The Southrn Cross - 110105 by The Southern Cross

January 5 to January 11, 2011

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D-Day for South Sudan

Bringing the Gospel home

Pages 4 & 6

Page 2

no 4711

Abuse: How to answer the big questions Page 9

New bishops on their challenges By CLAiRE MAThiESon

An iraqi boy prays with a rosary during Mass at a Chaldean Catholic church in Amman, Jordan. Thousands of iraqi Christians have fled to nearby Jordan following a spate of bombings that targeted churches in iraqi cities in the past few years. Pope Benedict has condemned a series of attacks on Christians around Christmas in Africa and Asia. (Photo: Ali Jarekji, Reuters/CnS)

Christmas attacks against Christians condemned By John ThAviS

OPE Benedict has deplored a series of deadly attacks against Christian churches and other targets around the world at Christmas time. The pope appealed for peace after bombs went off in churches in the Philippines and Nigeria, killing or wounding several worshippers. In Pakistan, a suicide bombing against a World Food Programme depot left at least 40 dead. “At this time of holy Christmas, the desire and the pleas for peace have become still more intense. But our world continues to be marked by violence, especially against the disciples of Christ,” the pope said at his noon blessing at the Vatican. The pope said he had learned with “great sadness” of the bombing during Christmas Mass at a Catholic chapel on the Filipino island of Jolo, where Muslim extremist groups have been active. The blast injured the local priest and eight others.

He also condemned the violence on Christmas Eve against Christian churches in Nigeria, where petrol bombs against three places of worship left at least six people dead, including a Baptist pastor. Authorities said they suspected an Islamist sect in the violence. “The earth has also been stained with blood in other parts of the world, like Pakistan,” the pope said. “I wish to express my heartfelt condolences for the victims of this absurd violence. Once again I make an appeal to abandon the path of hatred in order to find peaceful solutions to conflicts and bring security and tranquility to these dear populations,” he said. “Let us remember all those, in particular families, who are forced to abandon their homes because of war, violence and intolerance,” he said. He asked for prayers so that “the Lord may touch people’s hearts and bring hope, reconciliation and peace”.—CNS

HE newly appointed archbishop of Pretoria has said that he will first focus on evangelisation, ongoing formation and family and marriage life. Bishop William Slattery, a 67-year-old Franciscan who has headed the diocese of Kokstad since 1994, said that in the long term he hopes to focus on the priests of the diocese, who lead “very demanding lives today and need more support”. He also said it was necessary to find and encourage good will in the “fine people of Pretoria” and to ensure that education through various means including homebased care was available. He plans to give special attention to the youth. “There is no Catholic culture in South Africa today,” he said, pointing out that the number of Catholic children in Catholic schools had decreased. Bishop Slattery said while it will be a long time before any big changes could be made, what he most wants to encourage was the concept of “belonging”. “The people of Pretoria need to belong to the Church and belong to each other. God wants us to belong to him and each other. We need to embrace each other and encourage belonging.” The archbishop-designate is no stranger to Pretoria: he served as rector of St John Vianney Seminary in Waterkloof from 1984-91. While Pretoria, which had been vacant for a year following the sudden resignation of Archbishop Paul Mandla Khumalo in December 2009, gains a new archbishop, it is losing one of its most senior priests to the diocese of Kimberley. Mgr Abel Gabuza, apostolic administrator of the archdiocese since Archbishop Khumalo’s resignation, has been appointed bishop of the Kimberley diocese, which covers parts of the Northern Cape and the North West, including Mafikeng. Bishop-designate Gabuza said the announcement of his elevation came as a surprise. When the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop James Patrick Green told him that Bishop Slattery had been appointed archbishop, Mgr Gabuza said he was relieved that a replacement had been found. Thinking that he would now be placed in a parish, the former vicar-general of Pretoria said he was “stunned and humbled” by his appointment as bishop of Kimberley. He was “humbled by the fact the Church has confidence in me”, and dedicated the appointment to his late mother who he said was instrumental in his faith journey. The 55-year-old bishop-elect has served the Church in several functions since his ordination in December 1984. Apart from serving as pastor in several parishes and as vicar-general since 1999, he also lectured at three seminaries, and served South Africa’s orientation seminaries in Pretoria and Cape Town as rector from 1991-94.

Bishop William Slattery (left) has been appointed archbishop of Pretoria, and Mgr Abel Gabuza bishop of Kimberley. Speaking of his first priority as bishop of Kimberley, Mgr Gabuza said: “It seems logical and respectable to say that I wish to spend more time with the clergy, religious and laity, introducing myself and listening to them so that together we can draw a plan for the diocese,” Mgr Gabuza said. “We should be able to work together inspired by the vision of our Lord and our particular needs as a Church in South Africa so that we have the strength to critically examine our pastoral and apostolic methods.” Mgr Gabuza will continue to serve as Pretoria’s apostolic administrator until Archbishop-designate Slattery is installed in the first half of February. He will then be installed in Kimberley. Archbishop-designate Slattery said his transfer would be difficult, having been “connected to the people and priests of Kokstad for 18 years”, but added that he was looking forward to making a difference in such an “important archdiocese”. Archbishop designate Slattery said he had hoped a South African-born archbishop would be installed. However, he said, his 40 years in the country would help him resolve the difficulties in Pretoria. “It’s a bigger diocese with more people and far more urban than Kokstad, however there have been many successful projects over the years in Kokstad that Pretoria can benefit from,” he said. Bishop Slattery will also assume the position of Military Ordinary for the South African Defence Force, where he hopes to encourage a spirit of service among the police, soldiers and prison wardens who, in turn, can “inspire and enrich others through their acts of service”. Both leaders stated the importance of developing a relationship with those already in the dioceses. Mgr Gabuza said he will “honour the reality [of] coming to an area that has a long history”. He said he was willing to sit and learn at the feet of the “many great men and women” in the diocese. He succeeds Bishop Erwin Hecht, who was Southern Africa’s longest-serving bishop when he retired in early 2010, having headed Kimberley diocese since 1972.

Pope had a lunch of lasagna and veal with Rome’s poor By John ThAviS

OPE Benedict hosted more than 350 poor people at a post-Christmas luncheon at the Vatican, an event that marked the year-long 100th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Bl Mother Teresa of Calcutta in August 2010. The pope passed among the guests in the crowded atrium of the Vatican audience hall then sat down at a table with 14

others for a three-course meal that featured lasagna, roast veal with potatoes and the classic Italian pandoro Christmas cake—this one with melted chocolate and Chantilly cream. When the pope arrived, the guests placed a garland of white and yellow flowers around his neck, a tradition of India that was adopted by Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity. Most of the guests were poor people

served at soup kitchens run by the Missionaries of Charity in Rome and the surrounding area. Also in attendance were more than 100 sisters and brothers of the religious order. In a talk after the meal, the pope told the guests that he loved them and prayed for them. He said Mother Teresa’s life was an example of charity in action, with a preference for the poorest and those abandoned by the rest of society.

“To so many men and women living in situations of poverty and suffering, she offered the consolation and the certainty that God does not abandon anyone, ever!” he said. The pope thanked the Missionaries of Charity for carrying on her work, and said their actions demonstrated that true joy is found in sharing, giving and loving in a way that “breaks the logic of human selfishness”.—CNS

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, January 5 to January 11, 2011

Neighbours bring the Gospel home By CLAiRE MAThiESon

UR Lady of Fatima parish in Durban North has found great success in their Neighbourhood Support Groups (NSG) project that extends ministry directly into the homes of its parishioners. Parish priest Fr Desmond Nair said the programme is a response to the bishops’ pastoral Community Serving Humanity plan and follows from the 1980s parish-based Renew programme that saw small groups of parishioners, known as Small Christian Communities (SCC) throughout the archdiocese and South Africa meet weekly. Three years after the Renew programme had ended, the pastoral council of Durban North decided that SCC needed to continue meeting on a regular basis and that the concept of SCC would become the basis for the pastoral life of the parish. Fr Nair said the biggest challenge was structuring the groups as the plan was to incorporate every parishioner into a SCC. “In order to achieve this it was decided to create geographically based neighbourhood groups,” he said. In 1992 the parish was divided into 32 groups which included every registered member of the parish. The groups, now known as Neighbourhood Support Groups, meet regularly to share faith, offer practical support and encouragement to one another and try to live as the early Christian community described in the Acts of the Apostles, Fr Nair said. The groups, which range in size from 15 to 20 families, use material

provided by the parish for weekly faith-sharing for Lent and Advent. “In addition to this, over the past two years the NSG have been using faith-sharing material provided by the Archdiocesan Formation Team on the ‘Entering into a Personal Relationship with Jesus’ and, more recently, the ‘Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit’,” Fr Nair said. Fr Nair explained that the groups did more than just faith-sharing: “Within the NSG, practical help and support is given to the sick, housebound, aged, bereaved, new parishioners and anyone else in need. “This spiritual family of parishioners helps to ensure that all the pastoral needs of the parish are met and that the Christian faith and the call of the Gospel is lived throughout the parish”. The support groups are encouraged to meet at least once a month and to have as many social activities as possible. In addition, NSG celebrate and prepare spiritually for baptisms, marriages, confirmations, First Communions and reconciliations. Neighbourhood leaders play a “pivotal role” in the successful functioning of the group, Fr Nair explained. “Often a NSG is only successful if it has a dedicated, committed and enthusiastic leader who is fully integrated into the life of the parish community and formed in an attitude of servant leadership and ministry.” The groups communicate through the NSG Task Team, many of whom are pastoral councillors. Communication between the parish office and the leaders is the respon-

Fr Desmond nair has attributed the family atmosphere at our Lady of Fatima in Durban north to the neighbourhood Support Groups into which all parishioners are divided. The groups provide support from faith sharing to celebrating special events like this First holy Communion in 2010.

sibility of parish deacon Peter Venter.

eaders meet at least four times a year with Fr Nair, who gives formation and helps them to plan ahead in coordination with the parish programme. Fr Nair said that while the groups provide opportunities for parishioners, only a third actively participate. “It is a challenge to lead people away from the Sunday Mass obligation/duty mentality to an active

participation in a ‘living, vibrant, faith-filled community rooted in Gospel values serving God and one another’,” Fr Nair said, quoting from the parish mission statement. “One thing is certain, at some stage everyone has a need and when that need arises the parish, through the NSG, will always be there for them. We have seen people’s attitudes change dramatically when others have rallied around to offer them help and support when some need has arisen.” Fr Nair said while there were set-

backs and despite some negativity the parish remains committed to developing NSG as the basic structure for almost all our pastoral needs. “We envisage that eventually and where possible, all baptism and marriage preparation, Sunday Communion to the sick and housebound, care of the sick and aged and family life formation will become an integral part of most NSG.” Fr Nair believes the parish has benefitted enormously from the interactions that take place in the groups. In their 18-year existence the groups have encouraged relationships to develop between the old and the young resulting in some older members of the neighbourhood becoming honorary grandparents. Among other things, transport is shared, young families share commonalities, special anniversaries and birthdays are celebrated and baptisms and marriages have become more of a community celebration as more parishioners participate in the groups. The atmosphere in the parish is attributed to the groups. “There is a tangible family atmosphere at Sunday Mass and other special celebrations. In an urban parish such as ours it has taken a long time to get to this point and will take a long time for every parishioner to become actively involved in the parish through their NSG,” Fr Nair said. Despite any difficulties, the parish will continue to support the groups for all the good they do, he added.

