Jubilee of consecrated life in Burkina Faso

We receive an article from our correspondent in Burkina Faso, focolarino Bernard Minani, and gladly publish it

As part of the celebration of the Jubilee of one hundred and twenty-five (125) years of the evangelisation of Burkina Faso, the Church in Burkina Faso has initiated jubilees by ecclesiastical entity.

Within the Ecclesiastical Province of Bobo Dioulasso, the closing of the Jubilee Year of the Lay Faithfulwas celebrated, and the Jubilee Year of Pastoral Agents wasopened on 24 and 25 February 2024.

The Jubilee of Catechistsintroduced all pastoral agents to their Jubilee Year on 20-21 April 2024 in Diébougou, followed by the Jubilee of the Consecrated on 30 November and 1 December 2024 in Bobo Dioulasso.

The Jubilee of Diocesan Priests will follow on 11-12 January 2025 in Banfora, God willing. The ecclesiastical province of Bobo-Dioulasso is made up of six dioceses: Banfora, Bobo-Dioulasso, Dédougou, Diébougou, Gaoua and Nouna, with just over seventy (70) institutes and congregations.

The content of the Celebration of the Jubilee of Consecrated Life

The weekend of Saturday 30 November and 1 December 2024, which saw the Jubilee of Consecrated Life celebrated in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Bobo-Dioulasso, was packed with activities. The jubilee was opened by a conferencegiven by the historian Dr Doti Bruno SANOU under the guidance and moderation of the Good Shepherd Sister Yvonne BAMBARA.

A very fine instruction centred on ‘PASTORAL WORKS AND THE CHALLENGES OF INCULTURATION:YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW’. The conferencewas crowned by the sharing of testimonies from the first twocongregations to arrive in the ecclesiastical province of Bobo-Dioulasso: the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Missionary Daughters of Mary. A kind of open door to thesetwo congregations.

Conference participants learned more about the two congregations through their history, activities and achievements, as well as their current situation and current challenges.

At the end of the conference, all the participants wereintroduced to an atmosphere of recollection through SolemnVespers, which were lively, well sung… in short, very prayerful.

After Vespers, which lasted until after 7.00 pm, the participants were able to recharge their batteries with a fraternal mealoffered by the various religious communities of the Diocese of Bobo-Dioulasso. These communities also welcomed all the guests from the various dioceses of the ecclesiastical province and elsewhere.  

The fraternal meal was followed by a cultural eveningfeaturing dancing, singing and choreography from the training centres of the various congregations. All this was part of a theatrical play prepared and staged by the Brothers of the Christian Schools house of formation.  

The central message of the play was as follows: ‘Thanks to the vocations ministry of the Missionaries, with the help of Burkinabe catechists, many local vocations to the ConsecratedLife have blossomed. The fruits of this are the manyconsecrated persons from the 70 Congregations in mission in the Ecclesiastical Province of Bobo-Dioulasso.

The evening saw an exhibition of the talents of young people on their way to the consecrated life from the various houses of formation in the diocese of Bobo-Dioulasso.

Sunday 1 December saw the great celebration of the Eucharist, 90% of which was attended by consecrated men and women.

Eucharistic celebration on Sunday 1 December

In the liturgical colour of violet, the jubilee Eucharisticcelebration was presided over by the Bishop of Gaoua Excellence, Monsignor Modeste KAMBOU, and the homilywas given by the Archbishop of Bobo-Dioulasso, Paul OUEDRAOGO. The bishops of Banfora and Diébougou werealso present. The Vicar General of Nouna had been delegated by the Bishop of Nouna for the occasion.

In his homily, Bishop Paul reminded consecrated people to remain focused on their primary mission of evangelisation. They must not get caught up in activities and projets. A challenge to be taken up.

The other challenges of evangelisation in this era wereunderlined by the person in charge of Consecrated Life in the ecclesiastical province, focolarino Bernard MINANI. For him, the mission of evangelisation must be adapted to today’srealities. Today’s people to be evangelised are not the same as yesterday’s, so a new way of evangelising is needed. He returned to the views of Pope John Paul II and Paul VI on thissubject.

As long ago as 1983, Pope John Paul2 spoke of the New Evangelisation in these terms: ‘The “new evangelisation” cannot be accomplished without having holiness as its goal. According to the Pope, anyone who does not aim at holiness, his evangelisation is not ‘new’, is not fashionable. To aim for holiness, we must first evangelise ourselves.

Pope Paul VI said earlier: ‘The world today does not needpreachers… it needs living witnesses to the Gospel’. Yes, today’smen and women are crying out for living witnesses, people whoproclaim the Gospel with their lives. So we are asked not onlyto bring the Gospel to others, but above all to be living Gospels.  

And Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, challenges us when she says: ‘If by some absurd catastrophe all the Bibles in the world were burnt down, we would have to rewrite them by seeing how we live.’                                                                                

The jubilee celebration of consecrated life ended with a fraternal meal, crowned by a few dance steps in thanksgiving to God for the gift of evangelisation and consecrated life in the ecclesiastical province of Bobo. It all ended with a deep senseof joy and mutual thanks for everyone’s presence.

See you in January in Banfora for the jubilee of diocesan priests.

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