MISSIONARY WORK
Missionary work is just a small sample of the titanic history of evangelization carried out by the missionaries who, throughout so many centuries, have set in motion an integral development of man.
The proclamation of the Gospel cannot be separated from the human promotion of man and for this reason the missionaries have become the true protagonists of the development of these peoples. They have been chosen and sent to serve others, they are not mere managers of social projects. They teach in schools, heal in hospitals, promote women in countries where they are completely forgotten and relegated, take care of thousands of abandoned children, orphans and victims of armed conflicts, move to refugee camps, accompany and work for those great forgotten of history that are the poor.
Their lives, like Jess’s, represent a compromise. They have committed their lives to the poorest, to those who do not have, to those who cannot raise their voices, to those who do not know, to all those whom the most advanced societies have turned into statistical numbers.
A famous journalist defined them as stubborn, audacious, self-sacrificing… men and women full of courage and dedication who are always found in the most punished places on the planet, in each of the hells that open up on the face of the earth. Simple men and women who fight as humanly as they can against the consequences of political struggles or economic interests that are alien to them, always putting themselves on the side of the poorest, fulfilling their vocation and the call of the mission outside their homeland.
Catechists, religious, parish priests, missionary animators and everyone in general must make children, youth and adults see the importance of the work of the 25,000 Spanish missionaries spread throughout the world and discover that we are facing 2000 years of the first mission of the Church.
We are all called to be missionaries in this Third Millennium, following the example of Saint Therese of Lisieux, Saint Francis Xavier and so many other holy missionaries that the history of the missions has given.
Missionaries attend:
Quantity:
apostolic vicariates
1,000
Seminars
1,000
parishes
250,000
Institutions of assistance and charity
112,053
hospitals
5,188
Ambulatory or dispensaries
17,157
lepers
825
Homes for the elderly and disabled
12,209
orphanages
8246
child nurseries
10,344
marriage clinics
10,317
Education or re-education centers
11,347
Other institutions (terminal centers for AIDS, drug addiction, etc.)
36,574
As usual, Agenzia Fides publishes at the end of the year the list of pastoral workers who have lost their lives in a violent way during the last 12 months. According to the information we have, in the year 2012, 12 pastoral agents were murdered, almost all of them priests: 10 priests, 1 religious, 1 laywoman.
For the fourth consecutive year, with the highest number of pastoral agents killed, America is in first place, bathed in the blood of six priests. It is followed by FRICA, where three priests and a nun were murdered. Then ASIA, where a priest and a laywoman met their deaths.
As has been the case for a long time, the Fides count does not refer only to the missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but to all the pastoral workers who died violently. With respect to these, we only use the term “martyrs” in its etymological sense of “witness”, so as not to give credit to the judgment that the Church may eventually give on some of them, and also because of the little news that, in most cases, of the cases, they manage to collect information about his life and even about the circumstances of his death.
Most of the pastoral agents killed in 2012 have lost their lives as a result of robbery attempts: some surprised the thieves in their home and their bodies were found with signs of having suffered torture and cruelty. Others were attacked in the street and robbed of everything they had with them or their car. Sister Liliane Mapalayi was stabbed to death while she was at her workplace in an institute run by her congregation, where she was her bursar.
Don David Donis Barrera was attacked and stabbed, after a minor accident, after an altercation with the occupants of the other car. Don Anastasio Nsherenguzi was killed by some young men who were trying to divide during a fight. The laywoman Conchita Francisco was shot several times in front of the Bongao Cathedral, in the south of the Philippines, where there is great tension due to the presence of Muslim rebels, pirates, terrorists and criminals.
As the Holy Father Benedict XVI wrote in the Motu Proprio “Porta fidei”, with which he convened the Year of Faith that the Church is celebrating, “By faith, men and women have consecrated their lives to Christ, leaving everything to live in evangelical simplicity, obedience, poverty and chastity, concrete signs of waiting for the Lord who is not long in coming. By faith, many Christians have promoted actions in favor of justice, to make concrete the word of the Lord, who has come to proclaim the liberation of the oppressed and a year of grace for all. By faith, men and women of all ages, whose names are written in the book of life, have confessed throughout the centuries the beauty of following the Lord Jesus wherever they were called to bear witness to their being Christians: in the family, the profession, public life and the performance of the charisms and ministries entrusted to them”. (PF, 13)
The Pastoral Agents murdered in 2012 have not carried out sensational acts, they have not put themselves at the center of the attention of the media for projects or taking spectacular positions, but simply “have confessed the beauty of following the Lord Jesus where they were called to bear witness to their being Christians.
They lived their faith in the humility of everyday life, especially in the context of human and spiritual poverty, degradation, violence, where respect for life and human dignity are values that are not taken into account, trying to bring in these environments his testimony of love, of that love of the Father that Jesus Christ has come to show.
On December 26, Pope Benedict XVI recalled at the Angelus that the martyrdom of Deacon Stephen shows that “the birth of the Son of God inaugurated a new era for humanity, that of love. Love breaks down the barriers between people. It makes us brothers…”. Then he placed the persecuted Christians under the intercession of Saint Stephen, asking and praying for them, inviting them to “persevere without fear in witnessing to the faith.”
To this provisional list drawn up annually by Agenzia Fides, must always be added the long list of those people who perhaps will never be heard of, who in every corner of the planet suffer and pay even with their lives for their faith in Christ, they are that ” cloud of unknown soldiers of the great cause of God” as Pope John Paul II used to say.
OVERVIEW OF THE CONTINENTS
AMERICA
In America 6 priests have been assassinated: 2 in Brazil; 2 in Mexico; 1 in Colombia; 1 in Guatemala.
In Brazil, the Italian priest Fidei donum Don Luigi Plebani has been assassinated in his home. While Don Eduardo Teixeira has been murdered in the street, during the course of a robbery.
In Mexico, don Jenaro Avia García has died, assassinated in his home by thieves, and don Teodoro Mariscal Rivas, found with his hands and feet tied and a bag over his head.
In Colombia, Pablo Emilio Sánchez Albarracin has been murdered during a robbery.
In Guatemala, David Donis Barrera has died, attacked and stabbed after a car accident.
AFRICA
In Africa, 3 priests and 1 nun have been assassinated: 1 in DR Congo; 1 in Mozambique; 1 in Tanzania; 1 in Madagascar.
In DR Congo, Sr. Liliane Mapalayi, from the congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, has died, stabbed in the school where she worked.
In Mozambico, the Missionary of Consolation (IMC) Fr. Valentim Eduardo Camale, during a robbery in his mission.
In Tanzania, Fr. Anastasius Nsherenguzi has lost his life, killed by some young men he was trying to separate during a fight.
In Madagascar, the Jesuit Fr. Bruno Raharison (SJ).
ASIA
In Asia, 2 Pastoral Agents have lost their lives: 1 priest and a laywoman; respectively in Lebanon and the Philippines.
In Lebanon, Father Elie Gergi al-Makdessi, of the Lebanese Maronite Order, was killed in the street in an attempted robbery.
In the Philippines, the laywoman Conchita Francisco, a pastoral agent, has died with a firearm by unknown assailants in front of the Catholic cathedral of Bongao, where shortly before she had led the prayer of the Rosary and participated in the Holy Mass.
Return to the main page of Javier’s Catholic Web
missionary work
missionary testimonies
history of missions
From athlete to missionary
Letter from a missionary in Angola
Germn Fresn, in the footsteps of San Damín de Molokai
The three P’s of the missionary
Christ will never sleep on the ground
Sign in the guest book
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