160309

The

S outher n C ross

March 9 to March 15, 2016

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4967

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The real life of a parish priest

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Leadership void key in student riots

BY BRONWEN DACHS

V

IOLENCE and vandalism at South African universities are reactions to inequality in the country, according to Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, spokesman for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).

At least four university campuses have been turned into battlegrounds with protests by students who last year, after nationwide marches, won their demand for no increases in fees in 2016.

North-West University in Mafikeng has shut down indefinitely after students burned an administration compound that included a science centre. The students were protesting against the suspension of a student council leader.

The burning of the science centre will affect the wider community, Archbishop Slattery noted.

“The science centre was also used by schools in the region that do not have their own laboratories,” he said, adding that thousands of younger school children as well as university students will be affected.

At the University of Pretoria, protesting students are demanding to be taught in languages other than Afrikaans, which they identify with apartheid. Other universities where studies have been disrupted through violence include the University of Cape Town and the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.

The objection to being taught in Afrikaans “has a lot to do with a feeling among South Africans that their languages are pushed aside”, Archbishop Slattery said.

“Very few white South Africans have made the effort to learn even a few words” of local African languages, he said. “There is institutional racism throughout the country, which is still dominated by white culture.”

“Apartheid was successful in separating people racially, economically, geographically and linguistically. Integration is happening in churches and other places, but the pace of change is too slow,” Archbishop Slattery said.

“While inequality is felt acutely at univer-

T

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier is interviewed on camera after the official opening of the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban in November. He turned 75 on March 8. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

Young people after a Mass for peace at the University of Pretoria. (Photo: Kim Ludbrook, EPA) sities, and this is being articulated with force, it is present throughout South Africa and needs to be resolved by the whole country,” the archbishop said.

There is a worrying lack of strong leadership, he said, noting that “it seems that the country’s leaders are trying to catch up” with events on campuses.

Also, he noted, the “radical students seem to be leaderless”, which makes for a “very serious and volatile situation”.

The student protesters’ “lack of leadership could explain the burning of paintings” depicting white people and the petrol-bombing of vice-chancellor Max Price’s office at the University of Cape Town last month, he said.

Black South Africans’ “anger at inequality and injustices has been bubbling for a long time and rose to the surface at universities last year,” Archbishop Slattery said.

President Jacob Zuma condemned the violence at universities in a statement, which said that “the burning of university buildings at a time when we are prioritising the education of our youth is inexplicable and can never be condoned”.

The president agreed in October to student demands not to increase fees in 2016 and said that the government would spend more to help poor students meet the cost of higher education.

SA’s cardinal turns 75 S STAFF REPORTER

OUTH AFRICA’S only current cardinal turned 75 on March 8—a red letter date which also means that after 35 years as a bishop, he has to offer the pope his resignation, as required by canon law.

However, until the pope accepts the cardinal’s resignation as archbishop of Durban, and he may well delay that decision, Cardinal Napier will continue to serve in his position.

And as a cardinal, he will still be eligible to vote in a papal election, should the need arise, until he reaches the age of 80.

Cardinal Napier was born in Matatiele in the Swartberg on March 8, 1941. His father was a farmer in the area.

He attended Holy Cross School and later Little Flower High School in Ixopo.

After matriculating, he went to Ireland to follow his vocation and studied at the Franciscan novitiate in Killarney. From there he completed his BA in Galway before moving to the Catholic University in Louvain, Belgium, graduating with a Masters in Theology.

Ordained priest in Kokstad on July 25, 1970, Fr Napier was parish priest at Lusikisiki and Tabankulu before being ordained bishop of Kokstad in February 1981 by Archbishop Denis Hurley.

He worked closely for many years throughout the turbulent 1980s with the man he would succeed as archbishop of Durban at the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Confer-

ence, first as vice-president and then as president. He served a second stint as SACBC president in the 2000s.

Cardinal Napier was present at the signing of the Peace Accord in 1991 and was actively involved in discussions with both Church and political leaders during the apartheid era.

In June 1992 he was appointed archbishop of Durban, and in February 2001 he was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II—South Africa’s second cardinal, after the late Cardinal Owen McCann of Cape Town.

He has taken part in two conclaves: that of 2005 which elected Pope Benedict XVI and that of 2013 which elected Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio—who, like Cardinal Napier, received the red hat in 2001—as Pope Francis.

Cardinal Napier presently serves on the Council for Economy at the Vatican and on the Synod on the Family.

He has received numerous awards, including an honorary Doctorate from the University of Galway and the Living Legend award in Durban.

The cardinal’s work takes him all over the world and he speaks six languages fluently, but he says he is happiest working among the people in his archdiocese’s parishes.

The outspoken and sometimes controversial cardinal has established many friends among Durban’s religious leaders—especially Muslim, Hindu and Christian—particularly to assist the poor at the new Denis Hurley Centre, next to Emmanuel cathedral.

Thank you for helping your Southern Cross

hank you! Thank you to the priests who speak about The Southern Cross from the pulpit to encourage their parishioners to buy the newspaper.

Thank you to the parishes that sell editions of The Southern Cross which the Post office failed to deliver on time.

Thank you to the many people who take such great care that The Southern Cross is collected, unpacked, displayed and sold in the parishes—and a special thanks to those who stand in doorways, refusing to let anyone pass without

buying the weekly Catholic newspaper.

These good people, most of them unknown to us, are as important in the social communications apostolate of The Southern Cross as the editor.

Thank you to our advertisers, whether they advertise because they know it works or simply as a way of supporting The Southern Cross. As an independent newspaper we rely on circulation and advertising revenue— every advert that is placed helps us survive!

Thank you, our loyal readers. While

the impact of the digital revolution has not exempted The Southern Cross from declining circulation, the effect has not been nearly as dramatic as that experienced by other newspapers. our readers clearly love their Southern Cross, be it in newsprint or in the form of our digital edition.

Thank you to our volunteers who invest so much of their time in keeping the newspaper alive. and thank you to those who support us so generously through the associates Campaign, such as the kind 90+ year old

pensioner who signed up to safeguard the newspaper’s future.

The associates Campaign is tightly managed so that contributions can be used only for specified purposes. Most of it goes into outreach programmes and replenishing our depleted reserves.

There are many ways to support The Southern Cross to ensure its survival: by buying it, by promoting it in the parishes, by advertising in it, and by supporting our associates Campaign with an annual contribution.

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The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

LOCAL

Chance for Catholic firms to gain points T

A table illustrates how businesses can benefit on their Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) scorecards while supporting Catholic schools and skills centres.

HE Catholic Institute of Education (CIE) is presenting an opportunity for companies to benefit on their Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) scorecards while supporting Catholic schools and skills centres.

The CIE improves job opportunities through skills development for the unemployed and continuous professional development of teachers.

B-BBEE was introduced by the government in a bid to transform South Africa’s economy, foster shared values and increase socioeconomic and political stability.

Business owners are being encouraged to be part of this transformation process.

The CIE is offering different ways for businesses to be part of the transformation process by sponsoring bursaries for learners in skills centres, supporting entrepreneurs

who emerge from these skills centres or contributing towards in-service training and school-based support for Catholic schools.

Moreover, the Catholic Education Trust is able to boost black ownership by acquiring shares in a business.

The CIE’s offer is being highlighted in a series of front-page advertisements in The Southern Cross which began in February.

“Different companies will have different needs and we are able to assist with one or more of their BBBEE requirements,” said CIE director Janice Seland.

“We are able to do this because CIE has a 92% black beneficiary base and has a Level 1 B-BBEE rating. We can offer B-BBEE points in the areas of skills development, ownership, enterprise and supplier development, and socio-economic development,” she explained.

“We also provide tax-deductible 18A certificates for all socio-economic development contributions.”

The CIE’s Thabiso Skills Institute supports Church-based skills centres by offering strategic and administrative support. The network of skills centres offer a variety of accredited skills programmes such as welding, computer training, catering, construction and upholstery.

The CIE has provided services to 346 Catholic schools in primarily rural areas of Southern Africa for 30 years. More than 70% of Catholic schools are public schools, at which more than 6 000 teachers educate nearly 180 000 learners from diverse cultures and religions.

Ongoing funding is required to sustain and grow the CIE’s current service provision. n For more information please contact Desiree Muller at desiree@cie.org.za or 011 433 1888.

The Southern African Church lets women take charge STAFF REPORTER

C

HURCH workers from throughout Southern Africa participated in a workshop to promote the participation of women in human rights and governance issues.

The human rights-centred, migration management, capacitybuilding workshop to promote the observance of human rights for refugees and migrants was organised by Imbisa (Inter-Regional Meeting of Bishops of Southern Africa), the body that comprises the bishops’ conferences of Southern African states.

The workshop participants were drawn from the recently formed Catholic women’s body in the Imbisa region, intended to serve as an effective mechanism to promote women’s participation in governance and human rights issues as women comprise the majority of victims of abuse and violence as migrants and refugees.

Women of the recently formed women’s arm of Imbisa gathered in Maseru, Lesotho, for a workshop on human rights for refugees and migrants.

The workshop drew inspiration from Pope Benedict XVI’s 2011 apostolic exhortation Africae Munus which reiterates the role of women in justice and peace.

The workshop, which was held in Maseru, Lesotho, was attended

by Imbisa president Bishop Frank

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale presided over the rite of election of catechumens and recognition of candidates of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults from Robertsham parish in Johannesburg at Christ the King cathedral, Johannesburg. (Photo: Roy Newton-Barker, Communications Group)

Nubuasah of Francistown, Botswana, and Archbishop Gerard Tlali Lerotholi of Maseru The workshop was also an opportunity for women to share experiences and to strengthen networking and information-sharing in the Imbisa region.

Scouts, cubs and brownies from De La Salle Holy Cross College in Johannesburg wore their uniforms to school to celebrate the birthday of Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell. (From left) Liam Heaney, Liam Doyle, Liam Murray, Ethan Lavery, Constantine Covary, Gabriella Gilbert, Declan McKenzie and Dionysia Bizos.

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The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

LOCAL Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher (left) welcomes newlyappointed reporter Mandla Zibi to the editorial staff of the newspaper.

Mr Zibi replaces Stuart Graham who has taken a position at the German news agency dpa, but said he is keen to occasionally contribute to The Southern Cross.

