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“Stand up and be counted”: South African Catholic Bishop Urges Emulation of Blessed Daswa

Blessed Benedict Daswa, who was martyred in 1990, and beatified September 13. Credit: Courtesy Photo

By Magdalene Kahiu

Johannesburg, 03 February, 2023 / 5:15 pm (ACI Africa).

At the anniversary of the beatification of Blessed Benedict Daswa, Bishop Xolile Thaddeus Kumalo of South Africa’s Witbank Diocese has hailed the martyr for standing up for Christ and encouraged the people of God in the country to follow his example, to “stand up and be counted”. 

Blessed Benedict Daswa, a 43-year-old teacher from Limpopo, Northern South Africa, was killed by fellow villagers for his lack of belief in witchcraft, which he considered to be against the teachings of God. 

In his homily during the Eucharistic celebration to mark the beatification anniversary of South Africa’s first potential saint, Bishop Kumalo said, “There are still a lot of foreign beliefs which are not for life though they might be different from those experienced during the time of Daswa.”

“Daswa has shown us the way and therefore, as we reflect on the life of the man we are celebrating, let us ask ourselves, challenges which are anti-life, anti-development of our time, and pray to him to help us to be filled with the spirit, not the spirit of fear but spirit to be able to stand up and be counted even when we know we can die,” he said during the Wednesday, February 1 event that was held at the Benedict Daswa Shrine Site, Tshitanini in South Africa’s Tzaneen Diocese.

The South African Catholic Bishop added that Blessed Daswa challenges Christians by the way he lived his life and through his courage, which enabled him “to stand up and be counted for the way of the truth, the way of life.” 

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Like Blessed Daswa stood up for Christ when everyone else was against him, Bishop Kumalo said Christians too “must shine as the stars during the night” even when it is so dark. 

He posed, “Are you shining where you are living? Are the people who are living with you, in your work, in your school saying there is someone who has received the message of Christ and is living it among us?”

“As a young person in school, are you able to stand up when there are those who are bullying others?” he further posed, and continued, “Almost every week in South Africa we hear of young people who have been bullied by others and they commit suicide. Are you able to stand up and say this is wrong it is against life?”

Apart from defending Christ, Blessed Daswa also “stood up for an education that was transformative,” the Catholic Church leader who started his Episcopal Ministry in June 2008 as Bishop of South Africa’s Eshowe Diocese said. 

He added referencing the South African Blessed who converted from Judaism, “He stood up for an education which was going to develop people’s hearts.”

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“It is so sad when I hear the Minister of Education saying it is a pity that though many of those who are running the schools are not qualified but because of the new ways of life, if you have a lot of money, you become a principal immediately,” the Catholic Bishop said, and added, “These are some of the beliefs that are not giving life to us as a nation.”

Bishop Kumalo called on Christians to act and speak against what he termed injustices, saying, “If we Catholics, we who receive the Holy Eucharist every Sunday and are working in such situations do not challenge these things, indeed we are failing.”

Standing up for the truth “is the call of Christ and we must follow Him even when we know that this will make us lose our lives the soonest,” the South African Catholic Church leader said during the February 1 Eucharistic celebration.

“If indeed we will have a new South Africa, we have to stand for the one who gives life,” said Bishop Kumalo.

Magdalene Kahiu

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.

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