On the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York, Comboni missionary and journalist Fr. Giulio Albanese MCCJ addresses the theme of the civil economy in the webinar “Economy, land of mission”, promoted by the European Coordination of Comboni Lay Missionaries. Albanese reveals the mechanisms of the “shadow banking” system, one of the main culprits of the increasingly insurmountable gap between the North and the South of the world, further aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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On the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York, the Comboni missionary and journalist Fr. Giulio Albanese MCCJ will talk about civil economy in the webinar “Economy, land of mission “, promoted by the European Coordination of Comboni Lay Missionaries. The meeting, in line with the “The Economy of Francesco” project, will be broadcast in live streaming, with simultaneous translations in English and Spanish, on Saturday 11 September from 10 am to 1 pm on the youtube channel of the Comboni Missionaries:
The recording of the meeting will later be available on the same channel.
Starting from a geopolitical analysis of the European continent, Fr. Albanese will reveal the mechanisms of the shadow banking system, one of the main causes of the increasingly unbridgeable gap between the North and the South of the world, further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The missionary will then reflect on the theme of solidarity, understood as the co-responsibility of citizens, believers and non-believers, in combating social exclusion and in taking care of the “res publica”, or the “common home” of humanity. The reference to the words of Pope Francis is clear, “ours is not an era of changes, but a change of era”.
Hence the crucial question: is it possible to reconcile business with the demands of the common good for a more equitable, just and supportive society?
The answer is yes and this is the key message of the webinar: appeal to citizenship, and in particular to the Comboni Lay Missionaries, so that we take care of the common goods together with local administrations, an invitation already sanctioned by the Italian Constitution in the last paragraph of the art. 118, based on the “principle of subsidiarity”.
“What to do then in practice, thinking above all of the needs for development and progress in the peripheries of the planet?” – asks Fr. Albanese – “It is clear that the missionary world must take the field, evangelizing even in the economic area. We need consecrated persons and lay people who are able to study new strategies as hoped for by Pope Francis in the historic summit of young economists in 2020 in Assisi ”.
Hence the really concrete proposal, from the point of view of the real economy, of an innovative model that involves civil society, the so-called “social business”. The objective of the model, conceived by the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus (1940), Bengali economist and creator of modern microcredit, is the creation of enterprises with social purposes to be conceived and run as real companies, but with the imperative of social advantage instead of profit maximization. Keywords? Sustainability and the concept of shared wellbeing, never exclusive.
The meeting will continue in private form the afternoon, from 5 to 7 pm, as a laboratory for the European and extra-European Comboni Lay Missionaries, invited to reflect on the teachings of Fr. Albanese and the real opportunities to put the Yunus model into practice.
Father Giulio Albanese MCCJ (Rome, 1959) is a member of the Congregation of Comboni Missionaries and a journalist. He directed the New People Media Center in Nairobi and founded the Missionary Service News Agency (MISNA) in 1997. Author of 15 books published by houses such as Feltrinelli, Einaudi, EMI Editrice Missionaria Italiana, Messaggero di Padova, he collaborates with numerous newspapers and radios, including L’Osservatore Romano, Avvenire, Radio Vaticana, Giornale Radio Rai, apart from previous collaborations with BBC, CCN, Radio Svizzera Italiana. He has taught Missionary Journalism and Alternative Journalism at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome and has directed the missionary magazines of the Pontifical Mission Societies (Popoli e Missione and Il Ponte d’Oro). In 2003 the Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi awarded him the title of Grand Officer of the Italian Republic for journalistic merits in the South of the world. Since January 2018 he is also editor-in-chief of the Amici di Follereau magazine. He is a member of the Committee for charitable interventions in favor of Third World countries of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) and host of broadcasts and forums on issues related to Africa and the South of the world. He carries out his pastoral ministry in the Regina Pacis parish of Fiuggi.
Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM)
They are men and women of all ages – individuals, couples and families – inspired by the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth and the charism of his disciple St. Daniel Comboni (Limone sul Garda, 1831 – Khartoum, 1881). They live off their work and set up choices and lifestyles at the service of justice and peace and respecting the environment. They are part of the Comboni Family together with the Comboni Missionary Sisters, the Comboni Missionaries and the Comboni Secular Missionaries. Along with them, they are committed to carry out the Comboni project “Regenerating Africa with Africa” (1864) through periods of voluntary service in the South of the world (“missio ad gentes”) or where they live and work every day (“missio intra gentes”). CLM are present in Europe (Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain), in Africa (Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Togo, Uganda) and in the North, Central and South America (Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, United States).
Today’s challenges remind me of those of Comboni. They are not the same. Of course, in Comboni’s time they were much more difficult. The desert crossing, the various diseases, the fevers, the broken arm that had to be broken again to put it back in place (I shudder just to think of it), etc.
