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Year of Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and Patron of the Institute
Friday, March 19, 2021
Dear Brothers, On 19 March we celebrate the feast of St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and Patron of our Institute. We know well the important place of St Joseph in the missionary life of St Daniel Comboni, and also the familiarity with which our Founder related to this saint. Often, with Our Lady, he would also mention St Joseph: "gentleman", "mission bursar", "protector of the Church and of the people of Nigrizia".
Pope Francis wanted this year to be dedicated to Saint Joseph, on the 150th anniversary of his declaration as Patron of the Universal Church. This declaration took place precisely at the time of Comboni (8.12.1870) and from this deduct the place that St Joseph had in his life. In view of this celebration, the Pope has published the Apostolic Letter "Patris Corde" which we would like to invite everyone to read, as we prepare for the feast of the 19th of March.
In addition to this letter, the GC has decided to offer you two reflections: one, prepared by Fr Carmelo Casile, "St Joseph in the missionary journey of St Daniele Comboni" and the other, by Fr Guido Oliana, entitled "The theology and spirituality of St Joseph and the vocation of the Comboni missionary brother - paternity, fraternity and ministeriality". We are sending only the Italian version of the latter text. We hope to have it translate soon into other languages.
Other reflection material on St. Joseph can be found in the blog of Fr. Manuel João: https://combonianum.org/
Personal and community reading of these texts will help us to live this year better and to have this saint even more as part of our companions on the mission roads today.
We wish everyone a Happy Feast and a Happy Year of Saint Joseph.
The General Council