TITLES:

1- Italy: General Presentation of the 2021 events in the province

2- Lyon: News from the Provincial

3- Zambia: Presenattion of the Farm Project

ITALY

Rev. Fr. Dario DOZIO – Co-representative of communication _ Italy

A new pastoral year under the sign of the mission for the SMA Province of Italy, which saw several confreres leave for Africa. 

Rev. Fr. Ceferino CAINELLI – Provincial Superior of Italy

- Fr. Giovanni BENETTI, after 5 years in the parish of “Santa Maria di Castello” is currently in Kenya where he is preparing to join the formation team in Calavi;

- Fr. Luigino FRATTIN, former provincial superior of Italy, joined Angola after a period of rest and preparation for the mission;

- Fr. Davide Camorani ordained in July of this year, who is a nurse by training, moved to the Central African Republic where he is taking language courses to go and work in the pygmy area;

- we also have the joy of welcoming a diocesan confrere from the diocese of Savona. He is an associate member of SMA and he will also work in the Central African Republic;

and thank you to SMA International for giving us the opportunity to share the life of our community. 

Rev. Fr. Dario DOZIO – Co-representative of communication _ Italy

And other confreres who have finished their holidays, have now returned to their mission in Africa. But here at Feriole, there is also a new arrival: 

Anselmo FABIANO – SMA Student, Year 3 of Theology

Hello, my name is Anselmo and I come from the Diocese of Cuomo in northern Italy where I attended the seminary. Now, I am starting a journey with the SMA; and I want to give my life to share the joy of the gospel in Africa.

 Rev. Fr. Dario DOZO – Co-representative of communication _ Italy

After the long and painful absence, more than two years, prisoner in the Sahara, Fr. Luigi Maccalli, released last year, presents us with his story in a book that is easy to read. The book is entitled “Chains of Freedom”.

Rev. Fr. Luigi MACCALLI – Author of the book “Catene di Libertà”

Greetings to all. I want to use this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your welcome and all the prayers said for me during my captivity; and this shared joy for my release. It would take a long time to talk and narrate this experience. Certain encounters, certain testimonies could perhaps have said something about what I have been through. Maybe, the best way for me to do that is to invite you to read what I wrote in this book which has just been published in Italian and which will soon be translated into French and perhaps in others languages. It will be a way of sharing with you my experience and especially the inner journey of the two years of captivity.

Thank you again for your support, for your prayer.

Lyon

Rev. Fr. François de PENHOAT – Provincial Superior of Lyon:

In the province of Lyon until now there was no real pastoral commitment if not that with the poor; since all our commitments consisted of sending confreres to Africa. Now things have changed direction and we see the need of a missionary pastoral care. I emphasize the word missionary in our province. For four years now we have taken charge of two parishes in Lyon and Nantes which are suburban parishes in a multicultural context. The bishop of Nantes asked us to have an international team because it reflects the reality of the church today and we are trying to make our parishes, missionaries; parishes that are close to the whole population, and which are trying to encounter those who are not Christians. Little by little we are discovering that there is already a challenge: that of bringing unity in our Christian communities.

We are in the process of taking over a parish in Castelnaudary, the founder's village, the founder's parish. This is more of a commitment to the SMA as a whole; to be present in the lands of our founder. It is also a commitment to a more rural pastoral area. Lyon and Nantes are big cities, unlike Castelnaudary and Bram which have about 80 villages to visit. We are somewhat in the setting of pastoral care of villages, of a dechristianized zone; it is not the most dechristianized in the region but still quite dechristianized with a certain number of challenges: working with the laity and so on.
These are not the only pastoral care of the province. We also insist on keeping commitments to the poor. We have for instance two colleagues who worked with prostitutes, especially of African origin. We will try to continue this pastoral; also, we will try to continue the commitment with
the migrants according to the texts of the General Assembly. In each house we welcome them and in Chaponost, near Lyon, we have organized special rooms for the reception of young migrants who spend a night or two. Besides this aspect of the care to the poor; there is also missionary animation. Formerly, missionary animation consisted in seeking vocations; today it is more about bringing something to our church in France, the dynamism of other churches. Here, we tend to believe that the church is over, that it is dead; I believe that expressing this dynamism of other churches, giving life, transmitting the life that comes from other continents is something important; it is perhaps the most important thing in our missionary animation.

