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| SMA > about us > US Province > Justice & Peace | |
SMA
American Province | |
Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation |
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Responding to the cries of the poor and lifting the burdens of the oppressed are constant themes in the Bible. Often the Jewish people atoned for their sins by fasting, prayer, putting on sackcloth and covering their bodies with ashes. In response to this type of penance, Isaiah the Prophet speaks: "Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high. The Lord Yahweh speaks: This is the sort of fasting that pleases me-to break unjust fetters and to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed to go free, to break every yoke, to share your food with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor." (IS: Chapter 58). Jesus also spoke on the same theme in His account of the final judgment as recorded in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Saint Matthew: "Come you blessed of my Father into the Kingdom which has been prepared for you since the foundation of the world. I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me; sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me." Bringing justice and compassion to God's people has taken different forms down through the centuries. But is very clear from the Bible and the teachings of the Church that all who call themselves children of God must work for justice in this world.
 In Liberia, the early S.M.A. Fathers were met with hostility because they were Catholics. The Church was looked down upon because it was working with the Kru people and other tribal groups rather than among the elite. The pressure became so great that, for a while the S.M.A.s had to move out of Monrovia, the nation's capital. When Firestone Corporation of the U.S. moved into Liberia and started rubber plantations, Bishop John Collins, S.M.A., objected to the way they used Liberian laborers. He complained that they were paid too little and that the living conditions were substandard. S.M.A. makes no claim to a consistent and unblemished record for justice It always could have done more. But the above examples indicate that treating people justly and with dignity has been a part of S.M.A. mission theology from the days of its founder to the present time.
Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the development of the Theology of Justice was limited in scope. There was a strong emphasis on individual acts of injustice such as theft, illegal contracts, the rights of labor to organize, and the necessity of a just family wage. After Vatican II, theologians began to explore the concept of structural sin. They recognized that in many instances, injustices could not be traced to a single act or decision of any particular individual. The injustices were the result of sinful structures. For example, in the U.S., the system of legal segregation was unjust. Many American S.M.A.s and others in the Church provided excellent services to the African-American Community. Yet the system of injustice meant that African Americans were legally excluded from tax supported schools, hospitals and other services. Through stringent local election laws they were excluded from their right to vote. The injustices toward African Americans did not come as the result of acts of individuals but of an unjust system of segregation that had been in place for nearly a century. Apartheid in South Africa is another case. In the economic area, it is unjust for the African farmer to have the price he or she receives for coffee or cocoa be determined by commodity speculators in London or Chicago. The tremendous fluctuations in price are not determined either by the quality or quantity of the cocoa or coffee, but by what an individual speculator or commodity brokerage firm thinks the crop is worth.  When S.M.A.s and other missionaries began to understand the concept of structural sin, they began to look more closely at the political, economic and social structures which were affecting the lives of the people with whom they worked. The result was that by the early seventies the formal Justice and Peace agenda of S. M. A. began to emerge By the time of the 1978 S.M.A. General Assembly, the issue surfaced as one of the Seven Missionary Objectives of the Society of African Missions By this time most S.M.A.s had come to agree with the General Assembly statement that: "The very content of the Message which is love impels all followers of Christ to work for the dignity and the rights of man and to promote justice and peace." Specifically the S.M.A.s said they would focus their missionary activity on the youth and oppressed in Africa. It would also try to conscientize the elite so they would remove the structures which oppressed the poor. In this Assembly, S.M.A. for the first time linked injustices in Africa with the policies of the countries outside Africa and mandated S.M.A. to focus on educating our own people about the problems in Africa.