Mr Zibi previously worked for the SABC in Port Elizabeth and for the Department of Trade and Industry.

For story ideas he can be contacted at m.zibi@scross.co.za or 021 465 5007

Fatima procession returns to Jo’burg

O

N Saturday, May 14, hundreds of Catholics—if the previous years are anything to go by—will be taking to the streets of Johannesburg again for the 17th and the 10th time in succession Fatima procession.

The pilgrimage on foot celebrates the apparitions of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the hamlet of Fatima in Portugal.

On May 13, 1917, Our Lady first appeared to three poor shepherd children. During these apparitions, which took place over the next six months, Mary, under the title of “Our Lady Queen of the Rosary”, appealed for prayer, conversion and

peace in the world.

“Since these apparitions, millions of people have changed their lives positively and come to practise the messages of Fatima,” explained co-convenor of the pilgrimage Manny de Freitas.

He said that because these apparitions took place in Portugal, the Portuguese community has a special devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima.

To mark these Marian apparitions, Blessed Sacrament parish in Malvern East, led by parish priest Fr Tony Daniels OMI, will be undertaking a pilgrimage on foot.

This will commence from the

Blessed Sacrament Catholic church, corner Geldenhuis and Mullins Roads, Malvern East, on Saturday, May 14 at 18:30.

The pilgrimage ends with Mass at the Schoenstatt Shrine at the corner of Van Buuren and Florence Roads, Bedfordview.

“All are invited to join pilgrims on foot in May when we are aiming to beat last year’s estimated pilgrimage attendance of 2 000 pilgrims,” said Mr de Freitas.

Pilgrims are invited to join the pilgrimage wearing comfortable shoes and to bring a candle. n For further information contact Manny de Freitas on 082 788 6824.

Fr Tom Segami emphasised the importance of baptism to catechumens and their sponsors at Sunday Mass at St Peter Claver parish in Pimville, Soweto.

Many will be baptised during Easter Holy Week.

(Photo: Sello Mokoka)

Cape Town Chapter

St Patrick’s Day will be Celebrated with a Dinner Dance at e President Hotel, Sea Point on ursday 17th March 2016 7.30 for 8.00pm

Fr Emil Blaser to guide Radio Veritas forward

BY MANDLA ZIBI

T

O demonstrate a commitment to radio as a key focus of its ministry, the Dominican Order in South African has appointed Fr Brian Mhlanga OP of Springs parish to Radio Veritas to “shadow” the station head, Fr Emil Blaser OP, and other leadership.

Fr Blaser said that he has no plans to retire yet and will continue as director of the station for the foreseeable future.

“Radio Veritas functions under the auspices of the Dominican Order, and Fr Mhlanga joins the team as a way of strengthening our presence at the station. It is also a way of investing in the future of Radio Veritas,” said Fr Blaser, who started the station.

During his stint at Radio Veritas, Fr Mhlanga will get to grips with all the different aspects of the operation, including news, production, administration and so on.

“We would like him to be exposed to the full reality of radio production and administration, where he will learn from everybody and in time feel comfortable in whatever role is assigned to him,” Fr Blaser said.

He said the Dominican Order wants Radio Veritas to be the Catholic voice in both Southern Africa and internationally and that it continues to serve the needs of all its listenership and stakeholders to the best of its ability.

Fr Blaser also hinted at the Dominican Order looking at producing TV documentaries in the future as part of its media ministry.

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 being appointed to Springs, the parish he will leave this month to take up his new appointment.

“Going to work with a giant like Fr Emil—one gets very nervous. He has created an incredible brand,” Fr Mhlanga told The Southern Cross in last week’s issue.

Fr Mhlanga was born in Malawi and attended the Jesuit College in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has a background in management.

He first joined Radio Veritas in

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He joined the Dominicans for his noviciate in Kenya in 2003. He later studied at St Joseph Theological Institute in Cedara, completing a bachelor’s in philosophy. After graduating he completed courses in business administration and is a member of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa.

Fr Mhlanga speaks SiShona, IsiNdebele and IsiZulu, is a keen sportsman and often runs marathons.

Radio Veritas broadcasts in Gauteng on 576AM and on DStv audio channel 870. It can be streamed on the internet through its website wwww.radioveritas.co.za n Our headline last week on Fr Mhlanga’s appointment did not reflect the content of the story, creating the false impression that he was replacing Fr Blaser with immediate effect. We apologise unreservedly for the erroneous headline which has since been changed on the digital edition of The Southern Cross.

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The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Vatican: Spotlight not anti-Church

BY CAROL GLATZ

T

HE Vatican newspaper has said the Oscar-winning film, Spotlight, is not anti-Catholic.

“It is not an anti-Catholic movie, as has been written, because the film succeeds in giving voice to the alarm and deep pain” experienced by the Catholic faithful when a team of investigative newspaper reporters in Boston revealed the scandal of clerical abuse, said the article published in L’Osservatore Romano.

The paper said it was also a “positive sign” when Michael Sugar, the movie’s producer, said he hoped the film would “resonate all the way to the Vatican”.

In his acceptance speech at the 88th annual Academy Awards, Mr Sugar said the movie “gave a voice to survivors, and this Oscar amplifies this voice”. He then expressed hopes this voice would “become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican”.

The fact there was such an appeal, the Vatican newspaper said, was “a positive sign” because it shows “there is still trust in the institution [of the Church], there is trust in a pope who is continuing the cleanup

A scene from the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight. (Photo: Open Road Films/CNS) begun by his predecessor.”

Spotlight won two awards: one for best picture and one for best original screenplay. The film documents the Boston Globe’s investigation into the scandal and cover-up of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy in the archdiocese of Boston.

The Vatican newspaper said the film does not touch on the “long and tenacious fight” by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in launching action against abusers in the Church.

“But a film can’t say everything, and the difficulties that Ratzinger encountered only confirm the premise of the film, that is, that too often the Church institution did not know how to respond with the necessary determination before these crimes,” the article said.

While children are vulnerable to abuse in many other places, like in the family, school or sports teams, it said, “it is now clear that too many in the Church were more worried about the image of the institution than the seriousness of the act”.

“All of this cannot justify the very grave crime of one, who as a representative of God, uses this prestige and authority to take advantage of the innocent,” the article said.

The film, in fact, shows the kind of devastation wrought on victims when “they don’t even have a God to plead with anymore, to ask for help”, it said.

Director Tom McCarthy, in an interview with America magazine, had said that while he’s excited the pope is a “forward-thinking, inclusive, progressive, reform-minded person”, addressing the scourge of sexual abuse will not occur overnight, he said . —CNS

Franciscans request 1 000 pardons for inmates

BY GABY MANISCALCO

I

N honour of the Holy Year of Mercy, Franciscans in India have asked their government to pardon 1 000 prisoners guilty of minor crimes.

The men and women religious of the Association of the Franciscan Families of India voted during their national assembly to make the request, according to Matters India, a news portal that focuses on religious and social issues in

India.

Capuchin Father Nithya Sagayam, who was chosen as one of the Vatican’s missionaries of mercy, was named national coordinator of the initiative.

According to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the members of the Franciscan association are “mainly engaged in helping the poor and marginalised through educational and medical institutions and social works”.

At their assembly, members decided to converse with the government to focus on granting mercy to those who are currently in jail for minor crimes, such as theft.

Matters India reported that the Franciscans’ goal is not only to win pardon for those criminals, but to “also focus on their rehabilitation and reconstruction of their life with honor and dignity”.

“This will eventually also lead them to live a happy life with hope,” Fr Sagayam said.—CNS

CAR new president ‘truly knows the country’

BY JONATHAN LUxMOORE

T

HE head of the Central African Republic bishops’ conference said the country’s new president has a “real chance” of restoring peace and paid tribute to Pope Francis for helping create conditions for stable elections.

“We couldn’t have found a better person to take the bull by the horns and begin repairing our country’s fractures,” said Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui. “He’s someone who truly knows the country and is served by good advisers. This election has encouraged us to place hope in the future and put aside our past of firearms, machetes and terrible destruction.”

In mid-February, former Prime Minister Faustin-Archange Touadera won 63% of votes in the ballot. He will be installed as president on March 30.

In a interview with Catholic News Service, Archbishop Nza-

President Faustin-Archange Touadera casts his ballot in the elections. (Photo: Siegfried Modola, Reuters/CNS) palainga said healing divisions and overcoming mistrust needed someone with a “clear understanding” of the Central Africa Republic and the will to act decisively.

“I believe the new president will gather our people from east and

west, north and south, reconciling them with themselves and others,” the archbishop said.

“I also believe he’ll make justice possible for the victims of violence, enabling us to stand upright again and work together.”

Archbishop Nzapalainga also said the election’s peaceful outcome owed much to a November visit by Pope Francis.

“Since the Holy Father’s visit, we’ve felt a wind of change blowing through our country—there’s been a total turnaround,” Archbishop Nzapalainga said.

“He came as a messenger of mercy and urged reconciliation in our communities. This summons to peace and forgiveness was heard by former enemies and combatants and has now become something real, giving the new president a real chance for peace.”

Catholics make up a third of the 4,4 million inhabitants of the Central African Republic.—CNS

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The SKCP volunteers belong to Parish Groups that are established at Parishes in target communities. Through the St. Kizito Movement, the physical, intellectual, emotional and psycho-social needs of OVCs are met in an holistic way. Parish Groups provide children and families with a variety of essential services, while the SKCP office provides the groups with comprehensive training and on-going support.

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A view of one to the residential areas in the refugee camp in Mwanza, Malawi. Malaria and cold nights add to the suffering of the increasing number of Mozambicans arriving at a makeshift camp in Malawi to escape violence at home. (Photo: Erico Waga, EPA/CNS)

Disease and cold for Mozambican refugees

BY BRONWEN DACHS

M

ALARIA and cold nights add to the suffering of the increasing number of Mozambicans arriving at a makeshift camp in Malawi to escape violence at home, said a church worker in Malawi.

About half of the refugees at the crowded camp in the village of Kapise in Mwanza district, some 120km south of Malawi’s capital of Lilongwe, have contracted the mosquito-borne disease, said Rufino Seva, Malawi country director for Jesuit Refugee Service.

“Last week, there were about 6 500 people in the camp and more arrive every day,” he said.

“I saw an ill mother who had collapsed on the ground,” he said, noting that “she had three children and was on her own in caring for them”.

