A year has passed since my arrival in Kazakhstan: my “first steps” in this land… Through “professional deformation”, I dare to remember, that a child takes his first steps towards 11 months of life, or at least … stands up! Here, I am in yet another “phase” of the “first steps” taken in my missionary life, I say it with a smile! And if every day we take more or less 5000 steps… (almost 4 km) … I have already done many in Kazakhstan too! Here many things “speak” to me of my homeland: people of Polish descent, food, some traditions, even trees, flowers! Like in the countryside, where I grew up, or like in the garden, near my grandfather’s hut. Walking in the village of Zhanashar, in the south of the country, I meet the simple, friendly people who greet you along the streets, invite you to go in and have tea. But the crowning glory is a view of the beautiful Altai Mountains, which invites us to raise our gaze to Heaven, enlarge our hearts and “sing the glory of God”! In any case, I feel small and grateful in this great and mysterious Kazakh land, “sanctified” by so many innocent lives, handed over at the time of deportations: men, women, children of various nationalities. I read, I listened to some descendants of the deportees, I saw what is left of the ‘gulags’ in the north of the country… Always little, compared to the reality of that time! Only the deep blue sky and the infinite steppe would be able to tell of the suffering, despair, desolation experienced, hidden! Of fatigue, tiredness of their “first steps” as exhausted, hungry, abandoned… So many people have been able to live all this, with courageous faith, which can almost be “touched”! Just think of the miracle of the lake with fish in Oziornoie, where Our Lady comes to the aid of hungry people! The steppe soaked in tears and unshakable faith, generates life! I am convinced, that only with great respect, “barefoot” and “in an attitude of listening (…) we are called to insert ourselves, to incarnate ourselves among the people”, experiencing our smallness, living a simple, humble, essential life… Our presence as a Church is small, but this”is a beatitude (…), because littleness humbly gives us over to the power of God, and leads us not to base ecclesial action on our own abilities. And this is a grace! (…) We let ourselves be guided by the Lord and we humbly place ourselves next to people… bringing the joy of the Gospel into the situations of life” (cf. Pope Francis’ Address in Kazakhstan, 2022). At least, let’s try! This requires from me, from us, that “more” that our Father Founder, Giuseppe Allamano, indicated. A longer time of prayer, Eucharistic adoration, reading of Sacred Scripture and contemplation… To feel the Heart of God and to feel with the Heart of God, what He is already doing in the hearts of the people to whom we are sent here and now. “I abandon myself to God’s fidelity”, to His Love, even if I take only one step a day, I am in peace, in joy. And my heart is open to the graces that the Lord offers me, to His blessings, even in the smallest gestures of goodness and love in daily life! Every day is an opportunity to grow in holiness and to be even closer to the Heart of God, to love this land, this multicultural people of Kazakhstan! I thank with all my heart those who faithfully support us in various ways, in our “first steps”… Sister Dorota, mc
Sister Simona Brambilla New Prefect for Consecrated Life
Sister Simona Brambilla, a Consolata missionary, has been appointed by the Holy Father Pope Francis as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. After her service as Superior General of the Congregation (from 2011 to 2023), she was appointed Secretary of the Dicastery from December 2023. Here is the appointment in the Bulletin of the Press Office of the Holy See: Appointment of the Prefect and Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life The Holy Father has appointed as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life the Most Reverend Sister Simona Brambilla, M.C., until now Secretary of the same Curial Institution. The Holy Father has appointed as Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life His Eminence Most Reverend Cardinal Ángel FernándezArtime, S.D.B., former Rector Major of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco. Our dear Sister Simona, we assure you of our prayers and our affection and we ask Our Lady Consolata and Saint Joseph Allamano, our Founder, to support and bless you in every moment of this important service to the Church and to Religious Life.
