Comboni Family – Page 15 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Stopping inequality is in your hands

10 February, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

With this slogan, Manos Unidas (NGO of the Spanish Church), begins its annual campaign.

Manos Unidas has been known for supporting development projects around the world.

As Comboni Lay Missionaries, we collaborate in the campaign when we are asked to do so and we share our experience of the support received.

This year, Monsignor Jesus Ruiz, Comboni missionary and bishop of our diocese in Central African Republic, participated in a special way.

We leave you the video interview made for the campaign where we can hear the situation in the country.

Dário Bossi, an Italian Comboni missionary who has been working for years in Brazil with our CLM community, told us in the opening press conference of this year’s campaign about the situation in Brazil where our CLM are also present (his intervention from minute 25).

We also leave you the interview that Fr. Dário was given on television on the occasion of the presentation of this campaign.

On the rails of love and friendship our train travels through life (3/3).

2 February, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

And the train goes on. Up and down these tracks. We stop in front of the station below. From Piquiá de Baixo. Land of suffering people, forgotten and mistreated. Land of exploitation, of confusion and resurrection. The dragons described in the book of the apocalypse are there. There are five of them. One of them has 12 heads that spit fire and iron, forming a river of blood that begins in the north and flows into the southeast. Where death is present, fighting for life is not a choice, it is an obligation. The obligation is not to fight for your own life, but to put yourself in the fight for the life of the poorest, the most fragile, the smallest in our society.

We are surprised by another train that passes by our side and accompanies us for a few good moments. With its strong machine, its well-structured cars and wheels capable of crossing the country’s borders, this train has a name and a surname: Justice on Rails. Justice is one of those words that allow many meanings and significance. But it needs to be accompanied by struggle, dedication, and wisdom. This justice is not like many we come across around, this one has a strong purpose: the “us”. Not for there or here. It is “us. It is where it needs to be present. That’s where it really needs to be: rails. Where we can come and go. The right and safe way. But this last name is determinant, it goes where justice is acclaimed and is necessary. It is these tracks that guide, that direct, that lead, the dedicated work of all those who put themselves on the train of life.

There were many stations that helped us get to know more of that piece of land and dream. The ground of people who work, who do, and who insist. A dream dreamt by those who feel the burning of the missionary call, the dream of many and the call of all. We got to know the school that is family, that is rural, but that the asphalt of the city leads us to. A family with many fathers and mothers. Planting knowledge, watering with doubts and harvesting lives. Young students who have a thirst for knowledge, who disconnect from their families to live connected to learning. Educators who are not teachers. They are beyond. If we have a word that represents the one who teaches, who is dedicated, who overcomes limits, who puts body and soul into the art of teaching, who does not measure efforts and does not count resources. These are the missionaries of education, or educators in mission.

From afar we can already see the next station. Full of welcoming people. They are the ones who form the communities: of the Rosário and Santa Luzia. They are women, men and children. They are elderly, bedridden and barefoot. They are everyone who makes us learn about life and living. It’s a quick conversation, a broad smile, but always, a gesture of affection that always accompanies them.

It was at this station that we shared the food, drank juice, lots of juice, shared our anguishes and doubts. It was there, in that little piece of Brazil, that we met to learn, with each other, with those who welcomed us, and with everyone else who joined us on this trip, under the tracks of humility and unconditional love.

Tranqüillo Dias

Prayer Intentions of the Comboni Family February 2023

1 February, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

That the celebration of the International Day against Female Genital Mutilation (on 6th February) may help all of us, women and men missionaries, to increase our attention and care for the dignity of women, especially those most vulnerable, and that, through the intercession of Saint Bakhita, we may know how to find new ways of “making common cause” with all victims of oppression and inequality. Let us pray.

On the rails of love and friendship our train travels through life. (2/3)

31 January, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

The perfume takes over our entire train. They are the ones who come to take us by the hand and guide us, as the conductors of this train. They are the ones who smile at us, as a gesture of their welcome. They are the ones who feed us and toast us. Yes, all women. Joyful, marked by the years of life and struggle, beautiful and smiling. Young and experienced. Short, long, and gray hair. The women who have passed us on this journey have shown that they are capable of embracing and fighting. To face great dragons and to stroke our heads when we turn on our feet. Eunice is one of these women. The first to welcome us to the priests’ home. Always attentive and welcoming. She marks our first contact with the women of that place. Also Dina and Maynara were in our wagon during this whole itinerary. They were the ones who prepared our way, organizing and cleaning the house of the CLM. They are the ones who welcomed us, taught us about the things of that place. They are the continuators of the struggles and celebrations of such a welcoming people. Suddenly, we were all together. The girls run among us in a game of getting closer, the young women who stare at the strangers are curious about those who come from afar, the women who open their arms and hearts to welcome us, and the ladies, the leaders who have already done, are doing, and, if necessary, will be able to do it all again.

