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S outhern C ross

July 30 to August 5, 2014

reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4883

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Pope’s path to unity with evangelicals

Page 9

r7,00 (incl Vat rSa)

Fr Rolheiser: How to live with suicide

Page 12

The story of Pretoria-born future saint

Page 10

SA bishops to discuss future of the Church By StUart GraHaM

HE Southern African bishops will “reflect on challenges” and deliberate on the future of the Church when they meet for their plenary session in Mariannhill in August. The bishops meet in plenary twice a year. Fr S’milo Mngadi, communications officerrof the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), said an issue that is likely to arise at the meeting from August 6-13 is the drying up of funding for the Church from Europe and the United States. “One of the general issues for the Church is that there is no money,” said Fr Mngadi. “Funding from Europe and the US has reduced and there is a need for the Church to be more self-reliant.” Fr Mngadi said Europe and the United States “generally” thought of South Africa as “well to do” and not needing much. “South Africa has one foot in the first world and the other in the extreme [of poverty]. Europe looks at that first world and thinks everything is okay.” Europe, which is more secularised than before, is specifically avoiding funding Church projects. “It will still fund aid projects such as drug rehabilitation, but the projects that are core to the Church, such as catechism and evan-

gelisation, are very difficult to fund,” Fr Mngadi said. The shortage of funds must lead to “the consciousness of owning the Church locally”, he said. “Once we get that right, the money will follow.” Fr Mngadi said the first day of the meeting will be a day of recollection, with most of the time spent with the bishops “collegially” where the bishops—by themselves and without staff present—share their pastoral experiences, reflect on challenges and “deliberate on the future of the Church in our area”. Other points of discussion and deliberation will include “Church and state relations after 20 years of democracy”, the restructuring of the bishops’ conference “with evangelisation as the key point”, and the possibility and prospects for a national laity council. Fr Mngadi said the Church realises it has to become more involved in “having a voice” in the government, particularly in economic issues such as worker strikes and corruption. “Prior to democracy we were very clear that we were fighting apartheid. After 1994, when democracy was ushered in, we had to let the democratic government work without interference from our side,” he said. “We realise that the Church needs to be more involved [in politics]. Issues are emerging that need the voice of the Church.”

Late pope was Riddler X By CaroL GLatz

OING by the pseudonym “X”, Pope Leo XIII anonymously crafted poetic puzzles in Latin for a Roman periodical at the turn of the 19th century. The pope created lengthy riddles, known as “charades”, in Latin in which readers had to guess a rebus-like answer from two or more words that together formed the syllables of a new word. Eight of his puzzles were published anonymously in Vox Urbis, a Rome newspaper that was printed entirely in Latin between 1898-1913, according to an article in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

A reader who submitted the correct answer to the riddle would receive a book of Latin poetry written by either Pope Leo or another noted Catholic figure. The identity of the mysterious riddle-maker, however, was soon revealed by a French reporter covering the Pope Leo XIII Vatican for the daily newspa- (1878-1903) per Le Figaro. Felix Ziegler published his scoop on January 9, 1899, a year after the puzzles started Continued on page 5

the parishioners of Sacred Heart church in Qoqodala, Queenstown diocese, are enthusiastic about their Catholic newspaper. Under the motto “It’s our Faith; Let’s Live It”, parish priest Fr Mathias Nsamba and parishioners promote and actively sell the newspaper every week. “Catholics who promote The Southern Cross in their communities are just as important a part of the social communications apostolate as those who produce the newspaper,” said editor Günther Simmermacher. “We are always grateful to those, most of whom are unknown to us, who help to get The Southern Cross into the hands of the faithful.”

Pope’s SA friend dies in bike crash after visit home

HE South Africa-raised evangelical bishop who used his iPhone to film a video of Pope Francis addressing other Pentecostals died on July 20 after a motorcycle accident. Bishop Tony Palmer (pictured), whom Pope Francis referred to as his friend, was riding the motorcycle when he crashed head-on with a car travelling in the wrong lane, according to Ian Findlay, principal of Embassy Bible College in Bath, England. Bishop Palmer, a member of the independent Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, had just finished a visit to South Africa, where he had grown up. He made several public appearances and was interviewed on Radio Veritas. One of his final press interviews, possibly the last, was with The Southern Cross’ Stuart Graham. The article of it appears on page 9 this week. Bishop Palmer leaves behind a wife and two teenage children. Pope Francis’ scheduled meeting with Pentecostal at Caserta, southern Italy, on July 28 was brokered by Bishop Palmer. Bishop Palmer, who was born in Britain and grew up in South Africa, was co-founder of The Ark Community, which describes itself as “an Internet-based, interdenominational” Christian community. Previously he served as

the director of the South Africa office of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, a US-based Pentecostal group offering megaprayer meetings around the world. Pope Francis’ iPhone video message, filmed by Bishop Palmer in January, was addressed to participants in a conference sponsored by Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Addressing Bishop Palmer as “my brother, a bishop-brother” and saying they had “been friends for years”, the pope spoke of his longing for Christian unity and his confidence that God would bring about the miracle of Christian unity. Soon after Pope Francis’ election, Bishop Palmer said he had met the future Pope Francis in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2008 when he sought the then-archbishop’s permission to work with charismatic Catholics in the city. Bishop Palmer met the pope again in late June, along with a group of other Pentecostal and evangelical pastors. At that meeting, Pope Francis announced his intention to visit the church of another Pentecostal pastor he’d met in Buenos Aires, Giovanni Traettino.

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Alpha course heads to jail By DyLaN aPPoLIS

N Alpha Youth course for juveniles of 10 to 12 weeks has kicked off at Drakenstein and Pollsmoor prisons in the Western Cape. “It’s important to make [inmates] realise that they are people whom we can respect. This way they open up and share their lives and experiences with us,” said Annelise Petersen, regional coordinator for Alpha. This, she added, gives them a chance to walk a path of rehabilitation. The course has not been specifically adapted for prisons and follows the standard programme. Alpha is in the process of creating a “Caring for Ex-offenders” programme, to give released prisoners a support structure. Prison coordinator Jaun Truter said: “It’s a process and not just a one-day solution. But it’s something that works. The reoffending rate is currently 87% and after [prisoners do] the Alpha course, it comes down to below 30%.” He said the Alpha youth department is planning to stage a major event on April 27 next year. Newlands Stadium has already been booked for the event. n For more information contact Annelise Petersen at 087 752 4077 or visit www.alphasa.co.za

LOCAL

Theology of the Body delegates to US congress StaFF rEPortEr

Fr Donald McLoughlin (left) and Marie-anne teBrake with Damon owens, executive director of the toB Institute in the United States in Philadelphia. addressed topics such as “The Relation of TOB to the History of Church Teaching on Marriage, Family & Sexuality”, “Chaste and Fruitful: Transformation of Persons with Same-sex Attraction”; “Renewing Priesthood”; “Moving Teens from Concepts to Integration”; “TOB and Pornography: When Beauty is Broken”; “”TOB, the Eucharist and the Interior Life”; and “Rule of Four for the Divorced and TOB”. “Attending the congress also pro-

vided Fr Donald and me with networking opportunities,” Ms teBrake said. After the congress she and Fr McLoughlin visited Mr Owens at the TOB Institute’s Philadelphia offices to discuss the possibility of establishing a Theology of the Body Institute in South Africa. n For information about promoting the Theology of the Body in parishes contact Ms teBrake at matebrake@ global.co.za

Belgravia convent cleans up for Mandela By DyLaN aPPoLIS

N the true spirit of sharing their abundance, Dominican Convent School in Belgravia, Johannesburg, decided to extend their Mandela Day to Mandela Week. This allowed learners from preschool to matric the opportunity to use the whole week to bring in nonperishable foods, clothing and blankets, which were distributed to people of the community, together with lollipop friendship cards made by Grade 2 learners. Pre-schoolers, faces brightly painted with the South African flag, sang the national anthem and participated in the primary school ceremony of swapping plants with St James Preparatory School. The school’s director of marketing, Renata Haywood, said: “President Jacob Zuma requested that

Mandela Day must be spent ‘cleaning up’ and that was the focus of the Dominican High School’s activities.” The Grade 8-9 learners spent their time cleaning up outside the school grounds. Mrs Haywood said: “As the school is in a challenging environment, this initiative greatly assisted the general appearance of the school from outside.” On a cold day, Grade 10 learners started a soup kitchen. Some learners manned the soup tables while the rest walked around the community to gather people to receive a warm cup of soup and bread. Grade 11 learners set off with black bags on their school bus to Rose Park and showed their involvement in the community by to clear the park of any dirt and litter lying around. The Grade 12 learners worked as a group to clean up Murray Park.

