May we wish all our readers/subscribers the Peace of Christ at Christmas and a Blessed New Year 2010.
Director and Staff of Jesuit Communications

If you change your e-mail address and wish to continue receiving In Touch with Church and Faith, please give us your new address.
Subscribers also interested in Mukai-Vukani Jesuit Journal for Zimbabwe ( a printed magazine) may send us their names and postal addresses (or else inform us where they wish to pick up their copy). For the time being Mukai-Vukani, an in-house publication, is given out for free though donations are welcome.

Jesuit Communications On Line!

Check out our new- look website www.jescom.co.zw for information on the Church, Zimbabwe, Mbare reports, Theology and Scripture, Reflections and many other issues!!!
=====================================================================

Mbare Report No. 79
The Poor and the Not So Poor
If someone tells you a tale of woe why you have to help him or her with bus fare, school fees, medical costs or food, and then his/her cell-phone rings, there is no further discussion needed. If they have the means to pay for a cell-phone they are not so poor after all.
The really poor of course do exist, plenty of them. But they are not necessarily the ones who cry loudest. Our youth are now running a soup kitchen, resuming the work of an earlier one which had to close down because it was located in a rather unhygienic place. There are people around who literally do not know where the next meal is coming from. At least we have an answer for them and can tell them where to go.
A really loud crier launched a veritable assault on a priest the other day. First someone calling himself Father X, allegedly phoning from Johannesburg, told him a story about an old woman having died down south and her sons needing money to go there to claim the body. Then one of the sons called by cell-phone telling the same story, though some significant details about the “Father” differed. He wanted an assurance that he would be given the bus-fare which the priest refused to agree to before seeing him. The cell-phone calls continued, about half a dozen of them. Eventually he appeared in person. A big, strong man, he claimed that thieves had stolen all his cash when changing US $ 400 (!) to SA Rand. He was very insistent that he must be helped. As he became positively threatening the priest became convinced that he was a conman and a fraud. Finally pushed out of the house, he continued his cell-phone calls, talking, talking….Checking the story out with a family he had mentioned confirmed the suspicion: there was no truth in it. - Conmen (and a few conwomen as well) who want bus-fare always need to go very far, e.g. Chipinge or Binga. Our parish has been doing charitable work for a very long time (we are celebrating 100 years in 2010!). We are not naïve. Bus travellers never get cash in the hand. Someone takes them to the bus terminal, buys the ticket for them and off they go. The honest ones are happy, the not so honest ones get off at the next stop.
Our Mbare crooks of course are small fish by comparison. A Nigerian nun sent me an SOS: stranded in a hotel in London where she had been robbed she wanted a “soft loan of US $ 2300” to pay her bill, or rather it was not this nun at all, it was someone who was using her name and e-mail address as well as mine. Bu then we are used to strange messages from West Africa. Luckily there is a “trash can” on the computer. I must just remember to drop the Sister a line to be a bit more careful in future about her cyber friends….
Thieves do rob travellers and some poor old women do have to sleep, even in the rain, at the bus terminal, people do get stranded and need to be rescued. Good Samaritans are needed. But they had better be clever with good judgment and able to tell the genuine ones from the crooks. One tip: the genuine ones speak softly, appear timid, feel embarrassed. And they say Thank You.

News
Religious Brothers Meeting
From 20th to 22nd November, religious brothers of different congregations from around Zimbabwe held a meeting in Gweru at the house of the St Paul’s Brothers. Representing the Jesuits were Jonathan Chazura SJ and Arnold Murwira SJ. Brothers from different congregations came together to share about their vocation to brotherhood and to give each other mutual support.

Br Zvaiwa started by clarifying that a brother’s vocation is a vocation in its own right. One is not a brother to serve a priest, but to serve God. Br Zvaiwa emphasised the commitment to our evangelical counsels as important in order to be effective in our ministry. On education, Brother Mazhambe talked about inclusive education which is learning to be, learning to know, and learning in order to do. He gave a proverb “sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny”.

