YOUTH VOICES • MISSION

Journeying to the Heart

BY Jill Williams | Candidate Landscape Architect, Pretoria

ONE QUESTION that is frequently asked concerning the Youth is “why do they leave the Church?” Many theories have been developed over the years to address this recurring subject. These range anywhere from the Church being too boring, to the music not being vibrant enough, to the sermons being too long. I have heard it all and in reality, even with all these complaints being addressed, it probably won’t resolve the matter. The vibrancy of the music or the theatrics in the sermon run the risk of becoming the focus instead of the Eucharist, and although captivated at first, the Youth still turn away and seek fulfilment elsewhere. The despondency felt by some of the Youth in our church community must be countered in order for the Church to experience the benefits of their fire and energy within the Body of Christ. The real question is, what are the Youth moving towards?

We are Mission

Missionary work is usually something one would associate with ‘holy’ people, who are bold and brave enough to spread the Gospel to the remotest places and to people who have probably never even encountered foreigners in their community. That is only the half of it. ‘We are Mission’ was the theme of a Young Adult’s retreat I went to once. Our parish priest helped us understand that Mission is not something outside of ourselves, but rather who and what we are. We are the hands that extend to the needy and the arms that enfold the hopeless. Each day in our lives is another day in the Mission field—a brand new day of adventure—filled with opportunities to be the light to those in darkness and the fire to those who need the warmth of God’s love.

Christus Vivit, the letter that Pope Francis (2019) wrote to the Youth states that “Even those who are most frail, limited and troubled can be missionaries in their own way, for goodness can always be shared, even if it exists alongside many limitations.”

We are all made with deep desires in our hearts given by God, particularly to experience and extend that goodness to others; the desire to be loved, to be part of something greater than ourselves, to belong. This can be seen as an invisible compass that helps steer our thoughts and actions. External influences, such as the words and actions of people around us, can certainly play a major role in how we choose to meet those desires, making that compass spin in all directions and causing confusion.

The reality is that oftentimes, we, the youth, are on a different kind of mission. The commercial entertainment industry, for one, earns billions from music, art, visual and printed media productions and merchandise sales. Every word, still and musical note directs us to a journey of self-discovery for some, and self-destruction for others. The entertainment industry has found ways to evangelise and spread their own gospel of fame, money and power. Little children are impacted by this as young parents encourage even little toddlers to be actively involved in social media.

‘Follow your heart’ is the common word of advice we hear on TV and this mission of self may be causing many to turn from taking up their crosses and following Jesus (Bloom 2015). This gospel takes us further away from the desires God had placed in us. Instead of taking the time to understand our calling, we follow the call of another kind or attempt to follow our calling on our own terms. Sometimes we are blinded by the filters and photo-shopped bliss of the people we follow on Instagram and TikTok, but forget that they too are just people that need direction, that are in their own way following a certain ideal, standard or person. We tend to gravitate toward this projected lifestyle of luxury and ease—the ‘soft life’—and tend to forget that nothing in life is free.

Lions and lambs

I was recently honoured to be part of a confirmation presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Peter Wells. One of the things he relayed to the congregation was the importance of forgiveness and confession, and quoted a certain confessor, who said that priests are to be like roaring lions in the pulpit, and like lambs in the confessional. This will probably never escape my memory. One would think that the most difficult part of being a priest or any member of the clergy, would be to stand in front of many people and proclaim the Gospel. This seems to be the lighter side of the cross of the clergy.

What great humility must be needed to hold one’s internal tongue of judgement in the confessional! I can only imagine all the terrible, tragic, dark confessions made; and all the grace bursting at the seams of those confessionals, permeating the hearts of those willing to receive it. The priest becomes the mouthpiece for God; the channel from which the Holy Spirit flows, the healer, restorer and comforter. Through this process, the unknown parts of the heart of the faithful is pursued, searched and restored to wholeness. In this process, the lies and confusion are stripped away and one’s perspective changes—there is clarity and one can once again see which way True North is, which path is meant for one.

Endless possibilities

As with all great adventures, protagonists are usually faced with a similar challenge as are many youths today: a desire for more amidst the unfairness, blandness or rigidity of their current circumstances. This starts with a prompt—some event or situation—that begs of the protagonist to make a decision to either attempt to achieve the impossible, or stay in the security of their comfort zone. These prompts can come from both a negative or positive influence. I believe the call to be Mission begins with little prompts or invitations from the Father that leads to larger leaps of faith. Every little step in this journey is a step away from home, towards the vast unknown; the place of abundant possibilities for both good and evil. Dr Myles Monroe (1991) relays how taking the path you have been designed for is something that very few of us actually have the courage to undertake:

“Though it may surprise you, the richest deposits on our planet lie just a few blocks from your house. They rest in your local cemetery or graveyard. Buried beneath the soil within the walls of those sacred grounds are dreams that never came to pass… Our graveyards are filled with a potential that remained a potential. What a tragedy!”

Although we may have disqualified ourselves from this adventure through our past words and actions, or even the lack of desire for it, we always have the opportunity to get aligned with God’s plan. The very heart of man is what God is after as he told the prophet Samuel when discerning who would become king of Israel: “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16: 7)

There is also a lesson to be learnt from the World Youth Day experience. This pilgrimage is no small feat. The monetary cost, time and planning that goes into, not only running this event, but attending it, goes far beyond what many are willing to offer. Yet, according to some who have taken this journey, the experience of it is invaluable (Barron 2011). There is something almost magical about scores of youths united for a common cause; working, singing, walking and praying together. This uncommon coming together of the faithful dumbfounds the media at times (Barron 2011), and is nonsense to the man on the street. What a sight it must be: a crowd of adventurers coming together to open themselves up to the possibility of more; to receive fresh fire and perspective for their own journeys.

Young people are always in search of an adventure and once they have decided to taste the one predestined for them by the Father, they will never turn back. The answer to the heart turned from God is to re-introduce it to the Father’s love through one’s own Mission. God is after our hearts and in our missionary journey, we can have and display that same yearning for his Heart through our daily walk with Him.

mission is fun

Lonely victim of the earthquake

BY Fr Nazzareno Contran | Monterrico, Lima

In the community of Monterrico, in Peru, Fr Peter—the name of our protagonist—is well known for his fine hearing and light sleep. Both qualities are most useful in this seismic zone of the Pacific.

Fr Peter, as a good Comboni missionary, takes the anti-seismic recommendations of the Civil Defence very seriously, and has long since identified four areas of refuge: under the desk, under the doorframe, outside, on the terrace. However, he invented refuge under the bed.

During the last earthquake, Fr Peter chose this as his shelter, believing it to be the safest. He jumped out of bed but, unfortunately, as it was night and the bed was very low, he bumped his nose, and he soiled the floor with blood. The next morning, he appeared with the obvious signs of his tragic night. The newspapers spoke of an earthquake of normal intensity and no victims. False. To be fair, we must rectify this misinformation, if not in Peru’s national press, at least in the international Comboni Press!

THE LAST WORD • BEATITUDES

The sending of the Seventy-two (Luke 10: 1–16)

BY Fr Silvano Fausti SJ | Biblist and writer

The passage begins referring to Jesus sending the disciples: (‘The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go’ (Lk 10: 1), and ends with Him as being sent: (“whoever rejects me rejects Him who sent me” (Lk 10: 16).

The source of the mission is always the Father, who manifests His mercy for all His children. The Son is the first to be sent by Him because He knows the Father. Then, the Son sends those who recognise Him as their brother.

Though Luke carefully avoids duplicities in his Gospel, here, instead, he specifically —and he alone!—does it, taking up and extending the discourse of Luke 9: 1–6 where Jesus calls the Twelve, gives them power to drive out demons and to cure diseases, and sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.  He warns them not to take anything for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt; stay in the same house and if people do not welcome them, leave that town and shake their dust off their feet.

Luke emphasises the apostolic (= missionary) importance of this text for his Church, and calls to continue the work of Jesus. That of the Twelve to Israel and the seventy-two to all peoples, constitute a single mission.

Through this identical and multiple mission of the one Lord, He becomes “One” King over all the earth (Zech 14: 9) and His name sanctified among all nations (Ez 36: 23). Unity and totality are the underlying concerns of the ‘Catholic’ Luke.

The mission stems from the love of the Father for all His children and ends in the love of the children for the Father and among themselves. It expands into an ever-widening horizon, until it embraces the ends of the earth: it is the circle of the Father’s arms, which is open to embrace all His children without losing any of them, because He does not leave any children out.

The mission stems from the love of the Father for all His children and ends in the love of the children for the Father and among themselves

The conditions of the mission of the Seventy-two, like that of the Twelve, are the same as those of Jesus. The difference is that He is the Son who left the Father and came to seek His brethren, to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5: 32) and to save the lost. (Lk 19: 10). The Twelve are called and the Seventy-two are appointed to collaborate in His work.

