The Southern Cross - 130213 by The Southern Cross

March 13 to March 19, 2013

Shoptalk: Meet the tailors to many popes

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Columnists focus on human rights

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Church speaks out on SA’s rape crisis BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

A pilgrim dances in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican as the world’s cardinals were meeting behind closed doors. (Photo: Stefano Rellandini, Reuters/CNS)

Cardinal Napier in the media spotlight as cardinals met STAFF REPORTER

S the world’s cardinals gathered in the Vatican to bid Pope Benedict XVI farewell, discuss the state of the Church and then elect a new pope, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban was among the prolific voices in the world media. Moreover, according to US network ABC, Cardinal Napier was the most active of the at least nine cardinals with a Twitter account. Other actively tweeting cardinals included Cardinals Timothy Dolan of New York, Luis Tagle of Manila, Philippines, Odillo Scherer of São Paulo, Brazil, and Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture under Pope Benedict, who has an English and Italian Twitter account. Cardinal Ravasi’s Twitter account fell silent for the period of the interregnum, until a new pope is chosen (should that pope be Cardinal Ravasi, he will inherit Pope Benedict’s @pontifex handle). Cardinal Napier told the US-based Catholic News Service (CNS) that getting on Twitter “was the best decision I made”. He said at first he was “very, very sceptical and very hesitant” about this “new-fangled” platform. However, he said it’s “amazing” to be able to condense so much meaning in so few words. “Those 140 characters sound so little and yet you can communicate quite successfully,” he said. “But for me the greatest virtue has been in response to the call to Rome for the conclave,” he said, because so many people have been tweeting him their thoughts and prayers. “I’d imagine that the one thing the [new] pope would like to get would be the constant interaction from ordinary people with what he’s doing and how they’re doing and so on. It takes time, unfortunately, to go through all [the news feed] every morning, but it’s well worth it in the end.” The cardinal, until recently the liaison bishop for media of the Southern African

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban at the Irish Franciscan College in Rome before an interview on March 1. Cardinal Napier, a Franciscan, has been a prolific voice in the world media this month. (Photo: Paul Haring, CNS) Catholic Bishops’ Conference, also revealed that he had been googling some of the cardinals whom he did not know very well. Before consistories (the meetings of cardinals convened by the pope), Pope Benedict would invariably “call the cardinals to a meeting a day before”, which gave them an added chance to get together, the archbishop of Durban told CNS. “That doesn’t mean I still don’t have to look up on Google” to see who is who and match a face to a name, he added. Cardinal Napier pointed out that he wouldn’t put all his trust in the powers of the Internet. “We’ll have to put a lot of faith in the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit” in helping the cardinals make decisions. Even after media reported that the Vatican had given the cardinals a much-denied “gag order”, Cardinal Napier spoke to the media, telling the US TV network CBS that the pre-conclave talks couldn’t be rushed because, after all, the next pope was in the room. Before that, Cardinal Napier, who also appeared on Ireland’s RTE television, told the AFP news agency that the reform of the Roman curia would be “come into the picture as well” in the cardinals’ deliberations.

HE high incidence of violence against women in the country “calls for action from all people of good will”, said Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley, liaison bishop for Justice & Peace in the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC). “The Justice & Peace Department, like many other organisations—schools, media, civic, business and NGOs—condemns these many ongoing instances of violence, rape, abuse and brutality,” he said in a statement following the increase in rape cases and gender-based violent reported in the media. Jesuit Father Russell Pollitt of Holy Trinity parish in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, agreed: “This is an issue that affects people’s lives. The Church cannot be separated from this. We need to be involved at all levels—especially on the ground at parish level.” Bishop Gabuza said that “numerous awareness campaigns have been launched by different sectors of our society to highlight this scourge”. While the bishops support and encourage these campaigns, action on the ground is needed. “We urge serious dialogue on the underlying causes that have led to the current deplorable state of affairs in our country. We condemn, in the strongest terms, any act of violence against another human being,” the bishop said, adding that violence is in direct negation of the Christian command “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12). Fr Pollitt, who has been preaching on the issue, said he has been inundated with women sharing their experiences. “There is an atmosphere in the country at the moment. Everyone is talking about rape and there’s a great deal of sympathy for victims. Women might have been scared to come forward in the past—many having been put off by police or others that were meant to help them. But now, people feel encouraged to speak out.” Fr Pollitt said awareness campaigns are not enough, but that churches and schools also need to act. “Rather set up groups where victims of sexual abuse can share and support each other; groups for men where male identity can be discussed, and the culture of female submission [be] suppressed; and groups where people are educated on their rights.” Schools have also taken a stand. Sacred Heart and Dominican Convent in Johannesburg and Springfield Convent in Cape Town have had days of protest and solidarity with victims of abuse, and McCauley House in Parktown West has launched a campaign titled “Kwanele Kwanele” (Enough is Enough), which Braamfontein parish launched on March 6. “Ten years ago, when I was principal at Maris Stella in Durban, I was so horrified by the news of a toddler being found raped in Kimberley. It was then that I knew schools had to do something,” said Eleanor Hough, principal of McCauley House.

nti-rape campaigns were not popular at the time and her attempts to get other schools involved saw very little response. “I believe that McCauley House was ideally situated to launch a campaign. Our girls understand and have seen abuse in their lives. We started planning and then the news hit of the tragedy that came of Anene Booysen,” she said, referring to the Bredasdorp teenager who died on February 2 after being gangraped and mutilated. The very next day, T-shirts were printed proclaiming the school’s stance against rape.

The logo of the Kwanele Kwanele campaign launched by McCauley House, a Catholic school in Johannesburg. More than 1 000 have since been sold. “The response from the wider community has been great. We are now trying to get other schools involved. This isn’t about us, this is about fighting a massive social problem in this country,” said Ms Hough. McCauley House’s year-long campaign has included a silent protest which will take place every Friday in March, which is Human Rights Month, on every Friday in August, which is Women’s Month, and once a month for the rest of the year. “The children have been absolutely unbelievable. The silence and dignity that they showed was inspiring,” Ms Hough said. Every week the learners have different speakers address them on various topics helping them understand their rights and what abuse actually is.

ather Pollitt said that preaching the idea of “zero tolerance” for sexual violence is important. “We need to face up to the fact that [some] perpetrators of this violence are members of our churches. These are people sitting in our pews,” he said. The problem is not just limited to a “stranger attacking women in the streets at night”, but also extended to women in marriage who “tell their husbands ‘no’ but are forced to submit to their husband as he believes it is his right”. Bishop Gabuza’s statement said: “Along with a growing global consensus of all people of good will, Catholic social teaching proclaims that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This includes gender issues, the way men understand themselves, others and how they act. “Dignity is protected and a healthy society is realised only when human rights are protected and duties are met. Corresponding to these rights and duties are responsibilities—to one another, our families and to the larger society,” he said. “The dignity of the human person, our responsibility and the inherent call to solidarity, demands that we promote peace in a society engulfed by violence, rape, abuse and brutality,” said Bishop Gabuza. “We are one human family and are therefore called to solidarity with others no matter what our national, racial, ethnic, economic, gender and ideological differences are. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they may be. At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace.”

The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

LOCAL

Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholics in SA join up BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

ITH the increasing number of immigrants from Ethiopia and Eritrea settling in South Africa’s dioceses, the need to provide support in a common home language has also risen. One group is working hard to bring the various communities together. “Ethiopians and Eritreans speak the same language, but it is not English. We are working hard to provide support for the community’s needs,” said Hailu Adalo, Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic Community voluntary coordinator in South Africa. Communities have already been established in Rustenburg, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Dundee. “Ethiopians and Eritreans are scattered all over the country,” said

Mr Adalo, who plans to make contact with as many people as possible to “bring them together to celebrate Mass and study the Bible and join together in a language everyone understands,” he told The Southern Cross. He said connecting Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholics was vital in ensuring they do not leave the Church. “Ethiopian Catholics are leaving the Church because they start to attend Protestant churches where services are held in their language,” said Mr Adalo. By connecting Catholics from the region, “they will stay in the Church” because Mass will be offered in Amharic, the language common to Ethiopia and Eritrea. The community group has also requested a chaplain to provide spiritual guidance for the communities. “We’d like to be a self-sup-

porting community, but this takes a long time and a lot of work,” the coordinator said. “We have to be well organised and united if we are going to bring people back to the Church.” Mr Adalo said it had been challenging to link up the communities, but successful workshops in different dioceses have led to the establishment of strong Ethiopian and Eritrean communities. Mr Adalo, who travels the country by bus visiting the communities, will meet any group of ten or more people anywhere in the country to help establish more Ethiopian and Eritrean communities. n For more information and to make contact with other group members, contact Hailu Adalo on 072 357 7185 or by e-mail at hailuadal@yahoo.com.

Hospital’s Golf Day to raise funds BY STEPH JORDAN

STABLISHED by Trappist monks in 1882, St Mary’s Hospital in the diocese of Marianhill is the only private, government-aided Catholic mission hospital in South Africa, and serves more than 750 000 people in the area. To ensure that the hospital can maintain providing care, a Golf Day will be held on April 12 to help raise funds. Founder Abbot Francis Pfanner appealed to women in his home parish in Germany for help in South Africa, as the need for professional medical care increased. Five women responded, forming the order of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, the order of nuns that still owns the hospital. Although

the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood own the hospital, the day-today management has been handed over to St Mary’s Catholic Mission Hospital Trust. Today the non-profit hospital serves an area where one third of the population is HIV positive. “Services are provided to communities which are typically seen as historically disadvantaged and rural, and the hospital specifically deals with opportunistic infections related to HIV and Aids, malnutrition, TB and lower respitory infections,” said Helen O’Brien, development and marketing assistant for the hospital. Although the hospital serves a great number of people, it has only 200 beds. Mrs O’Brien added that St Mary’s

is increasingly dealing with “complicated births, including a high number of teenage pregnancies, pre-term labour and the need for repeat caesarean sections”. The hospital also offers free voluntary male medical circumcision. The Golf Day will cost R1 800 per four-ball which also includes green fees, dinner and prizes. The organisers would also like help with fourball teams, and the sponsorship of both holes and prizes. According to Mrs O’Brien, the funds raised will go towards general operating costs and the upgrading of equipment to keep the hospital functioning. n Contact Mrs O’Brien at the marketing office on 031 717 1152 or by e-mail at info@stmarys.co.za.

