141001

The

S outhern C ross

October 1 to October 7, 2014

Reg No. 1920/002058/06 No 4893

www.scross.co.za

Pope wept as he heard priest’s story

Page 5

R7,00 (incl VAT RSA)

Fr Rolheiser shines new light on Prodigal Son

Page 12

SA couple on way to Vatican’s synod of bishops

Page 9

SA archbishop warns: Beware of false prophets

BY STUART GRAHAM

P People gather in St James Square in Barcelona, Spain to watch the construction of a human tower and to celebrate their patron saint, The Virgin of Mercy. (Photo: Gustau Nacarino, Reuters/CNS)

Post Office could kill The Southern Cross STAFF REPORTER

T

HE Southern Cross will be hit hard by losses from sales after parishes in several centres did not receive the newspaper for weeks due to a series of postal strikes.

The newspaper relies for the bulk of its distribution on the Post Office because other methods would impact on the cover price, said business manager Pamela Davids.

Some weeks during the strike parcels addressed to parishes throughout the country did not even leave the Cape Mail depot.

Parishes in areas such as Bloemfontein, Durban, Witspos and Pretoria were particularly affected by the strikes, which began in early August.

“We have not calculated the losses we have incurred due to the strikes, but it will run into the tens of thousands, possibly above R100 000,” Ms Davids said.

“A newspaper that runs on small margins, like The Southern Cross, could be killed off by this,” she added.

Ms Davids said that some parishes have been very generous in absorbing the loss as a way of supporting The Southern Cross.

“Some parishes told us that they will sell the older issues when they are finally delivered because, they say, the content of The Southern Cross is timeless,” Ms Davids said.

Post Office services are notoriously unreli-

able, especially in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, even when there are no strikes, she said.

Matters became so bad in Johannesburg a few years ago that The Southern Cross decided to courier the allocations for the archdiocese’s bigger parishes for distribution through Radio Veritas.

“The Post Office’s lack of service is exasperating, because not only do we lose sales, but readers are angry when they don’t receive their weekly newspaper,” Ms Davids said.

The board of directors of the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company, which publishes The Southern Cross, has investigated alternative methods of distribution, but none have proved financially viable.

“A functioning postal service is crucial in any country’s economy. So when a national postal service consistently fails to provide what it is there for, then it isn’t far-fetched to speak of economic sabotage,” said the board’s chairman, Chris Moerdyk.

The Southern Cross is making available back issues on its website for those who missed them during the strike action. They can be downloaded in PDF format at www.scross.co.za/?p=15736 To subscribe to the digital edition Southern Cross—which looks exactly like the print edition—go to www.digital.scross.co.za/subscribe or e-mail Avril at subscriptions@scross.co.za

EOPLE seeking spiritual guidance must be wary of “false prophets” who are making money out of religion, an archbishop has warned.

Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria said the collapse of the guesthouse at faith healer TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria, last month had raised “many questions” for the Church.

Many South Africans were among the victims.

“People went believing that they were receiving help and now they were being brought back in coffins,” Archbishop Slattery said.

“We are extremely sorry that these religious people have ended in this terrible way.

This raises many questions for us as Church people.”

Around 115 people, including the 84 South Africans, were killed and dozens trapped when the church’s three-storey guesthouse collapsed.

Around 350 South Africans were thought to be visiting the church, in the Ikotun neighbourhood of Lagos, at the time.

South African worshippers, some of whom were trapped and injured in the rubble, attended TB Joshua’s weekly sermon on Sunday after the collapse.

Mr Joshua, whom his followers refer to as “The Prophet" or “The Man of God”, told the congregation at the service that he would travel to South Africa to meet people from South Africa and other nations “in memory of martyrs of faith”.

Archbishop Slattery said people must look for signs of authenticity in religious leaders.

“We have 6 000 independent churches in South Africa...There are a lot of people involved in the business of religion. We need to give some reflection to it,”he said. “We must look for genuine religious leaders or prophets.”

Religious leaders live good moral lives and do not hop “from one wife to another”, he said.

“One would expect them to be honest and just people. They are not abusing money at a fantastic rate for their own personal comfort,” the archbishop said.

“I would expect them to tend towards hu-

mility, not self-promotion. Saintly people always hide their gifts. They use their gifts, but they will try to hide them and point out these are God’s gifts.”

Archbishop Slattery said faith must be built on reason and on “the rational use of the laws of nature”.

Archbishop Slattery, “Grace builds on who has warned nature and nature is Christians to beware God given,” he said. of preachers who are “All those laws in it for the money. that control rising of sun and moon, photosynthesis, laws governing the animal world... These are God-given laws that have evolved over millenia. Life must be guided by the laws of nature—not by miracles.”

Archbishop Slattery said Mr Joshua’s reaction after the building collapse beggars belief.

“The immediate response of TB Joshua was that some plane passed over the building before it collapsed. This doesn’t make much sense. Thousands of planes pass over Tembisa without any buildings collapsing.”

The archbishop also rejected blaming “Satan” for the disaster, as some religious leaders have done. “It is very easy to blame Satan and shirk on your personal responsibility,” he said.

Archbishop Slattery said the local Catholic Church is “calling on the people of South Africa to get behind the bereaved and help in whatever way we can”.

Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference communication officer Fr S’milo Mngadi said the Church was shocked at the Lagos incident.

“The Catholic Church passes heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives during the collapse of a building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations,” he said.

“It is sad when people die in such tragedy while they are on a quest to find God and to deepen their spirituality. May this sad occasion stir us all into conversion and deeper relationship with God,” Fr Mngadi said.

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The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

LOCAL

Dowling warns on IS

BY DENNIS SADOWSKI

E

XPANDED airstrikes on Islamic State (IS) positions in Syria serve as little more than a recruiting tool for the extremist group and place more innocent people in danger, Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, co-president of Pax Christi International, has warned.

The three top leaders of the Catholic peace organisation also called upon the world, particularly the United Nations, to work together to seek non-violent alternatives to stop IS’s expansion and influence in Iraq and Syria.

Bishop Dowling, fellow co-president Marie Dennis, and secretarygeneral José Henriquez suggested several steps that they believe will bring lasting peace to the violenceprone region during an interview with Catholic News Service hours after a US-led international coalition attacked Islamic State forces in Syria.

The Catholic peace leaders proposed alternatives to war such as wide-ranging diplomacy, including direct talks with Islamic State leaders, and economic actions aimed at limiting the group’s access to millions of dollars in oil revenues that fund weapons purchases.

“We believe that especially the expansion of bombing is more likely to create a significant recruiting bonanza for some of the extremist groups, IS included,” Ms Dennis told CNS. “IS is very well funded and steps

Bishop Kevin Dowling, co-president of Pax Christi International, during an interview in Washington. (Photo: Bob Roller/CNS) must be taken to identify the sources of their funding and to stop them,” she said.

In the United States for a Pax Christi programme on international peacemaking in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Bishop Dowling said the violence that began with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 had resulted in years of discord along religious and ethnic lines. He said little was done to include voices representing local and minority communities in planning for recovery and rebuilding after the invasion, which toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“Here we have a situation where going in there and investing so heavily in war and violence has not

solved the situation. We are now reaping the fruits of the fact that there wasn’t an inclusive political, social response,” Bishop Dowling said.

“It’s this inclusive dialogue and non-violent way of bringing people together, of facilitating understanding, that’s what has to be done.

Otherwise, we simply perpetuate a situation where people’s only thought is, ‘We’ve been violated, so we will take revenge, and to restore our sense of dignity, we have to respond to violence done to us.’

“But that doesn’t achieve anything either. So we’ve got to find other ways, non-violent ways, inclusive ways,” the bishop added.

For true peace to be achieved, “it has to be, like in the Church, through the principle of subsidiarity,” Bishop Dowling said. “The issues have to be informed from the grassroots, as seen and analysed by the affected people. The agents of transformation are not those at the top. They’re the people engaged at the community level.”

He added: “Sustainable peace has to include action on all the issues, problems and causes that led to war and violence. And sadly, in the push to end wars and violence, not enough attention at all is paid to the fact that if we are going to sustain this peace beyond signing a peace agreement, then we are going to have to deal systematically with all these core issues.”—CNS

Orphanage struggles on after murder

BY STUART GRAHAM

T

HE Bethany Children’s Home in Mthatha is struggling on without volunteers after the murder of its founder, Sr Mary Paule Tacke, in June.

Rose Kasumbi, who took charge of Bethany after Sr Tacke’s death, said the orphanage had survived with the help of foreign volunteers supplied by the Britain-based Project Trust—but the organisation pulled out of Mthatha after the murder.

“Project Trust pulled out after Sister Mary Paule’s murder in June.

They cited lots of incidents of crime with their volunteers in town,” Ms Kasumbi said. “They said this could have been one of their volunteers who was killed.”

The organisation told the home:

Retirement Home, Rivonia, Johannesburg Tel:011 803 1451 www.lourdeshouse.org

“If something happened to one of our kids, what would we say to their parents?”

Ms Kasumbi hopes Project Trust will reconsider its decision, but for now the orphanage and its 74 children, who are all under the age of six, are relying on the help of the local community.

“It is the nature of a business with no fixed income—we need volunteers,” said Ms Kasumbi.

