Social Justice Blog

A senior Jesuit with many years of experience in JRS said to me spontaneously in the evening as we were waiting for Mass: “This is extraordinary! It is worthwhile.” Knowing him as a person not inclined to Mediterranean outbursts I asked him the reason for his comment. He said: “It is so beautiful to meet so many people from Africa!” For those of us who have reached Nairobi from a Western capital where we live comfortably, travelling through the world and crossing continents and frontiers present no major obstacles. There are excellent roads, there are planes—and now cheap flights-- and there is a passport or an identity card that does the rest. This is not the case in Africa: travelling from the west to the east coast is very expensive and crossing frontiers within Africa is not so easy. We are just experiencing the miracle of meeting many friends who live in relative closeness but experience practical remoteness.

There has been a stream of newcomers. They come from all parts of Africa and the world. Some are old and some are very young. The youngest is possibly a Portuguese woman who comes from the network Xavier. We had an informal evening Mass at 6 in the evening. Fr. Groum Tsefaye spoke of the gift of being “friends in the Lord”. I wondered how often we hard-nosed Jesuits believe the truth of this message. Do we believe that He has called us to be friends?

I was struck by a Jesuit who told me that he comes from the “brousse” and is not used to the niceties of meetings of this kind. He added to prove his point, or rather, to emphasize the aloofness of his way of life, that he saw Fr. General only after 36 years in the Society when he visited Bukavu a few years ago. Meeting as friends is a value we need to appreciate and treasure.

Fernando Franco SJ, Social Justice Secretariat (Rome), 16 January 2007

Posted by the Social Justice Secretariat |