Europe – Page 33 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Easter Message

5 April, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

I am the Resurrection and the Life

The sisters sent this message to Jesus: “Lord, the man you love is ill.” Jesus said: “This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory and through it the Son of God will be glorified”. “I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies, he will live…” Do you believe this? “Yes, Lord”, she said, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world” (Jn 11, 3.4.25-27).

The world is going through a very difficult period due to the Covid 19 which continues to cause much suffering with thousands of people falling ill and dying. There are various peoples who are suffering not only due to the Covid-19 but also because of wars, instability, being left homeless, dangerous migrations, problems provoked by climate change and economic circumstances. When we think of the pandemic, we remember the many confreres and sisters who have had this experience of death and resurrection and are now in the glory of the Risen Lord. In this sorrowful situation of suffering and death where the Christ of Good Friday is continuously crucified and dying in those who suffer the consequences of this pandemic, it is not an easy matter to find words of encouragement, of joy, of life or, in the final analysis, of resurrection.

However, it is precisely because we are Christians and missionary disciples of the Lord that we are invited this Easter to place our trust in Him who is the Lord of life and has gone through suffering, sorrow and humiliation even to dying on the Cross, and being raised from the dead by the Father. Consequently, the words He spoke to Martha on the death of her brother Lazarus are all the more appropriate for us and the whole of humanity at this moment: “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies he will live and whoever lives and believes in me will never die”.

Faith in the resurrection and the hope that He has brought us are the greatest and most precious gifts we can proclaim and offer to all people. Let us never tire, therefore, of repeating to each and every person: Christ is risen! Filled with this certainty, we bear this proclamation to every community, ever home and every family and to all those places where people suffer most. As Pope Francis affirms: “Let us try, if we can, to make the best use of this time: let us be generous; let us help those in need in our neighbourhood; let us look out for the loneliest people, perhaps by telephone or social networks; let us pray to the Lord for those who are in difficulty in Italy and in the world. Even if we are isolated, thought and spirit can go far with the creativity of love. This is what we need today: the creativity of love. This is what is needed today: the creativity of love” (Video message of Pope Francis for Holy Week 2020).

It is the mission of compassion that we, as missionaries, are called to proclaim, the closeness of God to His people, His tenderness and His love. Like Jesus, who cured many sick people, we are today His instruments to heal suffering, indifference, selfishness and the distancing that this disease generates. It is the mission of the encounter that makes room for acceptance and fraternity that generates life in abundance for all. We are therefore missionaries of hope and joy in the present context when we prophetically remind everyone that “We cannot go ahead, each one on their own, but only together” (Homily of Pope Francis, 27/03/2020). This is a new way of being in the world: not just a return to the past we know but a way of being involved in the world with creativity and wisdom.

It is only by confronting the cross that we can find the hope we need to live as risen people, as Daniel Comboni teaches us: Could a true apostle’s heart ever be downcast and fearful at all these obstacles and extraordinary difficulties? No, it is not possible, ever! Triumph is in the Cross alone. (W. 5646). This is the triumph of the Risen One. In the Risen Jesus, life has overcome death. This is the hope for better times, the hope that never leaves us disappointed.

With these sentiments of joy, we wish for you and all of us a Holy Easter of Resurrection!

Rome, 19 March 2021

The MCCJ General Council

Prayer Intentions of the Comboni Family April 2021

1 April, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

April – That the Secular Comboni Missionaries may always live in the paschal dynamic of death and resurrection in the certainty that the Spirit will continue to guide them on their journey. Lord hear us.

Cristina’s missionary experience in the Central African Republic

23 March, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

We present to you an interview with Cristina Souza about her missionary experience in the Central African Republic.

(The interview is in Portuguese).

Where the Spirit blows

19 March, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

He is no longer “the same person who left” in 2017, Simone Parimbelli, 38 years old, Comboni Lay Missionary of the Diocese of Bergamo, who returned in September 2020 from Mongoumba in Central African Republic. Because, as he says with light in his eyes, “the mission opens the heart and the horizon and being outgoing changes you: from the conception of the missionary style to the relationship with time and space, with oneself and with God”. It happens when you are “in close contact with the sufferings and joys of the other” and live for three and a half years in the heart of the tropical forest, in the diocese of Mbaiki, in Mongoumba, where the Comboni Fathers have been working with the AKA pygmies for more than 30 years.

