Hopes and dreams
Interviews with the brothers of Lesotho
Moeketsi Mototjane
‘As a young boy in Lesotho I never dreamt I would mix with so many different people and travel overseas. I now feel I can go wherever God sends me.’
Moeketsi Ernest (Max 1) grew up in the Roman Catholic faith, but became acquainted with SSM after joining a youth group in the St Agnes Parish at Teyateyaneng. It was here that he met Father Tanki, and his interest in becoming a member of SSM grew.
He joined SSM on 13 February 2000, and celebrated his 10th anniversary as a member this year.
Now 36, Max 1 has most recently held the role of Prior. He also assists with the chalice at St John’s and works with the Aids Ministry Team and as a counsellor. In 2011 he will continue theological studies toward priesthood at the College of the Transfiguration, Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape Province and make his life commitment to SSM.
Max 1’s dream is for his brothers in South Africa to visit the other Provinces of SSM. ‘With their youth and enthusiasm they will show young people that religious life is not just for older people, but also for them.’
Father Tanki Mofana
‘I want to continue to work in the church, and by so doing create a role model for our young people so that they too want to serve God.’
Father Tanki is Pro-provincial of the Southern African Province, Priest at St Stephen’s, Mohale’s Hoek and Archdeacon of the Southern Archdeaconry.
Born and raised in the district of Mafeteng, Lesotho, Father Tanki came to the Priory in 1994, encouraged by the Archdeacon at St Stevens Church, Ncera, his home parish 50 km from East London, Eastern Cape.
Before moving to St Stephen’s in 2009, Father Tanki had been Priest at St Barnabas Parish, Rothe, about 40 km from Maseru. The Parish incorporates 14 outstations, nine primary schools, two secondary schools, one high school and a health centre. It has a population of approximately 8000.
While there, Father Tanki worked tirelessly to respond to social issues, including housing for the poor, HIV/AIDS and health, especially children’s health. ‘This is scriptural, to serve the sick is to serve Christ’, he says.
Although the move to Mohale’s Hoek came as a bit of a bombshell, Father Tanki has now made the parish and the Southern Archdeaconry the centre of his focus and ministry.
Brother Moeketsi Khomonngoe
‘I love to help the helpless. Having been brought up by a single parent, which has a stigma to it, I hate to see it when someone is ill-treated.’
Brother Moeketsi (Max 2) joined SSM in 2001. Born and educated in Lesotho, the 31 year old had two ambitions as a teenager: to be a soldier or a priest. The priesthood won out because his mother disapproved of soldiering.
It was while at St John’s Church in Maseru that he met SSM brothers Max 1 and Mosia who, ‘inspired me to visit the Priory. He says joining SSM and living in the Priory has been very challenging. ‘Many things were different from living at home, and I had to learn many new things.’
He is continuing his studies in accounting and working as the Priory’s bursar, ‘ making sure the money side of things is right’. As well as qualifications in accounting, Max 2 looks to get a theological qualification so that he can go to his people as a pastor.
‘Becoming a Priest will add weight to my words and deeds in my community’, he says.
Father William
‘God doesn’t see people in categories like we do. God is for us all. I want to help break down barriers and for black people to be accepted by everyone.’
Born in Matatiele, Eastern Cape, William came to Lesotho with his parents as a seven year old, the family escaping apartheid. He went to school and attended church in a local parish, where there were SSM brothers working. ‘So I grew up in the church and was familiar with the brothers’. When he felt ‘God’s calling’, he gravitated to SSM, formally joining in 1976.
‘I chose SSM because you are free to do anything and provide help where and when it is needed. I realised as a member of SSM I could go anywhere in the service of the gospel.’
In mid-2009, Father William was transferred from the remote St Matthews Parish to take on the role of Priest in East London, Eastern Cape—a dominantly white Parish. ‘I’m the black priest in a white area. The young are different, but the old ways still linger in older parishioners and many have not accepted change. My dream is to bring all of Southern Africa together without colour.‘
Father Moiloa
‘I would like to further my studies in psychology as I see a need within the diocese for these skills, helping with the challenges faced by the brothers, especially HIV/AIDS.’
Father Moiloa is sub-Prior and Priest of both Christ the Healer, Lithoteng and Saint Mary and Saint John’s, Botshabelo. He is also President of St Bernard Mizeki’s Guild, Priest for the convent of the Society of the Precious Blood (SPB), Maseti, and a member of the HIV/AIDS Ministry Team
Born in Lesotho, Father Moiloa joined SSM in 2001.