Bishop Graham Rose of Dundee consecrates Holy Family parish church in Secunda. “The ceremony began outside the church with the doors closed to all. The bishop and priests opened the doors, symbolically opening the gates of heaven,” said parishioner Jo Hawkins. “Bishop Rose blessed the walls inside and outside, a type of baptism, and he then anointed the walls with chrism, a type of confirmation.” A church can be consecrated only once the land and buildings have been paid for. “Crosses and candles will forever indicate where the walls are anointed; they may never be removed or obliterated,” said Ms Hawkins, adding that each year on the anniversary of the consecration, these candles are lit and the memory of the rite celebrated as a solemnity. A church, once consecrated, may never be sold or given over to secular use. The church should also be re-consecrated if it is desecrated in any way.

Funds raised in time for young Durban girl’s transplant BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

HE parish of Christ the King in Wentworth, Durban, is celebrating the well-fought race against time to raise funds for nineyear-old parishioner Rose-Leigh Usher, who needed the funds for a bone marrow transplant. Dr Yasmin Goga, haematology pediatrician at Inkose Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban, said the young patient was diag-

nosed with hepto-splenic gammadelta T-cell lymphoma in June 2012. “She commenced chemotherapy and has completed six of seven cycles of intensive chemotherapy,” Dr Goga said. According to the doctor, the best match for a bone marrow transplant usually comes from a sibling, however as Rose-Leigh is an only child with only half-siblings, no match has been found. The chance

of finding a matching donor is one in 100 000. The aggressive and rare form of cancer is best treated through a transplant, however, there were no local matches. But a limited-time opportunity did become available, which spurred the community into raising funds. A cord blood unit was found in Cape Town—a good match but one that could only be held for 30 days,

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said the doctor. She said Rose-Leigh would lose her chance of the transplant if the necessary funds were not raised to cover the procedure within the 30 days. “Rose-Leigh is on a lower-level medical aid plan which will not cover the cost of the cord-blood stem cell unit.” With just hours to go before the cut off, the Usher family was informed that R615 000 was raised—

an amount enough to cover the transplant to take place at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. The family has expressed their gratitude to the community for giving Rose-Leigh a second chance at life. Rose-Leigh loves swimming and karate and dreams of becoming a dancer. Dr Goga thanked the community for the “generosity and enthusiasm shown”.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

LOCAL

Youth coordinators and chaplains are pictured at the Hector Peterson Memorial as a reminder that the youth of our country have the power to turn things around.

Youth desk health check Young people from across Johannesburg gathered for a Life Teen night at St Charles’ parish church.

‘Go God’: Jo’burg youth loud and silent at vibrant Life Teen event STAFF REPORTER

HE truth of Christ’s words, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32), rang out with visible power when youth from all over Johannesburg knelt in silent adoration during a special Life Teen event held at St Charles’ parish in Victory Park. More than 500 teens were present at the event in which Life Teen president Randy Raus, and full time youth minister Stephen Lenahan, both from the United States, spoke to the youth. The Life Teen internationals were in Johannesburg to help run an “XLT” night. XLT is a shortened, teen-friendly way of representing the word “exalt” and is a Life Teen youth ministry night. “The teenagers, as well as many

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young adults and even some “oldies”, showed up from across the city and the night began with some games and socialising,” said Richard Stonier, a teacher at St Benedict’s College. Mr Stonier said the youth were hesitant at first but soon got involved in “some powerful praise and worship music led by the Catholic worship band Pocket Kings 3:15”. “Stephen Lenahan gave an awesome talk on trusting God as a father. Afterwards I was disappointed to see most of the teens get up and start moving around; until I realised that they were rushing to queue for one of the six priests hearing confessions!” The next hour of the night was made up of uncharacteristically quiet teenagers praying in adoration, said Mr Stonier. “The band led Tantum Ergo and Fr Bonga Majola— accompanied by four young adult

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male altar servers—processed with beautiful reverence to the altar and exposed Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to be adored by all.” The evening ended with Benediction and the teenagers attending confession “which didn’t stop until long after”. Mr Stonier said the bus drive back to St Benedict’s was filled with positive comments from the youth with students calling the event “life-changing” and others describing their “pounding hearts and goosebumps”. “It was such a beautiful, powerful, prayerful and Spirit-filled night. And, to God be the glory, the teens agreed. Everyone I spoke to said it was incredible and they can’t wait for the next one,” said Mr Stonier. “After comments like that, all I can do is quote a phrase often used by Life Teen leaders: ‘Go God!’ ”

STAFF REPORTER

HE face of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s youth department has been accessed and areas of strength and weakness have been identified in an effort to better serve the youth of the country. According to national youth chaplain Fr Sammy Mabusela CSS, the meeting was an opportunity for the coordinators and chaplains from the six clusters that cover the youth conference area—Polokwane, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Gauteng—to come together. “At the meeting, challenges facing the youth ministry in our conference were identified and we are in the process of implementing the deliberations, one of which is that as a youth ministry, we need to work on our unity, because, there is a huge racial, cultural and socio economic rift,” said Fr Mabusela. The youth desk chose a motto: “That they may be one” (John 17:22). Fr Mabusela said the new motto goes well with their mission statement: “collaboration, cooperation and communication in view of a holistic youth formation in the conference area”.

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Fr Mabusela said the meeting also established three areas of need —human, spiritual and skills development or formation of the youth. “It has also come to the fore that as youth we need people that we can identify with as role models and unanimously we agreed to have St John Bosco as the patron saint of our conference. “We need to develop the spirituality of St John Bosco among the youth,” the national chaplain said. “We have also agreed that we need a youth workbook or manual that would have contents from the teachings of the Church, especially social teachings, canon law, leadership skills and types, catechesis, as well as a synopsis of different programmes that are available for the formation of youth.” Fr Mabusela said the youth desk would work closely with the Lumko Institute to produce such a manual. “The liaison bishop of youth, Bishop Thaddeus Kumalo, also came to the meeting to give us his blessing and to remind us of the importance of unity and the holistic formation of our youth.” Fr Mabusela said by the end of the meeting, it was clear that all were speaking in unison.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

The shop that tailors for popes BY CAROL GLATz

ONG before a conclave to elect a new pope begins, the papal tailors have the white cassock ready for the new pontiff when he appears less than an hour after his election on the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square. The Gammarelli shop proudly showcased in its street-level window the white wool cassocks in three different sizes: “tall”, “medium” and “small”, since no one knows who will be the new pope or what his measurements will be. “We received the order [from the Vatican] to prepare the three outfits a few days after Benedict gave the announcement” on February 11 to step down, Lorenzo Gammarelli said. It takes three-and-a-half days to cut, prepare and sew by hand one complete cassock, said the sixthgeneration family member, so all three were finished “very quickly” and were then displayed in the shop window before delivering the ensemble to the Vatican in time for the conclave and election. The Gammarelli shop was founded in 1798 and has served every 21st- and 20th-century pontiff

Three sizes of papal cassocks are displayed in the window of the Gammarelli clerical tailor shop in Rome. (Photo: Paul Haring, CNS) except for Pope Pius XII, who stuck with his family’s tailor. It’s not a given that every pope will call on the shop’s services, so the shop always waits to receive orders from the Vatican. But chances are good they will get called to do work for the next pope “since we have served all these popes”, he said, nodding toward a row of pictures of seven popes on the wall near the shop’s front entrance. The sets available for the new pontiff to wear include a cassock with an attached capelet, a white silk sash, a white skullcap, red

leather shoes and a red velvet mozzetta or capelet with ermine trim, a style retired Pope Benedict XVI brought back into style. Pope John Paul II “preferred very light-weight clothing and evidently the fur (and velvet mozzetta) was too heavy for him, therefore, he preferred not to use it,” Mr Gammarelli said. If it’s necessary, a Gammarelli tailor will head to the apostolic palace a few days after a successful election to take measurements of the new pope for a properly fitting cassock and vestments, he said. The old shop, which is located just a few metres from the Pantheon, was bustling as shopkeepers quickly packaged a backlog of old orders. One shopkeeper was busily folding magenta sashes for a bishop and sealing them in brown wrapping paper, while another stacked shoe boxes containing black kidskin shoes for delivery. Mr Gammarelli said that while the shop offers a full clothing service for the pope, from the skullcap down to the papal socks and shoes, it does not include underwear. “Each pope has his own,” he said.—CNS

HE sacrament of penance, or reconciliation, helps Catholics recognize “the truth about themselves: that they are beloved children of the Father, who is rich in mercy,” said Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro, who served as nuncio to Southern Africa from 1998 to 2000. The cardinal, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican court that deals with the sacrament of penance and matters of conscience, said the sacrament is an integral part of evangelisation because it is a proclamation of the good news of God’s love. Cardinal Monteiro de Castro, one of the few top Vatican officials whose job did not end with the end of Pope Benedict’s pontificate, spoke to more than 500 seminarians, deacons and priests attending a Vatican course on the sacrament and matters

of conscience. “To evangelise is not only to teach doctrine and proclaim the truth. To evangelise is especially to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel that can touch human hearts and open them to accept the love of God,” he said. Mgr Krzysztof Nykiel, regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, said the priests who are the best confessors know how to balance being a father, counsellor and judge; they must know and understand Church teaching and know how to convey it in the confessional with “prudence, discretion, discernment and goodness”. The confessor, he said, must avoid “the danger of creating anguish” in the penitent and instead help him or her learn to “trust the infinite mercy of God”. The personality of a priest, “his qualities and his defects, have a no-

