Consolata Missionaries Founder Canonization Time to Sing “Magnificat”: Kenyan-born Superior General, 1,300 to Witness

Vatican, 19 October, 2024 / 11:25 PM

The joy that the Blessed Virgin Mary expressed after exchanging greetings with Elizabeth in her song of the Magnificat is inspiring members of the Institute of the Consolata Missionaries (IMC) and the Consolata Missionary Sisters (MC) at the canonization of their founder, Blessed Joseph Allamano.

“This is a moment of grace; it's a moment of joy,” this is how the IMC Superior General, Fr. James Bhola Lengarin put it when he was asked about the meaning of the Canonization of Blessed Allamano on October 20, World Mission Sunday 2024. 

Speaking to ACI Africa in Rome on Wednesday, October 17, Fr. James said that the Canonization event is “a moment that we are actually singing the Magnificat, because the Lord has done great things for us, and because we have been preparing for this moment since the death of our founder.”

Fr. James Bhola Lengarin. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez

Fr. Allamano died on 16 February 1926; he was 75. Ordained a Diocesan Priest for Italy’s Catholic Archdiocese of Turin, where he remained his entire life, Fr. Allamano founded the family of the Consolata Missionaries, comprising Priests and Brothers (IMC) and Sisters (MC). 

Beginning in the East African nation of Kenya, IMC and MC members who are currently serving in some 40 countries across the globe have carried on the legacy of their founder, whom Pope St. John Paul II beatified on 7 October 1990.

Some 1,300 representatives of the Consolata Missionaries in the 14 Provinces around the world have travelled to Rome to witness the Canonization of Blessed Allamano alongside 13 others on October 20, Fr. James told ACI Africa during the October 17 interview at EWTN Vatican bureau.

Blessed Joseph Allamano. Credit: Vatican Media 

The news of the Canonization of Blessed Allamano were received at a time when members of the two Institutes he founded had started preparations for the centenary celebrations since he passed on, the Kenyan-born IMC Superior General said, adding that the Canonization date was confirmed on July 1.

Consolata Missionaries are experiencing joy, he said, because Blessed Allamano’s canonization “has sealed a long-awaited moment ... to see him enter on the altars of every Catholic institution.”

Preparations towards the Canonization celebration included prayers and reflections on the person of Blessed Allamano as well as logistics for pilgrims at the October 20 event. 

Credit: Daniel Ibáñez

On Saturday, October 19, Consolata Missionaries realized a prayer Vigil during which the Canonization pilgrims gathered at the Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, also known as Chiesa Nuova, in Rome.

The October 20 Canonization Eucharistic celebration has been scheduled to take place at St. Peter’s Square from 10.30 a.m., presided over by Pope Francis.

Holy Mass of Thanksgiving has been planned for Monday, October 21 at the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome from 4 p.m. The Canonization pilgrims are set to leave for Turin, the birthplace of St. Allamano in Northern Italy, where a series of celebrations have been planned. 

Credit: Daniel Ibáñez

Specifically, Holy Mass is to be celebrated at the Church of St. Andrew in Castelnuovo Don Bosco on October 23. Pilgrims are then to participate in the Eucharistic celebration at the Consolata Shrine in Turin on October 24, ahead of the concluding Holy Mass on October 25 at Joseph Allamano Church in Turin.

In the October 17 interview with ACI Africa, the IMC Superior General reflected on life of St. Allamano, highlighting his early and later encounters with St. Don Bosco having been village mates; his relations with St. Joseph Cafasso; his maternal uncle; his fragile health that impeded him from leaving his native country; his discernment and eventual decision to become a Priest; and years of his Priestly ministry, 46 of them at the Consolata Shrine in Turin.

“He renovated the shrine spiritually, culturally, and all the means that he had with the people who were around,” Fr. James recalled the Priestly ministry of Fr. Allamano, adding that in 1889, the 38-year-old Diocesan Priest started to question the presence of “so many” Priests in the Italian region of Piedmont, which culminated in the founding of the Consolata Fathers and Brothers in 1901 and the Consolata Sisters in 1910.

Credit: Daniel Ibáñez

While the initial plans were for the four pioneer Consolata Missionaries comprising two Priests and two Brothers to begin their mission in Ethiopia, the challenges of diplomacy between the Horn of African nation and Italy prevailed over them, Fr. James recalled.

They would eventually seek help from members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost Fathers/Spiritans/CSSp.) in Zanzibar, who facilitated their entry to Kenya in June 1902, according to the Rome-based native of Kenya’s Maralal Catholic Diocese.

“Kenya became really the cornerstone, where now Consolata missionaries were made ... all of them were prepared here in Italy, then they would go to Kenya,” Fr. James said, and recalled the pioneer Consolata Missionaries to Ethiopia in 1913, to Tanzania in 1919 after the Benedictine Fathers were expelled, and to Mozambique in 1925, a year before Fr. Allamano passed on.

Credit: Daniel Ibáñez

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Fr. James called upon members of the Consolata Missionaries to continue fostering the charism and spirituality of the founder, which he said requires that “we are always there at the periphery, getting out from the big cities ... going where people are always in the periphery or they are not well treated.”

Credit: Daniel Ibáñez

He also emphasized the need to embrace the oft-cited teaching of Allamano, “first saints, then missionaries”, and explained, “You have, first of all, to internalize the love of God within yourself ... and the word of God becomes part and parcel of you. So, when you go and become a missionary, you are already a person who has faith.”