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EDITORIAL

HABEMAS PAPAM ....HABEMAS NEW ZIMBABWE Habeemas Pappam, “We have ope.” And th he name a po of the maan to emerrge on thee balccony in Vaticaan is Cardin nal Jorge Marioo Bergooglio of Argentinaa, now Pope Franccis and is the first non-Euroopean pe in modern tim mes, and pop ng thee firstt from a deveelopin untryy. cou The Holy See fell vacant upon the unexpected resignation of Benedict XVI on 28 February.

Many people have questioned the reasons given by Benedict for his resignation, since the last time a pope resigned was about 600 years ago. However, what many people did not know is that papal resignation is contained in the Code of Canon Law; “Should it happen that the Roman Pontiff resigns from his office, it is required for validity that the resignation be freely made and properly manifested, but it is not necessary that it be accepted by anyone” (Canon 332 # 2). Thus, Benedict XVI has chosen, of his free will, to cease to be Bishop of Rome.

In many people’s minds, to become pope was to be elevated to a higher level of ordained ministry than that of bishop, like a unique fourth rank above the threefold sacramental ministry.

In as much as sacraments are indelible and irreversible,the papal office is not a sacrament therefore a pope can resign .

The world needs to salute the dignity, courage and humility of a supreme conscience, taken after much prayer and heart searching. Benedict remains in Episcopal orders until he dies.

drive Zimbabwe to the elections sometime mid this year, and that will obviously herald a new government. There is hope that both the referendum and the coming elections are tipping Apparently the 76 year old points for a new Zimbabwe.

Argentinean, Pope Francis faces Meanwhile, the local church some old and vexing problems. that has benefitted heavily from Among them he must confront the missionaries and outside headlines reminding him of the support stands in transition church’s failures in dealing with because of various reasons. Until the scandal of sexual abuse. recently, there has been wide He must reform the Vatican’s support from outside Zimbabwe bureaucracy, he must respond to in priestly and religious human growing secularism with many resources, from Europe mostly.

Catholics in North America However, growing secularism in and Europe asking for more- Europe has led to the reduction liberal interpretations of doctrine on vocations and men and and realise the growth of the women “coming out” to help church in Africa and Asia to in Africa. Secularism and the the conservative comforts of global economic crunch have the faith. Unlike some of the also affected financial support cataclysmic challenges in the that was coming from outside church’s past, these problems are the continent. Both seemingly internal—but as such, they are unfortunate regressions should be viewed as momentous for the more difficult to resolve. local church to stand on her feet.

On the local scene, Zimbabwe There has been growth in local is on the tipping point for a new vocations in recent years but constitution and a new electoral this growth needs to be locally system, if the draft constitution supported. For the local church passes. Firstly, Zimbabwe will to be self sustaining there is need have a new constitution as the for lay involvement; financial, two main political players are moral and mobilization of human urging citizens to vote “YES” and material resources. What for the draft constitution. A role does the laity have to play in new constitution will herald building the local church for the institutional changes in our building of the Kingdom of God? governance. However, the Authors have reflected on active constitution will remain a revered participation in this moment of document unless the people’s transition on the local scene. attitude equally changes. A new electoral process is expected to Vision Statement

Mukai-Vukani (“Rise) Jesuit Journal for Zimbabwe serves as a Bulletin for Theological Reflection 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.

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MUKAI - VUKANI No. 64 March 2013

EDITORIAL

CONTENTS

M UKAI MUKAI V UKANI VUKANI

EDITORIAL Habemas Papam.......................................................................................................2 CHURCH IN TRANSITION The Local Culture Factor in the Transition: Abonus or draw back......................4 Fr Frederick Chiromba A Brief Overview of the Local Church and the Inevitability of Transition...........5 Fr Emmanuel Gurumombe S.J Make the Hidden God Known..................................................................................7 Fr Oskar Wermter SJ The Irish Catholic Church in transition reflections for Zimbabwe.......................9 Dr Gladys Ganiel Will Self-Reliance Replace Dependency Syndrome?Making Use of the Social Doctrone................................................................................................11 Arkmore Kori FAITH IN ACTION Collaboration or Partnership-in-mission..............................................................13 Fr Stephen Buckland SJ Phophets and Mystics: The role of religious life in the new evangelization religious ........................................................................................15 Br James Langlois F.M.S Celebrating shift.....................................................................................................17 Fr David Harold-Barry SJ On personal relationship with God, phophets and spirituality infidelity...........19 Aaron Chidzulo Yambani nSJ SOCIAL AND POLITICS Constitutionalism in Zimbabwe: A history of progression or retrogression..........................................................................................................21 Fr Peter Musekiwa SJ Formation of Leaders - today’s challenge............................................................23 Tafadzwa Majoni BOOK REVIEW A Tragedy of lives, Women in Prison in Zimbabwe.............................................25 Fr David Harold-Barry S.J Fresh account of sacred heart devotion and its meaning today........................28 Fr Walters

Jesui uitt Journa nall fo forr Zimb mbab a wee No 64 April 201 No. 0133 Published by the JE ESU UIT COM OMMU MUNI NICA CATI TION NS office of the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe as an in-house magazine for Jesuits and Friends.

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MUKAI - VUKANI No. 64 March 2013

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CHURCH IN TRANSITION

The Local Culture Factor in the Transition: A bonus or draw back?

By Fr Frederick Chiromba

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s we examine the theme of the Church in Transition, we are aware of the two realities of the Church, Ecclesia semper idem (the Church is always the same) and Ecclesia semper reformanda (the Church is always reforming/ renewing itself). The Church is upheld by and teaches eternal truths and yet there is always room for renewal at different levels including structure, composition and expression.

Our present quest is to establish the local culture factor in the current Church transition. In this respect we examine if the local culture is a bonus or draw back. As we reflect on this topic, we are aware that local culture is dynamic and not static.

The earliest Missionaries arrived in Zimbabwe in the sixteenth century.

The country was colonized in the eighteenth century. Exposure to the missionaries and later to the colonialists had a bearing on local culture. Some sociologists use the word acculturation to describe the contact between two cultures and the mutual changes that occur in those cultures as a result of that contact. Cultures mutually borrow from one another thus the local culture underwent gradual change before 1980 and rapid change since then, particularly in the period from 1990 to the present, when many Zimbabweans emigrated to the diaspora, further exposing themselves to new and varied cultures. It is in this context that we discuss the topic.

At this stage any consideration of the local culture factor in the transition, a bonus or draw back, becomes very tricky. One is inclined to examine an earlier period to see if the missionaries and the local people ever succeeded in sharing the same spirituality. Many can learn the same catechism and yet have different images of God. Many may have accepted baptism but we need to ask if the spiritual under-current was the same.

It is the spiritual under-current that determines if the local culture factor is a bonus or draw back. Unfortunately there can be no blanket answer to

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Fr Frederick Chiromba this question. We need to itemize and address specific areas where we will discover that the answer is that local culture is both a bonus and a draw back, depending on the area under examination.

1. Evangelization: Local culture is supportive of Christian doctrine in its entirety in relation to belief in God, angels, saints, incarnation, resurrection, demons, etc.

2. Worship: Local culture demands worship of God and veneration of saints as practiced in Catholicism.

3. World view: The traditional world view of local culture poses some challenges for the Christian world view because of its strong attachment to family ancestors, which also exposes possible different understandings of the resurrection and the role of the saints/ ancestors in the lives of the living.

4. Vocations: Local culture accepts and supports the idea of a special calling and purposeful life as is evident in the growing number of vocations. There are more vocations from culturally strong areas that have been evangelized just as there are few or no vocations at all from culturally weakened areas.

5. Celibacy: Local culture strongly questions celibacy as it is seen as threatening traditional exaltation of the family and its perpetuation.

Celibates are sometimes treated with suspicion and are not accorded an adult burial at death nor are subsequent commemorations observed.

6. Obedience: Local culture, where age

and status are revered, enhances the virtue of obedience particularly in the Church’s hierarchical setting.

7. Poverty: Local culture is more community oriented than individual, which makes it easy to accept poverty at the individual level. The community or extended family is expected nevertheless to be an insurance against insecurity and talk of poverty at that level may not be easily understood.

8. Parish Model: Missionaries established ‘missions’ and models of ‘parish life’. In most cases missionaries received financial support from their countries of origin. As the Church transitions it is becoming more reliant on the local congregation. Local culture expects accountability, transparency and service where a contribution has been made. At the same time family members of the priest or religious expect some support from the priest or religious in the same manner that the missionaries used to support them.

Most people do not know where the income of missionaries came from and so continue to expect similar support from the transitioning Church personnel. This culture of dependency is a drawback for a vision of a Church that is self ministering, self propagating and self supporting. The general laity as a whole expect greater involvement and participation in the parish and diocesan life of a transitioning Church. This can create tension if the priest and religious are steeped in the same culture as the missionaries.

There will continue to be unhealthy tensions between faith and local culture as long as the two are not fully integrated. Faith needs to use local culture as the vehicle for its expression.

Some sects continue to mushroom in a quest to integrate faith and culture.

Local culture needs to be correctly appreciated to allow for meaningful inculturation, beyond singing and dancing in Church. That way local culture will be an invaluable bonus to the Church in transition.

