Alberto de la Portilla – Page 180 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Celebrating Plurality

4 September, 2014 by Alberto de la Portilla

Assembly of Comboni Lay Missionaries of the German Speaking Province (DSP), July 2014 in Nuremberg.

It is now thirty years since the first German Comboni Lay Missionary (CLM) went to the missions in Kenya. He was considered as an associate member of the Comboni Missionaries, in German called “MaZ” (missionary ad tempus – Missionar auf Zeit). A number of MaZ who had returned from the missions and some friends had gathered in Nuremberg in order to celebrate this jubilee. Some of the participants stayed throughout the whole weekend; others just joined the meeting for one day. All enjoyed sharing experiences, talking about vocation, about their life and in turns played with the children of the CLM. All in all there were seventeen CLM, seven friends and eight Comboni-Missionaries, including the Provincial Fr. Karl Peinhopf as well as former and present members of Comboni-Missionaries in charge of CLM.

At the beginning of the assembly, four posters were shown concerning the results of a Master thesis on sustainable impacts by international volunteers and Lay Missionaries such as MaZ from Germany. The posters presented key findings of a survey among persons who had come back from their mission commitment. By now, most of them work as teachers, in the parochial field, as social workers or in the sector of health care (e.g. nurses). Even if they currently do not work in the missions abroad or in development work, they enter their experiences into their work, i.e. in additional projects, intercultural commitments or financial donations. Furthermore, the far reaching impact on the life of ‘missionaries ad tempus’ are commitments concerning topics like sustainable way of living, migration and globalization as well as global justice. Being interviewed, some returnees emphasized that their faith was strengthened by the experiences in other parts of the universal church.

Later on, items of the agenda confirmed this positive and sustainable impact: Mathias returned from Uganda last year and reported about his time in Kasaala. Together we discussed the projects and his input at secondary school and farming.

Sigrun who had been in Matany/Uganda some time ago provided insights into her field of profession in tropical agriculture and horticulture. During the past years she returned to West Uganda several times for biological surveys.

Lena let us have a look behind the curtain of political science, bringing closer the dispute between the African Union and the International Criminal Court.

All the contributions showed the plurality of MaZ and the topics they deal with. Father Markus Körber and Father Hubert Grabmann, two Comboni Missionaries participating in the gathering, reported about their present missionary work in South Sudan and in Kenya. Father Hubert Grabmann assisted in the formation of CLM in the DSP some years ago; now he received CLM in his parish in Kenya for the second time.

Apart from the official programme, there was time for sharing information about life and changes, watching football games of World Cup, having barbeque as well as singing and praying together. At the concluding mass we prayed for the CLMs in formation and those in missions. We thanked Br. Friedbert Tremmel for the hospitality. We bid farewell to Father Günther Hofmann before his departure to South Africa in the near future. For the season of Advent and for next year we have already been planning further meetings with contributions from MaZ/CLM.

Christoph Koch

Conclusions of the 2nd Meeting of the CLM in Africa

2 September, 2014 by Alberto de la Portilla

The 2^nd Continental Meeting of the Comboni Lay Missionaries took place in Kinshasa, DRC on July 21-25, 2014. The participants included five priests, two sisters and 18 lay people, among them the six coordinators of the French-speaking and English-speaking African provinces. They were joined by representatives of the Central Committee.

The objective of the Assembly of Kinshasa was to establish a concrete plan of action based on the resolutions of previous gatherings – the Continental Assembly of Layibi in 2001 and the International Assembly of Maia in 2012 – having as a theme: “Beginning with what we have starting from our reality.”

Keeping in mind the current challenges of our African reality, where God calls us to live our vocation as witnesses of his love, according to the charism of St. Daniel Comboni, at the service of mission, which is a gift from God, and after having reflected together, we have come to some conclusions that will allow each province to set up a plan of action. These are the conclusions:

1. Vocation

We want to encourage each CLM to live one’s vocation as it was defined at Layibi; to overcome life’s difficulties and to keep the commitments we have as fathers, workers and Christians, thus giving witness to our vocation.

