Bishop Kevin Dowling C.Ss.R.
FADICA Board Meeting, Washington
"Making this world more just means, among other things, making it a world where children are not left without nourishment, without education, without instruction; where young people can enjoy adequate training; where rural-dwellers are not landless, but rather live and develop in dignity; where workers are not ill-treated or deprived of their rights; where there are no systems justifying the exploitation of people by other people or by the state; where there is no corruption; where there is no yawning gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, the latter, for no fault of their own; where the family is not deformed, broken, crippled, or insufficiently cared for; where no one is defenseless against the law and where the law defends all equally; where force does not prevail over truth and right, rather truth and right reign; a world, finally, where economics and politics never gain the upper hand over all that is human." (italics mine)
Pope John Paul II spoke these words in El Salvador. His words accurately describe the "withouts" which millions of people in Africa actually experience. For example, because of a lack of infrastructure and resources, the Church has provided and still is providing some services in African countries which should be the domain of Governments – even up to 40% of health care services, schooling, and other social services. To maintain these and other pastoral programs is a massive challenge when doctors, teachers, nurses and other skilled workers leave Africa for more well-paid positions in the developed world. As a faith-based community, we have to discern the response required.
The Scriptural Foundation
The theme of this presentation is: "The Call of Christ in Africa". I take inspiration from the foundational text in Luke 4 when Jesus went into the synagogue and unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and proclaimed his mission: "to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favor…" (v. 18 and 19). As the people of God sent by the Lord, the Church community in its pastoral mission is called by God to find all the ways to create news that is hope-filled - "good news to the poor"; how to set free and liberate people from all the ways they are held bound and unable to live in dignity; how to open the eyes of all who are blind to their inner goodness and to all they can become; how to enable those who are downtrodden to find new beginnings and to live in truth the promise of Jesus….."I have come that they may life, and life in abundance" (John 10:10).
When one goes back to the text from Isaiah 42, I sense deep meaning and challenge in the verses which describe the ministry of "the servant" and the "chosen one" of Yahweh: "I have appointed you as covenant of the people……..to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon….." (Isaiah 42: 6 and 7). But it is the way this is to be done which has always struck me, the way of non-violence and sensitivity to the fragile human being. Earlier in verses 1-4, one reads: "Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have endowed him with my spirit that he may bring true justice to the nations. He does not cry out or shout aloud, or make his voice heard in the streets. He does not break the crushed reed, nor quench the wavering flame…."
The "crushed reed" and the "wavering flame" – what poetic descriptions of the broken ones of our world and Africa to whom the Church is called in ministry in a special way! With that spiritual vision and inspiration, the mission of the Church is to respond to the actual reality of the poor and broken ones – a reality that includes the social, political, cultural, economic and spiritual dimensions of life. Our focus is on the Call of Christ in Africa, and it is that reality which is my central concern in all I hope to share with you.
There is a whole range of pastoral responses open to the Church in the prevailing conditions in Africa, and so many opportunities for solidarity and support from our sisters and brothers in the Church here in the USA and elsewhere – if everyone can be inspired by the possibilities we have of developing meaningful partnerships in pursuit of a common vision and spirit of sharing which can inspire and motivate us.
Very high quality leadership is gathered here at FADICA. In terms of our reflection concerning the ongoing mission and pastoral response of the Church in Africa – a Church trying to respond to situations of conflict and dehumanizing poverty on a huge scale, underdevelopment and the HIV/Aids pandemic - in terms of strategies and directions for which we might find consensus at this conference, we are challenged by the Jesus of the poor and alienated never to lose sight of the face, of the person of Jesus, in all those "little ones". As Doctor Muliyil from India reflected: "How can I understand a figure or a statistic unless I have held the hand that it represents? The people we are talking about are the same as us. By the way we treat them, we know just how much like Jesus we have become". (Dr. J P Muliyil, in "Women in the Time of AIDS", Gillian Patterson, 1996)
Perceptions and Impressions
The new generation of African leaders decry the impression emanating from the developed world that Africa is basically a "basket case" – they try to counter this by stating that they are trying to find "African solutions to African problems" and attempt to highlight facts about how the continent is being turned around by following the principles and values of the African Union Charter.
