The Southern Cross - 110824

August 24 to August 30, 2011

www.scross.co.za

R5,50 (incl VAT RSA) Reg No. 1920/002058/06

The Bible in the life of the Church Pages 6 & 9

No 4740

World Youth Day can help vocations

How The Beatles got love wrong

Page 4

Page 7

Robbers attack bishop at home

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

I

NSTEAD of celebrating the silver jubilee of their priestly ordinations as planned Bishop José Luis Ponce de Léon of Ingwavuma, KwaZulu-Natal, and a priest friend visiting from Argentina were tied up and held at gun point while the bishop’s residence in Hlabisa was robbed.

Fr Cristián Fernandez Moores IMC was visiting Bishop Ponce de Léon from Argentina. “We joined the seminary together and were ordained together 25 years ago,” the bishop told The Southern Cross. “He told me he’d like to come to South Africa to celebrate our silver jubilee together.”

The two Consolata missionaries were planning a journey when three armed men entered the bishop’s room, which has an independent entrance to the main house.

“They told us to lie down and they tied us with our own belts. From then on they kept on asking for money and where the safe was,” the bishop said.

The armed men stole a computer, a cellphone, a wallet with cards and “some cash I had been given by one of the missions I visited, clothes and other things,” Bishop Ponce de Léon said. The armed men took a car that belongs to the vicariate and left.

“Once we were sure [the armed men] were gone we went to see if the priests [in the main house] had been hurt, but the intruders had never gone into the house. It seemed then clear that they knew who they

were looking for. They never talked to my friend either, only to me,” Bishop Ponce de Léon said.

He said the administration of reclaiming certain items, stopping cards and applying for a new license were just some of the basic consequences of the robBishop Ponce de bery. But the bigger Léon, who was robbed at gunpoint issue was that pastoral in his residence in work has been compromised in the rural vicHlabisa. ariate.

The bishop said most of his job is on the road and said his office needs to be mobile.

“The vehicle was a 4x4 which allowed me to visit all the communities of the vicariate.

So things will be more difficult for a while,” he said, adding that some appointments had already been cancelled.

Bishop Ponce de Léon, who has headed the vicariate since early 2009, said the community was in shock but “they are grateful we were not hurt or killed. We are grateful to everyone for their love, concern and prayer”.

The police have since made an arrest in relation to the incident but they have been unable to recover the goods. The vehicle was found burnt out shortly after the robbery.

Catholic pupils help SA become world champs STAFF REPORTER

T

WO young Durban Catholics were part of the four member team that won the International Kids Literary Competition in Hamilton in New Zealand.

Grade 7 pupils Sarah Herrington of the Assumption parish in Umbilo and Matthew Robbins from Holy Trinity in Berea, and teammates Alex Breckenridge and Emily Spencer beat contestants from schools in Canada, Britain, the United States, China and New Zealand.

The Kids Literary Quiz, dubbed the “Olympic Games of Reading”, requires competitors to answer questions on any book ever published for children in English. This includes the classics, comics, contemporary literature, folk tales, legends, myths, fairytales and novels. In addition, they had to read and remember the opening lines of 500 books.

On their way to the world title, the four pupils of Manor Gardens Primary School in Durban first won the KwaZulu-Natal round of the competition in March before winning the nationals in Cape Town. It was the first time a government school had won the national title.

Competition organisers Kids Lit Quiz said in a statement: “The South African team from Manor Gardens in Durban was comprehensively strong in all the categories and won this year’s final emphatically.”

The Durban school team won the contest with 51 points, 16 points clear of runnersup Summit Heights Public School from

Durban’s Manor Garden's Primary School teacher Isobel Sobey and New Zealand quizmaster Wayne Mills with newly crowned International Kids Literary Quiz champions Alexandra Breckenridge, Matthew Robbins, Emily Spencer and Sarah Herrington.

Canada and last year’s winners Cockermouth School from Britain.

Wayne Mills, a New Zealand quizmaster and senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, founded the quiz in 1991 to motivate youngsters to read more and see the activity as a type of sport.

Sarah, a former altar server and now a regular member of the liturgy readers’ panel, will be attending Maris Stella from next year, while Matthew will be going to St Thomas More in Kloof.

Deacon Tony de Freitas of Blessed Sacrament parish in Virginia-umhlanga, Durban, kisses Gambit at uShaka Marine World on the occasion of the dolphin’s 40th birthday as Gabby Harris and Tony Crocker look on. Dr de Freitas is the previous director of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) and was the brains behind the development of the uShaka Marine World, MAGGIE FuLLER reports. He was the head of the Oceanographic Research Institute of SAAMBR when Gambit arrived from Namibia in 1976.

He has accompanied Gambit’s training and development into a “super ambassador for marine life”. Gambit is the largest dolphin in any dolphinarium in the world and loved by millions of young and old. (Photo: Steven Browne)

Convert from Dutch Reformed Church ordained a Jesuit priest

BY RuSSELL POLLITT SJ

A

CONVERT from the Dutch Reformed Church became the sixth Jesuit in as many years to be ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg.

Fr John Enslin SJ was ordained at Holy Trinity church in Braamfontein He initially studied for ministry in the Dutch Reformed Church. After he converted to Catholicism he taught philosophy at the University of South Africa and at St Peter's Seminary in Pretoria. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1996 and, after completing his novitiate in South Africa, studied at Boston College in the United States and completed his theological studies at Heythrop College in London in 2010.

After he was ordained a deacon he spent a year working at St Ignatius parish in Stamford Hill, North London.

Fr Enslin’s father, brother and sister as well as their spouses and children were present at the ordination, as was his uncle, a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. The multilingual ordination liturgy included Afrikaans—Fr Enslin’s mother tongue—and Sotho.

In his homily Archbishop Tlhagale said anyone willing to make a lifelong commitment in our society which does not value commitment—whether as a priest, religious or married person—is “heroic”.

“Holiness is the fundamental calling of all Christians whether we are priests, religious or married,” said the archbishop, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate.

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale lays hands on Fr John Enslin during the Jesuits’ priestly ordination.

(Photo Rampe Hlobo SJ) Fr Enslin celebrated his Mass of Thanksgiving at Holy Trinity the following morning.

He was assisted by the Regional Superior of the Jesuits in South Africa, Fr David Smolira.

In his homily, reflecting on the Canaanite Woman, he reminded those present of the need to be persistent in prayer and faith as God is always present and wanting to dialogue with us.

Fr Enslin will return to Boston College to complete his doctoral dissertation before being appointed to a ministry in South Africa.

Don’t miss next week’s bumper issue Four-page round-up of WORLD YOUTH DAY plus special focus on Social Communications

OUT AUGUST 31

2

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

LOCAL

Catholics, NGK meet Closing the gender STAFF REPORTER

A

MONG the local Catholic Church’s most fruitful dialogues is that with the Dutch Reformed Church, the secretary of the bishop’s Department of Ecumenism has said.

“This dialogue has been going on periodically for the past 20 years with delegations coming together annually to deepen their relationships and come to a greater understanding of their different traditions,” said Padraig Smyth, who is based at Khanya House in Pretoria, headquarters of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The latest meeting took place in August at Bertoni Centre, Pretoria North, to discuss “devotion to Mary and the Saints”, Mr Smyth said.

“There were many moments of shared prayer, open discussions and pre-

pared talks with plenty of time for questions and answers. All of this was done in an atmosphere where relationships were deepened and built, also during time over the meals and breaks,” he said.

“What has characterised these dialogues with the Dutch Reformed Church, and in particular this last one, is openness—a disposition of each member of both delegations to listen to one another and appreciate each other’s particular gifts as churches,” Mr Smyth said.

“This led us to experience in this past encounter what the disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced: the light and life that come when Jesus is among us. One saw again that ecumenical dialogue has to be done in Jesus, with him among us.”

Boksburg care centre welcomes the US military

BY STAFF REPORTER

T

HE embassy of the United States organised a visit of 19 newly appointed generals and flag officers of the US military to St Francis Care Centre in Boksburg. The visit was a part of their overview of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in action and to deepen their understanding of the HIV/Aids problem in South Africa.

The delegation was welcomed by Fr Stan Brennan OFM, founder of St Francis Care Centre, centre manager Tilly Brouwer and her staff, as well as Sr Alison Munro and Theresa Bossert, on behalf of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) Aids Office.

Fr Brennan outlined the vision he had followed in creating a hospice for people dying of Aids-related sicknesses.

Mrs Brouwer provided an overview of current programmes at St Francis: the antiretroviral treatment programme treating 650 patients, a 48-bed hospice,

A delegation from the uS military visited St Francis Care Centre in Boksburg as part of their PEPFAR overview. a 30-bed children’s home for children 07 years old, and an orphan and vulnerable children and home-based care programme in neighbouring informal settlements.

