(India-Algeria) Indian Catholic nun’s missionary experience in Algeria

By Lucy D’Mello

Mascara, Sept 24, 2020: As a missionary, I always expressed my desire for the “Ad Extra” mission (towards the outside).

I almost gave up hope when the Lord gave me the Mission of Algeria, the largest Muslim nation in North Africa, surrounded by the Mediterranean coast, on my 50th birthday.

Our God is a God of surprises and shows Himself to those open to His presence and presence in the world in a thousand ways.

I arrived in Oran, one of the four dioceses in Algeria, on August 27, 2014. We started a community with Sisters Serena De Stefani and Marta Arosio in Mascara, a town some 390 km northwest of Algeria’s national capital.

We are part of a centre run by an elderly French priest named ‘El Amel’ (the hope).

I’m a nurse by profession, and we have a small clinic where elderly people and women tend to visit. This has allowed me to establish relationships with families that have given me easy access.

I had the opportunity to help with the illness of Miloud, Meriam, Kaddur, Zuleika, and many others who have now gone to their heavenly abode. But as a member, my friendship with the family continues.

Many are really pleased to invite us to take part in marriage celebrations, new births and anniversaries. In painful moments of illness or the death of a dear one in the family, we even visit them.

People are hospitable, warm-hearted, and compassionate, and there is a very noticeable religious community.

Some phrases such as ‘Inch-Allah’ (if God wishes it),’ Hamou-Allah’ (praise be to God) are also used by most people.

Five times a day, a call to prayer allows me to lift my heart and mind to God, the Father of us all.

I love the brotherhood that we live here, outside the boundaries of culture and language. When I got the news of my nun’s death in February 2017, many women came to express their condolences carrying the special bread and dates that are part of the culture.

“They invite us to” l’ftour” (breaking the fast) during the holy month of Ramadan. Some of them carried the meal to us even this year when it was not possible due to Covid-19.

Khadija, who lost her husband a year ago and lives with her only daughter, can’t forget the first day of Ramadan in 2018. She told me, moved with emotions, “Lucy, what an experience of breaking my fast with an Indian Catholic sister.”

The visitation of Mary to Elizabeth is the icon of the small church in Algeria that in the local community behaves like salt and yeast.

The Christians consist mainly of students, priests, religious men and women, expatriates and a few locals from other African countries.

The center offers numerous activities for women, such as tailoring, knitting, cooking, aerobics and yoga. The students have library lessons and language classes.

For children with autism and a small group of preschool children, we have activities.

Together with one of the center’s animators, the two of us go to a nearby village once a week. I visit the sick, and the others teach a group of women who are unable to come to the center to learn crafts. With tea and snacks, it still ends.

A small community of Muslims and we, three nuns and a priest, the only Christians in Mascara, gather together once a month to share our experiences of living faith.

I began visiting the prison recently, along with our parish priest. We primarily visit Christians from neighbouring African countries and Muslims.

As described in the third Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, “Gaudate et Exultate”, (Rejoice and Be Glad, 2018), we should not forget that “Life has no mission, but it is a mission.”

Our foundress, Mother Giuseppina Dones, also says that no place, no circumstance can diminish the passionate thirst of the MSI apostolate, who tries to communicate Christ and His ideals everywhere and always, with life, word and charity.

And today, in the present challenging situation of Covid-19, I am more than ever persuaded of my call to be a prophetic witness of the love and grace of God to all my brothers and sisters, regardless of their caste, colour, and faith.

[Sister Lucy D’Mello is part of the ‘Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate’ (MSI) congregation, also known as the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions or PIME. In Algeria, North Africa, she’s a missionary]

From some news agency