LIFE OF THE CONGREGATION
On March 14, 1998 the Superior General and his council decided on the canonical establishment of the region of Mozambique, the 23rd Province of the Congregation. And, on June 19 of the same year, Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the installation of the provincial general administration took place.
For a fuller description of the story of this region, which has gone through a great deal of suffering and oft times highly dramatic events, see "Dehoniana" 85 (1994/3, pp. 111-119). In this article we shall limit ourselves to presenting the third part of the report given by Fr. Ezio Toller on the 19th of June, in the context of the inauguration of the new Province (Editor's Note).
The Priests of the Sacred Heart (or Dehonians) entered Mozambique on March 27, 1947. They were four missionaries, full of faith, enthusiasm and good will, but they were going into an environment which was unknown to them. They settled in the central province, called Zambezia. They were entrusted with a territory of about 50,000 sq. km., with a million and a half inhabitants.
They were the only missionaries in that region and there was everything to be done. Almost all of the population was pagan, except for a few Protestant communities, and there was a Muslim presence along the coast.
Without losing heart they started to work with simplicity, above all with the children. They gave them the possibility to learn the fundamentals of reading and writing and, through the simple questions of the catechism, to have their first contact with Christian doctrine.
In the following years other missionaries arrived and therefore a whole activity of building started up: schools and missionary centers with their respective churches, boarding schools, small hospitals, workshops and plantations. Little by little the mission became the center of the region and of the population's attention. Over a period of 15 years twelve new missions thus emerged, with all their many and various works and with many offshoots of schools and places of catechism spreading through the area of the "brousse" (bush).
Above and beyond this social aspect, there was always the basic aim: the missionary's essential task of being sent to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Almost at the very beginning, a specialized school was organized to train young catechists. These catechists, after a two year course, took their places within the various communities and carried out their catechetic activities.
At the beginning they were young, unmarried men; later the opportunity was seen to organize courses for more mature people, and from that point on it was the entire family which went to the center for the specialized training, always for a period of two years. The Christian communities began to increase and with them the entire movement of catechism expanded. The missionary was clearly almost overwhelmed by immense activity.
In the meantime, the idea was gaining strength that these newly-born Churches should be prepared for autonomy and given the possibility of having a clergy of their own. In 1960 the Dehonians opened their own seminary for those who were aspiring to the religious life and a short time later the bishop also inaugurated the diocesan seminary. It was a fine group of young men who, through study and along the difficult course of formation, were preparing for a religious and priestly life. It was a time of great hope.
Towards the 70s the spirit of Vatican II led to a new vision of the Church and of the missionary presence. It was an opportune moment for reflection, for conversion and for a revision of one's own pastoral methods, and it gave rise to a "new" presence and to "new" activities. It was the rediscovery of the Church as the "People of God", and of the Christian community as a "family-community". With this ecclesial reality the field was opened to a multi-faceted flowering of local ministries which brought drive, youth and autonomy to the communities and to the Church. "The Church is ours" they said!
However, alongside this hope-filled ecclesial progress, the guerilla warfare between the Mozambique liberation front (the Frelimo) and the colonial government of Portugal gradually developed. The Church found itself in a very difficult position: on one side there was the colonial power, which wanted to take advantage of her in its own favor; and on the other there was the missionaries' solidarity with the Mozambique people who were claiming their rights of identity, and therefore of independence.
In this delicate situation, various Dehonian missionaries became objects of suspicion on the part of the colonial powers and were threatened with prison and with expulsion.
In 1972, faced with the possibility of an exit en masse from Mozambique, as a sign of protest against an unjust colonial power, the Dehonian missionaries, with the help of the presence of the Superior General, came to an agreement among themselves and decided to remain beside the people who were suffering.
But history continues along its own path and, on June 25, 1975, the long yearned for day of independence finally came!
The joy of the people was indescribable. The missionaries participated with the enthusiasm and the satisfaction of a father who sees his children setting out with maturity on the road of life.
In this historic moment, the Dehonian missionaries (approximately 50) were at the height of their activity: all the mission centers had adequate personnel, Christian communities were thriving in the "brousse" with a great vivacity of ecclesial life, the houses of formation for the religious life were overflowing with young men, schools of arts and trades were well equipped and in full development, the training school for the formation of catechists was well structured. Everything looked as if it was going to be perfect!
