The Southern Cross - 111109

November 9 to November 15, 2011

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Hope&Joy:

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The Bible in the new Missal: What’s new

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Ordination ‘a tale of two cities’

By SyDNEy DUvAl

T

HE Johannesburg ordination of Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Bonga Majola began with his confrere Archbishop Buti Tlhagale introducing it as a “Tale of Two Cities”, featuring wealthy Sandton and the township culture of Alexandra, where the ordination took place.

Speaking to the gathering of some 2 000 priests, religious, laity, family and friends at St Hubert’s parish, the archbishop of Johannesburg said Sandton may have more resources and status, but “Alex” was the richer of the two through its generosity of spirit and Christian solidarity, because the people were served by a parish with a long history of generous service to the people who in turn were generous to each other, and because of its many vocations—it had produced priests who were talked about for years to come.

Archbishop Tlhagale interpretation of the dynamic contrast between the two societies found affirmation in the ordination itself which demonstrated for those present that the people of St Hubert’s know how to celebrate in style and to organise “an unforgettable and beautiful experience touched by cultural diversity with singing in Sotho, Zulu, English, Latin and Italian”.

The use of Italian was in recognition of the years Fr Majola, 30, studied theology at the Oblates’ International Scholasticate at Rome from 2008. Br Thabo Mothiba, a fellow Oblate scholastic at Cedara and also from St Hubert’s, was thanked for his role in organising the celebration.

Archbishop Tlhagale devoted his homily to a core message which explored the qualities that give a priest a unique identity.

“The very sacrament of ordination, the out-calling of the spirit on this occasion, the reception of the seal of the Holy Spirit, gives the priest his identity, so his first identity derives from the very act of ordination and

Fr Bonga Majola (also seen inset) receives a special candle incorporating his motto and symbols, made by Sr Melina Seiler (right), a Franciscan Nardini working at Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.

(Photos: Sydney Duval) from receiving the gift of Holy Spirit,” he said. “The priest derives his identity from sharing in the works of redemption, in the saving work of Jesus Christ, so he receives his identify from the Good Shepherd.

“A priest also receives his identity from being completely oriented to a life of service, serving the Church and serving God’s people.

“These are three sources of a priest’s identity. They come from receiving the seal of the Holy Spirit, from sharing the work of Christ and from serving God’s people. So the life and work of the priest are inseparable.

The priest has to serve and promote the mission of the Church, so internally he lives the

image of Christ and this image has to be reflected externally in whatever he says, in the work he does and in his lifestyle.”

A

rchbishop Tlhagale continued: “Priests are expected to make Christ present through the ministry of the word: the word of God that evangelises; the word of God that calls to conversion; the word of God that calls for holiness; the word of God that commands a life of virtue.”

At the end of Mass, Fr Majola described the inspirational sources that led him to the priesthood—being an altar server at St Hubert’s, having been deeply affected by the

“OMI cross” worn by his mentor, Fr Ronald Cairns, and attending a vocations workshop when he was studying marketing at Wits Technicon.

He celebrated his first Mass the next day at St Hubert’s where Fr Cairns, spoke of the challenging call to be a priest 24 hours a day in a community that came knocking on the door for ministry and help 24 hours a day.

By the time Fr Majola returned to his home town of Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, to celebrate Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity church, it was “A Tale of Three Cities” associated with urban wealth, teeming and vibrant township culture, and rural poverty and isolation.

Fr Majola was raised at Nkandla by his parents, David, a retired database assistant, and Flora Majola, a teacher. He attended Ntumbeni Primary School, then Mthiyaqhwa High School. His return to his bundu roots, among winding dirt roads, deep valleys sprinkled with settlements of thatched huts and homesteads, was a rousing daylong celebration beginning with Mass concelebrated with parish priest Fr Aquilin Mpanza and his assistant Fr Bongumenzi Zulu. Fr Sifiso Ntshangase gave the homily.

Nkandla’s rural Catholics expressed their joy through children in snow white dresses, with orphans and vulnerable children, with girls and young women in colourful tribal dress and with soaring voices raised high in harmony.

During the Presentation of the Gifts, Nardini Sister Melinda Seiler gave Fr Majola the special candle she had made for his ordination incorporating a motif symbolising the chalice, vine and wine of consecration. The motif is also featured on his ordination card which reads (Ps 116:12-13): “How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise and I will call on the Lord’s name.”

Fr Majola has been assigned to St Charles parish in Victory Park, Johannesburg.

Britain to repeal anti-Catholic law T HE law that bans a British monarch from marrying a Catholic is to be lifted after more than 300 years.

The reforms were announced following the unanimous agreement of the 16 nations that have Queen Elizabeth II as their constitutional head of state.

But they will not include the repeal of a Catholic becoming monarch because allegiance to the pope might conflict with the sovereign’s role as the supreme governor of the Church of England.

The changes will also see the end of the ancient tradition of male primogeniture, the rule under which boys take precedence in the line to the throne over elder sisters.

The reforms will be included in the next British programme of parliamentary business to be unveiled in November, while New Zealand will lead a working group to coordinate their implementation in other Commonwealth countries affected.

The announcement, made at the summit of Commonwealth heads of government in Perth, Australia, was welcomed by Catholic leaders in Britain.

“This will eliminate a point of unjust discrimination against Catholics and will be welcomed not only by Catholics but far more widely,” said Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

“At the same time I fully recognise the

importance of the position of the established church [Anglican] in protecting and fostering the role of faith in our society today,” he said in a statement.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien of St Andrews and Edinburgh, president of the Scottish bishops’ conference, said that he was pleased to note the process had started to repeal aspects of the laws.

“I look forward to studying the detail of the proposed reforms and their implications in due course,” the cardinal said.

In recent years there have been 11 attempts to reform the laws on royal succession, but none has made any meaningful progress, partly because of the difficulty in reforming laws across 16 jurisdictions.

But British Prime Minister David Cameron was able to announce the changes after he won the support of the leaders of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu, Barbados, Grenada, Solomon Islands, St Lucia and the Bahamas—who would also have to amend their laws.

Announcing the reforms, Mr Cameron said: “Let me be clear, the monarch must be in communion with the Church of England because he or she is the head of that church.

“But it is simply wrong they should be

denied the chance to marry a Catholic if they wish to do so,” he said. “After all, they are already quite free to marry someone of any other faith.”

He said the idea that a younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because he is a man was “at odds with the modern countries that we have become”.

The reforms may entail amendments to nine acts, including the 1689 Bill of Rights, the 1701 Act of Settlement and the 1772 Royal Marriages Act. The laws brought to a close centuries of religious turmoil that began in the 1530s when King Henry VIII took the English Catholic Church into schism so he could nullify his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, his mistress.

They were brought into force following the deposing of openly Catholic King James II, Britain’s last Catholic monarch, in the bloodless coup of 1688, which came to be known as “the Glorious Revolution”.

After James’ Protestant sister Anne, his successor, failed to produce an heir, the throne was given to Electress Sophia of Hanover, Germany, from whom the reigning House of Windsor is descended.

The abolition of the rule of male primogeniture will apply only to the descendants of Prince Charles, but it will mean that if the first-born child of the Duke and

Prince William and Duchess Kate at their April wedding. Under revised laws, the heir to the English throne will be able to marry as Catholic, but the monarch must be an Anglican. The abolition of the rule of male primogeniture will mean that if their first-born child is a girl, then she will ascend the throne ahead of any younger brothers. (Photo: Reuters/CNS) Duchess of Cambridge—William and Kate—is a girl, then she will ascend the throne ahead of any younger brothers.— CNS

2

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

LOCAL

Late vocation nun celebrates jubilee MARFAM launches calendar and booklet

STAFF REPoRTER

S

ISTER Mary Winifred Kingstone celebrated 25 years as a Sister of Nazareth with a thanksgiving Mass celebrated by Archbishop Stephen Brislin.

Born in 1920, Sr Winifred, originally from Nottingham, England, was an Anglican Sister for many years living and working as a missionary in the Mashonaland district of Zimbabwe.

Sr Winifred converted to Catholism about 30 years ago after returning to South Africa, and received much help and encouragement from Archbishop George Daniel of Pretoria, himself a convert from Anglicanism.

Sr Winifred became a novice with the Sisters of Nazareth and made her first profession on August 15, 1986.

The new Nazareth House, for the elderly in Elsies River, had just opened and Sr Winifred was transferred to a small community there where she did handcraft and activities with the residents.

Her previous training as an

By ThANDi BoSMAN

T

Archbishop Stephen Brislin took time out from his busy schedule to celebrate a special thanksgiving Mass for Nazareth Sister Winifred Kingstone. occupational therapist was invaluable, and the elderly ladies enjoyed all the knitting, sewing and other crafts which she did with them. Sr Winifred had also been a ballet

dancer before entering religious life and used this talent to teach liturgical dancing to a group of young girls in St Clare’s parish in Elsie’s River, Cape Town.

Marist Care: More than a soup kitchen support STAFF REPoRTER

S

AINT Joseph’s parish in Uitenhage, Port Elizabeth diocese, has a group of dedicated men and women who have formed a support group called Marist Care.

The group supports six soup kitchens in and around the city of Port Elizabeth with the help of the Marist Brothers.

Marist Care acts as a support for many people across the diocese,

including Granny Marguerite from Langa township, who lost her sight 17 years ago.

For the past few years, accompanied by her daughter and neighbour, she has made her weekly visit to her local soup kitchen run

by Marist Care to collect her soup and a supply of mealie meal.