As a boy growing up in Buthabuthe Parish he was a server in the church. While at high school he attended a session by the SSM brothers, who had been invited by the Parish to talk about religious life.
‘I always wanted to be a priest; it was something I felt. SSM was my road to the priesthood, which I have really enjoyed travelling’, he says.
Moiloa became a Deacon in 2006 and was ordained a Priest in 2007. An important function of his role as Priest at St Barnabas Masite—a rural community 45 minutes by car from the Priory—is to work with village leaders in providing pastoral care and help with all matters associated with HIV/AIDS.
From his psychology studies, Father Moiloa also sees the need to open a branch of Healing of the Memories in Lesotho, for which he would take responsibility—‘ to be there for people’, he says. He also looks to a future of forgoing his role as a full-time Priest to being a psychologist within SSM.
Brother Barry, OGS
‘My dream with SSM is to reopen a house in South Africa; a house of prayer where people can come and retreat and rest from the busy world.’
Brother Barry came to SSM in mid-2009 from the Oratory of the Good Shepherd (OGS), where he had reached the level of Provincial. He is a retired head neuro-orthopaedic theatre nurse, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.
He says he has always wanted the religious life, and has followed that path for 30 years, even in the operating theatre. After retiring from the theatre he sought more from the religious life and looked to missionary work, but there were no opportunities in South Africa.
‘Being healthy the way I am I wasn’t going to sit in a rocking chair when there is work to be done’, he says.
He attended the same church in Cape Town as SSM Provincial Father Michael Lapsley, and his parish Priest encouraged him to speak to Michael who, in turn, encouraged Barry to join SSM. He came to the Priory in November 2009, and his five-year commitment ceremony on his way to living permanently at the Priory will be conducted in January 2011.
“I’m excited to be joining SSM’, he says.
Brother Barry has taken on a mentoring role for the young brothers. He is a chaplain at the Mants’ase e orphanage (to children between the ages of three to 20). ‘They are terribly disadvantaged and some experience intense mental and social difficulties. Some have HIV/AIDS.’ He is also part-time chaplain at St Steven’s School, which he says provides, ‘the best and cheapest education in the country through its inspirational Principal Majoalane Mathebeng’.
When not immersed in his work Brother Barry can be found knitting jumpers for the orphanage, and all wool is donated. He has encouraged a knitting group in South Africa, which has contributed more than 60 jumpers to date.
Nkoenyana Moroka
‘My next steps are to take vows of commitment and further my studies.’
Nkoenvane is one of four young men to join the Priory in January 2010. This followed the Enquirers’ Week, which included a two-day retreat, a visit to the SPB Sisters, lunch with Father Tanki and a visit to Father Moiloa’s Parish.
Nkoenvane, now 23, came from the town of Mantsonyane in central Lesotho, where he went to high school, completing year 12. After meeting Brother Mosuoe and becoming interested in religious life, he came to Enquirers’ Week ‘to experience first hand what life in a religious community was all about.’
‘I liked it. But that is not to say I haven’t faced difficulties. We come here with our own problems, and continue to hold them in our hearts.’ Nkoenvane said a Healing of Memories workshop he attended helped a lot, and he feels he is now settling in to the religious life.
In 2011 he will begin home-based care nursing studies and is also keen to learn accounting.
Sello Moholisa
‘I want to make a difference to the lives of my brothers and sisters.’
Also in his first year with SSM, Sello is a ‘parent’ after school each day to children at the nearby orphanage. He helps from junior through to senior classes with their homework assignments. ‘I like to help the children with their homework because they don’t have their parents.’
Sello’s ambition, which he has held since high school, is to become a Priest ‘and SSM is my chosen road to do so’. He went to St Saviour Parish at Leribe.
Since joining SSM, Sello has devoted many hours to the Priory garden. Future studies for the IT-savvy 24 year old are yet to be decided.
‘I want to become a role model that encourages young brothers and sisters to commit their lives to God’, he says.
Father Robert
‘Religious life as been around since the fourth century and we’ve still got thing to learn. ‘I feel that I have been blessed by being here.’
From Birmingham in the UK, Father Robert joined SSM in 1962 when he was16. He says he always wanted to be a Priest, but didn’t quite know how to go about it. At the time of Father Kelly’s centenary the BBC made a film about Kelham, which he happened to see. ‘My first thought was, these people look happy, and my next, I want to go there.’ He was ordained in 1969.