This mission, as from Israel, aims at reaching the ends of the earth; so, from Jesus it also extends to the ends of time. Then the Lord will come. “But it is first necessary that the Gospel be proclaimed to all nations” (Mk 13: 10). The final end of the mission is that the names of the disciples, in the name of Jesus, will be written in the heavens (Lk 1: 20), that is, in God.

This long discourse has an introduction: “the harvest is plentiful” (Lk 10: 2), that is, all humankind; anyone who knows the heart of the Father is solicitous for all their brethren. The discourse has an opening image, which gives colour to the mission: “lambs in the midst of wolves” (Lk 10: 3), under the banner of the shepherd who became a sacrificed lamb. This is followed by four instructions describing the mission in poverty (Lk 10: 4), and the specifications regarding the proclamation of the Kingdom: “say”, “dwell”, “eat”, “take care”, (Lk 10: 5–9). The announcement, urgent and necessary, takes place in a context of contradiction and rejection (Lk 10: 10–15). It ends by affirming that the mission of the disciples is the same as that of Jesus, sent by the Father (Lk 10: 16).

FRONTIERS • MAHUBE VALLEY

A Comboni family in the mother of melodies

Mahube Valley is one of the most recent pastoral commitments of the Comboni Missionaries in South Africa. The presence of a priest, a brother and a community of sisters working together makes it quite special

BY Rafael Armada | MCCJ

“WHEN I sing, I feel like I’m in heaven.” Jacob Mahlangu is not exaggerating. He is a member of the Izwi le temba (voices of hope, in isiZulu) choir of St Daniel Comboni, in Mahube Valley. The parish, run by a community of Comboni Missionaries, is located in the eastern part of Mamelodi, a name that means, mother of melodies, because of the concentration of musical talent offered by its inhabitants.

Mamelodi, north-east of Pretoria, is a township created in 1953 to relocate the African population during the Apartheid era. Ten years ago, it had a population of 334 000, but now it is probably more than half a million. It is a dormitory town, with many middle-class workers, government and private sector employees who commute daily to Pretoria or any other nearby towns. “During the day, only retired people stay at home, because children also go to school,” says Fr Jerome Anakese, hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo, parish priest for the past year. He previously worked in the rural mission of Glen Cowie, Mpumalanga. “Many of the unemployed live in informal settlements. At night, especially in winter, there is a smell of smoke. They collect wood or, if they can, they buy it, to heat themselves outside their tiny shacks. There is a tremendous social imbalance”.

The number of those collecting garbage for recycling grows every day. “They do a hard and undignified work, pushing heavy bales on carts through the streets. They are left to their own fate, without any protection,” says the Comboni Missionary, who wishes in the near future to engage with them. “Those unemployed try their luck in the informal economy, selling on the streets, driving taxis or recruiting clients for them. They intend to emulate their working neighbours who drive private cars through the streets of Mamelodi. Others, unfortunately, turn to crime or to drink,” says Fr Jerome. The insecurity “is a consequence of social contrasts and high levels of unemployment”.

The beginnings

Mahlangu arrived in Mamelodi in 1965. The police, at that time, forcibly removed him, together with his family, from his home in Garsfontein, southeast of Pretoria, when that area was declared a residential zone only for whites. Mahlangu was then seven years old. “They came with guns and took us to Mamelodi. We didn’t know anything, but maybe our parents did. The government knew where they were going to place us because our new house was already built when we arrived.”

“People are very welcoming and about 200 attend Mass every Sunday”, says Fr Jerome

“They placed us in Emasangweni (at the gates’, in isiZulu), says Teresa Chimeloane who was also taken there, a year later, in 1966. She was a teenager at the time. “My parents worked in Ga Rankuwa, north of Pretoria. I lived with my grandparents. From a Catholic family, she began living her faith, like Mahlangu, at St Gerard’s Mission, in Garsfontein. When they were relocated in Emasangweni, there was no Catholic community formed yet. “We were all new and we started to know each other. My grandparents and others began to gather in the evenings to pray by the dump site of the slum. Each one carried their own chair. Every day a new family joined; some weren’t even Catholic.” Then, they thought of asking for a classroom at Zakele, the nearby primary school. “The neighbouring parish, St Raphael’s, was far from our home. The elders used to tell us: ‘When you come back from school, if you see bricks lying in the street, pick them up and bring them; we want to build a church’. That’s what we did and that’s how St Peter Claver was born”. It was in that parish that Teresa began, like Mahlangu, to sing in the choir.

After some years spent in Ga Rankuwa, Chimeloane returned to Mamelodi and settled in Mahube Valley, then with her three children, in the house where she still lives today. “We lived far from St Peter Claver and on many days our children missed catechism classes. Several parishioners began to see how to start a new community. A Mexican Comboni priest, Fr Luis Carranza, also encouraged us to do so. By then I was a leader in the small Christian community,” Teresa recalls.

Baba Mahlangu, now retired, after more than 30 years working as an accountant at Ford is also, like Teresa Chimeoane, one of the pioneers of St Daniel Comboni. “My aunt instilled in us the importance of going to church. That’s what I did with my four children and they are all still involved today.” His only son is a diocesan seminarian. He and his wife are happy with his choice.

St Daniel Comboni

The parish of St Daniel Comboni started in 2007. The Comboni community, along with parishioners, began to establish the first structures. The priest’s house, the hall, still used as church, and some classrooms for catechesis were built. The various groups and sodalities commenced to develop. “People are very welcoming and about 200 attend Mass every Sunday,” says Fr Jerome. According to Erich Stöferle, a German Comboni Brother, who joined the community recently and is involved in the maintenance of the mission, “as lockdown was lifted, people came back to church when the choir started singing again”. The parish sodalities and six of the nine small Christian communities are already functioning as before the pandemic. Seventy-five catechumens are preparing for baptism, “a good number for a small community like ours”, says the parish priest.

Young people

Forty per cent of the Mass attendees are people under 30. They are also beginning to reorganise themselves. Ivonne Moswane is one of their leaders. Originally from Mashabela, in Limpopo, Ivonne, 27 years old, arrived at St Daniel Comboni in 2014. She grew up with her grandmother who introduced her to the Catholic faith. She studied civil engineering and is now completing her apprenticeship in plumbing. “Young people have many challenges, but they need to take responsibility. Many come from broken families and haven’t had someone who listens to them to help them heal their wounds”. Fr Jerome agrees: “In general, family life is in a deep crisis; there are many single mothers and very few structured traditional families. Most marriages are short-lived and children end up living with grandparents or relatives. Young people are hooked by modern culture, music, parties, fun— ‘we are free’, they say, ‘we know what we want’”.

“Young people have many challenges, but they need to take responsibility”, says Ivonne

Ivonne sees music and dance among the most remarkable talents of Mahube’s young people. “Many don’t get into university after high school and stay at home doing nothing. Others turn to drugs or alcohol and to finance it, they steal”. Teenage pregnancy, domestic or sexual violence and dropping out of school are also challenges affecting young people. Ivonne recognises that there are also positive stories, such as the case of Mpho (not real name), who quit drugs and now teaches young people, through talks and sport, how to beat drugs.

“I am trying to regroup the young people again, bring them closer to the parish and get them off the streets; to resume our programme ‘the soup route’ in which we go around the neighbourhood and offer soup and bread to the needy”, comments Ivonne, who offers her gratitude to the Comboni Missionaries. “I met them in Limpopo, and from them I learned that it is more important to give than to receive. I love going to the church; there I find mental serenity and security. I have my vis-a-vis with God.”

She dreams of having a family. “I want to grow spiritually and make a positive contribution to the community”. She would like to see young people maturing with an open mind, a vision and mission which makes them participants in their own personal growth, in the Church and in the community at large.

Comboni Sisters

The Comboni Sisters live in the neighbourhood, a fifteen-minute walk from the Comboni Missionaries’ house. They arrived in Mahube in 2010. Among their pioneers was Sr Tsehaitu Hagos, originally from Asmara, Eritrea. She had previously worked 20 years in Colombia and Ecuador. “I was told so many things about South Africa before I arrived, about the violence, etc., but I met good people here in Mamelodi, neighbours who protect and help us”, says Sr Tsehaitu. Many come to visit her. They share their difficulties and joys and ask for prayers. “People trust you when they see that you come close to them. ‘You live with us and you look happy. Thank you!’, they say. Our presence is important for them and for us”.