In 1979 the American Province decided that it should have at least one member of S.M.A. working full time on justice and peace issues as they relate to Africa. Father Leo Op't Hoog, a member of the Dutch Province of S.M.A. with 25 years missionary experience in Ghana agreed to begin working on justice issues as they relate to Africa. Working with groups opposing apartheid in South Africa he pushed for economic sanctions against South Africa until apartheid was abolished. He helped these groups to widen their interest to other instances of injustice in Africa. He cited the low prices that African countries received for their exports such as coffee, cocoa and minerals and the high prices they had to pay for imports. From these meetings it became obvious that a more concerted effort would be needed if some of the more serious injustices perpetrated against the people of Africa were to be addressed. In 1980 the Provincials of the S.M.A. Fathers, Missionaries of Africa and the Holy Ghost Fathers asked CARA (Center For Applied Research in the Apostolate) to determine if an inter-congregational Justice and Peace office could be established.  When the study concluded that there was support for such a venture, about twenty Religious Congregations with personnel in Africa decided to create a coalition which would be called the Africa Faith and Justice Network. It began its work in the Fall of 1983. Its first-full time director was Father Joseph Donders, M.Afr. Father, (White Fathers) who had just concluded 25 years of service in East Africa. He was joined by Sister Maura Browne, SND (Sister of Notre Dame de Namur) who was an attorney with twelve years of experience in Kenya. AFJN has grown rapidly and now has over seventy members. AFJN monitors U.S. policy toward Africa as well as the policies of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations and other multilateral agencies. Among the issues which AFJN is addressing are: shipments of arms, ammunition and other military equipment to Africa, and the economic injustices caused by the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and IMF. After a year period AFJN has become known in Congress and among voluntary agencies for its wide grass-roots connections within Africa, the thoroughness of its research and its ability to marshal support policies which would eliminate some of the injustices to the peoples of Africa.
Ezekiel Pajibo, a Liberian member of the staff, produced first-class research reports on justice issues as they pertained to Africa. These were circulated among AFJN members, allied justice organizations and on Capitol Hill. These reports added to the credibility of AFJN.  In 1983 the S.M.A. General Assembly in Rome chose as one of its objectives to live in solidarity with the poor and oppressed and to promote initiatives for justice and liberation. In order to promote involvement of S.M.A. in this area of missionary activity the General Assembly decided that: "Within S.M.A., the General Council will initiate a program of conscientization and action for justice and peace at the international level, within our home countries and in Africa." In the follow up to the General Assembly, the American Province made the decision that: "The Province establish a Social Concerns Department which shall initiate a program for Justice and Peace Conscientization and Action in Africa and the U.S." Father Thomas Conlon, S.M.A., the Provincial Superior, appointed Father Thomas Hayden, S.M.A. as the first director of the Social Concerns Department. This Department began its work in October 1983. It focused on many issues including Apartheid in South Africa, the famine in Ethiopia and wars in Angola and Mozambique. However, its major concern was with Liberia where the American Province of S.M.A. had been working since 1948. The military coup in 1980 was followed by the Military Government's wide-scale political harassment of civilians, arbitrary executions on individuals and the invasion of the University of Liberia by the Liberian Army. This invasion ordered by President Doe resulted in wide scale injuries to students and many deaths. Following this incident the Office of Social Concerns testified before Congressional Committees on Africa and Human Rights and asked that the United States cease all military shipments to Liberia. As a result of the testimony and that of several other organizations the U. S. did cancel military aid to Liberia.
When Father James Hickey, S.M.A., a member of the American Province and a professor of philosophy at the University of Liberia was arrested and jailed in Monrovia in April 1987, the Social Concerns Department asked for an immediate response from the U.S. State Department and Congress. When Father Hickey was deported illegally and without the due process guaranteed by the Liberian Constitution, the U.S. State Department and members of Congress protested this treatment to the Government of Liberia. In 2002, S.M.A. continues to demonstrate its concern for justice for the peoples of Africa through its own Office of Justice, Peace and Environmental Care as well as through its collaboration within the Africa Faith and Justice Network. While complete success will never arrive, the peoples of Africa, and especially those in Liberia realize that S.M.A. is working with them to ensure that other nations, especially the United States and the other nations of the North will respect them and treat them justly. Fr. Ted Hayden, S.M.A. |
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Serving the most abandoned people in Africa was the missionary goal of Bishop Marion de Brésillac, the founder of the S.M.A. Fathers. This conviction was so deep that despite warnings that there was a yellow fever epidemic raging in Freetown, Sierra Leone, he and his companions disembarked to begin their missionary work among the people there. Within six weeks all of this first band of S.M.A. missionaries to Africa had died of yellow fever.Copyright©2002-2008, Society of African Missions US Province
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