Fr. Chiromba Secretary, Zimbabwe Catholics Bishops’ Conference

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CHURCH IN TRANSITION

A Brief Overview of the Local Church and the Inevitability of Transition and the rural family-head looked to wives and children to provide him with labour to cultivate his fields and pasture his herds and to give him status in traditional society.”4 These issues are problematic because not everyone makes the same assent of the obedience of faith, especially in sensitive matters like sexual morality and political involvement.

Prior to the independence of Zimbabwe, however, we have to recognize the local Church’s general non-violent involvement in the struggle for independence.

By Fr Emmanuel Gurumombe SJ

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he Church is a pilgrim People of God gathered together by the Holy Spirit and constituted as the Body of Christ. She is at work serving God and humanity in anticipation of eternal life. The Church is in motion, which necessitates renewal. Hence the Church is referred to as ‘Ecclesia semper reformanda’, which is Latin for ‘the Church is to be always reformed/renewed’. In this motion and renewal, the Church, as a Body and in its members, is meant to mature into the stature of Christ [cf.

Eph 4:11-13]. Two motions, namely growth and reaching the eternal home, are intricately intertwined.

This motion implies transition.

The Church has to make inevitable transitions in respect of the chances and challenges of earthly life.

The phenomenon of the Church’s transition has been operational throughout history since the first century AD, albeit at different paces. We have recently embarked on an unexpected transition from the papacy of Benedict XVI to a new pope.

The local Church has known transition from its inception on Zimbabwean soil, naturally. We can roughly sketch the transition of the local Church by dividing its history into three phases:

Firstly, the “Catholic missionary impact on Zimbabwe [that] began in 1879, more than ten years before formal White occupation and less than twenty before the subjugation and conquest of the African peoples….”1 The obvious characteristics of this initial phase include the hard task of the early missionaries to reach out to the local people, establish the nascent missions as well as parishes, and the

Fr Emmanuel Gurumombe SJ

establishment of mission schools.

It is reported that “schools were the approved means of expanding missionary work, approved by Rome and favoured by the Rhodesian Government, sought after by the African youth in his desire for Western learning and training to match his White rulers.” 2 The establishment of the local seminary and the gradual founding of local diocesan congregations of nuns is also a case in point in this phase.

Secondly, the Church’s struggle with matters of faith and theology in view of local practices especially kurova guva, a matter about which then, and I think even now, divides both clergy and the faithful. It is on record that in a research around 1968-1969 “half the African priests consulted considered kurova guva to be so bad intrinsically that no adaptation was possible” while “nearly two–thirds of the missionary priests favoured adaptation in the belief that the religious needs of their congregation were not being met by the existing rites.”3 Polygamy was (and is) another difficult matter and it was recognized as “the principal cause for lapsing from the Faith

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Lastly, the post-independence Catholic Church in Zimbabwe saw the consolidation of the Church’s work in the areas of health, education, pastoral outreach, retreat work, and social work - especially social justice. The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace is a case in point. Naturally, there are more new works post 1990 that emerged like the rehabilitation of some children who are homeless or who have dysfunctional families; services related to HIV/AIDS, food relief, work with refugees, care for the disabled and so on.

So the above is just a rough outline.

But as these works continue with some increase or diminishment, the major concern in our time relates to quality formation and sustenance of priests and religious to buttress indigenous clergy and religious. Formation demands wise management of modern trends, charism(s) of religious life and the demands of the Gospel. Such management is related to the issue of credibility and the faithful execution of apostolic works. Credibility is a worldwide concern in view of the abuses that disturb(ed) the Church.

The lifestyle of priests and religious is also an issue. Whether we choose

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CHURCH IN TRANSITION

The Clergy becoming more local

to ignore this fact or not, lifestyle does affect faith and conduct. The present state and the future of the local Church depend on carefully managing the challenges of the rapidly changing social, political and economic trends relative to the demands of the Gospel. The Standard of Christ is the only credible standard for management under all circumstances. It is the standard that gives meaning, joy and strength. Discernment is a sine qua non for keeping that standard.

Otherwise, priestly and religious life would resemble the ethos of clubs. This is not an appeal to nostalgic conservatism but a call to pay attention to Christ who alone is the standard.

Genuine transition is always a cause of joy in individual or corporate life. Nehemiah says, “the joy of the Lord is (our) strength” [cf. Neh 8:10]. It is the joy of recovering or discovering knowledge of God and giving him a fitting response in one’s vocation. Since priests and religious are by virtue of their vocation leaders at various levels,

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they need such joy. Otherwise they cannot give what they themselves do not have. In addition, leaders need to be pastorally, morally, mentally and socially alert to the needs of the Church. Subsequently, the perception that priesthood or religious life is for personal benefit is ill-placed. It is not a career but a vocation consisting of generous self-giving to God who calls people to serve in faith, hope and love for the salvation of many. To think of this vocation in an otherwise manner is to deceive oneself and the Church.

We thank God for the support that the faithful render priests, religious men and women. However, material generosity must not mutate into manipulation of the recipients for “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:8) free from ulterior motives.

In any case it is the Christian duty of the faithful to support priests (cf.1 Cor 9:13-14). But priests and religious must remain sensitive to the plight of the poor (cf. Gal 2:9-10).

In conclusion, I think that at this juncture in the history of the local Church, we need an increase of the generosity of fidelity and the virtue of responsibility on the part of priests, religious men and women in order to faithfully represent Christ and be credible. We need such gifts for the faithful too. They should strive not to be an obstacle to one another in the groups that some of them belong. Those who do not want to join groups must not be harassed as if unless they are members of zvita or such other groups they are less Catholic. Many have known frustration in this area.

In addition we have the added task of guarding against the lure of false prophets and their dubious claims.

We must preach Christ crucified and risen who invites us to carry the cross (cf. Mk 8:34-38) and enter by the narrow gate (cf. Mt 7:13) into the Kingdom of God. Fr. Emmanuel Gurumombe SJ Boston College, Student of Philosophy.

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First make the hidden God known

By Fr Oskar Wermter SJ f you have never doubted God, you have never believed in him very much either. We do not find him where we want him to be, but where we least expect him, even in the dark. His presence is always also absence: he is beyond our reach, we cannot push him where we want him to be.

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“In our culture we take God for granted. He is just there,” people Fr Oskar Wermter SJ say. But is he alive? Is he the living the same God, everywhere.”

God whose Word speaks to us?

But have they given their The Church in their eyes is to hearts to this one God? People solve their problems, is to provide can give their hearts to things services they need, is a useful that are not God, yet we are social network. The better off told, “You shall have no other people are, the less they need an gods before me. You shall not Almighty “service provider”. But make for yourself an idol” it is precisely at that point that faith (Deut. 5: 7 – 8; Ex. 20: 3 -4). really begins. God is not what we need, he is what he gives – Himself. The prophets of Israel were Some preachers have been seduced forever denouncing the idols into believing that you must give and “carved images” that people what they want, that you Israel was turning to. It is our must fashion God according to the task as Church, the task of people’s wishes and expectations. her shepherds and teachers, “Supply as people demand”. That to unmask false gods , for is good salesmanship. But it is not instance wealth and power, which takes up that space in God’s way. the hearts that belongs to It is not that we have called God, God alone. but God calls us. If we think we know him he cannot make himself Many people may have heard known to us. We must lose all a “rumour” that there is a God, certainty about him so that he but have they seen or touched can show himself to us. That is him? What people call God the real calling of the Church, to may well turn out to be no be the void, the empty space, the more than “nature”, or “the yearning heart where God can make universe” or even something himself known. Being Church we have made ourselves, the means stretching out empty hands product of our own minds. to receive what “no eye has seen, There is only one true God – confused with countless false no ear has heard” (1. Cor. 2: 9). images and fantasies.

People tend to play down the Babel of voices. “There is only one and Apparently, God’s self-

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revelation is entirely his initiative. He has given himself, by identifying himself with us, “born of a woman” (Gal. 4: 4).

Similarly, the Son who is close to the Father’s heart has made him known’ (cf. John 1 : 18). ‘No one comes to the Father except through me’ (cf. John 14: 6). “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1: 15).

By surrendering himself to this world he exposed himself to sin, evil and death. Some people received him in faith and love (e.g. Mary, Simeon in the temple), even though “his own people did not accept him” (John 1: 11).

Because God became a human person he speaks to us in human language and human language is limited and inadequate. So people question our language.

Our thinking need to be adapted and changed all the time without losing the substance. The case of gender in the Bible is a clear example of language that needs to change to be inclusive of women.

Similarly, more important than what we can say ABOUT GOD is that we can speak TO HIM. The Son speaks to his Abba-Father in a relationship of I-THOU/ YOU. He takes us into this relationship, therefore with the Son, we can also say ‘Abba/ Father’ (cf. Romans 8: 14-17).

The Triune God is not a theory for speculation, a construct, or a blueprint. Rather, “God is Love.”

The more we talk ABOUT HIM, the more he becomes an IT, a mere thing which is no longer 7

CHURCH IN TRANSITION

The Resurrected Christ - Hekima College Chapel, Nairobi

God. The divinity, the godhead can only become real and alive in an “I-THOU”, i.e. in a personal relationship. We must restore the coherence of Faith. Learning by heart so and so many separate items may be necessary, but as such it does not inspire Faith. The encounter with him does.

For instance, people associate with ‘church’ all those rules about sexual relations and marriage.

