by Father Dario Dozio*
Korhogo – 1 October, the feast of Saint Therese: the perfect day to arrive in the mission. It has been ten years since I left Ivory Coast. It is a pleasure to find again its colours, music and smiles… and even the pungent, intense smell of the Ébrié Lagoon no longer bothers me. It feels like coming home!
So much has changed. First of all, the roads. As soon as I leave Abidjan airport, I find myself immersed in chaotic traffic, despite the four-lane roads in every direction, the new bridges and overpasses, and traffic lights and speed cameras operating at every major intersection. I am told that all this is thanks to AFCON, the Africa Cup of Nations, the continental football tournament hosted and won by Ivory Coast two years ago. And so, after seven hours I reach Korhogo in the north of the country before nightfall: my new mission.
Back in Italy, I was reminded to check my identity card from time to time. I am no longer 25, as I was when I first arrived; now it is time to think about retirement and finding a quiet little place to settle down… Yet I cannot hide my excitement. What a wonderful opportunity I have had! The chance to start almost from scratch, in a new place, with a language I do not know and a local culture and traditions that are rich and full of mysteries… In short, the opportunity I have been waiting for, for a long time, to keep me feeling alive.
Early in the morning, I arrive at the Catechetical Centre and take part in the opening of the pastoral year. I greet priests, religious sisters and lay members of parish councils. There are about fifty of us, gathered for several days with the Bishop to plan the diocese’s new pastoral guidelines together.
And I discover that I am the only white person there.
In 1980, when I arrived from Italy, freshly ordained, there were very few African priests. In the diocese where I lived, there was just one… and he was studying in France. The priests of the Society of African Missions , most of them French, numbered more than a hundred, while there were nearly thirty of us Italians.
Now the situation has reversed. The local Church has grown, both in numbers and in quality. The Christian faithful are actively involved and participate fully in parish life. Even the pastoral theme proposed for the next five years speaks of shared responsibility, autonomy and mission: “In fraternity and shared responsibility, we build autonomous communities at the service of mission.”
I give thanks to God for the work accomplished by the first missionaries, who had to walk for weeks through forests and savannahs to reach these lands, sowing the Word amid countless difficulties and facing dangers and disease.
Today, the fruits of their labour are there for all to see. I find myself in a diocese with a young, dynamic clergy and laypeople deeply committed to a Church they consider their own: a truly African Church.
In Korhogo, and throughout much of the north of the country, Muslims and animists make up the vast majority of the population. In the south, however, Christians are numerous, churches are filled almost every day, and there is an abundance of clergy.
Some bishops, therefore, have made a courageous decision: to send young priests as fidei donum missionaries to the north of the country for at least three years.
How wonderful it is that the mission continues, always! Methods, pastoral approaches and available resources change… but the Spirit that inspired the pioneers who arrived from Europe a hundred years ago remains the same. It shines in the faces of these young African priests who devote their lives to the service of the Gospel.
And I, too, with simplicity and surprise, seek to walk alongside them.
*Missionary of the Society of African Missions
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