LOCAL 2011 calendar promotes peace By CLAiRE MAThiESon

HE Family Desk at the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has produced its annual family calendar for 2011 which allows the desk to educate and enrich on both spiritual and practical levels. Toni Rowland, Coordinator of the Family Desk, said the objectives of the Family Desk include assisting to establish and supporting initiatives for strengthening family relationships. She said the annual family calendar is one of their “main resources and it focuses on different aspects of family life during the year”. This year the calendar follows the theme “Peace on Earth Begins at Home”, and picks up the reconciliation, justice and peace focus of the 2009 African Synod. “Month by month the themes provide an opportunity for reflection and celebration of different aspects of family life,” Mrs Rowland said, pointing out that marriage, parenting, the youth and the elderly will be featured. According to Mrs Rowland,

The 2011 Family Desk calendar

the Family Desk uses the monthly themes in workshops, retreats and parish presentations and offers training courses for Parish Family Ministry. The next weekend training course will take place in Gauteng in February. Mrs Rowland, montly colum-

nist of The Southern Cross, said the SACBC believes in and supports the promotion and strengthening of family life. “The Family Desk of the SACBC is one of the vehicles for doing so and the 2011 calendar is a wonderful opportunity to grow as families and as the Church as Family”. She pointed out that the concepts of the Church as family, and the family as the domestic church, were inspired by Vatican II which recaptured the very early Church notions. She said the Family Desk and all its projects, including the calendar, link the domestic church and the wider Church as family. “At parish and at home levels, as well as through identifying and addressing particular needs in the local community, families can become more aware of their importance as the domestic church, the little church of the home as Pope John Paul II called it,” Mrs Rowland said. The 2011 calendar focuses on family life from the perspectives of reconciliation and justice and peace, and includes inspirational words from Mother Teresa, Pope Paul VI and Aung San Suu Kyi.

All roads led to Samaria mission in Lesotho for the ordination to the priesthood of Dijon ignatius Matsoso CMM. Among the dignitaries at the ordination was King Elsie iii, his wife Queen Macerate Mohato, government officials, and 47 Catholic clergy from Lesotho and South Africa. Between 400 and 600 people attended the ordination. Bishop Sabastian Khoarai, retired of Mohale’s hoek in Lesotho, presided over the three-hour long ceremony. in his homily the bishop told Fr Matsoso to model his life after Christ. he said Fr Matsoso must avail himself to the people of God and celebrate the sacraments with dignity and reverence because his life as a priest will always revolve around these mysteries. (Submitted by Fr Francis ngadi CMM)

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The Southern Cross, January 5 to January 11, 2011

Catholics, Anglicans join forces to up numbers By CLAiRE MAThiESon

ITH parishioner numbers stagnating in many inner city churches, a Catholic parish and its Anglican neighbour in Greyville, Durban, joined forces, saying similar issues can be solved with similar solutions. For the past seven years the congregations of St Anthony’s Catholic church and St Aidan’s Anglican church have come together for their annual combined carol service. The Christian neighbours are on “very good terms with each other”, said Fr Sean Mullin CSSp of St Anthony’s. “Our parishes share great partnership, fellowship, and when it comes to things like this, doing things together is just common sense.” The December event “lifted the spirits” of the dwindling city centre congregations. According to Fr Mullin, the evening proved that “fellowship, love and laughter” could still “overflow from the church”, something which the area has not seen much of lately. The Durban city centre has been hard hit by unemployment and the Church has equally suffered stagnating parish numbers. The Catholic population in Durban has decreased by approximately 25 000 people according to the census issued by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference in August. The carol service, hosting of which alternates annually, was described as “particularly moving” by Fr Mullins. “The whole church was uplifted. It was overflowing with people and love,” he said. The homily was delivered by Fr Noël Peters OMI, assisted by Anglican Rev Beryl Arrikum. Fr Peters encouraged the congregation to “become Jesus” for each other in daily acts and duties. He said that each of us needs to reach out and help another—a common theme strengthened by the fact that the congregation was made up of two Christian denominations doing just that.

Rev Arrikum similarly spoke of inclusivity and reminded the congregation that God came for all. This is something that Fr Mullin said was particularly relevant to the parish. “It is Emmanuel God with us— not just me! God is with all of us. This is something that we are embracing. We need a broader world view.” As church leaders, Rev Arrikum and Fr Mullin have the same concerns. “The Anglican situation is very similar to the Catholic situation. We have the same problems. We will probably have similar solutions too. We are taking a small step in a positive direction. This has been a very positive beginning and we hope to continue on this journey,” Fr Mullin said. He said there were two formal occasions when churches come together regularly—the annual carol service and on Palm Sunday for a joint blessing of the palms. He described the events as times for great bonding, linking and fellowship. He pointed out that St Aidan’s was connected with a hospital in the area where many of the Catholic parishioners volunteered. “God’s grace and love is evident in other people and other churches. We can learn from each other and take note of the giftedness of each other,” Fr Mullin said, noting that the benefits of working with others’ denominations outweighed the differences. Durban’s city centre has embraced cooperation between faiths. In 2010 the Denis Hurley Peace Centre was bolstered by a donation made by the area’s Muslim community from the Juma Musjid Mosque. The two communities work closely together on a variety of outreach projects. Fr Mullin said it was a struggle to keep people in church, but said that for its size, St Anthony’s was an active parish, and through its new approach of inter-denominational work it was forging a great future in the community.

The Southern Cross, January 5 to January 11, 2011

INTERNATIONAL

Church commits to Sudan peace By PAuL JEFFREy

S South Sudan approaches a historic vote on independence on January 9, Catholic leaders are recommitting themselves to continuing their work of building peace. Yet dealing with internal conflicts in what may become Africa’s newest country could prove just as challenging as its work during decades of civil war with the country’s north. “Whatever happens after the referendum, it shouldn’t make people enemies. Even if we’re going to separate tomorrow, we’ve got to work for our land to be free of the violence that has become our trademark,” said Fr John Oryem, coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission of the diocese of El Obeid. As the referendum approaches, Sudan’s churches are ramping up efforts at peace-building—the work of resolving conflicts without violence while laying the foundations for sustainable peace. “The Church had capacity that no one else possessed to mediate in the middle of the war. There was no real civil society in southern Sudan at the time. The Church didn’t see itself as just evangelising and taking care of the spiritual welfare of its followers. It became

an agent of development, education, health services, a major player in governance, diplomacy and advocacy—a lot of things that governments would ordinarily do, but at the time the people of southern Sudan didn’t have a government,” said Paul Nantulya, a technical consultant on peace-building in East Africa for Catholic Relief Services. With the relative autonomy of the South since 2005 and the transformation of a liberation movement into a functioning government, the role of the Church is changing, though the work of peace-building at the grassroots has continued, as local communities deal with ethnic tensions, cattle rustling and disputed tribal borders. These conflicts are not new, but many believe they have been exacerbated by the government in Khartoum, which critics accuse of practising divide and rule tactics in the South. “Stealing cattle is an age-old sport here. Yet in a normal cattle raid, people don’t get killed, or at worst only a few young warriors,” said John Ashworth of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute in Pretoria and an adviser to the Sudan Ecumenical Forum. “In 2009, however, we saw an escalation in violence, and we’d

have hundreds of people being killed in a single raid, old men and women killed with heavy weapons. That’s not part of the tradition. And land issues are not unsolvable. The elders know where the borders are. These issues can be solved if nobody is manipulating them and keeping the wounds open.” Mr Ashworth said the Sudanese government is deliberately meddling to stir up violence. “We don’t accuse Khartoum of starting the conflicts, because these are traditional conflicts. But Khartoum is manipulating and exacerbating these existing tensions.”

espite Khartoum’s meddling, Mr Ashworth said local conflicts diminished in 2010, in part because the churches have reinvigorated local peace-building efforts, including reintroducing a “peopleto-people” peace effort utilised in the last years of the war. The Sudan Council of Churches is sponsoring peace conferences in each of the nascent country’s ten states, as well as in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states—two border areas which, along with the Abyei region, might eventually become part of the South. If the South becomes independent, Sudan’s Catholic bishops

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A woman winnows grain in front of her home in Pisak, a village in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state. The people of South Sudan are scheduled to vote in the January 9 referendum on secession from Africa’s largest country. (Photo: Paul Jeffrey, CnS) have committed themselves to remaining united in one episcopal conference. That will lend support to bishops in the North, where Christians as a small minority will inevitably face trials, something Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir made clear in December. “If South Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution and at that time there will be no time to speak of diversity of culture and ethnicity,” al-Bashir said. In Southern Sudan, Ashworth said, the current chumminess

between Church and state will face new challenges in the post-referendum period. As the new country develops, he said, the Church will face a choice of how it relates to the government. “The Church can either be a watchdog or a guide dog,” he said. “A watchdog barks every time it sees something wrong, while a guide dog tries to lead you in the right direction. I’ve heard a lot of people in the Church say they want it to be a guide dog.”—CNS