“But we have been well supported by our local communities in a small but consistent way. They have rallied around us. We are very grateful for this,” she said.

Asiphe Ndikinda, 26, and Masixoli Mdlebe, 21, allegedly hijacked, kidnapped and then murdered Sr Tacke, 82, in Mthatha on June 15.

People who worked with her saw

her car in Mthatha and followed it.

The police were called and during the ensuing chase the car overturned. Two occupants ran away.

Sr Tacke’s body was found in Nangeni, in a small stream in the veld, on June 16.

Ndikinda was arrested in Mthatha on June 19, and Mdlebe was arrested in the Ngcwanguba area the following morning.

The men have been denied bail and are awaiting trial. A date for their trial has not yet been set.

Sr Tacke, was born in Cottonwood, Idaho, in the US, on March 17, 1932. She began her missionary work in South Africa at the Mariazell mission near Matatiele.

In 1955 she founded Bethany, a home for abandoned children from newborns to age six. She was its director from 1955 to 2007.

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Artist Margaret Mkhize’s weaving features the story of the Prodigal Son.

Master weaver’s work relates tale of Prodigal Son

T

O coincide with the Year of the Family, artist Margaret Mkhize, whose story we featured in the issue of August 6, has made this weaving of the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32), which is also the subject of Fr Ron Rolheiser’s column this week.

Ms Mkhize, of St Michael’s mission in Ndonyane in the Mariannhill diocese, became a member of St Michael’s as a young girl and joined the training offered in weaving there until the centre closed 15 years later.

She found it difficult to sell her weavings and to provide for her

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four children.

One day, she said, she walked into the abandoned weaving centre and knelt down to pray.

“I told God how I felt and that I was not so poor when the centre was open. I cried out and begged for help,” Ms Mkhize said. “That was when things changed.”

Soon after this, Precious Blood Sister Margaret von Ohr visited Ms Mkhize and asked to see her weaving work.

Sr Von Ohr then helped arrange selling Ms Mkhize’s work locally and overseas.

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LOCAL International meeting on migrants in Johannesburg

BY STAFF REPORTER

P

ARISHES are being called on to take part in a three-day international meeting in Johannesburg in December that aims to build solidarity among migrants.

Organiser Godfrey Phiri said the World Social Forum on Migrations (WSFM) will bring together more than 4 000 delegates from civil society organisations, social movements, migrant and diaspora organisations and trade unions when its starts on December 5.

“The event will be an open global platform to share experiences and build solidarity with migrants across the globe,” said Mr Phiri.

“The meeting is expected to contribute to the strengthening of civil society organisations and social movements working on human rights and migration on the African continent.”

Mr Phiri said the meeting would address matters related to migration and mobility across the world “especially those affecting the African continent, especially forced migration”.

The WSFM was formed by the World Social Forum in Brazil in 2005. Since its creation, it has been held events in Asia, South America and Latin America. n For more information see www. wsfm2014.com or contact the WSFM office on 011 487 0269.

The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

3

St Lucia retreat nears completion

BY STAFF REPORTER

T

HE St Lucia Retreat and Training Centre in KwaZulu-Natal is nearing completion after an outstation of Mtubatuba donated the Stations of the Cross, said Bishop José Luís Ponce de León of Manzini, Swaziland, who also serves his old vicariate of Ingwavuma as apostolic administrator.

“The Stations of the Cross is a donation from one of the outstations of Mtubatuba parish who gladly accepted to transfer it to the new centre and get a new one for them,” the bishop said.

“Images are being oiled and soon they will be placed on the sides of the church.”

The stations were carved by Bernard Gcwensa and Ruben Xulu, artists in Hlabisa, “many years ago”.

Bishop Ponce de León said gardening had started at the centre, but had to be stopped due to water restrictions in the area.

The centre, which will offer 12 single cottages, a hall and kitchen, a church looking onto the lake and the bishops’ house, has received financial support from the USA Bishops’ Conference.

Bishop Ponce de León said he would use the retreat to hold a consultor meeting with the diocese of Manzini in Swaziland and the vicariate of Ingwavuma in South Africa next year.

“In each one of these places there is a team of five or six priests (diocesans and religious) that I have appointed and with whom I meet regularly regarding the journey of the Church in our area,” he said.

“Each meeting is clearly different

as I am now the bishop of Manzini while I have become the ‘administrator’ of Ingwavuma, being with them until a new bishop is appointed.”

The bishop said the meeting in Ingwavuma took some time to reflect on how the vicariate was functioning without a resident bishop.

“We realised the priests’ meeting we were having every two months had stopped and we need to go back to them from next year,” he said.

“This coming November, instead, we will make sure we have our usual annual general meeting and it will be held at our new St Lucia Retreat and Training Centre.”

The church has been in St Lucia since 1965, offering not only Sunday Mass but also a quiet place where people can “come to pray and be alone with the Lord”.

Stations carved by Bernard Gcwensa and Ruben Xulu, artists in the Hlabisa area, have been donated to the St Lucia Retreat and Training Centre.

Scalabrinians pay tribute to founder

BY STAFF REPORTER

T Scalabrinian founder Mother Assunta Marchetti is to be beatified.

HE Scalabrinian Sisters have paid tribute to the faith and courage of their co-founder Mother Assunta Marchetti ahead of her beatification in São Paulo, Brazil, on October 25.

“We thank Mother Assunta Marchetti for her testimony of life, example of love, faith and courage,” the sisters said in a letter.

“We ask her to intercede in the missionary work towards migrants and refugees around the world.”

Sr Marchetti was born in Italy in

Archbishop Stephen Brislin (centre) and two Holy Cross Sisters, Sr Maria (left) and Sr Alfreda (right) who received the Bene merenti medal. They have both worked in Langa parish for more than 50 years and have been instrumental in setting up many of the groups and projects currently running in the parish. Despite their advanced age, they are both still fully involved in many parish and community projects.

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1871. In 1895 she accepted the request of her brother, Fr Joseph Marchetti, to follow him to Brazil to care for the orphans of Italian immigrants.

Mother Assunta would go on to become a co-founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of St Charles Borromeo-Scalabrinians.

“She had such a deep love for her neighbours, especially the co-sisters of vocation, dedicating herself with tenderness to the care of the orphans, the poor, the sick and the migrants, in the states of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul,” the sisters said.

Mother Assunta never returned to her homeland and died on July 1, 1948, among the orphans “as she had always desired”.

“She served at all times with humility as a cook, nurse, catechist, local and general superior,” the sisters said.

The Scalabrinian Sisters are present in the archdiocese of Johannesburg where they coordinate the pastoral care for migrants and refugees. They also work with migrants and refugees in Maputo, Mozambique; Luanda, Angola; and Kinshasa in the DR Congo.

4

The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

INTERNATIONAL

Pope names panel to streamline annulments

BY FRANCIS X ROCCA

T

HE Vatican has announced the formation of a special commission to reform the process of granting marriage annulments.

“The work of the commission will start as soon as possible and will have as its goal to prepare a proposal of reform of the matrimonial process, with the objective of simplifying its procedure, making it more streamlined, and safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of matrimony,” said a Vatican statement The new body’s work will address what Pope Francis has identi-

fied as a key challenge in the “pastoral care of marriage”.

“There is the legal problem of marriage nullity, this has to be reviewed, because ecclesiastical tribunals are not sufficient for this,” the pope told reporters in July 2013.

Pope Francis related the problem of annulments to the situation of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, whose predicament he said exemplifies a general need for mercy in the Church today.

According to Church teaching, such Catholics may not receive Communion unless they obtain an annulment of their first, sacramental, marriage or abstain from sexual relations, living with their new part-

ners as “brother and sister”.

A proposal to allow some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion without meeting either of those conditions, introduced by German Cardinal Walter Kasper at a meeting of the world’s cardinals in February, is expected to be one of the most discussed issues at the Synod on the Family, which opens on October 5.

The new commission on the annulment process has 11 members, including Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, and Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer SJ, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.—CNS

Women named to Vatican theological body

BY FRANCIS X ROCCA

P

OPE Francis, who has said the Catholic Church has “not yet come up with a profound theology of womanhood”, has named five women, a record number, to the International Theological Commission.

The Vatican released the names of 30 theologians who will serve a five-year term on the commission.

Women have served on the panel since 2004, but, until now, there have never been more than two.

The five women appointees also include Australian Tracey Rowland,

dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne, who is a prominent authority on the theology of Pope Benedict XVI; Moira Mary McQueen, a Canadian who serves as director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute at the University of St Michael’s College in the University of Toronto; US Mercy Sister Prudence Allen, a philosopher and a member of the chaplaincy team at Lancaster University, England.

Women now constitute 16% of the commission’s members, a sign of growing female involvement in theological research.

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SSPX and Vatican in new meeting

T

HE leader of a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics met with Vatican officials for the latest in a long series of reconciliation talks.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), met for two hours with Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican said in a statement.

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ined, and it was decided to proceed gradually and over a reasonable period of time in order to overcome difficulties and with a view to the envisioned full reconciliation,” the Vatican statement said.

The SSPX effectively broke with Rome in 1988, when its founder, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, ordained four bishops without the permission of St John Paul II in a protest against modernising changes that followed the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65.—CNS

Faith and family ‘extend your life’

BY NANCY FRAzIER O’BRIEN

S

TUDY after study has confirmed that those who are involved in religion and those who are married are healthier, physically and mentally happier and live longer than those who are not.

