151014

The

S outhern C ross

October 14 to October 20, 2015

Echo of late priest in church bells’ chimes

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No 4946

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Evolution in the Garden of Eden?

First part of Saints of Italy Pilgrimage diary

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Page 11

How inequality, anger drive SA’s crime rate

BY STUART GRAHAM

A

NGER and a sense of exclusion caused by the inequality in South African society are among the most important causes of crime, the director of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office has said.

As the gap between rich and poor becomes more evident with “greater ostentation” on the part of the “beneficiaries of good fortune”, anger can be expected to increase, Fr Peter-John Pearson warned.

“These problems can be remedied to some degree by greater political will, wiser leadership and the promotion of more strategic policies and resource allocation,” Fr Pearson said.

“However, public officials and political leadership in the security establishments must be held to a stricter level of accountability on multiple levels.”

Crime statistics released earlier this month paint a dismal picture for South Africa, Fr Pearson said.

The country now records 49 murders a day, or one murder every 30 minutes. The world average for murder rates is 7,6 per 100 000 people, while the South African average is almost five times higher, at 36,5 per 100 000.

The rise in murders in South Africa is contrary to the international trend, where murder is showing signs of decreasing, Fr Pearson said.

“All South Africans, but especially those who are poor and vulnerable, deserve to know that they can look forward to reasonable security and public safety in a world in which they are forced to battle to uphold their dignity,” he said.

It has been pointed out that with a police budget of about R80 billion, state of the art technology, and more than 194 000 personnel, a much better result should be expected in terms of crime reduction, Fr Pearson said.

“It is also a matter of concern that the head of the police is facing a board of enquiry with regard to her fitness for office,” he noted.

“This must have a damaging effect on the morale of the force and indeed on the overall quality of leadership in an area where bold, decisive and creative direction is paramount.”

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Pope Francis talks with Cardinals Wilfrid Napier of Durban (far right), Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, (back) and Peter Erdö of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, during the Synod of Bishops on the Family at the Vatican. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) Economic inequality, anger, prison policy, lack of trust in the police and perception that some people get away with breaking the law contribute to South Africa’s crime rate.

Another factor in South Africa’s crime problem is that the emphasis in correctional services is still largely on punishment and not sufficiently on rehabilitation, the priest said.

This, said Fr Pearson, contributes to the high recidivism rates and the absorption of offenders into the mainstream of criminal activity.

Fr Pearson noted that public trust in the police is undermined when the police force incurred civil claims of R9,5 billion due to misconduct in the period under review. A total of R94,3 million was claimed due to assaults by the police.

A further problem is a perception that law breakers get away with their crimes.

“When public figures and supposed role models are deemed to be beyond the law, such behaviour legitimises anti-social pathologies and allows for the spread of a sense of being above and beyond the law,” said Fr Pearson.

Particularly worrying, in light of the recent wave of xenophobia, is that for the first time crimes committed by foreigners were highlighted in the statistics.

“There seems to have been no good reason to single out non-South Africans in an environment already riddled with suspicion against them,” Fr Pearson said.

Archbishop: Synod must hear the voices of Africa

BY STUART GRAHAM

S

OUTHERN Africa’s representatives at the Synod of Bishops on the Family being held in Rome want to make sure that Africa’s voice is being heard, said Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town and president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

“We have come here to bring the voice of Africa into the synod hall and we will make sure that the voice is heard,” the archbishop told Vatican Radio.

“The family is absolutely important for society and for Church and we are here to find ways of strengthening and protecting families and family life,” he said.

Archbishop Brislin asked the people of Africa to pray for the bishops at the synod, which will run until October 25.

“They should pray that this synod may truly bear fruit so that what will come out of it will be a combination of the strengthening of family life while also showing mercy to those who are in very difficult situations and circumstances,” Archbishop Brislin said.

“They need to know that they are loved by Jesus Christ and that he came for their salvation as well. Jesus brings healing into their

St John Paul II Pilgrimage to Poland Southern Cross

lives and into their families.”

Archbishop Brislin and Bishop Zolile Mpambani of Kokstad are representing the Southern African bishops at the meeting.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban is one of the synod’s four delegate-presidents, alongside Cardinal André Vingt-Trois of Paris, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, and Cardinal Raymundo Assis of Aparecida, Brazil.

Earlier this year parishes around the world were sent questionnaires inviting input on all “important questions” regarding marriage and the family.

Jesuit Father Russell Pollitt, who is covering the synod for Vatican Radio, told The Southern Cross that the voice of the African Church has traditionally been not loud enough at previous synods.

The most publicised topics at the synod are Communion for civilly remarried divorcees and pastoral care for homosexuals, but African bishops stress that issues such as poverty, labour migration and poor government are of greater concern to the Church on the continent than divorce and homosexuality.

“There is also the African culture and belief around family units,” Fr Pollitt said.

Continued on page 3

POPE ST JOHN PAUL II’s FEAST DAY IS OCTOBER 22

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!)

2

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

LOCAL

J&P groups monitor hospitals, clinics

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

P

OOR administration in public health care, especially shortages in medication, is undermining human dignity, and diocesan Justice & Peace (J&P) groups are taking action.

“The J&P members from Klerksdorp diocese have been actively involved since June in efforts to bring human dignity back to health care,” said Dominican Father Stan Muyebe, director of the bishops’ J&P Commission. “They identify the clinics and hospitals that experience resource shortages and engage the district health officials to rectify the problems.

“Currently, more than three hospitals and 30 clinics are being monitored for the following resource shortages: shortages of essential drugs, shortages of staff, and prob-

lems with equipment and infrastructure,” Fr Muyebe said.

Petrus Moshe, J&P coordinator for Klerksdorp, believes that advocacy to bring about changes in public hospitals and clinics is necessary to the Christian calling.

“Our advocacy work with public clinics and hospitals is not just an additional element to our faith, but an integral part. In South Africa, being poor and using public health care is almost a death sentence. Most of our people die prematurely and suffer preventable deaths because of drug stock-outs,” Mr Moshe said.

“We believe that the lives of thousands of people are saved when we speak out and get the health facilities to end the drug stock-outs.

We believe that God blesses us in a special way when we save lives and protect the human dignity of the sick and the vulnerable.”

The intervention of the Klerksdorp J&P activists has brought about positive results. Through their advocacy, a number of clinics have addressed the problem of drug stock-outs.

Fr Muyebe told The Southern Cross that besides the drug stockouts, Klerksdorp’s J&P had acted on specific problems.

“In June they saw problems with the dialysis machine in the Klerksdorp hospital. They believe that the government should buy an additional machine. Hundreds of patients rely on one machine. The queues are often too long. More machines are needed.”

The J&P of Kroonstad diocese also has set up a system of monitoring drug shortages and engaging with health officials to take action.

Fr Muyebe said he hopes that this month Bethlehem and Dundee

dioceses will have developed a similar system. Five other dioceses— Manzini, Ingwavuma, Eshowe, Rustenburg, and Pretoria—are in the process of initiating the monitoring-and-advocacy programme.

“J&P is inviting all parishes to do something to challenge the problem of drug shortages in their areas,” Fr Muyebe said.

“Jesus came among us so that we may receive life in its fullness. The premature deaths that we see in our hospitals and in our communities do not represent the fullness of life that our Lord calls for. As Christians, we should not remain silent. We should speak out,” he said.

Fr Muyebe believes that consistent advocacy on stock-out problems will strengthen a culture of accountability in health care which is needed to fix the health system.

“Drug shortages are a symptom

of systemic problems in the provincial health system. In many cases, the stock-outs are not a result of supply shortages [but] stem from poor management and weak accountability culture in the distribution system of medicines,” said Fr Muyebe.

“Deployment policies and patronage culture in political parties are often to blame for such poor management and weak accountability,” he said, adding that he applauds those J&P members “who are building a culture of accountability that is required to fix the public health system”. n Parishes interested in doing a project of monitoring and advocacy to end drug shortages in public health care may contact Kabelo Selema of the SACBC’s Justice & Peace Commission on 012 323-6458 or kselema@sacbc. org.za

Echo of late priest in bells’ chimes

BY STUART GRAHAM

W

HEN the bells chimed at the opening of the new St Anne’s church in Mpophomeni in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands this month, there was one man whose face shone in the mind of Fr Jude Fernando TOR. It was dinner time, around ten years ago, not long after Fr Fernando had dreamed of building a new church for his parish in Mpophomeni. With him at the dining room table was an elderly fellow diocesan priest: Fr Julian Carrasco.

“Mpophomeni had a small dining room, but no church hall,” Fr Fernando recalls. “Fr Julian felt so sorry for us. He said, ‘When you build a church, I will donate a bell for the bell tower’.”

He was a man of his word.

Fr Carrasco was originally from Goa in India. When he was a young boy, his father was employed by the railways in Kenya. When he reached adulthood, Fr Carrasco returned to Goa. It was there that he was called not only to be a priest but also a teacher.

Fr Carrasco had learned to speak Portuguese while growing up in Goa and this led him to Brazil, and then

Fr Julian Carrasco financed the bell tower for the new church at Mpophomeni in KZN (Photo: courtesy of the Perth archdiocese) Macau in China where he served as Portuguese chaplain. Finally he was sent to Perth in Australia where he was Portuguese chaplain for 23 years.

“He sponsored me to visit Australia, five years ago, for his 80th birthday,” says Fr Fernando. “He told me that his parishioners had given him the money to sponsor my trip.”

In Australia he told Fr Fernando the truth: he had used his own pension money to pay for the trip.

Fr Carrasco was a keen dancer, but one of his great loves was foot-

ball. “He came to South Africa in 2010 for the World Cup,” Fr Fernando recalls, staying in Cape Town with the Holy Cross Sisters. He watched all the games on TV; he had no money for tickets.

Soon after he turned 82, Fr Carrasco fell ill. Doctors gave him a month to live. He invited Fr Fernando to Australia to look after him.

Fr Carrasco celebrated Mass every day. “He loved Mass. He loved the Eucharist. Even though he was sick he would go to church to hear confession,” Fr Jude says.

Fr Fernando recalls how he was once worried about money for building the church. Fr Carrasco heard his concerns and that night he wrote a letter to Pope Benedict, asking for money for Mpophomeni.

“I am not certain whether the pope replied to him,” Fr Fernando said, “but Fr Julian did collect money for the construction of our church.”

On July 11 this year Fr Carrasco passed away.

“He so badly wanted to come to our opening day for the new church building,” says Fr Fernando. This was not to be.

But when the bells of the new church of St Anne in Mpophomeni ring, Fr Carrasco’s spirit lives on.

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The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

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SA bishops’ delegation visits Lesotho

BY STAFF REPORTER

A

DELEGATION of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) paid a solidarity visit to Lesotho.

The delegation consisted of Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo of Bloemfontein, Bishops Valentine Seane of Gaborone, Xolelo Kumalo of Eshowe, secretary-general Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS, communications officer Fr S’milo Mngadi and Danisa Khumalo, director of Denis Hurley Peace Institute.

The delegation met with Archbishop Gerard Lerotholi of Maseru and Bishops Augustine Bane of Leribe, Joseph Sephamola of Qacha’s Nek and John Thlomola of Mohale’s Hoek.

They were also briefed by the Catholic Commission of Justice and Peace of Lesotho, led by Booi Mohapi, as well as other justice-based

organisations in Lesotho.

Lesotho’s Catholic Parliamentary Office head Fr Charles Matsoso OMI organised a panel of opposition party leadership to address the SACBC delegation.

The government did not respond to a request to meet the delegation.

The delegation then visited the maximum security prison to see the 21 soldiers who are charged with mutiny, and later met their families in the cathedral of Our Lady of Victories in Maseru where a Mass for peace in Lesotho was celebrated.

The delegation also met the family of Lt General Maaparankoe Mahau who was killed, ostensibly for refusing arrest.

Gen Mahau has become an icon for those who are seeking peace in Lesotho.

The visit ended with a courtesy visit to the ceremonial monarch of Lesotho, King Letsie III.

A delegation of the South African bishops met counterparts and other figures in Lesotho.

International thumbs up for PE Nazareth shop

BY MIKE LENAGHAN

T

HE Nazareth House Charity Shop in Port Elizabeth’s Upper Dickens Street received a number of international visitors lately.

Nazareth House International CEO John Gatward came to the popular charity shop during his visit to the “Friendly City”.

On the same day the charity shop welcomed the parents of the Nazareth House chaplain Fr Lewis Berry, who brought his parents, Wally and Valerie Berry, who had travelled from France, to visit the charity shop.

All of the visitors agreed that the shop was “one of the best they have visited”, and expressed regret that

they did not live in Nelson Mandela Bay, so that they could visit the Nazareth House Charity Shop regularly to obtain the bargains available there.

