The Southern Cross - 110112

January 12 to January 18, 2011

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Fists and fury in Christianity’s holiest place

How to reach your goals for 2011

Pope Benedict: Music can speak where words fail Page 5

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No 4712

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SA youth gears up for WYD ’11

By CLAiRe MAtHieSON

L Onlookers watch as firefighters extinguish a fire on the roof of the Our Lady of St Remy abbey in Rochefort, Belgium. the abbey is the home of a community of trappist monks, and houses one of the world’s five breweries operated by the order. the Rochefort brewery was due to resume operations in the second week of January. Nobody was injured in the blaze which some 70 firefighters put out. (Photo: thierry Dricot, Reuters/CNS)

Nigerian head urged to act on attacks

By PeteR AJAyi DADA

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RCHBISHOP John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja has urged Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to take bold steps to address the level of insecurity in the country.

Archbishop Onaiyekan, former president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, spoke to journalists after a bomb blast in his city and other violence and attacks in and around the city of Jos. “What is expected of Jonathan’s administration at the moment is clear, vivid and strict measures in tackling the continuous cases of bomb blasts in the country,” the archbishop said.

He said that in dealing with issues of terrorism, politics should be separated from criminality. He added that suspects in terrorist acts are treated with kid gloves.

“If you bombed and killed people, that is criminal,” he said. “If you carry bombs around and detonate them with the aim of killing and destroying not only persons...but their properties, that is a criminal act that requires the prompt action in punishing the culprits.”

In late December, Lagos Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie warned that if the current government fails to deal with perennial sectarian crises, Nigerians would be forced to pick up the gauntlet and defend themselves.

“It is not right for a country reputed to

A man mourns at the grave of people who died in last month’s riots in Nigeria’s central city of Jos. (Photo: Afolabi Sotunde, Reuters/CNS) be the most powerful nation in Africa, parading the strongest military might, to be held by the jugular by a faceless group of individuals. Where, then, is the security of this country? Who are members of this group?” the cardinal asked.

“My advice to the president is for him to show now that there is a government in place in this country by taking the bull by the horn,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, prominent Christian and Muslim leaders have accused politicians who want to sabotage the April national and local elections of instigating the recent violence.—CNS

OCAL preparations for World Youth Day (WYD) 2011 in Madrid, Spain, are underway.

While pilgrims are allowed to attend individually, various dioceses are arranging tours to the event which will be held during August—and the archbishop of Johannesburg hopes pilgrims from his archdiocese will help persuade organisers to stage the next WYD in South Africa’s largest city.

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale said he hopes the archdiocese of Johannesburg will attend as one. Failure to do so could “result to the world thinking that the archdiocese of Johannesburg is not unified, which could result to possibilities of us hosting the next WYD being slim”, he warned.

The archdiocese of Johannesburg has strongly advised pilgrims to register through its youth office. Archbishop Tlhagale has said that WYD is “a pilgrimage for young people from all over the world, representing their different dioceses, metropolitans and various organisations”.

Youth in the Johannesburg archdiocese have been meeting monthly in preparation for the WYD. They have started working on musical beats, lyrics, and working on designing the uniform.

The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference is also expected to propose a specific design of t-shirts for the entire Southern Africa to unify pilgrims even further.

Preparations in the diocese of Port Elizabeth have included a busy fundraising schedule. Diocesan youth chairwoman Gail Smith said various parishes were undertaking projects to mobilise the youth.

The parish of Sacred Heart in Port Elizabeth has devised a three-tier strategic priority plan to ensure the pilgrims are ready to attend the event.

“Our parish pilgrims operate under a three tier priority plan which entails spirituality, fundraising and team building and social engagement,” said Alexis Pillay, pilgrimage leader for Sacred Heart.

“Very early on in our meetings, Sacred Heart pilgrims realised that our group—in

fact all groups—need clear focus in terms of their goals for WYD,” said Mr Pillay.

He explained the beginning of the journey focused almost exclusively on fundraising activities. The pilgrimage has been quoted at costing individuals between R15 000 and R25 000. However, Mr Pillay said, “we realised [fundraising] was not our fundamental purpose of being together, since fundraising was only a means to an end, and not the end itself”.

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rchbishop Tlhagale said it is important that pilgrims attend for the right reasons. He reminded parishes sending pilgrims to bear in mind that these young people represent the archdiocese, so representatives should be of “good morals and values, as this is going to be a spiritual journey which we’ll be taking with the pope”.

Likewise, the group from Port Elizabeth has taken a “holistic” approach to the preparations to ensure the spiritual dimension of the journey is properly established. Some exercises to achieve this included rediscovering traditional Catholic prayers, reciting the Rosary, Eucharistic adoration and spiritual reflections.

Mr Pillay said it is important that the pilgrims be united in their journey. Through bonding with each other “we begin to experience the face of Christ in a personal and profound way”, he said.

The Sacred Heart pilgrims have, as part of their preparations, tried to take their work outside of the visible boundaries of the Church and have become involved in soup kitchens and Amnesty International campaigns. Mr Pillay said the goal of the Sacred Heart group is to mirror the theme of WYD 2011: “Rooted and built up in Jesus Christ, Firm in the Faith”.

Fr Charles Prince of the youth desk in the archdiocese in Cape Town said individual parishes are sending pilgrims and have been arranging the pilgrimage over the past few months, but have simply been guided by the archdiocese.

Those still interested in getting involved in WYD should contact their local diocese office.

This year will mark the 16th time the world’s youth has been called together for the World Youth Day (WYD) which was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985.

JP2’s sainthood cause gets miracle boost

By CAROL GLAtz

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PRESUMED miracle needed for the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II reportedly has reached the final stages of approval.

The miracle—involving a French nun said to have been cured of Parkinson’s disease—has been approved by a Vatican medical board and a group of theologians and is now awaiting judgment from the members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, according to Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli.

If the congregation accepts the healing as a miracle attributable to the late pope’s intercession, then Pope Benedict would

still have to sign a decree formally recognising it before a beatification ceremony can be scheduled.

Mr Tornielli, who covers the Vatican for the newspaper Il Giornale, wrote that the process is so far advanced that Pope John Paul could be beatified sometime this year.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ said that the final step before beatification requires the pope’s approval and that the pope is free to make his own decision on the matter.

According to Mr Tornielli, at the end of 2010, the presumed miracle passed the first three stages in a five-step process that involves medical experts, a medical board, theological consultants, the members of

the congregation and, finally, Pope Benedict.

In 2005, Pope Benedict set Pope John Paul, who died in April that year, on the fast track to beatification by waiving the normal five-year waiting period for the introduction of his sainthood cause.

The initial diocesan phase of the cause was completed in April 2007. After a team of theological consultants to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes studied the 2 000page positio, the document that makes the case for beatification, Pope Benedict formally decreed in December 2009 that Pope John Paul had heroically lived the Christian virtues and was venerable.—CNS

Sr Marie-Simon-Pierre who is said to have been cured of Parkinson’s disease through the intercession of Pope John Paul ii.

(Photo: Serge Pagano, Reuters/CNS)

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LOCAL

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Bishop slams ‘vocation drought’ StAFF RePORteR

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N his homily at the final profession of Cecilia Mavutheka, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha spoke out on the “rarity of vocation to religious life” and “lack of perseverance”.

“In the drought of vocation, Sr Cecilia dares to make her final vows,” Bishop Sipuka said.

Bishop Sipuka compared the religious life to the life and values lived by John the Baptist.

Sr Mavutheka took her vows as an Ursuline Sister and will be based in the Eastern Cape.

The celebration was held at Mount Nicholas Church in Libode, Mthatha.

Also at the celebration, with the theme “Keep my flame burning”, was Sr Lissy Thomas SU, Ursuline mother general Sr Nicole Glenz, her assistant Sr Rekha Kurien, and religious from the Mthatha and Mariannhill dioceses.

Sr Thomas said it took courage to commit yourself to a mission.

“The love and faith Sr Cecilia has in the Lord enabled her to make this life long commitment to the person of Jesus and to his mission. Jesus’ mission is nothing but to love human beings just as the Father has loved him,” said Sr Thomas.

She added: “A truly loving person has

Cardinal slams ‘annoying’ Mass confusion

By CLAiRe MAtHieSON

C Bishop Sithembele Sipuka and Ursuline Sister Cecilia Mavutheka. made a commitment to be loving whether or not the feeling of love is present. Therefore, the energy of being loved and the will to love is the secret, a source of this rare desert flower—Sr Cecilia—to bloom and to persevere in the midst of the drought of vocations.

“We thank the Lord for the gift of her, her self-gift to our Ursuline family and her family’s selfless gift of her to us.

May she continue to blossom to the fullness even if she is faced by the worst desert droughts in life and may she quench her thirst from the spring of God’s love.”

ARDINAL Wilfrid Napier of Durban has criticised the confusion and “aberrations” in the use of the new translation of the Order of the Mass.

Writing in his monthly “Cardinal’s Corner” column in Durban archdiocese’s newsletter, Cardinal Napier said that “it is necessary to draw attention to some aberrations that have crept, almost unnoticed, into the new translation of the Order of the Mass”.

He focused on three particular issues. The first is a matter of pronunciation which he said is “minor but persistent”. It occurs during the “I confess” prayer which includes the words: “Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.” Cardinal Napier said the mispronunciation of the word “grievous” has resurfaced after being under-

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HE international We Are Church movement, which calls for reform within the Catholic Church, now has a presence in South Africa.

In a letter to the region’s bishops, We Are Church said that its members are “a growing number of South African Catholics who are troubled by certain teachings and attitudes of the magisterium, in particular that of the Holy See, which we believe work against the mission of the Church in today’s world”.

“After prayerfully applying our minds, and examining our consciences, we find no alterna-

tive but to set ourselves to work for a renewal of the Church in the spirit of Vatican II,” the letter said.

The group which includes eminent theologians, lay leaders, academics, journalists, religious and priests, called for “an ethos on the part of those in authority in the Church that is characterised by a proper humility in their service of the Church, that seeks to promote freedom of speech and thought and dialogue, especially with those critical of them, both within the Church and outside it”.

The letter added: “Anathemas and exclusions would never

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be seen as a way of dealing with these, especially in the case of theologians.”

The group also called for a review of the Church’s “position on sexuality and sexual morality”, the option of a married priesthood, “the admission of women to all Church ministries”, and “the building of a Church of brothers and sisters that recognises the equal dignity and responsibility of all the baptised by including the laity in the election of bishops in their local Churches”.

