By Pierre-Paul Dossekpli

Chaponost, Tuesday, July 28, 2026 — The sixth and final day of the pilgrimage held in France as part of the triple jubilee of the Society of African Missions (SMA) and Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) reached its high point this Tuesday, with a solemn Mass celebrated at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, in Lyon, followed by a fraternal gathering in Chaponost. A highly symbolic place to close this stage of the pilgrimage: it was on this very hill that the SMA was founded nearly 170 years ago.

A Mass of Sending, Not of Closing

It was Archbishop Michel Cartateguy, SMA, Archbishop Emeritus of Niamey, Niger, who presided over the Eucharistic celebration. In a homily marked by gratitude and challenge, he recalled the journey of the two founders — Bishop de Brésillac for the SMA and Father Planque for the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles — who climbed this same hill with five companions, before most of them gave up the venture in the months that followed. Only three of the seven remained.

Recalling this founding episode, Archbishop Cartateguy saw in it an echo of the question Jesus posed to the Twelve in the Gospel of John: “Do you also want to leave?” The missionary vocation, he stressed, has always been demanding — yesterday as today — and calls for courage, perseverance, patience, and self-denial. He expressed his joy at the number of young people drawn to this vocation today, while asking whether they are prepared to go not only to the peripheries, but to the places where, precisely, no one wants to go. That, he recalled, is the very heart of the SMA-OLA mission.

The archbishop emeritus emphasized the collective dimension of this sending: no one is a missionary alone, but always within the Church — universal, diocesan, parish-based, communal. He used a sporting image to express this conviction: talent wins matches, but it is teamwork that wins championships.

He then drew on another, still more symbolic image: that of a fig tree originally from the South — the land of Bishop de Brésillac — but bought in the North, the land of Father Planque, and then planted in Lyon, at the center, precisely where the two founders met to give birth to the SMA-OLA family. A tree born of this dual origin and now called to bear fruit from this place of convergence. He concluded by describing this Mass not as the closing of the pilgrimage, but truly as a sending, inviting everyone to come down from the hill with the boldness of the founders, to proclaim that Christ is alive.

Sister Clémentine’s Testimony: “I Hope to Have Them Soon”

Among the many testimonies gathered throughout the day, that of Sister Clémentine Remadji Narangar, an OLA religious sister from Chad, stood out in particular. Visiting the founding places of the SMA and OLA for the first time, she shared her joy at having seen with her own eyes how it all began, and her gratitude toward those who, day and night, worked to prepare this jubilee.

Asked about the SMA’s presence in her country — Chad, where SMA Fathers are not yet established — Sister Clémentine did not hide her hope: “I hope to have them soon,” she said, adding that the OLA sisters, already present there, are preparing the ground for a future welcome of the Fathers. According to her, two sites are already being set up, and the OLA’s presence in Chad could well open the way for their SMA brothers, so that the mission may continue together in her country.

This wish echoes as a concrete extension of Archbishop Cartateguy’s call to live the mission “together” — a thread that ran through the entire day, between gratitude for the heritage received and momentum toward new territories to evangelize.

Gratitude, Renewal, and Hope

Other voices joined Sister Clémentine’s to express this same blend of gratitude and hope. Sister Julienne Adogboe, OLA, originally from Togo and currently on mission in France, said she was happy to have taken part, through Providence, in this jubilee pilgrimage, and expressed the wish that the Spirit continue to raise up vocations for both institutes.

Sister Françoise Fri Abena, for her part, emphasized the day’s dimension of renewal: walking in the footsteps of Bishop de Brésillac and Father Planque, she explained, is a return to the source in order to set out again, at a time when the world still expects much from missionary institutes.

Finally, Father Michael Adebote, SMA, originally from Nigeria and currently serving in the Diocese of Portland, Maine (United States), gave a testimony filled with personal emotion. Baptized, having made his first communion, and ordained by SMA priests, he said he felt a deep sense of debt toward the Society for all it has brought to Africa and to Africans. He praised the 170-year journey — from a childhood dream to a presence that is now worldwide, carried by many African sisters and fathers serving on every continent — and expressed confidence in the future: the torch, he affirmed, now rests in the hands of a new generation of “missionaries without borders,” called to continue proclaiming the Good News in Africa, from Africa, and with Africa.

Thus concludes, at Fourvière, the France leg of the SMA and OLA triple jubilee pilgrimage: a stage lived as a return to the sources, but above all as a new sending on mission, carried by gratitude for the past and hope for lands still to be sown — starting, perhaps soon, with Chad. The triple jubilee itself will officially close on December 8, 2026.