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Familia Comboniana 811 - October 2022
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE COMBONI MISSIONARIES OF THE HEART OF JESUS
GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
Perpetual professions
Sc. Valverde Arce Byron - S. Luís Petén/PCA - 30.09.2022
Ordinations
Fr. Manuel Novais Quembo - Chemba/MO - 01.10.2022
Fr. Moisés Zacarias Daniel - Chemba/MO - 01.10.2022
Holy Redeemer Guild
October 01 – 07 RCA 08 – 15 TCH 16 – 31 RSA
November 01 – 15 SS 16 – 30 T
Prayer Intentions
October – Let us pray for the XXI General Chapter of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, that after 150 years, transformed by the Charism, they may live as Missionary Disciples sent to the existential peripheries. Lord hear us.
November – For the young people, the present and future of our societies, that they may discover their vocations and place them at the service of the weakest. Lord hear us.
Comboni Liturgical Calendar
OCTOBER
1 St Teresa of the Child Jesus Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Patron of the missions Feast
10 St Daniel Comboni, Bishop
Founder of the Comboni Family Solemnity
20 Blessed Davide Okelo and Gildo Irwa
Martyrs Opt. memorial
Meaningful anniversaries
OCTOBER
1 St Teresa of the Child Jesus
10 St Daniel Comboni, Bishop
Founder of the Comboni Family Solemnity Italy, Khartoum, South Sudan,
Curia, Egypt
12 Nossa Senhora Aparecida Brazil
16 Santa Margherita Maria Alacoque, virgin
19 Santi Giovanni di Brébeuf
and Isaac Jogues, priests and companions, martyrs NAP (United States and Canada)
20 Blessed David Okelo e Gildo Irwa
martyrs, opt. memorial. Northern Uganda
Comboni Liturgical Calendar
NOVEMBER
Commemoration of deceased confreres, relatives and benefactors
Date yet to be fixed
Meaningful anniversaries
NOVEMBER
21 Madonna del Quinche Ecuador
Publications
Vittorio Mottin, edited by, Dom Aldo Gerna. Un cammino profetico, Etabeta, June 2022. The book – a biograpy and testimonies – is in thanksgiving for the 90 years of Mons. Gerna, a Valtellinese by birth, a Brazilian by choice. “I have presumed too much – the author of the prologue writes – and I apologise, by trying to enter into the life of a bishop in this short book. However, I could not fail to keep the memory of a person visited by the Grace of God”.
Giuseppe Crea, mccj, and Aureliano Pacciolla, edited by, Logoterapia e psicodiagnosi, ed. Alpes, 2022. The aim of this book is to contribute to psychodiagnostices starting from a humanistic-existential approach centred upon a sense of life and logotherapy, by Viktor Frankl.
BRAZIL
Seventy years of Comboni presence
During the last weekend of September, celebrations were held for the 70th anniversary of the presence of the Comboni Missionaries in Brazil.
An emblematic context of the urban peripheries was chosen – the District of Sapopemba, in São Paulo – one of the areas in which our mission was most challenged and was most able to respond prophetically.
Numerically significant delegations came from the states of Minas Gerais and Paraná and good representation from Maranhão.The families of Sapopemba welcomed the more than one hundred visitors opening the celebrations with a moment of celebration and dances, on the evening of Saturday 24 September.
On Sunday morning, with about 300 people participating, a debate was held on theme of “The Mission of the Church in the Peripheries”, in the presence of deputy and human rights activist Juliana Cardoso and Professor Fernando Altemeyer.
In the afternoon, there was a Eucharistic celebration enriched with symbols, memories and surprises, thanks to the contribution of all the communities present. A thousand copies were distributed of an illustrated booklet on Comboni History, the 2023 Comboni Calendars and small ampules containing pieces of the holy ground where Fr. Ezechiel Ramin became a martyr.
The event received broad coverage by the social networks and TV Aparecida.
The Provincial council believes it is important to hold similar events of this sort among Comboni parishes, to exchange experiences and increasingly cultivate the spirituality and charism that unite us.
CONGO
A week of formation for young confreres
From 4 to 10 September, at Kimwenza, Kinshasa-DRC, a week of ongoing formation was held for young confreres ordained or perpetually professed during the past five years. It was the first such event after the pandemic. Fourteen young Congolese took part in the meeting which was led by Fr Víctor-Hugo Castillo Matarrita, Superior of the student confreres in Rome.
In an atmosphere of mutual listening and research, the first two days were devoted to becoming aware of the personal situation in which each one assumes the new service entrusted to him. The move from the period of formation to the reality of the mission is not always understood. Becoming aware of it may be an opportunity to assume better responsibility for one’s ongoing formation.
