THE PRAXIS OF LIBERATION
Training for Leadership in the Seminaries
I taught some classes (Metaphysics and Cosmology) in two major seminaries: one in the eastern part (Murhesa) and another in the western part (Abbe Ngidi- Boma) of the country. I visited the major seminar of Kisangani (in the Province Orientale) and the major seminar John XXIII in Kinshasa. I had time to talk with students about many questions related to their studies and ministries in their home dioceses. Among the biggest challenges they are facing are poverty and a “ratio studiorum” to update.
In the diocese, many priests are almost needy. During the summer holidays, those who can afford it go to Europe to find some money. Others have to struggle on their own to run the parish. In the seminaries, classes resume only when the academic staff receive money from Rome (OPM). And so, Christians and their pastors live in mentality of beggary. In many dioceses and parishes, it is just an economic disaster.
Even theology can’t prepare them to be the leaders people need in these times. They are far from being agents of social transformation. They can repeat very well Thomas Aquinas’ theology but they can’t survive by their own means. The content of their formation does not make them leaders able to face the concrete situation of the people they are supposed to lead. What to do?
As we know, the Sapientia Christiana determines the profile of studies in the Catholic institutions of higher education. In the seminaries, they study the history of philosophy intensely. This information is useful since it enables the priest to understand the right orthodoxy and all the heresies over the ages. But, it is not enough. In the DRC, we are facing a great crisis of leadership. We want pastors who can bring change into lives of the people. They must know the political and economic situation and face them. They are not politicians but they are ‘elders’ in the community, and the kingly ministry places them in the position of rulers. Therefore they have to be trained to be leaders and not beggars.
For the program of courses in Congolese major seminaries, it is not enough to give some notions of accountancy, conflict management, human rights etc… Rather it is time to develop a theology of work, of human rights, of political power, a philosophy of the person and community, an ecological ethics and so on… African teachers must be as creative as their colleagues are in America and in Europe. The freedom of research, creativity and productivity must be the criteria of a sound teaching in those seminaries. Exodus requires an intellectual move. They must form priests called to be these channels of abundant life in small Christian communities.
Abundant Life in the Small Christian Communities
Immediately after my ordination, I was attending evening prayer on Thursday in a small Christian community. I was disappointed to notice how people prayed with borrowed words and ought by proxy. My first concern was to know how can we bring a social commitment to these gathering. I stated some simple truths in the way of thinking and praying. Among them there are the three following points:
-Outside of the world, there is no salvation
We have been trained in a Platonic dualism: where salvation was supposed to be for the soul en route to heaven. Political and economic matters are profane. Catechesis and spiritual matters are holy and for heaven. We go to church to talk about heavenly issues, ‘holy business” (sacraments, prayers, bible reading and so on…). There is a great need to understand the meaning of the Incarnation and so to consider economic and political matters as part of God’s plan. Every situation in our daily life is part of our history of salvation.
Therefore the trade in coltan, copper, and diamonds can be part of the Church’s business. Instead of begging in Western churches, African churches must learn to do business with their own resources and so to become self-reliant. Exodus requires a change in the way of considering wealth. The time has come to stop begging and to start finding other ways of sustaining our lives. For that we must give a new meaning to the concept of stewardship.
-Stewardship as ownership and nothing else
From the history of the country, we may notice that the common good has never been the main concern or the rulers since King Leopold II. They just oppress people and plunder the resources. The Congolese have never claimed his right of ownership over these natural resources. Every day they become more and more poor. When other countries are reflecting on the environment, global warming, OGM, we all think how to protect the mother earth. The theology or stewardship has developed to understand better how man is a steward and not the owner of God’s creation.
When these Western theologians talk about it, they embellish its meaning by demonstrating how ancestors of indigenous people relied on nature, the natural world. All of these green NGOs fight to preserve nature that industrialized countries are destroying. That is nice! But when a ship dumped it toxic waste in Abidjan in September 2006, they kept quite. Again, that is nice! Knowing that, let us introduce now a new view on stewardship. The stewardship we are talking concerns the way we must possess our riches. To stop the plunder of Leopold II, Belgium, Mobutu, multinational companies and neighboring countries, people must develop a culture of accountability; they must know how much the government receives from the multinationals to invest, how much tax they pay for social contribution and so on...
The Mining code must be translated into the four national languages. Each Commission of Justice and Peace in each diocese, parish and small Christian community must help people to understand what the government is accountable to them for every single dollar spent or invested. In a country where people are unemployed, there is a need to develop a theology of work (Dominique Chenu), but one from what people feel and live in the context of anthropological poverty. It is a theology where fair distribution is the component of that work shared by owners.
-Social justice and not solidarity
We have been told how African people stand together. And we may see how in our villages the family seems large in number and people are mixed up. That way of sharing life is amazing. But we have to be careful when people start to use these depictions of African life to show its difference from Western life. It becomes just a mere ideology of difference, full of contradictions and lies, when we look closely at the economic injustices in these African societies. That solidarity is only nepotism, corruption, favoritism and so many social evils which destroyed African societies.
Moreover, the way our ancestors lived is no longer ours. We may praise the tradition of Africa (Bujo, Bimwenyi), but that tradition is also the source of our misery. We don’t need a myth of solidarity: people can help each other as we do without claiming any kind of solidarity.
What we need is social justice as participation and fairness (John RAWLS).
In the DRC, we saw how our small Christian communities work. They gather every Thursday to share the word of the Lord. Everybody shares how he understands that word. We have to change. Christians must first read the signs of the times in their daily life and then find its meaning from the Bible and their own thinking. They have to become the subject of their own history, to read the Bible from below (Musa Dube). Small Christian Communities must be places where Christians practice that pedagogy for the oppressed (Pablo Freire) to develop strategies to combat corruption, mismanagement and conflict.
What we need is social justice as participation and fairness (John RAWLS).
In the DRC, we saw how our small Christian communities work. They gather every Thursday to share the word of the Lord. Everybody shares how he understands that word. We have to change. Christians must first read the signs of the times in their daily life and then find its meaning from the Bible and their own thinking. They have to become the subject of their own history, to read the Bible from below (Musa Dube). Small Christian Communities must be places where Christians practice that pedagogy for the oppressed (Pablo Freire) to develop strategies to combat corruption, mismanagement and conflict.
Karma-Yoga
