The Southern Cross - 110427

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April 27 to May 3, 2011

r5,50 (incl Vat rSa) reg No. 1920/002058/06

Full-page beatification poster of Blessed John Paul II

Tell us your best stories about going to church Page 12

Page 8

No 4723

Let South Africa’s youth be pilgrims Page 10

Seminarians get state-of-art library

By MatHIBela SeBotHoMa

T

HERE were lots of smiling faces at the grand opening of St John Vianney Seminary’s new library. These were smiles on the faces of the seminarians and guests exploring the new library, and on the faces of those who had worked to make it possible.

As Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, chairman of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s seminary department, unveiled the commemorative plaque, a flight of birds arrayed in the shape of an arrow flew over the new library into one direction eliciting loud cheers from the students.

The library, located in the seminary’s grounds in Waterkloof, Pretoria, has a wealth of books, journals and periodicals from the old libraries of St John Vianney, St Peter’s in Garsfontein and St Peter’s in Hammanskraal. Archbishop Stephen Brislin donated 68 boxes of books from the Cape Town seminary.

“The opening of a new state of the art library is indeed a momentous event for St John Vianney Seminary, and the formation of the current seminarians and those who will benefit from it in the future,” said Fr Ricardo Smuts, dean of studies. “The intellectual formation of priests constitutes one of the four pillars of the formation of priests in the circumstances of today, along with the human, spiritual and pastoral dimensions.”

Pieter Kleinschmidt of Computer Generated Results, which installed the computer lab and Internet for research in the new library, said the state-of-the-art facility must “be accessible for pastors and leaders from all denominations as this will create a coherent feeling and better understanding across denominational boundaries”.

The library will “bless and open our minds”, said Lindela Betya, a seminarian from Cape Town archdiocese. Vicky Rikhotso from Tzaneen said all seminarians must frequent the library as they frequent the chapel.

The bishops’ conference has named the facility St Peter’s library in memory of the old St Peter’s Seminary of Hammanskraal and Garsfontein. Some of the funding came from the sale of the former seminary.

Bishop Sipuka, a former rector of the seminary and now bishop of Mthatha, encouraged the students to be good stewards of their new library and to ensure that no books are stolen or lost. He said students who steal will be refused ordination. He encouraged students to live the motto of the seminary: “Faith and Reason”.

Fr Enrico Parry, president of seminary, thanked all the individuals and groups involved in the planning, designing, building and funding the new institution.

The name of the new library invited various thoughts.

Continued on page 3

Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha, a former rector of St John Vianney Seminary, blesses the institution’s new state-of-the-art library. (Photo: Mathibela Sebothoma)

Church pub pours a brew for JP2 SA swimmer becomes a Catholic to be Monaco’s new princess

By Sara aNGle

Y

OUNG Catholics sip beer and kick back in the crypt beneath the basilica of St Charles, home to the GP2 bar and youth club in downtown Rome.

The pub, sponsored by the Rome diocesan office of youth ministry and Catholic Action’s youth section, is dedicated to the late Pope John Paul II—Giovanni Paolo II in Italian.

Aside from panini, coffee, beer and wine, the club dished out some special events to celebrate Pope John Paul’s life and beatification on May 1.

The bar even ordered a special Czech beer, blessed by Bishop Frantisek Radkovsky of Plzen (or Pilsen). Blessing beer is rare today, but the bishop will use a prayer written centuries ago when monasteries produced beer and would pray for those who would consume it.

Massimo Camussi, the event manager at GP2, said that the events were designed to help people know Pope John Paul better.

Mgr Slawomir Oder, the postulator of the late pope’s sainthood cause, came to the bar to share stories about the late pope.

Lorena Bianchetti, an Italian journalist, discussed Pope John Paul and the media, and a week later the club inaugurated a photo exhibit on the late pope.

The GP2 pub’s mission statement said it is a place for Catholic youth to gather in a safe environment, enjoy a beer or coffee and share in the joys of being Christian. The pub is open Thursday through Sunday evenings and offers concerts, photography and art exhibits, films and speakers.

Mr Camussi said that the pub “is a dream come true,” and “a point where young Catholic or non-Catholic people can speak, play and drink a beer”.

The idea for the locale was born 11 years ago after Rome hosted World Youth Day for the Holy Year 2000. An information and

S People socialise in the GP2 bar, which honours Giovanni Paolo II. It seeks to provide a place for Catholic youth to gather in a safe environment, enjoy a beer or coffee and share in the joys of being Christian. the Italian words on the counter say "Give me to drink," a scriptural reference to Jesus' words to the woman at the well. (Photo: Paul Haring, CNS) meeting point for young people was set up in the basilica crypt, where the bar is now, said Mr Camussi.

Most of the GP2 staff are volunteers or are paid to work at the pub as part of their involvement in an Italian civil service project.

Visitors typically range in age from 18 to 30, and the patrons include regulars and pilgrims and students of Catholic colleges in Rome. Camussi estimated that 20% of GP2’s clients are foreigners, mostly from Eastern and Central Europe, Asia and Africa.

GP2 has many visitors from around Italy who would like to create a similar establishment in their own diocese, he said, because they see GP2 as a good example of what a Catholic youth bar could be.

“This is a new thing now, because there is no pub in Rome like us,” said Camussi. “I hope it’s [just] the first place of this type.”— CNS

OUTH African swimmer Charlene Wittstock has converted to Catholicism in preparation for her approaching marriage to Prince Albert II of Monaco.

Ms Wittstock, who was born in Zimbabwe to Protestant parents, was required to convert according to the principality’s constitution. A palace statement said Ms Wittstock received catechism of the Church and has been “admitted by free and personal choice into full communion with the Catholic Church”.

The 33-year-old swimmer was a member of South Africa’s women’s 4x100m medley

team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where the team finished fifth. The same year Ms Wittstock met Prince Albert.

The wedding was set to be the royal event of the year, but is likely to be overshadowed by the wedding of Britain’s Prince William to Kate Middleton (who by British law would have had to renounce her faith had she been a Catholic).

The South African will wed Prince Albert on July 1. She will make her first visit as princess of Monaco to South Africa later that month when the couple will attend an Olympic Committee meeting in Durban.

Catechism errors to be fixed

By Carol Glatz

T

HE Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will set up a special working group to collect reported errors and distribute corrections in translations of a new catechism created for young people.

The move came after the catechism’s Italian edition was found to have a translation mistake that left the impression that Catholic couples could use “contraceptive methods”.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, who oversaw the creation of “YouCat”, a recently released supplement to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, told journalists that many translations of the original German text of the new catechism were still under way.

“YouCat” was expected to be published in 13 languages, including Chinese and Arabic, by the end of 2011 and in 25 languages

by 2012. While the original German version had been studied and approved by the doctrinal congregation before its publication, the other language editions did not pass through the doctrinal office after they were translated by different publishing houses.

Citta Nuova, the publishing arm of the Focolare lay movement, handled the Italian edition of the catechism. It was translated

by Pietro Podolak and translation revisions were overseen by Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice.

Sometimes translators get a meaning wrong or editing mistakes are made, Cardinal Schönborn said, and for that reason “we need a second or third edition” that gets reviewed.

He said publication of the French edition has been halted because of a discrepancy with the original German text concerning the Church’s view of other religions.—CNS

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the Southern Cross, april 27 to May 3, 2011

LOCAL

Malema’s court antics an ‘exercise in bullying’

By ClaIre MatHIeSoN

A

Church commentator has criticised ANC Youth League president Julius Malema for bullying and disrespecting the country’s justice system, but warned against seeing Mr Malema as a buffoon.

Mike Pothier, research coordinator of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO), a body of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said in a briefing paper that Mr Malema has achieved a reputation that might suggest he is a fool or an emptyheaded loudmouth.

However, “the dangerous farce that he has orchestrated in and around the Johannesburg High Court” while his hate-speech case was being heard “ought to be enough to dispel such thoughts”, said Mr Pothier.

Mr Malema appeared at an Equality Court to defend his singing of the “Kill the Boer” struggle song, flanked by bodyguards armed with assault rifles who entered the court building with him.

“Mr Malema’s court theatrics are despicable on a number of grounds,” said Mr Pothier, a practising advocate. The presence of non-uniformed and unidentifiable men armed with machine guns in a public place is always “disquieting”, said Mr Pothier, adding that the very nature of the court— where disputes are settled—made the incident even more disturbing.

“A court depends for its legitimacy on being open and accessible, a place where interested parties, the media and the public at large can enter freely and see justice being done. To encounter six hired gunmen ‘guarding’ the

entrance to the court can only place a barrier of intimidation between the court and the public whose interests it is intended to serve.”

M

r Pothier added the court is the place where the rule of law and due process must be most rigorously upheld and protected.

“It is not a place where the rights of the public, not to mention the rights of lawyers and other officers of the court, should be interfered with arbitrarily by private security guards who, unlike the police, have no official standing and no power other than the raw threat that emanates from their weapons.”