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By DyLaN aPPoLIS

DELEGATION from the Johannesburg archdiocese attended an international Theology of the Body congress in Philadelphia in the US. The congress’s theme was “Love, Mercy and the New Evangelisation”. Marie-Anne teBrake and Fr Donald McLoughlin represented the Johannesburg archdiocese. Ms teBrake said it was significant that 700 attendees from 12 countries attended the congress during the “Year of the Family” and with the extraordinary general Synod of Bishops that will meet at the Vatican from October 5-19 to discuss the “pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelisation”. Damon Owens, executive director of the TOB Institute, told the congress: “We stand in truly perilous times as a culture abandoning God, and increasingly blind and deaf to his signs throughout creation including marriage, the family, religion, and the human person.” Over three days, six keynote addresses were delivered by speakers such as Dr Janet Smith; Christopher West; Bishop Jean Laffitte, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family; Fr Michael Gaitley MIC; Dr Deborah Savage; and Mr Owens. Some 25 breakout talk sessions

Prayer group to expand HE Prayer and Lifestyle Workshop (PLW) is planning to expand its programme throughout the Cape Town area. The PLW course runs for 16 weeks and has multiple goals. These include the deepening of a relationship with God, by means of different prayers such as by reading the Bible every day. The course aims to guide participants to find peace of mind and heart by surrendering what we cannot do into the hands of the loving Father, and ways we can apply prayer to our everyday lifestyle. The programme is open to all creeds and needs a minimum of 20 people to facilitate one course. There is also a youth programme which has not been launched in South Africa yet, said Ani Schneider, coordinator of PLW. This year it has completed two courses for the first semester, at the parishes of Strand and Rondebosch. For the second semester, two courses are planned, at Plumstead and Bergvliet parishes. The course is only available in Cape Town at present, but PLW looks to expand further in the future, Ms Schneider said. n For more information contact Ani Schneider at 082 410 9366 or ani. schneider@gmail.com

Cape Town to honour Mary

Dominican Convent learners took to cleaning up litter in big black bags during their Mandela Week.

CONSOLATA MISSIONARIES SOUTH AFRICA “Console, console my people” Is 40:1 We are a Religious International Congregation of Priests, Brothers, Sisters and Lay missionaries who are consecrated for the Mission, to see to it that all have a chance to hear the word of God and encounter Jesus Christ, God’s True Consolation. God may be calling you to witness His Consolation with the Consolata Missionaries. Don’t say no, or it is not yet time! Make it happen! Come and see! Our Contacts: Vocation Director Consolata Missionaries P. O BOX 31072 0135 Pretoria South Africa Email: vocatio@consolata.net Website: www.consolata.org

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HE archdiocese of Cape Town will again celebrate and honour South Africa’s patroness, Mary Assumed into Heaven, in August. It will seek her intervention for all families in this Year of the Family. The celebration will be at Our Lady Help of Christians, 310 Lansdowne Road, Lansdowne, at 2:45pm on Sunday August 17. Cape Town’s Archbishop Stephen Brislin will preach on the central topic, Mary Patroness of all Families. People are invited to come with the banner, flag or cloak of their parish or organisation. The organisers ask that the event be announced at every Mass in the archdiocese until the day of celebration. n Phone the Lansdowne parish on 021 696 2903 for more information.

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LOCAL

Good Shepherd sisters celebrate reunion

N order of nuns who protect unborn and vulnerable women and children from exploitation have reunified after separating nearly two centuries ago. Sr Zelna Oosthuizen said the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd—commonly known as Good Shepherd Sisters—has its origin in the Order of Our Lady of Charity founded by St John Eudes in 1641. “During his missionary travels in France, Fr John Eudes became aware of the moral exploitation of many girls and women,” said Sr Oosthuizen. “In 1641, to help these women who wanted to change their lives, he established a refuge in Caen, thus the Order of Our Lady of Charity was formed.” The order’s convents were au-

tonomous and initially based only in France. In Tours in France in 1814, Rose Virginie Pelletier entered the Order of Our Lady of Charity and received the name of Mary of St Euphrasia. Sr Euphrasia, who wanted the world to benefit from the saving work initiated by Fr Eudes, wanted to establish a central government to allow the sisters to be sent to all continents. “After many difficulties, the Generalate was approved in 1835 by the Holy See with a new congregation formed—Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd,” said Sr Oosthuizen. Today the order works in 74 countries. In 2007, a “Journey of Enrichment” between both congregations started for “a better mutual understanding”.

In 2013, the Union of Our Lady of Charity asked the Holy See for a reunification. A merger decree dated June 27, 2014 was approved by the Holy See. “With this we are now officially known as Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd,” said Sr Oosthuizen. “Our mission of reconciliation urges us to work with and for girls and women in crisis by providing a safe refuge, skills to empower themselves and spiritual renewal. “We also protect the unborn and vulnerable children in our society, especially in rural areas.” n For more information about the congregation or to offer support its ministries contact Sr Zelna Oosthuizen on 082 968 8493 or 011 485 1033 or www.buonpastoreint.org

Fanele family project builds house By DyLaN aPPoLIS

Sacred Heart Sodality meets for Villa weekend retreat By NotHEMBa DLaLI

HE Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD) in partnership with the Ikhayalami organisation began the Fanele Family Home Project to prevent flood in Gugulethu, Cape Town. For many years the Fanele family has had their home flooded with water during winter. CWD took the initiative to help the family to prevent future flooding of their house. Every year the Fanele family’s house is flooded. Mother Nomboyakhe has been ill witrh tuberculosis and has been in and out of hospital. CWD director Malcolm Salida has supported the initiative to change the lives and living conditions of the Fanele family. Ikhayalami focuses on teaching people how to make their homes safer, in a way they can prevent being affected by floods and fires in the future. Mr Salida showed solidarity by spending a cold winter’s night with the Fanele family members of ten, in their three-room shack. He wanted to get an idea of the family’s experience during this time of the year. A week later the Fanele home was demolished and the site cleared by the Ikhayalami team, community members and CWD Crisis Relief volunteers. The following day they built the foundations. Two days later the house was completed. The house was presented to the

the Sisters of our lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd celebrate with friends on the occasion of their reunification.

Family and friends gathered to lay the foundations and build a new home for the Fanele family. Fanele family by CWD and Ikhayalami. “It was a joyful moment and an emotional time for the Fanele family who was there,” said Nontsikelelo Dwangu of CWD’s Crisis Relief and Prevention Programme. Mrs Fanele showed her emotions as she burst out in tears of joy. She expressed her gratitude and

thanked the CWD and Ikhayalami for their new house and for improving their living conditions, on behalf of her family. “The project was successful and we hope that we will get support from local business and trust we can attract other funders to support this initiative,” said Ms Dwangu. n Contact Nontsikelelo Dwangu on 021 3612684 or 060 622 0782.

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HE words “inspired to stay in the presence of God” (Matthew 17:4) rang in my head as Fr Mbulelo Skotoyi, spiritual director of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Sodality, said the final blessing at the Villa, De Deur, Gauteng. This after a Holy Spirit-filled weekend where the Soweto deanery’s group A met at the Villa for their annual retreat. The weekend, the theme of which was “Planted and Rooted in Love” (Eph 3:17), had three main elements to it: Mass, benediction and healing. It commenced with an introductory evening where retreat master Fr Skotoyi laid the path ahead by unpacking the two main journeys in the New Testament, the road to Damascus (Acts 9: 1-9) and the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35). In both incidents, we are called to stick to the path of Jesus Christ as well as proclaim his name as our Lord and Saviour as opposed to taking the easy, worldly route. The crux of the weekend was the washing of hands, a symbol of love and respect for each other. During this time, total strangers had to wash each other’s hands as a sign of humility, unison and fellowship in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. This was followed by a spiritual healing Mass, where each member was anointed with oil.

Fr Mbulelo Skotoyi lectures to Sacred Heart of Jesus Sodality members on their retreat. Dr Bridgette Goeieman, president of the Sacred Heart Sodality, encouraged the mothers to humbly stick to the rules and regulations of the sodality by reading the Bible and the Catechism. Fr Skotoyi urged members to use their their talents. “Stick to reading the Bible and the Catechism; remind yourselves of the constitution of the sodality, always, and the road ahead will be much clearer.” The spirit at the retreat was feisty yet subdued. This was evident in the emotional, joy-filled singing of the women of the Soweto deanery. Prayers were spontaneous and came from a deep place in the hearts of those who rendered them.

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INTERNATIONAL

Two patrons for family meet

Patriarch: Iraq faces total catastrophe T

RCHBISHOP Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has announced that St John Paul II and St Gianna Beretta Molla will be patron saints of the 2015 World Meeting of Families in his city. The Meeting of Families will be held from September 22-27 next year under the theme, “Love is our mission: the family fully alive”. St Gianna, mother of four, died at the age of 40 while giving birth to her last child in 1962. St John Paul II canonised her in 2004. She is strongly associated with the mission of the family, and has been declared the patron of mothers, physicians, and unborn children.—CNA

an Iraqi man carrying a cross and a Quran attends Mass at Mar Girgis church in Baghdad. Pope Francis called for prayers, dialogue, and peace, as the last Iraqi Christians flee the city of Mosul. (Photo: ahmed Malik, reuters/CNS)

Hidden war: Ethnic cleansing in Sudan By BEtH GrIFFIN

HREE years of near-daily bombings in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan have created a sustained humanitarian emergency that includes severe food shortages, wholesale displacement of people and limited access to medical care. Bishop Macram Max Gassis, who retired last October as head of the diocese of El Obeid, Sudan, said heightened international attention to the situation could save lives. Bishop Gassis said bombings disrupt the agricultural cycle and the people are unable to grow their own food. There is limited safe access to the region for international aid groups. On May 1, government planes targeted Mother of Mercy, the only functioning hospital in the Nuba Mountains. More than 200 patients were in the hospital at the time, but no one was injured. The 80-bed hospital, established by Bishop Gassis, serves more than 150 000 people each year. The government denied bombing the hospital. A long-standing conflict between the government of Sudan and opposition forces was renewed in June 2011, when the Sudanese armed forces initiated bombing in the Nuba Mountains to target the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North. More than 1 million people in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states have

