Chapters removed for “not enough horror”; on my profile
Chapter 8: Disillusionment
“I do not know if I have grown to love this place or I have become institutionalized. For at the start I hated these four walls as I did those at as St. Michael’s. But now I cannot imagine life without them. I come to them for safety and power. For it is within them that I’m given purpose.” Father Gomez, writing in his diary September 7th 1964
Father Gomez would land in the capital city Salisbury (Harare) on September the 26th 1959. He would then travel to the south east towards the border with Mozambique. There below a mountain was Leaf-Point Mission. An outpost established by Portuguese missionaries in 1898. It consisted of a school, clinic and church all to be under the management of Father Gomez. He would be assisted by four local nuns who ran the school, a doctor and a handyman. The operation was funded by both the local government and the church
The main building at Leaf-Point was the church. It had been built by the Portuguese between 1901 and 1903; accommodating two hundred worshipers. Behind the church was a small two bedroom cottage where the parish priest would live. To the south of the building were two classrooms and assembly point. To the west were the medical wing and several other cottages where the other church staff lived. All three building saw regular use during Father Gomez’s leadership. The children of all the indigenous people were required to attend school, so the Nuns where always busy
The area around Leaf- Point Mission consisted of Chifamba village, the local colonial outpost and several farms. The Shona villagers had been relocated off their traditional lands into a small area under a mountain. These lands had then been parceled out by the colonial government to European migrant framers under racial purchase areas. The colonial outpost was established to protect the framers while also keeping an eye on the locals.
Father Gomez would stay in Leaf-Point for six years until his death in 1966. By all accounts he was liked by the local population. This in large part to his laissez-faire policy in regards to local traditions and ceremonies. The previous priest, Father Silva Ribeiro with the aid of the colonial police had brutally enforced the restriction of many of the local Shona people. This caused some conflict with the local colonial police leader, Sargent John Brown. As he believed that the ritualistic worship of ancestral spirits was demonic and fostered a hatred of authority. The two men would quickly grow to hate each other. Resulting in Father Gomez writing to the church:
“It is shocking what is happening here. This Sargent Brown is a glorified overseer. He beats men at random and dose worse to the women and girls. The people are forced to work on the farms for practically nothing and live in huts beneath the mountain. My congregation is segregated, morning for the whites and afternoon for the blacks. This is not the word of God. When I told the morning congregation of my own heritage many refused to attend service again. Mr Brown called me several slurs and spat at my feet. We must condemn what is happening here or face the wrath of our creator” Father Gomez, writing to the Archdiocese of Salisbury (Harare) March 5th 1960
The Archdiocese would not respond until in 1978 nearing the end of Zimbabwean war of Independence (1964 to 1979). By then a total of fifteen Catholic missionaries would have been deported on suspicion of aiding the independence movement. Perhaps Father Gomez’s would have been one of them. In 1960 he would desegregate his Sunday service and later would be accused of housing and aiding revolutionaries between 1964 and 1966. But before these allegations could be investigated further he would be found dead
The only evidence linking Father Gomez to the revolutionaries is a single interview from the 1988 documentary House of Stone.
Gerald Smith (Filmmaker): How did you get into Mozambique?
Wilbert Sango (Former Revolutionary): “There was a persist who helped us”
Gerald Smith: “How did he help you?”
Wilbert Sango: “His church was near the border. He would hide us there for a couple of days and provide us with food and medical supplies. The Priest was also the contact person for the training camp. When the time came he took us up the mountain to some caves. Someone would be waiting there to take us across the border”
Gerald Smith: “Do you remember his name?”
Wilbert Sango: “No, we didn’t use our real names. But I remember they called him Chitima (Train in Shona) and the church was in Chifamba Village”
Interview House of Stone 1988
The use the name Chitima (Train) perhaps in reference to Father Gomez’s home town of Gare or his great-grandfather; suggests that the Priest that assisted volunteers get to training camps in Mozambique was Father Gomez. However these camps became active in the early 1970s post Farther Gomez’s death. Furthermore due an increase in violence and the events of 1967 another church was built in 1971. This church was located closer to the farms. Three other priests would run both churches from 1970 to the end of the war in 1980. Lastly the initial allegations came from Sargent Brown, who openly hated Gomez and may have fabricated them. Regardless, Farther Gomez was an open supporter of equality. The extent of his contribution is debatable but not his opinions
The Leaf-Point Mission is still there today in modern day Zimbabwe (2023). Over the decades the school and clinic grew to be the defining features of the area. With the church becoming a dilapidated and rarely if ever used. The few catholic locals preferring to use the second church built in the 1971 and others attending modern Pentecostal denominations. The colonial outpost became a police station with Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965. It has remained a police station to this day (2023) but in 1980 became a Zimbabwean police station
The members of Father Gomez’s congregation during the period (1959 to 1966) are hard if not impossible to find. Most of the white members stopped attending service when Father Gomez instituted desegregation. Then in the post war period most abandon their homes with the nearly hundred thousand white Zimbabweans that immigrated to other countries. The indigenous members may have died during the war or migrated. In the end little of the physical or spiritual church Father Gomez built survived