Italy – Page 12 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

“I was in prison and you came to visit me”

30 January, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

pastoral penitenciaria LMC Brasil — Prison ministry group with Father Adriano.

Among the various pastoral activities in the parish of Santo Domingo, led by the Comboni Missionaries in Nova Contagem, there is also the Prison Pastoral, carried forward by 15 volunteers, including Comboni Lay Missionaries, as part of the parish.

Every Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the group meets to visit the pavilions of the maximum security prison Nelson Hungría, located in Nova Contagem, with about 2,000 prisoners. The appointment is at 08:00 in the square next to the prison.

Prisons in Brazil, as elsewhere in the world, suffer high prison overcrowding due to a system with little attention to the recovery of the detainees.

Prisons of Minas Gerais, for example, can receive 32,000 prisoners, divided into 144 prisons, actually are 54,000 prisoners within the various units. This situation can only deteriorate the living conditions of prisoners, with a purpose of punishment more than re-education and re-socialization, with serious violations of human rights.

The action and commitment of the Prison Pastoral group, mostly made up of women, is to believe in the work of promoting human dignity, respect for human rights, and overcoming the limits of the current prison system in favor of a model that allows effective recovery and reintegration of the prisoner.

The most important of our pastoral action is the testimony of a God who does not discriminate any person in a place marked by contempt, prejudice and violence, making our own the words of the Gospel: “I was in prison and you came to visit me”. It is the teaching of Jesus, the method, the model, who heads the walk of this pastoral, recognizing the face of God in every person, even in prison.

There are many challenges and difficulties faced in our pastoral activities, such as excessive bureaucracy that often delays and complicates our work, controls, restrictions on visits, limited permissions; but this small group of volunteers face difficulties with courage. This also allowed in 2014, to create two groups of catechesis in prison and enabled some prisoners who had requested to receive the sacraments.

To this are fundamental the moments of ongoing formation we do each month, with a space dedicated for programming and training, allowing pastoral prison agent to know and learn the actions and information that will help improve visits to the prison and the relationship with prisoners. We also attend the training conducted by the diocese.

That’s the job of the prison ministry. A simple action, holding hands, meeting face to face, listening to the life stories of those who are on the other side of the bars in order to witness the justice and dignity of every human being, because as the Gospel says ” By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13, 35).

Emma Chiolini, Comboni Lay Missionary

First Day – International PI (immediate preparation) community

11 January, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Braga

It was with great enthusiasm and attention that the Academic Community of Braga was with Kasia and Barbara on this first day for these CLM in Portugal.

During this event, organized by the University Pastoral of Braga, the CLM shared their life stories and their missionary testimony at this time before departure for the mission of Carapira.

CLM Portugal

Training International community in Portugal

9 January, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Portugal LMC

We are happy because we have just received from Barbara (Italian CLM) and Kasia (Polish CLM) that will stay with us until April to learn Portuguese. This preparation aims the preparation before departure for the mission of Carapira, Mozambique.

During this time, both will share many moments with us and together we will walk toward a greater internationalization of our CLM family.

We welcome them and we ask you for prayers for this time of specific training before their missionary service.

CLM Portugal

Italian National CLM Assembly. Verona 2015

11 October, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

From the 18^th to the 20^th of September took place in Verona, hosted by the Comboni sisters, the third national assembly of the Italian CLM.

We discussed mainly about the places and the times the CLM are called to witness their vocation to be missionaries according to the charisma of St. Daniel Comboni. The second important aim was to meet each other and to share the experiences, the problems and the joys that every group faces during its daily commitments in its own territory.

We were warmly welcome by the Comboni sisters. There were many different groups coming from all over the Country: Venegono Superiore, Milano, Padova, Verona, Bologna, Firenze, Palermo, Agrigento and Bari. There were also other “special guests”: the coordinator of the CLM international committee Alberto de la Portilla, the referent for the Italian MCCJ province Fr. Massimo Robol, the MCCJ in charge for the missionary animation of the Italian province Fr. Giorgio Padovan and others Comboni fathers and sisters.

