Familia Comboniana 795 - April 2021

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

GENERAL NOTES – MARCH 2021

1. Comboni Bishops

1.1. On 8 March, the Holy Father appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Rumbek (South Sudan), Rev. Fr. Christian Carlassare, M.C.C.J., hitherto Vicar General of the Diocese of Malakal.

1.2. On 10 March, the Holy Father accepted the resignation from the pastoral government of the Diocese of Mbaïki (Central African Republic), presented by the Rt. Rev. Mons. Guerrino Perin, M.C.C.J., and appointed as Bishop of the same Diocese the Rt. Rev. Mons. Jesús Ruiz Molina, M.C.C.J., hitherto Titular Bishop of Are in Mauritania and Auxiliary of the Diocese of Bangassou.

1.3. On 31 March, the Holy Father appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Nebbi (Uganda) Rev. Fr. Raphael P’Mony Wokorach, M.C.C.J., hitherto Pontifical Commissioner of the Congregation of the Apostles of Jesus.

The Comboni Missionaries are honoured and assure the new bishops of their constant collaboration.

2. Postponement of the General Chapter

Having consulted the members of the General Curia, on Monday 8 March, the GC held a meeting via the internet with all the elected members of the Chapter the majority of whom expressed the view that it will be convenient to postpone the date of the celebration of the XIX General Chapter due to the world-wide emergency caused by Covid-19. The GC made this view its own and, on 25 March, sent a Letter to all the members of the Comboni Institute communicating the official decision to postpone the Chapter. The new date will not be communicated until June of this year.

3. Revisiting and Revising the Rule of Life

The RL Commission met via the internet on 23-25 and 27 March to discuss the new proposals sent in by the circumscriptions and individual confreres. The proposals were discussed and inserted into the text of the RL, taking into account the journey already completed. Once the new text is checked and the Italian corrected, the Commission will hand over its work to the GC for discussion in the next General Chapter. The Commission has made itself available, especially the coordinator and the secretary, for any clarifications requested by the confreres, the GC or the pre-Chapter Commission. On its part, the GC thanks the Commission for the work it has done and hopes that the process of revisiting and revising the RL may bear fruit for the renewal of the confreres and the Institute in general.

4. General Assembly of Bursars

The continental video-conference meetings planned for early March (1/3 Africa, 3/3 Europe, 4/3 America-Asia) were duly held. The final evaluation meeting with the Council for Finance, scheduled for 12/3, was instead postponed and will be organised as soon as we have news concerning the General Chapter which will allow us to establish a calendar for that event.

5. Comboni Social Forum

The Comboni Family Commission which has been charged with the preparation of the Forum on social ministry, held two webinar meetings, one on 4 and 5 December 2020, and the other on 5 and 6 March 2021. It was decided that the meeting scheduled to be held in Rome from 3-7 July 2021, will not be held due to the pandemic but a third two-day webinar will be held in June.

6. General Secretary

The GC offers its heartfelt thanks to Fr. Umberto Pescantini for his many years of service first as General Secretary of Missionary Animation and afterwards as General Secretary of the Institute from 2005 until today. The GC greatly appreciates the service he rendered throughout all those years both for the competence and the dedication shown by Fr. Umberto in this work that is so important for the life of the Institute. We have all seen how swiftly and efficiently he replied to emails and carried out the work demanded of him as well as his great availability to be of assistance whenever asked, leaving aside his work to attend to the needs of the confreres. As well as this service, Fr. Umberto has always been very involved in pastoral work and participated actively in the services of the community. We leave it to the Lord of the Harvest, who is always more generous than ourselves, to reward his faithful servant. The GC and the Curia community wish him great serenity and trust in the Lord in the new services which the Institute will entrust to him in the future.

7. Archivio Comboniano

After an interruption lasting eight years, the magazine Archivio Comboniano resumes publication. The latest issue, already sent to print, continues the historical-critical publication of the letters of the Founder Saint Daniel Comboni with the letters of April-May 1881. Besides the text of the letters, in the section Studi e Ricerche, a series of studies is published on the questions that marked the life and missionary action of Daniel Comboni during the last months of his life, such as the revision, by Propaganda Fide, of the borders of the Vicariate of Central Africa with the creation of new Vicariates, and the matter of Virginia Mansur, with a feminine profile of the missionary Sister. This number of Archivio Comboniano is the work of many hands and we are grateful to Fr. Fidel González, Fr. Jorge Carlos Naranjo, Fr. Danilo Castello, Fr. Benedetto Giupponi, Fr. Manuel Augusto Lopes Ferreira and Sr. Maria Vidale for their contributions which will certainly be of help in approaching the Founder in the final months of his life. Copies of Archivio Comboniano will be sent to the Circumscription superiors requesting them to send them to each of their communities.

