CONTENT

Editorial: Lucie Pruvost

“I have indeed seen the misery of my people”

1. In Kibera Slum, by Christine Bahati
2. From Chad to Canada, Lise Giguère
3. The Blind People See, Kordula Weber
4. In London, with Refugees and Prisoners, Sally Farrugia
5. Searching for a New Eden, Community of Málaga

Sharing Life

1. Oh! What a Gift!, The sisters of the session
2. At the service of Africa in Europe, Begoña Iñarra

Walk through the Archives

Lavigerie, a Father Overcome by the Misery of his People, Lucie Pruvost

Did you know?

A Continental Congress… , « Documentation catholique »

Prayer for our Brothers and Sisters, Migrants and Refugees

Editorial staff

Editorial
     
   During Advent of this liturgical year, we heard Isaiah plead with the Lord “Oh that you would tear the heavens open and come down - in your presence the mountains would quake” (Is 63:19). This supplication is still relevant today as testify most of the contributions sent in for this issue of Sharing Trentaprile. Do not these “mountains” symbolise the misery experienced by the People of God, not only in the period of the Prophet Isaiah, but equally in many countries of our planet today? Afflictions that remain actual as we see discords, violence and aggressions of all kinds unleashed to which so many peoples in Africa and elsewhere are subjected.

      Still today, the compassion of God becomes visible through those whom He calls and sends as He did of old, raising up Moses to lead his people out of the oppression to which they were being subjected. The texts sent in by sisters of the three provinces of the Congregation illustrate this very well. Their activities echo the Millennium Objectives, determined by the international community allowing all peoples to obtain a better life, from here to 2015. Even more, most of the time, they move ahead of these Objectves. Seeing the importance of the subject and the abundance of texts received, these articles will be spread over two issues of Sharing: this issue and the one of next October.  Thanks to all of you for your testimonies!
      We discover today how in England, in Canada, in Mauritania and in Kenya the prophecy of Isaiah becomes a reality: “to bring the good news to the poor… to proclaim freedom to the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind… to let the oppressed go free” (Lk 4:18). Sent into one of the vast slums surrounding Nairobi, Christine Bahiti has succeeded in helping a large number of orphaned children, surviving families decimated by sickness. In London, Sally Farrugia brings comfort to refugees and to prisoners of all categories. In Canada, the presence of Lise Giguère (Quebec) enables a couple from Chad to begin a new life after fleeing the violence of the war in their country. In Nouakchott, Kordula Weber opens up a new future for a young blind girl whom she gets admitted to a school. In Málaga, the sisters listen to the cry of the homeless.
     
      It is in the same sense that Begoña Iñarra works from Brussels. Networking with AEFJN, she explains how she helps to conscientise Churches and religious Congregations to the social and political problems created by a globalisation that is misunderstood. Vicious circles create impasses bringing suffering to the poorest of Africa.       

     A Walk through the Archives reminds us that well before Vatican II, Mgr. Lavigerie had opened his eyes to the totality of the people to whom he was sent. His human heart was deeply moved by the affliction of his people, and it is to the heart of a universal father that we owe our foundation.
     
      Do you know that (The Nairobi Appeal) launched by the participants of the 1st Continental Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Displaced Persons (2-5 June 2008) goes in the same direction? You will find its recommendations, summarized, at the end of all these articles.
     
      Life in the Congregation is shared from different angles as is shown in the assessment given by the participants at the session for the sisters (of 60-75 years of age) of last November. There then follow other communications which keep us in contact with other events of our family life.
      And so, we wish you a fruitful reading in solidarity with all the “Anawim of the Lord “!

      Lucie Pruvost

IN KIBERA SLUM

      Indeed, God has seen and is still seeing the misery of his people in Kibera. He comes to their rescue in many ways.

Many problems

      I have been teaching in a primary school called “Laini Saba”, located in the Kibera slum, which is in the suburb of Nairobi City/Kenya. The school was started by the Guadalupe Missionaries. It has become a joint venture of the Guadalupe Fathers and the Sacred Heart Sisters, in the process of taking it over. The children are facing many problems that affect very much their learning, such as HIV/AIDS, rape, violence of all kinds, drug abuse, broken families, poverty, hunger, prostitution… At school, most of them are either orphans or single parented or from very poor families. Some of the children are HIV positive or have had all kinds of unpleasant experiences; thus they think and act like grown ups.