Following the establishment of an antiretroviral therapy programme in 2004, Aids-related deaths have decreased, and in recent years no child has died at St Francis.

PEPFAR’s support to the Church since 2004 has seen more than 30 000 people initiated on treatment at SACBC sites, Sr Munro said

Slabbert Street

gap through sport

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

A

YOUTH-focused Catholic organisation, Youth Unlimited, has been providing opportunities through sport to a group of girls from a Cape Town township.

Ikamva Women Football Club has been described by Youth Unlimited event coordinator Mbuyi Jongqo as the first of its kind in the community of Nyanga and a real opportunity for many young talented township girls who were taken on a threeday training and life skills camp in June.

“The camp was aimed at equipping them with necessary skills both on and off the field,” said Ms Jongqo.

The girls completed a number of activities which focused on communication, respect, patience, goal-setting, creativity, taking initiatives, leadership and teamwork.

“Most activities were challenging for them and hopefully the exercises will help them relate to their everyday lives,” said Ms Jongqo, adding that some of them were scared to participate in some of the activities but were overjoyed when overcoming their fears through teamwork.

“This camp reunited the young Ikamva Girls and developed a sense of pride for the team. The girls are committed to taking responsibility in developing their club and uplifting the community of Nyanga and the surroundings,” Ms Jongqo.

Ikamva, which originates from the word Ikamvalethu, meaning “Our Future”, “holds not just a beautiful explanation for its name, but is striving to become the explanation”, she said.

Ms Jongqo said women from

Members of the Ikamva Women Football Club are seen during the life skills training weekend with Catholic organisation Youth unlimited. the township who play football were not supported as well as men. “This echoes very much the perception that a woman’s place at home is in the kitchen, cleaning and looking after children.”

Ms Jongqo said pressure from the community and from peers suggest that women should not be playing a traditionally masculine sport.

“Nevertheless sport has become a fundamental tool in development. Youth Unlimited uses sports as a tool together with life skills in order to break barriers of social division, racial tension, gender inequality and various social ills in our communities.”

While there is still a big gap and great stigma attached to

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women and sport, Ms Jongqo said Youth Unlimited has aligned itself with the Ikamva Women Football Club “with the aim to develop young females through the game of football, and by teaching them vital life skills”.

The team ended fourth in the ABSA Women’s League last season, with three girls selected for the provincial side.

“This annual camp went a long way in team-building, strengthening the girls physically and mentally,” said Ms Jongqo, adding that more projects had been lined up to continue promoting the development of youth through sport. n For more information contact Youth Unlimited on 021 762 6377 or admin@youthunlimited.org.za

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

3

SA Catholics to help end Somalia’s agony

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

T The Grade 4 catechism class of Plumstead’s St Pius X parish visited the Carmel convent in Retreat to see how Communion hosts are made, baked, cut and then packaged before being posted to various parishes in South Africa and Namibia. In the background are (from left) Wilmot Pope, Elizabeth Minani (obscured), Sr Catherine and Sr Laurence. The class will be making their First Holy Communion on November 20.

Third CD for Church choir

BY THANDI BOSMAN

T

HE Umndeni Oyingcwele Catholic Church Choir has launched its third album this year, in commemoration of the French founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, St Eugene de Mazenod.

The CD, titled Ukholo Lwami, was launched at Umndeni Oyingcwele parish, close to Hammarsdale in the archdiocese of Durban. The CD was also played at Cardinal Wilfrid Napier’s recent jubilee celebrations at Kingsmead cricket stadium.

“The Oblates of Mary Immaculate are calling all their units to honour the founder who died 150 years ago,” said Fr Vusi Penyane OMI of Umndeni Oyingcwele parish.

In South Africa, the Oblates also celebrate that St Eugene sent mis-

sionaries to Natal at a time when there were only 40 priests in his congregation, the priest added.

“This project of producing a CD was intended to help get our youth busy so that they can be kept away from negative social influences such as substance abuse, crime, teenage pregnancy and so on,” said Fr Penyane. “The CD was also aimed at youth behavioural change which we believe contributes to government’s Sukumasakhe campaign and reflects the gospel’s call for us to change.”

The CD has received positive feedback on the parish’s Facebook profile (facebook.com/umndenioy ingcwele.parish) and from people who have bought the CD. The CD consists of liturgical and gospel music. It can be bought at R80 from the parish. n Contact Umndeni Oyingcwele parish on 031 772 0719.

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HE Southern African bishops have called on individuals, communities and parishes to support and respond to the drought and famine in the Somali peninsula.

The region—known as the Horn of Africa—has been described by international news agencies as having the worst crisis in 60 years.

The United Nations officially declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia in late July and by early August a further three regions were declared due to worsening conditions and inadequate humanitarian response.

This represents the first time a famine has been declared by the UN in nearly 30 years. Reports suggest the famine will spread within the coming weeks.

Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) secretarygeneral Fr Vincent Brennan SMA said the bishops discussed the urgency of the Somali situation at the recent plenary session and decided it was necessary to respond in a way that would help the starving in the region despite the political situation that was “partly responsible for the disaster”.

The bishops wanted to “come to the aid of people who are suffering no matter what the cause and highlight the fact that drought does not have to result in famine,” the secretary-general said.

They noted that the impact of the drought could have been

reduced had appropriate measures been taken at the early warning signs of the drought. “However, for this to happen, there must be a government in place that both foresees the pending disaster and takes radical action to avoid its terrible outcome. This is where Somalia in particular falls short and is found wanting,” Fr Brennan said.

“With no legitimate government in power and with both militia and warlords vying for power there simply is no legitimate authority to do what is been done in other affected countries such as Ethiopia, Eritrea and to lesser extent parts of Kenya.”

Fr Brennan said the humanitarian effort in the area was increasing.

African Union troops have been providing safe corridors for relief aid to get to the most affected areas and “the recent convoy of medical personnel, food and medicine from South Africa’s [Islamic organisation] Gift of the Givers has to be commended, as should the South African governments emergency aid.”

But, he added, “by and large the international response to this particular crisis has been pathetic”.

Fr Brennan said millions of people displaced from their home now face starvation. “Piecemeal responses to the famine are helpful but a coordinated international response is urgently needed—but this would have to go hand in hand with the political will to bring a legitimate authority, chosen by the Somali people to power.

Once again the world must hang

it’s head in shame over the lack of concern and empathy for our fellow brothers and sisters.”

Fr Brennan said the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has given R250 000 from its emergency fund. The money is being sent through the Siyabhabha Trust to Caritas International for their work in Somalia and the affected areas.

Caritas and other organisations are providing food, shelter, medical assistance and supplies but depend on the international community for financial support to continue to respond to the desperate plight of these people.

“But much more is needed,” Fr Brennan said. The international community has ignored the region for too long and it is now time to respond, he added.

UN monitors believe tens of thousands of people have already died in southern Somalia and the livelihood of more than 12 million people in the region is threatened.

The bishops have encouraged individuals, communities and parishes to add to their donation to Caritas.

“We are grateful to the people of Southern Africa for their generosity in the past and are confident that despite the current economic climate, this will continue,” Fr Brennan said. n Visit www.caritas.org to make donations or deposit contributions directly: Caritas, 1604750693, Nedbank, cnr Church and Andries Street Pretoria, Swift Code: nedszajj 160445.

4

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

INTERNATIONAL

Call to keep homilies short

BY PETER FINNEY JR

A

CCORDING to research in the United States by the Pew Foundation, the prime reason why young Catholics leave the Church is poor preaching.

If priests and deacons do not take seriously their vocational call and the preparation needed to preach the Gospel, the resulting communication will be flat and possibly even an obstacle to worship, according to Fr Roy Shelly director of vocations and oversees homiletics training for the permanent diaconate in Monterey diocese in California.

Fr Shelley and Deborah Wilhelm, a doctoral student with a focus on preaching at the Aquinas Institute of Theology, were addressing an eightday workshop on preaching at Loyola University in New Orleans.

They said the maximum length for

a homily should be six to eight minutes for Sunday Mass, and three to five minutes for weekdays.

“The idea is not so much ‘brevity’ as it is not taking longer than you need,” said Ms Wilhelm.

Good preparation is essential. Fr Shelley said: “We encourage people to focus in on one idea and also to realise that this is not the only time in the lives of these people that they will hear this text preached on. The worst thing is to try to say everything. Focus on one thing.”

Great preaching is a balancing act.

While the homily should be “personal, it should not be about ‘you’”, Fr Shelly said.