Pope’s comment sparks Zambian anti-death penalty fervour By MWAnSA PinTu

OPE Benedict’s recent statement to a Zambian ambassador that the Catholic Church will always regard the right to life as sacred, even in the face of powerful influences that seek to place limitations on life, has rekindled calls for abolition of the capital punishment in the central African nation. Lawyers and human rights activists have again begun speaking out, calling on all nations, especially in Africa, to respect the dignity of every human being from conception to natural death. In a ceremony during which Royson Mukwena of Zambia was among a group of new ambassadors to present their credentials to the Vatican, Pope Benedict encouraged the leadership of the central African state to put in place laws that

would respect and defend the dignity of human life. “It is greatly hoped that Zambia will continue to foster due respect for the rights of every human being without exception, in harmony with the duty to protect life from conception,” said the pope. Lawyer Lewis Mosho was among those who said the pontiff’s call should be viewed as an invitation to all of Africa to consider abolishing the death penalty. “We are living in a modern society where death should not be used as punishment anymore,” he said. “People should bear in mind that only God gives life and no one else has the right to take it.” Human rights activist Mathews Mkandawire said that the rehabilitation of violent offenders should be a priority so that people can return to mainstream society and contribute

to their communities. “If we are Christians worthy of the name then our laws should be designed to protect and preserve life, just like the Holy Father rightly observed,” Mr Mkandawire said. “It should be about time we did away with ‘an eye for an eye’ kind of dealing with offenders because you cannot correct a wrong with another wrong.” Nathan Nganjo, a legal officer with the Zambia National Housing Authority said the pope’s call to raise up the dignity of human life must be taken seriously by the leaders of African nations. “The right to life of every individual should not be dependent upon political choices or social consensus, but on right reasoning,” he explained. “We have always called for nations worldwide to abolish the death penalty because it is wrong.”—CNS

Cardinal eviction ‘over my dead body’ By JonAThAn LuxMooRE

HE cardinal of BosniaHerzegovina said a local government order that he must move from his residence so it could be turned over to a former communist secret police agent would take effect only “over my dead body”. Challenging the order by the Sarajevo City Council, Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo and Bosnian Church officials called upon the country’s Muslimdominated government to correct “legalised injustices”. They said the order stems from a 1984 communist-era law which no longer has force. “This building was always Church property. It was never nationalised or taken over by the state,” said Mgr Ivo Tomasevic, spokesman for the Catholic bishops’ conference of BosniaHerzegovina. “It’s [the decision] just one of many legalised injustices which have enabled the majority in power here to make problems for minorities like us.” The government ruled that

the former agent was the legal occupier of the cardinal’s residence, which was confiscated and used for anti-Catholic operations under communist rule in the former Yugoslavia. Mgr Tomasevic said the unnamed woman, whose late husband also worked with the police, was living in Canada and wished to profit from the property rather than live there. He added that the woman’s lawyer had promised an “amicable solution”, but said no solution had been offered during government talks on the issue. “Although this dispute has gained the most publicity, there are many other similar cases in which people have been denied their property entitlements because of this unjust law,” he said. In its ruling, the government said Cardinal Puljic’s late-19th century palace, which was taken over under the rule of Yugoslavia’s communist strongman, Josip Tito, could remain in use by the ex-agent, who fled

during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Bugging and surveillance equipment in the cardinal’s bedroom and other parts of the building were left behind. The judgment was angrily condemned as a “blatant violation of law and order” by the 65-year-old cardinal, who said it was “another sign” that Catholics were “treated as second category citizens” in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Muslim chairman of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Inter-Religious Council, Mufti Husejin Smajic, said he was shocked that Bosnian authorities were “seeking to drive out such a distinguished religious and moral authority as Cardinal Puljic”. Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Catholic population has dwindled since the start of hostilities in 1992 that led to the country’s independence. Before the fouryear conflict, Catholics made up 18% of the country’s population of 4.3 million. Today, the Catholic population is less than half that number.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

WikiLeaks show Vatican as a global key player By John ThAviS

F there is one clear conclusion that can be drawn from the Vatican-related WikiLeaks disclosures, it’s that the United States takes the Vatican and its diplomatic activity very seriously. In memo after memo in recent years, officials of the US embassy to the Holy See have reported back to Washington on the impact of papal trips, statements and documents; on the Vatican’s behind-the-scenes efforts to head off conflicts; on Church-state tensions in Latin America; on the evolution of Catholic teaching on bioethics; and even on the international repercussions of ecumenical affairs. When a Vatican agency organised a conference on genetically modified foods, the US embassy paid attention. When the Vatican condemned human trafficking, embassy officials met with Vatican counterparts to broaden areas of cooperation on that issue. And when Pope Benedict said in 2007 that “nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees”, the embassy quickly objected, telling a high-level Vatican official that Iraq was experiencing positive developments and that the papal comments were not constructive. Reading the cables, it’s hard to imagine that before 1984, the United States did not have diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Today, the US embassy has five diplomatic officials and a support staff of 14, and is considered one of the busiest delegations accredited to the Vatican. To anyone still wondering why so much attention is being paid to the world’s smallest state, a US embassy cable of 2009—prepared for President Barack Obama ahead of his first meeting with Pope Benedict— gave the answer: “The Vatican is second only to the United States in the number of countries with which it enjoys diplomatic relations (188 and 177, respectively), and there are Catholic priests, nuns and laypeople in every country on the planet. As a result, the Holy See is interested and wellinformed about developments all over the globe.” Since that memo was written, the Vatican has established full diplomatic relations with

Screen shot of a WikiLeaks display of the uS embassy to the vatican cable titled “‘Green’ pope supports uS path forward from Copenhagen”. Pictured in the upper left corner is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Russia, bringing the total to 178 countries. That leaves only about 16 countries off the list, places such as China, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. The Vatican also maintains delegations to nearly 20 international institutions, including the United Nations. The WikiLeaks cables have described Vatican diplomats as generally well-informed and as influential lobbyists behind the scenes.

hat is amazing is that the Vatican accomplishes all this with a relatively tiny diplomatic corps—a few hundred bishops and priests who were hand-picked and trained at a little-known diplomatic academy in downtown Rome. The academy has only 30 or so priest-students, who spend years studying papal diplomacy, diplomatic style, diplomatic history and international law. By the time they graduate, they are expected to be fluent in four languages. Most of the graduates go on to serve at lower-level positions at a Vatican nunciature, or embassy, and are rotated to new posts after a few years. Some may be brought back for a turn at the “Second Section” of the Vatican Secretariat of State, a kind of international nerve-centre where about 35 prelates keep tabs on the entire world. Eventually, they may become papal nuncios, or ambassadors. The nuncio’s job differs from that of a normal ambassador in several respects, however. For one thing, a nuncio acts not only as the pope’s representative to a foreign government, but as the pope’s liaison with the local Catholic population. Much of his time, therefore, is spent dealing with internal Church affairs.

In a broader sense, unlike other ambassadors, the papal nuncio is promoting a moral agenda, not the commercial or political interests of his government. A primary focus of papal diplomats in recent decades has been human rights, peaceful resolution of conflicts and protection of core social values. Those concerns show up repeatedly in the WikiLeaks cables. In Rome, the Vatican also communicates with US diplomats through various agencies of the Roman curia, in particular the pontifical councils that deal with justice and peace, migration, health care, charity work and the family. Embassy officials seek out experts who work at these councils for briefings on the Vatican’s position and—as one can now read in detail—report it all back to the US state department (or foreign ministry). Vatican officials, of course, also are reading the WikiLeaks cables with interest. So far they seem unsurprised at the content. Much of the US embassy’s effort seems geared towards enlarging areas of US-Vatican cooperation, which has never been a secret objective. The cables show the Vatican as open on some issues, such as human trafficking, but clearly wary of becoming too closely identified with the policies and initiatives of the world’s biggest superpower. Occasionally, there are frank assessments of differences, as in a US embassy memo from July 2001, which forecast continued problems with the Vatican over Israel, the death penalty and Iraq. “The Vatican will continue to oppose US efforts to isolate Saddam Hussein. We should recognise that the Vatican will not support our efforts in Iraq, and investigate ways to limit Vatican interference with our objectives,” the cable said tersely. The WikiLeaks cables often reveal US diplomats as trying very hard to figure out the Vatican, as they deal with an institution that is both a sovereign state and the centre of a global religion. One “confidential” cable boiled it down to the simplest terms: “The Vatican strives to translate its religious beliefs and its humanitarian concerns into concrete policies.”—CNS

The Southern Cross, January 5 to January 11, 2011

Catholic ministry raises money to pay for prisoners’ small fines

CATHOLIC Prison Ministry in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, has launched a fundraising campaign to assist poor prisoners who are in jail because they cannot pay small fines. Up to 7 000 prisoners are in Sri Lankan prisons because they are unable to pay small fines of 1 000 to 3 000 rupees (R60 to R180), usually for minor offences such as street fighting or selling illicit alcohol, reported the Asian Church news agency UCA News. Nirmalee Fernando, a mother of two, was forced to close her tea stall after her husband was imprisoned for being unable to pay a 2 000 rupee (R120) fine for public drunkenness. The plight of the prisoners was raised at a meeting between Catholic Prison Ministry members and a former government minister for rehabilitation and prison reform. Colombo prison ministry chaplain Fr Hilary Peiris told UCA News that he had launched the Prisoner Release Fund to respond to the need. “We are concerned about the plight of these inmates who are there because they cannot afford to

pay the fine,” Fr Peiris said. “I wrote to churches and benefactors seeking support for this worthy cause to release people to rejoin their families and lead a normal life.” He said the programme would be ongoing and the first release of prisoners would take place in the first half of 2011. Meanwhile, Food for the Poor, a US-based international Christian relief organisation, arranged for the December release of more than 80 nonviolent offenders in Haiti, Guyana and Jamaica, many of whom were incarcerated because they could not pay small fines. Since the inception of Food for the Poor’s Prison Ministry Programme in 2000, more than 880 prisoners have been reintroduced back into the community. Food for the Poor works with the prisoners before and after they are released to ensure they will not become repeat offenders. Twice a year—during the Christmas and Easter seasons—the programme works with prison officials to release inmates who have committed minor offenses The group this year included 28 people in Haiti, 34 in Guyana and 21 in Jamaica.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, December 5 to January 11, 2010

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Birth of a new nation

HE peace of a large part of Africa is on the knife edge as the people of South Sudan prepare to vote on the independence of their region in the referendum scheduled for January 9. The best-case scenario involves a mostly free and fair poll in favour of South Sudan’s independence from Africa’s largest country, with the regime of General Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum not interfering in the process—especially in the border regions where it already is playing dangerous political games— and accepting the results. Politics are rarely as easy as that, and yet there are good reasons why Khartoum might benefit from letting the mainly Christian and animist South go its own way, despite its wealth in natural resources. The two newly configured countries might well begin a new relationship of potential mutually economic benefit, in an atmosphere of stability and reconciliation after 22 years of hostility and civil war. The January 9 referendum is the culmination of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended decades of civil war that killed more than half a million people. Should the integrity or the outcome of the referendum be compromised by Khartoum, a revival of armed hostilities would seem inevitable. The cost to Khartoum, whose jihadist regime has turned its genocidal attentions to Darfur and elsewhere since the CPA was signed, would be severe. But it is a whole region that would be destabilised by a resumption of armed hostilities. There would be no winners. The international community, especially its African component, must be alert to this. Its even hand has not always been evident in the past, with the South being induced to make concessions which its leaders believe contravene the CPA, only because it is easier to squeeze the South for compromises than it is to confront Khartoum. Should things go awry, then the culpability for that most likely will reside in Khartoum, or its client militias. In that event, the international community’s response must be mindful of this. While the people of the