Girls tie dried grasses into bundles to be sold in Leer, Sudan. a Sudanese bishop has accused the Khartoum regime of committing genocide. (Photo: andreea Campeanu, reuters/CNS) been displaced by the fighting, according to the United Nations. Bishop Gassis said the Nuba is an ethnic group characterised by unity and diversity uncommon in other areas of Africa. They identify themselves primarily as Nuba and secondarily as members of various tribes. “They are a hard-working, dignified people,” who include Muslims, Christians and “Africans of traditional belief”, the bishop said. The Nuba Mountains have seven Catholic parishes, as well as the hospital, mother and child centres, a primary school and a teacher-training institute. “The Church is Sudanese in its leadership and membership. Missioners are there to help the local

Church,” Bishop Gassis explained. “The Church is growing in number and quality,” the bishop said. “In times of persecution, the Church becomes really strong.” Bishop Gassis said the regime of President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum, the country’s capital, is pursuing a policy of assimilation, which he equated to ethnic cleansing and genocide. “They want to impose a reality that is not there. They want everyone to speak Arabic, become Arabic and adopt Arabic customs and traditions,” he said. “As Catholics, we do not accept this process of assimilation,” he said. “To assimilate is to destroy identity. It is for us a form of genocide or ethnic cleansing. We are with the people because the Church respects the tradition, culture and customs of the people. That’s why we call it the universal Church.” Bishop Gassis said governments, international organisations and the Catholic Church could mitigate suffering and hasten peace in Sudan if they gave serious attention to the situation. He said the government in Khartoum is hampering the peace process. “The peace dialogue is a monologue. It’s window-dressing. The government is a farce. They use words whose meaning they do not know,” he said.—CNS

HE Chaldean patriarch has urged Iraq to turn away from its current path, warning that the new policies of Islamist jihadists threaten Christian-Muslim coexistence. “Should this direction continue to be pursued, Iraq will come face to face with human, civil, and historic catastrophe,” Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of Baghdad said in a pastoral letter. “We implore in particular our Iraqi brothers, asking them to reconsider and reflect upon the strategy they have adopted and demanding that they must respect innocent and weaponless people of all nationalities, religions, and sects,” Patriarch Sako said. He spoke weeks after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) occupied the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and forced its remaining Christians from the city. In mid-July ISIS issued an ultimatum to the Christians of Mosul: convert to Islam, pay the jizya (poll tax imposed on non-Muslims), or be killed. The cross atop the city's Syriac Orthodox cathedral was removed, and thousands of Christians fled the city. ISIS currently controls much of the Sunni areas of northern and western Iraq, as well as cities along the Euphrates River in northwest Syria. Members of the group have threatened both Christians and Shia Muslims. Patriarch Sako called on Christians to “endure the time of trial and pray until the storm will be over”.

e said that Islamist jihadists’ control of Mosul and their proclamation of an Islamic state has had profound negative effects upon the Christian population. Given the ultimatum from ISIS, he said that “the only alternative [for Christians] is to abandon the city and their houses with only the clothes they are wearing, taking nothing else”. Under ISIS' imposition of sharia law, when Christians leave the territory, their houses are “instantly confiscated” as property of the Islamic state. The patriarch said that the Arabic letter “nun”, which stands for “Nazarene” or “Christian”, has been written on Christians’ homes in the city. The letter “ra”, which stands for “Rejecter” has been written on the walls of Shiite homes. The new law code is “powerful” and has been interpreted to require religion-based forms of identification. Patriarch Sako said that this categorisation affects many Muslims and contravenes Islamic injunctions against compulsion in religion.

Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad in rome last December. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) “The holy Quran has ordered believers to respect the innocent and has never called them to seize the belongings, the possessions, the properties of others by force,” Patriarch Sako said.

e said that Christians and Muslims in Iraq have had a “fraternal life” thus far. “How much the Christians have shared here in our East specifically from the beginnings of Islam,” Patriarch Sako continued. “They shared every sweet and bitter circumstance of life. Christian and Muslim blood has been mixed as it was shed in the defence of their rights and lands. Together they built a civilisation, cities, and a heritage,” he said. “It is truly unjust now to treat Christians by rejecting them and throwing them away, considering them as nothing.” He warned that legally enforced discrimination eliminates the possibility of religious coexistence between religious majorities and minorities. This will be “very harmful” to Muslims, as well, he noted. The patriarch wished God’s peace and mercy “to all who have a living conscience in Iraq and all the world,” to moderate Muslims, to “all who have a concern that Iraq should remain a country for all his children”, and “to all protectors of the dignity of human beings and of religion”. Patriarch Sako called on all the region’s Christians “to act with reason and prudence and to consider and to plan everything in the best way possible”. “Let them understand what is planned for this region, to practice solidarity in love, to examine the realities together and so be able together to find the paths to build trust in themselves and in their neighbours,” he said, urging them to stay close to their own Church.— CNA

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the Southern Cross, July 30 to august 5, 2014

Jerusalem patriarch on Gaza crisis: What you can do By BarB FrazE

T is impossible for Israeli’s military to target Hamas missiles without hitting civilians in the Gaza Strip, said Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem. People might not agree with Hamas, which controls Gaza, but “we cannot punish all the population because you do not agree with Hamas,” he told Catholic News Service in an interview. “We have hundreds and hundreds of killed people, innocent people, 80% innocent,” he said, noting the deaths of “mothers, children, students”. “In Gaza, when [Israelis] strike, there is no shelter,” the Jordanianborn patriarch said. “The Israeli people are happy to have bomb shelters, and they can go escape when they want,” he said, referring to the rockets Hamas has been firing into Israel. “Meanwhile, in Gaza, we have nothing. No shelters, and [people] are in the street.” Patriarch Twal emphasised that the Church “absolutely condemns” the firing of Hamas rockets. “But remember these rockets: They make noise, they make fear, they never killed one person,” he said. Patriarch Twal, whose patriarchate, similar to an archdiocese, includes Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Cyprus, said he did not understand why author-

Palestinians gather in the courtyard of St Porfirios orthodox church in Gaza City, where they are taking refuge from fighting in the area. right: Patriarch Fouad twal of Jerusalem, who has asked Catholics to support the Christians of the Holy Land with prayer, pilgrimages and projects. (Photos: Finbarr o'reilly & tyler orsburn via CNS) ities do not want to dialogue. Instead of the military option, it is “better to find another way to look for peace”, he said. He also advocated ending the seven-year Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which he said makes the area “an open-air prison”. “It is better to be good neighbours forever than to be enemies

forever,” he said, emphasising, “Peace is for all.” He noted that three of the patriarchate’s 118 schools are in Gaza, and there they have “more Muslims than Christians, maybe some children of Hamas leaders”. The schools teach them to “love God, love the neighbour”, he said. “We believe that children, when

they play together, when they eat together, when they study together, I think that’s the best dialogue we can teach them, from the beginning.” He also said sometimes Hamas authorities receive Church officials when they visit schools or their parish in Gaza. “We must be friends with

Hamas, we must be maybe grateful for Hamas, because we have more extremist groups in Gaza that only Hamas can control,” he said. He said for Christians to stay in the Holy Land, “we have to improve the situation”. “I said often our presence in the Holy Land is a mission. We are there as a witness of our eventual salvation,” he said. “We are a Church of Calvary, of suffering. We have to remember that the Lord before us suffered in this land,” he said. “To live, love, work in the Holy Land, you have to build your cross,” he added. Patriarch Twal said when people ask him for help, he speaks of the three Ps: prayer, pilgrimage and projects. “We still believe in the power of prayer,” he said, noting that was the most important P. He encouraged people to visit, noting that the Holy Land is “your mother church, and there’s a moral obligation to come with this P”. Pilgrims are always safe in the Holy Land even during timres of political tension. Finally, he said: “Do something. Move. Touch your pocket. Get involved with a religious, educational or social project,” he said. But, he reiterated, most importantly: “We ask you to pray for us, to pray for this peace.”—CNS

Church workers say funding cuts have damaged Aids fight By PaUL JEFFrEy

ATHOLICS who attended the 20th International Aids Conference in Melbourne, Australia, worry that medical advances against the HIV pandemic are leading to decreased attention and less funding for the struggle against the deadly virus. “Aids is not a designer charity anymore,” said Namibia-based Fr

Rick Bauer, who heads the international Catholic HIV and Aids Network. “People in the airport ask me what my red ribbon means. Fifteen years ago, everyone knew what it symbolized. Now it’s different. The media has dropped us. “And this comes just as we’re starting to believe we might end the pandemic as a global health emer-

gency by 2030,” Fr Bauer said. “To achieve that, however, we’ve got to get more people on treatment and get their viral loads down. Such treatment is the best prevention, but it’s going to be hard to do if we can’t keep attention focused on the challenge and if we can’t have access to the necessary funding.” Fr Bauer said that recent cuts in funding from the US President’s

Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) have forced the closure of several treatment centres in Namibia. He said he cannot accurately gauge the impact of the closures because he has no funding to evaluate changes in the now unserved areas. Mgr Robert Vitillo, a special adviser on HIV and Aids to Caritas Internationalis, said major strides in Aids treatment have caused many to

