Draft to Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo

Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo

Your Eminence:
I am writing to you as the Executive Director of the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph
in the United States. Our Federation is composed of all twenty-three (23) congregations
of Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States and we work very closely with other national
federations of Sisters of St. Joseph.
Throughout the years since the origin of our Federation, our congregations have worked
together to share many programs which would not be possible without the cooperation of
all our congregations. These programs have included, among others, research into our
charism and primitive documents, renewal programs, shared resource personnel and
national events.
We have now reached the point where we are seeking an indult to conduct a canonical
novitiate for all the novices from our various congregations. To assist you in reviewing
this request, I am submitting the following documentation:
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Appendix A- A brief history of our Federation together with reference to
the correspondence we received from Father Bernard Ransing CSC who, at
the time, was in the office for religious congregations and who served as
the contact for Mother Eucharista Galvin ..

2

Appendix B - Documentation from our 1999 Governing Board Meeting
outlining the following information
philosophy, purpose, and reasons for the project
general course of study
information concerning the selection of the Novice Director
information on the governing body of the novitiate
relation of the novice to her own institute and novice director

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Appendix C - A list of the Federation institutes all of who support this
program.

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Appendix D - Guidelines for the canonical novitiate contain the following
items:
philosophy and purpose ofthe novitiate

terms of implementation including financial arrangements
governance bodies and responsibilities
role descriptions of novitiate personnel
resource personnel
design of the program
location
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Appendix E - Letter from the Most Rev. Daniel Cronin, Archbishop of
Hartford, Connecticut giving permission for the canonical novitiate to be
held in his archdiocese during this coming year. The location of the
novitiate will be at the provincial house of the Sisters of St. Joseph of
Cambery located within the Hartford Archdiocese.

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Appendix F - Resource personnel used for this shared experience

Your Eminence, I am most grateful to you for reviewing these materials and await your
response.
Thank you for all that you do on behalf of religious congregations everywhere.
Sincerely,

Sister Phyllis Manda, CSJ
Executive Director
Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States