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Archbishop: Drama ‘prophets’ must be checked

BY STUART GRAHAM

T

Pope Francis uses a tablet to officially open online registration for World Youth Day 2016 in Poland during the Angelus from the window of his studio overlooking St Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo: L’Osservatore Romano/EPA/CNS)

Pope registers for World Youth Day

P

OPE Francis was the first pilgrim to sign up for World Youth Day (WYD) to be held next year in Krakow, Poland, launching the opening of registration.

Accompanied by two Polish teenagers who wore WYD 2016 T-shirts, the pope had to make a couple of attempts pressing the screen of a tablet before his online registration went through.

“There. With this electronic device I have signed up for the day as a pilgrim,” he told thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Square for his Angelus address.

The celebrations from July 26-31, 2016, will come during the Holy Year of Mercy, which Pope Francis proclaimed to invite people to follow the merciful example of God. WYD “will be, in a certain sense, a jubilee

of youth” during the holy year, as its theme is also about being merciful towards others, the pope said.

Two months before WYD, in May, The Southern Cross will visit Krakow and many other sacred sites in Poland on a pilgrimage dedicated to St John Paul II. Among the highlights will be a visit to Wadowice on the birthday of the late pope, Mass in a saltmine chapel, prayer at the sanctuary of the Divine Mercy, a visit to the Marian shrine of Czechostowa and much more.

The pilgrimage will be led by Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba of Umzimkulu, whose spiritual home is at Czechostowa. n For more information visit www.scross. co.za/2015/03/poland-pilgrimage-2016/

IGHTER controls need to be implemented on “extravagant prophets” who use dramatic actions like forcing their congregations to eat snakes, clothes and hair, according to the archbishop of Pretoria.

Referring to the arrest of “snake pastor” Penuel Mnguni, who allegedly made his congregants eat snakes, Archbishop William Slattery said the South African Council of Churches (SACC) could play more of a controlling role over unscrupulous churches—but he admitted that it would be difficult to do.

“These extravagant prophets use dramatic actions like eating snakes and grass to draw attention to themselves. They try to shock people with these actions in order to have total control over them,” Archbishop Slattery said.

“These prophets take away all personal responsibility from the people who come to them. They take total control,” he said.

“In the Catholic Church we totally respect medical practice. We do not go contrary to it.

God works with nature and not against nature.”

Mr Mnguni was arrested in July after the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals laid charges against the self-styled prophet who had posted Internet images of himself feeding his congregants snakes during a service.

He posted other photos of some of his congregants eating clothes and hair at his prompting. He also rode some congregants like horses and made them strip naked.

Charges against Mr Mnguni were later provisionally withdrawn by the Ga-Rankuwa Magistrates Court.

Archbishop Slattery suggested that ways of regulating religious practitioners might be an answer.

“Most professions, like dentistry, medicine and law are regulated by their own,” he said,

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explaining that “the names of unethical practitioners, for example, can be taken off the roll” when accepted regulations are being breached.

“The Christian church doesn’t have any objective self-control mechanism,” Archbishop Slattery said, noting that “anyone who feels like it can call themselves a ‘bishop’ or ‘archbishop’ or ‘prophet’ tomorrow morning. There is no objective standard.”

While the archbishop said it would be “sensible that there should be an objective group to oversee the activities or churches”, he noted that it would be “very difficult to have such a system”.

There are some 6 000 independent churches in South Africa. Most are totally unaffiliated.

“What is happening in these churches, nobody knows, unless something like eating snakes happens.”

Archbishop Slattery was loath to condemn all churches, saying the snake pastor is an exception.

“Many of these churches gather people together and offer counselling and companionship. They celebrate the word of God, and pray and sing together. This snake-eating is not common. It is a pity that a few are giving a bad name to many churches doing a lot of good,” he said.

The archbishop said that mainline churches—such as Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed and Orthodox—should create education facilities for those who have no theological training so that they can improve their skills in spotting problematic churches.

Another area to be explored is whether certain government criteria could be formulated “by broad Christianity” for churches that apply for permission to have assembly”.

“If a certain group were to apply to build Continued on page 4

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The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

LOCAL

‘Church needs to listen, not preach’

BY STUART GRAHAM

C

HURCH leaders must follow Pope Francis’ call to listen to and become close to people rather than constantly preach to them, a meeting of Southern African Catholic bishops found during a conference on Church and media.

During a five-day gathering in Rietvlei, outside Pretoria, the InterRegional Meeting of Bishops of Southern Africa (Imbisa) discussed how people could “lead to meet Christ and know him personally”.

“We must get close to people.

This is the message of Pope Francis,” said Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, who attended the meeting.

“If we want to communicate, we must listen and share. Church communication has often been reduced to issuing documents and preaching, he said.

“Communication is conversation. It is interactive and participative. People want to participate and ask questions. They don’t want to sit and be preached at in church,” the archbishop noted.

“This is why many young are leaving formal churches to become

The Catholic church in Montagu is looking to make significant renovations by its silver jubilee to cope with an increased number of parishioners.

Montagu aims for silver date

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

T

HE growth of the small Catholic community of Montagu in the Oudtshoorn diocese has created such problems that congregants sometimes have to go through the sanctuary to reach their seats. Now the parish has taken action.

Our Lady of Fatima started with 20 parishioners but has grown to 60, plus visitors to the nearby hot springs.

“Currently the church is ‘sandwiched’ between the kitchen and the hall,” said Victor Cross, the parish finance council chairman.

“As a result, when the hall is in use, in order to gain access one has to walk through the sanctuary.

“This is obviously not conducive to maintaining the sanctity of the sanctuary.”

In an endeavour to remedy the

challenges, the parish has embarked on an ambitious project to renovate the church.

“This is ambitious indeed, since the majority of our congregation are seasonal workers. However, by the grace of God and the many wonderful and generous people he sent our way, we are in a position to start this project and have it completed before we celebrate our silver jubilee on November 11,” Mr Cross said.

Apart from the construction aspect of the project, there is the problem of furnishings: the church needs 24 benches with kneelers, and would love to replace the framed pictures with more inspiring Stations of the Cross. They are also looking at securing a new presider chair and lecterns. n To help, contact Victor Cross on 083 719 0904 or Peter Murray 023 614 2304.

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involved in smaller interactive churches. Evangelisation is done person to person. Peer to peer.”

Imbisa, which included bishops, theologians and those responsible for the education of priests and formation of lay leaders in Southern Africa, had also discussed how Church leaders could use the Gospel “to change society and life”, Archbishop Slattery said.

“South Africa is 73% Christian, so you have to ask when political parties, banks, unions, educationalists meet, where do Gospel values enter into their negotiations,” he said.

“When the ANC and DA meet, why are Christians not making an impact on their negotiations? Why is there so much corruption? These people are often Christian people.

Why can we trust so few people in positions of administration?” he asked.

Archbishop Slattery said evangelisation is “more than knowing about Christ”.

“It is how we lead people to meet Christ and know him personally. It is more than knowledge,” he said.

“Many people go to church, sing and pray and come out the way they went in. The idea of evangeli-

sation is how do we help our people know Christ personally.”

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ of Harare, who led the workshop on communications, said the delegates had heard talks on media ethics by Fr Russell Pollit SJ, and on the discernment necessary in modern media, which was given by Fr Chris Chatteris SJ. “We can become addicted to modern forms of media.

“Our pre-occupation with smartphones can destroy relationships in families, friends, colleagues and even among priests,” Fr Wermter warned.

Alpha course celebrates 20 years STAFF REPORTER

A

CELEBRATION was held to mark the 20th anniversary of the first Alpha course to be run in a Catholic parish in South Africa, Rivonia parish in Johannesburg.

The Mass and celebration, also at Rivonia, were led by Frs Michael Austin SJ and Peter Doherty.

Fr Austin, who was Rivonia’s parish priest 20 years ago, shared some insights on the journey that was taken to firstly identify an appropriate programme and then to get Alpha running in the parish.

In his homily he encouraged the many volunteers and reminded each of them of the call of the New Evangelisation. Fr Austin referred particularly to Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).

The key to becoming an evangeliser, he said, is to be renewed through a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

Fr Austin spoke fondly of the then coordinator of the first Alpha, Mike Weldon, who has since retired to Clarens, Free State.

After the Mass, Fr Tony Nunes of Rosebank, dean of the northern deanery of the archdiocese of Johannesburg, thanked everyone who is involved in Alpha Evangelisation.

He gave an overview of the Church’s call to a New Evangelisation, one that goes back 50 years.

Alpha celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first course being held in a Catholic church in South Africa. (Back from left) Gerald Rodrigues, Renato Acquisto, Fr Michael Austin, Tom Miles, Denis Jacobs, (front) Sr Susanna, Sr Agnes, Glen Ford, Florence Lumb.

During a time of testimony Clare Hedding spoke of her involvement with Alpha at Leeuwkop Correctional Centre and how the Holy Spirit had impacted on inmates’ lives as well as those of hosts and helpers.

Nikki Ackerman, a Protestant, spoke of how she somehow ended up at Rosebank Catholic church and attended Alpha. She established close friendships and felt that everyone there was her “family”.

Trevor Jacobus spoke of his involvement with Youth Alpha at Maryvale parish. Although the Youth Film Series had just come out, he opted for live talks, with the youth giving some themselves.

Samuel Molatlhwe, 21, provided a youth perspective of his Alpha ex-

perience. Although from Rosebank parish, he also assisted the Rivonia with its first Youth Alpha course.

Gerald Rodrigues shared Alpha’s vision for the future: that all parishes run Alpha in different contexts, to make extensive use of online resources, such as www.alphasa. co.za, the “Run Alpha App”, and disseminating Alpha testimonies through videos on YouTube.

Mr Rodrigues also introduced the Divine Renovation book which has just been published by Canadian Fr James Mallon. Churches around the world are now engaging with the book and parishes are encouraged to use this as a reference and guide in the work of the New Evangelisation, he said.

One Church

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A donation of R1,000 will sponsor 50 copies of The Southern Cross for a Month of Sundays, helping us to reach out to township and rural parishes unfamiliar with the paper. Let’s share our stories with one another and build One Church.

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The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

LOCAL

New council to aid deacons across SA STAFF REPORTER

T

HE new National Council of Deacons will place a special focus on the formation of future permanent deacons as well as ongoing formation of existing deacons, its secretary has said.

There are about 220 ordained permanent deacons in the Southern African region.

“In general, some dioceses have very few or even no deacons, others have many,” said Deacon Tony Tweehuijsen of Pretoria. “However, each diocese has its own needs, and there are differences between the needs of urbanised and rural dioceses.”

The deacons’ council was established as part of the restructuring of the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) last year. It falls under the Department of Formation, Life and Ministry of Clergy.

“Since the reintroduction of the permanent diaconate at the Second Vatican Council each bishop was free to decide whether or not he wanted to introduce the permanent diaconate in his diocese,” Deacon Tweehuijsen explained. “Bishops could also set their own standards and roles. This has resulted, in particular, in a lack of communication between the regional deacon councils in Southern Africa.”

Aware of this situation, the bishops included the diaconate

Bishop Joao Rodrigues (centre) with (from left) deacons Mike Carroll, Lawrence Augustine, Tony de Freitas and Tony Tweehuijsen. in their restructuring process.

“At a meeting in October 2014, which was attended by various role players, it was decided that the formation of the new National Council of Deacons should consist of a deacon from each of the five metropolitan dioceses who would then represent all the deacons in their particular province,” Deacon Tweehuijsen said.

The first meeting of the council was held on June 17 at Christ the King parish in Pretoria. It comprised Bishop Joao Rodrigues of Tzaneen as the liaison bishop, and deacons Tweehuijsen (representing the province of Pretoria), Mike Carroll (province of Johannesburg and chairman), Benedict Mokheseng (Bloemfontein), Lawrence August (Cape Town) and Tony de Freitas (Durban).

Bishop Rodrigues explained

that the restructuring of the SACBC was to serve the Church’s evangelical work better and to stay in touch with new challenges.

“So the three major aims are to enable all regional deacon boards to share experiences and concerns, to provide guidelines on functional aspects, and to provide feedback to the Department of Evangelisation,” Deacon Tweehuijsen said.

“Deacons also have a direct line with their bishops who decide where they can best serve in the diocese,” he added.

He said that the immediate function for the deacons’ council is to draw up basic goals, aims and objectives, including convening a national convention for all deacons in the SACBC region in the near future.

ACTS members revitalised at national conference

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

M

ARKING the 22nd anniversary of their founding, the Association of Catholic Tertiary Students (ACTS) held their annual conference under the motto “Strengthening the Spirit of Christ’s family”.

Held at the Manyano Centre in Paarl, Western Cape, the conference was also attended by Bishop Xolelo Thaddeus Kumalo of Eshowe—the liaison bishop for youth of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC)—who celebrated the opening Mass. The closing Mass was celebrated

by SACBC president Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, with several local priests.

Fresh in office, SACBC national youth chaplain Fr Mthembeni Dlamini sat in on all the sessions with the youth throughout the week.

ACTS’ outgoing publicity officer, Boniswa Moto, told The Southern Cross that one of the highlights of the conference was having Bishop Kumalo sit in on sessions during the conference.

“This was an opportunity for the bishop to access the standing of ACTS and to get a better understanding of what needs to be done from the SACBC point of view,” Ms Moto said.

The conference included policy document discussions, constitutional

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ACTS members gathered for their annual conference at Paarl in the Western Cape changes, and reports of what has been happening in the seven provinces where ACTS members are represented.

Delegates elected the new executive council members: Selamolela Aldrine (Limpopo) as president, Terrence Mngomezulu-Watson (Western Cape) as general-secretary, Schopy Goetjana (Limpopo) as treasurer-general, and Mziwakhe Makhaya (Western Cape) as media and publicity officer.

“This glorious week for these Catholic students could not have ended any better, with a cultural Mass celebration followed by a tour around the Western Cape. The students had an experience and a half at the 22nd ACTS conference,” said Ms Moto.

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TEACHING POSTS: JANUARY 2016

The annual Night of the Stars talent show took place at De La Salle Holy Cross College High School in Johannesburg. The learners showed incredible determination and courage, displaying a diverse range of talents, including dancing, singing, acting—and even some traditional Highland music. (Photo: Andrea Lawless)

HOPE reaches out after fire damage

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

DE LA SALLE BROTHERS

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• Physical/Natural Sciences Teacher and/or Subject Head: Grades 8 – 12 • Part-time French Teacher: Grades 8 - 9 The successful applicants must be able to subscribe to and promote the Catholic ethos of the school.

H

OPE Cape Town responded to a call for assistance from the Kayamandi township in Stellenbosch after 12 families were left homeless following a fire destroyed their homes, leaving them out in the cold.

Staff members of HOPE Cape Town, in conjunction with Shoprite-Acts of Warmth Project, took the initiative and handed out blankets and fleece sets to each family that was affected by the fire outbreak.

HOPE Cape Town donor relations manager Fahim Docrat told The Southern Cross: “The suspected cause of the fire was a paraffin stove, and luckily nobody was hurt.”

HOPE operates in more than 25 communities throughout the Western Cape, and tries to reach as many as it can.

“While our focus is HIV/Aids and TB, we cannot ignore the other social ills and difficulties that communities face,” said Mr Docrat.

“We were happy that we could help these individuals.

“We urge greater public support and more intervention from government to address the underlying causes and improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable,” he added.

“The families were very grateful to receive the donations, but they need more donations of blankets, food items and clothing,” Mr Docrat said.

Our mission has always been to give HuMAN AND CHrISTIAN EDuCATIoN to the young, especially to the poor. Saint John Baptist De La Salle gave a new meaning to the school by making it accessible to the poor and offering it to all as a sign of God’s kingdom and as a means of salvation. Today, De La Salle Brothers, in addition to teaching in school, are also involved in educational ministry.

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3

A competitive salary package will be offered. Please apply in writing to: The Headmistress, Springfield Convent Senior School, St John’s Road WYNBERG, 7800 Email: headmistress@springfieldconvent.co.za giving details of qualifications, experience and names of two contactable referees.

Closing date: Monday 31 August 2015

The School reserves the right not to proceed with the filling of the posts.

An application will not in itself entitle the applicant to an interview or appointment, and failure to meet the requirements of the advertised post will result in applicants automatically disqualifying themselves from consideration.

Please note no faxed applications will be considered and only those applicants invited for an interview will be contacted.

Springfield is a member of the Independent Schools’ Association of Southern Africa.

4

The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

LOCAL

Mass recalls bishop and lays to rest past conflicts

BY SYDNEY DUVAL

A

MEMORIAL Mass celebrating the life of Bishop Mansuet Dela Biyase of Eshowe, who died on July 1, 2005, also served as a Mass of reconciliation for past difficulties in the diocese and renewal and unity for the future.

The service in St Benedict cathedral, with Bishop Xolelo Kumalo of Eshowe presiding, was also atStudents of St Henry’s Marist College in Durban were part of an initiative tended

by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier in which the Durban Youth Council and The Cupcake ReSolution joined of Durban, Bishop Pius Dlungwane forces in a project claiming identities and celebrating lives. The Cupcake of Mariannhill and Bishop Emeritus ReSolution #DYCEdition took place at Inkazimulo Primary School outside Hubert Bucher of Bethlehem.

Hillcrest. It aims to provide identity documents to members of disadvanThe theme of reconciliation was taged communities. The Durban Youth Council project included a mobile affirmed in a ritual of seeking and Home Affairs station providing ID document registration, and over 1 000 offering forgiveness for one’s part in cupcakes to the learners of the school. Cupcake ReSolution founder the troubles which had divided the Patrice Madurai is pictured with members of the DYC, Stuart McIntyre diocese. and Chad Dorkin of Clifton College, youth mayor Trevor Bishai of St After the homily, Bishop Kumalo Henry’s Marist College, Inkazimulo Primary School principal Paul Govenleft his chair for an empty chair, der and two staff members. representing the absent Bishop Biyase, from where he washed hands with clergy and laity to symbolise leaving the past behind— that Bishop Biyase’s soul may rest in peace—and moving into the future Continued from page 1 pendent churches is because mainin a renewal of faith life for the a church building, for example, they line churches do not focus on the local Church community. would have to apply to the munici- poor, ill and hopeless, Archbishop Cardinal Napier also took part in pality. At that stage perhaps munici- Slattery said. this symbolic action from another palities should have some statutory “Perhaps we ourselves need to do chair, washing the hands of a long body they could go to for advice, much more to respond to the aching line of laymen and women. such as the SACC, so that they may needs of many people. That is what This moving ritual uplifted spirlook at the operating principles be- Pope Francis has been asking us to its above a time of adversity and lit hind the church, Archbishop Slattery do. To be a Church of the poor,” he up an overcast day that was also afsaid. said. fected by loadshedding and loss of “If you want to buy large quanti“Why should wealthy city microphone sound. ties of snakes, for example, you churches have the best music, the Fr Thabo Mabaso OFM of Mbonshould be turned down. Beyond that most comfortable churches and the golwane, said: “We were deeply it is very difficult to control these most pleasing pastors while the poor touched by the washing of hands as things.” have to be served with this sort of a sign of cleansing for whatever role The mushrooming of the inde- menu?” the archbishop asked. even some laity had played in that troubled time.”

Before Mass began each member of the congregaSee the richness of tion was given a small stone to be used in a ritual South Africa’s wildlife which Fr Paul Manci, who close-up with gave the homily, explained VIVA SAFArIS. Look for in the context of healing the Big Five in the and reconciliation.

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Drama ‘prophets’ must be checked

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Bishop Xolelo Kumalo of Eshowe washes the hands of a congregant at a memorial Mass for Bishop Mansuet Biyase, who died ten years ago. The hand-washing ceremony signified reconciliation and healing in a diocese that was deeply divided at the time of Bishop Biyase’s death. (Photo: Sydney Duval) die a sad bishop.

At the end of Mass a member of the Biyase family laid the stones on his grave at the back of the cathedral, with prayers and a blessing by vicar-general Fr Sifiso Tshangase.

B

ishop Kumalo introduced the service by recalling the past, saying: “When Bishop Biyase died there was a commotion in the diocese—there was disunity. Today we gather to put the past behind us and to move on after ten years which is a suitable time both to remember Bishop Biyase and to be reconciled as the diocese of Eshowe.”

Cardinal Napier recalled the day a group of Eshowe clergy had gathered with him in Durban to see him about the difficulties that had arisen in their diocese. He recalled telling them: “Whatever you do, do not let these problems come between you and your bishop.”