Knowledge is something that only grows when we share it. And so it was on our mornings, sipping coffee or a mug of juice, many juices, that we shared our knowledge with Marcelo, Father Carlos, João Carlos, Valdênia, Renato, Yonná, Morgana and Father Joseph. And everything ends with a taste of wanting more, of staying in that station for a few more hours, days, lives. Learning is something unique and contagious. Those who learn begin to live with the desire to teach, to transmit, to share what they have received. But there is also teaching without words. With gestures, conversations, but mainly with attitudes. Father Silvério is one of these. He looks at the smallest, the little ones, with a sparkle in his eyes, stories to tell and a whole life to dedicate to them.

We arrived at the highest station, the “Piquiá da Conquista” station. When I saw in the distance, hidden among the açaí palm trees, mango trees and babaçu trees, those little white houses, all well organized, a distant story of a place known as the Promised Land came to mind. It was while talking to Dona Tida, in the facilities of the restaurant Sabor da Conquista, that we learned about the history and the conquest that was taking place there, in front of us, present in the lives of the people of Piquiá de Baixo. Just like the Promised Land, this story has its Moses. One of the leaders of the community who was present in all the moments and struggles of this people. But it was on the day the first brick was laid, the day Piquiá da Conquista was sighted, that Mr. Edvar passed away from respiratory complications. Yes, he was one of those who died from the pollution brought by the steel mills to Piquiá de Baixo. Dona Tida (Francisca), like Josué, leads the people through the Piquiá River, promotes meetings, discusses, listens, and organizes the people. There are 312 houses. There will be 312 families with a new place to live, far from the dragons, but not far from their flames and smoke.

Perhaps you ask why this journey. Maybe these are not your tracks. Maybe none of it makes sense to you. But I can assure you of one thing, you have a way that is uniquely yours. But I have met a man, frail in appearance, intense in look, with a life well lived. To summarize this man, Ms. Tida revealed to us a secret that only experienced people, able to hear the whisper of God, are able to tell us. She asked us: Do you know that man who has the way of God? Our glances met as if asking: we still don’t know the way of God and how will we recognize such a person. She then asks us: do you know Father Dario? Our eyes open and everyone confirms: Yes, we know Father Dario. Each one with his or her own story about the one who has “God’s way”.

To be continued…

Statement of the Comboni Family of Peru: “We want peace”.

25 January, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Pronouncement of the Commission “Justice, Peace and Integration of Creation”.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” Mt 5.9

The Comboni Missionaries (MCCJ), the Comboni Missionary Sisters (CSM) and the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM), present in the Coast, Highlands and Jungle of Peru, we join the call for peace with social justice, that different instances and institutions of our civil society and the church, have been requesting, and echoing the words of our Pope Francis and our pastors: “Violence, extinguishes the hope of a just solution to the problems, which encourages us to the path of dialogue.” No more violence wherever it comes from!
Faced with the serious social crisis that our country is going through, with increasingly worrying levels of violence, we call on our authorities to summon representatives of all possible sectors to a fraternal dialogue table to listen to us and seek solutions to the crisis in the short, medium and long term. We are not listening to each other! Many of us are using terms that divide, stigmatize, offend and discriminate. Let us look for terms and strategies that unite us, let us be bridges of union and reconciliation. May each one of us become an instrument of peace!
The pandemic showed us with crudeness, as in an x-ray, the weaknesses we have as a country: poverty, inequalities, the precariousness accumulated for decades of our health system, also of unequal education, regions and towns forgotten by the State where there is a lack of basic services such as water, sewage, a medical post, etc. How many of these demands are already being met?
We are a rich country not only because of our minerals, but also because of the diversity and cultural richness of our people. Enough of belittling ourselves because of the color of our skin or the place we come from. We are all Peruvians with the same rights and the same duty to move our country forward. Our differences must become a channel of grace and blessing for our people.
We call on the political class and our authorities to interpret the generalized discontent in our country and to use all legal and democratic tools to find a solution as soon as possible to this crisis that has been taking human lives and paralyzing the country. For decades, we have been observing how our politics has been increasingly degrading to levels that are difficult to understand. There is a contained rage, which is beginning to express itself in ever greater forms of violence. However, we all have the right to demonstrate in a peaceful, just and democratic way, but never in a violent and destructive way wherever it comes from! It is not possible that the current congress is more concerned with passing bills that favor their own interests, while the people they represent suffer loss of life. It is incomprehensible that, in 6 years, we are already on our sixth president and that, of the last 10 presidents of Peru, 7 of them are in trouble with the justice system for corruption crimes. How is it possible that, of the 26 regional governments, most of them are also being investigated for corruption, as well as many provincial and district mayors’ offices? Corruption means fewer schools, fewer hospitals, fewer roads and fewer opportunities for all!
We ask all the members of the Comboni Missionary Family, in its various sectors: mission, formation, animation and all those close to us and committed to our work, to continue to bet on life, for it is the greatest gift that God has given us and to continue working for peace and for the good of our families, for being the cradle and first school of values that make a dignified life possible. Let us continue working so that these difficult times we are going through may make us more human and more brothers and sisters. May Our Lady of Peace intercede for us!

WE WANT PEACE!

COMBONI FAMILY OF PERU

January 24, 2023