The Nazareth House Charity Shop, which is open from Monday to Friday from 9:30 to 15:00, plays an important role in assisting with the financial upkeep and ever-in-

creasing costs of the frail care offered by Nazareth House in Port Elizabeth.

Visitors are always welcome and encouraged at the shop, which is staffed by volunteers. n For more information contact Suzette Billson on 041 373 1948 or suzette@ nazhousesa.com or visit Nazareth House, Central, Port Elizabeth.

Polokwane’s young adults reflect on mariage

BY NTSHOLE MABAPA

P

OLOKWANE’S Catholic young adults reflected on marriage as a sacrament, a vocation and how South African law regards a union.

They met for their second annual conference at Subiaco, Limpopo, this month.

Malusi and Maicy Ledwaba, a husband and wife team married for over 30 years, talked about the pur-

pose, expectations and challenges of marriage from a Catholic perspective.

First, marriage is God’s idea and as such has to be God-centred, the couple said.

There are two basic principles in marriage: love and respect. “Love your partner. Accept him or her as your best choice,” the meeting was told.

Other advice included:

• Know your partner’s strengths and weaknesses.

• Never be angry at the same time. One should be calm to save the situation.

• Accept your own mistakes and ask for forgiveness. Do not bring things of the past into the present.

• Keep romance and intimacy alive.

• Pray for each other always.

Also, don’t forget to bless your

spouse and children every day.

Single people were advised to pray to God to send you the perfect person for you.

Fr Elias Ledwaba confirmed marriage as a vocation, a covenant and a sacrament, sharing the Church’s understanding of marriage as a “covenant which by its very nature is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of children”.

Synod: Hear voices of Africa Continued from page 1 “In the West we believe in the nuclear family with parents and children. In Africa the concept of family is far bigger than that.”

Cardinal Napier, writing in the British Catholic Herald, said marriage poses a special challenge in Africa.

The Church in Africa, he said, needs to do a much more thorough study of how to integrate cultural elements such as ilobolo into its theology and canonical discipline.

“Many couples today decide to cohabit even before the ilobolo process is completed,” he said.

“Unlike in the West, this form of cohabitation in Africa is not in any way a sign of rejection of the institution of marriage,” the cardinal noted.

“Quite the contrary. It is a confirmation of a couple’s intention to seal their marriage once the traditional formalities have been completed to everyone’s satisfaction.” n See also page 4 for more comments

by Cardinal Napier.

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The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

INTERNATIONAL

Cardinal: Synod open approach can ease fears G

BY CAROL GLATZ

REATER emphasis on smallgroup discussions and incorporating that work into the synod’s final draft document is helping alleviate any suspicion of the synod being manipulated, said one of the four synod presidents.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban told Catholic News Service: “I think this time we are aware of and I think the secretary of the synod [Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri] is aware that there are these suspicions and, therefore, I think there’s going to be a much more perhaps open-handed approach to the synod.”

As a member of the synod’s ordinary council, the cardinal was part of the group that planned this year’s general Synod of Bishops on the Family as well as last year’s extraordinary synod.

Cardinal Napier said he had found it “strange” last year that the media had been given a detailed midterm report before the issues facing the synod had been fully discussed.

This meant the media “were given a certain direction that could only have come from inside and, therefore, raised the suspicion— which I think is not quite as strongly present now as it was” in the year between the synods— “that there was some manipulation going on,” he said.

While summaries of speakers’ presentations still are not distributed by the Vatican, Cardinal Baldisseri insisted bishops were free to give their texts to whomever they wanted.

In addition, Pope Francis created a 10-person committee to oversee the drafting of the final synod document and ensure it incorporates the general discussions, small groups’ reports and written comments from synod participants.

Cardinal Napier said he has been pleased with the increased emphasis on and time given to the small group discussions, saying the bishops “have been given what we have always said is the best part” of a synod.

The cardinal said the discussions

“have actually fulfilled my expectations. Really free and open exchanges, getting a good measure of what’s happening in the Church in the various parts of the world”, and how the Church and families help and support each other”.

He said he thought that the input coming from the small groups was “already giving the draft document a direction which is rather difficult, I think, to work into a particular position”.

Rather than being focused on one particular view or approach, he said, the small groups are discussing “what we believe is the direction in which the Church in general wants to go”.

When a final document is drawn up at the synod’s end, he said, “certainly the result I am looking forward to is a document that we can put into people’s hands”, which will give them very clear direction as to the mission and vocation of today’s families.

The focus of discussion and the final report, he said, has been on: “What can the synod do to make families really know where they fit in the Church, how the Church depends on them and in that way to re-

Pope Francis and members of the Synod of Bishops on the Family concelebrate the opening Mass of the synod in St Peter’s basilica at the Vatican. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) ally get themselves rejuvenated and renewed so they take on this role of evangelisation.”

Cardinal Napier told reporters later that he believed families were hoping the synod would “be clear and very forceful in restating” the importance of the family for the

Church and society.

“If the family is weak, the Church is going to be weak; it’s not the other way around,” the cardinal said. “The strength of the Church comes from the families, so let’s give the families every support we can.”—CNS

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ope Francis has urged members of the Synod of Bishops on the Family not to act as if the only question that mattered was the pastoral care of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, his spokesman said.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said that the pope affirmed again that “Catholic doctrine on marriage has not been touched or put into question”.

The pope also said, “We should not let ourselves be conditioned by or to reduce the horizons of our work as if the only problem were that of Communion for the divorced and remarried or not,” Fr Lombardi said.

Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, writing on his blog, said that some bishops were “uneasy about the impression given by the presentation of Cardinal Peter Erdö that some key questions [were] already decided and seemingly off the table. They felt that such a stance was premature.”

Cardinal Erdö, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, chosen by Pope Francis to intro-

duce the synod’s work, had made it appear there was little support for or possibility that the Church would adopt German Cardinal Walter Kasper’s proposal to design a “penitential path” that eventually would allow some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion even without an annulment and without a promise to abstain from sexual relations.

Cardinal Erdö said his report’s affirmation of the indissolubility of marriage and moving away from seeking a pastoral approach to allowing those couples to receive Communion were the result of the input the synod sought from Catholics around the world after the extraordinary synod on the family last year.

Using his Twitter account to report Pope Francis’ comments to the synod, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, a synod member, said the pope called for a “profound discernment” in order “to understand how the Lord wants his Church”.

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told reporters the discussion about the “penitential path” or other forms of outreach to divorced Catholics “is open”. “If everything was concluded with the report by Cardinal Erdö, then what are we doing here?”

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Canadian Archbishop PaulAndre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, a synod member, said participants see a growing distance between modern cultural attitudes toward marriage and family life and what the Church teaches and proposes.

Catholic pastors have different attitudes about what the response should be, he said. “One reaction is to emphasise what the teaching is for fear that, as the culture moves away from that vision, our own understanding gets diluted. The other fear is that we lose contact with that culture and that we close in on ourselves and become a kind of a ghetto or a sect that no longer has an impact on culture.”

“All the bishops agree,” he said, “that the teaching of the Church coming from Jesus is a gift for the world—it’s not just for a select few.”—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

5

Pope to youth: Do works of mercy ahead of WYD

BY CAROL GLATZ

P

OPE Francis asked the world’s young Catholics to perform spiritual and corporal works of mercy every month in the run-up to World Youth Day next July.

He asked that they not be afraid to experience God’s “boundless mercy, so that in turn you may become apostles of mercy by your actions, words and prayers in our world, wounded by selfishness, hatred and so much despair”.

The pope’s request was part of his message for World Youth Day 2016—an international gathering that will be celebrated in Krakow, Poland, July 26-31. The celebration’s theme, from the Gospel of St Matthew, is “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy”.

Jesus and his beatitudes show how it is better to give than to receive and how “we will be truly blessed and happy only when we enter into the divine ‘logic’ of gift and gracious love,” he said.

When people discover that “God has loved us infinitely in order to make us capable of loving like him, without measure,” then they themselves can become instruments of God’s mercy, bringing hope and healing to those in need.

“I ask you, then, to rediscover the corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry; give a drink to

Young people from Poland raise the World Youth Day cross after accepting it from Brazilian youths in St Peter’s square at the Vatican.

(Photo:Paul Haring/CNS) the thirsty; clothe the naked; welcome the stranger; assist the sick; visit the imprisoned and bury the dead,” he said.

“Nor should we overlook the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful; teach the ignorant; admonish sinners; comfort the sorrowful; forgive offences; patiently bear with troublesome people and pray to God for the living and the dead.”

In order to become more authentic and credible disciples of Christ, the pope suggested “that for the first seven months of

2016, you choose a corporal and a spiritual work of mercy to practice each month”.

Pope Francis recalled the example of Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati, who lived his short life by receiving God in the Eucharist every morning and then returning that divine presence and love by visiting and helping the poor each day.

The pope also asked young people to find inspiration in the prayer of St Faustina Kowalska, which describes specific ways one’s eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet and heart can be merciful in everyday life.

“One of the most obvious works of mercy, and perhaps the most difficult to put into practice, is to forgive those who have offended us, who have done us wrong or whom we consider to be enemies,” the pope said.

Even though it seems so hard to forgive, pardoning others is a powerful grace placed in “our fragile hands to attain serenity of heart. To let go of anger, wrath, violence, and revenge are necessary conditions to living joyfully.”

“Only a few months are left before we meet in Poland.

Krakow, the city of St John Paul II and St Faustina Kowalska, is waiting for us with open arms and hearts,” said the pope, who is scheduled to attend events there on July 28-31, 2016.—CNS

Ethiopian priest first African elected as Comboni head A PRIEST from Ethiopia became the first from Africa to be elected superior-general of the Comboni Missionaries.

Fr Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, 46, welcomed the vote of the Comboni delegates meeting during the order’s general chapter meeting in Rome.

He succeeds Mexican Father Enrique Sanchez Gonzalez.

Fr Gebresilasie had been assistant-general of the Comboni Missionaries since 2009 and was responsible for basic formation and the provinces and delegations of English-speaking Africa, with the exception of Eritrea, and Mozambique.

“It is a great responsibility for me and those whom I represent.

Africans have for decades been members of the congregation,

Fr Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie but this time, for the first time, one of us has been elected as superior general. Africa is now at home,” Fr Gebresilasie said.

“My confreres, sons of St Daniel Comboni, have renewed their trust. St Comboni will be

happy, because he had a great love for this continent and its people. I come from a small African church, not from Uganda or Congo; also for this reason, more than Ethiopia, I represent all of Africa.”

Born in Harar, Ethiopia, Fr Gebresilasie was ordained a priest in 1995. He studied Arabic in Egypt in 1995-96 and worked in Northern Sudan from 1997 to 2000. He returned to Ethiopia in 2001 and worked in evangelisation and then as a formator in the postulancy before being elected provincial superior in 2005.

More than 4 000 priests, brothers, women religious and laypeople serve in Comboni ministries around the world.—CNS

Archbishop proposes women deacons

BY CAROL GLATZ

C

ANADIAN Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, said the Synod of Bishops on the Family should reflect on the possibility of allowing for female deacons as it seeks ways to open up more opportunities for women in Church life.

Where possible, qualified women should be given higher positions and decision-making authority within Church structures and new opportunities in ministry, he said.

Discussing a number of proposals he offered the synod fathers to think about, he said, “I think we should really start looking seriously at the possibility of ordaining women deacons because the diaconate in the Church’s tradition has been defined as not being ordered toward priesthood but toward ministry.”

Currently, the Catholic Church permits only men to be

ordained as deacons. Deacons can preach and preside at baptisms, funerals and weddings, but may not celebrate Mass or hear confessions.

Speaking to participants at the synod, Archbishop Durocher said he dedicated his presentation to the role of women in the Church—one of the many themes highlighted in the synod’s working document.

The working document, which is guiding the first three weeks of the synod’s discussions, proposed giving women greater responsibility in the Church, particularly through involving them in “the decision-making process, their participation—not simply in a formal way—in the governing of some institutions; and their involvement in the formation of ordained ministers”.

Archbishop Durocher, said that much of his brief talk was focused on the lingering problem of violence against women, including domestic violence.

He reminded the synod fathers that in the apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio in 1981, Pope John Paul II told the Church that “we have to make a concerted and clear effort to make sure that there is no more degradation of women in our world, particularly in marriage.

And I said, ‘Well, here we are 30 years later and we’re still facing these kinds of numbers.’”

In addition to the possibility of allowing for women deacons, he also proposed that women be hired for “decision-making jobs” that could be opened to women in the Roman curia, diocesan chanceries and large-scale Church initiatives and events.

