150

ANNIVERSARY OF

THE COMBONI

INSTITUTE Rome, May 25-June 1, 2017

ABSTRACT These are the notes taken by Fr. Alberto Pimentel who attended the symposium in Rome on behalf of the NAP

joalpigu@msn.com For internal use

1

First Part of Fr Fidel Gonzalez's talk

Importance of the presence in this symposium of the living General Fathers. They are the guarantors of our institute.

• They will help us look at St Daniel Comboni and his “attitudes” to review our charism today.

• We are in a new historical age in sight of a near future • We will recover the materials left by our preceding missionaries. • We are inserted in the changing age of the church looking at the signs of the times to be

able to make the necessary changes to be in tune with the church and the history of the missions.

• We are called to be “piccolo” cenacolo, that is, “small” cenacle of apostles. Small, but in the beautiful sense of being like small drops of a precious perfume that is given as a sample of the big perfume jar that people buy in expensive stores. Our sent is to be of “holiness”.

+ We are consecrated to God and the mission since the foundation of our institute. We are Ad Gentes institute. We belong to Propaganda Fide as any other missionary institute founded after 1622 onwards (??).

• It was the responsibility of Proganda Fide to spread the church and the gospel in the world. Propaganda Fide was in charge of preparing personnel for the missions to teach the catechism and the catholic faith.

• Albernizzi: Not seeking the glory of the institute but God’s glory • Vocations were inspired to cover the mission territories. • Comboni Founded “missionary institutes”, not in the proper sense of institute as we

know it today, but “institutions” of male and female education purposes.

+ We are aware of the changing times we live in today.

• The Comboni missionaries as institute must renew or re-found themselves • We have change through time according to the changing understanding of the church of its

missionary ad gentes institutes. • We are a specific “missionary” institute because of our call to mission. We developed this

identity in 3 phases. 1867, 1871 and 1881. • It is time to found again our institute.

Second Part of Fr Fidel Gonzalez's talk

Comboni as a founder of a seminary based on the Plan for the Regeneration of Africa.

Comboni’s life has 3 moments

1. Comboni is the founder of two missionary institutes, male and female, at various times. a. Condita Cristo (1900) female institutes, 1917 … were two documents authorizing the

foundation so religious institutes as we know them today, so Comboni could not found female religious institutes in a canonical sense.

2

b. In the case of the male institute, Comboni founded a missionary institute but not in the strict sense. This has 3 phases

Just a seminary for the African missions: Secular priests and some lay members. They did not have religious vows 1867-1871. They only had a missionary promise to live according to the life of the institute’s commitment to the mission. This gave the missionaries a license to be a missionary according to the propaganda Fide. Their religious superior was the cardinal in charge of Propaganda Fide. Priests members of the Comboni institute still had some link to the diocesan bishop of origin. The missionary had to receive a license to be a missionary from propaganda Fide. This seminary for the African Missions remained in the limbo. In fact, the members could go back to their own dioceses if they decided to do so. In fact, many went back to their dioceses or religious institutes or became founders of their own institutes. People remained for short periods of time, not for life as such. The commitment Ad Vitam, also is a myth.

1. First members: These people stayed at Cairo, not at Verona.

• Giuseppe Sembianti • Lucciano Rosa • Vittorio Rolleri – First general of the Scalabrini • Alberto Sebastian • Luis Spech • Jian Miller • Francis Xavier Gayer • Francis Di Giorgi • Francesco Giuglianelli • Arturo Bocciar • John Jarrior • Giovanni Dichtl • Pimazzoni • Pollinari • Etc.

ii. In 1871 the seminary for the African Missions becomes a specific institute for the African missions of Central Africa. Cardenal Barnabo asked Comboni to found an institute for the missions, if he was to undertake the task of the missions in Central Africa. This was to be an approved institute as any other institution or foundation not as we understand today. At this time, however, there is a canonical link between the members and the seminary founded by Comboni. Yet they still needed to be approved by Propaganda Fide. The institute to be approved needed to complete an assessment on its:

1. Nature of the institute 2. The goal of the institute 3. The means to accomplish this goal

3

On the other hand, Comboni did not have rules to safeguard a charism. At this point was just a kind of a novitiate as preparation to one day mature a charism in which people would have some kind of religious vows. At this time, the members of the Institute of Comboni had some promise to consecrate their lives to the African Mission in obedience to the local bishop or ordinary. This were oaths without obligation between the giver of the oath and the one receiving it. This was a kind of promise in perpetual obedience to the mission. But who were the legitimate Superiors? The first rules were not clear. From the beginning, there's was no clarity who the superior was…. What is true is that the bishop of Verona could not canonically be… nor the members wanted him to be.

1. 1872 someone reviewed the rules of 1871 that became an exhortation document but not a biding one.

2. Secular association of clergy and lay who consecrated their lives to these rules. but these rules of life were not approved.

3. 1881- The institute had slowly developed into a kind of religious institute. The Sketts (?) of Belgium inspired the rules of the first Comboni Missionaries.

4. At Comboni’s time there were not missionaries with religious vows, as vows with biding duties. These vows were biding to the one who makes them, but not to the one who receives them. a. So, Comboni could not juridically have a religious institute b. 1917 all institutes were allowed to choose a different juridical form. The

Comboni institute chose to remain out of the hands of the regular bishops. 5. Religious Society of Active life: In the Comboni institute’s case this was not easy from

1881-1885: c. After 4 years of Comboni’s death the Institute of Comboni under Sogaro

became a society of active life with the help of the Jesuits. The Jesuits of the Restauration helped the newly formed religious institute to become as juridically speaking possible an institute of simple vows.

d. Some members accepted the new form, the other priests did not accept. Roveggio and companions accepted this form as seminarians. The first 10 combonis were of private vows. So, they could not be considered truly religious in strict sense.

e. 1900 Leon XIII established a religious profession with a fixed form. Most religious societies had a religious vow that was not public, but private, not biding both ways as we had seen before.

f. Cannon 438 speaks about only religious constitutions without charism or distinction. In these rules, there was nothing characteristic to Comboni. In fact, Comboni is a polemical element in the rules of this time. Comboni was considered the apostle of Africa but not the founder of this missionary institute.