8. Consulta

The GC will meet in Consulta from 12 to 16 April to prepare its report to the Chapter.

9. Comboni Year of Ongoing Formation

Due to the pandemic, the Comboni Year of Ongoing formation is postponed. Those in charge will send out the details regarding the period in which it will next be held.

Perpetual professions

Sc. Muhime Emmanuel (MZ)        Chikowa (MW)        06/03/2021

Sc. Lizcano González Jalver (CO)  Bogotà (COL)  15/03/2021

Priestly ordinations

Fr. Mbusa Augustin Makasyatsurwa (CN)             Butembo (RDC) 25/03/2021

Fr. Paluku Faustin (CN)                Butembo (RDC)        25/03/2021

Fr. Sitwuaminya Fiston Mughanyiri Etienne (CN) Butembo                                        25/03/2021

Holy Redeemer Guild

April       01 – 15 CN                    16 – 30 EC

Maggio   01 – 15 ET 16 – 31 I

Prayer intentions

April – That the Secular Comboni Missionaries may always live in the pastoral dynamic of death and resurrection, in the certainty that the Spirit will continue to guide them on their journey. Lord hear us.

May – That, like Our Lady., “Health of the Sick”, the nations may join forces to respond to the worldwide humanitarian crisis, helping to restore health care, security and education to those impoverished by conflicts and disasters. Lord hear us.

Publications

Enzo Santangelo, Dr. Giuseppe Ambrosoli, o bisturi de Deus, Alô Mundo, São Paulo/SP, July 2020. As Fr. Dario Bossi explains in his presentation, in this book, Fr. Enzo leads us to encounter a shining figure who lived the Church and the mission exactly as Pope Francis understands them, as a field hospital. Following the life of this missionary makes us understand, especially now as we go through this time of a pandemic, that “care is given especially through love, unconditional acceptance and counting upon the ability every person has to regenerate themselves”.

Enzo Santangelo, Eu estava morto e agora vivo, Alô Mundo, São Paulo/SP, 2021. This book derives from the need to help the families of drug addicts: by means of the Pastoral of Sobriety, many of them were taken in and helped to free themselves from the slavery of alcoholism or drugs. “We offer our compliments to the authors – Mons. Odelir José Magri, Bishop of Chapecó, says in his Presentation – and we invite the community to support this Pastoral so that many young people, enslaved and ‘killed’ by drugs, may once again live in the joy of liberation.

ITALIA

Fr. Alessandro Zanoli celebrates a century of life

On 14 March, Fr. Alessandro Zanoli celebrated a hundred years of life. He was born on 14 March 1921, in San Giovanni in Persiceto, in the province of Bologna. He spent his 74 years of priesthood in Troia, London and Africa where he spent forty years. He is presently a member of the Castel d’Azzano community.

The Superior General, Fr. Tesfaye Tadesse, has written to him on behalf of the General Council, wishing him a “Happy Hundredth Birthday” and thanking God in these words: “For your hundred years of life, eighty of which you lived as a Comboni Missionary, ever since you pronounced your first vows on 7 October 1941. We thank your parents and your family in San Giovanni in Persiceto for having given you to us. Saint Daniel Comboni thanks you for having followed Christ according to his manner in the missions and in our communities in Italy, South Sudan, England, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and in Kenya.

Thank you for having made your life a great gift to our young seminarians, novices and scholastics whom you served as their Formator. Thank you for the many years of teaching in our academic institutions and colleges in Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya. Thank you for your years of service in the mission in administration and formation. We thank you for all you have done but especially for the person you are”.

In an interview published on YouTube, Fr. Alessandro said that “all his years were beautiful but especially those lived in the mission”. When asked for his happiest memory he replied: “When they sent me to the mission in Sudan”.

Acse: activities and bursaries

Activities. Due to the red zone, the service of activities has been subject to limitations, but substantially everything is going ahead, especially on-line. However, the service of food distribution and the dental clinic are operating normally. As many as 30 A2 and B1 students will sit for their exams in Italian to qualify for entrance to the University of Perugia.

