Johannesburg (South Africa). From 23 to 25 May 2025, in Boksburg-Johannesburg, South Africa, at St. Dominic Catholic School for Girls, the Symposium of the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM) was held. The meeting, hosted for the first time in South Africa, was attended by 400 consecrated men and women from all over Africa and Madagascar.
Founded in 2005 by the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the COMSAM is a confederation that brings together the Conferences of Major Superiors from all over the African continent. It is a platform for collaboration between religious congregations and works in close collaboration with the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life in the Vatican. The mission of COMSAM is to support, strengthen, and empower consecrated life in Africa.
“Hope, Synodality, and Strengthening of Consecrated Life in Africa” was the theme of the Symposium, inserted into the Jubilee Year with the desire to address crucial issues such as the empowerment of African religious congregations, strengthening synodality within the Church, and protection against abuse.
The Symposium and the subsequent General Assembly, held in Pretoria from 26 to 30 May, were attended by important representatives of the Church, including Sister Simona Brambilla, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, and Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, member of the Dicastery and President of SECAM, the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. Their participation highlights the commitment of the Church to support and accompany religious communities in Africa.
Among the participants, there were also several members of the Salesian Family: the Provincial of Our Lady of Peace Province (AFM), Sister Cecilia Motanya, and 7 other Daughters of Mary Help of Christians from different communities in Lesotho, South Africa, and Zambia; the Salesians of Don Bosco, including Fr. Václav Klement, Superior of Blessed Michele Rua Preprovince (AFM), and the Missionaries of Mary Help of Christians. The Provincial House of Benoni also hosted 17 religious from 6 different congregations, including Father Celestino Muhatili, of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette (MS); Sister Natalia Miguel, Superior of Queen of Peace Preprovince (ANG) and Vice-President of the Angola Conference.
The Symposium opened with a Mass presided by Bishop William Slattery, OFM and continued with the introduction of the Vice President of the Regional Conference of Major Superiors of Southern Africa, Sister Laurentina Motseki.
Each day, the participants prayed, reflected, and shared ideas on various topics, treated by different speakers, including hope, synodality, and strengthening the Congregations. A synodal Church is a sign of hope for the world, because it is a Church that listens, walks with the most disadvantaged, those wounded by life, and seeks communion in love and solidarity.
In his discourse, Card. Fridolin Ambongo Besungu thanked the consecrated men and women for their prayers during the Conclave and invited them “to walk together in the synodal spirit”, expressing the conviction that “consecrated life and religious communities in Africa must remain workshops of synodality,” also by virtue of a culture that emphasizes this aspect with the traditional “Ubuntu” and “palaver”: “I am because we are”.
The image of the “palaver” was taken by Sister Simona Brambilla in her presentation, that defined it as an open circular structure of different materials (wood, bamboo, stone.), a place of shelter, but above all, of dialogue, advice, resolution of tensions, space for change, conversion, and reconciliation.
At the end of the meeting, the participants made commitments summarized in ten points:
- Deepen our relationship with Christ, so that, seeing the world with His eyes, we can influence and build Africa and Madagascar;
- Commit ourselves for greater Justice and Peace and for the protection of the weakest in Africa and Madagascar, by involving ourselves in the creation of Commissions of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) within our national conferences;
- Revive Hope at the heart of our Institutes and Congregations by encouraging the emergence of communities that promote peace, that join the poor and needy in their struggle for greater justice, peace, and fraternity;
- Be catalysts of communion, agents of ecclesial conversion and spaces of prophetic Witness;
- Adopt the values of the palaver, of the Ubuntu and the values of African tradition;
- Consider a new spiritual culture, a new pastoral style that forms and listens to the laity, embodying our charisms to enter into collaboration;
- Collaborate with our Bishops to build our church in Africa;
- Walk together towards the autonomy of our congregations as a prophetic witness to create an abundance of goods to share and proclaim the Gospel;
- Raise our voices and act to bring Africa out of the system that is impoverishing it;
- Protect vulnerable people against every kind of abuse.
The closing Eucharistic Celebration, on 25 May at Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Soweto, was presided by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo and concelebrated by Msgr. Buti Tlhagale, Archbishop emeritus of Johannesburg, in an atmosphere of joy and the presence of many parishioners, giving thanks to the Lord for consecrated life and for the fruitful meeting.
It was an historic event for the Catholic Church in South Africa, especially for the religious, a time of strengthening religious life in Africa, rich in formation and sharing between the different Congregations.
