150415

The

S outhern C ross

April 15 to April 21, 2015

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4920

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Church backs tougher gun laws

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Finding the face of Christ

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Archbishop: Respect the old statues

BY STUART GRAHAM

M

ONUMENTS and statues, like the humiliating cross of Jesus Christ, remind us of a journey we have travelled together and should be respected, according to Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria.

Archbishop Slattery was commenting following the debate over the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town (UCT) incidents such as the vandalism with green paint over a monument to Boer leader Paul Kruger in Church Square in Pretoria on Easter Monday.

“Christ bore the scars of his crucifixion in the moment of his glorious resurrection. We love to respect the humiliating cross of Christ because it reminds us of a journey we have travelled,” the archbishop said. “Monuments of the past do indeed remind us of the distance we have travelled together—and of the blessings we enjoy today.”

The attacks on monuments have spread since students at UCT defaced the statue of Rhodes at the bottom of the university’s Jameson steps and demanded that it be removed from its prominent position at the campus.

In Port Elizabeth a World War II memorial was set on fire and a monument to the fallen animals of the Boer War was toppled. A statue of King George V was splashed with white paint with the message “End white privilege” painted below.

The Economic Freedom Fighters party, led

by Julius Malema, has claimed responsibility for the attacks and has promised not to stop until every colonial era statue has been destroyed.

Police have been posted to guard monuments around the country.

Archbishop Slattery said the attack on the statue of Kruger in Tshwane is very hurtful to some people. “Many are deeply demoralised by such actions,” he said.

“These actions are a call to destroy rather than to connect. Such actions will fail to bring unity and peace to our city,” Pretoria’s archbishop said.

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“Paul Kruger will not appeal to many, but he did play a role in the establishment of this city. He too was eventually bullied and exiled by imperial greed. Are such actions the real solution to the problems facing Tshwane?”

He noted that symbolic acts are “very powerful”, saying that they can hurt or uplift people. Life breaks all of us, he said, but some people grow at the broken places.

“The monument to Paul Kruger may indeed remind many of a time of a racial ethos that humiliated people. But monuments are not only to be revered,” Archbishop Slattery said.

“They may echo the sufferings of the past.

They can inspire us to say: ‘Hard times, hard times, come again no more’,” he said, quoting a 19th century American song about suffering.

“Do we need to recover self-confidence by snubbing the dead? Is it the mood of the youth that if you don't appreciate then destroy? If you desire then grab?” Archbishop Slattery asked.

“For these actions point to the aching gap between segments of our population, especially the youth. The acid waters in our minds seem to be present in many hearts too.”

I

t is by cooperating rather than by humiliating that calls for our enterprise, Archbishop Slattery said.

This, he said, is “a time for broader consultation to engage with our past”.

“Let us remember that we need each other and that the only way to conquer our challenges is to work together and show our love for each other,” the archbishop said.

To make Tshwane a beautiful city demands cooperation rather than humiliation.

“That the Berlin Wall had to be destroyed was obvious in that it maintained division and separation. Yet, little segments of that wall are retained to remind people of the pain of the past and the evil of oppression,” the archbishop noted.

“To destroy everything we do not appreciate will leave us with a barren land. Are the Union Building and the Voortrekker Monu-

Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp wears traditional gear and is shielded by an umbrella during a pastoral visit to the parishes of Bloemhof and Christiana in his diocese. ment next?”

The vandalism or destruction of the statues point to “the aching gap” between segments of the population.“ The white population of this city must make a much greater effort towards reconciliation and mutual understanding. Those youth who defaced the statue need a more generous imagination if they want to create a peaceful future,” he said.

The real challenges facing Pretoria do not

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revolve around statues of Paul Kruger but the delivery of services and alleviation of poverty, Archbishop Slattery said.

“The Tshwane Municipality has budgeted to build 116 000 houses this year. I applaud them. However, there are 180 000 shacks around the city. A further 10 000 new people arrive every month. Poverty, homelessness, drugs, family breakdown are further issues that we need to turn our youthful minds towards.”

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2

The Southern Cross, April 15 to April 21, 2015

LOCAL

Church supports tougher gun laws

BY STAFF REPORTER

T

HE Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office has thrown is weight behind proposed stricter gun laws, saying they are in line with the Catholic Church’s view that the more weapons there are in circulation, the more likely it will be for criminals to “get their hands on them”.

A submission by CPLO director Fr Peter-John Pearson to the Civilian Secretariat for Police on the Firearms Control Amendment Bill said the proposed laws are a step in the right direction for reducing and controlling the use and misuse of firearms.

The proposed changes to the law were drafted by the Civilian Secretariat for Police, and are in the Draft Firearms Control Amendment Bill that has been gazetted for public comment.

Among others, the bill recommends that every gun in South Africa have ballistic testing and be fitted with a microdot to improve the tracking of weapons, even after criminals file off serial numbers.

It also proposes new five-year minimum sentences when a victim is killed by a firearm or is threatened with a firearm or in robberies where a firearm is used to commit the crime.

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha said that the amendments are meant to close legal loopholes.

Fr Pearson said the Church fears that many reports of inefficiencies in the application and registration process at police station level will make it difficult to enforce the proposed laws.

He said the Church supports increased supervision as a necessary step towards establishing control over “what seems to be a significant source of firearms on the illegal market” and an easy source for those who wish to own guns anonymously.

According to the South African Police Service’s 2014 annual report,

Jim Kavanagh sells The Southern Cross after Mass in St Mary’s cathedral in Cape Town. The handyman of the cathedral and chancery also helps out the homeless people who live on the streets in the vicinity. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

The Church backs tougher gun control measures in South Africa. (Photo: Shannon Stapleton, Reuters/CNS) 834 firearms were lost by or stolen from the SAPS in the year 2012/13, a statistic Fr Pearson called “concerning”.

T

he burden of proof to demonstrate “fit and proper” status for firearms owners also requires attention, Fr Pearson said. Under the Arms and Ammunition Act of 1969, the burden of proof resides primarily with the state to prove that a person is unfit to possess a firearm.

“Under this amendment there is a renewed and more significant shift away from this requirement, and the burden is now located very unambiguously with gun owners and with gun owner associations.

“We agree that firearms, because of their destructive capabilities, should be made more difficult to obtain, and that there needs to be increased clarity as to the purpose for their possession,” Fr Pearson said.

The Church, he said, supports the strengthening of the requirement that the chairperson of an accredited association has to verify and motivate applications by its members with regard to the use,

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purpose and category of the firearm applied for.

“We hold that the tighter the control and the more input from responsible persons, the more likely it is that inappropriate certification and usage will be ruled out,” he said.

The Church agrees with the idea that there should be a penalty imposed if the application for the renewal of the licence is not done within the stipulated period.

Fr Pearson expressed concern that permission to increase the number of firearms which any owner might possess adds to the number of firearms in circulation rather than helps to decrease it.

He also noted the law is expanding exemptions for people under the age of 21 to own firearms.

“This is generally regarded as a high-risk category, and we would have hoped that there would have been a tightening up, rather than expansion of categories of persons in this age group having access to guns.”

Fr Pearson told the committee that the Church believes that anyone convicted under the Domestic Violence Act should be disqualified from receiving a gun licence.

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Veteran all-rounder loves selling The Southern Cross

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

T

WENTY years and counting, the all-rounder who keeps Cape Town’s cathedral and chancery in good shape has no thoughts of stopping.

Jim Kavanagh started working as a handyman at the cathedral in November 1994, and resides in the chancery complex. Twenty years later, at the age of 76, he still continues his daily duties—and also helps out his homeless “neighbours”.

Massgoers at St Mary’s cathedral see Mr Kavanagh every Sunday selling The Southern Cross and a booklet on the cathedral’s history after Mass.

A committed Knight of Da Gama for more than 30 years, Mr Kavanagh decided to work for the Church after his previous employer, printing company Cape Transvaal, was liquidated. After a stint at Nazareth House he came to

Charity from a parish shed

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

A

FAMILY has turned their parish’s unused shed into a charity shop.

The Fourie family—Denise, Anthony and son Andrew—opened the Pink Door Pop-up Charity Shop at Our Lady of the Visitation parish in Constantia, Cape Town.

Having obtained the permission of parish priest Fr Frank Conlisk, the Fourie family painted the shed and put up all the shelving. Meanwhile, the parish has had the leaking roof replaced.

“The parishioners are so generous,” Mrs Fourie said. “I just have to put a notice in the bulletin and the items [for sale] arrive at the office. This is a good way of raising funds to support charities.”

The Pink Door charity shop is open every Wednesday from 10:00 to 12:00, and every first Sunday of the month at 10:00 just after Mass.

The items for sale are all do-

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the cathedral.

“This is my job: I take care of all the maintenance jobs, and if I cannot fix it I call in a professional who can,” he said. “But I make the best of it, because this is where I live, sleep and eat.”

Mr Kavanagh also caters for people in need.

“There are homeless people in and around the cathedral and chancery, and over the years I have been giving them food and clothes,” he said. “When they sleep at the foot of the chancery [in Bouquet Street] I give them blankets so they don’t get cold.”

Many of the homeless people have slept on the streets around the cathedral for many years and so are familiar faces to those who work at the chancery and surrounding buildings.

