Africa, evangelise yourself

BY BR SIMEON BANDA FMS

Earlier this year eight Sisters of the Immaculate Conception congregation made their profession in Matola in Lichinga diocese in Mozambique, where I am based. Their congregation was founded by Italian Consolata Father Oberto Abondio in 1948. Today it is the fast growing one in Mozambique.

The Sisters are mainly engaged in diverse parish ministries, such as marriage counselling and caring for orphans, the aged, widows, and those living with HIV/Aids. They also work as nurses in government hospitals and in tertiary Church and government institutions. Their motto is “All to Jesus through Mary!”

Eight newly-professed Sisters of the Immaculate Conception with their mother superior (back, far left) and Bishop Elio Greselin of Lichinga, Mozambique.

Imagine eight newly professed sisters being told by Jesus: “Go and work in my vineyard” (Mt 20:7). Our sisters are called to live their baptism in a more radical way. What struck me was the phrase: “Senhor,  Aqui, Estamos, Envie-Nos” (“Lord, here we are, send us”). This is the readiness that all of us ought to have.

These young sisters will work in the rural areas where access to the communication networks are not always assured and travelling is mainly on foot.

We collaborate in the ministries of the Church through our charisms. The Church welcomes us and sends us as co-workers in the new evangelisation.

Looking at the eight newly professed sisters, we may hear the echo of Vatican II’s decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church: “By now, you Africans are missionaries to yourselves. The Church of Christ is well and truly planted in this blessed soil” (Ad Gentes, 6).

These words reflect the vision of St Daniel Comboni (1831-82): “The regeneration of Africa by means of Africa itself seems to me the only possible way to Christianise the continent.” He insisted on training indigenous apostles, priests, teachers, catechists and craftsmen to advance into the interior and spread the Christian faith.

This vision of indigenous apostles was also encouraged by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie (1825-92), the founder of the White Fathers, and Francis Libermann (1804-52) founder of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart.

Non-Catholic advocates also made that point. For example, in the 1840s the German Protestant missionary JF Schön wrote in Niger: “Africa must be converted by Africans.” The Anglican 19th century missionary Henry Venn came with the concept of “self-supporting, self-governing and self-extending church”. This was in Ethiopia. A little later, James Johnson (who was known as Holy Johnson) in Nigeria and Sierra Leone advocated the evangelisation of Africa by Africans.

Dr Majola Agbedi, who in 1914 founded the Native Baptist Church, wrote: “To render Christianity indigenous to Africa it must be watered by native hands, pruned with native hatchet and tendered with native earth… It is a curse if we intend for ever to hold on to the apron strings of foreign teachers.”

All these speak of the indigenisation of the Church.

We cannot forget the vision of Bl Anne Mary Javouhey (1779-1851), foundress of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny in Senegal, of priests who would bring Christian civilisation to Africa and form an indigenous clergy. Today, when we see the fruits of such prophetic visions, our hearts rejoices to see Africans being the bearers of the Good News.

They have with them the power of language, their work becomes easier than the European pioneer missionaries who had to struggle in learning a new language before becoming successful too in their work.

Missionary work is like the baton stick we use in a relay race. Once your turn is over, you hand over to the next one.

Our continent in many ways lacks hope, peace, joy, harmony, love and unity and the results stare us in the face with misery, wars, famine, refugees, tribalism and despair. As religious we can collaborate to give our rural people hope.

In the second Synod on Africa, the bishops called us all to cooperate in the following theme: “The Church in Africa at the service of reconciliation, justice and peace.” We must be evangelisers of hope to the people suffering in poverty, ethnic divisions, political instability, social disorientation, and the tragic mismanagement of available scarce resources.

We must be the bearers of the Good News to them. Our prayers will always follow. Courage, the Lord will be there in our midst to energise us in our apostolic efforts.

 Br Simeon Banda FMS is a missionary in Matola, Mozambique.