Kinshasa (Fides Service)- To ensure that the Eucharist, source of Life and Peace, is at the heart of Africa and to help Christian communities focus on the Eucharist the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament has opened a Eucharistic Spirituality Centre in the Kimbondo suburb of Kinshasa capital of Democratic Congo. According to a local Catholic news agency DIA, the centre will organise retreats and conferences.
This initiative coincides with the imminent start of the special Year of the Eucharist October 2004 - October 2005 announced by Pope John Paul II.
Italian missionary Father Luigi Brugnetti assisted by three laypersons will run the centre. Father Luigi told DIA about a parallel initiative of parish missions to spread awareness of the real impact of the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and increase devotion to the Eucharist. Father Luigi, who is about to start a tour of other towns to preach on the Eucharist, encourages all dioceses to contact the Centre for information on means and ways to promote devotion to the Blessed Sacrament
The Congregation of Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament has 21 members in Congo in three dioceses Kikwit, Kenge and Kinshasa. They run a Maternity Clinic, two dispensaries, two primary schools, two secondary schools, one infant school, and a school of carpentry and two automobile mechanic schools. In Kinshasa a hundred pupils attend these schools.
Today there are about 1,000 Sacramentini Fathers working 30 different countries including 4 in Africa, Congo, Senegal, Mozambique and Angola. The Congregation was founded in Paris in 1856 by Saint Pierre Julien Eymard who founded a female community in 1858 the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 5/10/2004 righe 30 parole 353)