Missionaries of Africa

A home for all? Renewing the OIKOS of GOD.

Posted on 21/09/202121/09/2021 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

A home for all? Renewing the OIKOS of GOD.

In the context of the TIME FOR CREATION which is being celebrated from the 1st of September to the 4th of October, our community of Missionaries of Africa, together with the community of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (MSOLA), the Marist Sisters and the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate, have undertaken a common initiative this year.

To live the theme “A HOME FOR ALL? RENEWING THE OIKOS OF GOD”, every Saturday afternoon we devote a time of meeting and prayer around a tent, which is moved from one garden to another and which makes us aware of the symbolism of the tent, based on different texts from the Old Testament.

On Saturday 18 September, the celebration took place in the M.Afr. garden. Father Stanley Lubungo, our Superior General, and Sister Maria Carmen Ocón Moreno, Assistant General of the MSOLA, welcomed the participants around the tent which reminds us that we are pilgrims, a people on the move on the earth, our common home.

After the reading of Leviticus 23:33-34 by Sister Gisela Schreyer, the participants were given a palm leaf to immerse themselves in the spirit of the Jewish festival of Sukkot. This festival reminds us of our dependence on God’s gift of creation – earth, sky, seas, birds, animals and insects – and God’s invitation to humanity to share the earth, our common home, and God’s universe.

Several members of the community formed a choir accompanied by our musicians. They enriched the celebration with songs in different languages from different continents.
The prayers of intention, prepared by the MSOLA community, also gave voice to our voices and concerns about the dramatic ecological state of the five continents. Father Martin Grenier concluded the prayer with a blessing presented by confreres in Moore, Dagara and Arabic.
The meeting ended with a shared glass of water and biscuits. Nearly 100 religious men and women from a dozen congregations participated in the prayer.

This prayerful, joyful and inclusive, inter-congregational and inter-cultural experience under the trees of the garden and the warmth of our brother Sun, was well appreciated by all participants. Next Saturday we will continue our journey in favour of the OIKOS, our common home, in the garden of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Week3
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Too much mixing between Catholicism and traditional faith

Posted on 21/09/202121/09/2021 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Too much mixing between Catholicism and traditional faith

We need to focus on catechism for adults !

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, reported by Agenzia Fides, Johannesburg 20/9/2021

Some ten years ago, I was the Parish Priest of a rural Zulu Parish near Pietermaritzburg. The people were having many ancestral ceremonies, alongside but not integrated in their Catholic faith and practice. As I insisted in being invited, as Parish Priest, to these events, I started being more and more interested in trying to evangelise those practices. Unfortunately, I left South Africa too early. (signed: Philippe Docq)

Poverty, racism and the influence of ancestral cults are among the greatest challenges to evangelization in South Africa. This is what the Archbishop of Johannesburg, His Exc. Mgr. Buti Tlhagale said to a group of new missionaries.

“There is still a lot of racism in South Africa, it is always under the carpet, below the surface”, said Tlhagale, adding that this translates into economic inequality where a minority is fine and the majority is ill. The Archbishop said he sees a lot of young people in Johannesburg going mad because of the dire situation they are facing due to realities like unemployment. “They sleep on the streets, they lose their dignity, they beg for food, and eventually you can see that there’s something abnormal about their behaviour”, said Archbishop Tlhagale. He pointed out that apart from material problems there’s a lot of brokenness amongst the people of South Africa which results in a loss of hope.

The Archbishop questioned the role of the laity in the society at large wondering whether they go out to make in impact on the society, motivated by their faith to try and change society and its expectation.

Archbishop Tlhagale believes that the major obstacle to total conversion is the ancestral cult, noting that people believe in the ubiquitous presence of ancestors. To make the missionaries understand something concrete with regard the ancentral cult Archbishop Tlhagale showed them a video of a trainee sangoma (Traditional diviner/healer). The video was of a Catholic who became a sangoma recently and the Archbishop was trying to show them that everyone is into this even Catholics of all walks of life. He said this traditional religion is mixed with Christianity even by Catholics including some priests and nuns.

The Archbishop made missionaries aware that there are cases where one goes to two funeral services of the same person on the same day because there has to be a service for the ancestors and a service for the Church. He said people do these things sometimes as a way of double insurance. For this reason Mgr. Tlhagale urged to place more emphasis on adult catechism which is almost non-existent, because after confirmation, the Catholic faithful stop studying and deepening the teachings of the Church.

After the “Catholic” celebration of the marriage on Saturday afternoon, the “real traditional Zulu” marriage took place on Sunday. It was very colourful and meaningful. I found my way to the ceremony, wondering how could we make of the two ceremonies one big feast, celebrating the beginning of a Christian covenant between two persons, between two families.

Ghislain De Jaeger, R.I.P.

Posted on 13/09/202114/09/2021 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Society of the Missionaries of Africa

Father Yvo Wellens, Provincial Delegate of the sector of Belgium,
informs you of the return to the Lord of Father

Ghislain De Jaeger

on Monday 13th September 2021 in Bruges (Belgium)
at the age of 96 years, of which 71 years of missionary life
in D.R. Congo and in Belgium.

Let us pray for him and for his loved ones.