      The example of Sheila Anyango is one among many. She is a girl of twelve years in standard seven who suddenly found herself in charge of her five young brothers and sisters. Her father was murdered in 2004.  Her mother who was the sole bread winner got a car accident, which damaged her spine and left her half paralysed for life. What will be the future of these children? Today, they are all in a children’s home where they are being taken care of.

A feeding programme

      In order to help these children learn well, the school introduced a feeding programme that caters for breakfast and lunch. Before the World Food Programme chipped in, we, MSOLA and other donators, supported it financially. Some well-wishers and sponsors help very poor children and orphans to get access to education, because the policy of free education for all, decided upon set six years ago by the government, has not yet reached the slums.

I started two clubs

      I started two clubs, one called “Chill club”, for creating awareness on HIV/AIDS, rape… The word “Chill” here means “sex abstinence”. This programme was introduced in the country by an NGO to make the youth aware of the seriousness of HIV/AIDS. The second one is “Peace club”, for creating harmony and peace in the school and the surroundings and reducing violence and destructive peer pressure. Children are the main agents of these programmes. Beside these clubs, many seminars touching different areas of life (counselling, trauma, academics…) were given to pupils, parents and teachers for the welfare and protection of the child.
 
My presence in Kibera

      My presence in Kibera was a learning experience. I have been in a school of wise people, the poor and the children. They taught me that life is a fragile gift, which should not be taken for granted, and has to be handled with care. I also learned that Jesus is a loving and caring God. He is with his people and gives them the strength they need daily, a true Shepherd.

Trusting in the One

      Like Moses, I lived in the present moment trusting in the One who could do what I was unable to do. I felt my human limitation facing certain situations where I could not
help, but had to surrender to God’s care and grace. At times, I was very much afraid of the insecurity after the post election violence, but an inner strength was pushing me not to fear.

      Besides the dark panorama, I learned the true meaning of solidarity, care for one another and the way God is being worshipped and searched for by the less fortunate. As a missionary, my presence among people is enough, listening to them and helping them when necessary.

Christine Bahati - Nairobi 2

FROM CHAD TO CANADA

      In the milieu where I have been sent, I am faced with the problem of the immigrants who have been forced to leave their countries and are experiencing much difficulty fitting in somewhere else.

Q. Could you give me an example of a concrete situation where you have been involved?

     I am thinking especially about a Chadian doctor with whom I collaborated very much while I was at the health centre in Ndoguindi (Chad). He was the person in charge on diocesan level for five years. In 1997, he was obliged to flee his country. After having looked after some rebels, the military had struck him, tied him up in the presence of his wife and children and tried to drown him in the Logone River in Moundou. After much anguish, he managed to reach the Cameroon border without any documents at all and tried in vain to explain his situation. He found himself in prison. He was not released until six months later. In 2001, unable to obtain a residence permit in Cameroon, he came to Canada. Having been a witness to the events which had obliged him to flee Chad, I helped him to obtain his legal status as a political refugee.

Q. If the doctor has succeeded in the end to reach Canada and obtain a legal status as political refugee, how has he adapted and integrated himself to the country?

      That has been difficult. On several occasions, he was hurt in his dignity: difficulty in obtaining housing because he is African, a certificate not recognized by the government, obliging him to be satisfied with the work of being in charge of sick people with a minimal salary. On the job, he was being reproached for conversing too much with the patients and for giving preference to human relations.

     To economize, he was eating his dinner at a Centre where meals are being served to the poor people on the streets. It was only four years after his arrival in Canada and after seven years of separation that he successfully sent for his family, in 2005, after some endless and disconcerting steps. Happily we succeeded to find for his wife, who is a Pharmacist by profession, a humble employment at a social centre.

Q. I understand that you often feel disgusted with such a situation.

      I was disgusted with the injustices, but at the same time in admiration of the humility of this doctor, his courage in the face of loneliness, his patience, his determination in the face of the obstacles.

Q. I imagine that you remain in relation with them.

     Of course! From time to time, the couple came to the Provincial House to have a meal with us. I was also going to visit them. Having been appointed to Quebec, I was able to welcome them to Charlesbourg for a few days during the summer of 2008. That was a great joy for the community. It was Africa within our walls.

     Recently over the telephone, his wife disclosed her worries to me: she was just getting over a depression. Both of them feel distant and uprooted from their home. They are not able to work at the level of their qualifications, and they are not in the conditions which they would wish for. However, bit by bit, a solidarity was built up around them, they are supported by their colleagues at work.

