Archdiocese of Durban Synod

                                                  September 2002

Keynote address

Stuart C Bate OMI

                                         Casting fire upon the earth.

1.       Fire and Life

In Luke’s Gospel (12:49) Jesus defines his own mission using the metaphor of fire. “I have come to cast fire on the earth and how I wish it was already set ablaze”. When Jesus casts fire upon us we are set ablaze to bring the light of life and the warmth of compassion and care to a dark, cold and calculating world. This Lucan version of Jesus’ mission is profitably read together with the one from John (10:10). There Jesus says: “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly”. This tells us that the fire Jesus casts is a fire that gives life and as the fire is set ablaze it burns in the hearts of all to bring the fullness of life to people everywhere. It awakens the hearts and souls of people and communities and sets them in motion as they are enlivened by it. It is the fire of which Jeremiah speaks: “a fire burning in my heart and imprisoned in my bones”(Jer 20:9). For this fire of Yahweh’s word had overpowered him and made him a prophet. His Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and His Spirit appeared to the apostles as “tongues of fire which separated and came to rest on the head of each of them” (Acts 2:2). It is the eternal fire which enters the disciples at Pentecost allowing them to speak words which brought good news to people of many languages and which gave them power to begin the impossible task of bringing the good news of salvation to all nations. This eternal fire has touched the hearts of men and women throughout the ages. It comes in many forms. It comes as the gentle light of a candle which dimly lights a darkened space for many hours. It is found in the flames of the Easter fire which devours the wood and turns it to ash. Moses came upon it in the burning bush which was not consumed and which marked out the sacredness of holy ground. It is a fire which has touched this holy ground in Southern Africa.

 

2.       Fire and Life in 150 years of Church leaders in Durban.

One hundred and fifty years ago, the fire was carried in the hearts of the five Oblate of Mary Immaculate missionaries who landed in Durban on 15 March 1852. From these humble beginnings was to emerge the Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Durban and as many as 34 other dioceses in Southern Africa. Now the fire burns differently within the hearts of each of us, moving us to do God’s will in a variety of ways. The different leaders of this local Church demonstrate this truth in a remarkable way.

 

First there was Allard, a shy, retiring man of saintly disposition. Whilst he was not a highly visible presence, he worked quietly behind the scenes and was endowed with a gift of the spirit of discernment. One way he showed this was in his remarkable investment ability. He arrived with only £632 to begin his work. Yet by means of shrewd purchases he was able to set up a number of schools and chapels. This same discerning spirit was to prophetically lead him to the land of the Basuto where he was to build a strong friendship with Chief Moshoeshoe. He lived there for large periods of his episcopacy and together with Fr Gerard laid the foundation of the miracle of Catholic Church growth in that land.

 

The fire burned very differently in his successor Bishop Jolivet who was an extroverted, sociable,  powerhouse organiser who blazed to and fro throughout his vast vicariate, built 90 churches and set up many schools. He organised for many religious groups like the Trappists, the Loreto Sisters, the Augustinians,  the Holy Cross sisters and others to come to the Vicariate to establish monasteries, schools and hospitals. 

 

Jolivet’s successor was a schoolteacher. The fire in Bishop Delalle used this careful, intellectual man to tie up many of the loose ends left by Jolivet. The vicariate was in debt and it took many years to become financially viable again. These were years of struggle, depression, two world wars and yet tremendous Church growth. Delalle’s missionary vision led him to pour many of the limited resources he had into Black missionary work. The Vicariate he took over in 1904 had become six separate ecclesiastical territories by the time he resigned in 1946.

 

His successor, Denis Hurley is still with us. The fire burning in him was a prophetic fire for Christian Justice and social morality. The first South African to head the diocese, the Spirit called him to speak to those in the land of his birth about God’s will for our society. He was a prophet who was to live to see a new South Africa based on justice and freedom for all. But to reach it he had to suffer the vilification of a so called Christian government bent on ideological, racist infection of our people. And this infection destroyed individuals, families and traditions and brought division and enmity between the people of one land.  Hurley was helped for 24 of the 45 years he headed this diocese by Bishop Dominic Khumalo in whom the fire had created a great heart, always affirming of new initiatives and supportive of people.