Another woman was in a desperate state with her five children, Mr Seva said.

“She had been separated from her husband as they were fleeing their village [in Mozambique] and her children were very hungry,” he said.

Conflict between the ruling party, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), and the opposition Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) has been escalating since Frelimo won elections in October

2014, two decades after Mozambique’s civil war ended.

The refugees have fled violence and harassment from government soldiers in the coal-rich Tete province. The US-based Human Rights Watch has reported summary executions and sexual abuse in the area.

“These are ordinary people caught up in the conflict between the government and opposition forces,” Mr Seva said. He said most people told him it was an eight-hour walk that they began in early morning from their homes to the camp in Malawi.

Much of Malawi’s border with Mozambique is porous, said Fr David Holdcroft, Johannesburgbased Jesuit Refugee Service’s Southern Africa regional director. He said that “for a long way there’s a road with Malawi on the one side and Mozambique on the other.”

Food and blankets are urgently needed in the makeshift camp, Fr Holdcroft said. Doctors Without Borders has set up a mobile clinic in response to the high rate of malaria among the refugees, he said.

Mr Seva said that about 60% of the camp’s inhabitants are children, many of whom “have very little clothing and suffer in the cold”. — CNS

Priest cooks for Lent F

BY CAROL ZIMMERMANN

OR Fr Leo Patalinghug, faith and food go hand in hand, or in cooking terms, they blend; there is no trick to folding one into the other.

“The idea of food in faith is implicit in our Scriptures. It’s implicit in our liturgical calendar,” he said, also adding that without question it’s a key component of the Mass.

The 45-year-old Filipino-American, known as the cooking priest, has made the blending of those two worlds his life’s work with his apostolate “Grace Before Meals”, which aims, as he puts it: “to bring families to the dinner table and bring God to the table”.

He not only does a cooking show on the Eternal Word Television Network called “Savouring our Faith”, but he also travels across the US giving parish workshops and speaks at conferences, on radio programmes and via social media about the need for families to celebrate not just Catholic feast days but everyday meals together. He also has written three books and is currently working on two more.

But noting that a busy schedule is pretty much how he rolls, Fr Patalinghug demonstrated that with some advance planning he could also easily whip up a Lenten meal of browned butter and smoked paprika sautéed with cherry tomatoes and shrimp over pasta.

Fr Leo Patalinghug demonstrates how to cook a Lenten seafood pasta meal in his kitchen. (Photo: Chaz Muth/CNS) “If a family thinks ahead about what they’re going to do in Lent—as opposed to making it seem like a drudgery”—that they have to think of something meatless to eat, he said, they can easily prepare a similar dish and not have to rely on cheese pizza or frozen fish sticks.

That’s part of his ministry, helping people see they can and should eat well and eat together.

The go-to meal for the priest who is frequently on the run is cooked vegetables and rice and maybe some steak “because who doesn’t like a little meat?”

He also said his ministry provides bait: “Once people nibble on the truth, once they’ve tasted and seen the goodness of God, they hunger for more.”—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

5

Nun: ‘Be like Leo DiCaprio’ ‘B

The moon is seen over Rome’s Colosseum as Pope Francis leads the Good Friday Way of the Cross last year. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

Pope’s Via Crucis will show humanity’s crosses

BY CAROL GLATZ

B

Y reflecting on the Passion of Christ, the author of the Way of the Cross meditations for Pope Francis’ Good Friday service said he will focus on the suffering unfolding in the world today and how “the martyrs of the 21st century are undoubtedly the apostles of today”.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Citta della Pieve told Vatican Radio that his reflections on the traditional 14 stations will blend in “references to the present day, which unfortunately is not lacking in crosses” people are forced to bear.

“Therefore, I sought to interpret the sorrow through the lens of God’s great love for humanity because otherwise sorrow doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“What strikes us the most is that Jesus took on the cross because he wanted to—he could have avoided it,” but he wanted to take on the sorrows of humanity, the cardinal said.

He said the theme of the family will be highlighted, especially for the fourth station when Jesus meets his mother. “Alongside the tragedy of Mary,” he said, will be reflected “the tragedy in our families, the situation of our families and young people”, the problem of unemployment and a lack of meaning in life.

He said he will also look at the

economic insecurity many people face, the plight of those forced to flee their homes because of war and poverty, and the persecution of today’s Christians.

The sorrows afflicting both humanity and the Church will receive attention, he said, and how both “need purification and reconciliation”.

Everything will be looked at in view of Easter and Christ’s resurrection—”the great message of hope that we continue to bring”.

Pope Francis asked the 73-yearold cardinal to write the meditations for his Good Friday service on March 25 at Rome’s Colosseum.

The pope had met the cardinal in 2013, a month after his election, when the bishops of Italy’s Umbria region made their ad limina visits to Rome to report on the status of their dioceses. The two also spent a lot of time together later that year in Assisi, the Umbrian hometown of St Francis.

Pope Francis gave him the red hat in 2014, making him the first cardinal from Perugia in 160 years; the last archbishop of Perugia to wear a red hat was Cardinal Gioacchino Pecci, who became Pope Leo XIII in 1878.

Cardinal Bassetti serves as president for the Umbria region in the Italian bishops’ conference.—CNS

Pope: Don’t let profits trample human rights

BY CAROL GLATZ

D

ON’T let the mantra of economic freedom and thirst for profits prevail over human rights and freedoms, Pope Francis told a group of Italian business owners.

Don’t allow the market to be “an absolute, but honour the requirements of justice”, he said in an audience at the Vatican with representatives of Confindustria—a federation of employers and the chamber of commerce in Italy.

The pope said the business leaders were called to safeguard professional standards, workplace safety and always promote justice, refusing “the shortcuts of nepotism and cronyism,” dishonesty and “easy compromises”.

Their mission should be guided by altruism, he said, and they categorically should reject letting human dignity be “trampled in the name of production requirements that mask individualistic short-sightedness, sad selfishness and the thirst for earnings”.

Let promoting the common good be what guides production “so that an economy by all and for all may grow”, the pope told the representatives.

A more inclusive economy is pos-

Contestants in the Netherlands compete in a charity race called “Heels and Suits Run” in Amsterdam. (Photo: Remko De Waal, EPA/CNS) sible, he said, “provided that the simple proclamation of economic freedom does not prevail over the concrete freedom of the person and his or her rights. Because there is no liberty without justice and there is no justice without the respect of each person’s dignity”.

The pope asked that special attention be paid to the real needs and dreams of families and young adults as well as older people who may still have the willingness and know-how to contribute to businesses.

For example, he said, concrete focus on families means liberating “mothers and fathers of families from the anguish of not being able to provide a future, much less a present to their own children.—CNS

E like Leonardo DiCaprio”.

That was the call of Sr Aloha Vergara of the Handmaids of the House of God, who said actor DiCaprio’s speech at the Academy Awards “reflects the people and the Churches’ position on the protection of the environment”, Ucanews reported.

The Hollywood actor said climate change “is real” and blasted what he called the “politics of greed” in his speech accepting his first Oscar.

Redemptorist Brother Ciriaco Santiago, convener of an anti-mining group in Manila, said candidates in May national elections should take Mr DiCaprio’s position and “act upon people’s concrete and legitimate demands”.

The religious brother said it is “very timely” for Filipinos to reflect and respond to the situation, especially after years of plunder of the country’s natural resources.

“We need to stand to uphold the protection of all creation,” Sr Vergara said at a media conference at which Catholic and Protestant Church and environmental activists denounced alleged human rights violations in a mining town in the northern Philippines.

Sr Vergara criticised the recent violent dispersal and arrest of protesters opposed to mining operations in

Fishermen paddle up a river near Guiuan, Philippines. A Fillipino sister has spoken out in agreement with actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s (inset) Oscar acceptance speech. (Photo: Tyler Orsburn/CNS) the town of Santa Cruz in Zambales province.

She urged Catholics to reflect on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home, and “support those who speak for all those who are affected by corporate greed and the destruction of the environment”.

In the same forum, Lito Latorre, coordinator of the Philippine Redemptorists’ Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation programme, said: “The Church is always on the side of the environment.”

“Actions and programmes that destroy creation [are] an attack on the Church’s mission, therefore, the Church should be in the front line to

protect people who go against these plunderers of the environment,” said Mr Latorre.

The Centre for Environmental Concerns reported that “massive losses in livelihood and worsening health conditions” of residents due to mining operations were recorded in the town of Santa Cruz the previous week.

The organisation said that, since 2006, when mining started in the town, people noted a rapid decrease in their income.

Farmers have seen their rice yields drop by one third since 2009, while fishermen who used to have an average catch per day of 50kgs in 2000 now only net at most 5 kg.—CNS

Vatican envoys risk their lives to end ‘World War III’

BY ROBERT DUNCAN

E

VEN in the midst of bombings, Vatican ambassadors stay put, risking their lives while working to end what Pope Francis has termed a “piecemeal” World War III, said the Vatican minister of foreign affairs.

“Let’s not be kidding ourselves about what the stakes are here: If we are going to bring peace, if we are going to reconcile nations, if we are going to secure countries and communities, particularly minorities, particularly people who are persecuted, we are going to have to make an unprecedented effort," Archbishop Paul Gallagher told Catholic News Service.

Archbishop Gallagher oversees Vatican diplomatic efforts to “know what is going on in the world, understand it and interpret it” in order to advise the pope and others in the Roman curia, the Church’s central administration.

Speaking specifically of the crisis in Syria and Iraq, Archbishop Gallagher said he is hopeful for a resolution of the conflict.

“We hope that the negotiations

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican secretary for relations with states, is pictured in Rome. (Photo: Robert Duncan/CNS) that have begun will bear fruit, that there will be in these coming days a cessation of hostilities [and] the creation of humanitarian corridors, to get aid to suffering people,” he said.

Archbishop Gallagher said the Vatican and its diplomats are working with people on the ground to foster interreligious dialogue in the region as part of the peacemaking effort.

“Unfortunately, it’s true that [with] the extremists, particularly ex-

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tremists who are prepared to embrace violence and terrorism, one is completely at a loss to say what one can do with such people,” he said.

Pope Francis has earned a reputation for taking risks with his own safety, for example, when in November he travelled to the Central African Republic, an active war zone.

The pope’s bold example has motivated Church diplomats in perilous situations abroad to go and do likewise, the archbishop said.

