Presentation
of the European Province
- page 3



Italy

Missionari d'Africa
Viale Merisio 17 - C. P. 61
24047 Treviglio (BG)
Italy
Tél. : 00 39 0363 41 010
www.missionaridafrica.org/

Missionary Project: Africa Magazine :

For Africa Magazine, a priority project of the Italian Province, 2006 finish positively from the financial point of view and from the side of subscriptions.


Our choices: In order to renew our magazine, we worked at the layout and content. From the mailbag, responses were 90% in favour. We want to make Africa a magazine easily accessible to people's understanding.

Our co-workers: Everyone accepts that Africa is not a homemade publication. To maintain what we had decided, the Province did not have the personnel required. We had recourse to qualified professionals. I work closely with a young freelance journalist and with another journalist experienced in information and in writing, and who knows the missionary press. On the side of artwork, we have requested the collaboration of a lady who has worked for twenty years on the layout of different publications.

The authors of articles are young (and sometimes not-so-young) journalists and photographers, some freelance, some at the service of other media. They share a deep passion for Africa and personally go on site. They always have direct experience of what they report. No article has been composed sitting in front of a computer, collecting information from the Internet. Our material, photos and text, always comes out from a more-or-less long stay in a corner of Africa. We therefore print previously unpublished work and from an angle that is specific to us.

The country

Area: 301,230 km2
Population: 59,132 million

Principal Towns: Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin.

Official Language: Italian

Currency: Euro
Head of State :
Giorgio Napolitano; President of the Council: Romano Prodi

Religion :
90% Catholic
(of whom 36% practicing)

Religious Minorities:
Marginal Catholics: 20,000
Orthodox: 20,000
Protestants: 363,000
Jews: 29,000
Muslims: 10,000
Hindus: 15,000
Buddhists: 93,000
Japanese Religions: 2,500



St Francis of Assisi

The Province

Provincial: Giovanni Marchetti
Founded: 1921

Total Italians: 49
In the Province: 24
In retirement: 12
Outside Cty.: 5
Non-Italian confrere: 1
Africa or elsewhere: 17


Average age: 69


2 retirement homes: (17)
Treviglio, Castelfranco


Publications:
Africa, Voce Fraterna

Candidates : 1



 

 

NB: The Generalate and PISAI are not part of the Italian Province.


Netherlands

Provincial House
Modestusstraat 20
5101 BP Dongen
Netherlands
Télé. : 00 31 162 383 137
http://www.lavigerie.org

The Hague Missionary Project  :

Objective N° 1: Our neighbourhood called "Schilderswijk" (an artists' quarter since all the street names are of Dutch painters), is the poorest neighbourhood in town. The team (12 people, 5 WF, 4 Divine Word and 3 Sisters) was established here, as Objective No 1 was to make contact with the people of the neighbourhood. Inclusion in this milieu is by taking part in neighbourhood committees that protect the interests of the people as regards housing, health and education.

2nd Objective: We soon discovered a strong presence of 'undocumented' people from all over the world. We work with two organisations that protect their interests.

3rd Objective: Groups of Catholics from different countries and cultures surfaced. They did not know who to contact to organise themselves or find places of worship. Much time and effort went into helping them. There are now communities of French-speaking and English-speaking Africans, Portuguese and Italian speaking, and groups from the Caribbean and Netherlands Antilles.

4th Objective: Ecumenical collaboration with the Protestants of the neighbourhood.

5th Objective: The Catholic Church in the neighbourhood had already in mind to close 3 churches out of four! We were able to divert this move and these four churches are still open. There is one for French-speaking and English-speaking Africans, another for Christians from Surinam and the Portuguese-speaking (Portugal, Brazil, Cap Verde, Angola, etc.) There is a third for the Batavian (ancient former inhabitants of the Netherlands) and Italians. The largest church takes in all the others.
Finally, there are Muslims that constitute nearly 65% of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. Change is coming, slowly but surely, by contact locally and at the level of the leaders of the mosques.

The country

Area: 41,530 km2
Population: 16.339 million

Principal Towns :
Amsterdam, The Hague,
Rotterdam - Utrecht.

Official Language: Dutch
Currency: Euro

Head of State: Queen Beatrix
Jan Peter Balkenende

Religion:
35% Catholic
20% Protestant
40% no religion



St Willibrord

The Province

Provincial: Jan Mol
Founded: 1892

Total Dutch: 130
In the Province: 87
In retirement: 52
Outside Cty. : 33
In other countries: 6

Average age: 77.6
Retirement homes:
Heythuysen, Dongen,

Publications:
Provincial Project: The Hague


Poland


Misjonarze Afryki
ul. Ziemska 37
Naalin
21-002 Jastików
Poland
Tél. : 00 48 81 746 79 85
www.animacja-misjonarzeafryki.alleluja.pl/

Confreres' Activities :

From its foundation in 1985, the community of Lublin has fulfilled a dual role: the training of candidates in First Cycle and vocation and missionary promotion. The training of our candidates can be divided into two: academic and missionary. The academic training is done at the Major Seminary where our candidates attend courses. As for missionary training, it is provided at the house with courses in the history of our Missionary Society, general knowledge of Africa and the history of the Church in Africa, along with, naturally, the learning of English and French. In the context of missionary training, our students are also involved in social activities such as visits to a centre for refugees, working with homeless persons and visits to a hospice.

Some figures : during those 22 years, 73 candidates entered First Cycle. To date, in the Society, there are 10 Polish confreres, 6 of whom are working in Africa (3 in Algeria, 1 in Mozambique, 1 in Zambia and 1 in Tunisia). Currently, we have 12 candidates in different stages of Initial Formation: 4 in First Phase, 1 in novitiate, 3 in apostolic training ('stage'), and 4 in the completing Fourth Phase.

In a few days, we will begin a new working year with 4 Polish confreres and 1 Belgian confrere, our 'internationality' factor. Making our community more international in line with the charism of our Society is precisely one of our concerns and the object of our request to those in charge of personnel.

The country

Area : 312, 685 km2
Population : 38.635 million

Principal Towns : Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Wroclaw.

Official Language: Polish
Currency: Zloty

Head of State: Lech Kaczynski, Jaroslaw Kaczynski

Religion:
95% Catholic




St Casimir

The Province

Superior: Jacek Wróblewski
Founded: 1985

Total Polish: 11
In Poland: 5
In retirement: 0
Non-Polish confreres: 6

Average: 48.8

Publications :

Candidates :12




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