SOUTH AFRICA: INTERVIEW WITH BISHOP PONCE

Agenzia Fides REPORT– A missionary Bishop from Argentina in South Africa. That would describe Bishop Jose G. Ponce de Leon, Vicar Apostolic of Ingwavuma, who has been in Rome for the seminar for newly appointed bishops organized by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (see Fides 09/06/2010). The following is an interview with Bishop Ponce de Leon by Fides.How has your missionary vocation unfolded?I am a Consolata missionary. Our training is 'international.' I did the novitiate and theology studies in Colombia. I was in that country for 4 ½ years, from 1982 to 1986. After graduating, we mention three places of mission where we would like to go. I mentioned Ethiopia, Mozambique, and South Africa and I also made myself available to go to Asia. My superiors, however, asked me to return to Argentina instead. I was in Argentina for seven years running missionary activities, through a magazine and through missionary training. In 1993, I was sent to South Africa to the Province of KwaZulu, where I worked from 1994 to 2005. I was then sent to Rome to lead the mission there and later serve as Secretary General. Could you tell us a little about the Vicariate of Ingwavuma? The Vicariate was established in 1990 and was assigned to the Servants of Mary. The Bishop was an Irish Servant of Mary, Michael Mary O'Shea, who died in 2006. The Vicariate is located in the north-eastern Province of KwaZulu, on the border with Mozambique and Swaziland. Apart from some celebrations done in English, all our pastoral activity is done in Zulu. I also celebrate the Mass in Zulu. It took me forever to learn it! At 15 years since the birth of a new South Africa, seeing someone who makes the effort to learn the language of another causes joy, especially for those who were forced to learn the language of those who came from the outside, the colonizers. Currently, we have 6 diocesan priests and 6 religious priests, and 2 deacons will be ordained this year, so in the future there will be 8 diocesan priests. Thus, the number of diocesan priests is higher than that of religious priests, something unique for a Vicariate. These priests are young because they have been ordained in the last five years and are a sign of hope for the Vicariate. What are the most serious problems in your Vicariate? AIDS is the main scourge of KwaZulu. According to statistics ,at least 30% of the population is affected with HIV, one in three are ill or are carriers of the virus. This means that there is not one family that has not suffered due to HIV. The number of orphans is very high. We have no orphanages, because we prefer that these children continue to live in their communities of origin, with neighbors, or relatives. The eldest son often takes on the role of father for their siblings. The SACBC (Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference) has had the wonderful initiative of creating an AIDS office which collects the funds to be distributed to individual dioceses. I, as a single bishop, would not be able to raise the necessary funds to cure the sick of my Vicariate. Each diocese has its own aid projects for AIDS patients, in connection with the SACBC office, in order to raise/allot funds. This results in sending groups of volunteers who visit the sick, in projects for orphans, and especially in the administration of antiretroviral drugs. We also have a blood laboratory. We do not have to send blood samples to Johannesburg to be analyzed. I was impressed by the remark made by a physician who works with us who is not Catholic, who said: "There is no other Church that does as much as the Catholic Church for our people." We have a clinic near the Cathedral, which attends 80 patients every Tuesday. On other days, the doctors and nurses visit the rural areas and small communities of the Vicariate. These activities are a sign of hope, because if we have been able to continue it is not only thanks to the funds, but also thanks to the participation of people. The locals, not the foreigners coming in from the outside, who volunteer their time to care for the sick. http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=27419&lan=eng

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