Mukai / Vukani No.67

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Restoration of the

SOCIETY OF JESUS 200th Anniversary 1773 - 1814

John Thurston Percy Dove SJ

1922 – 2014

Towards the Synod on Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization – October 2014 w

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EDITORIAL

The 200th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Society of Jesus and a Peep into the Synod on the Family

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he Society of Jesus celebrates the 200th anniversary of Pope Pius VII's decree Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum of 7 August 1814 which restored the Society of Jesus to the universal Church after its banning and dissolution in 1773.

There is reason to commemorate and celebrate the historical restoration of the Society of Jesus and also the works done by the same Society the world over in general, but in Zimbabwe in particular.

For Fr. Nicolas Adolfo SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, commemorating the 200 years after the restoration helps the Society to enter more deeply into the continuing renewal of the Society that takes place in each generation. “It is as an impulse to renewal in the Society”.

Therefore, the Society of Jesus celebrates not only the restoration, but the vigour as we go forward into the future with “renewed fervor and zeal” for our life and mission today (General Congregation 35, Decree 1).

Fr. Clyde Muropa SJ School of Social Work in Harare, St Rupert Mayer Mission in Makonde and Silveira House celebrate their golden jubilees.

The years of service in the church and in Zimbabwe by generations of members of the Society of Jesus marks a huge commitment of the Society to the life of the people of Zimbabwe. As we mark the 50th anniversary of Silveira House, unfortunately, founder of the House, Fr. John Dove dies peacefully, a few weeks short of his 92nd birth anniversary.

In the same Issue, conscious of the excitement and over-drive There is reason for the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe to created by the questionnaire sent celebrate in the year 2014. The out on the October 2014 synod,

we have reflections from a wide spectrum of contributors on the Synod and the Family. The family is battered left centre and right by pressures ranging from secularism, inter-cultural encounters, mere disregard for religion, and a generation lost in traditional practices. Poverty and the diaspora have resulted in many families living apart. With a new concept and understanding of family supported by modern structures, evangelization of and in the family has been a huge challenge for pastoral ministers.

Moreover, the family itself is an agent of evangelization to others around.

Pope Francis has therefore called for a Special Synod of the Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization, with the express desire to engage all in the 'Instrumentum Laboris'. A set of questions was circulated in parishes for reflection and responses, on what the laity and clergy felt on family and evangelization. As we await for the opening of the Synod, reflections are being made of what challenges families and marriages go through, and how the synod should respond.

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MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

CONTENTS

Contents

EDITORIAL The 200th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Society of Jesus and a Peep into the Synod on the Family REVIEW OF MUKAI/VUKANI 66 Poor church – rich church?

By Brian McGarry SJ THE FAMILY AND PASTORAL CHALLENGES Why are there so few marriages these days?

By Tim Peacock Marriage in the Church

By Arthur Garande PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION Synod on the Family

By Emmanuel Gurumombe SJ A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE Inclusive or exclusive?

Children’s Rights in Zimbabwe

By Rutendo Muchenje WOMEN AND THE CHURCH Struggles of Women in the Church: What the Synod should consider

By Miidzo Gozo CELIBACY Celibacy: Frequently Asked Questions

By Dominic Tomuseni SJ SUPPRESSION AND RESTORATION OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS Suppression and Re-establishment of the Society of Jesus

By W. Thamm SJ CELEBRATING THE JESUIT PROVINCE OF ZIMBABWE St. Rupert Mayer Mission Golden Jubilee 1964 – 2014

By Karl Herman SJ Golden Jubilee of the School of Social Work

By Steven Buckland SJ CELEBRATING YOUTH MAGIS-AFRICA-2014

By Magis Zimbabwe BOOK REVIEWS Surviving the Great Robbery

By Oskar Wemter SJ Women who Reveal the Caring Face of the Church Wonder about their Future SPIRITUALITY OF SPORT Five Spirituality Lessons from the Soccer World Cup

By Gift Mambipiri OBITUARY OBITUARY: John Thurston Percy Dove (1922 – 2014) [adapted from Fr. David-Harold Barry's homily)

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Jesuit Journal for Zimbabwe

No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014 Published by the Jesuit Communications Office of the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe as an in-house magazine for Jesuits and Friends.

Editorial office: JesCom, 37 Admiral Tait Rd, Marlborough, Harare, tel. (+263) 0772 717 994 / (+263-4) 309 623 e-mail: jescomzim@gmail.com or gmambipiri@gmail.com websites: www.jesuits.co.zw or www.jescom.co.zw Editorial Team : Fr Clyde Muropa SJ, Gift Mambipiri, Wongai Zhangazha, Emmanuel Kaparasa SJ layout & Design: Gift Mambipiri, Frashishiko Chikosi

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Printing: Print Dynamix

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Readers may contribute to the production costs by cheque or cash. Articles with full names of their authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board.

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Cover Picture: Obituary

Mukai-Vukani Jesuit Journal for Theological Refection is an in-house magazine for Jesuits and friends. It is distributed for free, but donations to help cover the production costs and office expenses, as well as the costs of distribution are received with gratitude.

You may also help us lower the expenses by letting us know how we can send your copy, by handpost, especially if you receive many copies for distribution at your school, college, university, hospital, mission or parish.

CONGRATS!!! MAKOROKOTO!! AMHLOPE To our newly ordained Frs, Padya, Fernandes and Masakare. May God Bless you...

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

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REVIEW OF MUKAI/VUKANI 66

POOR CHURCH – RICH CHURCH? [Fr. Brian MacGarry SJ's response and reaction to "Death of the poor church" published in Mukai/Vukani 66]

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superficial reading of Fr. Ignatius Musenge's headline “Death of the poor church” sounds as if it contradicts a tradition that runs all the way from the Sermon on the Mount to Pope Francis' call for a “poor church for the poor”. On closer reading of the article, I think clarifying what we mean by words like “rich” and “poor” may show there is not a big difference between Fr. Musenge and the Pope.

Fr. Musenge quite rightly emphasises that abject poverty is an evil. I agree that both abject poverty and great riches lock people into material concerns and deny them the freedom to be the full persons that God wants them to be.

Abject poverty expresses itself as “We are very poor; we need help”. That demoralises people when we want them to help themselves in order to be themselves. Helping them to that is a delicate business. When my main work was in rural development, I realised that many bright ideas of well-meaning “development” people were not close enough to the life of the poor to get their answers right.

St. Ignatius warns us that wealth leads to pride and pride leads to all other sins. The greater the wealth, the greater is that danger because what really leads to pride and denies us freedom is the constant struggle for more and competition to show that I am better than others because I am richer. Jesus wasn't abjectly poor, but he wasn't rich in that sense.

On the other hand, one of Africa's gifts to the world is the acceptance that what we have is

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Fr. Brian MacGarry SJ the gift of a loving God. This seems to be a strong strand in black American spirituality.

They feel rich because they are children of a loving Father who is rich beyond our imagining. That makes them readier to share with those who are less fortunate. This spirit helps even those who have very little to share what they have and builds solidarity with others without which they cannot improve their lot.

For this reason, there “is” a growing movement, especially in richer countries, towards a simpler lifestyle. It is summed up in slogans like “live simply so that others can simply live” and “when you go, leave the earth as you would wish to find it”. People who try to live this ideal find freedom.

on income, capital gains and inheritance, food subsidies and a legal minimum wage are easier to enforce than a maximum wage and less destructive than the grabbing we have seen, but there must be upper limits. For example, health insurance schemes will never have enough money to help all the poor if those who can afford expensive private treatment are allowed to opt out of contributing. Remember Cuba has the best health care system in the world, while the USA, still resisting State medical insurance, has a higher infant mortality rate than Sri Lanka.

So should our church be rich or poor? If a rich church is seen as being outside and above the poor, giving them what it thinks they need, it will never lead them to the freedom of the children of God. If a poor church lacks the spirit to work for a decent minimum living standard for all, it risks peddling “a cheap kind of spiritual vodka”.

Communities like the Quakers offer a possible model. Their practical Christianity encourages simple living and hard work, so they become comparatively rich.

Their emphasis on sharing what they receive makes them leaders in all the capital gains and inheritance are easier than setting a maximum wage and less destructive than just grabbing viating poverty and promoting human freedom.

So the best way to freedom to grow as people is a modest sufficiency. We must work to ensure that nobody goes hungry, naked, homeless or illiterate, or dies of preventable diseases. If a few people control too much of the world's wealth, we will never succeed in this task.

Is it significant that they have no hierarchy, and all are equal members of their church?

Certainly the shared handshake that concludes their prayer meetings feels like more of a sacrament than many of our church rituals.

In the 20th century, progressive governments realised that raising people out of poverty requires limits on how much rich people can accumulate. Graduated taxes

Maybe the final question is “Do we feel rich enough, children of a loving Father, or poor in solidarity with the poor?” Both of these work.

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

THE FAMILY AND PASTORAL CHALLENGES

WHY ARE THERE SO FEW MARRIAGES THESE DAYS? concept of bride price and the gender debate”. Hamadziripi discusses the whole issue of lobola.

By Fr Tim Peacock I read with interest the various articles about marriage in Mukai 66, April/May 2014. I have become more and more alarmed at the falling numbers of Christian marriages. If someone were to inspect the parish registers of sacraments they would invariably find that we baptise in the thousands but we marry only in the hundreds. The majority of Catholic couples never marry in the church, and many of those who do marry in the church have often been first living together for many years.

So where is everything going wrong? My experience is that it is dangerous to make generalizations, because each relationship is unique. Yet, I often see that often the wives are keener to marry than the husbands. One common excuse is, “We can't afford the wedding” (meaning 'we want a big wedding'). But the men will make their own excuses, such as, “I am still paying lobola”, or “I am still thinking”.

The reluctance of men; - Why are men often the problem? We often see that boys grow up with a more selfish way of behaviour than girls. Maybe this is partly because they are more playful by nature.

Boys also tend to be nearer to their fathers, whilst girls are nearer to their mothers. In today's world many boys see little or nothing of their fathers. Often the father is away working, even in a distant country. Others may be out drinking, or have long since divorced or deserted their wives.

Boys need a father figure, but so many of them are missing the love and discipline that a father should give. Single mothers often find it hard to bring up their sons. The result is that many young men end

up repeating the mistakes of their fathers, abusing drink and drugs, which inevitably lead to indulge in illicit sex. I liken this to a cancer in society. I find that in a sizable majority of cases marriage breakups are caused by the husbands, and almost always the cause is infidelity. Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” on proclaiming the Gospel in today's world, comments in section 88 on selfishness, describing it as a “bitter poison”, and going on to say, “humanity will be the worse off for every selfish choice we make.”

The Lobola question; - But having said all this there are quite a good number of husbands who do make the effort to have straightforward lives and to be properly married in the church. But here comes the problem of lobola. The parents of the bride usually insist that at least a substantial portion of lobola must be paid before they will 'allow' their daughter to marry. In the past lobola was often paid in the form of cattle or goats, but since cash is more commonly used now, greed has taken over, often with large sums being demanded, which can take many years to pay.

In Mukai/Vukani 66 edition, I was struck by some of the comments made in the article, “Traditional

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

I think there is a danger in venerating culture simply because it was done 'since long back'. Culture is sometimes flawed since it is created by human beings, not by God. Hence it portrays a mixture of good and bad. As Catholics we should support what is good in any culture, but on the other hand we cannot support what is against Christian teachings.