When Mr Naidu, an optometrist in the Uitenhage area, heard of her case he invited her to come for a free examination. Real-

ising the possibility of a cure for her condition, he suggested that she meets with an eye specialist at the Provincial Hospital in Uitenhage.

Marist Care took Granny Marguerite on several occasions to the eye clinic and she was finally admitted for an operation.

The operation on one eye was successful and upon her return home she could, for the first time, see her grandchildren.

HE new family year planner by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Family Life Desk (SACBC) and the Marriage and Family Life Renewal Ministry (MARFAM) focuses on family life and relationships under the theme “Day

by Day with God and Family”.

“The intention is that families write up all their important family dates, birthdays, anniversaries, and so on. This will help them to remember these occasions and include them in their prayers,” said Toni Rowland of the Life Desk and MARFAM. Mrs Rowland conceptualised the idea of the calendar and the booklet as a year planner.

The SACBC and MARFAM have created calendars for many years.

These include themes for the year and sub-themes for each month.

Designed to start with the new liturgical year, the calendar takes the form of a year planner to include monthly themes, feast days and public holidays.

MARFAM has also published the first in a series of booklets which includes short “thoughts for the day” on family topics linked to verses from Scripture and Church teachings.

“The booklet can be used in a regular family prayer time that I

call ‘family hour’ which is an opportunity for families to reflect and share and discuss and pray about a particular topic,” said Mrs Rowland.

“The whole project is intended to promote and build up family communication and strengthen their relationships.”

There will be four booklets, each addressing different parts of the year. Part one is from Advent and Christmas to Ash Wednesday, part two is from Lent and Easter to Pentecost, part three is from postPentecost to Advent and part four focuses on marriage.

The booklets can be reused since they are not directly linked to any annual cycle of readings, Mrs Rowland said.

Part one has 100 thoughts for the day. These are linked to liturgical seasons, special saints, national days and focus on family life.

Mrs Rowland said that the other booklets will become available during the year.

The calendar prices range from R2,50 to R4,00 each, depending on the quantity order, and the booklets cost R10 each. n The calendar and booklet can be ordered from the Marriage and Family Life Renewal Ministry; contact Toni Rowland on 011 789 5449 or email toni@marfam.org.za or visit www.marfam.org.za/blog.

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

3

An Italian family’s mission in South Africa STAFF REPoRTER

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WO Italians serving their lay movement in South Africa and their children were honoured to be invited to take up the Eucharistic gifts to Pope Benedict during an October Mass to close a Vatican congress on the New Evangelisation.

Dino and Roberta Furgione came with their six children— Rachele (11), Riccardo (9), Tommaso (8), Alessandro (5) and Angelica (2)—from Italy to South Africa to serve the Neocatechumenal Way, an international lay movement, in its New Evangelisation apostolate.

Since then, the family has been blessed with another member, five-months-old Francesco, who was born in South Africa.

“The Lord had been calling us for a long time to leave everything and follow him, but many times we chose to put securities such as our loved ones, house and espe-

cially career first,” said Mr Furgione, a 37-year-old former marketing manager for a European telecommunication giant.

Although the couple joined the Neocatechumenal Way in Rome in 1987, it took a period of personal suffering due to a daughter’s illness before the Furgiones heard what they describe as God’s “clear invitation to bear our cross and to follow him”.

“So we listened to his call and accepted it,” said Mr Furgione.

That was four years ago, “and now our itinerant mission is the answer to this calling”.

For the past two years, the Furgiones have been “the Itinerant Family in Mission responsible for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland”, he said.

Living in Cape Town, they perform their missionary mandate with Fr Lorenzo Ricci, an Italian priest incardinated in the US archdiocese of Denver, and seminarian

Marco Cavagnaro from Redemptoris Mater seminary in the Netherlands.

They serve in four dioceses in South Africa: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Outdshoorn and Witbank.

Moreover, “we are supporting the Archbishop William Slattery in Pretoria to plan the new evangelisation in his archdiocese”, Mr Furgione said.

“We have seen and acknowledged that the Lord is very creative: he led us south of the world to serve him so that we can meet him concretely in events, persons and in our own body,” Mr Furgione said.

The family’s role in the papal Mass has had many rewards. “This encounter with the Holy Father has been very important for all of my family, to strengthen our faith and to encourage us in our mission, knowing that the Holy Father accompanies us with his prayers,” Mr Furgione said.

The Furgione family were honoured to be invited to take up the Eucharistic gift to Pope Benedict.

“This humble sign of presenting the Eucharistic gifts meant for us also the opportunity, on behalf of all the families in mission of the Neocatechumenal Way, to present to the pope our faith and to renew him our total obedience, knowing that only in the communion with him our mission will bring fruits.”

Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernandez, the initiators of the Way, have been appointed members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation.

The youth of St Anne’s parish in Belgravia, Johannesburg, presented youth Reloaded. The event was promoted for four weeks with a catchy campaign, which included the weekly release of a new bandana.

“The event was informative, fun, interactive and spiritual to the core,” said Sandisiwe Ngcongo, who was part of the organising team. “Groups were split into four major liturgical colours—red, green, white and purple. All groups did their best to represent their groups with Bible verses and animation.”

During the conference in the Vatican, Mr Argüello noted the centrality of the Christian community in the mission of the Church.

"Every age has had its special pastoral accent, and today being Christian is to make present a Christian community”.

The statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way were approved by the Vatican in 2008, and in January this year the Holy See approved all of the movement’s catechetical and theological materials.

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4

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

INTERNATIONAL

Tragedy of abortion can be turned into a grace

By ToM JoZWiK

A

N American archbishop has challenged and encouraged post-abortion caregivers to see those who seek their help “as the Lord sees them—beyond their weakness—and to call them to wholeness”.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann (pictured) of Kansas City, addressed an annual Healing Vision Conference in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

Archbishop Naumann, 62, employed personal stories and biblical passages as he urged his audience to help clients, “pained and in anger” after undergoing or being otherwise involved in abortions, to: l Experience God’s mercy and be able to forgive themselves. l “Be empowered to forgive others” who might have been instrumental in their abortions. l Realise that God is able to turn “terrible tragedy” into “good

in their lives—a great grace”.

The archbishop recalled counselling a young couple when he was a newly ordained priest in St Louis more than 35 years ago. Their toddler son was killed after darting into the path of a delivery truck and then-Fr Naumann witnessed at close hand the parents’ “profound grief.” Sadly, there was also guilt, something women who experience abortions also often feel.

“I don’t believe there’s any greater human suffering,” Archbishop Naumann said, than the suffering generated by the death of one’s child “at whatever stage of life”.

In 1985, the future archbishop became the priest-moderator of his archdiocese’s pro-life committee and visited parishes to preach “what we would call today the Gospel of Life”. Following an early pro-life homily, he was approached by an “attractive, pro-

fessional, single woman who seemed tense and perhaps angry”.

Unexpectedly, he said, “she encouraged me to speak boldly and often” about the sanctity of life and shared the tale of the “psychological and spiritual aftermath” of her own abortion a decade earlier. She had been a student at the time, “overwhelmed and scared” by the prospect of single parenthood, and was revealing her secret for the first time.

Although successful in her career, the woman felt “empty”, the archbishop said. She’d had trouble relating to men after choosing to end her pregnancy, and she was sad in the presence of

little children and found it difficult to visit doctors and hospitals, as such visits proved remindful of her abortion venue.

The woman hadn’t been to confession in ten years. “She considered herself unworthy of love.

Most difficult of all, she wondered if God could forgive her ‘unforgivable’ sin.”

The woman’s feelings of “postabortion grief and guilt”, noted the archbishop, were “far from unique”. Her grief was “truncated”; the victim could not adequately mourn because of her shame, could not reveal her secret even to her “natural support system of family and friends”.

“Jesus spends a significant amount of time healing,” the archbishop reminded his audience, and the Lord healed spiritually as well as physically.

Archbishop Naumann cited healing and forgiveness stories in

each of the four gospels—among them the parable of the prodigal son, “or perhaps better titled ‘the forgiving father’”. The archbishop then posed the question: “Can there be any doubt that mercy is really at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?”

Archbishop Naumann defined mercy as “God’s response to our sin” and pointed out that “postabortive ministry imitates” the Gospel by conveying mercy and healing.

“Facilitating an encounter with Jesus Christ,” he added, is at the heart of all the Church’s ministries.

Encountering Christ and being transformed is what Catholicism is all about, he said. It is “not our [post-abortion caregivers’] skills, not our strategies that will liberate” persons suffering after being involved in abortions, but the grace of Christ.—CNS

In gang-torn Mexico, ‘Day of Dead’ takes on deeper meaning

By J D loNG-GARCiA

T

HE Dia de los Muertos, the traditional Mexican commemoration of deceased loved ones, took on a deeper meaning this year in light of drug-related violence in the past few years.

Drug-related killings have been on the rise since 2006, surpassing 15 000 in 2010, according to a study commissioned by the TransBorder Institute at the University of San Diego.

“We’re living in a barbarian age,” said Argelia Barcas Bello, a teacher at Santiago in Tepoztlan, a town built on Tepozteco mountain near Mexico City. The town receives many visitors who come to see a nearby ancient pyramid.

Ms Barcas and other merchants set up shops, selling items for ofrendas, altars set up to remember deceased loved ones for the annual Day of the Dead observance.

“We’re seeing many more

deaths because of the delinquency,” Ms Barcas said.

