New to the European coordination of LAI

At Vida Ascendente Portugal

Leonardo Antao, president of Vida Ascendente Portugal, having had to resign from his post for health reasons, Maria Matilde Lino Neto de Padua will assume the post of interim president until the next general assembly (September/October) when new elections will take place.

At the Christian Movement of French Pensioners (MCR)

On June 16, a mass was celebrated in the magnificent abbey church of Tournus (Burgundy region) presided over by Bishop Boulanger, former bishop accompanying the movements and concelebrated by Father Dominique Oudot, national chaplain of the MCR. At the general assembly that followed this celebration, Anne-Marie Maison was elected president of the movement and a new national office was set up.

Below are some excerpts from the inauguration speech of the new president:

 "The crisis we have just gone through makes us say that profound changes will affect our society, why would it be different for the MCR? Its deep roots and values will not be changed, but we will undoubtedly have to imagine new ways of operating. But we know that the Spirit of the Lord who animates us will enlighten us.

To illustrate my remarks I would like to quote Bishop Boulanger, who was bishop of the Catholic Action Movements. He said this in his homily this morning: "If you are a gardener, you have to sow a lot of carrot seeds to risk seeing some of them rise." Then together we will sow the seeds of tomorrow's Movement.

According to the thought of St Augustine: "there is no past or future, there is only the present. The present of the past is memory, the present of the present is action, the present of the future is imagination.”