My argument is that if the parents of the girl won't allow the wedding before substantial payments have been made, is this not effectively forcing the young couple to live in a state of adultery? By doing this the parents also share in the sin of their children. Couples excuse themselves by arguing that 'we have to follow our culture', yet the Church teaches clearly that if a couple has sex when they are not properly married in the church, they live an adulterous life. The lobola system also makes a mockery of white weddings; how can we Catholics encourage girls to marry as virgins when the parents insist on them waiting many years before they walk down the aisle?

It is claimed that the practice of lobola brings families together; I agree with that but what I see is that they come together in disharmony rather than harmony.

How can the son-in-law be free with the parents of his wife when he has a big payment to clear? I also see that by delaying the commitment that comes with church marriage it encourages many husbands to become unfaithful.

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THE FAMILY AND PASTORAL CHALLENGES I would argue that the lobola system perpetuates the idea that women are second class citizens.

Daughters are seen as objects of merchandise, to be sold off. The selling price is dependent of certain factors, such as how pretty is she, how many 'O' levels does she have, how much money does the son-in-law earn, or how many head of cattle does his father own? This encourages many husbands to abuse their wives, viewing them more like live-in unpaid domestic servants.

Lobola is in conflict with other basic human rights. Once a girl or boy is 18 years of age both the state and the Church claim that they are now adults, and have all the rights of any other citizen of the country. Wasn't there a war of Independence fought in Zimbabwe in order to create a constitution that would guarantee

every citizen these rights? The lobola system effectively treats the children as minors right up until the time until lobola is completed. Our parish is poor, and we have some grandparents who are still afraid to marry since they have not yet completed lobola.

After 34 years of independence parents are still denying their adult children the right to marry.

Some may recommend a compromise, by insisting on reducing lobola payments, but I don't believe this will work because our tendency towards greed will sooner or later return us to the old system.

The way forward; -. The lobola way of marriage is also much weaker than the Christian way, since it consists simply as and agreement made between two families, whist the Christian system involves a commitment made before God and the

community. Furthermore, the lobola system is in conflict with the Ten Commandments and the sacraments; it is unjust to women and it is in violation of the constitution of Zimbabwe. By contrast, when couples marry in a Christian way, there is a wonderful stabilising effect on society, and it is grace filled, thus helping the whole family to follow the path that leads to heaven.

In conclusion, I would argue that we should no longer tolerate the lobola system. Replacing lobola with the Christian way of marriage will certainly help promote more marriages, earlier marriages and more white weddings.

Fr. Tim Peacock is a diocesan priest, originally from England, but working in a mission in Hwange diocese for the last 31 years.

Response - Why are there so few marriages these days?

Marriage in the Church

By Arthur Garande A recent issue of “In Touch” carried the following statement.

“If someone were to inspect the parish registers of sacraments they would invariably find that we baptise in the thousands but we marry only in the hundreds.

The majority of Catholic couples never marry in the church, and many of those who do marry in the church have often been first living together for many years.”

Fr Timothy Peacock (Hwange diocese) This article is a personal reflection rather than a scholarly research. Fr. Peacock's statement has pointed to a source of statistics that can confirm what anyone could have concluded just by looking at numbers baptised at Easter in any parish versus weddings in a year for the same parish.

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Through sound training in catechism as one prepares for First Communion and Confirmation, we know that participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is the climax of our practice of faith. Naturally, all Catholics would want to participate in this sacrament yet so many baptised and confirmed Catholics have impediments to receiving communion, the main one being that they are not married in church. There is a lot of encouragement towards marriage in Church, yet it is not translating into weddings.

Another observed statistic is that there is high incidences of cohabitation without any formalisation of the union. Young people just move in and then battle to regularise their union.

This creates the problem of children born out of wedlock. The pastoral issues surrounding such are an interesting challenge for clergy and recent developments

in that area are quite encouraging – the church is showing compassion.

I am going to assume that we are all agreed that marriage and a church wedding (sacramental matrimony) are good and desirable. The question that interests me in this short piece is why are young people not marrying in church in numbers and why are many of the marriages among young couples breaking down so easily?

My chief suspect for both these scenarios is the exposure we have to other cultures of the world which has made an impact on how we value our own. A certain kind of relativism has crept in.

Worthy to note is the idea of a girl just “moving in” as well as the high divorce rate among celebrities i.e., models for our youth. I am quite sure that when she moves in, a girl trusts that bride price will be paid in due

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

THE FAMILY AND PASTORAL CHALLENGES for marriage, all that is required is the consent of the two and two witnesses. Yet many of the young couples who are not yet married in church cite lack of finance for the cake, the wedding ring, the gown, the party etc.

Cohabitation has gained a measure of acceptability among them because of its frequency. I have spoken to quite a number of young men and women who say, “we are on separation” and they say it so glibly you would think they are talking about something insignificant in their lives. Some even go as far as saying, “we still talk, particularly about the children, we're still friends, but we could not go on anymore.” I don't get it. But my guess is; this is connected to the union being about the two of them only. Yet we hear from Pope Benedict XVI that, “Conjugal love is not a fleeting event, but the patient project of a lifetime. Called to live a Christ-like love each day, the Christian family is a privileged expression of the church's presence and mission in the world. As such, it needs to be accompanied pastorally and supported in its problems and difficulties.” This suggests that a marriage is not just about the two people coming together but is a vital part that feeds and is supported by the family, the church and society at large.

Closely connected to the wedding to talk about is the continued separation between the lobola ceremony and the church wedding. The first is an event involving the families of the young couple while the latter is about the young couple taking centre stage and attracting all the attention to themselves. Along with this shift in focus is also a shift in understanding from marriage being about two families uniting to the wedding being about only two people. The support structures for the latter are not yet strong in our society.

Another shift in our society that could explain the ease with which marriages are breaking down is the fact that more and more women are capable of being economically independent while men have not changed their thinking to accept this fact. Thus a considerable number of men think they can continue the unacceptable behaviour they saw in their fathers (infidelity and abuse) and their wives should just accept it like their mothers did.

The healthy position is that men and women are equal and complementary partners who should have mutual respect for one another in their union.

My second suspect for the low number of marriages is that young people think a wedding is the same thing as a “white wedding”; just like the celebrities or as close as possible to it. Many times I have heard that this is not the case but I am not sure that our young people hear the same thing. They want a wedding to talk about.

Apart from the finer details about the suitability of the candidates

I would like to propose that combining the traditional and the church marriage ceremonies might be the way forward.

Especially when one considers the costs involved in setting up the two events separately. My wife and I did it seven years ago and everyone who took part was

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amazed at the ingenuity. Through careful negotiation with our families beforehand, the lobola ceremony took place in the morning, there was a lunch break, and priest joined our families after lunch and presided over the wedding in the afternoon. We deliberately cut out what we considered unnecessary extras but our families felt and still feel they have everything to do with us and our well-being as a family unit.

By the end of the same day, we were married traditionally, married in church and could continue participating fully in the sacramental life of the church. In the documents of the Second Vatican, there is plenty of talk about adapting according to places and times. Could this be one of the places in our time? This model for the process of getting married might be a break from what is familiar but isn't that what Christianity has always done with the cultures of the world?

The reduced pomp and fanfare means that this type of marriage is within the reach of more young people. Like any traditional marriage, the groom was not required to finish the bride price in one sitting. In my view this shifts the focus back towards the sacrament. If my wife and I ever decide we have accumulated enough to throw a big party, we can always do it for one of our anniversaries.

When family members visit us, they still remark about our special day and ask us how things are between us. Thus we continue to enjoy the support and encouragement of our respective families who are keen to see us go as far as “till death do us part”.

Mr Aurthur Garande is the director of Ignatian Ethos at St George's College in Harare

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course and then a wedding will also follow. Often this does not happen and it is too late to do anything to correct it. To the minds of the young people, this does not look as bad as it does to their older counterparts.

The responsibilities of the pastor include preparation for marriage, increasingly necessary nowadays to enable engaged couples make their decision in terms of their personal adhesion to faith to the Lord, to build their families on solid foundations

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

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PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION ON THE SYNOD

Synod on the Family Fr Emmanuel Gurumombe SJ The first session of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of Bishops (Synod of Bishops) on the family will take place from 5 19 October 2014. The second session will be held in 2015. The Synodal theme is 'The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization'. A working document has been issued. Working documents for such purposes in the Church are a summary of responses. In Latin it is known as the Instrumentum Laboris, that is, the working instrument or the instrument (to be used) for/in the work (to be done).

The Synodal Instrumentum Laboris, which I will refer to as I.L. hereafter, is the result of the forty (40) question questionnaire sent out by the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops on behalf of the Holy Father to all Catholic Bishops' Conferences in the world. As such, there is already a response from the faithful on the matters that will be discussed at the Synod. This article will make a brief selective exposé of some of the issues in the working document apt for discussion at the Synod while offering some reflection.

If we pay particular attention to the Prayer to the Holy Family composed by Pope Francis in preparation for the Synod, the sense of the Pope's pastoral concern in regard to the Synod can be detected. The penultimate part of the prayer demonstrates that the Church's doctrinal teaching on marriage and the family is not expected to change, unless my reading of it is partially or totally flawed. It reads “Holy Family of Nazareth may the approaching Synod of Bishops make us once more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family and its beauty in God's plan….”

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Fr Emmanuel Gurumombe SJ Pope Francis did well to send out a no holds-barred forty (40) question questionnaire to all the Catholic Bishops' Conferences so that the faithful could respond as part of the preparation for the Synod. This is not exactly the first time in the history of the Church that the observations of the faithful have been sought concerning an issue regarding the faith of the Church, except the method is different and, perhaps, convenient for our times. In a collaborative manner, the Church (i.e., the hierarchy that asked the questions, and the faithful who responded) has spelt out or at least highlighted the particularly difficult situations affecting family life. Some of the key issues include the problem of cohabitation, persons separated, the divorced, the divorced and remarried, the so-called union of persons of the same sex, openness to life (versus contraception), upbringing children and the challenge of providing Christian education for children in difficult family situations.

In the perspective of this Mukai/Vukani publication celebrating the Restoration of the Society of Jesus in 1814 after its Suppression in 1759, we can perhaps employ the parlance of this circumstance in relation to the situation of family life in our time. Just as political and religious forces led to the

Suppression of the Society of Jesus, a similarity can be drawn in relation to the family.

Contemporary world forces have engendered conditions causing significant problems against the family. The working document notes the negative effects of certain developments within the media and social network, the impact of work on the family, migration and the family, poverty and the struggle for subsistence and the regrettable issue of sexual abuse in the Church and inappropriate relationships. These problems constitute a sort of suppression of the well-being of the family.

In view of the weight of these issues, Pope Francis made it clear during his return flight from the Holy Land on 26 May 2014 that it would be misleading to consider the Synod as limited to addressing the question of whether or not the divorced and remarried can be admitted to receive Holy Communion, even though that will also be discussed.

The major objective of the Synod will be the evangelization of the family. It is a kind of return to the source. What is that source? It is God the Father, who has spoken through his Son Jesus Christ. The teaching of Our Lord forms the biblical teaching of the Church on marriage. The Church will not give in to worldly pressure and change the meaning of marriage.

In light of the teaching of the Church, the working document states that: (a) “Every bishops' conference voiced opposition to 'redefining' marriage between a man and a woman through the introduction of legislation permitting a union between two people of the same sex” (I.L.#113); (b) “On the unions of persons of the same sex, the responses of the bishops' conferences refer to Church teaching. 'There are absolutely no

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PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION ON THE SYNOD

grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family” (I.L. 110) in spite of those who lobby for same sex unions.

