“In the footsteps of our Venerable Founder Melchior de Marion Brésillac, I declare this Plenary Council 2023 closed.” Fr. Antonio Porcellato, SMA Superior General.

Finally, the plane of the Plenary Council 2023 on this eleventh day of work has landed, and what a smooth landing it was. During the opening prayer of today’s session, the Superior General, Fr. Antonio Porcellato said, “Missionaries are disciples that make other disciples”.

Fr. Rozario made a presentation on the Policy on data management that concerns the secretariat and archives as well as the formation of bursars. This is because the Plenary Council reaffirmed the importance to build the profile and dignity of the office of the Secretary and as a result a standard classification system of the archives for the Society will be made available.

With regard to the formation of bursars, the Plenary Council recommended that all Units should ensure that their bursars get solid training in accounting through locally available opportunities. There will be an online formation program for all Unit Bursars to update them on decisions concerning their office after Plenary Councils and General Assemblies.

A system with common rubrics will be made available before the next fiscal year with a number of accounting software though not all units are concerned because they have to meet the standards of their particular countries. This document and all the documents of the plenary council were canonically voted for unopposed.

Members of the PC were taken through the minutes of the last ten days and subjected it to amendments and vote. The plenary council unanimously voted for the General Council to vote and adopt today’s minutes.

The Superior General invited members to encourage confreres in their units and in particular those in Africa to report the positive events that are happening in Africa to FIDES.

Taking to the floor on his closing remarks, the Superior General began by saying, “Here we are on our eleventh day of work, and we’ve come to the conclusion of this Plenary Council 2023, which we’ve held in this house; a witness to a large part of SMA history, and now completely renovated. From now on, we’ll call it the “International Missionary House” (MIM).”

The superior general reminded the house of some of the decisions that the 2023 PC has taken including reducing the duration of the 2025 General Assembly to three weeks whose theme will be “Set apart for the proclamation of the Gospel, in Africa, with Africa and from Africa”.

                                                                                 By Fr. Dominic Wabwireh, SMA