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In Seongnam, a commuter community close to Seoul, the South Korean capital, Fr. Vincenzo Bordo is a very well-known figure. Indeed, it is not easy not to know him, because he is a sort of a “street missionary.” His goal: to feed the hoboes, drunkards, ex-cons, the poor and elderly, the mental cases, the disabled – all of those who have no permanent place of their own and are “street people.”
Sr. Mary Batchelor celebrated 60 years of religious life, 60 years dedicated to God and to the education of thousands of young people in Australia and Africa. Her students in Mapuordit, Southern Sudan, call her Mary, our diamond.
Filipino missionary Bro. Simplicio Buena Soliven has been working in Marsabit, a mission in the Eastern Province of Kenya, 250 km from Ethiopia, since last year. As a social minister, he is happy to share his faith, talents and knowledge with the Kenyan people, especially prisoners and youth. He is doing exactly what he wanted. And says: “I am in love with Kenya.”
Death of parents, poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, family breakdown and lack of love push children to the streets. It is estimated that there are over 60,000 street children in Nairobi. The Koinonia community has a few rescue centers for them where, from April up to December, they learn to live as a family and prepare to be welcomed in one of their houses in January of the following year. One of them is in Kibera slum.
Comboni Missionary Father Renato Kizito Sesana is a communicator. He has edited two magazines, set up a radio station, published a few books and has been collaborating with various publications, radios and televisions. Recently, he became a blogger. But all these activities have always coexisted with field work. His involvement with the media goes hand-in-hand with the causes to which he has been dedicating his life, especially the youth and the street children. His ultimate aim is to make the Gospel relevant in the different circumstances of life.
Four Comboni Missionaries and a lay person share their lives with the 120,000 poverty-stricken Korogocho slum dwellers and, with them, breathe daily the foul stench of Nairobi’s dumping site. But, they prefer to stress how they have been personally enriched by the experience.
Comboni missionary Fr. Antonio La Braca, after 35 years of work in Africa, leaves Sudan to be a hermit in the catacombs of Rome. During his missionary life, he learned to live in poverty among the poor. He even spread the Word on foot, in a region full of swamps. Now, he wants to share the spirit of the first Christians, persecuted because of their faith.
Not long ago, the Maasai had one of the richest cultures in Africa, so impressive that it attracted the attention of experts and artists. Now, the young are even forgetting their language. To fight this loss, Fr. Oberprantacher built, among the plains they roam, a cultural center. Where he wants to promote, at the same time, the defense of their heritage, evangelization and inculturation.
Because of a letter he received more than two decades ago, Father Luis Ruiz is now taking care of thousands of Chinese lepers. Meanwhile, he opened centers for the mentally disabled and the HIV/AIDS sufferers. As St. Augustine wrote: “The measure of love is to love without measure.”
Formation, cooperation, helping the Chinese Church to care for those who are left behind by the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. Initiated in 1998, the project is called Fen Xiang (sharing) and reflects the Comboni missionary spirit.
