On Saturday, 14 October, we Comboni Missionaries celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving in the Basilica of Guadalupe for the 75th anniversary of our presence in Mexico. On Sunday, October 15, we all gathered in Xochimilco, the seat of our novitiate and provincial house, to close this beautiful event in a festive way.
Janett Rocio Escobar Angulo is a Colombian Comboni Lay Missionary committed to the Afro pastoral and leader of district and national programs on empowerment and promotion of the rights of Afro-descendant communities.
Alexandra Garcia
"As
an Ecclesial Network also present in the Amazonian territory of Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, French Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, in
harmony and synergy, we join to support and say "Yes" to the life of
the peoples and the biome of Yasuni and the Andean Choco in Ecuador",
affirms.
UNITED IN DEFENSE OF LIFE AND THE COMMON HOME IN ECUADOR
May all your creatures praise you Lord, especially those of the Andean Chocó
and Yasuní. May none of them be missing when we say "Laudato Si",
Praise you my Lord.
Dear promoters of the campaign "Laudato Si a la Vida" and to all who
are dedicated to the care of the Common Home, the Amazon and its inhabitants.
Receive a cordial greeting from those of us who make up the Pan-Amazonian
Ecclesial Network - REPAM.
First of all, we thank you and congratulate ourselves for the path you are
taking in defense of life, the Amazon and its peoples in Ecuador. The inspiring
phrase "We can still choose the good" (LS 205): Say Yes to
Life", title of the communiqué launched last August 3, inspires and
orients us to "Care for the common home", as an urgent challenge for
all humanity.
As an Ecclesial Network also present in the Amazonian territory of Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, French Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, in
harmony and synergy, we join to support and say "YES" to the life of
the peoples and the biome of Yasuni and the Andean Choco in Ecuador. To say Yes
to life is to say Yes to the gift of God in Creation, Yes to the life of the
Peoples and Yes to the mission that has been entrusted to us.
We are united with one voice and hope for Laudato Sí a la vida.
Manaus, August 16, 2023
The
continental network Churches and Mining met in Quito, Ecuador, last February.
More than 50 people from different regions of Latin America gathered to feel
and think about the situation of mining in our territories. As was discussed at
the meeting, our churches are living a moment of profound sensitivity to the
issues of the martyrdom of so many communities and of Sister Mother Earth, who
refuse to allow the capitalist system to commercialize their lives and their
territories. We live in synodal times, therefore it is necessary to know how to
be and to know how to be a network, in defense of life and the Common Home.
Churches and Mining Network
It is surprising to talk about Islam in Latin America, a reality that seems very distant from the Arab world in terms of culture and mentality, customs and habits. However, Muslims have been present in the continent for a long time; it is enough to remember the different migratory flows between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century from Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and the Middle East in general, without forgetting the converts in the USA who return to their homeland and become propagators.
P. Raphael Savoia
Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis' encyclical, has five parts. The fourth part is entitled "The Social Dimension of Evangelization". Until now, the social question was seen as a specific topic to be dealt with only in social encyclicals, whereas Francis deals with this question in an apostolic exhortation on the proclamation of the Gospel in today's world, because he sees the social dimension as constitutive of the Gospel and of evangelization.
In this way he pushes us to ask ourselves: What is the relationship between the Gospel and Christian faith on the one hand and economics and politics on the other? Is it good for a Christian to deal with social and political issues?
Bro. Alberto Degan
The Comboni Missionaries have been present in the area of Altos de Cazucá (Soacha) for several years: it began with sporadic visits by Brother Marco Binaghi and the Brothers of the CIFH (International Brothers' Formation Centre), by Brother José Manuel and the postulants and by Father Rafael Savoia. Since 2015, Father Franco Nascimbene has been living permanently in Cazucá, in a rented house located in the Oasis neighbourhood, accompanying this sector for seven years, visiting all the houses on a daily basis, organising small communities of life and faith. Father Daniele Zarantonello, who arrived in Bogotá after spending the last 10 years of his life with the Afro people of Tumaco, started living in Cazucá in February 2022.
Fr. Francisco Carrera
A community in the Amazon region of Brazil that suffers from pollution and struggles to ensure a dignified life, with special attention to the elderly and children.
