151125 by The Southern Cross

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November 25 to December 1, 2015

How Christ is the key to our solidarity

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A personal memory of Vatican II’s closing

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Inside nuns’ enclosed monastery

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Zulu children’s bible out now BY STUART GRAHAM

HE illustrated Catholic isiZulu Children’s Bible is now out, and the priest in charge of the project expects it to sell out fast. The illustrated 208-page bible, which tells 68 stories from the Old and New Testament, may very well follow the success of isiZulu newspaper Isolezwe, which sells around 110 000 copies a day, said Fr Bheki Shabalala, the provincial of the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries, who coordinated the two-year project. “I am inspired by Isolezwe,” Fr Shabalala said. “Maybe we can follow the same strategies and this bible can go far.” isiZulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa, with around a quarter of the population using it as their first language. A Facebook page, started for the Catholic isiZulu Children’s Bible in November, received 30 000 likes within a week. “People are very excited about this. The bishops say it is a great job. It’s very encouraging.” The bible, said Fr Shabalala, is meant to prepare children for their first Communion. The stories are “nice and simple” and start with the story of creation. The story of Noah’s Ark, Moses and the Ten Commandments and the birth of Jesus are all covered. “What is striking are the fantastic images in this bible. They speak to the child,” said Fr Shabalala, referring to artist Kevin Davidson’s illustrations. “The aim is that parents read stories to the children. One of the things we want to do is use the bible in a family setting.”

Some of the 10 000 isiZulu Children’s Bibles that have been printed by Mariannhill Mission Press. The provincial of the Mariannhill Missionaries, Fr Bheki Shabalala, is confident that the illustrated bibles will sell out quickly. The Mariannhill Mission Press is planning an isiXhosa Children’s Bible next. (Photo: Kate du Toit) Fr Shabalala said the project benefited from the involvement of retired Archbishop Paul Khumalo CMM, who is a highly experienced translator. “Some of the theological concepts in the bible are very difficult,” said Fr Shabalala.

“You need a lot of experience to translate them correctly.” For example, the terminology of “disciples” and “apostles” posed challenges. The project decided on using the isiZulu word umlandeli, which translates as “follower”.

Another example that challenged translators was Noah’s Ark. The translators refer to the ark as umkhumbi, or a ship. “These seem like minor things, but they can prove to be very difficult in a translation,” Fr Shabalala said. “It has been a long process to produce the bible,” he noted. “We first had to get the rights and after that a translation by Archbishop Khumalo, helped by two others from the Mariannhill Mission Press.” The bible started printing early in November and is ready for distribution as of the end of the month. “We are printing 10 000 copies for now,” Fr Shabalala said. “If there is more demand, which we expect there to be, then we will print more.” Fr Shabalala said the Church wants to cover as many vernacular languages as possible, and so the isiZulu Children’s Bible would soon be followed up with an isi Xhosa version. “We are in touch with bishops of Xhosa region. There is lots of excitement about producing an isiXhosa children’s bible. We want to cover as many languages as possible. “We believe in two years we will be able to do that, if we have the support.” Fr Shabalala said although it is a Catholic Bible for Zulu children, the project is aimed at the wider Christian community. “At Mariannhill we are very ecumenical. Even though this is a Catholic bible, the stories will speak to anyone who is Christian,” he added. n The Catholic isiZulu Children’s Bible costs R150 a copy and is available from Mariannhill Mission Press. Visit www.mariannhillpress.co.za or phone 031 700-5105

Bishop on big drought: Church needs to respond BY STUART GRAHAM

HE Church needs to lead an urgent social response as South Africa heads into a “very difficult” time caused by drought and the economic downturn, a bishop has said. “We have to help our brothers and sisters in any way we can as the economic crisis worsens and food prices rocket,” Bishop Graham Rose of Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal, told The Southern Cross. “This is not just drought, but a drought coming on top of an economic downturn,” he said. “People are losing jobs. Many are in dire straits. We are in recession and the worst is still to come.”

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

South Africa is at risk of social unrest, the bishop said, adding that food banks and other programmes are needed. “We cannot only pray,” Bishop Rose said. “We should be doing something in concert. We need joint programmes and a joint response. We should be fasting and sharing food. We can do this individually or we can get together with friends.” Bishop Rose said parishes need to be involved. “This is a very difficult time, with the drought and food prices going up and the demand for commodities falling. “We have to be very careful that the hardship doesn’t cause more civil unrest among the unemployed and uneducated youth. We

need a social response,” Bishop Rise said, adding that “the Church should lead the way”. South Africa’s growth slowed to -1,3% in the second quarter of 2015, caused mainly by farms hit by the drought and a fall in demand for metals in the mining sector. Gold mining companies say production has halved to around 168 tonnes in the past decade, with employment levels declining by around 30% to 119 000 jobs. The platinum industry, which has been decimated by labour unrest, is in a similar position. Power cuts by Eskom have been another factor that has caused factories to reduce their output and shed jobs. But it’s the drought that has caused econ-

St John Paul II Pilgrimage to Poland Southern Cross

omists to worry about rising food prices. In the north of South Africa, maize farms are lying fallow while cattle have been left with little to graze on. Donkeys and cows, dead and dying from thirst and hunger, are a common site on the sides of the roads in North West and KwaZulu-Natal. The Molatedi Dam, outside Zeerust, which supplies Gaborone with much of its water, is 5% full. Around the dam animals are dying and dead in the mud “From Ladysmith to Ermelo, it’s frightening to see how many dams are completely empty. It is terrible,” Bishop Rose said. “We must have a quick response. The bishops are already responding and talking like Continued on page 3

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 25 to December 1, 2015

LOCAL

Church brings joy to builder Fr Nicholas King’s theology lectures H now out on CD BY STUART GRAHAM

E has overseen the construction of edifices around South Africa but nothing quite compared to the joy of attending Mass in a packed song-filled Catholic Church that he helped build in the Midlands of KwaZuluNatal. Bill Middleton, 69, is semi-retired and has reduced his workload in recent years, but he couldn’t say no to a request to help in the construction of St Anne’s at Mpophomeni outside Howick. “Being involved in the construction of this church has impacted on my life,” Mr Middleton told The Southern Cross. “Not only in terms of the building, but also meeting the people involved. There were language and culture barriers and trying to explain myself was often very interesting. It gave me a new perspective.” Mr Middleton, a Pietermaritzburg building project manager, offered his services free of charge to parish priest Fr Jude Fernando TOR a number of years ago. He first heard about the church when he was home in Pietermaritzburg in 2012, when a steelworks manager came in to ask him for a design for a church building. Mr Middleton helped construct the foundations and in the reconstruction of the floor. “I also helped with design and tender of steelwork and overseeing erection of the steelwork,” he said. “Another of my other jobs was to look after the ordering of materials. I had quotes from a variety of people and fortunately found someone in Howick who could help far quicker and cheaper.”

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

T Fr Jude Fernando TOR (right) with building project manager Bill Middleton at the St Anne’s church building site in Mpophomeni earlier this year. Mr Middleton was thrilled to attend the joyous opening Mass. Mr Middleton said when he stepped into the church with his wife and a friend at his side, he was overcome with awe at the beauty of the church—but it was when the people arrived and the singing started that his heart leaped with joy. “When I went in I thought, ‘Wow, this is a great building’, but then the parishioners started to arrive and soon the church was filled to capacity,” he said. “It can hold about 600 to 700 people, but there were well over 1 200 people there. “People couldn’t get in. It was the most fantastic sight and feeling. People coming to God’s house. The noise. It was wonderful. The singing was unbelievable.” Mr Middleton said there is a great need for engineers and planners across Africa and believes more in the industry should be helping to mentor newcomers.

He said the shortage of planning skills and technical staff in the industry is slowing down service municipalities. “Maintenance is not being done at municipalities. “No one knows how to spend the budget,” he said. “More people should be mentoring. I think we should do more. Young guys in contracting and consulting firms have studied, but not had the opportunity to work and move upwards,” Mr Middleton said. “Many are placed in rural situations but they don’t learn. They should be in the mainstream to learn and that is where us experienced guys can play a role.” But for now, as his latest project takes shape, Mr Middleton is content knowing that he has played a key role in building a church where the people of Mpophomeni can sing and praise God.

HE Jesuit Institute South Africa has created a set of CDs of the Winter Living Theology lectures given by popular Southern Cross columnist, writer and scripture scholar Fr Nicholas King SJ. Fr King toured six Southern African cities in June and July to deliver a series of talks entitled “The Scandal of Christian Disunity: A Biblical Approach”. By popular demand the Jesuit Institute, teaming up with Radio Veritas, has created a set of nine CDs. Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, director of the Jesuit Institute, said that this year’s Winter Living Theology series was attended by record numbers of people. “In the past the institute has produced CDs of the Winter Living Theology with Radio Veritas. It was a way of trying to make Winter Living Theology available to people who couldn’t make it to the lectures. We did not do it last year but by popular demand we have decided to do it again,” said Fr Pollitt. “Fr King’s lectures were very well received so we are hoping the CDs will also be a big success,” he said. Each CD comprises one lecture. “I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the lectures all again; Fr King really makes the Scriptures come alive,” said Ursula van Nierop, who helped in producing the recordings. She added that she found it very good to listen to the CDs while travelling in her car.

