Brazil | Comboni Lay Missionaries

Forum on Integral Ecology of the Comboni Family in America

29 May, 202326 May, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

On 22 May, the Forum of the Integral Ecology of the Comboni Family in America was held online on the theme “Towards a missionary ecological conversion”. More than 75 Comboni missionaries (brothers, priests, sisters and lay people) shared, for four hours, their pastoral activities in this field of integral ecology as part of the missionary call.

It was a day of sensitization and exchange of work, challenges, proposals and strategies to raise awareness of the planetary emergency and urgency of serious environmental degradation, as well as the great inequalities that affect the whole of humanity.

Encouraged by the Pact for the Common House made during the Synod of the Amazon 2019, the Comboni Family promotes the Comboni Pact for the Common House Común, which Father Dario Bossi (Comboni Missionary participant in the Amazon Synod) puts in context in this article. This pact invites us as missionaries to cultivate two complementary dimensions: reflection (study, prayer…) and concrete attitudes and gestures, and received a strong impetus during the Comboni Social Forum in Belém (Brazil) in 2022, which highlighted the resistance of indigenous people, women and youth to the harassment of the Common House in various forms.

During the meeting, Fr. Juan Armando Goicochea Calderón presented the work of the Laudato Si’ Center of Lima, as a center for formation, research and projects. A School of Formation in Integral Ecology is being organized for Comboni and diocesan pastoral workers. The publication of the book “This earth is in your hands” was an excellent initiative that has helped a lot, especially in the formation of young people. Two other sustainable production projects are underway: beekeeping (which protects biodiversity from industrial monoculture) and the export of organic coffee to Europe.

Mrs. Odile presented the Laudato Si’ Missionary Center of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which seeks to internalize the approaches of Laudato Si’ and to share initiatives to promote the Care of the Common Home. Among its activities are the annual meetings, which involve an exchange between civil institutions and the administration. Its members were present at the X Fospa (Pan-Amazonian Social Forum). In Brazil. Odile emphasized that this center is an opportunity to question the ecclesial pastoral and promote joint work between laity and religious, promoting critical ecological citizenship in defense of the common home. The Center is responsible for disseminating the contents of the encyclical in simple language, and for bringing ecological education to public and private educational centers.

Flávio Schmidt, a Brazilian Comboni layman who has worked in recent years in Piquiá de Baixo (Maranhão) together with the Spanish layman Xoan Carlos Sánchez, participated in the organizing committee of this event. This community of Piquiá continues to suffer from mining contamination and is a symbol of resistance and defense of the Common Home and Human Rights. .
CLM Spain

Send, send Lord, workers to the harvest. Listen, listen to this prayer…

25 May, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

It is with the words of the beginning of this song that I share the joyful news that the formation of the future CLM in Carapira, Northern Mozambique is happening within our possibilities and according to God’s will.

We asked and the Lord answered us, he sent us new workers for his harvest. It is up to us to do our part, to prepare them in the best way possible to take on the missionary work among the people, the mission of Jesus left to us and so well done by our founder Daniel Comboni. For it is God himself who says, “do your part and I will help you.”

Centered in Jesus Christ, following the Comboni charism, the example left by our founder, we LMC of Carapira have accompanied four young people who have felt the call to be lay missionaries and faithfully arrive every month for studies, reflections and sharing since last year (2022).

The long distance traveled on foot (3 to 4 hours, most of the time without drinking or eating anything), did not become an impediment to their participation. Moved by the strength of God’s Spirit and the desire to announce the Good News, they are faithful to the commitment of their preparation for missionary work. For me, this is nourishment on the journey.

Our meetings take place monthly, beginning at eight o’clock in the morning on Saturday and ending with lunch on Sunday.

The way they dedicate themselves, the effort they make to learn, the enthusiasm of each one at each meeting, seeing them overcome challenges that are not few is the best reward I receive.

In fact, working with the Macua people is a reason to thank God every day for his mercy and kindness in providing me with so much growth, maturity, and experience of faith.

From Carapira, a strong missionary hug to all and lots of axé.

Regimar Costa

CLM Brazil – Mozambique

Recent news about Piquiá (Brazil)

29 March, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

A new video has been published where we can follow the current reality of the community of Piquiá de Baixo accompanied by our CLM in Brazil.

In it they show you how the exposure to pollution, gases and cement dust from the companies continues to make the inhabitants of the community sick.

The video is in Portuguese, but you can activate the subtitles and set the automatic translation to follow the news.

The APAC Project and the promises of prisoner reintegration

7 February, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

We leave you here a very interesting interview with Valdeci Ferreira, Brazilian CLM who has 39 years dedicated to recovering people who have failed in their lives and have been imprisoned.

He explains to us the APAC method where the recuperandos (prisoners) themselves hold the keys to the prison, help each other and where the person is recovered for society. “No one is impossible to recover” is one of the slogans of APACs and that make possible this dream of giving a new possibility to those who one day made a mistake.

PS. It is in Portuguese but subtitles can be added.

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