PAO Newsletter – Baobab n° 32

Here comes the newsletter (in French) from the West African Province BAOBAB n° 32.

Please try and read it from the screen and spare the trees.

Sister Charlotte Couture (Jean-Guy), R.I.P.

The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa
invite you to share their hope and pray for

Sister Charlotte Couture (Jean-Guy)

Entered the fullness of Life on April 15, 2019
at the infirmary of the Sisters of Charity of Quebec, Beauport (Canada).

She was 95 years old and had spent nearly 68 years of her religious missionary life in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Italy, Chad and Canada.

Paschal triduum

From all of us in the General House

to all of you, wherever you are,

we wish you a holy and prayerful

TRIDUUM

 

 

 

Lenten meditation 2019 – week 7

The German branch of AEFJN – Netzwerk Afrika Deutschland – has prepared a series of meditations in preparation for the “Extraordinary Month on Mission” that Pope Francis has announced for next October. Here is the introductory text. Every Monday of Lent, the following meditation will be posted.

“With the Lenten impulses we want to invite you to enter into a personal and communal reflection on the different dimensions of the mission of the Church:

  1. A personal encounter with Jesus Christ living in his Church: in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, and in personal and communal prayer.
  2. Testimony: the witness of missionary saints, martyrs, and confessors of the faith as an expression of the Church throughout the world.
  3. Missionary formation: biblical, catechetical, spiritual, and theological.
  4. Missionary charity: The witness of selfless love and of lived solidarity with the poor and the suffering to make God’s love for all people visible.

Week 1: The Extraordinary Missionary Month 2019 – An overview

Week 2: The Extraordinary Missionary Month 2019 – Papal documents

Week 3: The Extraordinary Missionary Month 2019 – Resources

Week 4: The heart of mission: the encounter with Jesus Christ

Week 5: Mission through witness of life

Week 6: Mission at the service of people

Week 7: Mission needs ongoing formation

Erich Brink, R.I.P.

Father Rudi Pint, Provincial Delegate of the sector of Germany,
informs you of the return to the Lord of Brother

Erich Brink

on Friday 12th April 2019 in Munich (Germany)
at the age of 78 years, of which 57 years of missionary life
in Ghana, Zambia, Nigeria, Italy and Germany.

Let us pray for him and for his loved ones.

Download here the announcement of Brother Erich Brink’s death Continue reading “Erich Brink, R.I.P.”

Paolo Costantini, R.I.P.

Father Gaetano Cazzola, Provincial Delegate of the sector of Italy,
informs you of the return to the Lord of Father

Paolo Costantini

on Friday 12th April 2019 at Treviglio (Italy)
at the age of 77 years, of which 52 years of missionary life
in DR Congo, Belgium and Italy.

Let us pray for him and for his loved ones.

Download here the announcement of Father Paolo Costantini’s death. Continue reading “Paolo Costantini, R.I.P.”

Lenten meditation 2019 – week 6

The German branch of AEFJN – Netzwerk Afrika Deutschland – has prepared a series of meditations in preparation for the “Extraordinary Month on Mission” that Pope Francis has announced for next October. Here is the introductory text. Every Monday of Lent, the following meditation will be posted.

“With the Lenten impulses we want to invite you to enter into a personal and communal reflection on the different dimensions of the mission of the Church:

  1. A personal encounter with Jesus Christ living in his Church: in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, and in personal and communal prayer.
  2. Testimony: the witness of missionary saints, martyrs, and confessors of the faith as an expression of the Church throughout the world.
  3. Missionary formation: biblical, catechetical, spiritual, and theological.
  4. Missionary charity: The witness of selfless love and of lived solidarity with the poor and the suffering to make God’s love for all people visible.

Week 1: The Extraordinary Missionary Month 2019 – An overview

Week 2: The Extraordinary Missionary Month 2019 – Papal documents

Week 3 : The Extraordinary Missionary Month 2019 – Resources

Week 4 : The heart of mission: the encounter with Jesus Christ

Week 5 : Mission through witness of life

Week 6 : Mission at the service of people

Info-PAC nr 80 of Mars 2019

Here comes some news from the Central Africa Province – in French of course –  available from : Downloads > NEWSLETTERS > PAC News

Please, before printing the newsletter, do consider the environment and the possibility of reading it from your screen. You might not be used to it but the learning curve is less important than you might think and the impact on the environment is greater than you might think.

How to help the Mozambique Sector

Some communities seem not have received the letter from Mozambique sector requesting help :

Dear confreres and Friends and Benefactors and People of Good will, greetings from Beira.

