SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION AND THE MISSIONARY ACTIVITY OF THE CHURCH: THE CASE STUDY OF DANIEL COMBONI - 1. PART

For quite a long time the missionary activity of the church was grounded on the commission of the risen Jesus to the apostles: 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.' (Mt 28. 19 - 20). Thus it became for more than one millennium highly dependent on ordained ministers, therefore inevitably male dominated and unilaterally linked to the formal celebration of the sacraments. The decline of the attention to the biblical category of the Kingdom of God made the missionary activity inevitably church centred. Starting with 'Ad Gentes' (1965) and particularly with 'Evangelii Nuntiandi' (1975) and 'Redemptoris missio' (1990) the theology of the mission started turning in a more consistent way on the ministry of Jesus as portrayed in Luke 4: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... to proclaim liberty to captives.. to recover sight to blind.. to let the oppressed go free..to proclaim the Jubilee..' This mission is at the service of the great promises by God in the O.T., uttered by the prophets, synthesized in the Jubilee year as elaborated in several documents by John Paul II whereby all aspects of life are touched upon and transformed. A mission at the service of the Kingdom of God with all its values: faith, peace, justice, integrity of creation, reconciliation. A task entrusted by Jesus to the apostles: 'he gave them power and authority over all demons,.to cure diseases and to proclaim the Kingdom of God' (Lk 9.1 - 2). This was the mission accomplished by Daniel Comboni (1831 - 1881) strongly inspired by the modern social teaching of the church which highly developed during the XIX century.