www.scross.co.za
March 2 to March 8, 2011
Getting ready for Lent Pages 4,6,7,9,12
SA sacred art winner bound for the Vatican
Page 2
R5,50 (incl VAT RSA) Reg No. 1920/002058/06
No 4716
Why God made you unique Page 7
Bishops: Drop Zim election plans STAFF REPORTER
T
HE Catholic bishops from the whole southern African region have called for the cancellation of plans to hold an election in Zimbabwe this year. In a letter addressed to Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, as current president of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the bishops wrote that “holding elections at this stage would be dangerously premature”, saying that “conditions in the country are emphatically not conducive to elections in 2011”. The letter was issued after the plenary session in Pretoria by the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (Imbisa). The grouping comprises the bishops of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The bishops acknowledged progress made by the 2009 SADC-facilitated Global Political Agreement (GPA) which led directly to the formation of the government of national unity. “This was the fruit of a true African solidarity—something to be celebrated and a cause for great hope in the region,” the bishops said. “It promised a new dawn for Zimbabwe.” However, the bishops noted, “not all aspects of the GPA have been fulfilled within the agreed timeframe”. “Despite some improvements in the country we note that the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe continue to suffer from, amongst other things: extreme poverty; high levels of unemployment; inadequate health and education services; lack of investment and confidence in the economy of the country. “This is all the more tragic—and indeed a matter of grave injustice—when we consider the wealth of the country with respect both to its human and its material resources.” The bishops said they oppose the mooted
elections for 2011 because the GPA has not been fully implemented. “The process of formulating the new constitution remains incomplete and is in fact way behind schedule. It is not known when the referendum on the constitution will be held,” the bishops said. Moreover, they said, the voters’ roll has not been updated and the freedoms of association and of the media remain “severely restricted”. The bishops expressed fears that an election this year could replicate the violence of previous campaigns. “The nation is in the grip of extreme fear; polarisation is still evident; there are increasing signs of intimidation and/or violence as the election campaign builds up.” They said that should elections take place this year, “then we assert emphatically that two things should be considered as preconditions...namely a roadmap leading up to the elections be put in place and the elections be conducted in accordance with SADC’s Guidelines for Elections” The bishops called on the SADC to “be the agent that brings about this urgently needed recovery of Zimbabwe”. “The positive gains achieved by the intervention of SADC, including the establishment of the government of national unity, simply cannot be allowed to go to waste,” the bishops said. “This southern African situation cries out for a solution that respects human dignity and social justice.” The bishops said they hope that SADC intervention “would bring with it the longawaited development and integration of the region. It would bring healing, peace and prosperity to the suffering people of Zimbabwe”. They ended the letter on a prayerful note: “We implore Almighty God to bless our long-suffering region and so too, the continent of Africa. May his Holy Spirit give wisdom, courage and compassion to all those entrusted with the leadership of its nations.”
Nun expelled over Facebook
A
SPANISH nun has been expelled from her encloistered Dominican convent where she lived in seclusion for 33 years because she spent too much time on Facebook. Sr María Jesús Galán announced on her Facebook page that she was asked to leave the religious order after a quarrel over her cyber activities, according to Britain’s Daily Telegraph. The 54-year-old nun collected almost 600 “friends” on the social networking site around the time of her eviction. But now fan pages with thousands of supporters have cropped up, calling for her to be allowed back into the 14th-century Santo Domingo el Real convent in Toledo. The convent’s mother superior first allowed a computer inside the premises after she was persuaded that it would reduce the need for nuns to enter the outside world. “It enabled us do things such as banking online and saved us having to make trips into the city,” Sr Galán said. Sr Galán also had scanned in the convent’s precious library archives, page by page, making them accessible to the world in digital format—a painstaking task for which she won a local government prize in 2008. It made headlines and won her scores of Facebook friends. But other nuns reportedly disapproved
and “made life impossible” for her, she said. She is now living at her mother’s house, and is ready to make a fresh start: “I would like to visit London and New York,” Sr Galán posted on her Facebook page. “Such things were impossible to even dream when at the convent.” Her Dominican superiors have declined to comment on the issue, and Archbishop Braulio Rodríguez Plaza of Toledo has called it “an internal matter”. Sr Galán’s expulsion came just weeks after Pope Benedict encouraged the use of the Internet as a means of evangelisation, but warned social-networking Catholics not to trivialise or dilute the message of Christianity in order to reach a wider message.—cathnews.com
Jesus and the disciples at the Last Supper in a scene from the 2006 version of the Durban Passion Play. The play, which is staged every five years, will run for most of April this year.
Durban Passion Play careful to avoid offending Jews BY CLAIRE MATHIESON
T
HIS year’s Durban Passion Play has been preceded by wide engagement with Jewish leaders to ensure the script will not contain elements that could be seen as anti-Semitic. Presented by the Durban Catholic Players Guild (DCPG), the play is held every five years. It will run from April 1-24 at Durban’s Playhouse Drama Theatre. Director Dawn Haynes, who is working on her third Durban Passion Play, said the play tries to stick to history as closely as possible. “We are the only city affiliated with Oberammergau and by linking our play to theirs, we avoid anti-semitism.” Ms Haynes added that by avoiding emotionalism, the cast is able to portray the characters “factually and as historically accurate as possible”. Starting in the early 1990s, the Oberammergau script underwent successive revisions to eliminate all traces of historical anti-Semitism. The first Durban Passion Play was performed in 1952 after the mayor and community of Oberammergau in Bavaria, Germany, granted special permission to the Durban Catholic Players Guild to stage an abridged version of their world-famous Passion Play. “What was first enacted in 1634 in Oberammergau was used in Durban as a means of celebrating the centenary of the arrival of the missionary Oblate priests of Mary Immaculate who arrived in South Africa in 1852,” said Toni Acton, the play’s publicist. She said the first play was so successful that the late Fr Noel Coughlan OMI travelled to Bavaria to gain permission for the Durban version of the play to be staged every five years in Durban. “The mayor of Oberammergau invited the DCPG Production committee to Ober-
ammergau for the 1960 play, prior to the staging of the 1962 Durban play, and on their return the script was adjusted to ensure that it followed as close as possible that of Oberammergau,” Ms Acton explained. “The main difference between the two plays is that Oberammergau has a run-time of eight hours and Durban has two hours,” Ms Acton said. Unlike the Oberammergau version, the Durban version has no tableaus, choir and orchestra. The play moved from the Greyville Race Course to the Durban City Hall. Since 1997 it has been staged at the Durban Playhouse Drama Theatre. “In its 59-year history, the Durban Passion Play has been blessed with the talents of many people, professional and amateur alike, but always with the aim of presenting witness to the greater glory of God to all and not just to those of the Catholic faith,” Ms Acton said. This year will mark the 13th time the play has been staged in the city. Ms Haynes’ cast comprises 150 actors who have been preparing for seven months. They receive no monetary compensation. Ms Acton said the cast, an inter-denominational group of diverse people, vary in age from toddlers and teenagers to young adults and the more mature, and even a dedicated and active 90-year-old. “It is a fantastic preparation during Lent for Easter,” Ms Acton said. “It makes the Gospel account come alive in a very real way. We have observed in every performance that audience members are actually moved to tears.” Ms Haynes said those with hearing impairments are catered for at the performance on April 16 at 14:00 when sign language interpreters will be present. Tickets are currently on sale at Computicket at R30–R60.