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Durban’s Hurley Centre almost ready to start

BY STUART GRAHAM

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An aerial picture of the Denis Hurley Centre nearing completion, with Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral behind it. The centre’s coordinators hope to take occupation of the building before the end of the year, when the keys will be handed over to Cardinal Napier by the construction company. The formal and official opening of the building is scheduled for November 9, 2015, the 100th birthday of Archbishop Hurley. That evening, “World Religions in Concert” will be presented by the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in the mall between the cathedral and the new centre. See also page 8 for Winnie Graham’s memories of Archbishop Hurley.

(Photo: Barker Sky Imaging)

HE almost completed construction of the Denis Hurley Centre in downtown Durban has given people hope and the confidence to “make things happen”, the project's coordinator Mr Paddy Kearney has said.

“Archbishop Hurley's reputation for someone who stood up for human rights is very well known,” said Mr Kearney, who wrote a biography of the late archbishop of Durban, titled Guardian of the Light.

“What this centre shows is that, like him, we can make a change. We have this building which will provide facilities for conferences, meetings and outreach of all kinds. It has given people confidence to get things done.”

Mr Kearney said many living in the neighbourhood around the centre, adjacent to Emmanuel cathedral, are unemployed, sick, or are refugees from other parts of Africa. For them, the building is a sign of hope.

“It is a very downbeat neighbourhood.

But people are excited about the completion of the centre. It is like a dream,” Mr Kearney told The Southern Cross.

The aim is to start using the building,

which had been under construction for nearly six years, for projects by the end of the year.

The centre, said Mr Kearney, is being very careful not to “extend itself too far” as the need for help in the area is enormous.

“We will be careful to do what we are able to do,” said Mr Kearney.

“We are talking to other faith communities in the neighbourhood and are trying to encourage them to have outreach projects.”

The mosque next door has been very supportive and is proud that this is happening in the neighbourhood, said Mr Kearney.

“The Muslims also have a school that will make a wonderful centre for training. The Hindus have a building with 14 classes and two halls... That could play an important role in the neighbourhood.”

Mr Kearney said Muslims, Hindus and Christians have all supported the Denis Hurley Centre project in various ways.

Catechism classes and other events of the cathedral parish have all taken place in the nearby Hindu building for the past two years. A Muslim group meanwhile, asked to amalgamate its feeding scheme with the Denis Hurley Centre.

Mr Kearney said people of all faiths still Continued on page 2

Priest presented with a classic rock guitar for kids’ project STAFF REPORTER

A

SOUTH AFRICAN priest was the subject of a two-page spread in the Morgenpost newspaper in Dresden, Germany.

Fr Wim Lindeque of Stellenbosch, near Cape Town, was in the eastern German city of Dresden for an annual gala to raise funds for the Aids project HOPE Cape Town, on whose board the priest serves.

The HOPE gala in Dresden, attended by German celebrities, is regarded as one of the highlights in the city’s social calendar. This year German interior minister Thomas de Maizière was among those who attended. The event raised R1,5 million for HOPE. Also representing HOPE Cape Town at the gala was co-founder Fr Stefan Hippler, whose bishop in Trier, Bishop Stephan Ackermann, has given the priest permission to stay in Cape Town indefinitely.

Fr Lindeque was presented with a guitar used by the German hard rock band Scorpions in the 1980s. It was donated by the band’s former road manager, Hermjo Klein, who had kept the guitar as a memento. In the newspaper spread, Mr Klein is pictured holding the guitar as Fr Lindeque strikes a rocking pose.

The guitar will now be used by a music project which is part of the Afterschool Development Centre which Fr Lindeque established when he served in the parish of Manenberg, a gang-ridden area of Cape Town.

The centre, which takes care of about 200 youngsters, is supported by HOPE Cape Town.

At the gala, HOPE Cape Town honoured Hamburg shipbuilding magnate Peter J Krämer, who in the past ten years has spent $180 million to build 1500 schools in Africa.

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The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

LOCAL

Carmelites record CD to honour St Teresa

BY STUART GRAHAM

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The CD cover of the Carmelites of Benoni’s recording of songs to celebrate St Teresa of Ávila.

HE Carmelite Sisters of Benoni have recorded a CD of stirring songs ahead of the fifth centenary of the birth of St Teresa of Ávila.

Sr Therese Mathieson said Carmelites all over the world are preparing to celebrate St Teresa’s 500th birthday on March 28, 2015.

“St Teresa had a great passion for life, a great thirst for God and a great love for humanity. She loved music, dancing, writing songs and poetry,” Sr Mathieson said.

“Through her words which we share on the CD we hope that those who listen will be drawn into the

mystery of the divine, come to know the truth of her experience and discover their own purpose in life.”

St Teresa, who died in 1582, dedicated much of her life to reforming herself and the Carmelites. She founded more than a half-dozen new monasteries. She also travelled and wrote prolifically.

Sr Mathieson said St Teresa would begin her prayers with an invocation to the Holy Spirit.

The Carmelites remained faithful to this practice by including two songs to the Holy Spirit as well as parts of the Office of St Teresa—the prayer of the Church—which psalms and canticles make up daily worship.

“We hope that through the CD

people will share our prayer and praise,” Sr Mathieson said, adding that “over the years people have asked us to make a CD of our singing—this was the occasion to make it a reality”.

She said the CD was recorded with the help of Trevor Nasser, a well-known Catholic guitarist who has produced many albums of his own.

“Trevor put us in touch with Lydia van Vuuren who produced the CD, having made the recordings in her studio in Pretoria, between April and September, 2014,” said Sr Mathieson.

She said with “so much confusion, violence, sorrow and suffering”

in the world, St Teresa was telling the world to find its roots in God. “This is what St Teresa is telling us. Let nothing trouble you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes. God alone suffices.

“When we put God at the centre of our lives, everything else becomes small. It doesn’t take away suffering but we have the strength knowing that God is in control.”

St Teresa was canonised by Pope Gregory XV in 1622. She is the patron saint of Spain, headache sufferers, lacemakers, loss of parents, those in religious orders, those ridiculed for their piety and more. Her symbol is a heart, an arrow and a book. (See also Page 9)

‘Travelling repository’ man dies

BY STAFF REPORTER

A

NIGERIAN “travelling repository”, Sam Unyinye, who visited almost every parish in the Johannesburg archdiocese, has died.

His friend Berniece Eales of Kempton Park parish said she and Mr Unyinye had spent many memorable days together.

“I was waiting for him outside the studios where I would buy various sacramentals, prayer books and other novelties for our repository in

the parish of Our Lady of Loreto in Kempton Park. Sam failed to arrive.

I waited for over an hour, went home and tried to phone him later that day,” she said.

Mrs Eales finally made contact with Mr Unyinye’s wife who informed her that her friend had died.

The cause of death was not certain.

“I know he had friends and customers as far afield as Northriding, Florida, Mulbarton, Cedars Woodmead, Alberton and Benoni,” Mrs Eales said.

She said she would give Mr Unyinye a lift to buy his bibles.

“I got to know him very well. We used to have a good laugh doing our business. He brought joy to so many people.”

Mrs Unyinye, who gave birth to triplets earlier this year, runs a shop in Johannesburg. She indicated that her husband’s body was to be repatriated to Nigeria.

A memorial for Mr Unyinye will be held at the Parish of our Lady of Loreto in Kempton Park on November 8 at 11:00.

Exhibition of world religions

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

A

S part of the religious education and life orientation programme, Grade 6 learners from Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg researched their own religious tradition.

Through the project, pupils learnt research and note-taking skills. iPads and books were used in the research process and the notes were then turned into a Power Point presentation during computer lessons.

The slides were then printed and the children designed a poster display of all their work.

The culmination of the project was the Exhibition of World Religions. The posters were displayed and each religion had a table of artefacts and festival foods.

During art lessons, the children made stained glass windows.

“The event starts with a prayer moment during which the Grade 6 learners share prayers from the different religions,” said Naomi Meyer, marketing coordinator at Sacred Heart College. “This is followed by

Deacon Gerald Masters of East London and his wife Norah celebrate their diamond anniversary surrounded by family in Tsitsikamma. Deacon Masters, who was ordained in 1993, serves in Holy Spirit parish in Nahoon. Mrs Masters’ 80th birthday next year will bring together the South African, Canadian, Australian and American branches of the family. The couple is seen on their wedding day in October 1954, and on their anniversary with (back from left): Emily Bentley, Luke Masters, Margie and Donald Bentley, Jessica and Derek Lloyd, Marc Bywater, (middle) Athlene Masters, Norah and Deacon Gerald Masters, Patty Lloyd, Andrea Bywater, (front) Tanya and Robert Masters.

Durban’s Denis Hurley Centre to be occupied in December

Grade 6 learners at Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg celebrate at their Exhibition of World Religions. a presentation of the core beliefs of each religion.”

Parents are invited to view the projects, look at the artefacts and

share in tasting the festival foods. It was a colourful evening with many children and their parents dressed in traditional festival attire.

Daughters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Continued from page 1 come to pray at the Emmanuel cathedral next door to the centre.

“The cathedral has been here for over 100 years. People of all faiths come and pray here, especially Hindu people, who often leave flowers for the archbishop on his tomb,” Mr Kearney said.

“Many people who lived in the neighbourhood and were moved because of the Group Areas Act come back, and many of them have memories of Archbishop Hurley.”

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Hurley Centre in the middle of December.

A simple ceremony is due to be held, with the keys of the centre being handed over to Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, archbishop of Durban.

At the same time a statue of Archbishop Hurley will be unveiled.

A date for the ceremony has not yet been set.

Archbishop Hurley was widely known for his passion for human rights and for unity among faiths.

He died on February 13, 2004 at the age of 88.

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

3

World’s Franciscans gather Cash crisis hits in Pretoria to discuss peace Little Eden home T F

BY STAFF REPORTER

BY ATTA MAGADLA SIBETTA

RANCISCANS from around the world gathered at the Padre Pio Centre in Centurion, Pretoria archdiocese, for a Peace Gathering Conference.

The conference was held in an effort to share the experiences from different countries, look into conflict-resolution around the world, implement a peace-making and justice charism, and clarify and consolidate different approaches.

The week-long gathering was given an opening address by Archbishop William Slattery, also a Franciscan, to more than 80 delegates, including the general minister, Br Mauro Johri from Rome.

The Damietta Peace Initiative, based in Centurion, is a Franciscan, inter-faith peace enterprise for Africa, built around the core values of non-violence, reconciliation and respect for creation.

