Mukai: Vukani No. 73 December 2017

No.73

MUKAI-VUKANI Magazine for Jesuits and Friends

www.jesuitszimbabwe.co.zw

Where the Spirit Leads - the Ignatian journey

Time

is greater than Space

Charity, Justice and Silence

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Women Deacons and Much More

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Editorial

The Power of Self-Emptying Love This Issue of Mukai/Vukani meets the unravelling of a political drama in Zimbabwe’s political scene. While such is not unfamiliar in the wheel of fortune that is Zimbabwean politics, this time around the chickens seem to have come home to roost indeed. Karma never losses an address it would seem.

The narcotic struggle for power and control is the mark of Zimbabwean politics. Were this struggle for power motivated by the genuine need to serve people and help the country prosper, it would be laudable, for that ought to the purpose of politics. But alas!

Fr Anold Moyo SJ

“If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself”, shouted the crowd at a Jesus hanging on the cross. These words betray our worldly understanding of power: power as something I should wield for the realization of my own self-interests. The crowd below the cross could not fathom the incongruity of Jesus’ claim that he is King, yet one hanging on a cross. To the crowd, a king ought to be majestic, powerful, rich and feared by all. How can he, an ordinary man from Nazareth, hanging on the cross, weak and about to die, claim to be God and King? A sacred jest it was.

Yet on that cross hangs a profound statement about the legitimate use of power. Power, and in particular power conferred to persons by citizens, ought to be used to save (and serve) others, not oneself. In Jesus, power, love and service coincide. One who is legitimately powerful ought to empty himself out, so that the people whose care he has been entrusted with can be filled. Christ exercises his power by emptying himself, not by selfaggrandizement. He calls us all to understand power (and politics) in this deeper sense.

This is the truth that the Church ought to proclaim unceasingly. In our politically broken Zimbabwean society, we should pummel this gong zealously until the ears of all hurt; otherwise we are going nowhere as a nation.

Many of the articles in this Issue focus on the subject of social justice from various angles, including justice within the Church itself, in its ecclesiology and pastoral practice. Some are reflections on spirituality and others on education and leadership, thus providing a pleasant assortment for our mental and spiritual nourishment. We are grateful to the contributors for their insightful articles, may their generosity abound. Happy reading!

Vision Statement

Mukai- Vukani (“Rise”) magazine for the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe-Mocambique serves as a magazine for theological reflection among Jesuits in the Province 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? Facilitating dialogue among Jesuits and their friends based on study, prayer and discernment.

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inside this Edition 3

Editorial The Power of Self-Emptying Love

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A moment of introspection

Christabel Shava

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Time is greater than space

Fr Stephen Buckland SJ

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Women deacons

Sr Margaret Mclaughlin MM

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Where the spirit leads

Amanda Mardon

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Ignatian leadership

Colbert Mpofu

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Entrepreneurship

Clive Pawakwenyiwa

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Democracy to participation

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

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Catholic social teaching and participation Adio-Adia Dinika

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Redemptive violence

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

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Charity, justice, silence

Tawanda Chamba SJ

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Coltart book review

Fr David Harold-Barry SJ

Jesuit Magazine for Zimbabwe-Mocambique Province

No.73 December 2017 Publisher Jesuit Communications (JesCom) Editorial Team: Fr Anold Moyo SJ Kudakwashe Matambo Layout and Design Frashishiko Chikosi, Margaret Mikiri Distribution and Advertising Frashishiko Chikosi Readers may contribute/ Donate to the production costs by ecocash or bank transfers NMB Bank Acc No: 00260139932 Borrowdale Branch Articles with full names of their authors do not necessarily reflect the opion of the editorial board.

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Canisius House, 37 Admiral Tait Rd, Marlborough, Harare (+263) 4 309623 (+263) 778 642 548 jescomzim@gmail.com jescom@jesuitszimbabwe.co.zw www.jesuitszimbabwe.co.zw Social Networks

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Jesuit Communications

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A Moment of Introspection Christabel Shava Nobody ever wakes up thinking that the world as they know it will change.

That the friendly newspaper guy from the corner will no-longer be there to give a warm wave as you drive past every morning, that you will one-day battle to reconcile yourself with the fact that you could not be bothered to pick up the phone just to say “hi”. How is it that we have illusions about our own mortality and those around us? We speak of tomorrow as if it is a given, an entitlement even. We all postpone that Press Pause, Let go and live

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visit to Grandma’s house because Grandma will live forever right? We have all had that talk or attended a funeral where we remind each other to appreciate life and those in it a little more; such talks are usually sparked by the sudden or unexpected departure of a loved one. True to our nature we heal, find a way to move on BUT we forget. Not that we banish the memories of our loved ones but we forget the fundamental LESSON..we are dust and to dust we shall return.

Morbid I know, but I often think of that last moment when my turn comes, will I feel I did enough? Will I look back on a lifetime of rich memories or will I lie in that private hospital bed surrounded by all the luxuries that money can buy but with nobody to hold my frail hand? Or like a thief in the night will the grim reaper sneak up on me in the dead of night affording me no chance to reminisce or reconcile myself with my departure? I’m not the overly-sentimental type, I can’t afford to be.

I’ve spent too much time in court rooms not to realise that the world is a cruel place. Just turn on the morning news, how does one plan for months on end that they will randomly open fire on a crowd of unsuspecting fellow human beings? I have so many unanswered questions.

Rich, poor, young, old, white, black, trump orange, we are all united by the same beating hearts that pump our life blood, we all breathe the same air, we all have dreams, we all want to establish our relevance in a world that has gone bonkers. We pre-occupy ourselves with trivialities; because if you don’t have the right type of skin tone, the right type of crop-top wearing body or the right grade of Peruvian, Brazilian, Mongolian, or Indian hair (we will clearly never run out of nationalities to borrow our hair from); then there is no point in LIVING. We inadvertently neglect to press pause and just BREATHE. We fail to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. Amidst all the chaos there is some good. Like that image of a flower blooming from a rock in the most forlorn of terrains; that random smile from a stranger, the 6

An unexaminied life is not worth living

To serve him is to serve the body, - Socrates spirit and soul, for it is in his flawless image that we were all created. Like flowers in a field, let us all provide nourishment for each other so we can all bloom before the inevitable withering. What good is a beautiful eulogy if we did nothing during one’s lifetime?

Remember, we are nothing but dust, and to dust we shall all return.

Christabel Shava is a Corporate Counsel with Manokore Attorneys Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

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“Time is greater than space” Fr Stephen Buckland, SJ Think of the pictures we keep to remind us of our families and friends, or major events in our lives. A photograph is a single frozen instant of time; what you see is what the camera ‘saw’ in the fraction of a second when its shutter was open.

The picture, when you print it, is like an instant of ‘moving’ time transformed into a static, physical object. A video clip, however, does something more, something almost magical. It lets us see movement and change, and even hear speech. In a video, we see not only how the person looked at one instant of time, but how they walked or ran, smiled or frowned, laughed or talked through or across time.

This analogy can help us understand Pope Francis’s favourite idea: “Time is greater than space”. The still photograph exists in the dimensions of space.

Its image reproduces spatial relationships between, say, the parts of a person’s face: eyes, ears, nose, mouth. It is the arrangement of these within the twodimensional space of the picture that lets us see it as a picture of that person. The video clip does that too, but it adds another dimension, the dimension of time. In it we see not just likeness but movement and change over time. That’s important because the most fundamental thing about us, surely, is that we are alive: we move and change. And not just us: everything, the whole world, all of reality is undergoing constant change – even the rocks beneath our feet, albeit invisibly slowly.

Chemical composition, even molecular, atomic and sub-atomic structures – they’re all changing. A deeper understanding of ourselves and our world requires, therefore, the dimension of time. That is certainly how Pope Francis sees it. Time is, as he would say, “greater” than space.

This insistence on the priority of time over space gives Pope Francis a unifying theme not just for his vision of human nature, the world and the environment, but also the Gospel of Jesus and the work of the Church, with its teachings about sexuality, children and families. “Everything,” as he would say, “is connected.” The phrase “time is greater than space” appears both in his two encyclical letters, Lumen Fidei (see #57) and Laudato Si’ (see #178), and his two apostolic exhortations, Evangelii Gaudium (see #222-3) and Amoris Lætitia (see Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

#3, #261). Let’s see how he makes it work.

