Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – The first phase of the XVII General Chapter of the Comboni Missionaries (see Fides 2/9/2009), which is being held in Rome at the General House of the missionary institute founded by Saint Daniel Comboni has ended. The Chapter began on September 6 with a Mass presided by Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. In this first stage, various presentations have been made: by the General Council followed by those of the different Secretariats and the four continents where the Institute is present, followed by group workshops.
Fr. Teresino Serra, present Superior General, focused his report on three similar yet mutually connected aspects: re-foundation, requalification and the reprogramming of the Institute. “Refounding ourselves,” the Superior General affirmed, “should be understood as rooting ourselves once again in Daniel Comboni, in Jesus Christ and in the Word of God, involving ourselves in the kind of transformation experienced by our Founder who, as a young Italian growing up in Verona, transformed himself firstly into a European and finally into a ‘universal’ person”.
The second aspect according to Fr. Serra - that of requalification - should be understood as “ ....reaching for a better quality of life, greater commitment in our self-giving, and more coherence in our witness to the vows” and all this even before thinking of it as a means of assessing and evaluating our commitments: “ …….coherence and commitment [radicalità] because people look at us and expect an appropriate style of life from us ” insisted the General, “Shouting slogans and filling our mouths with impressive words achieves nothing if then we run away from those missions which require patience, perseverance and hard work. We are fully aware that sharing the life of the poor and offering ourselves as their voice is our undeniable vocation”. Finally, the Superior General underlined that one of the central tasks of the Chapter would be to “.... reorganize our life and commitments according to the spirit of the Rule of Life by favoring the poorest and most abandoned in all four of the continents where we work, but especially in Africa in those places where no one else wants to go and on the new frontiers of the marginalized and excluded of society.”
Following the reports of the Superior General and the General Secretariats, delegates from the circumscriptions presented the continental reports. The African continent, cradle of the missionary vocation and the charism of the Institute, preserves ‘first evangelization’ as its defining feature. On the other hand, Africa has also become the main source of vocations to the Congregation which is thus passing more and more from a predominantly European identity to a more international one. The reports from the African Provinces have also underlined the situations of conflict and violence which are present in various nations.
Mission animation, involvement in issues of justice and peace and a meaningful presence in ‘frontier missions’ and situations of serious social marginalization marked the report of the American continent - a continent which continues to provide missionary vocations, even though not as plentiful as in the past. Asia - where the Comboni presence, even if significant, is fairly limited numerically - reported with the American continent. In Asia there are about twenty Comboni Missionaries (in the Philippines, Macao and Taiwan). They are very committed to the proclamation of the gospel in this the most populated continent of the globe. The last report was presented by Europe, where vocations are nowadays very few, but where, on the other hand, elderly and sick Comboni Missionaries are on the increase. In spite of this, the European Provinces expressed their hopes for the future and their desire to identify new paths through which to live out the Comboni charism: mission animation carried out within and with the full collaboration of the European local churches, the internationalization of communities and most of all the determination to assume a clear commitment towards the phenomenon of immigration. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 24/9/2009)
