News archive

Jubilee celebrations in AMS (corrected v.)

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Jubilees of 65, 60 and 50 years of missionary commitment in the province of AMS

CORRECTED VERSION

On Saturday, May 18, the jubilee celebration of the Sherbrooke House took place.

There were five of them: two of them with 65 years of oath: Pierre Aucoin and Victor Grégoire. Fernand Chicoine and Jean-Marie Tardif celebrated their sixtieth and Pierre Benson, 50 years of commitment. What struck me during the presentation of each of them was the great diversity of their commitments to the mission in Africa and for Africa. That’s impressive.

It was a beautiful day of thanksgiving, which brought together several confreres, relatives and friends. Once again, on behalf of the mafr.net website, my congratulations and thanks to all the Fathers and Sisters of the Society of Missionaries of Africa for their contributions to the emancipation of Africa in this year of the 150th anniversary of their foundation.

Denis-Paul Hamelin

From the Website of the AMS – https://mafr.net

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Spiritual control and abuse

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Spiritual control and abuse

A JCD PRODUCTION/KTO 2018 COPRODUCTION – Directed by Jean-Claude Duret
Documentary of 18/05/2019. 

IN FRENCH

Today, the thirst for the absolute is strong in a Western world that has lost the foundations of faith. This can lead some to meet manipulative personalities, or even to fall prey to narcissistic personalities who divert the quest for God to their advantage. Sometimes even real systems of control are being put in place. The mechanism of mental control can lead to many abuses, including spiritual abuse, and can cause serious psychological injuries. Yet, for millennia, a treasure of wisdom has existed in monasteries where those who devote their lives to the quest for God have marked out the dangers of this quest. The experience they transmit to us today is indispensable to our discernment, whether we are believers or not. This documentary is meant to inform and educate a wide audience of the possible dangers of spiritual research.

 

Franz Stoffel, R.I.P.

Posted on 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

Franz Stoffel

on Tuesday 21st May 2019 at Hechingen (Germany)
at the age of 91 years, of which 68 years of missionary life in
Malawi and Germany.

Let us pray for him and for his loved ones.

Download here the announcement of Father Franz Stoffel’s death.

(more…)

Renewal of Mandates

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

The Superior General, Father Stanley Lubungo, after consultation and with the approval of his Council, has reappointed for a second mandate, from 1st July to 30th June 2022 :

  • Fr. Luc Kola, Provincial of PAO
  • Fr. Delphin Nyembo, Assistant Provincial of PAO
  • Fr. Felix Phiri, Provincial of SAP
  • Fr. Bonaventure Bwanakweri, Delegate Superior of E.PO
  • Fr. John Gould, Delegate Superior of SOA.

Rome, 7th May 2019
André-Léon Simonart, M.Afr.
SecretaryGeneral

Missionary of Africa for Solidarity with South Sudan

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Jim (James) Greene is a Missionary of Africa born in Ireland on the 27th July 1960. Ordained to the priesthood on the 2nd July 1988 after completing his theological formation in Totteridge, he started his missionary life in Malawi until mid-1997 when he became the Treasurer of the Province of Ireland (today one of the sectors of the European province). In 2002, he returns to Malawi, with a strong interest for Justice & Peace. Delegate to the Chapter of 2004, he is elected Assistant to the Superior General. After a sabbatical in Chigaco, he is appointed to Jerusalem as treasurer in 2011. Since January 2019, he is the executive director of the project “Solidarity South Sudan”.

A word from Jim

I arrived in Juba, South Sudan on the 26th January to join a team of about 30 religious, male and female who are working with the project called ‘Solidarity with South Sudan’. This is an initiative of the USG/UISG (male and female religious congregations) which started after an appeal for assistance by the bishops of South Sudan. 

Seeing the enormity of the challenges in what was then Southern Sudan, over 200 congregations decided to pool their resources together, both financial and personnel. Many congregations do not have personnel to offer to this initiative but presently about 18 congregations are represented on the ground in South Sudan, while many more contribute in other ways.

From an early stage it was recognized that ‘Solidarity with South Sudan’ could not respond to every need. With this in mind, it was decided that the emphasis would be put on training others in the areas of education, health care, pastoral services and agriculture. 

The project established teacher training centres for primary school teachers in Yambio in Western Equatoria and in Malakal in Upper Nile State. Unfortunately, due the hostilities and attacks the centre in Malakal is currently abandoned. 