“You want to make it personal—a revelation of your own faith life— and place that in service to the people, but it should not become narcissistic.”—CNS

WYD can help vocations

BY CINDY WOODEN

W

HILE the Catholic Church seeks to help earthlings reach their true home in heaven, too often it treats its younger members as if they were from another planet, a top Vatican official has said.

“Young people can find themselves in a lot of local churches on the margin of things, with a lot of people who don’t speak their language, who treat them as if they just descended from Mars,” said Archbishop Joseph Tobin, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

For many young Catholics, World Youth Day can be the one Church event where they have the time, space and camaraderie they need to start pondering the way God wants them to live their faith in the Church and in the world.

Added to the simple fact that they’re sharing an experience with hundreds of thousands of their peers from around the world, the event provides them with opportunities for liturgical and silent prayer and catechesis.

“Then within that they also meet young people who have entered into the dialogue we all have to have with our Creator, asking, ‘What would you have me do?’,” the archbishop said.

They would meet young people who already are finding “realisation, freedom and joy in religious life or priesthood.”

The August 16-21 celebration of World Youth Day in Madrid was the first international youth gathering to feature a special papal meeting with religious women under the age of 35.

Some 1 500 Sisters met with the pope on August 19. The next morning, the pope celebrated Mass with about 4 000 seminarians.

The gatherings, Archbishop Tobin said, are important for those considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life as well as for those who already have embarked on their journey

towards vows or ordination.

When the archbishop was superior of the Redemptorists, he said, a young member of the order told him what a similar youth gathering meant to him.

“He said for the first time in his young life as a Redemptorist priest he was in a room with other Redemptorists who have hair, and it’s not grey,” said the 59-year-old archbishop.

A

s for claims that World Youth Day is a seedbed for vocations, “I admit I was a little sceptical some years ago about whether it was a flash in the pan, and how do you carry it forth with some energy,” he said. But studies have shown that a significant portion of young men and women entering religious life cite the international event as an experience that contributed to their vocations.

The key thing, he said, is that there is follow-up and support after World Youth Day is over.

“That’s always the challenge with any really strong emotive experience. If that becomes your benchmark, it’s hard to duplicate that. Ask any young married couple when they’re facing a sink full of dishes, a sick baby and one is travelling or they’re unemployed. Somehow the high of their wedding day is hard to sustain,” he said.

“Loving is an art, but it’s an art that demands discipline and practice and, yeah, sometimes failure, but we get a whole lifetime to try to get it right,” the archbishop said.

Any contact a religious has with a young person “is a voca-

tional moment”, because youths are “trying to sort it out” to see where they fit in, he said.

Religious need to listen to young people, be clear about their own identity and invite the young to see for themselves if the community would be the right fit.

In the Gospel of St John, “Jesus doesn’t try to make a hard sell. He appeals to what motivates people: ‘What are you looking for?’ And then: ‘If you think you can find it with me, come and have a look.’ So the hook comes at the end [when Jesus says]: “Follow me.”

When a young person asks a religious community what it’s about, “it’s a mistake to say, ‘I don’t know, what do you want to be about?’ Any young person with any sense will say: ‘Sayonara, I don’t have to associate myself with you to be what I want to be about. I want to see if the gift you claim to be to the Church speaks to my heart,’” he said.

Young people don’t want the religious “to lower the bar, to soft-pedal the demands of the Gospel”, Archbishop Tobin said.

Usually, young people will consider joining a religious community only if they are asked, he said. “World Youth Day is a way to ask.”

Even in countries shaken by the clerical abuse scandal, there are still vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

“The optimist part of me says that on 9/11 a lot of people were running away from the twin towers, but there were some others who were running towards them”—the firefighters, police and other rescue workers, he said.

In churches rocked by the scandal, he said, the anger is “incandescent, and yet, there are still young people who are running toward it. It’s the crazy logic of losing your life to save it”—CNS n Don’t miss next week’s Southern Cross for our special four-page round-up in words and pictures of World Youth Day.

Indulgences for WYD confessions

BY CAROL GLATZ

P

ILGRIMS who with prayerful devotion took part in any sacred event or “pious exercise” during World Youth Day have obtained a plenary, or full, indulgence, in accordance with a decree authorised by Pope Benedict.

The pope authorised a special indulgence for anyone who “with a contrite spirit” raises a “prayer to God, the Holy Spirit, so that young people are drawn to charity and given the strength to proclaim the Gospel with their life”, the Vatican decree said.

The decree included the offer of a plenary, or full, indulgence to all the young people gathered with the pope in Madrid.

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for sins that have been forgiven. The conditions

A priest hears confession from a pilgrim in one of the 200 temporary structures set up at Madrid’s Buen Retiro park for World Youth Day. (Photo: Andrea Comas, Reuters/CNS) necessary for receiving a plenary indulgence include having

recently gone to confession, receiving the Eucharist and offering prayers for the intentions of the pope.

Pope Benedict decreed that WYD participants could receive a plenary indulgence if they participated with prayerful devotion in any sacred event or “pious exercise” as well as attend the closing Mass, receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist and offer prayers for the pope’s intentions.

The decree, signed by Cardinal Fortunato Baldelli, head of the Vatican office that deals with indulgences, said a partial indulgence also was available to all Catholics who are contrite for their sins and offer their prayers with the pope for young Catholics.

Some 200 portable confessionals were set up for confessions in central Madrid’s Buen Retiro Park.—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

5

A third of the world’s population faces curbs on freedom of religion

C

LOSE to one-third of the world’s citizens have faced increased restrictions on religious practice and expression imposed on them by their respective nations’ governments, according to a study issued by the US Pew Research Center’s Forum on Public Life.

The report, “Rising Restrictions on Religion”, noted that such limitations are on the upswing in only 23 of the world’s 198 nations, and that many of those countries are among the world’s most populous and fastest-growing in population, affecting a higher percentage of the world’s residents.

By contrast, 12 nations were judged to have eased restrictions on religion.

During a three-year period, between mid-2006 and mid-2009, the study examined a total of 33 measures phrased as questions

about government restrictions such as laws, policies and actions, and social hostilities such as acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organisations and social groups. The study used 18 widely cited, publicly available sources of information, including reports by the United Nations, the US State Department, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Pew said the sources “were combed only for factual information on specific policies and actions,” not for commentary or opinions.

Christians faced harassment in more nations than any other religious adherents—130 nations, followed by 117 nations for harassment of Muslims, 75 for Jews, 27 for Hindus and 16 for Buddhists.

Christians and Muslims account for about half of the world’s population.

The ten nations with the highest levels of government restrictions on religion were, in order, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, China, the Maldives, Malaysia, Burma (Myanmar), Eritrea and Indonesia.

The 10 countries with the highest levels of social hostility were Iraq, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Israel and Egypt.

The report noted the rise in hostilities across Europe, particularly France and Serbia.

Comparing 2008 to 2009, the percentage of nations that banned worship services as a general policy jumped from 19% to 25%; the percentage of countries that regulated religious symbols including attire climbed from 21% to 27%; and the percentage of countries that limit religious literature or broadcasting rose from 40% to 44%.

“Governments sometimes

‘Propaganda’ behind feud murder claim

BY ANTO AKKARA

T

HE brother of assassinated Pakistani Catholic government minister Shahbaz Bhatti has joined Christians in rejecting the idea that family and property disputes were behind the March assassination.

“This is just nonsense,” said Paul Bhatti, special adviser on minorities to the Pakistan government.

The assassination of 42-year old Shahbaz Bhatti, who was ambushed and sprayed with bullets while being driven to his office in Islamabad, has drawn worldwide condemnation, including from Pope Benedict.

Paul Bhatti responded to a leaked news report that absolved Islamic extremists for his brother’s assassination.

Quoting an unidentified investigator associated with the Joint Investigation Team probing Mr Bhatti’s murder, The Express Tribune reported this month that “Shahbaz’s murder

Paul Bhatti, brother of murdered Catholic politician Shahbaz Bhatti. is said to be linked to a ‘chronic rivalry’ with relatives who lived in Faisalabad five years ago”.

The report also quoted the official as saying that while the culprits have not been named, “we will approach Interpol for their arrest”.

“The mindset behind such propaganda is very disturbing,” said Paul Bhatti, a doctor and eldest of the five Bhatti brothers.

He said he discussed the report with the head of the Joint Investigation Team. “The officer told me that this [allegation] is nonsense. They are even investi-

gating into the source of such a report,” Dr Bhatti said.

If it was true that the murder was due to family feud, he reasoned, “the investigators could have easily arrested the culprits immediately”.