Bishop Bucher, who had ordained Bishop Kumalo as a priest and bishop, expressed his thanks for having been invited to this “very impressive Mass of reconciliation”. He saw himself as a good link between Bishop Kumalo and Bishop Biyase as the latter had preached in isiZulu at Bishop Bucher’s own episcopal ordination at Bethlehem in 1977.

Fr Bongani Xulu, the vicar for priests in the diocese, shared the in-

fluence of Bishop Biyase in the life of the diocese, especially in choral music and the growth of local vocations to the priesthood. Bishop Biyase ordained 28 priests, beginning with Fr Aquilin Mpanza, who was present in the sanctuary with other priests, and ending with Fr Sipho Mbatha.

Bongumusa Biyase, a nephew of the late bishop, said he was very grateful to Bishop Kumalo for remembering Bishop Biyase and for his role in initiating the reconciliation process.

He urged the clergy to remember that back in their homes they were loved and valued because of the way of life they had undertaken in becoming priests.

Petrus Mkhize, a long-serving catechist in the diocese, said he and the laity he represented were sorry they had found themselves participating in a conflict which they did not understand—to such an extent that it had disturbed a bishops’ plenary session at Mariannhill when the laity went there to ask Cardinal Napier to inform the bishops’ conference that they were sorry and embarrassed for having done so.

Mr Mkhize said he believed that after this Mass of reconciliation things would be normal again. He drew spontaneous applause when he said the Church existed to evangelise with the Good News—this was its main task.

African Union office to be set up for Africa’s Catholics

BY STAFF REPORTER

T

HE coordinating body for Catholics in Africa has set up a liaison office with the African Union to represent the Church’s views on peace and security, migration and trade.

Mike Pothier, senior researcher for the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, said that the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has signed a memorandum of understanding to set up an office with the AU at its headquarters in Addis Ababa.

“The formation of the SECAMAU office is part of a growing trend towards effective communication and cooperation between the Church and the continent’s political structures,” Mr Pothier said.

The aim of the office is to represent the Church’s views on all of the AU’s “main thematic areas”, including peace and security, migration, development, trade and economic cooperation.

The office would keep SECAM and its member episcopal conferences informed about the AU’s various campaigns, agreements, policies and interventions, and

would lobby the AU on certain areas of specific concern to the Church, such as life issues and bio-ethics, national reconciliation and the family.

It would also facilitate contact and exchange between the AU and African Catholic organisations working in specific fields, such as education, health and migration.

“Since all these aspirations dovetail well with the Church’s own vision for Africa, it makes sense for the two bodies—AU and SECAM—to cooperate as far as possible in their realisation,” Mr Pothier said.

Mr Pothier said the office is at a very early stage and it is not yet clear what exact form it will take.

Berhanu Tamene, formerly the national Justice and Peace co-ordinator of the Ethiopian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has been appointed to direct the office, but SECAM may nominate a senior bishop or priest to be the official liaison officer “at some stage”.

Questions of funding, administrative support and research capacity have also to be dealt with.

“Mr Berhanu’s immediate task will be to familiarise himself with the structures of the AU and to in-

troduce himself and the office to relevant officials and functionaries,” Mr Pothier said.

A small task-team was appointed to look into methods for collecting information and analysis from around the continent and delivering these to the office.

It was stressed that without the committed support of member conferences, it would be very difficult for the Addis office, with its limited resources, to gather all the information it would need in order to properly represent the Church’s concerns and suggestions, Mr Pothier said.

A panel of experts or a “thinktank” should be set up to act as a research and analysis resource for the office, he said.

Suitable experts in academia, civil society, law and the professions could be asked to make themselves available on an ad hoc basis to assist with commenting on policy questions, political developments, and AU campaign issues.

A task-team of three people was asked to work on identifying potential members of such a think-tank, and to come up with terms of reference for them.

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

5

Cardinal cautions Nigeria Church leaders want Israel on anti-corruption blitz to protect Christian sites A C

BY PETER AJAYI DADA

ARDINAL John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria has advised recently elected President Muhammadu Buhari to go slowly on his anti-corruption drive so that the public would not term his actions as “persecution”.

He said that “the fight against corruption can only succeed where there is transparency, justice and honesty”. He spoke during a dinner for the group Catholics in Politics at the Church of the Assumption in Abuja.

Fighting corruption goes beyond making a “few arrests here and there”, Cardinal Onaiyekan said in urging Mr Buhari to carry out his anti-corruption campaign in a way that would not violate human rights or be seen as selective.

“This challenge, obviously, lies squarely on those who now have the power to rule our nation. I want to beg them to resist the temptation to rub the plague of defeat on the losers and try to avoid policies of persecution, some even talk of execution of losers,” he said.

“We have to tackle dishonesty and I believe we need to retrieve

stolen goods, especially those that are just piling up other people’s money. While we do that, it is my strong feeling that we should try to avoid as much as possible humiliating or disgracing people who may indeed have tried their best to serve the nation,” the cardinal continued.

The Church leader suggested that prayers should be offered for the country’s newly elected officials so they may be given the grace to lead with wisdom and a clear mind.

“We must be clear-minded on this matter and not allow ourselves to be naive, thinking that it is just enough to make a few arrests here and there and the matter is settled.

Let us pray that God will guide our nation,” he said.

Cardinal Onaiyekan also discussed the security challenges posed by Boko Haram insurgents in north eastern Nigeria. He suggested that Nigeria must go beyond arms and ammunition in order to reconcile minds and hearts for genuine peace.

“The problems of Nigeria can only be resolved if we all link hands across political, ethnic and religious lines,” he said.—CNS

Cardinal William Baum, the archbishop of Washington from 197380, died on July 23 at the age of 88 after a long illness. He was a cardinal for 39 years—the longest such tenure in US Church history.

Cardinal Baum witnessed history from the Second Vatican Council through the election of the first Latin American pope, and he made history himself. Cardinal Baum led the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education from 1980-90 and served on the commission that developed the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The soft-spoken Cardinal Baum, whom some of the Vatican’s Swiss Guards called “the gentle cardinal”, found no merit in his longevity. “It’s a gift from God,” he said.

Pope welcomes new Armenian patriarch

BY CINDY WOODEN

BY JUDITH SUDILOVSKY

LTHOUGH Israeli officials have publicly criticised the June arson attack, allegedly by extremist Jews, that seriously damaged the Benedictine church of the Multiplication in Tabgha, anti-Christian violence is not new, said Benedictine Father Nikodemus Schnabel, spokesman for the Benedictine Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion.

Fr Schnabel said that fires and vandalism have plagued other churches and Church property for years.

The abbey was set on fire May 25, 2014, soon after Pope Francis visited the site during his Holy Land pilgrimage. It is located near a yeshiva and the Tomb of David, where the Cenacle, or the Upper Room, site of the Last Supper, is located.

A year earlier, two cars owned by the Benedictines were set on fire.

Benedictine monks are often victims of verbal and spitting attacks, and Christian tombstones are smashed, Fr Schnabel said. In March, a Greek Orthodox seminary was damaged in an arson attack and a wall was sprayed with anti-Christian graffiti.

Although there have been photos of people spitting at and verbally abusing the monks, no arrests in connection with any of the incidents have been made, Fr Schnabel said. A request that a security camera be installed near the Benedictine property has gone unheeded, he added.

“We are very thankful for the many signs of solidarity from our friends in the civil society, but [until Tabgha] we never heard any officials respond,” the priest said.

With the official condemnations

An Ultra-Orthodox Jew walks past the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Christian leaders want Israel to step up protection of Christian sites from Jewish extremists. (Photo: Debbie Hill/CNS) of the Tabgha attack, the Benedictines are “very happy with the words”, but are “now looking for results”, he said.

No charges have been brought in connection with the incident, although police announced that they had arrested several suspects.

The building housing the traditional locations of the Cenacle and the Tomb of David continues to be a point of contention within the National Religious Party, a Zionist political party whose supporters believe in the right of Israel over all areas of the biblical Jewish Holy Land.

“It is a very tiny group of national religious Jews,” said Fr Schnabel, emphasising that it was important to point out that the perpetrators are not, as often portrayed in the media, ultra-Orthodox Jews. Many are those

who are prohibited from entering the West Bank by Israeli authorities, those known as “the hilltop youth” who establish illegal settlements on hilltops in the West Bank, he said.

The Benedictine said those who carry out the attacks adhere to an ultranationalist stance that often calls for ridding Israel of non-Jewish individuals and organisations.

Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal said: “It is not enough for the government to condemn the actions. We ask for follow-up with action.”

He charged that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tacitly encourages such behaviour.

“They are in the government. All the right-wing government are their allies. This is their line,” he said. — CNS

THIRTEEN SPECIAL DAYS! 13 to 26 February 2016

P

OPE Francis has welcomed the election of a new patriarch for the Armenian Catholic Church, extending what is known as “ecclesial communion” to Patriarch Gregoire Pierre XX Ghabroyan of Cilicia, who was elected by his fellow Armenian bishops.

The day after the election, the pope wrote to the new patriarch offering his congratulations and praying that God would shower him with an “abundance of divine gifts”.

As is customary for the patriarchs of the Eastern Churches in union with Rome, the newly elected patriarch had written to the pope formally requesting communion, or unity, with him and the universal Catholic community.

“Your Beatitude’s election comes at a time when your Church faces difficulties and new challenges, particularly the situation of those Armenian Catholic faithful who are going through great trials in the Middle East,” Pope Francis wrote to the 80-year-old, Syrian-born patriarch.

Despite the hardships faced, particularly in Syria and Iraq, Pope Francis said: “Enlightened by the light of faith in the risen Christ, our gaze is full of hope and mercy because we are certain that the cross of Christ is the tree that gives life.”

At the time of his election, Patriarch Pierre was the retired bishop of Sainte-Croix-de-Paris.

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.

Patriarch Gregoire Pierre XX Ghabroyan of Cilicia. (Photo: Radio Vaticana) Born in Aleppo, Syria on November 15, 1934, he attended the minor seminary in Lebanon and the Marist College there before completing his preparation for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1959 and named a bishop and apostolic exarch for Armenian Catholics in France in 1977. The exarchate was raised to the status of eparchy [similar to a diocese] in 1986.

The bishop retired in February 2013.—CNS

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 abandoned village, refugee camp, Yad Vashem memorial, a Catholic school in the West Bank and more...

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

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

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The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Let mercy prevail at family synod

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

T

Lure of other churches

T

HE recent reports of congregants at an independent church in South Africa being made to eat snakes, clothing and hair coincided with reports from Brazil of a Pentecostal pastor counselling women to perform sex acts on him as a method of healing.