Speaking to the delegates, Br Johri emphasised the importance of emulating St Francis of Assisi.

“Small as he was, he was strong in the love of God. People have to take time to look after the world and stop making excuses,” he said.

“It may be difficult to get aid and financial support from various organisations, as compared to ten years ago, yet it does not mean it closes all doors to work with various communities,” he said.

Capuchin Father Kees Thonissen, international director of the Damietta Peace Initiative, said: “The promotion of peace, conflict-solving and interacting with communities is what the Franciscan life is all about. As Franciscans we should not choose which conflicts and communities to help. With the little resources that we have, let us assist in the changing of people’s lives.”

Through many years in operation, Franciscan International has strengthened its advocacy work to achieve a stronger impact, the conference heard. They have focused on specific issues related to environmental justice (mainly on extractive industries), child protection, and human trafficking.

Through its presence at the United Nations in Geneva and New York, the Franciscans have also been effective in promoting a right-based approach to the sustainable development agenda.

They have carried out strong advocacy on sustainable development as well as business and human rights issues before

Franciscan student Thabiso Manyeli from South Africa and Fr Benedict Ayodi from Kenya express the joy of Mass through music. the UN Economic and Social Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council, making connections between the different forums.

During the gathering sessions in Pretoria, many of the Franciscan brothers and lay people gave testimonies and clarified achievements and difficulties in their regions of work.

Noting the spread of political and ethnic conflict, Petronella Munyao OFS, communication and programme coordinator of Damietta in Kenya, said: ”We need to interact with communities more often in an effort to try to stop the conflicts from happening.

“Such conflicts end up displacing families which in the end becomes a regional

problem and not only a country’s problem.”

Dr Jacob Kani from India outlined many ways one as a Franciscan can contribute.

“We have different ways of solving issues and everyone has a responsibility to be a peace-maker. We can do more,” he said.

“Unless we create a strong Franciscan order, we shall fail a lot of people and their communities. Each Franciscan needs to re-invent his order to contribute more.”

Franciscan International relies on a large network. They work with most vulnerable sectors in about 160 countries throughout the world and are composed of about 750 000 Franciscans who put into practice the principles of St Francis of Assisi.

Handbook of Legion of Mary in Afrikaans STAFF REPORTER

T

Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington with Lynette Petersen, president of the Legion of Mary senatus in Cape Town, during a conference of the legion in Pella, Northern Cape.

HE handbook of the Legion of Mary has been translated into Afrikaans, and is now awaiting formal approval by Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town.

At a conference of the Legion of Mary senatus of Cape Town held in Pella, Northern Cape, and attended by 160 members, Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington celebrated Mass, followed by a symbolic launch of the handbook.

The Afrikaans versions of the Tessera (Legion prayers), prayer cards of legion founder Frank Duff, and envoys Edel Quin and Alfie Lambe, and sacramentals were handed to the delegates.

Introductions of the various praesidia and curiae were made.

The aim of this conference was “to right the wrongs that had crept in over the years”, Lynette Petersen, president of the Legion of Mary senatus in Cape Town, said.

HE Little Eden Society in Johannesburg, which provides help to 300 residents with intellectual disabilities, is asking for urgent financial help after the Department of Health delayed paying the organisation its monthly subsidy.

The society said the funding crisis severely affects its day-to-day operations and it needs urgent help to ensure it can continue its service.

Various factors have added to the organisation’s financial difficulty.

Lucy Slaviero of Little Eden said the Department of Health announced recently, without warning, that subsidy payments would be made one month in arrears with immediate effect. The department pays Little Eden around R900 000 a month in subsidies.

The postal strike has also had a major effect on fund raising efforts.

“Some of our planned direct mail campaigns have had to be postponed indefinitely until the situation is resolved,” Ms Slaviero said.

The organisation used to receive money from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, but this had stopped.

“For the past two years there has been no call for application for further funding,” Ms Slaviero said.

Many of Little Eden’s donors have been hit by the poor economy. A number of donors have had to reduce their usual donations, and some have stopped giving altogether, she said.

“I call on our generous local communities for financial aid during this crisis we are facing. We are hopeful that we will once again receive an overwhelming response from concerned members of the public, friends and well-wishers of the society,” she said.

“These are uncertain times when Little Eden—the only home many of our residents will ever know is being threatened, as well as the very livelihood of our 263 staff members.”

Ms Slaviero said the home’s children and adults with profound intellectual disability need security, protection and care. Little Eden must continue to fight for this, she added, because many depend completely on the organisation for help.

“With the support of our friends and benefactors, we look forward to continue serving the community by providing a caring environment for persons with intellectual disabilities under our umbrella and core values— respect, sanctity of life and love and care.”  Contact Nichollette Muthige or Lucy Slaviero on 011 609 7246 or visit www.littleeden.org.za

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The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

INTERNATIONAL

Pope: God set Big Bang and evolution in motion T

BY CAROL GLATZ

The faithful hold a Marian icon as Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer from the window of the Apostolic Palace in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

(Photo: Max Rossi, Reuters/CNS)

Pope: Exorcists show love for the suffering

BY CINDY WOODEN

E

XORCISTS, assigned to that ministry by their bishops, demonstrate the love and care of the Church for “those who suffer because of the work of the devil”, Pope Francis said in a message to the International Association of Exorcists.

The organisation, which was recognised by the Congregation for Clergy in June, brought some 300 exorcists to Rome for a convention focused particularly on the impact of the occult and Satanism on modern men and women.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Dr Valter Cascioli, a psychiatrist and spokesman for the group, said the number of people who turn to the occult or are fascinated by Satanic cults and rituals “is constantly increasing and this worries us” be-

cause it appears to coincide with “an extraordinary increase in demonic activity”.

Dr Cascioli said too many people today undervalue temptation, “ordinary demonic activity”, which leaves them unprepared to fight off greater attacks by the devil.

In societies marked by “rushing, superficiality, exaggerated individualism and secularisation”, he said, “the battle against evil and the devil increasingly is becoming an emergency”.

Where faith is weak, he said, “the enemy of God” finds easy prey.

The exorcists’ association, Dr Cascioli said, sees the impact of the devil’s wiles on families as well as individuals. “We know that the one who divides—the devil—not only separates us from God, but separates persons and families.”—CNS

HE Big Bang theory and evolution do not eliminate the existence of God, who remains the one who set all of creation into motion, Pope Francis told his own science academy.

And God’s existence does not contradict the discoveries of science, he told members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

“When we read the account of creation in Genesis, we risk thinking that God was a magician, complete with a magic wand, able to do everything. But it is not like that,” he said. “He created living beings and he let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave each one, so that they would develop and reach their full potential.”

God gave creation full autonomy while also guaranteeing his constant presence in nature and people’s lives, he said.

The beginning of the world is not a result of “chaos”, he said, but comes directly from “a supreme principle that creates out of love”.

“The Big Bang, which today is held as the beginning of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator, but requires it,” he said. “Evolution in nature is not at odds with the notion of creation because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.”

Members of the academy, many of them renowned scientists and philosophers, were meeting at the Vatican to discuss “Evolving Concepts of Nature”.

Science, philosophy and religion have all contributed to how people see the world, how it began and what it all means, said the introduc-

The South Pole Telescope and the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarisation experiment, or Biceps2, are seen against the night sky.

Researchers used the equipment to detect ripples in the space-time fabric that echo the massive expansion of the universe that took place just after the Big Bang. (Photo: Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation via Reuters/CNS) tion to the academy’s programme.

Despite many scientific advances, many mysteries remain, said Rafael Vicuna, professor of molecular genetics and molecular biology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. While Charles Darwin shed light on the origin of species, one of the most perplexing questions is the actual origin of life, he said.

How is it that inert, inanimate matter turned into something living, and how is it that the first living single-celled organisms were still so amazingly complex, he asked in his talk.

Chemistry, biology and genetics have been able to identify the tiniest components and basic building blocks of living organisms, but there

is something more than just what they are made out of that makes them “living”, Prof Vicuna said in an interview with the Catholic newspaper, Avvenire.

“I can know perfectly what a cell is made up of, but how it works deep down, what really is the dynamism that makes it move—that is, life—I don’t know,” Prof Vicuna said. “A refrigerator and a car are complex structures that move, but only with an immense amount of energy from the outside.

Life, in its deepest essence, remains something that escapes us.”

In his talk to academy members, Prof Vicuna said the laws of chemistry and physics “do not suffice to grasp the whole of life...that life is more than molecules”.—CNS

Slain US journalist James Foley Sudan bombs condemned awarded peace institute prize

BY FRANCIS NJUGUNA

A

BISHOP who served in Sudan until his retirement a year agohas appealed to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to end a months-long bombing campaign that has killed and injured dozens of innocent civilians in the Nuba Mountains.

Bishop Macram Max Gassis made the appeal during a press conference, nine days after seven people, including six children, were killed and dozens more injured in a raid on a crowded market and a home in Heiban in South Kordofan state.

“The bombing marked a notable increase in the indiscriminate bombing of civilians,” Bishop Gassis said, condemning the Sudanese govern-

ment’s attacks in the region.

More than 800 bombs have been dropped in the Nuba Mountains this year, according to reports from the region.

The bishop was particularly critical of the Heiban bombing, which occurred on a Thursday, the market day in which farmers, shopkeepers and residents converge on the town’s central square.

“Any upright and morally living person cannot accept such injustice,” the bishop said.

Bishop Gassis also appealed to President Bashir and the government to negotiate a just and peaceful solution to any grievances in order to assure the dignity of the Nuba Mountains people.—CNS

BY SARAH MCCARTHY

P

RAYERS from around the world and an unwavering faith in God have continued to provide a strong foundation for John and Diane Foley after their son, journalist James Foley, was murdered in Syria

by Islamic State militants.

“It’s faith in God that’s kept me together,” Mrs Foley said in an interview with Catholic News Service. “I really feel that it was the prayers of people all over the world, and our church community and family; but all over the world, people were praying for him.”

The Foleys were in Washington to attend the fourth annual Oxi Day Foundation gala held at the US Insti-

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The parents of slain US journalist James Foley have received an award on their son’s behalf from the US Institute of Peace (Photo: Donis Tracy, Pilot/CNS) tute of Peace. The nonprofit foundation, which recognises people who fight to preserve and promote freedom and democracy, presented its 2014 Oxi Day award to the couple, who received it on behalf of their late son.