However, the problem is not so much with the facts but with perceptions – as a South African, Chris Moerdyk, put it…."What exacerbates the problem is that perception is undeniably more convincing than fact. So one of the golden rules of damage control is to understand clearly that it is often pointless dealing only with the facts of the matter, and to be very aware of the persuasive and pervasive power of perception." (The Southern Cross, South Africa, 2006)
Some of the perceptions about Africa are the following: so many countries engulfed in war and conflict; millions of refugees and internally displaced people; extreme and pervasive poverty; widespread corruption in Governments; sickness and disease on a massive scale, especially with just on 30 million people living and dying of Aids related diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to millions dying of malaria; and a sense of hopelessness that anything can be better because the problems are just so complex and huge.
True - there are still several areas of conflict, although some have been resolved. While the attention is on Darfur at present, it is forgotten that more than 3 million civilians have already been killed in the Eastern Congo in the past years by armed militia groups, and the slaughter continues.
A perception in Africa is that the developed world in general, and some major powers in particular, will only focus on some areas of conflict in Africa because it is in their strategic interest to do so, e.g. in Sudan. The perhaps cynical perception? Because of large oil reserves in Sudan.
The first issue I would like to deal with concerns the pastoral role of the Church in conflict areas of Africa. I will deal with "conflict patterns", and then "peace opportunities", and follow this with reflections on reconciliation and spirituality, poverty and HIV/Aids, and a spirituality for Church personnel and workers in Africa. In addition to the "normal" pastoral work of the Church, all the above issues are pastoral opportunities which need sustainable funding, relevant programs, and human resources and skills.
Conflict Patterns
Modern day conflict patterns reveal particular characteristics which distinguish them from those of previous eras. The key factor in this change can be described as the appalling consequences of war and conflict on the "ordinary people" of societies, on civilians. The progression is quite startling: from an estimate of some 5% of all those killed in World War I being civilians, the number rose to 50% in World War II, and 80% in the Vietnamese war. In wars and conflicts in our present era, the estimate of civilians in relation to the total number of people killed is between 85% and 95%. In other words, the vast majority of those killed and injured in wars today are innocent civilians.
As if the enormous number of ordinary people succumbing to war and conflict is not enough, we have the huge numbers of modern day refugees and internally displaced people to consider as well. Today it is estimated that there are more than 20 million refugees who are found mainly in developing countries, and some 25 million people who are displaced inside their own countries. The awful statistics relating to children are even more shocking, viz. 2 million children being killed in wars between 1986 and 1996 alone, more than 4 million wounded, 1 million orphaned and 12 million made homeless, and significant numbers forced into becoming child soldiers.
Figures like these can never describe the tragedy of the human and personal dimension of all this suffering and death, and the destruction of value systems and cultural and other support structures in societies. The effects of all these factors can cause damage which could take generations to turn around. The Church is undoubtedly called by God to be at the heart of the response required.
In Africa there are also particular elements relating to ethnic, cultural, religious and language differences which make conflicts much more complex, and that much more difficult to analyse and deal with.
Analysis of Conflicts
In addition to recognising the complexity of the patterns of conflict today, we need a careful analysis of underlying or contributory causes of conflict if we are to establish the foundations for prevention of violence and peace opportunities by the Church, as well as areas of pastoral involvement by the Churches in post-conflict, healing and reconciliation programs.
Factors to bear in mind, especially in terms of advocacy by the Church and its organisations, are the effect that structural adjustment programmes and global economic policies have on the level of poverty and impoverishment of peoples and countries in Africa; the question of multilateral debt in countries which increasingly inhibits their capacity to provide basic services to their people; and the potential all this may have for creating conditions for conflict either within a country or in regions. Advocacy by Church leadership, its Justice and Peace Commissions, and partners of the Church must be directed towards transformation in view of building a more just global economic system, fair trade rules at the World Trade Organization, focused development aid in fulfillment of the Millennium Development goals etc.
Peace Opportunities
What I would like to highlight or emphasise here, especially in view of the involvement of a faith-cased community like the Church in conflict resolution and peace-building, is what could be termed the empowerment of people and communities on the ground in view of attaining these objectives.