“From the top, that example is being given,” Archbishop Gallagher said.

A case in point is Archbishop Mario Zenari, the Vatican nuncio in war-torn Syria, Archbishop Gallagher said.

Archbishop Zenari, “throughout the whole of this conflict, has remained at his post and has made a very significant contribution” to the peacemaking effort that is underway, he said.

“Consistently, diplomats of the Holy See, we remain. We are in for the long haul. We don’t give up easily,” he said.—CNS

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6

The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Spotlight on the Church

W

HEN the film Spotlight won this year’s Oscar for Best Movie, many Catholics will have choked a little.

The film’s subject matter is difficult to swallow: it charts the investigation by the Boston Globe newspaper into the systemic cover-up by Catholic Church leaders, and the whole system, of clerical abuse of minors.

At the same time many Catholics also lauded the film’s honour as an act of validation for the survivors of abuse.

The newspaper’s investigation, which broke to the public in early 2002, opened the floodgates to revelations of the mishandling—through conspiracy and incompetence—of reported clerical abuse by diocesan hierarchs, not only in the United States but throughout the Catholic world.

It became apparent that the culture of covering up abuses in order to preserve the Church’s good reputation was systemic, infecting not only diocesan chanceries but every level of the Body of Christ—even some families of abused youngsters.

Sadly, many in the Church reacted to these shocking revelations defensively, showing scant concern for the survivors of abuse. It took longer than it ever should have for the Church to find its way. By the time it did, the damage to its reputation was acute.

The distressing saga brought humiliation to the Church. It broke trust between Church leadership and laity. And it tarnished the Catholic priesthood which has become the undeserved target of hackneyed punchlines by legions of cut-price comedians who care little that the rate of abuse of minors by Catholic priests is roughly identical to that of the general population.

Since 2002, the Church has made massive strides in redressing its failings in protecting minors from predatory priests.

Periodic lapses in good judgment notwithstanding, it is fair to say that today children are safer in the Catholic Church than they are in many other institutions, including religious bodies.

Strict protocols are in place to govern how allegations of abuse are to be handled.

In Southern Africa, all reports of abuse are referred to the police for investigation and possible prosecution before the Church

initiates its own proceedings.

During the investigation accused priests are removed from active parish ministry.

Similar strict protocols—some argue too strict—apply in the United States.

Pope Francis has set up a commission that is tasked to advise him on flaws in the systems.

When a French monsignor recently advised newly-appointed bishops attending a training course in the Vatican that they are not required to report allegations of abuse to the police—an astonishingly ill-advised statement—the pope unambiguously and publicly corrected him.

In the US, several bishops have resigned under Pope Francis’ watch for having failed to deal properly with allegations of clerical abuse, though many others have not been held to account.

While one may argue about details and acknowledge that more work needs to be done, nobody can reasonably accuse the Church or the pope of inaction or of otherwise being insincere in the efforts to protect children.

So it was disappointing that Michael Sugar, the producer of Spotlight, in his Oscar acceptance speech offered Pope Francis his advice that “it’s time to protect the children and restore the faith”, as if the Church has been idle in the intervening 14 years.

Spotlight is an important and fair movie which has taken remarkably little artistic licence in dealing with the facts. It highlights an important service which a pool of investigative reporters did, not only to the survivors of abuse but also to the Catholic Church, a body which needed the painful lancing of a noxious boil.

The Boston Globe must be credited with setting in motion a global process of intense change in one of the world’s most powerful institutions.

Surely this is the crowning culmination of the work done by the courageous journalists who are depicted in the film.

There obviously won’t be a sequel to Spotlight. Nobody will want to see a film about how the Church has worked hard, in increments, to change itself—and doing so in the face of ongoing resistance from within and the refusal to assume responsibility by some Church leaders.

Perhaps that story cannot be fully told until that process of reform is completed. And we are not yet at that point.

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.

Catholics: campaign for EWTN

I

WAS saddened and disappointed after learning that Karen Munzer, a Johannesburg Catholic who is fighting a lone battle to convince MultiChoice that Catholics in Southern Africa need to be respected like other religions and be accorded a slot on the DStv bouquet to air the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), had garnered a meagre 500 Catholic followers on Facebook.

Mrs Munzer is fighting the good fight on the Facebook page “We want Catholic TV (EWTN) on DStv”, which the Southern Cross reported on in the issue of February 24.

I would like to know whether our leaders in the Catholic Church, like the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, are doing something for us, their flock entrusted to them in this regard. I believe our leaders should be in the vanguard of this noble campaign.

I would also like to believe that a good chunk in the over 3 million Catholics in Southern Africa subscribe to DStv. Are we just content

Mother Teresa and nuke issues

T

HANK you for a good editorial (January 6) on Mother Teresa, particularly the late Christopher Hitchens’ attacks on her. Mr Hitchens, as you say, had a particular agenda and one can see that in his book Mortality, where he again spewed forth his anti-religion views; he was, of course, a militant atheist.

By now he realises that God is great.

May I make some comments on Frans van Neerijnen’s letter (February 3) on nuclear power?

He says that there have been only three noteworthy incidents, the worst being Chernobyl in 1986.

The Atomic Energy Commission found a total of 3 333 safety violations, of which 98 posed a threat of radiation exposure to the public or workers by June 1974 (Nuclear Lessons), and the authors, R Curtis and E Hogan, state that these accidents are not only found in the US but also in Canada, England, Japan, etc.

The authors list 11 major accidents, including Windscale, England, where radioactive milk from a 200-mile radius was dumped into the Irish Sea. The lessons from the Three Mile Island incident in the US, according to the authors, are: 1. Design errors 2. Inadequate training of operators 3. Violations by plant’s operator 4. Failure of reactor manager to warn of unreliability 5. Failure of utility to correct a known defect adequately

to sit back and be subjected to a lot of junk shows on DStv? Why can we not demand answers from MultiChoice as to why they discriminate against the Catholic-founded TV network programme when there are already a number of other religion-related channels on DStv? I have no doubt that if some of the powers that be at MultiChoice were Catholics, EWTN would have been the first religious channel on DStv. Surely the Catholic Church is a well-established entity that has contributed tremendously to the advancement of the people of Southern Africa in various dimensions, including spiritually, educationally, healthwise, fighting for the cause of social justice and peace, to name but a few.

Lame and meaningless excuses from MultiChoice, like “we review our channels every quarter and would look into it”, are an unacceptable insult to the Catholic religion. How many quarters have come and gone since MultiChoice became aware of this request?

Are South Africans so docile or 6. Human error and fatigue 7. NRC (the regulator) failing to heed warning of reactor inspector.

Peter A Onesta, Johannesburg

A great deception

W

HEN in 1895, Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, perceived a Jewish entity among the Arabs in Palestine, little did he realise what the serious outcomes would be.

In 1916, a hundred years ago, the Palestinian people were promised in the McMahon–Hussein correspondence that, if they sided with France and Britain against the Ottoman empire, they would be granted independence when the Turks were defeated.

The subsequent Sykes-Picot agreement, concluded on May 16, 1916, totally deceived the Arabs in general, and the Palestinians in particular. Instead of granting Palestine independence, it became a British protectorate after World War I. The superpowers now had an extra pawn, the Jewish people, to manipulate their strategic needs in the area. This led to the founding of 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

jOuRNEyS OF A LIFETImE!

MEDJUGORJE ROME • ASSISI Loreto • Croatia • Paris

have we become so lukewarm, like the members of the Church in Laodicea (Rev 3:14), that we cannot stand up and fight for what is spiritually worthwhile for us, our children and future generations—and for society as a whole?

A few years ago, the Catholic community of Nigeria rose in unity and threatened to boycott DStv when MultiChoice removed EWTN there. MultiChoice relented and Nigeria still enjoys EWTN as part of the DStv bouquet.

Can we not galvanise all genuine Catholics from all our parishes in Southern Africa to have a petition with signatures attached to a memorandum of demand handed over to MultiChoice insisting that EWTN be included in DStv Southern Africa bouquets?

I salute you, Mrs Munzer, for your sterling work and courageous stance. You deserve our support through continued and positive responsive action by joining the petition for having EWTN aired on DStv by all Southern African Catholic faithful and supportive Christians.

Alexius Phiri, Rustenburg the state of Israel in 1948, driving the Palestinians from land they had lived on for many centuries.

Later the United States took over from France and Britain.

At the end of 2015 US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that, because of his intransigence, Israel has missed out on a two-state solution. There is now only a one-state solution.

Both the Palestinians and the Jews are there to stay. It is no easy playground. As South Africans we know that the Palestinians and Jewish Israelis both need Mandela and De Klerk figures.

A peaceful and just solution would benefit Lebanon, the only bastion of Christianity in the Middle East.

Please continue to pray for Lebanon and the region.

Ken Hanna, Johannesburg

Southern Africa prayer call

W

E refer to the letter “Revive SA prayer” by David Borland (January 13).

As a Renew group based in Benoni we also appealed in an open letter to the bishops to reinstate the “Prayer for Southern Africa”. The letter was also published in our archdiocesan news but we had no response.

We personally submitted a similar letter to our archbishop. To date we have had no response.

Anne Lewis, Benoni

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PERSPECTIVES

This is the real life of a parish priest Fr Chris R Townsend ECENTLY at Mass, at the General Intercessions, there was a prayer that went something like “May the priests of the Church always know and experience the support and care of the faithful”.

I nearly choked. The priesthood is a lightning rod for so many emotions and reactions. I’d like you to spare a thought for your very human priests.

You might not like the way we work.

You might take exception to our personalities and actions. The best parish priest is always the one who was there before the present one. There is always a comparison with this priest or that priest.

In one of the parishes I worked in, I eventually got so frustrated by all this that I blurted out that all I wanted to be was a personal pronoun!

The priesthood that we live is rapidly changing. The old certainties of a cookiecutter priesthood have fallen away. The priesthood has become a very contentious position to be in.

The grand priesthood that I remember growing up with, and the certainty to which I was attracted at the beginning of a vocation, has all but disappeared. The black-robed, Roman-collared phalanx is no more. And I’m not sure if we have found a defining metaphor to replace it with.

We generally don’t live in community as diocesan priests. We often serve many parishes and outstations. We are responsible not only for the spiritual lives of a community, but we are also placed in overall charge of all the canonical, civil and statutory requirements of being the responsible person in a community.