4

FR Manuel Augusto Lopes Ferreira

The Re-structuring the Comboni institute [Not re-foundation]

Fr. Aldo Gilli influenced Fr. Manuel’s presentation. This is because Fr. Aldo Gilli was an intellectual who lived his ministry among the people of the neighborhood in Via Luigi Lilio. Another person who influences his talk was Fr. Della Giaccoma.

We are small perfume drops that fill the scent of the missionary activity of the Church. This present time of Kairos call us to be active participants of the re-structuration of the institute.

This time is also a time to transmit the historical memory of the institute.

Main aspects of the re-structuration or re-configuration of our institute

Configuration of the institutes’ identity.

o It is evident that we live in a process of crisis and of becoming old with no vocations

o There is little knowledge of the Comboni identity

o It is perhaps the time for a re-foundation but Fr. Manuel prefers to say re-structuration or re-configuration, or re-shaping of the identity of our missionary institute. This process is about changing form and figure of who we are and what we do.

o It is the time for a memory transfusion, like blood transfusion. We are to learn how to live in the mission in the church of our time. But first, the missionary has to take some distance from one’s past not only in order to avoid the errors of the past but to gain the wisdom of the past by valuing the experience gained in order to profit for the future the values of the past.

CONFESSIO LAUDIS

• We are to start giving thanks for the institute. We are to foster an attitude of recognition of God’s providence in 150 years of existence as religious institute.

• We are responding to a loving call of God. • We are to see again how Comboni has seen God’s missionary call as father and teacher of

life for us the new Comboni missionaries. • We are to see the documents or writings of Saint Daniel Comboni and the testament of his

work and spirituality of the founder. • Now after the canonization we can say that we have the necessary instruments to critically

study the history of the institute and its founder. One cannot longer not know the history of the institute and the life of the founder.

3 ASPECTS OF THE TRANSFUSION OF COMBONI’S MEMORY

o We are to renew our missionary narrative of who we are with the recognition that the charism must be inculturated wherever we are.

o We are to revisit the gift of Comboni’s canonization

5

o There is the need of professional discernment to re-structure the institute. From the first transformation into missionary institute to its form as a religious congregation. Second, the division of the congregation has two sides of the same coin between the FSCJ and MFSC. 1975-1979 was a rediscovering of the founder that ended up in the reunification of the two branches of the Comboni Missionaries into MCCJ.

o The Francis Effect: we see ourselves in the leadership of Pope Francis. We feel reassured in our identity as missionary institute of active life in the way Pope Francis preaches about mission.

So, the re-structuration of the institute has to do with:

Revisiting the experience of the past chapter acts.

• There is a constant need to be faithful to the life we live as Comboni missionaries that account for the success or lack of it due to our activism and lack of spiritual life.

• Acts 2015 # 31-32. • Acts 2015 #30 evidences the need of healing which is found in # 33. • Comboni looked for Jesuits to help his newly formed institute. Giuseppe

Sembianti is the first formation director of the institute in Verona. • Comboni wants us holy and capable, holy first and able second. Comboni-

Sembianti April 20, 18.. • Integration of the Comboni consecration and mission: The rule of life must be

in accord with this integration.

o Personal and communitarian Consecration to God for the mission

o Crisis and tension between the religious vows and our temporality ad tempus

• Comboni leaves to his institute a clear apostolic identity, but not a religious institute identity.

• Tension between apostolic activity and community life. How to live our missionary call with the call to live in community? Our being fraternal, Cenacolo di apostoli, and our personal independence clashes often in the community life.

• The challenge is to integrate a healthy fraternal spirit with a fertile apostolic commitment

• Are there new apostolic ways of community life?

JOINING THE MISSIONARY DIMENSIONS OF OUR ACTIVITY

• Regeneration of the human aspect of the person with the spiritual transformation that needs to take place in the plantatio ecclesiae. Evangelization comes first then the instruction

• Chapter Acts of 1997: importance of the dialogue and inculturation as a priority of the global mission of the church. Justice and peace are new elements of our way of preaching of the gospel.

6

• The personal encounter never will replace our presence in the web and social media, but we are to travel these new roads as means of the new evangelization.

• Empowerment of people, old and young as mission promotion and human promotion of those who are the destinataries of our mission work.

• We are to return to being educators, formation directors, of the peoples where we work. (See Wokorach’s letter).

• We are to recreate new structures and leave out the old ones that no longer reflect and help our missionary presence among the people of this time, 150 years later.

UNITY BETWEEN THE FOUNDER WITH THE INSTITUTE AND MISSION

• 1873: There was a good presence of the founder’s ideas in the members of his missionary team

• 1881: there were some problems that were external but they remained faithful to the founding idea of the consecration to the mission.

• There was a danger not to be faithful to the founding ideas of Comboni. Happily, his followers after his death remained truthful to the mission started by Comboni.

• Bonomi: We are resolute into following and continuing the idea of Comboni for God’s glory.

• There is a Comboni Anima, or Comboni Soul that continues expanding the missionary work from the Mission of Central Africa to other parts of the world. For example, after the expulsion from Sudan the Comboni missionary institute opened up itself to new places where the church has need of us.

RE-EVALUATE THE DISCERNMENT METHOD OF THE GENERAL CHAPTERS

6. The General chapter is the place to solve problems with the directives of the members of the chapter. • This is the time to reevaluate the status of the provinces in the congregation. • However, the delegates after 1990 decided to ignore the reflection done by the

members of their provinces whom they were supposed to represent. • Why the chapters did not have incidence in the concrete life of the people in

mission? • There is an attitude of being blind guides … this is because the discussions do not take into

account the reports of the provinces. So how could they see the problems and look for concrete solutions?

• Why the discernment process is not part of the normal process of seeing the tradition of the Comboni Missionary Chapters?

7

1.- What are the aspects that are necessary for the re-shaping of the institute?

