N.C.C. tour stance approved

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 8

N.C.C. tour stance approved

Support for the National Council of Churches’ opposition to the proposed All Blacks’ tour of South Africa next year has come from a visiting black South African Catholic bishop. The Most Rev. Mansuet Biyase, one of only seven black Catholic bishops in South Africa, said in Christchurch yesterday that he did not agree with a statement by the Rev. Don Corban, of Ngaruawahia, on Monday that Christians were not permitted to be selective in their morality and that the N.C.C. should address itself to the “horrendous” problems of the rest of Africa and leave South African Christians to sort out their own problems. Bishop Biyase, whose diocese is within the homeland of kwaZulu, said that the Mr Corban was probably not aware of the poverty inflicted on his fellow Christians in South Africa. “It is important for all Christians to be united and see Christ in every human being,” he said, emphasising that he was not dictating to

New Zealand whether a tour should proceed, because that was a matter for New Zealanders to decide. He did say, however, that New Zealanders’ playing rugby in South Africa would not help conditions in South Africa, whereas many blacks felt that a boycott of sport would be a demonstration of the horror of New Zealanders toward the system of apartheid, which was the cause of much of the suffering. Bishop Biyase was ordained a priest in 1960 and was enthroned a bishop in 1975. His diocese has a population of 2.3 million of whom 65,000 are Catholic. More than 3.5 million people live in kwaZulu which, Bishop Biyase said, was one of six of the 10 homelands that had told the South African' Government that they did not wish to have full independence. • Bishop Biyase said from the New Zealand Government’s announcement that it did not want the South African consulate to remain, he hdd concluded that New Zealand had already started

to show its horror ot the South African system. He did not see anything wrong if the demonstration of opposition went further. Asked if he was concerned about the posjffbility of a Communist take-over if

the South African Government fell, Bishop Biyase said that he was most concerned, because he abhorred communism. “But the system in South Africa of undermining other people is a very good soil for the Communists. Al-

ready communism is being prepared unwittingly,” he said. People in his diocese were living in utter poverty and a number were starving. Their plight had been made worse by a recent drought and two cyclones. Asked about the numbers of black bishops in South Africa, Bishop. Biyase said that of the 33 bishops, seven were black, two were Coloured, and one was Indian. Most of the priests were white, he said. He said that the disproportionate number of white clergy was partly a result of a problem of training enough blacks and partly a possible problem of powersharing. Bishop Biyase is in favour of adapting the Church to suit the needs of blacks and while he concedes that the Church has not gone very far, he hopes the time will come when it will make bigger steps in that direction. Much had been done to bring traditional Zulu music into the Church and he had composed some of the tunes, he said.