Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lusaka (Fides Service)- This year the Jesuits are marking their centenary of service in Zambia. After a few unsuccessful attempts in 1880, on 14 July 1905 Fr Joseph Moreau opened the first Jesuit mission in a part of southern Africa which today is southern Zambia.
On his journey of exploration Fr Moreau saw that what the people needed was peace and prosperity. The presence of the mission brought a certain peace and he was able to teach the Tonga people to use a oxen for ploughing.
Besides Fr Moreau there was Fr Jules Torrend who started his mission in the Zambesi valley in Mozambique. He arrived in Zambia with a boy who had been captured by slave traffickers and then abandoned. He called the boy Francis in honour of the saintly Jesuit general . The boy came from Zambia. Fr Torrend settled there and called the place Rasisi, meaning priest.
In 1912 the mission was taken over the Polish Jesuit province. In 1931 the first Apostolic Delegate monsignor Bruno Wolnik entrusted the province of Copperbelt and west province to the Franciscans. At Chikuni the Jesuits opened a teachers training centre which later thanks to Fr. Max Prokoph was made into a secondary school named after St. Peter Canisius.
At the end of World War II among the Polish Jesuits there were five who had survived life in Dachau concentration camp. In the 1950s Irish Jesuits were sent to care for the southern province and in 1962 when James Corboy was appointed first Bishop, the diocese of Monze was created. Canisius College was made a state school and in time included a sixth form where leaders of the new nation were formed. This commitment to education led Jesuits to be part of formation of a national Zambian University as teachers or chaplains. Other Jesuits from Croatia and Slovenia opened several urban churches and American Jesuits from Oregon came at the same time to work in the field of formation.
In 1964 when independence came, many missionaries left their posts to local clergy. Jesuits and Franciscans handed responsibilities to local priests and were able to develop their own particular charisma at the service of the local Church. In 1969 the Zambia Province was established and a novitiate was opened in Lusaka
Almost 50 of the 120 Jesuits today in Zambia and Malawi are of African origin. Some are still in formation, but every year one or two are ordained as priests. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 13/10/2005 righe 40 parole 498)