■ We Are Church can be contacted at wearechurchsa@gmail.com

Premier recognises Church’s effort

By CLAiRe MAtHieSON

O

VER 160 people representing 55 parishes from across the archdiocese of Johannesburg attended the Justice and Peace Annual Conference. Justice and Peace Coordinator Dawn Linder said the conference was a success as it was an opportunity to share information and to put into action the plans

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drawn up.

Also in attendance was Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane who hailed the role the Church played in the struggle against apartheid. Ms Mokonyane spoke of the importance of the Church and individual Catholics to partner government in its work.

Having been brought up Catholic herself, the premier specifically asked the Church

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the Mass, the people rise and answer: “May the Lord…”

Cardinal Napier said in principle the liturgy requires congregants to answer clearly and with full attention, “so we need to work out when we stand and when we answer”.

He said it was simple during solemn high Mass as the people rise for the incensation and remain standing, however it was necessary to “try to find a similar convenient and suitable moment at ordinary Masses.

He felt the best solution to the issue was for the people to remain seated for the offertory and rise only after the priest has invited the people to pray, pausing until the commotion is over, and then praying together.

“This will work if both the priest and the people observe the principle regarding motion and speech. Do not move while you are praying. Do not pray while you are moving!”

Body calls for ‘review’ on controversial Church issues StAFF RePORteR

Parishioners of the Divine Mercy church, the local Polish community and donors rallied together to raise funds and buy a 4000m² plot of land for a new church to be built in Walkerville, 30km outside Johannesburg. it took two years of raising funds for the dream to become a reality. Parishioners are currently holding services in a tent erected on the site where the church will be built. the foundation stone for the church was blessed by four local priests and placed on a small shrine where the altar of the new church will be. the stone travelled from Poland from the grave of St Faustina Kowalska, whose visions gave rise to the Divine Mercy devotion. the church will cost between R10 and R12 million and will take two years to construct. the modern structure is expected to accommodate over 1000 parishioners. Pictured are: Fr Stainislaw Jagodzinski (right) and Fr Francios Dufour. (Photo: Jan Kopec)

ground for 40 years and is now a widespread error saying “sadly it seems to be nearly as widespread now as it was then”.

He pointed out that the word has only two syllables (grie-vous) and is not pronounced ‘grie-vi-ous’, which is both spelt incorrectly and pronounced with three syllables and is therefore incorrect.

The cardinal’s second concern is the “Amen” at the end of the people’s response to the Orate fratres (“Pray, Brothers and Sisters”). “The ‘Amen’ mentioned in the rubrics is actually meant to be said by the people in answer to the Prayers over the gifts,” Cardinal Napier clarified.

The third issue was described by Cardinal Napier as the most “annoying”. There is confusion as to when the congregation should stand at the end of the offertory, he said.

According to the Order of

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to run programmes for the youth. Ms Mokonyaner, who was also a Child of Mary, was kept busy on weekends by the Church in her youth and she was given opportunities to travel which she would not have had otherwise.

Ms Mokonyane appearance has inspired parish members to concentrate on combating drugs, crime and violence in their parish.

LOCAL

16 Days of Activism: Impact failed

By CLAiRe MAtHieSON

T

HE 16 Days of Activism campaign against violence on women and children has failed to make an impact, a Church-based researcher has said.

Lois Law of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO), a body of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said the 2010 campaign, which ran from the International Day of No Violence against Women in November, and concluded with International Human Rights Day in December, had been symbolically significant as it shared anniversaries with the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals; the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; the declaration of the African Decade for Woman (2010-2020); and the 30th anniversary of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

In South Africa, the past year saw the implementation of a number of pieces of legislation that aimed to protect and promote the rights of women and children, including the Children’s Act, the Child Justice Act, and the Sexual Offences Act. But while South Africa is a signatory to many and various international conventions, charters, declarations and treaties, which assert the rights of the vulnerable, Ms Law said “the number of crimes against children and women continue to increase”.

In the first week of the campaign, there were 48 murders and 93 rapes in the Western Cape alone. Of those raped, 62 were children.

“There is a desperate need to translate the vision and hope expressed in many of these instruments and laws into concrete policies and programmes that will bring them to life. Failure to do so renders them merely the stuff of dreams and leaves yet another generation of the vulnerable without protection,” Ms Law said.

She added that the evaluation report on the progress being made towards the Millennium Development Goals (whose deadline of 2015 is fast approaching) was “disappointing”.

Various campaigns took place during the 16 Days of Activism, including this one by government.

Ms Law said the 16 Days campaign had highlighted the “structural” violence of poverty, unemployment and informal settlements which “all conspire against the well-being of vulnerable groups”.

She added that substance abuse, gang violence and difficulties in accessing health and social services also play a considerable role.

“All of these militate against the healthy socialisation of children, and place an undue burden on women, who are very often alone in carrying the responsibility of trying to ensure a degree of stability and care in the home,” Ms Law

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explained.

She said far more was needed to make the campaign a success—not only in increasing awareness, but also from government’s side to continue to produce legislation to protect the vulnerable. She said it was important to reflect on the year and campaign gone to better prepare for 2011.

The international concept of activism against women and child abuse was adopted by government to make people aware of the negative impact of violence on women and children. The event helps increase awareness of abuse and builds support for victims and survivors of abuse.

National police commissioner Bheki Cele has said that he will not end the 16 Days of Activism Campaign, saying efforts to address crime against women and children never stop.

Dawn Linder of the Justice and Peace desk of the archdiocese of Johannesburg, told The Southern Cross in November there is a real need for campaigns like the 16 Days of Activism to be observed.

“Every day we see examples of abuse in our newspapers. The issue is obvious and it’s obvious that something needs to be done”.

However, Ms Linder said the dialogue should not just be limited to the twoweek period. “This needs to be spoken about all the time”.

Ms Linder said more needed to be done by everyone involved.

“Women need to be regarded, promoted and developed consciously. We need to be aware of the situation women are in.”

She said the efforts exerted over the 16 day period need to be extended throughout the year in our country.

According to statistics released by the South African Police services one woman is raped every 17 seconds.

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INTERNATIONAL

Bishop: Muslims ‘upset’ over Egypt church bombing

By DOReeN ABi RAAD & JOHN tHAViS

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N Egyptian Catholic leader said he had received many messages of support from Muslims after the New Year’s Day bombing of an Orthodox church which killed about two dozen people.

Coptic Catholic Bishop Youhannes Zakaria of Luxor said he had received many visits from Muslims—ordinary individuals and officials, including the governor—expressing their sympathy and solidarity after the attack on the Coptic Orthodox church in Alexandria, Egypt.

“They [Muslims] don’t accept this violence. They are very upset about this,” he said.

In Cairo, Jason Belanger, representative for Catholic Relief Services in Egypt, said the attack was the largest against Coptic Christians in the past ten years, and he was concerned this could signal an increase of attacks not only against Christians in Egypt but against Christians in the entire Middle East.

Others also saw the attacks as part of a plot against Mideast

Christians, but one commentator said religious rhetoric and media reports might have led to the bombings.

“It is a clear criminal and terrorist act targeting innocent Christians,” Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus, Syria, said in a statement during a pastoral visit to Egypt. “It is a phenomenon that calls for anxiety and vigilance that Christians might be a target for terrorist acts which move from one area to another.”

The patriarch called for Arab and international action against terrorism.

“The targeting of Christians is a clear plan to empty the Orient of its basic components,” he said.

Pope Benedict called the bombing a “despicable gesture of death” and part of a “strategy of violence that targets Christians”.

He said the bombing had repercussions on the entire Egyptian population and offered prayers for the victims and their families.

Maronite Bishop Bechara Rai of Jbeil, Lebanon, called for an Islamic summit to stop attacks targeting Christians in Egypt and Iraq. He also called on the Arab

League to meet to protect the safety of both Christians and Muslims.

“We cannot be content with verbal condemnations, as the pope said. There should be action on the ground,” Bishop Rai said in a statement.

Bishop Zakaria said he thought the bombing was carried out by “someone from outside of Egypt”.

“Like [the attacks] in Iraq, as well as Pakistan, India, Nigeria, and all over the world, it is a political war, and not a religious war,” he said. “The victims are always ordinary people.”

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eaders of the Coptic Catholic Church said a deadly attack against Christian worshippers was an act of political destabilisation and a sign of the increasingly radical “Islamisation” of the country.

“The newspapers are pointing the finger at al-Qaeda. But terrorism arises in sectors of the Muslim society where other organisations encourage intolerance. For 40 years in Egypt, there has been a creeping Islamisation that pervades every area of society,” Coptic Auxiliary Bishop Kamal Fahim

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A Christian man shouts while holding an image of Christ during a protest in Cairo. Angry protesters battled police as they demanded more protection following a New year’s Day bombing at a Coptic Orthodox church.

(Photo: Mohamed Abd el-Ghany, Reuters/CNS)

Awad Hanna of Alexandria told the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

Bishop Hanna pointed hopefully to a recent proposal by an official of the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo to establish a new interreligious dialogue organisation called the “House of the Egyptian Family”, which would include seven Christian and seven Muslim representatives.

Bishop Hanna said Egyptian schools were the most effective place to stem the spread of fundamentalism.

Pope names new prefect for religious

By CiNDy WOODeN

P

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“They should begin teaching tolerance to children in elementary schools. At present, there is no effort on the part of teachers to impart the concept of unity in the respect of differences,” he said.

In November, about ten houses belonging to Coptic Christians as well as several Christianowned businesses in Upper Egypt were burned and ransacked. Last January, seven Christians were killed in another bombing attack on a Coptic Orthodox church.— CNS

OPE Benedict has named Brazilian Archbishop João Braz de Aviz of Brasilia, not a member of a religious order, to head the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The 63-year-old archbishop (pictured) succeeds Cardinal Franc Rodé, the 76-year-old Vincentian who held the post for almost seven years.

Since 1973, prelates ordained for religious orders and for dioceses have alternated in holding the post of prefect of the congregation overseeing religious life in the Catholic Church. In the past 100 years, 11 of the 18 prefects did not belong to a religious order.

Archbishop Braz de Aviz

became auxiliary bishop of Vitoria in 1994 and four years later bishop of Ponta Grossa. In 2002, he was named archbishop of Maringa and in 2004 archbishop of Brasilia.

Cardinal Rodé’s tenure at the congregation has been marked by strong support for religious congregations—especially new communities—that emphasise what many consider to be a very traditional style of religious life, and by criticism of orders seen as having gone too far in adapting to modern life since the Second Vatican Council.

