EDITORIAL

OUR BEST KEPT SECRET

BY Rafael Armada | EDITOR

SOUTH AFRICA is currently experiencing the hype associated with the pre-electoral excitement. Many conversations in the media and in the streets, are about what will happen on 29 May. New independent candidates and a possible loss of the Parliamentary majority by the governing party and, consequently, the need for coalitions to form a government after the elections, are two of the main talking points and novelties. Just before writing these lines, the prohibition by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) affecting former president Jacob Zuma contesting the polls—related to his cases of criminal offences—has provoked anger and threats of violence by members of his newly created uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.

South Africa has been battling with the evils of mismanagement and the deterioration of public services in the last years. State capture and the spread of corruption at different levels of society have depleted public funds—often used to bail out the state’s own institutions—which should have been employed for the betterment of public services. This climate of mismanagement of the handling of common resources has weakened the capacity of the state to foster robust economic growth and therefore has created high levels of unemployment and crime in the country.

Some readers could ask themselves what all of this has to do with us, as Catholics, who are supposed to be focused on searching for a life of intimacy and communion with God. What we need to do is to pray, some may say. While it is true that prayer is vitally necessary, it is not enough.

The mismanagement and maladministration of the country by the governing leaders has had a direct effect on the quality of services delivery, specifically on education, health, and security: all this has a lot to do with us as believers, if we genuinely claim to strive to love God and our neighbour as we love ourselves, as commanded by our Lord. There is no love if we live without heed for the common good of the citizens and the respect of everyone’s dignity.

The Catholic Social Teaching (CST) or the Social Doctrine of the Church (SDC), our so called ‘best kept secret’— since it has not sufficiently taught or divulgated—is a collection of writings from the Magisterium and Tradition of the Church which inspires us to live our Christian vocation at the service of society. The encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leon XIII, published at the end of the XIXth century, was the first of many documents which the Church issued to promote values of solidarity, common good, human dignity, and option for the poor, among others.

Christian communities become leaven of transformation in society if they embrace and put into practice the values enshrined in the CST. We have just celebrated Easter. The Risen Lord, present in our midst, invites us to live as communities of one common heart and mind (Acts 4:32), searching to promote the common good. Then our light will shine as a beacon of hope for the people who surround us.