160302

The

S outher n C ross

March 2 to March 8, 2016

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4966

Cardinal Napier: See people as human beings

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www.scross.co.za

Why science and religion need each other

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R8,00 (incl VAT RSA)

St Maximilian: Martyr, missionary, media man

Page 10

New blood for Radio Veritas

BY STUART GRAHAM

S

PRINGS parish priest Fr Brian Mhlanga OP will join Radio Veritas in April as an understudy to Fr Emil Blaser before taking charge of the station “some time down the line”.

It will be an honour to be mentored by “a giant” like Fr Blaser who started Radio Vertias, Fr Mhlanga said.

“It is bittersweet to be leaving Springs,” he said. “I grew to love the people. It was my second appointment. I loved my work as a pastor.

My work now is going to be pastoring, but at a different level.

“I am nervous about that. Going to work with a giant like Fr Emil—one gets very nervous.”

Fr Mhlanga, who was ordained in 2012, served his first appointment as the chaplain of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He held the post for two years before moving to Springs.

When he eventually takes over, he will make sure the station retains its “Dominican flavour”, he said.

“Fr Emil has created an incredible brand.

My task is to make sure that Redio Veritas has a Dominican flavour to it. I am also going to be a custodian of the Dominican ethos and spirituality.”

One of his main goals will be to make sure that Radio Veritas has a “bigger, broader listenership with more young professionals”.

“I would like Radio Veritas to be the station of choice for young men and women,” Fr Mhlanga said.

“I have worked among young people as the university chaplain for two years. That is an experience I will build on.”

He would also involve the station in highlighting issues around South Africa.

One cannot see Radio Veritas as an island isolated from everything happening, he said.

“Radio Veritas is at the centre of these things. Our role as Catholic media is to highlight issues happening around us.

“Radio is one of the most effective and efficient tools for preaching the Gospel. It shapes people’s values and what they think. It is a very powerful medium to have.”

Fr Mhlanga, who was born in Malawi and attended the Jesuit college in Harare, has a background in management.

The Southern Cross Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers, led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin, had a Mass with local Palestinian Catholics in the parish of Our Lady of Sorrows on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. The pilgrims are seen here with Sisters of the Notre Dame des Dolours congregation who are running a home for elderly disabled people at the parish, whom the group visited after Mass—to the delight of the residents. The pilgrimage visited the Holy Land and Egypt, including Bethlehem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Mount of Olives, the Via Dolorosa and in Cairo, Coptic monasteries and the Pyramids.

Fr Brian Mhlanga OP He said he has been highly influenced by the Jesuits in Zimbabwe and Dominican sisters in Zimbabwe He first joined the Dominicans for his noviciate in Kenya in 2003. He later studied at St Joseph Theological Institute at Cedara, completing a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

After graduating, he completed courses in business administration, project management and accounting. He has also completed a Masters of Business Administration and is a member of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa.

“We are not going to reinvent the wheel.

We would like to see more collaboration with different churches, different faiths and people.

“I would like to rebrand. One has to go through the process of rebranding to attract new people to the station.”

Fr Mahlangu speaks Shona, Ndebele and Zulu, is a keen sportsman and often takes part in marathons.

He is from a large family and has a special place in his heart for his grandmother who played an important role in raising him.

Fr Mhlanga first joined Radio Veritas in 2014 when he presented the afternoon drivetime show “Changing Gear” every Tuesday and Wednesday from 16.00 to 17.30.

Fr Blaser said he looked forward to having Fr Mhlanga as his understudy before he takes over as director down the line.

Pop-singing nuns rocked the pope

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FTER taking the Internet by storm last year with their hit Confia en Dios, this group of singing sisters was invited to perform at Pope Francis’ US-Mexico border Mass in Juarez, Mexico.

“We were very happy…we never imagined that we would receive an invitation,” Sister Mónica Nobl told CNA. One of the leaders of the musical group The Siervas, meaning servants, Sr Nobl said that the invitation to sing at the papal Mass was something none of them expected, but came through Facebook.

The immediate reaction was “Of course!

How can we not participate in this great event?” Sr Nobl said.

The 12 sisters in the group are all part of the community of the Servants of the Plan of God. Founded in 1998 in Peru, the community lives a life of full apostolic availability, evangelising in the areas of youth with a special emphasis on the fragile, ill, poor and suffering.

Some of the more musical members of the community banded together in order to put their musical talents to use in spreading the message of the Gospel.

Sr Nobl explained that The Siervas composed the music and lyrics themselves, and that they chose a selection of different types of songs to perform for the pope’s Mass.

The blend of rock with religious hymns has

The Siervas singing group of nuns. (Photo: CNA) gained popularity among Catholics and nonCatholics alike.

The group is already recording their second album, which they chose to do in collaboration with renowned musical producers in both Peru and the United States What the Siervas hope to demonstrate is that even Catholic music “can be composed with the highest musical standards”, Sr Nobl said.

Although their community was founded in Peru, members of The Siervas hail from countries all over the world, including Argentina, China, the Philippines, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador and Japan.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

CPLO and EU delegates meet

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HE Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO), in collaboration with the EU delegation to South Africa, hosted a discussion on refugees and migrants.

The first speaker was Sergio Carciotto of the Scalabrini Institute, providing an overview of the evolution of migration policy in South Africa, why migration policies fail, and immigration and refugee legislation.

The second speaker, Vuyani Shwane, of the Cape Town Refugee Centre, highlighted the opportunities and challenges for organisations working in the field, threats of violent outbreaks in 2016, and the integration of refugees and asylum seekers.

Ambassador Marcus Cornaro, EU delegation head, mentioned the similar situations that South Africa and Europe find themselves in with regard to migrants and asylum seekers.

LOCAL

Gordhan ‘can’t make rain fall’

BY STUART GRAHAM

T

HE government can control its wage bill and cut corruption and wasteful spending but it can’t make the rain fall, the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office’s research coordinator has said in reaction to the 2016 budget speech.

Opposition and economists criticised Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan for not stimulating growth in his budget speech, but with the world in a cyclical downturn due to a fall in demand for commodities from China and a drought hitting the country’s agriculture, the minister’s options are in short supply, Mike Pothier told The Southern Cross.

“Part of the problem is that we are experiencing a world-wide cyclical downturn that is hitting commodity-producing countries like South Africa, Australia and Brazil very hard,” Mr Pothier said.

“Many of our counterparts are in a much worse position than we are.

Brazil just downgraded to junk.

Even Australia, which exports to

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s 2016 budget speech has been criticised for not stimulating growth, but Mike Poitier of the CPLO says that with the downturn in China leading to a fall in demand for commodities, the minister has limited options. (Photo: Wikipedia)

China, has taken a beating.

“There is nothing the minister can do to perk up the Chinese economy and there is very little he can do to make the rand all of a sudden an attractive currency.

“He can’t turn world opinion in a budget speech and he can’t make the rain fall.”

The drought which has devastated farms around South Africa is a major problem for the country due to its effect on food inflation, Mr Pothier said. “The drought is destabilising the rural areas and has a

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knock-on effect with people fleeing rural areas for cities.”

Economists criticised Mr Gordhan for not announcing the privatisation of inefficient state assets, but an issue such as this takes time, Mr Pothier said.

“We have around 700 stateowned enterprises. You have to decide whether you can turn them around and make them more efficient. You have to look for buyers. It is a huge task to separate the vital ones from those that are unnecessary.”

Mr Pothier said the CPLO is grateful that the minister did not increase the VAT rate to 15% as had been mooted by some economists.

“A VAT increase would have had a substantial impact on the poor,” he said.

“But the minister did announce a fuel price levy that will affect the poor in terms of their transport. It was however, only a 30c a litre increase, and was not substantial.”

The one area of concern is the issue of the state’s wage bill. Mr Gordhan did not give enough detail on how the bill would be cut.

His promises about cutting state expenditure didn’t go far enough.

“We still have the issue of ghost workers, for example. In the Eastern Cape alone, 30 000 state employees have been on sick leave for between 90 days and three years.

“What is being done structurally to make government employment more efficient? The government needs to tighten up and do away with ghost workers and to crack down on those going on permanent sick leave.”

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The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

LOCAL

Couple work to heal marriages

T

HE archdiocese of Johannesburg’s family life ministry representatives, Rob and Mahadi Buthelezi, have joined an SACBC national working group.

“We were overjoyed to learn that we had been asked to join the national working group on the family life ministry under the stewardship of the department of laity at the SACBC,” said Mrs Buthelezi.

“We got married in July 1994, which incidentally was the International Year of The Family. Our wedding ceremony was conducted by our uncle, the late Archbishop Peter Fanyana Buthelezi OMI, and Father Augustine Makgokolo.”

Mrs Buthelezi said she believes the family life ministry is the most challenging of all ministries, because families and in particular, marriages, face challenges that threaten their very existence.

“We began our ministry from our parish, the church of the Resurrection in Bryanston, in greater Johannesburg, in 2011, after being summoned by our then parish priest, Fr Michael Fitzpatrick.

“We started off by looking after both the hurting marriages and also by conducting pre-marriage classes

Rob and Mahadi Buthelezi, of the parish of the Resurrection in Bryanston, have been appointed to a national working group on the family. for engaged couples. We are in the process of giving more focus to marriage, divorce and remarriage support among other areas,” she said.

The couple also assist and work

closely with the vicar for family life in the archdiocese of Johannesburg.

“We always tell other couples that we are not appointed because we are the perfect couple, but it is because of our imperfections that we are most suited to assist the family life ministry. We can identify and also sympathise with those going through a storm in their relationships,” Mrs Buthelezi said.

The couple would like to see more couples get involved in the family ministry to bring about healing and much-needed peace in homes.

“There are many cases of abuse of children, parents and grandparents in our communities. Young couples need help in dealing with parenting issues, drug and substance abuse, to name but a few. We need strong families to make strong communities and the world will become a better place,” Mrs Buthelezi said.

She said it gives the couple great pleasure to promote healthy family values and good relationships within the family. “We are grateful for the opportunity granted to serve our God in this way, and hope that our little contribution can touch people’s lives, and make all the difference,” Mrs Buthelezi said.