As it was said in Maia, the CLM communities need to formulate processes that will allow the full development of the personal vocation of their members during their entire lifetime. This means setting up a program of prayer, retreats, sacramental life and revision of community life.

In order to facilitate a joint journey in our vocation as an International Family of CLM, we encourage the new groups to keep in touch regularly with the Continental and Central Committees, in order to get help from those responsible for the coordination. We believe that it is necessary to follow the common lines of the international organization.

2. Relations among the CLM

The movement holds one single vision. All must cooperate and work together at living a harmonious community life.

In order to facilitate the integration of new CLM in the local CLM groups, we must strengthen communications and networking between the sending group and the receiving group, the Central and Continental Committees and the MCCJ provincials.

In order to reach full integration, we invite the new CLM to take part in the group’s activities: ongoing formation, assemblies, retreats, administrative practices and financial contributions…

We encourage CLM working in countries where we have no local members to promote our vocation and form a local group.

3. Formation

As a movement of CLM in Africa, we are committed to make our formation journey together, in order to follow Christ according to the charism of Comboni who calls us to make common cause with the people to whom we are sent.

The decisions taken in earlier Assemblies guide us on this journey of formation, where we should keep in mind the following aspects:

The provinces must cooperate in the preparation of the various programs and materials for formation;
We must share programs and topics of formation between the provinces and with the Central Committee;
We must translate in all languages the formation documents.

4. Economy

We want to include the economy in our spiritual life, in order to live a life based on Providence. In this context, we ask the groups to include the topic of our relations with money in their formation programs, placing our stability and confidence in God.

In the process of our financial autonomy, we invite the various groups to form their members in the various aspects of finances, such as: development projects based on the local needs, the search for funds, compatibility…

Knowing that we all belong to this family of CLM, we are called to be responsible for and to support the group. In this sense, all the CLM must contribute to the fund of the local group. From this fund, the group in turn should contribute to the international common fund, managed by the Central Committee. We are also called to inspire the local Church and all people of good will to support our missionary activity.

In order to reach our financial autonomy, we invite the groups to start fund-generating activities such as in the field of agriculture, animal husbandry, pharmacies, movies, internet and photo-copying centers, production of local artifacts, talks, formation, dialogue and promotion of events…

It is not enough to engage in projects, but we are also called to give financial reports with great transparency (ledgers, bank accounts with more than one signature…).

5. Organization

5.1 Each Province must have:

A Coordinating Team made up of : a coordinator, a secretary and a treasurer. This team must send its reports to the African and to the General Committees.
A person in charge of communications (blog, Facebook, Twitter).
A Formation Team which must: plan and prepare the topics of formation; ensure the follow-up and the evaluation of the formation given.
Each group must have someone from those in charge of formation who will be networking with those responsible at the national level.

5.2 African Committee:

The Central Coordinating Team is made up of: a coordinator, a secretary a treasurer.
Its duties are:

Ensure communications with the Central Committee.
Call and organize continental meetings.
Provide for communications between the provinces.
Take care that the decisions taken at the various assemblies be implemented.

CLM serving the people in the mission

27 August, 201426 August, 2014 by Alberto de la Portilla

Hello there! My name is Ma. Isabel Barbosa Buenrostro, I have 39, I’m CLM “Comboni Lay Missionary” and I am also “Surgeon and Obstetrician.” I was born in a small town in the State of Jalisco in the country of Mexico, my town is called Santa Cruz de las Flores, belongs to the municipality of San Martín Hidalgo and is 2 hours from the city of Guadalajara. I studied at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Guadalajara.

I met the Comboni Missionary Sisters in late 2004, in 2005 I joined their congregation, first they sent me to my first missionary experience to Ecuador, where I spent the months of February and March, accompanying the Comboni Family in communities of Afro-Ecuadorian and Indigenous, that’s where I began to understand the mission and I realized the great thirst for God that have our sister nations, as they are very abandoned and discriminated, suffer from great material poverty but are rich in values and traditions that they still retained. I studied one year of formation in the postulancy, but in 2006 I left the Congregation of the Comboni Missionary Sisters since religious discipline limited me to work as I wanted my profession, and it was that I discovered the Comboni Lay Missionaries and saw that there was the place I wanted to practice medicine to the poor and to fully realize my missionary vocation.

