Beatification of the martyrs of Algeria
The celebration of the beatification of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions and martyrs on Algerian soil took place on Saturday 8th December 2018 at the Shrine of Notre Dame de Santa Cruz in Oran, Algeria. Among the beatified, we find Fathers Charles Deckers, Jean Chevillard, Alain Dieulangard et Christian Chessel – our four brothers, Missionaries of Africa, who were assassinated in Tizi Ouzou in 1994, and the monks of Thiberine, who were kidnapped and assassinated in 1996. “They all died because they had chosen, by grace, to remain faithful to those with whom they lived and shared services, and had become neighbors. Their deaths revealed that their life was at the service of all: the poor, women in difficulty, disabled, young, all of them Muslims. (…)These beatifications say that hatred is not the right answer to hate, that there is no inevitable spiral of violence. They want…
The Crib, more than ever meaningful
A little paper, a little clay to model the characters… Nothing more modest than a crib made with love and patience! However, the memory of this birth is not insignificant. Christmas is always full of meaning. A cave their only shelter! Is it not like to day? At the sharpest time of winter, some people have only one cardboard as a mattress and another as a quilt. They hardly have time to put up a tent when already they have to leave their makeshift shelter and go elsewhere. This cave in its depth, allows us to see these families today, unable to pay their rent, their electricity bills. And we can continue the parallel with Mary and Joseph. They were forced to exile to Egypt, to save the life of Jesus. Today thousands of people are urgently forced to flee their country to escape death. …
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…
“Thank you for my baptism”– Emmanuel, from Burkina Faso
One morning at the beginning of the rainy season, Emmanuel, in his fifties, called me through his eldest son. He had been a good catechumen for a long time but had abandoned everything except his Christian name. We knew each other well and I respected his decision taken long before I arrived. That day, he let me know he was dying and wanted baptism before the great departure. I knew he was very ill. Five kilometers separated me from his village, but what a road! The motorbike had to navigate through the mud. Emmanuel was at the end of his strength, and I found his great desire to ask Jesus his true shepherd to lead him to the Father. He himself had been a shepherd from a young age. At our second meeting, we celebrated his baptism with his wife and two sons who…
Street-Missionary in Canada
Sister Françoise Laflamme, missionary from Malawi in Canada.
I am receiving my King.
Gabrieli was one of the first catechists of the country (Zambia). Being old, he now remained in the village. I often went to visit him, to talk and improve the language I was learning. I always found him sitting in his lounge chair made with animal skin, praying the rosary … If he was absent, it meant that even in a village far away … someone was sick, often very ill. So Gabrieli took his stick and went to see him, to help him in his suffering…or dying. He had always kept his Shepherd’s heart. One day I found him lying down, with a high fever … He told me: “Go and tell the Father to bring me communion!” When Father arrived he was kneeling down. Father tried to tell him to stay in bed but … “No, I am receiving my King!” Every day the father came until…
An old Catechist
As for me, I do not have a great devotion for cemeteries, but would go to his tomb each time I returned to Ipusukilo. In 1950, I arrived in Ipusukilo, Northern Rhodesia, Zambia. As a good White Sister, the first thing to do was to learn the Bemba language. My teacher, (at that time there were no language courses), was Sister Séraphine, one of the four Sisters of the first caravan of Sisters to arrive in Northern Rhodesia. In the afternoon, I went to Lubilo village to practice speaking with Gabrieli Kawimbe. Holding the hand of a patient, or of a dying person: this act makes all the difference. Old Gabrieli had understood this.Gabrieli was an elderly man. I found him still seated on his deck-chair made of animal skins and reciting his rosary. He had been one of the first catechists of Bishop (Moto-Moto) Dupont, the Bishop King of…