New patriarch begs Iraq’s Christians not to leave

Confession ‘part of evangelisation’ BY CINDY WOODEN

Ralph Napierski (right) who claimed to be a Catholic bishop of the non-existent “Italian Orthodox Church”, walks towards the synod hall for a general congregation meeting of the world’s cardinals. The German prankster snuck by the first round of Vatican security but was frogmarched out of the restricted area by Swiss Guards before he could enter the synod hall. (Photo: Paul Haring, CNS)

ticeable weight in the confessional, more than in any other sacrament”, Mgr Nykiel said. With ordination, every priest receives the faculty to absolve sins in the name of the Church, he said, but often “the penitent does not need only forgiveness”. Frequently, the monsignor said, he or she needs education and guidance in forming a truly Christian conscience, or has need of encouragement or comfort. Exercising the ministry of confessor is “one of the most difficult and delicate tasks for a priest”, he said. He needs “to intuit situations of fragility, anxiety, pain or situations of superficiality, boasting and pride”. A priest also needs to be able to set aside his own concerns and worries and the cares of the previous penitent, giving his full attention to the person in front of him at the moment, Mgr Nykiel said.—CNS

HE new patriarch of Chaldean Catholics has pledged to foster coexistence and dialogue and urged Christian Iraqis not to leave their homeland, warning that if emigration continues, “there will be no more Christians in the Middle East”. Ululating and applause nearly drowned out the choir as Patriarch Louis Sako, 64, approached the altar at Baghdad’s St Joseph cathedral for his installation amid tight security. “I open my heart and mind to you all carrying my motto: ‘Authenticity, Unity and Renewal’,” Patriarch Sako told Church officials, religious, laypeople, imans and senior Iraqi officials gathered in the cathedral. Eastern Catholic leaders, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Sunni parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi were among those who attended the installation. Of the challenges and risks facing him in his new mission, the patriarch said: “I refuse to put a black cloth over my eyes. My responsibility is huge, and the inheritance is very heavy, but I have a great hope...to face the reality objectively

and clearly.” The new patriarch pledged to work towards coexistence and dialogue, as he did in his previous assignments in Mosul and Kirkuk. “I want to stimulate dialogue with my brothers, the Muslim imams, both Shiite and Sunni,” he said, thanking God that “I was always close to them in Mosul and Kirkuk”. “We have a common message and we have to spread a culture of peace, harmony, brotherhood and mutual respect and make our churches and mosques luminous centres of spiritual and humane values,” Patriarch Sako said. “In the name of humanity and nationality, I urge everyone, governors and politicians, to dialogue calmly and to find consensus and appropriate solutions and to avoid all forms of intolerance, fanaticism, hatred and violence,” the patriarch said.—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

US cardinal: I can offer lessons learned from abuse crisis BY CAROL GLATz

ARDINAL Roger Mahony hopes to offer Church leaders some of the lessons learned from the sex abuse crisis. The retired archbishop of Los Angeles said the biggest mistake was not understanding the true nature of the crime by believing the problem of adults abusing children was merely a moral problem. “Many of us in the Church saw this calamity, through the lens of

the Church, as a sin and a moral weakness,” he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. While abuse is both, he said the Church confused its moral view “with what was necessary to solve the problem”. “I had not understood the true nature of the problem and that those who abuse—not just in the Church—continue to perpetrate their crimes,” he said. “These things were not as well understood then as they are now,”

he said. The cardinal said he had taken the approach that was being recommended for all institutions by various psychiatry and psychology studies at the time, which included referring suspected abusers for treatment. “We tried to follow the best practices of that time,” the 77-yearold cardinal said. However, as soon as it was clear that approach had been wrong, “I did everything to remedy these

Catholic agencies still aid Japan tsunami survivors BY SIMONE ORENDAIN

RENCH Cardinal Jean Honoré died on February 28 at the age of 92. Recognised as an expert in religious education for more than 50 years, Cardinal Honoré helped guide the renewal of catechesis in France after the Second Vatican Council. In 2001 he was one of five elderly churchman appointed to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II in appreciation of

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Fr Daisuke Narui, executive director of Caritas Japan, reads with a young student at a preschool in north-east Japan. The Catholic charity continues to support families and communities hit hard by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. (Photo: Jennifer Hardy, CRS/CNS) young volunteers who chat with survivors, most of whom are elderly.

efore the disaster, the region had long been suffering the effects of rural flight as young people seek opportunities in major metropolitan areas. “Through this kind of session those victims could release the bad effects of trauma,” Fr Narui told Catholic News Service. “Moreover, they feel that they are not abandoned. Before the tsunami they felt they were abandoned people. Their sons, their daughters are in the city, and they don’t come back or they don’t visit.” Mrs Nakanome misses her friends and neighbours. She said people were separated when the government placed them in emergency shelters and then temporary housing: prefabricated single rooms that are shared by lots of people. “We talk with the volunteers sometimes, if we’re a little scared,” she said. “Sometimes we’re not so sure about who we’re living with, if they’re

okay, if we’ll get along.” Mrs Nakanome said she is grateful for the emotional support she gets from the Caritas volunteers. She called them good listeners. The sea vegetable factory in Rikuzentakata where Mrs Nakanome worked was swept away by the giant wave. After losing her home and her job to the tsunami, she visited a local church often and was offered part-time work as a cook for the Caritas volunteers. “Caritas has been a very big help,” she said. Fr Narui said the focus is on supporting survivors as much as possible, because helping others is one way to live the Gospel. “We listen to people,” he said. “Those victims are very important for us, and we just accompany such small and vulnerable people.”—CNS

Catechesis expert cardinal dies at 92 BY CINDY WOODEN

abuse. Inaccurate reports suggested that Cardinal Mahony had recused himself from this year’s conclave. Archdiocesan personnel files suggested that Cardinal Mahony, who headed the archdiocese from 1985 until his March 2011 retirement, worked to protect accused priests from criminal investigation beginning in the 1980s.—CNS

With 88 photos

OSALINDA Nakanome, 38, tries not to look at the sea very much these days. “It’s like I’ve developed a phobia at the sight of water,” she said, thinking back nearly two years to the tsunami that washed away her home in the north-eastern Japanese coastal town of Rikuzentakata. Mrs Nakanome and her family were returning home from a shopping trip the afternoon of March 11, 2011, when they saw an enormous wall of water caused by an earlier magnitude 9 earthquake rapidly approaching. She said neighbours and bystanders panicked. They headed for a nearby mountain to escape the tsunami’s deluge. “By the time we got to the mountain, our house was damaged. We couldn’t return,” Mrs Nakanome said. The house and all its contents were gone but the whole family—her two small children, husband and in-laws—were safe. Today they continue to live in cramped quarters in temporary housing, like thousands of others. In some communities life is somewhat better, but the trauma of the disaster remains. The earthquake and tsunami left nearly 20 000 people dead or missing and hundreds of thousands homeless. “If you visit places hit by the tsunami, you see nice buildings, and also kids going to school, people going to temporary shopping malls,” said Divine Word Father Daisuke Narui, executive director of Caritas Japan. “They do their work, they do daily living. But their mental side...they need help.” Fr Narui said that counselling is the biggest need for survivors who have lost loved ones, homes and entire communities. A major component of Caritas Japan’s outreach is in-home visits, what Fr Narui calls “tea sessions”. The visits involve

crimes,” he said. Cardinal Mahony has publicly stated he made mistakes during his tenure as archbishop, apologised for the errors and underlined his commitment to making the archdiocese safe for all children. The cardinal’s successor, Archbishop José Gomez, announced on January 31 that Cardinal Mahony would “no longer have any administrative or public duties” in the archdiocese because of past failures to protect children from clergy sex

his service to the local and universal Church. Born in Saint-Briceen-Coglès in 1920, he was ordained in 1943 and earned degrees at the Catholic Institute of Paris. He helped prepare a series of French national congresses on religious instruction, held from 1960-64. In 1960, he founded a French magazine dedicated to religious education, Catéchèse, and guided

the team of editors who prepared the 1964 French pastoral directory on catechesis. After serving from 1964-72 as rector of the Catholic University of the West in Angers, he was named bishop of Evreux in 1972. He was transferred to the archdiocese of Tours in 1981, retiring in July 1997.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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.

What we need in parish life HE letter of Fritz Rijkenberg Examples which straddles meThe rape of South Africa T“Format of Mass loses followers” dieval and modern times are the so(February 13) highlights a funda- dality and the parish missions. T is an indictment of South the subjugation of women. Editor: Günther Simmermacher

African society that it should be necessary for citizens to launch campaigns that point out what should be utterly obvious: that sexual violence corrupts our population. A country that has failed to collectively reach this conclusion is in crisis. The shocking extent of that crisis finds expression not only in headline cases, such as the depraved suffering inflicted upon the teenager Anene Booysen, but also in cold statistics. A study published in 2009 by the Medical Research Council found that 27,6% of men in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape had admitted to having perpetrated sexual assault, sometimes multiple times and in concert with others. The national figure would likely be not much different. These statistics do not tally with the rate at which sexual assaults are reported (only 65 083 rapes between December 2007 and June 2011), nor with the deplorably low conviction rate—only 10%. Inarguably, most women who are sexually assaulted do not report the crime to the police and suffer the lasting effects of it—physical, emotional, mental—in silence, thereby cementing their trauma. There are many reasons for the under-reporting of rape. Lack of confidence in police and the justice system, fear of repercussions from the attacker or others, fear of social stigma and marginalisation, fear of having to relive the trauma, fear of not being believed, fear of being blamed for the assault, and so on. Rape remains misunderstood throughout South African society; indeed, the language of sexual assault itself can be misleading when rape mostly is not a question of sexual gratification but of control. Men who rape their wives or girlfriends or dates or friends or random strangers—or children—may get a sexual kick out of their assault, but the act itself is an assertion of power. Often rape is used as a method of punishment; for perceived “disobedience”, for dressing “immodestly”, for having a same-sex orientation, in war zones for belonging to the wrong social or political group, and so on. In this way, rape is a tool for

When rape is being trivialised—be it by references to a victim’s style of dress or behaviour, or by failure to provide proper care and justice for survivors of an assault—society becomes part of the problem. It also does not help when we are galvanised into temporary action only sporadically by isolated cases; the nation must commit itself to bringing about a social and cultural modification that unequivocally protects the right of women to not be sexually assaulted (or otherwise brutalised). This requires a plan of unified action, one that requires the courage and political will to identify and address the underlying causes for rape, challenge entrenched gender dynamics and commit to empowering women. The decision of Braamfontein parish in Johannesburg to adopt the Kwanele Kwanele campaign, which was launched by McCauley House, a Catholic school in Johannesburg, is commendable. The parish’s priest, Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, is right in pointing out that awareness campaigns alone are not enough, but that society must also engage in concrete action. Braamfontein parish plans to address the rape crisis in innovative ways, such as offering counselling and support both for survivors of sexual assault, and also for men who have raped and seek to change. Rape dehumanises not only the woman, child or, indeed, man subjected to it, but also the perpetrator, possible witnesses, and those who experience the secondary effects of rape. It also dehumanises society whenever it is confronted with another shocking graphic report of sexual assault. In knowledge of this, expressing outrage, lighting candles and supporting Facebook petitions, while creditable, simply are not enough. South Africans must rise up. We must be engaged in or give support to groups that address the incidence of rape and advocate the empowerment of women. And we must forthrightly demand action from government, law enforcement and the judiciary, lest they too be held accountable for their complicity by omission in the rape of South Africa.

mental need in all parish life. His observation that “the Mass is the only spiritual support most churchgoers receive” underscores the challenge. I am sure that every parish priest would consider the parish quite dead if all that happened was only the Sunday Mass. From the earliest times of the Church, the celebration of the liturgy was surrounded by other forms of prayer and communal life. In the time of St Augustine, for example, monastic prayer and cathedral chapters would be examples of such. In the medieval Church there was a multiplicity of devotional life and social celebrations of an ecclesial nature which inspired people to prayer and living of their faith.

