By: Fr. Efren de Guzman, SVD
War Again!
As we go to press the peace talks in Ivory Coast have broken down and civil war has broken out yet again in weary Angola. Fr. Efren de Guzman, our correspondent in Angola and our intrepid missionary writes and tells us about the hardships.
By: Fr. Efren de Guzman
For more than fifteen years Angola, in Southern Africa, has been wrack by civil was. The Marxist government was backed by Cuba and Russia while the rebels led by Tomas Savimbi were backed by U. S. and South Africa. Now that the cold war is over, peace is beginning to break out or at least the fighting is stopping. Fr. Efren de Guzman, a Filipino priest working in Angola assesses the problems and the challenge to the Church in helping to serve them. It seems in many places the Church is an institution with credibility which can help heal wounds and build peace.
Cease Fire
The Peace Treaty of May 31, 1991 brought about a great euphoria and the hope to the Angolans. This allowed them free movement in almost all places of the nation without fear of ambuscades and land-mines.
After-War Chaos
In the midst of all this joy, certain incidents surfaced in some places, a natural consequence of the 16 years of insinuations, vengeance, robbery, violence and hatred.
By Fr. Efren de Guzman, SVD
Is a Filipinos Priest in Angola
Josefa
One month after my arrival in Angola, I met a young catechist named Josefa. She was a good animator- active and joyful in the formation of the catechists.
Illness Strikes
One day she got very sick, a kind of ulcer with complications in the stomach caused by hunger. She brought to the hospital. We visited her, brought communion and prayed together.
