150909

The

S outhern C ross

September 9 to September 15, 2015

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4941

www.scross.co.za

Global campaign to protect women reaches SA

Page 2

INSIDE

YOUR SPECIAL DASWA POSTER

Tzaneen bishop on beatification: We are ready

BY STUART GRAHAM

R7,00 (incl VAT RSA)

Flashback to pope’s SA visit 20 years ago

Page 14

Special pull-out Daswa supplement

To mark the beatification of Benedict Daswa, we have produced a four-page special souvenir supplement. Moreover, we are distributing 5 000 free copies of this edition at the beatification ceremony.

If you are one of the 5 000 and receive The Southern Cross for the first time, we hope you enjoy Southern Africa’s only national Catholic weekly newspaper.

Should you wish to subscribe (print or digital), please contact Michelle Perry at 021 465 5007 or subscriptions@scross.co.za or ask your parish to order The Southern Cross.

G

OVERNMENT ministers, diplomats, Church leaders and possibly South Africa’s heads of state will join tens of thousands of Catholics from around the country at the beatification of Benedict Daswa on September 13.

Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen said President Jacob Zuma and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa had been invited for the historic event at Tshitanini village, 17 km north-east of Thohoyandou.

“A general invitation has been sent out to all South Africans,” Bishop Rodrigues said. No one is excluded from attending.”

He said Limpopo premier Stanley Mathabatha had confirmed that he would be at the beatification, as had a number of diplomats.

The bishop said he expected between 20 000 and 30 000 people to attend the beatification Mass, to be celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Campers are allowed to use the field where the beatification will happen on the night before the ceremony.

Vendors will be selling food and drinks but those attending have been urged to bring their own food, drinks and shade for the day.

“Most will be bringing their own seating, shade and blankets to sit on,” the bishop said.

“We expect a huge number of people, so it will be best if people do bring some food and drink. With so many people it is difficult to predict supplies,” Bishop Rodrigues said.

Media from around the world, including the BBC, are expected to cover the event.

Radio Veritas will provide a live broadcast of the entire beatification, which will also be televised on the SABC News channel on DStv. The station will also sell Daswa souvenirs such as mugs, caps and T-shirts (see page 3).

The Southern Cross will distribute 5 000 free copies of this edition at the beatification.

“This is our gift to the People of God who’ll gather to witness this historic event, and to the diocese of Tzaneen, which defied all odds, especially in terms of resources, to bring the cause for Benedict Daswa to the point of beatification,” said Southern Cross ed-

Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen. itor Günther Simmermacher.

Daswa’s remains meanwhile, have been moved to a church in the village of Nweli that he built before his death. (See also page 3) “As you enter the church, his grave will be on the right side,” the bishop said. “He is buried in the same metal casket and there is a granite tombstone.”

Daswa’s new tomb will be unveiled to the public on Saturday, September 12.

The diocese also plans to build a pilgrim church at the site of the beatification in honour of Daswa.

A number of events will be held on the day before the beatification, including an evening prayer service, a drama on Daswa by the youth of Ivory Park, and a homily by Fr Karabo Baloyi.

Between noon and 18:00 on the day before the beatification, pilgrims will be guided to the Daswa home, the site of his stoning, the school where he was headmaster and Nweli church.

Bishop Rodrigues noted that Daswa did not live long enough to grow old in the literal sense but he did mature in the faith very quickly.

“We can detect that he was always trying to ensure that it was God who was leading his life rather than his simply following his own will,” the bishop said.

“Benedict Daswa, like all the saints and martyrs of the Church, challenges us to become mature Catholics, holistically formed in the Spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Fr Bheki Shabalala CMM (right), chairman of the Mariannhill Mission Press Trust and Sipho Mchunu, head of liturgical layout at Mariannhill Mission Press, with proofs for the isiZulu children's bible in front of an old printing press. The children’s picture-story bible will be printed on Mariannhill’s state-of-the-art presses, to be unrolled in all local languages. The first, in isiZulu, will be published on November 15. (See page 3 for full story)

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2

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

LOCAL

Salesians celebrate Bosco bicentenary

BY SYDNEY DUVAL & NINA BEkINk

S

TAFF and students of Salesian Institute Youth Projects in Cape Town celebrated the bicentenary and legacy of their founder, St Don Bosco, who inspires the Salesian communities around the world with his charism of serving vulnerable youth with loving kindness.

The celebration began with a special service in Sacred Heart church, Green Point, across the road from the Salesian Institute, which itself has been educating and developing youth for more than 100 years.

Malawian Fr Kizito Gugah, parish priest at St Francis de Sales, Malmesbury, and a product of Sale-

sian formation in South Africa and Lesotho, lifted the spirits of all present with his heartfelt sharing of the legacy of Don Bosco and his mission to love—which he presented as a challenge to contemporary society and culture.

“Wherever we are, we should use every opportunity to be another Don Bosco in our time,” he said in connecting his message of hope and unity to the essential qualities of Salesian outreach and the work of the Turin priest who dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth.

St John Bosco promoted teaching that was based on love rather than punishment—this was to be-

A human 200 is formed to honour the bicentenary of St John Bosco.

(Photo: Sydney Duval) come a renowned source of solidarity for youth struggling to rise above adversity.

Led by Br Clarence Watts, director of the Salesian ethos, the celebration included song, dance, readings, prayer and a djembe drumming session by the young men and women from the Learn to

Live educational programme.

The celebration moved to the institute buildings for further events.

Staff and youth combined to do some signwriting in the institute grounds by forming a human 200 to honour the bicentenary. Photographers were able to capture the impact from the top of the building as the people below waved paper flags of red, blue and yellow.

The celebration moved to the ground floor verandah where Fr Jeffrey Johnson, rector of the Salesian community in Somerset Road, cut the special bicentenary cake which was shared by all, followed by lunch for staff and guests.

Salesian Institute Youth Projects (SIYP) is an NGO with offices in 180 countries across the world which

supports the advancement of young people in vulnerable situations.

Education and skills training are major priorities, as well as integrating youth back into society to be self-sufficient, contributing citizens who respond positively to the opportunities provided by their “Salesian experience”.

The team at SIYP provide a diverse range of services to the youth: safe shelter, psychosocial support, appropriate education and vocational skills training, computer literacy, basic lifeskills for the extremely vulnerable affected by cycles of crime and drugs.

SIYP has also formed strong partnership programmes with companies that provide jobs for the youth who graduate.

Campaign takes on gender violence

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

T

HE Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s Justice & Peace Commission has launched a local chapter of a global campaign against gender violence.

The “HeForShe” campaign is run by the United Nations to fight gender-based violence by mobilising millions of men in the world to challenge other men when they are involved in discrimination of and violence against women.

Justice & Peace launched it at St Peters parish in Nelspruit, Witbank diocese.

Fr Stan Muyebe OP, director of the J&P Commission, told The Southern Cross that hundreds of thousands of men from around the world—including heads of state, chief executive officers and academics—have joined the campaign.

The Nelspruit launch was attended by dignitaries such as Bishop Joe Sandri of Witbank; Bishop José Luis Ponce de León of Manzini in Swaziland; Dr Auxilia Aponga , country representative of UN Women; Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, head of the Moral Regeneration Movement; and three MECs from the Mpumalanga government, Nomsa Mtsweni, Andries Gamede and Vusi Shongwe.

The HeForShe campaign launched with signature T-shirts.

“Abuse against women leaves scars, not only on those abused, but down a long line,” Dr Aponga said.

“To be successful in fighting violence in our society, we have to go back to the basics: we have to strengthen the family as the basic social unit,” said SACBC secretarygeneral Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS. “Women have a big role to play in strengthening the family as the basic social unit.”

Bishop Ponce de León told the launch that the Southern African bishops are concerned about “the high levels of gender-based vio-

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lence, which is on the increase in our communities”.

He referred to the J&P campaign “Men as Peacemakers”, which draws its inspiration from the beatitudes—“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Sons of God” (Mt 5:9). The campaign “targets men to be agents of change and influence”, the bishop said.

The theme for the HeForShe launch was “Break the silence. Raise your voice and take action for gender equality”.

“It challenges the way we think, the way we talk, what we do and in what we fail to do,” Bishop Ponce de León said.

Fr Mkhatshwa welcomed the launch but warned that much more needs to be done.

“In our media, day in and day out, we read stories about the rape, the murder of old gogos, of women, girls and even toddlers,” he said.

Yena Khuboni, Miss Commonwealth SA 2015 Top 16 finalist and a Catholic, told the launch: “The HeForShe campaign is an indication to me that men have committed to being the best human beings that God has created them to be, and I am very proud to be part of this initiative.”

The foundation phase learners of St Dominic’s Priory School in Port Elizabeth sang for the Dominican Sisters and presented them with flowers to celebrate the beginning of spring.

Bishop: pray for Swazi girls killed in accident

BY STUART GRAHAM

A

MID controversy about the circumstances surrounding the traffic accident that killed many young Swazi women on the way to the traditional reed dance, the bishop of Manzini asked for prayers and solidarity for the victims and their families.

The Swazi government initially said 13 girls died in the accident, but estimates from those at the scene are closer to 65.

The young women, who were stacked in the back of an open truck that swerved, were flung onto the tarmac. Another two trucks, also packed with maidens, then drove over many of the girls.

“Let us pray for their families and friends that the God of all consolation gives them peace and strength,” said Bishop José Luis Ponce de León, Swaziland’s Catholic bishop.

“May it be a time of deep reflection in our lives. Each one of us had been entrusted by God with the safety and dignity of these young people. Aside from those directly responsible for Friday’s accident, we need to ask ourselves if there was anything more we could have done to prevent it.”

The maidens were due to dance for King Mswati III, who refused to cancel the reed dance and replace it with a period of mourning.

“The king has already mourned to the nation and that is enough: the reed dance is going on as scheduled,”

King Mswati III’s younger sister, Princess Tsandzile Dlamini, told The Southern Cross.

Bheki Gama, a freelance journalist who was at the scene of the accident, said paramedics who attended the scene had told him that dozens of young women had died at the scene or on the way to hospital.

“It was horrific,” he said. “The tar was covered with blood. Many of the bodies had been collected by the time I arrived.”

Lucky Lukhele, a spokesman for the pro-democracy Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), also said that at least 65 girls had died in the accident.

“We can confirm that the girls were transported in open trucks meant to carry building material and that is why the number of deaths is so high,” Mr Lukhele said.

Mswati III, who has 14 wives and is known for living an opulent lifestyle has been king since 1986. He has chosen a number of his wives from the virgins who attend the dance.

Mr Gama said the reed dance had been hijacked and turned into a “perverted” event by the royal household.

“The girls are supposed to dance for the queen mother before they deliver reeds that will be used to build shade for the cooking houses outside huts.”

He said the royal household had “hijacked this noble part of our culture and turned it into an event that suits their own ends”.

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

3

New children’s bible in local languages

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

M

ARIANNHILL Mission Press is producing Catholic children’s picture-story bibles in local languages that is user friendly for children, with an initial print run of 10 000 for the isiZulu version this year.

The picture-story bible is targeted at children at the First Communion age and a little younger, and is written so that parents can read it to a five- or six-year-old with ease.

The 208 full-colour pages cover all the main stories from Creation to Revelation—some 67 stories with big pictures. Each story is written in such a way that the message can be understood by a child; and each story also provides the Scripture references in the Bible.

“I am pretty sure that as parents read the stories to their children, they’ll rush back to their own bibles as follow-up,” said Robert Riedlinger, chief executive of Mariannhill Mission Press.

The father of two said he did that when he read the story of Baalam’s Donkey (Numbers 21-38).

Fr Bheki Shabalala CMM, chairman of the board at Mariannhill Mission Press, said the picture Bible is about passion for the Gospel and

Fr Bheki Shabalala CMM (standing), chairman of the Mariannhill Mission Press Trust, and Sipho Mchunu, head of liturgical layout at Mariannhill Mission Press, look at the isiZulu children’s bible onscreen. “bringing children closer to God through art and visuals”.

He noted that it is important that the picture bible is available in different languages. “I was worried that children aren’t reading picture-

story bibles in their own languages, but now they can bring all their attention to the book as it is made in local languages.”

The book will retail at R150, but Mariannhill will offer discounts on

bulk purchases for parishes.

Initially it will be distributed in South Africa, but the press has its eyes set also on other countries.

Mariannhill’s history of distributing bibles goes back to its founding days. “Within four years of [founder] Abbott Francis arriving in what we now know as Mariannhill in 1882, he had arranged for the Catechism of the Catholic Church to be translated and printed in isiZulu,” Mr Riedlinger said.

“Our founder was passionate about bringing the faith to all people. This is why we are so driven to bring the Scriptures to all Catholics in their own languages. It is why Mariannhill Mission Press exists,” he added.

Mr Riedlinger praised the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries for being “a powerful force guiding the project” of the picture bible. “It is their charism that drives us to do this work.”

He noted that Archbishop Paul Khumalo, formerly of Pretoria and Witbank, served as a translator for the project.