Fr Russell Pollitt SJ (right) and Thapelo Letsoela, IT assistant at the Jesuit Institute, with CDs of Fr Nicholas King’s Winter Living Theology talks. The Jesuit Institute has confirmed that Fr John Baldovin SJ, professor of historical and liturgical theology at the Jesuit School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, will be delivering Winter Living Theology in 2016. Fr Baldovin will talk on “Worship and Social Justice: The Implications of Belonging to a Worshipping Community”. “Fr Baldovin’s Winter Living Theology lectures will also be recorded and made into CDs,” Fr Pollitt said. n The set of nine CDs of Fr King’s lectures is available from the Jesuit Institute at R300 (excluding postage or courier fees). There are limited copies available. Order from Tracy at admin@jesuitinstitute.org.za

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The Southern Cross, November 25 to December 1, 2015

LOCAL

Aids: progress but more must be done BY DYLAN APPOLIS

HE SACBC Aids Office will mark World Aids Day on December 1 by highlighting its work in HIV counselling and health screening, focusing on orphans, vulnerable children and men. World Aids Day provides an opportunity to draw attention to the HIV epidemic around the world. Many have chosen to organise an event on or around December 1, every year since 1998, to raise awareness of HIV. The day is associated with the red ribbon, an instantly recognisable symbol. The theme of World Aids Day is “Getting to Zero”, which has run since 2011. Sr Alison Munro OP, director of the Aids Office, explained that the “Getting to Zero” theme “is now looked at as the 90 90 90 target in South Africa”. The plan is to have 90% of the population know their HIV status through being tested, 90% of those who test positive going on to treatment, and 90% of those on treatment adhering to their medication. Despite much progress having been made in addressing South Africa’s Aids crisis, infection rates are still unacceptably high and

A message on a bag urges people to get tested for HIV. December 1 is World Aids Day. (Photo: Bishop José Ponce de Leòn) need to be brought down, Sr Munro said. The Aids Office is aware that both men and children in need of treatment in South Africa are not being tested. “Sometimes this is related to stigma, as parents and guardians don’t give the necessary consent for children to be tested, resulting in children becoming sick and dying even when treatment is available,” said Sr Munro. “Men themselves are often reluctant to go for testing, and sometimes present themselves far too late in the progress of the disease.” The major programme of the Aids Office is the care and support of orphaned and vulnerable

children. Children in more than 50 diocesan and parish-based projects are being cared for. In four dioceses the Aids Office is also involved in the construction of simple two-roomed houses for grandmother- and childheaded households. Over the past five years it has been able to provide more than 400 houses in rural areas through its donors. Sr Munro noted some achievements in South Africa’s efforts to turn the HIV/Aids and tuberculosis epidemics around, saying that there have been many scientific advances in HIV treatment. South Africa now has a much better understanding of the virus, the Dominican said. “More people are receiving antiretroviral treatment, which means HIV infection rates are decreasing. There is also progress towards a cure and vaccine,” she said. “However, despite these advances, stigma and discrimination still persists for many people living with, or affected by, HIV,” Sr Munro said. “World Aids Day is an opportunity for all South Africans to remind themselves that HIV is still a reality and that it is incumbent on all of us to continue fighting prejudice, stigma and discrimination.”

School honours its late chaplain BY STAFF REPORTER

The late Fr Peter Galloway OMI

AINT Benedict’s College in Johannesburg has honoured the late Fr Peter Galloway OMI by naming its new classroom centre in his honour. As an alumnus, as an Oblate, and as chairman of the St Benedict’s Trust, Fr Galloway, who died in 2009, holds a special place in the history of the school. “As a school community, we are pleased that we are able to honour Fr Galloway’s memory by naming our new classroom centre after him,” the school said. “Given Fr Peter’s love of languages, it is entirely appropriate that the English and humanities departments will occupy the new Galloway Centre.”

Headmaster Andre Oosthuysen has fond memories of Fr Galloway. “I have a vivid memory of sitting next to Fr Peter at a Board of Governors’ Christmas dinner at the end of 2005. It was the first time I had met him—and what an absolute gentlemen he proved to be! He was passionate about the work he was doing.” In the speech that he would deliver three years later at the gala dinner on the occasion of the school’s 50th anniversary, Fr Galloway said: “I decided to join the Oblates because with all their good and bad points, they are still a pretty solid bunch of guys, and I am proud to be one of them.”

Donald Grant (centre), with his wife Jane next to him, receives his Bene Merenti medal from Mgr Peter Cullen (right).

Papal honour for Knight BY BRIAN SUTCLIFFE

ONALD Grant, a former Supreme Knight of the Knights of da Gama (KdG), was presented with the papal Bene Merenti medal by Mgr Peter Cullen, the vicargeneral of the Dundee diocese and national chaplain of the KdG. Mr Grant was accompanied by his wife Jane at the presentation, at the Knights’ biennial supreme convention, held in Port Elizabeth. The medal was presented to Mr Grant for his work over 25 years as chairman of the KdG’s development committee which is responsible for the

building and running of the order’s four retirement villages, which offer accommodation to over 1 000 people. He is also responsible for the order’s outreach programme, which offers technical help and assistance, at no cost to the end-user, in construction and development of Church projects. For example, Mr Grant acted as project manager for building a boarding establishment in a mission church in KwaZulu-Natal, and a novitiate for an order of nuns in Johannesburg. He also designed and supervised building of a water supply for a mission station, and the building of a girls’ hostel in Durban.

NAZARETH HOUSE Johannesburg

The Sisters and staff of Nazareth House express our deep gratitude and appreciation to all our generous friends, benefactors and anonymous donors for assisting us in our ministry of care and support for our children and adults who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. We ask our Heavenly Father: • To look on those whose lives are touched by AIDS • To enlighten those who try to find a cure • To bring strength and courage to those who are infected • To be with doctors and nurses caring for them • To give their families loving acceptance • And to give us hearts of mercy, to do what we can to show your compassion and love. Amen Tel: 011 648 1002, Cell: 084 838 3495 fundraiser@nazarethhousejohannesburg.org www.nazarethhousejohannesburg.org

Drought: action needed Continued from page 1 this. There is an awareness of the issues,” Bishop Rose said. “It’s never the best of times to be calling people late in the year when everyone is getting ready to wind down, but we have to do something very quick and strong in the new year.” The bishops’ Justice & Peace (J&P) Commission, meanwhile, has called for parishes to pray for rain and for healing in the land. The institute’s director, Dominican Father Stan Muyebe, has asked parishes to write to the Department of

water catchment areas be declared “no go areas” for mining, in terms of Section 49 of the Minerals and Petroleum Resource Development Act. J&P also called on parishes to dedicate a Mass on November 29 to pray for the success of the COP21 climate change negotiations in Paris. Catholics are called to visit the “Light a Candle and Say a Prayer” website (www.bit.ly /1PvJiEh) every day for the duration of the Paris talks, from November 30 to December 11, to pray that world leaders will make wise decisions on climate change.

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

Everybody is called to live life to the fullest (John 10.10) Accept your brother or sister living with HIV Be non-judgmental Care for affected or infected people ŽŶ͛ƚ ƐƚŝŐŵĂƚŝǌĞ and if you are living with HIV add:

Accept yourself Be sure God loves you unconditionally Care for your body and your soul Do know that there is a future for you HOPE Cape Town Trust P.O.Box 19145 Tygerberg 7505 www.hopecapetown.com 021 - 938 9930 office@hopecapetown.com

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The Southern Cross, November 18 to November 24, 2015

INTERNATIONAL

Catholic leaders: Confront the reasons for terrorism U

Chinese Catholics pray during a Mass in Beijing. Fr Pedro Yu Heping (inset) was found dead in a river in Shanxi province, China. (Photo: Wu Hong, EPA/CNS)

Chinese priest found dead in mysterious circumstances

CATHOLIC priest who once operated a website that ran afoul of Chinese authorities has died under mysterious circumstances. Police informed the family of Fr Pedro Yu Heping, also known as Wei Heping, that the priest’s body had been found in the Fen River, a tributary of the Yellow River that flows through Shanxi province, reported ucanews.com. Fr Yu’s body was found a day after the priest was supposed to be arriving in Xingcheng, in northeastern Liaoning province. Church leaders from different parts of China and faithful who were close to the priest gathered in Taiyuan, Shanxi’s provincial capital, where his body was found, hoping to get more information. “Two nuns saw Fr Yu off for a bus to the train station in Taiyuan,” said a source, who asked to remain anonymous. “Various church members were still able to talk to him over the phone that day.” Fr Yu was expected to appear in Xingcheng in the afternoon to join a catechetical meeting, but he did not show up. Earlier in the day, a nun received a text message from Fr Yu’s mobile phone. The message contained only one Chinese character—bie, which could be interpreted to mean “farewell”—the source said. “No one believed Fr Yu, as a dedicated priest, would commit sui-

cide,” the source said. “But now even a postmortem is not trustworthy.” Fr Yu, 40, was the first webmaster of Tianzhujiao Zaixian, a popular Catholic web portal established in early 2000. Because of the time difference between Europe and Asia, he and his team could translate news from the Vatican in a timely manner, leading the unregistered website to become very popular among Chinese Catholics. However, the website’s popularity drew attention from Chinese authorities, and it was subsequently shut down. Fr Yu claimed he was no longer involved with the website after it reopened in 2003. Fr Yu was born in Shanxi. He studied at Baoding seminary in Hebei province from 1993-97. He was ordained a priest of Ningxia diocese in 2004. He furthered his studies at the Pontifical Bolivarian University in Medellin, Colombia, and at the Pontifical University of Salamanca in Spain. After earning masters degrees in Church social teachings in 2006 and in canon law in 2007, he returned and taught in various seminaries in China. In recent years, Fr Yu was active in publishing a theological journal and conducting research at several cultural institutes in China. He also brought young Catholics to preach and serve in remote areas.—CNS

SING God’s name to try to justify violence and murder is “blasphemy”, Pope Francis has said. “Such barbarity leaves us dismayed, and we ask ourselves how the human heart can plan and carry out such horrible events,” the pope said after reciting the Angelus prayer with visitors in St Peter’s Square. Catholic leaders around the world condemned terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut, offering prayers and condolences. “The time has come for the world to stand united against terrorism and to confront the reasons of terrorism, such as feelings of oppression, hatred, bad education and fanaticism, with no double standards,” said the Jerusalem-based Assembly of Catholic Bishops of the Holy Land. They called for a unification of “forces of good” and “countries and followers of all religions against violence, which hits the world with increased brutality”. Otherwise, they said, it will hit everyone “sooner or later”. In Beirut, the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon concluded its meeting a day after multiple terror attacks in Paris left at least 129 people dead and wounded hundreds more and two days after a twin suicide bombing in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed at least 46 people and wounded more than 200. Islamic State claimed responsibility in both cases. The Lebanese assembly “strongly condemns the criminal act and urges the Lebanese to join efforts to combat terrorism”. The council denounced the vio-

