Familia Comboniana 722 - September 2014

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

Five General Curias together for the spiritual exercises

Aided by a mild and cool climate, supplied by the mountains that surround vast Lake Como, three missionary Sisters belonging to PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) and 27 missionary men – Comboni Missionaries, Consolata, Xaverian, and PIME – meditated in silence for six days of retreat directed by Fr. Giuseppe Ronco, a Consolata missionary. With his twice-daily conferences he suggested a number of illuminating passages from the Bible and pointed out several examples of men and women of God, who left in the history of the Church an example of true Christian life and deep missionary vision.

The initiative of the members of the General Curia of the Missionary Institutes to do the retreat together is part of a long tradition that is repeated every two years, always in different places. In turn, each Institute organizes and suggests one of their communities for this purpose. This year, it was the turn of the Xaverian Missionaries, founded by Bishop St. Guido Maria Conforti, to provide for the place for the retreat at their community of Tavernerio, in northern Italy.

The missionaries, enlightened by the word of God and nourished by personal prayer, meditated on such issues as the Love of God, Creation, Jesus Christ priest and missionary of the Father, how to be a disciple and missionary with a new heart in the secular city, how to recognize fragility and, finally, the Mother of God. The purpose of each of the conferences was to help the participants to reflect on what needed “to be put in order” in their personal lives, in their relationship with God, with others and with creation.

Specializations

Bro. Jacek Andrzej Pomykacz on 26 June, 2014, was awarded a Licentiate in Sacred Theology in “The Social Doctrine of the Church, receiving 90.0/90 marks, corresponding to summa cum laude. Bro. Jacek’s presented the thesis: “Cura per lo sviluppo umano integrale nell’evangelizzazione – Studio dei casi tratti dall’opera di evangelizzazione dei Missionari Comboniani del Cuore di Gesù nel Sud Sudan”.

Perpetual professions

Priestly Ordinations

Holy Redeemer Guild

September       01 – 15 NAP         16 – 30 PCA

October           01 – 07 RCA        08 – 15 TCH           16 – 31 RSA

Prayer Intentions

September – That, newly inspired by the Plan of St. Daniel Comboni, the missionary men and women of today may have the courage to make the decisions necessary for a new evangelisation of the world. Lord hear us.

October – That St. Daniel Comboni may hand on to us his missionary passion, his audacity and tenacity in proclaiming the Gospel, especially where people hunger and thirst for justice, and that he may help us to bear the apostolic fatigue of every day. Lord hear us.

Publications

Comboniens. 50 ans au Congo. Une histoire de donation et d’espérance, Afriquespoir, 2014. The Province is preparing to celebrate its first fifty years and this book, replete with characters and events, is a communal effort, initiated, carried forward and completed by many individuals, just like the history of the Comboni mission in the Congo, that vast country which formed part of the apostolic dreams of our Founder. It is a hymn of praise to God – as we read in the preface – which responds to the invitation of the Provincial Council and the General Administration to “rediscover the memory, the living tradition of the Institute which is represented most of all by outstanding personalities who incarnated our charism”.

Fr. Giulio Albanese, Missione è comunicazione. Le regole del gioco, Ed. Messaggero, Padova, April 2014. “The purpose of this book” – Fr. Julio Albanese explains right from the beginning – “is to provoke a debate so that there may be greater awareness of the importance of communication in contemporary society and in the Church”. It is “a compendium of ideas and considerations which may be useful to those who, whether clergy or lay, wish to interpret situations of evangelisation”. In a society which changes at the speed of light “the digital revolution is not only changing the means of communication but communication itself: we are faced with a broad cultural transformation which necessitates reflection on the meaning of communication”.

CURIA

Course for new formators

The Secretary General for vocations promotion and basic formation, Fr. John Baptist Keraryo Opargiw and the head of the Central Commission for Ongoing Formation, Fr. Siro Stocchetti, organised a course for new formators which ran from 30 June to 7 July and was held at the Generalate in Rome.

Those who took part were: Fr. Leonardo Leandro Araya, form Costa Rica, Fr. Léonard Ndjadi Ndjate, from the Congo, Fr. Anthony Kibira Kimbowa, from Uganda, Fr. Anicet Labite Komi Maté, from Togo, Fr. Zoe Musaka, from the Congo and the scholastic Anatole Mughendi Mwengulo, from the Congo.

The objectives were: to deepen the encounter with Comboni, model, master and friend; to reflect upon the formative method of integration; to help the future formator to achieve greater self-knowledge so that he may be better equipped to help the young men entrusted to him; to offer theoretical and practical means towards a more effective ministry of formation.