His Holiness, Pope Riddler X Continued from page 1 appearing, revealing that “Mr X” was, in fact, the reigning pope. In the pope’s hometown, Carpineto Romano, which is about 50km from Rome, students at the middle school now named for him have published 26 of the pope’s Latin puzzles in a new book titled Aenigmata: The Charades of Pope Leo XIII. Three middle school teachers and their pupils said they have included puzzles they found, but which had never been published before. One example of the pope’s Latin riddles talked of a “little boat nimbly dancing”, that sprung a leak as it “welcomed the shore so near advancing”. “The whole your eyes have known, your pallid cheeks have shown; for oh! the swelling tide no bravest heart could hide, when your dear mother died,” continues the translation of part of the riddle-poem. The answer, lacrima (“teardrop”) merges clues elsewhere in the poem for lac (“milk”) and rima (“leak” or “fissure”). Pope Leo, who headed the universal Church from 1878 to 1903, had the fourth-longest pontificate in history. He wrote 86 encyclicals, including the groundbreaking Rerum

Novarum, which ushered in the era of Catholic social teaching. Known for his openness to historical sciences, Pope Leo ordered in 1881 that the Vatican Secret Archives be open to researchers and he formally established the Vatican Observatory in 1891 as a visible sign of the Church’s centuries-old support for science. A man of culture, the pope was also a member of an exclusive society of learning founded in Rome in 1690 called the Academy of Arcadia, whose purpose was to “wage war on the bad taste” engulfing baroque Italy. Pope Leo, whose club name was “Neandro Ecateo”, was the last pope to be a member of the circle of poets, artists, musicians and highly cultured aristocrats and religious. He also had his own small vineyard, which, according to one historical account, he tended himself, hoeing out the weeds, and visiting often for moments of prayer and writing poetry. Apparently, one day, gunfire was heard from the pope’s vineyard, triggering fears of a papal assassination attempt. It turned out the pope had ordered a papal guard to send a salvo of bullets into the air to scare off the sparrows who were threatening his grape harvest.—CNS

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think it is no longer a fatal disease. “I was in Ukraine last week and someone brought up the need for hospice care for people living with AIDS, and there was a Western European doctor along who had a hard time with the question. People had to struggle to get the European doctor to understand that people are still dying from Aids,” Mgr Vitillo said.—CNS

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LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Avoid obsessions on minor issues

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The rape epidemic

HE systematic rape of women and children has always been a weapon of war, and this remains unchanged. Innumerable accounts from survivors of mass rape exist, even from recent conflicts. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo more than 400 000 women were raped in a 12-month period between 2006-07. And it is not just the domain of those whose methods reasonable people would deem barbaric. In July, Israeli Middle East scholar Dr Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University suggested that Palestinians would be deterred from carrying out acts of violence only by the threat that their wives and daughters would be raped in retribution—an incitement to sexual violence that does not require an official military order. The idea of mass rape as a strategy in war and the image of rapists targeting random women for attack tend to distort the understanding of what constitutes rape. To be clear: any form of sexual congress which is not mutually consensual is a rape. The increasing numbers of reports, in South Africa and elsewhere, of rapes being filmed on cellphones by witnesses—not in order to collect evidence for the eventual prosecution of sexual offenders, but to be disseminated for lurid entertainment—points to a trivialisation of sexual violence in society. The easy access to pornography has served to denigrate society’s understanding of the sex act. While most studies don’t conclude that the consumption of pornography leads directly to acts of rape, porn’s devaluation of sexuality, and its objectification of women, may well have informed the values held by those who participate in the sexual subjugation of women. Sexual violence disempowers women in many ways. When men believe that women have no control over their sexuality and refuse to admit such control, there is the ever-present potential for rape. Many victims of rape are randomly attacked: by the sexual deviant on the prowl in the proverbial dark alleys, by police in situations where women have no recourse to the law, by civilians in the case of refugees and so on. Most women, however, are

The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit published letters. Letters below 300 words receive preference. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances and at the Editor’s discretion. Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

raped by people they know, and often the attacker is the husband. Typically neither attacker nor victim acknowledge this as rape, even if the wife explicitly withheld her consent. Through the generations women have been conditioned to submit to their husbands sexually, either by the notion that sexual availability is her conjugal duty, or by the experience of violence as an introduction to sexuality. According to the UNAIDS Gap Report, which was released in mid-July, up to 45% of adolescent girls in Africa report that their first sexual experience was forced. While sexual assault rarely receives good press, it remains rampant. In South Africa a woman can expect to be subjected to sexual assault almost every half-minute. Experts point to various constituents to account for that endless rape epidemic: a patriarchal society in which women, even if protected by civil law, are commonly prevented from exercising their rights, especially in terms of their sexual autonomy; a culture of violence in which aggression is displaced and directed at weaker members of society; and a system of law enforcement and justice which fails to punish rapists for their crimes, with the consequence that few of the cases actually reported result in a conviction. Deplorably, a significant number of South Africans routinely trivialise sexual assault. Some believe that a victim “enjoys” the assault; others blame her for attracting rape by the clothes she wears, which was an argument forwarded by the president of the country, Jacob Zuma, in his defence during his 2006 rape trial (he was acquitted). And not a few South Africans believe it justifiable that lesbians should be raped to “correct” their sexual orientation. We can express our outrage, light candles and click on Facebook petitions. These are creditable gestures, but they simply are not enough. South Africans must rise up by becoming engaged in or giving support to groups that address the incidence of rape and advocate the empowerment of women. And we must forthrightly demand action from government, law enforcement and the judiciary, lest they too be held accountable for their complicity by omission in the rape of South Africa.

VER the past few weeks The Southern Cross has carried letters from John Lee and some others on the issue of the correct way to receive Communion, as well as the posture people should have during Mass. I would like to support what your editorial of July 23 said, that the differing opinions and practices in the Church are a healthy and necessary part of the Church. Even in the New Testament there were quite heated differences of opinion that had to be sorted out in a meeting of the apostles. I believe making personal attacks on people one does not agree with does not assist in the debates that have to take place in the attempts by the Church to understand and follow the leadings of the Spirit.

Search for group of charismatics

READ with invigorated interest the two letters to the editor (July 9) on the Catholic charismatic movement. I, too, can testify to the complete positive change in my life since my encounter with this movement some 27 years ago. The late Fr Ignatius Heer, then parish priest in Ixopo, invited members of the movement from Pietermaritzburg to introduce it to parishioners through the Life in the Spirit seminars. When my family moved to Durban, we attended charismatic retreats in Park Rynie, near Scottburgh down the South Coast in Kwa-Zulu Natal. What has happened to these Life in the Spirit seminars in Durban? I would like to make contact with people involved in them or could they be revived? I can be contacted at lolzwelff@gmail.com Lorraine Welff, Durban

Vital letters page

ADMIRE the editor’s work and his open mind and willingness to publish a variety of letters from the public. In fact, these letters certainly contribute to making The Southern Cross a very interesting weekly newspaper. There are three letters I would like to comment on. In his letter “Attack was most unfortunate” (July 2) Tony Meehan defended your right to publish letters that the editor and others may not always agree with, such as Franko Sokolic’s letter on Archbishop Denis Hurley, which Cardinal Wilfrid Napier criticised you for publishing (“Hurley defended”, June 18).

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However, I have been rather upset by a lack of tolerance on the part of a priest on a completely different issue. While a certain parish priest returned to his home country for an extended holiday, the parish was put in the care of another priest, who decided that those attending Mass had to sit together in the first few pews when the congregation was relatively small. The message was repeated ad nauseam by him and when a handful of parishioners ignored his instruction to move to the front during the Saturday evening Mass, he announced that he would not preach. This incident raises a number of issues. Firstly, can people be compelled to move to the front of the I am sure the cardinal does not want to go back to the days of the inquisition when every Catholic in Europe had to be very careful about what they said, thought or wrote. Please do not be afraid to keep an open mind; it’s something no one should be denied. I would also like to comment on the letter by Joe Stas, “Coming home” (June 25). We recently were on holiday in Knysna and also found that attending Mass at St Boniface was an absolute pleasure. The homilies by Fr Brian Williams are brilliant and something to be remembered, and he has the ability to make everyone feel very welcome, in particular visitors. It is also a beautiful Church and attending Mass there is something to look forward to. Roy Glover, Tzaneen

Henry funeral

HEN I responded to earlier comment regarding the late Archbishop Lawrence Henry's funeral and poor attendance of “whites”, it was not intended to defend “whites” but to state the obvious, that Lawrence Henry, as a priest, worked mainly in coloured areas and made a lot of friends. Fr Brendan Long was my parish priest at the time Lawrence Henry was ordained, and my close friendship with Fr Long lasted many years as well. The similarity between both priests was well known and Fr Long was parish priest at Facreton before returning home. Had he died here, the attendance at the funeral would have been the same as it was for Archbishop Henry. It is not who these two men were but whose lives they touched. I am a coloured person and I am not making a stand for whites. I just cannot fathom how they have to feel guilty for not having had the same contact as others did. That Archbishop Henry and Fr Long did not have enough interaction with whites is not a problem. People who notice this and gloss over it are. I pray that the issue of race will not be raised in this newspaper as this serves no purpose, and that the memory of both these men of God will not be used to score points along racial or militant grounds. They did not see people as some of our readers do. Abe Alexander, Cape Town

