Comboni Lay Missionaries

Resonances of the meeting: The Kingdom of God: myth or reality?

“The Kingdom of God is a reality always under construction in each of us”

 Semente

The House of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, in Lisbon, hosted in the past weekend the laity who began their training in September, during the Missionary Conference in Fatima.

They were very intense days and true enrichment, thanks to the trainers, the Comboni Missionary Sister Carmo Ribeiro and the CLM Pedro Moreira.

The theme chosen for Reflection: The Kingdom of God: myth or reality? Was broadly welcomed and left, surely, the sweet taste that the Kingdom of God is a reality always under construction in each of us, and beyond being Church, goes further than it. Where, among other things, there are love, forgiveness, joy, humility, seeds of the Word, sometimes tiny, but the Spirit sows wherever and whenever He wants.

The Kingdom of God is the ultimate goal of all men and women. The Kingdom of God is Jesus Himself; therefore, The Kingdom of God is Love.

Thanks to all for the generous hospitality, for all you have given us and taught and the beautiful testimony of life and friendship.

S. Daniel Comboni was right when he said. “Fear not, I die, but my work will not die.”

By Rufina Garcia

 

# YoSoyDomund: the faces of the mission

‘Vida Nueva Encounters’ addresses the challenges the Church is facing in this field

Carmen, Magdalena y AnastasioMagdalena, Anastasio and Carmen, ‘spokesmen’ of missionaries for Vida Nueva (Spanish magazine).

FRAN OTERO. Photos: LUIS MEDINA |

You may be wondering, if you have not heard already, what it means # YoSoyDomund. You will not be the only one, also bishops have asked. The answer is simple: it is the campaign that in twitterers language has launched PMS-Spain to make us aware that we are all part of the World Mission Day, a day-this year is celebrated on October 20, which was described by the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI as a “new Pentecost”.

And Vida Nueva, in its commitment to the mission and the missionaries, has decided to join the campaign through a new edition of the Vida Nueva Encounters as said its editor, José Lorenzo, at the opening of the dialogue: “From Vida Nueva, we have always followed with great interest the mission. It is a very important testimony to the world of today and you will always find us to help you in this task so necessary. ”

Attended the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Anastasio Gil (AG), the Comboni Missionary Sister with 35 years of missionary work in Chad Magdalena Rivas (MR) and Carmen Aranda (CA), a young Comboni Lay Missionary, who will go to Republic Central next year.

QUESTION. – How do you live the mission?

AG. – From my dedication, almost “professional”, I am discovering the depth of faith, humanity and generosity in each of the missionaries. I have not found any unbecoming me from this. The missionaries, regardless of age, are young people because they have nothing to carry in their backpack, do not question why go to one place or another. Furthermore, when they are in the mission they are quiet people, calm, showing the patience of God. They know well the grass grows at night.

MR. – I think you idealize us too much, because we are human, poor, small… and many times we have a mission so great that it absorbs us. When I left in 1977 to Chad, I thought I had to eat the world. Always worked in the field of health: there I taught the most basic things, such as washing hands or filtering the water, and also directed a hospital of 130 beds. I have worked in villages, under a tree, in a shed, with malnourished children, polio. It is a path where you grow, but also discover and feel yourself smaller and smaller. I didn´t catechesis ever, but I felt one hundred percent missionary healing in the hospital.  Trying to be the little shadow of God that pass and leave some love, in a country in permanent conflict and in a situation of extreme poverty.

CA. –   For me, mission is life capitalized. I was three months in Ethiopia and I felt God called me there to meet me. Back, Africa came out everywhere.  So I left my job, my car and my house. I could do nothing, because what He is offering is something much better. I needed God to be my priority, and I made it in Africa. It was a very lovely call to be with the last. God does it very well: He cares you, pampers you and tells you the things you feel. In my case, there haven´t been resignations and, in this sense, it has been very easy.

MR. –   Living in mission is easy and very difficult. It’s easy if you have a vocation and if you find your place. No matter what you do, because you will be happy. And it’s terribly difficult, because you have no means and you attend extremes situations. But we can live because there are people in Spain, Italy or France to pray for us, support us, sustains us. Yes, I cried a lot.

