151111 by The Southern Cross

The

S outhern C ross

November 11 to November 17, 2015

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4950

www.scross.co.za

Veteran singer Belafonte raises funds for SA org

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R7,00 (incl Vat RSa)

SA-born priest leads Hebrew Catholics

The miracle of a Ngome pilgrimage

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Controversial minister for SA Youth Day? BY StUaRt GRaHaM

IGHER Education Minister Blade Nzimande, recently under fire from students over university fees, has been invited to attend the Church’s national Youth Day near Johannesburg in December. Mr Nzimande, a Catholic who attended a Church primary school in Henryville in KwaZulu-Natal, is yet to confirm whether he will attend the event, to be held from December 3-6 at Don Bosco Youth Centre in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg. Fr Mthembeni Dlamini, coordinator of the Youth Day, said Mr Nzimande had been asked to address the youth at the event on education and the opportunities it presented. “If Minister Nzimande does attend, we will introduce him as a Catholic and we will appeal for the youngsters who are present to treat him with kindness and respect,” Fr Dlamini said. Around 2 000 young Catholics from the 29 dioceses in the pastoral region served by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference are expected to attend the event. The Church has asked for each group at the event to be accompanied by five adults. “We want everyone to be on their best behaviour,” Fr Dlamini said. Dormitories and a campsite with tents are available for accommodation. A number of nuns and priests will stay in tents with the youth. Meals will be provided throughout the celebration. “We are trying to emulate the international World Youth Day so that South Africa’s young get a feeling for how the event is celebrated,” said Fr Dlamini. “We tend to serve our young people in a fragmented way in the different dioceses and parishes. The Youth Day will unite the youth around the country.” The event will include music, DJs, dance, drama and talent shows, said Fr Dlamini. Teachers, priests, sisters and bishops will be available to give their input. Various events such as pilgrimages, stations of the

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cross, dramas and religious processions will be held. Mass will be celebrated each day, while a liturgical celebration will give young people the chance to pray together. A panel of bishops will give the youth the chance to ask questions on any topic they like. The bishops will hold catechetical sessions in ten languages. Fr Dlamini said the South African event is unique. The organisers of World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow, Poland, have asked the Southern African Church for more information about it. “The organisers of the Krakow World Youth Day have expressed enormous interest in our event. They said something like this has never been done before, and they want to know more about what we are doing. This is definitely something unique in the Church.” World Youth Day will be held in Krakow from July 26-31. Fr Dlamini said if the local Youth Day is a success, it will held again in two years’ time. Archbishop William Slattery, SACBC spokesman, said the Church wants South Africa's youth to have their own celebration as the cost of travelling to places like Krakow was too high for most. Noting that in the previous 15 years World Youth Days had been held in Brazil, Spain, Australia, Germany, Canada and Italy, Archbishop Slattery said: “It is expensive for the majority of youth to attend World Youth Days, so we are hosting one here, based on the same formula.” World Youth Day was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The 1995 World Youth Day closing Mass in the Philippines set a world record for the largest number of people gathered for a single religious event, with five million in attendance. The Krakow World Youth Day will be the 15th such event. It has been hosted in 11 countries, covering five continents, but never in Africa.

Bonolo Molemohi (front right), with her sister Sesethu, and Karabo Ntshweng of 947 radio in Johannesburg and Dianne Mcalpine of LeadSa. Bonolo, a Grade 7 pupil at Holy Rosary School in edenvale, was named LeadSa’s “Hero of the Month” after she fundraised to source corneas for a young man whom she didn’t know.

Catholic schoolgirl ‘Hero of the Month’ Staff RepoRteR

RADE 7 pupil Bonolo Molemohi of Holy Rosary School in Edenvale in Johannesburg was named the LeadSA Youth Hero of the Month for October. In July of this year, Bonolo embarked upon an ambitious project to raise funds to source corneas from the US for 17-year-old Philani Thwala. Philani’s corneas had suffered irreparable damage and his eyesight was fast diminishing. Being the child of a domestic helper, he had resigned himself to a life of blindness. Bonolo heard about Philani’s plight during a conversation with her mother and decided she needed to do something about it.

St John Paul II Pilgrimage to Poland Southern Cross

Her fundraising initiative was an overwhelming success. With the help of family, friends and Holy Rosary School, Bonolo managed to raise the R36 000 required to procure both corneas. Subsequently, Philani has had a successful operation on his right eye, with the left eye operation to follow in due course. As part of her fundraising efforts Bonolo gave up gifts and her 13th birthday party. Philani had been waiting for this organ replacement for more than ten years, ever since Charlotte Maxeke Hospital made him a promise to perform the operation. A 13year-old girl made this possible on her own initiative, thereby changing a young man’s life forever.

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

the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

LOCAL

Aids Office changes lives in Swaziland BY DYLaN appoLIS

HE bishops’ Aids Office has proven again that it is capable of uplifting people, this time in Swaziland. The biggest achievement has been to see people’s lives changing for the better, helping them live more healthily by giving them HIV/Aids and TB counselling, and educating them on how to treat the diseases, Aids Office director Sr Alison Munro OP said. Teachers from local schools in Swaziland offered extra classes to children who were lagging behind

at school, while caregivers assisted them with homework at the children’s homes and it has significantly improved their academic performance. “Seeing people without fear, sharing ideas with others, and even giving courage to those who still live in fear, motivating them to stand up for themselves, is a blessing,” Sr Munro said. People benefiting from the HIVsupport group have reached 420— 120 from home-based care units and 300 from the HIV-support groups. Nutrition supplements were dis-

tributed successfully to all patients. “Due to the treatment and support programme we saw patients gaining weight gradually,” said Sr Munro. “Food plates are available to HIV-support group members and nutritional supplements are given to those in dire need of food, in order for them to take their medication. A tower garden was built to conserve water and patients receive fresh vegetables on a daily basis.” TB screening was done as 60% of people with TB also have HIV, and the Aids Office has seen the treatment programme reducing the spread of TB.

The HIV-support group played a pivotal role as people were referred for anti-retroviral (ART) treatment. “Patients gained knowledge through educational support and HIV counselling. Their cognitive levels were uplifted and caregivers could see a change in behaviour,” the Dominican sister said. All patients receive training in social justice, human rights, human trafficking and abuse. Sr Munro believes the training greatly changed their lives as they also gained trust and confidence as the caregivers practised their pastoral roles. “Abuse is rife in the Shiselweni

region of Swaziland and caregivers had sleepless nights as abused women would run to seek their assistance,” Sr Munro said. “The treatment and support programme has not only left patients smiling, also the entire community. The knowledge acquired, skills obtained and the change in behaviour signals that it was fruitful,” said Sr Munro. “We have to continue this programme,” she said. “There is no more discrimination of patients in the community. The patients have gained confidence and we still need to support them.”

Is this South Africa’s first Peace Pole? Bloem pilgrims pray Staff RepoRteR

for urgent rain BY DYLaN appoLIS

N East London parish has erected what might be South Africa’s first Peace Pole. Eucharistic Heart of Jesus parish raised the Peace Pole in the church yard, with Bishop Vincent Zungu of Port Elizabeth and parish priest Fr Varghese Kannanaickal officiating at the blessing. There are about 250 000 Peace Poles in over 170 countries. The first one was erected in 1970 in Fukuoka, Japan. The poet and philosopher Masahisa Goi was so deeply affected by the destruction of World War II, especially in Hiroshima, that he founded the World Peace Prayer Society, a non-sectarian organisation that has made the erection of Peace Poles one of its projects. “Peace Poles are meant to call to mind the need for peace in our world,” said parishioner Sharron Reynolds. “Whenever we see a Peace Pole we are reminded that peace begins with each one of us. “We are encouraged to live each day in the spirit of May Peace Prevail on Earth,” she said, adding that the motto is inscribed on East London’s Peace Pole in 12 different languages.

Bishop Vincent Zungu and parish priest fr Varghese Kannanaickal officiated at the raising of the peace pole at eucharistic Heart of Jesus parish in east London. The Justice & Peace group of the parish, steered by Sr Aloysia Zellman OP, proposed the Peace Pole, and the parish was involved in the decision.

“We feel that by this symbol we can contribute to generating more peace in our city, province and country,” Ms Reynolds said.

RCHBISHOP Jabulani Nxumalo of Bloemfontein led members of more than 35 parishes in his archdiocese on a single-day pilgrimage of prayer to Maseru farm in Fatima, Lesotho. All parishes in the archdiocese participate in an annual pilgrimage to pray for different intentions. This year’s main intention was to pray for rainfall in the midst of a drought. “There is a need for rain. Rivers are drying out, animals are dying from thirst, and there is not much to eat since most of the fields are dried up. We need more water to survive,” said Sr Winnie Mosololi of the Franciscan Sisters of Siessen in Bloemfontein. “Whenever we go on the pilgrimage, it always manages to start raining on the very same day. It even rained a bit on this year’s pilgrimage,” she said. “Other than praying for rainfall, the different sodality and parishes share responsibilities in singing and leading the holy rosary in a procession,” said Sr Mosololi. “As the procession is normally long, participants break up into different groups to allow everyone to participate in prayers. Priests listen to confessions, anoint the sick and aged, and also bless those who are writing exams. “The most important lesson we have learnt during the pilgrimage is that together we can make it. Our archbishop is always inspirational in his homilies, through all these years,” she said.

