Meet Fr. Avelino Sangameya, M.S.

Where were you born and raised?

I was born in a village called Kangongo (his village) Tchindjendje (the Region), at the west-center of Angola, in the Province of Huambo. The city of Huambo, during the Colonial Era, used to be the capital of Angola, and was then-named “New Lisbon”.

I was born in 1970. My father’s name is José Avelino, and he worked as a professional tailor and was trained in South Africa. My mother, Clementina Juquila, worked in our home. We were ten children – three boys and seven girls), and today we are only six, the others having passed away young from malaria.

I had a very solid family life and my parents were active Catholics, and even my grandfather (mom’s father) started an out-station (a small Christian community) at my village. He (Joaquim Sakalikita) requested that, since the distance to the local parish was far from our village, asked that a La Salette Missionary of Switzerland, working at the Tchindjendje Mission (Camela Mission, the first La Salette Mission in Angola) come to our village to celebrate the sacraments. He accepted to come to minister regularly. In fact, I was baptized by Fr. Leander Volken, M.S.

In 1976, due to our civil war, my family was forced to abandon our village and we went to the area of Benguela, into the town of Cubal. At that time, I was just six years old.

As always, in Cubal we attended our La Salette Parish Church regularly. It was in that parish that I felt the call to become a missionary. I began my formation to prepare to go to the La Salette Seminary which was in Benguela.

How did I choose to become a La Salette Missionary?

From left: Fr. Avelino in our Rome house; Fr. Leander Volken, M.S. (left edge); Fr. Hilario Segunda, M.S.
While other religious congregations left the country when the colonial system fell apart, our La Salettes decided to remain to minister among us and we will never forget that fact!

Where was your formation as a La Salette?

Before I entered the seminary, I took part in an admissions test, including Religion, Portuguese and Mathematics, given by Fr. Elias Heliario Segunda, M.S., who eventually became my first Rector in the Seminary.

In 1987 I entered the seminary at age 17. The day I left for the seminary, it was my first day to separate myself from my family. Everyone was crying but my father explained that if it is Avelino’s decision, we should support him with our prayers instead of our tears. We must respect his wishes.

During my first days in the Seminary, I was missing my home and family. I joined three other friends in the seminary and we supported one another. As time went by, I soon began to feel at home there in the seminary, working, praying and studying together. In one particular event, I felt sleepy and wanted to go to bed but, due to the seminary schedule, it was unfortunately not allowed.

Later, I was beginning to enjoy life, even playing soccer with the other seminarians. Our studies were very demanding but I applied myself and did well and felt more confident as days went by.
Our La Salette Compound in Huambo, Angola: (from left) Main Entrance; Shrine Church; a few of the buildings.
After my first two years and before entering philosophy studies, we moved to the La Salette Major Seminary in Huambo. After three years, we made our Novitiate in Lubango, about 400 kilometers away. Our Novitiate Program is still held there.

After completing my Novitiate, we couldn’t return to Huambo for Theological studies because while we were in the Novitiate, the rebels captured the city of Huambo from the MPLA Government, after a fearsome battle of 55 days and nights. Therefore we traveled abroad and made our studies in the outskirts of the metropolis of Saõ Paulo, Brazil, where we met Pedro Chungandu, M.S., already studying there.

When I finished theology, I went back home to be ordained a deacon. I was ordained to the Priesthood on July 26, 1998 in San Martinho de Lima Church in Lobito. We were a group of eighteen priests ordained together –two of us were La Salettes and the others were Diocesan priests.

In what ministries have you served?

My first assignment as a priest was to work in formation as the Assistant Director in our Major Seminary in Huambo. Within one year, I became the Director. After five years, in 2002, there was a need to establish a new La Salette mission in the neighboring country of Namibia, an English-speaking country. Fr. Pedro asked me to take this challenge and I accepted and left for Namibia on September 11, 2002.

There I ministered as a parish priest with two assistants in the Good Shepherd Parish, Jesus Omurisc Omuua – as listed in the local Herero language – in the Opuwo Mission District, a very large area. We were near a vast camp of displaced Himba people, some of them Catholic.

After seven years of ministry in that parish, we had encouraged a lot of Catholics to come back to Church. We had built three new out-station churches, and two schools for children – the establishment of which also encouraged our people to return to active faith. Our Bishop, Liborius Ndumbukuti Nachenda, O.M.I., supported us in many ways.

Then I was invited to come to Rome for further studies. I was already a member of our International La Salette Peace and Justice Committee. In October, 2009, I began my studies, specializing in Political Science and International Relations, finally attaining my Master’s Degree and am presently completing my thesis for a Doctorate in Political Science from the Angelicum University.

After I received my Master’s Degree, I decided to remain connected with the Angelicum University, yet I also chose to return to Huambo, Angola, to teach and minister at a Mission School while completing my Doctoral Thesis. In January of 2015, during our Provincial Chapter, I was elected as a Provincial Assistant, in addition to my responsibility to complete my doctoral studies.

Where do you see the need for our charism of reconciliation in your Province?

From my early years of formation, I have seen in the La Salette charism powerfully witnessed by our La Salette Missionaries. They were very close to their people during the Civil War so that reconciliation and unity would not be forgotten. Despite the encouragement of our local bishop for our La Salettes to move to a safer place, they remained in their ministry, steadfastly supporting their local Catholic communities. This fact created a special unshakable relationship of deep affection between the La Salettes and the people.



At one point, the local bishop decided to create a new parish and assign it to a Diocesan priest. The people protested, considering themselves part and parcel of the La Salette lifestyle, and insisted on having a La Salette as their parish priest. The people spoke up about their own unshakable affection for the La Salette Missionaries and their desire to remain connected with our community.

After fourteen years of our civil war, we can see how people are still divided, often resisting to come together as one nation, insisting on retaining their political intolerance. I feel that our charism of reconciliation is vitally important now more than ever in our country. We are all in need of the gifts of forgiveness, acceptance and unity.

In my doctoral work as a La Salette Missionary, I am centering in on the area of reconciliation, exploring the topics of trust, as well as forgiveness, acceptance, recognition of each other, and finally, unity as a nation. I feel that this is a special opportunity for me to express my love for and hope for my people to experience a solid and longstanding life of reconciliation, unity and peace after three tragic decades of war.

What are your hopes for your Province membership and your ministries?

First of all, we are a very young province; our average age is about thirty years old. In my studies, I have admired the work of the noted Polish sociologist and philosopher, Zigmunt Bauman (1925-2017), who speaks about life as a “liquid modernity”, that is, the fact that the traditional cyclical patterns of life are being replaced by self-chosen horizontal ones, and therefore nothing can last for long.

In this life of constant changes, the group which is most effected is the young. My dream is that, in these challenges of today, my fellow La Salette Missionaries – no matter how young we are – can bear witness to the longstanding values of our Religious Life, as we have expressed publicly in our vows.

And finally, although some experts say that “nothing can last forever”, we as La Salette Religious can continue to profess with pride our vows and witness to the stability of our life, faith and future through our belief in God. We must continue to be light and salt for all Mary’s people in this ever-changing world of globalization.

As Jesus reminds us:

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:13-16).