“I would like our parish to be missionary, to reach out to many who are still far away”, says Fr Jerome

Two sisters from Latin America have recently joined the community. Sr Maria Cristina Ibarra, from Mexico, who has worked in Mozambique, South Sudan and in various missions of her country. Recently, she has been chosen by the Diocese of Pretoria as catechetical co-ordinator. “It is a challenge for me, since I also want to be with the people in the settlements”. On arrival in South Africa, she was struck by its contrasts, “a modern airport and highways just outside Johannesburg to the shanty houses a few minutes away as you approach the township. It’s another image of Africa that shocks you; very different from the rural areas of other countries where I’ve worked before”, says Sr Cristy, as she likes to be called.

The third member of the community is Sr Marta Vargas, a jovial Costa Rican from the capital, San José, who professed her first temporary vows a few years ago. She has journeyed in her formation as a religious through Mexico, Ecuador and Egypt, where she learned Arabic. “I thought that after Egypt I would go to Turkey to work with refugees, but the community was not established and my superiors sent me to South Africa”. She has experience with young people, “I’m still young”, she laughs, and also with women and refugees in Cairo. “There, I discovered how our presence among the people, together with the Word of God, can enlighten anyone’s life, even when Christ cannot be explicitly proclaimed. I never thought of coming to South Africa; I always understood that it was a developed country”. She feels welcomed by the parishioners of St Daniel Comboni, by their neighbours and children, “it is a very beautiful place, in spite of the violence. I think that our presence as a Comboni family is fundamental as a way of living the mission”.

Sr Marta’s dream is to work with marginalised populations, such as refugees and women, to enter into their lives, to accompany them and to reach the informal settlements with a presence close to the poor. “Of course, I want to learn the local languages. Some older people don’t know English and young people feel more comfortable speaking their mother tongue”, says Sr Marta.

A missionary parish

Fr Jerome emphasises, “I would like our parish to be missionary, to reach out to many who are still far away. Two kilometres from the mission, there is an area where people are settling. We are not there yet”. As far as the parish social commitment, he considers that there is still a lot to do. “We have to organise our visits, registers and so on, but we already have two initiatives running, the delivery of about 10 kg of food to about 100 people and the distribution of blankets that have been donated to us. The community is attentive to those who do not have their basic needs covered, such as food and household needs. The choir has even donated goods to one of the elders. Mahube Valley is a mission in line with our Comboni charism, and the recommendations of our last Chapter, namely to reach out to the peripheries, as Pope Francis also often reminds us, carrying out a pastoral ministry that brings together social and faith aspects, creating living and mature missionary communities”. Although the government offers social assistance and technical education programmes, “Mahube Valley is a mission where the presence of religious brothers and sisters is important and significant”, concludes Brother Erich.

REFLECTIONS • LIBERATION

From non-believers towards non-persons, an imperative missiological shift

The mission of the Church in Africa must give particular attention to millions of people marginalised and discarded by society, showing them compassion and accompanying them on their journey of liberation. She needs to be a sign of hope and to pursue an alternative world where everyone’s dignity is respected. The least ones are God’s face and our actions to them are also our responses to God

BY Fabian Oliver | theologian, Johannesburg

What is the mission of the Church in Africa?

South Africa sits unrivalled, with ample opportunity for growth and greatness for its people, having survived the yesteryears of holistic oppression. However, it is currently confronted with a type of dark night of the soul reality characterised by massive unemployment, unending corruption, rampant poverty, gender-based violence, and is world renowned for inequality. South Africa is not unique in these challenges and points to a larger African contextual crisis. Ghanaian Methodist theologian, Mercy Oduyoye stated the following which remains relevant today:

“Currently, Africa is a continent where people fight long, bloody wars to resist Islamization or the hegemony of dominant ethnic groups. Christians massacre Christians, Muslims struggle against Muslims, and conflicts, having nothing to do with religion, break out within and across national boundaries. Africa, barely out of the clutches of apartheid, continues to suffer from global racism and is riddled with poverty and death” (Oduyoye 1996).

What are we to make of the gradual decrease of Christianity in large parts of Europe, yet in Africa, Christianity is growing. More pertinent is the reality that Africa remains poor(er) despite its Christianisation. The massive spread of Christianity in Africa has yet to shift the reality from civil war and sickness. South African novelist, Zakes Mda laments the African predicament by averring, “Indeed our ways of dying are our ways of living. Or should I say our ways of living are our ways of dying?” (Mda 1995). Amid this, the question remains: what is the task and responsibility of the Church? What is its mission? This reflection attempts to answer the question by reviewing the shift in missiological focus from non-believers towards non-persons, otherwise categorised by Jesus as the least of these. Here, it is suggested that the Church has and should continue to be a community for all, and simultaneously be closer to the struggles of the marginalised, witnessing to God’s kingdom on earth.

Non-believers

It can be argued that in Western orthodox theologies the interlocutor has traditionally been the non-believer. Think for example of the earlier Catholic doctrine, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, (outside the Church there is no salvation). This resulted in decades of frequent missionary activity by the Church to offer salvation to as many souls as possible via the defined ultimatum of accepting Christianity or rejecting eternal life (Hick & Knitter 2005). Beyond the dark colonial history marked by this missionary project, there are other considerations that question this form of mission. This includes the reality that the current Church approach accepts the diversity of faiths and is even committed to journeying with these faith communities (seen in multiple Ecumenical and Interfaith movements). In this way, mission as conversion of non-believers remains dormant or worthy of re-evaluation.

We can dare to be a Church that responds to all forms of physical, spiritual, and economic poverty

Non-persons

This brings us to another possible approach. Peruvian Catholic priest and pioneer of Liberation Theology, Gustavo Gutiérrez (1983) noted that the interlocutor of theology should be the non-person, which is “the human being who is not considered human by the present social order, the exploited classes, marginalized ethnic groups, and despised cultures.” In Joseph M.P. (2015), the term non-person is more provocative than it is literal because while theologically we believe that all people are truly made in the image and likeness of God, still, by noting non-person, it illuminates past and current realities which systematically allow and maintain others’ to existence on the peripheries, throttled by conditions of poverty, violence, and injustice. Gutiérrez in CNA (2015) puts it like this:

“We referred to the poor as non-persons, but not in a philosophical sense, because it is obvious that each human being is a person, rather in a sociological sense; the poor, that is, are not accepted as persons in our society. They are invisible and have not rights, their dignity is not recognized.”

The Church should be a safe space for listening, talking, and imagining possibilities of peace, justice, and equality

Here, commitment towards the excluded should not be misconstrued for mere charity or seeing the marginalised as a means to an end. Rather, it is an invitation for the Church to continue to revive its theological starting point by looking at the world from the vantage point of the powerless. For Gutiérrez, the conditions of the marginalised are not a call for social relief, but an invitation to Christians (clergy and laity) to build an alternative life-giving social order. Likewise, we could advocate that the violence in Africa coupled with structural misogynistic patriarchy against women require not that we simply resist its evil, but that we participate with God in creating spaces of true equality and peace.

The tentative mission of the Church

Perhaps we can dare to be a Church that responds to all forms of physical, spiritual, and economic poverty, mindful that there is “none so poor as the one who does not feel any need” (Oduyoye 1996: 499). The Church should be a safe space for listening, talking, and imagining possibilities of peace, justice, and equality. It should see herself as the face of compassion, and not indifference. Here, we are reminded of the words of Pope Francis in Daly (2013), which say: “The thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle.” Notwithstanding right doctrine (orthodoxy), we ought to also aspire towards right action (orthopraxy) to which the Church is in solidarity with Jesus who is the comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken-hearted. In times of despair, the Church is a place of hope. It is where we come to receive and witness good news. Thus, the mission of the Church is one of cultivating stories of hope, stories of resistance to injustice, stories of economics, land and housing, education, health, solidarity, non-judgment, and ultimately love.

An invitation to God’s liberating mission

American Catholic theologian William Cavanaugh (2016) reminds us that we must not forget that it is God and not us that will save the world. We are called merely to play our part in realising God’s salvific action, for it is God who takes the fruit of the vine, and the work of human hands and turns it into God-Himself. The mission of our Church is one of participating in God’s salvation, and in doing this, we are called to bear witness to the many crosses society bears and offer life in the many forms of death. Part of Jesus’ own mission was to bring good news to the poor (Luke 4: 18); thus, in the Gospel, Jesus is characterised through solidarity with the very least of humanity and where Jesus goes, we too must follow. In Jesus we see God’s love for all and also God’s preferential option for the broken, expressed in the Gospel of Matthew 25: 40–45. Interestingly, in this passage Jesus offers an ultimatum to the believers (not to the non-believers) of the possibility of hell or heaven based on the solidarity they have shown to the naked, the hungry, and the sick.

What is fascinating here is that Jesus does not identify Himself with those who help the least of these, rather Jesus sees Himself as the hungry, the thirsty, the prisoner. Thus, God can be found in the lowly and marginalised, in the sick, and in those who grieve. Through the eyes of compassion, we see God in others, especially in the ones on the fringes of society. It is the gospel truth that people cannot live on bread alone, but on every word of God. In a starving world, it is also true that people cannot live on the word of God alone, but also bread. Part of the mission of our Church is to discern the difference and bear witness to God’s liberation.

