AFRICA/BURUNDI – The fruits, failures, wounds, the new beginnings. Archbishop Nahimana recounts 125 years of the Gospel in Burundi.

AFRICA/BURUNDI – The fruits, failures, wounds, the brand new beginnings. Archbishop Nahimana recounts 125 years of the Gospel in Burundi.

by Luca Mainoldi
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – “Because the starting of our evangelization, the household has been the primary cell of the Burundian Church”, says Msgr. Bonaventure Nahimana, Archbishop of Gitega and President of the Conférence des Evêques Catholiques du Burundi (CECAB), in a interview with Fides.

The Church is celebrating 125 years of evangelization in Burundi. What are the religious fruits in this time period?

The 125 years of evangelization in Burundi is a time of thanksgiving as a result of we see the fruits. We have now 8 dioceses with nearly 300 parishes, with plentiful priestly and non secular vocations. There are additionally quite a few social works of the Church: faculties, well being facilities, locations of social gathering (foyers sociaux). We hope that this Jubilee could mark a brand new stage in our evangelization and that’s the reason we now have targeted it on the Christian household, which is the home Church and the primary space of evangelization. It’s because for the reason that starting of the Church in Burundi, households have participated rather a lot within the work of proclaiming the Gospel. Newly baptized dad and mom despatched their youngsters to catechism, had them baptized, and taught them prayers.
That’s the reason we wished from the grassroots neighborhood, passing by way of the parish, the diocese, after which widening our gaze to the nationwide degree, to think about the situation and mission of the household. We are going to arrange conferences for households on the parish and diocesan degree that may conclude in Might in a nationwide discussion board in Bujumbura, to which representatives from Rwanda and neighboring Congolese dioceses are invited

What different initiatives do it’s important to rejoice the Jubilee?

As for different Jubilee initiatives, pilgrimages to the primary Burundian parish, Muyaga Parish, is deliberate. However since not everybody will be capable of attend, we now have deliberate for these pilgrimages to happen within the first 5 church buildings in Burundi so that folks can perceive how the religion got here to our nation and later unfold all through the area. We wish to construct monuments to commemorate the primary settlement of the Church in Burundi ranging from Muyaga, then Gitega, which was the primary diocese in addition to the seat of Burundi’s second parish, after which Bujumbura, as a result of within the present capital there have been the primary makes an attempt to proclaim the Gospel, however they had been unsuccessful. Pilgrimages and initiatives will even happen in Rumonge, the place there was the primary missionary presence in 1879, which ended badly as a result of the missionaries, who had been the White Fathers, had been murdered, on Might 4, 1881. On account of this martyrdom, the missionaries had been pressured to abound in Burundi for some 20 years. The White Fathers killed at Rumonge had been a part of Cardinal Charles Lavigerie’s first caravan, which had break up into two teams. The primary had headed in the direction of Lake Victoria, in Uganda, and the opposite in the direction of Lake Tanganika and exactly to Rumonge which is on its shores.
So the fruits we hope to have from the Jubilee are to begin with the renewal of the Christian religion. To recollect the place our religion got here from to see it revived by way of households. As a result of from the very starting religion was handed down from household to household and inside households; dad and mom take their duty as Christian educators of their youngsters severely. We then hope to see the start of a brand new stage within the evangelization of our nation by way of missionary openness. Burundi has obtained a lot from missionaries. Now the Church of Burundi has clergymen, spiritual women and men despatched to completely different international locations. We have now nearly 100 Fidei Donum clergymen despatched to Church buildings in Europe, America and in addition Africa. For instance, the Archdiocese of Gitega despatched clergymen to Cameroon and Chad. We even have clergymen in Europe (Spain, France, Austria, Germany and to a lesser extent in Italy). Spiritual congregations of Burundian origin are additionally current in different international locations. They’re seen fruits of the missionary facet of evangelization.

Are you able to give some particulars on the work of the spiritual congregations born in your nation?

There are a number of spiritual congregations that had been born in Burundi and are current in different international locations. The primary is the congregation of Soeurs Bene Tereziya, which was based in 1931 by the primary Apostolic Vicar of Burundi, Msgr. Julien-Louis-Edouard-Marie Gorju, is now of pontifical proper, and is current in Tanzania, Chad, Italy, and France. The second congregation is that of the Frères Bene-Yozefu, after which there’s that of the Soeurs Bene Mariya, and others. On this respect the Church in Burundi has been blessed by the Lord.

As in Rwanda, the State in Burundi has intervened to put guidelines on the “new religions”. However one additionally notices a return of the trustworthy to the Catholic Church after an expertise in certainly one of these sects….

To start with, there’s a robust thirst on the a part of the Catholic trustworthy to drink on the Phrase of God. Ten years in the past the primary version of the Bible got here out in Kirundi, the native language, printed in 10,000 copies. It was considered greater than sufficient. Since then seven editions have come out and to date the demand can’t be met, testifying to the truth that the trustworthy must go deeper into God’s Phrase and Christian formation. The laity are asking to be shaped in order that they in flip can have interaction in evangelization. These are constructive indicators, however it is usually a problem as a result of we have to discover the formators and the means to take action. On the similar time we see that a number of Catholics who had joined the sects are returning to the Church. And that is a further problem for the formators, particularly the catechists whom we thank very a lot.
From the start their function has been important. It’s the catechists who welcome individuals, put together them to obtain sacraments, and accompany households.

How is the Church in Burundi structured within the space?

The household is the primary nucleus of the Church, and known as to be a college of prayer and proclamation of the Gospel. Ten households residing on the identical hill type a base neighborhood, which meets a few times per week to share the Phrase of God. In every base neighborhood there are companies corresponding to Caritas, the fee for catechesis, liturgical fee. In brief, on the most elementary degree all companies are represented. Every participant within the grassroots neighborhood is requested to reside his or her religion by serving to one another and being shut to one another. On this means the person grassroots neighborhood can take cost of its poor, as a result of you already know who’s in want, who has no meals. Then we now have what we name the “Department”, shaped by a lot of grassroots communities. The latter collect in a chapel to wish, whereas the “Department” has a church for the Sunday celebration of the Phrase presided over by a catechist. On the “Department” degree, lay associations and actions corresponding to Catholic Motion and Scouts function. It’s a “department” of the parish that’s made up of 4 or extra “Branches” and is directed by a number of clergymen.

Has this territorial construction enabled the Church to heal the injuries of the civil struggle?

It is a good query. Sure, it’s exactly in grassroots communities that folks can get to know one another, discuss, pay attention to one another and confront the issues they’re experiencing. There are grassroots communities the place truly individuals have reconciled. For instance on the difficulty of receiving refugees returning to Burundi. Within the villages from the place they’d fled, they’re requested, by way of the grassroots communities, to organize to welcome them after which to assist them combine into social life. Within the varied “Justice and Peace” commissions within the church community there are individuals in control of peaceable battle decision. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 17/3/2023)

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