On Sunday, 6 July, the Superior General, Fr. Enrique Sánchez G., officially closed the Course while presiding at the Eucharist celebrated in the chapel of the student confreres. During his homily, Fr. Enrique shared his experience as a formator in the scholasticate of Kinshasa, insisting on the fundamental importance of the life-witness of the formator. “If a formator does not practice what he preaches or the values he presents to the candidates, they will do as they please and it will all have been a waste of time” said Fr. Enrique.

ECUADOR

Annual Assembly of Evangelisation

The Province has carried out its annual meeting of evangelization. Some confreres who work in nearby Tumaco, Colombia were also invited to this two-day meeting held in San Lorenzo (1-2 July) since the pastoral work, both in Ecuador and Colombia, is primarily directed to Afro-descendants.

The purpose of the Assembly of Evangelisation was to assess and plan what is commonly called pastoral work among Afro-descendants. “We want to have a listening attitude” – said the Provincial Fr. Rafael Gonzalez Ponce – “but, at the same time, we would like to consider our work under three perspectives: that of Aparecida, that states that the purpose of mission is to share with people the encounter with Christ so that they could have the same profound and personal experience with him; the perspective of Comboni’s charism, namely to make common cause with the people; finally, the perspective of the last General Chapter, which insists on the training of leaders and communities to make people the protagonists of their own history”.

ERITREA

Spiritual Exercises

Fr. John Baptist Keraryo Opargiw preached two sessions of spiritual exercises to the confreres and Comboni Sisters in Eritrea: from 3 to 10 August at Emakalla (20 participants, 6 MCCJ and 14 SMC) and from 13 to 20 August in Asmara (36 participants, 2 MCCJ, 2 Ursuline Sisters and 32 CMS). Among the many points for reflection, one point especially struck the participants. It was a reflection on the God of the Exodus who saw the misery of his people, listened to their cry and decided to do something for them. This reflection gave rise to the de profundis prayer due to the sad situation of the country and the question arose: “Why does this same God today allow his people to suffer so much? When will he intervene on their behalf?” Since the publication of the Pastoral Letter of the Bishops, there has been an anxious wait for feedback from the country.

We all remain in communion and solidarity with Eritrea and its people and, in a special way, with our confreres and Sisters working there.

ESPAÑA

Youth/Vocations Ministry and Basic Formation

The confreres who work in the field of youth/vocations ministry and basic formation in Europe met in Granada (Spain) from 7 to 17 July, 2014, for a continental assembly on the topic: "New ways to present the Comboni missionary vocation to young people in Europe today."

Fr. Karl Peinhopf, Provincial of the DSP and Continental Coordinator of the sector, and Fr. Pedro Andrés, in their opening address welcomed all the participants.

Then there was the intervention of an external facilitator, Fr. Oscar Roman, CMF, who presented an analysis of the situation of young people in Europe today and proposed a plan on how to work out a good vocations accompaniment of the youth.

Meanwhile, in his speech, Fr John Baptist Keraryo Opargiw, General Secretary for Formation, thanked and encouraged the participants for their service in the youth and vocations sector and insisted on the fundamental importance of taking good care of the “place and time” of our encounter with young people in order to have credible witness of life and activities, both on a personal level and as a community.

Later we listened to the reports from the Circumscriptions. There is a strong desire to have a qualitative leap as concerns our culture of vocations that can truly involve all the confreres and all our communities.

The participants also had a half-day on-going formation session on our Rule of Life, that is, its place and impact in our lives and activities on a daily basis.

KENYA

Internationality

Fifteen Comboni missionaries, belonging to the Province of Kenya, attended their annual spiritual exercises from 4 July in the evening till 12 July in the morning. The retreat took place in the house of the Dimesse Sisters, near Karen-Nairobi. The place is, in fact, very close to our International Scholasticate. The participants were helped in their reflection by Fr. Tesfaye Tadesse G., Assistant General.

It is worth noting that the fifteen participants and Fr. Tesfaye, their animator, were of eleven different nationalities: another sign of the growing internationality of the Institute, as desired by St. Daniel Comboni.

MALAWI-ZAMBIA

Visit by Bro. Daniele Giusti

From 31 July to 12 August, the Assistant General Bro. Daniele Giusti carried out his visit to the Brothers of the Province. The first community he visited was that of Lunzu, close to Blantyre. The purpose of the community is the human promotion of youth by means of its Lunzu technical school (Comboni Technical Centre), the centre of vocations promotion and the pre-postulancy.

The technical school provides the opportunity to over a hundred students, including a dozen girls, to acquire a technical diploma in the following fields: mechanics, construction, electrical installation and carpentry. This diploma qualifies them for university besides preparing them for entering the workforce directly. Attached to the school there is also a wood and metal furniture production department that allows the students to gain experience in the skills they are learning.