These kinds of abuses, and many others like them, make our faith in Jesus Christ look ridiculous by association.

While most independent churches—Evangelical and Pentecostal—faithfully strive to serve God, others clearly do not. Archbishop William Slattery is therefore correct in suggesting, as he does in our front-page report this week, that some regulatory measures might be appropriate in giving recognition to churches which fail to meet certain theological and ethical standards.

The archbishop suggests that the South African Council of Churches might have a role to play as a statutory body. This is a good starting point in investigating the feasibility of regulating churches and holding them to account when they cease to be recognisably Christian.

It would require very broad and inclusive definitions. There should, however, be a general agreement that the Holy Spirit will not be attracted by the performance of sexual acts in the course of spiritual guidance, and that God does not require of us the consumption of serpents or hair.

But would there be a consensus on the exploitative prosperity cult churches which preach that to become rich, one must first give all one has to its affluent pastor?

Would they meet the tests of a theological consensus?

The prosperity churches’ acceptance by Christians, even among Catholics, is attested to by their full services and by the popularity of their preachers.

Independent churches are mushrooming throughout South Africa, and for most Christians it is difficult to tell apart the genuine preacher from the charlatan.

In the absence of a central authority, anything goes in independent churches. Theology, doctrines and practices can be shaped to suit public demand.

And that demand exists. People tend to like to be told what they want to hear. Many desperate people in poverty will be open to the promises of riches; many of those who feel shackled by dogma will be attracted by the promise of

doctrinal freedom; those who yearn for noise will follow the sound of clamour.

In all this, independent churches are accountable to no authority. On the other hand, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and their various offshoots (such as the Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist Churches), can point to a lineage that goes back to Christ himself and his Gospel (Mt 16:13-20; 1 Tim 1:6; 4:14; 5:22), and correspondingly have hierarchical structures and a theological body of work in which to root their teachings.

The independent churches have no such direct mandate from Christ and no established hierarchy, and are therefore not answerable to any authority, other than to their particular interpretation of Christ’s will.

For the Catholic Church, the exodus of their members to the independent churches—the sincere ones as well as those that exploit Christ and his people—is an area of great concern.

Some supplement their Catholic practice with attendance in charismatic churches; others are leaving for good. The Church must learn why this is so, and how it can accommodate the needs which it presently fails to meet.

Archbishop Slattery this week offered some reasons: “People want to participate and ask questions. They don’t want to sit and be preached at in church,” he said.

He also suggested that the Catholic Church is not succeeding in facilitating a personal encounter with Christ.

“The idea of evangelisation is, how do we help our people know Christ personally,” Archbishop Slattery said.

Evidently, this is an area in which many independent churches are succeeding much better than the Catholic Church is.

We must discover why people, especially the young, are so willing to surrender the great treasures of our faith, what marketers would term our “unique selling propositions”. These are the Real Presence in the Eucharist, our devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the unbroken line of apostolic succession which goes right back to Christ, and so on.

The reasons we arrive at, and our ability to respond to them, must then shape our evangelisation to the uncertain Catholics in our pews.

Keeping Children safe within families

ST ANTHONYS HOME

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.

HE Synod of Bishops on the Family in October will, I hope, bring spiritual help to many families who find themselves in spiritual doldrums, some through no fault of their own.

Let us not forget that apart from love, God decided to take our

No ubuntu for unborn children

I

FIND it ironic that Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa heads up the Moral Regeneration Movement and that he is now concerned that “ubuntu” is being “hijacked” by capitalism, as reported in your lead article (July 22).

The government’s and the country’s moral degeneration began with the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1996, whereby the most defenceless members of society lost all forms of protection—what about ubuntu then?

Unfortunately, when this Bill was before parliament, Fr Mkhatshwa chose to absent himself from voting, as opposed to voting against it, which I believe was a morally indefensible position as he was both a Catholic and an ordained priest.

If Fr Mkhatshwa wants his words and his current position to carry any weight, he needs to apologise to the country and the thousands of innocent lives slaughtered as a result of his inaction.

Leaders lead from the front and need to account for their actions. Fr Mkhatshwa stated: “Now we have the instruments of power of government in our hands.”

The moral regeneration of our country will only start when the “leaders” are seen to be people of integrity, incorruptible and serving the people, something, try as I might, I cannot find in the current leaders.

Mike Stark, Durban

Pray for ubuntu

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ATHER Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, head of the Moral Regeneration Movement, feels that “ubuntu has been hijacked” (July 22) and gives various reasons and remedies, but does not mention an aspect offered

by Nigerian PI Odozor, associate professor of moral and world Church theology at Notre Dame University in the United States.

Professor Odozor (The Tablet, July 5 2008) wrote: “In most traditional African societies, people showed deep respect and hospitality, but this was often for a ‘known other’ (kindred) from one’s own family, clan or ethnic group, not a universal recognition of the person’s humanity.”

Did African tradition limit

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human nature because of sin.

Let us focus more on the mercy and love of Jesus Christ than on man-made dogmas and rules.

Yes, God gave us the Ten Commandments to help us to worship him and to love our neighbours, but human frailty and weaknesses are

ubuntu? The professor did not mention that this may have stemmed from prehistoric instincts of survival of oneself and one’s family.

Were the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ teaching that we “love one another” God’s way of helping us to overcome our natural self-centredness?

Jesus’ first resort, in his mission to change hearts, was always to prayer. Fr Mkhatshwa’s final paragraph ends: “While parents, the Church, unions, educators, the government and the media all have a role, prayer remains the most important aspect of all in keeping the spirit of ubuntu alive.”

The St Francis of Assisi prayer (adapted for Africa from the 1984 SACBC Imbiza card) asks for God’s help to achieve these values.

Join others praying for Africa and the world, that hearts may be changed and we learn to solve our problems by loving one another and acting accordingly.

For a free leaflet, SMS your name and postal address to 083 544 8449.

Athaly Jenkinson, East London

Carbon emissions

S

ARAH-LEAH Pimentel in her article “How can we respond to the pope’s call?” (July 15), mentions carbon emissions, and speaks of the use of motor cars for travel within cities and towns.

There is, however, an additional cause of carbon emissions from fuel, and that is aeroplanes.

When Church leaders and religious superiors, as well as politicians, business managers, sports managers, and others in positions of authority call meetings and arrange conferences, which they seem to do very easily, involving air travel or long-distance car travel, I wonder if they ever think of the contribution they are making to carbon emissions?

Every time someone attends an international conference or meeting, does the person think of the carbon emissions of the aircraft in which they will fly?

It seems to me that the people who call meetings and arrange conferences ought to ask themselves the simple question: is getting people together really necessary, or is there some other way of dealing with the issue(s) which does not involve travel?

Bonaventure Hinwood OFM, Pretoria

Ancient roots of religious practice

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ATHER Henry Ratering (July 15) raises a very intriguing point regarding the “beginning”. Christianity is heavily weighted in favour of Judaism, although the difference being Christians believe the Messiah did come in the person of Jesus, whereas the Jews are still awaiting their Messiah.

In human terms one has to ask when was the beginning? Certainly not 2 000 years ago. No doubt early man was limited in his scope of thinking, but it is generally accepted that “modern” man (Homo Sapiens) has existed for 70 000 years or more. Archaeological digs in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere have unearthed artefacts and engravings that reveal that modern man had religious inclinations.

Fr Ratering’s quotation of St Augustine is illuminating in that it highlights the fact that both the Old and New Testament are very

real, emanating from original sin.

Thus our pope is showing empathy to those individuals who cannot access the sacraments because of sinful unions.

Pope Francis is always quoted as saying: “Who am I to judge?” Let mercy prevail and let these couples access the sacraments.

Samuel Solomon, Johannesburg

much Jewish in origin. The prayer Fr Ratering quotes could in fact be referring to a previous Son or Sons of God. In Genesis 6:1-4 there is reference to “sons of God”, and Genesis is accepted as the first book in the Bible, which could be seen as the “beginning”.

Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg

Saviour for SA

A

S you so rightly put it in your editorial “The Mandela cult” (July 29), Nelson Mandela is—and always will be—the Father of the Nation.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful and heart-warming if someone else were to arrive in the not too distant future who might save our nation and be considered its saviour?

Mike White, Pietermaritzburg

Legion’s visits

I

N his letter (July 8), Br Daniel Manuel states that the Legion of Mary could help parish priests with parish visits. This is one of the primary works of the Legion of Mary: home visitation carried out in the spirit of confidentiality.

With fewer young men entering the priesthood, the legion’s work has become more invaluable. The legion and its works are an extension of the parish priest.

How wonderful it would be if each parish had a Legion of Mary within its community!

Lynette Petersen, Cape Town

Go for large print

H

AVING just looked for a prayer book for a person who has difficulty reading small fine print, I now realise how few such items are available anywhere.

There must be thousands of South Africans who have difficulty mastering small, faint typescripts. I appeal on their behalf to our fellow Catholics to be aware that there is a need for basic simple prayer books and bibles in bold print of 14 or 16 point, to make it possible for them to be able to read the printed word.

Those who have such items and no longer have any use for them could be encouraged to put them into parish libraries.

Jenny Knobel, Cape Town

Homosexuality

P

AUL Collins (July 22) goes to great lengths to explain that homosexuality is not mentioned by Our Lord in the gospels.

There are many things Christ taught that are not recorded in scripture. Christ did, however, leave behind a teaching authority—the Church that he founded on St Peter.

The keys to bind and loose; to teach all nations in all truth.

The Church is clear and unambiguous in its teaching that the practice of homosexuality is a disorder that goes against the natural law of creation and life.

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

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

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

PERSPECTIVES

Films: Creativity that comes from God A Raymond Perrier YEAR ago I was telling readers about the wonders of the Grahamstown Festival and the joy of “finding God in the arts”. After the recent ten-day Durban International Film Festival I again feel moved by the way in which creativity can help us connect with the Creator.

It also looks as if I spend a lot of my time hanging out with arty types and going to festivals—which is true—but in this case the film festival was at least on my doorstep.

In fact, the Denis Hurley Centre (which I serve as its director) was a host venue for four film screenings, so the festival actually crossed over our doorstep.

Let me start by recommending the act of literally going to see a film. I know it costs money and takes effort and you can always watch on TV or a laptop or even your phone. But the problem with doing that is that there is no sense of occasion.

