27 October 1980/30 October 1995

Visitor tells of Church strategy in Brazil – 27 October 1980

The Church of Brazil has made a fundamental option for the poor, and in pursuance of this had adopted a twofold strategy of forming small Christian communities and going to the people where they are, Fr Jim Gibbons, Oblate provincial superior in Sao Paolo, said in a Mission Month sermon in Assumption Church, Congella, on October 12. The priest was visiting South Africa on his way to a general chapter of the Oblate congregation later this month. He said that the reason for this decision was that Brazil faced a large and mobile population now exceeding 120 million, with Sao Paolo occupying 13 million inhabitants.

Order helping migrants celebrate 100 years – 30 October 1995

On October 25 the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of St Charles Borromeo, also known as the Scalabrinians after their founder, Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini of Piacenza, celebrated its centenary. At the Second World Congress on Migration of the World held in Rome in 1985, the service of the Sisters was requested in South Africa, and they have been active in the country since 1992, with the over 800 Sisters in the order helping migrants in more than 20 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.