Bro. Daniele also visited the community of Balaka, not far from Lunzu, which houses the postulancy of the MZ Province. It is situated in the compound of the centre for philosophical studies opened by our confreres together with the Montforts and Discalced Carmelites. Following the decision to associate other Institutes to this 25-year-old venture, it was found necessary to extend and enlarge the structures. A new community chapel was recently built under the direction of Mexican Bro. David Enríquez Sánchez, who has worked in the Province since 2012. He is now embellishing it with meaningful frescoes, fruit of his artistic sensibility.

The final stage of Bro. Daniele’s visit was the Chikowa technical school, in Zambia. Opened in the late eighties, the school has developed slowly but surely with the purpose of giving the youth of the rural communities of the area a start in professional and artisan work in the fields of carpentry, building, agriculture and livestock, combining theoretical learning with practice. One of the components of the activities of the school is agricultural production, at present under the supervision of Portuguese Bro. Francisco José Ribau Amarante, who is also in charge of sunflower cultivation for the production of cooking oil.

MEXICO

XXV years of priesthood

On 16 August, we met at the parish of St. John the Apostle in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, to celebrate the 25 years of priesthood of Fr. Jorge Donato Decelis Burguete. Among the concelebrants there were three bishops: Mgr. Felipe Aguirre Franco, Archbishop Emeritus of Tuxtla Chi, who had ordained Fr. Jorge, Mgr. Fabio Martínez Castilla, Bishop of Tuxtla and Mgr. José Luis Mendoza Corzo, his auxiliary. In all, we numbered about thirty priests, almost half of whom were Combonis.

During the preceding week, in a dozen or so parishes of the city, mission promotion was conducted so as to promote awareness of the event in the communities. This helped to make known the charism of Comboni.

The Archbishop of Tuxtla, who served the Church in Angola for ten years, began his reflection with the three words: contemplate, give thanks and rejoice. “This Church – said the Bishop – as it rejoices in its Golden Jubilee, accompanies you and sends you out to the poorest and most abandoned”.

PORTUGAL

Comboni Family Pilgrimage to Fatima

The Comboni family in Portugal went on its annual pilgrimage to Fatima on 26 July last. This year, the pilgrimage closed, in Portugal, the celebration of the X anniversary of the canonisation of St. Daniel Comboni with a gathering at the Sanctuary of around 2,500 people. The event was assisted by the youth of the GIM (Youth on Mission).

The pilgrimage began on 22 July. The fifty GIM young people set out from two places in the country – Azambuja in the south and Coimbra in the north – meeting up on the morning of 26 July at the Chapel of the Apparitions.

The pilgrimage culminated in a Eucharistic celebration in the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, presided over by Fr. Avelino Gonçalves da Silva Maravilha, and the recitation of the Rosary in the Chapel of the Apparitions.

TCHAD

Missionary passion overflows in southern Chad

This year, the feast of the Sacred Heart took on a special meaning for the Comboni family in Chad. On 27 June, the confreres gathered in prayer at the monastery of Lolo, 20Km from Moundou, in the south of the country, to thank God for the gift of young Alfred Mbaidjidé.

Born at Moundou, from childhood he was attracted by the Word of God and the message of Jesus, in 2002 he joined the Combonis at Sarh and did his formation at N’Djamena, Cotonou and Bogotà, for theology. Having spent five years in Latin America, he returned to Chad where he engaged in missionary work at Donomanga, in the diocese of Laï.

On 28 June, 2014, surrounded by confreres, his family, friends and a large congregation, with four other young men he was ordained by the Bishop of Moundou, Mgr. Joachim Kouraleyo.

With a spirit of joy and enthusiasm, with dancing and singing, the celebration ended after five hours of intense prayer. The feast then continued at Alfred’s family home.

On the following day, the feast of the martyrs St. Peter and Paul, Alfred celebrated his first Mass in his own parish which bears the name of the first two great missionaries of the Christian era. There was a huge congregation present to express their affection for Alfred and to thank God for the gift of a new priest.

In his homily, Alfred invited the people to follow the truth to the end and to its ultimate consequences, like Peter and Paul, and to give importance to prayer as the foundation of our Christian lives. Since it was the beginning of the Ramadan, he mentioned our Moslem brothers and sisters who are not afraid to pray in public. Following their example, Fr. Alfred encouraged everyone not to be afraid to pray and to strengthen the experience of being close to God. He then invited everyone to pray for Pope Francis who is radically transforming the Church.

