XIX General Chapter of the Comboni Missionaries: Mission warms up its engines

We arrived in Rome from the different corners of the world. From the peripheries of big cities that welcome those fleeing conflict and poverty to the most isolated countryside where ethnic minorities are relegated to the peripheries. Four continents are at stake: from African lands plundered but laden with life and thirst for redemption, such as South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic to the breath-choked American lands of the Amazon rainforests. From the far East, where millennia-old religious traditions relegate Christianity to a yeast in the masses, to the gates of the old European continent, where Christianity no longer has any roots, if anything a few clods of land.

About 70 Comboni missionaries are delegated to participate in the "Chapter," the most important for the life of a religious family that has, recently, crossed the threshold of 150 years of life. We work in Christian communities, dioceses, training centers, schools and ecclesial and civil society concerned with development and the promotion of peace and justice. we have prepared ourselves for some time in our respective mission areas, through long meetings and reflections, to identify together the signs of hope but also the weaknesses and shortcomings that require an urgent change of course. Among the hot topics of discussion are issues of ministeriality, i.e., Services specific to mission, the formation of new candidates, economic resources and the renewal of the Rule of Life. On these and other issues, for a month, delegates have the opportunity to empty the sack and rely on the wind of the Spirit, which, if allowed to blow, renews and amazes. Precisely on Sunday, June 5, on the day of Pentecost, which celebrates the descent of the Spirit and the beginning of the mission of the first disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, the "Chapter" officially began with the celebration of the Eucharist presided over by the Father General, Tesfaye Tadesse. During the Mass, we (the chapter participants) took an oath to work for the highest good of the people they are called to serve and not for self-interest. Also accompanying us on our journey are four Comboni observers who already perform invaluable service in the fields of mission, formation, financial administration and the General secretariat, an external facilitator and two secretaries.

Thus, after a few days of getting to know each other, praying and exchanging expectations and dreams, everyone in the Assembly hall is filled with enthusiasm and willingness to get involved in an adventure, a journey entitled "Rooted in Christ together with Comboni." This reference evokes the two pillars of the Comboni mission: Jesus of Nazareth, who in John's Gospel in chapter 15, at the decisive moment of his life, invites his friends to always be in deep relationship with him, and St. Daniel Comboni, the bold prophet who, in the mid 1800s, embarked on a mission deep in the African lands.

As first activity the Chapter delegates approved the rules of the assembly, collected in an ad hoc statute, and chose the various commissions to serve the common journey: the central committee which coordinates the work with the help of moderators, the special committee which oversees the regularity of activities, and other committees that coordinate common prayer moments, cultural and recreation, and communication. Everything is ready to launch into the first phase of listening. This is a privileged moment to open our eyes and hearts to the different realities in the four continents through the reports on the missions carried out. The quality time dedicated to the listening phase will enable the participants to make a common discernment in order to arrive at a choice of priorities and missionary strategies to be undertaken. We are doing all this through an "appreciative" methodology that seeks to identify the seeds of life in order to address challenges and illnesses as opportunities for healing, growth and decisive changes.

In the chapter hall, one feels the breath of so many cultures and peoples, languages and traditions that intersect each other. In the backpacks of the delegates there is much passion and expectations of new ways to respond to the "changing epoch," as Pope Francis calls this time, with the power of the Gospel and zeal of St. Daniel Comboni. Together, for a whole month, the chapter delegates will look at the planetary challenges that Comboni missionaries live first hand as they walk daily with the different peoples whose life they share: the socio-environmental crisis, the violence of global conflicts, growing inequalities, the aftermath of the pandemic. The chapter journey is inspired by a dream of finding together, through interactive discussion sessions, the necessary paths that translate Jesus' mission in the world today into concrete lifestyles: integral ecological conversion, the practice of universal brotherhood and the synodal journey of the whole Church; to advance toward the Kingdom of God, the world of peace and justice, with the greatest involvement and the widest participation as possible of all members of the Church, the people of God "going out" on the roads of the world. It is precisely the profound insights of Pope Francis, whom the chapter delegates will meet at the Vatican next June 18 to continue walking and dreaming together because, as reminded in our chapeter assembly, "as long as there is movement there is life" say the Aztec peoples. Firmly rooted in Jesus and in Comboni we venture with hope.

Comboni Chapter Press Officers