150204 by The Southern Cross

The

S outhern C ross

February 4 to February 10, 2015

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4910

www.scross.co.za

Pope: Many marriages might be invalid

Page 5

How can we respond to world terror?

Page 7

R7,00 (incl VAT RSA)

Catholic heartland: A visit to Bavaria

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Bishops invite pope to SA BY STUART GRAHAM

Bishop Victor Phalana holds his crosier following his episcopal ordination in Klerksdorp. The principal consecrator was Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria (left), under whom the new bishop served as vicar-general. Story on page 3. (Photo: Khanya Litabe/Radio Veritas)

Bishops, Jesuits slam xenophobia STAFF REPORTERS

HE bishops of Southern Africa and the Jesuit Institute have in separate statements condemned recent incidents of xenophobic violence. In a statement signed by Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, the bishops condemned “the wholesale looting, burning of shops and businesses” and called on “the people involved not to allow themselves to be incited to such destruction”. Those who encourage and benefit such looting “are not only destroying buildings but the moral life of young people and the very name of our country”, the bishops said. “To our brothers and sisters whose businesses and livelihoods have been destroyed, we reach out to you in sincere sympathy. What has happened to you deeply disturbs

us, and we call on all Catholic and Christian communities and leaders to offer you all the practical help which they can muster,” the bishops said. They called on the public to cooperate with police and community leaders in their defence of those who have been victimised, and on parents “to step in and offer guidance to their children and to all young people involved”. They added that “this behaviour is not typical or acceptable by the majority of the Southern African people”. The Johannesburg-based Jesuit Institute called incidents of xenophobic violence a “national disgrace”. “The savagery demonstrated and the failure to put a stop to the current and earlier incidents of xenophobic violence is deeply Continued on page 3

HE bishops hope to welcome Pope Francis in South Africa, and are issuing a formal invitation to him. The invitation was to be made on behalf of the bishops by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, archbishop of Durban, on his visit to the Vatican this month. Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, speaking on behalf of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said that the bishops had written a letter which Cardinal Napier was tasked to present personally to Pope Francis. No date has been envisaged for such a visit. “Cardinal Napier will also present the invitation to the pope’s advisors. If the Holy Father agrees, he and his advisors would have to look at his calendar,” Archbishop Slattery said. Some hope that Pope Francis will preside over the beatification of South Africa’s first martyr, Benedict Daswa, in Tzaneen diocese. In an interview with The Southern Cross, published in this week’s issue on page 9, retired Tzaneen Bishop Hugh Slattery (no relation) said that he believed “it is more likely than not that [Pope Francis] will come to South Africa and beatify Benedict Daswa”. “If he does come I have no doubt he will attract huge crowds. It would great for South Africa and all South Africans... He brings good news to the countries he visits,” Bishop Slattery said. The beatification is currently timed to take place in September, a time when Pope Francis will visit the United States. The pope, however, plans to visit Uganda and the Central African Republic in November; a South African leg could be added. “We are asking the pope to visit when he can,” Archbishop Slattery said. “If that should coincide with the beatification of Benedict Daswa, we would be happy to have him.” Pope Francis declared Daswa, a Limpopo school teacher, as South Africa’s first martyr in a decree published by the Vatican on January 23. A meeting of cardinals and bishops had given the beatification the go-ahead earlier in January. Daswa was murdered by a mob in the village of Mbahe outside of Thohoyandou in Limpopo on the evening of February 2, 1990, after speaking out against a witchhunt. Archbishop Slattery said the bishops’ conference would work “totally” with the govern-

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Pope Francis, who is being invited by the bishops of Southern Africa to visit South Africa. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) ment authorities in arranging a papal visit. “If there is a chance that he will come, we will invite him in cooperation with the South African government.” Archbishop Slattery said papal visits are normally planned years in advance, and warned that South Africa may have to wait some time to see Pope Francis. “We are not too hopeful that the pope would be able to change his arranged visits to Uganda and Central Africa Republic this year and come down” to the southern tip of Africa. “But we are looking at his future schedule. If there is an opportunity that he can visit South Africa, then we will discuss the matter with our government.” Archbishop Slattery noted that South Africa is one of the few major Sub-Saharan countries in which have not had a “full, individual visit”. St John Paul II has been the only pope to visit South Africa. He came to Gauteng in September 1995 during a six-day tour of Africa. He celebrated only one public Mass during that trip, which also took him to Cameroon and Kenya. In 1988 the papal plane was diverted from landing in Lesotho and forced to land in Johannesburg due to alleged bad weather conditions in Maseru. Pope John Paul II angered the apartheid government by refusing to perform his customary kiss of the ground as he exited his plane. During that trip St John Paul also visited Botswana and Swaziland, both in the region covered by the SACBC, as well as Zimbabwe and Mozambique in 1988.

Rome, Assisi, Florence, Siena, Padua, Milan, Venice and more 6 - 18 September 2015

The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

LOCAL

Bishop Phalana: ‘Peace begins with smiles’ BY MATHIBELA SEBOTHOMA

HE new bishop of Klerksdorp has chosen as his motto, “Jesus is Lord”. Bishop Victor Phalana is the first bishop in South Africa who is a member of Charismatic Renewal. He said his life and perspective were changed after he underwent an intensive Life in the Spirit seminar. “I am going to be radical in promoting evangelisation,” Bishop Phalana promised the people of Klerksdorp diocese at his episcopal ordination at James Motlatsi stadium in Orkney, attended by about 10 000, including the bishops of Southern Africa and the apostolic nuncio. The new bishop chose Archbishop Slattery of Pretoria, under

whom he served as vicar-general before his appointment to Klerksdorp, as the presiding bishop at the ordination. The two other bishop consecrators were his former comrades from the African Catholic Priests Solidarity Movement: Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley and Bishop Dabula Mpako of Queenstown. As a passionate devotee of Mother Teresa, Bishop Phalana encouraged members of his diocese to emulate her adage that “peace begins with a smile”, saying that “even if I do not know you, I will recognise that you are a Catholic when you smile at shopping centres, on the streets or at petrol stations”. He said he was saddened by the fact that Klerksdorp does not have

Bishop Phalana at his ordination . (Photo: Mathibela Sebothoma) seminarians or religious sisters, and appealed to the congregation to pray for religious congregations. In a gesture against xenophobic attacks, Bishop Phalana had the Francophone community lead the procession of the Gospel with song

and dance using all South African languages, including Afrikaans. For the offertory, the Zimbabwean community brought up bread and wine. The former apostolic administrator of the diocese, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, thanked the diocese’s former head, Bishop Patrick Zithulele Mvemve, for the service given to Klerksdorp. “Now is the time for fresh waters and a new fire,” he added. Bishop Boniface Setlalekgosi, who headed Gaborone diocese for 27 years until his retirement in 2009, reminded the new bishop: “Being a bishop does not make you a boss or superior to all others. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we are equal before him.” Bishop Phalana committed him-

self to working with the premier of North West and local municipalities. “It is important that we not only criticise politicians, but we must support them to make sure that all South Africans live in peace and dignity,” he said. Bishop Mvemve said his successor must continue to encourage people to be self-reliant and not to expect handouts from Europe. The Portuguese community of the diocese contributed much towards the ordination, while each parish contributed R5 000. “Good things are coming to our Church,” said Fr Oupa Kgage, a diocesan priest of Klerksdorp. “Bishop Phalana came at the right time. He will lead us on the road to Damascus, where all of us will radically be changed by Jesus the Lord.”

Southern Cross columnist to head Hurley Centre T STAFF REPORTER

HE Denis Hurley Centre Trust in Durban has appointed the former head of the Jesuit Institute as its first director. Raymond Perrier (pictured), who is also a Southern Cross columnist, was appointed with effect from February 1 to lead the newly completed Denis Hurley Centre at Emmanuel cathedral in Durban. “The Denis Hurley Centre is situated in one of the most challenging neighbourhoods of downtown Durban,” said Paddy Kearney, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “The centre has three major focus areas: provi-

sion of care for vulnerable and marginalised groups through a refugee office, clinic, and a nutritious food programme; religious education and job-related training; as well as community building in a highly diverse urban environment.” Mr Perrier completed his five-year run as director of the Johannesburgbased Jesuit Institute in September. “His commitment to working in partnership is shown through the work the Jesuit Institute has done with Wits Business School, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, the Origins Centre and the Mail & Guardian. He has given courses on

leadership formation to religious leaders, principals of public and p r i v a t e schools, government officials and business executives. He also helped initiate a group of inter-faith monitors for the 2014 general election,” Mr Kearney said. Mr Perrier led the creation of the Hope&Joy network of 50 Catholic organisations to collaborate on a na-

tional education programme in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Before coming to South Africa, Mr Perrier was a senior staff member of the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development, the relief organisation of the bishops of England and Wales, helping raise about $70 million per year for development and emergency relief. For six years prior he was a trainee Jesuit, two of which were spent living in a refugee camp in Uganda as project director for the Jesuit Refugee Service and providing

pastoral support and education for 60 000 Sudanese refugees. Mr Perrier’s original professional formation was in marketing, working for Interbrand, one of the world’s leading branding consultancies. He was managing director of the New York office of Interbrand with a staff of 160. Mr Perrier holds a masters degrees in philosophy and theology from New College, Oxford, in philosophy from the University of London, and in human rights from the London School of Economics. n See next week’s issue for an interview with Raymond Perrier.