My work with the sick is one of my greatest passions, because that’s where I see the face of Christ and where I found great satisfaction and human growth to be an instrument of God helping to heal bodies and souls… I heard the call of God upon my 20 anniversary, I was in discernment few years in the Religious Congregation of Active Living “Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”, but since I started working at my social service as a doctor in rural villages, I discovered that my vocation was purely missioner. And here I am, I go ahead cultivating and fighting for my vocation. Because it is the biggest and most wonderful gift that God has given me and that’s where I see my true and complete fulfillment as a human being, I think the mission to which I was sent to this world, is to go to the chosen people of God, especially the poorest and most abandoned. For as St. Daniel Comboni, I feel I must devote my life to serve my brothers as Lay Missionary Doctor.

Since I met the Comboni Family, everything has been very nice, God has given me the opportunity to do some short missions, especially as a volunteer; after my first missionary experience in Ecuador in 2005 and leaving the Postulancy in 2006, I’ve done mission fields: In 2006 in the Andean highlands of Peru, in Huancayoc, Waras Region with Quechua indigenous; in 2010 in the Forest of Ecuador in Pambilar, Esmeraldas Province, with indigenous Awás; in Guatemala in 2013 at the Parish of the Comboni Clinic in San Luis Peten, with indigenous Quec”Chis.

And, in recent times, I have concluded my Community Experience and Missionary Training as CLM, as it is part of our statutes for the CLM to be form eight months intensively and prepare for mission Ad Gentes for a minimum of 3 years. This training has be performed together with my colleague Carolina; the first 3 months in the State of Guerrero, Mexico, in Metlatónoc Mountains, where we have a mission place as CLM with the Comboni Missionaries, is the region of Mixtec indigenous communities. It really has been a strong and very special time; we shared the mission in the communities of Huexoapa, Atzompa and Cocuilotlazala. Here we perform religious and social pastoral, especially caring for the sick. For as Laity, we combine our professional, family, social, spiritual and religious life, that’s the beauty of the Lay Vocation. CLM in our profession we can support missions in different social projects. The other 5 months, from February to Julio we have been studying in Mexico City, where we stayed at the Seminary of the Comboni Missionaries, hence we get different workshops, as a part of our professional studies, we must receive religious, spiritual and human preparation for been good missionaries.

Well, what I’ve learned in this time is that: All mankind are the family of God, we have a common Father and all nations, peoples and cultures of the world are brothers and sisters. Depending on the context where we were born and raised, we all have knowledge and experience of God, because God has been planting the seeds of His Word in the history of all peoples. I learned that our Catholic Church is Universal and we must also be brothers of all religions and especially we must respect and preserve the cultures of our indigenous peoples, Afro-Americans and African. As missionaries we shall accompany them, walk with them, to live our faith and share life with them; and work with them to recover their dignity as children of God and responsibility for their own human development. That’s the Comboni charism that showed us our founder St. Daniel Comboni. Because the message of the Good News that Jesus came to bring us to the earth and we still screaming every day through His Word, the events of the world and the beauty of nature and of life itself, is to be happy on this earth and then the happiness will reach its fulfillment in eternal life. Prayer and spiritual life is our greatest food as missionaries. The Comboni Family have celebrated for thanksgiving to God, the conclusion of our training experience on July 6, 2014, in the Chapel of the Comboni Seminary in Mexico City, where the CLM Advisor of Mexico (P. Laureano Rojo), the Comboni Provincial of Mexico and the Fathers Formators of the Seminary, presided the SENDING MISSIONARY MASS as Comboni Lay Missionaries: Ma Isabel Buenrostro and Carolina Carreon. God with the power of his Holy Spirit, continue to give us his peace and light to all his children, so that everyone become missionaries, and announce and make life the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Second African Assembly of the CLM

1 August, 2014 by Alberto de la Portilla

The coordinators of the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) of the African Comboni Provinces, together with the Comboni Missionaries in charge of this sector, held their second African Assembly on July 21-26 at the Comboni residence of Kinshasa-Kimwenza, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The gathering was called to reflect on the past and to plan future activities for the CLM in Africa.

