MIRROR 03 17

Aid to the Church in Need

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

Giving Hope, Giving Joy in Africa

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

CONTENTS PAGE Living in Fidelity to Christ......................................... Johannes Heereman.........................1 Africa’s Vocation......................................................... Fr. Martin Barta..................................2 ACN in Africa............................................................... Maria Lozano.....................................4 The Poor Clares in Angola...................................................................................................8 Bearing Fruit in Benin......................................................................................................... 10 Africa will save the family......................................... Cardinal Robert Sarah................... 12 Seminarians in Bukavu....................................................................................................... 14 Bringing the Peace of Fatima........................................................................................... 16 Beacons of Hope....................................................... Sr. Jane Wakahiu............................ 18 Schools of Hope in Mayo.................................................................................................. 20 The Family Apostolate in Zambia.................................................................................... 22 Immensely Grateful............................................................................................................. 24 Giving Joy, Giving Hope........................................... J F Declan Quinn............................ 26

‘There are some things that can only be seen with eyes that have cried’.

ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHE MUNZIHIRWA SJ

South Africa’s National Flower the Protea.

Editor: Jürgen Liminski. Publisher: ACN International, Postfach 1209, 61452 Königstein, Germany.

De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae. Printed in Ireland - ISSN 0252-2535. www.acn-intl.org

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

LIVING IN FIDELITY TO CHRIST Dear Friends,

A

frica is one of the main focuses of our aid for the Church in need. One quarter of all your donations go to Africa – over 22 million Euros.

This aid is much more than merely help for the poor and needy; it is a real investment in the future.

On the one hand, the Church is growing on this continent like nowhere else; on the other, this young and dynamic Church needs the help of her brothers and sisters outside Africa in order to withstand an expansive and oppressive Islam. And in the long term this helps us as well, as the missionary outreach is not simply a one-way street.

There is no comparison between our aid and that given by many governments and NGOs, which often comes with pressure to comply with their anti-life policies on the family and human life. We help people to live in fidelity to the teaching of Christ.

The common bond we share with the Church in Africa is the ‘Civilisation of Love’ – which is stronger than the ‘culture of death’ and degradation, as it is a source of true hope. For this reason also, thank you for your generosity!

Thank you!

Johannes Heereman, Executive President of ACN

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

1

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

AFRICA’S VOCATION Dear Friends,

T

rue fasting demands not only that we subject our bodies by self-denial, in order to celebrate Easter with a pure heart, but also that we share our bread with the hungry (cf. Isaiah 58:7). Our fasting is only real when we share our food with those whose daily bread is taken from them by the greediness of the world.

Africa is a youthful continent, with half its population under 30 years of age. Africa does not need these so-called ‘new ethics’ but our brotherly support and help in promoting integral human development.

In Africa 200 million people go hungry (17% Just as Africa offered of the entire population) the Holy Family refuge and 600 million (50%) ‘Our fasting is only real in Egypt when they live below the breadline when we share our food fled Herod’s massacre – that is the terrifying with those whose daily bread of the children, and so reality. But despite its helped pave the way is taken from them by the vast deserts, Africa is for a truly Christian blessed with fertile soil greediness of the world.’ civilisation, so now and a climate that allows we must help Africa to year-round harvesting in many regions. The continent also has escape the tyranny of modern colonialism immeasurable mineral riches, not to mention and slavery. vast religious and cultural riches.

Africa could be a veritable paradise on earth. The African people have a joyful attitude to life. But the nations of Africa have fallen prey to epidemics, bad administration and corruption – while the so-called ‘advanced nations’ are trying to impose a ‘culture of death’ on them through ‘health programmes’ that contain the poison of abortion and radical gender ideology.

2

Africa’s mineral resources are being unscrupulously exploited today – as they were in the past – yet there is barely a flicker of interest in the media. Who is interested in the millions killed in brutal wars, which are dismissed as ethnic infighting?

Who talks about the greed of the arms dealers? In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone more than 6 million people have already been killed. Who cares about the millions of refugees who for decades

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

have been forced to flee from the ‘diamond wars’ or Islamist terror?

Africa is like the man beaten by robbers and left half dead by the roadside – the continent needs not only our balm on her wounds but also the voice of Christ, telling her of the dignity of the children of God. Perhaps Africa’s vocation, as Pope Benedict put it, is to be the ‘spiritual lungs’ of a world that has lost its hope and no longer believes in the fruitfulness of love and the joy of life?

Dear friends, we can do something about this. The projects highlighted in our Lenten campaign show that Africa is rich in spiritual resources. May our fasting and sacrifices help her to conserve these treasures and also satisfy her hunger for justice.

I wish you a blessed Lent and a joyful Easter,

My grateful blessing on you all,

Father Martin M. Barta, ACN Ecclesiastical Assistant

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

3

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

ACN IN AFRICA MARIA LOZANO

1

‘It is night time in Africa. I am flying through the night from Rome to Africa. The flight takes remark six hours.’

to appreciate the work that needed to be done by the Church in Africa and the aid that ACN could give on that journey.

T

‘There is a task to be done here by our charity’, he wrote. ‘Not only must we help the devastated dioceses … to rebuild, spiritually and materially; but we must above all invest our love, money and ideas in the formation of lay leaders trained in the pastoral apostolate.’ At the time he was referring here in particular to the Church in the former Belgian Congo, but his words could equally well be applied to many other parts of the continent.