“I love living here just as much as my job, and I do what I can to help others, so they know to keep the faith strong,” he said.

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Denise Fourie at the door of the new charity shop. nated by the parishioners. They include anything from household items, toys and books to TV screens and printers.

All proceeds made by the store will go towards the many charities the parish supports and to its outreach programme.

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The Southern Cross, April 15 to April 21, 2015

LOCAL FOR THE RECORD: In our report “Seminary is full — but cost of training rises” (April 1) comments were attributed to St John Vianney Seminary president Fr Molewe Machingoane which should have been attributed to the seminary’s vice-president, Fr John Masilo Selemela, who was speaking in his personal capacity. We apologise for the error.

CPLO decries ‘abject conditions’ in schools

BY STAFF REPORTER

P St Benedict’s rugby players gather for a prayer before a game.The college, in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, hosted the Inter-Catholic Sevens Tournament. Other participating schools included De La Salle Holy Cross, Dominican Convent, Marist Brothers Linmeyer and Veritas College. Each team played a minimum of six games during the day. St Benedict’s won both the open, berating De La Salle, and U-16 finals. The event was made possible by the Catholic Schools Office.

Retreat revived spirit

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

S

TAFF members from Nazareth House’s Anti-Retroviral Therapy Clinic, the Hospice, oldage home and HIV-support group participated in a retreat at Lumko Institute in Benoni, near Johannesburg.

The retreat was led by Fr Phina Jan Mmakola, sub-prior at St Benedict’s abbey. The theme of the retreat was “Light, Creation and a Word”.

“There was a lot group-sharing as well as an individual testimony about the word of God touching our different tasks on a daily basis

in our care for one another,” Sr Alison Munro OP, director at SACBC Aids Office in Pretoria.

“There was much to revitalise the spirit of the attendees, the environment was peaceful, and the accommodation was tranquil,” Sr Munro added.

“The teachings of Fr Mmakola were very touching, encouraging and reconciling and provided us with a lot of strength to face the scourge of HIV/Aids.”

The retreat included topics based on forgiveness in its fullness, compassion, love and acceptance which are something people often miss in their daily lives.

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UPILS at many of South Africa’s schools are using pit latrines and being forced to attend classes in “abject conditions” despite the Department of Basic Education receiving billions of rands each year, the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) says in a report.

In his 2015 State of the Nation address, President Jacob Zuma spent very little time on basic education issues, devoting only a few minutes to the progress made on tackling school infrastructure backlogs, the report said.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has allocated R640 billion to basic education over the next three years. Of this, R7,4 billion was set aside for the replacement of 510 unsafe or poorly constructed schools. Water would be provided to 1 120 and electricity to 916 schools.

A further R29,6 billion has been allocated to the education infrastructure grant to help schools meet “the new minimum norms and standards for school infrastructure”.

The norms and standards state that by 2016 all schools built from mud, wood or asbestos must be replaced and all schools without water, electricity or sanitation must be provided with these amenities by 2020.

According to the Centre for Child Law’s “Mud to Bricks’ report, however, the Department of Basic Education has “poor capacity” when it comes to efficiently man-

aging the implementation of the schools’ infrastructure programme.

Provincial departments are also not managing to implement infrastructure projects.

In a recent presentation to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, the department indicated that the completion of a number of infrastructure projects in the provinces was hamstrung by issues with contractors, strikes in the steel industry, poor workmanship, approval of environmental impact assessments and delays in appointing contractors.

The CPLO said there is a need for a stronger coordinated programme delivery such as the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) model that is used by municipalities.

“The IDP model has been used successfully and it could reduce the backlog in under five years,” the CPLO said.

The delays in completing the infrastructure projects have led to considerable underspending on the schools infrastructure budget.

T

he provision and retention of qualified teachers is another “huge challenge”, the CPLO said.

The trend in the past years has been for over-indebted teachers to resign or retire early in order to cash in on their pensions. Teachers are also leaving the profession due to ill health, while retirement due to age and death decimates the number of qualified educators further.

In the 2012/13 financial year, 14 302 teachers left the profession

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due to ill health, 5 417 retired and 6 272 resigned or had their contracts terminated.

Higher education, meanwhile, will receive more than R195 billion over the medium term to provide access to tertiary education, build skills and broaden economic opportunities. This amount includes R3,2 billion to build the University of Mpumalanga in Nelspruit and Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley.

Despite this considerable amount, some have argued that higher education is not receiving nearly enough, the CPLO said.

“One of the major challenges for the sector is to increase the enrolment of students by at least 50 000 by 2030, as per the expectations of the National Development Plan, but it seems that the budget allocations are inadequate to assist universities to do this.”

According to Dr Ian Scott, emeritus professor of higher education development at the University of Cape Town, the underfunding of the sector will “have a damaging effect on growth and equity”.

The problem is further exacerbated by the inadequate funding of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

The R9,5 billion that has been allocated this year will not be enough to assist the large tertiary education enrolments. Expectations are that student enrolments will reach more than one million at universities and about 1,2 million at technical and vocational colleges.

4

The Southern Cross, April 15 to April 21, 2015

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INTERNATIONAL

Israeli Court: No wall in Cremisan Valley

BY JUDITH SUDILOVSKY

I

SRAEL’S Supreme Court has blocked a plan to build a separation barrier through the Cremisan Valley in the West Bank that would have divided a Catholic monastery, a convent and adjacent olive vineyards.

Church officials celebrated the court order.

The decision ends a nine-year legal battle over a defence ministry plan for a wall that would have cut through Palestinian-owned land, separating families from their agricultural land as well as separating Salesian Sisters from the community they serve in their school.

The Supreme Court called on the defence ministry to set a new route that causes less upheaval to local people, the Salesian priests and nuns and their vineyards.

Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal said at a news conference after the ruling was announced. “We thank God for this, [and] we hope this is a first step which will be followed by other steps. We can’t lose hope if God is with us. We are a church of Calvary, but in this occasion we are already the Church of Resurrection.”

He acknowledged the important role played by Church leaders and the diplomatic community in advocating against construction of the wall.

“This wall was illegal and justice has prevailed,” Patriarch Twal said.

The legal victory, the patriarch said, was the result of a joint effort among the Catholic Church, landowners, the three neighbouring municipalities, and Israelis who supported their case. Some efforts were made openly, he said, while some were behind the scenes.

“This is a very joyful day. This is a very important decision which can be used as a precedent in future cases should they reach the Supreme Court or other courts,” Raffoul Rofa, executive director of the Society of St Yves of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said at

Bethlehem’s Catholic Mayor Vera Baboun (right) congratulates a Palestinian Christian and owner of property in Cremisan, Yusra Araja, 75, from Beit Jala, on an Israeli court’s verdict preventing a separation wall from being built in the area.

(Photo: Debbie Hill/CNS) the news conference at the Salesian convent.

The mayors of West Bank communities of Bethlehem, Beit Jalla and Beit Sahour, all of whom visited Pope Francis in their effort to garner Church support for their cause, also attended the news conference.

Attorney Gayath Naser, who has spent half of his legal career on the case on behalf of the landowners, called the court’s decision “very courageous” and that it showed the court can be “independent and can deal with cases using legal glasses and not political glasses”.

“It’s not that the court said they can’t build a separation wall. They said that if they do make another seizure order, they need to do it far from here.

The court was very clear that [the defence ministry] can’t separate between the monastery and their community

and that they can’t take over such quantities of land,” said attorney Zvi Avni, an Israeli who represented the St Yves society during the case and the Salesian sisters when they filed a petition with the court.

Despite the ruling, the issue of where to build the wall remains unresolved.

The Supreme Court said that neither the route for the wall suggested by the defence ministry nor an alternative route offered by the religious communities and property owners was sufficient.

The ruling requested that the military commander consider alternatives less harmful to the local population and the monasteries. The Israeli military must issue a new order for any future plans for the wall, which also can be appealed by the local population, the court said.—CNS

Vatican, Italy sign tax agreement

BY CAROL GLATz

I

N a key move towards greater financial transparency, the Holy See has signed an agreement with Italy that includes the full exchange of financial information about Vatican employees, pensioners, foundations and religious institutes that are subject to Italian taxes.

People and entities that reside in Italy are expected to be liable for Italian taxes on any interest or earnings coming from bonds, investments and savings in Vatican institutions, according to a general outline of the agreement.

The new bilateral convention is meant to clarify and simplify rules and procedures concerning taxation obligations and taxpayer information, and it parallels standard agreements between countries on tax matters.

The Vatican announced the agreement on the same day representatives of the Holy See signed it in the presence of a delegation representing Italy.

The agreement is part of the Vatican’s larger programme of establishing greater financial transparency and protocols that are in line with international standards, it said, adding that the convention reflects “the most current international standard concerning the exchange of information” between signatories dealing with tax matters.

The convention, whose text was released to the public, is somewhat similar to a double taxation treaty, which aims to eliminate having taxpayers be taxed twice—by their country of residence and the country where they earn their money. But it also follows something similar to an information exchange

model established by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which seeks to reduce possibilities for tax evasion.

