tvc.dsj.org | May 7, 2019
IN THE CHURCH
23
South African Archbishop says Oppression of Migrants Recalls Apartheid
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) --
A South African archbishop has urged
the government to act against xeno-
phobic attacks, which have increased
as general elections approach.
“A fallout between South Africa
and other African countries can only
have disastrous consequences, hence
the urgent need to dissipate tensions,”
Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johan-
nesburg said in a late-April statement.
“If the unwarranted violent attacks
on migrants and refugees are not
brought to a halt, South Africans run
the risk of becoming like the oppres-
sors of the apartheid era,” Archbishop
Tlhagale said.
South Africa marked the 25th an-
niversary of the end of white-minority
rule April 27. Warnings of protests
against the employment of foreign
nationals have been spread around
South Africa in the run-up to the May
8 election.
Noting that young people have
always been “in the forefront of the
struggle for justice” and that the “at-
tacks on migrants and refugees are
reprehensible acts of injustice,” Arch-
bishop Tlhagale said young South
An Economic Freedom Fighters election poster hangs in front of homes outside Johan-
nesburg, South Africa, April 17, 2019. Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg criticized
shameless physical attacks on migrants and refugees based on spurious allegations that
they have robbed South Africans of their jobs. (CNS photo/Siphiwe Sibeko, Reuters)
Africans’ “silence is deafening.”
Young people’s “prophetic voices
appear to have been muted at a time
when their support and solidarity”
would make a significant difference to
oppressed migrants, he said.
After about 300 migrants, mostly
Malawian, were displaced in attacks
in Durban late March, South African
ministers held emergency talks with
diplomats of other African countries
in the capital, Pretoria.
“The shameless physical attacks
on migrants and refugees on spuri-
ous allegations that they have robbed
South Africans of their jobs is simply
disgraceful,” Archbishop Tlhagale
said, noting that with few or no arrests,
“the victims do not get to see justice
being done.”
“Migrants bring skills into the econ-
omy” and their contribution to South
Africa is significant, he said.
“These attacks are patently fueled
by anti-foreigner sentiment” and can-
not “be reduced to hooliganism,” the
archbishop said.
“Foreign governments expect the
South African government to quell and
diffuse” such “xenophobic attacks,”
he said.
Xenophobic attacks are sometimes
linked to protests about “lack of clean
water, electricity, housing” and other
grievances, he said. “The anger and
frustration of the local people at
government’s empty promises have
tended to engulf migrants who live
in the same neighborhood as the
protesters.”
There are about 3 million immi-
grants in South Africa, which has a
population of 57 million and is the most
developed sub-Saharan economy.
CCH153_CarDonateAd2_4.937x6in_PressQuality.pdf
1
8/10/15
7:41 PM
Vatican Newspaper Appoints new Editorial Board
for Women’s Magazine
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vati-
can newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano,
named a new director and editorial
board for its women’s magazine, “Wom-
en-Church-World.” The announcement
came a little more than one month after
the magazine’s founder and former
director, Lucetta Scaraffia, resigned
along with her editorial staff, claiming
a lack of trust and support from the
new management at the newspaper.
The newspaper announced April 30
that the head of a new editorial board
would be Rita Pinci, an Italian journal-
ist who has been working at TV2000,
the Italian bishops’ television station.
Pinci spent 20 years at the Italian daily
newspaper, Il Messaggero, starting out
as a correspondent and later becoming
the first Italian woman to be the editor-
in-chief and vice director of a major
national daily newspaper. She also
served as a vice director of two major
weekly magazines, Panorama and Chi.
She said in a written statement that
even though she is not a theologian,
church historian or Vatican expert, “I
am a journalist. I am a believer” and
“I think the church needs the gaze
and voice of women who represent
more than half of the faithful.” Along
C
M
Y
CM
Italian journalist Rita Pinci has been ap-
pointed as the head of the editorial board
of “Women-Church-World,” the editorial
magazine of L’Osservatore Romano. The
naming of a new director and editorial board
for the magazine comes a month after the
former director and members of the editorial
board abruptly resigned. Pinci is pictured
in this photo provided by her employer,
TV2000. (CNS photo/Stefania Casellato,
courtesy TV2000)
MY
CY
CMY
K
with the announcement of Pinci’s ap-
pointment, the newspaper said it was
“pleased to announce” the monthly
magazine would be published as usual
in May. Pope Francis had appointed
Andrea Monda, an Italian journalist
and religion teacher, to be editor of
L’Osservatore Romano in December.
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