During the third day, Fr. Léonard Ndjadi and Bro. Kakule Lwanga, who participated in the XIX General Chapter (June 2022), shared their experiences and presented the Chapter Acts, insisting above all on the methodology used that enabled the formulation of priorities, dreams, guidelines and commitments. There was no shortage of questions
The fourth and fifth days were reserved for deepening our spirituality, identity and community life, three dimensions that intertwine and give consistency to our consecration for the mission.
On Sunday the 11th, we celebrated the Eucharist in the parish of Divine Mercy. The parishioners greatly appreciated our presence. It was also a privileged moment to do some missionary animation and vocations promotion. Th experience was rich in fraternity, sharing, reflection and prayer in which all of us felt involved. The mission goes on.
Neither heroes nor saviours, only poor missionaries and servants of a mission greater than ourselves
This is what Fr. Léonard Ndjadi Ndjate, Provincial Superior, writes, recounting his journey to Buta for the opening of the new mission, "out of fidelity to the preferential option for the least in society".
Congo seems to be a large Christian country but in reality, there are extensive areas where the work of evangelization has stopped with the departure of the missionaries and the situation has worsened due to the scarcity of diocesan priests. The diocese of Buta has only ten priests. The Comboni presence in this remote area of the country with no outlet to the sea and abandoned by all, is a sign of hope for these people who have been left for more than twenty years with no sacraments or liturgy, no preaching of the Word and with no missionaries.
So it was that Fr Léonard, Fr Franco Laudani and Fr Roberto Ardini left Kisangani to go to the parish of Blessed Anuarite. Since flights by the SJL airline had been suspended, they decided to travel by car, fully aware of the consequences of this decision: the journey was long, tiring and difficult during which the car became stuck more than once. However, after three days of travelling, they reached the parish where “The faithful immediately gathered to greet us, to thank us and tell us how much they expected us”.
On Sunday, 9 October, our confreres will be presented to the faithful and the diocesan authorities will install the first Comboni Parish Priest of Buta. (Fr. Léonard Ndjadi Ndjate)
CURIA
Meeting of the Comboni bishops in Rome
One apostolic administrator and twelve Comboni bishops met in Rome from 12 to 18 September under the guidance of Mgr. Claudio Lurati and Father Cosimo De Iaco. The purpose of the meeting was to promote communion and mutual support in the challenges that the mission and government of their dioceses present.
Fr. Tesfaye Tadesse, Superior General, and Fr. Luigia Coccia, Superior General of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, made a brief intervention on Friday 16, in which they presented the current situation of the two Institutes. Card. Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, a Comboni Missionary and Prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, was able to participate only on the morning of Saturday 17.
When the meeting was over, the Comboni prelates wished to address a message to the entire Comboni Family in which they underlined two important events: first of all, “the killing of Sister Maria De Coppi in Mozambique which confirms that the mission is the total giving of one’s life, making common cause with the people. Her martyrdom calls us to be faithful to our charism. The second event if the upcoming beatification of Fr Giuseppe Ambrosoli, a Comboni priest and doctor who worked for thirty years at Kalongo hospital in Uganda. The characteristic that has mostly been evidenced is the natural and spontaneous union between his faith in Jesus, to whom he turned daily in prayer, and meeting that same |Jesus in the sick people he treated”.
Analysing the changing times in which we live and the situation of the Church, it has been written that “We know that the Kingdom of God and its presence do not depend upon the vitality of individual communities in any given place. The flouring Churches of North Africa, Nubia, Syria and Turkey have disappeared. Some have withered and others have flourished. The Church is a sign of the Kingdom, not its historical realisation. This is why we work in hope, proclaiming the Kingdom of God in that portion of the vineyard the master has assigned to us, without worrying if our work will survive or pass into history. What counts is the work of God”.
DSP
Comboni parishes in Europe
The Comboni missionaries who work permanently in the Comboni parishes and rectories of the European circumscriptions – Italy, DSP and LP – met in Bressanone, from 30 August to 1 September 2022. The meeting was attended by 15 Comboni Missionaries (8 from the DSP, 5 from Italy and 2 from the LP) who deemed the initiative very useful and interesting, a precious time for sharing and reflection, in an atmosphere of fraternity and research
In particular, two interventions were highly appreciated and helped the missionaries to deepen the theme. The first, by Br. Enzo Biemmi, on the theme The parish: what sort of missionary conversion? and then the report and testimony of the layman Reinhard Demetz, pastoral vicar of the diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone
The idea of organizing a seminar at European level on the theme "Comboni parishes: paths for a missionary parish" was born in the context of the European Council of the Mission at the end of November 2021, in Santarém (Portugal). A similar meeting is already planned for the provinces of Spain and Portugal.