Bishop Joseph Coutts, president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said that the family feud theory was “news to us”.

“Nothing happens with investigations here [in Pakistan],” added Bishop Coutts.

In a statement, the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance said: “Facts are being distorted to protect the real culprits, and the case was deliberately being diverted toward personal enmities which are absolutely baseless.”

Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s former minister of minority affairs, became a target of Islamic extremists after he expressed support for Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five sentenced to death for blasphemy.—CNS

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A nun identified only as Sr Benita embroiders a stole for Pope Benedict at the Divine Heart of Jesus Franciscan monastery in Gengenbach in Germany’s Black Forest region. The nuns have been asked to make the liturgical garments for the pope’s September 22-24 visit to his homeland.

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restricted religious broadcasting or literature in less direct ways,” the report said. “In April 2009, for example, the Catholic Church reportedly was pressured by the

Zambian government to relieve a priest of his duties after he strongly criticised the government on his popular radio programme.”— CNS

6

LEADER PAGE

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Follow the Word

W

ITH past experience as a benchmark, it is likely that Bible Sunday on August 28 will go by unnoticed in many parishes in Southern Africa, as will Social Communications Sunday the following week.

This is a pity, since the combination of Scripture and social communication are at the heart of our mission to evangelise—the endeavour of bringing the faith to people so that they may attain salvation.

We do so in many different ways: through books, radio, newspapers, Internet and through preaching and other forms of verbal catechesis. The homilies at Mass are predicated on the readings from Scripture.

When we read the Bible, we are profiting from what may be the most successful tool of social communications. At the time when the media of the day was the spoken word and the library was shared memory, the evangelists and the communicators of the early Church set out in writing the life of Our Lord and its radical implications on humanity.

The Catholic Church’s teachings may draw from subsequently cultivated tradition, but these take as their foundation the precepts of the Scriptures. The Second Vatican Council explicitly rooted its most significant teachings in Scripture.

Catholics have a reputation of having a more casual relationship with the Bible than their Protestant counterparts.

Where many Protestants come to church with well-worn Bibles under their arms, Catholics have to be reminded to prayerfully read the Bible.

Pope Benedict once identified what he saw as a deficiency of scriptural formation as part of a wider crisis of catechetics in the Catholic Church.

It is true, of course, that in the past lay Catholics were not always encouraged to read the Bible, though the idea that Catholics were actively discouraged from doing so until Vatican II is not true.

It is true, however, that much of exegetical scholarship was inhibited for much of the first half of the 20th

century until Pope Pius XII unshackled and encouraged it in his 1943 encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu.

Two decades later, Vatican II was most explicit in promoting Catholic use of the Bible, calling in its document Verbum Dei (The Word of God) for a biblical renewal in the liturgy, in the formation of priests and in almost all aspects of Church life. The document encouraged prayerful study of Scriptures, especially by priests, deacons and “catechists who are legitimately active in the ministry of the Word”.

Pope Benedict, who as Fr Joseph Ratzinger was an expert theological advisor at the council, has placed the Bible high in his pontifical agenda.

In 2008 he called a Synod of Bishops to deliberate “the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church”.

The pope has encouraged Catholics to develop a deeper relationship with the Bible, which he sees as an interconnected whole that can provide the vehicle for a rich spiritual journey. Clearly he has no use for what the noted Scripture scholar and long-time Southern Cross columnist Fr Nicholas King SJ once called “Bible Bingo”, whereby arguments are supposedly settled by invoking isolated and often decontextualised scriptural verses.

In last year’s post-synodal exhortation, Verbum Domini, Pope Benedict advised the faithful: “It’s important to set aside a certain amount of time every day for a meditation on the Bible so that the word of God becomes a lamp that lights our daily journey.”

This will help sanctify our own lives, but also aid the Church in its mission: “Let us be silent in order to hear the Lord’s word and to meditate upon it, so that by the working of the Holy Spirit it may remain in our hearts and speak to us all the days of our lives.

In this way the Church will always be renewed and rejuvenated.”

It is for this reason that Bible Sunday should matter to us. In the words of Pope Benedict, let the Bible “keep us company and guide us”.

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.

Saint’s family lives in South Africa Montemurro, Lucania. He was 14 EW people know that relatives years old at the time. Thereafter he of St Alphonsus de Liguori, led a life of severe hardship founder of the Redemptorist through the loss of his family. order, live in Boshoek, Rustenburg Camillo arrived in South Africa (whose diocese is headed in 1903, after been invited by a Redemptorist, Bishop by his friend Domenico di Kevin Dowling).

Trani, who already had They live on the farm been resident in the area, called “Tripolitania”', and had his own farm and named after a province in business.

Libya, which was a former Camillo found work by Italian colony. restoring many of the The farm lies between churches which had been the town of Ladybrand in damaged in the Anglo Boer St Alphonsus the Free State and the War (1899-1902).

Liguori Maluti mountains of In 1912 he was able to Lesotho. purchase a desolate plot, The first Liguori to arrive in and he and Domenico’s sister South Africa was Camillo, son of Teresa di Trani set about cultivatGiuseppe Liguori, who in 1850 was ing the land, and planting trees the sole survivor when an earth- there. A beautiful Italian style quake levelled the family palace in farmhouse was built there, worthy

F

Women in Church

I

WAS pleased to see that the editorial of August 3 focused on “the rights of women”. It was a timely and mostly sensitive exploration of the Church’s position on the subject.

It fell apart for me though in the parenthetical aside when it reached the “divisive” issue of women’s ordination to the priesthood: “which in any case is grounded in a theological framework”.

Much in this aside worried me.

For example what does the “which” refer to? Is it the divisive debate about the subjector or the subject itself? If the former does that exclude laity or those not grounded in theology from commenting on the issue? If the latter, is it just a euphemistic way of indicating that the debate has in fact been closed by the Vatican, so there is nothing left to say that isn’t merely academic?

Perhaps my major concern though is that in effect the aside manages to neutralise the rest of the argument precisely because this issue is at the heart of gender inequality. It simply cannot be divorced from the continued subordination and exclusion of women in the Church.

To say that women are equal to men and not allow them to serve as priests is a damaging contradiction that can only ever perpetuate sexism and misogyny. How can the Church “include women—religious and lay—in decision-making positions, and argue forcefully for the emancipation of women” if it continues to say, in the name of tradition, that women are not the right sex to be ordained?

I think Chris Moerdyk’s “Living

the Leviticus Way” in the same issue answers the question, in a way, but in relation to homophobia rather than misogyny: tradition and literalism are, more often than not, perilously at odds with the quest for the living God. Mary West, Port Elizabeth

Mass errors

I

HAVE noticed the following liturgically incorrect practices in the Mass in different parishes. I mention some of them.

Both the entrance and Communion antiphons are being recited when an entrance hymn and Communion hymn are to be sung.

This is incorrect.

In the proclamation of the Word, the reader is often taught to read the “theme” printed in red, in addition to the Scripture text. This is incorrect.

The responsorial psalm and verses should always be sung, not recited. If the Alleluia and verse cannot be sung, it should be omitted, not recited.

It is liturgically wrong to incorporate the Hail Mary in the Mass, as the prayer is addressed directly to our Blessed Mother, who is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass.

In the word “Apostle” in the Apostles Creed, the “t” is silent (hence “aposil”). In the new translation of the “I Confess”, the word is “grievous”, not “grievious”.

John Lee, 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.

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more of some elegant city suburb.

Soon the farm became a model in its own right in South Africa, especially for its advanced cattle breeding techniques. Inspectors from the Italian Colonial Institute made note of the knowledge they acquired on their visit.

Camillo’s daughter, Rosalia Liguori, subsequently became an expert on African traditions, writing many volumes of “Fairy Tales” which were distributed to many schools in the area for use at primary school level. Copies can still to found in the family library on the farm.

On the farm one will also find San rock paintings which are looked after with tender loving care by the Liguori family.

Today the Tripolitania farm is owned by John Liguori who runs it with his son Giuliano.

Andre Martinaglia, Cape Town

Holy germfare in our churches

A

LBERT Vianello (“A touchy affair”, August 3) is entitled to his opinion, but as a Catholic physician also from the Northern Cape, I feel obligated to make some suggestions and comments based on sound medical science.

Should he wish to partake in the handshake during Mass, he could come prepared with an ample supply of vinyl gloves which could be changed between shakes.

Germs (bacterial, viral and fungal) have no religious preference— these same “germs” are available outside of church.

I might remind Mr Vianello that these same germs invade door-knobs: to avoid contact he can sneak into church when another parishioner opens the door.