There is need to restore the dignity of matrimonial love. The situation of family life is highly threatened by rampant infidelity, with men and women taking wicked comfort in so-called 'small houses', which are forms of concubinage. Street or organized prostitution related to poverty, high levels of indecency in the media, dating based on nonmarital sex and a general disregard of the sacred meaning of human sexuality also degrades the attitude towards family life. This increases marital insecurity. But such matters cannot be resolved simply by the pronouncement of the final pastoral directives of the Synod.

The faithful, especially unmarried young adults, married men and women have to commit

themselves to seek, understand and practice that which leads to marital happiness. There is no way to happiness except through a genuine growing union with God manifest in honest and sacrificial love for neighbor i.e., one's spouse or engaged prospective spouse. There needs to be ways of helping young adults as well as spouses to be much more knowledgeable about the meaning of marriage than is currently the case. Priests need to be sufficiently well read about these matters in order that they in turn offer in-depth assistance to couples. Marriage is a vocation. It is not only a lawful institution between a man and a woman (with their children) but also a vocation towards the heavenly “marriage of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).That is what marital chastity is for: a personal commitment to honest love in imitation of Christ's love for his Church (Eph. 5:32); the love that opens the gates of heaven for us at the end of time. Chastity is not simply about being morally upright. It is about a personal

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relationship with God, which no doubt involves the sacrifice of fidelity. As such any vocation worth the name demands sufficient preparation and ongoing support.

So what will the Synod bring to the Church? For the main part we wait and pray. At least we know the issues as stake. We look forward to an adoption of relevant common pastoral directions for the good of the family, which is the 'domestic church'. However, the restoration of distraught Christian family life will certainly demand the prayerful and sober cooperation of the faithful. The doctrine of the Church on marriage is unlikely going to change. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's said in a catechesis on the Church, “the Church is not a group of friends who do as they please” because she is answerable to her Lord and Founder, Jesus Christ. Yet she will deliberate and act with compassion in tune with Pope Francis' pastoral disposition.

Fr Emmanuel Gurumombe SJ Student of Philosophy

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A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

INCLUSIVE OR EXCLUSIVE? Fr. Brian McGarry SJ A couple of years ago, I experienced something nearer to this.

A friend invited me to the negotiations for his youngest daughter's lobola; could I bless the proceedings because he really wanted to do his best for his last little girl?

I went. During the introductions, I was asked to say a prayer; I prayed for the guidance of the Holy Spirit on the proceedings that would follow. When the tezvara was expected to leave the negotiators to do their business, I went out with him. We sat in the garden, sipped at a scud and chatted with passers-by till we were called back into the house for the announcement of what had been agreed. At the close of that, I was asked to give the young couple a blessing and I did that. Nobody claimed that we were rewriting “sacramental theology”, but

maybe this was a step in the right Papal teaching since Pius X has direction? been to encourage more people to receive more frequently.

Pope Francis wants a free discussion at the coming Synod of Pope Francis has reminded us that Bishops on all the problems in the Communion is not a reward for area of marriage, family and keeping church rules; it is the food sexual ethics, so he has sent out a of our spiritual lives. request for bishops to consult all their people and report back so that If that is the case, then surely we they will know what people really should be encouraging young think and experience; all too often people while they are making the this sort of information doesn't most important decision many of reach bishops' offices. them will make in their whole lives, to seek this spiritual Isn't this the time to ask what we all nourishment as often as possible? believe about traditional African marriage?

After all, marriage is the one sacrament that is far older than the We recognise people who are church. It goes back to Adam and married traditionally as married. Eve, who, archaeologists tell us, Most people do not consider it lived about 200,000 years ago sinful to live together without somewhere in East Africa, being married in church; they probably in modern Tanzania. think it's just against some funny How can the church dictate what is church rule. a true marriage? All we can be sure we can do is to bless what are But people not “married in accepted as real marriages by the church” are excluded from community concerned.

Communion, although the trend of

Children's Rights in Zimbabwe: An Analysis of how the State seeks to protect Children's Rights

R

utendo Muchenje is a lawyer and is based in Harare. Her passion lies with family law and she writes on the legal side of children and family law.

This Article explores children's rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No 20) Act of 2013.

Zimbabwe has prioritized children's rights, it adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child and various laws have been passed in the recent years which protect children.

Before Amendment (No 20) of 2013, children's rights were not

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Rutendo Muchenje set out in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. With Amendment (No 20) of 2013 we see children's rights being set out in the superior

law of the land. Children's rights are now set out in section 19 of the Constitution. Section 19 (1) clearly sets out that the State must adopt policies and measures to ensure that in matters relating to children, the best interests of the children concerned are paramount. In section 19 (2) the State has undertaken to ensure that children enjoy family or parental care, or appropriate care when removed from the family environment, have shelter and basic nutrition, health care and social services, are protected from maltreatment, neglect or any form of abuse and have access to appropriate education and training.

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A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE Section 19 (3) of the Constitution which deals with child labour also compels the state to take appropriate legislative measures to protect children from exploitative labour practices and to ensure that children are not required or permitted to perform work or provide services that are inappropriate for the children's age or place at risk the children's age, their children, education, physical or mental health or spiritual, moral and social development. With Section 19 (3) we see the State fighting against acts such as human trafficking and child prostitution, where children are abused in order to obtain income to support families. In Africa we have high cases of child headed families were children are forced to support each other, this is because of the increasing rates of HIV/AIDS. If we take a look at our Maintenance law which is one of the most controversial topics to most men in Zimbabwe, the State protects children. The Maintenance Act [Chapter 5:09] has brought up so many changes which protect children, both parents have a duty to maintain their children. Under traditional customary law, the father of a child who was born out of wedlock had no duty at all to maintain his child, in Shona they said “gomba harina mwana� this meant that even if a man impregnates a woman and does not marry her, and the man had no duty to maintain this child.

However, in modern days, maintenance has extended beyond formally recognized links to those who have created a relationship by reproduction. For example, if a married man impregnates his girlfriend and is sued for maintenance, whilst the man is legally liable to maintain the child, which does not mean that both the married man and girlfriend are husband and wife.

In Zimbabwe a child is supported up until he or she turns 18 years of

age or becomes self-supporting.

In Zimbabwe the mother of a child born out of wedlock is entitled to recover expenses from the father of the child. These include maternity, home and medical expenses, maternity clothing and clothes for the child as well as food. The expenses can only be claimed after the birth of the child.

Similarly, upon divorce or judicial separation, children are protected from the conflicts between their parents. When a decree of divorce or judicial separation is granted by the High Court of Zimbabwe, the court looks at the best interests of the child. Although custody is vested naturally by mothers, custody can also be granted to the father after taking into account the best interests of the child which are provided in section 4 of the Guardianship of Minors Act [Chapter 5:08]. The court looks at the age of the child, health, sex, educational and religious needs, social and financial position of the parties, character of parents, temperament, past behaviour of parent to child. A parent who leads an immoral life is deprived of custody and a parent who travels a lot is deprived of custody too because children need the attention of parents and they need to be brought up under a good and religious background. A noncustodian parent is also granted

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access in terms of section 6 of the said Act, meant to keep the natural bond between the child and the parent.

The Child Abduction Act [Chapter 5:05] which is international in nature is meant to safeguard the removal of children when a custodian parent wants to leave another country with the child. When parties fail to agree, the High Court of Zimbabwe makes that decision for the parents since it is the upper guardian of the minor child. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was adopted in Zimbabwe by virtue of Child Abduction Act. With the Children's Act [Chapter 5:06], establishing the children's court, provisions for the protection, welfare and supervision of children and juveniles as well as certain institutions and institutes for the reception and custody of children were established. The same Act also deals with issues of adoption of minors. Before the Children's Act came into effect, an adopted child could get married to the adopted parent if the child was o v er 1 8 y ear s , n o w ad ay s marriage between a parent and adopted child is prohibited.

Criminal law has protected children against sexual offences that might be committed against them. Various acts of crimes are

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WOMEN AND THE CHURCH

defined in Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:07] which attract heavy fines and custodial sentences. Section 87 of the Code states that anyone who allows a child to be a prostitute commits a crime. Meanwhile, section 70 of the Code also penalizes adults who have sexual intercourse with minors or who perform indecent assaults on young people. It is not a defense that a young child consented to the act because at law, children cannot consent to sexual acts. Section 49 of the Code also protects the right to life as

enshrined in the Constitution anyone who within six months of the birth of her child and causes its death intentionally or by conduct realizes that there is a real risk to the child's life shall be guilty of infanticide, just as abortion is prohibited. Section 94 of the Code also protects the rights of the girl child, any female custodian who hands over a young girl who is under the age of 18 as compensation of the death of a relative of another person (kuripa ngozi) and for a debt or obligation commits a crime.

In conclusion, the State plays a great role in the protection of children's rights. Although the State has made it an offence to have sexual intercourse or indecent acts with children, offences such as rape, sodomy and indecent assault continue being committed by adults. The right to education and the right to health of children are still being violated due to religious grounds for example apostolic sects. It is therefore imperative that the Church engages in massive civic education to promote the rights of children in faith communities, especially African Initiated Churches.

STRUGGLES OF WOMEN IN THE CHURCH: What the Synod should consider

By Miidzo Gozo

M

any cultures and traditions, Christianity and African culture included, have treated women as second class citizens, yet, they form the basis of any society. In Christianity, the fact that Eve was created as a “helper” for Adam (Genesis 2:18) has been a basis for the low regard for women, particularly in the church and society in general. In modern times, it goes beyond any doubt that women are the majority in the churches, yet they occupy insignificant decision making roles in their respective churches, inclusive of the Catholic Church.

Women form the majority of members of the laity and also of consecrated life in. This paper discusses the position of women in the Church, through a balanced analysis of women's role in the Church and the challenges obtainable. At the end, some points for the Synod of the Pastoral Challenges in the Context of Evangelization, in the 21st Century are offered.

The Church acknowledges and appreciates the importance of women today in ministry and marriage. It is unfortunate that because of cultural views, and

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Miidzo Gozo also the Jewish concept of the human being, women have been side-lined to the terraces of Church life. This has given rise to “church feminists” who, over the years, have called for more active participation of women in the Church. The crust of it all being the call for women ordination to the priesthood.

Apparently, the Old Testament has an assortment of women with different qualities, ranging from those who were labelled as harlots, those who were mothers to great prophets and others who were models of excellence in morality and in spiritual standing.

Interestingly, all played vital and influential roles in their respective lives of “ministry”.

It is important to offer a disclaimer that biological make-up has nothing to do with one's mission or ministry, but rather, it's a societal construct that women occupy lesser ranks in life. For example, in modern day times, women have excelled in political leadership, or religious excellence. Such would include among others, Ellen Serleaf Johnson of Liberia, Margaret Thatcher of England, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Opprah Winfrey just to mention but a few.

In business, however, very few women have made it to the top, checking from the recent Forbes Magazine rankings, Beyonce Knowles tops, amongst a horde of men. Does this all stand to prove women's perceived second class citizenship in society? Definitely, not as God would prefer, but this is a result of patriarchal systems, needing immediate change. There is need to change such perceptions, for one wants it or not. For Heraclitus of Ephesus, change is eminent, since life is not static. In Biblical times, the same sense of change comes from Jesus himself.

Unfortunately, in Christian circles, the fact that Old

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WOMEN AND THE CHURCH Testament women were less regarded in the natural sense of equality or being created in the image of God has been used to manipulate, or even to abuse women. Amidst such contexts of oppression of women, we see the rise of brave women like Deborah to take up the religious leadership as a prophet and political leader by deciding the time and place of attack against Sisera and appointment of Barak as the army general. After succeeding, they sang and praised the Lord together with the freed Israelites (Judges 4-5). In this case, Deborah and Jael appear together for the best.