The Miraculous Healing of Sorino Yanomami: A Theological Perspective
In the early hours of February 7, 1996, Sorino Yanomami set out hunting from his maloca (collective Yanomami home). While in the forest, he was attacked and seriously injured by a jaguar. According to local people, this was the second case of a jaguar attack in the Catrimani Mission region, located 150 kilometers from Boa Vista, in the state of Roraima. In the first assault, which occurred at the end of 1995, only remains of the victim’s body were found. As we know, Sorino Yanomami was rescued in serious conditions by the Consolata Missionaries, who work in the Catrimani Mission. He had to be urgently transferred to Boa Vista’s General Hospital by air taxi. The people were shocked and scared, and everyone believed that he would not survive. For this reason, they asked that Sorino remain in his maloca to die in the company of his family. With faith, trust and hope, like those in the Gospel who carried the paralytic on a stretcher and lowered him through the hole in the roof in front of Jesus to be healed, so the Consolata Missionary Sisters, after providing first aid, risked everything to take Sorino to Boa Vista. They began to pray to Blessed Joseph Allamano to intercede for his healing. In Boa Vista, the Sisters took turns at the General Hospital to assist Sorino and facilitate the visit and stay of his relatives. In 1901 Blessed Joseph Allamano founded the Institute of the Consolata Missionaries, and in 1910 the congregation of the Consolata Missionary Sisters. Therefore, he is the Founding Father, a man entirely for Christ and for the mission. In the context of the story of the miraculous healing of Sorino Yanomami, Blessed Joseph Allamano is that “hole in the roof” through which the four of the Gospel made the paralytic pass so that he could reach Jesus and be healed. The Sisters constantly prayed to Blessed Joseph Allamano for Sorino’s healing. The four men in the Gospel (Mt 9:1-8; Mk 2:1-12, Lk 5:17-18) had faith in Jesus, they believed in his healing power. It was a practical faith that pushed them to seek at all costs the healing of their paralytic friend. The paralytic on the stretcher was in a state of helplessness, he needed help. The four friends took charge of him with a free and living faith, embodied in their actions. According to St. James, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17). The faith and trust in the unshakable goodness of God’s power, and hope pushed the four men to take an unprecedented action. Overcoming their limits, they uncovered the roof of the house by opening it and lowering the paralytic with his stretcher into the center of the house where Jesus was. They were not afraid of the people’s reaction. They wanted to see their friend healed. Trust is the fifth essence of hope, Blessed Joseph Allamano used to tell his missionaries. In Greek cosmology, aether is the fifth element, something magnificent, great, much greater than the air we breathe. Aether is the fifth essence. You can have everything: air, fire, water and earth, but if you don’t have trust and hope, you may die. In the Gospel we read that Jesus healed all the sick he met or who were brought to him. “… people brought to him all who were suffering from various diseases and torments, those who were demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them” (Mt 4:24). But Jesus also heals thanks to the faith of those who turn to him for healing, as in the case of the four friends who, with faith, trust, and hope, let the paralytic man pass through the hole in the roof to receive Jesus’ healing. The miraculous healing of Sorino Yanomami, like that of the paralytic, highlights the value of concrete faith, trust and hope, demonstrating that God is attentive to those who invoke Him and turn to Him in times of need. The healing of the indigenous Sorino in the middle of the Amazon forest is a visible sign of the presence of the Creator in the life of the Yanomami people and confirms the charism of the mission ad gentes left as a legacy by Blessed Joseph Allamano. Sister Mary Agnes, mc
Sorino’s miracle
The miracle concerns the healing of Sorino Yanomami, who was attacked and seriously injured by a jaguar, in the Brazilian Amazon forest, on 7 February 1996. Sorino recovered his health completely thanks to the intercession of Blessed Joseph Allamano. DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT Sorino Yanomami belongs to the Yanomami indigenous ethnic group, born in the community of Maimasik (Roraima-Brazil), presumably in 1955 (day and month are not recorded). Resident in the community of Yaropi (in the region of the middle course of the Catrimani river), he is married to Helena Yanomami, but have no children. The environment in which his community is located is the immense Amazon forest, from which, like the other members of his people, he can obtain what is essential for living, through