The Southern Cross - 110706

www.scross.co.za

July 6 to July 12, 2011

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

Pilgrimages: An overview of travels of faith

No 4733

Pope Benedict Rare copy of ancient icon launches site with historic tweet blessed in SA Page 2

Page 10

Page 4

Big numbers for Youth Day

By SaraH DELaNEy & CLaIrE MaTHIESON

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RGANISERS of this year’s World Youth Day (WYD) say that the figures for registration and requests to volunteer are higher than ever and augur well for a successful and joyful gathering in Madrid on August 16-21.

Pope Benedict is scheduled to attend the event and organisers said they expect more than 1 million young pilgrims to join him.

Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, who leads the Vatican agency organising the huge event, said that some 440 000 young people had already signed up, a record number for registrations with the event still six weeks away. More than 35 000 young Catholics have applied for one of 22 500 places in the vast volunteer corps, he said.

Nearly 1 000 pilgrims representing most dioceses in the Southern African region, including Swaziland and Botswana, will take part in WYD. The Youth Commission of Durban has been a part of the national organisation effort and reports that Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town and Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg are also scheduled to make the pilgrimage.

Cardinal Rylko said that one of the “strong points” of the gathering was the opportunity for youth to hear catechesis, and that some 260 bishops would be offering sessions in several different areas of the city in 30 languages.

For the first time, the South African bishops will be hosting the WYD catechesis for

English-speaking countries. Pilgrims will spend morning sessions of prayer and guidance with the religious as part of the WYD programme.

In contrast to preparations for the last WYD in Sydney, Australia, in 2008, South African organisers have reported no visa problems for the Madrid event.

At a news conference at the Vatican, Cardinal Rylko said Pope Benedict will spend August 18-21 in Madrid, meeting with the young people several times and even hearing the confessions of some of them. The sight of young people going to confession in fields and tents has been a standard part of World Youth Day gatherings, but the Madrid celebration will mark the first time the pope himself will administer the sacrament at the event.

Yago de la Cierva, executive director of World Youth Day, said that the organisation was proceeding on time and that an efficient and widespread network among parishes and other Church institutions in Madrid was contributing to the good pace of preparation.

Mr De la Cierva said the Spanish government and local authorities were providing logistical help, certain venues and some tax breaks to companies working on the organisation, but that no direct financial contribution had come from the public sector. While the total cost is expected to be up to 62 million euros (R610 million), de la Cierva said it was expected to generate 100 million euros (R983 million) for Madrid and Spain.

Organisers are asking the youthful participants to contribute, if they can, to help out their peers who otherwise would not be able to attend for financial reasons.

Nazi victims’ beatification ‘must plant seed for ecumenism’

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HREE Catholic priests executed by the Nazi regime alongside their Lutheran friend were beatified in the northern German city of Lübeck.

Frs Hermann Lange, Eduard Müller and Johannes Prassek, along with Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, were guillotined in a Hamburg prison in November 1943. The Nazi regime found them guilty of “defeatism, malice, favouring the enemy and listening to enemy broadcasts”.

At the ceremony outside Lübeck’s Sacred Heart church, Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, declared the three priests “blessed”, and expressed an “honourable remembrance” for Pastor Stellbrink.

“What distinguishes these four also is the fact that in the face of National-Socialist despotism they overcame the divide between the two faiths to find a common path to fight and act together,” said the official history which accompanied the ceremony.

More than 9 000 pilgrims, both Catholic and Protestant, attended the ceremony.

The day before, Lutheran vespers were prayed for the martyrs at Lübeck’s Memorial church.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Germanborn ex-president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said in his homily at the beatification that the martyrs of Lübeck proved that not all Germans in the Third Reich were “blind followers or

(From left) Nazi victims Frs Eduard Müller, Johannes Prassek and Hermann Lange were to be beatified. Pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink is on the far right. cowardly fellow travellers”.

In a homily interrupted by frequent applause, Cardinal Kasper highlighted the unique ecumenical character of the beatification.

“The blood of the martyrs that flowed together under the guillotine has become a seed for ecumenism,” he said, adding that the beatification in Lübeck must produce a new inter-denominational impulse.

Lutheran Bishop Gerhard Ulrich of Schleswig told the congregation: “What unites us is stronger than what divides us.”

The following day Cardinal Amato travelled to Milan for the beatification of Fr Serafino Morazzone, Sr Enrica Alfieri, and Fr Clemente Vismara.

Bl Morazzone (1742-1822) was a parish priest who has been compared to St John Vianney; Bl Alfieri (1891-1951) ministered to prisoners. For 65 years, Bl Vismara (18971988) served as a missionary in Burma, where he converted 100 villages to the Catholic faith.

Salesian seminarians Brs raphael Bhembe and Christopher Slater, from Swaziland and Port Elizabeth respectively, on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. The future priests climbed africa’s highest peak while studying in Tanzania.

Salesian Brothers climb to the roof of Africa STaFF rEPOrTEr

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WO Salesian seminarians from Southern Africa recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro while studying at Don Bosco College in Moshi, Tanzania.

Brs Christopher Sharpe, from Port Elizabeth, and Raphael T Bhembe, from Swaziland, climbed the Marangu route, one of seven paths to the peak of Africa’s highest mountain.

“We were a team of nine, with two guides, a cook and porters,” Br Bhembe said.

“On day one, Valence, our chief guide, led the way through the Montane forest and in five hours we covered 12km. The first night was spent at Mandara hut, at an altitude of 2 700m,” he recalled.

On the second day, the group hiked another 12km. “The walk through the Moorland was fantastic,” Br Bhembe said.

“On our way to Horombo we had a chance to see some amazing plants that are [unique] to Kilimanjaro, like the Senecia Kilimanjari, a 3m tall aloe-like plant.”

He said that up to 4 700m, the group’s altitude tolerance levels were fine, but by that point “we had grown used to the guide’s philosophy of pole pole—‘take it slowly’”, the Salesian said.

Recalling the hours before ascending the mountain’s summit, Br Bhembe said: “The tea we had at 10pm, before taking the trail to the ice-capped summit, was like a Last Supper—solemn and silent! We took apprehensive steps and zigzagged to Hans Meyer’s Cave [at 5 150m]. We carried on in discomfort to Gillman’s point [5 681m] which is at the rim of the crater.”

The medication the group took to alleviate altitude sickness was having some side

effects, he said, and the longest time the climbers could rest was five minutes, or they would freeze.

“The expedition got rougher. I was worn out and Valence carried my bag. Br Chris looked fine. That encouraged me,” Br Bhembe said.

“At every turn we hoped Uhuru Peak would be right there, but instead it seemed to recede further. We saw the welcome board when we didn’t care, and just as the sun rose,” Br Bhembe said.

However, the mood changed upon reaching the peak. “Tears welled up in our eyes as we realised we were privileged to be experiencing a unique fully-alive-special-mystic moment.”

The group spent only a few minutes at the summit.

“As we started our descent, we shared the Gospel feeling of ‘Did not our hearts burn within us whilst he was talking to us on the way’ (Lk 24). We also felt relieved that succeeding in our quest would save us from embarrassment back at home, especially when we learnt that in the same week a nine-year old girl had broken the record as the youngest to reach Uhuru,” Br Bhembe said.

“Happy memories don’t expire, and we will be sharing this adventure with others in order to re-live it every time we re-tell it,” Br Bhembe said.

“Now I understand why aging confreres enjoy repeating stories of their experiences as young religious. Also, I appreciate better how pursuing God’s call to religious consecration and priesthood, is similar to climbing a high mountain! It is about taking a risk in order to live life to the fullest.”

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LOCAL

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

Ancient icon copy blessed for charity STaFF rEPOrTEr

A The Catholic Institute of Education met with Catholic schools that support vulnerable learners to reflect and plan for the future. a key focus of the workshop was to explore new directions for the programme to ensure that vulnerable children can benefit from Catholic education.

Some schools have stretched their rands, and one school in the Free State supports orphans through the Education access Project. One principal said: “This support has allowed us to keep children in our school who would never be able to afford the fees otherwise. It is great for the child to know their fees are paid and that they need not worry about their next meal.”

Further information or to support a vulnerable learner, call 011 433 1888 or e-mail barbara@cie.org.za

Gospel CD in high demand

By MaurICIO LaNga HE gospel CD Ngiyavuma Baba has proved so successful across the country that more copies had to be pressed.

The ten-track CD was released by the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill.

Ngiyavuma Baba can be purchased at the Monastery Repository at R70.

According to the Mariannhill novice master Fr Lawrence Mota CMM, the high demand of the gospel CD is an indication that

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society is in need of the word of God as a sign of hope and encouragement.

“This is very encouraging and gives us strength to work hard to meet the demands of the people and the Church at large,” said Fr Mota, adding that music is another effective form of evangelisation and reviving human values. n For more information on Ngiyavuma Baba contact Monastery Repository on 031 700 1031 or Mariannhill Monastery on 031 70 4288 or Fr Lawrence Mota on 078 568 5809

REPRODUCTION of an ancient icon commissioned by an organisation serving child burn survivors was blessed by the archbishop of Cape Town at a special Mass.

The reproduction of the icon of Our Lady of Philermos, was written by Redemptorist Brother Richard Maidwell, a noted iconographer who is based at his order’s monastery in Bergvliet, Cape Town.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin blessed the icon at a Mass in Constantia for the Phoenix Burns Project and its parent body, St John Relief Services.

The Cape Town-based nonprofit organisation models its charism on the Rome-based Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.

