Vatican City, 13 September 2015 (VIS) –
After today's Angelus prayer, the Pope mentioned that today in South
Africa Samuel Benedict Daswa, the Catholic Church's first martyr in
that country, is proclaimed blessed. A primary school teacher, Daswa
was stoned to death in 1990 in Tshitanini, a village in the province
of Limpopo, for attributing a fire affecting some huts to lightning
and not to the forces of evil, and for refusing to pay for the
services of a sangoma to end the storms. “In his life, he always
showed great coherence, bravely assuming Christian attitudes and
refusing worldly and pagan habits. May his witness especially help
families to spread Christ's truth and charity. His witness joins that
of many of our brothers and sisters, young and elderly, children,
persecuted, cast out and killed for confessing Jesus Christ. We thank
all these martyrs for their witness, Samuel Benedict Daswa and all of
them, and ask them to intercede for us”.
He concluded by greeting teachers from
Sardinia in precarious working conditions, and expressed his hope
that the problems of the world of work “be faced taking into full
consideration the family and its needs”.
No comments:
Post a Comment