Mr Riedlinger said he saw a need for a local-language picture-story bible when he observed his own son and daughter. “My children

have 17 picture-story bibles between them. They both know the Bible stories very well and are able to relate the lessons to their own personal situations,” he explained.

“It was when I saw my children reading their bibles and how they held these books with a special reverence that it clicked for me.”

He looked around but found no Catholic picture-story bibles in South African languages other than English.

“With the backing of the board I began to secure rights for various versions of bibles for children in local languages. We have decided to call our publishing division ‘My Special Book’,” he said.

Mariannhill Mission Press is also planning to publish versions aimed at toddlers and young teenagers, as well as a digital version of the children’s picture-story bible.

“There will also be a website where we will run monthly competitions for kids to draw how they imagine some of the stories to be, as well as free downloadable worksheets for teachers,” said Mr Riedlinger.

The children’s picture-story bible in isiZulu will be published on November 15.

Moving, solemn relocation of Daswa coffin

BY SR CLAUDETTE HIOSAN FDNSC

T

HE relocation of the remains of Benedict Daswa from his grave to the church of Our Lady of the Assumption at Nweli was a delicate and solemn occasion.

Church authorities and other authorised personnel gathered with most of the close members of the Daswa family at the Nweli church.

After the welcome and prayer service, the order of proceedings was outlined by the Promoter of Justice, Fr Edmund O’Neill SDB. All then proceeded to the cemetery in Mbahe village and assembled at the grave which was clearly marked by the tombstone inscription as belonging to the Venerable Servant of God. With raised hands, three witnesses attested aloud that they were present at the burial of Tshiman-

gadzo Samuel Benedict Daswa, and that this was indeed the place of burial of his remains. After calling each of the gravediggers by name, Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen instructed them to proceed with their work.

As the coffin had been very securely buried with several layers of thick cement between layers of soil, the process of uncovering the coffin took more than four hours.

The steel coffin, which was in good condition, was carefully lifted upright from the grave. With the consent of the Daswa family, it was then carried very respectfully to the grave of Eveline “Shady” Daswa, the deceased widow of Benedict, and placed on top of her tombstone.

After the coffin was opened the skeletal remains of Benedict were seen to be intact within the original wrappings, which were intact.

The family indicated their preference for the remains to be kept Benedict Daswa limited edition, official memorabilia will be on sale from Radio Veritas at the beatification and by post.

Items include caps, T-shirts, mugs and plates.

Daswa memorabilia on sale

BY STUART GRAHAM

R

ADIO Veritas will take three busloads of people to the beatification of Benedict Daswa on September 13 and will broadcast the entire ceremony live throughout the day.

“We will broadcast it live to our studio,” Radio Veritas programming manager Khanya Litabe told The Southern Cross.

“It starts at 7:30. We will start with it and carry the whole feed.”

The beatification was a “big operation” for the station, Mr Litabe said. “For us to send our signal to Johannesburg, we can’t just depend on 3G. We will need to have a strong signal so we may have to pig-

gyback on the SABC for that.”

It was not yet certain who will anchor the ceremony for the station as station director Fr Emil Blaser will be away on pilgrimage in Italy.

The station will also sell limited edition and official Benedict Daswa memorabilia at the beatification.

The range includes T-shirts (R120), caps (R50), mugs (R60), umbrellas (R80), blankets (R300), as well as plates, keyrings, a framed picture, water bottles, candles and incense.

Radio Veritas broadcasts on 576AM in Gauteng, DStv Audio 870 and live streaming on www.radio veritas.co.za  To order merchandise contact the station on 011 663 4700.

undisturbed in the original coffin for reinterment.

Following the age-old custom of the Church, some small portions of the cloth in which the deceased was wrapped and a tiny portion of bone were taken for future use as relics.

After the coffin had been brushed down to remove excess soil, an official Church document testifying to the date of death and exhumation of the Venerable Servant of God was placed inside the coffin. It was then covered in white material and draped in a colourful traditional Venda cloth.

It was next secured with strong bands, bound with red ribbon and sealed with the wax seal of the diocese of Tzaneen.

The adult children of Benedict Daswa carried the dressed and sealed coffin to the hearse which then departed for the church at Nweli, followed in convoy by the

other cars.

The remains, carried by the children of Benedict Daswa, entered the church from which they departed 25 years previously.

Bishop Rodrigues blessed and sprinkled the coffin with holy water and incensed the newly prepared vault, coffin and remains, as well as the paschal candle which was placed alongside the new vault.

The coffin was then lowered onto four bricks to its new resting place, after which all were invited to view the coffin before the undertakers began the work of closing the vault with a new tombstone and headstone.

Benedict’s children placed a veil as well as a bouquet of flowers on the newly sealed vault.

The unveiling of the tombstone will take place on Saturday, September 12, the day before the celebration of the beatification Mass.

Benedict Daswa’s coffin was covered in a colourful Venda cloth in its new resting place at Nweli.

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4

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

INTERNATIONAL

Pope: More martrys now than ever before

BY CINDY WOODEN

‘D

O something to put a stop to the violence and oppression,” Pope Francis asked the international community after calling attention once again to the fate of persecuted Christians, especially in the Middle East.

After reciting the Angelus, Pope Francis told thousands of people in St Peter’s Square that, the previous evening in Lebanon, martyred Syriac Bishop Flavien-Michel Malke was beatified.

“In the context of a tremendous persecution of Christians, he was an untiring defender of the rights of his people, exhorting all of them to remain firm in their faith,” the pope said.

“Today as well, in the Middle East and other parts of the world, Christians are persecuted,” the pope said.

“May the beatification of this bishop and martyr fill them with consolation, courage and hope.”

Departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis told people in the square: “There are more martyrs [today] than there were in the first centuries of Christianity.”

He prayed that the beatification would “also be a stimulus for legislators and those who govern so that religious freedom would be guaranteed everywhere. And I ask the international community to do something to put a stop to the violence and oppression”.

The beatification liturgy for

Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja and Sheik Nura khalid, chief imam of Apo Legislators Quarters Jumu’at Mosque, join #BringBackOurGirls campaigners in Abuja, during a protest procession marking the 500th day since the abduction of girls in Chibok, Nigeria. (Photo: Afolabi Sotunde, Reuters/CNS)

Pope did not back ‘gay penguin’ book

BY ANDREA GAGLIARDUCCI

T

HE Vatican has rejected media reports that Pope Francis is supporting a book on gay adoption, saying a letter responding to the author should not be interpreted as an endorsement.

In responding to the author’s letter, the Vatican Secretariat of State did not intend in any way to support “behaviour and teachings which are not in accordance with the Gospel”, and using the Vatican response to imply otherwise “is completely out of place”, said Fr Ciro Benedettini, deputy director of the Holy See Press Office.

The Holy See statement came in response to a media frenzy following reports that Francesca Pardi, author of a children’s book supporting gay adoption, received a letter from Pope Francis that supposedly encouraged her to keep up her work.

Ms Pardi’s book is titled Piccolo uovo (Little Egg). It includes the story of two gay penguins who adopt a baby penguin, among other non-traditional animal families. The book won the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.

Piccolo uovo had been included on a recommended reading list for children in primary schools in Venice. However, the city’s newlyelected mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, removed it in June.

In response, Ms Pardi wrote a letter to Pope Francis, enclosing the catalogue of the books published by the publishing house Lo Stampatello, which she co-founded with her girlfriend.

In her letter, she argued that while the books support ideas of

gay family and adoption, they do not contain “gender theory” because they do not discuss sex or tell children they can choose their own gender.

On August 28, Ms Pardi said in a Facebook post that she had received “a private letter written by Mgr [Peter] Brian Wells in the name of Pope Francis, on a Vatican letterhead”.

She said that the letter was addressed to her and to her girlfriend, Silvia Maria Fiengo. She claimed that the pope had thanked her for the “delicate gesture” and expressed wishes for “an always more fruitful activity in the service of young generations and the spread of genuine human and Christian values”.

Ms Pardi added that the pope gave her the Apostolic Blessing. Numerous media outlets covered the story by saying that Pope Francis was offering his support for Ms Pardi and her book.

However, the Vatican says that the letter signed by Mgr Peter Wells, assessor to the Secretariat of State, is not an indication of papal support.

Thanking people for their “delicate gesture” is part of the formula that is generally used whenever the pope is offered a gift.

This is reflected in the letter’s wish for more fruitful activity “and the spread of genuine human and Christian values”.

As for as the papal blessing, Fr Benedettini clarified that “the blessing is for the person and not for [any] teaching against the Doctrine of the Church on gender ideology”.

Using the contents of the letter to suggest otherwise, he concluded, “is completely out of place”.—CNA

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Syrian migrants walk along a railway track after crossing into Hungary from the border with Serbia near Roszke, Hungary. (Photo: Bernadett Szabo, Reuters/CNS) Bishop Malke was celebrated in Harissa, Lebanon, on the 100th anniversary of his death. Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan presided and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, was present.

As the Ottoman empire crumbled in the early 1900s, there were waves of violence and persecution against Christian minorities, especially the Armenians and Syrians. Bishop Malke was the Syriac Catholic bishop of Gazireh, which today is the city of Cizre, Turkey. Although advised to flee, the bishop stayed with his people and was arrested.

Cardinal Amato said the bishop was told that if he converted to

Islam, his life would be spared, but he refused and was beheaded.

The bishop was born in 1858 in Qal’at Mara in what is now southeastern Turkey. Although his family was Orthodox, he became a Syriac Catholic. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1883 and named bishop of Gazireh in 1913.

In his homily, Patriarch Younan, referring to the 1915 Armenian genocide, and what is happening today, especially in Syria and Iraq, asked: “Why?” “The secret of suffering one does not understand. It accepts the spirit of Christ,” he said, asking:“[But] where is the conscience of the world?”—CNS

Most Americans welcome Pope Francis

M

OST Americans have a favourable view of Pope Francis, but most also know little about him and aren’t sure news reports about him are accurate, a new survey reports ahead of the papal visit to the US and Cuba this month.

Almost 60% of respondents said they had a favourable or very favourable view of Pope Francis. This is about the same rating that Pope Benedict XVI had before his 2008 visit to the US. Ten percent of respondents voiced an unfavourable view of the pope, while about 32% said they were unsure, or had not heard of the pope.

Among all Catholic respondents, 77% viewed Pope Francis favourably.

Practising Catholics were most favourable, with 83% rating him favourably or very favourably, according to a poll conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion

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Respondents approved of the pope’s role as a spiritual and world leader. They rated him highly for his work on interreligious relations, and thought he was someone who cares about people like them.

The Pope will visit the US from September 22-27, with stops in Washington, New York City, and Philadelphia. He will address the US Congress and the United Nations, and say the closing Mass for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

However, almost three quarters of Americans say they know little or nothing about the pope’s US visit.

About 55% of practising Catholic respondents said the same.

At the same time, 72% said the pope has a message for all Americans, as did 90% of practising Catholics.

The survey found that about 63% of Americans said they rarely or never follow news about the pope.

By contrast, 67% of practising Catholics and 60% of all Catholics said they follow news stories about him.

The survey’s respondents were sceptical towards both major news outlets and Catholic media. Only about 40% of survey respondents trusted these news sources for accurate news about the pope. However, about 70% of practising Catholics said they trusted Catholic media outlets for accurate reports on Pope Francis’ visit.

About 66% of Americans approved of the Catholic Church, including 95% of practising Catholics and 90% of Catholics overall. Poll respondents tended to approve of the Church’s contribution to people and communities in the US.—CNA

Sex-abuse nuncio died of natural causes

I

NITIAL results of the autopsy on the body of former archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was awaiting trial in the Vatican on charges of child sexual abuse and possession of child pornography, indicate he died of a “cardiac incident”, the Vatican said.

The results of further tests from the autopsy were pending and Vatican City State judicial authorities appointed three outside experts, including a professor of forensic medicine, to study them and issue a report.

Wesolowski, 67, the former Vatican nuncio to the Dominican Republic, was confined to Vatican property while awaiting trial.

Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, presided at Wesolowski’s funeral Mass in the chapel of the Vatican City governor’s palace.

A Vatican report said that Wesolowski had been in ill health and was under medical supervision at the time of his death.

Former nuncio to the Dominican Republic Josef Wesolowski.

The former Polish archbishop and nuncio—(Vatican ambassador)—to the Dominican Republic was to be the first person to be tried by a Vatican criminal court on sex abuse charges. The first session of the trial was postponed when he was hospitalised.

He was dismissed from the clerical state in June 2014 after an investigation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Vatican prosecutors listed five charges against Wesolowski, which included having “corrupted, by means of lewd acts, adolescents presumably between the ages of 13 and 16”, in the Dominican Republic.

According to Vatican prosecutors, Wesolowski's crimes continued once he was brought back to the Vatican. While being investigated, the court said, he procured and possessed on Vatican City State property “and elsewhere”, a “large amount” of “material from Internet sites” depicting minors under the age of 18 in sexually explicit acts or poses.