Alejandro Alvarez, another merchant, said Mexico has many ways of representing death—the skull, or calavera, and Catarinas, dressedup female skeletons, are two such ways.

“Since the Aztecs, we’ve been laughing at death,” Mr Alvarez said.

The calaveras and Catarinas are placed on the memorial altar along with other items cherished by the deceased beloved. It might be tequila or a pack of cigarettes, but those are always accompanied by the departed’s favourite foods.

“It’s more of a lived popular religiosity than Catholicism,” Fr Martin Paredes Apolinar, a priest at the town’s Our Lady of the Nativity parish, said of the Day of the Dead.

“Here, the word Halloween doesn’t exist, but instead the Time of Calaveras,” he said.

Fr Paredes said the tradition grew out of an Aztec belief in Mictlantecuhtli, the god of the dead.

After the Spanish brought Catholicism to the area, the Aztec belief blended with All Souls’ Day. But for many, the religious custom is simply an extension of their Catholic faith.

“The Catholic faith is the only one that commemorates the dead this way, not the other religions,” Ms Barcas said. “We’re welcoming our deceased loved ones.”

Ana Elisa Rodriguez, who works with the local Church, said it wasn’t pagan, either. Children in Tepoztlan are forbidden to dress up as witches, she said, and if they do, they don’t get any sweets.

Flowers are used to lead the spirit of the deceased loved one to the memorial altar with their sweet fragrance, Ms Rodriguez said. A candle is left so that the loved ones can make their way back to purgatory.

Alejandro Alvarez sells painted calaveras, or skulls, to be used for memorial altars honouring deceased loved ones during the Day of the Dead, on November 2, in Tepoztlan, Mexico, a mountain town near Mexico City. The traditional Mexican commemoration honouring the dead has become more poignant in light of increasing drug-related killings. (Photo: J D long-Garcia, Catholic Sun) Mass is celebrated at the cemeteries. After visiting the graves, family members return home to eat food from the memorial altars.

A lot of it is fruit.

The tradition is being handed down to future generations through family and schools. Many schools host ofrenda contests, judg-

ing the best memorial altar while teaching the significance of each item.

“The violence affects many people,” Ms Rodriguez said. “But everyone has lost a loved one in some way. Dia de los Muertos helps us keep their memory alive.”—CNS

Pope: Religion is part of holistic education

By CiNDy WooDEN

A

HOLISTIC education of children and young people must include religious education in accordance with the wishes of the children’s parents, Pope Benedict has told Brazil’s new ambassador to the Vatican.

The teaching of religion in public schools, “far from signifying that the state assumes or imposes a specific religious creed, indicates a recognition of religion as a necessary value for the holistic formation of the person”, the pope said.

Welcoming Almir Franco de Sa Barbuda as Brazil’s new ambassador, the pope said that when the Holy See and Brazil signed an agreement in 2008 on allowing religious education in public schools, the motivation was not to give Catholicism a special privilege, but to respond to the rights of parents to choose how their children should be educated and to give Brazil a new generation of citizens formed with a sense of morality and ethics.

The pope said offering students a “generic sociology of religions” class instead of a Catholic religious education course isn’t good enough, because “there is no such thing as a generic, nonconfessional religion”.

Catholic religion classes offered to public school children do not violate the separation of church and state, because “healthy secularism must not consider religion simply as an individual sentiment that can be relegated to the private sphere”, but as a reality in the lives of citizens and society.

Pope Benedict also thanked the Brazilian government for its willingness to have Rio de Janeiro host World Youth Day in 2013.

He also told the ambassador that the Brazilian government “knows it can count on the Church as a privileged partner in all its initiatives aimed at the eradication of hunger and poverty.”—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

5

Pope condemns witch-killings

By CiNDy WooDEN

A

People take pictures as Pope Benedict leads the Angelus prayer from the window of his apartment overlooking St Peter’s Square at the vatican.

(Photo: Paul haring, CNS)

NGOLAN Catholics must resist customs in their country that go against the Gospel, including the practice of cohabitation without marriage, shunning or even killing children and old people accused of being witches, and divisions based on tribal origin, Pope Benedict has said.

“Christians breathe the spirit of their time and experience the pressure of the customs of their society, but through the grace of baptism, they are called to renounce the dangerous prevailing tendencies,” the pope told the bishops of Angola and São Tomé.

Meeting the bishops at the end of their ad limina visits to the Vatican, Pope Benedict said there were three practices widely accepted in Angolan society that are contrary

to the Gospel and the good of the human family.

The pope said that many Angolan Christians have hearts “still divided between Christianity and traditional African religions” and they turn to superstitions when faced with problems and suffering.

“An abominable effect of this is the shunning and even killing of children and old people who are condemned by false accusations of witchcraft.”

Pope Benedict encouraged the bishops to continue speaking out against the practice and to remind people that all human life is sacred.

Attacks on people suspected of witchcraft, often by lethal burning or hacking, is also a problem in Southern Africa.

The pope also urged the bishops to continue their efforts to help

Angolans overcome tensions and prejudices based on ethnic or tribal identity, and to insist that those tensions are particularly inappropriate within the Church.

“Around the altar, men and women of different tribes, languages and nations gather, and by sharing the same body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist,” they truly become brothers and sisters, he said.

Angolans call amigamento, or cohabitation, what the pope said “contradicts God’s plan for procreation and the human family”.

Pope Benedict said the low rate of Catholic marriages in Angola indicates a serious problem, including for social stability.

The pope praised the bishops for conducting a three-year programme aimed at strengthening marriages and family life.—CNS

“She saw in the ill and needy the face of the suffering Christ and enjoyed unceasing popularity among the i n f i r m because of her deeprooted faith in Christ,” Cardinal Amato said in his homily .

Born the youngest of eight

children into a wealthy family in Pamplona, Bl Catalina began visiting elderly and homeless patients in hospitals at age 13.

She set up a workshop to make clothing for the poor while working with Servants of Mary in Pamplona, and she entered its novitiate in December 1881, taking her final vows seven years later in Madrid.

She died on October 10, 1918.

In 2006, the Catholic Church approved the miraculous healing of a nun in Bolivia as the miracle needed for Bl Catalina’s beatification.—CNS

Survey: Half of Irish have dim view of the Church Spanish nun who died of TB beatified

By MiChAEl KElly

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LMOST half of Irish people polled say they now have an unfavourable view of the Catholic Church.

Of those with a negative view, three-quarters cite the abuse scandals—the abuse or its coverup—as a cause. However, 23% say that their negative view is due to the Church’s history and structures.

The poll, conducted for the Irish religious think tank The Iona Institute, showed that 28% of those polled said they had a “very unfavourable” view of the Church, while 19% said their view was “mostly unfavourable”.

Just 8% reported that their view of Catholicism was “very favourable,” with 16% saying that had a “mostly favourable” view. A quarter had no view either way.

58% of those in the 45-54 age group hold the mostunfavourable view, compared with 46% of those aged 25-34.

Overall, 46% of those surveyed believe Church teaching is still relevant; 55% of those who selfidentified as Catholics agreed that Church teaching is of benefit to Irish society.

John Murray, a theologian at the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin,

told Catholic News Service that “having an unfavourable view of the Church doesn’t necessary mean that person is anti-Catholic per se”.

“The poll indicates that around a quarter of the population can be put in this category.

That is quite a high percentage, but given the huge amount of understandable anger at the Church because of the scandals, perhaps it is surprising the number isn’t higher than that,” Mr Murray said.

Since 2005, the Irish Catholic Church and various dioceses have been the subject of four different independent inquiries into physical and sexual abuse and its cover-up. Irish government officials had strong words about the Vatican, which recalled and reassigned its ambassador.

Irish Catholics are currently awaiting the report of an apostolic visitation ordered by Pope Benedict. The Vatican says the report of the visitation, conducted by senior prelates, will “assist the local Church on her path of renewal.”

The Vatican has announced that it expects to publish an “overall synthesis indicating the results and the future prospects highlighted by the visitation” in early 2012.—CNS

A

SPANISH nun who died of tuberculosis after spending her life caring for the sick exemplifies the “generous care and human closeness” needed today, said Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes.

At a beatification Mass in Madrid’s Almudena cathedral, Cardinal Amato compared Sr Maria Catalina Irigoyen Echegaray (1848-1918), who worked in the Spanish capital as a member of the Servants of Mary, with the Good Samaritan.

6

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

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.

Are you praying for Julius Malema?

Responding to abortion T

O

N November 12, it will be 15 years since South Africa’s parliament passed the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, which gave the country one of the most liberal abortion legislations in the world.

At the time, the Catholic Church and other bodies tried hard to persuade the ruling African National Congress to allow a free vote, so that its MPs could exercise their conscience if they opposed the legalisation of abortion on moral grounds. The ANC did not heed these appeals, thereby indicating that it regarded the abortion Act as a flagship legislation.

In the first ten years of legal abortion in South Africa, more than half a million unborn lives were terminated. Every day, an average of 233 mothers abort their children legally; translating to 85 000 per year. That is the equivalent of the entire municipal population of Stellenbosch, Brits or Bethlehem being wiped out every year.

Catholics need not be reminded that abortion violates the sanctity of life and is therefore incompatible with their faith. The bishops of Southern Africa have been resolute in voicing their opposition to abortion, individually and as a conference.

But the local bishops and the Church they lead have also accepted the reality that they will not convince the current legislators that life is sacred because it begins at conception. If the lawmakers don’t take that view, then there is no chance that the abortion law will be repealed.

