Posts by Vusizwe Motsa

The challenging call of a deacon

By: Bp José Luis IMC (Bishop of Manzini)

Homily notes at the ordination to the diaconate of K. Dlamini
(St Ignatius of Loyola, Siphofanen)

Livi laba yinyama!

  1. A call

Most of the times, if not every time, the one being ordained chooses as the first reading the one of the prophet Jeremiah or a similar one. It places today’s celebration in the right context: “the one being ordained is answering God’s call”. There is nothing like: “I would like to be a deacon, I would like to be a priest…” During these 8 – 9 years, the Church has journeyed with Khonzumenzi discerning if God had called him.

Khonzumenzi shared with me that the reading is an expression of his confidence in the One who called him. The future is unknown and he naturally wonders: “will I be able to live as per demands of my vocation? Will I execute it according to His will?”The reading assures him protection among challenges, difficulties, pains…

 2. In the body of the Church

As I said, the Church has been discerning if he has been called by God because this is a call in the Church.

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Blessing of solar panels

By: Bp José Luis IMC (Bishop of Manzini)

At the beginning of the Season of Creation  we gathered at St Theresa’s Clinic thanking God for the gift of the recently installed solar panels
Below is my address and the prayer we shared

Click HERE for photos of the event

“In 2015 Pope Francis wrote an encyclical letter called “Laudato Si” about the care for creation, our common home.

He writes:  

Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. Yet we are called to be instruments of God our Father, so that our planet might be what he desired when he created it and correspond with his plan for peace, beauty and fullness. The problem is that we still lack the culture needed to confront this crisis. We lack leadership capable of striking out on new paths and meeting the needs of the present with concern for all and without prejudice towards coming generations. (53)

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Pope Francis’ donation to Good Shepherd Catholic Hospital

By: Bp José Luis IMC (Bishop of Manzini)

On 11 August 2021 we gathered at Good Shepherd Catholic Hospital (Siteki) I presented a donation from Pope Francis of COVID19 response equipment

Click HERE for photos of the event 

Good Shepherd Catholic Mission Hospital – board chairperson
Lubombo Regional Health Officer
Good Shepherd Catholic Mission Hospital – CEO
Management team
Priests and deacon
Members of the media

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

We are gathered here today to present and thank Pope Francis’ donation to Good Shepherd Catholic Hospital.

From the very beginning of this pandemic affecting the whole world, Pope Francis took an active role and leadership:

  •  As soon as the first lock-downs were announced in Italy, he suspended all the public prayers and weekly audiences that were being held at St Peter’s square;
  • He called the world to prayer and prayed for the whole world. I still recall a very intense and moving prayer held last year on March 27. Intense and moving because Pope Francis chose to do it at St Peter’s square, like many other times. The difference, though, is that he was there all alone. It was the image of a world experiencing lockdowns but at the same time the image of a shepherd that remains close to the sheep;

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Lone Swaziland bishop says country can’t take painkillers without understanding the pain

By: Inés San Martín (ROME BUREAU CHIEF)

ROME – As violence continues to grip the small southern Africa nation of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland and the continent’s last remaining monarchy, the country’s lone Catholic bishop says the challenge isn’t just to stop the bloodshed, but to understand why it’s happening.

“We need to understand how we reached to this point,” Bishop José Luis Gerardo Ponce de León told Crux. “It won’t be possible to move forward without it. It would be like going to the doctor because we are in pain and accepting to live on painkillers, without really knowing where the pain comes from.”

The current round of violence began in late May with the murder of a young law student, speaking protests from thousands of people which, in turn, triggered a harsh government crackdown.

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We dare to dream of a peaceful Southern Africa

Memorial lecture: Fr Dumisani Vilakati’s address 

On Saturday 22 May 2021
our diocese held the third “Bishop Zwane Memorial Lecture”
under the topic

We dare to dream of a peaceful Southern Africa:
Reflections on Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti

Below is Fr D. Vilakati’s address

Memory does not mean a matter that has come and gone. On the contrary, memory, following the best of the Jewish and our liturgical traditions, means presence. Therefore, the memory of Bishop Mandlenkhosi Zwane is an act of making him present and participating in the life of the Church in the here and now. He is inviting us to continue engaging in a culture of encounter so as to foster peace and harmony in the Southern African Region.

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We dare to dream…

Bp José Luis IMC (Bishop of Manzini)

Bishop Zwane Memorial Lecture
Bishop’s remarks

This is the third “Bishop Zwane Memorial Lecture” we celebrate in our diocese and, I believe, we can now officially call it a diocesan tradition. One or two lectures might not make it so, but three probably put the foundation. I thank the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace working under Caritas Eswatini for making it possible. I am very much aware of the amount of work it entailed.

After the first lecture – in which we particularly remembered the impact of Bishop Zwane in our diocese, in our country and in Southern Africa – having consulted our priests, I decided that the following ones would address topics he had at heart or that we believe he would have had at heart today.

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The annual Bishop Zwane Memorial Lecture

By: Bp José Luis IMC (Bishop of Manzini)

“The Catholic Diocese of Manzini, through the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Eswatini (CCJP), celebrates the life and work of Bishop Aloysius Zwane who was one of the most progressive priests of his time. In fact, ahead of his time, we remember him as a uniquely fearless opponent of social and economic injustices and a man of great honor and principle”

With these words, the CCJP announces the coming lecture to be held on Saturday 22 May 2021 at the Cathedral.

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Sts Peter and Paul Parish Honours the Memory of the Departed Parishioners

By: Sibongile Hlatshwayo (Sts Peter and Paul Parish, Kwaluseni)

The Covid-19 Pandemic took away a number of our beloved family members and during the lockdown the church could not celebrate Mass for any of them because of the strict restrictions by the government. Gatherings of any sort were not allowed and so were the night vigils; the body of the deceased could be collected from the morgue straight to the burial site something that was very unusual to us since the tradition has always been that a Requiem Mass be celebrated for the deceased something that did not happen during lockdown.

It is because of this that Sts Peter and Paul Parish decided to set a day for a joint celebration in honour of all those who died during the lockdown. This was a moment for the families and the church community to come together and honour in a more descent way our departed parishioners. According to the Parish Death Register, a total of twenty two parishioners were recorded to have died between January 2020 to the time when the celebration was conducted on Saturday the 8th of May, 2021. All the families of the deceased were notified of the event and were requested to submit portraits of the deceased. The news was received with great joy by family members even as some mentioned how much they cursed the pandemic for robbing them of the possibility to accord their departed ones a proper and a descent sendoff.

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