Posted by the Kadutu Community, DRC
The Lavigerie family of Kadutu met on August 4, 2024 at the home of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa in Kadutu.
Let’s start with a little history to understand who this group is. Since the celebration of the centenary of the death of Cardinal Lavigerie, a group of lay people have been touched by the vision of our founder, his actions, his charism, the ‘all to all’, his anti-slavery struggle to restore dignity to Africans, his love for Africa, his charity (Caritas, the Pelican) and his call to be apostles.
All this was passed on to his missionaries to evangelise Africa. This group, called ‘Laïcs Missionnaires Lavigeriens’, was led by our sister Marie-Claude Berrod. The members met in the sisters’ community and were recognised by the diocese. They made their promise to the Church at a Mass celebrated in the presence of the faithful. They have statutes, objectives and mottos. They organise themselves to carry out actions as part of their apostolate. They also hold recollections and a three-day retreat every year.
Over the years, the group has dwindled due to a lack of links with the sisters. There was no longer any recruitment; some members had grown old; others had given up. But the core group has continued faithfully up to the present day. Since our return to Kadutu, we have been delighted to meet up again and we organise meetings in our community.
To our great surprise, they told us that there were also young people: the Lavigerie scouts, the Notre-Dame d’Afrique scouts and the Lavigerie choir, who sang for us a beautiful song about Cardinal Lavigerie on the day of the meeting. This meeting was necessary for us to understand what these different groups of lay adults and young people who claim to be ours are experiencing.
The young people appreciated the meeting and were delighted to find themselves back in the big family, as they had experienced a period of interruption without adult leaders (Lavigerian Lay Missionaries) or a link-sister.
So it was a joyful moment to be reunited.
This first meeting with all the groups was an opportunity to present the role that the group will play in the festivities of the bicentenary of the birth of Cardinal Lavigerie. This was made possible thanks to the presence of our sister Béatrice Badini, who is part of the committee preparing the opening of the bicentenary with a Missionary of Africa. All that remains now is to work with these groups, especially the young people, to train and instruct them, so that they can truly discover who Cardinal Lavigerie is.
‘I am a man, and nothing human is foreign to me.
I am a man, and injustice towards other humans revolts my heart.
‘I am a man, and oppression disgraces my nature.