And what about the holy water fonts? Perhaps he could suggest that, like soap dispensers in public facilities, a device could be installed which would supply a few drops of water when placing one’s hand underneath them.

And since priests are human (and therefore carriers of germs), what about Communion hosts?

An automated biborium could be designed which dispenses hosts untouched by human (albeit priests’) hands.

Mr Vianello might raise these pressing issues at his next parish council meeting.

In the words of Franklin Roosevelt: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Dr Michael Pravetz, Alexander Bay

PERSPECTIVES Puleng Matsaneng

Praying in Congo

I

N June I travelled to Congo for an Apostleship of Prayer meeting in which representatives from 17 different African countries took part. It was my first visit to Congo, and my arrival was special—one of my highlights.

There were five people at different points of the airport who had come to welcome and pick up our group. There was no doubt that I was in God’s hands.

The airport is complicated; it has people who make a living by helping travellers carry their luggage. The scene reminded me of places like Noord Street in Johannesburg, or a busy shopping mall.

I arrived from the cold South African winter; arriving in Congo it was warm, much like our November-December weather.

We stayed at the Jesuit Retreat Centre in Kinshasa. It is beautiful, in the middle of a forest. I was happy to be there, going back to nature and listening to birds singing all the time. For me that was the best kind of music.

Mornings are not a good time for me, but we had personal prayers at 6:15am and community prayer at 7:00am. Each time I entered the chapel I felt a strong connection with the community. The prayers set the tone for us to begin and to end the day.

At meal time I was introduced to cas-

sava. It is a natural food source that is reproduced as many things, one of them being cassava porridge.

We talked about just about everything at meal times, which in my heart and mind I saw as incarnating the whole idea of the African renaissance proposed by former President Thabo Mbeki. Our stories brought us closer, and that gave us an opportunity to think and pray about and for each other.

Night time was also special; we played music from different countries represented. We had a lead dancer for each country and song. We had fun. I love dancing; it completed my day.

On Saturday I shared with the group an article which I wrote on inculturation in the July 2010 issue of the Way Journal on the subject “Spiritual Direction in Africa, A need for a Different Approach?”

Part of the article talks about our ancestors. On a Sunday we visited the Congo river and passed through the capital Kinshasa and its parliament. Our journey took us to Laurent Kabila’s grave.

Many of us had not seen or known him; nor was he our ancestor.

The only thing we knew was that he was the president of Congo who was assassinated. Visiting the area became special to many of us in a way, because of the importance of ancestors in our lives as Africans.

The comfort of silence

I

HAVE always had this need for silence. It’s more like a need for isolation, not necessarily physical isolation, but mental or spiritual isolation. In my youth I even thought I would end up becoming a contemplative monk.

You don’t, of course, need to live by yourself or in a monastery to become isolated. Sometimes you can be alone in a crowd.

I am comfortable in my own company. Two things gives me this ability: reading and writing. For me, both require silence to be most effective. I’m sure we are agreed that reading is among the best foundations for building of character, and the quickest way to know the world.

It is not by coincidence that almost all religions espouse reading (and writing) in highest degree. Most of the Jewish prophets were commanded by angels or Yahweh to commit what they heard in writing—cast it in stone, like the Ten Commandments.

When the Archangel Gabriel visited the prophet Mohamed, the angel commanded him: “Read! Read!” Thus Ramadan, a purifying time for intensive worship and reading of the Qu’ran, was established.

The New Testament is a testimony to the power of the Word and stories told about the Word’s incarnation. Even traditional religions require periods of seclusion before one can become a sangoma, guru or whatever.

Though I profess it as my vocation, I

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WILL BE IN YOUR MIDST.”

We took a moment to pay our respects to his soul, and made a prayer. I think the guards were impressed by us; they asked where we came from.

Another person whose life and death touched many of us was a young Jesuit student who was killed last year by an unknown man in Congo. He and his friends had been coming back from an outing. We took a moment to honour his life.

At the end of the meeting I was left with the memory of the pope’s intention that we pray for our countries. I could see that, in a way, there is no better country or better situation. We need to pray. Each country has its own problems, whether it is a first or third world country.

God reveals himself in many ways, in places that he sends us to go and work.

My trip to Congo was partly about sharing my article, and about listening and learning from others about the things they do in their respective countries.

St Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, also spoke to me in The Principal and Foundation: “To attain this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, in regard to everything which is left to our free will and is not forbidden.”

Pushing Boundaries rounding of your imagination—bordering on madness. There are dangers lurking in the conscience.

The writer may choose to follow the broad way instead of the narrow gate, and be lured into believing that they are masters of their own fate, and the only life that matters is the one in their head; the dangers of pride—I will not serve.

Those who take the narrow way are faced with similar demands of salvation: deep transformation to the way of looking at the world and the demands of self-surrendering love.

When I am writing I tend to wander in a fog, stagger from one thought to another, observe myself drifting away from others without control. I feel bad for being so difficult to live with, and sometimes even catch something resembling depression. But with age I’ve learned not to be too hard on myself about my failures.

I keep the lyrics of the song “Break Me” by Grand Prize ever close to mind.

I’ve learnt to understand the wisdom of being patient with myself: Break down pull my pride down / Break me away from me / I’m trapped again and I’m drowning in sin / I can’t explain this feeling / Who will deliver me / From the wretch that I am… The endless cycle of demise / Feeling flight for compromise / Light is shining through the pain / Take these chains and break these lies.

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am a little ambivalent about writing. It has become increasingly clear to me over the years that in order to write regularly I need something akin to seclusion. Writing makes me self-absorbed, less sensitive to the needs of others, less flexible and spontaneous. I sometimes feel I put a strain on those who have to live around me because of my writing. And yet, when I don’t write I become even more miserable.

I derive comfort from the fact that our Lord didn’t have perfect relations with those around him—even if for different and less mundane reason than mine: “Did you know I must be about my father’s business”, “My mother and brother are those who do the will of my father” and so on.

I know that does not compare to my frustrating attempts and desperations of constructing, formulating, reconsidering, deconstructing, and seeking that elusive right phrase before you amend it again for Xth times. But while in the thick of things in writing you also feel inhibited by many competing voices for your attention, for which you must moderate, prioritise, in trying to control the flow of a narrative. In writing, what is character development if not another teaching by example of a good/bad life to be conducted or avoided?

Writing, of course, is the art of allowing yourself to be conquered by your inner broodings, the voice within—none too different from seeking salvation. It is the ability to be taken over by the sur-

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

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How The Beatles got love wrong General Intention: That all teachers may know how to communicate love of the truth and instil authentic moral and spiritual values.

F teachers wish to know where this intention is coming from they would profit by reading Pope Benedict’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth). In this long but rewarding encyclical the pope is concerned to show how caritas (love or charity) and veritas (truth) need each other.

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Looking East Missionary Intention: That the Christian communities of Asia may proclaim the Gospel with fervour, witnessing to its beauty with the joy of faith.

HE Hope& Joy logo has been all over the Catholic media of late, reminding us of the opening words of Vatican II’s manifesto, Gaudium et Spes.

One of the things those who attended saw very clearly was that the modern era had witnessed the Church emerge as truly Catholic, as a worldwide body, or as Fr Karl Rahner put it, a “world-church”.

They understood this because many Council Fathers themselves came from the growing local churches of Latin America, Africa and Asia, and many of those who did not were impressed and inspired by those who did.

Today it is hard not to agree with liturgist Fr Keith Pecklers SJ when he says that “the future of the Church is clearly in Africa and Asia”. Furthermore, the world-church has given us the richness of the “liturgy of the world” (Rahner again) and it is beautiful, exuberant and joyful in its youthfulness, fervour and diversity.

Fr Pecklers sees this “liturgy of the world” as one of the ways that the local churches of the worldchurch enter into dialogue with human society and hence he believes that “we need to listen to those churches as they speak to us in their own voices”.

It is in this way that they are able to communicate the Gospel— with the fervour that the Holy Father prays for— to the people of their own cultures and religious traditions.

And we remember in prayer those Catholics in Asia who courageously continue to proclaim the faith with fervour and joy despite the threat of persecution.

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8

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

COMMUNITY 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 Several members of the historical commission—which has been set up as part of the beatifiction process for Abbot Francis Pfanner, founder of Mariannhill—met Sr Annette Buschgerd CPS at Mariannhill Retreat House for an informal session on a few of the crucial events in the life of the abbot. Sr Buschgerd, from Toronto, is an authority on Abbot Pfanner and has written extensively on the Austrian Trappist and builder of monasteries who died at Emaus mission, umzimkulu diocese, in 1909. She is the author of For A Great Price, a comprehensive account of Abbot Pfanner and his founding of “The Red Sisters” which became the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood (CPS). She was in South Africa to give a retreat to the Sisters at Sacred Heart, Ixopo, and to visit Emaus. At the session are (from left) Postulator Fr Yves La Fontaine, Sr Maria-Corda Waldhoer CPS, Sr Buschgerd and Br Philippe Denis OP. (Photo: Sydney Duval).

