12th March

AS LONG AS YOU DO IT….

If you’re on the Internet, and you enter ‘Pemba’ and ‘ Mozambique’ on a Google search, you’ll get a listing of over 300,000 sites. A random visit to some of the sites informed me that I could take a ‘very romantic sunset cruise’ or, if I preferred, ‘t here are day trips and overnight stays for richly rewarding, cultural experiences.’ What they did not tell me was that I could travel for about an hour inland and I would come to a small town, Metoro, where there is a Passionist Mission since 2001, staffed by two of our priests from Brazil.

But then, why would they? This is a different world from the tourist resort on the coast. This is a world where life expectancy is at best in the late thirties (no, not a misprint – ‘thirties’). Hard to credit in the 21 st century, but a reality nevertheless. This is an area where up to 70% of children are orphans. Why? Because not only have the people to deal with the AIDS epidemic, but many of them suffer from a brain-damaging form of malaria. And they suffer without the aid of modern drugs, which they cannot afford. Natural disasters like the floods of a few years ago, and a recent revolution haven’t helped either.

There is no church on the mission. Mass is said in a classroom of the ‘mission’ school, that belongs now to the government, as all church property was taken over by the government at the time of the revolution and only recently has the church been able to recover mission stations, generally in dreadful condition. The two missionaries also service 40 ‘outstations’, villages scattered around the surrounding countryside. Also on the mission is a centre for lepers, which is used too for recovering alcoholics.

Our missionaries there share very really in the life of the people – both of them have suffered from malaria regularly, one quite seriously. Drinking water is a serious problem for all, as drilling is a very costly process. With as yet only promises of electricity they are dependent on solar power. That they get by at all is totally down to their own dedication and the sponsorship of friends and supporters around the world.

This sounds like unremitting bad news, but there are signs of hope. At present we have two young men from the area studying to join us, and another 10 or so have applied for next year. These, hopefully, will be the nucleus of local leadership in the future. With the aid of volunteer laity and sponsorship from abroad there are the beginnings of improvement in the conditions of orphans, children with serious disabilities and widows, etc.

When some of this was shared at a meeting of the leaders of the various ministries here in St. Joseph’s during the week, they unanimously suggested that rather than last week’s proposal of having a special week-end on 25 th/26 th March for our Lenten Project, we should return to previous practice and have a second collection at all masses on each of the week-ends of Lent. I have no choice but to bow to their unrelenting pressure!