On administration, Br Blazio talked about results-based management. He gave key principles in administration as participation, accountability, transparency, simplicity and learning by doing. Character was said to be one of the things to consider to be a good brother. “Character is destiny and you are where you are because of your character”. Different congregations shared about their charisms. It was a good moment of listening to one another’s achievements, fears, tensions and encouraging each other. Brother Jonathan was voted unopposed to be the chairman of the association of the religious brothers in Zimbabwe for the next year.
- Arnold Murwira SJ (From Jesuit Newsletter)

YOUTH AND AIDS
Fr Ted Rogers SJ, formerly of Jesuit AIDS Project, wrote to his friends:
Last Friday was Human Rights Day and I was invited to celebrate the service for the last day of the training week for our teenage Peer Educators who numbered sixty leaders from 39clubs. We were able to reflect on the implications for human rights with reference to AIDS, and there are many affecting both the individual and the family. At the end of the week’s course the participants are all asked to make a commitment for their future; how they will conduct themselves in a time of HIV/AIDS, and, above all, how they will help other youth to avoid the disease and also care for those who have contracted it.
They write out their commitments and they are all put in a basket and offered to the Lord at the offertory of the Mass. Then, after the celebration, the basket is held high and taken in procession with candles and singing and dancing to place outside and they all gather round for a ceremonial burning of the commitments. As the smoke arises it is a symbol of their commitments being sent to God. It is important is that nobody else knows what is written.

Fortunately, the incidence of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe is reducing year by year, one of the few African countries in which this is happening.

It is now down to 13.7% from 30.0% in the year 2000, and the decline is mostly amongst the young people, so, thank God, we were able to help in this process with our preventive programme for youth. However, we are left with a difficult residue. One quarter of our children are now orphans, and, if they are HIV positive, they find it difficult to access the necessary drugs. The drugs themselves are in short supply, and, at present, they cannot be given to a child under 16 unless accompanied by a responsible adult. Many have lost both parents and some family guardians, if they have them, are unwilling to take them for drugs, because of the stigma they think will be attached to the family. In other cases the children are members of “child headed households”, whose head maybe a child of 12 or 14 years.
The UNICEF representative to Zimbabwe said recently that HIV/AIDS remains the biggest killer of children in the country and that one child in ten dies before the age of five, and, “While the rate of under five mortality has dropped all over the world it has gone up in Zimbabwe by more than 20 per cent.” A further problem for these children is that the majority have no birth certificates and these are necessary for attendance at school and for work later on. An adult has to sponsor children for birth certificates. Some of these problems are being looked at now by the government, but progress is very slow as the new “patched government” is not working very well.
I have a dream….that a body of young people may commit themselves for a couple of years to assist these children. They could be a sort of religious group, like a “secular institute” which would take religious vows for a limited period to confirm their commitment. I keep hoping that they will be forthcoming here, and I am spreading the message and hoping someone will pick it up. For myself I am now too old to undertake the whole organisation that this would require. But your prayers will help.
PS: Fr Rogers recently celebrated his 85th birthday. Congratulations!

Responsible parenthood through natural family planning

The recent Second Special Africa Synod of Bishops said about the Family, “As an institution, the family has divine origin. It is the ‘sanctuary of life’ and the nucleus of society and the Church. It is the proper place for learning and practicing the culture of pardon, peace, reconciliation and harmony.
Because of its capital importance and the threats this institution faces, notably, the trivialization of abortion, the devaluation of maternity (child-bearing), the distortion of the notion of marriage and the family itself, the ideology of divorce and a new relativist ethic, the family and human life need to be protected and defended. “
They demanded “the education of couples to grow in conjugal love and responsible parenthood, according to the doctrine of the Church” and “support of young couples”.
Very much in line with this recommendation, the health coordinator of the Archdiocese of Harare, Sister Victoria Sanyika LCBL, invited married couples from Archdiocesan parishes to a workshop on Natural Family Planning (NFP) at Rockwood Spiritual Centre, 7 – 10 December 2009. Mr and Mrs Petros Masakara, commissioned to promote NFP, gave their support and Sister Chiedza Mlandu LCBL, a nurse and health coordinator of Gokwe Diocese, was a competent instructor.
NFP is not just another form of family planning. It is a new type of marriage. It is built on full and open communication between the spouses, the wife sharing with her husband what is happening in her body, thus identifying her fertile and infertile days. This information can help a couple conceive if they so wish, or avoid conception for the time being if that is what they have agreed on. oWe

