|
|||||||||
This
is the first issue of our Regional Newsletter in the new year of 2002. I
hope that each one of us (here in the Region or in the States) will take
our turn to add our own two cents. You can’t tell me you don’t have an
opinion or something good to share. This is ours, so please let’s share
with each other. Tom Shea is our Editor and Dave Smith is our Publisher.
They can’t do it alone. Hoping to hear from/about you.
~
Tom
Tiscornia
My
End-of-the-Year Thoughts on Evangelization in the World
and Especially Kenya
By Dick Quinn
On Oct. 13th, 2001 I was taking lunch at
Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago. I was sitting with five
Kenyan seminarians studying for the priesthood there. A local seminarian
asked if he might join us. He was called James Madison and looked around
thirty-five years of age. I asked him what he was doing in the world
before joining the seminary. He mentioned his job and told me that his
family left the church twenty years ago. I asked why. They complained that
the Catholic Church didn’t teach the Bible enough. Now he and most of
his family are back. Again, I asked why. He said that they discovered that
the teachings of their evangelical church were too thin. Then one of the
Kenyan seminarians suddenly confessed he was outside the church for six
years. I asked him why. He was led to believe that Catholics are not
saved. Now he is in third theology and will become a Deacon in 2002. I
have literally heard hundred and hundreds of stories like this. There is
no end to it.
Coming back from visiting the graves of my parents on
Nov. 2nd, All souls Day, my brother, David startled me when he
asked, why did so many of our nephews and nieces leave their Catholic
Faith. He had never asked this question before. He attended all their
marriages outside the church and was hurt by it all. I told him there may
be many reasons. I could start blaming their parents, the world with its
secular messages that ridicule our faith, the Leaders of the Church for
failing to respond to this great defection, or the sudden expansion and
thrusts of the evangelical churches. Maybe for a time these churches
seemed more suitable, more lively and evangelistic. It is very hard to
talk about this with members of your own family.
Their departure was more than fifteen years ago and
not one has come back. I have found this same situation in Catholic home
after home. Sometimes, it is too painful to talk about. It is far easier
to keep quiet and pray that they come back than to find out THE WHY OF IT
ALL.
I have read that the church has lost about twenty
million Catholics in Latin America and ten million Hispanics in the
States. If I could count my nephews and nieces and others from
non-Hispanic homes, I am sure that there would be another ten million or
more. There is not a parish or home that hasn’t been touched. How many
Catholics have defected in Kenya? I have no exact number, but from the
stories I have heard they are many. It is better not to think about it and
carry on from where we are. But can we? Are we on the right tract?
I will be the first to say that many Catholics are
doing wonderful things for the Church. I know many adult youth who reach
out and from the younger youth. There are many Catholic institutions like
hospitals, clinics, schools, educational programmers, retreat houses, and
development projects, pastoral and religious centers doing outstanding
work. I know that many personnel and great finances have been put in to
run these projects. So much of our work falls under the title of social
and development work. So little of it deals with the proclamation of the
word as Jesus did in every town and place. We have a whole army of
religious, well trained and dedicated and so few of them deal with the
Gospel, a phrase I have coined to express the pastoral and spiritual
aspect of our calling. So many have found Jesus in other places than in
our Church and communities. Like Christ, I hate to lose even one of our
sheep.
The Church has hundreds of congregations, societies,
various ministries, movements, institutions but our impact is not what it
should be. A former director of the Kenya Broadcast Corporation told me
“what a big church with such a little voice.” He was right.
THE JOHN PAUL II PARISH-BASED EVANGELIZING TEAMS is a response to the Great Commission and the Great Defection. It is a response to the Vatican II Council and the African Synod. Next year it will celebrate ten years. We have tried to form and equip leaders of teams with the tools to proclaim and defend the faith.
Many of our good lay people were influenced by the
booklet, “Who Are Stealing Our Sheep?” and asked to join us. They had
experienced the same defections in their own homes and parishes. Many came
and stayed for a short time and went.