CA. – I also had a horrible time the last month in Ethiopia…

MR. –   I cried a lot. You feel depressed, destroyed. For example, Saint Joseph Hospital, the only one in southern Chad and where I worked, is about to close because we have no funds. You feel tiny, poor and that you cannot do what you should. Providence has made that many doctors who come from Spain have fallen in love with it and have organized campaigns and parties to raise funds.

Grupo Vida Nueva

Q. – What is the Domund for you? How do you live it from each of your realities?

MR. –   In Chad we live in the same way. We held a vigil, pray and make a collect, because the poor can give from their poverty to help others, and can pray for other poor. We live the Domund with depth, are great days for us. In short, is living for the other, with the other getting on their skin. Another thing is that we need resources and support, as we have not learned to live on air. We have needs, but I think we should give more strength to the spiritual part of Mission Sunday, to that union. To me has really been helpful to never give up, and achieve to hold at my parish a Mass for the missionaries in danger. I said: “I cannot stand, but I cannot give up.”

AG. –   There is an Ecclesial communion, of spirit, of prayer and family. For obvious reasons, we glide to identify the Domund with an economic cooperation, but is a consequence of spiritual cooperation. We have to open the horizon and see what happens in other countries. The Domund is the best expression of the universality of the Church. The October 20 we are going pray in all churches for the people who have received the missionary vocation, we will feel in solidarity with them. Economic cooperation is essential, but not the most important. The Mission Sunday is the feast of the universality of the Church, “the new Pentecost,” Benedict XVI said.

CA. –   People who are suffering are our brothers and I cannot turn my back. The Domund connects us all and reminds us that we all, as Christians, are responsible for our brothers. I want to feel that those who live in other parts of the world are my brothers. I’m leaving soon to the mission and our formers are telling us to dismantle everything, not to be overwhelmed at the place of destination. I was born in a wonderful family and that’s free. I hope that I can use all my personal knowledge there, knowing that they have many things to offer. As Pope Francisco says, I will take Jesus Christ.

MR. –   On one occasion, in the hospital, I was trying to encourage a man who had a child there with meningitis, a disease from which he had already lost two others, and with his wife pregnant. I told him that God would deliver him from this suffering, because God is a Father. He said, “God is the father of whites. My children had died because we have no hospital nearby; those that I have at home have to walk 15 kilometers to go to school without breakfast… You have hospitals, schools, doctors and medicines. You can call God father “. You feel so tiny that you do not know what you have to answer.  I say I am the broom behind the door that people are going to look when they need it. It is not in a visible place, but it is always. Long before the missionaries were the protagonists, now it is the native clergy which has to be strong. Missionaries today must be the ones that hold the native and retired as the broom. Because of the war, I have had to sign three times in the embassy renouncing to leave the country under my responsibility. I cannot be a mercenary, in a situation of danger they leaves. I share the risk with them.

“I am finding the depth of faith,
humanity and generosity
in each of the missionaries.
I have not found any
I unbecoming of this. “
Anastasio Gil, director of PMS Spain.

Q. – Does your life change?

MR. –   For young people who came to Chad, life changed completely. A childhood friend, after making an experience with me in 1996, left her job and a significant salary to work for much less at Caritas. Also I have to say that after many years away, it is very difficult to live here. It’s another life, everything is different.

AG. –   When you go to the mission also realizes your radical weakness. Do not know how to eat, speak, move… That´s why we have to train ourselves to be the broom behind the door. And when you get back there are some problems, one of the most important is the lack of social coverage for religious and laity. Getting back, you have nothing.

MR. –   We must find a solution to that problem. A sister came from Africa with Dengue and had to be entered 20 days in a hospital. Now we have to pay the bill because she has no right for health care.

AG. –   Spain does not have, like other countries, a law for international volunteering. Moreover, the missionaries were excluded from the Statute of cooperators for ideological reasons. Right now there are economic problems, juridical and a legal vacuum.