“The convention, starting from the date it enters into force, allows for the full compliance, with simplified procedures, of the fiscal obligations relative to the financial activities held by entities that conduct financial activities in the Holy See” by people or entities that are “physical residents of Italy”. The agreement allows for such persons to “regularise” their financial activities, the Vatican statement said.

The Lateran Pacts of 1929, in which the Vatican and the Italian state recognised each other as sovereign nations, established that Vatican salaries would be tax-free and institutions on Vatican property, including “extraterritorial” property outside Vatican City State walls, would be tax-exempt. Those properties include pontifical universities, seminaries and the headquarters of religious orders.

A separate tax agreement between the Vatican and Italy in 2012 established that commercial Church-owned businesses in Italy, such as guest houses run by religious institutes, were subject to Italian taxes.

Properties used for purely religious, non-profit purposes were tax-exempt under the 2012 agreement and will continue to be exempt under the new convention. However, Italy still would have no right to tax any profit-making entities operating inside Vatican City, such as the Vatican Museums and publishing house, according to a source familiar with the convention.—CNS

Canadian Cardinal dies at 78

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte

C

ANADIAN cardinal JeanClaude Turcotte, retired archbishop of Montreal, died on April 8.

The 78-year-old cardinal served as Montreal’s archbishop for 22 years.

Cardinal Turcotte is remembered as a populist, a down-to-earth cleric with a common touch who once supported an ad campaign that urged Montreal residents to pray for his beloved Canadians to make the National Hockey League playoffs.

“He was like the John XXIII of Montreal, a kind of big man who never was far from his roots,” said Archbishop Paul-André Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Cardinal Turcotte was often seen at food drives, soup kitchens and at his annual blood-donor clinic, typically held on Good Friday. He asked people to give blood for others as Jesus gave his blood for all.

He often expressed concern for the poor and marginalised.

“Nothing causes me more pain,” he once said, “than to see a human being treated with contempt and with disrespect”.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, April 15 to April 21, 2015

Faith lives on in Iraq and Syria

5

I

TALIAN Cardinal Fernando Filoni, former nuncio to Iraq visited the fefugee camp in Irbil, Iraq. The cardinal is Pope Francis’ personal representative to those forced to flee the fury of Islamic State militants.

Bringing a personal donation from the pope to aid the refugees, Cardinal Filoni, who is prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, said he told the people that “we were not alone at this important moment for our faith, important from a spiritual point of view for all those who find themselves in difficulty”.

In many ways, the cardinal said, the situation is calm. “The Christians are celebrating Mass as best they can, but there is hope that they can soon celebrate Mass in their own villages.”

Meanwhile, in Syria, Islamic State fighters reportedly took control of a large portion of the Yarmouk refugee camp, a settlement originally built for Palestinian refugees in the 1940s. In a statement the UN Relief and Works Agency, which had been caring for the Palestinians, said, “this residential area of Damascus—where some 18 000 people have already been trapped for over two years—has been engulfed by intense fighting”.

“The lives of civilians in Yarmouk have never been more profoundly threatened,” the state-

Robert Blair Kaiser, who has died at the age of 84. (Photo: Pubfacts)

Vatican II journalist Robert Blair Kaiser dies at 84

R

Cardinal Fernando Filoni, former nuncio to Iraq and Pope Francis' personal representative, distributes Communion during Mass at a refugee camp in Irbil, Iraq. More than 1 000 people attended the Mass. (Photo: Azad Lashkari, Reuters/CNS) ment said. “Men, women and children—Syrians and Palestinians alike —are cowering in their battered homes in profound fear, desperate for security, food and water, deeply concerned by the grave perils that may yet come. It is virtually impossible for civilians to leave Yarmouk as any attempt to move in the open brings high risk.”

Archbishop Mario Zenari, the apostolic nuncio to Syria, told Vatican Radio, “As you know, unfortunately, Syria has begun the fifth

year of its civil war and is living the Way of the Cross. What is weighing most on people now is not knowing what station we are on: Is this the last station, the one that precedes the light of the Resurrection? Or are we still on the fifth station of this Via Crucis?”

Although many Catholics have been able to flee, he said, “those who remain demonstrate a strong faith. They go to church to beg the Lord for the gift of peace, the gift of reconciliation”.—CNS

OBERT Blair Kaiser, whose award-winning coverage of the Second Vatican Council for Time magazine played a significant role in informing Catholics about the council, died in hospice care in Phoenix, Arizona. He was 84.

Robert Kaiser spent ten years as a Jesuit seminarian and scholastic, from 1949-59, before leaving the order and turning to journalism.

He was one of those who broke the official secrecy during Vatican II, using his Jesuit ties to cultivate sources who regularly informed him about daily proceedings in the council.

For his coverage, he received the Overseas Press Club’s Ed Cunningham Award in 1963 for the “best magazine reporting from abroad”. His book Pope, Council and World: The Story of Vatican II

was a No 1 best-seller in London and Dublin.

Mr Kaiser later covered religion for The New York Times and CBS-TV News; he covered the election of Pope Francis for Newsweek. He became an internationally recognised commentator and lecturer on the meaning of Vatican II. An activist with regard to Church politics, he pushed for reforms through several organisations, some of which he co-founded, including Catholic Church Reform International and a web community of US Catholics called takebackourchurch.org. He was a board member of Accelerating Catholic Church Reform.

He was the editor of Just Good Company, an online journal of religion and culture. He wrote at least 15 books, several of which were about Church reform.—CNS

Cardinal calls Kenyans to prayer

T

HE president of the Kenyan bishops’ conference has called on the faithful to comit themselves to praying for peace and security in their homeland after militants attacked a college campus in Garissa.

Cardinal John Njue of Nairobi also condemned this month’s attack by the Somalia-based al-Shabaab militants at Garissa University College in which Christian students were targeted. Kenya’s Catholic bishops, urged citizens to remain united, asked the government to beef up security, especially in all educational institutions, and to address the breakdown in its intelligence system.

After reading a message of condolence from Pope Francis to the congregation at Holy Family basilica in Nairobi, Cardinal Njue said: “We need to constantly invoke God’s name, following common attacks in the country by the al-Shabaab militia group, including the most recent one at Garissa.”

Cardinal Njue said the assault, which left 148 people dead, shocked the bishops’ conference and Bishop Paul Darmanin of Garissa in particular.

“I have assured Bishop Darmanin of the bishops’ support, through prayers and any other [means],” Car-

A woman prays at the Holy Family basilica in Nairobi for victims of the massacre at Garissa University College. (Photo: Thomas Mukoya, Reuters/CNS) dinal Njue said.

He reminded Christians that Christ was persecuted and suffered for the sake of people’s sins and told them never to give up even in the face of terror.

“We as a nation are undergoing many challenges and we must remain fixed to things above.” Cardinal Njue said.

The cardinal urged Kenyans not to look at the Garissa massacre through a religious lens.—CNS

Bishops: No death penalty for Boston bomber

BY CHRISTOPHER PINEO AND GREGORY TRACY

U

PON the conclusion of the trial of Boston Marathon bombing defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, at which he was found guilty on 30 counts, the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts released a statement reiterating the Church’s teaching on the death penalty.

The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty except “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor”, but such cases “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent”.

In Tsarnaev’s case, the Massachusetts bishops said, the defendant “has been neutralised and will never

again have the ability to cause harm.

Because of this, we...believe that society can do better than the death penalty.”

Drawing on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the statement said, “The Church’s teaching [against the death penalty] is in recognition of the inherent dignity of all life as a gift from God.” The statement also quoted the remarks by Pope Francis to the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, in which the pope called capital punishment “an offence against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person”.

The bishops said with the defendant behind bars, the interest of protecting public safety has been fulfilled.—CNS

13 to 26 February 2016

The PILGRIMAGE OF THE PEACEMAKERS is a special journey to the land of Christ which will include the great sites of Our Lord in the Holy Land as well as encounters with Palestinian and Jewish organisations working for peace. We will explore the roots of the conflict and see the situation first-hand to enable us to pray for justice and peace.

In Cairo we will honour the 21 Coptic Martyrs slain by ISIS terrorists by visiting Coptic churches and monasteries, and meeting with local Christians to learn from their experiences and offer them our solidarity.

The PILGRIMAGE OF THE PEACEMAKERS is a journey of prayer for peace and of solidarity with our fellow Christians and all people of peace in the Holy Land and Egypt.

Led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin, Catholic top guide Rimon Makhlouf, and Southern Cross editor and The Holy Land Trek author Günther Simmermacher, it will be a pilgrimage in the footsteps and in service of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pilgrimage Highlights

• All the important sites of Our Lord’s life, death and resurrection in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Cana, Jordan River, Sea of Galilee etc.

• Encounters with peacemakers of the Holy Land, visits to an abandoned village, refugee camp, Yad Vashem memorial, Bethlehem University and more.

• Visit to Coptic churches and monasteries, incl. Hanging Church of el Moallaqa.

Encounter with Coptic Christians. Plus Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, the famous Egyptian Museum and a Nile Cruise.

6

The Southern Cross, April 15 to April 21, 2015

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Pray to Our Lady Mother of Africa

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

A

Why cartoon offended

M

ANY Catholics expressed concern over a cartoon

by Zapiro which used the crucifixion to make its political point.