In Jesus we see God’s love for all and also God’s preferential option for the broken

“But there are moments when even I have seen God dancing in the eyes of a street kid in Johannesburg. I could swear that I have heard the voice of God in the low and high notes of some profane and sacred hymns alike. As well as residing among the poor, maybe God also dwells in the small mercies of strangers, in the aha moments when humans connect deeply and in the brilliance of the artist” Maluleke (2015).

FEATURES • ARCHBISHOP BUTI JOSEPH TLHAGALE

Our Church is still young

The clash between the Gospel and ancestor worship, patriarchy in the Church, and racial divide in the Christian communities are some of the crucial topics discussed in conversation with the Archbishop of the diocese of Johannesburg

BY Efrem Tresoldi MCCJ | Johannesburg

JOHANNESBURG IS a cosmopolitan metropolis where South Africans of various language groups from every corner of the country have established themselves together with immigrants from European countries and more recently with people hailing from different African nations. It is in this multicultural context that the Church is called to be a symbol of unity in diversity. Such has been the aspiration of Archbishop Buti Joseph Tlhagale, who has been leading the diocese of Johannesburg since his installation in 2003.

Racial integration

Archbishop Buti begins the conversation confessing: “I didn’t make it, I failed. I have tried in many ways to realise the dream of a greater unity among Catholics, above all through liturgical celebrations, Sunday Mass in particular. I did not succeed. For example, Catholics—whites, blacks, coloureds and Indians—who live next to each other in Johannesburg’s suburbs could come together for the celebration of Sunday Eucharist, which is in English, a language everybody understands. Instead, they do not. What is happening is that, in the same parish, whites attend the early Mass on Sunday morning or the pre-festive one the day before, while blacks take part in the mid-morning Mass or vice versa. Racial separation within the Church is also evident on other occasions”.

“There is a resistance on the part of white Catholics to participate in diocesan ecclesial events. In more than one case, after the invitation had been sent out to all parishes for a commemoration in a stadium or in a public place, only blacks participated in it, with the exception of a small group of whites. What happens in society is reflected in the Church. Let us take the celebration of national holidays: whites use the opportunity to go on safari, while blacks gather to take part in political rallies. They do not mix. Racial separation is the disease of South Africa. It is a long-term challenge for South Africa and a solution for it cannot be found overnight”.

Ancestors’ veneration and the Gospel

“Personally, I think that the veneration of the ancestors is totally opposed to Christianity. Some years ago, I would have said that there is a way of integrating this particular cult into Christianity. Now, on the contrary, I am convinced that the veneration of the ancestors is a recognition of a foreign power that intervenes in the life of the living. The saints too are involved in the life of the living and it is our belief that the spiritual world intervenes in the life of the living. However, the ancestors have an influence on their offspring in such a way that they literally are given a role which would correspond to God. If one maintains that the ancestors are able to heal you physically and mentally, where is Christ’s power in that context?”

“I still think that many of the African people have a double affiliation; they have faith in the traditional belief of the ancestors, and partial belief in God, in Christianity. It does not mean that when you are catechised and you are baptised, you are a fully-fledged Christian. I have pointed out that among the catechists, there are many who have very little educational background and therefore, they cannot offer much doctrinal knowledge. And yet, we continue to baptise and accept people who come into the Church, who are only partially converted as it were, and that is a big challenge. That is why, I think, the majority of African Christians still consult traditional healers. Catholics keep consulting traditional healers. Although western medicine is available, via hospitals, clinics and doctors, they still go to these people because they have confidence in the ancestral powers”.

The Christian faith is young in South Africa; it is only a hundred and eighty years old

“It is my conviction that the ancestors are the enemies of Christ. I would not have said that some years ago and I would have fought for ancestral veneration. Not now! I am really against it. Three or four years ago, the bishops of the Southern African Conference wrote a pastoral letter addressed to priests saying that they should not be traditional healers. A committee has been appointed to investigate whether Ubungoma, the traditional healing and traditional healers are consistent with the Gospel. The committee is composed of lecturers at Saint John Vianney Seminary, and from time to time the chairperson updates the bishops about their research and outlines what they are going to do next. Hopefully, in a year or so they can come up with suggestions, and it will be very interesting, because we have never faced this challenge squarely and yet it is a major one”.

Putting down roots

There are people who maintain that Catholicism has not entered fully into South Africa. Others feel that it is still a foreign religion, something for the whites. The Archbishop agrees, and further expounds: “That is true, Catholicism has not grown roots—that is why you see that people move in and out of our Church with ease and go to new Churches, like the Pentecostal ones and to others that are grounded on traditional beliefs such as those that we call the Zionist Churches. A number of Catholics have gone there. The Christian faith is young in South Africa; it is only a hundred and eighty years old”.

“Church denominations are on average one hundred years old. Protestant Churches arrived here around 1830 or 1840, while Catholics, very few in numbers at the time, established themselves in the Cape after 1840. Most of the parishes around the country are not even a hundred year old. In South Africa, Catholicism is very young because initially the missionaries were only serving white communities; it was only later on, in the 1940s and 1950s that they began to go to the townships and rural areas. Also, here in Johannesburg, our Church is only a hundred and thirty or forty years old, but in the townships, they are only about fifty years old. So that is why this phenomenon of believing in traditional religion is still very much in the heart of the people”.

Patriarchy in the Church

This is another stimulating topic that Archbishop Tlhagale is eager to talk about. “For quite a long time women have been complaining about patriarchy in the Church. Lately, Rome allowed women to become acolytes and lectors, but they were already reading in Church and I ask myself if that really enhances their dignity as women. The contribution and the role of women in the Church have been addressed in encyclicals and pastoral letters, but we never resolved the real challenges”.

“I think we should just sit down and talk about patriarchy; what does it mean? What has it done to women? How do we change it? Now this has nothing to do with the ordination of women—that is a different topic. We have decided consciously not to discuss the ordination of women because Rome does not want to, so we put it aside but anything else should be addressed. For instance, at the diocesan level, there are structures: the priests’ council, vicars, parish councils etc. Let us take the priests’ council for example: it is made up only of men and yet it talks about pastoral issues. I do not see why we cannot have women who are involved in the departments of catechesis, liturgy, and taking part in the priests’ council”.

“I know the Pope has appointed a religious sister in one of the congregations of the Roman Curia (after the conversation had taken place, another religious sister and a lay woman were appointed to the Dicastery of Bishops), yet much more should be done. Even though women are not ordained, they can occupy high offices in the hierarchical structures of the Church. There is no reason why only priests should lead in those offices. Even at the diocesan level, women can run offices such as the department of education, of catechesis, of culture. We should get rid of clericalism and ask ourselves—why do we men think that we are better than women?”

“In South Africa, the ANC says that fifty percent of leadership positions should be filled by women. We should aim for the same in the Church. We should stop saying we respect women and uphold their dignity when in reality we do nothing about it. We should stop talking about it and do it, by finding ways and means to challenge patriarchy in the Church”.

Transmitting the faith

The transmission of faith from the older generation to the youth is rather problematic. It is quite common to see that young boys and girls stop going to Church after receiving the sacrament of Confirmation. Archbishop Tlhagale has some ideas on how to respond to the challenge.

Perhaps a more relaxed approach can be adopted for those who have been confirmed with a follow up programme once a month at least

“I think that after Confirmation we should have a policy of regarding the confirmed as young adults or make a programme which is less rigorous than that of the preparation for Confirmation which requires the attendance of classes every week. Perhaps a more relaxed approach can be adopted for those who have been confirmed with a follow up programme once a month at least”.

“I see that the young people, theologically speaking, remain at the level of Confirmation and never study anything beyond that. They are extremely impoverished in terms of personal faith, they do not know the contents of their faith and they do not read the Bible. They could meet once a month and come with their Bible for instance. If they are helped by someone who is knowledgeable and fascinated by the stories of the Bible, we would actually have young people interested in the Sacred Scriptures just as they are interested in classical novels. They would enjoy entering the theology of the Gospel stories—and hopefully they would grow”.

Adults’ ongoing Christian formation

“Another thing that I have not succeeded in doing is the formation of sodalities: Sacred Heart, Saint Anne, Men’s sodality, Children of Mary. They invite me once a year to have Mass with them and I used to ask them: What have you learned this year about the Church? I realised that they have not learned anything. Therefore, I suggested to them that each year the sodality takes an encyclical letter or a document of the magisterium and studies it. Surely, in each sodality you will find that there is a lawyer, a teacher, a medical doctor and a professional among them. I suggested to the members of one sodality, that someone among them summarise an encyclical or a document of the Church and then present it. I say that the sodalities should be obliged to study something. They will find it worthwhile to know about what is happening in the Church: What is the Pope saying? What are other ecclesial documents teaching? If you do that, just once or twice a year, and keep going for ten years, it would be a great success”.