“The health benefits of marriage are so strong that a married man with heart disease can be expected to live, on average, 1 400 days (nearly four years) longer than an unmarried man with a healthy heart,” said Dr Scott Haltzman, a clinical psychiatrist and human behaviour specialist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The advantages for women are similar.

Couples with higher levels of religiosity “tend to enjoy greater marital satisfaction, fidelity and stability, with less likelihood of domestic violence”, according to a compilation of studies by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank.

“Marriage and religion influence various dimensions of life, including physical health and longevity, mental health, happiness, economic well-being and the raising of children,” wrote sociologist Linda J Waite and economist Evelyn J Lehrer in a paper published in 2009 by the US National Institutes of Health.

“We argue that both marriage and religiosity generally have far-reaching positive effects; that they influence similar domains of life; and that there are important parallels through which each achieves these outcomes,” they added.

As the extraordinary world Synod of Bishops on the family begins its work on October 5 at the Vatican, one of the challenges facing it will be raising awareness of the positive benefits of marriage on individuals, families and society as a whole.

“We know the numbers don’t lie about the impact divorce has on children,” Randall Woodard, an associate professor of religion at St Leo University in Florida, told Catholic News Service.

Prof Woodard said religious institutions may be uniquely suited to help families deal with their challenges.

“Churches provide tremendous support groups that can provide spiritual, financial and psychological help,” he said. “Being surrounded by people who share many of the same ideals can help reinforce others who may be struggling.

“Another way churches can help familial health is by knowing their own limitations,” he added.

“Many times people will come to the church with problems such as depression or other issues that are better resolved by medical professionals. Being that first point of contact can be very vital by encouraging them to seek medical help when necessary.”—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

5

In Albania, pope reaches out to Muslims

BY CAROL GLATz

K

ILLING in the name of God is sacrilege, and religious leaders must denounce the use of faith to justify violence and oppression, Pope Francis said during a one-day visit to Albania.

In a world “where an authentic religious spirit is being perverted and where religious differences are being distorted and exploited”, Albania is an “aspiring example” to everyone that peaceful coexistence is possible, Pope Francis told Albania President Bujar Nishani and other dignitaries upon his arrival in the country.

No one should “consider themselves to be the ‘armour’ of God while planning and carrying out acts of violence and oppression”, the pope said.

The pope told reporters on the papal plane that he chose to visit the Balkan nation because the peaceful collaboration between its Muslim-majority population and minority Catholic and Orthodox communities “is a beautiful sign for the world”.

“It’s a signal I want to send,” he said, that religion, far from causing division, is the very foundation of freedom and brotherhood.

In a meeting with Muslim, Christian and Catholic leaders and representatives, Pope Francis said “authentic religion is a source of peace, not violence” and any “distorted use of religion must be firmly refuted as false”.

“To kill in the name of God is sacrilege. To discriminate in the

Pope Francis listens as Archbishop Angelo Massafra of Shkoder-Pult, Albania, speaks during a meeting with leaders of other religions at the Catholic University of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Tirana. Seated next to the pope is Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) name of God is inhuman,” he said.

The pope encouraged Albania’s religious communities to continue working towards the common good. “We need each other,” he said, and the “more men and women are at the service of others, the greater their freedom”.

The pope said Albania was a “land of heroes” and a “land of martyrs”, whose people stood firm in the face of oppression and persecution. It withstood centuries of Ottoman rule, followed by an independence that degenerated into decades of oppressive communist control.

Pope wept as he heard accounts of torture

BY CAROL GLATz

T

WO survivors of Albania’s communist crackdown against the Church brought Pope Francis to tears with their stories during a vespers service in Tirana’s cathedral.

“To hear a martyr talk about his own martyrdom is intense,” the pope told journalists on the papal plane back to Rome. “I think all of us there were moved; all of us.”

Franciscan Father Ernest Simoni, 84, talked about his life as a priest under a militant atheist regime that targeted people of every faith—Christian and Muslim—between 1944 and 1991. Despite the risks of torture, imprisonment and execution, people held onto their beliefs as best they could, praying and passing on their traditions underground.

Fr Simoni said his religious superiors were shot dead and the military drafted him in an effort to “make me disappear. I spent two years there, years that were worse than any prison.”

He managed to be ordained a priest in 1956, but the worst was yet to come when the regime, which was set to become the first officially atheist nation in the world, intensified its war against religion in the 1960s.

On Christmas Eve 1963, the priest was arrested while celebrating Mass and was sentenced to death by firing squad. He was beaten, placed for three months in solitary confinement under “inhumane” conditions, then tortured because he refused to denounce the Church.

He was eventually freed, but later arrested again and sent to a prison camp, where he was forced to work in a mine for 18 years and then ten more years in sewage canals.

All the time he was imprisoned, he said, he celebrated Mass from memory in Latin, heard confessions and distributed Communion to other prisoners—all clandestinely. When the regime collapsed in 1991, he returned to ministry by serving isolated mountain villages, urging Christians caught up in a cycle of revenge to let go of their hatred and embrace God’s love.

When the priest finished his testi-

Pope Francis embraces Franciscan Father Ernest Simoni. Pope Francis wept when he heard Fr Simoni’s testimony of suffering. (Photo: EPA) mony, he approached the pope, who extended his arms to embrace him.

But the priest dropped to his knees to kiss the pope’s ring. Standing together, the two men embraced warmly. Moved to tears, the pope removed his glasses and the men briefly rested their foreheads against each other.

S

tigmatine Sister Marije Kaleta, 85, spoke next about being a novice during the regime and secretly baptising “everyone who came to my door”, but only after making sure they weren’t spies who wanted to turn her in to authorities.

Thanks to a number of priests who also worked clandestinely, “I had the good fortune of having the Blessed Sacrament”, which she kept hidden in bed sheets to secretly administer to people who were ill or dying.

The pope said he had had no idea how much the people of Albania had suffered for their faith, until two months earlier when he started preparing for his trip.

He said he was moved to see Tirana’s main boulevard lined with banners bearing black-and-white photographs of dozens of Catholics killed by the regime. Their cause for canonisation as martyrs of the faith is being considered.

Pope Francis called Albania a land of heroes and martyrs and said that, by embracing the priest and sister, he had “touched two of them”.—CNS

T

he totalitarian regime founded

by Enver Hoxha claimed to liberate the people from the constraints of all religions, turning the country into the only officially atheist nation in the world.

“It promised a paradise without God, but it left instead a hell with no consolation,” Archbishop Rrok Mirdita of Tirana told the pope during a morning Mass in Mother Teresa Square.

Despite the risks of torture, imprisonment and execution, people held onto their faith, praying and passing on their traditions underground.

Hearing of such atrocities brought the pope to tears in one of the most moving moments of the one-day trip (see story below).

During a meeting with volunteers and children at the Bethany Center, a residence for disabled and poor children, the pope said faith through charity “dislodges the mountains of indifference, of disbelief, of apathy”.

Helping others is what “opens hands and hearts to what is good,” he said.

“The secret to a good life is found in loving and giving oneself for love’s sake,” he said. “Goodness offers infinitely more than money, which only disappoints, because we have been created to receive the love of God and to offer it, not measuring everything in terms of money or power.”

Before praying the Angelus in Mother Teresa Square, the pope told young people to build their future on Christ, saying “‘No’ to the idolatry of money, ‘No’ to the false freedom of individualism, ‘No’ to addiction and to violence.”

He urged them instead to say “‘Yes’ to a culture of encounter and of solidarity, ‘Yes’ to beauty, the good and the true, and to a life lived with enthusiasm and “faithful in little things”.

Jürgen Lleshaj, a young man from the diocese of Rreshen, in northern Albania, told Catholic News Service that his faith gives him the courage to face an uncertain life because, “without God, there is nothing”.

“Our parents had to pray in se-

cret, and we learned from them there is no life without Jesus,” said Lemida Zogu, a young woman with the Rreshen diocesan youth group.

Young people made up a large part of the jubilant crowds of some 300 000 who turned out to welcome the pope.

Many Muslims, who make up more than half the country’s population, were in attendance, as well as large groups of Catholics, who make up about 15% of all inhabitants. Many took buses from other parts of Albania or walked from their homes in Tirana.

Security was typical for a foreign papal journey, with streets and rooftops dotted with police and the roads lined with metal barricades partitioning the popemobile’s route.

All cellular service, however, was jammed by authorities for several hours as an extra precaution. The Vatican repeated earlier assurances that there were no “specific threats” against the pope, who rode around the main square twice before Mass in the same open-air jeep he uses at general audiences in Rome.

Before the start of the morning Mass, a large, powered paraglider circled and swooped over the main square, the fabric decorated with the national symbol of a black eagle.

The pope used the symbol in his homily, saying God raises his people “up on eagle’s wings”.

“The eagle soars up high, but it doesn’t forget its nest,” that is, its past, traditions and values, he said.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Pastoral care critical yet neglected

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The synod’s battlelines

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HERE are heightened expectations that this month’s Synod of Bishops on the family might produce changes, especially on the question of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.