The Comboni Sisters helped us establish a nursing and midwifery training centre in Wau, situated in the former state of Western Bahr el Ghazal. Coincidently, some of the present buildings were originally constructed by our deceased confrere, Hurbert Barbier in the late 1970s. For many years these buildings were occupied by internally displaced persons before being handed back to the church to start the nurses training project in 2008. 

In addition, a pastoral team was set up and trained many priests, catechists and other pastoral workers from many dioceses in the country. Given the violent history of the country, an emphasis was also put on trauma healing and trying to address some of the effects of past and present conflicts. Currently this team is in need of more members.

Solidarity seeks to witness not only through its actions but also by living in international religious communities of men and women. In a country sadly divided on the basis of ethnicity, we try to show that it is possible for women and men from different nationalities and ethnicities, to live and work together, while respecting each other’s dignity and difference.

Presently, I am the only Missionary of Africa in the country. Who knows what the future will bring? The harvest is indeed great!

Interview of Jim by Radio Vatican on 16th April 2019

Linda Bordoni of Vatican Radio interviews Father Jim Greene, Missionary of Africa, newly appointed executive director of Solidarity South Sudan. The original interview is here :  https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-04/solidarity-south-sudan-pope-retreat-father-greene.html

Video produced by Solidarity South Sudan last November

Testimony of Jim to the confreres in Rome

Being the only Missionary of africa in South Sudan and having to attend meetings every now and then in Rome with the board of Solidarity South Sudan, Jim is attached to the Generalate, rather than to the Easr Africa Province which, traditionally, was hosting Sudan. As he was in Rome last April, he gave his testimony to some confreres. The video he is referring to at the beginning is the one above and the power point he is referring to follows. By default, the slides moves forward every 15 seconds, but you can force them forward or backward as you are listening to Jim. Towards the end of the testimony, Jim is answering questions… which are unfortunately not audible, as the confreres did not bother waiting for the microphone. But if you are interested in the testimony, you will be able to guess what the questions were about.

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Oath & Diaconate Merrivale update

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Photos have been added to the Oath & Diaconate Merrivale post.

Election is over – SACBC statement

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

After the election taking place in South Africa over the weekend, the South African Catholic Bishops Conference has issued the following statement :

ELECTION IS OVER - LET THE BUILDING OF THE ECONOMY AND THE TACKLING OF CORRUPTION COMMENCE

We congratulate the Independent Electoral Commission and all political parties for creating a conducive environment for free and fair election. While some parties have recorded discontent about certain incidences during the election, these do not appear to have significantly impacted on the integrity of the election. Nevertheless, we appeal to the Independent Electoral Commission to take effective measures and address all the problems in the voting system before the next municipal election, including the threat of multiple voting, shortage of voting papers and staff inefficiencies.

One of the key messages that the citizens of South Africa have delivered through the 2019 election is that the current social contract, which is based on the Constitutional negotiations in the early 1990s, needs both renewal and repair. The citizens should not be taken for granted. The dwindling in the voter turn-out as well as the incidents of protests during the election are a stern warning to all the political parties that, twenty five years into Constitutional Democracy, there is a need to renegotiate the social contract between the ruling elite and those living in the margins of the economy.

In the previous 25 years, the Constitutional Democracy and its embedded social contract have failed to create tangible dividends, especially to the poor, in terms of acceptable levels of access to quality education, quality health care, job opportunities, and decent housing. In the next five years, the mending of the social contract will therefore depend on the extent to which the ruling party, working with the oversight functions of the 6th Parliament, have managed to rebuild the economy while tackling the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

We therefore expect all the political parties in the 6th Parliament, and not just the ruling party, to put the country first and work collectively to develop effective measures to arrest the collapse of the economy and the looting of the state resources, and to spur economic growth so that it creates jobs. In particular, we call on the ruling party to develop a national strategic plan, with measurable targets that can be subject to accountability, to address youth unemployment, which is a ticking time bomb and has at some level contributed the disenchantment and voter apathy among the youth.

An issue of grave concern to many citizens in our country, which also poses a serious threat to our young democracy, is that of high levels of corruption. Now that the election is over, we expect the President of our nation to dispense with the politics of expediency and show firm hand in dealing with those implicated in corruption and state capture. In particular, we expect the President of the country:

  • To ensure that those suspected of corruption and state capture are not appointed into the cabinet and the Parliament.
  • To ensure that the country’s bloated cabinet is reduced by half.
  • To introduce new measures to strengthen the investigative and prosecutorial arm of the criminal justice and its ability to operate without political interference and prosecute those involved in corruption and state capture
  • To reverse the collapse of good governance and widespread looting at state owned entities (SOEs), like Eskom, SAA and others.
  • To introduce more effective measures to protect the integrity of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).
  • To introduce stronger measures to address irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the government departments and municipalities.

