JPIC_en – Page 8 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

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

Piquiá da Conquista: work on the new neighborhood continues at a good pace

27 December, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

We leave you a video published by Justiça nos Trilhos where we can see the progress of the struggle of a simple community against a large extractive company.

A struggle that the Comboni family has been accompanying for years.

You can also read and watch a video subtitled in Spanish in “El País”.

https://elpais.com/planeta-futuro/2022-12-19/piquia-el-poblado-de-chabolas-que-derroto-a-los-senores-del-hierro.html/

“Seeds” project assists cyclone Gombe victims in northern Mozambique

2 December, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

Since March when the powerful cyclone Gombe hit Carapira in northern Mozambique, destroying houses and farms. We, the CLM, have been working to alleviate the suffering of the population. Always in partnership with friends and people with good hearts.

With the help received from Brazil it was possible to carry out small projects. Among them the seeds project.

This Wednesday, November 23rd, we started the first phase of this project, which consists of delivering 5 kg of corn and 3 kg of beans to the most vulnerable families for planting.

The benefited families have the commitment to return the same amount received at harvest time, so that we can continue the project.

The Carapira Parish is composed of 94 communities divided into 5 regions with 22 zones. We chose to make the delivery in each zone to facilitate the access of the families.

The second phase will be on the 29th of this month. And the third will be at the beginning of December.

In this project there are more than 300 families contemplated.

On behalf of the families and the people of Carapira, I thank everyone who generously gave a little of what they have to help those who have even less.

God bless you all.

CLM Carapira

Education from the countryside for the countryside

21 November, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

It is time for another assembly of the Rural Family House, an association formed by country people, ex-students and people who believe in this proposal. The Comboni family present in Açailândia is part of this project, being directly involved Dida and Xoán, Liliana and Flávio, and Fr. Joseph.

The house offers a three-year technical course in agriculture and cattle raising, combined with high school, through the alternating cycle pedagogy.

There is a song that says: “I won’t leave the countryside to go to school. Education in the countryside is a right, not a handout.”

The goal of this space is exactly this! By enabling young people from the countryside to improve the profitability of family property, we reduce the rural exodus and promote family farming, also inserting agro-ecological techniques.

The school serves students from Açailândia, neighboring towns, and also from more distant cities, with students from three different states (Maranhão, Pará and Tocantins).

In the debate about the challenges faced by the school and that involve financial costs, one of the mothers present pointed out, “We are an association, we can collaborate and with the little of each one, we will get what is necessary.”

And so we go sowing in the collective construction the search for better conditions for farmers and peasants, and with this generate a seed of a better world.

CLM Brazil

Visit to Peru (II): Pangoa

20 October, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

Once the meeting was over and after saying goodbye to the participants from the different countries, I left for Pangoa, a town in the Peruvian jungle where our CLM have been doing missionary support during their vacations, especially for school support in the indigenous communities.

There I was received by the Comboni community who welcomed me very well. I had the opportunity to meet again Fr. Maciek, whom we met in Poland where he was supporting the CLM, and Fr. Lorenzo, who until a few months ago accompanied the CLM in Spain. During the three days of my stay I was able to visit the different services provided by the parish, how they attend to the people coming from the different indigenous communities, the visit to the Daniel Comboni school, where I was able to share some time with the older students, the visit to the cultural center that is being built and that will undoubtedly help a lot to make known the reality of the indigenous communities and to promote meetings that will strengthen their culture.

On the other hand, we had the opportunity to visit some of the indigenous communities closest to Pangoa. The territory of the parish is immense and getting into it requires an all-terrain car with 4-wheel drive to avoid getting stuck in the mud or the use of canoes to reach the most remote communities.

Pangoa is undoubtedly a parish full of needs and opportunities for missionary service. Who knows if one day we will be able to open an CLM presence in the area?

On the occasion of my visit we took the opportunity to organize a meeting with some people interested in becoming CLM. It was a small introductory meeting that we hope will serve as a seed that will later be nurtured and watered with missionary fruits in the area.

I leave you a video of the area recorded by the program Pueblo de Dios de España.

Kind regards

Alberto de la Portilla, coordinator of the CLM Central Committee.