gathering, hunting, fishing and cultivating large vegetable gardens. His maloca (indigenous home, in the Tupi language, term that has entered the Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary) is, even now, situated near the “Consolata missionary community”, present there since 1965 and made up of religious men (fathers and coadjutor brothers) and missionaries sisters. The superior at the time, Guglielmo Damioli, remembers Sorino as follows: «Over the years, already married, with his family group, Sorino had come to build his maloca at the beginning of the mission’s landing strip. He appeared frequently at the mission, always accompanied by his young wife. Common, simple man, with a permanent smile on his face. Good hunter, in the forest, on the fragile canoe, hard worker on the plantation to contribute to the group and support his family.” Right in the heart of the forest, that morning of February 7, 1996, Sorino Yanomami was attacked by a female jaguar (onça pintada in Portuguese). Gugliemo Damioli also says this: «The jaguar, as it usually does, attacked Sorino by surprise, from behind. With a paw, he fractured his skull. On the spot, on the ground, pieces of bone and part of the brain mass were found by the natives. Despite the extreme severity of his wounds, Sorino did not lose consciousness; he managed to free himself, get up and use his bow like a spear to keep the jaguar at a distance, while he screamed for help. In a matter of minutes the jaguar fled, scarred by the shouts and the arrival of the natives armed with bows and arrows.” Sorino’s brother-in-law, B. (we are not reporting his name, out of respect for Yanomami customs which no longer pronounce the name of a person who is dead), run to the small mission dispensary to seek help, and the nurse in-charge, Sister Felicita Muthoni, a Kenyan Consolata missionary, rushed to the scene of the accident to assess the situation and provide first aid. Thus, the sister remembers those first moments: «I saw Sorino on the ground, in a bloodbath, I remained petrified, frozen and trembling, not knowing what to do. I called his mother and asked for water; then I realized that the scalp was protruding and that Sorino was also bleeding a lot; there was a lot of sand, dirt and part of the brain had spilled out. I pushed the brain in and then took the scalp and put it back, but it kept bleeding; he was alive, but did not speak. Since I hadn’t brought anything with me, I took the only thing I had, the t-shirt I was wearing: I took it off and wrapped it around Sorino’s head, to compress and somewhat stop the bleeding. I then sent someone to look for the Toyota car in service of our mission. With Dona Creuza, our helper, we put him in a hammock and then placed him in the Toyota that had arrived in the meantime with Brother Antonio Costardi who was also in the mission. I sat with him in the back, holding his head and we headed to the small mission dispensary.” Sister Felicita reports again: «I looked at his hands, but the veins were no longer visible. I had some blood plasma and I inserted the needle in one foot, and a glucose drip with a strong analgesic on the other foot.” Given the extremely dangerous situation, Sister Felicita asked that Sorino be transported to the hospital in Boa Vista, the capital of the state of Roraima. She managed to contact the CCPY (Pro Yanomami Commission) and a place was reserved for them on the small plane that serves the vast indigenous area, although she had to wait some time due to the many requests for help. Meanwhile Sorino’s companions were opposing the suggestion to transfer the patient to Boa Vista. As is frequent in the rhetoric that accompanies situations of tension and concern, they also went so far as to utter threats; for them, in fact, it is inconceivable that a Yanomami would die outside his village, without being accompanied by relatives and a shaman. Sorino’s spirit was ready to make its journey. They shouted: «No! Sorino will stay here! The shaman has already said that when the sun sets, he will enter the house of the spirits and ascend on high.” In the end, they gave in to Sister Felicita’s request, but with a terrible threat: if their companion were to die in the city, far from the forest and among “the whites”, they would kill, with their arrows, the missionaries present at Catrimani. While waiting for the plane to arrive, a boy brought a rolled up banana leaf, containing a fragment of bone from Sorino’s head, found at the site of the accident, and he formulated his “diagnosis”: «We saw clearly when Sorino arrived. We saw the brain, we saw the bone, we took it out and rolled it up and then we talked to the xapuri, the spirits of the forest: Sorino cannot live, because the brain has come out!». Around 2.00 pm, with the arrival of the plane, Sorino is boarded, accompanied by the tuxaua (village elder) C. After about an hour’s flight, at Boa Vista airport, he is welcomed by Sister Rosa