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Making a common cause with the poor and with the common home

11 October, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

Letter from the Comboni Encounter on Integral Ecology

About thirty members of the Comboni Family (Lay, Secular, Religious, men and women, including three provincials) from Africa, America and Europe, we gathered from July 27 to August 3, 2022, in Belém, capital of Pará, Brazil, on the occasion of the X Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (X FOSPA) and the Comboni Meeting on Integral Ecology.

We opened our ears, hearts and minds to the groans of Mother Earth, of the Amazonian peoples and of the communities we work with, who cry out for the complete regeneration of the daughters and sons of the God of Life (cf. Rom 8, 19-23), present throughout all of Creation.

We did this in continuity with the long journey of the Comboni Forums and the mapping of social ministries in our Comboni Family and mission.

We are inspired by the spirituality of native peoples and their strong interconnection with the primary elements of the cosmos: water, rivers, air, forests, land and all beings.

Through them, Jesus of Nazareth continues to invite us to “contemplate the birds of the sky and the lilies of the field” (Cf. Mt 6, 26-28) in order to learn and assume together the Bien Vivir (Good Living).

Through attentive, respectful and compassionate LISTENING to the reality of many peoples:

1. WE SEE that the climatic, socio-environmental and political crisis – derived from the dominant and unsustainable economic model, which separates, excludes and kills – seriously endangers human survival and the full life of all Creation, in the territories where we live our vocation and mission at the service of the Kingdom.

It is the indigenous peoples, traditional communities, women and young people who still nourish hope, in their resistance, in defense of the Amazon!

2. WE UNDERSTAND that the gravity of the situation urgently demands that the Church and our Institutes initiate processes of ecological conversion.

We feel it is necessary:

to review and unlearn many of our concepts and experiences in relation to God and Nature, the relationship among men and women, about inculturation, pastoral practices and liturgy;
to integrate in our missionary activities the defense of the bodies of those who fight for respect for the environment and of the territories where we are present;
to cultivate and share eco-spirituality, biblical re-readings and the link between faith and life;
to adopt a missionary methodology that allows us to have a greater connection and an effective immersion in the values, languages, cultures and sacredness of the peoples and territories with which we interact;
to review and correct, in our projects and structures, styles of life and consumption, often incompatible with ecological and evangelical sobriety;
to invest in basic and continuous training that integrate, in theory and in practice, the principles of Integral Ecology;
to inform and encourage the local Churches and our Comboni Family about events, means and processes that help us to assume and deepen the experience of synodality and social ministeriality in an ecological perspective;
to strengthen solidarity, participation, mutual care and networking with indigenous peoples, lay people, congregations, social movements and inter-ecclesial and extra-ecclesial bodies.

3. WE PROPOSE to the coordinators of our Institutes, to the councils of the circumscriptions of all continents, to sectorial leaders and to all the members of our Comboni Family:

adopting, as a common inspiration, the Comboni Pact for the Common Home and, as a transversal axis of all our missionary activity and presence, Integral Ecology;
promoting the permanent sharing of reflections, lessons learned and practices among the members of the Comboni Family;
exchanging personnel among communities and circumscriptions that operate in the same territory;
qualifying our training processes with research, sharing of methodologies for intervention and social transformation and the definition and the theoretical-practical integration of Integral Ecology in line with Laudato Si’ and Querida Amazonia by Pope Francis;
participating in the discussion and elaboration of pastoral plans in dioceses and parishes that assume the principles of Integral Ecology;
promoting our qualification and participation in the field of advocacy and political decision in defense of the Common Home;
supporting and investing in the mechanisms and practices of inclusive economy;
welcoming and defending people at risk or threatened because of their struggles.

4. WE ASSUME, as participants in this Comboni Family Encounter and in this rich experience of listening, the commitment to:

publicize and support the Pan-Amazonian Declaration of Belém, which integrates the Knowledge and Feelings shared in the X Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (X FOSPA);
continue the reflection and sharing of insights that emerged during these days of meetings;
translate and live, in the different contexts of our mission, the charismatic inspiration of Comboni (Regenerate Africa with Africa) and the slogan “Amazona-te!”, which had a strong repercussion among us in these days, always respecting and promoting the protagonism of the traditional peoples.