ACN was born in 1947, just after the end of the Second World War, initially to help the uprooted Catholic communities in Germany, expelled from Eastern Europe.

his comment is dated April 1965 and recorded in the book Where God Weeps by its author, Father Werenfried van Straaten, the founder of the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). In it he records the moments leading up to his arrival in the capital of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On his return he described the stages of his journey as ‘the stations on the Way of the Cross’. Following that first visit, there were to be five more journeys to Africa between September 1968 and the end of the 1980s, during which the man known to many as the Bacon Priest was able to witness first-hand the sufferings of the continent and the poverty of the Church there. But at the same time he was able

4

1 Originally published in Mundo Negro, June 2013, Spain – adapted by ACN in February 2017.

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

Later it extended its goals to embrace other places, other continents, other challenges.

In other countries and other continents, the Church was suffering other forms of poverty and marginalisation, suffering which also required an appropriate response.

And in this context, Africa, with its wealth of different languages, cultures, traditions and peoples, combined with its political instability and its marked social inequalities, came to be a major challenge for ACN. The involvement of the charity in Africa followed close on the heels of the phase of decolonialisation and coincided with a burgeoning nationalist sentiment that was taking root among peoples who had formerly looked towards the colonial powers as their main point of reference. In the ecclesial field it coincided with broad areas of primary evangelisation, linked to communities where foreign missionaries had carried out an intensive, though still unfinished labour. It was a moment of the birth of new countries, but at the same time also a season of sowing the seed, so that a truly local Church could spring up.

As Pope Paul VI said in 1969, during his visit to Uganda, ‘You have the right to live an authentically African Christianity.’ And this was what was beginning to be necessary at that time. ‘With the rich experience of tens of thousands of missionaries, the Church is placing herself at the service of these youthful nations, without any foolish illusions, humble and disinterested’, Father Werenfried recognised in 1965.

Projects and initiatives

F

rom those earliest aid projects and up to the present day, there have been thousands of initiatives funded by ACN on this continent. In 2016 alone a total of 1,800 projects were supported and almost 22 million Euros steered by the charity towards Africa. According to a report by the charity on its work in Africa last year, ‘In all the above-mentioned countries the youthful and vital African Catholic Church is in need of our solidarity ... We give priority to the regions of recent evangelisation and those places where the local church is less well established.’

As an organisation whose main aim is to help the most needy, ACN helps in various ways – through Mass Stipends, pastoral projects, construction projects, training programmes for pastoral workers, motor

Algeria

Tunisia

Morocco

Libya Egypt

Mauritania Senegal Gambia Guinea-Bissau Sierra Leone

Liberia

Niger

Mali

Burkina Faso Guinea

Eritrea

Chad Benin Nigeria

Central African Republic Côte d'Ivoire Ghana Cameroon Equatorial Guinea Gabon

Djibouti

Sudan

Togo

Ethiopia Somalia Kenya

Uganda Rwanda

Congo

DR Congo Burundi

Tanzania Comoros

Angola

Malawi Zambia

Mazambique

Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Swaziland

Madagascar

Lesotho

South Africa

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

5

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

vehicles, support for the life and ministry of priests and religious communities, religious literature and the communications media – by order of importance in terms of the number of projects approved. The aid requests from Africa have also revealed a picture of a local Church that is assuming a character of its own and which is in need of help to build or renew its infrastructure.

The Church in Africa has grown rapidly in the past half-century – and with it so have its needs.

A pastoral and humanitarian mission Turning back to the words of Father Werenfried about Africa, we read that ‘the Church, who is called to be the mother of the poor, is also their ultimate refuge.’ Which is why the founder of ACN explained that, while attending to the pastoral needs of the Church, the charity was also close to the most needy. It is a path that ACN has followed and continues to follow, now more than half a century on from that day when a Dutch monk, on a flight from Rome to Kinshasa, described what he could see through the window of his plane: ‘We are flying at a height of seven and a half miles. Strange constellations shine brightly in the dark night sky. Far below us, a fire slips past. A hunters’ camp fire, perhaps, or a village in Cameroon. A tropical thunderstorm sends flashes of lightning from the equator. The lightning on the horizon lights up the night sky.’

•

6

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

At this time please pray especially for families suffering from the effects of Famine and of War in the Greater Middle East and Africa.

Visit our website and view the Pope’s video on the persecution of Christians.

www.acnireland.org GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

7

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

THE POOR CLARES IN ANGOLA

T

he Angolan War of Independence (1961–74) freed the country from its colonial Portuguese rulers but immediately plunged it into a 27 year long civil war (1975-2002), essentially a power struggle between two former liberation movements: diamond-trade funded UNITA and the Marxist-Leninist MPLA. The civil war spawned a disastrous humanitarian crisis, internally displacing one-third of Angola’s total population, and Marxist ideology seeking to eliminate the Church from the public sphere and from society.

ACN has worked to help the church in Angola rebuild, serve and accompany the country’s Catholics, who represent more than half of the 20 million strong population of Angola.

We have supported a number of reconstruction projects, and gone beyond simply the repairing of structures. The aim is to rebuild and strengthen communities, to enable priests and sisters to devote more attention to their spiritual formation and to pastoral care. Here, contemplative sisters have a particularly important role to play as they pray for peace and healing and the revival of faith in a country where so many people, families, communities are still scarred by war.

In stark contrast to Angola’s recent history, the Poor Clare Sisters of ‘Nossa Senhora dos Anjos’ in the Archdiocese of Malanje are contemplatives. Like their founder Clare of Assissi, they are dedicated to holiness

Sister Maria del Carmen Reinoso OSC follows this historical since 1988.

They stayed on the monastery during the time of the war.