Another thing, he said, “would be to look at the possibility of allowing married couples to speak during Sunday homilies so that they can testify, give witness to the relationship between God’s word and their own marriage life and their own life as families”.— CNS

A nun carries a candle outside the Namugongo shrine during the annual Uganda Martyr’s Day ceremony, which honours the 22 Ugandan martyrs who were burned to death for their faith between 1885-87. The Ugandan bishops called on all Catholics to prepare spiritually for Pope Francis’ November 27-29 visit to their country. (Photo: Ronald Kabuubi, EPA/CNS)

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6

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The changing mission

T

HE third Sunday in October is one of the most important non-liturgical days in the Catholic Church’s year: it is World Mission Sunday.

Traditionally, Mission Sunday is a day of prayer for the evangelising mission of the Church, especially in regions where the faith was yet to be heard.

At Masses throughout the world, a collection is held for the Pontifical Mission Society (PMS), which disburses funds to the Church’s mission territories, including Southern Africa.

These collections are held also in our region; more often than not, the local Church has received more from the PMS funds that it collected for it. As a Church that aims for financial self-sufficiency, our goal must be to reverse this.

In the past, regions such as Southern Africa benefited richly from the work of missionaries.

Irish, English, German, Austrian, Dutch, French, Italian and American missionaries especially took the lead in building and sustaining our local Church—and not only in transmitting the faith but also in setting up a system of social services, particularly in the fields of education and health.

Missionaries from other places—including Africa, Asia and Latin America—have followed these pioneers.

The Southern African Church is grateful to those priests and religious who left their homes to serve the Lord in mission fields.

Especially on Mission Sunday, we must offer our prayers of gratitude for these missionaries.

But the nature of the Church’s missionary activity is changing.

The Church in countries which in the past generously sent so many of their priests and religious to missionary regions, and helped fund their activities, no longer has the human resources to do so.

In many European countries the Church no longer attracts enough vocations to sustain itself, never mind to send missionaries into the world. Indeed, the Church in Europe increasingly needs the influx of priests from Africa, Asia and Latin America to meet pastoral and sacramental needs.

Moreover, with religion being sidelined in public discourse in many European countries, and ignorance about the Catholic faith on the rise, the sources of missionaries in the past are slowly becoming missionary territories.

The Good News will have to be

brought again to the people who once spread it.

However, the Church in the developing world can barely spare priests. The Church in Europe used to have a surplus of priests and religious whose dreams of being missionaries could be fulfilled; the Church in the traditional mission territories has no such oversupply.

The missionary needs of the Church are changing and expanding. Besides bringing the faith of salvation through Christ to people who haven’t heard it, the Church has to make the Good News heard in a global marketplace in which the cases for no religion or other religions are aggressively pronounced.

The Church’s missionary efforts must adapt accordingly, in terms of the resources at its disposal and the messages it needs to convey in different contexts.

The Church calls on all of us to evangelise—the primary purpose of mission—but it also needs dedicated, trained missionaries.

One way can be found in the practices of Protestant and Evangelical churches which utilise dedicated lay missionaries, often with families, to build up their churches in foreign lands.

The Catholic Church, so used to consecrated men and women to do its missionary work, has no tradition of such a lay missionary ministry. A model of how it can work in the Catholic Church is provided by the Neocatechumenal Way which sends missionary families to foreign lands, including South Africa.

The local Church’s evangelising efforts, however, must retain at their foundation the work of religious congregations. Especially in this Year of Consecrated Life we must work and pray for vocations to the consecrated and clerical ministry.

Take the time to survey the advertisements placed in this issue (and in every edition of The Southern Cross) by various religious congregations which offer many options to young people with a call to the consecrated life.

The various charisms of these congregations give us a picture of why it is so important that they thrive, for without them and their dedicated members who till in the vineyard of the Lord, the mission of our local Church will be impoverished.

On Mission Sunday, we will do well to keep this in our minds and prayers.

The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit published letters. Letters below 300 words receive preference. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances and at the Editor’s discretion. Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

More info on the two thieves

F

URTHER to Michael Shackleton’s answer to the question, “Was the other thief saved?”

(September 30) refers, tradition names that man as Gestas.

From tradition we also know a lot more about Dismas, the Good Thief, than the information given us in the Gospel.

His wonderful eleventh-hour conversion and defence of the holy Kingship of Jesus on Calvary merited him the everlasting title “The Good”.

It was in the throes of his death agony that this “new man” was reborn on a cross, and was canonised by the gasps of the heaving voice of our Saviour Himself as he hung from the nails that transfixed him to the cross of our salvation.

From data garnered from common tradition, the Fathers of the

Inherited choice?

I

N his letter “Gay by choice” (September 23), J H Goossens claims that if homosexuality is caused by chromosomes it must be hereditary, and that because homosexuality is not hereditary, it must be freely chosen.

I don’t know whether homosexuality is caused by chromosomes, as new research claims. But I know it’s not true that chromosomal abnormalities are always hereditary.

For example, Down syndrome is caused by one of the most common chromosome abnormalities, but it isn’t hereditary.

Nicholas Green, Johannesburg

God’s presence

T

HE following is a true story that happened to me and I want to share it with the whole world.

I have always been a devout Catholic, never wavering from my belief in God, and the intercession of the Blessed Mother and the saints.

At one point, my then teenage son had given me a book to read, which he said he had found very powerful.

The first part of the book was about a Christian doctor who helped a patient who was possessed.

The second part of the book was more on finding your way to God. I was really taken with this book until I got to the part where the author said people who “worship”

Church, and several non-inspired accounts of the gospel story, we know that the first meeting of our Egyptian-born (good) thief and the Holy Family took place in Egypt during the flight of the holy family away from Herod.

Dismas was a very young man then but discerning enough to see, especially in the face of the child Jesus’ mother a holiness and beauty that he dared not profane.

Indeed, it is said that he interceded with his fellow accomplices to give the holy family a safe conduct into Egypt, though he did not respond to grace at this time.

Worse still, according to Pope St Gregory the Great, Dismas fell in the later days so low that he was stained with the sin of Cain— murder of a brother.

At Golgotha, a transformation was won through the intercession Mary and the saints are evil and inspired by Satan. I was sitting on the couch in my bedroom, reading, when I began to doubt my Catholic faith.

I felt frightened and lost. Tears of fear and sorrow rolled down my cheeks. Had I been duped all these years?

But I still had enough sense to know where to go, and I prayed to God for guidance.

Without thinking I got up and walked over to my bed, almost as if I was being led. Kneeling down I bowed my head.

There was a beautiful presence in the room, a hand gently touching my head, the pressure being firm but light. A gentle voice, which seemed to fill the whole room, said “my child”. I knew God was standing in front of me, and that he was touching me and had spoken to me.

I also knew he was very tall.

Without any thought I kissed the place where I knew his feet were standing. The love I felt at that time was overwhelming, impossible to describe. Tears fell onto his feet and I continued to kiss them over and over again.

As quickly as he had come to me, he left. I felt his hand lift off my head and knew his feet were no longer there, but continued to feel the love.

People ask me, “How do you know it was really God.” The answer is so simple: you just do.

By the way, I never finished that book.

Dolly Coley, East London

of the “Woman” (Mary), who ponders all things in her heart and never forgets one who has given her Son a cup of cold water.

This dying man’s only request from his Lord was but a remembrance in his Kingdom.

We are thankful with the angels for this man, chosen from all eternity to be co-crucified with the Lord and Saviour of all mankind. We rejoice for a man who was the first to be with Christ in Paradise.

We also rejoice that St Dismas encourages and intercedes for all of us who are so frail spiritually, to continue with confidence and hope, on our pilgrim walk.

It is my fervent prayer that the “bad” thief, whom tradition names Gestas in the 14th-century Catalogue of Saints by Peter de Natalibus, also underwent his purgation, and eventually entered heaven too.

John Lee, Johannesburg

What I want

A

WHILE ago we read about a survey that was done about the percentage of Catholics that want change. It said that 80% want change.

I’m wondering where are these people, in what part of the country, what change they want? With so many parishes not getting The Southern Cross, does this justify the figure of 80%?

I am a Catholic and I speak Catholic! We want change. We want The Southern Cross so that our kids can read about the Catholic world. We want the “Catholic Link” so that we see what the Scripture readings are for the week.

We want order back. We want our confession room back. We want Catholics to run organisations in Church so that they don’t end up nowhere. We want Church books to be audited. We want the people held accountable who swindle Church funds.

We want peace, quiet and order back—and cleanliness.

We want our kids to be taught by true Catholic role models, not people living together. We want people to show respect for the House of God and dress up. We want liturgical abuses to stop, especially those who make up their own hymns. We want the law of the Church to be respected. We want Latin Mass.

We want our beloved Church back!

Leonie Arries, George

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The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

Evolution in the Garden of Eden?

Mphuthumi W Ntabeni E have recently seen some exciting times as far as the South African scientific community and Catholic faith is concerned.

First there was the announcement of 15 partial skeletons of a new human-like species, including one named Naledi, the star. And then there was the canonisation of the Bl Benedict Tshimangadzi Daswa, who is on his way to becoming South Africa’s first canonised saint.

Bl Daswa has already begun to draw the attention of the South African public to the Catholic faith.

Those of us who are loud about our faith on social media were grilled during the live broadcast of the ceremony by non-religious friends. Some of the questions were just plain silly, but others were interesting. For instance, one of my Facebook friends asked if this means “Catholics worship ancestors, like in most African religions”.

I answered by saying that it is a bit of a stretch even to say African religions worship ancestors, but yes, like some African religions, we do venerate our ancestors.

This response led to the demand for a definition of ancestors, which I simplified by saying: “It’s people whose lives have contributed to the greater good of humanity and drawing others to the goodness of God.” Of course, I had to go into a little detail about God being ultimate Goodness, which is why all goodness is pleasing to God. The Church calls these saints, I concluded.

Needless to say, my friend, who is what I may call a pantheist traditionalist, was pleased by this. I waxed high about Catholicism being suited to the natural state of human belief, which is why Christian revelation and practice always look as if is based on some ancient rite of one culture or the other.

Inevitably, we reached the other current topic of Homo Naledi.

When I confessed my lack of palaeontological background, to avoid the situation, he told me he was more interested in what my Church believes regarding the theory of evolution.

Because I take to heart St Paul’s advice about always being ready to give reasons for the hope we hold, I explained that the Church teaches us that evolution is a tentative hypothesis.

We both agreed that even if so, it looks like a matter of time before science fills in all the gaps and the evidence of evolution becomes fully empirical.

I

t was his turn to wax lyrically about the dangers of Social Darwinism, which motivated ideas of eugenics, racism, imperialism, fascism, Nazism and other theories of aggressive individualism, such as laissez-fair capitalism and liberalism.

At this point it was back to belief systems, particularly the challenge hominids pose to the biblical and traditional interpretation of creation.

“In the Garden of Eden”, painting by artist Andrew Finnie (andrewfinnieartist portfolio4.blogspot.co.za)

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Pushing the Boundaries

When he put me on the spot about the known inconsistencies of chapters 13 of Genesis I had to confess that I have not yet found an exegesis account that reconciles those chapters to my satisfaction.

Luckily we were more concerned by the scientific evidence for the preAdamic era. Scientific evidence shows that anatomical modern humans existed at least 60 000 years in Europe, and longer in Africa, while biblical scholars, using genealogies listed in the Bible, date Adam and Eve to about 4 000BC. Luckily it had by then become late. I told my friend about something else that has always perturbed me in those chapters: what are these Nephilim the Bible talks about in Genesis.

“The Nephilim were on earth in those days—and also afterwards—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them [...] They were heroes of old, men of renown” (Gen 6:4). We both promised to research the matter further as we logged off Facebook.

Dr Michael Jarvis, who is a zoologist at the University of Cape Town, is of the opinion that the Nephilim are the Neanderthals of science. I once also read that genetically, the Caucasians are the only race with a Neanderthal gene, just about the only thing that differentiates them from other people.

How does that reconcile with the biblical account? Over to our specialists in the field: the theologians and scientists of the Catholic faith.

A thoroughly Catholic entertainer S Mark Pattison OMETIMES in the entertainment industry, it’s not always easy to tell who’s Catholic and who’s not.

One who is, most definitely, is Stephen Colbert, who took over as the new host of The Late Show in the US from David Letterman.

While it should come as no surprise to fans of Colbert, the comic talent is reaching an audience now about three times what it was when he reigned supreme over The Colbert Report, which South African viewers could see on the Comedy Channel. The Late Show is currently not broadcast on South African TV. On The Colbert Report, the 51-year-old comedian had his occasional comic riffs on Catholicism—almost everything on the show was a comic riff given Colbert’s persona as a pontificating pundit of the bloviating blowhard variety. But The Colbert Report even had its own chaplain: Jesuit Father James Martin, who would appear on the show from time to time.