“I have never done catechesis
but I have felt a hundred percent missionary
healing in the hospital.
Trying to be the little shadow
from God, Who pass and leaves a little love
in a country in permanent conflict
and in extreme poverty. “
Magdalena Rivas, Comboni Sister, 35 in Chad.

 

Q. – How do you see the future of the mission?

AG. – I really like that hopeful idea of John Paul II in Redemptoris Missio that we are facing a spring. The future of the mission is full of hope and vitality. There are many clouds that obscure the view, but the vitality of the churches in formation is so big and so strong that in the immediate future will be booming. The data always give a true foundation: the Church has grown in the last 30 years by 150% in Africa, 50% in America, 30% in Asia, 11% in Oceania and 5% in Europe. These data come in handy for us to realize that   Europeans are not the navel of the universe. We must take off the beret and think that the future of the Church passes through these mission territories. It is also true that the Spanish missionaries, for example, have an advanced age, but we had to realize that from the mission territories are emerging many vocations. In Vietnam, for example. The only danger I see is the perception that the mission is here, the new evangelization, and that we get closed in ourselves. The problems have existed since man exists. We must be universal and not stem the tide. The missionaries are now coming from the south: Vietnam, Laos, India, Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria…

MR. –   In Chad there are Japanese, Polish, Vietnamese, Indians, Mexicans, Colombians… And in my community, that we are six, there is a Ugandan, one Ethiopian, one Mexican, one Spanish and two Italian. Moreover, young people in Africa cannot enter the seminary until finish those inside, because there are no resources to support them all. If we were aware of all that goes into this, we would share in a different manner; the Domund will not be only once a year. We don´t live it as our own, and they are our brothers.

AG. – This is important, because we may think we are the center of the world.

CA. –   I aspire that the mission become also a source, that we receive from the other territories many thing that we have lost here, that they make mission here. Europe is not the center. Among other things, return to the family, as a space for the growth of children, so they can be capable of anything. Cooperation is not only secure food and health; it is to ensure a quality of life. And in this, they have a lot to say.

MR. –   In Africa they give much value to life. In fact, when a person dies, it doesn´t highlights the heritage but the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who leaves.

“I aspire that the mission become also a source,
that we receive from the other territories
many things that we have lost here,
that they make mission here.
Europe is not the center “.
Carmen Aranda, Comboni Lay Missionary, next year to Central African Republic.

Grupo Vida Nueva

Q. – Returning to vocations, how you perceive the situation from here?

CA. –   Other models should be promoted among children. Today, society  shows the Christian as persons who does not know how to live, as a simpleton. That is not so. We should propose another model for the child to choose.

MR. –   Many people do not have the courage to cut the umbilical cord. It is more difficult today, because of the lower number of children.

AG. – From the PMS we conducted meetings with young people who have lived or are living a temporary experience in the mission. Throughout the year but especially in the summer, there are about 10,000 young people living a missionary experience. They discover the figure of the missionary, the gratitude with which they settle and eventually interpellate. This is what is raising today. Vocations are not as numerous as 30 years ago, but they emerge. For example, now appear in the laity, with the same commitment than a sister or a priest. The laity has its uniqueness and particularity. Go to the mission as a layman or laywoman, not as a second division priest or as an auxiliary. They go with their own laity responsibility. They must have a professional job, volunteer, unpaid, ensuring its sustainability, and missionary, that is the adjective that qualifies the noun. They are not cooperators; they go to build the Kingdom of God. In this context, there are emerging vocations and we are very satisfied.

 

Q. – What can bring Francisco to the mission?

AG. –   Pope Francisco speaks a lot about the mission. There are two important documents: one on 17 May to the national directors of the PMS, and the message for Mission Sunday. In addition, the week from14 to 18 of October he decided to invite to the daily Eucharist in Santa Marta the groups working in Propaganda Fidei. From his words, I call attention to two things:   missionary activity is the paradigm of any pastoral activity, that is, has reference to the missionaries, and missionary commitment is not optional, but something that is the essence of being a Christian.

