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Category: Missionary Vocation
Missionary Vocation

Lessons from the Vulnerable

Jean Vanier, great modern prophet, turned 80 two years ago among the disabled in Kolkata, India, where he was sent off into “retirement” by a brass band and a parade of nine elephants. Son of a Canadian ambassador, he became an officer in the Royal Navy, then, a professor of theology. He left everything to live with the handicapped. He is the founder of L’Arche (Noah’s Ark), the movement in favor of the disabled that continues in 130 communities in 30 different countries. The central insight of L’Arche is that society can ultimately be healed only by those whom it rejects.Tall and stooped, Vanier radiates the strength of a man who has fought his own inner battles and surfaced with peace. He has traveled worldwide giving retreats and now lives at Trosly, in France, in the same small house where he started his first community.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

The Children’s Crusader

Just a little sugar and a pinch of salt: these, in a liter of water, make the simple serum against dehydration that saved the lives of millions of babies. This, together with faith, caring and discipline was the gospel of Dr. Zilda Arns, the founder of Pastoral da Criança (Child Pastoral), a movement that involves about 250,000 volunteers in Brazil and has spread to more than 20 countries. She was called the Mother Teresa of Brazil and had been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize. Dr. Zilda Arns is possibly the most famous victim of the recent earthquake in Haiti. At her funeral, the president of Brazil Catholic Bishops’ Conference, declared: “She died like she lived. She lived for the poor and died among the poor in the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere.”

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

The Unwilling Deserter’s Unrelenting War

For forty years his food and sleep were insufficient, humanly speaking, to sustain life. And yet he labored incessantly, with unfailing humility, gentleness, patience, and cheerfulness. Crowds of people from all walks of life came pressing at his confessional. Only death marked the end of John Mary Vianney’s unrelenting struggle with sin. This is why the Curate of Ars is looked upon as the patron of all priests in pastoral life.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

A Hotelier’s Impossible Dream

“Those who are hungry are hungry now. Poor people cannot wait.” This was the motto of Vittorione (Big Victor), a successful hotelier turned missionary, who would have liked to sit at table all the starving people of Uganda, to taste the gourmet course of his incredible generosity. Helped by a precarious band of volunteers, he travelled 147 times from Italy to Africa, bringing the poor all kinds of goods until his enormous size got the better of him. He is the founder of “Cooperation and Development,” a lay organization that still continues to help the poor of Uganda, 15 years after his death.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

Double Impact

He thought that the impact of the bullets that reduced to shreds the right side of his body was the only one that he had to bear but, soon, Fr. Fulvio Cristoforetti was faced by another – an unexpected shock that changed his life, AIDS. This is the extraordinary adventure of a Comboni missionary in Uganda, Africa.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

40 Years of Hope Among the Leprosy Patients of Mumbai

India has 70% of all leprosy cases worldwide. Fr. Carlo Torriani is a missionary of the PIME who, since the 1970’s, has built hundreds of clinics in the slums of Mumbai, and has founded an association to prevent, diagnose, and treat the disease. Today, he lives in a small community of 40 people, some of them terminally ill and others healed.

Asia News
Missionary Vocation

The Most Provocative Eco-Theologian

American Passionist priest, Fr. Thomas Berry, who died last month at the age of 94, was by far the most important and insightful Catholic commentator on environmental issues in the second half of the 20th century. In 1989, Newsweek described him as “the most provocative figure among the new breed of eco-theologians.”

Fr. Seán Mcdonagh, SSC | Environmentalist and Writer
Missionary Vocation

The Greatest Missionary of All Times

The year dedicated to Saint Paul, proclaimed in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI, reaches the end this month. The closure of the Pauline celebrations is a good opportunity for a missionary reflection. After all, the apostle is considered the greatest missionary
of all times; he is called the Apostle of the Gentiles since he was mainly responsible for the spread of Christianity into the Gentile world. The Church owes much to Paul for its growth; he pioneered its early expansion through his mission labors and his theological reflection.

Fr. James H. Kroeger | Maryknoll Missionary
Missionary Vocation

Thank You, Gino!

Rough, stubborn, a man of few words, but imbued with a lively faith that made his blue eyes sparkle, Gino Filippini was a lay missionary capable of listening and sharing more than many. He was not married because such was the choice he made with joy when he was young. He wanted to belong totally to God and to the poor. A rare form of cancer, contracted in the rubbish dump of Nairobi, claimed his life at the peak of its maturity.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary
Missionary Vocation

They Remember their Creator

As a topic of conversation, Allah comes up habitually among Bangladeshi Muslims. These people remember their Creator. That habit helps make Bangladesh a wholesome place to live in.

Fr. Bob Mccahill | Maryknoll Missionary
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