« Let us leave with the peace of Christ, the strength of his Spirit and the joy of being Oblates of Mary Immaculate at the heart of this world. Thus I declare closed the work of our assessment assembly for the exercise of our three-year mandate 2024-2026′′′. This is the closing speech of the Provincial Assembly 2026 delivered on Friday, February 13 in Ifwanzondo by the provincial superior, Father Constant Kienge-Kienge.
Dear Brothers Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
Dear lay associates, dear friends,
Here we are at the end of our provincial assembly of the Province of Congo, convened to evaluate the triennium that ends. The time has come to give thanks to the Lord for his faithfulness and love, which has been so manifest on us throughout this time of the fulfilment of the mission entrusted to us. Indeed, during these days of intense prayer work, days of mutual listening and fraternal discernment, we have reread our recent history as a Gospel page written in the life of our communities, our missionary commitments and our poor, which remain the centre of our Oblate charism. We have walked in a synodal spirit, an innovative method for our usual assemblies and have experienced difficulties in fully entering them. But we have experimented as little by little as it is an interesting method; because she willingly welcomed the fruit of the Holy Spirit at the end of our conversations in spirit. It allows listening to one another and promotes to have suggestions as a gift of holy spirit. We hope that our poor words and suggestions offered to God will become levers for the development of our province.
Dear fellow Oblates. Dear members of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate. Three years ago, my first speech to take on my responsibility to animate the province of Congo, I invited you to commit us deeply to the work of rebuilding our Oblate being, a pilgrim of hope in communion in order to offer to Congolese and Angolan society, and to the Church, Oblates, priests and brothers, who are deeply offered, bearing the hope of those whom we are entrusted with through our ministry. Oblates who really know each other, who really love each other and who are proud to live this ideal.
To do this, our business must be based on certain values that we have defined as the axes of our animation, in particular, the value of the community, which calls us to live a communion. It heals, promotes and strengthens our interpersonal ties. The ideal of being one heart and one mind should encourage us to strengthen our relations, help us « to bear the burdens of one another » and join forces for the development of our Province.
The communion of heart and mind invites everyone to become responsible for the life of the Province, to become co-responsible and to fight against the indifference that hinders the march of common life.
The value of participation or cooperation that empowers each member, in the name of his own vocation, to collaborate to make his own Oblate vocation viable and to respond daily to the call to follow Jesus Christ. This value we co-responsible for managing our common heritage. It testifies to our spirit of family and belonging to the great Oblate family.
We have defined our responsibility as « a common authority »which was to update in the dynamic of common management through certain structures of communion. On occasion, I had announced the holding of three assemblies, the one that defined the common vision of the province and targeted the priorities of the province of Congo, and then the evaluation assembly, through a mid-evaluation of our administration.
Today, we can recognize with gratitude our efforts to remain consistent with our dream even though the efforts still remain to be made to achieve the effectiveness of the reconstruction of our Oblate being, proud to live this ideal.
Our assembly in 2024 articulated the vision of the province around the two major aspects, namely the deepening of our Oblate identity and of life fraternity in our communities. Here, too, we have not arranged our efforts to live according to this vision. It has been our compass, the reason for our decisions, the center of our dialogues and the accompaniment of everyone. We can state with modesty and gratitude that the effort of animation in this ideal was evident when we look at our proximity to each of you, your participation and commitment to everything we organize for the life of our province. Yes, everyone realized that we had to go back and live as a brother. We have experienced in each one the need for unity and fraternity among Oblates, with our lay associates and with our former students.
Let me thank you for welcoming our message, let me congratulate you for your willingness to unite us to write together our common story, let me encourage you to keep burning this flame of unity and fraternity. It is still at the end of the tunnel, it still takes effort to live it fully.