Mr Pothier believed the act was planned, suggesting Mr Malema intended to create disquiet, to intimidate, to interfere with the public’s right of access,

and to threaten.

“If he had been accompanied by one or two dark-suited men with their weapons carried out of sight, one might have been prepared to see it as little else than the kind of ego-stroking and selfaggrandisement that has unfortunately become so typical of our senior political leaders. But there can be no mistaking the intention behind the overt, conspicuous and in-your-face presence of six assault rifles: it was quite simply an exercise in bullying.”

But beyond Mr Malema’s inappropriate acts, Mr Pothier felt the failure by the relevant authorities to respond to Mr Malema’s display was “disturbing”.

Justice department spokesman Tlali Tlali said the guards were unmarked policemen, but police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo said the security guards were not linked

to the South African police force.

“If the latter is true, then the public is owed an explanation as to how these gunmen were allowed into the court in the first place,” said Mr Pothier. “No private citizen is allowed to enter a court armed, so why was an exception made in this instance?”

Mr Pothier added that it was disappointing that the minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, who is charged at a political level with the responsibility to uphold the justice system and the rule of law, had not instantly responded to the incident.

Mr Pothier also expressed his concern at the lack of commentary from senior ANC leaders who, “if they really understand and value what is at stake here, should be providing a responsible and prudent counterweight to Mr Malema’s destructive antics”.

Church group strives to fix health laws for poor

By ClaIre MatHIeSoN

H

EALTH care justice group Patient First, a project of the Dominican order, has made a submission to the Department of Health on the national health amendment bill.

Fr Stan Muyebe OP said: “Patient First hopes to create legislative provision for the creation of the office of the health standards compliance”. He said in its submission, Patient First has called for the broadening of the powers of the proposed office to include the handling of medical compensation claims.

Fr Muyebe said the group’s goal

was to help develop a compassionate and accountable system of health care in Southern Africa and is currently operated through three primary projects. Initially, Patient First offers a platform for citizens to give feedback on their hospitals.

Fr Muyebe said the voices of the people can become a force for change.

Secondly, Patient First also assists the poor to fight for their rights and access financial relief when they are victims of avoidable medical injuries in public hospitals, and assists citizen-based groups to participate actively in the drafting and monitoring processes of hospital budgets to

“to ensure efficient use of scarce resources in the public hospitals”.

The latest submission to the Department of Health forms part of Patient First’s assistance to the poor especially as currently the medical compensation claims are exclusively handled through civil litigation mechanism, which requires legal representation by specialised medical-malpractice lawyers which the poor cannot afford.

“We are of the view that, to ensure that the poor and the marginalised enjoy the right to compensation when they are victims of medical injuries, the functions of the office of health standards

compliance should be broadened to include the handling of medical injury compensation”, said Fr Muyebe.

Fr Muyebe said Patient First’s submission suggests implementing a new system which would offer citizens a fast-track route by which compensation claims on medical injuries can be “administratively settled without legal action”. He said without this system the poor are entirely excluded from being able to access compensation for medical injuries simply on account of not being able to afford the legal action that would achieve them the compensation.

The proposed amendments to

the bill and the suggested administrative medical compensation system would need to be monitored by individuals with expertise in medical injuries. Fr Muyebe said this would be to ensure a fair process.

Fr Muyebe said Patient First would strive to help amend the country’s laws through these submissions so as to protect those who are receiving or will be receiving medical care in the country.

These admendments would especially benefit the poor who have so far been neglected by laws obtaining to health care. n For more information visit www.patientfirst.org.za

LOCAL

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Swaziland crisis: Church is ready to mediate W StaFF rePorter

the Catholic Schools Board in the diocese of Port elizabeth held an awards banquet in honour of teachers and staff who have been in service of Catholic Schools in the diocese for 25 years and more. (From left) Margaret Sixam of St thomas School for the Deaf; estelle Fourie from St augustine’s Primary; Marita robson of St Dominic’s Priory and Fiona McDonald of St Joseph’s Primary.

Seminary’s new library opens Continued from page 1 Dr Mark Kourie, a philosophy lecturer at the seminary, said the Church must continue to be the “intellectual rock” built upon St Peter. “The Church has always been a haven for intellectuals” he said, adding that many of the greatest thinkers and minds in the world were members of the clergy.

“I think that that naming the library after St Peter indicates how fundamentally important it is that priests today must be strong intellectually,” he said, noting that the Church must be defended from critique, and must also be a source of new and inspiring ideas. “I believe that having good intellectual foundations for the Church of tomorrow is without doubt the most important thing that the Church in South Africa can aspire to.”

Fr John Maneschg MCCJ encouraged the seminarians to understand the significance and implication of name-giving. He

said the old seminary in Hammanskraal has a rich history of struggles against apartheid.

The new library “revives the good memories we have about the former St Peter’s Seminary”, said Fr Molewe Machingoane, vice-president of the seminary. “It is my hope that this library will assist in producing priests who are knowledgeable and courageous like the Apostle Peter was.”

Anne Burt, the seminary’s secretary, said that “students studying at other Catholic Institutions will be able to use our library”.

Now that the library is in business, Fr Molewe hopes that it will be successful. His dream is that students will be bequeathed with the heroic spirit of many of the former students and priests of St Peter’s in Hammanskraal.

He said future priests must be imbued by the apostle’s words: “Master, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.” (Jn 6:68)

3

ITH the rise in tensions in Swaziland, the Catholic Church in South Africa together with the Swaziland Council of Churches is making efforts in mediating between the Swazi government and pro-democracy movements.

However, the government refuses to meet with pro-democracy groups as it claims they are a threat to national security, said Theophilous Chiviru from the Justice and Peace Department in the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

“The April 12 anti-monarchy protests in Swaziland, planned to coincide with the date in 1973 when King Sobhuza II unilaterally declared a state of emergency that banned political parties through Proclamation No 7 of 12 April 1973, were met with a severe police crackdown in the Swaziland town of Manzini,” Mr Chiviru said.

According to the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions more than 200 people, including journalists, union members and members of political parties, were detained in various police stations across the country. The Swaziland government clearly stated that any voice against the king and his monarchy would be considered treason.

Mr Chiviru explained King Mswati, a close ally of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, has adopted the same “oppressive

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and opposition-crushing techniques used by Mr Mugabe, using the military to squash pro-democracy protesters”.

Reports from Manzini on the day of the protests described something resembling a war zone. “All roads leading to Manzini were blocked by military and police personnel armed with rifles. About 100 buses were impounded around the country; police and the army marched in the streets,” Mr Chiviru said.

S

waziland, a country that has most of its population living in poverty and has the highest HIV/Aids rates in Southern Africa, has banned all political parties, and so the labour movement has become a key platform for prodemocracy activists.

Mr Chiviru said the South African government has ignored Swaziland because of its relative geo-political insignificance and has bought into the government's line that any change must come slowly from within the system.

“President Jacob Zuma and [his] government have stated that they have not yet taken a position on Swaziland; ironically Swaziland has been in the spotlight for the past decade. This just shows that the Zuma administration has no urgency in dealing with the Swaziland situation, which one would think should be treated like a domestic issue. Paradoxically the South African government is spending thousands of the tax

J.M.J

payers’ money mediating in Libya and Ivory Coast while its own back yard is marred with violence, intimidation and abuse of human rights.”

Mr Chiviru said the lack of urgency reflects a lack of political will, despite the leverage South Africa has on Swaziland because of its dependence on South Africa for trade.

“This situation affords South Africa wide latitude in pressurising King Mswati to undergo pro-democratic reforms yet the South African government refuses to use this advantage even though people are being arrested and tortured.”

Mr Chiviru said it was clear that Swaziland society is changing very rapidly and the potential triggers of conflict have now been manifested.

“The tension between adherence to traditional ethos and norms and the increasing yearning for a democratic breakthrough looms large and will need to be resolved in a timeous fashion.”

Mr Chiviru said the time for change could no longer be postponed and therefore it was only a matter of time before the tension would escalate. He added that it was necessary for the South African government to step in along with the Church’s current efforts.

The Church in Swaziland forms part of the Southern African Bishops’ Conference, which also includes South Africa and Botswana.

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INTERNATIONAL

Disaster looms unless violence ends, warn Zambian bishops

By MWaNSa PINtu

A

RCHBISHOP Telesphore Mpundu of Lusaka, Zambia, has warned of a “huge disaster” if political authorities do not take decisive action to discourage their supporters from engaging in acts of violence.

“Although Zambians are generally peaceful and long-suffering people, those we elect to rule us should always bear in mind that there is limit to people’s patience and resilience, as recent events in North Africa and the Middle East can testify,” Archbishop Mpundu said. “Law enforcement institutions seem to be powerless and paralysed into inaction while people are beaten up in their presence and absence alike.”

The archbishop said it was sad that those who perpetrated political violence could not be arrested even though they were wellknown.