The Order of Malta, as it is commonly known, was founded in Jerusalem in the 11th century to provide care for poor and sick pilgrims to the Holy Land. It is the world’s oldest surviving order of chivalry.

The Our Lady of Philermos is a famous icon of the Order of Malta.

According to Dr Peter Martinez, president of St John Relief Services, the Phoenix Burns Project addresses the order’s mission, obsequium pauperum (“to serve the poor and the sick”).

As a step to meet the order’s

We are a Religious Missionary Family: Sisters, Brothers, Priests and Lay people, from about thirty different Countries, living in international and intercultural communities located in many countries.

Our specific characteristic, or charism, is ”To give to the world the Good News as God’s consolation, Jesus”, as Mary did.

Mary Consolata is our “Founder”, our Patroness our Model, and our Mother.

God might be calling you to share this beautiful task.

If so, do not say “No!” For more informationcontact: Vocation coordinator Consolata Missionaries P.O.Box 31072 0134 Totiusdal

Tel./Fax: 012.3324326 vocatio@consolata.net www.consolata.org http://consolatasa.blogspot.com/

other mission, tuitio fidei (“to defend the faith”), the organisation commissioned the reproduction of Our Lady of Philermos icon.

Tradition has it that the original icon was painted by the evangelist Luke and it is thus believed by some to bear a close resemblance to the Virgin Mary. The icon was discovered by the Knights of St John in Rhodes in 1306 and remained in their possession until the loss of Malta by the Knights in 1798. Thereafter it came into the possession of Tsar Paul I of Russia and changed hands several times, eventually winding up in Yugoslavia.

Considered lost for some time, a few years ago the icon was “rediscovered” and now is on display in the national museum in Cetinje, Montenegro.

In order to reconstruct this icon, Br Maidwell worked with photographs of the faded original.

The icon was blessed and formally installed in the Marian chapel in Constantia’s Our Lady of the Visitation church during the Mass celebrated by Archbishop Brislin, the patron of the St John Relief Services.

The archbishop praised St John Relief Services for the work being

done with burn survivors.

Dr Martinez said that it is St John Relief Services’ goal to become a South African association of the Order of Malta.

There is presently one other local organisation affiliated to the order in South Africa: the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard in Mandeni, KwaZulu-Natal.

In May, Dr Martinez and Fr Andrew Cox, parish priest of Constantia, joined the order’s annual Lourdes pilgrimage as guests of the Australian Association of the Order.

“It was a wonderful experience,” said Dr Martinez. “Our initiative to establish a presence of the order in Cape Town was well received.” He said the initiative was endorsed by Archbishop Brislin.

In his homily, Fr Andrew Cox, chaplain of St John Relief Services, said that membership to the Order of Malta “entails some serious personal commitments.

Becoming a member is in a sense a vocation and a response to a call.”

The Order has about 13 000 members and 80 000 volunteers worldwide. n For more information about St John Relief Services, please contact Pam Adshade on 021 794 5185.

archbishop Stephen Brislin blesses a reproduction of the Our Lady of Philermos icon, which was written by a South african iconographer for the Phoenix Burns Project. Fr andrew Cox of Constantia looks on. (Photo: Jade Maxwell-Newton)

Professional Health Care Bursary Do you have a passion for nursing but not the financial means to achieve your dream? Nazareth House Cape Town are offering an opportunity to empower and enrich communities by providing an opportunity to those less financially able to educate themselves in a selfless career path of caring and putting back into a skills shortage country.

Should you be interested in being part of this training programme and meet the following criteria: • Senior Certificate/Matric Certificate or equivalent • Excellent comprehension of the English language both writ ten and verbal • Energetic, happy and of good health • good Christian values • Sober habits • Valid Sa Identity document For more information please submit a motivational letter, supported by your local parish priest to rosie Whittaker rosie@nazhouse.co.za

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

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Durban’s new mayor praises Denis Hurley STaFF rEPOrTEr

D Durban’s new mayor, James Nxumalo, is seen at the City Hall where he praised archbishop Denis Hurley for his service to the people of South africa.

URBAN’S new mayor, James Nxumalo, appointed after the local government elections of May 18, has praised the late Archbishop Denis Hurley for his role in the liberation struggle.

At Mr Nxumalo’s inauguration as mayor of the eThekwini Municipality, he led a procession of old and new councillors which began close to Emmanuel cathedral and then proceeded down Denis Hurley Street, into Dr Yusuf Dadoo

Faith-sharing programme launched in Cape Town

By CLaIrE MaTHIESON

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RCHBISHOP Stephen Brislin has launched Ecclesia—an educational DVD that will be released across the archdiocese of Cape Town as part of its pastoral plan to increase discussion and faith-sharing between Catholics.

The archbishop said the 2007 archdiocesan synod set a clear goal to encourage faith-sharing groups.

He said the archdiocese wants priests to encourage the parishioners to form groups and get people talking about faith and sharing their experiences which will “lead to a deepening of faith”.

The DVD has been developed specifically with faith-sharing groups in mind. The archbishop said the Pastoral Care Council considered various platforms for the programme to follow. “We knew what we wanted to do. It’s easy to know, but it’s very difficult to do,” Archbishop Brislin said.

“The programme is new. There was no blueprint to follow, but we felt this was the best route to achieve the kind of movement in the Church discussed in the 2007

synod,” he said.

Ecclesia will be released in three phases, each containing six episodes of ten minutes. The idea, the archbishop said, was to present a topic for discussion which will be viewed by the group and then discussed. “The DVD will guide faith-sharing groups into discussion around a variety of topics,” he said.

Presented by Mgr Andrew Borello, vicar for pastoral development in the archdiocese, the course is set to run for one year in the archdiocese with the themes “Love the Church,” “Our faith, our life” and “Brave new Church”.

Each faith-sharing group will have a leader and training is required for all group facilitators.

The groups will work with the DVDs and accompanying booklets which contain quotes from Scripture and Church teachings and questions for discussion, encouraging prayer and action.

Ecclesia is the official programme of the archdiocese with all parishes getting involved. Material has been made available in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa.

Archbishop Brislin said Ecclesia is also being launched under the banner of Hope&Joy as both projects celebrated themes of Vatican II. “Both Ecclesia and Hope&Joy encompass the principles of an outward looking Church and will encourage great involvement from the laity,” he said, adding that both projects will spur thought, provoke discussion and understanding and encourage action.

In an area where faith-sharing groups are a relatively unknown concept, Archbishop Brislin said he hopes the project will spread quickly and grow the faith of Catholics around Cape Town.

Street (named in honour of a founder of the SA Indian Congress) and from there into Dr Pixley ka Seme Street (in honour of a president and founder of the ANC) and ended at the City Hall where the first meeting of the new council was held.

“As I walked”, said Mr Nxumalo, “I thought about how I would not be standing here today if it wasn’t for giants like these. They had a moral character beyond reproach. They all had a vision way beyond the life and times in

which they lived and worked.”

“But, importantly, they were rooted amongst the poor and oppressed, amongst those fighting for peace and justice, and they stood for those who spoke truth to power,” he said.

The march began opposite the site where it is hoped construction on the Denis Hurley Centre will commence before the end of 2011.

It was also the starting point for the great Freedom March of September 22, 1989, which was led by Archbishop Hurley.

CWL website provides mothers with adoption support

By CLaIrE MaTHIESON

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HE Catholic Woman’s League (CWL) Adoption Society has launched a new website (www.adoptions.org.za) in South Africa to increase awareness of the work the CWL does.

With its national headquarters in Johannesburg, the society provides a range of support services to adoptive families, birth parents and pregnant and birth mothers to be.

According to the new website, which aims to promote the services available to the public, “the interests of the infants and children are always of paramount importance throughout the adop-

tion process. A long history of providing these services [both within South Africa and internationally] and loving and happy families and mothers who have adopted, bears testimony what [CWL] stands for.”

The website encourages parties interested in adopting or having babies adopted to contact the CWL through its confidential channels, which are obligationfree.

The website caters equally to potential parents and pregnant mothers who are considering adoption.

It also contains useful links to other related websites. n For more information visit the website or call 011 618 1533

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

The pope’s first-ever tweet

By SaraH DELaNEy

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LMOST two years after the historic Second African Synod in Rome, a group of Catholic theologians drawn from various parts of Africa has published a book on the issue.

The 259-page volume, titled Reconciliation, Justice, and Peace: The Second African Synod, was edited by Nigerian Fr Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator SJ. The book comprises 20 chapters covering themes such as theology, interreligious dialogue, justice and peace, the Church’s mission in the public sphere, ecclesial leadership, gender justice, ecology, poverty, and HIV/Aids.

The book has been published in two editions: a global and an English-speaking Africa edition.

The global edition is published by Orbis Books, a project of the Maryknoll Society, based in New York. The English-speaking Africa edition is published by the Kenya-based Acton Publishers.

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OPE Benedict himself gave a cyber spark of life to a new Internet portal that gathers all Vatican news into one multimedia website.

With a click on a tablet device on the evening of June 28, Pope Benedict officially launched the aggregator of news content from the Vatican’s newspaper, radio, television and online outlets.

At the same time, he made the first-ever papal tweet on the social networking site Titter.

“Dear Friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI,” the pope tweeted.

The site, www.news.va, will be will streamline news from the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Radio, the Vatican television station CTV, the Vatican Information Service, the Fides missionary news agency, the Vatican press office, and the main Vatican website, said Archbishop Claudio Celli, who heads the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

It offers print, video and audio material in Italian and English.