Catholic network

T always surprised me, looking through old issues of The Southern Cross, the diversity of advertisements the paper carried in years gone by. From cars to beer, an order of religious sisters to a carpeting company, it seemed Catholics around the country—whether they worked for a Catholic company or not—saw the value in the Catholic network and used the newspaper to reach other Catholics, as they should! But the adverts from banks,

church during Mass? Secondly, what authority does a temporary supply priest have to impose a measure like this? I do not doubt that from the point of view of liturgical correctness, it is better for people to gather together at the front of the church during Mass. However, there is no need for a priest to be obsessive on a minor issue like this. Exaggerated emphasis on small things is a tool used by the devil to divide and discredit the Church and drive people away from God. We have been admonished by Pope Francis to focus on building up the Church through love and compassion and to avoid giving secondary issues such as liturgical correctness a prominence they do not deserve. Frank Bompas, Johannesburg clothing manufacturers, and highend brands have all but disappeared. What happened? Other religious communities also see value in supporting each other and yet, from what I can see, this support has not dwindled as it has in the Catholic world. I would love to know that a particular car sales group is headed by a Catholic—presumably someone with Christian integrity. I would be happy to buy from a national food chain that has fish specials on a Friday, or learn about a devout Catholic who has designed a line of clothing. When I have the option, I choose eco-friendly. I’d also like to have the option to choose Catholic. If only I knew... Claire Mathieson, Cape Town

No jokes at Mass

WAS born in Bergamo, Italy, and lived there for nine years before emigrating to South Africa. I will always remember the atmosphere of reverence in the church during Mass. Those were pre-Vatican II years, but even thereafter that atmosphere remained. One always felt God's house is a holy place. In recent years, however, that atmosphere has changed in most of the churches I have been to. I fail to understand why a priest finds it necessary to tell a joke before the homily. In Luke 4:16 we read that Jesus stood up in the synagogue and read the Scriptures. I can’t imagine him telling a joke before reading from the book of Isaiah. We are being distracted before Mass by announcements, during Mass by jokes, and before the final blessing by more announcements. Let us pray for our priests that they may stay close to Jesus and serve him faithfully. Carla Burger, Port Elizabeth

Get titles right

WOULD be grateful if someone would explain to me the derivation of the designation “Extra Ordinary Minister of the Eucharist”, very often written as “Extraordinary”. It seems that Rome likes fancy designations, and I suspect this one has suffered in translation into English. Who/what is an “Ordinary Minister”? To me priests and deacons are plain Ministers of the Eucharist. Would not the designation “Supplementary Ordinary Minister of the Eucharist” be better? Tom Hogan, Pretoria 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

PERSPECTIVES

The grace of grief Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Mt 5:4) N my younger days this beatitude always left me with a feeling of receiving a consolation prize. Like, “Don’t worry, it will be okay.” And I remember my mother always saying, “These experiences are good, it makes you strong.” I always responded silently: “How?” Mourning is the expression of sorrow for someone’s death. In his book Blessings for Leaders, Dan R Ebener reiterates that we can grow in strength from the experience of mourning. Mourning exercises the muscles of the heart, just as physical activity exercises the muscles of the body. When we mourn we develop resilience. We remember what is most important in life. We empathise with the pain of others. We develop a more durable capacity to mourn again. Although the death of someone close to us is very personal, our mourning is not just personal. Times of mourning bring people together. Our friends, colleagues, and loved ones suffer with us—collective mourning. Mourning enhances our relationships, because when we mourn together as a family or community, we can grow in empathy and love for each other. These relationships strengthen our endurance during times of mourning. In 2007 our family experienced the tragic loss of my father, my sister-in-law, my nephew and niece; all four instantly killed in a car crash. My brother was the only survivor. From his hospital bed he asked me: “What am I going to do?” I remember the hopeless feeling I had. My reply was: “For now, you are going to get better first.” That’s all I could say. How do you comfort or console or reassure some-

one who has lost his father, wife, son and daughter, all in one go? Up until the funeral our family was carried by friends, colleagues, the parish community, neighbours, and even strangers. The experience of this tragic loss of life was too big for us alone. The recent tragedy of the shot-down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 brought disbelief, confusion and utter shock to many of us—let alone to the family and friends of the passengers. The whole world collectively mourned with the families of the 295 passengers who died.

auxiliary Bishop Jan Hendriks of Haarlemamsterdam and churchgoers light 298 candles, representing the victims of the crashed Malaysia airlines Flight MH17 (Photo: Paul Vreeker, United Photos/reuters/CNS)

The youth’s challenges I N the run-up to the national and provincial elections in May, I followed with interest the political campaigns of various political parties—their rallies, manifestos and robust debate and promises made thereof. I particularly paid attention to the messages pertinent to the youth of our country. To be sure, every political leader mentioned the challenges of the youth with passion. Unemployment and lack of opportunities were highlighted, among other challenges. However, I think it was insufficient, and I still feel that a holistic approach to the challenges of the youth is called for. Young people use the abundance of modern means of communicate: on cellphones, tablets or computers they engage with one another and the world through Facebook, WhatsApp, Tumblr, Snapchat and so on. They google information and answers are provided instantly. They know what is happening in other countries. This can be useful, but there is a danger that God is forgotten, excluded from Facebook, WhatsApp, Tumblr and Snapchat. And when God is excluded, gradually the faith is weakened.

youths at a recent Bosco youth Camp in Johannesburg. Cellphone technology and the Internet are presented to us as necessary means of communication, but this need is being overstated to such an extent that we are made to feel that without a cellphone we are out-of-touch with the modern world. Politically, our youth are influenced by the populists. During the election rallies, the youth were bombarded with the latest artist, dance, rhetoric, fashion, and so on. But the big challenges were ignored. Xenophobia was not addressed, which is a problem among many young people, especially at the service delivery protest. Human trafficking failed to feature. Culture as a way of life was neglected. The youth are also faced with the mush-

Judith Turner

Faith and Life

In a strange way we feel connected to people whom we have never seen in our lives before. We can identify with their loss. We feel for them. Why? Because through our own experiences of loss, we can identify with what they are going through. We might not have lost someone through a plane crash, but we have lost someone through death, just as they have. This sense of empathy is an important characteristic of a leader. Leaders must be able to identify where people have been and what they are going through, before they can talk about where we want to lead them. And so we acquire a deeper understanding of painful situations when we have experienced pain ourselves. We become more approachable. That is the blessing that can come through times of mourning. Now, later in my life, my mother’s words—“these experiences are good, it makes you strong”—has much more meaning for me, because I have learnt how to be with a person who has lost a loved one. Before, I was too scared even to go to the house of a family where someone had died. I can’t explain why; I think it was just the thought of a corpse being present. Now I have an understanding of the experience of death and what the family is going through, so it is much less daunting for me now to enter such a house. What I have seen, over the years, through the strength of others, is how people’s empathy for the bereaved family turns into action through the support, material, financial and spiritual that is given to them. Indeed, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Fr Dikotsi Mofokeng

Point of Debate

rooming of evangelical and pentecostal ministries. Some of these, like the politicians, promise prosperity and wealth. They do their best to reach out to the young. But the youth must look carefully that these ministries do not aim to make a profit at all costs. Media houses and advertising companies target the youth with the promise to satisfy all of their cravings and appetites. And so the youth, and even children, fall into the trap of consumerism and materialism. These are the kinds of situations and issues that the youth of today and their animators are facing. How does the Church help the youth to rise above the challenges, both those I’ve mentioned and others faced by the youth, such as drugs, poverty, egoism? Maybe the Church needs to hear the experiences of young people and what they tell the Church about their challenges. This way the Church can better respond pastorally to the needs of our young people. n Fr Dikotsi William Mofokeng is a priest of the diocese of Bethlehem.

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open Door

Does the Church allow circumcision? What is the official stance of the Church regarding circumcision? As far as I know the government is out of line in encouraging the procedure to be done without valid reason. Eddy de Vries IRCUMCISION as a religious rite goes back to the book of Genesis. God told Abraham to introduce it as a sign of the covenant that he had sworn with Abraham and his descendants (Gn 17:9-14). This injunction was carried over into the Law of Moses, and Jews follow it today. When the apostles baptised non-Jews who were uncircumcised, there was some dissension about whether these should be circumcised according to the Law of Moses, or not. Eventually, as described dramatically in Acts 15, it was agreed that salvation now depended not on accepting the circumcision of the old Law but on the grace received through faith in Christ. The apostles regarded the ritual of circumcision as a burden that was now unnecessary. From that time onwards, the Church considered circumcision as a religious observance to be irrelevant among Christians but indispensable in Judaism. There was no direct teaching against the practice, unless it was performed in a religious ceremony that suggested that Christian baptism was inadequate for salvation. Similarly, the Church accepts the cultural practice of circumcision in which, notably in certain regions of South Africa, boys are circumcised in “bush” schools as an initiation into manhood. This rite is indispensable for a young man’s status among his people. In more recent times, circumcision is done surgically for therapeutic reasons of hygiene and health. The Church has no objection to this, either. Non-therapeutic circumcision, however, such as for reasons of vanity or family pressure, is in a different category, and some moralists tend to see it as inadmissible. It has been argued that reasons such as these encourage mutilation, which paragraph 2297 of the Catechism says is immoral. This is debatable because mutilation is normally understood to be the voluntary cutting off or destruction of a healthily functioning organ of the body for no proportionate reason. The medical profession apparently does not favour non-therapeutic removal of the foreskin in the newly born because it is too early for disease to be present in an infant and the procedure removes healthy tissue. Surgical circumcision has been made more easily available in state hospitals as a means of possibly preventing the spread of HIV/Aids. To sum it up: The Church has no issue with circumcision carried out for therapeutic reasons or reasons of religious or cultural tradition. It has no official stand against the practice when done for other reasons, except as a Christian rite. Moral opinion on the matter is not uniform.

n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town,

8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za; or fax (021) 465 3850. Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.