Pick n Pay keeps HOPE alive

H

HOPE Cape Town donor relations manager Fahim Docrat with Judy van Aswegen of Pick ’n Pay, during the handing over of the cheque.

OPE Cape Town recently received a generous donation of R10 000 from Pick n Pay. “We are delighted with this donation which will help us to continue to operate in the more than twenty communities that we serve,” said HOPE Cape Town donor relations manager Fahim Docrat.

“We are very grateful to Pick n Pay for supporting our efforts.”

Pick n Pay representative Judy van Aswegen added: “HOPE Cape Town is an organisation that operates at grassroots level and is having a positive impact on so many lives in the Western Cape.

“We want to acknowledge the good work they do and also play our part.”

HOPE Cape Town is located at the medical school of the University of Stellenbosch’s Tygerberg campus.

It is a non-profit organisation

providing outreach, education and counselling at community level, focusing on HIV/Aids and TB in the Western Cape.

HOPE Cape Town is linked to the University of Stellenbosch.

It cooperates with the department of paediatrics and KID-CRU, the Tygerberg Hospital’s research unit for paediatric infectious diseases.

HOPE Cape Town began its work in 2001 with a mission to effect change in the communities it works in and continues with that core mission.

Having expanded its services to address the increasing need, it is now more reliant on the generosity of businesses and individuals to help fund its programmes. n To find out more about HOPE Cape Town, visit their website www.hope capetown.com or phone Fahim Docrat on 021 938 9339.

(Front row from left) Angela Park (mother of Pedro Park), Marie Stella Park, Jung Ja Jang (mother of Mrs Park) and (back row from left) Pedro Park and Fr Andrew Hah of Belville, Cape Town, at the reception ceremony of Mrs Park. She and her husband are new members of the Catholic Business Network.

Changing of the guard at Catholic Business Network

B

RIAN Taylor is taking over from Maryanne Murray as president of the Catholic Business Network, a group formed three years ago

by Cape Town businessmen.

It now has over 100 members who endeavour to support and promote each other’s professional and business undertakings.

These business people include business owners, sales managers, trainers and several artisans.

Various industries are represented, including glass, aluminium, printing, mining, wine, bottling, piping, automotive, chemicals, promotional, insurance, estate and hospitality sectors.

Among the latest members are

new immigrants from Korea, Pedro and Marie Stella Park, who run the Durbanville Internet Café in Wellington Road, Durbanville.

Their internet facilities include printing, photocopying, ID photos, scanning, laminating, binding, and products such as paper.

Mrs Park, after attending Durbanville Catholic church for some time, recently converted to Catholicism, with the ceremony held at Belville Catholic church. n To find out more about the Catholic Business Network, phone Sinclair Broadhurst on 083 300 6747. To contact the Parks, phone Pedro Park on 072 424 9176.

3

Swazi bishop appeals for help

BY STUART GRAHAM

T

HE bishop of Manzini has appealed for solidarity in Swaziland as the country suffers its worst drought in decades.

It cannot just be “business as usual” when it is said that about 300 000 people might be in need of food aid by March/April, Bishop Jose Luis Ponce de Léon IMC said.

“Our country is going through a difficult situation. There is not a day in which we do not hear the cry of the people. Many have lost everything,” he said.

“They planted but there was not enough rain. They lost their cattle.

The price of food has increased tremendously.”

“Just the other day someone wondered why God is not listening to our cry,” the bishop said.

“I do not have an answer to that but we all know what we are called to do to respond to it—this is a special time to increase our solidarity.”

Maize prices in Swaziland, where just under half the population are unemployed and 200 000 children are orphaned or vulnerable, have increased by 66 percent due to the drought, the bishop said.

In some places children and adults are already sick because of water-related viruses, he said.

The food shortages are also affecting those infected with HIV in

Swaziland, where 26.1% are estimated to have the virus.

“An important percentage of our population is on antiretroviral treatment; I wonder if they would be able to continue without food or if they will default on the treatment,” Bishop Ponce de Léon said.

Some 70% of Swazis rely on subsistence farming for their livelihoods but consecutive years of drought have undermined crop production, particularly maize, according to the World Food Programme.

The Swaziland Vulnerability Assessment Committee, a data-collection project in the country, says 201 000 people in the population of 1.2 million currently face food and livelihood insecurity.

Maize production in Swaziland has been declining steadily for the past decade. Up until 2000, Swaziland was harvesting more than 100 000 tons of maize. However, since then, the average harvest has dropped to some 70 000 tons.

Swaziland also has the world’s highest prevalence rates for HIV and tuberculosis. Around 42% of pregnant women attending antenatal care centres are HIV-positive, according to figures by the WFP. “Abject poverty combined with the high HIV and TB prevalence rates contribute to Swaziland’s weak economic performance and also impact negatively on food security,” the WFP says.

Oblate Superior General Father Louis Lougen (middle) visited St Benedict’s College in Johannesburg this week where he was joined by staff and pupils and a number of Oblate Fathers for a celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

4

The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Napier: See people as human beings

BY DENNIS SADOWSkI

P

OPE Francis’ practice of going to people on the margins of society shows the world how reconciliation can occur when people respect each other as equals and uphold human dignity, said Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa.

Whether overcoming racial differences, economic inequality or interpretations of gender roles, Cardinal Napier said reconciliation comes only out of respect for the human person.

“If I see you as a human being, if I see you as equal in dignity and in work, then I have to deal with you in a different way. It doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, coloured or whatever ideology you hold. If I see you as a human being, it has to make a difference,” Cardinal Napier said after a talk at the Catholic University of America.

“I think Pope Francis has hit on something. He’s saying if we go and make sure we look after the people on the margins and treat them well, we are already empowering ourselves,” he said.

The cardinal, one of the presidents of last year’s Synod of Bishops on the family, pointed to the pope’s example during his 50-minute presentation and recalled his experiences as vice-president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference in the 90s.

This country continues to struggle with its transition from apartheid and Cardinal Napier urged a deeper commitment to true reconciliation among black, coloured and white communities.

He reviewed how South Africa’s Church groups, including the bishops’ conference, were instrumental in bringing together proponents of freedom for blacks and the white-

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier poses for a photo with an attendee of his lecture at the Catholic University of America in Washington. (Photo: Tyler Orsburn/CNS) ruled government to reconcile their differences. He said the efforts also helped limit widespread violence and the possible eruption of civil war during the tumultuous period.

Such work, he said, was rooted in the idea of human dignity and respect.

Cardinal Napier, who was ordained as a Franciscan, also explored how he viewed his work in the reconciliation effort, beginning with his appointment as bishop of Kokstad, South Africa, in 1980. He said it began with the selection of his motto, Pax et Bonum, Latin for peace and goodwill. It was, he explained, a favourite greeting of St Francis of Assisi.

It turned out, he said, that he eventually realised the motto posed a “life-changing challenge to make the Gospel a reality” through “a personal commitment to imitate St Francis in working for peace and harmony in God’s creation, but especially in God’s human family”.

More broadly, Cardinal Napier ex-

plained, the motto was an “in-yourface-demand” call to live the Gospel in response to the teaching of Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, the final document of the Second Vatican Council.

“I’m making the most of this thing of Pax et Bonum because I believe it’s what is really necessary for us to do, each one of us, to look at our lives from time to time and try to identify those moments when you actually know God’s hand is directing things. He’s making you do things that you’d never dreamt of and he does it in circumstances that at the time seem to be simply out of your control,” Cardinal Napier said.

With regard to the South African situation he said: “You can’t deal with the problem until you look at the real issue. We look at South Africa and we say, ‘What is the real issue? Why are we at each other’s throats 20-something years after independence and this new democracy?’”—CNS

Zika virus: Contraceptives may be ‘lesser evil’

BY CINDY WOODEN

W

ITH physicians across Central and South America urging women to postpone pregnancy because of the Zika virus that causes birth defects, Pope Francis said using contraceptives could be a “lesser evil”.

The pope was asked at a news conference if the use of artificial contraceptives or abortion could be considered “a lesser evil” when the baby had a high risk of birth defects.

“Abortion is not a lesser evil—it’s a crime,” Pope Francis said. It is the deliberate taking of an innocent human life. “It’s an absolute evil.”

“Don’t confuse avoiding pregnancy with abortion,” the

pope said.

The concept of a “lesser evil” may apply to artificial birth control, however, he said, pointing to Bl Paul VI’s consent in the early 1960s for women religious in the thenBelgian Congo to take the pill when rape was being used as a weapon of war.

Unlike abortion, he said, “avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear”.

At the same time, Pope Francis pleaded with doctors and scientists “to do their utmost to find vaccines against these mosquitoes that carry this disease”.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, speaking to Vatican Radio about the

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pope’s remarks, said Pope Francis distinguished between abortion and “the possibility of a recourse to contraception or condoms in cases of emergency or in special situations, which does not involve the suppression of a human life, but avoiding a pregnancy”.

“He does not say this recourse can be accepted and used without any discernment, but in fact clearly said that it can be taken into consideration in cases of particular emergency,” Fr Lombardi said.

Pope Francis’ reference to the situation in Belgian Congo illustrates how he was not referring to using contraceptives in “a normal situation”, but only in situations of serious danger, the spokesman said.

—CNS

VIVA SAFARIS KRUGER PARK with

People walk by the Mercy Bus in Burnley, England. The double-decker bus is used for priests to hear the confessions of people who have stopped going to church. (Photo: Simon Caldwell/CNS)

Next stop, Mercy

BY SIMON CALDWELL

A

DIOCESE in England is using a double-decker bus as a venue for priests to hear the confessions of people who have stopped going to church.

The Mercy Bus is touring the diocese of Salford during Lent in an attempt to reach out to lapsed Catholics.

Each Saturday, the bus parks in a busy area of Manchester or one of the outlying towns, and volunteers try to engage shoppers by offering miraculous medals blessed by Pope Francis as gifts.

If they receive a positive response, they are invited on the bus, where they can talk with a priest or receive a blessing—and also go to confession. Two priests offering the sacrament of reconciliation are stationed at the front and rear of the upper deck and one at the rear of the lower deck.

Visitors can also depart with information about the Catholic faith and about times of Masses in their local area.