In the cartoon, embattled Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi is seen hanging on a cross on a hill as his trade union adversaries S’dumo Dlamini and Bheki Ntshalintshali walk away, carrying hammers.

The punchline has them exclaim: “Nailed…End of the Story”, while a third trade unionist muses: “…except the bit about resurrection and a groundswell of support…”

As a satirical commentary on internal Cosatu politics, the cartoon is no doubt sharp. Moreover, Zapiro refrained from incorporating other imagery from Christ’s Passion, such as scourge marks, the crown of thorns or the INRI titulus. Mr Vavi is nailed to the cross not through is hands, but by the cuffs of his shirt.

It would be unjust to accuse Zapiro of deliberately mocking the crucifixion. Indeed, the cartoonist might argue that he merely used what he and many of his readers understand to be common cultural imagery, and even took care to present the image in ways that do not directly ridicule Christian beliefs.

That response would be, in secular terms, reasonable—and yet, it would fail to grasp that any injection of humour or satire into the crucifixion of Jesus is liable to be considered by most Christians to be offensive.

One may assume that the setup for the cartoon was topical, with its publication coinciding with Good Friday and the Easter weekend. If so, then this misjudged Christian sensitivities. Is it not perfectly obvious that the publication of a cartoon on a Good Friday that riffs on the crucifixion would especially scandalise Christians?

It seems that the sensibilities of Christians are considered unimportant by Zapiro and the Mail & Guardian, both of whom have a history of publishing content that has justifiably offended Catholics and other Christians. It is this lack of tact, and not necessarily the image of the cartoon itself, which mocks the Christian community.

One may well ask whether Zapiro would as casually use the Holocaust to illustrate a point

The Southern

about the internal politics of a trade union movement.

Christians were right to be disappointed, and even angered, by the publication of the cartoon.

Those who registered their protests were right in doing so.

The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), through its communication officer, Fr S’milo Mngadi, did so in firm but measured tones.

In a letter to the Mail & Guardian on the SACBC’s behalf, he wrote: “I would like to register our regret concerning the cartoon on Cosatu’s General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi being crucified and his possible ‘resurrection and a groundswell of support’…

“The cross of Jesus and His resurrection are central to the Christian faith held dear by the majority of South Africans. Demeaning them by comparison to the wranglings within the Cosatu leadership is quite distasteful.”

A conciliatory note was struck in reference to an article in the same edition about the martyr Benedict Daswa.

Fr Mngadi’s letter chided the newspaper and its cartoonist, doing so in calm language which sought to explain the problems which Christians have with the cartoon. One may hope that those to whom Fr Mngadi directed himself will now understand why the cartoon’s depiction of the crucifixion, particularly on a Good Friday, was not a matter of subjective taste, but a thoughtless insult.

For Christians, the tone of our complaints counts: loud bluster can obscure the validity of a grievance, especially if the volume of the protest is disproportionate to the (perceived) offence.

It is right that Catholics should make known their objections to what they feel is offensive. But that licence is subject to responsibilities.

Firstly, the offence taken must be reasonable and defined with clarity and charity; secondly, a campaign of protest must be fair and take into account the rights of others.

The lines between fair and unreasonable objection can be very narrow. When this is so, it is better to err on the side of caution.

In his response on behalf of the bishops’ conference, Fr Mngadi has given us a timely demonstration of how to handle a protest responsibly.

Cross

Published independently by the Catholic Newspaper and Publishing Co since 1920

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Business Manager: Pamela Davids

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.

RECENT missal shows the Mass of “Our Lady Mother of Africa” on April 30 in Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland and Nigeria.

Pope Francis ended his address to our bishops on April 30 last year on their ad limina visit with the words: “May the saints of Africa sustain you by their intercession. May Our Lady of Africa be always at your side”.

Mary is our caring, loving Mother. Could we perhaps contact every Catholic we know to pray the Rosary on April 30 for her intercession for Africa and the world—or

Sacrifice your overseas holiday

P

OPE Francis has given as his programme a poor Church serving poor and marginalised people. For society in general he wants a more even distribution of the world’s resources, to narrow the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots.

President Jacob Zuma and many other social leaders have likewise called for a fairer sharing of our country’s wealth.

They would prefer this to be done freely and willingly rather than by law or by force.

Yet when we look at the lifestyle of the economic and social upper 20% of the population there is little or no sign of this happening voluntarily. This includes the economic and social upper 20% of the Catholic population.

Just to focus on one item: many Catholics still regularly take their holidays overseas once or even more times a year; while there are many parts of our own country and its neighbours, which they have never explored, at a much lower cost. (People visiting family or relatives are not included in those simply going on a holiday.)

There is a saying that “the best way to help people is to help them help themselves”. One of the best ways of assisting someone towards self-help is education.

There are many bright young people in our country who cannot go to university and prepare for a self-sustaining life of service to the community and growth in the economy because they lack the necessary finance.

When I was parish priest in Waterkloof and chaplain to Pretoria University, the parents of a student from north of the Limpopo could no longer afford to keep him at university.

I decided to ask from the pulpit during the weekend for donations towards a fund to help him.

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even just a decade, or a single Hail Mary? And add: “Loving Father, bless us, the people of Africa and the world, and help us to live in justice, love and peace. Mary, Mother of Africa and the World, pray for us.”

Perhaps we can attend the Mass?

Or pray often, on any dates we choose?

Mary will not forget Africa, the land which sheltered the Holy Family from Herod’s violence. Nor will she forget that the only man who helped Jesus on his terrible journey was Simon of Cyrene, a city in current-day Libya, who perhaps had to

After the Saturday evening Mass, one parishioner came to me and said: “I will put him through his studies”.

Today the same young man is a successful businessman who gratefully visits his benefactor. He is also an asset to the Church.

A reasonable estimate is that what any one person spends on an overseas holiday would keep a student at university for a year.

The other day someone spoke to me about a young man from a poor family whom that person, by cutting down on travel, had helped through university.

When they met a few years later, the young man said: “Thank you for giving me a life and a career”.

How would you feel if you had been the person to whom those words were spoken?

Would sacrificing a few overseas holidays not have been worth it?

Fr Bonaventure Hinwood OFM, Pretoria

Easter reflection

I

N the Easter season especially my thoughts to turn to the question: Why are we born?

We are not born to die. We are born to eternal life, to be saints in heaven.

In the resurrection of Jesus, we see our own resurrection, our own true destiny. The Risen Lord beckons us to his glorious state. In doing so, “he became what we are that we might become what he is,” according to St Athanasius.

There are an unlimited number 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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be forced to overcome his African traditional customs which limited ubuntu to one’s own family, tribe and ethnic group.

Pray that Africa will again pick up the cross of the world’s suffering and sin and lead us behind Jesus.

In 1984 our bishops distributed prayer cards for Southern Africa, and recently prayer cards have been received for the Middle East. Why do we not pray for Africa?

For free leaflet with the St Francis Peace Prayer adapted for Africa, SMS your name and postal address to 083 544 8449.

Let us pray – fervently and often!

Athaly Jenkinson, East London

of saints in heaven, “a huge number impossible to count, of people from every nation” (Rev 7:9).

Sacred Scripture and the whole tradition of the Church show the role of saints in the plan of God. The word of God attests the saints as having “washed their robes in the blood of the lamb” (Rev 7:14).

They are the ones “who stand in the holy place, with clean hands and clean heart” (Ps 23:3).

Interestingly, St John in his first letter writes that “we are already children of God” (1 Jn 3:2) and by being faithful to Christ in the test of time we shall “be like him and see him as he really is”.

Jesus spells out the way to sainthood in the beatitudes, which ends with the assurance that our “reward will be great in heaven” (Mt 5:12).

In the early Church, its members, the body of Christ, are called saints, especially the martyrs who died for Christ like Christ died for them.

That leaves me thinking about what French writer Léon Bloy said: “There is only one sadness—not to be a saint.”

Fr Allan Moss OMI, Merrivale, KZN

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R

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Unfortunately schools don’t always make their library books available to pupils during the school holidays when the young people have the most time available for reading.

Parishes, particularly those in disadvantaged areas, could consider collecting second-hand children’s books and making them available to young parishioners by means of an informal lending libraries held after Sunday Masses (or other suitable times) in the school holidays.

JM Thomson, Johannesburg

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PERSPECTIVES Raymond Perrier

Our multiple identities W HEN I first arrived in South Africa five years ago, I went to open a bank account. And at the end of the process the bank clerk asked me a strange question: “What should I put as your cultural classification?”

I was tempted to ask if there was a category called “metropolitan sophisticate”, but before I could, he gave me the options: “Black, White, Coloured or Indian”. And so, on the grounds that it was the least inaccurate description, I found myself for the first time in my 43 years defining myself as “Indian”.

My parents—who were both born in India and lived all their early years in India and yet would no longer call themselves Indian—were most amused. I had come home!

Now that I live in Durban, there is a part of me that does indeed feel that I have come home. After all, this is the largest Indian city in the world outside the sub-continent, and Indian religious traditions, cultural practices, clothing, architecture, music and food—especially food!—pervade the city.

