TRIP TO CAMEROON. JULY 2023.
At the end of the canonization of Mother Nazaria in October 2018 in Rome, the three priests from Cameroon who participated in it asked us to share our experience as a priestly group. For one reason or another, the trip could not be made until this year, from the 3rd to the 13th of this month, two SACNI colleagues have been invited by the MCI and some priests from there to be able to make this much-desired trip.
The motivation for this visit was to share and deepen the meaning of our priestly friendship with Mother Nazaria, as well as to reflect on the mutual missionary and ecclesial sensitivity.
The preparations for the trip have been complicated enough as they usually are in these trips to places that require vaccinations, visas, permits… everything has been prepared with the purpose of making the charism known and sharing with other diocesan priests who due to different circumstances and experiences have approached the life and work of Santa Nazaria Ignacia through the testimony and closeness of the Missionary Crusades of the Church present in Cameroon.
We have been fortunate to celebrate the feast of July 6 with the sisters of Douala, participating in the celebration of the “M. Nazaria” with all the Spanish staff and volunteers who are there those days and in the Eucharist of the San Francisco Javier parish in the Oyack neighborhood where sisters Giselle and Mercy renewed their vows, it has been a new way of celebrating with songs and dances the joy to know that Santa Nazaria is a safe intercessor for our missions and projects.
¨The reality of Cameroon is complex and difficult to discover in just a few days, but we have approached the life of the people in the neighborhoods and communities where the MCI carry out an educational, health and/or missionary project and we have verified “in situ ” the evangelizing force that has the maxim of “going down to the street” so present in all the “Total Work”.
Our presence had another motivation, and we did not want to forget the priestly aspect of the charism, to share it with the Cameroonian companions who want to join SACNI and grow in our priestly fraternity.
During these days we have met more than 20 priests and seminarians, both from the diocese of Bafussam and from Douala. The main meeting was held in the parish of San Guido Conforti, in Douala with the participation of 7 priests, 3 major seminarians, 3 Crusading Missionaries of the Church and the two of us; A total of 15 people summoned from the charism and the mission of Santa Nazaria. The meeting took place in a climate of true brotherhood.
Starting from our experience on the road traveled since we began with the great support of Mother General M. Aida, and later with the extraordinary and unforgettable help of Mother Mercedes García-Gutiérrez; We were responding to the questions and doubts that arose and we were sharing them from our own experience; We clarify that the specificity of the group is to help us to be good diocesan priests, from where we are sent by our respective bishops with the missionary spirit and the sense of ecclesial unity that Santa Nazaria Ignacia lived. The meeting concluded with the delivery of the letter signed in Oruro (Bolivia) in January 2011 and which is the expression of our identity.
SACNI. Luis Ángel Albares and Julián Nicolás
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