“These cadres...act with impunity, maiming innocent citizens, threatening others with unprintable atrocities in the open, insulting even public figures and terrorising commuters at bus and railway stations, at marketplaces and

even at the international airport at will.

“These are not faceless ruffians, but known hired political hooligans with high-sounding titles bestowed on them by their sponsors—but no arrests have been made, save for a few small fish, leaving the architects of violence.”

With elections this year, the political atmosphere is already highly charged, and the situation was complicated because parliament did not pass a new constitution, Archbishop Mpundu said.

The Zambian bishops’ conference’s vice-president, Bishop Ignatius Chama of Mpika, urged President Rupiah Banda to dialogue with opposition parties to find a solution to the violence.

“What we have seen in the recent past should make all of us sit up,” said Bishop Chama. He said the Catholic Church will play its part to ensure that Zambia remains a peaceful nation.

Mr Banda has said that Zambians depended on the Church to bring about a peaceful resolution of political differences. He said even institutions and organisations that had a role to play in the

facilitation and management of elections would depend on the Church for spiritual and moral guidance.

Supporters of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy have recently engaged in acts of violence in public places as a means to scare and intimidate people, particularly members of opposition parties, into supporting their presidential and parliamentary candidates during this year’s general elections, expected sometime after June.

The supporters, referred to as “MMD cadres” and usually clad in colourful printed fabric bearing Mr Banda’s portrait, beat up and insult people who oppose their candidates; often this occurs in full view of politicians and police who are scared to arrest or stop them for fear of being fired.

Recently, the cadres beat up journalists who were covering Mr Banda’s return from a trip abroad at Lusaka airport. The president, police and army officials stood by, and Mr Banda later held a news conference at which he blamed the journalists for provoking his supporters.—CNS

Vatican concern over China relations

By JoHN tHaVIS

A

VATICAN commission on China has expressed deep concern over worsening relations with the Chinese government and appealed to authorities there to avoid steps that would aggravate church-state problems.

Specifically, the commission urged Chinese authorities not to persist in imposing new government-backed bishops who do not have papal approval.

Titled a “Message to Chinese Catholics”, the text was issued after a three-day annual meeting of the commission at the Vatican.

Pope Benedict met with commission members at the end of their encounter, praising Chinese Catholics’ desire for unity with

Rome and underlining the importance of spiritual formation in confronting present challenges.

The commission’s message noted the “general climate of disorientation and anxiety about the future” of the Church in China, following recent setbacks in Church-state relations. It said that given the numerous vacant dioceses in China, the selection of new bishops was an urgent necessity and at the same time “a source of deep concern”.

“The commission strongly hopes that there will not be new wounds to ecclesial communion,” it said. “We look with trepidation and fear to the future: We know that it is not entirely in our hands, and we launch an appeal so that the problems do not grow and that

the divisions are not deepened, at the expense of harmony and peace.”

The message said the ordination of a new bishop of Chengde last November—the first without papal approval in four years—was a “sad episode” that had inflicted a “painful wound” on Church unity.

The commission’s message said the Church was open to “sincere and respectful dialogue with the civil authorities” in order to overcome the present problems.

The message asked the whole Church to pray for Chinese Catholics, in particular on May 24, the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, which Pope Benedict has designated as a day of prayer for the Church in China (see also Fr Chatteris, page 7).—CNS

BLIND READERS OF

A group of readers is preparing audio tapes of excerpts from The Southern Cross, including editorials, selected articles, and regular features such as Fr Nicholas King SJ and Chris Moerdyk, as well current affairs in the Church. Anyone wanting to receive tapes as part of this service, available for an annual subscription fee of only R50, is invited to contact Ms Veronica Vieyra at “Clareinch”, Union Ave., Pinelands, 7405 or phone 021-532 0661.

The Post Office will deliver and return tapes without charge. Should you know of any interested blind person, please inform them of this service.

auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo of Jerusalem stands at the starting marker for the “Gospel trail” on Mount Precipice in Nazareth, Israel. He led a group of journalists along the new 60km-long trail following the paths Jesus is believed to have taken from Mount Precipice to Capernaum. the Gospel trail is a major initiative of the tourism ministry of Israel. (Photo: Debbie Hill, CNS)

Pope’s trip home takes shape

By JoHN tHaVIS

P

OPE Benedict’s September trip to Germany will include meetings with political leaders, Lutherans and Orthodox Christians, German Church officials have said.

The German bishops’ conference released the schedule of the pope’s September 22-25 visit, which will take him to the German capital, Berlin, and the cities of Erfurt and Freiburg. It will be the pope’s third visit to his homeland.

The papal visit begins in Berlin, where he will meet with German President Christian Wulff at the Bellevue Palace. The pope will also address civil and political representatives at the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, and meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In the evening, he will celebrate Mass in front of the Charlottenburg Palace, the former royal residency.

On September 23, the pope will fly to Erfurt, in the former East Germany, his first visit to the region. There he will meet with leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at the Augustinian monastery where Martin Luther took his monastic vows in the early 1500s. Later the pope will preside over an evening prayer service in the nearby town of Etzelsbach.

The next day, the pope will celebrate Mass in the Cathedral Square in Erfurt, and then travel to the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg. In Freiburg, he will meet with Orthodox representatives and hold an evening encounter with young people.

On the final day, the pope will celebrate Mass at Freiburg airport, meet with German bishops and address Catholic leaders at the city’s concert hall before returning to Rome in the evening.

The pope will also meet with Jewish and Muslim representatives.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

the Southern Cross, april 27 to May 3, 2011

5

Beatified and canonised: the difference

By CINDy WooDeN

T

HE slight differences between a beatification and a canonisation are easy to miss, especially when one pope beatifies another pope.

Shortly before Pope Benedict was to beatify Pope John Paul II on May 1, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments issued a decree designed, in part, to maintain the distinction.

The decree dealt with one of the three main differences: the number and location of dioceses that can hold annual public liturgical celebrations in the holy person’s honour.

The other two differences are less noticeable and they deal with who ceremonially requests the pope to act and the level of papal authority involved in the proclamation.

During a beatification ceremony, the bishop of the diocese where the person dies asks that the candidate be declared blessed; at a canonisation, the prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes speaks in the name of the whole Church and asks that the candidate be declared a saint.

Even less visible, but more important, is the fact that “papal infallibility is involved” when a person is declared a saint, said Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the papal vicar of Rome.

Beatification is an “administrative act” by which the pope allows a candidate for sainthood to be venerated publicly in places closely associated with

his or her life and ministry; the place may be as small as one city, although usually it is the diocese where the person lived or died. In the case of Pope John Paul, his October 22 feast day is entered automatically into the calendars of the diocese of Rome and all the dioceses of his native Poland.

A canonisation, on the other hand, is a formal papal decree that the candidate was holy and is now in heaven with God; the decree allows public remembrance of the saint at liturgies throughout the Church. It also means that churches can be dedicated to the person without special Vatican permission.

Beatifications only became common in the early 1600s after the Vatican centralised the sainthood process. The centralised process meant dioceses could wait many years or decades to celebrate one of their own as a saint, so to acknowledge the local devotion to the candidate, the popes would give the candidate the title blessed and allow limited devotion.

F

or hundreds of years, the most obvious difference between a canonisation and beatification was the fact that the pope personally presided only at a canonisation Mass.

Those lines began to blur during the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, who decided to celebrate the beatification in 1971 of Polish Franciscan Father Maximilian Kolbe, who was martyred in a Nazi concentration camp.

Pope John Paul II kept up the

practice of personally presiding over both beatifications and canonisations—and he did so hundreds of times all over the world.

Pope Benedict, responding to pleas from some Vatican officials, bishops and theologians, tried to help people actually see the difference between a beatification and a canonisation by presiding personally only when a new saint was being proclaimed.

For more than five years, he maintained that practice. But in September, he led the beatification Mass in England for John Henry Newman. The second beatification of his pontificate will be the proclamation of Blessed John Paul.

Procedurally, a miracle—literally—is needed for a blessed to be declared a saint.

For beatification, the Vatican requires proof of a miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession, unless the candidate was martyred for his or her faith.

The second miracle—the one needed for canonisation—must take place after the beatification ceremony and is seen as God’s final seal of approval on the Church’s proclamation.

“In addition to reassuring us that the servant of God lives in heaven in communion with God, miracles are the divine confirmation of the judgment expressed by Church authorities about the virtuous life” lived by the candidate, Pope Benedict said in a speech to members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes in 2006.—CNS

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Expert slams church music

A

PROMINENT English music director has attacked modern Church music, saying it is “low quality material”.

Writing in the English Catholic journal The Tablet, Joseph Cullen, choral director at the London Symphony Orchestra, says that since the 1960s there has been a “glaring lack of sympathy” for “worthy sacred music”.

