At Bicentenary Celebration, Missionaries of Africa Founder Remembered for “legacy of faith, human dignity”

Cardinal Lavigerie founded the Society of Missionaries of Africa in 1868 with the aim to evangelize the people of God in Africa. A year later, he founded the White Sisters.

Relying on the support of the White Fathers and the White Sisters he had founded, the Cardinal is also remembered for establishing “orphanages, industrial schools, settlements, and hospitals, where the Arabs could be brought under Catholic influence.”

Credit: Harmony Institute

It is reported that “as Apostolic Delegate of Western Sahara and the Sudan, he began in 1874 the work which brought his missionaries into the heart of Africa; to this was added the administration of the Diocese of Constantine, the foundation of a clerical seminary for the Oriental missions at Saint Anne of Jerusalem, 1878, and the government of the Vicariate of Tunis.”

Created Cardinal in 1882, the founder of the White Fathers and White Sisters is also remembered for “furthering the policy of Pope Leo XIII, directing French Catholics to adhere to the republic, and with his promotion of the anti-slavery movement.”

He passed on in November 1892 at the age of 67; he was laid to rest in a specially constructed tomb inside the Metropolitan Cathedral of Carthage. Decades later, in 1964, the White Fathers moved the remains of Cardinal Lavigerie to the crypt of the General Curia's chapel in Rome, Italy.

Credit: Harmony Institute

For several decades, the initial training of MAfr members was realized in Europe and North America. However, amid changes in missionary movement in the Church characterized by a significant growth of membership in Africa, most formation houses have been “relocated to Africa to contextualize and foster an African-centric training.”

In his September 20 address, MAfr Superior General described their founder as “a man of striking contrasts, strong and determined, yet a deeply prayerful and visionary leader. As Missionaries of Africa and Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, we see in him a man of passion.”

Cardinal Lavigerie, Fr. Lubungo went on to say, “lived a four-fold passion: a passion for God, for the Church, for humanity, and most visibly, a passion for Africa.”

Credit: Radio Maria Kenya

This four-fold passion, he said, guided every decision Cardinal Lavigerie made, every mission he embraced, and every community he established.

“The Cardinal’s love for Africa was not simply the fascination of an explorer,” Fr. Lubungo said, and added, “It was the love of a missionary who saw in our continent a people beloved of God and destined to flourish in the Gospel.” 

From the very beginnings of his Episcopal Ministry in Algeria and later in Tunisia, Fr. Lubungo said that Cardinal Lavigerie “made it clear that he wanted to die and be buried in African soil.”

Credit: Radio Maria Kenya

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“He once wrote, I love everything about this Africa,” the White Fathers’ Superior General said, and added that their founder proved it by refusing more prestigious positions in Europe to remain where his heart had found its home.

He added, “Cardinal Lavigerie’s passion was nourished by a broad and open vision of the Church and salvation. He saw God’s grace already at work in every person of goodwill. This conviction, I think, led him to adopt patient methods of evangelization, such as the long catechumenate.”

For him, Fr. Lubungo said, “mission meant respect, dialogue, and friendship—a vision that still inspires our missionary approach today. Our founder’s love for Africa was not only spiritual or historical; it was also profoundly humanitarian.”

Credit: Missionaries of Africa

“We have an apostle in him, and our prayer is that we may be inspired by that same missionary zeal that pushed him to fight for Africa,” he said in his September 20 address at TU, the Nairobi-based Catholic institution of higher learning jointly-owned by 22 member Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL).

Speaking at the same event, the Chancellor of TU described Cardinal Lavigerie as a pioneer, a dreamer, and a prophet who “played a leading role towards the abolition of the slave trade.”

As a pioneer, a dreamer, and a prophet in his own rank, Fr. Prof. Edward Etengu said that the Cardinal’s daring experiment has “borne unexpected fruits through his evangelization work” in Africa.

Fr. Prof. Edward Etengu. Credit: Harmony Institute

“The missions once established on distant soils, especially Africa, have grown into authentic mission stations rooted in the Catholic tradition and local culture,” Fr. Etengu said in his September 20 address.

He added, “On this note, my prayer for you as sons and daughters of Cardinal Lavigerie is that you may continue to carry on with the dream, with this vision, and that this vision may not die with you.”

On her part, Sr. Florence Mwamba Malunga, who presented on the vision of Cardinal Lavigerie said their founder “was always ahead of his own time (and) believed in the special and indispensable role that women play in the development of humanity.”

Sr. Mwamba said that the Cardinal had “progressive ideas about the role of women in society and in missionary apostolate.”

Even in old age, the MSOLA member said that the Cardinal dedicated his life to supporting the apostolate of women, whom he saw as apostles and indispensable partners of their male counterparts.

“Looking at the role of women in the Holy Gospels, starting with the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, and the women in his own life, Cardinal Lavigerie believed in the important role of Christian women in spearheading transformation in society through the sharing of the Gospel of liberation,” she said.

The native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) further said that the Cardinal was already speaking of the essential role of women in the world and in the Church before the campaign for the liberation of women, as it is known in contemporary society.

Through Cardinal Lavigerie’s vision, she said, “women are transformers of society from within” for the Cardinal acknowledged that women’s crucial work greatly contributes to the progressive transformation of societies, the interior liberation of people, and the integral development of humanity.

Credit: Radio Maria Kenya

“Cardinal Lavigerie’s broad-minded vision stemmed from his belief in the universal Church that embraces all people and adapts to diverse cultures and contexts,” Sr. Mwamba said, adding that one of the Cardinal’s visions was that Christian women are the best apostles to other women.

Cardinal Lavigerie also have the vision that Christian women need to engage in advocacy in favour of their sisters who need liberation, Sr. Mwamba, who previously served as leader of MSOLA members in East and Central Africa recalled.

She noted that Cardinal Lavigerie envisioned women as evangelizers and leaders within their respective families, emphasizing that a holistic approach to the promotion of women is essential, and that their active participation in public life is vital for the transformation of society.