Former President Bill Clinton, who nominated James Foley for the award, spoke of his “courage and his value to the defence of peace, liberty and freedom”, in a pre-taped video appearance at the function.

James Foley was working as a freelance journalist in Syria when Islamic jihadists abducted him in November 2012. He had previously reported on the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

In 2011, militants loyal to Muammar Gadhafi captured the journalist in Libya and held him for 44 days.

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He later wrote an essay for Marquette magazine in which he spoke about the power of prayer and how it helped him endure his imprisonment.

“I began to pray the rosary,” Foley said. “It took a long time, almost an hour to count 100 Hail Mary’s off on my knuckles. And it helped to keep my mind focused.”

An article published in The New York Times reported that Foley had converted to Islam before his execution and even adopted the name Abu Hamza, according to a freed hostage who was detained in the same cell as Foley.

John and Diane Foley, who are Catholic, maintained that their son’s faith was evident throughout his captivity, though they did not name a specific religion.

“Jim prayed often, the other hostages tell us, and when he prayed, he felt the closest to his family. So, we really felt that sustained him,” Diane said.

Though James Foley suffered tremendously for more than 20 months at the hands of his captors, his father said he believes his son is now free. “[He is] free from the pain, the suffering, the beatings, the starvation. He’s free,” John said. “He ran his race, and he’s a winner.”—CNS

INTERN ATIONA L

The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

Historians ask: Was William Shakespeare a secret Catholic?

BY JONATHAN LUxMOORE

I

NSIDE Stratford-upon-Avon’s recently refurbished Royal Shakespeare Theatre, a massed audience, banked on three floors, gazes attentively out over a wide, brightly lit stage.

“Necessity will make us all forsworn. Three thousand times within this three years’ space; for every man with his affects is born, not by might master’d, but by special grace,” recited the actor playing Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost.

When the latest production of William Shakespeare’s beloved play opened recently, adapted to be set in an English mansion before World War I, it attempted to draw new meaning from the Bard’s eternal lines.

A similar task is being pursued by historians and researchers amid claims that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic at a time when the faith faced savage persecution.

“The probability that Shakespeare was a hidden Catholic helps explain the generally recognised enigma behind his work,” said Jesuit Father Peter Milward, an authority on the playwright.

“The Catholic elements visible everywhere in his 37 plays suggest he can be viewed as a champion of medieval Christendom, looking back with nostalgia to England’s past Catholic traditions,” Fr Milward said.

Views of Shakespeare until re-

cently have been dominated by an “old guard” of literary scholars, who have portrayed him as conforming with England’s Protestant establishment, Fr Milward said.

Shakespeare was most prolific from 1589 to 1613 as the Reformation still was being imposed, causing creative people to avoid drawing attention to their religious beliefs.

Some experts now think Shakespeare was deeply religious and that, far from going along with England’s official Protestant ideology, the playwright was deeply attached to the Catholic devotions suppressed a generation before.

“Shakespeare rose above the disputes of his day and never descended to sectarian squabbles. But by hiding theological messages in his secular language, he invited his listeners to ponder the heritage they’d lost,” said Claire Asquith, author of Shadowplay: the Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare.

“Catholic idioms and images are present throughout his work, in a forgotten world of saints and holy places. It seems we’ve been deaf to this and missed much of Shakespeare’s subtlety as a result,” Ms Asquith said.

Generations of English-speaking children, she argued, were taught an orthodox view of the 16th century, in which a corrupt Catholic Church was rightly taken over and reformed

by King Henry VIII, allowing an en-

lightened Protestant-led compromise to be established by Queen Elizabeth.

The interpretation has been challenged in recent years by Catholic historians, who have cited evidence that the destruction of the “old religion”, far from reflecting popular demands, was motivated by top-down political expediency.

Such scholars have depicted Queen Elizabeth as a harsher figure.

Some 35 000 people died in prison or on the scaffold during her 45-year reign, and Catholics, loyal to the old faith, were prime targets for repression.

T

he official hostility was understandable. The queen was declared excommunicated and deposed by Pope Pius V in 1571, and an invasion force, the Spanish Armada, launched with Rome’s blessing 17 years later.

But for ordinary Catholics conditions became intolerable as all nonconforming religious life was driven underground. For a writer such as Shakespeare it would have been dangerous to overtly display Catholic sympathies. Working them into his plays necessitated subtlety and skill.

Clues to Shakespeare’s apparent Catholic loyalty nevertheless have been pieced together.

It is known that his father, John Shakespeare, a Stratford town councillor, ran into trouble because of his Catholic preferences. The surround-

ing county, Warwickshire, was linked to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up King James I and his parliament in London.

The playwright’s eldest daughter, Susanna Hall, is believed to have boycotted Protestant services, while his mother’s family, the Ardens, were related to St Robert Southwell, a Jesuit priest who was executed in 1595. Historians believe his poetry influenced the writing of Macbeth and Titus Andronicus.

London’s South Bank, where Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was situated, was a focus for underground Catholic life. In 1613, three years before his death, the playwright bought a large house in Blackfriars which was used for covert Catholic gatherings.

Although Shakespeare lies buried with his estranged wife, Anne Hathaway, in Stratford’s Anglican church, several witnesses claimed he received Catholic last rites on his deathbed.

Citing the fact that Shakespeare’s comedies are set in Catholic Italy, Fr Milward said that while his ideal heroines show a fullness of grace reminiscent of Catholic notions of the Virgin Mary; the lovers’ go-between in several plays, including Romeo and Juliet, is a Franciscan friar who is revered as holy, .

Ms Asquith agreed, saying characters such as Malvolio, the mordant Puritan in Twelfth Night, and the

5

Dancers of the Zürich Ballet practise during a rehearsal of the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. New historical research suggests that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic at a time when the faith faced persecution in England.

(Photo: Mauricio Duenas Castaneda, EPA/CNS) king’s long-lost daughter, Perdita, in The Winter’s Tale, personify the religious mentalities of Shakespeare’s time, she said.

When Ms Asquith’s book was published in 2005, it was dismissed

by David Womersley, professor of English literature at Oxford University, as “a tide of wild hypothesis, strained reading and reductive historicism”.

Diarmaid Macculoch, a lecturer on Church history at Oxford, has doubts too. When Shakespeare quoted the Bible, he used official Protestant translations, he said.

While the debate continues, the contrasting views serve as a reminder of Shakespeare’s richness as a writer with a profound grasp of life’s tragic and comic complexities.—CNS

Picking olives in Garden of Gethsemane

BY JUDITH SUDILOVSKY

ON TAPE

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

F

OR Salim Badawi, a Greek Orthodox Palestinian from the West Bank village of Beit Jalla, the opportunity to help a group of Franciscan priests harvest olives in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives offers a sense of hope amid the adversaries his family has faced in their own olive groves.

He said much of the olive grove of his extended family has long been unreachable as it was taken years ago to build an Israeli settlement, now considered a neighborhood of Jerusalem.

An uncle tries every year—unsuccessfully—to reach the land, Mr Badawi said.

“Here I feel hope that maybe one day it will be different, maybe we will one day be allowed to go there and pick our olives,” Mr Badawi said while reaching into the branches of one of the trees that can be traced to the time of Christ. “ The olive trees are still there, but we can’t reach them. I feel something special in this holy place where we are picking the oldest olives in the area, maybe in the whole world.”

At the bottom of the tree, Karina Henriquez, a volunteer from Chile, places olives that drop from the branches into a sack. For her, the trees that continue to bear fruit after thousands of years are a symbol of Jesus, who is still giving fruit to all who seek him.

Ms Henriquez does not want to discuss politics, but she knows that Israelis and Palestinians are good people.

“Too bad they can’t solve their problems. We were hopeful with the pope’s visit, but then there was the war,” she said.

Still, Ms Henriquez feels the need to share the pope’s message of speaking to the soul of people about love and peace. “We have to pray so God will place peace and love in the hearts of all people,” she said.

Since the Franciscans retook possession of the small olive grove adjacent to the church of All Nations in 1681, the Franciscan fathers have tended to eight of what are believed to be the oldest olive trees in the Holy Land. Tradition, backed by modern genetic testing, holds that the gnarled trees were grafted at some point during the Crusader era from a single tree that was a witness to Jesus’ agony more than 2 000 years ago.

Today, the trees are part of the Garden of Gethsemane, fenced off and protected from the crowds of faithful who come on pilgrimage to the site. To accommodate pil-

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

Saleem Badawi, a Christian Palestinian form the West Bank village of Beit Jalla, picks olives in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem with Franciscan Father Benito Jose Choque. Franciscan priests and volunteers harvest the fruit each year in the garden where Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest. (Photo: Debbie Hill/CNS) grims, the Franciscans keep a box of small branches pruned from the trees from which people can freely take a memento.

As the olive harvest begins in the Holy Land, Fr Benito Choque, an Argentine who is superior of the Franciscan community at the church, ponders the significance of the olive in the Bible as he greets pilgrims outside the fence and walks among the trees inside the garden. A few pilgrims ask for an olive from the trees, but the friar gently denies their request. If he gives an olive to one, then all the other pilgrims will want one, too, he explained.

“These oldest of trees are a testament to Jesus’ suffering,” Fr Choque said. The ancient trees continue to speak to those who will hear, he said.

T

he Franciscans have been in the Holy Land for eight centuries under mandate of the Holy See, and their mission, he explained, is to live with the Jews and Muslims, transmitting their charism.

“What the Crusaders in the past did with their weapons, we do with prayers,” Fr Choque said. “I believe God has given something beautiful to humanity and I think the people of this land are blessed also with the planting of the olive trees.”

Though now there is confrontation not far from the trees, the priest sees the harvest as a time that unites people as families gather to pick olives and neighbours and friends meet at the olive press to make the fruit into oil used in cooking throughout

the year.

Franciscan Father Diego Dalla Gassa, who guides volunteers at the garden, said he urges them to consider the vocation of the olive and the olive tree, likening them to the life of Jesus. They are cared for with the rain which God provides and in the end, they are meant to be pressed for the oil so precious and important in the region, he noted.

“It is very beautiful for us to pick the olives here from the trees we have cared for. When we collect the olives, we understand we are doing what God does with us.

When we see an olive on a faraway branch, we must reach out to it to take it and so it happens with us that God is reaching out for us, searching for us,” Fr Dalla Gassa said.

“This place interprets all of the life of Jesus,” he added. “Jesus was pressed here [as the olive is pressed] and we received the beautiful oil, in this case the blood [of Jesus].”