He said that the rush to find new musical settings for the new Mass in the 1960s led to little artistic scrutiny being applied to the process. As a result, most parish Masses now have poorly-composed hymns being used inappropriately as mere “fillers” throughout the sacred liturgy.

Spanish schoolgirls, one wearing a rosary, take part in a religious procession in Seville. Spain is preparing to host World youth Day in Madrid from august 16-21. (Photo: Marcelo del Pozo, reuters/CNS)

Priest flees parish amid gang war

By DaVID aGreN

A

T least one priest has abandoned his parish in Mexico’s north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, where the bodies of at least 122 abducted and murdered bus passengers have been pulled from mass graves within the first half of April.

Bishop Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez of Matamoros told reporters that at least one priest from a municipality near where the mass graves were discovered had fled after being threatened and subjected to harassment by presumed members of organised crime.

He added that other priests have encountered difficulties travelling in the state, which is plagued by highway checkpoints manned by organised criminal groups such as Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.

“We’ve had [incidents] at the armed checkpoints,” Bishop

Armendáriz said in comments published by the newspaper El Universal. “Thanks to God, we’re still here. Fortunately, nothing has happened, but we travel with fear.”

The bishop spoke as Mexico confronted the horror of another mass slaying in Tamaulipas, where Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel have fought over lucrative drug-smuggling routes and carried out crimes such as extortion and the kidnapping of undocumented migrants with impunity.

Tamaulipas state officials report having pulled at least 122 bodies from mass graves in the municipality of San Fernando, which is part of the diocese of Matamoros.

The federal attorney general’s office and military said the victims were killed after cartel gunmen boarded buses stopped at illegal checkpoints and removed male passengers.

Last August, 72 Central and South American migrants were massacred on a ranch in San Fernando after being kidnapped.

Investigators blame Los Zetas for both of the mass slayings.

Seventeen suspects have been detained for the most recent murders.

Mexican attorney-general Marisela Morales said that 16 municipal police had been fired for allegedly providing protection to Los Zetas in San Fernando.

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón warned that more victims were likely to be found. He told a business gathering in April that a 19-year-old suspect admitted to killing more than 200 people.

Bishop Armendáriz blamed “social deterioration” and the drug trade for the violence in Tamaulipas, which he says is now beyond police and military control.—CNS

on DStv audio channel 170 & streamed on www.radioveritas.co.za

6

LEADER PAGE

the Southern Cross, april 27 to May 3, 2011

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The greatness of God

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Beatification of JPII

T

HE beatification of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on May 1 will unite the world’s Catholics in joy, for everybody will have an appreciation of at least some elements of the new blessed’s life of holy service.

Pope John Paul lived his pontificate more publicly than any of his predecessors. In this, he was aided by the rapid advances in media and travel. But more than that, he was an open pontiff, a man whom the public could know.

Every Catholic will have favourite memories of John Paul, be they particular moments or general dispositions.

South Africans, who suffer so much from crime, may be inspired and acutely challenged

by John Paul’s capacity of forgiveness, which he demonstrated so powerfully when he visited his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, in jail in 1983.

Those working for peace continue to draw inspiration from the pope’s meeting with the leaders of other faiths in Assisi in 1986 (and again in 2002).

Of the many iconic moments in John Paul’s pontificate, the image of the pope alone in prayer before the Western Wall in Jerusalem may be the most profound on many levels: a moment of repentance and reconciliation that showed the power of humility, and a pope’s prayerful return to the temple which for the early Christians, and indeed for Christ, was the tangible centre of faith.

Catholics will remember the pope interacting with the youth, canonising and beatifying legions of holy people, bearing his physical suffering so publicly with heroic courage, kneeling at Fatima in thanksgiving to Our Lady, to whom he had such a pure devotion, and so on.

And Catholics will remember how tens of thousands, so many of them young people, came to St Peter’s Square to hold a vigil for the dying pope in 2005.

After John Paul died, the call of the people echoed around the world: Santo Subito—make him a saint now.

Before the formal rules governing the process by which an individual becomes a saint were gradually instituted in the middle ages, saints were usually recognised by popular acclaim. As with Mother Teresa of Kolkata, there

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.

never was any doubt that John Paul would one day join the College of Saints, which he himself expanded so prodigiously. Popular opinion instantly recognised both as saints.

As John Paul did for Mother Teresa, so did Pope Benedict fasttrack the cause of his predecessor, speeding up what was inevitable.

It is on the point of rules being bent that some Catholics object to the timing of Pope John Paul’s beatification, asking why similar accommodation has not been made for other individuals who are similarly publicly acclaimed as saints.

There is no impertinence in asking why, for example, Archbishop Óscar Romero—murdered in 1980 while celebrating Mass because he stood up for justice— has not yet been beatified, especially since as a martyr his cause requires no miracles.

Questions have also been raised about Pope John Paul’s inaction concerning the publicised allegations of sexual abuses by his friend Fr Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ. We must presume that the Congregation for Sainthood Causes was fully satisfied that the late pontiff was not party to a coverup, though it would do well to follow the advice offered by John Paul’s biographer George Weigel to issue a public report to “help clear the air”.

Other critics have expressed misgivings about Pope John Paul’s beatification because they have objections to certain elements of his pontificate. Certainly it is right that the 26-year pontificate of John Paul II, like any pontificate, be subjected to rigorous scholarly examination. However, the late pope’s beatification is not a time for that.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the sainthood congregation, has made it clear that John Paul will be beatified on the basis of his personal virtues of faith, hope and love—and the pope’s holiness is a matter of indisputable record. It is the personal holiness of the man born on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland, as Karol Wojtyla that we shall focus on this Sunday, leaving his legacy for another day.

And so Catholics around the world will rejoice as the man who created 1 340 beati becomes one himself.

W

E humans make judgments about phenomena relative to our own capabilities. Anything outside our experience is not easily understandable, sometimes not even acceptable to us.

Those of us with 20/20 vision, for instance, find it hard to accept that some birds are able to see four or five times further than we can, that the clarity with which they see things is far better than ours, that they have greater perception of movement than we do.

It is difficult to accept that, should we have line-of-sight vision for 2km, that they would be able to see for eight or ten kilometre— with great clarity!

So perhaps this might help us to start accepting the reality of

many things and events beyond our limited experience. Like God, for instance, and his greatness.

We have been told that God made us in his own image and likeness, which should mean that he is something like us. I don’t know about that, but I do believe that he must be something awesome.

Science is continually finding out more and more about the universe, and the more they discover the more wondrous God becomes for me. He grows in my mind as his creation expands—or rather my understanding of it. But the part that becomes more and more wondrous to me is that, in this unimaginably huge universe which is God’s creation, he is

Daily Eucharist

in pastoral charity the bond which gives unity to the priest’s life and work.” The council adds: “...flows mainly from the Eucharistic Sacrifice which is therefore the centre and root of the whole priestly life.” And John Paul adds: “We can understand then how important it is for the spiritual life of a priest as well as for the good of the Church and the world that priests follow the council’s recommendation to celebrate the Eucharist daily. For even if the faithful are unable to be present, it is an act of Christ and the Church.”

May God bless the Aids expedition and bring them back safely.

Fr Freddy Warner SMA, Rustenburg

Y

OUR front-page article on the “Move the World Aids Awareness Expedition” (April 6), which aims to reach four continents in a hundred days is admirable.

Admirable too is the humanity, courage and sense of adventure being shown by Fr Stefan Hippler.

“We will drive for 16 hours a day and sleep for six hours,” he said. And he explained that for him the expedition is a form of mission. As a missionary priest myself, I identify with that urge to get out to the whole world.

I noticed that the expedition was to leave from Vancouver on April 19, the Tuesday of Holy Week. This for me raised the question of how he would celebrate the paschal mystery as an ordained priest? For the priest especially the paschal mystery is the expedition which moved the world and changed its history.

Admittedly, the Aids expedition appears to be highly organised, “planned to the minute”, so perhaps the plan has managed to include daily Mass and the daily recitation of the hours. I wish Fr Hippler well and if I have misjudged him (due to lack of information) I trust he will forgive me.

But I have raised the point because of a model of priesthood which has become fashionable of late. This model presents priesthood to us as being solely a service to the community with emphasis on the poor and vulnerable. And this model seeks to draw its life solely from the bond of pastoral charity to the community.

On this point writing in Ecclesia de Eucharist, John Paul II says: “The second Vatican Council saw

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We need feast of Divine Mercy

T

HE feast of the Divine Mercy, which is celebrated on the Sunday after Easter, is a somewhat new addition to the liturgical calendar, and its insertion to the Easter Season has being questioned by many.

To some, this feast confuses the Easter feast and would be best celebrated during the Lenten season, a period specifically for fasting, almsgiving and supplication and not when we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord.

It is important to note that Easter Sunday however, represents our creation in the life of grace through faith in the risen saviour.

On the octave of Ester, we too ratify the covenant of mercy, reaffirming not only our baptism, already renewed at the Easter vigil, but also the sacraments of reconciliation, confirmation and Eucharist.

