The Southern Cross - 110727

www.scross.co.za

July 27 to August 2, 2011

r5,50 (incl VAT rSA) reg No. 1920/002058/06

Who cares for the prisoners?

No 4736

WYD: Madrid’s trouble with rosaries, bananas

Meet Muhammad, prophet of Muslims

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Page 10

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Volunteer, priest tells SA youth

BY CLAIrE MATHIESON

T

HE spirit of volunteering needs to be instilled in South African youth, according to Fr Sammy Mabusela CSS, the national youth chaplain.

The priest is currently working with a group of Italian volunteers across the archdiocese of Pretoria.

The group of 17- and 18-year-olds travelled to South Africa from the city of Verona with their priest Fr Simone Piantini. The two Stigmatine priests met during Fr Mabusela’s tenure in Tanzania where he ran a school. Part of the congregation’s charism is youth ministry and Fr Piantini said he would encourage youth from his diocese to volunteer in Africa.

“The group has come to volunteer their time, their talents and to help our community,” explained Fr Mabusela. The students will be spending their summer holidays in Pretoria until returning to Italy in August.

“I dream of instilling the spirit of volunteering among our youth,” Fr Mabusela said. “Volunteering is a way of evangelising because we offer ourselves to a cause. I hope the South African youth will learn from these Italian volunteers and be inspired to do the same in their own communities.”

The national youth chaplain said many youngsters in South Africa complain about the lack of employment but the situation, he said, “will stay the same until they take some initiative”.

Fr Mabusela said people can learn skills and benefit their communities through volunteering. “And when they have some

Fr Sammy Mabusela, national youth chaplain, and a young Italian volunteer with a group of children who are still warming up to the attention they are receiving. experience and a job does open up, then these volunteers will be the first to be considered for the job.”

The Italian volunteers are currently putting their painting skills to use through

the renovation and cleaning of parish outstations in the area. “We hope to convert some of the buildings to child-care facilities, and this has been made possible only because we have helping hands to clean

the building up,” said Fr Mabusela.

The young international volunteers have already gained life lessons through the experience, Fr Mabusela said.

“They’ve learnt about the challenges that other people around the world experience. They’ve also learnt there are lots of things we all have in common.”

He said the Italian youth have had their “eyes opened” to the world.

Fr Mabusela wants to promote volunteering by South African youth.

“I keep in touch with what’s important to the youth and I try to inspire them,” said Fr Mabusela, who uses Facebook and Twitter to communicate with the nation’s youth.

He said he wants to inspire the youth to make a difference in the country. “Charity begins at home. Why not do something small in your own community that could make a big difference?” he asked.

The benefits of volunteering go far beyond the physical action required. Both volunteer and those in need benefit.

“There are great spiritual benefits and it’s educational for the volunteer,” Fr Mabusela said, adding that when some of the volunteers first came to South Africa they were “terrified but because they took a leap of faith they have grown from the experience. It has widened their horizons”.

Fr Mabusela said the volunteering acts could be as small as walking young children to school in the morning, talking to senior citizens who may live far from their families or even offering one’s skills to a local organisation.

“Start small,” he said, “but start!”

Protest against human trafficking Napier to celebrate anniversaries

BY THANDI BOSMAN

C

OUNTER-TRAFFICKING in Persons (CTIP) will hold a prayer service and walkathon on August 6 at the Sacred Heart cathedral in Pretoria in aid of women and children affected by human trafficking.

The event is being organised in cooperation with the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life and the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).

The prayer service will begin at 10:00 at Sacred Heart cathedral; from there the walkathon will start and proceed to Church Square. The walkathon will end at the cathedral.

The walkathon is timed to coincide with Women’s Day. “Women’s Day falls on August 9 each year, and while we celebrate the great contribution of women to the upliftment of society around the world, we are only too keenly aware of the continued violence and abuse meted out to many of our

women and indeed our children , especially those who find themselves in vulnerable positions,” said Sr Melanie O’Connor, of the SACBC’s Human Trafficking Desk.

She said that the event is aimed at raising awareness of “re-human trafficking, especially in South Africa, and to protect potential victims”.

Sr O’Connor said that transactional sex “fuels human trafficking” and that Christians should pray for an end to prostitution and the exploitation of young children.

“At the same time we feel that many sex workers are treated very badly by police, and we are calling for an end to violence against sex workers and ask that they uphold the dignity of every human person at all times,” Sr O’Connor said.

Those interested in attending the event are asked to call Sr O’Connor at 012 323 6458 as early as possible so that organisers can plan around the total number of people expected to take part in the walkathon.

with big Mass at cricket stadium

BY KuDzAI TAruONA

O

N July 31, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban will be celebrate a series of noteworthy anniversaries this year: his 70th birthday, 50 years as a Franciscan, his 30th anniversary as bishop and the tenth anniversary of becoming a cardinal.

The celebration will be held at the Sahara Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban, beginning at 10:00am.

Thousands of Catholics from throughout the archdiocese as well as clergy and laity from other dioceses are expected to attend. No other Masses will be celebrated in the archdiocese after 8:30am to encourage the faithful to attend.

The celebration coincides roughly with Cardinal Napier’s 41st anniversary of ordination to the priesthood on July 25.

Cardinal Napier was born on March 8, 1941 in Swartberg, East Griqualand. He was appointed bishop of Kokstad in late

1980, at the age of 39.

In 1992, he succeeded Archbishop Denis Hurley in Durban, a position he still holds.

He chose as his episcopal motto the greeting of St Francis, “Pax et bonum” (Peace and goodwill).

Pope John Paul II named him a cardinal in 2001. He was given the titular church of San Francesco d’Assisi ad Acilia.

Cardinal Napier is a member of the Council for the African Synod, the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Congregation for Consecrated Life, the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Structural and Economic Affairs of the Holy See. He was among the cardinal-electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, to succeed Pope John Paul II.

Torn journalists union told to remove ‘Catholic’ from its name

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AVING withdrawn support from the International Catholic Journalists Union (UCIP) over irregularities, the Vatican has issued a statement opposing moves by its controversial leadership to reconstitute it as the International Catholics Organisation of the Media (ICOM).

In April, the Pontifical Council for the Laity said that UCIP should remove the word

“Catholic” from its title, Catholic World News reports.

The Vatican explained that the move was prompted by concerns about finances and management of the group, and lack of accountability in its leadership.

At the time, UCIP leaders said that they would respond to the Vatican’s concerns.

The laity council has said that the new group should remove the word “Catholic”

from its title for the same reasons.

In a joint communiqué, the Pontifical Councils for the Laity and for Social Communications said that UCIP “after decades of valid service to evangelisation through the press, in the last years has experienced a progressive crisis of management”.

UCIP’s general assemblies in 2007, 2008 and 2010 were all invalidated.

In 2007 UCIP members elected South

African journalist Else Strivens, editor of Trefoil magazine, as president. The current leadership controversially blocked her election.

The Vatican noted that “the so-called ICOM has unduly appropriated the intellectual, economic and historic patrimony of UCIP, as well as its logo and its web page”.

UCIP was founded in 1930 to bring together journalists, publishers and academics in secular and religious journalism.

2

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

SVP launches new advertising campaign STAFF rEPOrTEr

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HE huge growth of the desperately poor in South Africa has spurred the Society of St Vincent de Paul National Counci (SVP)l to develop the Society capabilities to respond to their needs.

National Council President Clem Venter commissioned development officer Rex Glanville to construct a national development programme which the Council has approved for action.

The key goals are: to enhance society’s spirituality, attract new conference members, grow the youth membership, raise funds, extend among parish laity and clergy awareness of society activities inspired by the driving force of its patron St Vincent de Paul: “let us go to the poor”.

The SVP “works to provide our neighbours in desperate need with material help, personal and family help, counsel and friendship, and

to bring hope and joy,” said Raymond James of the SVP. He said involvement in the SVP can take the form of joining the parish SVP, volunteering to distribute food, donating greatly needed money, clothing and household goods, or “simply by telling family and friend of the society’s good works and praying for the society in fulfilling its mission.”

“Support for the society’s good works means personally contributing to bringing hope and joy to people who desperately need us to see Christ in them, with hope they will see Christ in us,” he said.

The SVP has operated in South Africa since 1836, just three years after the society was founded in 1833 in Paris to serve impoverished people living in the slums of Paris.

“The founders were a group of seven university students, led by 20-year-old Frederic Ozanam, all committed Catholics, who were

challenged by fellow students: ‘You praise your Catholic Church as the benefactor of humanity but what do you do for people in need?’,” Mr James explained.

Choosing St Vincent de Paul as their patron, the students formed an organised group (a “conference” in French terminology).

Today the SVP operates around the world with more than 1,3 million members and volunteers active in 147 countries.

In South Africa the society has over 200 parish conferences, with more than 2 500 members.

A main focus of the SVP is to helps people acquire vocational skills through initiatives such as the Tshepisong Sewing Project, which has trained and provided unemployed women with equipment to produce bedding items.

These are then sold and all the proceeds retained by the women. n For more information on the SVP visit www.stvincentdepaul.co.za

School safety conference empowers educators STAFF rEPOrTEr

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CONFERENCE on school safety held at Sacred Heart College in Observatory, Johannesburg, achieved its aim “to provide practical knowledge and resources on how to improve safety at schools”, according to Colin Northmore, head of the hosting school.

The conference was held over two days and attended mostly by school leaders, principals and deputy principals from independent, township schools and rural schools from as far away as Lesotho.

