From Pastoralist to Shepherd in the Church
Growing up in a Comboni-run parish, young Etabo found himself irresistibly drawn to the missionaries. Their close connection with his community inspired Etabo to contemplate joining their ranks.
Growing up in a Comboni-run parish, young Etabo found himself irresistibly drawn to the missionaries. Their close connection with his community inspired Etabo to contemplate joining their ranks.
He first came to Africa as a student of architecture. The visit changed his life. While touring missions in Tanzania with his friends, he encountered Africa’s Ubuntu and hospitality.
“When I look back over my life, I realise how my vocation has evolved. I see that at the beginning I felt a deep desire to be useful, to serve, to help others. Over time I have discovered my vulnerability and weakness”.
After 20 years of ministry as a missionary doctor, Juan Carlos still looks forward to what God has in store for him every day. His great joy is the opportunity
He specialised in Metallic Construction, shaping objects of copper and steel, because he wanted to improve the life of people around him. He ended up modelling young people who want to transform the world.
“I am totally paralysed, but I feel a fullness of mind and heart that surprises me, and I dream of an accomplishment that I have not yet experienced… This wheelchair has become the best of the pulpits for me”.
All too often, the few rich and fortunate inhabitants of this unjust world demand – and even order and impose – that the many ‘cursed of the earth’ diminish in number, so that they themselves are not forced to change their all-devouring lifestyles.
Every Christian can be a guide in life and a teacher of faith, through informal teaching, daily encounters and chats, the concreteness of life, and the beauty and hardships of human experience. Such an ‘ancient ministry’ has been formally acknowledged.
Only a direct exposure of the Church to the peripheries of the world, paired with a critical reflection, can change her perspective on the world and trigger a new imagination of the future of humanity.
Injustice happens when a man speaks of women’s empowerment. Even worst a case, when a priest writes about women’s role in the Church. It is high time we listened to them.