New Women of Light workshop Trio of young people add new impetus to Portuguese committee BY DYLaN appoLIS

FTER their successful Parenting and Self-Development workshop, the Cape Town-based Women of Light group plans to launch a new workshop called Pathway to Deepen your Purpose. Women of Light is a “group of women working for the benefit of others, with the function to inspire women, to live their truth to fellowship with other believers, and to motivate a better and fulfilled life”, the organisation’s Ellie Lawrence said. “The new course will investigate our personal vision, how we live our lives, and how to follow through from the word of God, to deepen our journey,” Ms Lawrence told The Southern Cross. “The four-session course will be

held on Saturdays to give everyone an opportunity to attend, but we have not set a date or venue for the workshop yet,” she said. The well-received Parenting and Self-Development workshop earlier this year was held at Table View parish, with a focus on faith, parenting, child discipline, choice, self-development and family life. “The feedback we received has motivated us to continue the good work that we’ve been doing since 2009,” Ms Lawrence said. Another Women of Light event saw 130 people attend a breakfast talk by Jean Engelbrecht on restorative justice at a Milnerton restaurant. n Contact Ellie Lawrence at info@soulessence.co.za or visit wwwwomen oflight.wordpress.com

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BY DYLaN appoLIS

HREE young members of the Portuguese Cultural and Welfare Committee are seeking to inspire and empower other youths to make a difference in the Portuguese community. Ananda De Abreu, 20, Leandro Goncalves, 20, and Nadia Da Silva, 21, are determined to make their own contribution as the youth of the Portuguese community. The Cape Town-based committee’s main objective is to assist families in need, especially the elderly. They also help the St Lawrence House orphanage and are in the process of forming a partnership with NOAH, an oldage home that aids elderly selfsustaining people. “The difficult part about trying to bring the youth together

is in helping everyone understand the importance of such a committee,” Ms De Abreu told The Southern Cross. “Not many youth show interest or know all that the welfare committee is involved in. Nothing would make us happier than to give the youth the opportunity to give back.” Ms Da Silva agreed: “We would like to unite the youth and start encouraging the current committee to teach them the way forward so that in years to come, we can continue the humble work that the committee currently does.” The main focus now is to bring the youth together and form a solid and loyal group, said Ms da Silva. “Once we have some sort of solidarity, we will brainstorm new fresh ideas on how we can raise funds and how we, as the

voice of the future, wish to take the community forward,” Ms Da Silva said. Among the plans to engage the young people is a monthly “Força Friday”. “It is a time when the youth can get together at the cultural and welfare centre in Parow, to braai, dance and be in an environment where we can be proud to be Portuguese”, Ms De Abreu said. “Any funds raised will go directly to the organisation. “We are hoping this will be a fun way for the youth to get to know one another, make memories, encourage more and more Portuguese youth to participate in the welfare organisation, while making a contribution to the community,” she added. n For more information or to offer suggestions, contact member Ananda De Abreu at forcagenera tion@gmail.com

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the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

LOCAL

German gala event raises R2,8m for HOPE BY DYLaN appoLIS

Harry Belafonte receives the Hope award from gala organiser Viola Klein as fr Stefan Hippler and MC andrea Ballschuh look on at a gala event for Hope Cape town held in Dresden, Germany.

Mariannhill Repository: a spring of resources for the faithful BY DYLaN appoLIS

HEN one thinks of Mariannhill monastery, its rich history and culture come to mind—but it is also the little, but essential, things, such as the Mariannhill Monastery Repository. When Trappist monks under the leadership of Abbot Francis Pfanner arrived and founded Mariannhill in 1882, they had in mind to establish a mission of faith and a school developing people’s skills for self-sustenance. Consequently, Abbot Pfanner bought land for human settlement and farming. The Trappists also opened workshops to train local people in skills such as carpentry, tailoring, motor mechanics, metal working and even music—Mariannhill had a brass jazz band taught by the brothers at the monastery for use in liturgical functions and processions. The monks furthered ways of evangelising by establishing the Mariannhill Mission Press, which is still operational today under the management of Rob Riedlinger. It produced liturgical booklets and a Zulu newspaper, Umafrika, which were printed with the purpose of cultivating and reviving people’s faith as well as to educate and catechise. Fr Lawrence Mota CMM of Mariannhill monastery told The

Mariannhill monastery staff members gather in front of the repository. Southern Cross that the repository was meant to be a vehicle to deliver these liturgical items to people. “The repository is even today part and parcel of the evangelisation of the people in the southern part of Africa, and even other parts of the African countries,” he said. It supplies items such as calendars, rosaries, gospel CDs, crucifixes, ciboriums, chalices, lecterns, tabernacles, postcards, hymn and prayers books in Zulu and English, booklets for spiritual reading and reflections and Bibles.

“We also deliver things like sacramentaries and lectionaries, childrens’ prayer books in English and Zulu, charcoal and incense, mission crosses, medals and constitutions for sodalities, Communion hosts, Mass wine and gift items in varieties,” Fr Mota said. “Orders are taken for candles for special occasions such as weddings, baptisms, birthdays and jubilees.” n Contact Mariannhill monastery Repository manager Maureen du Toit on 031 700 1031 or e-mail monasteryrepo@ionet.co.za

Visit Cape garden and support kids’ home Staff RepoRteR

CATHOLIC children’s home has been selected as the beneficiaries of an open door weekend at a renowned Cape garden. The well-known Stellenberg Gardens in Kenilworth, Cape Town, will host their open days on November 21 and 22—and St Joseph’s Home has been selected as the charity to receive the proceeds. Donations will go directly towards the Montana-based home’s Adopt-a-Bed project. The gardens will open to the public from 9:30 to 17:30. Entry is R50 per person. Children under 18 enter free. Sandy and Andrew Ovenstone’s beautiful four-acre garden is internationally acclaimed, having been featured on the BBC tel-

evision series Around the World in 80 Gardens. The 18th century manor house is said to be one of the most beautiful in the Cape peninsula, with a perfectly proportioned, classic Cape Dutch façade. “We are extremely grateful to the Ovenstones for selecting St Joseph’s as this year’s beneficiary,” said St Joseph’s director, Thea Patterson. “We are also celebrating our 80th anniversary and this presents us with an opportunity to raise awareness regarding the services we provide, and the plight of vulnerable children who are struggling with lifethreatening or limiting conditions and need intermediate treatment,” she said. The home, founded by the Pallottines Sisters, serves vulnerable children from disadvantaged

backgrounds with life-threatening or limiting conditions. They are usually referred from state hospitals. Treatment is free of charge and includes post-acute, restorative, palliative and rehabilitative services. “We have for 80 years pioneered, re-adjusted and created a holistic service to provide these children with a temporary home which will aid their healing and rehabilitation process,” Ms Patterson said. “Extensive renovations have also started this year to provide the children with child-friendly spaces and small gardens where they can enjoy being close to nature,” she said. n For more information on the open weekend, contact Magda Pretorius at 021 934 0352 or magda@st josephshome.org.za

INGER Harry Belafonte was among those who helped raise R2,8 million for HOPE Cape Town at an annual gala event in Germany. HOPE Cape Town is an Aids project started by the German-speaking Catholic community of the Cape Peninsula. The funds raised by the annual HOPE Gala in Dresden will help the organisation continue to support the communities of the Western Cape with its various programmes. These include feeding schemes, toy libraries, resistance testing, and 25 community health workers. The gala was attended by more than 800 guests from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Africa. Mr Belafonte, 88, was the guest of honour at the event. He visited HOPE’s projects in Cape Town some

years ago. Among the many celebrities present was South African television personality Katlego Maboe. “We are thankful to all our supporters who make it possible to bring HOPE to so many,” said Fr Stefan Hippler, chairman of HOPE Cape Town Trust. “We still have a long way to go and there is an ever-increasing need to expand our services. “With the continued support of our international friends and the South African public, we are committed to making a difference in the communities we serve,” he said. Fahim Docrat, HOPE’s donor relations manager, said: “Our goal is to remain sustainable and focus on maintaining current programmes, and to expand the Hope to Home programme which seeks to ensure adherence to medication.” n For more about HOPE Cape Town visit www.hopecapetown.com

the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

INTERNATIONAL

What’s behind latest Vatican finance saga BY CINDY WooDeN

F Holy Cross father Russ McDougall, rector of tantur ecumenical Institute, and peta Jones pellach, an orthodox Jewish woman who works for the elijah Interfaith Institute, sing during an interfaith prayer service for peace in the old City of Jerusalem. (photo: Debbie Hill/CNS)

Jerusalem prayer group ‘storms heaven’ for peace BY JUDItH SUDILoVSKY

S dusk fell over the Old City a group of 60 Christians and Jews and one Muslim gathered at the entrance of the Jaffa Gate for what they hope will become a monthly event of public prayer for peace. “We hope that by joining together in prayer to God and asking God to change the hearts of people, this may be a way to break through the political impasse,” said Holy Cross Father Russ McDougall, rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, a Catholic institute in Jerusalem that focuses on interfaith relations and study. “We seem to have reached a dead end on the political front. This is kind of ‘storming the gates of heaven’ to ask God to help us to find a solution.” The effort is the most recent among prayer initiatives giving people of different faiths the opportunity to offer their own prayers for peace in Jerusalem. Fr McDougall together with Peta Jones Pellach, an Orthodox Jewish woman who is director of educational activities at the Elijah Interfaith Institute, initiated the idea of a monthly parallel prayer service following a reunion of Abrahamic faiths at Tantur over the summer. “I do believe all our prayers are headed in the same direction and can be a really powerful force com-

ing together,” Ms Pellach said. The Rev Kristen Brown, a United Methodist Church minister, said prayer can make a difference, especially during a time of rising tensions among Israelis and Palestinians. “Now is as crucial a time as any for people to come together to pray for peace with justice for all humanity,” she said. Abdullah Mohammed, the lone Muslim who joined the service with his prayer mat from his community in the desert skirting Jerusalem, said he came because he believed all were the children of Abraham. He said he did not know why other Muslims did not attend. It might be too delicate a time for Muslims to be seen praying together especially with Jews, Fr McDougall suggested. “Some may just be afraid of the atmosphere in the Old City,” he said, adding that perhaps if a prayer is held in a less public spot such as the Tantur institute in the future, it will be easier to gather Muslim participation. As she passed the group and noticed their sign, Nili Shafai, 58, a Jewish visitor from Los Angeles, stepped away from her guide and thanked the group for their prayers. “We love this," she said. “This is Jerusalem. I pray for the day when everyone will come here in peace and love and prayer.”—CNS

