Dear friends,

Let us come back to my first day in South Africa, that is Thursday 14th August.

After the challenging flight from Lagos to Johannesburg, Father Kemna picked me up at the airport. My flight landed at 5am. Driving on the left side as you remember. We arrived at the house that Father rented for the weekend. We went to bed. The next day, after Father’s Mass, the sushi restaurant, grocery shopping, Mass and Confirmations at 7pm. A few very dedicated Faithful who are hoping for a growth in South Africa.

The next day, that is Friday 15th August, Father said his Mass in the morning. We then went for breakfast with a medical doctor and his wife. Elderly people, very nice people. We ate and talked for quite a while, and then drove back to the house. I said Mass for the feast of the Assumption at 5pm. Nobody in attendance. Too early for the workers. After Mass, we drove to the house of one of the Faithful. I gave a conference, explaining my story and also my views on the situation of the Church. There were a few Novus Ordo people, who seemed to have come only to oppose whatever I would say. Among them, there was a former catechist for the Novus Ordo. She was all about how great Francis was. In the course of the discussion, she asked me: «Do you believe I am a Catholic?» I answered : «By what you are saying, I am really not sure.» Later on, she went on saying that in Holy Scripture, only the Gospels are the Word of God. The rest was the opinion of St Paul. For example, the fact that a wife must be submitted to her husband, this would be the opinion of St Paul. I looked at her and told her: «Now I know that you are not a Catholic.» She was a bit shocked and had to admit to being wrong. It all ended well around a few sandwiches, but Father has some more work to do on these people. We drove back to the house to spend the night. A nice meeting overall, with many good people.

The next day, that is Saturday 16th, we went to the airport early. We had to be at the airport at 6am. Once there, we found out that our ticket was for a flight leaving from Cape Town to Durban, and not from Johannesburg to Durban as it should have been. It took a while to change our ticket to the 7:30am flight. That gave us time to enjoy a nice coffee and breakfast. The prices of South Africa are not the prices of America. Everything is much cheaper here. We then flew to Durban. A short 50mns flight. We rented a car and left for another house that Father rented for the ceremonies. The drive was nice, and a good occasion to see for the first time the Indian Ocean. Very beautiful. Majestic, really. We arrived at the house, set everything up for Mass. There were a few general confessions of new converts. After that, complements of baptism, confirmation, Mass. Three Confirmations of young adults and maybe ten people in attendance. It was quite touching to see these three new converts in their twenties receive with great devotion the sacrament of Confirmation. After Mass, we went to a restaurant with the Faithful, called Ocean Basket. Nice place, good food, but a bit close to the Casino and quite noisy. After the meal at night, we went to the beach, to touch the Indian Ocean. I got surprised by a wave, and my shoes were completely wet, which bothered me a bit for the next 24 hours. They are dry now. We went back to the house to spend the night.

The next day, that is Sunday 17th August, was certainly the most interesting. After the morning Mass in Durban, we drove to the Zulu Mission. The place is called Izingolweni. It is about a 2 ½ hours South of Durban. We had a small incident on the road, as we did not have any rands (South African money) to pay the toll. We had our credit cards, but they did not accept international credit cards. We had US and Canadian dollars, but they did not accept such money. Eventually, the man behind was kind enough to pay the tool for us. There are still good souls on earth.

We arrived at the Zulu Mission. The roads to this place were not as bad as I thought. Most of it is highway and then a few kilometers on a dirt road. As soon as we arrived, everything became incredible. Another world. This mission is a former mission of H.E. Bishop Bedingfeld, consecrated by H.E. Bishop Mc Kenna. Bishop Bedingfeld did a wonderful job in evangelizing the Zulus. It is really a little Christianity, centered around a small village church. The loveliest of all places. Unfortunately, there was an association with the Apostles of Infinite Love in Canada at some point, but it seems that Bp Bedingfeld repudiated this at the end of his life. In any case, all of them have now rejected this association and made their profession of Faith. Also, the clergy of the place has accepted to hand over to Father Kemna the entire apostolate in this church.