 

Today, the fire burns red in the person of Wilfred Napier, a Cardinal of the Church. He witnesses that the Church of Durban has matured into another dimension of Catholicity. He is called to service in assisting the Holy Father in the governance of the Church. Durban is no longer a dependent mission calling on resources of people and finance from elsewhere, but a local Church which makes a theological and pastoral contribution at the highest level of the Universal Church. One day, God willing, the Bishop of this Church will receive a special gift of the Spirit’s fire as he helps discern God’s will for the next Pope. And latterly, a new tongue of fire has come upon us. His lordship, Jabulani Adatus Nxumalo, has received the intellectual gift of many tongues and languages. This new bishop amongst us, sent to help the Cardinal, will no doubt show us what the fire can do in a new, young leader.

 

3.       Fire in our hearts: a response to poverty, unemployment and AIDS

But the fire doesn’t only burn in bishops. It is God’s gift to all of us. Each of us here has the fire burning in our hearts. It is the fire which brings us to a Synod like this to see what we can do to play our part in setting  the world ablaze with the love of God and in filling it with life, life to the full. There is always much to do but, like those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith, we have to make choices and the choices are determined for us by the vineyard we are sent to tend, the world in which we live. In our world of this diocese three principal priorities have been identified: Poverty, Unemployment and AIDS.  In your own deliberations during this Synod you will reflect on the life of the Church here in the areas of youth, service, formation and outreach. Poverty, unemployment and AIDS; youth, service, formation and outreach. Quite a big agenda!! Where to begin? Yes it is a big agenda but no bigger than that of Allard, of Jolivet, of Hurley, or indeed of Peter and the apostles. So let us not be overawed by what we are called to do.  In fact, a good starting point might be to see how much these issues are related to one another within the bigger picture of our South African social context.

 

AIDS and Poverty

I have just completed an extensive study of all the HIV/AIDS projects run under the auspices of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. There are eighty different projects throughout this country, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland. After a slow start, the Catholic Church is doing a wonderful job in responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic providing AIDS awareness education, lifestyle change training for youth,  home based care services for people living with AIDS, clinics, hospices and a whole range of other services. In February this year the South Africa Press Association reported: “...that the Catholic Bishops’ AIDS Office is the ‘single largest provider’ of HIV/AIDS services in South Africa, excluding the government. The bishops spent $1.2 million last year on HIV/AIDS projects...” (SAPA, 26 Feb 2002). The response of the Catholic Church in Southern Africa reflects a worldwide trend. In a communication from the Vatican on July 11 2002, Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan told the Roman agency, I Media, that 26% of all AIDS-treatment centres in the world are Catholic facilities (Zenit.org). The fire is burning bright in our response to the AIDS pandemic, but it is not yet fully ablaze.

 

One of the things discovered by many of our Southern African HIV/AIDS projects, especially those based in rural village communities, is the absolute necessity of having a poverty relief component within the project. Indeed one can trace a direct link between poverty and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

 

Poor people are less well informed and so are more likely to be unaware of the dangers of high risk behaviour.  Traditional lifestyles also make it difficult for women to refuse the advances of menfolk who come home during the holiday periods from their jobs in the city. Highways are a magnet for poor people looking to benefit, in any way, from the riches of truckers and others who pass by. Sex for money is endemic along our highways and our province of KZN has the busiest highway in the country, probably in the whole of Africa, running right through it.  For those who are already infected, medication is rendered almost useless if those taking it are inadequately nourished. The progression from HIV infection to AIDS is far faster amongst poor people for these reasons.