The cyclone Idai that hit Mozambique on the night of 14th -15th March 2019, left the people of the Central region of the country with pain and helpless: hundreds of people reported dead.   

People around us have neither food nor shelters as their houses have been damaged. Our parish community in Dombe is in the worst situation. More than 600 people there are taking refuge at the parish school. Our workers and neighbours in Beira have no houses. Sussundenga is not better.

In the Sector house, we lost part of our wall and part of our house.

At Nazaré Centre of Formation, a good number of structures are left roofless.

Our confrere Raphaël Gasimba escaped death as he fell into waters that crossed and split the road, with his car on a journey to Dombe where he is serving. The Toyota Hilux Double Cabine which he was using and some of his personal belongings are lost.

Grateful to God for the safe lives, we are calling upon your generous support in any of the areas mentioned. We thank you for your concern and prayers. Will update you on how the general situation unfold.

Details of our Bank

Millenium BIM-BEIRA CLUB
Missionários de África
Account in US Dollars: 20877214
Account in MZN: 4370627
Swift code: BIMOMZMX

Yours sincerely,

Boris Yabre, M.Afr.
Sector Superior
Mozambique

 

Update on the Mozambique situation

We have just received the following message from Boris Yabre, M.Afr., Provincial Delegate for Mozambique.

Dear confreres and Friends and Benefactors and People of Good will, greetings from Beira.

Six days ago, I sent you a SOS message sharing with you about what we are living on the ground and appealing for help.

We want to thank each and every one of you for your constant prayers and growing concern. Some of you have already sent your contributions to alleviate the pains of the people around us; others are still looking for the ways and means to do so. We wholeheartedly say thank you.

On Tuesday, the Archbishop of Beira called for an urgent meeting of the pastoral agents of the archdiocese. About hundred people or so were present. we shared about the current situation of the people at the various places of the diocese.

Putting aside the lost lives, people are in extreme need of food, drinking water and shelters. Some incidents occurred by which the population went and broke some shops in order to get food without fearing the police presence.  There is no guaranty and certainty if the humanitarian aid is reaching everywhere. Bureaucracy, protocols, greed can be a hindrance to that.

The majority of the parish churches, chapels and schools are down or roofless. Many convents and presbyteries suffered.  The archbishop suspended all the pastoral planned activities until further notice. The urgency of the time is to be with the people, share their pains and give them hope regardless of their religious, political and ethnical affiliation. We were reminded not to lose sight on what the Lord may want to tell us through this calamity.

This 4th Sunday of Lent celebration is dedicated to pray for the victims of the cyclone Idai all over the archdiocese of Beira. Each parish will make special collection today to help its most affected people.

The sad reality is that in the market places the prices of essential products have gone higher. The price of iron sheet and cement have gone up in a moment where people are in dire need. The lusalite (asbestos) sheets cannot be sold to ordinary people. It is reserved for government use in order to fix first the public structures: Government offices and schools.

In the Sector house and Nazaré Centre of Formation, what occupied the mind these last days was to make some cleaning up: gathering the iron sheet left here and there by the wind, clearing the ground as most of the mango and coconut trees were down, in order to give way and protect ourselves. So far there is no electricity. Only the ‘chosen few” have access to it. At least, the Central Hospital have electricity and the Health Centres are using generators. Right now, the city of Beira is running out of generators on sale. To have one there is need to order it from Chimoio or Tete.

Sussundenga has no electricity neither. Those who lost their houses are given only tents by the Red Cross. The fields are swept away by the waters giving way to despair and the imminence of a year of hunger.

In Dombe there is rising need of food, shelters, and drinking water. For whatever reason, it is one of the forgotten places of the country. The fields got flooded and the crops are gone.  Our community chapels in some villages which partly fell are where some families are living.

On the estimates you can add ‘we shall try to come up with so concrete figures by the end of this week for what our Confreres may need for their missions and in order to contribute to helping the needy…

So far, we cannot give any estimate of what could cost the reconstruction of our structures: Nazaré Centre of formation, the Sector house. It seems to be too soon to have clear references, giving the general chaos we are in. We shall try to come up with so concrete figures by the end of this week for what our Confreres may need for their mission and in order to contribute to helping the needy.

The families of our candidates which we managed to contact are safe. They do also have some challenges like anybody else. Our confreres and stagiaires are doing well. They continue to be close to the people and to face with them the test of time.

Boris Yabre, M.Afr.
Provincial Delegate