From India to Central Africa

Couroupita guianensis

From India to Central Africa

After a long journey, I’m back in Bozoum! Last Saturday, February 16th, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the profession of Vows of 32 nuns. With them there was also Sister Payton who worked with us in Bouar as a nurse for 25 years. The solemn celebration began with a well-organized Mass, where we had 3000 people participating, including the families of the nuns. After the mass there was a simple but substantial lunch for everyone that celebrated!

In the afternoon we stayed with Sister Elisabetta, another nun who works in Central Africa, in Niem. We visited her family and also a small park, with a beautiful river and a large suspension bridge which seemed to be the stage for a couple of monkeys! 

On Sunday we began the return journey. In the evening I left from Cochin towards Mumbai, where I arrived at 11:00pm. Monday morning I left for Nairobi, where I arrived after a little over 6 hours of flight. We have to leave at 1.00 pm, but the flight kept being delayed, and around 3:30pm the plane finally took off. The next day, Tuesday, we left and finally at 9:00am we landed at Bangui airport. 

I met the confreres of Carmel, in Bangui, and on Wednesday I left towards Bozoum. I have with me Gaetano Barbagallo, a dentist, with his wife Lucia, who in these days will work in our dental office in Bozoum. 

The road continues to get worse. I left Bangui at 5:30am arriving home at 1:30pm, almost 8 hours for a distance of less than 400 km! At the beginning of the last stretch, in Bossemptele, I saw the machinery for the repair of the road. They have been stuck for 2 months. From the 6 months of the start of the work, less than 13 km have been repaired (a monthly average of 2.1 km, or 70 meters a day). 

In Bozoum there is also Enrico Massone, who in less than a month and a half has built a large part of the new church at Kpari village. Congratulations!

Kpari

India Part Two

India Part Two
I'm almost at the end of my trip to India.
Last week's meeting in Goa ended on Sunday evening with a major celebration for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Discalced Carmelites in India.  At 4 pm we started the celebration of the Mass, presided by 3 bishops, and with the presence of over 200 priests, and many Carmelite religious men and women from various Congregations. Carmel, in India, is experiencing impressive growth, fostered by a strong demand for spirituality, by a large number of young people, and by the Church's commitment to Education and Health.
Monday morning we left Goa, myself, Father Saverio and Father Michele (Superior of Arenzano convent). After about three hours we disembarked at Cochin, in Kerala, on the South coast, in the West of India.  Sister Anil and Sister Paulsy welcome us. These two sisters belong to the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, founded in 1866 by an Indian father, Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara and one of our confreres, Father Leopoldo Beccaro (founder, years later, of the Arenzano convent). Both Sr. Anil and Sr. Paulsy have been in Central Africa for many years, in our Yolé seminary.
In the afternoon we began some intense days of visits and meetings with numerous communities of nuns, and with some of the Sister’s families, who work with us in Central Africa or in Italy. In the hustle and bustle of traffic, among colors, sounds and risky driving, we move around. It is interesting to observe the colors, and the vitality of this part of the world. Tuesday we were in the South, in the area of Changanassery, Wednesday we visited the Mother General, while Thursday we moved to the North, between Colikot and Tamassery, where we visited some communities and families. Here the environment is very rural: each family has a small plantation of coconuts, palm trees, coffee and rubber. The vegetation is of an impressive wealth, and the land is worked in strips, to try to maintain the landscape.
We met lively communities in an area of India where the majority of people are Catholic but there is also the presence of large numbers of Muslim and Hindu. The Church is present in many ways, but first and foremost in the family unit.  In every home there is a space for prayer, and one can sense the joy of being Christian.
The journey of Carmel in India has been long, very long. For over 3 centuries it was a matter of plowing in depth, to create men and women of faith.

Incisione dell'albero della gomma
Caoutchou

Ernakulam

San Giorgio
Saint Georges

Vembanad lake

Fiori di caffé
Fleurs du café

Passage to India Part 1

Mumbai airport

Passage to India Part 1

A few days ago I arrived in India and I’m planning to stay a few more days because of two commitments: this week there will be a meeting of the Superiors of our Carmelite Order, in Goa; next week we will visit our sisters CMC (Congregation of the Mother of Carmel), with whom we collaborate in Central Africa and in Arenzano, Italy.

I left Bozoum on Thursday afternoon, with Paolo and Giuseppe and we met our Czech friends (Ludmila, Veronika and Jiri) in Baoro, where we spent the (short) night. Early Friday morning we left towards Bangui. In the afternoon I left Paolo and Giuseppe who returned to Italy after 3 weeks of generous work. I left Saturday afternoon from Bangui. After a stop in Entebbe, I arrived about 5 hours later in Nairobi. I left Bangui on Sunday morning landing in the early afternoon in the beautiful Mumbai airport, and at 11 pm my flight landed in Goa, which is on the west-south coast of India.

Goa was the capital of the Portuguese Indies: many names and last names have remained in the Portuguese language, and many people also speak it. The Portuguese also left beautiful testimonies of faith, with very interesting baroque churches.

I am here for an extraordinary meeting of the Superiors of various Provinces and Districts of the Discalced Carmelites. At this large convention are present 65 fathers, representing almost 90 countries, from Europe to Africa, from North and South America to the Middle East, from India to all of Asia. It is a mosaic of beautiful languages and people, expressing in a concrete way the richness, beauty, unity and diversity of the Church and of our Order (which in these days, here in Goa, celebrates 400 years since the arrival of the first Fathers). It is a moment of prayer, reflection and discussion that leads us to work on the future of the Order and to listen to what the Spirit suggests.
The schedule is very intense, but there are moments of fraternity and joy.

Yesterday morning, Friday, we celebrated on the site of the first Carmelite church. Around the ruins and what remains (due to the climate, but also the various suppressions of religious Orders that had also touched these lands, in 1800) we find ourselves with many Fathers of the 7 Indian provinces, and 150 young religious (the Indian continent alone has almost 900 Carmelite priests!). The rest of the day is instead a break from the meetings we have been having. In the morning we visited a Hindu temple (in Mangeshi), and walked barefoot: it is impressive how you breathe an intense spirituality in the whole country! We then went to visit a convent, and then had lunch by the seaside. With the Indian Ocean so close you feel invited to take a dip and swim, which I did!
 In the afternoon we visited the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Chicalim, who opened the doors of their Monastery to us. A very warm welcome (I even found the sign "Nzoni Gango" -Welcome- in Sango, the language of Central Africa). In the evening we arrived in our convent of Margao, where after the celebration of Vespers, we had dinner (accompanied by wonderful dances)

Riunione

St.Francis Xavier in GOA

Cattedrale di GOA

Celbrazione presieduta dal gruppo francofono (Madagascar, Congo e Libano)

Le rovine della prima chiesa dei Carmelitani a Goa
Les ruines de la première église des Carmes à Goa

Tempio indù

Carmelitane scalze di Chicalim - Goa