 

In 1995 the Human Sciences Research Council reported that 50% of the population of KwaZulu Natal were living in poverty, usually understood as being unable to attain a minimum standard of living, Only the Northern Province and the Eastern Cape were worse.^[1] KZN also has the highest infection rate in the country, with 33% of women attending antenatal clinics testing positive in 1999.^[2]

 

What all this means is that if you want to do something about HIV/AIDS, you also have to deal with the question of poverty which is a deeper underlying cause of the problem. In the report “Poverty and inequality in South Africa”, prepared in May 1998 for the Office of the Executive Deputy President (ie Thabo Mbeki) and the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Poverty and Inequality^[3], Julian May says

Qualitative data ... indicates clearly that poverty typically comprises continuous ill health, arduous and often hazardous work for low income, no power to influence change, and high levels of anxiety and stress. The absence of power is virtually a defining characteristic of being poor, and is worsened for women by unequal gender relations. Poverty also involves constant emotional stress, and violence has a profound impact on the lives of the poor.

 

Ill health and poverty are linked together in a dance of despair which is expressed in this quote from May as “the absence of power” which the author goes on to express as the “defining characteristic of being poor”.

 

Sometimes we get frustrated in our efforts to respond to poverty and AIDS because we do not have access to the resources which will “solve the problem”. If we had enough money and if we had enough medication then we could eradicate poverty and give AIDS sufferers a better quality of life. Part of our response must be to fight for these resources. It is a new ongoing liberation struggle. But we should also take the warning of Jesus seriously: “you have the poor with you always” (Mt 26:11). Without this, our inability to access the resources we perceive as necessary will lead us to be come disappointed and downhearted and in that way we too join in the dance of despair - a dance which is choreographed by the power of evil. Instead, we should recognise the defining quality of poverty as the experience of powerlessness. Bringing good news into a situation of poverty does not only  mean solving the material problem; it also means bringing power into a world of powerlessness. It means casting fire into the experience of anxiety, stress, violence, helplessness and the continual experience of unwellness. Christian community, mutual support and the experience of prayer are all ways in which the power of God can enter into people’s lives. Many of the Catholic AIDS projects in South Africa have reported their greatest strength is the community based support for the work that they do. Working together to respond to a world of poverty and despair brings hope and power. It brings the fire of life into a world of broken dreams.

 

But God’s power is quintessentially a spiritual power. It has a transcendent, mystical quality about it which we should never forget. It is this quality which transforms individuals and communities into beacons of fire and hope. Now one of the principal ways in which this quality manifests itself in our lives is in the power of prayer.  Indeed, the power of prayer should never be downplayed. Yet, to what extent do we Catholics access, and witness, to this power in our own lives and ministries?

 

One of the things which surprised me in my study of Catholic AIDS projects was the relatively small number of comments focussing on the importance of prayer and worship. It was difficult to detect from the project activities whether this specifically Christian contribution is being pursued at all by these Christians. It appears to be a disappointing lacuna if these projects are to be seen as the work of the Church and different to those of other NGOs and the State.  Recent studies have demonstrated scientifically that religious factors have a positive effect on healing.  In the USA, the National Institute for Healthcare Research published a series of three volumes between 1993 and 1995 collecting together medical research on spiritual subjects.^[4] It was shown that  “most of these studies indicate a positive benefit for religious commitment”^[5] including improved general health, reduced blood pressure, improved quality of life in cancer and heart disease patients, and most importantly, increased survival. Harvard Medical School’s conference on “Spirituality in Healing” provided studies showing the clinical benefit of religious practices like prayer and worship.^[6]

 

These studies, and others like them, allow us to venture that medical science is now beginning to recognise the operation of clinical factors in religious healing. It is thus disappointing to see an absence of such an approach to healing in Church based organisations which appear to run the risk of becoming too secular in their approach. In a deeply religious society like Southern Africa, people may come to Catholic pastoral services just for their material well-being and go to the “healing churches” such as African Indigenous Churches and Pentecostals for their spiritual needs.

