Daniel Comboni
Comboni Missionaries
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ETHIOPIA: Comboni Day 2024
Thursday, December 19, 2024
From the afternoon of 17th to the evening of 19th December, at the provincial headquarters in Addis Ababa, the province celebrated ‘Comboni Day’, the annual ongoing formation event. It was attended by 20 confreres from our 8 communities. The invited speakers were abuna Lisane-Christos Matheos Semahun, bishop of Bahir Dar-Dessie, Prof. Mekdem Geremew (PhD), of the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat, and Father Angelo Giorgetti, our general administrator.
Father José da Silva Vieira opened the meeting with a reflection on the missionary Heart of Jesus, focusing on paragraphs 205-216 of Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, Dilexit nos. Each participant received a copy of the encyclical ‘on the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ’ and had two hours of personal prayer, being inspired by the text. The day’s activities ended with the celebration of Holy Mass.
The following morning, Abba Lisane-Christos reported on the situation in Bahir Dar-Dessie, sharing his experience as the first bishop of the new eparchy. The territory is suffering greatly due to the war between the Amhara rebels and government forces over the past twenty months. He expressed the wish that the Ethiopian rite be used in all the parishes of the eparchy and that the catechumenate time be reduced to six months.
The Combonian missionaries have two communities in the eparchy, among the Gumuz people: Gilgel Beles and Gublak.
In the afternoon, Dr. Mekdem presented the Ethiopian Catholic Church’s 10-Year Plan for the period 2023-2032. The document aims to guide and coordinate the efforts of the General Secretariat, dioceses and religious congregations to strive “towards its vision and mission” and achieve sustainability through accountability, adaptation and resilience.
The implementation of the Plan is divided into three periods of three years each. The last year will be devoted to evaluation. The Bishops’ Conference is working with the government to obtain recognition as a “legal entity”. The Eucharist summarised the day’s activities.
The third day was led by Father Giorgetti. He first presented a very interesting reflection on finances from the Chapter Acts 2022. Then he informed the assembly on the financial state of the Institute and the Province. He also witnessed the change of provincial bursar, after auditing the accounts.
In the afternoon, after a session with all the participants, Father Giorgetti met with the bursars of the communities for practical matters.
The Provincial Superior, Father Weldeghiorghis Asfaha Yohannes, presided over the closing Eucharist, followed by dinner and recreation.
Fr. José Vieira, mccj