South will doubtless celebrate independence from Khartoum, the hard work must begin immediately. The first challenge will be to build a nation. To accomplish that, the new state will need to function as a democracy, and its leaders and population will have to receive preparation in democratic governance (the Southern African Church already is engaged in that endeavour). Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio warned last month in an interview with Catholic News Service: “While ordinary people think [that independence means milk and honey], the politicians are only thinking of having power and the riches it can bring.” It must be impressed upon such politicians that corruption will be intolerable, and the citizens must be trained to demand accountability from them. Expectations for a successful transition to democracy will be high, but it won’t come easily. As a multi-cultural society, South Sudan will have to guard against tribalism, and as a country rich in natural resources, it must exhibit zero tolerance for corruption. As a new democracy living in the neighbourhood of several countries and enclaves run by ruthless kleptocrats, it must fortify itself against power grabs by those who seek to enrich themselves. The international community must provide South Sudan’s democratic institutions with the necessary support and tools to maintain the new country’s integrity. The Catholic Church has done much to help bring peace to the region—it was the only institution to remain with the people during the civil war—and is doing much now to prepare South Sudan for democracy. Our Church of Southern Africa has contributed immensely to that. The Church in South Sudan has promoted a 101-day prayer for peace campaign. It is not only an appeal to God, but also as a concrete way of changing hearts and minds towards the peaceful conclusion of the struggle for independence. It has been adopted by local government officials. The prayer asks God to “help us to work together for the good of all”. May God answer the prayer.

The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit published letters. Letters below 300 words receive preference. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances and at the Editor’s discretion. Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

No apology required from wise disciple ISHOP Kevin Dowling states his reasons for the use of condoms in some circumstances. These sentiments are reported on internationally, including the BBC television programme Hard Talk. He is taken to task. Pope Benedict makes the same statement but we are told that he said something different. It is the same if you take it in context of what he thinks he means and how we should understand how simple the whole thing is if we apply our minds to the complex systems of theological misunderstandings and the interpretations of gobbledegook! After taking the Church to task on a number of issues in his address to Catholic laity, Bishop Dowling tells us that he didn’t actually mean what he said and apologises for any misunderstanding (December 8). With his cap

firmly in his hand we read how it was “unfortunate” that a journalist let the cat out of the bag and told the world what he had said. He continues to say that his talk was only for a select few. This, of course, begs the question: Why would a bishop of the Catholic Church be afraid to tell the world about things that worry him; and most other Catholics? What’s wrong with saying the wearing of the cappa magna in America amounted to a triumphalism in a Church torn apart by sexual abuse? What happened there, he said, bore the marks of a medieval royal court, not the humble, servant leadership modelled by Jesus. In his talk, Bishop Dowling raises the question of celibacy and the ordination of women being “withdrawn from discussion”. Like many, he clearly believes this to be wrong irrespective of whether he accepts the “teaching authority of

the magisterium”. Bishop Dowling says that the talk gave the impression that he was criticising the person of the Holy Father. This, I’m afraid, could be true; and more so from the comment, “I think the moral authority of the Church’s leadership today has never been weaker”. However, there is no doubt that this is fair comment and would attract the agreement of many, many “faithful” Catholics. It is my opinion that the bishop’s long and apologetic statement headlined “I’m loyal to magisterium” was totally unnecessary and possibly written “under instructions”. Bishop Dowling is a humble hero who has the support of many thinking Catholics. He is a wise and wonderful disciple from whom no apology is required. Tony Meehan, Cape Town

Musical flavours

of an institution as old as ours. David Allanson, Cape Town

with extreme caution because we know that some readers will take exception to it. However, in the small space that was available for the promotional box, the word “Christmas” was just too long. There is, however, nothing irreverent about the use of “X-mas”, or variants thereof, which have been used in English since medieval times. The letter X in that usage represents the Greek letter Chi, which in turn represents Christ (as in the Chi-Rho). Our Lord is therefore very much present in XMas.–Editor

ATHER Chris Townsend’s article “Why I hate Catholic music” (December 15) was a breath of fresh air in the face of the mind-numbingly banal lyrics and score that one is subjected to in the “modern” Church. Most of these folk hymns remind me of my days in the Boy Scouts, sitting round a camp fire, singing child-like songs with too many words for the music—or vice-versa! I am a visitor to South Africa and my home parish is in Geneva where we have a community of 85 different nationalities (at the last count) with three choirs: “traditional”, Filipino and African. The diversity of music is superb, each with its own traditions and modern flavour—but without recourse to “folk”. In particular, the “traditional” choir includes a significant amount of Taizé music—modern canons and canticles of a simple and meaningful beauty composed by the Taizé monastery in France. My only regret is a lack nowadays of Gregorian chant, as I was brought up on it in monastery schools—I cannot think of a more spiritually inspiring piece of music than the Dies irae, for example, despite its place and meaning in the sung funeral Mass. Perhaps I shall also be considered reactionary for saying this, particularly because of my upbringing and age (70), but I see no danger to anyone—and much profit to all—in preserving the incredibly rich musical tradition

Good liturgical music

AM often sad that Catholics have all but lost the good liturgical music that the Anglicans still have. I was fortunate enough to attend the “Procession with Carols for Advent” performed by the Anglican Church choir from Observatory in St Mary’s Cathedral in Cape Town a couple of weeks ago. They sing a cappella, and we joined in with the organ. It was a beautiful prayerful service, food for the soul. Then we had our own Advent service, different but lovely too. Bridget Stephens, Cape Town

No X in Christ

WAS most disturbed when I saw the picture of the Nativity with the heading “Don’t miss next week’s bumper X-mas issue!” on your front page of December 8. We as Catholics are constantly reminded not to forget to put Christ in our Christmas—and you X-ed it! Please let us not forget the importance of the time of the year when we welcome our Christ Jesus into this world. Liesel Taylor, East London

n We try to avoid as much as possible the use of “X-Mas”, and use it

Going overboard

RESPECT those who prefer the Tridentine Mass as well as the decision of Pope Benedict to open the door to the Rite. But, as a priest, I am deeply distressed at the attitudes of some of this group. I have recently discovered that some believe that it is “corrupting” to attend the new rite and deliberately stay away from Sunday Mass if there is no Tridentine Mass available. Instead, they pray the Rosary and read the Bible. I find this almost incredible! Name withheld opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate. Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately.

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PERSPECTIVES

Beating the Herod within

HO were the Magi? How did they come to know about the birth of the King of the Jews? How did they recognise his star? And what can we learn from them? It is said that a comet, Halley’s Comet, was visible in 12 BC. From this we could argue that the wise men were perhaps descendants of Abraham who were also astronomers. But these two facts alone cannot fully explain the heroic journey they undertook to a foreign country to worship a baby. There must have been something else: They were people in tune with the cosmos, who were able to see the connection between the galaxies, the human mind their inner selves. They allowed the star to inspire them and guide them to the birth place of Jesus because they listened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and allowed the Spirit to guide them. We too will discover Jesus if we regularly shy away from the dinning “busyness” of our world and find moments to be still and listen to the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit leading us to the Creator of the universe. The journey must have been a long and difficult journey undertaken in the

very dead of winter. The wise men must have faced cold nights, hostility, hunger and the temptation to give up. Of all the problems they met, none was as challenging as the cunning wiles of Herod. King Herod, ruler of Palestine at the time of the birth of Jesus, had a sense of insecurity that led to extreme brutality. His jealousy led him to have one of his five wives executed. He accused two of his own sons of plotting against him and had them put to death. How incensed he must have been when he heard that the King of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem! He resolved to kill the child. When he realised the Magi had outwitted him and not told him exactly where the baby had been born, he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years and under. What an evil man Herod was, we might say! But we forget one thing: There is a Herod within us! We want to worship Jesus, but how horribly we betray him! Those of us who aspire to leadership positions are lured by the attractions and trappings of power. We are jealous of all those we consider to be competitors for these positions. We are even jealous of

Fishy question on a holy road

HEN we follow the Stations of the Cross in our churches, particularly during Lent, we do so in reverent calm, allowing us to reflect on the stages of Our Lord’s suffering before his broken body was finally laid in his tomb, whence he would rise again. In reality, of course, Jesus’ torturous walk to Calvary was not accompanied by a considerate hush. He had to navigate streets bustling with people making preparations for the Passover and throngs of visitors on their annual pilgrimage to the temple. Some probably didn’t pay the condemned man any attention, or perhaps glanced at him with cautious sympathy. Others jeered, taunted and mocked him, rather enjoying the anguish of this minor celebrity with his peculiar messianic ideas. Most on the streets that day were probably just annoyed at the interruptions caused by this miserable procession. Following the Way of the Cross—the Via Dolorosa—in Jerusalem’s Old City gives the modern pilgrim a suggestion of the chaos that surrounded Jesus as he walked to his death, which he freely accepted. The route follows narrow streets through busy markets frequented by locals, tourists and fellow pilgrims. The groups that are following the Stations of the Cross are really a nuisance in the lives of the locals, who nonetheless mostly accept that as the way of things. And well they might. Local Christians have walked the Via Dolorosa since the earliest times, long before Islam was even a vague idea, and pilgrims have done so at least since the times of the Crusaders, even if that form was still rudimentary. The Via Dolorosa (or Via Crucis; it has many names) as a structured itinerary of prayer and reflection was introduced by the Franciscans in the 14th century, though the route has changed since then (the current course, just under 1km in length, was appointed in the 1800s). It is impossible to say by what path Jesus arrived at Calvary—then a rubble

heap just outside the city—because there is no reliable record of the location of Pontius Pilate’s Praetorium, his court when he was in the city. So the first station, where Jesus is condemned by the Roman governor, is set at a madrassa, the Muslim Umariya primary school. In Jesus’ time that place was covered in water. Scholars believe that Pontius condemned Jesus at the Herodian Palace on Mount Zion, which throws the historical geography of the Via Dolorosa decidedly off-kilter. But that doesn’t really matter, because a pilgrimage is a journey of faith and prayer, not a historical fact-finding mission. So the pilgrim will also pardon the insertion of five non-scriptural elements among the 14 stations. One of these is Veronica’s wiping Our Lord’s face. The American satirist Mark Twain, who visited Jerusalem as part of a tour of Europe, Egypt and the Holy Land in 1867, evidently was sceptical about the pious tradition that Jesus’ face superimposed itself on Veronica’s veil. “We knew this,” he noted in a sardonic discourse on the tradition’s authenticity, “because we saw this handkerchief in a cathedral in Paris, in another in Spain, and in two others in Italy. In the Milan cathedral it costs five francs to see it, and at St Peter’s, at Rome, it is almost impossible to see it at any price. No tradition is so amply verified as this of St Veronica and her handkerchief.” It’s unimportant, of course, whether there was someone called Veronica or a hanky: the sixth station counsels us to be merciful towards the condemned as we hope for mercy ourselves.