Download here the announcement of Father Ghislain De Jaeger’s death

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First meeting with the Chapter moderators

Posted on 09/09/202110/09/2021 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

First meeting with the Chapter moderators

Here is some news from the Generalate at the beginning of the academic year. The General Council is once again complete after the usual summer dispersion. Two confreres have joined them in this first week of work, the mornings of which are dedicated to the preparation of the 2022 Chapter. They are the two future moderators, Innocent Maganya, who directs and teaches at the Institute for Inter-religious Dialogue and Islamic Studies (IRDIS) in Nairobi, and Yago Abeledo, who resides in New York and follows a 4 year specialised formation in process-oriented facilitation and conflict studies.

This first contact between the General Council and the future moderators of the Chapter is very important because the former have already reflected a great deal on the Chapter of 2022, notably by reading the responses to the General Consultation launched last year, while the latter are anxious to know what the description of their future task will be, that is to say, how they will be able to stimulate and nourish the discernment of the capitulants.

This week’s work is focused on three documents:

- The internal regulations of the Chapter: the basis of this document will of course be the regulations already in existence at the 2016 Chapter, but which will be reviewed, corrected and adapted in view of next year’s Chapter. For example, the role of the spiritual guide of the Chapter will enhanced, as well as the times of prayer at the beginning and end of the day, in order to give more space to discernment and listening to the Spirit.
- The method to be used during the Chapter was one of the questions of the General Consultation. There is a clear consensus for the so-called Cardinal Cardijn method “See, Judge, Act”. But the General Council has already gone further by taking inspiration from the famous “Pastoral Cycle” (Experience – Analysis – Theological Reflection – Action – Celebration – Evaluation…) widely used by JPIC.
- The Chapter Calendar will be the third and final document to be drawn up during the working meetings of this week.

In a future working meeting, the spiritual guide of the Chapter should probably be present.

But Rome is not the only one to get to work. The Pre-Capitulars will begin in all the provinces. Their reflections will complement those of the General Council to give the future 2022 Chapter a solid basis for work and reflection.

Good meetings to you all!

And above all… with a touch of humour…

Birthday of Our Lady in Jerusalem

Posted on 09/09/202109/09/2021 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

8 September : Birthday of Our Lady in Jerusalem

The Proto-Gospel of James (2nd century) indicates the birth of the Virgin Mary in the vicinity of the Temple; and pilgrims from the 5th century onwards visited the church of the paralytic and “Saint Mary where she was born” at the probatic pool.

This church, destroyed before the arrival of the Crusaders, was built on the present site of Saint Anne’s, with a large monastery, provided with royal revenues, where AUDE, wife of King BEAUDOUIN I, and Judith, daughter of BEAUDOUIN II and sister of Queen MELISANDRE, ended their lives.

In 1192, as an Arabic inscription on the tympanum of the main door indicates, the church was transformed by Saladin into a Shiafi’i college; hence the name Salahiye.

During the Muslim occupation, the Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land used every means to gain access to the crypt from time to time to pray with their pilgrims. They could only enter by descending through a window that can still be seen today from the platform through which one enters the Crypt of the Birth of Mary.

As early as the 15th century, the Franciscans obtained a firman that allowed them to celebrate Mass (which was done with difficulty and fear) on 8 September, the feast of the Virgin’s birth, and on 8 December, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

In 1856, after the Crimean War, the building was given to France by Sultan ABDUL MAJID. The church, carefully restored, was entrusted in 1878 to the care of the White Fathers founded by Cardinal Charles LAVIGERIE.

During the 1967 war, the basilica and its dome were badly damaged by Israeli bombing. In the following years, the church was restored under the direction of the architects M. TROUVELOT and P. COUASNON OP.

On 14 July 1971, France’s National Day, it was solemnly reopened for worship.

Season of Creation 2021

Posted on 06/09/202106/09/2021 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

The Season of Creation 2021

As every year since the promulgation of the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis “Laudato Sì”, the Season of Creation is celebrated throughout the World from the 1st September to the 4th October.

If you haven’t found it yet, you can find all the documentation following this link :

https://seasonofcreation.org

In Rome, four communities – the Marist Sisters, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Missionaries of Africa and the Missionary Sisters of our Lady of Africa – decided to plant the “Tent of Abraham” in turn in the four gardens of their Generalates. Every Saturday, these communities will celebrate together, deepening various themes around the “Tent of Abraham”:

- - The tent of the Presence of God
  - The tent of Hospitality
  - The tent of a People in movement
  - Expanding the tent space.

In our own garden, at the Generalate, the celebration will take place on Saturday the 18th of September.

The photos below are taken from the album offered online by the organisers. You may access the full album by clicking on any of the photos. I suppose other photos will be added as the tent is planted in other gardens. Please check out every week.

Felix Hoffmann, R.I.P.

Posted on 04/09/202104/09/2021 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Society of the Missionaries of Africa

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

Felix Hoffmann

on Saturday 4th September 2021 in Trier (Germany)
at the age of 83 years, of which 56 years of missionary life
in Zambia and in Germany.

Let us pray for him and for his loved ones.

Download here the announcement of Father Felix Hoffmann’s death

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Jan Mol, R.I.P.

Posted on 03/09/202103/09/2021 by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Society of the Missionaries of Africa

Father Jozef de Bekker, Provincial Delegate of the sector of the Netherlands,
informs you of the return to the Lord of Father

Jan Mol

on Friday, 3rd September 2021 in Breda (Netherlands)
at the age of 86 years, of which 61 years of missionary life
in Belgium, France, DR Congo, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Let us pray for him and for his loved ones.

Download here the announcement of Father Jan Mol

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