In Lumen Fidei (2013), Pope Francis characterises faith like this: “Faith opens the way before us and accompanies our steps through time” (#8). Faith is dynamic: the dominant image in this encyclical is a journey towards an open and in many ways unknown future: faith is fundamentally about movement through time. It’s a path, yes, but through time rather than space, and believers are always on the move, never (in this life) quite there. Its opposite, Pope Francis says, is not unbelief or atheism but “idolatry” (#13), which is really a refusal to move, a determination to stay in the same place. At Sinai, the people of Israel “cannot bear the mystery of God’s hiddenness; they cannot endure the time of waiting to see his face”, and so they create their “golden calf” and worship it. “In place of faith in God, it seems better to worship an idol… Before an idol there is no risk that we will be called to abandon our security…. Idols exist, we begin to see, as a pretext for setting ourselves at the centre of reality…

Idolatry does not offer a journey but rather a plethora of paths leading nowhere…” (#13). Idolatry traps us in space: it is the choice to exist in space rather than journey in time. Idolatry’s when we surrender hope and turn to easy answers and slick solutions which “block our progress, ‘fragmenting’ time and changing it into space. Time is always much greater than space. Space hardens processes, whereas time propels toward the future and encourages us to go forward in hope” (#57). We must keep on the move.

In Evangelii Gaudium (2013), Pope Francis describes his dream for the Church “of a ‘missionary option’, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation” (#27). In Chapter Four, Pope Francis offers “four specific principles which can guide the development of life in society and the building of a people where differences are harmonized within a shared pursuit” (#221). “Broadly speaking,” he writes, “’time’ has to do with fullness as an expression of the horizon which constantly opens before us” (#222). Each 8

individual moment, considered in itself, is enclosed by limits, static and spatial like a video in ‘freeze frame’. Time, however, moves towards an open future. We live “poised between each individual moment and the greater, brighter horizon of the utopian future as the final cause which draws us to itself. Here we see a first principle for progress in building a people: time is greater than space” (#222).

Prioritizing space leads to insane and frenetic attempts “to keep everything together in the present, trying to possess all the spaces of power and of self-assertion”; processes are “crystallized”. “Giving priority to time [on the other hand] means being concerned about initiating processes rather than possessing spaces” (#223). Time links together individual instants like the individual frames in a video to form “a constantly expanding chain”: what we need, then, is “to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society and engage other persons and groups who can develop them to the point where they bear fruit in significant historical events” (#223).

In Chapter Five of Laudato Si’ (2015), Pope Francis offers “some broader proposals for dialogue and action” on issues of environmental policy (#15), and he points to processes not just at a geopolitical or international level, but rather at more local levels: nations, regions, local communities. Even national politics are too easily dominated by concern for immediate results and driven by electoral interests demanding short-term growth. “Thus we forget that ‘time is greater than space’, that we are always more effective when we generate processes rather than holding on to positions of power” because small-scale processes are more easily focused on “the long-term common good” (#178).

he writes, “revealed the need for continued open discussion of a number of doctrinal, moral, spiritual and pastoral questions. The thinking of pastors and theologians, if faithful to the Church, honest, realistic and creative, will help us to achieve greater clarity” (#2). Clearly, he wishes to avoid, on one side, rash changes with insufficient reflection as well as, on the other, any idea that everything can be solved “by applying general rules or deriving undue conclusions from particular theological considerations” (#2).

In his most controversial letter so far, Francis insists on trusting the process, difficult and lengthy though it be, and resists what he sees as the temptation to abandon hope in the long-term common good by leaping to short-term or static solutions. “It is more important,” he writes, “to start processes than to dominate spaces” (#261).

Since “time is greater than space”, I would make it clear that not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it. This will always be the case as the Spirit guides us towards the entire truth (cf. Jn 16:13), until he leads us fully into the mystery of Christ and enables us to see all things as he does.

Words like these will be heard by some as those of a pastor or a preacher speaking with refreshing openness, the voice of the Spirit of mercy. Others, no doubt, will hear indecisiveness or even avoidance, reluctance to issue clear guidance on the most fundamental moral problems of our day. Either way, this principle is the key to Amoris Lætitia It is, however, in Pope Francis’s most recent and particularly to its Chapter Eight, which is exhortation, Amoris Lætitia (2016), that this principle arguably the most personally revealing passage in meets its most demanding test: here the rubber, any of his encyclicals and apostolic exhortations. as they say, really hits the road. Unlike the others, Amoris Lætitia follows two Extraordinary Synods of Bishops on the family convoked by Pope Francis in 2014 and 2015. Synods don’t make decisions; they are meant to guide the Pope’s post-synodal exhortation. This document was, no doubt, extremely difficult to write: the issues are highly sensitive and many expectations within the Church, whether for change or for the status quo, were bound to be Stephen Buckland SJ is a lecturer at Arrupe disappointed. Once again, Pope Francis focuses on College Jesuit School of Philosophy and Humanities processes rather than ‘solutions’, time rather than in Harare space. “The complexity of the issues that arose,” Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

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Leadership Roles for Women in the CHURCH

- The Diaconate and Much More Sr Janice Mclaughlin, MM After Independence, many women war veterans joined the national army of the new Zimbabwe.

When I saw some of them a few months after their induction into the defence forces, they complained, “making tea and washing dishes – same old, same old. That’s all they want us to do”.

Having risked their lives for their country and served equally with men in the struggle, often in senior positions, women had expected much more.

Women in the Church have a similar experience.

Although they make up the majority of most congregations worldwide and perform many duties to keep the Church alive, women are often relegated to domestic chores – cleaning the church and arranging the flowers on the altar. Even when they help to administer the parish, they seldom receive recognition or participate in decisionmaking. They expect, and deserve, much more.

in leadership positions in the Church but had done little

to implement this desire until 2016. In response to a question by Sister Carmen Sammut, President of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), a body that represents leaders of congregations of women religious from around the world, Pope Francis said that he would establish a commission to study the question of ordaining women deacons in the Roman Catholic Church. That commission was formally announced in August 2016 and began its work in November of that year.

The establishment of the Commission on the Women Diaconate has raised the hopes of women who are eager to serve the Church in more meaningful ways.

History reveals that women were very influential in the early days of Christianity. As the Church drew closer to the State under the Emperor Constantine, the cultural barriers restricting women in society also began to creep into the Church. This article cannot begin to do justice to the complex history of women’s role in the With the election of a new pope in 2013, women Church but will touch on some of the pivotal moments. had high hopes that this would begin to change and that the Church would recognize and make use of Women in the Ministry of Jesus their expertise and ability. Since his election, Pope Francis has spoken often of the need to have women Jesus, we know, had women followers as well as men

“We need a new image of what the Church is supposed to be - namely a world Church led by men and women from all cultures working together”, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich

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and treated women as equal partners in his ministry.

His friendship with the sisters Martha and Mary is well known. Many women followed Jesus, participated in his ministry and supported it financially. Some of them are mentioned in the Gospels of Luke and Mark (Luke 8:13; Mark 15:40), including Mary Magdalene, Salome, Joanna, Susanna and Mary, mother of James and John.

stereotypical cultural and religious expectations than to the original and radically subversive good news.”

Women in the Ministry of St. Paul

It is an unfortunate fact that many people mistakenly believe St. Paul was anti-woman. Yet Paul worked closely with women leaders such Women were with Jesus at the hour of his death, present as Phoebe, Junia, Lydia, Eudia, Syntyche and at the foot of the cross. As theologian Anne Clifford Prisca, who with her husband Aquila, he called his notes: “The partnership of the women is not limited to “co-worker in Christ Jesus” (Romans 16: 1-15). providing financial support. The story of Jesus’ passion makes it clear that the support of women was embodied Nor was the female presence in the sphere of the in a deeper fidelity. In contrast to their male counterparts, primitive Church in any way secondary. It is to the women do not desert Jesus at the time of his arrest, St Paul that we are indebted for a more ample nor do they betray him and deny their discipleship. documentation on the dignity and ecclesial role of All four Gospels note the presence of women near the women. He begins with the fundamental principle cross as Jesus dies (Matt. 27:55; Mark 15:40; Luke according to which for the baptized, “there is 23:49; John 19:25). Through their fidelity the women neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor define discipleship for Christianity, even though none free, there is neither male nor female; for you are of the Gospels explicitly applies the term to them.” all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3: 28). The Apostle accepts as normal the fact that a woman can The first appearance of Jesus after the resurrection was “prophesy” in the Christian community (I Cor to women. In all four Gospels women go to the tomb of 11:5), that is, speak openly under the influence of Jesus to minister to his body and are the first to find the the Spirit, as long as it is for the edification of the tomb empty. In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene community and done in a dignified manner. In short, comes alone to the tomb and is the first to see the risen Paul recognized and accepted the contribution Christ. He gives her a directive to tell the other disciples of women in the development of the Church. the good news of his resurrection (John 20:1-18), making her an apostle to the apostles. It is also recorded that Historical Evidence of the Role of Women in the Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other Early Church women were present in the upper room at Pentecost, receiving the gifts of the Spirit with the other disciples. The word deacon means a servant or helper.