This second African Assembly of the CLM was attended by 25 people: 18 lay people, 5 Comboni Missionaries and two Comboni Sisters, including those in charge of the central commission of the CLM, Alberto de la Portilla and Fr. Arlindo Ferreira Pinto.

The morning of the first day was given to two informational sessions in order to introduce the participants to the program of the assembly. One session was on the current Congolese situation and the other dealt with the missionary vision of Evangelii Gaudium.

The assembly opened with the presentation of the participants, moderated by the lay members of the African Commission of the CLM:Dieudonné Likambo (Dido), Congolese, Innocent Mweteise Karabareme, Ugandan, and Márcia Costa, Portuguese working in Mozambique. Also part of this commission are the provincials Fr. José Luis Rodríguez López, of Mozambique,and Fr. Joseph Mumbere Musanga, of Congo. Fr. José Luis is in Mexico and Fr. Joseph only attended the last few days of the assembly, due to personal commitments.

Following the introduction, tasks for the week were distributed.

Márcia Costa then recalled the principal objectives of the assembly: to deepen the topics of identity, formation and financial self-sufficiency; to review and plan the activities of the CLM at the continental level and in the individual provinces, keeping in mind the conclusions of the intercontinental assemblies of the CLM, especially the last one, held in Maia, Portugal, in December 2012 and the first African Assembly, held in Layibi, Uganda in 2011.

Words of welcome were given through a message of Fr. Joseph Mumbere Musanga (read by Fr. Enrique Bayo Mata) and by Sr. Espérance Mamiriyo Togyayo, provincial superiors of the Comboni family in Congo. Both of them stressed the value of cooperation between the two Institutes born of the same Comboni charism and the importance of prayer joined to missionary witness as a Comboni family.

Fr. Arlindo Pinto, coordinator of the CLM at the general level, brought the greetings of Fr. Enrique Sánchez, superior general, and of Fr. Antonio Villarino, assistant general, who follow closely the varieties of expressions of the CLM on the African continent. From his part, Alberto de la Portilla, member and coordinator of the central commission of the CLM, said that this assembly is an event of interest not only for the African CLM, but also to those of the European and American continents, who share a strong feeling of belonging with the CLM.

Fr. Jean Claude Kobo Badianga, a Congolese Comboni Missionary, presented a brief history of the DRC in order to help us better understand the socio-political and economic situation, drawing comparisons with the history and past and recent conflicts of neighboring countries (Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan and the Central African Republic). He spoke of the main obstacles to a stable and truly democratic governability of the DRC, such as tribalism, regionalism and corruption. He referred to the various armed rebel groups active especially in the North and North-East of the country and the national political complicity with international interests tied to the very rich natural resources of the Congolese underground. Oil, gold, coltan and many other precious mineral resources are at the basis of all the social contradictions, economic inequality and armed conflicts in the DRC.

The Catholic Church and hundreds of other churches and sects take different positions on the situation faced by the country, mostly in order to favor the status quo and only rarely in order to denounce the injustices that victimize the Congolese population from North to South of the country.

F. Jean Claude pointed out that, in this social reality in the DRC and other African countries, the CLM have a moral and Christian responsibility that must be present in their pastoral and professional activities.

Fr. Enrique Bayo Mata, a Spanish Comboni Missionary working in the DRC, presented the topic of mission based on the apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” of Pope Francis. Following a general introduction to the document, Fr. Enrique stressed the vision of a new evangelization marked by the joy of the announcing and of witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the many human peripheries of today’s world. He spoke of the urgency of a pastoral conversion in order to move the Church to come out of itself in order to become missionary, which means to place itself at the service of persons and peoples, especially the marginalized, those who have a greater need of this joy, of faith and of Christian life and those who re farther away from the values of the Gospel.

He added that lay people, intellectually and professionally formed, have a particular role in the pastoral process of evangelization, which aims at the transformation of society and at the inclusion of the poor in the active life of their country.

