Comboni Lay Missionaries

[Mozambique] Mission Animation with youth of the parish of Carapira

03-Animacao ChegadaOn 16th March this year there was a meeting of young people from the district of Mutoro, one of 3 areas of the parish, involving 96 young including coordinators and animators of Missionary Childhood and young people from 40 communities of 10 areas in this region. At this meeting the CLM and training candidates participated in a moment of missionary animation with youth. The meeting began at 13 hours with the presentation of the participants, where the laity in formation spoke about their history in the group.

Therefore, Mozambique has 3 foreign CLM and 4 Mozambicans lay missionaries in training. Comboni Lay Missionaries shared the story of St. Daniel Comboni, who was a son of a poor Italian family and also shared that the Comboni family are composed of priests, brothers, sisters, lay and secular.

During the conversation a young man asked what means to be secular. Secular means to be a consecrated lay missionary who lives her vocation within her family without the marital union.

We also spoke of some requirements to become Comboni Lay Missionary.

The missionary animation meeting ended with the song << Rejoice in the Lord always. >>

Flavio, LMC and Zeferino, candidate in formation of the Comboni Lay Missionaries

Final Vows of Sr. Lilia (Comboni Missionary Sister in Carapira)

The mission team from Carapira held a big party on March 15, celebrating the birth of St. Daniel Comboni and the lives that continue consecrating. On this day was the sister Lilia Karina Navarrete Solis, who made her perpetual profession, with the slogan “I consecrated you and appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). Known as Sister Lily, is a Mexican citizen and works as director of the Health Centre in Carapira. Everything took place in a family atmosphere with the presence of officials of the Health Center, parochial and religious leaders of the Diocese of Nacala and Nampula, among other guests. After the celebration presided by the Bishop of the Diocese of Nacala, Don Germano, we shared lunch. The CLM join together the team that helped acclimate the place, serving food, washing dishes, tidying everything back in place and supporting in every way possible. Sister Teresina, apart from the head of the organization, was also the godmother of the profession.

This is always an appropriate time for missionary animation. Thus, the lay group prepared a panel entitled “Daniel Comboni inspired”, which featured images and short texts about the four branches of the Comboni Family: Comboni Missionaries, Comboni Missionary Sisters, Secular Comboni Missionaries and Comboni Lay Missionaries.

Let us pray for sister Lilia and all vocations!

We are together!

CLM Carapira

International Women’s Day in the ISC

On March 8 it was the International Women’s Day. A time to celebrate, yes, but mostly for reflection and questioning about the situation of women in society.

In this sense, here on the Industrial School of Carapira (ISC), the juniors (10th grade), as an activity of the subjects of Civics and Moral Education and Computing, organized billboards and theaters on the subject of domestic violence, from the reading of the law made ​​to combat domestic violence in Mozambique. During the morning, in the school hall, posters were presented to other students and teachers. Not all were present, although there was significant student participation. In addition to the 3rd year classes, also collaborated in the presentation the cultural school group called WINA WIPA WOPA that translated from the local language (macua) means SING-DANCE-PLAY. They performed two songs that deal with the issue of violence, one in the opening and again in the conclusion, and even a preview of a small play that are organizing on the issue of human trafficking, which also includes the status of sexual exploitation of women.

At the end of the activities, gave a small gift to the women of the school: the students, secretaries, volunteers for the Peace Corps and the CLM through a card with a message.

It was a rich time of information and reflection, and it was good to see the commitment and animation of the students, especially in the theater. We hope to keep the message and commitment to combat these situations.

For all women, our respect and gratitude! And through the intercession of the Virgin Mother of Africa, God bless you in your mission!

We are together!