Fr Frankie Mulgrew, a Salford priest who helped to devise the project for the Year of Mercy, said interest from the public had “outpassed expectations”.

In the first two weeks, when the bus visited Salford, then Bolton, more than 400 people visited, he said in an interview in Burnley, on the morning of the bus’s third stop.

Priests later reported hearing the confessions of “significant numbers” of lapsed Catholics, some of whom had not been to church “for decades,” he said.

“We are meeting people where they are, we are parking up beside

Head of Vatican radio retires

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their lives,” said Fr Mulgrew, 38, a former stand-up comedian who turned his back on a career in children’s television to become a priest after he said he personally experienced the mercy of God in confession.

“We are saying: ‘If you have got any burdens, come on the bus and be free from them. If you are going through any struggles right now—a family feud, financial problems, a broken relationship—come on board the bus and experience God’s mercy,’” he said.

“We are trying to reconnect people to faith and provide a place of welcome for them, and acceptance, and a place where they are going to encounter God’s mercy in a tangible way in their lives,” Fr Mulgrew said.

“It is going out joyfully,” he added. “It’s trying to show the Church in all its beauty and all its joy.”

Fr Mulgrew said the initiative was inspired by the public ministry of Jesus “on the hilltops, in marketplaces and at the dinner tables” and also by the open-air Masses celebrated in the slums of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio before he became Pope Francis.

Initially, the plan was to use the bus on each Saturday in Lent, but the initiative is proving to be such a success that diocesan officials said they plan to retain the vehicle until the end of the holy year in November.

The front of the bus is emblazoned with the diocesan Year of Mercy logo with its destination entry designated as “#nextstopmercy.—CNS

ESUIT Father Federico Lombardi will retire as head of Vatican Radio as the Secretariat for Communications takes on the general administration of the radio.

Giacomo Ghisani, an Italian layman and vice general director of the secretariat, will be the ad interim administrative director and legal representative of Vatican Radio. Mr Ghisani had been director of international relations and legal affairs at Vatican Radio for many years.

Fr Lombardi, 73, will still head the Vatican press office for the time being and continue serving as Vatican spokesman.

Born in northern Italy near Turin in 1942, Fr Lombardi was named programme director of Vat-

ican Radio in 1990 and general director of the Vatican television centre, CTV, in 2001.

During the reorganisation of Vatican offices under Pope Benedict XVI, Fr Lombardi was appointed general director of the radio in 2005 and head of the Vatican press office in 2006, while continuing to lead CTV. Before his retirement in 2013, Pope Benedict named Mgr Dario Vigano the new director of CTV. In an effort to render the Vatican’s communications efforts more effective, Pope Francis established in 2015 a new Secretariat for Communications with the aim of coordinating and streamlining the Holy See’s multiple communications outlets. Mgr Vigano leads the secretariat as prefect and still directs CTV.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

5

Holy Land commission: Pope: Stop the death penalty Redeem Jerusalem again P

BY JUDITH SUDILOVSkY

T

HE Commission for Justice and Peace of the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to work for a change in the current violent situation, but it chastised Israel as responsible for its creation.

“The present situation for the Palestinians is inhuman,” it said in a statement. “It is settlers who occupy, day-by-day, Palestinian land. It is the siege of Gaza for years already...It is also a siege for the rest of Palestine and diverse hardships, political, economic and social.”

Calling the situation in the Holy Land “stagnant and lifeless” with no “light of hope” either for the Israelis or Palestinians, it said the situation has become one of an intifada, it said. Palestinians who carry out stabbings and other violent acts against Israelis “plunge to their death out of despair caused by a life full of frustration, humiliation and insecurity, with no hope at all”, it added.

“Is Israeli society satisfied with this situation? Is it satisfied with this life in the shadow of continuing

hostility with the Palestinian people?” it asked.

Enumerating a list of hardships and humiliations—including home demolitions, military checkpoints, the “Judaisation” of Jerusalem by “sending away” its Palestinian residents, and accusations of terrorism against all Palestinians and the collective punishments that includes— it called on Israeli leaders to “enlarge your vision and hearts”.

“Change the situation. Shake it out of its immobility. There is enough space in the land for all of us,” it said. “Let all have the same dignity and equality. No occupation and no discrimination. Two peoples living together and loving each other according to the way they choose.”

Such an inhuman situation cannot be one which either the Israelis or Palestinians would choose, it said.

It urged Israelis to see Palestinians not as terrorists but as people who want to live normal lives but find themselves “oppressed, frustrated and deprived of the freedom God has given them”.

“Redeem Jerusalem again, and begin a new history.”—CNS

‘Feel the pain of the planet’

P

OPE Franc s r ght hand man on the env ronment and c mate change ssues urged Catho cs attend ng an academ c con erence to et Chr st an sp r tua ty gu de the r th nk ng and act ons toward preserv ng the u range o God s creat on Card na Peter Turkson pres dent o the Pont ca Counc or ust ce and Peace spoke n M am at St Thomas Un vers ty as part o the schoo s two day nternat ona Con erence on C mate Nature & Soc ety The event was spearheaded by the un vers ty s nst tute or B oeth cs The con erence tack ed the sc ence and soc a mpact o eco og ca change w th ta ks rom ead ng ex perts n the e d a ong w th Card na Turkson who recent y made severa US stops ast week n the Vat can s e orts to promote Pope Franc s en cyc ca on the env ronment Lauda o S on Care or Our Common Home n add t on to be ng a scr ptura scho ar Card na Turkson s cred ted w th he p ng to dra t Lauda o S the rst papa encyc ca n the 2 000 year h story o the Catho c Church devoted so e y to env ronmenta and mank nd s co ect ve respons b ty to pass a ong a c ean and sa e p anet to uture generat ons The card na has been kened to a tour ng “rock star” br ng ng orward the concepts d s cussed n Lauda o S and the “the

Ghana an Ca d na Pe e Tu kson p es den o he Pon ca Counc o Jus ce and Peace Pho o Tom T acy CNS way the encyc ca cha enges human soc a consc ence” “ t s urgent that we change our sense o progress our management o the economy and our sty e o e ” Card na Turkson sa d at the outset o h s remarks “Pope Franc s nv tes us to ee the pa n o the p anet and o the poor and to reso ve to change ca ng us to a certa n amount o compass on to what s happen ng to our home and to the poor ones n our m dst ” he sa d “Our s ns do mpact on the earth and the earth s sur ace as a resu t o the way we treat the env ron ment ”—CNS

OPE Francis called for a moratorium on executions during the Year of Mercy and said the fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”, applies not only to the innocent but to the guilty as well.

“Even a criminal has the inviolable right to life, a gift of God,” he said after reciting the Angelus with visitors gathered in St Peter’s Square.

Christians must work to abolish the death penalty and improve prison conditions, Pope Francis said.

He appealed to the consciences of government leaders to join “the international consensus for the abolition of the death penalty”.

He asked Catholic leaders not to hold executions during the Year of Mercy. This would be a “courageous and exemplary act”, he said.

Rome will host an international convention “For a world without

BY PETER AJAY DADA

N

GER A S Catho c b shops ca ed on the government to become ess dependent on crude o as the dr ver o the coun try s economy and to strengthen n vestments n grassroots bus nesses to reduce g ar ng nanc a nequa ty Such nvestments wou d end up strengthen ng oca enterpr ses a ow ng more peop e to access the bas c necess t es o e the Catho c B shops Con erence o N ger a sa d at the end o ts week ong meet ng n Abu a “The poor who have equa r ghts to bene t rom the wea th o the country have cont nued to exper ence ack o bas c human needs ”

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Two giant chandeliers made of old CDs, ice cream cartons, printers’ plates and broken mirrors ti t were presented to the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban by Umcebo Design. Seen her Samuel Gwezva and director Robin Opperman of Umcebo Design. See page 3 for a the centre’s AGM. (Photo: Niamh Walsh-Vorster)

HE newly-appointed papal nuncio to Pretoria has said he was “extremely humbled and honoured by the faith which has been placed in me by the Church and our Holy Father”, and has asked the faithful for their prayers as he prepares to embark on his new mission “to the extraordinar y people of Southern Africa”.

This is Archbishop Peter Wells’ first appointment as nuncio, a role in which he represents Pope Francis in the region and ser ves as ambassador to South Africa and Botswana (with the possibility of further countries being added to that portfolio).

The 52-year-old American has ser ved as the assessor for the General Affairs of the

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A man se s wa e me on s ces on a oads de n Baye sa N ge a Pho o T e Owo ab EPA CNS the b shops sa d n ca ng or po c es that support sma and med um s ze bus nesses N ger a s economy has weakened because o reduced revenues as wor d o pr ces have tumb ed over the past two years

The b shops a so ca ed on pub c o c a s to ensure that resources meant or nat ona deve opment and the common good o a N ger ans are used accord ng y “We a have a respons b ty to ensure that no member o the soc ety su ers v o ence marg na sat on and depr vat on ” the b shops sa d At the same t me the b shops commended the government s re newed push aga nst the Boko Haram nsurgency n the north east ern part o the country “We encourage the government and secur ty agenc es to do a they can to de eat nsurgents and prevent urther oss o ves ” the b shops sa d n ca ng on the government to seek a ternat ve strateg es to over come the nsurgents —CNS

Christian? Then do God’s will

BY CAROL GLATz

F

OR a Christian, talk is cheap; the faith requires concretely doing God’s will and serving the least as well as those around you, Pope Francis said during his homily at morning Mass in the chapel of his residence Domus Sanctae Marthae.

“God is concrete” and so is the Christian life, he said.

Christianity isn’t a religion that’s all talk because “just talking leads us to vanity, to pretending to be Christian”, he said.

The day’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew 23:1-12 describes Jesus telling the crowds and disciples to beware of the scribes and Pharisees, who have taken on the authority to teach but do not live as good role models. “For they preach, but they do not practise,” Jesus says.

For the price of one issue of The Southern Cross you get 0,6 litre of petrol T he The

the death penalty”. The event is being sponsored by the Sant’Egidio Community.

Bishops want Nigeria to invest in small businesses

PRICE CHECK February 17 to February 23, 2016

The shackled feet of a bombing suspect in Bangkok, Thailand.

