Daniel Comboni
Comboni Missionaries
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Retreat and Assembly of the Comboni Province of Congo
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
During this month of January, the Comboni Missionaries of the DRC have been living two moments of grace: the retreat moderated by two members of the general council, Fr. Pietro Ciuciulla and Fr. Jeremias dos Santos Martins. The two council members arrived in Kinshasa on December 29, 2016 and, on December 30, they accepted the perpetual vows of the scholastics Henri Likingi and Boniface Gbama. Following that, they left for Kisangani.
Shrine of Blessed
Anuarite Nengapeta.
On January 2, Fr. Pietro and Fr. Jeremias joined Fr. Joseph Mumbere, the provincial superior, for a visit to the 36 Comboni postulants of Kisangani and their educators, while Fr. Joseph also attended the meeting of the board of directors of the Edith Stein School of Philosophy where our postulants attend classes. It is a consortium of three institutes: The Priests of the Sacred Heart, the Montfort Fathers and the Comboni Missionaries.
The visitors reached Isiro on January 4 and, the next day, they visited the community of Mungbere, where we have several pastoral commitments, in particular the pastoral care of the pygmies and the pastoral health care of the Anuarite hospital, which has become a point of reference in the area for the quality of its service. They returned to Isiro on January 8.
The provincial retreat took place on January 9-14 with 23 confreres in attendance, coming from the three areas where we work: Kinshasa, Kisangani and Isiro. Following the retreat, most of the participants went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Blessed Anuarite Nengapeta, to ask for her intercession in view of the provincial assembly for the formulation of the six-year plan, due to take place on January 16-22, 2017. Fr. Pietro Ciuciulla was the presider at the second Sunday Mass for the pilgrims from the city parishes. In his homily he invited his confreres to follow the example of Blessed Anuarite who was able to place Christ first in her life all the way to her death.
Yesterday, January 16, the assembly began with some difficulties: about 15 confreres are stuck in Kisangani, because the airline has cancelled the flight to Isiro. They will have to try to reach Isiro over roads that practically impassable, hoping that the dry season will help. The assembly will end on January 22 with a joint celebration with the Christians of St. Anne parish, run by the Comboni Missionaries, to start the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of our Institute.
