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By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Memorable Comboni-isms include, “Either Africa or death,” a classic expression of his missionary drive; “Save Africa through Africa,” an early formula for the transition to self-reliance; and his famous sentiment upon approaching his death in 1881, “I wish I had a thousand lives to give for Africa.”
The coincidence that Comboni’s feast falls smack in the middle of the Synod for Africa offers a reminder that no force within the Catholic church, either historically or in the present, has invested a greater share of its own blood, toil, tears and sweat on behalf of Africa than the church’s missionary orders. That legacy makes this morning’s seminar on the Synod for Africa organized by Sedos, an acronym for “Service of Documentation and Study for Global Mission,” a consortium of religious orders in Rome, well worth noting.
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Rome
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As it happens, Oct. 10 is the feast day of St. Daniel Comboni, a 19th century Italian missionary who spent much of his life in Sudan. Among other claims to fame, Comboni was probably the source of more epigrammatic one-liners about the church’s mission in Africa than any other single Catholic figure, living or dead.The coincidence that Comboni’s feast falls smack in the middle of the Synod for Africa offers a reminder that no force within the Catholic church, either historically or in the present, has invested a greater share of its own blood, toil, tears and sweat on behalf of Africa than the church’s missionary orders. That legacy makes this morning’s seminar on the Synod for Africa organized by Sedos, an acronym for “Service of Documentation and Study for Global Mission,” a consortium of religious orders in Rome, well worth noting.
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