Pope Francis asks world leaders for a Jubilee Year moratorium on the death penalty. (Photo: Diego Azubel, EPA/CNS)

Pope Francis said he hopes that the gathering can strengthen efforts to abolish capital punishment.

Increasing opposition worldwide to the death penalty as “an instrument of legitimate social defence” is “a sign of hope”, he said.

“This issue has to be considered within the perspective of penal justice, which is more and more in compliance with human dignity and God’s plan for humanity and society,” the pope said.

He said the penal system must always be open to the hope of reintegrating criminals into society.

The pope condemned the death penalty on September 24, 2015 during his visit to the US. “The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development,” he told a joint meeting of Congress.—CNS

This kind of hypocrisy still exists, the pope said.

“How many times we meet people—including us, you know—so often in the church [who say] ‘Oh, I am very Catholic!’” But, the pope said, look at how they live their lives.

“How many parents say they are Catholic, but they never have time to talk to their own kids, to play with their own kids, to listen to their own kids. Perhaps their parents are in a retirement home, but they are always busy and they can never go visit them and they leave them abandoned,” he said.

These people may justify themselves by saying, “‘Well, I am very Catholic, you know. I belong to this group.’ This is the religion of all talk. I say I am this, but I do what’s worldly.”

Talking without doing “is a deception”, he said. This path “leads us to where these doctors of the

law were, these clerics, who like to dress and act as if they were royalty, you know? This is not the reality of the Gospel”, the pope said.

God wants people to stop doing evil and to learn to do the good, he said. “Being Christian means doing—doing God’s will.”

On judgment day, he said, “What will the Lord ask us? Will he say to us: ‘What have you said about me?’ No! He will ask about the things we have done”.

Fulfilling the deeds listed in the Gospel of Matthew’s “The Judgment of Nations”, such as clothing, feeding and caring for those in need, welcoming the stranger and visiting the imprisoned, “is the Christian life”, he said.

The pope prayed, “May the Lord give us this wisdom to understand fully what the difference is between saying and doing and teach us the path of doing.”—CNS

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6

The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Please, bishops, keep our feasts!

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Guest editorial: Michael Shackleton

Visible liturgical rites

W

HEN the English text of the liturgical books was revised, the Nicene Creed expressed our faith that God the Father is the maker of all things “visible and invisible”.

This was preferred to all things “seen and unseen”, on the grounds that something unseen could be hidden from the viewer but easily seen to be there from a different angle.

The solemn liturgy of Holy Week, and particularly the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil, is not far away.

Because of its solemnity and rich symbolism, it needs to be seen as well as heard by congregations, which are generally bigger than the average number attending Sunday Masses.

If the people in the pews cannot see the liturgical action clearly, or hear the prayers satisfactorily, they can miss out on the significance of the traditional liturgical rites that serve to bind Christ and his Church in the closest way possible.

It is always useful to have a commentator to offer short explanatory details of the action that is unfolding before them and in which they are taking an active role.

If the priest and ministers know what they are doing and the significance of each step of the way, the congregation will pick up the sense of the spiritual journey as the rite follows the passion and death of Jesus Christ.

When the celebrant prostrates himself at the altar steps on Good Friday and slowly unveils the cross as he mounts the steps, the serious moments of Jesus’ crucifixion and saving death can be fruitfully and effectively conveyed without any dramatic exaggerations or play acting.

The foot-washing ceremony on Holy Thursday is perhaps one of the most meaningful of the Sacred Triduum’s liturgical moments. It has been made even more significant now.

In January, Pope Francis ordered a change in the rubrics of the rite. He declared that he wanted to improve the procedure in order to fully express the meaning of what Jesus did in the Upper Room, giving of himself “to the very end” for the sal-

vation of the world.

Up to that point the candidates chosen for the foot washing at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper were all male. In future that will not apply and anyone may be chosen, male, female, young, old, healthy and sick, clerics and consecrated men and women.

Pope Francis made it plain that these chosen few (no number was mentioned) must be given an appropriate explanation of what the foot-washing rite means.

The simple little dramatic observance forcefully reenacts our Lord’s gesture of humility when he washed and dried the feet of his apostles on the night he was betrayed.

He said: “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:12-14).

Christ’s words are not directed only to the bishops or priests who perform the rite and who must conform themselves to Christ who came not to be served but to serve. They are meant to move the hearts and souls of every disciple of Jesus without exception.

The foot washing is not obligatory at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Pastors have to decide according to the circumstances and needs of the parish.

But when it can be done, it should be done. Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the order of priesthood on Holy Thursday.

At the same time he made the foot washing the lesson to be learned by all who have since gathered around the altar in commemorating that sacred night.

Pastors can choose anybody to participate in the foot-washing ceremony. Those who share in it represent the entire People of God, and this should be highlighted in the homily of the Mass.

For maximum spiritual enrichment, this is a moment that every soul in the congregation should be able to see and appreciate. Those responsible for the Holy Week ceremonies should do their very best to ensure this.

THE jOURNEYS OF A LIFETIME!

Year of Mercy Pilgrimage

HOLY LAND

The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit published letters. Letters below 300 words receive preference. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances and at the Editor’s discretion.

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

T

HIS is an urgent appeal to our bishops, that they retain the feasts of the Ascension and the Assumption as Holy Days of Obligation in this country, along with Christmas.

Observance of holy days is an important part of our Catholic heritage and identity, and greatly enriches the meaning and importance of the solemnities celebrated, which

Late nights with EWTN radio

F

OR those who don’t know, especially the poor “sleepers”, at about 10 pm Radio Veritas switches over to the Catholic radio station EWTN, which Veritas carries after that time-slot.

It has a whole variety of programmes on the abortion industry in the US. What is being reported is very sad, and it makes one wonder where humanity is heading. I would not like to repeat how the foetus is treated subsequent to an abortion.

One programme that was most impressive, and which would be most useful in South Africa, was a priest from a pulpit explaining what and why the priest at the altar is doing things when he is saying Mass. It sure gives one a much better appreciation and love for the Mass; this included the various readings.

Bill Benson, Johannesburg

Spiritual food

I

AM a parishioner of St Anthony’s parish in Langa, Cape Town. I am an avid reader and writer, and a fan of Fr Ralph de Hahn’s many beautiful poems and short stories.

They speak of Christian courage and heroism, of unshakable faith, hope and God’s ever-present love.

I personally have connected with his stories so much that they are part of my spiritual journey and have assisted me in knowing more about the true Christian life.

I find they also provide learning and healing.

I highly recommend his new book to all our Catholic schools.

Why not? Each story has an undeniable spiritual lesson capable of touching all age groups, because it is so simply written, yet so profound. I still enjoy reading the book, and so will you.

Tlalane Manciya, Cape Town

2016 turmoil

P

OSSIBLY the only certainty in our country in 2016 is that we will experience further turmoil.

The Church can endeavour to as-

ST ANTHONYS CHILD and YOUTH CARE CENTRE Keeping Children safe within families

PLUS CAIRO

16 - 26 October 2016

Fr Larry Kaufmann CSsR

would be utterly lost if their observance were transferred to the nearest Sunday.

These days are, far from being a burden, a great joy to us—and if we genuinely cannot get to Mass, we have not sinned. Blending them into the normal run of Sundays will serve only to downplay these feasts, Even if the relevant dicastery of the Holy See grants consent to the

sist in alleviating certain problems, but it must be understood, that its success will be very limited.

The local problems mentioned in Archbishop Stephen Brislin’s address (as reported on January 27)—racism, load shedding, parliamentary disruptions, student unrest and corruption—are problems that are the direct result of our corrupt and ineffective government.

Where the Church is involved in areas such as social development and health, it must ensure that it does so independently and not in conjunction with the government.

These are areas that should enjoy government priority but they are totally unable to halt, and unconcerned about, the demise of order.

No Church support must be offered to the government as it could propaganda their strengthen among the less educated and thereby attract votes which will ensure that we will be subjected to further corruption and ruin of our country.

We need to assist the underprivileged but anarchy (largely visible in the university unrest) must be challenged.

We need effective and responsible government which acts with good intention and with the country’s future the priority and that also does not preach racism.

Brian Gouveia, Bloemfontein

Adoption option

R

ECENTLY my husband and I visited Bethesda Home in Rosemoor, George.

This was originally a Catholic mission founded from Germany.

When vocations were no longer forthcoming, the centre was handed over to, among others, our friend Rev Michiel Burger and his co-workers.

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

transferral of the feast, such consent would not oblige every bishop to implement the same in his diocese.

I appeal to our bishops to retain the feasts on the traditional days.

Perhaps bishops might, as an alternative, authorise the celebration of the feasts on the nearest Sunday, in rural parishes, priestless communities, and the like—but retain the norm as the general rule.

Please, bishops, keep our feasts!

Nicholas Mitchell, Port Elizabeth

It is a flourishing centre today, still visited and partially supported by the mission Fathers.

We were shown the children’s ward where those who come from difficult backgrounds and homes are cared for.

Every effort is made to reunite children with their own families, but this is not always possible.

Would couples who go down the route of IVF not consider putting the money spent on that into adoption instead?

The need of children worldwide is so great.

Judith Leonard, Knysna

Divine Mercy

T

HE hearts of the faithful can be rekindled and inspired with divine love by the call of Pope Francis of 2016 as the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Such action follows and underlines the prior message of John Paul II at the canonisation of St Faustina.

Approval for the celebration of Divine Mercy was given to the Church on May 5, 2000 in the form of a decree with approval from three Vatican congregations.

It is a continuation rather than an interruption of our Easter celebrations.

Of particular note is that as the feast has been approved by the Holy See, it is now open to any bishop to establish the devotion in his own diocese, or for a bishop’s conference to establish it for the whole of a country.

In years gone by, advertisements have appeared in The Southern Cross setting out times in which of our various parish churches such Divine Mercy observations were scheduled on Divine Mercy Sunday.

Urgent plans are necessary for the greater celebration of the feast of Divine Mercy in our parishes throughout South Africa in 2016.

The purpose of this submission is in the first place to propose and support observation of Divine Mercy Sunday, which is the first Sunday after Easter, in all our main parish churches in 2016 in South Africa and that this practice be adopted and continued into the future.