INANCIAL negligence at the Vatican, leaked documents and arrests by the Vatican police may make it seem like 2012 all over again, but the situation—while serious—is not the breach of papal privacy that the earlier “VatiLeaks” scandal was. Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist who published documents stolen from Pope Benedict XVI’s private office by his butler, has a new book out based on more leaked documents called Merchants in the Temple: Inside Pope Francis’s Secret Battle Against Corruption in the Vatican. Another book, Emiliano Fittipaldi’s Avarizia (Greed), also is focused on Vatican finances. Mr Nuzzi’s book is based largely on confidential documents given to and reports written by members of a temporary commission Pope Francis established in July 2013—less than four months after his election—to clean up the Vatican’s financial chaos, control costs and eliminate the possibilities for misusing funds. In addition, Mr Nuzzi has what he claims are recordings of Pope Francis discussing the lack of fiscal responsibility and transparency at the Vatican, but he does not claim to have private papal documents like he did in 2012. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters that while the books did not cause rejoicing in the Vatican, the pope is “serene, he’s a person who knows what he needs to do, who knows there are difficulties in life—it’s not like someone has to explain that to him”. The pope “doesn’t need the books of Messrs Nuzzi or Fittipaldi” to tell him where problems exist in the Vatican, he added. Most of the information in the books was already known publicly, although usually with less detail, Fr Lombardi said. In addition, he said, the information reproduced in Mr Nuzzi’s book was not gathered “against the will of the pope”, but rather was infor-

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mation provided by Vatican officials and collected by a commission the pope himself set up. The Vatican announced it had arrested two members of the commission: Mgr Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui. Ms Chaouqui denies involvement and was quickly released.

he way Mr Nuzzi presents the information, Fr Lombardi said, may give the mistaken impression that there is much more corruption in the Vatican than the reform process has indicated. A more objective, serious investigation would better distinguish between the majority of Vatican financial dealings that are above board and those areas “to correct, ambiguities to be clarified [and] real improprieties or illegalities to be eliminated”. Mr Nuzzi writes: “I have access to thousands of documents, the most significant of which are reproduced in this book. They show the incredible waste of money by the men who govern the Church, and also nepotism, favouritism and a questionable use of money donated for Peter’s Pence.” The author cites figures showing that only about 20% of the funds collected in 2012 were used for charity; the rest, he said, went to “the maintenance” of the Roman curia or to a reserve fund controlled

by the Vatican Secretariat of State. Mr Nuzzi describes the goal of the annual Peter’s Pence collection as being “to bring relief to the poor in fulfillment of the Church’s pastoral mission and the goals of Francis”, which is true. However, the Vatican always has said it also funds the Roman curia, which are the offices designed to help the pope exercise his mission of governing the universal Church. Fr Lombardi said: “The pope’s works of charity for the poor certainly are an essential aim [of the collection], but it obviously is not the intention of the faithful [who donate] to rule out the pope evaluating for himself the needs and the ways of responding to them in the light of his service for the good of the universal Church.” Mr Nuzzi says the intention of those who passed him documents was to contribute “to flushing out and denouncing the opponents of the revolution of Francis”. And, in fact, the book focuses on the blackrobed figures trying to thwart the white-robed pope’s reforms at every turn. When he announced the arrests of Mgr Vallejo and Ms Chaouqui, Fr Lombardi commented that books like Mr Nuzzi’s create more concern than clarity. He added: “One must absolutely avoid the mistake of thinking that this is a way to help the mission of the pope.” Pope Francis, Mr Nuzzi says, inherited a situation where, “on the one hand there was total chaos in the management of resources and spending, which was spiralling out of control, with inflated costs, deceptive contracts, and dishonest suppliers dumping obsolete and overpriced products on the Vatican. On the other, cronyism and shady financial dealings prevented change and undermined the policies already adopted by [Pope] Benedict”. Pope Francis’ response was to gather the heads of Vatican offices, including those overseeing the Vatican bank and Vatican investments, and insist on a major cleanup. — CNS

Cardinal: If you love God, then care for his creation BY tIM pUet

HE lead consultant on Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, said that although it’s a document of nearly 40 000 words, its message can be summed up in one sentence. “We cannot love God when we do not appreciate or care for what God has made,” Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana said in an interview with the Catholic Times, newspaper of the Columbus diocese in Ohio. “This is what the pope wants people to understand.” “If the question is ‘What has God made?’” he continued, “the response is that the Bible says God created two things. God created the world and God created the human person, and those essentially are the two things we are talking about in this encyclical”. “Whatever you want to call the pope’s message—integral ecology or something else—it is essentially an invitation to make our love for God show in what God has made.” “An encyclical usually is something meant primarily for the Catholic community, but this was more of a secular letter, intended for the whole world because the pope was writing about subjects of universal concern,” Cardinal Turkson said. “From his own ministry, the pope considers worthy of particular attention two things that

Cardinal peter turkson are crying to us—the earth and the way we have abused it, and humanity, part of which is still needy and suffering.” “He puts the two together in a concern for creation and for the poor. The poor are not just those along the roadside who need money, but all of the forgotten people, the abandoned ones—the old, the homebound, the unborn. All of that is his concern.” Cardinal Turkson told the audience of about 150 invited guests at the Porres Centre that stories in the secular media that describe Laudato Si’ as mainly devoted to climate change miss the main point of the document. “It’s not about climate change, but on human ecology,” he said.— CNS

INTERNATIONAL

‘Communion for all who ask’ claims ‘unreliable’ BY CINDY WooDeN

W eugenio Scalfari former editor of La Reppublica, and a friend of the pope. (photo: Cristiano Minichiello, afG/CNS) expressed by bishops at the synod, particularly on the feasibility of some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receiving absolution and being allowed to receive Communion. “In principle, it was accepted by the synod,” the pope said, according to Mr Scalfari. “This is the basic result: the evaluations of the facts are entrusted to confessors, but at the end of the processes—whether quick or slow—all the divorced who ask for it will be admitted.” The synod’s final report to Pope Francis was not that clear and, in fact, did not specifically mention Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried. The synod did, however, emphasise how “pastoral accompaniment” involves discerning, on a case-bycase basis.—CNS

HEN Antonio Guterres, former prime minister of Portugal, became the 10th UN high commissioner for refugees in 2005, the world was a different place. Back then, he said, his agency— charged with protecting and resettling the world’s refugees—was helping about 1 million people return to their homes each year, while the annual number of global refugees was decreasing. “Now, unfortunately, things have changed quite dramatically,” he told participants at an Immigration Law and Policy Conference at the Georgetown University in Washington DC. He illustrated the shift with a list of numbers including the overall fig-

the body of an 8-year-old afghan boy lies on a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos. (photo: paul Jeffrey/CNS) ure that there were nearly 60 million refugees worldwide in 2014. But what is even more dramatic, he said, is the “staggering escalation of displacement by conflict in the past few years”. In 2011, 14 000 peo-

HE Philippine bishops’ conference has urged Church leaders to keep new ivory out of churches around the country. “I appeal to my brother bishops of the Philippines to prohibit the clerics from blessing any new statue, image or object of devotion made or crafted from such material as ivory or similar body parts of endangered or protected [species], nor shall such new statues or images be used as objects of veneration in any of our churches,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, conference president, said in the pastoral letter signed on behalf of the bishops. A 2012 National Geographic investigation found that the Philippines was one of the entry points for the illegal African ivory trade. The investigating journalist interviewed a priest from the cen-

Workers gather elephant tusks seized from illegal shipments in Manila, philippines. (photo: Dennis Sabangan, epa/CNS) tral city of Cebu who gave him pointers on how to smuggle ivory into the country. The bishops’ letter made a push for the spiritual aspect of respecting God’s creations and the roles they play in the scheme of nature. It lamented that, in the

ple were forced to flee their homes each day. This figure rose to 23 000 in 2012, 32 000 in 2013 and 42 500 in 2014. The numbers are astounding enough, but as Mr Guterres added, the conflicts these people are fleeing are not ending so they have no homes to go back to. Mr Guterres hopes that more countries, will step up and offer to take in more refugees. The argument that terrorists might be among the throngs of refugees seeking resettlement doesn’t sit well with Mr Guterres, who said there are more obvious, faster and much cheaper ways terrorists could enter other countries than taking part in an 18-month screening process to be resettled.—CNS

Pope Francis will visit war-torn CAR

ESPITE continued instability and outbreaks of violence in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Vatican announced Pope Francis will spend about 33 hours in the country during his November 25-30 visit to Africa. While the pope is in the CAR he will open the diocese of Bangui’s holy door on November 29 as a sign of prayer and solidarity for the war-torn nation. The pope will also visit a refugee camp, hold a meeting with evangelical Christians and visit a

mosque in Bangui. Kenya is the first stop on Pope Francis’ first visit to Africa as pope; there, too, he will meet with ecumenical and interreligious leaders, but he also will visit the Kangemi slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. Travelling to Uganda on November 27, the pope will honour the memory of the 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic Ugandan martyrs, killed for their faith on the orders of King Mwanga II between 1885 and 1887. (See feature article next week)—CNS