New languages will be added gradually, beginning with Spanish.

Thaddeus Jones, an official of the pontifical council who coordinated the creation of the portal, said it will give all the information generated by the various information sources but will highlight the latest news and most important items of the day.

The first big test, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, head of the Vatican press office, will be

archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, assists Pope Benedict with the new Vatican news portal on an iPad. The information portal at www.news.va aggregates the Vatican’s various media into a one-stop site for all things papal. (Photo: L'Osservatore) the World Youth Day event in Madrid in August, which is expected to generate heavy traffic to the site.

Costs of the development and maintenance of the site will be borne exclusively through donations from private organisations and foundations, Archbishop Celli said. It will not be supported at present or in the future by advertising or other commercial initiatives, he said.

While Pope Benedict may not appear to be a media-savvy pontiff, Archbishop Celli said, “in reality, with this pope Vatican communications have made enormous strides”.

The archbishop gave as an example the pope’s reply when his advisers proposed an appearance on YouTube. According to the archbishop, the pope replied: “I want to be present wherever the people are found.”—CNS

Vatican might issue clergy-laity document

By JOHN THaVIS

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HE Vatican is studying a possible document on the relationship of clergy and laity, which touches on the sensitive issue of the administration of the Church’s goods, Vatican sources said.

The sources said the document under preparation only marginally touches on the topic of parish closings and, if published, will be

directed at the universal Church.

“The main topic here is the respect of norms regarding the nature of the priesthood in collaboration with laypeople, especially as it is affected by the restructuring of parish life,” said one source familiar with the draft document.

“In some countries, new forms of parish structures have been created in which the priestly ministry appears weakened—in practice, the

priest’s role risks being reduced to that of a celebrant of the sacraments, while teams of laypeople are put in charge of management.

But the office of governing is part of the priestly ministry,” he said.

The preparation of the document is being guided by the Congregation for Clergy because it has competence over matters pertaining to the administration of ecclesiastical goods.—CNS

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In his introduction, Fr Orobator observes that Africa is not helpless and that its destiny is still in its own hands.

He points out that the movement from the first African Synod in 1994 to the Second African Synod in 2009 traces the trajectory of a steadily maturing theology of the nature and mission of the Church in Africa.

Fr Orobator says a distinct nature and coherent mission form part of the essence of the Church.

The synod, he wrote, involves a process that brings the past, present, and future realities of the church into sharper focus.

More importantly, it is communal event that takes the form of conversation.

Pope Benedict will promulgate the Report on the Synod, the post- synod exhortation, during his visit to Benin from November 18-20.—CISA

Nun: Why we stay in Libya

By PauL JEFFrEy

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NUN working in rebel-held eastern Libya says she and other sisters have remained because of their commitment to the people they serve.

“This is our first experience of being in a war, and we’re sad to see the people dying, especially the youth who are offering themselves for freedom and for the future of this country. But it’s our duty to be here, no matter how much life has changed,” said Sr Priscilla Isidore, a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception of Ivrea.

Sr Isidore, a Tanzanian, has lived in Libya for 16 years and works as a nurse in the city’s 7th October Hospital.

When the uprising against Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi broke out in February, Benghazi was the scene of violent clashes. After a week, the city was largely in the hands of the opposition. Sporadic episodes of violence still occur, however.

Sr Isidore, 56, said 24 nuns remain in eastern Libya, working in Benghazi, al-Marj, al-Bayda, Derna and Tobruk. Three other sisters left the country in response to the fighting, she said.

“The situation here isn’t easy, and we sisters are free to remain or leave. Most of us remain here because of God, because of our people, because of the Church. We choose to continue to offer our life for the people. Whether the situation is good or not good, we choose God, we choose the cross of our Lord, to continue as he did.

He couldn’t put his cross aside,” she said.

“Because the Lord is our hope, we will continue with our work among the sick and injured people here and, if necessary, to die with them. That’s our mission. That’s why Christ sent us here.”

Libya is a Muslim country, with Christianity restricted mostly to enclaves of foreign workers, many of whom have been evacuated from the country. Sr Isidore said she has had no problem with the

Sr Priscilla Isidore, a Tanzanian nun, says she and othe Sisters have remained in Libya despite the civil war that broke out in February.

(Photo: Paul Jeffrey, CNS) country’s Muslims.

“People love us so much. This year, our congregation has been here for 100 years. We have a strong history of love, unity and communion with the people. So the people love us, because they see that the sisters are here for God and love everybody. They call us mothers, and we call them our children, brothers and sisters. They respect us. They see we didn’t come here for other interests, only to work for God and the people. So they love us and we have no problems staying amidst them.”

Sr Isidore said she is inspired by the devotion of those around her.

“We have seen the people pray a lot during this period, pray together, putting their life in God’s hands, struggling together with God. We have seen the people suffering. In the hospital we have seen increased problems of high blood pressure and diabetes, symptoms of the difficult situation the people are facing,” she said.

“We hope this situation won’t be for nothing, but will be for good, that it will be better in the country. We pray that God will again give us peace,” she said.— CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

5

Bishop: Catholic newspapers are still the best way to evangelise

By SaM LuCErO

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a young man dressed as a devil prepares to take part in a parade in Ocumare, Venezuela. The festival, a mixture of african Caribbean rites and music with the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi, commemorates the triumph of good over evil. (Photo: Jorge Silva, reuters/CNS)

Pope: Help those who flee

By CarOL gLaTz

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OPE Benedict has called for emergency assistance to thousands of people fleeing the violence and civil strife in North Africa and the Middle East, and he appealed to nations to explore “every possible form of mediation” to bring an end to the conflicts.

He asked the Vatican’s coordinating body of Church funding agencies for Eastern Catholic churches to “do everything possible” to help the minority Christian populations remain in the region.

The pope’s appeal came during a meeting with the Vatican coordinating body, known by its Ital-

ian acronym ROACO, which was holding its annual general meeting at the Vatican.

Participants were discussing the changes taking place in North Africa and the Middle East as well as how bishops were following up on the special Synod of Bishops for the Middle East in 2010.

The pope said the region of North Africa and the Middle East “is so important for world peace and stability” and he said the events unfolding there were “a source of anxiety throughout the world.”

He said his thoughts and prayers were with all those “who are suffering and to those who are trying desperately to escape,” often without hope.—CNS

LTHOUGH social media is the rage in today’s world of communication, a US Catholic bishop has made an impassioned speech in support of Catholic print publications.

During a panel discussion at the 2011 US Catholic Media Convention in Pittsburgh, the city’s Bishop David Zubik said Catholic newspapers and magazines continue to be the best way to reach people in the pews.

“There has been no greater and more consistent success in Catholic communications...than through the use of print,” the bishop said.

“We can and we must use every means of social communications available to us today: television, radio, Twitter, Facebook, Skype and whatever has evolved since you and I began our meeting this morning. But I believe that it is incumbent on us as bishops and

on us as Church to maintain a vital Catholic print presence.”

His remarks were greeted with applause.

Bishop Zubik noted that he could not predict whether the printed word would still have the same impact in 20 years, but today, “absolutely and fundamentally the best option...to evangelise the evangelisers, is through Catholic print”.

Bishop Zubik said that “a Catholic newspaper today is not a luxury. It is a necessity. And to my mind, at least for the moment, it remains the best vehicle for adult faith formation that we have”.

Meanwhile, during the conference, the Catholic Academy of Communication Arts Professionals presented Cardinal John Foley, a retired Vatican official and former Catholic newspaper editor in Philadelphia, with the Gabriel Award for lifetime achievement.

Cardinal Foley, who headed the Pontifical Council for Social Com-

munications at the Vatican from 1984 to 2007, spoke of some of the highlights of his radio career, including having to spend two hours on live TV in the Philippines during World Youth Day in 1995 while officials flew Pope John Paul II to the Mass site in a helicopter, since the record crowds of 5 million had blocked the streets.

Just this year, Cardinal Foley announced he was retiring and resigning from his post as grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in Rome, a position he was named to in 2007.

He said his medical condition— he has leukaemia—prevented him from having the energy to perform his duties.

He stressed the importance of the Catholic press.

“Like the crucifix above the bed in every Catholic home, a Catholic publication in the living room or the family room is a continuing reminder of our identity as Catholics,” he said.—CNS

Eucharist ‘an antidote to individualism’

By JOHN THaVIS

P

OPE Benedict has said the Eucharist is the heart of Church life and an “antidote” to the increasingly individualistic global culture.

The pope said the Eucharist is like the “pulsing heart” that gives life and meaning to everything the Church does.

As the sacrament of Communion, it is able to transform people’s lives, leading them to God, he said.

“In a culture that is more and more individualistic—a culture in which we are immersed in Western society, and that tends to spread itself throughout the world—the Eucharist constitutes a type of ‘antidote’,” the pope said.

“It works in the minds and hearts of believers and continually disseminates in them the logic of communion, of service, of sharing—in short, the logic of the Gospel.”

The pope said this spirit, nourished by the real presence of Christ

in the Eucharist, was evident in the lives of the early Christians, who lived fraternally and shared their worldly goods in common, so that no one was impoverished.

“And even in later generations through the centuries, the Church, despite human limits and errors, continued to be a force of communion in the world. We think especially of the most difficult periods of trial: what it meant, for example, in countries ruled by totalitarian regimes, to be able to gather at Sunday Mass,” he said.—CNS

6

LEADER PAGE

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The party as the state

S

OMETHING remarkable happened in South Africa in May. Only days before the municipal elections on May 18, communities in Ficksburg, Free State, were protesting fiercely against the poverty of service delivery by their local municipality—but when their opportunity came to eject from office those against whom they were demonstrating, they re-elected them.