So when the bishops addressed parliamentary hearings on amendments to the abortion law in 2004, they naturally called for its scrapping—but they also set out to limit the negative effects of abortion by seeking to locate some common ground with legislators for the greater good.

Among other issues, the bishops stressed the importance of sensitive pre- and post-abortion counselling, recognising that many mothers suffer devastating psychological injury after aborting their child.

Women who consider having an abortion should be fully advised of the potential physiological and psychological risks, as well as of the alternatives that exist. Catholic organisations

such as the Mater homes in Durban and Cape Town and the Catholic Women’s League, as well as independent organisations such as Birthright, offer such alternatives.

If the government seeks to be genuinely pro-choice (as opposed to being just pro-abortion), it ought to give concrete support to organisations that offer such counseling and alternatives to abortion.

The Church must continue to be outspoken in its opposition to abortion. However, to be persuasive, the pro-life position should not be marked by intemperate rhetoric, inflammatory belligerence and threat of sanction. These strategies may serve well to entrench existing attitudes, but they will not win debates.

In our engagement with those who adopt a pro-choice position, we must accept that they are not intrinsically acting from a sinister impulse but in good, albeit mistaken, faith (and, of course, they should then be expected to reciprocate that generosity of spirit).

It is right to protest against abortion as a matter of principle.

It can help form the collective conscience and potentially persuade women to explore alternatives to terminating a pregnancy.

But protest must be seen to be backed up by the language of the compassion and mercy of our Lord. It is that language which will reach pregnant women who are faced with difficult choices, not labelling them or issuing threats of excommunication.

Women who contemplate or have abortions should not be subjected to our judgment, but be treated with compassion.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann, one of the Unites States’ leading pro-life activists, points out in our report this week that he cannot think of any greater human suffering than that of the death of one’s child—“at whatever stage of life”.

“Can there be any doubt,” he asked, “that mercy is really at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?”

As Christians, we are called to pray for all those souls—233 a day in South Africa—who were denied the opportunity to taste life on earth, and for their mothers that they will receive God’s gift of healing, through our compassion and their repentance.

HIS week in our parish, the Ecclesia groups meet to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, who comes to us from the Father through the Son. Recently I was privileged to attend an address by Fiona Forde, about her new biography of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, An Inconvenient Youth.

For me the talk she gave us and those parts of her book I have read so far are not so much about Mr Malema alone, but also the well-nigh catastrophic state of the politics that is running/ruining this country, and the “Kairos” moment we are moving into, and the watershed year that lies ahead of us all, starting now.

We believe that the Holy Spirit draws each and every Christian onwards, individually and together within the Church. I believe that what is happening now in South Africa constitutes a message for all Christians, to wake up and realise that all is not well, and that there are things in our land that will have to be fixed by courageous hearts, filled by the Holy Spirit of God, sooner than later.

I end with a quote from this book, which should be read by all leaders of all Christian churches in the land.

In the forward to Ms Forde’s book, Achille Mbembe writes: “...to stem the rising tide [of raging youth], technocratic sermons on ‘service delivery’ and ‘decent

Where was the women’s view?

ber discovers that the congregation he has entered does things he doesn’t want to do—such as leave his home country—there is panic.

Women’s voices on religious life and on mission are needed, as they are in every area of the Church’s life.

Sue Rakoczy IHM, Cedara

I

WAS disappointed that the special section on “Mission”, (October 19) did not contain any reflections by women on mission today.

Although Claire Mathieson wrote on helping men and she, together with Thandi Bosman, described the Alpha programme, the lack of women’s voices on how we see the Church’s mission today is disturbing.

Nyamadzawo Sibanada, a Mariannhill student, wrote about religious life, but that was from a male view. The majority of religious are women, so it would have been a better balance to have both male and female views of religious life and mission.

Women and men choose religious life for different reasons.

Women desire to live religious life as do men who enter congregations of brothers, but many male candidates choose a religious congregation as a “container” for their desire to be a priest.

This accounts for the situations in which men move from one congregation to another to another, seeking a “better container”.

From my experience of working with students at St Joseph’s Theological Institute, I have learned that often they are not assisted to understand the differences between a diocesan priest and a religious order priest—the focus is “I want to be priest”.

Sometimes parish priests are so eager to gain a “recruit” for their order that they present their “ABC” congregation as the only option. And when a young mem-

Confusion over ‘father’ reference

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AM a bit confused regarding Nicholas King’s Sunday Reflections (October 19).

Fr King wrote: “Then he reminds us how we are to behave: No special titles ‘For you are all brothers and sisters. Don’t call anyone “Father” on earth, for you have one Father, the Heavenly One’.”

Why do we then call priests “Father”?

Dave Hunter, Magaliessig n Fr King responds: Mr Hunter is quite right of course. Christians observed this consequence of the fatherhood of God, which was so important a part of Jesus’ religious experience, for several centuries. I understand calling priests “Father” started in the desert, where a spiritual guru would be known, and addressed,

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.

Effective Education Today for a Successful Tomorrow

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Staying True to our Values

as “Abba”, which in Aramaic and Syriac means “father”, or possibly something a little more intimate, such as “Daddy”.

From this there developed the notion of the “abbot” in a monastery, as the “spiritual father”; and so it came about that priests in religious orders tended to be called “father”, perhaps out of politeness.

Diocesan priests tended to be addressed in other ways: M. le Curé (Mr Priest) in French, for example, where Père (father) is reserved for religious.

In practice, though, it is very difficult to persuade people, on the basis of Matthew 23:9 not to call one father.

Seamless garment ethic flawed

I

REFER to the editor’s reply to my letter “Seamless garment flawed?” (October 23). Any theology which equates abortion with social and economic injustice, as does that of the seamless garment, is in fact fundamentally flawed.

In the same edition, Fr Alan Moss OMI, “A tale of two Cardinals”, severely criticised American Cardinal Charles Chaput, who is also a well-known champion of unborn human lives. I ask why the criticism did not mention this fact, which is crucially relelant to an unbiased character analysis of the archbishop.

Damien McLeish, Johannesburg n The footnote which Mr McLeish refers to specifically quoted Cardinal Joseph Bernardin as saying that the seamless garment ethic “should not be understood as implying that all issues are qualitatively equal from a moral perspective”.—Editor.

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jobs’ will not suffice. Technomanagerial reason will have to be supplemented by the rehabilitation of the political itself.”

He continues: “It is the widespread failure to confront these fundamental dilemmas that has created the moral void in which Julius Malema is swimming. The shock troops he is assembling before the final push are replete with those imprisoned in shack life, vulnerable subjects our unequal social order keeps ejecting, who are condemned to undertake the labour of social mourning amid crushing poverty.”

An Inconvenient Youth will shock the reader rigid, and if so let us pray together for our land and in particular for one Julius Malema.

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PERSPECTIVES

The Bible and the Mass P HASE Two of the introduction of the new English translation of the Holy Mass will commence on the first Sunday of Advent, which will be on November 27.

Southern Africa’s Catholics can obtain two low-cost publications that will assist them in participating in the Mass from that date: l An 80-page book containing the full order of the Mass (including the Eucharistic prayers), but not the new translations of the readings and the psalms. This will cover both Phase One and Phase Two. l A 16-page booklet that contains those parts of the Mass that involve the congregation—the responses, the penitential rite, the Gloria, the creed and so on. It does not include the Eucharistic prayers or the readings. This will therefore cover only Phase One (that is, what was implemented in the local Church in 2008).

Phase Three of the new translation process will see the introduction of the new lectionary with its different translation of the Holy Scriptures. The new lectionary and the new versions of the psalms will be introduced in Lent 2012.

The Sunday and daily missals for use by worshippers in the congregation at Mass will also be available in time for Lent 2012.

As mentioned previously, the first English translation of the Roman missal and of the lectionary used the Jerusalem Bible as the source for the Old and New Testament readings, and a Grail translation of the psalms. The Jerusalem Bible has served the Church wonderfully well and has brought many Catholics into contact with

T

the Bible for the first time.

However, different times, the evolution of the English language and careful evaluation by scripture scholars have led to a decision to change to a more widely-used translation of the scriptures.

After many years of deliberation, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) decided that the Catholic edition of the Revised Standard Version (called the Catholic edition because it includes the few deuterocanonical Old Testament books of the Bible, used since the earliest years by the Catholic Church but excluded by some translations) would be introduced as the new source of lectionary readings.

The Revised Standard Version (commonly referred to as the “RSV”) has been

New Missal Decoded

one of the translations of the Bible approved by the Catholic Church for many years. The quality of the language and the scholarly accuracy of the RSV translation have contributed to this.

In addition, the RSV has also been gradually adopted by many people in the Anglican, Methodist and Lutheran churches and by a number of other larger Protestant churches.

ICEL decided that the quality of the translation, its wide acceptance by Christians of many denominations (with its consequent contribution to Christian unity) and its scholarly accuracy make it the appropriate translation to use in future.

The English translations of the psalms used during Mass and also in the “Prayer of the Hours” (also known as the Divine Office) have been drawn from a newly revised Grail Edition that has been carefully developed to provide both accuracy and also a rhythmic word pattern that will lend itself to singing, chanting and reciting.

As with the introduction of the new English translation of the Missal, it would be very appropriate for parishes to plan a ceremony to introduce the new lectionary when it is introduced and used from next Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2012. n This is the sixth of seven articles by Chris Busschau on the new English translations of the Roman Missal. In the final article next week, he will discuss implementation.

