Q & A with Sister Marion
Sister Marion Weinzapfel, CSJ, part of the CSJ Project Uganda Team, answers questions about her ministry work in Gulu.
Q. Describe your ministry work?
I have been assisting in the Office of the Pastoral Coordinator; building relationships with lay leaders, catechists, and parish priests while learning local structures and processes. Some areas are:
- Directing the two "Eucharist and Family" teams which covered the 13 parishes with two visits each. Topics given to us were Traditional Marriage, Eucharist, Christian Family, and Peace and Reconciliation. Attendance ranged from about 25 to 231!
- Broadening the process for the Denver Team Africa scholarships for children of catechists; giving school fees out each term.
- Clerical work for JPC GANAL leading up to the Peace Week that was a combined effort by four dioceses held here in mid January.
- Participating in LUMKO to learn the process for Small Christian Communities and the undergirding philosophy for the pastoral office.
- Planning a week's workshop for Catechists to take place in late June: coordinating the visiting Denver Team with a Gulu Team of catechetical leaders to present "Human Recovery and Rebuilding Right Relationships"
I also helped a bit with sacrament preparation for secondary school girls and taught a topic in a Scripture weekend for youth .
I hope to explore a possible peace curriculum with several Amuru Religious Education teachers.
Q. What are the greatest challenges of this ministry? Finding my way forward, especially when the Pastoral Coordinator was out of the country for several months shortly after I arrived. Learning language takes more patience, discipline, and time than I often have!
Because of the NGO mentality, there isn't a day when someone does not ask us for a handout. I struggle not to shut out the person but to listen afresh. I can simply listen and maybe even redirect.
Q. How have you experienced the Acholi people and culture?
The people are most welcoming and hospitable. They make you feel that your least effort is priceless. Their faith is very strong.
They love to help with language. Of course until recently, nothing would soak in and it was painful to be constantly corrected. Now I appreciate their efforts and enjoy the feedback.
Their resilience despite terrible suffering during the war is remarkable. At each new disappointment of the peace process, and then with the shattering of it with the "Lightening Thunder" attack on the LRA Dec. 14; people paused but didn't stop moving forward. Now, many of the camps are more empty than full and people are rebuilding their lives in the villages and moving about. On two occasions recently when I was traveling in a group, the people sang all the way!
Q. How does this experience deepen your understanding of the CSJ charism?
It is an incredible privilege to be in solidarity with the Acholi people, the dear neighbor with whom we are seeking to grow closer. Our privilege is always present but I can accept it as sometimes necessary. Recently I was traveling to Amuru with two lay leaders in a pick-up truck. With my osteoporosis I cannot bounce around in the back of an open truck. So as the privileged one, I sat up front in the cab. The two women BOTH choose to sit on a bench in the back. After 2 miles and immense clouds of dust on the Juba Road, I had the driver stop and urge the lady who had been hospitalized a week before with asthma, to come ride inside with me. We gave the other lady our dust cloths to wrap herself in. When we arrived, she had to stand under a spigot and wash. She did this with utter grace. I was humbled and grateful. So our loving unity is sometimes helpless but it's ok. They tell me that because I am here, they are able to go out and give these talks. Both of them are superb presenters.