Lovers regard the Church as an oppressive lawgiver. Where is the God who is love? But then again: what do we mean by love?

We assume marriage is the most natural thing, everybody can do it. Not any longer. It needs the love of God, it needs the Spirit of God who is love to be poured out into the hearts of man and woman to make them one “to the end” (John 13: 1), just as Christ has given himself “once and for all”.

Man and woman find God in their own “trinity” (parents and family), or they do not find him at all. Perhaps we have lost them because we showed them a “disembodied God”. Church and family have no future unless the lovers “honour God in their 8

bodies” (1. Cor. 6: 20).

There are many ways of loving, many paths that lead to God. If celibacy (consecrated chastity) is accepted only grudgingly as a rule enforced by Law, it is a dead thing. A priest and shepherd of the people of God must be in love with Christ the Word, which he makes known through his word and life. Without this passion, and without stoking the fire of this passion time and again, he will not be able to kindle this fire in others.

Celibacy is an act of faith. And so is Christian marriage. Both are gifts of the Spirit. Both are impossible to live as mere human conventions.

Whoever is touched by God, the “totally Other” will also become “another” person and will be transformed so as to transform the world around him.

Jesus announced the “Kingdom of God” called for change, for a new heart, for a new world.

This transforming encounter is crucial. Entering the presence Celibacy also happens to have of God and meet him face to face been the way Jesus lived – but makes all the difference. remember that he called himself “the bridegroom”, not a bachelor. The transformation of our own His relatives once said he “was hearts eventually transforms the out of his mind” (Mark 3: 21) world. The heart which is the seat when the crowds would not let of freedom cannot be bypassed. him go. Maybe the people doing The Spirit can only ‘renew the Lord’s work today need to be the face of the earth’ when a bit “out of their minds” as well. dwelling in our hearts. Or else we But, will the Church of the future impose our idealistic conceptions have married priests? Many hope as mere ideologies on people, so and think it will be easier for and freedom is lost - the tragic priests to be married, and we will outcome of all revolutions. have more of them. But marriage Without the ‘Father in heaven’ is never easy. Married priests the earth cannot be set free. would have to love their wives with the love of Christ. They Fr Oskar Wermter SJ would have to be faithful to their Coordinator for Theological wives as well as to the Church. Reflections, IMBISA

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The Irish Catholic Church in transition: Reflections for Zimbabwe

By Dr Gladys Ganiel he Catholic Church in Ireland is in a steep decline. For centuries, the Church enjoyed what sociologist Tom Inglis called a “moral monopoly” over the lives of the Irish.1 The Irish State had ceded control to the Church in areas such as education and health, and key laws reflected Catholic social teaching, eg divorce was not outlawed until 1995 and abortion remains illegal. This is similar to Zimbabwe, where the State also entrusted churches to administer education and health.

Further, there has been a fusion between Catholicism and Irish national identity, which has been constructed in contrast to Ireland’s “old enemy,” the colonising “Protestant” British state. Out of such a heavily socialized Catholic milieu it seems shocking that the Church’s influence seems so reduced as to now be marginal in the lives of the Irish.

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What can the Church in Zimbabwe learn from this transition in Irish Catholicism?

First, the Church is a better witness to Christ if its leaders are willing to repent for the sins of the Church. In the Irish context, this means the clerical abuse scandals and the Church’s lack of leadership in peacemaking during the violent “Troubles” in Northern Ireland (ca. 1969-1998). Second, the Irish Church’s sudden loss of power has created space for the empowerment of laity through “extra-institutional” ministries

promise meaningful reforms.3 In 2010, the Pope issued a pastoral letter to the Catholic Church in Ireland. Again, the letter was not well-received by laity, with one passage seeming to imply that a lack of faith among the Catholics of Ireland, rather than the abusing clergy themselves, were to blame for the abuse.4 Elsewhere, I have detailed how Irish Catholics have expressed their dissatisfaction with the “institutional” Church’s perceived lack of response to abuse, arguing that sincere apologies and concrete steps of repentance, such as a wellreceived liturgy of lament and Dr Gladys Ganiel repentance at Dublin’s Pro Cathedral in February 2011, 5 such as parish pastoral councils would help restore the Church’s and initiatives run by religious credibility.6 orders. Repentance and lay empowerment free up the Church Coupled with this, the Irish to contribute to alleviating the C h u r c h e s ( C a t h o l i c a n d pressing problems of the day.

Protestant) have been criticized for their lack of action during the Ireland has been hard-hit by Troubles in Northern Ireland.7 The the clerical abuse scandals conflict featured an intertwining because of the widespread of political/ethnic/religious abuse of children in schools identities and it is alleged that and orphanages administered churches were merely “chaplains by the Church.2 In the Republic to the tribe.”8 Although maverick of Ireland, a series of damning clerics, such as Redemptorist State reports into clerical abuse priests at Clonard Monastery has continued for more than a in Belfast, helped to facilitate decade. Northern Ireland, which peace talks with paramilitaries is part of the United Kingdom, and established partnerships with also had its share of Catholic- Protestant churches, the hierarchy run institutions where abuse of the Catholic Church did not was rife. The Church hierarchy eagerly facilitate or support routinely issued statements after such steps. Similarly, during the revelations of abuse, but victims crisis in Zimbabwe since 2000, and survivors inevitably told the institutional churches have the press they believed senior struggled to respond credibly and clerics were insincere, they effectively to violence. did not go far enough in their condemnations, and they did not

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CHURCH IN TRANSITION While the influence of Church institutions in Ireland has waned, there is some evidence of a slow yet steady empowerment of laity through what I have called “extra-institutional” spaces. 9 These spaces are fully integrated into the Catholic Church, yet are perceived by laity to function differently from or even outside the institutional church. In 20102011, I conducted case studies of three such spaces: SlíEile (which means “another way” in Irish), a Jesuit young adult ministry; Holy Cross Benedictine Monastery in Rostrevor; and the parish pastoral council in Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Dublin.10 Both clergy and laity are involved in these groups and in all cases clergy played a key role in establishing them. Extra-institutional spaces shared three key features: they provided hope for Christianity outside the institutional church, they were safe environments for healing and personal growth, and they facilitated pursuits people felt were neglected by the institutional Church, including social justice, ecumenism, and spirituality. In Zimbabwe, the Jesuits’ Silveira House, with its emphasis on spirituality and social action, could be considered an extra-institutional space.

Because of the lack of trust in the institutional Church, the future of the Church may depend on how effective extra-institutional groups are in nurturing faith and social action during this time of religious transition in Ireland.

These findings resonate with my previous work in Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe, as well as that of Joram Tarusarira in Zimbabwe. We have found that religious groups that operate 10

id the h iinstitutional i i l churches h h outside are more effective in facilitating social and political change. 11 Tarusarira calls these groups “non-conformist” to emphasize their deviation from the religious status quo. Non-conformists have judged religious institutions to be too caught up in their relationships with State powerholders and too bureaucratic to respond to immediate needs. To echo the words used by survivors of clerical abuse in Ireland – the religious institutions of the status quo have put the institution before the people, thus betraying Christ.

Tarusarira’s non-conformists see themselves as reversing that trend. The extra-institutional spaces I have briefly described are not fully “non-conformist” in Tarusarira’s sense, because of the intentional relationships they maintain with the institutional church (at least through their clergy). Because of these relationships, the institutional Church may be able to learn more about lay empowerment from extra-institutional rather than non-conformist groups. In Ireland, extra-institutional groups promote deeper spirituality and contextual social action, which are especially valuable during

ii h there h are acute transitions where social and political problems.

In light of these reflections from Ireland, the Church in Zimbabwe could be prompted to evaluate how it is operating as an institution. The institutional Church in Ireland should offer some sort of meaningful repentance for its conduct during the abuse scandals and the Troubles; similarly, are there specific ways in which the Church should repent for its role in Zimbabwe’s history? How would this enhance the Church’s credibility in Zimbabwe’s public sphere? Extra-institutional spaces are proving to be fruitful vehicles for nurturing faith in Ireland; similarly, does the Church in Zimbabwe have adequate extrainstitutional spaces to respond to the country’s deep social and political problems? If not, how might those spaces be created; and would the institutional Church be open to learning from them?

Dr Gladys Ganiel (gganiel@tcd.ie) Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation The Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin at Belfast

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CHURCH IN TRANSITION

Will Self-Reliance Replace Dependency Syndrome?

Making Use of the Social Doctrine

By Arkmore Kori envision a self reliant Catholic Church as a Church which no longer depend on external resources to build, maintain and run its own institutions (Seminaries, Missions, Convents, Churches, Hospitals, Schools, Universities, Training Centres etc.); take care of its Celebrants (food, fuel, clothes, recurrent expenditure – office space, water and electricity) and activities such as Ordinations, Exchange Visits and others. A Church in a dependent mode is not able to take care of most of its own expenses. The topic, which is partly phrased as a question, presupposes an existing process of self reliance within the Church, possibly at its infancy, but very promising to replace existing dependency syndrome. This immediately calls for the assessment of the current situation of the Church in the context of the two opposing variables – self-reliance and dependency. This can be done in the form of true case studies applicable to many situations occurring in the Catholic Church.

