Herbs & Plants: Ageratum Conyzoides. The ‘Goat Weed’ Remedy
This plant has been used in various parts of Africa in folk medicine to treat a diversity of ailments including skin complaints, cuts, burns, pneumonia, sleeping sickness, and stomachache. The juice of the fresh plant or an extract of the dried plant is used in the treatment of allergic rhinitis and sinusitis. Ageratum conyzoides (Family […]
Mission Diary: Fr. Paulino – “I am happy to serve this church”
I have been in Peru for 11 years, the last three of which I spent in Huánuco, a plateau city at an altitude of 1,800 meters surrounded by mountains. All its hills are filled with settlements with temporary cottages. It’s difficult to get into the city centre due to the various levels, and although motorbike […]
Vocation Story: Father Luke – “I listened to the inner voice”
Father Luke Anatole Welemu, a Malawian missionary dialogues with us about his vocation journey. I am the last born in a family of three brothers and two sisters. I come from Dedza district located in the Central Region of Malawi. My siblings and I grew up and did our basic education in Dedza. I am […]
Exclusive: Pope Francis – Africa “a continent to be valued, not plundered”
Pope Francis talks in an exclusive interview with Comboni Missionary Magazine Mundo Negro published in Spain. Excerpts You have said that “Africa never ceases to surprise.” How much of this surprise do you think can be attributed to the missionaries you have met? What surprises me most about missionaries is their ability to put themselves […]
The Youth Corner: Charity and Fraternity
To look responsibly at life and to enter into the dynamism of love as the essence of every vocation is to give assent to the demands of love. These days, as I gazed bleakly at the news of the world, the horrors of war, famine, disease, and human despair spreading across the globe, I found […]
Mission Diary: Brother Dr. Juan Carlos – Delivering Medicine and Hope
Despite unbearable heat, lack of adequate medical equipment, and virtually non-existent roads, Comboni Brother Dr. Juan Carlos Salgado loves his job at St. Michael Hospital in Donomanga, Chad, a Catholic mission in the south of the country. “I am happy to be here. Personally, I like the quiet village life compared to the stress of […]
Brazil: “Every indigenous person is a guardian of Mother Earth”
An unprecedented event: Sonia Guajajara is the first indigenous woman to be appointed a minister in the history of the country. She assumes the direction of the “Ministry of Indigenous Peoples”, recently created by Lula, the current president of Brazil. In the afternoon of January 11, 2023, Sonia Guajajara, of the Guajajara/Tenetehara people of the […]
Priests, missionaries and Lay People killed in 2022
Last year, 18 Catholic missionaries were murdered worldwide: 13 priests, three religious sisters, one seminarian, and one lay leader. On 15 January 2023, a Nigerian priest was burned alive and another suffered gunshot wounds after attackers stormed a priests’ house. Half of the 18 missionaries were killed in Africa; eight were killed in Latin America […]
Bartholomew – The Green Patriarch
In his long-serving ministry, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has unreservedly committed himself to the protection of the environment and the cause of peace, justice, and unity among all peoples, ceaselessly calling for effective solutions to the climate emergency. There’s a proverb that says, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they […]
UN: 2023 – The International Year of Millet
The cultivation and consumption of millet is a response to the challenges posed by population growth, food insecurity and climate change. This a unique opportunity. Among the first plants to be domesticated, millet is considered a cereal with a high content of nutrients. For seven thousand years, this small, round grain has been the staple […]