Church in the World

Church to dispel lingering racism

South Africa

Racism and racial segregation still exist within South Africa's Catholic Church a decade after the end of apartheid, according to a report by an agency of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC)

“There can be no doubt the Church has always maintained a doctrinal opposition to any form of racial discrimination”, said Bishop Mlungisi Dlungwane, an auxiliary in Marianhill, and chairman of the SACBC’s Justice and Peace Department which produced the document, “Race Relations in the Catholic Church”.

“However, its organisation of parishes often meant the Church reflected the segregation of society at large.” In a statement issued on 16 December the bishop added that “we now face the challenge that racial division will be institutionalised in post-apartheid South Africa, not only in the local and national social and economic structures, but also in the religious practice of South Africans”.

The 30-page report was based on a two-year consultation with local church communities throughout the country.

A decade after the transition from apartheid, the report said, “church communities still express a strong need for safe spaces to be created in the Church for people to dialogue about their experiences of racism”. It found “attitudes of distrust of black clergy, especially in leadership positions, remain and that black clergy in predominantly white parishes face enormous pressures of proving their competence”.

There was acknowledgement that a “Euro-centric culture becomes the basis of evaluation of credibility in some churches”. It was suggested that significant social reconciliation and the development of non-racist attitudes will require all communities to move beyond their social “comfort zones”.

The dialogue and reflection process will be taken forward in 2005 in all the dioceses of the Catholic Church in South Africa, according to Zukile Tom of the Justice and Peace Department.

Ideas to tackle the problem, emerging from regional seminars over the past two years, included adjustments to parish boundaries that are modelled on apartheid group areas, and the introduction of different languages and cultural practices into the liturgy to reflect ethnic diversity.

Ellen Teague