The Slovenian cardinal has blamed much of the drop in

numbers of consecrated men and women on the secularisation of society and of religious orders themselves.

In January 2009, Cardinal Rodé ordered an apostolic visitation of women’s orders in the United States.

Cardinal Rodé said the visitation was designed “to encourage vocations and assure a better future for women religious” in the US by responding to concerns involving “some irregularities or omissions in American religious life”, adding that “most of all...it involves a certain secular mentality that has spread in these religious families and, perhaps, also a certain ‘feminist’ spirit”.—CNS

Pope Benedict’s 2011 calendar is busy

By JOHN tHAViS

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OR Pope Benedict’s 2011 calendar already holds a full slate of meetings, liturgies and foreign trips.

What’s not on the calendar— at least so far—is a special “year of” or a “year for”. In 2008-09, the pope declared a Year of St Paul. He designated 2009-10 the Year for Priests.

Perhaps 2011 will mark the Year of Business as Usual for the German pontiff, who turns 84 in April.

Unlike the past three years, there’s no Synod of Bishops on the horizon in 2011. Most people are not expecting a consistory this year, either, and there is no sign that the pope plans to convene the world’s cardinals at the Vatican for other reasons.

What many people don’t appreciate is that the papacy is not just about commemorative years and cardinal summits.

“Business as usual” for the pope means a steady series of events that begins with a New Year’s Mass to mark World Peace Day and ends with a “Te Deum” prayer service of thanksgiving on December 31.

In between are hundreds of papal encounters with individuals and groups, ranging from heads of state to schoolchildren.

In 2010, the pope presided

over more than 50 major liturgies. Similar celebrations are already penned into the 2011 calendar, at home and abroad.

They range from one-hour prayer services to three-hour ordination Masses and normally include at least two liturgies to proclaim new saints.

Easter arrives very late—April 24—and with it comes the heaviest week of liturgies and public appearances by the pope.

Ahead of Easter, the Vatican plans to publish Pope Benedict’s new volume in his series on the life of Christ. Titled Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two, Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, it picks up where the best-selling first volume left off.

Throughout the year, the pope will hold ad limina meetings with bishops from other countries: the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Australia, Angola, New Zealand and the Pacific Ocean area.

The pope will break away from the Vatican on four foreign trips: June 4-5 in Croatia; August 18-21 in Madrid for World Youth Day; September 22-25 in Germany; and November 18-20 in the West African country of Benin. He’ll also make a two-day visit to Venice in May and three other trips in

Italy during the year.

At the Vatican, the pope resumes his weekly audiences every Wednesday, where he has been sketching brief biographies of early Church saints, writers and mystics. He normally makes at least one other public appearance each week, greeting pilgrims from his apartment window at midday on Sundays.

The pope generally furnishes messages or letters to mark a whole slew of other annual events—for migrants and refugees, for the sick, for religious, for priestly vocations, for missionaries, for young people, for the hungry and for communicators.

Although Pope Benedict is widely seen as less prolific than Pope John Paul II, his verbal output each year is impressive: about 300 speeches and talks, more than 50 homilies and nearly 100 other missives of varying length and importance.

In his recent book-length interview, Pope Benedict said the day-in, day-out schedule of the papacy was pretty taxing for someone his age. He spoke openly about his diminishing energy, and even left open the possibility of eventual papal retirement—but as his 2011 calendar makes clear, he’s not ready for that yet.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

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Pope tightens Vatican’s finance control

By JOHN tHAViS

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Mass is celebrated in the grotto at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France in this 2008 photo. Repair work to prevent falling rocks began at the grotto this month and is expected to continue through February.

(Photo: Nancy Wiechec, CNS)

Lourdes grotto in landslide threat

By JONAtHAN LUxMOORe

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HE Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, one of Europe’s best-known pilgrimage sites, has been partially closed for repairs amid reports that falling rocks in its fabled grotto could signal a major landslide.

Work to secure the massive rock face above the grotto started on January 3 and is expected to continue through February, said the diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes.

Despite the work, the grotto would remain “open and welcoming” during construction, the diocese said.

Bishop Jacques Perrier of Tarbes and Lourdes detailed some of the work to be completed. He said the celebration of Mass would be cancelled but that the daily rosary service would continue until repairs are completed.

“The rope inspection revealed that the rock on the north-west

side has been affected during bad weather by very high humidity, which has led to the development of vegetation,” Bishop Perrier told reporters.

“These conditions have contributed to erosions in the rock, principally horizontal, which have caused water to stagnate in the stone and split it when frozen. Year by year, the rock is shifting.”

The project will find workers affixing lose chunks of rock, some weighing up to 15 tonnes, to the existing rock face. Safety nets also will be installed to catch any rocks that may fall in the future.

Lourdes, near the Pyrenées mountains in southern France, attracts about 6 million visitors annually and has been a place of pilgrimage since 1858, when St Bernardette Soubirous reportedly experienced the first of 18 visions of Mary.—CNS

OPE Benedict has instituted a new agency to monitor all Vatican financial operations and make sure they meet international norms against money-laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The pope issued an apostolic letter that established the Financial Information Authority as an independent agency to oversee the monetary and commercial activities of all Vatican-related institutions, including the Vatican bank.

At the same time, the Vatican promulgated a detailed new law that defined financial crimes and established penalties—including possible jail time—for their violation. The list of transgressions includes corruption, market manipulation, fraud and virtually any activity that facilitates or provides funding to acts of terrorism.

The new law, which reflects the latest European Union regulations, takes effect on April 1.

The pope’s brief apostolic letter said the Vatican fully supported the international community’s efforts to coordinate a response to financial crimes, which often involve more than one country.

W

HEN words are not enough, beautiful music can express the joy and mystery of God’s love, Pope Benedict has said.

“It is hard to find words to convey the sheer joy of the soul’s loving encounter with God; indeed, the great mystics could only remain silent before the mystery,” he told about 4 500 young choir singers, their family members, friends and choirmasters from dozens of countries.

“Yet beautiful music is able to express something of the mystery of God’s love for us and ours for him,” he said in an audience with the choristers in

the Vatican’s Paul VI hall.

The singers were taking part in the International Congress of Pueri Cantores in Rome.

Pope Benedict—whose brother, Mgr Georg Ratzinger, was the choirmaster at Regensburg’s cathedral in Germany—reminded the young people that their singing was a service to God, to fellow worshippers and to the whole Church.

Using their musical talents for the liturgy gave God “the praise that is due” and helped parishioners “raise their hearts and minds to the Lord in prayer”, said the pope.

About 40 000 young people are part of the international federation, present in 35 countries.—CNS

By SiMON CALDWeLL Three former Anglican bishops have been received into the Catholic Church.

Bishops Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, John Broadhurst of Fulham and Keith Newton of Richborough will be soon ordained as priests for a special Anglican ordinariate that will be set up in England later in January.

They were received into the Catholic Church during a Mass in London’s Westminster cathedral.

They will be ordained as Catholic deacons on January 13, then as priests at a ceremony in the cathedral on January 15.

The ordinariate will be the first to be created since the pope issued the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus on November 4,

Pope Benedict greets people upon arriving for an audience with some 4 500 young choir members. (Photo: Paul Haring, CNS)

Health alert after Communion

T

HE health department on New York’s Long Island offered Hepatitis-A vaccines to parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes church who might have been exposed to Hepatitis-A when receiving Communion at two Christmas Day Masses.

Mary Ellen Laurain, a spokeswoman for the department, said an individual “involved in the Communion process” had tested positive for the virus but would not say whether any parishioners who attended the

10:30am or noon Masses on December 25 had contracted the virus.

“We pray that no one comes down with this virus,” said Sean Dolan, director of communications for the diocese of Rockville Center, in a statement.

He said the diocese and the parish were “cooperating fully” with the health department and urged parishioners who attended either of the two Masses to contact the department, which offered vaccinations in the parish school’s auditorium.

The department said in a

deposited in a Rome bank account.

The Vatican criticised the confiscation, saying the deposit was legitimate and that the Vatican bank was committed to “full transparency” in its operations.

The Vatican has been working for some time with Italian and international authorities to comply with procedures that ensure funds are not used for terrorism or money-laundering. The new documents represent the fruit of those efforts.

All Vatican agencies are now required to verify the standing of any potential business partners, keep detailed records of all transactions and report any suspicious transactions. Anyone entering or leaving Vatican City with 10 000 euros or more in cash must now declare it in writing.

The Vatican bank handles accounts of religious orders and other Catholic institutions. It was involved in a major Italian banking scandal in the 1980s, when fraud led to the collapse of Italy’s Banco Ambrosiano. Although denying wrongdoing, Vatican bank officials made what they called a “good will payment” of about $240 million to the failed bank’s creditors.—CNS

Anglican bishops received into Catholic Church

Pope: Music can speak when words fail

By CAROL GLAtz

“In our age of increasing globalisation, peace is unfortunately threatened by many factors, including an improper use of the market and the economy, and the terrible and destructive violence perpetrated by terrorism, which causes death, suffering, hatred and social instability,” the pope said.

The creation of such an oversight agency is unprecedented at the Vatican, where several departments have operated with some degree of financial independence for decades or centuries.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ described the move as a courageous step that reflects the moral requirement of “transparency, honesty and responsibility” in the Vatican’s operations.

“Vatican organisations will be less vulnerable in the face of the continuous risks that inevitably arise in the handling of money.

Those errors which so quickly become the cause of ‘scandal’ for public opinion and the faithful will be avoided,” Fr Lombardi said.

The move came several months after Italian treasury police, in a money-laundering probe, seized 23 million euros (more than R200 million) that the Vatican bank had

statement that anyone exposed to Hepatitis-A “should receive immune globulin or a hepatitis A vaccination within two weeks of exposure”.

It said the virus can be spread “by consuming food or drink that has been handled by an infected person” or by “putting something in the mouth that has been contaminated with the stool of a person with Hepatitis-A”.

“Casual contact, as in sitting in church during Mass, office or school setting, does not spread the virus,” it added.—CNS

2009, to allow the group reception of disaffected Anglo-Catholics into the Catholic Church.

Similar in structure to a military diocese, it permits former Anglicans to retain much of the patrimony and liturgical practices, such as married priests.

Also received into the Church were Judi Broadhurst, the wife of the former bishop of Fulham, and Gill Newton, the wife of the former bishop of Richborough.

