AP’s Jenny Gross writes that South Africans have been in prayer for former president Nelson Mandela since he was released from hospital care earlier this week.
Rev. Benedict Mahlangu, a priest at the main Roman Catholic church in the black township of Soweto, lit a candle and asked congregants to pray for Mandela, who doctors said was treated for an acute respiratory tract infection.
More than 500 people gathered at Regina Mundi church, a former center of anti-apartheid protests and funerals. Bullet holes in the ceiling serve as reminders of a 1976 incident when police stormed the church during an anti-apartheid protest and fired live ammunition at students….
“Around here, there was no life, everything just stopped,” Mahlangu said. “They were just asking questions: ‘Why?’ And I said to them, ‘the man is 92 years old, he has worked for us, he has done his part and then we need to pray for him.'”