Annual meeting of the Socio Cultural Association for ISE (17.09.2011) - ISTITUTO DI STUDI ECUMENICI SAN BERNARDINO

Annual meeting of the Socio Cultural Association for ISE

(17.09.2011)

On September 17 2011, the Ecumenical Studies Institute of Venice hosted the Socio-Cultural Association for ISE annual meeting. His Excellency Antonio Menegazzo attended the gathering. He was born in Cittadella (Padua) and he was a Combonian missionary for 53 years and Bishop of Darfur, one of the most tormented regions in northern Sudan. He spoke about the current situation in Sudan, the causes for tension among the various ethnic groups and his own experience with Islam.

Sudan is a republic with a land area in which Italy would fit eight times; it has been independent from Egypt and Great Britain since January 1956. After recent public consultation, the country split into two: North Sudan, mostly inhabited by Muslim Arabs, and South Sudan, with a non-Arab majority (Catholic and Protestant). In 2005, when South Sudan obtained some social concessions, conflict between the wealthy nomadic Arab shepherds who roam the land searching for pastures and water for their cattle and the settlers living off their poor seasonal harvest began to flair. In little more than two years the Janjaweed militia and the regular army created two millions refugees, taken into camps near the cities. Still now, the country continues to be unsafe because of the short lasting agreements among the factions.

His Excellency Menegazzo reported that in 1957, at the start of his mission, Christians were few in number; the several parishes in which he was operating were made up of Catholic migrants from Syria looking for religious freedom and of those from South Sudan looking for a better life. Many had settled in cities; others worked as sharecroppers on land owned by Arabs and made fertile by the seasonal rainfall. Therefore Fr. Menegazzo's first pastoral phase was quiet. However in time the parishes grew to include from 100 to 150 chapels which the Combonian missionary tried to visit each month to celebrate sacraments.

In 1976, His Excellency was put in charge as Vicar General of the very widespread diocese of Khartoum, which at the time numbered about fifteen parishes and then, between 1985 and 1992, as Apostolic Vicar of the region of Kosti, with four parishes. In 1992 he was first nominated Apostolic Administrator and then Bishop of El-Obeid, a diocese three times Italy in size, with about fifteen parishes. In the early 80's the sharia, Islamic rule of law, imposed on all of Sudan was contested by the people of the South. Subsequently, the authorities tried to limit Sudanese religious freedom and Menegazzo, being a Catholic and a foreigner, was disliked: prior to each pastoral visit he had to present his itinerary and wait for permission from secret services. The Catholics from South Sudan, who had relocated to Darfur some years before, also found themselves in a difficult situation: with limited religious freedom, destruction of places of worship...

His Excellency also spoke of religious coexistence in Sudan. He explained that in general, relations are good; less so with civil authorities. The schools founded by Combonians are attended both by Christians and Muslims. When dealing with a Muslim, even if not practicing Islam, one must be careful not to discuss his religion. The Catholic people of South Sudan who moved to the North to study or work suffer the imposition of sharia as well as the new problem of choosing a nationality as required by the state in order not to be considered a foreigner, while in the new state of the South the resident Arab Muslims are guaranteed citizenship and religious freedom. In regard to interconfessional relations, in all Sudan the issue of mixed marriages between Catholics and Orthodox Copts is open: the Catholic partner is asked to be rebaptised in the Coptic rite. The existing Lutheran and Episcopalian Evangelical communities operate freely and their relationships with their pastors are good, even though at times their proselytism is annoying. What is of most concern is the expansion of Muslim fundamentalism.

After the much appreciated and well attended meeting with the Bishop, lunch with the friars in their refectory followed. The afternoon was spent touring the convent, the church and above all the San Francesco della Vigna Libray, opened in recent years, rich in ancient books and an integral part of the San Bernardino Institute for Ecumenical Studies.