Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, died Thursday at the age of 95.
SPRINGFIELD – Andrea Dixon and Delores Culp typically attend Mt. Zion Baptist Church, but Sunday they were compelled to head to Our Lady of Sacred Church to hear a Roman Catholic service.
They were among about 60 to join together for a memorial Mass for Nelson Mandela, which featured traditional African singing, music and dancing as well as prayers in several languages.
“Nelson Mandela...He was a great man of peace and a great man of God. I just had to be here,” Dixon said.
Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, died Thursday at the age of 95. Famous as a peacemaker, Mandela is probably best known for his long fight against apartheid which landed him in prison for 27 years.
His death coincided with the twice-monthly Mass held on Sundays in the language of Rundi to serve a small group of immigrants mainly from Burundi and Rwanda, so the church decided to expand the Mass and invite others to attend, said Rev. William Pomerleau, pastor of Our Lady of Sacred Heart who also oversees Catholic outreach to the African community.
Looking out at a sea of faces that ranged from young children to the elderly, Pomerleau said he saw people from Uganda, Congo, Kenya, Senegal and Burundi, as well as a number of people who grew up in Western Massachusetts.
Mandela is especially revered by the people of Burundi because he brokered talks that led to the end of a long and bloody civil war that included genocide and the installation of a transitional government.
“Without him, the talks were not working. He was the one who gave it the kick to end the fighting,” said the Rev. Fidele Ingiyimbere, a Jesuit priest, graduate student at Boston College and native of Burundi who travels to Springfield twice a month to say the Mass in Rundi.
Ingiyimbere said he did not know much about Mandela when he was a child, but as he grew older, he began studying in school and reading works of the leader.
“When Nelson Mandela came in to Burundi, the first thing he did was to visit the prison, and he cried there,” Ingiyimbere said.