Children’s Rights Promoted By Ga-Rankuwa Parishes

The three parishes of Ga-Rankuwa township, north of Pretoria held a joint Mass service at Christ the New Man Church in Ga-Rankuwa to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Also called Childermas or Innocents’ Day, the feast is observed by Western churches on December 28 and in the Eastern churches on December 29.

The feast is celebrated to honour the children of Israel massacred by King Herod in Bethlehem in his attempt to find and kill the baby Jesus (Matthew 2:16–18). The baby boys are today recognised as the first martyrs and as pro-life patron saints.

After the Gospel acclamation, Mr Thapedi Tlhapane, a Justice and Peace advocate and a parishioner of the host parish, gave a brief background on the history of the Church and its promotion of children`s rights.

Quoting from a number of encyclical documents, starting with Pope Leo XIII`s Rerum Novarum, he gave a timeline on what each document proclaimed on children and their rights over the centuries up to today.

In her speech, Mrs Cecilia Moloantoa, a former health desk director at the Southern African Bishops Conference (SACBC), identified various sections of the bible where the question of children`s rights is addressed, such as, “I knew you before you were born.” In Jeremiah 1:5.

She shared some background on how in 1996, the Church vehemently opposed the passing of the Abortion Act by the South African government.

She related the story of how, when the voting for or against the act was presented in parliament, the Catholic MPs of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) abstained from voting. “The MPs were between a rock and a hard place. They could not vote against their party nor could they dishonour their faith as Catholics, hence they abstained from voting.

They included the likes of Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa,” she said.

Addressing the current environment, Mrs Moloantoa gave a picture of how the archdiocese of Johannesburg, and her parish the Church of the Resurrection in Bryanston is promoting pro-life campaigns on an archdiocese level. “My parish is working on a campaign to call for a referendum on the question of abortion. Going beyond standing up for our children`s rights, this is a wake-up call for the Church in South Africa,” she said.

In his homily, parish priest Fr Harrison Mulenga said that domestic life in many households was being negatively marred by the advent of social media and television. “The amount of negativity is quickly overriding positive stories on social media and television. Parents need to take stock of this, and watch over what their children are consuming on these platforms. The purity of life is under siege. We as the Church community need to drive the message to our communities that life is pure. That there is nothing as sacred as human life, and that it is our duty to embrace, to protect and to promote life on earth,” he concluded.

A group of children, wearing t-shirts written I Have Rights in front, stood at the front of the church and read a number of lines from the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The declaration was the first international treaty concerning children’s rights. It was adopted by the League of Nations in 1924.