CA. –   I liked when he said that the Church is not an NGO and the idea that, following Jesus, otherwise spare. That is, you are richer the more able you are to impoverish.

MR. –   Just the simplicity and gestures invite us to shed our environments and go toward the poor and the needy. He, who comes from mission territories, feels it, he has lived and grown up with it.

With Francisco concluded an open and honest dialogue, a dialogue that puts the Domund face, a face that is present and future. Jose Lorenzo lock the meeting: “We give you the thanks. Your testimonies are very eloquent. In this field, you are at the forefront, offering a revitalizing example”.

In No. 2,867 of Vida Nueva.

 

Pastoral of the child (Community Ipê Amarelo)

Psatoral criançaPastoral of the child, Life Celebration, at the residence of Mrs. Zita, example of giving life to the people of Ipê Amarelo. Margaret and Silvia, after working all week, face a crowded bus because Ipe Amarelo is on the outskirts of Contagem, MG, the two find strength in the Love of Christ missionary and risen to celebrate life. This group also includes the participation of two more young voluntaries here in the neighborhood, Estefani and Deusilene, together they continue the proposal for a LIFE in ABUNDANCE.

HANDS THAT HEAL, THAT TAKE CARE, THAT BLESS YOU WITH AN OPEN HEART!

Therefore Father Jorge Padovan, Comboni missionary who celebrated the Eucharist, addressed the audience with words of encouragement and appreciation for the work of the Pastoral of the child.

The group also reflected on the importance of friendship with the families accompanied and with the integration into the health system of each community. To help pregnant women is necessary that the leaders are integrated into community health councils. Pastoral of the child is essentially a social control of the municipality! Action, Health, Nutrition and Social Commitment.

It is enough with some Cabbage!

Therefore, if we just encourage families to cultivate a small garden in their backyard this will already help to improve healthcare.

Together we continue the steps of Zita in this beautiful task of given LIFE in ABUNDANCE

By Maria de Lourdes Vieira. CLM from Brazil

Missionary Animation in southern Spain

During the last European assembly of the Comboni Sister I coincided with Pilar Sainz, Comboni Missionary Sister in Almeria. As a result of those days working together came out the invitation to spend the week of the DOMUND in Almeria. And that is how I finished with Pilar and Fr Joaquim (Spiritan Missionary of Cape Verde) doing missionary animation in schools, colleges and parishes of Almeria.

The variety of the groups that we visited was very wide.

Colegio Los MillaresI went to the public Elementary school “Los Millares”. Elementary students are very twitchy and when I did not even introduce myself I already had several hands raised. They are curious children interested in how people live in other countries, how they study, talk, eat … approach them the Mozambican reality is not easy or that they could understand macroeconomic values, ​​but they do understand the simple things of life. The way they access to water, the houses where they live or the materials used in school depending on the country where they were born.

Something similar, because of the age, I founded in the groups of First Communion of the Parish of San Isidro Labrador. Every afternoon 2 or 3 groups to explain the World Mission Day, to clarify the theme of this year “Faith + Charity = Mission” for children is not always easy. From this experience I wanted to highlight the drawings they made in their notebook after the presentation I made with photos about the way that the missionaries live in Africa (religious, priests and laity). It catches their attention how African can carry everything on their heads or how intense in the green landscape. I also share the Sunday Eucharist with them and they assisted me very well to explain to the elderly in the homily the way they live in Africa.

IES Bahía de Almería

For several days I also went to the high school “Bahía de Almeria”. In the institutes is very noticeable the difference of age between the first and the last courses. The embarrassment when asked is notable, but it is also easier to understand the nonsense of this world. The gap between rich and poor. What unites and difference us just because we have being born in different countries. I believe that the surprises eyes of some denoted the strangeness of the possibility of moving from a country like Spain to go and live in Mozambique. I hope at least that this question remains in their heads.