It has been hard to sustain the momentum. Some had
other expectations than evangelization. Our successes for the most part
have been sporadic. We have had our good days and many sad ones. Since we
are not a movement but dedicated Catholic men and women responding to the
Great Commission of Christ, some wondered who we are? In fact, some church
leaders and Catholic traditionalists oppose our work of Catholic
Evangelization. The Catholic Charismatic Renewal has tried to minimize our
initiative and initial successes in many parishes. At times it seems like
Catholic Evangelism and the Public Proclamation of the Word of God was a
dirty thing, un-catholic to say the least. JPII has produced wonderful
preachers but most are without honor in their own Nazareth. The question
is how do we make the Catholic Church Evangelistic? Our energy, our
personnel, our finances are top heavy in maintaining the social Gospel.
The Gospel has been neglected. We are bogged down in so many movements, so
many social and development projects, that there is little time or
resources left for Evangelization. Interestingly enough, many people who
leave our faith because of various reasons are the first to use our
institutions. They want the service without the message. Who else is
seeing this?
I shall give two recent examples. A Sister just
returned from the States with a Masters in Pastor Counseling. I was happy
to hear this since I knew how much this expertise is needed for people
involved in pastoral ministry. Then she decided to return to the States to
get help to start another AIDS project. I was hurt and asked myself, why
another AIDS project? How about the countless lost sheep that are
suffering from spiritual AIDS? Christ asked, “will the Son of Man find
faith on earth when he comes?” Lk 18:8.
There is a lay Catholic studying journalism at Day
Star University in Athi River. Everyday his Catholic faith is attacked and
ridiculed by professors and students. He is very intelligent and
articulate and challenges them. When they find a faith believing and
dynamic Catholic, they back off. That is what Catholic Evangelization is
all about. “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” 1 Cor 9:16
Fr. Richard J. Quinn, M.M.
Spiritual Adviser
UKWELI VIDEO PRODUCTIONS
Archdiocese of Nairobi
P.O. Box 14465
Nairobi, Kenya
Sister
Center
Maryknoll, N.Y
Christmas 2001
Dear
Father Thomas,
Love from Mary’s hill.
A happy, Holy advent and a Merry Christmas. We want you to know
that we continue every Wednesday with Eucharistic adoration in our Main
Chapel from after 7 a.m. Mass until 4 p.m. for the Spiritual and Material
needs of the Maryknoll family and those who we serve and those with whom
we work. So all of you are especially remembered by us. “Us” –
“we” are older Sisters in the Maryknoll Center who are chronically
ill, handicapped or some working part-time.
There are some who question the wisdom of our endeavor saying that
we “have tapped all these old, sick Sisters who are half way to the
grave.” (Aren’t we all !) “and what will happen to the project when
they die off?” Our answer is that it is not “our” project; it is
that of Jesus and Mary. Others will take our place. Our task is just to be
faithful as we are able.
Mission life, we know, is wonderful but it is also not easy. Padre
Pio said, “no suffering borne out of love for Christ, even borne poorly,
will go unrewarded in eternal life”. May you all have strength, courage,
and happiness for the year ahead.
Love and prayers in Jesus and Mary,
Sisters of the Wednesday Adoration Group
P.S.
Please share this in whatever way possible with the Fathers and Brothers
in the Africa Region.
Sister Mary Lou
Global
Concerns in Africa
By Jim Eble
I attended a workshop for Justice Peace Coordinators
for religious communities in Tanzania at Mbagala Spiritual Center in Dar
es Salaam from Oct. 18-19. It was an opportunity for me to meet the eleven
other priests and brothers who are making a contribution to matters of
Justice and Peace in their respective communities.
What became very apparent from the start was that
many of us were asked to be there by our superiors. As a whole, motivation
to be there in our group was low. And yet in an African way we bonded at
table, prayer and in our workshop discussions.
The workshop was given by a White Father, Bill Dyer,
a member of the leadership council for the White Fathers in East Africa.
He enabled us to take a look at the many obstacles and baggage that we
carry around that block us from working for Justice and Peace.
Bill suggested that what keeps us for making the
connection with Justice and Peace was the lack of awareness of our common
ground. What we human beings hold in common is our brokenness, our
weaknesses, when people become aware of their common ground of neediness,
then they can make a move towards Justice and Peace.
This is strikingly similar to my experience in
Clinical Pastoral Education. When one becomes aware of one’s weakness in
the face of another, one cannot judge but instead one generates compassion
for the common ground we all share.
