This year the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) are celebrating the 200th birthday of their founder, Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie, who was born on 31 October 1825 in the small town of Huire, near Bayonne in the south-west of France. In 1867 he was appointed Archbishop of Algiers and in 1868 as apostolic delegate for the Sahara and Sudan, later becoming a cardinal. He was especially opposed to slavery and human trafficking. In 1868 he founded the Missionaries of Africa (MAfr) popularly known as the White Fathers for their distinctive white robes, based on traditional local customs.
Today the Missionaries of Africa are still active in 17 African countries. Most of them are now native-born Africans, and vocations are particularly plentiful in the country of Togo in West Africa, which is today the seat of one of the two regional provinces of the order on the African continent. Currently there are 46 priests belonging to this province and over half of them are working in Togo. The rest are ministering in 11 other countries, among them Nigeria, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Fathers minister pastorally, especially in the poorer, agricultural regions. They also run healthcare centres and literacy centres, aid projects for widows and orphans and the „Village Renaissance“, a place where former criminals can begin a new life.
Every year the province is blessed with priestly ordinations. However, it is difficult for them to provide support for their priests, since the the people they minister to are themselves poor and can barely contribute to their support. And so this year once again we are providing the 46 Fathers of the province with some of the Mass stipends you have so generously offered.