Paul’s first Epistle to Timothy (3:8-13) lists the The story of the woman at the well and the woman qualifications that are required for a person to caught in adultery are examples of how Jesus treated be selected as a deacon, whether this person was women with respect. He was counter-cultural in male or female. Until the 4th century, the rite many ways; so much so that we are told that his for the ordination of deacons was a sacrament. disciples “were astonished” when they found him conversing not only with a woman but to a Samaritan Thanks to the painstaking work of several woman who had several husbands (John 4:27). contemporary scholars, we now have compelling evidence that women held leadership and ministerial Although the evangelists mention the names of a few roles in the early Church similar to those held by men, of the women who were followers of Jesus, they tell including that of deacon. Inscriptions and images us that there were “many others” without naming found on papyri, tombstones, frescos and mosaics them or saying more about them. As Church historian show early Christian women served as apostles, Mary Malone notes, “How hard it is to break through prophets, teachers of theology, priests, deacons, centuries of conditioning about the proper role of stewards, enrolled widows and even bishops. women, even when the evidence is before our eyes in the text, that Jesus made no distinction between his Scholar Ute Eisen, for instance, has done extensive female and male disciples.” She goes on to state, “The research on women office-holders from the ancient traditional telling of the women stories owed more to Church to the Middle Ages. Her book, Women Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

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Office holders in Early Christianity (Liturgical Press, 2000), is an exhaustive study of the literary and epigraphical evidence for women officeholders in the past and shows that women led and served Christian communities in Asia Minor, Greece, Spain, Egypt, Sicily, Italy, Palestine and Yugoslavia.

Her work and many other historical studies have revealed the names of various women who served as deacons in the early Church :

Phoebe was a leader of the Church at Cenchrae and probably carried Paul’s letter to the Romans (Romans 16:2).

St. Macrina was the leader of the women’s monastic community at Annisa and was renowned among the laity and clergy alike as a teacher of Ages who were abbesses of monasteries continued the Word and defender of Christian doctrine. to perform the role of deacon. Quoting a study by Joan Morris, she says that some of the abbesses were

St. Olympias was a fourth century deacon and very powerful and held a quasi-episcopal role. For a friend and patron of St. John Chrysostom. As Bishop instance, Abbess Ebba of Coldingham and Abbess of Constantinople, John put her in charge of all the Etheldreda of Ely “were called Sacerdos Maximus, a deacons assigned to the great Basilica of Hagia Sophia clearly episcopal designation. Such women are shown . wearing mitre and ring and using the episcopal crozier

Dionysia was a fourth century wife and as of right.” Both of these monasteries flourished for mother who overcame several crises and was ordained several centuries until destroyed by the Vikings in 866. deacon of the cathedral at Melitene, Armenia.

The role of deaconess declined in the Western Church

St. Radegund was a sixth century in the 12th century when the separate ministry of queen and deacon who founded a monastery at deacons became a preliminary step to ordination to Poitiers where she served as the spiritual guide. the priesthood. At the same time, the role of the priest became more clerical and the training more removed Mary T. Malone provides evidence that women from the daily life of the communities that they would were ordained as deaconesses in the third century. eventually serve. The Eastern Churches have retained the She points out that a document known as Didascalia office of deaconess, however, as have many Protestant Apostolorum spells out the position of the women churches, in particular the Anglican and Methodist. deaconess and the rite of ordination. In the fourth century, a revision of the Didascalia begins to Second Vatican Council limit the role of the deaconess although she is still considered to be a member of the clergy. Malone The Second Vatican Council restored the office of says that from the time of the Council of Nicea in the permanent deaconate for men. It recognized 325, there is a marked change in the attitude towards “there are men who actually carry out the functions the deaconess who is no longer considered to have of the deacon’s office” and thus “it is only right been ordained and whose ministry is now to be to strengthen them by the imposition of hands.” largely confined to women. “The Council insisted Calling the diaconate a “ministry of service”, the that women were no longer to receive any imposition document lists the duties of the deacon as follows: of hands from the bishop, and were henceforth to be numbered among the laity, not the clergy.” “It is the duty of the deacon…to administer baptism This is a clear indication that prior to this time, solemnly, to be custodian and dispenser of the women were indeed numbered among the clergy. Eucharist, to assist at and bless marriages in the Malone points out that women in the Middle name of the Church, to bring Viaticum to the dying, Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

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to read the sacred Scripture to the faithful, to instruct and exhort the people, to preside at the worship and prayer of the faithful, to administer sacramentals, and to officiate at funeral and burial services.”

Today the same is true of many women who lead parishes and serve as catechists and chaplains and in other ministries. In light of mission opportunities and pastoral needs in the Church throughout the world, a movement is growing to empower local churches to call forth women for the ordained diaconia of “liturgy, word and charity”.

The role of deacon, however, is only one form of leadership within the Church that would enhance the position of women. In recent months, several prominent Catholic cardinals have spoken openly about other possibilities.

New Swedish Cardinal Suggests College of Women Swedish Cardinal Anders Arborelius has suggested that the Pope consider creating a special advisory body of women akin to the College of Cardinals to offer more opportunity for women’s leadership in the Church.

The Stockholm Cardinal, whom Francis made Sweden’s first cardinal in a consistory on June 28, stated: “It’s very important to find a broader way of involving women at various levels in the church.”

“The role of women is very, very important in society, in economics, but in the Church sometimes we are a bit behind,” Arborelius said in an interview to the National Catholic Reporter on June 28, 2017.

The new cardinal mentioned that Pope John Paul II had often sought counsel from Mother Teresa and Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement.

“Maybe it could be made more official,” he suggested, adding: “We have a College of Cardinals, but we could have a college of women who could give advice to the pope.”

Cardinal Reinhard Marx Calls for More Women at the Top Another cardinal who is one of Pope Francis’ top advisors has called on the Western Church to admit a greater percentage of women to its upper echelons.

Cardinal member made the program

Reinhard Marx of Munich, who is a of the Pope’s Council of Cardinals, appeal on June 22, 2017 at a mentoring for women in his archdiocese.

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“We would be mad not to use women’s talents.

In fact, it would be downright foolish,” he told participants at the gathering, which was sponsored by Hildegardis Association. The Catholic group was founded in 1907 to prepare women for academic positions in the Church.

“We need a new image of what the Church is supposed to be – namely a world Church led by men and women from all cultures working together”, said the Cardinal, who is also chairman of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy. “The fact that only men could be ordained in the Church was ‘not helping the Church to come across as a pioneer of equal rights,’ the Cardinal is reported to have said. He added that “women should still push for important and influential roles.”

Next Steps The question of the role of women in the Catholic Church will not go away. As women gain leadership positions in business, government, science, medicine, education, law, the media and other fields, the Church appears more and more out of step with the trend of accepting women as equal partners in all spheres of life. In Zimbabwe, as elsewhere, women are very active in the Church but are still excluded from many roles that are reserved for men. Like the former freedom fighters in the national army, women are getting tired of being kept in the kitchen. They deserve much more.

The appointment of the Papal Commission on the Women Diaconate offers a golden opportunity to open up discussion on the role of women in the Church. How can women’s voices be heard? What difference would women deacons make? What other ways can women’s talents and expertise be utilized within the Christian community? Such questions and many others can be the subject of study and dialogue in parishes, seminaries and convents. Why not start our own homegrown “Deacon Chat” in Zimbabwe?

Sr Janice MclaughlinMM is the Communication Officer of AFCAST, Harare based at Arrupe College

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Where the Spirit Leads - My Ignatian Journey Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step”. And so, my Ignatian journey started. Sitting in Mass one day, an announcement was made about a course that would start two weeks later. Always being eager to learn new things, I made sure I signed up a couple of days later.

There is definitely something mystical about Ignatian Spirituality in that it not only teaches a different way of living but it is something that one looks forward to encountering God on a daily basis.

The course was spread over a period of 9 months, of which, when the final lesson came to an end, the whole class was in no hurry to leave the classroom. Fr von Nidda, who led the class, is a man so deeply spiritual, anyone in his class would definitely want to seek his directorship.

Ignatian spirituality, from my understanding, is how we see God, how we relate to God and how we respond to God. This is on a daily basis, hence it being a part of our daily lives. My mind and heart have been opened to so much more in my Catholic faith and I have a hunger to go deeper in living the Ignatian way.

I believe it is not an easy or overnight conversion and every day is a new lesson for me. Some days I can feel extremely close to God, but in others, I can feel helter-skelter. The best part for me knows that even

Amanda Mardon

though I may be confused and all over the place, my calm and stillness is and can only be found in Him. As a woman, there are many times that “the world” is against me but that is a good thing in its own way.

It gives me the chance to find myself and rediscover the promise of God’s love and protection. Ignatian spirituality is a perfect way of not letting the world get us down. There is so much to focus on with regard to our relationship with Our Father that there is little time to concentrate on why some things may happen “because I am woman”. Before I am woman, I am God’s beautiful creation. Once women understand the depth within that, it would be as though our eyes are opened to a newness of life. And once our eyes have been opened to this newness, our hearts and minds will follow suit. Choices and decisions made before this journey will have been made rashly but now they will allow one to take a step back and reflect before deciding.