It has to be recognised that our situation in Africa touches sensitive socio-cultural dynamics which must not only be respected, but which must be actively incorporated into overall objectives and planning. Here, the Church and its networking with a variety of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) with particular skills and experience in an environment, could and should play a vital role in the search for peace, socio-economic transformation and sustainable development. And the Church should add its voice to those who might be challenging stereotyped approaches to ending conflicts and achieving peace, and instead are attempting to find realistic, holistic and creative solutions with the people on the ground.
The approach which focuses on mediation from the outside, e.g. by UN diplomats aimed at securing a cease fire, a peace agreement, deployment of peace-keeping forces to pave the way for democratic elections (important as all this is),……doing all this, without taking sufficient care to address all the underlying socio-cultural issues, as well as the fundamental change of heart and attitudes in the groups concerned, could open the way for the breaking down of what has been achieved at some time in the future. There are signs that this is occurring already in the Sudan.
So, what I am suggesting here is that the international community, the agencies and donor organizations, should accept the vital importance of capacitating and strengthening the local groups and indigenous organizations, many of them being organized or supported by the Church, so that they can develop their skills and experience in view of conflict resolution, peace making, healing of people and communities, socio-economic upliftment and simple but sustainable development programs which can enhance peace. Great potential exists here for partnerships with the Church in the affected communities.
For example, our Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) sent two delegations of bishops to Rwanda in 1997. We also sent delegations to the Sudan in 1997 and the following years, and this was followed by delegations from the Sudan being hosted by the SACBC Justice and Peace Department in South Africa – all financed by our partner organizations. One of the objectives achieved through these efforts was to set up a Sudan Justice and Peace Commission.
The Justice and Peace Department of the SACBC also hosted a Sudan Focal Point Africa Desk to engage in high level advocacy over the peace process and to advocate for the termination of human rights abuses, e.g. the infamous Antonov bombing of villages where the Sudanese regime used Antonov transport planes to fly over villages in the south, rolled out barrels of explosive and shrapnel which hit the villages causing numerous deaths and injuries. I visited a simple shrine in the village of Kauda in the Nuba Mountains where an Antonov dropped such a barrel of explosives right next to a tree where a teacher was holding a class with 14 pupils – all were killed. We meticulously gathered data of such atrocities from the Church communities all over southern Sudan, verified reports, and then sent them to the EU Governments and the USA which in turn brought pressure to bear on the Sudan Government to stop the bombing campaign. Another objective we advocated for in the peace talks was to give the people of Southern Sudan the right to self-determination and to vote for separation from the north – this was finally written into the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
At the moment I am involved with our SACBC’s Denis Hurley Peace Institute and Justice and Peace Commission in exposing atrocities and human rights violations in Zimbabwe, and in conducting a range of workshops for priests, religious and other Church workers on how to sustain the Church’s effort in a situation of violent oppression as obtains in Zimbabwe at the moment. Archbishop Monsengwo of the DRC and I serve on the Executive of Pax Christi International which co-operates in peace initiatives and post conflict programs with a range of partners – and always struggles to find the finance for such efforts. This building up and strengthening of the networks between local churches and conferences in Africa, and between people’s organizations and networks in countries, is an important African Church initiative which needs ongoing support.
What is the goal or aim of such efforts? We are trying to involve and promote all the human and cultural resources of people, organizations, and communities on the ground in conflict areas. In the end, all such programs must have the aim of empowering those who have suffered, rather than creating dependency in them. It is by engaging with them that we are able to view a conflict and potential opportunities for peace and rebuilding of societies through the eyes, the ears, the spirit and experience of the people involved, and then build on the opportunities, gifts, skills and resources of the people themselves. This, it would seem, has more potential for success by promoting longer term strategies which are developed in real partnerships with the local people.
Reconciliation and Spirituality
The ultimate goal and objective in all such efforts at conflict resolution and peace building is a change of heart and attitudes in order to promote reconciliation between all the people and groups which have been affected in any way by conflict. People, groups, and whole societies have been broken and brutalised by war and conflict or, for example, by an evil system such as apartheid. Their spirit and way of life needs healing; they need to recover their cultural and organisational riches; they need to find themselves as people again, and renew their strengths and abilities to redevelop their nation and country.
These healing and rebuilding processes take time and effort, and they also require particular skills. Again, our international partners could play a sustaining role with the African Church and local Church partners, NGOs, and CBOs, in this long term journey to address and respond to a very painful story and experience, and to embrace the future with a renewed sense of hope and optimism – precisely by journeying with, staying with the people affected in their pilgrimage to new life and new beginnings.
Poverty and HIV/Aids
As with the other issues, this could be the subject of more than one lecture. Sustaining the basic health care infrastructure in many African countries in the face of crippling skills and financial shortages is already a huge task – without the effects of the HIV/Aids pandemic. The question has to be asked: why does Aids so unerringly target situations of poverty and misery as the fertile ground for its incredible escalation - such that we call it a pandemic?
Poverty creates an environment for a range of social, cultural, political and economic factors to influence the spread of the pandemic – the basic reasons for Church advocacy to which I referred earlier. I will tell you the story of someone very special to me - Selina - to illustrate the interplay between these factors. Selina was brought up in an impoverished region of South Africa called the Eastern Cape – a predominantly rural area mired in poverty, very high unemployment, and lack of hope. She married and had a son with her husband – but he died very early in their marriage relationship. She was left alone, bereft of any means to support 5
herself or her child, so she did what many hundreds of thousands in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa do – she migrated to an urban area in a desperate search for a way out of her poverty.
She ended up in what is called an "informal settlement" – a squatter camp of 5000 shacks (just one among many in the area) constructed of rusted zinc sheets and wood, just a few miles from where I live. Next to this camp were 2 platinum mine shafts and two mine hostels which housed mineworkers from other parts of South Africa and indeed neighboring countries. Selina’s perception and hope? Around the mines there must surely be the possibility of finding money or a job. Selina soon found she was in a hopeless poverty trap. These illegal camps are not provided with services by the Government – because the theory is that one day the people will be moved to low-cost housing schemes. However, this camp has existed since 1986 and there is no sign of any change yet.
Selina found she had no money and there were – and indeed are – no jobs. So, like thousands and thousands of other single women and single mothers, she was forced into what we term "survival sex". This is not prostitution in the sense of a woman "choosing" this way of life among other possible options as a means to earn money. Selina, like all the others, had no options at all. She could only put a bit of food on the table for 24 – 48 hours by finding a "boyfriend" as we term it, forced to provide sex to find a bit of money to "survive". She had to do this over and over again – a profound injustice and so destructive of her human dignity.
I met her when she had already contracted HIV and Aids, and her little daughter born to her was also HIV positive. Because of poverty, misery, malnourishment, appalling lack of sanitation (raw sewage everywhere), no clean water, Selina soon picked up opportunistic infections which further weakened her immune system, and repeated sexual encounters increased her viral load. She was dying when we managed to bring her to our hospice in-patient unit next to where I live in November 2004, just after it opened. There we fought for her life, and managed to stabilize her condition so that she could begin an ART regimen. Fortunately, our Aids program was designated as one of 20 Church "sites" to receive ART funding through the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) consortium and PEPFAR of the US Government.
With holistic psycho-social support, prayer and spirituality programs, food and micro-nutrients, careful monitoring by our ART team, Selina began to improve. She found new beginnings, opened a small sweet shop for the kids, engaged in counseling of other patients in the squatter camp, and eventually through skills training at our Church centre she has now found a job in a town to the north of the camp. Karabo, her little daughter, is also on ARVs and is doing well so far. Their future is in God’s hands and ours – but a positive story of what a Church program can achieve through partnerships.
Women are especially vulnerable to the economic, social and cultural forces obtaining in Africa – they suffer the worst discrimination, alienation, and rejection in the Aids pandemic. Here is a major field for Church intervention through practical programs aimed at transforming the causes of gender inequality, sexual and physical violence against women and girl-children, and programs to enable men to change their attitudes to women and to enhance their roles as men in the home and in the society.
In this regard, our Catholic Institute of Education has produced and implemented several important holistic pastoral care programs and HIV/Aids initiatives in schools, and could do so much more with additional financial resources. The aim is to empower the whole school community to become a caring community and to bring together its resources to address issues of violence, HIV/AIDS, emotional and spiritual development etc. The Government is using some of these programs in state schools.