Fra I cinque punti proposti quale di questi ambiti sono importanti per la reconfigurazione dell'istituto ?

1. Rivedere il metodo di discernimento del capitolo. Bisogna fare un vero studio della realtà dell'istituto prima di parlare delle esfide e trovare le sue risposte.

2. E fondamentale integrare fraternità e missione assumendo il multiculturalismo . La missione si vive assieme condivendendo la vita trovando in buone relazioni le risposte alle sfide pastorali. Se non siamo d'accordo fradinoi non si potrà testimoniare la fratellanza del vangelo. La passione per la missione diventa più leggera. Doniamo sentire il piacere di ritornare a casa dopo un lavoro apostolico intenso di missione.

3. Si deve riscoprirne il essere scenacoli di apostoli . Nostra vita comune debe essere una testimonianza viva per la comunità locale, la diocesi.

4. Unità fra fondatore, istituto e missione per essere fedeli alla prima ispirazione, un corpo come strutture osse, e una spiritualità chiara che ci da identità e move avanti con passione.

5. Dobbiamo lasciare la paura di cambiare, bisogna vedere in ogni capitolo una opportunità di rinnovamento pratico che ci rende attuale e rilevanti alla missione d’oggi.

6. Non prendere decisioni per il sentito dire non per propria esperienza, di muoversi del sud al nord e del nord al sud. Non basta fare bozze belle su di noi senza tenere in conto le realtà delle persone. Bisogna essere più concreti.

7. C'è una pesantezza della età. Non c'è spazio per I giovani ne anche per quelli che rientrano in provincia di altre parti del mondo, càpita essere razzisti e incapaci di parare la lingua locale. Bisogna apprezzare le colture dove lavoriamo, con affetto e buona volontà .

8. Come mettere assieme le diverse dimensioni della missione con la nostra identità come istituto. Senza individualismo ma come diversità di doni messi insieme. Bisogna lavorare per una presenza coerente con quello che proclamiamo e quel vangelo che viviamo. Come armonizzare il nostro essere missionari con quello che facciamo nella missione.

9. Dopo il Concilio si è fatta una re configurazione della vita del istituto, particolarmente la vita comunitaria . Questo fattore è positivo e fu acquisito, ma oggi si debe riflettere se oggi è valido per noi, nelle nuove situazioni della ministerialita. Senza rischiare di fare pastorale per conto proprio individualisticamente, integrare più impegni con I mezzi che abbiamo oggi.

10. Due dimensioni umane sono la esponsalita e paternità che devono formare parte del amore per la missione. Chi si sposa debe imparare la lingua per essere in grado di dialogare con le colture dove si lavora. Se vuole il missionario avere il figlioli propri non surrogati, la paternità, non solo avere opere di sviluppo con delle schiave come Abramo.

11. È tempo di rivalutare il senso di partenza e ripartenza per la missione.

8

12. Dobbiamo integrare consacrazione e missione, prima definendo le nostre comunità come luoghi di fraternità. Si debe lavorare in rette, in progetto commune, come cenacolo d’apostoli.

13. Bisogna esseri profeti del nostro tempo, senza paura di affrontare I segni dei tempi di fare con sincerità e coraggio le scelte che ci faranno essere Combonianni rilevanti per oggi. È la profezia una qualità personale contro la vita della comunità? Come integrare il dono dello spirito nel nostro essere missionari nel contesto sociale ed ecclesiale dove lavoriamo. Come evitare il rischio della fuga sociale…

14. Una spiritualità senza una identità apostolica non ci aiuta a riconoscersi come Comboniani. La testimonianza nella missione è come Comboniani che edificano le persone singole. Non dobbiamo stancarsi di ritornare al essere cenacolo di apostoli.

2.- What is my reaction of a re-shaping of the institute after the canonization of the founder?

Quale è la tua reazione alla reconficurassione dell'istituto dopo la canonizzazione?

1. Mi fa piacere che si parli del bisogno anche urgente di mettersi in un processo di reconfigurazione, di cambiare, di trovare I punti di guida per reconfigurare la nostra presenza come istituto oggi e per il futuro.

2. La idea di riconfigurare non per essere persi, ma perché Dio ci vuole di un modo diverso per essere capaci di render furto oggi. Dio ci innaffia con la sua grazia e ci chiedi frutti da amore. Per ciò, si deve rivedere la propria vocazione accanto a quella di Comboni e la sua risposta a la missione.

3. Non dobbiamo aver paura di rifondazione, di morire per vivere, di cadere in terra per risorgere. La trasfusione di memoria non basta, il sangue trasmesso dura finche l'ammalato può produrre il suo sangue in questo cambiamento epocale. Dobbiamo perdere la paura di vedere fuori per vedere dentro di noi quello che ci manca per essere rinnovati e reconfigurati da dentro al di fuori. Dobbiamo ascoltare gli antenati e I giovani d’oggi, le persone del nostro tempo.

4. Ripigliare la canonizzazione, nel suo senso vero che fa bene, non solo beatificare come regalo per l'istituto ma come regalo per tutta la chiesa.

9

‘’’’’’’’’’’

P DIEGO FARES, SJ

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

The vision of mission of Pope Francis

Language is a test of our commitment to the mission. It is also a sign of respect to the local people acknowledging that there are not superior and inferior languages and cultures. Pope Francis invites us to learn from the poor people to whom we are sent. For Pope Francis Mission is not document but a synthesis of life.

The first proposal is to reflect two texts: Evangelii Gaudium and the homily of Comboni to the people of Khartoum. Then, in the groups we are to have a sharing of missionary experiences on how one has a consolation.

One can only see the people as seer if one inculturates into his flock otherwise, the missionary is a tourist. “One becomes father of the people one shepherds” as Comboni said in Khartoum.

Mission in Pope Francis is a synthesis of 44 years, as a Jesuit, as bishop, as cardinal and now as Pope of Rome for four years. His gestures are not folklorist actions but a way of life. He chooses to be like this because he is like this. What you see is what you get. His way of being is the result of a preparation for the kind of ministry that he as Pope is to exercise in the Church of this time.

