United States of America and Canada – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Introducing Our New Acting Executive Director for CLM in North American Province

4 September, 2025 by Alberto de la Portilla

I am honored and excited to step into the role of Executive Director for the North American Province (NAP). My journey prior to this position includes serving as a Comboni Lay Missionary in the U.S, Mexico, and Arequipa, Peru, where I had the profound experience of proclaiming the good news and serving in various tasks.

The values I embraced during my missionary work—service, compassion, and outreach—are deeply aligned with the mission of the North American Province. I am committed to continuing the Province’s vital work and fostering greater community engagement and support throughout North America.

I look forward to collaborating with our talented team and partners to innovate, grow, and strengthen our collective impact. Thank you for welcoming me into this meaningful mission. Together, we will continue to serve and inspire.

Warm regards,

Rossie Patlan (Executive Director, North American Province)

CLM American Meeting

4 October, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

On September 25, 2021, the American CLM Committee: MCCJ Fr. Ottorino Poletto, Beatriz Maldonado and Mireya Soto, with the accompaniment of Alberto de la Portilla, were pleased to meet with the CLM of America and some of Europe, to have a formative conference, given by Father Dario Bossi, with the theme “the vocation of the laity in the socio-political and ecclesial context of America“.

Father Dario Bossi is a Comboni Missionary, currently provincial coordinator of the Comboni Missionaries in Brazil. The theme was developed in three important points: Colorful spots (to understand the situation where we are), Christian lights (lights that from the faith and the Church help us to understand the reality and provide ideas) and CLM Mission (some ideas that as missionaries, in our case Comboni Missionaries, we can develop).

He explained that America is a continent with cultural richness, natural resources, and in the face of the storm that humanity is going through, we CLM have the commitment to dialogue and act in favor of the poor and the needy, hence the hope and the lights that we have such as the Encyclicals of Pope Francis in which he speaks of the commitment to nature and the need for a Church to go out; The mission ad gentes and our relationship as Comboni family.

The conference has been recorded and you can listen to it and analyze it (here below in Spanish) for further enrichment of our groups.

Our meeting ended with the prayer that Christ taught us, giving thanks for having gathered and shared.

“Divine works are born and grow at the foot of the cross“. St. Daniel Comboni.

Mireya Soto, CLM American Committee

New CLM in formation in the NAP

3 October, 2018 by Alberto de la Portilla

We have a new CLM taking the formation course in the NAP, preparing himself to go to mission.

Darrel J. Vandeveld is a lawyer and retired Army officer who graduated from the University of California, San Diego, and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

He comes from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he raised his four children and served as the head of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office in Erie, from which he recently retired.

After September, 2001, Darrel served in the US Army in Bosnia, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He retired from the Army Reserve in 2015 as a Lieutenant Colonel. In his final assignment for the military, Darrel was assigned to a capital murder trial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State.

Darrel has served as an elected member of his local school board, and has served on the boards of non-profit organizations, including the Pennsylvania Artists’ Collective Alliance, an organization dedicated to providing local artists with performance spaces and other resources.

He is a member of the St Joseph Bread of Life Community in Erie.

Concluding the CLM continental meeting of America

5 October, 201624 September, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Our morning mass was presided by Father Arlindo in a very unique way, it was a reinvigorating start. The morning activities are followed with a short review of how the Central Committee and the Continental committee function according to the countries and their respective representatives. Alberto de la Portilla, guides us with an explanation of the process and functions. Everyone becomes involve in dialogue and it results in a very beneficial and fruitful discussion.

The next part of the morning is, everyone including the coordinators and or representatives of each country come together to debate on issues that were previously discussed in the previous continental meeting to conclude with a new continental proposal. The other members who assisted each country were also present in the debate.

The next part was, the new members of the Continental committee were elected by a consensus, and the two newly elected members were Marta from Mexico and Mireya from Guatemala.

The next task at hand was to approve the Motions previously worked on, in Guatemala. These motions are for the approval of the Continental final document of commitments. We move cautiously revising each motion of the past days’ work in group dialogue. We worked on this both in the early and later part of the day. After we concluded with the work at hand we took the official group picture, and finalized the day with group prayer.

In the night we concluded with a celebration to our IV CLM Continental Meeting of America.

Fr Valentin and Yessenia

The Fourth day of our CLM continental meeting of America

24 September, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

We have begun our morning invoking the presence of Saint Daniel Comboni so that we as CLM may live and follow a style of life that he lived. We have begun the first part of the morning with some presentations of mission experience of some of our CLM. Carol and Minerva share their mission experience and work that they do among the Misteco village, in Mexico. They describe and share the difficulties, obstacles, limitations and fruitful gifts they have both experienced and received. Their work among the village of the Mistecos is to accompany them by being present and being there with them. Carol and Minerva both live and share their lives with the village of the Misteco, respecting their culture and working together among them without excluding their culture values, religion, and way of doing things. Then we have a guess speaker, Juan Manuel Garcia a professor coming from a Pastoral School of the indigenous people in Mexico City, whom gives CLM formation in the area of pastoral work within this people. In between our formation class we were assigned group work, it enabled for some dialogue, and reflection of this type of pastoral work. The various groups coincided with some thoughts such as obstacles, limitations, and realizing the importance of this kind of work. The main focus and teaching that the CLM remained with is that “God’s heart is opened to all that want to know of him” which was a very enriching knowledge. In the second part of the day we have two psychologist speakers, they provided useful information and knowledge on how to communicate more effectively among each other (CLM). They used group interaction, as a dynamic to bring us together and practice our communication skills that we already possess in a more effective manner using strategies and methods.

At the end of our day we concluded with Adoration to the Blessed Sacrament and were infused with an explosion of gratitude.

(Valentín and Yessenia)