Introduction
Like his contemporaries, Comboni understood colonialism and Christian mission as truly “civilizing mission”. Different arms used to qualify Africa and her inhabitants, littering the entire pages of his Plan, easily reveal that Comboni had enough dose of the Enlightenment influence.15 However, in many other ways, Comboni really proved himself prophetic, surpassing the wildest imaginations of his time. Lifeless bodies, they say, float upon the water and swim downstream, but those endowed with the spirit are able to swim against the current, and so influence the courses of history. Though significantly influenced by the mentality of his age, Comboni did not, like a lifeless piece of wood, just allow himself to be carried downstream by the tide. Rather, moved by the Spirit of the charity of Christ, he had to courageously swim against the current, taking very heroic and revolutionary initiatives, as glaringly evidenced in his Plan. The selflessness and effrontery, missionary vision and foresight expressed in the Plan cannot but be unequivocally lauded. To have conceived and articulated such a plan at the time he did portrays his acute intelligence, profound insight and marvelous foresight. At a time when innumerable missionaries were decimating on account of harsh and unbearable conditions in Central Africa, and others were despairing and giving up every hope of success, inflamed by the spirit of the charity of Christ and solicitude for his Gospel, the entire thought of Comboni’s life was still directed to Africa and her peoples, and he was willing even to shed the last drop of his blood in order to win these people to Christ. (From Rereading Comboni’s Plan for the Regeneration of Africa in the Light of Today’s Africa by Johnson Uchenna Ozioko)
- To better understand where the Plan for the Regeneration of Africa was born.
- Deepening of the link between faith and civilization as interpreted by Comboni.
- Comboni missionary methodology as indicated in the Plan
Reading
To understand more in depth the methodology indicated by Daniel Comboni in his Plan, we must see what was the event and / or the revelation that gave rise to the Plan for the Regeneration of.
MISSION AS REGENERATION -Missionary Heritages of the Plan for the Regeneration of Africa – Fr. Augustine Fene-Fene Santime, MCCJ pps. 43-54. Read
Reading
Why did Comboni choose Africa? What moved him to turn his attention to this vast continent and especially to the still unexplored area of Central Africa? What conception did Comboni have of Islam? Let us try to answer these questions.
Contemplation Time
Reading : “UN BINOMIO INDISSOLUBILE: COMBONI E L’AFRICA” di P. Antonio Furioli, m.c.c.j.
Of the readings and the video presented in this session, what struck you most about Comboni and his Plan for the Regeneration of Africa? What connection do you see between Comboni’s first experience in Africa and the idea of changing methodology which Comboni proposes in his Plan?
Write in your journal
- As a young missionary i in Africa Daniel Comboni until the day of his death let himself be continually transformed inwardly by the ever-deeper encounter with the African people and reality, how much and how the encounter with the people to whom I was sent and the reality in which I now live have transformed me internally and spiritually? At the present moment, do I have the same vision of “mission” that I had at the beginning of the formative journey and from the first encounter with the reality of mission or has something changed? If so, what?
- As a Congregation on its way to the XXI General Chapter and fully immersed in the celebrations of the Jubilee for the 150th anniversary of our foundation, what can we concretely draw from St. Daniel Comboni and his Plan for the Regeneration of Africa that can now be used to respond in a way “renewed” to the needs of the mission and of the Congregation?