 

I know from personal experience that prayer can have a powerful effect on people. It brings hope. It brings healing of body and soul. It gives people confidence to know that they do not walk alone but that they walk with God. It brings power to the powerless. It deepens faith because in our own world we are conditioned more and more to believe only in human power. But in fact when we lay hands on the sick, they do get healed. The healing happens in a deeper place than just on the level of a physical cure. It happens in the soul. It transforms May’s fundamental experience of poverty as powerlessness into wealth which comes from God. The consequences of this power are very varied. Sometimes there is a physical cure, sometimes not. Sometimes a person gets a job, sometimes not. But at the centre, in the heart and in the soul, there is healing. We need to come to believe a little more in the power of this form of fire. Then we will trust more in God and less in our own plans which are sometimes infected by other interests and concerns. Only then, in the power of the fire, should we go on to use all our human skills and abilities to do whatever we can to make things better.

 

Jesus’ ministry was packed full of healing: there are 42 healing stories in the four gospels. Unfortunately our English translations of the scriptures have obscured the nature of these healings and the illusion is fed that Jesus just healed by miracle cures, something which we cannot replicate. But this is a false understanding of biblical healing.  We know from scripture that  Jesus heals by dunamis which really means a powerful deed, but which is  unfortunately sometimes translated as “miraculous power” or “miracle” (Mt 13:54, Mk 6:14, Acts 6:8; II Thess 2:9). The healing effected was either sotso which is also the word for salvation, or therapeuo which is not physical healing but a total healing of the human being.^[7]  Our English word therapy comes from the same root. These words both specifically exclude the notion of physical cure (iasthai) which the English translation “cure the sick” seems to imply. This healing is a restoration to the fullness of human life as salvation. Salvation and healing are two aspects of the same process in Greek an understanding that African languages share but Latin and European languages do not as they are usually based on the two separate Latin concepts: curare (to cure) and salvare (to save). The Church has no mission of its own but the continuation of the mission of Christ and in Matthew 10, Jesus mandates the disciples to continue his own work: cast out unclean spirits; heal every disease (the word used is again therapeuo), preach the kingdom of heaven is close, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. This mission mandate has been unpopular in modern Christian discourse because these things seem so hard to do. Yet they are not. What is required is a critical attitude to the secular world which reduces reality to what can be seen and measured. But we cannot touch, feel or measure God’s fire.  The fire opens us to recognise that a response to anxiety, fear, oppression, AIDS stigma and powerlessness is to be sought in the heart and soul of people through care, affirmation, support, prayer, touch, love, availability, charity, service  and a whole host of other imponderables and immeasurables which are part of God’s fire for us. It is here that salvation, health and life are to be found.

 

Casting fire on the earth means a greater focus on healing in all of our ministries. Now is the time to develop healing ministries where people can express their fears, rage and anger in an environment that can lead to new life. Indeed, in the history of the Church  many religious congregations were established to live the charism of healing and bring the gift of healing to the sick. With the demise of the medical missions, many have moved out of healing into pastoral ministry. I find that to be a problem when there is such a need for the emotional healing of anger, stress, fear, rejection, stigma and powerlessness in our people today. We need people whose vocation is to do this. People have been oppressed,  hurt, robbed, discarded, infected and violated.  Healing here can be facilitated by the emotional release which can occur in just telling  the story to someone who cares to listen. Counselling, as well as helping people to emote creatively and move on to better emotional health, is a way to cope with the trauma of the past and this is so important in our society today.

 

Poverty and Unemployment

Responding to poverty also means working for development.  Research has shown that the top three development issues facing the country at present are: Unemployment, Crime, and Education and training. People are poor because they cannot get access to resources. Developing our people involves finding a way for people to get access to the resources needed for human survival. This is the justification that Robert Mugabe makes for what he is doing in Zimbabwe. The land is a resource through the land redistribution policy, the Mugabe government wants to take this resource out of the hands of a few whites and put it into the hands of many landless peasants. That at least is the legitimating theory. To avoid the chaos of Mugabe praxis which just destroys the resource and leads to increasing social disintegration, a process which is now well on the way in that country, we must find workable solutions to the dilemma of how to give poor people access to resources.