While the synod’s deliberations will provide a guide to the bishops’ thinking on this and other issues, those who are hoping for immediate pastoral reforms will be disappointed—not because such reforms are impossible, but because this extraordinary synod is intended only to prepare for next year’s full synod, which may produce new pastoral approaches.

Bishops and other delegates attending this month’s synod will discuss the pastoral priorities concerning the family in their regions. Their deliberations will include the outcomes of the questionnaires which were circulated to bishops’ conferences around the world last year.

Few conferences have made public the findings of these questionnaires. If those publicised by the bishops of Germany and Switzerland are representative of the Church in the West, then the big issues there include the situation of divorced Catholics, family planning, homosexuality, and the exodus of people from the Church.

These issues are not universal, however. In Africa the question of polygamy, for example, is a more pressing pastoral concern.

In South Africa, the breakdown of the traditional family, to the extent that reportedly the majority of families here are not headed by two parents, is a pastoral priority.

Nevertheless, the synod’s defining issue will be the sacrament of the Eucharist in relation to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. The issue has occupied such a central position in public discourse that some highlyplaced cardinals who oppose admitting such Catholics to the Lord’s Table have published books about it.

The battlelines have been drawn between those who advocate mercy in admitting some divorced and remarried Catholics to the Eucharist, and those who believe that fidelity to doctrine precludes such mercy.

The “mercy” camp is led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, who at the February consistory of cardinals delivered a widely publicised

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.

talk on the subject. It received warm praise from Pope Francis, affirming where the Holy Father’s sympathies reside. The opposing side, strongly critical of Cardinal Kasper, is led by the Vatican’s doctrinal chief, Cardinal Gerhard Müller.

Some, including Cardinal Kasper, have hinted that the issue is being used as a proxy to assert some people’s discontent with Pope Francis’ papacy. If so, more than questions of mercy and doctrine may be at stake.

The synod will test the collegiality which Pope Francis has emphasised he seeks. Unlike so many of the synods that came before, this year’s will not be stage-managed by the Roman curia, though the freedom which that allows will doubtless take some getting used to. Still, we can expect some frank exchanges, though politely expressed, on controversial issues.

Some will insist on the primacy of the law because they fear the alternative will open the floodgates to dissent.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, writing on Communion for the divorced and remarried, has warned: “The sooner the wounded, the lukewarm, and the outsiders realise that substantial doctrinal and pastoral changes are impossible, the more the hostile disappointment [which must follow the reassertion of doctrine] will be anticipated and dissipated.”

On the other hand, referring to his critics, Cardinal Kasper said in an interview with the Italian daily Il Mattino in September: “They claim to know on their own what truth is, but Catholic doctrine is not a closed system, but a living tradition that develops.”

The clashes between these two camps will be fascinating and illuminating. In all of this, however, the leaders of the Church must serve the welfare of the Church and the People of God. A synod on the family must be first about people, not about abstract notions of doctrine and theology.

The task of this and next year’s synods must be to discern what Jesus would say to people in their different family situations, especially when these do not conform to the Church’s ideals of the traditional nuclear family headed by one man and one woman—and to do so in the least reductive terms.

O

NE of the most important commissions given by Christ to the Church is pastoral care, and it is the intense interest and concern for people shown by Pope Francis that has enabled him to reach so many who had given up on religion.

Yet it is one of the most misunderstood and neglected aspects of the ministry of the Church. It is far more than getting parishioners together for social occasions and greeting people as they enter or leave the church.

Pastoral care is firstly about ensuring that parishioners and even non-practising Catholics and those who join other denominations experience genuine concern and compassion so that they are given support in the duties and problems of personal and community life.

It is also about giving spiritual advice and support so that the fervent are encouraged to become saintly, the Sunday Catholic fervent, and the straying return to the Church.

In addition, those who are experiencing heavy trials such as ill health, depression and unemployment must become the special object of the love and care that is the heart of the message and ministry of Jesus.

And it is the business of the parish priest, with a pastoral team, to know and minister to each parishioner, and particularly to those who are straying and carry heavy burdens.

Make law against trafficking real

C

HRISTIAN Brothers College St John’s in Parklands, Cape Town, has joined the call from ERNSA to all Christian Brothers schools in South Africa to advocate against the scourge of modern slavery, euphemistically termed “human trafficking” (September 17 article in The Southern Cross).

Having attended several round table discussions hosted by the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) on various educational topics, I have been both impressed by the work that organisation performs, yet saddened and at times deeply troubled by the ignorance of parliamentarians about many pressing issues.

I believe this is true of their knowledge of forced labour and prostitution within our borders.

I applaud the work done by CPLO researcher Vanya Cucumanova in 2010 in her research paper into human trafficking and its possible influence on government’s signing the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill of 2013 into law last year (a major advance in the fight for justice and dignity for all, it must be said).

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I am convinced that the widespread failure of those with pastoral responsibilities to exercise the mission of feeding and caring for the flock of God is the major cause of the decline of the Church in so many countries today.

The Church seems to do virtually nothing meaningful to reach out to the large numbers that have abandoned religious practice or have joined prosperity gospel cults. Those going to Mass Sunday after Sunday, year in and year out, in many parishes never receive a visit.

I

think that the origin of the problem lies in the very non-scriptural word “priest” that we use to describe the person who is appointed to be the head of a local church. It suggests that his role is primarily liturgical (totally at odds with the models of community leaders in the New Testament).

Because of this appallingly bad popular theology, many priests today seem to be little more than liturgical functionaries who celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments.

Another factor that further exacerbates the lack of pastoral care in Catholic parishes is the shortage of priests (in great part due to the continued unbiblical insistence on clerical celibacy). So even the largest parishes have only one priest, and even if the priest is extremely enerSince the CPLO last addressed this matter in 2010, however, what communication has been held with government regarding the enactment of the law? Does the CPLO consider how legislation is implemented after laws are enacted to ensure that the justice desired is achieved?

If the CPLO does consider such evaluations of legislation, I strongly recommend that invitations are sent to parliamentary committees on law enforcement and justice to attend further round table discussions to consider this.

If the ignorance of the education committee about violence in schools is anything to go by, those tasked with ensuring that William Wilberforce’s legacy is continued are likely as ill-informed about human trafficking and how the laws they work on are affecting the people on the ground who work with victims and offenders.

Thank you to Fr Peter-John Pearson for guiding his team of researchers to uncover the truth about matters affecting the citizens of South Africa and for the part they all play in changing the world.

As the late US politician Robert Kennedy said: “Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves.

What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.”

Now that we have this law, let us insist that it is enforced. One slave trafficker who is allowed to continue to abuse the freedom of others has the potential to condemn thousands to a lifetime of suffering.

One person who is forced away from his home is one slave too many. Let us insist that this crime is policed now.

Colleen Bentley, Cape Town

Free safari gift keeps on giving

D

EAR Southern Cross readers and Radio Veritas listeners, friends and benefactors—we would like to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We do not have enough words to express our gratitude to thank you for your concern and kind financial help with the purchase of tickets for the “Luxury Safari” raffle.

Thank you very much for your concern for our needs.

With the wonderful gift of the proceeds of the raffle we will be able to attend to some areas which had

getic and devoted, he would find it nearly impossible to give adequate pastoral care to those in his charge.

While some priests have deacons to assist the priest, they also tend to be little more than liturgical functionaries and are either not given genuine pastoral responsibilities or do not know how to carry out significant pastoral work.

The so-called pastoral parish councils that exist in most parishes appear to do very little related to pastoral care. Those I have served on make no discernible effort to maintain meaningful contact with parishioners.

Neither am I convinced that worthy movements such as Charismatic Renewal and Renew Africa—largely due to a lack of support from clergy—have made any appreciable difference in most parishes to the general ennui that is destroying the Church.

As far as I can gauge, our South African bishops have done little effective to make priests really understand their pastoral responsibilities and carry them out.

And if something quite drastic is not done quite soon, the Catholic Church (at least in this country) will become an ever-shrinking, impotent and insignificant minority.

And our children and grandchildren will probably belong to large, well-organised neo-Pentecostal churches (like Rhema and Rivers), if they are Christian at all.

Frank Bompas, Johannesburg been neglected, keep up to date with the water and lights payments, medicine for the sick sisters, pay for general repairs to sewing machines, purchase of new gas stove, cutting grass machines, pay for general repairs to plumbing and electrical points round the convent.

We wish the winner a most pleasant safari in the game park and to enjoy and experience the wonder of God’s creation of nature and wild life.

Our heartfelt thanks to Laurence Saad, Piero Colia and friends for the very generous donation of the prize, also to The Southern Cross for the advertising in your weekly issue and to Fr Emil Blaser OP of Radio Veritas for the airtime advertising and broadcasting of the actual draw.

May our Lord bless you all abundantly, and we will continue to remember you, our dear friends, benefactors, in our prayers, daily holy Masses, and during our perpetual adoration.

Capuchin Poor Clares Sisters, Umzumbe

Church bells sadly missed

E

THNÉ Stevens (September 17) laments the absence of church bells—quite right too.

The Pinelands municipality in Cape Town, where I live, resolved long ago that churches were precluded from using church bells, with one notable exception, St Stephen's Anglican church which still has its original, very old, strawroofed church, which had a bell.

The new building has installed the bell in the grounds, and a parishioner friend tells me that it is rung.