Against that backdrop, I am working out what it means for me to be Indian. I have resisted the temptation to get my car wheels chromed, or to marry my first cousin, or to sort out my investments—or any of those other Indian stereotypes, good and bad.

Instead I am grappling with this new identity. Part of what makes this so interesting is that in Durban for me to be “Indian” is not exceptional. Everywhere else I have lived I could be described as “the Indian guy”, since there were no others around. In Durban that does not work. So my Indian identity is not about sticking out from the crowd but blending in with it.

The question of identity is a fascinating one and it touches on the heart of our relationship with God. Often we use identity as a way of marking inclusion in one group but exclusion from another. Thus, if I identify as a Pirates fan, I am at the same time making it clear I am not a Kaiser Chiefs supporter.

But most identities are much less polar than this. “Catholic” is an interesting word. Many of our fellow churchgoers, if asked “Are you a Christian?”, would reply “No, I’m Catholic”. And so the identifier “Catholic” is used to show inclusion in one group—but, ironically, by asserting exclusion from another group, “Christian”, to which the person also belongs.

Tribal identities can be similarly complex. While the “rule” is that you follow your father’s tribe, I know someone with a Tswana father but who grew up speaking Sotho and Zulu before Tswana and was far removed from the practices of his father’s ancestors. Does he really have to define himself as Tswana to the exclusion of any other identity?

S

o it is with nationality. Having been born in Britain, schooled in Britain, entirely steeped in British manners and customs, and carrying a British passport, I would never tick myself as “Indian” over “British” on a list. But what if “British Indian” existed as a category?

Part of the added complexity of Indian identity is that it overlaps with religious identity. Indeed, in some languages the same word is used to denote a person from

Raymond Perrierr with Ela Gandhi, the granddaughter of the Mahatma.

Family Friendly

By his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus has given us freedom and new life. free all those years go. Yes, there is great progress if there is at least a vision of a better quality of life for all. But would this be his way?

Maybe we sanitise the reality of his redemptive act too much. Setting us free was a horrible experience, yet one that resulted in new life, new hope and a new vision.

M

the country and a person who follows Hinduism. This has led some nationalistic Hindus to depict non-Hindu Indians as not proper Indians. And yet there are as many Muslims in India as in Pakistan; and more Catholics in India than in Ireland!

Recently I joined Ela Gandhi and thousands of others to re-enact the famous Salt March that the Mahatma led in 1930 in defiance of an iniquitous British tax on the making of salt. I wonder what drew me to participate? Partly because it was a good Durban thing to do. Partly, the undoubted charisma of the Mahatma’s granddaughter.

In part, a desire to connect with a famous march from history and reflect on its relevance today.

But I think I was also moved by a desire to assert that, while being British and Catholic, I was also in some sense Indian; this historic protest against injustice was a part of my history too.

As a child I overheard a judge at a ballroom dancing exam at which I had just done well commenting to my teacher: “Well of course, they do have good rhythm.” I was not entirely sure what the “they” in his sentence meant, so later I asked my mother why the judge would have thought that Catholics had particularly good rhythm. Not understanding the double entendre of my question, I could not appreciate at the time why all the adults fell about laughing.

When God, the final judge, looks back at our lives my assumption is that he will not categorise any one of us because of the religion(s) or nation(s) or culture(s) to which we belong. Instead God will see each of us as the unique individual he created.

There is a famous Rabbinic warning.

When I face God at the end of my life and he asks me, “Why did I not act like Moses?”, I will have a ready answer: “Because you did not create me to be Moses.”

But what will I say when God asks me: “Why did you not act like Raymond?”

Toni Rowland

The freedom to be E VERY year around this time Marfam carries some message about freedom since on April 27 we South Africans celebrate Freedom Day. April hasn’t exactly become a whole month for freedom in South Africa in the way that February is for love and May for mothers. But maybe it should.

It is helpful to reflect on the real meaning of freedom. Is it freedom from or freedom for? Or maybe some of both would be most ideal.

However, the disrespectful way in which some of our politicians, university students and other social protesters have conducted themselves lately has displayed a freedom from a sense of respect for order and dignity, instead taking the freedom to express grievances couched in the language of demands.

No doubt transformation in our society is still highly necessary, but does that require the use of excrement thrown at statues or looting and senseless attacks on vulnerable foreigners? Does change and transformation in society worldwide require the kind of brutality that is meted out these days? Does this kind of implicit terrorism attract youth from around the world to join a so-called war?

At the same time we must ask: what is the degree of disillusionment and frustration they experience back home? What is behind this lack of order, dignity and respect?

I can’t help wondering what Jesus is thinking as he looks on the world he set

Faith and Society

y Easter reflection on freedom and salvation puts my thoughts into words: Lord, by your cross and resurrection you have set us free.

What is freedom you may ask?

Is it free to be, free to love, to be loved and to want no more?

Is it free to belong, free to be cared for and to care as you did for us all?

You, the saviour of all the world.

How will my freedom to be and love, like yours, involve the cross?

Will I have the strength, the hope and trust in my Father and yours so that relinquishing my freedom and submitting my will to God I will participate in your plan?

You, the saviour of all the world.

In our families we can reflect on the concept of freedom from the perspective of the April theme of “Commitment to God and Faith”. Can we consider what having freedom and yet relinquishing freedom and submitting to God’s will really mean, for couples, parents and children and the elderly too?

The reflective poem above was published in Family Matters magazine No 1 of 2015. Other daily reflections on faith and life can be found in the various Marfam publications and on www.marfam.org.za.

Marfam is committed to family support, education and enrichment. The issues raised in the questionnaire in preparation for the October Synod on the Family are by no means done with.

They are our issues on an ongoing basis.

Did we express them freely as Pope Francis requested and do we see ourselves as free yet committed to build strong families and a transformed society?

May the gift and message of Easter continue to give us new life and set us free.

www.prayercandle.co.za

Open Door

Why people go on pilgrimages Pilgrimages to certain holy places seem to have a long history among Christians. What prompted people in the first place to want to travel just in order to pray at a special spot?

Couldn’t they pray just as well at home, considering that God is everywhere?

S Greene

G

OING on pilgrimage is not merely a visit to a holy place to ask God for a particular favour in that place or to recharge spiritual batteries. It is an exceptional and deeply personal effort made by the individual Christian. It is the willingness to leave home and everyday life, and set out with courage in the company of others to demonstrate our common depth of faith and our need for spiritual reawakening.

The Jews of the Old Testament used to do this sort of thing when they journeyed at least once a year to the Temple in Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:2 points to the Temple and predicts that all the Gentiles will in time also become pilgrims to it.

As the early Christians began to spread out into the Greek and Roman civilisations around them, they found many shrines to pagan gods such as Apollo, to which pilgrims flocked. They regarded these as superstitious and vain practices.

This, together with the persecutions of the time, explains why there were no Christian holy places devoted to pilgrimages.

When Constantine the Great allowed tolerance of Christianity in 313, things changed. Free to travel in comparative safety, Christians started visiting holy sites, such as the graves of martyrs and saints, and also as indications of their desire to repent for their sins.

It did not take long before pilgrims set out for the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem. Constantine’s mother Helena travelled there and is reputed to have discovered the True Cross of Christ.

Christians, keen to visit the places highlighted in the life and death of Christ, soon followed to manifest their piety and to ask for forgiveness, healing, blessings and favours.

In medieval times penitential pilgrimages became popular as well as journeys to shrines dedicated to Our Lady and the saints. Pilgrimages of all sorts have followed.

You wonder why people impose such a huge task on themselves when they could just as well pray at home. Every person is different. Some have profound spiritual needs that will not be satisfied without doing something extra special. Some feel they need to expiate their sins in only this or that way. It is a matter of personal preference.

Christ expects us to lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven (Lk 12:32). The pilgrim may find this treasure on the road to and from a shrine. Another may find it at home. In both cases their prayer and desire to encounter God is never in vain.

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, April 15 to April 21, 2015

COMMUNITY

Easter in our Catholic Communities

Catechumens were baptised at St Peter Claver church The Parish of the Resurrection in Bryanston, Johannesburg, welin Pimville, Soweto, over Easter. Fr Mohohlo Maselwane comed new Catholics at their Easter celebration. is pictured annointing the new members of the Church.

Christ the King cathedral in Gaborone, Botswana, held an Easter vigil procession which was well attended by parishioners, carrying candles as they made their way into the cathedral.

Don Bosco parish in Robertsham, Johannesburg, held their Holy Thursday evening service which included a washing of the feet ceremony. Fr Robert Gore SDB is pictured assisting parish priest Fr John Thompson. (Photo: Mark Kisogloo)

Holy Rosary parish in Krugersdorp celebrated the Easter vigil with the lighting of the Pascal candle.

Fr Sean Wales, provincial of the Redemptorists, and parish priest Fr Gerard McCabe CSsR are pictured during the Easter vigil at Holy Redeemer church in Bergvliet, Cape Town, at which converts were received into the Church.

Easter Sunday Mass in the parish of Ss Peter and Paul in George, Oudstshoorn diocese, was celebrated by Fr Johan Strydom in the parish hall as the church was too small to accommodate the congregation.

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Forty-seven candidates received the sacraments of baptism, Holy Communion and confirmation from Bishop Valentine Seane at Christ the King cathedral in Gaborone, Botswana at the Easter Vigil Mass.