CLM Carapira, Mozambique

Opening of the 150th anniversary of the Plan of Comboni in Carapira

Cruz 150 anosHere, in the Parish of Carapira every Wednesday we celebrate the Mass with the Catholic students of the Industrial School of Carapira and the girls of the female home of the Comboni Sisters, who are students of the elementary school in the neighborhood. This week, on February 19, the celebration took a special issue as a whole, with the opening of the year of reflection of the 150th anniversary of the Plan of Comboni. Anticipating tomorrow’s official opening suggested by the Institute of the Comboni Missionaries, this celebration was marked by the presentation of the memorial cross for this milestone, given to each community in the MCCJ Province of Mozambique, explaining to the present its meaning and motivation . Father Gino Pastore, who presided the Mass, highlighted the strength and courage of Comboni and his inspiration in developing the Plan, under the slogan “Save Africa with Africa”, thereby motivating the students to become protagonists of their own history, building a better social reality. He launched the Industrial School students who complete 50 years of its foundation, the challenge, inspired by the example of St. Daniel Comboni, that also write the Industrial School of Carapira Plan to comply with this slogan.

On Thursday, the 20th, in the celebration of the Mass with the missionary team, Father Paulo Emanuel stressed that date by reading excerpts from the letter from the MCCJ General and reflecting on the Gospel in the sense of not having the same temptation of Peter of being, even unconsciously, impediment to the realization of God’s plan in our lives and in the lives of people.

After dinner, the team met at the home of the CLM in a tone of celebration to mark the day by sharing food and conversation. As a symbol of this meeting to encourage personal and community reflection, each missionary received a message containing one of the questions that were posted on the general’s letter of the MCCJ on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Plan, in the part that invites us to write our own plan.

May the example of Saint Daniel Comboni follow drawing inspiration for the missionary vocation and that the Spirit of God, the same one that guided Comboni in preparing the plan, enlighten and guide us on the paths of building up the Kingdom!

We are together!

CLM Mozambique

The Importance of the Land

Land is fundamental to the lives of the people in this region because they survive fundamentally on what they produce in the machamba (the farm, or the land where they cultivate their harvest). Sadly, megaprojects come arriving claiming large areas of land that belong to the population. I say “belong to the population” since in Moçambique, in accordance with the constitution, the land belongs to the Republic, to benefit the people, and it´s because of this that the land which pertains to the state cannot be sold to or owned by a particular person or institution. These megaprojects can obtain a certificate to the approval and right to use this land for a determined period of time (DUAT).

In spite of the possibility of this documentation, customary right is also considered valid, where every national that makes use of the determined area for more than 10 years has the right to use the land and with guaranteed approval regarding its use. It so happens that with the lack of knowledge, the larger part of the population have been retired to their respective locations and the areas where they normally cultivate, by foreign businesses that arrive – the majority of times supported by the government or local authority.

By not knowing this right of theirs to the area, and for seeing that who arrives has “papers” that concedes the right of this land to that particular person, many times the population simply abandons the area and they are left without ways in which to react and without a place to work their sustenance. It´s because of that, in the past few years, the Diocese of Nacala, through the Commission of Justice and Peace, have developed a work of consciousitizing the population about the Law of the Land of 1997. Despite the antiquity of the law, so little is known or divulged about it, since there is no interest that the population of farmers knows their rights. Besides that, the Diocese also gives support in obtaining the community DUAT of the “regulados” (form of social organization of communities, where there is a local authority, namely the régulo, considered by the community to be the traditional person of responsibility in that area). This last Sunday, we were in one more community to present and explain to the population their rights about the land, with the presence of a Moçambican attorney to accompany the processes, to explain the way in which to obtain the document, as a major security for the customary right they already have to the land.

The interest is huge. It appears as though the populations are each time around more and more worried with the situations that are coming to pass. There were close to 190 people present, amongst them Christians, Muslims, and those of traditional religions. After all, these meetings are for the whole population, since everyone has a right to the land. And so, that community was given the first steps with which to follow through with the process. We will pray for all the people who suffer from the lack of land for their sustenance, and for that reality in our Brasil, and for those experiencing the same in several other countries. We will seek work so that the land can be used to benefit the people, and not just for the interests of a particular few. We are together, united in prayer and in mission! A huge embrace since Mozambique!

By Flávio Schmidt Brasiliam CLM in Mozambique