Philippines, endangered species are “hardly cared for”, and expressed concern that, worldwide, more and more species are going extinct. “No matter the beauty of a work of art, it cannot justify the slaughter of wildlife, the use of endangered organic forms and lending a seal of approval to the threat posed to biodiversity by poachers and traffickers,” the bishops said. They added, however, that ivory images that had existed for centuries or had been in use since before the letter was released should be “safeguarded, and may remain in use for purposes of devotion and in recognition of their historical value”. Archbishop Villegas told Catholic News Service that the pastoral letter was part of a programme to highlight sections of the pope’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’.—CNS

a tailor works on a vestment in Nairobi, Kenya, to be used by pope francis when he visits the country this month. (photo: thomas Mukoya, Reuters/CNS)

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HE Vatican spokesman has described as obviously “unreliable” an Italian journalist’s claim that Pope Francis told him that following the Synod of Bishops on the Family, “all the divorced who ask” will be admitted to Communion. Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor of La Repubblica, an Italian daily, said Pope Francis—with whom he has had several telephone conversations and a face-to-face meeting—phoned him to discuss an article Mr Scalfari had written about the synod. “You can imagine my happiness as a non-believer privileged by the friendship of Francis,” Mr Scalfari wrote in La Repubblica. The journalist has explained on more than one occasion that he does not take notes or record his conversations with the pope; he recreates them afterward from memory, including the material he puts in quotation marks. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said that often Mr Scalfari’s reconstructed quotations “do not correspond to reality” because they are not “the exact words of the pope”. “Therefore, it is obvious that what he refers to in his latest article about the divorced and remarried is not in any way reliable and cannot be considered the thoughts of the pope,” Fr Lombardi said. Mr Scalfari said Pope Francis spoke about the diversity of opinions

the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

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the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Attacks on Pope Francis

HIS may be the most startling comment to emerge on last month’s Synod on the Family: “Never in my lifetime have I heard of bishops and cardinals being so disrespectful of a pope, challenging his organisation of this synod, even a few referring to him as a Protestant and threatening a fractured Church if he goes against their wishes.” These are the words of Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, a popular American priest and media commentator. Fr Reese is not usually given to exaggeration, so his testimony likely draws from personal experience. If Fr Reese’s observation corresponds with the facts, then it seems apparent that Pope Francis is facing a kind of opposition within the hierarchy unlike any of his recent predecessors. Indeed, in the past bishops who might have stated their opposition to a pope in the ways Fr Reese describes would have been subject to very stern rebukes. Of course, Pope Francis has encouraged robust and open dialogue, and he has responded to certain areas of criticism, such as the letter written to him by 13 cardinals regarding procedural points of the synod. It is not permissible, however, to attack the pope ad hominem, such as malicious remarks about his fidelity to Church teachings which find their ways onto rightwing websites, even in South Africa. The pope is the Vicar of Christ. On certain issues we may freely disagree with the pope, and any pope—but when we do so, we must do so with respect for the man and his office. In some quarters, Pope Francis does not receive the proper respect. This in turn diminishes the office of the papacy, with implications for popes in the past and in the future. If contempt is allowed to be levelled against one pope, it can be levelled against all popes. The ferocity of the ideological opposition to the Holy Father is converse to the intense love most Catholics have for him. To them, Pope Francis inspires the three heavenly graces of hope, charity and faith. The papacy is not, however, a popularity contest. As a pope, Francis cannot please everybody. Just as the popes who preceded him faced those who disagreed with them, so must he.

As a pontiff who is opening doors, Pope Francis knows that he can expect support as well as opposition at every level of the Church. There will be those who trust that the pope is being led by the Holy Spirit, and those who do not. For any leader, criticism is part of the deal. But the quality of the criticism must be judged as much by its content as it is by the tone in which it is delivered. Another test of that may come soon, when Pope Francis issues his apostolic exhortation on the family synod. That document will likely cover all the major issues contained in the synod’s final document, but as it was in the synod, two issues will dominate the public discourse: the pastoral care towards homosexuals and Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. It is the latter issue especially which might reignite sharp divisions. Pope Francis has not made it a secret that he sees merit in admitting at least some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to the sacraments from which they are presently barred. Should it turn out that in his apostolic exhortation the pope, following the extensive collegial consultation with the world’s bishops, exercises his prerogative to reform the process by which divorced and civilly remarried Catholics may have access to Communion for , then it will be permissible to state one’s disagreement with that decision. But there is a caveat: those who will register their disagreement with the pope, and those who do so on any number of issues, must do so not in the manner of dissent and hostility, never mind by fostering division and rebellion. Their disagreement should be stated in a spirit of appealing to the teaching authority of the Church, the magisterium at whose head is the pope. Alas, it seems unlikely that those who criticise the pope in disrespectful terms will moderate their impudence. For those who love the Holy Father, there is an obvious retort to those who evidently do not: to pray fervently for Pope Francis, that the Lord may give him the fortitude to continue his selfless and loving service to the People of God in the name of Our Lord Jesus.

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.

End corruption to fund education

F course education should be free for all! If the government took effective steps to stamp out corruption and reduce the number of inefficient officials there would be more than sufficient money available. I suggest our religious leaders start by encouraging all involved to read Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. It was written many years

Plant ‘seeds of peace’ in prayer

SOUTH African recently emailed me from the Central African Republic: “Complete war has broken out. As pilots we are the last to leave, as we are the last line of evacuation. Three people were killed 50m from where I stood. It makes the film Blood Diamond look like a tea party. Any prayers for my safety and that of my crew will be greatly appreciated.” A few days later, a Comboni missionaries’ newsletter advised: “In November Pope Francis will visit Africa for the first time...his tour is particularly motivated by the unrest and violence.” He will visit Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic. On November 9, we celebrated the first dedication in 324AD of the St John Lateran basilica, the “mother of all the world’s churches”, the diocesan church of the pope as “Bishop of Rome”. A little story connects it with St Francis of Assisi. When he and his friars asked approval for their new way of living the Gospel, the cardinals found it too radical. But that night the pope dreamed that the walls of St John Lateran (representing the Church) were crumbling. Suddenly a small brown-robed man came out of the shadows and put his back against them and they held steady (Fr M Pable in Living Faith). Africa and the world need another Francis to steady us and help us to follow Christ’s teaching to “love one another” (John 13:34) and every part of God’s creation, the earth, the universe; to learn to share so that in “forgetting ouropinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. the letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate. Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately. Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

ago, but so was the Bible. The following quote by Adam Smith is as valid today as ever: “No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides that those who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of people should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be

selves, we shall find unending peace with others”. For a free leaflet with the St Francis prayer, SMS your name and postal address to 083 544 8449, and join a growing group who pray and “sow mustard seeds”. Let us also pray for Our Lady’s intercession and that of the Holy Souls, as well as all the saints and martyrs, and saints and martyrs of Africa. Our prayers may only be “five loaves and two fishes” but let’s do what we can. Athaly Jenkinson, East London

Eucharist physical and spiritual

S to my question, why does the Church focus on the Eucharist being only the body and blood of Jesus, Henry Sylvester (October 21) gave us a very informative and interesting reply. However, if the Church would give more credence to the writings of the late Dominican theologian Fr Edward Schillebeeckx, then perhaps there wouldn’t be the necessity for the need to “prove” the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin or any other so-called miraculous events. Jesus would be quite confident knowing the depth of faith of his followers. At the time of his death, Jesus’ followers must have been devastated. Surely someone, like Peter, would have been urging them to remember Jesus’ words: “When one or two of you gather in my name then I will be there amongst you.” Bearing in mind the first Gospel was written 70 years after the death of Jesus, it is quite possible Jesus’ initial “reappearance” could well have been spiritual, not physical. Mr Sylvester quite rightly mentions the magisterium, which would have been the early Church. No doubt, this group of men would have instituted a “method” of remembering Jesus. This method would have been to “recreate” Jesus in his entirety, both spiritual and physical, in the form of a sacramental meal. And through the centuries the physical has overshadowed the spiritual. Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg

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Change thinking on homosexuality

OPE Francis has announced 2016 as a Year of Mercy, saying: “The Church’s very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love.” When you read the letter by Cindy Quantoi (October 28) and hear how the attitude of people, including Catholics, towards gay people causes untold suffering and misery to so many people who have not chosen to be gay, you must surely realise that it is time for a change in thinking about homosexuality. Our collective attitude towards gay people has alienated millions of them from the Church and the sacraments over the years. In a recent article in that excellent publication of the Comboni Fathers, Worldwide, on the Holy Father’s papal bull Misericordiae Vultus, which pronounced the Year of Mercy, Fr Anthony Egan SJ writes regarding people in same sex marriages: “I think mercy here will have to work overtime since it contains two dimensions. First, the question of acceptance within the community. An approach of mercy here would try to see (no matter how one sees homosexuality in gay and lesbian couples) fellow Christians trying to love God and each other as part of the Christian community. Reaching out to them, encouraging them in living out a faithful and faith-filled commitment to each other. “On the second level, the Church will need to re-examine our understanding of what constitutes ‘normal’ sexuality. This is a massive, though I think not unsurmountable, challenge,” Fr Egan writes. He continued to say that “moral theology has an open-ended quality—taking principles and interpreting them through the developments in history, culture and science”. Fr Egan then concluded: “I think a systematic re-evaluation of homosexuality in the light of developments in our scientific knowledge is long overdue. It is also the merciful thing to do, as well as an expression of a commitment to truth.” June Boyer, Johannesburg

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“Let Jesus Christ be your one and only treasure – For there also will be love!” (St Angela – 5th Counsel)

themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.” Our beautiful country has the potential to comfortably feed, clothe and house all, and our political leaders should be encouraged to do what they were elected to do: to serve, and not to be served. The Catholic bishops’ conference has huge power to do good and bring about change. Let’s hope they use that power well in doing what they were appointed to do. Roy Glover, Tzaneen