CHURCH

The Southern Cross, April 15 to April 21, 2015

9

How women can solve Church’s ministry crisis As the number of priests declines and their workload increases, the Church must make use of an untapped resource: Catholic women, argues COLLEEN CONSTABLE.

T

HE article “Priests called to help police” in The Southern Cross of March 18 prompted me to reflect.

The article quotes Archbishop William Slattery, who represents the Catholic Church on the Security Services Christian Advisory Board, stating there are not enough Catholic priests involved with the country’s security services. He called upon priests and parishes to help lift the burden off police, prisons and military.

This will resonate with all of us: it is a legitimate call for action at a time of many challenges.

In the same article Fr Jordan Ngondo, the Church’s only permanent full-time correctional services chaplain, emphasised the need for spiritual help in prison. He further suggested that Catholic priests volunteer to become reserve chaplains in the military. This, too, is a great idea.

To implement both these calls for action, parishes face a harsh reality: the scarcity of priests. Can the Church provide a sustainable and effective ministry to the country’s security services without compromising the priest’s responsibilities to his parish? Can the Church render a dedicated spiritual ministry to the security services without increasing the burden of the workload on parish priests who already carry heavy spiritual and administrative obligations?

I do not believe that the Church is able to offer sustainable spiritual services to the security sector at this point in time. We already

know the difficulties to provide priests to render permanent spiritual services to inmates in correctional centres. We experience how transfers and replacement of priests in dioceses impact on parishes. And we observe how some parish priests even have more than three Mass schedules on Sundays—exceeding the Canon Law prescript—due to parish needs and requirements.

So how best can the Church respond to 21st century challenges— such as the ministry to security services—when there is a shortage of priests?

The leadership of the Church can respond with creativity. Now is the time for innovative solutions; now is the time for boldness.

Now is the time for courageous action.

Now is the time for tangible solutions: it is time to allow women to thrive. It is time to demonstrate that women’s leadership is acknowledged.

I am not referring to women’s ordination to the priesthood, and I am not a supporter of illicit ordinations to the priesthood. I believe that such attempts have done nothing to enhance women’s roles in the Church or to contribute towards the urgent emancipation of women in the Church.

But the Church can use legitimate ways to address the increasing spiritual needs at parish level.

Such a step will enable the Church to render a dedicated and sustainable spiritual ministry to the security services as well as other required ministries.

There is overwhelming evidence that including women in key roles of leadership contributes to organisational effectiveness and good decision-making.

In the business world it is referred to as increasing competitive advantage through gender diversity. The same result and more should be possible if women are included in key leadership roles in the Church.

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

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

Giving women leadership roles within in the Church would help ease the great workload of many parish priests and enable the Church to better carry out its ministries, Colleen Constable writes.

A transformation strategy based on the changing needs of the Church of our time is required. l First, that the Church takes concrete measures to address the issue of women deacons. This is a legitimate ministry that existed in the early Church.

Instituting a women diaconate will place the Church in a position to strengthen its mission and ministry work inside and outside the Church.

However, a structured change management approach is necessary. Set up a commission to look into this matter with the same urgency that the reforms of the Roman curia and other key Church matters are currently being undertaken.

Women in the Church should let their voices be heard. There is no need for a defiance campaign:

ON TAPE

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only prayerful submissions to the leaders of the Church. l Second, a preaching ministry: gifted women as preachers.

According to the Code of Canon Law, Canon 766 makes provision that “laypersons can be permitted to preach in a church or oratory” without prejudice of the context of Canon 767. The latter reserved the preaching of the homily to a priest or deacon.

This approach was implemented by the US bishops’ conference in 2001 where they issued norms for lay preaching to fulfill the prescripts of Canon 766.

Of course, it is also said that the 2004 Vatican document Redemptionist Sacramentum tried to restrict lay preaching, but canonical experts indicated that it remains a “non-legislative document that does not supersede already exist-

ing law”.

Women preachers will be able to add much value to ministry work at parish level as they are more inclined towards inspired preaching.

It is common knowledge that there are many women theologians, consecrated women and ordinary women in the Church: they too can be inspired preachers.

Gifted to reach the hearts and minds of people through their God-given talent and calling.

It’s a calling that goes beyond some current activities assigned to women: flower arrangements, the sacristy, liturgical reading and arranging social events for fundraising. It is a calling to serve the Lord in the mission that leads directly to the salvation of souls. l Third, a commission should be established to determine options of how policy changes can be effected to current roles in the hierarchy of the Church that do not require ordination.

This means that senior leaders, who occupy positions that do not require ordination, while being in ordained ministry, could be replaced by women theologians.

Such a step will free ordained leaders to focus entirely on their priestly office and increase their visibility in relation to those responsibilities.

These are the possibilities of an innovative policy review process based on true transformation. The outcome will enhance women’s roles in the Church, strengthen their leadership, ensure dignity of equality and be a light of transformation in the 21st century. The Church will be able to respond more effectively to the growing spiritual needs, internally and externally.

There are legitimate ways to address the increasing spiritual needs. It requires action: boldness and transformational leadership.

Now is the time: the time for women, the time for change. The Spirit is moving.

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10

The Southern Cross, April 15 to April 21, 2015

FAITH

Looking for the face of Jesus What did Jesus look like?

The gospels give us no physical description of the Son of God. GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks for Jesus’ face.

T

HE gospels are silent on whether Jesus was handsome or plain, tall or short, whether he had long hair or was bald, bearded or shaven.

To the evangelists it didn’t matter. After all, Jewish law prohibited the depiction of human figures, in line with the Third Commandment, so there was no need to describe Jesus’ appearance, nor to create images of his likeness.

Living much of his time during the public ministry on the road, Jesus might not have had much time to cut his hair, and as a Jewish man of his time, he most likely sported a beard. As a Semite, he probably had the features of any number of Palestinians today.

So the popular images of Jesus with blow-dried hair, fair complexion and Caucasian features probably do not correspond with reality.

He will have been olive-skinned and Middle Eastern, with limited access to haircare products.

For those who believe that the Shroud of Turin bears the genuine imprint of the crucified Jesus, the inquest into his likeness ends here.

Indeed, the shroud may well be the answer, for the evidence that it is a first-century burial cloth of a man who was crucified in Palestine in the manner of the execution of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the gospels is more compelling than the proposition that the shroud is a medieval fraud.

The shroud image depicts a lean man of about 1,80m in height. His hair is long and he has a beard. The face is oval and the eye sockets suggest that the man had fairly big eyes (on the image the eyes seem to be covered by coins, according to Jewish burial custom of the time). His nose, big and slightly hooked at the tip, seems to have been broken, presumably before the crucifixion (cf Jn 19:36).

There are some who argue that the first known painting of a bearded Christ, the 6th-century icon of Christ Pantocrator in St Catherine’s monastery in Egypt’s Sinai desert, bears a striking resemblance to the image on the shroud, even that the physiognomic characteristics of the faces match exactly.

Painted in around 550 AD, the icon’s Jesus is unmistakably Semitic.

As in the shroud image, the face is long, the nose crooked, the lips

fleshy, and the eyes are big beneath a strong brow.

A late 7th-century wall painting of Christ Pantocrator in the catacomb of St Ponziano in Rome is often presented as a smoking gun that the iconography of Christ was based on the image on the Turin Shroud.

In the fresco, a distinctive topless square mark is seen on Christ’s forehead—exactly the shape that can be seen on the shroud, due to a fault in the weave. Why would the artist have included a random shape on the forehead, one that is identical to that on the shroud whose existence is first documented in the 1350s, half a millennium after the catacomb of St Ponziano closed?

trenched that Michelangelo got himself in trouble when he included a clean-shaven Christ in his Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel.

W

S

ome argue that the Turin Shroud is, in fact, the lost Image of Edessa, which was reputed to be “created by God, and not produced by the hands of man”.

Famous in its day, it disappeared in 1204 during the sack of Constantinople by French Crusaders, some 150 years before the shroud appeared in the possession of a French descendant from a Crusader family.

The Image of Edessa (also called Mandylion) is first referred to by the 4th-century historian Eusebius—the bishop of Caesarea in Palestine whom historians don’t trust as being reliable—and positively documented in modern-day Turkey in 520.

Few artistic representations of the Edessa cloth have survived. One of them is the Holy Face of Genoa, an icon that was reproduced from an earlier one which was reputed to be of the image on the Mandylion.

The Holy Face of Genoa bears a strong resemblance to the Christ Pantocrator icon at St Catherine’s as well as to the image on the shroud: long hair, beard, oval face, big eyes, strong brow, big (but unbroken) nose, fleshy lips.

The Edessa cloth was brought to the Hagia Sophia basilica—then the centre of the Eastern Church—in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in August 944. In the basilica’s famous Deisis mosaic of Christ with his

6th-century mosaic of Jesus as a Roman emperor in Ravenna’s basilica di San Vitale.

The 6th-century icon of Christ Pantocrator, kept in St Catherine’s monastery in Egypt’s Sinai desert, set the template for depictions of Christ with a beard and long hair. Some believe that the physiognomy of the face on the icon and that on the Shroud of Turin match up perfectly. mother and John the Baptist, made in 1261, Jesus bears strong resemblance to the Sinai icon. At that time, an 11th-century mosaic of the Edessa image still existed in the apse of the Hagia Sophia; it disappeared some time after the 17th century.

