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In spite of the killings or kidnappings in Mindanao, we missionaries, priests and bishops have to be in the front line to raise the voice of hope and to build a culture of dialogue, a path to peace.
Fr. Giancarlo Bossi was kidnapped in his parish of Payao (Mindanao) by armed men under orders – he believes – of a supreme, Mafia boss style, and spent 39 days in captivity in the forests. He was prepared to endure a long captivity, but was confident that, eventually, he would be freed by his captors.
Words in Africa have weight, there is strength in them: “They create and give you life.” Some words are as solid as the yam (roots) and as sweet as kola (nuts), especially those spoken by the ancestors, who have handed them down to their descendants: for them … to eat. And to make them tastier,
they have flavored them with the oil of proverbs. The proverbs are like the oil with which we eat the words, the Igbo used to say.
There are proverbs about almost any situation that affects people’s life. Let us see some about youth, friends, thieves, justice and love:
For a poor Catholic from a rural area like me, it was not easy to come to the big city and study in a communist university. At first, I felt so bad that I wanted to quit. But my father reminded me that we, Christians, are different. And things began to change. Following Jesus changes our lives, even in communist China.
Hero of the French resistance, member of the French parliament, Abbé Pierre embodied in himself the courage of the saints and the stubbornness of the social reformers. But, above all, the tiny Franciscan priest recognized and honored in the poor our common humanity.
The trafficking of women and children and men, too, as modern slaves is the third biggest earning illegal business in the world today after illegal arms trading and drug. It is a problem that is getting worse as global poverty grows in poor countries and millions more are vulnerable to any kind of false promises of a good job.
