Brazil: Horizons of hope
A place where children find understanding and dignity. Comboni Missionary Father Padre Saverio Paolillo explains. In the Marcos Moura quarter, in the outskirts of Santa Rita, a town in the state of Paraíba in north-east Brazil, an initiative called Project Legal is in action. A group of men and women take in children and maladjusted […]
African Witnesses: St. Josephine Bakhita
Nine-year-old Bakhita (c. 1869-1947), playing in the fields near her home in Sudan, was captured by slave traders. She had been warned by her parents to be careful, since her older sister earlier had been captured and enslaved. During the next ten years, the captive Bakhita passed through the hands of five different slave owners. […]
Oral Literature: The Well
A long time ago, there were four families who lived in a small village in Somalia. The first family would argue all of the time, the second family were very greedy, the third family were always away from the village exploring because they were never happy with what they had or where they lived. But […]
Bolivia Textiles: Symbolism of the Andean Wisdom
The original handcrafted clothes made with sheep, llama, alpaca, vicuña and other animals’ wool are not just garments made of valuable fabrics showing great combinations of meaningful colours, but they also symbolise the prestige of the original Andean dignity and identity. The weaving process begins with the extraction of wool from sheep, alpacas, llamas, vicuñas and […]
Ethiopia: Solidarity in the shadow of Debre Libanos
About 700 Ethiopian refugees survive thanks to the work of an Orthodox priest of the Debre Libanos monastery. The initiative of Abba Kefyalew stands out considering the limited commitment of his Church to the less fortunate. The Great Rift Valley is a canyon of almost 5,000 kilometres that splits the Horn of Africa into two […]
Bishops from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia call for disarmament of herders
Catholic bishops in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia are calling for coordinated and peaceful disarmament in a common border region, where an estimated 8 million illegal small and light weapons can be found among the herder communities. The border triangle is the homeland of the Turkana and the Pokot of Kenya, the Karamoja of Uganda, Daasanach […]
Vocation Story: From cigarette’s seller to priest
“I really believe that a missionary priest is a person called by God to meet the overwhelming gratuitous love of God for humanity.” A Comboni Father Placide Majambo Lutumba Petir from Congo tell us his story. I grew up in a fairly quiet and peaceful atmosphere, but also very Christian. My mother sang in the […]
Brazil: “Goes forth” means to respect the indigenous culture
Pope Francis always insists on a Church that “goes forth”. In the Amazon, according to Bishop João Muniz Alves, Bishop of the Prelature of Xingu, in Brazil, this must be translated into “a Church that respects the cultures that are present here”. The Prelature of Xingu, which has an area of 368,876.67 square kilometers, brings […]
Comboni Bishop Miguel Guixot named new head of Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue
Pope Francis has appointed 66-year-old Spanish Bishop Miguel Ayuso Guixot as the new president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Bishop Miguel Ayuso Guixot succeeds the late Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who died in July 2018, as the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He has been serving as Secretary of the Vatican […]
South Sudan: The ‘Blue Sisters’ bring hope to abused women
They were founded three decades ago in southern Sudan, and named the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But in a region dramatically affected by the South Sudanese civil war, they are usually known by the bright colour of their habits. To most who know them, they are the “Blue Sisters.” In the South Sudanese […]