He also was charged with causing “serious injury to adolescent victims of sexual abuse, consisting of mental distress” and of “conduct that offends religious principles or Christian morality” by repeatedly logging onto pornographic sites while in the Dominican Republic, Rome, Vatican City State and elsewhere.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

Mercy for all in Jubilee Year

BY CINDY WOODEN

I

N an extraordinary gesture for the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has extended to priests worldwide the authority to absolve women for the sin of abortion and has decreed the full validity during the year of the sacrament of confession celebrated by priests of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X. “This Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one,” the pope wrote in a letter to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelisation, the office organising events for the holy year, which opens on December 8.

Pope Francis said one of the most serious problems facing people today is a “widespread and insensitive mentality” toward the sacredness of human life.

“The tragedy of abortion is experienced by some with a superficial awareness, as if not realising the extreme harm that such an act entails,” while many other women believe that “they have no other option” but to have an abortion, the pope wrote in the letter.

The pressures exerted on many women to abort lead to “an existential and moral ordeal”, Pope Francis said. “I have met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonising and painful decision.”

When such a woman has repented and seeks absolution in the sacrament of confession, he said, “the forgiveness of God cannot be denied”.

Although Church law generally requires a priest to have special permission, called faculties, from his bishop to grant absolution to a person who has procured or helped another to procure an abortion, the pope said he decided “to concede to all priests for the jubilee year the discretion to absolve of the sin of abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it”.

5

Church backed Indian strike

T

Pope Francis, seen praying during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, has issued a letter offering a series of instances in which absolution can be granted during the Year of Mercy. (Photo: Ettore Ferrari, EPA/CNS) Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said that the pope’s letter “highlights the wideness of God’s mercy” and is “not in any way minimising the gravity of the sin” of abortion.

I

n his letter, Pope Francis also granted another exception to Church rules out of concern for “those faithful who for various reasons choose to attend churches officiated by priests” belonging to the traditionalist Society of St Pius X. Although the society is no longer considered to be in schism and the excommunication of its bishops was lifted in 2009, questions remain over whether the sacraments they celebrate

are valid and licit.

The pope’s decision was “taken with the faithful in mind” and is limited to the holy year, which runs through until November 20, 2016, Fr Lombardi said.

Pope Francis’ letter also explained expanded opportunities for obtaining the indulgences that are a normal part of the celebration of a holy year. An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment a person is due because of his or her sins. In a holy year, it is offered to pilgrims who cross the threshold of the Holy Door at the Vatican or in their local diocese, confess their sins, receive the Eucharist and pray for the pope’s intentions.—CNS

Eleven cardinals’ book Pope Benedict’s Mass urges caution to synod with former students

HE Catholic Church in India supported some 150 million workers on a nationwide strike that shut down factories, banks, traffic and government offices across India.

Workers across India are upset about labour policies of the government that they say are detrimental to the welfare of workers, said Bishop Oswald Lewis of Jaipur, head of the Indian bishops’ labour office.

“The Church is in solidarity with striking workers because we are concerned about their welfare,” the bishop said, adding that all Catholic forums in the country are supporting the strike.

A national network of ten leading trade unions, including those in the banking, manufacturing, construction and coal mining sectors, organised the 24-hour strike, saying that their two rounds of talks with the federal government had failed to elicit a favourable response to their demands.

Their demands range from an enforcement of basic labour laws and universal social security coverage for workers to measures to contain rising prices and unemployment.

Media reported that the strike hit transport and banking operations across the country and that in some parts workers blocked highways and stopped trains. Many schools and universities as well as factories, government offices and commercial outlets remained closed.

Bishop Lewis said the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been following a development principle “based on private-public-partnership, which actually proved to be benefiting industrialists”.

“We believe policy changes should be done after wider consultation with all stakeholders, including workers,” Bishop Lewis said.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

LEVEN cardinals, at least four of whom will participate in the world Synod of Bishops on the family in October, have urged fellow Church leaders to maintain the Church’s rules regarding marriage and strengthen Catholic education about marriage and family life.

Their book, Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and the Family, published

by Ignatius Press, has contributing cardinals from Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. The essays include personal pastoral reflections as well as urge extreme caution in considering any plan to readmit to Communion Catholics who have divorced and remarried civilly without having received an annulment.

Italian Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, who was not elected by his peers to attend the synod, said showing mercy to such couples without requiring their conversion—demonstrated by at least refraining from sexual relations with the new spouse—“is the mistaken pity of an incompetent and/or weak physician who contents himself with bandaging wounds without treating them”.

German Cardinal Paul Cordes, the retired head of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, knows for a fact how long some Church leaders and theologians have been seeking a possible penitential process or other procedure that would allow the divorced and remarried to receive Communion without an annulment or that promise sexual abstinence.

In the 1970s, he was appointed secretary of a task force set up by the bishops of G e r m a n y, Switzerland and Austria to find what he described as a “loophole of mercy”. The experience, he wrote, proved that even “theological and canonical acrobatics” cannot defend giving those couples Communion while effectively teaching that marriage is indissoluble.

Czech Cardinal Dominik Duka of Prague, who was not elected to the synod by the Czech bishops, also placed at least some of the blame on the failures of the Church’s ministers.

Too many Catholics, he said, have no idea what it means to give their word and make a vow forever.

“The synod should never forget the past and present scandal of the basic destruction of the word” seen in the broken “promises of a large number of religious and priests in the latter half of the past century”, he wrote. It is “a scandal that we must confess humbly in the presence of husbands and wives who, amid the thousand difficulties of their life in this era of degradation, are fighting to remain faithful to their promise, to their word, to the oath that they made to each other and to God”.— CNS

C

ELEBRATING Mass with his former doctoral students and a new generation of scholars of his work, retired Pope Benedict XVI focused his homily on the importance of finding “truth, love and goodness” in God. Now 88, Pope Benedict has met annually since the 1970s with what is known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis (Ratzinger Student Circle), which is made up of bishops and scholars who earned their doctorates under him in Germany.

The Schülerkreis gathers for a week of theological discussions; the topic this year was “How to speak about God today” presented by Mgr Tomas Halik, a Czech theologian and winner of the 2014 Templeton Prize.

The retired pope did not join his former students for the discussions in Castel Gandolfo, but spent the morning with them in the Vatican’s Teutonic College where the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Roman Library will open to scholars in November.

In the day’s Gospel reading from Mark’s gospel, Jesus says: “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”

According to a post on the Ratzinger Foundation website, Pope Benedict said he remembered that when the same Gospel was read three years ago at Mass with the Schülerkreis, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, one of the retired pope’s former students, had asked whether perhaps it is true that people also must take measures to purify themselves or protect themselves from what comes from outside.

The retired pope said the answer, found looking at the entire gospel, would indicate that people must take precautions to avoid “the many illnesses, even epidemics, which threaten us”.

However, “exterior hygiene” is not enough, he said, because it is “the epidemic of the heart” that leads to corruption and other attitudes “that make people think only of themselves and not of what is good”.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Urgent need for Catholic revival AM in agreement with many of from our Protestant brethren who I(“Church the issues which Deidre Lewis congregate amicably after a service needs important revival”, as a sign of Christian brotherhood.

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Guest editorial: Bishop Victor Phalana

A saint for SA

T

HE cult of martyrs arose early in the history of the Church. Altars and shrines arose over martyrs’ tombs and they were honoured during liturgical celebrations and through private devotions.

Their lives of faith and conviction, together with their heroic deaths, became sources of strength and perseverance for persecuted Christians. They reminded Christians of the power of self-sacrifice and that Our Lord gave up his life for many.

They intercede for us. The intercession of martyrs, saints and angels is biblical. It is not a Catholic invention.

Thus, in Psalm 103 we pray: “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will!” (20–21). And in the opening verses of Psalm 148 we pray: “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host!”

Not only do those in heaven pray with us, they also pray for us.

In the book of Revelation, John sees that “the twenty-four elders [the leaders of the people of God in heaven] fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev 5:8).

Thus, the saints in heaven offer to God the prayers of the saints on earth.

Angels do the same thing: “[An] angel came and stood at the altar [in heaven] with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God” (Rev 8:3–4).

Jesus himself warned us not to offend small children, because their guardian angels have guaranteed intercessory access to the Father: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 18:10).

Because he is the only Godman and the mediator of the

New Covenant, Jesus is the only mediator between man and God (1 Tim 2:5), but this in no way means we cannot or should not ask our fellow Christians to pray with us and for us (1 Tim 2:1–4).

In particular, we should ask the intercession of those Christians in heaven, who have already had their sanctification completed: “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (Jas 5:16).

The coming beatification of Benedict Daswa in Tzaneen diocese on September 13 reminds us of the martyrdoms in the early Church of Ss Origen, Cyprian, Polycarp, Ignatius of Antioch, Perpetua and Felicity.

It reminds us of more recent martyrs, such as St Charles Lwanga and his companions, St Kizito, Bl Miguel Pro, St Maximilian Kolbe, Bl Franz Jägerstätter, Bl Oscar Romero and many others who continue to inspire our generation to know that we can testify by accepting suffering and martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel.

The canonised sainthood means that the Church confirms that the individual is with God. Beatification is the penultimate step before canonisation; the Church is yet to confirm that Benedict is with God—this will require an approved miracle ascribed to his intercession—but by the act of beatification, the Church indicates that he most probably is.

We in the Church of Southern Africa believe that Benedict is with God. He died a holy death. His faith in Jesus Christ— our Way, our Truth and our Life—combined with a martyr’s death, we believe, won for him eternal life and sainthood.

Daswa, through the grace of God, attained this privilege.

Benedict Daswa will be our first South African Catholic Church martyr and beatus, recognised by the official Church. We can, according to the norms of the Catholic Church and the direction of Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen, ask Blessed Benedict Daswa—as he will be as of September 13—to intercede for us before our God. God can and will bless us through his intercession.  Bishop Victor Phalana heads the diocese of Klerksdorp.

August 19) elucidated. Let me highlight a few of my own observations, which, in my humble opinion as a convert to Catholicism, call out urgently for revival.

Firstly, Ms Lewis correctly states that there is little fellowship in the Catholic Church; most parishioners simply bypass each other after Mass, with many making a rush to the parking lot to leave the confines of the church.

The only real contact made is during the sign of peace. Only those who belong to various societies, Bible groups and so on, are in regular contact with each other. The annual bazaar or fundraising event is possibly the only other opportunity when Catholics get to “socialise”.

It is also quite disheartening to observe just how deserted the area in front of the church is after Mass, with but a handful of parishioners exchanging pleasantries or simply just introducing themselves.

We can certainly take a lesson

Homosexuals are created by God

A

S a Catholic, I feel very strongly about the way gay people have been treated down the ages and even to this day by the religions of the world, including the Catholic Church.

The suffering they have been put through as a result of this ignorance, intolerance and bigotry is unbearable.

The secular culture which Jan Kalinowski refers to in his letter headlined “Same-sex: combat secular culture” (August 26) is informed by the latest scientific evidence that gay people have certain different chromosomes to heterosexual people.

They don’t have a choice—who would willingly choose to go through the suffering they have to endure from the way society treats them?

There is no cure to homosexuality—it’s not an illness, it’s the way the Creator made them.

I believe these different chromosomes can be identified in the foetus. Parents could choose to abort them, bringing homophobia to the womb.

How disgusting the thought is to deny the world of the talents of so many gifted homosexual individuals who have contributed so much to our culture through the ages.

It would be as logical to blame someone with Down’s syndrome, those who also have different chromosomes for their condition, as it is

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Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

MEDJUGORJE Rome • Assisi Loreto • Paris

My second point concerns our responses during Mass.

If we profess to be followers of Christ, we should be enthusiastic about our responses. The recitation of the Creed is a feeble mumbling with no conviction evident.

When we say “Amen” do we really mean it ? Or is it but a plea to “please get on with it”?

Our priests tell us that singing is a prayer, and rightly so. Scripture explains why Christians should sing and even what they should sing.

Jesus himself sang a hymn at the Last Supper (Mt 26:30, Mk 14:26).

The psalmist urges us to worship with music. Psalm 100: 2 says: “Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence singing.”

Surely we do not need to be opera singers or trained soloists for us to raise our voices enthusiastically in songs of praise.

Thirdly, I have on many occasions attended services at independent churches and have never

witnessed a congregation leaving the church during the singing of the final hymn. In fact, not even the pastor/minister leaves the pulpit during the singing of the hymn.

Fourthly, many Catholics do not even wait for the celebrant to genuflect in front of the altar after the final blessing, and have been seen to walk down the aisle in front of the priest. What a sign of abject disrespect!

We are prepared to watch a rugby or soccer match for 90 minutes, but an hour in the company of God’s people in his church is almost unbearable for some. Yet we call ourselves Christians and Catholics.

Indeed, Ms Lewis, we, as a Church, need to do some serious soul-searching in order to become relevant and recognised again.

We are losing our young people (and even our older ones) to other more vibrant religious denominations where the emphasis is on being Christian in the true sense of the word, having respect for religious procedure and not treating our obligatory attendance at church as simply being a means to an end.

Emeritus Professor Nicholas J Basson, Cape Town

to blame homosexuals for their sexual orientation.

Why would a loving God make about a tenth of the human race gay and then expect them to live a lonely, loveless existence?

