The archbishop of the Catholics in Durban, Archbishop Mandla Jwara, has issued a warning to the believers of this church, reprimanding the acceptance of factionalism among Catholics alone.
Bishop Jwara was speaking at the annual festival in Ntshongweni, Durban, last weekend. This festival is known as the Cross. He warned church meetings not to be a place to create division in the Catholic church.
This festival was started by the mother’s organization known as Anna (St Anne) and it is the dawn of the Easter weekend which celebrates the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus. About 2500 members gathered in this meeting which took place at a time when the parishioners of some parishes have been facing unrest regarding the change of father.
Delivering a sermon on this occasion, Bishop Jwara had recently faced the censure of some parishioners in the Parish of Pinetown and Montclair for changing their priests because they believe that it is because he does not agree with their way of worship which is reported to be related to witchcraft.
The service in Ntshongweni is one of the important ones in Anna’s meeting and it was followed by the Eucharist service led by the Archbishop as he did at the weekend when he was accompanied by many priests of the Diocese of Durban.
The Bishop quoted the lesson of the day in Jeremiah, where the prophet wrote about those who planned to harm him. He likened this to the hatred that seems to happen between different meetings in the church, where there is gossip and lies created by other people.
He went on to say that there is greed among members and competition in the church, monks and pastors themselves, and he urged them to stay away from this bad practice that pollutes the church.