AFRICA: CENTRAL- 50 YEARS WITH JESUITS

Agenzia Fides report - From 26 April to 11 May, the Jesuit General Father, Adolfo Nicolás, will be in Africa and Madagascar, accompanied by Fr. Jean Roger Ndombi, his Assistant for this continent, and Fr. Antoine Kerhuel, Assistant for Western Europe. According to information Fides received by the General Curia of the Jesuits, the trip will take place in three stages. First visit to the Province of Central Africa, which this year celebrates 50 years of its erection. The General Father will visit the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, and the surrounding areas, where the province manages numerous works on every level of ministry. In Kinshasa-Gombe he will go to Maison Saint Ignace, where the Provincial with his Curia live. In the same complex are located within walking distance one from the other , Boboto Collège with its almost 2,400 students and the Cultural Center which has the same name; the parish of the Sacred Heart; the CEPAS (Research Center for Social Action); the magazione of information and reflection on African Congo-Afrique current affairs, which also celebrates fifty years; the SERVICO, a service organization to the community, especially those furthest from the city; the CADICEC, Christian center for the training of business managers; the community of young Jesuits studying at university. In other parts of the city the General Father will visit the Bonsomi Collège, with over 1,200 pupils, and the Centre Monseigneur Munzihirwa, a care centre for street children. Not far from Kinshasa, in Kimwenza, the Company manages the Institute of St. Peter Canisius with the faculty of philosophy where young Jesuits study even those coming from other Provinces of Africa; the Spiritual Center with the house for Spiritual Practice, the parish; the ISAV, which stands for the Higher Institute of Agro-vet. Finally, one day will be devoted to visiting the novitiate and Kubama Collège in Kisantu.
The second stage of his visit, the General Father will attend the Annual Meeting of the Conference of Major Superiors of Jesuits of Africa and Madagascar (JESAM), which will be held from 2 to 6 May in Anatananarivo, in Madagascar. The third, and last stage will consist of the visit to the Province of Madagascar, from 7 to 11 May. The General Father will limit his visit to the capital and surrounding areas, meeting the Jesuits and the Ignatius family, lay collaborators, the Bishop of the city, the three Jesuit bishops. He will also visit the various apostolic works as the novitiate, the philosophate, Saint Michel Collège with its nearly 2,500 students, the Center for Spirituality, the parish and the publishing house (Ambozontany Edition), the most important Catholic publishing house in the country, which also publishes books for schools. Two moments of particular significance: the visit to Bevalala, an important center of agricultural training on the outskirts of the capital, and to Ambiatibe, the reference point of the Northern Vicariate of the Diocese of Antananarivo and the place dedicated to the memory of the Blessed Jacques Berthieu, the French Jesuit who was martyred here in 1896.

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