Thank goodness the younger generation are beginning to change these attitudes.

June Boyer, Johannesburg

cording to the publication The Catechism Simply Explained, by Canon Cafferata, includes marriages in the offices of civil registrars.

It is thus out of the question that participants in such marriages should be permitted to receive Holy Communion, while the said marriages subsist.

Damian McLeish, Johannesburg

Hope for priests?

No Communion HAD a counselling session with a young lady who for the remarried Iwasthirtysomething concerned about the relation-

T

HE editorial “At the Lord’s Table” (July 22) suggested that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics could, sometimes, through a dispensation by the local bishop, be given access to the sacraments without first having obtained an annulment.

This will be discussed at the Synod of Bishops on the Family in October.

However, paragraph 308 of the Catholic Catechism states that it is a sacrilege for Catholics to marry in disobedience of the laws of the Church, which disobedience, acOpinions 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

ship she was having with a priest.

I listened and tried to be nonjudgmental, and indeed my patient attitude bore fruit when she said: “My own brother is also a priest and he has several girlfriends. He says that most of his priest friends have multiple partners, so it can’t be that bad, can it?”

When will our hierarchy stop sweeping things under the carpet?

Conversely, I have just read the August edition of the Bella News magazine, and particularly enjoyed the page written by Fr Shaun Von Lillienfield. It was informative and wellbalanced, and his plea that we should use the well-planned readings for our Masses as presented in the order resonated with me.

When many of our other clergy are causing disappointment, Fr Shaun—who always wears a collar, even when saying Mass—and a few others do give me hope that the priesthood may still offer value.

Deacon Alex Niven, Johannesburg

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S outhern C ross Commemorative Supplement Benedict Daswa Beatification: 13 September 2015 The

A visit to Daswa’s village Who would have thought that South Africa’s first saint would come out of a rural, dusty area where few people are Catholic? LEBO WA MAJAHE travelled to the village of Benedict Daswa.

T

HE atmosphere in many South African dioceses is abuzz— everyone speaks with such pride about the beatification of a lay man, Tshimangadzo Benedict Daswa, who died a brutal death some 25 years ago for living and upholding the virtues of his Catholic faith.

This event has brought to many Catholics an element of education on issues such as martyrdom and sainthood. It has also created some interest among Catholics who have researched to learn more about the social teachings of the Church around our belief in the communion of saints.

It is humbling to learn about this remarkable man: Benedict Daswa, a layman who was committed to his family and served the people of his Church and community with great passion and zeal. A father of eight and a husband to his wife, who also passed away a few years ago.

His open witness to his Catholic faith in saying “no” to witchcraft and his passion for the truth led to a tragic end of his earthly life. His murder was planned and driven by people who were jealous and hateful towards him.

Benedict took seriously the call to holiness when he introduced the habit of prayer to people who didn’t care much about God’s existence.

He did God’s work in his passion to catechise, particularly young people who were growing tenderly in the faith, and in his works of mercy when he took it upon himself to feed the poor of his village who would sometimes go days without food.

Just a couple of weeks ago I visited Daswa’s home village of Mbahe in the Venda region of Limpopo. I wanted to find out who this much talked-about Benedict Daswa was.

Arriving from my bustling city of Johannesburg, I found the simple life of the people in the village daunting and humbling.

I interviewed several people; speaking to Benedict’s son Lufono was my highlight.

Humble and approachable, Lufono described his father as a strict man who was keen on seeing every child in the village educated.

He remembers his dad being very warm in his approach towards family. Benedict helped his wife with domestic chores, even though other people saw that as a taboo for an African man—women are expected to do all the chores in the house.

Lufono described Benedict as a very simple man who had a passion for youth and sport; a respectful man who believed that human dignity and the truth have to be upheld in all situations.

I also spent some time with Chris Mphaphuli, who regarded Benedict as a friend and mentor. It was Benedict who encouraged Chris to study

REMEMBER: The beatification ceremony will be broadcast live on Radio Veritas and televised on the SACBC News channel.

Beatification programme

T Benedict Daswa’s close friend Chris Mphaphuli (left) and son Lufono Daswa have been travelling throughout South Africa to tell Catholic communities about their friend and father. (Photos: Stuart Graham) to become a teacher so that they could both work in ensuring that the children of Limpopo would be educated and have a chance for a better future.

At the time when the parish in Nweli was build, Benedict did not yet have a house of his own. But such was the selfless fire burning within his heart that he convinced his wife that they should assist with all they could to see to it that a parish church would be built in the village, so that people could have a decent place for worship.

After the church-building project was completed, the couple at last focused on building a home for their family.

Speaking to Mr Mphaphuli, one senses the pain of losing his friend, even 25 years later. A lot of people in that community are still broken by the way in which Benedict died.

Sarah Ndou, one of his students, sobbed during an interview as she was about to explain the impact and contribution which Benedict had made in her life.

She described him as a “father of the community”, one who had a big heart and who didn’t deserve to die in such a brutal way.

A

s the beatification approached, a lot of people were happy, with only a few left feeling unsettled.

The people of Thohoyandou and its surrounds feel that the beatification will bring some recognition to their place; a dry rural area from where nobody ever thought anything good could come, just as Nathaniel questioned whether anything good could come from Nazareth (Jn 1:46).

Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen has said that the beatification will affirm Catholicism in the area where just a small population of the people are Catholic. About 2,7 million people live in the area covered by the diocese of Tzaneen; only about 45 000 of them are Catholic.

On September 13 many thousands of pilgrims will come to Tshitanini to witness the beatification of Benedict Daswa. The site is presently an open field which the diocese has secured for the purpose of building a pilgrim shrine for Benedict Daswa.

The shrine is set to cost between R25-30 million and the diocese of Tzaneen is appealing to the public for their generosity in ensuring that this dream becomes a reality.

The vicar of the project is Fr André Bohas MSC, the postulator of the Daswa cause who knew Benedict personally.

The remains of Benedict were ex-

Are you attending the beatification?

Send us snapshots of your beatification pilgrimage. We will publish the best in a forthcoming issue of The Southern Cross.

E-mail them by September 28 to pics@scross.co.za

humed on August 24, beginning with a Mass in the Assumption church in Nweli which Daswa helped build and where his remains will be kept. The Mass was a small affair: it was attended by family, close friends and some members of the beatification committee.

Reportedly the coffin in which Benedict was buried was found still intact. To me, this is a true affirmation that God really had a plan.

The son of the African soil, Bene-

dict Daswa, will be a wonderful intercessor for all the people of South Africa, particularly for husbands, fathers and young people, and for those who are faced with issues relating to witchcraft.

As Catholics we give thanks to God for a man who lived a simple and inspiring life and was willing to lay it down for his fervent faith.  Lebo WA Majahe writes for AD News, the monthly newspaper of the archdiocese of Johannesburg.

Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen blesses the 10 hectare area of land obtained for the planned Benedict Daswa shrine and pilgrimage centre at Tshitanini village near Thohoyandou.

HE beatification of Benedict Daswa on September 13 will include prayer, a theatrical presentation of Daswa’s life, messages and, of course, the Mass celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The day before the ceremony, on September 12 from noon to 18:00, pilgrims will be guided to the important places of Benedict Daswa: his home, the school of which he was the principal, the place where he was killed, the church in Nweli which he helped build and where his remains are no kept.

The programme for the beatification ceremony, to be televised on the SABC News channel (DStv channel 404) is as follows: l 07:30: Theatrical Presentation of the life of Benedict Daswa, performed by youth from Tzaneen, Polokwane and Witbank dioceses. l 09:00: Liturgy of the Hours and prayers, to be led by Bishop Hugh Slattery MSC, retired bishop of Tzaneen. l 10:00: Mass of the Beatification of Benedict Daswa, with Cardinal Amato as chief celebrant l 12:00: Messages from Daswa family representative; Archbishop Stephen Brislin’ president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference; government representatives; Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen. l 13:00: Event concludes

Much, much more on Benedict Daswa at www.scross.co.za/category/benedict-daswa

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BENEDICT DASWA

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

9

The day a martyr was born In the second of two edited excerpts from his new biography of Benedict Daswa, HUGH SLATTERY MSC, the retired bishop of Tzaneen, recalls the events leading up to the killing of South Africa’s first recognised martyr.

T

WO qualities in particular stand out in Benedict’s life: his great moral courage and his total commitment to the truth.

At first glance, what strikes one most about Benedict Daswa is how ordinary he was.

He came from a family that was poor but not destitute. Like many boys in rural South Africa, at a young age he became a herdboy before going to school. Eventually he became a teacher and then school principal.

He married, had a large family and was murdered on February 2, 1990 because of his opposition to the practice of witchcraft. He was in the prime of life, just a few months short of his 44th birthday.

On the surface, everything about Benedict was ordinary—even his death, since he was just one of many victims of witchcraft-related violence at that time in Venda.

Last week’s article discussed how Benedict had converted to Catholicism in 1963.

As his Catholic faith was growing all the time, so also was the opposition to him at the Headman’s Council and among people in the village.

His stance against witchcraft was not a popular one, since he was opposing something ingrained very deeply in the local culture.

There were others who, like Benedict, saw the world of witchcraft as one of evil, fear, mistrust, enmity, injustice and violence which the people should abandon and put behind them.

However, these, among them ministers of religion, kept quiet out of fear of reprisal.

Everyone knew about Benedict’s principled stance against the use of muti to bring success to the Mbahe Eleven Computers soccer team.

Some spread the rumour that Benedict himself was dabbling in witchcraft by having zombies help him in his fertile garden. There was a lot of jealousy and resentment against Benedict.

This was not only on account of his opposition to witchcraft but also because of his success in life. He was a respected man with a nice wife, a lovely family and a beautiful home.

He was a good school principal and a leader in the Transvaal United African Teachers’ Association. He was active in the Church and in the Headman’s Council. Moreover, he

was a close friend of the headman.

On January 25 1990, during a heavy unseasonal thunderstorm, several thatched rondavels were struck by lightning. On the following Sunday, January 28, the headman called a meeting of his council to deal with the matter.

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enedict had not yet arrived when the issue was discussed and a decision taken. In his absence the decision was predictable: some members of the community would go to a certain sangoma and get him to “sniff out” the witch who had sent the lightning.

But they would first have to collect some money to give to the sangoma. It was agreed that each family would have to give five rand.

When Benedict arrived, he immediately tried to have the decision reversed. He pointed out that lightning strikes are a purely natural occurrence and couldn’t possibly be caused by human beings.

But uppermost in the people’s minds was the usual question as to why particular houses were struck by lightning, but not the others.

They did not accept that this was just by chance. They believed that there was a human agent behind all this—a witch—who wanted to harm some people but not the others. As the Vendas say, “A huna tshi no da nga tshothe,” which means “nothing simply happens by itself”.

Benedict pointed out that the decision would lead to some innocent person being killed. Still, the meeting stuck by their decision and Benedict said that he would never contribute the five rand for the sangoma.

His cousin Samuel Daswa tells us that the people saw things differently: “They thought he was making himself a big guy, refusing to take part in what the community wanted to do.”

During the following days, Benedict’s murder was carefully planned and carried out quickly. His enemies got a group of youth and young adults to carry out their plan to kill Benedict.

Friday, 2 February 1990, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, became the birthday of Benedict Daswa into heaven.

Very much in keeping with his daily Christian living, he performed three acts of charity during his last day on earth.

In the morning he delivered some vegetables from his garden to his parish priest, Fr John Finn MSC, in Thohoyandou. He took his sisterin-law, Alice Daswa, and her sick baby to the doctor in Makwarela about 15km away. On his way there he gave a lift to a young man with a bag of mealie meal and went out of his way to drop him off at his home.

As Benedict was nearing his house, it was already getting dark.

Suddenly he found his way blocked by a tree trunk and large stones placed across the road. As he got out to remove them, he was attacked from both sides by a mob of young people throwing stones at him.

The Requiem Mass for Benedict Daswa on September 10, 1990, with (from left) the late Fr Doney McCarthy MSC, Deacon Jonas Letlalo, Fr John Finn MSC, Fr Phillemon Thobela and Fr Jim Stubbs MSC.

I

njured and bleeding, Benedict ran to a nearby shebeen, hoping to get some protection and help. The mob followed in hot pursuit.

Ejected from the shebeen, he sought refuge in a house but had to come out when the mob threatened to burn it down. He pleaded for his life—but all in vain.

He then asked to be allowed to kneel down and pray. As he prayed aloud, a young man raised his knobkerrie and struck Benedict a violent blow on the back of the head, crushing his skull.

Then another one fetched boiling water from a nearby stove and poured it over the dying man’s head.

On Saturday, February 10, the funeral service of Benedict Daswa took place at Nweli’s church of the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven, which he had helped to build some years earlier.

It was estimated that between 400 and 500 people attended, including a large number of teachers.

Fr Finn was the main celebrant assisted by Frs Philemon Thobela, Doney McCarthy MSC, Jimmy Stubbs MSC and Deacon Jonas Letlalo. The priests wore red vestments to show their belief that Benedict had died as a martyr for the faith.