People in Paris form a human solidarity chain near the site of the attack at the Bataclan concert hall. (Photo: Pascal Rossignol, Reuters/CNS) lence to which Christians and other minorities in Syria and Iraq are subject and urged the international community and major powers to end war and achieve a “peaceful settlement” of the conflict. “The worsening crisis and wars in several countries of the Middle East,” the patriarchs and bishops said, “has become an international responsibility beyond the countries of the region and its peoples.”

n London, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, also defended innocent Muslims against any notion that they might be to blame for the slaughter. Cardinal Nichols said he prayed that Muslim communities in both France and England “may not be victimised because of the actions of these violent and ruthless extremists but strive always for the way of

peace and cooperation with the wider society”. In Brussels, Fr Patrick Daly, general secretary of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, urged the countries of the bloc to respond to the crisis together. “It is imperative that the 28 member states of the EU act together more effectively. Our collective security is at issue, as is our freedom to live together in peace,” he said. Philippine Church leaders responded to the attacks by encouraging Catholics to pray for the terrorists—as well as for the victims —so that “a new sense of humanity will possess their souls again”. Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Philippine bishops’ conference, added: “Causing the death of anyone is a sin against God and a crime against humanity.” — CNS

Mexican govt: Papal visit in Feb

M The metropolitan cathedral in Mexico City. (Photo: Alex Cruz, EPA/CNS)

EXICAN Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu has confirmed that Pope Francis will visit the capital, Mexico City, along with the states of Chihuahua and Chiapas—on the northern and southern borders respectively—and Michoacan in western Mexico. Spokesmen for dioceses in the three states and Mexico City confirmed the visit to their areas.

The Mexican bishops’ conference, however, refused to confirm details of the trip or Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera’s announcement that the pope would arrive on February 12. “We cannot confirm or deny what the [foreign ministry] said,” Guadalajara Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, told a news conference. “We don’t know their motives or sources of information.”—CNS

‘This Christmas, don’t act Pope to visit synagogue like the non-believers’ BY CAROL GLATZ

EEPING the “Christ in Christmas” is part of not giving in to pressure to conform to the “norm” and become like nonbelievers, Pope Francis said in an early morning homily. Giving in to the things of the world is like saying, “Let’s put our ID up for auction. We are the same as everyone,” the pope said. Pope Francis warned against the very small, hidden way worldliness takes root in a culture and then leads to apostasy and religious persecution. In fact, “the liturgy in these final days of the liturgical year” urges people to be careful of the “poisonous roots” that lead people away from God, he said. “In the history of the Church, and in general history, we have seen—I’m thinking of one example—how the name of religious holidays has been changed—Christmas has another name, in order to erase identity.” But this new “humanism” in which differences are not ac-

cepted, leads to religious persecution, the pope said, as the day’s first reading shows how those who were determined to keep to their religious practices were condemned to death by royal decree. “It begins with a root, it’s small, and it ends in the abomination of desolation, in persecution. This is the deceit of worldliness,” he said. He said people today must ask themselves, “What is my identity? Christian or worldly? Or do I say I’m a Christian because I was baptised as a baby and I was born in a Christian nation where everyone is a Christian?” Worldliness seeps into one’s life very slowly and then grows, it seems justified and backed by sound reason, “and in the end it contaminates, and many evils come from there”, he said. The pope asked that people pray that God protect them from taking on a worldly mentality and the desire to be “normal” and like everyone else. He also asked that the Church always keep its identity grounded in Jesus.—CNS

BY CAROL GLATZ

OPE Francis will visit Rome’s synagogue on January 17 and meet with the city’s Jewish community, the Vatican announced. Invited by Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, Pope Francis will be the third pope to visit the synagogue; Pope John Paul II made his landmark visit in 1986 and Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2010. The visit falls on Italy’s annual day for Christian-Jewish dialogue—a day that has been observed for more than 20 years in Italy to reflect on relations between Catholics and Jews, and recall the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. Pope Francis has made interreligious dialogue and relations with Jews a priority in his pontificate following his longtime efforts as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio co-authored a book, On Heaven and Earth, with his friend, Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka. “All we did was offer people the fruit of our relationship,” the rabbi said. “The Bible offers a clear, simple response to the concerns of our age.” —CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, November 25 to December 1, 2015

Eucharist for Lutheran: What the pope advised BY CINDY WOODEN

W People gather in Maputo, Mozambique, to view a statue of the late Mozambican President Samora Machel, who led the country after it gained independence in 1975. (Photo: Antonio Silva, EPA/CNS)

Mozambique bishops: ‘Listen to our cries’

ATHOLIC bishops in Mozambique held a day of prayer for peace and urged the country’s leaders to listen to the cries of citizens. “Hearing the many cries coming to us, we deplore the inconsistency between what is said and done and call on the government and opposition to abandon their weapons definitively and immediately resume effective dialogue,” the Mozambican bishops’ conference said in an appeal to mark 40 years of independence from Portugal. “We must listen to the cry of bereaved families mourning the death of sons fallen in combat,” said Bishop Lucio Muandula of Xai-xai, head of the bishops’ conference. “We must also hear the cry of children and young people forced to abandon their studies, of farmers who cannot produce a livelihood for their families, of those impoverished by the interruption of business activities, of internal and external investors seeing their businesses ruined by progressive insecurity.”

The bishops asked all citizens, and “Christians in particular, to commit to building peace through reconciliation gestures, civil and democratic coexistence, respect for differences and shared responsibility”. Clashes continue between government troops and Renamo, the Mozambique National Resistance, which refused to recognise the long-governing Mozambique Liberation Front victory in October 2014 elections. The bishops said the continued deterioration in the political and military situation had caused “much popular anguish” and a new upsurge of internally displaced people and refugees who had fled “at risk of losing their lives”. A day of prayer for peace was held in all Catholic parishes in Mozambique on the feast of Christ the King. Catholics make up more than a quarter of the 25,8 million inhabitants of Mozambique, which is one of the world’s poorest countries but has also seen rapid economic growth.—CNS

HEN a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic man asked Pope Francis what she and her husband could do to receive Communion together, the pope said he could not issue a general rule on shared Communion, but the couple should pray, study and then act according to their consciences. “I would never dare to give permission for this because it is not in my authority,” the pope told Anke de Bernardinis after a lengthy response about the faith Catholics and Lutherans share and the ecumenical goal of full unity. The pastor of Rome’s Christuskirche, a parish of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, welcomed Pope Francis to an evening service by telling him dialogue requires that people get to know one another. To start the process, he said, several members of his congregation had questions for the pope. As they asked their questions, the pope took notes. Mrs De Bernardinis told the pope that she and her husband were happily married and shared many “joys and sorrows”, but they could not

HANA’S Catholic bishops has called on Ghanaians to fight the indiscriminate destruction of the environment and supported a hands-on project to fight pollution. “We regret to note once again the persistent pollution of our water bodies, the littering of plastic waste everywhere, the careless felling of trees in our forests and savannah area and the rampant illegal mining [galamsey] operations in our towns and villages,” the bishops said in a statement. They praised the idea of a Na-

tional Sanitation Day on the first Saturday of every month and urged all Ghanaians to actively participate in it, calling it a “Christian duty and a civic responsibility. We urge all Ghanaians to acquire the habit, not only to clean up our surroundings but most importantly, let us all learn how not to make our environment dirty in the first place”. The bishops also urged Catholics—and others—to read Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, saying “it provides a good resource for all, but most especially, policy makers”.

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journey toward full unity. Pope Francis told the Lutheran congregation in Rome that “it is true that sharing [the Eucharist] is saying that there are no differences between us, that we have the same doctrine,” which the official Catholic-Lutheran dialogue has yet to prove. “But I ask myself, ‘Don’t we have the same baptism?’ And if we have the same baptism, then we must walk together.” A Catholic-Lutheran couple, he said, shares the same baptism and the same faith in Jesus. Their baptismal bond grows as they pray together and raise their children believing in Jesus. A pastor friend, the pope said, once told him, “We believe the Lord is present there. He is present. You believe the Lord is present.” The pope asked, “So what is the difference?” and his friend responded, “Well, there are explanations, interpretations.” “Life is greater than explanations and interpretations. Always refer to your baptism—one faith, one baptism, one Lord, as Paul tells us—and take the consequences from that,” the pope told the De Bernardinis. “Speak with the Lord and move forward. I won’t say anything more.”— CNS

Ex-Irish president ‘a devoted Catholic’ BY MICHAEL KELLY

ORMER Irish President Mary McAleese said her devotion to her Catholic faith remains strong, despite public disputes with the Church over issues such as samesex marriage and the ban on female priests. In an exclusive interview with The Irish Catholic newspaper, she praised Pope Francis for what she sees as “welcoming debate and allowing the Church to breathe”. “I like the fact that Pope Francis welcomes debate. That is by far the greatest legacy he has given the Church,” she said.

