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Category: Missionary Vocation
Missionary Vocation

The Eyes Of Egeria

Each Christmas is an opportunity to visit or marvel at the holy places where Jesus was born, including the Bethlehem Basilica, where the Midnight Mass is celebrated. This has been done by Christians since the beginning of the Church. One such individual who had the privilege was Lady Egeria, a noble woman from Galicia, Spain, who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land
from 381–384 A.D. She wrote a report of her journey in a long letter to a group of women at home. The letter survives in a later copy. Her firsthand account is a charming reflection and testimony of a Christian woman about the lengthy pilgrimage and, given its antiquity, a work of major significance for the fields of archaeology, Church history and comparative liturgy.

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

Paradise Family

Louis and Zelie Martin, St. Therese of the Child Jesus’ parents, are the second couple to reach proclaimed holiness together. The Martins faced the normal challenges and vicissitudes of daily life: earning a living, educating the children, struggling with economic and political uncertainties. They faced the mystery of suffering as 4 of their 9 children died at an early age. Zelie herself died of inoperable breast cancer at age 46 when Therese, the youngest child, was only 4 years old. As a close-knit family, they bore these trials with fervent faith and intense love. Louis Martin was then left alone to raise his 5 daughters. He took 3 of them to the Carmel and introduced them to a life of prayer. The other 2 daughters joined after his death. St.Therese once wrote to her missionary friend Maurice Belliere: “God has given me a father and a mother more worthy of heaven than of earth.”

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

A Legacy Cast In Stone

Throughout his career, Jose Maria V. Zaragoza manifestly used his talent in architecture for the glory of God. His structures combined modernism and Filipino traditional motifs and styles. Although he played a prominent role in the reconstruction of post-war Philippines, particularly Manila, which was ravaged by the Second World War, his deep faith and talent were most noticed in places of worship he designed, like the Santo Domingo Church, which is considered his masterpiece, and countless other churches. A daily communicant, his personal foundation and original inspiration was his love for the Virgin Mary. He prayed much while he worked and was totally devoted to the Blessed Mother. José Maria Zaragoza was declared National Artist for Architecture posthumously by President Benigno Aquino III in June 2014. Although he has passed on, his legacy will long be remembered – because it is cast in stone.

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

Bridge Between Cultures

One of the first Black Africans to become a university professor in France, Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001) fought in World War II, survived a German concentration camp, made himself a name as a poet and an intellectual, entered politics, guided his nation, Senegal, to independence, and became its first president. Senghor was a born harmonizer whose career was full of paradoxes; although a Catholic, he headed a predominantly Muslim nation; a fervent supporter of African culture, he also appreciated the culture of Europe. Considered one of the best poets of the 20th century, he was, in addition, a professional politician of great skill and proved to be an able and effective leader. He received many honors in the course of his life and was named honorary doctor of thirty-seven universities. As the father of the Négritude intellectual movement, he has left an immense legacy in the field of dialogue between different cultures.

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

The bacon priest

In response to his first appeal for help on behalf of the German refugees in the aftermath of World War II, Fr. Werenfried van Straaten received large donations of ham from the farmers near his abbey in Belgium. Because of that, the nickname “Bacon Priest” stuck with him and actually became popular. Subsequently, Fr. Werenfried founded the charity, Aid to the Church in Need, aimed at helping the Catholic communities under the communist regimes beyond the Iron Curtain. He was at its helm for more than 50 years, travelling extensively to promote it, becoming a worldwide figure of courage and dedication. During that time, he responded to requests from a number of popes to expand his work into Africa, South America, and worldwide. Today, the charity supports Christians who are suffering, persecuted, or in serious pastoral need in more than 130 countries.