The exclusion, according to those in the know, prevents Muslims from using amplification for their call to prayer.

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

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

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

The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

PERSPECTIVES

United we stand I AM a British person living in South Africa and also have a great interest in the history of our nations.

I was thus intrigued by the way in which South Africans viewed the recent referendum about the independence (or, some might say, secession) of Scotland. So many South Africans seemed to support instinctively the separation of Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom. The comparison drawn was sometimes with Ireland’s struggle for independence or with South Africa breaking its ties with the “empire”.

The quest for self-determination—the desire to throw off the yoke of oppression and to break away from the coloniser—is a recurrent theme in the history of both Ireland and South Africa. But I feel that these comparisons profoundly misread the relationship between England and Scotland.

The United Kingdom was formed from the uniting of two kingdoms—not equal in size but equal in status. The first step towards this was not the takeover of the Scottish by an English monarch. In fact, in 1603 King James VI of Scotland extended his throne to become King James I of England.

And when in 1707 the two kingdoms were constitutionally joined into one United Kingdom, it was the start of a relationship of co-existence and shared citizenship that has lasted reasonably successfully for over 300 years. The Scots, far from being oppressed by the British empire, were often the beneficiaries (or if you prefer the oppressors).

Let me give you a different comparison.

This should not have been a moment for South Africans to cheer the assertion of the Scots over their larger neighbours. Rather, it should have been a moment for South Africa to contemplate its own commitment to the union that is the foundation of this country—controversially in 1910 and then

reinforced by the 1994 liberation agreement and the current Constitution.

How would you have felt if, in the 1994 negotiations, a whole piece of territory had not transitioned to be part of the new South Africa? Don’t forget how nearly a separate state of Zululand might have emerged if a majority of inhabitants had been allowed to assert their desires over a minority.

Or how would you feel now if Capetonians were allowed to decide for themselves to become a separate city-state, without anyone else having a say in the matter?

I presume that, whatever your views on the merits of these various cases for “independence”, you might at least feel aggrieved that other South Africans would have no say in the dismemberment of their country.

O

f course, no political union is perfect.

The Treaty of Union in 1910 was forged in the wake of a highly unpleasant conflict and at the exclusion of the political voice of the majority of South Africans. The negotiations that brought about 1994 were inevitably affected by brinkmanship, political manoeuvring and dark threats.

Jim Murphy, a Catholic Labour Party MP who went to school in Cape Town, campaigns for a “no” vote in Edinburgh during Scotland’s independence referendum.

(Photo: Russell Cheyne, Reuters/CNS)

Our mission for families H OW family-friendly are we as missionaries of the family? I have asked that question many times because it is an ongoing, let us say, developmental issue.

When we refer to “The Church” we often think of the hierarchy and clergy— those working in the Church—rather than all of us, the People of God, who are “The Church”.

So, how family-friendly are we, or to what extent are we challenging one another?

Bishops from around the world with a handful of lay-family observers will be debating the challenges facing families, “in the context of evangelisation” at the extraordinary synod on the family in the Vatican this month. Maybe in some of our minds the key lies there.

Is evangelisation not a churchy thing, so let’s leave it up to them? But it isn’t. All the recent popes have written that evangelisation is the task of everyone—and in particular of families in their own homes where we evangelise and are evangelised not primarily through our prayers but through living our spirituality of daily life, our prayerful living.

That is our mission, and in a way the mission of the whole Church, since families are the building blocks of the structure.

The October family theme deals with mission and empowerment as it invites us to reach out family to family, passing on the gift we have to share.

Let’s take a current issue (or are we oscared out or pistoriused off?). We’ve had a chance to watch the Oscar Pistorius trial on TV, to debate it in workplaces and in our families with our children and the elderly. Some of us get quite hot under the

The family and how it has changed in the last several decades will be under discussion when the extraordinary Synod of Bishops convenes at the Vatican on October 5.

(Photo: Tyler Orsburn/CNS) collar about whether there were flaws in the verdict of culpable homicide.

The trial has provided a wonderful opportunity too to debate the topic of justice and the merits of a justice system that might even let someone “get away with murder”, as many people argued.

T

hen, from a different angle, what was the family experience of this young man that led to his obsession with guns?

He was challenged to overcome any obstacle: having no legs, pushed to achieve, losing his mother, having a very poor relationship with his father and no stable family home in his teenage years. Later he had to deal with being a celebrity, being put on a pedestal.

Psychological observation did not identify any particular disorder, but did he have the kind of family background that could reasonably assure a stable, mature personality able to build and sustain relationships?

Raymond Perrier

Michael Shackleton

Faith and Society

Open Door

But I have met few South Africans who want to throw all that up in the air or treat it as something which is written in pencil, to be erased and rewritten at will. The attitude instead is: “Here is our country, great yet imperfect: let us all work together within these boundaries to make a go of it.”

We know that married relationships have their ups and down. But as Catholics we hesitate to see divorce as an inevitable or even preferred outcome when things get tough. I think this same presumption in favour of unity should apply to countries that have in the past come together voluntarily. Not unity at all costs. But unity as an operating principle.

Have we forgotten the artificial creation of Bantustans with nominal independence yet huge economic dependence? Or are we blind to the precarious position of Lesotho and Swaziland? Small sovereign states may seem very romantic but, other than stamp collectors and corrupt politicians, whom do they benefit?

Within states, a re-negotiation of power between the centre and semi-autonomous regions—in the US, in South Africa, in Canada and in the UK—has provided a more mature response than the fate of the former Yugoslavia or the current debacle in Ukraine. At a larger level, the erasing or, at least, softening of borders between countries through regional agreements and cooperation treaties is one of the successes of the modern age.

For me the result of the Scottish referendum is reason to rejoice in our desire and our ability to live with each other in harmony and happy co-existence. And it shows that we do not have to give in to the instinct to divide and build yet more walls and fences.

Toni Rowland

Family Friendly

From what I could observe, he didn’t.

Some of the comments on radio and social networks about the case were decidedly unchristian, but also excusable.

Comments seemed to be based mostly on emotions, anger, resentment, the need to avenge Reeva Steenkamp, the woman shot dead by Pistorius.

He has done the deed, deserves punishment and should get it—but how and what? Maybe the case has also taught us that crimes are committed by flesh-andblood human beings, people’s fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. Who would call him a criminal and who a tragic, fallen hero? Many such topics can be used fruitfully for faith-sharing.

This brings me back to building a family-friendly Church and society. Family and relationship formation are essential in addition to evangelisation in a narrower sense.

The bishops have chosen to prioritise family life from 2014-16. We need their guidance, direction and support, both financial and by way of dedicated personnel. Are we, the family people of the Church doing our bit?

The Family Desk was tasked to produce the Family Prayer Cards which have been well supported. Another task was to encourage communities to host a Family Day or event. Suggestions have been circulated that also link with the monthly themes of the desk as interesting focus themes.

Our working team believes that the Family Conference hosted by the SACBC Family Life Desk with other co-hosts in Continued on page 11

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Communion for non-Catholics?

May non-Catholics receive holy Communion?

This question always comes up at a requiem Mass, a wedding, first holy Communion, confirmation, Christmas and Easter. I have approached priests with it and received varying answers. What is the ruling from the Vatican on this seemingly tricky question?

Terry Webb

C

ANON law precludes administering the Eucharist to non-Catholics. It makes limited exceptions, however, so let’s reduce these to the kind of case you mention.

For example, a family is together at a requiem Mass, and some non-Catholic relatives and friends make it clear that they want to go up to receive Communion with the rest.

Let’s now imagine that the requiem will be celebrated by either Father A or Father B. Father A knows this family and is aware that some of its non-Catholic members want to receive Communion. But he takes the strict approach of canon law, which excludes these individuals from reception of the sacrament because they are not completely one in faith with the Catholic Church. He tells the congregation in a firm but friendly way that only Catholics may advance to the altar to receive Communion. He also knows from the canons that it is up to his local bishop to judge when rare exceptions may be permitted.

In a case such as this, the exceptions include the non-Catholic’s free-will request to take Communion, faith in the Real Presence and the proper disposition.

Father B is aware of canon law’s restrictions too, yet he does not stop non-Catholic family members and friends from receiving Communion. Presumably, he understands that they want to show their solidarity with the bereaved.

Canon lawyers would say that Father B is acting unlawfully and should sympathetically deny Communion to the non-Catholics present. On the other hand he, as the priest on the spot, may prudently judge that there is a pastoral need to show compassion to this particular group of mourners who desire spiritual comfort at this particular moment.

All priests know the answer to your question, which is that the Church reserves distributing Communion to its own members only. This, as you can see, may occasionally conflict with the personal and pastoral situation on the ground. Consequently there are times when one priest may decide differently from another.

Receiving Communion is the sign of a reality of a oneness of faith and worship and assent to the Catholic Church’s teachings. If that reality does not exist, because someone is not a member of the Church, then it is not correct for them to receive Communion, thus affirming a union that does not, in fact, exist.

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

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

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The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

FAMILY

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Make the decision to love in marriage Among the delegates at the extraordinary synod on the Church’s pastoral care of families is a South African couple who help to heal troubled marriages.

STUART GRAHAM spoke to Steve Conway about the synod and about marriage.

