Catholic Church Migrants and Refugees Office calls for peace and calm

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale OMI

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It is with dismay that we take note of the recent upsurge in violence against foreign nationals, starting two weeks ago in the Johannesburg CBD, last week in Pretoria, and this week again in the Johannesburg CBD, Malvern, Turffontein and Krugersdorp.

Once again we receive reports of the authorities doing very little to protect the victims. We received report of police standing by idly in Pretoria while shops were looted and people attacked. Not a single arrest was made on that day.

Once again the authorities resort to the old explanation: that this is not xenophobia, but the work of criminal elements.

Let us be absolutely clear – this is not an attempt by concerned South Africans to rid our cities of drug dealers. And this is not the work of a few criminal elements. It is xenophobia, plain and simple. If it was about drugs, why are South African drug dealers not being targeted as well? Are we really to believe that there are none? And why are drug addicts who rob people in our city centres to get money to buy drugs not being targeted? If it is the work of a few criminal elements, why are South African owned businesses not being looted as well?

The teaching of the Church is direct and uncompromising. More than 80% of South Africans claim to be Christian. What are our religious leaders teaching the multitudes that fill our Churches every Sunday? Galatians 3:28 says: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” By the same token, there is neither South African nor Nigerian nor Ethiopian. We are all one in Christ Jesus.

God makes it absolutely clear that He has a special concern for refugees, migrants and strangers. Deuteronomy 10:18 says: “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.” He isn’t just concerned about the foreigners. He loves them.

Jesus goes even further. Matthew 25 says:  “I was a stranger and you welcomed me”.. He identifies directly with strangers. By welcoming a refugee or migrant, we are welcoming Jesus Himself.

In his scathing attack on the inactivity of people of good will to do anything against the Nazi tyranny in Germany, Pastor Martin Niemoller said:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

Let us take heed of this. We are facing a rising tide of hatred and intolerance, no different to the rising tide of hatred in Nazi Germany. If we do not take urgent action to stop it, there will be nothing left.

I appeal to all people of faith, and all people of good will, to speak out and take action. In the words of St Francis: “Make us channels of your peace”.

My prayer is that God will fulfil his promise made in Ezekiel 36:26:” I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

+ Archbishop Buti Tlhagale OMI
Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Office for Migrants and Refugees

Baptised and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World

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15 August 2019

Dear Parish Priests, PPC Chairs and the entire people of the Archdiocese

BAPTISED AND SENT: THE CHURCH OF CHRIST ON MISSION IN THE WORLD

There are two important events which will soon be happening in the Archdiocese. The first is the Archdiocesan Synod where the people of God will gather around their shepherds to prayerfully discuss and reflect on how we as Catholics are called upon to live out our missionary calling in the world today. It is a time for renewal, refocusing and recommitting ourselves, one and all, to a life of missionary discipleship. We ask for your prayers and your continued commitment to the synod process, which culminates in the Synod happening on the 20th and 21st of September.

The second event is the centenary celebration of the encyclical Maximum lllud, released by Pope Benedict XV. This encyclical called on Catholics to bring the Good News to all peoples (Missio Ad Gentes). To commemorate this anniversary, Pope Francis has declared October 2019 to be an Extraordinary Month of Mission (EMM). This special month of prayer and action calls us all to renew our missionary commitment. We are called to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with all peoples.

The Archdiocese has prepared a resource package for all parishes, sodalities and groups containing guides for para-liturgies and prayer services; teaching material for each level of catechesis; information on how to pray the mission rosary; youth group activities; material to enrich homilies, and more. It is our wish that you use this material in your parishes, or any other material you deem suitable, to enrich your celebration of this anniversary, deepen your own conversion, and help you be missionary disciples in the world.

We will launch the Extraordinary Mission Month at the conclusion of the Synod, and conclude it at a mass to which all in the Archdiocese are invited. The concluding mass for the Archdiocese will be held at St Dominic’s School for Girls, Boksburg, on the 19th of October. We begin at 9am with a procession of sodalities, groups and parishes, followed by mass at 10am, and then entertainment and food will be available until 2pm, when we will disperse, ready to celebrate in our parishes World Mission Sunday on the 20th of October.

We ask you to pray with us the prayer for this Extraordinary Mission Month, remembering that we are called to be missionary disciples of Christ, always and everywhere, not only during the month of October. We are all baptised and sent, we are the Church of Christ on mission in the world.

Heavenly Father,
when your only begotten Son Jesus Christ rose from the dead,
He commissioned His followers
to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’
and you remind us that through our Baptism we are made sharers in the mission of the Church.

Empower us by the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be courageous and zealous in bearing witness to the Gospel, so that the mission entrusted to the Church, which is still very far from completion, may find new and effective expressions that bring life and light to the world.

Help us make it possible for all peoples to experience the saving love
and mercy of Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, forever and ever.

Amen.

+Buti Tlhagale o.m.i
Archbishop of Johannesburg

+Duncan Tsoke
Auxiliary Bishop fo Johannesburg

Plenary in Mariannhill

Plenary in Mariannhill

Pic: Bishop Duncan Tsoke

Today in the first reading we hear about the Israelites who are walking through the desert. As they go through the desert on the way to the Promised Land, they begin to experience a lot of hardships. They begin to despair.

Today, many of our people are experiencing economic hardships; rising food prices, job losses, violence, collapse of the health system and so forth. Although our nation got constitutional democracy twenty five years ago, they feel that they are still walking through the desert.

As we gather today in the Plenary, they are waiting to receive from us a message of hope. We should not disappoint them

It is encouraging to see that, in the first reading in Exodus, God has made an intervention in the lives of the Israelites who are tired of walking through the dessert. God enters in to their lives in form of an Ark of the Covenant and the dwelling that Moses had created. And through the Ark and the dwelling, God revealed himself to them as a God who has not abandoned them. Instead, God is close to them, and walking with them through the night and through the day. We therefore read in Exodus 40 that: “In the daytime the cloud of the Lord was seen over the Ark and the dwelling; whereas at night, fire was seen in the cloud by the whole house of Israel in all the stages of their journey”. This was God’s message of hope to Israelites.

In our country, it is also the message that our people are waiting to encounter and hear. They want an assurance from us as Bishops that, although we are in a state of technical recession and political uncertainties, God has not abandoned us. God is walking with us as a nation, both during the daytime and night time.

Recently, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that we are in a technical recession and the nation should brace itself for another round of massive job losses.

Through this experience as a nation, our people expect us to announce a message of hope and declare with faith using the words of St Paul that, as a nation, “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Cor 4:8-9).

One of the priests once asked me: Is this not time for Bishops to encourage us to consecrate the nation and entrust it to God’s mercy in the Sacred Heart of Jesus?  Perhaps, we should.

As Bishops, it is important that we realize that our message of hope should always be accompanied by a call to repentance.

After all the words that we spoke to one another yesterday, we now sit before the Lord in the upper room so that the only words that should speak to us this morning should be the words of Christ. We acknowledge that the word of God we have heard in the gospel is a call to repentance.

I think the damage that the abuse has done to the Body of Christ is so deep that a mere adherence to the policies and protocols will not restore the trust in the church. We need to do something over and above a mere observance of protocols on sexual abuse. We need to open our hearts to repentance and conversion of heart. To use the metaphor in the gospel today, we need to allow God as the fisherman to collect us, to bring us to the shore, to search into our hearts, to separate the good from the bad, and then throw away the bad fish within our hearts.

Over and above the protocols and press statements that we make, the victims of abuse are waiting for this repentance. They are waiting for a repentance that enables us to see that the healing their pain is more important that protecting the institutions in the church. This is because the wounds in their hearts are the wounds of Christ crucified. They are waiting for repentance that enable us as bishops to listen to them, to believe them, to walk with them. They are waiting for a repentance that enable us as Bishops to ensure that those who have abused are never again able to offend. As Bishops, if we have repentance in our hearts, we shall start to hold one another to account. The crisis that we now face as a church will lead to purification, if we open up to this form of repentance.

If we are to take this path over and above preaching about God’s forgiving our individual sins, we need to start preaching that God’s mercy is so powerful that it can forgive and heal sins of the nation. At a fundamental, a large number of our problems in the country are a result of our reluctance as a nation to repent from the sins of the nation.

Pope Francis has helped us to identify some of the sins of the nation. Here, we can talk about the sins of greed and corruption, the sins of hostility to immigrants and racism, the sins of destruction of environment and culture of violence, the sins of lack of respect for life and culture of abortion, the sins of materialism and worship of wealth.

The message of hope that we should preach as a church should be a message of inviting our nation to repent from personal sins and the sins of the nation. I am sure that many of our people do not associate the message of hope with a call to repentance. However, as is evident in the gospel parables in the book/gospel of Matthew 13, the message that we are supposed to preach, this message of the good news about the Kingdom of God, is a message about repentance and personal encounter with God’s mercy, that is why in the gospel today, we hear that God is like a fisherman who uses a dragnet for his fishing, there are two phases. In the first phase, the fisherman is perceived as being merciful. For many hours, he patiently drags the net through the sea collecting both bad and good fish. While dragging the net through the sea for many hours and allows plenty of time for the bad fish to repent and transform into good fish.

During apartheid and now 25 years after apartheid, like a fisherman, God has been patient with us as a nation. Although we have sometimes made efforts to self-destruct as a nation, God has not destroyed us. To echo the words of Pope Francis, although we are tired of asking for God’s forgiveness, God is not yet tired of forgiving us, cleansing us and healing us as a nation. And this should be the message of hope that we as bishops should announce to the nation.

Homily by Bishop Duncan Tsoke to the SACBC Bishops during their Plenary. 01^st August, 2019

English class graduation

Graduation class

On 4 July, Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees celebrated the graduation of 43 students from the English class course. After three months of learning, the students graduated in the first level of English.

Healing and Reconciliation session

The Department of Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees visited St Joseph, Mayfair recently for a healing and reconciliation session. The session was facilitated by Fr Pablo Velasquez cs and Sr Marizete Garbin mscs. Seven nationalities were represented.