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, MCCJ | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

The voice of EDSA Revolution

Actress, journalist, and broadcaster, June Keithley-Castro (1947-2013) had recently come back to the practice of her Catholic faith when, because of unexpected circumstances, she became the voice of the non-violent EDSA revolution through the microphone of the clandestine Radyo Bandido. Her courage to risk her own safety, among other things, inspired the masses who toppled the Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos. After a life of broadcasting for her faith, she fought bravely against cancer and, in 2013, managed to be present at the 27th year commemoration of EDSA Revolution and receive the “Spirit of EDSA” award, together with her mentor Fr. James Reuter who, however, had died the previous year. A few months later, the Lord took her as well.

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

Angel of the war victims

He barely survived the defeat of the Italian army in Russia where he had served as a military chaplain of the Alpine Corps. Fr. Carlo Gnocchi (1902-1956), a diocesan priest of Milan Archdiocese in Italy, dedicated his short and intense life to the assistance and rehabilitation of the children, the innocent victims of the war. For them, he created a network of institutions called Pro Juventute. During his funeral, which was attended by an enormous crowd of people in the historical Cathedral of Milan, in front of Fr. Carlo’s coffin, a mutilated boy shouted: “Before I was telling you: Ciao, Fr. Carlo; now I tell you: Ciao, Saint Carlo!” Fifty-three years later, on March 9, 2009, in the same place, Fr. Carlo Gnocchi was proclaimed Blessed by Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, following the decree signed by Pope Benedict XVI. His institution, now named Fr. Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, continues to assist thousands of children in need.

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro, MCCJ | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

Two saints who embraced the world

On April 27, Pope Francis will declare the two popes, John XXIII and John Paul II, saints. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (1881-1963) was already 77 when he was elected pope and took the name of John XXIII. Because of his advanced age and his grandfatherly yet captivating bonhomie, many thought he would be a “transitional” pope. Instead, with the unexpected announcement of the Second Vatican Council, he opened a window in the Church for the “winds of the Spirit” to enter and gave rise to the greatest religious event of the 20th century. On the other hand, Karol Jozef Wojtyla (1920-2005), throughout his 27-year pontificate, was seen as a global champion. While keeping the Church on a steady course, he performed some of the most original and forward-looking gestures in connection with the great challenges of our time: ecumenism, dialogue between religions, commitment to peace and even geo-politics, contributing to the fall of Communism. Both popes died under the full scrutiny of the world. The spectacle of their saintly deaths revealed the incredible, universal love they had attracted to themselves. By canonizing two popes with very different personalities at the same time, Pope Francis is emphasizing the unifying characteristic that made the two commit themselves to the good of the Church and, especially, to the cause of the Second Vatican Council – their holiness. Through this act, Pope Francis is implicitly telling the Church that it is this same holiness that will solve her increasingly grave and delicate problems, today and in the future.

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

Journalist And Martyr

Despite living in a different century, the witness of Titus Brandsma (1881-1942), a Dutch priest, educator, journalist and modern mystic, still has much significance in the lives of today’s Christians. Nicknamed “Shorty” because of his small stature and labeled the “dangerous little friar” by his enemies, the frail, bookish, cigar-smoking clergyman, performed heroic acts
of endurance, marked by forgiveness, even in the face of illness, torture and, eventually,
death at the hands of the Nazis. This was his way of sharing in the suffering of Christ, an example even ordinary Christians can emulate. Brandsma wrote: “He who wants to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come in conflict with it.”

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

Mother Teresa of Somalia

“I am a nobody.” This is how she defined herself, lost as she was, alone, in the great sea of a suffering humanity. An Italian lawyer and social activist, she volunteered to the service of the poor and sick for 33 years in Africa. At an early age, Annalena Tonelli (1943 – 2003) was attracted by the example of the radical Christianity of Blessed Charles de Foucauld and, in an extraordinary way, imitated his example. Her life also ended like his, by the bullet of an unknown assassin. She trained herself on the job to become an expert in successfully treating tuberculosis and, in June 2003, was awarded the Nansen Refugee Award. She is a gigantic figure and by what she describes as the mercy sacrament, she showed an extraordinary understanding of the mystery of Christ’s incarnation in those who suffer. She, who was known as Mother Teresa of Somalia, is still remembered with an incredible love by the Muslim population of the place where she lived and died.

By Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
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