The Quiet Power That Regenerates a Continent

When St. Comboni once made an appeal for Africa, he addressed himself to all the baptized in the Church: women & men ~ lay people & religious. He saw all the various roles of each of them as equally necessary for the various aspects of evangelization.

On this monday after Mother's Day in the states, I look in a special way at what St. Comboni wrote in his Plan for the Regeneration of Africa (written in 1865) where he reserved for women, a very special role. It is noteworthy too, remembering at that time, an African woman raised very little concern or credit ~ but in the words of St. Comboni, "the regeneration of the great family of Africa depends almost exclusively from the African woman."

St. Comboni understood something timeless: the future is most often shaped not by those who hold the loudest voices, but by those who carry life, faith, and courage into the everyday. When women are seen, trusted, and empowered, the Gospel takes flesh and whole peoples are renewed from the inside out.