There is no simple guideline to spirituality as it is, in a great way, an individual walk between you and God. No two people can feel or have the same experiences though similarities may occur because “your biggest life teacher is your present experience”.

I am glad I was introduced to Ignatian Spirituality and I look forward to where the Spirit will lead me.

Amanda Mardon is one of the coordinators of Magis Zimbabwe Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

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Ignatian Leadership and its Role in Animating the Life of Christ in the Teaching and Learning Performance of a Jesuit School Colbert Mpofu This series of articles explores the interplay between Leadership, Teaching and Learning and specifically highlights accompaniment as a Leadership function and Ignatian Leadership as a critical element of Ignatian Pedagogy for the successful attainment of the desired outcomes of Jesuit Education.

Summary Leadership and Accompaniment: The Jesuit way of proceeding for an Ignatian teaching and learning environment: A discussion of Ignatian Leadership and Accompaniment as basic Ignatian strategies for enlivening the Ignatian approach to teaching and learning in Jesuit Schools.

Leadership and Accompaniment: The Jesuit Way of Proceeding for an Ignatian Teaching and Learning Environment.

Vatican II on Education and Leadership In his declaration on Christian Education ‘Gravissimum Educationis’ , His Holiness Pope Paul VI gives us counsel on how we should use education to animate the leadership nature of a Christ-filled life amongst learners. By developing leadership qualities among them, children in turn open their eyes to the heavenly instruction for service and leadership as mandated by our Lord Jesus Christ. Teaching also becomes a leadership function where the teacher leads learners towards the realisation of their leadership commission. This encyclical further rationalises the leadership functions of parents, the Church and Catholic schools in revitalizing the experience of God’s love and those social virtues that are necessary for a more humane world.

This Vatican II document elucidates leadership as a way of accompanying the young towards their divine obligations. Since Vatican II, Catholic Education has understood education as the faithful leadership of learners towards the complete formation of their intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual, social and other endowments. This leadership is in this case interchanged with accompaniment, with the express objective of Catholic faith formation, so that the young may live and share with the human society a life imbued with the spirit of Christ. In many cases, Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

reference is therefore made to Catholic Education as ‘Holistic’, to indicate the leadership quality that not only touches the cognitive and academic, but extends to the formation of learners in the various human domains for the complete animation God’s love in this world.

Ignatian Pedagogy and Leadership The Ignatian method of teaching and learning (often referred to as Ignatian Pedagogy) is by nature a leadership paradigm as it is a way of accompanying the young towards their ability to search for the will of God in their lives. The Ignatian teacher’s role of accompanying the learner finds inspiration from the history and experience of St Ignatius of Loyola who accompanied young university students who desired to join the early group as his companions. During this period of accompaniment, those young university students experienced Ignatius’s developed criteria for the selection of candidates for the Spiritual Exercises, as only those who were ready and prepared with a character that would only bear fruit for the Glory of God could partake in the Spiritual Exercises.

Prior to that, Ignatius of Loyola had received a carefully designed gentlemanly formation by his older relatives (Orden de la Banda or Order of the Band) who, in the spirit of leadership, desired to develop youths 15

with the preferred behaviours and temperaments for Knighthood in Loyola. These early experiences of formation and scholarship have become a strong feature of Ignatian Pedagogy, particularly as the Ignatian way of teaching and learning does not detach leadership from accompaniment and learning. The interrelatedness of leadership accompaniment and learning then describes the criteria and detail of the Ignatian learning space and experience.

Igniting Personal Leadership for Teaching and Learning In the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius acknowledges that every person has the capacity and potential to seek (lead themselves) and find the will of God in their life. This is not a mere statement but a call for us to direct ourselves (personal leadership) towards an active experience of faith. Quite often, we need others to lead us with authority and conviction towards the realisation of our capacities. Those leading us are often those ‘older relatives’ - those of us who are experienced in the journey and can with expert witness become our referential persons for our journey in faith and formation. However, without the personal desire to achieve a certain goal, those who are willing to lead us towards our goals become mere buddies in the journey. Igniting the desire to learn is a significant element in learner motivation philosophy of Jesuit Education. The learner’s desire to learn is realised through the learner’s personal leadership abilities. For this reason, Jesuit Education is burdened with intentional activities that ignite the learner’s desire to learn, and the teacher’s desire

to teach so that the commonly desired goal is realised by both the learner and the teacher.

‘Cura Personalis’ in Jesuit Education Accompaniment allows for the companions (the learner and the teacher) to share the experience of learning as they grow towards the learner’s desired learning outcome. Both the learner and the teacher develop a mutual trusting relationship that is characterised by regular episodes of clarifying, asking good questions, reflection and inquiry throughout this process. The teacher and the learner as companions experience those unique opportunities for their development as they honestly and genuinely inquire about knowledge together. Companionship as an element of Ignatian Spirituality defines the Ignatian nature of Jesuit Education as a formation process that is based on human relationships of care and concern for the other. To the teacher at a Jesuit school, a learner is an inquiring friend whose thirst for knowledge can only be satisfied by the teacher’s fulfilment of his / her leadership role of accompanying the learner towards the desired learning goal. Through this trusting teaching and learning relationship, the teacher and the learner ground their affiliation on the ‘subiecto’ – that ability to guide each other towards the attainment of God-given capacities and the will of God. .

Ignatian Pedagogy therefore emphasises those teaching and learning methodologies that ignite the learner’s deep desire to explore knowledge and fact as well as the teacher’s deep desire to

Students at a Prefects leadership workshop

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accompany the learner towards the desired learning outcome.

Ignatian Leadership and Ignatian Spirituality inform Jesuit Education with this exceptional attractiveness of human care and relational transactions between persons. Today, Jesuit Education continues to emphasise leadership and accompaniment as the rudiments of Ignatian teaching and learning methodology in a Jesuit school for the successful formation of the competent and compassionate person.

Where the learner is continuously invited towards personal, interpersonal and global leadership, they develop a purpose greater than self, that of serving God upon the realisation of their full capacities and purpose for their citizenship in this world.

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Colbert Mpofu is an educationist who has worked in Education as a Teacher, Head of schools, Education Development Worker, Education Consultant and Teacher Educator in the Public, Private, Independent and Faith Based Sectors of Education in Zimbabwe and elsewhere.

He is currently the Education Programmes Coordinator at the Education Office of the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe - Mozambique.

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Enterpreneurship,

A NEW OPPORTUNITY for the

Church - Clive Pawakwenyewa

Work should be the setting for this rich personal growth, where many aspects of life enter into play: creativity, planning for the future, developing our talents, living out our values, relating to others, giving glory to God.

(Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si], nos. 127-28)

This article is a reflection on three things: the Church and what it says about work and dignity, drawing especially from Catholic Social Teaching; how this relates to the common model of entrepreneurship in contemporary times, and lastly, what the Church can do to assist.

The dignity of work has long been one of the central themes of Catholic Social Teaching, an understanding of it being that the economy must serve people, not the other way around and that work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. These two ideas stress the importance of work not just as a way of earning sustenance but as a vocation, an invitation to use our talents and engage our faith in creating better livelihoods for everyone.

Pope Francis is his Laudato Si, puts it this way: Work should be the setting for this rich personal growth, where many aspects of life enter into play: creativity, planning for the future, developing our talents, living out our values, relating to others, giving glory to God. (Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si], nos.

127-28) Continuing with his encyclical,

this theme, the Pope, in Evangelii Gadium, states:

Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programs, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor, which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality.

What I take this to mean is that work should engage all our talents, and it is our duty as Catholics, where we can, to create these platforms and mechanisms, to create work, but not just any work, but that which creates a more economically just society. This is my main reasoning in arguing that creating work is a duty not only for the congregants, but also for the Church. Social teaching Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

invites us to step into the sphere of entrepreneurship as the main driver of employment creation in today’s world.

But what model is being encouraged by the Entrepreneurship bandwagon that is in vogue in today’s society? Does it conform to Catholic social teaching?

Here, I am going to talk about entrepreneurship especially as a policy. There is nothing wrong with individually deciding to become an entrepreneur just as you can decide to become an employee. But when we start speaking policy, there are more considerations than just preference and inclination. Effectiveness, accountability and evaluation issues become real questions, which is why you find that the entrepreneurship argument is largely packaged as the former ‘individual’ issue, when in actual fact it has become more or less the latter, policy.