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COMMUNITY

the sisters and child care workers at the Sicelimpilo orphan and vulnerable children’s project in Port Shepstone make traditional zulu beadwork and rosaries which generates some income for their project. HoPE Cape town staff dedicated their time on Mandela Day to feeding children of Blikkiesdorp community in Delft. HoPE is a non-profit organisation providing outreach, education and counselling at the community level, focusing on HIV/aids and tB in the Western Cape.

archbishop Stephen Brislin addresses the confirmation class of Holy redeemer parish in Bergvliet, Cape town, before the Mass at which 24 youths were confirmed.

archbishop William Slattery of Durban confirmed 29 young people at St Mary's parish in Kwamhlanga, Mpumalanga.

First Holy Communion was celebrated on the feast of Corpus Christi at the oratory parish of St Bernadette in Walmer, Port Elizabeth. the children are (from left) aidan Jarvis, Mats Mock, Isabella roche, Dana Barclay, Hunter Swans, Deacon Barnes and Lutho Dala.

The St Boniface Community

is presenting its annual Church Bazaar on Sunday 31 August 2014. Starting with an open-air Mass at 9.00am at the St Boniface Community Centre, Cnr Puttick Ave and Kowie Road, Sundowner Ext 8, Randburg. Tel 011 795 3651

Send your photos to pics@ scross.co.za

Learners’ parents, teachers and friends of Sacred Heart College Primary School in Johannesburg, walked for 67 minutes for various charities. the parents’ association sold bacon and egg rolls and the Grade 6 learner leadership committees organised food stalls. approximately r9 000 was raised from the stalls and the Big Walk for St Jane’s de Chantal Home (HIV-positive and abandoned children), HIVSa (the perinatal unit at Baragwanath Hospital), the Children’s Hospital of orange County, the association for autism and Nazareth House.

Dr CW zondo donated 16 blankets to the needy and vulnerable of Empangeni community in KwazuluNatal.

Grade 5 learners from Brescia House in Johanesburg spent 67 minutes on Mandela Day preparing packets which included a sandwich, a sachet of soup and a “Happy Mandela Day” message. these were distributed by the girls to needy people in the community. (From left) Caitlyn russell, Mikayla Deftereos, Nkatya Musonda, Shanti Patel, Lysshah rajwani, alexia Frawley and Sarah toulekima.

100-year-old Stella rebelo has been a parishioner of our Lady of Fatima parish in Belville, Cape town, for 20 years. She was born in Green Point, and grew up in Sacred Heart and St Margaret Mary’s parishes. Ms rebelo loves to go on outings and at 96 went on a plane and boat trip to Mozambique and the Portuguese Islands. Ms rebelo is pictured with parish priest Fr Bogdan Buksa.

Prison Care and Support Network

We the Marriage Encounter community would like to invite you to a Thanksgiving Mass. Date: Time: Where:

Wednesday, 6 August 2014 7pm Our Lady of Perpetual Help 7 The Crescent, DURBANVILLE Celebrants: Fr Paul Taylor, Fr Emmanuel Siljeur, Fr Mike van Heerden & Fr Sean Collins

Praise and Worship before Mass

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CHRISTIAN UNITY

the Southern Cross, July 30 to august 5, 2014

Pope Francis and late South African friend led toppling of ‘spiritual Berlin Wall’ A South African-raised evangelical leader was at the forefront of bringing pentecostal and evangelical Protestants closer to Rome. Just days before his tragic death, Bishop Tony Palmer spoke with STUART GRAHAM.

OPE Francis and his South African friend, a bishop from an evangelical Anglican breakaway church, worked together to unite Catholics and evangelical churches to end years of separation and division. Tragically, Bishop Tony Palmer, was not there when the pontiff had his meeting with pentecostals in the Italian town of Casserta, scheduled for July 28. The Britishborn and South African-raised Bishop Palmer died in a motorcycle accident in England on July 20, just days after returning from a visit to South Africa (see page 1). Just before he left the country of his youth, Bishop Palmer told The Southern Cross that Pope Francis, whom he befriended in 2006 when he was a missionary in Argentina, asked him what he could do to encourage unity with evangelical and pentecostal Protestants. “We are asking people to stand together for a common Gospel,” Bishop Palmer said. “It is ground breaking. There are no protocols in the Vatican for this,” he noted. “These are exciting times. This is like the spiritual Berlin Wall coming down.” Bishop Palmer said Pope Francis called in January and asked him to visit the Vatican. “During our meeting he asked me what I could do to encourage unity with Protestants,” Bishop Palmer said. He told the pope: “I’m attending a conference of pentecostal evangelical leaders in Texas next week. Why don’t you record a message for them?” The pope obliged and Palmer recorded a 45-minute message on his iPhone. In the message Pope Francis

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said all Christians share blame for their divisions. He also spoke of his longing for unity and insisted that God would bring the miracle of Christian unity to completion. “Pray to the Lord that he will unite us all,” Pope Francis said in his message. “Let's move forward, we are brothers. Let us give each other that spiritual embrace and allow the Lord to complete the work he has begun. Because this is a miracle. The miracle of unity has begun.” The conference responded with warmth to the pope’s message. Bishop Palmer said the message went viral when it was posted on the video website YouTube. “Someone leaked it, but Pope Francis was all right with it. We received such a positive feedback,” he said. “I had to go back and see him in April. I showed him what the feedback was like. He and I were both amazed. He did not expect such a positive response.”

n June 24 a three-hour meeting was held with the pope and a delegation of evangelical ministers who, Bishop Palmer said, “represent 80% of the world’s evangelical Christians”. The delegation included James and Betty Robison, hosts of the Life Today television programme, Kenneth Copeland, founder of Kenneth Copeland ministries (for whom Bishop Palmer previously worked), Rev Geoff Tunnicliff, chief executive of the World Evangelical Alliance, as well as Rev Brian Stiller and Rev Thomas Schirrmacher, also from the World Evangelical Alliance. “In that meeting all the leaders agreed to sign a joint declaration,” Bishop Palmer said. “Evangelical leaders agreed that their protest [against the Catholic Church] was over and we should take concrete steps to declare unity so the world may see we are one.” Bishop Palmer said the group is waiting for Pope Francis “to come up with the next step”, but “it is phenomenal to see positive responses from people in general”. He noted that a minority are confused by the idea of unity. They are afraid that this means

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Pope Francis speaks in a video recorded on an iPhone at the Vatican by Bishop anthony Palmer (inset), international ecumenical officer for the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. In the video the pope said all Christians share blame for their divisions and says that God will bring the miracle of Christian unity to completion. the late Bishop Palmer was a Pentecostal pastor the pope knew in argentina. (Main photo: youtube/CNS, Inset: aleteia.org)

they will have “to give up doctrines and identity. Some are confused because they think the pope is calling on us to compromise our doctrine. He is not. This is unity of diversity. It is not a unity of uniformity.” Pope Francis told the evangelical leaders that “there are only two things we need in common: You have to love God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself. When you learn to love your neighbour, you learn to love all the more.” Bishop Palmer told The Southern Cross that he wished to see Pope Francis visit South Africa. “He is aware that a large part of the Catholic Church is growing in Africa, but, of course, he has many things on his plate, like reconciliation. Reconciliation is number one in his heart.” n For more information go to thear kcommunity.org

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a delegation of evangelical Christian leaders met privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Guests included James and Betty robison, co-hosts of the american Life Today television programme, and Kenneth Copeland, co-host of Believer’s Voice of Victory. the meeting lasted almost three hours and included a private luncheon with Pope Francis. (Photo: Life outreach)

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the Southern Cross, July 30 to august 5, 2014

SAINTS

Meet a great witness for Christ A remarkable nun who might become a saint one day was born in Pretoria in 1901. FR KEVIN REYNOLDS introduces us to Sr Mary of the Holy Trinity

HE canonisation of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II in April made the universal Church aware once more of the importance of people being raised to sainthood. Saints essentially remind us that living the way of Christ is possible. A special feature of the Church’s newest saints is that they lived in the lifetime of many of us. A particularly appealing aspect of the canonisation process exists when it is held for someone of one’s own country. To date, no South African has yet been raised to the altars of the Church. At present, there are a few people from our country whose cause for sainthood is in the pipeline. One of these is Benedict Daswa, the martyr of Tzaneen whose story has been covered frequently in The Southern Cross, including a comprehensive feature last week. He may become the first South African to be beatified, if the Vatican’s Congregation for Sainthood Causes forwards the cause to Pope Francis and he then approves it. We may have good news before

the end of the year. Another is the Austrian-born founder of the Missionaries of Mariannhill and the Precious Blood Sisters, Abbot Francis Pfanner. And then there is a Poor Clare Sister, Mary of the Holy Trinity. Louise Jacques was born of Protestant parents in Pretoria on April 20, 1901. Her mother died soon after Louise’s birth. Her father, who was a missionary, decided to take baby Louise, her two sisters and their brother as well as an aunt to his native Switzerland. There the children were raised by Aunt Alice who became a second mother to them. Louise grew up in poor health, with pulmonary troubles. This did not affect her lively intelligence and love of culture. She worked briefly as a teacher and a secretary before returning to South Africa with her father in 1921. Returning to Europe again, Louise was treated in a clinic for tuberculosis. Her love for her relations and her compassion for others in pain and suffering caused Louise so many trials and disappointments that she sank into despair. In the depth of her spiritual misery, Louise felt that life was not worth living. She even doubted the existence of God. However, Christ manifested his care for her in a remarkable way. It is held that on the evening of February 13, 1925, Louise awoke to see an apparition of a woman in a

dark robe at her bedside. All fear and despair seemed to leave her immediately. Light and peace flooded her soul to guide her on her way. There and then Louise decided to become a nun. Two years later she first became a Catholic. The conflict with her family which this decision provoked caused Louise much distress. Her search for a convent to accept her despite her poor health lasted nearly ten years. After a few failed attempts to join the religious life, Louise was finally accepted in 1939 by the Poor Clares’ convent in Jerusalem.

