Interview with Fr. Gérard Lagleder, O.S.B.
ABOUT YOUR WORK How would you describe the work of your organisation, the Brotherhood of Blessed Gerard?
The Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard is an Association of the Roman Catholic Church (FBO), the Relief Organisation of the Order of Malta in South Africa, a (South African) Public Benefit Organisation (PBO 18/11/13/2769) operated not for profit (NPO). The Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard was founded in 1992 at Mandeni in the Province of kwaZulu/Natal in South Africa. We established and provide a comprehensive and holistic system of care through Blessed Gérard's Care Centre by running:
Health Care Projects: AIDS-Care, Hospice, Poor Sick Fund
Child Care Projects: Pre-Primary School, Children's Home, Malnutrition Clinic, Bursary Fund
Relief and Social Care Projects: Relief Fund, First Aid & Emergency Service, Disaster Relief
You founded it in 1992. Why? What was the need you saw that it could help?
One day I was called to bring Communion of the Sick to a dying lady. I visited her as I had done regularly during the previous months. When I arrived I noticed that she was in a very bad condition. She had terrible bedsores and she was totally emaciated. I gave her Communion of the Sick and the Anointing of the Sick and said to her: “I would be glad if you will allow me to take you to a good doctor.” “I don’t have the money”, she replied and I went on: “Let me take care of that, because I think, that you really need a good doctor.” She agreed then and I put a mattress in the back of my pickup, laid her on it and took her to the doctor. The doctor was Dr. Paul Thabethe whose surgery is in Sundumbili Township. On our arrival he said: “For heavens sake, she is in such a bad state that she has to go to hospital.” She was transferred from there to hospital and died the same night. When I met Dr. Thabethe again he said to me: “Father, can’t we do something? There are so many people here who simply die from malnutrition or from being totally neglected at home and that should not happen. This kind of thing should not be a cause of death. By saying so he was knocking on open doors with me.
The second event, which was very impressive, was this:
There were two very poor families in Mandeni, living in one house. The fathers had no work. They could not feed their seven children. The landlord who they had rented a flat from had threatened to evict them. They had nothing to eat and nothing to wear: A totally desperate situation. As usual when people are desperate, they come to the Catholic Church, even if they are not Catholics. On Sunday after the service I made an announcement in church and asked “Is there anybody who could help to get these totally desperate families back on track again?” A member of the pastoral council, Mrs. Kalkwarf responded and said: “Oh yes, we can do something to organise help.” She went off and a day later she had organised the entire parish and other people. Some brought food, others clothes, others got the children back to school and others even found a job for the men, so that within three months the need of the families was alleviated. That was an inspiring revelation to me: “Well, there are people here in South Africa who know how to organise things!”
I had been aware of the urgent needs of the people. When I came to Mandeni I saw that the charity work of the Church was far from well organised and on the other hand there were people who were aware of the need, people who have their hearts in the right place and people who know how to organise help. That was my ignition. As I have been involved with the work of the Order of Malta in Germany for more than 30 years, where organising help became my second nature, it struck me: “Let’s plan and do something to help the people here in Zululand on a long term basis.” We missionaries are always accused of establishing gigantic projects which totally depend on foreign entities and funds and on our person as a missionary and when the funds would dry out one day, when the missionary dies or is transferred, everything would collapse. I said to myself: “No, we do not want to make this mistake. We want to try to get the South Africans to help the South Africans in South Africa. It would be good to found an organisation within the country, where the indigenous people make plans on how to give help to the local people who are in any kind of need.” Therefore, I founded an organisation of South Africans, which is based here and works with local people.
Who funds it?
The work of the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard is almost exclusively funded by private donations from individuals. A few corporate donors and a few organisations don ate to us as well.
How many religious do you have?
Three Benedictine nuns and one Benedictine Missionary Father (=myself)
How many staff do you have?
82 full time employees and more than 1100 volunteers
How do you attract volunteers?
We are “overrun” by volunteers. Volunteering at the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard is considered a very prestigious activity. The volunteers proudly present themselves in our uniform and are well respected. We have a very good reputation and that echoes back onto the volunteers who are seen as the “angels of mercy”. Volunteering here also reaps the benefit of getting two wholesome meals per shift, a financial reimbursement for travel costs and other expenses, free medical treatment by our doctor and free medication and the pride of being part of a wonderful organisation.
You understand the importance of communication: you have a website, newsletters, a blog. What reactions have these communications tools had, in terms of : 1) educating the public in general ? and 2) attracting support?
Our “communications” as the Order of Malta would call it are essential means to spread the good news of our faith that translates into tenderly loving care for the less fortunate. We frequently get feedback that our work shows that the Catholic Church does not just waffle piously, but takes effective action against sickness, desperation, poverty and neglect.
