Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
We present the experience of La Zattera (The Raft) community in Palermo, created by some families of Comboni Lay Missionaries, for thirteen years it has been playing a welcoming role for foreign migrants, through paths of support and sharing.
“A free port, safe,” a community that involves many people who contribute to the creation of many activities, and who support this experience of fellowship and understanding for a better world.
We continue this series of testimonies with José Carlos Rodríguez.
A journalist of formation, he worked for more than 20 years as a Comboni missionary in Uganda reporting on conflicts and as a social worker after the civil war. He is the only Spaniard to have spoken with Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, during meetings and talks in which he participated with the aim of restoring peace in the country. He has also worked on conflict resolution projects in D.R. Congo and in the Central African Republic, where he continues to work today.
I share a sad news from northern Mozambique, from Carapira mission, sent by Regimar and Tito:
“Hi. We are fine. But the situation here is very complicated. A cyclone devastated Carapira last Friday. 90% of the houses destroyed, all the fields are gone. 10 deaths and 3 seriously injured. This is what I know. Surely there are more. We have no news from many communities.
There is a lack of food and clothes. Hunger is already a reality.
We are looking for help. The world doesn’t know what happened here.
We even donate our clothes.
We have no cell phone service and no power. Now we finally got a signal.
I am trying to get help from Caritas, from Helena. We have scheduled a conversation.
On Friday we sheltered 46 families, 150 people, in the center of Carapira. There are others in the catechetical center. I don’t know how many more, because people are arriving all the time. There are families with 30 people sheltered and without food”.
Let’s put them in our prayers and see what we can concretely do together!
A fraternal hug.
We share with you an inspiring letter for Christian commitment in politics and economics shared with us by Father Francisco Pierli and Sister Teresita Cortés.
Very dear friends and Colleagues,
Thanks to God, that after a long spell of silence we are now in position of joyfully communicating with you from a beautiful part of Italy where we Combonis have an institution for the recovery of sickly and elderly confreres. It is the so-called “Centro Alfredo Fiorini” dedicated to a Comboni Brother who was murdered in Mozambique during a Social Mission.
We are writing this letter to underline that our communion continues and hopefully will increase since the health of Fr Pierli is improving.
We took the opportunity to visit the House and the Museum of the great Italian Politician Alcide De Gasperi. In eight successive coalition governments he served as Prime Minister and he was always clearly inspired by the Catholic Social Teaching. He was one of the Founders of the European Union together with Konrad Adenauer from Germany and Robert Schuman from France. We did that visit to the House and Museum of Alcides De Gasperi as a pilgrimage. We are interested in the above mentioned Politicians because all of them and especially De Gasperi, were ready to invest themselves to the utmost to transform the Civil Society according to the Gospel values. They were Statesmen, with a vision of the future, totally committed to regeneration – rebuilding, after the Second World War, of their own respective countries socially and economically and to unite them into a federation as a seed of a greater United Europe. De Gasperi’s Cause of Beatification has been already started. “A Politician looks at the next election, but a Statesman looks at the next generation”. (Alcide De Gasperi).
They inspire us with their commitment, to re-interpret our Christian faith in Politics and Economics: in Parliament, in the State House and in Social life. In spite of the difficulties they met, they managed to penetrate the world of politics and in the field of economics with the Christian values elaborated in the Documents of the Social Teaching of the Church.
May their example and intercession help all of you Kenyan and African Politicians to be at the service of your people, actually people God has entrusted to you, for the liberation of the plague of the society, and for the construction of unity and communion at National and Continental level.
Fraternal greetings and best wishes! With our prayers for you,
Fr Francesco Pierli MCCCJ – Sr, Teresita Cortés Aguirre CMS
On September 25, 2021, the American CLM Committee: MCCJ Fr. Ottorino Poletto, Beatriz Maldonado and Mireya Soto, with the accompaniment of Alberto de la Portilla, were pleased to meet with the CLM of America and some of Europe, to have a formative conference, given by Father Dario Bossi, with the theme “the vocation of the laity in the socio-political and ecclesial context of America“.
Father Dario Bossi is a Comboni Missionary, currently provincial coordinator of the Comboni Missionaries in Brazil. The theme was developed in three important points: Colorful spots (to understand the situation where we are), Christian lights (lights that from the faith and the Church help us to understand the reality and provide ideas) and CLM Mission (some ideas that as missionaries, in our case Comboni Missionaries, we can develop).
He explained that America is a continent with cultural richness, natural resources, and in the face of the storm that humanity is going through, we CLM have the commitment to dialogue and act in favor of the poor and the needy, hence the hope and the lights that we have such as the Encyclicals of Pope Francis in which he speaks of the commitment to nature and the need for a Church to go out; The mission ad gentes and our relationship as Comboni family.
The conference has been recorded and you can listen to it and analyze it (here below in Spanish) for further enrichment of our groups.
Our meeting ended with the prayer that Christ taught us, giving thanks for having gathered and shared.
“Divine works are born and grow at the foot of the cross“. St. Daniel Comboni.
Mireya Soto, CLM American Committee