The fathers of St Rose of Lima parish in Bloemfontein have organised themselves to enhance the work God and of the Church. The parish will be celebrating St Rose day on August 28. (Submitted by LS Mareka)

The youth of Kroonstad diocese enjoyed a camp hosted by St Augustine church in Virginia. The aim of the camp was to prepare the participants for their annual rally. (Submitted by Jeffrey Ndlaze) 26 children from St Augustine parish in Kokosi, Klerksdorp diocese, recieved their first Holy Communion. With them is the parish priest Fr Valentinus Mphoso. (Submitted

by Tommy Maretlane)

Fr Donovan Wheatley welcomes the Schoonberg family—Cledwyn, Clarissa and daughter Madisonto—to Blessed Sacrament parish in Virginia, Durban North, at a morning tea after Sunday Mass. (Submitted by Maggie Fuller)

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BIBLE SUNDAY

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

9

Celebrating the Bible As the Church in Southern Africa observes Bible Sunday on August 28, CLAIRE MATHIESON spoke to the director of the Catholic Bible Foundation about the place of Scripture in the Church today.

F

OR the past seven years, the last Sunday of August has been celebrated in Southern Africa as “Bible Sunday”—an opportunity for Catholics to observe the importance and the sacredness of the Bible in our lives.

According to Christian Brother Mike Chalmers, national director of the Catholic Bible Foundation of South Africa (CBF), the special day also seeks to re-instate the Word of God as being essential in our spirituality.

“Pope John Paul II stated that the Word ‘is the first source of all Christian Spirituality’, and constant interaction with it gives rise to a personal relationship with the living God,” Br Chalmers said.

He said the foundation, with the authorisation of Southern Africa’s bishops, hopes to help people “enter into a living and dynamic relationship with the Word of God, Jesus Christ, through the Word of God in Scripture”.

The day is celebrated through the distribution of materials to every Catholic school and all parishes across the country. “It is

impossible to know how many parishes celebrate Bible Sunday.

We know of parishes who make a special effort for this celebration,” Br Chalmers said. He hopes this attitude will spread and the CBF will continue to promote encounters with Christ through the Bible.

The CBF also runs courses and seminars throughout the year so as to help people get a taste for scripture.

“Only a person who has a knowledge and love of Scripture will be able to pass this on,” Br Chalmers said. These courses are made to be accessible to all and participants are expected to contribute according to their means.

“Nobody is to be excluded due to lack of funding,” he added.

In addition to ensuring the correct resources are available to the region’s Catholics; Br Chalmers

said Bible education is also important.

“The Bible was written over a period of 1 100 years. It is essential that we understand what was being written down and the literary form that is used. There are many different types of literature in the Bible—myth, parable, riddle and legend fiction,” he said.

“One thing that is certain is that it is not science and if one reads it as such, one ends up with nonsense. Much of what we find in Scripture is the story of people’s encounter with God. People need to be given sound scriptural scholarship.”

Br Chalmers said there is a difference between Catholic and Protestant bibles.

“The New Testament is the same in both Protestant and Catholic Bibles. The difference is

in the Old Testament. Protestant Bibles have 39 books while the Catholic Bible has 46 books. For the first 1 500 years of Christianity most Christians followed the official list [or canon] of 46 Books. At the time of the Reformation the reformers decided that they would not follow the Christian canon but the Hebrew canon which was drawn up towards the end of the first century.” The CBF ensures the correct information is available to Catholics.

For some, an academic route is encouraged. Margaret Mollett, former rector of Catholic Bible College, took her interest in the Bible along the academic route when she was awarded the degree DLitt et Phil in Biblical Studies by the University of South Africa in May. The parishioner of the Piketberg outstation of St Francis de Sales church in Malmesbury on the Western Coast said after graduating her interest in Bible education in the Church continues.

Br Chalmers said that through events like Bible Sunday, the promotion of the Bible can reach all areas of the Church and interest can be enthused. The foundation aims to stimulate an interest in the Word of God in all capacities.

He said the CBF’s intentions were further inspired by Pope Benedict’s 2010 Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (The Word of God). The exhortation flowed from the Synod of Bishops on the Bible in October 2008.

“The Synod called for a particular pastoral commitment to emphasise the centrality of the word of God in the Church’s life,

and recommended a greater ‘biblical apostolate’ not alongside other forms of pastoral work, but as a means of letting the Bible inspire all pastoral work. This really means that in every sodality, religious congregation, Church organisation should have Scripture as a central part of their spirituality,” Br Chalmers said.

“The Synod Fathers encouraged all pastors to promote times devoted to the celebration of the Word in the communities entrusted to their care. These celebrations are privileged occasions for an encounter with the Lord,” he said, adding: “I am pleased to say that our bishops established the celebration of Bible Sunday some years ago”.

The CBF ensures bibles are available to the country’s Catholics. “We sell African bibles and bibles in the local languages.

We have offered short commentaries on the four Gospels and Acts in eight local languages. We give instruction on how best to use the resources in the African Bible,” Br Chalmers said.

Bibles and resources are also made available for prison ministry.

“It is important that Catholics of all ages and situations should be able to purchase Catholic bibles with sound notes and commentary

by Catholics scholars.”

10

FOCUS

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

Can Africa escape its misery?

Is Africa condemned to be a basket-case forever? Father RAYMOND MWANGALA OMI looks at reasons for the continents poverty, and looks for signs of hope for a better future.

I

N May 2000, the cover page of The Economist proclaimed Africa a “hopeless continent”.

Such negative and controversial characterisations of the continent are not unique. Africa has been called a “basket case” and “dark continent”, both in reference to its people and also because of a lack of knowledge of the continent by Westerners before.

Although knowledge of the continent and its peoples is now widely available and easily accessible, negative sentiments towards the continent remain widespread.

But if Africa is a “basket case”, then Africans must shoulder some responsibility for that.

The current state of most of the continent is not a pretty one.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2009 Human Development Report, in 2009 Africa accounted for less than 1% of annual global capital flows, a decline from 4,5% in the early 1990s. At the same time the continent accounted for less than 2% of world trade, down from 3% in the 1950s. Without South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa’s share of world trade was just 1%.

Average annual economic growth between 1980 and 1990 was 1,7%, and between 1990 and 2000 it was 2,5%. East Asia and the Pacific region, on the hand, experienced 7,9% and 8,5% annual growth during the same periods. No doubt, this has translated in poverty and worsening living conditions for many in Africa.

The World Bank estimates that an average annual growth of 5% is required to keep the number of poor people from rising in Africa.

Reducing poverty by 50% by 2015, as called for by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), will require annual growth of at least 7%, along with a more equitable distribution of income.

Short of divine intervention, is there any realistic chance of Africa reducing poverty levels by 50% by 2015?

On the UNDP Gender Development Index (measuring achieve-

ment in three dimensions—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living, adjusted for differences between men and women), all except 13 of the 55 least developed countries are African.

Further, in 2009, three million of the 14 million refugees worldwide (21%) were from sub-Saharan Africa.

Currently, there is a humanitarian crisis developing in Somalia and surrounding countries. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to migrate due to drought, famine and starvation.

The unstable political situation in the region only makes things worse. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, have died. The international community is just now waking up to the situation. As usual, there will be more talk than action. Meanwhile people will continue to die when they could have been saved. When will we get things right?

M

ost of sub-Saharan Africa has been independent for almost 50 years and yet the development history of Africa makes sad reading. For two decades, beginning in the mid-’70s, most African states experienced negative economic growth due to a number of factors, both economic and political.

In the 1990s a set of liberal reforms was set in motion which sought to stabilise African economies while developing more open political systems. The aim was to foster a more dynamic private sector based on the notion that no country has developed primarily through aid.

The African crisis has many dimensions. For many countries, the news headlines seem to oscillate between horror stories of disease, war, famine and stories of excess and corruption involving those in power.

Identifying the causes and apportioning blame for Africa’s development dilemma is an extremely complex and difficult exercise because Africa is a continent of great contrast and diversity. Finding appropriate solutions is even more challenging.

The continent’s vast size and diversity make it difficult and misleading to make easy generalisations. This diversity, reflected in the regional distribution of human and natural resources, in the nature of urban and rural environments, and in the contrasting lifestyles of small but growing urban elites and the

A man provides water to a refugee in a remote section of eastern Kenya near the Somali border. Natural disasters such as droughts exacerbate human failures in Africa. (CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey) masses, makes it difficult to deal with development challenges.

