Fr. Antonio PERNIA was in Johannesburg end of January 2009 for a week, especially to sign a contract regarding the administration of LUMKO Pastoral Institute by the SVDs. The contract was signed with the South Africa Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) on January 26, 2009. Along with Fr. General, present were Fr. Shiju Paul PUTHENPURACKAL, provincial of BOT, and Fr. Gabriel Lionel AFAGBEGEE, administrator of LUMKO Institute. Later, Fr. Pernia paid a visit to the newly created Zimbabwe Mission, and returned to Rome on February 4.

I write this letter from the airport of Johannesburg, South Africa, while waiting to board the plane back to Rome. The six-hour lay-over from the flight from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, offers me the opportunity to reflect on this latest visit to Africa and think about our SVD presence in Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe. I am happy to report that, despite the political turmoil and economic catastrophe that the country is in, all our confreres in Zimbabwe are well. No one has been sick or in any serious danger to health. Nor is any confrere in extreme need or is deprived of the basic necessities of life. In addition, our mission work has not been drastically hampered. While great difficulties exist and significant adjustments have to be made, nevertheless our confreres are able to continue their activities in relative freedom and reasonable regularity – Sunday masses and visits to outstations, formation courses and bible study, social services and communication work.

However, the political and economic situation remains grave and extremely precarious. The inflation rate is beyond calculation and an estimated 94% of the population of 12 million is unemployed. There is a general breakdown of public service and a serious scarcity of basic commodities. Many schools have not re-opened, hospitals are not functioning, stores and supermarkets are empty. People are visibly poor and suffering. The once prosperous and beautiful city of Bulawayo is fast becoming a run-down and neglected town. The number of the poor who come to our confreres for assistance has increased. My visit of four days was too short to see all of the misery. But a confrere gave me something that symbolizes this utterly sad situation – a monetary note of ten trillion Zimbabwe dollars. In numerical terms, that’s the number 10 followed by 12 zeroes – 10,000,000,000,000. And it is worth just about 20 US$ cents.

In this situation, the presence of our confreres is often experienced as a source of hope. Many people feel that, for as long as missionaries dare to stay around, there continues to be hope of a better future. As one confrere, whose temporary assignment to Zimbabwe is about to end, puts it, “how can I leave and abandon the people? Not at this time, when the people are suffering! May be later when the situation improves!” And so he is asking for an extension of his assignment to the country.

As we know, Zimbabwe is the Society’s “latest” mission – latest, in the sense of being the most recent autonomous unit (ZIM). Formerly a district of the BOT Province, it became an independent mission with the start of the last triennium in June 2008. At present, there are 13 confreres in Zimbabwe working in two dioceses, Bulawayo and Hwange. In Bulawayo, we serve in three city parishes and two rural missions. In Hwange, we work in one rural parish. In the parish in Plumtree in Bulawayo, an important commitment is the “Ilizwi Biblical Pastoral Center” which offers bible courses, publishes biblical materials and undertakes translations of the bible into the local languages. To date six young men have joined the Society from Zimbabwe – one priest, two brothers in temporary vows, and two scholastics. The sixth was the young brother in final vows who died and is buried in our parish in Chad.

South Africa. Actually the main purpose of this visit to Africa was to sign a contract with the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) regarding the Society’s commitment to the LUMKO Institute. The provincial superior of the BOT Province, along with the Vice-Provincial and another member of the council, drove all the way from Francistown in Botswana to join me in this important event. The signing of the contract was made in the presence of the entire Bishops’ Conference which had gathered for their bi-annual meeting. The three confreres from Botswana also accompanied me in the subsequent visit to our other commitments in South Africa.

Since 2001 the director of the LUMKO institute has been an SVD confrere. Upon the request of the Bishops’ Conference, Fr. Gabriel Afagbegee was “lent” to LUMKO for this purpose. In 2005, with the retirement of its financial administrator, Fr. Afagbegee himself requested for another confrere to take up this position in the institute. Thus, in 2006, Bro. Raul Santos joined Fr. Afagbegee as LUMKO’s finance officer.

Since its inception, LUMKO was located in the buildings of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) in Johannesburg. Feeling the need to use the buildings for their own purposes, the OMI were constrained, toward the end of 2007, to ask the SACBC to relocate LUMKO. It was in this context that the Bishops’ Conference began to look for another religious congregation which could take over the entire administration of LUMKO. It was also felt that LUMKO needed a new vision and orientation. With two of our confreres already involved with the running of the institute, the SVD was a natural choice of the bishops. Negotiations with the Bishops’ Conference took about a year and a half, and involved the BOT Province, the AFRAM Zone and the Generalate.