It is difficult to determine which kind of communication may have motivated a new donor to support our work. We have subscribed to the intention to be always and everywhere present, in TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, our own print media, presentations, talks, sermons, in various social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, XING, YouTube, Twitter, Google+), in the Internet etc. When people keep hearing your name mentioned in a positive context they become acquainted with you and when they decide who they want to support you may be lucky.
What are your next plans for the hospice?
The hospice will just continue its enormous work, but we are dreaming of establishing a nursing school to provide professional training for “enrolled nursing assistants” in a one-year-course.
The Council (Board of Directors) of Blessed Gérard's Care Centre decided on 5th July 2017 to initiate a new institution: A facility of "assisted living and occupation" for young adults who had been wards of Blessed Gérard's Children's Home and attended special schools. We experienced that these have hardly any chance to live independently and to get any form of employment. Since we had accepted a parental role when we welcomed them into our Children's Home, we have a moral obligation to continue our assistance as far as necessary whilst trying to foster their independence as far as possible. We intend to help them to create their own income and are very much in a brainstorming and decision making phase in this regard. The idea is to employ a new Social Worker or a married couple where one of them at least is a Social Worker to “run” the facility.
ABOUT YOUR PATIENTS Please briefly describe the local environment.
Until 40 years ago, the Mandeni area was dense bush. Then a big paper factory was built there and had to employ many workers. These workers were recruited in the surrounding areas and settled near the factory. According to the former apartheid system, which was still in power in those days, there was a large township being a ghetto for black people, a settlement for white people, a settlement for Indians and a settlement for coloured people. In this black ghetto, the people are housed in partly very poor circumstances, which is a breeding ground of sickness, of course. That is not all. There is very severe poverty in our area. The official unemployment rate for the country is 52% of the employable population. This causes people to take desperate measures, just to survive. If one does not know how to pay for one’s rent, if one does not know what to put on the table to eat, if one does not know how to clothe oneself and the children, then one might often choose methods and ways out, which they normally would not consider. This is why, unfortunately, prostitution has become very common here. Young women and girls sell themselves, so that at least they can earn a living and care for their children. That, of course, is a breeding ground for HIV / AIDS. Therefore it is extremely difficult in our AIDS education to make it clear to people how they should behave. 76 % of people tested for AIDS in our area of Mandeni and Sundumbili and 88 % in the industrial area of Isithebe are HIV-positive. This is the overwhelming truth. One asks: “Can that be at all possible?” However, we see the very sad reality here day by day.
Tell me about your patients: who are they? Is there an average age?
The majority of people start being sexually active at about the age of 15. That is when they are infected with the HIV. It takes up to ten years until AIDS will develop. Therefore, most of our patients are in their Twenties and Thirties. On the other hand, we admit more and more patients with large and deep decubital ulcers who have been neglected at home or by public hospitals, since we are known to have a good record of accomplishment to treat these. Most of our patients do not even know how to spell “medical aid”. There is no compulsory health insurance in South Africa.
How do you find them?
Both the health care professionals and the broad population know us very well. We are just a phone call away. Nevertheless, sometimes we really have to look for their homes, e.g. when we get a sick call like “Please come and help, there is a dying person here and we cannot cope!” “Where is the patient?” “You know, here emaBhananeni (= at the bananas)”. “How can we get there?” “You know, go to ekuJulukeni (=place name meaning “in the sweat”), carry on until you get to the Bumba river, cross it at the low level bridge and carry on until you get to a rusty scrap tractor next to the road in a ditch. Turn right there up the hill where the banana plants are. I will wait for you there.” When the ambulance crew finally will have arrived there, they may have to go for another half an hour driving off road on a pedestrian track until they will find the patient in a dilapidated clay hut with a thatched roof.
What are their family situations?
First, there is hardly any family. An estimated 90 % of children are born out of wedlock, often by teenage mothers.
There are many child-headed “families” because a large percentage of the parents, i.e. the young population have succumbed to AIDS and when granny has died, the older siblings have to take over the parental role. Siblings though cannot claim childcare grants for their younger brothers and sisters or for themselves. The older girls often see no other means of survival for themselves and their siblings than engaging in transactional sexual relationships most probably resulting in their own HIV infection.
76 % of our local population are HIV positive.
52 % of the employable population in our area are unemployed.
Poverty and desperation prevail.
Many of the former “family clans” where extended families all lived in one place and which used to be typical for African society have fallen into pieces
through urbanisation, i.e. young people to move out of the bush into the towns and cities looking for employment as migrant labourers
through the fact that most of the young family members have died as a result of the AIDS pandemic.
Tell me about the orphanage and the future of the children you care for.