It’s like prayer: a quick prayer said on the go while sitting at your computer can be valuable, but it is not the same as the experience that comes from taking yourself to a building dedicated to the purpose of prayer, surrounded by others who have come for the same reason and being fully present to the liturgy as it unfolds around you and in which you participate.

In the same way, being at the cinema is so much more than just “consuming” a film on your own small screen: you have taken time out of your day and spent some money, your phone is switched off, your attention is focused on the presentation which unfolds at a pace not set by you, and you are sharing the experience, perhaps with friends but certainly also with strangers, all drawn together for the same purpose.

In our busy lives, with so many things to do, we need to make time to do a few

things intentionally and intently—praying, being with friends and family, eating, being entertained. We devalue these experiences if we do not set aside time and places for them to be special.

S

o, having sat down in the cinema, with the lights dimmed and popcorn in my hand, what did I actually see? A fantastic range of features, documentaries and short films from South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Mali, Congo, Brazil, India, Italy, America and Canada. Films that asked interesting questions and sometimes answered them. Should there be mining in Pondoland? What would life be like without music? Is there such a thing as “sounding gay”? Why do we waste so much food?

Films that introduced me to people and situations I would never normally encounter: an Algerian resistance fighter from the 1950s, a world-famous social photographer, a refugee who watched his friends drown around him, a group of

“Film should be seen not as a place primarily for seeking answers but rather as a way of asking more and more interesting questions,” Raymond Perrier writes.

Faith and Society

young people from different communities singing together in a choir, an Indian hero who tries to help a young Pakistani girl, a mother at her wit’s end with a difficult teenage son.

The point is the infinite variety of experience. One film-maker suggested that when the world confuses us, film can help us to make sense of it. I think the opposite may also be true. Just when we mistakenly think we understand the world, film can remind us that there is so much more world out there—so many different cultures and situations and kinds of people and problems and (possibly) solutions.

Film, like all the arts, should be seen not as a place primarily for seeking answers but rather as a way of asking more and more interesting questions.

As Catholics, we believe that all creativity comes from God who is the ultimate Creator. That is true whether or not the artist acknowledges God, whether or not the subject matter is religious.

Occasionally, some artists abuse that creativity but mostly they use it to inform, to entertain, to excite and to challenge. In other words, they are co-creators with God. And since we know that God’s creation is infinite in its variety and richness, films are a great way of exploring that infinity: to move beyond our small perspective and to imagine, even if for only 90 minutes, what God’s world looks like from other angles.

Let’s talk about sexuality Toni Rowland

I

SSUES of sexuality have surfaced recently when in an Irish referendum the majority of the population approved same sex unions and the US Supreme Court guaranteed same-sex marriage as a right throughout the union.

In South Africa, where same-sex marriage has been legal for nearly nine years, the agenda includes women’s issues, gender-based violence and teenage pregnancy.

Sexuality and some specific issues around it, such as pastoral care for homosexuals and family planning, will also be discussed in the October Synod on the Family in Rome.

I have over the years in ministering to families and doing sexuality education written on the theme of “Sexually active adults parenting sexually active children”.

Isn’t it true that we are all sexually active in various appropriate and inappropriate ways all the time from infancy to old age?

In the last few days, as I write, this aspect of sexuality education came up in a workshop on family ministry with priests from various dioceses, as well as at a meeting of the Family Services Forum of the Department of Social Development.

Whose task is it to provide the necessary education to our children and youth? Is it professionals, educators, social workers, nurses, priests, religious, catechists?

Families, ideally both parents, should be the ones to provide specific information as appropriate in a normal, natural way in their family interactions. But it seems not to happen.

Cultural taboos, embarrassment, shyness, or maybe at times shame or guilt might hold them back—to the detriment of their children’s future. It is the parental right as well as responsibility to empower young people, to support them, and to

Family Friendly

We are all sexual beings, writes Toni Rowland, and sexuality needs to be discussed in families. (Photos: Morguefile) challenge them, if necessary—but ideally without taking over.

O

n the aspect of relationships, the SACBC family theme for the month of August is not about women only but “Committed to Women and Men and Relationships”.

The brief overview to the theme reads: “Good relationships between male and female family members of all ages demands commitment from all. Parents should relate to and treat boys and girls equally, as future men and women in society, so that as adults they can relate to one another as equals too. Some women continue to be oppressed and exploited. Some men are abusive but men may also be alienated from their families. Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21).”

During August the local Church will also again embark on a Marriage Awareness

ON TAPE

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

Anyone wanting to receive tapes as part of this service, available for an annual subscription fee of only r50, may contact Mr Len Pothier, 8 The Spinney retirement Village, Main rd, Hout Bay, 7806 or phone 021-790 1317.

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

campaign which not only focuses on those who are married but also on those who may be married, have been married or most likely will never marry.

Marriage (or matrimony, to use its correct term) is a sacrament of the Church and has relevance for every one of us. It is particularly important and relevant that marriage is a sexual sacrament, a relationship in which sexuality finds its most personal and meaningful expression. It is through marriage and because of marriage that sexuality finds a place in the Church.

We are all sexual beings, yes, but the way that sexuality is or should be expressed and lived out differs according to our state and vocation in life.

The SACBC’s Marriage Awareness campaign begins on August 23 and continues until October 4, a Sunday which can be celebrated as Marriage Day. The campaign is linked to the liturgical readings of the Sundays of this time, beginning with the wellknown passage from Ephesians 5:21-32.

Verse 21, quoted above, as well as the rest of the Ephesians passage, provides a very good basis for discussion in families.

How is the balance in your family between men and women, boys and girls? n For more on the Marriage Awareness campaign contact Fr Sakhi Mofokeng at the SACBC on 012 323 6458. For reflections and articles on the August family theme and marriage campaign also see www.marfam.org.za or contact Toni Rowland 082 552-1275 info@marfam.org.za

The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

Fr Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu

7

Point of Faith

A tough time to be a Christian

E

ARLIER this year, the British Equality and Human Rights Commission published its findings on a survey on religion and belief.

It found that religious, especially Christian, people in the United Kingdom feel pressured to keep their faith and faith symbols private because they fear being mocked as bigots or be viewed as conservative and backward.

These fears also exist among many Catholics, for different reasons. Many fear that if they disclose that they are Catholic, then somebody will raise the issues of sex abuse or a controversial point of Church teaching which they feel they cannot defend.

The latter is a catechetical issue. Catholics do not want to engage with other Christians because they feel misunderstood. They feel the pressure of defending all the classic hot button issues, such as the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with all the Scripture-citing and so. Or they may be challenged by secularists who demand proof for what we have faith in.

We see this also seen in the silence of Catholics in public discourse. A radio show or newspaper piece may spew venom about the Catholic Church, and very few, if any, Catholics will respond to defend their Church.

Catholics seem to fear hostility to the faith.

Sometimes it seems that the Church is something that must be excluded from public life, except for funerals or weddings.

The principle of the separation of Church and state is the cornerstone of many democratic countries. Over time this separation, which is necessary, has also led to secular attitudes trumping religious principles.

Today every Christian knows that once an issue goes to a court, it is likely that the secular principle will win.

It was interesting earlier this year to follow the conversation about euthanasia in South Africa. On several occasions a voice would emerge that tried to bring God into the conversation. That voice would instantly be told either that God does not have a place in the conversation or that there would be an outright renouncing of any belief in God. It is as if being erudite and being Christian is a contradiction in terms.

There is now also a secularist viewpoint that suggests that the Church is an obstacle to progress. Yet there is no questioning the separation between the Church and state when the Church is engaged in the work of the state like education and healthcare.

Where is the notion of understanding society as being plural? Instead there is a strong movement of advancing secularism in the public domain and sidelining religiosity into the private space. That encourages a dichotomy where the person of the state is different to the person in the Church.

This is also a threat to the role that the Church is called to play as a moral compass and social conscience of society.

We should take care to protect and preserve our Christian rights and values at every level of society. Failure to do this will lead to the Church being silenced and domesticated—and that would compromise the entire mission of the Church. n Fr Ndlovu was ordained to the priesthood in late July. We congratulate him and all other recent ordinands and wish them every blessing in their priestly ministry.

We accommodate small Conferences, Retreats and workshops

We are 5mins from Howick Falls, 10min from Midmar Dam, 20 mins from Pietermaritzburg.

Contact Veronica 083 784 7455, Email redacres@omi.org.za Regrettable due to stolen telephone cables, we do not have a landline anymore.

8

The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

ASSUMPTION

See the strong woman in Our Lady Marian feasts such as the Assumption of Our Lady, not only help us see the New Life, but also give us an appreciation of strong womanhood, ELISABETH BAKER writes.

H

OW marvellous it is that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary coincides with the celebration of our country’s Women’s Month.

The Assumption is the teaching that Mary, after completing “the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”, as Pope Pius XII put it in Munificentissimus Deus (1950).

Christians have believed in the Assumption since the second or third centuries, but Pius XII formally proclaimed it as Church doctrine only in November 1950.

So the feast proclaims a longheld conviction that, when she died, Mary was raised body and soul into heaven. It also celebrates the Church’s far more recent formal acknowledgement, and directive, that the position of women deserves to be elevated in a new and different way.

Mary’s world of 2 000 years ago was very different from ours, but she remains real and important. Her story is that of the “New Life”.

Consider her encounter with her kinswoman Elizabeth, described in the first chapter of Luke’s gospel.

Luke’s narrative presents the drama as the two women meet.

Both are pregnant; each has a child waiting to be born for a particular mission.

John the Baptist will prepare the way for Jesus, and Jesus will bring the new Christian way of life.

Mary and Elizabeth immediately, joyfully, embrace their extraordinary experience. The child in Elizabeth’s womb “leaped for joy” at this first encounter with “the Lord” whom Mary is carrying; Elizabeth instantly recognises Mary as “the mother of my Lord”; Mary rejoices in the “great things” that God has offered her—motherhood of Jesus.

But Elizabeth is too old to have a child. How is this possible? Mary is engaged to Joseph but not yet married; she is pregnant. What will people think?

Both women are plunged into a strange, unconventional state of affairs. But each has recognised, and chosen, to accept her life’s special vocation, and to carry it out whatever it takes.

M

ary, fully human, made a choice: what’s powerful is how, instinctively, she understands what her chosen path will bring: mercy, the scattering of the proud, the fall of the mighty; those of low degree will be exalted, the hungry will be satisfied, the rich will go away empty.