The contract with the SACBC commits the Society to provide a resident staff of four confreres. Other staff members can be visiting professors or resource persons who could be drawn from the SVD, other religious congregations and the diocesan clergy. The present staff members have made a commitment to continue to collaborate with the institute. Likewise, the four zonal coordinators of the SVD have agreed to help out in this regard. The two additional resident staff members have already been identified and will join LUMKO, one in March 2009 and the other in August 2009. The contract stipulates that the BOT provincial superior becomes an ex-officio member of the institute’s Board of Directors. It also makes it clear that the financial responsibility for the institute remains with the Bishops’ Conference.

LUMKO has relocated to a parish in the archdiocese of Johannesburg. This decision came as a result of an evaluation done by the present staff when the need to relocate arose. The idea is to provide a “pastoral ambience” to LUMKO and to have a pastoral setting wherein the programs of the institute could be tested and implemented. For now, the parish buildings offer sufficient office space for the institute. Eventually, however, LUMKO will need to have its own building/s or facilities.

One of the older bishops of the SACBC remarked that LUMKO has now come to full circle. For the idea of the LUMKO Institute originally came from an SVD – Archbishop Martin Lucas, SVD, who was apostolic delegate to South Africa from 1945 to 1952 when he was appointed Apostolic Internuncio to India.

Aside from LUMKO in Johannesburg, the Society is present in South Africa in two other dioceses. In the diocese of Tzaneen, four confreres work in two parishes (Giyani and Malamulele). The SSpS Sisters also have two communities in the diocese. In one community, five sisters run an HIV-AIDS center, while in the other community three other sisters help out in a parish. In the diocese of Pietersburg (Polokwane), two confreres run the Mater Dei Pastoral Center in the town of Mokopane. It was here that the whole SVD district of South Africa gathered for a meeting and celebration on the feast of St. Joseph Freinademetz. May our Pioneer missionary help our presence in Southern Africa bear fruit.

Fraternally in the Divine Word,

Antonio M. Pernia, SVD - Superior General

The closing ceremonies of the centenary year were marked by solemn celebrations in all our eight parishes in Togo and four parishes in Benin, on different Sundays of January 2009. That our people look smart and mission-oriented wearing special clothes and T-shirts with imprints of the Blessed ones amongst us, sporting pens, key-chains and calendars, with ‘Precious is the Life given for the Mission’, printed in French, is but natural and graceful. And the last one in that chain of events was the musical evening organized at our Marie Theotokos parish at Agoényivé, Lomé, on January 31. That choirs of all hues and colours from several Lomé parishes where the SVD, SSpS and the SSpSAP are involved, participated in that musical evening speaks volumes.

All the 51 confreres, hailing from 14 different countries, presently living within the TOG province, came together at the provincial house in Lomé, where Archbishop Michael BLUME, the Apostolic Nuncio to Togo and Benin, on January 15, celebrated the closing ceremonies within the context of our Family Feast. The SSpS sisters and a few invited guests joined us in the evening for an open-air, moon-lit agape. The province held its assembly on January 13-14 and the provincial chapter on January 16. Indeed, precious is the life given for the mission, and many are the blessings received here by those praying through the intercession of our Saints.

We are four confreres here in Laramanaye parish in the diocese of Goré. The city of Goré is about 15 kms away from Central Africa and the parish is situated just about 30 kms from Cameron. In Chad, we have 7 dioceses and one apostolic prefecture. There are only few local priests and religious here. Out of the 20 priests in our diocese, only 7 are locals. Only about 10% of the total population is Christian in Chad. Evangelization is a big challenge in this predominantly Muslim country. The people of Chad are simple and are open to receive the Word of God and our missionary activities. The dioceses organize variety of programs to receive new missionaries, especially helping them learn the language Ngambay, introducing them to the culture and presenting them a general picture of the whole country.

Every year Fr. Andrew CAMPBELL raises funds to support the people who are affected with leprosy. This year his project was to construct a house and a clinic for the patients who are cured of this decease at Ho. The appeal he made was through a concert. His Lepers Aid Committee collaborated with St. Rose Senior High School branch of the Ghana United Nations Students Association (GUNSA) to perform a Christmas choral concert in the Golden Tulip Hotel, Accra. The concert was staged last December with benevolent groups and individuals patronizing the program and contributing generously for a good cause.

Fr. Zeferino Zeca MARTINS, provincial of ANG, took part for the first time in the assembly of both the men and women religious of Angola in Viana, held in December. The Assembly elected Fr. Zeferino vice-president of the Conference. During the assembly the need for constructing a common center for the Religious Superiors’ Conference and the necessity for a common theology faculty in Angola were discussed.