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

Bishops meet evangelicals at Pretoria plenary session BY STUART GRAHAM

OUTHERN African bishops and leaders of evangelical churches have agreed to talk more and work together to move past “stereotypes”. The meeting took place at the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference plenary in Pretoria. It was part of an effort by the Church to form closer ties with non-Catholic Christian groups. Bishop Graham Rose of Dundee said the meeting went “very well”. “The general feeling was that we need to get beyond stereotypes,” Bishop Rose said. “We agreed to sit down more and listen and talk to each other.” The meeting came after a call by Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to discuss unity with evangelical churches. Cardinal Koch’s request to the bishops came amid various initiatives by Pope Francis to reach out to

evangelical churches. Last year the pope partnered with his friend, the late evangelical Bishop Tony Palmer, who grew up in South Africa and died in an accident last July, to create unity with evangelical groups in the United States. Pope Francis recorded a video message of unity and love on Bishop Palmer’s smartphone. It later went viral on the Internet video site YouTube. The video was shown during the bishops’ meeting with evangelicals. “We played the video of Tony Palmer introducing the message of the pope to the evangelicals,” Bishop Rose said. “A number of people hadn’t seen it. They said to me after how moved they were by the pope’s address to them.” Bishop Rose said an evangelical leader had made a presentation on a conversation held between the pope and Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, the chief executive of the World Evangelical Alliance. It included points on how the Catholic Church and

evangelicals could collaborate. “We acknowledge the differences between our traditions, yet also affirm the common tasks we have shared in the past and pray that we can build on those,” Dr Tunnicliffe said a speech ahead of the meeting with Pope Francis. “It is important that the world knows that there are many localised partnerships between Catholics and Evangelicals, developing into largescale collaborations in response to tragic social problems,” he said. “For example, in cities around the world, Evangelical and Roman Catholic Christians are cooperating to respond to human trafficking, while at the same time Evangelical and Catholic scholars and activists are collaborating on the terrible problems of religious persecution.” Archbishop William Slattery said the bishops had also used the plenary to discuss the formation of a laity council later this year. It is due to advise bishops on matters including health and economics.

Fathers John Bartmann, Peter-John Pearson, Mark Foster and Wim Lindeque conduct the annual Blessing of the Vines on Nagenoeg farm near Stellenbosch, Western Cape. The blessing was preceded by a Mass in the chapel of the farm, which is owned by a Catholic, Schalk Visser. After the blessing, guests and visitors enjoyed a picnic on the farmhouse lawn. A few days later, the annual St Vincent’s Winemakers Mass was celebrated at St Nicholas church in Stellenbosch. The collection went to the Stellenbosch Hospice. (Photo courtesy Schalk Visser)

Human rights drive targeted at youth BY DYLAN APPOLIS

Fr Desmond Nair was given a big send-off by the parish of Our Lady of Fatima in Durban North, and at a Mass by Our Lady of Fatima School. After serving Fatima parish for 25 years, he has transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Westville, where he served as curate from 1984-87.

Attacks on shops are xenophobic Continued from page 1 disturbing and displays a failure of the state to put an end to such behaviour both by the enforcement of the law and the education of citizens in respect of the rights of foreign nationals,” said Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, the institute’s director. Fr Pollitt said the attacks clearly constituted xenophobia, despite a denial by Gauteng MEC for Public Safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane. “An attack on and the systematic looting of a shop that happens to be owned by a foreigner may not necessarily be xenophobic, but a systematic series of attacks on over 80 such shops and foreign-born persons cannot simply be explained away,” Fr Pollitt said. “Even if the current situation arose through the arrival of youth gangs in the affected areas, as the MEC claimed, the fact that such attacks appear to be coordinated and draw in a range of people makes this not so much acts of criminality as acts of political violence against a group. That’s xenophobia,” the Jesuit said. The Jesuit Refugee Service, meanwhile, has warned communities involved in xenophobic attacks on foreign shop owners to be wary of being used as pawns by local business owners. The service’s regional director Fr David Holdcroft SJ said foreigners and refugees have a legal right to live in this country and they contribute to the economy. “Any xenophobic attack is an attack on this country and its people,” he said. “There are so many unresolved issues and loss of hope in some townships where people attack foreigners because they are vulnerable,” Fr Holdcroft noted.

HIS month the Social Justice and Advocacy Desk of the Edmund Rice Network is running an awareness campaign aimed at informing young people about 30 human rights. Over the month, each day focuses on one particular human right. Information regarding each human right and a reflection is issued daily on various social media platforms. “Our Christian Brothers colleges and affiliated schools have been asked to participate in this campaign in order to increase the knowledge and understanding of human rights among the schools’ staff, learners and parents,” said Jessica Dewhurst, Social Justice and Advocacy Desk coordinator. “It is a sad reality that many people still do not know that they have basic human

rights, and because of this they are often taken advantage of. “In order to encourage people to be active agents in working towards the fulfillment of their rights and the rights of others, we first had to facilitate an understanding of what their basic human rights and responsibilities are in the first place,” Ms Dewhurst added. The campaign was launched online on February 1. February 20 marks the United Nations’ World Day of Social Justice. The 20th human right in the campaign is the right to public assembly. To celebrate this day, participating schools are be encouraged to participate in the “You are Not Alone” movement. This movement works together with a local radio station in Nigeria, where messages and pictures of support are constantly

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being sent to those directly affected by Boko Haram attacks. School learners will be encouraged to hold a public assembly in order to send support and raise awareness to those who are being affected by this human rights catastrophe. Throughout this event the Social Justice and Advocacy Desk will be collecting short video clips of learners around the country expressing their feelings about the importance of human rights, the violation of these rights, and how they feel we as a country could better address them in South Africa. These clips will then be put together and shared with a worldwide database in order to further raise awareness and encourage more young people to prioritise the knowledge and understanding of human rights.

The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

INTERNATIONAL

CAR readies for papal visit Pilgrimage to Fatima, Garabandal, Lourdes, Dozulé, Lisieux and Paris led by Archbishop B Tlhagale OMI & Fr T Motshegwa 10 - 23 May 2015 Pilgrimage to Camino De Santiago Compostela in Spain led by Fr David Rowles 10 – 21 September 2015 Pilgrimage to Rome, Assisi and San Giovanni Rotondo led by Fr. Karabo Baloyi 20 – 30 September 2015 Pilgrimage to Medjugorje led by Fr Gavin Atkins 16 – 28 September 2015

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land led by Fr Chris Townsend 31 August – 12 September 2015

Pilgrimage to Rome, Assisi and Medjugorje led by Fr Kagiso Mosadi 04 -18October 2015

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OPE Francis plans to visit the Central African Republic late this year in an effort to end two years of intercommunal violence, the vice-president of the country’s bishops’ conference confirmed. Bishop Nestor-Désiré Nongo Aziagbia of Bossangoa said that the pope “responded positively” to an invitation from the bishops’ conference and that plans for the visit were being made. “While the pilgrimage will strengthen the faith of Catholics here, we hope it will also help local politicians and civil society leaders bridge the gaps between them and direct them further toward dialogue and reconciliation,” Bishop Nongo said. On his flight to Rome from the Philippines, Pope Francis said he also planned to visit Uganda as part of his first papal trip to Africa. Logistics will prove to be particularly difficult in the CAR because of a simmering conflict between Arab-speaking Islamists known as Séléka and a mostly Christian militia, known as Anti-Balaka. Although the country has experienced relative calm since the parties signed a peace accord last July, clashes have erupted at times as the underlying tensions between the various factions remain. UN forces took over peacekeeping operations from a regional African force in September. “International peacekeeping forces are already working with our government to set up the logistics and infrastructure, and the Church will be engaged in this process,” Bishop Nongo said. “The Holy Father’s presence will be good news for everyone here, whatever their faith. It should be awaited with hope and expectation and not just seen as a security problem,” he added. Addressing reporters aboard his return flight from Asia, Pope Francis said his planned visit had been delayed by the out-

A French soldier stands guard in 2014 outside St Joseph cathedral in Bambari, Central African Republic. A Church leader confirmed Pope Francis will visit the Central African Republic later this year in an effort to end two years of intercommunal conflict. (Photo: Tanya Bindra, EPA/CNS) break of Ebola, but added that it would be “a great responsibility” and said he expected to travel “towards the end of the year”, depending on the rainy season weather. Bishop Nongo said the Central African Republic had faced “many difficulties and worsening security conditions” since the bishops invited the pontiff. However, he added that Christian and Muslim leaders now enjoyed closer ties and would work together to ensure the pope was well received. In a pastoral message, the bishops’ conference said security appeared to have improved because of deployment by police and military forces and activity by local magistrates, as well as a growing readiness by Christian and Muslim communities to talk and rein in their “disorderly elements”.