In spite of the negative regard of women in society, the Catholic Church has engaged the drive of treating women with compassion, grace and dignity. In a personal appeal, Pope Benedict XV1 stresses that, “we must recognise, affirm and defend the equal dignity of man and woman.” For this reason, all acts of violence against and discrimination of women must be condemned. At the same time, the indispensable role of women in the life of the church must be recognised and appreciated.

The Church realised the need for women in the field of evangelisation in education, health, social work and pastoral ministry. The vocation to religious life has seen millions of women working vicariously in the Church in administration, in pastoral circles, in education, health and care and as evangelizers.

Having noted the cultural and Christian position of women, this paper offers points to consider for the Synod proffered here include the following.

In contemporary times, there is a gap between women and men leaders in the Church. It is evident that decision makers in the church, resting with the College of Cardinals, episcopal conferences and senate of priests

are all patriarchal structures. In as much as women are consulted, or are members of parish, deanery and diocesan councils, it is beyond doubt that they have not reached the top echelons to make decisions. It is plausible though that the Pope has recently named four women to the clerical abuse council. The Church is called upon to should consider more women in leadership positions.

More women should sit in parish, diocesan councils and even as extended members of episcopal conferences.

The Church's teaching on contraceptives need to be revised.

In most marriages, women are exposed to sexual infections as a result of the men's infidelity.

Therefore, a continuous ban on contraceptives, especially condoms, makes women vulnerable to STIs, HIV/AIDS. The case of discordant couples has not been dealt with to the grass roots in cases where one is HIV positive and the other is negative. There is need however, to clarify cases where couples can be allowed, in good conscience to use contraceptives, with the pastor's guidance of course. From

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a general survey, many couples prefer to defy the Church's teaching on the non-use of contraceptives. The Church needs to do a research or survey and be informed of the practice underway amongst couples.

Another contentious area is that of single mothers. These women have been looked at with scorn in the Church. They are stopped from participating fully in the sacramental life of the Church. In some cases, they are not allowed into positions of leadership, or to become full members of guilds, or their children are refused baptised. The situation with the “single fathers” is quite different.

A near example would be enabling separated women and single mothers in receiving the Holy Communion, as advocated for by Cardinal Walter Casper in his address to the College of Cardinals on 20 February 2014.

The cardinal, invites the church to mercy and clemency, especially for those divorced, or re-married Catholics.

The issue of abortion, which is prevalent amongst the youths, especially in high schools and

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CELIBACY third level education, though abominable, still needs clarification when it comes to the sacrament of reconciliation.

Abortion, is one of the sins reserved for the bishop for absolution. The fact that bishops are not easily accessible makes it impossible for most women, to access the sacrament of reconciliation. The magisterium should consider making absolution of such possible to ordinary priests, for the Church is a healer and not a condemner.

The issue of women priest, deacons or bishops in the Catholic Church remains a bone of

contention amongst women who question the Catholic Church`s androcentric attitude. Apparently, in 1977 the Vatican issued a position paper on the subject of women becoming deacons. It was called "Declaration on the Question of Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood”. In 1988, Pope John Paul wrote also on a similar note, “On the Dignity and Vocation of Women (Mulreris Dignitatem) ” stating that Jesus picked men for his disciples and so He was a man and the Vatican assumes that only men are intended to be priests.

In conclusion women in the Catholic are recognised and

appreciated for their varying influential capacities in the growth of the individual person and church at large. Challenges of personal attitude and perception to life have hindered the focus and progress of many with regard to behaviour change and life in the spirit. The church should be flexible to facilitate change in circumstances that require new approaches to mitigate the crisis befalling women.

Miidzo Gozo is a young Catholic woman, attached to the National Movement of Catholic Students.

She is passionate about the life of women in the Catholic Church.

Celibacy: Frequently Asked Questions

By Fr. Dominic Fungai Tomuseni SJ

W

hen I was asked to do a reflection of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on celibacy, I thought FAQs were only about negotiating the day to day challenges of celibacy such as physical desires, intimacy, posterity and testosterone and real questions are about the ultimate goal in God of such a life. I wanted “real” questions. However, whilst searching for 'real' questions in spiritual journals, theological treaties, and liturgical celebrations of consecrated life, I discovered that FAQs are in fact the 'real' questions.

What I discovered is that what I thought of as real questions are about establishing principles by which the life of celibacy is to be understood and lived. The major principle emerging in spiritual and theological discourses is that celibacy is a grace of witness given to some. Those to whom it is given witness to the greatness that is beyond all that we can enjoy in the here and now. That principle borrows heavily from Plato's understanding of the real as that which is unchangeable which

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resides beyond the material world. For Plato that which is concrete and material is only a shadow of the real.

Two thousand years after Plato, we have come to a better understanding that what is real is that which is concrete and practical experience. FAQs on celibacy are probing those real experiences and are an investigation into the witnessing to that greater reality in the here and now. FAQs differ from place to place, but in Africa, especially in Zimbabwe. I have encountered three appearing in different expressions, listed here in order

of frequency 1. “So do you mean you have never..?

2. “Where is it in the bible?

In fact the bible say, “berekanai muwande” 3. “Do you want to die without children?”

Question 1 “Do you mean you have never….”

This is a very personal question in which the questioner wants to know if he/she who has this vow is a virgin and has never had any sexual relations. Normally it is

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CELIBACY asked without giving details about the “never what.” You only get what they are referring to by facial expressions and body gestures. The vague nature of the question is because people do not talk about sex openly in Zimbabwe. It is a taboo.

This question is informed by the experience and understanding that sexual relations are given and normal, such that one needs them in the same way one needs food to survive. Such thinking is clear in the common explanation given for the unfaithfulness among those who have taken this v o w. M a n y e x p l a i n t h e unfaithfulness away by saying “we are human,” meaning that our human nature requires that we must have that desire to be fulfilled and it is impossible to live otherwise.

The kind of thinking, behind this question, is similar to what can be referred to as Freud's “pansexism.” Pansexists think of sex as imbuing and directing the entire human nature in the same way pantheist will think of the divine presence in all creation.

A closer contemplation of celibacy can show a different dynamic from the pansexist's perception. Those who embrace celibacy in the church take the vow of chastity.

Chastity is a deliberate act of abstaining from sexual relations and being faithful to the demands of that abstinence. It is not an anti-libido movement in imitation of life in the kingdom to come, but a life giving selflimitation in matters of sexual relations so as to transcend oneself and making oneself available to other, that is “to lay down one's life for one's friends” which Jesus describes as the greatest love (John 15:13). The self-transcendence expressed through self-limitation is an opening to the transcendence of God. The self- limiting described by others as renunciation is not the goal or

focus but it is means of expressing love that transcend all other loves.

Self-limiting in matters of sex is something that even married people and those who are not married and have no vow are called to in their own way. People do not just go around having sex with anyone who attracts them.

Rather, they limit themselves in order to bring about the best their life can offer and make themselves available to some people or responsibilities.

Most people do exercise some self-limitation in one way of the other and the self-limitation is faithfulness to the different lives that different people embrace.

Therefore, those who take the vow chastity vow faithfulness to absolute self-limitation in matters of sex, trusting in God's grace to bring the best that this life offers, just like those who limit themselves in marriage trust and hope in God's grace to bring the best of their kind of selflimitation.

In the final analysis, we are not machines propelled by testosterone and estrogens as the pansexist would have us believe, but we are imbued by a greater being who enables us to manage the sexual energy at varying levels so as to energize different kinds of lives. Celibacy then is an expression of the presence of God in our lives.

The first question is also asking about those who find themselves failing to live the dynamics that I have described above. There are many such cases and they have been a cause of great pain in the church and society at large. I recall F r. D a v i d H a r o l d B a r r y ' s reflection on the same issue, “The fact that there are some unhealthy celibates, who focus not on God or others but on themselves, is no more an argument against celibacy than the fact that many marriages break down because one or both partners have psychological or other problems.”

This is not just a simple comparison of celibacy and marriage, but a statement about the value of celibacy that it cannot be dismissed because some have

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failed to be faithful. Maybe it is best to deal with infidelity among celibates in the same way we deal with infidelity in marriage.

Question 2. Where do we find that in the bible?

This question is about the biblical foundation of the celibate life, not the history of that life. It is informed by the thinking that the bible is the best guarantee that something is from God. It is a general view that if something is in the bible, then it must be true and it must be from God. The problem with that thinking is the failure to recognize that the bible is itself a reflection of the experience of faith upon which further reflections are based. It is through this process that dogmas, doctrines and disciplines develop.

The bible contains a reflection of the experience of faith and that reflection constitute the basis of further reflections in light of new experience. The bible is not like a constitution, without which an organization or movement cannot have shape or direction. The Christian community is not a product of the bible, rather it is the other way round. The bible is a product of the Christian community experience of God. If one wants any connection between the bible and the dogmas, doctrine or disciplines such as celibacy, one has to interpret. The bible does not give blueprints.

There are many texts that can be used from the bible to support celibacy including Jesus' own celibate life. All these texts requires interpretation. There is no direct statement prescribing celibacy.

What happened is that the community of faith, continuing with the reflection that produce the bible and reflecting on the conclusions that we find in the bible, came to a conclusion on celibacy as it is understood now. It is a process that is ongoing and it won't be surprising that given new experiences and encounters with the divine, the view on celibacy

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SUPPRESSION AND RESTORATION OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS will change significantly. The Christian faith is not a faith of the book, it is the faith of the person of Jesus Christ and relation with Jesus, which continue to shape this discipline. Whatever change that will come and whatever challenges it has had, this discipline is and has been a fruitful gift to the church and a beautiful grace for those who have struggled with it.

Question 3. “Do you want to die without children?”

This is question that is very much informed by the African value of fecundity. Children are important in Africa, which is why abortion is not taken lightly unlike in the West. Children make one attain adult status. When John Chibadura sang, “mwana handina zuva rekufa ndinovigwa naniko?”

he was highlighting the importance of children in the completion of integrating one in community beyond the grave.

Without children there is a sense of incompleteness. There is a role that children play in burial of a person which brings that person to full communion with ancestors.

That is why those who die without children were buried with rats.

Having children is not merely a biological necessity, it is a duty for one self and for the clan. A deliberate opting for celibacy is separating oneself from eternal community and renegading on one's duty.

One response to such thinking is the example of a religious congregation of nuns in Zambia called Daughters of Redeemer who consider those they serve to be their children, hence they adopted a motto “A mother of

thousands.” Such a position is taking the value of children to another level. The value of children is not only in having them, but also in what we do for them so that they become what God wants of them. The Daughter's position shows that celibacy transcends biological and blood lines, which is what Christianity is all about for all being children of God. I hope that this reflection has shown how celibacy is one among different levels of self-limitation in which different people participate in the continuous creation of the universe.

Fr. Dominic Fungai Tomuseni SJ, is a member of the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe, doing doctoral studies in the United States of America.

Celebrating the Society of Jesus Commemoration of the 200 years after the restoration of the Society Celebrating the Works of the Jesuits in Zimbabwe

Suppression and Re-establishment of the Society of Jesus Fr. W. Thamm SJ The 18th century was a hostile period for the Society of Jesus. It was the time of the enlightenment when spiritual values did not count and of the political absolutism of the monarchs.

Portugal under the Marquis of Pombal was the first country to expel the Jesuits (1761) under the accusation of plotting against King Joseph I. In 1764 France followed. Jesuits were forced to sign Gallican and Jansenist documents which of course they refused. The next country was Spain in 1767. Part of the Spanish clergy and the Upper Classses had turned against the Jesuits mainly out of jealousy. Naples expelled the Jesuits in 1767 and the Dutchy of Parma in 1768.