The octave Sunday of Easter represents the fulfilment of that creation in grace. The feast of the Divine Mercy is the octave of the resurrection, which fulfils the richness of the paschal mystery in a new and deeper way, with all nature and creation sounding anew the grace of the resurrection.

Our Easter liturgy had fulfilled the major feasts of the Old Testament, namely the Passover and Pentecost, and was only missing the Day of Atonement.

The feast of the Divine Mercy now seals the needed fulfilment of the Old Testament feasts. It is rooted in the Old Testament (Gen 17:12-14, Ex 19:14-15 and 24:67), and the earlier form of the feast was celebrated from the 4th century, which St Augustine called “days of mercy and pardon” (#156 Dominica in Albis) and the Sunday “the compendium of the days of mercy”.

Hence it emphasises the aspects of the paschal mystery that need to be brought out more clearly and appropriated by Christ’s merciful love, our atonement and the covenant.

Jesus made a special promise through St Faustina that the soul

aware of me. He knows me, he understands me. And not only me, but every single creature to which he has given life, ever!

The consideration of this makes the mind boggle. Nothing could have that ability, that omniscience. But then I come back to the bird analogy, inadequate though it may be. If I, in my arrogance, find it difficult to accept a scientifically established fact regarding the superiority of a bird’s sight in comparison with a human’s, does that not parallel my inability to understand the truly awesome wonder of God? My mind cannot encompass it—but then, my mind was not meant to, any more than my eyesight was intended to equal that of a bird’s.

God is great!

Tom Drake, Johannesburg that will go to confession and receive Holy Communion on that feast would obtain the complete forgiveness of sins and the ocean of graces. To most Catholics and non-Catholics who are pious in the Divine Mercy devotion, the preparation of this great feast starts with the novena of chaplets to the Divine Mercy, beginning on Good Friday for a specific intention each day. The Divine Mercy image of the merciful saviour is venerated as a reminder to trust in Jesus and do the works of mercy.

Since it is a period of mercy, all these practices are purified by the sacrament of reconciliation.

Celebrating the Easter season this way, as the feast of mercy, develops or results in deeper sharing in the mystery of Christ and making the Easter season fully alive. This feast needs to be fully celebrated!

Br Isaac Mutelo, Johannesburg

Death and resurrection

J

ESUS said that he laid down his life in order to give life to his people.

The gift to Catholics is that he comes to us in Holy Communion and we should realise the enormity of this great sacrifice.

1 Corinthians 5:7-8 says we must get rid of the old yeast of evil and wickedness, having only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Jesus carries his cross. We must go on, never losing sight of this; never losing heart. We must realise the implications of 1 Corinthians 5:7-8: “My hour has come,” he said, “the hour of great mercy for humanity.” Our hour has come for repentance, courage and right living.

Barbara Jones, Randburg

Mary overlooked

by SA bishops?

W

HILE it is undoubtedly an excellent promotion in every way, “SA Bishops declare May family month” (April 6), I feel very saddened by the fact that in the fourth paragraph stating why May was chosen, and naming the four resons, not one word was mentioned about it being the special month of Our Lady.

Surely this should head the list of important days? Where is the public recognition in the Catholic press of Our Lady and the role she plays in the practice of our faith?

With Mary’s intercession these excellent projects stand much more of a chance of success, or is this no longer in vogue? Tradition has always constituted the initial basic foundation of our faith.

What a pity that some of our Catholic traditions are in danger of falling away by default.

Maureen Pistorius, Umgeni Park, KwaZulu-Natal

PERSPECTIVES

Many positive signs

W

HILE surrounded by many tensions, difficulties and insecurities in the ministerial priesthood, there are many positive signs that tell us today that the priestly service is needed more than ever in society today.

People are more aware of the human dignity and consequently more open to religious values, more open to the Gospel and the priestly ministry.

Despite many contradictions, society is increasingly witnessing a powerful thirst for justice. There is a more lively sense that the whole of humanity must care for creation and respect nature.

There is strong evidence of an increased love for the Scriptures, Bible Study, faith-sharing and Christian fellowship in small Christian communities.

Perhaps the strongest evidence for this need for God—and the priest—was Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain last September.

Many Catholics, including Cardinal Vincent Nicols of Westminster (and myself, too), held their breath before the start of the papal visit.

After the visit it was said that the it

Mgr Paul Nadal

had been not only a resounding success, but also “a call to something else more profound—to the beauty of holiness, the splendour of truth, and to witness to Christ with joy and happiness,” Cardinal Nichols recalled. “The pope was telling us that what is properly called love is about self-sacrifice. That is part of true self-fulfilment.”

British society, considered by many to be aggressively secularist, showed signs of an insipient malaise and at the same time a huge need for God and the Gospel message of Jesus Christ for love, justice, peace, truth and freedom.

The understanding of the Church as “the sacrament of the unity of mankind” and the ministerial priesthood as one of leadership and service must lead the whole Church, that is all the baptised being involved in ministry.

Diakonia, or service, is the Church’s very essence.

When, however, we speak of the ministerial dimension of the Church, there can be the danger of reducing all ministry to one expression of service, without distinction between role and responsibility.

Can the Holy Spirit mislead us?

T

HERE must be many thousands of people who at one point appear to have a strong sense of calling, only to find that what they thought was a calling turns out to be a red herring.

This is particularly true of religious life, but can apply to other professions such as medicine or engineering. Someone may spend his or her time training to be an engineer, only to end up as the manager of a company that has nothing to do with engineering.

Of course, there have been cases of people who have exploited the calling to religious life in order to get a free education!

There are, however, many who have genuinely thought that they are called to be priests, pastors or nuns, only to discover they are not called to that way of life at all.

Does this mean that the Holy Spirit sometimes guides people along the wrong path?

Let me be take my own case. When I was in the last year or two of primary school I felt very strongly that God was calling me to be a priest. I spent a total of about six years entertaining the idea that there was nothing else I could do in this life except to become a priest, but at the end of those long years something of no gigantic proportions happened and my vocation to the priesthood fizzled out— just like that.

Once this thing happened I decided there and then that I was not going to be a

priest. There was no agonising about it or feelings of regrets—the decision had been made and that was it! Did the Holy Spirit misguide me? I think not.

When I thought I wanted to be a priest, the only kind of priest I desired to be was to be a Jesuit. For me becoming a priest was synonymous with being a Jesuit. And so when I was disappointed with the Jesuits, the idea of becoming a priest simultaneously went out of the window! But were the six years of contemplating a future life as a Jesuit priest a waste of my time? Not at all! Were they spent usefully?

Definitely!

This is what happened. In my last year of primary school the Jesuit Fathers advised me that if I wanted to be a Jesuit I should go to their new school, so that I would do my secondary and high schooling at a Jesuit school before I would join the novitiate.

Each time I look back at my history, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to spend six years at a Jesuit school. I believe that no other school could have given me the kind of education I received at St Ignatius College. The Jesuit Fathers have been among the best educators for the last 450 years or more, and I believe I am what I am because of the quality of education I received at St Ignatius College in Zimbabwe.

While I decided not to become a Jesuit priest, I have remained a Jesuit at heart

Priesthood and Ministry It is the teaching and tradition of the Catholic Church that there is a clear distinction between the ministry of the baptised, who share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and the ministry of the ordained priest. The Eucharist is central to the Church’s identity and mission and it is only the priest who presides at the Eucharist.

What is called for then is a partnership, between the baptised faithful and the ordained priesthood.

Pope John Paul II said: “To insist on the pastoral and sacramental ministry of priests in no way lessens the value and responsibilities and activity which the laity have…an essential part of priestly ministry consists in encouraging and motivating, in coordinating and supporting the responsible activity of the faithful in the various areas of their baptismal vocations.” n This is the final instalment in Mgr Nadal’s six-part series on the priesthood.

Emmanuel Ngara Christian leadership

and continue to admire the Society of Jesus, not only for its tradition of excellent education, but for the contribution its members have made to the work of the Church and to human advancement generally.

I believe that when God put the idea of becoming a Jesuit in me, he wanted me to receive Jesuit education in order to prepare me for my calling.

Let me perhaps cite a more deserving example. Mother Teresa did not begin her mission by forming the congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. She felt called to serve the people of India and joined the Loreto Sisters who were working in Bengal.

For many years she served the Loreto sisters as a teacher. As it turned out, when she decided to form the Missionaries of Charity, her first recruits were students she had taught as a Loreto Sister.

When we follow God’s will, nothing we do in life is wasted. What may seem irrelevant to our calling is part of the training and experience we need to prepare us for our future mission.

The people we come into contact with, the experiences we go through, both good and bad, and the education we receive, is all part of the preparation we need for our future calling.

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Chris Chatteris SJ Pray with the Pope

Media with dignity General Intention: That those working in communication media may respect truth, solidarity, and dignity of all people.

