Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – In his recent talk during the Congress organized by the Saint Joseph's International Missionary College (see Fides 29 and 30/04/2009), Father Osorio Citora Afonso, IMC, from the Church in Mozambique, recalled the catechists who were martyred by the Liberation Front in Mozambique between 1975 and 1992. Fr. Osorio commented: “I wish to pay homage to the heroic lay catechists and missionaries of Mozambique who dedicate their lives, amidst often difficult and dangerous situations, to making Christ known and offering the message of salvation to all men. My task, therefore, is not only to give an account of isolated cases but to offer testimony in first person of what the courageous Christians of my time from my Church did in living out their lives as committed Christians.”
Father Osorio recalled the crucial moments of the civil war when, “following the Declaration of Independence in 1975, with the rise to power of the Mozambique Liberation Front, with its Marxist-Leninist ideology, a times of authentic persecution against the Church began, with expropriation, all kinds of restrictions on pastoral activity, refusal of visas for foreign missionaries...The Church was stripped of all she had and was. Many missions were forced to be abandoned by missionaries and priests. Many small Christian communities began springing up. These did not arise in the presence of missionary priests, but with the 'lay missionaries,' i.e. the catechists and animators from the Christian communities.”
“I think above all of those who were formed in the Catechetical Center in Anchilo and who carried out their missionary activity in the area of Nampula and who were killed in the mission camp. There are also those who were trained at the Catechetical Center of Guiua and were killed during their formation and preparation in the Center. Cyprian, a catechist from the mission of Mueria (in the province of Nampula) was arrested by the Liberation Front because they thought he was a local politician. They bound him and dragged him along the road to the town of Matibane. When they reached a small chapel, Cyprian asked permission to enter and pray for five minutes. He later exited and handed himself over. They threw him on the ground and ended his life with a machete. He left behind a wife and seven children. It was August 29, 1984. The same occurred three years later with Peres Manuel Chiganjo, from the Province of Tete, who had been baptized at 24 years of age in the mission in Alto da Manga (Beira) and was also the father of seven.”
When the civil war was about to end, there was a chilling episode that took place in the Catechetical Center of Guiua, home to 15 families. Father Osorio explained: “The rebels brutally led the families from the Center, at three kilometers' distance, and after a painful interrogation began killing them all in a field. Other catechists, seeing that the situation was serious and impossible to change, asked permission to pray. After a few moments of prayer, the 23 catechists were killed. It was the night of March 22, 1992.” The sacrifice of the Guiua families was not in vain, the priest explained, because today this place is the fulcrum of the Diocese of Inhambane, where the footprints of God are visible on the land of the Tonga, the Twas, the Xopes, and the Ndaus. May God open the eyes and mind of all, so we can appreciate and remember how God opened His heart in Inhambane.” (AM) (Agenzia Fides 6/5/2009)