It’s that kind of integration of faith and life that makes Colbert distinctive.

He’s not the only Catholic on American late-night TV; Jimmy Fallon of the firstin-the-ratings Tonight Show (which is shown on DStv) went to Catholic school and college. Having been an altar boy, he had even considered becoming a priest.

But while Fallon riffs from time to time on his faith and the Church, it’s not with the same all-in sense evidenced by Colbert.

That may explain how Colbert could conduct such a riveting interview with US Vice-President Joe Biden, another Catholic, on the first week of his new show.

Mr Biden, still mourning the death from cancer earlier this year of his son Beau, intermingled talk about his faith

Point of Television

Stephen Colbert with the Emmys he won in 2013 for The Colbert Report. The popular talk show host wears his Catholic faith on his sleeve. (Photo: Lucy Nicholson, Reuters/CNS) and his loss after being asked by Colbert about his potential presidential aspirations. Being across the desk from Colbert gave the VP a safe space to talk about his faith without being ridiculed or used as just more comic fodder.

I

t also may explain how Colbert could get away with having what he called “Catholic Night” on his September 24 show, the day Pope Francis arrived in New York City as part of his six-day apostolic journey to the United States.

If Colbert can’t get the pope, then why

not Catholic voices? His guests happened to be comedian Jim Gaffigan, whose own self-titled sitcom makes no bones about his faith; Maria Shriver, a member of the Kennedy political clan; conservative author Andrew Sullivan; and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

It’s not that Colbert hasn’t thought about interviewing the pope. Asked by Fr Thomas Rosica in an interview on Canada’s Salt and Light Television about what he would ask the pontiff, Colbert had a few things on his mind: “I would ask him about how love leads him to joy, or does love lead him to joy?”; “about being a fool for Christ”, because “to be a fool for Christ is to love, because we are made, we are here to dig our brief moment in time”; and “how you get to where you are in the Church and not to be consumed by the law as opposed to the love that led to the law?”

Which brings us to another point. It’s not as if doing an interview for a Catholic cable channel in Canada is going to do anything to boost Colbert’s ratings.

All this points to Colbert’s unique place as a Catholic layman toiling in the field of entertainment, not using profanity and being respectful to guests instead of making them look bad to make himself look good.

Now if that’s not one of the corporal works of mercy, I don’t know what is.— CNS

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Why is Church so tough on divorce?

The Catholic Church seems to be the only church, if not the only religion, that stubbornly refuses to allow a married couple to obtain a divorce and so end the marriage in the hope of finding a better future union. If so many others can see nothing wrong with divorce, why is the Church so inflexible?

Sylvia

L

ET’S begin with the book of Genesis: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (2:24).

When the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause, he quoted this same text, adding: “What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mt 19:6).

This is the basis of the Church’s strong stand against divorce. Marriage is a mutual giving and taking of a man and a woman in such an intimate union that they become “one flesh”. This union is not merely a sexual cohabitation but a symbol of the mysterious and enduring love that God shares with his people.

You find evidence of this love in Isaiah 54:5 where God is presented as the husband of the people of God. Also in Hosea 1-3 where God denounces his people for being as unfaithful to him as the prophet’s unfaithful wife.

In the New Testament Jesus Christ is manifested as the bridegroom of his people, for example in John 3:29 and Matthew 9:15.

What does all this imply? It implies that God loves his people so much that he has “married” them and he is faithful to them and desires that they be faithful to him.

So, when a couple exchange their marriage vows and enter their commitment to live in “one flesh”, they become a real symbol of the unbreakable bond that Christ has forged with his people.

And marriage, like the other sacraments, is not only a sign of union but also an effective sign, that is, it brings about what it signifies. The couple sacramentally share in the firm love that binds Christ and his Church to each other. Each spouse mediates to the other the grace of God poured out into the Church.

And so Paul, quoting again from Genesis 2:24, tells us that this “one flesh” is a great mystery “in reference to Christ and his Church” (Ephesians 5:32).

When a validly married Catholic attempts a divorce and remarries, the Church has to point out that this new partnership cannot symbolise the loving union that Christ has with his Church.

This is not meant to be a judgment against anyone’s conscience, but the Church must stick to the teaching it has received from Christ.

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

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

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8

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

HERITAGE DAY

The learners of De La Salle Holy Cross College Junior School in Victory Park, Johannesburg wore civvies to celebrate Heritage Day. Learners donated R5 and the money raised was given to Casa do Sol School to replace their school bus that was written off in an accident.

Missionary Sisters of The Holy Rosary

The Mount Carmel Youth Conference Centre in Aliwal North hosted the youth from Aliwal North diocese to celebrate Heritage Day.

sent to bring the Good News to all people

Will you join us in Mission?

Contact Vocations Promoter

Together in Mission

PO Box 1097 Edenvale 1610

Sr Elizabeth Wolstenholme: Holy Cross Provincial House, Parow - Tel: 021 934 6006 or 082 974 7370 Sr Yolanda Mandes: Holy Cross Convent, Vredenburg - Tel: 022 713 3455

HANDMAIDS OF CHRIST THE PRIEST

WE THE HANDMAIDS OF CHRIST THE PRIEST ARE CALLED TO WITNESS CHRIST EVERYWHERE WE ARE,

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Sacred Heart College in Observatory, Johannesburg, hosted a music festival on Heritage Day. Pre-primary, primary and high school learners showcased their talents along with jazz musicians Paul Hanmer, Judith Sephuma, Simphiwe Dana and Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse, who performed with newly-appointed German ambassador, Walter Lindner. The festival highlighted Sacred Heart College’s stand against xenophobia. All funds raised went towards the education of refugee learners in the Three2Six education project.

Pupils from Brescia House School in Bryanston, Johannesburg, wore traditional dress for Heritage Day, celebrating their diverse customs and sharing cultural heritage with one another. (From left) Grade 5 pupils Khanya Phakathi, Sabrina Duarte and Olivia de Castro.

Holy Trinity parish in Olifantsfontein, Johannesburg, celebrated Heritage Day dressed in traditional attire. (From left) Lorraine Dlamini, Jostina Mohlala and Jeanette Lesisa.

The parish of St Louis in Clairwood, Durban, celebrated Heritage Day with Mass said by Fr Herman Giraldo in traditional attire together with parishioners. India, Nigeria, Mauritius and South Africa were represented in colourful traditional wear. The liturgy was presented by Zulu parishioners and the Our Father was recited in Spanish, followed by the English version. The parish also celebrated the feast of St Vincent de Paul on the same day.

HURLEY AT 100

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

9

Hurley’s delight: Debate, dialogue, discussion As the local Church prepares for the centenary of Archishop Denis Hurley’s birth on November 9, his biographer PADDY KEARNEY recalls the late archbishop’s love for exchanging ideas.

W

HAT strikes me when I look at the whole sweep of Archbishop Denis Hurley’s long and full life of 88 years is that the highlights all seem to relate to his delight in debate, dialogue and discussion. When participating in these activities he seemed most alive, happy and fulfilled, almost as if they were the oxygen of his spirit.

PMB Debating Society

I

n 1943, as a 29-year old priest, Fr Hurley was made superior of St Joseph’s Scholasticate, then based at Prestbury in Pietermaritzburg (now in Cedara).

Having discovered that the city had its own flourishing parliamentary debating society he promptly signed up as a member and regularly took part in its debates. Here he met community leaders from all walks of life, all races, all faiths. And debating was a way of developing his public speaking skills, which he regarded as crucial for priests.

Clearly he did not want to be hermetically sealed into an all-Catholic environment but rather relished the opportunity to meet people from as wide a range as possible, even atheists who would become his friends.

The debating society members discussed many topical issues which led to lively exchanges with such sparring partners as the “Friends of the Soviet Union”! You can imagine how vigorously they tackled young Fr Hurley—but all in good spirit.

It was not long before Hurley started his own debating society for staff and students at St Joseph’s, modelled on the one in town. In this way, debating topical issues became a key element in the formation he offered to the Oblate scholastics.

Second Vatican Council

T

wenty years later, after he had become a bishop, came what Archbishop Hurley regarded as the greatest highlight of his life: the Second Vatican Council (1962–65).

Here was an opportunity to debate the “signs of the times” with 2 500 Catholic bishops from around the world, some of whom had brought their own theological advisers.

An impressive contingent of observers from other churches took a keen interest in proceedings and a challenging array of media representatives eagerly sought out bishops and theological advisers willing to

help them make sense of the proceedings.

What an intellectual feast for Denis Hurley who had kept abreast of theological developments through his reading in the 1950s.

Pope John XXIII had also appointed him to the Council’s 100strong Central Preparatory Committee. There Archbishop Hurley had become aware of the cleavage between progressive and conservative bishops and the rather inadequate preparation that was being made for the Council with all the draft documents coming from conservative curial sources.

By the time the Council started he had a good idea of who the key players would be and the key issues to look out for.

Once the Council was under way, Archbishop Hurley was not so much stimulated by the plenary sessions in St Peter’s basilica as by various informal discussions.

First of all, the gatherings in two coffee bars in the side aisles of St Peter’s, fondly known as “Bar Jonah” and “Bar Abbas”, where the bishops could vent their frustrations about the sometimes deadly succession of prepared speeches in Latin.

Then there were the afternoon seminars organised by bishops’ conferences where the bishops “sat at the feet” of theological advisers, some of whom had until recently been rather frowned upon by the Vatican but were now playing leading roles in shaping the debate.

Archbishop Hurley, who had the language skills to take part in French, Italian, and English discussions, was in his element. He described it as the greatest experiment in adult education ever held.

A third informal opportunity for lively discussions were Sunday evening soirees at the large apartment of Robert Blair Kaiser, Rome correspondent for Time magazine, who brought together some of the brightest minds of the Council— bishops and theologians—with razor-sharp journalists, for a freeranging discussion of what had been debated during the past week and what was scheduled for the forthcoming week.

Archbishop Hurley, who called this the “Bob Kaiser Academy”, could not have been happier than in such an environment.

ICEL

D

uring the Council, once it became clear that in future the liturgy would be in the vernacular, Archbishop Hurley saw a perfect opportunity to get together with bishops from other English-speaking countries to plan how they could develop common liturgical translations for their countries instead of having a plethora of English translations competing at great expense.

His discussion with a handful of

meet interesting people, especially the honorary graduands who during his term of office included Judge Richard Goldstone, Thabo Mbeki, Cyril Ramaphosa, Ismael and Fatima Meer, Trevor Huddlestone and most notably, President Nelson Mandela.

How much the archbishop regretted that Mother Teresa and Aung San Suu Kyi had to receive their doctorates in absentia!

Community of Sant’Egidio

T

Archbishop Hurley, as chancellor of the University of Natal, vice-chancellor Prof Brenda Gourley and honorary doctorate recipient Nelson Mandela share a joke in 1993. other bishops led to the establishment of what would become known as the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), of which he would be a key member for the next few decades, and chairperson for 16 years.

ICEL was another forum for the sort of dialogue and debate which Archbishop Hurley so much appreciated.

Having learnt from the Council the value of bishops being advised by experts, he made sure this was built into the structures of ICEL. A nun participating in an ICEL advisory committee meeting had the impression that for Archbishop Hurley, “coming to ICEL was like dessert, you know, or tea when you have a large chunk of bread, slathered with butter and jam. He just couldn’t get enough of it; he loved to engage us in conversation.”

As a scholar himself, Archbishop Hurley was always at home with scholars.

Implementing Vatican II

B

ack in South Africa, after the Council, Archbishop Hurley was determined to share with his own diocese and more generally with the whole South African Church his excitement about the reform and renewal stemming from the Council’s declarations.

He had written, anonymously, a series of Southern Cross reports on the Council as it was happening, and gave innumerable talks to priests, nuns, seminarians, university students, lay organisations.

And his enthusiasm was infectious. Bishop Barry Wood OMI, a scholastic at the time of the Council, recalled that Archbishop Hurley “really set us all afire with the whole spirit of Vatican II”.

To help the teachings of Vatican II permeate the life of the archdio-

cese of Durban, Archbishop Hurley organised in 1968 the first diocesan synod ever held in a South African Catholic diocese.

With its representation of all the parishes, black and white, and simultaneous translation into English and Zulu, it was a rare event in the South Africa of those times and an exciting foretaste of the democracy that was to come three decades later.

Archbishop Hurley gave it huge credibility by promptly promulgating all its decisions.

It is remarkable that he continued to speak about the Council right up to the day of his death, though some of his last words on this favourite topic deplored the fact that there seemed to be an effort to go back to what the Church had been like before the Council.