5. WE ENTRUST all this path that we want to travel to the intercession and protection of the Martyrs of the Amazon who encourage us to radical witness and fidelity in our following of Jesus of Nazareth and in living out our charism.

From the flow of life on the banks of the Guamá River, in Belém do Pará, August 3, 2022.

The participants of the Comboni Encounter of Integral Ecology

Feast of Saint Daniel Comboni: 10 October 2022

10 October, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him bears much fruit” (Jn 15,5).

“Have courage; have courage in this difficult hour, and even more for the future.
Do not desist, never give up. Face without fear whatever storm comes.
Do not be afraid. I die but my work will not die”
(The last words of St Daniel Comboni pronounced shortly before dying on 10 October 1881)

Dear Confreres,
Happy Feast Day of our Father and Founder Saint Daniel Comboni! Fraternal greetings to you all, wherever you may be, for the celebration of this feast which is always a fount of grace, of blessing and also an opportunity to return to the source of our existential consecration according to the Comboni charism.

On 10 October 1881, like “the grain of wheat fallen on the ground …”, our Founder Father died in the land of the Sudan, but that “good seed” has sprouted and even today continues to bear much fruit! On this recurrence of his and our feast day, we cannot fail to remember the words of Father Francesco Oliboni, on 26 March 1858: “But you must not be despondent, do not turn aside from your goal, continue the work you have begun; and, even if only one of you should remain, let him never give up hope or withdraw”. These words, as we well know, have brought courage to a whole generation of missionaries to Africa, among them Comboni; and these are the same words that inspired the plea our Father and Founder made to his missionaries shortly before his death: he asks us “to be faithful to the mission”. It is this special grace of fidelity to the mission that we wish today to ask of God and of Mary, the Mother of Nigrizia.

The context of the feast of Comboni this year 2022 brings with it much grace and blessing. First of all, almost three months after the celebration of the XIX General Chapter of our Institute, today, we have officially published the Acts of the Chapter. On November 20, exactly in forty days, the beatification of Fr. Giuseppe Ambrosoli will take place in Kalongo (Uganda). Finally, in this moment of grace, the Comboni Missionaries are celebrating their General Chapter in Verona, enlivened by the sacrifice of Sr. Maria De Coppi, killed in Mozambique on 6 September. All these anniversaries are, for us, occasions of grace and growth that contribute abundantly to giving taste and the odour of holiness to the feast of St. Daniel Comboni. At the same time, they become an occasion of recollection and intense prayer to renew our Comboni identity, to build an ever more intimate relationship with our Father and Founder and with the entire mission of the Church.

The example of life of our Founding Father continually challenges us to go beyond our limits and fragility and to embrace “holiness” as a gift of God that is transformed into a way of life. Today, Comboni wants to speak to the heart of each of us with the same words with which he challenged, instructed and encouraged his missionary men and women and the laity, sometimes using sweet expressions, at other times harsh, but always with the words of a father who loves his children. Let us therefore refine our capacity to listen and open our hearts and minds to accept his words as a father so that our relationship with him may become ever deeper, more stimulating and fruitful.

On this feast day, let us dedicate some of our time to contemplate and meditate on his example of life, on his choices, on his determination; let us humbly ask for his intercession so that we too may continue to be faithful to our vocation as consecrated persons and missionaries at the service of the People of God. Let us keep our gaze always fixed on the Heart of Christ and love him tenderly so that he may continue to be the only source of our life and the driving force of our mission. Certain that without a radical return to Christ and to the charism of Comboni, our mission will not bear fruit.

Let us make our own the desire of St. Daniel Comboni that our communities may become small cenacles of apostles where brothers and sisters can meet together to celebrate, reflect and pray, in a synodal spirit, involving, where possible, the laity with whom we work in the missions and in the local Church.

