By Staff Blogger
Nelson Mandela, who is still in the hospital, was remembered by the Regina Mundi Catholic Church, in Soweto, South Africa, during their Sunday service.
The Soweto church where Father Sebastian Rossouw started the mass by telling the congregation to remember “Madiba,” Mandela’s clan name, stands as a symbol of the resistance against apartheid.
Roussouw told the approximately 2,000 strong congregation that “Today, in a special way, we remember and thank him for what he has done.”
A peace icon in the church, decorated with stained glass, shows Mandela and others raising their hands in the air, and some worshippers offered prayers for it.
Although Mandela is almost 95 years of age, some of the worshippers had tears in their eyes as they listened to Roussouw. One church member said that, even though Mandela had reached an advanced age, it was still painful to hear that he was hospitalized.
Maria Onika, one of the people gathered at the Sunday mass, said that they were all worried what would happen in South Africa when Mandela died. She added that she was hurt when she heard that he had been taken to hospital and that she had offered prayers for him to get well.
In 1964, when Mandela was sent to prison on a life sentence, the church was built and stands out above the houses that surround it, mainly middle class, single-storey homes.
During the Soweto uprising of 1976, the church became a sanctuary for black students, some of whom were gunned down by the police for demonstrating for better education.
The students of several Sowetan schools had taken to the streets to protest the introduction of Afrikaans as the official language of instruction in schools.
In the riots that followed the shooting, some say that the official figure of 176 dead that is usually given is more like 700.
In 1997 Mandela said that the riots were “a literal battlefield between forces of democracy and those who did not hesitate to violate a place of religion with teargas, dogs and guns.”
Mandela went on to say that Regina Mundi Church, became a world-wide symbol of the determination of the people of South Africa to gain freedom from apartheid.
The church is now a popular tourist attraction and it has been visited by many prominent people, such as Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
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