A parish priest from one Diocese asked: ‘How would a rural Priest survive with a 2kg packet of groundnuts, two cobs of maize and a hen that is given as offertory by committed Catholics?’ Of course, the commitment to help the Priest should not be undermined though it’s limited by poverty. With this, the priest may survive, but what about the needs of the Church building – door, window and floor repairs; the mission school and hospital – drugs, ambulance and the maternity ward?

Another priest was summoned

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Arkmore Kori

by a Chief and was requested to ‘help my people as did your European predecessor’. The Chief said the Catholic Church is very rich and it seems ‘you are now taking some of its riches to your own family because you are a local.’ The Catholic Church is seen as an affluent institution with almost everything and little bit of extra which should be just given away. Helping the Church to become self reliant, for some, kudzorera marasha kuHwange– its giving back riches to the rich!

Elsewhere, a group of ‘sick, poor, marginalised and vulnerable’ people are waiting outside the gate of the Mission so that the local priest can drive them to hospital for free. The priest does that at least one day every week.

The dependency syndrome is being reinforced here! The late Fr. Stocker, priest at St Pius Chinyuni gave people clothes, food and whatever he would think they needed. He built dams and funded cooperatives and gardens, most of which are now dormant. The African priests that replaced him were compared to

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Fr. Stocker, and often, regarded as stingy and ‘unhelpful’. One priest who was stationed there said at one time, somebody from a Catholic family broke into the priest’s house and stole vestments and other items which were later recovered. Perhaps it was one of the ‘punishments’ for not helping the community.

It will take time for dependency syndrome to replace self-reliance partly because of poverty. But the dependency syndrome that has been built in the Church over years beginning the 1870s; and continued to be perpetrated by some in the 21st century, justly or unjustly, has developed into an attitude and mindset that cannot be easily erased by a simple announcement of self-reliance by a local parish committee after Mass. Presenting a paper entitled ‘The Impact of the Social Doctrine of the Church on African Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Life: An Afrocentric P e r s p e c t i v e ’ d u r i n g F ro m ‘Caritas in Veritate’ to ‘Africae Munus’: Today’s Challenges for Africa in the Light of the Social Doctrine of the Church workshop held in Windhoek, Namibia on 17-21 December 2012, Kasala raises important question: Is the Catholic Church in Africa, African or Roman? Has Christianity in the form of Western beliefs and doctrines, customs and practices, evangelical and missionary activities, been inculturated enough in Africa to the extent that it is credible, relevant and effective to bring about important changes such as self-reliance?

Realising the importance of self reliance, some dioceses and parishes have organised 11

CHURCH IN TRANSITION

Self help projects for self-sustainance

meetings and workshops on selfreliance. Whilst not privy to the strategies used in the workshops or meetings, it is important to submit that the call for selfreliance in Church has not been very inspiring because it has not been associated and inculturated with important biblical values and teachings, especially the Social Doctrine. In its largely circular presentation, many, especially those who have not managed to realise a transition from a Western Church to an African Church, have seen the call as a far-fetched exercise adopted from circular world to increase the assumed riches of the Catholic Church. But the aspect of self-reliance of the Church should be spoken, seen and expressed as an expression of evangelisation, a fundamental step into putting the gospel into practice as advised in James 2:20, “Faith Without Deeds Is Dead!”

According to Centismus Annus (CA 55), a theological dimension is needed for both interpreting and for solving present day problems in human society.

Centismus Annus (CA 57) adds that the social gospel is the most effective basis and motivation for action. The Christian knows 12

Is the local church self-sustaining?

that in the Social Doctrine of the Church can be found the principle of reflection, the criterion for judgement and the directives for action which can be the starting point for the encouragement and promotion of self-reliance.

Making the doctrine known and putting it into practice therefore constitutes a genuine pastoral priority.

There are abundant, but largely underutilised Church institutions that can be used to promote self reliance in the context of the Social Doctrine. Starting with the Church guilds, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, is mandated by the Vatican, through Zimbabwe Catholics Conference, to popularise the Social Doctrine.

With genuine collaboration with related institutions such as Silveira House, the aspect of self-reliance can easily be put in the processes of evangelisation so that it can become more acceptable in the Church. Self reliance is an important aspect of the Church because it has a sustainability component.

Usually, communities preserve, conserve and guard jealously where they put their efforts and energy. In the liberation struggle for example, most of the

Churches and mission stations build by missionaries were destroyed or were at more risk of being destroyed by the local communities than those built with or by Africans.

In conclusion, ‘Yes’, it is possible for the Church to become self reliant. We have seen some parishes being able to organise, for example, local ordination events on their own.

However, some of the activities that point to self reliance such as constructing local Churches have been successful, although some of them have taken years to be completed. But the contextualisation of the Social Doctrine in the aspect of selfreliance can change entrenched dependency syndrome and inspire many to be involved, including unlocking opportunities within the Catholic Professionals and Catholic Business persons who can also contribute much in creating self-reliance within the Church. The tools and capacity are within the Church. What is needed is genuine coordination, collaboration and effective implementation.

Arkmore Kori Coordinator for CCJP

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FAITH IN ACTION

Collaboration or Partnership-in-mission?

“They are called there by God so that by exercising their proper function and being led by the spirit of the Gospel they can work for the sanctification of the world from within, in the manner of leaven. In this way they can make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity”. our works, especially if we are guided by methods inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius.

By Fr Stephen Buckland SJ They” in this passage does not, as you might think, refer to priests, brothers or sisters. It’s from Chapter 4 of Lumen Gentium, and “they” in this case are the laity. The Church after Vatican II is “the Church of the Laity”. The laity are in the majority, after all, and it is principally they who “sanctify” the world from within, who “make Christ known to others”, “especially by a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity”.

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Fr Stephen Buckland SJ

This has to make us look in a new way at almost everything about the Church. We say, there is a shortage of priests in the Church. Is there? Well, perhaps; but there’s no shortage of those who can “sanctify the world from within”. In my job, I often hear myself saying that that there are not enough Jesuits to fulfil all the commitments that we have – in parishes and schools, in social institutes like Silveira House or the Jesuit AIDS Project, in our retreat and spirituality work at the Peter Faber Centre; and so on.

And it is true – we do need more.

But the other side is that we already have a huge army, a network of people, mostly lay, who work with and for us in our many works. All of them are linked to us and to one another through those Jesuit works to our overall enterprise: our ‘mission’, what we Jesuits are trying to achieve. Think, for example, of the 18 Jesuit schools and 9 Jesuit parishes in two dioceses: this means hundreds

of teachers, catechists and parish councillors, and literally thousands of pupils and parishioners and their families. They don’t all share all our aims to the same degree. Why should they? But all are drawn for one reason or another to us and our works, and many, many of them do long to see what we also long to see in Zimbabwe.

The Jesuits have a word for these people: we call them “collaborators”. I prefer to speak of “partners-in-mission”, because we work together on a mission that we’ve been given, not one we have chosen, and because partners are supposed to be in some sense equal. I am sometimes asked for a more precise definition: “Among all those who work in our school,” it is asked, “all they all collaborators? Even those who do it for a salary?” My answer is that anyone is a partner who is motivated, in some degree, by our hope that we can together advance the Kingdom of God through

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Many of these people, though by no means all, will be employees of our works, just as we Jesuits are ourselves often employees of our schools or parishes and receive remuneration. (It perhaps needs saying that fair and just terms and conditions of service are prerequisites of this kind of partnership: injustice at that level will make true partnership impossible.) All of them will have a place in the hierarchy of authority that is unavoidable in any institution: for each of them, there will be someone whom they have to obey. This, too, applies to Jesuits. The heart of partnership, though, is not these structures but shared inspiration.

Partners-in-mission are inspired by the call to a mission shaped by the Spiritual Exercises. They are those who desire to fulfil that mission through working together in a Jesuit work.

Jesuits have always worked through such partners, using the Spiritual Exercises in various forms to inspire others to join with them, as Ignatius himself did.

This partnership is not new. It has always been an essential part of our Jesuit way of proceeding. If we are rediscovering it now in the long wake of Vatican II, it is as part of our response to the Council’s call to all religious congregations to return to the spirit of their founders. It is not

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FAITH IN ACTION – or it should not be – because we have suddenly woken up to the fact that there are not as many of us now as there were in the past. Like our conviction that our mission is both “the service of faith and the promotion of justice”, these being linked together inseparably, partnershipin-mission is the shape of our life and witness to the Gospel of Jesus.

Jesus never spoke, as far as I know, of partners. In the gospel stories, there are disciples, apostles, followers. But some he trained to go out and preach as he had done: they shared his mission.

Though they did not use the word, they were in practice his partnersin-mission, sharing responsibility for his message and its effect on people. And in the Acts of the Apostles, it is clear that the newlyformed Church, the community of believers drawn together and empowered by the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Jesus and the Father – now takes on Jesus’ own mission.

Henceforth, Jesus works through these women and men: his work of “sanctifying the world from the inside” is now to be carried out by them. That’s the situation still. The work of the Gospel is a joint activity: it’s a “collaborative” work, a partnership-in-mission.

There is not really any other way of working for Christians.

True, there are always a few w o n d e r f u l l y e n e rg e t i c a n d charismatic individuals, like St Paul, for example, who start great things; or like some of the Jesuits who founded the works that we run today, like Fr John Dove, the founder of Silveira House, or Fr Ted Rogers, the founder of the Jesuit AIDS Project, the School of Social Work and much else

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Collaboration at the heart of the Church’s Mission

besides. But the way the Gospel works, as we see from the history of our own schools and other works, is to bring individuals together, to harness their energy in common, so that they can inspire one another but also guide and sometimes correct one another.