Mr Northmore said the conference was developed from a grass roots level. “The programme was designed by practitioners in the industry, which made it more relevant and directly addressed the needs of schools. Delegates left the conference with a sense of empowerment; they left feeling that they now have the tools to make a difference in their schools.”

The conference also launched the Coalition of Safe Schools (COALSAS). Operating as a voluntary group of schools, the coalition was formed to help schools measure their progress in creating safe environments.

Schools can apply to join the association by submitting their application to COALSAS@sacred heart.co.za. The application must be accompanied with a completed HIRA (Hazard Identification Risk Assessment). Once this has been submitted a certificate will be sent indicating that the School is a COALSAS member.

“We want to break down the process of becoming safer for schools and make this a more manageable process so that even schools with very little resources are able to implement simple measures to make their school safer,” said Mr Northmore.

Mount Edmund CHrISTIAN BrOTHErS’ COLLEGE PrETOrIA PO Box 912-487 Silverton 0127•Tel: School (012) 804-1801, 804-1792, 804-8461• Fax: (021) 804-8781

Christian Brothers’ College is a Catholic Independent Day School for girls and boys from Grade RRR to Grade 12 and committed to the ideas of a Gospel inspired education in the traditions of Edmund Rice.

APPLICATIONS ARE INVITED FOR THE POST OF

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (HOD) TERM 1 2012 The incumbent will be expected to have: • the requisite academic and professional qualifications and SACE registration.

• a strong personal commitment to the objectives and ethos of Catholic education • experience in a Catholic educational environment • a successful teaching record and involvement in extramural activities • a good understanding of current educational practice The incumbent will be expected to: • be a practising Catholic • co-ordinate and lead the Religious Education programme of the College • teach Religious Education from Grade 8 to 12 • to be part of Ethos Committee of the Board of Governors • in addition to teach Life Orientation in accordance with qualifications in the High School section of the College • participate in extramural activities Applications should be addressed to the Principal and should include certified copies of all relevant certificates as well as a motivation and names of two contactable references, which should include one from a Catholic priest. Applications should reach the College on or before the 31 July 2011, delivered by hand to the College or emailed to prross@cbcpretoria.co.za The College reserves the right not to proceed with filling the post. An application will not in itself entitle the applicant to an interview or appointment and failure to meet the requirements of the post will result in the applicants automatically disqualifying themselves for consideration.

Candidates not contacted before 5th August 2011 should consider their application unsuccessful.

Jesuits chart way forward

Taking part in the local Jesuits’ annual meeting at Coolock House in Kwazulu-Natal were (front from left) Frs David Dryden, rigobert Minani, David Smolira, Martin Badenhorst OP, Nigel Johnson; (middle row) rampe Hlobo, Terry Mutesha, Matsepane Morare, Gilbert Mardai, Graham Pugin, Thomas Plastow, David rowan and russell Pollitt; (back) Anthony Egan, Peter Knox, Shaun Carls, Matthew Charlesworth, Chris Chatteris and Bruce Botha.

BY ruSSELL POLLITT SJ

T

HE Jesuits working in South Africa met at Coolock House on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal to explore how they can better respond to their mission in the Church and the world as directed by the 35th Congregation of the Society of Jesus in 2008.

Pope Benedict’s allocution at the Congregation encouraged the Society of Jesus to “reach those physical and spiritual places which others do not reach or have difficulty in reaching”.

The pope at the time admitted that this is one of the most difficult and demanding tasks, but said that the Jesuits are to dialogue with very different social and cultural contexts and also the diverse mentalities of today’s world.

Pope Benedict encouraged the Society of Jesus in its mission by recalling the words of Pope Paul VI: “Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and extreme fields, at the crossroads of ideologies, in social trenches, there has been and there is confrontation between the burning exigencies of

man and the perennial message of the Gospel, here also there have been, and there are, Jesuits.”

At the South African meeting, Dominican F Martin Badenhorst addressed some of the challenges that rapid secularisation poses to faith.

He outlined different degrees of secularism and their varying perceptions of religious belief.

He also tried to specify the ways in which secularism challenges theology and, as a result, how important further rigorous theological enquiry and dialogue with science is needed.

He pointed out that theology is not static but dynamic and always needs to respond to scientific development.

The second part of the meeting began an ongoing reflection on the future ministries of the Jesuits in South Africa.

They have begun to look at a strategic plan for the region so that they can live their charism, which was reaffirmed at the General Congregation, more deeply and in doing so minister more effectively in the country.

LOCAL

500 young people converge on Ngome

BY SANDISIWE NGCONGO

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HE usually serene Ngome Marian shrine in the diocese of Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, was not so quiet when 500 young people came to worship and pray for the different intentions they brought with them.

The young people came from Mpumalanga, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria, Swaziland and Eshowe.

In a show of seriousness in their pilgrimage, the youths surrendered their cellphones for the whole weekend. From the church at Ngome, Fr Nkululeko Meyiwa OMI of Estcourt said: “For us to commit to this weekend, we will give up our cellphones per groups and you will get them [back] on Sunday.”

The weekend was filled with activities right through. Food tickets were counted and given to each group leader to control portions.

During the eucharistic procession from the circle, which is 2km away from the shrine, the youths were chanting praise songs as they left and the Marian songs as they returned with dignity and stillness.

Fr Wayne Weldschidt OMI, rector of the shrine, led the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and gave a talk on Ngome and apparitions.

He went on to encourage the youth to use their “five stones”— reading the Bible, prayer (especially the rosary), confession, Mass (especially also on weekdays), and fasting on Wednesdays and Fri-

500 young people from all over Southern Africa made a pilgrimage at the Ngome Marian shrine in Kwazulu-Natal where they were involved in various activities and were joined by Bishop Xolelo Thaddeus Kumalo of Eshowe.

(Photos: Sepanya Mahlangu) days—to manoeuvre their way through the pilgrimage of life.

Sunday Mass was celebrated by Bishop Xolelo Thaddeus Khumalo of Eshowe who is also the episcopal vicar for youth. Among the concelebrants was Fr Sammy Mabusela, the national youth chaplain.

Fr Mabusela reiterated the message of hope, calling on the youth to understand how special they are.

To launch the diocesan Eucharistic Pilgrimage Year, the Blessed Sacrament was handed over to Eshowe’s Inkamana dean-

ery where it will remain for three months and then rotate in the four deaneries until 2012 when it will return to Ngome for the closing ceremony.

Fr Meyiwa is implementing one of the focus areas of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at Ngome: to emphasise the importance of the Eucharist in the Church.

The youths also showed awareness of the Church’s media. When Fr Moroti posed a question about the media, a pilgrim shouted: “Radio Veritas is here!” The Catholic radio station covered the pilgrimage throughout.

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

3

Winter Living Theology kicks off in Pretoria STAFF rEPOrTEr

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RISH Jesuit Father Jim Corkery began his five-week, five-city tour of Winter Living Theology with a workshop on the Second Vatican Council at Santa Sophia friary in Pretoria.

The day-time lecture series began the following day with a packed house at the Pauline Sisters’ Cultural Centre in Kensington, Johannesburg.

About 80 people followed the three-day series entitled “The Church in the Modern World: From Trent to Benedict XVI”.

The first 50 participants who registered enjoyed a lunch every day at Mario’s Italian restaurant a few blocks away. Others brought their own packed lunch.

Fr Corkery’s first week was in Johannesburg. His second week of lectures was given at the cathedral in Bloemfontein. He will speak at the Glenmore Pastoral Centre in Durban from August 2-4; at St Luke’s Retreat Centre in Port Eliza-

beth from August 10-12; and at the Schoenstatt Centre in Cape Town from August 16-18.

Under the umbrella of the Hope&Joy Network, the lectures build up to a climax on the subject of the Second Vatican Council and the contemporary Church.

Evening workshops in each city help participants to explore how the major ecumenical Council has changed forever the way they experience their faith and their Church.

The annual Winter Living Theology programme, run by the Jesuit Institute on behalf of the bishops’ conference, was originally conceived for the ongoing formation of priests. Over the years the programme has proven so popular among laypeople and religious, as well as members of other Christian churches, that it is now open to any participant. n For more information about the Winter Living Theology, contact admin@jesuitinstitute.org.za or phone 011 482 4614.

Fr Jim Corkery, a Jesuit from Ireland, launches Winter Living Theology at an evening seminar at Santa Sophia friary in Pretoria.

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

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fix a few ‘small problems’

BY CINDY WOODEN

A

S half a million young Catholics are about to descend on Madrid, “there are an infinite number of small problems to solve”, said the executive director of World Youth Day 2011 from August 16-21.

Yago de la Cierva said that he had “seven tonnes of rosaries I have to bail out of customs. The US-based Family Rosary Crusade had the rosaries made in Ecuador and sent to Madrid for distribution to WYD participants.

But, Mr de la Cierva said, it is a bit difficult to convince customs agents that seven tons of anything shipped internationally is meant as a gift and not a product to be sold and, therefore, taxed.

A produce company had promised to donate 25 000 pounds of bananas, but if organisers accept the fruit, “we have to find a way to dispose of all those peels”, he told a news conference in Madrid.

More importantly, he said, the organisation was trying to select and get security clearance for the 50 young people who personally will welcome the pope to Madrid on August 18, and organisers were also deciding which five young people will have the honour of asking Pope Benedict a question during the vigil on August 20.

Organisers estimate the event will cost more than $70 million (R500 million). However, they said they expect to cover it all with registration fees and donations, especially of supplies. The donated material includes the bananas and other food for participants, but also big-ticket items such as private security officers and the materials and

Puerta de Alcala, the symbolic main entrance to the city of Madrid, is lit in blue in this evening view from Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid. Pope Benedict will enter Madrid through the archways for an evening reception during World Youth Day. (Photo: Paul Haring, CNS) labour for the stages and altar platforms for papal events.

