sfca-annual-report

Rights Report describes prison conditions that are “harsh and life threatening due to food shortages, poor-quality food, gross overcrowding, physical abuse, as well as inadequate sanitary conditions and medical care.” The inmates include many women and children. The Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa awarded a grant to the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon to expand ministry training beyond basic pastoral care of prisoners, so that clergy and lay ministers also learn ways to offer accompaniment that includes advocacy for human rights. Ministers are learning how best to provide psychological support to traumatized prisoners, how to report human rights violations, and ways to advocate for improved conditions. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO In the isolated, rural Diocese of Buta in northern Congo, where 19 priests tend to more than 300,000 Catholics in a territory that would cover half the state of New York, a Solidarity Fund grant provided education in fiscal management for 121 diocesan and parish staff members. Financial training emerged as a top priority during the diocese’s three-year pastoral planning process. The Catholic Church continues to be a voice for the voiceless and a beacon of hope in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the five poorest nations in the world, which has long experienced political instability, violence, and corruption. Although education has improved in recent years, many adults never finish high school. Priests, despite being among

the most educated Congolese, often lack training in administration and financial management, leaving them ill-equipped to offer guidance in these matters. This fiscal management training for clergy and lay staff is intended to ensure sound, sustainable, transparent budgets and good stewardship of limited resources for all church operations in the diocese. SOUTH AFRICA The Xhosa people have a renowned Christian musical heritage in the southern part of Africa, where they have long composed great hymns in their own language and musical style. These hymns, which first emerged more than 200 years ago, became important to the entire Xhosa nation as the people struggled against European colonization and suffered under South Africa’s apartheid policies. During the 19th and 20th centuries, when many Protestant missionaries used European hymns in translation, Catholic missionaries encouraged and promoted the composition and liturgical use of hymns in the traditional Xhosa musical style. A Xhosa hymnal was published many years ago but went out of print, but it has now been updated with new compositions. The Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa awarded a grant to the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference to cover half the cost of printing 20,000 copies of this precious updated hymnal. The rest of the funds will come from local resources and from selling the hymnal at a modest price to people who treasure their Catholic musical heritage.