What we need, therefore, in our Jesuit works is to mobilise the energy in this large group of people involved with us in these Jesuit institutions. Let us pray that we can find the right way of doing this. It’s the work of the Gospel, after all, the work of the Spirit, rather than ours.

Our institutions are platforms for making the Gospel real for thousands of people in Zimbabwe.

The only question is: how can we, together, make them more effective, reaching more people more deeply, revealing in evermore concrete forms the love of God for which Jesus lived and died.

Fr. Stephen Buckland SJ Provincial, Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe

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FAITH IN ACTION

Prophets and Mystics:

The Role of Religious Life in the New Evangelization

By Bro. James Langlois, F.M.S. he new evangelization is a wakeup call for religious life. It is to help religious reflect on this challenge that the Major Superiors organized an open day in January after their AGM. They had invited Sister Gemma Simmonds, C.J., to lead it. Being the Director of the Religious Life Institute in the U.K. and a lecturer in pastoral theology at Heythrop College, University of London, she had much to share with us. Her personal convictions and her enthusiasm laced with a lovely sense of humour made a deep impact on us. The brief account of her talks, are likely to be challenged to shape up and do something about it.

individualism, tribalism, violence? Do we hold out a new vision for the world, that of the beatitudes? Are we offering genuine hope, hope that can change lives and the world around us?

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She believes that we, religious, need to be both Prophets and Mystics to be effective evangelizers in the Church and the world today.We learn from studying the prophets of the Old Testament that prophets were men who were conscious of their unworthiness and yet knew deep down that God had called them to an intimate relationship with him.

Theirs was a costly discipleship, lived not in isolation but in the reality of their world. They came to grasp how God saw it, which is why they sometimes told truths that made their contemporaries feel quite uncomfortable.

In spite of our own poverty, we too, religious, are called to an intense relationship with our living God. To dispose ourselves for the gift of intimacy he generously offers us, we need to cleanse our hearts and minds. We do well to be

observant as we live in the world about us and selfless as we deal with its concrete reality. In union with the living Christ we can lead authentic lives, embodying the message he brought us. If we don’t, people will realize that we are not living the truth. Our vows are of special significance for this mission. They are meant to break the spells that cripple our world: greed that compels to accumulate possessions, thirst for power that abuses people, cheap relationships that leave others hurt and deeply wounded. By contrast we are meant to be living witnesses of genuine freedom found in God. In his ministry Jesus was able to deliver teaching that uplifted his hearers, and yet disturbed them when the situation called for it.

He had a passion for possibilities.

Looking at so many sinners, he did not focus on what they had been.

Moved by merciful love, he saw their deepest desires and what they could be with divine help. We are serving people and doing it well, but does our presence make a difference? Are we prepared to make a nuisance of ourselves when need be, challenging unbridled

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Mystics In Christian spirituality mysticism refers not to unusual phenomena like visions or ecstasy, but to union with God as Someone whose presence is real, with whom one relates intimately. The mystic knows he is a sinner in need of mercy, which is why he or she sees this close intimacy with God as an undeserved favour. Intimate union with God moves the mystic to be fully human, attending to the neighbour with love and attention. We may well feel inadequate to be a mystic. What matters for each one of us is to make Jesus the centre of our lives. To be logical about it we see the need to get to know him better, to spend time with him in prayer, to live and interact as he did.

We leave it to God to reveal himself to us when and in the manner he chooses to do so.

Karl Rahner once affirmed: “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or nothing at all”. The true gift we can offer the Church and the world is our contemplation of God dwelling in the here and now.

This makes a difference in our ministry. Amos had been a shepherd and a hewer of wood when God called him.

Eventually he could write of Yahweh “revealing his secrets 15

FAITH IN ACTION

Foundations of our Christian faith

to his servants the prophets.

He was thus in a position to pass on judgement on the crimes of neighbouring nations.

Besides, he accused Israel of self-deception and obstinacy, and warned her of impending punishment. At the same time he offered an alternative. “Seek good and not evil”, “seek me out and you will survive”. At the heart of contemplation comes the call of the beatitudes to be poor with the poor, one with those treated unjustly, to do the tough things that people don’t like. The mystic can thus be prophetic at the levels of faith, hope and love.

Sister Gemma then stressed the importance of two aspects of religious life we have neglected in the past decades and yet are crucial for renewal: silence and reconciliation.

Silence God is constantly trying to get our attention, yet our world is filled with trivialities. Our religious communities can be so easily immersed in that culture of noise, distraction and mediocrity. In the process our lives can become shallow, gradually empty of meaning.

It is crucial that together we establish periods of quiet for ourselves and our communities to facilitate personal reflection and encounter with our living God. We are then in a position to know ourselves better, to discern more accurately the direction our lives are actually taking.

As we turn to God for guidance and help, as we listen to him, we slowly get in touch with the richness of his love. When we speak of him in our ministry and our dealings with others, we are then convincing. People can

sense that we know him and are in love with him.

Reconciliation As religious we do experience hurts and may even be deeply wounded. Obedience can bring about tensions too. If nothing is done about it we can be burdened by deep pain for years. Bitterness may spill out from time to time.

It takes the grace of God to forgive, all the more so when there was malice. Let us ask earnestly for that grace. At times we need a structure to show that we forgive as a group. When we do, we become a powerful sign in our world that forgiveness is possible, and our calls to end violence are more convincing.

We are not religious, Sister Gemma concluded, if we do not even try.

Bro. James Langlois, F.M.S.

WANTED: WRITERS

We invite our readers to respond to Mukai-Vukani through letters to the editor. Articles should NOT BE LONGER THAN 1200 WORDS.- Editor 16

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FAITH IN ACTION

Celebrating Shift

By Fr David Harold-Barry SJ enzo Piano, an Italian architect, said on television the other day that in his work, he likes to “celebrate shift.” I found it an arresting expression. In his work he recognises how people’s lives have changed and the buildings he designs “celebrate” this new reality. We rather grandly call ourselves “agents of change” and it is true we do contribute in our small way. But change is much bigger than any one of us and turns out to be quite different to what any of us imagine. We don’t really create change. We celebrate it. Vatican II is a great example of this.

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So, if we take the theme of this number of MUKAI, “The Church in Transition” what comes to mind? Sure the Church has changed. But how has it changed? And is it a cause of regret or of celebration?

The Church has changed in my lifetime. We used to be a teaching church believing we had all the answers. But Pope John led us to also be a learning church attentive to the “signs of the times.” We used to be a centralised church with not only one faith, one baptism, but also one liturgy, one language (Latin). But now we are groping towards a church that recognises the subsidiarity of the local churches, enabling them to design their own liturgies and use their own languages. We used to be a powerful church where bishops were princes and priests were chiefs, but now we are moving to a model of a servant church where clergy and laity work together in a shared

who are “out” are really “in.”

There are people who are well known Catholics who behave as though they know nothing of the gospel. And there are others who never cross the threshold of a church who devote their lives Are these “shifts” cause for with extraordinary courage to the regret or celebration? I need not service of others. Such people answer the question. But I would are known. like to focus on a transition behind these transitions. There Perhaps the transition I am is an underlying transition which describing is a transition in our is both exciting and scary. We thinking. “My Father works have grown up thinking of the and so do I” (John 5:17). But Church as a structure we enter. how does the Trinity work in We know there are bishops and our world? The parable that sisters, priests and brothers. And always appeals to me since then there is the huge majority the time I used to watch my of lay people. After a process mother making bread is that of of preparation we all find our the leaven. It takes up just one place in this body. We are either verse in the gospel (Matt 13:33) in or out. If we are “in” we but is a celebration in itself of go to church and receive the the simplicity and directness sacraments. We wear habits and with which Jesus taught. The uniforms. We have titles and leaven disappears into the mass positions. If we are “out” we of flour. It loses its identity and have none of these things. But in so doing transforms the flour. when we look around in our The leaven “dies” and the flour society we quickly notice that comes “alive”. All four gospels some of those who are “in” are give the words of Jesus; “Anyone really “out” and some of those who loves his life loses it; anyone ministry. And we used to be a European dominated Church where all the energy came from outside, but now we are a local church where all the energy is within.

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Harare Central Prison, Chikurubi

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FAITH IN ACTION who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life” (John 12:25 and parallels).

We talk about the growth of the Church, in Africa, in Zimbabwe.

