Father Antonio Molina liked the radio. He liked photography. And he liked people. He crossed the Sahara desert a couple of times, once in a Citroën 3CV and another in a Renault 4L – a traditional Cuatro Latas – to take those vehicles to the mission they had in Burkina Faso. Additionally, he circumnavigated the continent from Lisbon to Mozambique to reach his mission. He dedicated his entire life to listening.
The Sister María Eugenia, a missionary from San José de Gerona whom I love so much, took me almost literally by the hand to the story of two of her companions, Nati and Basilia, those two nuns who, in the outburst of the genocide, almost literally got off the stairs of the plane that was going to bring them back to Spain, and I asked those in Butare (Rwanda) to tell me their story. It had been a little over a year since I had landed on these pages. It was my first trip to the African continent.
Father Miguel Ángel Ruiz, Salesian missionary in Lahore (Pakistan) years ago, when I met him, did not falter in his commitment to make Jesus present in a country in which stonings and various hostilities against those who did not profess were not uncommon. the same faith as the majority of mortals in those lands. Because of the indelible mark, I suppose it will continue to belong to Atlético de Madrid.
The Sister Pilar Justo, a Zamora by birth and a Comboni missionary by training, is in Chad, a country with an inhospitable climate and political situation. Which one worse. At 80 years old and with more thumbtacks on the world map than stickers in the La Liga album of an 8 or 10-year-old kid, Pilar says she is “unfinished.” Just like it sounds. That it is not about anything physical, but about the personal process. Of growth. Of the learning capacity. Of creativity.
Father Germán Arconada, who was felled by the coronavirus but not by the war, drew Burundi for me while we were passing through the Retiro. And then he met me at the Bujumbura airport.
There are so many.
There are so many.
Not naming everyone is an injustice. Don’t name these too. DOMUND, its day, would not be the same without putting a face on it. Even if only to a few. Thank you.
In the image, Nati and Basilia, missionaries of San José de Genora. Photography: Javier Fariñas Martín