The first positive aspect was the high number of people who attended the assembly. We were about 90 people and many of these were new faces and, moreover, they were young. This means that the charisma of Comboni still fascinates and appeals people of different ages, different places and with a very different background.

Friday afternoon was dedicated for welcoming the participants; after a short official welcome from the national secretary and the special guests, we met for a starting prayer. Thanks to some songs and symbols we entered in the theme of the meeting. After dinner, we had a special game so that we could know better each other. During Saturday, we developed the main theme of the assembly: after a short prayer, we met Maria Soave Buscemi who guided us explaining some verses from the Bible. These explanations helped us to read deeply and with a new point of view the scriptures. During the afternoon, we organized four workshops in order to deep four different aspects of our Charisma: missionary animation, immigration, new styles for living, Justice and Peace. We divided the big group in four smaller groups. Inside the group, the leader gave some good information about the theme and later there was the opportunity for sharing. Though it was not so easy, the workshop allowed us to share some good ideas that each and every group can apply to its own reality following some common criterion. In the evening, we could luckily see a show presented by a group of youth coming from Mali.

On Sunday, after the morning prayer, we met all together and the four different groups reported to the others what came out during the discussions of the previous day. After this, we celebrated together the Holy Mass. During the celebration, we have the opportunity for “sending” officially Barbara and call upon her the protection of the Holy Spirit. Barbara is a CLM who is preparing for leaving in August 2016 for three years in Mozambique. After the Celebration, Federico (Italian representative in the European committee) and Alberto de la Portilla presented the European meeting of August 2016 that will take place in Portugal.

It was very important during the assembly, to hear from the voice of many different MCCJ that they have the need and the will to cooperate more with the lay. We were asked to take part in some national committee and give our support to Nigrizia (the main national magazine of the Comboni family).

At the end of the assembly was very clear that it is not so easy to find the way and the time for living our missionary charisma but the only possibility we have to achieve this goal is to build a net in order to keep in contact and support each other.

CLM Italy

Retreat of the Comboni Lay Missionaries of Bologna and Florence

24 June, 2015 by Alberto de la Portilla

Accompanied by Fr. Giorgio Padovan (standing in the photo), Comboni Missionary recently arrived from Brazil, about twenty Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) of Bologna and Florence met on 13 and 14 of June, in the house of Pax Christi in Florence, to pray and reflect together on the theme “Disciples, missionaries and Combonis in the path”. These days, according to some lay people, “encouraged some of us to share, to continue the missionary journey with more enthusiasm and joy, and to renew our heart, sometimes tired and wounded.”

The joy and beauty of being Christians and missionaries is the phrase that can summarize what has been lived in this two-day retreat in Florence. Guided by the motto “Disciples, missionaries and Combonis in the path”, the image of the path accompanied the laity in the reflections, sharing and prayer. A path that is not easy, they said, because sometimes it is uphill and very tired, but gives “sense and taste to our life and vocation.”

Fr. Giorgio Padovan, who returned a few months ago from the mission in Brazil, helped the group with simplicity, to deepen from the standpoint of the missionary, the path of laity, the baptismal vocation, personal decisions, the love to the mission and the Comboni charism.

“The thoughts and shared experiences – comment the laity – encouraged some of us to go forward, to continue the missionary journey with more enthusiasm and joy, and to renew our heart, sometimes tired and wounded. The seeds were sown for each CLM group to program with renewed creativity, the way to follow in the next year”.

How to be CLM where we live and work? How to be Christians and missionaries in the world of migration, among the excluded, through our commitment in the activities of justice and peace? in parishes and some missionary churches closed and afraid to go out? These are some of the questions that the Bologna and Florence CLM tried to answer, so they can return home enlightened and willing to make a “good missionary journey”.

Bologna and Florence CLM