From the 23rd to 26th February 2024, Br Massimo and Br Victor visited various areas and fraternities of the country, always welcomed with joy and great enthusiasm by the friars and Sisters of the Franciscan Family. They went to the Koumassi region, then reached the capital Abidjan, where they visited the Catholic Missionary Institute. They were in the "St Sylvester" fraternity of Yopougon Andokoi, where the meeting took place in a beautiful green setting, under rubber trees, so much so that the Minister exclaimed: "Here we are in the ecological fraternity!". Here Br Massimo also visited the chapel of the "Holy Face", and then imparted his blessing on the student friars and gave them a tau-Cross as a sign of encouragement in their formation.
After a brief stop at the parish of Saint Andrew Kagwa, entrusted to the pastoral care of the friars of Andokoi, he went to the Monastery of Saint Clare of Abobo-té, where he celebrated Vespers together with the Poor Clare Sisters. During the prayer, meditating on the experience of the Transfiguration, the Minister invited those present to move from the solitude of the desert to the construction of fraternity: “It is together, in fraternity, that we allow ourselves to be enlightened by Christ victorious over suffering and death; it is together, in brotherhood, that we learn to listen to the beloved Son of the Father.”
In the following days, Br Massimo received a delegation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, and then visited the Saint Etienne (St. Stephen) parish of Koumassi, where he presided over the Eucharistic celebration. In his homily, the Minister General underlined that we are all beloved children of the Father, because we are loved in a unique way by God; like Francis of Assisi, "every Christian is invited to find in the words of Jesus the measure of his own thoughts, his actions, his life".
After the Mass, Br Massimo met the brothers and sisters of the Secular Franciscan Order and concluded the visit by inaugurating and blessing the statue of Saint Stephen offered to the parish by some local benefactors.