A

SOUTH African couple has been chosen by Pope Francis to attend the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family at the Vatican in October to share their experiences of successfully counselling hundreds of troubled marriages.

Steve and Sandra Conway, coordinators of the Retrouvaille programme in Africa, say they are “humbled” by the pope’s invitation to be part of the synod.

“Our programme is based on Catholic principles, but we do not turn anyone away,” said Mr Conway.

“We have had Africans, Hindus, Jews and Muslims, and all ages. We have had couples who have been married for 50 years saying that they never knew they had problems,” he explained.

“Pope Francis would like us to share our experiences on marriage with the bishops.”

The synod will examine pastoral issues facing the Church as it relates to the family. Its outcomes will form the basis of the full Synod of Bishops on the Family to be held next year.

The Conways are among 14 couples from all over the world, and the only couple from Africa, to have been invited to attend the synod.

Created by a Canadian couple in 1977, Retrouvaille—French for “rediscovery”—is a programme that

works to help heal marriages in crisis by bringing together troubled couples and those who have overcome serious difficulties.

Pope Benedict XVI praised the programme for “its dedication to helping couples overcome serious marital difficulties”.

The Conways have been running the 12-week course, which involves couples sharing their experiences and being given “tools” to save their marriage, for five years.

“Sandra and I had been in a bad place,” Mr Conway said. “We have real-life experience and many of the couples who come to our course relate to us.”

Mr Conway said marriages are being hurt by a breakdown in communication caused by differences in upbringing, financial difficulties, infidelity and the difficulties of raising children.

“For a lot of couples, their upbringing and what your father and mother did when they were married can cause problems,” he explained.

“It is often very difficult for one member of a couple to accept the other’s point of view.”

Financial difficulties are a major problem in marriages, with both partners having to “go out and work” and having limited time to spend with one another.

“Many couples fall into the trap of not spending enough quality time together. At weekends you will find that a man will play golf, while the wife may belong to the Church and give Sunday school lessons.

Weekends are relaxation time, but a husband and wife won’t spend much quality time together,” Mr Conway said.

“Children can also cause problems in marriages, particularly when a child receives “too much” attention from one partner,” said Mr Conway.

“Sometimes in situations where the kid is sick, the husband will be pushed aside. Once again it comes to decisions. What one of our

Sandra and Steve Conway, Retrouvaille marriage counselling course coordinators, have been selected to attend the Synod of Bishops on the family in Rome. priests said is that women must be careful because children will suck you dry. We have to guard against that,” Mr Conway said.

“Before you know it, it will be 21 years later. You suddenly look at the person and think this is a stranger next to me. People must remember that your husband or your wife comes first. Not your kids.”

T

he same lesson applied to a career-driven spouse.

“One day you won’t have that job and your spouse will be a stranger to you. You have to work on your marriage from the word go.

Without the marriage, the family falls apart.”

The best thing a couple can do for their children is to show unity, he said, adding: “You need to have an understanding that you are a team and number one in each other’s lives.”

Mr Conway said he is an avid road runner and that he trains three to four times a week on his own.

Since his wife had started running with him and he has started to also share her interests, “Life had become a lot easier,” he said.

“I stay at home and I watch movies that she likes and she watches movies that I like. We do things together and this has made life a lot better.”

Mr Conway emphasised the importance of planning date nights and “switching the television off”.

“Take time for yourselves. Keep the candles going. Go for walks.

Talk about your feelings,” he suggested.

Couples must also realise that they are allowed to be upset with each other.

“Understand your feelings. Compromise. Get your feelings out in the open. Remember that when you

Retrouvaille Cape Town

A LIFELINE FOR MARRIED COUPLES

Photo: morguefile

Changing face of family

BY NANCY FRAzIER O’BRIEN

T

HE family under discussion when the extraordinary Synod of Bishops convenes at the Vatican on October 5 will bear little resemblance to the family of 50 or even 20 years ago.

The blended and extended families created by high rates of divorce, remarriage and cohabitation—along with the worldwide migration prompted by economic turmoil and war—have combined to change forever the view of family as limited to a mother, father and their children.

But children are still most likely to live in two-parent families in all countries except South Africa, according to the World Family Map 2014, a research project sponsored by the US-based non-profit Child Trends organisation and a variety of educational and non-governmental institutions from across the globe.

“The family is the core institution for child-rearing worldwide, and decades of research have shown that strong families promote positive child outcomes,” said Laura Lippman, co-director of the World Family Map and senior programme director for education at Child Trends.

The report found that “growing up with a single parent is especially

common in sub-Saharan Africa, in Central and South America, and in several English-speaking Western countries”.

One out of five children are living without either of their parents in South Africa and Uganda, and at least one out of eight children do so in other sub-Saharan African countries, including Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

One-fifth or more of children in the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Canada live with only one parent, while Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe have the world’s lowest rates of single parenthood.

The report also found that “although marriage rates for adults aged 18-49 are declining worldwide, they remain high in Asia and the Middle East (between 47% in Singapore and 80% in Egypt), and are particularly low in Central/South America”.

The rate of cohabitation for adults aged 18-49 tops 30% in some Central and South American countries and 20% in some European nations, the report said.— CNS n The Child Trends report is available at www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/WFM-2014Final-LoRes.pdf

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are upset, these are your feelings and not the couple’s feelings. You have to overcome these yourself,” Mr Conway recommended.

Couples need to realise that marriage isn’t 50:50, but “100:100”, he said.

Mr Conway said there are four stages of marriage.

• Stage one is the “hunky dory, butterfly in the stomach stage”.

• Stage two is the “disillusionment stage where she starts to find his love of golf irritating”.

• Stage three is “the complete and utter misery, everything is wrong stage”.

• Stage four is the joy stage.

“Stage three is where most couples fall down and is where we come in.

“Stage four is the stage where the couple are completely focused on the marriage and everything is going well.”

Mr Conway said the Retrouvaille programme has an 85-90% success rate in repairing hurting or broken marriages.

However, there are situations the programme is not equipped to handle, such as couples who are affected by physical abuse, or alcohol and drug abuse.

“Sometimes a couple is too far gone, especially in situations of physical abuse. We will never recommend a couple to stay together if someone is being beaten up,” Mr Conway said.

“Infidelity with a third party is also very difficult and there is not much we can do. We will try our hardest but brick walls are very difficult to break down.”

It is important for couples to know that love is not a feeling, but a decision. The same applies to forgiveness and trust.

“You are allowed to be cross with your wife, but you can [also] make dinner for her instead of being cross. In the end, it all comes down to a decision to love.”

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10

The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

CHURCH

Schoenstatt celebrates 100 years The international Schoenstatt movement celebrates its centenary this month.

DYLAN APPOLIS looks at what the movement will be doing locally to celebrate.

“Seeing as this is the anniversary of the blessing of our shrine at Bedfordview, those Schoenstatt members who built it 39 years ago, will receive a special blessing,” Sr Raidt said.

In Cape Town, a Mass will be celebrated on October 18 at 11:00 at the Constantia shrine, followed by light refreshments afterwards and viewing of live transmission of the international celebrations in Rome via EWTN at 17:00.

In Cathcart, Queenstown diocese, Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Dabula Mpako at the Cathcart shrine on October 18, followed by a traditional African celebration.

V

ISIT any one of the four Schoenstatt shrines in South Africa this year and you will immediately notice a festive atmosphere as decorated flags sport ing the dates 1914-2014, and coloured banners can be seen in different parts of the grounds.

The excitement is found not only in South Africa, but at each of the 200 Schoenstatt shrines around the world—in Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Australasia.

The entire international Schoenstatt family will be coming together on October 18 to celebrate the movement’s 100th anniversary of foundation. This also means marking 100 years of a special “Covenant of Love” that its members have made with Our Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt.

On October 17, the Schoenstatt movement will celebrate the centenary of the International Apostolic Movement of Schoenstatt with a solemn concelebrated Mass in Malvern church, Johannesburg, with Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, many priests and Schoenstatt members and friends, said Schoenstatt Sister Edith Raidt of Befordview.

The following day, October 18, the celebration will continue around the Befordview shrine, with a talk on the meaning and relevance of the Covenant of Love, the movement’s worldwide mission and its relevance for South Africa.

T

he Schoenstatt movement helps many people and families by offering training and education for lay leaders, together with a timely spirituality for the laity so they can become apostles in their families, their parishes and at work.

Many Schoenstatt members are active in their respective parishes in ministries such as catechetics, liturgy and choirs.

The movement also runs groups for couples in order to foster family life. Through the “Pilgrim Mother Campaign”, also called the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign, members take Our Lady’s picture and foster prayer life in numerous homes in a form that resembles the small Christian communities.

Special home customs include the annual Advent apostolate in the form of Shelter Seeking, which has developed into an important family apostolate in 25 South African parishes. Every year it involves several thousand people.

“The greatest crisis of our time is the breakdown of family life, and this concern is central to our universal and local Church as it struggles to find pastoral responses to minister effectively and compassionately to challenging family

The Schoenstatt movement, which is 100 years old this month, has four shrines (below) in South Africa—Bedfordview in Johannesburg, Constantia and Villa Maria in Cape Town and Cathcart in Queenstown. (Main) Pilgrims attend the Schoenstatt shrine in Bedfordview, Johannesburg. situations,” Schoenstatt Sister Connie O’Brien told The Southern Cross.