I would like to suggest two ways to become more aware
of our common need to live justly and compassionately with each other here
in Africa. Perhaps we can reflect on the ways we share with Africans a
common ground of brokenness. And if we find it difficult to find such a
common ground, ask ourselves what’s inhibiting us from knowing and
living a common brokenness with our African people.
The second thing we could do is to become more aware
of how we are already, all of us, working for Justice and Peace. The
following are some questions we can ask ourselves about how we are already
working for Justice and Peace for our people.
1.
In
what way as a Maryknoll Missioner am I contributing to Justice and Peace?
(Please mark where appropriate
a. __ I pray for Justice and Peace.
b. __ I make reference to Justice and Peace issues in my
homilies.
c. __ My work is directly focused on Justice and Peace.
d. __ Through the media I keep up on situations of injustice
in Africa.
e.
__
I read articles/books on the social/political situations in Africa.
f. __ I have personally taken action in situations of
injustice.
g. __ I have taken part in groups where situations on
injustice were discussed.
h. __ I have participated in seminars on Justice and Peace.
i. __ I keep in touch with an international Justice
and Peace organization
j. __ I have come into contact with situations of
injustice (wife-beating, mob violence, police violence, corruption,
unprosecuted crimes, witchcraft, etc.)
We, Maryknollers, care about our people. We have
built up a strong foundation of love and charity throughout the years.
Now, we can create a new possibility for a common ground of brokenness to
work together for justice and compassion with, not for, our people.
Safari
to Northern Shinyanga
by Tom Shea
Early in the new year, Bro. John Wohead, Bro. Cyril Vellicig and I traveled from Buhangija in southern Shinyanga about 100 miles to the parishes of Herb Gappa, Paul Fagan and Bill Stanley in the way northern reaches of Shinyanga Diocese. The rains were delayed this year so the roads were bad as ever but everywhere was fresh and green. After noon we reached Bill Stanley’s mission at Ngulyati. The first impression was a white-washed cottage set amongst trees and flowers and in the middle of a sea of green grass. Bill has a carpenter there who has done all the doors and furniture Zanzibar-style. A simple show and very warm and welcoming. We saw Bill’s work in the area and next day went to several of the chapels he and the people have built. There is a building used as a community center. All of the materials were carried in by bicycle, pikipiki or the occasional small pick up from Bariadi. It was a great visit and very good food.
Then out to Old Maswa where Paul Fagan’s driver brought us out to
Nkololo -- Paul’s new area of Pastoral work. The road itself 24 km was
built by Paul and Maryknoll. The new road has encouraged many people to
move closer to the road and to the services now more readily available.
Nkololo has a beautiful new Church, dispensary and meeting rooms all done
to make the most of light, air and space. After lunch in a comfortable
re‑furbished container we went out to the even more remote area of
Gasuma. A Church will he built at the plot of Gasuma hill. We went to the
top of the hill and there had a wonderful view of miles of grass, trees
and streams looking silver because of all the rain. In the distance was
Halawa hill covered in green. The top area of the hill had beautiful small
flowers which prompted Cyril to say:
Full many a
flower is born to blush unseen
and waste its sweetness on
the desert air.
There was silence after that or we didn’t know how to respond to this poetic outburst. However reality soon came back when a flock of birds flew over and Cyril said he could have gotten five of them with one shot.
All of us went back to Old Maswa in the night for a pleasant dinner and evening. Next day we stopped at Bariadi and Herb gave us a tour of Bariadi town. Bariadi has four Centers named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Herb estimates the population of Bariadi at 20,000 and it will double in just a few years time. We saw the Church buildings and wells and trees put in by Herb and the Christians. Again there was the spirit of people working together to bring the presence of God to their part of Shinyanga.
After a good lunch at Bariadi we began the five hour trip back to Buhangija. We went away with the feeling that here we were Maryknollers happy and pleased with the work they were doing and the response of the people. Thanksgiving at Ndoleleji Dan Ohmann and Don Sybertz remarked that that is why we are here in Shinyanga: To share the good news and be with our people here.
We arrived early evening to a warm welcome at Buhangija from Leo
Kennedy, Dick Hochwalt and Lou Quinn who was in from Salawe. Bill, Paul
and Herb welcome all of you to visit them and share in their hospitality
and the spirit of Northern Shinyanga.