TOGO-GHANA-BENIN

Priestly Ordinations

There was a great feast on 9 August, in Lomé/Hanoukope, at the parish of St. Anthony of Padua, run by the Friars Minor. Twenty-one young religious men were ordained by the Archbishop of Lomé, Mgr. Denis Amuzu Dzakpah. They belonged to five Institutes: 6 Franciscans; 5 Jesuits, 4 SMA, 3 SVD and 3 Combonians: Agbetiafa Komlan Dzitri (Fabrice), Badatana Apélété Agnata (Salomon) and Bamana Kadira (Christophe). Ordination to the priesthood is becoming a beautiful custom, together with testimonies of consecrated life through the various charisma present in the local Churches of Togo. On the memorial of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), the Archbishop encouraged those to be ordained to aim at an intense life of the Spirit and a martyrial witness of the gift of the priesthood in daily commitment to the service of all.

The presence of so many people, a large number of priests and men and women religious, was the experience of faith and intense prayer for those who received the grace of being priests of Jesus Christ for humanity today. After their first Mass and some time with their families, the time of Mission will begin: Fabrice will go to Central America, Salomon will go to South Sudan and Christophe will go to Benin in the diocese of Djougou, a completely Moslem environment. The province of TGB will receive, this year, the gift of five new priests: besides the Togolese, Fabrice, Salomon and Christophe, we will also have the Beninese, Léopold Adanle Abouke and Raoul Sohouénou Cakpo Edènan who will be ordained to the priesthood on 18 October, at Cotonou.

Ongoing Formation for vocations promoters

Planned during last year’s sub-continental assembly for Francophone Africa (Sarh, Tchad, September, 2013), an ongoing formation Course for vocations promoters was conducted at Lomé from 25 August to 5 September. Ten confreres were present: 3 from Congo, 2 from Chad, 1 from central Africa and 4 from TGB. The session leaders were Fr. Elias Sidjalim (Kinshasa scholasticate) and Fr. Joseph Ngumba Lelo (PMB scholasticate). Also present was Fr. J. B. Opargiw, Secretary General for Basic Formation. The theme chosen was “Knowing, accompanying and discerning the candidates”. The two weeks were an occasion to share experiences, deepen the dynamics required for vocational service and reflection on one’s own journey of Comboni missionary identity.

The meeting was confined exclusively to vocations promoters and this aspect is really important in a sector that requires singular and particular attention for the knowledge of the young men so as to help them to take up the plan of God for them.

Francophone Africa is working on the continental Charter for Vocations Promotion: the vocations promoters have reviewed the text prepared by an ad hoc commission with a view to its approval by the circumscription Superiors.

In an atmosphere of serenity and fraternity, there was also an opportunity during the Course to meet with vocations promoters from other Institutes for reciprocal enrichment. To add delight to the merely useful, half way through the Course a day was devoted to the discovery of the reality of Togo.

UGANDA

Continental Assembly of Anglophone Africa and Mozambique

From July 18 to 31, 2014, the confreres who work in the field of vocations promotion and basic formation in Anglophone Africa and Mozambique gathered for the Assembly at Layibi in Uganda. The theme chosen for this assembly was: Youth Ministry and vocations accompaniment and discernment in our sub-continent (APDESAM).

Fr. Sylvester Hategek’Imana, provincial superior and continental coordinator for the sector, opened the meeting by warmly welcoming all the participants. As external facilitator, we invited the Salesian Don Lazar Arasu, SDB, who gave a good talk on the situation of the youth in Africa today and the techniques of vocations accompaniment and discernment among the Salesians.

For his part, Fr. John Baptist Keraryo Opargiw, General Secretary for Formation, in his opening speech thanked the participants for their willingness and availability, encouraging them to draw maximum profit from this assembly. Fr. John Baptist reminded the participants that this sub-continent has a special place in the history of the Comboni mission and charism, since it is indeed the cradle of our Comboni Family. The Institute has invested heavily in personnel and in the many formation houses in this region and rightly expects a quality commitment and good fruits at all levels.

There was a total of 26 participants with all the circumscriptions represented. The Acts of the Assembly and the Conclusions will be published in the near future.

Let us pray for our beloved dead:

THE FATHER: Salvador, of Fr. Prisciliano Quiroz Alférez (MO).

THE MOTHERS: Francisca Chesakit, of the Sc. Abraham Sereu Ang'Irotum (KE/PE); Anjulina Akongo, of Fr. Robert Lukwiya Ochola (RSA); María Teresa, of Fr. Damián Bruyel Pérez.

THE BROTHER: Angelo, of Fr. Pietro Premarini (NAP).

THE SISTERS: Albina Clara, of Bro. Linus Mischi (DSP); Stella, of the  Sc. Bernardin Anoumou Mossi (T); Letizia, of Bro. Aldo Benetti (EGSD).

THE COMBONI MISSIONARY SISTER: Sr. M. Gina Bertolin.