The same happened throughout the country. Communities that protested against deficient performances of councils controlled by the African National Congress returned the same party which they accused of neglecting them.

This was in contrast to the counsel given by the Catholic bishops in the pastoral letter issued in March, which called on the electorate to ask the key question: “Have things improved or got worse in your area since the last municipal election?”, and vote accordingly.

There will be many reasons why people continue to vote for parties which have failed to serve them. Traditional and deeply entrenched party loyalties, based on history and race, seem to be fundamental in South African voting behaviour.

It is also apparent that most people in Ficksburg and in other poorly-run municipalities have no confidence that opposition parties would be any more competent or motivated to serve the poor.

But the phenomenon points to another truth: many South Africans, perhaps a majority, seem content with the notion that the ANC-led alliance is the only legitimate party in government. So even if the ANC’s deficiencies are so glaring as to prompt ferocious protests, the perceived alternative is not a change of party, but a different set of ANC functionaries.

This ties in with the ANC’s own apparent vision of itself as the state. The ANC takes it as seld-evident that top state positions must be filled by the deployment of loyal cadres from its own ranks, a practice that is regarded as undesirable in many democracies.

And so, in most regions of South Africa, opposition politics are not played out in parliament or at the polls, but within the structures of the ANC and its alliance partners, some of which

have unaccountably positioned themselves as “kingmakers”.

The electorate that is not active or influential in ANC structures—which is the majority—will be presented with effectively only one choice of president in the next national elections. And while that is of no benefit to our democracy, the electorate seems to be content with that arrangement.

The ANC cannot be asked to change this. It is every political party’s objective to rule into perpetuity (or as President Jacob Zuma once put it, “until Jesus comes back”).

It is not the sign of a healthy democracy, however, when the future leadership of the country is determined by the internal intrigues of a few individuals, based not so much on the priorities of policy or ideas as on the quality of personal relationships and the expectation of rewards for dispensing political support.

And when the alliance that backs an individual is as broad as it was in Polokwane in 2007, when Mr Zuma was ordained to become South Africa’s president, then there will likely be factions whose disappointment at not receiving what they expected finds expression in new rancorous intrigue.

Since the moves to unseat Thabo Mbeki from the presidency gathered pace in 2006, the perpetual instability within the ANC has done little to serve the nation.

Right now, the party’s functionaries are positioning themselves to back the faction that they think will emerge victorious from the ANC’s national elective conference next year.

Some will justifiably be concerned that a wrong move will see them purged, as many Mbeki loyalists swiftly were after Polokwane. All this gets in the way of the ANC’s mandate to do what they were elected for: to govern.

Whatever the outcome of the ANC’s internal power struggle, the party will almost definitely win the next election, regardless of its presidential candidate.

It is indeed remarkable that a large proportion of the electorate invests such trust in the ANC that it returns the party into power even when it has failed. So now it is time for the ANC to forgo internal warfare and self-aggrandisement, and justify the trust the voters have invested in the ruling party.

We are called to be evangelisers

M

ANY thanks for Archbishop William Slattery’s article, “At Pentecost we are called to witness” (June 8). The article was read out in full at Mass in our parish on Pentecost Sunday, Most Catholics are not inclined towards evangelisation. Absorbed in the inner struggles of the Church, and occasionally with peace and justice, contemporary Catholics feel relatively little responsibility for spreading the faith.

The apostolate in the past was mainly aimed at showing nonCatholics that Christ had founded the one, true, hierarchical Church.

The Gospel was hardly ever at the centre. Ecclesiocentricity was the order of the day.

Many Catholics who have left

the Church for fundamentalism stress that despite the Church’s stress on the importance of the Eucharist, the Mass and the sacraments, they had never had the basic gospel (the kerygma) preached to them, and as a result have not found the living Jesus in the Catholic Church.

The First Vatican Council, in the mid-19th century, used the term “gospel” only once, and never used the term evangelise or evangelisation. By contrast, Vatican II mentioned the Gospel 157 times, evangelise 18 times and evangelisation 31 times.

In the ecclesial vision of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, the heart and centre is the proclamation of God’s saving love shown forth in Jesus Christ. Where the name of Jesus is not spoken, there can be no

Fill the youth with desire

get to know the person and teachings of Christ; and then grow a personal relationship with him.

We must also introduce our youth to that charismatic experience within the Catholic Church; then they won’t leave to seek this joyful and exciting experience in Pentecostal assemblies.

When that special day arrives to receive the sacrament of Confirmation, it should be a truly meaningful and Pentecostal experience.

And there is no reason why it should not be.

Fr Ralph de Hahn, Cape Town

A

RCHBISHOP William Slattery of Pretoria reminds us that every baptised Christian “is called to be a witness” and that “the Church exists to evangelise” (June 8).

He offers a few examples of how “the message of Pentecost is one of New Life” and expresses the hope that we “will come to understand and witness to the Lord”.

I, and many others, would love to see this happen. We are faced with the undeniable truth that we are losing thousands of our young people after their Confirmation. It is even more sad that so many of our energetic youth desire to be confirmed as early as possible, not longing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the work of evangelisation as a living witness to Christ, but rather to be freed from all Church domination and restrictions; to be set free.

Many of them are terrified of being labelled as witnesses of Jesus.

They remain silent; they join their peers and move with the fashions.

Normally, after three years of preparation, the candidate kneels before his bishop; there is the laying of hands, the holy oils and the spoken word: “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” And that's it!

Behold a new soldier of the Lord. These young warriors step out into a cruel uncaring world, unable to defend their Catholic faith because they do not know nor understand what they believe and why.

Apart from clear instruction in the Church’s dogma, we need a Catholic version of the Alpha course so that confirmands may

To be a farmer

T

HE photo that illustrated your article “Farming as a vocation” (May 11) gave a true picture of farming in Africa. Women do the work at home while men, if they are lucky, work elsewhere.

The suggestion in the article that vegetables and fruit should be grown to help eke out the home budget by supplying fresh food at little cost is sound, but does not conform to reality in most cases.

If fertiliser is not bought then livestock must be kept to supply manure to make compost to feed the plants. Livestock requires food and veterinary care. Disease and pest control is a major factor in growing crops, and costs money.

Water is the greatest requirement for plants, and in many Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate.

Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately.

evangelisation in the true sense.

One does not witness only by the example of one's life, but, as Pope Paul VI stressed in Evangelii Nuntiandi, also “by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the name of the Lord Jesus”.

Catholic spirituality at its best has always promoted the absolute necessity of a deep, personal relationship with Jesus. Even though this is stressed more today, it seems that the expression passes over the heads of many, or how to go about appropriating it for themselves.

The good news in Jesus Christ is the best and most exciting news there is, and if we Catholics do not witness to Jesus as a priority, it simply shows that we have misunderstood the basic message of the Gospel, and that we are about “saving our own souls” instead of allowing Jesus Christ to do it for us.

John Lee, Johannesburg

instances has to be brought by bucket a distance to water the garden. What is surprising is that nowhere have I seen water collected from roofs of houses in communal lands. Rain can provide a good quantity, and even a heavy dew dripping off the roof into a gutter and into a drum can yield a worthwhile amount.

For young men and women with sound education, farming is a career well worth following, though unless one has a rich daddy or one with a farm, it is highly unlikely that they will ever be able to buy and start their own farm. The cost of land and machinery will be well beyond their likely income.

However, if they are willing to put up with hard work, both physical and mental, and the occasional outburst of bad temper from a possibly harried boss, then a healthy, interesting life in agriculture is the life for them.

R Auret, Thornville, KZN

Travel impression

Y

OUR edition of June 1 mentions the unveiling of a plaque on a house at 100 Holywell Street in Oxford in commemoration of Catholic martyrs executed during the Reformation—hanged, drawn and quartered, the usual and cruel punishment.

Recently while visiting the site, I saw a man entering the humble house and I told him that this house was mentioned in a South African newspaper and that I had come from South Africa to see the memory plaque. I told him also that I was proud to be a Catholic.

Was it just my imagination or did he really look impressed?

JH Goossens, Dundee

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PERSPECTIVES

We must be ready to give

O

LD age has hit a widower who depends on begging. Look at the old man sleeping under the hedge outside Matola novitiate in Mozambique.

Next to him, he has a variety of plastics and inside those there is food of different types. He got the food from wellwishers. He visits the novitiate to have something to eat of the left overs from our table, and often he takes something with him to eat later.

Does that remind you of the story in the Bible of the woman who came to Jesus to ask for favours?

All of us are made in the image of God. We are brothers and sisters. This man does not have a bed or a mat. The earth is his mat. He cannot speak of shoes, and changing clothes for him is unheard of.

Do you chase away a fellow like this?

No, he is made in the image of God and his dignity has to be preserved and protected. “I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was naked and you gave me clothes.”

In Africa’s urban centres, this man’s situation are experiences we have grown used to. We encounter these pathetic situations every day.

Here at the novitiate, the novice master urged us to have a good lunch and a lighter supper. Should we sleep on the cement floor too, without a cover? Or maybe sleep outside, across the flower hedge, like the man you see in the photo?

Witnessing abject poverty caused Bl Mother Teresa of Calcutta to found the Missionaries of Charity.

St Marcellin Champagnat, founder of

my congregation, the Marist Brothers, also had time for the aged and the poor.

We cannot send them away because they will die of hunger.

