Canisius Chishiri SJ

That’s alright

Every conversation seemed to end with these words - the words of a great hearted man who had an infectious optimism for just about everything. But now he has died. Brother Canisius Chishiri, a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), died in his sleep on Thursday morning, 6 November, after a nine year battle with cancer.

He was extraordinary and deserves a little write up. He was born in Nyamaropa in 1948 and felt a calling to devote his life to the service of God and his people early on. His parents were against his plans. He was the eldest of eight and maybe they felt other responsibilities awaited him. But he “left father and mother” - who were later delighted by his choice of life - and pursued his way as a Jesuit.

During the war he worked with Christian communities in the rural areas, supporting them and training them in their faith and the challenges they faced. With the coming of peace he met people who were traumatised. Many were displaced by the war. Many had seen their relatives killed before their eyes and been told not to weep or mourn or talk. These people were physically and psychologically stranded.

Canisius, whose formal education was minimal set about carefully selecting some helpers, mainly mature women, and inviting these sufferers to “Rehabilitation Retreats” or “Crying Retreats” as they were sometimes called. The first step after gathering the people was to let them cry and weep and wail as they had never been allowed to do until then. Their bottled up emotions were given the chance to come out and for the first time they were able to mourn.

Then Chishiri and his helpers would invite them to speak and to share their pain with one another. Those for whom their experience was just too painful were given one wise counsellor to whom they could talk privately. The third stage was to begin to rebuild through scripture, prayer and practical help with projects. Heaven knows how many people were rehabilitated in this way after the war.

Later Canisius went to St Paul’s Musami, near Murewa, where he opened a home for handicapped people, ‘wobblies’ as he called them, and this Arrupe Centre continues to this day. The last great work of Chishiri was to found Zambuko House, a home for street children in Hatfield. The aim here was to welcome children who found themselves on the streets of Harare and try to reunite them with their parents while giving them a start in life through skills or formal education.

All of these initiatives were done by a man with no degrees or education beyond primary level, and even that was by correspondence.  He was a man of great heart and great faith. He educated himself. He read. He prayed. Nothing was beyond his imagination and no obstacles daunted him. As already mentioned his last years were dogged by illness but he was never self-pitying, never complained. His constant comment; “That’s alright.”

9 November 2014