3 / 8
3
Volume 26 No. 2 | Winter 2016
Fr Ioane, missionary to South
Africa, sharing his story & his
faith with young people
Sharing his story and his faith with young people is what
Fr Ioane Racumu SVD loves most about his missionary life
in South Africa.
Fr Ioane, who is a Fijian, has been in South Africa since
2009. He completed his formation in Australia at Dorish
Maru College in Melbourne.
“I arrived in South Africa on the 14th of September. I
remember the date, because it was the Feast of the Holy
Cross, and that was special to me because my parish in
Fiji, on Tavuni Island, was Holy Cross Parish,” he says.
Based at Good Shepherd Parish in Phalaborwa, Fr Ioane
was asked by the local Bishop four years ago to be the
Youth Chaplain for the Diocese.
“So, I do pastoral work in the parish, but a big part of
what I do is coordinating the ministry of youth in the
Diocese,” he says.
“They seem to appreciate my presence there with them
and they ask me a lot about my country. Some of them
have never seen the sea, so living on a small island seems
incredible to them.
“And so I share my story with them and it’s very different
to their story, but they see that even with our different
stories we are all part of the one faith and that’s a really
strong thing.”
The town where Fr Ioane lives is a mining town,
supporting three mines.
“In town, it is mostly people who would be considered
fairly well off,” he says. “But there are a lot of North
African mine workers as well. In the villages outside of
town, where some of these workers live, people are
struggling.
“So, as a parish, we have our communities there, with the
people and in town.”
Fr Ioane says the faith is growing and lively in the area he
lives and works.
“You can tell this by the number of Easter baptisms we
had,” he says. “I think we had 50 or so this year. And
these people would have done two or three years of
catechism study first.”
The local diocese has put together a plan for the
immediate future called ‘20/20 Vision’.
“It touches on all areas of faith and gives targets and
structures to follow. For example, one of the things
we have done as part of the plan is to restructure our
catechism classes so that every parish is following the
same one.”
Fr Ioane says worship in South Africa is very emotional
and spirit-filled and young people love coming together
to share their faith.
“I observed how articulate and expressive the youth
were,” he says. “So I would ask them to come forward
and give a poem about their faith and they would come
up with the most brilliant things. I like to allow them to
express themselves in their gifts.
“They are also great singers. Music is a big part of it.
It’s part and parcel of who they are as a people and
a Church. And they don’t hold back when they sing.
Everyone sings out strong and loud, whether they can
sing in tune or not.”
Fr Ioane says one of the challenges he and his colleague,
Parish Priest Fr James Sebastian, face is to encourage
the youth from the poorer community to participate in
events.
“They can sometimes feel intimidated by the youth from
the town,” he says. “So we work to overcome that.”
He celebrates Mass in the three languages of the local
people – Sepedi, Tsonga and English – and says the local
people appreciate the effort involved.
“When the people see that you are learning their
language they have a special respect for you,” he says.
Fr Ioane says the cost of travelling to World Youth Day in
Poland this year is too prohibitive for the local people, so
he is organising a diocesan gathering for the youth, to be
held at the same time.