JPIC_en – Page 10 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Pentecost circular letter from Fr Francesco Pierli

20 May, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

Dear Friends. Dear Sisters and Brothers,

This year I am enjoying a tremendous experience of “Transformation” here in Castel D’Azzano, Italy. The reason is, that I have the opportunity of accompanying the transformation of nature from winter to spring, to autumn and to summer. You cannot imagine how is in Europe the difference between Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.

The sight I had during the last winter, January- February, from my big window and balcony, was the sight of skeletons, because all the trees around, which are many, were naked like bones without flesh and skin. You could think of death creatures, of death trees. But after a while: New life came. Magnificent. In the garden, the death dark grass and bushes, started to show a striking diversity of all possible hue pigments of green. And it was marvellous to see the gently transformation of the trees from nakedness to the “multi-coloured bright sight” wrapped up in lovely flowers and leaves. The key word of our Movement for Social Transformation is wonderfully reflected in the nature.

Of course, transformation includes all aspects of nature, because, everything is in the process of change and of evolution. The word “social” brings owe to us, to acknowledge that what brings in Europe transformations which occur in nature, are the seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Four parts of the year deeply different from one another. It is amazing how nature feels then. Each season has unique connotations. Spring: The season of the blossoming, new life, flowers all over and the full grown variety of colours and perfumes surpassing your smell capacity of enjoying creation. Beyond that the immaginario that many of these flowers will become sweet fruits. Summer is the season of the gradual ripening and maturing of everything. Very charming also how I caught sight of the herds of sheep looking for their pasture. Once I was in the middle of the herd, among them. Beautiful. Autumn is harvesting time, the leaves change colours which are also enchanting, and then fall down leaving a soft carpet on the soil. At that time all fruits are ripe. After that, comes the cold winter, snow and dew. Winter is the time for nature to resting, after harvesting time. It seems for nature to be in “life stop”, to be suffering only, but it is not so. There dwells its golden chance for its hidden intrinsic power to be regenerated for a new circle of life.

It is astonishing to realize how the contemplation of nature while accompanying the four different seasons, is a source of immense wisdom. It is important to transfer the seasons of nature, to the seasons of human life, to live them with delight, but also to assent to the inevitable painful transformations which do occur in our own lives. Without the ongoing changing of seasons nature should be truly death. The nature shows us, how we should be ready for changes and transformations, though at times full of mystery, hurting, painful and maybe sore, like during this Coronavirus time.

Now that we are near to the Celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit, let us reflect and link transformations to the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, the true “Transformer”, in our lives as Social Ministers, Social transformers, Social entrepreneurs.

The mystery of the event of transformations which occur in Jesus first and of most, because he became a human being and shared our human life, in many aspects from the conception in the womb of a woman, than in the life of the village and in the workshop of his father Joseph. And of course, his gradual human development whereby he like all of us went on. That was departing from his parents. By detaching himself from his village. So we do. In order to asset our own personal lives according to our own strength, our capacities, to our limits or potentialities. According to the Plan, God has for each one of us.

The beautiful for us is, to strongly believe that our lives are far more than a realization of a human project, all whose objectives are not only the personal good of each one of us, but first of all seen also as humanity as a whole, and of the cosmos as such. It is very important for us to have this very wide vision of all of us. Our life is never a private enterprise for the sake of the individual, but it has a community dimension and a cosmic dimension. It means that our own personal growth and holiness affects positively whatever exists because, none of us is an individual isolated from the others.

Each one of us has a big contribution to give to a cosmic plan, which boundaries and beauty will be partially discover only at the end of our personal life and globally perceived at the end of time when the cosmos will have the final connotation God the Father gives through the dynamism of the Holy Spirit when everything will be recapitulated in Christ at the Omega Point. Let us be aware of this Presence of the Holy Spirit. Let us be open to his action in us. He will be continuously transforming us, until through his light, love and action, we reach the stage of the world becoming truly the Kingdom of God our Father “Abba”.

I invite you cordially and respectfully to keep up to our mind-set, to the vision and mission we meant some time ago, and to build up our “Social Transformation Movement”. Born and blossoming with you in Africa, in Nairobi, it started to be spread to all Continents. I can see how from your riches, from your talents, from your creativity, from your culture you are exporting quality to the world. That is what I and Sister Teresita here now willingly call “The New Face of Africa”. Keep always the “team spirit”. “Togetherness” is the secret of your success: To be and act “like true brothers and sisters”, transforming society, each one and each “team” in the place and in the community in the area, in the country, in which everyone lives and works. Please, keep in touch, networking with each other and with me, with us. Thank you!