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PERSPECTIVES

the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

Catholic groups must cooperate more M Gushwell Brooks ANY Catholic organisations exist with the aim of alleviating the dire need for social justice in today’s world. The Catholic organisation I work for, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), does so through the vision of our founding father, Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ, who was so moved by the plight of the Vietnamese boat people and their perilous journeys to exile that he established JRS in November 1980. That personifies that desire to bring some relief in a world of dire need of social justice. Another Catholic organisation that was established with the aim of bringing about greater social justice, is the Society of St Vincent De Paul (SVP). In a debate on religion at his university in Paris, Bl Frédéric Ozanam was openly challenged: “But what is the Church doing now? What are you doing? Show us your works, and then we might believe!” Bl Ozanam took up the challenge: “We must do what Jesus did...let us go to the poor.” Through a simple act of taking some of his own firewood and donating it to an old man living a few doors away, Bl Ozanam started serving the poor. And so, in 1833 he founded with fellow students what would become the SVP. Within two years the SVP had grown to 100 members. Many of the refugees, asylum seekers and other displaced people whom JRS serves are poor. At times, having escaped with nothing but the clothes on their backs, many refugees reach the countries of refuge, where they seek protection, with no jobs—or any prospect of employment—homeless and with a limited or non-existent social network. Many of these refugees end up needing the assistance of organisations such as the SVP, at times simply receiving meals through the soup kitchens in the SVP network for immediate relief. Many of these refugees are not aware of the legal and administrative processes that are required in the protection and asser-

tion of their rights and many are not aware of the durable solutions which JRS offers. It is therefore clear that closer coordination is needed, a relationship that serves all the needs which people may have. At one end the SVP may be able to provide immediate relief with meals and other forms of assistance extended to the poor, but JRS could then assist with specific needs peculiar to the needs of refugees, such as advocacy and in finding lasting solutions through the educational, livelihoods and other assistance we provide for refugees.

he SVP recently held their All Africa Assembly at Good Shepherd Retreat Centre at Hartebeespoort Dam. The assembly brought together a large number of SVP presidential representatives across Africa. As the Southern Africa Communications Officer, I was invited to give a talk on migration, poverty and xenophobia. In my talk I noted that the most obvious case studies came out of the South African context where research shows that cross-border migrants—including refugees and asylum seekers—constitute between 4-7% of the total population. Studies also show that much of the xenophobia plaguing South Africa emanates from an undercurrent of frustration

Gushwell Brooks speaks at the all africa assembly for the Society of St Vincent De paul. (photo: Roy Hawkins/SVpl)

talking about faith

due to socio-economic inequalities. More than 36% of young people under the age of 34 are unemployed. This problem is further exacerbated by a slowing economy, poor service delivery and a poor educational system that leaves more than 1,7 million (or 33,2 %) of those completing secondary school unemployed. The figure for tertiary-educated people is 390 000, or 7.6%. How the SVP and such organisations can stem the tide of anger is to ensure that all those whom they serve—local and migrant alike—share in each other’s common humanity and dispel myths that drive xenophobia, changing the narrative and acrimony toward migrants. Greater cooperation between organisations such as he SVP and JRS, and others in the field, can ease the challenges faced by those at the margins and most vulnerable. We do not have to do things in a significantly different way—we stick to our expertise and experience. The difference would be a recognition and understanding that in as much as we are working towards a common goal of social justice, we have different areas of expertise that complement each other holistically. Dr Michael Thio, president-general of the global SVP Community, kicked off the day by recounting a personal encounter he had with Mother Teresa. The crux of this encounter was how it ended when she handed him one of her business cards, with one of the most profound quotes printed on it: “The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace.” May organisations serving the goal of social justice continue to spread their peace.

Why the pope slams big business F ORMER President Thabo Mbeki drew great cheers when he ended a lecture by quoting Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’. Mr Mbeki was ending his Beyers Naudé lecture when he quoted the section of Laudato Si’ that calls for “the principle of the common good” to tackle growing global injustices (paragraph 158, if you’d like to read up on it). Laudato Si’ is emerging as the progressive document to refer to when discussing global problems of our era. The pope’s staunchest critics are market fundamentalists. Market fundamentalism proposes the freedom of the markets and private property. Catholic Social Teaching calls for an economic system that serves as an escape from hunger, poverty, unemployment and general misery that undermines individual human dignity. The proponents of the market system claim that if the pope wants more social justice, then he must support an expansion of markets into the developing world. Countries with poor human rights and social justice records are so because they have scant or non-existing market systems, they claim. On face value there is a semblance of truth to some of their claims. Multinational corporations bring with them a network of experts in production, design, marketing, sales, finance, accounting, human resource management, logistics, taxes, contracts, and so on. This is supposed to make for transformative reorganisation that increases economic production. But experience reveals something different. In natural resource-rich Africa, income from the multinationals mostly introduces the phenomenon the economics call the “resource burden”. That is the distortion of national economies by the revenue governments receive from their unearned resources through economic rent. This means that, more often than not, these governments serve and respect the needs of multinationals more than economic and social justice for their own people.

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

pushing the Boundaries

a mineworker in Chudja, Congo, shows a small piece of gold found after water processing. In Laudato Si’, pope francis condemned the cost of exploiting natural resources to people in the developing world. (CNS photo/Marc Hofer, epa) Sometimes this leads to tragic consequences, like the Stadium massacre in Equatorial Guinea, or the Marikana massacre in South Africa. The departure of Western colonialism, when African states won their sovereignty, ushered in the corporate behemoths of the resource industry. These retained and advanced the economic interests of the West, just as it was before.

he technological advances of the new millennium came with intensification for basic commodities that lie in abundance in Africa, like tantalum ores (used in cellphones and game consoles). It also brought new players, like China, into play in the scramble for African natural resources. The surging demand for coltan, for instance, made Congo ripe for the picking and complicated to infinity the rival conflicts of the region. This made it a paradise for warlords who derive lucrative incomes from illicit trading on these minerals with multinational corporations or state-owned Chinese companies. Writing in his seminal book on the topic, The Looting Machine, former Financial Times correspondent for Africa Tom Burgis says: “UN investigators have documented European and Asian companies purchasing pillaged Congolese minerals. Once the ores are out of the country, it is a simple step to refine them and then sell

the gold, tin, or tantalum to manufacturers. The road may be circuitous, but it leads from the heart of Congo’s war to anywhere mobile phones and laptops can be found.” Similar situation exist with oil in Nigeria; whereas in Zambia, with its copper riches, the government and the army replace the warlords with similar results, minus war atrocities. Having disregarded their civic duties and responsibilities, the non-democratic African governments rely more on the incomes they derive from dealing with multinational corporations through illicit trade that is not reflected on national treasury. They then use that income to buy back weapons from the West and China that in turn are mostly manufactured by the multinationals, to bolster their security arrangement for oppressing their citizens. Chinese state-owned companies change the practice a little sometimes by offering national infrastructure development in exchange for raw materials, but the script stays the same in other matters. I am sure when Pope Francis was writing the encyclical he had this in mind, hence his harsh language against multinationals. In Laudato Si’, he quotes from the 2009 Christmas message by Argentinian bishops—who at that time, of course, included him as well. Multinationals, they said, “do here what they would never do in developed countries or the so-called first world. Generally, after ceasing their activity and withdrawing, they leave behind great human and environmental liabilities such as unemployment, abandoned towns, the depletion of natural reserves, deforestation, the impoverishment of agriculture and local stock breeding, open pits, riven hills, polluted rivers and a handful of social works which are no longer sustainable”.

the Holy family at St Joseph’s church in Nazareth. (photo: Günther Simmermacher)

Kelvin Banda OP

point of Reflection

Mary and Joseph the model of family

AST month’s Synod of Bishops on the Family gave us a chance to evaluate the problems, challenges and triumphs faced by families. Families face many challenges in trying to maintain the bond that must exist at their core. The life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St Joseph can serve as a model for many families. Firstly, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the standard of Christian virtue and discipleship through her total submission to the will of God, her meditative personality, her evangelisation and her intercession on behalf of others, her solidarity with those who suffer, and finally her prayerful patience in anticipation of the coming of the Lord. Families do well to reflect on the role of Mary within the family realm. She is the uniting figure in the Holy Family; she brought unity between God, herself and Joseph through accepting and obeying the will of God—thereby becoming an agent in the story of salvation. Our mothers need to be like her. They need a strong foundation of a faith that is founded on contemplation; on the word of God. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Women need to listen to the voice of God and so become intercessory prayerful figures within families. As Mary interceded for the needs of a newly married couple at Cana, women have much strength to present the needs of the family before God because of their love, discipleship and charity for the family. Like St Joseph, men are also called to listen, to wait for God. They can do this by being men of prayer. Pope Francis said in a homily on March 19, 2013, that a man needs to be a “protector by being constantly attentive to God, open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans and not simply to his own”. The pope further noted that caring and protecting demand goodness and a certain tenderness: “In the Gospels, St Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man; yet, in his heart, we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak, but, rather, a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love.” Men must not be afraid of goodness, of love, of tenderness to their families. Tenderness and love are not weakness but attributes by which to build up and unite the family. By emulating Mary and her spouse, St Joseph, women and men can lead their families to God through their everyday moral life rooted in prayer, contemplation and the grace of God.

ON TAPE

A group of readers is preparing audio tapes of excerpts from The Southern Cross for interested people who are blind, sight-impaired, unable to hold a newspaper or illiterate. Anyone wanting to receive tapes as part of this service, available for an annual subscription fee of only R50, may contact Mr Len Pothier, 8 The Spinney Retirement Village, Main Rd, Hout Bay, 7806 or phone 021-790 1317.