Three former Anglican nuns— Srs Carolyne Joseph, Wendy Renate and Jane Louise—who had left the Sisters of St Margaret to join the ordinariate, were also received into the Church during the Mass, along with an unspecified number of former lay Anglicans.

The Mass was celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes of West-

minster, the most senior former Anglican priest in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

The ceremony was not publicised by the Catholic authorities and was described by witnesses as “low-key”. One of them, Fr Sean Finnegan, wrote on his blog later that the former bishops wore suits and ties.

The ordinariate is initially expected to include about 50 former Anglican bishops and clergy and hundreds of lay worshippers divided into about 30 groups.

Most will be received into the Catholic Church during Holy Week in April after undergoing an intensive period of instruction.

Most former Anglican groups will be encouraged to share church buildings with their local Catholic parishes.—CNS

6

the Southern Cross, January 12 to January 18, 2011

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Being proudly Catholic

C

ARDINAL Keith O’Brien of Edinburgh, Scotland, has complained that in Britain freedom of religious expression “is not upheld in our midst as widely and completely as it should be”.

Indeed, in much of Western society, religious freedom is under pressure, to the point that the bishops’ conferences of Europe have established an Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe.

The Observatory recently issued a report detailing what it called widespread anti-Christian activity. The report says that “radical secularisation and extreme political correctness” limit “fundamental freedom”.

It is true that in Europe religious freedoms are not compromised by the threat of violence, suppression or dispossession.

Indeed, churches are free to operate and citizens are not barred from exercising their faith.

There is also no evidence of a coordinated campaign against Christianity, even if some opponents of Christianity are acting in concert. Many attacks on Christian life are arbitrary.

The restrictions can be subtle—such as the insistence that religion belongs in the private sphere—or aggressive, such as the deliberate marginalisation of Christians in public life.

Christians are even punished for wearing symbols of their faith.

Christians don’t always get a fair hearing in the media. Those journalists with an anti-Christian agenda often apply an ageold trick by interviewing reasonable secularist voices on the one hand, and hysterical (usually unrepresentative) Christians on the other—and then claim to be even-handed.

Generally, it is seen as acceptable to treat Christians with disrespect, and Christians are made to feel that their faith is somehow offensive to adherents of other faiths, when it usually offends only those of none.

The interjection of Alistair Campbell, the erstwhile Labour Party spin doctor, that “we don’t do God” has become a mantra.

Those who subscribe to that

view will say that Christians enjoy full religious freedom, but that their freedom must be exercised out of public view (a constraint that is not applied to other religions). In other words, Christians are expected to live their faith in a spiritual ghetto.

That is not religious freedom; it is discrimination.

These influences are also becoming apparent in some sectors of South African society.

The Catholic Church must be part of a movement that reasserts the Christian heritage, and not only by reactive and angry protest (though that too may be necessary at times).

The Church must assert itself in public discourse. This means that its leaders must be heard not only on the “hot” issues— such as bioethics and sexuality—which present the Church as an institution that seeks only to prohibit, but also find a voice on those matters that can establish a common purpose.

We must not be silent when our faith is marginalised, trivialised, assaulted, distorted, insulted or treated with rank hypocrisy. When it is, our response must be measured and respectful of those with whom we disagree (even when they are lacking in courtesy), and our battles must be chosen carefully.

More than any line of argument, it is the demonstration of Christian joy and hope that provides a suitable response to those who wish to sideline our faith.

When Catholics exhibit their faith in numbers, as they did in Britain during Pope Benedict’s visit last September and as they doubtless will in Madrid during the World Youth Day, they counter the notion that Christianity is irrelevant to modern life and therefore moribund.

As a Church, especially in a region where Catholics are a minority, our priority must be to give the faithful a stronger sense of being Catholic, of belonging. We must build a Catholic identity that confidently places Christ, the Word of God, the sacraments and love at the centre.

Those who seek to marginalise the faith must be shown a vibrant—not angry—faith that simply will not be excised from public life.

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.

Road safety and carnage OUR correspondent, Manny de Freitas (December 15), especially since he writes as the shadow deputy minister for transport, prompts me once again to complain at the visible lack of serious concern on the part of government to take decisive and effective steps not only to reduce the accident rate on our roads, but to totally eliminate it. Why is it apparently so difficult?

If my 3-year old child cannot be trusted with an AK47—and he cannot—do I therefore tell him to be very careful with it? And punish him every time he shoots or tries to shoot one of my friends?

Surely, I explain to him that he just can’t have one. And, no, he cannot have an Uzzi sub-machine gun either. But, yes, he may certainly have (in my judgment, anyhow) a look-alike plastic toy gun, or a water pistol. He may even point it at selected (by me!) people

and “fire” it at them. But a real gun, absolutely and unconditionally, no!

Likewise I would say the same to an adult, over whom I have authority, who cannot demonstrate that he has an indisputable need for such a horrendous weapon.

I have yet to find anyone who can explain to me why such a prohibition is not extended to the equally horrendous and lethal motor vehicle that is to be found by the millions on our public highways and city streets. Nobody that I know of has any need for a vehicle that is capable of exceeding the national speed limit of 120km/h, except for racing drivers, who are restricted to driving them on race tracks.

And, equally incomprehensible to me, is the unnecessarily high legal speed limit of 60km/h that applies not only to urban arterial roads, but also even to narrow

lanes and crowded high streets.

Why is there no explicit differentiation? The musician Jub Jub was possibly within this legal speed limit when he is alleged to have mowed down those schoolchildren. So he may, one could suppose, yet try to claim it in mitigation, which most definitely should not be allowed.

The only way that the carnage on our roads can be absolutely eliminated, and very simply and cheaply at that, is to prohibit the manufacture, import and licensing of motor vehicles that are capable of speeds in excess of 120km/h.

And vehicles that cannot exceed 60km/h should carry a substantial tax benefit and/or minimal annual licence fee.

A fast car, that is to say, one that can exceed the national speed limit, is exactly like an AK47.

Chris Shelmerdine, Cape Town

A bitter pill

Blessed broadcast

T

F

Islam are attributed to all Christians” (December 6).

What is the attitude of Muslims to non-Muslims? Here are some statements from the Q’ran: “The unbelievers are your sworn enemies...seek out your enemies relentlessly.”

In its early days there was a co-existence between Jews, Muslims and Christians in Arabia.

However, Mohammed killed the Jews in Medina who did not accept him and the “sabre” was prescribed for Christians (Sura 9:29).

Muslims do not accept Christians who say: “God is the Messiah”, “Mary’s son” etc. The Trinity is also rejected. Those who assert these things will go to hell and must be punished now. As Kerberg and Weldon state: “If the New Testament was not corrupted...how could Allah be the inspiration behind both the Bible and the Q’ran, which contradicts it?”—Facts on Islam Also, while Christians fall over backwards to allow the building of mosques there is certainly no reciprocity in the Islamic world to accept Christianity. The legalism of Islam is as deserving of condemnation as that of the scribes in Jesus’ time.

Women are also treated as inferiors, although Islam believes it has delivered women from the condition of inferiority. But consider the teaching of the Q’ran on polygamy (Sura 4:3) and the repudiation of the wife at the sole whim of her husband (Sura 2:226,232).

Peter Onesta, Johannesburg

Y

HE contention that “conscience is the ultimate moral guide” does not justify usage of the pill.

In his book Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?, American former Protestant pastor Randy Alcorn makes and substantiates the following statements: 1. It is a medical fact that the pill makes the womb hostile to the implantation therein of the many conceptions that occur during its use, thereby causing early abortions.

2. Most secular physicians do not feel guilty about having prescribed the pill and can thus view objectively the medical evidence which proves its abortifacient potential, which they accordingly accept.

3. Many Christian physicians however do feel guilty about having prescribed this drug and can thus not view the aforesaid medical evidence objectively, which they accordingly reject.

The above information: 1. is further substantiated by the pill’s manufacturers actually informing women that it can also abort as a back-up mechanism, to assure them that their product is fail-safe efficient.

2. poses the question about how many Catholic physicians still prescribe the pill which, although unintentionally, is the most widely used form of chemical abortion. See website www.humanlife.org/abortion_does_t he_pill.php for a summary of the above mentioned book.

Damien McLeish, Johannesburg

IRSTLY, a big thank you to the SACBC for bringing us the Midnight Mass with the holy father as I was not able to make our service this year.

What really stood out to me (besides a few facts I never knew) was the presenter translating the Mass, using the English translation that we stopped using a few years ago.

Hats off to our dear pastor, who made us first understand the Latin and then the new English translation. As the pope was saying the Mass and the presenter translating the response, I immediately picked up that he was using the old English translation which did not correspond with the response of the laity which did not make sense.

I really found a new love for the new English translation because by using it we are definitely closer and more united as a church.

André Gildenhuys, Cape Town

No reciprocity

Y

OUR editorial (December 8) states “A cycle of intolerance is perpetuated when imprudent characterisations of 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.

HOLY SITES TRAVEL HOLY LAND PILGRIMAGE with Fr Joseph Wilson SEPTEMBER 2011 Organised by Kevin & Debbie Contact: Elna Ferreira on 082 975 0034, E-Mail: elna@holysites.co.za, Website: www.holysites.co.za

PERSPECTIVES

We must save provinces

I

READ with interest your front page story “Rethink on provinces” of The Southern Cross of November 7-23. I had also read the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) briefing paper on this subject, authored by CPLO researcher Dadisai Taderera.

Ms Taderera argues that the current provincial structure of the country was “due to a compromise aimed at placating competing political interests during the transition period in the 1990s”. The implication here is that this is a bad thing. In truth this is a good thing.

Firstly, this is democracy in action: where different parties argue their “corner” with the aim of meeting their objectives as much as possible, yet simultaneously compromising where possible and necessary.

Secondly, had compromises on these and many other issues not been reached it would’ve meant some stalemate or even civil war as an alternative.

Ms Taderera claims that there is “broad consensus on the need to review the provincial system”, but on what basis is she saying this? I, for one, do not feel that the system needs to be reviewed, but strengthened.

She states that the primary issue is “power dynamics” and the “need for a more sustainable system of governance and service delivery” and the need for “an efficient and effective governance structure that can deliver goods and services to uplift the poor and to narrow inequalities”.

Although we can all agree on the unacceptable level of service delivery and the need to provide the required delivery to everyone, I fail to see how reducing the number of provinces, for example, would solve these problems.