Golden Sequence: Come, Holy Spirit, send forth the heavenly ray of your light. Come, father of the poor, come, giver of gifts, come, light of hearts. Greatest comforter, sweet guest of the soul, sweet consolation. In labour rest, in heat, temperateness, in tears, solace. Heal that which is wounded. O most blessed light, fill the inmost heart of your faithful.

“Come Holy Spirit, strengthen our new born “Movement for Social Transformation”, strengthen our hearts and minds”. “Give us your heavenly grace to never give up”.

I and Sister Teresita wholeheartedly support you. Greetings and blessings, fraternally yours in Christ.

Prof. Fr. Francesco Pierli MCCJ

P.S. The title of my “Book of the Founder” is “AFRICA: THE CRADLE OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION” One subtitle is “NOT NEGOTIABLE EVENT”.

Laudato si’ and Ciranda highlight family farming in Maranhão

4 May, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

Source: Vatican news

The Center for Rural Innovation and Agroecological Development (Ciranda), offers theoretical and technical training in agroecology to 70 families in the city of Açailândia as an economic alternative to the region’s mining and agrobusiness chain, which is located right in the middle of the “Estrada de Ferro Carajás” (EFC) railroad. According to coordinator Xoán Couto, the Brazilian project is inspired by Laudato si’ because it follows the same path that unites faith and science in “response to the needs of communities, also taking into consideration traditional knowledge.”

Andressa Collet – Vatican City

The Ciranda is part of the cultural heritage of most Brazilian children. It is a song with a dance in a circle reminiscent of the wives of fishermen in the northeast of the country who sang while waiting for their husbands to return from the sea. It is a community dance, always awaiting “the other”, just like a project developed in the city of Açailândia, in the state of Maranhão, in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon.

A development project since 2018, Ciranda – an acronym for the Center for Rural Innovation and Agroecological Development – has bet its efforts on agroecology as an economic alternative to the mining industry and agribusiness in the region, located right in the middle of the “Estrada de Ferro Carajás” (EFC) railroad, which connects the largest open-pit iron mine in the world, in Carajás, southeastern Pará, to the Port of Ponta da Madeira, in São Luís, Maranhão.

Integral ecology thus emerges as a concrete possibility so families do not have to depend only on mining, but are able to safeguard the local economy, generating income at home with less impact on the environment. Ciranda’s coordinator, Xoán Carlos Sanches Couto, a Combonian lay missionary, explains the relationship with our common home, which can be adapted to the reality of each person: “Ciranda promotes the right technologies for family farming and farmers. Here we test and apply technologies and forms of production that are appropriately adapted to the property size of farming families, their knowledge, the workforce they have among their families, and the environment we have in this region.”

Agroecology inspired by Laudato si’

Xoán is a Spanish agronomist who has been in Brazil for 20 years working with families in the Amazon region of Maranhão. In the beginning, he created the “Casa Família Rural,” a type of community agricultural school to help improve the lives and education of rural youth. Today, together with Ciranda, he runs two projects that help 70 families in the region with theoretical and technical training.

In the courses offered, the children of farmers learn to familiarize themselves with ways of growing agroecological crops with the possibility of producing them on their own properties. These are technologies suitable for family farming that, once learned in school, are passed on to families and communities offering an ongoing series of incentives not to leave the rural environment. This is one of the prime examples coming out of Brazil, an initiative that does not solve global problems, but confirms “that men and women are still capable of intervening positively” to help improve the environment (Pope Francis, Laudato si’, 58).

The idea of working in agroecology, says Xoán, “is very much inspired by the Laudato si’ Encyclical. It is a crossroads of science and faith, which seeks the best that science has discovered to explain the environmental crisis, to provide answers with faith, but also with a scientific foundation. The Ciranda Center also takes the same approach. We use scientific knowledge, we have partnerships with research institutes and universities, but at the same time our response is based on the needs of communities with respect to traditional knowledge as well.”

