The
S outhern C ross
August 26 to September 1, 2015
Singer refused to drop Jesus from his song
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Why the porn flood is a threat to us
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Feast day for Daswa set; body to be relocated BY STUART GRAHAM
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HE body of South Africa’s first Catholic martyr, Benedict Daswa, will be exhumed and reburied in a church that he built in his birth village near Thohoyandou, while his feast day has been set for February 1, and the bishop who started his sainthood cause has written a book in anticipation of the September beatification. Bishop Hugh Slattery, the retired head of Tzaneen diocese, who initiated the cause to have Daswa beatified, said the body would be exhumed and reburied in the church in Nweli in time for the beatification. “There has to be a place where people can venerate and pray at his grave site,” Bishop Slattery said. The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, meanwhile, has approved Daswa’s feast day for February 1. Usually feast days are timed to coincide with the anniversary of a saint’s death, which in Daswa’s case is February 2. Bishop Slattery said it was decided to set the feast day for February 1 so that it would not clash with the feast of Our Lady’s Presentation of the Lord at the Temple, which falls on February 2. Benedict Daswa, a headmaster and father of eight, was killed by a mob in his home village of Mbahe, near Thohoyandou, on February 2, 1990, after he refused to pay R5 to sponsor a witch hunt. His beatification will be held in an open field at Tshitanini village about 17km from Thohoyandou on September 13. The ceremony is open to anyone who would like to attend. Around 20 000 people are expected to attend. In an opening ceremony at 7:30am, youth from Tzaneen and Witbank dioceses will present Daswa’s story in a format of traditional dance and praise songs. Prayers are due to start at 8:30, led by Bishop Slattery. The beatification Mass, to be led by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congrega-
A participant in a hikers’ retreat on the Quagga’s Pad Trail in Mpumalanga. The church at Nweli which Benedict Daswa helped to build and which will house his body, making the church a site of pilgrimage.
Hike set scene for retreat
tion for Saints’ Causes, is due to run from 10:00 to lunchtime. Pope Francis approved Daswa’s beatification earlier this year. A letter from The Holy Father will be included in the beatification booklet. Bishop Slattery said the book he has written on Daswa’s life will be available at his beatification and will also be sold at all Pauline bookshops. “I tried to portray his character through the eyes of other people,” Bishop Slattery said. “I consulted widely with his family and friends. He had a great deal of humanity… That is evident from the people who knew him.” Daswa, he said, was active in the Church and with the youth and was “a holy man”. “I wanted to get across that he was a holy man. He led by example. We can look up to him. He was a man who was free within himself,” Bishop Slattery said. “He was a man who points us to the inner kind of liberation to get away from enslavement. He accepted the Gospel fully.”
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BY DYLAN APPOLIS
HE Jesuit Institute embarked on its first ever weekend hiking retreat, held on the Quagga’s Pad Trail in Mpumalanga, and led by its director, Fr Russell Pollitt SJ. “Each day the nine participants were given material to pray with during the day. They would then set off walking in silence and stopped to pray or reflect as they desired,” said Fr Pollitt. The retreat was designed using, as its broad format, the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. Fr Russell linked Scripture texts with quotations from Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’. “Many of the participants found it very helpful to pray in nature using excerpts from Laudato Si’. The accommodation was rustic but this enabled participants to change gear and take time out from the pressure and fast pace by which so many city dwellers live,” said Fr Pollitt. There were a number of places for people to stop and pray with wonderful panoramic views, Fr Pollitt told The Southern Cross. “For example, on day two, most of the hik-
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ing was done through grasslands where retreatants were surrounded by herds of eland, duikers and zebra. Some of the retreatants saw a jackal on the plains,” he said. In the evaluations most participants found the hike a very helpful way to make a weekend retreat. “Finding God in nature is a great way to deepen my spiritual life,” one retreatant remarked. Another said that the balance between silence, prayer, Mass and chatting to other members of the group was helpful to them. “We had the opportunity to reflect and talk about Laudato Si’ and think about its implications for us and our lifestyles,” another remarked. Most of the retreatants said that this should become part of the Jesuit Institute’s annual calendar. “We are seriously thinking of making this an annual event. We probably will go back to the same venue but will certainly consider others that may facilitate the kind of atmosphere we need for this type of retreat,” said Fr Pollitt.