RITAIN’S News of the World newspaper has got itself into a spot of bother over the issue of phone-hacking. Apparently its celebrity journalists acquired the bad habit of hacking into the cellphones and eavesdropping on the private conversations of the rich and famous.

The newspaper has apologised (somewhat late, since some of these offenses occurred several years ago), but the apology is unlikely to be the end of the affair. The Rupert Murdoch-owned Sunday paper clearly faces a long and expensive legal assault which might break it financially.

No bad thing, one might say, given the kind of journalism that the News of the World and its clones indulge in—paparazzi entrapment of the worst kind.

Such a financial eclipse might “encourage” the clones to behave more ethically and report on more important things than the antics of media idols.

In other words they might report on things that are really “in the public interest”. Not just the public’s prurient interest in scandal, but those things which serve the common good.

The mass communications media might then bring to our attention important truths rather than trivial tittle-tattle; they might show more solidarity with those whose stories are forgotten rather than talking vacuously about supermodels; they might treat those they report on with basic human dignity as opposed to oscillating between sycophantic fawning and casual character-assassination.

We pray, with the pope, for a renewed and reliable moral compass for the media and its practitioners in an incredibly tempting and highly ambiguous moral climate. And we pray for a greater discernment for ourselves in our use of the internet, print, TV, radio and the other media.

B

Prayers for China Missionary Intention: That the Lord may help the Church in China persevere in fidelity to the Gospel and grow in unity.

VER since the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, the Church has been tempted to take advantage of political, economic and even military power in its missionary endeavours. Tom Holland’s spellbinding work on the Dark Ages, simply entitled Millennium, illustrates this vividly.

Holland describes how many former “barbarian” warlords of the time—larger than life figures like Canute—received baptism and became champions of the Christian faith once they had established their kingdoms. Motivated by a mixture of politics and piety, these essentially violent characters would then be fired with military-missionary zeal to expand the domains of Christendom with fire and sword, forcing pagan peoples to convert to Christ.

That it was actually unnecessary and undesirable to use such dominance was proved by missionary success in places where force was not used.

One such region was China, where the powerful Chinese state resisted Western encroachment. Missionaries had to walk a way of weakness and humility. A great example of this was the Italian Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci, an early and successful practitioner of what today we would call inculturation.

On the 400th anniversary of his death (in Beijing in 1610), Pope Benedict praised his “profound faith and extraordinary cultural and academic genius”’ and how he had been “a model of dialogue and respect for the beliefs of others and made friendship the style of his apostolate during his twenty-eight years in China”.

Four hundred years after Fr Ricci, the Church continues to tread the same path of missionary humility in a difficult political environment. However, according to a recent Chinese Jesuit visitor to South Africa, the faith survives and continues to grow in China despite external pressures and internal tensions over the relationship with the state.

We give thanks for the fidelity of the Chinese faithful and pray that they may continue to encourage us by their witness to the power of God made manifest in weakness.

E

The

S outhern C ross

BEATIFICATION

Bl John Paul II is an all-round patron When Pope John Paul II is beatified on May 1, the Church will gain a powerful new intercessor in the College of Saints, writes SaMuel FraNCIS.

T

HE old proverb Vox populi, vox Dei is usually attributed to the 12thcentury William of Malmesbury. It means: the voice of the people is the voice of God. During the 2005 funeral ceremony for Pope John Paul II, the crowds at the Vatican shouted “Santo subito!”—make him a saint now! This was their wish, they had spoken, and their voice became the voice of God. Pope Benedict, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger presided over the funeral Mass of his friend and predecessor, has appointed May 1 as the date for John Paul’s beatification, the final step before sainthood. In addition, Bl John Paul II has been chosen the official spiritual patron of World Youth Day 2011. He is the one who founded World Youth Day and presided over many of its large gatherings around the world.

Having been the people’s pope, John Paul II certainly will become the people’s saint.

He brought the papacy closer to the people of all world cultures and was unafraid to mix with the masses. He is said to have been the most recognised person in the world, and his funeral is believed to have brought together the single largest gathering in world history.

As a saint, John Paul could become the patron of the following: THE YOUTH: John Paul II had a special affinity for young people, not because he was young, but because he was youthful. During his installation cer-

emony in 1978, he told the youth: “You are the future of the world, you are the hope of the Church, you are my hope.”

And among his last words, reportedly delivered hours before his death on April 2, 2005, were also directed to the youth.

In response to the thousands of young people praying and singing in St Peter’s square, he said: “I sought you and now you have come to me… I thank you.”

PILGRIMS: Pope John Paul was the “pilgrim pope”. He is the most travelled pope in the nearly 2 000-year history of the Church. During his papacy, he visited more than 120 nations and was seen in person by millions.

POLITICIANS: At his funeral were four kings, five queens and at least 70 presidents and prime ministers. He was neither the president nor a state official in the United States, but when he died, President George W Bush ordered that the flags be flown at half mast at the White House and all federal buildings and military facilities until the pope was buried.

AFRICA: According to Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, John Paul II had a soft spot for Africa in general, and for the bishops of Southern Africa in particular.

ECUMENISM: During his travels, he came into contact with believers of various divergent faiths. He had a good relationship with the Church of England and the relations between Catholicism and Judaism improved during his pontificate.

He became the first pope to visit the eastern Orthodox countries since the Great Schism; he was the first pope to enter and pray in a mosque and was visited eight times by the Buddhist religious leader, Dalai Lama.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I attended his funeral; thus making history by becoming the first Orthodox ecumenical patriarch to attend a papal

funeral since the Great Schism. The Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was also present at papal funeral—the first time an archbishop of Canterbury did so since the Church of England broke with the papacy in the 16th century.

Also for the first time ever, the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, Patriarch Abune Paulos attended a papal funeral. And in a historic rarity, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox Christian leaders, as well as leaders in Judaism, Islam and Buddhism offered memorials and prayers of their own for their congregants, in solidarity and as a way of sharing in the grief of all Catholics.

PEACE: John Paul made peace with his would-be assassin, the Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot and critically wounded him in May 1981.

The pope was also very strong in his opposition to war, saying that wars generally do not resolve the problems but are, in fact, a defeat for humanity. He termed war as the most barbarous and least effective way of resolving conflicts.

In addition, he invited religious leaders to Assisi to offer prayers for peace in the world.

THE SICK: John Paul perhaps inspired more people in his death than he did in life. In his final years, his step became halted by illness and infirmity and his speech became laboured, but his indomitable spirit touched, taught and inspired many.

Just as he was the people’s pope in life so will he become the people’s saint in death. He interceded for the Church as the successor of Peter, now he will intercede for humanity as a beatus.

After May 1, we shall then say: Blessed John Paul II, pray for us! n Samuel Francis is a student of theology at St Joseph’s Theological Institute in Cedara, KwaZulu-Natal.

the Southern Cross, april 27 to May 3, 2011

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Revisit our special John Paul II memorial edition on the Web

www.digital.scross.co.za/0504-jp2/

the passport of Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is displayed at a mobile exhibition in Krakow, Poland. (Photo: Mateusz Skwarczek, agencja Gazeta)

Jerusalem, Magido, Stations of the Cross www.comepraytherosary.org Bishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow in the 1960s.

HOLY SITES TRAVEL

CAPUCHIN SISTERS RETREAT HOUSE

TEL: 082 975 0034 / FAX: 086 552 9648 E-MAIL:elna@holysites.co.za WEB SITE: www.holysites.co.za

We are blessed to have this House of prayer to share the contemplative silence and solitude that are our riches as Poor Clares.

Retreatants have the opportunity to:

Join us on a pilgrimage to the Holy land as we explore the cradle of Christianity and follow the Footsteps of Jesus.

Attend Eucharist with the Sisters Spend time in personal prayer and reflection Experience the peace, simplicity and joy of a Franciscan holy place Experience the support and the prayers of the Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters Take time for rest and renewal TO MAKE RESERVATION OR FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Sr. Leonissa (028) 514-1319 e-mail: capuchin@telkomsa.net

ViSiT: Pray in the Holy Grotto where Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary Visit the Holy Manger where Jesus was born Sea of Galilee – by its waters Jesus chose his first disciples renew your baptismal vows in the Jordan river Walk the Via Dolorosa light a candle for your loved ones on Calvary

Pope John Paul II appears on the balcony of St Peter’s basilica after being elected as the 263rd successor to St Peter on october 16, 1978—the first non-Italian pontiff in 455 years.

For more details contact Elna Ferreira Tel: 082 975 0034

a badly deteriorated negative of Pope John Paul II meeting his would-be assassin, Mehmet ali agca, in a rome prison on December 27, 1983.

on foreign visits, Pope John Paul would kiss the ground of the country he arrived in, as he did in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1989.

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FAITH

the Southern Cross, april 27 to May 3, 2011

Let the youth of South Africa be pilgrims A pilgrimage is a journey of learning and self discovery.