The method of Pope Francis is to make small gestures that represent the universal action of the Holy Spirit in the Church of this time. What Pope Francis proposes is to be sign of the times whose actions God blesses and makes fructify. Rome is not a spiritual Disneyland because people do not come just to see the Pope in Rome, but how his ministry reflects in the life of the whole church the Gospel the Pope preaches with small gestures. The faithful people are the other side of the ministry of the Pope. They will reproduce those small gestures into full-scale activities. They are the protagonists of the mission; the Pope or missionary is just a means.

Pope Francis follows the criteria of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Missionary is not only the professional missionary, but the people of God who gathers around the missionary, the lay people who are committed to the wellbeing of the rest of the people who are in need. Mercy and human promotion are two sides of the incarnated Gospel message. The people of God incarnates and inculturates the contradictions of this age. The people of God is a mixture of experiences of contradictory nature.

We are to change the water into wine, but the jars too, not just the jars but the wine too. This is to follow the Gospel as a way of life not just as an ideology or methodology. The ideas take shape in the people of God coming from on height with the intention of becoming from below, humilitas or kenosis. Then ideas become concepts. After these concepts become dialogue with the culture and the reality, then they become mission. The faithful people of God are the place where the good

10

is assumed and the evil is rejected. This is with a prophetic spirit. The poor is to learn from the poor how to assume the positive and take action for the good of all. This is not just to criticize. The people of God learns to resist the violent stacks of the evil. This is to assume the cross as resistance to the evil. The missionary is the one who migrates motivated by leaving behind the goodness of his home and putting himself into risk of his own very life for the wellbeing of someone else's life, not for my own profit, for a better life.

E.G. # 273

Io sono missione per illuminare, benedire, vivificare, sollevare, guarire, liberare.

• il popolo ci dona quello che ha senza appuntamenti. Col cuore aperto sempre. • Perseveranza del popolo nelle condizioni più difficili. Il popolo ci insegna i valori

nelle loro scelte concrete d'amore e di impegno. • I terremotati hanno mostrato fiducia interna in Dio, con passione, cuore e amore. • Il popolo ci perdona e viene al nostro incontro delle nostre mancanze perché

apprezza il nostro impegno missionario. • Il fatto di sentirsi popolo con il popolo sono i momenti nel condividere il cibo. Il

piano sessennale è essere una comunità aperta ed accogliente. • Quello che il popolo da, lo dona di cuore. Il popolo chiede soltanto di noi dare loro

la benedizione e noi non dobbiamo rifiutare di dargliela. Tu sei benedizione per me. Il linguaggio simbolico ha il suo valore, non soltanto atti concreti di carità. Dobbiamo imparare a dire, tu sei benedizione per me, anche se abbiamo idee diverse. Il popolo ha un potere grande di trasformare il mondo con la sua parola.

• Nel servizio della autorità ho trovato la miseria e povertà del popolo, mentre io devo usare i mezzi, aereo e moto, per trovarli. Allo stesso tempo mi ha messo in contato con la gente che lotta per la vita, che non si arrendono mai, anche se non vivranno al di là dei 50, loro lavorano senza avere faccia di schiavi, ma di gente che vive la vita. Siamo missionari per strada con attitudine di popolo per strada che viaggiano per la vita anche se in pericolo.

• Ho visto la preghiera del missionario che amava l agente e così capiva il cuore della gente. La sua testimonianza mi riempiva il cuore. La preghiera in famiglia mi aiuta a valorizzare la preghiera in comunità. Il senso di solidarietà dei bambini e si condivide quello che c'era. Nelle nostre comunità non si vivono e assorbono questi valori. Il popolo continua a stupirci.

• In certi posti i frutti non ci sono, non si possono aspettare, ma si deve essere. Ma la gente perdona tutto anche se noi non trattiamo bene le persone, gli sgridiamo oppure non siamo testimonianza del vangelo, ma loro sono buoni.

• Lasciai il mio cuore tra voi.. . Ritorno da voi per prenderlo • Sono il vostro Padre… stringervi sul mio cuore… per il bene vostro… sempre disposto

11

‘’’’’’

Teresino Serra

05-29-2017

‘’’’’’’

The institute as new message to the missionary church: transforming mission

Two are the guiding words: message and fidelity

Consecrated life: 110 – You have an amazing message to tell, but also you have to attain a beautiful message…

Our institute is °beautiful°, as Moses was °beautiful to God’s eyes°. Our institute pleased the Lord, otherwise we would not be here to celebrate 150 years. Our message is beautiful, and this message was received by each Comboni missionary during this past 150 years.

The houses for the sick missionaries are a treasure to be grateful for. They are home to the wise men whose generosity is our treasure.

One message that the institute has for its missionaries is to be a part of a shared mystery. Mystery in this sense is the mission. One who joins the institute does not know what the process would be. We come to know Comboni through the life of the Comboni Missioanries who live Comboni’s dream. After some time of formation, one comes to know some words of Comboni. Fr. Serra’s first example of Comboni life that he knew was Fratel Dei Cas, a lepper brother. Then through the life of Bother Salvatore Puggioni, mccj who died at 79 years old always used to say: “andiamo” … let’s go.

Bruno Longfernini was a sad superior, but when he received the letter of assignment to Ethiopia, he smiled and took the seminarians to watch a movie. Mission changes the heart of the missionaries in deed.

Fr Teresino’s job at the Curia gave him joy to receive the availability of missionaries to go to places where it is difficult to go.

After the expulsion of missionaries from Sudan, Antonio Zuccali and Lorenzo Piazza, Fr. Serra’s received the testimony of these two missionaries who wanted to go back to Sudan. They cried while talking about their missionary experience.

October 10, 1881. This was the first great miracle of Comboni, who saved the institute that was not yet born. Those who knew Comboni received his blood that would help them to live his ideal after his death. “We are resolute to continue the work started by Comboni…” …Pimazzoni.