At the graveside, Fr McCarthy pointed to Benedict and said: “This is my brother who died for his faith.”

He predicted that Benedict would in time be recognised by the Church as “one of the first black martyrs because he died for his faith”.

I am sure neither he, nor anyone else could imagine that this would happen so quickly and that in the space of 25 years he would become Blessed Benedict Daswa.  Bishop Hugh Slattery’s book, Blessed Benedict Daswa: South Africa’s First Martyr, is published by Paulines Publications Africa.

How

Th e

Benedict’s damaged bakkie and the soccer field on which he was killed.

Benedict’s mother Ida and Sr Claudette Hiosan enter the church of Our Lady of the Assumption at Nweli, which Benedict helped build and where his body is now kept.

Benedict with pupils at a school braai at Lupepe.

Souther n Cross covered Daswa

A small collection of our many pages on Benedict Daswa over the past years.

See our archive of Daswa features at www.scross.co.za/category/benedict-daswa

Benedict’s mother Ida (seated front) and his eight adult children in 2010, on the 20th anniversary of Benedict’s martyrdom

10

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

BENEDICT DASWA

How Benedict will become a recognised saint Beatification is the final step before a person may become a saint for the whole Church. STUART GRAHAM explains how Benedict Daswa came to be beatified and what is needed for his possible canonisation.

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ENEDICT Daswa will be beatified as a martyr on September 13, but for him to be canonised a saint will require an approved miracle.

After Cardinal Angelo Amato performs the beatification ceremony in Tshitanini village about 17km outside Thohoyandou, Daswa will officially be known as Blessed Benedict.

It means that his cause will have reached the penultimate step before canonical sainthood.

What this means is that, roughly put, the Church believes that the blessed is a saint who is with God, but before affirming this definitively, it wants to have one more piece of proof.

We may believe he is a saint, and pray to him to intercede on our behalf with God. But he is not yet a saint for the whole Church.

“Benedict can become a saint for the whole Church only if he is canonised,” according to Archbishop Stephen Brislin, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).

“For this to take place, a sign from God—a miracle in answer to Benedict’s prayers—must take place,” he explained.

“Any claims to such a miracle would need to be thoroughly investigated by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which up to now has made a thorough study of the testimonies given by people who knew Benedict well,” he continued.

Archbishop Brislin said it is important that “we pray to this martyr for the faith” with confidence, using the official prayer to obtain favours as a witness for his canonisation.

Any answers to prayers, such as

The diocesan procurator of the Benedict Daswa cause, Fr André Bohas MSC, and the cause’s notary, Sr Noelle Albert FDNSC, with a photo of Benedict. an inexplicable healing from illness after prayer through Benedict Daswa’s intercession, should be reported to the promoter of the cause for the canonisation of Benedict in the diocese of Tzaneen.

Sr Claudette Hiosan, a promoter of the Daswa cause, has called on Catholics to encourage people to pray “earnestly” through the intercession of Daswa, for the favours they need.

Sr Hiosan said it is necessary to pray for and obtain what is known as a “first-class miracle”, attributable solely to the intercession of Daswa, for him to be canonised.

“This miracle must be verified, not only by Church officials but also by a team of medical experts appointed by the Holy See,” she said.

She hoped the beatification will “encourage more people to ask God for their needs through the prayers and intercession of Benedict Daswa”.

According to canon law, the process of documenting the life and virtues of a holy man or woman cannot begin until at least five years after their death. This period ensures that the person has an enduring rep-

utation for sanctity among the faithful.

After the minimum of five years, the bishop of the diocese in which the individual died may petition the Holy See to allow the initiation of a Cause for Beatification and Canonisation.

If there is no objection by the Vatican dicasteries, in particular the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the permission is communicated to the initiating bishop.

I

n the case of the Daswa cause, the process was officially launched in 2005 by Bishop Hugh Slattery, the now retired bishop of Tzaneen, the diocese in which Benedict died.

The diocese first sought the approval of the bishops’ conference and now-retired Archbishop George Daniel of Pretoria, the metropolitan archdiocese under which Tzaneen falls.

During this first phase the postulation established by the diocese to promote the cause must gather evidence and testimony about the life and virtues of the Servant of God, as happened with Daswa.

The results are then communi-

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On July 4, 2013, Bishop Hugh Slattery and Fr André Bohas celebrated Mass with Pope Francis at the Vatican’s Domus Sanctae Marthae residence, where the pope lives. Afterwards they greeted the Holy Father and gave him a copy of a novena and DVD on Benedict Daswa. cated to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

The Acta resulting from the documentary or informative phase of the process are then handed by the sainthood congregation to a relator.

He or she is appointed from among the congregation’s College of Relators, whose task is to supervise the cause through the rest of the process.

Working with a theological commission established by the congregation, the relator ensures that the positio—a summary of the candidate’s life and virtues—is properly prepared. When the positio is finished, the theological commission votes on the cause.

In Daswa’s cause, this happened last October, when the consultors had to decide whether Benedict’s death was a case of martyrdom.

This was a crucial point in the cause. If they decided that his death did not meet the criteria for martyrdom, the cause would require an approved miracle before beatification would be possible. But for recognised martyrs, the requirement for a miracle before beatification falls away.

The theological consultors voted unanimously that Benedict was indeed a martyr.

Th consultors’ recommendation is then passed to the cardinal, archbishop and bishop members of the sainthood causes congregation, who after due consideration vote to determine whether the cause lives or dies.

If the vote is affirmative, as it was with Daswa at the congregation’s meeting in January this year, the recommendation of a “Decree of Heroic Virtues” is sent to the Holy Father, who makes a final judgment.

Once the candidate’s heroic virtues have been recognised by the pope, he or she is referred to as “Venerable”. Once the beatification is held, the Venerable Servant of God is declared Blessed. beatified person (or beatus, if he is male; beata for females) may receive public veneration at the

A

local or regional level, but this is restricted to those dioceses or religious institutes closely associated with the person’s life. While the Church restricts the public veneration of blesseds, Catholics are free to privately venerate them, wherever they are.

The reason for this is that beatification is not considered an definitive papal act, and it is not yet appropriate that the entire Church give liturgical veneration to the blessed.

So it is possible for Southern African Catholics—or from anywhere in the world—to venerate Benedict Daswa, but it is not permissible for a church in, say, Port Elizabeth to have a liturgical celebration of Bl Benedict’s feast day (on February 1).

After beatification the Church will search for a miracle before proceeding to canonisation.

Reported miracles that seem credible are studied by scientific and theological commissions in the diocese in which they are reported to have occurred.

After the diocesan process is concluded, a scientific and then a theological commission of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints studies the proposed miracle.

To be approved, a miracle must be extraordinary, permanent and inexplicable by natural or scientific laws, and the sought-after result of prayer through a particular candidate for sainthood The vote of this commission is forwarded to the episcopal members of the congregation whose vote is communicated to the Holy Father, if their recommendation is to accept that the miracle meets all the necessary criteria.

The consent of the Holy Father to the decision of the congregation results in a Decree of a Miracle. This makes canonisation possible.

If the candidate also passes inspection into his or her fidelity to doctrine, theological soundness and personal conduct, the pope may issue a Decree of Canonisation and set a date on which the person will

The official Daswa prayer Prayer to implore favours through the intercession of Blessed Tshimangadzo Samuel Benedict Daswa

O

Blessed Trinity, you filled the heart of your Servant Benedict with great love and zeal in building up your kingdom.

You chose him and gave him the courage and the strength to stand up for his faith without fear and bear witness unto death.

Loving God, like him, may I always proclaim the truth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by the witness of my life. Keep me away from all deeds of darkness. Protect me from evil spirits and all the powers of evil. Make me a true Apostle of Life in my family and in society.

Father, through his intercession, and according to your will, grant me the grace that I ask of you…I draw strength and courage from the life of your Servant Benedict in the hope that he will be proposed to the faithful for veneration and as an intercessor and model of holiness.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

PERSPECTIVES

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

Did God send me out of the country?

Günther A Simmermacher LMOST exactly a year ago, The Southern Cross headlined a marvellous pilgrimage to Portugal, Spain and France. Led by Tzaneen’s Bishop João Rodrigues—a most humble, likeable bishop— it was my privilege to be part of that group.

We saw many sacred sites. Fatima and Lourdes, of course. In Spain we visited Avila and Alba de Tormes, the birthplace and tomb of St Teresa respectively, and Zaragoza, the cradle of evanglisation in Spain and Portugal. In France we visited the sanctuary of St Thérèse in Lisieux, and had Mass in the great cathedral of Tours, as well as in the Miraculous Medal chapel in Paris.

Throughout, our prayerful focus was on the sainthood cause for Benedict Daswa— a few days after our return, the consultor theologians in the Vatican were going to decide whether Benedict Daswa should be classified as a martyr.

This was important: a martyr requires no confirmed miracle for beatification. If the consultors were to say that he was no martyr, we’d have to wait for a miracle before Daswa could be beatified. And first for a credible miracle to take place and then for it to be approved could take many years and a lot of money. Their “no” might have put a halt to the Daswa cause right then.

Our pilgrim prayers, and those of many others, were heard. The consultors recommended unanimously to recognise Daswa’s martyrdom, paving the way for Pope Francis to approve his beatification.

Then the date was announced. My heart sank: perhaps the greatest event in the history of the local Church, which I have served as a journalist for two decades, would take place on September 13, a date when I had long ago committed myself to being out of the country!

So, as you read these lines, I will be on the “Saints of Italy” pilgrimage with Fr Emil Blaser OP of Radio Veritas, and almost 30 pilgrims from across South Africa.

But the beatification will be on our minds and in our prayers. This will be es-

pecially so on September 10, when we visit the town of Norcia in central Italy. It is the birthplace of St Benedict, the sixth-century founder of the Benedictine Order, and his twin sister, St Scholastica.

The ancient saint and our new beatus share not only a name, which the convert Daswa chose when he was confirmed by a Benedictine abbot, apparently in honour of both the saint and his catechist, Benedict Risimati.

Most saints have a range of patronages; we pray through the intercession of patron saints for blessings or resolutions to problems. St Benedict has many patronages, perhaps the most important of which is that of religious life, since he is the father of Western monasticism.

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ut in his portfolio is one that resonates with us in South Africa especially: St Benedict of Nursia, namesake of Benedict Daswa, is the patron of those who are affected by witchcraft.

Daswa was murdered because he resisted a witchhunt, drawing from his

Bishop João Rodrigues leads a novena for the cause of Benedict Daswa before a Mass in St Gatien cathedral in Tours, France, during last year’s Southern Cross pilgrimage.

Don’t fail your children T HE greatest gift I received from my parents was my faith. One of my first memories is sitting at the dining room table while my dad tried to teach me to recite the Hail Mary. I couldn’t have been more than four or five.

Every night at dinner, we gave thanks for the day, breaking bread together as reminder of the bread of life that we would receive on Sunday at Mass. Growing up, we read the Bible together as a family, and as soon as I was able to read, I received a children’s Bible and was encouraged to read it often.

As I grew older, debates on religious topics, sometimes heated, often interrupted whatever television programme might be playing.

I remember being seven or eight and asking what happened to people who did not believe in Jesus or had never heard about him. It became a topic of conversation that was revisited numerous times as I grew in understanding and maturity.

Other conversations I remember include the position of a comma in different translations of a particular Bible passage and how that changed its meaning, the teachings of the Church, the role of the Vatican. We didn’t always agree, but it wasn’t the outcome that was important— what mattered is that there was a place in our home for these conversations.

At great financial sacrifice, my parents sent me to a Catholic school and encouraged me to be involved in Church activities. They never delegated my religious upbringing to others. My parents were my first catechists. Any other catechesis at best complemented what was happening at home.

It is thanks to my parents who first created the space for dialogue that today I have a voice with which I can participate as a lay Catholic in conversations about faith. Because of them, I continue to pray, reflect, read, and search for the answers to my own faith questions and their application to real life.

Years of preparing teenagers for confirmation have shown me that the upbringing in faith that I received is, sadly, not the norm in many Catholic families. We have allowed other priorities to dominate our family lives.

Many families mistakenly think that the religious formation of young people is

A family prays before Mass. The surest way to turn a child away from the Church is to live as if Mass and catechism are less important than other events, Sara-Leah Pimentel writes. the task of the parish priest and the catechist—with a combined contact time of about two hours a week. Yet, parents see their children for several hours each day.

They have the greater influence.

The surest way of producing a Catholic who will one day leave the Church is to drop your son or daughter off at Mass on a Sunday but never partake in the sacraments as a family.

Constantly finding excuses for why your child couldn’t attend catechism teaches them that a relationship with God is the least important thing in a list of other competing priorities such as the soccer final, the premiere of the latest movie, the birthday party, the music concert or the extra-curricular activity.

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he family is the first site of evangelisation. The family is the first church that children will encounter. If your domestic church is an abandoned place, filled with cobwebs, you cannot be surprised when your children want nothing to do with God or the Church.

Young people seek relevance. And if the faith they encounter in the home is irrelevant to daily life, then they’ll look for meaning in a thousand other distractions.

