In early November, the Italian missionary Maria Carola Cequina was beatified in Meru, Kenya. She “represents the holiness of so many missionaries who were willing to take risks and undergo all kinds of sacrifices to bring us God’s salvation”, said the envoy designated by the Pope, head of the beatification ceremony, Cardinal Antoine Kambanda, who he had come to Kenya from another African country, Rwanda.
Inese Steinert – Vatican
The archbishop of Kigali noted that Sister Maria Karola showed the best gesture of charity that can be done to make others know the love of Christ.
The blessed young man is a member of the congregation founded by Saint Joseph Cotolengo. He was born in 1877 in Padua, but died in 1925 on a ship that was crossing the Red Sea at that time. My sister was traveling from Kenya to her native Italy.
In the homily of the Beatification Mass, Cardinal Kambanda highlighted the absolute trust of Sister Maria Carol in God’s Providence, which allowed her to come to this land of Equatorial Africa and testify so that the inhabitants of the Black Continent can also receive the faith and trust that frees them from fear and invites them to trust in God. The Cardinal invited the faithful to see and imitate the example of missionary zeal in Sister Maria Karola. “She gave us an example to follow in our lives. It is our responsibility to continue this missionary life in today’s world, which needs it so much”, said the papal envoy.
The Archbishop of Kigali also added that the blessed nun who spent her life in Kenya glorified God and the Church. She loved the Lord so much that she wanted to be her arms that embrace the poor. She trusted Him so much that she accepted all the hardships and challenges in her life that came her way. She forgot about herself to do good for others.
Card. Kambanda highlighted that one of the institutions in which the example of Blessed Maria Carol can be applied is the family. He called on families to get rid of so-called “false love” and make way for selfless true love.
Among those present at the celebration of the beatification of Sister Maria Carola Cequina were the apostolic nuncio in Kenya, archbishop Hubert Mateus Maria van Megen, several representatives of the congregation founded by Giuseppe Cotolengo, as well as the Italian ambassador in Kenya Roberto Natali.