8

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

and poverty. Currently 19 Poor Clare Sisters and five novices are living in the monastery.

The Order of Saint Clare first came to Malanje in the early 1980’s, when the bishops of Angola asked the Poor Clare Sisters to establish a contemplative convent there, promising them a large number of vocations in a short time. And indeed it was so.

Thanks to the generous missionary spirit of the 10 or more sisters who volunteered to leave Astudillo in Spain to go to Africa, after much effort and ‘great poverty’, in 1982 they founded the convent in Malanje: ‘As soon as we arrived, the vocations began; so many in fact, that we didn’t have room for them’, explains Mother Maria del Carmen with a smile. ‘That’s why we asked ACN for help to set up a novitiate.’

Following the success of this first venture on such fertile spiritual soil, the Sisters founded another convent in the capital Luanda, and one in Xai-Xai, in Mozambique.

In addition to the spiritual duties of the contemplative life, the sisters make baby clothes and religious items for sale in order to bring in a little additional income for the convent, otherwise they live from alms and our support. The monastery has a long story with ACN. Mother Maria del Carmen Reinoso lived through Angola’s civil war, and has shared heroic stories with us. Living the Gospel of mercy amid flying bullets is no easy task. The Poor Clare Sisters in Malanje, have lived through a number of battles during the civil war that destroyed so much in Angola, all without leaving their convent walls. ‘It’s a miracle

that we’re still alive, but we weren’t hit by a single bullet.’

Angola’s civil war was one of the longest and bloodiest on the continent, and the early ‘90s was the most violent period of all. During o n e of the phases during which the convent was attacked, Mother Maria tells us how the sisters had to hide in their bread oven in order to take shelter from the terrible hail of bullets that were being fired. The walls were riddled but the Sisters saved!

Their convent chapel is today one of the places where the faithful could gather during last year’s Jubilee Year of Mercy as there was one Door of Mercy, something which brought great joy to many here. The Monastery is a great column of the diocese and ACN has been helping them since 1987. Every one of these projects has been meticulously recorded by Mother Maria: the construction of the convent itself, the extension of the chapel, its restoration after it was peppered with bullet holes during the war…

Mother María del Carmen tells us of her gratitude to ACN for all the help this pontifical foundation has given. ‘We are able to live, thanks to the benefactors of ACN’, she says, adding ‘Our prayers are the only thing we can give them in return, and so every day we pray the Rosary for them and also offer Masses’.

The Poor Clares in Angola are a living example of merciful and heroic love and their mission and charism are so essential in a country which only just has started to heal.

•

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

9

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

BEARING FRUIT IN BENIN

O

ne third of the funds we give to Africa go into construction: parish houses, seminaries, convents and chapels. These are safeguards against suffering, spaces suffused with the love of God. This sort of space is needed by the young parish of Saint Anne in the diocese of Natitingou, in Benin. The parish includes 20 villages; the largest of them, Dakou, is where the chapel will be built. Some 15 years ago the tiny Catholic community of Dakou built a small mud chapel, but it collapsed a few years later.

For many of the pagan animist peoples of this mission territory, that was a bad omen.

The Christian God does not endure, they thought. But the Catholics of the parish have remained steadfast and faithful to

Christ and one another. They continue to gather in another building, which also serves as the village school.

Now the younger people want to make a new start and, faced by brand new mosques and their gleaming facades, they plan to build their own, if modest, house for God. The only problem is they have nothing but the work of their hands.

With these they will gather sand and stone.

But the bricks and mortar, the cement, windows and doors, paint, plaster and benches all cost money. ‘We will be so grateful for anything you can do, that God may be known and loved here’, writes Father Hippolyte Bakoma, the parish priest. We have promised him the missing sum they still need.

Plenty of space, too little money: the site of the new chapel.

10

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

Brothers), who work in evangelisation and development education in rural areas.

They work to stop the burning of the forests, while teaching good husbandry and forest management (including the use of agricultural implements and machinery), bookkeeping and fair trade.

Eager to work in the vineyard: the helpers of the rural missionaries.

Father Hippolyte belongs to the congregation of the ‘Frères Missionaires des Campagnes’ (Rural Missionary

And they themselves are setting an example in agriculture, while at the same time sowing the seed of faith. They form prayer groups, teach the faith, and celebrate Holy Mass. The aim is to sow seeds of fruitfulness not only in the soil but also in the human soul.

•

CATECHISM FOR THE CHILDREN

T

he diocese of Dapaong in northern Togo is sometimes described as the gateway to the Sahara. It is one of the poorest dioceses in Togo – which is one of the 20 poorest countries in the world.

Four out of five people here have to get by on less than half a euro a day. Lack of money means lack of schooling, as it is not always possible to teach outdoors.

Spanish missionary Father Joan Sole Ribas (pictured) asked for help to build a classroom for his parish and when we said yes, he wrote back spontaneously: ‘I cannot find words to thank you. It was like Christmas; a gift for the whole parish. I’m very moved, since we have prayed so much for this project. God’s

grace is unfathomable. May you be filled with his blessing, so that Christ may remain always with you.’

Now over a hundred children can be given religious instruction every day.

It is a joy for them, and for Father Joan as well.

•

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

11

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

AFRICA WILL SAVE THE FAMILY CARDINAL ROBERT SARAH2

C

ardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea is Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship. Ordained a priest in 1969, Cardinal Sarah became the youngest bishop in the world 10 years later. Pope John Paul II called him to Rome in 2002 to serve as the Secretary for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Pope Benedict XVI selected him as president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum in 2010, and in 2014 Pope Francis appointed him head of the Vatican dicastery on the liturgy.

Speaking in Benin at the launch of his book ‘God or Nothing’ Cardinal Sarah gave voice to his high hopes for the future of the Church in Africa. Indeed he believes that it can bring about the renewal of the family across the globe.

Cardinal Sarah’s book ‘God or Nothing’ covers numerous topics, ranging from political questions to the sex abuse scandal in the Church to the post-modern world’s relationship to God. Reflecting on whether democracy is an inherently Christian system, Cardinal Sarah responded, ‘Without a doubt there is a Christian conception of the equality of human beings,’ adding that ‘a democracy that contributes to the integral development of man cannot subsist without God.’ One chapter of his book, entitled ‘Cornerstones and false values,’ is dedicated to the family and addresses various pastoral challenges such as the defence of life and marriage.

‘I have absolute confidence in African culture,’ Cardinal Robert Sarah told the Catholic weekly La Croix du Benin.

Concerning the divorced and remarried, the cardinal said: ‘(T)hey find themselves in a situation that objectively contradicts the law of God.’

‘I have absolute confidence in the faith of the African people, and I am sure Africa will save the family. Africa saved the Holy Family (during the Flight to Egypt) and in these modern times Africa will also save the human family,’

He also voiced concern about ‘gender ideology,’ saying, ‘My worry is that this is due more to certain governments and international organisations that are trying to impose this philosophy any way they can, sometimes forcibly.’

•

2 During a press conference at the Vatican Press Office on Feb. 10, 2015. Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.

12

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

A Prayer for the Family in Africa God of Mercy and Love, we place our African Families before you today.

May we be proud of our history and never forget those who paid a great price for our liberation.

Bless us one by one and keep our hearts and minds fixed on higher ground.

Help us to live for you and not for ourselves, and may we cherish and proclaim the gift of life.

Bless our parents, guardians, and grandparents, relatives and friends.

Give us the amazing grace to be the salt of the earth and the light for the world.

Help us, as Your children, to live in such a way that the beauty and greatness of authentic love is reflected in all that we say and do.

Give a healing anointing to those less fortunate, especially the motherless, the fatherless, the broken, the sick and the lonely.

Bless our departed family members and friends.

May they be led into the light of Your dwelling place where we will never grow old; where we will share the fullness of redemption and shout for the victory for all eternity.

This we ask in the Precious Name of Jesus, our Saviour and Blessed Assurance,

Amen

Prayer composed by Fr. Jim Goode, OFM

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

13

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

SEMINARIANS IN BUKAVU

T

he essential characteristic of courage, its ‘actus principalior’, is steadfastness, endurance in the face of adversity, holding fast to the truth even, if necessary, to death.

This is the teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

There are no lack of adverse circumstances in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. For over 20 years now roving bands of armed militants have been disrupting the structures of society, creating a state of civil war. Again and again the attempts by the major seminary in Bukavu to stand on its own feet and support itself without outside help have been frustrated or brought to nothing by the violence and looting. But they remain steadfast. The seminarians – 72 of them at present – their six permanent professors and the four religious Sisters have all kept going:

studying, teaching and looking after the every-day needs of the seminary.

They all know that here, unseen and unnoticed, the future life of the country is germinating, despite the insecurity all around them. They know too that this life is possible only thanks to your generosity. As, once again, you have made up the shortfall in their modest budget. This is mostly for food and the support of the seminary professors. What the students have learned cannot be looted.

Your aid has borne wonderful fruit. One seminarian, Kasereka Kikandu, 24, recalls, ‘My first years in another seminary were years of fear. We constantly heard of massacres and lootings. Then I came here. I’m amazed at the courage and the joyful manner of the

Steadfast in their studies: exam time for the seminarians.

14

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

teachers. They urge us to pray for the dead and for their killers. The biggest surprise of all for me was to learn that there are Christians who are helping us without even knowing us, simply because we are their brothers in the faith. This gives us courage, it gives us hope. We hold them in our hearts and our thoughts.’ And to you, these ‘friends and brothers of ACN’ he adds, ‘I have nothing but my constant prayers to give you. But they come right from my heart.’

Taking to heart the need of others and being willing to help is a mercy that bears fruit.

Throughout Africa the need is great. Last year you helped almost 4,700 seminarians in Africa, twice as many as just two years before. This suggests that the number of vocations in Africa is rising.

The 72 seminarians in Bukavu will no doubt be conscious that Jesus himself sent out 72 disciples (see Luke 10:1ff).

Bitaha Murhula Franck has been in Bukavu for just a year. He is brimming with joy. ‘I love the priesthood and the consecrated life’, he says. He too is moved by the selfless solidarity of your help. ‘You have awakened the joy of the missionary life in me, and I tell myself: Bita, you still have a long way to go before you feel this impulse of mercy in the face of other peoples’ need’.

This was also a symbolic number, indicative of the whole world, since at that time there was thought to be only 72 different peoples.

Today there are more than that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone. To them, thanks to your help, the seminarians of Bukavu will soon be proclaiming the Gospel, with courage and endurance – and perhaps also to other nations, beyond the borders of Africa.

•

Formation of 38 seminarians at propaedeutic seminary Mgr Henri Pierard, 2016 - 2017, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

15

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

BRINGING THE PEACE OF FATIMA TO NIGERIA

A

few years ago the number of Christians persecuted for their faith was around 100 million; today it is more than double that number. Among the worst places are Nigeria and Sudan. And in both countries the violence is carried out by radical Islamists.