On September 30 in Latina, at La Sapienza University, a conference was held on the figure of Bro Alfredo Fiorini. Among those present were the Bishop, Msgr. Mariano Crociata, Prof. Carlo Dalla Rocca, dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, and Com. Guido Franceschetti, Governor of Rotary district 2080. Dr. Carossi presented Bro. Alfredo as a doctor, Fr Venanzio Milani, Comboni Missionary, as a missionary brother and Dr D'Onofrio presented him as a poet.
There were also interventions by the lawyer Pasquale Lattari, of the Assn. Alfredo Fiorini, Prof. Bersani of La Sapienza University and the parish priest of San Domenico di Terracina, Don Cavone. The initiative was successful and was attended by a remarkable number of people
MOÇAMBIQUE
Sister Maria De Coppi, CMS, mother, sister and martyr
(dies natalis: 6 September 2022)
I would feel guilty if I did not write something about Sister Maria De Coppi. Her last words in the message to her niece Gabriella, also a Comboni Sister, reveal the woman she was: serene and confident, proud of her missionary vocation, full of hope and with a heart open to the life of the people of Mozambique and willing to unconditional service, "to the end".
"Here the situation is very tense... There is danger and the situation is sad, very sad. All the people sleep in the forest... Pray for us: may the Lord protect us and this people. Good night." These are probably the moving words of a woman convinced that her life is united in a spousal way to God and to the lives of the people.
I arrived in Mozambique when Sr. Maria was the provincial of the Comboni Sisters. She lived in Nampula while the provincial of the Comboni Missionaries, Fr. Francesco Antonini, lived in the catechetical centre where I spent my first months in Mozambique, learning the Macua language and culture. We were together with other missionaries who had recently arrived in Mozambique. Sr. Maria came to visit us and to speak with the Comboni Sisters who participated in the course.
That was the time when, on January 3, 1985, Sister Teresa Dalle Pezze was killed on the road to Nacala. Maria De Coppi, together with the provincial of the Comboni Missionaries, left in the military convoy for the funeral: they could not miss the funeral, even if times were very difficult.
Who would have said that 37 years later Maria would also be killed in Mozambique, giving her life for the people she loved so much?
In Mozambique, she lived through much of the country's history of war and peace, hope and suffering. From the beginning, I was struck by the fact that she never stopped visiting the communities, alone or accompanied, in military convoys, to reach so many insecure places, where the Comboni Sisters were. With great confidence and courage, she would set out on her journeys, no matter what the danger.
I also remember Sr. Maria's ability to listen. She was always willing to listen both to the missionaries and the people. With patience and humility, she would sit down to listen to life stories: stories of war, death, hunger, the lack of all essentials, hopes for better days... these were everyone's concerns, and she listened trying to keep hope alive and, when she could, to give help in the most urgent situations.
Her ability to listen was transformed into collaboration. Maria tried to collaborate with everyone: the provincial of the Comboni Missionaries, the pastoral agents, all the missionaries. She always encouraged us to live as a "missionary team", that is, as a community of missionaries who shared their dreams and projects, prayer, pastoral work, money, food and moments of leisure. She did this as a Provincial but also after finishing this service.
It was nice to see the missionaries gathered in the evenings on the verandas of the missions, telling of their lives during the day: the weariness of war, the difficulties of the people, the joys of evangelization and the growth of life in the midst of death. Maria was a champion of these encounters and her presence always instilled much serenity and hope.
The words of Óscar Romero can open us to Christian hope at this time:
"Martyrdom is a grace of God that I do not think I deserve, but if God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my blood be a seed of freedom and the sign that hope will soon be a reality."
The life of Sister Maria, given in this simple and at the same time heroic way, will be the seed of many lives consecrated to the mission in the land of Mozambique. From heaven, she will continue to pray for Mozambique and its people, imploring peace and good for all.
May her life and her death keep alive in us the passion for the frontier places of mission, especially at this time when the Comboni Missionary Sisters are commencing their General Chapter. (Fr. Jeremias dos Santos Martins)
PERU
V Assembly of the Comboni Lay Missionaries of America
The coordinators of the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) of America and the Comboni Missionaries who accompany them in the various circumscriptions met from 5 to 11 September 2022 in the Comboni parish of Chorrillos, in Lima. The theme chosen to guide the work was "United for a Synodal Church at the Service of Mission". The previous assembly was held in 2016 in Mexico.
The participants represented the following American countries: Brazil (1), Mexico (3), Colombia (3), Guatemala (4), Costa Rica (1), Ecuador (2), United States (2), Peru (10, of which some did not participate full-time). The Central Committee was attended by Alberto de la Portilla (Spain), coordinator of the CLM, and Bro. Arlindo Ferreira Pinto (Rome), contact person for the Comboni Institute.
