Writings

[3465]
Just two lines because my left arm has been in a sling for the last 25 days. On my way back from Kordofan, when I was four days away from Khartoum, my camel took fright while it was running faster than a horse and threw me to the ground, and I lay there half dead and with a broken arm, luckily it is my left arm. I cannot tell you how painful it was. After staying two days in my tent, in extreme pain I rode another 5 days on the camel with my arm in a sling, every step giving me a stab of pain. When I reached the White Nile at Omdurman, the Pasha Governor General of the Sudan sent me his steamer, which took me to the mission. God’s grace is never absent when human resources are lacking. In the whole of the Sudan there is not a doctor who knows the first rudiments of medicine or surgery. There are plenty of cat-skinners and butchers. The Pasha’s cat-skinner took it upon himself to see to my arm; and, thank God, I now see some improvement; and I have good hopes that by Epiphany I will be able to celebrate Mass.
[3466]
But I will not be able to draft the report I promised you in my letter of 4th November, on the foundation of a mission in Nuba territory and the one on the whole Vicariate, until I am completely cured.
In the meantime, the great Chief of the Nuba continues to send messengers to El Obeid to see when we are going to establish a mission there. Recently the chief Nemur came to urge us to go there, and among the Nuba they say: “We want to be Christian. Some Muslims from El Obeid have told us that Christians are Khanazir and Kelab (pigs and dogs), but we have seen with our own eyes (this is the chief speaking) that Christians are the best people in the world”. So we pray to the Sacred Heart to preserve these sentiments in the Nuba until God sees fit for us to set up a mission there.

[3467]
On the 11th Fr Stanislao Carcereri left for Cairo and Rome: I have had news that he is already in the desert. The same day the second caravan arrived in Khartoum with one missionary, one lay brother, 4 Sisters of St Joseph (they seem of excellent spirit like the ones in Khartoum) and three boys of the Dinka tribe, one of whom is studying Latin. One of these Sisters, being scared of camels, rode a donkey a third of the way across the desert, where a hyena ate the donkey’s back leg during the night. The poor Sister made the rest of the journey on foot for 12 days under the scorching sun over the sands. Thank God, although she walked 12 hours a day for a good 12 days, she reached Khartoum in excellent health.
[3468]
Both in El Obeid and here in Khartoum as well, the mission is progressing. My position with the local authorities could not be better. But the horrors of the slave trade and the commerce in Africans, to which a part of my thoughts are turned, are in need of the moral arm of the Church. As it is a most serious matter and extremely difficult in practice, I must use the greatest prudence and submit everything to the wisdom of the Sacred Congregation before I take any important steps. I am confident that by exactly following the instructions Your Eminence will be pleased to give me, we shall deal a mortal blow to this plague of humanity, to the great benefit of the faith. As soon as I am better I shall tell you of the measures that appear most appropriate to me. Wishing you a happy Christmas and New Year, I kiss the sacred purple and remain,

Your most devoted and humble son

Daniel Comboni,
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[3469]
Mgr Soubiranne, who has known and appreciated the Work for the Regeneration of Africa since it began, was kind enough to promote the cause of the two Institutes for Africans which I founded in Cairo and obtained a modest contribution in 1868 and 1870 for them, from the admirable Association of the Schools of the East.
He also led me to hope that more substantial aid might be forthcoming once I could, as he put it, attack Central Africa from the East, while the Archbishop of Algiers attacked it from the West, from the Sahara desert.

[3470]
Now it so happens that recently the Holy See has entrusted the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa precisely to me. This is an immense responsibility since it is, I believe, the largest and most difficult Mission in the whole world, because its territories contain about one hundred million infidels. By the grace of God I have energetically begun this apostolic campaign.
[3471]
In Khartoum, the capital of eastern Sudan (15th degree of Latitude North) I have already founded two sizeable Institutes. I have recently opened two other extremely important ones in El Obeid, from where I am writing. This city, with a population of 100,000 souls, is the real operations base for the penetration of Central Africa where distances are enormous. My spiritual jurisdiction actually extends from Egypt and Tripoli to the 12th degree of Latitude South.
You can understand, Mr President, how important it is, before tackling this mass of idolatry and barbarity, that I should build up my two Missions in Khartoum and El Obeid as much as possible.

[3472]
Here then are the different works which already require the support of the admirable Association of which you are the President:
1. The Cairo Institute for Africans which is directed by our Missionaries of Verona, founded for the African Missions. This house is presently somewhat depleted because I have removed a certain number of candidates already trained there, to bring them here, to Central Africa.
2. The Institute for Africans in Khartoum and its parish and Mission school. These two Institutes, which are attended by a large number of children, are also run by the Missionaries of Verona.
3. The El Obeid Institute for Africans, which has many pupils and is under the same direction.
4. The School for African girls in Cairo run by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition.
5. The Khartoum parish school and the female Institute run by the same Sisters, both of which have many pupils.
6. Finally, a school and Institute for African girls in El Obeid which will remain under the direction of the African women teachers we educated in Cairo until the arrival of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition who are on their way and whom I am expecting.