Nigeria, with its 180 million inhabitants, is the most populous nation in Africa - but it has also seen the highest number of deaths. Last year more Christians were martyred there than anywhere else. They were murdered just because they were Christians.

Their churches were attacked and set on fire in the middle of religious services, and there were indiscriminate bombings in crowded markets, murders and abductions on an almost daily basis. Almost 3 million Nigerians have been uprooted and made

They need the security of the convent walls: the Sisters of Our Lady of Fatima.

16

The power of the Rosary: Father Werenfried in Fatima, praying for peace.

refugees in their own country. And yet the Christians are not giving up. On the contrary, they continue to seek peace with their Muslim neighbours. And there are many Muslims too who have always lived and worked peacefully alongside the Christians.

Most of the 25 million Catholics in the country live in the south. In the new diocese of Pankshin in the north there are around 170,000 Catholics – about 15% of the population. In his pastoral work Bishop Michael Gokum relies heavily on the Sisters of Our Lady of Fatima, a Nigerian congregation with 65 sisters. Their mission includes running the large school here and praying, like the shepherd children of Fatima, for peace.

100 years ago this year, while the First World War was still raging, Our Lady appeared to Jacinta, Lucia and Francisco and promised them that the soldiers

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

would soon be returning home. But added that they must first continue to pray the Rosary daily.

As their vocation combines prayer and education, they need a convent with excellent security, close to the school, with a chapel. We have promised our financial assistance for this. As Father Werenfried said in Fatima, ‘We know that Mary can

crush the serpent’s head underfoot. That is why we have consecrated our entire charity to Our Lady of Fatima, who has shown us the way to liberate the persecuted Church.’

It is a way of conversion, penance, praying the Rosary – and sacrifice. Our Lady desired peace, so may there be peace for the sisters, the schoolchildren and the people of Nigeria. Let us help them.

•

EASTER HOPE FOR SUDAN

C

hristians aren’t safe anywhere there is civil war in South Sudan, oppression under Khartoum in the north.

Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako, the emeritus Archbishop of Khartoum greets us in his Easter message ‘as we accompany Our Lord Jesus in his Passion for the redemption of mankind’.

The seemingly polite formula in fact reflects a harsh reality, as it is not only at Easter time that the Christians in Sudan accompany Jesus in his sufferings, but every day of their lives. Sharia law has been imposed on the country.

When priests arrive for retreat days and formation courses in Khartoum many of them are exhausted and sick, especially those from the Nuba mountains, where Christians are hunted by the Islamists like wild beasts. These priests need rest,

A place of safety and mutual trust.

Celebrating Holy Mass in the retreat centre in Khartoum.

peace and quiet. The encounter with the Lord during the retreat gives them new strength.

Solidarity with their brother priests also revives their courage. But the retreat house itself is in need of repairs, and existing work has stalled. Their slender resources have been eaten up by inflation. They need our financial support.

And they need solidarity to show them that the Easter hope is real.

•

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

17

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

BEACONS OF HOPE

I

n the midst of human suffering, spirituality seems to be the best means to cope with trauma and difficult situations. It is a dynamic and fundamental way for us to connect with something bigger than ourselves, helping us to have meaning and purpose in life, as well as hope for a tomorrow.

Catholic sisters are planting the seeds of faith, hope and love as they walk with the people of South Sudan — the youngest country in Africa — one step at Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Juba, South Sudan and met with Catholic sisters and people who are tirelessly working to transform South Sudan into a place of hope, aptly symbolised by the river Nile flowing through the city of Juba. But despite the fresh water provided by the river, many are starving and the sisters are working on the margins of society, creating schools, hospitals, social and pastoral care centres.

Sr. Jane Wakahiu Both local and missionary sisters are serving hand in hand, building people’s faith and hope for the future yet to be realised.

Trauma is one of the challenges they face each day as they support the communities there.

I keep wondering what keeps these sisters ministering there amid challenging uncertainties, but the answer is simple; it’s love. One sister told me that despite the fragile environment, walking out and leaving those who have nowhere else to call home is not an option. Daughter of Saint Paul Sister Ann observed, ‘You cannot know what is happening in someone’s mind, yet you have to keep hope alive; yes, hope that there is a future’.

I think having an open mind as we encounter and immerse ourselves in a new culture is important. The African proverb, ‘He who has not travelled widely thinks that his mother is the best cook,’ illustrates this well. It encourages us to travel, to be aware and to explore other cultures with an open mind and heart — and not to interpret or judge those cultures through our own cultural lenses.

If we have open minds and are ready to learn and engage effectively with the local people, new cultures will shape our opinions. It is easy for people who live in peaceful circumstances to tell others living in volatile and vulnerable regions to ‘just

18

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

leave’ but for those working in those regions, providing essential services to the sick, poor, children, women and elderly is a priority.

I was deeply touched by the faith, hope and love demonstrated by the Catholic sisters as they navigated difficult terrain to provide desperately needed services. The sisters’ commitment and desire to make a difference in the society and lives of the people they serve is nourished by faith and hope for a better tomorrow. Above all, it is love that leads them to wake up each day to serve.

Each day that we travelled in the South Sudan, I thought of St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians: ‘My children,’ he wrote, ‘I am going through the pain of childbirth all over again, until Christ is formed in you.

I wish I could be there with you and find the right way of talking to you. I am quite at a loss with you’ (Galatians 4: 19-20).

We have a duty not only to pray but also to be active for these people — for the women, the girls, the boys and the elderly in this troubled country. Peace is indispensable for sustainable human development in South Sudan; and there is a dire need for humanitarian assistance.