But the Church exists in order to die. The Church exists to give life to the world. It does not exist for itself. When the world eventually reflects the image of God; when man – taken not as an individual but as the whole human family – finally shows forth the image in which he is made (Gen 1:27), then the Church like the grain of wheat (John 12:24) will have died. says; “But now in Christ, you So the transition I am describing who used to be so far apart from is the breaking down of the us have been brought very close, barrier between “them” and “us.” by the blood of Christ. For he is the peace between us, and has I do a little work in Harare Central made the two into one prison. One does not have to be and broken down the barrier there long to see that there are that used to keep them apart …” many “in” there who should be (2:13). “out”. They have not understood the working of the law; they do The Church that we grew up not know what it is to appeal in was a society set apart. We and they cannot afford lawyers. believed that we were somehow And there are many “out” here special. We were Catholics and moving about freely who should proud of it. We had an identity be “in” prison. They have stolen and wore clothes that made us and used violence but they have distinct. The transition we are money and influence. Further, now celebrating is to a church there are many “free” people in that reaches out to “the modern prison; people who are generous world,” where the barriers that and open and at peace with divided us are gradually losing themselves. And there are many their importance. We find that we who walk the streets who are have far more in common with “imprisoned” in their fears and our brothers and sisters than we jealousies and hatreds. Prison is have that divides us. So we go a metaphor for society. We lock forward together. people away but in doing so we lock away our own problems and But, and it is a big BUT, there challenges. The day I am writing is a danger when the barriers this we had as our reading, “keep are lowered that we all become in mind those who are in prison much the same. It is already as though you were in prison impossible, for example, to tell with them” (Heb13:3).There is a the difference between a Jesuit marvellous passage in the letter scholastic (student) and any other to the Ephesians where the writer student from the way they dress.

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The transition I write of calls for an even deeper interior life, if that is possible, than that of our ancestors in the faith. They had the support of structures and solidarity among themselves.

They were “set apart” from the world for their mission to the world. But the transition we now celebrate is one where the Christian is so much in and with the world that he or she may absorb all the world’s thinking.

Instead of being leaven we may end up being stale flour. The Christian today, and especially the priest or religious today, has none of the supports of old. So he or she has to be a person of deep prayer and union with God if they are truly to be the leaven.

We have not brought about this change by any decision of our own. We have simply found it this way. In one way our mission today is harder than ever. But in another way it is a joyful moment if we can embrace it with faith. It is a shift worth celebrating.

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FAITH IN ACTION

On personal relationship with God, prophets and spiritual infidelity

By Aaron Chidzulo Yambani nSJ, Lusaka, Zambia here is availability of huge and abundant literature on God and HIS people. This availability has necessitated the accessibility of God’s word to the people.

The case of Zambia is worthy discussing as a dialogue of practical experiences on the need for people to invest in the development of their personal relationship with God. “We had powerful prayers, I was told by the prophet that I have a bright future and God has arranged a husband for me”, one woman reported after an organized prayer meeting with some famous pastor. This was actually her third time sharing with me her discourse during her encounters with prophets, men of God. I had a discussion with some youth (age ranging 14 to 18 years) on the topic, “How God speaks to us”. Interestingly enough, most of them seemed to believe that God largely speaks to us through prophecy and visions. For the reasons of seeking for healing, prosperity and comforting promises from famous pastors, churches have been mushrooming in most residential areas in Zambia.

Most of the churches appear at every street corner in the high density suburbs, where the majority of people who seek progress of one sort or the other live. There are preachers on the streets in town, at the market place, and even on long distance buses. The Word of God is being

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Aaron Chidzulo Yambani nSJ

availed at “reasonably accessible points” in our neighbourhood.

It is important to note that the preaching ends with a collection of money, as an appreciation token to the servant of God. Most clients (or miracle seekers) of these prophets, pastors and visionaries seem to be a category of people who are desperate for healing or an elevation in their societal ranking, be it in status, wealthy, or social standing.

While for others, it is the quest for physical healing and relief from life’s hardships. Spiritual therapy and promises of God’s divine intervention, mostly towards economic prosperity, fulfilment of one’s desires and marital problems, draws mostly the poor and weak to these churches. The congregants rarely notice the potential fraud in such churches. The pastors drive in luxurious vehicles, whilst the congregants struggle in life, with nothing but the basics of life. The quest for deliverance remains a nightmare for most church goers, whilst on the one hand, the pastor enjoys success from gate takings,

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offertory and donations from church members. The question that sticks above the rest is that of the origin and the authority of these miracle workers. Is it all from God or there are other forces behind? What drives the poor miracle seeker towards such pastors and churches, in spite of the common knowledge that not all are genuine?

Fear of the unknown and the great desire for deliverance from life’s problems, for example, sickness, bodily deformities, barrenness, poverty, family problems, and the always present threat from the claws of the devil, remain the reasons for people to flock to pastors or the miracle working fold. There is always a reminder of the presence of the devil amongst us, and this reminder scares people and lead them to seek for protection. Others view their suffering as a punishment from God, or the domination by the devil in their life.

Having set the stage, the prophet becomes the focal point towards salvation from suffering, thereby creating dependency on him.

The prophet begins to be seen as having patent powers from God, with exclusive access to God which the miracle seeker doesn’t seem to have. Some miracle seekers thus have spiritual inferiority complex and seem to think that God does not know or speak to them, so they rely on ‘powerful men of God”.

Consolation and desolation God is the giver of consolations.

We read in the Letter of St Paul to the Galatians that the fruits

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of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. These are the fruits a person led by the Holy Spirit is suppose to produce. The Holy Spirit does not induce or magnify the fear of the devil as if the devil was equal to God, that would be the fallacy of dualism, Annotation 329 of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola on the Discernment of Spirits says, “it is characteristic of God and His angels , by the motion they cause, to give genuine happiness and spiritual joy and thereby to banish any sadness and tumoil induced by the enemy.it is characteristic of the enemy to fight against this happiness and spiritual consolation by using spacious reasoninngs, subtleties, and persistent deceits.”

On Christian faith and demonology, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith states that, “Over the centuries, the Church has repeatedly condemned superstition in its various forms, the obsessive preoccupation with Satan and 20

demons, and any form of worship of, or morbid concentration on, such spirits.[1] It is, therefore, inaccurate to claim that Christianity ever forgot the universal lordship of Christ and made Satan the preferred subject of preaching, thus transforming the Good News of the risen Lord into a message of terror”.

Theologians teach that we are all created “imago Dei” (in the image of God) thus before God, we all are the same. God loves everyone equally and similarly communicates to each one of us, though in different ways, just as He did to the Old Testament prophets. For example, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Moses were prophets who communicated with God, and represented Yahweh’s to His people and transmitted the people’s wish to God. Never was it their personal wish that was communicated or represented, but they were agents. Yahweh’s mode of communicating to each of them was unique, to Ezekiel, we read, “eat the scroll” (Ezedkiel 3: 1-4), whilst Moses was called through the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-11), Jeremiah’s mouth was touched by the burning charcoal

(Jeremiah 1:9-10). It would not be appropriate for an individual to be fantasising that they are Ezekiel and God is giving them the scroll to eat, or for Jeremiah to have been fantasising that he was Moses and that he was also going to see a burning bush, that could have made him blind to the hand of God touching his mouth.

Our being Christians therefore requires that we are confident of the fact that God is present in our life, and we are unique before God. life situations remain different, yet God is present in all these situations. Misfortunes, disease, catastrophes and suffering in life do not indicate the absence of God. Rather, it is the interpretation that we have of such that matters. It is not in miracles only that we can attest to the presence of God, it is not only in prosperity and healing that God makes Himself present, but it is, even in the stillness of life, that God makes Himself visible. Our faith should be out of love for God, and not sustained by miracles.

Aaron Chidzulo Yambani nSJ Lusaka, Zambia

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SOCIAL AND POLITICS

Constitutionalism in Zimbabwe: A history of progression or retrogression

By Fr Peter Musekiwa SJ imbabwe has been on the road to constitutionalism for the past thirty three years with the first attempt to a “people driven constitution”1 being the 1979 Lancaster House Constitutional Conference (LHCC). Although politicians from both African political movements and the colonial settlers of the time claimed that the constitution agreement of 1979 was the best the country could ever dream of, signs showed shortly after independence that the document was far from being the best as the Zanu-PF government amended a record nineteen times. Is history about to repeat itself?

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Fr Peter Musekiwa SJ

The difference between Process and Content- Zimbabwean Constitution Making ProcessLessons for Zambia. During this Forum, it became very clear to me that the purposes of a constitution are, first, to regulate the exercise of power and organising the exercise of power, secondly, the constitution defines the relationships between individuals and the state and lastly, in a constitution making process what a nation desires is a good constitution or a good document that gives confidence to a bigger number of the citizens on whom it will be applied.

In 2013, the three principals to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) reached some compromise regarding the “people driven constitution” that SADC mandated and demanded that among many other reforms they ought to facilitate its conception and birth before the watershed election. The only outstanding voices against the draft constitution are the Progress Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe and the National Constitution Assembly (NCA) This leaves one with questions already campaigning for and mobilizing a “NO” vote? Why the dissenting voices?

On 30 January, I attended a Public Forum on constitution making process at Mulungushi International Centre in Lusaka organised by the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) in which Professor Lovemore Madhuku was the main speaker.

The theme of the Forum was The Constitution Making Process:

as to the purpose of all the constitution processes that Zimbabwe has gone through in the last 33 years. What was the punch line of all the attempts to have a people driven constitution in Zimbabwe since 1979? From September to December 1979 Lord Carrington, Sir Gilmour Bt and their delegation which represented the United Kingdom; Bishop A.T. Muzorewa, Dr. S.C. Mundawarara and their delegation; Mr. R.G. Mugabe and his delegation and Mr. J.M. Nkomo were gathered at Lancaster House in the United Kingdom to “discuss and reach agreement on the terms for an Independence Constitution, and that elections should be supervised under British authority to enable Rhodesia to proceed to legal independence and the parties to settle their differences by political means.”2 Twenty-nine years down, SADC mandated the GPA principals to facilitate a people driven constitution. Among other reasons, the purposes were to-easy-up political tension in the country which caused unprecedented economic meltdown, providing a platform for free and fair election, and above all returning the political

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MUKAI - VUKANI No. 64 March 2013

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SOCIAL AND POLITICS voice to the masses of Zimbabwe.