------ second part -----

12

How, why, and whom we celebrate while celebrating 150 years…

This is not a time to celebrate, but to witness and persevere in the mission. We do not celebrate archived history, but a life that was lived with authenticity. Our life is a school for the future. We do not celebrate the past with a nostalgic attitude. Mission is to be with the people, celebrating and living the people’s life.

In these 150 years, we celebrate the fidelity to the mission of each missionary and fidelity to the Gospel. Our main duty is to make the life of the gospel something visible in the eyes and ears of the poor. The message is that people are not alone, we are with you. We have to be faithful to the missionary gospel. We are to bring back the sight to the blind though our social media and the printed media. We are not to sell smoking media. We are to free the people who are bounded by indifference. People who do not care about the chains of the people who suffer.

Your missionary heart is to be inhabited by God, the people and your vocational history. We are not called to be bad copies of Comboni. Comboni is not only a founder of institutes but a founder father of a rich and fruitful spirituality. Fidelity to Comboni is to be people open and aware of the signs of the times.

The mission is difficult, but not only, mission is “ardua”, that is challenging.

The Comboni missionary communities are already in the peripheries of the mission. Acts # 10. The sacrifice of the Comboni missionaries is a given, but we continue to struggle on the issue of Comboni prayer. Acts # 30-31. There are Combonis that pray a lot and well, but there are Comboni Communities where there is no prayer at all. This is a great setback to our missionary task. Without prayer, we become business administrators. Our prayer in the Rule of Life # 40-41 is to be with God coworkers. We work together in God’s field.

We are to spend time with God and time with the people.

Lazarus and the rich on Poverty

The poor continue to be sent away. The missionary in Europe sees the refugees as his mission. The local church remains silent while the missionary is to speak up for those who shut up. We continue to choose the poor who are our teachers and guides.

Fidelity to God’s people is choosing to be in the suffering geography. We cannot pass by the one who suffers or is looking for the truth and needs hope.

Acts # 46: Now Europe is a mission Land. Africa came to us and it is to stay. There is an organized movement against the migration of peoples. Here the missionary is nobody while in other places was the “pope” himself. The movement of peoples has changed the way a Comboni Missionary is a missionary not just as a mission promoter. We are not invaded, those who arrive are not colonialists. Ad Gentes used to be to other countries, now to be Ad gentes is to go to the peoples outside your Comboni Community, your own house’s door.

The Comboni missionaries are to be faithful to their internationality because Comboni dreamt of this, as a catholic mission not a national church closed in itself. Our internationality could at times

13

become a pain to carry on. We do not become international to survive as institute. Vocation promotion is not to increase our numbers, but to be a sign of God who created us diverse to complement our races and our nationalities. By receiving candidates from different countries, we are open to become a true international institute with multiculturalists whose life is the same gospel. Our internationality is a symbol of our being Catholics.

Fratel Inocentio Simone made a Bari grammar. Missionaries are benefactors to the culture they served. Fr. Vantini was a historian.

We are suffering the lack of personnel because it is the present situation of all the institutes.

The mission done together with all the agents of mission, we will succeed.

Lord, to whom shall we go? – Our work, the work of God has its suffering and the beauty of the cross. So, we learn the great power of life and our poverty gives to the world the richness of being catholic.

14

Questions from Fr. Francesco Pierli.

What do we have to leave behind and what we can no longer continue? How are we to pray? Which ways of the past that helped us to pray no longer inspire our spirituality? Where is the prophetic dimension of our missionary commitment?

Esaminando il nostro lavoro nelle circoscrizioni e nel l'istituto quali messaggi significativi stiamo dando alla chiesa perché diventi sempre più missionaria?

1) Gli altri non Comboniani, aspettano di noi parole su Africa e L’islam. Cioè in genere, che siamo voci su quelli paesi e situazioni che non hanno voci. Loro chiedono di noi parole al di là del bucchero che loro conoscono.

2) I VESCOVI e i pretti diocesani ci dicono con apprezzo che loro vedono in noi pastori, non amministratori. La nostra presenza Comboniana li ricorda il dovere missionario di tutta la chiesa. Noi doniamo il senso universale di appartenenza a una chiesa più grande in questi paesi che si chiudono su di se. Siamo persone felici di essere tra la gente convivendo la vita de la gente, non chiusi in ufficio e lavorando avvolte senza orari. Il missionario non ha bisogno di niente per se stesso, ma per la sua missione, per gli altri. Siamo spesso testimoni di una povertà che dona la vita al di la della età dove ci aspetterebbe di andare in pensione.

3) Nostra internazionalità è una sfida per noi e per gli altri perché sarebbe più facile parlare di continentalità. Come vivere assieme senza spezzarsi. Nostra interculturità è un dono da non trascurare. Per noi può essere a volte un peso, ma è una croce che vale la pena portare. Nostro senso di internazionalità fa di noi segni vivi di un mondo sempre più tribalista, nazionalista e chiuso su di se. Malgrado le nostre mancanze su questo dono, dobbiamo essere segni di cattolicità dove siamo presenti. Si debe sottolineare il fatto dal inizio del nostro istituto di essere internazionali. Ma il nostro sforzo debe continuare ad essere una costante promozione delle anime nazionali come comunità di anime che parlano e dialogano in un messaggio di unita e vita.

4) Nel America del Sud si parla del nostro lavoro missionario, non soltanto per i sacramenti, le scuole, ma anche per una evangelizzazione tra la gente. Noi siamo diversi degli altri agenti di pastorale locali perché siamo voci delle cose che altri non hanno coraggio di parlare. Soprattuto su cose difficili di giustizia e pace. Non è facile vivere al livello della gente, ma sempre si può fare uno sforzo per essere in grado di servire la gente e fare fronte ai bisogni della comunità comboniana.

5) Quando lavoriamo in posti dove non si guadagna nulla e forse non ci vedono frutti, sembra che sia controproducente dare la vita per quelli che sono ormai perduti, come nei paesi musulmani. Per noi essere pastori è lasciare i 99 per andare dietro 1 Pechora. Le nostre scelte nel futuro sembra devono essere fedeli a questa tradizione di cercare le pecore di altri ovili.

