PROCURA
To the Provincials, Delegates, and Coordinators,
To the Comboni Missionaries and the Comboni Missionaries Sisters, and
To the Seculars Comboni Missionaries and to the Comboni Missionaries Lays
Dear Comboni friends,
This is the 3rd communication about the Comboni Forum (CF) 2009:
The Comboni group that comes for the Comboni Forum will be lodged in the house of the Diocese of Ponta da Pedra located at this address: Rua Dr. Assis, 834 – 66020-010 – Belém – Pará. The contact telephone number is (91) 3225.1625. The reference point to get to the house is the ‘Arsenal da Marinha Militar’, which is in front of the house where we will be meeting.
Just to remind you of the meeting agenda:
Transporting - There is a good bus service that can be used by the participants to move from the house of the Diocese of Ponta de Pedra to the area where the WSF takes place in the University of Pará (UFPA). The bus fare costs R$ 2.50 (Two and fifty Reais, which is about one Euro a day for a return ticket).
The lodging - We have 50 booked places (6-8 people in each bedroom). The setting is well organised and has just been restructured. So we need to be able to share our bedrooms with some others confreres. Towels and bed sheets are already included in the lodging price. The Comboni Missionaries from Brazil who are already used to sleep on a hammock may bring theirs.
Others facilities - Each bedroom has a shower and bathroom. There is a big meeting room in the house. For phone calls there is a telephone in the house (you need, though, to get a phone card). There are various internet-points (internet café) around. The average cost for the use of internet is of R$ 2.00 per one hour. We are looking for a place where to wash our clothes.
There is a beautiful park near the house where people can go for a walk or just to talk: the ‘Manjar das Graças Park’ with typical Amazon vegetation and a nice landscape along the Guamá river bank.
The Brasil Nordeste Province will pay for the food and lodging. Breakfast and dinner will be prepared by a local catering service. During the days of the WSF each one should organise their lunch in places provided for around the University area. During the Comboni Forum (before and after the WSF) lunch will be provided in the house where we will stay. Transport and others personal expenses will be assumed by each person.
We have received the first answers to the questionnaire that had been sent to all provinces. Up to now we have got the answers from the Uganda, Kenya, Congo, Mozambique, Chad, Ethiopia, Peru-Chile, Ecuador and Portugal provinces; also from the delegation of Centro-America, the provincials of Europe, and from the JPIC team of Brasil Sul Province. The General Direction, in its recent visit to the Brasil Nordeste Province, has given full support to the initiative. We have also been in touch with Fr. Gian Paolo Pezzi, responsible for the central commission for Justice and Peace in the Institute.
Confreres that have already confirmed their participation in the Comboni Forum:
Please note - The deadline for inscription is 15th August (this applies to the Comboni Missionaries, Comboni Sisters and Comboni Lay Missionaries). In that week the coordination team for the Comboni Forum will go back to Belem to close the contract of the lodging. Anyone scripting themselves after that date will have to look for lodging themselves.
From the various answers we have got we underline the following interesting observations:
Welcoming a precious suggestion of the provincials from Europe, we have contacted Fr. Francesco Pierli, a possible assessor with an African theological experience, in order to add to the Latin-American theological reflection of Marcelo Barros. Fr. Pierli has shown many interest and made himself available. Though he has not definitely confirmed, we are looking forward for his coming!
We hope to get some others reflections and comments so that we, as organizing committee, may move forward with the preparation of the event. We remind you that we need the e-mail addresses of all confreres interested in taking part in the discussion about the Comboni Forum.
The organizing process of the World Social Forum is going on. Our website www.combonianosbne.org has been following everything concerned the event. Reflections, news and briefings are collected and translated into various languages.
Each participant needs to do their inscription on the WSF which cam be done on the internet through the Forum official website. The inscription season will be open from next August. The coordination team for the Comboni Forum is going to inform and guide you though the process of inscription. We need, though, the contact e-mail of all the participants!
The Comboni Missionaries of Brasil Nordeste Province networked, with various associations and others groups of Maranhão State, Brazil, Italy, and Canada, are developing since the end of the year 2007 the “Justice on the Rails” Campaign. This is basically an international pressure on the world’s second biggest mining company, the former Vale do Rico Doce Company, now known as VALE. The aim is to have the profits of this big multinational company shared with more justice and equity for a real and sustainable development of the people living within the territory of its operation.
This campaign will be presented during the WSF in a big international seminar, in a public space for exhibition and through thematic workshops. We would like to invite all confreres to deepen this work with us: there is a vast rang of possibilities for alliance and network between ours provinces considering that many of them are affected by the irresponsible and unsustainable investments of this multinational company. You can find more on the website of the campaign. You will find many information in various languages.
We remind you that the deadline for the inscription is 15th August. This applies to all members of the Comboni Family interested in participating in the CF. After that date we will not accept any inscription.
We wish you a good journey. See you in January. Please keep in touch.
The Coordination Team for the Comboni Forum:
Fr. Gustavo Covarrubias, Fr. Raimundo Nonato Rocha, Br. Antonio Soffientini, Fr. Dário Bossi, Barbara Ludewig, Sr. Olga Estela Sanchez.
Contact: fsmcomboniano@gmail.com
3rd Communication
June 2008.