We were generally adequately prepared for the spiritual work of the priesthood.

We were coached in preaching (oh yes, we were!). We were taught how to validly and licitly administer the sacraments. We had incredible teachers in scripture, dogma, psychology and history.

But we were hopelessly unprepared for the real-life work of priesthood. We were often dumped into situations where we were left to sink-or-swim.

We priests are a class of self-trained management experts and banking, fraud investigation, SARS compliance, labour law, building regulations and all other compliance seekers. We have to train ministers and catechists, be paedagogues, experts in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults—and still find the space for ourselves.

I consider myself a generalist. I’m no expert in anything, just a parish priest. I know that this is what my vocation is calling me to at this point in my life.

There are days I wish it wasn’t my vocation. I’d love to be in rarified academia or in a desk job position. But this is not to be—this is not the reality of being on the forefront of an emerging vision of the priesthood.

The challenges we diocesan priests in South Africa face are formidable. There are nowhere near enough good men to go around. Our lives are stressful and pressurised. We often have to work alone.

Many communities don’t have the wherewithal to employ support staff for simple things like secretarial and financial work—never mind the absolute luxury of catechetical directors or directors of music.

Our bishops desire a collaborative ministry and this is something we actively buy into. But this is not always that easy to do.

I

n a typical week, I will prepare for Sunday from Monday. I will try to find time to meet with my pastoral team—I’m blessed with an assistant priest and a permanent deacon.

I have to keep an eye on the parishioners in hospital—itself not easy as we’re increasingly not allowed into hospitals except during visiting hours.

I might have one or two funerals to organise. I need not only to watch out for the organisation of the funeral, but also—

A priest at Mass. In his column, Fr Townsend explains the various tasks and responsibilities a parish priest has to perform in his daily and weekly duties.

Pastor’s Notebook

most importantly—provide a spiritual contact space for bewildered families.

I might do spiritual direction with some, counselling with others, prepare couples for marriages and occasionally for their weddings, meet with the bookkeeper, prepare for pastoral council meetings and finance committee meetings.

I also prepare for an hour-long programme on Radio Veritas, which takes about three hours of preparation work, plus my travelling time from Pretoria to Johannesburg and back.

We diocesan priests often come home to no food, no company and an empty space. There’s very little of a caring environment for our own safe space.

I am also guardian of the liturgy, making sure that ministries function and are trained. The noble, simple beauty of the liturgy seldom just happens. Ministries need coordinating, mostly gently but occasionally with a firm hand. Liturgical ministry oversight often is like herding cats.

Add to this the changing face of the Church at large and the Church in particular: the parish. It’s often only the priest who is the full-time parish worker and who has the bigger view of what is happening in the parish.

Sometimes this means that we have to stay the course, choose a direction and hold to it. This might not be the most popular way of being. But it is the best way we know how.

I suppose that we are natural content of your Sunday lunch table talk, your neighbour groups, your messaging. But when we are, just be aware that we too have all the natural and moral rights of persons and disciples.

Often I feel deeply frustrated that we’re talked about but rarely talked to…

Spare then a thought when we also don’t sleep, have family issues, have health issues, are not always perfect examples, are disappointed in you, are short or grumpy or don’t remember your name and entire life story with perfect recall.

We priests are human too, and we’re also on the journey of Christian discipleship.

Why feeding children is so important Walter Middleton I ENJOYED reading Judith Turner’s article “Feeding the children secures our future” (February 10).

Having worked in the humanitarian arena for 46 years—carrying out largescale feeding programmes for the poor and vulnerable, mostly children, pregnant and lactating mothers—I fully concur with Ms Turner about the importance of nutrition for children.

Food affects every realm of our lives – the physical, the social, the political and the spiritual. Food is Life. Food is the great common denominator and equaliser of the human condition.

Regardless of religion, ethnicity, history, culture, economics, time or place, everyone is united by the common need for food.

Jim Morris, former executive director of the World Food Programme, once said: “A basic meal in school is the gateway to a brighter, better and crucially, an HIV/Aids-free future.”

A well-fed world is a more productive world. A well-fed world is a just world, A well-fed world is a safer world.

Food plays a crucial role in a child’s life, especially during the first five years.

Without proper food/nutrition, children are malnourished, have diarrhoeal diseases and other nutrition-related issues such as chronic anemia.

Children who go to school on an empty stomach cannot concentrate when they are at school. Due to lack of food at home, children are made to work or beg to support their families, thus depriving them of going to school. Many drop out by puberty to work or to marry to support their families.

Lack of access to nutritional food is a real issue that impacts many areas of a

Point of Life

Children climb on a slide in a park in Three Anchor Bay, Cape Town. In his guest column Walter Middleton explains why nutrition is so crucial to the development of children. (Photo: Kim Ludbrook, EPA) child’s life and has immense consequences socially and economically. The impact of inadequate access to food in childhood has detrimental lifelong effects.

C

onsider these facts regarding malnutrition: • Approximately 3,1 million children die from hunger each year. (UNICEF ) • Poor nutrition caused nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five in 2011.

• 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone. (UNICEF) • Globally, 99 million under-five-yearolds were underweight in 2013, two thirds of whom lived in Asia and about one third in Africa. (UNICEF) • Globally, 51 million under-five-yearolds were wasted and 17 million were severely wasted in 2013. (UNICEF) • 98 million children under five years

of age are underweight, or about one in every six children. Most underweight children live in Southern Asia. (World Health Organization ) • Malnourished children score 7% lower in math tests and are 19% less likely to be able to read aged 8. (Save the Children) • Well-nourished children are 13% more likely to be in the correct grade at school, boosting lifelong skills. (Save the Children) The Catholic Church is responding to this reality, though more can always be done.

One example of the Catholic response is in my parish. The Society of St Vincent de Paul at St Patrick’s in La Rochelle, Johannesburg, is running two soup kitchens, one at St Patrick’s and another at Our Lady of Fatima church in South Hill.

While there are a number of children being fed at South Hill, the number of children being fed at La Rochelle is still small. We want to focus on feeding more children. I might be able to obtain funding from abroad to provide food through a soup kitchen or school feeding to poor and needy children.

If you know of an area where there is a need, please contact me on 0825611352.

Let’s work towards creating a world where every child is fed and hunger is not tolerated.

The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

7

Judith Turner

Faith and Life

Let the people stand up straight

S

OMETIMES we find it difficult to link a Gospel story to our everyday lives. We don’t immediately see the connection, but upon reflection and putting ourselves and our situations into the story, the story becomes alive and we see the meaning.

One such story, for me, is “The Cure of the Infirm Woman”. In Luke 13 we read: “On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.’ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.” An increasing number of people in this world, and in this country and in our own towns and cities, are bowed down and made infirm by many events in their lives. We ourselves are sometimes bowed down by the pressures we are under at home, at work or in our relationships.

And I am sure you have experienced how painful it is to straighten your back after having had it in a bent position for some time. It would often be easier to remain in this uncomfortable, unnatural position.

But we know that for our long term well-being we have to accept the brief effort and discomfort involved in straightening up again.

When we remain in such a bowed down position, we notice only part of what is happening around us. We can see only what is directly in front of us, and our movements are also limited. We lose a lot of our capabilities and possibilities to do anything. Being in a bowed down position really limits us!

Poverty, unemployment, crime, disease, and a lack of education are circumstances which weigh down so many people, especially young people today. These circumstances are very oppressive.

Many simply do not have the strength left to stand up and straighten up again. They are not able to look with hope to the future and search for opportunities and more meaning in their lives.

This is what we, as people of faith, can see as our mission: to teach, assist and encourage people to stand up straight again. To invite people, especially young people, to lift up their heads and look to the future.

We know that often it is not easy for people who have lived under oppression for a long time to straighten up. People who are under pressure often have no resources left to enable them to reconsider their social and political situations. They often have no strength left to look for alternatives.

We can sometimes bear it if we are under pressure for only a limited time. But if the situation you are in is dominated completely by oppression, without the benefit of hope, then you lose the strength you need to defend yourself against the oppression—or even to imagine another, upright life.

The oppression then overwhelms us and has its grasp on us. And often enough we simply just give in to it, rather than to stand up only to be pushed down again.

Our duty as Christians is to be open to people and their situations, and through our actions help them to find new perspectives and new hope in their lives, so that they have a new life.

When people discover what is within them, when they stand up and demand that they, as creatures of God, are entitled to special dignity, and when they recognise that it is their duty to participate in the Church and the world, then the Kingdom of God can continue to grow.

Jesus’ actions towards the infirm woman released her from her infirmity in order for her to stand up straight again. Jesus acts as if he wants to say to the woman: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”.

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8

The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

PILGRIMAGE

The group before Mass in the church of the ecumenical Anafora retreat centre, 50km west of Cairo. Congregants in the church must take off their shoes, as per Coptic custom, and may sit on cushions or chairs.

The Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers group at the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. With them is Catholic Palestinian guide Arlette (standing left), who replaced chief guide Rimon Makhlouf following a family tragedy. Under her guidance the group avoided queues wherever they went, only to find long lines of pilgrims on the way out.

Sr Eileen Gallagher PSN (in the pink top) waits to enter the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem’s church of the Holy Sepulchre. Historical and archaeological evidence leaves no doubt that the church covers the places of Christ’s death and resurrection. The pilgrims also touched the rock on which the cross stood.

Panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee seen from the Mount of Beatitudes.

Pilgrims renew their baptismal vows at the Jordan river.

Coptic Father Joaquin of the 4th-century monastery of St Bishoy, one of the most important in Egypt, presents Archbishop Brislin with a gift.

The monastery is at Wadi el Natrun, on the edge of Egypt’s western desert.

Cairo guide Maged explains the historic interior of the Hanging church in Cairo. The church is part of a complex that also includes the crypt were the Holy Family was hiding during the Flight into Egypt.

The Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers I

N February a group of 23 ranging in ages from 21 to 83 travelled to the Holy Land and Egypt on a Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers, led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin.

The purpose of the journey was, of course, spiritual—but also to show our solidarity with the Christians of the Holy Land and Egypt, to learn more about their lives and situations, and to pray in a very special way for peace, justice and reconciliation in this troubled region.