And finally let me write you about the time spent in the parishes of San Jose, San Isidro Labrador and San Francisco de Asís. They were two intense weekends, sharing in every Eucharist a little time. Becoming aware that the mission is a responsibility of the community, of every Christian. That the missionary do not leave but it is sent by the community. And the community is responsable of their financial support but mostly for promoting missionary vocations among their members and pray for those who send and the peoples with whom they share their daily lives.

Parroquía San Isidro Labrador Parroquia San Francisco de Asís

Thanks to the teachers of religion and the rest of their mates, catechists and parish priests during those 10 days that made ​​my stay easier. As well as the delegate of Don Antonio Martin Acuyoa missions and the Bishop of Almería Adolfo González Montes. Also to the priests of the priestly house of Almeria and their employees that welcomed me so well.

It was time to sow, hopefully the Spirit exhale life.

Network Justice on the Rails

In defense of social and environmental justice in the lands injured by Vale.

Vale 1I’m tired of holding this mineral train passing in front of my house ten times a day. I’m tired of hearing that this train of 330 wagons carried the wealth of our land and leaves a trail of abuses and deaths: one person every month! I’m tired of the speeches of the “wearing ties” of the company: they ensure that all this will bring progress, but for us, here, everything is stopped for more than twenty years!

This is the relief of several families living in the area of influence of the Carajas corridor (900 km railway between Maranhão and Pará, in northern Brazil).

Here, mining company Vale SA dominates the economy and controls the regional policy, possessing the richest and more abundant iron mines of the world and an impressive logistics system (railways and ships).

Vale is the second largest mining company in the world, operating in 38 countries has grown 19 times since a suspicious privatization transaction gave this treasure to private interests. It paints green and yellow its image, boasting its sustainability and social responsibility with powerful means of propaganda and influence on political parties, on the contrary, towns and communities around the world bear witness of the labor disputes (3,500 people in Canada have confronted the company with a strike just over a year!), pollution, discharges, corruption of local authorities, or even the use of militias to protect their private interests. In 2012, Vale was chosen in voting internationally as “the worst company in the world” (Public Eye Award, Switzerland).

Therefore, we consider this company as a paradigmatic example of the arrogance of many mining companies in the world. Since late 2007, a network of movements in northern Brazil launched the “Justice on the rails” (www.justicanostrilhos.org), to report conflicts with the multinational and claim social and environmental justice. Since then, participation in the World Social Forum in Belém strengthened the network of alliances and daring campaigns, allowing the birth, in April 2010, of the International Joint Affected by Vale.

Vale 2Communities, social movements, workers and institutions, which in many ways are considered affected by the company, have been organized since the first meeting of the Joint International exchange of experiences and strategies of resistance and alternatives to the impacts of mining. The organization facilitates the exchange between people from ten different countries around the world.

Justice on the Rails also has close relations with the Brazilian Network for Environmental Justice and the Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America. Since 2010 participates annually in the General Assembly of Shareholders of the Vale also leading to major investor the complaints and demands of communities.

Un frente específico de lucha de la red Justicia en los Raíles es el acompañamiento del caso emblemático de la comunidad Piquiá de Baixo (Açailândia-MA), víctima de la contaminación de la cadena de la minería y el acero. Allí, más de 300 familias no aguantan más convivir con cinco empresas siderúrgicas (altos hornos) que han invadido las tierras de la comunidad. Reivindican el reasentamiento en una zona libre de contaminación, para volver a vivir con dignidad y salud.

Piquiá de Baixo es uno de los casos más graves de racismo ambiental y violaciones de derechos humanos en Brasil. En 2013, una campaña internacional lanzó una acción solidaria y de denuncia, para el reasentamiento urgente de la comunidad.

A specific struggle front of the Network Justice on the Rails is to support the emblematic community of Piquiá de Baixo (Açailândia-MA), a victim of contamination from mining and steel. There, more than 300 families have had enough to live with five steel companies that have invaded the lands of the community. They claim for their resettlement in a pollution-free area, to live again with dignity and health.

Vale 3Piquiá de Baixo is one of the most serious cases of environmental racism and human rights violations in Brazil. In 2013, an international campaign launched a solidarity complaint for an urgent resettlement for the community.