His greatest regret was that the Church had not implemented the sort of collegiality promised by the Council. For him this was the debate, dialogue and discussion of pope with bishops, which should have been the most important fruit of the Council. But perhaps it will now happen as a result of Francis’s papacy.

University of Natal

F

ast forward to the “retired” Archbishop Hurley, who while doing a full-time job as what he called “acting parish priest” at Emmanuel cathedral in Durban, was chosen by the University of Natal to be its Chancellor from 1993-98.

Archbishop Hurley revelled in this task not because of its status or the leading role it gave him at colourful graduation ceremonies— nor even that he could pronounce the Latin ceremonial phrases with greater ease and understanding than most—but because of his delight in academic discussion.

It was a great pleasure for him to

MEDJUGORJE Rome • Assisi Loreto • Paris

he last example of forums which delighted Archbishop Hurley were the international and interfaith assemblies of the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Rome-based group which came into existence just after the Council to promote the spirit of that momentous event.

The Community had become aware of Archbishop Hurley at the time of his Namibian trial when they helped rally international support for him. Thereafter they always invited him to their assemblies because they regarded him as a living link with the Council and a faithful exponent of its teachings.

In his last eight years he attended five of these assemblies and took full part in their intense dialogues on how leading people of faith could promote justice, peace and development in many countries around the world, countries which by this time had Sant’Egidio groups.

The last such assembly he attended was in Rome early in 2004.

Community members said that they had never seen him so happy before.

He was deeply impressed by the addresses during this assembly which stressed that the starting point for Christians is love for the poor as proclaimed by the Gospel.

He told Fr Giorgio Ferretti, the Community’s liaison person with South Africa, that if it were possible he would like to start his whole life over again because he had understood things he had never before understood, little knowing that in those last days of his life he was being prepared to begin a new life of another kind.

Perhaps the secret of his delight in debate, discussion and dialogue was that he was a life-long learner, one of those who, ever ready to understand things in a new way, flourish in such an atmosphere.

Just days after returning from this last “learning experience”, Denis Hurley died suddenly in Durban, happy in the realisation that whatever the setbacks in the implementation of Vatican II, what had been decided in that landmark event could not be reversed; moreover his beloved Sant’Egidio and their worldwide network would not let the dream die. n Paddy Kearney is the author of the biography Guardian of the Light: Denis Hurley, Renewing the Church, Opposing Apartheid (2009).

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10

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

Man of repentance through God’s grace In the 1980s, the name Adriaan Vlok was a byword for the brutality of the apartheid police. To date, he is one of the very few apartheid officials who have renounced the actions of their past. The former Law & Order minister was interviewed by STUART GRAHAM.

I

N 1988 one of South Africa’s most ruthless and feared apartheid-era ministers ordered his chief of police “to take care of” Khotso House, the headquarters of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), and as police minister presided over the bombing of the headquarters of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Khanya House.

Today, former Law and Order minister Adriaan Vlok, 77, is a bornagain Christian with a charity that feeds township children.

Mr Vlok says he is a changed man who no longer sees himself as superior to his fellow black South Africans.

In an interview, he told The Southern Cross how the apartheid government perceived the SACC and the Catholic Church, who were referred to by National Party ministers as the “Roomse gevaar” (Roman threat), as a menace to the country.

“After a cabinet meeting [thenPresident] PW Botha told me to wait behind. He said, ‘You heard about the SA Council of Churches; I want you to take care of it’,” the former

police minister recalled.

Mr Vlok told his chief of police, General Johan van der Merwe, to take care of PW Botha’s instruction.

Van der Merwe sent in a team led by his chief assassin Eugene de Kock, who planted bombs in Khotso House.

The explosion on August 31, 1988 was so powerful that it sent the elevator flying through the building’s roof. It landed two blocks away.

Some 19 people were injured.

The SACBC’s Khanya House was bombed six weeks later, on October 12, 1988, causing severe damage and destroying a printing facility.

A number of people were in the building at the time of the attack. No one died in the attack, but several suffered severe emotional trauma after being trapped in the building.

The bomb also destroyed a printing press.

Asked by The Southern Cross, Mr Vlok says he cannot remember the Khanya House attack.

“I didn't ask for pardon for that one because I was not involved in it.

We had to ask pardon for that which we were involved in.”

He does, however, offer a poignant remark about his involvement in apartheid-era crimes from prison visits he did with apartheidera assassin Eugene de Kock, who with 18 others received an amnesty from the TRC for the Khanya House attack.

Mr Vlok says he told de Kock: “I never ordered you to kill anyone.”

De Kock replied: “That may be so, but you did give me a medal for it afterwards.”

Mr Vlok recalls meeting Archbishop Denis Hurley, whom he remembers as a good person, but his

Adriaan Vlok with Moses Nemakonde, who runs an upholstery business from Mr Vlok’s garage. The once-feared apartheid police minister says he is repenting for his past. attention was focused on another religious leader, Rev Frank Chikane. He gave the orders for Rev Chikane to be “taken care of” by impregnating the reverend’s clothes with poison.

On a flight to the United States, Rev Chikane fell violently ill. Doctors in the United States saved him, something Mr Vlok regards as “a miracle”.

I

n 1997, Mr Vlok agreed to testify to the TRC about his role in statesponsored operations against the anti-apartheid movement.

Today Mr Vlok says he is a changed man who places God first in his life. He has opened his house to the homeless, to a former convict and to a young black entrepreneur who has used the former apartheid minister’s home to launch an upholstery business.

Mr Vlok takes food that is do-

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nated to him from supermarkets and hands it out to children in Olievenhoutbosch township near Centurion and to a centre for the disabled.

Rudi Hudson, who grew up in the coloured neighbourhood of Eldorado Park, says he owes his life to Mr Vlok, who took him in when he was released from serving an 11-year sentence for murder at the Kgosi Mampuru II prison.

“When I came out of prison Uncle Adriaan took me in,” said Mr Hudson.

Moses Nemakonde from Soshanguve said that when he arrived at Mr Vlok’s front gate in search of a place to launch his upholstery business, he had no idea who the old man who came to greet him was.

“He gave me space and I started my business here. I don’t know what I would have done without him. I am a happy man now. I have a business,” Mr Nemakonde said.

Mr Vlok told The Southern Cross that his life took a turn in 1996 when his wife, who was suffering depression, committed suicide. He says that he used to put his own interests first, but his wife’s death changed the way he saw the world. Soon after her death, he became a born-again Christian.

But despite his admissions to the TRC, Mr Vlok remained haunted by his past. In August 2006 he drove across Pretoria to the Union Buildings and knocked on the office door of Rev Chikane, then director-general in President Thabo Mbeki’s office.

He presented Rev Chikane with a bible, inscribed on the cover with the words, “I have sinned against the Lord and against you; please forgive me.” He asked for a glass of water, went to his knees and washed Rev Chikane’s feet.

“For a white Afrikaans man to wash a black man’s feet was the ultimate humiliation. I was humbled.

After that I’ve changed,” Mr Vlok recalls.

“In the past I was a racist. I saw myself as superior. But no longer. I

How The Southern Cross covered the bombing of Khanya House by a police hit squad in October 1988.

Former Law and Order minister Adriaan Vlok has no recollection of the attack. see no difference between any of us.

I am friends with anyone. I’ll share my house with anyone.”

Mr Vlok’s gesture to Rev Chikane was criticised not only by many of his peers in the Afrikaans community, but also by Dumisa Ntsebeza, the former head of the TRC’s Investigative Unit.

Mr Ntsebeza said at the time that the apology to Rev Chikane was “too little too late” and “empty”.

A Southern Cross editorial at the time commended Mr Vlok for his act of contrition, but added that “to qualify for unconditional forgiveness, Mr Vlok should be ready to offer full disclosure to the victims of his political activities, as a way of making restitution, and one symbolic apology may not be enough to secure Mr Vlok a general absolution”.

After the visit to Rev Chikane, Mr Vlok washed the feet of the ten widows and mothers of anti-apartheid activists who had been lured to their death by one of his police informants.

Mr Vlok stays in touch with many of his former colleagues, including South Africa’s last white president FW de Klerk.

He has urged his fellow apartheidera ministers to come forward and apologise for their actions—but so far he is the only apartheid era minister to have asked his victims for their forgiveness.

Many of his former colleagues live comfortably, playing golf and travelling, but Mr Vlok, who lives in a small bedroom of his own house, wouldn’t have his life any other way.

“We all built this country together,” said Mr Vlok. “Black, coloured, whites. We are all the same. We are all one. If we work together, we can make our country great.”

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TRAVEL

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

11

Diary of a pilgrimage in the path of the saints Last month 30 Southern Cross/Radio Veritas pilgrims took part in the Saints of Italy pilgrimage. Here is the first part of the travel diary of editor GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER. Day 1: Paris

O

UR pilgrimage in the footsteps of the saints began as a pilgrimage ideally should: with Holy Mass.

We were fortunate to have Mass in the main church of the Miraculous Medal chapel in Rue de Bac; last year my group to Portugal, Spain and France had Mass in a side chapel.

So we started our saints’ pilgrimage with the tombs of St Catherine Labouré and St Louise de Marillac presiding over us, in a church dedicated to the greatest saint of them all: Our Blessed Mother.

After Mass and a typical French breakfast in a café, we visited the tomb of St Vincent de Paul. Three saints in one morning, followed by a short visit to Notre Dame cathedral, where Quasimodo tolled the bells seemingly just for us. We truly are pilgrims!

It’s always a kick to see Paris. I love the city’s bridges, and had opportunity to see many of them on our Seine cruise, which started at the Quay Branly in the shadow of the Eifel Tower and went well past Notre Dame (at least to Pont de Bercy). It was a good time for our group to get to know one another over a delicious three-course meal.

Our Paris leg concluded with a leisurely visit to Montmartre with the beautiful, imposing Sacré-Cœur basilica (dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus), where the Blessed Sacrament has been continuously exposed for adoration for 130 years.

Our Lady and three saints in the morning; Our Lord in the afternoon.

We’re ready for Italy.

Day 2: Rome

W

e should have been dead tired after our heavy travelling schedule, but nobody showed signs of fatigue. And understandably so: how often does one tour Paris and Rome in successive days?

Our day again began with Mass, in St Peter’s basilica at the tomb of St John XXIII. How odd, though, that at the tomb of the pope who called the Second Vatican Council the priest has to celebrate Mass with his back to the people!

Knowing my love for St John XXIII, Fr Emil Blaser OP, our spiritual director, invited me to read at the Mass, a privilege that made a profound impression on me, maybe even more so than when I read at Mass at the tomb of St Peter himself last year.

We then toured St Peter’s and the other three major basilicas: St Paul Outside the Walls, St Mary Major and St John Lateran. Opposite the latter is the Sancta Scala, the Holy Stairs which tradition holds where those of Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem on which Jesus walked to his trial.

As Günther Simmermacher (left) and Fr Emil Blaser (seated left) were visiting Vatican Radio’s Sean Lovett, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier popped in for a visit, surprised to bump into South Africans in the Vatican.

Pilgrims walk up these stairs on their knees in an act of piety, as did a couple of our group.

In some free time several of us managed to visit the mother church of the Redemptorists, dedicated to St Alphonsus Liguori, around the corner of St Mary Major. This is where the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is kept. This year the Redemptorists are celebrating the 150th anniversary of their order being entrusted with the icon by Pope Pius IX. I got married in a Redemptorist church, and have many dear friends in that order, for whom I said a special prayer at their mother church.

Day 3: Rome

P

apal audience day! It’s actually fairly easy to get close to the pope as he is driven around St Peter’s Square, if one knows where to stand.

We had great spots, and when near us I saw a mother with a baby and Argentinians with a jersey of the pope’s favourite football club, San Lorenzo, I knew that Pope Francis would stop at our section. So he did, and I took some excellent photos.

After the audience we had some free time. Fr Emil and I visited our friends at Vatican Radio. First we were interviewed on our pilgrimage and the beatification of Bl Benedict Daswa, then we visited the Cape Town-born head of the English Service, Sean Lovett.

As we sat in his office, another South African visitor ambled in: Cardinal Wilfrid Napier. An SA summit in the Vatican!

In the afternoon we visited the basilica of Santa Sabina, the Dominican mother church. Since Fr Emil belongs to that order, he managed to swing it that we would have Mass not in the basilica, as booked, but in the tiny chapel of the room in which St Dominic and St Francis of Assisi spent a night shooting the theological breeze. The chapel is usually out of bounds to the public, so we were truly privileged to have Mass there, especially given the theme of our pilgrimage.