The independence of Mozambique took place with a single party in power: the Frelimo. They were a party of Marxist-Leninist inspiration and were totally managed by the Soviet Union, by East Germany and by other communist powers.
A month after independence, nationalization of the schools and the hospitals was decreed. All of the missionary centers passed into the hands of the government. The churches were reduced to storehouses, or theaters, or dance halls; the seminaries became public schools and the seminarians simple pupils to whom the option for the priesthood was prohibited. Even the residences of the missionary personnel were requisitioned and assigned to the new directors, either of the party or of professional activities.
It was almost without warning, therefore, that the missionaries found themselves without churches, without schools, without health centers, without the seminary, without catechists, without plantations, without houses where they could live, without the liberty to move from place to place in order to visit the Christian communities, with the added complication of becoming the object of a thousand suspicions. They were seen as reactionaries who were working against the ideology and as propagators of superstitions which were hindering the true "growth of man". It was a hard and violent blow! It seemed the end of everything! Now things had reached the point where it truly seemed the time to shake the dust off their feet and go somewhere else.
But the missionaries understood that it was not the people who did not want them, it was only their political leaders who were drunk with Marxist ideology; therefore, for the love of the people, they decided en masse to stay.
They had been deprived of everything, but with great faith and humility they built huts so they would have a place to sleep, and they lived their solidarity with the people in an evangelical way. They carried on with their apostolic activity in many different ways, arousing and animating the little ministerial communities, and defending them from the assaults of those who wished to threaten them with the party's ideology. Again their were insults and threats of prison and expulsion. However, the grace of God always gave them new strength!
Because the political totalitarianism in all sectors of social life caused hardship and negative reaction among the people, civil war broke out. The new movement was called Renamo (Resistance National of Mozambique).
The war lasted 16 years. There was total destruction. In this new and truly dramatic situation, the Dehonian missionaries decided once again to stay at their posts as a sign of solidarity with the people: "Prophets of love and servants of reconciliation", as it is written in their Rule of Life.
Some of them (including this writer) were taken prisoner and were forced to live in the guerilla camps and follow them on foot for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers, their only future being hunger and uncertainty. Others, for reasons beyond their control, had to leave their places in the "brousse" and withdraw to safer centers.
Many missionary stations were completely destroyed by the government forces and by guerrillas. The little Christian communities, although in the midst of so much tragedy, tried to survive, sustained by faith in that God who is always Father.
Finally, on October 4, 1992, the war ended and freedom returned!
Little by little the ancient missions are starting up once again, but with standards and methods which respond more to the current situation. We are, in fact, very much engaged in the field of formation, both for aspirants to the religious life and for the diocesan clergy. The school of arts and trades has been reactivated, together with other small projects which have the aim of giving a wider space to the "social situation": an aspect which was very much present in past years and is so typical of our charism! Of great importance too, within the framework of our pastoral program, is the fact that we are continuing with the formation of instructors for the various lay ministries which function in our Christian communities.
Currently the new MZ Province is composed of 61 religious who are distributed throughout 12 communities. There is also a priest and two scholars from the Portuguese province.
For us, as Dehonians, the commitment to inculturate the Dehonian charism has been seen by our missionaries as a qualifying element of the plantatio ecclesie. Their commitment, the Superior General emphasized, has resulted in the fact that "the new Province has a real Mozambican face, due to the presence of 22 autochthonous religious, that is: 1 bishop, 4 priests, 17 scholars, 3 novices and 2 postulates" (letter of March 14, 1998).
The number seems fairly high, but the words of Our Lord Jesus always remain true and relevant "...The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few..." (Lk 10:2).
So there is always room for everyone and, in a particular way, for the Mozambicans, because the time has come for them to "be missionaries of themselves", as Pope Paul VI said during his visit to Uganda, in reference to the missionary commitment of the Africans themselves. It is for this reason that our main priority is currently the formation of future Mozambican religious and priests.
In 1994 the territory entrusted to the Dehonians was elevated to a diocese. This achievement was the outcome of all the missionary work carried out over the last fifty years. It is a consolation, but it is also a commitment.
With our faith in a lasting peace and in the coming of the Kingdom of God, we continue to feel "prophets of love and servants of reconciliation".