There were a number of reasons

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especially of the Portuguese and Spanish authorities in South America for the hostility against the Jesuits. Permission had been granted for members of the Society from other countries notably from Germany and Switzerland to work in their territories. In the Province of Paraguay, for example, there were 125 German speaking Jesuits as missionaries mainly in the reductions away from the Authorities. Among them were renowned architects, musicians and ethnologists. Most welcome were the well trained artisans, brothers who were also artists and pharmacists. The Spanish settlers looked at them with suspicion and envy. The enormous herds of mules and cattle made the Jesuits appear rich. It was around 1680 when annually 3 500 mules and

about 20 000 head of cattle were sold. But the main export was the Paraguay tea, produced by the local people which lowered the commercial price. The Jesuits had fought slavery to the resentment of the Portuguese, who enslaved the people because of their skills as farmers and artisans.

Unfortunately the missionaries were ordered by the leadership of the Society strictly to obey all orders of the government. That deprived the Amerindians of the missionaries' protection and many lost confidence in them.1 In the meantime Pope Clement XIII. Had died and a conclave was convoked.

1

Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte Vol. 5 p. 277 ff.

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SUPPRESSION AND RESTORATION OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

This was totally dominated by the Jesuit question and lasted 93 days!

No friend of the Society of Jesus must be elected. The Spanish Authorities demanded a formal declaration beforehand that the new Pope will suspend the Jesuits.

It was rejected. The favourite candidate of the Conclave, Ganganelli had made no such statement but had declared that the Jesuits like all other Religious Orders are under the supervision of the Pope and if necessary may be suppressed. He was elected to be the Pope on May 19th 1769 as Pope Clement XIV. He had tried to avoid the total suspension of the Order for instance by suggesting that they should not be allowed to recruit new novices so that the order would die out naturally. It was not accepted by the civil powers.2 Eventually Pope Clement XIV gave in to the pressure of the Bourbons and published the 45 chapters of his Breve Dominus ac Redemptor, a curious document which neither makes accusations nor judges the merits of the Jesuits, but speaks of the possibility of suppressing them, owing to the disturbances caused 2

Ibid p. 632 f Yearbook of the Society of Jesus 2014 p. 16 4 Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte Vol. 5 p.634 3

by them over the years within the church (from theological polemics to the excessive involvement in political affairs and to their insufficient obedience to orders in mission territories.3) The text of this bulla - as it was called at first - was compiled in the Spanish Embassy in Rome and was signed by the Pope on June 9th 1773.4 The Papal Breve promulgated on 16th August 1773 did not dissolve the Jesuit Order completely but ordered any sovereign to do so in their territories. The Catholic states were only too keen to suppress the order especially the papal state. In Rome Father General Lorenzo Ricci was imprisoned in the Castel Saint' Angelo where he eventually died.

Two non-catholic monarchs did not follow the Pope's order. One of them was the Calvinist Frederic II of Prussia. He kept the Jesuits and let them carry on with their excellent work in the schools. He needed the catholic institutions of education especially in Silesia and in East Prussia, The Collegium Carolinum in Neisse was still run by the Jesuits until 1814 and until 1846 by headmasters who had 5

Gymnasium Carolinum zu Neisse, 1624 – 1974 p. 161 6 Gebete fßr Christen. J.M. Sailer Lebensdaten 219

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joined the order but now under the name of Royal School Institute.5 The other was the Orthodox Tsarina Catherine II. of Russia.

She had just then annexed a large piece of Poland in 1772 which was mainly catholic and not happy to become part of the Russian Empire. To appease the people she founded four Jesuit colleges in Polotsk, Vitebsk, Orsha (in now Bjelorussia) and Daugovpils (Dunaburg) in Latvia. There were about 200 Jesuits in the Russian Empire.

Two personalities may highlight the plight of the Jesuits. In Germany Johann Michael Sailer got lost to the Society of Jesus. He had done two years of noviciate and one year of philosophy and then he had to leave the order because it was suppressed. He became a brilliant philosopher and theologian, the greatest at his time in Germany. His works fill 40 volumes. He was twice sacked from his university chair because of his uncompromising fight against the rationalistic enlightenment of the time.

Eventually he became the coadjutor and then the Bishop of Regensburg, a blessing for the Diocese.6 He wrote about the Jesuit Order:

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SUPPRESSION AND RESTORATION OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS At the origin there was a lot which was Divine

the General of the Order. He died on 8th of May 1853.8

At the expansion a lot which was human

Back to the happenings in Russia.

Catherine II wanted a Catholic bishop for White Russia. She favoured a Lithuanian nobleman by the name of Stanislaw Siestrzencewicz a convert to Catholicism. He had to be extremely cunning between the Pope and the Nuncio (who resided in Warsaw) on the one hand and the Tsarina on the other.

The Pope might insist on the suppression of the Jesuits, Catharine needed them. But Pope Pius VI and the Nuncio seemed to have been sympathetic to the Jesuits.

Through Siestrzencewicz, a noviciate was opened in Russia (only nine years after the suppression of the order!) In 1782 an extraordinary General Congregation was held in Polotsk and Fr. Czerniewicz was elected Permanent Vicar General.

In 1799 a successor was elected, Fr. Gabriel Gruber, a Slovenian.

During his time Pope Pius VII approved of the Society of Jesus in Russia (1801). He would have done more if he had not been captured by Napoleon. A third General Congregation elected Fr. Brzozowski as Superior General of the Society, a post he held until the Jesuits were expelled by Czar A l e x a n d e r i n 1 8 2 0 . F r.

Brzozowski had died a few days prior to that fact but had already appointed a Vicar General in Rome, Fr. Paviani.

At the suppression there was neither anything Human nor Divine.7 Another personality may help us to understand how the Society of Jesus survived in the Russian Empire. There was a boy called Jan Philip Roothaan who was born in Amsterdam (1786).

When he was 18 years old and finished his high school, he wanted to become a Jesuit. But the Order had been suppressed 13 years before he was born. He had heard that in Russia the order was still somehow in existence. His desire to become a Jesuit was so strong that he did not hesitate to leave his home country and go into the uncertainty of the situation. On May 20th 1804 we find him on board the Jacobus Zeeper to sail to Riga. From there he made his way to Dunaburg (now Daugavpils) in the south of Latvia. There was the noviciate.

He joined the 60 novices, who had come from Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Belgium, Italy and now one from the Netherlands.

He moved to Polotsk, a college of philosophy and theology where he was ordained on 25th January 1812. The college at Polotsk was later raised to the status of an Academy and he gained a doctorate in philosophy there. But Czar Alexander had changed his attitude towards the Jesuits under pressure of the Orthodox Church and expelled the Jesuits in 1820. Roothaan made his way to the West first in Switzerland and then Italy, where he became the Rector of the university of Turin, the Vice Provincial of the Italian Province and then in July 1829 7

Private Note from Exhibition in Regensburg July 1982 8 The Return of the Jesuits , The Life of Jan Philip Roothaan. C.J. Lighthart SJ

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he became rather inclined against them. His biographers' reproaches (like Pastor's) of personal ambitions and opportunism are not entirely unfounded.9 The official re-establishment of the Society took place on August 7th 1814.

As seen from Russia the Society has never disappeared completely.

In Rome even Pius VI had quietly encouraged the Jesuits to carry on.

He had advised Fr. Joseph Pignatelli to join the Jesuits in Russia without leaving Italy. In 1795 Fr. Pignatelli established a noviciate in Parma and introduced the Jesuits in the Kingdom of Naples. In the USA and in England groups of Jesuits joined the Society in Russia. In France existed the Societe des Pretres du Sacre Coeur, a Jesuit group. As soon as Pius VII arrived in Rome the Jesuits requested the reestablishment of their order to which the Pope responded without hesitation not caring for the political implications. Some enlightened Catholics and the circle around Gรถrres in Germany received the news with reservation. The liberals called it an act of counter-revolution and the court of Vienna refused to admit Jesuits in their domains for another few years. But the Catholic population at large welcomed the Pope's decision.

A note on the person of Clement X I V: G i o v a n i Vi n c e n z o Ganganelli was born 1705 near Rimini. He joined the Franciscans and became the Rector of Bonaventura College in Rome.

He became a Consultor of the Inquisition and refused twice to become the General Superior of his Order, probably to remain free for higher ecclesiastic appointments. Surely in 1759 he was created a Cardinal.

Originally a friend of the Jesuits

From 1805 till 1820 the General Superior SJ, Fr. Thaddeus Brzozowski, remained in Russia in order to avoid the international appearance of the Society and not to endanger the Order in Russia.

But since Tsar Alexander expelled the Jesuits from his empire in 1820, the new General, Fr. Luigi Fortis, resided in Rome again. At the time of the re-establishment of the Society there were about 800 Jesuit Priests: in Russia 337, in Italy 199, in England 84, in USA 86, in France 46. As early as 1820 the number had risen to 2 000.10

9

10

Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte Vol . 5 p. 634

Ibid Vol. 6/1 p.248 ff.

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

CELEBRATING THE JESUIT PROVINCE OF ZIMBABWE

St. Rupert Mayer Mission Golden Jubilee 1964 – 2014…

History of the Mission

By Karl Herman SJ

I

t all started with a few families which had migrated from Zvimba to Makonde. In Kutama, Zvimba, Christianity was established 1912. The names of the families still remembered are Kapunza, Zvidzwa, Fideri, Matienga and Munyanyi.

The first holy mass was celebrated at Machinda (George Kapunza) on 9th November 1959 by Fr. Otto. At that time Patrick Kapunza was working in Banket, which had Fr. Otto as its parish priest. He told him that there are a few Catholics in Makonde who had moved from Zvimba. That is when Fr.Otto came and said the first mass at Machinda area. He continued to come once a month at 10.00 am and went back in the evening. At times Fr. Zinkann came.

The five families mentioned met at the then dip tank peg near Machinda Bridge and discussed on how best they can have a school for their children. They agreed to have a “msasa” built at the township to start a school. Fr. Zinkann was then saying mass in this “msasa” which was used as class-room.The five families got together again and suggested to have a registered school build with bricks and iron sheets. So it came about that in 1962 Fr. Otto started the St. Cecilia Primary School (now: St. Rupert Mayer Primary School) at Chigaro and at Obva the St. Kizito Primary School.

The first group which was baptized by Fr. Zinnkann were Francisca Machingura, Bridget Gango (late), Winnie Gango, Lillian Chakwana, Christopher Machingura, Augustine Nhambasora, Paul Mushayabvudzi, Lucas Kapunza, Les Zvidzwa, Emmanuel Munondo.

1963 Chipfuwamiti Primary school (St. Francis) was started by Fr. Zinnkann.

On 16th July 1964 Fr. Kensy was sent to Chigaro, Magondi, to build a Mission. After he failed to be given land to build on, he asked blessed Rupert Mayer for help (at that time Baba Rupert Mayer was not yet declared blessed. However, since his death Catholics in Germany, especially in Bavaria regarded him already a saint). The next day he was given the land on which the Mission is now1. That's the reason why our Mission is called after our Baba Rupert Mayer musande. Mr. Walter Müller, a German Mission helper, helped him to build the Mission. Some days later Br. Werner joined them. The same year they built the priest-house, a small chapel, and three huts. At that time there were about 40 Catholics, the majority were school children.

Two years later – 1966 - the hospital was officially opened.