But now we are also living in a time of desert. The expectation of the trip to Africa, the sending of documents, the pandemic, the wait for the vaccine, the request for renewal of documents and the wait again. All for a greater cause, which is Jesus.
But through it all, I can’t complain. I was welcomed with great affection and the work is producing results.
After a stop for life: because the virus does not mess around and we value the welfare and life of our people, the people of God. Little by little, and following all the WHO guidelines, we are resuming some pastoral work.
We have restarted the adult and children’s choir, but with only two members at a time. (photos of the rehearsals).
The catechesis is done online to preserve the health of the children. The participation is very good, even in spite of some difficulties such as the lack of Internet in some families. So that these children are not harmed, we have chosen to visit them without entering their homes and without them going out. It is a catechesis from the door of the house, in the street, without physical contact, without proximity.
Group of catechists from the community of Nossa Senhora Aparecida (Ipê Amarillo neighborhood).
We have resumed the liturgical formation with the team of the community, since there are few people, we do it in person without forgetting the care.
We participated in the triduum of the martyr Fr. Ezequiel Ramín, together with the parish and the parish group of Comboni spirituality.
We have made and participated in some videoconferences.
In the coming days we will celebrate the national week of the family in the parish, the catechesis meeting with the confirmation group, in addition to the existing works.
A few days ago I discovered a new hidden talent (laughs), I discovered myself as a wall painter. Together with the Camey family from Guatemala, we painted the façade of the Comboni House. Modesty aside, it looks beautiful!
In social work we are together registering and distributing baskets of basic commodities. This is a collaboration with the diocese. These baskets come from the fine that the mining company Vale paid for the Brumadinho disaster.
And so we continue the mission in the way the Lord presents it to us.
It is rewarding and I can say with certainty that I will miss Ipê Amarelo, its people and especially the children.
Maria Regimar, CLM at the Mission House of Santa Teresinha, in Ipê Amarelo, Contagem/MG. Brazil.
This past weekend we held the third and last webinar on the ministeriality of the Comboni Family.
During the first two we were receiving as participants many proposals and challenges. The commission presented us the great work of the information gather on all the projects that the Comboni Family is carrying out throughout the world in different countries and continents.
There is a great wealth of service being carried out.
In this last meeting we had plenty of time for conversation.
On Friday, in addition to update the progress we have made, we were able to share in small groups the concrete work that each one of us is doing and to deepen our understanding of it. It was a very nice moment to know firsthand the direct service of the participants of the group and the importance of it. It is true that it is only a sample of all that is done as a Comboni family, but we were able to discover the passion with which it is done and the interrelationship between a service and another.
On Saturday we continued in this line analyzing the impact that these services are having in the different communities and even tried to broaden the vision of our work, the need to network with the rest of the Comboni family as well as with other groups inside and outside the church and to be aware of how the macro structural aspects influence the concrete communities and make this networking more and more necessary.
We ended by sharing ideas on how to continue the collaboration as Comboni family as it has been done during these meetings.
We are thankful to the commission on ministeriality of the Comboni Family that has made these meetings possible and to the great work of systematizing all that has been shared during these years, which offers us a lot of material for analysis to improve our missionary service.
The idea of continuing to collaborate by sectors was very much repeated, so that those of us who share the same type of services can collaborate and exchange experiences.
On the other hand, we talked about the importance of being able to meet regularly as a family. From the meeting we get to know each other deeply and new ideas for collaboration can emerge. Perhaps having an annual meeting in each country would be an idea to consider. A place where we can get to know each other in greater depth, share the services we are performing and respond as a family to the challenges of the mission from the place where we are. From there will emerge initiatives that can also be carried out both at the continental and international level.
May the charism of Comboni inspire us in this collaboration for a better missionary service.
I would like to tell you the story of Tarekegn who used to be a street child. Tarekegn comes from a family that is not well-off. He has both parents and as many as seven siblings. Tarekegn used to go with his father to the district called Zero Amist. His father used to give catechesis in one of the Protestant churches. The boy, however, began to fall into bad company. In the local area, he met street children who encouraged him to use stimulants, to go out with them and to beg.
Tarekegn got so screwed that one time he ran away by himself and stayed on the street. He began to spend days and nights there. He took on some very bad habits. His family knew this and had sporadic contact with him as his home is just outside Awassa and his father works in the city itself. Tarekegn, however, was not listening to anyone.
One day he ended up at the center. He began attending open classes. He was one of the first boys to be admitted to the center shortly after the pandemic started. The boy was glad that he could live with us, but I must admit that it was not easy with him. During his rehabilitation, we had various problems with him, which were relatively more than with other children. Tarekegn has changed a lot over time. There was a year with us. In the end, it all turned out well and he went home. He lives with his family and continues school. I believe it will stay that way and he will never come back to the street.
Magdalena Soboka, CLM Ethiopia
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