The Madrid headquarters is staffed with 250 people, “working 25 hours a day”, Mr de la Cierva said. About 200 of the staff members are volunteers from around the world. Many are housed, fed and transported

by World Youth Day, but none of them are paid.

The original plan was to have 23 000 volunteers helping, but now organisers are rallying 30 000 volunteers. Just the task of coordinating all those volunteers is a major undertaking, he said.

David Martin Valles, vicedirector of Madrid’s tourism promotion office, said the demand for hotel rooms in the city this August is “150% higher than normal for August”. In a city that has about 70 000 hotel rooms, the occupancy rate is expected to be complete. Hotels in towns nearby also are experi-

encing a boom in bookings.

In fact, Mr de la Cierva said, with more than 300 000 of the registered pilgrims requesting housing, WYD has recruited host families and has found schools, churches and sports centres willing to host young people with sleeping bags. He said the city has offered 643 public buildings, mainly schools, and the church and private groups are providing another 790 venues that will be transformed into hostels, complete with portable showers.

Fr Javier Cremades, coordinator of the key large liturgies and ceremonies, said that with Masses planned each day for specific language groups and the papal Mass planned for the last day, his office expects to use between 4 million and 5 million Communion hosts. The altar linens have been made by volunteers around the world and mailed to Madrid.—CNS

Law to break confessional seal?

BY MICHAEL KELLY

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HE group that represents Ireland’s Catholic priests says the secrecy of confession must be protected, despite government indications that confessions would not be exempt from rules on mandatory reporting of child abuse.

“The point is, if there is a law in the land, it has to be followed by everybody. There are no exceptions, there are no exemptions,” said Irish children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald.

Fr P J Madden, spokesman for the Association of Catholic Priests, insisted that the sacramental seal of confession is “above and beyond all else” and

should not be broken even if a penitent confesses to a crime.

Fr Madden said he would strongly urge and appeal to the penitent—whether a priest or anyone else—to confess a crime to the police and have the civil aspect dealt with, but that he did not approve of the idea of reporting what was said.

“If I’m breaking the law then somebody has to find a way to address that for me...but in my own right as a priest what I understand is the seal of confession is above and beyond all else,” he said.

“The seal of confession is a very sacred seal for lots of different reasons way beyond this one

single issue, however serious this one single issue is,” Fr Madden insisted.

The Irish government said it would introduce legislation that makes it mandatory for priests to reveal details of child abuse, even if they become known in the confessional.

The announcement came after a judicial commission investigating the diocese of Cloyne revealed that allegations of abuse were being mishandled and withheld from the police as recently as 2008.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said that canon law would not be allowed to supersede state law.—CNS

Tunisia’s Catholics told to ‘rejoice’

BY CINDY WOODEN

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UNISIA’S tiny Catholic community prays for the country’s transition to democracy and hopes that the nation will embrace full religious freedom, said Archbishop Maroun Lahham of Tunis.

“We are certainly for the separation of ‘mosque and state’, but we say clearly that a healthy democratic society must have as its foundation values that, whatever anyone says, have a religious root: freedom, respect, peace, equality, the preferential option for the poor, solidarity,” the archbishop said.

The archbishop wrote a pastoral letter on the attitude that Tunisia’s 22 000 Catholics—all of whom are foreigners—should

have towards the North African country’s political and social changes. Tunisia’s authoritative government was overthrown in January and a process of democratisation began.

For Christians, Archbishop Lahham said, the first wish “is to see the country finally arrive at a democratic regime. It is clear that a revolution is one thing, and a successful democratic transition is another.”

Archbishop Lahham’s letter was dated July 24, the date originally scheduled for elections to the committee to draft a new constitution. The elections now are scheduled for October.

The constitution must be drafted and approved in a referendum before normal elections

can be held to choose a legislature and a president. The process is expected to take two years, which sounds like a long time, but “is nothing in the history of a nation, especially when dealing with such a radical change”, he wrote.

Christians in Tunisia are called to live their faith and to “show with our lives the gift God has given us in Jesus Christ, but also to discover the life of this nation and its cultural and religious traditions,” he said.

They should rejoice over the fact that Tunisians are acquiring the rights and freedoms they were denied for decades and that there is greater space for good neighbourly relations between Muslims and Christians.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

5

Sudan’s bishops: Meet challenges by putting Christ first

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IKE the early Christians who were challenged by social pressures and political forces, Sudan’s Catholics face modern-day challenges that can best be met by “putting Christ at the centre of their life”, the bishops of Sudan said.

They also called on their collaborators in various ministries to initiate a period of spiritual renewal, strengthen the spirit of cooperation, communion and mutual support, share resources and personnel in an effort to better serve the Sudanese people.

The statement from Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum, Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok

Kur of Khartoum and Coadjutor Bishop Michael Didi Mangoria of El-Obeid followed Sudan’s partition into two nations as South Sudan became the world’s newest country this month.

They also called for new pastoral initiatives to foster vocations, form new catechists and provide faith education for families, especially children.

The bishops urged a peaceful outcome to the recent violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. Witnesses said a series of attacks by government troops were aimed at the ethnic Nuba people around Kadugli, South Kordofan’s capital.

Other attacks occurred in Abyei, home primarily to members of the

Dinka Ngok tribe, supporters of the government of Southern Sudan.

The bishops also welcomed a statement to the Sudanese Parliament from Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, who invited all segments of society to help rewrite the country’s constitution.

“This is a positive move and assurance from the president, a sign of reconciliation and an appeal to heal our wounds and an effective request for every citizen to rise from the ashes of our past and recreate our future with peace, dignity and equality for all,” the bishops said.

Meanwhile, Italian-born Bishop Cesare Mazzolari, known for rebuilding church structures and

Pope urges aid to Horn of Africa

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OPE Benedict has urged the international community to deliver urgent humanitarian aid to the drought-stricken Horn of Africa, especially Somalia, where tens of thousands have fled drought and famine.

The pope, addressing pilgrims at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, said he had been following news of the region’s humanitarian catastrophe with “deep concern”. United Nations experts say the prolonged drought, combined with a rise in food prices, have forced many families to make long and often deadly overland treks to reach refugee camps.

“Innumerable people are fleeing from that tremendous famine in search of food and assistance. I hope the international community will increase its efforts to quickly send aid to our sorely tested brothers and sisters, among them many children,” the pope said.

“Our solidarity and the concrete assistance of all people of good will should not be lacking.”

Most of those fleeing Somalia have headed towards refugee

A woman holds her baby outside a tent serving as a medical clinic established by the African union peacekeeping operation in Mogadishu, Somalia. Pope Benedict has urged the international community to deliver urgent humanitarian aid to the drought-stricken region of eastern Africa, especially Somalia. (Photo: Stuart Price/uN handout) camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, walking across a barren landscape in journeys that have taken more than a month.

Many mothers arriving in the camps have described losing children along the way to disease and malnutrition.

The drought in eastern Africa has been reported as the worst

in 60 years, and UN officials say it has placed the lives of 11 million people at risk.

UN secretary-general Ban Kimoon said that United Nations agencies have requested $1,6 billion to pay for life-saving programmes in the region, but so far have reached only half that amount.—CNS

Another ‘bishop’ excommunicated

BY JOHN THAVIS

T

HE Vatican said a Chinese bishop ordained illegitimately in mid-July has been automatically excommunicated and lacks the authority to govern his diocese.

At the same time, the Vatican praised bishops loyal to Rome who resisted participation in the ordination ceremony before being forced by authorities to do so.

“The Holy Father, having learned of these events, once again deplores the manner in which the Church in China is being treated and hopes that the present difficulties can be overcome as soon as possible,” a Vatican statement said.

The Vatican was reacting to the ordination of Fr Joseph Huang Bingzhang at St Joseph’s Cathedral in Shantou, in southern China’s Guangdong province. Bishop Johan Fang Xingyao of Linyin, president of the government-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, was reportedly the main celebrant; he was one of eight Vatican-approved bishops at the ordination.

It was the second ordination of a Chinese bishop without papal mandate in the last month. The Vatican has emphasised that willing participants in such ordinations face severe penalties under Church law, including automatic excommunication for the ordained bishop and the consecrating bishops.

In the latest case, Fr Huang “had been informed some time ago that he could not be approved by the Holy See as an episcopal candidate, inasmuch as the diocese of Shantou already has a legitimate bishop”.

The Asian Church news agency UCA News reported that Vatican-approved Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou, whom the government recognises only as a priest, said he would not recognise Fr Huang as a bishop, because he violated Church law and principles.

T

he Vatican statement said officials in Rome had learned that some Chinese bishops, when contacted by civil authorities, were unwilling to participate in the ordination and had offered “various forms of resistance” before being obliged to take part.

“With regard to this resistance, it should be noted that it is meritorious before God and calls for appreciation on the part of the whole Church.

Equal appreciation is also due to those priests, consecrated persons and members of the faithful who have defended their pastors, accompanying them by their prayers at this difficult time and sharing in their deep suffering,” the Vatican said.

UCA News reported that some bishops were accompanied to the ordination by government officials. Church

sources said many of the diocesan priests went into hiding days before the ordination, but that some were found by government officials and had to attend to the ceremony.

The Vatican sees the right of the pope to appoint bishops as fundamental to Church unity and as an essential element of religious freedom. China’s civil authorities consider it a foreign interference.