Prevention programs are and will be crucial in eventually turning round the pandemic. In addition to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programs, so vitally important, there are a few African home-grown peer ministry programs like "Education for Life", "Youth Alive", and the tertiary level ABCD program in South Africa aimed at behavior-modification in young people. These have been designed and are implemented by trained youth and young adults who engage in peer ministry with others in working towards the objective of choosing life, committing themselves to responsibility in the way they relate to others, and in the way they view and use their gift of sexuality.
Our caring programs in the Aids pandemic have some special characteristics that we share with others like Hospice Associations, e.g. in the development of holistic palliative care, that is, treating the whole person with a holistic regimen of pain control, psycho-social support and counseling, and spiritual programs designed to respond to the need holistic healing, including inner spiritual healing, so that a person can learn to live positively with the disease and, if they are indeed in the terminal phase of life, that they are helped to die in peace and with dignity surrounded by holistic and professional care and compassion.
A Spirituality for Church personnel and workers in Africa
If Church personnel are to find the inner strength to engage in what are truly demanding ministries, then the need for a spirituality to nourish pastoral care programs, conflict resolution and peace building is very important. In addition, the people with whom we live and minister in the HIV/Aids pandemic, in situations of extreme and chronic poverty, and in conflict situations – all these people are spiritual beings, with particular spiritual needs. The word we share with them, the way we – in Church communities - facilitate and accompany them in the search for spiritual meaning and well-being, and for a relationship with their God, are important aspects of the Church’s ministry.
Those involved in ministry in the Aids pandemic, or engaged in advocacy for a just global economic order, those working for peace, reconciliation and a culture of human rights, with all the complementary pastoral responses….all these Church personnel and those with whom they collaborate may experience serious stress at times and even burnout. They also need a sustaining and nourishing spirituality, counseling and workshops which can enable them to integrate within themselves a spirit of positive living and ministry. Our Church communities need to be formed to be this "leaven" of hope in such societies through catechesis, lay ministry training and pastoral care.
This spirituality is all about deepening a living relationship with God in the real context of life and people. A significant and integrating Scripture text for me is the verse from Micah 6:8: "This is what Yahweh asks of you, only this: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God."
"Acting justly" is all about encountering the God of justice in the living context, and so identifying and transforming unjust structures. It will mean committing ourselves to all the social justice issues in the situation so that the quality of life of people, especially the poor and alienated, can be improved. But to do all this with that spiritual motive which comes from a living relationship with our God in the situation, a relationship which moves us to thirst for justice and social transformation because that thirst comes out of a relationship with God, nourished by prayer, the Scriptures and the principles/values of Catholic Social Teaching, in the ongoing situation. And then – to do so not in order to break or destroy, but to heal and to build and plant (cf. the call of Jeremiah 1: 4 – 10).
"Loving tenderly" concerns our inter-relationships, the way we relate to each with sensitivity and understanding because we are conscious of the God-given dignity of the human person. This moves us to a spirit and practice of non-violence, to empower others, to the building of community with others, and to discerning and deciding together with our sisters and brothers about all the pastoral responses required of the Church in Africa.
"Walking humbly with your God": this helps us focus on taking responsibility for ourselves and what we are and do; it concerns whether we are growing as a humble and wholesome human being with our God in relationship with our people, and whether part of this growth as a human being keeps before us the issue of our own need for healing and life, as well as the quality of life of our people, especially as regards anything which may diminish or alienate the human person.
If we live and work and minister to others in Africa out of this spirituality, we can become more truly peace-filled people, people at peace and in harmony with others, with God and with all of creation, and thus enabled to promote a spirit of peace, healing and growth in others. Living out of this spirit, the Church in Africa can then try to prioritize its responses in an ongoing and reflective way.
The Call of Christ in Africa is many faceted and is essentially an invitation to journey with our people and the Church of Africa to discern and implement sustainable community-centered and community-driven responses which can make a difference….. a difference to the whole person, the family, the community and the society at large. The potential for positive, inspirational partnerships between organizations like FADICA, its associates, and the Church in Africa is, I believe, very substantial. It will require faith, and a commitment of time and energy to build up relational partnerships characterized by trust and mutual accountability, partnerships which open the way to an ongoing journey towards a deeper quality of life for Africa’s people. On behalf of the Church in Africa, I thank you deeply for participating in this journey with us.
courtesy of Africa Faith and Justice Network (http://www.afjn.org/)
