Messaggio di Mons. Baroni in occasione dei 25 anni di attività del Comboni

Mons. Agostino Baroni, nel messaggio in occasione del 25mo anniversario del College traccia un bilancio del lavoro svolto e di quello che rimaneva ancora da realizzare, sottolineando il carattere peculiare del Comboni.

Tratto da Comboni College Khartoum, 1954, p. 7.

25 years...!

Twenty-five years of work! It is an achievement. Twenty-five years of uninterrupted progress! It is a flattering realization! And yet it is nothing more than what is expected of every man in life, and of every institution in the world.

The College motto "Always More and Always Better!" could also be taken to mean an ambitious aspiration to extraordinary growth and excelling records, but in fact it means and should always mean nothing more than what every man in life and every pupil at school should aim at: "Every day one good deed more and every day one fault less to score!".

The Gospel words "No man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven" must be recalled now, as we celebrate the first jubilee year of Comboni College in Khartoum Thanks to God for all that we have been able to do during these last 25 years for His glory, for our children’s spiritual and material advantage, for the Sudan’s benefit and for Africa’s sake. But we need not look back, be it to contemplate what has been done, or be it to repent for what could have been done and was not attempted to.

We need only to look ahead of us. May God enlighten our path that we find our way to a more acceptable work - we must aim at perfection, although we shall never reach it - , and may we, all and each, Staff and pupils, school personnel and citizens of this country, cooperate that we may persevere and finally bequeath to our successors an institution worthy of their esteem and support.

There is one thing that I for one and all the members of the College Staff with me like not to miss on this occasion, and that is to assure the Government authorities of our gratitude for their incessant moral support, the parents of our ever ardent desire that their children be given at Comboni College - and also at all the now numerous branches of Comboni College in the various parts of the country - not only an efficient mental training, but also a sound moral education, and the pupils - old and new - of our appreciation for their filial attachment to the school and to us.
 
 

Augustine Baroni

Vicar Apostolic of Khartoum