rom the moment Louise entered this strict order, she made remarkable progress in her spiritual life. Her superiors record that “in spite of her independent character, she became, by degrees, a docile and obedient member of the community”. Her charity tempered her ardent zeal as a convert who wished to share her own spiritual enthusiasm. In 1940, like another contemplative before her, St Thérèse of Lisieux, upon the orders of her confessor, Sr Mary began recounting her spiritual journey in French. This was translated later into English. It records her spiritual story in the form of letters to her confessor. Sr Mary’s diary naturally starts with a short account of her conversion and vocation. This book,

Sister Mary of the Holy trinity joins the other causes for sainthood with a South african connection. (Inset) the site of her grave in Jerusalem.

published only after her death, has proved to be the means of great help and spiritual revival for many. After a life of spiritual intensity and much physical suffering, this holy nun died of influenza in June 1942. She is buried in the Poor Clares’ convent grounds in Jerusalem. Over the years, many South Africans and those ministering in this country, such as Archbishop William Slattery and Fr Hyacinth Ennis OFM, both of Pretoria and the late Southern Cross columnist Owen Williams, have visited Sr Mary’s grave. In a March 2004 column, Mr Williams described this cemetery as an island of tranquility in a troubled city. During one crisis of physical weakness, Sr Mary wrote: “I have but one thought which continuously returns to me and which gives me strength—Heart of Jesus, I trust in you.” Interestingly, in 1963 Pretoria’s Portuguese church was built a stone’s throw from Sr Mary’s place of birth in Pretoria West. It is also noteworthy that the motto of Archbishop Emeritus George Daniel’s coat of arms, “That they may be one” (John 17:21), describes well the mission of Sr Mary’s life. Her being born Protestant but dying Catholic certainly expresses Christ’s desire for unity. n Those who believe they have received grace through the intercession of Sr Mary of the Holy Trinity are asked to communicate with the Father Custodian of the Holy Land (P.O. Box 186, Jerusalem 91001, Israel).

Encounters with the Lord Our Lord’s words to Sr Mary on humility “It is with coal that I make diamonds. What would I not do with a soul, however black she might be, who would give herself to Me!” “Do you understand that you are nothing? Apart from Me you are nothing but rebellion, refusal, negation.” “When you do not think of yourself, My grace visits you, and I provide what is necessary for you. When you try to do it yourself, I leave you to your own care.” On abandonment and trusting in God: “Let me act; you are not competent to do anything; it is not your province.” “My little daughter, if you endeavour to speak to Me, your voice might drown Mine...It is better to keep a respectful silence that allows you to listen to Me.” “The most important work is not that which you do, it is that which you allow Me to do among you.” “The purpose of your life does not lie in the personal merit due to your generosity; your merit will lie in using all your generosity to allow Me to live in you.”

ON TAPE

A group of readers is preparing audio tapes of excerpts from The Southern Cross for interested people who are blind, sight-impaired, unable to hold a newspaper or illiterate.

Anyone wanting to receive tapes as part of this service, available for an annual subscription fee of only R50, may contact Mr Len Pothier, 8 The Spinney Retirement Village, Main Rd, Hout Bay, 7806 or phone 021-790 1317.

The Post Office will deliver and return tapes without charge. Should you know of any interested blind or otherwise reading-impaired person, please inform them of this service.

CLASSIFIEDS Fr Mahatane Samson Kataka OMI

BLATE Father Mahatane Samson Kataka of Johannesburg died on July 9, aged 78. Sam, as he was popularly known among many priests, grew up in Lady Selbourne, Pretoria. He attended the Catholic school there where he found his vocation to the priesthood and religious life. I first met him at the minor seminary in Lesotho in the 1950s. He was a very dignified young man. His age and dignity commanded a lot of respect from all of us. He was soft spoken and never said much. But when he opened his mouth, we all felt compelled to listen and heed the message. At the novitiate in the 1960s he earned the nickname Bishop. He was slender, tall and soft. When draped in his double breasted jacket with his hand tucked deep in his pocket he walked gracefully in a gait befitting a bishop. Fr Kataka worked in several areas in the Lord’s vineyard with great dedication and wisdom. He served in houses of formation shaping young souls for the ministry of the priesthood and the religious life. Due to his noble character and the love priests had for him, he was appointed provincial superior for the then Oblate province of the Transvaal. This office he served with amazing humility and efficiency. He had to be returned for a sec-

ond term. I had the rare privilege of serving in his counsel. After the ministry of formation and the provincialate, Fr Kataka was engaged in parish ministries. In his first assignment as a parish priest in Moletsane, at St Phillip’s, Fr Kataka began his ministry in a most wonderful way: seeking to know the people you are going to serve. He walked the streets of Moletsane, Tladi, Jabulani and Zola, visiting Catholics in their homes. He came to know them. They came to know him. After his hard work in many parishes in Soweto, even during the toughest times of the 1976 June upheavals, the authorities committed the parish of St Mary’s Queen of the Apostles, Munsieville, to his care. He worked as diligently as he could in Munsieville until his illhealth made it impossible for him to can go any further. His greatest concern was for the people of God. He pleaded: “I find it very unfair to God’s people for me to be hanging on incapable of doing anything productive for the people.”

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 613. ACROSS: 1 Repeal, 4 Oblige, 9 Hail, Holy Queen, 10 Stirred, 11 Exits, 12 Piety, 14 Strap, 18 Trevi, 19 Barrier, 21 Deep in the fire, 22 Assays, 23 Lawyer. DOWN: 1 Rehash, 2 Primitiveness, 3 Abhor, 5 Request, 6 Inevitability, 7 Ernest, 8 Slide, 13 Trinity, 15 Stadia, 16 Abate, 17 Arrear, 20 Arena.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: August 3: Bishop Zolile Peter Mpambani of Kokstad, on the third anniversary of his episcopal ordination.

Community Calendar

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

DURBAN: St Anthony’s parish in Durban has Holy Mass and Novena to St anthony every tuesday at 9am. PIETERMARITZBURG: Couples for Christ women’s conference on

august 22 and 23 at FEt College, Pietermaritzburg. registration fee: r150 per person (before July 31) or r180 thereafter. Contact Mary Chetty at 0724445144 or olivia Sampson at 0795177492.

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I was subsequently given the privilege of carrying forward where Fr Kataka had left off. Due to his influence in Munsieville, St Mary’s has become a real home for me. I am happy to be here. Many young men studying for the priesthood have made Munsieville their preferred home. We are never without them in our parish. In his later years, Fr Kataka lived in Victory Park, Johannesburg, under considerable pain, always in and out of hospital. But he always smiled and joked about his ordeal. Those who went to console him came back consoled themselves. It was a painful moment for his family, colleagues and friends when his passing on was announced. All we have at our disposal is to pray for him. The words of St Paul are most fitting for Fr Kataka: “As for me, my life has already been poured out as a libation; And the time has come for me to be gone. I have fought a good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his Appearing (Tim 4:6-8).” Fr KE Shomang OMI

Liturgical Calendar Year A Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday, August 3 Isaiah 55:1-3, Psalm 145:8-9, 15-18, Romans 8:35:37-39, Matthew 14:13-21 Monday, August 4, St John Mary Vianney Jeremiah 28:1-17, Psalm 119:29, 43, 79-80, 95, 102, Matthew 14:22-36 Tuesday, August 5 Jeremiah 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22, Psalm 102:1621, 29, 22-23, Matthew 14:22-36 or Matthew 15:1-2, 14-14 Wednesday, August 6, The Transfiguration of the Lord Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9, 2 Peter 1:16-19, Matthew 17:1-9 Thursday, August 7 Jeremiah 31:31-34, Psalm 51:12-15, 18-19, Matthew 16:13-23 Friday, August 8, Holy Father Dominic 2 Timothy 4:1-5, Psalm 37:3-6, 30-31, Matthew 5:13-16 Saturday, August 9, St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) Habakkuk 1:12-2:4, Psalm 9:8-13, Matthew 17:14-20 Sunday, August 10 1 Kings 19:9, 11-13, Psalm 85:9-14, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33

the Southern Cross, July 30 to august 5, 2014

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Births • First Communion • Confirmation • Engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • thanks • Prayers • accommodation • Holiday accommodation • Personal • Services • Employment • Property • others Please include payment (R1,37 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

BIRTHDAYS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY tina Langley, august 4, have an awesome God-filled and angel day, Love Basil, taryn and Bronwyn. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my late brother Dominic Davids, august 10, celebrating with the angels in heaven, love tina Langley. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dad, Cecil Davids, august 13, God's richest blessings, love you tina, taryn, Bronwyn and Basil Langley.

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PRAYERS

THANKS

GRATEFUL thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our Mother Mary and Ss rita, Joseph, anthony, Jude and Martin de Porres for prayers answered. rCP.

DEATHS

SARDINHA–—alice (rodrigues), passed away July 3, 2014. Deeply mourned by her husband Elmano and children Ivonne, Louis and terry, brother adelino Vasco Feandeiro, wife Celsa Maria and children Valeria, andres and families in Europe.