Q. How does this kind of presence make your vocation concrete?

      For my part, I feel completely fulfilled in the concrete of my missionary vocation and in line with the apostolic project of the CUM: particular attention to the Africans, compassion, solidarity with persons hurt in their dignity. I have tried to be a presence which is close and attentive, so happy to be able to help them at times, but feeling myself also very helpless. In my environment, this is a witness of universal brotherhood.

     The story of the Chadian doctor is only one example among many others. Our sick and elderly sisters have their heart set on supporting them in prayer. In our country, just as in Africa, our missionary vocation is expressed by the “all things to all”.

Lise Giguère – Charlesbourg, interviewed by Claire Bélanger

THE BLIND PEOPLE SEE …

It is still night.

      At 6 a.m., I leave for the house where Fatou lives. She is a little girl of 5, born blind. We have an appointment at a hospital specialized for eye diseases, where the personnel starts working at 6.30. The small girl is happy. It is not often that she can enjoy a ride by car. When she hears me, she runs towards me with ease, takes a seat in the car, next to Khadijetou who looks after her, because Fatou’s mother has died. Khadijetou is also poor, but so rich in affection and common sense that she can cope with the multiple daily tasks and exigencies of her big family.

      At 6.30, we are at the hospital. The watchman has just opened the two big doors to let the sick in: the right door for the post-surgical cases, the left one for consultations. I enter with them and sit down. About a hundred persons are waiting: young, elderly, blind, the partially blind, those who can walk alone or accompanied, the ones with other forms of handicaps who crawl on the ground to move about… All these people have been waiting several weeks before having this appointment, and sometimes, they come from very far, 500 to 1000 km, for it is the only hospital in Mauritania where the poor are cared for free of charge. A very wealthy Mauritanian man wanting to do some good, had this hospital built.

      The doctors arrive at 7. During my five hours of waiting, there is enough time to chat, share news, exchange mobile phone numbers, encourage one another and sing with Fatou; and also keep silence to pray to God who sees the misery of his people and who, through us, relieves the pains, gives back or improves the sight.

      A cleaning woman comes towards me and hands me a paper. She does not know how to read nor write. On this paper is written: “I see you caring for children and helping the poor … I have two children at home. I am poor, and having lost my husband, I am alone trying to cope with my children…”. During one month, it is a coming and going to the hospital for pre-surgical tests, and finally for the removal of the cataract with the hope of recovering sight in the right eye, then the post-surgical care. The surgeon found a tumour at the back of the eye and requires extra tests by scanner. This test has not yet been done for the scanner machine is out of order.

      The small Fatou will be 6 in December. With a male nurse and other Mauritanians, we have come to know of the only place where blind children are accepted in school. And I hope that, later on, a specialized teaching in Braille will be available to her.

      During this summer month, I have accompanied Fatou and her family. She is the one who has opened my eyes, who has helped me discover a bit more how the Spirit is at work in this country, in the heart of the Moslem Mauritanian people. I have seen the misery, I have touched and felt this human soil, marked out with signs about which nature tells us of a friendship and faithfulness, tenacious like the plants of the desert. My availability face to what was happening has opened my eyes a bit more on a world different by its culture, its faith and its way of feeling things and of living them.

      I always see these poor people, sick persons who line up every morning in front of the hospital in the hope of healing, and I let myself be enriched by their qualities that are lived daily: surrender to God, hospitality, generosity, to mention only these!

Look, the dawn is already here, it’s daybreak, a star in the depth of the nights.

Kordula Weber, Nouakchott, Mauritania

IN LONDON, WITH REFUGEES AND PRISONERS

      In a big cosmopolitan city like London the misery and pain of God’s people is beyond belief, with crime of all kinds. How can we respond to this painful situation? 

“Prison Fellowship”
     
      At the beginning of this year I came to know about the Prison Fellowship, an international organisation that looks after the spiritual welfare and needs of the offenders in prison and outside the prison wall. It was in April that finally my dream of working in a prison came true. After some months of training I was officially accepted as a member of the team working in Wormwood Scrubs, East Acton, London. This team is an interdenominational team, which forms part of the Christian chaplaincy. This chaplaincy runs a number of ministries in the prison but I am involved only in two of them, “the Sycamore Tree” and “The Alpha Course”.

