Herbs & Plants. Harungana madagascariensis. The Medicinal Plant
The plant has been used over many years in African herbal medicine for the treatment of a wide range of human illnesses. It is a small to medium-sized bushy tree, about 4-7m in height. Bark brown, rough and scaly, with orange sap when damaged. Leaves opposite, elliptic, up to 20 cm long, dark shiny […]
India. Saving an Endangered Language
Hrusso Aka, an indigenous language in northern India, was on the verge of extinction. A Jesuit, whose mother tongue was Konkani, a language along the western coast of India, came to help the Hrusso Aka natives save their dying tongue. A tribal language in northern India was moving toward extinction in the late 1990s. […]
Towards the 2023 Synod. A path of renewal and conversion
To quote an African adage: “The one who does not dig his field dies of hunger”. Life is like a seed. Those responsible should regularly check the soil for seed fertility, growth, and flowering. And this is also true in human growth. How can the synod on synodality remain fertile to bear fruit now […]
Bible & Mission. What is there between You and Us?
What word! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out!” (Luke 4: 31–37) Jesus, who was proclaimed Son so as to become our brother, was tempted by Satan to act as son of that God that the devil had suggested. Adam listened to the serpent’s proposal and became […]
Ghana. ‘Hogbetsotso’, a Festival of the Exodus
It is one of the indigenous festivals in Ghana celebrated by the Anlo people of Southern Ghana to commemorate the escape from the region of Notsie in Togo to their present abode in the Volta Region of Ghana between the 14th and the 15th centuries. Hogbetsotso is a festival that reminds the Anlo people […]
Leadership in African culture. Between Fear and Respect
African traditional political leaders cover both the temporal and the religious spheres. They represent the exigencies of the ancestors before the community of the living and the exigencies of the same community before the ancestors. This double responsibility before the people and before the ancestors grants them both authority and power. The Congolese philosopher […]
Inequalities. Africa Victim of the Climate, New Fiscal Rules Are Needed
Africa is responsible for only 4% of CO2 emissions but is suffering enormous agricultural and health damage. It is proposed to provide help by taxing multinationals and the consumption of the richest countries. Climate change is making its effects felt on humanity, affecting the cornerstones of survival and social organization. But accountability and consequences […]
Vocation Story. “People teach Me how to Be a Missionary”
Father Eduardo Revolledo Villanueva is a young Comboni Missionary from Lima, Peru. He is in Taiwan and shares his vocation story and his missionary service in the Asian continent. To talk about my vocation, I have to remember my experience in the Comboni parish “Cristo Missionario del Padre”, located on the outskirts of Lima, […]
Bible & Mission. Children of God
“You are my Son, the beloved; in you I have put all my joy.” – Read Luke 3: 21–38 Baptism is Jesus’ fundamental choice: He makes Himself a brother because He is the Son and He is the Son because He makes Himself a brother. Different from Adam, He accepts the Father’s love and different […]
Mission Diary. The Serpent and the Birds
Father Ngalite Regis-Eric, a young Comboni priest from the Central African Republic shared with us his missionary experience. In mid-2019, having completed my theology studies, I was assigned to the parish of Sant Michel de Dono-Manga (Chad) for a two-year period of missionary service. I then had my priestly ordination in January 2022 in my […]
