Islamic Outreach, Part CXVIII

 From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

MEANWHILE...

Bogotá, Colombia, Feb 8, 2021 / 08:54 pm MT (CNA).- The president of the Department of Missions at the Colombian Bishops’ Conference marked the fourth anniversary of the kidnapping of Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez by requesting continued prayers for her.

 Bishop Francisco Múnera recalled that February 7 marked the fourth anniversary of the nun’s kidnapping in Mali. Authorities have determined that the kidnapping was carried out by the Support Front for Islam and Muslims (SGIM), a Mali-based branch of Al Qaeda.

“The Church continues to pray for her health and her release,” said Munera, who is the bishop of San Vicente del Caguán.

Sister Noemí Quesada, former Superior General of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, to which Sister Gloria Cecilia belongs, noted that efforts to free her have been unsuccessful.

 

Sounds Like a Nice Place

Buenaventura, Colombia, Jul 11, 2019 / 04:18 pm (CNA).- Bishop Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya of Buenaventura will perform blessings throughout his cathedral city Saturday, hoping to counter it's extreme violence, including kidnappings and murders.

Buenaventura is Colombia's main port on the Pacific, and so is a key point in the international drug trade. 
 
In recent years, Human Rights Watch has said the city's neighborhoods are controlled by “paramilitary successor groups” which engage in extortion and violence.

Bishop Jaramillo had originally shared the idea of performing a blessing on the city from a helicopter. The news has been erroneously reported by some media as an exorcism.

The Bishop of Buenaventura told ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish language sister agency, July 10 that the blessing will be done July 13, but not from a helicopter.

“We are going to form a line of vehicles with a firetruck and a statue of Saint Bonaventure. We're going to go to all locations, to the most difficult neighborhoods where people have been killed in recent years,” he explained.

Too bad about the helicopter thing...it would have been AWESOME!

Is There Anything Colombians CAN'T Do?

Cucuta, Colombia, Apr 2, 2018 / 01:56 pm (ACI Prensa).- With a flour shortage leading to a lack of hosts in Venezuela, the neighboring diocese of Cúcuta, Colombia donated 250,000 hosts for border dioceses to celebrate liturgies during Triduum.

Bishop Victor Manuel Ochoa of Cúcuta donated the hosts to dioceses along the Colombian-Venezuelan border in their area, saying that he hoped to convey “the charity of Christ.”
The delivery was made early March 30 on the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, which connects the two countries.

Way Ahead of You

Bogotá, Colombia, Sep 7, 2017 / 10:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking to youth in Colombia Thursday, Pope Francis urged them to move away from the violence of the past and to work toward healing and building a culture of encounter, which he said often begins simply with a drink or a cup of coffee.
“For you, young people, it is so easy to encounter one another. All you need is a good coffee, a good drink or any other excuse to meet,” the Pope said Sept. 7, his first full day in Colombia.

Way ahead of you, Pope Francis.... 

Merry Christmas! Rejoice!

Like these Columbian nuns!

The Eucharistic Communicators of the Heavenly Father are a community of nuns from Colombia who have a great passion for music and an intense desire to announce God through the gifts he has given them.

Sister María Victoria de Jesús told CNA the mission of their apostolate “is to evangelize through as many means of communication as possible,” and added that the charism of the sisters “is to communicate the love of God the Father.”

They have released a Spanish-language album Yo le Canto, or “I Sing”, as well as numerous music videos online.