Life in the Submarine - The Mill Hill Missionaries

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apostolic administrator had puta brave face to it and had keptthe diocese going to the best ofhis ability. At Bonkita in 1975at the end of the school yearwe stored every piece ofvaluable equipment in thesmall chapel and sealed it off.Everyone went on home leave,except for myself, amidconsiderable uncertainty as towhat the future would bring. Istill remember the feeling ofresponsibility and considerable Bishop Matondo at ordination ceremonyapprehension when those summer holidays started – I had only been in theplace for two years.Both the diocese and the country as a whole were going through a period ofuncertain transition. As it turned out, the national campaign of ‘authenticité’and ‘zaïreanisation’ (read: mindless nationalisation) initiated around this timeby President Mobutu, largely as a political ploy, proved hugelycounterproductive in the long run and quickened the country’s headlong rushtowards economic ruin. The abolition of Christian names in the name of Africanauthenticity led to a conflict with the Catholic Church and the temporarydeparture into exile of Cardinal Malula. The latter had himself spearheaded amuch sounder form of africanisation of the Catholic Church famously stating: ”A new baby is being born here, and we can be sure of one thing: it will beblack!” The irony of the situation escaped no one.At the local diocesan level bishop Matondo’spromotion of inculturation felt real and promising.In fact bishop Matondo in his early years cameacross as hugely charismatic and inspiring. Hewould prove to be someone who would bring aboutsubstantial change in the diocese againstconsiderable odds. Most noticeable were thechanges in the way we celebrated the liturgy. Tounify the diocese and bring it in line with the rest ofthe ecclesiastical province he introduced Lingala,one of the four national languages and a linguafranca in most of the country, as the only language
of the liturgy. Not everyone was happy with this change as a lot of effort hadbeen put into promoting local languages, in particular Lomongo. Aconsiderable amount of liturgical and catechetical material had been written inthis language for distribution in several dioceses in the Equator province.Together with the change of language came a change of rite. For some timeCongolese liturgists under the guidance and inspiration of Cardinal Malula hadbeen working on a Zaïrean rite of the Mass. Rome had given permission to usethis Africanised form of the Eucharist for a number of years ‘ad experimentum’.At the instigation of bishop Matondo the diocese of Basankusu enthusiasticallyjoined in the experiment. And what a change it was! The lively hymns in Lingalasung at the episcopal ordination of bishop Matondo became instant hitsamong young and old alike. Liturgical celebrations thereafter quickly turnedinto colourful feasts of rhythm and song and dance. It felt as if the celebrationof the Eucharist had finally ‘come home’ to Africa.A well thought out pastoral plan involving among other innovations the creationof CEBs (Basic Christian Communities), lay ministries and the appointment ofBakambi (lay persons in charge of a parish) put a spring into the flagging stepof church life of the diocese. The ensuing closure of the Formation Centre forCatechists in Mampoko was not to everyone’s liking. Catechists, it was clear,would no longer be an essential link between priest and people – theleadership of the community would be shared with other lay ministers. Theparish would become a ‘community of communities’. Was this intended breakdownof the hierarchical pyramid really going to work?Most innovative of all was bishop Matondo’s introduction of the Bilenge yaMwinda (Youth of the Light), a thoroughly Africanised initiation of the youth intothe Christian faith. When hewas still parish priest ofMatete, a suburb of thesprawling capital Kinshasa,Père Ignace Matondo, hadfounded and developed thisyouth ‘movement’ in responseto President Mobutu’ssuppression of any form ofreligious instruction in schoolsin the name of authenticity.“Nkombo ya yo Nkolo”, aslightly rebellious hymn
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Life in the Submarine - The Mill Hill Missionaries

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