he Stations of the Cross in our churches were introduced in the 17th century for the benefit of the many (well, almost all) who would never travel to the Holy Land. They were even given the same indulgences as those who did the Stations in Jerusalem. Again, the Franciscans were the frontrunners in that

Emmanuel Ngara Christian Leadership

the success of relatives and neighbours. Furthermore, we tend to see Christmas in terms of showy gifts, sumptuous meals and expensive holidays. May we learn from the Magi to defeat the Herod within us so as to discover the true meaning of Christmas in Jesus! The Magi brought to Jesus the most precious and royal gifts they could think of: gold, incense and myrrh. What we often forget is that they gave the gift of themselves—undertaking that long journey to Bethlehem required a tremendous sacrifice. God has given every one of us natural and spiritual gifts. Above all, he has given us the gift of life and the gift of his Son so that we can become his sons and daughters. The best we can do is to accept these precious gifts by resolving to dedicate our lives and our gifts to his service and to the building of the kingdom of God on earth. It will not be easy, but like the Magi, let us persevere, defeat the Herod within us, and join the angels and shepherds in singing the Gloria to the King of Kings!

Günther Simmermacher The Pilgrim’s Trek endeavour. And rightly so: it was their founder, St Francis of Assisi, who first set up chapels with devotions to Christ’s final journey. And so our group of 45 Southern Cross pilgrims set out to engage in an ancient Christian custom, praying at the 14 stations that follow Jesus to his death. Most of the locals happily tolerate these cross-bearing pilgrims. Without pilgrims, almost every Arab family suffers, as was evident when the second intifadah, which broke out in September 2000, cleared the Holy Land of visitors. The travellers have now returned, and few locals resent them because they spend money and create jobs. Still, there are a few who enhance the pilgrim’s experience of following Jesus’ sorrowful way by mocking the Lord’s suffering. It’s very odd that they would do so, even when confronted by crucifixwielding infidels, because Islam counts among its prophets Jesus, blasphemy of whom is strictly prohibited. I have heard of pilgrims even being spat at, though on none of my five pilgrimages have I encountered such levels of hostility. For the most part, those locals who acknowledged our presence were friendly, and occasionally amusing. Traders in the Old City are adept at identifying pilgrims’ national identities just by looking at them. It can’t have been difficult to peg our very multi-cultural group as South Africans (who in the Holy Land are often known as Liquorice All-Sorts). Still, I was surprised and amused when one young chap called out to me, in a near perfect accent: “Hoe is die snoek in die Kaap?” I assured him that the fish in question remains widely available in admirable quality: “Die snoek is altyd lekker in die Kaap, my broe!” n This is the 11th part of Günther Simmermacher’s series on The Southern Cross’ Passion Pilgrimage in September.

on DStv audio channel 170 also streamed on radioveritas.co.za Listen on iPhone or Blackberry: http://listenlivec2p1.ndstream.net:8030

The Southern Cross, January 5 to January 11, 2011

David Goldcroft SJ Point of Liturgy

Hymns should help us pray

AM never sure why anyone would venture into the minefield of liturgical music, as Fr Chris Townsend did in his article “Why I hate Catholic music” (December 15), unless they seek instant social exile. At the risk of a similar fate I wish to offer some reply to Fr Townsend’s thesis. But let me firstly declare my agenda. Before I joined the priesthood I played in various musical bands, for a while making my living from it. The experience of having to try to convert people to the delights of my dubious musicianship, and at the same time make some money, taught me a few handy lessons about the power and the role of music in people’s lives. Fr Townsend took a broad swipe at post-Vatican II choices of music. I think his point was that we, as a Church, have yet to arrive at a consensus of what should and shouldn’t be included in the music of the liturgy. I agree that we have lost something of the devotional aspect to much of our music. But I think he is wrong in ascribing the cause to the choice of hymns. Any intelligent discussion about the role of music in liturgy must refer to the French—after all they were hugely influential in the Vatican II liturgical reform and, broadly speaking, they understand what the role of music in liturgy can be, if it is done well. I had my seminal lesson in this from a brother from the ecumenical community of Taizé situated north of Lyons. His basic premise is that music serves one purpose in liturgy: to bring people to prayer. It does this primarily by creating an emotional and psychological space, which allows us to open our hearts to the transcendent. If we accept this then a number of principles follow. The first critiques the assumption that somewhere there is a simple formula for choice of music which will solve all our problems. However, congregations differ, musical resources vary and there exists in different parts of our world different musical languages. One of the most basic tasks of a liturgist is to find the musical language appropriate for a given congregation.

s the liturgy moves and changes throughout the year, so should the music that is chosen to support it. This movement is not just a matter of words. The music carrying the words reflects the different character of the seasons. The restrained music of Advent season opens to the larger sense of Christmas but still carries a restraint as we come to terms that Jesus’ welcome in our world was tenuous at best. Within a given liturgy the music also serves different purposes. An opening hymn gathers people: it commonly contains a “big” musical statement. Offertory music narrows the focus of the congregation to the unfolding eucharistic event: it is more introspective. Communion music is best accompanying the procession to receive Communion. After that is a time of silence for thanksgiving appropriate for the most intimate encounter we have with Jesus. As for a recessional, do we need another hymn? The tradition of an improvised or formal instrumental form such as a toccata amply suffices in most situations. The second premise is that good music does not necessarily translate to good liturgy. Liturgical music is written for congregational singing and involves specialised writing. Look at the Gelineau psalms on paper and you think “ho hum”. Teach them to a (Western) congregation and they just work. Again that Taizé brother cited a simple maxim for successful liturgical music: “If music is so good that you end up listening to it, it has failed liturgically. If it is so bad that all you are doing is listening to it, it has also failed.” The third and most important premise is that music is an active medium. Many of us attend liturgy like we are watching television. Liturgical worship is not the sum total of the individual prayers of members of the congregation. Rather the gathering is a communal event, something that commemorates our salvation as a community. Well done liturgical music helps take us from our individual isolated spaces into this communal space. To ensure that my social life reduces to a mere shadow of its former glory, I will now attempt to apply these principles to the example that Fr Townsend cited: “Shine, Jesus, Shine”. May I suggest it is less the choice of this hymn that is the problem as the reason it is chosen, the manner in which it is done, and its placement within the liturgy. The liturgical devil is in the detail and it is up to each parish, and their priests, to keep working at this, learning as they go. Only then will we approach an acceptable musical tradition in our Church. n Fr David Holdcroft is a Jesuit priest with degrees in music and theology. He is currently director of Jesuit Refugee Service in Southern Africa, based in Johannesburg.

COMMUNITY

The Southern Cross, January 5 to January 11, 2011

Some 120 youths from De Deur, Sicelo, Meyerton, Drumblade, Walkerville and Walkers Fruit Farm got muddy during a Christmas camp at the Bosco Centre in Johannesburg. (Submitted by Clarence Watts)

The Quigney Sector Crime Forum held a Christmas party for disadvantaged children around the East London area. (Submitted by Pumla Madliwa)

First holy Communion candidates of our Lady of the holy Rosary in Ruyterwacht, Cape Town. Pictured are: (back row) Deacon Richard Croucher, catechist Deli Gorgulho, Fr hugh hanlon MSC, (front) Chanel vermeulen, Aimee Claasen, Briyney Alexander, Celsey Ann Loff. (Submitted by Paul harvey)

Parishioners of St Joseph Church at the Mahlungulu outstation near the northern border shared between KwaZulu-natal and Mozambique, after being confirmed by Bishop José Luis iMC.

young parishioners from Assumption Catholic church near Port Elizabeth after their First holy Communion. Pictured with them are (back) catechist Jean hufkie, Deacon Sidney Marinus, Fr Trymos Munyaka and Robert Sammy.

St Joseph’s Children’s Centre in Bloemfontein celebrated its 50th anniversary. The centre is run by the Franciscan Sisters of Siessen. Children closed the year with a Christmas and graduation party and dramatised story about a sick child. (Submitted by Winnie Mosololi)

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Fr Dominic hession oFM, parish priest at St Francis of Assisi church in vanderbiljpark, with parishioners at Rivonia Catholic church in Johannesburg. (Submitted by Lily Loo)

I N F O CU S Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town presided over the confirmation of 14 parishioners of St Kevin’s church in northpine, Cape Town. (Photo: Fr Roger hickley)

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FOCUS

The Southern Cross, January 5 to January 11, 2011

Abuse scandal: How to answer Many Catholics will have been challenged with questions about the abuse scandal in the Church. In this two-part series, PATRiCK noonAn oFM provides a reference guide to tough questions. As long as you did it to one of these least ones, you did it to me. (Mt 25:40)

HE Southern African Bishops’ Conference has done commendable work in explaining the clerical sex abuse scandals to an incredulous public. The variety of issues involved are complex and confusing. The following are collected discussion points gleaned from the international and local media and religious publications which I have assembled under various headings for quick consultation at any given time. It is unfinished and requires further development. I think it is important, however, because these scandals are opening up deep implications for the future of the Church.