“One way of preserving the family is to ask Our Blessed Mother to take up her place in our families, centred around a ‘home shrine’—a holy corner—where families can gather in prayer or having the Pilgrim Mother [an image of our Schoenstatt Queen] who travels from home to home helping families to connect with their joys, concerns and sufferings and placing them into the Blessed

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Mother’s hands,” Sr O’Brien said.

At the heart of the Schoenstatt work is the spiritual formation of sound families, of firm, free personalities anchored in Christ.

“Besides the family apostolate Schoenstatt also focuses on various members that make up the Church: single working women, men, mothers, youth, and children. We also have a growing pilgrim circle which draws all that are searching for a sense of a ‘home’, a family with whom to share their joys and sorrows, successes and frustrations,” Sr O’Brien said.

“Schoenstatt’s covenant spirituality, together with its original educational approach inspired by the charism of our founder, Fr Joseph Kentenich, is deeply rooted in our Catholic faith, and gives an answer to mechanistic thinking that separates faith from life issues and which espouses holistic living, thinking and loving in and through a covenant culture.

“The covenant spirituality binds us to all, irrespective of race, colour and class and inspires us to put our faith into action,” Sr O’Brien explained.

“We contribute to building up the local Church through our covenant spirituality and through training leaders to take active roles in their parishes, and by supporting the intentions of our archbishop.

“Our pilgrim circles of refugees, our initiatives with adult literacy, empowering women to be self-sufficient, are all small contributions towards drawing those on the periphery into the very centre of Mary’s heart,” Sr O’Brien said.

This year about 40 pilgrims

from South Africa will participate in all the jubilee events at Schoenstatt in Germany from October 1620. They will give thanks for the last 100 years, and renew the commitment to serve life through the Covenant of Love.

The pilgrims will then travel to Rome where celebrations at the international Schoenstatt Centre will take place, followed by a special audience with Pope Francis.

“It is expected that the South American pilgrims from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and so on will be in the majority and this will add to the dynamism of the celebrations with song and dance,” said Sr Raidt, who will be celebrating the centenary at the Schoenstatt shrine in Bedfordview.

In Rome, “we will present our jubilee gift to the Holy Father—the fruits of our shrines and our apostolic projects. In our audience with Pope Francis, we will also ask him to send us out. This fulfils the desire of Fr Kentenich that Schoenstatt should become a covenant for the Church,” Sr Raidt said.

There are special pilgrimage graces associated with this centenary year as Pope Francis has given a plenary indulgence to all who make a pilgrimage to any Schoenstatt shrine during the year.

You can obtain this plenary indulgence by making a good confession, receiving Holy Communion and offering prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father. n For more information on how to celebrate with Schoenstatt, contact Johannesburg 011 455 5146, Cape Town 021 794 5100 or 021 423 8136, Queenstown 045 843 1045.

CLASSIFIEDS

Our mission for families Continued from page 7 September was not adequately supported by hierarchy, priests and lay families.

We all do and must pray earnestly for the success of the extraordinary Synod on the Family and its important work, but that alone is not going to make us a more family-friendly Church or society.

We are the ones to take it up, and the work will happen where we discuss Oscar Pistorius, or service

delivery, or Nkandla, or respect for our elders, and bring our reality to God in prayer before reaching out to other families.

That is our ongoing task, our mission. n MARFAM celebrates its 20th anniversary around now and our mission has been to provide resources for and about family life to assist in this mission of all. The October to December Thoughts for the Day booklets are now available.

Synod of Bishops questions answered When and where is it?

From October 5-19 in Vatican City What is this?

The synod is a meeting of Pope Francis, bishops, clergy and laypeople.

What is its purpose?

Pope Francis has written that the synod will discuss the “challenges of marriage, of family life, of the education of children, and the role of the family in the life of the Church”.

The discussion will be based largely on responses to a questionnaire sent out to the world’s bishops in November 2013.

Who will attend?

Approximately 250 people, including the presidents or vice-presidents of 114 national bishops’ conferences, 13 heads of Eastern Catholic churches, three superiors general of religious orders, heads of Vatican offices and synod officials, and synod fathers appointed by Pope Francis. The synod also will have non-voting collaborators and auditors, including married couples appointed by the pope.

What controversial issues will be discussed?

Pope Francis has said birth control and the eligibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion will be among the topics of discussion. The latter was also a major topic of discussion at a special meeting of cardinals the pope called in February.

Will the synod change Church teaching?

Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, Italy, who was chosen by Pope Francis to be the special secretary of the extraordinary synod, said that the “doctrine of the Church is not up for discussion, but rather the discussion will concern improving the ‘pastoral application’ of Church teaching”.

Why is it “extraordinary”?

The meeting will not reach definitive conclusions but will set the agenda for a larger meeting of bish-

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Community Calendar

To place your event, call Mary Leveson at 021 465 5007 or e-mail m.leveson@scross.co.za (publication subject to space) DuRbAN: JOHANNESbuRG: Holy Mass and Novena Life in the Spirit seminar, to St Anthony at St AnSeptember 4 to October thony’s parish every 30 presented by CharisTuesday at 9am. Holy matic Renewal at catheMass and Divine Mercy dral of Christ the King.

Devotion at 17:30pm on Contact Joseph Uga at first Friday of every 083 237 3745 or Boni month. Sunday Mass at Gumede at 072 274 3901.

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Couples for Christ NELSPRuIT: spiritual weekend for Adoration of the men themed “Abba Fablessed sacrament at St ther” on October 24, 25 Peter’s parish every and 26, at Centenary Tuesday from 8:00 to Hall, St Patrick’s cathe16:45, followed by dral, R150 registration.

Rosary, Divine Mercy Contact Trevor Vetter prayers, then a 082 568 6843 or Warren Mass/Communion servNapier 083 778 4560 or ice at 17:30pm. vetter@oaksauto.co.za

CLASSIFIEDS

Word of the Week

Synod of Bishops: A gathering of bishops, with legislative and policymaking powers.

Liturgical Calendar Year A Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday, October 5, 27th Sunday Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalm 80:9, 12-16, 19-20, Philippians 4:6-9, Matthew 21:33-43 Monday, October 6 Galatians 1:6-12, Psalm 111:1-2, 7-10, Luke 10:25-37 Tuesday, October 7, Our Lady of the Rosary Acts 1:12-14, Luke 1:46-55, Luke 1:26-38 Wednesday, October 8 Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14, Psalm 117:1-2, Luke 11:1-4 Thursday, October 9 Galatians 3:1-5, Luke 1:69-75, Luke 11:5-13 Friday, October 10 Galatians 3:7-14, Psalm 111:1-6, Luke 11:1526 Saturday, October 11, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary Galatians 3:22-29, Psalm 105:2-7, Luke 11:2728 Sunday, October 12, 28th Sunday Isaiah 25:6-10, Psalm 23:1-6, Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20, Matthew 22:1-14 or Matthew 22:1-10

11

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.

DEATH

HENRICK—John (Jack).

One-time Father Thomas OP, passed away peacefully on September 17, 2014. Remembered by family, friends and Nazareth Sisters. RIP LEITE: Jacqui, formerly of Cape Town, died peacefully in PE on September 22. Deeply mourned and lovingly remembered by her brother Patrick.

IN MEMORIAM

ops, to be held at the Vatican in October 2015. That meeting will generate proposals for the pope’s approval.

What prompted this synod?

In July 2013, Pope Francis told reporters that he wanted the gathering to explore a “somewhat deeper pastoral care of marriage”, including the question of the eligibility of divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.—CNS

The Southern Cross, October 1 to October 7, 2014

MACCELARI—Carlo Angelo. In loving memory of a wonderful husband, father, brother and Papa. You will always be in our hearts, thoughts and prayers. All our love, Pam, Michele and Stephen, Adrian and Kate, Veglia and Gawie, and Alexa and Joshua.

May you rest in peace.

MATTHEE—Merlyn. In loving memory of Merlyn who passed away on October 5, 2010. Will always be remembered and loved by her family Desiree, Bryane and children and grandchildren. Ursula, Greg and children and grandson in Australia.

Gary, Shireen and children and granddaughter.

SATRAM—Tony. In loving memory of my husband and our dad who passed away on October 4, 2010.

In our hearts, in our thoughts—forever part of our lives. We miss you more and more with each passing day. From your wife, Lorraine, children Michelle and Mario, Lester and Sybil, Odette and Adrian, Brendon and Carla and your grandchildren, Daniel, Julia, Noah, Timothy, Matthew and Sarah.

Rest in Peace.

STOTT—Olive (Ollie). October 3, 2012. Remembering you on this day while you live in our hearts forever. Deeply loved and sadly missed each passing day. The Stott and Roberts families.

VAN SCHOOR—Louis, October 6, 1998. When the family chain is broken, nothing seems the same; but as God calls us one by one, he links the chain again. Miss and love you, your wife Lorraine, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

PRAYERS

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.

LR. 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. ST MICHAEL the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.

Amen.

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 THANKS be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May I know thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, And follow thee more nearly, For ever and ever.

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.

PERSONAL

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LOVINg FATHER bless us, the people of AFRICA, and help us to live in justice, love and peace Mary, Mother of Africa, pray for us For prayer leaflet: sms 083 544 8449

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Published by the proprietors, The Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co Ltd, at the company’s registered office, 10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town, 8001.

