Uganda: Beatification of Father Giuseppe Ambrosoli
On 22 November 2020, Italian Comboni priest Father Giuseppe Ambrosoli will be beatified in Kalongo in the north of Uganda. A story of dedication to the poor as a doctor and missionary. It was the summer of 1949 when a young doctor asked to enter the Congregation of the Comboni Missionaries. In his letter of […]
Cardinal Tagle to lead Evangelisation Congregation
Pope Francis has named Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Vatican department that oversees the Catholic Church’s missionary activities worldwide. The 62-year-old cardinal succeeds Cardinal Fernando Filoni, 73, who since 2011 had led the Vatican office overseeing the Church’s vast mission territories. Mission, evangelisation […]
Mexico: Calakmul, the lost city
Its name means “The Place of Adjacent Mounds.” This site was contemporary with Tikal and Palenque. Calakmul was at its peak between around 431 and 790 A.D., but it was already an important city in the late Pre-classic, with dated monuments being erected around 200 A.D. Calakmul was inhabited for 1500 years and was a […]
Uganda: the colour of the cows
In the Karimojong group living in north-east Uganda, the number of cows determined readiness for marriage. Among the Karimojong people marriage meant wealth for the girl’s family and pride to the man. They would not match-make their children and neither was there any kind of courtship. It was about strength and wealth. Once a young […]
Reflection: A deeply Human and Divine God
“I would like to share my personal experience of 30 years of mission, highlighting not so much what I preached, but what people, the poor and the street have taught me about who God is”. A reflection of Father Vincenzo Bordo, missionary in South Korea. I don’t believe, and I don’t even care anymore, in […]
Vocation story: “What do you want from me?”
He always felt that God was calling him. For a while, he resisted that voice, up to the point of being ready to call it quits. Eventually, he yielded to God’s will. Now he is making the best of where God places him. A Comboni Father, Zúñiga Paredes Roy Carlos from Peru, tell us his […]
European Bishops: “Despite Brexit, we will continue to work together”
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union has recently released a statement on the UK leaving the European Union. The Commission released a statement saying: “the United Kingdom is no longer part of the European Union. We are saddened, but as defenders of freedom of expression and democracy, the Catholic Church in […]
Saving the Planet and Ourselves
Australia, Philippines, California and Central and South Africa have been recently hit by severe drought and endless forest fires. Thousands are suffering. Plants and animals perish. This we must and can stop. The experts and advocates saving the planet call it an “ecocide” where the ecology and environment is being destroyed before our eyes. There […]
Bolivia, Jaqichasiña: the Aymara Wedding
The Aymara wedding ceremony is a social ritual in which all the community takes part. After this rite the individual is afforded a different social status, hence the couple becomes an integral part of its community and is committed to offering it its support and collaboration. In the Andean Aymara world, jaqi (personhood) is not […]
Mexico: Masks, Carnival Faces
Carnival is celebrated by dancing in the streets, in many Mexican towns. It is a colourful feast characterized by the typical holiday hustle and bustle, dances, music, and masks of course. The dance groups of the south of Tlaxcala perform the Dance of Chivarrudo. These dancers are representative of the mestizo cowboys who were responsible […]