A first-time visitor to St. Teresa Mission in the Diocese of Aliwal North, South Africa, notices many things. First, there are the children. Young children and teenagers; laughing, playing games and practicing music for an upcoming Mass.
There are ladies in purple, representing the St. Ann Society. Other women pour out from the kitchen, hands busy, preparing a feast-day meal.
And soccer balls. During 2010 –– the year of the World Cup –– it seems that soccer balls are everywhere.
Two young SCJ priests –– Frs. Ntsikelelo Bambatha and Joshua Morosi Mpiti –– wander between the joyful chaos. Ordained in December, 2009, they are the reason that the Priests of the Sacred Heart are back at St. Teresa following a five-year hiatus.
“God is very good to us,” said Fr. Peter Surdel, SCJ. The provincial superior of the South African Province, Fr. Peter has a special fondness for St. Teresa Mission. As a young missionary he spent several years there in ministry and remembers a time in the not-too-distant past when there were no paved roads or electricity in the area. For him personally, and for the province, it was a difficult decision to leave St. Teresa. But there simply were not the personnel to staff the parish. It’s a familiar story heard in many parts of the world, not just in South Africa’s rural countryside.
Frs. Ntsikelelo and Joshua –– South Africans who grew up in towns near St. Teresa –– were the first priests to be ordained for the South African Province since 2002.
When Fr. Peter said that “God is very good to us,” he was not only grateful for the two new SCJ priests, but SCJ priests whose language skills were a perfect match for St. Teresa. Half of the people of the parish speak Sesotho and half speak Xhosa. “Coincidentally, one of our new priests speaks Sesotho and one speaks Xhosa,” said Fr. Peter. “It is Providence.”
With Frs. Ntsikelelo and Joshua, the Priests of the Sacred Heart returned to one of the community’s first ministries in South Africa, for it was near St. Teresa’s that the SCJs established their first mission in the country.
Pope Pius XI asked Fr. Leo John Dehon, SCJ founder, to send missionaries to South Africa. In 1923, four members of the German Province arrived in Aliwal North (now the location of the South African provincialate).
Apartheid wouldn’t be institutionalized in South Africa until 1948, but even in the 1920s civil laws made it difficult for European missionaries to have a presence in a predominantly black area. Land could only be purchased for business reasons.
After several years the SCJ missionaries finally got a foothold in the area when a “colored” (the South African term for people of mixed race) man decided to sell one of his businesses in the area because it had been plagued by floods. Knowing that the SCJs wanted to acquire property he offered to sell it to them, though at a price far higher than the flood-prone property was worth.
Even though the cost was inflated, the SCJs jumped at the opportunity.
A check was written and the businessman looked at it for a few minutes. He then he tore it up and declared that the four-acre plot of land would be his gift to the Church.
Providence is often present at St. Teresa.
The “Mission Among the Ruins” as it was known, started in 1927 with two SCJs based in a tent pitched between a shed and a few other dilapidated outbuildings. Weather permitting, Mass was celebrated in the open air.
From that “Mission Among the Ruins” came St. Teresa Mission, which now includes a school that serves 1,300 students and a clinic staffed by the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa. There are also several outstations, as well as dozens of small Christian communities.
Besides Frs. Ntsikelelo and Joshua, many others are vital in keeping the dreams of those early SCJ missionaries alive. Fr. Anthony Austin, SCJ, one of the first South Africans to join the Priests of the Sacred Heart, came out of retirement to mentor the new priests.
And then there is Cecilia McKenzie, a long-time pastoral minister and constant presence at the parish. The youth in particular know her and respect her. All it takes is a quick glance from McKenzie to refocus a couple of teens horsing around in the back of church. Young people with questions, young people in trouble and young people simply with a desire to participate in their church come to “Mama Cecilia” as she is called; “Mama Cecilia” being the South African equivalent to “Miss Cecilia” in the American South.
The energy found in a feast-day liturgy is contagious. The enthusiasm and sense of welcoming at St. Teresa is more than obvious. But there is also much challenge. Located in a small township about a 45-minute drive from Aliwal North, most of those who worship at the church are poor. There is always concern for local youth and how their lives can be better. Worried that young people in the area would fall prey to human trafficking during the World Cup, parish leaders took 187 young people from St. Teresa’s to join in a larger youth gathering to learn how to avoid becoming another statistic in the human trafficking tragedy.
Jobs are scarce, and the problems frequently found alongside poverty are prevalent.
Yet amidst the challenge, there is still an incredible sense of community, of welcoming and hospitality; a sense that Providence is very present at St. Teresa Mission.
The U.S. Province has long had a special relationship with the South African Province since it was one of the two “mother provinces” of the entity (the other being the German Province). Many Americans have served in South Africa, including Fr. John Strittmatter, SCJ, who continues there, as well as Bishop Joe Potocnak, SCJ. The bishop, now in retirement, is currently filling in for vacationing SCJs.
Other SCJs with ties to the United States include many alumni of the ESL program at Sacred Heart School of Theology. Fr. Sandro Capoferri, SCJ, a member of the formation team in Pietermaritzburg, is an alumnus, as well as the newly appointed bishop of De Aar, Bishop Adam Musialek, SCJ.
To view photos taken at several SCJ locations in South Africa earlier this summer, including the celebration of Corpus Christi at St. Teresa Mission, please go to the province photo site at: www.scjusa.smugmug.com and click on the appropriate galleries.