In many ways the contemporary map of Africa remains a colonial map. This is reflected in the existing national boundaries, which bear little relation to natural divisions (such as mountains, rivers) or to indigenous concepts of space (ethnic areas, traditional kingdoms and so on). South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan, has become an exception to this. Colonialism, however, is only one part of the many reasons that explain why Africa is as it is today.

Most African countries have been independent for more the 40 years. At independence most African countries constituted a significant part of what has been called the “commonwealth of poverty”, made up of those countries of Africa and Asia that were just emerging from long years of colonial rule and economic exploitation.

Today the countries of Africa remain among the poorest and least developed in the world. The constant refrain of some African leaders refers to the colonial legacy—but why are we still looking back after four decades of independence?

India, Thailand, Vietnam, and many Latin American countries suffered similar and even worse experiences of colonialism than some African countries, and yet they have made significant progress to pull their people out of poverty. Why not Africa?

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Immediately following independence African governments rushed to implement programmes and projects aimed at increasing production, expanding basic services, and building essential physical infrastructure. Import-substitution strategies and the promotion of exports were the central features of post-colonial development policies. Often encouraged by donor agencies and international financial institutions, ambitious programmes were launched.

The results have generally been poor. Many features of colonial institutions and practices persist.

Independence has been meaningless for the masses.

T

oday much of Africa’s wealth is concentrated in a relatively small part of the continent. Some have argued that the unevenness of African development is a result of the nature of the physical environment and the distribution of natural resources. Although the physical environment is important, it cannot be viewed as the only, or even the most important reason for Africa’s underdevelopment. Political factors have played a huge role in the patterns of underdevelopment on the continent.

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The continued uneven pattern of development in Africa cannot be attributed to the physical environment, colonialism or international trade agreements only. To fully understand contemporary patterns of development, it is necessary to examine the economic and political institutions which have determined how natural resources have been used.

It is important to ask: Why have some areas continued to be underdeveloped while others have experienced development? Why is development found in relatively few areas while large areas continue to be neglected? Why have some people become extremely wealthy while the majority struggles to survive?

Leaders and governments must bear a fair share of the burden of responsibility. For the economical analyst and author Greg Mills, the main reason why Africa is poor is because the leaders have made this choice. Development policies of African governments—often designed, funded, and staffed by international donor agencies—frequently have exacerbated the problem through ill-advised action.

The Church too cannot escape some blame for the present state of affairs. Charity is not enough; it is a question of justice. The masses too need to play their part.

Development is about people.

Africa presents a challenge not only to Africans but to all who are concerned with economic and social development. The problems of Africa have been described in graphic detail by many scholars, planners, journalists, and so on.

The challenge now is to move from theory to praxis.

Is there hope for Africa? Yes! The future of Africa is not yet written. If much of its past is sobering, some recent developments provide new bases for hope.

However, we would all do well to heed the words of Pope Paul VI in his 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio, on the development of peoples: “The development of peoples… particularly those...who are striving to escape from hunger, misery, endemic diseases and ignorance; of those who are looking for a wider share in the benefits of civilisation and a more active improvement of their human qualities; of those who are aiming purposefully at their complete fulfillment...is a matter of urgency.” n Fr Raymond M Mwangala OMI lectures at St Joseph’s Theological Institute in Cedara, KwaZulu-Natal.

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2011

Fr John Kaliba

F

ATHER John William Kaliba of Elukwatini in Witbank diocese died on July 26.

Born on December 27, 1954 in Mperre in the diocese of Fort Portal, Uganda, he was ordained in Uganda in 1983.

He arrived in Witbank towards the end of 1994 as a fidei donum priest and spent few months learning SiSwati in Swaziland.

Afterwards he served in different parishes in the SiSwati-speaking area of the Witbank diocese: Bongani, Barberton, St Joseph Mukasa at Witbank and finally at Elukwatini.

He passed away unexpectedly

after a short illness, affected by pneumonia, septicaemia and heart failure.

Fr Kaliba was a simple, humble and grateful person. When in a good mood he used to sing very special songs to the delight of all.

He loved the Church, prayer, nature, animals and his home country of which he used to tell many stories.

He related easily to people and loved them. He cared deeply for the sick, the orphaned, the aged and the poor, visiting them and praying with and for them. He was a good confessor.

His fellow priests liked him for his openness, welcoming attitude, friendship, good advice and humour.

For some years Fr Kaliba was

dean of the Lowveld deanery and participated actively in the many meetings and pastoral activities of the diocese.

At Elukwatini he was a member of the board of St Antony’s Clinic and St Benedict Home for the Aged.

He had very good relations with the three communities of religious sisters in the parish, celebrating the Mass for them regularly and inspiring them with spiritual conferences.

Funeral services for him were held at the parish of Elukwatini, at the pastoral centre of Maria Trost (Lydenburg) for the diocese, and in his home town in Uganda where his body was returned and buried.

Fr Louis Vandenbroeck OMI

F

ATHER Louis Vandenbroeck, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, died peacefully in Kortrijk, Belgium, on July 23 at the age of 68.

He came to South Africa in 1970 and did parish work in the diocese of Klerksdorp, serving in Lichtenburg, Stilfontein, Potchefstroom and Delareyville.

Fr Vandenbroeck was delegation superior of the Eastern Oblate District for six years and later

became bursar of the diocese of Klerksdorp.

He then was appointed as provincial bursar of the Oblate Central Province and moved to Kimberley until his illness caused him to leave South Africa for Belgium in December 2009.

He spent the last two years at the Oblate residence in Waregem, Belgium.

Fr Vandenbroeck was a good confrère, a kind and gentle person who fulfilled his duties with great

Family Reflections August 28, 22nd Sunday—Christ who overcame the Reluctance of the Flesh. Jesus spoke of the suffering he would have to endure in taking up his cross.

St Paul also calls on his readers to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice. We are not just spirits, but our bodies are a very important part of who we are.

As male and female we choose to live lives of purity, integrity, modesty and chastity in our particular way of life and so we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.

Community Calendar To place your event, call Claire Allen at 021 465 5007 or e-mail c.allen@scross.co.za, (publication subject to space) CAPE toWn: The Legion of Mary celebrates its 90th year of foundation and 75 years in South Africa. A Mass will be held in Cape Town on September 11 at Our Lady Help of Christians church in Lansdowne at 14:30.

KiMBERLEy: the St Boniface Past Students’ is holding its 60th anniversary on September 24. Past students are

requested to contact union’s PRO & Chairman of the Board, Mosalashuping Morudi 073 768 3653, or sbonifa@i africa.com MAFiKEnG: Annual diocesan music festival, September 3, admission R350, closing date for booking August 27. choirs throughout Kimberley diocese are eligible to take part. Contact 072 569 7531or 058 861 4411.

competence and zeal.

He bore his long, painful illness without complaining and put his life into the hands of the Lord.

Donaat Bohé, OMI

Liturgical Calendar year A

Sunday, August 28, 22nd Sunday Jeremiah 20:7-9, Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 16:2127 Monday, August 29, St John the Baptist Jeremiah 1:17-19, Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17, Mark 6:17-29 Tuesday, August 30, Bl Ghebre Michael 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9- John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci 11, Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14, Luke 4:31-37 Wednesday, August 31, feria Colossians 1:1-8, Psalm 52:10-11, Luke 4:38-44 Thursday, September 1, feria Colossians 1:9-14, Psalm 98:1-5, Luke 5:1-11 Friday, September 2, feria Colossians 1:15-20, Psalm 100:2-5, Luke 5:3339 Saturday, September 3, St Gregory the great Colossians 1:21-23, Psalm 54:3-4,6,8 Luke 6:1-5 Sunday, September 4, 23rd Sunday Ezekiel 33:7-9, Psalm 95:1-2,6-9, Romans 13:810, Matthew 18: 15-20

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in MEMoRiAM FERnAndES—Narcizo, who went home to rest on 6/9/2002. “For his life Lord we thank you, for his love we bless and honour you Lord.” An amazing warm loving and giving husband, father and grandfather, you nurtured, guided and provided for us and always gave without counting the costs. The memories of you will live on in our hearts with pride. We love and miss you. RIP. Till we meet again. Your loving wife Maureen, children and grandchildren.

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The sting of your peaceful slipping into eternity first seemed unendurable, but our memories of you are entrenched in our minds and hearts. Rest in peace with our Lord. Your family.