[3473]
Allow me to complete this list with a few observations which will help you understand my weighty burden and the pressing need I have for your assistance.
Apart from the day schools in Khartoum and El Obeid, which provide us with some remuneration, all the other works are the onus of the Mission. And what an onus, Director! It is not just a matter of providing our poor Africans with education; we almost always have to buy them with hard cash, since the number who are given to us free is quite pathetic. Before we house and feed them, and treat their diseases, we are obliged to clothe them, since every one of them, boys and girls alike, come to us completely naked.

[3474]
Now here in the Sudan, most items of food and clothing, coming from Egypt, are only obtained at a high price. So, to give an example, a piece of cloth one buys for 10 francs in Cairo costs 50 francs when transported to Khartoum. So it is that the wine for the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice costs 5 francs a bottle here, as compared with 60 centimes in Cairo.
I therefore turn to the generous charity of your devout members and implore you, in the name of the Divine Redeemer, to have compassion for the works of this vast and poor Mission of mine. Everything here is immense and strewn with obstacles; but Our Lord is taking care of it: his Vicar has spoken and I am filled with confidence.

[3475]
The Vicariate of Central Africa, founded in 1846 by Pope Gregory XVI, began by devouring, in the space of 15 years, the lives of 35 Missionaries. Of the 40 who faced its hardships, only 5 have survived. God willed that I should be one of these, after I had found myself eleven times at death’s door.
This apostolic expedition was followed by the dispatch of 60 more Franciscans. Twenty-two died, two remained in Khartoum and the rest returned to Egypt or the Holy Land.
It is as a consequence of these early and painful attempts that the present Holy Father entrusted the Vicariate of Central Africa to the Institute of the Missionaries for Africa which we (the Bishop of Verona and I) founded with the help of Our Lord and to which I call your bountiful attention today.

[3476]
In 1871, I sent four of the most reliable explorers out, under the leadership of Fr Carcereri, my Vicar General. They proceeded as far as Kordofan where they began to preach the Gospel.
The following year I placed myself personally at the head of a great caravan of 30 people, men and women religious. We sailed up the Nile, crossed the desert and with God’s visible protection, after 99 days of dangerous and difficult travelling, we reached Khartoum without any accidents or losses.
Please accept, etc., etc.

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from the French.

[3477]
It is just impossible for me to tell you all the good your dear letter has done for my heart and for the spirits of my dear confreres. Let me just say that your delightful letter informing me of the prayers you requested of the members of the Apostleship of Prayer in the Messager du Coeur du Jésus, as the general intention for the month of December, for Central Africa, so consoled and encouraged us that now we would be only too glad to shed all our blood in the most atrocious sufferings of martyrdom for the glory of the Sacred Heart. You, Father, have strengthened our faith, our courage, our hope and during the journey with my caravan of thirty people from Cairo to Khartoum, which took us 99 days mostly riding camels across the desert in a temperature of 60° Réaumur, my Missionaries, my Sisters and I frequently spoke of you, Father, and of the members of the Apostleship, saying: “We here are suffering and working, but we have some chosen souls, the most fervent and devout souls on earth, the members of the Apostleship of Prayer, the members of the League of the Heart of Jesus who are thinking of us and praying for us.
[3478]
In the middle of these scorching deserts, we are so fortunate to be living in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and in the minds of his most faithful friends. These chosen souls are praying for us and for our hard and tricky Mission. Jesus said ‘Ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you’. Jesus’ word is infallible. If you or if I”, we told each other, “were to pray alone for Central Africa, God would not hear our prayer, because we do not pray well with all the necessary conditions. But the members of the Apostleship of Prayer, the most fervent servants of the Heart of Jesus, the devout readers of your Messager are praying for us; it is impossible that their prayers should go unheard, and these souls are praying for the conversion of the infidels in our Vicariate, for 100 million unfortunate souls. Central Africa will thus be converted by the Sacred Heart of Jesus and by the prayers of your most fervent servants".
[3479]
We repeated these words many times, dear Father, as we crossed the desert in April and we repeat them now. You cannot understand what a consolation it is for us to think that you and the members of the Apostleship of Prayer are praying for us. Thank you, thank you, my dear Father, thank all the members for their powerful prayers and assure them of our gratitude.
Since you have been kind enough to ask the date on which I will consecrate Central Africa to the Sacred Heart with the prayer the Holy Spirit has suggested to you (what a magnificent consecration! Infinite thanks for such a beautiful formula, which I have translated into several of the languages of my Vicariate), I am now able to tell you that it will be 14th September, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, that is, the third Sunday of September and the fifteenth after Pentecost, at nine in the morning.

