THE COMBONI MISSIONARIES Following in the footsteps of Saint Daniel Comboni, the Comboni Missionaries are an international Congregation of over two thousand priests and brothers of many nationalities working in over forty countries throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. As an exclusively missionary Congregation, we seek to make common cause with the more unfortunate and disadvantaged of our world: + by proclaiming the Good News among peoples where Christ is unknown + by fostering social development inspired by Gospel values + by serving the Young Churches of Latin America, Africa and Asia as they grow and mature + by bearing witness to the love of God for each and every human person by promoting the missionary vocation in all its many forms The characteristics of this missionary service are four-fold: we are missionaries "ad gentes" because we go out to peoples, areas and situations where evangelisation has not yet begun or is just starting. We are missionaries "ad pauperes", because preference is given to the poorest and most abandoned from the point of view of Faith and the social dimension. We are missionaries "ad extra", because we are men of God who go outside our personal, family, geographical, cultural, social and religious frontiers. We are missionaries "ad vitam" because we make a life-long consecration to God for the Missions. Most Comboni missionaries live and work outside their homeland. We are engaged in direct Evangelisation, in the missionary animation of local Churches, and in the formation of future religious and lay missionaries. All these dimensions of the missionary vocation are lived within a community, where its members pray, plan and work together as a "Cenacle of Apostles". Preferably, Comboni Missionaries work in those Churches where there is First Evangelisation (telling the good news where it has never been heard). We choose the most remote and isolated areas in the interior, or the shanty towns around cities, such as Nairobi, Kinshasa, Khartoum, Lima, Mexico City, Cairo and S?o Paulo; nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples such as the Karimojong in Uganda and the Turkana in Kenya; minorities in danger of extinction, like the Pygmies in the Central African Republic or the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Indios in Amazonia, Peru and Mexico. We assist and support movement that are engaged in recovering the historic memory and the dignity of their race, such as the Afro-Amerindians of Brazil, Ecuador and the United States. We work in centres for the defence of human rights, and assist movements struggling to obtain land for the landless peasants. In all the continents we foster the growth of Basic Christian Communities, an effective means of evangelisation. Particular attention is paid to young people, to their education and professional formation, through the support and organisation of numerous schools, both in the city suburbs and in small villages in the interiors. In line with the original inspiration of the Founder, Comboni Missionaries have set up in Africa, Latin America and Asia, centres for Bible formation, catechism, theology, professional and social training, to prepare local people who are active in the work of evangelisation and human development. In this way the missionaries collaborate in making the local Churches increasingly autonomous and able to run themselves and even go out to others in other continents, in line with the ideal of Comboni: to "Save Africa with Africa".

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            .