The process towards the formation of the new ECE province is going on. The superiors of the future province met in Ludwigshafen on 12.-13. October 2018.

Anyway there is an important change. The Hungarian Province will withdraw from the ECE process and remain an independent Province. The other four Provinces of ASR, GER, HEL and LIT (comprising Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland) want to continue on the path towards the establishment of ECE in 2021. In a letter Fr. General Arturo Sosa wrote to the Provincials on October 3 that he agreed to this proposal. P. General expressed his gratitude for the efforts made in that process until now, with openness and sincerity. He also welcomed the fact that the future accession of the HUN Province to the newly formed ECE Province is not at all excluded. Despite the differences and difficulties, Hungary has much in common with the reality of the nascent Province of ECE.

Fr. General asked the provincials to undertake the following tasks conscientiously and consistently:

• In freedom, unashamedly but also with no stereotypes, to reflect on the influence of the political and ecclesiastical situation in our lives.
• To deepen our understanding of the universal character of our vocation, with particular emphasis on the fact that the Society is not a federation of national units, but is a missionary transcultural body that transcends all state boundaries.
• To reflect on and develop attitudes that in practice appreciate cultural diversity as something valuable and that respect nationalities as part of this diversity, without reducing cultural and national diversity to chauvinism.
• Reflection and efforts to identify concrete forms of cooperation between the ECE and the Province of HUN, both in formation and in the apostolate.
• In the current reality of Europe, to make concrete efforts to build bridges between East and West, based on mutual respect and recognition of the values of different parts of the same Society.