Was the face of Jesus in the Deisis mosaic based on the traditional Christ Pantocrator iconography, or on the Edessa cloth mosaic—or both?

The Christ Pantocrator icon is the source of all future depictions of the bearded, long-haired Jesus in art

The Holy Face of Genoa, reputedly the face on the Image of Edessa.

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Negatve image of the face on the Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be of Christ.

and, more lately, on film.

But especially in the West, earlier depictions of Jesus showed a variety of physical characteristics. Images from the third century and later tended to represent Jesus in the fashion of Romans: clean-shaven and neatly shorn of long hair. In one 6th-century image, kept in Ravenna, Italy, he even appears as a Roman emperor as he defeats Satan.

In the West, beardless Christs still appeared in art until the 12th century. After that, the artistic consensus represented him with facial hair. That image became so en-

7th-century fresco in the catacomb of St Ponziano, Rome, with mark on the forehead.

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hile the Eastern icons of Christ retained the Semitic features of Christ, Western art localised Jesus. He became increasingly handsome (at least by the standards of the time) and dramatic. The Jesus of the West usually was pale and European, much as more recently African, Asian or Latin American art has inculturated depictions of Christ to reflect the physical characteristics of the people in their regions.

The 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn returned to the ethnographical view of Jesus, choosing as his model a young Sephardic Jew who lived in the neighbourhood.

It was quite revolutionary, and not only in artistic terms: here a European painter chose a Jew to represent Christ at the time when Jews were persecuted by the followers of Christ. The irony, one suspects, was lost on the persecutors.

Rembrandt’s depictions of Jesus were influential, not by way of setting a template but by overturning the previous, more rigid templates.

In 2001 a BBC documentary on the face of Jesus attempted to find the face of Jesus by way of reconstructing a face from the skull of a 1st-century man from Palestine.

The result was the swarthy, round face of a man with short, curly hair and a trimmed beard.

Clearly the man was not Jesus, and the model obviously was a gimmick. But it clearly communicated one thing: Jesus of Nazareth undeniably was a Semite.

When one goes to the Holy Land and sees the faces of the Palestinians of Nazareth, Cana or Bethlehem, one sees the faces of Mary, of Simon Peter, of Mary Magdalene— and perhaps even that of Jesus. n Günther Simmermacher is the editor of The Southern Cross and the author of The Holy Land Trek: A Pilgrim’s Guide (www.holylandtrek.com)

13th-century Christ Pantocrator mosaic in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

1648 painting of “The Head of Christ” by Rembrandt, in Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie.

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CLASSIFIEDS

What the Holy See is doing to counter Christian persecution

I

N the face of increased persecution of Christians in the Middle East, the Holy See’s diplomatic arm is developing a strategy to shed light on Christian martyrs, helping those remaining to stay in their homeland and to foster interreligious dialogue.

A visible effect of this commitment was a joint statement issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council on March 13, which was drafted by the Holy See together with Lebanon and Russia.

According to Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the UN in Geneva, the statement “is the first time we explicitly mention the category of Christian persons”.

The joint statement clearly recognises the abuses suffered by persons from any religious, ethnic, or cultural background simply because they want to exercise their religion.

The document represented a sort of “road map” for Holy See diplomacy. Since the release of the joint statement, the UN Human Rights Council discussed in a April 1 special session the situation in Nigeria, where the radical Islamist group Boko Haram has killed more than 15 500 since 2012.

Archbishop Tomasi voiced the Holy See’s concern, and stressed that “we are witnessing the continued development and dissemination of a radical and ruthless type of extremism inspired by an ideology which attempts to justify its crimes in the name of religion”.

The Holy See Permanent Observer also underscored that “with the recent explicit allegiance of Boko Haram to the so-called Islamic State group, one cannot be blind to the fact that such extremists groups are growing like a cancer, spreading to other parts of the world, and even attracting foreign militants to fight in their ranks”.

The Holy See’s final goal is help build a network able to stop the persecution of Christians and of any other religious group, and to back the building of pluralistic societies with solid political systems, capable of protecting fundamental human rights.

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue’s efforts are aimed at awakening the consciences of the Muslim world, which remained mostly silent in front of the brutalities perpetuated by the Islamic State.

In an August 12, 2014 declaration the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue called into question religious leaders, especially those in the Muslim world, asking: “What is our credibility, if we do not denounce what is going on, which is offending God and humanity?”

Holy See efforts at interreligious dialogue are continuing. In an April 7 interview with The Australian, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, said that “the Holy See will continue to dialogue with Muslim leaders and teachers, and to encourage respect of the true spiritual values which come from authentic religious experience”.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: April 25: Bishop Valentine Seane of Gaborone on the sixth anniversary of his episcopal ordination.

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CLASSIFIEDS

In addition, the Holy See is working to aid persecuted Christians on the ground, helping them to remain in their home countries. In recent months, its missions to Iraq have tried to comfort the internally displaced and to coordinate financial aid.

Shortly after the Islamic State seized Mosul and much of Nineveh province in Iraq, Pope Francis sent Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, as a special envoy to Iraq. Cardinal Filoni returned to Iraq this month, visiting refugee camps, celebrating Mass for refugees, and meeting people to see how their conditions could be improved (see page 5).

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Filoni underscored that “despite the precarity of the situation, I met people willing to remain in their home country”.

A delegation led by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum also travelled to Iraq from March 26-29, and a delegation of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, led by its prefect, should be visiting Iraq in the coming weeks.

The final goal of these trips is to coordinate onthe-ground efforts and to give more weight to apostolic nuncios and the bishops, who are working to protect Christian populations from persecution and to help them escape when they are persecuted.— CNA

Liturgical Calendar Year B Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday, April 19, Third Sunday of Easter Acts 3:13-15, 17-19, Psalms 4:2, 4, 7-9, 1 John 2:1-5, Luke 24:35-48 Monday, April 20 Acts 6:8-15, Psalms 119:23-24, 26-27, 29-30, John 6:22-29 Tuesday, April 21, St Conrad of Parzham Acts 7:51--8:1, Psalms 31:3-4, 6-8, 17, 21, John 6:30-35 Wednesday, April 22 Acts 8:1-8, Psalms 66:1-7, John 6:35-40 Thursday, April 23 Acts 8:26-40, Psalms 66:8-9, 16-17, 20, John 6:44-51 Friday, April 24, St Fidelis of Sigmaringen Revelation 3:7-8, 10-12, Psalms 119:137-144, John 10:11-16 Saturday, April 25, St Mark 1 Peter 5:5-14, Psalms 89:2-3, 6-7, 16-17, Mark 16:15-20 Sunday, April 26, Fourth Sunday of Lent Acts 4:8-12, Psalms 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28-29, 1 John 3:1-2, John 10:11-18

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

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Christian refugees march against persecution by Islamic State fighters outside the UN compound in Irbil, Iraq, last July. (Photo: Sahar Mansour/CNS)

The Southern Cross, April 15 to April 21, 2015

50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY. To Vincent and Mary Rayne (née Briggs) of St Thomas church in Mossel Bay. Sincere congratulations and best wishes on your 50th from Sèan, Shanine, Helen, Nicola, Jack, Andy, Michelle and Amy. May our good Lord bless and protect you always xx.

IN MEMORIAM

HOUGHTON—Agnes.

Passed away a year ago on April 23. Always and lovingly remembered and greatly missed by her daughters Mary, Margaret, Bridget and Barbara, her sons-in-law Walter, Derick and Ben, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. May her dear soul rest in peace.

KALIE—Joseph John. In memory of my loving husband, 3 years since your passing. You often said that we would miss you.

How those words have proved you true. There is a place in my heart no one can fill, I miss you, Joe and always will. From your loving wife Cecily and brother Peter.

LAROS (née Van Kerkhof)—Johanna Maria. She was carried by angels to her eternal reward on April 23, 1975. We loved you in life; we will never forget

you in death. You are one of God’s unheralded saints. We shall always remember you. From the Laros clan.

THANKS

ST RITA: Thank you for your intercession: prayer was answered. Glory to God. Mediatrix.

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.

In thanks for prayers answered. Pat.

PRAYERS

HOLY ST JUDE, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. To you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. In return I promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. Amen.

Leon and Karen.

ALMIGHTY eternal God, source of all compassion, the promise of your mercy and saving help fills our hearts with hope. Hear the cries of the people of Syria; bring healing to those suffering from the violence, and comfort to those mourning the dead. Empower and encourage Syria’s neighbours in their care and welcome for refugees. Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms, and strengthen the resolve of those committed to peace.

O God of hope and Father of mercy, your Holy Spirit inspires us to look beyond ourselves and our own

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needs. Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies. Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria, and fill us with hope for a future of peace built on justice for all.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Light of the World, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen. Prayer courtesy of the USCCB. O MOST beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of Heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity.

O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein that you are my Mother, O Holy Mary Mother of God, Queen of heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to secure me in my necessity. There are none who can withstand your power, O show me that you are my mother. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine. Amen.