“I bought a hundred copies of Pope John II’s encyclical on Mary (Redemptoris Mater) so that when we meet, I would summarize half the book and at the next meeting we would cover the other half. I said that they must know something about Mary, some doctrinal things about Mary and come to know stories about what happened in Fatima, Lourdes, etc. What I am trying to say is that each sodality should study some document during the year, and they do not need their priest or chaplain to do that work. One of the teachers, nurses and any professional person can read and summarize it, then explain it to the others”.

Archbishop Tlhagale, who will tender his resignation on 26 December upon reaching the retirement age of 75, as the law of the Church requires, continues his mission, encouraging the Catholics to deepen their faith and become more acquainted with the rich teaching of the Church.

PROFILE • FR RONALD CAIRNS OMI

Light in the Dark City

Parish priest of St Hubert, Alexandra, for forty years, Fr Cairns made a remarkable impact on the lives of so many people in the community through his commitment in favour of justice, peace and reconciliation

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi Scotland

THEY CALLED it “the dark city”, perhaps not the most encouraging label which was stuck firmly to the parish where Fr Ronald Cairns OMI was posted as pastor. However, in 1981 and hardly a decade into the priesthood, at just 35 years old, that was the situation in which he found himself. Appointed to the township of Alexandra on the outskirts of Johannesburg; a challenging parish at the start of what would be a hugely confrontational decade of apartheid, Fr Cairns never let the darkness obscure his mission to create a just world.

The word discrimination is defined as ‘the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or disability’.

The fact that Alexandra had no electricity supply (hence the dark city label) was an outward symbol of the harsh, deeply ingrained injustices experienced by Fr Cairns’ new parishioners. A white priest landing in such a township could have fared badly—he might even have petitioned his superiors to remove him to somewhere safer, less violent, less subject to the police harassment suffered by a black population under that cruel regime.

Prophetic voice

Instead, Fr Cairns, or as his parishioners came to know him, “Fr Ronnie”, stayed, becoming a champion in the struggle to end apartheid and subsequently a defender of all those facing the immense challenges Alexandra continues to experience. He died while still leading that flock, forty years after his appointment to St Hubert.

It is perhaps ironic that St Hubert is the patron saint of hunters. In those early years in the parish, Fr Cairns found that his parishioners were the hunted, accused of acting under the influence of outside agitators. He would speak up for them then—in court when necessary—and in the post-apartheid years, he would continue to be a voice for those suffering the socio-economic problems and the unrest that would be ever present in the township. Before the Covid pandemic hit, he was still making headlines by bringing yet again the injustices still experienced in Alexandra under public scrutiny.

They say he wouldn’t have chosen to live anywhere else.

Background

He had been raised in Randfontein, with its ‘gold rush’ past (and a far nobler background blended from history dating back to the second half of the 16th century when the AmaNdebele lived as one nation under King Mhlanga). An only child, Ronald Cairns was born on 3 October 1946 to a Scottish Presbyterian father, Hascott Cairns, and Norah, his German-born Catholic mother. Norah became the religious influence in his young life.

He was ordained on 14 January 1972 by Right Rev. Bishop Anton Reiterer MFSC (Missionary Sons of the Sacred Heart, initials in Latin), and was quickly appointed regional director of the Christian Life Group and vocations director for the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. In the ensuing years, he became the Episcopal Vicar for Aids, Dean of the Northern Deanery and Provincial of the Oblates, Northern Province. He served in a number of parishes in the diocese before that life-changing move in 1981 to Alexandra.

Out-reaching and ecumenical approach

Parishioner Maria Maoba explains that when he arrived at St Hubert, it was at the height of the political uprisings. Under such circumstances, it would have been easy to say Mass and stay put in the parish house, but Maria says that Fr Cairns went door-to-door, visiting all Catholic families in the township, those practising and lapsed. This, she says, helped to rebuild the parish. He also put out his hand to ministers of other denominations, which led to the formation of a Ministers’ Fraternal for all clergy in Alexandra.

This young white priest made his mark early by reaching out to the whole community, not just Catholics, and standing by them in the most difficult of times. By 1984, just three years into his ministry in the parish, the community had such respect for him that they asked him to intervene in what Maria Maoba describes as a war between two taxi companies.

Alexandra’s Six Day War

In 1986 Fr Cairns’ name reached a wider audience. In February of that year, Alexandra declared war on the apartheid regime—a situation that became known as Alexandra’s Six Day War. Young people died and there were mass funerals conducted by the Ministers’ Fraternal. St Hubert was at the centre of the troubles, and Fr Cairns was harassed and detained by the regime for helping young people who sought shelter from the police.

Reports of the situation were given by Michael Parks in the Los Angeles Times, who wrote of the support offered by 300 white South African protesters —certainly a newsworthy situation at that time—who defied police orders that barred them from the ‘riot-torn black township’. They were welcomed by thousands of black Alexandra residents when they arrived to lay flowers on the graves of the victims that Fr Cairns and fellow members of the Ministers’ Fraternal had laid to rest.

One of the white organisers, Morris Smithers of the Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee, said: “These fallen comrades will never live in a free South Africa, but their sacrifice has helped ensure that future generations will.” Father Cairns responded: “We do not see colour. We see each other as brothers and sisters.”

The police had been particularly violent, and were responsible for Alexandra’s death toll and very clearly did ‘see colour’, as they merely watched this intervention by the white protestors, only firing off tear gas to disperse the crowds when the buses took the campaigners home.

Forced removals

The residents of Alexandra had no history of peace to fall back on, no solid rock on which to rebuild. The kind of violent harassment that they were subjected to stretched back for decades. There had been forced removals in the 1940s, the boycotts of the Bantu Education Act in the 1950s in which Alexandra teachers lost their jobs. There were violent attempts to wipe Alexandra off the map completely, but the township was given official status as a residential area in 1982, and there was a fancy ‘master plan’ to turn the dark city into a garden city. The Six Day War in February 1986 put an end to that, with 40 people killed. The collapse of the council was followed by the setting up of street committees and peoples’ courts.

In June of that year, a national state of emergency was declared and the apartheid regime began an Urban Renewal Plan, which in effect meant demolishing dwellings in areas of unrest. Much of the Alexandra population was displaced and there were two treason trials. Fr Cairns spoke for the defence at one of them, earning himself a place in Richard Abel’s book, Politics by other means: law in the struggle against Apartheid 1980–1994 (published by Routledge). Abel records that Fr Cairns testified on behalf of community leaders.

For Alexandra, this was the norm and the1990s brought little let-up in the violence and harassment, the poor living conditions and the displacements—a norm that nonetheless produced a president, Nelson Mandela, who was at one time a resident in the township.

Maria Maoba describes the 1990s as “one of the darkest periods of our history”. She explained that for four consecutive years, most of St Hubert’s parishioners were displaced, some seeking sanctuary in the church itself. She said, “The community came to Father and requested his intervention as the police were brutally killing people in Alexandra.”

Peace and community builder

She added that in 1993, Fr Cairns was asked to lead the process of bringing peace to local political parties as many people had been killed. A peace accord was subsequently signed, thanks to Fr Ronald Cairns OMI.

Lorato Phalatse, another of this remarkable man’s parishioners, said, “Fr Cairns had a very clear approach and outlook on life based on strong and deeply ingrained moral principles. He had a clear sense of right and wrong and good and bad that was rooted in his faith. One always knew without any doubt what his position was on any issue. Furthermore, he really had the courage of his convictions and lived by them with no fear or favour.”

Remarkable for many reasons: putting community politics aside, he was still intervening in taxi wars in 2018, mediating peace and achieving the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the warring parties. This was a priest who moulded a parish and a community.

Lorato Phalatse said, “Over the 40 years that he lived at St Hubert’s, Fr Cairns built a strong congregation of believers and a parish that in all aspects of our faith could hold its head up proudly in spite of being one of the poorest communities in South Africa. He built solid institutions on the Church campus that took care of children at St Martin De Porres Crèche and the elderly at Joseph Gerard Old Age Home, and outreach programmes such as Kgolofelo ya Josef that reached out to the indigent in Alexandra with the weekly distribution of food parcels.”

He could sort out an argument, never taking sides but bringing the complainants together to sort things out. However, he was not perfect—which saint ever was? Even at his Requiem Mass there was mention of his quick temper (that red hair, that Scottish father…). His parishioners, however, stress that his volatility was softened by the fact that once his grievance was aired, he returned immediately to smiles and laughter. Perhaps he needed that steeliness to help him address the many overwhelming difficulties faced during those four decades in Alexandra.