“The Sycamore tree”

      “The Sycamore tree” is a programme developed by Prison Fellowship to enable offenders to understand the impact of crime on victims and take personal responsibility for their actions based on the principals of restorative justice. It is based on Christian values such as truth, integrity, responsibility and affirmation. It takes its name from the encounter of Zaccheus with Jesus. Using this story the programme offers opportunities to explore and discuss a number of issues. The focus of the programme is to provide opportunity for offenders to change their attitudes, thinking and behaviour. Its aim is to enable the offender to identify with the victim’s experience of crime and the need for victim/offender forgiveness and reconciliation. It is of great importance for the offender to become more aware of the hurt and harm caused to the victims and the needs of victims.  as well as to understand the impact of one’s crime on oneself, family and community.

      Only sixteen adult offender places are available on this programme. The programme is delivered in six sessions run once a week for 3 hours per session, which forms the contact time. Each session is a mix of Tutor presentation, small and large group discussion.  Our team is made up of four women and one man. This programme is repeated three times a year.

The Alpha Course

      The “Alpha Course” is a fifteen session practical introduction to the Christian faith designed primarily for non-churchgoers and new Christians. Its aims are to bring people into relationship with Christ through systematic teaching about Christianity, which leads up to baptism and confirmation. For the Alpha course about thirty places are available. It starts with 30 minutes of worship and song, followed by a talk on a subject central to Christian faith. After the talk, there is a chance of fellowship over a cup of tea. Then all participants divide into pre-arranged groups, in which they remain for the duration of the course. These groups provide participants with the opportunity to discuss the talks and share their personal experiences in an environment in which each person is free to ask or say whatever they wish. Each group has a leader and a couple of volunteers.

      Alpha for prisoners was launched in 1995, in response to a demand from prisoners who had the desire to live a changed life. For many in prison there is a desperate sense of loss and deep hunger for the meaning of life and we believe that Jesus Christ is the only one who can satisfy this hunger.

Building up a simple and friendly relationship

      I love very much these two ministries. For me, it is the contact from person to person, with the prisoners. We build up a simple and loving relationship with them.  By listening to their pain, respecting and accepting them, by understanding their present difficult situation far away from their loved ones, we encourage and affirm them. The change that we see at the fourth session is unbelievable, they open up and have a smile on their faces and are willing to speak about their crime, families and victims. Some of them realise for the first time that they

too have been victims of their own families and society. It is sometimes a humbling and shameful experience for them to see the ripple effect of their actions on their victims, families and community. In the quietness and isolation of their cell some of them come back to their senses and realize that what they have done was wrong. In fact, many of them speak openly about their joy of being sent to prison for having so much time on their hands and to have the opportunity to read and study the Bible and come to know Jesus and his unconditional love for them personally. The grace and the power of God in such places are overwhelming!

      I think that during these two courses, which complete one another, the seed of regret and the desire for forgiveness and reconciliation is sown. I am a firm believer that it is only the Holy Spirit of God that can make these seeds grow and bring them to fruition.

A Scripture text

      I end by quoting a scripture text, which has always inspired and sustained my courage and enthusiasm in my missionary life, and this very same text has taken on its full meaning in ministering to the prisoners. It is none other than Isaiah 42, when he speaks of God’s tender love and compassion for the weak, the defenceless:

“He does not break the crushed reed,
nor quench the wavering flame.”

Sally Farrugia, Charlbury Grove

SEARCHING FOR A NEW EDEN

      Because of its proximity with the Straits of Gibraltar, Málaga is the fourth town of Spain with the greatest number of sub-Saharan immigrants. We see them landing on our beaches, dehydrated, tired, sick, half-dead… and this scene often repeats itself.

      The Africans who decide to leave their family, their friends, the milieu where they were born to go in search of a better situation are increasingly numerous! But alas, for many of them, it turns out to be their death. Moreover European laws are becoming increasingly severe towards them, especially if they do not have any documents. They are called “the illegal ones” even though they have not done anything wrong. They feel threatened, worried, excluded. They do not have peace!

Yes, I have seen the misery of my people, of my people coming from Africa… 

      In Málaga, we can discover and hear the cry of the homeless. They are approximately 350 persons who sleeping the open. Not having a home means much more to them than not having a bed where to spend the night.  It is also being deprived of a space of privacy, of a place where one can feel at home. It is also missing points of reference, family stability and friends, human warmth, and the possibility of creating one’s life style.

      We are touched by the miserable conditions in which certain families live, by the cases of women who are ill-treated by their husband, left to themselves, and facing the suffering of the impact that such situations have on their children.  

How do we respond to all this?

