In his homily, he recalled the physical torture that scarred the native of Olgossa in Sudan’s Darfur region, where she was kidnapped, sold and resold multiple times as a slave, saying, “St. Josephine Bakhita suffered greatly in her life. As a child, she was abducted and forced to walk hundreds of kilometers to be sold as a slave.”
“During the journey to El Obeid, she was bought and sold twice. And after El Obeid, she was sold multiple times, spending many years in captivity marked by abuse and hardship,” the Czechian-born member of the Society of Jesus (SJ/Jesuits) further recalled.
Credit: Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD)
“The story of St. Josephine Bakhita is a story of hope, from captivity and slavery to eventually learning of God in a convent of Sisters,” he continued, adding, “When finally, she was freed, she chose a life of full commitment to God and entered religious life.”
The Cardinal, who founded and directed the African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN) went on to recall St. Bakhita’s heart of forgiveness, when she is quoted as saying, “If I met those slavers who kidnapped me, and also those who tortured me, I would kneel down and kiss their hands, because, if this had not happened, I would not be a Christian now.”
As a member of the international missionary Congregation of the Canossian Daughters of Charity, Cardinal Czerny recalled in his February 8 homily, St. Bakhita “shared her story of captivity and slavery, thanking her kidnappers, for without them she might not have known of Jesus, nor of the Church.”
Credit: Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD)
“Despite her sufferings, and even later despite the illness she endured, she remained cheerful, always following the desires of her Master Jesus Christ,” the Prefect of the Vatican DPIHD said.
He also recalled Pope Francis’ sharing during his General Audience on 11 October 2023 as exemplified in the life of St. Bakhita. The Holy Father said, “The vocation of the oppressed is that of freeing themselves and their oppressors, becoming restorers of humanity. Only in the weakness of the oppressed can the force of God’s love, which frees both, be revealed”.
For Cardinal Czerny, the message of Pope Francis demonstrates “Bakhita’s soul. Truly, to feel pity means both to suffer with the victims of the great inhumanity in the world, and also to pity those who commit errors and injustices, not justifying, but humanizing.”