Christian leadership

Hagia Sophia church. An impatient Cardinal Humbert and members of his delegation marched up to the high altar and placed on it a Bull of Excommunication against Cerularius, who responded in kind by excommunicating the pope.

That was the beginning of the official schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches which persists today.

In 1517 Professor Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, nailed his 95 theses (statements) against the sale of indulgences and other wrong practices to the door of the church in Wittenberg, eastern Germany. He was accused of heresy and ordered to recant. When he refused to recant, he was excommunicated.

That was the start of the second great schism which resulted in the Protestant Reformation and the division of the Church into numerous denominations.

Some Protestant reformers were also high-handed. In their zeal they summarily abolished the Mass and dissolved monasteries and religious orders. All this flew in the face of Jesus’ teaching on love and servant leadership.

At least one great Father of the Church, St John Chrysostom, would have followed Jesus. He emphasised the power of gentleness in leadership. He once said: “More than any vehemence, [gentleness] pricks our hearts... Neither wrath, nor vehement accusation, nor personal abuse softens the heart as gentleness does… If then you want to reprove any delinquent, approach him with all possible mildness.”

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this regard, excommunication has sometimes been used to show how powerful Church authorities are without sufficient effort being made by the same authorities to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

There are times when excommunication may be unavoidable. I believe the excommunication of Archbishop Lefebvre was necessary because the faithful had to know who to follow: the French archbishop or the rest of the bishops who subscribed to the decisions of Vatican II. However, resorting to excommunication has had disastrous and even tragic consequences in the past. An example of this is how the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches separated.

In 381 AD at the Council of Constantinople, where the Creed was finalised, the Council Fathers agreed on the formulation that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father”. Later, the Western Church added the Filioque phrase which, in Latin, means “and the Son”, meaning that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son”. This was theologically correct, but the Eastern Church, with its headquarters in Constantinople (the present day Turkish city of Istanbul), argued this had not been agreed in council.

By 1054 Rome wanted to assert its authority just as Constantinople wanted to assert its own independence. Pope Leo IX sent a delegation to Constantinople under the leadership of Cardinal Humbert. The Eastern Church’s delegation was led by Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople.

On July 16 drama unfolded during a sacred religious service in the famous

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7

Chris Busschau

High-handed own-goals HE Catholic Church of our time has been very fortunate in having popes who were exemplary leaders.

Pope John XXIII used Vatican II to modernise the Church; Pope John Paul II demystified the papacy by travelling all over the world and was bold enough to apologise to Martin Luther posthumously; Pope Benedict XVI is reaching out to other denominations and religions, and demonstrating leadership wisdom and patience with groups that are prepared to consider full union with the Catholic Church.

An example of this is his approach with the Society of St Pius X, whose members follow the teachings of the late, excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who opposed the decisions of Vatican II. However, the Church has not always had such humble servants of God as leaders. This brings us to the leadership style of the Church.

Following the marriage between Church and state in the reign of Emperor Constantine, one of the negative characteristics that the Church adopted was the leadership of domination. An organisation that believes in this style of leadership is autocratic, intolerant of criticism, instils fear in followers and considers it unacceptable for the leader to be questioned—even by people who are questioning wrong-doings precisely because of their loyalty to the organisation.

Such an organisation will have harsh penalties for offenders, with leadership being associated with a show of power. In

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

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Pakistan: A hell for religious minorities

‘P

AKISTAN is fast becoming a state that will be habitable only for extremists,” according to the Justice and Peace commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Pakistan.

In its latest annual report, the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) pointed out that “religious bigots hold the view that only Muslims (as defined by them) have the right to live in this country—and that all non-Muslims are infidels who deserve to be killed”.

“The [religious] intolerance is certainly worsening and that is what we are worried about,” Fr Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, director of the NCJP, told The Southern Cross. Fr Mani pointed out that the commission had been bringing out the documentation since 1997.

To indicate the depth of the religious intolerance, the dossier cited the treatment meted out to the dead body of a Hindu victim when all 152 passengers on a flight died in a crash near Islamabad on July 28, 2010. While the names of the Muslim victims were inscribed on the coffins, the coffin of Prem Chand, a Hindu social activist, only bore the derogatory inscription “kafir” (non-believer).

Shockingly, this took place at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, the premier medical centre run by the government.

The 146-page report documents incidents of persecution committed against Christians and other minorities under separate themes: blasphemy cases, grabbing of minority properties, bias in educational texts, discrimination and harassment at employment, abduction, and forced conversion and marriage of young Christian and Hindu women to Muslims.

The study lists in detail major incidents of atrocities and harassment during 2010 against religious minorities, which comprise mostly Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis (the four million-strong Islamic sect not recognised as Muslim only in Pakistan), in a nation where nearly 95% are Muslims.

The draconian blasphemy law that continues to be misused to settle personal and property disputes against religious minorities merits an elaborate chapter. It lists 1 081 cases of people being charged under the blasphemy law since 1986. Of these, 138 cases were against Christians, who number only 2% of a population of 180 million people. Similarly, 454 cases were filed against Ahmadis, who number only 4 million.

Of the 40 blasphemy cases registered in 2010, 15 were against Christians. And 18 of the 37 people killed extra-judicially after being charged with blasphemy since 1986 were Christians.

Even the educational curriculum, the NCJP report noted, is “biased towards religious minorities…students were publicly ridiculed or even beaten by teachers because of their faith”.

The study cited an incident in which 11-year old Nadia Iftikhar was severely beaten by her teacher when the girl said that she was both a Pakistani and a Christian. The teacher shouted at Nadia that according to the school textbook, all Pakistanis were Muslims, before thrashing her.

The dossier also documented in detail half a dozen cases of young women, including teenagers, who had been kidnapped, raped, forced to convert to Islam and marry their abductors. Those who resisted were killed and their parents harassed for reporting the cases to the police, who turn a blind eye to the perpetrators of such crimes.

In the deteriorating atmosphere of religious intolerance, the Catholic commission has urged the government to introduce major constitutional changes by implementing a “human rights framework and standards”.

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COMMUNITY

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

The confirmation class of St luke’s parish in Factreton, Cape Town, with Fr hugh o’Connor (far left), Deacon henry White (centre), Fr Mark Foster, and Archbishop Stephen Brislin.

(Submitted by helen White)

Nazareth Sisters convent went on a pilgrimage to the holy land arranged by Deacon John Sheraton. The spiritual leader for the pilgrimage was Fr Cecil Dowling CSsR.

Friends of Schoenstatt Father heinz Schneider gathered at a Mass of thanksgiving to celebrate the golden jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. Fr Schneider, the founding father of the Constantia parish, Cape Town, was responsible for the building of the church of the visitation in Constantia. he is now retired in Germany. (Submitted by Joan largier) Dedication of the olive Peace Grove plaques took place at Goedgedacht Centre and was led by Fr Michael Fewell, parish priest of holy Sacrament Church, Gorseinon, Wales. According to the latest annual report the olive Peace Grove now has well over 12 000 trees. (Submitted by Peter Fewell)

Parishioners at St John's in Fish hoek, Cape Town, celebrates the 103rd birthday of fellow parishioner Maria Rossouw's. She is assisted by ladies of the Catholic Women’s league and Nel Rebello to cut her cake. (Submitted by Magda Kus)

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

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The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

9

The work of the laity: To build God’s kingdom: T

HE old Catholic adage has it that the laity’s role in the Church is to “pay, pray and obey.” The Second Vatican Council changed all that.

Today, those who sit in the pews are an integral part of the Church.

The role of the laity is to share the responsibility for the growth and future of the Church for it does, after all, belong to us all.

Vatican II’s dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium called the laity to activism: “Upon all the laity, therefore, rests the noble duty of working to extend the divine plan of salvation to all men of each epoch and in every land. Consequently, may every opportunity be given them so that, according to their abilities and the needs of the times, they may zealously participate in the saving work of the Church” (33).

Fr Barney McAleer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s office for Evangelisation, pointed out that before Vatican II, the laity, their role and their potential in the Church was neglected.

Today, he said, it is very clear the lay person has a mission and a very important responsibility in the Church: the mandate to evangelise.

“The laity exist in the areas of politics, economics, social and cultural life. This is where the Kingdom will be built. We need good Christians to make a mark on the world. The mission of the lay person is to build the Kingdom of God in the hearts and minds of society during the week and to come to Church on Sundays to be inspired in order to go back out in the world and continue building the Kingdom.”

Professor Emmanuel Ngara of the Lead and Inspire School of Leadership in Pretoria echoed the notion that the mission for the lay person is to evangelise, adding that lay Catholics are uniquely equipped to do so.

Prof Ngara, who writes a monthly column on Christian leadership in The Southern Cross, said that the laity has been called to do God’s work, much like religious have, but in different areas.

The Church has a hierarchy, but each area within the structure relies strongly on the other, he said. The Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People calls on every Catholic to go about their lives in a way that “bears clear witness to Christ and helps forward the salvation of men”. Vatican II made it clear that the Church belongs to all in it and therefore the responsibility of fur-

Claire Mathieson

should also make financial contributions where they can afford to but also “we should put our hands in and make an effort socially. That is something we can all do”.

Lay people are no longer confined to the pews. There are multiple avenues for active involvement which will further the work of God and help grow the Church for the future.

“Whatever our circumstances, we have received talents from God and each and every one of us should discover his or her talents, cultivate them and use them for the deepening of the Church’s mission of evangelisation,” Ms Sekoai said.

A Church of hope and Joy thering the Church also belongs to all within it.

Paddy Kearney, director of the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban, described this mission as very exciting.