Positive imprint

There was clearly a Cairns charisma that worked its own little miracles, from defusing the violence during apartheid to influencing the youth in his parish. Paulos Mngomezulu explained that Fr Cairns created structure in the lives of children and young people, offering them the ear that absent biological fathers denied them, as well as creating activities and groups in which they could learn to become negotiators and leaders like him. Zakhele Lengoati said, Fr Cairns “…played an incredible part in our lives at a very crucial stage in our growing process”.

This man of mission sadly passed away after unexpected health complications on 6 February 2021. Alexandra is clearly still in mourning for a man who steered them through so much. As Lorato Phalatse explained, “He continues to be sorely missed, but he left us with strong values and principles of our Catholic faith that will sustain us for the rest of our lives.”
A fitting legacy.

SPECIAL REPORT • AN ASIAN VIEWPOINT

Searching together for deeper meanings

Bridge-builders devote themselves to healing wounds and fostering communion, as Jesus did. As real evangelizers they accompany individuals and communities in their search for deeper meaning in life. A qualified voice from the Asian continent shares a thought-provoking reflection on the issue

BY Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, SDB | Archbishop Emeritus of Guwahati, India

Asia’s fast-changing image

A new face of Asia is fast emerging. Rural and agricultural communities, who were living generally in isolated villages, and eking out an existence from seasonal labour, have moved into investment and global economy in a matter of a few decades. The word that Pope Francis uses in Laudato Sí, “rapidification” or acceleration of changes in humanity and the planet combined with the intensification of the pace of life and work (LS 18) expresses most accurately the processes which are taking place on the Asian continent today. People are taking time to adjust to the pace of these changes.

Mass migration to urban centres has led to challenging situations of degrading conditions in cities, along with impersonal relationships and increasing social conflicts. Impoverished rural populations suffer from a fragmentation of land, declining fertility of soil, falling levels of water and exploitation by opportunistic leaders.

The new globalized economy, while offering opportunities to those who are well equipped, has been pulling out many young people from their homes, families, religious beliefs, cultural roots, community identities, and familiar terrain, throwing them into a sea of uncertainties. Those who are ill equipped to adjust and grab opportunities in a competitive world, feel marginalized and exploited, and develop a deep sense of not belonging. Their anger and frustration generate in them aggressive urges which are often made use of by extremist leaders for their own purposes.

Weakening of a cultural continuity

There is a steady weakening of family and community bonds. Young people are often unable to deepen their own convictions and to develop a vision for their future while their value systems come under threat. They miss the cultural continuity that the presence of parents and grandparents, uncles and cousins, used to give them in a traditional set-up of joint families and communities. They miss the sanctions which parents and community leaders used to impose on them; the certainties that a common heritage handed down; and the solidarity that the village community used to offer them in moments of crisis.

Growing tensions give evidence that people’s traditional ideals and values of peaceful co-existence are fast weakening. In mixed societies, at workplaces, people do not always find common codes of behaviour, styles of relating or sources of inspiration by which they can be guided. Messages in the media tend to undermine the moral fibre of society; divisive forces weaken social bonds, eroding any sense of common belonging, and commitment to shared values and ideals.

As a consequence, a situation of corruption emerges, where unabashed egotism, partisan attitudes and narrow-minded sectarian thinking takes hold even to the point of violence. A sense of accountability and responsibility for the common welfare is diminishing. Meanwhile, an increased availability of consumer goods keeps the middle class happy and contented, with hopes for further growth.

Some among the sophisticated members of society are influenced by new ways of understanding religion which are proposed by various schools of thought. They present religion as alienation, an instinct provided by nature for softening painful realities, opium of the oppressed people, plain escapism or illusion; a search for solace and inwardness. Amidst growing alarm about these forms of godlessness and uncertainty, some religious believers have turned to one or other form of fundamentalism, becoming ultra-conservative in outlook and radically aggressive against others.

Bridge-builders

In this context, bridge-builders become absolutely necessary. Despite so many difficulties amidst fundamentalists and radical viewpoints in society, bridge-builders search for a shared view of things, common ethical values and a joint approach to global problems. Communities need to go beyond reductionist perspectives of highly secularized social activists, legal experts and promoters of rights, whom even though they make valid contributions, lack a holistic vision.

We need to listen to those who understand the deeper issues at work, beneath the immediate anxieties; those who offer a multi-disciplinary approach to issues. As St Paul suggests in Col 4: 6, “Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting, and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone”. This manner of dealing with others, even with those who differ greatly from us, should prevail, over vitriolic self-defence attitudes, as we are often reminded by Pope Francis.

Many young Christians are tempted to move in one of two directions: some, under pressure from modernizing trends, opt out of religious practice with no qualms of conscience; others, feeling insecure in the face of intense secularization, frantically look for emotional and vocal expressions of their faith, such as Pentecostalism. A true evangelizer becomes of great help to these different groups, “ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, doing it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3: 15).

A new pedagogy of communication

Amidst such cacophonous voices, a certain balance is needed. The right kind of evangelization gives unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God, to every sphere of human thought and activity what is due, and central attention to what is central to humanity. It looks beyond past mistakes of a community and the present reasons for conflict. It joins hands with people of different persuasions in the cause of the common good, e.g. ethical values, liberty, equality, reform, rights of individuals, uplifting of women, respect for diversity, minority rights and the environment.

A creative pedagogy of communication of the faith, based on the religious psychology of each community or person, interprets each one’s measure of openness and leads from interests at that moment to whatever contributes to long-term good. Even if one is not interested in finding the meaning of life, one might look for success in life. While discussing this issue, an interest in the meaning of life can be born spontaneously, or stimulated. Then comes a search for deeper meaning, moving from the more familiar to what is less, linking new ideas with each person’s tradition.

It is in a context of intimacy that the work of evangelization is done most effectively; teaching takes place as though there is no teaching, a helpful correction takes place as though there is no correction. The deepest religious mysteries are searched for as though the evangelizer and the seeker are in an enterprise of co-discovery!

Jesus’ approach: attentive to people’s thoughts and feelings

Much of Jesus’ teaching was done in personal encounters with individuals and groups. He was extremely attentive to others’ inner worlds which enabled Him to dialogue with them in depth. He was able to read the minds and thoughts of others before He spoke; His words were relevant and purposeful, e.g. Jesus perceived what they were thinking (Matt 9: 4); Jesus knew their thoughts (Luke 6: 8). See also Luke 9: 47; 11: 17 and Matt 12: 25.

Jesus’ competence was not only in the area of thoughts, but also in the area of feelings. He was able to fathom the unexpressed feelings and longings of others, so that He could intervene helpfully. He delved into the world of emotions and addressed them. He had a ‘human’ approach to every person, as Pope Francis has today, and adopted a ‘personal’ tone in speaking to individuals, e.g. the Samaritan woman, the one taken in adultery, the one who washed His feet, the Syro-Phoenician woman, Martha, Mary, Zacchaeus, Nathaniel and Thomas.

He expressed His compassion for the crowds. We read in Mark 8: 2, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me for three days, and now have nothing to eat”. He was deeply troubled thinking of Judas (John 13: 21); and again, He came closer to the city, and when He saw it, He wept over it (Luke 19: 41). Jesus also wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11: 35).

Witness of faith

Great announcers of the Word become icons of God’s concern for humanity, “who makes the sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil” (Matt 5: 45). They are intent on promoting a common searching among people of all convictions; they encourage co-searching, joint exploration and study together. They stand for complementary and mutually respectful roles.

Great announcers of the Word become icons of God’s concern for humanity

They do everything possible to restore the damaged heritages of peoples, including contemplative longing, a sense of the sacred, a capacity for wonder and mystery, the ability to help people to think, search deeply and explore meaning. The deepest message is passed on to the world when the witness to Jesus emerges as an inspiration, more than solely an announcement.

SPECIAL REPORT • AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

Comboni’s charismatic legacy in our mission today

In a challenging globalized world, the charism of St Daniel Comboni, who dedicated his entire life for the regeneration of Africa, can inspire those who are committed to the integral development of peoples

BY Fr John Baptist Keraryo Opargiw, MCCJ | Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

“THE MISSIONARY mandate accompanies us into the Third Millennium and urges us to share the enthusiasm of the very first Christians.”
(Novo Millennio Ineunte, no. 58)

I feel greatly honoured, as a son of Comboni and a son of Africa, so dear to our Father and Founder, to contribute with a short reflection on mission in this issue of Worldwide. I believe that we Comboni missionaries have inherited the mission-oriented charism of St Daniel Comboni and we are striving to faithfully live and share this gift with our brothers and sisters in the diverse socio-political and ecclesial contexts of our world today. This is indeed the task that the Vatican document, Mutuae Relationis outlines for us in very inspiring terms:

“The charism of the founders is revealed as an experience of the Spirit, transmitted to his disciples to be lived, kept, deepened and constantly developed in harmony with the Body of Christ in perpetual growth”
(Mutuae Relationis 11).