Police Deny Anglicans Access to Church Facilities
By Father Paul Gwese
Over the last two weeks, and at intervals recently, Dr Kunonga has again interfered with the parishes in this diocese in contravention of the judgments that have been handed down over a period of time since January 19, 2008 and in an attempt to destabilize the diocese. The following are some of the incidents that have occurred:
Saturday 28 November 2009: St Clare's Church Murewa: The police entered the church as Bishop Chad was about to administer the elements and drove everyone out of the church. When asked why the reply was "political". The incident is being pursued with the Officer in Command of DESPO in Marondera as the officer-in-charge at Murewa had no right to interfere with the service. On Sunday 29 November during the Confirmation Service at Kuwadzana the congregation was ordered out of the church by the police and the service was held in the open. The Police did not assist us in preventing the parishioners being forced out of the church by Kunonga thereby disobeying the court order and not upholding the judgement. Tafara: The parishioners have been informed by a letter posted at the church that Dr Kunonga will be holding one service all day on Sunday 6 December 2009. This is in contravention of the Makarau Judgement permitting CPCA priests to hold services ninety minutes after those held by Kunonga's priests.
Church of the Transfiguration Kambuzuma: The parishioners were informed the only one service will be held on Sunday 6 December by Kunonga from 0800-1700 hours and members of CPCA may attend if they wish. Again contravention of the Makarau judgement. St Faith's Budariro: Three weddings were due to be held last week. Some of the known supporters of Kunonga entered the church after the first wedding and said that there is a new chapter beginning and people can only attend their services and not those of CPCA. Glenview: A competition was supposed to be held by a cell phone service company today 5 December 2009. Permission was granted as Kunonga people never use the church on a Saturday. When the PR lady was supervising the erection of the marquee she was told that Kunonga would be at the church all day and the event has been cancelled. The priest and parishioners have been stopped from using the church. St Elizabeth's Belvedere: Were due to have a fete today which has been well publicised. The police were informed in advance but when the person appointed to liase with the police went to check yesterday he was told that Kunonga would be having a fete today and that the church was booked in advance of CPCA booking the church. In addition the doors have been bolted from inside and the lock changed on the gate.
Hatfield: On Friday 4 December two or three visitors went to see Rev Dzawo and informed him that they wanted to use the church all day on 5 and 6 December. There however are two weddings booked and they were informed that they could use the facilities after the weddings but on Sunday the Salvation Army use the church after CPCA and therefore it would not be available. St Paul's Marlborough: On Sunday 29 November Munyani and six priests went to St Paul's just before the start of the 0700 service and called the priest out and told him to tell the parishioners to go home and come back at 1230 hours in contravention of the court ruling. The Kunonga priest was called as there is a written agreement with him. He was told that he should not have agreed without permission from the Head Office (Kunonga). Bishop Gaul College: On Friday 4 December Kunonga and two others went to the College with a bunch of keys. The ordinands were told that Kunonga would "come like a whirlwind to the College".
The diocese is not taking these contraventions lightly and will pursue through the courts any attempt by Kunonga to prevent the legitimate services being held. On the 6th of December 2009 many parishes in the greater Harare area had their services either disrupted or interfered with by Zimbabwe Replublic Police details acting on "orders from above". Parishioners in Glenview , Budiriro, Tafara, Glen Norah, Warerfalls as well as Mbare and Warren Park had their Holy communion services disrupted. Upon enquiring why the police were acting in contempt of the Makarau judgement, their response was that they did not take orders from the courts but from their superiors. In Waterfalls and Mbare the police officer in charge of this illegal operation known as Sibanda was very evasive when confronted to produce a court order to validate his claims that the Church assets now belonged to Kunonga and not CPCA. He was very rude and arrogant such that he even went on to display his violent personality by threatening to instruct his officers to forcefully disperse the parishioners who had gathered for Mass. It was only after the intervention of his superiors that he withdrew his details who had gathered at St Michaels Mbare. The bishop was only able to proceed with the confirmation service thereafter. At St Francis Waterfalls they had to look for an alternative venue as Sibanda insisted that anyone who would enter the Church Building would be thoroughly beaten by his details.
It is yet to be seen how a whole police force can take instructions from a civilian in clear violations of the same rule of law they are supposed to uphold. The events happening in the Anglican Church are real test to the fragile government of National Unity as it was at the intervention of the co-ministers of Home affairs that the CPCA members got a reprieve to use their Churches without been disrupted by rogue police officers aligned to Kunonga. The rule of law can not just be ignored by a few zealous police officers at the expense of national unity and reconciliation. The Bishop, Dean, priests, wardens and parishioners are determined to continue with the services at the times that they have been holding them in accordance with the Makarau judgement and will not tolerate the breaching of the court orders by the Police.
Again, the CPCA Anglicans want their constitutional rights of freedom of worship to be respected by Kunonga and the state police supporting him. The constitution of Zimbabwe clearly states that there is freedom of worship. Meanwhile, the Diocese of Harare has successfully implemented supplementary feeding programmes at various Church run institutions. This programme targeted at least 5000 children of primary school going age. In solidarity with the government's agricultural empowerment drive, the CPCA in Zimbabwe has already given more than 50000 households inputs to use during this agricultural season. This is an indication that the Anglican Church supports the government of Zimbabwe's agricultural sector through the various empowerment programmes which target the grassroot people whose meagre incomes cannot meet their daily needs. It is only those who have a narrow understanding of the Church's mission and vision who will be hoodwinked by the cheap politics of opportunists like Norbert Kunonga who has not done much for the Church and the nation at larger except to plunder and loot Church assets, is the opinion of the majority of poor parishioners. Please continue to pray for the diocese for strength and wisdom to overcome the evil that is being perpetrated.
(From: Zimbabwe Journalists, UK, 7 December 2009)

