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Deceased
MSOLA Sisters
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They
have lived their mission till the end...
Their
life is still an inspiration for the MSOLA today....
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Seraphine
Barunguza,
from Burundi
Maria Rita Valente
from Italy
Maria Jesus Lopez
Chalezquer from Spain
Agnes Mukandekezi from Ruanda
Marianne from Congo
Madeleine Gelinas from Canada
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SERAPHINE
BARUNGUZA
Born Jan 20, 1970 in Burundi,
Died December 30th, 2000, in Nairobi, Kenya
Seraphine
was studying at Tangaza college in Nairobi, getting
ready for her mission when an accident caused her
death. Born in Burundi, she had done her novitiate
in Arusha (Tanzania) and made her vows in 1999.
On
December 30th 2000 after lunch, Seraphine with another
sister were waiting in the middle of a dual highway
in Nairobi, ready to cross to take a bus. A driver
of a minibus made a sign to come. Seraphine rushed,
Boni tried to stop her saying there was a car coming,
but Seraphine dashed out toward the minibus. She was
hit by a vehicle. Boni went to her and care for her
as she layed on the road. A lady stopped and brought
both of them to the nearest hospital. The Doctor declared
Seraphine already dead. Theimpact was so great, that
she must have died immediately.
The
Funeral Mass in Our Lady Queen of Peace (South B Parish
Church, run by the Missionaries of Africa) was beautifully
celebrated by Archbishop Ndingi Mwana'a Nzeki with
12 concelebrants, among them, the Missionaries of
Africa, the Jesuits, etc. Our Sistersof South B and
the other students at Tangaza College had prepared
the liturgy and a program had been beautifully printed.
The choir and the ushers were all classmates.
The
church was packed.
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Sr.
Seraphine Barunguza,
MSOLA, the day of her vows.
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| Maria
Rita Valente form Italy, she worked in R.D. Congo. |
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Sister
Maria Rita Valente
Born
on 2nd January, 1951 at Taviano (Lecce), Italy.
First profession, 15th September, 1982 at Cuire,
France
Deceased, 17th January, 1999 at Rome, Italy
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A
modern young girl, independent, afraid of nothing,
at the age of 26, Maria Rita, felt herself challenged
by the perspective of a missionary service in
Africa.
Born
in the South of Italy, she was only three years
old when the family emigrated to Belgium, where
her father worked as a miner. This experience
of 'immigrant' gave her that deep sensitivity
with regard to social problems. At 17 she returned
to Italy to complete her commercial studies
and to enter into the workforce as secretary,
while at the same time, registering for medical
studies at the University of Naples, (studies
which she left two years later).
This
new environment distanced her from her faith.
But she had an experience of "conversion"
and wanted to live one month in a MSOLA community
to reflect on what was happening within her
and to look into her future. She demanded to
pursue the formation in the congregation. She
felt certain anguish at the thought of 'losing
her independence', but being honest and courageous,
she held on, and discovered the demands and
joys of a life in community. To verify the authenticity
of her missionary calling she went to Africa.
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"Whether
I decide or not
to be one of you,
I know now, with certitude,
that my life in future
will be for others."
Words
of Maria Rita
before
joining the MSOLA.
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She lived
and worked in Burhale in the DR Congo where the sisters
had a boarding Secondary School. Maria Rita worked in the
Secretariat and the Library. Available, open to everyone,
trusting, she felt quickly at ease, with the professors
and the students. A simple life style did not frighten her
and she knew how to approach the most destitute.
Decided
to orientate her life to Africa, she joined the MSOLA to
be 'all things to all'. She did her doctrinal studies in
Rome and her noviciate at Lyons (France). After her vows
she returned to Goma in the DR Congo, where she studied
the Kiswahili language. Maria Rita worked as a social assistant
in the Centre for the Handicapped. There, she lived her
dream of being close to the most destitute. She visited
the families of the young people, and encouraged the Christian
Communities to support the parents in the re-education of
their handicapped children. She participated in the formation
of young auxiliaries who helped the families in the villages.
She used to say: "What the people expect of us is that
we help them to satisfy their thirst for God... Let us put
ourselves at the service of the thirst of the people of
God"
From
Christmas 1985, she started also visiting prisoners, men
and women. " I would so want to be a sign to them of
the infinite mercy of God." she claimed. Her sharing
and her concern for justice was a stimulant to the other
sisters to go further.
Maria
Rita liked to invite visitors to the community prayer. One
day Dieudonné, a hemiplegic, came to the prayer.
After having sung 'Ta nuit sera lumière de midi'
(Your night will become mid-day light) with us, he said
: 'that puts sun in our hearts'... Maria Rita knew how to
create occasions for comforting those who were sorrowful.
"One
Christmas she had the bright idea to invite all the neighbours
(as many as could enter into oursmall living room) to sing
and to share a bit of cake. Though it seemed a little crazy,
in such a narrow space, it did become a much appreciated
tradition...
During
her years of missionary and vocation animation in Verona
and in Foggia she tried to pass on to the young people her
apostolic zeal. She invited them to the International Missionary
Route, to work camps, retreats, formation sessions, time
spent in community and even in Africa... Never sparing her
time or energy, Maria Rita shared her love for Africa with
the youth and adults of her country.
