The
S outher n C ross www.scross.co.za
October 23 to October 29, 2013
Corruption: Why take a stand?
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R7,00 (incl VAT RSA)
Reg No. 1920/002058/06
No 4845
Pope entrusts the world to Mary
Bishops pay tribute to families
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Aids programme a shining light BY CLAIRE MATHIESON
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The entire Brescia House School from Grade R to12 assembled in the format of their school badge in the spirit of building unity across the school. This entailed co-ordinating over 1 200 learners and staff from a nearby rooftop.
Vatican comes in to bat BY CAROL GLATz
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HE Vatican is about to launch its own cricket club and will field a women’s squad if it finds enough players. “It may be that instead of watching players who go out to play with cricket caps on, we’re going to have a series who play with veils on as they bat up,” said John McCarthy, a former cricket player and Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See. “We are looking for Sri Lankan, Indian and Pakistani sisters who have played cricket, and if they’re found, they certainly will be invited to join the cricket club. There is certainly no intention not to have a women’s cricket team at the Vatican,” he told reporters . The New South Wales native came up with the idea for an official Vatican Cricket Club before he began his post at the Vatican in 2012. The idea, he said, is to field a team of international players who are priests, seminarians, religious and lay Catholics working or studying in Rome or at the Vatican. There are many seminarians in Rome who not only want to play cricket while they’re here, he said, but they also want to give the game an added ecumenical or interreligious dimension. “There are many players who are here in Rome who would like to see, for instance, the Vatican play the Church of England at cricket,” he said.
The Dominican Sisters of Mary in Anne Arbor, Michigan, US, playing basketball in their convent’s gymnasium.(Photo:sistersofmary.org) Because it is so popular in such a diverse array of countries—like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa and Australia—cricket “covers many religions and ethnic groups,” the ambassador said. Cricket, therefore, can offer a unique opportunity for positive interreligious encounters with groups that are not as devoted to other sports, he said. A competitive cricket series will kick off in mid-November and be similar to the Clericus Cup football tournament, which involves teams of priests and seminarians studying in Rome. The ambassador hopes that a team representing the Vatican could begin playing others next year.—CNS
VISIT to Rustenburg’s Tapologo Aids programmes—run in the midst of shack settlements and villages around Rustenburg’s mines—has left a high-level delegation of government and the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) “filled with emotion” and has shown an effective example of how government and the Church can work together. The programmes, called Tapologo—a Setswana word meaning peace and rest—were the brainchild of Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg in response to the high infection rate of HIV and Aids in the North West. The delegation was in the region for the second SANAC conference, following which, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, as chairman of SANAC requested to visit the Aids project. Along with the North West Premier Thandi Modise, the National Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, and MEC for Health in the North West, Magome Masike, the delegation was taken on a tour of the Tapologo programmes with Bishop Dowling. “We went on the tour and seeing and meeting the very ill patients was a very touching and painful experience for them,” said Bishop Dowling of the delegation’s experience. “One woman whom we have saved after more than four months told of her terrible experience of being discharged from the Rustenburg hospital covered in bedsores and smelling, ending up at one of the Tapologo clinics in a shack settlement, being immediately transferred to our in-patient unit, and how our staff never once referred to the smell, how they cared for her with such love and compassion, and how our doctor treated her to the point that she is waiting for skin grafts. The Premier was deeply touched and almost in tears.” The delegation was told about the long history of the mission during struggle times when Bishop Dowling gave permission for the liberation movements to meet on the mission and how 680 farm workers were given refuge by the mission when they came off the farms due to the very bad treatment by right-wing AWB farmers. “These were the people we resettled in a new RDP township and where one of our religious sisters followed them and opened a clinic in a shack. From there I received money from the Belgian government and we opened a 24-hour clinic which ran for four years and served this massive township until the Government built its clinic in the township, and we closed down.” But in 1992 the bishop encountered the ravages of Aids in the government clinic. It was a time when little attention was being paid to the disease. “I knew as a Church leader I would have to respond to this crisis.”
Bishop Kevin Dowling is pictured with (from right) National Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, North West Premier Thandi Modise and MEC for Health in the North West, Magome Masike. In 1997 when the Church opened a clinic in a small shipping container, more than 49% of pregnant mothers visiting the clinic were HIV positive. The infection rate was so alarming that the project developed into training local women how to nurse sick people in the shacks. “We got them further training in counselling skills by LifeLine, and so the first Tapologo programme started—the model of teams of community carers from the affected communities supervised by a professional nurse to ensure both a high level of nursing care and the ethos of holistic care of the patient with great love, incorporating the spiritual, emotional and physical dimensions of their life,” said Bishop Dowling. New teams in 11 communities were developed before the time of ARVs. A hospice was also opened to meet the needs of the terminally ill. “Since then over 1 300 people, including 19 children, have died in the hospice,” but many more have been saved thanks to the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s Aids Office ARV treatment plan which chose Tapologo as one of the 22 church sites in South Africa. At its peak we were caring for 1 850 ARV patients, and initiated over 4 000,” said Bishop Dowling. Mr Motlanthe said he remembered the stories of Bishop Dowling allowing meetings for the liberation movement, and remembered how the church was bombed in 1992 when the bishop refused to back down. He said it was clear that this place, the mission and now Tapologo had “cared for the suffering and the poor for many, many years”. “The feedback was very positive, and I hope this visit gave these VIPs a positive experience of how a partnership between government and community organisations like Tapologo can really deepen the quality of health care. I hope their impression of the Church’s engagement in the lives of the suffering will also be remembered,” Bishop Dowling said.
CANONISATION PILGRIMAGE Join The Southern Cross and Radio Veritas on a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi to witness the canonisation of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII in the Vatican
Led by Fr Emil Blaser OP • Dates: 25 April to 4 May
Canonisation Ceremony | Papal Audience | St Peter’s | Sistine Chapel | Catacombs | Ancient Rome | Baroque Rome | Major Basilicas | Castel Gandolfo | Assisi | Porciuncula | Hermitage of the Carceri | Greccio (where St Francis invented the Nativity Scene) | Fonte Colombo |and much more.
For itinerary or to book phone Gail at 076 352 3809 or 021 551 3923 info@fowlertours.co.za www.fowlertours.co.za