      One of us, Dolores Cuadrado (Lola), is involved with the homeless. She listens to them, speaks with them, brings to them a discrete and effective help. She works at “Pozos Dulces”, the centre opened by the diocesan Caritas to help these people. About forty amongst the poorest are welcomed at this centre.

      Amalia Garcia listens to the cries of desperate people: battered women and families without employment. She is involved in various places: at Caritas, in a poor parish of the city, in a Home for foreigners, and collaborates with the Diocesan Secretariat for Immigrants, of which she is part. This secretariat gives her the opportunity of coming into contact, via various parishes, with the reality lived by immigrants.

      Rogelia Murillas has just arrived in our community. She also hopes to get involved in the ministry for the poor.  

We believe that our presence, in these places which have become multicultural, renders our vocation of “being sent” very real and concrete. What we do is perhaps only one day, to create a new world. Often these people are deeply wounded. Our friendly and loving presence can be, for them, a source of great comfort. God invites us to create each day this new world by the unconditional gift of ourselves to whoever we can in contact with   and especially to those who are most excluded from society.

  “In so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me “ (Mt 25: 40)

The Community of Málaga

SHARING LIFE

OH! WHAT A GIFT!

      What a gift, what a marvellous gift! Who could tell of the many wonders of the Lord?
     
      On November 2nd 2008, seven of us came from the African, CUM and European provinces to the Villino in Rome, for a session organised by the Congregation for sisters of 60-75 years of age. We were from five nations: Elvana Bender, Hildegard Essmann and Maria Theresia Hubert, German; Lucille Cadieux and Jacqueline Picard, Canadian; Jeanne Boonen, Belgian; Vivien-Mary, Goan.

The session was presented to us as a journey: inward, outward and forward. This journey had:

A time of integration - all that makes me “me”, the unique person I am, with my joys and sorrows, my desires, potentials and limits
A time to unify the various dimensions of my being
A time to discern my priorities –  what is essential to at this time of my life
A time to remember and re-read my life
A time to integrate past experiences
A time to listen to the word of God together, to share and give thanks
A time of togetherness, of building a community, even if only for three weeks
A time for tracing the steps of the Cardinal in Rome and pray at his tomb.

      From the beginning of the session we felt a bond uniting us – we liked to be together and share. We appreciated this time given to us.

      We are grateful in a special way to the Congregation, to Sr. Marie McDonald who guided us through this time, and to the sisters in our communities who have taken over part of our work in order to make it possible for us to be here. Thank you all!

Elvana, Jeanne, Lucille, Hildegard, Maria Theresia, Jacqueline and Vivien-Mary

AT THE SERVICE OF AFRICA IN EUROPE

      Begoña Iñarra is working at AEFJN International Secretariat. Her experience of some years is full of interest for all of us, wherever we are. As it is a long report, we find better to share it in two parts. You will find the first in this issue and the second in the issue of April. Let us thank Begoña for this collaboration in Sharing Trentaprile!

      When I was in Nairobi, the Congregation asked me to do a discernment about coming to Brussels to work at the International Secretariat of Africa-Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN). Though I loved my work in Kenya the invitation was a challenge to me. I knew what that mission meant, as I had been at the service of the Network in Brussels from 1998 to 2001.Though my first reaction was to say “NO, I like what I am doing now in Nairobi”, during the discernment, I saw the importance of saying “YES to Brussels”, as through my presence at AEFJN the Congregation strengthens its commitment to the work of justice and peace. It is an important dimension of our mission as seen in the last two general Chapters. Working at AEFJN in Brussels is a way to continue my service to Africa from Europe, as we work for fairer relationships between Africa and the European Union. AEFJN being an inter-congregational project is also an opening to other congregations.

      The history of AEFJN has its roots in the late 1980. Major Superiors of missionary congregations realized that despite the efforts for development done by Churches and missionaries since the Independence of African countries, the socio-economic situation of the continent was deteriorating. The main causes were the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP), the new policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IFM) on African countries with the aim of improving their macro economy. These policies improved the macro economy of the African countries, but had a negative impact on the life of the people of Africa. They contributed to the deterioration of public services (health and education), the liberalization of services and industries, leading to the closing of industries, thus increasing unemployment, migration and poverty in Africa. The push to orientate the agriculture more to exports than to food production caused the deterioration of agriculture, the loss of Food Security and the depletion of forests and natural resources.
The Structural Adjustment Programmes were based in five principles:

1 Reduce the role of the State - Cuts in public spending, reducing public servants, freezing salaries, cutting in social services (education and health), and privatising the parastatals.
2 Liberalisation of prices - Removal of subsidies to agriculture, food and parastatals, and encourage the production of more exports. Specialization in products produced more efficiently, (a parastatal,   the basic food and agriculture).
3 Deregulation of markets and financial systems - Elimination of restrictions on prices, exchange rates and interest that will be fixed by the market. Liberalization of investments and services.
4 Liberalization of the economy - Decrease of custom tariffs and barriers to trade and investment. Reduction of tariffs to protect the industry and the agriculture.
5 Build the capacity of governments to meet their reduced role in the economy.