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23rd Sunday: September 4 Readings: Ezekiel 33:7-9, Psalm 95:1-2, 7-9 Romans 13:8-10, Matthew 18:15-20

W

HAT do you do when fellow-disciples misbehave or in other ways get it wrong? We live in a messy world, even if it is a world that God loves, so we must not get too surprised when others (or indeed we ourselves) do not live up to the high standards that discipleship puts before us.

In the first reading, Ezekiel is quite clear that God wishes him to be a “watchman” for his fellow-Israelites: “You hear a word from my mouth—you are to warn them from me.”

And, God tells him, if the prophet does “not speak to the wicked, to turn him from his way, I shall demand his blood at your hand”. But if the prophet does his job, and the wicked go their way regardless, then “you will have saved your life”.

The fact is, as the psalmist knows, that we belong together. Notice how next Sunday’s psalm emphasises the “we”: “Come—let us sing joyfully to the Lord,” it begins, ecstatically: “Let us approach his presence in thanksgiving.”

There is no sense of higher or lower followers of God: all of us are equal, “For this is our God, and we the people of his pasture, and the flock of his hand”. Then comes the prophetic appeal: “Today, if only you would listen to his voice; do not harden your hearts,” and this appeal comes with a

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T

In spite of the many scientific advances in the design of comfortable, physiologically correct seating, the basic style of a church pew has not changed in hundreds of years and remains a relic of the past.

In my own humble experience of attending Mass for more than 50 years, the lack of evolution of the basic church pew to something even remotely comfortable, means that the time I spend on pews remains an act of self inflicted torture which constantly detracts my attention from the true purpose of visiting the church for prayer, contemplation, attention to the lessons and sermons, and devotion to the sacraments.

At the outset, let me explain that I have been blessed with a rather large body (1,9m and 120kg) with a number of bumps and lumps in all the wrong places.

This all requires size 12 feet at the end of a pair of long legs to keep me from toppling over and landing flat on my face.

I realised from a young age that many things such as fashionable clothing, sports cars, flying economy class and

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Never overlook the command to love Nicholas King SJ Sunday Reflections reminder of the disobedience of the ancestors: “As at Meribah and Massah in the desert, when your fathers put me to the test, even though they had seen what I had done.”

We have to recall that we are in the position not only of the prophet who reminds others that they have strayed from God’s path (otherwise we could get a bit self-righteous) but also of those who have got things wrong ourselves. That appeal is directed to us.

In the second reading, Paul has been trying to look at some issues about how in practice the Christians in Rome are to live out their faith, including the tricky one of whether or not they should pay their taxes.

He thinks that they should; the Roman Empire actually gave Christians a good many opportunities, in the way of secure travel and safe postage services, that helped the preaching of the Gospel. But, as always, he puts the

question in its proper theological context, and reminds them of Jesus’ definition of the Number Two commandment: “Owe nothing to nobody, except to love one another”, which he defines as the fulfilment of the Law. He then refers them to the Ten Commandments, and sums them up, as Jesus had done, as “love your neighbour as yourself”, and concludes, majestically, that “love is therefore the fulfilment of the Law”. There is no higher form of discipleship than that.

The gospel for next Sunday comes from the fourth of the great sermons in Matthew’s gospel, which is sometimes called the “Church discourse”. Here the question is what you do if a fellow-Christian “sins against you”; and Jesus outlines a process in three steps, none of which should ever overlook a) our own propensity to sin and b) the absolute command to love.

Step One: approach your fellow-Christian, and “submit the matter to examination between you and her or him alone. If they accept what you are saying, you have won over your brother or sister”.

Step Two: go along with two or three witnesses. Matthew, typically, is here echoing the Old Testament requirement for such matters, “in order that every matter may be set-

Navigating the church pew HERE is nothing that appeals more to my innate sense of laziness than receiving e-mails from fellow Catholics who are able to put profound pen to paper and produce the perfect subject for this column.

So, today I will sit back, put my feet up and present to you Mr Gary Black from Fish Hoek in the Cape who writes:

www.birthright.co.za

Chris Moerdyk The Last Word comfortable seating in general were not necessarily for me. So having lived with this reality my whole life, this is certainly not just a personal gripe. But let me take you through my experience of the average church pew, then think about it, compare it to your own and then try to persuade me that the average congregant is comfortable, happy and relaxed enough to give his full attention to the purpose at hand without distraction from the hard, antiquated, bare, wooden seating provided.

In many churches pews are dead-end streets and can only be accessed and exited from the central aisle. Most people choose the aisle seating first (perhaps for a quick getaway). If you do not arrive early, you inevitably have to negotiate your way past someone to secure a seat further down the pew.

No true “aisle sitter” would ever dream of simply moving along to the furthest end and so making space for you. Neither will they stand out of the pew making the entrance more accessible. For some obscure reason they seem to prefer to merely turn slightly sideways providing you with a narrow passage to squeeze

Conrad

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through and, behind a polite smile, are probably secretly cursing you for inconveniencing them. The only way through is to “walk the plank”, balancing precariously on the kneeler while edging your way past, hopefully not stomping on anyone’s toes, knocking their missal flying or getting entangled in the odd rosary.

Once you have found your spot, it is customary to kneel and pray silently in preparation of the ceremony to come.

This is fine if the person directly in front of you is doing the same, but if not, you have to kneel straight up without the advantage of leaning on the backrest of the next bench in front of you for support.

With good balance and strong knees you can maintain this position for a while before sitting back on the hard wooden surface of the pew. Even then, you need to proceed with caution because the chap behind you may be kneeling, leaning forward on the backrest of your pew and you are likely smack him on the nose. Alternatively you may be jabbed in the back by his double-fisted hands crossed in the customary manner for solemn prayer.

Once I have sorted out my differences with my neighbours, both fore and aft, I can attempt to get myself into a reasonably comfortable sitting position. I can’t complain too much about the width of the average pew seat, but with little or no shape or slope you end up sitting bolt upright with the edge of the seat pressing into the back of your thighs cutting off all circulation to your lower limbs.

All our family members tend to be blessed with well developed muscles scientifically known as the gluteus maximus. I am no exception to this family trait but still find that, despite this builtin protection, I do not have sufficient cushioning to endure the hardness of the seating surface of the average church pew for any significant length of time.

My sympathy goes out to fellow parishioners less well endowed in this area or who, heaven forbid should be suffering from haemorrhoids.

Thank you, Gary, for bringing up a subject that has always tended to sit awkwardly with most churchgoers.

tled on the bases of two or three witnesses”.

Step Three: “If the person pays no attention to them, then tell the community (or ‘church’).” And there is indeed a fourth step: “If they pay no attention to the church (or ‘community’), then let them be to you like the Gentile and the tax-collector.”

Now this is a bit odd, because elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel, tax-collectors and indeed gentiles are thought to be a good thing.

It is also odd because it is a bit difficult; as we shall see next Sunday Peter’s response, impetuous as ever, is simply to ask what on earth Jesus thinks he is talking about: “How often is my fellow-Christian to sin against me and I forgive them?”

But there is more than just what to do when relationships break down in the Church, and that is to be alert to the unfailing presence of Jesus (named, back in the first chapter of the gospel, as “Emmanuel/God With Us”): if two of you agree on earth about anything that they might ask for, it will come to them from my Father, the one in Heaven.”

Then comes the all-important lesson: “For where two or three are gathered in (or “into”) my name, there I am in the middle of them.”

And that, after all, is the answer to the question what we are to do when our fellowChristians get it wrong.

Southern Crossword #459

ACROSS 4 and 12. The bride, groom and priest do it after the wedding (4,3,8) 8. Leads I confuse for what are desirable (6) 9. Meet Pio. He is the perfect example of holiness (7) 10. Purify me with... until I am clean (Ps 51) (6) 11. How parishioners may pay their dues (2,4) 12. See 4 18. God the Most High, their ... (Ps 78) (8) 20. Saint of the sore throat (6) 21. It is handwritten (6) 22. Occur earlier for dear pet (7) 23. Hold the trial again audibly (6) 24. Agreement about the sweet song in choir? (7)

DOWN 1. English king, the lionheart (7) 2. God’s angel would bear it (7) 3. Overflows of water (6) 5. I’d a prime way to be weakened (8) 6. Give it when you want to resign (6) 7. Scottish name for James (6) 13. Menace (8) 14. They could be Roman or British (7) 15. Private chapel for public speakers? (7) 16. She features in the Latin Mass (6) 17. King Solomon’s book? (6) 19. Go beyond the limit (6)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

WOMAN went to the post office to buy stamps for her Christmas cards.

“What denomination?” asked the clerk.

“Oh, good heavens! Have we come to this?” said the woman.

“Well, give me 50 Catholic and 50 Methodist ones.”

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