Assembly of Formation of French-speaking Africa in Cotonou

All acknowledged that it was an important formative moment, characterised by honest sharing and attentive listening to the experiences of others, which led to true mutual enrichment. The meeting was animated by a strong sense of fraternity and mutual encouragement, vis-à-vis the many challenges involved in the noble and delicate service of formation.

Every vocation promoter and/or formator felt invited to take care of their own formation, in order to give quality to their service, relying above all on God’s grace.

One statistic jumped out at everyone: most of the vocation animators and formators present at this assembly were young people. It is a fact that in recent years – if not decades – Central Africa has seen a fantastic flowering of vocations to the Comboni missionary life. But these young people need to be helped and accompanied during their formation process. We, therefore, have a great opportunity to make a careful selection of candidates: we want them all to be “holy and capable” and able to carry out the mission of the Institute, especially for the poorest and most abandoned.

While we thank the organisers of this Assembly, we would like to say our most heartfelt ‘thank you’ to all the participants, i.e.. the vocation promoters and formators of the Comboni delegations of Central African Republic (CAR), Chad (TCH), Togo-Ghana-Benin Province (TGB), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (CN).

It was with great pleasure that we welcomed among us the presence of father Sindjalim Essognimam Elias, Assistant General, in charge of the formation sector, of father Villaseñor Gálvez José de Jesús, Secretary General for Formation, and of Father Castillo Matarrita Victor-Hugo, Superior of the Delegation of the Central African Republic and acting head of the Formation sector of ASCAF.