160316

The

S outher n C ross

March 16 to March 22, 2016

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

Where do we meet Jesus on the cross?

No 4968

www.scross.co.za

The pope who wanted to topple Hitler

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R8,00 (incl VAT RSA)

Nazareth, where God became human

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Bishop, pope: Slain sisters are martyrs

BY EliSE HARRiS, AlAN HoldREN & MANdlA ZiBi

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OUTH African Missionary Sisters of Charity said they were praying for the fellow sisters who were murdered by jihadists at the order’s convent and nursing home for the elderly and disabled in Aden, Yemen.

“We are praying for our sisters who were killed in Yemen, and we also pray for those who still remain in that country,” said Sr Mary Cyrila, mother superior of the Missionaries of Charity in Cape Town, in response to the attack in which four nuns were among a total of 16 victims.

The murdered sisters of the congregation, which was founded by Bl Mother Teresa, were Kenyan Sister Judith, Indian Sister Anselm, and Rwandan Sisters Margherite and Reginette.

Other victims of the attack included volunteers at the home, at least five of whom were Ethiopian. Many were Yemenis. The nursing home had around 80 residents, who were unharmed.

Fr Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salesian priest from India who had been staying with the sisters since his church was attacked and burned last September, was abducted in the attack.

Both Pope Francis and the bishop of the area said that the sisters died as martyrs.

“For me there is no doubt that the sisters have been victims of hatred— hatred against our faith,” Bishop Paul Hinder said.

“The Missionaries of Charity died as martyrs: as martyrs of charity, as martyrs because they witnessed to Christ and shared the lot of Jesus on the Cross,” he said, pointing to one of the prayers they recited daily.

The short prayer asks: “Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to ask for reward.”

Recited after their morning Mass and before breakfast, the prayer is one of the last that the sisters would have prayed before being killed.

Pope Francis described the sisters as “the martyrs of today”, saying: “They gave their blood for the Church.”

The 16 people killed in what he called “a diabolical” attack “are also [victims] of indif-

The four Missionary of Charity Sisters who were slain by terrorists in Yemen. ference, this globalisation of indifference that just doesn’t care”, the pope said.

Bishop Hinder said it would be difficult not to see that the killing was motivated by “a misled religious mind”.

The bishop, who serves as apostolic vicar of the Arabian peninsula, said that he believes the sisters were a target because certain radical groups in the country “simply do not support the presence of Christians who serve the poorest of the poor”.

He said the attitude obviously goes against the mainstream thought of the Yemeni people, the majority of whom appreciate the presence of the Missionaries of Charity as well as their “dedicated service” to the poor.

The Missionaries of Charity have been present in Yemen since 1973 after the thengovernment of North Yemen formally invited them to care for the sick and elderly.

The home in Aden has been open since 1992.

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he attack came as Yemen is embroiled in a civil war that has killed more than 6 000 people, according to the United Nations.

Bishop Hinder said the attack on the Missionaries of Charity convent is proof that the war rages on, despite attempts for negotiation.

“There are groups, especially in the Aden region, who are not under control of the regular government and try to destabilise the country and to terrorise the people,” he said, noting that the few remaining Catholics will soon “have no other choice than to remain as discreet as possible” and try to wait for peace to be reinstalled.

The bishop said that currently its “impos-

Jesus meets his mother in this depiction of the fourth station of the Way of the Cross by American artist Virgil Cantini. Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, March 20; Good Friday is on March 25. sible” to give an exact number of the Catholics left in Yemen because the war makes it difficult to obtain reliable statistics.

Bishop Hinder estimated the pre-war number of Catholics in Yemen at 4 000, but he said he is sure “that in the meantime the number has essentially dropped”.

Although the effects won’t be seen immediately, the bishop said that both the sisters’ sacrifice as well as our prayers “will work”.

“As Christians we believe that Golgotha is not the end, [for it is] the Risen Lord who will have the final word at the last judgment.”—CNA

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The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

LOCAL

Bishops call on us to overcome racism The bishops of Southern Africa have issued a pastoral letter on racism, signed

by SACBC president Archbishop Stephen Brislin. We produce it here in full.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19).

D

EAR brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to have a candid conversation on racism and its manifestations in order to adequately and seriously address racism and racial divisions in our country.

We realise that this is not an easy conversation, one that many of us may prefer to avoid.

