Missionary Month: Sr. Marie André du Sacré Coeur
Pope Francis proclaimed an Extraordinary Missionary Month in October 2019 and placed it under the theme Baptized and sent: the Church of Christ in mission in the world”. He invites all the baptized to live this time in four dimensions: the encounter with Jesus, missionary witness, formation in mission and missionary solidarity. Throughout this month we invite you to discover some missionary testimonies of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. Today, we present to you the portrait of Sr. Marie André du Sacré Coeur (1899-1988) who lived her missionary life as a woman apostle for the defense of women’s rights. Sister Marie André du Sacré Cœur had a doctorate in law when she entered our Congregation in 1922. Thinking that her studies in law would not be useful in Africa, how wrong she was! Just after her perpetual vows, she was sent to help the Missionaries of Africa understand…
Meeting of the “Our Lady of Africa Family”
On Saturday, May 11th, 2019, when the Plenary Assembly of the UISG (International Union of Superiors General) was finished, the community of Rome welcomed twenty Superiors General of the ‘Family of Our Lady of Africa’. They spent the day working with the General Council, focusing on various points of common interest. Looking back on the UISG meeting, which had as its theme ‘Sowers of Prophetic Hope’, many highlighted the awareness they had gained and the concrete commitments already made. Through these, we were equipped to raise awareness on how we can either take care of the environment or destroy it. Some examples of actions were cited: planting trees and reforestation; educate children in our schools to respect and care for creation; make people aware of how to improve their environment, especially regarding forests; support the projects of those who are working for the same cause and collaborate with them. Dialogue…
Pope Francis: Free women from the slavery of prostitution
Pope Francis contributes the preface to a new book on human trafficking, entitled « Women crucified”, by Fr Aldo Buonaiuto, a priest of the Pope John XXIII Community. The shame of human trafficking as told from the street ». In the preface, Pope Francis recalls one of his Mercy Friday visits to a house run by the Pope John XXIII Community for victims of human trafficking. “I did not think I would find such humiliated, afflicted and suffering women there”, writes the Pope. “Truly, women crucified”. Pope Francis describes listening to “the moving and very human stories of these unfortunate women, some of them with their child in their arms”. Afterwards, he says he felt the need to “ask forgiveness for the real tortures they had to endure because of their clients, many of whom call themselves Christian”. Rescue and rehabilitation “A person can never be offered for sale”, writes the Pope.…
Women with women – victims of human trafficking
After many years spent in Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Mozambique) Sr. Begoña Iñarra Spanish was sent for mission to Paris where she is working with Aux Captifs, la Libération, an organization helping women get out of prostitution. Sister is also a member of RENATE, Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation. A beautiful dream of a good job often becomes a nightmare All together, you have spent more than 20 years in Africa. When you see the growing number of Africans now trying to come to Europe, and when you see how many women end up as traffic victims, what do you think about this? Poor people have always left their countries in search of a better future. But the Africans who leave now are not the poorest. They must have some money to pay the traffickers who organize the migrations. They have to be able to borrow…
Un unsung HERO: “MSOLA”
The story tells how MSOLA – Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa- keeps close to her heart the cause of the woman in the world; she wants to make a difference in the life of the one who brings to life; the one who carries life in a secret place and brings it as a gift to this world; male and female; slave and task master; rich and poor, king and prince. MSOLA cares for humanity because the woman she cares for is at the center of human life. On her mission to serve the woman, MSOLA knows no boundaries. The mountains so high, the ocean so deep, the wilderness so dense would not prevent her from responding to the cry of a woman in despair. In this amazing story, our unsung HERO “MSOLA” has brought a special touch to the lives of vulnerable mothers and their babies in…
« Calor y Café », in Málaga
“CALOR Y CAFÉ” The new born of CÁRITAS MÁLAGA To testify that Love breaks all the barriers: Idolatry of money, an economy that kills, selfishness which seeks only to enrich itself at any cost : two homes for the homeless. “Pozo Dulce”, a home for the homeless : During the jubilee year 2000 a home for the homeless was born: “Pozo Dulce” which gives shelter to 55 residents. “Calor y Café” is also the fruit of another jubilee year: the Year of Mercy. Both centers were created to address the big problem of people who live on the streets. “Calor y Café” and “Pozo Dulce” are signs of mercy. Several volunteers have offered to make these places real welcoming homes. The people who live on the street do not do it because they want it, but because of various unfortunate circumstances in their lives. The personalized support given to…
The senoufo language and the wisdom of Nyanyogo
Sister Nicole Robion : What I have learned from the wisdom of a woman of the traditional religion :
The missionary heart has no boundaries
AFRICA…and then what? Sister Monique, Belgian Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa, returned from Burkina Faso several years ago. However, back home does not mean “retirement”! Rather, the missionary heart has no boundaries, and spontaneously she found places of work, or rather people to love, particularly the very poor. In mission at Louvain-la-Neuve “Our mission can be lived wherever we are sent,” we read in the MSOLA Constitutions. Upon my arrival in Louvain-la-Neuve, a multicultural city, I discovered that we could live the MSOLA charism in a special way. Africans are everywhere. We meet them while shopping, in parish activities, on the way to school. To share with young people what I have lived in Africa always gives me great joy: The director of a school in Ottignies (section of Louvain-la-Neuve), and a religion teacher, asked me for an animation. In the 39 high school…
Beauty and feminine identity by Lucienne Brousse
“The art of tattooing as an attribute of feminine beauty was once the prerogative of North African women. As in all millennial civilizations, this pageantry which embellished the features of the face, the limbs or certain parts of the body formed the adornment of the woman following the example of its current practice in European countries with piercing, a new contemporary form inherited Hindo-Asian civilizations which today attracts casual and rebellious young people. The work which has just been published by Dar El Khattab editions looks with a corpus of signs, symbols drawn on the origins of Berber female tattoos in the regions of Biskra and Touggourt, spreading a little more in the regions of Kabylie, to provide a modest study that attempts an ethnographic understanding of the original symbolism of tattoos, often referring to testimonies of women who practiced it: “It is…
Embracing the past and the present
On the way to Banzo It looked like 15 August would be a beautiful day for the Bobo Dioulasso novitiate community… First we had to get up earlier than usual and be on the road before sunrise. Besides the dirt road and deciding which pot-holes to avoid… After two hours of travel, well shaken, we arrived at Banzon, where this year would take place the feast of the Assumption. Also celebrated in our diocese is the feast of the Association of Catholic Women of the diocese (LAFCD). We were warmly welcomed by the parish priest of Our Lady of the Valleys, Father André Baro. He impressed us with his simplicity and openness. Under a tree, the first White Sisters to Banzo After greetings, he spoke about the history of the parish and the place of the White Sisters in it. “You see the little house below…