Change this unjust situation
      This situation was a call for the missionary congregations to do something to change this UNJUST SITUATION. Another strong call came from Pope John Paul II who in the encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis asked missionaries to be present in new forums of mission where decisions were taken.  He underlined the need to "denounce the existence of economic, financial and social mechanisms, which accentuate the situation of wealth for some and poverty for the rest.” AEFJN was born in 1988 as a response to these two calls. AEFJN goes beyond denouncing policies that are unfair towards Africa, proposing other policies to transform the relationships between the European Union (E.U.) and African countries and regions. Because most social injustices have their root cause in the wrong and unfair economic and trade international policies, AEFJN works for international policies that will benefit Africa.

Urgent actions
      From time to time, we also do “Urgent actions” as an answer to concrete unjust situations. When in North Kivu the last crisis started, in October 2008, we undertook an action to ask the EU to send troops to the region, with a strong mandate to protect the civilians, to allow the humanitarian help to arrive to those who needed it and to keep the road blocks so as to prevent the passage of minerals from DR Congo to the neighbouring countries. Organizing the action, sending press releases, participating at meetings and demonstrations with other groups has kept us quite busy these last months…

A demonstration
      The most striking was a demonstration in front of the Council of the E.U. at the moment the EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs were meeting and ignoring the situation in DR Congo. We made a “stunt”, a symbolic action that gave “food” to the media (radio, newspapers and TV). We simulated a meeting of the 27 Ministers around the table (using white masks), very busy discussing their issues, while in the middle of the table laid an injured Congolese, nobody taking care of him… We had posters with “Send UE troops” - “Listen to the cry of the Congolese people.” Some Congolese joined us. The Congolese youth in Brussels who were unable to come to that meeting, due to the time, gathered a week later to present the same demand to the Belgium Government.

The second part of this article in the next issue of Sharing will present other aspects of the mission of AEFJN.

Begoña Iñarra, Brussels St. Josse

Walk through the Archives

LAVIGERIE, A FATHER OVERCOME BY THE MISERY OF HIS PEOPLE

      On 11th December 2008, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrated its 60th anniversary. Yet faced with the afflictions of our world: peoples subjected to wars and endless violence; millions of children suffering from hunger and malnutrition, forced into adult labours or recruited by force to wage war; women and girls abducted to serve as domestic or sexual slaves; immigrants without papers whose dignity is rarely respected; how much is still to be done! Our diverse commitments show that we are not idle on this way opened by our founder.

      Upon his arrival in Algiers in May of 1867, 81 years before this Declaration, Mgr. Lavigerie discovered a most deplorable situation: that of his new people who, for him, extended far beyond the Catholics. It immediately challenged him.  It was a father who, from his first Pastoral Letter, blessed all the inhabitants of the country, without distinction of origin or of religion.
“I bless you, you the ancient inhabitants of Algeria (…) I beg of you the privilege of loving you as my own children, even though you do not recognize me as your father…”

      In fact, his fatherly heart soon had the occasion to be deeply moved and to give a concrete meaning to his archbishop’s coat of arms, Caritas and the Pelican. He very quickly sized up the enormity of the terrible famine which had stricken the indigenous and most destitute of the population since l866. He denounced its political and social causes, engaging a real combat against the colonial administration which reproached his determination to make the situation known (Cf. Sharing of Sept 2006, n° 4, pp. 83).  As of 1st January 1868, faced with the silence of this administration, he sent a Letter to the Catholic press of France:

“I am bishop, that is to say father; and even though those for whom I am pleading today do not give me the title, I love them as my children , and I want to prove to them that, even though I may not communicate my faith, I may at least exercise charity towards these poor creatures of God.”