The following LCBL sisters were at the Mission: Sr. Thomas (nurse), Sr. Claretta (teacher), Sr. Celina (teacher), Sr. Rita (hospital), Sr. Hilaria (hospitalkitchen) and Sr. Calista. The same year Deacon Makumbe, at that time not yet a deacon came to the Mission to teach at the Primary school.

During his time Fr. Kensy started Chakaboora Primary school (St. Ignatius). It was primarily the Zhakata family that requested the school. In the same year Fr. Kensy started also Kenzamba Primary School. From April to August 1967 Fr. Karl Steffens

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

was at the Mission learning Shona. On 10. August 1967 Fr. Gregor Richert arrived at the Mission as its new superior. 1968 saw the opening of a convent with 6 LCBL Sisters, a clinic and a Primary School. The same year Mr. Makumbe was teaching at Chakaboora Primary school, his wife was a catechist. The following year he moved to Obva Primary School where he was teaching up to 1978 before he became deacon in 1979. In Obva Fr. Richert practiced farming: There were 50 women and 30 men who planted cotton and maize. At the Mission where he planted Cotton too, the helpers were Mr. Norbert and Cuthbert Kanzunguzu. They came from St. Albert's Mission, where Father Richert was Mission-superior before he came to St. Rupert Mayer Mission.

In 1970 there were 234 Catholics, 6 schools, 4 outstations and a hospital with 24 beds. At the end of 1970, the schools were handed over to the rural council.

However, Fr. Richert was asked by the council to remain school inspector. He did this work up to the end of 1975.

Br. Bernard Lisson arrived at the Mission in 1973.

In 1975/76 the Mission was electrified, as Fr. Roland von Nidda came to the Mission to do his anthropological research. In Spetember.1976 Mgr. Reckter blessed the Church built by Fr. Richert and Br. Lisson. Under Fr. Richert there were the following vocations: Sr. Gregor LCBL (Chakaboora) and Sr. Bernhard LCBL (Mapfungwe).

In June 1978 Fr. Gregor Richert SJ and Br. Bernard Lisson SJ were killed at the Mission. “Sometime after 4.00 p.m. on 27 June 1978, 11

David Harold Barry, SJ, They stayed on, Mambo Press, 2000

19

CELEBRATING THE JESUIT PROVINCE OF ZIMBABWE three armed men entered the mission grounds and met Fr. Richert who was on his way from the church to the Jesuit house. Two of the men remained outside the house. Br. Lisson who was busy repairing the light mission truck in the nearby workshop, took little notice of the presence of the two armed men. They were already accustomed to the presence of such people. The leader was offered tea. The cook who prepared the tea remembered later that they were talking about money as Gregor and the leader came out of the house. The three men had some words and were angry that there was so little money in the house. One shot killed Fr. Richert and a volley shot Br. Lisson. They died instantly.”11 Fr. Richert wrote the following words some time before he was killed, without realizing, that they would be become true. “… I think it is now time that the phase of outer growth is followed by a time where the gospel of Christ puts firmer and deeper roots into the hearts of the faithful. But if this should be achieved, then the heart of the one, who committed himself to this task, must – bleed! We can't compare our work as missionaries just with any other job, which one can resign if health and even life is in danger. The one and only reason and aim of all our labour and thought, the only motivation is and remains Jesus Christ, who 'gave his life for his sheep.' And he did this under much more hopeless circumstances, (as ours are nowadays), because all fled and left him alone, and the whole people rejected him.

To become more and more like him, yes, to become just like him: and this in his “being despised and rejected by his own people,” in “his being chased out of his own town,” and all along he prayed for his enemies with tortured and outstretched arms – this remains our vocation and work, after which we long in prayer, in desire and deeds”.

From July 1978 to 1980 the

20

Mission and Hospital were closed. In July 1978, the LCBL sisters left Magondi, for St Kizito.

Fr. Schmidt in St. Kizito took two LCBl Srs. Bridget (catechist) and Bonifatia (teacher). Fr. Freyer in Alaska took the two catechists (Mr. Gorejena, Mr. Machingura).

In 1980 Fr. Horst Ulbrich did the reconstruction of the Kenzamba, Zumbara, Chipfuwamiti and Obva Primary schools. Mgr. Reckter sent deacon Makumbe to Obva where he was teaching. At the same time he helped building the church there. The church was built by Mr. Mhondoro, the father of Sr. Alphonse. He built the church in Kenzamba too under Fr. Richert in 1978. Fr. Horst Ulbrich did the first mass in Obva church and the second at Zumbara School invited by the teacher Mr. Kachingamire, who was teaching in St. Rupert Mayer Primary before. Mgr. Reckter appointed Mr. Ruzivo as catechist for the centres Kenzamba, Obva, Godzi, Kasonde, an area called Mupfuure West of the St. Rupert Mayer Mission.

It went on like this until mid-1981 when Fr. Wolfgang Abeler came to revive the Mission after the bitter war. He was helped for one year by deacon Makumbe who worked with the catechists Mr. Ruzivo, Gorejena, and Machingura. Fr. Abeler built the

new priest-house, the old one was vandalized. He also renovated the convent and the hospital.

The same year the sisters of Charity were entrusted with the hospital. They built the kitchen, theatre, Out Patient Department, mortuary, the administration and rehabilitation block at the hospital, as well as the staff houses. They also built the parish hall and the crèche.

In 1999 the Mission was handed over to the diocese. Fr. Ignatius Chazunguza (1999-September 2000) was the first diocesan priest. Together with Fr. Thamm, at that time the Education Secretary of the diocese, he started the Secondary school in 2000. The same year the primary school was handed back to the Mission and the Secondary school was pegged by the late bishop Reckter. Fr. Frederik Mabiri came in 2000 until May 2002.

In 2002 the Jesuits came back. Fr. Masina (2002-03) was the mission superior, Fr. Stephen Silungwe assistant pastor, and Br. Herman Thoma pastoral assistant. The same year the sisters of Charity left the mission, whilst the LCBL sisters came back and were given the responsibility for the hospital.

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

CELEBRATING THE JESUIT PROVINCE OF ZIMBABWE ... And now Karl Herman SJ, the present mission superior! “I was sent to the St. Rupert Mayer Mission in 2004.There was the Primary school with three school-blocks, one of them already falling apart and the fourth, a new one, without roof.

And there was the Secondary School, just four years old. It had two school-blocks, two teacherhouses and the building-material for a third one, but no bricks and money for the builder. In the same year we managed to finish the new block at the Primary school.

There was no problem to do so, because the building-material, trusses, asbestos and cement, was already there. The same situation was at the then Secondary school.

The material for a third school block was already there. The

parents moulded the bricks and so we were able to build the third school-block in 2004/2005 Amongst those who have helped us in recent years include the Technical University ofMunich's department of architecture (under Prof.Deubzer, and the assistants Fr. Schelle and Herr Graf) that has helped to develop our Secondary school from 2005 up to 2010. We build two teacherhouses in 2007 and a modern school-block from 2007 to 2010 with two class-rooms, staffroom, library and computerroom.

In 2005, St. Rupert Mayer Primary school was offered a partnership with a Jesuit-school in the UK, St. John's Beaumont. It helped us to build two new school-blocks and to fence the

school. In 2013 they helped us to build new toilets, because the old ones had collapsed. In 2014 we renovated the last remaining school-block from the time of the beginning of the school, when it was called St. Cecilia.

A beautiful event for the Mission was the Sponsored walk in 2012 for the building of a library for the Primary school. Quite a number of parents and youth took part in the walk from Chigaro to Harare and were able to raise some funds.

We are very grateful to the international and local donor who have helped in development projects for both the primary and secondary schools and the hospital.

Karl Herman SJ, Mission Superior of St Rupert Catholic Mission

Golden Jubilee of the School of Social Work Message given by Fr. Stephen Buckland SJ, the Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe on the occasion of the jubilee The School of Social Work celebrates its golden jubilee on Friday 1 August 2014. The School of Social Work was founded in 1964 at the initiative of Fr Ted Rogers SJ, with the support of many friends, donors and officials in both municipal and national government. Fr Rogers was the first Principal until he was succeeded by Fr Joe Hampson; in 1988 the first non-Jesuit Principal, Dr Edwell Kaseke was appointed. The current Director is Dr Kefasi Nyikahadzoi. For many years, the School provided the only opportunity for training in social work in this country: as well as rigorous academics, it specialises in a practical approach to the subject, with field work placements. Most of the social work lecturers in other Zimbabwean universities qualified through the School.

hostels for its students.

Fr. Ted Rogers SJ

and now has the status of a department of the University, teaching candidates for University degrees and diplomas in social work.

While the University of Zimbabwe supervises its academic curricula and procedures like any other department, the School has a Over time, the School entered Board of Governors of which the into various kinds of relationship Jesuit provincial is Chairman ex with the University of Zimbabwe, officio. The School has two

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

The School has trained a large number of social workers in this country, and many who now work elsewhere and in this way has made a very significant contribution to the welfare of the disadvantaged in our nation and others.

Together with many others who have and still do support the School, the Society of Jesus in Zimbabwe has reason to be proud of the achievements of this initiative of our brother, Ted Rogers, and those other Jesuits who worked at the School with and after him.

At the celebration on the 1 August, Professor Kaseke, now based in South Africa, will give a public lecture on the School and the importance of social work.

There will also be a recorded message from Fr Rogers from his retirement in Boscombe in the UK. There will also be a number of exhibition stands showcasing the work of the School.

21

CELEBRATING YOUTH

MAGIS-AFRICA 2014

By Magis Zimbabwe Magis is in the words of Fr Geger SJ is “the more universal good.”

Key to the concept of Magis is the idea of discernment. As St. Ignatius explains, our concern is how to choose between two goods, since, if we already know that one option is bad, we should not be choosing it. “What is the best choice in a given situation, of several good choices, to better glorify or serve the Lord?” The Magis movement grows out of this philosophy. It is an Ignatian program for young adults aged 18 t o 3 5 o ff e r i n g f o r m a t i o n experiences in areas of Faith & Spirituality, Social Justice, Service, Ecology, Arts and Culture. The aim of Magis is to form young people in the Ignatian Spirituality of Faith that is expressed in Love, Justice and Service. The key Components are S p i r i t u a l i t y, S e r v i c e a n d Companionship.

The Magis movement was started

by American tertiary institutions that used to meet before the World Youth Day gatherings and share some formative experiences.

There had been Ignatian Youth gatherings in Paris, Toronto and Rome since 1997 but the movement grew into a program in 2005 in Germany after which Magis Experiences were held in Australia in 2008, Spain in 2011 and Brazil in 2013. Kenya held the first African experience in 2009.

Magis Zimbabwe is a network of young people who believe and do

22

their best to live the philosophy of Magis together as a group and individually within their lives. It was started by the Office of Youth and Young Adults Ministry in 2012 of the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe. It has been geared mainly at inspiring the youth to open their eyes and see the ills of the society in which they live and once they open their eyes, they are enflamed to make moves to fix the identified problems.

Magis Zimbabwe has accomplished this in four broad areas. Firstly, with the 'Faith in Action Forums', which are platforms for young people to reflect, pray and act on issues of faith, justice, development and peace. Second is the Project Ignite, which has also been running and is a pre-Magis Africa 2014 program to engage young people in peace, justice and faith issues. This campaign intends to build a faith movement of young people committed to work for Justice, Peace and Development in the world.

The Magis Volunteers are another important aspect of the Magis Zimbabwe group. The Youth and Young Adult Ministry through Magis Zimbabwe provides young people with opportunities to take part in community service projects, as a way of developing a sense of social responsibility in them. This is the third area of focus.

The fourth aspect of Magis Zimbabwe is the Faith Net Africa (Magis: Ignite Africa

Network). In order to ignite a Faith expressed in Action, there is need to network and bring together young people across Africa and elsewhere with similar hearts and unity in action and prayer. Then all work towards transforming Africa. All these activities and programs urge the youth to become contemplatives in action, asking themselves the Triple Ignatian Questions: What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I do for Christ?

The goal for Magis Zimbabwe is to see a faith inspired movement of young people in Africa, igniting a Faith that is expressed in ACTIONS of Love, Justice and Service. This is manifested in a generation positioned and equipped to bring spiritual, social and environmental transformation.

To mark the 200th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Society of Jesus, Magis Africa Network is organising the Magis Africa 2014 Experience dubbed 'The Ignite Africa Experience'. This Experience will be an Ignatian Adventure that will bring Young Adults (18 to 35 years) from Africa and other parts of the world to renew their commitment to the “Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice.” Through this Experience, Magis wants to inspire a faith and justice movement of young people in Africa positioned and equipped (“IGNI+ED”) to bring spiritual and social transformation in the world.

Magis Africa 2014 will be held under the theme: “Witnessing to Faith, Witnessing to Justice”.

This theme is based on the PostSynodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI, Africae Munus [Africa's Commitment].

Africae Munus marked the climax of the 2009 Second Synod of Bishops of Africa by outlining a programme for pastoral activity for the coming decades for New

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

CELEBRATING YOUTH Evangelisation in Africa. In Africae Munus, the Pope challenges the Church in Africa to be committed to the work of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace.

Therefore, inspired by Africae Munus, Magis Africa 2014 will bring together young people to take part in immersion and mission experiences that are meant to ignite in them a deep commitment to faith, justice and peace.

the evening of the 23rd, there will be The Ignite Africa Festival (Africa Vigil) with the final Mass on Sunday morning, 24th of August. The first two stages of the Ignite Africa experience will be limited to participants but the Ignite Africa Festival will be open to all youths interested.

For those who feel inspired and wanting to know more, contact: Br. Ngoni Edward SJ on +263 778651890 or email info.magisafrica2014@gmail.com

The Magis Africa 2014: Ignite Africa Experience will take place from the 15th to the 24th of August 2014. The Experience will unfold in three stages: Ignatian Gathering: from August 15 to 17 where all the participants of Magis Africa 2014 will gather at St Ignatius College in Chishawasha. This will be the arrival venue for visitors and over the next two days, participants will be prepared spiritually and practically for their different experiences through talks, discussions, and reflections. The second stage will be Immersion and Mission Experiences: from 18 to 22 August, where participants, in groups of 15 to 25 are missioned to different places around Zimbabwe and to Zambia for the immersion and mission experiences. The participants will engage in experiences of pilgrimage, social service, art, spirituality, ecology, faith and culture. The final stage of the experience is the Africae Munus Gathering and The Ignite Africa Festival. All participants will regroup on the 22nd of August at Visitation Makumbi Mission to share their experiences in the light of Africae Munus. In

Vision Statement

Mukai-Vukani (“Rise”) Jesuit Journal for Zimbabwe serves as a Bulletin for Theological Refection among Jesuits in Zimbabwe and their friends.

It tries to help us answer the question, “What direction do we have to follow in the light of the Word of God at this moment in time?” (Mukai 23, p.2), facilitating dialogue among Jesuits and their friends based on study, prayer and discernment.

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

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BOOK REVIEWS

Surviving the Great Robbery We Need New Names, by No Violet Bulawayo, Weaver Press, 2013, pp 294.

Reviewed by Oskar Wermter SJ

I

see in the main characters, young street children in Bulawayo, a reflection of their elders; their poverty is an indictment of those who robbed them. The world that comes to light in this narrative has many dimensions, by no means all in harmony with one another, because it is complex and contradictory, and the writer did not simplify it into a political pamphlet or reduce it to an ideological thesis. She managed to let the real Zimbabwe with all its crazy contortions appear on the pages of this book.

The main events of the last thirty years are all there. Darling, the narrator, is losing her father who is dying of AIDS. He was torn away from his family by the great robbery that left him without a job and forced him to flee to South Africa. His little house, betraying middle-class aspirations, was flattened by bulldozers sent by government. He must have picked up the “disease” from casual contacts in exile, just as his wife needs male visitors in her shack at night to make ends meet, as Darling cannot help noticing.

The collapse of the health services is exploited “Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro”. He is a rapist, a robber and a fraud, with the appearance of a clown. The crowd does not lynch him for raping a possessed woman, but applauds him for driving out her demon.

Just as mesmerized crowds in Zimbabwe celebrate their leaders as 'divine' who rape their country, deceive and rob them. Darling remembers even him with fondness, because he is part of home. But she does not pray to his god though God appears on the sidelines.

Darling, Stina, Chipo, Sbho, Forgiveness, Godknows and Bastard have no functioning families, as far as the reader can make out. They have to work out

24

haunted by the old life, even as she is jobbing, making money and attending college to be better able to come out tops in a competitive society.

some sort of coping mechanism – you can't call it morals – to get by from day to day. It is guava season and they are addicted to the fruit, so they raid the gardens street by street. But they have decided not to graduate to “professional” level.

Chipo, still a child, is pregnant, or rather has a “stomach” in the street language of the kids which the author uses without embarrassment: she is not writing “literature” with its own medium. The language of her characters is also her language.

They decide to remove Chipo's “stomach” with a coat-hanger.

They are “doing their own thing”, like adults, adopting new roles, and give themselves “new names”. Still, this time they fail.

Chipo eventually has her baby and calls it Darling. Big Darling only hears about it long after she has settled in her dream country with Aunt Fostalina.

Both in the old and the new country sex is experimental, casual. Relationships have no permanence, express nothing, mean very little.

The author left for America at the age of 18, and her book is really about migration, a clash of cultures, loss of identity, about material security which goes together with greater emotional insecurity and loss of orientation than ever before.

But the memories are strong. The roots cannot simply be cut.

However rootless and homeless Darling's street gang was , she is

The latest social media gadgets keep Darling in touch with the land of the ancestors. It pains her to think about it. Chipo gives a spirited reply, “You are not the one suffering…..No, you don't, my friend, it's the wound that knows the texture of the pain; it's us who stayed here feeling the real suffering, so it's us who have a right to even say anything about that….” Darling insists it's her country too. “Why did you run off to America, Darling Nonkululeko Nkala, huh? Why did you just leave? If it's your country, you have to love to live in it and not leave it. You have to fight for it no matter what, to make it right. Tell me, do you abandon your house because it's burning or do you find water to put out the fire?”

But the diaspora also gets its chance to declare itself. Chapter 16 “How they lived” is the great elegy of the migrants. It is no longer Darling, one girl's voice, moody, at times obscene, flippant, speaking, but a collective “We”. The words weep, wail, cry deep down.

There is a different tone now.

There is the pain of the “illegals” who are imprisoned in their new paradise: they cannot leave to see their dying parents. “When we die, our children will not know how to wail, how to mourn us the right way. …. We will leave for the land of the dead naked…”

Just listening to this cry of the migrants makes the whole book worthwhile.

It is not propaganda or hate speech. Rather a tale of tears, wiped away now and then by laughter, and more tears. Will nobody feel shame for having caused these tears?

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

BOOK REVIEWS

Women who Reveal the Caring Face of the Church Wonder about their Future A Lamp to Light other Lamps

By Maureen Moorhouse Published by the Union of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Harare/Zimbabwe, 2013, pp. 143. Reviewed by Oskar Wemter SJ Pope Francis feels that the Church needs a “theology of women”.

The Church must pay more attention to women, to what they have done and still do; the Church, whose model is Mary v i r g i n a n d m o t h e r, m u s t remember that she is feminine herself. Therefore this little book is timely and enlightening.

It tells the story of a group of women who derive their common spiritual heritage from Nano Nagle, an Irish woman of the 18th c e n t u r y, t o d a y k n o w n a s Presentation Sisters. In her time Britain tried to crush the Irish people by denying their children an education and suppress their Catholic faith, Catholicism being the religion of all of Britain's enemies at the time.

Nano was concerned, not about power politics, but about the human and spiritual development of Irish children. She could not look on passively as her people were being deprived of their very humanity. What could a young woman all on her own do? Singleminded and daring, she started clandestine classes for the girls, later also the boys of her home town. And eventually attracted companions to share the growing work load. Nano lit a light in a lamp, and this light continued to light other lamps (Jesuits, by the way, used the same image at their 35th General Congregation in 2008: they want to be “a fire that kindles other fires”). In 1949 Nano's Sisters arrived in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.

You do not have to be political to run into trouble with politicians. It is enough if you light a lamp for those in the shadows, women and children more often than not.

Te a c h i n g n e g l e c t e d b l a c k children in a “white” country, accepting black girls in a “white” school, giving a chance to intelligent children regardless of

“colour”.

A n d “staying on” even when the going gets t o u g h , government soldiers and 'freedom fighters' chasing each other round the rural mission where Nano's Sisters were nursing and teaching.

“The sound of gunfire and landmine blasts became part of our daily lives, and we sometimes attended funerals of curfew breakers. There were no funerals for 'sell-outs'. Their bodies were left to decay in the open or to be eaten by dogs. It was hard to teach a class when one knew that a student's father had been beaten to death and not allowed a burial, and the boy or girl had to attend class or they, too, would be branded sell-outs,” wrote a Sister (p. 91 – Curfew breakers were killed by soldiers, 'sell-outs' [collaborators] by “freedom fighters”).

Responding to the needs of the poor and distressed, living and working with them – that was Nano's “light”. Again and again the Sisters were that “light” coming to the aid of people sitting in the “shadow of death”.

“The consecrated woman is mother, she must be a mother and not a 'spinster',” Pope Francis told women religious superiors. Sr Eileen Clear, an Irish Presentation sister, who worked at Mashambanzou AIDS Centre was clearly such a motherly woman to the bereaved children at Mashambanzou. “Children coped better with loss and grief, and were able to deal with the day-today challenges of living without

MUKAI - VUKANI No. 67 Aug/Sept 2014

their parents' love and protection.

Eileen reached out to them with tremendous care, compassion and empathy. Her generosity knew no bounds….” (129).

Nano's daughters went through rapid changes in the last fifty years, as illustrated by photos showing changing fashions, from monstrous black nuns' outfits to “contemporary dress”, with which the Sisters “melt so easily into the general population”.

So what about the future? What will “keep the lantern burning”?

Sr Maureen, our author, puts great hope on Pope Francis. “We can take heart from his informal approach, and his making the poor the lynchpin of his changes.”

(141) Strangely enough, the charism of Nano who first lit the light 250 years ago should also open the door to the future: she responded to the suffering of her people and did the unexpected, what nobody else dared to do. It is such courage and bravery that religious women of the future need. Modern young women no longer need to join a religious order to be social workers, teachers or nurses. The doors to a professional life are open to them also in a secular environment. But the love of Christ and his passion for the poor and distressed should drive some of them beyond conventional boundary lines.

Religious women should be found where no one else wants to go.

Brave and enterprising women like that will of course ask for their rightful place in the Church.

Pope Francis seems to understand that. “Indeed, a woman, Mary is more important than the bishops” (104, Evangelii Gaudium). He challenges pastors and theologians to tell us “what this entails with regard to the possible role of women in decisionmaking in different areas of the Church's life” (104). - -oWe-

25

SPIRITUALITY OF SPORT

Five Spirituality Lessons from the Soccer World Cup

By Gift Mambipiri breaking geographic, racial, social, economic, political and cultural barriers. This was evidenced by the billions that watched the matches either live or on their screens, in homes or sports clubs.