Bishops’ call to fight environmental ruin BY DAMIAN AVEVOR

share the Eucharist. Pope Francis told her the issue is not an easy one to resolve. He joked that responding was made even more difficult by the presence in the front row of “a theologian like Cardinal [Walter] Kasper. I’m afraid!” Clearly, the pope said, all people in heaven will share the Lord’s banquet at the end of time. “But on the journey, I ask myself—and I don’t know how to respond, I’m making your question my own—I ask myself, ‘Is sharing the Lord’s Supper the aim of the journey or is it viaticum for walking together?’ I leave this question to theologians, to those who understand.” A Catholic Bishops’ Conference Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Evangelical Lutheran Church recently released a document summarising 50 years of formal Catholic-Lutheran dialogue, which included joint recognition of the Eucharist as the body and blood of Christ. “The Eucharist both mirrors and builds the Church in its unity,” the statement said, reflecting Pope Francis’ comment about the possibility of seeing shared Communion as a sign of full unity or as provisions and nourishment—viaticum—for the

The Bishops also said the increasing urbanisation of Ghana has increased prostitution and HIV and has created the problem of “streetism”, in which children who should be in the classrooms are found loitering or hawking on the streets. Discussing unemployment, the bishops said the situation has been worsened by unskilled graduates from high schools and colleges. They said increasing numbers of Ghanaians were moving to the city for jobs that did not exist and ended up as “shoe-shine boys and girls”.—CNS

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Ms McAleese has spent much of her time since retirement studying canon law. In the second half of 2016, she plans to return to Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University to complete her doctoral thesis, “The Christening Contract”, which examines what the 1983 Code of Canon Law says about the rights of and obligations to children. She said her research has revealed that the Church, for all the darkness of clergy sexual abuse in recent decades, was a champion of children’s rights in medieval times by helping to stamp out arranged marriages, which remain prevalent in some cultures today.

The former president is credited with playing a key role in this year’s referendum in which Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by way of a popular vote. The Church opposes same-sex marriage, and some commentators criticised Ms McAleese for saying that her decision to back such marriages was motivated by her Catholicism. “What infuses me, what is the essence of my being, is my faith in Christ. And it is the love of Christ and his offer of mercy to the world, the sense that every single person is a child of God, that gives me the outlook I have on the world,” she said.— CNS

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The Southern Cross, November 25 to December 1, 2015

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Fight the real enemy

HE day after the terror attacks in Beirut and Paris, a group of Palestinians stood outside the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, holding the French Tricolor and the Lebanese cedar flag in solidarity with the victims and survivors of these outrages. Meanwhile, the Internet was aflame with often angry accusations and counter-accusations about perceived selective acts of solidarity. At the root of this was the depth and breadth of solidarity given to France, and the more muted response to the Beirut bombings that took place the day before the Paris attacks. The complaint has merit: since both attacks had occurred within a day of one another, and were perpetrated by supporters of the same terror group, ISIS (now often referred to as Daesh), they should be seen as twin attacks. Instead, politicians pledged their support to France and mostly ignored Lebanon; cities lit their monuments in the colours of the French flag but not in those of Lebanon’s; Facebook enabled a function whereby users could superimpose only the Tricolor over their profile pictures, and so on. The Western media, meanwhile, in their limited coverage, tended to label the victims of Beirut for the area in which they lived, implying their own agency in their victimhood. These arguments are true. However, sometimes they were expressed with a point-scoring sanctimony that failed to initiate a discussion as to why this may be so, and instead provoked illtempered debate. It is, of course, preposterous to label as intrinsically “racist” an individual’s choice to show selective empathy. But in all the attention focused on France, with the media coverage and Facebook flags, and the lack thereof on Beirut, an implicit assumption is perpetuated that Western lives are of greater value than non-Western lives. It is important to respectfully interrogate this disconnect, but not by pointing accusing fingers at those who, in good faith, sported French flags on their Facebook pages. We may disagree about emphasis, but we must do so without allowing us to be divided.

Instead of keeping score about tweets and Facebook statuses, we must unite against the common enemy: the terrorists and the politicians whose ideologies perpetuate this cycle of violence; the weapons industry which feeds those who seek war and at the same time feeds off them; the ideological polemicists who fertilise the soil of hatred; the systems of greed which use war to profit from natural resources, and so on. As Raymond Perrier notes in his column this week, Our Lord from his cross gives us a concrete example of compassion and solidarity with the suffering. Looking at Christ on the cross, we are called to solidarity with his people. We are called to be awake to all injustices and to pray about them, both for the victims and for the conversion of the perpetrators. We must be awake and pray when terrorists who blasphemously invoke God to justify their violence blow up markets, churches and mosques in Kenya and Nigeria, Iraq and Syria. We must be awake and pray when those who flee these terrorists in their own countries find no compassion where they seek refuge, and when their children are washed up on Mediterranean beaches. We must be awake and pray when it is no longer safe to go to a football game, rock concert, shopping mall or restaurant in Paris, Beirut or Nairobi without bearing the weight of the possibility of falling victim to a terror attack. We must be awake and pray when hospitals are being bombed by US drones or when civilians are being murdered by guided missiles in Gaza. We must be awake and pray when Christian and Yazidi women and girls are being traded as slaves in the markets of Mosul, and for all acts of human trafficking. We must be awake and pray when countries rich in mineral resources are turned into warzones in the service of those whose greed has robbed them of their human decency. And we must be awake and pray when there are poor people living very near to us who are going without dinner as we have the comfort of deciding what we will eat.

Let’s fix bad translations of liturgy

WRITE to express my concern on some liturgical aberrations which might have arisen as a result of bad translations or due to liturgical negligence on the texts. The 30th Sunday Year B had the gospel concerning the healing of the blind Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus (Mark 10:46-52). In the translation we read Jesus asking Bartimaeus: “What do you want me to do for you?”, and he responded: “Master, let me receive my sight.”

Confusing dowry with lobola

ARDINAL Wilfrid Napier of Durban said in one of the press briefings during the Synod of Bishops on the Family that, as paraphrased by the British Catholic journal The Tablet, “in Africa cohabitation is common, where a couple live together while the man works to pay off the dowry”. But “dowry” refers to property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage. What the cardinal was referring to was, by contrast, lobola, or bridewealth, a custom among Zulu and other Southern African groups, when cattle or cash is transferred by the bridegroom’s family to the bride’s family. David Brokensha, Fish Hoek

No place for New Age meditation

WAS shocked to see the reports in your paper (October 28) on the Australian pair Cathy Day and Ernie Christie teaching half-lotus, mantrastyle meditation in our schools. A quick look at their website (mediomedia.com) with recommended authors shows that this form of meditation has nothing in common with traditional Catholic meditation but rather the New Age Movement (NAM). Examples: 1. Fr John Main, whom I met in London in 1979, told me he was indebted to a Hindu guru who taught him meditation in India. 2. Fr Thomas Keating OSC, whom I corresponded with years ago when I did transcendental meditation and centring prayer (founded by him). He recommends yoga (regarded by the Vatican exorcist as “Satanic” since it strives to develop psychic or occult powers). Fr Keating calls Kundalini yoga “an enormous energy for good”. In fact it can kill and lead to insanity. 3. Fr Bede Griffiths: “Betrayed the very cause that brought him to India,” said Fr Peter Milward SJ. 4. Allan Watts “brought Zen

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I find the response poorly translated and misleading. The right response in the translation should have read: “Master, let me receive back my sight” or “Master, let me see again”. And his sight was restored. Proper translation helps in delivering a relevant homily. The other aberration is found in a commonly sung Gloria in Sotho parishes. The Sefela 165 in Lifela Tsa

vedanta and Taoism to young American masses”. The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith warned of the danger of “fusing Christian meditation with non-Christian”. Judith Turner wrote in your paper (October 21) of her experience of meditation sessions at CBC Stellenbosch in a room with Buddhist not Christian symbols, including water which “helps the body’s binaural rhythms” This sounds New Age. If we don’t be careful we could lose all our children to the NAM. The excellent Vatican document on the NAM called Jesus the Bearer of the Water of Life says “many meditation techniques now used are not prayer...even if they lead to a more pleasant state of mind or bodily comfort” and “Christian prayer is not an exercise in self-contemplation, stillness and self-emptying”. I’ve been in deliverance ministry for some years, ministering to many who opened the door to the occult through yoga and other New Age practices. “My people have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, only to dig leaky cisterns for themselves” (Jeremiah 2:13). Fr Finbarr Flanagan OFM, Pretoria

Stop disrespect

N Wednesday morning, November 4, between 6:15 and 6:30, I tuned into Radio 702 to hear presenters Kieno Kammies and Koketso Sachane boasting of their disrespect of the Holy Eucharist As a Catholic, I would like to register my disapproval of the irreverent manner in which they spoke. D Modena, Johannesburg Opinions 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

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Bakriste lacks Trinitarian ending of the prayer. Seemingly the composer died, I presume, before writing the last verse. Could some composer help in finishing the composition of this lovely prayer hymn which is so dear to the hearts and souls of the Sothospeaking/singing parishes before they can continue to sing it? As priests, at ordination, we are asked to understand what we are doing and to do it well. Fr Ephraim Odhiambo, Kroonstad

Great editorial

UST a short note to thank you for the excellent editorial you wrote recently on Pope Francis (November 11). I found it very insightful and balanced in its view. Keep up the good work you do for our paper! Peter A Onesta, Johannesburg

Blessed oils

HE Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s statement on blessed oils( November 11) is “splitting hairs” and remarkably like “pulling up the drawbridge”. The medical profession and others are trying to treat people holistically and the Church is going in the opposite direction. I am not a theologian, as Bishop Edward Risi pointed out to me when I complained about the poor English in the new liturgy (though what poor English has to do with theology I have yet to ascertain), but emotional and mental health are important for physical healing. Often they too need healing. Bridget Stephens, Cape Town

Include women as pilgrimage guides

VERY issue of The Southern Cross has advertisements for various pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Europe and so on. They seem to always be led by a bishop or priest, since the Eucharist needs to be celebrated. But I have wondered why a woman could not be a co-chaplain. True, she cannot celebrate the Eucharist, but there are many other ways she can offer spiritual ministry—leading prayers, spiritual direction, giving historical background to the places they are visiting. I suggest that occasionally the various tour operators offer a trip to a woman—lay or religious—who has served the Church in important ways so she can minister on a pilgrimage. Monika Gaybba, Grahamstown

