The
S outhern C ross
October 28 to November 3, 2015
Reg No. 1920/002058/06
No 4948
www.scross.co.za
Church view on student protests
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Why split family issues from laity issues?
R7,00 (incl VAT RSA)
Catholic bonus: To pray with the saints
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Page 10
Don’t miss next week’s
DENIS HURLEY CENTENARY SUPPLEMENT Out on November 4!
Some of 46 candidates prepare for the sacrament of confirmation in Sacred Heart parish in Mahobe mission by Bishop Stan Dziuba of Umzimkulu, KwaZulu-Natal. This photo was taken by Bishop Dziuba himself.
Beekeeper nun’s sweet story BY STUART GRAHAM
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BASUTHO nun has taught herself to keep bees and is giving the money she makes from honey and wax to her congregation. Sr Julia Masina Mafike, 52, who belongs to the Handmaids of Christ the Priest at the Catholic Training Centre in the Mafetheng district of Lesotho, said she learned the art of beekeeping from farmers. “I never received any formal training. I learned from those who were trained before me,” she said. “I tried to catch the bees. I asked them to show me how to catch the queens and transfer them from the hives to the catch boxes.” Sr Mafike said before starting her company, JMM Beekeeping, on September 13, she had to do a crash course in bees. She learned to identify the queen by her wings and that male drones are produced from unfertilised eggs and represent only the DNA of the queen that laid the eggs. Female workers and queens result from fertilised eggs, so have both a mother and a father. When you have the queen, the bees follow, Sr Mafike says. Sr Mafike started to plant flowers, trees, pumpkins and onions to provide the bees with pollen.
For further info or to book contact Michael or Gail at 076 352 3809 or 021 551 3923 info@fowlertours.co.za www.fowlertours.co.za/ poland-2016/
Sr Julia Masina Mafike with jars of honey made by her bees. “It is me and two men who are caring for the garden and helping me catch the bees,” she explained. She harvests about 10kg of honey a month from each of her 17 hives. Apart from harvesting honey she also uses beeswax to produce lubricants and medicines. “The money we make is for my congregation,” Sr Mafike said. Apart from honey and beeswax, Sr Mafike Continued on page 2
Foetus-dumping is ‘despicable’ BY STUART GRAHAM
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OSPITALS dumping miscarried foetuses into rubbish bins with medical waste is a “despicable objectification of human life”, the spokesman for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference said. The remains of a stillborn baby should be treated as those of a human person, conference spokesman Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria said after reports that a mother, whose miscarried baby was tossed in a medical waste bin, intended to take the matter to court. “Human life, from conception, has intrinsic value,” the archbishop said. “The remains of stillborns must be treated as we would a human person. They should never be discarded in rubbish dumps.” Like all humans, unborn children should be buried with dignity and a prayer, Archbishop Slattery said. Babies miscarried under the age of 26 weeks are classified as medical waste and may not be released for burial, according to South African law. Hospitals let parents spend time with the baby, but once that is over, the body is placed in a bucket for incineration. Many parents afflicted by miscarriage want the opportunity to seek closure or healing through burial of the remains. Pretoria funeral director Sonja Smith is challenging the law, saying she wants parents to be able to have the choice of having a funeral for their baby. “Doctors are not obliged to sign documentation for a burial or cremation and a funeral director is normally not involved,” says Ms Smith. “Many parents find comfort in planning
St John Paul II Pilgrimage to Poland Southern Cross
some type of memorial in honour of their baby. Many parents find it easier to accept the baby’s death, and they begin working through their grief.” The practice of dumping babies is not confined to South Africa. In March 2014, Britain’s The Telegraph reported that thousands of miscarried and aborted foetuses were being incinerated, along with other waste, to heat hospitals. In Texas human tissue or foetuses may be disposed of by seven legal means, including incineration, disinfection followed by deposition in a sanitary landfill, and grinding and discharging to a sanitary sewer. In the US state of Louisiana, the bishop’s conference has asked that families receive access to the remains of their unborn babies so that they may have a dignified burial and parents are given the chance to mourn their loss. Archbishop Slattery said the Catholic Church is also horrified by the lack of dignity shown to the bodies of unborn babies. The archbishop said the Church would also veto experimentation on living foetuses, unless such research is done for the sole purpose of ensuring the survival of that baby. “There are reports that infants are taken out the womb and kept alive for half an hour, while they are experimented on with chemicals before they are allowed to die,” he said. “We must not exclude from the human family the smallest form of human—the child embryo. We cannot reduce an embryo being to the moral status of penicillin mould or a piece of tissue,” Archbishop Slattery said. “This downward movement of modern culture is on the increase and must be reversed.”
A journey to the places of St John Paul II’s life and devotions, led by a Bishop who knows Poland intimately.
Led by Bishop Stan Dziuba 13 - 21 May 2016
Kraków | Wadowice (on St John Paul II’s birthday) | Black Madonna of Częstochowa | Niepokalanów (St Maximilan Kolbe) | Divine Mercy Sanctuary | Warsaw | Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (with miraculous icon) | Zakopane | Wieliczka Salt Mine (with Mass!)