We continue in this issue of Missionhurst Magazine, to bring you stories from the mission situations around the world where we are engaged. We share these concrete accounts with you, our benefactors and co-missionaries because they allow you to know how much your support is needed and appreciated. We also share these stories to reveal the impacts made as we work together to alleviate suffering and bring the light of hope to our global family under God.
In this issue alone you will find that your companionship with CICM helps sustain a small medical clinic in Haiti, where poverty, chaos, and depleted resources otherwise render basic medical services non-existent. Your interest in the poor, underprivileged youth of Cameroon gives our missionaries the ability to cultivate volunteer programs providing much needed educational support. Your faith in our missionaries encourages them as they press into frontier towns and villages in Guatemala: a pastoral presence among these people is essential to accompany, train and strengthen pastoral leaders. Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo have faced war-ravaged communities and abandoned schools for years, but your compassion for their plight allows our missionaries to help those communities find ways to rebuild, in turn restoring the chance for education and hope for the future. In Kinshasa, the well-known and successful Christian mentoring and formation of thousands of young Catholic men and women has enjoyed 40 years of CICM involvement and support.
As you reflect on the missionary experiences contained here, please know that your co-missionary kindness is integral to the existence and success of not only these but countless other CICM endeavors: all for the purpose of sharing the light of the living Gospel to our brothers and sisters around the world. Amen.
Missionhurst Magazine
With the tragic estimates of somewhere between 20-25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa infected with the HIV, it is easy to understand that the epidemic has gravely impacted our society. Millions of children are orphaned each year due to the staggering number of deaths (over one million annually) from HIV/AIDS. In the decades of the progression of this terrible disease, the children born to infected parents have become a doubly impacted segment of the population, often not only losing a parent or parents to the disease, but being infected themselves from birth. Current statistics state that some 90% of the world’s HIV-infected children are living in Africa.
Go, Do Not Be Afraid, and Serve
Since coming to Tokyo for missionary pastoral ministry, I have been very much interested in the youth ministry: both on the parish and diocesan levels. The youth are not a highly visible segment of the Church in Japan, and the challenge before us is to bring new life and vibrancy to their presence.
Many years had passed since I had seen the woman who was waiting for me after Mass… indeed she had grown old. I was in Belgium for a home visit, in the place where I grew up. I had known her for a long time as she and her husband operated a home and kitchenware shop in town. As children, we preferred to deal with the lady rather than the husband: we believed that he was grumpy. Ironically, all this time later she was waiting to tell me that her husband “would appreciate it if I could drop by.”
I arrived to this parish in May of 2008. My initial impressions centered on an obvious lack of creativity and dynamism, primarily due to the complex situation of an aging membership and changing society. Very few young people took part in activities of the parish; there was a sense of resistance to change, and little vitality. I found the situation serious, and I could foresee that the church in Tamayo might slowly, but inexorably, face a big problem in the coming years.
The Sunflower Children’s Center of Saint Louis University in Baguio City is celebrating ten years of mission and service to the children of the Philippines. Remembering those years of service fills us with joy and amazement. We thank God for enabling us to come this far in our mission of helping the most needy children of our society: those who were abandoned and have suffered various types of abuse.
