Sometimes there comes blow after blow and one wonders about the trauma triggered in oneself and how to digest those, work through them and still keeps walking straight and with hope.
While still trying to absorb and digest all the chaos here in South Africa, this week also saw the publication from the Vatican on instructions on pastoral conversion of the Parish community in the service of the evangelising mission of the church – issued by the Congregation for the Clergy.
And if you, as the valued reader, now wonder what a Vatican’s instruction has to do with the situation in South Africa, the answer is simple:
in both cases it seems to me in my humble opinion, that the touch with reality has been lost somewhere and somehow.
And in both cases, it seems that history and ideology are playing the major roles.
While in South Africa the governing party has lost the plot and even appears to be destructive in what it claims to have liberated, the Vatican’s publication shows similarities, as it takes its arguments out of a history long gone in current times and partly draws arguments which don’t hold water under the bridge.
It is generally amazing to see in the context of the global village, that many, facing crisis and uncertainty, are moving back and trying to hold on systems, faith systems and social constructs which worked in the past. Nationalism, reminiscent mood, anxiety and the unwillingness to embrace an uncertain future is an interesting mix telling the story of human mankind in current times. Or maybe that others are right in saying, that the digital revolution has overstrained human mankind, exposing our weaknesses and triggering a yearning for safety and security given by what we know and hold dear.
And for those taking a step back and observing, the mix is interesting: in the case of the church we have a real revolutionary style of leadership in comparison with the last popes in Pope Frances contradicting backwards showing instructions, while in South Africa we have the most modern constitution while working with ideologies coming out of the Cold War times. It is those unspoken contradictions which adds to the trauma of living in current times.
While South Africa is yearning to heal from Apartheid and the unbelievable and unashamed corruption till present times, the Catholic Church is yearning to heal from the unbelievable and unashamed abuse of children cushioned by clericalism and a partly abstruse medieval view on sexuality.
Filed under: Africa, Catholic Church, General, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, South Africa, Uncategorized, ANC, apartheid, catholic church, Cold War, faith, global village, nationalism, Parish Communities, Pope Frances, social constructs, south africa, trauma, vatican
100 days of Lockdown, I have written and tried to summarize it in my last blog – but one topic, which needs to have its rightful place in an extra blog entry is something, most have not spent too much time on: 
Trauma must be addressed and worked through – and here would be normally also religious institutions coming into the picture besides the professionals – but the mere absence of leadership in this sector in this time of crisis in so many countries created a trauma itself, but that might be a topic for another time.
It seems to explode after easing the lockdown a bit in South Africa: Gender based violence. So much so that President Ramaphosa used his last address on national TV to call it a war against women, not to forget children.
God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE 