The Consolata missionaries arrived in Poland in 2008 and settled in Kielpin in the Diocese of Warsaw with the task of working in the missionary animation of the local Church. In 2022, a second community was created in the city of Białystok, the center of the diocese by the same name, on the border with Belarus.
By Jaime C. Patias *
“Our presence is also a sign of consolation and therefore, in this community other types of activities are carried out that are not only of evangelization and animation, but also of consolation,” explains the Argentine Father, Juan Carlos Carmona, in an interview given to the Office for Communication during his recent visit to Rome.
“Our house in Białystok has also become part of the local Caritas and offers services to migrants, especially those who have had to leave Ukraine,” says the missionary who has been working in Poland for nine years and together with his brother, Father Dirick Julius Sanga, they visit various places in the country to “do animation in the local Church with young people, with children in schools, organize meetings in parishes and organize Missionary Sundays with spiritual retreats.”
Pilgrims of Hope
In this year of the Jubilee of Hope, the Church in Poland remembers the figure of Pope Saint John Paul II, who “is still alive and continues to be for us that pilgrim who accompanies us and is close to us. We, Consolata missionaries, also repeat this beautiful gesture of making a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Czestochowa every year. It is a pilgrimage that lasts ten days, we do it together with the people and it is now a tradition of the Church of Poland that every year sets out on the road to the Virgin of Czestochowa. The peculiarity of this year as proposed by Pope Francis, is precisely to be Pilgrims of Hope. We find ourselves in this life on a pilgrimage to the Father, and it is a pilgrimage full of hope. Hope is not a characteristic that only gives a color to our pilgrimage. It is also something more. Hope is precisely the meaning, the power to move our steps already knowing where we will arrive and who we will be with, with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
This hope has a concrete face, our Lord Jesus Christ. With this spirit we in Poland want to be pilgrims of hope in our daily lives, in our living this life intensely, that is, being and living the presence of the Lord Jesus”.
The holiness of Joseph Allamano
“This year we have an additional grace because Allamano has been proclaimed a Saint. We perceived the holiness of Allamano from the beginning and we were already convinced that he was with the Lord not only because he was blessed, but also because of his own words, when he repeated to the missionaries: ‘First saints, then missionaries’. Having experienced his canonization a short time ago, we begin a new season, a time in which we say: yes, the holiness of our Founder is confirmed, therefore, the roots are holy and healthy; therefore, the tree he planted and its fruits are holy. This is very beautiful because it makes us perceive even more the charisma received from Allamano: to bring consolation, to be like Mary, to bring the Lord Jesus to the people. So, with this wish to move out, to go, to find the other, to be bearers of hope, to be bearers of the Lord Jesus, let us live this time of grace together with our Founder and Father”.
Father Juan Carlos was born in 1984 in Argentina in San Juan, in the province of the same name. Hearing the call of God, he entered the Institute and after initial formation, in 2007 he did his novitiate in Martin Coronado. He was then sent to Rome to study theology (2008-2013). His priestly ordination took place in Argentina on August 23, 2014.
* Father Jaime C. Patias, IMC, Communications Office.