Dear Oblate colleagues, dear members of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate,
In our life, one thing is to anticipate and plan, another is to realize what has been planned. But often the realization differs from the forecast. One thing is the will to do well, another thing is the reality that seems contrary to what one wants. It's the mystery of human life. St Paul, does he not say that we want good but we end up doing the evil that we would not want? I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those of our administration team; the provincial council, the economists, the provincial secretary, the associate collaborators, the drivers, the cooks for the brand of the collaboration that allowed us to realize what we were able to do to support our common vision. Thank you to your fellow Oblates who believed in our action and vision. You have given yourself body and soul to accompany and support our efforts in realizing the vision of the province. Thank you all Oblate confreres for the clear readiness to respond to our calls whenever it was necessary to unite us to reflect together on the life of our Province. What has been achieved within our limits has been the conjugation of the common effort. Take this for granted for the development of the Province of Congo. We will be strong and build a strong province when we understand that he has united and accepted us as a brother in the great charismatic family with our lay associates and former students, who are the radiance of our charism.
Dear fellow Oblates and dear members of the Missionary Association of Mary,
By looking at what we have been able to do within our means and weakness, I have no claim that we have met your expectations, which you would have wanted us to do. I recognize our shortcomings, limitations and incompetence. We have sometimes aggrieved some of you by indelicacy, lack of attention or indifference while you were waiting more than we could. I come by this word to ask you for forgiveness on behalf of our entire administration but also in my staff. We wanted the good but you experienced an evil. Please offer us your sincere forgiveness so that we may return from the grace of bicentenary and refound the bond of fraternity.
Our assembly, evaluative in a synodal approach, allowed us to take a lucid look at our common march and the fraternal climate is an eloquent proof of the bud of a fraternal life sought in our vision.
This work of evaluation allowed us to recognize the signs of the Spirit at the very heart of our limits, and to hear the insistent calls for greater coherence between our Constitutions and Rules and our concrete life.
Thus, we can affirm that our assembly was also a time of grace to discover, or rediscover, the richness of complementarity in our Oblate family: priests, brothers, scholastics, novices and lay associates, all of us are at work in the field of the Lord, with the same mission to radiate Oblate charism. Each, according to his vocation, contributed to the analysis and search for future paths. We have heard the cry and expectations of local communities, the pastoral challenges in the education, finance and fraternal life sector in common, not to mention the urgent appeals of our country marked by so much suffering and misery. The challenges are always there before us and call us to Courage to brave them.
During this triennium, the Province took important options: strengthening the leadership of local communities, giving greater attention to community life, renewed commitment to the transparent management of our heritage, and the proximity of elderly and sick brothers and sisters in difficulty and fraternity. The assembly confirmed these guidelines, while calling for more rigorous follow-up and periodic evaluations.
By closing this assembly, we do not close a parenthesis; We're opening a way. The priorities we have identified together will be our compass for the new triennium:
- deepen our spiritual life and Oblate identity,
- strengthening the quality of community life and co-responsibility,
- requalify our missionary presences so that they truly serve the poorest,
- encourage the training of young colleagues and the fraternal support of AMMI, JOMI and our former students.
I would like to thank each of you for the quality of your participation, your freedom of speech, your sense of listening and your readiness to serve the mission. Thanks to the confreres who provided animation, writing, logistics and liturgy. Thanks also to the lay associates. They are members of our Oblate family and make an effort to get closer and closer to us in the ministry and their presence reminds us that the mission never lives in a vacuum, but in the Church and with the people of God.
We now entrust the fruits of this assembly to the intercession of the Virgin Mary Immaculate and Saint Eugene de Mazenod. Let them get us a humble and bold missionary heart, capable of loving the Church, serving the poor and building communion in the diversity of our cultures and our stories. May the Lord make our Province of Congo a true apostolic family, a pilgrim of hope in communion, at the service of the Gospel.
Let us leave with the peace of Christ, the strength of his Spirit and the joy of being Oblates of Mary Immaculate at the heart of this world. Thus I declare closed the work of our assessment assembly for the exercise of our three-year mandate 2024-2026.
Done at Ifwanzondo, 13 February 2026
Constant KIENGE KIENGE,omi
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