The Franciscans utilise every part of the olive, the oil is blessed and used for the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, including the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination of priests, and anointing the sick.

The garden also includes a younger tree planted by Pope Paul VI during his visit in 1964, and the newest sapling planted by Pope Francis during his pilgrimage earlier this year.—CNS

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

Do you feel called to the Franciscan way of life?

Contact: Brother Evenie Turner O.F.M. 082 599 7718, 012 345 3732, PO Box 914-1192, Wingate Park, 0153,

Email: evenieturner63@gmail.com

6

The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The Church and science

I

T seems that all pronouncements by Pope Francis which defy the secular world’s preconceived notions about the Church are being hailed as revolutionary breakthroughs, even if they merely restate long-held positions.

This was the case when the pope made remarks about the healthy relationship between faith and science in an address to the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

It is important to remind society, and the faithful, that the Church embraces science, that evolution is compatible with the faith, even as some fundamentalist Christians disagree.

Catholics, and all Christians, should know that the Big Bang theory does not contradict the role of a divine creator, but actually required it.

“God is not a divine being or a magician, but the Creator who brought everything to life,” as Pope Francis put it. “Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”

In this way Christians are able to reconcile God, whom we meet in the act of faith, with the revelations of empirical scientific inquest. Science seeks to answer “what” and “how”; theology and philosophy seek to answer “why”.

Pope Francis said nothing new, of course. Pope Pius XII declared in his 1950 encyclical Humani Generis that there was no conflict between evolution and Catholic doctrine, confirmed by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. This seems to have bypassed the modern media and those whose limited views of the Church’s relationship with science are prejudiced by half-remembered stories about the Galileo affair and the misleading propaganda of atheist polemic.

And so Pope Francis’ innocuous remarks were presented as a significant shift in the Church, which supposedly has a record of resistance to scientific inquest.

The very thought of Catholic hostility to science is preposterous. Already in 1912, the Catholic Encyclopedia noted that “the conflicts between science and the Church are not real”.

This sober observation followed several decades during which some Catholic leaders made known their opposition to

the ideas of evolution, especially as proposed by Charles Darwin.

That resistance tended to relate not to scientific insight, however, but to the use of the understanding of humanity’s evolution to deny God. Indeed, the initial proposition of the theory of evolution emerged from a devout, life-long Catholic, the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744– 1829). And the Big Bang theory was the work of a Catholic priest, Belgian Father Georges Lemaître (1894-1966).

Many scientific breakthroughs were achieved by Catholic clerics and religious over the centuries, usually supported by the Church.

In the 13th century, English Franciscan friars Roger Bacon and William of Ockham, English Bishops Robert Grosseteste and John Peckham, and German Dominican Bishop Albert of Cologne were early advocates of the scientific method.

Polish Father Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) pioneered the theory of heliocentrism—that the sun, not the earth, is at the centre of our universe.

Jesuit Father Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598-1671) was a pioneer in astronomy, as were his fellow Jesuits, Frs Daniello Bartoli (1608–85) and Francesco Maria Grimaldi (1618-63).

German Jesuit Father Athanasius Kircher (1602–80) was a pioneer in bacteriology.

Danish Bishop Nicolas Steno (1638-86) was a pioneer in anatomical research.

Italian Jesuit Father Francesco Lana de Terzi (1631-87) is known as the “father of aeronautics”.

German Augustinian Friar Gregor Mendel (1822-84) was a pioneer of genetics.

Jesuit Father Roger Joseph Boscovich (1711-87), from modern-day Croatia, was an all-round scientist of significant import, especially in the fields of astronomy and what would become atomic theory.

The Catholic Church also revised the Julian calendar, a great scientific accomplishment.

These are just a few examples of the vast Catholic clerical engagement in the sciences, leaving aside the contributions by lay Catholics such as René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Antoine Lavoisier, Louis Pasteur or Louis Braille.

Much of scientific advance has been made possible, and certainly not obstructed, by Catholicism.

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.

Church has no pacifist tradition

D

UE to the postal strike I have only recently seen Tony Magliano’s article “Can war ever be justified?” (September 10).

Certainly the “massive death and destruction” made possible by modern technology demands a rethink of the armed conflict issue.

But the fact is that much of the Bible does not present God as a mild pacifist. Just a few of the points to consider: • Israel’s military occupation of Palestine after the exodus from Egypt is sometimes presented as God’s success story.

• In places God is portrayed as David’s military ally in his expansionist wars to extend the size of his kingdom. This is even the hidden agenda behind some of the psalms.

• In the second book of Maccabees it is taken for granted that God is fighting with the Jews in their battles, some of which were blatant aggression, carried out with violence

Excommunicating Dr Mary Ryan

R

EFERRING to the automatic excommunication of Mary Ryan, reported in The Southern Cross of October 15, we, the undersigned, wish to ask two questions: Firstly, can a person be excommunicated for breaking what he or she believes, according to their conscience, is an unjust Church law?

The Catholic Church has always upheld the primacy of conscience and that even an erroneous conscience should be obeyed. Mary, who has a doctorate in theology, and her sister priests, already over 180, have taken this radical step, with prayer and deliberation as they believe the Church law forbidding women to be ordained priests is unjust.

For a Christian, discrimination on the grounds of sex, race or creed is an injustice. These women see this as a prophetic stand, fully aware that the institutional Church will, at this time, reject it.

The South African apartheid laws were another example of an unjust law, and those who broke it were jailed and even murdered. Finally the law was abolished. The Church also forbids artificial contraception, but women are told by many priests in confession to follow their own conscience on this matter.

Secondly, is it right for the Church to refuse any dialogue on this very important issue affecting women who feel that God is calling them to this priestly ministry?

Pope Francis has stated: “The door is closed on this one.”

The question is, why is it closed?

This needs to be answered in a way relevant to our needs and our times.

and cruelty to ordinary citizens.

• In the psalms used in the divine office, which priests and religious brothers and sisters are obliged to pray daily, God is frequently presented as a God who takes sides in conflict situations.

Are we Christians to repudiate all this and even cut out some of the psalms entirely as well as large pieces of others? Are we to reject those of the Church’s liturgical texts which we personally do not like?

The peace sayings of Jesus quoted in the article refer to personal relations and individual morality. Can they without more ado be applied to international politics?

Jesus also said other things which are not so peaceable: “It is not peace I have come to bring but the sword” (Mt 10:34); or in St Luke’s version, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (12:51).

A door is still a door and not a concrete barrier wall, and can be slowly pushed open, with a little rubbing of the hinges with holy oil!

Mary and women like her believe they are sowing seeds that will eventually grow and be accepted as a harvest of unity and collaboration with men priests.

The Church may go on calling them bad seed or weeds which need to be eliminated. But Jesus says that the weeds and the wheat must grow together—and if Jesus can change water into wine, can he not also change weeds into wheat?

James Boshell, Helen Boshell, Melanie Bruce, Genevieve Buckland, Patti Cleveland, Miranda Forshaw, Nick Howse, Libby Howse, Paula Howse, Romayne Lunn, Lydia Myers, Marlene Palmer, Janet Perrott, Sheila Pollard, John Scott, Delia Scott, Cathy Simonic

Has woman priest offended God?

T

HE front-page of your October 15 edition carried the article “SA woman priest is excommunicated”.

Excommunication, according to my Catholic dictionary, is “a penalty imposed by the Church on 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

ROMAN UNION OF THE ORDER OF ST URSULA

The Church has no pacifist tradition. The attitude of the Christians of the first three centuries, mentioned in the article, is not a helpful argument, because, not being in a position of political power, they did not have to decide about a nation or even a large grouping of people going to war as a community.

The Church celebrates the liturgical feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7 in memory of a Christian victory in a naval battle against the Muslims in what could be considered a just war of self-defence.

Some of the saints celebrated in the liturgy, for instance, St Lawrence of Brindisi and St John of Capistrano, are praised for rallying the Christian armies to drive the Muslims back out of eastern Europe.

I am not advocating aggression or armed conflict, but merely trying to point out that the issue is not as simple as north Atlantic pacifists like Mr Magliano would like to make out.

Fr Bonaventure Hinwood OFM, Pretoria a sinner in order to bring about his correction and amendment”.

Among the long list of sins cited, is, of course, heresy.

Woman priest Mary Ryan was excommunicated because she stands accused of heresy, which, by definition, is the denial of some truth revealed by God. Exactly what truth revealed by God has she denied?

I am well aware of the argument that Jesus chose 12 male apostles therefore priests should be men, but is it a valid argument, is it a revelation by God? Furthermore, there is consensus among many eminent New Testament scholars that St Paul’s letter to the Romans 16:7 should read: “Greet Andronicus and Junia (rather than the correction Junias, which was a man’s name in firstcentury Rome), my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are distinguished among the apostles.”

My question is: How has Dr Ryan deliberately transgressed the law of God? Since she was raised a Catholic, studied theology and is not a charlatan, is it not reasonable to assume that she must have felt called to the priesthood and is following divine will as known by her conscience?

At this point I am reminded of the many blunders committed by the Church (the Crusades, the execution in 1415 of the predecessor of the Protestant movement, Jan Hus, the Church’s treatment of Galileo, to name but a few), for many of which St John Paul II apologised publicly during his pontificate.

I am encouraged by Pope Francis’ assertion that “if laws do not lead people to Jesus, they are obsolete”.

Gabriella Broccardo, Roodepoort

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PERSPECTIVES

We are all broken angels S OME time ago, my friend came to visit and brought her young daughter with her.

One of the things little Abbi noticed was my porcelain angel on one of the side tables. It was a gift from one of the volunteers I lived with in Germany in 2005 and therefore carries a special sentimental value for me.

When Abbi noticed the angel, her mom said she couldn’t touch it. The next day, the temptation was too great and Abbi asked to hold the angel. At first her mom watched her to make sure she didn’t drop it, but then as we started chatting, our attention moved to other things and we forgot that Abbi still had the angel. Until we heard it come crashing down on the hard tiles.

As my friend began to apologise, I told her not to worry because the angel had suffered a previous accident. When I first moved away from home, I had left the angel at my parents’ home for safekeeping and took it with me only when I moved to Cape Town in 2013.

When I removed the angel from the bubble wrap, I noticed a fine crack along the base of her wings. I mentioned this to my parents and one of them admitted that the angel had fallen and her wings had broken off. My dad had glued the angel back together and hoped I wouldn’t notice.

This time the damage was far more severe. The angel had broken into three neat pieces. I picked her off the ground and quietly put the pieces away in the hope of fixing her later.