IN MEMORIAM

CERFONTYNE—Michael. In loving memory of our dear son and brother who passed away July 16, 2010. We will always love and keep you in our hearts. Mom, Dad, Heidi and Carla. PARIS—Mary Louisa. Mamma, you left us 10 years ago 3/8/2004. time may pass and fade away, but in our hearts you will always remain. We miss you dearly. Gone but never forgotten. always in our prayers, from your loving daughter Gloria, ruben and grandchildren. PEREIRA—Joao augustinho. In loving memory of our dear Pai, who passed away august 8, 1974. Forty years have gone, that we used to share but in our hearts you’re always there. a thought, a prayer, are all we give. these you will have as long as we live. rest in peace dear Pai with all our Love Mom Maria, Celeste, teresa, Hilda and all our family.

PERSONAL

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in time of need. to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. In return I promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. amen. In thanks for prayers answered, Pat.

O MOST Holy Virgin Mary, who chose to appear on the Sierra de aire, in the Cova de Iria, to three young shepherds to reveal the treasures of grace held in the recitation of the rosary, impress upon our souls a fervent love for this devotion. By meditating on the mysteries of our redemption, may we learn how to use the teachings which lie therein and obtain the graces we ask in this prayer. For the Glory of God and the redeeming of our souls. amen. Photostat and distribute. HOLY ST JUDE, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. In return I promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. amen. rCP. HOLY ST JUDE, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. In return I promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. amen. remo Ciolli. HOLY ST JUDE, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron

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19th Sunday: August 10 Readings: 1 Kings 19:9, 11-13, Psalm 85:914, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33

OW do you find out what God is saying to you? What we have to do, you and I, is to listen out for that unmistakable voice, which speaks with an accent that is not our own, and may say some rather unexpected things, which turn out to be exactly right. That is what the readings for next Sunday seem to be telling us. The first reading is the extraordinary story of Elijah, after he has been unwise enough to win a battle against the prophets of Baal, who are the favoured religious spokespersons of Queen Jezebel. The upshot is that he has had to flee for his life into the desert, to Horeb, the mountain of God, where he found a cave in which to lodge. And there he meets God, but not in the way that you would expect. First he hears “a great and mighty wind, tearing the mountains and crushing rocks”, and then the narrator makes the comment that “the Lord was not in the wind”; the same goes for an “earthquake” and a “fire”. Finally, there is “a tiny whispering sound, and when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his cloak. And he went out and stood at

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Listen for God’s unexpected call Nicholas King SJ

Sunday reflections

the entrance to the cave”. We are not told, in this reading, what happened to him (though you can read it for yourself). The point for us seems to be that God speaks in unexpected ways. That means, of course, that we have to listen attentively, which is what the psalmist promises: “I shall listen for what God will say”, and then indicates how you can tell that it is God: “The Lord will speak peace”, and “Salvation is near to those who fear the Lord.” Another criterion is that “love and truth shall embrace” and “truth shall spring up from the earth”. Not only that, but when God speaks, “justice shall go before him, and peace

shall follow his steps”. Nevertheless, it is still possible for us to wonder what God can possibly be saying, when things seem impossibly difficult. That is Paul’s problem in the second reading. He has just made it clear that God’s plan includes non-Jews, but now he has to face the question: What about the Jews? Are they not God’s chosen people? And to that question he has to give a very firm “Yes”. Paul really feels the pain that his fellow-Jews have not embraced his beloved Christ, and he emphasises that “it is from them that comes adoption as God’s children, and the glory and the covenants and the Law, and worship and the promises, and from them came Christ. God over all be blessed forever. Amen!” Paul has not worked out how this will happen, but he is clear that God is speaking in this painful situation. In the gospel for next Sunday we see the disciples coming to recognise how it is that God (in Jesus) speaks to them. It starts very oddly, in that after the feed-

Suicide: reclaiming memories E

ACH year I write a column on suicide. I don’t claim any originality or special insight; I write about suicide only because there is such a desperate need for anyone to address the question. Moreover, in my case, as a Catholic priest and spiritual writer, I feel it important to offer something to try to help dispel the false perception which so many people, not least many inside the Church itself, have of the Church’s understanding of suicide. Simply put, I’m no expert, not anyone’s saviour—there’s just so little out there. And, each year, that column finds its audience. I am constantly surprised and occasionally overwhelmed by the feedback. For the last ten years, I don’t think a single week has gone by when I did not receive an e-mail, a letter, or phone call from someone who has lost a loved one to suicide. When talking about suicide, at least to those who are left behind when a loved one succumbs to this, the same themes must be emphasised over and over again. As Margaret Atwood puts it, sometimes something needs to be said and said until it doesn’t need to be said anymore. What needs to be said over and over again about suicide? • That, in most cases, suicide is a disease; that it takes people out of life against their will; • that it is the emotional equivalent of a stroke, heart attack, or cancer; that peo-

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Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final reflection

ple who fall victim to this disease almost invariably are very sensitive persons who end up for myriad reasons being too bruised to be touched; • that those of us left behind should not spend a lot of time second-guessing, wondering whether we failed in some way; and, finally, • that given God’s mercy, the particular anatomy of suicide, and the sensitive souls of those who fall prey to it, we should not be unduly anxious about the eternal salvation of those who fall prey to it. This year, prompted by a particularly moving book by Harvard psychiatrist Nancy Rappaport, I would like to add another thing that needs to be said about suicide, namely, that it is incumbent on those of us who are left behind to work at redeeming the life and memory of a loved one who died by suicide. What’s implied in this?

here is still a huge stigma surrounding suicide. For many reasons, we find it hard both to understand suicide and to come to peace with it. Obituaries rarely name it, opting instead for a euphemism of some kind to

name the cause of death. Moreover—and more troubling—we, the ones left behind, tend to bury not only the one who dies by suicide but his or her memory as well. Pictures come off the walls, scrapbooks and photos are excised, and there is forever a discreet hush around the cause of their deaths. Ultimately neither their deaths nor their persons are genuinely dealt with. There is no healthy closure, only a certain closing of the book, a cold closing, one that leaves a lot of business unfinished. This is unfortunate, a form of denial. We must work at redeeming the life and memory of our loved ones who have died by suicide. This is what Nancy Rappaport does with the life and memory of her own mother, who died by suicide when Nancy was still a child. (In Her Wake, A Child Psychiatrist Explores the Mystery of Her Mother’s Suicide, Basic Book, NY). After her mother’s suicide, Nancy lived, as do so many of us who have lost a loved one to suicide, with a haunting shadow surrounding her mother’s death. And that shadow then coloured everything else about her mother. It ricocheted backwards so as to have the suicide define her mother’s character, her integrity, and her love for those around her too much. A suicide, that’s botched in our understanding, in effect, does that: it functions like the antithesis of a canonisation. With this as a background, Rappaport sets off to make sense of her mother’s suicide, to redeem her bond to her mother, and, in essence, to redeem her mother’s memory in the wake of her suicide. Her effort mirrors that of novelist, Mary Gordon, whose book Circling my Mother attempts to come to grips with her mother’s Alzheimer’s and her death. Gordon, like Rappaport, is too trying to put a proper face on the diminishment and death of a loved one, redeeming the memory both for herself and for others. The difference is that, for most people, suicide trumps Alzheimer’s in terms of stigma and loss. Few things stigmatise someone’s life and meaning as does a death by suicide, and so there is something truly redemptive in properly coming to grips with this kind of stigma. We must do for our loved ones what Nancy Rappaport did for her mother, namely, redeem their lives and their memory.

ing of the 5 000, Jesus “compelled the disciples to go into the boat, and to go ahead of him”; then Jesus gets rid of the crowds as well, and goes up the mountain to pray alone. Then, in the small hours, Jesus comes to them “walking on the sea”. They, of course, are convinced that it is an “apparition”. Jesus tries to calm them: “Courage—it is I”, but to no avail, and Peter takes the lead, with the idiotic response, “Lord—if it is you, order me to come to you on the waters”. So Jesus does that, and at first Peter succeeds, but then realises what he has done, and starts to sink, and bellows (this is a good prayer for any of us, by the way), “Lord—save me”. Effortlessly (of course) Jesus does so, with just the mildest of reproaches, “You of little faith—why did you doubt?”, and suddenly they are back in the boat, the wind has ceased, and they are worshipping Jesus as Son of God. What might the Lord be saying to you this week, and in what unexpected way?

Southern Crossword #613

ACROSS 1. Abolish the law and ring bells again (6) 4. Coerce you to be polite (6) 9. Marian prayer (4,4,5) 10. Disturbed your cup of tea? (7) 11. More than one way to get out (5) 12. Type I move to holiness (5) 14. Leather strip (5) 18. Roman fountain (5) 19. Kind of reef in the sea (7) 21. Where you may find the wickedest devil (4,2,3,4) 22. Says as much about metals tests (6) 23. Church expert dealing in canons (6)

DOWN 1. Dish up the same old recipe (6) 2. Indication of earliest scriptural texts (13) 3. Some despise Arab horribly (5) 5. Ask in prayer (7) 6. Certainty of being unavoidable (13) 7. He sounds a serious man (6) 8. How you go down the slippery slope (5) 13. College of divinity? (7) 15. Ancient Roman measures of length (6) 16. A beat that will become less intense (5) 17. In here you are behind (6) 20. Space for the Roman games (5) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

T a large parish, Br Robert was known as “Mister Fix It”. Everyone knew that they could call on him in every difficulty and with every problem and he was sure to help. The Sunday School teacher had told the children the Bible story of Jesus being lost in the Temple and how his parents spent three days searching for him and how worried they were. A little girl piped up: “But where was Br Robert?”