Our invitation to such a dialogue may in itself evoke a range of emotions, including self-justification and self-righteous feelings; or, guilt and denial; on the other hand, feelings of anger and sadness.

Dialogue, rational and respectful, is necessary so that we open ourselves to receive God’s healing.

The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others was something which St Peter and the early Church overcame through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

“Truly I now perceive that God

A white and black student hold hands during a Mass for peace after clashes at the University of Pretoria last month. in their pastoral letter on racism, the bishops are calling for a candid conversation on racism.

(Photo: Kim ludbrook, EPA) shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35).

Our invitation to become part of this dialogue comes from a realisation that the Holy Spirit calls us as a country to be healed; to build and develop relationships of equality, dignity and mutual respect.

In this third decade after gaining our democratic freedom and rights, • We need to address the issues of our social trauma as a country which result from the violence of centuries of colonialism and the violent decades of apartheid.

• We need to dialogue and work together to achieve healing as a nation.

• We need to acknowledge the link between race, power and privilege.

• We need to redress urgently the economic inequalities present in our society as a result of past racial discriminatory laws and practices; to allay unfounded fears and promote justice.

Our responsibilities within the Church In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, as Church in Southern Africa, we commit ourselves to a credible and comprehensive conversation on racism.

This will mean acknowledging the presence of racism in the Church before and during the apartheid era and in these years of democracy.

In humility, as St Peter confessed, we your pastors prostrate ourselves before God and before all who are in pain, and ask for forgive-

ness for our historical complicity with racism in the Church.

As we seek God’s mercy that comes with the Jubilee of Mercy, we challenge ourselves as your pastors and we call upon all the faithful and all people of goodwill to do all in our power to address the problem of racism in our society and in the Church.

To this effect, our Conference will be adopting a process to be used in small group reflection in our dioceses and parishes engaging all in dealing with the issues of racism.

Furthermore, we encourage this open dialogue at the level of our parishes, availing parishioners of the opportunity to look at how people can grow in positive appreciation of cultural diversity and how this is expressed in the liturgy and other activities of the parish.

Our experience of the Gospel calls on us to rejoice in diversity, to become more culturally inclusive and more enthusiastic in our appreciation of God’s gift of racial diversity.

This leads us to appreciate that in our parishes, in our religious communities and in our dioceses, the glory of the body of Christ is enriched and mediated through the various rich cultural, socio-economic contributions that each race and all ethnic groups contribute from their basket of traditions and social identities.

Through our celebration of the Eucharist, the symbol of unity in the body of Christ, we ask the Lord to heal and transform the relationships in our dioceses and our parishes so that we become communities of faith where “there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female” (Galatians 3: 28).

Personal responsibility of each If we want our conversion to contribute to the building of a South Africa freed from racism, we must strive to lead lives worthy of the Gospel (cf. Phillipians, 1.27; Ephesians 4.1), refrain from loving only people who are just like ourselves.

In loving only those who share our racial and ethnic backgrounds, we fall short of fulfilling the demands of love the Gospel calls for.

Our Lord challenge us that if we greet only our brothers and sisters, “What more are you doing than others? Do not even the non-believers do the same?” (Matthew 5: 47) While reaching out to one another, in open and honest dialogue, the sacrament of Reconciliation becomes especially important and meaningful because through it we come in our sinfulness to our allmerciful Father for forgiveness.

A call to prayer The task of reconciliation therefore requires watchfulness and ardent prayer on the part of each.

In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, we ask all parish priests and parishioners to commit themselves to a parish campaign to overcome racism, such as a parish prayer campaign or a family prayer, special days of prayer and fasting, cooperating with other parishes across racial lines and working with organisations promoting the dismantling of racism.

We ask each parish to organise and commit themselves to do this.

May the Lord of Peace grant our nation the peace, the healing and the reconciliation that we seek. (cf. 2 Thessalonians 3.16)

YEAR OF MERCY - DIVINE MERCY FEAST 2016

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The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

LOCAL

3

Church seeks mediating role amid campus violence

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Police forces clash with protesters at the Union Buildings in Pretoria last year. The bishops’ Justice & Peace Commission has called for the Church to be included in finding a solution to the higher education crisis. (Photo: Kim ludbrook, EPA)

HE Justice and Peace Commission (J&P) of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has called for Church leaders “to be included in mediating campus deadlocks”.