However, it continued, “persistent hatred” and “strong cleavages” persisted in Bangui, Bambari, Kaga Bandoro and other towns, where the “massive circulation of arms” had maintained a “culture of violence and death.” The bishops said they were also concerned about an “abominable practice of popular justice”, which had led to people being accused of sorcery and buried alive on the basis of “simple denunciations”. “Unconventional armed groups are still recruiting young people, drugging them and using them against peace, unity and the common good,” the message added. “The hour is grave and Central Africa is still dying, as obscure forces seek to regroup and impose their ideas and gain power,” it said.—CNS

Pope’s Lenten call: ‘Give up indifference’ BY CAROL GLATz

HRISTIANS are called to overcome apathy, discouragement and pretentions of self-sufficiency by letting God enter into their hearts, making them joyful, merciful and strong, Pope Francis said. Through prayer, charity and humility before God, people receive a heart “which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalisation of indifference”, the pope said in his message for Lent, which begins on February 18. In fact, the individualistic “selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions”, turning it into “one of the most urgent challenges” that “we, as Christians, need to confront”, the pope wrote. The text of the pope’s Lenten message focused on the need for inner conversion and renewal, with the title, “Make your hearts firm”, which is from the Letter of James.

A firm heart is strong and steadfast against temptation and evil, but it is also open to God, capable of being “pierced by the Spirit”, touched by his love and moved to share it with others, he said. “When the people of God are converted to his love, they find answers to the questions that history continually raises,” the pope said, including the pressing problem today of “the globalisation of indifference”. “Indifference to our neighbour and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians,” he said, which means the Church, parish communities and lay people need regular reflection and “interior renewal, lest we become indifferent and withdraw into ourselves”. God’s love breaks down the walls of “that fatal withdrawal into ourselves, which is indifference”, he said. By receiving Jesus, by listening to his word, receiving the sacraments and engaging in prayer, “we become what we receive: the Body of Christ”, which is a living, united communion of members that share

their gifts and leave “no room for indifference”. Parishes and Catholic organisations, too, must share and care for the weakest, poorest and most marginalised, refusing to “take refuge in a universal love that would embrace the whole world, while failing to see the Lazarus sitting before our closed doors”. May Catholic communities “become islands of mercy in the midst of a sea of indifference”, the pope said. The best way for Catholics not to be overwhelmed by so much bad news in the world and to avoid the “spiral of distress and powerlessness”, he said, is to become united in prayer, to concretely help others and to see suffering as an occasion for one’s own conversion. Only by humbly accepting one’s limitations and recognising God’s infinite abundance can people “resist the diabolical temptation of thinking that by our own efforts we can save the world and ourselves”.—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL Fr Richard McBrien, an American moral theologian and retired University of Notre Dame theology professor, died on January 25 at age 78. In addition to his teaching, Fr McBrien wrote 25 books as well as a weekly syndicated column, Essays in Theology, for the Catholic press for nearly 50 years. His writings often raised hackles among Catholics from the pews all the way to Rome. Ordained in 1962, Fr McBrien joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1980. He was also a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and a recipient of its John Courtney Murray Award for “outstanding and distinguished achievement in theology”.(Photo: courtesy University of Notre Dame/CNS)

DDRESSING the Vatican tribunal primarily responsible for hearing requests for marriage annulments, Pope Francis said all annulment processes should be free of charge. “The sacraments are free. The sacraments give us grace. And a matrimonial process pertains to the sacrament of matrimony. How I wish that all processes were free,” the pope said at a meeting to inaugurate the Roman Rota’s judicial year. Pope Francis also said that, because contemporary culture portrays marriage as a “mere form of emotional gratification”, people often marry without a true understanding of the sacrament, meaning many such marriages might actually be invalid. “The judge, in pondering the validity of the consent expressed, must take into account the context of values and of faith—or their presence or absence—in which the intent to marry was formed. In fact, ignorance of the contents of the faith could lead to what the code [of canon law] calls an error conditioning the will. This eventuality is not to be considered rare as in the past, precisely because worldly thinking often prevails over the magisterium of the

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Persecuted Christians are united in bloodshed C BY CAROL GLATz

Pope: Annulments should be free BY FRANCIS X. ROCCA

The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

Church,” the pope said. The pope said judges in matrimonial cases should “determine if there was an original lack of consent, either directly because of a lack of a valid intention, or because of a grave lack of understanding of matrimony itself, such as to condition the will. The crisis of marriage is, in fact, not seldom at the root a crisis of conscience illuminated by faith”. In July 2013, Pope Francis suggested that as many as half of all Catholic marriages might be invalid, “because people get married lacking maturity, they get married without realising that it is a lifelong commitment, they get married because society tells them they have to get married”. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI told an interviewer that “canon law has taken it for granted that someone who contracts a marriage knows what marriage is. Assuming the existence of this knowledge, the marriage is then valid and indissoluble. But in the present confusion of opinions, in today’s completely new situation, what people ‘know’ is rather that divorce is supposedly normal”. In August, Pope Francis established a commission to simplify and streamline the marriage-annulment process. —CNS

HRISTIANS are united in bloodshed as they suffer from violence and persecution in various parts of the world, Pope Francis told Christian leaders. Today’s martyrs are men and women, who through their witness to Jesus, are “persecuted and killed because they are Christian,” the pope said during an ecumenical prayer service marking the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Those who persecute them make no distinction about “which denomination they belong to. They are Christians and for that [they are] persecuted. This, brothers and sisters, is the ecumenism of blood”. With Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and other Christian representatives present and reading some of the prayers, Pope Francis presided over the service at the basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls. The service began with Pope Francis, Orthodox Metropolitan Gennadios of Italy and Anglican Archbishop David Moxon, the archbishop of Canterbury’s representative in Rome, bowing in prayer before the tomb of St Paul. The pope said Jesus showed that encountering those who are different “from us can make us grow”. Basing his homily on the Gospel story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, the pope said the encounter is marked by dialogue, patience and respect.

Men start reconstruction on a church in Niamey, Niger, that was destroyed in violent protests against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Archbishop Michel Cartateguy of Niamey said the church would rebuild after rioters destroyed places of worship during an assault on local Christians. (Photo: Joe Penney, Reuters/CNS) In fact, “Christian unity will never be the fruit of refined theoretical discussions in which each one will try to convince the other of the validity of one’s opinions”, he said before asking: “Will the Son of Man come and find us still having talks?” “The common commitment to proclaim the Gospel permits overcoming every form of proselytism and temptation to compete. We are all at the service of the one and same Gospel,” he said. The pope, who met with religious orders of other denomenations at the Vatican, said consecrated men and women were particularly suited for promoting

unity because religious life is about seeking union with God and fostering greater unity within the community. Religious life also shows that “unity is not born of our efforts, but is a gift of the Holy Spirit who achieves unity in diversity”. Unity is achieved by “walking together”, he said, along a path of “fraternity in love, service and mutual welcoming”. The more individuals strive to live holy lives in conformity to the Gospel, the closer people will be in union with God and “the more deeply and easily will they be able to grow in mutual brotherly love”, he said.—CNS

The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

SA’s light of hope dims

WENTY-FIVE years ago, on February 11, 1990, tens of thousands of people crowded on Cape Town’s Grand Parade, and millions of people in South Africa and around the world sat in front of their television sets, to get the first public glimpse of Nelson Mandela following his release from 27 years in captivity. Even then it was clear that new doors in South Africa’s history were being opened. The following four years were mired in violence and uncertainty, but from the rubble of apartheid and the confusion of the transitional years arose a democratic society that looked into the future with optimism, with Mr Mandela as its president. In his speech from the balcony of Cape Town’s city hall that hot Sunday 25 years ago, Mr Mandela summed up his mission in one phrase: “The need to unite the people of our country is as important a task now as it always has been.” A quarter of a century later, these words have lost none of their urgency. The post-democracy honeymoon of relative unity, when South Africa projected to a fascinated world the miracle of a peaceful transition and the “Rainbow Nation”, was brief. By the time Mr Mandela went into retirement in 1999, South Africa was already becoming gripped by a racial, social and political discourse that has done little since to build the unity of which the Father of the Nation spoke. The “New South Africa” promised that a racist, violent, undemocratic, corruptible, venal, vain and paranoid regime would be replaced by a government that was none of these things. Alas, already under Mr Mandela’s presidency, and cumulatively more so after, the African National Congress has shown itself to be as corruptible, venal, vain and paranoid as the Nats of old. And even the ANC’s performance regarding race, violence and the spirit of democracy has not been without challenge. White South Africans are not blameless in the greying of the rainbow. Collectively—though not always individually—white South Africans have failed to own up to the apartheid past which created the systemic inequality that persists even today.