She speaks with astonishing confidence. We all have a choice: to grasp and make the most of our talents and opportunities, and to use them to make the world a better place.

But, in my experience of teaching, what holds so many women back from fulfilling their potential (less so with men, on the whole) is lack of confidence. Mary is vulnerable. She is pregnant and unmarried—but she triumphs in what she is going to do. Her overriding tone is confident and strong. Nothing

can stop her. Nothing will stop her.

But life is harsh—poverty, unemployment, violence, depression, fear, are everyday realities. In newspapers and television there’s endless devastation and “collateral damage”; civilians—including the elderly, and huge numbers of women and children—are victims of war and disaster: the innocent are abducted, homes are destroyed, families are displaced, thousands are abused, raped, killed. Life can be heartbreakingly destructive.

Mary’s choice brought her terrible suffering and pain. She watched her child rejected, attacked, persecuted, tortured, and crucified (she was there, to the end, at the foot of the cross). Yet her love, support, and trust in what she knew to be right never faltered whatever the pain.

I recall seeing footage last year of a woman in Gaza after the bombing, lamenting the loss of her home, the deaths of her husband and children. She threw up her hands and wept: “There’s nothing, nobody any more, we’ve been forgotten—only God is left!”

Christ’s resurrection and the Assumption of Mary represent a completion; blissful permanence—no more death, no trace left of the power, corruption, and false values that cause earthly suffering. Only peace at last. Love. Endless joy.

Mary’s presence is, perhaps, a nudge to our Church to reconsider the role it gives to women, and the benefits if women’s talents were allowed to contribute further.

The Assumption, and the example of Mary, offer many new opportunities for women to rethink and reappraise their individual roles, and for men to encourage and support them.

The Assumption of Our Lady is represented on an altar in Rosary basilica in the Marian sanctuary of Lourdes, southern France. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

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The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

ASSUMPTION

9

How Mary unites all Christians Mary is sometimes a point of division between Catholic and Protestant traditions.

Fr NICHOLAS KING SJ explains why Mary rather unites all of Christianity.

I

N June and July I had the joy of travelling round South Africa, giving talks for the Jesuit Institute on “The Scandal of Christian Disunity”.

Since I have been talking mainly to Catholics, it seemed a good idea to raise the question of Our Lady; for many Catholics have an uneasy suspicion that perhaps we have “sneaked in” the two doctrines of her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption, while nobody was looking.

Since we shall be celebrating the feast of the Assumption next week, it is probably good to examine that suspicion.

It is true that neither of these doctrines (the teachings, first that Mary was born free of what we call “original sin”, and second that after her death she was present “body and soul” to her son) is to be found precisely in Scripture.

But equally you will not find the doctrine of the Trinity, in Scripture, but only the hints that lead to it. Nor do we read there the dogma that Jesus is “of one substance with the Father”; but all orthodox Christians nevertheless hold these beliefs.

Indeed Martin Luther, at least at some points in his career, believed in both the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. Con-

sider the following sentences from his writing: on the Immaculate Conception: “It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary’s soul was effected without original sin, so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God’s gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the very first moment she began to live she was free from all sin.”

And here’s Luther on the Assumption: “There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven.”

So perhaps this is a question on which all Christians can come together. The key is this: all teaching about Mary is not really about her but about either Jesus or human beings. For Mary always points to her Son, and always points to us human beings, showing us what we can be like when we are at our very best.

The real point is that Mary is the guarantee of Jesus’ humanity.

The oldest heresy of all—and it is still alive today—is to say that Jesus was not really human. And it was Mary, of course, who gave him that humanity, Mary who went through the pain and blood of childbirth, who cleaned him up when he dirtied himself (remember: if he did not, then he was not human, and to say that is heresy).

Ordinary Christians down the ages have often been ahead of the theologians in insisting on the importance of Mary.

And so have thousands of artists, of course. I have friends in the Reformed tradition of Christianity who will acknowledge (sometimes with a nervous glance over their shoulder) that their tradition has been impoverished by

The apostles surround Mary, laid out on a bier, as Jesus holds an infant Mary in swaddling clothes in his arms. Detail from a mural in Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) its neglect of Jesus’ mother. For we simply cannot do without her humanity and that of her Son.

T

he problem, of course, is that, at our worst, we Catholics can sometimes look as though we are treating Mary as a goddess. If we do that—if we are actually worshipping her, as opposed to merely venerating her—then we are in heresy, because Mary is not God. On the contrary, she simply points us in the direction of God, and away from herself.

It follows from this that Pope John Paul II showed great wisdom in not giving in to demands to accord Mary the title of “Mediatrix of All Graces”, which sails uncomfortably close to the heretical position.

Mary’s Assumption: Where and when did it happen?

BY GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER

T

HE busy Jericho Street on the foot of Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives separates the Garden of Gethsemane from the remains of the 5th-century church of the Assumption: the crypt of Mary’s tomb.

The crypt is owned by the Greek Orthodox Church, which shares it with the Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as with Syriacs, Copts and Abyssinians—but not with the Catholic Church.

Remarkably, Muslims are also represented.

Muslims revere Mary, whom they call Maryam, and regard Jesus, or Isa, as a prophet. In fact, Mary is the only woman in the Quran to have a sura, or chapter, dedicated to her.

The gloomy crypt’s ceilings are black from centuries of candle smoke and incense, and many icons are so covered by soot, it is difficult to make out what they represent. To the western mind, the place is at once somewhat eerie and garish. It is far removed in ambience from the usually light artistic depictions of the Assumption, such as those one might find in the more modern Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion, where Catholics believed Mary passed on.

Mary’s tomb itself is housed in an edicule, or enclosed shrine. Through holes in a wall, pilgrims can touch the stone bench on which Mary’s body rested.

Many churches stood above the crypt and were demolished, but none of the various Muslim rulers destroyed the crypt because it is the tomb of Mary, mother of the prophet Isa. To reach the crypt now, one enters through a door in the façade and descends the 47 broad steps of the remains of a Crusader church.

S

cripture is silent on Mary’s Assumption into heaven, never mind when and where it took place.

The popular proposition that the course of Mary’s life ended in Ephesus in Turkey is fairly new. It is first mentioned in the 5th century by Nestorius (he of the Nestorian heresy), based on the tradition that John the Apostle went to Ephesus, and the attendant presumption that he must have been accompanied by Mary, who at Calvary had been placed by Jesus into John’s care.

But the Ephesus idea did not get traction until the 19th century, through the visions of the German mystic Sr Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824).

Successive popes have visited Ephesus and the

supposed place of Mary’s dormition (or “falling asleep”) and Assumption. The popes never approved the site as authentic—they couldn’t possibly do so—but the Ephesus narrative has taken hold.

On the other hand, ancient tradition places Mary’s dormition and subsequent Assumption in Jerusalem, where we last encounter her in Scripture. The Acts of St John by Prochurus, written by one Leucius Charinus around 165, acknowledges St John’s presence in Ephesus, but points out that he went there only after Mary’s death.

St Paul, who in his epistles often mentioned people by name, makes no mention of John or of Jesus’ mother in his First Letter to the Corinthians, which he wrote in Ephesus, nor does he refer to them in his missive addressed to the Ephesians, which he wrote from jail in Rome. But by then Mary’s earthly life had probably already ended.

I

n 451 St Juvenal, the bishop of Jerusalem, wrote that Mary’s tomb had been opened in the presence of all the apostles in Jerusalem. The gathering presumably included James the Greater, the son of Zebedee and brother of John, who was the first of the apostles to be martyred, in 44. If that tradition holds true, then Mary drew her final breath before then.

The Transitus Mariae, an apocryphal document, suggests that Mary was no older than 50 when she closed her eyes. By that calculation, if one presumes that Mary was about 13 when she gave birth to Jesus, and that Jesus was born around 4 BC, then the Blessed Virgin was born around 17 BC. If she was indeed 50 years old when she passed on, then that would have been in the year 33, very soon after the crucifixion.

According to Bishop Juvenal, when the apostles opened Mary’s tomb, they found it was empty.

This is at the core of the belief in the Assumption.

There is nothing to suggest that the apostles congregated in Ephesus to open the tomb; indeed, the idea seems preposterous.

So Mary most likely ended her earthly sojourn in Jerusalem, the city in which her life probably began, perhaps very soon after her son’s Resurrection. n This is a slightly adapted extract from Günther Simmermacher’s book, The Holy Land Trek (www.holy landtrek.com or order from book@scross.co.za at R150 plus p&p). To join the author and Archbishop Stephen Brislin on next year’s Southern Cross pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Egypt, see page 5.

What then can we say about these two controverted doctrines, of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption? Let me offer four points on each. First, on the Immaculate Conception, which was defined in 1854: l It is a way of grappling with the profound instinct of Christians that the one who is properly called “Mother of God” has to be holy. l However, that holiness cannot be anything of her own doing, but must be the gift of God; in other words, she has to be saved by the gift of her Son. l The doctrine does enable us to assert Mary’s humanity, and hence that of her Son, without which we cannot be saved. l And Mary’s God-given ability

to offer a free “Yes” to God’s invitation points to what humanity at its best can be like. Make no mistake about it, you and I are at our best only when we are uttering that “fiat” to God’s invitation.

Then on the doctrine of the Assumption (1950) we can say the following: l The dogma represents the fact that Mary shares in Jesus’ victory over death; it is nothing of her own doing, all God’s gift in Jesus. l At the same time, Mary represents all humanity: where she is, there we also shall one day be. l The psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, who was no Catholic but came from a long line of Swiss Protestant pastors, argued that Mary’s function (or one of her functions) is to make accessible the remoteness of the creator God, a problem that all religions struggle with in their different ways. l And it is an interesting and probably significant point that no city has ever claimed to have Mary’s bones.

This is in marked contrast to those of many other saints, some of whose remains are cheerfully claimed by several different cities.

That includes the mysterious claim of two different heads of John the Baptist, one being the one he had as a child.

It is probably significant that the feast of the Assumption has been celebrated on August 15 since at least the end of the Middle Ages.

So Mary, if properly understood, is not an obstacle to ecumenical dialogue, but one who should function, rather, as a patroness of the ecumenical movement, a mother who longs for the unity of her Son’s family.

Günther Simmermacher

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10

The Southern Cross, August 5 to August 11, 2015

RELIGIOUS LIFE

200 years with the children’s Don As the Salesians celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the order’s founder, St John Bosco, their local provincial FATHER FRANCOIS DUFOUR answers questions about the congregation and Don Bosco.

