Forming priests and deacons

RELIGIOUS AND PRIESTLY ONGOING FORMATION WITH CHRIST YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW, by Fr Innocent Mabheka SCJ. Xlibris Publishers, 2014. 124pp.

AND THE EYES OF ALL LOOKED INTENTLY AT HIM: Understanding the Mystery of the Ministry of Permanent Diaconate, by Sipihiwe Felix M Mkhize. Mariannhill Mission Press, 2014. 204pp.

Reviewed by Michael ShackletonThe atmosphere of worldliness that surrounds us means that fewer individuals are moved towards the spiritual realm of serving one another for the sake of Christ and his Church.

Authorities have to screen candidates ever more thoroughly to satisfy themselves that, given recent scandals, they can identify genuine vocations.

Two recent local publications have courageously faced this quandary, one examining the religious life in an African setting, and the other the calling to be a permanent deacon.

Fr Innocent Mabheka SCJ in Religious and Priestly Ongoing Formation with Christ Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow notes that the religious life is not attracting many vocations at present, and with that in mind offers a reassessment of the consecrated calling.

He approaches this as an African who unpacks the beauty of the African idea of ubuntu among those who take religious vows.

Ubuntu, he explains, is difficult to define but it is essentially the spirit of being human and of recognising oneself and all others as such. It is the response to God’s will when he created humankind male and female.

In seven illuminating chapters Fr Mabheka examines the modern consumer society that dominates young people, making them individualistic, materialistic and hedonistic. “Having” rather than “being” leaves them unconcerned about others and rejecting spiritual and religious values.

He develops this theme in his treatment of the three religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as directly opposed to materialism, sexual promiscuity and individualism. He goes on to throw some much- needed light on the repercussions of religious vows in practice on the family of the one who is now a religious.

Village life in Africa is the experience of commonality and affiliation. It is so strong that it takes the whole village to raise the child and, as such, a person gets firmly bonded to the people of the whole village.

When individuals with this powerful cultural link to the clan enter the religious life and are cut off physically from their people, emotional ties of kinship are sure to remain.

Fr Mabheka illustrates this in the example of an African religious sister in Europe who loses a family member at home. It is an obligation to be with one’s kinsfolk and to mourn with them and cover the deceased’s grave with stones in order to bid a fitting goodbye. Religious superiors may not appreciate this cultural imperative for the sister to be with the whole family in a common expression of mourning.

The necessity of inculturation is unmistakable in situations such as this. As the author develops his highly readable and reasonable thesis, he presents the beauty of the religious life among African people who have tremendous respect for spiritual tradition and the influence of the elders. Christ is the divine elder and centre of the consecrated life, and no ancestor in African culture can be compared to him.

The author, a member of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is manifestly dedicated to Christ and the religious life on this continent, and his sympathetic discussion about the ongoing formation of this life is informative and stimulating.

To the surprise of many, Vatican II recommended that the ministry of the deacon should be restored to the Church on a permanent basis.

The path was cleared for married men to enter the clerical state while maintaining their family life, homes and jobs. Cynics protested that laymen were already able to do what a deacon does, so what was the point?

The point is clarified in the incisive, well-researched analysis by Siphiwe Mkhize, in And the Eyes of All Looked Intently at Him: Understanding the Mystery of the Ministry of Permanent Diaconate.

It emerges historically from Pius XII’s 1943 encyclical letter Mystici Corporis in which he foreshadowed the modern Church’s shift from the counter-Reformation period of the 16th century into 20th century reality.

Pope Pius in a sense opened dimmed eyes to see that the ecclesiastical hierarchy alone is not the Church. The Church is all the baptised, called to holiness and inspired by the Holy Spirit. The laity share in the Church’s mission and life and their vocation complements the vocation of the ordained.

Almost in an evolutionary manner, the permanent deacon’s distinctive type of modern-day ministry came to be accepted as necessary rather than as useful. It enabled devout and competent laymen to enter and exercise a committed, clerical ministry in parishes and pastoral areas, bringing an official and sacramental presence into secular life.

Mkhize demonstrates that from the beginning, the deacon’s role was not only liturgical but also one of stewardship of the Church’s material goods in respect of the poor, the homeless and the sick.

Today this remains his witness to Christ in works of charity that assume different kinds, depending on what responsibilities the bishop assigns to him.

A man wanting to be a permanent deacon needs formation as aspirant, candidate and ordained minister. At each stage of this progression his human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral needs must be nurtured and provided for, for the maturity of the whole person. Mkhize discusses these matters thoroughly with copious quotes from official sources, notably Vatican II and papal documents.

This is a superb handbook for prospective and ordained deacons.

There is a series of appendices that provides practical guidance on such matters as the spiritual faculties the deacon can exercise and the importance of being subject to the jurisdiction of a particular bishop, known as incardination into a diocese.

The diaconate has had an honourable history in the Church from the days of the Apostles. Its ministry fell into abeyance in the late medieval years, but Mkhize does not provide a historical discussion on why this happened. To know why would have enhanced the argument for bringing deacons back into in the parishes and chaplaincies of the post-conciliar Church.