Day 4: Cascia and Norcia

A

s we left Rome for Umbria, the focus of our pilgrimage shifted: we had begun with Our Lady and Our Lord (and three saints) in Paris.

In Rome there were saints wherever we turned. Now we were going to visit specific saints.

First we visited Cascia, the town of St Rita, patron of mothers, abused women, marital problems and impossible causes. We had Mass in a chapel adjoining her tomb in the basilica while large congregations had Mass in Italian at the main altar.

Cascia may be an obscure place to us in South Africa, but in Italy it is a popular centre of pilgrimage, as the steady flow of visitors showed.

A quick drive took us to Norcia, where we had opportunity to sample the little town’s famous meats.

More famous than the food, however, are Norcia’s native saints: St Benedict, founder of the Benedictine order, and his twin St Scholastica.

I believe God had a plan for our group: we went there three days before the Daswa beatification. St Benedict is a patron saint for witch-

craft, St Scholastica for rain and storms––the two elements that led to the martyrdom of Bl Benedict Daswa. So naturally we prayed in a special way for the beatification and for the sainthood cause of Bl Daswa.

The monks at the Benedictine monastery at the basilica which incorporates the birthplace of the two saints are famous in their own right.

This year they topped the US Billboard charts in the classical/traditional music category with their CD of Gregorian chant in praise of Our Lady, titled Benedicta.

As we sat in the crypt of the basilica, we heard them sing, a special moment in our journey. I bought a copy of the monks’ CD at the source.

The monks also brew an excellent beer, Birra Nursia, which was served at the 2013 conclave. Of course, I sampled that as well.

In the evening I passed around a sheet of paper on which pilgrims could write the names of deceased family members and friends for whose souls we would pray at Mass the next day (and throughout the pilgrimage). I noted down five names: those of my parents and, since this was a Southern Cross pilgrimage, three collaborators in our social communications apostolate: Noel Bruyns, Gene Donnelly and Bernard Pothier. The list quickly filled three columns on both sides.

Day 5: Assisi

T

hree saints seemed to be ever-present on our pilgrimage. In many places there were signs of St John XXIII (and, come to think of it, also St John Paul II). Everywhere we saw shrines and altars dedicated to St Anthony of Padua, even in the SacréCœur in Paris. Then there is the ubiquitous St Francis of Assisi––and here we were in the town of his birth What a profoundly moving experience it was to have Mass at the tomb of this great saint, and then to see all the places of his activity, and that of his dear friend, St Clare.

Both were celebrities in their time, so many of their possessions were kept and the memories of their activities were recorded. So one can see their robes in the basilica of Santa Chiara, as well as the famous crucifix of San Damiano, and other relics in different places.

At the Eremo delle Carceri hermitage we saw the supposed tree on which birds perched to whom St Francis preached. He admonished the noisy fowls to silence while the friars went about their prayers.

Left (clockwise from bottom left): Zanele Nthslidisane, Colleen Adams, Sheryll Pillay, Marilyn Cobb, Mary Arons and Shirley Charles on a Seine cruise in Paris. Right: Fr Emil Blaser OP celebrates Mass at the tomb of St John XXIII in St Peter’s basilica. (All photos: Günther Simmermacher)

Left: Pope Francis indicates the log position of his favourite football team, San Lorenzo, at his general audience in St Peter’s Square. Right: St Rita’s tomb in the basilica dedicated to her in Cascia.

Left: A statue of St Benedict, founder of the Benedictines in Norcia’s Piazza San Benedetto. Right: A street artist draws an image of St Clare in Assisi.

The sanctuary of San Damiano was first the place of St Francis’ conversion and later the setting for his Canticle of Creation. It also served as the first convent of the Poor Clares; inside, the corner in the nuns’ dormitory where St Clare died is marked.

About 2,5km from medieval Assisi, is the place where St Francis found the little Benedictine church in the meadow which he thought he was instructed to renovate when Christ through the crucifix instructed him to “renew my church” (of course, he was called to renew the whole Church).

That little 9th-century chapel still exists, even now owned by the Benedictines but now covered by the great Franciscan basilica of St Mary of the Angels; it is known as the Porziuncola, a word that means “small portion of land”.

A few metres away is the spot where St Francis died on October 3, 1226, marked by the Cappella del Transito.

And a few metres further is the

Rose Garden, the last remains of the woods where St Francis and his companions lived. Here he talked to the turtle doves. Inside a corridor leading to the Rose Garden, two turtle doves have their home; they are believed to be descendants of the doves to whom the saint spoke.

Back at our delightful hotel, one of our pilgrims discovered that she had lost her passport and a sum of cash. Disaster!

Through the contacts of a kind taxi driver, the passport was recovered. The pilgrim had lost the passport and money in a restaurant during lunch; a staff member found these items and deposited them with the police. It took the taxi driver’s contacts and a few phone calls to ascertain all that.

St Francis and his friend and fellow Franciscan St Anthony, patron for lost items, doubtless were with our pilgrim––especially so, I venture, because she is a secular member of their order. n Part 2 of Günther Simmermacher’s Saints of Italy diary follows next week.

HANDS UP!

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12

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

BOOK REVIEWS

Priest-poet at home in Afrikaans SOVER, by Bonaventure Hinwood OFM, with illustrations by Lionel Hinwood. Xlibris Publikasies, 2014. 119pp. R150. ISBN9780981416830 Reviewed by Ignette Grobler T is quite a remarkable feat for an English-speaking Catholic priest to write poetry in Afrikaans, a language developed mostly by Calvinist settlers.

Words from the heart normally pour out only in one’s mothertongue, but as Franciscan Father Bonaventure Hinwood himself states: “My gees [is] meer tuis in Afrikaans” (My spirit is more at home in Afrikaans).

This volume, titled Sover (So Far), opens with a poem, “Afskeid”, written on the death of fellow poet Phil du Plessis. It’s a moving tribute to a good friend, (‘n vaste vriend), whose death is likened to the loss of a limb.

The poem juxtaposes the suffering, loss and emotional pain (afsny-

I

ding/rou smart) of the poet on his friend’s death with the physical suffering and pain (skeerwonde/littekens/swelling) which his friend had to endure while dying.

There is, however, comfort (salf) in the knowledge that Phil is now free from pain. For the poet this experience brings him nearer to God (die Trooster) and thus it has spiritual value. He wants to relive the emotions and experiences he and his late friend shared in the poems which follow.

Fr Hinwood states that he did not try to develop one specific theme in this volume. He explores a whole spectrum of emotions, perceptions and experiences through images which he develops in his poems.

Nature: The poet, as befitting a Franciscan, has a strong affinity to nature. It is evident in “Kringloop”, for example. The water cycle (evaporation, cloud formation and rain) suggests a positive and life-affirm-

ing progression (from swart, loodgrys to glinster, helder).

In “Karoowolke” he likens the clouds racing across the sky to sheep grazing on the Karoo veld. In “Vergelding” he describes the cold South-easter as a prerequisite for a beautiful summer.

M

any poems do not soften the reality of pain and death (“Kortstondig”). They do not hide the dichotomy of life (“Lentestry”, “Lenteverval”, “Wegholbrand”, “Herfsblare”).

For Fr Hinwood, nature with its cycles and seasons, though often harsh, intrinsically possesses the potential for abundance and joy.

In nature he communes with God. The comforting presence of God (die Drie-in-Een/die ongesiene Hand/die Heilskind/die Hoofregisseur) hovers over all.

Spirituality: In “Onderkant Towerberg” the image of non-existent telephone lines, Internet

(Telkom) and the lack of connection/communication, suggest the intense isolation of the Karoo and how a person confronted with this lonely existence has to cope.

In fact, the poet is often lonely and isolated—a hermietkrap. The speaker proposes the sustenance (lyf en siel verkwik/proviand and stiltetyd) of spirituality and connection/communication with God as an antidote.

Many poems reflect this relationship between poet, nature and God (“Weerspieeling”). This relationship also involves questioning but the poet invariably finds solace and comfort in faith (“Verwarming”). Thus far (“Sover”) he has now journeyed to insight and acceptance.

The last collection of poems (“Beeldbouer”) fuses his spirituality with his calling as poet/ creator. As a believer he has chosen to struggle (...oor sondebulte deur winterwaas/na die slingerpad kruisweg toe). And

there is hope (u Gees lawend laat daal en dat ‘n siel se lenteglans/die Lig herwin). Just as the poet-creator creates beauty in poems, God, as the great Creator, changes sinners (where U in hom en hy in U ...bly/Opheldering).

The accompanying colourful paintings by Lionel Hinwood add to the positive, life-affirming mood in the face of life’s harsh realities.

Exorcisms, miracles, relics in the Vatican THE VATICAN PROPHECIES: Investigating Supernatural Signs, Apparitions and Miracles in the Modern Age, by John Thavis.

Viking Books, 2015. 288 pp.

Reviewed by David Gibson IS duel with Satan one morning in 1982 “felt like ‘a biblical scene’”, St John Paul II later would tell a top aide.

In The Vatican Prophecies, Catholic journalist John Thavis describes what happened that morning when a bishop and parish priest brought a woman named Francesca, “thrashing and cursing loudly”, to the Vatican Apostolic Palace where her encounter with the pope occurred.

Entering a dimly lit room, Pope John Paul approached Francesca and began “pronouncing the formulas of exorcism”, Thavis writes.

Francesca’s writhing and moaning continued, but when the pope said he intended to celebrate a Mass for her the following day, she suddenly

H

grew calm. “The demon appeared to have departed.”

A cardinal’s memoirs “later provided an eyewitness account” of the pope’s encounter with Francesca, Thavis states.

Do popes directly combat the demonic? Thavis says that for centuries the Catholic Church kept not only devils, but angels in “the theological background”, not wanting to distract Christians from their salvation journey centred on Christ.

Reports circulate, however, that Pope Francis took on a demon when he encountered a man called Angel among sick people awaiting a papal blessing after the 2013 Pentecost Mass in St Peter’s Square. Exorcists long had tried “to cast out his demons”, Thavis says.

When Pope Francis met Angel, he laid hands “on the man’s head”.

Angel writhed, emitted “a strange howling sound” and then slumped in his chair. The pope’s action may not have been a formal exorcism,

but Thavis says several exorcists agreed he at least “recited a prayer of liberation from Satan”.

Exorcisms are the focus of one of the six chapters in Thavis’ book, which explores the continuing fascination in our times, when “Christianity is supposed to be the faith of reason”, with “the possibility of miracles, apparitions, encounters with the devil and other signs of the supernatural”.

Indeed, demonic possession often is viewed today as a psychological problem, the book observes.

Relics of the saints and reports of Marian apparitions are the focus of two of the book’s other compelling chapters.

Vatican experts “estimate that in modern times the Catholic Church has investigated more than 1 000 alleged appearances of Mary”, Thavis reports.

Three other chapters are devoted to the Shroud of Turin and its scientific study, the place of miracles in

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the sainthood process and dire prophecies concerning the Church’s future and the end-times.

T

here is keen awareness in the Vatican of “the proliferation of visionaries and cultish movements that have attracted millions of Catholics, precisely by appealing to the thirst for hidden knowledge of God’s plan”, Thavis notes.

Undoubtedly, there is a degree of polarisation within the Church surrounding matters this book probes.

Thavis’ discussion of relics of the saints casts light on the problem.

When relics are “routinely displayed these days”, people usually are “reminded that the Mass and the sacraments are more powerful tools than relics”, he writes. Nonetheless, he affirms, “the drawing power of a relic cannot be underestimated”.

Thavis long served as chief of the Catholic News Service Rome bureau.

His book benefits greatly from his vast contacts with Church leaders of all kinds in the Eternal City. In an earlier book titled The Vatican Diaries, he took readers behind the scenes to view the workings of the Church in Rome.

The Vatican Prophecies is at pains to allow all interested parties to have their say about supernatural happenings. Thavis tells “the stories of recent miracles, apparitions and prophecies from the diverse perspectives of key players: the true believers, the in-house sceptics and the Vatican’s diligent investigators”.

What makes this book a pageturner is its countless stories about the work, convictions and religious experiences of real people.

There is the story of John Jackson, for example, a physicist “who

for years worked on secret projects at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico”. Jackson’s later research on the Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be Christ’s burial cloth, convinced him that the image it bears developed in the very process of Jesus’ resurrection.

Jackson proposes that the image appeared “when the shroud collapsed into and through a radiating body” that suddenly became “transparent to its physical surroundings”.

The Vatican Prophecies examines a question that Thavis says “Catholic thinkers and officials are trying to answer” with mounting urgency: “In the 21st century, can the miraculous and the reasonable peacefully coexist?”