Bp Bedingfeld died in 2021, of Covid or of the Covid protocole they administered in the hospital.

Children started coming to us. They wanted to kiss the Bishop’s ring. I had to learn my first Zulu words : «Sawubona», which means «Hello». But the real Catholic salutation is: «Magantoneswe o Jesu Christo», which means : «The blessings of Jesus Christ». And the answer is: «Kuze kube phagade», which means «To you forever».

We then met Father Michael, an elderly priest ordained by Bp Bedingfeld. I think Bishop Bedingfeld knew he would die soon and there would be nobody to replace him. He must have picked the best man he could find and ordain him. I am not sure. The situation is not perfect: Father Michael does not use Latin. He would celebrate Mass in Zulu. Again, a situation that is being corrected now by Father Kemna ministering to them. Besides this, Father Michael is a wonderful soul. Quite old, but you can see how much he cares for this flock. He was overjoyed at seeing a Bishop. I am sure it reminded him of his late Bishop. He could not stop telling us how overjoyed he was.

We also met another wonderful soul: Sister Redemptoris. She looks after everything and, on top of that, she has gathered 14 orphans and she takes care of them. They call her «Mom».

We entered the sacristy. A poor place for sure, but it would not take much to fix it. The church as a whole is a nice building. Very nice in fact. I am not sure if it was built by Bp Bedingfeld, but I would not be surprised. The name of the church is St Adalbert, or St Adalbero in Zulu. There are a few St Adalberts. This one is the martyr. As soon as we entered the sacristy, I could hear the beautiful songs they were singing in Zulu. They were actually doing polyphony in Zulu. Very beautiful, but also very touching. It sounded like we had entered heaven! To see these poor people sing the praises of God in their language with a great fervor brought tears to my eyes.

We prepared Mass and then we entered in a procession with a nice picture of St Adalbero. Father Kemna had prepared this surprise for them. We blessed the picture and we hung it to the wall. Father Michael was overjoyed again. The ceremony of Confirmations started. I gave Confirmation to over 50 people, I think. I don’t have the exact count. Beautiful names again: «Redempta» is one I remember. Some of the children were working hard not to laugh at the idea of getting a slap on the cheek. Children are children…

The ceremony was followed by Holy Mass. They sang beautiful songs during Mass. Again, a simple but beautiful polyphony. This was certainly one of the most touching Masses in my life.

After Mass, we took a few pictures outside, and then we sang a few songs in thanksgiving. It was followed by a meal with the Faithful. They were all sitting in a wide rectangle on benches. They served a quite decent hot meal: chicken, rice, etc. After the meal, many started walking back home. Most people don’t have cars in Zululand. They have normal modern houses, but tiny ones. But they walk, some of them for hours, to come to Mass. Quite edifying! After the meal, Sister Redemptoris came to me and offered me the crozier of Bp Bedingfeld. Nothing extraordinary in itself, but I think the gesture was immense for her. She told me many times: «Now we have hope again!» This will be quite a good travel crozier.

We bade farewell to Father Michael. I wanted to go see the convent of the nuns (there are three nuns) and also the house of Bp Bedingfeld. We left a bit late and had a few adventures on the road with sister bringing us out of our way quite a bit to put gas in her car. There is not gas everywhere in Zululand… We were traveling with Sister Redemptoris and Matthew, one of the orphans. It started getting darker when we arrived at the convent. It was dusk actually. The road was quite good, but the end of it, that is a few miles, was a dirt road and really not too good of a road.

We arrived in a very remote place, where one feels isolated from the rest of the world. That is where Bp Bedingfeld spent 40 years of his life. It was a very strange impression to see these buildings. The empty chapel, the house itself where he lived alone. Simple, poor. It would make a perfect house for a few priests though. There are 2 bedrooms, an office where Bp Bedingfeld used to do some printing, and the bathroom. An incredible place to say the least. A paradise in the middle of nowhere, if you don’t mind poverty. But very strange to be in a place where you know that someone important has lived for so long. Someone you would like to see, to be able to meet, to speak to. But he is gone… He was buried in the church… If he is in Heaven (and we pray he is), he must have rejoiced seeing a Bishop and a Priest walk on this property he probably cherished very much, with some of his children who felt again hope in their heart after the loss of their Bishop. Say a devout prayer for the repose of his soul, please!

We went through some of the sacristy material because Father needed to borrow a few vestments for the Mission. We were working in the dark, in this chapel made of metal sheets. Once in a while, we would find out that some animals had made their nests in a box of vestments. Not too good. Father will have to go back and work on that. Sister let me go with Bp Bedingfeld’s Pontificale, that is the book used for ordinations. It is marked with the name of Bp Mc Kenna. Probably a gift of the latest to Bp Bedingfeld. It will be more useful to me than to the mice somewhere in South Africa.

Everything made me feel so far away from home. I could very much picture Bp Bedingfeld in the night, looking at the stars, while African insects would make this constant strong beautiful noise, in a location unknown to anyone, spending decades in silence and prayer. What nights must he have spent there, away from anyone, except a few nuns in their convent! We told Sister that if they were to kidnap me, Canadians would never find me here. I think she was quite tempted… Sister showed us the bedroom where the Bishop spent his last illness. You could see how she was attached to him. Sister knelt down and ask for a blessing. We went back to our house in Durban to spend the night.

This morning, Monday 18th of August, I said Mass at 9:00am. Feast of Our Lady of Joy. Everyone was remembered. It was as if Our Lady was telling me : now, it is time to come back home. We left to have coffee at the house of one of the Faithful, just by the Ocean Sea. A beautiful place. We discussed the crisis and all the difficulty this person had with her local SSPX parish before leaving: refusal to openly discuss the question of the Vatican II «popes», to give answers, etc. The usual thing we hear everywhere.

Father Kemna brought me to the airport. I had a first flight to Johannesburg, waited three hours in the airport, and here I am in the plane to Zurich, finishing this letter somewehere above Cameroon.

But before I finish: in the plane, I was besides a man of Portuguese descent. He seemed to be willing to talk. I let him do. The discussion naturally came on the situation of white South Africans and it was the occasion of getting the full picture. Here is what he told me. He said that South Africa used to be a country with 30 million people. The government promoted a massive immigration. Many, many people moved from the rest of Africa, and the country became a 60 million people country. He said that although there is usually no problem with the original people of the country, all these immigrants have brought many problems. He said that the difficulty is at the government level. There is a very racist agenda at work. If the government did not tolerate and even support this anti-white people agenda, things would not be so bad. Some people in the politics openly say: «All white people must be killed», and there seems to be no problem with such statements… He said that the crime level is quite high. He said that white people are leaving the country for two reasons: crime (you have to be careful, especially if you are in the countryside and own much land), but also unemployment (white people can hardly get a job; in every application form, you must say what color you are… if you are not the right color, you will not get most jobs, quite simply). A sad situation. He said that yes, white farmers are still being killed once in a while. Their lands are seized by strangers who let them fall apart and the country is getting poorer and poorer. He said that there is a way to live here and feel safe, but you need to know the ins and outs and always make the right moves. He said that besides this, South Africa is a paradise, and I believe him it is. Beautiful landscape everywhere.

I will very much miss Africa. Both Nigeria and South Africa where beautiful places, especially Zululand. Obviously, coming from Canada, the interesting Africa is not the industrial one, but rather the original one: the unchanged Africa that seems to cross centuries without giving up its millennial traditions. Long live this Africa against the New World Order.

I am very much looking forward to seeing all of you!

In the meantime, God bless you!

Bp Pierre Roy