Cathal Barry
Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria speaks to Cathal Barry about the South African Church’s approach to evangelisation
Surely not even Paddy Power himself would fancy a flutter on a Irishman rising through the clerical ranks in the South African Church and eventually taking up one of the most senior posts there.
The Archbishop of Pretoria, Tipperary native William Slattery, however, is a man who beat the odds.
Prior to his installation as archbishop in January 2011, the prelate had already been engaged in episcopal ministry for some 17 years, as Bishop of Kokstad, a rural diocese on the Indian Ocean side of South Africa and birth place of activist and politician Winnie Mandela.
Inspired by his education at the Franciscan College, Gormanston, Co Meath, he joined the Franciscans and, after his novitiate, studied at the National University of Ireland, Galway and in Rome.
He was ordained a priest in 1970 and went as a missionary to South Africa the following year, working in various parishes and for a period acting as director of novices for the Franciscan friars there.
Significantly, he was also rector of the national seminary, St John Vianney in Pretoria, for several “very difficult years” from 1984 to 1991.
He admits “trying to keep whites and blacks together was tough” during his time there. “It was like having the Black and Tans and the IRA in the same seminary,” the archbishop relates.
Following his seven-year stint in formation and 17 “wonderful” years in Kokstad, the bishop was promoted to the role he currently holds, Archbishop of Pretoria, where he is responsible for 200,000 Catholics.
Archbishop Slattery also serves as Military Ordinary to South Africa’s National Defence Force, a position that traditionally has been linked with the position of Archbishop of Pretoria.
Aside from his fluency in English and no doubt the odd cúpla focal, Archbishop Slattery speaks several regional languages including Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa and Sepedi.
His responsibilities on behalf of the South African Bishops’ conference include, but are not limited to, evangelisation, seminaries and, more recently, communications. He even hosts a radio programme on Radio Veritas every Thursday.
It’s been a long road to the top and Archbishop Slattery has witnessed much change along the way. “There has been a huge change in South Africa since I went out 43 years ago. When I arrived first it was absolutely dominated by apartheid and the government was particularly oppressive,” he told The Irish Catholic.
Quiet
“It seemed to be quiet on the black front but movements like ‘black consciousness’ were beginning to tell people that they must do something for themselves. It was the beginning of that final struggle that went on until 1994 when we had the first independent elections in South Africa,” he said.
The archbishop insists, however, that South Africa is “a free country now… there is no doubt about it”.
And the Church, according to Archbishop Slattery, really was one of the “key elements” in the country’s development.
He reels off his reasons for his assertion: “Fifty-five of the main hospitals in South Africa were built by the Catholic Church. We educated 18-20% of African children in the country in the 1950s. Many of the people involved in the struggle came out of Catholic schools and, in fact, in the first independent parliament of South Africa, 25% of the parliamentarians came out of Catholic schools.”
Impressive, and the archbishop agrees. However, he notes the Church reaches out to those in need for their own development and the betterment of society. “We help people not because they are Catholics. We help people because we are Catholic, and we help everybody,” he said.
But how did the Church achieve such a success?
“In the 1970s and 80s, we were asking questions, such as how the Church can assist a new and free South Africa,” the archbishop explained.
“What came out of that was a pastoral plan ‘Community serving humanity’, which is built around small Christian communities.”
The plan, which was launched in May 1989, emerged through a process of consultation, discussion and discernment ranging over the 15 years following the worldwide Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1974. This, according to Archbishop Slattery, “played a very important role”.
“We went big-time into small Christian communities, ensuring people had a voice, encouraging participation, discovering that they are the Church. Of course, small Christian communities too have to be continually accompanied, continually motivated,” he said.
Despite being “ahead of the Irish Church”, particularly with regard to consultation with the laity, Archbishop Slattery admits the Church in South Africa is not without its challenges.
He cites without hesitation “globalisation, tremendous corruption and maladministration”.
The fact that there are 6,000 independent churches in South Africa is also a major issue. For this reason, “unless a Catholic has a real identity in South Africa, the situation becomes quite fluid”, the archbishop explained.
“We can lose people to the other Churches unless we put a tremendous effort into the formation of people. So we have been developing and next year we will have a meeting of the whole South African Church to work out a new pastoral plan with particular emphasis on the formation of adults,” he said.
And what about the youth?
“The formation of children is obviously important but the way we have to go in the future is the formation of adults and we are putting all our efforts into that.”
The real question for this archbishop is: who is going to pass on the faith?
He has already taken action. In his archdiocese alone, Archbishop Slattery has rallied 1,000 volunteers who have put themselves forward for faith formation.
He hopes that, with proper guidance and encouragement, these may flourish into valuable evangelisers, agents of the Faith, primed for passing on the Good News.
“Traditionally in the Church we emphasise catechetics. However, over the years we have found out that catechism in itself is not enough. After confirmation, people tend to drift away from the Church. The real catch is encountering Christ through evangelisation,” the archbishop notes.
“Evangelisation has to put people before Christ in such a way that He impacts upon them. Teaching is excellent and essential but somehow or other the teaching must lead young people to encounter Christ. Teachers of catechetics must not just draw on the Bible which is crucial but they must also draw on their own experience of being touched by Christ,” he said.
Archbishop Slattery has helped steer the Church in South Africa through some tough times and remains optimistic about its future. He is hopeful too for the Church in his native Ireland.
“The Church in Ireland has to emphasise its caring for people. It’s about charity and belonging,” he said.
“There is no use talking about it. The Church has to show it.”