There is an unwillingness among many whites to offer unqualified collective contrition for the past, and an expectation that forgiveness be extended without repentance. But as Pope Francis pointed out in Sri Lanka last month, national reconciliation is not possible without repentance and forgiveness. Such contrition does not require whites to perpetually apologise or to wear metaphorical sackcloth, but an affirmation in humility that white privilege even today is predicated on the sins of the past. The betrayal of Mr Mandela’s vision defines many of our present problems. We see it in a country where those who fight corruption and mismanagement are not encourage by the government, but are systematically undermined, vilified, redeployed and treated as the enemy. We see it in a country where foreign nationals, some from countries which aided the liberation movement in the struggle, are attacked, robbed, displaced and even killed by mobs. We see it in a country where the impoverished masses remain at the margins, their children still deprived of quality education. We see it in a country where the government invokes racism where none exists, and where racists still find a place in the white mainstream. When Mr Mandela walked through the gates of Victor Verster prison 25 years ago, and when he stood on the steps of the Union Buildings to be sworn in as the first representative president of South Africa in May 1994, he faced a nation that was filled with hope for a brighter future. In 2015 the dream for a brighter future is dimming. So entrenched has governmental incompetence and corruptibility become, so short have we fallen in alleviating mass poverty, so little progress has been made in realising national unity, so broken has our economy become, so much has our democracy been bruised, that instead of translating our aspirations into reality, we are prepared to just muddle through. And in this way South Africa has ultimately failed the Mandela vision: by extinguishing the light of hope.

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Conrad cartoon gets it spot on URRAH for quick-witted, suc- attributed to, inter alia, girl altar Hcinct cartoons. Were it not for servers in a feminised Church. I “Conrad” in The Southern Cross (January 14), I might have been permanently disturbed by the preposterous deductions made by the recent head of the supreme court of the Holy See, US Cardinal Raymond Burke, that is, that the decline in priestly vocations can be

Limits to Charlie’s freedom of speech

OUR report “Archbishop on Charlie Hebdo” (January 21) tells that the SACBC has sent a message “in solidarity with the people of France”, in the wake of the bloodbath in Paris. Archbishop Stephen Brislin, SACBC president, wrote: “On behalf of the Catholic Church in Southern Africa, I express our outrage at the vicious attacks on journalists and civilians in the city of Paris... The loss of life is truly tragic and the attack on a core principle of democracy, viz freedom of expression, is deplorable.” I wish to question and discuss this unqualified support for “freedom of expression”. Charlie Hebdo brought “freedom of expression” and its limits, if any, into sharp focus. Particularly needed is an appraisal of Charlie’s freedom to blaspheme, insult, offend and provoke. Charlie publishes hellishly depraved blasphemy and pornography, characterised by unlimited hatred for God and for all sacred things, persons and places. Every aspect of decency and civilisation is savaged, ravaged, and befouled. It spews forth evil that could only emanate from Beelzebub. Anyone who imagines that I exaggerate can easily discover evidence on the Internet. Such examination, not itself without moral danger, will also show how greatly the Parisian slaughter was precipitated by Charlie’s dance with the devil. Christians are taught by Jesus, the Prince of Peace, not to take up the sword against evildoers. That Almighty God, in his own good time, will deal with them: “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord”. However, both the Old Testament and Islam teach that blasphemers must be slaughtered. Islam most certainly will not tolerate blasphemy, nor is it smilingly apathetic when subjected to gross pornographic ridicule and insults, that masquerade as “freedom of expression”. Surely the bishops cannot imagine that Charlie’s war of hatred, pri-

may never have known the truth otherwise. What fortunate Catholic readers we are to have our own publication, The Southern Cross, to communicate the news to us and fearlessly provide us with information. No fear of blasphemy in Con-

marily aimed against Catholicism and Islam, can be even remotely interpreted as “freedom of expression”. We are never “free” to do evil, our only true freedom is to faithfully follow Jesus and to do good. On the same day of the slaughter in Paris, news came of the wholesale massacre by Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group, of 2 000 Christians in Nigeria. Yet, about this atrocity the bishops were silent. Surely these martyred Christians and their families also deserve to “be assured of our solidarity and prayerful support”? Nor have I seen Boko Haram’s barbarity condemned by Muslim leaders in South Africa, who in the past, after every previous atrocity committed by Muslims against Christians in all Muslim countries, have claimed, with ever diminishing credibility, that Islam is a religion of peace. While Muslims might find some justification for the Paris killings, they most certainly cannot find any excuse whatsoever for the totally unprovoked murder of 2 000 Christians in Nigeria, unless of course, simply being a Christian “infidel” is sufficient provocation to mercilessly slaughter us. To use the words of one survivor of this particular Boko Haram atrocity: “They slaughtered us like insects.” Dr Claude E Newbury, Johannesburg

God’s purpose

REFER to Emmanuel Ngara’s article “What is God’s purpose for you?” (December 31). Prof Ngara speaks lucidly about our infantile aspirations and how they alter or are fulfilled by our time of maturity. I do wish that he had spared a sympathetic word for the millions of human beings who never grow beyond infancy or those who, unborn or aborted, never even have the chance to formulate an aspiration, beyond the next meal or protection from brutality, abuse and a shockingly intolerable way of life. Yes, God undoubtedly has a purpose for each of us who do achieve

rad. Perhaps if Charlie Hebdo had understood its wider readership, it may have brought the truth—so freely available to all—with greater sensitivity to its different interpreters. In the violence that followed the publication of its cartoons, Christianity has lost out to secularity. We are back in the eye-for-aneye and a tooth-for-a-tooth barbarism. Felicity Brokensha, Cape Town

youth (innocence) and adulthood, but let us spare a thought for all those others, denied the most basic human rights. Carmen Smith, Somerset Wes

Zille and the pope

WAS shocked to note that not one Catholic reader, politician or even researcher, defended their faith when Western Cape premier Helen Zille attacked the pope recently. Mrs Zille slated Pope Francis for declining the Dalai Lama’s request to meet him, saying His Holiness “should’ve known better” and “if there is one person on the planet who should do the principled rather than the expedient thing, it is surely the pope—or do relationships with China outweigh other injunctions?” For many years, our Catholic brethren who are loyal to our Holy Father and the Vatican have had to worship “underground” due to constant persecution in China. There have also been reports of priests bring arrested for celebrating Mass and even some bishops disappearing because they refuse to accept the Chinese government’s “Patriotic Association”, a parallel Church which the Vatican rightly does not recognise. As the supreme pontiff of 1,1 billion Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis has a duty, first and foremost, to his immediate flock. I find Mrs Zille's attack on the Catholic Church ironic, given that she took centre stage at the installation of Archbishop Stephen Brislin in Cape Town. This appears to be further proof that Mrs Zille will milk any situation to pursue her own agenda and score cheap political points. Colin Arendse, Cape Town Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate. Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately. Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

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PERSPECTIVES

How to respond to terror?

T could be contended that all the governmental responses to terror thus far have provided fertile ground for terrorism to take further root and spread—and unless leaders across the globe alter their approach, it is likely to worsen. The world is an extremely insecure place at the moment. Terrorism and murder in the name of religion has grown from being an isolated, regional issue to a global concern. France, a Western European nation that is regarded as one of the economic and political powerhouses of the world, could not prevent one of the most prolific terrorist attacks in recent history. The infamous 9/11 attacks in 2001 evolved the nature of terrorism. It became a global issue; terror was no longer regarded as something that was geographically limited; ideology and religious interpretation fuelled terror and determined who the enemy was, thus turning the entire world and its people into potential victims. But has that global response in fact bred further dissidence? Young people, usually part of a racial or religious minority, who are sidelined by societal prejudice, repressive laws and prejudicial action by governments, become prime recruits to embark on these terror attacks. It has been perpetually argued that France is a state with a proud secular tradition, which would be defended at all costs; a country where the right to freedom of expression protects sacrilegious over religious expression. Whereas the wearing of a veil, hijab or crucifix in public spaces is either strictly or partially restricted, cartoons that offend an entire religion are permitted. These circumstances may breed the resentments that makes it easy to radicalise young disaffected Muslims—and make extremism lucrative. South Africa also is a secular state where religion regularly has to take the backseat when measured against other rights. But

Gushwell Brooks

Talking about Faith

religious extremism has not been a real threat in South Africa because everyone, including religious minorities, has been given a space to believe that they are part of society and that the laws and Constitution of this country uphold their rights as equally as others. Rather than this more rational approach being adopted, France has redoubled its current hard stance—a stance which, if reinforced, could see the unfortunate backlash of religious minorities increasingly being viewed as outsiders and an increase in resultant radicalisation in response.

his sentiment sadly extends beyond the borders of France and is starting to take root throughout much of Western Europe.

