Request of Comboni Lay Missionaries

Dear Fr. Arlindo Pinto:
Greetings from Lira, Uganda!

I come to you as the person in charge of the Comboni Lay Missionaries to present officially my request for the assignment of another lay missionary to the diocese of Lira.

Lira has already had the gift of a Comboni Lay Missionary, Dr. Caterina Fausti, who is about to complete her three year commitment and will return to Italy to tend to family matters. Her service has been very valuable for the diocesan hospital of Aber, and very exemplary in her dedication to the patients in a situation and circumstances quite difficult all around. We are very grateful to her and we are sorry that she cannot stay with us any longer.

Last year, Marco and Maria Grazia Piccione with their little Francesco joined Caterina. Maria Grazia is a doctor and works in the hospital, while Marco, an educator, helps at St. Clare Orphanage and is involved also in development projects in the parish of Aber.

It would be important now to have someone substitute Caterina to make community with Maria Grazia and Marco, for mutual support and for a richer and more profitable witness as Comboni Lay Missionaries. It does not necessarily have to be q doctor. An interested sand competent person to promote and guide activities and pastoral projects and/or economic and social development within the large parish of Aber would be an answer to our urgent needs. Same can be said a professional person, with some specialization but flexible and capable of lending a helping hand in the maintenance of the hospital in one or several of the following fields: carpentry, electricity, plumbing, sanitation plants, building, equipment…. Here there is no lack of work!

The request is not limited to Comboni Lay Missionaries from Italy, but it includes missionaries from other countries as well, who are willing to come to Uganda.

The Provincial Superior of Uganda knows about the project and approves my request. We also talked about it with Fr. Claudio Longhi daring his recent visit to Caterina, Marco and Maria Grazia at Aber. All is left for me is to hope and pray that at your meeting in Verona these days our request will be picked up by someone with whom we could establish some con tact and agree over the details necessary details.

Meanwhile I wish all of you, gathered in Verona a fruitful and profitable meeting, in the spirit of Daniel Comboni, for an ever more generous service to the mission that the Lord entrusts to all the members and the various expressions of the Comboni family.

Fraternally in the Heart of Jesus,
Fr. Giuseppe Franzelli, mccj
Bishop of Lira, Uganda
August 2, 2012