Almost all consecrated people claim to have something to do with the poor, especially with the most destitute.

The fellow you see in the photo has no house, no children and no grandchildren.

We, the people of Africa, traditionally have a special love for the aged, whom we call the source of wisdom. The extended family link had been our strong point for many generations. But today, we tend to mind our own business.

There is a Chichewa proverb: “Kakoma ponya mkawa akakhala galu uyang´ana ndi

a homeless man sleeps under the hedges of the Marist novitiate in Matola, Mozambique. (photo Simeon Banda FSM)

To live life to the fullest

‘L

IFE is difficult!” These are the opening words of M Scott Peck’s best-seller The Road Less Travelled. Scott Peck continues to say that this is a great truth.

It is indeed a great truth because once we truly see it, we transcend it.

Once we truly know that life is difficult—once we truly understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

Generally, we do not consciously live with the fact that life is difficult. We are always looking for ways of how to do things easier, to escape difficulty, to avoid challenges. We live with the illusion of our times ahead as being hasslefree, without problems and generally smooth sailing. Yet that is exactly what it is—an illusion.

It’s an illusion because we are meant to live life and live it to the fullest. “I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).

True and abundant life consists of blissful joys and painful woes. It is precisely in experiencing our woes, our difficulties and facing our challenges that we truly feel alive.

Years ago I used to enjoy watching

Simeon Banda FSM Point of reflection kwake.” It means: if you have something edible, put it in your mouth; like dogs, it is in their nature to look at those eating.

This is our selfish way of showing indifference.

Sometimes when poor people die, others will mourn (and some may exaggerate their mourning). Isn’t it often the case that in life, when people needed necessities, they weren’t helped, but when they die, they receive clothes and perhaps even an expensive coffin which will disintegrate in the grave?

Our fasting, which the Church calls us to, should stir us to practical charity. We should not be afraid to help people like this Lazarus who sleeps so desperately in this photo.

We have to remember always how Jesus treated the people who now knock on our doors. He loved them, as he loved us all—so much so that he died for all humanity.

My fellow Chewa people have a saying to the effect that you do not die for others. It’s a false statement for those who follow Christ literally, as St Francis and all good saints that you know did.

The Polish priest Fr Maximillian Kolbe died in Auschwitz so that a fellow inmate, a family man, might live (as he did, into his 90s).

We must “die” for others in order to alleviate their poverty. If we are not prepared to die for others, then all our fasting, prayer and almsgiving have no meaning.

On Faith and Life

lives are the difficulties and challenges we face physically, emotionally and spiritually. We feel the adrenaline pumping when we are ready to face these challenges. We feel alive. The adrenaline we feel is our true spirit deep within ourselves—God’s spirit.

Once we have overcome these challenges successfully we become a changed person, a different person. We cannot be the same person once we have felt that spirit moving in us and being with us through our difficulty.

We have grown.

A person who has gone through a successful heart transplant feels physically healthy again. A person who has experienced the heartbreak of a failed relationship becomes stronger and wiser emotionally. And we appreciate it so much more once we can feel deep inside us again that God knows us and loves us—our spirit is rejuvenated.

It is not asked of us to look for difficulties in our lives in order to feel fully alive. We are asked to face our difficulties and overcome our difficulties with the help of God in order for us to “have life, and have to the fullest”.

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7

Steven Edwards

Judith Turner

the Dusi Canoe Marathon, an annual three-day canoe race along the Msunduzi river from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. Some parts of the race are on a 10km stretch of flat water on the Inanda dam, but for the most part of the race the river water is anything but flat.

I used to wonder what if the entire race just took place on one long stretch of smooth, calm, flat water? Wouldn’t it be easier to see all the contenders?

Wouldn’t it be easier to judge who is fastest? Wouldn’t it be safer? Why have the contenders struggling and negotiating dangerous rapids followed by sharp dips and rocky patches? This part of the race was more of a frustration for me to watch because the paddlers would inevitably bump into the rocks or even have their canoes capsizing.

Yet, the paddling and negotiation of intimidating-looking rapids and the recovering and re-positioning of their capsized canoes is what pumps the adrenaline in the paddlers and provides the energy to move forward. The paddlers put in everything to survive all the rapids, dips and rocks—no one escapes this part. Once this part is successfully negotiated, it is smooth sailing to the finishing line.

The rapids, dips and rocks of our

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

The Prior Benedictine Abbey Subiaco PO Box 2189 Pietersburg 0700

youth and Mission

Why are young people leaving the Church?

I

WAS pressed into my seat. We were moving about 500km/h as the plane pointed towards the sky and we lifted off from Johannesburg airport towards the United States.

This was it—the beginning of adventure. God had called me to be a missionary in New Orleans, Louisiana, and I chose to go. I was nervous about going to another country for eight months, but this was what I needed to do and so all I could do was have faith that it would all work out.

There are many young Catholics in our Church today who might say that our faith is boring, restrictive and unnecessary. Or they don’t really know why they go to Mass.

I was there once too. My faith was empty ritual with little joy. In spite of being brought up Catholic and going to catechism, it still felt like a lot of rules and way too much sitting and standing.

At one point I even left the Catholic Church for a year to attend a Protestant church because I didn’t really feel welcome or as if there was meaning in my going to Mass.

Something I’ve come to realise, as a growing number of young people have, is that our Catholic faith definitely isn’t empty and boring. That plane trip which was taking me to go and be a missionary intern is only a small part of the adventure that God has called me into.

I was looking for a “what” before—going to church and looking at the “rules” and commandments. I wasn’t looking for a “who”, a relationship with our God. When I came to realise that it was God that I was searching for, I began to actively listen. It became less about what I was doing and more about who I was being with. My Catholic faith took on new meaning and I knew I needed to go somewhere different to serve, learn and grow closer to God. I believe that many young Catholics find our faith boring and irrelevant because they haven’t experienced Christ and don’t have a deep relationship with him.

God has been faithful. As tough as this journey has been, it has been one of the most fruitful and exciting things I’ve done.

The good news which I’ve experienced in the US is a Church where young people are experiencing Christ in our Catholic faith in all it’s timeless wisdom and beauty, rather than in focssing on the “rules”.

They are meeting weekly, even daily, for Mass, prayer, worship, adoration—times of community where they grow in relationship with him. There is fellowship, encouragement, support and freedom.

I’ve witnessed young people who are growing in holiness and challenging others to do the same. I feel excited and blessed for the amazing experience I’ve had in the States, but I’m even more excited about what God is doing and going to do in our young Church of today in South Africa.

Yes, there are good things happening in our own Church, but imagine if we had more nights of prayer, adoration and worship that brought together young Catholics. Imagine if we had gatherings where Catholics from around South Africa could gather together for fellowship, fun and prayer—thriving times of faith and community.

Imagine the fruit of 1 000 or so young people coming back on fire after World Youth Day in Madrid at the end of August after experiencing Christ in the Universal Church.

Imagine if there were more groups of young people who truly saw the value of those around them and visited HIV/Aids respite wards, assisted regularly with charitable organisations such as the Society of St Vincent de Paul, or helped build homes in poorer areas.

God is at work in our Catholic Church. Our faith is alive if we choose to dive a little deeper and follow Christ.

What signs of life have you seen in our Catholic Church in South Africa? Have you seen apathy or have you seen young people looking for Truth? Is there a ministry in your parish or area that is succeeding in bringing young people to Christ? Let’s share the hope and the fruit!

40TH ANNIVERSARY OF ORDINATION Frs Bernard van de Hulst & Roger Hickley invite friends, colleagues, & former parishioners to a

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8

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

COMMUNITY Three children from the alphons orphanage, run by the sisters of St John the Baptist, were baptised and received their first Holy Communion at the church of resurrection in Sizanani Village, Bronkhorstspruit, archdiocese of Pretoria. The children are photographed with retired archbishop george Daniel, a sister of St John the Baptist and a relative of one of the orphans.

(Submitted by robert Mafinyori)

The 2011 confirmation group of the Brooklyn/Milnerton parish in Cape Town and archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town.

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

a Day of recollection for the Catholic Chinese Community was held at Don Bosco Salesian Centre in Booysens, Johannesburg. The retreat master was Fr Dominic Hession of Vanderbijlpark. (Submitted by Lilly Loo) Holy Spirit parish in Port Elizabeth recently held a Knit for Winter campaign which produced blankets, jerseys, scarves and gloves for distribution among the needy. (Submitted by rita Martin)

Fr Larry Kauffmann CSSr opened the service of a recently held a week-long retreat at the Sacred Heart cathedral in Bloemfontein. The retreat was well supported by parishioners, with two Masses during the day and one every evening.

(Submitted Peter yazbek) The Portuguese community of St Patrick’s in La rochelle, Johannesburg marked the feast of Our Lady of Fatima with a procession through the streets of La rochelle and a celebration Mass. PicThe pilgrims who attended a pilgrimage to Ngome which was organised by the Knights tured in front of the float carrying the of Da gama in Pietermaritzburg. The spiritual director was Fr alessandro Capoferri SCJ. statue of Our Lady are Socorro Monteiro (Submitted by Des Eyden) and the team who built the float and prepared the flowers in the Church. (Submitted by Fr Malcolm McLaren)

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The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

9

Refugees: Celebrate the differences Refugees are often treated poorly in South Africa and around the world. CLaIrE MaTHIESON reports on what the Church and refugee activists are saying about the problem.

T

HERE are millions of refugees and displaced people in the world. Numbers are temporary and are merely estimates, ranging from 27 million worldwide to a number greater than the population of Britain.