6) I messaggio missionario sembra che debe continuare ad essere il vivere insieme, cioè non soltanto pregando e mangiando insieme, ma programmando la missione assieme. Condividere la Vita tocca la nostra gente soprattutto i nostri collaboratori, perché ci sediamo, parliamo e troviamo

15

delle linee comuni. Quando la gente partecipa del processo si compromette di più per logotipo comune.

7) Nostra missione è una missione ardua, non si trova facilmente personale perché fa paura o non è sempre accessibile come posto di lavoro. Adesso abbiamo più mezzi, pero continua a essere difficile rimanere in contesti dove il contesto ci dice è ormai inutile. Fa sorpresa che i nostri centri tirino avanti con pochi mezzi e pochi aiuti esterni. I centri missionari gestiti da noi attirano lideri che vedono in noi educatori della la autentica autosufficienza.

16

‘’’’’’’

David Kinnear Glenday, mccj

‘’’’’’’

Our ancient, deep, extraordinary vocation: belonging as gratitude

Time to reflect before talking about God’s grace in our lives.

Lc 10:17 ff- 72 The apostles came back joyful after their first mission…. Thank you, Father, because you wanted it this way…

• Gratitude is a journey, a discovery, a new beginning. • Gratitude is to know, in the biblical sense, that is, to Love. • Gratitude is grace. Jer 29, 11. It is what keeps us hopping, it is what give us the

power to dream dreams of hope.

Jn 14: 25

• Gratitude is to re-member… the Holy Spirit will remind us when the risk is to forget. Making memory of our call will recreate new projects of love inspired by the Holy Spirit. We are to re-visit our story to remember how God was present in our lives.

• Gratitude is to re-read experiences in a new way, hurting but healing, memories that become moments of joy and experienced mercy.

• Gratitude is to be awake as Seamus Heaney. The near experience of death helps us value life in a new sense of owe. It is a time to value discernment as a challenge to live a full life.

• Gratitude is to find innovative ways or reasons to thank the Lord. • 2 Cor 1: 3-4. Gratitude is being near as part of a mission response. Giving is

gratitude in action. No matter what we are in God’s hands, into God’s providence, all our sufferings are for Jesus and the work we do… Comboni

Gratitude is Mission: Gratitude is to set out again.

1. An Experience of God: I participate in God’s plan for the people of Africa. The institute was a small cenacle of apostles. The best is still to come.

2. God’s work is Catholic: The institute had to be international form the beginning, truly catholic.

3. A mission for every disciple: The mission is for all the church in every baptized. This mission includes women from the beginning. Male and female are the two lungs of Comboni’s mission.

17

Gratitude is a thank you and a yes

• Grateful memories will encourage us to continue saying yes to God’s call. • Courage, fidelity and perseverance…. = Comboni's call • We are clay vessels that contain a treasure. Only through our cracks, the treasure

comes out.

Questions for personal reflection:

Quale è la grata memoria che ti nutre personalmente in questo momento del tuo cammino missionario?

A quale nuova qualità di appartenenza Comboniana ti senti chiamato dalla grazia di missione che hai vissuto?

18

‘’’’’’

Rev. Enrique Sanchez, mccj

‘’’’’’

The challenges of the 21st Century

November 20, 1868 to Luigi Comboni: Our lives are in God's hands…

1Pe 5:1 ff Humble yourselves in front of God, so God may exalt you… the devil as the roaring lion is searching to eat you up.

A risk is to think that we will have success if you are capable and have all the means. However, God wants us to live in an attitude of faith. We are people who received a call by God’s grace and mercy. We do not deserve to be what we are.

Mission is every encounter we have with concrete faces, hearts and things we do for the promotion of our mission work in the world.

There are however, some challenges we all face. These are some of the things I am aware off so that you may continue this reflection and discernment of the signs of the times. This is the hour of grace given to us by God.

a. We are heirs of a long tradition: 150 years of foundation is a beautiful occasion to celebrate a glorious history of engagement for the mission. Today we can see the first fruits of our missions, the people that we minister. We continue to see the passion for Africa, the enthusiasm for being with the people. This is part of each Comboni missionary. Other missionaries have built in 150 years the institute that we are, as hidden stones of the same building. So, we are challenged to honor and continue this legacy. We all know that there is no mission without sacrifice and suffering. History shows us that we have been blessed with crosses all along the way. If we feel as protagonists of our history, we are not true agents of the mission. We are not called to share our own personal vision of mission, our personal projects, but a call shared by our common charism.

b. We have at times lost the idea of a radical hard mission: we lost the sight of a Comboni mission. We try to restart the mission all over again every time we start something as if we are the first arrivals. We lost the idea of continuity, of being custodians of the mission of Comboni that we have inherited. Mission is not a personal gift, but a gift to the church where I am just a collaborator.

c. We lost the idea of the role of Africa in our missionary identity: Africa still is the place where mission takes place as a reference. We still have large numbers of conferees working in this continent. However, the mission we live today is not our own property, or territory. For over 150 years Africa has been our training laboratory as if it were our school of mission. We have left our legacy in Africa. There we learnt to be Comboni Missionaries. In was part of the world where we

19

received great fulfillment, but today it is no longer that. Africa is now a challenge not just because we have an an African general as a superior, but because the idea of saving Africa by Africa still needs to become a reality. Africa is not an “idol” for the Comboni missionaries. Africa is the place where our missionary vocation is lived along with the peoples of Africa.

d. The African confrères challenge us to revisit our idea of Africa. They are diverse to our founding fathers. The institute has to change its face and take on a new formation model. The challenge of interculturality or internationality challenges our being Comboni missionaries. Africa is not an idol or mythical place.

e. There is a General resistance to change and to be fruitful: we often offer patching solutions for deep existential problems. We change structures, but we keep the same mentality. He lives out of a great and beautiful inheritance, yet we are generating nothing new. Our history and way of being is great, but we do not innovate, we no longer take risks. Our reality is taking over us because we try to patch wholes. We can dedicate new and young confrères to the eldest provinces, but they would not make a difference because there is nothing new there where to spend one’s life. We do not take the risk of opening new places because we do not take on the opportunity that God sends our way. We are afraid of taking risks. We are too realistic!