The need for trauma healing cannot be underestimated. It is essential to develop mutual trust and to impart positive values to the next generation.

•

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

19

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

SCHOOLS OF HOPE IN MAYO

T

he Sudanese refugee children must be given the tools to master the future – with a healthy intellectual and moral foundation. Cardinal Zubeir Wako, until December 2016 Archbishop of Khartoum pointed out: ‘We will have a sad future if there are no qualified intellectuals who have had the benefit of some kind of Christian education’. He is convinced that the Archdiocese must keep the presence of the Church alive in the field of education.

Therefore Uganda Martyrs’ Parish in Mayo which is one of the biggest parishes in the archdiocese of Khartoum founded the Boy’s Model and Our Lady of Hope Girl’s Schools.

Here a growing number of children (1495 pupils – 739 boys and 756 girls) receive a solid education from Kindergarten till 8th grade. The population is roughly 1 Million people. Families are big with an average of

5 children per family. The schools offer their service also to non-Christians. About 450 Muslim students are enrolled.

Schools are one of the most important elements of our mission as Catholic Church in Sudan. Education will help the people to start depending upon themselves ‘save Africa with Africa’ to overcome poverty, tribalism, bad traditions that go against the dignity of the human person etc… and thus wars, by starting religious, human and economic development. The schools in our parish give us a way to evangelise directly and indirectly through our witness of faith. Directly: by giving catechism, retreats, in general keeping our sacramental pastoral going on. Indirectly: showing Christian moral in work, education, respect, how we treat people (parents, teachers, students), thus giving signs of our faith in the God of Love.

This helps us a lot especially with Muslims.

This year we organised a day for the schools to enter through the holy door in the Cathedral, it was a wonderful experience getting all the graces of the Jubilee of Mercy. It was also an opportunity for the parishioners to tie up more and more with the schools, to make them feel more that these are their schools. And that in the schools we can form really a solid new generation in Faith and academically.

Because of the number of students and to improve their academic level, we organised

20

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

extra courses in the evening for the weak pupils and for the 8th grade to study for the exams prepared by the ministry of education for the whole country. This is made possible by the extra commitment teachers.

Our normal pastoral activities inside the schools are going well: inauguration Mass and at the end of the academic year, Christmas Carol, retreats. Weekly catechism was given in classes; religious films were shown to the students.

Concerning our financial situation we still face two major difficulties. The parents who are very poor, some of them have more than two kids in our schools, cannot afford paying the school fees in full or partially. The second is that almost all the parents are displaced people (from the Nuba Mountains, Darfur, Southern Blue Nile and South Sudan).

Most of these people depend on casual labour earning only enough for daily subsistence of the family. The people have migrated mostly from the war zones and have suffered the consequences of war. They find it difficult to understand the importance of educating their children. Still they think of withdrawing their children from school and send them into the streets and markets to beg some money. This is why we don’t insist too much on them paying the fees, but rather take the side of the child who is the main beneficiary. However, being in touch with the parents through meetings, and parents seeing their children well treated and improving in their studies, has encouraged some of them to contribute as

much as they can.

Nonetheless our support is desperately needed. We help to cover the costs for the growing salaries (due to inflation) for 38 very committed teachers and 6 workers, for water and electricity and for the maintenance of the 40 year old school buildings.

Our help makes it also possible to provide the younger pupils of the poorest families with a breakfast.

Mgr. Michael Didi Adgum Mangoria, the new archbishop of Khartoum writes us: ‘I have always appreciated the help that ACN has granted us for many years, in this historical moment in which South Sudan and Sudan are facing the challenges of their new reality after the birth of South Sudan.

In this context the schools are playing an essential role in their respective zones. Thus I fully endorse the project for the good of the families and countries at large.’

•

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

21

GIVING HOPE, ?????????????

GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

THE FAMILY APOSTOLATE IN ZAMBIA ‘Marriage is the most beautiful thing that God has created.’

A

s he created man and woman in his own image (Gen. 1:27), says Pope Francis. Years before Pope St. John Paul II made similar statements about the dignity of husband and wife at the 1994 Africa Synod.

Anyone who does not understand this dignity should ask about the state of their own marriage, or of the married couples around him. Do they all live like Christians?

Do they all understand their vocation as married couples? Do they realise their potential for happiness, or the beauty of their vocation? What is motherhood? What is fatherhood? What about the dignity of women? These and other similar questions

are being addressed by the 86 married couples taking part in the ongoing formation courses on the ‘Fullness of marriage and family life’ in six of the dioceses of Zambia.

The teaching materials are in Bemba, one of the country’s most spoken local languages.

All the participants will return home to pass on the knowledge they have acquired to others in their own and neighbouring parishes.

They will become messengers of the family apostolate, heralds of married love and family harmony. They are the beginning of a movement to promote everything that is beautiful and true, for family life in God – a movement made possible by your generosity.

•

Married life – an image of the love of God, and that’s what they need to teach the family apostolate.

22

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

A Traditional African Prayer for the Family Let us take care of the children, for they have a long way to go Let us take care of the elders for they have come a long way Let us take care of those in between, for they are doing the work.

Amen

www.worldmeeting2018.ie GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

23

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

THEY ARE IMMENSELY GRATEFUL

T

o find out about the work of ACN is supporting in Africa, we spoke to Christine du Coudray Wiehe, who heads the Africa Section of our pontifical charity.