As followers of Christ in the Comboni way, we are called to participate in the transmission of his charism which is a living and dynamic reality, in creative fidelity, and with the capacity to adapt to new ecclesial and socio/cultural situations. The mission belongs first and foremost to God and its source is the very heart of God and of Jesus. There we find the real impetus and motivation for our Comboni missionary outreach today.

God the Missionary (Ex 3: 7)

“I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know what they are suffering and have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out from that country into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey….”

We see a God who cares and cannot live comfortably in His paradise while His people suffer, but gets involved with the real problems of the people. He commits to do something in their favour. Three missionary verbs are noticeable in this passage:

• To see, to witness, to be aware of.
• To listen, to hear, to feel compassion.
• To act, to do something in response to the cry of others.

Christ the Missionary of the Father

“As Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved to compassion for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6: 34–42)

Jesus shows His compassion and active concern for the spiritual and material needs of the people who are like sheep without a shepherd, a really scattered people. They are hungry, in a deserted place where the disorienting and insecure night is falling. Whereas the apostles at first shun their responsibility and do not want to get involved because they feel overwhelmed and powerless in front of the hungry crowd, Jesus, Missionary of the Father, feels compassion for the hungry crowd and gets involved by teaching them at some length, thus illumining and giving meaning to their life. Then using the meagre resources the people already had, Jesus seeks the collaboration of the apostles to nourish the needy crowd. It shows that mission is above all,

• compassion;
• becoming aware of the situation of the people and doing something to respond to their needs in a holistic manner;
• believing in people’s resources and promoting them;
• co-responsibility and collaboration with others to transmit the love and compassion of the Father.

Comboni, the missionary of Christ

Comboni saw the misery of the African people and listened to their cry. He committed himself to freeing them by giving his life. Comboni followed the same attitudes of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ who are actively involved in the affairs of a needy humanity and do something in their favour. Mission means engaging with the fate of the people, feeling part of it, approaching them not as an outsider or a stranger, who looks at others from a distance and from above.

Comboni’s homily in Khartoum on 11 May 1873 shows his passion for Christ and for the Africans:

“I am truly happy, dearest friends, to be back with you again after so many sad events and so many sighs and afflictions. The first love of my youth was for the unhappy Africa and, leaving behind all that was dearest to me in the world, I came, sixteen years ago, to these lands to offer my work for the relief of their age-old sufferings.

Yes, I am your father, and you are my children and as such I embrace you and press you to my heart. Be assured that in my soul there is a boundless love for all time and for every one of you. I return among you to be always yours, as I am consecrated for your highest good… I intend to make common cause with each one of you, and the happiest of my days will be when I may give my life for you…” (Writings 3156, 3159).

This homily is Comboni’s project of life which does not finish with his own short life, but continues as a project for the Comboni missionaries for all time.

Comboni Missionaries today

In his address to the participants at the XIX General Chapter in Rome on 18 June 2022, Pope Francis said: “The essential trait of the Heart of Christ is mercy, compassion, tenderness. …I think that you are called to bring this witness of God’s style—closeness, compassion and tenderness—in your mission there where you are and where the Spirit will guide you.” With these inspiring words, Pope Francis captured the essence and the motivating factor of our charism as Comboni missionaries.

Global reality check

The reality of our world shows that the beauty, goodness and integral development of our universe and human life have been tarnished by a lot of negativity and challenges such as: abject poverty, inequality, injustices, social and environmental violence; corruption, indifference, intolerance, dictatorships, poor governance, xenophobia and sad situations of mass migrations and refugees. In Africa, the situation is aggravated further by the challenge of the lingering effects of Afro-pessimism and the marginalization of the continent in the present world order. In this context, the Comboni missionaries are called to participate in the mission of God.

Mission priorities today

Helped by a good analysis, reading the signs of the times and places, and assuming the missionary attitudes of God the Father, of Jesus Christ and of Comboni, we can highlight the following key endeavours of our mission, especially in Africa:

• First evangelization among those who have not yet had a first contact with the Gospel (significant ethnic groups, the peripheries of big cities, ‘frontier’ situations), in order to build adult Christian communities.
• Inculturation remains an area of fundamental priority so that evangelization may put down roots and bear abundant fruit. Our duty here is to be qualified and respectful collaborators with the local Church, having a profound esteem for the local people, their language and culture.
• Formation of pastoral agents (lay, religious and clergy) at all levels, promoting their ministerial roles in view of their active participation in the mission of the Church.
• Social commitment and human development are to be undertaken everywhere as part and parcel of the proclamation of the Gospel and of every missionary activity. Commitment in the field of justice, peace and integrity of creation (JPIC) to ensure a relevant presence of the faithful in the political and economic decision-making processes.
• Commitment in the mass media and social communications to enable the voice of the poor to be heard at all levels in society.
• Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, especially with Islam and the African traditional religions.
• Pastoral attention to the crisis of mass migrations and refugees offers us a privileged opportunity to serve the poorest and most abandoned of our contemporary society.
  

An incisive and effective missionary service today

The missionary mandate is indeed as old as Christianity, but at the same time it is still a fresh clarion call to us to “cast out the net into the deep for a catch”, because worldwide mission is still at the threshold. With the numerical decline of Christianity in Europe and the overall shift of Christianity’s centre of gravity to the south of the world, mass migrations from the south to the northern hemisphere and the phenomenon of globalization, a new era of mission has begun.

New challenges and new contexts appear, as we try to remain faithful to the Gospel. Mission is still an urgent work in progress. Thus, what can be the role and place of the Comboni missionaries in this global mission? How do we envisage the participation of others, especially the lay faithful and the youth in this mission?

The Comboni charism is not a gift to be guarded jealously or narcissistically by the Combonis, but belongs to the whole missionary Church. Hence the active involvement of all, men and women, young and old, religious, clergy and lay people of whatever nationality, is most welcome. It is also in this sense that Comboni always ascribed to a mission that must be “Catholic, and not just Spanish, French, German or Italian.” (Writings 944).

Mission unto the heart of God

We Comboni missionaries and our collaborators need to re-commit ourselves in a kind of mission close to the people, making common cause with them. Our mission requires to improve the quality of our interpersonal relationships in our communities and with the people. To Descartes’ “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am), Pobee responded by coining the typical African expression, “Cognatus ergo sum” (I am related, therefore I am). The emphasis here is that mission is relationship and not only communication of ideas and values! I envisage a mission done in humility and poverty or sobriety of means in order to be more in touch with the local people, especially the poor and marginalized of our society.

Mission at the service to life

The concept of life which is indeed central to the African worldview and permeates the history of salvation is at the heart of the Christian mission. Jesus Christ came so that we might have life in all its fullness (John 10: 10). Mission is, therefore, participation in God’s lifegiving activities in favour of humanity and the world. This perspective invites us to promote and cultivate all that leads to life in its fullness and to shun all that diminishes it in any form—therefore, the importance of healing of memories and especially of emotions of anxiety, fear, anger and guilt. Humanity is being hurt badly and people are very angry. Consequently, healing must be urgently and holistically addressed in our mission today.

Attitudes of missionary disciples

Constantly, we experience that we evangelize and are evangelized by the people. This implies the need for openness, of listening and learning from others. Local people love and respect the missionaries. They have a sense of faith and they follow us closely, encouraging and accompanying us. Often, the problems and challenges we encounter in our missionary service are due to a certain deafness or indifference on our part to what people are saying and feeling towards us. The fruitful collaboration in mission involves mutual responsibility and accountability vis-à-vis with the local people who are not just objects of evangelization, but indeed subjects and stakeholders of this important enterprise.

Healing must be urgently and holistically addressed in our mission today

All baptized are invited to participate in the various missionary endeavours, each according to one’s God-given talents. The Comboni charism is alive and attractive to be embraced by people of all walks of life in order to contribute to the global mission today. It is now the responsibility of everyone to discover their stance in this missionary scenario.

special REPORT • BEARING WITNESS

Mission: Duty or the joy of sharing?

Missionaries participate in God’s transforming action in the world and witness His active presence among the peoples they are sent to, long even before their arrival. Three attitudes seem to be most necessary for the mission today: dialogue, synodality and humility

BY Fernando Domingues, MCCJ | Lisbon, Portugal

ONE OF my favourite stories of missionaries, comes from a letter written by a brother working in China in the last years of the nineteenth century.
It goes like this:
“I can never thank God enough for making me a missionary in China. When I think of the countless graces I have received, and continue to receive up to now, the most beautiful vocation in the world is to be a missionary.” Letter of Joseph Freinademetz, 1887.

