At an early age Comboni felt a strong call for the mission in Africa. It was a continent not yet fully explored in those days, and a place where Christianity was not well known. He founded two Institutes of men and women to attend to the needs of the Africans of his time. But, above all, he dreamed of Africans being missionaries of their own people. His motto was “to save Africa with Africa”. Now, more than 150 years later (155 precisely), the Comboni Missionaries come from forty-four nationalities and are present in fifty countries worldwide.

Our commitment is to people who are deprived of their basic human rights to freedom, faith, health, education, a way to earn a living, and the opportunity to create a better life for themselves and the people they love. Comboni Missionary priests and lay-religious believe God’s call to Mission is as strong today as it was 2,000 years ago when Jesus said to his apostles, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). We live a vowed life and dedicate ourselves to taking the Gospel to the poorest and most abandoned wherever they are, no matter how dire their circumstances.

In 1864, St. Daniel Comboni laid out a plan for the mission in Africa. That plan was to regenerate Africa through Africans.