In October, the bishops of the world will meet in Rome to discuss challenges that modern families face.

During the first iteration of this meeting last year, the media picked up on a set of controversial topics. While it is good that they are being discussed, they should

Point of Reflection

Catholic faith. We may now invoke his intercession, alongside that of his Italian patron saint, when we pray about the big problem of witchhunts.

There is another remarkable coincidence: St Scholastica is the patron saint invoked against storms and rain, and therefore surely also responsible for unseasonal lightning storms—such as those which set in motion the events leading to Daswa’s death.

Perhaps the timing of the beatification was not an instance of bad luck for me.

Perhaps it was God’s plan for me and Fr Emil to take a group of pilgrims to the place of Ss Benedict and Scholastica, just three days before the beatification, so that a group of 30 South Africans can pray through the protectors against witchcraft and storms for the beatification ceremony and the sainthood cause of Benedict Daswa.

When things don’t go to plan, we always do well to ask: “What is God trying to tell me at this point?” Perhaps this—to take a group of South African Catholics to Norcia to pray in a special way for the Daswa cause, the beatification ceremony, the problem of witchhunts—was God’s answer to me.

I am sad to be missing the beatification ceremony for Benedict Daswa. Like many thousands of South Africans, I will read all about it in The Southern Cross.

But in Norcia, I shall also ask Ss Benedict and Scholastica to lobby our Father that I may be present on the joyous, hopefully not too distant day when Bl Benedict Daswa is canonised to the full sainthood.  Günther Simmermacher is the editor of The Southern Cross.

Sarah-Leah Pimentel

The Mustard Seeds

not stand in the way of the central theme: How can the Church provide pastoral support to and assist the family’s task of primary evangelisation?

Last year the bishops recognised that “the family needs to be rediscovered as the essential agent in the work of evangelisation”. The working document for this year’s synod, called the Instrumentum Laboris, calls for an examination of the “spiritual aspect of family life”.

It highlights that this begins with “rediscovering family prayer and listening in common to the Word of God” and “faithfully participating in the Eucharist” as a family. The role of the Church is to assist this process by providing “adequate pastoral guidance…so that a concrete family spirituality can grow in response to questions which arise in everyday life”.

None of this is new. It merely echoes what we should be doing in our families already. Each family is called to model itself on the Holy Family. Like Mary and Joseph, we are invited to present our children to the community of God’s people and to celebrate in the life of that community in our common meal, the Holy Eucharist.

Daily family prayer should be part of the everyday routine, as a sacred space into which each family member brings the joys and frustrations of the work and school day.

Read the Bible together. Discuss matters of faith openly. Encourage debate and questions from your children. As they grow older, discuss important topics such as relationships, sexuality and career choices in the light of faith. As parents, continue to deepen and foster your own inner faith and knowledge of the Church’s teachings.

The resolutions coming out of the Synod on the Family in October should only complement what each parent commits to on the day they bring their child for baptism: to play the primary role in their religious formation.

If we are not doing this, we have failed our children, rejected our God-given role as the custodians of life and abandoned the mission Christ left us: to be his witnesses to the end of the earth.

Emmanuel Ngara

11

Christian Leadership

A letter to leaders of tomorrow

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HIS series is meant for all who are destined to play a leadership role in the Church of tomorrow. You, the young Catholic, are one of them.

You may be a parish priest many years from now. You may become a bishop; or you may be a teacher, a parent, a catechist, a youth leader or something else in the future.

There are many leadership roles in the Church, and God is definitely calling you to play a role— whether big or small, it does not matter. What matters is whether you are prepared to respond to God’s call. If you are, then this series is for you.

You are most probably a baptised Christian already. If you are a Catholic you have probably had your First Holy Communion; you may be a confirmed Christian; you may already be playing some leadership role in your local parish. So you already know a lot about what it means to be a Catholic or a Christian of another denomination.

But I can assure you that the road to what God is calling you to do here on earth is still a very long one; and while you and I both know the basics or even the fundamentals of the Christian faith, let us for a moment assume there was something that we missed in our religious education or Bible study lessons, and so let us start again from the beginning and listen very carefully to the voice of God calling us.

W

e begin by looking for him in the natural creation that we have for so long taken for granted. Just look at the vegetation around you— the trees, the beautiful flowers, the maize crop or wheat in the field, the green grass that feeds cattle and other domestic animals.

In winter everything grows brown and dry with trees shedding their leaves; but in spring everything springs into life. The trees grow new leaves; the flowers bloom and you can see bees moving from flower to flower enjoying the nectar or whatever it is that they suck from these plants.

Look at the animals, both domestic and wild, enjoying the green grass or the leaves of shrubs or whatever it is that animals enjoy on the plain, the meadow or the bush! They are contented with the food they have been provided with.

Or, look at those birds! Chirping and whistling and jumping from branch to branch or flying from tree to tree. By the way, what did Jesus say?

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Mt 6:26).

If the natural phenomena around us do not suffice to give us a sense of wonder, let us cast our eyes to the skies. Look at the sun, the moon and the stars. No wonder the psalmist cried out in wonder: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”

(Psalm 8:3-4).

And to all this add the vast oceans and the mountains and the hills and waterfalls and other features too numerous to count!

The question is, what does all this mean to us?

What do all these wonders and phenomena point to? They can only point to the glory of an all-powerful God—Creator of all things, visible and invisible.

We should see his presence in his creation.

When we sing at Mass in the sanctus, “Heaven and earth are full of your glory”, it is this wonderful creation that we are referring to.

Through his creation alone, God is calling you and me to discern him, to see his presence in the world and in the universe, even before he speaks to us through the Scriptures; for without God nothing would exist.

Consequently, if we are to be exemplary Christian leaders, one of the first steps we should take is to deepen our faith by seeing God all around us—seeing God in all things.

We will then be in a position to help others to see and believe in God.

12

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

COMMUNITY

The bishops, religious sisters, brothers, priests and laity enjoyed a bring & braai following the celebration of the Year of Consecrated Life in Mariannhill cathedral.

St Anne’s Sodality commemorated the feast of St Anne at Boitumelo parish in the Mafikeng deanery. Fr kabelo Mahemo was the main celebrant.

The sodality donated groceries to all the priests in the deanery and also the nuns at Thapelong convent in Mafikeng.

Spiritual director Deacon Michael Busang is seen receiving the groceries on behalf of the priests from deanery president Sarah Monamodi.

St Benedict’s Preparatory School in Johannesburg collected blankets for the OMI old age home and orphanage.

Send us your photos to pics@scross.co.za

Young men from the archdiocese of Pretoria attended a Vocation to the Priesthood workshop held at St Camillus parish in Marokolong. Vocation director Fr Isaac Hlaledi Ramakgolo (centre), Fr Obed Ramoipone and Fr Peter Nganga MSC (right) are pictured with the participants.

Christ The king parish in Wentworth, Durban, hosted a farewell luncheon for Oblate provincial treasurer Fr Peter Foley (centre) who has gone to Rome. Fr Foley is pictured with Oblate Frs Jean Baptist and Bonga Mkhize.

...but please have patience: Sometimes we have an overflow of photos awaiting publication.

The University of North-West conferred a doctorate on Fr Dikotsi William Mofokeng of Bethlehem diocese. Fr Mofokeng holds a master’s of philosophy in theology, with specialisation in canon law. He has a great passion for missiology, with his thesis focusing on the history of the Church in the Free State and the present status of the Missio Dei in the diocese of Bethlehem.

The children of Holy Angels parish in Bez Valley, Johannesburg, performed a song with the theme “Like sheep without a shepherd” as part of the monthly children’s liturgy at Mass.

The youth of Christ the king parish in Worcester, diocese of Oudtshoorn, were confirmed by Bishop Frank De Gouveia. (Back from left) Tristan Brice kildaire, Bishop De Gouveia and Fr Ashley Orgill. (Front) Ricardo De Agrela Camacho, Nicole Michelle de Jager, Sidney Jeftha, Britney Theresa Ratangee, Regina Merile Fransman, kaylen Giselle Hendricks and catechist Gisele Almeida Velloza kildaire.

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De La Salle Holy Cross College participated in the Gauteng Provincial Afrikaans Spelathon. (From left) Declan Mahony, keiran Payne, katie Dirks and Christie Firth.

Holy Cross Sister Priscilla Dlamini of Aids Hospice has received a Lifetime Achievement award in the Medical and Veterinary sector by the CEO Global Magazine in a ceremony held at Vodacom World in Midrand, Johannesburg. Sr Dlamini also received a most influential woman in business award in 2010.

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

OPINION

13

Church must build bridge to traditional healing Healing through Christ and traditional African healing are not mutually exclusive but can be integrated, argues TSHIAMO TAkONGWA.

S

ICKNESS and suffering are an integral part of human existence. No human being goes through life without going through this experience.

As we go through sickness we desire health and experience a need for healing.

We suffer not only because of physical problems, but even more because of lack of harmony in our relationships, because of misunderstandings, betrayals, hatred and even lack of love. Every human being is faced at some point with this suffering, too.

That is why people, rich or poor, people take long journeys looking for healing, even travelling as far as Nigeria.

Health and wholeness are our basic conditions for our happiness.

Many African Christians live by a double standard because their questions have not been answered by the Christian world.

In the religious world amid the African traditions—where there is an interaction between God, mysterious powers, the spirits and ancestors—when someone gets sick the questions mostly asked are “Why?” and “Who did that?”.

In Africa, sickness is viewed as something negative. Sickness is not purely something biological or physiological. As these questions come and when the sickness is not “ordinary”, a medicine man is consulted to answer their questions.

The coming of Christianity and so-called “European civilisation”

made a lot of Africans “hypocrites”.

The people of my country, the Batswana, shun dingaka during the day, but at night become their patients.

Despite all the knowledge Batswana have when it comes to serious matters that threaten their welfare, they go back to their roots.

They consult the ngaka.

This is not due to psychological nor social pressures. Rather it is because other specialists like psychotherapists, medical doctors, and even priests would have failed to help them overcome their concrete problems.

They put aside the knowledge that seems to provide answers to what people go through and put their trust and faith in the ngaka.

From their needs and experience these people believe that there is more to “real life” than philosophy, theology and psychology.

T

he Church in Africa is called upon to be one which understands African fears and aspirations.

We live on a continent full of pain and suffering and despair. It is also a continent of beauty, culture and inner strength. We must be a Church which journeys with people in their own experience and offers Christ as the answer to these experiences.

Christ is the ultimate source of healing. We must pray for that faith. Since faith is first of all a gift, we should pray that we and the person in need of healing will be blessed with this gift.

The Church reminds us to seek not only gifts from God, but also to actually seek God, the giver of gifts. It is an unhealthy spirituality that shops around for signs and miracles. Our faith is not in these;

A traditional healer in her ndumba (a sacred hut used for healing) with her mutis in Marapyane, Mpumalanga. it is in the living God. Healing through our Christian faith is not concerned with mere physical healing, but that of the whole person. Jesus was not only the physical but also the mental, spiritual and emotional healer. In Luke 5:17-26 he forgave the paralytic his sins before curing him.

The ngaka too focuses on these aspects. Before he or she heals the patient the ngaka inquires about the social, psychological and spiritual problems of the patients, and all this forms part of the treatment.

Jesus also healed people to reintegrate them. He healed lepers who were social rejects (Mk 1:44; Lk 17:14), the possessed (Mk 5:19), the blind and lame.

He tells the lepers to show them-

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

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

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selves to the priests so that they be confirmed for reintegration in the society. Through emotional healing they are able to feel that love which seemed to be lacking, being appreciated, at peace with themselves, and so on. Hence Jesus told his patients “Go in peace...” (Mk 5:34).

H

olistic healing bridges the gap that exists between Jesus and the ngaka. This gap is bridged by their perception of some diseases.

Jesus did it for the glory of God and the ngaka offers healing because it is a gift from God. Nevertheless their patients are ultimately brought closer to God through healing.

However, we should understand the integral healing analogically,

that is, Jesus healed at a much higher level than the ngaka.

Collaboration between the Church and the African traditional healers is of paramount importance. This collaboration will help the African people who find themselves divided between the two religions which are pointing fingers at each other.

The collaboration of the Church with traditional healers would help the Church also to enter a dialogue which might help those responsible in the Church to understand fully what the traditional healers are doing, instead of passing wrong judgments in what they are doing, based on biased ideas of the first missionaries.

Inculturation in the rites of healing is very important. Without inculturation, Christ will remain an outsider or a foreigner to the culture of the African Christian community and not a citizen.

We need to break that dualism and parallelism between Christianity and African Traditional religion.

The Christian community has to live in one holistic world, rather than trying to balance the two worlds.

Inculturation will make Christianity feel at home so that sacraments of healing become more understandable and relevant to the Christian community in various parts of Africa.

Through inculturation the Church affirms what is good in a culture, purifies what is false and evil, enlightens what is ignorant.

So the Church would do well to learn and adopt some practices of the ngaka.

We have to remember that Christ came not to abolish African traditional healing but to perfect what is good within it and abolish what is wrong.

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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.