Kevin Andersson, Pietermaritzburg

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PERSPECTIVES

Show some leadership, Mr Mbeki!

H ISTORY, by its nature, is a contested terrain that is mostly written by the victors. But now and then the ghost of the vanquished is resurrected to put things into greater perspective.

Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, does not strictly belong in the realm of historical ghosts, but his recent letters were certainly rocking our historical boat again.

A lot of people, within the African National Congress in particular, were getting upset by Mr Mbeki’s letters, claiming them to be just “the opinions of the wounded”.

And a farrago of opinions has been offered to dispute them. Like Mr Mbeki’s letters, none of them possess the necessary tone and rhetorical distance of historical writing. Perhaps it is still too early to discuss events of our recent past.

We might appreciate the opportunity to clear up facts and perceptions but we are still obsessed by our past that refuses to pass.

That is why, for sport, we enjoy shooting at our heroes, taking them down a peg or two, as a psychological cushion to protect ourselves from the disappointment of our oversized hopes. And we have no patience in waiting for our history to become settled, because we don’t trust each other—rightfully so since in the past our history has been written to serve the prejudices of the strong.

Mr Mbeki’s letters are argumentative, speciously factual, and their tone mostly comes across as complaints from a wounded bully. They have the feeble voice of someone who spends too much time alone behind drawn curtains.

And the motives of these letters are too materialistic, betraying the blatant lack of humility one might hope for in a statesman, the kind who have the reflective wisdom of age in them.

It would have been much better had Mr Mbeki taken a spiritual tone as he surveyed the history he experienced. That would have raised him above the fray.

By spiritual I don’t even mean religious—Mr Mbeki is not a religious man— —but rather the ability to express complaints with a sense of things being ordered above the material realm.

That approach is so typical of the writings of the likes of the Roman philosopher, Seneca, who, after attending to the high power of being the first advisor of two emperors, suffered the humiliation of exile and eventually having his head cut off on the orders of the third emperor.

A

septuagenarian like Mr Mbeki should be writing with some form of metaphysical pattern. Even if politicians do not necessarily believe in God, surely they believe in some form of a collective psyche of the nation? Otherwise they risk posterity judging them as having just been dipped in the futility of political point-scoring.

Mr Mbeki has a reference in the ANC. When the likes of Rev WB Rubusana and JK Jabavu were manoeuvred out of their positions of power within the SANNC, the ANC’s forerunner, by political intrigue, they didn’t shout their pride and shame from the rooftops or harbour petty grudges.

Instead they husbanded their anger into something more useful and lasting: they started black literature by reordering the history of their experience for posterity in an artistic and intellectual manner.

They became gentlemen of letters, demonstrating to us the values of African

Ex-President Thabo Mbeki’s recent letters have revived old gripes instead of showing leadership, writes Mphuthumi Ntabeni.

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

Pushing the Boundaries

beliefs vis-à-vis Christian theology, thus preserving the wheat while disposing of the chaff in our traditional beliefs. Today their names are greater than mere politicians’, with a posterity that has no vested political interests.

We don’t care much about the icy slivers of menace coming from the intrigues of Luthuli House. We know that much of the ANC has abandoned the true liberation spirit, and we have made peace with that. And so we have given up its corpse to rot from the head, as it does. Saving the dead is a religious, not a political task.

Somebody should tell Mr Mbeki this.

Mr Mbeki ought to rub his historical narrative on the rib of the real issues, like what to do with the economic gates he left open to flood us with the mess of neoliberalism; how to fix our public education and health systems; how to improve social cohesion in our country, and so on.

For once we would like to see a leader taking responsibility for what they have done and suggesting solutions, rather than descending into petty squabbles about who said what about whom. It’s time we sweep away the host of dead politics that is not getting us anywhere.

Our country is in desperate need of a collective catharsis.

Mr Mbeki should be the one showing us the way out from the accumulated aggression he was party to .

This country has gone through traumas, and the residues of emotional experiences are starting to come out in anger.

And now we are told, in philosopher Frantz Fanon’s language, by one side to adopt the humility of the cripple, and by the other the violence of the colonialist.

We need Mr Mbeki’s wisdom in dealing with all this, not his wounded pride.

We also need the voice of our men of the cloth to once again provide the leadership to guide us away from the morally bankrupt black hole our politics seems to have plunged into.

Did Christ tell us to maim ourselves?

David Brattston I N Matthew 18:8-9, Christ issues a peculiar command: “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire.

“And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna.”

How can anyone obey these injunctions literally, especially in the days before anaesthetics and antiseptics, when they would result in death, by either blood loss or infection?

Solutions to the stark harshness of a literal application were provided by Origen, an Egyptian who was the foremost Christian Bible scholar and teacher of the first half of the third century AD. Origen cited Matthew 18:8-9 as a prime example of biblical injunctions that are impossible or unreasonable. He taught that the Holy Spirit placed such difficulties in the Scriptures in order to teach readers and interpreters not to confine themselves to the plain, literal wording, but to examine the passage more closely, to unveil the deeper meaning (On First Principles, 4.1.18).

Origen taught that the underlying message the Holy Spirit intended readers to draw from the text was that the parts of the body represent members of a Christian’s family or circle of friends.

“It is possible to apply these words to our nearest kinsfolk, being considered to be members of our bodies, because of the close relationship; whether by birth, or from habitual friendship. We must not spare them if they are injuring our soul,” Origen wrote.

“Let us cut off from ourselves as a hand or a foot or an eye, a father or mother who wishes us to do that which is contrary to piety, and a son or daughter who would have us revolt from the Church of Christ and the love of him.

“Even if the wife of our bosom, or a friend who is kindred in soul, become stumbling blocks to us, let us not spare them, but

Learning from the Church Fathers

Does Jesus command us to physically maim ourselves in Matthew 18:8-9? let us cut them out from ourselves, and cast them outside our soul, as not being truly our kindred but enemies of our salvation; for ‘whosoever hates not his father, and mother’ and so on (Luke 14:26),” Origen taught.

“We must hate them as enemies and assailants, that we may be able to win Christ, and be worthy of the Son of God. A lame person, so to speak, is saved when he has lost a foot—say a brother—and alone obtains the inheritance of the kingdom of God; and a maimed person is saved when his parents are not saved, but they perish, while he is separated from them, and he alone obtains the blessings” (Commentary on Matthew, 13.25).

O

rigen travelled throughout eastern Christendom, at the request of local bishops, as a theological expert. Although familiar with widespread Christian practice and with local variations, he never indicated that believers in some geographical areas or sects actually did amputate their hands, feet or eyes.

A common lack of body parts among

Christians in ancient times could not escape notice and comment by even the most casual observer as a common feature among Christians.

We possess the accounts by the pagan Pliny the Younger around AD 112, and most of the attack on Christianity half a century later by the pagan philosopher Celsus.

Pliny was Roman governor in Turkey, part of whose job was to detect and persecute Christians. His letter to the emperor (Epistle 10.96) described Christian faith and practices in some detail, but never mentioned self-mutilation.

In his comprehensive denunciation of Christian behaviour, Celsus would have jumped at the chance to ridicule voluntary destruction of body organs, or suicide by exsanguination (draining of blood) or infection.

Justin Martyr wrote defences of Christian beliefs and practices in the middle of the second century AD. Among other topics, he dealt with the pagan wish that Christians commit suicide rather than continue to bother the world by their presence and preaching (2 Apology 4).

If believers of this period did indeed chop off their extremities, Justin would not have failed to mention that Christians did in fact court death, fulfilling the pagan hope.

Although we have thousands of Christian denominations, ministries, sects, cults, divisions and Church parties in our own day, not one advocates self-mutilation in obedience to Matthew 18.

Therefore, either all historical and contemporary Christianity has been heretical, or Jesus intended that not all his sayings be applied literally.

The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

7

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

The establishment of religious orders The Year of the Consecrated Life has been observed by religious orders especially. Please can you give me some idea of how religious orders came about within the Church?

V Lampert

O

RIGEN, who was a prodigious Christian writer in the 3rd century, recorded that there were men and women known as ascetics. They were individuals in the Christian community who renounced worldly pleasures and devoted themselves to ardent prayer and meditation while at the same time being exemplary in their spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

Gradually some of them began to withdraw from the community and in imitation of John the Baptist to live in desert areas to avoid the distractions and temptations of social living. These hermits became known as anchorites, from the Greek word meaning to retire.

Although this kind of reclusive way of life was highly regarded, by the 4th century some individual anchorites began to band together with others, probably for self-preservation in uninhabited places.

In addition to that, it was argued that you could not obey the commandment to love your neighbour if you had none.

The first of these groups appeared in Egypt under the initiative of St Pachomius, St Anthony of the Desert and St Basil.

As superiors of their communities they composed lists of rules to regulate the daily life of community prayer and manual work to support themselves.

It was St Basil who asked his monks to take the now traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to affirm the religious way of life as opposed to the secular.

It did not take long for the monastic model to cross into Europe where it came under the supervision of bishops.

Monasteries of men and women were established widely around episcopal cities. Their members were mostly well-educated urbanites who tended to study and write more than to do physical labour, although they were self-supporting through their own labour.

St Benedict of Nursia was born in 480 and became known as the father of Western monasticism.

He did not consider the consecrated life as an escape from the world, as many did, but as a means of serving Christ and neighbour.

Because the monks of other monasteries sometimes wandered from one place to another, he required his monks to take a vow of stability, binding them to one house only.

The Holy Rule he devised is the basis for most other religious rules to this day.

Its authoritative directives ensured that an abbot or superior could not make arbitrary decisions in the community but had to observe the letter and spirit of the Rule.

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

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

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8

The Southern Cross, Marchy 2 to March 8, 2016

COMMUNITY

Our Lady Queen of Peace parish in Grassy Park, Cape Town, celebrated St Francis de Sales’ feast day with holy Mass. (From left) Fransalian Fathers Salu Mathew from Vredendal, Philip Mangat from Steenberg, Deacon John Sheraton, Fr Babychan Arackathara from Thornton and Fr Job karikkampally from Elsies River, parish priest Fr Baiju Mundackal and assistant priest Fr Benjamin Ngade.