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

the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

COMMUNITY

fr Mark pothier of St James parish in Cape town led a pilgrimage of 22 parishoners to visit Rome, Lourdes, avignon, Nevers and paris. During their pilgrimage they viewed the incorrupt body of St Bernadette and that of St Vincent de paul.

the Brescia House School community in Bryanston, Johannesburg, knitted and crocheted squares, blankets, scarves, mittens, beanies and toys for charity. Many of the items were used to “yarn-bomb” a car. Yarn bombing, or urban knitting, is a form of street art that is popular around the world where nothing is knitted in one piece but made up of many peoples’ knitted objects.

Members of aCtS (adoration, Community, theology, Service) teams from several Durban parishes completed a course in spiritual direction the foundation phase learners at St led by Sue Rakoczy IHM (first row, second from the right). photo by Dominic’s priory School in port eliza- Sandra elliott. beth entertained the priory Sisters with songs and presented each with a pot plant and cupcakes.

our Lady of fatima parish in Durban North hosted its annual jubilee sports tournament. parishes from the archdiocese of Durban came together and spent a day of fellowship, faith and football. St francis of assisi parish in petermaritzburg took home the trophy.

Jesuit father Saun Carls and parishioner Cathy Rajcomar (centre) and Cheryl Lumsden (right) are seen at a “ReNeWWhy Catholic?” mission held at St John Bosco parish in Robertsham, Johannesburg. Guest speakers also included frs John enslin SJ and thomas Gibson.

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a Radio Veritas Youth Leadership conference took place at parnassus farm in Magaliesburg, Johannesburg. the conference included presentations on leadership in corporate South africa by andrew and tumi Masongwa, the consecrated life by fr francis Xavier and fr X Mduduzi, various leadership styles by Nhlanhla Mdlalose, Church and family leadership by Sicelo Ngwenya, and being a leader without a title by Kabelo Molaodi.

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a group of 31 Holy Rosary High School girls and staff, and St Benedict’s boys travelled to Holy Rosary’s sister school in Malamulele, Limpopo, an annual event on the high school calendar. the group spent time sanding and painting murals and pictures on the walls of classrooms in needand took the Holy Rosary Malamulele leaders on an outing to the Kruger National park and Crook’s Corner, on the border of South africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

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

the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

CHURCH

SA-born priest leads Hebrew Catholics In the Holy Land most lay Christians are Palestinians whose liturgy is in Arabic— but there is a small but vibrant Hebrew Christian community in Israel, as DaLe GaVLaK discovered.

SMILING priest takes the tiny hand of the child tugging at his vestments, even before he leaves the altar, and together they jubilantly process out of the Sunday Mass as the congregants belt out an uplifting worship song in Hebrew. The community of Catholics, or kehilla, as it is known in Hebrew, is as diverse as they come: Israelis, foreign students, migrants and asylum seekers and religious from around the world, spanning several generations and cultures. But true to its mission, this congregation of Hebrew-speaking Catholics is a family providing an oasis of prayer and joy in the Holy City. “Never has there been a church that has spoken Hebrew and lived within a society that is majority Jewish since the first century,” said South African-born Jesuit Father David Neuhaus, patriarchal vicar for the St James vicariate for Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel. The community is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the promulgation of the Work of St James as a Catholic association dedicated to developing Hebrew-speaking Catholic communities in Israel. The Jerusalem congregation, meeting at the House of St Simeon and St Anne, is one of seven such communities in Israel. There are seven Sunday Masses in the Tel Aviv area alone to accommodate the large number of Catholic migrants from the Philippines, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The youngest among the Jerusalem congregants are infants, while the oldest—and a founding member—is a 94-year-old Bulgarian woman religious affiliated with the Sisters of Zion. Some are Jews who became Catholic while others are Christian members of Jewish families. Still, there are others who may not have Jewish roots but are more comfortable worshiping in their adopted language of Hebrew, the official languange of Israel. Jesus’ love is what unites the community at Mass celebrated in Hebrew, a language never before used for Christian life and liturgy until the present, Fr Neuhaus said. The Mass is the same as that prayed around the world, but “with minor concessions to the particularity of

praying in Hebrew”, he explained. For example, the liturgy begins by lighting two candles representing the Old Testament and the New Testament, signifying “their intimate unity”. “Many think this is the Shabbat lighting of the candles, like a woman does on Sabbath eve,” Fr Neuhaus said. “This is not what we are doing. We are stressing the unity of the two testaments and that everything we do must be seen in the light of the Old and New Testaments as the first act in the Mass. “We are very sensitive in homiletics to always hold together the two testaments and always be aware of what is going on in the liturgical life of Israel,” said the Jesuit, who converted to Catholicism at 26, after a decade of discernment. Born in 1962 in Johannesburg to German Jewish parents, Fr Neuhaus made aliyah, the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to Israel, as a teenager. “Our children and faithful live in a majority Jewish population where they are constantly aware of what is going on in the Jewish world. We need to make the links so they are not schizophrenic,” he said. “This will give them a much deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian,” he added. The blessings in liturgy sound Jewish because they are, Fr Neuhaus said. “But when you don’t hear them in Hebrew, you don’t realise how Jewish they are.”

ther particulars are unique to the Mass. The priest washes his hands, a ceremony known as the lavabo, before rather than after going to the altar to pray over the gifts. The Jewish cracker-like unleavened bread, known as matzo, replaces traditional Communion wafers. The greeting of peace begins at the altar and passes row to row, front to back, like a wave. Most often, when possible, Scripture is read in its entirety in context, rather than a few selected verses. From Easter to Pentecost, both the Old and New Testament passages are read unlike in the rest of the Latin-rite Church. Fr Neuhaus said that the use of Hebrew in the rich Latin tradition is “not simply a parrot translation” but a “real research into why they say this in Latin and where it comes from in Scripture”. “We try to identify the tonalities and echoes of the Latin tradition in the scriptural tradition to get the Hebrew that is underlying the Latin,” he said. Although the congregation marks the Jewish festivals because “they are all around us”, Fr Neuhaus ruled out syncretism (the amalgamation of different religious traditions). “It is not a good idea. We are also very sensitive to Jews

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Jesuit father David Neuhaus, the Johannesburg-born patriarchal vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel, lights a baptismal candle in the church of our Lady ark of the Covenant in Kiryat Yearim. (photo: catholic.co.il) saying, ‘What are you manipulating our tradition for?’.” Worship music is inspired by Christian and Jewish traditions. “Sometimes we integrate things we hear that are biblically based and known in popular culture,” said the priest who is keenly aware of the sensitive nature of mission in Israeli society and the wide demographic spectrum represented by the community of Hebrew-speaking Catholics and those who worship with them. “Everything from the Sign of the Cross to the final missioning—ending out of the church—is in the light of Scripture,” Fr Neuhaus said. A community-effort involving linguists and Bible scholars led to production of a six-volume illustrated Hebrew language catechism. It includes the recent publication of the first family prayer book in Hebrew. Fr Neuhaus hopes the prayer book will empower struggling communities of migrants and others. Many parents from overseas received their Catholic formation in their native languages, but their children do not speak those languages anymore because they go to school and study in Jewish Hebrew, said Fr Neuhaus, noting the importance of the prayer book. “So when the parents pray, the children don’t understand them.

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Introducing Fr Neuhaus

ATHER David Neuhaus SJ was born in Johannesburg to Jewish parents on April 25, 1962. He converted to Catholicism at the age of 26, following an 11-year period of discernment after he met a Russian Orthodox nun in Jerusalem at the age of 15. He made his religious profession in the Society of Jesus on August 20, 1994, and was ordained to the priesthood in Jerusalem on September 8, 2000. He has a doctorate in political science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and degrees in theology and scripture from the Jesuit Centre Sèvres in Paris and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In 2009 he was appointed patriarchal vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics by Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem. He is also the patriarchate’s coordinator of the pastoral care for migrant workers and asylum seekers. Fr Neuhaus teaches scripture at

They don’t know prayers in Hebrew. So we are giving them a book to make it possible for the parents to pray with the children.” n The Southern Cross’ Pilgrimage of

fr David Neuhaus SJ (photo: www.terrasanta.net) the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Seminary and in the Religious Studies department at Bethlehem University in the West Bank. Fr Neuhaus has published widely, ranging from Palestinian and Israeli political issues to Jewish-Christian relations. His most recent book is The Land, The Bible and History: Toward the Land That I Will Show You. He is also a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. the Peacemakers with Archbishop Stephen Brislin in February 2016 plans to meet with Fr Neuhaus. See backpage for details or e-mail pilgrimage @scross.co.za

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the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

FAITH

Healing at Ngome leads to Rosary CD In 2011 JaCqUeLINe DeSfoNtaINeS’s son was injured in a car accident in Pretoria. Eighteen months later, after his injuries failed to heal, Mrs Desfontaines went on a pilgrimage to Ngome shrine in KwaZulu-Natal. She shares her remarkable experience of a miracle with the Southern Cross

N April 20, 2011, we were sitting in the church hall ready to take part in the Paschal supper when a phone call came in from a paramedic in Pretoria to advise us that our son Jean Michel had been in a car accident. Our son, then 25, had hit an oncoming car at an intersection. The car was a complete write-off. Jean Michel had to be admitted to hospital and, the caller advised, we needed to be on site. The outcome of the accident was that Jean Michel was left with bruises on the brain. He had lost all control in his right leg, preventing him from walking normally. He also had double vision in both his eyes. At the time the doctors thought that the condition was related to a stroke from the injuries. Jean Michel was studying at the time, in his final year of a veterinary science degree. I remember thinking: “We can deal with the damaged leg, but what about his eyes? He needs his eyes for the vocation he has

