Congo – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Memory of Africa Project: María del Prado Fernández Martín

14 July, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

We continue this series of testimonies with the Comboni Sister María del Prado Fernández Martín.

Sister Prado Fernández, a Comboni Missionary, arrived in Africa in 1986 and lived for 30 years in different countries of the continent such as the Central African Republic, Chad or Congo until 2016.

In this interview, Prado tells us about her work as a missionary in areas such as health, education and pastoral care, making her work known through her journey. Above all, participating in the realities of the communities and what it has meant to her to share with the people.

(video in Spanish)

Memory of Africa Project: María Luz Sánchez Aragón

17 April, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

We continue this series of testimonies with Sister María Luz Sánchez Aragón.

Sister Maria Luz Sanchez Aragon is a Comboni missionary sister who has been working in Congo for more than 20 years.

She talks about all her years of missionary presence, especially her missionary vocation, her years of presence in Congo and her evolution facing the difficult reality that the country and the world continue to go through.

(video in Spanish)

African Memory Project: José Carlos Rodríguez

6 July, 2022 by Alberto de la Portilla

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.

African Memory Project: Enrique Bayo Mata

10 June, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

We continue this series with Fr. Enrique Bayo Mata, a Comboni Missionary who spent fifteen years in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fr. Enrique tells us about his rich experience of learning the African liturgy and his work on the continent, which includes, in addition to pastoral service, publishing, radio and television. For many years he has collaborated with the CLM in Congo, at the African level and even within the Central Committee of the CLM. (Interview in Spanish)

New commitment of the Comboni Lay Missionaries of the DRC

20 October, 2020 by Alberto de la Portilla

Since April 2018, this is the third time that the Comboni Lay Missionaries of Congo commit themselves to the mission ad gentes and ad vitam in the international movement of the Comboni Lay Missionaries.

There are six new members (6): Flory SEZABO, Paulin KUVULA, Guy SINYEMBO KALENGE, Fabienne EKENGE ALENGO, Christian NSONA and Cécile WAMBA, who have freely and voluntarily decided to commit themselves before God and the Christian assembly this Sunday 11 October 2020 in the parish of St. John Paul II of the Comboni Missionaries.

“You too go into my vineyard” (Mt. 20:3-4). “The lay faithful are also personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission for the Church and for the world”.

All lay people are missionaries in virtue of their baptism, referring to the words by which Jesus Christ, Crucified and Risen, before ascending to heaven, entrusted to the Apostles the missionary mandate: “Go, therefore, from all nations, make disciples, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”, in fact, it does not cease to resound, as a universal call and an ardent appeal.

As the Comboni laity grows over time, the province proceeded, for the third time, to the definitive consecration of 6 members and this, during the Eucharistic celebration presided over by its Chaplain, Fr. Célestin NGORE GALI, mccj and animated by the Choir afriquespoir des Laïcs Missionaires Comboniens, on 11 October 2020.

After pronouncing the formula of commitment before the altar, the chaplain imposed the cross on them, a sign of the following of Christ. Jesus died crucified, nailed to a cross. For Christians, the cross is the symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection. For Comboni too, suffering was represented by the cross: “We will have to tire, sweat, die; but the thought that we sweat and die for the love of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the most abandoned souls in the world is too sweet to make us turn away from this great enterprise”. It is the sign of salvation that God offers to all mankind. And the Writings of Comboni, a sign of his definitive belonging to the Comboni family.

As a driving force in mission promotion, after having organized its second provincial assembly in December 2019, the province is working to hold its 20^th Congress next November 2020, together with the other Cenacles of Prayer and Missionary Spirituality.

In summary, the activities of participation for the creation and promotion of Cenacles of Missionary Prayer (MSC) and similar are developing normally. In addition to the realization of the Mission Ad Gentes, therefore, we inform that there are two members, one of whom had just completed his mission in the Central African Republic and the other is doing it locally in an orphanage.

CLM DRC

Communication Officer : Gabriel MANIMA MPELA