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WHITE FATHERS) Modern Ecumenical Martyrs of Libya MISSIONARIES OF AFRICA a y b i L f o s r y t r a M l a c i n e m u c E n r e d o M Bl. Michael Cyprian Iwene b e r h g a M e h t f o s r y t r a M St Josephine Bakhita Bl. V (WHITE FATHERS) k c a l B e h t s e s o M . t ictoria Rasoamanarivo S Bl. Isidore Bakanja t p y g E f o y r a M t S T ansi Bl. Daudi Okello and Bl. Jildo Ilwa Saints of Africa Pray for Us Anthony of Egypt St. Augustine of Hippo a w s a D t c i d e n e B . l B s n o i n a p m o C d n a a g n a w L s e l r a h C t S l e a h c i M - e r b e h G . l B St Bl. Anuarte Clementine Nengapeta St Athanasius of Alexandria S t. M o n ic a St Catherine of St Cyprian of Carthage Alexandria St Aidan of Canterbury St Frumentius of Ethiopia St Cyril of Alexandria Issue No. 439 August 2018 Contents Page Editor’s Word 3 Br. Amans, MAfr 4-6 A Pilgrimage to Dury 6-8 The Church in Tanzania: 150 years 9-11 Interreligious Dialogue in Pemba 12-13 Challenges and Vulnerable Youth in Tandale 14-15 Hospitality of a Retired Missionary 16-18 The African Soul of Brazil 19-21 3rd. Marian Day in Algiers 22-25 Zambian Parish Literacy Photographic Update 26 Data Privacy Notice 27 Parents and Friends 28 Prayers for the Dead 29 Information 30-31 Gift Aid Form 32 2 Editor’s Word. This year the Missionaries of Africa and the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa are celebrating 150 years of service to Africa and the peoples of Africa. On 26th August we will be celebrating this with a Mass at St Collumcille’s in Rutherglen, Glasgow and then on 9th December in Heston, London. Fr. Michael Heap MAfr It is a time for looking forwards and backwards. In this issue of our magazine we have articles about missionaries from the Society’s begin- nings like Br. Ammans and the present-day Catholics who remember them by making a pilgrimage. There are missionaries, like Fr. Tom Reilly, who having worked for many years in Africa are now retired, so they try to live out their missionary vocation in their own countries. We have articles about how the mission has moved on and now may be revisiting where it had once been, like Fr. John Slinger, revisiting Pemba. We have articles about a totally different approach to the “other” in the musical concerts in Algiers. And we have photos sent by Fr. Douglas Ogato showing the work being done by Christians in Zambia to help their children. The mission continues. It is timeless and ever-changing. It is the Mission of Jesus Christ sent by the Father to show his love and concern to all his children, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ in different situations, with different languages and cultures, with different daily challenges, but all needing the same thing – to know that they are loved and accepted by God, created by Him for love. No matter our circumstances He never gives up on us. The number of missionaries has gone down and it seems as if the mission is now beyond us. Yet things are easier. We no longer have to trek for months to get to our mission. We are no longer likely to die of various diseases before we even get to our mission. With modern methods of communication we can contact millions of people. Missionaries are reaching retirement age! But the number of young men and young women ready to commit their lives to the mission is growing ever greater. We have an article from a young African, Mathieu Ouedraogo, who as part of his missionary training has gone to Brazil. He is one of over 500 young men preparing to proclaim the Good News in Africa and beyond. Most of these young men are products of the Church in Africa. A Church which has produced and is producing saints, holy men and women, frequently anonymous, getting on quietly with their lives, but with lives touched by Jesus Christ. We Missionaries are proud and humbled at the same time to be part of the history of this Church. 