Questions are raised as to whether this is what Zimbabweans got.

The NCA’s understanding of constitutionalism begs to differ with the Zimbabwean process.

NCA’s foundational formation is anchored on the move made by President Mugabe through the Lancaster House Constitutional amendment No. 17 which opened up a number of very controversial acts and gave Mugabe imperial powers thereby making him an imperial president. NCA, therefore, was formed to stop Mugabe from becoming the most equal person in the Republic. The mandate for the formation of the NCA in 1997 was to push for a new constitution meaning that the Lancaster House Constitution had failed to address the pleas of the people of Zimbabwe as evidenced by the 19 amendments in thirty years. Being aware of the agenda of the NCA and the expanse of political damage it potentially possessed against the only strong political party that time, Zanu-PF, the president and his party moved in quickly in 2000 to pretend that they had given in to the calls of the NCA for a new constitution and threw the country into a constitution referendum in February 2000.

The NCA campaigned for a “No” vote arguing that “the draft failed to reflect the views of the people from the public consultation process and created an overly powerful executive, weak parliament and inadequate human rights protection, the NCA and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) mobilized the massive civil society campaign against the draft. The birth of MDC in 1999 from some members of NCA and the trade union was premised on the philosophy of 22

constitutionalism and thought that the only way to advance constitutionalism and a people driven constitution in Zimbabwe was by direct participation in the political space and processes. The Vote NO campaign carried the day, thereby shaking the whims of the ZANU PF government, who had over estimated its popularity with the people. 3 Fast forward to September 2007!

Representatives from Zanu-PF and the now split MDC attempted to produce a Constitution for the country which ended in what became known as the Kariba draft Constitution. This draft as we know was highly clouded with anomalies. The anomalies in the Kariba draft included a very powerful president with powers to unilaterally declare a state of emergency, dissolve parliament and appoint all public officials.4 This draft made the executive pillar of government the most important and dominant in the Republic. The draft was rejected by the political parties and the civic society, because it was a product of a very secretive process; based neither on consensus nor public

participation and the executive structure in place ensured that parliament and the judiciary remained very weak institutions dominated and controlled by the executive.”5 Having set the stage towards a new constitution in Zimbabwe for the past years, focus now is on the COPAC draft constitution. In my opinion, the process that led to the current constitution making process falls far short from many Zimbabweans’ expectations. In the first place, the GPA that has ruled Zimbabwe for over five years to date is not a product of the grassroots people of Zimbabwe. The GPA in my view has been a charitable imposition from SADC to salvage the dignity of our leaders and lives of Zimbabweans. Zimbabweans voted and were cheated of their voice, leading into SADC coming in to salvage the chaotic and violent situation. The three principals are not the choice of Zimbabweans, but a result of political gerrymandering. This brings to the fore, the question of the legitimacy of the entire process. The COPAC draft is a product of political negotiations and compromise, thereby indicating some loopholes for the

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MUKAI - VUKANI No. 64 March 2013

SOCIAL AND POLITICS Lancaster House Constitution Conference that even if a “people driven constitution” talk is more ideological than a practical reality, the process to constitution making in any country should be as transparent as possible. There should be transparency on the composition of the Constitution Commission set up. There should be transparency and deliberate attempt to safeguard and respect the people’s suggestions so Conclusion One draws huge lessons from the that the content of a document drafters attempted to be inclusive of current political dispensations.

The draft therefore remains a compromise document, meant to serve the interests of the three main political parties, leaving Zimbabweans on the terraces.

For example, there is lack of transparency in deferring some of the clauses to action only after five years.

to be promulgated as national constitution will no doubt contain realities that the people who suggested the content will recognize and identify with so that they uphold the constitution with great esteem. This will make a constitution a people’s constitution and a constitution by the people.

Fr Peter Musekiwa SJ St Francis Xavier House, Lusaka

Formation of Leaders - today’s challenge

By Tafadzwa Majoni oses, the man who inherited the problems of Joseph and his brothers in Egypt, was a leader who spoke so poorly that his brother Aaron had to deliver had to deliver most of his speeches for him. But the strength of his vision and his commitment to Israel’s mission made him the ultimate visionary and a leader the people would follow through the most adverse circumstances.

Modern leaders also face these circumstances. They encounter the painful days of the Israelites in the desert. The burning bush is a co-operate vision par excellence and the ten commandments are the ultimate mission statement.

Joshua succeeded Moses, the transfer of power is an example that not only one person must be the leader for ever and ever.

The stories of Samson, Job, Jesus can teach modern executives a lot about sticking to your vision despite obstacles, suffering and doubters. Pilate asked Jesus, “are you the king of the Jews?” and Jesus did not hesitate, “You say I am”. Are you a leader?

M

you too far. In the Old Testament, even when the leaders’ visions seemed unrealistic, people followed them because of their integrity and honesty. Noah was selected and rewarded for his integrity. Moses was a man of great integrity [1Sam 12:14]. A leader must have a moral compass. In times of crisis, adversity and temptation, a leader’s integrity becomes more evident. Integrity is exhibited in actions and not pronouncements these qualities: Integrity and of intention. honesty; purpose; humility; Good communication skills; Purpose is the commitment to Compassion and kindness; the right priorities. All of us Courage; Justice and fairness. need purpose. Work without

“Judge me O lord, according to my integrity…” Ps 7:8 Actions that back up the words and words that are congruent with the actions is a characteristic of people of integrity and honesty.

Case studies carried out revealed that honesty was the most frequently cited trait of a good leader. It doesn’t matter how noble or worthwhile your cause, if you haven’t earned people’s trust by constantly keeping your word and being true to your An excellent leader must have values, people will not follow

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purpose even if it takes great skill can become mindless, heartless drudgery. Add purpose even to so called grunt work and see how it expands with an even inspired dimension.

King David’s purpose was to consolidate the power of Israel and strengthen it ideologically.

In a sense he was a great builder of corporate culture for the new nation. A renaissance man equally at home with a sword and a harp, he made certain that the kingdom was strong culturally, monetarily and militarily. His

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SOCIAL AND POLITICS

Formation of future leaders

son Solomon further built on that sense of purpose, the manifestation of which was the temple of Jerusalem. Leaders must lead with a purpose and thus all best leaders approach all tasks that way.

When a leader is dedicated to a purpose and when all the people who follow see the dedication, great things do happen. The book of Esther tells of a beautiful Jewish maiden who became queen of Persia when she found favour with king Xerves. She was chosen not just for her youth and beauty but instead for her obedience and purpose. Few great purposes are accomplished without obstacles or opposition.

Nehemiah encountered both when he wanted to rebuild the wall. Tobiah the Ammonite chortled, “What they are building if even a fox climbed on it, he would break down their walls of stones”. Talk about purpose and people will listen but to get them to follow you must act with purpose.

In the Bible are leaders who combined the power of humility and charisma. Moses was one of the most influential and powerful leaders who ever lived. He secured the freedom of his people from the hands of Pharaoh. He led them through the Red sea and the desert. After all his accomplishment, it would

have been very easy for Moses to say, “Without me none of this would have happened. If you want to talk to me make an appointment with my assistant Aaron.” Amazingly the bible tells us exactly the opposite about this greatest leader. “Now Moses was a very humble man more humble than anyone”….

Num 12:3. At various times Moses protested that he is not worthy to lead. But each time he receives a call to action.

“Therefore anyone who become as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:4).

We get wonderful inspiring sentiments from biblical figures.

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SOCIAL AND POLITICS But do they have any implication to the modern day leader? Much has been said about “servant leadership” who inspires others and achieves great goals not by “loading it over others” but rather by serving them.

A servant leader is not a new phenomenon but it origins date back to the bible. While Jesus is the best known servant leader, the concept predates him by almost a thousand years.

In 1 Kings 12, King Rehoboam was faced with a dilemma. His stubborn pride and cruelty made him a bad leader. He had to flee from his Jerusalem in his chariot to escape death since the people of Israel wanted to stone him. Similarly, for Jesus, the son of man had come not to be served but to serve [Matt 20:20-28]. The most dramatic example of Jesus’ humility was his washing of his disciples’ feet. It’s difficult to imagine a modern day leader acting so humbly [John 13:3-9].

A person who cannot c o m m u n i c a t e c l e a r l y, powerfully and succinctly barely qualifies as a leader.

Unlocking the future

Leaders in the bible had to be great communicators since back then they did not have e-mails, fax machines etc. Consider the following examples of communication in the bible: The Sermon on the Mount; Moses’ exhortations to the Israelites as he led them out of Egypt and through the desert and the delivery of the Ten Commandments.

These are ranked some of the most powerful, effective long-lasting messages ever communicated in

the history of mankind. Leaders in the bible made sure there was two way communications as well. Moses, David and Jesus were masters of managing group meetings of up to a thousand people. Without frequent and appropriate communication of overarching ideas, mission and vision, Christianity would not exist today.

