Mission to the everyday life

The coming months will see many different events in the life of the Society of African Missions.

Following the Plenary Council in Holland, several Extraordinary Provincial Councils are taking place: in Paris for the Lyons’ Province, in Cork (Irish Province), in Genoa (Italian Province). The Strasbourg District will hold its Assembly and, in Africa, several Regions are involved in the consultation process for their incoming Regional Councils.

Among the various jubilees to be celebrated, the most remarkable is the one to be held in Genoa, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Italian Provincial house. During this half century, the community at via Francesco Borghero have contributed a lot to the birth and the development of the Churches in Africa, at first by forming those who were going to be involved in the formation of diocesan and missionary clergy. Over the years this House witnessed the ‘leaving for mission’ of about forty young missionaries, going to seven African countries (Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Angola, Morocco and Niger) and also to Latin America (Argentina). It is a place which fosters the meeting of peoples and cultures in Africa as in Italy.

Today, the Genoa house has three primary means of meeting the missionary challenges: it is a house for formation and missionary animation, headquarters for the Italian Provincial administration and a home for elderly and ill missionaries. Those who will come to Genoa to celebrate the jubilee on 26 June will undertake a Thanksgiving Pilgrimage, to thank the Lord for 50 years of successful graces, to celebrate the vitality of mission today in Africa and to ask that the Spirit continues to support the faith of the missionaries who, in the middle of difficulties, do not stop announcing the risen Christ.

For our young members in the Districts-in-formation in Africa (Bight of Benin, Great Lakes and Gulf of Guinea), the coming months are also an opportunity for them to encounter the Churches of Europe and America. Some of them will be engaged in a programme which allows SMA African missionaries to present another face of Africa while participating in the exchanges between the Churches of the North and the South.

You may be already aware that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has appointed our SMA General Superior, Fr. Kieran O' Reilly, as bishop of the diocese of Killaloe in Ireland. Fr Kieran will be ordained Bishop on 29 August 2010 in the cathedral in Ennis, Co Clare. Our prayers accompany him.

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