Let us also ask for the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni in the process of discernment regarding the choice of circumscription superiors and their respective councils, so that God may give us holy and capable superiors, in love with the Comboni mission and the Institute, to animate and accompany the confreres and to promote and coordinate the activities/priorities of the circumscription, also bearing in mind the orientations of the XIX General Chapter.

May Mary, Mother of the Church, intercede for us.
We wish all of you a Happy Comboni Feast Day.
The MCCJ General Council

Prayer Intentions of the Comboni Family October 2022

2 October, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

We pray for the XXI General Chapter of the Comboni Missionary Sisters that, after 150 years, transformed by the Charism, they may live as Missionary Disciples among the existential peripheries. Lord hear us.

With joy we began our last day of Assembly.

15 September, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

The biblical reflection of the day, led us to a commitment to transform the realities where we are, from the Gospel, and with all this we filled the map of the entire continent with rose petals, which invites us to think that, from the fragility of them, we have to be transmitters of the Good News from the environment in which we find ourselves.

We continue working in groups, sharing the commitments that were assumed as a result of this Assembly.

A methodology that perceives the realities, illuminates with the word, has concrete actions and leads us to celebrate as missionary communities.

Given the importance of this vocation and its relevance in the world, we are invited to reorganize our countries, to contribute to the Comboni family, without losing sight of the missionary dimension for humanity.

A special moment of the day was the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, presided by Fr. Joselin, Provincial of Peru, who reminded us of the importance of concretizing in our groups the results of this Assembly, and for this we have to remember the Synodality to which Pope Francis calls us.

It is very important to rename the Parish of Chorrillos, which has been chosen by the Archdiocese as a Model Parish in its Pastoral Plan.

We thank Father Joselin MCCJ provincial of Peru, the community of Chorrillos and the CLM of Peru, for the welcome and concern to make us feel at home.

Also our thanks to Mireya, CLM of Guatemala, for the love and dedication given during these years, and we wish Rocío, CLM Peru, who together with Beatriz, CLM Mexico and Father Ottorino, MCCJ responsible for accompanying the CLM in America, make up the new coordinating team of the American committee.

On Sunday we celebrated the Eucharist together with the communities of Pamplona Alta, it makes us reflect on the mission and when we should commit ourselves to this missionary call of a Church on the Way Out.

María Cristina Paulek and José David Rojas Quesada

Brazil – Costa Rica.

Once again sent

14 September, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

Day 6 of our meeting, an important and definitive day, today we finalize the topics to be discussed, consolidate a document and elect the new continental committee.

Our day began with a beautiful prayer led by the team of Colombia, where through the biblical text Ezekiel 34; 1-15 we meditated on our roles of being shepherds in the midst of the community and as Pope Francis said sometimes also as shepherds in front of the flock and depending on the reality can be behind them, but always there, next to them, smelling like sheep at the service of the mission; Through thanksgiving we filled the map of the American continent with rose petals, painting it with its beautiful colors and the fragility of a people suffering from war, indifference and inequality.

During the day we meditated a little on the task that each of the participants will take back to their countries, because finally the systematic review that was made of the agreements of Rome 2018 exposed the realities that each country lives, we have evaluated the commitments and finally we have made a simple document that will help to take firmer steps towards the fulfillment of what was agreed, which ultimately is the ideal of our Comboni Lay Missionary community.

Before the evening Eucharist in assembly we elected the new American committee, where our companion Mireya Soto LMC from Guatemala handed over her responsibilities of 6 years ago and gave way to new ideas to move forward; Beatriz Maldonado CLM from Mexico who kindly accepted to continue as part of the committee for another period together with Roció del Carmen Gamarra from Peru and Father Ottorino Poletto MCCJ from Ecuador; we have a new American committee. In the evening Eucharist we prayed for them so that guided by the light of the Gospel they may continue to accompany the CLM of America.

We thank Peru excellent host, it is not easy to achieve the reception for approximately 30 people, they have really made us feel at home, thanks also to the old continental team Mireya, Beatriz, Father Ottorino and the always and unconditional support of Alberto de la Portilla and we also receive with joy the new coordinating team of America, welcome.