Majhi, Anselme Agbessi and David Kankwa.
Front side, from left to right: Victor Ferreira, Peter Kulandai, Santhosh Savarimuthu, Jose Louis Gonzalez, Alejandro Borrella and Minyoung Ki.
Marianist International Seminary is a formation community located at 22, Via Latina, Roma. It prepares Marianist religious for priestly ministry from all over the world. At present there are twelve members in the community. It includes the Rector Father Miguelangelo Cortes, SM and the Vice Rector Bro. Frederic Kodjo Bini, SM. The community is blessed with two new members in this academic year: Father Miguelangelo Cortes, SM (Spain, Rector) and Bro. Jose Louis Gonzalez, SM (Mexique, seminarist). Father Miguelangelo Cortes, SM has taken the responsibility of the Rector of the seminary from the beginning of September, 2020. We pray for him and for his ministry in preparing Marianist priests. Bro. Jose Louis Gonzalez has enrolled in Pontifical Gregorian University for his bachelor’s degree in theology.
The other members in the community are: Alejandro Borella (Spain), Victor Augusto Ferreira (Brazil-Spain), Minyound Ki (Korea), David Kangwa (Zambia, Easten Africa), Cyprian Kituku (Kenya Easten africa) and Santhosh Savarimuthu A (India) are in their third year of philosophy, Anselme Agbessi (Togo), Peter Paul K (India), and George Majhi (India) are in their second year of theology.
The Seminary community dedicates itself in preparing Marianist priests and their integral formation to undertake various Marianist ministries in their respective units. The Seminarians primarily spend their formation time in the community and also dedicate a part of their time to learn theology. They are given opportunities to deepen their knowledge in Marianist Charism. The programs are organized in a way that a seminarian is exposed to different aspects of a Marianist life. The scope of the formation years in the seminary is to help the brothers to face the practical life in an active ministry community with much depth in their spiritual life and by appreciating their vocation as Marianists.
As part of the Seminary program, during the summer (July and August) the seminarians spend their time fruitfully learning new things or by helping in a Marianist Mission. This year many of the seminarians spent their two months in different places and returned to the community by the end of August. In the beginning of September, the community had organized an annual retreat from the 4th Sep to 11th of Sep which was preached by Father Manolo Cortes, SM, former general Superior, SM. The theme of the retreat was “Danzatori al Ritmo del Vangelo”, meaning: “Dancers in the rhythm of the Gospel”.
It was followed by a Course on the Letters of Father Chaminade from 14th to 17th of September and the course was offered by Father Henrique, SM from the province of Spain. The course stimulated the brothers to know more about the person of Blessed Chaminade, his spirituality and the first years of our foundation.
We continued with the community meetings to organize the academic year 2020-2021. The planning included Calendar of the year and the community project. The theme of our community project is “where is your brother?“(from the Genesis). The meetings continued in different offices to decide different means to arrive at the goal of strengthening the fraternal love among the brothers. This theme will also help us to deepen our understanding of the new encyclical letter of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti.
Bro. Santhosh S., seminarist from India