A memorial for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in January, on the fence of the French Academy in Istanbul. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

An unintended consequence of this approach is also to make a religion the enemy, rather than the extremists who abuse that religion to justify their terror. South Africa’s balance of rights and our relative freedom from terrorism, however, does not extend to all of Africa. Boko Haram, responsible for the single most brutal and horrific slaughter this year, has been a scourge in northeastern Nigeria for years. From the ineffective #BringBackOurGirls campaign that set the social media alight last year, to President Goodluck Jonathan’s threats that the terror group will be dealt with only if Nigerians vote him back into power, all point to the sad reality that even in the presence of an actual government, the country’s national response to terrorism has been poor. Worse yet, regional bodies such as the African Union have failed the people of Nigeria just as much. With no concerted and effective military response to guarantee the safety of her citizens, Nigeria has handed northern Nigeria to the terror group. The African Union has stood by and failed in its mandate to maintain and strengthen stability across the continent by ignoring both Boko Haram and Somalia’s Al-Shabab, which grew out of weak, ineffectual governments. If the world truly wishes to bring global terrorism to an end, it is obvious that the “Coalition of the Willing” will not be that vehicle. Afghanistan and Iraq have taught us that valuable lesson. However, the current trajectory seems to be strengthening a campaign of terror— and at the heart of it lies the lack of an effective global response which addresses terror while at the same time not conflating it with one of the world’s major religions.

The Church can help tackle inequalities Mphuthumi T Ntabeni WO leading economics of our era, Joseph E Stiglitz and Thomas Picketty ,have, more than any others, put discussion about inequality back at the centre of public discourse. Likewise, the esteemed Catholic journalist Clifford Longley argues in a short study, “Just Money: How Catholic Social Teachings Can Redeem Capitalism”, that just about the only thing that can help the Western system of capitalism is to inject moral fibre back into it. Growing inequality is obviously the big question of our times, one our Church taken seriously. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus promises eternal damnation for those who did not look after the interests of the poor. Just a few weeks ago, a leading cardinal made that point. “It is important for the Church to be in the great questions of social justice,” said Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, head of the German bishops’ conference and part of the nine-member Council of Cardinals that advises Pope Francis on Church governance. Christianity must be more active in the political scene in the West, he said, and be part of the development that “gives the poor a chance”, he said in a lecture at the US Stanford University. The economists tell us that the observed rise of inequalities is driven by governmental policies. Stiglitz says that inequality “did not arise spontaneously from abstract market forces but was shaped and enhanced by politics”. The politics of our era is a game of manipulation by the elite under the guise of democracy. The US has quietly slid into becoming an oligarchy—a system in which a small group of people assume control—

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dragging the rest of the world with it. In our country, the cross-pollination between the political and economic elites is confusing. It disguises the fact that our liberators have been coopted by what they liberated us from, making ours a Pyrrhic victory for the majority. Where does the Catholic Church feature in all of this? Suggestions are for the Church to upgrade and use its resources in order to bring to prominence its Social Teachings.

Pushing the Boundaries

he Catholic Social Teachings forge a meaningful social policy. They are extremely critical of vested corporate interests that act with little regard for a sustainable development which is based on investments in human capital, skills, and life-learning. The Church warns that sizable and ever growing inequalities are likely to cause social conflicts with damaging economic and political implications. According to both Stiglitz and Picketty, giving more power and resources for social policies to government spheres allows for a more rational redistribution, but that is not resistant to global and local partisan pressures. The election of Pope Francis has brought to our attention the influence the Church still holds in world affairs. Dioceses and parishes extend this influence into regional and local spheres. A major problem in this country is that we have a corruptible and incompetent government that lacks strength to fulfil its mandate. With the exception of many on the left, much of the intellectual wealth resides with the Democratic Alliance (DA) and its bias towards the “Washington Con-

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sensus”. Hence redistributive policy discussions are not prominent in our media, itself coopted and bought by the elites for their own agendas. Every effort to turn the tide has been futile because of this. Strengthening the powers of our parliament is crucial for systems of governance, but what is needed most is a system of meaningful democratic participation, representation and contestation that is robust enough to cope with contentious redistributive decisions and their effects. Our parliament does not fulfil this mandate. Ask yourself these simple questions: Why has the ANC government never proposed a plausible solution for reconciling the interests of “insiders” and “outsiders” with respect to labour market reform that looks after the interests of local low-skilled workers while also combining the goal of competitiveness with that of social cohesion? Why does the National Development Plan for 2030 not even mention South Africa’s major crisis, inequality, except as a passing comment? Why is the ANC’s economic policy basically indistinguishable from that of the neo-liberal DA. Because both their interests are served by the continuation of the status quo. The Church’s role in social issues is in creating an informed citizenry capable Continued on page 11

O RF OR D

CONSTRUCTION

The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Believing in reincarnation The Catholic Church does not teach reincarnation. Or does it? If not, please explain Matthew 17:10-13: “The disciples asked Jesus, ‘Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?’ He replied, ‘Elijah does come, and he is to restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will suffer at their hands’. Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist”. Patrick Wood

URIOSITY is the hallmark of human intelligence. Our history holds many instances of philosophers who wrestled with the brainteaser: what happens to us after death? Death is a frustrating enigma because human experience cannot categorically tell us what lies beyond it. Hindu thinkers around 1500 BC proposed that life undergoes a perpetual cycle of rebirth, conditioned by past actions, with no finality. Beliefs similar to this are still current. Reincarnation was never assimilated into the theology of Judaism or Christianity. It was unthinkable because God revealed himself to his people as a caring, personal Lord who enters into a covenant with them. An example from the Old Testament is seen in Psalm 16:10: “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol nor allow the one you love to see the Pit.” The psalmist here expresses his union with God that will continue after death. A similar image is found in Psalm 73:24: “Guide me with advice and in the end receive me into glory.” No suggestion of a succession of reincarnations. An example from the New Testament is: “It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb 9:27-28). A reading of 2 Kings 2:11 shows that Elijah the prophet did not die, so his soul was not at liberty to find its way into another creature. No chance of reincarnation there. Isaiah was taken up alive into heaven in a powerful whirlwind. What did Jesus mean when he said that Elijah had already come? There is a clue in Luke’s gospel where the angel tells Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, that his son will go before the Lord “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (1:17). John, like Elijah before him, preached repentance and John’s baptism indicated a turning away from sin. In doing this he made the people aware that “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” was at last among them.

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

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

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The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

INTERVIEW

The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

Bishop: Daswa and Mandela go together 25 years ago this month Benedict Daswa, who will be the first South African to be beatified, was murdered. Bishop Hugh Slattery, the former bishop of Tzaneen, initiated the cause to beatify Daswa in 2000. In the second of his two-part interview with STUART GRAHAM, Bishop Slattery speaks about Daswa example. SG: Benedict Daswa has been criticised for turning away from his Venda and Lemba traditions to embrace Catholicism. How do you feel about such criticism? HS: I believe Benedict only left behind him the traditions which were in conflict with his faith. Otherwise he remained deeply embedded especially in the traditional culture of the extended family. Every year around Christmas, he brought together family members and close relatives to cement the family bonds and to deal with any troublesome issues. Is it possible that Pope Francis may visit South Africa to perform the beatification himself? Just recently it was announced that Pope Francis will come to Africa towards the end of this year. Mention was made of Uganda and the Central African Republic as two countries which he is likely to visit. I believe it is more likely than not that he will come to South Africa and beatify Benedict Daswa. If he does come I have no doubt he will attract huge crowds. It would be great for South Africa and all South Africans. He has to be invited by President Jacob Zuma and I am sure the gov-

ernment would be delighted to get him. He brings good news to the countries he visits. I don’t think there would be a problem. The bishops’ conference would have to be active in bringing him here (see front-page report). You are promoting Benedict Daswa as a martyr for the faith and as an “apostle of life”. What do you mean by “apostle of life”? Obviously we have in mind the innocent lives lost or harmed by such things like ritual murder, witchcraft, and so on. It is worth remembering that the Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1957 is still enforced in this country, but is presently under review. This act makes witchcraft illegal and carries heavy penalties for witchcraft related crimes. But since 1996 we have another and far more serious attack on human life through legalised abortion. Legalised abortion has already claimed the lives of more than one million innocent unborn babies in this country. Some claim that abortion is just one issue among many and that we should not get too worked up about it. But surely the right to be born is the only and supreme issue for the 50 million babies who will never see the light of day in 2015. Benedict Daswa can indeed be an inspiration figure for all who are involved in promoting the culture and Gospel of Life everywhere and be truly regarded as an apostle of life. Do you think Daswa’s example as a father, husband and Christian lives on in his home village? I am not aware of any outward signs among the people of his village being influenced by him as a role model at this time. However, I expect that his beatification will have a healing effect on the people, and that many will come to see

