Journeying with Humility | 20 years of our presence in Maumere

We, the Missionaries of St. Charles – Scalabrinians, started our journey in the Diocese of Maumere, Flores Island, Indonesia, in 2004. We had a humble beginning with the purchase of an old property (used to be a hotel) in Nangalimang, called Lusiana, which later was transformed into our Formation Center (philosophy house).

            That modest start has been blessed with many fruits. In these 20 years of journeying together as a Scalabrinian Family God has given us 33 religious priests and hundreds of lay people, serving the church and the society in different parts of Indonesia and other countries, bringing always with them the spirit of humility.

That same spirit of humility has also touched the locals in many parishes and communities. It has given them extra motivation to know more about our Founder, our Congregation and our Charism. Furthermore it has strengthened their enthusiasm and commitment to be part of our mission to serve God, present in the migrants and their families.

            In 2019, due to a safety reason (considering the landscape of our house in Nangalimang) and the increasing number of the seminarians, the Congregation decided to move our formation program to Nita (not that far from Nangalimang), where the new construction of our seminary had been built. Our journey then continued until this very moment in that new ambience.

            This school year (2024-2025) we have 79 seminarians, coming from different regions of Flores Island, Lembata Island, Timor Island and Sumatera Island. There are 17 brothers in the first year, 22 in the second year, 21 in the third year and 19 in the fourth year.

Additionally we have three formators who are accompanying our students: Bro. Cuu from Vietnam (Prefect of Discipline); Bro. Cuu is our religious brother who is studying theology in Maryhill School of Theology and now is doing his pastoral year, then we have Fr. Hau from Vietnam (Animator) and Fr. Yopi from Indonesia (Rector).

Furthermore we also receive external collaborations from religious of other Congregations (priests and nuns) and professional lay people. They are helping us with the Spiritual Direction, Recollection/Retreat and Confession, Psychological Accompaniment and English Courses for our seminarians.

We have too our other confrere, Fr. Atanasius from Indonesia. Fr. Atanasius is not a formator but he supports us from time to time with masses or recollections for our seminarians; besides he is also part of our local community. He is residing in the old seminary in Nangalimang, while studying contextual theology in Ledalero Institute and helping actively in the Commission of Migrants and Refugees here in the Diocese of Maumere. 

Thanks to the works of Fr. Atanasius we are now having a faculty from the Bishop to visit all the parishes in the Diocese to give socialization about “Safe Migration” and at the same time spreading the Charism of our Congregation, plus doing the Vocation Promotion.

Fr. Atanasius receives full assistance from our seminarians who always accompany him in every visit he made and it has become our regular apostolate. Recently the Scalabrinian Sisters joined this program, so we are so happy to work together as one Scalabrinian Family. Moreover we get total support from the Diocese, the Government (Nakertrans Office) and local NGO (Truk-F).

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            In brief our Scalabrinian Family have started this journey in Maumere 20 years ago. This period of time is filled for sure with blessings and challenges. God has blessed our Family abundantly and we have tried our best to overcome all the challenges and difficulties, starting with the efforts of our superiors at that time and the first missionaries assigned to Maumere.  

            There is an expression: “we can take shelter under a tree because someone else planted it”. Therefore we would like to thank God for all his blessings and we are totally grateful to our superiors and confreres who have been part of the opening and the continuation of our formation program in Maumere since 2004 until this very moment.

We realize that we are not a perfect community but we are striving to be a better community, bringing always the spirit of humility and the joy of the Gospel, inherited from our Blessed Founder St. John Baptist Scalabrini and our Blessed Patron St. Charles Borromeo.

We keep journeying with humility, while asking God’s grace, through the intercession of Mother Mary, to be with us always.

Nita, 10/10/2024

Yopi