“The Holy See reaffirms the right of Chinese Catholics to be able to act freely, following their consciences and remaining faithful to the successor of Peter and in communion with the universal Church,” the Vatican statement said.

China insists that key Catholic leaders—including bishops—and Church sites be registered with the government.

Some Catholic officials have refused to do so because they feel the Chinese government tries to control the Church.

A Shantou priest who attended the ordination said he hoped the new bishop could unite the priests for the good of the local Church.

“Forgiveness, tolerance and mutual support are more important,” said the priest, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Even if the Holy See excommunicates Fr Huang, “I will work with him, except for sacramental Communion, and continue to serve my parishioners, who are innocent in this incident,” he said.—CNS

communities in the diocese of Rumbek, Sudan, died on July 16 while concelebrating Mass.

The bishop, 74, fell backward, clutching his chest and gasping for air, at the beginning of the consecration. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Catholics from the diocese recalled Bishop Mazzolari as a zealous worker who re-opened missions and negotiated humanitarian assistance for the diocese which, in 2004, was home to tens of thousands of refugees from the Sudanese region of Darfur. He also promoted education and health care and “passionately responded to human need at every level,” they said.

“Like St Paul, Bishop Mazzolari spent his life at the service of the Gospel, always assuring us that God was journeying with the people of South Sudan,” said a statement released by diocesan Catholics.

Born in Brescia in 1937, Cesare Mazzolari was ordained a Comboni priest in 1962. He spent 19 years working among AfricanAmerican and Mexican mine workers.

In 1981, he moved to the Sudanese diocese of Tombura-Yambio, in what is now South Sudan.

Pope John Paul II appointed him apostolic administrator of Rumbek in 1990, and he was consecrated bishop in January 1999.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Don’t shut the doors

S

OME years ago The Southern Cross learned of an inmate in a South African prison who decided to convert to Catholicism on account of the newspaper.

Having read The Southern Cross (which is distributed to many prisons through the Associates Campaign) and its coverage of Catholic thought on a regular basis, the prisoner aimed to turn around his life by embracing the faith.

This is one example of how Catholic outreach to prisoners can make a concrete difference in their lives. It would seem likely that the odds of recidivism among released prisoners decrease if they walk free as committed Christians.

Those who provide spiritual care to prisoners—the most marginalised individuals in our society—are thereby performing an important service not only to the people they minister to, but also to the public in general.

The faithful in Southern Africa should take the Week of Prayer for Prisoners and Victims of Crime from July 31 to August 7 very seriously.

As its title implies, the prayer week calls on Catholics in our region to direct the focus of their intentions to those who minister to prisoners, to prisoners themselves (especially that they may find the courage and guidance to change their lives around), and to the victims of crime.

In our feature article this week, national prison chaplain Fr Russell Campbell says: “There is a great need for chaplains in this ministry as they are the ones through whom the sacraments can continue to be made available to people once they are sentenced and while they are cut off from society.”

He points out that many prisoners are abandoned by their families and friends while they are locked up.

Yet, to have a chance of reforming themselves, prisoners need contact with the outside world. Indeed, it is Christ’s demmand that prisoners be visited: “I was...in prison and you visited me” (Mt 25:36). In doing so, those involved in prison ministries give witness to Christ’s love in a very special way.

There are many Catholics who have taken up this uninviting mission in harsh environ-

ments; but many more are needed.

Pope Benedict in 2007 called the pastoral care of prisoners a “vital mission”. The pope—who has made it a point to visit prisoners, as his predecessors John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II did—said that correctional facilities “must contribute to the rehabilitation of offenders, facilitating their transition from despair to hope, and from unreliability to dependability”.

The Catholic prison apostolate cannot, of course, accomplish all that on its own. Of the elements mentioned by Pope Benedict, the Catholic prison ministry is best placed in helping facilitate the transition from “despair to hope”.

Also in 2007, the then-president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino, warned that society could not “close its eyes, cannot be indifferent” to the living conditions, human rights abuses and often-dim prospects experienced by many prisoners.

The Church must continue to advocate for conditions that might more effectively encourage the rehabilitation of the inmates in our overcrowded and often anarchic prisons which are further congested with awaiting trialists, thanks to an overburdened judiciary system.

The state of many of South Africa’s correctional facilities, many of them run by gangs and giving little protection to inmates who wish to reject the gang system, can be dehumanising. It should not surprise us when individuals, some already lacking in empathy, emerge from jail with a pitiless character.

Victims of crime—those touched directly by crime and their family and friends—may well point out that their anguish tends to be ignored, other than in a general resentment of crime. It is therefore commendable that the bishops specifically include them in the intentions for our week-long prayers.

The week is then not only a time for highlighting the prison ministry and the plight of prisoners, but also an opportunity for the Church to review whether enough pastoral care is extended to the victims of crime, and whether their stories are being properly heard.

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

Parable of the sower’s relevance knowledge of the kingdom of heaven; the seeds falling on differing ground, each yielding (or not!) a harvest as allowed by the fruitfulness of that ground.

Those who listen and take what’s said to heart are those who yield the fruits of the kingdom in abundance.

We need to focus on the “soil of our soul” and ask the question—have we prepared ourselves sufficiently to understand, to take up the good news, the Gospel of Christ?

I find this particular focal point to be most poignant, especially in light of his statement: “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

A definite responsibility on our part as followers of Christ is implied here. It’s pointless listening to the

I

WAS amazed at the relevance of the parable of the sower, which we read recently at Sunday Mass, to contemporary Catholic society. It speaks of our receptivity to the wisdom and truths of God. It begs the question: Have we “cultivated” that frame of mind in which we would be receptive to the meaning of the Gospel—are we spiritually prepared?

Do we really listen or is our mind far off on some thought-safari?

Indeed many who appear to listen, ask: “What was it I just heard?” To paraphrase the Lord: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”

There are many ways of focusing on this parable, but for me it is in identifying the sower as Christ himself, who sows the “seeds” of the

Mgr Kolbe’s plant Has the Vatican specimens sought got it wrong?

P

C

ERMIT me to respond to Hazel MacDonald’s letter “Church Traditions Explained”, (July 13).

To maintain that the Mass is available in one language, Latin, throughout the world, is useful to Catholic globe-trotters, but does not sit comfortably with me. Of what importance is that to Catholics when travelling abroad?

Surely the core of and the familiarity with the Mass can be followed fairly easily in whatever language?

Even though the Mass in the early centuries seemed to have moved to greater uniformity because of Latin, most worshippers shared in “common incomprehension”. Despite seminary reform, neither the laity nor many of the clergy, for that matter, could understand Latin.

The original intention of altarrails was as a barricade for keeping domestic animals out of the sanctuary in earlier times, when people brought them to Mass, not for the separation of the clergy from the laity or for the reception of Holy Communion.

With the tearing of the temple curtain in two (Mt 27:51), it is clear there is no longer separation of laity and clergy, or people from God. The baptised are all one in Christ.

OULD any of your readers shed light on what has happened to the herbarium (a collection of pressed plant specimens) of Mgr F C Kolbe (1854-1936)?

Two separate published sources state that the collection of more than 5 000 specimens was kept at St Mary’s Dominican convent, Cape Town. Neither UCT’s Bolus Herbarium nor the Kirstenbosch Herbarium, which includes that of the SA Museum, has the collection. Anyone with information on this is asked to contact me at rod neymoffett@ymail.com or 073 499 5556.

Prof Rodney Moffett, Free State

Abortion: be plain and prickly

I

N 1997 the South African parliament legalised abortion on demand.

Some years ago Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston University, stated in a thesis justifying the personhood of unborn human beings: “Abortion comes from hell, and will lead us to hell if not repented; and in opposing it there is a time to be polite and scholarly, and a time to tell the truth, plain and prickly.”

Does the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office constantly lodge protests with the government about the continued existence of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, and it’s tragic consequences, and if so, are they “polite and scholarly” or “plain and prickly”?

Damian McLeish, Johannesburg

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.

Word, however it’s heard, if that seed falls on an “arid heart”.

Good farmers know that an abundant crop requires a fertile soil; it needs watering, fertilising and tilling. Thus the seed that falls outside of fertile soil is fruitless, carried away by the guile of those whose purpose is worldly, choked on the “weeds” of worldly desires or withered by the lack of spiritual foundation—blossoming for a while but inevitably fading away when faced with any test.

Yet, he who yearns after the ways of the kingdom, whose heart is imperfect but open to God’s healing Word, will learn, understand and grow spiritually, producing an abundance of the love and charity which our Lord so eagerly desires.

Are you prepared for your next encounter with the Word of God? Anthony J Sturges, Johannesburg

For much of the Church’s history, people stood to receive Communion in the hands. To say that the tongue is more “worthy” to touch the species than our hands is nonsense. Jesus came to redeem the entire person, not just parts of us. Have a look at James 3:5-12 regarding what the Word of God has to say about the tongue, incidentally.

One of the main aims of Vatican II was for the Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular. I am sure Jesus did not have his back to the apostles at the Last Supper—the first Mass. Since the Mass is offered first and foremost to the Father, who is omnipresent, and who is Spirit, why should the celebrant have to face the east, or the tabernacle?

The correct location for the tabernacle is in a place separate from where the Mass is celebrated, according to the rubrics. In St Peter’s basilica the Pope celebrates the liturgy facing the people, and the tabernacle is halfway down the main body of that vast church.

Has the Vatican got it wrong?

Fasting and abstinence are indeed important (including meatless Fridays) for our growth and strength as Christians, especially to overcome and combat the wiles of the evil one, which Jesus said can only be cast out with “prayer and fasting”.

For 30 years devotees of the Medjugorje apparitions have been fasting on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays, out of love for the blessed Mother.