Xoán gives examples of the techniques taught, ranging from green building, a traditional form of construction widely practiced in the region with clay and tiles made of recycled materials, to biogas production and rainwater harvesting with cisterns. But poultry, fish and beekeeping are also practiced; pigs are raised outdoors and agroforestry systems are promoted through planting of wood and fruit trees, as well as annual crops that are the residents’ food staples, “such as corn, beans, cassava. All this is planted together in a form called polyculture, where there is no monoculture and one species supports the other, so you have a balanced environment: it is very unlikely that a pest or insect will attack and cause economic damage. So this is a way to take inspiration from nature that also has a scientific foundation.”

Ciranda’s challenges: from fires to agribusiness

Despite the positive outcomes, there are challenges, like the fires that come from neighboring properties. Xoán says that in all, they manage to save the permanent crops, but their other efforts in areas like ecological grazing and forest reserves are often severely damaged by the fires. This has been in the case in the last two years: “this is a challenge that makes us think about how to overcome this problem in the coming years by building forest barriers that are less susceptible to fire. Even so, the results are already promising: we see in the families an enthusiasm and willingness to continue working the land, knowing that this is a mission to provide food for humanity and this can be done while preserving our common home, without damaging the environment”.

Cooperation with nature is already very present in the lives of most farmers. Yet not everyone has this awareness, because agrobusiness is very present at the local level, “transforming economies, landscapes and mentalities.” As the Pope writes in Laudato si’ (54), “economic interests easily end up trumping the common good” and “any genuine attempt by groups within society to introduce change is viewed as a nuisance based on romantic illusions.”

Xoán is fully aware of how Ciranda is an experience that “profoundly contradicts the notions of the capitalist market, where those who have more and those who make more money are worth more.” For this reason, he explains, many times “families tend to be ridiculed or dismissed, by saying that their approach does not work and this cannot feed humanity. But we already have several research studies that show how, for example, one hectare of agroforestry, which is the method we work with – the agroforestry system, is more productive than one hectare of soy monoculture. This is not only in monetary terms, but also in ecological terms. So, dismantling this ‘money mentality’ is one of the challenges we have and will be working on in the coming years.”

*Photos and video produced before the last steps were taken to address the Covid-19 emergency

About the mission among the Gumuz

28 April, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

When, in November 2020, I returned from Portugal, I never thought I would live the moments I have lived in these last months.

I live in Guilguel Beles, Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia, and in the mission we work essentially with the Gumuz people (we Comboni Lay Missionaries live with the Comboni religious in the same mission). We do not close our doors to anyone, but this is one of the most forgotten and abandoned people in Ethiopia and in the world.

Several people of other ethnic groups also live here, such as the Amara, Agaw and Chinacha. The soil is fertile and that makes it a desirable area. And therefore, many times, the Gumuz have lost land that belonged to them.

But even then, the people lived in peace, without major problems. In 2019, I was already in Ethiopia, a Gumuz village was attacked, people were killed, houses burned…. Our mission was a pioneer in providing aid to displaced people.

When I come back, in November 2020, Gumuz rebels started attacking some non-Gumuz. With great pain I learned of the death of many innocent people. Human life is precious.

However, I also witnessed the persecution of the Gumuz. People fled to the forest, houses were burned, dozens of young people were arrested without any justification.

I remember going with David, CLM, my mission colleague, to Debre Markos, in the Amara region, with two Gumuz because they were afraid of being killed. Several times we went to assist the detainees at the police station.

In the meantime, the government started to negotiate with the Gumuz rebels and for almost two months we managed to open schools, the clinic and the library.

However, the negotiations failed and the Gumuz rebels killed more people. It is not always easy to conclude negotiations when the proposals demanded are impossible to achieve.

In response, rebels from Amara and Agaw attacked villages, killed people and burned houses. The young men I share life with, the women in the group I followed, the children in the school and kindergarten had to flee into the forest: with no food, no clothes, nothing. People I knew were killed: innocent people!

Many people came to our mission to ask for food, money to buy food, medical assistance….

At first we prepared food for all the needy who came to us [“give them something to eat” (Mt 14:16)]; then, with the help of the Diocese, we offered pasta and every morning we offered a meal to more than 200 children. On Sundays we offer a meal after Mass.

David takes care of the meals every day and Sister Nives (a Comboni Sister) provides medical care to dozens of people each day.