The photos on this page provide just some of the memorable scenes from this remarkable, prayerful and holy pilgrimage, on which there will be more in The Southern Cross over the coming weeks. All photos except the group picture are by Günther Simmermacher.

Pilgrims Irene and Jose dos Reis, Carlos and Lena Ferreira, and Elias and Florah Chabala after renewing their wedding vows in the Franciscan Wedding church at Cana, near Nazareth. The church commemorates the Lord’s first public miracle when he turned the water into wine.

Archbishop Brislin celebrates Mass at the church of St Peter’s Primacy at the Sea of Galilee. This is the spot where the risen Christ made a fish breakfast for the disciples and then entrusted the Church to St Peter, thereby initiating the Church. Standing on the right is guide Rimon Makhlouf, a Latin-rite Catholic Palestinian.

The group prays in the dungeon in the church of St Peter in Gallicantu on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, where tradition holds Jesus was held the night before his crucifixion.

Pilgrims at the 8-metrehigh separation wall that encircles the West Bank city of Bethlehem, whose residents may leave only with permits from Israel’s government.

Israel says the wall is for security; Palestinians say it is used to annex their land.

The monastery of St Simon the Tanner on Mokattam mountain in Cairo, the place where the city’s Christians come to pray in unity. The main amphitheatre church of St Simon (front) can hold 20 000 people. The mountain and cave walls in the smaller St Mark’s cave church, where the group had Mass, are decorated with biblical reliefs cut into the stone by a Polish artist, Mario, who continues to work at the monastery.

The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

FAITH

9

Burying the dead: once an act of mercy Once upon a time it was necessary to bury abandoned bodies as a work of mercy. In Rome a confraternity was founded for that purpose — and it still exists.

CAROL GLATZ reports.

I

F a pilgrim walking to Rome for a Holy Year fell mortally ill far from home or a poor tenant farmer died working in a field or an unidentifiable victim of murder was found, a group of courageous Christians buried these anonymous or forgotten dead with dignity.

Founded in 1538, the Archconfraternity of St Mary of the Oration and Death in Rome spent nearly 500 years offering a Christian funeral and burial to those who would otherwise never have one.

Burying and praying for the dead are among the corporal and spiritual works of mercy Pope Francis has asked people to carry out during the upcoming Year of Mercy.

Many popes, over the past centuries, had supported the difficult and sombre work of the archconfraternity, starting with 16th-century Pope Paul III, who wanted to see the association formally established, said Alfonso Sapia, head of the arch-

confraternity.

During Advent in early December in 1538, a Capuchin priest gave such an impassioned homily about the tragedy of those abandoned at death and the immense spirit shown by those who risked danger and disease to bury them, he inspired a huge number of people in the pews to join the new lay association.

Several decades later, Pope Paul V (1605-21) gave the confraternity’s chaplains special permission to celebrate Mass outside of a church, before sunrise and after sunset if necessary. These were “prerogatives that had been unthinkable” at the time, Mr Sapia said.

Members often walked long distances at any time of day or night to get to an abandoned body. The special dispensation was granted because sometimes they couldn’t get the deceased to a cemetery quickly enough and the dangers of natural disasters, disease, wild animals or advanced decay necessitated immediate burial.

Recognising the confraternity’s important work, Pope Pius V (156672) granted clemency every year to one prisoner on death row and entrusted the confraternity members and their families to take in the formerly condemned man and his family—teaching them skills, a trade and helping them back on

Alfonso Sapia, head of the Archconfraternity of St Mary of the Oration, points to stones placed to remember and pray for confraternity supporters at the church of St Mary of the Oration and Death in Rome.

their feet.

The sainted pope also conceded to the confraternity the rare privilege of collecting money on the street and in taverns to pay for the burials of the poor. “It wasn’t legal to raise money without authorisation from the pontiff,” Mr Sapia said.

Because taverns were still a hothouse of murder in the 16th century, “people would get drunk, and it would end up like in the Wild West: shooting pistols” and smashing things, he said. The owner always kept one of the confraternity’s black metal canisters on hand to collect spare change and donations to then pay for any eventual burials.

L

ocated on the wide cobblestone road of the historic Via Giulia in central Rome, the church of St Mary of the Oration and Death—and the confraternity’s headquarters—are still surrounded by foreign embassies and ornate buildings once owned or inhabited by noble families and wealthy merchants.

Rome’s wealthiest and powerful families were almost always enthusiastic donors and even members of the confraternity, Mr Sapia said.

“The more of a troublemaker they were, the more generous they were in donations, because that way the people would pray” for their souls and salvation from purgatory, he explained.

Large commemorative marble plaques with lengthy inscriptions and entreaties for people’s prayers decorate the walls behind a chapel of the church.

Another, more unexpected, form of remembrance is seen in the lower portion of the church, where scores of skulls sit neatly in rows on wooden shelves set into the walls.

The deceased’s name, and date and cause of death are chiselled onto the forehead.

Mr Sapia said many confraternity members had wanted their skulls preserved in the church “as a testimony of affection” and as a way to say, “I love this confraternity and I will never leave it, not even after I die.”

Other skulls in the crypt belonged to the poor whose cause of death shows the difficult conditions

Skulls of a woman who died in childbirth and a member of a confraternity for burying the dead rest in the crypt of the church of St Mary of the Oration and Death, in Rome. (Photos: Paul Haring/CNS) just a few generations ago: almost all of the skulls belonging to women document them dying during childbirth.

A holy water font is watched over by the upper torso of a skeleton, and the chandeliers lit overhead are an artistic composite of vertebrae and the triangular sacrum—”the sacred bone”—at the end of the spinal column. Using bones serves as a reminder that from darkness and death there shall be light.

Mr Sapia said such concrete reminders of death “seems awful and terrible” in today’s culture, but back then “people didn’t live past 50, and death was much more human”, with people being much more aware and accepting of dying.

“Besides praying for and burying the dead, the confraternity also taught people not to be hedonists” who are living only for the present moment “and doing what we want right now”, he said.

“Instead what the confraternity told people was, ‘Yes, we have to live well, but most of all we have to die without being afraid of dying,’” which meant being ready for God’s judgment by trying to live a holy life.

With the group’s last burial in the 1950s, as a post-war Italian government began to provide basic

human and social services, the archconfraternity’s mission had to change, he said.

Their work is now based “on the three C’s: Christ, charity and culture”, Mr Sapia said, as they promote sacred art and music.

Confraternities, he said, have been essential in providing charitable care and preserving the spiritual life of the Church, especially during the Reformation.

“When Martin Luther started the reform, people became much more distanced from the Catholic Church,” he said.

But while fewer people were attending Mass in Rome’s major basilicas, he said, the confraternity’s smaller churches stayed full, where “there wasn’t the arrogance of the cardinal” and people were simpler, more humble and more gracious.

This approach and attitude “helped the Church in the CounterReformation”, Mr Sapia said, as the confraternities “were used to guide the Church” towards successful reform.

Mr Sapia said he sees a parallel with Pope Francis.

“The confraternity, as Francis says, smelled of sheep” and members didn’t wait for people to come to them for help, but bravely ventured off to bring the Church to people in need, Mr Sapia said.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

SAINTS

Meet the patron saint of journalists The patron saint of journalists and the Catholic press is St Francis de Sales, which is why he is one of the four patrons of The Southern Cross’ Associates Campaign. GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks at the life of a saint who has a message for us even today.

A

T the beginning and end of every Southern Cross board meeting, one will hear the invocation: “St Francis de Sales, pray for us.”

This particular St Francis is the patron saint of journalists, even though he lived at a time when the profession of journalism was still to be invented in the ways we know it today.

François de Sales, as his teenage mother knew him, was born in 1567, the first of 15 children of a noble family in south-eastern France.

The room of his birth was named the St Francis Room, after a big painting on its wall depicting the saint of Assisi preaching to the birds.

Named François Bonaventura, after the two great Franciscan saints, he was educated by the Jesuits.

As the son of a lord, he entered the prestigious University of Paris with a personal servant in tow, as well as a personal tutor, a priest.

François was tall and well-built, handsome with blue-grey eyes, and he had good, if reserved, manners as well as promising prospects. He was outstanding husband material. Instead, as a 20-year-old he dedicated his life to the Blessed Virgin, pledging chastity.

To please his father he continued his studies, reading law and theology at the venerable University of Padua in Italy. Guided by his Jesuit spiritual adviser, however, he decided to become a priest. But first he went home: as a lawyer.

In the interim, Francis’ father had his son’s future all figured out. He had secured a senator’s post for his son, and a wealthy heiress to marry.

Life was going to be good.

For 18 months Francis lived the life his father had prepared for him—except Francis was still intent on becoming a priest. When informed of this, Francis’ father put up a formidable opposition. It took the mediation of the bishop of Geneva, Mgr Claude de Granier, to open the clerical path to Francis, contingent on the young man getting a prestigious Church position.

Francis didn’t seek prestige, though. Not long after his ordination, he volunteered to be sent to the region of Chablais to work as an

St Francis de Sales, the bishop and writer, is a Doctor of the Church and patron saint of journalists and the Catholic press. evangeliser in an almost completely Calvinist area, one in which the suppression of the Catholic Church had been lifted only recently and where hostility to Rome remained fierce.

Against the wishes of his father— there was a pattern emerging—Francis and his cousin, Canon Louis de Sales, set off in September 1594 to return the Catholic faith to hostile territory.

They were not warmly welcomed, except by the few remaining Catholics who were too scared to declare their allegiance openly. Twice Francis miraculously escaped assassination attempts and had to be guarded by soldiers of the duchy of Savoy.

Another time a mob set upon Francis, beating him. But this, as well as the pamphlets he distributed, only attracted greater attention to his missionary work, and he was able to record some successes. By 1599, the region’s capital, Thononles-Bains, was again predominantly Catholic.

But the dangers were presented not just by irate Calvinists. One winter’s day Francis was crossing a forest when he was set upon by a pack of wolves. For safety he climbed up on a tree and remained there for the night. By morning he was discovered by local peasants who took him in and nursed the hypothermic priest back to health, thereby saving his life.

These peasants were Calvinists, a fact which impressed Francis as evidence that there were also good people on the other side. The story goes that he converted them to Catholicism.

But it wasn’t all angry mobs, devious assassins, hungry wolves and kind peasants. Francis’ nobility gave him access to the high rollers in the world of Church and politics, and so he secured alliances with Pope Clement VIII and King Henry IV of France, the dissolute king who later

invited Francis to preach a Lenten retreat.