This is much more meritorious than being coerced, for fear of hell-fire, or to notch up good marks to “celebrate” the pope’s visit to Britain.

John Lee, Johannesburg

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PERSPECTIVES

Is the death of marriage near?

Samuel T Francis IMC HE headline in a Kenyan daily newspaper a few months ago demanded: “Is the institution of marriage under threat? Then let’s do away with it.”

The writer was inspired by a case in which a husband had murdered his wife and two sons in cold blood before committing suicide by hanging himself with a rope inside the same house.

This was just one such case where husbands and wives have turned against each other and children against their own parents. The writer went on to point out that even in the western world, marriage has lost its meaning as men and women have taken to sexually befriending and marrying each other in same sex unions.

The writer argued that marriage is the most peculiar, irrational, selfish and restrictive institution ever invented, and concluded by stating his hope that future generations will have the moral courage to abolish it because the human race can continue without it.

This year, May was declared “Family Month” by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Of course, the Church should not limit her focus on family to one month only.

Even the first family, in the creation account in the book of Genesis, had its share of tribulations; it did not take long before things began to fall apart. The serpent drove a wedge between the first couple and God. And when God sought an explanation, neither Adam nor Eve was

ready to take the blame; instead they resorted to pointing fingers.

It was in that first family in which the first murder was committed: the jealous Cain turning against his younger brother Abel; and when God called him to account, he bluntly said that he was not his brother’s keeper. Ever since Cain, many families have faced similar tribulations.

The world adores a love story and thirsts for narratives of hope in difficult times. This is what a wedding offers. As the bride and the groom exchange their marital vows, they envision a future full of love and happiness.

Unfortunately, sometimes marriage bliss doesn’t last forever. Few marriages these days are free from tangled family constellations. How can the Church help couples to learn to forgo the many little liberties in marriage?

St Martin de Porres parish in Woodlands, Pietermaritzburg, is one community that has found a way.

The parish formed a family ministry group whose goal is to spread the Good News of family life by rediscovering the beauty of married and family life. Members of the group intend to renew and foster family life and reach out to couples with problems by offering them means of healing and reconciliation.

Already they are networking with other family life organisations, Church groups and agencies promote a vision of greater family focus in the Church, based on the values of the holy family. They have invit-

Point of Family

ed guest speakers who have shared with parishioners their personal life experiences of troubled marriages and how they managed to save their families from disintegration.

Marriage is not a contract, but a commitment, a commitment where 1+1=1 and not 2.

Becoming one flesh simply means that the two people share everything they have; not only their bodies, not only their material possession, but also their thinking and their feelings, joys and sufferings, hopes and fears, successes and failures.

Through family ministry, the Church can help couples realise that marriage is to be enjoyed, not endured.

The family is the domestic church.

Therefore, if we have healthy and stable families, then we will have healthy and stable individuals, healthy and stable parishes and a healthy and stable society.

May the spirit of God encourage husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters to learn to appreciate one another and to be grateful for the gift of family. n Samuel Francis studies at St Joseph's Theological Institute in Cedara, KwaZulu-Natal.

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

Our faith, stripped bare

I

OFTEN feel frustrated by the lack of silence in my life because I delude myself into believing that if I had more silence, I would be more contemplative and open to divine inspiration.

Most of the time prayer is a dry spell of presenting myself before God and waiting to hear.

Better prayers I have had came to me without my volition, in unexpected places; such as on the bus, at dusk when going home after a long day.

Lately have I discovered that the best way to pray is to offer your life to God as a prayer. Often we think this means a cloistered life. But, as the English writer Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) taught us, a contemplative life is also possible for lay life.

I am lucky enough to work close to a cathedral, and so sometimes I’m able to attend midday Mass. Still my prayer at that time is a crowded zoo of floating distractions, personal concerns, the daily grind and all. So more recently I learnt to offer my distractions as prayer, and found peace. So it was rather consoling to observe that even those who dedicate their whole lives to the life of prayer and silence suffer the same frustrations as myself.

I recently watched a documentary film called No Greater Love by Michael Whyte.

“You cannot put a value on prayer, like you can a product, it still remains a mystery,” says its premise.

Whyte says it took him ten years of

correspondence before he was given the “unprecedented access” to the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in London’s Notting Hill. The monastery of the Discalced Order of Carmelite Nuns was founded in 1878.

As most Catholics know, Carmelite nuns lead a cloistered life dedicated to prayer and contemplation, “rarely leaving the monastery except to visit a doctor or dentist. Silence is maintained throughout the day with the exception of two periods of recreation”, as Whyte put it.

No Greater Love gives a unique insight into the cloistered life of the Carmelites by interweaving “a year in the life of the monastery with the daily rhythms of Divine Office and work”. One is shocked into reality at how mundane the making of the Holy Bread for Communion is.

Like every other job, it follows a factory line: dough-making, baking on steel plates, cutting with perforating machines, shipment packing, and so on.

The film follows a year in the life of a novice who is professed and one of the senior nuns who dies. Though mainly an observational film, there are several interviews which offer insights into the lives of the nuns. One of them, Sr Christine Marie of John of the Cross, says: “Silence echoes the eternal word.” It acts to fulfil the unfailing power of God and is full of life’s expectancies, and there’s redeeming grace in it.

You get to understand that a cloistered life is not place of escape; in fact it is where you come face to face with the

reality of yourself—and most of us can’t stand that. This is why we invent all sorts of distractions.

The greatest trick the devil has achieved is to use god to avoid God. That is, to use pious distractions, like false prayer, empty piety, pompous devotion, unlived words, and so on. Maybe this is the danger in the cloistered life, and these Carmelite nuns are well aware of it—I wondered how they could convey this message clearer today with all the “bornagain” churches springing out everywhere like mushrooms. I believe these are themselves part of the movement of the Holy Spirit, but the danger of the Pharisees seems more prominent with them.

It is humbling to see moments of doubt even from the senior nuns. But their belief in the power of prayer takes them through everything.

Sr Mary of Saint Philip concludes by saying that “death is awesome, totally unknown”.

She says she sometimes thinks: “What if the atheists are right?” The simplicity of her answer is amazing: “Then there won’t be anyone to tell me so,” she laughs softly, “but if I am right there will be someone to meet me on the other side.”

That’s faith stripped bare to its fundamentals. To quote St Paul: “If Jesus Christ is not risen, then we preach in vain.”

The St Boniface Community is presenting its annual

CHURCH BAZAAR STARTING WITH OPEN-AIR MASS AT 9:30AM at the St Boniface Community Church Cnr Puttick Avenue & Kowie Road Sundowner Ext. 8, Randburg Tel: (011) 795-3651

7

Chris Chatteris SJ Pray with the Pope

WYD for everyone General Intention: That World Youth Day in Madrid may encourage young people throughout the world to have their lives rooted and built up in Christ.

OST young Catholics in the world won’t be able to go to World Youth Day (WYD) in the Spanish capital. But don’t despair if you’re one of them or if you feel too old to go to a young people’s event! The official WYD website will enable those who have Internet access to make a virtual, “home-based pilgrimage”.

By logging on to virtualworldyouthday.org one can share the experience of the real pilgrims online. On the virtual pilgrimage site you can, through social networking, be in close contact with the place, the people and the event.

The site says that through it, “you can gather with the thousands who will be taking this pilgrimage for a personal encounter with Christ”.

This is a modern-day application of the traditional Catholic practice of providing local places of pilgrimage for those who lacked the means to travel to Jerusalem or Rome. The local Church has always established pilgrimage destinations such as our own Shongweni or Ngome. And many a parish has its own Lourdes grotto.

In this way the WYD organisers respond to the pope’s intention which prays that young people throughout the world may be encouraged to root their lives in the Lord.

We pray that the Madrid gathering will be as successful as the one in Sydney in 2008. This not only had an impact on the participants but also deeply impressed the inhabitants of the host city.

The pilgrim, whether on the road or online, is always an ambassador of Christ.

M

Christians in the West

Pushing Boundaries

on SUNDAY, 28 AUGUST

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

on DStv audio channel 170 also streamed on radioveritas.co.za Listen on iPhone or Blackberry: http://listenlive c2p1.ndstream. net:8030

Missionary Intention: That Western Christians may be open to the action of the Holy Spirit and rediscover the freshness and enthusiasm of their faith.

T’S no secret that Pope Benedict is concerned about the state of Christianity in the West. He’s particularly concerned about Western Europe where the Church is sometimes even said to be in terminal decline. His choice of the name Benedict, the patron saint of Europe, proclaimed his concern for Europe’s re-evangelisation. He has even appointed a cardinal to oversee this initiative.

It’s also true that greater growth and enthusiasm are often to be found in the Church of the developing world. Thus this intention marks a striking and sobering role-reversal in which the countries which originally sent out missionaries are now being prayed for as mission territories themselves.

In purely human terms it seems as if the faith waxes and wanes under the influence of the forces of history. Spain, for example, was a Christian country which fell under Muslim rule and was later re-conquered. Today, Christianity in the Middle East is in decline because of the current politicoreligious situation.

The decline in Europe is linked to a post-war slowdown in the birth rate. However, in many European countries, Catholic congregations are being bolstered by immigrants from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

How the Holy Spirit works in these movements is a mystery. However we have faith that the salvation promised to us in God’s involvement with our world in the Old Testament and the in the historical event of Christ’s life, continues to unfold in and through these complex events.