Unfortunately I feel that ‘Entrepreneurship’ is being encouraged the world over by people who want to abdicate responsibility but appear to be doing their jobs. It is like the mathematics teacher telling the children to go and play outside while she sleeps…meanwhile, she expects them to come back and be excellent at algebra. I find myself asking, are we really creating a setting for rich personal growth or we are just ticking the boxes? Are we saying forget about creativity, developing our talents or giving glory to God? My parish Young Adults group organized a sit down with industry moguls and the corporate types and they were encouraging us to all be entrepreneurs. They made it sound like with enough work and sweat, we could jump to their side of the table. Not so much. How many of their friends were left back at the rural areas and never made it to town?

How many people did they leave at A level? How many did they graduate with who are living from hand to mouth? Our moguls are exceptions, and these are very few and far inbetween, so do not put them together and call them a rule, because they are not. Do not plan policy around them, they are a negligible minority. As Catholics, I think we are being invited to think of everyone, in the universal Church, not

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the few that have made it. While it is excellent that they have, let us make it possible for everyone to do likewise.

Leave school/university and start something. Sounds easy right? It is not. All the leading entrepreneurs in my country have worked for someone first. That is a rule for almost all entrepreneurs with no visible political ties. Trevor Ncube, owner of the Standard and The Independent worked for the Financial Gazette. Nigel Chanakira worked for the Central Bank and Bard Discount House. Makamba, one of the Telecel founders, worked in broadcasting so far back he joined the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation.

Philip Chiyangwa, Shingi Mutasa,Farai Rwodzi, Divivne Ndhukula, all worked for someone. Even Strive Masiyiwa worked for Zimbabwe Post and Telecommunications.

These people worked for someone, learnt the trade, got connections, raised a bit of money and struck out on their own. And then you tell me to find something to do with my hands, I might one day join this class. Mockery!

We are not serious about Entrepreneurship at a policy level. A competition here and there. A hub here and there, loads and loads of speeches about it and that is it.

If it works, great, we can take credit and if it does not?

Oh well, onto the next one. Once again, this standard falls short of what we as Catholics believe about work: The obligation to earn one’s bread by the sweat of one’s brow also presumes the right to do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain social peace. (St. John Paul II, The Hundredth Year [Centesimus Annus], no. 43)

that is seated right next to them every Sunday? Are we being charitable enough when we keep giving money out, which we can work for to get more, when we could give knowledge, support and guidance that costs us more time and trouble?

I think the time has come for each Catholic, Parish, Diocese to ask, “What are we doing to promote entrepreneurship and employment creation?”

We all need to start creating the NETWORKS and STRUCTURES that encourage and facilitate entrepreneurship and employment, especially the congregants. Here I will take a case study of my Parish, the Assumption of Our Lady. The fathers and mothers have engaged the Young Adults group and come forward to offer their assistance. Experts in soft skills training have come forward to offer services they charge for to the youth for free. Deportment, Report writing, Business Proposal writing, Financial skills, the list goes on. These are skills most needed by those who cannot afford them and thus here we answer the call. There is already a database of Youth Skills so that when the same business leaders and decision makers find opportunities, they can pass them on to us, the ones in most need of them. Already, mentorship has begun, to accompany us through the business process whether I am employed or self-employed. The Church community thus provides those ingredients to success because we have a chance to gain experience from the guidance of our elders.

This is just one example that can be followed, improved or replaced but the thought behind it should now take center stage. We can ensure economic justice and equitable income distribution by starting in our own house.

So all our economic policy must be geared towards this end. The question to the Catholic is thus, how are you aiding in this effort? Are you helping create the platform that allows the unemployed to go beyond welfare and reliance, into sustainable gainful employment?

It is important here to note that grants and one off lump sums will amount to nothing, much like we have proven with Church/charity handouts and government funds over and over again. Most of us will buy cars, marry, and go on holiday because the process is not designed well enough.

How many ‘entrepreneurs’ do we even need? How many can our market sustain? What are the areas most in need of these people? How do we roll out skills and material resources to them? How do we monitor and evaluate them?

This is a call to rethink and adequately plan the local entrepreneurship model. This is a call for the Church to take center stage in this process. All the business leaders, innovators, decision makers populate our pews every Sunday, so why is it that so many of young innovators and entrepreneurs are not getting the much needed knowledge Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

Clive Pawakwenyiwa is a Sociology graduate from the University of Zimbabwe who is now part of the Social Research and Analysis Department of Silveira House 19

From Democracy to Participation Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

The battle for the next national elections has already started.

Let us speak plainly: In the eyes of many of us, it is about power and the privileges that go with it.

Elections are merely meant to confirm the “status quo”.

You can change laws and constitutional provisions by voting in Parliament. You cannot change a mentality or the thinking in the heads of party people. Which is why leaders have a problem when they ought to step down.

Elections are the hallmark of democracy. In this country the parties moved from the battlefield to the Chamber of Parliament, from armed conflict back to the “round table” of negotiating in terms of “give and take”, hammering out a compromise with which all can live.

Democracy is non-violent. It has left violence behind. That at least is its purpose. Which is the reason why parties fighting violently as a shortcut to power have not yet absorbed the democratic spirit as a way of life and therefore also and especially as a way of doing politics and thus of dealing with the problem of power.

If the “round table” fails, war is the inevitable outcome. The complete breakdown of negotiations is an unmitigated disaster, for all parties. War is destructive. War as such never builds anything. It engenders in the (surviving) combatants a warrior mentality: “Power comes through the gun”. That is a poor preparation for democracy, it is not a soil on which this new plant can grow and flourish.

But there are non-democrats who use the mechanics of a democracy (parliament, elections etc) to achieve Zimbabwe power.

This in itself would be members of legitimate.

But they see it only as a parliament in a parliament first step to “absolute” power. The session “revolution” in their eyes has solved the problem of power once and for all.

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It is of course not a completely new invention or foreign import. People in the past have often solved conflicts, at least within their own environment, by sitting down and talking. Compromising is better than losing all by dying in battle. The glory of victory is only in the eyes of the survivors. The losers have no longer a voice.

And what is a real victory? The great delusion is that the destruction, even annihilation of the enemy will bring about happiness for oneself and for one’s country. Often this is preceded by denigration of the old foe, by destroying his good name and honour, even dehumanizing the enemies, after all ‘we are only stepping on cockroaches not human beings’ (that way the perpetrators justified the genocide in Rwanda).

Such a war is nothing new. It started at the beginning of humankind when they first took to splitting skulls. There

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is nothing revolutionary about this. A revolution should be a completely new beginning, and not a repetition of the same old stuff, i.e. violence and bloodletting.

The greatest change and complete transformation of human affairs, including of course politics, would be a turning from violence, which dominates world power relationships now, to complete non-violence then.

Turning to a truly democratic kind of government could be such a complete turning around from violence to non-violence. Theologians would call this an “eschatological” event which reaches its aim and completion only in the end time. It will be the completion of the coming of the Kingdom of God which was the main theme of Jesus’ proclamation of the Gospel. It is God’s work, not our human effort. We live in expectation and think, speak and act in anticipation of it. To act in contradiction of the Kingdom and wage bloody wars, for instance, is clearly absurd and without sense if we truly live towards the Kingdom.

The “just war” theory ( a purely defensive war supported

by Christians) is a problematic thing. A just (or better a “justified” war) may easily become a war of aggression and mostly does. Some Americans see themselves as the world’s policemen and as peacekeepers. A noble idea, but what is actually happening on the ground?

Can you promote democracy by supporting racist dictatorial regimes leading to totalitarianism which suppresses any idea of change and jails all men and women who think and act “outside the box”?

who are serious, should have an interest in this. Real conversion begins in the heart, in our thinking and in our relationships, which need healing. As long as we nurture feelings of hatred, we can still be seduced by warmongers.

Democracy is also about freedom. Democrats do not force the opponents. It is about risk-taking. You let the opponent be. You let him make his/her choice. Which of course limits your own choices. You do not tie him down on your path. You let him walk on his or her own. But then winning the election by all possible tricks, even false and fraudulent ones, gaining power by hook or by crook is not free; what you want is good government: let all men and women partake in achieving the common good, hoping for the rule of law to be observed. That means you do not sacrifice respect, justice, even goodness and kindness for the enjoyment of absolute, relentless power. And democracy is not turned into a vicious instrument for violent aggressors, full of tricks and manipulation.

Democracy is not primarily a big box full of tricks to gain power and telling you how to keep it. Democracy, if it is genuine, invites you to participate in a great conversation and common action where ideas are shared and work is given to all who want to do their part. That is why I prefer to talk about participation rather than democracy which tends to be an apparatus to force you into standard procedures. You participate not merely by grabbing and holding on to power. You participate even by playing your part in the opposition.

Even opposition politics is being part of the play and definitely promotes individual participation. It is a (sometimes rough form) of dialogue. It is another form of using the “round table” and negotiation. It can be fundamentally free, peaceful, respectful, reconciliatory.