In
1992, she returned to Africa, to Kikimi, in a suburb of
Kinshasa. She studied theLingala language, and she visited
the people in the villages. She discovered the difficult
economic and social situation and sought means to help the
women to obtain a fair price for the products of their work.
Justice was very dear to her. Despite the heat, she went
from village to village to sensitise the women to organize
a project of co-operatives. She was also concerned with
the youth threatened by Aids and tried to bring them together
for formation and recollection sessions. Maria
Rita was a happy woman who could be seen wherever there
was a need.
In 1955,
she was tired… but what seemed urgent then was the
consolidation of the co-operatives (jams, laying chickens,
pigs). She could hardly find time to think of herself and
she neglected to consult a doctor when she felt certain
worrying symptoms. When she decided to do so, a 'cancer'
was discovered and her departure became urgent... After
surgery and chemotherapy in Rome, she was full of hope and
showed extraordinary courage. She organised meetings, recollections
and even a journey to Africa for the youth.
From
afar, Maria Rita continued to be interested in the progress
of the co-operative of Kikimi. The "mamas" kept
her up to date, and gave her news as well, of the suffering
of the countries of Central Africa that remained close to
her heart.
She
wanted to live as there was so much that had to be done!
But her illness progressed and the 21st May, 1998 she had
to accept, with great sorrow, to be admitted to the Clinic
for the needed care. The sisters of the congregation, her
father, her brothers and sisters as well as her friends,
visited her regularly.
Some
days before her death, when she received the Sacrament of
the Sick, she had a moment of extraordinary consciousness.
During the recitation of the 'Our Father', she raised her
hands in an energetic gesture, as though she were gathering
all her strength for an ultimate offering.
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Sister Maria Jesus Lopez Chalezquer
Born 3rd April, 1939 at Carcar (Navarre), Spain
First profession, 31st July, 1977, at Frascati (Italy)
Deceased, 8th August, 1997, at Madrid, Spain
Maria Jesus
lived her religious missionary vocation entirely in Africa through
her service as pediatrician doctor. She was in Algeria for 9 years,
11 years in Mauritania and one year, the last of her active life,
in Equatorial Guinea. The working conditions were sometimes far
from ideal, and the climate, with its sand storms and extremes
of temperature, was trying. Maria Jesus had many strings on her
bow. When caring for the children, she had the constant concern
to offer health education to the mothers and to families. Very
competent professionally, she had the reputation of reviving dying
children. In the distant villages, her visits were welcome: thanks
to her, the people felt that they were being cared for.
After the
decease of Maria Jesus, her community and family received numerous
messages of sorrow and solidarity, signs of the impact that Maria
Jesus had on the life of so many people who knew her.
The Director,
the medical staff, the patients and the general workers at the
Polyclinic of Nouakchott stressed, with a true admiration, how
as a pediatre she had committed herself to the work and to the
sick "in an unusual manner, with an
affection that showed no differences between people. For her,
everyone was equal", they affirmed: "We
want to cry out to heaven when we see young sisters like yourself
stopped in full apostolic activity. But we want to believe with
all our strength that the Master of the Harvest... He knows what
He expects of his workers, even when we do not understand."
"When
remembering what Maria Jesus was like, we can evoke the text of
St. Paul: "We, believers, we carry our treasure in vessels
of clay. Her treasure and her clay were both gifts from God...
Her treasure was her great faith in Jesus Christ, her fidelity
to her family, her friends, her integrity, her competence and
her professional conscience, all the good that she did in the
name of Jesus as MSOLA, her energy in suffering, her love of the
Church, her capacity to forgive. "Her being of clay... identifies
her with humanity: fragile, vulnerable and limited. At her death
we realize that the essential of life, that which really counts,
is that we love one another in truth."
"We will
never say it enough," wrote a family, "how Maria Jesus
was for us a school of learning for living fully. Though she has
left us, she continues to live in Mauritania through us, for she
has left us the legacy of the full power of her love and of her
availability to help her neighbor, and we have the firm intention
never to forget this precious heritage."
" I
learned so much from her ", said one of her friends, mother
of three children, who assisted her at the end of her stay in
Equatorial Guinea. "During the last days that Maria Jesus
passed in Ebebiyn, I went to help her to assemble her belongings,
for she was no longer able. We went down to Bata, some 270 kms,
through a very bad road. I was the first to benefit by being near
her in thes difficult moments. Through her, I discovered the presence
of Jesus. Her great treasure was Jesus and she knew how to share
Him. The best that she left us on this African soil, is her love
and her truth."
In community,
she sometimes met with difficulties in her relations with her
companions. "How could I ignore that there is a road for
me to tread for improving relations with certain of my sisters",
she herself avowed. An idealist, without nuance, Maria Jesus had
difficulty in accepting the limitations of others and of taking
into account temperaments different from her own. Gifted with
a rich and strong personality, collaboration with persons having
other points of view was not always possible for her. Yet, beyond
her personal difficulties, we discover her profound attachment
to Christ, her great sincerity with regard to her religious life
and a loyal search for truth.
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