Return to the country

 

 

 

Return to the country

I am at the Addis Ababa airport, waiting for the plane to Bangui, Central Africa.

I left Cuneo yesterday morning, after celebrating Mass with the senior priests of the diocese, and then I took the train, which brought me to Rome yesterday afternoon. After the 6 hour night flight, I am leaving for Bangui, where I will arrive after 3 hours, around 12.  Tomorrow, if all goes well, departure for Bangassou.

The return to Bangassou, after almost a month spent in Italy: first the training of the bishops, then various meetings, between Cuneo, Arenzano, and Milan.

The opportunity to meet many people, and to talk about Central Africa and Bangassou, about the hopes and dreams that Africa contains and preserves, like a great hatchery.

I always encounter a lot of attention and sensitivity.

In a world like the current one, so tense and with little hope, the mission is one of the beautiful places, where the Love of God is incarnated and makes the desert flourish.

And if the desert flourishes, the rest of the world will flourish too!

Cuneo, Cuore Immacolato

Roma, Colosseo

Addis Abeba

 

Rome

 

 

 

Rome

I am writing from Rome, where I arrived on Sunday, September 15th.

I am here, only a few hundred meters from St. Peter's Square, together with 114 other new bishops from 49 countries! It's a magnificent experience!
We have a very busy schedule, with interventions by cardinals and bishops, heads of the Vatican departments.

Training is very rich, and we need it. But it is also training to meet so many bishops from so many countries and from such different realities: India, South and Central America, Iraq, Syria, Africa, Madagascar, Indonesia, New Zealand...

On Tuesday and Wednesday we moved to Urbaniana, the University where seminarians and priests from the Mission towns study.

The new bishops from other countries also came here, such as Europe, North America, Brazil, China, Australia: in total there were 264 new bishops!

It is nice to find so many of us, all newly ordained, all very simple and full of the desire to put ourselves at the service of the Church and the people of God entrusted to us.

Here at the Urbaniana I also met Jospin and Sharaff, two seminarians from Bangassou, who arrived in Rome a couple of months ago. In a few weeks they will begin their theology studies here, together with 162 other seminarians from all over the world, a unique experience!

Today, Saturday, the morning is dedicated to the Pope and Saint Peter.

Dressed in full uniform, at 8 we enter the Vatican, and at 9 we were in the Clementina room, a beautiful room from the 1500s. Here is when the Pope arrived, who very simply said that he does not want to make a speech, but to dialogue with us. A series of questions and answers begins, between many of us and the Pope.

He begins immediately by inviting us to maintain a sense of humor, to creativity, which is born from the freedom of the heart, to strength, which is a gift from God. Among the questions, also how to cope with the weight of the bishop's ministry, and he reminds us that strength is a gift, and if we pray we will get it.

He exhorts us to be close to God, to our brother bishops, to our priests, to the people entrusted to us.

I also greet him, and talk to him about Central Africa, which is very close to his heart. In fact, it recalls the visit to Bangui and the opening of the door of the Jubilee of Mercy in 2015.

After the meeting with Pope Francis, which lasted almost 2 hours, we went down to St. Peter's Basilica, and here we celebrated Mass, at 12, presided over by Card Tagle.

In a few days we will leave again, enriched by a unique experience, which speaks to us of God, of Jesus, of the beauty and freshness of the Church, which is Catholic, that is, universal. And it really is!

Sulla tomba di san Pietro
Sur le tombeau de St Pierre

Messa in San Pietro
La Messe à saint Pierre

 

 

A connecting thread…

 

A connecting thread…

Little by little the Internet connection is returning... and I'm trying to publish text and photos.

I haven't written since August 15th.

We are in the middle of the rainy season. I like the rain a lot and it makes me happy, but the streets unfortunately do not agree with this amount of rain!

Thursday, August 22nd we left around 10.30am for Gambo, a mission 75km away on the national road No. 1 which, in theory, connects Bangassou to the capital. In theory, because the state of the road was disastrous: the last truck that was supposed to bring us the cement and other material, which left Bangui in mid-June, arrived in Bangassou at the end of July, after a month and a half of travel!

60 km from Bangassou there are about 200 meters of road so bad and fearsome that it deserves the name "General", and it is here that we got stuck in the mud for some time.

We managed to get out of it, and arrived in Gambo at 2.30 pm, after 4 hours on the road.

Here there is a parish, where a priest and a deacon live and work, and on Sunday we celebrated Confirmations.

In the afternoon we began to meet the priests and those to be confirmed for the catechesis, which will continue on Friday and Saturday.

We met the pastoral council, and then the leaders of the Mission school: around 300 children will receive a good education. The structures are very precarious: they use 2 parish halls and 2 straw sheds. The dream is to build a proper school, which we will start in the next few months. Also, with hopes to find financing!

