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Posted: November 27
(I wrote the following lines on the airplane yesterday on the feast of St. John Berchmans who never traveled anywhere once he got to Rome and threw himself into the study of philosophy. Would he have lived longer had he become an artist?)
I am writing these reflections high over Sudan as I fly northward back to Rome at the end of two weeks in Africa. My mind is a kaleidoscope of different images. First of all, as I write, I am sipping a glass of brandy and sitting in roomy comfort in business class, courtesy of a frequent-flyer upgrade. The Kenya Air flight attendants are very courteous and remind me of Mrs. Florence Wanyoike whom I met yesterday in her home in Nairobi; she also offered me something to eat and drink, the normal courtesy given to any visitor. The contrast is that Mrs. Wanyoike lives in Kangemi, one of the sprawling slums that ring Nairobi. More important than where she lives, though, is her role as leader of one of St. Joseph the Worker parish's 19 small Christian communities. From the church you walk past the most violent section of the slum (nicknamed "Beirut") and on to the small store where she and her husband support a family of four boys by selling groceries and basic commodities. Despite the poverty all around her, Mama Jim, as most people call her, has a dignity flowing from her faith that is more memorable than the amenities of business class travel. I will work on a photo essay showing the parish and members of the community Mama Jim heads.
I stopped in Nairobi on my way homeward from the SIGNIS meeting in Capetown. I did not want to write a report on the meeting while it was going on because I wasn't sure what to say. Several good things happened, especially the opportunity for me to encounter some of the Jesuits working in communication who were also at the meeting or at the production workshop before it. I also profited from the opportunity to get to know Father Bernardo Suarte, a diocesan priest from Cameroon who is the new head of the Signis Missionary Service which has been providing the equipment to church groups to start radio stations in Africa but is now branching out to offering internet connection through KU-band satellites. The Jesuit-run Radio Chikuni in Zambia is already profiting from this access. (If you want to know more, please drop me a line.)
SIGNIS is a world-wide organization made up of other organizations, and it has to follow bureaucratic rules that I find tedious. It also serves as a gatekeeper for money from the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith destined for communication works, mostly in Africa and Asia. The major project for this first meeting of the Assembly of Delegates was the approval of bylaws to specify procedures adopted in Rome two years ago when members of UNDA and OCIPE voted to merge. So far it seems that the new organization has devoted more attention creating itself than starting new activities. Two good projects that SIGNIS sponsors are the missionary Service and Catholic Radio and Television Network. Its website (http://www.crtn.org) says that CRTN is designed to serve producers, allowing programming exposure and negotiation opportunities with Christian television networks; and television broadcasters, providing a source of quality and theologically sound Christian programming.
After Capetown, I visited Hekima College in Nairobi, which currently provides theological formation to Jesuit scholastics; it also has great potential for a wider presence in Africa and could be the base for some distance education. Later I met with the provincial of East Africa, Father Fratern Masawe, to talk about some ideas on popular education and the future of radio in his province's apostolic plans.
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