The archbishop was speaking August 9 at a homily to mark this year’s National Women’s Day.
“The Son of God will make us pay for all the things we have done, or not done,” the archbishop said, as he bemoaned the abuses by men against women.
Tlhagale reminded his congregation of the deep love young people always have for their mothers, and wondered why such love can’t be extended to all women at all times.
“Young men, young women who grew up in the four-roomed houses throughout South Africa, I bet also in other places around the world, young men, young women who grew up in informal settlements, they all have a dream to build their mothers a house, or to extend the house, or to put a toilet in the house and not outside, so that their mothers don’t have to walk out at night,” he said.
He said he cannot place a handle on what suddenly goes wrong, particularly with men, that they can’t show the same love, attachment, respect and a sense of dignity towards other women as they have for their mothers.
“Why do we grow to become such animals towards women, when in fact, we’ve got this great love for our mothers?” Tlhagale said.
The archbishop said he couldn’t understand men “who fall in love and stay with a woman for five years, or even more. And when there’s conflict in the family, the man beats up the wife.”
“Somebody you’ve been praising, and adoring, and kneeling before, suddenly the wife is the worst enemy on earth. Not only are they insulted, they are even chased out of the house, and even killed. And so, femicide is so common in South Africa,” he explained.
In a report last year, Genocide Watch quotes statistics from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development as saying that it handles over 50,000 cases of gender-based violence and femicide in the country annually. Between April 2020 and September 2022, 988 women were killed in South Africa, according to the country’s Police Service.
The report cites some of the victims revealing the traumas they suffered due to gender-based violence.
“It was too painful. I lost everything in my life. I had to restart my life from my marriage, my kids, my family … even the place I was staying at I had to lose it because of that rape,” one survivor is quoted as saying.
“When I was nine years I was raped by my stepdad, he was staying with my mom. So I did not want to tell my mom because I was afraid,” another said.
The South African archbishop said that even the clergy are guilty of inflicting pain on women.
“We ourselves, the Catholic churches, as priests, as bishops in the Catholic Church, we don’t necessarily have a good reputation about women,” he said.
“I see women love their priests, but deep down, they’re calling us names… they say that there is an in-built prejudice against women,” Tlhagale continued.
The prejudice isn’t just because of the abuse, but also because of the sense among women that they are excluded from Church management.
“We might not be beating up our wives, but we do something to women. And women feel strong about it. And we’re not doing anything about it,” the archbishop said.
“Why do men become beasts?” Tlhagale asked.
“I would suggest that each time we meet on the 9th of August we produce a pastoral letter on women because these crimes against women will not go away even if we wished,” he said.
“The letters could be done at even the diocesan level,” he added.
“We need to always raise awareness and try to convert men more. There are lots of men’s associations and sodalities to be able to target men so that they change their attitudes toward women,” Tlhagale said.
Drawing parallels with Nazi Germany, Tlhagale suggested that the August 9 Mass should be used to pray for the intercession of Saint Edith Stein “since she was one of those strongly opposed to German Nazism.”
He called that Stein to “intervene and pray that men’s hearts towards women should change as much as she prayed for the German Nazis to change. “
Stein was a German Jew who converted to Catholicism and became a nun. She was eventually killed by the Nazis on August 9, 1942.