And the Spirit blows where it wills, sometimes in the most unpromising of circumstances. The revival of French Catholicism after the Revolution is a dramatic example of this. In our own day, despite the apparent triumph of a godless secularism, one recent book’s title proclaims: “God is Back”. Few people now believe that “God is dead” or that faith is about to wither away It’s worth noting that as a percentage of the total population of the country, the Catholic Church in South Africa is declining. Some commentators wonder whether this is because South Africa is the most Westernised country on the continent. Again, the reasons are difficult to discern.

What is certain is that any revival of the faith anywhere, always involves much prayer.

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8

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

Natalie Meerholz from Holy rosary School in Edenvale, Johannesburg, was awarded the first place in the category “Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom” at the Innovative Teachers Forum presented by Microsoft. Mrs Meerholz, who came second overall will join four other candidates to represent South Africa in Istanbul at the regional forum, and is currently the IT head of department at her primary school. Her winning project was to establish an EWaste collection centre at her school in conjunction with a recycling company, involving the pupils who have done all the advertising, collection and management of the project. (Submitted by Berniece Eales)

COMMUNITY

The Bosco Youth Ministry team runs a programme every Sunday at Sicelo in Meyerton, Johannesburg. It provides young people with a place to be at home while learning, praying and playing. Fr Ivo Pisacane SDB entertains the youngsters with magic tricks. (Submitted by Clarence Watts)

Lionel Samuel wins the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice papal medal, which was motivated by his students for his outstanding contribution to the Catholic education ministry especially in Catholic schools in Kwazulu-Natal.

(Submitted by Gregory Moonilal on behalf of the Student Committee)

IN FOCU S Edited by: Lara Moses 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

Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town blesses children reached by the St Kizito movement, that takes care of orphaned children, at its annual Thanksgiving Mass. (Submitted by Shirley Dunn)

Newlands East Durban confirmation class of 2011 (Back from left): Leonard, Kerwi, Brandon, Nelson (teacher), Fr Bill Lovett OFM, Naomi, Philetta, Tanya and Kellin. (Front row): Bulent, Amy, Preeta, robyn, Tracy-Lee, Avesha, Fiona and Leo. (Submitted by Edwin Joseph)

FEATURE

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

9

The Church behind bars With the Week of Prayer for Prisoners and Victims of Crime taking place from July 31 to August 7, CLAIrE MATHIESON takes a closer look at ministry within prisons.

I

T may be one of the least glamorous ministries, but it is an apostolate that is active in morezthan 200 facilities across the country.

Prison ministry is often forgotten, but there is great need for this ministry to be supported by the Church and such an opportunity will occur during the Week of Prayer for Prisoners and Victims of Crime which takes place from July 31 to August 7.

The whole Church will be asked “to keep in mind the work being done by so many committed and dedicated volunteers in our prisons,” said national prison chap-

lain, Fr Russell Campbell.

The Church works with the Department of Correctional Services in three ways. Firstly, a bishop takes on the responsibility of the ministry. Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria currently holds this position and ensures the smooth operation of the ministry across the country via Fr Campbell and the national prison desk which oversees administrative work.

Secondly, the Church acts through the secondment of priests or deacons to the Department of Correctional Services to act as fulltime chaplains in the state’s employ.

“Unfortunately, because of the shortage of clergy we have only one such chaplain: Fr Jordan Ngondo, who is stationed at Leeuwkop prison in Johannesburg,” said Fr Campbell.

“There is a great need for chaplains in this ministry as they are the ones through whom the sacraments can continue to be made available to people once they are sentenced and while they are cut

off from society,” said Fr Campbell, adding that often the chaplain represents the only remaining contact prisoners have with the outside world as they are often abandoned by friends and family.

“The challenges of being a prison chaplain are very demanding as they are intimately involved in the departmental policy of the rehabilitation of prisoners—as opposed to a purely punitive system—which involves demanding and draining relationships being established between them and those for whom they are responsible”, said Fr Campbell.

In addition, while those working in the ministry are primarily responsible for Catholics in prison, “this is not their sole responsibility as they are appointed to minister to all prisoners regardless of their denomination—which in view of the overcrowding in our prisons leads to a huge workload being placed upon them,” said Fr Campbell.

Ideally every prison should have a Catholic chaplain, said Fr Campbell, “but it is not the policy of the department to appoint chaplains for every denomination in every prison, nor is it possible for the Church to supply the manpower to meet the challenge”.

T

his is the third and most important role the Church plays: seeking to meet the challenge of catering for the spiritual needs of Catholics in prison.

This work is conducted by spiritual workers—lay men and women, male and female religious, as well as priests and deacons, through permission granted by the department and the consent of the diocese. The work may range from administering sacraments, preaching, teaching, counselling or even Bible study.

Fr Ngondo said the ministry is both challenging and fulfilling because one works with people who have committed crime. He said those in the ministry have to

A priest distributes Communion at a prison. Church services and prayer in prisons has become a regular ministry within South Africa prisons. (Photo: Karen Callaway, CNS) be forgiving but also cautious as it can be stressful and even dangerous at times. “Prisoners don’t want to be told about hell and judgment, because they are condemned already. They appreciate the Good News,” Fr Ngondo said.

Fr Ngondo said while the ministry is supported, there is a long way to go. “One of the challenges is the coordination of this ministry from the local to the conference levels where all stakeholders should be united, the left hand must know what the right hand is doing. What is clear is everyone sees and says that this ministry is very important ministry of the Church but practically one sees a lot of gaps.”

Fr Campbell said great work was being done in the dioceses of Pretoria, Kokstad and Cape Town, and to further this work and to put it on a more organised foundation a consultation to set up a national umbrella body has been called by Archbishop Slattery. The consultation is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg in September.

“There is a lot that needs to be done, we need structures in the parishes, parishioners need to be

educated with regard to prisons and prison life,” said Fr Ngondo.

He added community participation, volunteers, rehabilitation programmes, prisoners Sunday and ministry to the families of the prisoners’ were all activities that could be adopted on the local level.

Fr Campbell said that is why emphasis has been put on the Week of Prayer: it’s not just specifically for chaplains but for the broader ministry of prison outreach.

“Moreover, people may consider whether or not they are being called to share in this ministry by becoming spiritual workers themselves and by offering their services to the prison coordinators in their diocese.”

He added this kind of proactive action was the only way that “we will begin to meet the huge challenges of caring for those in prison and offering them hope and acceptance in the future”.

The Southern Cross itself is engaged in prison outreach.

Through its Associates’ Campaign, the newspaper is sent to all prison chaplains who request it for distribution among prisoners.

Inmates attend a Mass celebrated in Cook County Jail, Chicago.

Effective Education Today for a Successful Tomorrow St Thomas Aquinas School in Witbank seeks to appoint a dynamic

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL – HIGH SCHOOL JANUARY 2012 • • • • •

This senior position requires a suitably qualified educator who is: An innovative thinker with proven leadership, management and administrative skills Knowledge about the FET curriculum and its requirements Able to interact confidently with staff, learners and parents, a ‘people person’ To be willing to contribute to the whole school ethos and accept the Catholic traditions of the school Committed and available for all school functions and events

Please send your CV with your SACE registration and the names and contact details of two referees to: head@stthomasaquinas.co.za by 19 August 2011.

The school reserves the right not to make an appointment. Submission of an application does not in itself entitle the applicant to an interview.

Staying True to our Values

10

RELIGION

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

Meet Muhammad, the prophet of Islam Christians often misunderstand Islam’s prophet Muhammad. To coincide with the month of Ramadan, Fr CHrISTOPHEr CLOHESSY, an expert on Islam, provides a brief introduction to Muhammad and his life.

I

T is difficult to write about the life of Muhammad: for one thing, Muslims have a particular perception of him and of the faith he brought that non-Muslims, no matter how objective they try to be, simply cannot emulate.

For a person who does not share the Islamic faith and legacy, it’s hard to deal with this topic without being influenced by the heritage of prejudice which we carry with us. This, despite the fact that now more than ever, “the barriers of geographical distance, hostility and fear, which once kept the religions in separate, watertight compartments, are beginning to fall” as people begin to discover the riches in the faith of “the other”, as author Karen Armstrong notes.

Considering the limited sources about his life, there has to be a continuous process of separating facts from the countless myths that have grown up around his person.

About the early life of Muhammad, prior to his call to be the Prophet of God, we have little reliable information. The Qur’ân, which is certainly not a biography of Muhammad, together with the corpus of Islamic traditions, combine as the primary source of information about his life after the revelations began. How objective they are is an entirely different question.

Notwithstanding some good contemporary biographies (including one by Karen Armstrong), to know and understand the real Muhammad we must go back to the earliest Arabic sources about his life. A crucial source is the biography by Ibn Ishâq, who died in the first century of Islam, edited by Ibn Hishâm, who died in the second.

The work contains fragments of earlier texts, and is therefore indispensible for a serious study of Muhammad.

The year 571 is the commonly accepted date of Muhammad’s birth. His father died before or very soon after his birth, and his mother died during his early childhood: the combination of material poverty, orphan status and membership (on his father’s side) of a clan which had lost its prestigious status would provide a very definite context to Muhammad’s life and perceptions.

After the death of his mother, the young Muhammad went to live with his grandfather: two years later, after his grandfather’s death, the “doubly” orphaned Muhammad was taken in by an uncle, Abû Tâlib. He was, tradition tells us, an affectionate and devoted foster father, and played an important role in Muhammad’s life: never accepting Islam himself, he nevertheless defended Muhammad in the heat of later persecution.

Hagiography aside, Muhammad made a good impression on people, despite the definite impoverishment in his beginnings and his status. These qualities—reliability, confidence, intelligence and balance—caught the attention of Khadîja, a wealthy, twice married, widow. It would be in her arms that Muhammad would take refuge after the trauma of divine revelation, and her role in his life is inestimable.