S

occer has always been a fascinating game on the field and on our television screens. The recent FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil created such frenzy that even non soccer loving people could not avoid. To me, and I hope to many others, it was just a competitive game; making money for some, fame for others, and entertaining the world around. But, surprise came around when Pope Francis wrote a message for the World Cup. He also dedicated a Prayer Intention for the month of July to the World Cup, "that sports may always be occasions of human fraternity and growth.”

It was then that I noticed that even some popes before him had taken a keen interest in the spirituality of sport, and taught that there is more to sports, than the mere search for results. His predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, believes that “sport contributes to building a society characterised by mutual respect, loyalty of behaviour, and solidarity between peoples and cultures.”

Gift Mambipiri pitch reveals much about the country's religious landscape.

Religious imagery is everywhere you look. And to many people there, Christo Redemptor (Christ the Redeemer) is the national symbol of Brazil.

Brazil has been an overwhelmingly Catholic country ever since it was colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th Century.

As recently as the 1940s, 99% of Brazilians were Catholics. Today, Before him, St John Paul II, said that figure stands at 63%. that "the potentialities of sport make it an important instrument Players were making Christian for the overall development of the gestures such as the sign of the person, and a useful factor for the c r o s s , o r e x p r e s s i o n s o f construction of a more human Christianity. After matches, some society.” Well before him, Pope teams knelt in a huge prayer Pius XII believed sport was “at the circle, with some players service of the Spirit” and “trains stripping off their shirts to show tthe mind… for the search and shirts emblazoned with the slogan "I belong to Jesus". Billions in the communication of truth.” world witnessed these Therefore, when the games finally fundamental symbols of religion. started in Brazil, I was interested The recent World Cup in Brazil in more than the results. I noticed has left me with five spectacular that faith and spirituality is spiritual points. Chief among nothing new when it comes to this them is that, the tournament year's World Cup host country. creates solidarity amongst the For Brazilians, religion finds its people of the world. Nothing expression in the game, and the beats the World Cup in engaging players' behaviour on and off the huge crowds on a grand scale,

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Such was also indicated by the diversity of Africa, which, whenever an African country was playing, it was “we” playing.

Africa became ours, became us.

The whole continent jumped with joy when Nigeria scored, and we all felt the pain in our hearts when Ghana was eliminated from the global showcase. Even when African teams were eliminated from the showcase, we adopted either of the remaining teams, Germany and Argentina, and supported them vigorously. Some literally became Germans, whilst others were Argentinians, just for the love of soccer. We wore their team colours in solidarity with their cause. We set aside the human barriers of race, culture and politics. We became one. And through sport, we “rejoiced with those who rejoice, and wept with those who wept (Romans 12:15) The second lesson is that of personal discipline and commitment. Sport challenges the players mainly to be disciplined, just as religion would want them to be. Players know that being acknowledged as a champion is no easy task – it takes commitment, sacrifice and countless hours of practice. For St John Paul II, sport “teaches sacrifice, respect and responsibility…” There are many foods, and behaviors that players forego so that their bodies are at their athletic best. The same sacrifice and commitment was called from supporters who followed the matches on television. Some of the earlier matches, for the viewers in

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SPIRITUALITY OF SPORT

Zimbabwe, started at 3am! You just had to be committed to your team to be up at 3am, the same way you have to be committed to your spiritual cause to be able to selfsacrifice.

The third lesson, which is also at the heart of the Catholic Social Teachings is to be generous losers and gracious victors in life. The same message has been at the core of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference's most recent pastoral statements in general, but particularly in 2013 before the general elections in Zimbabwe.

Winning the world cup is every player's dream. Winners of the trophy got a bounty $35 million.

And countries pledge winning bonuses that are tempting. Spanish players were offered almost $800 000 each if they were to bring the trophy home. All these enticements can turn players into monsters that want to win at the expense of everyone and everything. They would know by winning, their life changes completely (financially in the positive).

Apparently, winning comes with discipline. After 'grueling' fights on the field of play, some teams

lose. Some embarrassingly so!

But we saw the players and the coaches hugging and chatting after the matches. They exchanged shirts, the winners and losers, without the winners mocking the others, or the losers feeling angry at the winners for 'depriving' them of millions of dollars in prize money. That same spirit must direct Christians and non-Christians alike.

The fourth lesson is the brotherhood created by the players, leading into mutual respect amongst them. A team is made up of 11 players with different talents and roles. No player, nomatter how supremely talented, can make a team as an individual. They need each other as a team. All skill complement each other, and create a unity of passion and talent. This passionate brotherhood is what is demanded in the letter of St Paul to the Romans; “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function. So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (12:4-5).

The final lesson one might want

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to consider from events surrounding the World Cup in Brazil is that there is belief in a super power, a God who is there somewhere and who shapes the destiny for everyone. Images of spectators and players closing their eyes in prayer especially at the start of matches and during penalty shoot outs indicate a strong belief in God. The Brazilian captain knelt down in prayer, after a comprehensive defeat by Germany in one of the semi-final matches! Players, supporters and the technical teams showed signs of appealing to God for his divine intervention, with players of supplication. Similarly, in his message at the start of the tournament, Pope Francis ended with this message to Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian president, praying to pray for all; “May this World Cup take place with serenity and tranquility, aways with mutual respect, solidarity and brotherhood among men and women who acknowledge each other as members of a single family�. In soccer thus, we are all one.

Gift Mambipiri is the director of the Jesuit Communications, based in Marlborough.

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OBITUARY

Summarized version of the Obituary of John Thurston Percy Dove (1922 – 2014)

J

[adapted from Fr. David-Harold Barry's homily)

ohn Dove was born in Mamyo in Burma (now Myanmar) in 1922 where his father was in the colonial service.

His mother was Irish, Catholic, and in those days mixed marriages were frown on so they were married in the sacristy of a Catholic Church in Dublin.

For his primary education, John went to the Dragon School in Oxford and had good memories of it and proceeded to Shrewsbury where he did his secondary. He left school just as war broke out and found himself posted to India. It was there that he met John Bradburne who was a year older than himself. Bradburne had already seen intense action in Malaya, had been trapped behind the Japanese lines and made a dramatic escape back to India. They took to each other immediately and the friendship was to last until Bradburne's death in 1979 near Mutemwa.

After the war, John Dove's family pushed him into the family insurance business which he hated. He was in Liverpool and then in Cape Town. But it was a time when he was making his own life choice and soon he found himself at Osterley, a Jesuit college for late vocations in London, which introduced elementary Latin to a variety of people in their late twenties and thirties. He did his novitiate under Fr George Walkerley, whom he revered, and after struggling through a course in thirteenth century philosophy in Latin at the old Heythrop spent a year in regency at Stonyhurst College.

After theology, he worked briefly at Southwell House in London with the Sodality (now the CLC) before he was sent out to Salisbury to become secretary to Archbishop Francis Markall SJ. He was given a short time at Wedza to learn Shona where he was deeply impressed by Fr Ludwig Boekenhoef and Br John Conway.

He did not get far with the Shona as the Archbishop needed him. He was involved in welcoming Cardinal Montini (later Pope Paul VI) to the country and also the Italian Missionary Institute that later gave Dr Luisa Guidottii (shot by government forces near Mutoko).

John was active in the Catholic Nurses Guild in the early sixties, according to Marge Chikwana, an administrator at Mutemwa.

She was one of the nurses at the time. It was also during this time that he started to visit Highfield to learn for himself what life was like for ordinary people in what were then called the African townships. His eyes were opened and he decided to 'do something' and joined with others in forming a study group based on the Social Teaching of the Church. These meetings became popular but, as the inter-party ZANU/ZAPU violence increased, it became necessary to find another venue. Fr Corrigan suggested Mazowe, a property recently handed over to the Jesuits by Lord Acton, and they met

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there for a while. But then, Fr Corrigan had another idea: he invited John Dove to take over Silveira House as a centre totally devoted to “leadership and development” training and the novitiate moved to Mazowe.

Silveira House was built as a Jesuit novitiate and yet the superior at the time, Terrence Corrigan, had the courage to close the place as a novitiate after only six years and hand it over to John Dove for a completely new work. There had never been a “development centre” in the province before. Most Jesuits did not know what it was and many were rather doubtful if it was up to any good.

John Dove definitely felt the draught of disapproval but he always had the support of Fr Corrigan, who had moved on to be provincial, and Fr General, Pedro Arrupe.

What was touching was the vision of John and his tenacity in following that vision when so many around him doubted or were even hostile. And when you look at his credentials what were they? He was a British public schoolboy who became an officer in the Ninth Gurkha Regiment in the war against Japan.

He arrived at an empty building in December 1964. All the furniture had been taken by the novitiate community to Mazowe.

According to Fr Mukonori SJ, John just had £100 to start the work. He had an idea of what he wanted to do but he had no plan. He used to describe how he started as “answering the knocks on the door.”

His first programme was to teach 'civics' – a word which in effect meant 'politics.' It was based on the old Sodality method SEE, JUDGE and ACT, which itself was based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. To begin with, he invited volunteers to come to help him and, through some contact, he received a little money from Cardinal Frinks of Cologne and later in 1968, he met Misereor in the form of Herr Steber who sat beside him on a flight to Maseru. From that day to the present Misereor has been the most reliable and enduring source of support for Silveira House.

Programmes were gradually developed.

To the Civics was added Industrial Relations, Farming co-operatives, youth work, women's clubs, appropriate technology and others. In his 21 years at the center, John cared for every aspect of life; the

programmes, the budgets, the staff and their concerns, the spiritual life of the centre and all the visitors that came both before independence and after. John Bradburne used to say that Silveira House was a hearth (choto), a place of welcome where people could come. All the nationalist leaders came and often they were quizzed in the community room about the sort of Zimbabwe they hoped to build. John was particularly pleased with Robert Mugabe's vision, in 1975, of Christian Socialism.

John was on holiday in Ireland within sight of the roaring Atlantic when news of the killing of John Bradburne broke out. He was deeply affected and felt called to make Bradburne better known. He went to meticulous trouble to write an account of his life which appeared under the title Vagabond of God in about 1983.

Later in 1985, John left Silveira and went to Mutemwa where he hoped to end his days where his friend, John Bradburne, had lived and died. But it was not to be. He was called to be responsible for Chishawasha Mission in 1991 and it was around this time that recognition of his work at Silveira came in the form of an Honorary Doctorate from St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (Canada).

In 1995 he moved to the House of Adoration before going to Musami as an assistant pastor the following year and he became involved in the Arrupe Centre for the Disabled there. Finally he returned to Silveira House in 2000 as a pastoral priest caring for people in the surrounding area. As old age crept up on him, Fr Gibson Munyoro persuaded him to move to Richartz House, where he could get greater care for his increasing ailments.

It is difficult to say anything about another man's prayer but it was noticeable that he regularly gravitated to the chapel.

Every day, before six he would make his way there and open it up and last thing at night he would also be there. He believed that the work of SH would prosper 'if the Lord built the house' (Psalm 127).

John died a month short of his ninety second birthday. He was a person of great courtesy and humour who inspired people and formed warm friendships. About 300 people came to the funeral Mass and burial at Chishawasha on the eve of John the Baptist's day, the birthday of John Bradburne, and a hundred or more, including the President, came to Silveira House the night before for a vigil Mass.

John Thurston Dove was a man of imagination and tenacity and he loved his vocation. He found in the Society of Jesus a true home which enabled him to use his many gifts and he always expressed much affection for it.

David Harold-Barry SJ

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