Next big step

OW is the time for the Church’s next big step. After his recent resignation, my respect and admiration for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has grown even more. The dramatic decision was surely not taken lightly. The pope was well aware that his resignation would affect the Church and indeed its history. How courageous and humble for the head of the Lord’s Church to step down and “climb the mountain to dedicate [himself] even more to prayer and meditation”. After the pioneering John-Paul II, Benedict XVI was installed as a “bridging” pope so that a new historical phase in our Church can begin. It is time for serious and official debates to take place about the option of priests marrying. True traditionalists, if they are indeed traditionalists, would logically welcome this as this is the way it was back in the day of our very first pope, St Peter, who himself was married. I suspect the Church is not ready for this, but it would be good to review the role of women. Jesus had female disciples; his mother being the supreme female priest. The reality is that just as Vatican II opened the windows of the Church and let the light and fresh air in, the Church now needs to look at the “next step” in its evolution as it becomes even more universal than ever before. Manny de Freitas, Johannesburg

Progressives’ aim

HAT do the progressives (liberals) want? They tend to phrase their letters in vague terms yet hint at matters that disturb conservative believers.

One may consider the place of the charismatic movement in parish life since Vatican II. The Bible apostolate, where people pray the scriptures and prepare themselves ahead of the Sunday liturgy, has place of pride in rural and urban communities. There is the family apostolate, student and youth apostolate, workers’ apostolate—all create occasions where people can pray and reflect on life together, at times celebrate Mass in their groups, but always providing for a deepened experience of the Sunday Mass. The reforms of Vatican II kept the ritual of the Mass to a minimum, something which its critics did not welcome. The most fundamental ritual remains as we read in Conservatives require a firm commitment to the doctrines and moral standards of the Church in the past, scripture being central. It sometimes appears that they have been sidelined and that a form of censorship is practised, seeing that the correspondence of the usual “regulars” is printed. There should be open debate (though foul or insulting language should be excluded). The perception is that the progressives wish to compromise with the world. Cecil Cullen (February 6) frightens me as much as extreme fundamentalists. He appears to be an extreme progressive who wants censorship for views not in line with his. It appears he is unable to deal with open debate. Rosemary Gravenor (February 6) is equally disturbing, inferring you are unprincipled and radical if you don’t agree with her. I cannot comment on what the fundamentalists said as I have not seen their view in print. GB White, Port Elizabeth

Pray for Africa

OLLOWING the Stations of the Cross during Lent and then reading later about their history, from the very earliest times in Christianity, we see a tradition that Mary reOpinions 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. Letters can be sent to PO box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

the Acts of the Apostles: they met for the prayers and the Breaking of the Bread. The synoptic gospels and St Paul already record the outline of the ritual for the Breaking of the Bread: Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke and gave it. And he did the same with the wine. I recommend reading The Supper of the Lamb by Scott Hahn which is also available in DVD form. The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference made a DVD-ROM available, Becoming One Bread One Body in Christ, as a resource for helping Catholics relate to the liturgy of the Mass and its reform by Vatican II so as to answer the very questions of the correspondent. The Sunday Mass brings everyone together from all walks of life to celebrate the mystery of faith. It is the climax of all Christian prayer and service that leads up to it and flows out from it. Bishop Edward Risi OMI, Keimoes-Upington visited the route and early Christians also “followed Christ” on the road he had taken to Calvary. This reminded me of an item from the Catholic Link some years back which reportd that in the Redemptorist chapel in Pattaya, Thailand, there are fine Oriental paintings showing everyone following Jesus carrying his cross, “the Christian takes up his cross daily”. When we read about Simon of Cyrene every year, perhaps in Africa we may remember that Cyrene is in Libya, and Simon, as a man from Africa, mght be of particular significance to us. Let us pray for Africa, that with faith we may take up the cross of our continent’s difficulties and, like Simon of Cyrene, help Jesus to carry it and walk in his footsteps. Let us also pray in faith that we in Africa, like Simon’s family, may bring forth “workers in the Lord’s service” (Mark 15:21, Romans 16:13). With a prayer for all at The Southern Cross and thanks. Athaly Jenkinson, East London

Helping hand

refer to the letter by B Hurt of Durban (February 27). Each parish has so much outreach to the less privileged in our community, and rightly so, but what is done to help our own parishioners? So often we spend all our efforts collecting and caring for people outside the parish that those very deserving of our help within the parish are ignored. Surely there must be businessmen in and around Durban who can interview this man, find out what he is capable of and then employ him. Margaret von Solms, Sedgefield

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PERSPECTIVES

Human rights and the Catholic Church

N March 21 we commemorate the 1960 Sharpeville massacre with Human Rights Day. And church leaders, nationally and locally, will join fellow citizens in celebrating the triumph of human rights post-apartheid. What greater injustice to human rights can there have been than regarding some human beings as superior to others because of the colour of their skin? The straightforward foundation of human rights is that all humans are equal, simply because they are human. And all humans are entitled to equal treatment by right—not because they have earned it or paid for it or been awarded it, but because it is part of the definition of what it is to be human. While many of us take this for granted now, we do not have to go too far back in history to find situations in which some people were treated less well than others—because they were not male, or not white, or not property owners, or not Christian, or not members of the aristocracy, or not heterosexual, or not ablebodied. We rightly debate how to implement such radical equality, but now rarely question the underlying principle that all humans enjoy the right to equal treatment. The language of modern-day human rights (from an age in which people were less conscious of gender) is seen as origi-

nating in the 1776 American Declaration of Independence—“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”—or the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen— “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”. As Christians we might see an echo here going back to the very beginning of the Bible: since all people are descendants of Adam and Eve, and thus born in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27), they all should all be treated well and all be treated equally well.

ou would have thought then that the Catholic Church would have been championing the rise of human rights. There have certainly been theologians who both influenced and were influenced by these ideas from before the Enlightenment and since. But the Church’s political fears of revolutions and its defence of regimes that had supported the Church, meant that it was a long time before the Church would publicly place itself alongside those fighting for human rights. For example, the Church in South Africa championed basic rights of political representation (the right to vote and freedom of speech) alongside other campaigners. Yet only a century earlier the Church had condemned both of these. But now the Church is seen (by most) as a defender of human rights. After all,

Young people in Manila, Philippines, hold candles to mark the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2008. Among the declaration’s 30 articles is the “right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”. (Photo: Cheryl Ravelo, Reuters/CNS)

How we can stand for rights

N South Africa we celebrate Human Rights Day on March 21 each year to remind us of the great suffering and loss of life that accompanied the struggle for human rights in our country. The day serves to remind us that people in South Africa will never again be denied their human rights. The Catholic Church has always recognised, commented on and responded to the human rights issues in the world. As Christians we need to respond to the human rights abuse we see around us and to actively want to change the conditions in society. The social teachings of the Catholic Church provide us with guidelines for doing this. They are a collection of documents written by popes, Church councils, bishops, episcopal conferences and special commissions, and they challenge us to look at our society and the world in a different way and to question the things we take for granted and just accept, because “that’s the way things are”. Instead of just accepting the world as we find it, we need to analyse it and our community using the teachings of the Church. Then we will be able to act appropriately and responsibly as Christians. The Church’s Social Teachings provide us with guidelines for working out the action we should be taking as Christians in response to the needs and problems in our community and our world. The Catholic Social Teaching principle which speaks about our human rights is that of the dignity of the human person. It teaches us that human life is sacred.

Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of US President Franklin D Roosevelt, holds a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which she presented to the United Nations. Belief in the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all Catholic social teaching. The dignity of the human person is the starting point for a moral vision for society. This principle is grounded in the idea that the person is made in the image of God. The person is the clearest reflection of God among us. Human rights are the rights that everyone is supposed to have, simply because they are human beings. They are the rights we all have from the moment we are born. We do not have to earn them and they should not be taken away from us.

Raymond Perrier

Faith and Society

she has a network of organisations working with the poor, the marginalised and refugees, providing healthcare, education and development to all people in need, regardless of who they are. Moreover, Bl John Paul is credited with helping overturn Communist rule, thus restoring rights to many citizens in Eastern Europe. But the relationship is still not easy. It would seem to be that Rome’s defence of human rights sometimes goes only as far as the church door: if there is a conflict between claimed human rights and Church teaching, Rome asserts strongly its own rights over those of individuals. While this might make sense within the Church, it leaves those outside the Church baffled and inclined to see hypocrisy. We would be horrified by a private organisation refusing employment to someone because they were Jewish or black. Others are horrified if the Church refuses employment to someone who is a woman or gay.

ritics note that the Church’s forthright document on the right of religious freedom (Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae) comes at the point in history when the Church is increasingly a minority that needs defence and not a majority that wields power. Or they point to the inconsistency of the Vatican City as a state in the UN defending human rights while not actually implementing many of those rights in her own territory. We can imagine what the Church would say about a departing head of state who ensured that his successor was chosen by and from a select group of men he himself had appointed! A deeper reason for this unease might be the feeling that the Church has lost socio-political power to a human rights lobby which provides (to quote a book title) “values for a godless age”. The near-universality of the acceptance of human rights and of its language seems to compete with the universality that the Catholic Church would claim for herself and which for many centuries (in a large part of the world) she enjoyed. Will this be the final victory of secularism: to take the Church’s commitment to equality and, in making it even more radical and even more non-negotiable, beat religion at its own game?