Refugees usually are faced with few other options but to leave their home countries to escape war, persecution or natural disaster. Often they do not receive a warm welcome from their host countries.

Bishop Frank Nubuasah of Francistown, Botswana, said in a pastoral letter issued by the Southern African bishops that World Refugee Day, which was celebrated on June 20, represented a time not only to raise awareness of the plight of refugees and highlight the injustices that the human community has done to its members, but also a time to celebrate the positive contributions of refugee and migrant communities.

The Catholic Church worldwide has made an important contribution in meeting all of these aims.

The archdiocese of Johannesburg hosted various events to mark the refugee day. Some 450 people gathered at St Francis of Assisi church in Yeoville to “celebrate, welcome, accept and tolerate refugees in our communities”, said Lebo Wa Majahe, a reporter for Johannesburg’s Archdiocesan News.

The special Mass and was celebrated by Fr Vusi Sokhela and aimed to show solidarity with refugees and displaced people.

“Yeoville parish is home to about 500 refugees who do remarkable things within the parish life. The Mass was beautifully celebrated, using various languages, among them Lingala and Portuguese,” said Ms Wa Majahe.

Fr Sokhela encouraged people to acknowledge the positive aspects and contributions that refugees bring into our parishes and societies. “He spoke very

an Ethiopian national sits inside a makeshift shelter at a refugee camp near Pretoria. (Photo: antony Kaminju, reuters/CNS)

strongly against racial prejudice to fellow human beings and urged that we show immigrants and displaced people love and compassion,” Ms Wa Majahe said.

The Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town celebrated the day with song, dance, lectures and lunch shared by the migrant and local community. Emma Carone, a volunteer from the United States, said this was not seen as a time to mourn the great loss many of the centre’s refugees had experienced, but rather a time to celebrate diversity and allow interaction between people without borders, judgment or fear of discrimination.

“Cultural diversity has been brought on by migration. We are here to celebrate the positive aspects of migration,” said Marjolein Niewijk, a Dutch intern at the refugee centre. “[Refugees] have been through such hard times. They’ve been forced to leave their homes! Today is an opportunity to forget their problems and help them to be proud of their culture.” Both interns said many of those at the centre had directly experienced xenophobia or were conscious of the threat of xenophobia.

Speaking at a round table discussion on the Church’s answer to refugees hosted by the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, Jesuit Father Rampe Hlobo said the Church is working hard to accompany, serve, defend the rights of

and advocate for refugees and displaced people around the world.

He said the Church has many organisations that cooperate with governments and civil society to assist refugees.

“We work with other organisations to fill the gaps where refugee’s might not have services available,” said Fr Hlobo, the assistant country director of the Jesuit Refugee Services in South Africa.

The organisation works under the auspices of the Church in more than 50 countries.

adding that both the Church and civil society need to assist in the livelihood of refugees, and not just government.

Fr Hlobo agreed, saying xenophobic attacks could be reduced by an increase in networking. He said education for the local community is crucial, but partnerships between migrants and South Africans could be another way forward.

“A shop that is run [together] by a refugee and a South African could be beneficial for both parties involved. Foreign knowledge could help and the fact that the two cultures are working together means fewer xenophobic attacks are likely,” he said.

Bishop Nubuasah in his pastoral letter said that as refugees and other displaced people continue to experience lack of love and suffer injustices, the bishops implore communities to create an environment that “imitate the Most Holy Trinity, reciprocating love and compassion”. He added that Jesus Christ himself was once a refugee and Christian communities are called to “show our love to one another including strangers”.

Allison Coady of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute in Pretoria said it is important to train religious leaders. “Since refugees are received at the local level of church, we need to train priests and leaders to approach the situa-

tion appropriately.”

Rebecca Pistiner, an intern at Lawrence House, a Scalabrini home for migrant children, said the most important thing is education for all. “We need education inside and outside of the system.

Children, refugees, officials, health care workers, the average South African—they all need to be educated on what a refugee is and what their rights are.”

Coming from the US, she said xenophobia is not a uniquely South African problem, but a universal concept. “But we can stem the problem by educating each other. Refugees are not people to be feared. They need assistance, care and welcoming arms. They contribute to bettering our society.”

While the Church has answered the call to assist refugees, the local Church can always do more, Bishop Nubuasah suggested.

Anti-refugee sentiment remains common but the Church can assist in changing these people’s perceptions.

“We, your bishops, urge you to support refugees. We urge you, as followers of Christ, to oppose the evil of xenophobia threatening to divide the community of human beings. Each person should do whatever he or she can to unite against this wickedness of xenophobia and endeavour to build communities of love.”

B

ut while the Church at large has various organisations working around the world, the discussion panel felt the role of the local Church was even greater than it seemed.

Gail Eddy of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa said since the Church deals within communities where many refugees are located, more could be done at a parish level. “One place these people interact with South Africans is in church. The Church is important, but it could do more.”

Independent researcher Vicki Igglesden said refugees invest back into their adopted countries, and South Africans need to be made aware of the positive contributions refugees have made. “The Church has the facility to create dialogue and it’s important to find common ground between locals and migrants,” she said,

Southern Sudanese refugees seeking repatriation wait in a united Nations truck in the northern ugandan city of Moyo.

J.M.J

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10

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

FOCUS

Travels of faith: A brief history of pilgrimages Pilgrimages to the Holy Land have taken place for almost all of Christian history.

PaT McCarTHy looks at some early pilgrims before he surveys modern pilgrimage.

S

HE was quite the pilgrim extraordinaire—enthusiastic, observant, interested in people and places, undeterred by difficulties and, above all, focused on her faith.

But although she kept a detailed journal of her three-year Holy Land pilgrimage, in the years 381-384 AD, Egeria remains a woman of mystery.

Her chatty journal, in colloquial Latin, gives few clues. Was she a nun? An abbess? A member of the aristocracy? And where did she come from?

Experts surmise she was a devout middle-class woman from Spain or France, her hand-copied Bible always on hand. Her travelogue, addressed to a circle of female friends (“loving ladies, light of my heart”), is possibly the earliest surviving prose work written by a woman.

The elusive Egeria was a forerunner of millions of Christians who follow an inner urge to be a pilgrim. They feel drawn to places made holy by the events of the Incarnation or by the presence of saints and martyrs.

But the origins of sacred journeys stretch back much further.

From Solomon’s time, 1 000 years before Christ, Jews were obliged to make three pilgrimages a year to the temple in Jerusalem.

The 12-year-old Jesus went missing and was found among the temple teachers after one such Passover pilgrimage.

The first official Christian group pilgrimage was arguably that of St Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, and her retinue to the Holy Land in 326— some 55 years before Egeria.

During her two-year excursion the tireless Helena, aged nearly 80, oversaw construction of the

first major churches in the Holy Land. She also discovered the True Cross (and had one of its nails fashioned into a bit for her son’s horse).

Urged on by Constantine and his Christian successors, smockfrocked and sandalled pilgrims flocked to the “God-trodden land”, as a Byzantine inscription called it.

Some could not contain their fervour. Reporting on the Good Friday veneration of the True Cross in Jerusalem, Egeria remarks that deacons guard the holy relic—“because, I know not when, someone is said to have bitten off and stolen a portion of the sacred wood”.

The influx did not impress St Jerome, toiling at his Bible translation in an office-cave under the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

“They come here from all over the world,” he moaned, “the city regurgitates every type of human being; and there is an awful crush of persons of both sexes who in other places you should avoid at least in part but here you have to stomach them to the full.”

Writing to an intending pilgrim around 395, he declared: “Access to the courts of heaven is as easy from Britain as it is from Jerusalem, for ‘the kingdom of God is within you’.”

I

n a time of poor roads, primitive accommodation, disease and banditry, pilgrims needed infrastructure. Clerics mapped out routes. Hospices were established along the way. Troops were assigned to protect the wayfarers.

And safe access was granted in times of war.

The tombs of the martyred Ss Peter and Paul drew pilgrims to Rome. The shrine of the apostle St James attracted them to Santiago de Compostela in the north of Spain.

Inquisition registers from around 1300 at Carcassone, in southern France, show penances for graver crimes included pilgrimages to the tombs of Ss Peter and Paul, the shrine of St James, the tomb of St Thomas at Canter-

Pilgrims wait to enter the holy sepulchre, which marks the reputed place of Jesus’ tomb inside the Jerusalem church that covers the places of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. (Photo: Schalk Visser) bury and the relics of the Three Kings at Cologne.

Not all pilgrims set out with pure motives.

St Mary of Egypt was an eager young prostitute from Alexandria when she joined a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for undeniably commercial reasons. Her conversion came when an invisible force denied her entry to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the huge church that covers the place of Jesus’ crucifixion and the tomb from which he rose again.

An early visitor to Cana of Galilee, the Anonymous Pilgrim of Piacenza, confessed in 570 to an act of religious graffiti. “Our Lord was at the wedding,” he wrote, “and we reclined upon his very couch upon which I, unworthy that I am, wrote the names of my parents.”

Corruption in the form of spurious sites and fake relics inevitably arose to delude the gullible.

St John Chrysostom, a fourth-

century advocate of pilgrimages, mentions without comment that many people hurried “across the seas to Arabia” to venerate the dunghill of Job. German Dominican Felix Fabri, who visited Jerusalem around 1480, records strict instructions from the Franciscan Custodian of the Holy Land: “Let the pilgrim beware of chipping off fragments from the Holy Sepulchre and from the buildings at other places and spoiling the hewn stones thereof, because this is forbidden under pain of excommunication.”