 

In some ways our situation is even worse. In May this year Anthony Stoppard, in an article for Inter Press Service, wrote “Although South Africa suffers from an unemployment rate of about 35 percent of the workforce...it is estimated that there are between 300,000 and 500,000 vacancies for skilled people in the economy”.^[8]

 

The reality of millions of people looking for work and half a million jobs which cannot be filled is a gross reflection on the social irresponsibility of those who have had, and those who currently have, access to  power in our country. This includes, government, business, the labour movement, the media and the religious sector including the churches. We have not prepared our people to respond to the needs of our society. There are many people wandering the streets with Matric and even higher qualifications who cannot find work. And there is no-one trained to do the jobs that are available. What a stupid, indeed evil, state of affairs. Clearly the iniquitous apartheid system, and in particular Bantu education and the herding of people into unsustainable reserves where no effective quality of human life was possible, are the greatest culprits. But all of us are to blame! And the scapegoating of Apartheid has now become a national pastime played especially by those leaders who are unwilling, unable, or too busy doing other things, to take responsibility now for what needs to be done. 

 

Unemployment, crime and education are patently interconnected. People turn to crime only if it benefits them. For many today, it’s the only occupation available. It’s the only way to get access to resources. Yet this way must also lead to the destruction of the resources, for a society predicated on crime is a society descending into social chaos and a society in chaos cannot protect its own resources. Another solution is required and it is clearly visible in the light of the fire. It is the solution of education. If you want to respond to poverty and unemployment, then provide people with education in the knowledge and skills which will enable them to get the jobs which are available, or to create new opportunities in society. We must get involved in this. Indeed, the provision of effective education and training, which will produce people with the skills required and a value based commitment to society, is a critical necessity at this time.

 

Now the Catholic Church has a proud record in this regard.  The education mission was a major Catholic mission in the past. It was a mission which was actively undermined by the Apartheid State leading to the Mission schools debacle in the 1950s. But now our efforts can be part of a larger process of government, civil society and church working together for the betterment of people’s lives here. Today, those Catholic schools which remain and the Catholic Institute for Education are doing tremendous work in providing a future for our children. But much more needs to be done. It is a sad fact that the provision of education has dropped far down our list of priorities. So called renewal, in the Church and in religious life, has meant that this mission is no longer seen as relevant to the demands of the day. This reveals an astonishing blindness about our society and some questionable practices of spiritual discernment which have led us to where we are today. It is interesting that the decline in religious vocations has almost parallelled the move out of education and healing of those who were specifically founded through the crystallisation of these two gifts of the Spirit: the gift of healing and the gift of educating. Yet they are gifts that are sorely need throughout our society. What are we to do? We must cast fire. Every parish and every diocese, every religious institute and every society needs to examine exactly how it can bring the fire to burn in providing those skills and training which can help our people find a place of hope in the sun. We cannot do everything, but we must play our part in helping bring the kind of education to our people that will allow them access to some the resources of our land and theirs.

 

Youth

And finally I come to youth. Here too we face an urgent challenge. This ministry is becoming a pressing priority. The youth of our country are faced with tremendous challenges. They live in a country that is being renewed but they were born and brought up in a society which lived in a state of low intensity war. Many of those who are 21 this year, spent the first 15 years of their lives in a most violent, chaotic and confused society in transition: a country going through the pangs of birth from old to new. They lived the first ten years of their lives during the nineteen eighties when the whole country was in turmoil. Here in KwaZulu Natal there were battles on the ground  between Inkatha and UDF and between police and students. They went to schools that were initially racially homogenous, then some were changed into model C mixed schools and then they completed matric in the New South Africa with the education system changing yet again. For some, the events of these difficult years became an encouragement to commitment and involvement but for most it just meant the acceptance of poor education, teachers not teaching and corrupt officials charging for certificates. In my own parish, the matric results at the local government school were cancelled in 1992 because it was found that the pupils, with the collaboration of the teachers, had cheated. How many times had this happened before without them being found out.