PERSONAL

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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: Pamela Davids (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Dispatch: Joan King (dispatch@scross.co.za), Accounts: Desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za).

Directors: R Shields (Chair), J O’Leary (Vice-chair), Archbishop S Brislin, S Duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, C Moerdyk, R Riedlinger, z Tom

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

the

4th Sunday of Easter: April 26, Vocations Sunday. Readings: Acts 4:8-12, Psalm 118: 1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28-29, 1 John 3:1-2, John 10:11-18

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EXT Sunday is the day given over to prayers for vocations. Now, it is no good your shuddering at this thought, and praying that God is not going to call you; for each of us has a vocation from God. And one of the things that you will notice, if you pay careful attention to next Sunday’s readings, is that “vocation” is not, as generations of convent schoolgirls were (so the story goes) inclined to say to themselves, a slavery, but a new and unexpected kind of freedom.

Is that true of your vocation, do you think?

Consider the first reading. Here Peter is on trial before the Sanhedrin, on the charge of “preaching the Resurrection” (which is your job, by the way). He is described as “filled with the Holy Spirit”, and we are given his entire speech.

Listen to it, and reflect that it is something quite astonishing in a Galilean fisherman, who, not long ago, was denying that he even knew Jesus. He is actually lecturing to the political and religious authorities; explaining why a sick man has got better (“It is in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene…that he

S outher n C ross

Live your own vocation stands before you”); but also taking the attack to them: “You people crucified him, and God raised him from the dead.”

Then, with immense and unexpected confidence, he applies the Scriptures to the situation, using today’s psalm for the purpose, “[Jesus] is the stone, despised by you, the builders, that became the corner-stone”. And Peter insists, in the new-found freedom of his vocation, that “there is no other name…by which we must be saved”. The Sanhedrin are stunned by this confidence in such uneducated people, and can only lamely say: “You mustn’t talk about it.”

Our vocation comes from keeping our eyes confidently on God, and that is what you get in the psalm for next Sunday: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his steadfast love is for ever…it is better to trust in God than in human beings.”

The psalmist has no doubt what is going on here: “I shall thank you that you have answered me, and will be my salvation”; then immediately he gives the line that we heard in the first reading about the “stone rejected

by the builders”. Now listen to the wonderful line “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

That is Jesus, of course; but also the psalmist and Peter, and you yourself, every time that you listen to what the Lord is asking of you.

And what is this “vocation”? In the second reading, it is nothing else than recognising the immense love of God for us, and our existence as “children of God”. He goes on, “we are now children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be”, what form, in other words, our vocation will take, but this we know, that “we shall be like God”, for we shall see God as God is”.

There is a wonderful confidence here, that can also be ours, if we listen out for our calling.

That is what you find in the Gospel for next Sunday, an invitation to listen: “I am the Real Shepherd…who lays down his life for his sheep.” That affects us in two ways: first, it means that the one who calls us is prepared also to die for us, and that gives a certain edge to our response.

Secondly, it means that we may also have

Hatred and the Gospel T

books and movies. Notice how in so many stories that depict the struggle between good and evil, invariably, the bad will eventually train its sights on and fixate on what is its opposite, innocence and goodness. In almost every dramatic epic, eventually the guns of the bad guys will end up trained upon the most innocent and loving person in town.

It’s the saint who invariably bears the brunt of wound and hurt inside a community. It is the saint who eventually is the scapegoat. It happened to Jesus. It happens to all goodness; by its stripes we are healed.

Why? Because such is the anatomy of hatred. Hatred is a perverse form of love, love’s grief. It’s what love becomes when, because of wound and circumstance, it cannot be warm and reciprocal.

T

he US psychologist Rollo May once famously stated that hatred is not the opposite of love. Indifference is. Hatred might instead be described as cold, wounded, frustrated, and grieving love, love gone sour.

You can’t conjure up a powerful hatred for someone unless at some level you first love him or her. When love is wounded and frustrated, the tears it provokes can be warm and cleansing, but they can also be bitter and cold. Cold grief. Hatred with its children, jealousy, bitterness, and murderous feelings.

That’s part of the anatomy of love and that’s why love can so quickly turn into

Conrad

HERE is a popular theme within Christian apologetics that goes something like this: Christianity is the most hated of all religions and that is a certain proof of its truth.

The logic works this way: if we are so unfairly hated, we must be doing something right. Truth and innocence draw hatred. Jesus was hated, and so are we!

We need to be careful with that because, among other things, today, thanks to certain radical fundamentalists claiming to be Muslim, Islam is probably the most hated of all religions—and hated not because of what is true and best inside of it.

Not only innocence and truth draw hatred. Being hated is not always a good sign or an indication that you (alone among the unfaithful) are holding to the real truth. It may be that you have made a vow of alienation rather than of love. Both eventually make you hated.

Being hated is only a criterion of carrying the truth if you have made a vow of love. Jesus wasn’t trying to be divisive and unpopular—he was trying to speak his truth in ways that precisely didn’t alienate and didn’t provoke hatred.

But that isn’t always possible. He was trying to love others, purely and in the truth, but it eventually made him an object of hatred.

That isn’t surprising.

There is a certain proclivity within human nature to hate innocence and goodness. We see this illustrated in many

Sunday Reflections

to be prepared to do the same. But there is more to this vocation of ours: we have to recognise the difference between the “Real Shepherd” and the fake, the “hireling, the non-shepherd, to whom the sheep do not belong, who sees the sheep coming and runs”.

What counts here is the relationship (and that is what makes a vocation a vocation): “I know mine and mine know me.”

And it is not just a matter of Jesus knowing the sheep; it is also that they are precious to the Father. Nor is this a narrow, sectarian vocation, for “I have other sheep who do not belong to this fold, and I have to lead them, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd”.

And Jesus concludes with the challenging words: “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, in order that I may take it up again.”

And what is your vocation from God, this week?

Southern Crossword #560

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

hatred and why most murders are domestic. When love breaks down, what follows is rarely indifference (a parting in good friendship). What follows is often hatred, bitterness, coldness. Affairs mostly grow sour, not indifferent, and the same is, sadly, true of love in almost all its aspects.

What’s to be learned from this?

That hatred needs to be understood, whether it’s at a personal level or at the level of whole civilisations hating each other.

Hatred is not the opposite of love. It is a perverse form of love, cold grief, bitter disaffection, that needs not to be met in kind, with a reciprocal form of coldness, but with warmth and forgiveness, tough as these are in the face of their opposite.

One of the great moral struggles of our lives lies precisely in this. When people hate us, what spontaneous feelings rise within us?

Feelings of coldness and anger, along with the wish, secret and not-so-secret, that their lives will go badly and that, in the ensuing misery, they will be forced to see their error and have to swallow against their will the fact that they are wrong, particularly about us. Hatred wants the other to choke on his or her own error.

But none of that will be productive for those who hate us, or for ourselves. Only if good things begin to happen in the lives of those who hate us, only if they feel the warmth of love and blessing, can their hearts let go of the bitterness, jealousy, and hatred that’s there.

Hearts don’t thaw out inside of bitterness and jealousy. They break.

It’s not when people are bitter that they admit the error of their ways and the unfairness of their hatred. Hearts begin to see how wrong their hatred is only when the very object of their jealousy and hatred is itself strong enough to not give back in kind, but instead to absorb the hatred for what it is, wounded love, love gone cold when it would want to be warm.

Leo Tolstoy once said: “There is only one way to put an end to evil, and that is to do good for evil.”

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ACROSS

4. Foreign office? (7) 8. Marriage vows not for the richer (6) 9. Dug nice, drawing something out (7) 10. Confine as a prisoner (6) 11. Communicate I am not all of them (6) 12. Gift of sacrifice (8) 18. Pharaoh’s financial institution on the river? (4,4) 20. She’s a Latin star (6) 21. Dead Sea document (6) 22. He calls from the minaret (7) 23. Gentle wind (6) 24. Put on vestments again for compensation (7)

Led by Fr EMIL BLASER OP

See the places of Saints Francis, Anthony of Padua, Catherine of Siena, John XXIII, John Paul II, Rita of Cascia, Pius X, Benedict, Charles Borromeo, Augustine, Peter the Apostle and many more...

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DOWN

1. Fruit to Capri (7) 2. He’s hierarchically supreme (7) 3. Cheque carrier? (6) 5. Admiral G could arrange this choral piece (8) 6. Lord...The Gifts We Offer (hymn) (6) 7. One at Jesus’ tomb (6) 13. Saint of Loyola (8) 14. Portent that’s no good (3,4) 15. Accomplished (7) 16. Adjust a melody by the sound of it (6) 17. Jacket for the fireplace (6) 19. Request for more of the same (6)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

W

HEN you go to heaven, you first go for orientation. And so it was that three new arrivals were asked the same question: “When your family and friends are mourning over you in your coffin, what would you like them say about you?”

The first man said: “That I was one of the great scientists of my time, and a great family man.”

The second said: “I’d like to hear them say that I was a wonderful husband and teacher who made a big difference in the children of tomorrow.”

The last guy thinks a minute and replies: “I’d like to hear them say, ‘Look, he’s moving!’.”

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Nicholas King SJ

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