Revista Digital de los Misioneros Combonianos 
en América y Asia

ECOLOGY
Comboni Pact for our Common Home

A covenant is a commitment. When two or more people sign a covenant with each other, the parties commit themselves to act in a certain way. The Bible frequently uses the word covenant to refer to the covenant between God and humanity, a covenant of love and life that finds its greatest expression in the salvific action of God incarnated and assumed in Jesus of Nazareth. He becomes in solidarity, offers redemption and full life to humanity and to all creation.
The Pact of the Catacombs was a strong faith commitment made by a group of bishops who participated in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). This historic commitment was signed in the Catacombs of St. Domitilla on the outskirts of Rome on November 16, 1965. This was the way in which those bishops committed themselves to follow a path of conversion and personal commitment in communion with the poor, their struggles and hopes.
The place chosen to sign this commitment - the catacombs - has a very strong and eloquent symbolism. They remind us of the unsurpassed witness of the martyrs of the first Christian communities of Rome. The bishops celebrated the Eucharist on the tombs of the martyrs Nereus and Achilleus, invoking their faith, courage and determination. They then signed the Pact of the Catacombs, which are 13 commitments of a Church that desires to be a servant of the poor, that assumes their struggles for justice, dignity and equality.
The Church held in Rome the Synod for the Amazon in the month of October 2019. During the Synod, on October 20, a group of participants - just like that group of bishops of the Second Vatican Council - also went to the Catacombs of Domitilla. This time, they were not only bishops, but also priests, religious, lay men and women who, questioned by the realities of mission in today's world, felt the deep desire to reaffirm the preferential option for the poor and the care of Creation. They thus signed a new commitment called the Pact of the Catacombs for our Common Home.
The Pact of the Catacombs for our Common Home, with its 15 commitments, sought its inspiration in the Pact of the Catacombs signed 54 years earlier and in the institutions of the Synod for the Amazon that reflected on the principles of an Integral Ecology and new paths for the Church in the Amazon. The commitment to the poor was renewed and a commitment to the whole Creation was also signed. The Pact of the Catacombs for our Common Home is, therefore, the expression of a Church committed to the poor, servant, prophetic, Samaritan and wants to assume an Amazonian face.
From the life of Daniel Comboni, two strong moments speak to us a lot about his rich spirituality and his great love for Africa. The first moment was on September 15, 1864 when Comboni prayed at the tomb of St. Peter - also a place of faith and very symbolic in Rome. Comboni had an inspiration and drew up his Plan for the "Regeneration of Africa with Africa". It was not properly a pact, but a missionary project. The second moment was his homily given in Khartoum (Sudan) on May 11, 1873, when Comboni said to the people: "I make common cause with all of you". To make common cause is to assume a life, a commitment.
Encouraged by this inspiration and spirituality of Daniel Comboni, the Comboni Family seeks to make common cause with our world today. In this perspective, the Comboni mission in the American continent seeks its inspiration in the Pact of the Catacombs and in the Pact of the Catacombs for our Common Home, to motivate, to assume a mission and a personal, community and ecclesial lifestyle that is in tune with the care of the Common Home together with the provocations and orientations of the Synod for the Amazon.
As a way of living this commitment, the Comboni Mission proposes a Comboni Pact for our Common Home.
The Comboni Pact for our Common Home are 10 commitments of a Church that seeks to be prophetic, Samaritan and wants to advance in the inculturation of the liturgy. Besides this, it seeks to assume an ecumenical and synodal style of pastoral ministry, favoring the protagonism of women and cultivating a sober, simple lifestyle of solidarity. The Comboni Pact for our Common Home is, therefore, an instrument that confirms the alliance, common cause with the Amazon, its peoples and the defense of life. Through this pact, pastoral ministry will be able to acquire a new practice, a new missionary impetus and thus contribute to a better quality of our presence and ministry in our Comboni missions in the American continent today.     

El perdón cura las heridas provocadas por el resentimiento y renueva las personas, las familias, las comu- nidades y la vida social. El perdón es la clave de nuestras relaciones con Dios, con el prójimo y con nosotros mismos El perdón es una necesidad. Si no perdono, no puedo ser perdonado. El perdón es un proceso, este es, un continuo crecimiento hacia la libertad interior. No olvidemos que algunas experiencias son tan dolorosas que requieren mucho tiempo transcurrido en el perdón.