Our Children’s Home, meanwhile officially recognised as a “Child and Youth Care Centre” by the South African Department of Social Development is not just an orphanage. We provide a cosy home, love, security and medical treatment to abandoned, previously neglected, physically, mentally and sexually abused, HIV-positive and sick, handicapped and orphaned children between birth and adulthood. Where adoption has failed*, where foster parenthood has failed** and where re-integration into the “families” has failed, we provide the children with a cosy home in a safe and sound atmosphere, send them to school and raise them as good as we can. We do not abandon our children when they have reached adulthood, but we continue our parental role by paying for their vocational or professional education and/or their studies through Blessed Gérard’s Bursary fund.
* The “market” in this regard is over-saturated due to the high number of AIDS-orphans and hardly anybody wants to adopt a sick, maladjusted or handicapped child.
** We have many children who have been assigned to us because they were abused by foster parents who see the foster care grant as means of income only and are not interested in raising these children.
What has working with the patients taught you?
Patience with the patients (“Europeans have a watch, Africans have time”) and with myself (“One step at a time!”)
Respect for their beliefs, traditions, customs and culture and the necessity of inculturation in our approach
Trust in God as the only absolutely reliable anchor and rescue vessel in an ocean of misery
Admiration of their resilience, their thankfulness even for small things, their musical talent and so forth …
What is the outlook for AIDs patients in the region?
Well, we have been pioneers and are part of the success story fighting AIDS in Africa, the victory over the pandemic, in so far as after twenty years of ever more increasing infection rates we have come to a standstill, i.e. the rate is not further increasing but stalled on a high level. The number of new infections and the number of AIDS related deaths have equalised now. If we succeed to carry on consequently with our “Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy” (HAART = AIDS-Treatment) and even get those who so far have evaded detection and/or treatment, we will achieve a decrease in the infection rate and finally eradicate AIDS one day. Recently we spoke about up to 35 years of added lifespan at good quality of life resulting from HAART. Meanwhile AIDS patients under HAART have no longer a decreased life expectancy. The outlook is: “Without treatment, once you have entered the AIDS-phase, you will die within plus-minus a year’s time. With treatment, AIDS won’t shorten your life any longer. Choose treatment – choose life!”
Local community reactions to your patients: Are they marginalised? For example, many Order programmes are about re-integrating patients into their local communities: is that an activity that is relevant to your patients and their environment?
Yes, especially AIDS patients are still largely considered outcasts of society. Popular belief holds that sickness were caused by a spell or evil spirits and people are reluctant to help the patients for fear the evil spirits may haunt them in revenge for them spoiling their aim to make the patients sick. We are very glad and proud that nearly all of our patients, that means thousands, have been re-integrated into their local communities.
Well, originally a hospice would aim at re-integrating patients into their heavenly home, but through our AIDS-treatment programme, but even through the fact that we have treated numerous patients who were admitted “to die” so well, that they could be discharged home again. In this regard we somehow have redefined the aim of hospice from purely palliative end-of-life-care to providing optimal care and treatment and leave the decision which door will be used at their discharge to the good Lord in heaven.
Our children’s home aims very clearly at the re-integration of the children into their family, extended family or local community where this is may be a viable option.
ABOUT YOU Where did you grow up?
I lived in Regensburg (in English called “Ratisbon” with its medieval name) from birth (2 July 1955) until my priestly ordination (26 June 1982)
How – and why - did you get involved with the Order of Malta?
Attending a First-Aid Course at Malteser Hilfsdienst, the German Relief Organisation of the Order of Malta, in 1969 awakened my interest and desire to learn more about the subject, but advanced training was only offered to members of Malteser Hilfsdienst. Being a minor in these days I needed parental permission to join the organisation and after joining I subsequently enrolled and absolved every training that was offered by Malteser Hilfsdienst and ended up as a paramedic (Emergency-Medical-Technician) and first aid, nursing and paramedic instructor. Later I became head of the nursing departments of Malteser Hilfsdienst first in the Diocese of Regensburg and later in the Diocese of Limburg. When I were at Limburg I also became the deputy manager of Malteser Hilfsdienst in the Diocese of Limburg and in the Province of Hesse. My theological dissertation “Das Neue in der geistlichen Tradition des Johanniterordens” about the innovation and new ideas that the Order of Malta brought into the spiritual tradition of the Church was later published under the title “Die Ordensregel der Johanniter/Malteser” (The Rule of the Order of St. John / Order of Malta). After I had founded the South African relief organisation of the Order of Malta in 1992 I was invited in 1994 to join the Order of Malta as a member.
Being a relief-corps-volunteer and member of the Order of Malta is the basis of my fourfold “MMMM” vocation: Malteser – Minister of religion – Monk – Missionary. (See “The four M’s of Father Gérard”)
How did you find yourself in Africa?