Ms Taderera made no reference to the constant and unabated corruption that is

taking place at all tiers of government. This continued and escalating corruption regresses and destroys any attempt of service delivery. She mentions nothing about the complete obsession with the ruling party to control every nook and cranny of every lever of power.

It is clear that the African National Congress has one objective in mind: to centralise power and prevent a viable challenge to the ANC at provincial level. It appears that the ANC has made up its mind about the future of the provinces.

The only question is whether it wants to reduce their number, change their powers, or abolish them altogether.

At the Democracy and Development conference that Ms Taderera attended, an academic explained how provinces had been undermined in his home country of Ghana. Soon after its 1957 independence, Ghana’s provinces were turned into “regions”, and their previous provincial powers increasingly and gradually were concentrated in the central state. When the ruling party sensed a challenge emerging in any region, regional boundaries were changed to pre-empt the challenge.

Simultaneously, more and more “regions” were established in order to create more paid positions for political associates and to “buy-off” potential challengers.

Almost all examples of failed transitions to democracy indicate that the root cause of the problem is political patronage— what the ANC calls “cadre deployment”.

It is true that some provinces and many local governments have not functioned optimally. The question to ask is: why not?

We need to diagnose the problem correctly if we want to find the right solution. But is the ANC interested in finding a solution? I doubt it. The dismal functioning of some provinces is a useful pretext for it to centralise its own control.

A new political way for SA?

W

HAT do people mean when they say they are Christian Democrats, or that they want to create a Christian Democratic party? Is that a party that espouses a political philosophy of Christian democracy? And where does the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) feature in this?

What would political programmes infused with Christian doctrinal values look like in a South African situation?

Would they uphold democratic structures and respect the separation of state and church? Has the ACDP failed to achieve this? If so why? Is it because they attempt to impose rather than infuse Christian values on our political economy? How can any Christian party succeed?

Political scientists tell us that modern politics are ideologically flexible, because they seek to attract a diverse group of voters. Radical ideas, religious or secular, matter less compared to how to fix concrete problems. They say institutional structures are what matters, not political ideas or programmes.

But are not ideas and doctrinal development the bedrock of what we desperately need in the country? Do we not desperately need a mindset evolution, as opposed to a revolution? After all, ideas are indispensable to the process of thought evolution and social progress, and so I cannot completely agree with the fundis.

The movement of Christian Democracy, in occidental countries, was nourished by the intellectual fodder of the likes of Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), the French philosopher who converted to Catholicism and neo-Thomism in particular.

Maritain developed what eventually became known as the philosophy of Personalism based on the idea that reason and

faith need not be in conflict.

Maritain was among the founders of what today is known as neo-Thomism, which played a major role in the Church’s attempt to offer a distinctly Catholic solution to the social question, building on Pope Leo XII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum. The philosophy’s bedrock, Personalism, holds that the person flourishes only within community and when open to God. This derives from Thomist natural law. Personalism believes families and associations in civil society—not the state— should alleviate social problems so that all members of society could attain their proper ends.

Unlike the individualism of liberalism, Personalism sees the person as always embedded in the community, or, as La Pira put it: “The human personal unfolds through organic belonging to the successive social communities in which it is contained and via which it steadily develops and perfects itself.”

For an African and Universalist this view is very attractive.

Maritain worked out a philosophical rapprochement between Catholicism and modern conceptions of human rights and democracy that culminated in 1938 in a published book called Integral Humanism.

The book, with its clear endorsement of pluralism in the temporal sphere, became an early touchstone in Christian Democratic political theory.

Maritain sought communitarian alternatives to liberal parliamentarianism. In 1942 he authored “Christianity and Democracy”, a pamphlet dropped by Allied planes over France. In it he affirms that “democracy is linked to Christianity and that the democratic impulse has arisen in human history as a temporal manifestation of the inspira-

Manny de Freitas

the Southern Cross, January 12 to January 18, 2011

Fr Victor Phalana

Point of Debate Ms Taderera criticises the Democratic Alliance for having a “vested interest in maintaining the status quo as they control the Western Cape, and abolishing the province would disturb their stronghold”.

Interestingly, Ms Taderera says nothing of the fact that the Western Cape is functioning well. Unbiased proof of this is the fact that the Western Cape obtained 100% unqualified audit reports for all provincial departments and entities. This is the first province to have ever done this—and within a year of its election as a DA provincial administration. No ANC-governed province has ever achieved a full slate of unqualified audit reports.

The current administration of the Western Cape is a clear example of how a province can actually work.

In the debate over the future of our provinces, it is crucial that citizens, commentators and researchers alike do not simply swallow the ANC’s reasoning. The most rudimentary research will demonstrate that the reasons currently being advanced are spurious. This is about power and control.

It is unfortunate that so many people do not see the impact that scrapping or reducing the provinces will have on our democracy. There is nothing the ANC won’t do when there is a possible threat that it may lose power at the ballot box.

And if the ANC is willing to get rid of the provinces to prevent another party from governing at provincial level, one wonders what it will do to retain power at national level? n Manny de Freitas is a member of parliament for the Democratic Alliance and shadow deputy minister of transport. He is a parishioner of Malvern, Johannesburg.

Mphuthumi Ntabeni Pushing Boundaries tion of the Gospel”.

This influenced many Catholic thinkers later on, including the current pope. In 1951’s Man and the State, Maritain declares: “Democracy is the only way of bringing about a moral rationalisation of politics.”

The essence of Christian Democracy is what Maritain wrote to the founder of Democrazia Cristiana in Italy, De Gasperi, that “Christianity should be the ‘yeast’ of political life, making the liberation from pagan fascism the first step to a new political culture based on moral and, to some degree, religious argument”.

After the war, Christian Democratic parties across Western Europe—with Germany, Austria, and Italy in the lead— turned themselves into mass political movements, following the model of the Social Democrats. They incorporated existing Catholic associations such as trade unions, peasants, civil society, and farmers’ groups in broadening their electoral appeal into what political scientists came to describe as “catch-all parties” or “people’s parties”.

In my humble opinion, South Africa is ripe for a Personalist, labour-based “substantial democracy” that attracts all religious believers’ solidarity (Traditional, Judaeo-Christian, Islam, and so on).

To me this is how the party of our future politics will look, and speak in a strong personalist language of the Maritain Personalism: “It is the republic’s duty to remove obstacles of an economic or social order physically constricting the freedom and equality of citizens and thus impeding the full development of the human person.”

7

Point of Reflection

What do you want to achieve in 2011?

I

STILL believe in New Year resolutions. What do you really want to do this year? Not other people’s expectations or wishes. What are your goals?

Goals keep you focused. A speaker once said to us: “Goals are dreams with deadlines!”

Before making a resolution—and even now, halfway through the year’s first month, it is not too late to do so—ask yourself these questions: Is this what you aspire to something that you really want? Is it important for you? Does it matter to you? Is it sustainable? What is going to help you accomplish it? What resources do you need? What is the first thing you need to do to start towards this goal? Is it a long-term or a short-term goal?

I suggest that you write down your resolution, write down specifics—vividly envisioning goals, describing fully what you want, how to get it andwhen you know you have it, and the benefits you will receive by achieving it. Then please get behind it.

Have confidence in it. Keep the commitment and motivation going. You keep your motivation going by reading them everyday, put them in a place where you can see them and read them.

Have a plan, take daily action, measure your success. Talk about your goals to a friend, a family member, a spiritual director or a colleague. Be accountable and get yourself a support system.

Most of us prefer to keep our resolutions private so that when we fail, no one can laugh at us. Confiding to someone you trust will make you somehow accountable.

Once you have identified your goals for the year and have made some resolutions: 1. It is important that you stop thinking and start doing. Give it a try. Remember that the longest journey starts with a first step.

2. Procrastination leads to cancellations. Do not delay a task or you’ll fail to finish it altogether.

3. You are the only one responsible for your success. You will have no one to blame.

4. Take baby steps; you can’t move from couch potato to become an instant marathon runner.

5. Achieve goals while having fun. This is not a punishment.

6. If you slip up, start over again and learn from your mistakes.

7. Create a good habit. Consistency counts.

Practise your resolution until it becomes part of you.

Once your goal is clear, emotionally commit yourself to achieve it. Whether you want to lose weight, to have a regular prayer schedule, to have a spiritual director, to live healthily, to quit smoking, to enrol for a degree, to join the Green Movement, to enter the marathon—whatever you aim for, make sure that the goal is precise, realistic and measurable. Vague goals will be abandoned. A realistic goal can be measured. Learn to reward yourself after every success.

Keep on keeping on. Setbacks are not signs of failure but an opportunity to review strategies and start again.

Remind yourself of the words of the psalmist: If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labour. So surrender your plans to the Holy Spirit. Invite the Lord into all your plans and resolutions. Be focused and determined, just like St Paul who in his letter to the Philippians says: “I keep on striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself….So I run straight towards the goal in order to win the prize, which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above” (Phil 3:12-14). n Fr Victor Phalana ministers in the archdiocese of Pretoria.

FOR THE RECORD: In last week’s edition the name of Fr David Holdcroft was incorrectly rendered in his byline. We apologise for the error.

Tony Wyllie & Co.

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Visit Constantinople (Istanbul) en route.

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A list of current pilgrimages can be viewed by clicking on the Valley View Travel icon at www.catholic-friends.com

8

COMMUNITY

the Southern Cross, January 12 to January 18, 2011

Nine young members of St Benedict’s parish in eshowe, were confirmed by Bishop xolelo Kumalo.

Fr David Mthiyane officiated over the First Holy Communion of 19 youths of St Benedict’s parish in eshowe.

IN FOCU S Edited by Nadine Christians

Catholics from east London display their sewing and knitting skills. the clothes and teddies were donated to those less fortunate.

Father Christmas paid a visit to the children of San Francesco parish in Springfield, Port elizabeth.

With them is parish priest Fr Dominic Griego.

(Submitted by Hilda thomas)

Send photographs, with sender’s name and address on the back, and a SASE to: The Southern Cross, Community Pics, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000 or email them to: pics@scross.co.za

Over 200 orphans were treated to a Christmas party at the immaculate Heart of Mary parish hall in Stilfontein, Klerksdorp. (Submitted by Bernadette de Sousa)

St Monica’s Prayer Group of St theresa parish in Welcome estate, Cape town, hosted a carols by candlelight at the parish.

Pictured with Father Christmas are parishioners from the parish.