him in a new light and be influenced by him as a role model in many areas of life. He is a model of the sanctity of life in every area. He is somebody very special. People remember him. They come back to his grave and pray. People make saints, not us. Benedict was killed on February 2, the same day on which President FW de Klerk unbanned the liberation movements and just over a week before the release from prison of Nelson Mandela. Do you see many similarities between the two men? I think it is significant that Benedict was killed the very day President F W de Klerk announced the imminent release of Nelson Mandela. Daswa’s short life had come to a tragic end, but he left behind him a rich spiritual legacy as a witness who had actually died for his faith. At his trial before going to prison. Mandela had clearly expressed his readiness to die if necessary for what he believed in—a free democratic South Africa—but he did not have to make this supreme sacrifice. Both men were driven by a vision of liberating people from enslavement. Mandela spent his long life striving to liberate his people from the shackles of apartheid. Daswa first of all experienced in his own life the inner freedom from the power of witchcraft and evil which his faith brought him. Benedict tried to help others to also experience this freedom by opening themselves to Christ and the joy of the Gospel. One could say that Daswa complements Mandela since people need inner freedom just as much as external freedom in order to flourish and to build up a just and healthy society.

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Benedict Daswa in a photo taken in December 1989, just weeks before his martyrdom. Bishop Hugh Slattery (inset), retired of Tzaneen, believes chances are good that Pope Francis might come to South Africa to beatify Daswa.

Life of Daswa in brief

ENDING a formal announcement from the pope, Benedict Daswa will become the first South African to be beatified. Benedict was born as Tshimangadzo Samuel Daswa on June 16, 1946, as the first-born son of Tshililo Petrus and Thidziambi Ida Daswa. He had three younger brothers and a sister. The family belonged to the Lemba tribe in rural Venda, which follows many Jewish customs. After the death of his father in an accident, Daswa took on the responsibility of caring for his younger brothers and sister. When he joined the workforce, he helped to pay for their education and continually encouraged them to study. During school holidays he stayed with an uncle in Johannesburg where he took part-time work. At this time he became friendly with a young white man who was a Catholic. Several of his peers who were Shangaans were also Catholics. He converted to Catholicism at the age of 17. He took the name Benedict after the famous sixth-century saint and after Benedict Risimati, the catechist and future priest who had instructed him and others, under a fig tree. After his confirmation by Abbot Bishop Clemens van Hoek OSB at Sibasa in 1963, Daswa took a particular interest in teaching younger members of his community about Catholicism. Having studied to be a primary school teacher, he taught first at Tshilivho Primary School at Ha-Dumasi, eventually rising to the position of principal. Benedict helped build the first Catholic church in the area at Nweli. From his vegetable garden he gave freely to the poor. He was secretary of the headman’s council and an aide to the headman. He was known for his absolute honesty, truthfulness and integrity. A series of unusual thunderstorms

and lighting strikes in the area in November 1989 and again on January 25, 1990 caused a group of local community leaders to find recourse by hiring a traditional healer to determine the cause, which they thought to be not natural but the work of a “witch”. To pay the healer, they collected R5 from every member of the community. Benedict’s explanation that the weather phenomena were natural and not to be blamed on witches went unheard. He refused to contribute, saying that the use of a traditional healer constituted witchcraft and therefore was in conflict with his faith. Members of the community took offence at what they perceived as his derision of their beliefs and plotted to kill Benedict. On February 2, 1990 Benedict was driving home from taking his sisterin-law and her sick child to the doctor when at 19:30 a group of men blocked the road with tree logs. When Benedict got out of his car to investigate he was set upon, beaten and stoned. He ran away but was soon trapped. As a man approached with a raised knobkerrie to deliver the fatal blow, Benedict prayed: “God, into your hands, receive my spirit.” His killers were never convicted. His funeral Mass was concelebrated on February 10, the day before the release from jail of Nelson Mandela, by several priests with Fr John Finn MSC, parish priest of Thohoyandou/Sibasa, as the main celebrant. All clergy wore red vestments in acknowledgment of their belief that Benedict had died a martyr’s death for his faith. The diocese of Tzaneen opened an inquiry into Daswa’s death in 2005 and completed it in 2009. In October 2014 the theologian consultors of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes unanimously recommended that Daswa be declared a martyr. In January this year, Pope Francis proclaimed that Daswa will be beatified. n Visit www.benedictdaswa.org.za for more information.

The Southern Cross, February 4 to February 10, 2015

TRAVEL

Bavaria: A Catholic heartland Nowhere in Germany does the Catholic faith live as strongly as it does in Bavaria, as GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER explains.

HE priest declared a crisis at the end of Mass on the fourth Sunday of Advent. Addressing the full Sacred Heart church in the northern German city of Lübeck—traditionally Lutheran territory—Fr Franz Mecklenfeld announced: “We have no volunteer ministers on the roster for Christmas Eve Mass.” No extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, no lectors, no altar servers! Understandable, since Germans celebrate the birth of the Saviour mainly on Christmas Eve. Still, the priest pleaded, having no ministers would be an embarrassment for this church—one of enhanced status since the 2011 beatification of three priests martyred by the Nazis—as the auxiliary bishop was coming from Hamburg, 65km away, to celebrate that Mass. By Christmas Eve we had left Lübeck, so I have no idea if volunteers presented themselves for the Christmas Eve Mass with the bishop. But it seems implausible that such a crisis could arise in the Catholic heartland on the other end of Germany: Bavaria. Despite the diminishing number of the faithful throughout Europe, Bavarian Catholicism is still going strong, at least in the rural areas—and that means most of Germany’s biggest state. In a country where Catholics and Protestants make up a third each of the population (the rest have other faiths or none), Bavaria’s Catholics account for 57% of the population, the highest proportion after the tiny state of Saarland. About 20% of Bavarians are Lutherans, mostly in the Franconia area. In the Alpine south, especially in Niederbayern (or Lower Bavaria), the Catholic faith is tangible in ways that it isn’t in other traditionally strong Catholic areas of Germany, such as the Rhineland and the Palatine regions. It is painted on the houses, and it is evident in the tradition of roadside shrines, some placed strategically on the roads between villages, others seemingly at random, in case a passing motorist, cyclist or hiker is engulfed by an impulse to engage in prayer in a setting of some formality. And the faith is tangible in the salutations Bavarians, like most southern German-speakers, exchange when they encounter one another: “Grüss Gott” (Greetings in God).

A roadside shrine in Possenhofen, near Munich. As in other Catholic regions of Europe, these shrines are widespread in Bavaria. (Photos: Günther Simmermacher) Lower Bavaria is famous for its large murals on many houses, called in the local dialect Lüftlmalerel (air paintings), that celebrate local professions, depict tales and hunting scenes. Many also express the Catholic sentiments of the owners, or at least their predecessors. These religious themes tend to focus on the Holy Family. Bavaria might have no Marian shrine of the import of Lourdes or Fatima, but devotion to Our Lady seems to be no less fervent there. The murals add to the fairy tale landscape of the region, which has been blessed with astonishing natural beauty: the majestic Alps, the pine forests and shimmering lakes. Architecture also adds to the fairy tale environment, such as the castles built in the 1870s by King Ludwig II, the extravagant and troubled regent of Bavaria known as the “Fairy Tale King” who drowned in mysterious circumstances at 40 in 1886. The most famous of these is Neuschwanstein, the edifice of which provided the template for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle which now serves as the company’s corporate logo. It is one of Ludwig’s three castles (plus other building projects), and not even the loveliest.

hurches, too, form part of the area’s enchanted atmosphere. As in most of Christendom, a church forms the centre point of every village. In Lower Bavaria they tend to be attractive externally, and generously decorated, stuccoed and frescoed inside. Monasteries also form part of the scenery. The most famous of these is near Neuschwanstein: the 14th-century Benedictine Ettal Abbey. Tourists come in great numbers to admire the artistry of the