Why then, is there a shortage of youth pilgrims, asks ClaIre MatHIeSoN.

M

OST Catholics would agree that young adults, who are learning about independent life, love and the world around them, should be encouraged to become pilgrims, setting out on a journey that one can start as a fledgling adult and end as a directed, mature and spiritually stable person.

Fr Charles Prince is the youth chaplain in the archdiocese of Cape Town. He said that traditionally pilgrimages were visits to sites related to the life and ministry of Jesus.

“Now there are many other sites of pilgrimage related also to our Blessed Mother and many saints.

But whatever the destination of a pilgrimage, the intention is always to take time out of our secular life and dedicate more than just an hour on a Sunday to God.” Fr Prince said the physical journey that pilgrims undertake and the hardships they sometimes endure are a “symbolic representation of the inner journey towards union with God”.

World Youth Day pilgrim Aaron Chetty from Our Mother Of Perpetual Help parish in Port Elizabeth said as a young parishioner he faces a lot of difficulties in the community; mainly crime and drug abuse amongst the youth.

“That’s why attending pilgrimages

such as World Youth Day will help me meet other youth from around the world and see how they deal with these situations, bring that knowledge back to my community and hopefully make a difference.”

The diocese of Port Elizabeth will be sending a contingent of pilgrims to the 26th World Youth Day (WYD) in Madrid, Spain, in August. The group, made up of both Catholic and non-Catholic youth, has been preparing for the pilgrimage through fundraising events, weekend retreats and spiritual preparation.

Fr Prince said these “out-of-routine” moments dedicated to God are incredibly important, especially in our fast-paced modern society. However, there is a difference between a pilgrimage and weekend away or a retreat, he said. “The latter two do not focus so much on the journey aspect. Time away, especially with one’s peers, allows for a deepening of relationships with God and also those who accompany one on such activities.”

Fr Prince said the journey in itself is not only a description of the physical movement, but also the spiritual journey. While any time with God is important, moving with him is even better, Fr Prince said.

St Francis Xavier seminarian Russel Williams said pilgrimages are important and a great opportunity to encounter the Lord. “Youth should be especially encouraged to join [pilgrimages], so that they, who are the future of the Church, can create that sacramental ability, to build their faith with outward signs and interpreting it, in order to develop their faith.”

Port elizabeth’s Sacred Heart pilgrims have booked and paid for their tickets to attend World youth Day in Spain this august. (From left) Selwyn Goliath, Shinay terblanche, Bianca Bosch, alexis Pillay, Nico Bagley.

Fr Prince said while retreats and weekends away regularly feature on the calendars of youth groups and confirmation classes, pilgrimages are less likely. He said it depends on the particular parish.

D

espite the importance of the event, many parishes in South Africa ignored the call to inform their youth about WYD this year , said Mr Chetty.

While the archdiocese of Johannesburg will be attending as a group and Port Elizabeth will be travelling as a diocese, many youth from other dioceses around the country are making their own way.

Many more were not informed or encouraged to go by their individual parishes —either because they do not attend catechism, having already been confirmed, or because that particular parish does not have a young-adult movement

for those 18 and older.

Another member of the Port Elizabeth contingent, A’neil Philander said his last WYD pilgrimage to Sydney, Australia, in 2008 was an experience that he would never forget, and it “certainly helped me strengthen my faith and my relationship with God”.

He said the pilgrimage provided him the opportunity to learn more about Catholicism and God. “The fact that it’s a pilgrimage—I get to share and experience all that with many other people from all around who have the same beliefs!” He said it was because of his active parish that he was afforded the opportunities.

Mr Philander said he grew stronger as a person in love and faith, adding that his eyes were opened to the fact that one could be proud about being a Catholic.

“It certainly motivated me to become more actively involved in

our parishes and mix with other youth within our church community,” he said.

Fr Prince said the primary reason for the shortage of pilgrimages from South Africa—youth-orientated or not—is the financial aspect. “A trip to places such as Rome and Jerusalem is very costly and out of the reach of many people. However, journeys to local places of significance such as churches and shrines, and also weekends away and retreats should definitely be encouraged.”

One such local place is Ngome in the diocese of Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, where German-born Benedictine Sister Reinolda May reported having experienced ten Marian apparitions between 1955 and 1971.

Mr Chetty said more youth-orientated pilgrimages were needed.

“Youth nowadays don’t really know much of our religion. A deeper more exciting youth trip/pilgrimage will attract lots of young people who would be keen to join in and enjoy whatever is being offered, and at the same time learn about our religion and God in a fun way”. Mr Philander thought youth-orientated pilgrimages could help the youth to “search deep inside for our true calling”.

Each of the pilgrims interviewed said they were incredibly excited about going on pilgrimage, but for each of them WYD was the only pilgrimage available to them.

While most agree that pilgrimages are important and can be a valuable part of forming a young Catholic’s life—there just aren’t that many opportunities made available to them.

the Southern Cross, april 27 to May 3, 2011

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CLASSiFiEDS

Getting out of our comfort zone

O

UR environment teaches us a lot about dying in order to live. The plants die, animals give up their lives as food source for other animals to live, people die to make space for newborn babies, leaves die to make space for a new season, and then flourish again.

So goes the circle of life— change after change. In our humanity we struggle with change, we stick to the same routine and traditions without seeking to grow, to change, and to move out of bad habits and into better ones.

We at times resist to venture into the unknown, to try different angles and to meet people different from us. Jesus came to

teach us about change. He told Mary Magdalene that she need not carry on the way she was; to sin no more and she decided to seek change within her, and followed Jesus.

Jesus encourages us to get out of our comfort zone and to reach out to those who we would usually reject, because by accepting the rejected, the lonely and destitute, we reach out to him and to ourselves.

Getting out of our comfort zone often frees us from our inner prison cells, and moves us into God’s spirit.

As a butterfly needs to be confined to a cocoon to receive wings to fly, we also need to go through a process of change, in order to be truly free.

Liturgical Calendar Year A Sunday May 1, 2nd Sunday of Easter Acts 2: 42-47, Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24, 1 Pt 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31 Monday, May 2, St Anthanasius of Alexandria Acts 4:14, 23-31, Ps 26:1-9, Jn 3:1-8 Tuesday, May 3, Ss Philip and James Cor 15:1-8, Ps 19:2-5, Jn 14:6-14 Wednesday, May 4 Acts 5:17-26, Ps 34:2-9, Jn 3:16-21 Thursday, May 5 Acts 5:27-33, Ps 2,9,17-20, Jn 3:31-36 Friday, May 6 Acts 5:34-42, Ps 27:1,4,13-14, Jn 6:1-15 Saturday, May 7 Acts 6:1-7, Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19, Jn 6:16-21 Sunday May 8, 3nd Sunday of Easter Acts 2: 1,22-33, Ps 16:1-2, 5,7-11, 1Pt 1:17-21; Lk 24:1335

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO #442. ACROSS: 1 Poplar, 4 Psycho, 9 Way of the cross, 10 Echelon, 11 Lasts, 12 Flora, 14 Greed, 15 Logic, 19 Limited, 21 Pectoral cross, 21 Delist, 23 Chosen. DOWN: 1 Pawner, 2 Psychological, 3 Awful, 5 Secular, 6 Cross sections, 7 Obsess, 8 Shine, 13 Reckons, 15 Eloped, 16 Alban, 17 Edison, 20 Micah.

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11

We need to go through a process of letting go of our old self, and to allow ourselves to be changed from within. This inner transformation needs to come from our free will to change, in cooperation with the will of God. Ephesians 4:22-24 (Living as children of light): “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Catherine de Valence, Cape Town

Word of the Week Pentateuch: The name given to the first five books of the Old Testament—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Also the Torah in the Jewish faith.

Application: The Pentateuch contains the story of Moses, the origins of the chosen people and the ten commandments.

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 (R1,15 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

BiRTHS HAMES—to richard and lauren (née licata) a beautiful baby boy, luke Joseph, born in yorkshire on 6 april 2011. third grandchild to Walter and Margaret licata of Farrarmere, Benoni, and great-grandchild to agnes Houghton of Sea Point

iN MEMORiAM LiNDSELL—Mary. Died april 18, 1997. My mother died 14 years ago at the age of 94, but she will always be remembered in our prayers. John and family.

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

Day of Prayer held at Springfield Convent starting at 10:00 ending 15:30 last Saturday of every month—all welcome. For more information contact Jane Hulley 021 790 1668 or 082 783 0331.

Holy Redeemer Bergvliet: Padre Pio prayer

group, every 3rd Sunday of the month.

DURBAN: St Anthony’s, Durban Central: tuesday 09:00 Mass with novena to St anthony. First Friday 17:30 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.

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

PLEASE NOTE: The launch of the Mariannhill Tea Garden (see last week’s report) has been postponed to May 14, and the craft market is now due to begin on April 30.

