Nairobi, 31 December, 2025 / 1:12 AM
At the dawn of 2026, the Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has invited women and men Religious in Africa and Madagascar to see themselves anew through a powerful image: the sacred tree that shelters, heals, and gives life.
In a New Year message addressed to members of the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM), Sr. Simona Brambilla proposes the image of a sacred tree as both a spiritual lens and a pastoral roadmap for Consecrated Life on the world’s second largest continent.
“At the beginning of this year 2026, I gladly extend greetings and best wishes to each and every one of you!” Sr. Brambilla writes, situating her reflection within the wider life of the Church and the 8-9 October 2025 Jubilee of Consecrated Life that was part of the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year realized under the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Drawing from Pope Leo XIV’s homily at the Jubilee Mass on 9 October 2025, the Italian-born member of the Consolata Missionary Sisters (MC) recalls “the image of the tree that spreads oxygen throughout the world,” describing it as “a beautiful image of consecrated life, rich and vibrant, which could accompany us throughout the year.”
For Africa and Madagascar, the image takes on particular depth, she says, noting that during the COMSAM Assembly held in South Africa in May 2025, participants also reflected on the tree “as a place that offers shelter and protection along the journey.”
In many African cultures, Sr. Brambilla explains, the sacred tree is more than a metaphor; it is a lived reality of encounter, memory, and reconciliation.
“In some cultures, and spiritual experiences, dialogue with God and with ancestors finds its natural and primary place precisely in the shade of the sacred tree where prayer is celebrated, the ritual of communion between the visible and invisible worlds,” she writes.
Naming this space the Palabre Tree, Sr. Brambilla describes it as “a visual representation of this ‘living place’ where heaven and earth meet, a safe space where conflicts are resolved, broken or lost threads are reconnected.”
In this light, Consecrated Life is called to become such a place for today’s wounded world. The sacred tree, she says, is a site where “balance, connection, and communion can be found within oneself, with others, with creation, and with God.” It is also a bridge – deeply rooted and expansively open.
“The tree serves as a bridge between different dimensions, between heaven and earth, a symbolic yet very concrete bridge,” the first-ever women to head a Vatican Dicastery, who was appointed in January 2025 notes, pointing to its roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit as signs of an integrated and fruitful life.
COMSAM is a Vatican-endorsed confederation that the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) established in 2005. It brings together Conferences of Major Superiors from across Africa and its islands to support, strengthen, and empower the Consecrated on the continent.
COMSAM works in close partnership with the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL), the department of the Roman Curia that is responsible for matters concerning women and men Religious.
COMSAM aims to foster collaboration, provide formation, and encourage mission engagement among ICLSAL across linguistic and cultural boundaries in Africa.
In her New Year 2026 message to COMSAM members, Sr. Brambilla lingers on the healing power traditionally associated with sacred trees. “Often, in sacred trees, true sanctuaries of the people, everything is healing, nourishing, and protecting,” she writes.
The Vatican official adds that the various parts of sacred trees “constitute true resources of therapeutic energy to strengthen and sustain the physical, mental, relational, and spiritual life of individuals and the community.”
From this flows a challenging question for Religious Life today: “From which of ‘sacred trees’ do we draw strength and support along our journey? How can Consecrated Life become a ‘sacred tree’ along the pilgrimage of our brothers and sisters?”
Answering this call, the Vatican Prefect urges members of ICLSAL in Africa and Madagascar to cultivate both memory and renewal. “It seems important to me that Consecrated Life create spaces and paths to cultivate both the roots and the shoots of the tree,” she writes.
These include “spaces and paths of graceful memory,” where the history, charism, luminous witnesses, struggles, and sufferings of each institute are revisited and honoured. Such remembrance, she insists, enables roots “to sink ever deeper into the healthy soil of the charism,” so that Consecrated Life may be nourished by “ever new and fresh sap” and give rise to “new shoots that spread the oxygen the world needs today.”
“Happy New Year!” Sr. Brambilla says, leaving COMSAM members with a vision of Consecrated Life as Africa’s sacred tree: deeply rooted, generously sheltering, quietly healing, and abundantly life-giving for the Church and the world in 2026.
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