New Head of Religious Institutes’ Conference in Southern Africa to Foster “communal bonds”

In the April 12 interview with ACI Africa, the LCCLSA president also spoke about the formation of aspiring women and men Religious and the promotion of Religious Life in Southern Africa.

“There are several issues that I think can be addressed by a body like this. One of them, of course, is that of formation, the training of young people who want to be Religious, that begins at the stage of vocation promotion”, he said, and added, “As a Religious, we have to work together in the promotion of vocations.”

Fr. Gwanisheni who is also a lecturer at St John Vianney Major Seminary went on to highlight the lack of faith formation in some families and shortages of vocations to Religious Life.

“Vocations to Religious Life are very scarce; it's a struggle for most Congregations,” he said, giving the example of his Order of the Franciscans that he said is “also affected by that” even though, he added, “we still get young people.”

Linked to the difficulty in recruiting candidates to Religious Life “is that when we get these young people, they come from families that are not practicing faith that much,” the new LCCLSA President told ACI Africa.

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“One must start from scratch when you're dealing with them (aspirants to Religious Life). And that requires a lot of time,” Fr. Gwanisheni said.

The 43-year-old Capuchin Priest cited lack of funding and a shortage of personnel in some Religious Congregation as a challenge in sustaining Religious Orders.

He said, “As LCCLSA we need to empower vocations promoters, but at the same time we also need to work on the youth programs in the Parishes, that is where we get our vocations.”

“We've always been relying on missionaries, and they've done a great job. But in the past 25 years, I can assure you, no Congregation has received more than 10 missionaries coming to serve in South Africa, maybe one or two”, said Fr. Gwanisheni.

“So, you can see even places that used to supply us with personnel are not able to do so. In fact, there is a little bit of a reversal of the whole thing now with some countries struggling to keep their houses going in other parts of the world”, he added.

The new president of LCCLSA also underscored the need for “ongoing formation” of members who are in their final vows.

“Another challenge is the question of ongoing formation, which is some form of accompaniment for the members who are already on final vows or people who are full members”, he said, and posed, “How do we accompany them? How do we assist them when they face challenges? And how do we keep the fire burning in their hearts and so on?”

“Religious congregations need skills development programs, where people will learn to sustain themselves as congregations,” Fr. Gwanisheni went on to say during the April 12 interview.

He continued, “The culture of just opening my hand so that someone can put something is slowly being phased out by the circumstances in other parts of the world.”

Sheila Pires is a veteran radio and television Mozambican journalist based in South Africa. She studied communications at the University of South Africa. She is passionate about writing on the works of the Church through Catholic journalism.