Madi Mission: Loa 1

On the morning of Tuesday 18 January the team arrived in the neighboring community of Loa, where the first parish to serve the Madi people, St. Mary of the Assumption, was established 100 years ago. We were greeted with song and clapping from the Loa youth team, who preceded our arrival by a few days, and by the pastor, Fr. Julius Iddo. It was a special joy to give to Fr. Julius (himself a monsignor) a monsignor’s cassock from among the donations brought by Mario Dance from his home parish in Virginia. Fr. Julius’ original monsignor’s cassock was stolen by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in one of their raids on the parish.

Since the parish is more rural and the church is located about a mile off the main road, we expected that the turnout in Loa would be less than in Nimule. We were wrong. With an attendance of approximately 600 the first evening and 800 the second, the Loa response exceeded that of Nimule, not only in sheer numbers, but even more so in relative proportion. In both locations on the final evening of the mission we distributed about 1250 holy cards with the image of St. Bakhita.

Just as the charismatic choir from Ajumani came to assist the parish of Nimule, so the charismatic choir from Nimule came to assist the parish of Loa. Their lively songs in the local language really got people dancing and singing with enthusiasm.

We pretty much duplicated the program we followed in Nimule. The combined youth teams performed catechetical skits each evening, followed by talks taking up one of the aspects of the general theme “Why Be Catholic?”

On Tuesday we prayed the Rosary with those in attendance, on Wednesday there was Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and a Eucharistic healing service, and on Thursday a closing Mass with music provided by the local choir.

I took as core of my homily a quote from the intervention of Cardinal Theodore-Adrien Sarr, Archbishop of Dakar, Senegal at the Synod of Bishops on Africa last fall:

“We nourish the ambition to inspire within ourselves, and in Sub-Saharan Africans, a jolt or Renaissance of the black man, rooted in the encounter with Christ and communion with Him. ‘Rise, take up your mat, and walk’ (Jn 5:8), Christ said to the paralyzed person at the pool of Bethesda. May we all encounter Him in such a way as to hear Him say onece again to us all: ‘Rise, take up your mat, and walk,’ ‘Rise, take up your destiny and walk.’”

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