I felt a spiritual kinship with the young Alberione, who believed that if people did not go to church, then the Church should go to the people. Like him, I wanted to “offer the truth in love” to everyone.
My name is Olga Massango and I am the first Daughter of St. Paul to enter our Institute from Mozambique. I was born in Maputo in 1964, the oldest of ten children. My father, José, is a tailor, and my mother, Maria, is a homemaker. In spite of their poverty, my parents saw to it that we children never lacked the things necessary to live with dignity and to receive a good Christian upbringing and education. For five years, I was student in Our Lady of Grace parochial school in Xipamanine. The school was run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and their missionary presence, together with that of the Sacramentine Fathers, helped to shape and give direction to my journey of faith. The school was also a center of human promotion for the young people and mothers of the area.
Mozambique became independent in 1975 and in 1977 it adopted a Marxist form of government. This led to religious persecution and as a result many believers stopped going to church and some missionaries were forced to leave the country. But in spite of this, the Local Church tried to find ways to remain close to the people and reinforce their faith. It focused on forming the laity to live their commitment to Christ consciously and responsibly and entrusted them with the duty of accompanying young people. This was the fertile soil in which I worked first as a catechist, then as a member of the parish liturgical team. It prepared the way for my choice of a vocation to the religious life.
In 1983, the Daughters of St. Paul moved from Beira, where they had opened a community in 1967, to Maputo because the forced closure of the book center in Beira meant that they could not carry out their mission there. Their arrival in Maputo was my first contact with the Pauline apostolate. The following year, the magazine Sinal published an article on the life of Fr. James Alberione to commemorate the centenary of his birth. I felt a spiritual kinship with the young Alberione, who believed that if people did not go to church, then the Church should go to the people. Like him, I wanted to “offer the truth in love” to everyone. I often stopped by the Pauline book center, where I would quietly watch the sisters and the young women who assisted them carry out their duties. One day, one of them gave me leaflet that explained the Pauline mission.
When I finished my studies, I took a job at the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, where I was asked to collaborate in a research project for FAO. My work environment was pleasant, the project manager had great confidence in me and my future looked very bright. But my parish priest helped me realize that the Lord was calling me to something else–namely, to courageously choose the religious life according to the charism of Fr. Alberione. I felt that this was the path that would enable me to be a sign of faith and hope in Mozambique. But everything had to be done with great secrecy. If the authorities had learned of my intention to become a nun, I would have been immediately conscripted for compulsory military service or else I would have been punished in some other way. Thus, with the full support of my family, I carried out my vocational discernment quietly, without calling any attention to myself.
Finally, on the afternoon of 4 February 1985, my parish priest accompanied me to the residence of the Daughters of St. Paul and presented me to them. After a six-month trial period, I was accepted as an aspirant. All my classes and formation sessions during that time took place at night and on weekends. This formation was combined with apostolic activities. It was a beautiful period in which I experienced what it meant a “formation community.”
I worked at the university up to the moment of my departure for Nairobi, Kenya, where I was sent to continue my formation. For the sake of prudence, it was my father who took my letter of resignation to the Veterinary Institute the same day I should have gone back to work after my vacation. I felt the support of the Lord, who whispered in my heart: “Do not be afraid. I have called you by name. You are mine…” (cf. Is. 43:1-5).
My departure from Mozambique was like a leap into the dark–a state of uncertainty that was made even more acute because of the hostilities between my country and Kenya. In Nairobi, I found myself a part of a large formation group. Together, we FSP candidates sought to respond to the call of God in a context that became more and more intercultural as time went by. The Nairobi foundation was still in its initial stages and it was a joy to me to see the community, its apostolic activities and formation sector develop….
After I made my first profession in 1991, I returned to Mozambique. In spite of the fact that my homeland was in the midst of a civil war, I joyfully carried out the Pauline apostolate in the book center and also dedicated myself to vocation work. Little by little, young women began to enter–a fact that gave me great consolation. Only the Divine Master knows the time and the graces that are needed to fulfill his plans. After receiving the necessary training in theology, I collaborated with the project to produce an edition of the Bible for Africa. This involved intensive teamwork with the Local Church and different funding agencies–our partners in the work of evangelization.
At a certain point of my vocational journey, the Lord asked me to leave my own country to serve as a missionary in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where our Spanish Delegation had opened a provisional community. Our work was to help the Local Church by running a book center and the diocesan library. I helped to carry out this mission from 2007-2010.
Right now I am in Rome, finishing a year of updating on the Pauline charism–an annual course open to the whole Pauline Family. I am living this gift of the Lord in a spirit of grateful remembrance of the many sisters of different ethnic backgrounds with whom I lived and worked in my 20 years as a Daughter of St.Paul. Together with them, I carried out many services: book center work, the publishing apostolate, vocation ministry, formation of the aspirants, postulants and juniors. I even served for a time as local superior.
God willing, at the end of this academic year I will be inserted into our Southern Africa Delegation (a new Delegation composed of the FSP communities of South Africa and Mozambique) and thus will begin a new adventure of faith and trust in the Lord, who is guiding my life and who loves me with an eternal love.
I want to thank my superiors for giving me this opportunity to deepen my love for my Pauline vocation. Sincere thanks also to all the sisters and young women who have taught me through their example how to “be Church” as a member of an Institute called to proclaim the Gospel to everyone in today’s communications culture.