Bursaries. With the help of some collaborators, this year we are able to open a small bursary worth €900 to 52 migrant university students. 41 of these are from Africa (16 from Cameroon) and 11 from Asia: 27 are men and 25 are women. They attend the universities of Tor Vergata, La Sapienza, Roma Tre, the Gregorian, the Salesianum, etc. The faculties they attend are varied: Medicine and Surgery, Engineering, Agriculture, Communication Science, Economy and Business Management, Cooperation etc. In all, 27 faculties.

Civil Service. On 8 and 15 March, Fr. Venanzio Milani and the secretary Claudio Panzironi took part in the selection of Civil Service operators. Two will be assigned to Acse and they will start work in May.

The meetings with schools have come to a halt. Fr. Milani, along with Prof. Fantera, the Lawyer Giannetti and the migrants lawyer Alen Ehsani, had two meetings with the students of the Morgagni Liceo and one with those of Keplero. As soon as possible, they will visit other schools as planned. The theme covered in a period of two hours is that of emigration and immigration as well as an introduction to Acse.

Assembly. The Assembly for the approval of budgets and especially to bring our Statute up to date with the norms of the Third Sector has been scheduled for 9 May.

VIA ZOOM

Second webinar on social ministry

After the webinar carried out on 4 and 5 December 2020 (see Familia Comboniana n° 792, January 2021), on 5 and 6 March the second webinar was held with more than 260 participants.

Both webinars were planned and carried out by a commission appointed by the whole Comboni Family entrusted with the duty of preparing a Forum on social ministry at the level of Institutes that follow the charism of Saint Daniel Comboni. As we know the event was postponed twice due to the pandemic and for this reason the commission organised these webinars open to all – Comboni Missionaries, Comboni Missionary Sisters, Seculars and Lay Comboni Missionaries – with the aim of “gathering the fruits of the work and the journey made, studying the content and beginning to create operative outlines for a mission that is ever more attentive to the expectations of the poor and open to a change of missionary paradigm whose aim is effective social transformation”.

The second webinar started from the path of reflection by the Comboni Family on its ministerial commitment in social life, from which there emerged the need to create a map of experiences in the field. “An effort of such importance – we read in the final document – is unheard of, especially in as much as it is a process of shared and participated reflection involving the entire Comboni Family. The initiative has already documented more than 200 experiences and this exceptional figure offers us the possibility of a different way of looking at what we are doing: for the very first time, we may now take a comprehensive look at the social ministries of the Comboni Family based upon systematic data; what emerges from this is the possibility of unprecedented comparison and dialogue ad also an opportunity to journey together in a synodal way”.

In this “mapping” of social ministries, some instruments for data collection were provided.

Naturally – as already emphasised – the mapping work goes on: it is a living instrument, continually being updated, on the basis of which we may “create spaces of encounter between these experiences, for shared action-reflection. With this encounter, it is possible to create pathways that lead to the elaboration of pastorals that are specific or derived from the environment”.

LET US PRAY FOR OUR BELOVED DEAD

THE FATHERS: Léonard, of Fr. Kévin Simtokena (T); Joseph, of Fr. Michel Esseh (TCH).

THE MOTHERS: Lesvia, of Fr. Jorge Decelis Burguete (PE); Joaquina, of the Sc. Jamito Paulino (MO); Aimée of Fr. Lazare Sowah (T).

THE BROTHERS: Inocêncio, of the Sc. José Jeremias Salvador (MO); Joaquim, of Fr. Antonio Marques Martins (P); Albino, Fr. Fabio (I) and Fr. Bruno Gilli (T); Renzo, of Fr. Carlo Faggion (BR).

THE SISTERS: Maria José, of Fr. Feliz da Costa Martins (EGSD); Teresa, of Fr. Lorenzo Tomasoni (I).

THE COMBONI MISSIONARY SISTERS: Sr. Veronica M. Landonio, Sr. Rosetta Fumagalli, Sr. Franca M. Surcis; Sr. Angela Tortorella, Sr. Valentina Congia, Sr. M. Chiarina Calcagno, Sr. M. Giovanna Galbiati, Sr. M. Aloisia Cerlini, Sr. Mariangela Losa, Sr. Nunzialba Carsana, Sr. Adelina Franzini, Sr. Santina Costalunga, Sr. Clemenza Barri, Sr. M. Letizia Zona, Sr. M. Giulia Dominioni.