These are the three aspects of our pastoral work today in the province of Lyon.

ZAMBIA

Rev. Fr. Ignatius MALWA – District Superior of Zambia

I am Ignatius Malwa, the current leader of the SMa district of Zambia. When I came into office almost a year ago.

My predecessor, Fr. Gustave Chisenga had bought land where he started farming; and I took it up when I came into office. So, we have chickens, pigs; and the manual that we get from the pigeries they support also the improvement of the soil and the vegetable. down in the district house, we have incubators for eggs that fertilize from the farm. and we grow the chickens a bite in the house and later bring them to the farm.So, we want to have what I can call an integrated farm where we can everything at the farm, like livestocks and anything you can think of. So, that we can have what I can call a rotational fund. that is the same animals and vegetables can support the feeding of each other. And this farm is so special to us because it is a farm that is connected to our community school in chimpulukusu where we are helping the most vunerable children in education. We do what we call the feeding program. the things which we grow at the farm, are the supplement of the food we give to the kids in Chipulukusu.

The farm needed a lot of water and we applied for some funds from the irish province and they gave money for the water system.So, we have a bowl hole and we have five tanks for the water that are 30,000 liters that help us to care for the animals and to water the vegetables.

My predecessor, Fr. Gustave, when he started the farm he built a house, so we have a house that was also supported by the Irish province; which serve as a house for all our managers. we have five workers who are working at the farm at the moment.

And we want also to use the farm apart from our apostolate in Chipulukusu, to support our brothers in mission and support also our seminarians and their education in Kabwe. So, thank you very much to those who have been supporting our mission to those who have been supporting this project. It is with this that we are doing such development, it is possible because of well-wishers. We thank you so much and we pray that God will bless your generosity. Thank you and God bless you!

GENERAL INFORMATION

1- As part of the resumption of the activities of the Generalate, the General Council and the confreres exercising a particular service to the General participated from October 16 to 17 in an exchange and sharing session at the center “Ad gentes” at Nemi in Italy.

2- As a prelude to the General States on Initial Formation which will take place in Abidjan – Côte d’ivoire, from January 3 to 12, 2022, the actors and other people received a questionnaire. Questionnaire that was treated by the formators who met in small groups via videoconference during the month of October. The various answers obtained will be part of the working documents during the General States in January.

3- On October 27, was weld a webinar organized by the SMA-NDA Commission for Interfaith, Intercultural and Ecumenical Dialogue. the theme was: "Dialogue in Times of Violence - What the Church Teaches Us." "

A problematic that is part of the daily experiences of many of our missionaries.
The guest of this training session, H.E Card. Michael Louis Fitzgerald M. Afr., Emblematic figure of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, gave some lines of thought on the true meaning of dialogue and what is its primary purpose.

 H.E Card. Michael Louis Fitzgerald M. Afr. :

The council for inter religious dialogue sends out messages. it has been sending out message for the end of Ramadan to Muslims since 1967. And it is encouraged that local authorities take this message to the Muslim community. When they were doing it, I think it is in Ivory coast or some place. and they were taking it and never had any response at all. and they said what is the use of sending these messages when there is no response. we are going to stop. and that year the Muslims came at Easter to wish a happy Easter to the Christian community; and they said, we have been receiving your message for 5 years and we have never replied and we are ashamed. and now we come to wish you a happy Easter. I think that is an example to never give up. Even if there is no response, you have to try; and keep trying even if connection is poor, you have to keep working. 

4- Kidnapped on February 7, 2017, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez, was released on October 9, the same month in which Fr. Luigi Maccalli was released, month of the rosary and missionary month. We give thanks to the Lord for this and continue to pray for the other hostages in particular for Fr. Joël YOUGBARÉ.