The first part of this issue of Documentation deals with a difficult and somewhat thorny problem: Financial Self-sufficiency of the African Church. What we present here is a working document prepared by a group of major superiors of religious institutes and bishops of that continent. Consequently, it is not a final document. It analyzes the “means and ways” of financing the Church in Africa, the attempts made in this area, its relative successes and failures, and the proposals made. Some conclusions are given at the end. Such a document must interest our many missionaries working in Africa; it can even become a personal and/or communitary occasion to review our involvement in the work we do for the autonomy of life and evangelization of the Church in Africa.
The second part of this work collects three studies from three different sources on Basic Formation, all of them interesting and dear to our heart. I emphasize the importance of the conclusions of the Meeting of the General Commission on Formation, which took place in Rome during the month of September. Naturally, the whole theme of formation must engage us deeply and spur us on to give our own contribution.
Fr. Ottone Cantore offers us some help to better understand the Interreligious Dialogue by presenting to us the reference scripture of Islam: The Koran, seen as counterlight in relation to the Bible. We want this study to help us understand better and respect the world of Islam, with which many of our missionaries live day by day.
Finally, Documentation IMC begins concretizing another one of its objectives: to bring to all our missionaries the contents and the decisions made in many and diverse meetings. This time we talk about Mission and Vocation Promotion (MVP) in Europe, and we offer to you the conclusions of the European Congress of Superiors and Persons-in-charge of this sector, a congress which took place in Rome from September 11 to 14.

Happy reading to you all.