T

oday’s leaders of Christian pilgrimages emphasise that a pilgrim is not just a pious tourist. A pilgrim is on a sacred journey in which God is encountered through places, people and situations.

Like Egeria, the true pilgrim engages with local Christians and ideally joins them in worship.

Especially meaningful in the Holy

Land, these actions express solidarity with the declining Christian population there.

The tourist may resist being affected by the places he or she visits. The pilgrim travels with the expectation of returning home changed, with impressions imprinted on the soul rather than in the memory of a digital camera.

A tourist with the mindset of “Today is Monday, it must be Assisi” may fret over transport delays or inconvenient schedule changes. A pilgrim will see delays as opportunities for the ”holy idleness” of fellowship or prayer.

The pilgrim will not be disconcerted by sacred sites that bear little resemblance to religious paintings or devout imaginings—or by the ornamentation that clutters some shrines.

Western pilgrims may have their inhibitions tested by the ostentatious Greek Orthodox Chapel of Calvary in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

With decorative embellishments covering almost all of the rock of Calvary, it’s easy to understand why English author Evelyn Waugh reported a little girl’s comment: “I never knew Our Lord was crucified indoors.”

Today’s most popular place of pilgrimage for Catholics is in the New World—the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, north of Mexico City. It draws 20 million pilgrims a year—more than the combined total for the Marian shrines at Aparecida in Brazil, Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal and Medjugorje in BosniaHerzegovina.

Wherever they journey, Christian pilgrims who share Egeria’s openness for their surroundings find the experience enriches the mind as well as the soul.

The 19th-century French writer François-René Chateaubriand observed: “There never was a pilgrim who did not come back to his village with one less prejudice and one more idea.” n Pat McCarthy, founding editor of New Zealand’s national Catholic newspaper, NZ Catholic, has developed the pilgrimage website www.seetheholyland.net

The Southern Cross, July 6 to July 12, 2011

Fr Ruprecht Wolf

A

FTER a short illness, Benedictine Father Ruprecht Wolf, secretary of the diocese of Eshowe, died on June 27.

Born in 1937 in Munich, he entered the Benedictine abbey of St Ottilien, Oberbayern, in 1957 and was ordained a priest in 1963 by Bishop Aurelian Bilgeri OSB of Eshowe.

In April 1965 he came to Zululand to begin his missionary assignment in the diocese of Eshowe. He spent the first ten months at Nandi mission to learn Zulu and to become familiar with the pastoral situation in the diocese. This was followed by a three-year stint as assistant priest at Gonzaga mission situated high up in the hill country of southern Zululand where, at that time, missionaries visited the

outstations still on horse-back.

After he was appointed parish priest of Nkandla he did not only care for the pastoral needs of his parishioners but also became involved in the promotion of healthcare services. The bishop put him in charge of the Churchrun clinics in the diocese.

In 1984, Bishop Mansuet Biyase made him diocesan secretary, a post he held for three years until he was recalled to St Ottilien and appointed missionprocurator of the archabbey.

After serving the Congregation of the Missionary Benedictines in this capacity for nearly eight years, the archabbot of St Ottilien granted Fr Ruprecht’s wish to be released from this office and return to Zululand.

In December 1995 he was

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DEATH back at Eshowe, succeeding Fr Leopold Meier as diocesan secretary. He worked there until June 22, the day before he fell ill and was taken to hospital.

A Requiem Mass, followed by the funeral, was celebrated in the abbey church of Inkamana on June 30.

Fr Godfrey Sieber OSB

FARROW—Pamela. a member of The grail, passed away at the Park Care Centre on June 27, 2011. We give thanks for Pam’s long and rich life in the service of god and the many people whose lives she influenced. The grail community.

MEMORIAM

Sr Elisabeth Elbert OP

O

AKFORD Dominican Sr Liz (Elisabeth) Elbert died suddenly on May 29 in Johannesburg.

Born in Aschaffenburg, Germany, Sr Liz followed the call to the Dominican Sisters (Oakford), impassioned by the need to live deeply the Dominican charism and the mission of Christ, her anchor and sustenance throughout her life.

She came to South Africa in 1969. Having graduated from Wits’ University and the Univer-

sity of South Africa with an honours degree in psychology, Sr Liz went on to provide spiritual direction, creating a sacred, supportive space in the lives of a vast range of people from diverse backgrounds and faith traditions.

She spent herself generously for those discerning the marks of God in their lives and in the territory of their hearts.

Sr Liz had a vast capacity for enjoying life and celebrating the wonder of creation in with her love for animals and nature.

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: 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.

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.

Family Reflections July 10: Christ the Sower.

It is said that we reap what we sow and so as we grow older we do live with the consequences of our earlier actions. Think about and discuss how important this is and, no matter how old we are, remember the message of the parable too that we each need to be the fertile soil for God’s word to be planted and bear the fruit of peace and joy.

Southern CrossWord solutions ACROSS: 1 In case, 4 Crafts, 9 Pilgrim to Rome, 10 Serpent, 11 Occur, 12 Scope, 14 Using, 18 Hoper, 19 Indulge, 21 Prisoner of war, 22 Linger, 23 Jinxed.

DOWN: 1 Impose, 2 Cold reception, 3 Serve, 5 Riotous, 6 From candle wax, 7 Shears, 8 Smith, 13 Purpose, 15 Chapel, 16 Nicea, 17 Reared, 20 Dhoti.

Liturgical Calendar Year A

Word of the Week Simony: The practice, now usually regarded as a sin, of buying or selling spiritual or Church benefits such as pardons, relics or preferments.

Application: A priest was accused of simony due to him selling church benefits.

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11

Sunday, July 10, 15th Sunday Isaiah 55:10-11, Psalm 65:10-14, Romans 8:18-23, Matthew 13:1-23 Monday, July 11, St Benedict Exodus 1:8-14, 22, Psalm 124:1-8, Matthew 10:34 11, 1 Tuesday, July 12, feria Exodus 2:1-15, Psalm 69:3, 14, 30-31, 33-34, Matthew 11:20-24 Wednesday, July 13, feria Exodus 3:1-6, 9-12, Psalm 103:1-4, 6-7, Matthew 11:25-27 Thursday, July 14, feria Exodus 3:13-20, Psalm 105:1, 5, 8-9, 24-27, Matthew 11:28-30 Friday, July 15,St Bonaventure Exodus 11: 10-12,14, Psalm 16:5-9, 11, Matthew 5:13-19 Saturday, July 16, feria Exodus 12:37-42, Psalm 136:1, 23-24, 10-15, Matthew 12:14-21 Sunday, July 17, 16th Sunday Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16, Romans 8:26-27, Matthew 13:24-43 or 13:24-30

WILLIAMS – Emmanuel.

10 long years have passed since you left us but you’re still a huge part of our lives and we will never forget you. We know that you are not alone, you are re-united with your life long partner, our dearest Mom Dailey (aggie) and children ralph, Edison, Valerie and Paschal. Dad we miss and love you very much and we are glad for all the years spent with you. you will forever live in our minds and hearts. Dad please watch over us and guide us until we meet again. your loving children aloysious, aubrey (Port Elizabeth) Lionel (Cape Town) gloria and Brian (New zealand) and Lorna, Loxy, genevieve and Carl (Durban)

PERSONAL ABORTION WARNING: ‘The Pill’ can abort, undetected, soon after conception (a medical fact). See website: www.human life.org/abortion_does_the _pill.php ELDERLY Catholic lady in need of a smallish TV. Contact 079 199 9148.

TRYING to locate Sonny Bennett, put in an orphanage in Durban. any body who knows him, please contact Imelda on 011 728 2658

SERVICES ANNUAL REPORTS, newsletters, books etc designed and edited at competitive rates. Phone gail at 082 415 4312 or gailsctn@gmail.com

PRAYERS

HOLY St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faith-

ful 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.

SrB. HOLY Spirit you make me see everything and show me the way to reach my ideals. you give me the divine gift to forgive and forget. In all instances of my life you are with me, protecting me and opening for me a way where there is no way. I thank you for everything, and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from you, no matter how great the material desires. I want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. amen. Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days. Publication promised. SrB. HOLY Spirit you make me see everything and show me the way to reach my ideals. you give me the divine gift to forgive and forget. In all instances of my life you are with me, protecting me and opening for me a way where there is no way. I thank you for everything, and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from you, no matter how great the material desires. I want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. amen. Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days. Publication promised. gFr..

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Magnificent views, breakfast on request. Tel: 082 774 7140. E-mail: bzhive @telkomsa.net KNYSNA: Self-catering accommodation for 2 in Old Belvidere with wonderful Lagoon views. 044 387 1052.

MARIANELLA guest House, Simon’s Town: “Come experience the peace and beauty of god with us.” Fully equipped with amazing sea views.

Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Tel: Malcolm Salida 082 784 5675 or mjsalida@mweb.co.za SKIATOS: (Langebaan) Holiday home for hire, sleeps 10-12. Special rates for Catholics.. To book contact Jean on 072 243 1379 or 021 981 9816.

UMHLANGA ROCKS: Fully equipped self-catering 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, sleeps 6, sea view, 200 metres from beach, DSTV. Tel: Holiday Division, 031 561 5838, holidays@lighthouse.co. za

FLAT FOR SALE WYNBERG, Cape Town: One bedroom ground floor flat in quiet block. r650 000. Tel Louisa 082 720 8899.

ACCOMMODATION OFFERED CAPE TOWN, Cape Peninsula: Beautiful homes to buy or rent.

