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| Cardinal Peter Turkson Photo: SACBC |
Cardinal Peter Turkson, who was appointed as
Pope Francis’ special envoy to the memorial service of Nelson Mandela, will also be celebrating Mass later this week in honour of Nelson
Mandela.
The Mass will be celebrated at 5 pm on Friday,
13 December 2013, in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Pretoria. The
Cathedral is located on the corner of Bosman and Nana Sita Streets in Pretoria.
While speaking to the information officer of
the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Turkson said “that it would be a pity if the
world leaders travelled so far at such a great cost to their nations and still
did not strive to live up to the standard that Mandela has set.”
Fr. S’milo Mngadi reported that Cardinal Turkson had also “exhorted the world leaders to express in their leadership the values
Mandela stood for.”
I am pleased that Pope Francis, his envoy,
Cardinal Peter Turkson, as well as Cardinal Napier and all the bishops of the
Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference have highlighted the many good
examples that Nelson Mandela has given us and the incredible good he did.
It is possible, like some Catholics have done,
to focus intensively on the fact that Nelson Mandela signed into law the Choice
on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996.
But in doing so we completely ignore the
fact that, even though it may have been Nelson Mandela who signed the act as
the President of South Africa, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act was
in fact passed by parliament with 209 votes to 87. It is simply disingenuous to
hold Nelson Mandela singlehandedly responsible for the act.
Secondly, we forget the wonderful example of
forgiveness that Nelson Mandela showed us. There are not many people who would
have forgiven and worked with the same people who kept him imprisoned for 27
years - more than a quarter of his life. It was precisely his capacity to
forgive and focus on reconciliation that made the miracle of a democratic South
Africa possible.
Instead of focusing on what Nelson Mandela
got wrong and what he could or should have done differently, I think it would
be far better for us to consider these words of Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium
[My emphasis]:
“An evangelizing community is always concerned with fruit, because the
Lord wants her to be fruitful. It cares for the grain and does not grow
impatient at the weeds. The sower, when he sees weeds sprouting among
the grain does not grumble or overreact. He or she finds a way to let
the word take flesh in a particular situation and bear fruits of new life, however
imperfect or incomplete these may appear.”[i]
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