Flavio Schimdt, Comboni lay missionary
Even today, the dominant powers want to relegate peace to the world of fairy tales and beautiful utopias, but as Christians, our first commitment is to believe in and fight for the peace that the Risen One announces to us.
Brother Alberto Degan
The Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) shares with you this second issue with the pastoral challenge of the Ecclesial Assembly: "Accompanying the victims of social and ecclesial injustices with the processes of recognition and reparation".
Chapter 5 of the encyclical "Brothers and Sisters" is dedicated to a better politics, which is a politics truly at the service of the common good. Pope Francis rehabilitates politics as the noble social activity that pursues the common good. And as an example of this better politics, he presents (FT 169) the popular movements that generate various forms of popular economy and community production at the grassroots.
Fr. Joseph Mumbere
For several months, a real war has been raging in the Colombian department of Arauca. The Colombian armed groups of the National Liberation Army (Eln) and the dissidence of the 10th Front of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) are fighting for control of this border area with Venezuela, rich in natural resources and strategic for smuggling weapons and narcotics, especially cocaine.
Fr. Francisco Carrera
All against racism
Father Joseph Mumbere Musanga, a Comboni missionary from the Democratic Republic of Congo, arrived in Brazil four months ago. His superiors assigned him to the mission of Piquiá-Açailândia, in the state of Maranhão. He imagined a Brazil "where racism had been overcome", the missionary recounts in a letter protesting against racism, which we publish below. "Unfortunately, in the four months that I have been living in Brazil, I have already had to face the reality of criminal racism," he says. [Justiça nos Trilhos.]
P. Joseph Mumbere Musanga, mccj
Twenty-five years have passed since a small group of Comboni Missionaries arrived in Macau to begin their work in the Chinese context. The Fen Xiang project was at the centre of their pastoral activities. The opening of a community in Macau and later in Taiwan was intended to lay the foundations for the presence of the Comboni Missionaries in the Chinese context. However, his aim was to establish the "Comboni presence" in mainland China.
In the midst of many shadows, contradictions and sins, let us allow ourselves to be carried by the light that shone in the strongest moments of the Conferences of Medellin, Puebla, Santo Domingo and Aparecida! Before this springtime of the Spirit, it was difficult to think of a "Church going out".
Fr. Dario Bossi
In 2011, a group of young people with the support of the Comboni Missionaries laid the foundation stone for the Afro Centre, thus starting a whole community process for young people.
By Ulrike Purrer, coordinator of the Afro Centre since 2012.
Mission never happens by chance nor is it the fruit of careful planning, for we believe that mission belongs not to us but to our missionary God who, through the Holy Spirit, continues to inspire, impel and make fruitful our various missionary works. And so, on 4 January 1988, the Comboni Missionaries set foot in the Far East, in the Philippines, 33 years ago. A humble beginning in a continent that is home to most of humanity. The seed was planted in this large archipelago of islands, the Philippines, which is now celebrating the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity on its shores.
P. David Domingues, mccj
The pandemic surprised us all. We had heard about a "strange virus" in Wuhan (China), we saw some worrying scenes on the television screens, but we had no idea that the "Coronavirus" was already roaming our streets. How can we make a Christian missionary discernment, enlightened by faith and in coherence with our charism, in the face of the pandemic that is hitting us?
Following the inspiration of the Saint of Assisi, but also of Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi and many others, the encyclical relaunches the dream of fraternity to the whole world. It concludes with an appeal for peace, justice and fraternity, addressed to all people of good will, which takes up the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Common Coexistence, signed on 4 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi. The text of the encyclical explains why Pope Francis considers this appeal so urgent for our world.
The encyclical Laudato Si' offers a special vision of Pope Francis: the concept of integral ecology, an approach that emphasises how "everything is closely connected". The cry of the earth is no different from the cry of the poor; the ecological crisis is a social crisis. The 2nd objective of Laudato Si' is therefore a call to respond to the Cry of the Poor by defending life in all its forms, with special attention to vulnerable groups such as indigenous people, migrants, the unborn and children at risk of modern slavery.
Juan Pablo Pezzi
African-Americans went from slaves in the colony to second-class citizens after abolition in the new republics. They have preserved in the collective imagination the resistance to slavery and the legacy of the maroon rebels through escapes and the creation of free towns called palenques.
By Fr. Rafael Savoia and Alejandro González.