Bishop S. Sipuka – SACBC President

For more information kindly contact Archbishop W. Slattery (SACBC Spokesperson): +27 83 468 5473

END OF THE STATEMENT

20190513 slipped on twitter

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

Oath and Diaconate in Merrivale

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

It is in Saint Joseph’s Parish, in Howick, that 5 students of Merrivale became Missionaries of Africa by pronouncing their solemn missionary oath in the presence of Fr. Francis Barnes, first assistant of the superior general.

They are from left to right:

  • Bimal Lakra, from India
  • Habtamu Aloto, from Ethiopia
  • Guélord Mahongole, from DR Congo
  • Alain Sossou, from Ivory Coast
  • Joseph Zunguluka, from DR Congo

On the same day, they were ordained deacons from the hands of our confrere Jan De Groef, bishop of Bethlehem (South Africa).

Following the photos, you will find the text of the homily pronounced by Francis Barnes on that occasion.

I would like to address these few words to you Bimal, Guelord, Joseph, Habtamu and Alain. Through the oath you have taken today you have consecrated yourselves until death to the Church’s mission in Africa and you have promised fidelity and obedience to the apostolic life as well as swearing to observe celibacy for the sake of the kingdom.

Wow! That is quite something and in today’s world you would have to either be out of your mind or be truly of a sound and discerned mind to add your signature to such a document. I presume that you are all truly of sound mind. The oath we take does not mention poverty or simple lifestyle as we call it – for it is supposed to be part of our specific identity. We are not religious and so we don’t take vows and yet the oath is surely just as binding. I would dare to say that in today’s world such an oath is more than controversial even counter-cultural. Celibacy in today’s world where everything is hypersexualised is surely counter cultural and so often can become for many a source of great tension and stress or, worse still scandal. What about obedience then in a hedonistic world where we want to celebrate the freedom to do, to say and be whatever we want? And fidelity? Yes, it takes courage and hard work to be faithful to the promises we make and we know just how easy it is to stray from the path we have desired and chosen. Then there is simple lifestyle though not mentioned in the oath we take it as expected of us. Yet so many of us will be tempted along the way by the lure of money and be caught up in our desire for more comfort and ease in our ministry. Yes, the oath is definitely counter cultural but then so is discipleship as it always has been.

Are we worthy of such a calling, are we capable of such a calling? – most likely not and yet despite our own frailty and powerlessness, the love of God is able to break forth into our lives with its transforming power. Hopefully, today you are the ones who choose not to walk the path of power but the path of powerlessness, who choose not the road of success but the road of servanthood. With the grace of God, you will choose willingly not to walk the wide road of praise and popularity but the narrow one of giving oneself so that others might have life in abundance. Know that it will mean often accepting to walk into darkness, to take risks, to walk into the unknown and to accept all the suffering that such a choice entails.

Yes, you and I, today’s disciples know we are fragile human beings; we don’t have all the answers and yet hopefully we allow ourselves to become instruments in the hand of God; hopefully like children we will have a spirit of sheer receptivity, utter dependence and a radical reliance that does not come from ourselves but from the spirit of Jesus.

Therefore, deep down we know that:

  • if we were to live in imitation of Jesus
  • if we dared move beyond our self-concern
  • if we truly desire to reach out in compassion to all our brothers and sisters no matter whom they are  
  • if we were so counter cultural that we no longer thirsted for status, power or possessions

then we would indeed transform this little Society of ours and even the world and the parish communities where we serve.

The world doesn’t need more dogmas and creeds– the world needs maybe just a handful of brave disciples who would be as salt and light- who by the authenticity of their commitment and generosity would be a spectacular sign of the transforming power of the gospel, the transforming power of love.

Fidelity in the final analysis is all about walking the road we have chosen with the Lord, it is our life poured out so that others might have life and it is about struggling if we have to until the very end.

So with you I praise the Lord for this wonderful missionary vocation that is yours. I praise the Lord for the beautiful gift of yourselves to our Society and to Africa. And we praise the Lord for your families and friends who have and are very much part of this wonderful calling that is yours.

Francis Barnes M.Afr.

Sister Adoración ZANÓN MIRANZO (Maria de la Luz), R.I.P.

Posted on by Vitus Danaa Abobo

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

Sister Adoración ZANÓN MIRANZO (Maria de la Luz)

of the Residence El Sol community, Logroño
entered life in Logroño on April 25, 2019
at the age of 92, including 63 years of missionary religious life.

Her missionary life took place in Algeria and Spain.