Dear confreres, June 12, 2023, is the 200th birth anniversary of our Founder, Father Théophile Verbist. Let us enter our Bicentennial celebration, which will run from November 28, 2021, Feast of our Congregation, until November 28, 2023, with gratitude and joy for God’s faithfulness. More importantly, let us emulate the missionary enthusiasm of our predecessors. It is the most beautiful gift we can give to our Founder Théophile Verbist on the Bicentennial of his birth. Let us take this Bicentennial opportunity to immerse ourselves in the sources of our charism so that we may reflect upon, embrace, and embody it in all that we do today and tomorrow. Let us firmly recommit to imitating him who left the comfort of his native Belgium to work in favor of the poor abandoned children and their happiness in this world.
Likewise, the Bicentennial of the Birth of Théophile Verbist is a reason to give thanks to God. We thank God for his life, his missionary ardor, and his charism. We give thanks for the foundation of our Congregation. This Bicentennial affords us a time of Grace for the more than 750 living members who make up this great religious family. For all of us, this Bicentennial aims at being not just a time of celebration. It is a valuable opportunity offered us to look back with gratitude, to look at the present with confidence, and to work for the future of our mission with the energy and novelty of the Gospel, living the mission entrusted to us with renewed vigor and conviction on behalf of the abandoned, the orphans, the youth, and especially those most in need, even amid sometimes unsettling happenings like the current pandemic.
Excerpt from the Superior General’s message for the CICM Foundation Day 2021
and the beginning of the celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Théophile Verbist
the Superior General’s full message
