How did they enter into contact with the Congregation? Did you go to the home countries of these young people?
I went to meet the one coming from Côte d’Ivoire at her home. Her first steps with our Congregation were made as a result of this meeting. She was looking for a Missionary Congregation and she contacted a White Father. Then, she looked on the Internet and discovered our Congregation in Burkina. After that, she wrote to the Sister Regional.
Contacts between us then began and continued for a year. I understood she was determined and properly motivated. Nevertheless, I needed a reference, someone who accompanied her. She gave me the name of a White Father. I also asked the Council if I could travel to meet this young woman. The Council encouraged me since it had been informed by this young woman that she was looking into her vocation. I therefore went for a whole week to Côte d’Ivoire. Following on this meeting, I presented her dossier to the Council, as she was properly motivated and wished to come to see us at length after her university studies.
For the one coming from Cameroon, she got to know our Congregation in Chad, where she was studying. She too was looking for a Missionary Congregation. During a meeting at parish level, she was given a book that spoke of our Congregation. She then tried to contact us by telephone. When the Sisters replied, the contact was followed up. Up to now, she has asked to come and meet us.
Could it be a problem not to know the culture well and to have problems meeting the families, since we have no communities in these countries?
For the moment, I do not see this as a problem but as a challenge; a challenge for us. For example, the Sisters in Chad went to see the family of the young woman from Cameroon. It helps the family to understand the Congregation, into which their daughter is entering; when we meet the family, we listen to them and get to know them while also making ourselves known.
It is a challenge in relation to the distance because the Sisters are involved in different activities. It is a challenge for us because we have to know the culture of the young person and we need to take account of it during the time of Formation.
In West Africa there are lots of similarities. At the level of West Africa, we regroup the young people coming from different cultural backgrounds. They find their feet there. There are some elements in Burkinabe culture that they see in their own culture.
The Postulancy programme is organised at Regional level. How do you manage with this?
For me, it is my fourth year in this service to the West African Region that has its postulancy in Burkina Faso. We chose to give direction to the 2 years of Formation. In the first year, in order to enable a transition to be made, we decided to place the emphasis on the apostolate, since most of the young people come straight from studies. Nevertheless, some courses are also provided during it, especially in the house.
In the second year, it is primarily the spiritual formation aspect that prevails. This means structured courses, attended along with the Missionary of Africa seminarians doing philosophy. They do not follow the whole programme. Since it is university standard, they had to do research and interviews to write their theses and defend them. It is very demanding for them. They need help to integrate all this, not only in intellectual knowledge, but also in faith.
For the apostolate, do you work with a sister Congregation?
Yes, I contacted the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (SIC), a sister Congregation. They have a Centre that welcomes unmarried mothers who have been rejected by their families or by society. They do not know where to go and they go from pillar to post. This Centre takes them in so that they can restore themselves and overcome their woundedness. The aim is to reintegrate them into society. Therefore, one of the postulants works there 4 mornings a week. This year, we chose to direct them to situations of distress that we have within reach.
There is also the Kizito Centre, which receives orphans and abandoned infants. The Franciscan Sisters look after this Centre and a postulant goes there for her apostolate.
Another one works at the major hospital in Ouagadougou. The Camillian Fathers are in charge of it. One carries out an apostolate in the Centre called the ‘Arche’, for people with mental and physical disabilities.
Does she work more at the chaplaincy or does she help in caring?
At the Hospital, she visits the sick in the paediatric ward. She listens to them, accompanying them and giving out medicine when needed. The same young person also goes to a Centre that is run by our Sister, called the Delwende Centre. This is a refuge for women accused of sorcery and rejected by society. She goes there twice a week.
In the afternoons, there are courses at the house. The postulants also give a hand in our ‘own work’, the Notre Dame d’Afrique Library.
Here, this is your first General Chapter. How are you experiencing it?
I am really pleased. We are situated at the level of the whole Congregation in a global vision of the family we form. I am full of hope and the conviction that it is the Spirit that leads us.
How did the theme of the Chapter affect you?
This goes to the core of our charism. I am in the group working on the vision of mission; it is relevant because we have to touch on not only the challenges that are very clear, but also on the risks to take, as well as the direction to be able to re-launch ourselves. I think we are not just stuck at the level of dreams.
We try to see the implications of where this is leading us, what we have to risk. I feel drawn to have trust in God who leads us since it is he who sees where he is leading us.
In the theme of the Chapter, how were you affected?
Firstly, we are situated at world level, at the level of life we hold dear, the creation; and God, who is moved by the major issues of this world, calls us to his mission. I see ourselves as people called to collaborate in his mission. It is our charism that he has confided to us. It is this view of an interconnected world at global level; it is this outlook to the beyond that affects me greatly. It is there I feel that we are called to look closer at how to respond. We have a part to play. This is my conviction.
What is the attitude that seems to you the most essential during this Chapter?
I can see three: an attitude of openness to enable me to meet with God’s call, which is leading me beyond what I was already living.
Then, there is the attitude of attentive listening to discern how I am going to respond to God. He listens to me and he leads me. It is he who is at the helm of the ship.
In addition, I cultivate an attitude of self-effacement to work better with others.
Thank you, Gratienne |
