Today is day number 19 since the President of the Republic, Felix Tshisekedi, announced measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in DR Congo, a country that has been declared free of the Ebola epidemic. So far, DR Congo has registered 183 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 20 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. With this figure, our country has the highest case-fatality rate - proportion of deaths - in Africa, 10.9% compared to 4.6% for all of Africa, according to data provided by the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control of the African Union, quoted by Radio France Internationale.
The bishops of the DR Congo have seen the seriousness of the health situation in the world and are aware of the danger that this poses for the DR Congo, whose health system is precarious. They welcomed the decisions of the political authority and asked the faithful to strictly respect them. In respect to religious practice, each bishop gave pastoral directives to be followed in his diocese to prevent the spread of the pandemic. In Kinshasa, for example, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo has issued some provisions such as the suspension of public Masses during the week and on Sundays, the suspension of public administration of the sacraments, the prohibition to organize funerals at home or in parish structures, and so on.
On 24th March, President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of Sanitary Emergency and quarantined Kinshasa, the epicentre of the pandemic, from the rest of the country's provinces. The meeting of the Provincial Council of Congo had just ended in Kingabwa two days before and the members of the Council were preparing to return to their respective communities. Two of them, Father Kaliya from the community of Butembo and Brother Jean-Marie from Saint Joseph House in Kisangani remained blocked in the capital, as all travel from the provinces to Kinshasa and vice versa is forbidden. Also, the Zonal Assembly of Kinshasa, originally planned for 23-28 March, has been postponed to a later date, to be determined in the coming months.
According to the calendar of Fr. Léonard Ndjadi, provincial superior, published in the latest minutes of the Provincial Council, these days he would be visiting the communities of Butembo and the relatives of the Comboni Missionaries of Beni and Oicha who, in recent years, have experienced the horrors of insecurity and killings. Fr. Leonard felt obliged to adapt to the reality and to make better use of this time of confinement, as he himself tells us: "This is an opportunity for me to reorganise my personal and community life. I have cancelled all my trips to visit communities and outside the country. I work from the office for the administration of the province; I follow the evolution of our communities and confreres by telephone, Whatssap or e-mail. These days, I dedicate a little more time to personal prayer, I am engaged in sweeping and cleaning the refectory and the TV room; I participate in the washing up and in all the other activities of the community. I also give time to informal sharing with my confreres in Kingabwa. I assume the confinement with serenity, because it is lived for a better good: health, prayer, community life and ongoing formation".
The fifteen people - eleven confreres and four visitors - who live in the community of Kingabwa are doing well. In order to protect itself from the pandemic, the community decided, during an extraordinary meeting, to cut off all contact with the outside world and to go out if necessary in cases of shopping, some punctual and necessary services to the parish of Saint John Paul II. Regarding services at home, the community asked the workers -except for one of the caretakers- to go and live these days with their respective families while keeping their salaries. Having said this, the community has assumed the services of kitchen, laundry and housekeeping for two weeks, after which it will evaluate and make decisions for the following weeks of confinement. With regard to the spiritual life, the community has committed itself to living the confinement as an intense moment of prayer, since on these days many people rely on the prayers of the religious.
We also contacted the communities of Bibwa and Kimwenza, which are respectively attached to the parishes of Our Lady of Good Help and Divine Mercy. Father Nickel Mabuluki, from Bibwa, sees this time as a time of crisis because, according to him, it limits the pastoral work of the community; at the same time, he is discovering more and more that people are searching for God and need to meet each other: "It is a time of crisis, which prevents us from carrying out our apostolate normally. Being missionaries "ad gentes", that is, called to go to the poorest, this time is a handicap. Nevertheless, these days I feel that people need God's presence in their lives and that they need to meet each other as a community. Many have not yet understood that Masses are suspended and do not hesitate to tell us that they count on our prayers. As a community, we have decided to celebrate Mass only among ourselves, but we are partially available for small services that our workers or the people around us may ask of us. I also feel that there is more presence of community members, which is a good thing."
Luis López Filiberto shares with us: "The four members of the community are doing well. We go out very little, we all stay here for moments of prayer and other community moments. The scholastic Gratian, who yesterday said he was a little tired of this rhythm, has begun to do some small tasks of gardening and cleaning the house. For the few people who arrive, we have provided a bucket of water and soap so that they can wash their hands. As for the workers, we are waiting for them to finish some small jobs here; in the next few days we will ask them to stay at home. In this way, we will organize ourselves to take care of community services ourselves, apart from the kitchen. For the time being, we are living this time of confinement in serenity."
The Comboni confreres we contacted said they are following with great attention the evolution of the pandemic in the world through the means of communication at their disposal. They shared that they have understood that the mission lived in abnormal circumstances, such as those we are experiencing these days, can be an opportunity for prayer, revision of personal life, discovery and development of talents and ongoing formation. They are working each in their own way and are confident that in this time of crisis God is at work. Therefore, they pray for the individuals and families who are victims of the pandemic, for health workers, for the scientific community, for political authorities and for the poorest, especially for Africa, that the Lord will not allow this continent to bear the weight that overwhelms its strength. And, before going to sleep, their prayer is that they wake up in a world without coronavirus or, at least, transformed by this pandemic.
