"Joint witness" is the gathering of bishops and religious superiors. It takes place at different levels. Every two or three years it is done at the level of the episcopal conference and lasts a few days.
It is also held at "Metropolitan" level. In our case, the "Johannesburg Metropolitan Province" gathers the archdiocese of Johannesburg and the dioceses of Klerksdorp, Manzini (Eswatini) and Witbank. We do it once a year for half a day. This time we met on Thursday morning (October 25) at the "Rabbuni Centre" in the diocese of Klerksdorp.
The five bishops came together the afternoon before to reflect on other topics related to our dioceses and countries. It is not unusual that our plenary session (when all the bishops come together) would entrust to the Metropolitan Province the deepening of some topics we spoke during the meeting. It could also happen that the meeting at this level helps us identify issues that need to be taken to the whole group.
By 9.00 am on Thursday morning most of the religious superiors or their delegates had arrived. Many religious communities serving in our area were present. Unfortunately due to the distance among other things, I was the only one present from the Kingdom of Eswatini.
Having once again introduced ourselves (helps refresh our memory!) and gone through the minutes, we worked on two topics.
The first one, following last year's meeting, was about our involvement with refugees and in the fight against human trafficking. It became clear that all the dioceses have initiated programs and in some cases marches have been held. The feast of St Josephine Bakhita (February 8) seems to be the main day for awareness regarding Human Trafficking.
In the case of the diocese of Manzini, there is a refugee centre run by Caritas Swaziland and we are in the process of setting up a "Human Trafficking Desk" which will bring together representatives of the different groups/sodalities of the diocese and some members of the religious communities.
The second topic we were invited to reflect together was the present sexual abuse crisis. This time we did not share according to our dioceses but in a different way. A statement was given to each one of us:
"Two (could be more) root causes of sexual abuse
are a culture of fear and silence, and culture of clericalism".
We were then given some time to think about it and choose one of the three possible groups:
- I agree
- I disagree
- Not sure, I am confused.
The sharing was good. Though I participated in one of the groups I was not able to remain for the sharing. Having to drive back alone to Manzini, made me leave at midday. Looking forward to the minutes.