But as I contemplated the pieces, I wondered if we aren’t all like this broken angel.

We are all broken people. The knocks of life have left their scars, and even if we pick up the pieces, glue them together and

carry on, the marks will remain.

In our consumerist throwaway society, we have forgotten the value of fixing something that is broken. Instead, we quickly replace what was broken without trying to fix it.

W

e do the same with people. When they don’t live up to our expectations, to the perfect image we may have of them, when their woundedness and hurt are too painful or exhausting for us to bear, we also push them away, discarding them for a newer, better model.

We don’t take the time to sit through

A Pièta by Antonio Montauti (1734) in St John Lateran basilica in Rome. The broken body of Christ is a necessary reminder of the resurrection on the third day. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

Sarah-Leah Pimentel

The Mustard Seeds

the pain, through the hurt, through the sin, through the imperfection. Yet Christ, who was perfect, allowed himself to be broken and made imperfect, so that we could be healed and our imperfections be blotted out.

Every time we walk into a church we are called to contemplate the wounded body of Jesus on the Cross, so that we can also be reminded of the glory of the living Christ three days later and who remains present today in the Eucharist. Real life includes both the perfect and imperfect, good and bad, wholeness and brokenness.

Sometimes we need to hold the broken pieces of our lives, the lives of the people we encounter, and contemplate the brokenness. The broken pieces make us focus on the desire for wholeness, for perfection.

It is only when we look at the brokenness of our lives, that we can reach God’s mercy to heal us, to glue us back together.

God’s healing doesn’t make us perfect.

We will still bear the scars of the fall, the cracks in the place where we broke. But it is only through our imperfections that we can reach out in humility and compassion to the brokenness of others, to truly appreciate God’s love, mercy and forgiveness. It prevents us from becoming too confident, too arrogant, too proud.

I glued my angel back together and she is once again watching me quietly from the side table in my lounge.

Abbi’s accident turned out to be a gift in disguise, because my patched up ornament reminds me daily that we are all angels with broken wings. And that we need our loving Father to piece us together every time we come tumbling down from our pedestals.

Don’t believe everything ISIS tells you

O

RGANISATIONS such as the Islamic State (or ISIS or ISL or a host of other names), Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Al Shabab have been wreaking havoc across West, East as well as North Africa, the Middle East and as far afield as the United States.

These organisations argue that the beheadings, crucifixions, kidnappings, bombings, piracy and the horrific acts of terror they perpetrate are all committed in the name of Islam.

The unfortunate result of the terrorists’ justification is the assumption, for many non-Muslims, that this brutality and terror is a tenet of Islam.

But does Islam dictate this level of cruelty, in essence forcing people to convert to Islam under pain of death?

This is the question I put to Fr Christopher Clohessy, a priest who is a renowned scholar of Islam, on my Wednesday afternoon drive-time show on Radio Veritas, “Changing Gear”, to help us better understand Islam, a religion of peace.

What resonated most with me was Fr Clohessy’s point that any religious text could be read and understood from a place of violence. From God aiding the Israelites to victory in times of armed, violent struggle to the New Testament’s suggested removal of body parts that lead to temptation; the Bible regularly speaks of violence.

As Fr Clohessy suggests, if one wishes to interpret these texts as an endorsement for violence, particularly if you use religion to advance your own agenda, it is not difficult to find such a violent endorsement.

As Fr Clohessy sees it, these extremist

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Islamic State fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in Mosul, Iraq—but do they really represent Islam? (Photo: Reuters/CNS) groups have a limited understanding and interpretation of Islam, one that is misguided, one that reinforces the notion that the religion was spread through the sword rather than the word, and one that fails to be tolerant of other beliefs and religions.

Contrary to the violence and intolerance these extremist organisations propagate, I came across a quote credited to the Prophet Muhammed that paints a polaropposite picture: “The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr.”

I

t is important for us to familiarise ourselves with the basic tenets of the beliefs we encounter outside of our immediate circles. Although Islam and Christianity have shared a history of conflict, the two religions respect, at times revere each other, and as two Abrahamic religions, share in each other’s commonalities.

These extremist fringe groups have

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managed not only to spread their message of hate and intolerance, but they have many rational people buying into their message. With Islamophobic attacks on the steady increase in Australia and the United States, increasing numbers of nonMuslims clearly associate Islam with violence.

If we buy into this message of hate we risk becoming the terror ourselves; nonMuslims become the aggressors as they, like these extremist fringe groups, do not fully appreciate and understand the true tenets of the religion. Out of their limited or distorted knowledge, they themselves act out of hate.

Brotherly love demands that rather than condemn and judge, we should embrace and appreciate those with different beliefs to our own. This is indeed possible, but only when we are able to differentiate between the messages of the hate- and warmongers on the one hand, and those of the true believers on the other.

Learning more about another’s religion goes a long way in fostering our tolerance for beliefs beyond your own, and it allows us to appreciate what we believe while fostering respect for another’s beliefs.

And that way we are also better equipped to tell the true believer from bloodthirsty terrorists, and prevent us from meeting terror with prejudices of our own.

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7

Fr Ralph de Hahn

Point of Reflection

What of your interior life?

T

HE ancient Jewish sect known as the Pharisees, the pious “separated ones”, were distinguished by their strict observance of traditional and written law.

Yet Jesus found it necessary to reproach them, saying: “You have made God’s word null and void by means of your tradition.”

He went on to quote the prophet Isaiah: “This people honours me only with their lips, but their hearts are very far from me. The worship they offer is worthless” (Mt 15:7-9).

This observation could also be directed at some Catholics who, generally speaking, take delight in the exterior glamour of the Catholic faith, those who are ever-present at devotions, processions, bible sessions; those who delight in their statues, rosary beads, candles and colourful holy pictures.

Many of those people no doubt are great Servants of the Lord. Others may well be termed religious, but not necessarily spiritual.

The popular Catholic Link newsletter, published by the Redemptorists, a while back pointed out that “authentic Christianity is challenged by new religious movements which prefer warm and fuzzy personal feelings”. It added that “many people claim to be spiritual rather than religious, some stating that they have a personal spirituality without believing in God”.

Our Catholic spirituality is necessarily based on faith, hope and love—the three vital theological virtues. Supernatural realities are accessible only through true faith, and not simply the operations of the imagination. It is living the supernatural life above the material and the visible.

And so one may well ask the question: What of my interior life?

Many spiritual writers are all too ready to stress the duties, obligations and external practices which identify the practitioner with a particular church or sect., But they fail to acknowledge and appreciate the wonderful supernatural treasures we already have.

Just turn to the gospels: especially the last four chapters of St John show the clear teaching of Jesus that is far more exacting than any of the books of asceticism: it speaks of the interior life, the indwelling of God himself in the human soul.

It is revealing, courageous and challenging.

Faith is the foundation of the interior life. We need to believe that God is present in all creation and more deeply present in our immortal soul.

God made us for himself; he desires an intimate relationship with each one of us; my very being depends on his presence.

He asks for a life of faith, sustained by hope and inflamed by love; that we live not blindly by the law, but rather in the spirit. It is our living in Jesus and he living in us. Any other way is an obstacle!

So, what of your interior life ? Maybe we ourselves erect barriers, unnecessary obstacles. We tend to complicate our lives as Christians.

But God is absolutely simple; perfect simplicity.

We draw much closer to him by a simple prayer life; to pray “like little children”—ever humble, ever in need, selfless, in endless wonder at all his creation, and ever leaning on his fatherly protection and love.

That is efficacious prayer. In fact, words are not always necessary; maybe just a glance of love will speak a million words.

It is useful to share with the Lord all our successes and all our failures—and, in both cases, to thank him. If we multiply our acts of faith and love, we will grow. Jesus invites us to give ourselves to him so that he may give himself to us.

The more wretched the material, the greater the glory of the artist who transforms the work, as we see in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Becoming more attached to Jesus in this intimate relationship will bring about a detachment from material things, and with that follows the peace that Jesus promised us.

The Father desires us to be transformed into the image of his Son. However, the degree of intimacy to which he invites us depends on the generosity of our response.

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The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

PERSONALITY

Archbishop Hurley was a champion of the poor As the Church marks the 99th birthday of the late Archbishop Denis Hurley on November 9, veteran journalist WINNIE GRAHAM recalls three encounters with Durban’s famous archbishop.

A

COMBONI priest invited me to see the electric fence separating South Africa from Mozambique.

This was 25 or more years ago when the apartheid government was hell-bent on keeping out refugees from our war-torn neighbouring state.

“Some 84 people have been electrocuted here since the fence was built a year ago,” Fr Angelo told me. “That’s many more than have been shot in 50 years trying to cross the wall separating EastBerlin from West-Berlin...”

Fr Angelo and I bounced over the rugged veld roads to reach the Mozambican border south of the Kruger National Park.

We were not alone when we got there. A group of South African churchmen, from various religious denominations, had arrived ahead of us. Among them was Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban.

“It’s good you have come,” the archbishop told me.

“This fence is an abomination,” he said. “The people crossing it are desperate. Their country is at war.

Many have relatives this side of the border. The boundary between South Africa and [the old Portuguese colony] Mozambique is a European-made separation. The Africans on either side are related to each other...”

Archbishop Hurley’s distress

when viewing the killer electric fence was typical of his reaction to the suffering of the poor.

I had met him a few years earlier when, in 1987, my editor dispatched me to Durban to cover the huge floods that killed some 400 people and washed away thousands of makeshift houses in the Lindelane area. It was said the prolonged rains were the worst ever recorded.

But it was almost impossible to reach the area. Most of the roads had been washed away. Homes were gone and even the cemetery had been swept away, the only evidence of its existence odd coffins jutting out of the ravaged earth.

The survivors suffered worse.

Despite the rain, they had no drinking water, no food and, in many cases, no shelter. Yet the reports from the region centred on the millions lost to agriculture.

I was sent to find out what had happened to the people. Alfred, one of The Star’s top drivers, a Zulu who spoke the local language, would take me there.

Where to start? I called Archbishop Hurley’s office in Durban and asked for help. The archbishop immediately arranged for Lawrence Mthwetha, a senior person on his personnel who soon after would be ordained a deacon, to be my guide.

My visit to the region was to haunt me for years. Almost the first person I met was a teenager. He stood on a ridge where his home had once been. He spoke enough English to tell me that he was looking at the spot where he had lived with his mother and three siblings..

“I lived here with my mother, my brothers and sister,” he said.

