By mudir 
P. Luigi CODIANNI
Message from the Superior General of the Comboni Missionaries
at the Inauguration of the Port Sudan Branch of
Comboni College of Science & Technology
I heartily greet all the Church personnel, the government authorities and the participants in this event.
I am really pleased to reach you at this important moment that sees the opening of the new building of Comboni College of Science and Technology.
All this accomplishment would not be possible without the insight of Daniele Comboni, priest, Bishop of Central Africa and since 2003 recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. He particularly loved this land, so much so that he made it his home until the end of his life; in fact, he died in Khartoun at the age of 50. He arrived in Africa in 1857, and as early as 1864 he had identified a Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, a revolutionary missionary project that involved training Africans to take responsibility for the education of new generations. At a time in history when slavery still existed, Daniele Comboni firmly believed that it was possible to regenerate Africa through Africa, but to do so, it was essential to train Africans.
Therefore, for decades, fathers, brothers and nuns have founded and run schools and dispensaries. The generous and tribulating efforts of generations of missionaries have borne prestigious fruits, such as the “Comboni College Khartoum (CCK),” founded in 1929. It became a symbol and synonym of good academic and moral preparation, where generations of young people studied, and many of them later became professionals and protagonists of the history and development of the country.
The Inauguration of the new branch of the Comboni College of science and technology in Port Sudan that we are celebrating today is just the latest achievement, the crowning jewel in an endless series of donated lives and love for the African land that starts right from the second half of the 1800s.
Let me recall a statement Pope John Paul II made during his homily for the beatification: «Daniele Comboni saw rightly. His work is not dead; on the contrary, like all great things that are “born at the foot of the cross,” it continues to live thanks to the gift of their lives made by so many men and women who have chosen to follow Comboni on the path of the arduous and exciting mission among the peoples most in need of faith and human solidarity» (St. John Paul II, Homily at the beatification, March 17, 1996).
In concluding my brief message, I wish that Comboni College of Science and Technology may continue the mission of our Founder, becoming an organizational and structural reference, a place of educational and relational training in order to prepare young people to face the challenges of the future, capable of generating an inclusive society in which each member can contribute the richness of his or her gifts and abilities for the common good. May it be a place of freedom, where young people can learn with joy, build their own personalities and those of their friends and colleagues, based on non-negotiable values. May it be a community capable of enhancing every human story and growing every member, which can defend human dignity at all stages of life, regardless of one’s culture, language or religion.
Dear young people attending this College, be generators of your future. It will also depend on you whether it will be happy, free and at peace as Pope Leo XIV told us few days ago at Pentecost «peace will return if we no longer move as predators, but as pilgrims. No longer each for himself but harmonizing our steps to the steps of others. Not consuming the world voraciously, but cultivating and guarding it».
Thank you!
p. Luigi Codianni
Superior General