Racism and Human Dignity

“The joy and pain of being a missionary” was the first testimonial experience I ever heard from a missionary when I entered our Missionary Religious Order, the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM).

The joy and pain of learning by doing

The confrere who shared that experience was a Congolese missionary in the Dominican Republic. He was referring to the joy he experienced in his missionary life and the mistakes and awkward moments it took him to immerse in the culture of his missionary country. Before that, all I knew about missionaries were the wonderful memories I had of Belgian missionaries who evangelized my home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fr. Bernard Kayimbw Mbay, CICM As I was growing up, I saw Belgian missionaries immerse themselves in the African culture: they shared people’s joy, ate their food, danced traditional rhythms, learned proverbs. But they also experienced the pain when, for instance, people struggled under the 32 years of oppression, corruption, and dictatorship of the former president Mobutu. Since that time, I realized that being a missionary will always have that empathetic mix of feelings: the joy and the pain of the people you are sent to are also the joy and pain of the missionary.

Coming to North America

When it was announced I was going to be sent as a missionary to the United States, I was excited and joyful. I had heard about the “American dream” magic but also about the cowboy movies that left room for the fear of the unknown. When I met the real American people, I did not experience anything but hospitality, love, and affection; it is my continual honeymoon. I enjoy the American traditions, way of life, and holidays.

In Texas, I always participated in the fourth of July parade, and I heard many people saying: “I love a patriotic priest.” I am fascinated by American achievements in the history of humanity. Part of our missionary creed is the time that we take to appreciate, learn, and immerse in the culture, embrace the flag, love the people we are sent to.

Reflecting on my joys and pains of being a missionary to America, I can only say that every country has its best things and its problems. As missionaries, we are commissioned to bring good tidings, but at the same time, we are the conscience of our society. That is why the joy and pain of the people are also the joys and pains of the missionary.

The challenge of ministry

We, CICM, have had missionaries martyred in Guatemala; others in China during the Boxer Rebellion; still others were expelled from the Dominican Republic for being the voice of the voiceless. The pain of a missionary is everything that hurts the sacred image of God in each person, just like God’s indignation when Cain killed his own brother, Abel (Genesis 4:10).

Unfortunately racism still lives

Looking back at the history of the United States, I can tell that African Americans are living in a society that was not designed for them, and racism is the problem. As I hear it said, slavery is America’s original sin, and there has not been a proper healing for both the wounded and the guilty.

When hate, anger, and hostility turn into oppression, dehumanization, squeezing the economic breath, and mistreatment of a category of people just because of their skin color, that is racism. Racism is evil because it attacks the inherent dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God.

It is often said that those who harm others must prepare themselves psychologically. They must see their victims as dangerous, good-for-nothing, not human. They have to strip them of their humanity and God-likeness, make them equal to the devil so they can have the gratification of killing them, for if they see them as a brother, mother, son or loved ones, it will be difficult to kill them. That is why racism is a sin.

For the racism pandemic, we pray that the church will be a hospital, and God the physician.

About the author:

Fr. Bernard Kayimbw Mbay, CICM was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He joined the CICM –Missionhurst community in 2006 and attended school of Theology in Cameroon. He was sent as a missionary to the US in 2010. Fr. Bernard learned English and Spanish in 2011 and was ordained to the priesthood in August 2013 and appointed as parochial vicar in Castroville, Texas. He is now serving as Pastor of Maria Reina de las Americas and Saint Therese of the Child Jesus in Mount Olive and Beulaville, North Carolina.

(Reprinted with permission from the July 2020 Newsletter of the United States Catholic Mission Association)