The young adults of Our Lady of Fatima in Durban North were given a talk by Fr Peter Lafferty CSSp on marriage where he pointed out to them that their “marriage” may be the only Bible some people will ever read.

Dominican friars of the Southern Africa vicariate gathered in La Verna retreat centre in Vanderbijlpark, Johannesburg, to celebrate the opening of the 800th jubilee anniversary of the order. (Photo: Moses Chanda)

Sixteen candidates were confirmed by Cardinal Wilfred Napier at Our Lady of Good Help in Verulam, kwazulu-Natal. The confirmands are pictured with Cardinal Napier, parish priest Fr Jude Fernando TOR and Deacon Msomi.

St Anthony’s parish in Sedgefield laid a wreath in front of the altar in rememberance of all those in the police force who have died while on duty. Fiona Barnwell, who made the wreath, is pictured laying it at the altar.

Mrs Lara-Ann koch has been promoted to deputy principal (academics and curriculum development) at Marist Brothers Linmeyer in Johannesburg.

The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

FAITH

9

Why science and religion need one another The opponents of religion like to scoff that religion and science are in conflict with one another. Dr BERNARD FARRELL-ROBERTS explains why the opposite is true.

A

RE science and faith really incompatible? The simple answer is no, quite the opposite!

Otherwise, how could we explain the fact that so many scientists have been individuals of faith, and so many significant scientific discoveries have made by individuals of faith?

We all know that the three Kings, the Magi, were men of both science and faith, but many are unaware that this same combination can be traced throughout history.

Copernicus (1473-1543), a Catholic canon, proposed his theory that planets circulated the sun and was encouraged to publish the same by Pope Clement VII. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) established the scientific method of experimentation and reasoning, stating in Of Atheism that the mind “must needs fly to Providence and Deity”.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a devout Lutheran, established the laws of planetary motion around the sun.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)—the subject of the first lesson of the “Science and Faith in Dialogue” online course offered by the theological faculty of Catalonia, Spain—was a devout Catholic who supported the sun-centred planetary system called heliocentrism, but was unable to scientifically prove his theory.

René Descartes (1596-1650), another devout Catholic, a scientist and mathematician, is credited together with Bacon with the establishment of modern scientific methodology.

Blaise Pascal (1623-62), also a devout Catholic, was a mathematician, physicist and theologian. He established the foundation for the mathematical theory of probability, and the principles of vacuums and air pressure.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is famous for his work in optics, mechanics, and mathematics. He too was a man of considerable faith, who dedicated a lot of time to the study of biblical numerology.

Robert Boyle (1627-91), famous

Any truths or facts that come from the study by science of nature must be compatible with theology, as they must reveal something of the truth that is God. It is therefore impossible for good science and good theology to be incompatible. as a chemist, was a devout Protestant; Michael Faraday (1797-1867), famous for his revolutionary work on electricity and magnetism, was a devout Christian member of the Sandemanians; Gregor Mendel (1822-84), known for his foundational work in genetics, was an Augustinian friar and abbot.

Baron Kelvin, a renowned physicist who significantly influenced the course of modern physics, was a devout Christian, as were his scientific contemporaries Stokes and Maxwell.

Max Planck (1858-1947), best known for quantum theory, was a devout Christian and defended the existence of God throughout his life; and Albert Einstein (18791955), famous for his work on time, gravity, and the conversion of matter into energy, held a very strong belief in God, famously stating that behind every door opened by science can be found God. These are just a few selected examples; there are many more.

Bringing this list right up to date, Francis Collins, long term director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, converted from atheism to Christianity after reading CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity as a young medical doctor.

Today, after years as a senior scientist, he is more convinced than ever of the existence of God, explaining: “That really was the decision I was making, to believe not just in God, but in a God who wishes fellowship with me.

“That God is a God who both created the universe, and also had a plan that included me as an individual human being. And that he has made it possible for me, through this series of explorations, to realise that. It is not just a philosophy; it is a reality of a relationship.”

T

he fact that there are so many top scientists with strong faith, many of them Christians,

should not come as a surprise to us, as the reality is that both science and faith have the same objective: to discover truth.

What do I mean by this? Let us look first at the word “theology”.

It comes from a combination of two Greek words that together mean “the study of God”.

We know that Jesus is God, and that he said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).

So we can justifiably say that the objective of theology is knowledge of truth (of God).

Science is the acquisition of knowledge of facts through use of the scientific method, and this process of scientific enquiry has as its ultimate goal the identification of the truth of nature.

This truth cannot be separated from the truth that is God: God created nature when there was nothing, so nature’s source of being can only be God himself, who must therefore be reflected in nature.

Any truths or facts then that come from the study by science of nature must be compatible with theology, as they must reveal something of the truth that is God. It is therefore impossible for good science and good theology to be incompatible.

Here though we must practise some caution. I have said “good” science and “good” theology.

Both are subject to human error, and clearly, if there is error there can also be incompatibility.

Human error in theology can come about through a lack of knowledge of science, and for this reason Pope John Paul II in 1983 used the 350th anniversary of Galileo’s Conversations to state that it was only through the sharing of knowledge between science and theology, obtained by dialogue and interaction, that each could fully realise own its true potential.

So, not only are science and faith or theology entirely compatible, but they need each other, and feed off each other.

Not just this, they are also intrinsically linked.

Consider Collins, the physician-geneticist noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project. Speaking of himself, he explained the nature of this link that exists in each and every human person: “If God chose to create you and me as natural and spiritual beings, and decided to use the mechanism of evolution to accomplish that goal, I think that’s incredibly elegant. And because God is outside of space and time, he knew what the outcome was going to be right at the beginning.

“It’s not as if there was a chance it wouldn’t work. So where, then, is the discordancy that causes so many people to see these views of science and of spirit as being incompatible?

“In me, they both exist. They both exist at the same moment in the day. They're not compartmentalised. They are entirely compatible. And they're part of who I am.”

I leave you with this interesting fact: 40% of all scientists believe in God. n Deacon Bernard Farrell-Roberts STL is the course director of “Science and Faith in Dialogue”, the online course by the theological faculty of Catalonia, Spain. For information on the science and faith Online courses go to www.scienceand faithonline.org

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10

The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

SAINTS

St Maximilian: Martyr, missionary, media man St Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who was murdered by the Nazis, is one of the three patrons of The Southern Cross’ Associates Campaign. GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks at the saint’s fascinating life.

T

HE great Polish saint Maximilian Kolbe is mostly remembered for his martyrdom to the inhumanity of Nazism at Auschwitz concentration camp.

Indeed, the heroism of that martyrdom—St Maximilian volunteered to give his life so that a father could live—is the defining culmination of his most remarkable life.

But it was not the reason why The Southern Cross chose St Maximilian as one of its three patrons when it launched the Associates Campaign in 2002. The saint was also a journalist and publisher, and therefore more qualified than most saints to be invoked as a patron for newspapers and those involved in publishing them.

Maximilian was born as Rajmund Kolbe on January 8, 1894 at Zdunska Wola near Lodz in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire.

He was the second son of a poor weaver and a midwife. His parents, Juliusz (an ethnic German; hence

the surname) and Maria, were devout Catholics with a particular devotion to Our Lady which they passed on to their children.

As a 12-year-old the future saint had a Marian vision. Having been reprimanded for naughty behaviour that day, he prayed to Our Lady. He later recalled the event: “That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me.

Then she came to me holding two crowns: one white, the other red.

She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.”

Young Rajmund and his older brother Franciszek were educated at a Franciscan seminary school, but Rajmund’s interest initially resided in the military and his attendant Polish patriotism, and his mind for strategy probably would have served him well in that career.

Instead he chose the priesthood as a Franciscan friar—a role, he realised early, in which his strategic mind could be applied to the things of God instead of those of death.

Rajmund entered the Franciscan order as a 16-year-old in September 1910. With the habit he also received a new name: Maximilian (or Maksymilian, in the Polish spelling), to which he later added Maria, in tribute to Our Lady.

The faces of St Maximilian kolbe: As a young man, a priest, a missionary in Japan, before his arrest by the Gestapo From 1912-15 he studied philosophy at the Gregorian College in Rome, and from 1915-19 theology at the Collegio Serafico, as the Pontifical University of St Bonaventure is commonly known.

Having made his final vows in 1914, he was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on April 28, 1918.

He returned to his beloved Poland, now an independent state, the following year.

While in Rome, Maximilian had witnessed virulent anti-Catholic protests by the Freemasons, and decided to act upon these by organising the Militia Immaculata (Army of the Immaculate One). The purpose of the movement was to work for the conversion of the enemies of the Church, specifically the Freemasons, through Mary’s intercession.

He continued his Marian work in Poland, where he initially lectured at the seminary of Krakow.

A

In 1973 the West German post honoured Maximiiian kolbe with a special stamp, seen here on a collectors’ envelope.

7-21 MAY 2015

ST JOHN PAUL II PILGRIMAGE TO POLAND 13 to 21 May 2016

Wadowice basilica

St Mary’s Cathedral, Krakow

Led by Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba

s a newly independent state, Poland was still finding its direction. Fr Kolbe was strongly anticommunist and, obviously, devoted to the Catholic apostolate.

In January 1922 he began to offer some direction by founding a monthly religious magazine titled Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculate), which he based on the French devotional publication Le Messager du Coeur de Jesus. At its peak in the early 1930s, it had a circulation of 750 000.

To go with that project, he set up a religious publishing press in Grodno (now in Belarus) which he ran until 1926.

In 1927 Fr Kolbe turned his sights to bigger things: he founded a Franciscan monastery at a site west of Warsaw which was provided by Prince Jan DruckoLubecki. He first erected a Marian statue, and then led the building of the monastery which he named Niepokalanów— meaning “City of the Immaculate”.

The monastery went on to become a major religious publishing centre, bringing out an influential daily right-wing newspaper, apart from the Rycerz Niepokalanej and other media.

Niepokalanów also became the site of a junior seminary to accommodate a flood of vocations from across Poland.

