Local sister tells of life, ministry in Nigeria
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published May 19, 2006
Detroit – For Sr. Elizabeth Harris, HVM, ministering in Nigeria to a flock beset by problems such as AIDS and the constant risk of losing their homes has deepened her spiritual life, despite its many frustrations.
"It's been challenging, interesting, exciting and fulfilling, but always there is the sense of wanting to do more to help," says Sr. Harris, 68, back in Detroit to celebrate her 50th jubilee as a religious sister before leaving June 14 to return to the Sisters, Home Visitors of Mary convent in Abuja, Nigeria.
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Standing in front of a batik depicting Nigerian village life, Sr. Elizabeth Harris, HVM, holds an African bowl she brought back from Nigeria to the Home Visitors of Mary motherhouse in Detroit. | Sr. Harris is one of two members of the Detroit-based congregation who left four years ago to open a new convent and novitiate program in the West African country, the continent's most populous.
Now, the HVM presence in Nigeria includes Sr. Harris and Sr. Barbara Dakoske, who also went over in 2002, plus three junior-professed sisters of Nigerian origin, as well as four Nigerian novices. "We hope to get three more candidates in September, and are trying to raise funds to build a novitiate house," Sr. Harris says.
Other needs include money to buy a van and also medicines for the parish clinic.
The HVMs went to Nigeria, because having accepted one Nigerian novice in Detroit, they found there were also other Nigerians interested in the congregation.
The HVM convent is adjacent to Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral in Abuja, an 11,000-family parish with several out-stations in nearby areas within a 15-mile radius.
A pro-cathedral is a church only temporarily serving as cathedral of a diocese, and plans are already underway to split the parish into a more manageable size, with the building of a new Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles.
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Signs warning about AIDS are prevalent throughout Nigeria. | Sr. Harris says about 60 percent of the people in Abuja are Christians, with something like a half to two-thirds of them being Catholics.
Abuja is one of those purpose-built national capitals, like Australia's Canberra or Brasilia in Brazil. The decision to establish the new capital city, replacing Lagos, was made in 1976. It officially became the capital in 1991.
A thoroughly planned city, there were no plans for housing the thousands of people who moved there from the countryside in hopes of a better life or fleeing the Muslim-Christian conflict in the country's north. "These people are like refugees in their own land," Sr. Harris says.
Many shantytown residents became members of Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Parish, and Sr. Harris has had to watch as government bulldozers have razed communities where she and Sr. Dakoske have worked.
"The government is demolishing these communities without an alternative for housing the residents. It's either go back to their villages or at least get out of the capital district. So, these people have no place to go, no transportation, and no alternatives provided for them," she continues.
Sr. Harris was responsible for spiritual direction and religious education in one bulldozed community called Abatoir, which grew up around a slaughterhouse and was home to more than 500 Catholics. Sr. Dakoske served the same function in another community of nearly 400 Catholics, called Dantata.
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Sr. Harris leaves the Our Lady Clinic/Maternity where sheministers in Abuja. | "They came with the bulldozer, and then set fire to the rubble so they couldn't rebuild. Some people went back to their villages, but some are living under bridges or living five to six families in a small mudbrick house," Sr. Harris says.
"We were able to give some food, and store some of their things. We try to do what we can, but it's not enough," she says.
Orphaned and abandoned children are a problem in the area, and Sr. Harris says she and Sr. Dakoske have been able to rescue some of them, build them up physically at the parish clinic, and then get them into an orphanage.
The HVM sisters also work with the AIDS program at the clinic, which offers counseling and testing. Although the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is lower in Nigeria than in some African countries, its large population gives it the third highest number of people with HIV/AIDS in the world – an estimated 3.6 million.
"I do voluntary testing, and after the testing, give them the results, answer questions and help them get drugs free of charge," Sr. Harris says.
 Helping HVMsThe Detroit-based Home Visitors of Mary mission in Abuja, Nigeria, need money to construct a building to house their growing number of novices, as well as buying a van, and medicines for the clinic they help run.
Contributions earmarked Nigeria mission may be sent to:
Home Visitors of Mary, 121 E. Boston Blvd., Detroit 48202. | Because Nigerians know that people in developed countries are much better off than they are, Sr. Harris says this tends to make them materialistic, "but there's still a hunger there for meaning and purpose."
"The message we have to get to them is that there is meaning and purpose in life through God," she says.
The Nigerian people are generally very warm and welcoming, Sr. Harris continues, "and there is joy in being able to respond to that."
Although raised a Protestant, Sr. Harris became curious about the Catholic Church at the age of 16, at least partly because she had heard many negative things about it. She recalls going to St. George Church (which was later torn down to build the Chrysler Freeway) on a weekday, and having a life-changing experience.
"What I experienced was the Presence of the Lord very definitely, and had a desire to dedicate my life to God. Having had this experience of God's love, I wanted to make it known to people," she says.
Two years later she entered the Home Visitors of Mary. And while the HVMs may give a broader interpretation to their charism nowadays than when she entered – for example, prison visits count as home visits because that is home to those prisoners for the time being – the concept of home visits is still strong among the sisters.
"As we train our novices in Nigeria, the charism of visiting people in their homes is still very present for us," Sr. Harris says.
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