KRUGER PARK VIVA SAFARIS (Member of SATSA)

SCHEDULED DAILY SAFARIS TO KRUGER PARK Fly-in and overland tours. See www.vivasafaris.com

Viva Safaris is engaged with 4 projects aimed at the upliftment of the Acornhoek community, including the COMBONI MISSIONARIES’ OUTSTATION

www.volunteersafaris.co.za Reservations:

Father Xico with partially completed church building

082 450 9930 Trevor 082 444 7654 Piero 082 506 9641 Anthony

Cornelius September of Corpus Christi Catholic church in Wittebome, Cape town, celebrated his 100th birthday.

Members of the Legion of Mary in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, at a social during the festive season.

FOCUS

the Southern Cross, January 12 to January 18, 2011

9

Abuse scandal: More answers Many Catholics will have been challenged with questions about the abuse scandal in the Church. In the second of his two-part series, PAtRiCK NOONAN OFM provides a reference guide to tough questions.

Why did it take so long for victims to be heard?

I

t is now emerging that the medical profession, the police, teachers, parents, Church authorities and even social workers were unable to hear the cry of victims.

This legacy of denial, ignorance or incomprehension persisted until the late 1980s.

In reality there was a culture in families, in the Church, in the professions and in society in general of dealing with internal problems internally.

How much do we South Africans want to hear from the survivors of apartheid torture (which included sexual abuse)? Only 5% of the white population could cope with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings when they appeared on weekly TV. Like survivors of the holocaust, of slavery (then and now), oppressed peoples, victims of wars, and present day indigenous peoples such as Australia’s Aborigines…survivors of abuse, including clerical abuse, are at last being listened to.

At last their voices have been released. They have been noticed.

They had been pushed into the shadows by a Church (and society) bent on protecting its own.

“For 50 years I thought I was the only person in the entire world who had been [sexually] abused by a Catholic priest. It has taken 50 years for me to find my voice. But now I’ve found it, I want to continue to speak on behalf of people who maybe aren’t able to speak or have not yet been able to face the fear and the guilt and shame that survivors feel,” says a survivor.

Probably many abuse survivors are re-traumatised with each new clerical scandal reported.

The needs and attitudes of victims vary. Some seek compensation. Some don’t. Some forgive.

Some cannot forgive, at least for some time. One survivor said the Church should offer all victims compensation until they feel compensated. In this way the Church will be at the mercy of the victim and know what being vulnerable is all about.

Victims now see the potential for all clergy to be abusers and will henceforth be somewhat suspicious of clergy. Hence the dark shadow over priests and they know it. It is part of their present anguish.

Significantly, more and more priests and seminarians are now speaking up about their own abuse in the past at the hands of relatives or priests in seminaries. They too, as victims in their ministry, often suffer the depression, abandonment and shame of their experiences.

“The grim truth is that victims are experts in a way nobody else is expert and developing an effective safeguarding structure within the Church can be greatly enhanced by listening to and drawing upon the wisdom of those who have been harmed,” according to the Irish National Board for the Safeguarding Children)

Who are the victims?

S

ome believe the real victims are threefold: those who were abused; the 98% good priests and nuns; and ordinary, decent Catholics in the pews.

What is a paedophile?

A

paedophile is sexually attracted only to prepubescent children. (child molesters are opportunists

who will satisfy their needs with anyone). He is usually married, more educated, cunning, a churchgoer, involved in community activities such a sports clubs and scout groups, and likes to be near kids.

The character profile of a paedophile: he has a pathological narcissistic personality, has sex activity with prepubescent kids, lacks self esteem, has an abnormal attraction to weaker creatures.

Paedophilia is a mental disorder which can be due to brain damage or stunted neurological development. Therefore the problem cannot be solved by punishment alone.

A clinical psychologist put it like this: “Paedophiles are not evil, they are caught in this terrible bind...we have no idea what creates a paedophile. This is a complex area full of unknowns, and work to understand it is still in its infancy.”

Some even claim it is a sickness, just like alcoholism.

Clerical paedophiles normally perform their religious duties with care. A dominant feature is immaturity. They like to please authorities and receive rewards for work done; like a child who wants to please his parent. The Church and other organisations provide the power, status, trust and contacts they need. They are very secretive and probably give well tested “clerical” type reasons or explanations— “I have Mass or confessions”—to disguise their activities.

According to the “Dossier on Child Sex Abuse” (Yellow Book, SACBC, 1994), more than 90% of child molesters in the clergy are involved with teenagers. That is called ephebophilia, and they are not paedophiles.

Sex Offenders often do not see the problem, they resist therapy, and are not aware of the seriousness of their acts. Others, however, realising the seriousness of their painful situation have committed suicide.

Is there a crisis in the Church?

Y

es, there is a crisis in the Church. A serious crisis. And yes, we should be alarmed.

It is not the first time the Church has been in trouble. It has always been the human experience of the Church. The battle between good and evil is the nature of things. It has happened before.

At the time of St Francis, the illiterate clergy could hardly celebrate Mass and many lived with wives, concubines and worse. And then there was the Reformation, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Avignon popes, the Great Schism…

The Church is going through a crisis of purification.

An Anglican historian said: “The continual purgation and re-purification of the Church after periods of laxity, even corruption of early ideals, is characteristic of the church as a whole. Despite the current fury of her critics worldwide, we can see it at work in the Church today, painfully renewing itself after the institutional secrecy and cover-up of sexual scandals in some countries.”

Why are some Catholics angry?

T

here are Catholics who say: “The fact that priests have abused children under the cloak of ministry does not change my attitude towards the Church. Parents and uncles too have abused us but that does not mean that all parents and uncles are abusers and therefore should be ostracised. I do, however, expect the Church to have child protection procedures in place.”

Other Catholics have left the Church in anger.

We respect the decisions to leave of those who have been so badly hurt in the broken body of Christ.

It is important to be aware that the spiritual damage, apart from other

centred ecclesiology to a Christcentred and Spirit-led ecclesiology.

The Church needs better screening of its candidates, clerics and lay workers. And also screening during life following ordination or profession.

Priests must renew themselves and deepen their commitment to celibacy. They must take ownership with respect to dealing with the scandalous behaviour of their fellow priests. They must allow bishops to lead and be supported when they do lead.

God must be allowed to purify and purge his Church. He has done it in history and is doing it today.

Pope Benedict talks with Catholic youths outside Westminster cathedral in London in September, after he reiterated his “deep sorrow” to the victims of clerical sexual abuse, saying these crimes have caused immense suffering and feelings of “shame and humiliation” throughout the Church. (Photo: Alessia Giuliani, Catholic Press Photo/CNS) harms, done to a child by a priest or religious abuser is a powerful sign of a diabolic power.

Most Catholics, however, know their faith resides in Our Lord, not in our lordships, the bishops.

Why are priests angry ?

P

riests are experiencing deep feelings of shame, anger, humiliation, betrayal, alienation, isolation, numbness, shock, sadness, guilt and even a questioning of their vocations. They feel tainted by association with the abusers. They feel outraged by the abusers, like family members who discover a close friend or relative has been abusing their child.

It would be shocking to discover that a priest or religious could be in a house with a sex offender or paedophile and never know it. This has happened.

Priests in many countries feel let down by their bishops in their hour of need. Many have been pilloried by congregations and received no emotional support from their bishops. Some feel abandoned when false accusations have been made against them.

Why are some bishops angry with priests?

A

t last year’s Chrism Mass, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg preached: “We must...take responsibility for the hurt, the scandals, the pain and the suffering caused by ourselves who claim to be models of good behaviour. The image of the Catholic Church is virtually in ruins because of the bad behaviour of its priests, wolves wearing sheep’s skin, preying on unsuspecting victims, inflicting irreparable harm, and continuing to do so with impunity.

“The Church is crucified through her sons, her priests…

Christ spoke to St Francis from the wood of the cross: ‘Francis, go rebuild my house, which as you see is all being destroyed.’

“Of course there are bad priests, and mad priests, and sad priests.

Because of their privileged position, they can do untold damage. But

there are so many good priests, and sane priests, and contented priests.

They don’t get much airtime,” the archbishop said.

Is the Vatican confused?

T

he Vatican has an image problem. It also has some muddled cardinals surrounding the pope, and his predecessors. Initially, the Vatican seemed to blame the victims.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, as prefect of the Congregation of Clergy, once congratulated a bishop for breaking the law to shield an abuser priest in France from criminal proceedings—and he even claimed that Pope John Paul II approved his congratulatory letter. This caused huge confusion and embarrassment to the Vatican and the Church.

On the other hand, Pope Benedict has met victims of abuse in various counties and has sincerely apologised to them. In Malta last year, he reportedly even shed tears with them!

How should the Church respond to the crisis?

T

he Church must work at healing abuse victims: Treatment, healing of memories, therapy, story telling, religion, compassion for victims and perpetrators alike, services of repentance, healing and reconciliation Church leadership should be trained in listening skills so as to understand their role as listeners.

We must recognise the problem.

Less informed clergy and religious still defensively blame the problem on an anti-Catholic agenda.

The Church should seriously organise and promote workshops for all the hierarchy, Church workers and employees on the protocols and booklets on child abuse so far published by the bishops. There is evidence that the information is not getting through to parishioners or is not found on parish noticeboards.

The Church should enter a period of pastoral soul searching and theological reflection. It needs to move away from a hierarchically-

Is the Church handling the problem now?

I

n many countries now the Church has comprehensive protocols in place to protect children. It has given a lead to all other professions to investigate their own ranks, either internally or independently.

Abuse in society

I

n discussing the victims of clerical sex abuse let us spare a thought for the overwhelming majority of victims of sexual abuse within families the world over.

Perhaps German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a point when she said that she would only consider an investigation into child abuse if it was directed against all society. In the US alone there are nearly 40 million victims of childhood sexual abuse.

It is a crime happening in our neighbourhood as we read this.

Presently in our world the most dangerous place for a child is in their own home and the most dangerous people are not intruders or strangers, but family and friends.

Who is speaking up for these still silent victims?

Some statistics

I

n the US, in the last 50 years 4% of clergy have been accused or convicted of sex misbehaviour.

Worldwide 2-4% of the 400 000 Catholic clergy have been accused or convicted of sexual misbehaviour. The average sexual abuse among the other professions is 4%.

Less than 1% of the general population are paedophiles and child molesters.

98% of abusers of girls are men, and 78% of abusers of boys are men.

Those most at risk are children aged 8-12 75% of sexual abuse occurs within the household, mostly by fathers and stepfathers. Often the collusion of the family is devastating for the victim.