By 1938 it was one of the biggest Franciscan friaries in the world, with more than 700 people living there. Among the 500

brothers there were doctors, dentists, farmers, mechanics, tailors, builders, printers, gardeners, shoemakers, cooks and so on. The monastery was entirely self-sustaining, and even had its own firebrigade.

By 1930 Fr Maximilian was on the move again. Having founded a Marian movement, a publishing house and a monastery, he decided to be a missionary in Asia. Asked whether he had the funding for his missionary journey, he replied: “Money? It will turn up somehow or other. Mary will see to it. It’s her business and her Son’s.”

So he departed for Asia with a band of four brothers.

They first went to Shanghai in China but failed to find a following there. Instead they tried their hand in Japan, founding a Franciscan monastery in Nagasaki where Fr Kolbe introduced a Japanese edition of the Knight of the Immaculate magazine, titled Seibo no Kishi.

Fr Kolbe wisely resisted the impulse to impose Western values on the Japanese, and rather inculturated the Catholic faith with local customs.

The monastery survived the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki in 1945 and remains an important site of Catholicism in Japan today.

Within a year of arriving in Nagasaki, Fr Kolbe was getting restless again: this time to go to Malabar in India.

He founded another monastery there, but this one was short-lived as his Franciscan superiors recalled him to Nagasaki.

Due to poor health, Fr Kolbe returned to Niepokalanów in 1936.

Two years later he founded a radio station there, aptly called Radio Niepokalanów.

B

ut war loomed. In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, quickly capturing Warsaw.

Encountering the Polish priest Fr Kolbe, the Nazis offered him protection on account of his German ancestry. Fr Kolbe refused to sign the Deutsche Volksliste, which gave ethnic Germans rights similar to those of German citizens. Instead he was detained for 11 weeks, being released on December 8—the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Niepokalanów meanwhile became a refuge for 3 000, including 2 000 Jews, seeking protection from Nazi persecution. The monastery also served as a hospital.

Some have accused Fr Kolbe of anti-Semitism, largely because of questionable content in publications he had founded. So pervasive have been these accusations that he is not included in the Righteous Among the Nations at Jerusalem’s

Pilgrimage Highlights

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

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

Black Madonna

St Faustina’s tomb

For more information or to book, please contact Gail info@fowlertours.co.za or 076 352-3809

www.fowlertours.co.za

Franciszek Gajowniczek in his concentration camp uniform, and the cell in which St Maximilian kolbe died.

Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.

The priest himself never wrote about Jews or Zionism, however.

His views are made clear in the report of a local Catholic who later recalled: “When Jews came to me asking for a piece of bread, I asked Fr Maximilian if I could give it to them in good conscience, and he answered me, ‘Yes, it is necessary to do this, because all men are our brothers’.” It’s a sentiment he repeated many times.

F

ather Kolbe had permission from the German occupiers to continue publishing strictly religious material, which he did. But the Niepokalanów printing works also secretly churned out anti-Nazi pamphlets.

This came to an end on February 17, 1941.

That day the Niepokalanów monastery was shut down and Fr Kolbe and four others were arrested by the Gestapo.

First imprisoned in the notorious Pawiak prison in Warsaw, where he was tortured, Fr Kolbe was transferred to the Auschwitz death camp near Krakow on May 28 that year. There he was given the prisoner number 16670.

Fr Maximilian might have worn the striped uniform of a concentration camp prisoner, but he was still a priest, and served accordingly.

The Nazis tried to break his spirit with extra hard labour, brutal beatings and even whippings, but the priest could not be broken.

In late July three prisoners managed to escape from Auschwitz. This was good news for the escapees but had harsh consequences for the survivors. As a deterrent for anyone who might think of escaping, the deputy camp commander picked ten men at random to be starved to death in an underground cell.

Among the ten was a 39-year-old Polish sergeant, Franciszek Gajowniczek, who in his desperation cried out: “My wife! My children!” Fr Kolbe stepped forward and asked to take the man’s place. He was permitted to do so.

Over the next days, all of the ten prisoners starved to death or were otherwise killed by the SS. In their suffering they were led in prayer by Fr Maximilian—initially loudly and eventually in weak whispers. In the end only the priest was still alive— and he just wouldn’t die. He would be seen standing or kneeling in prayer, disconcerting the guards with his serenity.

On August 14, after two weeks of starvation, Fr Kolbe was still alive.

The Nazis had enough and put an end to his life with an injection of carbolic acid. As the guards approached with the needle, Fr Kolbe quietly raised his left arm.

His remains were cremated in the ovens of Auschwitz on the following day: the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady.

And what became of Franciszek Gajowniczek?

He survived Auschwitz and later Sachsenhausen concentration camps. After the war he reunited with his wife—but before his liberation his sons were tragically killed in Soviet bombardments.

He died in 1995 at the age of 93, having attended both the beatification in 1971 and canonisation in 1982 of the man who had saved his life. He is buried in the convent cemetery of Niepokalanów.

St Maximilian Kolbe’s feast day in the universal calendar of the Church is August 14. He is one of ten 20th-century martyrs who are depicted in statues at London’s Anglican Westminster Abbey.

His personal effects, clothing and liturgical vestments are kept at Niepokalanów, open for viewing by visitors. n The Southern Cross’ St John Paul II Pilgrimage to Poland in May, led by Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba, will include a visit to Niepokalanów and to the cell in which St Maximilian Kolbe died.

See the advert on this page for details.

To join our Associates Campaign, please refer to the backpage.

CLASSIFIEDS

Priests nurture hope in Aleppo

BY GABY MANISCALCO

E

VEN in the midst of constant bombing, Jesuit and Salesian priests remain in war-torn Aleppo, Syria, trying to create a sense of normalcy for those unable to leave.

Jesuit Fr Sami Hallak has been keeping a crisis journal, narrating daily life as he and hundreds of thousands of residents cope with the reality of war.

In late January, Fr Hallak wrote, Islamic State militants “cut the water for reasons still unknown”.

Although Jesuit Refugee Service, where he works, has a large water tank, the reserves are used with care. Unless it is designated for drinking, the water is reused two or three times.

Fr Hallak said he tries to keep up people’s morale in his homilies. A positive attitude, he said, “is our only way to survive”.

A refugee woman from Syria carries food while other displaced people sit near a border gate in kilis, Turkey. (Photo: Sedat Suna, EPA/CNS) Other priests in the area have taken a similar approach. Salesian Fr Luciano Buratti said: “We try to offer families a place where they can breathe stability and harmony in the midst of chaos.”

Still, he said: “Nobody can un-

Our bishops’ anniversaries

This week we congratulate: March 8: Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban on his 75th birthday.

March 8: Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen on his 61st birthday.

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday March 6, 4th Sunday of Lent Joshua 5:9-12, Psalms 34:2-7, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 Monday March 7, Ss Perpetua and Felicity Isaiah 65:17-21, Psalms 30:2, 4-6, 11-13, John 4:43-54 Tuesday March 8, St John of God Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12, Psalms 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9, John 5:1-16 Wednesday March 9, St Frances of Rome Isaiah 49:8-15, Psalms 145:8-9, 13-14, 17-18, John 5:17-30 Thursday March 10 Exodus 32:7-14, Psalms 106:19-23, John 5:31-47 Friday March 11 Wisdom 2:1, 12-22, Psalms 34:17-21, 23, John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Saturday March 12 Jeremiah 11:18-20, Psalms 7:2-3, 9-12, John 7:40-53 Sunday March 13, 5th Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalms 126, Philippians 3:8-14, John 8:1-11

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Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 696. ACROSS: 1 Pews, 3 Thankful, 9 Succumb, 10 Vials, 11 Disappearing, 13 Tactic, 15 Chaste, 17 Damascus Road, 20 Dalai, 21 Rummage, 22 Mass-goer, 23 Tsar. DOWN: 1 Postdate, 2 Wicks, 4 Hebrew, 5 Never the same, 6 Flaunts, 7 Lost, 8 Supplicating, 12 Headgear, 14 Cradles, 16 Scarce, 18 Opals, 19 Adam.

Word of the Week

Diocese: A particular church; the ordinary territorial division of the church headed by a bishop.

Community Calendar

CLASSIFIEDS

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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PRAYERS

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

O Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is none who can withstand your power, O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands. “Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days and then publish. Special thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Saints Jude and Daniel for prayers answered. Lyn.

MIRACULOUS INFANT JESUS OF PRAGUE, thank you for prayers answered: Josephine Philemon. Prayer of thanksgiving for graces received from the Infant Jesus I prostrate myself before Thy holy image, O most gracious Infant Jesus, to offer my most fervent thanks for the blessings Thou hast bestowed on me. I shall incessantly praise Thy ineffable mercy and confess that Thou alone are my God, my helper, and my protector.

Henceforth my entire confidence shall be placed in Thee! Everywhere I will proclaim aloud Thy mercy and generosity, so that Thy great love and the great deeds which Thou perform through this miraculous image may be acknowledged by all. May devotion to Thy holy infancy increase more and more in the hearts of all Christians, and may all who experience Thy assistance persevere with me in showing unceasing gratitude to Thy most holy infancy, to which be praise and glory forever.

Amen.

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derstand what’s happening, and we don’t know who we can trust.”

But people need hope and stability, so both parish and youth centre events continue to operate as they did before the fighting, Fr Buratti said.

Fr Hallak, in a diary entry, recounted how a statue at St Bonaventure church was damaged by government forces during the fighting.

In a conversation with a plumber, he said he was surprised to hear the man call the broken statue a miracle. The plumber said: “The face of the virgin and almost the entire front of the statue remain intact. Her hands clasped in prayer are slightly broken. It’s a miracle, Father!”

Fr Hallak wrote that many people in Aleppo also forgot that the statue was destroyed and “remember only parts that remained ‘miraculously’ intact”.—CNS

The Southern Cross, March 2 to March 8, 2016

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ACCOMMODATION

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

O Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is none who can withstand your power, O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands. “Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days and then publish. Leon and karen.

OMI STAMPS

FATHER in heaven, everliving source of all that is good, keep me faithful in serving you. Help me to drink of Christ's truth, and fill my heart with his love so that I may serve you in faith and love and reach eternal life. In the sacrament of the Eucharist you give me the joy of sharing your life. keep me in your presence.

Let me never be separated from you and help me to do your will.

