My name is Adeline Loukouri, I am 43 years old, I am a missionary of the Villaregia Missionary Community for 22 years and I have been in Burkina Faso for 4 years.
I am in charge of parish pastoral care, vocation pastoral care, and youth pastoral care.
Catechism in the parish is divided into three sections, which are catechism for children, catechism for adults in the Mooré language (a main language of the country), and catechism for youth and adults in French. There is a total of approximately 5462 children, 300 adults for the Mooré language, and 186 youth and adults for catechism in French.
The catechesis takes place every Wednesday and Saturday for children and every Saturday for adults and young people. The catechesis for children takes place from 2pm to 3pm.
At 2pm, we meet with the catechists for a moment of prayer and sharing of any information, if there is any. Then everyone goes to their class and also says a prayer with their catechumens. I then go around all the classes, which are about 16 classes, spread out across the church courtyard; under shelters, trees, and sometimes without any shelter under the sun (42°) for most, to check that all the catechists are present and that the children are not alone.
Each class has more than 150 catechumens. After visiting the class, I prepare the file of the catechumens who are preparing for the sacraments and there are approximately 1533 children this year who have received the sacraments of baptism, first communion, and confirmation. It is a patient work, because we have to check that each child has a godfather or godmother, in order to then do the different retreats in preparation for the sacraments.
After an hour, we are quite tired, but happy to have been able to exchange with the PMC (catechist mothers and fathers) who are there under the sun with the children to pass on the faith.