[3480]
I shall end here because I have little time, but I beg you to have many prayers said for this huge Vicariate so that we may see these peoples converted to the love of Jesus. I shall take the liberty of sending you news about my Mission for the Messager du Coeur de Jésus.

I remain… etc.,

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar of Central Africa


Translated from the French.

[3481]
Between His Most Reverend Excellency Monsignor Luigi Ciurcia, Archbishop of Irenopolis, Vicar Apostolic of Egypt for the Latin Rite and Delegate Apostolic for the Oriental Rite in Egypt, Arabia, Syria, etc., etc. and Daniel Comboni, Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa for the Institutes for Africans in Cairo.
[3482]
Under the name of Institutes for Africans, in December 1867, the priest Fr Daniel Comboni, Apostolic Missionary of Central Africa, with the specific approval of His Most Reverend Excellency Mgr Luigi Ciurcia, Archbishop of Irenopolis, Vicar Apostolic of Egypt for the Latin Rite, and after informing the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, founded in Cairo two small establishments; one for the education of African boys, directed by priests from the Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona; the other for the education of African girls, directed by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition.
[3483]
These Institutes remained totally under the direct jurisdiction of His Most Reverend Excellency Mgr Luigi Ciurcia, as Vicar Apostolic of Egypt, who showed his fatherly interest in them; thus they were able to bear some fruit for the benefit of the most abandoned of the poor Africans. However, since the purpose of this foundation was primarily to establish some form of Mission in the African interior, now that the Holy See has entrusted the Vicariate Apostolic to the Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona, entrusting its direction to the priest Fr Daniel Comboni, with the title of Pro-Vicar Apostolic, His Most Reverend Excellency Mgr Luigi Ciurcia, as Vicar Apostolic of Egypt, has expressed the wish that a convention be mutually agreed so as to avoid any future conflict of jurisdictions over the existence of the aforementioned Institutes for Africans in Egypt. For these reasons, the Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa humbly submits to His Most Reverend Excellency the following Convention.


Convention

[3484]
1. The Institutes for Africans in Cairo are canonically recognised in the Vicariate Apostolic of Egypt as having the dual purpose of acclimatising the missionaries, the lay brothers and the Sisters coming from Europe on their way to the Mission of Central Africa, and educating Africans of both sexes in the Christian Faith and civilisation.
[3485]
2. These preparatory Institutes for the African Missions are maintained in all things by the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa. They are however free to receive fees for the education of their pupils and for the public or private services they may render, or as general remunerations that may be given to all the Institutes in Egypt generally or to them specifically.
[3486]
3. His Most Reverend Excellency the Vicar Apostolic of Egypt has jurisdiction over them as granted to his office by common and ecclesiastical law. He therefore has the right to make Pastoral visits, to oversee the Priests and Sisters, to regulate the administration of the Sacraments, to order public prayers and to punish public offenders.
[3487]
4. As regards the internal regulation of the Institutes, the direction personnel and their ranks of superiority, the spiritual direction of the Sisters and the use of the Missionaries and the Sisters in accordance with the needs of the Missions of the African interior, the authority of the Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa is recognised, especially by virtue of the purpose itself of the Institutes. His right is also recognised to grant Dimissiorial and Remissorial letters and faculties to his Missionaries in the Institutes for Africans, as their Ordinary Superior, when this does not conflict with the rights of the Vicariate Apostolic of Egypt.
[3488]
5. Given the enormous distance between the Institute for Africans and the residence of the Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, the latter asks His Most Reverend Excellency the Vicar Apostolic of Egypt to intervene on his behalf also in the internal governance in the following cases: a) open and scandalous rebellion of the subjects against their Superior; b) clear incapacity of the Superior to accomplish his duties, either through serious illness or through having committed a public offence; c) the sudden death of the Superior. In such cases he will be able to take measures with the subjects and with the Superior, even replacing him, until new orders are given by the Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa.
[3489]
6. His Most Reverend Excellency the Vicar Apostolic of Egypt, in agreement with the Superior of the Institutes for Africans, will be able, if he so wishes, to make use, for spiritual services in his Vicariate, of the Missionary Priests living pro tempore in the Institutes for Africans and for whom the Pro-Vicar Apostolic has not issued other dispositions.
[3490]
7. Finally, the Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa undertakes to inform His Most Reverend Excellency the Vicar Apostolic of Egypt officially of his choice of a Superior or Director of the Institutes each time a new appointment is made; and vice versa, the Most Reverend Curia of the Vicar Apostolic of Egypt will inform the Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, or his Curia, of any extraordinary measures taken for or against individuals belonging to the Institutes in emergency cases, and the reasons for these measures.
[3491]
Since the purpose of the sublime Apostolate of the heads of the Missions is none other than the pure glory of God and the salvation of souls, there is no doubt that the generous co-operation of the illustrious Vicars Apostolic of Egypt in the strengthening and development of the Missions in Central Africa will greatly glorify the Lord and will be a source of blessings for unfortunate Africa.