Certainly, he did not lack difficulties to face, but this missionary felt clearly that the joys and the beauty of his life were worth much more than all the renunciations he had made.

Now, our missionary service is more focused on the call of transmitting the Gospel by a witness of life

Deprivations and difficulties exist on every path of life, but the mission of taking the Gospel to other peoples is something that fills the heart with joy and makes us participants in a process much greater than the challenges we may face. The truth is that we participate in God’s work of transforming our world. We work on His project.

In past times, we liked to underline the missionary duty and the obedience to Jesus’ command: “Go and proclaim” (Mt 28: 19, 20). Men and women left everything and faced countless difficulties to bring the Gospel of salvation to people living far away.

God’s preceding action

Nowadays, the missionary mandate of Jesus, “Go!” has lost none of its importance and urgency, but there is another dimension which has been brought to our attention: Jesus’ reason to send us, namely, that His presence is already active in the whole of humanity.

Many missionaries, men and women, returning to their countries of origin, were never tired of saying, “It is much more what we have received, than what we gave”; perhaps only now we are beginning to understand what this means.

Do missionaries go to ‘take and give’ or to ‘receive and bring’?

The answer lies in the Gospel line right next to the missionary mandate: “all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28: 18). The risen Jesus is already present everywhere, transforming the world and the people who inhabit it, with the divine energy that is His Spirit. This is why missionaries are invited to set out, to collaborate in this transformation that the Holy Spirit of Christ is already accomplishing.

Jesus Himself spoke of this reality on several occasions. When He appeared to the women on the morning of His resurrection, He asked them to go and tell His disciples that they should “set out for Galilee, because He was going before them and they would find Him there” (Mt 28: 8–15). We confirm this in many ways in our missionary life. In the peoples to whom we bring the Gospel, we find many signs of God’s presence, active in their lives, long before we arrive. Explaining the parable of the seed, Jesus says that the sower is the Father and the seed is the Word of the Gospel. God began this sowing long ago, in the heart of every person, and particularly in the various religious traditions with which people turn to God. Now what God needs is “many labourers for the harvest” (Lk 10: 2).

In a similar language, the ancient Fathers of the Church looked at the non-Christian cultural and religious traditions of their time and reaffirmed the presence of the Word of God, in the form of a seed: Logos spermatikôs.

The joy of the missionaries who leave their homes, and of all the people who dedicate themselves to proclaim and witness their faith, is the joy of sharing with others the best they have, which is the Gospel of Jesus. At the same time, they discover and receive the gifts which the Spirit of Jesus has already been nurturing throughout centuries in the cultures of those people among whom they live.

From labours to witness

Pope Francis has challenged many of us, asking us to reflect anew the way of living our missionary life. He likes to use the expression “I am a mission in this world” and he adds, “I cannot separate my mission and my personal life” (Evangelii Gaudium 273).

An elderly missionary recently shared with me his apostolic labours saying: “I don’t even know how, but in the mission where I was, I managed to build 40 chapels and five churches which today serve five new parishes”. Extraordinary, without doubt; those more than 40 Christian communities are very grateful for his generosity and for those who supported his missionary service. It was a time when it was necessary to found communities, to establish the first structures.

Now, the communities have a minimum of consistency and our missionary service is more focused on the call of transmitting the Gospel by a witness of life, leaving the buildings as fruits of the efforts of local communities as they grow.

Some work will always be necessary, and there will be no lack of generosity among the various churches that continue to support one another fraternally, but the missionary endeavour to proclaim the Gospel through a witness of life underlines, in a new way, the need for more contemplative missionaries. In the contemplative prayer of the missionary there is an ‘ascent’ and a ‘descent’: the missionary needs to ‘go up’ to God; in prayer and meditation, to contemplate the life and mystery of God, in order to bring one’s heart and thoughts in harmony with God’s heart and plans. Then, he needs to ‘go down’, to look at the world, at the human communities to whom he is sent, in order to discover the movements of the Spirit of God; what God is inspiring and making grow in them. Our witness of life could help the Christian communities to discern God’s action and to adjust their life in the direction which they want to go.

The certainty that God is already present and active in the lives of the people and communities that receive us, frees us from the anxious rush that sometimes characterises some missionary initiatives. Our missionary presence must then be marked by dialogue, by the ability to walk together—synodality—and by a humble presence.

Dialogue

Dialogue with believers of other religious traditions is an indispensable element in our missionary service. The Gospel is not imposed, but offered in a respectful dialogue with those who want to approach Jesus and His Church. This is the way God Himself follows, as the document of the Holy See explains referring to dialogue and proclamation in a missionary context:

“God, in a dialogue that lasts throughout the ages, has offered and continues to offer salvation to humanity. In order to be faithful to the divine initiative, the Church must therefore enter into a dialogue of salvation with everyone”. (Pont Council of Interreligious Dialogue and Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples, 1991. Dialogue and Proclamation n. 38).

This dialogue between our faith and the religious tradition of the people we encounter is not a simple discussion which is quickly concluded. It is a dialogue of life in which the passage from one faith to another is made slowly and few elements taken at a time. At a recent meeting, some of my colleagues noted that in a certain African country, “there are still many elements of the old religions in the lives of our Christians”. Today we have a clearer awareness of the fact that the process of conversion to a new faith can take several generations, and may never be complete. These are issues that touch on the deepest realities of human life. People need a long time to change the fundamental realities of their lives.

The missionary endeavour to proclaim the Gospel through a witness of life underlines, in a new way, the need for more contemplative missionaries

The new Christian communities that are springing up are born and grow with a soul of their own and develop their own ways of praying, of organising themselves, of transmitting their faith. New forms of Christian life, celebration and thought, are to be shared so as to enrich other communities, including those which sent the missionaries (Vatican II, Ad Gentes n. 22).

Journey together: synodality

The different Christian traditions that grow in diverse missionary contexts are fruits of a journey that God has made with them in the proclamation of the Gospel. Today there are liturgical music, ways of praying, of organizing Christian communities where there are very few clergy, that are shared between the various Churches.

The synodal journey is much more than a few meetings in which we give our opinions. It is a way of being Church in which each Christian community makes known to others its journey and finds, in other communities, clues to better orient its own future. Then, we are not only people walking together, but Churches of the different countries and continents called to enrich and enlighten each other’s journey. Let us think, for example, of the Latin American Churches’ journey in recent decades, presented in the document of the Assembly of Aparecida (2007). It has now enriched other Churches of other continents through the teaching of Pope Francis, who took part in that Assembly.

The missionaries who leave their countries, sent by one Church to serve other Churches, in different cultural contexts, and who later return enriched by new experiences, are first line protagonists in this process of exchange and mutual challenge and enrichment between Churches in the various continents. The best they can do at their return is to tell how, there, “the Word of God grew and multiplied” (Acts 12: 24).

Humble way

This mission among Churches that we live today can only be carried out authentically if we all agree to walk a path of humility. When God looks at our world, He does not see rich and poor communities, but families of sons and daughters with different riches that everyone can share with one another.

Every Christian community, on its journey, has experiences, discoveries, successes and failures, which can be shared, so that everyone can learn a lot and find new paths, by looking at others’ journeys.

No group and no Church possess the Holy Spirit exclusively. We all have something to teach and to learn from others. Centuries of Christianity in some areas may have greatly deepened the Christian faith, but they have also accumulated less important elements obscuring essential aspects of the Gospel. More recently established communities, freed from the weight of certain ancient traditions, are often able to grasp and express the Gospel more directly and clearly. We missionaries have to learn to proclaim the Gospel better, strip it of our cultural traditions, so that the Gospel may be expressed in the cultural traditions of the peoples to whom we are sent. This leads us to see more clearly what is at the heart of the Gospel, distinguishing what is essential from what is less important. Those missionaries who leave their countries must do so with the willingness to learn with humility, looking with respect at what the Spirit of God is doing in other lands.

We are living a new awareness that we are all missionaries because we are disciples of Jesus. We are all invited to share the best that we have: the faith which we live in our Christian communities.

Proclaiming and witnessing the Gospel of Jesus is not a duty imposed upon us. It is the opportunity we have of helping others to discover the active presence of Jesus in the world and in the life of every person. Jesus precedes us!

Those missionaries who leave their countries must do so with the willingness to learn with humility, looking with respect at what the Spirit of God is doing in other lands

Christian communities make their journey with an immense variety of gifts; they celebrate and witness their faith with great creativity, in ways which are shaped, at least partly, by their cultural and religious traditions.

The missionaries, sent by a particular Church and received by another, far away, become instruments of a continuous process of exchange which allows Churches in various parts of the world to continue a true synodal journey of mutual enrichment, helping one another to discover new paths of universal communion in the great variety of gifts that the Lord gives to all.