Our Holy Mother Glorifies Herself in the Face of Terrible Tragedy

SOUTH AFRICA, Diana Beemish. On Tuesday night, 5 June 2012 Vanneaux Kongolo, a young refugee from the DRC, took his life. It was an act of total despair and desperation. Vanneaux had been part of a small Schoenstatt group of young men at Mercy House, Johannesburg, a home for refugees. He had made his consecration to our holy mother in the Schoenstatt shrine, Bedfordview, on 20 July 2011.

Vanneaux was a person of great integrity, with a fixation for the truth. He was a very strong character and highly talented physiotherapist. His work meant everything to him and the children whom he helped loved him. It would take a lot to bring him to take his life, but circumstances just became too much for him to endure.

Refugee politics in fist person singular

Vanneaux had fled from the DRC in 2006, when, as a student, he was active in the fight against corruption in the government. He was known and persecuted for this. In February 2006, when on his way to a political meeting, soldiers spotted his car and shot at it, attempting to kill him. Instead they killed his passenger friend. Vanneaux escaped, but knew that he could no longer stay in the DRC, his life being seriously threatened. He left his country and came to South Africa.

Although he qualified for refugee status, the South African Home Affairs authorities rejected his application. This was the beginning of Vanneaux’s battle with xenophobic bureaucracy. Having been inexplicably and unjustly denied refugee status, Vanneaux was not able to register with the Health Council to work as a professional physiotherapist, which was his gift and dream. He had very great difficulty in opening a bank account and countless other problems arose due to this unjust situation.

I cannot take the nightmare any longer

Mercy House did everything possible to help him, but taking on the giant bureaucratic machine is mission impossible. We appealed against the rejection of his refugee application, but Home Affairs always claimed that that they had never received any outcome from the Appeal Board. Vanneaux’s situation got worse and worse. He was attacked outside Mercy House and his permit was stolen. After applying for a new permit, he was given a different ID number, which caused endless complications, even preventing him from drawing money from his own bank account, since he could not produce his original ID document. No matter what he tried to save himself from drowning nothing worked. He became increasingly despondent. Home Affairs’ unwillingness to help him eventually took its toll. Two days before he died, he remarked that he was too depressed to keep fighting for his right to live and work in South Africa. In short, he gave up on life, writing in his suicide note that he “could not take the bureaucratic nightmare any longer.”

A tragic story that does not end here

This tragic story does not end here. A few months after Vanneaux’s death, his father, Mr Omer came down from the DRC to sort out Vanneaux’s possessions. Because Mercy House had been Vanneaux’s home, he stayed at Mercy House. During this time, he was taken to the Schoenstatt shrine, which his son had loved so much and where he had made his consecration. For Mr Omer, the encounter with the shrine was an amazing experience of grace.

A tragic death bearing fruit

After his very first visit there – a Mass – he stated that it was clear to him that it was not he who had decided to come to South Africa, but that God had led him to South Africa, to get know Schoenstatt. He felt the call to start the movement in his own country and this he saw as his personal mission. At the beginning December, 2012, he received a Pilgrim Mother to take to his country and made his consecration to Our Lady, before returning home. Since then his efforts have received his bishop’s blessing and his circle of Schoenstatt followers has grown remarkably. Clearly, the tragic death of his son, has born fruit undreamed of. May Our Lady glorify herself through his work and we request all who read this to pray for the growth of our movement in the DRC.

See also: Vanneaux Kongolo & SA’s heart of darkness, Daily Maverick, June 2012

We are looking for Schoenstatt material in French, if anyone can help. If so, contact Diana Beamish at diana.beamish@absamail.co.za
tel. 0027 11 325-4785 or cell 0027 72 4374009