The Southern Cross is published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd. Address: PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000. Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850 www.scross.co.za Editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), business Manager: Pamela Davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton, News Editor: Stuart Graham (s.graham@scross.co.za), Editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Mary Leveson (m.leveson@scross.co.za) Advertising: Elizabeth Hutton (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Avril Hanslo (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Dispatch: Joan King (dispatch@scross.co.za), Accounts: Desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za).

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Website: www.scross.co.za 28th Sunday: October 12 Readings: Isaiah 25:6-10, Psalm 23:1-6, Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20, Matthew 22: 1-14

C

AN you trust God? If we understand what God is really like, we know that God is always faithful, always dependable. That is not, however, to say that God will always operate in the way that we expect; and therefore it is enormously tempting for us to say: “God has let me down.”

The readings for next Sunday offer us a deeper picture of the reliability of God. The biggest argument against God’s reliability is of course the certain fact that we shall all die.

So Isaiah, in the first reading, paints us a beguiling picture of what life with God is like: “The Lord of hosts is making on this mountain, for all the peoples a rich banquet.” The picture is drawn up with a series of Hebrew puns, and the idea that God is throwing a party for us should leave us quite astonished, unless we have read our Gospels, and remembered that Jesus sees banquets as a very important part of the reign of God that he has come to inaugurate.

It goes deeper, however, and, once more, there is a reference to “this mountain”, which could be either Mount Zion, where the Temple was built, or Mount Sinai, where Moses had his encounter with God, and now be-

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Learning to trust God’s ways Fr Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

comes the place where “God will swallow up death forever”. Then our reading ends with a mini-psalm: “They shall say on that day: ‘Look—this is our God, the one we have been waiting for, and he shall save us…the hand of the Lord shall rest on this mountain’.”

The people did not yet believe in life after death, but glimpsed that, somehow, death could not be the end of the story if God was indeed God. The psalm for next Sunday displays the same powerful confidence; here it is expressed in the idea of the Lord as “shepherd” the one who defends the defenceless. Notice how the idea of God’s “reliability” is expressed through a series of images of what God does for us: “I shall not want”, “green

pastures”, “waters of repose”, “right paths”, “your rod and your staff”, “you have prepared a table”, “you anoint my head with oil”, “my cup overflows”; and the things that menace us, “valley of the shadow of death”, “in the presence of my foes”. And the climax is the triumphant certainty that “I shall live in the Lord’s house for length of days”.

In the second reading, Paul writes from prison to his beloved Philippians, indicating what this reliable God has done for him: “In every respect I have been initiated into the secret of how to be sated and how to be hungry, how to have a surplus and how to go short.”

In part God’s reliability has been demonstrated through the generosity of the Philippians to him; and Paul demonstrates absolute confidence that God will do the same for them: “God will fill up all your need in accordance with God’s wealth, in glory, in Christ Jesus.”

In the gospel for next Sunday, we are once again presented with the idea of God’s banquet. Here it is a “wedding-feast in honour of his son”, and it is explicitly presented as an illustration of what the “reign of God” is going to be like. It starts simply enough with the “king” sending slaves out with a reminder

Life in the Father’s house A

NTHROPOLOGISTS tell us that father-hunger, a frustrated desire to be blessed by our own fathers, is one of the deepest hungers in the world today, especially among men.

Millions of people sense that they have not received their father’s blessing. Robert Bly, Dr Robert Moore, Fr Richard Rohr OFM and the late Dr James Hillman, among others, offer some rich insights into this.

We suffer from being fatherless. However, in its deepest root, this suffering is something far beyond the mere absence of a blessing from our biological fathers. We tend to be fatherless in a much deeper way.

How so?

Some 25 years ago, a French philosopher, Jean-Luc Marion, wrote a book entitled God Without Being. In it he offers a very challenging interpretation of the famous parable of the Prodigal Son. We’re all familiar with the parable. A father had two sons. The younger comes to him and says: “Father, give me the share of the property that’s coming to me.” His father shares out his goods. The younger son takes his share, leaves for a distant country, and squanders his property on a life of debauchery.

When he has spent everything, he finds himself hungry and humiliated and sets off to return to his father’s house, where he is undeservedly greeted, embraced, and

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Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

taken back by his father.

At one level, the lesson is clear: God’s mercy is so wide and compassionate that nothing we can do will ever stop God from loving us. Many wonderful books have been written to highlight this, not least Fr Henri Nouwen’s classic The Return of the Prodigal Son. But Marion, drawing upon the specific wording of the Greek text, emphasises another element in this story.

The Greek text implies that the son went to his father and asked for something more than property and money. It says that he asked his father for his share of the property (ousia). Ousia, in Greek, means “substance”. He’s asking for his life, as independent of his father.

Moreover, as a son and an heir, he already has use of his share of what is rightfully his; but he wants to own it and not owe it to anyone. He wants what is rightly his but he wants to have it as independent of his father, as cut off from his father, and

of his fidelity.

In that culture, you do not need reminding about a wedding-feast, of course. This makes it very odd, then, that in response to the divine faithfulness we are presented with appalling and casual infidelity: “They did not want to come.” Then it gets worse, as the second invitation is greeted with indifference (“one’s own estate”, “my shop”) or worse (“they insulted and killed his slaves”).

God’s fidelity does not mean, however, that “anything goes”: God is other, and so we listen nervously as Jesus tells us that “the king was enraged and sent his army to destroy those murderers and burnt their city”. Not only that, but when this faithful God produces a revised guest-list, “everyone they found, both evil and good”, he comes to inspect, and discovers someone who did not properly value God’s dependability, “a person who was not wearing a wedding-garment”, and is expelled in chains “into the outer darkness”.

God is utterly reliable, but we are not to take our God for granted: “For there are many who are invited, but few who are chosen.”

We are not quite sure what it means, but we tremble as we listen.

Southern Crossword #622

as his own in a way that he no longer has to acknowledge his father in the way he receives his life and freedom and uses them.

And the consequence of that, as this parable makes clear, is that a gift no longer sensed or acknowledged as gift always leads to the misuse of that gift, to the loss of integrity, and to personal humiliation.

W

ith an apology for the abstractness of Marion’s language, here’s what he sees as the deepest issue inside this story: “The son requests that he no longer have to request, or rather, that he no longer have to receive the ousia. ... He asks to possess it, dispose of it, enjoy it without passing through the gift and the reception of the gift.

“The son wants to owe nothing to his father, and above all not owe him a gift; he asks to have a father no longer—the ousia without the father or the gift. [And] the ousia becomes the full possession of the son only to the extent that it is fully dispossessed of the father: dispossession of the father, annulment of the gift, this is what the possession of the ousia implies.

“Hence an immediate consequence: in being dispossessed of the father, the possession that censures the gift integrates within itself, indissolubly, the waste of the gift: possessed without gift, possession cannot but continue to dispossess itself.

Henceforth orphan of the paternal gift, ousia finds itself possessed in the mode of dissipation.”

The prodigal son’s real issue was not so much his hunger for pleasure as his hunger for the wrong kind of independence. He wanted his life and the freedom to enjoy life completely on his own terms and, for him, that meant he had to take them outside his father’s house.

In doing that, he lost his father and he also lost genuine life and freedom because these can only be had inside the acceptance a certain dependence. That’s why Jesus repeated again and again, that he could do nothing on his own. Everything he was and everything he did came from his Father.

Our lives are not our own. Our lives are a gift and always need to be received as gift. Our substance is not our own and so it may never be severed from its source, God, our Father.

We can enter our lives and freedom and enjoy them and their pleasures, but as soon as we cut them off from their source, take them as our own and head off on our own, dissipation, hunger, and humiliation will follow.

There’s life only in the Father’s house and when we are outside that house we are fatherless and wasting our ousia.

ACROSS 1. Act that is beyond words (4) 3. It may leap about Australian parish (8) 9. The waters here had no silver (Jg 5) (7) 10. Moved out to sea (5) 11. It will happen generally on the Last Day (12) 13. Put on the vestments again (6) 15. Doing another’s duties on stage? (6) 17. Time before Noah built the ark (12) 20. Subject matter held by both emeritus popes (5) 21. They lay their eggs in others’ nests (8) 22. Preoccupied by sob seeds (8) 23. The votes in favour (4)

DOWN 1. St Bernard’s prayer to Our Lady (8) 2. One of the three wise men as gum (5) 4. Made amends (6) 5. Does one’s Sunday duty (4,2,6) 6. How Mary addressed Jesus (Jn 20) (7) 7. They are in the mixed bag with the ends (4) 8. Broadens seal around God’s majesty (12) 12. Aegis son worries about (8) 14. They call you telephonically (7) 16. Do the rounds (6) 18. Amos warned those who sleep on such beds (Am 6) (5) 19. Saint found in the grottoes (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

T

HE church was celebrating Communion. During the “children’s sermon”, the priest was talking about Communion and what it is all about.

“The Bible talks of Holy Communion being a ‘joyful feast’. What does that mean? Well, ‘joyful’ means happy, right? And a feast is a meal. So a ‘joyful feast’ is a happy meal. And what are the three things we need for a happy meal?”

A little boy put up his hand and said: “Hamburger, chips, and a cooldrink?”

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