Maggi-Mae 082 892 4502. Colliers International False Bay, 021 782 9263, maggimaev@ colliers.co.za WEEKLY boarding facility. Catholic home in Florida Hills. grade 10/11/12

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BLESSED ISIDORE BAKANJA CATHOLIC CHURCH PILGRIMAGE

Published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd, Cape Town

Visiting Rome, The Vatican City and Assisi

Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, staff or directors of The Southern Cross.

Organised and led by Rev. Joseph Matsau Cost from R16 102 Tel: (031) 266 7702 Fax: (031) 266 8982 Email: judyeichhorst@telkomsa.net A list of current pilgrimages can be viewed by clicking on the Valley View Travel icon at www.catholic-friends.com

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16th Sunday: July 17 Readings: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19; Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16a; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43 UR human existence is an extraordinary mixture of frailty and good will.

Now we tend to assume that God sees only our failures, and must be “out to get us” because the good will does not always predominate. The readings for next Sunday present quite a different picture.

In the first reading, from the book of Wisdom, our unknown author tells his Greekspeaking Jewish audience that they can have confidence in the judgment of God, not least because (now he is addressing God) “the fact that You are master of all, means that You can show forbearance”.

And if God is like that, then we must be the same: “By actions like this you teach your people that the virtuous person has to be kind; you have given your children grounds for hoping that you allow repentance for sins.”

As always, the p salmist celebrates the goodness of God: “For you, Lord, are good and forgiving, rich in mercy to all who call upon you;” and this goodness will be widely known, for “all the nations that you have made shall come and pay homage in your presence, Lord, and give honour to your name”.

This gentleness of God is not a sign of weakness, however, “for you are great, and perform marvels”, but nevertheless “you are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger,

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Do you have ears? Then listen well Nicholas King SJ Sunday reflections and rich in mercy”. Then comes the poet’s confident petition: “Turn to me and have mercy”.

Paul’s confidence likewise depends entirely on his experience of the God who revealed himself in Jesus, and on that intangible but real force to whom the early Christians gave the name of the “Holy Spirit”.

So in the second reading we hear him boldly proclaim that “in just the same way, the Spirit gives assistance to our weakness; for we have no idea how or what to pray.

Instead, the Spirit intercedes, with groanings that cannot be spoken”. In other words, it is not down to us to find the right words; but God, if we may put it in this way, listens to God (“the Searcher of Hearts knows what the Spirit is thinking, for he intercedes with God for the saints”).

We are at the very edge here of what we can understand, but Paul is saying something of immense importance about how God reacts to us and to our limitations; in the end (and this is a very shocking thing to say),

those limitations do not matter.

The g ospel for next Sunday likewise addresses the gap between the way we think that things ought to be and the way they actually are; it does this by way of three parables, an account of why Jesus talks in parables, and then an explanation of the first parable.

That parable is the story of the “weeds in the wheat”. The good farmer has sowed good seed, but an enemy has sabotaged his efforts by planting weeds; when the disaster appears, the farmer’s servants are thrown into a panic, but the farmer is quite calm about it.

Now Jesus, or Matthew, makes it quite clear that this character represents God: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a person who sowed good seed.” He then diagnoses the problem (“an enemy has done this”); and when the servants opt for panic measures (“shall we collect them now?”), he gently postpones any such radical move, “otherwise you might uproot the wheat as well as the weeds”, until the harvest time.

After this we are given the other two parables: the first is the famous story of the mustard seed: “The tiniest of seeds, but when it grows, it is bigger than [all] the vegetables, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and find shelter in its branches.”

God’s kingdom is not measured by size.

In the next parable, God is compared, dar-

Oh, the inhumanity of brothers T HE more I look back on life, the more I am convinced that man’s inhumanity to man is born of sibling rivalry.

For example, I have two older brothers: Donald, who is 12 years my senior, and Gerard, a decade older than me.

So when I was a babe in arms, my brothers had reached that point of pompous pre-pubescence which dictates that any human being who had the misfortune of being younger than they were was to be treated with disdain and an almost complete lack of interest other than to wonder how something so small could make so much noise and leak so badly without incurring the wrath of ts parents.

Inevitably, my brothers were forced by my mother and father to baby-sit from time to time, which they clearly did not enjoy one bit.

The first time they did duty, I had the great misfortune of soiling my nappy quite spectacularly, and neither of my siblings was prepared to change me, in spite of having been given extensive lessons by my mother.

They were also unable to be in the same house as a baby with such a spectacularly spoiled nappy, so they took me outside to the most remote corner of our garden and sat me on top of the compost pit.

When my mother arrived home she

Conrad

Chris Moerdyk

The Last Word

actually found it quite amusing and the story was told with great delight at the family dinner table whenever visitors were being entertained.

As far as I know, there has never been any discussion about the possibility of my contracting some sort of disease or virus from my two-hour sojourn atop a mound of rotting vegetables, grass cuttings and six-weeks-of dog doodies.

As I got older, the compost pit did not represent a feasible option for my brothers because I could, from the age of about two, scramble off it and find my way into the house, dragging a trail of grass cuttings, rotting vegetables and at least a lump or two of dog doodies on my booties.

So they devised another dastardly plan to ease their baby-sitting burden. They got an old potato sack and tied me up in it until just my head stuck out. Then they placed me on a high shelf in the garage with the warning that if I wriggled too much I would fall off and kill myself on the lawnmower below.

Oh, the inhumanity of it!

But my parents seemed to think it was

all quite ingenious, and once again the dinner table buzzed with talks of prepubescent innovation and ingenuity.

I did take heart, at first, from the fact that my father moved the mower away from beneath the shelf, but my brothers insisted it was because “Pa didn’t want any harm to come to his new eight-blade, four-horsepower Dennis mower.”

Their swansong was when I was about four years old. In their eyes, I was probably less of just a leaking, noisy burden and more of a toy from which their could derive pleasure.

Their favourite trick, which I must admit to encouraging with squeals of joy, was to stand on either each side of my parents’ double-bed holding my hands and then bounce me up and down so that my head would clonk the ceiling.

All was well until one day my brothers got out of sync and while one was pulling me down the other was heaving me up with the result that they broke my arm.

On this occasion my parents were not amused because they had to take me to hospital instead of being able to put their feet up and have a post-golf drink.

They did, apparently, see the funny side later on, because this story became a favourite dinner time topic of conversation.

Fortunately, I am lucky enough to have a sister who is five years older than me, and soon after the arm-breaking incident it was decided that she had reached an age where babysitting duties could be taken out of our bothers’ hands and put in her care.

She was wonderful and to this day, still looks after me with dedication and love.

Which surprises me because I hardly reciprocated her tender loving care when we were teenagers. I can remember shoving fireworks up the outside overflow pipe to the toilet when she was in midablution, creating a mighty bang and wide distribution of the entire contents of the U-bend and cistern.

I also remember using one of her dolls in one of my earliest back-garden rugby games, sitting the tiny little thing on its behind and then kicking its head over some makeshift goals.

Indeed, man’s inhumanity to man must be born of sibling rivalry—at least it was in my house.

ingly, to a housewife, putting leaven into dough; the point here seems to be that God’s immense power operates secretly but powerfully; and that should give us confidence in facing the fact that our world shows this strange mixture of goodness and darkness.

Next, in a typical expression of Matthew’s, Jesus explains why he talks in parables, “to utter things hidden from the creation of the world”— God comes closer to our darkened existence.

But the disciples have not fully grasped it, and demand an explanation of the first parable; Jesus gives it to them in terms of the endtime battle between the Son of Man, working in the world, which is his “field”, and the devil, the “enemy”.

The “harvest” is understood as the “end of the age”, when the “weeds” (translated as “all the scandals and all the workers of iniquity”) are thrown “into the furnace of fire, where there is going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (so it is a furnace with a difference).

Meanwhile we have grounds for confidence, since “the just” (and we cannot make ourselves “just”; that is God’s gift) “will shine out like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father”. The passage concludes: “Let those who have ears— listen!”.

That is to be our task, this week, especially if we are worried about the way we are or the way the world is.

Southern Crossword #452

ACROSS 1. In the event of being in the bag (2,4) 4. Hand-made things for the boats? (6) 9. One heading for the See of Peter (7,2,4) 10. Slinky Garden pest (7) 11. Take place (5) 12. Copes possibly with range (5) 14. Employing in a bus in Galilee (5) 18. One who exercises a theological virtue (5) 19. Yield to desire for idle gun (7) 21. After battle he may be locked up (8,2,3) 22. Hang around ingler (6) 23. Experiencing bad luck (6)

DOWN 1. Force upon you (6) 2. Kind of welcome given to Arctic missionary? (4,9) 3. Minister at the Mass (5) 5. The behaviour of the silversmiths (Acts 19) (7) 6. Where the stains on the altar cloth originate (4,6,3) 7. Instruments for wool gathering (6) 8. One of the silver ones in 5 (5) 13. The reason why (7) 15. Their own place for the nuns to pray (6) 16. Venue of famous Church Council is a nice one (5) 17. Brought up or stood up (6) 20. Hid to produce Hindu loincloth (5)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE he old parish priest was retiring, and when his T young replacement arrived, he warned him about the rat problem in the church building which he had tried for years to get rid of, without success.

A year later, the elderly priest visited his old parish and asked the new priest how the rat problem was going. “Oh,” said the younger priest, “I fixed that long ago.” The older priest was surprised and asked him by what extreme measures he could have solved such a big problem.

The new priest said: “I simply confirmed them and they never came back.”

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