Daniel Comboni
Comboni Missionaries
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NAP Community opens to Hispanics
Rome, Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Comboni Missionaries of the community of La Grange Park, IL (USA) have decided to open to their Spanish speaking neighbors with a joint monthly missionary activity. The first meeting took place on Saturday, February 23. Fr. José Manuel García Oviedo (picture) presided over a Mass and Fr. Peter Premarini gave his missionary witness. The meeting ended with a short reception. The next meeting will take place on March 23.
“The Mass, celebrated by Fr. Peter Premarini and myself – explained Fr. José Manuel – started at 11:30 am in our chapel, enlivened by popular songs of our people. We entrusted this new experience to Our Lady of Guadalupe, because we are thinking of holding this meeting with the Hispanics on a monthly basis, to celebrate, live and share our faith.”
According to Fr. José Manuel, “this monthly meeting of the missionaries with their Spanish speaking neighbors has as its objectives to draw into our home and our prayers the families, the friends and all those with whom we share every moment of our lives; to feel in communion with all those missionaries who, leaving everything, ventured into other parts of the world to bring the Good News, awakening in us the missionary spirit and living it in a committed way in our daily life; and also to be in communion with our brothers and sisters who have left us and now enjoy the presence of God.”
Following the Eucharist, Fr. Peter briefly shared some of his many missionary experiences in Uganda, where he worked for over 25 years, inviting all to live with joy their faith and the missionary vocation.
The Comboni House of La Grange Park, IL, was opened in October 1985. Today the community is made up of three Comboni Missionaries – Fr. Peter Premarini, Fr. Angelo Biancalana and Fr. José Manuel García Oviedo – who run the center of mission and vocation promotion, following the Afro-American youth pastoral in the archdiocese of Chicago and the Comboni Lay Missionary Program (CLMP) of the NAP.
From left: Fr. Pietro Premarini and Fr. José Manuel García Oviedo.