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Year of Grace for the 25 years of presence of the Comboni Missionaries in Asia
Rome, Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Comboni Missionaries of Asia announced a Year of Grace – from 1 December 2012 to 2 December 2013 – to celebrate the first 25 years of their presence on the continent. The guiding theme chosen for the Year is “Journeying together on Asian roads”, an invitation to look at the journey already done and to look at the future. “The journey also invites us to seize the present moment as a great opportunity to look at our service and commitment as well as at the way we respond to the challenges the mission in Asia is facing us with as individuals and as communities,” writes Fr. Miguel Angel. We publish in the attachment below the letter of Fr. Miguel Angel, which calls for the Year of Grace, as well as the message of the Superior General, Fr. Enrique Sánchez G., for the 25 years from the arrival of the Comboni Missionaries in Asia. Both letters are only in English. In the picture: Bishop Onesto Ongioco of the Diocese of Cubao.
Fr. Miguel Angel Llamazares González, Superior of the Delegation, writes: “The Year of Grace will open on December 1, 2012 and close on December 2, 2013. We have chosen the occasion of the Friends of the Mission Fiesta, our annual gathering with friends, relatives and benefactors, to open and close the year and we have lined up a series of activities that may help us to remember, celebrate and reflect on the gifts we have received and have been called to share. One of the significant landmarks will be the 25th Anniversary of the first issue of World Mission Magazine, March 2013.”
The decision of the General Chapter of 1985, which opened the doors of Asia to the Comboni’s heirs, is the culmination of a long reflection that, with difficulty, found a consensus within the Institute of the Comboni Missionaries. In the end, the view prevailed that at the threshold of the third millennium, Asia, the continent in which more than half of humanity lives, of whom only 2.4% has come into contact with the Church, was a privileged place and a priority for the mission “ad gentes” in today’s world. And so, after a discernment among the various possibilities, on 4 January, 1988, the first group of Comboni Missionaries arrived in the Philippines. Five years later, 1993, the group became the “Delegation of Asia”.
Presently, the Comboni Missionaries on the Asian territory – spread in five communities (Philippines 2, China/Macau 2, Taiwan 1) – are 23 priests, one brother and three young students of theology. The Comboni of Asian origin are 19: 15 priests, 1 brother and 3 scholastics.
Celebration of the Eucharist, presided by Bishop Onesto Ongioco of the Diocese of Cubao.