Causes given to explain clerical sex abuse 1. Celibacy There is no proof that celibacy is a root cause of clerical abuse. The vast majority of abusers are not celibate clerics. Indeed the head of one hostel for sex offenders in England claims that there are more sex offenders in churches where you have married clergy. 2. The sexual revolution of the ’60s The sexual revolution of the 1960s shaped the minds of some seminarians to believe that obligatory clerical celibacy was about to go. This might explain the poor quality of some candidates for the priesthood at the time— but it does not, however, explain the cover up by the bishops in various countries. 3. Homosexuality Foolishly, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, and others have linked homosexuality with paedophilia. The US bishops commissioned an investigation into the scandal, known as the John Jay report. It found that there was no “connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse”, and cautioned against making a correlation between homosexuality in the priesthood and the high incidence of abuse by priests against boys rather than girls. 4. Secularisation In his pastoral letter to the Irish Church in March 2010, Pope Benedict said that the cause of clerical abuse was “the rapid

transformation and secularisation of Irish society”. But commentators later reminded the pope that the evil was embedded in the clerical ranks before recent secularisation in Ireland. Indeed, we are now told that it is the scandals that are the most powerful secularising force where they occur! 5. Clerical culture Clerical culture is a shared system of beliefs and values (found in all professions) which influence the way popes, cardinals, archbishops, priests and deacons feel and respond (or don’t respond) to certain issues and situations. It creates a culture of entitlement where the priest automatically expects respect and social advantage, not because he has earned it but simply because he is a cleric. This culture or behaviour, which is born in seminaries, is defensive (against the Reformation), conformist, authoritarian, dysfunctional and stresses rank, power and reward as ideals. History shows that those who have too much power in any profession abuse it. Fintan O’Toole of The Irish Times put it like this: “The Church’s combination of temporal authority, spiritual control and a closed, internal hierarchy created the power that corrupted it.” This culture can give rise to a self-centred, narcissistic clergy. A frightening 60-70% of priests suffer from a degree of emotional immaturity and arrested development. This culture, or outlook, tends sometimes to make ministry a fetish. “He must be allowed to exercise his ministry”, one might say, even when he clearly is unsuitable for that ministry, as the sexual offender obviously is. This culture is blamed for producing bishops characterised by unthinking obedience and loyalty to “the Church”, and priests too submissive, passive and deferential to authority. The predictable result was that priests and bishops did not speak out when that is exactly what the situation demanded. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has said: “We’re not priests for what we can get, but for what we can give, and anyone who is in it for power, authority, privilege or entitlement should not be. That’s clericalism, and it is a vice, a sin.”

Sex abuse survivors and their supporters demonstrate in Rome on october 31. in the first of two articles, Fr Patrick noonan oFM offers an overview of how Catholics can respond to the crisis. (Photo: Paul haring,CnS) offered that any bishop was intentionally complicit in crime. It seems rather that bishops were weak and scared, confusing charity with “niceness”, thinking of compassion and mercy rather than applying tough love and facing the toughness of justice and the rigors of canon law. The scandals warn every priest and religious: Worry more about weak bishops, and weak religious leaders and superiors rather than about tough bishops and tough religious leaders and superiors. The Church has learnt lessons the hard way. Bishops are now obliged to report the crime of abuse to the police.

Is the media anti-Catholic?

d Koch, the former mayor of New York and a Jew, wrote in the Jerusalem Post last year: “I believe the continuing attacks by the media on the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI have become manifestations of anti-Catholicism. The procession of articles on the same events are, in my opinion, no longer intended to inform, but simply to castigate...Many of those in the media who are pounding the Church and the pope today clearly do it with delight and some with malice.” Perhaps it’s true. The international media was mute when in 2007 it was shown in a survey by insurance companies used by mainline Protestant churches

(with married clergy) that the annual rate of abuse of minors was higher in those churches than in the Catholic Church. Why does the secular media not hold other institutions to the same levels of accountability as it demands of the Catholic Church? Institutions such as Protestant churches, the Jewish and Muslim communities, the family, social workers, educators, the police and journalists? When there is Islamic violence, why does the media always caution that it’s committed by only a small unrepresentative minority of Muslims? Why not exercise this same cautionary approach in the case of a minority of Catholic clergy guilty of child abuse? Recently The New York Times carried a story of child abuse by a Catholic priest that happened 40 years ago, presenting it as if it had happened yesterday—even as a Jewish rabbi was convicted of the same crime on the same week. That case received no publicity!

How to deal with media

e must remember that all other institutions are investigated by the media: religious bodies as well as politicians, footballers, film stars, business people, municipalities, doctors, lawyers and so on. The coverage of religion has been compared to sports coverage that looks at fouls, sending-

offs, disputes between players and managers and spectacular mess-ups in players’ private lives. Reporters will always claim that this is of public interest. The media covers the positives too, such as matches and the extraordinary power of sport to bring the peoples of the world together. Remember the football World Cup in our country. Things with the media go sour when Church officials are seen to be overly defensive or protective during interviews. The media immediately feels challenged to discover what they are hiding. A more positive approach is to state the known facts in all humility and—always—sincerely acknowledge the pain of the victims. It makes evangelisation easier if Church leaders and media officials are friendly with newspaper editors and reporters.

Is God using the media to purify the church?

t required the investigative work of the media to rip away the Church’s protective blanket of denial to give voice to the victims. In fact, the media has served the Catholic Church because it exposed the sinfulness within and forced the Church to face it. The press pressurised the Church to admit, confront, confess and attempt to address the situation. It told the Church: You need to go to confession, my friend! How long would it have taken for the Church to admit to flaws and crimes without investigative journalism? The Church claims to be the body of Christ and expects its members to live strict moral lives. It is therefore different from other institutions. By virtue of its vocation to evangelise the Church will always be scrutinised to see if it is living up to its own preaching. Let us thank God for the media—even if the media have their own agendas and don’t know they are being used by God. God “enabled” the dreaded Assyrians to punish the Israelites by bringing them into exile! n Fr Patrick Noonan is a Franciscan priest and author based in Sebokeng, Johannesburg archdiocese. The second part of this feature will run next week.

Why did bishops ‘cover up’?

ccording to commentators, it was a misguided attempt to deal with the problem through repentance, confession, retreats, psychology and moving clergy from place to place. It was also a “misguided desire to protect the Church”. In dealing with criminal priests no evidence has been

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The Southern Cross, January 5 to January 11, 2011

NOVEMBER

iSSUES: (from left) indian Railways celebrate Mother Teresa’s centenary. l Locals and foreign nationals took part in the football Peace Cup in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, to coincide with the World Cup. l Pope Benedict beatifies Cardinal John henry newman in Birmingham, England. l Christians protest against persecution in Pakistan. (Photos: Anto Akkara/Antoine Soubrier/CnS/Reuters)

What we said in 2010 Every week, The Southern Cross delivers a commentary on a pertinent issue in the form of an editorial. Here is part 2 of a summary of 2010’s editorials, which were written by editor Günther Simmermacher (except where indicated otherwise). JULY As the 2010 World Cup came to a close, we noted that South Africa had proved the doubters emphatically wrong, and said that the nation must now build on the success. “Our country has shown the political, economic and social will to put together as huge a event as a football World Cup. But we must be warned: the dividends of the superb accomplishment will be squandered if we, as a nation, fail to apply the same collective will to addressing the scandal of poverty. Noting that the Vatican has not always succeeded in responding well to crises, we said that “the Catholic hierarchy’s ability to exercise its teaching authority fruitfully depends on the faithful’s confidence in its leaders’ integrity”. Observing that the causes of attacks on foreign nationals are not fully understood yet, we wrote: “The causes for the violence must be studied, examined and understood if we want to address them. How do the competition for jobs and housing, inadequate access to services, lack of transformation and the prejudiced demagogy interrelate? Who or what is providing the terms of reference for bigotry and targeted violence? We need a better analysis than the convenient but imprecise shorthand of ‘xenophobia’.” Returning to the subject of the World Cup, we called for sports enthusiasm to be harnessed: “The provision of football (and other sports) infrastructure can be a means of diverting the attention of young people from drugs, gangsterism and other deleterious behaviour [...] The promotion of

football as a developmental tool and a means of bridging divisions should not be seen as peripheral, never mind as trivial. On the contrary, it should form part of a focussed policy.”

AUGUST Discussing the subject of mental health and suicide, we noted: “The incidence of clinical depression and other mental impairments continues to be trivialised instead of being seen as a serious but treatable conditions. This deters those affected by it from seeking help. It is necessary that the stigma attached to mental health conditions is diminished, and that public awareness of the nature of depression is extended.” Responding to the African National Congress proposal of a state-appointed Media Appeals Tribunal and the proposed Access to Information Bill, we warned: “The tribunal and law could be abused to intimidate commentators in the media whose criticism the governing party finds discordant, unfair or otherwise undesirable. Any legislation that might compromise the media’s freedom to comment, within the confines of the Constitution, must be opposed by those who subscribe to democratic principles.” Noting the “happy circumstance that the centenary of the birth of Mother Teresa of Calcutta...should coincide with the tour” of South Africa of the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux, we observed that both women experienced struggles with their faith. Their posthumously published writings on their struggles “are perhaps the most exemplary constituent in their Christian witness. They encourage Christians who go through what may be tormenting periods of doubt to appreciate that the path to God remains open, that spiritual chaos need not give way to disbelief and the abandonment of faith, that even if they feel the absence of God, he can still work through them.” Discussing abortion, we called on the government to give fund-

ing to organisations that offer alternatives, including those run by the Church. “The state should seek to reduce abortions by supporting and creating relevant social services and structures, which in turn would give proper meaning to the term ‘choice’ in the Act’s title.”

SEPTEMBER Marking Social Communications Sunday, we wrote: “It is perfectly conceivable that Jesus today might use YouTube videos to teach the multitudes, or engage with modern-day Pharisees on blogs. And St Paul might well use Facebook to let the Corinthians know how he feels about their squabbles—and at the same time inform the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians and Romans of his concerns and joys.” Previewing Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain, we predicted: “More than likely, the pope’s visit will draw impressive and enthusiastic crowds. It will help to energise the Church in Britain, and it will communicate to those who maintain a hostile attitude towards the Church that Catholicism in the country is not about to vanish.” Returning to the question of the freedom of the media, we noted: “The problems in the South African media reside in editorial and managerial incompetence, ignorance, lack of professionalism, the profit motive and complacency more than they do in an exceptional lack of ethics. These problems are not fixed by a tribunal, but must be addressed by the media themselves. And if they neglect to do so, the bad idea of a statutory media tribunal will not go away.” As the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood at Mariannhill and the Holy Cross Sisters celebrate major milestones, acting editor Sydney Duval noted their contribution to education in South Africa: “[They] have invested in an education that in many ways is a precious gift, offering learners the opportunity of friendship and solidari-

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ty for life. This connection is affirmed by the many active circles of old girls’ associations who support their old schools when calls are made on their time and special skills.” Commenting on the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, Michael Shackleton wrote: “In considering the striking difference between the high-profile attraction of John Paul II at his sparkling best with the low-key reticence of Newman, we may appreciate anew that each one of us, however far we are along the road to greater sanctity, has a place in the unfolding divine plan for the Church, the world and the coming of the Kingdom. No matter the individual temperaments we have, making us introspective, outgoing or even odd, all we need is an unswerving focus on the truths revealed by Christ to his Church and a desire to know and understand them rather than to dismiss them as irrelevant today.”