The Catholic Church used to have a powerful influence amongst youth. By 1953 the Catholic Church controlled 15% of all black schools, by far the most visible Catholic presence in society at the time. Besides this, during the 1960s and 70s a number of  Catholic youth movements emerged within the country which provided leadership training for young people. CLG, Chiro, YCW and YCS were movements which focussed on Christian youth activism and leadership training. In the early 1970s I was an organiser for the YCW and there was a thriving movement throughout the country. Many of you may remember organisers such as Michael Faya, Jane Bandes, Rob Lambert, Louis Mazoue and Theresa Mthembu who was recently mayor of the Southern part of Durban and is still a city councillor. Lawrie Henry in Cape Town, now Archbishop,  was a zealous chaplain, as was Eddie Adams, now Bishop of Oudtshoorn.  I meet former YCWs’ all over the place. Besides these two bishops, they are in parliament, in city councils, in trades unions and in leadership positions in the Church.  The YCW, which I know best, earned the praise of then President Mandela, who in an address to them in 1995, said:

It is common knowledge that the YCW has made a significant contribution to building the organs of civil society in South Africa...The YCW’s approach has always been to acknowledge and challenge injustice, and then to build the capacity of the oppressed to act in a constructive way that will bring an end to injustice and create a better world for all of us.^[9]

 

Today the Catholic church has a very small influence amongst young people. It is the area of ministry in which the church has reduced its involvement more than any other. Yet it is the most important area for the future of the church in this country. What I am saying here is that if the Church is not involved with young people in a meaningful way then the future for us will be quite bleak. Allowing the flame of this fire to dwindle also shows a certain lack of responsibility. Many young people find the attractions of African Independent Churches and Pentecostals much more appealing than what we Catholics have to offer. From a focussed effort in schools in particular, but also in youth movements, our involvement as church with youth is now increasingly only on the parish level. Parish youth groups, however, are unlikely to be very effective. Youth work requires vision, structure and resources to be effective. It is impossible for individual parishes to do this work. What the schools provided was an ethos within which people grew up. They imbibed, if you will, a Catholic culture. The ability to do this today is limited. We cannot compete with the State and whilst some Catholic schools will continue to exert an important influence, it will only be small on the wider societal level. What youth movements provide is a structure which allows for leadership training on a higher level than the parish or even the diocese. It also forces young people to exercise leadership on regional and national levels. Such leadership skills can be put to great use in other public and civil structures. I would consider a greater regional and national effort on the development of youth ministries and movements to be one of the most urgent and pressing needs for evangelisation today. More priests and religious must be released to specialise in this work, but they must also be inserted into structures which can train them to do it well. For some, this may entail advanced studies but for others it may just require working within existing effective youth organisations to learn on the job. Whatever we do, such activities need planning on a national and regional level.

 

“I have come to cast fire on the earth and how I wish it was already set ablaze”. “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly”.  These two statements of Jesus’ purpose amongst us, are a sign of encouragement for us who wish to follow in his way. We can bring life into a world of poverty, AIDS and unemployment. We can mobilise the resources that we have developed over 150 years to make our world a better place and to become an effective community serving humanity. We can do it because we recognise, in the lives of those who lived and worked in this part of God’s vineyard which is the Archdiocese of Durban, the Vicariate of Natal, the fire of the Spirit of God which Jesus has cast amongst us. It is a witness not only in the lives of the leaders whom I mentioned earlier but even more so in the lives of ordinary men and women, the Catholics who have lived their faith to make the Church what it is here today.  We follow in the footsteps of brave pioneers. As they succeeded in the power of God’s presence, so shall we.