“My parents were very active in the Church and so I grew up in an atmosphere that encouraged participation.” But he said the roles available for lay people were limited and “not very exciting at all”.

But then everything changed, he said. When the Second Vatican Council was underway, Durban’s Archbishop Denis Hurley would visit local universities and report back to the students on the way the Church was changing. “You couldn’t help but be influenced by him. He was very excited by the prospect of involving the laity. He urged us all to get involved,” recalled Mr Kearney, who later would become the archbishop’s biographer.

I

n 1968 Durban held the first Diocesan Synod which represented a new opportunity for lay Catholics to express their concerns and opinions. All races and ages were invited and, for the first time, given the opportunity to speak.

“The local Catholic Church took huge leaps forward at that time, including new commissions for ecumenism, justice and peace, and liturgy—all opportunities for us to get involved with,” Mr Kearney said.

“We learnt from Vatican II that we were co-responsible for the Church,” Mr Kearney said. “Along with bishops and priests and nuns, because of our baptism we were equally responsible—an enormous encouragement to do far more in the world,” Mr Kearney said.

Coming from a different generation and background, students at St Francis Xavier Orientation Seminary in Cape Town had a similar perspective.

As young men who are currently in the process of moving from the ranks of the laity to the consecrated life, the aspiring priests have a good understanding of what is expected of both.

Sanele Mbambo from Mariannhill said it is necessary for lay Catholics to contribute their talents to the Church—and for the Church

A

A lay facilitator makes a point at an inter-deanery youth meeting in Cape Town. vatican ii calls on all lay people to take part in the Church’s mission: to bring Christ closer to people (Photo: Michail Rassool) to recognise these contributions.

“They can make a huge difference and that’s what we want and need.

The laity just need encouragement to do this.”

Senzo Mofokeng from Eshowe added that there are areas where many more people can get involved. “The youth don’t have anything to do during the week.

The Church could always keep them busy, but we need people. We need to bring the love of the Church to them.”

The SACBC’s Fr McAleer said the mission of the lay person is exciting. “People are called to mission and to create dynamic models of Church where all Catholics know how they can change the world around them. That’s exciting!”

He added the second phase of the SACBC Interdiocesan Consultation aims to encourage just that.

“We want to help people to understand what it means to be a Catholic and what their role is in the Church.”

He said this is an exciting time when local Catholics will be encouraged to be active in their communities as part of their mission to build the kingdom of God. “The aim is to bring together the People of God to share and reflect on the present reality, their faith experience and how to live it and

respond to it in their daily lives.”

Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria said in the introduction to Phase II of the Interdiocesan Consultation that the Church exists to evangelise. “The reason for the existence of the Church at all is that it has to continue with the work of Jesus in the world.” Since the Church is made up of everyone baptised, we are all responsible for its work.

“All of us have this privilege and responsibility to be a missionary, to be the person who witnesses to our faith in Jesus,” Archbishop Slattery said. “There was a perception that evangelisation or witness to the presence of Jesus in our lives was the work of priests only. No, everyone is called. It is just that we do it differently.”

A

nne Sekoai, a parishioner of Johannesburg’s Christ the King cathedral parish, said her work as a lay person was done through sodalities and her work at the cathedral.

And this, she said, every lay Catholic can do.

“We help the Church where we can afford to. There are many avenues and organisations we can get involved with to go out into the townships and communities and make a difference.”

Ms Sekoai added that the laity

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nd with that role comes a lot of responsibility. As the seminarians put it: the laity are the Church.

While opportunities for the laity have increased, there are still areas that make people feel distant.

“The implementation of the new liturgy distanced some from the Church. That could have been done better. Lay people want to be involved and want to feel needed— which they are,” said Mr Kearney.

Further encouragement to increase lay involvement will benefit both the people and the Church, he said.

“Fr Stephen Tulley of the Cathedral parish in Durban has made the parish remarkably different from when I attended as a young boy,” said Mr Kearney.

“Lay people are given responsibilities previously held by other priests, deacons and nuns. He provides training for lay people to carry out their responsibilities properly and he encourages them. Lay people feel they are being taken seriously and feel they are contributing to the Church. They feel a sense of belonging.”

As a result, there is an enormous number of people involved in Church activities in the parish.

The model of Church many Catholics are used to is institutionalised, but the future of the Church is a dynamic model where every Catholic—lay or religious—knows their role.

Vatican II made it clear that the place of the lay person in the Church is not confined to the pews. The laity’s role in the Church must be played out in the world where they lead their daily lives.

The Church is missionary by nature and the laity are the missionaries who are called to evangelise to ensure the future of the Church—a big responsibility indeed, but an exciting one.

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10

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

ANALYSIS

From Cold War to Atheists at Assisi got a hearing greed in 25 years I

By JohN ThAviS

When Pope John Paul II led a gathering of religious leaders to pray for peace, the big issue was the Cold War. A quarter of a century later it is greed and lust for power. JohN ThAviS analyses Assisi 2011.

A

COMMON thread ran through many of the speeches and invocations of this year’s “prayer for peace” encounter in Assisi: the uneasy sense that the world is facing not merely conflicts and wars, but a much broader crisis that affects social and cultural life in every country.

Environmental damage, the rich-poor divide, erosion of cultural traditions, terrorism and new threats to society’s weakest members were cited as increasingly worrisome developments by speakers at the interfaith gathering in the Italian pilgrimage town.

Pope Benedict, addressing the 300 participants, echoed those points in his own analysis of the state of global peace 25 years after Blessed John Paul II convened the first Assisi meeting.

In 1986, he noted, the world was caught up not only in simmering armed conflicts but also in a cold war between two opposing blocs. Today, the Cold War is over and there is “no threat of a great war hanging over us,” but “nevertheless the world is, unfortunately, full of discord”, he said.

The pope said this discord has taken on “new and frightening guises”, and he singled out two forms: terrorism, including acts of violence that are religiously motivated; and the spiritual erosion that has occurred in highly secularised societies.

“The worship of Mammon, pos-

Representatives of different religions gather around Pope Benedict as he prays at the tomb of St Francis in the crypt of the basilica that bears his name in Assisi. Pictured second from left, kneeling in front, is Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury. Third from right, standing, is Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. (Photo: CNS)

sessions and power is proving to be a counter-religion, in which it is no longer man who counts but only personal advantage,” he said.

He cited the illegal drug trade and drug dependency to show how desire for happiness today can degenerate into “an unbridled, inhuman craving.”

Twenty-five years ago, the success of the Assisi prayer summit was measured in part by how many warring parties respected Pope John Paul’s call for a one-day truce. In the 2011 edition, there was no truce call and no mention of specific conflicts by participants, with the exception of a brief reference to Jerusalem as a contested city.

That’s not because wars have disappeared from the horizon, but because world harmony is seen as threatened in alarming new ways: • The growing risk of cultural conflicts was highlighted by JaSeung, a Korean Buddhist. Other speakers warned that globalisation has sometimes prompted a backlash among those who fear the weakening of cultural identity.

• The world is ignoring massive loss of life among the poorest, said Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, making a point echoed by several leaders.

• Others said the economic crisis has placed everyone’s future under a cloud. Rev Olav Fykse Tveit, a Lutheran minister and secretary-general of the World Council of Churches, said that with the current high unemployment among young people, “it feels as though we are gambling with the welfare and happiness of a generation”.

• Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople expressed concern that changes set in motion by prodemocracy movements in Arab countries may end up leaving Christian minorities less protected than before.

• Julia Kristeva, a non-believer and self-described humanist, told the assembly that people’s fundamental abilities to care for each other, to raise children and to tend the land were all threatened by accelerated advances in science,

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T isn’t every day that the Vatican shares the papal stage with an atheist.

Then again, Julia Kristeva was no flame-throwing atheist. Some sentences of her speech could have been lifted from a papal discourse.

“In order for humanism to develop and re-establish itself, the moment has come to take up again the moral codes constructed through the course of history” and renew them without weakening them, Ms Kristeva told Pope Benedict and about 300 religious representatives in Assisi.

The Bulgarian-born philosopher and psychoanalyst was one of four nonbelievers the pope invited to the Assisi interfaith meeting for peace. Their presence was an innovation that sparked questions and even criticism in some conservative quarters.

The programme gave Ms Kristeva and the pope the same podium and a global audience, and both spoke in bridge-building language. The pope said he invited the non-believers because he was convinced they were seekers who, by looking for truth, in effect are looking for God. Ms Kristeva said the world today needs to create forms of cooperation between Christian humanism and the humanism of the Enlightenment—a risky path but one worth taking, she said.

Her assertion that “humanism

the uncontrolled mechanisms of technology and finance, and the incapacity of classic democracies to deal with the results.

Several speakers warned of ecological disaster unless lifestyle changes are made.

Perhaps Cardinal Peter Turkson, the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, summed it up best when he said people’s relationship with nature was increasingly distorted.

“The strong resource competition among peoples in a climateconstrained environment threatens to dissolve the fabric of human society and devastate the very

is feminism” might have raised some eyebrows among Vatican officials in attendance. But she followed it up with an intriguing argument that the modern secularised culture needs to better appreciate the unique relationship between mother and child.

If her speech was challenging in its language and philosophical turns, it left Church leaders with food for thought.

Certainly, the pope and Ms Kristeva offered quite different perspectives. For the pope, God is the key to every possible human solution to problems of peace and injustice. Ms Kristeva never mentioned God and described the task of renewing culture solely in terms of human efforts. But they both appeared to agree that they need to talk to each other.