Judith Turner

On Faith and Life

They include the right to life, food and shelter, to education, to free movement, to privacy, to own your own things and so on. And to protect these rights is not just a political issue. We do not have to get involved in politics to defend human rights. It is our Christian duty and moral obligation and there are many ways we can do this. In your church societies and sodalities or faith-sharing groups you can reflect on the social teaching on human dignity and pray that the dignity of all people will be respected. You can also decide what you can do to raise awareness about the dignity of all people and what you can do to practically assist people whose basic human rights to food, shelter and education have been violated. This is what we are called to do in Proverbs: “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy” (31:8-9). The full text of Vatican II’s social teaching document, Dignitatis Humanae (“Dignity of the Human person”), can be viewed at http://bit.ly/mi5R0

The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Chewing on the way to Communion Our clergy have neglected their duty to remind parishioners of the meaning of the eucharistic fast. To my mind, this short fast is to etch into our minds that when we receive holy Communion, we are not eating ordinary food but the bread of eternal life. I see communicants who have eaten a sweet or are chewing gum on their way to the altar. B S Ryan ET’S see what canon law has to say: “Whoever is to receive the blessed Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy Communion from all food and drink with the sole exception of water and medicine” (c919). It’s not difficult to understand that food is something digestible that everyone would recognise as edible for human consumption, such as bread, chips, meat, muffins, sweets. And drink is a liquid that human beings are accustomed to drink, such as tea, milk, lemonade. The law says that you must abstain from food and drink at least one hour before receiving the Eucharist. This is not always easy to compute. Say you attend the 7 o’clock Saturday evening Mass and you guess that Communion will be distributed at 7:40. Having completed a snack by 6:40, you feel sure that you are within the law. To your dismay, the priest preaches a short homily and Communion is distributed at 7:30. May you receive Communion? Yes. You have the right intention and you cannot foresee the precise time Communion will be given. As a wise priest once remarked: “God doesn’t keep a stopwatch.” It is doubtful that those who know the law yet deliberately ignore it, have the right intention. Here the right intention is always to show our deepest possibe respect for the presence of Christ, the Son of God, in the Eucharistic food and drink we take, which as you say, is not ordinary food. We should be fully aware of St Paul’s words: “Everyone is to recollect himself before eating this bread and drinking this cup, because a person who eats and drinks without recognising the Body is eating and drinking his own condemnation” (1 Cor 11:28). I would agree that our clergy should periodically remind their parishioners to show their respect for the Eucharist, not only in their way of dress and general posture when receiving Communion, but also in taking care to observe the prescribed fast, with an explanation of why the fast is necessary.

n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za; or fax (021) 465 3850. Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

Did you know that Our Lord Jesus said that this feast would one day be the “last hope of salvation”? Have you considered what would happen to you if you suddenly died in a state of mortal sin? Official Feast Day throughout the Church

In the year 2000, after many years of study by the Catholic Church, Blessed Pope John Paul II said that he had fulfilled the will of Christ by officially establishing this special Feast of Divine Mercy and named it Divine Mercy Sunday!

The title “Divine Mercy Sunday” highlights the meaning of the 8th DAY and recovers an ancient liturgical tradition, reflected in the teachings of St. Augustine about the Easter Octave, which he called “the days of mercy and pardon”, and the Octave Day itself “the compendium of the days of mercy.”

What does Jesus promise us?

“The soul that will go to CONFESSION and HOLY COMMUNION will receive total forgiveness of sins and all punishment… …(comparable to a 2nd BAPTISM) “let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet!” # Diary 699.

Our Lord is emphasising through His Promise the infinite value of Confession and Holy Communion as miracles of mercy. To help us see that the Eucharist is His own body, blood, Soul and Divinity, it is the “Fountain of Life” # Diary 300.

Why would Jesus offer us something so great right now?

Jesus told St. Faustina that she was to prepare the world for His Second Coming and that He would be pouring out His Mercy in great abundance and as the last hope of salvation before He comes again as the Just Judge.

The Image of Divine Mercy

Just as the Feast Day itself is a summary-celebration of the Paschal Mystery, so the Image is the visual, iconic summary of the Paschal message. Jesus said, “I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the Fountain of Mercy… that vessel is the image with the signature “JESUS I TRUST IN YOU” …let every soul have access to it” # Diary 742 # 570.

Jesus awaits us in the Confessional

Now is the time – whoever you are, whatever you have done …now is the time to flee to the Divine Mercy! One of the most reassuring things Our Lord Jesus revealed to us through Saint Faustina is that He is really there in the Confessional when we are making our individual Confessions to the Priests. Jesus said that every time we enter the Confessional, that He Himself is there waiting for us, and that He is only hidden by the Priest.

Some have wondered why Jesus would want us to confess our sins to a Priest, but the answer is in the very first instruction that Jesus gave to His Apostles directly after His Resurrection from the dead. On the evening of the Resurrection, Jesus walked through the door of the Cenacle where the Apostles were hiding and said to them “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained”. This was the institution of the Sacrament of Confession. For sure, that command was not only for the Apostles, and then to be forgotten, but for that power to be passed on to the Bishops and Priests of today’s Catholic Church.

Jesus said that the greater the sinner, the greater the right they have to His mercy! Who can comprehend the Merciful Love of our Saviour? To celebrate properly the Feast of Divine Mercy

and to receive the forgiveness of all sins and punishment, you must: • go to Confession to a Catholic Priest during the 20 days before Divine Mercy Sunday. If you are in the state of mortal sin, you must confess before receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, or you will commit a sacrilege, which is also a serious sin. If you have not been attending Mass on Sundays and Holy days of obligation without good reason, you must confess before receiving Jesus in Holy Communion. • receive Our Lord in Holy Communion in a state of grace on Divine Mercy Sunday. • be merciful in our prayers, words and actions. • venerate* the Image of Divine Mercy and place all your trust in Jesus. *to venerate a sacred image or statue simply means to perform some act or make a gesture of deep religious respect toward it because of the one it represents – in this case, our Most Merciful Saviour.

JESUS has made this incredible GIFT of MERCY available to us ALL !

FREE material resources to help Priests promote and celebrate this outpouring of God’s Grace and Mercy will be delivered to every Diocese throughout South Africa by 22nd March, 2013. Parish Priests may arrange to collect via your local bishop.

“This is My Body, given up for you.”

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

FOCUS

Mandela’s life of faith, hope and love St Paul wrote: “There are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13). MIKE POTHIER reflects on how these virtues apply to the life of Nelson Mandela.

ELSON Mandela’s recent spell of hospital treatment around Christmastime was a reminder that he is moving towards the end of a noble life. At the age of 94, he is frail and susceptible to the vagaries of advanced years. Indeed, if we consider that he spent so long in prison, sometimes under harsh conditions, it is remarkable that he is still with us. When Madiba stepped down as president of South Africa in 1999, the then leader of the opposition, Tony Leon, quoted Shakespeare in his parliamentary tribute: “we will not look upon his like again”. How true that has proved to be. In much of the recent comment on developments within the African National Congress, and more generally in South Africa’s political life, people have recalled the “Mandela era” or the “Mandela generation”, holding them up as an ideal to which the subsequent leadership is unflatteringly compared. No doubt, when Madiba’s earthly life comes to an end, the world’s media will be filled with tributes, obituaries, reminiscences and analyses. Many will focus on his political impact, his statesmanship, his role in the struggle for liberation and in the subsequent transition to democracy. Few, I would expect, will take an overtly spiritual approach. Mr Mandela has seldom, if ever, made public pronouncements about his religious beliefs, preferring this aspect of his life to remain private. I think, though, that it is more than worthwhile to consider Mandela’s legacy though a spiritual lens; and what we see there may prove to be more significant and enduring than his achievements as a liberator and politician. St Paul’s famous triad of “faith, hope and love” presents itself as a point of focus. Faith elson Mandela knew, back in the 1940s and ’50s, that his commitment to the liberation struggle could result in his death by execution; and almost certainly would result in long-term imprisonment. In both the treason trial of 1956 and the Rivonia trial of 1963, the death penalty was a real possibility. Although he was acquitted in the former, his conviction in the latter brought with it a distinct fear that he and his comrades would be hanged. It seems to me that to embark on a course of action such as that chosen by Mandela and his comrades at the height of apartheid oppression requires a great deal of faith. Not specifically religious faith, of course, but a conviction nevertheless that the dangers you are confronting, the relationships and comforts you are sacrificing, the punishments you are inviting, are all endurable— and necessary—precisely because they will lead to freedom. This is something entirely different from the motivation of the fanatic, the suicide-bomber, the one who seeks “martyrdom”. Such a person may want to make a grand statement, but it is more one of despair than of faith in a better future. Mr Mandela’s calm, rational acceptance of the risks he ran by dedicating his life to the struggle was not the act of a fanatic or a political martyr; it was the act of someone who could envisage the “promised land” of a free and just South Africa, and who was prepared to set off for it with faith that, even if his personal journey was to end in prison or at the end of an executioner’s rope, his people would get there in the end. Indeed, this is how he saw it, in words he spoke during his speech

Nelson Mandela shows us all what faith, hope and love can achieve. from the dock at the Rivonia trial: “The invincibility of our cause and the certainty of our final victory are the impenetrable armour of those who consistently uphold their faith in freedom and justice in spite of political persecution.” Even after more than 20 years in prison, cut off from family and friendships, and with liberation not apparently on the horizon, Mr Mandela was quite firm in rejecting the first overtures made by the apartheid government. It wanted him to make concessions, to “renounce violence”, and to enter into negotiations while still a prisoner. Mr Mandela famously rejected these approaches, sending a public message via his daughter Zindzi: “My father says: ‘Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated. I will return [to prison]’.” It would have been easy to give in at that point, having sat in jail for two decades, and having won international status as the world’s most famous political prisoner. And surely that temptation must have been great—Madiba was by then nearly 70, an age when most people permit themselves to slow down and enjoy the fruits of their labours. Instead he kept faith with the values and principles that had brought him to prison in the first place; and as a result, when he was eventually released, it was on his own terms, not as a compromised or weakened figure, but as the man of stature that we came to know after February 1990. Once again, it is not necessary to claim that the faith exhibited by Madiba was a specifically religious one (though it is well-known that he appreciated spiritual reading material and had close relationships with prison chaplains who visited Robben Island, especially the late Fr Brendan Long of Cape Town archdiocese). His faith in the correctness of what he was doing, and in the ultimate outcome of his commitment, was what kept him going and kept him strong in spirit. And that is surely the essence of what all kinds of faith should do for us. Hope nyone who remembers the early days of 1990, when Mandela toured the country as a free man after 27 years, speaking to huge crowds of people, will recall how his words, and his mere presence, gave hope for a united, just and peaceful South Africa. Those who had suffered under apartheid found a leader who understood their hurt and anger, who shared their hopes for a better life, and who had the vision to lead them, through years of difficult negotiations, to the moment of freedom in April 1994. Equally, those who had benefited from apartheid, and who

feared some kind of backlash, had their hopes for a place in the new, free South Africa renewed and strengthened. To hope is more than merely to wish for something. To have real hope is to be reassured, to shake off anxiety, to feel confident that one’s dreams and desires will be realised. It is a rare person who can inspire such feelings in a nation; rarer still when he or she inspires those feelings in people on both sides of the huge divides that characterised South Africa before 1994. But that is exactly what Mr Mandela did. Looking back, it is easy to see that much of what we hoped for then has not come to pass. We have become sidetracked, many people’s lives have not improved at all, and self-advancement and corruption dominate much of public life. here are many, and complex, reasons for this, no doubt, but part of the reason is certainly that those who succeeded Mr Mandela were cut from poorer cloth; they lacked his vision and his big-heartedness, his discipline and self-assurance. When we compare the more

muted hopes we have today with the confident, joyful hope we felt 20 years ago, let us acknowledge the man who embodied that hope and gave it voice. Love e do not usually associate political leadership with the idea of love. Courage, determination, vision, passion, all these will be found in a good politician, but love is somehow too gentle, too soft a virtue to be applied to someone who has risen to the top in the hard, rough world of politics. Perhaps, sadly, this is because so many professional politicians, instead of being motivated by love, are driven by ambition, power-lust and ego. What sent Mr Mandela to jail, ultimately, was love—a love for all the people of South Africa which would not allow him to sit back and quietly pursue his career as a lawyer. At the end of his speech from the dock, he said famously: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live to-

gether in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Selflessness and self-sacrifice are surely two of the hallmarks of love. To be prepared—really prepared, not just as a matter of cheap, rabble-rousing rhetoric—to die for the good of others is, as we know, the highest form of love. But Mr Mandela’s capacity for love manifested itself in other, more personal, ways as well. When people speak of “the Madiba magic”, they are referring to his warmth, his broad smile, the evident delight he takes in the company of children, his ability to make everyone he meets feel welcome and important. It was surely love, and the desire for harmony that flows from love, that took him off to the conservative Afrikaner stronghold of Orania in 1995 to visit the widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the apartheid-era prime minister. Likewise love that caused him to form deep friendships with some of his jailers and with their families. Indeed, all over South Africa and across the world, there are people who have been made to feel special by the little things Madiba did for them or said to them. Nelson Mandela will not live forever; each month and year that passes now is a bonus for all of us who have admired his life and who will mourn his death. When the time comes the analysts will make their pronouncements, the obituaries will be written, and history will have the final say about his political successes and failures, and about the policies and strategies he pursued as liberation leader and as president. But these are all ultimately transient things, soon replaced, soon forgotten. Faith, hope and love, on the other hand, as St Paul tells us, are “things that last”; and it is these that will form Madiba’s most lasting legacy. n Mike Pothier is the research director of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office. He is writing in his personal capacity.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

LITURGY

What to sing on Good Friday and the Easter vigil In his second and final article on the Triduum liturgies, Fr MALCOLM McLAREN explains how good planning in the music can prevent ‘a sham and a shambles’. Good Friday

T is during the celebration of Good Friday that we can clearly see the power and beauty of song to clothe the prayers, readings and texts of the celebration and to accompany the symbolic action of the adoration of the Cross. The singing of the reproaches during this time sets the character of the day. Given the imminent arrival of Holy Week, it may not be possible to learn the reproaches in time for Good Friday. However, I would recommend that every parish choir set themselves the goal of learning them. The Missal already has a tone for the verses, and settings for the refrain are available; it is something that could be worked on during the year when there is less pressure. The celebration of this day both begins and ends in silence, and there is no introductory rite or usual form of the final blessing. The opening prayer (or collect) could be sung, as could the responsorial psalm during the Liturgy of the Word. Take care to use a tone for the psalm which reflects both the nature of the celebration and its words. It should be in stark contrast to the psalm of Easter Sunday. Chant, or song, is a fundamental part of the action of the adoration of the Holy Cross. Apart from the reproaches, as the cross enters the church or is unveiled, the deacon or priest intones the chant, “Behold the wood of the cross…”, to which the community responds: “Come, let us adore.” It is not even considered that this chant (repeated three times) would be said: it is sung. For those concerned with forgetting the words or the melody, they could be discreetly attached to the back of the cross, and the option is even provided for the choir to assist the priest or deacon. The choir would, in any event, lead the community’s response, with the community following (at least in the second and third times). The response could also be rehearsed briefly before the liturgy begins. Although the singing of the reproaches would take place while the cross is venerated by the community, the Missal provides the option for other suitable hymns to be sung at this time.

The Easter Vigil The Easter Vigil is a very particular celebration, at least until the Liturgy of the Eucharist begins, and I urge the parish liturgy commission and priests to pay close attention to the Roman Missal. As I wrote previously, keeping this liturgy simple by following the Missal does not mean that it loses any of its beauty or reduces the special joy of the Risen Christ. Instead, a simple liturgy sharpens our focus,

helps us appreciate better the rich symbolism which is present, and creates space for us to worship and pray. And this is true for every liturgy, not just for the Easter Vigil! The deacon has a significant musical role during the Easter Vigil, beginning with the chant in which the newly lit paschal candle is brought into the darkened church, and ending with the special Easter dismissal. If your parish has the advantage of more than one deacon, I would suggest that you assign one deacon to each of the celebrations of the Triduum in order to spread the musical responsibility, rather than having a clutter of idle deacons at each celebration. The Lumen Christi chant, intoned three times by the deacon, can be sung either in the vernacular (as given in the Roman Missal) or in Latin, using a very simple tone. The response uses the very same tone. Again, the choir has the responsibility to lead the congregation in responding. I make particular mention here of the use of Latin, since only one Easter Vigil is permitted to be celebrated in each church, even in a multilingual community. The use of Latin, the language of the Church, helps to create a unity for those whose first language is different from that used during the celebration. (This same principle therefore has application in other contexts, notably during diocesan celebrations such as the Chrism Mass.) The Exultet (or Easter proclamation) presents the biggest musical challenge for the celebration. It requires patience, practice and a commitment to learning it. I urge those involved in the formation of deacons to include learning the Exultet (together with other chants, such as those for Good Friday) as part of the programme of pastoral preparation, otherwise deacons find themselves unable to fulfill a role specifically assigned to them in the liturgy. Since not every deacon is able to sing the Exultet, it may also be sung by a concelebrating priest, the presiding priest, or failing each of these (in turn) by a lay cantor. Its words are a reminder of the point of our keeping vigil, and the reason for our rejoicing. Care should be taken to avoid singing a “hymnised” version of the Exultet in its place. It is chant which is the distinct musical language of our church, not hymns. Parts of the melody of the Exultet will be recognised as the same used for the preface of the Eucharistic prayer: this reduces the burden of learning something new. (Indeed, if it helps with learning, there is a shorter form which can also be used.) Moreover, if the Exultet is sung by an ordained minister, it also contains the same greeting from the start of the Eucharistic Prayer, “The Lord be with you.” It only makes sense then, that the priest would at least sing the introduction to the Eucharistic prayer, since the responses are the same. The choir should not forget to lead the congregation in the Amen at the conclusion of the Exultet. I have not written in great detail about responsorial psalms, although

Congregants hold candles during an Easter Vigil celebration. In his article, Fr Malcolm McLaren explains how the right music helps us appreciate better the rich symbolism of the celebration and creates space for us to worship and pray. (Photo: Michael McArdle, Northwest Indiana Catholic, CNS) I previously mentioned that the psalm should not be replaced by a hymn: this is made clear in the Pastoral Introduction to the Order of the Mass (93). Therefore during the Liturgy of the Word, the psalm should be sung as a psalm, it could otherwise be read, or alternatively, the Roman Missal also gives permission for the psalm to be omitted altogether— with the exception of the compulsory psalm for the Third Reading of the Old Testament. There is also the option for the psalm to be sung without a response. A word of caution: since these psalms will generally be unaccompanied (as they still occur before the Gloria), choose cantors with a sufficient quality of voice. Remember that a microphone cannot change the quality of voice, it only increases the volume.

he choir and the musicians should be well prepared for the intoning of the Gloria by the priest following the final Old Testament Reading. This is a perfect example of the need for planning: everyone should know what the priest will intone, so that there is a smooth transition into the singing of the Gloria. Some common sense should be applied in deciding what the priest will intone, depending mostly on the Gloria that will be sung by the choir and congregation. However, in most cases, the simple formula for Gloria in excelsis Deo found in the Missal will suffice. The same applies for the Alleluia Psalm that will be intoned after the New Testament Reading. This psalm is the first Alleluia chant of the Easter Season—indeed Alleluia is the Easter song—and here the psalm with its three verses replaces the traditional Gospel acclamation. The same psalm is used as the Responsorial Psalm for Easter Sunday and so it can easily be used again at the Mass on Easter Sunday. I suggest that the priest intones the Alleluia response that will be used for the psalm, with either a starting note or even a very soft accompaniment, to which the choir and the congregation then respond with a full musical accompaniment. It seems fitting that a response with three Alleluias would be chosen,

since the Alleluia should be intoned three times by the priest. I urge all priests to pay careful attention to the various options given for the Liturgy of Baptism, which follows the homily. From experience I know that the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults should also be consulted. Of interest musically is the Litany of the Saints, which was discussed in my third article (www.scross.co.za/2012/07/music-inthe-mass-3/) (sung if there are catechumens to be baptised), and the Vidi Aquam which is sung following the renewal of baptismal promises (if there are no catechumens to be baptised) whilst the congregation are sprinkled with holy water. Other baptismal hymns are also appropriate, and the same hymn can, again, be used on Easter Sunday. The Liturgy of the Eucharist follows the usual pattern of the Mass. While my previous guidelines apply, this might be the opportunity to sing the Lord’s Prayer if it is not done on a regular basis, to sing the preface and introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer, and also to use a more elaborate setting of the Ordinary Parts of the Mass such as the Sanctus and Agnus Dei. At the conclusion of the Easter Vigil, the dismissal given by the deacon (or priest), and the response of the congregation contain the double Alleluia. Again, given the nature of the celebration, it seems fitting that this dismissal should be sung. It may also be accompanied by the organist or pianist. The choir can lead the community in the response to the dismissal, noting that it will be used again on Easter Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter and also on Pentecost Sunday (the final day of the Easter Season).

inally, a few general words are in order. Firstly, do not exhaust your collection of Easter hymns within the first week, especially not after the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. Remember that there are seven Sundays of Easter during which Easter hymns may be sung. The Easter Vigil is also a demanding celebration for all those involved, which is one reason for keeping things simple where you can. Avoid the temptation to concentrate all or most of your energies on a beautiful

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post-Communion hymn for the Easter Vigil, at the expense of the more important musical and liturgical elements. Secondly, Easter Sunday has a chant particular to the celebration called a sequence: a short hymn sung before the Gospel Acclamation. Following the various liturgical reforms, the sequence now appears only four times in the liturgy of the Church. If there is one new piece that is learned for the Mass of Easter Sunday, this is something worth considering: the melody repeats itself in places, and again there are numerous recordings which can be used to help in learning it. Thirdly, the Responsorial Psalm during Eastertide always has the option of using an Alleluia acclamation as the refrain. It seems fitting that during the Alleluia season, where the option exists, this refrain should be sung where possible. In fact, in weekday celebrations where there is no second reading it is possible to combine the psalm and gospel acclamation as an Alleluia psalm (where the words of the gospel acclamation form the last verse of the “psalm”). If you are to adopt this latter innovation, communicate it well, so that it does not come as a surprise to either the priest or the congregation! In conclusion, I was distressed to hear someone describe to me an Easter Vigil they once attended as both “a sham and a shambles”. It does not need to be so: many liturgical problems can be avoided with proper preparation, planning and practice, including in relation to music. In fact, the practice for these celebrations should also include the choir. My aim with this article is to assist not only choirs and musicians, but also the parish liturgy commission under the guidance of their parish priest, in their planning and preparation for this great celebration. Above all, music can and should, contribute to the solemnity, beauty, and experience of this three-day solemn celebration of the heart of our faith: the Paschal Mystery—the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. n For Fr Malcolm McLaren’s previous articles on music in the liuturgy, go to www.scross.co.za/liturgy

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2013

CLASSIFIEDS

Sr Patricia-Marie Birss

ISTER Patricia-Marie Birss who died at Villa Siena in Pietermaritzburg on Febrary 5, was born on December 16, 1937 in Seaview, Durban. She went to the convent high school where she passed her matric and joined the Oakford Dominican Congregation where she made her first vows on August 3, 1963 at Oakford Priory. Sr Birss started her teaching career as a brilliant student at the University of Durban, obtaining bursaries as she went along. Her subjects were English, French, ancient history, speech and drama,

philosophy and political science. She taught at Oakford and Kimberley Dominican schools and for a while she was an assistant lecturer at the University of Natal. In 2003 she retired to the home at Villa Siena, Pietermaritzburg. Sr Birss was a compassionate person—a real Dominican in searching for truth and making studies her daily companion. Although often in pain and not feeling great, she will be remembered for her ready smile, kind words and availability to help. She went bravely and very consciously to meet her maker and

Community Calendar

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

CAPE TOWN: Mimosa Shrine, bellville (Place of pilgrimage for the Year of Faith): March 21: 7.30pm Rosary. April 4: 7.30pm Rosary. April 7: Feast of Divine Mercy, Braai 12pm 2.00pm, 3.00pm Mass of Divine Mercy. Tel: 076 323 8043 Padre Pio: Holy hour 3.30 pm every 3rd Sunday of the month at Holy Redeemer parish in Bergvliet. Helpers of God’s Precious Infants meet the last Saturday of the month except in December, starting with Mass at 9:30 am

at the Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town. Mass is followed by a vigil and procession to Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Bree Street. For information contact Colette Thomas on 083 412 4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br Daniel Manuel on 083 544 3375 NELSPRUIT: Adoration of the blessed sacrament at St Peter’s parish. Every Tuesday from 8am to 4:45pm followed by Rosary Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 5:30pm.

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 (R1,25 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

PERSONAL

friend, with a smile on her face, eager to be taken into life everlasting. Sr Carmen Brokamp OP

Liturgical Calendar Year C Weekdays Cycle Year 1

Sunday, March 17, 5th Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm 126:1-6, Philippians 3:8-14, John 8:1-11 Monday, March 18 Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or Daniel 13:4162, Psalm 23:1-6, John 8:12-20 Tuesday, March 19, St Joseph 2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16, Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29, Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22, Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24 or Luke 2:41-51 Wednesday, March 20 Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95, Daniel 3:52-56, John 8:31-42 Thursday, March 21 Genesis 17:3-9, Psalm 105:4-9, John 8:51-59 Friday, March 22 Jeremiah 20:10-13, Psalm 18:2-7, John 10:31-42 Saturday, March 23 Ezekiel 37:21-28, Jeremiah 31:10-13, John 11:45-56 Sunday, March 24, Palm Sunday Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24, Philippians 2:6-11, Luke 22:14, 23:1-56 or 23:1-49

Southern CrossWord solutions

SOLUTIONS TO 541. ACROSS: 2 Beer garden, 8 Holy, holy, holy, 10 Music, 11 Earnest, 12 Not all, 13 Speech, 16 Theseus, 18 Seeds, 19 Complemented, 20 Undulating. DOWN: 1 Inhumanity, 3 Ethical, 4 Relief, 5 Abhor, 6 Delve beneath, 7 Bless the Lord, 9 At the sides, 14 Postern, 15 Assent, 17 Expel.

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PRAYERS

HOLY SPIRIT you who makes me see everything. You showed me the way to reach my ideal. You who give me the divine gift to forgive and forget all that is done to me and you are in all the instincts of my life with me. I want to thank you for everything and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from you no matter how great the desires may be. I want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. This prayer should be said on 3 consecutive days, after the 3rd day, the request will be granted, no matter how difficult it may be. Promise to publish the entire dialogue with the condition of having your request granted. RM. OUR MOST beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, Fruit of the vine splendour of heaven. Blessed Mother of the Son of God. Immaculate Virgin assist me in my necessity. O star of the sea help and show me herein you are my mother, O holy Mary, mother, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to secure me in my necessity. There are none that can withstand thy power, O show me where you are my mother. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (3x). Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine. Amen. Say this prayer 3 days and then publish. Special thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Ss Jude and Daniel for prayers answered. ST FAUSTINA'S PRAYER to have a Merciful Heart towards others O Jesus, I understand that your mercy is beyond all

imagining. I ask You, therefore, to make my heart so big that there will be room in it for the needs of all the souls living on this whole earthly globe. O Jesus, my love reaches beyond the world to the souls suffering in Purgatory, and I want to exercise mercy toward them by means of indulgenced prayers. God's mercy is unfathomable and inexhaustible, just as God Himself is unfathomable. Were I to use the strongest words for expressing this mercy of God, they are nothing in

comparison with what it is in reality. O Jesus, make my heart sensitive to all the sufferings of my neighbour whether they be of body or of soul. O my Jesus, I know that You act toward us as we act toward our neighbor. My Jesus, make my heart like unto Your merciful Heart. Jesus, help me to go through life doing good to everyone. YOU, O eternal Trinity, are a deep sea into which, the

more I enter, the more I find. And the more I find, the more I seek. O abyss, O eternal Godhead, O sea profound, what more could you give me than yourself? Prayer of Awe— St Catherine of Siena. ST MICHAEL the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who

wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

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LONDON, Protea House: Single per night R300, twin R480. Self-catering, busses and underground nearby. Phone Peter 021 851 5200. bALLITO: Up-market penthouse on beach, selfcatering, for Easter. 084 790 6562. CAPE TOWN: Fully equipped self-catering, 2 bedroom apartment with parking, in Strandfontein R400 or R480 (low/high season) (4 persons per night) Paul 021 393 2503, 083 553 9856, vivilla@ telkomsa.net FISH HOEK: Self-catering accommodation, sleeps 4. Secure parking. Tel: 021 785 1247. HERMANUS—PLEASANT GETAWAY: Selfcatering double accommodation. Comfortable, fully equipped, in tranquil church garden. Five minute walk to the Village Centre and seafront. R200 per day—minimum two days. Phone Caryn during office hours at 028 312 2315 (Mon/Wed/Fri 09:00—1pm) or on Cell 082 075 0033. KNYSNA: Self-catering accommodation for 2 in Old Belvidere with wonderful lagoon views. 044 387 1052. MARIANELLA: Guest House, Simon’s Town: “Come experience the peace and beauty of God with us.” Fully equipped with amazing sea views. Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Tel: Malcolm Salida 082 784 5675 or mjsal ida@mweb.co.za SEDGEFIELD: Beautiful self-catering garden holiday flat, sleeps four, two bedrooms, open-plan lounge, kitchen, fully equipped. 5min walk to lagoon. Out of season specials. Contact Les or Bernadette 044 343 3242, 082 900 6282. STRAND: Beachfront flat to let. Stunning views, fully equipped. One bedroom, sleeps 3. Seasonal rates. From R525 p/night for 2 people—low season. Garage. Ph Brenda 082 822 0607.

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Website: www.scross.co.za Palm Sunday: March 24 Readings: Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalm 22:8-9, Philippians 2:6-11, Luke 22:14-23:56

EXT Sunday takes us into the solemn drama of Holy Week, and all our gaze is fixed on Jesus. The readings are very rich about now, and there is no time to speak of them all. There is Luke’s gospel story of the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, then the first reading is the first of those “Songs of the Suffering Servant” which we shall hear four times in the course of this week; the Psalm, almost inevitably, is part of the “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” which is close to the heart of the matter; then the second reading is the extraordinary hymn from Philippians 2, singing of how Christ emptied himself of divinity. Now you must read all of these and reflect on them before next Sunday, but it seems good today to reflect on Luke’s version of the Passion story. The best thing might be to point out some of the differences in Luke’s version of the story, so that you can listen out for them as you read the narrative during this week, and when you hear it proclaimed on Sunday. Like the other evangelists, Luke starts with the institution of the Eucharist, but that leads into a argument about who among the disciples was “Mr Big”, and Jesus gently reminds them that he is among them “as one who serves”. Then there is an address to “Simon, Simon”; this is not in the other gospels, but

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Start of the passion story Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

fits well with a detail, likewise only found in Luke, that after Peter’s betrayal of Jesus, “Jesus turned and looked at Jesus, and remembered...and he went out and wept bitterly”. One bizarre detail that is only in Luke is that the disciples reveal that they have a couple of swords with them; it is extraordinary because Jesus’ stance was so utterly nonviolent, and also because two swords would be neither here nor there in any crisis. As so often, Luke shows immense charity towards the disciples, and attributes their snoring through the Agony in the Garden to “grief”; Mark is a bit more severe on them. When it comes to the trial before Pilate, only Luke makes the charges clear; and the allegation is that Jesus is clearly opposed to Roman rule: “We have found this man perverting our nation and forbidding people to pay taxes to Caesar, and proclaiming himself to be Messiah (a King). This is a charge such as a Roman functionary could understand

and be expected to act upon; and the reader of the gospel knows that there is not a word of truth in them. Likewise it is Luke alone who has Pilate, on discovering that Jesus is a Galilean, send him to Herod, possibly as a convenient way out of an awkward situation. Herod is delighted at first, wanting Jesus to do a conjuring-trick, but gets no response at all, so Herod contents himself with having a bit of fun, putting a smart set of clothes on Jesus, and then forging a friendship with Pilate in consequence. The next episode that is only found in Luke is Jesus’ touching encounter, as he is led out to crucifixion, with the women of Jerusalem “who were lamenting and mourning for him”, and whom he tells, “Don’t weep for me; but weep for yourselves and for your children”, showing a remarkable ability to think of others even as he approaches his death. This is followed by the lovely incident of the two thieves. One of them, not surprisingly, reviles Jesus for his failure to “save yourself and us as well”, but the other, improbably spotting what is really going on, prays, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom”, to be rewarded with the regal response, “Amen I’m telling you, today

Why we can’t be quick to judge T

HERE’S a disturbing trend within our churches today. Simply put, we are seeing the embrace of our churches become less and less inclusive. More and more our churches are demanding a purity and exclusivity not demanded by Jesus in the gospels. Indeed the very word “inclusivity” is often glibly dismissed as being part of the “I am spiritual but not religious” ethos, as if being inclusive were some kind of lightweight, New Age, thing rather than a central demand within Christian discipleship itself. What does it mean to be inclusive? We can begin with the word “Catholic”. The opposite of being “Catholic” is not being “Protestant”. The opposite of “Catholic” is being narrow, exclusive, and overly selective in our embrace. The opposite of being “Catholic” is to define our faith family too narrowly. “Catholic” means wide, universal. It means incarnating the embrace of an abundant and prodigal God whose sun shines on all indiscriminately, the bad as well as the good. Jesus once defined this by saying: “In my father’s house there are many rooms.” God’s heart is wide, abundant, prodigal, and universally-embracing, a heart that takes care to pray for those “other sheep who are not of this fold”. To be “Catholic” is to imitate that. In the gospels we see that Jesus’ passion for inclusivity virtually always trumps his concern for purity and worthiness. He associates and dines with sinners without setting any prior moral conditions that have to be met before those sinners are deemed worthy of his presence.

Conrad

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

His disciples, much like many good sincere church-people today, were forever trying to keep certain people away from him because they deemed them unworthy; but Jesus always protested that he didn’t need that kind of protection and that, indeed, he wanted them all to come to him: Let them come to me! Indeed, that is still Jesus’ call: Let them come to me, all of them! We need to be more inclusive. I highlight this because today our faith families are shrinking, and instead of us weeping emphatically about this loss of wholeness we are more prone to be secretly gleeful about it: “Good riddance, they weren’t real Christians anyway!” Or, in the words of some Catholic commentators, they were “Cafeteria Catholics”, picking and choosing which parts of the Gospel they like and turning a meaty Catholicism into Catholic-Lite. Such a judgment, however sincere and well intentioned, needs to operate under two huge caution flags. Firstly, such a judgment leaves the person making it rather vulnerable. Who is a true, fully practising Catholic? Several years ago, I was asked by a Roman

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Catholic School Board to write a definition of what it means to be a “practising Catholic”. I agonised over the task, examined the classical working definitions for that, and eventually produced a bit of a formula. But I prefaced the definition with this preamble: only Jesus and Mary were fully practising Catholics. Everyone else, without a single exception, falls short. We are all “Cafeteria Catholics”. We all fall short; all have shortcomings, and all live the Gospel somewhat selectively. To cite the most salient example: Many of us bear down more on church going and private morality, to the neglect of the nonnegotiable Gospel demand apposite justice; others simply reverse this. Who’s closer to Jesus? Who’s more of a “Cafeteria Catholic”? The answer to that question lies inside the secret realm of conscience. But what we do know is that none of us gets it fully right. All of us stand in need of God’s forgiveness and all of us stand in need of the patience of our ecclesial communities. The second caution flag is this: The God that Jesus reveals to us is a God of infinite abundance. Inside God there is no scarcity, no stinginess, no sparing of mercy. As the parable of the Sower makes clear, this God scatters his seed indiscriminately on every kind of soil—bad soil, mediocre soil, good soil, excellent soil. God can do this because God’s love and mercy are limitlessness. God, it seems, never worries about someone receiving cheap, undeserved grace. As well, Jesus assures us that God is prodigal. Like the father of the prodigal son and his older brother, God embraces both the missteps of our immaturity as well as the bitterness and resentment within our maturity. Good religion needs to honour that. Today, on both sides of the ideological divide, conservative or liberal alike, we need to remind ourselves of what it means to live under an abundant, prodigal, universallyembracing, and “Catholic” God. What it means, among other things of course, is a constant stretching of the heart to an ever-wider inclusivity. How wide are our hearts? Exclusivity can mask itself as depth and as passion for truth; but it invariably reveals itself, in its inability to handle ambiguity and otherness, as rigidity and fear, as if God and Jesus needed our protection. More importantly, it often too reveals itself as lacking genuine empathy for those outside its own circle; and, in that, it fails to honour its own abundant and prodigal God.

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you will be with me in Paradise”. This is holy ground on which we are standing. One other tiny detail of meteorology is that Luke, possibly a good Greek scientist, attributes the darkness over the whole earth to “an eclipse of the sun”; but Luke ends with two far more significant theological points. First, he alone has Jesus pray, quoting the Psalms, “Father, into your hands I place my spirit”; secondly, there is the behaviour of the people, the very ones who, right at the beginning of the gospel, were waiting outside the Temple while Zechariah received his vision of the angel Gabriel. They represent faithful Judaism, and it is significant that it is they who “stood watching”, while their “rulers” and the “soldiers” jeered at the crucified one; the point here is presumably that the Jewish people remain faithful to God’s project, while the establishment go against it. Certainly that is the impression given the next time we see them, after Jesus dies, “all the crowds who had gathered went away beating their breasts”. Finally there are the women (and Luke is very much the gospel of women); they have followed and watched the unfolding of the events, and then they reveal themselves to be not only tender and affectionate (“they looked at the tomb, and how the body was placed; and they returned and prepared spices and myrrh”), but also observant Jews: “and on the Sabbath, they rested in accordance with the commandment”. God’s project still has loyal supporters in the midst of this disaster, it seems.

Southern Crossword #541

ACROSS 2. Where to find ale among the beds (4,6) 8. Repeated blesssing of liturgical prayer (4,4,4) 10. It could be the food of love (Shakespeare) (5) 11.Serious sound of a boy's name (7) 12. Only some (3,3) 13. Orator's address (6) 16. Sees hut of the one who slayed the Minotaur (7) 18. They produce plants, even among tennis players (5) 19. Completed, men inside, and made whole (12) 20. Having a wavy disturbance (10)

DOWN 1. Cruel behaviour among all peoples (10) 3. According to a code of conduct (7) 4. Assistance given to the needy on the map (6) 5. Detest (5) 6. Do more excavating in the ruin (5,7) 7. Psalmist's prayer of praise (5,3,4) 9. Triptych's other panels are seen here (2,3,5) 14. Find back entrance in Preston (7) 15. It indicates your agreement (6) 17. Eject (5) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

famous atheist professor was walking through a lonely mountain forest when he was confronted by a huge grizzly bear. The professor stumbled to the ground and looked up into the angry savage eyes of the bear, crying out: “Oh God help me!” Suddenly a voice rang out: “All your life you have denied my existence, yet in the time of trouble you call on me for help.” The professor stammered nervously: “Yes, yes, I accept it would be hypocritical of me at this dire moment to ask to become a Christian. But perhaps instead, you could at least consider making the bear a Christian.” The voice thundered back: “Your prayer has been answered!” The professor blinked with amazement as he watched the bear make the sign of the cross before slowly putting his front paws together and softly growl: “For what I am about to receive, may the Lord...” Send us your favourite Catholic joke, preferably clean and brief, to The Southern Cross, Church Chuckle, PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000.