MOTHER MARY IN AFRICA
Head of the Statue of Mother Mary at Kibeho, Rwanda, carved by Marek Kowalski and based on the models of Jean Pierre Sibomana and Faustin Kayitana. In the statue, Mother Mary holds the Seven Sorrows Chaplet, a Marian devotion reintroduced to the Catholic community by Our Lady of Kibeho.
Kibeho is the only Marian apparition on African soil, officially recognized by the Church. Mother Mary’s requests for prayers preluded the 1994 Genocide.
RADAR
NEW SUPERIOR GENERAL FOR THE COMBONI MISSIONARIES
Father Luigi Fernando Codianni was elected Superior General of the Comboni Missionaries on 21 February 2025 in Rome. The Provincial Superior of the Comboni Missionaries in South Africa explains to us who the newly elected leader is and tells us more about his missionary trajectory in the Institute.
BY FR JOHN BAPTIST KERARYO OPARGIW MCCJ
FATHER LUIGI was born on 13 June 1964 in Celenza Valfortore (Foggia), Italy. At the age of 13, he entered the minor seminary in Pesaro and continued his studies at the Comboni Seminary in the city of Bari. After his first religious profession in 1988 in Venegono Superiore (Varese), he went on to study Theology in São Paulo, Brazil. Fr Luigi explains: “There I matured my definitive decision to become a missionary. Living in a formative community located in a favela, my choice became increasingly clear to me thanks to the people of the shantytown. Sharing their everyday life, I experienced incredible human, social and pastoral encounters, in particular with the street children of the favelas”. He was ordained a priest on 15 May 1993.
Fr Luigi carried out his first pastoral commitment in Italy, from 1993 to 2001. After this first missionary experience, he was assigned to Northeast Brazil where he was Provincial Superior from 2004 to 2010. In 2011, he returned to Italy, where, among other commitments, he was Provincial Treasurer. During the General Chapter in 2022, he was elected Assistant General with the task of following specifically the economic sector and the legal aspects of the Institute. At the extra-capitular election in February 2025, Fr Luigi was chosen as the new Superior General, succeeding Father Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, who was appointed last November as auxiliary bishop of the Arch eparchy of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).
We, the Comboni confreres of the Province of South Africa, would like to thank Fr Luigi for accepting leadership of our Institute. We pray that the Holy Spirit guide him, and we wish him a fruitful and blessed ministry.
PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW: 1054 CHURCH DIVISION ‘NOT INSURMOUNTABLE’ AS NICAEA ANNIVERSARY NEARS
The Vatican Pontifical Antonianum University hosted a conference entitled ‘Rethinking Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo’ on 20 March 2025. Speakers present at the event were representatives of those who are suffering the consequences of that conflict, including Baderha Batumike Patient and Jean-Claude Mulekya Kinombe.
CIVIL WAR IN SUDAN
The Sudanese war is another forgotten conflict which the general media hardly speak about. It is the battered land to which St Daniel Comboni dedicated his life. The conflict deserves our attention and our prayers for a peaceful solution.