Fr. Salvatore Pacifico, the provincial of the Comboni Missionaries in Northern Sudan, told SCR News that the ten Comboni bishops in charge of dioceses in Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kuwait and Peru will reflect together on the conclusions from the Second African Synod, the Seventeenth General Chapter of the Comboni Missionaries and about their own churches.
Fr. Pacifico said the meeting that happens every three years started this morning with a visit to Omdurman, the mission where the Comboni Missionaries returned in 1899, after the Mahdiya revolution forced them to abandon Khartoum.
On Friday, the bishops will take part in the briefing Card. Gabriel Zubeir Wako will do with church personnel to share the conclusions at the end of the Presbyteral Council.
On Saturday, the bishops will pay a visit to the Apostolic Nuncio, the ambassador of Vatican in Khartoum, and on Sunday they will celebrate the Eucharist with communities in Khartoum’s periphery and take part in the ordination of a deacon.
The meeting is coordinated by Bishop Camillo Ballin, of Kuwait.
Currently the Comboni Missionaries have 19 bishops. Two are retired are 13 are in charge of dioceses in Africa (four in the Sudan, two in Central African Republic, Chad and Uganda, respectively, and one in Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Africa) , one in Middle East (Kuwait) and three in Latin America (Ecuador, Costa Rica and Peru).