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In thanks for prayers answered. Pat. 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. rCP 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 the favour needed). Intercede for my family that we may always be provided for in all our

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3rd Sunday of Easter: May 8 Readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33, Psalm 16: 1-2, 5, 7-11, 1 Peter 1:17-21, Luke 24:13-35

I

F we are to take Resurrection seriously (and we are to take it very seriously indeed), then we must also take seriously the death of Jesus. That is the message of the combined readings that we shall be listening to next Sunday.

The first reading, as always in the Easter season, continues the path through Acts; and here we are given part of Peter’s speech on that first Pentecost Sunday. Here he starts by rebutting the charge that these first Christian evangelists are drunk (and how often have you been accused of being intoxicated because of the enthusiasm of your Christian teaching?).

In our reading, he then goes on to tell the story of Jesus, and how central he was in God’s plan; and we hear the Christian proclamation: “God raised him up, undoing the agony of death, because it was impossible that Jesus should be mastered by death.” Then he quotes one of David’s psalms in order to underline the impossibility, and then points to the fact that David is dead, and you can still see his tomb; in other words, this prediction referred to something, or rather someone, else, and that David “foresaw and spoke about the Resurrection of Christ. This Jesus God raised from the dead—and we are all witnesses”. So we must take Jesus’ death seriously, but only because of what God has so tri-

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‘You have been redeemed...’

Nicholas King SJ Sunday reflections umphantly done.

The psalm, of course, is the very psalm from which Peter so tellingly quotes: “I keep the Lord always before me; since he is at my right, I shall not be moved.”

There we see the Resurrection joy predicted: “You did not abandon my soul to Sheol, you did not allow your beloved to see the pit; you made me know the path of life.” The message is that God’s power is visibly at work in even our most complete apparent disasters.

That is the point that the second reading, continuing our journey through 1 Peter, is making: “You have been redeemed...by the precious blood of a flawless and immaculate Lamb—Christ, known in advance before the foundation of the world”. And Jesus has “been revealed at the end of the ages for your sakes, you who trust in God who raised Jesus from the dead...so that your faith and hope should be in God.” In other words, it is not just about God and Jesus, but also about you:

and how, this week, are you going to respond to that?

Well, you might take as your model the two people (possibly a man and a woman) who, as next Sunday’s g o sp el starts, are revealed trudging a miserable road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, slightly less than eight miles. Their attention is exclusively on Jesus’ death; and so, pardonably enough, they fail to notice the very alive Jesus who is walking with them.

Indeed they are visibly irritated by his intrusion into their gloomy conversation, and when he enquires what they are discussing, Cleopas, one of the two, asks, somewhat aggressively, if Jesus is “the only visitor to Jerusalem, and you don’t know what’s happened there in these days?”

As it turns out, of course, the object of this rebuke is the only person in Jerusalem who does know what has been happening. So Jesus, all innocent, entices the story out of them, about this “prophet, mighty in word and deed”, whom they had been hoping “was the one who was going to redeem Israel”.

That hope however has turned out to be delusive, because he is very publicly dead, even though “some women from our group” (but you know how women are) “have amazed us, turning up at the tomb in the early morning and not finding the body, and saying they

Let’s hear your funny stories M Y youngest son was about two years old when his great mission in life was to escape from the cry-room and get in among the pews in the body of the church.

We always managed to catch him somewhere near the door, but there came a time when our vigilance lapsed and the next thing we knew he was toddling confidently down the aisle heading towards the altar.

Our parish priest was in the middle of his homily when he looked down and saw a two-year-old standing about half a metre away staring up at him.

He decided to ignore the distraction and kept on preaching, in spite of the fact that the entire congregation was waiting with bated breath to see what would happen next.

My wife and I decided to stay put and give the impression that he was someone else’s child, because neither of us was prepared to go hotfooting up the aisle after him in the middle of a sermon.

We silently hoped that he would grow tired of looking at the priest and wander off to some quiet part of the church where we could shanghai him without causing too much of a disturbance.

No such luck. He suddenly got that panicky look on his face that all twoyears-olds get when they are separated from their parents. He took a step up onto the altar, stood next to the priest

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Chris Moerdyk

the last Word and yelled “Mom!” in a voice more befitting a ten year old with a bee up his trousers.

To this day, I thank the Good Lord that he yelled “mom” and not “dad”, because it was my wife who had to sheepishly make her way up the main aisle and apologetically rescue the young whippersnapper—who then had the temerity to point at the priest and say in a loud voice: “Look, funny man, funny man...”

This in turn reminds me of another absolutely true story that also took place at Mass, during the consecration when the priest said: “This is my body.” To which my cousin’s threeyear-old stood up on top of the pew, turned his back to the altar, pointed to his posterior and boomed out: “And this is my botty.”

I have written in the past about other amusing incidents in church: the altar server who managed to swing the thurifer through 360° during benediction, and last week about the social engagement of CBC boys and Loreto Convent girls through the use of water pistols after Wednesday

Conrad Blessed John Paul, the pope who brought down the iron curtain

evening novena.

I have no doubt whatsoever that when innocent amusing incidents take place in church, God laughs louder than us all. After all, he gave us a sense of humour and the ability to laugh.

So the editor has kindly agreed with considerable enthusiasm for this week’s and last week’s column to be used to try and find more amusing stories that have taken place in church.

I am sure that almost every one of the 45 000-plus readers of The Southern Cross has at least one or two stories to tell.

You can e-mail your stories to me at cmoerdyk@scross.co.za. For those of you who do not have e-mail, I am sure that a friendly fellow parishioner who is connected to the Internet will offer to help—especially as they might also qualify for a prize.

The Southern Cross’ panel of judges will go through all the submissions and choose a winner or maybe a number of winners. We haven’t decided on a prize yet, but there will be something really worthwhile. Remember that R1 000 prize we offered for the great Southern Cross Anagram competition?

Well, it might well be something like that.

My job will be to select from the entries those that I think should be published in this column from time to time. So, lets have those stories. Mi columna, su columna (my column is your column).

All of this reminds me of a partially deaf Catholic with a wonderful singing voice who happened to be at a funeral in a Protestant church. When the choir started singing the Lord’s Prayer he gave vent with all his might, singing his heart out.

What he didn’t realise was that at this particular church they simply finished the Lord’s Prayer with “Amen” and didn’t carry on with the doxology (“for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory”).

When everyone else stopped he just kept going and being partially deaf didn’t realise he was entirely on his own.

The congregation politely allowed him to finish. To this day he swears blind the corpse clapped.

had even seen a vision of angels who said he was alive”.

But, of course, that can’t be true, because the dead do not rise, though they do agree that the tomb was empty. And what is Jesus’ response? It is quite unexpected. There is no sympathy for their misery; instead they are roundly rebuked: “You stupid men, so slow of heart to believe all that the prophets said!”

Then comes the sermon (for the whole story is really a kind of liturgy on the move), and he explains how it was “necessary that the Messiah should suffer and enter his glory, beginning from Moses and the prophets”.

The sermon comes to an end just as they reach Emmaus, and this couple is sufficiently intrigued to invite him in, because of the lateness of the hour, and the fact that “the sun has gone to bed”. Then, however, the guest takes over, and he “took bread, and blessed and broke, and gave it to them”, as Christians have done ever since. And then, as Christians have done ever since, “they recognised him”.

At that point, Jesus disappears from their sight, but it simply does not matter, and they gallop the eight miles back to Jerusalem as though it were just eight yards, and exchange news with the rest of the brethren.

Suddenly the sadness of death is swallowed up by God’s astonishing victory. Will that make a difference to you, this week?

Southern Crossword #442

ACROSS

DOWN

1. Tree from which Jacob took branches (Gn 30) (6) 4. He starts 2 down with a social disorder (6) 9. Path followed during Lent (3,2,3,5) 10. Organisational rank on leech (7) 11. Cobblers’ tools (5) 12. She’s found among indigenous plants (5) 14. Selfish desire for things (5) 18. Reasoning process in 2 down (5) 19. Not infinite (7) 21. Bishop's Christian badge (8,5) 22. Remove from catalogue (6) 23. Picked out like the Apostles (6)

1. He puts something in hock (6) 2. Has to do with emotional states (13) 3. Bad and not quite lawful (5) 5. As cruel as not religious (7) 6. Diagrams of Christian subdivision? (5,8) 7. Preoccupy with worry (6) 8. Sin he commits will illuminate (5) 13. Calculates(7) 15. Ran off together to wed (6) 16. The first British martyr (5) 17. Inventor on side (6) 20. Minor prophet (5)

Answers on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

n Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut. The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest’s breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.

He says: “Sir, have you been drinking?” “Just water”, says the priest, fingers crossed. The trooper says: “Then why do I smell wine?” The priest looks at the bottle and says: “Good Lord! He’s done it again!”

Send us your favourite Catholic joke, preferably clean and brief, to The Southern Cross, Church Chuckle, PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000.