3 Br. Amans. A Co-founder of the Church in Uganda. Taken from the Petit Echo. Amans Antoine Delmas was born on 3rd July 1852 in the small village of Palmas, North-East of Toulouse. He arrived at the brothers' novitiate in Algiers on the 3rd September 1876 at the age of twenty-four and received the habit on the 3rd December of the same year. We do not know how he had spent the years since he had left school, but coming from a small village, it is like- ly that his family were farmers. His personal file contains only two items: a paper with the names of his parents and the date of his birth, and the text of his oath he which he wrote out in his own hand. Amans was the eighteenth brother to take Br. Amans MAfr the oath in the Society. Then, on1st February 1878, only fourteen months after taking the hab- it, the Cardinal had selected him as the only brother in the first caravan to East Africa. All but one of the fifty members of the Society had volunteered to go to Central Africa. The choice of Amans was a tribute to his maturity and reliability. Only a few weeks later, the first caravan left Algiers for Marseilles and Zanzibar and arrived on the southern shore of Lake Victoria on 30th December of the same year having walked from the coast at Bagamoyo. Before entering the kingdom of Mutesa it was necessary to secure the royal permission so, on the 20th January 1879, leaving Livinhac and the rest of the party at Kageye, Brother Amans with Fr. Simeon Lourdel set out for Buganda - landing on 17th February 1879 near Entebbe. When Amans and Lourdel approached Rubaga, they were put in small hut for fifteen days, in semi-confinement, sometimes without food, shivering with fever, uncertain of the fate awaiting them. Finally the Kabaka (king), Mutesa, allowed the Catholic missionaries to enter and provided Amans and Lourdel with a more spacious place to live. On 11th April a fleet of twenty-four canoes supplied by the Kabaka was ready to leave to collect the missionaries. Amans accompanied the flotilla and brought back Livinhac, Girault and Barbot, landing at Entebbe on 17th June. By then Lourdel, who had remained in Buganda, had 4 obtained a good piece of land at Nabulagala. Livinhac wrote to the Superior General : Br. Amans is well. Although not very skil- ful, he is a great help. He is our carpenter, blacksmith; he oversees the growing of our food and work of the children. He seems happy, understands the language well and speaks it well enough. At the time, there were some twenty orphans whom the fathers had redeemed from slavery. Amans experimented with wheat growing and introduced to Uganda the first trees bearing pawpaws, oranges and lemons . He began the long tradition maintained by many brothers over the years, training young men in tech- nical trades. Amans returned again to the southern shore of the lake in Jan- uary 1883 with the fathers when they had to evacuate Buganda. He helped to found the mission there of Bukumbi. The whole party with their Baganda followers was able to return to Buganda when Mwan- 1st MAfr caravan to East Africa ga succeeded his father Mutesa as Kabaka. The return of the missionaries was a triumph with a hundred solders forming a guard of honour and accompanied by a special envoy from the Kabaka. The mass of people increased with each village passed, and they were eventually welcomed at the palace by Mwanga himself. But when Mwanga was overthrown in 1888, Amans and Lourdel had to flee again and established a settlement for their Baganda followers at Our Lady of the Ex- iles at Nyegezi. Within a year Mwanga was restored by a Christian army and the exiles returned. Thus Amans was present during the early years when the Church was founded in Buganda where he is regarded as an ancestor in the faith. He knew the Uganda Martyrs personally and was an official witness at the first Commission of Enquiry for the cause of their beatification, introduced in 1887, From time to time he is mentioned as being with Livinhac and Lourdel at Rubaga. While those two wrote long and frequent letters to Lavigerie, there seem to be no letters from or to Amans in the Cardinal's vast correspondence. 5 Amans liked to say that he helped found ten mis- sions, the last one being Our Lady of Peace at Koki.with Fr Gaudibert in October 1894. Years before in November 1880, Lourdel had written of Amans that he was almost never ill. But after fifteen years of heavy work and travelling, with little medical support, even his robust constitu- tion had been undermined. Prematurely white haired, he was called the dear old brother. After only two weeks at Koki, he received a message recalling him to Algiers for a rest.
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