However, the change that we crave is more than replacing one constitution with another, one set of parliamentary procedures with a new one. “Paper is very patient.” This is a proverb reflecting the experience of many suffering citizens who observe an ever widening gap between official statements and what they observe on the streets (vending), claims Participation gives a place to the person of integrity by bureaucrats and their own shrinking income. and truth telling. Since he/she is not just craving power, they can afford to speak “truth to power”, even What Christians call conversion does not to their own disadvantage in terms of mere influence. happen on the streets, or in playing with visual This is the place for the person who yearns for the good displays or phones; all that may be just talk, talk, of the state, desires for just rule even if it does not give talk by officialdom, mere diversionary tactics. him unlimited power. It gives the man or woman of good, selfless character a chance to be part of the game.

True education is not when we are made loyal party followers. It is giving children a new outlook on life, which The person who participates in his or her own should enable them to learn discernment, i.e. telling the personal capacity fulfills his or her vocation and difference between true facts and mere propaganda. responsibility, even if they are not winning. But they are fully human in the image of the Creator.

The media, at least those media practitioners 21 Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

Catholic Social Teaching and the Meaning of Participation for Catholics in Zimbabwe Addio-Adia Dinika I listened with horror, which turned to anger then sorrow then back to anger as a 9-yearold girl explained how she engages in sex for money. Grown men would give the little girl 25cents for sex then leave for their homes.

People called the little girl a prostitute but that is unacceptable, a child that age CANNOT consent. She is a victim, period!

The case of that girl is just one of many.

It exposed how soiled the social and moral fabric in our country has become. Before I run to blame the government, I will first question, what kind of man does that to such a little child? And where are the neighbours?

Pope Francis always bemoans the growth Harare in individualism which has gripped the Junior world, and the case above is a typical councilors manifestation of that ill. The Church in

Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

her divine wisdom came up with principles known as the Catholic Social teachings (CSTs) to help us build just and equitable societies while living lives of holiness amid the trials of this world. Of the seven principles, the one on call to family and participation loudly call out to me. The call to participation entails that as a Catholic youth I’m not only a sacred being but also a social being and therefore it is a divine and moral obligation that I take part in activities that contribute to the development of a socially just community. This principle is a call to action - James 2:14-17. What good is my faith if I only look out for myself and ignore other members of society?

Zimbabwe, like the rest of the world has a youth bulge and statistics indicate that 60% of our population is youth. This is an opportunity for us to shape our country in the direction that we want, and one of the key areas where our participation is required is in politics. Yes, politics. I often get annoyed when a youth looks me in the eye and says; “I’m not voting, I’m not interested in politics!” I dismiss such sentiments as born out of ignorance! Politics, put simply, is the idea about decisions on WHO gets WHAT, WHEN and HOW. So what does one mean when they say they are not interested in deciding who determines how we walk, eat and sleep? The 9 year old child who is sexually exploited is a direct result of this lack of interest in politics. The politician who loots public funds meant for building and stocking hospitals with drugs is also a direct result of this “lack of interest in politics”.

Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu once said that if an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you remain neutral and quiet, the mouse will not appreciate your silence. In fact, your silence will be taken as aiding the oppressor. Therefore, we need to speak out. When the council does not collect litter, we need to call them and make sure that service delivery is done. When a water pipe bursts and precious water is flowing freely in the streets, that call to the responsible authorities is what participation is all about. That is participation. When a public official loots public funds, we need to write petitions to have them answer for that, for the poor child in Epworth 22

is dependent upon that money to stay in school.

We have an office called the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, which is a direct vehicle of communication between the Catholic Church and parliament and government. We need to utilise this office to voice our views on bills being passed in parliament. Voting alone is not enough, we need accountability from elected officials and this office provides a perfect way we can be able to follow up and ensure that the office bearers we elected are doing what they promised in their election manifestos.

The Church is the moral compass of the nation and as such it is incumbent upon us to bring about the moral leadership necessary to bring back responsible and active citizenship in our country. The Catholic Church has structures such as the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, which are there to be used in educating other citizens on how to live according to the CSTs. The words of Blessed Oscar Romero ring in my ears, “The transcendence that the Church preaches is not alienation; it is not going to heaven to think about eternal life and forget about the problems on earth. It’s a transcendence from the human heart. It is entering into the reality of a child, of the poor, of those wearing rags, of the sick, of a hovel, of a shack. It is going to share with them. And from the very heart of misery, of this situation, to transcend it, to elevate it, to Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

Youth leaders discuss fears and concerns of youths at an electoral cycle workshop in Mutare

promote it, and to say to them, “You aren’t trash. You aren’t marginalized”. It is to say exactly the opposite, “You are valuable”.

Addio-Adia Dinika is a social innovator currently working as Program coordinator for ZimLibrary, a literacy organisation based in Ruwa. He is passionate about youth and civil participation in national issues as well as promoting integral human development. An avid reader and blogger.

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“Redemptive” Violence - A Way Towards Peace?

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

Killing one’s brother, bloodshed, armed conflicts Wars have been part of human life - biblically speaking, from the beginning.

Will they be with us till the end?

There is an unquestioned assumption that violence can be overcome with violence and be “redeemed” by means of warfare and armed conflict. This is seen as a justification for waging war, which is hoped will bring about a new balance of power, a redistribution of land through conquest and thus peace (if you can call the mere cessation of fighting peace!). Peace, of course, will only last if it is the outcome of justice.

Why is humankind placing all its hopes on war and violence as the means to build a just society which can live in peace? Walter Wink goes back to the scriptural concepts of “principalities and powers” (Ephesians 1: 20 – 23), demonic forces largely ignored as “mythical” in our time, and sees their spiritual influence as the hidden cause of war and violence.

These spirits (demons) do not allow dialogue to lead to mutual understanding, reconciliation, justice and peace, forestalling fighting, bloodshed and loss of life .

These demonic powers have an outer visible appearance and an inner invisible spirituality, or spirit-driven energy. In NT times the Roman Empire’s demonic power was visible in the Roman state, its religious cults, institutions like slavery and conquest, military organization and technology, and in the invisible spirit of superiority, craving for power and wealth, ambition to conquer, and claim to world leadership.

What makes ‘craving for power’ such a destructive force? It is the nation state and nationalism regarded as supreme and ultimate, absolute as only God can be. It takes the place of the divinity and must be worshipped. “By divine right the state has the power to order its citizens to sacrifice their lives to maintain the privileges enjoyed by the few…..The survival of the nation is the absolute goal….The national security ideology is thus nationalism raised to ultimacy”. If the nation is the ultimate good which recognizes nothing Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

greater than itself, then this ideology must be hostile to any religion or faith in God. Nationalism becomes a religion of its own, celebrated in cultic events like commemorations of the “heroes” on “heroes acres” and national monuments.

For example, though apartheid is dead as a juridical system, it is still a very powerful social reality; people still behave as in the days of apartheid, guided by the old “spirituality” of discrimination and dehumanizing segregation. This inner side of apartheid is by no means dead, but is very much alive and active, and poisoning the hearts of people twenty years after it was removed from the law books where it is no longer a threat. Its demonic power is still doing great harm, e.g. in incidents of xenophobia and social and economic discrimination. It is still in the hearts of people in the form of fear, hatred, suspicions, refusal to communicate with people of different backgrounds.

Nationalism and racism may exist alongside other “powers” and mingle with them: capitalism, fanaticism and intolerance, economic discrimination and unfair distribution. They shape people’s collective thinking and behaviour before they have even made a choice as individuals.

Violence overcomes violence, so nations need the military, armaments, fighters etc. Violence “redeems” violence, wars are fought to restore peace and establish justice, or so people worldwide assume, even though violence being a remedy against violence, is easily shown up as a colossal error. Fire does not put out fire. Violence perpetuates hatred, leads to revenge killings, and fuels more violence and mass killings.

This delusion of “redemptive” violence is the driving force behind rearmament and continuous warfare.

It can only be eliminated by dealing with the all pervasive demonic powers of violence found 24

everywhere, even in our minds and hearts, though we may not be aware of it. Deluded by such “demons” nations continue preparations for war. “The myth of redemptive violence reappears ….as a religion dedicated to the support of the powerful and privileged through violence” .

The Church, tasked to proclaim Jesus’ message and act on it, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matth. 5: 44), has rarely in her history made the “love of enemies” a real moral and spiritual force outside some charismatic personalities and sectarian movements. The “just war” hypothesis (war seen as a legitimate defense of the innocent), though never binding Church doctrine, seemed to be a valid excuse for Christians to engage in armed violence.

Today the “just war” (war of defense) theory is again debated as not really meeting the criteria that Jesus’ command, “Love your enemies” imply. The theory may be correct, but historical experience seems to show that there is no purely defensive war.

Aggression and the determination to prevail over the opponent at all costs and with all means seem to be always present.

The “spirituality” of sheer power, present in our political culture, i.e. the demon of violence, needs to be exorcised and removed from our hearts. Unless our hearts are transformed, theories like that of the “just war” will prove irrelevant and ineffective.

Jesus’ teaching about “turning the other cheek”, “offering no resistance to the wicked”, non-violence, etc, have often been misunderstood as merely rhetorical exaggerations not to be taken seriously. The command “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5: 44) is seen as impracticable and contradictory. But the spirit conveyed by these words remains hidden, because they are understood in a purely pragmatic sense (See also Mat 5: 39 – 42).

Jesus himself acted in a non-violent way out of love for all (the Father “causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike”, i.e. on all regardless [Mt 5: 45]).

Whenever we analyze the moral implications of war and violence, mere pragmatic arguments are not good enough. We must be guided by the Spirit of Jesus and act as he did. We engage in a struggle with the spiritual powers, impersonal demons which dominate Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

people’s thinking and acting, denying them the freedom to choose; the powers are in control and dominate anonymously, though the actors in this power game do not know it.

Who in earnest questions war, doubts that it is necessary and therefore morally permissible (which of course does not follow at all)? That war is morally permissible, and compatible with the Spirit of Jesus, is simply taken for granted. Only Jesus is not taken in by this universal consensus, never questioned.

If war is condemned on moral grounds, incompatible with the Spirit of Jesus’ life and message, the State will be outraged and call anti-war protests subversive, undermining the State and its security.

Even though “conscientious objection” was finally accepted by the Church and some liberal-minded states, there is no sign that war as a tool of power politics is about to be abandoned. Armed violence is extremely popular in the entertainment media, turning people who have no conscience or moral education into killers of fellow citizens.

How many Christians, attending Sunday Mass, would be prepared to identify with this Jesus and his “dangerous” doctrine and course of action?

How many would follow the “master” who got rid of all lethal weapons (Mt 26: 52) on his path of self-sacrifice?

Has the time not come to question that there is a purely “defensive” war which as such can rightly be called a “just” war?

Has the time not come to accept Jesus’ words, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5: 44)”?

Can we really justify violent warfare and armed conflict while Jesus calls for love of the enemy and prayer for those who persecute us?

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ is the assistant priest of Holy Name parish in Mabelreign, Harare

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Charity, Justice, and(Silence): A Christian Response to Suffering Introduction

- Tawanda Chamba SJ

Each individual, group or collective or institution in this world is uniquely positioned in relation to the rest of the world. Each one has power to influence its surroundings according to its nature and capacity. The state of affairs around us, thus, resemble and mirror the state of the individuals, groups and institutions whose responsibility it is to shape the society through their choices, actions or silence. The following exercise invites us to reflect on our society, its state, our roles and responsibilities, capacities and in the spirit of truth and faithfulness, to stir us to make decisions and act responsibly for the transformation of ourselves and of our society.

Composition of Place Imagine three people, one walking on foot, one driving a big car (the most efficient you can imagine) and the third one, yourself driving your car, cycling or walking on foot or on a bus (where best you can place yourself). Picture the road, the way you experience it: the dust or the mud, the potholes, how narrow or wide it is, the crookedness, darkness; is it smooth, straight and well lit? Acknowledge the fact that your personality compounded by your means of transportation determines how you maneuver the road, the speed, skill, consciousness of and interaction with the other users of the road. As you negotiate your way through the potholes, mindful of the impact of each move you make on yourself, your means of transportation, and other users of the same road. How conscious are you of road signs? Picture the person with that big car. He or she cruises past you and others over the potholes as if they do not exist, (if at night, on full beam), leaving everything behind him/her covered in dust, or mud, eyes hurting and confused.

A moment later, you hear someone screaming and shouting for help. It is a hit and run, the person who was walking on foot is lying helplessly on the road.

You are suddenly faced with the reality of, on the one hand, an injured person calling out for urgent help; on the other hand, an offender to chase after; and of course, a life to continue leaving. What do you do?

Interpretation and Analysis of the Human Condition The answer or response to the above question is a Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

matter of charity, justice and silence with regards to particular individuals, groups and institutions.

Charity, on the one hand, is an act of kindness shown to the other regardless of our duty towards them. Justice, on the other hand, is a responsible action or decision that expresses our duty towards self, the other person and the rest of world (created things). Silence sums up all the indifference, disinterestedness, indecision and inaction. These three words can roughly summarize our responses to the different situations we are faced with as we encounter the people and other objects around us.

The world is comprised of three kinds of people, the powerful, the weak and us. You and I are very conscious of who we are in relation to others. We recognize that we are weak as compared to some, but more powerful compared to others. The powerful are those who have the means and as depicted by the person driving an efficient car that makes one less conscious or unconscious of reality (or its effects) like a drug that makes a patient not to feel pain even if the wound is visible. They trample on others (including yourself), knowingly or ignorant of the impacts of their decisions, words and actions on other human beings and the rest of creation. These could be the leaders of different kinds: political and religious among others, the educated, the wealthy or well to do, and the gifted.

They are endowed with the power to further the common good, and bear the duty to respect, promote and fulfill the rights of individuals and groups, and furthermore to promote the integrity of creation. Like a driver on the road, they are trained and certified 26

to operate powerful machinery (vehicles, hereby interpreted as the means, offices and institutions), guided by rules and regulations, and are expected to be more conscious and responsible on the road (life in the society). They have all the privileges and powers required by their offices, and a status above others that places them in a position to influence their surroundings both positively and negatively.

They have the diplomatic status, that ought to be construed as a means for the common good. They are doctors, professors, pastors, politicians, the police, the army, lawmakers, businesspersons, teachers, civil servants and so on. They have titles that resemble the responsibility that they are entrusted with for a very noble, specific and important role they play in organizing society to promote its wellbeing. All these means elevate one for oversight, but can easily become a source of detachment and indifference to reality.

The second group are the weak and vulnerable people of this world, the poor, homeless, workers, widows, orphans, uneducated, minors, and the faithful. They are travelling on the same road, but have little to no means of cushioning themselves from reality. If it rains, they get wet and cold. If the sun scotches, they thirst and burn. They have nowhere to hide, no ways of escaping the effects of natural and man-made disasters. If there is drought, they get hungry and die, they have little to no alternative sources of livelihood, and their options are slim. If diseases strike, they perish, they have neither health insurance nor access to healthcare. Sometimes they lack the knowledge to prevent themselves from all kinds of harm. All Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

they can do is cry if they are hit by calamity of any sought, hoping that someone will hear them. They have even gotten used to the pain such that they think it is normal. Maybe they have lost hope, or they are paralyzed, thus they just agonize in silence.

They feel like second-class citizens, always giving way to the first class.

The third are a variety of individuals and groups of people or institutions.

They occupy the position of neither the powerful nor the weak but interact with both and are sometimes one of either. They can choose to identify with whomever they wish on the wide spectrum of the society. These are, in short, a variety of individuals, groups and institutions that are conscious of their capacities, limitations and duties towards their fellow human beings and the rest of creation.

Some identify with the first group of individuals who have it all and are comfortable, enjoying life and all the benefits. Some are riding on a bus (part of an institution), behaving like passengers who have paid (worked hard for and earned their reputation and titles) for the services they enjoy and continue with their ride. As long as they get where they are going

the silence of the Church is neither a sign of satisfation with the status quo, or is it a lack of understanding of reality, failure to read the signs of the times.

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safe and sound they are happy. They prefer to look upon themselves as victims of the system.

They are not driving, they are driven by someone who is also doing his or her job. S/he makes the decisions, by the book, whether to stop or proceed (who wrote the book anyway?). He observes the rules and regulations of the road. All of us in that bus are just riding along; as long as we get there, we are fine.

As for the driver, as long as he or she does what is allowed, achieves the set targets, keeps his job, takes care of himself and his family and friends, peace at all cost is the slogan. They are you and I, more free and conscious persons who choose to define ourselves by our institutions or systems (religious, political, economic, academic and social), as far as we understand what they demand of us. We are very loyal creatures. To whom is the important question?

A Christian Response to the Cry of the Poor Charity Being human demands that we feel moved by the suffering of our fellow brothers and sisters. We should feel moved to extend ourselves and our belongings towards the suffering. In this way, we participate in divine nature, reflecting the image of the Creator in whose image and likeness we are formed.

Since its establishment in Zimbabwe, the Church has been involved in a lot of charity work ranging from running schools for the poor to minimize ignorance, orphanages to provide homes for children who have no one to care for them, and hospitals to provide healthcare to the poor and terminally ill of the society.

The Church has provided shelter, food and education for refugees and the homeless, victims of war, political and economic migrants and drought stricken populations. HIV/AIDS programmes ran all across the country and the continent when the need was urgent; so did food relief programmes and others. This work has continued to date and has made a lot of difference to the lives of the suffering people of Zimbabwe. A practical and immediate response to the cry of the poor is necessary and should never be neglected in the mission of the Church in the world. We are called to be charitable and should continue with our good works.

Justice All human beings are equal in dignity. Any situation, by an individual or group acting on behalf of a group or in personal capacity that diminishes the dignity Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

of another individual or group should thus not be acceptable. Human beings have the capacity to reflect on and evaluate their actions and those of others guided by principles that govern the right treatment of others and conduct in society. As a Church, guided by the law of love that demands that we “… love our neighbor as we love ourselves,” it is our duty to act justly towards one another regardless of our race, status, sex or belief.

This is as important as the duty to promote justice by advocating the correct treatment of our fellow human beings by others. This duty demands that we speak against oppression, abuse of power, corruption, and other forms of injustice. There is a price to pay, and that is exactly what being a disciple of Christ implies.

Many of us Zimbabweans have reduced ourselves to victims of the system, blindly following codes and rules of our institutions, nation and any form of organized grouping, championing these at the expense of our conscience and true religion. Police have a target, so they mount roadblocks, and conduct raids; teachers need to survive so they move content from the lesson to the extra lesson; and pastors offer solutions to every human problem at a material cost. Members turn against neighbor and inflict unspeakable harm (physical and emotional) in the name of loyalty to their collectives. “If your left eye causes you to sin, better you pluck it out …” It all hinges on faith, though in it is proclaimed in the formal and organized way that makes of a religious, scientific, or political system, it is accepted and lived subjectively, in other words it’s a personal encounter.

Existentialists like Jean Paul Sartre would warn that “we are condemned to be free,” thought anguish grips us and makes us feel and believe that we are not. We are called to be just and to promote justice.

Thus, when we fail, better we not justify ourselves as mere victims of the systems we freely build or choose (as much as we do), but acknowledge our failure and seek to address the injustice within and around us.

(Silence) From the day it is born, a child learns to communicate its frustrations and desires to get attention and redress of its appetites. Then it grows up and at each and every stage learns how to communicate, to whom, when and what to communicate. The process of socialization into a system begins and continues to death.

Sometimes the learning comes through experience, the best teacher. But what kind of experience? We learn to express our desires, thoughts and feelings, but also to suppress them, to be quiet. We learn silence.

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Silence can on the one hand mean we are satisfied, like a baby sleeping quietly sipping on a bottle of thin milk. On the other hand, it can mean we do not know what to say. Again, it can also mean we cannot say what we want to say, which is not just silence, but being silenced. I am very certain that the silence of the Church is neither a sign of satisfaction with the status quo, nor is it a lack of understanding of reality, failure to read the signs of the times. I strongly believe the Church is not silent, but silenced. We see what is happening, we hear the cry of the poor in parishes, schools and on the roads we walk. We know what to say, but we are not saying it because we are silenced.

Tacitus, in The Agricola and The Germania, cites a speech originally attributed to Calgicus: “They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.”

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So what to do? We need to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit to come down upon us, the Church, in this “upper room” in which we have been confined to by very genuine, but human reasons and fears. The Spirit will give us the courage to break out of these chains and proclaim the Truth to men and women of all kinds, loud and clear, without fear. She will remind us that death is not the end but the beginning; that the hope of mankind is the resurrection from the dead. We are called to be prudent, mindful, respectful and patient, but even more, to allow the Spirit of God to transform us and the world around us.

Tawanda Chamba SJ is a scholastic on regency at Silveira House, Harare

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Book Review Reviewed by Fr David Harold-Barry SJ

went out to fight the “terrs”; up to the time he was Minister of Education and is able to give a vivid account of working in Robert Mugabe’s cabinet. The result is a concise and gripping history of Zimbabwe since 1957 with all its moments of hope and disappointment. Coltart brings a lawyer’s precision to his description of these twists and turns. Old events, that became a blur in our memory as new ones broke upon us, are brought back to life in all their pain and significance.

It is unrelenting. As you read, you endure ‘crisis fatigue’. Will the struggle ever end? Will somebody please blow a whistle! But they don’t and for 600 pages you relive the sufferings of the Zimbabwean people over the past fifty years.

Some will relive those years since UDI through the pages of this book but others will do so through combining their reading with the memory of their own lived experience. Is it a depressing read?

James Joyce ends his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with a challenge to himself: “Welcome, Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race”. Zimbabwe has encountered a million onslaughts but is steadily – perhaps even without being aware of it proceeding to forge in the smithy of suffering a new consciousness.

Ultimately, this is far from depressing; it is exhilarating.

David Coltart was deeply involved from his youth, when he was a victim of Smith’s propaganda and

This is not the detached work of an academic. It is one man’s riveting account of his own involvement.

The events come alive through the details of place, names and dates.

All the wounds in our society are relived between the covers of this book and the accumulation of trauma stuns us. We feel the disappointment of every failure to bring change and wonder how it was possible for men and women to pick themselves up off the ground once more and try again. That is what they do and one of the triumphs of this book is the unstated resilience that runs through its pages.

At the end of the book Coltart says: “Rhodes begat Smith and Smith begat Mugabe”. Rhodesia was founded on violence, maintained by it and bequeathed it to Zimbabwe. At no point in the past 30

125 years has anyone said, “Let us look into the matter” (Acts 15:6).

The tragedy of the willing reception of this bequest is one of the most chilling motifs running through these pages. How is it possible for people who were once oppressed, but now rule, to become oppressors and blow out the flickering flame of liberty so dearly won?

And what goes on in the mind of one who has directed this policy for 36 years? His default position is that anyone who disagrees with him is seeking regime change, dividing the country and trying to restore the old order. Maybe he wanted to avoid what happened in Angola and Mozambique where exploitation of tribal loyalties after independence tore those countries apart for decades. But does this allow the use of terror to drown any sign of dissent? Any movement, like ZAPU or the MDC, or any person, like Nkomo or Tsvangirai or Coltart, who questioned this policy, is declared an enemy and huge pressure put on them.

Coltart has delved behind the scenes and revealed who was behind the rejection of compromises. There were moments when a solution was proposed that could, in ten to fifteen years, have satisfied all sides.

But there were always hardliners who refused to budge from what they called their “principles” but which were in fact their prejudices.

The 1961 proposals were still being debated when I arrived in the country five years later. It cannot be proved but, given some persuasion and international pressure, they could have brought majority rule within fifteen or even ten years. In the event it took nineteen years of bitterness and violence and at least 30 000 lives to achieve. Nkomo Mukai - Vukani No.73 Dec 2017

failed to lead his party into such a compromise and face down the hardliners who included Hastings Banda and Kenneth Kaunda, not to mention members of his own party.

Another opportunity arose after the disastrous UDI in 1965 when Harold Wilson, the British prime minister, and Ian Smith met on a warship, HMS Tiger, in the Mediterranean. The proposals they came up with were far from perfect and nationalist leaders were not consulted, but they too would have led to majority rule gradually and bloodlessly. This time the hardliners were in Smith’s own cabinet: Harper, Dupont and Graham. Again, a compromise was scuppered and battle lines hardened.

The very next year saw the first skirmishes of the liberation war.

Further efforts by the British (Pearce) and the Americans (Kissinger) also foundered. The war intensified and compromise was put beyond reach. It took the escalation of the struggle and the weariness of the international community to eventually persuade the combatants to agree to the Lancaster House proposals. We were euphoric at Independence in 1980 but it turned out to be simply “half time”. Within two years violence began again, this time in Matabeleland. The Gukurahundi left 20 000 dead and the “Unity Accords”, which dismantled ZAPU and imposed peace, did not bring reconciliation.

As a human rights lawyer, Coltart describes cases of political violence he had to deal with as he proceeds in his relentless narrative through to the farm invasions of the early years of this century, Murambatsvina and the violent

elections of 2008. He is measured in his criticism of the principal people he mentions but in telling what actually happened he tells us all. There is an example in his account of the struggle to get Breaking the Silence, the story of Gukurahundi, published.

Since it was co-authored by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, the Catholic bishops had the final say and Archbishop Chakaipa was adamant it should “never” be published.

Coltart is matter of fact also about his time as Minister of Education, but he was widely praised for reviving the schools by finding funding for the teachers and providing textbooks for every child. He tells us, tongue in cheek, that when he first arrived at his ministry in the dire days of hyper-inflation, none of the toilets worked and the lifts did not function, but he was offered a white Mercedes1. He declined it.

He is relieved when he loses his seat after the 2013 elections as it gives him time to stand back, reflect – and write. He concludes that the whole nation is suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome) and, “intelligent people within ZANU PF have all but destroyed their own legacy”.

What is needed is “some process to enable us to come to terms with our past” and release the energy needed to build the future.

The “process” will mean some form of structured reconciliation where people are free to speak about what has happened and healing can begin. Then a line can be drawn ending the legacy of violence that began with Rhodes and energy can erupt to move on to something new.

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