14

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

FLASHBACK

When Pope John Paul II came to SA Twenty years ago this month St John Paul II visited South Africa. WINNIE GRAHAM, who covered the event for The Star newspaper, recalls this first-ever papal (and so far only) visit to the country—and the time the pope landed in Johannesburg by accident.

T

HE first serving pope to come to South Africa arrived in the country by accident.

It was September 1988 and Pope John Paul II was bound for Maseru to beatify Fr Joseph Gerard, the Oblate priest who had dedicated his life to the people of that tiny state.

But fate intervened.

Bad weather made it impossible for the plane to land in Lesotho and the pilot was forced to touch down at what was then called Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg.

The news that Pope John Paul II had arrived in the country spread rapidly and within minutes Pik Botha, then the minister of foreign affairs, was at the airport to indulge in a public relations photo opportunity.

On that occasion, St John Paul, who days earlier had voiced his support for economic sanctions against the apartheid government, refused to kiss the ground, something that had become a tradition for him on state visits.

From Johannesburg the Holy Fa-

This is how The Southern Cross welcomed Pope John Paul II 20 years ago. The special issue included a poster of the pope, a John Paul II biography and trivia quiz, and articles on subjects such as nuns making hosts for the papal Mass and Catholic-raised rapper LL Cool J performing for the pope. ther and passengers, among them a contingent of about 200 international journalists, were transferred by car through the Free State to Maseru.

It was an interesting road trip in that the news of his journey had spread and people along the road, and at one petrol station in particular, gave him a jubilant welcome.

No royal visitor could have been re-

Nelson Mandela assists St John Paul II at Johannesburg airport on September 16, 1995, at the start of the pope’s only official visit to South Africa.

(Photo: Patrick De Noirmont, Reuters/CNS) ceived more warmly.

It was on the flight from Rome to South Africa in September 1988 that I had met St John Paul. My editor at the time, Harvey Tyson of The Star, was well aware of the significance of the papal visit and insisted I join the press corps accompanying him. It meant flying to Rome with the late photographer Ken Oosterbroek, and linking up with the papal entourage at the Vatican.

Halfway through the day-flight

to South Africa that September, the pontiff joined the journalists. In their excitement, international scribes jumped over their seats in their scramble to speak to him. I stood spellbound watching my colleagues elbow their associates out the way in their desire to question the Holy Father.

Then, surprisingly, his press attaché, Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls, opened a path through the crowd and brought him straight to me.

The pope’s slim hand reached for mine.

“Please tell the people of South Africa I will come,” he said.

“When?” I asked. He replied: “I am not certain. These trips take time to arrange. But I will come.”

The pope kept his promise.

I

Pilgrimage Highlights

• Explore Krakow, the city of St John Paul’s student and priestly life, just two months before World Youth Day. • Wadowice, St John Paul’s birthplace, on his birthday!

• Czechostowa with Black Madonna • Divine Mercy Sanctuary with the tomb of St Faustina and the original painting of the Divine Mercy image • Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, with the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Calvary • Niepokalanow, the Franciscan monastery of St Maximilian Kolbe • Mass in a chapel carved out of rock in the Wieliczka Salt Mine • Zakopane, with wooden chapel of Our Lady of Fatima

t was 1995 and South Africa was a different place. Nelson Mandela had been released from prison and a year previously elected the country’s first black president.

But now, seven years later, St John Paul was a different man. The frailties of old age and illness—he was 75 and suffering from Parkinson’s disease—were evident on him as he slowly and carefully descended the stairs the papal plane.

At the foot of the ramp, the pope was unable to kneel down to kiss the ground. Instead he kissed a bowl of South African earth presented by four children from a Catholic orphanage.

The children were of four races, representing the idea of the “Rainbow Nation”.

His visit would last just 42 hours.

He was in Africa to launch his apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Africa, first in Cameroon, then in South Africa and finally in Kenya.

Before he continued on to Kenya, he had no time to visit any townships, a fact that caused grumbling among the journalists who were covering the trip.

“I hope some day soon to come back on a pastoral visit to the Catholic communities in those places which I will not now be able to visit,” the pope said that day.

Alas, this never happened.

Mr Mandela expressed his gratitude for John Paul's long opposition to apartheid, the reason the pope had not visited South Africa on his 1988 tour to Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

“To say the visit is long overdue is to pay tribute to your own abhorrence of the system of apartheid,” Mr Mandela told the pope.

“You delayed your visit to this country because you viewed with disdain a system that treated God's children as lesser human beings,” Mr Mandela continued.

Fittingly, the visit’s theme was “Peace, Justice and Reconciliation”.

After the speeches, the pope was whisked away to the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria for a reception.

This is how The Southern Cross covered Pope John Paul II’s 1995 visit to South Africa. The special coverage included a two-page photo spread and reports on subjects such as the papal Mass, how it appeared on TV, the pope’s stay at the nunciature, reaction from Mass-goers and more.

The only public papal Mass of the visit was held at Gosforth Park racetrack south of Johannesburg, attracting a crowd of 100 000; some say twice as much. It was televised live, with commentary provided by Fr Emil Blaser OP and Conrad Burke; Fr Gerard Hattingh did the radio commentary.

Many had arrived at Gosforth Park in the middle of the night to ensure a good place.

Crowds waving Vatican flags lined the route as the popemobile made its way to the altar.

Before the Mass began a choir sang religious and folk songs in Zulu. Then the pope watched praise-singer Anthony Khoali and Fr Vincent Mokete OP dance in front of the altar to the sound of drums and ululations.

Behind the pope stood Mr Mandela and his deputy president and predecessor, F W de Klerk.

Politically it was a sensitive time. Mr Mandela’s African National Congress had tabled a Bill before Parliament to legalise abortion. Mr de Klerk’s National Party was opposed to the bill. But no mention of abortion was made during the trip, with the pontiff using his words to praise the miracle of South Africa’s relatively peaceful transformation.

The pope called South Africa an inspiration for the world and appealed to other African nations— like Rwanda, which was wracked by a genocide just as South Africans prepared to vote in the first inclusive election—“give way to dialogue and agreement”.

“The whole Church is comforted and people everywhere rejoice in the change that has come about in South Africa during the last few years,” Pope John Paul said at his Mass.

“Seeing what is happening here, men and women of goodwill hope that the other parts of this country too, and throughout the world, violence will give way to dialogue and agreement.”

He charmed local Catholics by talking about ubuntu as “extremely rich because it means people are made people through other people”.

While the unplanned 1988 visit is fondly remembered—mostly because of its bizarre nature—his official visit seven years later had a lesser impact.

In fact, two nuns who waited at the Gosforth Park for him to arrive at the time described the papal visit as “boring”.

St John Paul II was frailer in 1995. He was much loved and many thousands of pilgrims, religious sisters and priests came to hear him speak.

In the end he had kept the promise he made in 1988 to come to South Africa—even if only for less than two days.

CLASSIFIEDS

Fr Desmond Curran

F

ATHER Desmond Curran, who spent most of his priesthood caring for the poor in townships around Cape Town, died peacefully in the Archbishop Lawrence Henry Retirement Centre on August 20. He was 88.

Fr Curran, the son of Lady Doris Curran and Lord Justice Lancelot Ernest Curran, a judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on August 27, 1926 .

As an infant, he was baptised in the Anglican Church of Ireland.

After schooling in Belfast, he studied Classics at Cambridge, obtaining a master of arts degree, and later an honours degree in law at Queens University, Belfast.

In 1952 he was called to the bar in Northern Ireland and practised as a barrister for five years.

At 31, after a lengthy period of searching, he was received into the Catholic Church in 1957, and the following year went to Nigeria where he worked for two years as a lay teacher for the St Patrick’s Missionary Society.

In 1960 he taught at the Glenstal Benedictine School in Ireland with a view to entering the Benedictines. But he was advised that he appeared to have a vocation that would flourish in an active environment and was admitted to

the Birmingham Oratory as a student for the priesthood.

As a mature student, he was sent to study for the priesthood at the Beda College in Rome in September 1960, and after a year there, was accepted as a student for the archdiocese of Cape Town

by Cardinal Owen McCann.

Fr Curran completed his studies at Beda and was ordained to the priesthood on March 14, 1964. Shortly after, he came to Cape Town, and for six years was assistant priest at St Mary’s cathedral and port chaplain.

In 1971 he was appointed parish priest of Holy Cross parish, District Six. He was transferred to the parish of St Gabriel, Gugulethu, in 1978 and remained there until 1986 when he was appointed parish priest of St Raphael, Khayelitsha.

In 1991 until the time of his retirement in 2009, he was parish priest of Our Lady, Queen of Africa parish, which included Site C Khayelitsha, Mfuleni, Old Crossroads and Lower Crossroads. From 1991 until 2003 he resided at Site C, and then until 2009 in Mfuleni.

For 31 years of his priesthood, Fr Curran chose to exercise his ministry in township communities. “Because of my experiences in

F

of Chatsworth (1995-96), Esigodini-Henley (1996-98), BellairQueensburgh (2001-06) and Isipingo (2010-12).

From 1998 to 2000 he studied canon law at St Paul’s University in Ottawa, Canada.

In May 2003 he was appointed judicial vicar of the Durban archdiocese From 2011-14 he served as the president of the Canon Law Society of Southern Africa.

He was an associate of St Joseph’s Theological Institute in Cedara over a number of years, lecturing and giving seminars in canon law to final-year students.

Fr Cyril was a devoted pastor and a brilliant canon lawyer. He brought a human face to canon law and his lectures were inspirational.

He helped many dioceses with his canon law expertise, and was

Liturgical Calendar Year B Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday September 13 Isaiah 50:5-9, Psalms 116:1-6, 8-9, James 2:1418, Mark 8:27-35 Monday September 14, Triumph of the Holy Cross Numbers 21:4-9, Psalms 78:1-2, 34-38, Philippians 2:6-11, John 3:13-17 Tuesday September 15, Our Lady of Sorrows Hebrews 5:7-9, Psalms 31:2-6, 15-16, 20, John 19:25-27 Wednesday September 16, Ss Cornelius P & Cyprian B Ms 1 Timothy 3:14-16, Psalms 111:1-6, Luke 7:3135 Thursday September 17, Sacred Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi Galatians 6:14-18, Galatians 2:16, 20. Philippians 1:20-21, Luke 9:23-26 Friday September 18, St Joseph of Cupertino 1 Corinthians 12:31; 13:1-10, 13, Psalms 25:1-5, 8-10, Matthew 11:25-30 Saturday September 19, St Francis Mary of Camporosso 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Psalms 100:1-5, Luke 8:4-15 Sunday September 20 Wisdom 2:12, 17-20, Psalms 54:3-8, James 3:16-4:3, Mark 9:30-37

CLaSSIFIEDS

15

Births • First Communion • Confirmation • Engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • Ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • Thanks • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday Accommodation • Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Others Please include payment (R1,50 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

DEaTH

Fr Des Curran (Photo: Claire Mathieson) Nigeria, I feel at home in a black community and believe that this is my vocation,” he once said.

His Requiem Mass in St Kizito’s church, Site C, Khayelitsha, on August 28 was celebrated by Archbishop Stephen Brislin together with priests and deacons of the Cape Town archdiocese.

The church which Fr Curran had served for 18 years before his retirement in 2009 was overflowing with former parishioners and friends who had come to pay their respects to a great man.

He was always deeply concerned for those afflicted by poverty and injustice. He will be greatly missed and always remembered with much love.

Mgr Clifford Stokes

Fr Cyril Malinga ATHER Cyril Sibusiso Malinga of Durban, former president of the Canon Law Society of Southern Africa, died on August 13 at the age of 48.

Born on February 18, 1967 at St Wendolins, Mariannhill, he attended St Wendolins Primary School. When the family went to live in KwaDabeka, he attended St Mary’s Minor Seminary in Ixopo. From there he went to St Paul’s Orientation Seminary in Hammanskraal.

In 1989 he studied philosophy at St Peter’s Seminary in Hammanskraal and began his theological studies at St John Vianney Seminary, Pretoria, in 1992.

During his diaconate he served at Holy Rosary parish, Stanger He was ordained a priest for the archdiocese of Durban on July 22, 1995.

Fr Cyril served in the parishes

The Southern Cross, September 9 to September 15, 2015

well respected by Bishops Xolelo Thaddeus Kumalo of Eshowe and Pius Mlungisi Dlungwane of Mariannhill, who concelebrated his Requiem Mass with Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, Bishop Barry Wood and many brother priests in the packed Emmanuel cathedral.

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 671. ACROSS: 5 Woad, 7 Accumulate, 8 Mali, 10 Ciborium, 11 Action, 12 Exempt, 14 Prayed, 15 Philip, 17 Marooned, 19 Eons, 21 Dominicans, 22 Begs. DOWN: 1 Balm, 2 Cupidity, 3 Vulcan, 4 Marble, 5 Weir, 6 Assumption, 9 Accordance, 13 Eminence, 15 Denims, 16 Pedant, 18 Odds, 20 So-so.

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)

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

9018 or 031 209 2536.

Overport rosary group.