From being in her employ, Muhammad became her husband, after she had proposed marriage.

This was to bring a dramatic change of circumstance into the life of the poor orphan: an end to his material difficulties, a change in his social status and good business opportunities.

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orn into a period of Arab history that seemed characterised by malaise, by spiritual restlessness and a hunger for something more, Muhammad appeared disatisfied with Arab paganism and concerned for justice and the future of humanity, driving him into periodic retirement and contemplation. It was during one of his retreats, in Ramadân 610, that the revelations,

Muslim pilgrims gather to pray at the Mount of Mercy near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city in Islam. which were to continue in different contexts until the end of his life, first began.

It is difficult to comprehend the trauma of this, and later moments, for Muhammad. His own doubts are clearly alluded to in the Qur’ân, in the spiritual counsel and comfort he sought in Khadîja, and in his reluctance to preach what he had received. It was a message of monotheism linked, from the very beginning, with social and economic justice. As such, it was to be met with increasing hostility among the residents of Mecca whose very livelihood would be threatened by it.

The first converts to this new way of submission and justice were members of his own family. To this small circle was added, in the early days, his friend Abû Bakr who was to play a key role in later years and brought numerous young men of Mecca into the faith.

As the converts increased, so did the hostility, at first manifested by a complacent tolerance. The catalyst for more serious opposition was the rejection by Muhammad of the other Arabian deities in 616 in which he was not only calling for the abandonment of the “faith of the fathers”, but also threatening the heart and fabric of the Meccan society.

The result was a combination of

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moral and economic pressures, which were to grow in intensity, and would lead the Meccans to institute a not altogether successful boycott of Muhammad’s clan.

Eventually Muhammad and his followers would emigrate to the nearby city of Medina, where Islam would begin to thrive. They still faced hostility, not only from the Meccans, but also from elements within the Jewish tribes of Medina—later Muhammad would turn on these tribes for breaking their treaties with him, punishing some with expulsion and others with death.

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number of clashes took place between the Meccans and the Muslims of Medina until 630 when Muhammad set out for Mecca with a vast following of about 10 000 men. Faced by scant resistance, Muhammad and his army entered the city. The idols in the sanctuary were destroyed, amnesty (with some exceptions) was proclaimed for past offences and the citizens were invited to pay homage to Muhammad, acknowledging him as Messenger of God. Nobody appears to have been compelled to convert to Islam.

Around March 632 he returned to Medina, where two months later he became ill. In June of that year, ostensibly without having appoint-

ed a successor (this would have serious implications for Islam), Muhammad died and was buried in the city which had first welcomed him and the revelation he brought.

The almost immediate dispute over leadership has marked Islam to this very day. His death also marked the beginning of a general revolt in Arabia, with many regarding the pacts they had signed as being nullified by his death.

But neither the disputes nor the revolts can negate the enormity of Muhammad’s personality: his military and diplomatic skill, his obvious qualities of leadership, his ability in dealing with opposition. His own life and psychological composition forms part of the vital context into which Islam was born.

It is hard to know whether or not Muhammad intended to start a new religious movement: the first message of Islam—strict monotheism and a commitment to social justice—is hardly different from that of Christianity or Judaism.

Theologically, Islam does not purport to be a new religion: nor has it come to supplant or nullify the others with some innovative belief system or religious regimen.

Islam understands itself as humanity’s only religion and thus the normative expression of nature.

Islam sees itself as abrogating Christianity, since Muhammad is the “seal of prophets”, and the revelation he received supersedes all that came before.

Nonetheless, Christianity has a vital role in Muslim consciousness.

Islamic scholars insist that Islam’s abrogation of Christianity parallels the Christian surpassing of Judaism (although Christian theology understands itself not as concluding Judaism but completing it).

While Christianity persists in acknowledging its Judaic roots, Islam envisages itself as the reestablishment of what Judaism and Christianity would have been, had their sacred texts not become corrupted. Muslims believe that these earlier messages as originally proclaimed were perfectly consonant with the Qur’ân. n Fr Clohessy is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town.

The Southern Cross, July 27 to August 2, 2011

Fr Vincent Ford SDB

S

ALESIAN Father Vincent Ford died peacefully on June 12, at the age of 82.

Born in 1929, Fr Ford was a Salesian of Don Bosco for nearly 63 years, and nearly 54 years of these as a priest. Out of his 44 years of ministry in South Africa, he spent half of those in Cape Town, and the rest in Johannesburg, as a history teacher in Salesian schools, and then as parish priest.

Fr Vincent is especially remembered as a teacher and preacher.

The official obituary paid tribute to Fr Ford: “Reason and religion were wonderfully brought together by this brilliant and holy Salesian in the search for truth to

be found in the past, and its meaning for our own time.

A few years ago, Fr Ford celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest. In his homily he spoke about the mystery of the priesthood, the mixture of the divine and the human in the vocation of the priest, and, in the Salesian priestly ministry to the young, the balance of doing very ordinary things in working with youth, and also touching the divine, and the joy he experienced in the mystery.

He was forever seeking to understand at a deeper level.

He was a compassionate, understanding person who made deep, long-lasting friendships with the people he worked with—

CLASSIFIEDS Births • First Communion • Confirmation • Engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • Ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • Thanks • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday Accommodation • Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Others young people at school, seminarians, colleagues, parishioners, members of sodalities, bible study groups, legionaries, Salesian cooperators and so on After suffering a stroke 15 months ago, he accepted inevitable suffering in love and obedience. He had preached it eloquently, even before he learned it by experience. He died surrounded by friends, Nazareth sisters and Salesian confreres.

Francois Dufour SDB

Sr Lilly Lee Sun OP Town, in 1963, trained for three years and was sent to Rhodesia Teachers Training College for another three years. Sr Lily taught in don.

Kliptown Chinese School for three Sr Lily, formerly known as Sr years. Kuo Ting Chinese School for Paul OP, was the ninth of ten chil- four years, Dominican Convent dren, born in South Africa of par- School, Belgravia, St Albert’s Conents who came from Moiyen, vent in Hinckley, England, and China. Sr Lily could speak nine lan- Springs Convent.

In 2009, Sr Lily retired to the guages which aided her greatly on Dominican Convent in Brakpan. her travels throughout the world.

Sr Lily lived in Rome for seven She entered the Dominican Sisters of Siena in King William’s months, visited the Holy Land and with her sister Violet, travelled to China, Taiwan, Canada, July 31 18th Sunday. The Lord who feeds us. Like any San Francisco, loving parent God feeds us because he loves us, even making miracles happen to do so. Why not organise a Singapore and special tea or meal for grandparents, or other older peo- Mauritius.

She also ple to express gratitude for their love and care. Older peoSouth ple too can take some time to give of themselves and toured share their wisdom with their grandchildren.

Africa and Swazi-

D

OMINICAN Sister Lily Lee Sun of King William’s Town died on June 28 in East Lon-

Family Reflections

land with two Belgian priests, five women and 22 children from Taiwan.

Sr Lily was spiritual director for the Catholic Chinese Welfare Association, was one of the foundation members of Hong Ning (The Chinese Community Old Age Home beside St Anne’s), a member of the Legion of Mary: Queen of China Presidium, a member of St Vincent de Paul Society, and an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at Holy Angels, Bez Valley.

Submitted by Lily Loo.

Liturgical Calendar

Community Calendar

Sunday, July 31, 18th Sunday Isaiah 55:1-3, Psalm 145:8-9, 15-18, Romans 8:35:37-39, Matthew 14:13-21 Monday, August 1, St Alphonsu Liguori Numbers 11:4-15, Psalm 81:12-17, Matthew 14:22-36 Tuesday, August 2, Ss Eusebius of Vercelli, Peter Eymard Numbers 12:1-13, Psalm 51:3-7,12-13, Matthew 15:1-2, 10-14 Wednesday, August 3, feria Numbers 13:1-2, 25-14,1:26-29, Psalm 106:6-7, 13:-14, 2123, Matthew 15:21-28 Thursday, August 4, St John Vianney Numbers 20:1-13, Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9, Matthew 16:13-23 Friday, August 5, Dedication of the basilica of St Mary Deuteronomy 4:32-40, Psalm 77:12-16, 21, Matthew 16:24-28 Saturday, August 6, Transfiguration of the Lord Deuteronomy 7:9-10, 13-14, Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6,9, Matthew 17:1-9 Sunday, August 7, 19th Sunday 1Kings 19: 9,11-13, Psalm 85:9-14, 15-18, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33

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

Year A

CAPE TOWN: Fundraiser Car Boot Sale and morning market at St Brendan’s church, Cnr Longboat rd (off Ou Kaapseweg) and Corvette Street, Sunvalley, Fish Hoek, Last Saturday every month. All welcome.

Info and stall reservations: Maggi-Mae 021 782 9263 or 082 892 4502 mvidas@mweb.co.za KIMBERLEY: The St Boniface Past Students’ union is busy preparing to celebrate its 60th anniversary on September 24. Past

students are requested to contact union’s PrO & Chairman of the Board, Mosalashuping Morudi 073 768 3653, John Siyoko 079 181 5716 or Kagisho Mogamisi 082 451 5893 or sbonifa@ iafrica.com MAFIKENG: Annual diocesan music festival, September 3, admission r350, closing date for booking August 27. Choirs throughout Kimberly Diocese are eligible to take part. Contact 072 569 7531or 058 861 4411.

Rubrics: The rules laid down for the recitation of the Divine Office, the celebration of Mass, and the administration of the sacraments.