In 1599 Francis became coadjutor bishop of the diocese of Geneva; and upon de Granier’s death three years later, its archbishop. Like his predecessor, he resided in the safer town of Annecy.

As a bishop he collaborated closely with the Franciscans, who bestowed upon him the highest order a non-Franciscan can receive: an official associate of the Order.

F

rancis built a reputation as a preacher in the era of the Counter-Reformation, operating in a fiercely Protestant region. But his method of preaching was neither polemic nor of the fire-and-brimstone variety. It was gentle and persuasive.

“He who preaches with love,” he would say, “preaches effectively.” In this he provided an echo of St Francis of Assisi, and set a template for a future Francis, our current Holy Father.

He put that motto into action in the famous book he addressed—unusually for the time—to the laity, Introduction to the Devout Life.

His book was fairly revolutionary.

In its introduction he wrote: “It is an error, or rather a heresy, to say devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman.” Pointedly he added: “It has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world. “ Among the people whom Francis influenced was Fr Vincent de Paul, who was greatly inspired by de Sales’ books, especially An Introduction to the Devout Life and Treatise on the Love of God. The two met once in Paris.

Francis wrote prolifically in his time, and his mystical writings were received enthusiastically.

He also was involved in founding religious congregations, most no-

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IOLENCE and vandalism at South African universities are reactions to inequality in the country, according to Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, spokesman for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) At least four un been turned into ba by students who la marches, won their in fees in 2016.

North-West Uni y in Mafikeng has shut down indefinitely after students burned an administration compound that included a science centre. The students were protesting against the suspension of a student council leader.

The burning of the science centre will affect the wider community, Archbishop Slat-

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tably the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary with another future saint, Jane Frances de Chantal.

Francis de Sales died suddenly, following a stroke, on December 28, 1622, at the age of only 56. His influence, however, lived on.

When St John Bosco founded his order in Turin in 1859, he named it the Society of St Francis de Sales; hence their common name, the Salesians.

Likewise, the Salesian Sisters were named after him, as was another order active in South Africa, the Oblates of St Francis de Sales.

St Francis de Sales was beatified in 1661 by Pope Alexander VII and canonised by the same pope four years later. His feast day is on January 24, the date of his burial at Annecy. Pope Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1877.

As one who evangelised through his writings, St Francis de Sales was named the first patron saint of journalists and the Catholic press in 1923 by Pope Pius XI. And that is why his name is invoked at every board meeting of The Southern Cross (and sometimes even in internal e-mail correspondence), and why he is one of the patrons of The Southern Cross’ Associates Campaign.

On his feast day, a Mass is said for the intentions of the contributors to the Associates Campaign, and the repose of the souls of those who have passed away.

The Southern Cross is going through difficult times. The newspaper is suffering the effects of a changing media environment, and the inefficiency of the Post Office— whose failure to provide the service it gets paid for amounts to economic sabotage—and its strikes could kill off the newspaper.

Things aren’t helped by some parishes that aren’t paying for their sold issues of The Southern Cross, but keep the money which readers paid for the newspaper for their own purposes, in contravention of the Seventh Commandment.

But we have many loyal supporters. In practical terms, there are those who collect the parcels for their parishes, put them out at church, and even sell them in person. We have our advertisers, and we have our generous Associates.

All of them take part in the social communications apostolate of which St Francis de Sales is the patron priest.

And then there are those who pray for The Southern Cross, a number that can only grow.

Pray for us, in private, in groups, maybe also at Mass. And please invoke our patrons, canonised or not: St Maximilian Kolbe, Bl Titus Brandsma, Dorothy Day, our ex-editor Cardinal Owen McCann—and, of course, St Francis de Sales. n To join the Associates Campaign, see page 1.

or

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier is interviewed on camera after the official opening of the Denis Hurley

sit it ne

Thank you for helping your Southern Cross

Feed your soul every week with The

S outher n C ross

IT’S WORTH IT!

In the words of St Francis de Sales

The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will care for you tomorrow and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering or give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.

Have jesus always for your patron, his Cross for a mast on which you must spread your resolutions as a sail. your anchor shall be a profound confidence in him, and you shall sail prosperously. nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly. have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself.

Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them every day begin the task anew.

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.

The bee collects honey from flowers in such a way as to do the least damage or destruction to them, and he leaves them whole, undamaged and fresh, just as he found them.

Half an hour’s meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.

To live according to the spirit is to love according to the spirit.

The measure of love is to love without measure.

There was never an angry man that thought his anger unjust.

It is a fact that people are always well aware of what is due them. unfortunately, they remain oblivious of what they owe to others.

Those who love to be feared fear to be loved.

We must never undervalue any person. The workman loves not that his work should be despised in his presence. Now God is present everywhere, and every person is his work.

Examine your heart often to see if it is such towards your neighbour as you would like his to be towards you were you in his place. This is the touchstone of true reason.

God does not measure our perfection by the many things we do for him, but by how we do them.

We correct ourselves better by a calm and lasting repentance than by one that is bitter and angry.

Retire at various times into the solitude of your own heart, even while outwardly engaged in discussions or transactions with others, and talk to God. The many troubles in your household will tend to your edification, if you strive to bear them all in gentleness, patience, and kindness. keep this ever before you, and remember constantly that God’s loving eyes are upon you amid all these little worries and vexations, watching whether you take them as he would desire. offer up all such occasions to him, and if sometimes you are put out, and give way to impatience, do not be discouraged, but make haste to regain your lost composure.

CLASSIFIEDS

Fr Angelo Ciccone OSM

BY STAFF REPORTER

F

ATHER Angelo Ciccone OSM died in a car accident in Swaziland on February 22.

He was 85.

Fr Ciccone, a friar priest, was a member of the Servite Community at St Joseph’s convent in Mzimpofu, Swaziland. He was born in Naples, Italy, on April 28, 1930.

“He was a person of good character and a friar with a deep faith,” said Servite provincial secretary Fr Pier Michele Sau. “He was able to enter and understand the cultural, religious and artistic reality of the Swazi people, and to make good use of the positive aspects in the expression of the faith and community life and becoming a point of reference for all the nation.

“He gathered around himself many young people, encouraging them to study and turn their dreams into reality.”

Fr Ciccone was a missionary, who cared for the poor and people with physical or psychological problems, Fr Sau said.

“He gave them hope, making them feel loved and accepted, teaching them a trade so that they could build a future for themselves,” he said.

“Fr Ciccone fought for the continent of Africa with love and hope, without forgetting the land of his birth, the Neapolitan province, becoming a mediator between these two realities and

assuring an attitude which included both.”

Fr Ciccone’s death has closed a page in the history of the presence of the Servants of Mary in Swaziland, said Fr Sau. “He left us a spiritual inheritance of what it means to be friars who know to give of themselves for the cause of the Kingdom of God, without counting the cost.

“We entrust Fr Angelo to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary so that he may be admitted in the Kingdom of God where love never comes to an end.

“At the same time we offer our fraternal prayers for the nephews and relatives of Fr Ciccone so that the Lord Jesus may console and strengthen them.”

Bishop José Luis Ponce de Léon of Manzini, Swaziland, said Fr Ciccone will be remembered as a great man.

“The great man has fallen but his spirit will forever be remembered,” the bishop said.

Fr Ciccone’s funeral was held on March 4 at the cathedral in Manzini.

Durban choir to perform sacred works

T

HE Durban Symphonic Choir will be performing sacred classical works in a concert at St Joseph’s cathedral in Mariannhill, near Durban, on Palm Sunday.

Conducted by Naum Rousine and accompanied on the organ

by Dr Christopher Cockburn, the choir will be presenting Stainer’s “Crucifixion” followed by excerpts from Handel’s “Messiah” on March 20 at 15:00.

Tickets at R100 each will be available at the door; children under 12 enter free.

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

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.

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.

Word of the Week

Auxiliary bishop: A bishop assigned to a Catholic diocese or archdiocese to assist its residential bishop. Whether in a diocese or archdiocese, his title is bishop.

Reg. number 012-905 NPO

Founded in 1966, the Durban Symphonic Choir “aims to inspire singers and audiences alike with the magnificence, beauty and emotional power of choral music through their performances”, according to its website (durbansymphonicchoir.co.za).

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THANKS

Dearest Lord Jesus, Mother Mary, St Jude and St Theresa. Thank you for prayers answered. PM.

PERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: The pill can abort (chemical abortion) Catholics must be told, for their eternal welfare and the survival of their unborn infants. See www.epm.org/static/up loads/downloads/bcpill.pdf ABORTION WARNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelifeabortionis evil.co.za VISIT PIOUS KINTU’S official website http://ave maria832.simplesite.com This website has been set up to give glory to the Most Holy Trinity through the healing power of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

View amazing pictures of Pious Kintu’s work in Congo and various African countries since 2007. Also read about African Stigmatist Reverend Sister Josephine Sul and Padre Pio among others.

PRAYERS

God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.

Amen.

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

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

Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday March 13, 5th Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalms 126, Philippians 3:814, John 8:1-11 Monday March 14 Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62, Psalms 23, John 8:12-20 Tuesday March 15 Numbers 21:4-9, Psalms 102:2-3, 16-21, John 8:21-30 Wednesday March 16 Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95, Daniel 3:52-56, John 8:31-42 Thursday March 17, St Patrick (right) Genesis 17:3-9, Psalms 105:4-9, John 8:51-59 Friday March 18, St Cyril of Jerusalem Jeremiah 20:10-13, Psalms 18:2-7, John 10:31-42 Saturday March 19, St Joseph 2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16, Psalms 89:2-5, 27, 29, Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22, Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24

Sunday March 20, Palm Sunday Procession: Luke 19:28-40, Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalms 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24, Philippians 2:611, Luke 22:14--23:56

11

Births • First Communion • Confirmation • Engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • Ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • Thanks • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday Accommodation • Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Others Please include payment (R1,60 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

Liturgical Calendar

SCREEN PRINTING

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The Southern Cross, March 9 to March 15, 2016

ST MICHAEL the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May

ALMIGHTY eternal God, source of all compassion, the promise of your mercy and saving help fills our hearts with hope. Hear the cries of the people of Syria; bring healing to those suffering from the violence, and com-

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 697. ACROSS: 5 Ally, 7 Fanaticism, 8 Rust, 10 Transept, 11 Raffle, 12 Excite, 14 Tolled, 16 Remand, 17 In camera, 19 Loss, 21 Lieutenant, 22 Idle. DOWN: 1 Afar, 2 Faithful, 3 Little, 4 Pilate, 5 Amos, 6 Lampstands, 9 Unanointed, 13 Compline, 15 Deeper, 16 Reacts, 18 Able, 20 Sate.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: March 14: Bishop Stanley Dziuba of Umzimkulu on the 7th anniversary of his episcopal ordination March 19: Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley on the 5th anniversary of his episcopal ordination

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OmI STAmPS yOuR uSED STAmPS

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fort to those mourning the dead. Empower and encourage Syria’s neighbours in their care and welcome for refugees. Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms, and strengthen the resolve of those committed to peace. O God of hope and Father of mercy, your Holy Spirit inspires us to look beyond ourselves and our own needs. Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies. Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria, and fill us with hope for a future of peace built on justice for all. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Light of the World, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen. Prayer courtesy of the USCCB.