How important is Africa to ACN? For 13 years now the Church in Africa has been a top priority for our pontifical foundation, at least in terms of the volume of funding for the projects. When I first started here 25 years ago, the priority was still the persecuted Church behind the Iron Curtain, but after the fall of the Berlin Wall Africa increasingly began to claim our attention, particularly after the first continental synod, the Synod for Africa, which was called by Saint John Paul II in 1994. With the words ‘Christ is calling Africa’, the Pope drew our attention to a young Church, dynamic and

rich in priestly and religious vocations, but poor in infrastructure and opportunities for formation, and additionally threatened by an aggressive Islam and a West-inspired ‘culture of death’, that is destructive especially towards the traditional family. So this is precisely the area to which our aid is directed.

Which kind of projects are your priority?

The Church on this continent has long survived, thanks in good measure to the material help of the missionaries, but for a variety of reasons this aid is no longer possible. In keeping with our mission and our pastoral outlook, more than anything else we focus on the formation of candidates for the priesthood, on supporting seminarians and providing scholarships,

‘Christ is calling Africa’.

24

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

and also on the ongoing formation of priests, retreats and spiritual exercises, the support of religious Sisters. We also help with bicycles, motorcycles and cars for pastoral work, Bibles in the local languages, radio stations and religious programming, and for the construction of churches and chapels, convents and parish centres etc.

Needless to say, we receive a huge number of requests for aid and have to be selective, according to the actual situation and need.

For a time the priority was the former Marxist regimes such as Angola, Madagascar and Mozambique, at other times it has been the countries suffering civil war, such as Liberia, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or again the countries threatened by radical Islam, such as Nigeria, Mali and today even Kenya and Tanzania.

How is this aid received by the Christians in Africa?

They are immensely grateful to us, and to all our benefactors. It is so important to them to experience our solidarity, the sense of unity in Christ, the assurance that they are not alone in their need. During the second Africa Synod we organised a North-South meeting between the bishops of Europe and Africa. A hundred bishops took part and shared their problems and priorities. It was a worldwide first.

How important is the family in your aid for Africa?

Over the years we have often been approached by local family organisations of all shapes and sizes and in every corner of the continent.

We not only help individually, but also via the overarching African Family Life Federation, thereby encouraging them all to work together. This is enormously important in an age of globalisation and massive antifamily campaigns such as the promotion of gender ideology. The Holy Father has repeatedly warned us about this ideology; many governments and organisations in the West have fallen for it and are now pressurising the African nations. Hence it is all the more necessary to defend and promote the true values of human nature and the expertise in this understanding that the Church has accumulated over the course of 2000 years as a rock and refuge for the family. •

Keeping informed: Christine du Coudray talking to one of our project partners.

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

25

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

GIVING JOY, GIVING HOPE? A chairde,

S

uch is the importance that St. Pope John Paul II attached to family life that he could write ‘the future of humanity passes by way of the family.’ Yes, dear friends, family life is that important and not just for ourselves, for our brothers and sisters, for our children and grandchildren but for humanity itself because it is from our families that we first learn what it means to be human and how to behave as fully-formed human beings.

Sad then to say that today throughout the Western World for a variety of reasons family life, indeed the very concept of family life, is under sustained attack. Indeed this has been the case for so long that the negative social consequences of our individual and collective failures to adequately promote and defend family life are now clearly visible in the mass media, in the social media, in our communities, on our streets, in our own homes, in short, everywhere.

Broken Families means broken Lives. Alienation, Addiction, Boredom, Excess and Despair have become the ‘new norm’ if in fact anything can be considered ‘normal’ any more. The great hopes and grand expectations of previous generations for our and future generations have not been realised. Yes it is true that some of us are materially better off than anyone at any time in the history of mankind but it is equally true that the majority of us have become spiritually impover-

26

ished to a degree that was until recently unimaginable except for the most imaginative of science fiction writers: pornography (and its concomitants) is shaping our culture. Lives are being lost bodily and spiritually.

Yes dear friends, let us be in no doubt that we are living in a brave new world where the Unmaking of Man is happening in front of our eyes and is happening at an accelerating rate. Unchecked it will inevitably ‘end in tears’ and at incalculable. The signs are all there for those with ‘eyes to see and ears to hear.’ Quite simply, the restoration of family life is critical to the restoration of Hope, the rediscovery of Virtue and the reversal of the Western world’s path towards cultural suicide… ‘The future of humanity passes by way of the family.’

It is against this grim background that we should perhaps reflect upon Cardinal Robert Sarah’s assertion that ‘Africa will save the family’.

From the placing of Cardinal Sarah’s understanding alongside St Pope John Paul II’s deep insight, it is possible to deduce that the crises that are occurring in Africa today, that the ‘Joys, Hopes, Griefs and Anxieties’ that Africa is suffering today are all in fact the ‘Joys and Hopes, the Griefs and Anxieties’ of all of humanity and especially of all of us who try to be true followers of Jesus Christ.

In short, they are

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

our ‘Joys and Hopes’. our ‘Griefs and Anxieties’ and whether we acknowledge it or not our crises.

And here we are presented with the stark reality that crises situations abound in Africa.

Indeed the corruption, the criminality, the extreme poverty, the warring and the famines are such as to defy belief and challenge our consciences… How can there be so much evil, so much suffering and for so long?

WHAT THE SAINTS SAY...