      As Lavigerie will in April l868 remind the Marshal de Mac-Mahon, Governor General of Algeria,
“This is my flock, Sir Marshal, these are the souls of whom I am the pastor; and you reproach me for loving them and seeking to save them…”

      Campaigning among his fellow bishops of France in his Letter of 20th February 1868, it is as a father that he expressed himself:

“I speak not of myself. I have already said what I have seen, the pain and pity I have felt for this poor people holding out their hands to us and begging us to save them from starvation.”
He then quoted long passages from letters received from the parish priests in his diocese in the three preceding weeks.
 
      In April 1868, it was to the Director of the Work for the Schools of the Orient, thanking him for his gifts by sending a very comprehensive report of the manner in which he has used the offerings destined for the victims of the famine in his diocese. The numbers revealed that in addition to the Algerian victims were those of religious, often Daughters of Charity, who died from having caught cholera and typhoid in caring for the sick confided to them.

      However, in response to his struggle against such suffering and all the publicity it generated, a campaign of public opinion was launched against him. The Archbishop saw himself refused the freedom of the apostolate by subordinate colonial authorities. Using his “right of response”, he clearly explained his position in a Letter to the Editor of the Moniteur of Algiers:

« By liberty of the apostolate, I mean the liberty of charity, the liberty of dedication, even the liberty of death, since we are constantly threatened about the day when we would go alone, unarmed, among the Arabs. And my actions give to my words a commentary far more eloquent than all the speeches…”

      But the press refused to publish his letter in spite of an injunction by the Governor General of Algeria. This latter considered taking action against the writer of the article who, said he, “threatens and troubles a part of the Algerian population in the exercise and the enjoyment of its rights…” Nothing doing! Mgr Lavigerie then sent a “circular to his diocesan clergy” about the conflict, with all the elements of the file.

«I desired, Messieurs and dear Collaborators, I had hoped to abstain from this confidential communication which I send you today. For more than fifteen days I have withheld the text of these documents, thinking that my moderation, my spirit of patriotism and of tolerance would be appreciated, and there would be a better understanding of the just cause of (…) the liberty of the Church and of the honour of our ministry. I have been deceived in my expectations, and after the direct and public attack made against me in an official journal, I can no longer keep silence before you without failing in my dignity and my duties as a Frenchman and as Bishop. (…) You finally know what unexpected opposition has arisen and found its echo in the public press; from the day I manifested the will to exercise my rights, to fulfil towards the victims of the famine the duties of charity which are our unique apostolate…”

      That is why nothing could silence him, as he explained again in January 1870, in a Letter about the Arab Orphans of Algiers addressed to Christians of France and Belgium:

“If my voice disturbed some of you, I ask you not to forget that it is the voice of a father pleading the cause of his adopted children, of a bishop who begins his apostolate with the little and the poor of an entire people.”

He continued recalling the situation of 1867:

“Famine, pestilence, all the scourges ravaged simultaneously the miserable indigenous populations. Arabs were dying by the thousands, soon…by the hundreds of thousands (…) The aged, the women, died before our very eyes. Small children wandered around, abandoned and stalked by hunger. It seems to me (…) that it was the duty of the Church, my own, to do all that is humanly possible to bring relief for these sufferings, to snatch from a sure death so many unfortunates appealing to us for help. (…) I have turned away no one; not one has knocked on my door without my saying, “My child, I shall be your father!”

      The foundation of the MSOLA as well as of the MAfr, was a direct result of this solicitude of Lavigerie for a whole continent, Africa. It was also the effect of this same will to restore to their inherent human dignity a large number of African, victims of the greed of the slave traders, that he launched himself into the antislavery campaign. Yes, as God told Moses,

  “I indeed have seen the misery of my people…
I have heard their cry…
I am well aware of their sufferings.” (Ex 3: 7)

      He launched this Campaign as a man conscious of the afflictions of his times, as we shall read in the next issue of Sharing Trentaprile.

Conclusion:

      Cardinal Lavigerie appears as a missionary bishop whose stature far surpasses that of the diocesan bishops of his period. His attentiveness to the signs of the times continues to inspire today that of African bishops and archbishops. Looking simply at Algiers, this is surely the meaning of the action of two of his recent successors at the head of the diocese of Algiers. By inspiring in their flock this form of the “All to all”, they have fully legitimized their manner of announcing the Good News of salvation by responding in their turn to the cries and the sufferings of the times. This is also the meaning of the testimony of charity and hope given today by our MSOLA family… a testimony picked up by the religious congregations present in the country, who have adapted their charism to this type of presence.

Lucie Pruvost

Do you know that?