The Assembly was a significant moment of exchange of experiences, reflection – on the vocation and identity of the laity – and sharing the riches of the various Latin American cultures. Ottorino Poletto, Provincial Superior of Ecuador, opened the assembly with the celebration of the Eucharist.
On Sunday, 11 the CLM visited the Christian communities of Pamplona Alta, on one of the hills of the suburbs of the city, where the CLM of Lima and some Comboni priests and scholastics are pastorally engaged. It was a good opportunity to reflect on the needs of the mission and understand how timely and urgent Pope Francis' missionary appeal for an "outgoing Church" still is.
PORTUGAL
Provincial Assembly
From 20 to 23 September the Comboni Missionaries serving in the province of Portugal gathered at the house of Viseu for their annual Provincial Assembly. The meeting had the following objectives: to know the Chapter Acts and the priorities established by the Chapter (helped in reflection by Fr. Tomasz Marek, delegate of Poland, via zoom); review the activities of the pastoral year; plan the activities of the next pastoral year; prepare the elaboration of the Six-Year-Plan (with an extraordinary Assembly planned for February 2023).
On the second day, in the context of the 75 years of Comboni presence in Portugal, Msgr. António Luciano dos Santos Costa, Bishop of Viseu, presided over the Eucharistic celebration. He thanked us for our work in the diocese during these decades (it was here that the first Comboni Missionaries were established in 1947) and invited us to continue to be faithful to our missionary charism, which animates the People of God to open themselves to the universal mission.
During the assembly we also celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the priestly ordination of Fr. Dário Balula Chaves, thanking God, all together, for the gift of his missionary vocation.
The meeting ended with the planning of activities for the pastoral year 2022-2023 and the choice of the motto that will animate us: "Mission calls: rejoice in God and make haste with Mary".
SUDAN
Degree project in North of Sudan
Virtual reconstruction of Sonqi Tino
The Church of Sonqi Tino was built in the tenth century in Northern Sudan. For centuries, probably from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, it remained hidden by the sands of the desert.
In 1967, as part of an archaeological campaign promoted by UNESCO for the exploration and rescue of the archaeological heritage in the desert region of Batn el-Hajar, the Sapienza University Antiquities Service began work on a Christian site close to Sonqi West during the exploration conducted in 1963-1964 by UNESCO – Sudan Antiquities Service.
Fr. Giovanni Vantini, a Comboni Missionary, was a member of that expedition appointed by the Holy See, as the Vatican was among the financiers of the project. The archaeological expedition saved the frescoes on the walls of the church which were then distributed between the Museum of the Near East of the Sapienza University of Rome, the Vatican Museums and the National Museum of Khartoum.
Three final year students in the Degree Course in Computer Science of the Comboni College of Science and Technology (CCST), Ezekiel Yom Mayiel, Rita William and Rasho obtained the architectural drawings of the church, made by Giuseppe Fanfoni in 1967, a map with the original location of the frescoes, prepared by the archaeologist Loredana Sist, and the images of the frescoes.
With this material in hand, in 1971 they recreated the church that would have been covered and destroyed by the waters of Lake Nubia.
The church consisted of a square building made of clay brick (9.30x8.30 m), later expanded with the addition of structures. Its plan included nine rooms arranged according to a well-known cruciform scheme that had its fulcrum in a central room, open on all four sides and covered by a dome.
In 2021, the Institute of Cultural Heritage-National Research Council of Italy trained some students and university staff on the application of Computer Sciences to cultural heritage. Now, thanks to the graduation project of these students, the church can be visited through this virtual reconstruction, by clicking on the following link: https://sketchfab.com/models/307f10a54e4941478f41d08e4867d33e/embed
LET US PRAY FOR OUR BELOVED DEAD
THE FATHERS: Augustino, of Fr. Otii Alir Moses (DSP), Giulio, of Fr. Massimo Robol (MO).
THE MOTHER: Lucía Inés, of Fr. Juan Diego Calderón Vargas (PCA).
THE BROTHERS: Fernando, of Fr. Piero Lampetti (I) and Fr. Aldo Lampetti (†); Giancarlo, of Fr. Ferruccio Gobbi (I).
THE SISTER: Rosa, of Bro. Óscar José Araújo G. da Cunha (P).
THE COMBONI MISSIONARY SISTERS: Sr. Vitangela Castellano, Sr. Maria De Coppi, Sr. M. Veronica Fassi, Sr. Annunciata Ferronato, Sr. Gemma Luisa Toffanin, Sr. Emiliana Niboli, Sr. Anna Elsa Viola, Sr. Flora Fumagalli.