“As the Church we firmly support the campaign of the students to end financial barriers to accessing and completing higher learning and other equity-related concerns,” said J&P chairman Bishop Abel Gabuza.

“However‚ the escalation of campus violence and vandalism is playing into the hands of those who seek to discredit the legitimacy of this important campaign.”

The commission also said that government and university leadership “have not been proactive enough in addressing issues raised

(Back from left) CPlo research assistant danielle Hoffmeester and CPlo research coordinator Mike Pothier, and (front) Raymond Perrier, Mary Hames and Andile Mngtixama at a round table discussion on race.

CPLO round-table tackles race debate

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HE Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) hosted a round table discussion recently on “The Race Debate: Where to from Here?”

The panellists were Andile Mngxitama, national convenor

of the Black First, Land First Movement; Mary Hames, director of the Gender Equity Unit at the University of the Western Cape; and Raymond Perrier, director of the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban.

The three panellists’ observations on racism left the audience calling for a series of these discussions.

The talk was attended by individuals representing civil and political society.

Call to join Pfanner pilgrimage

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HE Missionaries of Mariannhill and Sisters of the Precious Blood are inviting the public to join them in a local pilgrimage to a KwaZulu-Natal shrine to mark the 117th anniversary of the death of their founder.

The pilgrimage to Emaus on May 21 will celebrate the life and work of Abbot Francis Pfanner, the founder of the two congregations, who died on May 24, 1909.

Emaus was Abbot Pfanner’s last and favourite station. It is located in the diocese of Umzimkulu.

Every year in May, the Mariannhill Missionaries and Precious Blood Sisters, associates, friends of Abbot Francis, and the faithful gather at Emaus to celebrate the life of one of the country’s great missionaries.

“This is a special day when we ask him to intercede for us to God,” organisers said.

The day will begin with Stations of the Cross at 10:00 followed by Mass at 11:00.

by the students”.

“They have not done enough to promote an environment that enables open and honest dialogue to happen. We call for honest dialogue on the issues raised by the students at various campuses,” the statement said.

“Honest dialogue includes being clear and transparent to the students about the time-frames by which the university and the government would address student concerns‚ including calls for tuition-free higher education. Honest dialogue includes having clear policies about transformation of our universities to end racism and colonial models of being a university,” Bishop Gabuza said.

J&P called on the government to

include Church leaders in mediation processes.

“We call upon the government‚ university leadership‚ political parties and Church leaders to sit around the table and address the issues at various academic institutions that are marked by campus violence,” the statement said.

The commission called on political parties and their youth wings “to show greater ethical leadership in relation to the current crisis in tertiary education”.

“Political parties are a part of the problem but can also be part of the solution. They should make a commitment to refrain from discourses that discourage honest dialogue and fuel campus violence‚” Bishop Gabuza said.

Pupils of Brescia House School in Johannesburg gathered on their field to celebrate Brescia’s 50th jubilee year and show their support for the one Billion Rising campaign. one Billion Rising is a mass movement to end violence against women. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s day 2012, began as a call to action based on the statistic that one in three women will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than 1 billion girls and women. The one Billion movement has a theme song, Break the Chain, and the Brescia pupils sang and danced to Break the Chain after their 50 formation. See www.onebillionrising.org

Sacred Heart Private Primary School

teaCHiinG PoSt – CreatiVe art anD muSiC eDuCator

Sacred Heart Private Primary school, founded in 2000, is an independent catholic English-medium primary school situated in the rural area of Taung, St.Pauls Mission, Northwest province. The school is well established with proud academic record and still developing and growing.

The School Board of Governors invites applications for the above post to be filled on the 4th of April 2016.The successful applicant must be able to subscribe to and promote the Catholic Ethos of the school.

Pilgrims on a walk to Emaus this month. An annual pilgrimage to the KwaZulu-Natal shrine will be held in May to mark the anniversary of Abbot Francis Pfanner’s death.

Between 13:00 and 14:00 pilgrims have time to make a short private visit to the room where Abbot Pfanner died to make their personal petitions.

Lunch will be at 14:00 before

pilgrims depart.

About 2 000 people took part in a pilgrimage to Emaus earlier this month. n For information contact yvesmll cmm@gmail.com

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• A committed professional with a dynamic, visionary approach to challenges of present-day education in South Africa.

