Comboni missionaries hold their Annual Assembly in South Sudan

Msgr. Paolino Lukudu Loro, MCCJ
Archbishop of the Archdiocese
of Juba, in South Sudan.

The Comboni Annual Assembly in Juba began in the evening of Monday (16 January) and will continue up to Saturday, 21 January. The first day of the assembly was dedicated to prayer and reflection as the missionaries retreated themselves into a morning of spirituality led by Fr. Pedro Tacuri. They have been asking themselves how to live the joy of the Gospel in South Sudan today. The missionaries have also listened to the reports on what they have been doing over the past year in their missionary work, underlining meaningful aspects of their service and eventual new proposals. At their Annual Assembly, the Comboni missionaries are paying particular attention to the preparation of the Six Year Plan (2017-2022). They have been engaged in community discernment on four particular areas of the Chapter Acts: mission, person, re-organization and finance. At the end of this process, they are expected to come out with concrete and feasible proposals and decide what should finally be included into their Six-year pastoral plan.

The Comboni Missionaries are a society of Priests and Brothers founded in 1867 in Verona, Italy, by St. Daniel Comboni, as an International Missionary Institute for the evangelisation of peoples. The Comboni Missionaries evangelize in 41 countries worldwide. In Africa they are present in 17 countries. In South Sudan they work in Juba, Moroyok, Kajo-Keji, Tali, Yirol, Mapuordit, Wau, Leer and Nyal, Old Fangak and Ayod (Mogok).

The year 2017 marks the 150^th anniversary of foundation of the Comboni Missionary Institute, which was founded in 1867 by Daniel Comboni. Fr. Louis Okot Tony, the Provincial Superior in South Sudan, said that “today we hear the same call of Comboni and of many other missionaries to continue on the same path of total self-giving for the Gospel in the present reality of South Sudan”.

In South Sudan the Comboni Missionaries are in full communion and collaborate with the local Church in the work of first evangelization and pastoral care among pastoralist communities, in the formation of lay ministries, priests and missionaries, mission and vocation promotion and mass media. Besides, the missionary work, they carry out a whole range of pastoral activities: Justice and Peace and Reconciliation, education, health care, agriculture and pastoral assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs).