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The

S outher n C ross www.scross.co.za

July 24 to July 30, 2013

Cardinal Napier: How to be a hereand-now Christian

Page 7

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Blessed teen ‘a good example to follow’

The papal call to pray for Africa

Page 5

Page 7

Seeing pope inspired future SA priests

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

T A young woman takes part in a World Youth Day countdown event along the beach in Rio de Janeiro in this photo from May. Brazil is hosting hundreds of thousands of young people for World Youth Day from July 23-28—and organisers are planning for up to 2,5 million to attend the papal vigil and closing Mass. See more on pages 5 and 9. (Photo: World Youth Day Rio 2013 via CNS)

Pilgrims, toilets and security: World Youth Day by numbers

BY LISE ALVES

A

S hundreds of thousands of young Catholic pilgrims descend on Brazil, World Youth Day coordinators in Rio de Janeiro have been putting the finishing touches on preparations for up to 2,5 million people.

By mid-July more than 320 000 people had registered for the event. Media coordinator Carol Castro said many pilgrims would register when they arrive, and many would participate in the events without being registered.

The countries with the greatest numbers of pilgrims registered are Brazil, Argentina and the United States, but young people are coming from as far away as the Philippines, Slovakia and South Africa.

More than 8 400 priests from all over the globe requested credentials for the event. Approximately 5 500 journalists have been given credentials to cover Pope Francis’ first international trip.

Ms Castro said 55% of registered pilgrims are women and 60% of those coming are ages 19-34. About 300 000 beds were made available in family homes, sports centres and schools in Rio. Officials said more than 270 locations are available for catechetical sessions in 26 languages, including Polish, Latvian, Mandarin and Flemish.

They said 60 000 volunteers, of whom 7 000 are foreigners, will be on hand during the week to help and direct pilgrims to the events in Rio. Nearly 800 singers, dancers, actors and musicians will be participating in the main events.

Catholic officials will have 4 million hosts for consecration, and 100 confessionals will be at hand for pilgrims.

Pope Francis is scheduled to greet pilgrims on a stage overlooking Copacabana beach on July 25. For those unable to get to the main stage, organisers have set up two large and 16 smaller screens and 26 sound towers.

The vigil will be outside the city at a site

The popemobile is off-loaded at Galeao air base in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the visit of Pope Francis. (Photo: Ricardo Moraes, Reuters/CNS) equal to about 150 football fields. The venue has been dubbed Campus Fidei, Latin for Field of Faith. This is also the site for Pope Francis’ closing Mass with young people, who can watch on 33 large outdoor screens if they cannot see the altar.

To make things more comfortable for pilgrims spending the night, the area will have 4 673 portable bathrooms, 270 of which were adapted for people with disabilities.

More than 12 million litres of water will be at hand for pilgrims, distributed in 177 locations throughout the area.

The Brazilian army has been put in charge of guaranteeing the security of pilgrims at Campus Fidei. The army will have 1 500 people stationed inside Campus Fidei while the national security force will have 1 300 people patrolling both inside and outside the vigil area.

For the entire event, security for pilgrims will count on more than 10 200 military personnel. The number of members of the armed forces to be used to guarantee security for pilgrims was increased from 8 500 after the recent socio-political protests in several cities in Brazil.

Pope Francis will be guarded by 600 military personnel as well as 80 people from Brazil’s federal police and Vatican police who accompany him on his visit.—CNS

EN South African seminarians who travelled to Rome for a special Year of Faith pilgrimage with Pope Francis have “nourished [their] spirits” through a “powerful experience” in a gathering of more than 6 000 seminarians and novices.

“This pilgrimage was initiated by Pope Benedict XVI who wished that in the Year of Faith the seminarians and novices and those considering their vocations would do well to share their faith experiences and thus strengthen their vocations and call. It could rightly be said that what Benedict began, Pope Francis has completed,” said spiritual director Fr Jerome Nyathi.

The pilgrimage included an audience with Pope Francis, catechetical sessions and testimonial sharing.

“The visits to the churches where many different saints are buried encouraged us to, like the saints, give our lives in a continual witness of Christ,” said seminarian Theo April.

The pilgrims saw seminarians from around the world take part in a procession to St Peter’s basilica in the Vatican for a profession of faith and a rededication of their vocation to God. “The mere fact that this took place at the tomb of St Peter, really allowed us to place our own vocation in the context of the Church founded upon the foundation of the apostles and strengthened and inspired by the blood of the martyrs. The scene of our Lord telling Peter to affirm his brothers came also to mind in this event, which can be seen as affirming each person in their vocational journey,” said Mr April.

“Taking the seminarians through the streets of Rome, where there is living history of the Catholic Church, brought forth many emotions and feelings,” said Fr Nyathi. “The opportunity for the sacrament of confession was yet another blessing that we received in this pilgrimage.”

The priest recalled that one seminarian was heard continuously singing Simeon’s song, “Now let your servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen”.

B

ut the highlight for all was the audience with Pope Francis in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican.

It was during the papal audience that the pope called seminarians and novices to be joyful in their vocations, for consistency and authenticity in their lives, about the need for a missionary spirit when the confines of the church building is left—in other words the territory outside a church is missionary territory.

“Pope Francis also spoke about the need for a holistic formation involving the four pillars: spiritual, intellectual, apostleship and community,” Fr Nyathi said.

But according to Mr April what really got the participants stirred up was the pope’s comment about the sadness he experiences when he sees seminarians and novices focused on fancy cars and cellphones. The seminarians agreed that this was truly inspirational.

The audience was followed by a rosary procession through the Vatican gardens “Looking back at this pilgrimage, the uni-

Among South African priests and seminarians in Rome for a catechetical pilgrimage were (from left) Thabo Kenke, Fr Thabiso Ledwaba, Fr Jerome Nyathi, Runaine Radine, Teboho Modiba, St John Vianney seminary rector Fr Molewe Machingoane, Nceba Chiya, Jason Lottering, Joachim Malunga, Theo April and Heinrich Montgomery. versality of the Church gathered in unity around the Holy Father really stood out and affirmed our vocations in the perspective of love, fraternity and unity with the universal Church,” said Mr April.

For Fr Nyathi, the experience of the universality of the Church was moving and affirming to their faith. “The need to form ‘new evangelisers for new evangelisation’ still sounds to me as a challenge to formators in seminaries,” he said.

“It was a special moment of intense prayer feeling very much part of the many ‘giants’ and ‘saints’ in the faith. Listening to a humble and down-to-earth Pope Francis addressing us was indeed a blessing and a dream come true,” the spiritual director told The Southern Cross.

D

uring the audience, the pope also urged seminarians and religious against speaking ill of others which he said “prevails in the clerical and religious world”.

For many of the seminarians, the emphasis the pope placed on prayer was paramount.

“Prayer is vital as all proceeds from God. After all, it is him who calls, sends and gives the mission—grace from God gives it all.

Evangelisation should be done on our knees.”

The pope’s homily and Angelus rounded off the pilgrimage with his reflection on the mission of the disciples.

Mr April said this was a sending out by the pope as if it were “all of us to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel in both word and deed”.

The funds raised for the pilgrimage came from a combined effort. The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference sponsored two seminarians and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (Secam) paid for another two.

“Many thanks also go to friends, relatives, benefactors and parishioners who supported and paid for the rest of the seminarians,” said Fr Nyathi.

In a show of great generosity, many seminarians at St John Vianney contributed their pocket money to their fellow seminarians who went to Rome.

2

The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

LOCAL

Veritas camp a success STAFF REPORTER

T

Members of the outgoing Acts national executive committee: (Back) New Acts president and former NEC Siyabonga Mkhize, Zithulele Tshabalala, Sobane Motlomelo and former president Takalani Sydney Phethi, (middle from left)) Noella Tam, Moleboheng Morobe, Gladys Shilaloke, Irma Thantsha, Mmabatho Tsimane, (front) Stephen Phiri.

Acts’ green future

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

T

HE Association for Catholic Students (Acts) has elected its new national executive committee during the annual conference held in Queenstown.

National youth chaplain Fr Sammy Mabusela CSS said the conference’s theme was “Acts Going Green” which is in line with the association’s vision of seeing each university where Acts exists becoming a green faith community.

“After discerning the signs of our time, we are very concerned about the plight of our planet, particularly climate change, food security and youth unemployment,” he said.

Fr Mabusela said it was a priority for the association to encourage youth to consider agriculture as a

viable career option.

“We would like to see youth take an active role in bringing about awareness and educating other young people about the importance of the environment and land in particular. This is the only habitable planet for us and if we do not take care of it, we are shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said.

Taking the new vision forward will be president Siyabonga Mkhize, from Durban University; general secretary Welcome Kupangwa from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth; treasurer Mthuthuzeli Mahlangu from Wits University; and media and publicity officer Sphephelo Sphesihle Phungula from the University of Zululand.

HE first annual Radio Veritas Youth Camp, held at the Bosco Youth Centre in Walkerville, Johannesburg, “came about as a response to suggestions made to Radio Veritas by young listeners during 2012 on what needs to be done to unite Catholic youth,” said organiser Gcinile Luvuno.

“The objective of the camp was for Radio Veritas to engage with Catholic youth on a face-to-face basis, to build lasting loyal relationships between Radio Veritas and Catholic persons, to encourage interaction between the various Catholic youth groups and to address issues of Catholic faith in a fun, engaging way, mainly focusing on issues that affect Catholic youth,” Ms Luvuno told The Southern Cross.

The youth camp planning committee comprised 14 Catholic youth from various parts of Gauteng including Soweto, Midrand, Davey-

ton, Rivonia, Pretoria, and Voslorus, “bringing with them their diverse skills and parish cultures which ultimately contributed to a comprehensive Year of Faith programme”.

Ms Luvuno said the camp was well-structured, and engaged the Catholic youth through a variety of Year of Faith-themed activities.

On the first day campers said the rosary while climbing a mountain, at the top of which is a luminous crucifix. The rosary was also said going down the mountain. In between praying, hymns were sung.

The youth were treated to games packed with teachings of the Church—including “The Amazing gRace”, an activity based on the popular reality television show. At different stations, groups needed to unpack clues to move on to the next station. “The aim of the game was to enhance teamwork and communication skills, build friendship, learn more about Catholicism and strengthen one’s faith,” Ms Luvono said.

From Year of Faith talks delivered by religious sisters and priests, youth reported a feeling of “self-discovery of faith and deeper reflection”.

The popular Radio Veritas show “YouthWise” was recorded from the camp. “It was an interactive recording where the youth members present were all guests. Kani Buthelezi, the presenter, co-presented with Billy Guy Bhembe, who gives words of inspiration on a weekly basis on the show.

The topic of the show was ‘What does it mean to be an exemplary young Catholic’,” said Ms Luvuno.

The day concluded with a talk on confession led by station director Fr Emil Blaser and Nhlangano Dlamini, a healing service and the sacrament of reconciliation.

The final day of the camp saw Catholic youth groups from all over the diocese attend. The youth presented plays and the day ended with Mass, attended by 550 young people as well as 16 priests and religious sisters.

Radio Veritas’ first youth camp was a hit. Fr Emil Blaser OP (far right) is seen with some of the camp attendees.

The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

LOCAL

3

Youth set to gather in Durban

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

W

Shereé Conway of Mariannhill Mission Press, national youth chaplain Fr Sammy Mabusela, and Education for Life national coordinator Sr Victoria Sibisi prepare for the tenth anniversary celebrations of Education for Life.

HILE youth around the world have gathered in Rio de Janeiro, South African youths unable to attend have not been forgotten—local youth have been called to gather in Durban for the tenth anniversary of Education for Life.

The event takes place from August 2-4, the same week as the bishops’ plenary session. About 1 500 local youth are expected to attend the Durban event.

Education for Life was endorsed by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference in 2003 as part of an Aids prevention plan specifically targeted at youth. The programme’s national coordinator, Sr Victoria Sibisi FCSCJ, said the programme had values relative to all people of God as it encourages behaviour change and responsible decision making.

“We all need to practise a change

PE priest celebrates 90 years

BY DICK CHAN

F

ATHER Ignatius Ou Te Lung celebrated his 90th birthday surrounded by friends and family at the pastoral centre of the diocese of Port Elizabeth. The function was organised by the Port Elizabeth Chinese Catholic Association (CCA).

Fr Ou was especially happy to have his two grand nieces, from Canada and Hong Kong, plus his grand nephew and family from Cape Town, and his grand niece from Swaziland present, to share in the happy occasion.

Fr Ou was born in 1922 in Hangzhou archdiocese, in Zhejiang, China.

In 1946 he entered the major seminary in Ninpo diocese, run by the Vincentian fathers.

In 1947 he was sent to Rome to the University of Urbano VII, where he studied philosophy and theology.

Fr Ou was ordained in Rome in 1952 by his own archbishop from China, J Deymier CM—and last year celebrated 60 years in the priesthood.

In 1954, at the invitation of the then bishop of Port

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Fr Ignatius Ou at a reception celebrating this 90th birthday at St Luke’s Retreat Centre in Port Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, Hugh Boyle, Fr Ou came to the city to teach Mandarin at the Assumption Chinese College, and to look after the spiritual welfare of the Chinese community.

In 1957 he edited and printed the first edition of a newsletter, the Inter Nos, which ran for close on 50 years, and in 1976 he established the CCA. He also had an audience with Pope Paul VI in Rome.

In 1967 he imported an altar

carved out of wood from Taiwan, with Chinese figured etchings on its face.

For close on 57 years Fr Ou lived at his home, St Dominic’s in Sherlock Street. After surviving a brutal attack, he moved to Nazareth House where he is comfortably settled.

The late Bishop Coleman asked Fr Ou to bring his altar and Chinese statues to Nazareth House where they are now housed in an intimate chapel.

GOD BLESS AFRICA Guard our people, guide our leaders and give us peace.

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of behaviour and sustain good values that will lead us to change our attitudes,” she said.

The programme is one of many in Southern Africa and is not only for Catholics; it will benefit any young person, Sr Sibisi told The Southern Cross.

She has run Education for Life for Anglican youth in Manguzi, Ingwavuma, and has seen the programme run in schools.

In the ten years since its inception, Education for Life has enhanced the prayer life of many young people and “some have joined the religious life”.

“We have dedicated youth doing charity work and helping the poor —we call ourselves the Youth Alive Renewing Society.”

The ten-year anniversary event will celebrate the achievements and changes many youth, faced with challenges, have made.

“Young people should be the ones who take full initiative in the

Catholic Church and within the society. By attending the event, I have faith that youth will see the importance of living good lives and having faith in God from the many stories they will hear from different young people,” said Sr Sibisi.

Youth at the two-day celebration will be joined by religious sisters and priests who have helped young people run workshops and training around the country.

Sr Sibisi said attending events like World Youth Day and the Education for Life celebration shows the unity of the Church and is a great time to embrace the New Evangelisation.

“Here we are spreading the good news to all Christians. We must be encouraged to join together with other fellow Christians and speak the message of Christ.”

Sr Sibisi said coordinating the event had been a challenge but “I put my trust in God and I said, if you, my Lord, want this to happen, it will be!”

St Benedict’s College in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, celebrated its 55th birthday with a special Mass celebrated

by Archbishop Buti Tlhagale and Oblate Fathers Terry Barnard, Vitalis Morale and Tony Daniels.

The school has grown immensely over the past five decades due to the vision of the Oblate Fathers and, more recently, the headmasters who have led the school.

DIRECTOR

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Catholic Schools’ Office: Cape Town

The Catholic Schools’ Office in Cape Town is the administrative and working arm of the Catholic Schools’ Board, servicing the needs of the Catholic schools in the Western and Southern Cape.

Due to the retirement of the present incumbent, the Catholic Schools’ Board invites applications for the post of Director, which becomes vacant from 1 January 2014.

The Board is seeking to appoint a suitably-qualified and motivated person who will:  be a practising Catholic and will understand, identify with and contribute to the Catholic ethos and values of our schools;  be a qualified and experienced teacher with recent school management experience;  be qualified and experienced in the area of Catholic Religious Education;  have the necessary expertise and knowledge of educational developments, especially in the area of Catholic Education;  have energy, perseverance and a creative approach to dealing with challenges;  have the capacity to work both in a team and independently;  demonstrate proven leadership, interpersonal and organisational skills.

The post will be demanding, challenging and exciting. The successful applicant will need a valid driver’s license, and be willing to travel and visit schools throughout the Western Cape Province. Competency in English and another language of the Western Cape is a recommendation.

Applications should be submitted to:The Chairperson: Catholic Schools’ Board, P.O. Box 19018, Wynberg, 7824 Or Email: kmgaylor@mweb.co.za The application should include a full CV and the names of three contactable referees, one of whom should be your parish priest.

Closing date for applications: 31 August 2013

The Board reserves the right not to proceed with the filling of this post. An application will not in itself entitle the applicant to an interview or appointment, and failure to meet the minimum requirements of the advertised post will result in applicants automatically disqualifying themselves from consideration.

No faxed applications accepted.

Candidates not contacted shall consider their application unsuccessful.

4

The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

Cardinal: Francis will disappoint conservatives and progressives

BY CAROL GLATZ

M

ANY Catholics who identify themselves as either conservatives or progressives will be disappointed in Pope Francis, whose programme of spiritual renewal, doctrinal continuity and emphasis on the poor fits none of the traditional moulds, a top German cardinal has said.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, a theologian and retired president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said Pope Francis will also face resistance within the Roman curia, which needs both organisational revamping and a change of mentality.

Attempts at reform will bring resistance and difficulties “just like with every big institution,” he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Foglio.

“However, this pope is very determined: He knows what he wants,” he said.

The 80-year-old cardinal, who was eligible by just five days to be part of the conclave that elected the new pope, is highly esteemed by Pope Francis, who called the cardinal a “superb theologian”.

Cardinal Kasper told the Italian daily that “it’s not possible to pigeonhole [the pope] in the classic European conservative-progressive debate”, which is already a “worn out” framework that has run its course.

“Many people are enthusiastic about him: He is a true pastor, he

Cardinal Walter Kasper has great charm, a direct approach with people” and speaks in a manner that is upfront and understandable, Cardinal Kasper said. There are those “who accuse him of putting on a show, but I think he is giving an authentic witness: he lives what he says.”

T

he fact that the pope tries to live simply “gives him credibility; he doesn’t live like a prince. Benedict was a simple person, too, but he adapted a bit to certain formalities that Francis rejects”, the German cardinal said.

“Many will be disappointed in Francis,” he said, surmising that the so-called conservative branch already feels let down “because he doesn’t have the intellectual heft of Benedict and then because he abolished the pontifical court—something I am grateful for; it was an

anachronistic extravagance”.

The cardinal predicted the socalled progressive wing would not be happy either because even though the pope has ushered in a change in style, “he will not change the content”.

“There is continuity in the doctrine between him and Benedict,” he said. Pope Francis “will not change anything with priestly celibacy, will not open ordinations to women” or promote other “progressive” issues that are not part of Church teaching.

Pope Francis “is not a conservative or a progressive. He wants a poor Church and [a Church] of the poor”, and he is keenly aware that a large part of the world lives in extreme poverty, the cardinal said.

The renewal involves the Church itself, Cardinal Kasper said, starting with the curia. Pope Francis already has begun working on how curial officials think of themselves and insisting that the curia “mustn’t be about power and bureaucracy, but about service”.

Cardinal Kasper also said he thought more women should be appointed to top positions in Vatican offices.

Some Vatican offices—including the Pontifical Councils for the Laity, for the Family, for Migrants and Travellers, and for Health Care Ministry—don’t have direct jurisdiction over anyone and so don’t have to be headed by an ordained priest or bishop, he said.—CNS

A Congolese girl displaced by fighting between the Democratic Republic of Congo army and the rebel group Allied Democratic Forces covers herself with a sheet at the Bukanga transit camp in Bundibugyo, Uganda. Hundreds of families spent a night without cover at the camp as humanitarian organisations struggled to meet the needs of incoming refugees. (Photo: James Akena, Reuters/CNS)

DRC bishops demand peace

T

HE bishops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have urged an end to the armed conflicts in their country, calling on all parties to “work actively for peace”.

The bishops called on African leaders “not to work for their own interests, but for the good of all”.

The bishops’ criticisms particularly focused on the M23 rebellion,

Baptised Catholics can join Anglican ordinariate

BY CAROL GLATZ

P

OPE Francis has given the personal ordinariates for former Anglicans a wider opportunity for evangelising by allowing “uncatechised” yet baptised Catholics to join their communities.

While lifelong Catholics were always welcome to attend its Masses, the ordinariate was established in

2009 for communities of former Anglicans who joined the Catholic Church. It was not open to people who were baptised Catholic, unless they were close family members of former Anglicans who became Catholic.

However, Pope Francis approved a significant modification to that rule with an amendment to the norms of Pope Benedict XVI’s apos-

tolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, which established the ordinariates so that former Anglicans could become Catholic while retaining some aspects of their Anglican heritage and traditions.

While the community remains largely for faithful coming from the Anglican tradition, the modification says that a person who has been baptised in the Catholic

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Church but who has not completed the sacraments of initiation may receive the sacraments of confirmation through the ordinariate.

Catholics still “may not become members of a personal ordinariate ‘for purely subjective motives or personal preference”, the amendment states, citing a note by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.—CNS

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centred in the North Kivu province, which borders both Rwanda and Uganda. The rebellion is an extension of the Second Congo War, which formally ended ten years ago.

The area has witnessed many violent deaths, massacres and rapes.

Over six million people have been killed there in the last 20 years.

Hundreds of thousands of Congolese have been internally displaced or become refugees because of the conflict.

The Congolese bishops especially appealed to the United Nations, the European Union and the African Union to help end the conflict, Fides news agency reports.

The M23 rebellion began in April, 2012, when a group of largely Tutsi soldiers defected from the Congolese army. The United Nations is deploying a 3 000-soldier intervention force to counter the M23 group, which is fighting in part for control over the mineral-rich territory.—CNA

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

5

Pope: Stop condemning!

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The bedroom in which Pope Francis is staying during his visit to Brazil is a sparsely furnished one at the Church-run Sumare Residence. (Photo: Pontifical Council for Social Communications).

Simple room, local food for pope in Brazil

BY CAROL GLATZ

S

WEET and simple: That’s the menu plan for Pope Francis when he stays at a Church-run residence during his visit to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day. However, Good Counsel Sister Terezinha Fernandes, who is in charge of the kitchen at the Sumare Residence, said that when she was dreaming up the dishes, “I had to hold myself back” to not let the table fare get too fancy.

Meals will consist of rice and beans, and some Brazilian specialties like cheese bread and doce de leite—a dessert made from carmelised sweetened milk, she told the Italian Catholic newspaper, Avvenire.

About 30 visiting cardinals will be staying at the same residence and eating from the same menu in the common dining room, she said.

Sr Terezinha said they will be welcoming the pope “as he requested us to: with simplicity”, but also with plenty of “boundless joy”.

While the nun has vowed to keep

things plain, another chef said she can’t help herself and will probably make the pope splurge a little.

Monique Benoliel told Avvenire that when asked what he would like after celebrating the World Youth Day closing Mass, the pope apparently requested just water.

“Well, this time, however, I am going to have to disobey him,” she told the newspaper. She said it would be inconceivable to “not let the pope even try one of our tropical fruit juices”.

At Sumare, Pope Francis will stay in the same room—number five— that Pope Pope John Paul II stayed in when he visited Brazil in 1980 and in 1997.

The pope’s room will be on the first floor of the two-storey residence. The freshly renovated room with cream-coloured walls, has a single bed, a mini-fridge, a desk and chair, coat rack, rocking chair, night stand and telephone.

“We hope Francis likes it,” Sr Terezinha told the newspaper.—CNS

Teen patron ‘a model to follow’

BY ESTEFANIA AGUIRRE

A

FRIEND of Bl Chiara Badano (pictured), a patroness of World Youth Day 2013 who united her suffering from cancer with Christ's passion, has called her an excellent model for young people to follow.

“I think that the Brazilian bishops' conference chose her because she is a model of sainthood that is simple, and not someone spectacular,” said Franz Coriasco.

“She proved that you can pass from the ordinary to extraordinary with a simplicity of faith.”

Bl Chiara was a member of the Focolare Movement who developed cancer at age 16. Her life was one of devotion to Christ and abandonment to his will.

She died in 1990 when she was 18, having accepted her illness out of a desire to be united with Christ on the cross, saying: “It’s for you, Jesus. If you want it, I want it, too.”

Mr Coriasco met Bl Chiara because he was among the best friends of her youngest sister. In 2010 he wrote a biography of her

titled From the Roof Down.

“I don't think she was named Blessed [in 2010] because of her tumor, although this made the process faster.

She just followed the will of God,” said Mr Coriasco.

“She was feminine” as well as “determined and energised”, he said, adding that his friend “had the capacity of having great dreams and ideals, but was, at the same time, down to earth and realistic”.

Bl Chiara is among the 18 saints and blesseds whom Pope Benedict XVI chose as patrons of World Youth Day 2013.

Mr Coriasco said that Bl Chiara's parents, who participated in Madrid's World Youth Day in 2011, would be attending this year's celebration as well.

“Chiara also experienced a World Youth Day, the one held in Santiago de Compostela in Spain in 1989,” he said.—CNA

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OD wants people to be generous and merciful, not full of condemnation towards others, Pope Francis has said.

God is well aware of “our miseries, our difficulties, even our sins, and he gives all of us this merciful heart”, capable of being loving and merciful towards others, he told pilgrims gathered outside the papal summer villa.

“God always wants this: mercy, and not [people] going around condemning everyone,” he said before praying the Angelus.

While most popes spend a portion of the hot Roman summer at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo for vacation, Pope Francis continues to reside at the Vatican.

However, he said he wanted to spend a day visiting the people of this hilltop town as well as the Vatican staff who work at the papal villa to thank them for their service.

“My thoughts go to Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who loved spending part of the summer period in this pontifical residence,” he told the employees as well as Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano and Milvia Monachesi, the town’s mayor.

The pope encouraged everyone to hold on to their memories of meeting and helping his predecessors, asking that they take to heart the popes’ witness and let it encourage them to be faithful to Christ, the Gospel and Church teaching.

Some 55 people work at the papal villa, about half of whom are gardeners and farmers who take care of the papal cows, chickens, bees and orchards, which produce

Pope Francis leads the Angelus at the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.

Unlike previous popes, who would address the people at the traditional papal summer residence from the balcony, Pope Francis spoke at street level.

Pope Francis has also broken with papal tradition by not moving from Rome to Castel Gandolfo during the summer months (Photo: Paul Haring, CNS) milk, eggs, honey, olive oil, fruits and vegetables for use and sale at the Vatican.

After meeting with the villa staff and local authorities in the morning, the pope prayed the Angelus with thousands of pilgrims and visitors packed outside the papal villa in the town’s main square and on the side streets.

Rather than giving his address from the villa’s balcony, Pope Francis addressed the crowd at street level from the open front door of the villa.

SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The pope then joined a small group of his fellow Jesuits for a private lunch at the Vatican Observatory’s headquarters located in the villa’s gardens.

The group of Jesuit astronomers, led by Argentine Father José Funes, showed the pope around the headquarters, including its meteorite laboratory.

The pope “used a microscope to study a piece of the San Carlos meteorite, which fell near Buenos Aires”, the staff tweeted on its @VaticanObserv account.—CNS

Association incorporated not for gain

VACANCY FOR NATIONAL COORDINATOR

The Kolping Society of South Africa is a catholic membership organisation affiliated to an international movement that seeks to empower people, especially marginalized youth through the provision of education and training and the establishment of strong family-like groups.

The organisation has a vacancy for a National Coordinator to be based at its Head Office in Durbanville, Cape Town, to implement and oversee its activities in the Western and Southern Cape, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. The successful candidate will report directly to the Board of Directors of Kolping Society of South Africa.

The responsibilities of this challenging position include staff management, monitoring the implementation of Education and Training programmes, playing a leading role in the identification of new areas of vocational training, overseeing membership activities, networking closely with training providers, industry, the NPO sector and the Catholic Church at both parish and diocesan level in the provinces mentioned above.

Suitable candidates must have a background in the NGO sector, must have proven experience in staff, financial and project management and networking with similar organisations. The ability to write precisely detailed and accurate reports is essential.

Applicants must meet the following criteria: •

• • •

•

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Have a degree, diploma or equivalent qualification in a field relevant to the above requirements.

Have at least 5 years experience at NGO management level.

Show strong leadership, interpersonal and organisational skills.

Be fluent in both written and spoken English and have the ability to communicate in at least one other local language.

Be a practicing Catholic and have a thorough understanding of the structures of the Catholic Church and the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church.

Be a South African citizen or been granted permanent residency in this country.

Be in possession of a valid driver’s license and own vehicle will be an advantage.

Please e-mail or fax a letter of application accompanied by an updated CV, copies of your ID and qualifications and 3 recent Testamonials from contactable referees, to the National Coordinator by no later than Friday 16th August 2013. nationalcoordinator@kolpingsa.co.za. Fax: 021 – 975 9723

Please note that the Board of Directors of KSA reserves the right not to proceed with the filling of the position as stated above. Submission of an application will not, of itself, entitle the applicant to an interview.

6

The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

‘I was in prison...’

A

T this year’s Easter vigil, Pope Francis made an astonishing gesture: he got on his knees to wash and kiss the feet of 12 inmates at Rome’s Casal del Marmo prison for minors.

The remarkable act was amplified by the Holy Father’s decision to include among those whose feet he washed women and nonChristians, but the focus was on the pope’s gesture of service towards those who are separated from society.

That separation is physical, enforced by high walls and steel bars, and also mental. Moreover, it is a two-way separation: while prisoners are removed from society by their incarceration, society washes its hands of those serving time.

Many prisoners are abandoned even by their families and friends while they are locked up.

And in countries that are beset by often random and senselessly brutal crime and the social cancer of gangsterism, it is tempting to take the “lock them up and throw away the key” approach.

South Africa’s jails, many of them run by gangs and giving little protection to inmates who wish to reform themselves, can be dehumanising. In such circumstances we must not be surprised that individuals, some already lacking in empathy, emerge from jail with a character devoid of compassion.

Pope Francis offers an alternative vision. While the Holy Father is doubtless conscious of the miserable effects of crime—for which its perpetrators must be punished—he also believes that everybody, even criminals, can convert to lives of integrity.

Last week we reported on one former inmate who has made such a conversion.

Jerome Opperman, whose story The Southern Cross followed even before his release from jail five years ago, has pledged himself to serving his community and God. He knows that his crimes have harmed society, but now wants to make reparations and show his community “that I have changed and that I love them just as I love myself”.

This takes great courage. Mr Opperman credits the pastoral care which he received from Catholics for giving him the courage and strength to change.

The kind of conversion which Mr Opperman experienced rarely

comes from nothing. The first condition is having hope that such change is even possible.

Pope Francis emphasised this when he addressed the juvenile inmates in Rome. “Press on,” he told them, “don’t let yourselves be robbed of hope. With hope you can always go on.”

But the conversion to hope from despair or emptiness must be nourished. This is where the prison ministry plays such an important role. Sometimes even the small gestures can make a concrete difference.

For example, The Southern Cross, through its Associates’ Campaign, provides correctional facilities throughout South Africa with copies of the newspaper, to be distributed and circulated among inmates. Some years ago one inmate reported having converted to Catholicism as a direct result of having read The Southern Cross.

Christ demands that prisoners be part of our concern: “I was… in prison and you visited me” (Mt 25:36). Those involved in prison ministries give witness to Christ’s love in a concrete way.

There are many Catholics who have taken up this uninviting mission in harsh environments; but many more are needed.

The prison ministry is, of course, a specialised ministry.

Much as it needs volunteers, not every Catholic is cut out for prison visits.

Yet, Christ’s call to visit the prisoners can be met in ways other than physical trips to correctional facilities. The prison ministry can be aided, for example, by offering material support or by prayer.

Indeed, all Catholics must be urged to remember the prison ministry in their prayers, including in these also those who carry out this apostolate, one which Pope Benedict XVI called a “vital mission”.

And we must pray also for the people who have been affected by crime: the victims and their family and friends, as well as the families of those who have been incarcerated.

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

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Catholicism has fullness of truth ENDRIETTA Coetzee’s com- fulfil what he had announced at H ments in her letter “Catholi- Capernaum: giving his disciples his cism is strange” (June 19) refer. body and his blood.

Your journey to discovering the fullness of truth has just begun.

The word Catholic was used as early as the second century by St Ignatius of Antioch: “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.”

You write that you are attached “to my bible”; then you will know that Jesus states, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (John 6: 56). This was a difficult teaching and many left him.

Jesus chose the time of Passover to

Bishops’ book

Y

OUR front page article “Mixed reaction to bishops’ book on sex” (July 17), apart from anything else, is factually incorrect in saying that Fr Chris Clohessy’s article was “first sent to Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, followed by a few theologians”.

Fr Clohessy sent the article to me, as a fait accompli, on June 24.

Before receiving it from him I had received copies from others. Scrolling down the e-mail of one of those, it was quite evident that the article had been widely distributed before it reached me.

You end the sentence mentioned above by quoting Fr Clohessy saying “many of whom” agreed with him. Lest it be misunderstood, I am not one of those who agree with Fr Clohessy. I believe that the book God, Love, Life and Sex not only reaffirms Church teaching but is essential for helping people answer the fundamental question—as followers of Christ—“how should we live our lives”.

Interestingly, your headline indicates the lack of appreciation of the Church's teaching on these matters.

I do understand that headlines need to be short, but if we take “God, love and life” out, we reduce sex to the biological. However, unlike animals, human beings are created in the image of God and a consequence of that is the essential nature of our relationships and the primacy of family. That is why the book is not just “the bishops' book on sex”.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin, Cape Town

Evangelise now

T

HE May 22 issue of The Southern Cross reported that the current Catholic population is 1 214 billion, more or less equal to Islam. This is 17% of the world’s population, and not that impressive after 2 000 years and in comparison with Islam’s 1 300 years.

Only about 10% of Catholics are

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From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord’s command: “Do this in memory of me”.

St Justin Martyr wrote to the pagan emperor Antonius Pius around the year 155, explaining the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist, which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to the present day.

The way some of the laity present themselves for receiving the body and blood of Christ is also perplexing to fellow Catholics who know that Jesus is present in the

evangelised, that is, experiencing a dynamic personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

In some former “Catholic” countries, Sunday Mass attendance, as in Latin America, is as low as 12-15%.

One survey suggests that the Catholic Church has become a primary supplier, of the disenchanted among American Catholics, to conservative Protestantism.

A Brazilian bishop has also noted that Latin America is turning Protestant faster than central Europe did in the 16th century.

The need for the New Evangelisation is of the utmost importance.

Large numbers are needed by God (see Col 1:24) to intercede for the conversion of the world and the renewal of the faith of many Catholics in these pivotal times.

John Lee, Johannesburg

E-tolling voice

I

N his criticism of the Church taking a stand on the SANRAL and etolling saga, Alick Costa (June 26) needs to look at the bigger picture of the Church and society.

The Church has both a right and a duty to engage in all situations that affect the socio-economic situation of a country's citizens.

Pope John Paul II urged us to read and respond to the times.

What is going on at SANRAL, and other parastatals, is a matter of social justice and a sign of the times which the Justice & Peace Department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has rightly critiqued.

Their intervention should be applauded, not rejected.

Sydney Duval, Cape Town

Inductive principle

M

ICHELLE Evert’s letter “Homosexuality a ‘mental disorder’” (June 12) refers. At heart, we have a conflict between deductive and inductive methods of knowing.

The deductive method begins with a general abstract principle, and deduces other things from it. A prominent example of this approach would be Aristotle’s physics (for example, the geocentric principle).

It was Galileo’s inductive approach (some two millennia later), beginning with observations, and using these to frame general principles, which led, for example, to his support of the Copernican heliocentric model. Sadly, Galileo was silenced by the Church, and rehabilitated by Pope John Paul II only some 360 years later, in 1992.

Unfortunately, abstract “natural law” arguments in the realm of sexual morality are still used by the Church. Such arguments (against artificial contraception, for example) are ultimately based on a flawed Aristotelian biology and the principles which flow from it.

As the Jesuit philosopher-theologian Bernard Lonergan pointed out: “I would note that the traditional Catholic doctrine on the sexual act followed rigorously from Aristotle’s De Generatione Animalium.” For Aristotle, the male seed produced the new life (and its soul), the woman providing only the matter. Every act of insemina-

Blessed Sacrament.

But take heart, you will discover the fullness of truth. In the Catholic Church subsists correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. There are numerous texts in the Bible that support the Holy Mass and the sacraments which are instituted by Jesus Christ.

I suggest you contact a Catholic priest to help you on your journey.

Reading books of the early Church fathers, the saints, especially St Theresa of Avila, and those by Cardinal Newman, Bishop Fulton J Sheen and Scott Hahn will also be helpful.

Dominic Sam, Port Elizabeth tion was in essence procreative.

Every act of “spilling” seed was against nature.

Patriarchal systems use the abstract principle that heterosexuality is normative. Homosexuality is viewed a priori as intrinsically disordered.

Inductive methods approach the question more dispassionately: impartial empirical observation is examined with an open mind, and only then are conclusions drawn.

It was on the basis of such observation that the sciences ceased to view homosexuality as a mental disorder, there being no empirical evidence to support this assertion.

As Fr James Alison argues, being gay is a regularly occurring, nonpathological minority variant in the human condition, much like lefthandedness.

It is high time for Catholic theologians to question the assertion that homosexuality is an intrinsic disorder.

A personalist approach could unravel this Gordian knot. Complementarity need not focus on biological appendages so much as the relational complementarity necessary for true human flourishing.

Vatican II sanctioned this approach: “The recent studies and findings of science, history and philosophy raise new questions which affect life and which demand new theological investigations.” (Lumen Gentium 62).

Vincent Couling, Pietermaritzburg

Conflict solutions

T

HE Catholic Church is right to seek peaceful solutions in conflict situations.

These include the intentional eradication of the Christian minority in Syria, which has had a presence in that country for almost 2 000 years.

No one is arguing the fact that other minorities, including Shiites and Alawites, are also suffering persecution at the hands of rebels.

The latter, however, are armed and have militias; Christians are neutral in the conflict, have no refuge, and it would be an anomaly if any were part of a militia.

Bishops, priests and laity have been murdered.

Christians have been kidnapped by those who appear to be Muslim fundamentalists.

It has been reported that the West has moved 3 500 tonnes of light arms and ammunition into Syria for the rebels, among whom the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra is the predominant force.

There is a need to be more vocal on the United States’ shameful duplicity on human rights in favour of foreign policy interests.

Malcolm Bagley, Cape Town Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate.

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

Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

PERSPECTIVES Chris Chatteris SJ

Pray with the Pope

Play to our strength General Intention: That parents and teachers may help the new generation to grow in upright conscience and life.

I

T’S interesting, to teachers and parents with faith, that their atheistic counterparts are also concerned about forming the consciences of their children and students.

“Parenting beyond belief” is the buzzword and it is even the subject of a book which is subtitled: “On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids without Religion”.

To my mind the most telling comment is the following: “Religion has much to offer parents: an established community, a pre-defined set of values, rites of passage, a means of engendering wonder, comforting answers to the big questions, and consoling explanations to ease experiences of hardship and loss. Parenting Beyond Belief demonstrates the many ways in which these undeniable benefits can be had without the harmful effects of religion. It is also intended to show secular parents, who often feel isolated in their disbelief, that they are far from alone”.

Isn’t it interesting how the secular commentator can remind us believers of our strengths in the arena of the formation of conscience of young people. We have the “undeniable benefits” of values, rites of passage, wonder, consolation, answers to big questions. Furthermore we have the knowledge that (in the community of the Body of Christ) we are definitely not alone. It’s a formidable arsenal, even grudgingly acknowledged by secularists.

The implication? All we need to do is to use creatively that which we already have. Let us pray that we do just that.

Pax Africa Missionary Intention: That the local Church in Africa, faithfully proclaiming the Gospel, may promote peace and justice.

T

O proclaim the Gospel is to promote peace and justice.

It’s a contemporary insight which trips easily off the tongue but perhaps it’s not as simple as it sounds. What about the Lord’s saying about bringing not peace but a sword (Mt 10:34)?

What about the division and even conflicts that he warned his followers would afflict them if they were faithful heralds of the Gospel? And what of those regions in the world, including in Africa, where just to be a Christian can elicit terrible political and/or religious violence?

Clearly we have always to understand the Gospel of peace in the sense of the “peace that this world cannot give”.

Another difficulty, particularly in Africa, is that the proclamation of the Gospel has been historically associated with the political and economic domination of colonialism. “Christianity, commerce and civilisation” is the alliterative phrase often cynically quoted.

Certainly, many missionaries had great hopes for the peaceful development of the African peoples to whom they were sent, even if their efforts were often undermined by the rapacious colonialism of their compatriots. Even so, one can ask whether the colonisation of Africa would have been more or less violent and exploitative if the missionaries had not been present.

Interestingly, some historians, such as Fidelis Nkomazana of the University of Botswana, insist that David Livingstone, the colonialist who used the phrase “Christianity, commerce, civilisation”, wanted to open up central Africa to trade in order to undermine the evil slave trade.

Finally, we also have to ask whether our evangelisation has achieved the desired depth of faith when in some very Christian and Catholic regions tyranny, war, mass rape and even genocide seem to be endemic. Do we need to say, with St Francis: “Brothers, let us begin, for till now we have done nothing”?

We have much to pray for and much to reflect on in this intention.

7

How to be a here-and-now Christian

I

T all started with the inspiration that was given Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from above, when upon the vote for his election as the new pope reaching the required two-thirds majority, his neighbour turned to him and said: ”Don’t forget the poor! Don’t forget the poor.”

This fraternal exhortation made the newly-elected pontiff think immediately of St Francis of Assisi whose life of extreme poverty focused on and was devoted to the poor.

The pope has stated quite clearly since his election that he chose the name Francis in memory of St Francis and his simple Gospel way of life.

St Francis of Assisi began his “new” life by giving to the poor everything he had, including what actually belonged to his father, a wealthy trader in fabrics.

Similarly Pope Francis began his time as pope with gestures that signalled his commitment to reach out to the poor. Without saying so in as many words, he is challenging everyone in the Church to undergo a similar reform and transformation.

His very first actions as pope showed that he was determined to reach out to others. Instead of waiting for Cardinal Ivan Dias, who has difficulty walking, to come to him, Pope Francis went to greet him where he was seated. He proceeded to remain standing to greet his fellow cardinals.

For him henceforth they were not subjects, but brothers who together with him formed the College of Bishops. They were

leaders of the Church with him, not under him.

The message is clear: We must start by transforming ourselves. We share with Pope Francis the responsibility for making the Church the instrument of evangelisation, which is needed in today's world. So let us begin to change the Church and others by changing ourselves. That’s the challenge of living your life as a true disciple of Christ, the here-and-now-Christian.

In his first homily as pope, the Holy Father set out three very simple steps that we can use for ourselves, our families, our parishes and our communities. Walk with

St Francis of Assisi in a detail from a fresco by Giovanni Cimabue between 1278-80, in the lower church of the basilica of St Francis in Assisi, Italy. (Photo: Octavio Duran, CNS)

Popes shine a light on faith

W

HY does faith matter? The Catholic Church has always maintained that it’s to purify and enlighten, not to replace, reason.

In his last testament, as part of his trilogy on theological virtues—love, hope and faith—Pope Benedict XVI handed over to be completed and published the draft of his last encyclical, now published under the name of Pope Francis with the title Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith).

An encyclical on faith would probably be unnecessary had religion and culture not become separated in our times.

This separation is mostly obvious within those parts of the Church where children no longer feel the need to follow tradition in adopting their parents’ belief.

Like all religion, Christianity is moving away from becoming part of the Western culture into the realm where everyone who wants to follow it must explore its beliefs.

This is not necessarily a bad thing since faith tends to be more authentic when it is lived around challenges, such as that of secularism, than when it is part of tradition and therefore often taken for granted as a habit.

Needless to say the discussion of faith in Lumen Fidei is closely tied to religion and does not extend to the general fabric of reality that most, if not all, people live by, even when they are non-believers. We all, somehow, live by faith. As a philosopher might tell us, it takes faith to con-

tinue living.

They say the history of progress can be seen as us telling increasingly better stories about how things work. Keeping to that, Lumen Fidei seeks to tell the story of our faith, Christianity, in the light of the narrative of our times. And it does so, dare I say, in the language that even non-believers might find compelling.

For instance, in what I think is Pope Francis’ emphasis, the encyclical says: “The light of our faith in Christ can also contribute to a more fruitful dialogue with non-Christians and non-believers, showing how all those who search for God or seek for truth will be welcomed and illuminated by that light.”

In biblical language, “for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt 5:45). And as the ancient saying goes: “God is confessed by those who deny him and denied by those who confess him.”

The encyclical also discusses salvation by faith and the “ecclesial form of faith”—that is, the role of the Church in the life of faith; that our faith is not to be lived in isolation from the Church. This speaks to the spirit of our times that supposes a disjuncture between spirituality and religion.

Lumen Fidei says that authentic spirituality is lived in conjunction and with the challenges of being part of the Body of Christ, the Church.

The St Boniface Community

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THE ACTS PILGRIMAGE Now visiting Rome, the Vatican City (Papal Audience), Assisi and where Jesus walked in the Holy Land, Israel.

Including a visit to the Giza Pyramids Egypt.

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Cardinal Wilfrid Napier OFM

Talking Frankly

Christ. Build the Faith of the Church with him. Confess our faith in him.

He stressed that this is a call to walk with Christ. Once we take the decision to walk with Christ, there is no turning back. If you stop walking, you will fall behind. Then you will be behind him, not with him! So, through thick and thin, keep walking with him.

The second simple step is build up your faith daily, using all the means available, in particular the Scriptures, the sacraments and the Church's traditional devotions.

This is the way to ensure that you will always be a living and active part of the Church, building it up into an effective agent of evangelisation.

And, finally, the third simple step is to have the courage to confess that you are a disciple of Jesus. You don’t have to preach, but simply go and tell others—in fact, show them what difference being a disciple and friend of Jesus has made to you and to your life.

To be a here-and-now-Christian all you have to do is to walk with Christ, to be his close friend and companion; to be one who wants everyone to know that the same can happen to them too.

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

Pushing the Boundaries

“Faith is not a private matter, a completely individualistic notion or a personal opinion: it comes from hearing, and it is meant to find expression in words and to be proclaimed,” Lumen Fidei reminds us. This challenges us also towards envangelisation.

“Faith becomes operative in the Christian on the basis of the gift received, the love which attracts our hearts to Christ (cf Gal 5:6), and enables us to become part of the Church’s great pilgrimage through history until the end of the world,” it says.

But the part in the document which resonates with me is this: “The first setting in which faith enlightens the human city is the family.”

In a profound way the encyclical goes on to put the stable union of man and woman in marriage at the centre of a successful society.

“This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh (cf Gen 2:24) and are enabled to give birth to a new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and loving plan.”

I intend to look at this closely in next month’s column.

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8

The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

COMMUNITY

The convert group from St Catherine of Siena parish in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, went on pilgrimage to the Ngome shrine in Vryheid, diocese of Eshowe. The group is pictured with parish priest Fr Paul Beukes (left).

THE HOLY LAND TREK

Br Clarence Watts and Fr Jeffrey Johnson presented “Don Bosco’s System of Education: The Preventive System” to the lay mission partners involved in works at Salesian Institute Youth Projects. 40 staff members, including teachers, coordinators, volunteers, catering staff and maintenance staff, took part in the formation programme at Our Lady Help of Christians parish in Lansdowne, Cape Town.

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SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Learners from Immaculata High School in Diepkloof, Soweto, attended the Don Bosco Centre in Johannesburg for the Love Matters programme. Pictured are Thabo Molala with Grade 8 learners.

Association incorporated not for gain

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Be practising Catholics with an understanding of the structures of the Catholic Church at both parish and diocesan level.

Be in possession of a valid Driver’s licence.

Gethwana Mahlase, gender and HIV/ Aids activist from Pietermaritzburg, spoke on “The Truth about Sexuality: Gender Dynamics in Relationships in the Era of HIV and Aids” at St Joseph’s Theological Institute in Cedara, Durban. With her is Sr Johanna Mokhachane SJSH, coordinator of the SJTI gender committee.

Fax or email your letter of application, an updated Curriculum Vitae, copies of 3 recent testimonials from contactable referees, copies of all qualifications and your driver’s licence to the National Coordinator at Fax No. 021 975 9723 or to nationalcoordinator@kolpingsa.co.za.

Closing Date: Friday 16th August 2013.

Please note that the Board of Directors of KSA reserves the right not to proceed with the filling of the position as stated above. Submission of an application will not, of itself, entitle the applicant to an interview.

Parishioners from St Mary’s parish in Kimberley visited the Ngome shrine in Vryheid, diocese of Eshowe. (From Left) Desiree Langley, Yvonne Geduld, Margaret Kenny and Mrs Itumelengall.

The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

FOCUS

9

Popes put personal stamp on Youth Days Pope Francis will put his own stamp on World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. CINDY WOODEN looks at how his two predecessors have presided over the international celebration of the Catholic youth, and what we can expect from Francis.

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OPE John Paul II rallied young Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI instructed them, and Pope Francis is preparing to send them out on mission.

At World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis—the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina—continues a tradition begun by Bl John Paul in Buenos Aires in 1987, gathering Catholic youths from around the world together for several intense days of faith-building and celebration.

In cities from South America to Europe, Asia to North America and back again, each World Youth Day with the pope has been different in size and in the culture the youths experienced and shared.

But the contributions of each pope—because of both personality and personal emphasis—also have left striking marks on the 11 international gatherings held since 1987. With Pope Francis, that tradition of the evolving World Youth Day is bound to continue in Rio. World Youth Day gatherings are so much a part of Catholic life now that it is hard to imagine just how innovative Pope John Paul’s idea first seemed. The Polish pope invited young people to his Palm Sunday celebration at the Vatican during the 1985 UN-proclaimed Year of Youth and Vatican officials were shocked when some 250 000 young people showed up; they had planned for 60 000 pilgrims.

Pope John Paul brought Catholic teens and young adults out of the parish religious education and youth ministry programmes that parents often had to force their children to attend. For him, the youths were not just the future of the Church, but the embodiment of its energy and enthusiasm.

When convoked and affirmed, John Paul thought, young people could rejuvenate the whole Church. Their energy certainly worked on him. One of the iconic photographs from World Youth Day 1995 in Manila, Philippines, shows the pope twirling the cane he relied on after breaking his leg and undergoing hip replacement surgery eight months earlier. At his last World Youth Day, the 2002 celebration in Toronto, a frail 82year-old Pope John Paul described himself as “old”, but looked and sounded better than he had in months, demonstrating once again his special chemistry with young people. He even read his speeches in their entirety, rather than having an aide read most of the text.

The Toronto event took place less than a year after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States and Pope John Paul refused to ignore it.

“Last year, we saw with dramatic clarity the tragic face of human malice. We saw what happens when hatred, sin and death take command. Too many lives begin and end without joy, without hope. That is one of the principal reasons for World Youth Day. Young people are coming together to commit themselves, in the strength of their faith in Jesus Christ, to the great cause of peace and human solidarity,” the pope said.

“The future,” he told them, “is in your hearts and in your hands.”

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he German Pope Benedict inherited from Pope John Paul the 2005 celebration of World Youth Day in Cologne, in his homeland, and brought to the encounters a sense of the seriousness of the Christian call.

His love for young Catholics translated into trust that they not only could understand the core teachings and traditions of the Church, but that they wanted to learn more about them.

Under Pope Benedict, the evening vigil was transformed from a rally into a mass moment of eucharistic adoration, surprisingly silent and devout, given the fact that it involved tens of thousands of young people on their knees in the dirt on a wide

open field.

At World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008, Pope Benedict emphasised the importance—and real possibility—of living a holy life by following the faith taught by the Church and being open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011 ended up being dramatic when sweltering heat gave way to a storm—complete with thunder, wind and rain—that knocked out the power at the traditional Saturday night vigil. Pope Benedict refused to leave.

“The Lord loves you and calls you his friends,” he told the young people at Mass the next morning.

Their response, he said, must be to accept that love and share it with their peers who know, deep down, that “authentic values do exist” and will lead to a life of joy.

Pope Francis inherited WYD Rio from Pope Benedict, who chose the theme: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” It’s a theme that’s right up Pope Francis’ alley.

With young people, he’s likely to use the word he’s repeated most in his morning homilies and his meetings with Catholic groups; his Italian “Avanti!” is likely to resound in Spanish (“Adelante!”), Portuguese (“Adiante!”) and English (“Go forth!”).

Young people carry the World Youth Day cross during a visit to the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. (Photo: Ricardo Moraes, Reuters/CNS)

F

or Pope Francis, going forth literally requires motion. It’s about leaving the comfort of one’s group or parish and sharing the Gospel both through serving the poor and wounded and through proclaiming faith in Jesus with words, smiles and embraces.

Meeting with seminarians and novices, the pope said: “Be courageous in prayer and in going out to proclaim the Gospel. I’d like a more missionary Church, not one that seeks tranquility” above all; “A beautiful Church that goes forth.”

Even the eucharistic adoration that Pope Francis practises regularly and will share with the young people in Rio has a deep dimension of outreach.

As he said in June on the feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord, “in adoring Christ who is really present in the Eucharist”, Catholics should ask themselves: “Do I let myself be transformed by him? Do I let the Lord who gives himself to me guide me to going out ever more from my little enclosure in order to give, to share, to love him and others?”—CNS

(Above) Pope Benedict XVI waves to thousands of young people gathered at a racetrack in Sydney, Australia, for the World Youth Day vigil in 2008.

(Below) Pope John Paul II greets the World Youth Day crowd in Czestochowa, Poland, in 1991. (Photos: CNS)

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The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

BOOK REVIEWS

A fine primer of the Catholic Church THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: What Everyone Needs to Know, by John L Allen Jr. Oxford University Press (2013). 298pp.

Reviewed by Günther Simmermacher HEN a Catholic journalist commands the respect of both the liberal British journal The Tablet and conservative US commentator George Weigel, then that writer is well-placed to compile a fair overview of the Catholic Church today.

John Allen, perhaps the most prominent Anglophone journalist on the Catholic beat, has produced a comprehensive and accessible primer on Catholicism which will be helpful for all who engage in debate about the Church.

Although he writes for a liberal Catholic newspaper, the National Catholic Reporter, and clearly occupies personal positions which might be described as progressive, Allen’s overview of the Church is mostly neutral. One would expect as much from a man whose liberal biases did not preclude taking a quite sympathetic view of Opus Dei in a book about the controversial movement published in 2005.

The Catholic Church is written with a non-Catholic audience in

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mind, and Allen shows respect for that readership—so much so that he uses the secular “common era” dating system.

The book is not intended to be a catechism, but it could well be used in that way as Allen covers all the important areas of the Church: its structure, beliefs, main doctrines, liturgy, prayers, mysticism, use of Scripture, finances, factions and so on, as well as its successes, failures and challenges. He even explains the nine categories of angels!

He does acknowledge that on some subjects the Church is rather fuzzy, such as the nature of hell or the precise protocols governing salvation and purgatory.

In the course of explaining the Church, Allen also dismantles a series of popular myths which tend to get in the way of rational discussion, especially with atheists whose insistence on the empirical sometimes wavers when it gets in the way of their critique of Catholicism.

The reader also acquires some less known facts, such as the role Pope John XXIII played in averting a nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962.

Because it is written chiefly for non-Catholics, Allen takes care not

to get too technical—and that can also serve Catholic readers well.

He addresses some questions which Catholics themselves can fruitfully reflect on, such as what we mean by the term “Church” and how we use it in different contexts.

Allen does well in explaining the apparent contradiction of the Catholic Church as a highly centralised and yet thoroughly decentralised body. In his view, it is the diversity within the Church, one most critics seem to be unaware of, which “is often an enormous challenge, but it’s also a large part of the adventure”.

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n explaining the globalised “Catholic brand”, Allen writes: “Though you don’t want to push the analogy too far, Catholicism is a bit like the McDonald’s of organised religion. Both are global brands that once enjoyed a near monopoly on their home turf, but now face stiff competition from a variety of competitors. In both institutions, older franchises are struggling, but they’re seeing explosive growth in new locations. Both, too, try to blend a standard menu with a variety of offerings that appeal to local tastes.”

This is important in light of the astonishing growth of the Catholic Church in Africa and Asia, and the need to inculturate the Church in those regions. Allen takes the time to outline the challenges and opportunities this inexorable southward shift in the Church represents.

Inevitably, there are points in his book with which one might quibble. Some will argue that it is not at all “probable” that the date for Christmas was arrived at on account of the pagan feast of the winter solstice. And a list of worst popes surely cannot exclude the degenerate 11th century pontiff Benedict IX, the only pontiff to actually sell the papacy.

It is also unavoidable that in some details a book such as this will be quickly outdated. Although it was published in April, it still refers to Pope Benedict in the present tense, and other events have proceeded to new stages since the time of Allen’s writing.

The front cover graphic depicts a group of bishops and patriarchs, but no laity. Future editions of a book that is so keen to emphasise the importance of lay Catholics might do well to revisit that design.

These are, of course, minor is-

sues. The Catholic Church is a balanced, thoughtful and well-written compendium of all things Catholic which will do much to foster greater comprehension of an institution (and its body of followers) which often is misunderstood—by those who attack it and, not infrequently, by those who try to defend it.

Allen attempts to establish a common premise from which a fair discussion of the Catholic Church can proceed. In that sense, this is a very important book.

The story of our faith’s first 1000 years THE FIRST THOUSAND YEARS: A Global History of Christianity, by Robert Louis Wilken. Yale University Press (2012). 388 pp.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Gros FSC OBERT WILKEN’S The First Thousand Years is a remarkably brief overview of half the Christian story.

It is a refreshing new look at our

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common biography as Catholic Christians. Traditional histories have tended to privilege the European-centred Western developments, which are crucial in understanding contemporary Protestantism and Catholicism.

However, a geographically, theologically and demographically balanced treatment like this one, takes

full account of Christianity as it spread to India, Africa, Armenia, Persia and Central Asia in the early centuries, and eventually to China and Mongolia while expanding into northern Europe and the British isles.

This volume will be a handy way to understand the backgrounds of these churches, the divisions that have divided us and the bases on which reconciliation is developing.

The book includes 36 brief chapters, useful maps OMI STAMPS and a short bibliography.

It helps the reader to unyour used derstand the developments stamps that have made the Church can help in the what it is today. education Chapters on the developof South Africans for the ments in architecture, priesthood at music, art, governments, soSt Joseph’s Scholasticate, cial ministries and instituCedara, KwaZulu-Natal. tions, and Church and civil Please send them to: law give rich insight into omI stamps, Box the diversity and contribu101352, scottsville, tion of Christianity to the 3209. variety of cultures where it was received.

The volume is particularly useful in expanding the perspective of those raised in their particular tradition, be it Western Protestant or Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, to a time when

there were as many Christians in the Persian Church of the East and its missions as far as India and Mongolia, as there were in Europe. It is also helpful in realising how certain institutions, like Church law, the role of the bishop of Rome among the bishops of the world, formulations of the Trinity and the Incarnation, developed in the time after the Bible and in dialogue with the cultures where Christians lived and worked.

The developments of the relationship of the churches with the various civil powers—kings and emperors—is instructive, since Christians sometimes look back romantically to a time when the Church was established by authority of the state. However, the relationships were always fluid, often conflictual, and never predictable.

From Ethiopia to Armenia, from Persia to Spain, the churches inculturated the Gospel in very different ways, with different challenges and different modes of spreading the good news.

We can welcome this volume, both because it presents a new and readable perspective on our own story, but also because it tells the story honestly as it developed, so that it can be read by all Christians who can find in it a way of relating

their particular church’s narrative within the larger common account.

This should be a helpful tool in reconciling communities who have been divided for centuries, both by culture and by how they have told the story of their relationship to fellow Christians who tell the story differently.

The thoughtful reading Catholic should take up this tale every few years and read a new history, to be enriched by what we have learned and what the scholars have to tell us about our family narrative.— CNS

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The Southern Cross, July 24 to July 30, 2013

CLASSIFIEDS

Fr Herman D’hoore OMI

O

BLATE Father Herman D’hoore died in Waregem, Belgium, on July 1.

He was born on September 15, 1930 and ordained a priest on October 20, 1955 in the Oblate Scholasticate at Gijzegem.

He came to South Africa in 1957 and worked in Johannesburg, Potchefstroom, Stilfontein and Schweizer-Reneke.

For many years, Fr D’hoore was in charge of this whole district including Wolmaransstad, Makwassie, Bloemhof and Christiana.

He expressed himself artistically in cement plaques with various re-

ligious depictions, mainly the Stations of the Cross.

His works can be seen at many parishes in the Diocese of Klerksdorp including the Good Shepherd Retreat Centre, Hartbeespoortdam and the Rabbuni Retreat Centre.

Fr D’hoore spent the last years of his life at the Oblate residence in Waregem, where he passed away peacefully after a long, slow illness.

He served the Lord faithfully over many years and bore his illness without complaint as he had put his life into the hands of the Lord.

Fr Donaat Bohé OMI

Liturgical Calendar Year C Weekdays Cycle Year 1

Fr Remegius Scheuber OMI

O

BLATE Father Remegius Scheuber of Johannesburg died on June 17.

He was born on May 24, 1927, in Pretoria. He and his sister Bernadine both chose religious life— his sister joined the Ursuline order after her schooling.

Fr Scheuber attended CBC Pretoria, joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and was ordained on July 4, 1950.

His first appointment was to St Augustine’s in Germiston in 1951.

He was a dedicated religious and a kind and gentle friend to countless families. Apart from all his duties and visiting his parishioners, he spent his time writing his sermons.

Fr Scheuber served in a number of parishes: Alexandria, Orlando East, Magaliesburg, De Wildt, St Raphael’s in Mamelodi, Katlehong, Village Main, Medowlands and Kensington. He was chaplain at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital for 14 years, where he would visit the sick from early morning till late at night.

Fr Scheuber retired to the Oblate house at Victory Park in 2004, but due to his deteriorating health, he moved to the Holy Cross home in Lady Selborne in 2006 and was lovingly cared for there by the sisters. His funeral was held at St Charles in Victory Park on June 24.

Fr Ignatius Fidgeon OMI

Sunday, July 28, 17th Sunday Genesis 18:20-32, Psalm 138:1-3, 6-8, Colossians 2:12-14, Luke 11:1-13 Monday, July 29, St Martha Exodus 32:15-24, 30-34, Psalm 106:19-23, John 11:19-27 or Luke 10:38-42 Tuesday, July 30 Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5-9, 28, Psalm 103:6-13, Matthew 13:36-43 Wednesday, July 31, St Ignatius of Loyola Exodus 34:29-35, Psalm 99:5-7, 9, Matthew 13:44-46 Thursday, August 1, St Alphonsus Liguori Exodus 40:16-21, 34-38, Psalm 84:3-6, 8, 11, Matthew 13:47-53 Friday, August 2, Our Lady of the Angels of Portiuncula Sirach 24:1-4, 16, 22-24, Psalm 34:5, 7, 9-10, 18-19, Galatians 4:3-7, Luke 1:26-33 Saturday, August 3, Memorial of the BVM Leviticus 25:1, 8-17, Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 7-8, Matthew 14:1-12 Sunday, August 4, 18th Sunday Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23, Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17, Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11, Luke 12:13-21

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: August 3: Bishop Zolile Peter Mpambani on his ordination as bishop of Kokstad

Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Holy Childhood of Jesus

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DEATH

SHIELD—Agnes Marjory (Arnot), passed away peacefully Wednesday, July 10. Sadly missed by her heartbroken husband Cyril, and sons Gavin, Trevor and Brian and their families. She was cremated after Requiem Mass at Our Lady of the Annunciation, Milnerton on Tuesday, July 16. Thy Will be done.

Silence on this issue is not golden, it’s yellow!

Avoid ‘Pro-abortion’ politicians.

NOTHING is politically right if it is morally wrong.

Abortion is evil. Value life!

PRAYERS

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.

IN MEMORIAM

CERFONTYNE— Michael. In Loving Memory of our dear son and brother who passed away July 26, 2010. We will always love and keep you in our hearts. Mom, Dad, Heidi and Carla.

GOUVEIA—30.07.2010.

In loving memory of Our Dearest EDWARDO. They say that time is a healer but as three years tick on, we seem to find it just as hard to face the fact that you are gone.

You’ll never be forgotten and every day we shed a tear, always because we love you and wish you were still here. Always remembered by your wife Maria, children, grandchildren and all the family.

DU PLESSIS—Dion 3105-1975–27-07-2007.

After six long years we still miss you sorely and will always love you.

Mom, Dad, Paige, Neil and Charlotte.

MOST HOLY Apostle St. Jude, Faithful servant and Friend of Jesus, the Church honours and invokes you universally; as the patron of hopeless cases, of things almost despaired of, Pray for me.

I am so helpless and alone. Make use I implore you, of that privilege given to you, to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of.

Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly (Here make your request) and that I may praise God with you and all the elect forever. I promise, O blessed St Jude, to be ever mindful of this favour, to always honour you as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to you. Amen.

(Say this prayer nine times a day, everyday for nine days and I can assure you God really answers prayers). RCT.

PERSONAL

ST MARY’S PRIMARY SCHOOL celebrates 150 years of Dominican Education and will be hosting a reunion of past pupils, parents and teachers on August 24, 2013 at 17.00 in St Mary’s school hall.

Snacks and wine will be served. There will be a R20 donation in aid of the School Restoration Fund.

RSVP by July 31, 2013.

Astrid Liddle 021 465 1115 or Fiona Sellar 084 250 9572.

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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.

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

Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Tel: Malcolm Salida 082 784 5675 or mjsalida@gmail.com SEDGEFIELD: Beautiful self-catering garden holiday flat, sleeps four, two bedrooms, open-plan lounge, kitchen, fully equipped. 5 min walk to lagoon. Out of season specials. Contact Les or Bernadette 044 343 3242, 082 900 6282.

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18th Sunday: August 4 Readings: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23, Psalm 90: 3-6, 12-14, 17, Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11, Luke 12:13-21

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HAT is the point of it all? And what is the meaning of life? These are questions that all human beings face.

It is our faith, sometimes bravely held against the odds, that our search for meaning finds its end only in God. The first reading comes from that remarkable book, one of the oddest in the whole Old Testament, known as Qoheleth or Ecclesiastes (“the Preacher”); it starts with a refrain that runs through the whole work, which you might translate “vanity of vanities...vanity of vanities, all is vanity”.

Then our selection leaps to chapter two, and offers an example of the meaninglessness of life: “There is a man, his work is done with expertise and knowledge and skill, and his portion goes to a person who has not laboured on it. This is also vanity, and a great evil.”

You will have noticed that God is not mentioned here, and that may be the clue to reading this book: if you try to find meaning for your life without making room for the One who gave you that life, you will not succeed.

The psalm for next Sunday reflects on the same difficult area of life, but notice that it is

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Find life’s meaning in the Lord Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

addressed to God: “You return a man to dust, and say, ‘Back you go, mortals’.”

Once you see that God is in charge, then life makes more sense. As the psalm goes on, we are invited to view life from God’s angle: “A thousand years in your sight are like a day, yesterday, a watch passing in the night.”

Then the poet suggests how we might find meaning in the face of this apparent bleakness: “Teach us so to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”

At the same time, however, the singer is aware that we cannot take God for granted: “Relent, Lord, how long? Have mercy on your servants. Fill us with your love in the morning, and we shall rejoice and exult all our days.”

The psalm ends with a line, repeated for effect,

which hints at how we are to find meaning: “Establish the work of our hands upon us.”

In the second reading, we conclude our rapid journey through Colossians, and here we are to find meaning by following the logic of our faith: “So if you have been raised up with Christ, look for the things above...for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Then there is a list of activities to which many people in our contemporary culture (as in that first century) have resort, none of which provide the sense of purpose, or meaning, or satisfaction, that their practitioners are looking for: “Sexual immorality, impurity, sexual passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.”

Then he offers a different image, that of putting on an actor’s costume: “Take off the old person with all its actions, and put on the new person, for recognition in line with the image of the One who created [you].”

The point is, once more, that we can only find meaning if we pay attention to our Maker.

Then we shall not seek uselessly for meaning by way of the artificial tribal divisions in which we take refuge: “Greek and Jew, circumcised

We cannot imagine God G

OD is ineffable. This is a truth that’s universally accepted as dogma among all Christians and within all the great religions of the world.

What does it mean?

In essence, it means that God is beyond us, not like us, but in an utterly different sphere.

More especially, it means that God cannot ever be captured in thought, imagination, or word. Any concepts, images or words we have about God are inadequate at best and idolatrous at worst.

God is always beyond what we can think, speak about or imagine.

But we do have thoughts, images, and words about God, and many of these are given to us in Scripture. What’s to be made of our traditional biblical and theological images of God? Aren’t they accurate and adequate? In a word, no, they aren’t.

To paraphrase the American author Annie Dillard, the concepts and language about God that are given us in Scripture and Church tradition are simply words that we have permission to use without being struck dead for idolatry. We should never pretend they are accurate and adequate; Scripture itself makes that clear.

Not understanding this confuses our notion of faith and doubt.

Because we do not existentially grasp and accept that God is ineffable, we generally confuse faith with imagination.

Simply put, because we think God can be imagined and conceptualised, we feel that we have faith precisely to the extent that we can imagine God’s existence and God’s person.

Conrad

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

Conversely, we feel we are in doubt and agnostic when we cannot imagine these. And so we naively identify faith with the capacity to create the right imaginative fantasies and feelings about God, and vice versa.

But, since God is ineffable, we can never imagine either God’s existence or God’s person. These are impossible tasks, by definition. We have only finite concepts within which to try to capture infinity and thus all our human faculties are incapable of conceptualising God, tantamount to trying to think of the highest number to which it is possible to count.

Does this mean then that faith opposes human reason? No. Faith doesn’t negate human reason, it simply dwarfs it, akin to the way the most sophisticated formulae within contemporary astrophysics dwarf elementary arithmetic and the way the blinding light of a midday sun dwarfs the paltry light of a candle.

Moreover, though helpful, even these analogies limp and are inaccurate. God’s existence and person may not be imagined as that of some supreme Super-person, someone like us, except

“I do like the papal security’s new camouflage

supremely greater.

To imagine God in this way still puts God into the realm of the finite, a creature still, even if Super-supreme, imaginable, able to be conceptualised, not ineffable, a number we can still count to.

God, though, is not a reality that can be counted. God’s existence and person can never be conceptualised.

Moreover, this is true as well for our understanding of God’s love. It too is beyond our imagination and capacity to conceptualise. Our universe, though finite, is so vast and prodigious that our imaginations already run out of room in their efforts simply to picture the finite world.

Beyond this, just on this one planet, Earth, we have billions upon billions of persons, each of whom has a heart and meaning that is individually precious.

How can we imagine a God who somehow knows and loves this all intimately?

We can’t! Our minds and our hearts simply don’t stretch that far; though they do stretch far enough to ask: Why wouldn’t an infinite God create so an unimaginably huge a universe and so many billions and billions of people to love and share in this creation? And why would an infinite God suddenly say (after we have been born): “That’s enough! I now have as many people as I want!”

God befuddles the mind, the heart, and the imagination. It cannot be otherwise. Any God who could be understood would not be God. God is not a supreme Superman—like us, only bigger, stronger, and more powerful. The infinite, precisely because it is infinite, cannot be circumscribed and grasped, either in its existence, its person, or its capacity to love. We can know the infinite, but we cannot think the infinite.

Because of this, at some point in our lives, faith will feel like darkness, belief like unbelief, and God’s person and existence will feel like nothing, emptiness, non-existence, nada.

Our minds and hearts will, at that point, come up dry and empty when they try to imagine or feel God—not because God doesn’t exist or is less present than the physical world, but because God is so massively present, so real, so above all other lights, that God’s reality will dwarf everything to the point to where it gives the impression that it itself doesn’t exist.

In faith, God is known this way: As a light so bright that it’s perceived as darkness, as a love so universal that it’s perceived as indifference, and as a reality so real that it’s perceived as nothing.

and uncircumcised, Persian, Russian, slave and free—instead, Christ is all in all.” That is the way to find the sense of it all.

The gospel for next Sunday considers a way of finding meaning that we all too often unthinkingly pursue, namely finding lots and lots of money.

It starts with a request to Jesus to referee in a family inheritance dispute, which the Lord adroitly turns down, and then tells the parable of the “rich fool”, who after a massive harvest built extra granaries, only to find that he was invited to Death, the horizon against which each of us have to discover the meaning of our lives.

As the successful farmer comfortably says, “I am going to say to my soul: ‘Soul, you have many goods stored up for many years’.” God is saying to him, “Fool: on this very night they are asking you for your Soul.”

And Jesus concludes with a reminder to us in our search for meaning: “So it is with those who build up their bank balance and are not wealthy in respect of God”.

Where are you going to find the meaning of your life this week?

Southern Crossword #560

ACROSS 1. Stain left by the evangelist (4) 3. It sleeps, due to St Paul’s writings (8) 9. He called on Jesus in the wilderness (Mt 4) (7) 10. Pries, using sense of smell (5) 11. Curtain in one abandonment of title (12) 13. Where to start your charity (2,4) 15. Meditative repeated word (6) 17. Persistence in prayer or work (12) 20. Cloth for the altars (5) 21. Indian city that is fortunate at present (7) 22. Attempting again to bringing to court again (8) 23. Remain where you live (4)

DOWN 1. Stuff that’s not spiritual (8) 2. Manor of the Italian capitalist (5) 4. She did Shylock out of his pound (6) 5. Transferred to Dark Continent, like missionaries (4,2,6) 6. Hello, stout fellow was disadvantaged inside (4,3) 7. Neither good nor bad (2-2) 8. About story’s one-man job of cutting rocks (12) 12. Remove (4,4) 14. Pay no attention (4,3) 16. First woman and Lyn find another woman (6) 18. Group of nine (5) 19. Speak indistinctly (4) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

FTER dying in a car crash, three friends go to heaven for orientation. They are all asked the same question: “When you were in your casket, friends and family were mourning over you; what would you have liked to hear them say about you?”

The first guy immediately responds: “I would have liked to hear them say that I was one of the great doctors of my time, and a great family man.”

The second guy says: “I would have liked to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher who made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow.”

The last guy thinks a minute and replies: “I would have liked to hear them say...‘LOOK, HE’S MOVING!’’’ Send us your favourite Catholic joke, preferably clean and brief, to The Southern Cross, Church Chuckle, PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000.