ACTS OF THE 7th EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY OF LAY DOMINICAN FRATERNITIES

ANNEX Ia

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

THE ECDLF 2004-2008

The first meeting of the ECLDF after the Walberberg Assembly took place in
Bratislava from 30 September to 3 October 2004. The elections of officers were as
follows: President: Robert, Secretary: Eva, Treasurer: Chantal, Formation assistant:
Tomas, Additional Office, Webpage designer: Nikolett. We also delegated special
responsibility for contact with the various regions among council members.

We collected translations and presentations to prepare the Walberberg Acts. We

decided that Nikolett would continue to update the ECDLF webpage. At financial
level, the Council decided, after receiving the audit report from John O’Brien, to start
from the very beginning. A new bank account would be opened with 2 signatories.
Internet banking would be used.

We also discussed the question of the venue for the next European meeting. We
asked for more information from the provinces regarding the potential places for the
Assembly that were discussed in Walberberg. These were Malta, the Netherlands,
the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

We heard from Jerry Stookey OP, promoter of the Dominican Laity, that there existed
a fraternity in Sofia, Bulgaria, but the country did not belong to any province and was
not yet officially founded. We began writing e-mails to the Bulgarian Lay Dominicans.
They introduced themselves and we were very glad to hear that there was a living,
active group of people whose intention was to do apostolic work in Sofia, a city that is
called ‘Wisdom’.

They visited Fr. Jerry in Santa Sabina, Rome. They wished to join the Dominican
Order officially, so they sent letters to the Master of the Order. They had been waiting
for years for feedback regarding their official foundation.

We had a second council meeting in Sopron, Hungary, on April 13/17th 2005. Nikolett
introduced the result of the audit, done with Mrs. Dr. Margit Zillich Csutorane from
Budapest. According to it, all the figures were correct. We weighed up once again the
available information about the venue of the next Assembly. Since the information was
not sufficient, we could not take the final decision. We shared information about some
countries and we took some practical decisions to improving relationships with isolated
European countries. Jerry would send a census form for Dominican laity members to
Robert who would transmit it with a letter to each Province to be completed. Patricia,
ICDLF member, informed the council about their activities and plans.
In 2005 Nikolett offered to visit the Bulgarian fraternity. Soon she was cordially invited
to join their celebrations for the consecration of a new church building. It took place
on 22 October 2005 in Sofia. The Master of the Order signed the letter of foundation
of the Bulgarian Lay Dominican Fraternity on 25 November 2005. The new fraternity
in Sofia now belongs to the Hungarian Dominican Vicariate.

The next ECLDF meeting took place in Santa Sabina, Rome from 3 to 6 November
2005. Fr. Carlos Azpiroz Costa, Jerry Stookey and the whole convent gave us an
extremely friendly, warm-hearted and brotherly reception, which showed us once
again that we laity are obviously seen as an integral part of the Order. We had the
opportunity to discussed special questions relating to our work and we also had the
opportunity to exchange ideas about questions regarding the development of the
Dominican laity and of the Dominican Family.

Our next Assembly was one of the main themes of our meeting. The International
Congress of Lay Dominican Fraternities was supposed to take place in Buenos Aires
in March 2008. However, there were compelling reasons for the ICLDF to bring the
Congress forward to March 2007. All the European Provinces would send
representatives to this outstandingly important congress. For most provinces it would
hardly be practical to send delegates to the European Assembly only a few weeks
later. We therefore postponed the next Assembly to a time between April and July
2008. According to our statutes, the next European Assembly should have been
arranged for 2007 but the statutes allow for a departure from the three-year rule in
the case of exceptional circumstances. We agreed unanimously that the time clash
with the International Congress constituted an exception that justified postponing the
European Assembly to the following year.

Our chosen theme was “Preaching in the secular world”. As regards the question of
translations, we were not in a financial position to have more than two official
languages – English and French – at the next Assembly. Finance was once again an
important item on the agenda. Chantal Soligny had to give up her position as
treasurer on personal grounds. We accepted her resignation with great regret.
Nikolett Muranyi was chosen as her successor. We opened a new bank account. We
originally intended to open an account in the United Kingdom. After a lot of problems,
the plan had to be given up because of insurmountable obstacles with the British
banking system. We therefore opened an account with the catholic PAX-Bank in
Berlin. We also reflected on the evaluation of the questionnaire about the General
Assembly 2004 in Walberberg.

The fourth ECLDF meeting took place in Bratislava, Slovakia from 12 to 15 October
2006. Robert Kopfmüller-Knabe, President, resigned from the ECDLF in September.
The Council therefore contacted Hanneke Bemeer, from the Netherlands, who
received the next highest number of votes in Walberberg at the last Assembly. As she
could not accept, the Council contacted Gabriel Silva from Portugal, who was second
in the list of highest number of votes, and he accepted. Patricia Robinson ended her
four-year mandate as the European representative on the International Council of Lay
Dominican Fraternities, and after nearly 8 years on the ECLDF. In accordance with the
result of the elections in Walberberg, Patricia Kelly, from Ireland, succeeded her. Fr.
Jerry Stookey would end his mandate as General Promoter of the Dominican Laity in
January 2007. The Master of the Order had already appointed Fr. David Kammler from
Germany to the office. So he and Patricia immediately started working with the ECDLF
at the Bratislava meeting. Patricia Kelly and Fr. David officially took up their duties in
Buenos Aires at the International Congress in March 2007. In Bratislava, the Council
held an election for the office of President of ECDLF, Gabriel Silva was elected. All the
other members remained in their current offices. After considering all the information
that we collected from the different Provinces which generously offered to host the
Assembly, we decided that the European Assembly of Lay Dominican
Fraternities would be held in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 29 May to 4 June 2008. We
worked on the agenda and preparations for the Assembly.

In March 2007, we held our fifth meeting in Walberberg, Germany. We prepared an

application form for RENOVABIS. We wrote the letters of invitation and we prepared
the budget, the questions about fundraising and also finance issues during the
Assembly. We established the final timetable and the individual tasks for ECLDF
members and the local group. We made the necessary contacts about interpreters.
We also shared experiences about the International Congress in Argentina, as some
ECDLF members took part in this important event.

Shortly after the meeting, we were informed that the original venue for the Assembly
in Bratislava was cancelled due to last minute hassle. We tried to find another
location very fast, with the help of lay Dominicans from Slovakia and Eva and
Nikolett. Fortunately, we found this place, and after negotiations, we were in a
position to make a new budget and send the final invitation letter to all the provinces.

In January 2008, we held the last ECDLF meeting in Dublin, Ireland. Of course we
tried to finish the final arrangements for the Assembly, especially the little, but so
many details. We finished and approved the final programme, invitations, translators,
liturgy schedule and financial support to delegates from some provinces. We
approved the liturgy book and took note of our financial situation.

During this mandate we published information on the ECDLF website. We also made
hundreds of contacts with lay persons, friars, nuns and sisters around Europe,
specially trying to find some information about lay Dominican activities, and also
provided information about ECLDF and the next Assembly. This kind of connection
and network is probably the main job and nature of a structure like the European
Council of Lay Dominican Fraternities.