“The five of us. When the rain started, it was wet inside the hut but we huddled together. The rain,

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it poured down, then the mountain, it moved.”

He never quite knew what had happened. The hillside on which their little home had been built collapsed under the weight of the water and damp soil, and in a matter of moments the earth literally moved, washing away house and inhabitants, all desperately clutching at something to survive.

I

t was daylight—and still pouring with rain—when the teenager could finally make out where he was and could claw himself to safety. His home had gone, washed away along with his mother and siblings. He stumbled around in the wet looking for some trace of his family. There was none, just waters rushing away towards the sea.

He was just one of many deprived of family and home.

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Archbishop Denis Hurley OMI, who died ten years ago this year, would have turned 99 on November 9. In her article, Winnie Graham sees the archbishop, seen on the right greeting people in Sebokeng, as a champion of the poor.

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When the message went out that help was needed in the devastated region—particularly food, water and dry clothing—aid started arriving fairly rapidly.

Good-hearted people sent bags of mielie meal, but the hungry residents had neither dry wood nor matches, or utensils in which to cook food. Finally a bakery delivered loaves of bread. Hungry children queued patiently for a slice, sans butter or jam.

When the news of the tragedy spread, South Africans reacted with their usual open-heartedness.

And though he kept out the limelight, Archbishop Hurley was hard at work in the background, mustering support for the thousands of homeless people left without shelter or food, bereft of family support and stripped of their possessions.

His first thought was always for the poor and disadvantaged.

When I was first sent to interview him a few years earlier, I rather provocatively asked him about vocations. “What do you think about women priests?” I asked. He didn’t flinch. “I have no problem with that,” he responded, “But for goodness sake don’t write

it. You’ll get me into trouble with the Vatican.”

I have often wondered if his progressive views—he was always way ahead in his thinking—may explain why he was never made a cardinal. Was he just too radical for the Church?

Though much has rightly been made of Archbishop Hurley’s ceaseless opposition to apartheid, my memories of him have always been associated with his involvement with the poor. Rather like Pope Francis, he saw the light of Christ in the eyes of the homeless and the hungry.

It seems only proper that when the archdiocese of Durban decided to build a new centre alongside Emmanuel cathedral, it was named after their much-loved archbishop, who died ten years ago this year, on February 13, 2004. It is a place that is intended to provide facilities for the homeless, the unemployed and for refugees—the very people close to Archbishop Hurley’s heart.

The Denis Hurley Centre will begin its operations in the new building soon, but it will officially open in a year’s time, on November 9—the 100th anniversary of Archbishop Hurley’s birth.

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Our Lady of Fatima Dominican Convent School, Durban North

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GEOGRAPHY SUBJECT HEAD Grades 8 – 12

Applications are invited from experienced educators who possess appropriate qualifications, are registered with SACE and fit the following profile:

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Senior school trained educator (Graduate with a PGCE) with recent experience teaching Geography, Grades 8 – 12.

Extensive knowledge of the GET and FET curricula.

Recent experience in an IEB school will be an advantage.

An appreciation of the School’s traditions and Catholic ethos.

Sound interpersonal skills and an ability to communicate effectively with learners, staff and parents.

Duties will include: ♦ Attendance at related workshops and parent interviews. ♦ Participation in the School’s co-curricular programme.

Our Lady of Fatima DCS reserves the right not to make an appointment.

An application in itself does not entitle the applicant to an interview.

Failure to meet the advertised minimum requirements for the post will result in applicants automatically disqualifying themselves from consideration.

Applicants are required to fill in a covering information form which is available from Mrs Bennison. She can post it to you on request (Tel. 031-563-5390) or you can email her at fatimacs@fatima.co.za for an electronic version of this form.

Detailed CV to be submitted with the information form to: The Principal, Our Lady of Fatima D.C. School, 155 Kenneth Kaunda Road (Northway), Durban North, 4051.

CLOSING DATE: FRIDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2014

PILGRIMAGE

The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

9

Our journey with three great saints In October a group of Southern Cross pilgrims, led

by Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen, returned from a pilgrimage to Portugal,Spain and France. In the second of four articles, GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks at places associated with St Teresa of Ávila and St Anthony of Padua.

E

VEN the Blessed Virgin needs the company of saints. So it was on our pilgrimage to Portugal, Spain and France, which was distinctly Marian in focus, with Fátima and Lourdes as the centrepieces.

Three saints in particular accompanied our group. St Teresa of Ávila, St Anthony of Padua and St John Paul II. St Teresa of Jesus is known as the reformer of the Carmelite order, which places the rosary at the centre of its prayer life. St Teresa herself reported apparitions of Our Lady, as well as the famous vision of the scourged Christ. The pillar on which she saw the latter vision can still be seen in the convent of the Incarnation, outside Ávila’s Old City.

Our group was privileged to have Mass in the convent church, which is usually closed to the public. The nuns told us that they made the church off-limits to the public because tourists kept stealing precious items from it.

The convent is where St Teresa lived and where she later served as superior. Many items belonging to her can be seen there. Also on view is her cell, with the desk at which she wrote so prodigiously.

St Teresa’s confessor and collaborator, St John of the Cross, is also present at Incarnation convent: one can see the place where he heard confession as well as his chair.

The old city of Ávila is magnificent. Encircled by impressively preserved walls built in the 11th and 12th century, it is medieval and resolutely non-commercial. The visitor has a stunning panoramic view of the city and the walls, especially at dusk, from the Cuatre Postes observation point, just a couple of minutes walk from our hotel.

Inside the city the highlight is a small chapel that marks the place of St Teresa’s birth on March 28, 1515. The richly decorated 17thcentury St Teresa convent was built over the house of her birth. Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in the chapel during his 1982 visit to the city to mark the 400th anniversary of the saint’s death.

The locals are hoping that Pope Francis will visit Ávila next March to mark the 500th birthday of the woman born as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada.

Around the corner from the convent is the plain church of St John the Baptist, in which St Teresa

The tomb of St Teresa of Ávila above the altar of Annunciation church in Albe de Tormes, Spain. Right: The Cuatre Postes observation point with the lit-up 12th-century city walls of Ávila, the Spanish town of St Teresa and St John of the Cross. (Photos: Günther Simmermacher) was baptised on April 4, 1515. It is still being used as a parish church, as obituary sheets on the notice board show.

St Teresa died on October 4, 1582 in Alba de Tormes. She had arrived there 15 days earlier to visit the convent of the Annunciation, which she had founded 11 years earlier. Suddenly she was taken ill and lingered until October 4, the day on which Spain and other Catholic countries switched to the Gregorian calendar—the day after Thursday, October 4 was Friday, October 15. This is why her feast is October 15 (October 4 being the feast of St Francis of Assisi).

Alba de Tormes is a small town in western Spain with a population of just over 5 000, though in the 16th century it had 22 000 inhabitants and 18 churches. St John Paul II celebrated Mass in 1982 in the large St Teresa basilica, built in 1933, as a statue in its gardens reminds the visitor.

The town’s most famous site, however, is the Annunciation convent, where Discalced Carmelites still live today, and the adjacent church and museum with St Teresa’s tomb.

While St Teresa was ailing, she asked that her sickbed be installed above the altar, so that she could be close to the Eucharist. She was moved from there shortly before her death. In death, she is back in that spot: her tomb presides from behind a grille above the altar.

Her tomb can be seen up close, with the relics of her incorrupt heart and left arm, in the convent church’s extensive museum.

Our group would encounter St Teresa again in France: in Tours, where an altar is dedicated to her in St Gatien cathedral, and in Lisieux, the place of her fellow Discalced Carmelite and Doctor of the Church, St Thérèse, the Little Flower.

D

on’t call St Anthony of Padua by that title in Lisbon, where the locals insist that their most famous saint should be universally

Pilgrims pray on a bench used by St John Paul II in the crypt of the birthplace of St Anthony of Padua in Lisbon.

known by the city where he was born, not by the Italian city in which he died. So in Portugal he is known as St Anthony of Lisbon.

We had our inaugural Mass in the lovely Baroque-Rococo church from 1767, rebuilt after the great earthquake that destroyed Lisbon 12 years earlier, that stands on the place of the saint’s birth in 1195, just in front of the 12th-century cathedral of Lisbon.

St Anthony and my family are old friends. My wife and I have fond memories of visiting his tomb in Padua in 1999. Some years later I could not find my passport just as I was about to leave on an

overseas journey.

Days of searching had produced no results until my wife invoked St Anthony’s help. Literally, in the next place she looked was not only my passport but also a long-lost ID book. To this day I have no plausible explanation as to how these two documents could have ended up in the same disused briefcase.

So I was pleased to be at the place of St Anthony’s birth, and moved when the resident priest produced a reliquary with a relic of the saint for our veneration.

Again St John Paul II was present (as he would be everywhere we went): in the crypt of St Anthony’s

birth is the bench on which the late pope kneeled during his visit in 1982.

We encountered St Anthony again in Zaragoza, Spain, when we had Mass in the chapel dedicated to him in the basilica of Our Lady of the Pillars (more of which next week).

And our final Mass, in the Miraculous Medal chapel in Paris had an indirect link to him: it was the feast of St Francis of Assisi, founder of the order to which St Anthony belonged.

NEXT WEEK: Zaragoza, the mother church of Spain, and the Eucharistic miracle of Santarém.

10

The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

BOOK REVIEWS

Social change is needed to arrest climate change THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: Capitalism vs the Climate, by Naomi Klein. Simon & Schuster.

2014. 576pp Reviewed by Fr Chris Chatteris SJ HE Canadian writer Naomi Klein has written another best-selling critique of unregulated capitalism, but this time from the point of view of climate change.

How do you persuade a world in the grip of a crisis which few want to face, weak leaders are desperately fudging and vested interests are relentlessly obfuscating, not only to look at it calmly but also to see it as an opportunity to grasp, in theological language, a kairos?

Firstly, she writes a gentle but formidable jeremiad in a measured, self-deprecating and often funny style, all the while marshalling impressive quantities of research into clear, accessible form which keeps the momentum of her argument moving steadily and convincingly along.

Klein crystalises out and confirms strongly many of the hunches of non-specialist observers. My own main hunch has been that if we are to survive climate change we will have to do everything at once rather than attack the problem piecemeal. This is not a crisis requiring just a bit of recycling on Saturday mornings, helpful as that is. It is more like World War II when entire economies had to be transformed within weeks.