Jacqueline Desfontaine and her son Jean Michel. Ngome Marian shrine in eshowe diocese, KwaZulu-Natal. Many healings have been reported after prayers offered at the shrine. chosen!” The following weeks were filled with anxiety as the doctors did not know which way the injuries would turn. We were relieved when after six weeks his leg began to show signs of improvement. He could walk, albeit with a limp. But at least he was walking, we thought. There was no change to the double vision, however. His eyes were in the same condition as they had been since the accident. During the months that followed Jean Michel wore an eye patch. It was the only way he could function with the injury to his eyes. With God’s grace he carried on with his studies and even wrote his final exam wearing the patch on his eye. The university became proud of

having their own pirate on campus. Jean Michel qualified as a vet, still wearing his eye patch. During his final year at university he underwent several operations performed by a specialist from the Pretoria Eye Hospital. Each time he had these ops we would pray fervently that nothing would go wrong as these procedures were so tricky and delicate. There was always a risk that the operation could in fact cause more damage. It was scary and nerve-racking. Although the operations made a slight improvement, the double vision was still there—and Jean Michel could not operate without wearing an eye patch. We carried on praying. In November 2012 our church organised a pilgrimage to Ngome. It was about 18 months after

the accident. Ngome is a shrine and a place of worship in the hills of KwaZuluNatal near Eshowe where a German nun, Sr Reinolda May, had apparitions of Our Lady in 1955. The Ngome shrine has not only become one of the most popular places for pilgrims in South Africa but also a place where many people feel very close to God and have experienced healing. Sr May, a Benedictine sister who was sent out to do missionary work among the Zulu people, said she received a message from Our Lady: “I wish that a shrine be erected for me in the place where seven springs come together. There I’ll let my graces flow in abundance. Many people shall turn to God. Call me Tabernacle of the Most High”.

wanted to go on that pilgrimage. I felt we needed divine intervention for the healing of Jean Michel’s eyes. The time was so right. And so we

went. At the end of the pilgrimage we were asked to give an account of our experience at Ngome. I recall standing up to announce that I would make a Rosary CD in five languages for our Mother Mary. Soon after that, Jean Michel went to see the eye specialist for another check-up. I will never forget his phone call: the specialist told him that he could not understand what had happened but his eyes were fine and there was nothing wrong with them anymore. I could not believe it but I knew divine healing had taken place. To this day Jean Michel has no problem with his eyes. The double vision is completely gone and his sight has been restored—thanks to persistent prayers and to the pilgrimage to Ngome. It took a year to produce the CD Gracia Plena which I had promised I would make. We have worked with some wonderful people whose participation made it all possible. Through the rosary we need to pray for South Africa, for the education of our children, for an end to crime and for law and order to be restored. We need to pray for an absolute return to God and his righteous morals where right is right and wrong is wrong. We need to pray for courage to swim against the tide and stand up for what is right I hope the rosary CD is a tool to help us pray, meditate and sing to Our Lord and Our Lady. Let’s allow God to work his wonderful power within us to help us change and make Africa a better place for all. n To order the Gracia Plena Rosary CD e-mail jacqdesf@gmail.com

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CLASSIFIEDS

Bishops: Rules for blessed oils

FTER consultation with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the bishops of the SACBC have decided as follows regarding the blessed oil commonly referred to as “oil of gladness” by others: The only name to be used is “blessed oil”. This is out of reverence for the Oil of Chrism specially blessed by the bishop on Holy Thursday, which the liturgy calls the “oil of gladness” in the rite of the Chrism Mass. The term “oil of gladness” should be restricted to chrism in our Catholic understanding. Currently there is confusion with essential oils that people purchase, for example, “oil of gladness”. This is an essential oil and nothing to do with blessed oil. As a sacramental, the blessed oil indicates strengthening, protection and healing—similar to holy water. When blessing the oil, the prayer of blessing recommended by the conference is found below. The oil thus blessed will be brought to the level of other sacramentals such as medals, crucifixes and holy water which have their own blessing formulas. It will be necessary and important to instruct people that the oil thus blessed by the priest or bishop is for them to use on themselves or within their families. In the case of healing liturgies when the Oil of the Sick is not used by the priest, oil can be blessed using the same formula as below. The priest using it has the responsibility of catechising

the people in terms of the reasons why on that particular occasion blessed oil and not the Oil of the Sick is being used. In the main the reason is that the oil for the Sacrament of the Sick is used to confer the sacrament on those who are physically ill, whereas healing liturgies invite people with all kinds of ailments, physical, mental, emotional, to come to be prayed over and anointed with the blessed oil. Holy water, blessed salt, blessed candles and incense could also be used as alternatives in such prayer rituals. This blessed oil is also used in circumstances of deliverance as holy water would be used. Groups such as Youth Encounter in Spirit (YES), Education for Life and others coming from a charismatic background, using the blessed oil, are asked to understand that the bishops are from now on limiting the blessing and use of this blessed oil to priests alone. The promotion and use of holy water is an alternative to blessed oil, and equivalent to it.

here is a special prayer provided for the blessing of ordinary oil and it is to be used by a priest when blessing oil at someone’s request. The priest, after blessing the oil, will anoint the person with a simple sign of the cross on the forehead, in silence, and entrust the oil to the person for his/her own use, or for use in the family. He reminds the person that this oil is only a sacramental which points to the much more important encounter with Christ the healer in the sacraments of

Liturgical Calendar Year B – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday November 15 Daniel 12:1-3, Psalms 16:5, 8-11, Hebrews 10:1114, 18, Mark 13:24-32 Monday November 16, St Margaret of Scotland, St Gertrude V 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-64, Psalms 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158, Luke 18:35-43 Tuesday November 17, St Elizabeth of Hungary 2 Maccabees 6, 18-31, Psalms 3, 2-7, Luke 19, 1128 Wednesday November 18, Dedication of the basilica of Ss Peter and Paul 2 Maccabees 7, 20-31, Psalms 17, 1.5-6.8.15, Luke 19, 11-28 Thursday November 19 1 Maccabees 2:15-29, Psalms 50:1-2, 5-6, 14-15, Luke 19:41-44 Friday November 20 1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59, 1 Chronicles 29:1012, Luke 19:45-48 Saturday November 21, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Zecariah 2, 10-13 (14-17), Luke 1:46-55, Matthew 12:46-50 Sunday November 22, Christ the King Daniel 7:13-14, Psalms 93:1-2, 5, Revelation 1:58, John 18:33-37

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confession and holy communion. The bishops also desire that blessed oil be used by the priest or a number of priests at pilgrimage sites where large numbers of the faithful are gathered whose needs for healing are much wider than physical illness which is the reason for the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. At healing services presided over by a priest, the oil can be used and is blessed with the prayer provided. Prayer Priest: Our help is in the name of the Lord. People: Who made heaven and earth. Priest: O Lord, hear my prayer People: And let my cry come unto you. Priest: The Lord be with you. People: And with your spirit. Let us pray: Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we praise and thank you for this oil which brings healing and gladness to your people who come to you in faith. By the gift of your Holy Spirit bless this oil which we set aside for use in his name. Grant we pray that those who use this oil may be delivered from all suffering, all infirmity, and all the wiles of the enemy. We ask this in hope through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son. Amen n For any queries, please consult Bishop Edward Risi, chair of the Department for Christian Formation, Liturgy and Culture and CIE, at omikeimoes@global.co.za

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 680. ACROSS: 4 Ascetic, 8 Ocular, 9 Preside, 10 Papacy, 11 Piracy, 12 Skullcap, 18 Virginia, 20 Homage, 21 Novice, 22 Delilah, 23 Agnate, 24 Trinity. DOWN: 1 Compose, 2 Surplus, 3 Rascal, 5 Scrapper, 6 Ensure, 7 Induct, 13 Covenant, 14 Antipas, 15 Papered, 16 No fear, 17 Damian, 19 George.

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

CAPE TOWN: Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape town. followed by vigil at Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Bree Street. Contact Colette thomas on 083 412 4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br Daniel SCp on 078 739 2988. DURBAN: Holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St anthony’s parish every tuesday at 9am. Holy Mass and Divine Mercy

Devotion at 17:30pm on first friday of every month. Sunday Mass at 9am. 031 309 3496. 9018 or 031 209 2536. Overport rosary group. at emakhosini Hotel, 73 east Street every Wednesday at 6.30 pm. Contact Keith at 083 372 NELSPRUIT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St peter’s parish every tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed by Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 17:30pm.

the Southern Cross, November 11 to November 17, 2015

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Births • first Communion • Confirmation • engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • thanks • prayers • accommodation • Holiday accommodation • personal • Services • employment • property • others Please include payment (R1,50 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

DEATH

GLAZEWSKA—Kathleen Mary. Née Morris, born october 4 1922, died peacefully at her home on october 21, 2015. Married to the late Gustaw Glazewski (from 19621991) and mother to their children andrzej and adela. Married to the late Launce p edwards (from 1940-1959) and mother of their children peter, Janet, paul, Margaret, Mary, John, Martin (deceased) and Marcelle. Stepmother to Wanda, Krystyna, Marysia and Janek, Gustaw’s children by his first marriage to the late Helena Glazewska (née Wiktor—from 1938-1960). Kathleen was a hugely resourceful person as well as being a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and a great-great-grandmother. She was much loved and cherished by us all and will be very sadly missed. Requiem Mass was held at Durbanville Catholic church on Wednesday, october 28 at 11:00.

IN MEMORIAM

GALLOW—Desmond Norman. Born 26/8/1983, died 10/11/2014. Dearly loved son of Moira. Sadly missed. May his dear soul rest in peace.

THANKS

GRATEFUL thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our Mother Mary and Ss Rita, Joseph, anthony, Jude and Martin de porres for prayers answered. Riccarda.

PRAYERS

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

man of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. In return I promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. amen. Riccarda. 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 giving. JR.

PERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: the truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelife abortionisevil.co.za ABORTION WARNING: the pill can abort (chemical abortion) Catholics must be told, for their eternal welfare and the survival of their unborn infants. See www.epm.org/static/up loads/downloads/bcpill.pdf GATHERING at Shantivanam ashram of Bede Griffiths, December 2015. for details visit http:// oblatesofshantivanam. yolasite.com/ VISIT PIOUS KINTU’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE at http://avemaria832.simple site.com. this website has been set up to give glory to the Most Holy trinity through the healing power of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. View amazing pictures of pious Kintu’s work in various african countries since 2007. also read about african Stigmatist Reverend Sister Josephine Sul and padre pio, among others.

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₤45(R810) per/night. Selfcatering, busses and underground nearby. phone peter 0044 208 7484834. CAPE TOWN: Looking for reasonably priced accommodation over the December/January holiday period, come to Kolbe House. Set in beautiful gardens in Rondebosch. 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. 044 387 1052. SOUTH COAST: pumula. Self-catering garden cottage sleeps 4-5. fully equipped (Incl DStv & lockup garage). Lovely sea views from raised sundeck. R200 per person per night, children under 12 free. Call Jenny 039 684 6475 or 082 964 2110. KZN: trafalgar. Self-catering garden cottage, 3min by car from the beach, R850.00/day min 5 days. Martin 082 926 0389/039 313 5159. 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.

CASA SERENA The retirement home with the Italian flair. 7A Marais Road, Bedfordview, Jhb. Provides full board and lodging, medical services and transport. Senior citizens wishing to retire in this beautiful Home, please phone

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the

Feast of Christ The King: November 22 Readings: Daniel 7:13-14, Psalm 93: 1-2, 5, Revelation 1:5-8, John 18:33-37

EXT Sunday the Church’s year comes to its end with the solemnity of Christ the King. We are so used to the feast now that we hardly think about it. But what kind of a king is Jesus? For sure he is not going to come marching in at the head of an army. Let us allow the readings that the Church has chosen for next Sunday to guide us. The first reading comes from the Aramaic portion of the Book of Daniel, a series of visions aimed at giving comfort to an Israel that has just suffered the appalling disaster of the destruction of the Temple in 167BC. The vision offers hope: “with the clouds of the heavens, one like a Son of Man”. This figure is brought before “The Ancient of Days”, who is presumably God, and “there was given him dominion and glory and rule…and they shall serve him”. And, we learn: “His dominion is a dominion for ever…his kingdom shall not be destroyed.” The same optimism is there in the psalm for next Sunday, though very properly it is all about God, rather than the Son of Man: “The Lord reigns”, which is the main thing that we

S outher n C ross

Jesus and his kingship need to know, and then, turning to God, the poet sings: “Your throne is established from of old, you are from everlasting.” The emphasis is on God’s unshakability. So far so good, but when Christians speak of the kingship of God, we have a slightly different angle on it. This is indicated to us in the second reading, from the opening of the Book of Revelation. It is slightly ungrammatical, but the point is absolutely clear: “Jesus Christ, the faithful one, the witness, the firstborn from the dead”. And the reference to “witness” and to the “dead” is a firm reminder that the kingship of Christ is not an easy one, but involves a journey through death; and the visionary continues, “to the one who loves us and who freed us from our sins by his blood”, to remind us that this kingdom is costly. Somehow, though, because he did what his Father and God asked of him, the mission of this king has been successful: “He has made us a kingdom of priests of his God and Father.” Then we are given a glimpse of the success-

ful outcome, to remind us of our first reading: “He is coming with clouds, and every eye shall see him.” Then we are reminded of why we trust in this king; it is because he is God’s emissary, and we hear the voice of God proclaiming, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Is and the Was and the Coming One, the Almighty.” In the Gospel for the feast we are witnesses to the clash between the kingship of Christ and that of Rome. The setting is the “Praetorium”, the great symbol of Rome’s authority, and Jesus is up before Pontius Pilate, the local procurator, therefore the most powerful man in town, and the emperor’s local representative. We notice immediately that it is not Pilate who dominates the scene, however. Instead he is found asking questions instead of delivering verdicts. It is with some surprise that we hear him asking Jesus: “Are you the king of the Judeans?” Jesus then interrogates him in turn, not sounding at all like a criminal on a capital charge: “Are you saying this off your own bat,

Where our dear ones live on A

Conrad

T any given time, most of the world believes that death isn’t final, that some form of immortality exists. Most people believe that those who have died still exist in some state, in some modality, in some place, in some heaven or hell, however that might be conceived. In some conceptions, immortality is seen as a state wherein a person is still conscious and relational; while in other concepts, existence after death is understood as real but impersonal, like a drop of water that has flowed back into the oceans. As Christians, this is our belief: We believe that the dead are still alive, still themselves and, very importantly, still in a living, conscious, and loving relationship with us and with each other. That’s our common concept of heaven and, however simplistic its popular expression at times, it is wonderfully correct. That’s exactly what Christian faith and Christian dogma, not to mention deep intuitive experience, invite us to. After death we live on, conscious, selfconscious, in communication with others who have died before us, in communion with those we left behind on earth, and in communion with the divine itself. That’s the Christian doctrine of the Communion of Saints. But how is this to be understood? Not least, how do we connect to our loved ones after they have died? Two interpenetrating biblical images can

help serve as an entry-point for our understanding of this. Both come from the Gospels. Matthew writes that at the instant of Jesus’ death: “The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (27:50-52). The Gospels then go on to tell us that on the morning of the Resurrection several women came to Jesus’ grave to anoint his dead body with embalming spices. But rather than finding his dead body, they meet instead an empty grave and two angels who challenge them with words to this effect: “Why are you looking for a live person in a cemetery? He isn’t here. He’s alive and you can find him in Galilee (Lk 24:5).

hat’s contained in these images? As Christians, we believe that we are given eternal life through Jesus’ death. Among other images, the Gospels express that in this metaphor: Jesus death, they tell us, “opened the tombs” and emptied graveyards. For this reason, Christians have never had a huge cult around cemeteries. As Christians, we don’t do much in the way of spiritual practices around our cemeteries. Why? Because we believe all those graves are empty. Our loved ones aren’t there and aren’t to be found there. They’re with Jesus,

Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

or did other people tell me about you?” Pilate answers a question with a question, reluctant to face the interrogation: “I’m not a Judean, am I?”, and asks: “What have you done?” Then we hear majesty in Jesus’ voice as he tells Pilate something that he simply cannot hear: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my ministers would have fought for me not to be handed over to the Judeans.” Pilate grasps at the only straw that he can manage: “So—you are a king then?” Jesus stands tall and responds: “It is you who are saying that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” This is unmistakably majestic. The prisoner is about to die—but the question for us (and for Pilate) is: which side are you on?

Southern Crossword #680

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

final Reflection

in “Galilee”. What’s “Galilee”, in terms of a biblical image? In the Gospels, Galilee is more than a place on a map; it’s also a place inside the Spirit, God’s Spirit and our own. In the Gospels, Galilee is the place where, for the most part, the good things happen. It’s the place where the disciples first meet Jesus, where they fall in love with him, where they commit themselves to him, and where miracles happen. Galilee is the place where Jesus invites us to walk on water. Galilee is the place where the disciples’ souls enlarge and thrive. And that is also a place for each of our deceased loved ones. In each of their lives, there was a Galilee, a place where their persons and souls were most alive, where their lives radiated the energy and exuberance of the divine. When we look at the life of a loved one who has died we need to ask: Where was she most alive? What qualities did she, most uniquely, embody and bring into a room? Where did she lift my spirit and make me want to be a better person? Name those things, and you will have named your loved one’s Galilee—and you will also have named the Galilee of the Gospels: that place in the heart where Jesus invites you to meet him. And that is too where you will meet your loved ones in the communion of saints. Don’t look for a live person in a cemetery. She’s not there. She’s in Galilee. Meet her there. The Catholic theologian Elizabeth Johnson, leaning on Fr Karl Rahner, adds this thought: “Hoping against hope, we affirm that they [our loved ones who have died] have fallen not into nothingness but into the embrace of the living God. And that is where we can find them again; when we open our hearts to the silent calmness of God’s own life in which we dwell, not by selfishly calling them back to where we are, but by descending into the depth of our own hearts where God also abides.” And the “Galilee” of our loved ones can also be found inside our own “Galilee”. There’s a deep place inside the heart, inside faith, hope, and charity, where everyone, living or deceased, is met.

ACRoSS

4. Ice cast for the self-disciplined (7) 8. It’s to do with vision (6) 9. Priest will do it sitting at Mass (7) 10. Office of the Bishop of Rome (6) 11. It’s criminally practised in the main (6) 12. It goes to the episcopal head (8) 18. Did she give her name to this State? (8) 20. Pay it and show respect (6) 21. One under religious probation (6) 22. She distressed Samson (7) 23. Agent N has to do with the male line (6) 24. God of Christians (7)

DoWN

1. Write music (7) 2. It’s in excess like a vestment, it’s said (7) 3. Scoundrel has extras calling inside (6) 5. He dumps left-overs and has a quarrel (8) 6. Run, see about making certain (6) 7. Install the bishop (6) 13. The new and eternal ... (Lit) (8) 14. Faithful witness in Pergamum (Rev 2) (7) 15. You did it to cover the walls (7) 16. Have it when not afraid (2,4) 17. I am Dan, the martyr (6) 19. Saint of England (6)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

NE Sunday inchurch, a naughty young boy was acting up during the Mass. The parents did their best to maintain some sense of order in the pew but were losing the battle to the boy who just wouldn’t listen. Finally, the father picked the little fellow up and walked sternly up the aisle on his way out. Just before reaching the safety of the foyer, the little boy called out loudly to the congregation: “Pray for me! Pray for me!”

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