The Vatican has no Department of the Supernatural, Thavis points out. Yet, “one constant is that manifestations of the supernatural continue to simmer among the faithful, percolating up like hot spots on the global Catholic landscape”.—CNS

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THE HOLY LAND TREK

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MOERDYK FILES

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The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

RELIGIOUS

13

Fastest nun in Wild West on track to sainthood A Sister of Charity who was known as “the fastest nun in the Wild West” is still relevant today, according to a promoter of her sainthood cause. MARY REZAC found out more.

B

ILLY the Kid, the notorious bank and stagecoach robber of the Wild West, met his match in the most unlikely of people when he met Sr Blandina Segale.

According to legend, and to Sr Blandina’s journal and letters, one of Billy the Kid’s gang members had been shot and was on the brink of death when the doctors of Trinidad, Colorado, refused to treat him. Sr Blandina decided to take him in and cared for him for three months, nursing him back to health.

But Billy the Kid—real name William Leroy—was still unhappy.

Word got out that the outlaw was coming to town to scalp the four doctors of Trinidad in revenge.

When he arrived, Sr Blandina intervened, and convinced him to call off his mission on behalf of his man whom she had saved.

After that incident, Sr Blandina and Billy the Kid became friends.

She once visited him in jail, and he once called off a stagecoach robbery as soon as he realised Sister was one of the passengers.

When she wasn’t calling off outlaws, Sr Blandina was founding schools, building hospitals, teaching and caring for orphans and the poor, and advocating for the rights of Native Americans and other minorities. All in a day’s work.

Her heroic virtue and enduring works are why her cause for sainthood was opened in New Mexico last year, earning her the title “Servant of God” and allowing people to ask for her intercession. Since then, several documents have come to light corroborating her stories, and the necessary miracle for the

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next big step—beatification—seems to be well on its way.

“Sainthood isn’t about an award, it isn’t about honouring, it’s about helping the faithful know that there is a source of God’s grace being worked on Earth,” said Allen Sanchez, president and CEO for CHI St Joseph’s Children in Albuquerque, which Sr Blandina founded.

Mr Sanchez also serves as the petitioner for the cause of Sr Blandina’s sainthood and has studied her life extensively.

Sr Blandina, born Maria Rosa Segale, was just four years old when she emigrated with her parents from the small town of Cicagna, near Genoa in Italy, to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854—she had her fifth birthday on the journey across the Atlantic.

At the age of 16, Maria Rosa joined the Sisters of Charity and took the name Sr Blandina. When she was just 22 years old, she was sent—alone—to Trinidad in the Colorado territory to teach in the public school there. A few years later, she was sent further south, first to Santa Fe and then to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

It was probably quite an adjustment, Mr Sanchez said, to be going from Europe and the more settled parts of America to the still very rough-and-tumble west.

While in New Mexico, Sr Blandina helped found the public health care system and the public school system by building the first hospitals and schools in Albuquerque, often asking for the temporary release of prisoners to help her with the labour.

Much of what is known about Sr Blandina’s life comes from a series of letters she wrote her sister, Sr Justina Segale, who was back in Ohio. The compiled correspondences, which span the years of 1872-94, were published ten years before Sr Blandina’s death in 1941.

To open a cause for sainthood, examples of heroic virtue of the per-

Sr Blandina Segale, known as “the fastest nun in the Wild West”, and (inset) Billy the Kid, the legendary outlaw whom she befriended. son must be shown. The specific example of heroic virtue that her petitioners are using involves another story that could take place only in the Wild West; the story that earned her the title “The Fastest Nun in the West” from a 1966 television feature on the incident.

S

isterr Blandina was teaching school in New Mexico when one of her pupils told her: “Pa’s shot a man, and they’re going to hang him.”

That’s when Sr Blandina went to work. She met with the shooter, and was able to convince him to write a confession. She then met with the dying man, and convinced him to forgive his shooter, in person, before he passed away.

After the two men were reconciled, Sr Blandina then had to face down the lynch mob that was com-

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ing to kill the shooter, who, because of Sister, was instead taken to the circuit court and was given life in prison.

After nine months, he was released to go back home to care for his four children.

“She disarms them from their guns, their hanging rope and their hate,” Mr Sanchez said of Sister and the lynch mob.

“She must have been charming to them!” he added. “I think they would fall in love with her and do what she would ask them to do, because she cared for them and she honestly was able to see the dignity of every human being from the innocent orphans to the guilty outlaws.”

Sr Blandina also made several trips to Washington, D.C. to meet with legislators and to advocate on behalf of the Native Americans,

whose reservation boundaries were being drawn at the time.

Her own life is now being evaluated for sainthood, but Sr Blandina herself knew all about the canonisation process—she helped to petition to Rome for the cause of two different American saints in her lifetime: St Elizabeth Ann Seton and St Kateri Tekakwitha. She also helped bring another future saint, Katherine Drexel, and her sisters to the West to help serve the Native American populations.

The example of her life on earth is relevant for the faithful today, Mr Sanchez said, because Sr Blandina knew how to address both immediate problems as well as more systemic problems of social justice.

“She would follow through from the charity to the social justice,” he said.

“For example, she would help feed and house the railway workers, but then she would also ask why the railway workers weren’t being cared for. And that’s the call for us today. Charity is important, that’s where you start, and then you move to the social justice from there.”

If he had to describe her personality, Mr Sanchez said, he would say she was tough but spunky, holy but unafraid of conflict.

“She wasn’t afraid of conflict and to roll up her sleeves and get the work done,” he said. “And she was always giving credit to the Gospel, to Jesus’ work.”

The best part of the process, Mr Sanchez said, has been getting to know Sr Blandina.

“I didn’t know this was going to be so fun and so inspiring,” he said.

“And I really know her; she’s become my best friend.”—CNA

ST AIDANS COLLEGE REUNION 5-8 NOVEMBER 2015 PORT ALFRED/ GRAHAMSTOWN

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14

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

LIFE

Meet the Holy Land’s ‘living stones’ The number of Christians in the Holy Land is dwindling, yet their presence is essential to the region where our Christian faith was born.

DALE GAVLAK of Catholic News Service finds out more.

A

PALESTINIAN Catholic tour guide whose family has lived in Jerusalem for generations and whose spiritual heritage stretches as far back as the firstcentury Church laughed as he recounted the story.

“An Israeli official once asked me if I was a Jerusalemite,” quipped Rimon Makhlouf, his voice full of incredulity at such a question. “I told him that even my great grandfather helped to build the famous spire of St Saviour church,” one of the Old City’s most notable towers dotting the limestone cityscape.

Mr Makhlouf and other Catholics are the “living stones” of the Holy Land, whose presence is vital to maintaining Christianity in the place where Jesus was born, ministered, died on the cross and rose to life.

However, Catholics such as Mr Makhlouf, who fuse their vibrant faith with their vocation, face many challenges as their community continues to shrink because of economic and political hardships.

“I hate to see Christians vanish from Jerusalem,” Mr Makhlouf told the Washington-based Catholic News Service. “So I am creating a committee of laypeople seeking partnership. Firstly, with the clerical authorities in sharing the daily decision-making affecting all of our lives.”

Finances flowing to the Holy Land often go to buildings and projects that can help local Christians, but they normally have no say in how the funds are spent or

Rimon Makhlouf, a Catholic Holy Land tour guide, outside the Catholic Notre Dame Centre in Jerusalem, and fellow Christian Emily Turjman, seen in the courtyard of the church of the Holy Sepulchre. According to Mr Makhlouf, there are only around 4 600 Christians left in Jerusalem, who have few educational opportunities or job prospects, causing their numbers to continue to dwindle. (Photos: Dale Gavlak/CNS) whether they can receive help.

“We are also seeking a partnership between local people and the wider body of Christ, and not just assistance from the Latin Patriarchate or the Franciscans,” Mr Makhlouf said.

The energetic 54-year-old helped to pioneer the tour guide profession for Palestinians in the Holy Land. Prior to that, guiding was mainly the domain of Israeli Jews and the Franciscans.

Mr Makhlouf said only about 4 600 Christians remain in Jerusalem. They face few educational opportunities or job prospects. Something like a “Fifth Gospel” approach possibly can help remedy the exodus of Christians.

The term “Fifth Gospel” is used to refer to Holy Land pilgrimages as a way for pilgrims to learn about their faith.

Mr Makhlouf stresses this concept on the pilgrimages he leads, which have included three for The Southern Cross, led by Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria and

Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, whom he will again guide again in February on the Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers.

But the question remains: How meaningful will such tours of Christendom’s holiest sites be without the faithful presence of local believing Christians?

Young Christian families especially are leaving Jerusalem because they see no future there.

Mr Makhlouf’s oldest son, George, now lives in the United States and he is concerned about his other children. Gabi, 23, is following in his father’s footsteps as the youngest of Jerusalem’s talented tour guides—but he must find work.

A

nother faithful Catholic and longtime Jerusalemite, Emily Turjman, agreed.

“Life here is very difficult.

Housing is limited and there is overcrowding,” said the former secretary who served at the College des Freres, run by the De La Salle Brothers in the Old City, for

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Jerusalem’s Old City and (to the right) the Mount of Olives are seen from the church of St Peter in Gallicantu, the court of the high priest Caiaphas, on Mount Zion. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) about 20 years. “It’s difficult to pray as you wish. You can’t live as you want. It’s not easy to live in this situation.”

Mr Makhlouf has quite the spiritual pedigree. Born on the Mount of Olives, he grew up in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem, and has lived nearly his entire life there.

His father is buried on Mount Zion and his grandfather’s tomb is in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He began engaging with groups touring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at age 10 and recognised his faith calling to serve as guide to the heritage he loves as a teenager.

It took years of struggle to get professional credentials because they did not exist for Palestinians.

His prodding and persistence with Israel’s tourism ministry finally led to Palestinians being able to receive tour guide licences.

“The whole world now realises that travel to the Holy Land as a Christian pilgrim is so much more meaningful by using a Christian guide, one who will tell them about our Lord Jesus,” Mr Makhlouf said.

“After all, 80% of all visitors to the Holy Land are Christian pilgrims. It’s my right to talk about my Church. I grew up there. It’s my faith, my place,” he said.

“We are bringing the Fifth Gospel alive. You won’t understand the significance of these places unless you experience them with a living stone,” Mr Makhlouf added.

For Ms Turjman, a third-generation Jerusalemite whose Christian ancestors hailed from Lebanon and Egypt, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is like her parish. This church was built over the site widely believed to be that of Christ’s crucifixion.

Ms Turjman and a few other women are today’s version of the women at the tomb. They have been chosen to spend their early morning daily prayers before tourists begin arriving at the Holy Sepulchre, Christ’s burial tomb

and the holiest Christian site in Jerusalem. It is earliest in the morning when the church is at its quietest, allowing for deep contemplation and prayer.

These living stones like Ms Turjman remain in Jerusalem for a lifetime to pray, often joining the Franciscans in most public daily Masses, but more often in private.

They stand in the background while tourists sit on the few benches set up temporarily each morning for Mass at Christ’s tomb.

Ms Turjman has spent all of her adult years serving the Church she loves both in a professional capacity and as a volunteer helping pilgrims navigate Jerusalem and participating in outings devoted to prayer.

Mr Makhlouf has found that visitors participating in his tours have strengthened the understanding of their faith.

“When I share experiences from daily life, for example our weeklong wedding tradition, people can relate to something they’ve read in the Bible,” he said, referring to Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana. The story itself serves as a metaphor of Christ’s own sacrifice and love for the Church and he believes a Christian tour guide can relate that story best.

“The Holy Land is not a bucketlist place, but a heritage place,” Mr Makhlouf said.

“You’ve come to your spiritual birthplace and you live it and learn it being on the [tour] bus or walking the streets,” Mr Makhlouf explained.

“It’s like you’re in church, but on a daily basis and you’re living the Scriptures.”—CNS n Rimon Makhlouf will guide the Southern Cross’ Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers, led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin, from February 13-26, 2016. For more information, see the advert on the backpage of e-mail pilgrimage@scross.co.za

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The Franciscan St Saviour church in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The dome on the left margin of the photo is that of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of Calvary. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

CLASSIFIEDS

Br Laurence Morrison

M

ARIST Brother Laurence Morrison died from a sudden heart attack in Cape Town on September 25.

Born as Robert James Morrison in Johannesburg in 1934, he grew up in Yeoville.

When he was a child, the family spent some time in Ireland.

On their return to Johannesburg, he went to Sacred Heart College, a Marist school in Observatory. It was there that he did his later schooling and felt the call to join the Marist Brothers.

He was accepted for the formation programme which at that time was located in Mittagong, New South Wales, Australia.

He made his first vows on July

2, 1954. For nearly a year he taught at two Marist schools in Australia before returning to South Africa in May 1955.