“It seems absurd, but these people are not recognized by other ethnic groups and have no access to education or health care; enslaved by the Bantu masters and without a birth certificate, they are ghosts in the flesh,” says Simone, denouncing a country that, despite many riches, lives in a condition of colonialism and misery.

“Being next to them, you become a door to knock on”, continues Simone who, as a layman, has sometimes “managed to enter into the concrete lives of people much more than priests, divided between the administration of the parish and the Eucharistic celebrations over a vast territory”. When he arrived in Mongoumba, he proposed several activities of animation, transforming for example the school of Ndobo, close to the pygmy camps, in an oratory, like the one of his parish of Osio Sopra, where growing up, at a certain point, he asked himself “what is the use of my faith?”.

From the question about vocation to the answer to a call, the step is, so to speak, short: it’s 7,500 kilometers along with everything else. But “when you have perhaps intuited what you can be in the world and for the world, you have to prove it”.

So, the diocese of Bergamo, Bishop Francesco Beschi, the Missionary Center and the international movement of the Comboni Lay Missionaries give him “the possibility and the grace to live this experience: 1,300 days of fragility and brotherhood” in a young Church “that knows how to generate children in faith and where joy prevails”.

Sent and welcomed: in a continuous cycle that, in the future, perhaps, will push him elsewhere, where the Holy Spirit blows, which, in Sango, the language of the Central African Republic, is called Yingo-Gbya.

(By Loredana Brigante, POPOLI e MISSIONE magazine. February 2021)

Comboni Social Forum March 2021

16 March, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

On March 5-6 we held the second meeting of the Comboni Social Forum 2021. If in previous editions this event coincided with the Global Social Forums, this time we chose to hold it online, which allowed us to enrich the participation, exceeding 200 participants. This meeting is a continuation of last December’s meeting, which reflected on Comboni ministerialities.

This edition of the CSF was based on the challenges of the significance of the Comboni mission, synodality within the Comboni Family and the style of life. In order to advance answers, it was designed the Mapping of Social Ministry in the Comboni Family, that it was presented at this meeting. A total of 205 Comboni presences were collected over several months and are now presented on a dedicated website which can also be accessed from the website of the General Secretariat for the Mission of the MCCJ.

In a formidable task, the various presences have been classified according to the institute that coordinates them, the geographical region, the sector [Health, Education, Development and Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)] and the priority area, among which we can find Afro descent people, human trafficking, missionary animation, migrants…. Each sector is further subdivided into more specific sectors, in order to give as much detail as possible to each presence.

By entering in each continent, you can access the concrete presences that are present in it, each one presented through a complete card that includes a brief summary, the Comboni charism to which it is linked, the Sustainable Development Goals involved or the human groups that are mainly involved. Among the charisms, we can highlight Making Common Cause, Regenerating Africa with Africa, Cenacle of Apostles or At the Foot of the Cross.

It also includes a very interesting element of analysis, the Social Ministry Rhombus, which allows us to quickly visualize this concrete presence according to 2 dimensions: direct service and Justice and Peace:

This rhombus can be used to visualize the complete set of all the presences, but also by continents or according to which institute is leading it:

A first impression shows that the dimension most present is that of human promotion, while that of denunciation is in the minority. In Africa, this approach is even clearer, and with regard to CLM-led presences, the weight of the vertical axis of JPIC is greater than the average.

Other very relevant aspects of the mapping is the articulation of each presence with civil or ecclesial entities and the joint participation of various branches of the Comboni Family in the mapping.

It is not possible to summarize all the information presented in this mapping but rather to invite each one to explore it according to his own concerns. On the other hand, the conclusions of the mapping presented during the CSF insist on the need to grow in the dimension of prophetic denunciation. In these conclusions we also highlight the challenge of synodality, since this first picture that we have drawn invites us to share among similar projects in terms of geography, sector, field… for shared reflection-action. And the powerful systemic approach that allows us to seek new answers to the enormous missionary challenges we face. It is an injection of enthusiasm to know all the Comboni presences documented and all that this mapping invites us to grow in the service of the Kingdom.

Gonzalo Violero, CLM Spain

Conclusiones-Foro-Social-Comboniano-2021_ES Download