KENYA: Churches Demand Clear Anti Abortion Policy

The new constitution being worked on should ensure that human life is fully respected and protected, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) has recommended. “The proposed constitution should be clear from anti life issues such as abortion”, stressed the church statement, read by the NCCK General Secretary, Rev. Canon Peter Karanja.
They stated that life begins at conception and ends at natural death. Children once conceived have a right to be born, added the NCCK.
The National Council of Churches in Kenya, founded in 1918, is the world's largest Council of churches and brings together all Protestant churches and Christian organizations in Kenya. The Roman Catholic Church in Kenya with over 30% following of the population is not a member of NCCK though the two work together often. (From : Catholic Information service for Africa – CISA, 4 Dec 2009)

Apostleship of Prayer
Praying with the Pope in December 2009
General Intention: respect for children – that children may be respected, loved and never exploited in any way.

The early Industrial Revolution comes to mind: children climbing up chimneys, hauling coal in mines and operating dangerous machinery for unconscionable hours for slave wages. Today, we frequently read of children being sold into virtual slavery to work in factories in Asia or plantations in Africa. Even more shockingly, we are told of how many are lured into child prostitution, sometimes for the sex-tourism industry which brings rich Westerners to parts of Asia, Africa and other regions to indulge their sordid proclivities in relative safety from prosecution.

Whatever the motives, the exploitation of children for profit certainly demonstrates that we live in a world where there is nothing that cannot be commercialized. Everything, including childhood innocence, can become a marketable commodity. The Church herself failed badly here in the case of clergy abuse which has obviously been happening for long before the recent stories were publicized. We are coming to the horrific conclusion that children have always been abused both sexually and economically and that it is only now that we are more fully aware of what has been going on under our noses for so long. This awareness gives us the opportunity to act at last in a more effective way. We did well if we began by praying for this intention, partly in petition and partly in penitence, and then continue praying as we act decisively to help stop this suffering and this crime.