PERSONAL

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Southern Cross

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

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

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

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

the

5th Sunday in Lent: March 13 Readings: Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm 126:1-6, Philippians 3:8-14, John 8:1-11

O

N this fifth Sunday of Lent, we are entering deeper into the more sombre part of our Lenten journey; so it is not surprising that each of our readings shows awareness of the difficulty of our life in Christ. But we may be surprised by the invitation to joy that each of them offers.

Our first reading is addressed to the Israelite exiles in Babylon, nervously contemplating God’s invitation to trek hundreds of miles across the forbidding desert all the way back to Jerusalem.

It is a sombre prospect, but they are invited to find joy in it by remembering what God did for Israel in that other Exodus, when they escaped, all those centuries earlier, from Egypt: “Thus says the Lord, who gives a path in the sea, a way in the mighty waters, who brings out chariots and horse, a powerful army.” And the invitation to us is to see the newness of what God is about: “Do not remember the former things; do not consider the things of long ago—Look! I am doing a new thing now.”

Then comes a series of beautiful images: “I

S outher n C ross

place a way in the desert”, “I put water in the desert, rivers in the wilderness, for my Chosen People to drink.”

The psalm for next Sunday looks back to this heady experience of being liberated from Exile: “When the Lord restored the restoration of Sion, we seemed to be dreaming, then our mouths filled with laughter, our tongues rejoiced.” It is all, you see, the Lord’s doing: “The Gentiles said, ‘The Lord did great things for them’.” Then Israel responds, very much in the joyful affirmative: “The Lord did great things with us—we were rejoicing.”

The same joy is detectable in the second reading for next Sunday. We need to remember that Paul is in a tough spot, in a Roman prison, from which he does not know whether he will emerge at all. But because of his joy at what God has done in Christ, he exclaims: “I think of it all as loss because of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, through whom I lost everything, and regard it as garbage, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him.” Notice the

S

the group had mourned her loss and now each felt a lightness in knowing that one might never have a child and still be a happy person, without denying the pain in that.

Barrenness is not just a term that describes a biological incapacity to have children or a life choice to not have them. It’s wider. Barrenness describes the universal human condition in its incapacity to be generative in the way it would like and the vacuum and frustration that leaves inside lives.

Karl Rahner summarises that in these words: “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we ultimately learn that here, in this life, all symphonies must remain unfinished.” No matter if we have biological children of our own or not, we still all find ourselves barren in that for none of us is there a finished symphony here on earth. There’s always some barrenness left in our lives and biological barrenness is simply one example of that, though arguably the prime one. None of us die having given birth to all we wanted to in this world.

W

Conrad

hat do we do in the face of this? Is there an answer? Is there a response that can take us beyond simply gritting our teeth and stoically getting on with it?

There is. The answer is tears.

In mid-life and beyond, we need, as Alice Miller normatively suggests in her classic essay, “The Drama of the Gifted Child”, to mourn so that our very founda-

Sunday Reflections

combination of death and resurrection that Paul envisages: “To know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being shaped to the likeness of his death”. There is the mystery: joy and darkness together, because God is waiting at the end of our journey.

The Gospel is an astonishing one, for many reasons, not least because it clearly does not belong in John’s Gospel where we find it, and we must be grateful to whomever it was who thought it important not to lose this authentic image of the mercy of God that we encounter in Jesus.

We find him teaching in Jerusalem, but then abruptly he is surrounded by “the scribes and the Pharisees”, and we know that this means trouble; not only that but “they bring a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery”, and want to know if it is all right for them to stone her to death, the fate that “Moses commanded in the law for women of this sort”.

It is a grim story, the baleful rigidity of the

Mourning our barrenness EVERAL years ago, while teaching a summer course at Seattle University, I had as one of my students a woman who, while happily married, was unable to conceive a child.

She had no illusions about what this meant for her. It bothered her a great deal.

She found Mother’s Day very difficult.

Among other things, she wrote a well-researched thesis on the concept of barrenness in scripture and developed a retreat on that same theme which she offered at various renewal centres.

Being a celibate whose vows also conscript a certain biological barrenness, I went on one of her weekend retreats, the only male there. It was a powerful group experience, but it took most of the weekend for that to happen.

Initially almost everyone on the retreat was tentative and shy, not wanting to admit to themselves or others the kind of pain the loss of biological parenthood was creating in their lives.

But things broke open on the Saturday night, after the group watched a video of a 1990s British film, Secrets and Lies, a subtle but powerful drama about the pain of not having children. The tears in the movie catalysed tears within our group and the floodgates opened. Tears began to flow freely and one by one the women began to tell their stories.

Then, after the tears and stories had stopped, the atmosphere changed, as if a fog had lifted and a weight had been removed. Lightness set in. Each person in

Nicholas King SJ

God’s invitation to joy

religious authorities, challenging the mercy for which Jesus stands. Jesus refuses at first to respond, and simply doodles on the ground; but that does not throw them off the scent, so he looks up, and utters this devastating, but also risky, sentence: “Let the one of you that is sinless be the first to throw a stone.”

We hold our breath, but breathe out a sigh of relief as they slowly troop away. Then at last the joy can break in, as we listen to the beautiful dialogue between Jesus and the woman whose life he has just saved: “Woman—where are they? Did no one condemn you?” and then we hear the words each of us longs to hear: “Neither do I condemn you. Off you go—and from now on, no more sinning!”

There is no pretence here that it is easy, what is being asked of her; but there is immense joy as she moves into the joy of a new way of living.

Let us celebrate this Year of Mercy together.

Southern Crossword #696

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

tions are shaken. Many of our wounds are irreversible and many of our shortcomings are permanent. We will go to our deaths with this incompleteness. Our loss cannot be reversed. But it can be mourned, both what we lost and what we failed to achieve. In that mourning there is freedom.

I have always been struck by the powerful metaphor inside the story of Jephthah’s daughter in the biblical story in the Book of Judges, chapter 11.

It captures in an archetypal image the only answer there is, this side of eternity, to barrenness. Condemned to death in the prime of her youth by a foolish vow her father made, she tells her father that she is willing to die on the altar of sacrifice, but only on one condition.

She will now die without experiencing either the consummation of marriage or the birthing of children. So she asks her father to give her two months before her death to “mourn her virginity”.

Properly mourned, an incomplete life can be both lived in peace and left in peace.

Tears are the answer to barrenness, to all loss and inadequacy. Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, in her book, A Faithful Farewell, has this to say about tears: “Tears release me into honest sorrow. They release me from the strenuous business of finding words. They release me into a childlike place where I need to be held and find comfort in embrace—in the arms of others and in the arms of God. “Tears release me from the treadmill of anxious thoughts, and even from fear.

They release me from the strain of holding them back. Tears are a consent to what is.

They wash away, at least for a time, denial and resistance.

“They allow me to relinquish the selfdeceptive notion that I’m in control. Tears dilute resentment and wash away the flotsam left by waves of anger.”

Not insignificantly, tears are salt water.

Human life originated in the oceans. Tears connect us to the source of all life on this earth, within which prodigal fecundity trumps all barrenness.

ACROSS

1. Long benches (4) 3. Showing gratitude (8) 9. Fail to resist temptation (7) 10. Slav I turn to for little containers (5) 11. Act performed by the brief apparition (12) 13. Strategic plan (6) 15. Pure cheats (6) 17. The way in which Paul met Christ (8,4) 20. The Lama (5) 21. Search at jumble sale (7) 22. One who attends church regularly (4-4) 23. Star Russian (4)

Solutions on page 11

DOWN

1. Pasted to occur at a later time (4-4) 2. They keep candles burning (5) 4. Her web appears in ancient language (6) 5. Always differing from one another (5,3,4) 6. Displays with ostentation (7) 7. Milton’s poem added to Paradise (4) 8. Begging earnestly in prayer (12) 12. Had eager turn of mitre (8) 14. About fifty sacred places for baby (7) 16. Not enough to meet the demand (6) 18. Semi-precious stones (5) 19. First man in the macadamised road (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

T Sunday school the catechist was discussing God’s omnipotence.

“Is there anything God can’t do?” she asks the class.

Nobody answers, then one boy holds up his hand.

The teacher, rather disappointed that the point of the lesson has been lost, sighs and asks: “Well, what is it you think that God can’t do?”

The boy replies: “He can’t please everybody.”

A new way of helping your Catholic newspaper

Sometimes a good idea is so obvious! “Why,” we were asked, “don’t you invite people to make a monthly contribution to the Associates Campaign by debit order?”

“I can’t afford to give R1 000 in one go, but I can afford to give R100 a month. Some might be able to contribute R50 a month, and others maybe R250 or more.”

Many people would love to support The Southern Cross’ Associates Campaign, but don’t have lump sums

available.

So we have set up a debit order option whereby supporters can join the Associates Campaign through a monthly contribution.

We have added a new patron to the Associates Campaign in the form of Dorothy Day, the American Catholic social activist and newspaper publisher.

After almost 100 years of surviving exclusively on self-generated revenue— The Southern Cross is fully independent and not subsidised—we are going

through tough times.

The economic crisis, spiralling costs, a changing newspaper landscape and, above all, the strikes and incompetence of the SA Post Office have left The Southern Cross vulnerable.

The postal strike of 2014 depleted much of our reserves; another strike could kill us off.

This is where our Associates Campaign can help ensure the survival of South Africa’s only Catholic weekly.

By contributing to the Associates

Campaign, you will help us replenish our reserves and at the same time support our outreach programmes to people who are in need of good Catholic reading, including those in jail.

If you want to see The Southern Cross survive and thrive, please support our Associates Campaign with an annual or monthly contribution.

To do so is easy: choose one of the categories of Associates you would like to join—Cardinal McCann Associate (R1 500 and above), St Maximilian

Kolbe Associate (R500-1 499), St Francis de Sales Associate (R100-499), or Dorothy Day Associate (any monthly contribution).

Make your contribution into the account: The Southern Cross, Standard Bank, Thibault Square Branch (Code 020909), Acc No: 276876016.

Please e-mail or fax payment details and your name and contact details to admin@scross.co.za or 021 465-3850.

Or visit www.scross.co.za/associates-campaign for details.