Lavigerie offered an alternative to the society of his time.
At the historical time when colonisation was imposing a Western culture on Africa, was exploiting its resources, and was silent about the slave trade, Lavigerie urged his missionaries to put themselves at the service of Africa and the Africans.
His recommendation was: “Be apostles, be nothing but apostles". He insisted that they study and speak the language of the African peoples among whom they were living.
He sent them out as international communities.
In Europe, he organized an anti-slave trade campaign in order to raise an awareness and a strong public outcry which would force governments to take action against such an inhuman practice. He sent young Africans to study so that they could become doctor-catechists in Africa.

Charles Lavigerie was a man of extraordinary vision and foresight. What he hoped and dreamed for Africa, would today be called "integral development". Cardinal Lavigerie wanted his missionaries to be agents for material, intellectual and spiritual development.
He was a man for liberty: he struggled against war, famine and injustice in Lebanon and in Algeria, and campaigned against the slave trade in Africa.
He understood the importance of the apostolate among women and
recognised their primordial role for the transformation of society. That is why he founded the MSOLA.
Lavigerie was a man with an open mind: he longed for a universal Church, which would be adapted to the times and close to the people.

After his ordination to the priesthood in Paris, in 1849, he was given appointments which opened up large horizons to him. In turn, he was to become professor of Church History at the Sorbonne, director of the Work for Oriental Schools, auditor for the tribunal of the Rota in Rome, bishop of Nancy.
Having become Archbishop of Algiers and of Carthage, he founded two missionary societies for Africa. These would be of special importance in the spread of the Gospel throughout the African continent.
As a trusted adviser to Pope Leo XIII, he participated in the important affairs of the Church. He proposed a respectful approach towards the communities of oriental tradition; he rejected a narrow view of religion, closed in on its archaic customs, which only made relations with the anti-clerical government of France more difficult.
In 1888 he launched a vast anti-slavery campaign throughout Europe. His action proved to be of particular importance for the spread of the Gospel on the African continent.

In 1867 Lavigerie accepted to become Archbishop of Algiers because
he saw it as a door to the continent of Africa, where he wished to announce the Gospel.
In order to accomplish this he founded two societies having as mission the apostolate in Africa: one for men (Missionaries of Africa), the other for women (Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa), for work among women.
The ideal of being "all things to all people" animates their spirituality as well as their apostolic approach.
In order to pass on the Gospel, they must first live it profoundly, in an intimate union with Jesus Christ.

“To be consecrated means
to be all things to all
because one has said
to the God of all: I am all yours.”

“Prayer is the breathing of the heart,
as necessary to the life of faith
as air is to the life of the body. "

“Be apostles,
be nothing but apostles,
or at least, be nothing else
except with this in view".

“I am a man
and nothing that is human is indifferent to me.
I am a man
and injustice against another human being revolts my heart.
I am a man
and that which I would like done to me,
I want to do for others."

“Missionaries are to be initiators,
for the lasting work
will be done by the Africans themselves,
after they have become Christians and apostles.”

“No matter how zealous the missionaries may be,
their efforts will never be wholly fruitful
unless they are seconded
by women apostles for the women.”