f. Our history continues to develop in a kind of mission that is not static, but that it is very demanding and demands of us all our life: There are new opportunities that we need to study and decide which ones will bring us renewal of spirit. We cannot just be social workers, but souls and conscience of the new world, of a new epochal age. We should have learnt by now how to avoid being activists with no professional capacity. We need to become the kind of Combonis that need re qualification of our being missionaries. We need to revisit our consecrated life for the mission. It is time to revisit our Comboni values. For that, we need to be honest, humble and responsible.

g. Mission is more and more demanding today: We need to be disciples and missionaries excelling in what we are. The mission deserves the best missionaries. We need to remember our great missionaries who have shaped our identity to become better missionaries ourselves.

h. Service is the new challenge: In the future, our idea of serving with great joy and enthusiasm should be our guiding principle. Give our life to others in the mission should be our goal. Not every place and idea is our mission. We are ad gentes people, the frontiers are there and we are called to cross over them. Our specific way of being is our guiding principle in the choices we make as missionaries. We should not make the mission to our own measure. We need to adjust our way of being to the challenges of the mission, not the inverse. We are to answer to the new areopaghi. We need to be formed to answer to the challenges and needs of the new society and its own reality. The challenge is to form our seminarians to face the challenges of the new mission reality.

20

i. Justice and peace continues to be a challenge for us missionaries: the places where we live challenge our commitment to the peoples as we share their destiny as immigrants and people who expect us to be spiritual guides not just renderers of services and distributors of bread.

j. We cannot be close in our communities: Pope Francis challenges us to go out and serve where the people live. We cannot do everything alone, on our own, but as a community, as a team.

k. Low numbers in personnel and less means: we are little and we are not growing, but continue to give answer to the future.

1. Quali senti siano le sfide per te in quanto erede dell’istituto comboniano ? 2. Quali sono le sfide che emergono della realtà per la vostra provincia o delegazione

comboniana? 3. Secondo te, quale sono le sfide della missione oggi per l’istituto comboniano? 4. Ti sembra che siamo risposta all’ora di Dio per il nostro mondo?

• Siamo alla fine di uno stile di essere Comboniani e non abbiamo persone disposte ad essere così ancora. Questa è una sfida generazionale.

• Altre sfide sono la promozione vocazionale e la animazione missionaria. Forse aprire nuovi centri di animazione vocazionale e promozione della missione. Invece dove ci sono delle vocazioni abbondanti la sfida è continuare il dialogo sulla formazione dei nuovi candidati.

• Rivedere il valore delle comunità e forse chiudere tutte per aprire nuove che rispondano alla nuova richiesta della missione locale d’oggi.

• Forse dobbiamo distinguere la missione come dono alla chiesa, del nostro stile comboniano di fare missione con la nostra vita. Nostro vivere ha i suoi propri problemi specifici che ricadono sul nostro carisma. Ad esempio, la sfida de la intercoltoralità è una sfida propria sul nostro essere comunità religiosa. Il carisma passa, si trasmette, ma sembra non essere fecondo in vocazioni. Non siamo generativi. Manca una risposta più accorata sul perché siamo ridotti così come istituto. Forse Dio ci vuole piccoli con i più piccoli.

• Mancanza di fede su di noi, la missione non è finita. Noi possiamo ancora essere missionari nel nostro posto dove ci siamo anche nelle case per i malati. La missione non fisiche con il missionario. La sfida è rimanere missionario in missione tutta la vita. Non rubare il lavoro ai preti diocesani. Aiutiamo alla chiesa locale ad essere autosufficiente e interconnessa al resto della chiesa locale.

• Manca dialogo verso la intercoltoralità del istituto fra le diverse visioni della stessa missione.

21

• Manca un senso di identità missionaria che non sia dei non global. Non ci capiamo. Il linguaggio missionario non e capito di tutti nello steso senso. Per esempio: Ci vestiamo di missionario anche se non sappiamo cosa ci sia essere missionari.

• La sfida di ragionare fuori dello schema: non rischiamo perché siamo pressi delle realtà che ci schiacciano. Si fa del tutto per tappare i buchi ma non per discernere la nuova realtà della missione e del nostro essere.

• La sfida è vivere la tensione fra quello che voliamo essere come istituto e quello che siamo in realtà siamo. Abbiamo tanti piani, ci piacerebbe cambiare, infatti ne abbiamo delle idee belle del nuovo istituto comboniano, ma poi giocammo sul sicuro, su quello che conosciamo. La novità ci spaventa perché forse qualcuno andrà via. Non possiamo spaccare l'istituto.

• Nostro istituto fu sempre sfidato, le sfide sono stati presenti sempre e i membri in ogni tempo hanno risposto al modo suo ai segni dei tempi. Oggi siamo sfidati a rispondere con creatività alle sfide del nostro tempo. Qual cosa di nuovo sta venendo. Oggi le nostre missioni devono essere nuove non eternamente bisognose di noi. Qual cosa rinascerà con una nuova sensibilità . Il nostro modo di evangelizzare fu sempre accompagnato di ambiguità, con il vangelo e lo sviluppo sociale. Spada e croce, predica spirituale e progetti sociali.

• La rilevanza dei mezzi sociali di comunicazione come per esempio delle nostre riviste verso quelle on line. Accettazione delle nuove generazioni cioè quelli del nuovo secolo.

• Le sfide di essere in Uscita come lo chiede il Papa Francesco. La sfida di uscire di noi stessi vero gli altri. La sfida in certe missione e la coabitazione pacifica di gruppi religiosi diversi ed opposti. Mancano gli scambi fra provincie che fanno un ministero simile.

• Il pessimismo delle generazioni precedenti affoga l'entusiasmo dei pochi nuovi missionari. Le loro lamentele ci uccide la speranza. Manca incoraggiamento di quelli che hanno spesso la vita per la missione.