At Emakhosini Hotel, 73 East Street every

Wednesday at 6.30 pm.

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.

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

CaMPBELL—Denise (née Manuel). You are safely in the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your sufferings were united with his suffering on the cross. While you loved and cared for your family, you also had love for others, especially the poor and needy who came to your door. May the good Lord now open the doors of his heavenly kingdom; there with the Saints you will praise him forever. Eternal rest to you and let perpetual light shine upon you.

Rest in peace my beloved sister, until we meet again in the Lord’s heavenly kingdom. Your beloved brother Daniel and my good friend Martha.

IN MEMOrIaM

IN LOVING memory of our mother, Mary Bishop, who passed away 10/9/2014.

You will remain in our thoughts and prayers forever. We will always be grateful for the wonderful memories which we are now able to share. Your loving children and grandchildren.

IN LOVING memory of Josephine Eveline Swanson who passed away on September 9, 2014, at the age of 89. Please remember her in your prayers.

MaLUKa—Olga (née Elissac). In loving memory of my wife, our mother, who passed away peacefully on September 18, 2013.

Fondly remembered by Dennis (husband), Cheslyn, Dennis C, Reneé, Melvyn, Leroy, Joshua and grandchildren. You will always have a special place in our hearts.

NOrTON—In loving memory of our darling parents, John Robert and Lilian Clara. We deeply love and remember you, together with immense pride as well as enduring gratitude for the wonderful example of your lives. Your ever-loving daughters Lucy and Marianne.

PraYErS

HOLY ST JUDE, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kins-

man 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.

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

O God of hope and Father of mercy, your Holy Spirit inspires us to look beyond ourselves and our own needs. Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies. Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria, and fill us with hope for a future of peace built on justice for all.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Light of the World, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. Prayer courtesy of the USCCB. THaNKS be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May I know thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, And follow thee more nearly, For ever and ever.

The

Southern Cross

Published independently by the Catholic Newspaper and Publishing Co since 1920

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Business Manager: Pamela Davids Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000

CaSa SErENa The retirement home with the Italian flair.

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Senior citizens wishing to retire in this beautiful Home, please phone

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10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town, 8001 Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850

Editorial: editor@scross.co.za News editor: news@scross.co.za Business manager: admin@scross.co.za advertising: advertising@scross.co.za Subs/Orders: subscriptions@scross.co.za Website: www.scross.co.za Digital edition: www.digital.scross.co.za Facebook: www.facebook.com/thescross

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Digital: R385 p.a. (anywhere in the world) Print by mail: R450 p.a.

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THaNKS

WITH GraTEFUL thanks to St Jude for prayers answered. Mrs Martin.

THaNKS for the miracles we have received. Sacred Heart Novena by St Margaret Mary Alacoque. Deo Gratis, Alix.

PErSONaL

aBOrTION WarNING: The pill can abort (chemical abortion) Catholics must be told, for their eternal welfare and the survival of their unborn infants. See www.epm.org/static/up loads/downloads/bcpill.pdf LOVING an unborn baby, who we cannot see, is like loving God whom we also cannot see, 1 Peter 1: 8.

HOLIDaY aCCOMMODaTION

LONDON, Protea House: Single ₤30(R510), twin ₤45(R765) per/night. Selfcatering, busses and underground nearby. Phone Peter 0044 208 7484834.

CaPE TOWN: Looking for reasonably priced accommodation over the December/January holiday period? Come to kolbe House. Set in beautiful gardens in Rondebosch. Selfcatering, clean and peaceful. Safe parking.

Close to all shops and public transport. Contact Pat 021 685 7370 or kolbe. house@telkomsa.net CaPE TOWN: Strandfontein. Fully equipped selfcatering two-bedroom apartment, with parking, sleeps four. R500 per/night.

Paul 021 393 2503, 083 553 9856, vivilla@telkom sa.net KNYSNa: Self-catering accommodation for 2 in Old Belvidere, with DStv and wonderful lagoon views.

044 387 1052.

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

Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Malcolm Salida 082 784 5675, mjsalida@ gmail.com PLETTENBErG BaY: Holiday flat, sleeps four adults, two children, R650 per night. Phone 082 652 4362.

NOAH OLD AGE HOMES

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

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

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

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

Published by the proprietors, The Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co Ltd, at the company’s registered office, 10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town, 8001.

The Southern Cross is published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd. Address: PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000. Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850 www.scross.co.za

Editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela Davids (admin@scross.co.za), advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton, News Editor: Stuart Graham (s.graham@scross.co.za), Editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Mary Leveson (m.leveson@scross.co.za), Dylan Appolis (intern@scross.co.za), advertising: Elizabeth Hutton (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Michelle Perry (subscriptions@scross.co.za), accounts: Desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za) Directors: R Shields (Chair), J O’Leary (Vice-chair), Archbishop S Brislin, S Duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, C Moerdyk, R Riedlinger, Z Tom

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

the

25th Sunday: September 20 Readings: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20, Psalm 54:36, 8, James 3:16-4:3, Mark 9:30-37

A

GAIN and again we find ourselves thinking (despite all that the Bible tells us) that if we follow God, we shall probably find ourselves rich and famous.

Sadly that is not the message of the readings for next Sunday, nor indeed is it the gospel message; there is hope here, but the hope comes from trusting that God is in charge, and not from our prospects for making our names and fortune.

In the first reading, we are allowed to overhear the evil plotting of those who want to put an end to the “righteous man”: “Let us ambush him, because he is horrid to us, and opposed to our deeds and reproaches us for our sins against the Law.” They clearly do not believe the claims of their target to “have knowledge of God, and [be] a servant of the Lord”.

They are angry because his very existence is a reproach to them, and in our day believ-

S outher n C ross

No celebrity with Christ ers must expect something of the same treatment: “His life is not like other people’s, and his paths are different…he boasts of God as his father.”

So they decide to “test him out with insults and torment…let us calibrate his ability to put up with evil”.

The psalm is a lament of someone enduring just such discomfort: “O God, save me by your name, God, listen to my prayer.”

Then he explains the situation: “The arrogant have risen up against me.” But he has not lost his confidence: “Look! God is helping me, the Lord is the prop of my life…I shall praise your name for it is good.”

In the second reading, James is gently chiding his hearers for wanting the wrong sort of things; he emphasises the disorderly effects of “jealousy and quarrelling”, and the absolute priority of love.

He tells them that “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who do peace” and that “the wars and…battles among you… come from the warring pleasures within you: [so] you covet and you do not possess; you kill and are jealous, and you cannot get it”.

We aim for just the wrong sort of things.

That is what we see the disciples doing in the gospel for next Sunday; we find Jesus privately teaching them about the fate that awaits him in Jerusalem, but they don’t really get it, and instead start discussing “who is Mr Big?” So Jesus, wearily enough, has to teach them: “If anyone wants to be Number One, they have to be last of all, and servant of all.”

So he is not promising them fame or wealth. To make the lesson plain to them, he uses a child as a teaching aid: “He took a child, and put it in the middle of them, and

A saint for our time S

way. She is invoked today as the primary role model for virtually everyone working in the area of social justice.

The honour is well-deserved. She, perhaps better than anyone else in her generation, was able to wed together the Gospel and justice, Jesus and the poor, and take the fruits of that marriage to the streets in an effective way. That’s a rare and very difficult feat.

T

he German Lutheran theologian Ernst Käsemann once commented that the problem in both the world and the Church is that the liberals aren’t pious and the pious aren’t liberal. He’s right.

Politics and religion are both generally impoverished because the pious won’t be liberal and the liberals won’t be pious. You normally don’t see the same person leading the rosary and the peace march. You normally don’t see the same person championing both the pro-life movement and women’s choice. And you don’t normally see the same person scrupulously defending the most intimate matters within private morality and having the same moral passion for the global issues of social justice.

But that was Dorothy Day. She was equally comfortable leading a peace march and leading the rosary. Someone once quipped: If you drew out what’s deepest and best within both the conservatives and liberals and put them through a blender, what would come out is Dorothy Day. A second feature which characterised Dorothy Day and her spirituality was her

Conrad

OMETIME soon we may witness the beatification and then canonisation of Dorothy Day, the American labour and rights activist.

For many of us today, especially those who are not Catholic, a canonisation draws little more than a yawn. How does a canonisation affect our world?

Moreover, isn’t canonisation simply the recognition of a certain piety to which most people cannot relate? So why should there be much interest around the canonisation of Dorothy Day—who in fact protested that she didn’t want people to consider her a saint and asserted that making someone a saint often helps neutralise his or her influence?

Well, Dorothy Day wasn’t the kind of saint who fits normal conceptions of piety.

She was born in New York in 1897 and died there in 1980. She was a journalist, a peace activist, a convert to Christianity, who, together with Peter Maurin, established the Catholic Worker Movement to combine direct aid to the poor and homeless with non-violent action on behalf of peace and justice. The movement remains vibrant today.

She also served on the newspaper she founded, Catholic Worker, from 1933 until her death.

Her person and the movement she started have powerfully inspired Christians of every denomination in the US and beyond to try to more effectively take the Gospel to the streets, to try to bring together Jesus and justice in a more effectual

For further info or to book contact Michael or Gail at 076 352 3809 or 021 551 3923 info@fowlertours.co.za www.fowlertours.co.za/ poland-2016/

Sunday Reflections

putting his arms round the child, he said to them, ‘Whoever accepts one little child like this in my name, is accepting me’. And whoever is accepting me, is not accepting me, but the One who sent me”.

The little group is still in Galilee, but they are turning towards Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem they will see the climax of Jesus’ mission.

But they have to understand that Jesus is not going to end up enthroned, with them as the heroes of the new dispensation.

Jesus is going to endure the appalling death of crucifixion, and apparent total failure. He is not going to end up a wealthy celebrity.

What is your aim, this week?

Southern Crossword #671

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

ability to act, and to act effectively. She not only had faith, she acted upon that faith.

She was a do-er, not just a listener; and she was able to institutionalise her faith and embed it into an institution, the Catholic Worker, which not only was able to minister directly to the poor but was able to form itself into something larger and more permanent than the faith, vision, and power of a single person.

Dorothy was able to act in a way that was bigger and more effective than her own person.

There’s an axiom that says: “Whatever we dream alone remains a dream, but what we dream with others can become a reality.” Dorothy dreamed with others and made that dream a reality.

Today, most of us struggle both to act on our faith and, even more so, to embed our faith concretely into effective, sustained community action.

Finally, Dorothy Day can be an inspiration to us because she did the right thing for the right reason.

Dorothy’s commitment to the poor arose not out of guilt, nor neurosis, nor anger, nor bitterness towards society. It arose out of gratitude.

Her route to faith, Jesus, and the poor was rather unorthodox. Prior to her conversion she was an atheist, a communist, a woman ideologically opposed to the institution of marriage, and a woman who had had an abortion. Her turning to God and to the poor happened when she gave birth to her daughter, Tamar Theresa, and experienced in the joy of giving birth a gratitude that seared her soul.

In her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, she describes how, at seeing her baby daughter for the first time, she was so overcome with gratitude that a faith and love were born in her that never again left her.

She was also an earthy saint. She will, no doubt, be the first canonised saint whose photographs show a woman with a cigarette in her mouth.

She’s a saint for our time. She showed us how we can serve God and the poor in a very complex world, and how to do it with love and colour.

St John Paul II Pilgrimage to Poland Southern Cross

Nicholas King SJ

ACROSS

5. Blue dye (4) 7. Cut ace alum but it will pile up (10) 8. Mail for an African country (4) 10. Host vessel (8) 11. Battle behaviour? (6) 12. Grant a dispensation (6) 14. Entreated (6) 16. One of the deacons (Ac 6) (6) 17. Left isolated and near doom (8) 19. Galleons last for a long time (4) 21. Theirs is a preaching order (10) 22. The mendicant friar does it (4)

DOWN

1. Healing ointment (4) 2. Covetousness (8) 3. God of fire (6) 4. Sculptor’s limestone (6) 5. Some awe Ireland holds in the dam (4) 6. The taking of Marian feast for granted (10) 9. Conformity (10) 13. Prelate who stands higher? (8) 15. Pair of jeans (6) 16. He’s too formal (6) 18. They’re miscellaneous with the ends (4) 20. Tolerable (2-2) Solutions on page 15

CHURCH CHUCKLE

T

he Sunday School teacher is telling her class the parable of the Prodigal Son. She especially emphasises the resentful attitude of the elder brother.

As she tells the class of the feast held to celebrate the return of the wayward brother, she notes that not everybody was celebrating.

“And can anyone tell me who that was?”

Little Thabo raises his hand. “I know,” he says triumphantly. “It was the fatted calf!”

A journey to the places of St John Paul II’s life and devotions, led by a Bishop who knows Poland intimately.

Led by Bishop Stan Dziuba 13 - 21 May 2016

Kraków | Wadowice (on St John Paul II’s birthday) | Black Madonna of Częstochowa | Niepokalanów (St Maximilan Kolbe) | Divine Mercy Sanctuary | Warsaw | Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (with miraculous icon) | Zakopane | Wieliczka Salt Mine (with Mass!)