Application: When to sit, stand, kneel or bow during Mass is part of the rubrics of the Catholic Church.

“It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins” (II Macc XII,46) Holy Mass will be celebrated on the first Sunday of each month in the All Souls’ chapel, Maitland, Cape Town at 2:30pm for all souls in purgatory and for all those buried in the Woltemade cemetery.

For further information, please contact St Jude Society, Box 22230, Fish Hoek, 7975 Telephone (021) 552-3850

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

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DEATH POLLITT—Valerie Joan.

Beloved wife of Mervyn, mother of Michael and Jennifer, mother-in-law to Grant and grandmother to Kyle, Vaughn and Chevonne.

Passed away on July 15 after a brave acceptance of incurable cancer. Val will be greatly missed by her family and friends. Safe in the arms of Jesus we commit a courageous Soul.

WERNBERG—Denis Jacques. 03/01/1926 08/07/2011. Beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather passed away peacefully on 8/7/2011.

A loving, gentle man of great integrity loved and respected by all who were privileged to know him. He will be sadly missed and his memory will be cherished always by his wife Connie and his children, Mary Anne, Philip, David, Kevin, Stephen, Libby and their families.

IN MEMORIAM CERFONTYNE—In Loving Memory of our dear son and brother Michael who passed away July 26, 2010. We will always love and keep you in our hearts. Mom, Dad, Heidi & Carla DU PLESSIS—Dion. 31 May 1975 – 27 July 2007. You are always in our thoughts and prayers. Lovingly remembered and deeply missed. Mom, Dad, Paige, Neil and Charlotte.

FR JIM McCAULEY—Fr Jim is remembered with love and a big hug. Maureen Mayes and the family.

GOUVEIA—Edwardo.

30.07.2010. Dear God, please take this message to our precious Dad in heaven above. Tell him, how much we miss him and give him our love. A year has passed and our entire family is still feeling the pain. We miss him in so many ways and

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

wish we could have him back again. Old times we recall of things he used to say and do. We miss your tender voice, infectious laugh; your smile has gone forever and your hands we cannot touch.

Looking back upon the path you trod we bless each hour spent with you and thank Our God. Treasure him dear Lord in your garden of rest for on earth he was truly our very best. We keep in our heart the love of the past, there it was planted forever to last. rest in peace my love until we meet again.

Yours always Maria, Joanna, Angelo, Eddie and all the family.

SANVIDO—Tony. In loving memory of my dear husband, our father and grandfather who passed away August 1, 1998. Forever in our hearts. Always remembered with love by his wife Nancy, his children and grandchildren. rIP

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ACCOMMODATION OFFERED CAPE TOWN, Cape Peninsula: Beautiful homes to buy or rent. Maggi-Mae 082 892 4502. Colliers International False Bay, 021 782 9263,

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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 mjsali da@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.

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

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EMMANUEL CATHEDRAL DURBAN PILGRIMAGE Visiting Assisi, Rome and Vatican City Organised and led by Rev Fr Stephen Tully Cost: R15 520

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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19th Sunday: August 7 Readings: 1 Kings 19: 9a, 11-13a; Psalm 85:9-14; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-23

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FRICAN people very often rub their eyes incredulously at the agnostic scepticism of Europe; for them the reality of the mystery called God is very close indeed. Next Sunday’s readings may give us pause if we too are inclined to brush God aside.

The first reading gives us the lovely picture of Elijah, who is on the run from Jezebel, after his murderous triumph over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel; he is hidden in a cave and, frankly, sulking, but he has to be educated in the mystery of God, who is not to be dictated to, even by very successful prophets like Elijah.

So he is dragged out of his cave to meet God, and to be taught the lesson that God is not always how human beings imagine.

So the appearance of God is heralded, first, by “a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rocks”, and you think, “Ah! That must be God, then”, but “the Lord was not in the wind”, and similarly with the equally impressive “earthquake” and “fire”.

It is only when there is something like a “thin soft voice” (no one can agree on the translation, but it is clearly much less impressive than the preceding phenomena) that Elijah “wrapped his face in his mantle,

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Encounter the mystery of God in all things Nicholas King SJ Sunday reflections and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave”.

We must learn to encounter the mystery of God everywhere in God’s creation, and not just in the loud noises.

The psalmist knows that it takes a bit of effort to “listen to what the Lord God will say”, but that it is worth it, “for he shall speak peace”. And he is well aware that God is not remote, but “his salvation is near to those who fear him, for his glory to dwell in our land”. What is more, God has companions: “Love and integrity...righteousness and peace.” You may not be able to see God, nor may God’s appearance be what we assume it to be; but he is there, just beyond our glance. Let us pray this week to attend to the presence of God in our lives.

In the second reading, Paul has completed some of the more difficult argumentation of the letter to the Romans, showing that because of what God has done in Jesus, the

Gentiles (that is, most of us who read the Southern Cross) have access by faith to God’s plan for us.

However that raises the question of what happens to the Jews, God’s chosen people.

Paul is absolutely clear that God has not changed his mind; listen to the solemn tones with which Paul starts this part of the epistle: “I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit”.

You could hardly get more emphatic than that. And what is he saying? He is speaking of his “immense pain and unceasing agony” with regard to the people of God, and, astonishingly, says that he could wish himself “accursed from Christ for their sakes”, and insists that they are really “Israelites, children of God; they have the glory and the covenants and the Law-giving, and the Temple worship, and the promises and the ancestors. And the Messiah came from them!”

Christians, as the present pope has recently reminded us, have absolutely no justification for the condemnation of our Jewish brothers and sisters in which we have too readily indulged, thereby ignoring the profound mystery of God. In the gospel we are brought face to face

How to count your blessings T

HIS is one of the nicest e-mails of its kind I have ever received. It starts off with the introduction: “I dreamt that I went to heaven and an angel was showing me around.” From there, the narrator continues: We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said: “This is the Receiving Section.

Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received.”

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me: “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.”

I noticed again how busy it was there.

There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. “This is the Acknowledgment Section,” my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed.

Conrad

Chris Moerdyk The Last Word “How is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked. “So sad,” the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.”

“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked. “Simple,” the angel answered. “Just say: ‘Thank you, Lord’.”

“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.

The angel replied: “If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, then you are richer than 75% of people in this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, then you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthiest.

“If you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.

“If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, then you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.

“If you have never experienced fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, then you are ahead of 700 million

people in the world.

“If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.

“If your parents are still alive and still married, then you are very rare.

“If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, but unique to all those in doubt and despair.”

“Ok,” I said, “what now? How can I start?”

“Count your blessings, and if you care to, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are,” the angel said.

“And perhaps send the following message up to Heaven: ‘ATTN: Acknowledge Dept. Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people with whom to share it’.”

The e-mail then poses a challenge: “If you have read this far and are thankful for all that you have been blessed with, how can you not send it on?”

Quite right, how can one resist not passing this on? I just did, right here.

Now for something else to do with prayers. A bar is suing a church in Mt Vernon, Texas.

It all started when Drummond’s Bar decided to expand in order to increase their business. In response, the local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from expanding with petitions and prayers. Work progressed right up until the week before the grand reopening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folk were rather smug in their outlook, bragging about the power of prayer, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that it “was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means”.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the fire.

The judge opened the proceedings by saying: “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but it appears that we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and a church congregation that does not.”

Makes you think doesn’t it?

with that mystery. After feeding the crowds, Jesus, rather surprisingly, “forced the disciples to go on board the boat, and to go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds”. He however goes up “into the mountain privately to pray”.

Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, when they are in difficulties with the waves, “in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea”.

Not surprisingly, they assumed it must be a ghost. He reassured them, “Courage—it’s me”; but Peter, impetuous as ever, is having none of it, and demands a sign: “Tell me to come to you on the water.” He gets it, and starts out but then realises what he has done.

In desperation he addresses the mystery: “Lord, save me!”, he bellows, and finds himself taken by the hand, and rebuked: “You person of little faith—why were you afraid?”

Then, suddenly, they are back in the boat, and the wind has stopped (of course!); and the boat turns into the church as they worship him: “Truly you are the Son of God.” That is the climax of this extraordinary story.

This week, let us allow the mystery of our very present God to capture our imagination and transform our existence.

Southern Crossword #455 1

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ACROSS 1. Incensed thurible may do it (4) 3. Likely (8) 7. They deliberately damage church property (7) 8. He was lost and is ... (Lk 15) (5) 10. Creature that ridicules you in flight? (11) 11. She’s in the convent but not yet professed (6) 13. Japanese religion (6) 15. It identifies the order of King David’s songs (5,6) 17. Sudden burst of speed (5) 18. Doing so will break a commandment (7) 19. Sid rests having extreme anxiety (8) 20. Rock of ... (hymn) (4)

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DOWN 1. Twelve such periods for the holy hour (4,7) 2. Affected by mania (5) 4. Reigns only to abdicate (6) 5. Kind of obligatory duty (7) 6. You will hear it in the old sung Mass (5,5) 8. How to keep your belief (10) 9. Said scourge makes you lose heart (11) 12. They’re given off by the thurible (7) 14. The thurible does it swingingly (6) 16. ... all ye dear-bought nations (hymn) (5)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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NE Sunday after Mass, a Mom asked her very young daughter what the lesson was about.

The daughter answered: “Don’t be scared, you’ll get your quilt.”

Needless to say, the Mom was perplexed. Later in the day, the priest stopped by for tea and the Mom asked him what that morning’s Sunday school lesson was about.

He said: “Be not afraid, thy comforter is coming.”

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