On the day of my priestly ordination, the Diocese of Regensburg granted me leave of absence to join the Missionary Benedictines of St. Ottilien. Archabbot Notker Wolf O.S.B. (who later became the Abbot Primate of the entire Benedictine Order) assigned me as a missionary to Inkamana Abbey in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa on 6 January 1987. Becoming a missionary was the fulfilment of a long-lasting dream since my days of childhood. I had been scheduled initially to become part of a team to make a new monastic foundation in the Philippines, but a severe shortage of priests in Zululand induced my superiors to change their mind and rather to send me to South Africa. I had been silently apprehensive about me as a paleface going into Apartheid-South-Africa where because of my colour of skin I may be seen as one of these so called oppressors. Today I am more than glad that I did not refuse to go to South Africa, since I have found the fulfilment of my life here. I would not like to swap my assignment with anybody else’s.
What drew you to Mandeni?
The Abbot of my mission monastery, Inkamana Abbey, had agreed to the request of the Bishop of Eshowe to assign me to become the Parish Priest of Mandeni in 1991.
What African language(s) do you speak? How did you learn it/them?
I speak isiZulu (spoken in Zululand and far beyond) fluently. I understand a bit of isiXhosa (spoken in the Cape Provinces) and isiSwati (spoken in Swaziland) because these languages a very similar to isiZulu and I understand Afrikaans (spoken by the Dutch immigrants – called isiBhunu by the Zulu – “the language of the Boers”) because it is similar to my mother tongue German. Sr. Romualda, a Zulu nun, who speaks English sufficiently, taught me isiZulu for a few months. When I kept asking her why although she had told me the rule to be like this and that, the people would say something quite different, she told me: “Don’t worry, Father, it will come!” That was the end of my private lessons but indeed, it “came” with lots of trial and error and practising. The great advantage in this regard was the fact that the parish priest and I were the only “palefaces” in the entire district. Therefore I had to either remain silent or speak and Zulu which was the one and only option to make myself understood. Three months after my arrival in South Africa the parish priest of this parish Mahlabathini went on a 104-days leave to Europe. I still remember the number of days because I counted the days until his return. The retired priest who was supposed to replace him during this time died in the very night of the parish priest’s departure. That resulted in me being the one and only priest in the second biggest parish of the diocese with its 28 different church congregations to be looked after spiritually, pastorally and charitably, spread over an area of about 1000 km² and connected by unpaved bush roads. I had no choice but to speak isiZulu and I did.
What most inspires you about what you do?
I think that the good Lord in heaven had quite a plan with me and guided me swiftly and decisively to the very place where I find myself right now.
Many things inspire me about what I do:
The fact that I feel needed and useful, satisfied and fulfilled because of what I am and what I do.
The fact that I feel privileged to be called to walk quite closely in the footsteps of my great examples
Blessed Gérard as the founder and leader of a Hospitaller brotherhood, whose members came “ad obsequium pauperum et tuitionem fidei catholicae”
St. John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Lord, seeing how countless people can experience the tender loving care of the Lord though our various services.
St. Benedict of Norcia, who wrote in chapter 36:1-4 of his Rule: “Care of the sick must rank above and before all else, so that they may truly be served as Christ, for he said: I was sick and you visited me (Matt 25:36), and, What you did for one of these least brothers you did for me (Matt 25:40). Let the sick on their part bear in mind that they are served out of honour of God.”
St. Teresa of Calcutta, whose language we copied by calling our operational wing “Care Centre” and whose unlimited dedication inspired us to use the captions “We care in any case” for the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard and “Caring without borders” for Blessed Gérard’s Care Centre. I used a picture meditation about the vocation and work of “Mother Teresa” as my sermon in order to tune our evolving organisation into harmony with her ideals at the Holy Mass during which we founded the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard 25 years ago on 28 October 1992.
Another great inspiration is the fact that we have given value to the life of the people
who we are looking after in and through our Care Centre.
We have also given value to the lives of our volunteers and given them dignity, recognition, knowledge and abilities, food and reimburse their expenses.
We have created job opportunities. One breadwinner in KwaZulu-Natal feeds five mouths, ten mouths, many fifteen and more mouths from their income. Eighty-five employees feeding fifteen mouths each makes thousand-twohundred-and-seventy-five full tummies three times per day! That is more dignified for the recipients than handing out food to beggars. Therefore, we have made a tremendous impact in our society.
However, what I actually even consider more important and inspiring is the fact that we give the Church credibility. There is a common opinion claiming that there are many other churches, which just do “happy clappy” and nothing for the poor. We do not just talk but we put our prayers into action.
I am inspired by the dedicated service of our members. Many people in other continents consider Africans selfish, greedy and lazy. Our members proof the contrary. I praised them at the 20th anniversary of the blessing and opening of Blessed Gérard’s Care Centre:
“you are the smiles that our patients get,
you are the hugs, that our children so dearly need,
you are giving the food, that the hungry need and
you are mending broken hearts, which is what we are all about.”