VISIT TO SIERRA LEONE

Prior Provincial, Fray Bernard Amparado, OAR, together with the Provincial Secretary, leaves today (January 21) for Sierra Leone to kick off the constitutionally-mandated “visitatio renovationis” (renewal visit), within his term, to the Recollect communities of the Province.

In his protocol sent to the brothers last December 2023, Father Provincial who is serving the triennium 2022-2025 said he had decided to start his visit from those Recoletos houses in farther foreign missions. He was explicitly referring to Kamabai and Kamalo, both in Biriwa Chiefdom, Makeni City, in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone.

As initially programmed, he is set to commence his visit in the community of Our Lady of Sierra Leone Parish in Kamabai on January 23.

The following day, January 24, he will deliver his talk to all the OAR missionaries here in this headquarter of the Recoletos missions in western Africa. He has prepared common themes that will be shared during the said plenary assembly.

The succeeding days are tentatively for meetup with the VIPs of the Diocese of Makeni, the canonical visit to Kamalo, etc.

These special days of visit will surely be interspersed with bonding moments with the brothers, time of listening to the people we serve in the parishes, schools and other sectors, and prayers and celebrations of the holy mass.

This visit will mark the first time that Father Bernard will set foot on the continent of St. Augustine of Hippo.

At 8:25 this evening, he and Father Tol Almayo will board flight ET 645 from Manila to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) via Hongkong. Afterwards, they will take two more connecting flights with Ethiopian Airlines – one, to Lomé (Togo), then to Freetown (Lungi Airport) in Sierra Leone. In this last touchdown, it will already be late afternoon of January 22. Plus around three hours more of travel by private car, that will be around 7:00 p.m. when they will get to Kamabai convent, God willing.

Thank you for praying for this trip and for this visit.