Perhaps it is precisely because there is indeed so much evil, so much suffering and that this evil and suffering is so apparent that Christianity in response is growing so rapidly across the continent. And here in passing it should be noted that Christianity is growing by attraction, by the Word and not by the Sword. Moreover, it is growing at such a rate that the materially poor but spiritually rich local churches need our material support

to build Homes for the Lord and His people, to support Seminarians,

to form Religious Brothers, Sisters and Lay catechists, to provide basic Means of Transport to support people in mission, to provide basic Catechetical materials to communicate the Good News that ‘life is worth living’.

In short the impoverished young Catholic communities in Africa need all the practical material support services which ACN has been providing to the African churches since the early 1960’s.

Interestingly the African Churches growing needs for material support from the West is occurring just when we in the West are in particular need of support from their spiritual richness.

The best thing for us is not what we consider best, but what the Lord wants of us!’

St. Josephine Bakhita Quote selected by Eddie Cotter, founder

ead heologians ociety www.DeadTheologiansSociety.com GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

27

GIVING HOPE, GIVING JOY IN AFRICA

All of which suggest to me to be something of a divinely-inspired ‘fair trade’ which recognises that each one of us, no matter our status or condition in life has our own ‘special service’ to undertake on behalf of the Lord in the fulfilment of His Divine Plan. Basically each of us are called to contribute our special gifts to the realisation of God’s Plan.

Moreover it is through the sharing of what we have been given in line with God’s Will that we correctly use our use them and grow them, for as the Church has taught since its foundation it is ‘in giving we receive’.

So it is that the more Joy and Hope we can provide to our brothers and sisters through our prayers, our actions and our material aids the more Joy and Hope we ourselves will receive in both this life and the hereafter.

Self-evidently this is not the ‘way of the world’, ‘the ways of God’ are not the ways of Man and the way God sees the world and sees and values us is, tragically, not the way most of us view and value each other.

Fortunately however it is the case that even within our profoundly broken and disoriented world there are some Holy men and women who are better able to see the Light of Christ and appreciate the super-abundance of gifts which God has given to each of us. These are saints and they walk among us today as they have walked among us since our Redemption.

These are the people help us see the Gospel Truth, the Truth about God and in consequence the Truth about Man. These are the

28

people of God who inspire us to become people of God and to live lives worthy of being people of God, fully human, the only one of God’s creatures made in His image and likeness. The sad truth is that Western man is fast losing sight of God and as a consequence is fast losing sight of man.

The unmaking of man is happening all around us and is doing so at an accelerating rate.

So it is that I have no doubt that as we in the West increasingly lose sight of God and His love for each of us and for all His creation, it will the saints from Africa and the Global South who will help us regain our sight of God, His Truth, His Way and His Life.

Indeed I strongly suspect that at this precise moment in Salvation History we in the West have more to receive from the materiallyimpoverished but spiritually-enriched Churches in Africa and the global South than what we can provide them. I could of course be wrong in this but I am right in saying that God has His ways and unfathomable are the ways of the Lord.

Please pray for the suffering and persecuted Church in Africa, in Ireland and in the World.

Beir Beannacht

J F Declan Quinn Director, Aid to the Church in Need (Ire)

Aid to the Church in Need

7

YEARS OF AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED

THANKS TO YOU...

INSPIRED BY WERENFRIED’S WORDS

PRAYER AND PRACTICAL SUPPORT

When Father Werenfried preached in our cathedral after the war on one of his begging campaigns, my father was so impressed that he emptied the entire contents of his wallet into the collection basket and was about to pull the wedding ring off his finger as well. But then he had second thoughts and decided not to, as he realised my mother would not be best pleased. Instead, he went straight home and immediately wrote out a cheque.

I’m always impressed by your Mirror and I want to support you, both with my prayers and my financial help for the poor and persecuted Church. May Our Lord and Our Blessed Lady be with you always.

A benefactress in Belgium OUR HANDS AND FEET ACN is the representative of all those people of goodwill who would love to be able to help in person, but unfortunately cannot do so. Your work is like our hands and feet.

A benefactress in Canada SOLID SUPPORT Thank you for sending me some of your publications. They provide me with solid support for my work with children and families. They are really valuable in these confused and troubled times.

A benefactor in Germany

A benefactor in Ohio, USA

WHERE TO SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTION FOR THE CHURCH IN NEED Please use the Freepost envelope.

IBAN IE32 BOFI 9005 7890 6993 28 BIC BOFI IE2D

Aid to the Church in Need,

info@acnireland.org

If you give by standing order, or have sent a donation recently, please accept our sincere thanks. This MIRROR is for your interest and information.

www.acnireland.org

Registered Charity Numbers: (RoI) 9492 (NI) XR96620.

151 St. Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.

(01) 837 7516

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

WE ARE CALLED TO BE MISSIONARIES OF JOY

Our fasting is only real when we share our food with those whose daily bread is taken from them by the greediness of the world.

ACN Ecclesiastical Assistant

‘Africa offers the world a beauty and natural richness which inspire praise of the Creator.

This patrimony of Africa and of all mankind is constantly exposed to the risk of destruction caused by human selfishness of every type.’

In the UN offices in Nairobi, 26 November 2015.

That not a single sheep may be lost – whether in Africa or elsewhere.

Aid to the Church in Need

THE MIRROR IS AVAILABLE TO READ AT ACNIRELAND.ORG

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

Aid to the Church in Need

MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

Aid to the Church in Need

MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

THE OF THE

GOSPEL FAMILY

Joy for the World Saint Padre Pio.

Giving Hope, Giving Joy in Africa

17 - 3

Aid to the Church in Need

MIRROR

Prayer Changes the World

God’s Messengers Among Us

Blessed Chiara Luce Badano.

Give Hope, Give Joy in a World at War.