Tafadzwa Majoni Chinhoyi University of Technology

BOOK REVIEW

A Tragedy of Lives, Women in Prison in Zimbabwe Edited by Chiedza Musengezi and Irene Staunton, Weaver Press, 2003, Reprinted 2012.

Reviewed by Fr David HaroldBarry SJ o visit prison is not to visit some alien place, cut off from ‘normal’ society, where problem people are locked away. If you visit prison you quickly realise you are looking into a mirror of society itself. In fact, to visit a prison is to come starkly in touch with the country we have created for ourselves.

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This collection of personal accounts of 33 women prisoners is an amazingly rich mine of information about family life, domestic violence, the influence of witchcraft, the persistence of traditional gender inequality, financial insecurity, ignorance of legal rights and inequality before the law, unrestrained verbal and physical violence within prisons and stigmatisation and cruel 25

BOOK REVIEW comments from family members and neighbours on release from prison. The reader is stunned by the constant repetition of the theme of growing up in a stable happy home and then meeting with almost unbearable social and economic challenges as adults. This is the lot of most people in Zimbabwe and this book is about those who cannot cope. They started out as ‘good’ people but society pushed them in directions where they could not find their way. They became ‘bad’ people.

Elizabeth stole a baby to save her marriage and not be chased away. Barbra had an abortion and dumped the foetus by the river because she was afraid to face her parents. When Beti’s husband started to insult her and beat her up, because he had become involved with another woman, she decided to get back at him while he slept. She heated some cooking oil and poured it in his ear. He was in agony for days before he died. Sabena sobbed while she told how she stole cattle to feed her family.

Maria was told by the elders to “suffer in silence” when her husband beat her up and cut her with razor blades. Provoked beyond endurance she hit him on the head with a pole and he died. She was sent to Chikurubi where the guards kept calling her “murderer”. Rhoda became “mad with anger” when a woman in her village dug up the remains of her son who had died some days before and used his body parts to bewitch others. She killed two people and injured two others. At the time of the interview she had served 18 years in Chikurubi.

The stories cascade through the book leaving you feeling helpless and sad. But you also notice the steel in these women.

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They do not give up. They record how they are treated but they do not show bitterness. In one sense prison works because most of them come out determined never to commit crime again.

Many of them go through a conversion of life. They become wiser people. Some put it down to a new found faith. And there are some ‘good endings’ to the stories. Monica, whose in laws had destroyed her marriage and led her eventually into theft, was dreading the reception she would get when she was released but “my cousin ran towards me with outstretched arms and hugged me.” This is rare in the book. Too often relatives shun the family member returning. Monica is the one who “felt better” after telling her story, “the lump has lifted.”

One woman found life in prison “terrible” and she probably speaks for them all. There were guards who beat them on the soles of their feet and using abusive cruel language. Their sanitary needs were often ignored and food was often carelessly prepared. But the loneliness and sense of separation from their children was the hardest to bear. Jane wrote, “sometimes I failed to write a letter to my children because I soaked the writing sheets with tears.” And it is Jane who wrote these even more painful words when she came out, “My family is always scolding my children, and always reminding them that I went to prison.” And Fortunate says that, after her release, her husband introduced her to people as, “this woman here: she looks like a decent woman but she stole money and went to prison.”

Fortunate felt that “in Zimbabwe prisons are only concerned with inflicting physical pain. The real person, the inner person is

left untouched and unchanged.”

The prison authorities would probably argue that they cannot hope to reach out individually to the 40,000 in Zimbabwe’s prisons but it remains true that this collection gives a bleak picture of rehabilitation in the country. The result is often a high rate of recidivism. Monica said “one young girl was released from jail on the 17th January and was back on the 27th.”

But this book is more than a catalogue of tragedy. It poses some hard questions and sets out some practical steps that could be taken to respond to the crisis.

The government may plead a lack of resources but it continues to spend money on dealing with crimes committed and not with crime prevention. Would it be so difficult to include civic education in school syllabi?

Children, especially girls, could learn their rights and duties in society. So many women in these pages go into crime ‘innocently’, that is, seeing it as a simple way of helping their family without really hurting anyone else. Police officers are taught to deal with crime but not to educate the public to avoid crime. Magistrate Ollyn Nzuma gives an almost amusing account of how people, mainly men, never get round to admitting their responsibility.

In a case of rape a man says it happened when he saw a women by the river; ‘it is this woman who is wrong because she was naked and bathing.’ Eventually he might say, ‘I did it but it was not really my fault.’ People lie easily and all the time.

And why are people so cruel in loading children with their parents’ crimes? Peter Mandiyanike, who eventually set up Prison Fellowship after his own time in prison, says,

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BOOK REVIEW

Women incarcerated at Chikurubi

‘my children suffered when I was in prison. They will never, never forget it. Everyone pointed a finger at them, laughing and mocking them.’ This too calls for civic education.

People are ignorant of legal process and have no idea of pleading genuine mitigating circumstances. One woman was so upset she let the deadline for lodging an appeal slip by and spent years in prison when there were clear grounds for mitigation. Magistrates need to be gender sensitive and know that if they are women they are likely to be lenient to woman as they can see the pressures the accused is under. Male magistrates on the other hand are likely to be hard on women as they, perhaps unconsciously, see the crime from a male perspective. The reverse can also be true, when a female magistrate judges a male accused and a male magistrate a male.

“Society does not expect a woman to go to prison,” says magistrate Ollyn Rudo Nzuma

in the most illuminating piece in this collection, and Julie Stewart tells us women make up just 3.5 per cent of the prison population in Zimbabwe. There are many cases in this book where the husband goes once or twice to visit his wife in prison and then backs off and often looks for another woman. Even the woman’s own family leave her alone without visiting. So a person who has been used to having family and her own children with her constantly is suddenly cut off and there are virtually no counselling services to help her.

Another issue that burns through these pages is the cultural one: traditional customary law aimed at compensation and healing in the community. The chief was more concerned with the survival of the group than the punishment of the individual. So compensation loomed large as a way of healing and reintegration of the offender into the group.

Our modern penal system pays little attention to compensation and it forcibly removes the

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offender from society – and in the case of women – from their own children. Fainos Mangena, in a recent study of retributive punishment in Zimbabwe, makes a strong case for moving away from retributive punishment, most starkly exercised in the death penalty, and regaining the traditional idea of collective responsibility. Ollyn Nzuma says we need a complete overhaul of our judicial system.

Of the 33 women whose stories appear here I cannot remember any who could be described as middle class. It is the poor who suffer the most from our penal system. They do not know their rights and they cannot afford defence lawyers.

These pages cry out to us to wake up to the society we have created. It is not a fair one nor is it compassionate. We have many caring and compassionate magistrates and prison guards in our country, but they are not enough to tip the balance towards a change of heart in the structures and procedures which weigh so heavily on the poorest

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BOOK REVIEW

Fresh Account of Sacred Heart Devotion and Its Meaning Today Reviewed by Fr Walters he last substantive book published on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus appeared in 1992. Written by Timothy T. O’Donnell, Heart of the Redeem-er (San Francisco: Ignatius Press) was a worthy treatment of the theology and history of devotion to the Heart of Christ. It gave us in contemporary form much of the knowledge and inspiration of the well-known classics, such as Bainvel, Croiset, Ramiere and Stierli.

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Now we are fortunate in welcoming a bright new treatment of this devotion: Rediscovering Devo-tion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: A Heart on Fire (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2012)

by Father James Kubicki, S.J. It is an attractive and easy-to-read explanation of this devotion and its value in our current day. Persons without previous knowledge of this devotion or its meaning in our lives will find Fr. Kubicki’s explanation thoroughly understandable and will wonder why a devotion so well grounded in New Testament spirituality is not more widely known and practiced in the Church to-day.

Father Kubicki decries the notion that devotion to the Sacred Heart is old-fashioned, sentimental, or effeminate. On the contrary, the heart is a strong, universal symbol of true love, the kind of love for which people everywhere are searching. Only when our 28

relation to Christ is “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17), will we come to know God deeply and intimately. And only then will we truly come to know ourselves.

con-template Jesus on the pages of the New Testament, where saints such as Ignatius and Teresa of Avila formed their loving attachment to Jesus Christ.

otion The author traces devotion rt back to to the Sacred Heart the experience the apostles h New he had of Christ in the act, he Testament. (In fact, goes back well be-fore that and tells of God’s an in great love for man uries the long centuries he before Christ, forr the Scriptures are fulll of such revelation.) The ion supreme expression of this love is in the he Eucharist and in Christ’s sacrificee of himself on Calvary, which we commemorate each day in the Holy Mass. The author reviews attributes of the Heart of Christ recalled lled in the Litany of the Sacred Heart, which draws extensively on T h r o u g h o u t t h e b o o k , biblical references.

Fr. Kubicki shows us how various practices and devotions From there, Fr. Kubicki reminds contribute to expressing our firm us of how St. Paul and St. John and loving attachment to Christ, reveal more and more fully and how we convert this to the God’s love for us expressed in healing of people’s pain, the the Heart of Christ. He then tells expression of joyous attachment how devotion to the Sacred Heart to Christ, and the sanctification developed over the centuries, of many lives. This is truly an until it culminated in Christ’s exceptional book to help us revelations to St. Margaret Mary. see the value of devotion to the He bids us enter more and more Sacred Heart in our day. deeply into this devotion as we

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