Bro. Lwanga Kakule Silusawa
The bishops of the DR Congo have seen the seriousness of the health situation in the world and are aware of the danger that this poses for the DR Congo, whose health system is precarious. They welcomed the decisions of the political authority and asked the faithful to strictly respect them. In respect to religious practice, each bishop gave pastoral directives to be followed in his diocese to prevent the spread of the pandemic. In Kinshasa, for example, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo has issued some provisions such as the suspension of public Masses during the week and on Sundays, the suspension of public administration of the sacraments, the prohibition to organize funerals at home or in parish structures, and so on.
On 24th March, President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of Sanitary Emergency and quarantined Kinshasa, the epicentre of the pandemic, from the rest of the country's provinces. The meeting of the Provincial Council of Congo had just ended in Kingabwa two days before and the members of the Council were preparing to return to their respective communities. Two of them, Father Kaliya from the community of Butembo and Brother Jean-Marie from Saint Joseph House in Kisangani remained blocked in the capital, as all travel from the provinces to Kinshasa and vice versa is forbidden. Also, the Zonal Assembly of Kinshasa, originally planned for 23-28 March, has been postponed to a later date, to be determined in the coming months.
According to the calendar of Fr. Léonard Ndjadi, provincial superior, published in the latest minutes of the Provincial Council, these days he would be visiting the communities of Butembo and the relatives of the Comboni Missionaries of Beni and Oicha who, in recent years, have experienced the horrors of insecurity and killings. Fr. Leonard felt obliged to adapt to the reality and to make better use of this time of confinement, as he himself tells us: "This is an opportunity for me to reorganise my personal and community life. I have cancelled all my trips to visit communities and outside the country. I work from the office for the administration of the province; I follow the evolution of our communities and confreres by telephone, Whatssap or e-mail. These days, I dedicate a little more time to personal prayer, I am engaged in sweeping and cleaning the refectory and the TV room; I participate in the washing up and in all the other activities of the community. I also give time to informal sharing with my confreres in Kingabwa. I assume the confinement with serenity, because it is lived for a better good: health, prayer, community life and ongoing formation".
The fifteen people - eleven confreres and four visitors - who live in the community of Kingabwa are doing well. In order to protect itself from the pandemic, the community decided, during an extraordinary meeting, to cut off all contact with the outside world and to go out if necessary in cases of shopping, some punctual and necessary services to the parish of Saint John Paul II. Regarding services at home, the community asked the workers -except for one of the caretakers- to go and live these days with their respective families while keeping their salaries. Having said this, the community has assumed the services of kitchen, laundry and housekeeping for two weeks, after which it will evaluate and make decisions for the following weeks of confinement. With regard to the spiritual life, the community has committed itself to living the confinement as an intense moment of prayer, since on these days many people rely on the prayers of the religious.
We also contacted the communities of Bibwa and Kimwenza, which are respectively attached to the parishes of Our Lady of Good Help and Divine Mercy. Father Nickel Mabuluki, from Bibwa, sees this time as a time of crisis because, according to him, it limits the pastoral work of the community; at the same time, he is discovering more and more that people are searching for God and need to meet each other: "It is a time of crisis, which prevents us from carrying out our apostolate normally. Being missionaries "ad gentes", that is, called to go to the poorest, this time is a handicap. Nevertheless, these days I feel that people need God's presence in their lives and that they need to meet each other as a community. Many have not yet understood that Masses are suspended and do not hesitate to tell us that they count on our prayers. As a community, we have decided to celebrate Mass only among ourselves, but we are partially available for small services that our workers or the people around us may ask of us. I also feel that there is more presence of community members, which is a good thing."
Luis López Filiberto shares with us: "The four members of the community are doing well. We go out very little, we all stay here for moments of prayer and other community moments. The scholastic Gratian, who yesterday said he was a little tired of this rhythm, has begun to do some small tasks of gardening and cleaning the house. For the few people who arrive, we have provided a bucket of water and soap so that they can wash their hands. As for the workers, we are waiting for them to finish some small jobs here; in the next few days we will ask them to stay at home. In this way, we will organize ourselves to take care of community services ourselves, apart from the kitchen. For the time being, we are living this time of confinement in serenity."
The Comboni confreres we contacted said they are following with great attention the evolution of the pandemic in the world through the means of communication at their disposal. They shared that they have understood that the mission lived in abnormal circumstances, such as those we are experiencing these days, can be an opportunity for prayer, revision of personal life, discovery and development of talents and ongoing formation. They are working each in their own way and are confident that in this time of crisis God is at work. Therefore, they pray for the individuals and families who are victims of the pandemic, for health workers, for the scientific community, for political authorities and for the poorest, especially for Africa, that the Lord will not allow this continent to bear the weight that overwhelms its strength. And, before going to sleep, their prayer is that they wake up in a world without coronavirus or, at least, transformed by this pandemic.
Bro. Lwanga Kakule Silusawa
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