O

N August 16 the Church will mark the 200th birthday of St John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian order, whose work is well-known throughout South Africa.

Don Bosco was born in Turin, northern Italy, in 1815, and died in 1888.

The archdiocese of Turin marked the bicentenary with a special exhibition of the Shroud of Turin this year from April to June. Pope Francis visited the sites associated with Don Bosco in June, a month after The Southern Cross pilgrims with Archbishop William Slattery did so.

Here Fr Francois Dufour, the current provincial of the Salesians, answers some common questions about Don Bosco and his order.

Who are the Salesians?

They are a modern religious society of priests and brothers who live together and share the same type of work among youth. They number about 16 000 and work in 132 countries.

The Salesian congregation was founded 165 years ago in the northern Italian city of Turin by St John Bosco. Even during his lifetime the congregation grew very quickly. Before his death a great missionary drive took place, a drive which is continuing down to the present time. It is currently the world’s second-largest religious community.

Why the name “Salesians”?

Don Bosco was very impressed by the gentle and patient approach to people of St Francis de Sales, a 16th century French saint, and he adopted him as the patron of his congregation.

He called the congregation the “Society of St Francis de Sales” and that was shortened to “The Salesians”.

Is it “Don” or “John” Bosco?

St John Bosco’s proper Italian name

was Giovanni Bosco. When he became a priest he was addressed as Father Bosco, which in Italian is Don Bosco. So in a similar way that we refer to “Mother” Theresa, it has become more common to call him Don Bosco.

Who was Don Bosco?

He is one of the great saints of recent times. John Bosco was born on August 16, 1815, into a very poor family in a tiny hamlet some 30km south-east of Turin, which is in the Piedmont region where Pope Francis’ family comes from.

Left fatherless at two years of age, he commenced proper schooling only when he was 16. His father’s death left his mother Margherita, together with an ailing mother-in-law, a stepson and two infant boys, to eke out a living on a small farm.

The family was very poor, and Giovanni struggled to obtain an education. This single-parent home was characterised by both hardship and love.

When Giovanni was growing up he was upset to see that most priests did not pay attention to young people. Despite all odds, John wanted an education; he wanted to become a priest, he felt a strong call to help youth, especially the underprivileged.

Aged 12, he left home to find work on a farm for two years, since his older stepbrother had become such a bully to him, Margherita thought it wiser to put some distance between them.

What sort of priest did he become?

A different sort of priest. “I want to be a priest who cares about children,” he used to say. And once ordained, that is what he did. Like all great men he seemed to thrive in overcoming opposition.

He began in Turin, even then an already industrial city. He dedicated his whole life to the welfare—material and spiritual—of poor teenagers.

His first permanent centre was a broken-down shed in a very poor area of the city. He was harassed by authorities, dismissed by the aristocracy, and shunned by fellow priests, who thought him mad.

He was concerned about the great number of poor youths roaming the streets in search of work, often hungry, homeless, with no chance of schooling and so without hope of betterment and thus very vulnerable to the world of crime.

Eventually he was able to open

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An image of St John Bosco is seen on a reproduction of the South African flag at the church of Our Lady Help of Christians in Lansdowne, Cape Town. schools, workshops, youth centres and hostels for the increasing number of homeless and “twilight children” of his time, and began to gather around him young men and women to work with him.

Despite many difficulties, in 1859 he established a congregation—from among the very youth he was educating—which was dedicated to the welfare and education of boys.

In cooperation with St Maria Mazzerello he founded the order of Salesian Sisters who would do the same work for girls.

St John Bosco’s educative method, referred to as the Preventive System, is aimed at the holistic development of the young person.

The proof of its effectiveness was in his 15-year-old pupil Dominic Savio, the first non-martyr schoolboy saint in the history of the Church.

“The practice of my system,” Don Bosco said, “is wholly based on the words of St Paul, who says: ‘Charity is patient, is kind. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things’ (1 Cor 13:4-7). Let the boys have full liberty to run, skip and play as much as they please.

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Salesian parishes Hanover Park, Westridge and Lansdowne in Cape Town launched the bicentenary of Don Bosco’s birth with a special sunrise walk along Muizenberg beach while reflecting on the Way of Light earlier this year. Fr Mikel Garmendia gave a short reflection on the life of Don Bosco and the significance of this special year for Salesians across the world. improve both health and conduct”.

The trades he had learned while working his way through school became the trades he taught to classes given even in his kitchen.

When he needed help, older boys supervised the younger ones, until they formed a huge family, with Don Bosco as father.

As these boys grew to manhood, some joined Don Bosco to form the Salesian Society. Eventually his mother also joined him and became one of his chief assistants in Turin.

She became known as “Mamma Margherita, mother of Don Bosco’s orphans”.

What is his reputation today?

John Bosco died on January 31,1888 and was canonised 46 years later, in 1934. His feast day is celebrated on January 31 each year.

Historians recognise him as a social innovator, saint and educator.

Common people know him as a preacher, publisher and builder. The pious value him as a mystic, visionary and prophet.

Churchmen and psychologists wonder at the long list of his prophetic “dreams” and the plentiful miracles he worked.

But mostly he is known as the children’s priest, one who made them laugh, gave them food, enriched their minds, taught them trades, and filled their souls with peace and joy.

He was a social activist, educator and a contemplative man who continues to inspire parents and educators the world over. He is a man for all seasons, a man for our time.

Don Bosco’s unquenchable love became an unquenchable movement all over the world.

What do Salesians do?

Salesians work and live in community fellowship and commit them-

selves to be obedient, poor and chaste in imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ. They strive to be signs and bearers of the love of God for young people, as they work among them in schools, youth centres, hostels, retreat houses, parishes, mission stations, youth movements, and so on.

Ideally Salesians are people who keep in touch with the youth scene: they feel at home among groups of teenagers, know where young people are at, and are able to guide them to where Christ would like them to be.

So, to be a Salesian means to be someone who feels close to young people. Someone who shares their interests and is attentive to the material and spiritual needs of modern teenagers, especially the poorer and more neglected among them.

Where are the Salesians working in Southern Africa?

• In the Cape Peninsula where Salesians have been working since 1896, they run a hostel, youth employment and life-skills programs (YES and Life Choices), a school of skills (Learn2Live), and three parishes (Lansdowne, Hanover Park, Westridge).

• In and around Johannesburg where they run the Don Bosco youth pastoral centre in Walkerville, two parishes (Robertsham and Ennerdale/Finetown/Lawley), a skills training centre in Ennerdale and Michael Rua school.

• In and around Manzini and Malkerns, Swaziland, where they have two large schools, mission stations, homes for orphans, a skills training centre and various youth services.

• In Maputsoe and Maseru, Lesotho, where they oversee schools, two large parishes, mission stations and an oratory (youth centre).

• In many instances they operate in association with Sisters belonging to the Salesian Family.

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Fr Enoch Shomang OMI

O

BLATE Father Enoch Kini Mantsubise Shomang of Johannesburg died on June 25 at the age of 75.

Born on July 29, 1939, he made his oblation on January 6, 1961, and was ordained to the priesthood on July 6, 1967.

Fr Shomang served at Atteridgeville, Moletsane, Molapo, Kagiso II, Regina Mundi and Munsieville parishes.

He was the Oblates of Mary Immaculate’s councillor and at the time of his death the spiritual director of St Anne’s Sodality in the archdiocese of Johannesburg.

Fr Shomang was often described by fellow Oblate priests as a “celebrity” as his room at the Oblate residence in Victory Park

SOLUTIONS TO 666. ACROSS: 3 Abimelech, 8 Inca, 9 Aaron’s rod, 10 Impels, 11 Ashes, 14 Lilac, 15 Noah, 16 Evils, 18 Sure, 20 Tudor, 21 Sudan, 24 Unseal, 25 Incumbent, 26 Loss, 27 Anchorite. DOWN: 1 Limitless, 2 Scapulars, 4 Bias, 5 Moons, 6 Listen, 7 Crow, 9 Alice, 11 Arian, 12 Soldier on, 13 Shortlist, 17 Stunt, 19 Eunuch, 22 Amber, 23 Anon, 24 Unit.

Liturgical Calendar Year B Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday August 9 1 Kings 19:4-8, Psalms 34:2-9, Ephesians 4:30-5:2, John 6:41-51 Monday August 10, St Lawrence 2 Corinthians 9:6-10, Psalms 112:1-2, 5-9, John 12:24-26 Tuesday August 11, St Clare of Assisi Hosea 2:16, 17, 21-22, Psalms 45:11-12, 14-16, John 15:4-10 Wednesday August 12 Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Psalms 66:1-3, 5, 8, 1617, Matthew 18:15-20 Thursday August 13 Joshua 3:7-11, 13-17, Psalms 114:1-6, Matthew 18:21—19:1 Friday August 14, St Maximilian Mary Kolbe 1 John 3:13-18, Psalms 116:10-13, 16-17, John 15:12-17 Saturday August 15, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10, Psalms 45:10-12, 16, 1 Corinthians 15:20-27, Luke 1:39-56 Sunday August 16 Proverbs 9:1-6, Psalms 34:2-7, Ephesians 5:1520, John 6:51-58

BIRTHDAYS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tina Langley, August 4. Have an awesome, God-filled and angel-filled day, Love Taryn and Bronwyn.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my late brother Dominic Davids, August 10, celebrating with the angels in heaven, love Tina Langley.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dad, Cecil Davids, August 13.

God's richest blessings, love you, Tina, Taryn, Bronwyn and Basil Langley.

Community Calendar To place your event, call Mary Leveson at 021 465 5007 or e-mail m.leveson@scross.co.za (publication subject to space)

CAPE TOWN: Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town. Followed by vigil at Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Bree Street.

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DURBAN: Holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St Anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9am. Holy Mass and Divine Mercy

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Overport rosary group.

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Contact Keith at 083 372 NELSPRUIT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Peter’s parish every Tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed by Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 17:30pm.

Word of the Week

Theology: The study of God and religion, deriving from and based on the data of divine Revelation, organised and systematised according to some kind of scientific method.

Holy See: The diocese of the pope, Rome.

The pope himself or the various officials and bodies of the Church’s central administration–—the Roman curia—which act in the name and by authority of the pope.