In South Africa a child is abused every eight minutes.

The South African National Council of Child Welfare handles 26 000 reported cases of sexual and physical abuse of children every month! n Fr Patrick Noonan is a Franciscan priest and author based in Sebokeng, Johannesburg archdiocese.

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the Southern Cross, January 12 to January 18, 2011

PILGRIMAGE

Flying fists at the place of Christ’s resurrection I

T seems insufferably foolish that some of the most spiteful manifestations of co-existence between Christians should have permanent residence in the place of Our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection.

On a window ledge facing the courtyard of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City—on Calvary—stands a ladder which has not been moved since about 1854. Nobody knows how it got there, or exactly when.

One day it was there, and has remained in the same place ever since.

To move the ladder would require the consensus of the three principal churches that run the huge church: the Greek Orthodox, Catholic and Armenian churches (the Syrian, Ethiopian and Coptic churches also have a presence in the church). But to reach a consensus might involve compromise, and that article is in very short supply in the holiest place in Christendom.

The bickering is an ancient tradition. None of the denominations has a key to the front door.

Since the 12th century, the key has been in the custody of a Muslim family, the Judeh, who in turn hand it every morning to a representative of the Nuseibeh family, which has been responsible for opening the door every morning and locking it every night for more than 800 years.

The first church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in the 4th century by Queen Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine. When we say she built the church we don’t mean that she put pencil to blueprint or mortar to brick, but that Helena appointed its site and financed its construction.

Helena is famous for landing in the Holy Land and discovering a succession of holy sites as though possessed of the luckiest streak in history. More likely, she was guided to these holy places by fellow Christians whose constant presence had ensured the survival of the collective memory, aided by markers such as churches and other early shrines.

One such place of veneration was on the hill where Christ was executed and buried, and from where he rose again. It is quite obvious that the Christians of Jerusalem would not suffer a bout

Günther Simmermacher the Pilgrim’s trek of collective amnesia about the location of the most incredible event ever, even three centuries after the fact. And even if they somehow did, the Romans helpfully signposted the place for Helena when Emperor Hadrian in around 130 built over it a pagan temple dedicated to Aphrodite, possibly to discourage Christian veneration there (another sound argument claims that the location was incidental).

Helena had the temple dismantled, and went on to find the reputed tomb of Jesus. She or people working on her behalf, also unearthed a few crosses (there is a pious tale to explain how that of Christ was identified) as well as the INRI inscription, which is now kept in the Santa Croce church in Rome’s Gerusalemme district, which was built as a repository for the queen’s sacred souvenirs.

H

elena’s church was sacked, like almost every Christian church in the region, in the Persian invasion of 614. The church was repaired in the 10th century by the Muslim rulers, but was razed in 1009 during a particularly nasty persecution of Christianity. Indeed, the final destruction of the first church of the Holy Sepulchre would contribute to the call, sounded a few decades later, for the Crusade to recapture the Holy Land.

In the interim, the rebuilding of the church had begun, but the Crusaders finally completed it in the state we know it now, give or take the occasional renovation, in 1149.

It didn’t stay in Christian hands for long. In 1187 Saladin expelled the Crusaders, and for the next couple of centuries control of the church oscillated wildly for centuries between Catholics and Orthodox (or neither).

The Franciscans had control of it for three centuries until 1662; thereafter supremacy of the church was subject to the whims and favour of the local Muslim rulers. By 1767 they had grown tired of the constant squabbling.

Like a strict parent who has no interest in the justice of the cases brought forward by bickering children, the sultan gave the churches control over their own defined areas.

The Orthodox were awarded the prime area of the rotunda (they had occupied it since a raid on Palm Sunday 1757), which includes the tomb as well as the spot where Jesus’ cross is believed to have stood.

To these, however, they must allow access to members of other denominations. So Catholics and other Christians may crouch beneath the gaudily decorated altar and reach through a hole to touch the rock on which the cross stood, and they may enter the tomb chamber as an Orthodox monk hurriedly ushers them in and out.

Next to the altar of the cross is the Catholics’ open chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows. It is 13th Station of the Cross, recalling the dead Jesus being taken from the cross.

Catholics may have Mass there, as our group did on the morning of our departure, but the liturgy may not include the singing of hymns, lest songs of praise distress our Christian neighbours.

The division of the church was confirmed in 1852 by a decree of the Ottoman Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid I (in response to international pressure), who pronounced with decisive finality: “The actual status quo will be maintained and the Jerusalem shrines, whether owned in common or exclusively by the Greek, Latin, and Armenian communities, will all remain forever in their present state.”

T

hat should have settled things, bringing about peaceful co-existence rooted in fraternal Christian love. But it hasn’t.

The tension finds regular expression in petty acts and frantic finger-wagging. And once in a while, the pot boils over and (to mix metaphors) the gloves come off.

In April and again in November 2008, brawls broke out between Armenian clergy and worshippers and their Orthodox counterparts. When the police arrived in the Holy Week incident, they were thrashed with palm fronds.

Both mêlées were caused when an Orthodox priest made himself present during an Armenian service at the edicule (the structure

A close-up of the ladder on a ledge facing the courtyard of the church of the Holy Sepulchre. it has stood there since 1854, and cannot be moved unless three churches agree on it. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

that houses the tomb of Jesus).

The Orthodox said their clergy must be present at these services, else the Armenians, presumably dissenting of the status quo, might claim ownership of the edicule.

In September 2004, there was a fracas between the Orthodox and Catholics because the latter had failed to close the door to their chapel, which the Orthodox perceived as the height of disrespect.

“There was lots of hitting going on. Police were hit, monks were hit...there were people with bloodied faces,” The Guardian quoted an eyewitness as saying.

And it’s not only the Orthodox who get into scrapes. In 2002 Copts and Ethiopians bombarded

each other with rocks over a territorial dispute on the level roof of the basilica, injuring 11.

The skirmish started because a Coptic monk, sizzling under the hot sun, moved his chair into the shade—and that fell on Ethiopian territory. How can such transgression possibly be left unpunished?

So we need not wonder why there can be no agreement to move a ladder. Indeed, the ladder is a visible sign of our Christian division. I hope it won’t be moved until we are one. n This is the 12th part of Günther Simmermacher’s series on The Southern Cross’ Passion Pilgrimage in September.

Who are the Norbertines?

To misquote William Shakespeare: “A rose by any other name smells just as sweet”

For further info, contact: Vocations Director, St Norbert’s Priory PO Box 48106, Kommetjie, 7976 (Cape Town) OR Tel 021 783 1768 Fax 021 783 3742

the Southern Cross, January 12 to January 18, 2011

Sr Rita-Maria Diel OP

T

HE Dominican Oakford Sisters mourn the death of Sr RitaMaria Diel, who died peacefully on December 20, at Villa Assumpta in Pietermaritzburg.

Sr Diel was born in Germany on September 4, 1939 and entered the Oakford Dominican congregation in 1961.

She made her first profession on October 12, 1963, after which she came to South Africa.

As a trained teacher she made her mark at St Boniface High School in Kimberley for many years. After that she served the displaced people at

Bendell/Kuruman.

She will also be remembered for her years spent at Soshanguve during the years of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Most recently, she worked for some years at the Carmelite Retreat Centre in Benoni.

Sr Diel was known for her critical and questioning mind—searching for the truth as a true Dominican.

She unassumingly served the people she was sent to serve.

When her health faded in the last year, she came to Villa Assumpta in June 2010.

CLASSIFIEDS Births • First Communion • Confirmation • engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • Ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • in memoriam • thanks • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday Accommodation • Personal • Services • employment • Property • Others Please include payment (R1,15c a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

BIRTHDAYS

Sr Rita-Maria Diel who has died in Pietermaritzburg

Community Calendar

Liturgical Calendar

To place your event, call Claire Allen at 021 465 5007 or e-mail c.allen@scross.co.za (publication subject to space)

Mon, Jan 17, St Anthony of Egypt, Is 5:1-10, Ps 110:1-4, Mk 2:18-22 Tues, Jan 18, feria Heb 6:10-20, Ps 111:1-2, 4-5, 9-10, Mk 2:23-28 Wed, Jan 19, feria Heb 7:1-3, 15-17, Ps 110:1-4, Mk 3:1-6 Thurs, Jan 20, St Fabian, St Sebastian, Bl Cyprian M Tansi Heb 7:25,8:6; Ps 40:7-10, 17, Mk 3:7-12 Fri, Jan 21, St Agnes, Heb 8:6-13, Ps 85:8,10-14, Mk 3:1319 Sat, Jan 22, St Vincent Heb 9:2-3, 11-14, Ps 47:2-3, 6-9, Mk 3:20-21 Sun, Jan 23, 3rd Sunday in Ordi- St Sebastian

BETHLEHEM: Shrine of Our Lady of Bethlehem at tsheseng, Maluti mountains; thursdays 09:30, Mass, then exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. 058 721 0532 CAPE TOWN: Holy Hour to pray for priests of the archdiocese, 2nd Saturday monthly at Villa Maria shrine Kloof Nek Rd, 16:00-17:00.

Good Shepherd, Bothasig. Perpetual eucharistic Adoration in our chapel. All hours. All welcome.

DURBAN: St Anthony’s, Durban Central: tuesday 9.00am Mass with novena to St Anthony. First Friday 5.30pm Mass—Divine Mercy novena prayers.

tel: 031 309 3496 JOHANNESBURG: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: first Friday of the month at 09:20 followed by Holy Mass at 10:30. Holy Hour: first Saturday of each month at 15:00. At Our Lady of the Angels, Little eden, edenvale. tel: 011 609 7246 First Saturday of each month rosary prayed 10:30-12:00 outside Marie Stopes abortion clinic, Peter Place, Bryanston. Joan Beyrooti, 011 782 4331

nary Time Is 8:23, 9:3, Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14, 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17, Mt 4:12-23 or 4:12-17

PRETORIA: First Saturday: Devotion to Divine Mercy. St Martin de Porres, Sunnyside, 16:30. tel Shirley-Anne 012 361 4545.

Family Reflections 2011 FAMILY THEME: “PEACE ON EARTH BEGINS AT HOME”

To advertise in this space (6 x 7,3cm @ R211,80) contact Elizabeth Hutton 021 465 5007

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO #427. ACROSS: 2 Affidavit, 6 Caps, 8 Authorities, 10 Madeira, 11 Storm, 13 Thane, 14 Galleon, 16 Communicant, 18 Sale, 19 Antidotes. DOWN: 1 Schismatic, 2 Assumed name, 3 Fishers, 4 Doors, 5 True, 7 Stateliness, 9 Simon Peter, 12 Nascent, 15 Undid, 17 Orca

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 Church-asFamily let us ask how life-giving we are in all our relationships? Peace, like charity, begins at home.

