125th Anti-Slavery
Campaign – MSOLA & M.Afr.
Dear sisters, dear brothers,
Greetings of joy
and peace to all of you who form part of the Lavigerie family: The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa,
the Missionaries of Africa, and the associate members, novices, postulants,
candidates, friends and benefactors of both Institutes.
We greet you,
wherever you are, who work for the freedom of our fellow human beings, who have
a passion for humanity and who demonstrate it in your actions. It is with you
all that we wish to start this year of celebration of the 125th
Anniversary of the Anti-Slavery Campaign of Cardinal Charles Martial Lavigerie,
our founder. With the encouragement and blessing of Pope Leo XIII’s, he joined
the world-wide campaign for the abolition of the slave trade in general and in
Africa in particular.
In 1888 Cardinal
Lavigerie did not limit his audience and appeal to Catholics and believers
only, but he extended it to all people of good will: “Slavery, as it is practiced in Africa, is not only, indeed, contrary to
the Gospel, it is contrary to natural law. Natural laws do not concern
Christians only, they involve all humanity. That is why I am appealing to
everyone, without distinction of nationality, party or religious creed. I do
not address myself simply to faith, but to reason, to justice, to respect, to
love of liberty” (Gesù at Rome, 23rd December, 1888).
This is why we
want to live this year of celebration together with the members of our local
churches, with other Christian Churches as well as with people from all
cultures and religions. For all of us, the words of Cardinal Lavigerie continue
to resound and to be a source of inspiration:
“I am a man,
and nothing human is foreign to me. I am a man, and injustice towards others
revolts my heart. I am a man, and oppression offends my nature. I am a man and
what I would like people to do is to restore to me, freedom, honour and the
sacred bonds of family, I want to
restore to the sons and daughters of this unhappy race, family, honour and
freedom.” (Lavigerie, Chiesa del Gesù, Rome, 23rd December 1888).
This campaign took Cardinal Lavigerie to many European cities, with
the aim of raising enough awareness to wipe out the different types of slavery.
The motto of his struggle came from his speech in the Church of Gesù in Rome :
« I am a man and nothing human is
foreign to me ».
It is therefore appropriate that this year of celebration will be
officially opened at the Church of Gesù in Rome on the 11th November
2012, the feast of Saint Martin of Tours, a missionary bishop much admired by
Cardinal Lavigerie. The closing ceremony
will be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on the 8th September
2013. Why Burkina Faso? Africa suffered very much from the slave trade.
Cardinal Lavigerie’s antislavery campaign relied on the work of missionaries in
Africa who sent him detailed reports on what was going on there. They also did
all that they could to redeem slaves and to influence local rulers. The 8th
September is the feast of the Birth of Our Lady and also of the birth of the
Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa in 1869. To celebrate a birth is to
celebrate new life. We do not want this celebration to be just another
commemoration with just a passing effect on our lives. For the Missionaries of
Africa, the closing celebration will coincide with the 2013 Plenary Council
that will take place in Ouagadougou.
The Second African Synod and recent General Chapters of our two
Institutes have emphasized the importance of working for Justice, Peace and the
Integrity of Creation wherever we are and whatever we do. We will use this
year’s celebration to raise awareness of today’s forms of slavery. Documents
will be sent out to help us reflect on such topics as human rights in Africa,
poverty, land grabbing, human trafficking and child labour. Knowing what is
happening to so many of our fellow human beings leads us to become indignant
and to engage ourselves wholeheartedly with all those who like Cardinal
Lavigerie continue to cry out: “I am
human and nothing human is foreign to me”.
Throughout this year we invite you to be creative in holding
celebrations and reflections and to decide on some concrete action in order to
fight today’s unjust systems.
Our action can
take the form of advocacy as well as an involvement in daily life to abolish
slavery and suffering of all kind. It also needs to take the form of prayer. We
need to “storm heaven” as Cardinal
Lavigerie did through the intercession of Our Lady of Africa: “Mary, we proclaimed you Queen of Africa here
twenty-five years ago and Africa relies on your protection. What have you done
for Africa? Again, how can you still bear such horrors to continue? Are you to
be just a Queen of corpses? Are you a mother just to forget her children? There
must be an end to this!’ (Algiers, 19th April, 1889).
May this
celebration be one of thanksgiving for the new life that was brought forth through
Cardinal Lavigerie’s antislavery campaign! May this commemoration bring to
birth new efforts to eradicate today’s forms of slavery! May the actions we
take together with other like minded people lead us to a world where the
dignity of everyone is respected! May we hasten the day when God’s universal
love for the Earth and for the whole Cosmos becomes a lived reality for
everyone!
Fr.
Richard K. Baawobr, M.Afr.
Superior General

Sr. Carmen Sammut, MSOLA
Superior General