In his reflection on the recently concluded Ad Limina Visit, the Local Ordinary of Mthatha Diocese highlights the strengthening of the “self-sustenance” drives for the Catholic Church in the Southern region.
Members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) were in Rome for the June 12-17 Ad Limina Visit. During the weeklong visit, the bishops together with the Cardinal and the Secretariate met with several Vatican officials, including an unexpected meeting with the Pope.
In the Monday, July 3 reflection, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka shares brief reports from the meetings with officials of the various Dicasteries. Reflecting on a meeting held at the Dicastery for the Evangelisation of Peoples, “which works with mission areas in various continents, including Africa”, Bishop Sipuka says that one of the major issues addressed during the meeting was in relation to financial assistance.
“One major point of discussion was the issue of the growing inability of this Dicastery to provide financial and material assistance to mission areas like ours as well as the need for reporting for project funds received,” says Bishop Sipuka.
He adds, “We left the meeting with a heightened awareness of the need to beef up the self-sustenance drive in our Conference because the overseas coffers from which we traditionally got support are on the verge of drying up.”
The Local Ordinary of Mthatha Diocese who doubles as the President of the SACBC further says, “The point of encouraging the priests and laity of our Conference to be solicitous of the Church’s worldwide mission and participate in it through prayer, resources, and offering to be missionaries was raised.”
Prior to the Ad Limina Visit each Diocese prepared a comprehensive report, known as the Quinquennial Report, to present to the Pope. In his reflection, Bishop Sipuka expresses joy and gratitude for meeting with Pope Francis hours after he had been discharged from Gemelli Policlinic Hospital following an abdominal surgery on June 7.
“The crown of the visit was the meeting with the Pope, which we had given up on it happening because, for most days of our visit, he was in the hospital for an abdominal operation and came out on the morning of the last day of our stay,” says Bishop Sipuka.
He adds, “We were resigned to coming back without seeing him. But then, to our joy, at lunch, we had a word that the Pope would see us at 14:00. We thought that we would just greet him and let him go to rest, but no, he was in high spirits and spent an hour with us, responding to our questions and taking a picture with each of us.”