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PERSPECTIVES

Christ is the key to our solidarity I AM writing this more or less as my plane to London is flying 30 000m over Paris. Inevitably, my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of that beautiful city affected by the recent terrorist outrages. The city of the Louvre Museum and the Eiffel Tower is also the source of the Miraculous Medal, the shrine of St Vincent de Paul, the place where the first Jesuits met, and the home of the magnificent basilica to the Sacred Heart built by grateful citizens on the highest hill. Paris is truly a city of culture and of faith. Many South Africans have wanted to show their solidarity with the people of Paris in this difficult time. One indication of this has been the prayers said in parishes or the messages and images posted on Facebook. Solidarity is one of the key pillars of Catholic Social Teaching—a word frequently found in the exhortations not only of Pope Francis but also of Pope Benedict. So, as Catholics, we should be unmatched in our sensitivity to the plight of others and in our willingness to share their pain: compassion. In The Gospel of Life (or Evangelii Gaudium), Pope Francis explains that solidarity should be characteristic of us as Christians because it is created in us by the Holy Spirit as a reflection of the mutual self-giving and receiving that is characteristic of the Holy Trinity. But I worry that we can too easily be selective in our solidarity. My plane has also flown near Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Jerusalem, cities which have faced even worse atrocities and suffered the deaths of many hundreds of people. But how often have they been prayed for in our churches? How many people have coloured their Facebook profiles with the flags of these countries? How many of us would go on a march or sign a petition to show our compassion with their suffering? Surely this is not because the deaths of white people, or of Christians, or of rich people matter more to us than those of others. Or that we have perhaps “given up” on those countries as places beyond hope and

beyond prayer. Or that their suffering is, in some contorted way, their fault. Others might fall into these traps. We absolutely cannot. Especially not in South Africa where we can be tempted to privilege some people’s suffering of others’: violence and death should tear out our hearts no less when it happens to black people in townships than when it happens to white people in suburbs. A more innocent explanation is that our focus is inevitably affected by the media’s focus which will be more on some atrocities than on others: deaths in Europe are news, deaths in the Middle East less so. With limited space in the papers and fixed minutes on the TV bulletin, editorial decisions have to be made.

ut Catholic solidarity has to transcend the limitations of the news agenda. We are called to show compassion for all, not just those in the headlines. And in the age of the internet—a part of what Pope Francis calls “the globalisation of solidarity”—we can no longer claim that we had no way of knowing about these other places. (And I should also acknowledge the excellent commitment of The Southern Cross to keeping forgotten conflicts on our radar.) Of course, to take on compassion for the

Palestinians at Bethlehem’s church of the Nativity show solidarity for the victims of terror. (Photo: Christians of Palestine)

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Pray with the Pope

Learning to forgive General Intention: That all may experience the mercy of God, who never tires of forgiving.

O mirror God’s forgiving mercy isn’t easy for us mere humans. When we feel we’ve been offended, our natural impulse is to nurse resentments and exact revenge, perhaps long after the offence. One of the practices of the first stage of Jesuit formation, the novitiate, has traditionally been for the novices to point out each others’ faults in order to grow in self-knowledge. There is a story in the Jesuit oral tradition about two members of that congregation who had been in the novitiate together. Many years later, when they were old men, one said to the other, “By the way, in the novitiate you said I held grudges; I just want to tell you that I don’t!” Or there is the Rabbinic story illustrating the difficulty of reconciliation of the two neighbours, Daniel and Samuel, who had feuded for years. God decided to intervene in this scandalous situation among his chosen ones and therefore he sent Gabriel to one of them with a proposal. So Gabriel appears to Daniel and tells him that in order to bring peace between him and neighbour Samuel, God is proposing to give Daniel anything he wants, as long as he is be happy for Samuel to receive the same gift in double measure. Daniel thinks for a moment and then replies: “Strike me blind in one eye!” The New Testament is also not sanguine about our capacity for forgiveness. The parable about the servant who is forgiven his vast, unpayable debt and who then immediately throttles his fellow servant for a paltry sum owed, strikes a frightening if realistic note. The stories all illustrate the fact that the mercy of God normally has to be mediated through human agents and that these human agents frequently struggle to be “fit for purpose”. Pope Francis recently told priests who were unable to be merciful in the confessional to confine themselves to desk jobs! Nonetheless, Jesus insists that we must forgive our brothers and sisters “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:2122) that is to say with the limitless mercy of God.

Family Friendly

sense of security and stability as they adjust to very different structures. There are long-term consequences to this reality, too, but the initial stages of anger, hurt, guilt, blaming and negotiating are a response to this loss. Again support is important. any of us Catholics have devotion to St Anthony of Padua and call on him to help find things we lose, which I believe he very often does. But can we compare that to the signs on street poles that advertise promises to “bring back lost lover”? Where do we draw the line between faith and superstition? What muti or other practices are used? Should this be something to consider and discuss at home? We, the Church, can also offer a “bring back lost lover” experience. Retrouvaille, a programme designed for

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whole world, for all its suffering and conflict, is overwhelming. But this is the model our Lord gives us from the cross. He was dying for the oppressed Christian in Iraq, for the terrified Palestinian and Jewish people in Jerusalem, for the atheist night-club reveller in Paris. His compassion knew no limits and, with his arms outstretched, embraced the whole messiness of the world. Pope Francis gives us an evocative image: “Today, when the networks of human communication have made unprecedented advances, we sense the challenge of finding a ‘mystique’ of living together, of mingling and encounter, of embracing and supporting one another, of stepping into this flood tide which, while chaotic, can become a genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of solidarity, a sacred pilgrimage” (Evangelii Gaudium 87). A good mark of solidarity is how broadly we are willing to embrace and support one another. The recent “Fees Must Fall” student protests were hailed by some as a positive sign that students today share the activist tendencies of previous generations. But it is only when students campaign selflessly for something that does not directly benefit them that they are genuinely showing solidarity. I thank my Muslim and Jewish friends for reminding me on Facebook of atrocities in the Holy Land—but I do wish that sometimes it was my Jewish friends who told me about the deaths of Palestinians, or my Muslim friends who drew my attention to the murders of Israelis. One of the reasons Archbishop Denis Hurley’s stance against apartheid was so

Toni Rowland

“Those left behind after a death are the ones suffering the trauma of loss and a serious change in their lives.” (Photo: Karen Callaway/CNS)

Faith and Society

Continued on page 11

Dealing with loss T HE month of November, which begins with All Souls’ Day, places a focus on caring for those who experience loss. So it is a good time to reflect on the topic of “lost and found”. Think for a moment just how pertinent that subject is in family life. How many little things get lost all the time and are found, though not quite all the time? How many pairs of school shoes or jerseys have been lost in any family? Or school books, tablets and cellphones by younger members? Children with problems might steal. For us oldies loss can also mean something rather different. Loss of memory is a fearsome thing. It can take up hours searching for things that have been mislaid. Even more terrifying is the fear of Alzheimer’s and losing one’s mind bit by bit, with the indignity that results from doing things like just walking away, getting lost or even randomly throwing one’s clothes off. The type of loss we focus on most in November, of course, is death. In the Church we concentrate mainly on the deceased person and pray for the repose of their souls. That is important, but those left behind—spouses, children, parents, close friends—are the ones suffering the trauma of loss and a serious change in their lives. There are the emotions of shock, guilt, hurt, anger, grief and gradually leading to acceptance. Support through this process is very valuable. Divorce, too, is a loss for everyone involved, but in a rather different way. The parties are still present but not together, families are broken up, children can become disorientated as they lose their

Raymond Perrier

The Southern Cross, November 25 to December 1, 2015

troubled marriages, provides tools for rediscovering the love we had for our spouses. It has proved to be very successful in deepening the commitment to the marriage and the love relationship. Surely that is a positive example of lost and found. Not all loss needs to be negative and it can very often also lead to a learning experience. Losing a bad friend is a blessing. “Losing” a bad habit is positive. Loss is a natural part of life, a consequence of original sin one might say. Of course, it can cause much heartache and does need to be dealt with in appropriate ways. The most appropriate ways as always in families are communication, sharing, teaching one another coping skills, being patient and supportive rather than clamming up and refusing to talk. All these thoughts lead to the concluding monthly family theme for 2015: “Committed families lead to a healthy society”. Pope Francis has chosen the theme of “Mercy” for 2016, with the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy beginning on December 8. Marfam’s December reflections incorporate that theme which is more deeply developed in the 2016 Family Year Planner’s themes and in the publications during the year ahead. Mercy is a most appropriate way to care for those experiencing loss. We can‘t take the pain away, only be there alongside those who suffer, being “merciful like the Father”, as Pope Francis invites us to.

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The Saviour’s advent Missionary Intention: That families, especially those who suffer, may find in the birth of Jesus a sign of certain hope. HRISTMAS is a moment for children to be children and for parents to be thankful for them, even if family life is hard. It is a time to draw hope from our children and the Christ-child. The child is the symbol of hope, expectation, longing and even the yearning for eternal life for we live on in our children. As the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore puts it: “The birth of every child is God's demonstration that he has not yet despaired of humanity.” God has spoken his word of ultimate hope in the language that we all understand—in the birth of a child. Christmas is the feast of the child and is celebrated with presents for children because it is the feast of the Christ-child to whom we wish to show our gratitude for coming in cold and harsh conditions in Bethlehem two millennia ago, an event which brings us hope for the transformation of our world. We rejoice, but our joy is not just to be bubbly and brief, a two-day wonder. We are invited to go further and deeper. Mediaeval images of the nativity are sometimes interpreted as Mary holding the Lord as if in the Pietà. Thus the viewer is invited to think ahead to the taking down from the cross. This should not be interpreted as a morbid inability to get away from the theme of death; it is an invitation to look to the future of Christ's life because the ultimate saving significance of it will be found there. St Ignatius of Loyola’s meditation on the Nativity homes in on this. This child has come precisely to save, but it is not going to be a cheap and magical salvation; rather it is going to cost him everything. He will work, labour and suffer. The symbols of Christmas all speak of hope and life, the life that Jesus Christ comes to share with us and in abundance. To share this life we are invited to contemplate the Christmas scene, and to keep looking at this Jesus as he grows and undertakes his work of saving the world.