“It is a case of being together on a journey towards truth, a case of taking a decisive stand for human dignity and a case of common engagement for peace against every form of destructive force,” the pope said.

At the closing event in Assisi, another of the invited nonbelievers, Mexican philosopher Guillermo Hurtado, pledged to keep this discussion open, declaring: “We, humanists in dialogue with believers, commit ourselves together with all men and women of good will to building a new world in which respect for the dignity of each and every person ... is the foundation for life in society.”—CNS order of creation which St Francis praised in his ‘Canticle of the Sun’,” he said.

Naturally, there were many hopeful words and prayers at Assisi to balance these rather dramatic assessments. One pastor representing Reformed churches said at the closing ceremony that a world with more open borders, shrinking distances and better communications should make it easier for people of faith to have an impact.

But at Assisi 2011, it seemed clearer than ever that building world peace will require much more than eliminating armed conflict.—CNS

The Southern Cross, November 9 to November 15, 2011

Fr John Hubbart OMI

F

ATHER John Hubbart OMI, former administrator of the cathedral in Kimberley, passed away on October 4, a few weeks short of his 72nd birthday, after a short illness.

He celebrated his jubilee of perpetual vows in the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate this year.

His elder brother, Fr Michael Hubbart, who was also parish priest at the cathedral, died in 2010.

Fr Hubbart had a missionary spirit and enjoyed working in missions deep in the Kalahari. He served on the Oblate provincial council for many years and earlier was a provincial of the Central Province for a term.

Fr Hubbart was born in Kimberley on October 25, 1939, into a very devout Catholic family to John William and Marjorie May Hubbart, who had six children: Michael, Margaret, John, Joe, Bernadette and Veronica. His elder brother Michael and his

youngest sister Veronica entered religious life and were professed in the Christian Brothers and Dominican Sisters communities respectively. Veronica was known as Sr Jeanne-Mari.

Michael later went on mission to South America and was ordained priest.

Fr Hubbart made his first vows with the Oblates in 1957. He attended the Oblate Scholasticate in Cedara (1958-64) at a time when Australian Oblate scholastics were sent to South Africa for their formation.

He was ordained to the priesthood on the July 17, 1964, and began his work all over the diocese of Kimberley. His favourite mission was Morokweng in the heart of the Kalahari.

His funeral was a gathering of the Catholic community from all over the Kimberley diocese and beyond.

Many will remember Fr Hubbart for his simplicity, dedication and great sense of humour. One person described him as “every-

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO #470. ACROSS: 4 Lateran, 8 Utopia, 9 Egg yolk, 10 Revote, 11 Images, 12 Monastic, 18 Sanctity, 20 Unjust, 21 Te Deum, 22 Modesty, 23 Mirage, 24 Deanery. DOWN: 1 Supreme, 2 Convent, 3 Hiatus, 5 Anglican, 6 Elymas, 7 Asleep, 13 Testator, 14 Fireman, 15 Pygmies, 16 Intone, 17 Tureen, 19 Cleric.

Family Reflections In the communion of saints all who have lived and died and become reconciled with God and with one another will be reunited in God’s Kingdom of love, justice and peace. Death comes in many forms and can be very traumatic in a family. Allow death to be worked through gradually for healing to come about. “To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – Thomas Campbell Nov 13 (33rd Sunday): Christ the head of his Household. The Church is Christ’s family and is also like an earthly family, with a good wife, devoted sons and faithful servants.

The parable of the talents challenges us not only to hold on to our talents but to help them grow.

Paul warns us to be prepared so that the day of judgment will not overtake us like a thief in the night, and so possibly deprive us of our eternal life and eternal peace. Keep talking as a family about the need to be prepared for any eventuality in life or death.

THE SOCIETY OF ST VINCENT DE PAUL Cape Town The Central Council cordially invites you to join them in its ANNUAL DANCE Venue Goodwood Civic Centre Date 25th November 2011 Time 20h00 till 00h30 Band The Cool Sounds Cost R75 per person Cheese and wine starts at 19h00.

For tickets contact Alfie Cable 082 842 1592

11

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

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

IN MEMORIAM VON RUBEN—in loving memory of my beloved husband Mick, who died on November 10, 2001.

Daily remembered and sadly missed by Maire.

May he rest in peace.

one’s elder brother”. He was a spiritual confidant/director, and a confessor to many people.

A message of sympathy that captures his life stated: “Fr John’s passing has brought back many happy childhood memories. He had a profound impact on my faith, while growing up and touched so many people in his life. He will be sorely missed.”

Br Rex Harrison OMI

PERSONAL ABORTION WARNING: ‘The Pill’ can abort, undetected, soon after conception (a medical fact).

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SERVICES

Word of the Week Alb: A white linen vestment with close fitting sleeves, reaching nearly to the ground and secured round the waist by a girdle (cincture) Application: At the celebration of Mass, the alb is worn under the coloured chasuble (the outermost liturgical vestment).

Liturgical Calendar Year A Sunday, November 13, 33rd Sunday Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31, Psalm 128:1-5, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, Matthew 25:14-30 or 25:14-15, 19-21 Monday, November 14, St Nicholas Tavelic 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63, Psalm 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158, Luke 18:35-43 Tuesday, November 15, St Albert the Great 2 Maccabees 6:18-31, Psalm 3:2-7, Luke 19:1-10 Wednesday, November 16, St Margaret of Scotland 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31, Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15, Luke 19:11-28 Thursday, November 17, Ss Elizabeth of Hungary & Dionysus of Alexandria Sirach 26:1-3, 15-18, 24 or 1 Timothy 5:3-10, Psalm 31:4-5, 8-9, 20, 24-25, Matthew 25:31-40 Friday, November 18, Dedication of the basilica of Ss Peter & Paul Acts 28:11-16, 30-31, Psalm 98:1-6, Matthew 14:22-33 Saturday, November 19, Memorial of the BVM 1 Maccabees 6:1-13, Psalm 9:2-4, 6, 16, 19, Luke 20:2740 Sunday, November 20, Christ the King Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17, Psalm 23:1-3, 5-6, 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28, Matthew 25:31-46

Community Calendar To place your event, call Claire Allen at 021 465 5007 or e-mail c.allen@scross.co.za, (publication subject to space) BETHLEHEM: Shrine of Our Lady of Bethlehem at Tsheseng, Maluti mountains; Thursdays 09:30, Mass, then exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. 058 721 0532.

CAPE TOWN: Good Shepherd, Bothasig. Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel. All hours. All welcome.

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

DURBAN: St Anthony’s, Durban

Central: Tuesday 09:00 Mass with novena to St Anthony. First Friday 17:30 Mass—Divine Mercy novena prayers. Tel: 031 309 3496.

JOHANNESBURG: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: first Friday of the month at 09:20 followed by holy Mass at 10:30. holy hour: first Saturday of each month at 15:00. At our lady of the Angels, little Eden, Edenvale. Tel: 011 609 7246.

PRETORIA: First Saturday: Devotion to Divine Mercy. St Martin de Porres, Sunnyside, 16:30. Tel Shirley-Anne 012 361 4545.

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PRAYERS PRAYER to the Holy Spirit. We want to draw the attention of the desperate ‘that help is one prayer away.’ holy Spirit, you make me see everything and show me the way to reach my ideals. you give me the divine gift to forgive and forget. you, in all instances of my life, are with me, protecting me and opening for me a way where there is no way. i want to thank you for everything and confirm once more that that i never want to be separated from you, no matter how great the material desires may be. i want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. This prayer should be said on three consecutive days without asking further. you too take the moral obligation to advertise the prayer when your wishes are granted, and make it public for his glory.

HOLY St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. To you i have recourse from the bottom of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. in return i promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. Amen.

Special thanks to our

devoted Mother Mary for answers to prayers, together with thanks to the Archangels. David and Felicity Borland.

O MOST beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, immaculate virgin, assist me in my necessity. o Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein that you are my Mother, o holy Mary Mother of God, Queen of heaven and earth, i humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to secure me in my necessity. There are none who can withstand your power, o show me that you are my mother. o Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine.

Amen. “Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days and publish. Thank you for prayers answered. PR

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BETTY'S BAY: (Western Cape) holiday home sleeps six, three bathrooms, close to beach, R600/night (winter) R800/night (summer).

021 794 4293 marialouise @mweb.co.za CAPE TOWN: vi holiday villa. Fully equipped selfcatering, two bedroom family apartment (sleeps 4) in Strandfontein, with parking, R400 per night.

Tel/Fax Paul 021 393 2503, 083 553 9856, vivilla@telkomsa.net FISH HOEK: Self-catering accommodation, sleeps 4. Secure parking.

Tel: 021 785 1247.

GORDON’S BAY: Beautiful en-suite rooms available at reasonable rates.

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

KOLBE HOUSE: is the Catholic Centre and residence for the University of Cape Town. Beautiful estate in Rondebosch near the university. From

mid-November, December and January, the students’ rooms are available for holiday guests.

We offer self-catering accommodation, parking in secure premises. Short walks to shops, transport etc. Contact Jock 021 685 7370, fax 021 686 2342 or 082 308 0080 or kolbe.house@telkomsa.net LONDON, Protea house: Underground 3min, Piccadilly 20min. Close to River Thames. Self-catering. Single per night R250, twin R400. Phone Peter 021 851 5200.

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

Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Tel: Malcolm Salida 082 784 5675 or mjsalida@mweb.co.za SOUTH COAST, Uvongo: Fully furnished three bedroom house, Tel: Donald 031 465 5651, 073 989 1074.

SOUTH COAST, Uvongo: Secure holiday unit, with lock-up garage. Sleeps 6. in complex. 078 935 9128.

STRAND: Beachfront flat to let. Stunning views, fully equipped. Garage, one bedroom, sleeps 3.

R450 p/night for 2 people—low season. Phone Brenda 082 822 0607 STELLENBOSCH: Five simple private suites (2 beds, fridge, micro-wave).

Countryside vineyard/forest/mountain walks; beach 20 minute drive, affordable. Christian Brothers Tel 021 880 0242, cbcstel@gmail.com UMHLANGA ROCKS: Fully equipped self-catering 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, sleeps 6, sea view, 200 metres from beach, DSTv. Tel: holiday Division, 031 561 5838, holidays@ lighthouse.co.za

Po Box 2372, CAPE ToWN, 8000 Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850

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Theme for November 13: Prayer Pt 1

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EXT Sunday the Church’s year comes to an end, with the feast of Christ the King. The readings for the day present us with a grim challenge: our leadership has to be exercised in unfailing service of those others whom the Lord has sent to us. That is how Jesus lives; and if we wish Jesus to be our king, that is how we are supposed to behave.

The first re ad in g presents God as a shepherd; God has been forced to act because those who should have been doing shepherd’s work have failed to serve the flock.

The reading starts with the solemn tone of a prophet: “Thus says Adonai, the Lord...”, and it continues, “I am going to look for my flock and care for them. As a shepherd looks after his flock...among his scattered sheep, so I am going to act; and I am going to rescue them from all the places where they were scattered...I am going to pasture my sheep...I shall give them rest—an oracle of the Lord God.” And God’s priority (as always, and would that we always followed his exam-

Nicholas King SJ Sunday Reflections ple) is: “The lost...the strayed...the injured...the sick.” And if the shepherds are under threat, so also are the sheep. Once again we hear the formal introduction, “Thus says Adonai, the Lord...”, and the threat: “Look! I am going to judge one sheep from another, rams from goats.”

The psalm is the justly-loved depiction of the Lord as “shepherd”, but (as so often with the psalms) with none of the menace of our first reading: this shepherd is going to lead us through “green meadows, by waters of repose”; and indeed he is going to protect us “in the Valley of the Shadow of Death”, and, although the mention of “rod and staff” may make us shiver, they are seen as support rather than threat.

The psalm ends happily, with the

prospect of “a banquet in the sight of my enemies”, and the comfortable assertion: “Indeed goodness and love shall follow me, all the days of my life: I shall live in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life.”

Christ, like God in the Old Testament, is an unexpected king, a king with a difference. For one thing, he has gone through death on our behalf, but “he has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep”.

In this second reading , Paul is explaining to the somewhat incredulous Corinthians that it is true, all this about Resurrection; and that has made the difference to the entire human race: “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all are going to be made alive—each in their own order” until the end, “when Christ hands over his kingdom to [his] God and Father...for he must be King, until he places all his enemies under [God’s] feet—and the last enemy to be destroyed is Death”.

This is a very unusual King; but if we are right to call Jesus our King, then nothing will be missing in our lives.

The g ospel reveals an unexpected King

We bicker, we yell, we love I

classic conrad

Donations and volunteers and prayers always welcome

Be reborn in Christ the King

Solemnity of Christ the King: November 20 Readings: Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17, Psalm 23:1-3, 5-6, 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, Matthew 25:31-46

t is not easy to sustain love, at least not with constant emotional fervour.

Misunderstandings, irritations, tiredness, jealousies, hurt, temperamental differences, the familiarity that breeds contempt, and simple boredom invariably chip away at our emotional and affective edges and, soon enough, fervour gives way to routine, the groove becomes the rut, and love seems to disappear.

But we can easily misread this.

First off, just because the surface of a relationship seems clouded with misunderstanding, irritation, and hurt doesn’t mean we don’t love each other. Love sits at a place beneath the ebb and flow of irritation and boredom. You can be willing to die for someone, even as at that very moment you are seething with anger at him or her.

John Shea, in the brilliant series of homilies published through Liturgical Press, gives us a wonderful example of this. He shares the story of a woman who took in her aging mother to help her while she was recovering from a stroke.

The daughter was painstakingly attentive to her mother’s every need; yet, at a point, a dreadful fight broke out—over a trivial incident regarding a hard-boiled egg. In the middle of their war of words, the mother asked her daughter: “Why are you doing all of this for me anyway?”

Her daughter responded by listing her reasons: “I was afraid for her; I wanted to get her well; I felt maybe I’d ignored

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Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI Final Reflection her when I was younger. I needed to show her I was strong. I needed to get her ready to go home alone; old age, and on and on. I was amazed myself. I could have gone on giving reasons all night. Even she was impressed. “‘Junk,’ she said when I was done. “‘Junk?’ I yelled. Like, boy, she’d made a real mistake with that remark. “‘Yes, junk,’ she said again, but a little more quietly. And that little moremore-quiet tone got me. And she went on: ‘You don’t have to have all those reasons. We love each other. That’s enough.’”

I

rritation, anger, and boredom within a relationship do not necessarily mean that love has died, as this story illustrates. Love rests at a deeper place. But how do we touch that place inside lessthan-idyllic feelings?

We do it through ritual. Our lives together within every kind of community are sustained by small and big rituals that keep us together, keep us respectful, and let us wait in patience throughout the ups and downs of shared life.

For example; sometimes we greet each other with real warmth and sometimes our greetings barely mask our irritation or boredom. But, we still greet

each other. Saying “Good morning” is a ritual act, an important one. It says that we love and care for each other, even when that isn’t exactly what we may be feeling on a given day. That’s also true of the perfunctory peck on the cheek as we greet or say goodbye, the ritual hug, the sign of peace in our churches, and (especially) our commitment to sit down with each other at regular times for meals and other get-to-gathers.

These are important rituals that say with our action and our commitment what our feelings sometimes cannot say, namely: “I love you! I’m here for you, even when we are both too tired, too over-familiar with each other, too preoccupied and busy, and too irritated by our differences to feel much fervor in our love at this moment.” Ritual speaks for love, even as it needs always to be undergirded by love.

The same holds true for faith. In faith, just as in love, there is a surface and there is an undergirding. The deeper reality is in the undergirding and we should be prepared for lots of shifting ground on the surface.

In our faith journey, there will be moments of fervour, of emotional warmth, of warm security; but there will also be periods—long periods, sometimes bitter ones—where on the surface we will feel only dryness, boredom, a sense of God’s absence, and perhaps even a positive distaste for the things of God and faith.

This doesn’t necessarily mean we lack effort or that we are suffering in our faith from the familiarity that breeds contempt. We can, as Chesterton classically suggested, try to look at things familiar until they look unfamiliar again, but that won’t, as the mystics assure us, always cure the problem.

Faith, like love, needs to be sustained through ritual, through ritual acts that let our commitment and our action say what we cannot always say in our words and our feelings. And our faith tradition provides these rituals for us: reading the scriptures, participating in the Eucharist, praying the office of the church, praying the rosary, praying from various kinds of prayer books, sitting in silent centering prayer, and, most important of all, simply showing up regularly for church.

All of these say what the woman whose story we shared said to her daughter: Beneath all this, we love each other. That’s enough!

indeed: the Son of Man is going to come in his glory, with all his angels, and will sit on his throne of glory. So he is not to be trifled with.

Then he will sort us all out, but not in accordance with the victories that we have won, or the status that we have achieved, but, quite simply, in terms of those in need whom we have helped.

As the parable unfolds, it is quite clear that Jesus is far more interested in spelling out the reward of those who are going to “inherit the kingdom prepared” than in the fate of the accursed.

And how are they judged? Simply that they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, visited strangers, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the imprisoned; and in doing so, it turns out to their astonishment, they were doing it to Christ.

Our leader, therefore, whom we properly celebrate on this great solemnity, is hungry and thirsty and marginalised and underprivileged; he is met with in those whom our society regards as a “waste of space”.

There is much for us to reflect on as the Church’s year comes to its end.

Southern Crossword #470

ACROSS

4. Where an ecumenical council ran late (7) 8. St Thomas More's ideal place (6) 9. When up, you see its sunny side (3,4) 10. Cast your ballot a second time (6) 11. Icon mirrors (6) 12. Monks’ kind of vows (8) 18. Saintliness (8) 20. Not fair (6) 21. Church’s hymn of divine praise (2,4) 22. It shows you don’t blow your own trumpet (7) 23. Optical illusion (6) 24. Yearned for division of diocesan clergy (7)

DOWN

1. Topmost position of Roman Pontiff (7) 2. Where sisters may be enclosed (7) 3. I shut a gap in continuity out (6) 5. Henry VIII’s new church (8) 6. Magician of Acts 13 (6) 7. Fast way to start dreaming (6) 13. He has a will of his own (8) 14. Will he stoke Hell’s furnace or put it out? (7) 15. Little people on the missions? (7) 16. Nine to alter voice in the choir (6) 17. Vessel in soup kitchen (6) 19. Member of the clergy (6) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

T

HE new priest was lost in town and stopped a boy for directions. “Son, can you tell me where the post office is?”

The boy replied: “Sure, just go straight down this street a couple of blocks, and then turn right.”

The priest thanked the boy kindly and said: “I’m the new priest in town. Come to church on Sunday, and I’ll show you how to get to Heaven.”

The little boy shook his head and said: “Oh, come on. You don’t even know the way to the post office.”

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