N. 452 (423) – TO JEAN-FRANÇOIS DES GARETS
APFL, 1872, Roma, 4
Rome, 5 June 1872
Mr President,
[2993]
The Holy See has just entrusted the Vicariate of Central Africa to my Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona, and to me, the governance of that great Mission with the title of Pro-Vicar Apostolic.
For the moment I am limiting myself to the following Works in my vast jurisdiction:
1. To ensure the prosperity of the three Institutes for Africans in Cairo which you know.
2. To re-establish the two Stations in Shellal and Khartoum, with the intention subsequently to revive those of the Holy Cross and Gondokoro.
3. Later, to create a new Station in El-Obeid, the capital of Kordofan.
[2994]
Until now, the resources I have received from the Propagation of the Faith, from small Societies in Germany and from collections I have gathered during my long tours of Europe, have barely sufficed for the houses in Egypt, and then only because I myself made long journeys in Hungary and Germany and asked a great deal for the Africans.
[2995]
Since the duties of my ministry as Pro-Vicar Apostolic of the most extensive Mission in the world will not allow me to return to Europe, I shall not be able to acquire from anywhere else except the Propagation of the Faith virtually all the resources for the Institutes in Egypt.
It is to this admirable Association that I once again turn to have the necessary resources for the Vicariate in Central Africa.
This is my current plan of action:
[2996]
In July I leave Verona for Cairo with 12 individuals. In September I shall leave Cairo with more than 30 individuals to go to Shellal, Khartoum and Kordofan. The journey from Cairo to Kordofan with so many people will take at least three months.
[2997]
In Kordofan everything needs to be done. There is nothing there, neither medicines nor doctors, nor the equipment for building, cultivating the land or grinding grain, nor for exercising the skills of the locksmith, mason, or carpenter. Everything must be brought from Europe. It is a lot if the men and women have a rag with which to cover themselves. Wine for the celebration of Mass, transported from Cairo to Kordofan, costs four times as much as in Egypt, since it has to be transported on the back of camels.
[2998]
The tools for building, working, etc., the machines, etc., must be bought in Europe.
In Cairo, it is necessary to rent two boats, one for the men and the other for the Sisters and the girls: we will go as far as Aswan on these boats in 25 days. It is always necessary to feed the sailors. We travel from Aswan to Shellal on camels. From Shellal to Korosko on two boats in 5 days. From Korosko through the desert to Berber in 20 days on at least 50 camels, to transport the individuals and the luggage, etc. From Berber we go to Khartoum on two boats. From Khartoum to Kordofan with camels.
[2999]
During this whole journey everything has to be bought except the Nile water. Expenses are enormous.
In Kordofan we will have to pay for the houses, to rebuild them so that they are habitable and have enough to live on for a year.
[3000]
The trip of my four explorers led by Fr Carcereri from Cairo to Kordofan cost me 10,000 francs. I sent them another 3,000 francs, so that they had enough to live on until my arrival in El-Obeid. They already have many black children.
To properly complete my undertaking of founding and restoring the Vicariate of Central Africa, I shall need at least 100,000 francs of which I must have 6,000 before leaving Europe, to buy the above-mentioned tools and machinery and to make the journey with 12 people to Cairo.
[3001]
Mr President, if you help my Mission, you are giving life to the most abandoned and unfortunate part of the world.
My Vicariate is the most laborious, the most difficult and the largest in the world: it is also the most interesting and the most important, because it must regenerate a world in which, up to the present, the Church has not yet been able to obtain any results. By establishing a Mission in Kordofan with my plan of action, you are founding the Centre of apostolic activity with which to gradually conquer for Jesus Christ more than 60,000,000 infidels of which my Vicariate consists. This Mission will make progress equal to the resources we are able to obtain from your charity from the start.
[3002]
I will account to you for everything, and I will give you all the information concerning this immense Mission. I beg you to plead this Holy cause at the Council of Lyons and in that of Paris. The Report I sent on the exploration of Kordofan will have given you some idea of the undertaking on which I am about to embark.
[3003]
It seems to me that the Apostolate of Central Africa will be blessed by God if you make it known in the Annals and recommend it to the prayers and charity of the two million Members of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith, scattered all over the face of the earth.
[3004]
Please accept in advance my warmest gratitude for the charity you will have had, and will have for Central Africa. The last words of my confreres and my own will always be “Africa or death!”. All this is for the love of the One who shed all his divine Blood on the Cross, for Africa too.
Mr President, please receive the homage of my highest esteem, with which I have the honour to declare myself in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Your most devoted servant,
Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa