CHALLENGES OF CHURCHES IN AFRICA BECOMING SYMBOLS OF RECONCILIATION

From: ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

Commenting on a book: Reconciliation, Justice and Peace- The Second African Synod, edited by Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, a Nigerian Jesuit Superior for the Eastern African Province, one of the renowned African Theologians, Rev Fr Benezet Bujo rightly put it that while the theme is precious, it will challenge the catechesis and practice of the Church in Africa.

The book which includes 20 articles by African scholars on the themes of the second African Synod in the context of church and society in Africa represent a variety of disciplines. Ecclesiology and the challenges of reconciliation, justice and peace, the ethics, theology and politics of reconciliation, justice and peace, the scourge of corruption, restorative justice/conflict resolution, democratic principles and accountability in the governance of African states, the presence of war and armed conflict, integrity of the earth: environment, ecology, climate change and the community called church in Africa.

The book challenges the role of the Catholic Church in the public sphere, gender justice in the church and in African society, resource extraction and armed conflict, Interreligious dialogue (Christianity, Islam, and African indigenous religion)- Ecumenical relations and the challenge of growing denominationalism as well as the enduring scourge of poverty, disease and hunger.

One of the veteran journalists, Comboni Missionaries working in Nairobi, Kenya, Rev Renato Kizito Sesana while appreciating the fact that the best thing about the second African Synod is the aptness of the theme chosen by Pope Benedict XVI, “The Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace”, no doubt that the theme hits the nail on the head when it comes to the reconciliation in Africa.

While issues of reconciliation, justice and peace are of extreme importance in the present African society and the Catholic Church has the both right and the moral authority to address them, Fr Kizito argues that there are few African institutions, if any that can compare their record with that of the Church on these matters.

This is because the Church’s record is not merely composed of official declarations, theological books, seminars and symposia. It is also made up of the sweat and blood of hundreds and thousands of people and communities that have given their energies, their love and in some cases their lives at the grassroots level in order to build a just, reconciled and peaceful society despite the enormous difficulties they have had to fight against.

Maryknoll priest cum journalist and writer, Rev Fr Joseph Healey refers to this grassroots level in Small Christian Communities as “living ecclesial communities.” The Church as the Family of God Model as a new ecclesial option that focuses on building families and building SCCs that are involved in reconciliation, justice and peace in the Catholic Church and in the wider society.

Fr Healey argues that while revisiting the Small Christian Communities Pastoral Option as a means of responding to the ministry of reconciliation through justice and peace, the Theology of the Church-Family of God must be further explored in view of enhancing reconciliation and Peacebuilding in Africa.

On 19 March, 2009 in Yaounde, Cameroon Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the Instrumentum Laboris (“Working Document”) of the 2009 Second African Synod and this year November he will officially promulgate the Second African Synod. Like Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict has African continent at heart and he sees it as the hope for the future church.

As Fr Healey highlights, there are 95 stories with the locale in Kenya. Two examples: “I Am a Christian First” is Story No. 173 in his database: After the post December, 2007 election crisis and the resulting tribalism-related violence in Kenya in early 2008, a Catholic woman in a St. Paul Chaplaincy Center Prayer Group in Nairobi said: “I am a Christian first, a Kenyan second and a Kikuyu third.”

“Pray for Me to Forgive President Mwai Kibaki” is Story No. 327 in the database: During a meeting of the St. Jude South Small Christian Community (SCC) near the main highway going to Uganda in Yala Parish in Kisumu Archdiocese, Kenya in March, 2008 the members reflected on the Gospel passage from John 20:23: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Speaking from the heart one Luo man emotionally asked the SCC members to pray for him. He said: “Pray for me to forgive President Mwai Kibaki.” During the post election crisis period in Kenya he said that every time he saw the Kikuyu president on TV he got upset and angry and so he needed healing. The other SCCs members were deeply touched and prayed feelingly for him. He said that he felt peaceful again.

Fr Healey was working hand in hand with People for Peace in Africa in Luo Nynaza to preach Justice, Peace and Reconciliation shortly after the post election violence. He conducted two workshops, one for catechists and the other for priests from Siaya Deanery in Kisumu Archdiocese. Archbishop of Kisumu Zacchaeus Okoth was in that particular needed several workshops for his flocks.

It was in Kisumu that Fr Caroll Houle MM in 1992 workshops organized by People For Peace in Africa of which he was the director to Catholic priests from the Archdiocese of Kisumu at Ukweli Pastoral centre Kenya mentioned rapid population growth and multi ethnic character which had tended to neglect the needs of the marginalized groups, in particular women and youth and inhabitants of arid and semi arid lands.

Population pressure in densely settled areas has resulted in immigration to other parts of the country that were formerly in the hands of the white farmers and where land settlement has occurred without taking into consideration the fears and concerns of communities who owned such land before colonialism.

Yet in Kenya the Synod comes at the time slide into 2008 ethnic violence, which so far has generated 300,000 refugees and left more than 1, 500 dead has never been reconciled and healed. The principle here is that those who preach justice and peace must first be seen to be just and peaceful themselves.

It comes at the time a great number of programmes in the Church in Africa still largely depends on donors. At the time majority of political leaders show an insensibility to the needs of their people. They follow their own pursuits and hold in disdain any idea of the common good.

Lacking a sense of the State and democratic principles, they work out political deals which are unilateral, partisan, favour-driven and ethnocentric. At the same time, they foster division to secure their rule. In some places, the party in power tends to identify itself with the State. In this way, the notion of authority is conceived as “power”–parties of power, power-sharing—and not as “service”.

At the time some women and men in political life are displaying a grave lack of culture in political matters. They unscrupulously violate human rights and use religion and religious institutions for their own purpose, while ignoring, among other things, the mission and function of religion and religious institutions in society.

Violence between one African ethnic community and another has been going on for centuries in Africa. In Burundi, Congo and Rwanda are suffering the same fates with disputes between the Hutu and Tutsis. South Africa has also experienced ethnic conflicts between the Xhosas and the Zulus. In almost all cases, the violence stems from political disagreements.

Some African societies have been ruined by their political leaders. Others have witnessed tragic scenes of xenophobia, where foreigners were looked upon as symbolizing the misfortunes of society and became escape-goats. As a result, persons were burnt alive and hacked; families scattered and villages destroyed. In still other countries, some Particular Churches mention that political parties have used ethnic, tribal or regional sentiments to rally populations to their cause in a conquest for power, instead of fostering living together in peace.

It is often said that the reason for these violent clashes can be traced to the differences between tribal culture, still very much present in rural areas of West Africa, and the modernized governmental structures reminiscent of the colonial era. Whether this is true is a fact difficult to establish, yet all conflicts seem to revolve around one main subject: poverty and its associated effects.

Parishes, Small Christian Communities and Religious Communities should be commended as among the few institutions that took active action in the course of the post-election violence in Kenya, providing shelter and all manner of support to the victims.

The Catholic diocese of Eldoret especially made a great effort to provide accommodation, food and clothing to thousands of IDPs camping at its Sacred Heart Cathedral. Bishop Cornelius Korir and the Diocese were engaged in serious peace and reconciliation campaigns to mobilize the public against “tribalism” as a wrong perception of ethnicity.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

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