Missionary Intention: Christ, Light of the World – that during Christmas, the people of the earth may recognize the Incarnate Word as the light that illumines every person, and that every nation may open its doors to Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Thanks to the process of globalization, Christmas is becoming part of the universal culture. A small indication of this is that, in 2008, Nepal, a mainly Hindu nation, made Christmas Day a public holiday. This was done after representations from the churches and in recognition of the work of the Church for Nepalese society. As a contrast, British politicians, even Prince Charles, are ashamed to talk about the Christmas season and tell people to talk about a “festive season”. Unfortunately, for many Christians and non-Christians world-wide, Christmas is welcomed more as a commercial windfall than a religious festival. In so-called Christian Europe a huge number of Christians no longer celebrate Christmas at home, nor do they go to church. The only place where they hear the traditional Christmas carols is in the supermarket.
The challenge for the Church is to re-present in a new way the pivotal event in human history which we celebrate on 25th December. Prayerfully we have to rediscover the radical message that a new-born child has for the world today. Or, as Fr Chris Chatteris SJ, South Africa, writes, we pray for ourselves and for the non-Christian world so that we may see Christmas as not just a feast for our families, but the feast of the entire human family.

Documentation

Year of the Priest: Men of Prayer

Dear Priests,

Prayer necessarily occupies a central place in the life of the Priest. This is not hard to understand, since prayer fosters the disciple’s intimacy with his Master, Jesus Christ. We all know that when prayer lessens faith is weakened and the ministry loses content and meaning. The essential consequence of this is that the priest will have less joy and less happiness in his daily ministry. It is as if, following Jesus along the road, the Priest, who walks along with many others, were to begin to lag behind bit by bit and so distance himself from the Master, even losing sight of him on the horizon. From that moment he will find himself lost and uncertain.

St. John Chrysostom, in a homily commenting on the First Letter of St. Paul to Timothy, observes wisely: “The devil attacks the shepherd […]. In fact, if by killing the sheep the flock is reduced, by instead eliminating the shepherd he will destroy the entire flock”. This statement makes one think about many contemporary situations. Chrysostom warns us that the lessening of the shepherds will and does make the number of the faithful and of communities decrease. Without shepherds our communities will be destroyed!

But here I would like above all to talk about the needfulness of prayer so that, as Chrysostom might say, the shepherds can defeat the devil and so that they are not lessened. Truly, without the vital food of prayer the Priest becomes sick, the disciple does not find the strength to follow the Master, and thus dies of hunger. As a consequence his flock is scattered, and dies in its own turn.

In fact every Priest finds an essential reference point in the ecclesial community. He is a very special disciple of the Lord who called him and who, by the sacrament of Order, configured him to Himself as Head and Shepherd of the Church. Christ is the one Shepherd, but he has deigned to make the Twelve and their Successors partake in His Ministry, amongst whom Priests also participate in this sacrament, albeit in a lower grade, in such a way that they also take part in the ministry of Christ, Head and Shepherd. This carries with it an essential bond between the Priest and the ecclesial community. He cannot do any less than his duty, since without a shepherd the community withers. Rather, following the example of Moses, he must be found with his arms raised to Heaven in prayer so that the people will not perish.

It is for this reason that the Priest, if he is to remain faithful to Christ and faithful to the community, must be a man of prayer, a man who lives close to the Lord. Moreover, he needs to be strengthened by the prayer of the Church and of every Christian. Let the sheep pray for their shepherd! When the shepherd becomes aware that his life of prayer is weakening, it is time for him to turn to the Holy Spirit and to beseech like the poor of heart. The Spirit will rekindle the fire in his heart. He will rekindle the passion and the enchantment of the Lord, who is ever present and wishes to eat with him.

We wish to pray with and for priests in this Year for Priests with perseverance and great love. To this end, the Congregation for the Clergy celebrates a Eucharistic-Marian Hour for and with priests, at 4pm in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Rome, each first Thursday of the month during the Year for Priests. Many people joyfully come to pray with us.

Dear Priests, the nativity of Jesus Christ draws near. I wish to express my best and heartfelt good wishes to you for a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010. The Child Jesus lying in the manger invites us to renew this closeness with him of a friend and disciple, so as to send us out again as his evangelisers.

Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, Archbishop Emeritus of São Paulo and Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy