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
“Behind the mountains are more mountains.” This well-known Haitian pro-verb seems to capture the saga of life in Haiti. Five years after the devastating earthquake of 2010, the struggle continues in Haiti as residents seek to rebuild their lives. Many have lost hope of restoring what they lost, only to surrender to acceptance of what is left to cherish.
Throughout the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can see the fundamental and central message of the importance of love for one another. His teachings, as well as the accompanying acts, concretely emphasize the emptiness of a society engulfed by egocentricity. However, at times it feels that our world has become like a Darwinian model of “survival of the fittest.” I sense a level of indifference to the plight of many of the “lesser” among us. It reminds me of the elephant who crushes the little chick that happens to walk the same road––only the strongest increases his way. Meanwhile, many people dismiss this phenomenon by declaring, “Such is life,” as if to say there is nothing we can do. In this single statement, however, lies a paradox of contradiction: where the carefree attitude of the strong is intermixed with the resignation of the weak. In a religious context, this attitude can simultaneously exploit faith as a “lucky charm” for those of good fortune, and nothing more than a placebo without real remedy for the miserable.
In early 2013, I arrived at the parish of El Calvario in the diocese of Verapaz. After some 14 years of commitment to the missionary ministry in Mexico, I dedicated myself completely to the observation and discovery of my new mission field in Guatemala. I spent a long time learning the local language and familiarizing myself with the Q’eqchi culture of the Maya people here.
Some years ago, the territory of Dimbelenge (DR of Congo, Kasayi Occidental) was under the stain and fire of occupation by the Congolese rebels and their Rwandese allies. At that time, the warlords had seized the rectory of the Katende parish and made it their headquarters. They traumatized the people and confined priests and religious while they continued their terror in the region they controlled. When an agreement was signed between the government and the Rwandese pro-rebel militia, the latter withdrew from Katende parish, leaving behind thousands of people to recover from the trauma. It is in this desperate situation that Missionhurst began a lengthy, new journey with the people––helping them to rebuild their lives and regain their hopes for a better future. Years have passed and, with the help of Missionhurst missionaries in the region, the light of hope is beginning to rise again.
In the Lingala language, “Bilenge ya Mwinda” means “Youth of Light.” It is the name that was given to a youth ministry that began as a choir at St. Peter’s parish in Kinshasa, in 1971. The group was initiated by the then vicar (later Bishop) Fr. Ignace Matondo, cicm, who was also a sociologist with a special affinity for youth-related issues. In 1974, Bishop Matondo was appointed to St. Alphonse parish, where the “Youth of Light” organization was officially established as a youth formation ministry.