In the afternoon of the first day, Innocent gave a panoramic view of the CLM, mentioning that one always begins with small things in a restricted situation, by then growing and maturing if there is a clear vision of identity, of who we are, and if there is a concrete plan of action, of what we need to do, in a permanent context of listening to the Word of God, of prayer and vocational discernment, in the spirit of St. Daniel Comboni. Innocent’s presentation was followed by a long sharing section of ideas and experiences from various CLM situations in Africa.

In turn, Márcia Costa presented a summary of the first African Assembly held at Layibi, especially concerning the identity and the mission of the CLM. She pointed out that it is part of their vocation to get out of one’s own reality or country for a determined amount of time in order to get involved in missionary activity, and this is a life-long commitment.

The second day was given to the presentation of reports on the activities of the African commission, the central commission and the individual African provinces present at the meeting: Egypt-Sudan, South Sudan, Togo-Ghana-Benin, CAR, Congo, Mozambique and Uganda. Dido Licambo gave the presentation on the work done by the African commission since the gathering at Layibi up to the preparation of the present one in Kinshasa. Lberto instead presented the reports of the central commission and of the provinces that were not present, but that have CLM in their midst (Chad, Malawi-Zambia, Ethiopia).

One of the major problems that were discussed was the lack of communication between the African commission and the African provinces. This is due, in part, to difficulties arising from the different languages spoken in the provinces and the difficulty in accessing new technologies of communication, especially the Internet, in the vast majority of African countries.

On July 23 and 24 the conclusions of the assembly were reach through group discussions followed by plenary meetings, in order to be ready to answer the following questions: What is the relationship between the local CLM and the CLM from abroad working in your country? What challenges and strategies must we keep in mind in order to walk together? How can we share the contents of formation in different countries in order to have a similar basic formation across the continent? What is still lacking for us to be living our CLM vocation according to the conclusions reached at Layibi? What strategies must we adopt in order to live fully our CLM vocation? What strategies must we adopt in order to achieve self-sufficiency? How can we organize the CLM movement at all levels: formation, relations between CLM of different African provinces, vocation, organization and economy?

In the afternoon of July 24 and the morning of July 25, the lay people met on their own to prepare the conclusions, while the Comboni personnel met to examine their cooperation with the CLM and to share some ideas and experiences on how to help them and strengthen them in all the provinces.

Mention was made that this commitment was taken up by the Comboni Missionaries at the General Chapter of 2009.

On the last working afternoon, the conclusions were read, discussed and voted upon. The elections of the African commission followed: Dieudonné (Congo), Innocent (Uganda) and Márcia (Mozambique) were re-elected for another three years.

Finally, it was suggested that the next meeting take place at Lomé, Togo in July 2017. Place and date will need to be confirmed by provincial superiors of this sector.

Kinshasa

On Saturday, the group visited the botanical garden of Kisantu-bas Congo and the cathedral of Kisantu, about 75 miles from Kinshasa.

The assembly closed on Sunday with a meeting with the Congolese CLM of Kinshasa which took place in the provincial house of Kinshasa-Kingabwa. A Mass was celebrated with Fr. Joseph Mumbere presiding, and it was followed by lunch.

Arlindo Ferreira Pinto.

Closing Mass of the community formation experience in Mexico

14 July, 2014 by Alberto de la Portilla

Hello to the Comboni Family and Friends!

On this day I want to greet you with great joy of heart, and united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Heart of Mary our Mother in heaven and St. Daniel Comboni. I send a big hug to each of you, wishing you to be great in the mission that each of you have received at this time from our God.

Here I share some photos of the day from our Sending Mass (Caro and mine). It was the Eucharist of Thanksgiving and sending at the end of our Missionary Community Experience and Training as CLM “Comboni Lay Missionaries”.

We thank God for this time, for all our life experiences, friendship and knowledge received. Greetings to each of you, I remember with great fondness, affection and respect, and in my prayer and missionary spirit keep join to this family that God has given me. May God bless each and every one of your carnal family and personal friends and also our people where we work. Also attached are some pictures of our training period and Mission Community Experience.

Yours Forever! And thanks for the support and friendship you gave me and Caro in this particular stage of our missionary life.

😉 ISA.