Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kisangani (Agenzia Fides) - “I found a living Church, eager to make her contribution to human promotion and development in the area," says Fr. Giuseppe Magrin, Director of Formation for the Congregation for the Evangelization Peoples, who has just returned from Kisangani, the most important city in central-northeast region of Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fr. Magrin attended the seminar for seminary formators' training at the Provincial Assembly of Bishops of Kisangani (ASSEPKIS), held November 18 to 27.
Along with Fr. Magrin, the other speakers were Bishop Julien Andavo, Bishop of Isiro-Niangara and Director of Formation Houses in the ecclesiastical province; Monsignor Jan Dumon, Secretary of the Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle; and Fr. Archange Kampi of the Diocese of Bunia, teacher at the major and minor seminaries. The seminar was attended by 25 diocesan priests. "The workshop participants were particularly motivated, as demonstrated by the nature and number of questions they posed," says Fr. Magrin.
Fr. Magrin was particularly impressed "by the desire for improvement by inhabitants of Kisangani, a town that still lives with the wounds of the violent clashes in 1999 between the Ugandan and Rwandan troops over control of gold mines that located in its vicinity.”
"Young people especially want to study to have a better chance in life. The government intends to strengthen the local university and the Church wants to contribute to the improvement of higher education,"said Fr. Magrin.
"The local church, amid all the material weaknesses, wants to continue with enthusiasm the work of evangelization begun in 1897 by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with the great missionary Fr. Gabriele Grison, at whose tomb John Paul II prayed and which is flanked by other missionaries from other congregations in the vast province of eastern Congo. Among these are also the White Fathers, who were sent because they were experts in the Islamic world, as the first foundation in the then Stanleyville (now Kisangani), was originally built by Sudanese immigrants who were mostly Muslims. Even today, Kisangani is still home to a large Muslim community," recalls Fr. Magrin. "The missionaries have worked well and the Church and local clergy are the result of the seeds they sowed," the priest concluded. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/11/2009)