OCTOBER Reflecting on the Franciscan charism that works against poverty, Sydney Duval wrote: “To address poverty and hunger requires more than political will, which seems to elude a government seduced by seminar cliches rather than creating practical interventions that have impact because they work. It requires more than the combined efforts of civil society and the thousands of NGOs working for sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Overcoming poverty, hunger and disease requires people of goodwill to mobilise their compassion through personal actions that will make a real difference to people’s lives. Dissent against the status quo is one way.” Welcoming the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) system due to be launched in 2011, Günther Simmermacher noted: “As participants in traffic we must be conscious of our mutual obligations because our safety depends on the actions of others. Therefore we must also consider the consequences of our decisions on others. It should alarm us that often the deterrent to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs resides in the possibility of being caught.” Commenting on the establishment of the SACBC Foundation, which aims to raise a minimum R50 million from the region’s Catholic community, we pointed out that “the channels of accountability will change. Church institutions...will have to account to the laity (whose money funds their activities) in ways that we may not quite realise yet. Indeed, the laity will need to be increasingly involved in the management and oversight of Church funds, and be equipped with the requisite competence to do so.” As The Southern Cross celebrated its 90th birthday, we noted that it “is South Africa’s only nationally distributed Christian weekly newspaper. It is a notable distinction that, alone among the country’s denominations, Catholics manage to sustain a weekly newspaper— more so one that is financially entirely independent.”

After a strong reaction to criticism of Israeli human rights abuses at the Synod for Bishops on the Middle East, we wrote: “Criticism of Israel is not intrinsically anti-Semitic. Indeed, the Church’s criticism flows from a deep desire to see all people of the Holy Land live as neighbours in peace—an aspiration shared by all people of good will.” Discussing the Catholic Church’s relevance even in secular discourse, we wrote: “The Church shows its relevance when its contribution to the welfare of people around the world, even and especially for non-Catholics, is second only to that of governments.” Commenting on the quality of debate within the Church, we noted: “We sinfully fail to communicate Christ’s love when we denounce, deride, insult, denigrate, scorn, misrepresent, ridicule, suspect, slander, doubt and label one another—or even tolerate such behaviour when we observe it. It is a bitter irony that in the supposed defence of Christ, his commandment—‘that you love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn 13:34-35)—often is arbitrarily violated.” Marking World Aids Day, we wrote: “When Catholics are calling for a modification of sexual behaviour, they are offering the best solution to the HIV problem. Those most at risk of spreading the virus must change their behaviour, and those not yet at risk must not adopt dangerous practices. This requires a social and cultural shift that redefines attitudes towards sexuality and gender. That transformation must also include the social, economic and sexual empowerment of women, who in most of Africa are most at risk of infection, but often not due to their free decisions. The notion that HIV/Aids is invariably a consequence of immoral conduct must be robustly challenged. Sexual activity is not always a question of choice.”

DECEMBER While many people are surprised when Pope Benedict makes statements that don’t conform to the general stereotypes of him, we argued that he is a consistent pope, even on the question of condoms and Aids. “Pope Benedict may surprise and even confuse some people, critics and admirers alike. Closer inspection, however, reveals a man of predictable consistency, genuine openness and sometimes an unexpected tolerance for alternative viewpoints.” Discussing the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries, we pointed out: “It is not helpful to blame Islam in itself for the persecution [...] just as it is not helpful when Muslims attribute Western hostility (or even attacks by one Christian group) to all of Christianity. Distorted perceptions are quickly exploited by people of ill will, and almost always create a backlash.” In her Christmas guest editorial, Sr Judy Coyle IHM reflected on the exchange of gifts. “The life of Jesus, our human life, begun at Christmas and transfigured in his Resurrection remains now forever in God. In this an ‘exchange’ was accomplished, humanity and divinity made one. All that we are is now ‘in’ the Godhead—our hunger, our pain, our gratitude, our fear, our delight.” Reflecting on the New Evangelisation, we observed: “While the New Evangelisation mission is directed mostly at traditionally Christian Europe, [and] North America, it will also have application in some traditional mission territories. This includes South Africa, where in some strata of society we are facing what Pope Benedict has called ‘the eclipse of a sense of God’.” n The full editorials can be accessed at www.scross.co.za/category/ editorials-2010

The Southern Cross, December 5 to January 11, 2010

CLASSIFIEDS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Catholic calling from God

OD called me through my Baptism to serve God’s people in a spiritual manner. The prophet Isaiah (49:1) says: “Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord called me before I was born. While I was in my mother’s womb he named me.” My spiritual life and my following of Christ is based on Scripture and the word of God. I present myself to God through his Son Jesus Christ by following in Christ’s teachings. John 15:19 says: “If you belonged to

the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.” My calling to serve God and his people through whatever I do in the Catholic Church I had to accept as a follower of Christ. I had to grow and still grow my spirituality for the glory of God through the Holy Eucharist, prayer, scripture reading and generally doing the work I had been called to do by God. A few months ago God called me to serve on the Parish Pas-

toral Council. This calling was life-changing and prompted strong growth in my personal spirituality. As Catholics we seem to not understand God’s calling, which is not from this world. When God calls us to give meaning to his people it requires a spiritual mind and heart. When we respond to God’s calling with a worldly mind and heart, we are not able to engage God’s people and grow spiritually by becoming one with the Body of Christ. Allan Sauls, Johannesburg

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IN MEMORIAM ROMAN—David. Fondest memories of a beloved husband, father and grandfather, who passed away December 15, 1995 and birthday December 23. Deo Gratias for the wonderful years we spent together. your loving wife valerie, children and grandchildren. M.h.D.S.R.i.P.

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Family Reflections 2011 FAMILY THEME: PEACE ON EARTH BEGINS AT HOME” JANUARY: PEACE BEGINS WITH A SMILE – Mother Teresa INTRODUCTION Life is the beginning and is at the heart of a family, each family at home and the Church as God’s family. Parents are co-creators with God as new life is conceived. Couples and all family members are life-giving to one another as they sustain life in all its stages from conception until natural death and as they nurture their relationships in a life-giving manner. Being life-giving is the ultimate in justice. In our own lives and in the Churchas-Family let us ask how life-giving we are in all our relationships? Peace, like charity, begins at home. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jan 9—Baptism of the Lord. This is another revelation of Jesus, an acknowledgement from his Father for his mission. Reflect on and speak about baptism, share with children the joy of being anointed to share in the mission of Jesus as priest, prophet and king. Consider what this means at the beginning of another new year at home, work and school.

Liturgical Calendar Sunday, Jan 9, The Baptism of the Lord Is 42:1-4, 6-7, Ps 29:1-4, 3, 9-10, Acts 10: 34-38, Mt 3:13-17 Mon, Jan 10, feria Heb 1:1-6; Ps 97:1-2, 6-7, 9; Mk 1:14-20 Tues, Jan 11, feria Heb 2:5-12; Ps 8:2, 5-9; Mk 1:21-28 Wed, Jan 12, St Bernard of Corleone Heb 2:14-18; Ps 105:1-4, 6-9; Mk 1:29-39 Thurs, Jan 13, feria Heb 3:7-14; Ps 95:6-11; Mk 1:40-45 Fri, Jan 14, feria Heb 4:1-5, 11; Ps 78:3, 4, 6-8; Mk 2:1-12 Sat, Jan 15, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary Heb 4:12-16; Ps 19:8-10, 15; Mk 2:13-17 Sun, Jan 16, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 49:3, 5-6; Ps 40:2, 4, 7-10; 1 Cor 1:1-3; Jn 1:29-34

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PRAYERS HOLY St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. To you i have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. in return i promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. Amen. Mark HOLY SPIRIT you who makes me see everything. you showed me the way to reach my ideal. you who give me the divine gift to forgive and forget all that is done to me and you are in all the instincts of my life with me. i want to thank you for everything and confirm once more that i never want to be separated from you no matter how great the desires may be. i want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. This prayer should be said on 3 consecutive days, after the 3rd day, the request will be granted, no matter how difficult it may be. Promise to publish the entire dialogue with the condition of having your request granted. RM O ST MARTHA, i resort to thee and to thy petition and faith, i offer up to thee this light which i shall burn every Tuesday for nine Tuesdays. Comfort me in all my difficulties through the great favour thou did’st enjoy thy Saviour lodge in thy house. i beseech thee to have definite pity in regard to the favour i ask (mention favour). intercede for my family that we may always be provided for in all our necessities. i ask thee St Martha to overcome the dragon which thou did cast at thy feet. Mark “POWERFUL novena of Childlike confidence” (This novena is to be said at the same time every hour for nine consecutive hours— just one day) o Jesus, who hast said, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you, through the intercession of Mary, thy most holy Mother. i

knock, i seek, i ask that my prayer be granted. (Make your request) o Jesus who hast said, all that you ask the Father in my name, he will grant you through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most holy Mother. i humbly and urgently ask Thy Father in thy name that my prayer be granted. (Make your request) o Jesus, who hast said, “heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass” through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most holy Mother, i feel confident that my prayer may be granted. (Make your request) Stephen. O MOST beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, immaculate virgin, assist me in my necessity. o Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth i humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succor me in my necessity. There is none who can withstand your power, o Mary conceived without sin, pay for us who have recourse to thee. holy Mary, i place this cause in your hands. Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days and then publish. M REMEMBER o Most gracious virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided. inspired with this confidence i fly to you, o virgin of virgins, my mother. To you i come, before you i stand, sinful and sorrowful. o mother of the Word incarnate, do not despise my petitions, but in your clemency hear and answer me. Amen. Joy.

THANKS IN sincere and heartfelt gratitude to Mary immaculate Queen and the holy Jesus, King of Prague for the bountiful Graces and Blessings received. Stephen MY Beloved Mother Mary, many thanks for yet again coming to my aid. you have never failed me and i love and honour you. Mark.