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IN MEMORIAM

KÖHLER—Henry Charles, who died a year ago on Aug 13, 2014. You went to live with God, but your memory lives on forever in our hearts. Rest in peace my love. Lovingly remembered by his wife Maureen and children Susan, Peter, Michael, and Leonard.

KÖHLER—Henry Charles, much-loved brother of Margaret and Ursula, died on 13.08.2014. Always remembered in our thoughts and prayers. MHDSRIP.

PRAYERS

O MOST Holy Virgin Mary, who chose to appear on the Sierra de Aire, in the Cova de Iria, to three young shepherds to reveal the treasures of grace held in the recitation of the Rosary, impress upon our souls a fervent love for this devotion. By meditating on the mysteries of our redemption, may we learn

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was always flooded with visitors.

Many speakers at memorial services that were held for Fr Shomang described him as a “legend” and a “prophet of his time”, but also as a simple but modest human being who shared everything he had with people.

About 4 000 mourners, including 100 priests from local parishes and neighbouring dioceses, gathered at St Charles church in Victory Park to concelebrate the requiem Mass for Fr Shomang.

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, also an Oblate, celebrated the Mass, with Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington, another Oblate, also in attendance.

Lebo wa Majahe

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how to use the teachings which lie therein and obtain the graces we ask in this prayer. For the Glory of God and the redeeming of our souls. Amen. Novena from 5 to 13 each month.

For prayers/hymns write to jjvcamara@gmail.com 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. BS. 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. Chris H. 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 where you are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is none who can withstand your power, O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands. “Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days and then publish.

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Our God how great Thou Art. We will love, adore and glorify you all the days of our lives and for all eternity Amen. N and FT.

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See www.hli.co.za ASSUMPTION CONVENT SCHOOL, Johannesburg is looking for a wooden statue of Our Lady approx.

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Can anyone assist? Please contact, Marinella 011 616 5053 or admin@assump tionconvent.co.za LOVING an unborn baby, who we cannot see, is like loving God whom we also cannot see, 1 Peter 1: 8.

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the

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Patronal Feast of South Africa Readings: Revelation 11:19, 12:1-6, 10, Psalm 45: 10-12, 16, 1 Corinthians 15:2027, Luke 1:39-56

T

HIS week I wish to place our focus on South Africa’s patronal feast, the Assumption of Our Lady, a day of obligation, on August 15. In some dioceses the feast may be transferred to Sunday.

The secret of understanding this feast is to recognise that it is not about Our Lady at all, but about the victory of God in Christ, clearing up the mess we humans have made, and that the victory comes at a price.

That is the message of the readings that the Church has chosen for the feast.

The first reading offers a wonderful picture of God’s self-revelation: “God’s Temple was opened in Heaven, and the Ark of God’s Covenant was seen in God’s Temple.”

Then it turns out that the “Ark of the Covenant” is indeed the Mother of Jesus: “a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars”.

But, lest we should assume that we are given an easy victory, we should notice two things: first that she is in her labour pains,

S outher n C ross

“pregnant and crying out”; and, second, that she has a terrifying enemy: “Look! A great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on his heads seven crowns”. And the dragon is menacing the woman: “He stood before the woman who was about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.”

Then she is delivered of the “male child, who is going to shepherd all the nations with an iron staff. And her child was snatched up to God and to his Throne”.

The woman does not get this easy treatment, however, but “fled to the desert, where she has a place prepared from God”, and we are not told what happens to her.

But we do hear a shout of victory: “Now has come the conquest and the power of his Christ.” She has taken all the risk of God’s kingdom, and has helped to mend the situation.

Something of the same happens also in the psalm, which is part of a wedding-song for a young King of Israel, stressing how beautiful is the king’s bride, but at the same time hinting perhaps that she may be just a touch re-

luctant: “Listen, daughter, and see: listen carefully. You must forget your people, and your father’s house, and let the king desire your beauty, for he is your Lord, and you are to worship him”.

This is not perhaps an ideal situation for the young girl, but God is in charge, and all will end well: “They are led in with joy and exultation, they go into the king’s palace.”

But it is not wholly comfortable.

The second reading has Paul trying to encourage his maverick Corinthians with regard to the problem of death, and stressing that in Christ God has conquered death: “As it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

We have the picture of two Adams, leading respectively to death and to life, but Christ more than overcoming what humanity had got wrong, so that all humanity will be restored to life, “each in their own order: Christ the first-fruits, and then those who belong to Christ when he comes”.

Then we are offered a vision of him handing

Of both heaven and earth C

Conrad

ONSIDER these words: “Because, my God, though I lack the soul-zeal and the sublime integrity of your saints, I yet have received from you an overwhelming sympathy for all that stirs within the dark mass of matter; because I know myself to be irremediably less a child of heaven and a son of earth.”

Fr Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote those words and they, like St Augustine’s famous opening in his Confessions, not only describe a lifelong tension inside its author, they name as well the foundational pieces for an entire spirituality.

For everyone who is emotionally healthy and honest, there will be a lifelong tension between the seductive attractions of this world and the lure of God. The earth, with its beauties, its pleasures, and its physicality can take our breath away and have us believe that this world is all there is, and that this world is all that needs to be. Who needs anything further?

Isn’t life here on earth enough? Besides, what proof is there for any reality and meaning beyond our lives here?

But even as we are so powerfully, and rightly, drawn to the world and what if offers, another part of us finds itself also caught in the embrace and the grip of another reality, the divine, which though more inchoate is no less unrelenting. It too tells us that it is real, that its reality ultimately offers life, that it also should be honoured, and that it also may not be ignored.

Nicholas King SJ

Assumption celebration

And, just like the reality of the world, it too presents itself as both promise and threat. Sometimes it’s felt as a warm cocoon in which we sense ultimate shelter, and sometimes we feel its power as a threatening judgment on our superficiality, mediocrity and sin.

Sometimes it blesses our fixation on earthly life and its pleasures, and sometimes it frightens us and relativises both our world and our lives.

We can push it away by distraction or denial, but it stays, creating always a powerful tension inside us: We are irremediably children of both heaven and earth; both God and the world have a right to our attention.

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hat’s how it’s meant to be. God made us irremediably physical, fleshy, earthoriented, with virtually every instinct inside us reaching for the things of this earth.

We shouldn’t then expect that God wants us to shun this earth, deny its genuine beauty, and attempt step out of our bodies, our natural instincts, and our physicality to fix our eyes only on the things of heaven.

God did not build this world as a testing-place, a place where our obedience and piety is to be tested against the lure of earthly pleasure, to see if we’re worthy of heaven. This world is its own mystery and has its own meaning, a God-given one. It’s not simply a stage upon which we, as humans, play out our individual dramas of

Sunday Reflections

over “the Kingdom to his God and Father…the last enemy that is destroyed is Death”. It is in Jesus that Mary’s death is destroyed.

That is what the Assumption means.

In the Gospel for the feast we have the powerful story of the “Visitation”, Mary’s hasty visit to her kinswoman Elisabeth.

The two women are both unexpectedly pregnant, but also filled with the Holy Spirit, so that they see what is going on in this uncomfortable situation.

The effect on Elisabeth is that she is able to identify who Mary is, and, much more important, who Jesus is, when she addresses her cousin as “mother of my Lord”.

The effect on Mary is that she delivers the utterly subversive hymn that we call the “Magnificat”, the victory of slave-girls and the poor over the powerful and rich.

It is not a comfortable victory, this feast.

But we should make no doubt about it: God has conquered.

Southern Crossword #666

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

salvation and then close the curtain. It’s a place for all of us, humans, animals, insects, plants, water, rocks, and soil to enjoy a home together.

But that’s the root of a great tension inside us: Unless we deny either our most powerful human instincts or our most powerful religious sensibilities, we will find ourselves forever torn between two worlds, with seemingly conflicting loyalties, caught between the lure of this world and the lure of God. I know how true this is in my own life.

I was born into this world with two incurable loves and have spent my life and ministry caught and torn between the two: I have always loved the pagan world for its honouring of this life and for its celebration of the wonders of the human body and the beauty and pleasure that our five senses bring us. With my pagan brothers and sisters, I too honour the lure of sexuality, the comfort of human community, the delight of humour and irony, and the remarkable gifts given us by the arts and the sciences.

But at the same time, I have always found myself in the grip of another reality: the divine, faith, religion. Its reality too has always commanded my attention—and, more importantly, dictated the important choices in my life.

My major choices in life incarnate and radiate a great tension because they’ve tried to be true to a double primordial branding inside me, the pagan and the divine.

It’s for this reason that I can live as a consecrated, lifelong celibate, doing religious ministry, even as I deeply love the pagan world, bless its pleasures, and bless the goodness of sex even as, because of other loyalties, I renounce it.

That’s also the reason why I’m chronically apologising to God for the world’s pagan resistance, even as I’m trying to make an apologia for God to the world. I live with torn loyalties.

That’s as it should be. The world is meant to take our breath away, even as we genuflect to the author of that breath.

ACroSS

3. King of Gerar (Gn 20) (9) 8. Cain became Andes dweller (4) 9. So road ran to the stick that bore almonds (Nm 7) (6,3) 10. Simple drives (6) 11. Remains to start Lent (5) 14. Blossom, I call out (5) 15. In the deluge Jonah unfortunately lost his head (4) 16. Lives that become bad (5) 18. Confident (4) 20. Stud ordinarily reveals royal house (5) 21. And US takes turn in Africa (5) 24. Remove the wax closure (6) 25. Necessary for bishop in office (9) 26. Sun returns to the bend.

It’s no gain (4) 27. Early reclusive monk (9) Solutions on page 11

DoWN

1. Infinite (9) 2. Other things the nun may shoulder (9) 4. Phobia surely holds prejudice (4) 5. Gazes dreamily at the satellites (5) 6. Silent way to hear what I said (6) 7. Call of a bird (4) 9. Her band went to her head (5) 11. Heretic under a Zodiac sign (5) 12. Go ahead bravely like army man (7,2) 13. Final choice made briefly from it? (9) 17. Retard growth of the trick (5) 19. Man of great authority (Ac 8) (6) 22. Honey-yellow colour (5) 23. Soon seen in an onion (4) 24. Individual (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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n Sunday school the catechist asked the children: “If I sold everything I own, and then gave all my money to the Church, would I go to heaven?”

“No!” all the children answered. ”And if I cleaned the church every day and mowed the lawn, would I go to heaven?”

Again, “No!” “Well,” she asked, “how can I get to heaven?”

Little Thabo raises his hand and answers: “You got to be dead!”

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