Battle to uplift Hanover Park
‘Real peace begins with you. It is only from real inner peace that outer peace can become sustainable’
‘IF YOU want peace, work for justice,” said Pope Paul VI. This advice was heeded by fellow parishioners of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Hanover Park. We have embraced the spiritual call for peace to oppose the scourge of violence that has caused suffocating clouds of war to strangle the life out of the community.
A ragged cloak of darkness has encircled all of us in a community that seems possessed by evil spirits. Yet it is in the midst of such pain that love and hope always prevail.
On Youth Day, June 16, members of the parish marched for peace, led by Father Jonathan, our priest. Some Catholic nuns, despite their frailty, walked the entire distance. From March to mid-August a number of parishioners have engaged in sharing peace messages. More than 2 000 peace messages have been sent out, and peace projects undertaken through the church number approximately 150.
Parishioners were addressed by our Peace Ambassadors. They took their message out on to the streets of Hanover Park, speaking to many individuals. The message was shared with the parish children studying the catechism.
A Peace Holy Mass is scheduled for August 26, so that our commitment to faith though action can be accelerated.
This exciting journey started when a few members of the Hanover Park congregation attended the Peace Ambassadors programme in March that was facilitated by Professor Brian Williams.
For us, it was a completely new and exciting way to understand peace as a transformative power. We immediately shared our experiences with Father Jonathan, our spiritual leader in the area. Professor Williams was invited to facilitate a Peace Ambassadors workshop for parishioners and out of that workshop a series of peace projects emerged.
His Holiness Pope Francis stated that “every human being desires communion and peace. Everyone needs peaceful co-existence. But this can grow only when we also build inner peace in our hearts” (in a video message for Katholikentag (Catholics Day), a festival-like gathering in Germany, on May 27 2016).
His Grace, Archbishop Stephen Brislin (Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Town), in an article published on April 15 2017 reminded us of a great virtue of peace though the example of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
Archbishop Brislin stated that, “It was on the donkey that the Lord Jesus chose to enter Jerusalem before his arrest, torture and crucifixion – an event we recalled in our churches at the beginning of Holy Week, on Palm Sunday. Perhaps the donkey is not the sort of animal one would expect or consider fit for a king or for the Messiah, but it is rooted in the Old Testament, going as far back as Abraham who “saddled his donkey” (Genesis 22:3). In those times the horse was considered a vehicle of war and even oppression (cf. Jeremiah 6:23). Jesus, arriving on a donkey, conveys that He is a person of peace”.
Peace will be won by ordinary people like us, living in Hanover Park and elsewhere, who choose to combine faith and action. Archbishop Brislin’s inspiring message is for all of us who are part of the global church of 1.4 billion Catholics. We must apply the social justice teachings of the church and the theology of liberation to build peace.
Father Jonathan reminds us there is an automatic spiritual obligation Catholics have to oppose violence and to promote peace. Catholics must therefore be in the front lines to work for peace and justice. “Peace involves work; it is not about staying calm and doing nothing. No! True peace means working so everyone has a solution to the problems, to the needs, that they have in their land, in their homeland, in their family, in their society.” (Pope Francis: audience with children of the Peace Factory, May 12, 2015).
The focal point of the message from us as Peace Ambassadors is that peace begins with you. It is only from real inner peace that outer peace can become sustainable. We know that we are at the beginning stages of making peace a reality in Hanover Park, creating friendships among all, listening together and seeking solutions to problems together, thus acquiring peaceful co-existence for all. We are very realistic and acknowledge that “peace involves work”.
We invite all who wish to commit to work with us as Peace Ambassadors, to make peace a reality, to join us in Hanover Park. Peace is every act that brings harmony into society.
At an earlier occasion His Holiness stated that “peace firstly means that there is friendship between all... that every day a step ahead is made for justice, so that there are no more children who are hungry, that there are no more sick children who do not have the possibility of receiving health care”.
The Catholic Church is a spiritual lighthouse in a dark war zone and we shall triumph in building peace in Hanover Park.
Lucinda Paulse is a Peace Ambassador of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Hanover Park.