Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
SMA
Calavi (Agenzia Fides) - "After ten months at the International Center for Spirituality in Calavi, together with 40 seminarians and five formators from fifteen different nations, we have reached the culmination of our path of discernment, sharing and personal and communal growth" (see Fides, 16/5/2024). Anselmo Fabiano tells us his first "yes" on the still long path to become a missionary and join the great family of the Society of African Missions. "Every day it is a precious gift to share our struggles and weaknesses, but also the richness of simplicity, with these young people who share the journey with me, and together we place our lives trustingly in the hands of the Lord," he affirms. "My 'yes' makes me a missionary on the way to the priesthood, sent to announce the Good News," he continues. "Last June 25, I promised to give my life to be a witness to the Risen Jesus and to announce the Gospel to the most abandoned peoples, especially in Africa." "My journey to priestly ordination is therefore enriched by this new stage, the fruit of the steps, experiences, gifts, joys and efforts that I have made so far," Anselmo continues. "I am a son of a Church that has transmitted the faith to me, seen me and helped me to grow, and that now sends me to be its apostle." "In September I will be sent to Egypt for my 'first mission'," concludes the aspiring missionary, "more precisely to Cairo, where I will have the opportunity to put myself at the service of a completely new reality of missionary life and to deal with another language: Arabic. It will also be an opportunity to be part of a small, minority Church, open to interreligious dialogue and missionary". Already in August 2022, Fr. Anselmo was in the mission in Monassao, among the pygmies of Central Africa, where he worked together with two other SMA priests (see Fides, 1/8/2022). (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 3/7/2024)