I alternate between helping with the work with the children and going to Mandura, to the mission of the Comboni Sisters (who had to leave the mission, due to this guerrilla situation, living for now in our mission. But during the day they try to stay in the mission where they were, Mandura, to welcome the people who come) where I help in the domestic chores, like fetching water for the animals, for the house (as the sisters have no water at home), etc. and I welcome (me and the Comboni Sisters Vicenta and Cristiane) the people who come to greet or ask for help. Many of them risk coming to the mission, after walking three or four hours, to fetch the cereals they have stored in the sisters’ house or to ask for help.

It has been very hard to listen to so much suffering: people who are suffering, malnutrition, seriously ill children, people who have lost their relatives, who have lost their grain. How many times I find it hard to fall asleep thinking about this reality.

Mission consists of faces… and I see so many suffering faces. When I pray in Church and look at the cross of Jesus, I see many faces, I contemplate this suffering reality and I realize that Jesus is on that cross for us and that He continues to suffer daily for us. But at the same time I feel these words in my mind: do not be afraid, I am with you!

It is not easy to live these moments of suffering, but the experience of faith in Jesus, who spent His life doing good, who suffered, who was killed but was resurrected helps us to be witnesses of God’s Love among people.

Thank you to all of you who have contributed to the mission at different levels of prayer, friendship, affection and help. Without your participation we would not be able to help. Thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts!

There is no lack of tribulations, but be assured that your prayer sustains us. The mission is God’s and in Him we must put our trust.

Fraternal embrace,

Pedro Nascimento, LMC in Ethiopia

Comboni Social Forum March 2021

16 March, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

On March 5-6 we held the second meeting of the Comboni Social Forum 2021. If in previous editions this event coincided with the Global Social Forums, this time we chose to hold it online, which allowed us to enrich the participation, exceeding 200 participants. This meeting is a continuation of last December’s meeting, which reflected on Comboni ministerialities.

This edition of the CSF was based on the challenges of the significance of the Comboni mission, synodality within the Comboni Family and the style of life. In order to advance answers, it was designed the Mapping of Social Ministry in the Comboni Family, that it was presented at this meeting. A total of 205 Comboni presences were collected over several months and are now presented on a dedicated website which can also be accessed from the website of the General Secretariat for the Mission of the MCCJ.

In a formidable task, the various presences have been classified according to the institute that coordinates them, the geographical region, the sector [Health, Education, Development and Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)] and the priority area, among which we can find Afro descent people, human trafficking, missionary animation, migrants…. Each sector is further subdivided into more specific sectors, in order to give as much detail as possible to each presence.

By entering in each continent, you can access the concrete presences that are present in it, each one presented through a complete card that includes a brief summary, the Comboni charism to which it is linked, the Sustainable Development Goals involved or the human groups that are mainly involved. Among the charisms, we can highlight Making Common Cause, Regenerating Africa with Africa, Cenacle of Apostles or At the Foot of the Cross.

It also includes a very interesting element of analysis, the Social Ministry Rhombus, which allows us to quickly visualize this concrete presence according to 2 dimensions: direct service and Justice and Peace:

This rhombus can be used to visualize the complete set of all the presences, but also by continents or according to which institute is leading it:

A first impression shows that the dimension most present is that of human promotion, while that of denunciation is in the minority. In Africa, this approach is even clearer, and with regard to CLM-led presences, the weight of the vertical axis of JPIC is greater than the average.

Other very relevant aspects of the mapping is the articulation of each presence with civil or ecclesial entities and the joint participation of various branches of the Comboni Family in the mapping.

It is not possible to summarize all the information presented in this mapping but rather to invite each one to explore it according to his own concerns. On the other hand, the conclusions of the mapping presented during the CSF insist on the need to grow in the dimension of prophetic denunciation. In these conclusions we also highlight the challenge of synodality, since this first picture that we have drawn invites us to share among similar projects in terms of geography, sector, field… for shared reflection-action. And the powerful systemic approach that allows us to seek new answers to the enormous missionary challenges we face. It is an injection of enthusiasm to know all the Comboni presences documented and all that this mapping invites us to grow in the service of the Kingdom.