Unless we change the consumerist way we live, Klein argues,

T

and the unregulated way we “run” our economy, we are in for huge climate trouble. Business as usual with technological tweaking and some adjusting of the market machine will take us charging past an average global temperature increase of 2°C and into the catastrophic territory of 4-6°C, where, to use the phrase of climate scientist James Hansen, it’s “game over for the planet”. The right kind of technology will help, but there are no “silver bullets”.

However, Klein believes that with the right kind of visionary leadership, this crisis could be turned into a tremendous opportunity for solving many of our contemporary problems.

Unfortunately our leaders have failed us, and still do.

Klein describes a heartrending scene in which a climate activist breaks down after the debacle of the Copenhagen climate summit. “I thought Obama understood,” he sobs. Well, Klein believes that Obama does understand, but, like so many of us, has become so habituated to the notion of leaving business and the market to sort things out, he is incapable of taking the courageous, decisive action needed.

After the 2009 banking collapse and with the US auto industry in tatters, Obama had a golden opportunity to tackle climate-change. He could have done what he did—rescue the US banks and car industry— but with powerful conditions attached, ensuring that future investments would go into the creation of a green economy, green

Visit our Book Reviews archive at www.scross.co.za/category/reviews/books/

infrastructure and electric vehicles.

But he blew it because, like the rest of us, he no longer has the imagination to envisage a world where the dog still wags the tail, that is, where banks and business take their cue from governments for the service of the common good.

B

ut there is an opportunity to create some serious political momentum by rallying around the climate issue. Grassroots opposition to “extractivism” is growing, especially as it affects more and more people, including the middle class who may suddenly find that the ground under their homes is being fracked.

This has led to interesting new

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and proposed programme.

For example she praises the German Energiewende (energy transition) for the way it has enabled the localisation of power production— a good example of economic subsidiarity.

Most of the proposals contributing to climate change mitigation, such as more public transport, are about the common good. She argues that “extractivism”—the heedless exploitation of natural resources without any thought for the long-term ecological consequences, and the human cost—is, “the opposite of stewardship”. But obviously the main goal of keeping the planet habitable for human life is one vast project for the common good, the ultimate stewardship project.

Some of the terms she coins ring Catholic Social Teaching bells. For example “sacrifice zones”, or those areas of the globe which are sacrificed on the altar of our consumer economy—the islands being swamped by rising seas and the poor people poisoned by pollution.

The option for the poor and their human dignity is implicit here.

The long and the short of Klein’s analysis is that humanity has dug itself into a hole by an unfettered, consumer-driven “extractivist” economic model.

Unfortunately we’re currently trying to get out of the hole by digging ever deeper. Al Gore’s “inconvenient truth” was that climate change was real. Naomi Klein’s is that to address it we have to “stop digging”.

Roadmap to praying rosary’s mysteries THE LIVING ROSARY, by Bishop Hubert Bucher. Paulines Publications Africa, 2014. 88pp.

Reviewed by Michael Shackleton O one wants to pray in empty words. The mind needs to focus on God first and then the particular words or contemplation we use to become united with him spiritually.

Bishop Bucher has come up with an enterprising method of drawing oneself into the mystery of God while praying each part of the rosary with focus, avoiding mere mechanical verbiage.

He employs the gentle pedagogic style of simple words and simple explanations.

You do not end the first part of the Hail Mary with “blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus”. Instead, you insert a reference to the specific mystery you are pondering. For instance, in the first Joyful Mystery you pray: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus, whose birth was announced by the angel Gabriel.” In the next mystery you would add: “Jesus, who was greeted by John in the womb of his mother Elizabeth.”

And so on.

Repeating this ten times for each mystery of the rosary keeps your concentration on the mean-

N

ing of what you are praying.

Bishop Bucher gives you all the help you will need and provides practical guidelines and advice on the various ways the rosary can be recited: alone, in groups, in sodalities and families.

His principal purpose is to make known the spiritual benefits of praying the Living Rosary, which is a particular devotion inaugurated by Pauline-Marie Jaricot in 19th century France.

Five individuals are needed.

They agree to offer five of the set mysteries over five weeks, each praying just one of them for the week. They do not get together for this. They separately make time during their day to take one mystery and give all their attention to it.

Using diagrams and texts that are simple to follow, Bishop Bucher describes how in the second and following weeks, each participant moves on to the next mystery in the sequence, so that each participant will cover the

full set of mysteries over five weeks.

In this way the rosary is offered in a common prayer of union with Christ and his Mother.

The rosary has been characteristic of Catholic devotion for eight centuries and the author presents a brief history of its importance. His desire is to bring Catholics to re-experience the beauty and effectiveness of the rosary as it tends to lift the spirit and calm the mind.

In referring to the successful Rosary Crusade in the middle of the last century, Bishop Bucher mistakienly attributes its origin to Fr Alan Peyton. In fact, it was the Servant of God, Fr Patrick Peyton, who also conducted his crusade in South Africa in 1955.

With additional prayers, litanies and words of encouragement, Bishop Bucher has appreciated the signs of the times, and this little manual should fill some potholes in the pilgrim’s path to sanctity.

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alliances, such as those between ranchers and indigenous people.

The new political mood could not only tackle the crisis itself, but in the process restore a measure of social democracy to Western society, Klein believes.

However, she contrasts these efforts unfavourably with what the right and their business allies have been doing: setting up think tanks, moving into the media, lobbying governments.

The implacable determination to block the regulation of the fossil fuel industry is astonishing. Billions have been spent ensuring that fossil fuel companies can keep on drilling, digging and fracking for the remaining oil, coal and gas, even as the scientists tell us that if we extract it all, we will end up with five times as much CO2 in the atmosphere as the earth can safely absorb.

Klein does not believe that the climate change deniers “know not what they do”. They do know, but do it anyway.

Hence to prevent climate change we need “system change”. And to get system change we need a mindset change which exorcises the “extractivist” economic orthodoxy of the last 30 years: “Grow or die”, and in order to do so “Drill, baby, drill”.

We also need an economics that will provide employment and make it possible for the developing nations to pursue a cleaner path to development than Europe and the United States.

Several themes of Catholic Social Teaching are (unconsciously, I suspect) embedded in Klein’s analysis

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The Southern Cross, November 5 to November 11, 2014

CLASSIFIEDS

Fr Kieran McIvor CP

P

ASSIONIST Father Kieran McIvor of Johannesburg died on August 9 at the age of 93.

Born one of 10 children in Donegal, Ireland, on November 9, 1920, he entered the Passionist Order and was ordained in May 1947.

Shortly after ordination he was sent to Rome to study for his doctorate in theology, where Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was his classmate.

After completion of his doctorate, he returned to Ireland for a few years. When Bishop Hugh Boyle of Johannesburg asked for the Passionists to come to South Africa, Fr McIvor was the first to arrive.

He was sent to Bank, a small

place near Carletonville which had no electricity or running water. He built the church in Carletonville and later the presbytery and hall.

He spent 27 years in Carletonville, also giving missions and retreats all over South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia. He also lectured to doctors and nurses on medical ethics.

In 1982 he was asked to head the marriage tribunal in Johannesburg and moved to Bryanston where he worked in the parish while at the same time running the diocesan tribunal till the age of 80 when he retired to KwaZuluNatal.

He was well loved and respected as an extremely gentle

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and compassionate priest.

Fr Kieran passed away peacefully in KwaZulu-Natal. At his request, his Requiem Mass took place at Bryanston parish which he always regarded as his home.

Kathy de Villiers and Helen

Our bishops’ anniversaries

Southern CrossWord solutions

This week we congratulate: November 7: Bishop Frank Nabuasah of Francistown on the 16th anniversary of his episcopal ordination.

SOLUTIONS TO 627. ACROSS: 5 Kind, 7 Tabernacle, 8 Monk, 10 Offender, 11 Gloats, 12 Sparks, 14 Agreed, 16 Anchor, 17 Stops out, 19 Iona, 21 Conscience, 22 Knot. DOWN: 1 Item, 2 Necklace, 3 Endows, 4 Scoffs, 5 Keen, 6 Never known, 9 Obligation, 13 Archives, 15 Drowns, 16 Attack, 18 Pact, 20 Apex.

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)

CAPE TOWN: Helpers of God’s Precious Infants meet the last Saturday of the month, starting with Mass at 9:30 at the Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town. Mass followed by a vigil at Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Bree Street.

Contact Colette Thomas on 083 412 4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br Daniel SCP on 078 739 2988.

Padre Pio: Holy Hour 15:30 every 3rd Sunday of the month at Holy Redeemer parish in Bergvliet.

Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration at Good Shepherd parish, Bothasig, in

the chapel. All hours. All welcome.

DURBAN: Holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St Anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9am. Holy Mass and Divine Mercy Devotion at 17:30pm on first Friday of every month. Sunday Mass at 9am. 031 309 3496.

NELSPRUIT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Peter’s parish every Tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed by Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 17:30pm.

CLASSIFIEDS

11

Word of the Week

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PRAYERS

Diocesan curia: The personnel and offices assisting the bishop in directing the pastoral activity, administration and exercise of judicial power of the diocese.

Liturgical Calendar Year A Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday, November 9, Dedication of the Lateran basilica, 32nd Sunday Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12, Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9, 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17, John 2:13-22 Monday, November 10, St Leo the Great Titus 1:1-9, Psalm 24:1-6, Luke 17:1-6 Tuesday, November 11, St Martin of Tours Titus 2:1-8, 11-14, Psalm 37:3-4, 18, 23, 27, 29, Luke 17:7-10 Wednesday, November 12, St Josaphat Titus 3:1-7, Psalm 23:1-6, Luke 17:11-19 Thursday, November 13, St Frances Xavier Cabrini Philemon 1:7-20, Psalm 146:7-10, Luke 17:2025 Friday, November 14, St Nicholas Tavelic 2 John 1: 4-9, Psalm 119:1-2, 10-11, 17-18, Luke 17:26-37 Saturday, November 15, Saturday Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary 3 John 1:5-8, Psalm 112:1-6, Luke 18:1-8 Sunday, November 16, 33rd Sunday Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31, Psalm 128:15, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, Matthew 25:14-30 or 25:14-15, 19-21

ST. KIZITO CHILDREN’S PROGRAMME St. Kizito Children’s Programme (SKCP) is a community-based response to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children, established through the Good Hope Development Fund in 2004 in response to the Church’s call to reach out to those in need. Operating as a movement within the Archdiocese of Cape Town, SKCP empowers volunteers from the target communities to respond to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) living in their areas.