Father Robert took on various roles in the UK, but celebrated his 50th birthday in Australia, in Darwin in the Northern Territory – while at Nungalinya College (1995–1996), which he describes as happy year.
While there, he says things were beginning to happen in Lesotho.
‘Young Besotho men were knocking at the door wanting to become Priests. In 1996 he went to Lesotho to start a new SSM and to become Priest at St John’s in Maseru.
’God has blessed us richly with the young men. We are still very young, very new, but we just have to live in hope and trust.
‘I feel that I am the luckiest Priest in the diocese to be at St John’s. God continues to bless us. The numbers at mass are excellent. The giving is wonderful and the spirit of prayer and witness is very encouraging. The youth group is just over a year old now, and continues to flourish.
‘The last 14 years have been extraordinarily wonderful. I love the Basotho people, they are so loving and affectionate.’
Father Robert, who is retiring at the end of 2010, is formation tutor for young recruits at the Priory. He also works with the sisters of both the Community of the Holy Name (CHN) Leribe and SPB Masite.
‘Please keep our young men—Nkoenyane, Ishmael, Teboho and Sello—in your prayers, and pray for me and all who help in the work of formation.’
Ishmael Mothibi
‘I want to educate people and raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.’
Twenty-four year old Ishmael is another of the young men who joined the Priory in 2010. In his role as Lay Minister at Lithoteng, Christ the Healer, he is called upon to bury the dead. ‘I have the opportunity during the service to get the HIV/AIDS message to the people’, he says.
‘I always dreamt to become a Priest; it’s a calling from God to pastoral care. I just want to comfort people.’
Ishmael’s Grandfather was a priest in the Mafeking district, Canon Father Riet (now retired), and he visited him as a child. It was his grandfather who told him about SSM, which he thought about for a long time.
He looks forward to making his first commitment in January 2011, ‘from there I’ll see what I want to do’. Ishmael is also a sacristan, and working toward leading a planned retreat with the help of Father Moiloa.
Brother Mosuoe
‘HIV treatment is one thing, but it is essential to spread the message about behavioural change.’
Officially with SSM since 2006, Mosuoe is from the town of Maputsoe in the district of Leribe.
It was while an altar server for his church at Holy Cross outstation in the parish of St Paul that he first became familiar with SSM, when the brothers came to the church and introduced themselves. He became a friend of SSM long before joining the priory.
Now 27, Brother Mosuoe is a lead player in the AIDS Ministry Team and as a carer for orphans.
In his role with the AIDS Ministry Team he is working closely with the coordinator of the Healthy Lifestyles Counselling and Testing Centre, Masentle Selikane.
‘HIV/AID is worst in the rural areas of Lesotho, and whatever is happening isn’t working. SSM can play a really important role by getting antiretroviral drugs to where the people who need it are—village to village.’
About to head out to the villages to deliver drugs and test for HIV/AID status among villagers, Mosuoe says he intends to get involved in more training for a qualification to undertake more intensive HIV/AIDS consulting.
Teboho Leipa
‘I’m so interested in the religious life; it is based on prayer; it has a mission to give the sacraments and take care of the sick. That is my interest.’
Teboho Leipa, 23, joined the Priory in January 2010. He, too, was an altar server, from the age of 11, and heard about SSM from Father Mosia who told him about life in SSM when he was Deacon at the Church of Epiphany, Sekubu, Lesotho.
‘I’ve been happy with challenges to date. But because I’m so new I don’t as yet have a voice in matters. I am looking forward to taking my vows, which will give me that voice.’
Teboho has two positions in the Priory: as Steward of the House and House Master. A part of his role is to source servers for the parishes of Saint Mary and Saint John’s and conduct the church choir.
‘I had three ambitions—I wanted to be a journalist, a priest or a teacher, and the priesthood, with its capacity for talking to people, sharing my experiences and improving life for my people won the day’, he says.
He is a member of the HIV Ministry Team and wants to be better equipped to undertake more AIDS-related ministry activities. He plans to begin studying for the priesthood at Grahamstown College of Transfiguration in 2012.
‘In the priesthood you are looked up to and can be more helpful in helping people themselves take responsibility for their behaviours. As a priest I will help with offering professional counselling in HIV/AIDS.
Teboho is President of Youth for Lesotho Red Cross and a member of the Southern African Youth Network (SAYNet).