On Sunday morning everything was ready and the celebration of mass was solemn and well attended: even children who could not yet walk or dance (in time!), were able to at least clap their hands!

We left around 12.30, hoping that the "General" was not as terrible on the way out. In fact, there was no rain during the night, and we managed to pass without too many problems. We arrived in Bangassou around 4pm .

On Tuesday I got back on the road, to accompany a priest to Ouango, a parish 75 km away. The road was fairly good, and in two hours we arrived at our destination.

Wednesday morning I continued to Bema, the mission on the river where I had been in April. The river was swollen with water, and the level had risen by at least 2 meters. The road in the village was a 20cm layer of mud, and people had to go barefoot to be able to walk!

 

 

 

 

 

La chapelle de Gambo

 

 

 

 

La scuola provvisoria, molto provvisoria
Les salles de classe, très très provisoires

 

Internet silence and times of silence

Internet silence and times of silence

For a couple of weeks the internet connection, which is already weak, has been almost absolete.

Here in Bangassou there are 2 telephone operators: Telecel, which has a decent Internet service, and has been turned off for more than ten days, while Orange is working for a few hours a day, but the internet connection is very poor, with little or no connection…

Last week I managed to publish the post, with a lot of effort, but not the photos. I'm afraid I'll have to continue like this today too.

We left on Monday 5 August, with the beginning of the spiritual exercises, a week of silence and prayer, which brought together all the priests of the diocese of Bangassou. They were led by Fr. Cyriaque, a Carmelite, who joined us from Bangui.

We reflected and prayed on the gift of priesthood, mystery and ministry.

On Sunday the 11th of August we celebrated the final Mass, in which the various transfers of the priests were also announced.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday there was the diocesan pastoral meeting, which saw priests and lay people from each parish gathered to take stock, parish by parish, of the pastoral work done and prepare the program for the year 2024-25, which will see us committed to the theme of the family and the Jubilee.

Today, the feast of the Assumption, offers a bit of a break, and tomorrow we will resume work with the presentation of the new catechisms.

Today I went to celebrate Mass in Pande, a small sanctuary 7 km from Bangassou, where about 600 people were gathered to pray and celebrate the feast of the Virgin Mary.

 

980 kilometers from Bangui

 

980 kilometers from Bangui

Here I am, after a bit of silence, due to the lack of internet connection these days.

The return to Central Africa took place with some unexpected events: when I arrived at Milan airport to leave, I realized that the ticket was for the previous day! Thanks to Fr Davide and the BBC agency, I still managed to leave, and arrived in Bangui on the 24th July. After a couple of hours, I celebrated Mass with the boys (now adults) who had been in the Seminary with me in Bouar, between 1992 and 2003.
The plane to Bangassou, scheduled for the 25th, was moved to the 26th, on Friday. I finally arrived in Bangassou, but the program included confirmations in Bakouma, and I couldn't go.
On Wednesday, Monsignor Aguirre and I left around 9am from Bangassou for Rafai: 150km to the East, and between broken bridges and ferries we arrived at the Chinko river at 4.30pm. When we arrive at the river, on the other side of the bank, we saw a few hundred people greeting us and shouting: they were the Christians of the Parish who are waiting for the bishops!
Rafai is a small town, and the Mission is very well followed by the Friars Minor. Here we found Fr. Jerome, Polish, and Br. Maxime, Central African.
On Thursday we parted ways: Mons. Aguirre left for Selim, 15 km away, for Confirmations, while I went 70 km away, to Dembia, even further east. The road was bad, and it took 3 hours to get there. Here we were 980 km from Bangui, and shortly after the village there was a river, where a truck (probably overloaded) had been stuck for more than 2 weeks, balanced on the barge that allowed passage.
Father Jerome and I worked with the Confirmation candidates all afternoon, and we slept here. I got a nice hut, with a thatched roof, and some nice spiders (but the mosquito net on the bed protected me).
Friday at 9am, after confessions, the bell (which here is a large wooden drum, called LINGA) rang the beginning of the Mass. There were around sixty candidates for confirmation, and the Mass was well attended.
In the afternoon we returned to Rafai, where we arrived around 3pm. After a shower I was back in the church to prepare the confirmands, who were more than 150 here: very attentive and involved.
Saturdays are quieter: catechesis and preparation for Confirmations, and confessions in the afternoon.
On Sunday morning we celebrated the Confirmations together, Mons Aguirre and I. Here too there was a lot of participation, singing and dancing, and prayer.
At the end of the Mass, there was a second procession with gifts for the new bishop. Among these, a sheep (the bishop is the shepherd) and a hand-woven chair, which in ancient times was reserved for the village head.

On Monday morning, just before 6.30, we left for Bangassou, where we arrived at 11.30.
In the afternoon we began a week of retreat for all the priests of the diocese, led by Father Cyriaque, a Carmelite.

 

 

Sorry: no connexion... no photos