Missionaries of Africa
The White Fathers
The Missionaries of Africa, also known as “The White Fathers”, arrived in the parish of St Vincent de Paul on the 18th of September 2018. They were the first priests to reside in the parish for 17 years.
The White Fathers were founded by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie in 1868 in Algiers. At the time, he had just been appointed archbishop of the French Territory of Algeria. When he arrived there in 1867, there were two classes of population, living in the country. One was the local Berber people, who formed the majority, the other was made up of the rich, merchant class of French settlers and the French administration. The Governor who appointed Lavigerie told him to involve himself only with the French and not to enter into contact with the local population.
When Lavigerie saw the poverty of the people, he simply could not ignore them. Not only were they poor but they were also dying in their tens of thousands each day, afflicted by an epidemic of cholera and typhoid due to the famine that ravaged the country. Lavigerie could not stand by and watch the people suffer. At first, he tried to get the French population to come to the aid of the people. Neither priest nor people were willing to lift a figure to help. He called on seminaries and colleges in France, and gathered around him a group of young men, prepared to break the norms and do what they could to relieve the suffering of the people. These were the first members of his new society of missionaries.
“I am a man, and nothing human is foreign to me”, he would later declare during his campaign to abolish slavery in 1888. “I am a man, and injustice towards others revolts my heart. I am a man, and oppression offends my nature. I am a man and what I would like people to do is to restore to me, freedom, honour and the sacred bonds of family. I want to restore to the sons and daughters of this unhappy race, family, honour and freedom.”
It is this consciousness of our common humanity and that we are all children of One God, that motivates all Missionaries of Africa, even today. The Missionaries of Africa who have moved into this parish seek to be “All things to Everyone”. It is what motivates them as they reach out to our brothers and sisters in different religions, especially to those of the Muslim Faith. They seek to harmonise their relations with people who seek God in different ways and help others to enter into dialogue with each other. “All things to everyone” leads them to work for equality in society.
Everyone has the same rights to food and water, to education and health care, to freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Everyone has the right to security and freedom from fear and to a roof over their heads. So, the missionaries of Africa seek to ensure these rights to people, wherever they may find themselves.
In the past, these missionaries, who live in communities of at least 3 members, but international, had their mission only within the confines of Africa. Today they have learnt to share their missionary experience and their missionary endeavour, with people across the world. Hence, we are opening missions in Europe, North and South America and Asia, depending on the needs of the people. So, here in SVP we seek out the needs of the people and try to reply to them with love and in the light of the Gospel.
Cardinal Charles Martial Lavigerie
(31 October 1825 – 26 November 1892)
A Catholic priest from Bayonne, France, he became Bishop of Nancy in 1863. He was noted for the reforms he introduced in the life of the clergy and their formation. In 1867, he accepted an appointment as Archbishop of Algiers, where he worked with great generosity to ease the plight of the local population. He campaigned for the abolition of slavery and travelled across Europe to expose the cruelties of this practice. The Societies of men and women he founded took this work to heart and continue in his name today.
He expressed his love for Africa and for its people in these words:
“I have loved everything about our Africa; its past, its future, its mountains, its clear sky, its sun, the great lines of its desert, the blue waves which bathe its shores”.
