Missionaries of Africa celebrating the Jubilee Year and the bicentenary of founder in 2025
John Baptist Tumusiime – Vatican City.
The General Council of the Missionaries of Africa, together with Provincial and Section Superiors, have just concluded their one-week annual meeting at the Congregation’s Generalate in Rome.
A missionary family praying together as one
Before they dispersed, the delegates met with members of their sister congregation, the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, also known as the White Sisters. They were joined by some laypeople who share in their charism. Together, these three groups made the Jubilee pilgrimage to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, where they crossed the Holy Door. In total, 60 persons made the pilgrimage.
During their pilgrimage, they celebrated Holy Mass at the Basilica, led by Fr. Stanley Lubungo, the Superior General of the Missionaries of Africa.
The Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica is opened only during the Holy Years, which generally takes place every 25 years or on special occasions decreed by the Pope. Pilgrims who cross the door gain plenary indulgence attached with the Jubilee year celebrations. This involves the remission of all temporal punishment due to sin on condition that the person who is crossing the door is truly repentant and free from attachment to sin, is purified through the Sacrament of Penance, is nourished by Holy Communion, and prays for the Pope’s intentions.
Speaking to Vatican News soon after the pilgrimage, Fr. Lubungo said they made the holy journey as representatives of all their 1080 confreres serving in different parts of Africa.
In this jubilee year, the Missionaries of Africa are celebrating the Bicentenary of their founder, Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, who also founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. The pilgrimage, Fr. Lubungo explained, was an occasion for the two sister congregations to pray together and reflect on their founder and the faith he transmitted to them and the African continent.
Bicentenary of the birth of Cardinal Charles Lavigerie
Cardinal Charles Lavigerie was born on 31 October 1825 in Bayonne in Southwestern France and ordained a priest for the Diocese of Paris in 1849. He was appointed bishop of the French Diocese of Nancy in 1863. In 1867, he was transferred to the Archdiocese of Algiers in present Algeria, North Africa and elevated to the status of Archbishop. 1868 he founded the Society of the White Fathers, today known as the Missionaries of Africa. In 1869, he founded the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa and commissioned both congregations to evangelise the African continent. Then in 1882, Pope Leo XIII named him cardinal. He died in Algiers on 26 November 1892 at the age of 67 years when he was still the Ordinary of Algiers.
Fr. Lubungo said the celebration of the 200th birth anniversary of Cardinal Lavigerie is scheduled for 31 October this year. However, the Missionaries of Africa launched it on 31 October 2024 so that the members could use the entire year to learn more about their founder.
Texts about the life, writings and work of Cardinal Lavigerie have been prepared and distributed.
Recollections, retreats, and events addressed by experts are being organised to expound on the heritage the cardinal left behind for the congregations he founded. Every day during this year, Fr. Lubungo re-counted, members of the Missionaries of Africa take a part of the literature their founder wrote and reflect and pray on it to know him better. "The most important thing for us is that we are going back to the source, Lavigerie the man himself, to get to know him”, he concluded.
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