The Small Christian Communities in Rukole Refugee Camp in
Western Tanzania can be an ideal situation for the reconciliation of people who
are wounded by violence, tribalism and genocide. "It will never work, Father!"
said the elderly Hutu refugee from Burundi. I responded to him: "Please, listen
to me, mzee (Swahili for ‘elder’)! "It can work. If Father Paul (a black
diocesan priest from Tanzania and young) and I (a white missionary priest from
America and old) can live together and work together and eat together and laugh
together, so can a Hutu and a Tutsi. That is what the Church is all about. It
can work. It’s got to work. If it doesn’t work, we’ll have to give up saying the
Our Father. We’ll have to give up receiving Holy Communion." Over 3,500 years
ago it took 40 years for the Jewish refugees living and wandering in the desert
to form the Israelite Community. In Africa today we don’t have that much time.