Ituri: Vulnerable people thank Caritas Mahagi-Nioka for sharing their loneliness with the community.
Mahagi, November 27, 2024 (caritasmahagi.org): Properly dressed, calm gait and showing a serene face despite their condition, 51 people in vulnerable situations from Mahagi, solemnly advanced towards one of the Caritas-Development party rooms Mahagi-Nioka, their invitation card in hand. They had just participated in the Eucharist celebrated by Mgr Sosthène Ayikuli, Bishop of Mahagi-Nioka, at Notre Dame de Lourdes Cathedral in Mahagi, on this Sunday, November 17, 2024.
The 51 people in vulnerable situations represented the beneficiaries of the action of Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka (CDM), which celebrated its Patron Saint: Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Some were disabled, others were elderly, and still others had chronic illnesses, not forgetting a displaced woman who had a triplet. They were previously identified by the parish Caritas of the cathedral. And, without discrimination, the CDM had placed these 51 people among the guests, around 350 people. They had paraded like everyone else in front of the four buffets which offered the same menus to all the guests, like Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, whose charity, humility and closeness to vulnerable people were the main virtues. that Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka would like to convey to its agents and the community.
Gifts to these “guests of honor”
Beyond this shared fraternal meal, washed down with the sweet drink served to them, the special beneficiaries of the CDM had received gifts. Five personalities present handed these packages to people in vulnerable situations, in groups of ten. They are Mgr Sosthène Ayikuli, the Military Administrator of the Territory of Mahagi, Colonel DISANOA LALOA Jacques (represented by Mrs. Yvette Ngamaber), Father Paco (Representative of the Ituri Region of the Missionaries of Africa), Abbot Gervais (Clergy Leader of Mahagi-Nioka) and the Representative of Caritas Congo Asbl (Mr. Kamandji), without forgetting Mr. Joseph, a Manager of the Centenary Rural Development Bank (banking institution of the Episcopal Conference of neighboring Uganda).
Speaking during the speeches scheduled for this holiday, Ms. Marie-Pauline MARACTHO, Representative of vulnerable people, gave thanks to God for all his blessings towards them. She also sent her “deep thanks to Mgr Sosthène Ayikuli, Bishop of the Diocese of Mahagi-Nioka and President of the Board of Directors of Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka, for having initiated within our Diocese such a grandiose and laudable which helps us in all dimensions of life (medical work, Sustainable Development, charitable work, Justice and Peace, etc.). May God fill him with His Grace.”
To the Director of Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka, Father Prosper Rugamba, she expressed her gratitude “for inviting us to share our solitude with the community today, and this is not for the first time. May the Most High return him a hundredfold.” Ms. Marie-Pauline MARACTHO has not forgotten the CDM Agents for their various contributions. “Right now, we feel closer to others; and our isolation flies away. And this kind of consideration consoles us and strengthens us in our vulnerability.” Beyond all words, Father Prosper Rugamba, Director of Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka, immediately organized a mobilization of funds in favor of two orphanages, vulnerable people in general, and a woman moved with his hat-trick in particular. Addressed by the press, he indicated that “the Church is not there only to announce the Good News of Salvation and administer the Sacraments. She also has a special mission to help people in need...
It is through this 3 function that the Church, wherever it is located, signs its mission, its identity and its presence. This is why we, the particular Church of the Diocese of Mahagi-Nioka, felt concerned by our identity and our mission, so that, through charitable pastoral care, under the aegis of the President of Caritas, the Bishop of Diocese of Mahagi-Nioka, His Excellency Mgr Sosthène Ayikuli Ajuwa, we follow suit by following the instructions of the Universal Church, notably through the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, and the Motu proprio “Intima ecclesiae Natura” of Benedict XVI.
On this day of celebration of his Patron Saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the priest asked that God give the grace to the Agents of the CDM and to the entire community to imitate the virtues of the latter, “in particular compassion, simplicity and commitment to helping people in need, the sick, the most deprived, orphans, the elderly, who find themselves in the world.”
Guy-Marin Kamandji
The 51 people in vulnerable situations represented the beneficiaries of the action of Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka (CDM), which celebrated its Patron Saint: Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Some were disabled, others were elderly, and still others had chronic illnesses, not forgetting a displaced woman who had a triplet. They were previously identified by the parish Caritas of the cathedral. And, without discrimination, the CDM had placed these 51 people among the guests, around 350 people. They had paraded like everyone else in front of the four buffets which offered the same menus to all the guests, like Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, whose charity, humility and closeness to vulnerable people were the main virtues. that Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka would like to convey to its agents and the community.
Gifts to these “guests of honor”
Beyond this shared fraternal meal, washed down with the sweet drink served to them, the special beneficiaries of the CDM had received gifts. Five personalities present handed these packages to people in vulnerable situations, in groups of ten. They are Mgr Sosthène Ayikuli, the Military Administrator of the Territory of Mahagi, Colonel DISANOA LALOA Jacques (represented by Mrs. Yvette Ngamaber), Father Paco (Representative of the Ituri Region of the Missionaries of Africa), Abbot Gervais (Clergy Leader of Mahagi-Nioka) and the Representative of Caritas Congo Asbl (Mr. Kamandji), without forgetting Mr. Joseph, a Manager of the Centenary Rural Development Bank (banking institution of the Episcopal Conference of neighboring Uganda).
Speaking during the speeches scheduled for this holiday, Ms. Marie-Pauline MARACTHO, Representative of vulnerable people, gave thanks to God for all his blessings towards them. She also sent her “deep thanks to Mgr Sosthène Ayikuli, Bishop of the Diocese of Mahagi-Nioka and President of the Board of Directors of Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka, for having initiated within our Diocese such a grandiose and laudable which helps us in all dimensions of life (medical work, Sustainable Development, charitable work, Justice and Peace, etc.). May God fill him with His Grace.”
To the Director of Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka, Father Prosper Rugamba, she expressed her gratitude “for inviting us to share our solitude with the community today, and this is not for the first time. May the Most High return him a hundredfold.” Ms. Marie-Pauline MARACTHO has not forgotten the CDM Agents for their various contributions. “Right now, we feel closer to others; and our isolation flies away. And this kind of consideration consoles us and strengthens us in our vulnerability.” Beyond all words, Father Prosper Rugamba, Director of Caritas-Development Mahagi-Nioka, immediately organized a mobilization of funds in favor of two orphanages, vulnerable people in general, and a woman moved with his hat-trick in particular. Addressed by the press, he indicated that “the Church is not there only to announce the Good News of Salvation and administer the Sacraments. She also has a special mission to help people in need...
It is through this 3 function that the Church, wherever it is located, signs its mission, its identity and its presence. This is why we, the particular Church of the Diocese of Mahagi-Nioka, felt concerned by our identity and our mission, so that, through charitable pastoral care, under the aegis of the President of Caritas, the Bishop of Diocese of Mahagi-Nioka, His Excellency Mgr Sosthène Ayikuli Ajuwa, we follow suit by following the instructions of the Universal Church, notably through the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, and the Motu proprio “Intima ecclesiae Natura” of Benedict XVI.
On this day of celebration of his Patron Saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the priest asked that God give the grace to the Agents of the CDM and to the entire community to imitate the virtues of the latter, “in particular compassion, simplicity and commitment to helping people in need, the sick, the most deprived, orphans, the elderly, who find themselves in the world.”
Guy-Marin Kamandji
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