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baroque abbey church, with its painted dome depicting 430 distinct figures. But it is not a static museum complex, but a living, working monastery. To say the monks at Ettal are industrious is an understatement: they brew beer and also sell their own brands of liqueur, wine, cheeses, tea, perfumes and beauty products, as well as books, religious stationery and all manner of souvenirs. On top of that they run a boarding school—based in a building that once served as an academy for knights—and restaurants in the village. Round the corner from Ettal Abbey is the village which attracts the world’s spotlight every ten years: Oberammergau. In 1633, at the height of the Reformation, the Black Death was sweeping through the region. The terrified villagers of Oberammergau promised by way of collective prayer to stage every ten years a Passionsspiel, a play depicting the Passion of Christ, should their hamlet be spared the plague. It was duly spared, and on Pentecost the following year the villagers staged their first Passion Play—and they have done so ever since, at least every ten years. As a rule the cast comprises amateurs who must come from the village, by birth or by residence. The last time it was staged, in 2010, almost half of Oberammergau’s 5 300 population took part. The rest presumably engaged in activities to profit from the huge influx of half a million people who attended the 102 performances of Christ’s passion, delivered in German with thick Bavarian accents. It was, it must be said, an impressive production, which also included a horse, a donkey, three sheep and, marvellously, two camels. The whole region around Oberammergau benefits, presumably also Unterammergau, the sibling village that is no less picturesque but whose villagers neglected to strike what turned out to be a lucrative deal with God.

erhaps the loveliest place in Upper Bavaria is the rococo Wieskirche, about 56km by road north-west of Oberammergau. The Wieskirche is a pilgrimage site which also serves as a parish church for the nearby village of Steingaden (whose 12th-century Welfen church is also worth seeing). It attracts a reported million people a year. And yet, there are only two small and cramped souvenir shops there. The Wieskirche was completed in 1754 by the architect Dominikus Zimmermann to serve as a pilgrim church after a local woman, Maria Lory, observed the presence of three tears on a

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Above: A wall mural on a house in Oberammergau recalls the first Passion Play being staged in the Lower Bavarian town in the Alps. Below: The organ of the 18th-century rococo Wieskirche, about 50km north-west of Oberammergau

wooden statue of the scourged Christ during evening prayers in a small wooden church on the site in 1738. Those were less sceptical times than ours, and Lory’s report of a miracle caused a sensation, more so when people reported further miracles after having prayed before the statue. Before long, pilgrims came from all over Europe, even from Lutheran Scandinavia and Orthodox Russia, as parish priest Fr Benno Schöfl noted in a 1779 pamphlet. The small church, which still stands at the site, could not accommodate the growing numbers of pilgrims, so in 1745 Zimmermann was given the brief to build a new church, with a fitting sanctuary for the once abandoned statue. Zimmermann roped in his brother Johann, a gifted frescoist whose extensive curriculum vitae included work at Ettal Abbey. For a church dedicated to the scourged Christ, it has a light air to

it, to a great part thanks to Johann. Gold, white and light blue dominate. The ceiling’s frescoes are populated by lots of angels and cherubs. One of them is part painting, part stucco: its leg dangles casually from the ceiling over a ledge. The playfulness of it is endearing. However, the almost saccharine impression is deceptive: Johann’s frescoes are incredibly detailed, communicating profound theologies. At the rather more austere (give or take the occasional ornately gilded edging) ground level is the scourged Christ, but above is the risen Christ in glorious heaven, where we intend to arrive one day. Above the choir a succession of angels carry away the instruments of Christ’s Passion, while the risen Christ is enthroned on a rainbow, a traditional symbol of forgiveness. n In two weeks time, the edition of February 18, Günther Simmermacher visits Catholic Munich.

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CLASSIFIEDS The Church can help tackle inequalities Continued from page 7 of fulfilling its democratic mandate for the benefit of all. The Church, more than any institution, has the capacity to create things like vocational training and lifelong learning for our marginalised masses. Most specialists on welfare development agree that education has an important impact on social inclusion/exclusion. The Church can play a crucial role here—after all, it already has the infrastructure. It might create a specialised agency targeting those most affected by the economic crisis and inequalities. (This

group increasingly includes university graduates.) If the government had any sense, it would gladly hand over to the Church the running of the proposed community colleges— or risk these being just another failed good intention. After all, the Church has been educating black masses in this country for more than a century. These colleges are designed to train the marginalised in soft skills that would surely be a first step towards entering the job market. Another tangible but modest project proposal concerns poverty reduction. Through its Justice and

Maronite festival in Johannesburg

HE Maronite Catholic Church invites all to the St Maroun festival to be held on February 15 at Our Lady of the Cedars church in Woodmead, Johannesburg. The annual festival commemorates the feast day of the founder of the Maronite faith, St Maroun. To celebrate this day, the community will be hosting traditional food stalls, traditional music and belly dancing, a flea market (should you wish to have a table, please contact the church office for more details), and children’s entertainment. The church is at 118 Western Service Road, Woodmead, and Holy Mass starts at 10:30. n For more information, call the church office on 011 804 1305.

Southern CrossWord solutions

SOLUTIONS TO 640. ACROSS: 3 Symposium, 5 Trip, 9 Small mind, 10 Ideals, 11 Ether, 14 Curse, 15 Leah, 16 Torah, 18 Stag, 20 Orion, 21 Nomad, 24 Delude, 25 Indonesia, 26 Brae, 27 Abundance. DOWN: 1 Staircase, 2 Pipe organ, 4 Yams, 5 Pilot, 6 Samuel, 7 Ulna, 9 Sleet, 11 Erred, 12 Reliquary, 13 Thunderer, 17 Hosea, 19 Go down, 22 Arena, 23 Snub, 24 Disc.

Peace structures and its various welfare agencies, the Church can create an agency for combating extreme cases of poverty that envisages active participation of municipalities, regions, NGOs, and companies. In the final analysis, however, social justice is not only a matter of institutional engineering, but also of political and social struggle. Citizens must demand certain actions from their governments— national, provincial and local— on their visions of Social South Africa 2030 to keep accountable the already floundering National Development Plan.

Liturgical Calendar Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday, February 8, Fifth Sunday Job 7:1-4, 6-7, Psalms 147:1-6, 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23, Mark 1:29-39 Monday, February 9 Genesis 1:1-19, Psalms 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 24, 35, Mark 6:53-56 Tuesday, February 10, St Scholastica Genesis 1:20--2:4, Psalms 8:4-9, Mark 7:1-13 Wednesday, February 11, Our Lady of Lourdes Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17, Psalms 104:1-2, 27-30, Mark 7:14-23 Thursday, February 12 Genesis 2:18-25, Psalms 128:1-5, Mark 7:24-30 Friday, February 13 Genesis 3:1-8, Psalms 32:1-2, 5-7, Mark 7:31-37 Saturday, February 14, Ss Cyril, Monk and Methodius Genesis 3:9-24, Psalms 90:2-6, 12-13, Mark 8:1-10 Sunday, February 15, Sixth Sunday Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46, Psalms 32:1-2, 5, 11, 1 Corinthians 10:31--11:1, Mark 1:40-45

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a position reporting to the Head of School and the Board of Governors. The Senior Vice-Principal will be responsible for the management of St Peter Claver Primary School, and has to ensure that learners are adequately prepared to complete their education in St Peter Claver High School.

Applications are invited from experienced educationalists with the appropriate qualiﬁcations to manage the Primary school as from April 2015.

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Interested and qualiﬁed candidates to submit letter of application, CV and details of THREE recent referees to: The Interview Committee, P.O. Box 62 KROONSTAD, 9500 OR e-mailed to zdr@oldconvent.co.za

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DEATH

CIOLLI—Mary Anne (Dickie) née Dickson. In loving memory, the mother of my children who passed away on January 23, 2015 after a long illness, loyal and faithful. Will be forever missed and remembered in our prayers by Remo, Catherine, Michael, David, Stephen and grandchildren. Rest in peace. DAVIDS—Aletta. Quietly passed away on Saturday, 24 January. Loved wife of Neville, much loved and loving mother of Ashley and Lisa. Rest now in peace dear daughter- and sister-in-law. Lovingly remembered by Martha and Pamela Davids; Avril and Jeffrey Hanslo; Owen and Michelle Davids; Paul and Karen (New zealand) and all their families. DAVIDS—Aletta. Passed away on January 24. Mother of Ashley Davids (who delivers The Southern Cross in Cape Town). Condolences from the directors and staff of The Southern Cross.

the gift that religious life has been within our church and society. Help us to nurture this gift so that the congregations may continue to be a healing presence in our world. May we all respond to the realities of our present times, in ways that promote your reign now and in the future. May your kingdom come, may your will be done. Amen” LORD, teach me to be generous; to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek to rest; to labour and not to ask for no reward save that of knowing I do your will. Amen. St Ignatius.

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THANKS be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May I know thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, And follow thee more nearly, For ever and ever ST MICHAEL the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen..

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cal abortion) Catholics must be told, for their eternal welfare and the survival of their unborn infants. See www.epm.org/ static/uploads/downloads/bcpill.pdf CONFIDENTIAL forensic investigations, 084 723 1111. LEBANON TOUR—Two weeks at cost, April 25, 2015, Ken 084 783 0726. NOTHING is politically right if it is morally wrong. Abortion is evil. Value life! TAXATION SERVICES: Tax & VAT returns prepared & e-filed by SARSregistered tax practitioner, (45 years’ SARS experience now on your side). Contact Mike 082 929 9874, 033 396 5471. mike white1@telkomsa.net www.abortioninstru ments.com is the graphic truth that will set you free.

