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Category: Missionary Vocation

Missionary Vocation

The Peacemakers

It all started in the turbulent year 1968 when a group of college students took to reading the Gospel seriously and got involved with the poor of the suburbs of Rome. The Community of Sant’Egidio is now a world event with tens of thousands of members in many countries. While at the grassroot level, it is still involved with every kind of poverty and sickness, especially AIDS. At the top, it specializes in peacemaking between warring parties and in dialogue between different religions according to the spirit of Assisi. In heaven, Saint Francis must be proud of them.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

The Grand Lady of Pacifism

Born in a godless family, active as a radical journalist, Dorothy Day discovered God because of the joy of expecting a baby. The father of the baby left her when she decided to have the baby baptized. She faced life as a long loneliness with her only daughter, Tamar, but God used her to gather the poor in the Catholic Worker Movement and to give a voice to Catholic pacifism in the USA. She saw the Catholic Church as “the church of the immigrants, the church of the poor.” Survivor of innumerable social battles, she became an icon of resistance and attracted the admiration of champions like Thomas Merton and Mother Teresa.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

True Nobility

Son of the governor of Brazil, he mixed as a boy with the future king of Portugal, Pedro II, sharing games at court. Fascinated by the heroism of the Jesuit missionaries, he joined the Society of Jesus when he was only 15 and asked to be sent to India. Very successful in his pioneering efforts of inculturation, he converted thousands of high caste Hindus. Condemned to be beheaded because of his success, he achieved the true nobility he had longed for during his whole life.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

Courage At Dawn

Few adolescents have the strength and the faith to answer the call and be a witness. In the beginning of the 20th century, Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa had it. In the Acholi region, they became very young but very active and respected catechists. When they were attacked because of sorcerers’ intrigues, they were only 18 and 16 years old. They both had the courage not to deny Jesus Christ and were killed. Their courage became a source of inspiration to the war-torn Northern Uganda.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

When Buddha Meets Christ

For the last forty years of his life, Fr. Shigeto Oshida lived in his “Grass Hermitage,” searching for the face of Christ through the Japanese Zen Way that he had practiced in his youth. He became a point of reference in the dialogue between religions that he preferred to describe as “meeting at the depths.” In him, the wisdom of Asia became a heritage of the Church.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

Dom Franco’s Bicycle

He wanted to be an ordinary Comboni missionary and joyfully give his life to the poor of Northern Brazil but the good Lord called him to be a successor of the Apostles. He embraced the courageous program of fostering life, and the good Lord protected him from the threat of violence. His natural giftedness and scholarly preparation made him a champion of a new missionary mystique. The bicycle on which he died became the symbol of his simple and popular approach to the ideals of liberation theology.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

A Saint of our Time

A strange and unexpected tragedy ended the long life of Brother Roger Schultz, the founder of the ecumenical “monastery” of Taizé. An icon to tens of thousands of youth, humble and stubborn, childlike and cunning, mystical and realistic, he was a pioneer in the ecumenical field and never wavered in his self-imposed lifelong mission: to work towards the reconciliation of all Christians.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

A Life For Unity

Chiara Lubich, who died aged 88, was one of the most inspiring and influential women in world Catholicism. During her long life, she witnessed the grassroots religious movement she founded in her native Italy during World War II, the “Focolare,” grow under her leadership to encompass 2 million adherents in 182 countries and open its ranks to non-Catholics and also non-Christians. Small in stature, a gifted speaker and best-selling author of many spiritual books, she was guided by her conviction that Jesus was alive in the world. Her loyalty to the Church and her determination to follow the example of the crucified and forsaken Christ made her an icon of unity in a world torn by division.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

Politician, Prophet and Saint

“My only party card is my baptism card.” This was the statement of Giorgio La Pira, former mayor of Florence, a man above the political parties for the sake of the underprivileged. His whole life was a mission of unity and peace at world level, above the opposing parties of the cold war period. He is a gigantic figure that looms on the horizon of history as a prophet, a pioneer and a saint. His story is of poignant interest and relevance to our time.”

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary

Missionary Vocation

Thunder In The Distance

He spoke Chinese like a native; he alone among the missionaries became a Chinese citizen. He fought the Japanese invasion and succeeded in convincing the Pope to consecrate the first Chinese bishops of the modern era. In truth, Fr. Vincent Lebbe, the most outstanding missionary to China of the twentieth century, well deserved his Chinese name: Lei Ming-yuang: “the thunder in the distance.” After him, the Communist storm tried to erase Christianity from the face of the earth. But the seeds sown in the tempest are now slowly giving consoling fruits.

Fr. Lorenzo Carraro | Comboni Missionary