January 16 2nd Sunday of the Year A. The Lamb of God. Life and love begin in the family through family relationships, from the time of conception until natural death. In a sense we are all servants to one another as the first reading (Is 49:3, 5-6) tells us. Do we serve one another with a smile or a long face?

UPHOLSTERER

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More than 50 years of experience guarantees you satisfaction.

LANGLEY—Basil. Happy birthday to you, January 16. May Our Lord and His mother be with you today and always. Love you: tina, taryn and Bronwyn.

DEATH THOMPSON—trevor Noel. Dearly beloved husband for almost 60 years of Patricia and loving father of Margaret, Anne and Claire, Grandfather Da of Colleen, Lania.

Claire-Anne, Alexander, Luke, Kevin, Dianne, trevor, Colin, Nicholas, Lara, Andrew, and Claudia and great-grandfather Da-Da of Jason, elizabeth, Rebecca, thomas, Rosemarie, Amy, Scarlett, Jennifer, Caitlyn and Cameron, passed away suddenly and peacefully on November 29, 2010.

Deeply mourned and sadly missed by the Schutz, Pringle and Van Ark families. May his dear soul rest in peace.

IN MEMORIAM HARKER—Reynold died 4/01/2009. RiP. those we love don’t go away; they walk beside us everyday.

Prayerfully remembered by your ever-loving Mom, sister Sharlene. Dominic, Liza, Lauren, Megan (Australia), Aunt Suzanne, relatives and friends.

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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. PH 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. SF 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. e SANTA CLARA, you followed Jesus in his life of poverty and prayer. Grant that confidently giving ourselves up to the providence of our celestial Father, we may serenely accept his divine wish.

Say this prayer followed by nine Hail Mary’s for nine days. On the ninth day light a candle. CM

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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.

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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.

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PRAYERS

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

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. thank you for prayers answered.

Stephen.

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

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Published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd, Cape town Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, staff or directors of The Southern Cross.

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3rd Sunday of the year (January 23) Readings: Isaiah 8:23-9:3, Psalm 27:1-4, 1314, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17, Matthew 4:12-23

‘G

ALILEE—where’s that?”, might be the cry on the lips of many people in the ancient world. And yet for Christians it is the obscure district in the north of Israel from which Jesus emerged.

In the first reading for next Sunday, it is “Galilee of the Gentiles”, the place being ravaged by the alarming armies of the Assyrians, in the last third of the 8th century BC. To them the prophet Isaiah sings a song of hope that: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, on them a light has shone.” That is how God works, no matter how difficult things may seem to be.

And if lights shine in dark places, then it is God who has to do it, as the psalm recognises: “The Lord is my light, and my salvation”.

Wherever Galilee may be for us, what we are longing for is to go home: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I long for, that I may live in the Lord’s house, all the days of my life, to contemplate the Lord’s beauty.” That is a dream for those who are in the darkness of Galilee; and, this week, it is our Galilee.

Paul might have muttered something like that as he continues the difficult task of his

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The start of Jesus’ mission Nicholas King SJ Sunday Reflections letter to the Corinthians. When he first encountered the Risen Jesus, life must have seemed simply wonderful, and wonderfully simple, to him; but he has to go into his Galilee also, given his mission to “the Gentiles”.

This is what those Corinthians very largely were, of course. In next Sunday’s second reading, having flattered them suitably, he then goes for the jugular: “I’m begging you, through the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ— [note the very solemn form of address], all to think the same thoughts, and that there should be no divisions among you.” For his spy (a lady called Chloe, so you can imagine the Corinthians making a mental note to “get her”), has revealed what Paul thought was impossible, “that there is quarrelling among you”.

Apparently those wretched Corinthians

have been marching up and down with placards saying “Viva Paul, viva!”, “Viva Apollos, viva!”, “Viva Kephas, viva!”; and Paul brings them back to reality and a reminder of where they should be, “Viva Christ, viva!”. He is practically bellowing as he writes, with bitter sarcasm: “Is Christ divided? Was it Paul that was crucified for you? Was it in Paul’s name that you were baptised?” Corinth was Paul’s Galilee.

In the gospel for next Sunday, Matthew at last gets round to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. And where is it? “Having heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested, he went up to the Galilee”, and moves from Nazareth to Capernaum, which was to become his headquarters until the move to Jerusalem.

And to make the point, Matthew quotes our first reading: it may be dark in Galilee, but “the people that walked in the darkness have seen a great light, and to those who sit in the place and shadow of death, a light has dawned on them”. Then, in some astonishment, we hear the account of the opening of Jesus’ mission.

It starts with his message, which Matthew reduces to “Repent! [or: “Turn it around”] for the Kingdom of the Heavens has drawn

Cut the bong, ping, and bleep HAVE been wondering lately whether heaven takes into account the enormous additional stresses human beings have to endure as a result of modern technology. Can we, for example, expect some sort of dispensation for having to work with computers and be allowed into heaven in spite of contemplating homicide when our Internet connections give nasty little electronic burps and die?

Well, just in case we are expected to behave in a Christian manner in spite of the challenges of technology, I have decided to fight back.

I’m going to leave my computer until last, mainly because I have no idea right now how to win any sort of fight against a PC, especially one on which I am completely reliant to earn a living.

For the moment, I feel that despite the despicable way it treats me, any sort of retribution on my part would be tantamount to shooting myself in the head to get rid of a migraine.

So, I’ll start more modestly by waging war against all those ubiquitous little electronic eyes that watch me incessantly; those that stare me down, and every now and then give vent to shrill screams to get my attention and spur me into action.

Let’s face it, we’ve got to fight back or be damned—damned to an eternity of control over our lives by gadgets and

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Chris Moerdyk the Last Word gimmicks and to hades for losing our tempers and becoming thoroughly nasty human beings.

Ever wondered why you keep waking up at all hours of the night? It’s probably because your bedroom is a virtual fairyland of lights: your cellphone winking acknowledgment that it is indeed connected to a network; your burglar alarm console blinking assurance that all its little infrared devices are also blinking away in every room in the house; your alarm clock assaulting your eyes with those brightly lit colons that tell you that your life is ebbing away second by second; and your neighbour’s two million candlepower automatic security lights flashing into life every time the next door cat walks past to check out the dustbin.

Small wonder you wake up in the morning feeling exactly like something that pesky cat found in the dustbin.

Then the little beeps and buzzers get to you. They tell you your electric shaver needs recharging, that your scrambled egg is microwaved, that the kettle has boiled and that your cell-

phone has a dozen or so messages already.

You escape to your car to find you've been followed, even to this previously private refuge. An array of lights that would do justice to a 747 dashboard flash on to tell you that everything from the alternator to the fuel pump is doing what it is supposed to do.

A strident bong complains that you haven’t fastened your seatbelt, another bong tells you your boot isn’t closed properly and yet another bong whacks you on the ear drum to warn you that in two weeks time you’re going to have a minor oil service.

I had a car once that kept bonging away to tell me to be careful of black ice on the road. Which would have been awfully thoughtful of it had it not been mid-summer in Johannesburg.

Assuming you actually get to work without having been hooted off the road by a phalanx of combi taxis, for the next eight hours office equipment is going to bong, ping, clang and bleep you into a state of electronic stupor.

And now it’s time to fight back.

It’s all quite simple really. All you need is a little screwdriver and a pair of wire cutters to surgically remove all the little lights and chop the vocal chords of all the buzzers and bleepers.

It will be hell for a while, all that darkness and silence. But you can get used to it by reminding yourself that all those lights and noises were put there in the first place because of the gadget manufacturers’ belief that consumers are stupid.

The neighbour’s security light could pose a slightly more daunting challenge, particularly if you are an animal lover and don’t want to shoot his cat. Perhaps the best alternative would be to buy a pellet gun and keep shooting his lights out until he gets the message.

Seriously though, something else I have been very aware of lately is the solace religion can bring to lives that are increasingly tested by the advance of technology and the pressures of modern living. And the thought that it must be really tough being agnostic these days.

near”. (In Galilee?). More astonishing yet, Jesus sets out along the lakeside, and sees two brothers, whose names we are given, and as they pursue their profession of fishing “throwing a trawling-net into the sea”, he summons them, with a bit of a joke: “And I’ll make you fish for human beings.”

Still more astonishing, they “immediately abandoned their nets and followed after him”, instead of calling for the police. And it happens again! “He saw two more brothers”, who are carefully, if somewhat clumsily, identified “James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with their father Zebedee—and he called them!”

We know this story only too well, but if we are paying any attention at all, then we are breathless with astonishment, as it happens again: “They immediately abandoned the boat, and their father, and they followed after him.”

We hardly have time to recover from all this when we find out what the mission includes “And he went round the whole of Galilee [that name again], teaching...and proclaiming...and healing every sickness and every illness in the people.” Where is your Galilee this week?

Southern Crossword #427

ACROSS 2. Written statement confirmed by oath (9) 6. Cardinals receive red ones (4) 8. They may be in charge (11) 10. Island providing wine and cake (7) 11. Jesus calmed one on the lake (5) 13. Neath the Scottish land baron (5) 14. All gone on the ship (7) 16. He may receive the Eucharist (11) 18. Selling at church bazaar (4) 19. Does taint the neutralisers (9)

DOWN 1. He splits the Church (10) 2. Nom de plume (7,4) 3. They may make a catch, like St Peter (7) 4. These were closed when Jesus came in (Jn 20) (5) 5. Faithful (4) 7. Sense it last and find dignity (11) 9. Mine poster features a great apostle (5,5) 12. Coming into being (7) 15. Unfastened (5) 17. Find whale within for captain (4) Answers on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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HE parish priest met Charlie on the streets: “Charlie my son, look at you…drunk again. You come to church every Sunday, you hear my sermons, you nod your head in approval, you even applaud at times; now why can’t you change! Can’t you see what alcohol is doing to you? It’s your worst enemy!”

Charlie gazed lovingly into Father’s eyes: “But Father, I listen to your sermons, I really do…you preach so often... ‘love your enemies’, and Father I love them! ” Send us your favourite Catholic joke, preferably clean and brief, to the Southern Cross, Church Chuckle, PO Box 2372, Cape town, 8000.