A CONTINENTAL CONGRESS IN NAIROBI, ABOUT MIGRATIONS IN AFRICA

      The 1st Continental Congress about the pastoral care of migrants and displaced persons in Africa, has been gathered in Nairobi, from 2nd and 5th of 2008 June. They have reflected upon the following theme:

“TOWARDS A BETTER PASTORAL CARE FOR MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
 IN AFRICA, AT THE DAWN OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM”

Here some extracts of the Appeal launched by participants at the end of the Congress:

1. The phenomenon of migration is a structural incontrovertible reality. Some people are forced into it, others freely choose it in the pursuit of better living conditions. Unfortunately, every form of mobility entails a great deal of suffering, grave inconveniences deeply affecting people like, for instance, painful abandonment and separations within families and communities. These disturbing consequences reach an even deeper degree of severity among the refugees and displaced persons, forced, as they are, to leave their natural environment, oftentimes abandoning family, native country, and their possessions. No African country is immune from this challenging sign of the times.

2. We believe that the specific assistance demanded by migrants, refugees, by those who fall victims in the trade of human beings, by the homeless, must be a pastoral care without boundaries. The most apt instruments to make it happen can be found only through the cooperation and solidarity of all local Churches involved.

3…. Considering the enormous sufferings caused by migration, the Church, God’s Family, must increase her efforts and the scope of her Christian charity in the performance of the specific pastoral care on behalf of human mobility.

4. We call upon all political leaders and those responsible for the economic policies, both at the national and the international level. We beg them to constantly watch over the common good, national and universal, and also over social justice. Isn’t it precisely the survival of peoples that confers them their reason to be? This is why it is indispensable that they find the best ways to stabilize the socio-economic relations among nations, in order that every human being be allowed to develop in his/her own country without being compelled to migrate.

5. We feel confident to appeal about this to the international community. In all urgency and as soon as possible, it must do all in its power to improve the economic conditions that today are forcing millions of people to hit the road in search of better living conditions.

6. We call upon, with devoted confidence, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI that he may continue to be spokesperson for, and the courageous defender, of all victims of migration. We ask also the Bishops themselves to be the intrepid defenders of the human rights, and we entrust them with the task of organizing both the humanitarian assistance and the pastoral care inspired by a holistic conception of the human person…

7. It is the duty of the whole Church, God’s Family, to intensify the respectful dialogue with the migrants, as requested by the Instruction Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi… She must also develop this same dialogue with Sisters Churches and Ecclesial Communities in order to face together the new challenges provided by migration. This same dialogue must be extended to all religions in order to establish a base for the co-operation with every person of good will, who is engaged in the building of a society that is open and receptive to the alien.

8. We invite all people wounded by human mobility to take a stand for the defense of their own rights and dignity in truth and justice, and to contribute to the betterment of life conditions for themselves and for every person in the perspective of a just integration…

Information taken from “Documentation Catholique”, 3-7 August 2008

PRAYER FOR OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES

Lord God, You who have created all peoples in your image, we adore you.
We raise our voices and our hearts to you.

We pray for the countries and peoples, where refugees have fled.

That peace between peoples, reconciliation at all levels and human development for all may become a reality.

We pray for the countries from which these economic migrants are coming, seeking a better life for them and for theirs. We pray for their leaders that they really take to heart the welfare of their people.

We pray for all these "foreigners" in our country, resulting in the slums in the poorest neighbourhoods of our big cities, where they often share the lives of the marginalized and the unemployed.

We pray for all those who have the power to decide on agreements and international laws.
That they look not only for the interests of their own countries, but take into account the situation of the poor countries of the world.

Help us to open our hearts, our homes and Churches to foreigners, refugees and those seeking political asylum.
That they may feel welcomed and integrated into our society.

We pray for all Christians and all men and women of good will. That the Christian community born of Pentecost,
in the “different cultures”, may be open to migrants, not only to receive them,
but to create a “communion” between different communities, and the universality of the Church.

We ask this through Christ our Lord, who was a refugee and who has planted his tent among us.

Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa

Sharing Trentaprile is published 5 times a year by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, at Viale Trenta Aprile, 15 - 00153 Rome, Italy  -
E-mail: partage.trentaprile@msolafrica.org; pruvostlucie@hotmail.com

Editorial staff: Chantal Vankalck (G.C.), Lucie Pruvost (Editor), Madeleine Bédard (computer layout and printing), Hildegunde Schmidt (archivist) - Translations: Doris Gastonguay, Marion Carabott, Maria Pouliot and Father Joseph Hebert - Mailing: Nicole Robion