In over 61 years of religious life, Br Morrison was faithful to prayer and to the Eucharist, and to presence in the community.

In his apostolate as a Christian educator, he prepared and marked his lessons diligently.

In the other major services that were asked of him—such as school principal, recruiter, master of juniors, bursar—he would put his shoulder to the wheel and “get on with the job”.

In the wider Catholic community, he was respected for his generous collaboration in matters

Liturgical Calendar Year B – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday October 18, 29th Sunday of the Year Isaiah 53:10-11, Psalms 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22, Hebrews 4:14-16, Mark 10:35-45 Monday October 19, Ss John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Prs, and companions, St Paul of the Cross Romans 4:20-25, Luke 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75, Luke 12:13-21 Tuesday October 20, Bl Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa Romans 5:12, 15, 17-19, 20-21, Psalms 40:7-10, 17, Luke 12:35-38 Wednesday October 21 Romans 6:12-18, Psalms 124:1-8, Luke 12:39-48 Thursday October 22 Romans 6:19-23, Psalms 1:1-4, 6, Luke 12:49-53 Friday October 23, St John of Capistrano Romans 7:18-25, Psalms 119:66, 68, 76-77, 9394, Luke 12:49-53 Saturday October 24, St Anthony Mary Claret, Saturday Mass of Our Lady Romans 8:1-11, Psalms 24:1-6, Luke 13:1-9 Sunday October 25, 30th Sunday of the Year Jeremiah 31:7-9, Psalms 126, Hebrews 5:1-6, Mark 10:46-52

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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.

PRAYERS

religious, administrative and educational. A stranger would find in him a welcome, a willingness to help, and a gentleman.

The chapel was filled with mourners at the funeral ceremony in a place he loved: St Joseph’s Marist College in Rondebosch.

He is survived by his sister, Maureen Poff, who lives in Johannesburg.

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 676. ACROSS: 3 Palestine, 8 Oops, 9 Quirinius, 10 Sprout, 11 Adore, 14 Chide, 15 Epic, 16 Ninth, 18 Diet, 20 Easel, 21 Dross, 24 Reborn, 25 Damnation, 26 Fate, 27 Fisherman.

DOWN: 1 Morse code, 2 Appraised, 4 Abut, 5 Erred, 6 Tenure, 7 Nous, 9 Queen, 11 Agnes, 12 Episcopal, 13 Icelander, 17 Helen, 19 Trench, 22 Sitar, 23 Magi, 24 Rota.

Word of the Week

Offertory song: Music used during the procession of gifts to the celebrant and as the altar is prepared for Holy Communion.

Community Calendar

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

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

CAPE TOWN: Mass for Souls in Purgatory, celebrated by Mgr Clifford Stokes. All Souls’ Day, Monday, November 2. All Souls Chapel, at Woltemade Cemetery, Maitland, Gate 1. Contact Dorothy Paarman at 021 551 1747 or dpaarman @mweb.co.za

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 abor-

tion clinic in Bree Street.

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

KROONSTAD: Couples for Christ Men’s conference. October 23-25 at Centenary Hall, St Patrick's cathedral. Registration fee R200 per person (includes conference kit, meals, teas and T-shirt).

Contact Ernesto Maccario at 079 457 8951 or Trevor Vetter at 082 568 6843 or at vetter@oaksauto.co.za

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Pilgrimage to Rome, Assisi Medjugorje Led by Fr. Joseph Matsau 18 September – 29 September 2016 R 26 995.00 incl. Airport taxes

The Southern Cross, October 14 to October 20, 2015

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THANKS be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May I know thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, And follow thee more nearly, For ever and ever.

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

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

ST MICHAEL the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.

Amen.

PERSONAL

ABORTION is murder. Silence on this issue is not golden, it’s yellow! Avoid pro-abortion politicians.

See www.hli.co.za LOVING an unborn baby, who we cannot see, is like loving God whom we also cannot see, 1 Peter 1: 8.

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Meals available by arrangement. Contact Shelley on 082 823 5936 or s.owen@iafrica.com CAPE TOWN: Looking for reasonably priced accommodation over the December/January holiday period, come to Kolbe House. Set in beautiful gardens in Rondebosch. Self-catering, 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 self-catering two bedroom apartment, with parking, sleeps four. R500 per/night. Paul 021 393 2503, 083 553 9856, vivilla@telkomsa.net KNYSNA: Self-catering accommodation for 2 in Old Belvidere, with DStv and wonderful lagoon views.

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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.

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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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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

30th Sunday: October 25 Readings: Jeremiah 31:7-9, Psalm 126:1-6, Hebrews 5:1-6, Mark 10:46-52

S outher n C ross

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E are invited to follow Jesus “on the road”. That call is an exciting one, but it makes no promises of comfort for us. Consider the readings for next Sunday.

In the first reading, Jeremiah shifts somewhat from his normally lugubrious tone, and produces an oracle from God, telling Jacob to “rejoice…praise”, on the grounds that “the Lord has saved his people. Behold, I am bringing them back from the land of the North; I will gather them from the ends of the earth… for I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my firstborn”.

That sounds very consoling, but we should notice that the road back from “the ends of the earth” will be a very long one.

That is the point of the psalm for next Sunday, which recalls the time when the people had made that journey “when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion”, and reflects “look how we rejoiced”; clearly joy is no longer the order of the day in this lament, for God is now being asked “restore our fortunes, O Lord, like dry rivers in the Negev Desert”.

Then the singer encourages his listeners: “those who sow in tears are going to reap the harvest with joyful exultation; the one who goes out in weeping…will certainly come in with joyful exultation”. We can tell from the earnest tone here that things are bad, just at present.

In the second reading, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is similarly trying to encourage his audience to keep going, by keeping their eyes firmly on Jesus. Things are bad, it seems, and “sin-offerings” are required, but Jesus has no need to offer sin-offerings for himself, since he has not sinned; and Jesus has not “glorified himself to become a high priest—no: it was the One who said to him, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you… you are a priest according to the order of Melchisedek’.” None of this is particularly comfortable, but it is meant to give us confidence as we follow him on the road.

The Gospel starts with Jesus and his disciples, “and a fair old crowd”, entering and

then abruptly leaving Jericho.

Mark now draws our attention to “a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus”, who “was sitting by the road” (and we shall need to remember that phrase, because of what is going to happen to him).

This man now takes an active part in the drama, bellowing: “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me”.

The crowds on the road do not at all approve of this behaviour, and tell him to “shut up”; he, however, is not going to listen to anybody, and carries on bellowing “much more loudly”.

Jesus halts at this point, and tells them to call him, which they obediently do: “Be brave, up you get; he is calling you.” At that point, alarmingly enough, this spirited beggar “throws away his cloak”, so he may be rather under-clothed, and “leaps up” (he is blind, remember, so we must imagine the crowds opening before him in a panic) “and came to Jesus”.

Let holiness be hot-blooded S

Conrad

OME years ago I officiated at a wedding. As the officiating priest, I was invited to the reception and dance that followed the church service.

Not knowing the family well and having church services the next morning, I left right after the banquet and the toasts, just as the dancing was about to start. When I was seemingly out of earshot, I heard the bride’s father say to someone: “I’m glad that Father has gone; now we can celebrate with some rock music!”

I didn’t take the remark personally since the man meant well, but the remark stung nevertheless because it betrayed an attitude that painted me, and others like me, as religious but naïve, as good to sit at the head table and be specially introduced, but as being best out of sight when real life begins; as if being religious means that you are unable to handle the earthiness and beat of rock music, as if Church and earthy celebration are in opposition to each other, as if sanctity demands an elemental innocence the precludes human complexity, and as if full-blood and religion are best kept separate.

But that’s an attitude within most people, however unexpressed. The idea is that God and human complexity do not go together. Ironically that attitude is particularly prevalent among both the over-pious and those most negative towards religion.

For both, the over-pious and the militant-impious, God and robust life cannot go together. And that’s also basically true for the rest of us as is evident in our inabil-

Nicholas King SJ

Walking a tough road

ity to attribute complexity, earthiness, and temptation to Jesus, to the Virgin Mary, to the saints, and to other publicly recognised religious figures such as Mother Teresa.

It seems that we can only picture holiness as linked to a certain naiveté. For us, holiness needs to be sheltered and protected like a young child. As a result we then project such an over-idealisation of innocence and simplicity onto Jesus, Mary, and our religious exemplars that it becomes impossible for us to ever really identify with them. We can give them admiration, but very little else.

For example, the Virgin Mary of our piety could not have written the Magnificat. She lacks the complexity to write such a prayer because we have projected on to her such an innocence, delicacy and childlikeness so as to leave her less than fully adult and fully intelligent.

Ultimately this has a negative effect religiously. To identify an unrealistic innocence and simplicity with holiness sets out an unattainable ideal that has too many people believe that their own red blood, with its restless stirrings, makes them bad candidates for the Church and sanctity.

I

n the Roman Catholic rite of baptism, at a point, the priest or deacon pronounces these words: “See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity.

With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.” That’s a wonderful statement, cel-

Sunday Reflections

Jesus then asks him what he wants done for him, and the reply is, not unreasonably, “Rabbouni, that I may recover my sight”. Effortlessly, the request is granted: “Off you go; your faith has saved you”, says Jesus, “and he immediately recovered his sight”.

But that is not the end of the story, for Mark concludes “and he was following him on the road”.

Now in Mark that “follow” verb means that he is a disciple; so the one who was “beside” the road, is now “on the road”. And where is the road leading? In the very next verse we are in Jerusalem, where the tale has been heading for a while now, and where, we already know, Jesus is going to die that brutal death on the cross.

So it is not particularly comfortable, this following Jesus “on the road”; but there is no other way to go.

Southern Crossword #676

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

ebrating the beauty and virtue of innocence. But it celebrates an innocence that has yet to meet adult life.

The innocence of a child is stunning in its beauty and holds up for us a mirror within which to see our moral and psychological scars and the missteps we have taken as adults, not unlike the humbling we can feel when we look at our bodies in a mirror when we get older. The beauty of youth is gone.

But the disquiet and judgment we feel in the presence of a child’s innocence is more a neurosis and misconception than a genuine judgment on our sanctity and moral goodness. Children are innocent because they have not yet had to deal with life, its infinite complexities, and its inevitable wounds.

Young children are so beautifully innocent because they are still naïve and presophisticated. To move to adulthood they will have to pass through inevitable initiations which will leave more than a few smudges on the childlike purity of their baptismal robes.

A friend of mine is fond of saying this about innocence: “As an adult, I wouldn’t give a penny for the naïve purity of a child, but I would give everything to find true childlike innocence inside the complexity of my adult life.”

I think that what he means is this: Jesus went into the singles’ bars of his time, except he didn’t sin. The task in spirituality is not to try to emulate the naive innocence and non-complexity of our childhood. That’s an exercise in denial and a formula for rationalisation.

The task is rather to move towards a second-naiveté, a post-sophistication which has already taken into account the full complexity of our lives.

Only then will we have again the innocent joy of children, even as we are able to stand steady inside the rawness of rock music, the power and complexity of human sexuality, the concupiscent tendencies of the human heart, and the uncanny and wily manoeuvrings innate inside the human spirit.

From there we can write the Magnificat.

ACROSS

3. Alpine set off to the Holy Land (9) 8. Exclamation of error back in gas pool (4) 9. Governor of Syria (Lk 2) (9) 10. Shoot from Brussels (6) 11. Worship (5) 14. Scold for some such ideas (5) 15. Heroic poem (4) 16. Last successive day of prayer (5) 18. Food taken at ebb-tide (4) 20. Portrait painting supporter (5) 21. Doctor gets garbled SOS that’s rubbish (5) 24. Nicodemus asked if a man can be such (Jn 3) (6) 25. And I am not for eternal punishment (9) 26. Your destiny (4) 27. St Peter’s occupation (9)

DOWN

1. Some decor features dots (5,4) 2. Assessed and paid spare change (9) 4. Tuba will have a common border (4) 5. Strayed from the truth (5) 6. Term of bishop’s office (6) 7. Soprano using inside intelligence (4) 9. She may appear in four suits (5) 11. She was a teenage martyr (5) 12. Pale cops I see to do with the bishops (9) 13. He’s from Reykjavik (9) 17. Daughter of Zeus who loved Paris (5) 19. Ditch (6) 22. Rita’s Indian lute (5) 23. Imagine some Easterners in here (4) 24. Court of Roman curia (4)

Solutions on page 15

CHURCH CHUCKLE

G

randpa Jones was celebrating his 100th birthday. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I will tell you the secret of my success. I have been in the open air day after day for some 75 years now.”

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