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the

Palm Sunday: March 20 Readings: Luke 19:28-40, Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24, Philippians 2:611, Luke 22:14-23:56

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S outher n C ross

Passion in Year of Mercy

EXT Sunday is Palm Sunday, and we are into the high drama of Holy Week. We need to take time with these readings and sit with them, if we are to get all we can out of this great climax to our Lenten journey.

The first reading we shall hear will be Luke’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, on a borrowed donkey, with the disciples and the crowd of followers cheering him, and the Pharisees objecting.

Then we shall hear the third of the Songs of the Suffering Servant, and Psalm 22, which clearly helped the early Christians to speak of the awful event of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Then we shall have that lovely hymn to Christ from the Philippians, Paul meditating on what happened to Jesus because of his willingness to empty himself and endure the appalling death on the cross.

The longest reading is Luke’s version of the Passion, and its seems good to point you towards the way Luke tells the story, to make the most of this extraordinary tale.

In particular, it seems sensible to mention

those bits of Luke’s version of Jesus’ Passion that keep the current Year of Mercy at the forefront of our minds.

It starts, unpromisingly, with a fight that breaks out at the Last Supper (of all inopportune times!) over who is Mr Big, which Jesus, devastatingly, brings to an end by reminding these macho-men that “I am in the midst of you as a server”, and in John’s gospel that is given dramatic expression by Jesus’ washing of the dirty feet of his disciples.

Then Simon Peter is reminded (“Simon, Simon—Satan sought to sift you”) that he is weak, and in need of Jesus’ mercy: “I prayed for you that your faith might not fail.”

The next thing we discover is that Jesus’ (unmerciful) disciples have come armed with “two swords”. Jesus puts them in their place with the comment “It is enough.”

In the garden Luke makes us witness to the angel from Heaven mercifully strengthening Jesus, and to his sweating blood. When he is brought before Pilate, it is on the mercilessly false charge of “perverting our nation, stopping

them from paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he is ‘Messiah’, a king”.

Another passage that is only in Luke, is when Pilate picks up that Jesus is a Galilean and tries to get rid of him, as an awkward problem, to Herod Antipas.

Herod wants to see miracles and doesn’t get any, nor does Jesus even deign to answer his interrogation; so Herod sends him back, wearing “a bright garment”.

Interestingly, though, Luke comments that these two merciless functionaries, who were seeking only to gratify their own interests, “became friends with each other from that day”.

Jesus, by contrast, is utterly open to others, and speaks words of mercy. We see this especially in three further episodes that appear only in Luke.

First, he meets a crowd of brave women, who were mourning and lamenting for him; and he is able to see with their eyes, and tell them: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep over me—no: weep for yourselves and for your children.” This is a very different story.

Embrace your limitations W

from embarrassment, from suffering an indignity. No doubt the shortage of wine was due to some poverty on their part, either a shortage of money or a shortage of good planning, but, either way, they stood to be embarrassed before their guests.

But, as with most things in the gospels, this incident has a deeper meaning. Mary isn’t just speaking for a particular host on a particular occasion. She’s also speaking universally, as the mother of humanity, Eve, voicing for all of us what the Catholic theologian John Shea so aptly calls “the cries of finitude”.

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hat is finitude? The finite, as we can see from the word itself, contrasts itself to the infinite, to what is not limited, to God. God, alone, is not finite. God, alone, is self-sufficient. God, alone, is never helpless, and God, alone, never needs help from anyone else.

Only God is never subject to sickness, hunger, tiredness, irritation, fatigue, bodily and mental diminishment, and death.

God, alone, never has to suffer the indignity of need, of getting caught short, of inadequate self-expression, of not measuring up, of being embarrassed, of being bullied, of being unable to help himself, and of having to beg silently with his eyes for someone to come and help.

Everything else is finite. Thus, as humans, we are subject to helplessness, illness, lameness, blindness, hunger, tiredness, irritation, diminishment and death.

Moreover, within all these, we are also

Conrad

HAT most moves your heart? I was asked this question recently at a workshop. We were asked to respond to this question: “When do you most naturally feel compassion in your heart?”

For me, the answer came easily. I am most moved when I see helplessness, when I see someone or something helpless to tend to its own needs and to protect its own dignity.

It might be a baby, hungry and crying, too little to feed itself and to safeguard its own dignity. It might a woman in a hospital, sick, in pain, dying, helpless to get better, also unable to attend to her own dignity. It might be an unemployed man, down on his luck, unable to find work, the odd man out when everyone else seems to be doing great. It might be a little girl on the playground, helpless as she is teased and bullied, suffering indignity. Or it might just be a baby kitten, hungry, helpless, pleading with its eyes, unable to speak or attend to its own need. Helplessness tugs at the heart.

I am always touched in the softest place inside me by helplessness, by the pleading of finitude. I suspect we all are.

We’re in good company. This is what moved Mary, Jesus’ mother, at the wedding feast of Cana to go over to Jesus and say: “They have no wine!”

Her request here has different layers of meaning. At one level, it is a very particular request at a particular occasion in history; she is trying to save her hosts at a wedding

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Sunday Reflections

Secondly, when he is crucified, according to at least some manuscripts, Jesus does not curse his executioners, as would normally have been expected, but prays in the language of the Old Testament: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Then the final and most dramatic episode in Luke’s telling of the tale is a living testimony to the mercy of God; it comes when, to our entire astonishment, we hear what Jesus says to the thief crucified with him.

This man has seen something of the royal power of his co-victim and said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

The response is regal and authoritative, but also gives dramatic expression to the mercy of God, even on those who had done wrong: “Amen I am telling you: today you will be with me in Paradise.”

We listen in awe.

Southern Crossword #697

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

subject to indignity. So many of our words and actions are, in the end, cries of finitude, cries for assistance, the cries of a baby for food, for warmth, for protection, and for a safeguard from indignity.

Although we are infinitely more sophisticated in our humanity, we are all still, at one level, the baby kitten, pleading with our eyes for someone to feed us, and all the assertions of self-sufficiency of the rich, the strong, the healthy, the arrogant, and of those who seemingly need no help are in the end nothing other than attempts to keep helplessness at bay.

Not matter how strong and self-sufficient we might believe ourselves to be, finitude and mortality admit of no exemptions. Tiredness, illness, diminishment, death, and painful hungers will eventually find us all. Our wine too will eventually run out. Hopefully someone like the Mother of Jesus will speak for us: “They have no wine!”

What’s the lesson in this? A number of things: First, recognising our finitude can lead to a healthier self-understanding. Knowing and accepting our finitude can help quell a lot of frustration, restlessness and false guilt in our lives.

I once had a spiritual director, an elderly nun, who challenged me to live by this axiom: “Fear not, you are inadequate.” We need to forgive ourselves for our own limits, for the fact that we are human, finite, and are unable to provide ourselves and those around us all that we need.

But inadequacy is a forgivable condition, not a moral fault.

Beyond forgiving ourselves for our helplessness, recognising and accepting our finitude should challenge us too to hear more clearly the cries of finitude around us.

And so whether it’s the cry of a baby, the humiliation in the eyes of someone looking for work, the ravaged eyes of the terminally ill patient, or simply the pleading eyes of a young kitten, we need, like Mary, to take up their cause and ensure that someone spares them from indignity by changing their water into wine, by calling out: “They have no wine!”

St John Paul II Pilgrimage to Poland Southern Cross

Nicholas King SJ

ACROSS

5. Finally, the cooperator appears (4) 7. Can a misfit show such religious bigotry? (10) 8. It can destroy your treasure (Mt 6) (4) 10. It may run across the cathedral’s nave (8) 11. Parish lottery (6) 12. arouse enthusiasm (6) 14. Sounded the church bell (6) 16. Place the defendant on bail (6) 17. Rain came where the judge heard the case (2,6) 19. a defeat in sport (4) 21. Lent auntie a military rank (10) 22. hid League’s lazy member (4)

DOWN

1. at a distance (4) 2. The observant Catholics (8) 3. Flower degree of saint of Lisieux (6) 4. he washed his hands of Jesus (6) 5. Inside a most important prophet (4) 6. Land’s stamp for light-holders (10) 9. not having received the unction (10) 13. Bedtime prayer of office (8) 15. Further down at sea (6) 16. Responds to the traces (6) 18. has the skill, we hear, of Cain’s brother (4) 20. Teas to fill you up (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

T

HE Sunday school teacher asked her Grade 2s if they would give a million rand to the Church’s charitable works.

All scream: “Yeeees!”

“Would you give a thousand rand?” Again, “Yeeees!”

A hundred rand? “Yeeees!”

Would you give just a rand to the Church’s charities?” she asked.

All the kids shout “yeeees”, except for little Thabo.

“Thabo,” the catechist says, “why didn’t you say ‘yes’ this time?”

“Well,” Thabo stammers, “I have a rand.”

a journey to the places of St John Paul II’s life and devotions, led by a Bishop who knows Poland intimately.

Led by Bishop Stan Dziuba 13 - 21 May 2016

Kraków | Wadowice (on St john Paul II’s birthday) | Black madonna of Częstochowa | Niepokalanów (St maximilian Kolbe) | Divine mercy Sanctuary | Warsaw | Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (with miraculous icon) | Zakopane | Wieliczka Salt mine (with mass!)