The Superior General, Fr. Fachtna O’Driscoll, went to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and then Angola, from October 18 to November 10, to visit our confreres, see the conditions in which they work, to pay attention to their needs and to hear their suggestions.

In Kinshasa he found a city of 12 million inhabitants, where life has again taken off. There are 12 confreres in this diocese, divided between 2 parishes (St. Barthélemy and St. Timothée), in the new Regional House and the house at Limete, as well as in the Formation House in Kimwenza. The facilities of these parishes and of the regional house are still very basic: no one has a car. However, it has been decided that the Regional House should buy one. At this time, SMA is building a new Regional House in Masina (Siforco Quarter)… and it has been decided to sell the former Regional House in the Limete quarter to finance (partially!) the new one. The new one has the first floor completed and will be functional in the coming months.
The two parishes (with two confreres working in each) are also waiting for some investments. The people are very demanding, all the more avidly since they see what the other congregations are doing in the neighbouring parishes. The limited SMA investments lead people to think that they are abandoned. SMA is helping them to think of greater ownership of their own church. St. Timothée’s parish is home to a very active secondary college founded by Roger Nicol (with boarding facilities for both boys and girls in separate hostels). The Superior General had a nice meeting with the teachers and with the students.
In Kimwenza, the formation house welcomes 17 students, including 3 Central Africans. Eleven are in philosophy and six are in their preparatory year. Two formators live there. The house is in need of repairs, which will be undertaken.

The Kinshasa diocese hopes that SMA will open a new parish in the bush, in Mampu, 190 km from the capital, in a region where SMA runs a farm, with a herd of cattle and some corn fields, in order to generate some income. The Superior General has encouraged the confreres to apply to development organizations so as to extend the farm even further and to help the parishes.

The Superior General also met with the Bishop of Kikwit (a diocese where we had been in the past). The Bishop has requested for the return of some SMA to his diocese.

Next, the Superior General went to Luanda, Angola. It is a city of 6.5 million inhabitants, and is also very active… but is also very expensive. Eight confreres work in the diocese of Caxito (on the outskirts of Luanda): four come from the Italian Province, and the four others come from districts-in-formation in Africa: 2 from the Gulf of Guinea and 2 from the Great Lakes. One of these 4, coming from the Congo, will be arriving in the near future.In the Congo, the majority of SMA personnel are Congolese…less by choice than by necessity. The General is going to try hard to promote more international and larger teams. He believes that the Congo has a future with SMA.
For 15 years, the Italian Province has been building up solid infrastructures (churches, rectories, out stations). These confreres have successfully created lively communities in the Kikolo quarter: the parishes of Bom Pastor (with 4 confreres) and Santa Isabel (with 2 confreres) are each home to around 40 grass root communities. These communities are decidedly missionary: they have, respectively, 400 and 230 voluntary catechists accompanying 5,000 and 3,000 catechumens. SMA is truly involved on the peripheries… and the bishop is encouraging SMA to open a new parish. The project is under study.
In the parish of Nambuangongo, 200 km from the capital, a confrere and a lay missionary from Lisbon are helping the people to rebuild everything that was ransacked during the war against the Portuguese, and then during the civil war. The Superior General spent 3 days in this parish, which is an area of primary evangelisation, made up of populations which can be qualified as the “most abandoned”. The out stations are scattered around a range of 90 km… where one needs to traverse impassable roads during the rainy season. This is exactly the area where SMA can and must be involved.
Some Angolans give signs of having a vocation and are asking to join SMA: 3 of them will begin philosophy in 2015. The Bishop of Caxito, an Angolan SVD, sees these recruitments as positive… because his seminary receives a good number of vocations.

The confreres who are serving in Angola are truly feeling like missionaries. SMA is pleased to help the Angolans to take charge of building their Church. Fachtna would like to thank all the confreres in the Congo and Angola who have given him such a nice welcome and who made it possible for him to have a very enriching and enjoyable trip.