A love for nature. Ready to accept life’s challenges. Twelve years of missionary life in Zambia transformed her mentality and spirituality. Sister Eulalia Capdevila Enriquez speaks to us.
My parents gave me the name Eulàlia, a name which implies an entire life program. Since I was little, I learned that it derives etymologically from ancient Greek and means “well-spoken”. I became very aware that words have the power to build the world, to bless it, to beautify it. Later I discovered that they can also be used to destroy it.
From my childhood, I remember the hours spent with my sisters and my brother, and also my cousins, among fruit trees. We were farmers and my love for the countryside, plants and trees grew naturally. I also remember how I loved silence because it excited me to think about the time my father spent alone in the fields, without extraneous noises, patiently waiting for all the plots to receive water from the well.
From my mother, a migrant, a creative and enterprising woman, I learned to explore life and not to be satisfied with what I have learned, but to always look beyond and accept new challenges. Despite her work, she continued to be a catechist in our parish and also organized the first training for catechists.
From my father, I learned as a child that there was a continent called Africa. He always told us about his experiences in Cameroon, where he spent some years as a lay missionary. I grew up in this environment where the narratives of Africa and those of Jesus were harmoniously intertwined. During my adolescence, the news showed the terrible famine in Ethiopia and, later, from other African countries.
I wondered how people could die while we had a place to grow crops and get food. For the first time, I felt that the world was unfair and that I had to do something. I wanted to lend my voice to announce the Good News honouring my name and also to lend my hands so that no one would ever go hungry. That was the greatest challenge that a shy and fearful teenager could have chosen. I entered the School of Agricultural Engineering thinking that I would be useful one day somewhere in Africa, but the truth was that I still did not know where to go.
In 1997, together with the young people of my parish, I participated in the World Youth Day in Paris. There were more than a million of us young people and I will never forget the evening when John Paul II gave us a catechesis on John 1:38: “Master, where do you live? Come and see”.
That evening I realized that if I did not believe in the word of Jesus, I would not go anywhere. I had to take a big step. I told Jesus that I trusted him. That same year, in October, I met by chance, at a prayer meeting, a lay Comboni missionary who invited me to meet his group.
I took the big step and for a year I greatly appreciated the missionary atmosphere and the formative process that we had, accompanied by the Comboni Missionaries. Before the end of that period, one of them said to me: “I think you should meet the Comboni Missionary Sisters”.
From that moment my life was transformed, because I found my place in the world by living my missionary vocation as a consecrated woman according to the Comboni charism. In the first years of formation, I laid solid foundations for my desire to give myself to others, especially to the most disadvantaged, without forgetting that following Jesus is a continuous journey of human and spiritual growth. I entrusted myself – and I entrust myself – to the charism of Daniel Comboni, with his spirituality of the pierced heart of Christ that beats with love for all humanity and his methodology of “saving Africa with Africa”.
My first missionary experience in Zambia has shaped me in such a way that I feel “blessed”. My words have always been equal to the generosity, hospitality and humanity that I have experienced in this country. The best thing I can do as a “well-spoken” person is to remain silent, and then, humbly, join in the thanksgiving that my most disadvantaged brothers and sisters in Zambia sing every day, for the difficulties they suffer.
I have lived my missionary vocation for 12 years in Zambia. The experiences have accumulated, but I will tell you only three moments. The first took place in a chapel in the rural villages, where I gave a group of young people three days of formation on faith and another, more practical, on agroforestry.
Young Christians in rural areas, almost all parents, depend entirely on fishing, livestock breeding and agriculture. One day a boy was caught stealing all the posters we had made in the local language. He confessed that he wanted the materials to be taken to other non-Catholic youth living in more distant villages.
Following this incident, the youth group leaders decided to respond and organized an expedition to visit those villages, so the formation began to open up to other groups outside our parish. The missionary leadership that these young Christians demonstrated was for me the best formation for the Mission I have ever had.
The second moment was when we undertook a project to develop a youth catechesis manual. We wanted to develop it in the local language with the participation of young people from the main parishes of the Diocese of Mongu. The response and commitment they showed exceeded all my expectations. We worked intensely for a year.
Once published, the young people voluntarily and with great joy dedicated themselves to introducing it in their parishes and also in the teachers’ college. They were young people announcing the Good News to other young people at the same time. Once again, I felt the universality of the missionary spirit that is embodied in people of all origins and ages.
The third moment was when we started to raise awareness among the local population about caring for creation because the burning of trees for charcoal production was turning our area into a desert.
The initiative started very humbly, but with the support of the local traditional chief, today there is a centre, called Mother Earth, that continues to raise awareness about the need to care for and manage natural resources wisely. In addition, the centre hosts several training initiatives on organic farming, nutrition and other sustainable practices, whose operation is guaranteed by a community of Comboni Sisters.
I like to think that experiences like these have transformed my mentality and my spirituality. This school of life and humanity has allowed me to relate to all aspects of life. We must preach Jesus and, at the same time, try to alleviate the pain of our brothers and sisters.