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6th Sunday: February 15 Readings: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46, Psalm 32: 1-2, 5, 11, 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1, Mark 1:40-45

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Sunday Reflections

since the priests have charge of the situation, that is supposed to let them know that, somehow or other, God is there with them. The psalm for next Sunday is the first of the penitential psalms, and the poet is aware of the alienation that sin causes; but he is more interested in what God does to end the alienation: “Happy is the one whose sin is forgiven, whose transgression is removed…to whom the Lord imputes no sin, in whose spirit is no deceit.” What the person has to do, though, is be honest: “I acknowledged my sin to you, did not hide my guilt.” Then, after all that, and as so often, the psalm ends in joy: “Rejoice in

the Lord, exult, you just, rejoice you upright of heart.” There is nothing that can finally alienate us from the Lord. In the second reading, Paul is considering another example of social or religious alienation. This brief passage comes at the end of a long treatment of the tricky question of what to do if as a Christian you got invited to dine at a pagan temple, or to eat food bought cheap at the market, because it had been sacrificed to the god of the nearest temple, and did that mean that you were worshipping false gods? Paul’s answer is that the only thing that matters, “whether you eat or whether you drink, or whether you do anything at all”, is to “do everything to the glory of God”. If we can manage that trick, then God will be there in our situation and alienation will not be possible. The key thing is that we should not alienate anyone else: “Don’t cause a problem for Jews and Greeks and for the Church of God.” Paul is of course not backward in inviting them to imitate him in this process: “Just as I too am pleasing in every respect, not seeking my own advantage but that of the many, that

Listen to your melancholy soul N

ORMALLY none of us like feeling sad, heavy, or depressed. Generally we prefer sunshine to darkness, lightheartedness to melancholy. That’s why, most of the time, we do everything we can to distract ourselves from melancholy, to keep heaviness and sadness at bay. We tend to run from those feelings inside us that sadden or frighten us. And that’s why, for the most part, we think of melancholy and her children (sadness, gloomy nostalgia, loneliness, depression, feelings of loss, feelings of regret, intimations of our own morality, a sense of missing out on life, fear of what lies in the dark corners of our minds, and heaviness of soul) as negative. But these feelings have their positive sides. Simply put, they help keep us in touch with those parts of our soul to which we are normally not attentive. Our souls are deep and complex, and trying to hear what they are saying involves listening to them inside of every mood within our lives—including, and sometimes especially, when we feel sad and out of sorts. In sadness, melancholy and fear, the soul tells us things that we normally refuse to hear. Hence, it’s important to examine the positive side of melancholy. Unfortunately, today it is common to see sadness and heaviness of soul as a loss of health, as a deficiency in our vibrancy,

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God is present in your alienation

HAT is the worst thing that can happen to you? Each of us has our own private nightmare, but one of the most frightening possibilities is that of being excluded from the society of others. That is what happens in our first reading when you get leprosy; and it does not matter that the word used in the Bible may not refer to what we understand by “leprosy”; the fact is that it means being cut off from all human contact. The point for us is that God is there, no matter how alienated our situation may be. In the first reading, the Lord is giving instructions about what to do when a person has symptoms of leprosy. They are to go first to “the priests, the sons of Aaron”, who in the name of God are to investigate the situation (for the community has to be protected). If it is indeed leprosy, then “they are to declare him unclean”, and that means that “he shall keep his clothes torn and his head bare…and he shall cry out ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ ” An equivalent today would be the reaction to people living with Aids or ebola, and the sense of abandonment they experience. But

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Final Reflection

as an unhealthy condition. That’s both unfortunate and shortsighted. For instance, in many medieval and Renaissance medical books melancholy was seen as a gift to the soul, something that one needed to pass through, at certain points in life, in order to come to deeper health and wholeness. This, of course, doesn’t refer to clinical depression, a true loss of health, but to all those other depressions that draw us inward and downward. Why do we need to pass through melancholy in order to come to wholeness?

he US spiritual writer Thomas Moore, who writes with deep insight on how we need to learn to listen more carefully to the impulses and needs of our souls, offers this insight: “Depression gives us valuable qualities that we need in order to be fully human. It gives us weight, when we are too light about our lives. It offers a degree of gravitas. It was associated with the

metal lead and was said to be heavy. “It also ages us so that we grow appropriately and don’t pretend to be younger than we are. It grows us up and gives us the range of human emotion and character that we need in order to deal with the seriousness of life. “In classic Renaissance images, found in old medical texts and collections of remedies, depression is an old person wearing a broad-rimmed hat, in the shadows, holding his head in his hands.” Milan Kundera, the Czech writer, in his classic novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, echoes what Moore says. His heroine, Teresa, struggles to be at peace with life when it’s not heavy, when it’s too much lightness, sunshine, and, seemingly, nonmindful; when it’s devoid of the anxieties that hint at darkness and mortality. Thus, she feels always the need for gravitas, for some heaviness that signals that life is more than simply the present flourishing of health and comfort. For her, lightness equates with superficiality. In many cultures, and indeed in all of the great world religions, periods of melancholy and sadness are considered as the necessary path one must travel in order to sustain one’s health and come to wholeness. Indeed, isn’t that part of the very essence of undergoing the paschal mystery within Christianity? Jesus, himself, when preparing to make the ultimate sacrifice for love, had to accept, painfully, that there was no path to Easter Sunday that didn’t involve the darkness of Good Friday. Good Friday was bad, long before it was good; or, at least, so it looks from the outside. Melancholy and heaviness of soul mostly look the same. So how might we look at periods of sadness and heaviness in our lives? How might we deal with melancholy and her children? First off, it’s important to see melancholy as something normal and healthy. Heaviness of soul is not necessarily an indication that there is something wrong inside us. Rather, it’s the soul itself signalling for our attention, asking to be heard, trying to ground us in some deeper way, and trying, as Moore puts it, to age us appropriately. But for this to happen we need to resist two opposite temptations: to distract ourselves from the sadness or to indulge in it. How do we do that? The late American psychologist James Hillman gives us this advice on heaviness of soul: “Put it into a suitcase and carry it with you.” Keep it close, but contained; make sure it stays available, but don’t let it take you over. That’s secular wording for Jesus’ challenge: If you wish to be my disciple, take up your cross every day and follow me.

they may be saved: become imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” That, whatever you feel about Paul’s mild egotism, is the way out of our sense of alienation. The gospel reading for next Sunday takes us precisely to the worst possible alienation in that world; it is at the end of Jesus’ busy first day of mission, and he is invaded by this dangerous leper, who is convinced “if you want to, you are able to make me clean”. The reader notices, nervously, that the “leper comes to him”, which he should not do. Jesus, by contrast, does not notice at all: “He felt compassion, stretched out his hand [listen for the cries of horror at this reckless proceeding], and touched him.” The inevitable happens, and the leper is cured, and sent off to “the priest”, to end his alienation. Jesus tries, not very successfully, to stop his patient from talking about it, with the result that “they were coming to him from all sides”. The alienation has come to an end because God is there in the story. Look, this week, for signs of that loving presence in your alienation.

Southern Crossword #640

ACROSS 3. My pious MS at the conference (9) 8. Stumble on the pilgrimage (4) 9. Had by one with narrow understanding (5,4) 10. Perfections of the imagination (6) 11. Anaesthetic among the tetherers (5) 14. Malediction (5) 15. Laban’s elder daughter (Gn 29) (4) 16. The Law of Moses (5) 18. Male deer (4) 20. Greek hunter in the sky (5) 21. O damn, he has no home (5) 24. Mislead in belief (6) 25. One said in Asia (9) 26. Cobra easily finds Scottish hillside (4) 27. Feature of the year of plenty (9)

DOWN 1. The flight up and down (9) 2. Does one puff at it in church? (4,5) 4. Some tiny Amsterdam plants (4) 5. Sounds like Pontius may be on the ship (5) 6. He has two scriptural books (6) 7. Awful, natural part of the body (4) 9. Steel can produce icy rain (5) 11. Made a mistake (5) 12. Wherein saint’s bones from the quarry lie (9) 13. Does he shout forcefully after a lightning flash? (9) 17. Minor prophet (5) 19. Descend (2,4) 22. An era for the games to take place (5) 23. Slight affects nubile ones somewhat (4) 24. In the discharge there is something round (4) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

N inspirational priest remembers the card his parishioners gave him for his 65th birthday. The front said: “Inside is a message from God.” Pleased that they finally appreciated his work, he opened it to read: “Hope to see you soon!” Send us your favourite Catholic joke, preferably clean and brief, to The Southern Cross, Church Chuckle, PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000.