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FISH HOEK: Self-catering holiday accommodation from budget to luxury. Pensioners rate. Tel/fax:021 782 3647, alisona@xsinet.co.za GORDON’S BAY: Beautiful en-suite rooms available at reasonable rates. Magnificent views, breakfast on request. Tel: 082 774 7140. E-mail: bzhive@telkomsa.net KNYSNA: Self-catering garden apartment for two in old Belvidere with wonderful lagoon views. Tel: 044 387 1052. LONDON, PRoTEA houSE: underground 2min, Piccadilly 20min. Close to River Thames. Self-catering. Single per night R250, twin R400. Email: houseprotea@hot mail.com. Tel 021 851 5200 MARIANELLA Guest house, Simon’s Town: “Come experience the peace and beauty of God with us.” Fully equipped with amazing sea views. Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Tel: Malcolm Salida 082 784 5675 or mjsalida@mweb.co.za MONTAGU: Self-catering family accommodation. views, braai, 3 beds, sleeps 5-7. Central and secure. Phone 074 190 5634, gailellis@telkom sa.net SOUTH COAST: 3 bedroom house, Marine Drive, uvongo. Tel: Donald, 031 465 5651, 073 989 1074. STELLENBOSCH: Five simple private suites (2 beds, fridge, micro-wave). Countryside vineyard/forest/mountain walks; beach 20 minute drive. Affordable. Christian Brothers Tel: 021 880 0242, cbc_stel@mweb. co.za UMHLANGA ROCKS: Fully equipped self-catering 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, sleeps 6, sea view, 200 metres from beach, DStv. Tel: holiday Division, 031 561 5838, holidays@light house.co.za WILDERNESS: Rustic farm cottage. Sleeps five, self-catering. Ph 073 478 9038. thewoodvillecottage @gmail.com

PLUMSTEAD: Room to let. Preferably mature lady. 021 705 4242

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION AZARS B&B: olde worlde charm in Kalk Bay’s quaint fishing village. Luxury double ensuite/private lounge/ entrance. DSTv/tea/coffee. Serviced three times a week. Minutes from metrorail. Enjoy breakfast at different restaurants every day. holy Mass Saturdays/Sundays within walking distance (800m). Tel/Fax 021 788 2031, 082 573 1251, grizell@iafrica.com CAPE WEST COAST yzerfontein: Emmaus on Sea B&B and self-catering. holy Mass celebrated every Sunday at 6pm. Tel: 022 451 2650. FISH HOEK: Self-catering accommodation, sleeps 4. Secure parking. Tel: 021 785 1247.

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2nd Sunday (January 16) Readings: Isaiah 49:3, 5-6, Psalm 40: 2, 4, 7-10, 1 Corinthians 1:1-3, John 1:29-34

E are now into Ordinary Time, which means that in the Sunday readings we shall be following Jesus through the early part of his ministry, before we then interrupt it with the rigours of Lent, which is even now rushing towards us, and the excitements of Easter which follow. The question we must never cease to ask is simply this: Who is this Jesus? The question is a difficult one (though you may think it absurdly simple), and in the readings for next Sunday we can look at some of the ways in which the early Christians sought to answer it. The early Christians, since Jesus was clearly an important part of their experience of God, inevitably looked to the only religious library they had, what we call, a bit too disparagingly, the “Old Testament”; and they found some useful answers there. So in the middle chapters of Isaiah they found references to a mysterious figure called “the Servant of the Lord”, whose description fitted Jesus very well, as we see in the first reading for next Sunday: “You are my servant,” says the Lord and the Servant replies, “the Lord has spoken, formed me as

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Who is the Lamb of God? Nicholas King SJ Sunday Reflections a Servant for himself from my mother’s womb,” and given him a mission to Israel “to return Jacob to him, and for Israel to be gathered to him”. But it does not stop with God’s Chosen People; for God goes on to say, “I have placed you as a light to the Gentiles, for my salvation to reach to the ends of the earth”. The psalm likewise sees God at work, and early Christians applied this to Jesus, just as we do today: “I waited, I waited for the Lord...he put a new song into my mouth.” And then we hear the psalmist sing a refrain that seemed to the early Christians to be applied unmistakably to Jesus: “I said, ‘Here I am’: in the scrolls of the book it is written about me: ‘I have come to do your will, my God’.” In those words they recognised the

accents of their Lord. Next Sunday’s sec o nd reading comes from the earliest of the New Testament authors, as we start the majestic first letter of Paul to his somewhat petulant Corinthians, which we shall be following for the next six Sundays; and what does it tell us about Jesus? Why that Paul who (as you will remember) was a bitter opponent and persecutor of the Jesus movement, now finds himself “called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, through God’s will” (and when you meet Paul, if you really want to annoy him, just tell him that “you’re not a real apostle”). The Corinthians have forgotten some important things about Jesus, namely that it is Jesus, and not his wonderfully spiritual and gifted followers in Corinth, who does all the work, who “makes them holy” and “calls them to be saints”. Our task, this week and this year, is to focus on Jesus. And that is what the gospel for next Sunday does, as we listen to John the Baptist pointing at Jesus, and calling him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. We hardly know what it means to

call Jesus a “lamb”, but it has stuck, because we use the phrase at least four times (just count), and sometimes more, when we go to Mass. John says “he came to be before me”, but also makes the claim (which can be our claim as well): “I did not know him, but the reason that I came...was that he might be revealed.” Then we listen to John’s witness, as the evangelist states, with all the solemnity of a law-court, “John gave his evidence, saying, ‘I have seen the Spirit coming down like a dove from heaven. And it remained on him!’” Now if John did not know him, how was he able to witness to Jesus? Simple: It is a God-given insight, that “The One who sent me to baptise with water, that One said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit coming down and resting on him, this one is the one who baptises in the Holy Spirit’.” And I have seen, and I have given my evidence: “This one is the Son of God.” We can spend the rest of our lives pondering the meaning of this. Shall we start this week?

Paris taught me a music lesson I

T was well past my 30th birthday when I first came to appreciate the immense power of music in its role as a catalyst to man’s praise of God. Walking across Paris during a busy midweek rush hour, I heard the faint strains of trumpet and strings coming from the closed doors of the church of La Madeleine in the city centre. I wandered in to be greeted by the sight of a church filled to the brim with people listening enraptured to an orchestra giving vent to Vivaldi. As I sat and listened to that glorious music I had absolutely no idea whether or not it was religious. It didn’t really matter because it uncovered emotions in me that I had never before experienced in church. It raised my soul and filled my heart fit to bursting in praise of God. And later, as I wandered off to my appointment through the crowded streets, it made me wonder why on earth the Church did not make more use of this magnificent catalytic medium. I thought back to my school days where music in church generally meant a slightly out-of-tune organ being played by someone who took mischievous delight in making every tenth note sound slightly off-key, and every twentieth decidedly off-key. Music in church was, and often still is

Chris Moerdyk The Last Word today, a litany of simple, unimaginative hymns we’d learnt in Grade 2, and the only excitement in singing them was to ensure that we CBC boys would drown out any attempt by the Loreto Convent choir to have their voices heard. I agree completely with the honest and heartfelt sentiments raised by Fr Chris Townsend in The Southern Cross of December 15, when he wrote about the singularly uninspiring music in the Catholic Church in South Africa today. Well done to him for having the courage to speak out so succinctly. Later in life I would learn about the crucial role music played in business. Shoppers would be encouraged to spend more if the right kind of music was played in the background. People in lifts would have their claustrophobia allayed by gentle music, and, above all, advertising would use it mercilessly to set moods and create brand loyalty links between products and consumers. From a religious point of view, we have seen on television how the Baptist

Classic Conrad

“Afraid Johnson left the machine on last night. Now we’ve got a 5 000-decade rosary.”

churches in the southern states of America use music to raise congregations from worldly humdrum to a wonderfully higher state of praise and thanksgiving. But still today, I wonder why so many congregations in South Africa disregard the quite remarkable potential music has to elevate our praise of God from what is often the mechanical routine we call Sunday Mass to something far more emotional, focused and meaningful. Many parishes seem to be stuck with something inappropriately called The Celebration Hymnal for Everyone. It is filled to the brim with wonderful prayers set to largely boring and childish music selected for us by two people in Britain who probably have no idea where South Africa is and who not only make a lot of money out of the business, but also have the impertinence to tell us precisely what hymns we should sing on what Sundays. And a look at the back of this hymnal shows that the majority of hymns are subject to the payment of royalties. And here for all these years I naively thought that people who wrote hymns did so for the love of the Almighty and not to line their pockets with filthy lucre. And if we are serious about ensuring that our youngsters continue to come to church when they are too old to be dragged there by their parents, we might well find that The Celebration Hymnal turns out to be more hindrance than help. Interestingly enough, black Catholic congregations have long cast aside hymnals from abroad and have adopted an inculturated and meaningful style of praising God in music. I have noticed recently that a lot of churches have started playing pieces of recorded music, particularly during Communion. And what a difference that makes. Luciano Pavarotti’s rendition of “Panis Angelicus” certainly raises my soul a notch or two above those often bland songs of praise into which our usually undermanned choirs try so valiantly to bring life. If we really want to stem the movement of people, particularly youngsters, away from the Catholic Church, we might need to put nostalgia aside and look very seriously at the calibre of music that is currently being used in our churches.

Southern Crossword #426

ACROSS 1. Deaconess of the church (Rm 16) (6) 4. Your body is one of the Holy Spirit (6) 9. Reconnect mile to state you’re in after confession (13) 10. Tied up tightly like Christmas turkey? (7) 11. He may head the monks (5) 12. Fill them in before marriage (5) 14. Dish holding motor licence number (5) 18. Coach altar servers on the railway (5) 19. Ancient Egyptians wrote on it (7) 21. A child is given to us, the... (Is 9) (6,2,5) 22. Considered me indeed (6) 23. Wiped out (6)

DOWN 1. In the party I find equivalence (6) 2. Start of single fairy tale (4,4,1,4) 3. They may be called before marriage (5) 5. Optical sphere (7) 6. Protestants (13) 7. Kind of agency for property (6) 8. Did the Pentecost breeze makes the apostles this afraid? (5) 13. It fastens the hands (7) 15. Lacking intelligence (6) 16. In the nursery, the dish ran away with it (5) 17. Go up, like Jesus (6) 20. Modern version of 19 ac (5) Answers on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

gangster of came to confession; his mother brought him along with a little motherly persuasion. “Bless me Father, I guess I rocked someone to sleep,” he murmured. Father was surprised. “But that is wonderful, a real act of love and patience...but tell me, why confess such a kindly act, my son?” A long pause. “But Father, you should have seen the size of the rocks!”