The Southern Cross, November 25 to December 1, 2015

COMMUNITY

Three Sisters of the Congregation of the Little Servant Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary Conceived Immaculate took their Final Vows at Centocow misson, Umzimkulu. Srs Patricia Mlambo, Phumzile Mhlongo and Zithobile Zondi are pictured with Bishop Stanley Dziuba of Umzimkulu (left) and Bishop Zolile Mpambani of Kokstad.

Youth at St Robert’s parish in Kalksloot, Upington, were confirmed by Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington (back right).

Confirmation candidates from St Antony of Padua parish in Kraaifontein, Cape Town, had their weekend retreat at Harmony Park campsite in Strand. Salesian Brother Clarence Watts, (on the left of the soccer ball), gave them a morning reflection on discipleship.

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Youth from the three parishes of St Raphael, St Teresa and All Saints in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, were confirmed by Archbishop Stephen Brislin. (Photo by Nosiphiwo Bongco)

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St Theresa’s Sodality in Mafikeng, Kimberley diocese, visited the Carmelite nuns at Thapelong Convent. They attended Mass together and groceries were donated to the nuns.

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

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The Grade 9 marimba group of St Dominic’s Priory in Port Elizabeth achieved 1st place in the ensemble category at the South African Society of Music Teachers competition held at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

The Southern Cross, November 25 to December 1, 2015

CHURCH

Eyewitness to the last day of Vatican II On December 8 the Church will mark the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. MICHAEL SHACKLETON was there and looks back at the end of a historic point in the life of the Church.

HEN the last day dawned for the historic Second Vatican Council to be declared closed, the sky was, as the Romans call it, limpido—clear and blue with a paleness that heralded the coming winter. It was December 8, 1965, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and a public holiday in Rome. For the hundreds of participating cardinals, clergy and theologians it was a real relief to know that the final curtain was about to descend. Most of them had gathered in Rome for three months of each of the four years of the Council’s business. They might have been highly pleased about their privilege to contribute to and experience this rare and noteworthy event in history, but it was pretty obvious by December 1965 that they were feeling jaded and impatient to go home. I had no idea that I would be attending this last period of the Council. It was only when Archbishop Owen McCann of Cape Town was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI early in 1965, that as his secretary, I found myself accompanying him to the Vatican and then, at first hand, to appreciate that the tensions between the old and new schools of theology were still apparent. The fourth session got off to a grand start on September 14 with Pope Paul VI celebrating Mass in St Peter’s basilica in the company of the Council Fathers, all kitted out in their fine vestments and mitres, and the magnificent singing of the Sistine Chapel Choir. The prelates sat in their tiered seats along the length of the nave presenting an unforgettable sight. The serious business began the next morning, and I was fortunate to be there every day until the last. From this vantage point and keeping a sensitive ear to the ground, I got the vibes of the tensions that lurked beneath the outward grandeur of the event. Of the 16 proposed documents to be promulgated by Vatican II, only five had been favourably voted for in the first three years. The remaining eleven had to be hustled along through the various secretarial routes, revised, restated and sent back and forth for amendments, voting and promulgation by December: a tall order in a threemonth timeframe. Work began each morning around 9:00 with Mass in St Peter’s followed by the secretary-general, Archbishop Pericle Felici, announcing the business of the day. Because there were so many speakers asking for amendments to

A meeting of the Second Vatican Council in St Peter’s basilica, and (inset) Pope Paul VI is carried on the sedia gestatoria, a ceremonial throne, during the closing liturgy of the Council in St Peter’s Square on December 8,1965. (Photos: Catholic Press Photo) the schemas (drafts documents) that had already been discussed, there was an excess of verbiage. Each speaker had a different background. For some it was the communist countries where the Church was suppressed and persecuted, for others it was the Oriental Church with married priests, and for others again it was the Church in missionary territory with peculiar problems of its own. Not all of these distinctions were understood or sympathetically appreciated by the throng of cardinals and bishops pursuing their own aims and agendas. From my seat, apart from the main debating area, it was plain that speakers often had to say something instead of having something to say. Yet every word had to be processed by the secretariat and its commissions, which led to amendments that would be brought back into the arena for another endless exchange of views and votes. Cardinal McCann explained that these apparent delaying tactics were largely but not exclusively the work of the conservatives, determined to emphasise that what they considered to be traditional doctrine could not be amended or updated. Therefore, they were sceptical that the Church could engage in any manner with the secularism of the modern world. Eventually, the Council had to go into recess every so often while new drafts were drawn up by the tireless, unsung experts who worked around the clock in the background.

rom notes I made at the time, Archbishop Felici had lost patience with this stop-start productivity of Council business. For instance, on Thursday, October 14, he could not conceal his annoyance when he proclaimed that there may be sessions on October 29 and 30, instead of there will be. He also declared: “The congregations will resume on November 9. On November 18 there may be perhaps another public session.” He could not give exact dates because, he grumbled, “the art of a prophet is a very

difficult art”. In spite of some rising emotional issues among individuals and groups, the Council doggedly steamed ahead with its schedules. The eleven documents pending final approval by the Council Fathers and the pope eventually reached the winning post by December 7. A weary American bishop gave me his opinion that day: “I have little or no interest right now. It’s like a big locomotive that is at last rumbling to a halt.” The next day, however, everything changed. There was euphoria and excitement. The atmosphere became charged with sentimentality and prayers. The Second Vatican Council was about to end. It was history. And we were part of it. Early in the morning droves of cardinals, bishops, priests, dignitaries and their teams headed for St Peter’s Square for the solemn closing ceremony. In the chapel of the Most Holy Trinity inside St Peter’s, I assisted Cardinal McCann to don his vestments and join the other prelates as we were herded into our places in readiness to proceed outdoors. Looking around, I could see how fatigue was clearly etched into many faces. Aside from attending daily sessions and other meetings connected with Council business, in the last couple of weeks many had been forced to forgo their siestas to attend farewell receptions and scores of other functions at embassies and Vatican offices. All of that was soon forgotten as at 9:00 the long procession of Council Fathers and their assistants, including me, emerged out of the bronze doorway of the Apostolic Palace into the bright sunlight in St Peter’s Square. Their white mitres caught the slanting morning sun, giving the appearance of a long, shining ribbon through the 300 000-strong multitude that packed the

he solemnity of the occasion was not yet complete. As I wearily rested on one leg and then the other, I had to stand a little longer with the rest. The entire assembly, led by bishops from a variety of nations, sang petitions of praise and thanks mixed with prayers for all who had prepared for and taken part in the Council’s important deliberations. It was grand, impressive, memorable and exhausting. At 14:30 the procession began its return trip into the basilica. I got to the entrance before Cardinal McCann. When he caught up with me I was sitting on a conveniently abandoned chair. He told me to stand up because the Holy Father was coming this way. I replied that I could not. My legs would not let me. I don’t think His Holiness noticed. That night I celebrated my fourth

anniversary of ordination with Fr Donald de Beer who had been ordained with me. He was doing postgraduate studies in Rome at the time. With fellow South African priests Brian Gaybba and Cyril Phakati, we had a convivial anniversary supper at a trattoria close to the Fontana de Trevi and absorbed the powerful sense of the occasion, not only for us but for the Church. The populous streets, cafés and shops were aglow with Christmas lights and music. But there was much more than the yuletide spirit around. Everyone knew the Council was over and even the waiters and shop assistants were pretty aware of what had been going on. One waiter surprised us when he favourably discussed the Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, Nostra Aetate. Archbishop Felici had been right: the art of the prophet is a very difficult art. Nobody was prepared to give a straight answer to the question of what the future now held for the Church in the modern world. The majority of the Council Fathers had shown optimism in their progressive views without wanting to change or modify Catholic doctrine. The minority conservative groups remained determined to rein them in, in the name of Tradition. This pattern remains and was evident even in the recent Synod of Bishops on the Family. Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban played a formidable role in influencing certain Council proceedings. He and I met often, especially during the regular meetings of the Southern African Bishops’ Conference. At some stage I asked how he would face the future which was challenging and uncertain. I knew he was an optimistic progressive thinker. His reply was simple, and summed up the same stand that I believe Pope Francis has taken in the modern world. He sang the first verse of the 1944 song with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and made popular by Bing Crosby: You’ve got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative Latch on to the affirmative Don’t mess with Mister Inbetween.

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square at every available space on the ground and above it. The throb of Rome’s bells boomed and vibrated deafeningly, almost overwhelming the chorus of song and cheers as Pope Paul came into view seated in his sedia gestatoria on the shoulders of Vatican officials. Then the Mass of the Immaculate Conception began against the splendid backdrop of St Peter’s frontage. The first of a number of entrance hymns was “Ave Maris Stella”. The Council fathers and VIPs had seats around the temporary altar. They were the only ones with this comfort. The rest of us stood all the time, and we did so for five long hours. The ceremony did not close with the Dismissal, Ite Missa Est. It was followed by various cardinals reading many lengthy messages of good will to heads of governments, academics and scientists, women, the poor, sick and suffering, workers and youth. At length Archbishop Felici went up to the pope who handed him the Absolutio Concilii, the formal decree of closure. The archbishop proclaimed this crisply, his clearly enunciated Latin echoing around the crowded square with the ring of authority. The Council was now formally dissolved.

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on celebrating the Centenary of the birth of Archbishop Denis Eugene Hurley; champion of the poor and oppressed who on 28th January 1985 he lead a march of 28 Bishops through the streets of Sebokeng in the Archdiocese of Johannesburg. We give thanks to God for this great man of God, for his inspiring life, pastoral care and vision, his commitment to social justice and defending the poor and down trodden.

