Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bigene (Agenzia Fides) – This Sunday, April 11, the Second Sunday of Easter, the Catholic Mission of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Bigene, Diocese of Bissau, will become a parish. The solemn act will be presided by Bishop José Camnate na Bissign of Bissau. It will also be attended by the Archbishop of Foggia-Bovino (Italy), Archbishop Francesco Pio Tamburrino, as the first pastor of the new parish is an Italian Fidei Donum missionary, Fr. Ivo Cavraro, who was sent by Archbishop Tamburrino to Bigene. After the celebration, the Archbishop of Foggia-Bovino will bless the new home for the local missionaries. According to information sent to Fides from Bissau, Fr. Ivo has been a missionary in Guinea Bissau since 2008 and upon his appointment as the first parish priest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus he has expressed, together with all the local Christian community, his thanks to God for blessings received over the years, the presence of the PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) and OMI (Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate) missionaries and the Archdiocese of Foggia-Bovino that today offers its presence in the African country. The Christian community of the mission in Bigene, now the parish, also has the presence of the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who have been there since 1990 and run a school. The spiritual assistance in the present area of the parish began in 1948, thanks to the generosity of the priests of Farim, the community closest to Bigene.
A few days before Easter, four sisters of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity arrived in Bissau to work in the parish of St. José - Bor. Sister Edith, Sister Noel, Sister Mary, and Sister Carmelina were accompanied by Sister Bernadette, Regional Superior of the Congregation for West Africa, and Sister Joylin, Head of the Congregation in Abidjan. The Missionaries of Charity are already present in several English and French-speaking countries in Africa, but in Bissau this is their first home in a Portuguese-speaking nation, so the nuns commented on their arrival that "our challenge is the language." They will be housed at the Diocesan Center for Spirituality until work is finished on the house where they will live. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 9/04/2010)