• Comboni ci sfida a credere la missione nella chiesa locale. Le chiese locali ci chiedono cose che dobbiamo conoscere se prima ascoltiamo e poi facciamo piani missionari. La Africa debe rimanere il nostro riferimento ovunque ci siamo in missione.

22

‘’’’’’’’

Francesco Pierli

‘’’’’’’’’

…. Social dimension of the Comboni Mission.

Our intellectual level as institute is insufficient. Social Ministry = Spirituality and Work

There is the need of a mystic aspect in our being missionaries. Without the science, there is no possibility of discernment. Spirituality does not make the discernment but the science. As missionaries, we are not professionals anymore. Research is a present need to find new ways of being missionary, but this costs. When a missionary does research is not motivated and blinded by money or financial motivations. When one needs to be sponsored, because one is working alone, the research is limited to the ideas and intentions of the sponsor. We are free. We do not go to pick up data. This is why we do not try to use the people and so people are truthful in their answers to our questions. Research is essential to the apostolic mission of the church.

Our contact with the people makes the difference between our results and the results of the NGO or the UN. Researchers are paid, so those who paid them decide and control the issues that are being studied. The church is free, so its results are more trustworthy. We can no longer generalize our talk. Our credibility has to be backed up by a serious research work. Spirituality is to animate a humanity that lays in each situation.

Competition by competition is not enough.

The social values have to be part of any Pastoral program of Christian Community: Social transformation and governance and Social transformation in social ministry.

Science is beyond Newton and Einstein. So, what kind of image of God do we believe in? A theory became a theological idea. With science can we preach a new face of God?

Sacrament is a mystery that has to be explained in human terms as part of one reality, not two. Science and faith are two sides of the same coin. The spiritual experience is one of the most important aspects of the human reality. There is not a unique and sole theory that explains our reality in theological definitions. Less theology and more mystic.

Our mission promotion is social ministry because our magazines explain social problems to the people. This is not in opposition to the evangelizing duty of the church. The religious dimension includes a challenge to integrate the integration of diversity. The method of evangelization has to include a Ministerial Pluralism and therefore we need to evangelize in missionary teams. The confrères are to have different specializations. Theology is not enough to respond to the needs of the mission. The religious community can be integrated and feel fulfilled, if they share various aspects of the mission.

There is the need to help entrepreneurs, but a based capital is needed. Enthusiasm was the first and strong characteristic of Comboni.

23

‘’’’’’’’’’’

Comboni Missionary Sisters

‘’’’’’’’’’’’

Luigina Coccia

The General Situation of the Comboni Sisters

We are members of one body founded by Comboni.

If Mission is relationship, so we are to promote encounters of life

a) Spirituality: We cannot continue working without soul b) Our doing mission together: We live complex community relations. Our

numbers and statistics influence our life. We need to take on new lines of life after looking at the new faces of the institute. Our members go down, from 1250 from 36 countries in 44 countries. Now 705 are over 75 years old, our middle age is 70. Sisters under 70 are 478. Etc. The number of communities still remain the same. We can no longer support our communities, so we are in need of revisiting our commitments. We lost our charismatic presence. Our sisters are overwhelmed and burned. Some over stressed.There is no leadership candidates that are charismatic enough to to lead our institute.

c) Better relationship with the people: It is the time to re-qualify our presence while closing communities and finding a new proposal of being missionaries. Our presence among people is to be re-qualified, especially in the field of vocation promotion. We need to look at the movement of the Holy Spirit. It is time to actively seek the blowing of the Holy Spirit (? 6:16), when the Holy Spirit did not allow him to preach in Arabia, but a Macedonian asked him to come there. Is the Holy Spirit blocking us? Are the signs of sterility signs that we are to give up old models and conformed areas of sure action to go to new places that God wants us to move on now? Discernment is what my heart tells me God wants of me. What is the Holy Spirit telling our missionary institutes?

d) Keep the creation: this is a new area of mission promotion and sustenance for our missionary vocation to life.

We are to revisit our Rule of Life, finding the non-negotiable values. We need to find the reason of our consecration, our relationship in the communities. It is not only a revision of texts but to look at ourselves from the periphery and the new experiences. It is not a dried study. This encounter with the rule of life is to understand how to live our missionary and religious life today. Starting from a concrete life to a study of the origins of the rule of life.

We do not want principles as ideology, we want a process of charismatic choices that renew our history and our commitment in a prophetic way.

We speak of reconfiguration of the institute of the Comboni Sisters from a free ministerial attitude. We should feel free to leave behind methods and ideas that keeps us secure but as dead stones. It

24

is time to feel pilgrims who know the goal, starting the way by leaving home without knowing what the way will bring at every walk. One has to dare to take distance in freedom. The leaders of the community and the congregation have to be new. We do not need to continue looking at problem solving, but to reflect and create new visions.

What is the new vision of mission that we need to commit our forces? We need to undertake community projects. We lack new good shepherds that guide us in this way of reflection towards the re-qualification of our presence in mission.

Comboni had an idea of women in mission.

Comboni not only thought of religious women, but also lay women as educators of communities. Writings # 1222: Mission is collaboration of all kinds of ways of life.

Reconfiguration is not only about identity, but of a new strategy. We need for this to discern ways of finding ministeriality as in the beginning. There are some challenges before dreaming of Comboni missionaries, male and female working together

1. We passed from dependency to indifference. So, we need to sit down and look back to our history.

2. We want our own post. We fought for something we already had. Who wants to be a priest as they are now? We want to be women who are women not over against the men. So how to collaborate?

3. Men and women are finding new identities and roles. We are living new processes.

4. How to deal with the lay people, and how to integrate the lay into our religious communities. How to integrate without absorbing them?

Collaboration is among equals in being and doing. Reconfiguración or refundación?

Parabola del monje que le comían los pantalones un ratón. La gente le da un gato demasiado chico, que necesita leche, le dan la vaca, pero no tiene hierba… todo se complica y el monje no tiene tiempo de ser lo que es, de hacer silencio, de rezar, y predicar por estar ocupado trabajando y la gente ya no vino a buscarlo…. Lo más sencillo era darle un nuevo par de pantalones… pero…