On the photo back in 1985, the late Archbishop Denis Eugene Hurley is seen greeting the people in the streets of Sebokeng. In the background is Servant of Christ Brother Daniel Ambrose Manuel as a young brother and ceremonial master at the time, who now lives and works in the parish community of St Stephen’s Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plein in the Archdiocese of Cape Town.

From the Director General, the very Rev Cosmas Matooane and all the priests and lay brothers Servants of Christ the Priest

The Southern Cross, November 25 to December 1, 2015

CONSECRATED LIFE

Inside a monastery of encloistered nuns An artist spent ten years getting to know a group of strictly encloistered nuns and has written a book about what she found. ELIZABETH EISENSTADT EVANS reports.

existence—these nuns rarely leave who was really worldly before she the monastery—was, for many, entered, fluent in four languages quite unexpected: “It defied their and grew up in Europe, would get God-given temperaments. It vio- hoarse in half an hour. It takes an lated dreams. It dashed plans for emotional toll to communicate like marriage and children. It meant that. She was so deliberate in the their world would shrink, tempo- words she chose, so thoughtful and rally, to a fourteen-acre campus, so contemplative,” Ms Reese recalls. that their minds could dwell on “I experienced the monastic God.” pace through them. It is incredibly As her relationships with the compelling,” Ms Reese says. nuns deepened, they began to While she spent nights in the HEN independent film- open up, not only the physical guest quarters and visited the enmaker and artist Abbie space they inhabited, but their closure on occasion as the project Reese inaugurated her col- own vocational stories. evolved, she never spent a night laboration with the Poor Clare Co“Looking back, I think they inside the nuns’ residence. lettine nuns at the Corpus Christi wanted to see if I could respect monastery in Rockford, Illinois, their faith and honour their tradin her book, Ms Reese describes she had a professional goal: nurtur- tion while within their space,” Ms the way nuns order their days, a ing a collaborative relationship Reese says. rhythm that moves between manthat would serve as a backdrop to a While at first she would dress in ual labour and prayer with a particyoung woman’s transition from the street clothes she normally ular and sustained focus on secular life into an alternative com- wore, eventually she found herself veneration of the sacrament. A few munity. are deputised to answer dressing with deliberTen years down the road, Ms ate modesty. “They the phone, a link to the Reese admits that the time she has only see the hands Some mothers personal and global sorspent with the nuns, who practise and faces of other rows and crises outside of nuns a form of strict enclosure relatively [women], so to see their walls. rare in contemporary culture, has more skin on someWhen they aren’t continued to had an effect on her that goes well body else is quite disgathered for the Divine set a place at Office seven times a beyond scholarly objectivity and tracting,” Ms Reese curiosity. says. “I would not the dinner table day—including at midA relationship that began a wear makeup, and night—or engaged in prifor their decade ago as a long-term project would take off my vate prayer, the nuns can has, over time, evolved into a proj- dangly earrings before be found working in the absent ect she described as both broader going in.” garden, baking altar and more profound. daughters. breads to be packaged She makes it clear Ms Reese was fresh off a year- that the nuns didn’t and mailed off to differlong volunteer stint as a media li- impose their expectaent congregations, or fixaison in the communications tions on her. Nor did her growing ing furniture in their workshop. department for a huge hospital knowledge of monastery life impel Though they depend chiefly on ship—another form of enclosed her to discover a hitherto un- donations to run their household, community—when she began her known call. they also have a gift shop in which oral history collaboration with the “It’s clear your calling is to tell they sell hand-sewn Communion nuns, whom she first approached stories,” one of the nuns told her. veils as well as cards and rosaries. in 2005. As do other cloistered commuGiven that the nuns only speak In the introduction to her 2014 to each other when strictly neces- nities, the nuns at Corpus Christi book, Dedicated to God: An Oral His- sary, even the act of interviewing seem to have great confidence in tory of Cloistered Nuns, Ms Reese one of them was eye-opening, said the efficacy of their calling: healing writes that the call to leave the sec- Ms Reese. the world through the power of inular world and embrace a cloistered “Sr Nicolette [a pseudonym], tercessory prayer. “They intervene in the course of history, believing that their prayers and penances for strangers and family can alter outcomes,” writes Ms Reese. “At the ceremony when a nun makes final, permanent vows, she hugs her family for one final time. This sacrifice serves a purpose: the material world is not the end, and their sufferings and martyrdoms allow God’s will to become manifest in the world.” These final hugs happen six years after a sister enters as a postulant. “It’s a really emotional ceremony,” says Ms Reese. “Their mothers don’t want to let go.” Thereafter, nuns will see their families only seated behind a grille, and they are allowed only four visits per year. Some of the older nuns told Ms Reese that after they departed for the monastery, their mothers would continue to set a place at Poor Clare Colettine nuns walk back to their monastery after a funeral the dinner table for them: “The service for one of the cloister's elderly sisters.

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A novice mistress of the Poor Clare Colettine nuns works with a novice in their encloistered monastery’s wood shop. (Photos: Abbie Reese/CNS) separation was so extreme that it was like a death.” Nonetheless, Ms Reese says, the community continues to attract vocations. At the moment, there are approximately 22 nuns in Rockford, some of whom had transferred from active orders. One, she said, had served in the military. Like other religious communities, these Corpus Christi nuns— theirs is a Franciscan order (St Clare was a friend and follower of St Francis’—have pets. Though the nuns told Ms Reese that the dogs are there to protect them, “God sent them a cat. They found it in the dumpster one day”. “People keep asking me why I spent ten years on the project,” says Ms Reese, a non-Catholic raised by two veterans of the 1960s Jesus movement. “There are really fun women. That’s part of the reason it was so enjoyable for so long.” But they also are very open about the cost of shutting the door on the secular world. “When a young woman enters, she isn’t immediately expected to wake up every night [for prayer]. It’s something they are gradually assimilated into.” As Ms Reese spent more and more time getting to know the Corpus Christi community, her interest in telling the story in greater depth grew. “The whole reason I wanted to do this project was to follow young women through the process of transitioning from one identity to another,” says Ms Reese.

esides her focus on the Illinois community, she is pursuing a separate project: for the past ten years she has been interviewing young women around the country who are considering religious life. Currently she is in the process of editing Chosen (Custody of the

Eyes), a film that follows 20-something painter and blogger “Heather”. In both the book and the movie the nuns chose to use aliases. “Heather”, whom Reese met in 2005, ended up joining the Rockford community of Poor Clare Colettines, becoming “Sister Amata”. But when Ms Reese sets foot in the monastery, which is set back from a busy road, and catches a whiff of the incense, the way she experiences the passing of time itself changes. “As I interacted with those women, who have embraced a different, ancient rule, I understood it in a different and much deeper way.” Asked why women who so rarely interact with the culture that laps at their door chose to open up their lives to her, Ms Reese notes: “In part they see the benefit of people knowing that this life still exists, that young women are still called.” While she was collecting information, she shared the transcripts with the nuns she interviewed. And when the book was finished, she gave them a copy which, the mother abbess told her, they passed from one nun to another. As the nuns have read the book, they have told Ms Reese they’ve been learning about themselves. Ms Reese’s project has another future benefit: providing the nuns who function as administrators with biographical details about their companions, with whom they often shared the rigour of a daily routine without the small intimacies of secular friendships. “When a nun died,” she said, “often they didn’t know what to put in the monastery record.” n This story originally was published in Global Sisters Report, a project of the National Catholic Reporter (www.globalsistersreport.org).

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CLASSIFIEDS Hungarian volunteers share conversation as they give coffee to refugees passing through Hegyeshalom on the way to Austria. In his article, Raymond Perrier emphasises the need of solidarity as a Christian principle. (Photo: Paul Jeffrey/CNS)

Christ is the key to solidarity Continued from page 7 praised in the recent coverage of his centenary was because, as a white man, he had no personal reason for putting his neck on the line. He had to reach out beyond his immediate experience to feel the suffering of people whose backgrounds were very different from his own. In doing that, Archbishop Hurley was an inspiration to other white pastors. But he was also a reminder to black pastors to fight not only for their black congregants; to Muslim and Hindu leaders to campaign not just for their coloured and Indian communities. When I was a student in

Britain in the 1980s, our big campaigning issue was the threat to mining communities under Margaret Thatcher. There is a heart-warming film, titled Pride, based on a true story of a group of gay activists in London who decide that the energies they put into campaigning for their community should instead be put at the service of the miners many hundreds of miles away with whom they seemingly have nothing in common. In all the recent turmoil in Europe, one of the greatest signs of hope for me was when ordinary German citizens marched on the streets in support of Syrian refugees—precisely the people who might have been least wel-

Liturgical Calendar Year B – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday November 29, First Sunday of Advent Jeremiah 33:14-16, Psalms 25:4-5, 8-9, 10.14, 1 Thessalonians 3:12--4:2, Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 Monday November 30, St Andrew Romans 10:9-18, Psalms 19:2-5, Matthew 4:18-22 Tuesday December 1 Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalms 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17, Luke 10:21-24 Wednesday December 2 Isaiah 25:6-10, Psalms 23, Matthew 15:29-37 Thursday December 3, St Francis Xavier 1 Corinthians 9:16-19.22-23, Psalms 117, Mark 16:15-20 Friday December 4, St John Damascene Isaiah 29:17-24, Psalms 27:1, 4, 13-14, Matthew 9:27-31 Saturday December 5 Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26, Psalms 147:1-6, Matthew 9:35--10:1, 5-8 Sunday December 6 Baruch 5:1-9, Psalms 126, Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11, Luke 3:1-6

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coming showing their government the very opposite. Solidarity is a religious act because it is an act of the imagination. It requires us to go out beyond ourselves—our networks, our friends, our life experience— and imagine the plight of people so very different from ourselves. The point of the Good Samaritan was that he was most unlike the person who was attacked. The step from Johannesburg to Paris requires imagination: from Johannesburg to Baghdad even more so. But prayer is the space in which we can allow God to take us to places of suffering quite unlike our own and there find our shared humanity.

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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.