Gonzalo Violero, CLM Spain

Conclusiones-Foro-Social-Comboniano-2021_ES Download

Light and darkness

3 March, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

Sharing God’s love with others, receiving and giving, have determined our missionary vocation (Vicenta Llorca, Comboni Missionary Sister in Ethiopia for more than 40 years and Pedro Nascimento, Comboni Lay Missionary, two years in Ethiopia). As he did with Abraham, also to us, through prayer and personal discernment, God said: “Leave your country and go to the land that I will show you” (Gn 12:1). Our destination was Ethiopia, a country full of sunshine and hospitality. Ethiopia is a beautiful country, rich in history and culture, full of traditions and many peoples, with great linguistic diversity.

Benishangul-Gumuz is part of one of the regions of Ethiopia and one of the tribes present here is the Gumuz, a people of strong character, ready to fight to defend themselves in many ways. Our missionary work is especially among the Gumuz.

Our first impression was very good, as we always wanted to share our life with such a simple people. The community of the Comboni Sisters, located in Mandura, offers education, health care and catechetical pastoral care. The community of Comboni Lay Missionaries (David Aguilera and Pedro Nascimento) lives with the Comboni religious in Guilguel Beles, ten kilometers from Mandura, and tries to help both communities in the areas of education and catechetical ministry, as well as in the care of some of the sick.

Vicenta and Pedro work in pastoral and social service, since the person is complete with the development of the soul and body. One of the activities we carry out together is the accompaniment of the catechesis of women in their spiritual, human and material development. We know that women have an important role in the transformation of society and here they need to be aware of this. Gumuz women work very hard and are often left behind in opportunities such as education, where educational attainment is not a priority, especially for women and girls. Above all, they have to work in the fields, collect firewood for cooking, carry water from the spring or river, carry heavy sacks of cereals (the fruit of their work in the fields), take care of their children, cook…. The life of the Gumuz woman is difficult and full of sacrifices and hard work.

We meet every week with a group of women who have chosen a name for the group: “Peace Builders”, a name due to the war situation that we have been living for more than two years in our area. In this group we share the Word of God, pray for peace and have coffee together with the economic collaboration of all, and we become close in our experiences of pain and suffering, strengthen our friendship, share dreams and aspirations for the future. These meetings give us the possibility to get to know each other and to be closer to each other. It is our desire, according to our possibilities, to develop activities that can help women in the economic part, since they have an important role in the maintenance of the family.

All this is very beautiful and attractive, but human life is made of happy moments and painful moments, days of light and days of darkness.

Due to ethnic clashes, especially over land ownership, social stability has worsened, many have been killed, villages have been burned, some crops have been stolen by opportunists, many innocent people have been imprisoned without knowing the reasons, schools and medical posts have been closed due to insecurity, for fear of students being attacked by rebels and teachers and nurses attacked and kidnapped, as most of them belong to another ethnic group. Unfortunately, this has been our reality for the past two years, with times of peace and times of conflict and insecurity. However, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord (Rom 14:8) and He is always with us and accompanies us.

In the Sisters’ mission, some women asked for protection for few weeks, staying there to sleep. The situation worsened and they decided to escape to the forest, where they were able to hide. When the situation calmed down, little by little, the families returned to their huts. As we have already said, this situation has been repeated for two years and together we have experienced pain, insecurity, but also God’s protection. The works of God are born and grow at the foot of the Cross, as St. Daniel Comboni used to say.

None of this was foreseen when, full of illusions, we came to this mission, but we decided to make common cause with this people, to share the good and the bad moments, we decided to stay here and abandon ourselves in God’s hands. We have lived through many difficult moments and our presence here, in the midst of difficulties, is intended to be a testimony of fidelity to God manifested in fidelity to the people with whom we share our lives. It was Jesus who told us: “Behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).

In the midst of pain, of seeing the suffering of those who escape, of those who mourn for their loved ones, either because they have died or because they are deprived of their freedom, all this has become a time of grace that helps us to strengthen our faith and fidelity to a people who live in times of suffering. Making the pain of others my own shows us how important they are to us, how much we love them. St. Daniel Comboni taught us: I make common cause with you and the happiest day of my life will be the one when I give my life for you.

Right now peace talks are taking place between the government and rebel groups, schools and medical posts (some) are beginning to open. We are hopeful for times of peace, happiness and prosperity.

Pray for us and for the people of Ethiopia, because we cannot lose hope; pray that we will find support to develop economic activities with women and help families in need; pray for peace and fraternal communion.

Vicenta Llorca, Comboni Missionary Sister and Pedro Nascimento, Comboni Lay Missionary.