The SKCP volunteers belong to Parish Groups that are established at Parishes in target communities. Through the St. Kizito Movement, the physical, intellectual, emotional and psycho-social needs of OVCs are met in an holistic way. Parish Groups provide children and families with a variety of essential services, while the SKCP office provides the groups with comprehensive training and on-going support.

In order to continue its work, SKCP requires on-going support from generous donors. Funds are needed to cover costs such as volunteer training and support, emergency relief, school uniforms and children’s excursions. Grants and donations of any size are always appreciated. We are also grateful to receive donations of toys, clothes and blankets that can be distributed to needy children and families.

If you would like to find out more about St. Kizito Children’s Programme, or if you would like to make a donation, please contact Wayne Golding on (021) 782 7941 or 082 301 9385 Email info@stkizito.org.za. Donations can also be deposited into our bank account: ABSA Branch: Claremont, 632005; Account Name: Good Hope Development Fund; Account Number: 4059820320 This advertisement has been kindly sponsored

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.

Winston.

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.

RC.

wisdom in my secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Psalm 51

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

OH MOST beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruit vines splendour of Heaven, Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, please assist me in this my necessity. Oh Star of the Sea, help and show me you are our Mother. Holy Mary Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly request from the bottom of my heart, that you secure me in my necessity. No-one can withstand your power.

Please show me herein that I have recourse to you x3. Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands x3.

Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine x3.

Say this prayer for 3 days and then publish. Special thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and St Jude for prayers answered.

HAVE mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me

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

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

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NOAH OLD AGE HOMES

We can use your old clothing, bric-a-brac, furniture and books for our 2nd hand shop.

Help us to create an avenue to generate much needed funds for our work with the elderly.

Contact Ian Veary on 021 447 6334 www.noah.org.za

021 531 0550 086 628 4499

The Southern Cross is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa. Printed by Paarl Coldset (Pty) Ltd, 10 Freedom Way, Milnerton.

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).

Directors: C Moerdyk (Chairman), Archbishop S Brislin, P Davids*, S Duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, R Riedlinger, M Salida, G Simmermacher*, R Shields, Z Tom

Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, staff or directors of The Southern Cross.

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NPO044-227

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33rd Sunday: November 16 Readings: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31, Psalm 128:1-5, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, Matthew 25:14-30

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Celebrate the woman of valour Fr Nicholas King SJ

W

E have frequently to be reminded that we do not really understand God (if we could understand the mystery, it would not be God). Sometimes we can get led astray as the scriptures appear to present us with a charming story or image, and we fail to notice the sting in the tail.

Something of this sort is going on in the readings for next Sunday. In the first reading, a heavily edited section of the final chapter of the Book of Proverbs, we are offered a beautiful hymn to the “woman of valour”.

We have to admit this is something of a shock—praising women is not exactly meat and drink to the authors of our Wisdom literature. But there it (or rather, there she) is, and we learn that “she is far more precious than jewels, her husband’s heart trusts in her, and he will not be short of booty”, which is surprising to those husbands who thought that the family income was entirely their business: “Her payment to him is good and not evil, all the days of her life.”

Then we watch her at work: “She looks for wool and flax, and works with willing hands…she sends her hands to the distaff… sends her hands to the poor.”

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Sunday Reflections

It is a portrait, this, of what God is like, privileging those who have no resources, and it ends, the very last words of this extraordinary book, with “give her of the fruits of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates”. This portrait of a family woman could also depict God at work.

The idea of family is also present in the psalm for next Sunday, part of one of those lovely “songs of ascent” that the pilgrims sang as they made their way up to Jerusalem.

It starts, as, for the psalmist, everything must start, with God: “Blessed are all those who fear the Lord, who walk in [God’s] ways.”

Then we pick up that picture of a happy family from the first reading (although we have to admit that it is very much from the hus-

band’s point of view this time: “your wife like a fruitful vine inside your house, your children like shoots of the olive around your table”).

And it is all down to the husband, this time, it seems: “Look: for thus he shall be blessed, the man who fears the Lord.” But if women readers are getting restless, let them observe that the man is being warned that he is not his own boss: he has to “fear the Lord”, to depend on God. And only then do we hear the prayer that “the Lord may bless you from Zion, and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem, all the days of your life”. We are invited to notice how unexpected is God’s invitation here.

In the second reading, Paul is speaking, in the first document of the entire New Testament, of another aspect of the mystery of God, namely when the Day of the Lord will come. He refuses to give details of “times and seasons”, but says it will come “like a thief in the night”. Not only that, but it will come just “when they are saying ‘peace and security’, then a sudden destruction comes upon them…and they shall not escape”.

All Paul will say is that “all of you are children of light and children of the day”. That does not, however, mean that all is going to be

Three spiritualities we need A

LL of us struggle, and we struggle in three ways. First, sometimes we struggle simply to maintain ourselves, to stay healthy and stable, to stay normal, to not fall apart, to not have our lives unravel into chaos and depression.

It takes real effort just to maintain our ordinary health, stability, and happiness.

But even as this is going on, another part of us is forever reaching upwards, struggling to grow, to not waste our riches and gifts, to live a life that is more admirable, noble and altruistic.

Then, at another level, we struggle with a threatening darkness that surrounds and undergirds us. The complexities of life can overwhelm us, leaving us to feel threatened, small, excluded, and insignificant.

For this reason, a part of us is forever conscious that we stand one season, one breakdown, one lost relationship, one lost job, one death of a loved one, or one thing that we cannot even foresee away from a descent into paralysing depression, an illness, or a dark chaos we cannot control.

In short, we struggle to maintain ourselves, struggle to grow, and struggle to keep depression and death at bay. Because we struggle at these three levels, we need three kinds of spiritualities in our lives.

At one level, we need a spirituality of maintenance, that is, a spirituality that helps us to maintain our normal health, stability, and ordinariness.

Conrad

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

Too often spiritual teachings neglect this vital aspect of spirituality. Rather we are forever being challenged to grow.

That’s good, but it naively takes for granted that we are already healthy, stable, and strong enough to be challenged. And, as we know, many times this isn’t the case.

T

here are times in our lives when the best we can do is to hang on, not fall apart, and fight to regain again some health, stability and strength in our lives, to simply get one foot in front of the next.

At these times in our lives, we need to be given divine permission to feel what we’re feeling and we need to be given a warm hand to help draw us back towards health and strength. The challenge to grow comes later.

And that challenge comes with an invitation that invites us upwards, towards a spirituality of the ascent.

All spiritualities worthy of the name stress the need to make a certain ascent, to

grow beyond our immaturities, our laziness, our wounds, and the perennial hedonism and shallowness of our culture.

The emphasis here is always to reach upward, beyond, towards all that is more noble, altruistic, compassionate, loving, admirable and saintly.

Much of classical Christian spirituality is a spirituality of the ascent, an invitation to something higher, an invitation to be true to what is deepest inside of us, namely, the image and likeness of God. Much of Jesus’ preaching invites us precisely to something higher. Confucius, one of the great moral teachers of all time, had a similar pedagogy, inviting people to look to beauty and goodness and to forever reach in that direction. In our own time, St John Paul II used this very effectively in his appeal to young people, challenging them always to not settle for compromise or second-best, but to look always for something higher and more noble to give their lives to.

But the challenge to growth also needs a spirituality of descent, a vision and a set of disciplines that point us not just towards the rising sun, but also towards the setting sun.

We need a spirituality that doesn’t avoid or deny the complexities of life, the mad conspiracy of forces beyond us, the paralysing losses and depressions in life, and the looming reality of sickness, diminishment and death.

Sometimes we can only grow by descending into that frightening underworld, where, like Jesus, we undergo a transformation by facing chaos, diminishment, darkness, and death itself.

In some ancient cultures this was called “sitting in the ashes” or “being a child of Saturn” (the archetypal planet of depression). As Christians we call this undergoing the paschal mystery. Whatever the name, all spiritualities worthy of the name will, at some time in your life, invite you to make a painful descent into the frightening underworld of chaos, depression, loss, insignificance, darkness, satanic forces and death itself.

Life reveals itself above us and below us and on the flat plain of ordinariness. None of these may be ignored. And so we need always to maintain and steady ourselves, even as we reach upwards and sometimes allow ourselves to descend into darkness.

And there’s still time to do all of this.

As the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) once wrote: You are not dead yet. It is not too late To open your depths by plunging into them And drink in the life That reveals itself quietly there.

well: “Let us not fall asleep like the rest: let’s stay awake and exercise self-control.” So we are plunged deep in mystery.

The gospel for next Sunday is another charming story, but it is a very odd one, and we should not too readily look for comfort.

It is the story of the “talents”. One talent is an immense sum of money, and we watch in astonishment as the various slaves do their piece with the money they have been given.

It may be, perhaps, that we are meant to laugh when the last slave, who has been given the least, simply “dug a hole and hid his lord’s money”. Then, at the moment of reckoning, he defends himself, on the rather unwise grounds that his master is “a harsh person, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter”, and gives back the single talent that he had been given.

He is then sentenced to be flung “into the outer darkness; where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. There is a sting in the tail here, simply because of our inability to grasp the generous mystery of God, and to respond to that mystery in outgoing love.

That will be our challenge for the coming week.

Southern Crossword #627

ACROSS 5. The compassionate sort? (4) 7. Eucharistic repository (10) 8. He has his own cell (4) 10. One who breaks the rules (8) 11. Slog at, and pats oneself on the back (6) 12. They may fly from the thurible (6) 14. A vice that is consented to?

(6) 16. Symbol of hope on board (6) 17. How the organist plays when he doesn’t come home?

(5,3) 19. Some holy island for Claudio, naturally (4) 21. It needs examining outside the confessional (10) 22. The sailor’s tie (4)

DOWN 1. About time for the article (4) 2. It could be a string of pearls (8) 3. Bequeaths (6) 4. Eats greedily yet pours scorn on it (6) 5. Sharply enthusiastic? (4) 6. Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary that it was ... (prayer) (5,5) 9. Holy day duty (10) 13. Save rich collections of old records (8) 15. Sends to Davy Jones’ locker (6) 16. Your heart should fend it off (6) 18. Mutual undertaking (4) 20. Turn axe around parking sign. It’s at the top (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

S the priest looked out of his window he noticed that some shrubbery in the church’s garden was on fire.

He phoned the fire department, identified himself, gave the location and explained the situation.

“You mean to tell me,” the emergency dispatcher replied, “that there is a burning bush on your church lawn and you want us to put it out?”

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