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the joy and peace of the kingdom, where Jesus is Lord forever and ever. Amen

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

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The Southern Cross, November 25 to December 1, 2015

O VIRGIN Mother, In the depths of your heart you pondered the life of the Son you brought into the world. Give us your vision of Jesus and ask the Father to open our hearts, that we may always see His presence in our lives, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, bring us into

PERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www. valuelifeabortionisevil. 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/ uploads/downloads/bcpill. pdf GATHERING AT Shantivanam India Ashram of Bede Griffiths, December 2015. For details visit http://oblatesofshanti vanam.yolasite.com/ VISIT PIOUS KINTU’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE 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 Congo and various African countries since 2007. Also read about African Stigmatist Reverend Sister Josephine Sul and Padre Pio among others.

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

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Acolyte: One who assists in the celebration (for example, carrying candles, holding the pope’s staff mitre)

STATUES

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CHRISTMAS IS NEAR!

Greet friends and family through classified ads in The Southern Cross. Only R1,50 a word in our Christmas edition of December 16-22. Send your ad with payment to Christmas Greetings, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000, to arrive by December 2, 2015, or email advertising@ scross.co.za, fax 021 465 385, phone 021 465 55007

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. KZN SOUTH COAST: Trafalgar. Garden cottage, sleeps 2 adults, 2 children, 5min to beach. Daily rate R850. 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. SALT ROCK: Kwa Zulu Natal. Holiday beach house with sea-views to rent for the December holidays, walking distance from the sea. Sleeps 12, R4,500 per day. Fully equipped fridges, deep freezers, linen, no towels. Contact Correen Reeves 079 572 6718, correen@ brockwell.co.za

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2nd Sunday of Advent— December 6 Readings: Baruch 5:1-9, Psalm 126, Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11, Luke 3:1-6

HAT is God up to? That is always an excellent question to find on our lips, especially during this time of Advent (and we shall not so much as mention Christmas here). In the first reading for next Sunday, there is a hint of God’s coming glory. For Jerusalem is instructed to “take off your robe of mourning and maltreatment and put on the loveliness of the glory that comes from God—forever” (and we are to remember that these words are addressed to those enduring the appalling experience of exile). It is a beautiful vision for an oppressed people, of putting on new clothing that comes from God. Suddenly there is a new confidence for this shattered people: “Get up, Jerusalem, and stand on the high place, look to the East, and see your children gathered from the sunset to the sunrise at the word of the Holy One.” There is, too, a great, almost unbelievable, reversal: “They went out from you on foot, led by your enemies; but God is leading them in to you, carried aloft in glory, like the

S outher n C ross

See God’s coming glory throne of a kingdom”, and then the poet echoes Isaiah’s prophecy of “mountains laid low”. God is in charge, this Advent: “For God shall lead Israel in joy, by the light of God’s glory, with the mercy and the justice that comes from him.” The psalm remembers that wonderful time of the return from exile: “when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion”, and how “we thought we were dreaming”, and how the Gentiles commented: “The Lord did great things for them.” But that dream did not last, and now, years later, they look back in sadness (does this ring a bell for us, in this country?) at what had felt like liberation, and they clamour once more “restore our fortunes again”, and they give themselves courage by reflecting: “Those who are sowing in tears will harvest in joy.” We may need that vision, peering through the darkness at this time of Advent. Paul, in our second reading, has no doubt what God is up to. He is in prison, and utterly grateful to God; but we should notice that all

his thoughts are not on his captivity, but on the Philippians, whom he prays for “with joy”, because of their “solidarity to the Gospel, from the first day until now”; but the focus, as always, is on what God is up to. Paul expresses his confidence: “The One who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.” He has two prayers for them; the first is “how much I long for you all in the mercy of Christ Jesus”; and the second is that their “love should overflow still more and more in knowledge and all perception”. The Gospel for next Sunday is a remarkable one, and it makes clear that God is up to something very different from the worldly powers. It begins with the only date in the entire New Testament: “in the fifteenth year of the imperium of Tiberius Caesar”. He was the emperor under whom Jesus was to die, and the date is roughly 29/30AD. Then Luke offers a list of the most powerful figures in the world against which his gospel is to be played out: Pontius Pilate (and

Why a robust ego is good W

Classic Conrad

E all have our own images of greatness as these pertain to virtue and saintliness. We picture, for instance, St Francis of Assisi kissing a leper; or Mother Teresa publicly hugging a dying beggar; or John Paul II standing before a crowd of millions and telling them how much he loves them; or Thérèse of Lisieux telling a fellow community member who has been deliberately cruel to her how much she loves her; or even of the iconic Veronica, in the crucifixion scene, who amidst all the fear and brutality of the crucifixion rushes forward and wipes the face of Jesus. There are a number of common features within these pictures that speak of exceptional character; but there’s another common denominator here that speaks of exceptionality in a different way—each of these people had an exceptionally strong self-image and an exceptionally strong selfconfidence. It takes more than just a big heart to reach across what separates you from a leper; it also takes a strong self-confidence. It takes more than an empathic heart to publicly hug a dying beggar; it also takes a very robust self-image. It takes more than mere compassion to stand before millions of people and announce that you love them and that it’s important for them to hear this from you; it also takes rare inner confidence. It takes more than a saintly soul to meet deliberate cruelty with warm affection; it also requires that first you yourself have

experienced deep love in your life. And it takes more than simple courage to ignore the threat and hysteria of a lynch mob so as to rush into an intoxicated crowd and lovingly dry the face of the one they hate; it takes someone who has herself first experienced a strong love from someone else. We must first be loved in order to love. We can’t give what we haven’t got. Great men and women like Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, John Paul II and Thérèse of Lisieux were also people with a stunning self-confidence. They had no doubt that God had specially gifted them and they had the confidence to publicly display those gifts.

he sad fact is that many of us, perhaps most of us, simply lack sufficient selfimage and self-confidence to do what these saints did. Perhaps our hearts are just as loving as theirs and our empathy just as deep, but, for all kinds of reasons—not least because of how we have been wounded and the shame and reticence that are born from that, it is existentially impossible for us to, like these spiritual giants, stand up in front of the world and say: “I love you—and it’s important that you hear this from me!” Our tongues would surely break off as an inner voice would be saying: “Who do you think you are? Who are you to think the world needs to hear of your special love?” Truth be told, too often it isn’t virtue

Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

all Luke’s readers would recognise him as the procurator who sentenced Jesus to death), three of the sons of Herod the Great, the “tetrarchs” who shared their father’s kingdom, then the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, who likewise had a role to play in the execution of Jesus. However, it is to none of these that “the word of God came”; instead the word comes to “John son of Zechariah, in the desert”. We have already read about him, earlier in the Gospel, and we know him as John the Baptist. Like the other evangelists, Luke applies to him the line from Isaiah, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”; and now we see him at work (God’s work, of course), “proclaiming a baptism of repentance, for the forgiveness of sins”. And the climax of the quotation from Isaiah is this: “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” That is what God is up to, during this Advent season, and we are all invited to respond.

Southern Crossword #682

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

that’s our problem; it’s self-confidence. Mostly we aren’t bad, we’re just wounded. William Wordsworth once said something to the effect that we often judge a person to be cold when he or she is only wounded. How true. Thankfully God doesn’t judge by appearances. God reads the heart and discerns between malice and wound, between coldness and lack of self-confidence. God knows that no one can love unless he or she has first been loved, and that very few, perhaps no one, can publicly display the heart of a giant, the courage of a hero, and the love of a saint when that big heart, courage, and love haven’t first been felt in an affective and effective way inside that person’s own life. So what’s helpful in knowing this? A deeper self-understanding is always helpful and there can be a consolation, though hopefully not a rationalisation, in knowing that our hesitancy to step out publicly and do things like Mother Teresa is perhaps more rooted in our lack of a healthy ego than in some kind of selfishness and egoism. But, of course, after that consolation comes the challenge to throw away the crutches we have been using to cope with our wounds and our crippled self-image so as to begin to let our heart, courage and love manifest themselves more publicly. Our tongues won’t break off if we speak out loud about our love and concern, but we will know that only once we actually do it. But, to do that, we will have to first step through a paralysing shame to a self-abandon that up to now we haven’t mastered. And there’s a lesson in this too for our understanding of ego within spirituality. We’ve invariably seen ego as bad and identified it with egotism; but that’s over-simplistic because spiritual giants generally have strong egos, though without being egotists. Ironically, too many of us are crippled by too-little ego and that’s why we never do great things like spiritual giants do. Egoism is bad, but a healthy, robust ego is not.

ACROSS

1. The first of the murderers (4) 3. As shallow as beauty? (44) 9. Form a mental picture (7) 10. Is inclined (5) 11. Practitioner who is mindful of you? (12) 13. Woman warrior of the river? (6) 15. A riddle that makes fun of you (6) 17. Indistinct approvals that damn one coldly (5,7) 20. It resolves the light colourfully (5) 21. Depending on (7) 22. One stare to disturb and resound (8) 23. It’s in the cameraman’s eye (4)

DOWN

1. The high priest (Mt 26) (8) 2. Find Roman capital in it (5) 4. Adopts prayer position (6) 5. Unpleasant and unwilling (3.9) 6. Listens and enrols (7) 7. Right from Paris you find the tower city (4) 8. He declined Jesus’ invitation (4,5,3) 12. Forebodes before the Wise Men (8) 14. Husband of Sapphira (Ac 5) (7) 16. The soul of the heavy drinker? (6) 18. Ill-will (5) 19. Stimulus of something spurious (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

HOIR: A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the parish to lip-sync. HYMN: A song of praise usually sung in a key three octaves higher than that of the congregation’s range. KYRIE ELEISON: The only Greek words that most Catholics can recognise, besides souvlaki and baklava. MAGI: The most famous trio to attend a baby shower. RECESSIONAL: The ceremonial procession at the conclusion of Mass led by parishioners trying to beat the crowd to the parking lot.

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