• Be fully acquainted with current trends and developments in Education particularly in the learning area(s) advertised.

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4

The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Call for Pakhistani politician to be declared a martyr M ARKING the fifth anniversary of the assassination of a Catholic politician, a Pakistani diocese opened a process of enquiry towards declaring him a martyr.

Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic and the only Christian in the Pakistani cabinet, worked as the federal minister for minorities and spoke out against religious persecution, and particularly the misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

He was gunned down by members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan while driving in Islamabad on March 2, 2011, after more than a year of death threats.

“He spoke with faith and demonstrated courage. Thanks to him the voice of Pakistan’s Christians was heard. He paved the way for us. He was a good Catholic and gave his life for his mission,” Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi said.

The diocese of IslamabadRawalpindi has begun collecting testimonies about Mr Bhatti to enquire into his martyrdom and sanctity.

Among the testimonies is that of Bishop Anthony Lobo, who died in 2013.

Bishop Lobo in 2012 told the Vatican’s missionary news agency that “although [Mr Bhatti] had little desire to do so, [he] decided to play an

Pope Francis baptises a baby during a Mass in the Sistine chapel. The rate of Catholic baptisms in 2015 has exceeded the rate of population growth. (Photo: l’osservatore Romano/Reuters/CNS)

Vatican reports rise in baptised Catholics

BY JUNNo ARoCHo ESTEVES

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HE number of baptised Catholics worldwide has grown at a faster rate than that of the world’s population, according to Vatican statistics.

Although the number of priests has increased globally, the number has decreased slightly in Europe and Oceania, according to the Vatican’s Central Office for Church Statistics.

The figures are presented in the “Annuario Pontificio 2016”, the Vatican yearbook, and will appear in the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, which gives detailed figures on the Church’s workforce, sacramental life, dioceses and parishes.

The number of baptised Catholics reached 1,27 billion or 17,8% percent of the global population, the statistics office reported.

Despite the increase of Catholics worldwide, the yearbook noted a “less dynamic” growth of only 2 % in Europe. While the continent is home to almost 40% of the Catholic global population, the percent of the world’s Catholics living in Europe has slowly decreased over the past nine years, it said.

However, with the exception of Oceania, the number of baptised Catholics has grown faster than the general population growth on every continent.

“The African continent remains without a doubt the one with the highest growth,” the report said; the number of Catholics in Africa increased by 41%, while the number of Catholics in Asia grew by 20%.

The percentage of baptised Catholics as part of the general population remains highest in North

and South America where they “make up almost half” of the world’s Catholics, it said.

The number of bishops of the world continued to increase, reaching 5,237 worldwide compared to 4,841 a year earlier.

The total number of priests— diocesan and religious order— around the world was 415 792, which the report said was statistically “stable”. There was a steady increase of diocesan priests in Africa, Asia and Central and South America, while numbers in North America, Europe and Oceania continued to decrease.

The number of permanent deacons reported—44 566—was an increase of more than 1 000 over the previous year.

The number of religious brothers was down slightly, going from a total of 55 253 at the end of 2013 to a total of 54 559 at the end of 2014.

The number of women in religious orders continued to decrease, dropping by 10 846 in 2014.The biggest decreases were seen in North and South America, Europe and Oceania while numbers in Africa and Asia continue to rise.

The number of candidates for the priesthood—both diocesan seminarians and members of religious orders—who had reached the level of philosophy and theology studies showed a slight downturn.

The number of candidates fell to 116 939 men at the end of 2014 compared to 118 251 men at the end of 2013.

The variation in the number of men training to become priests varies by continent, the report said.

There is an “evident decline” in the numbers from Europe and North America, while “Africa and Asia show great vitality,” it said.—CNS

BY JUNNo ARoCHo ESTEVES

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ESUS’ call to be the salt of the earth is a reminder to his disciples to preach hope and life and not be wrapped up in dogmatic conundrums, a Servite priest told the pope and Vatican officials.

“We are salt that has lost its flavour if we are not resolute men, if we are not free from masks and fear.

People want to receive fragments of life from Jesus’ disciples, not fragments of doctrine,” Servite Father Ermes Ronchi said.

The Italian priest was chosen by Pope Francis to lead the Lenten retreat of the Roman Curia. He chose to preach on the theme: “The bare questions of the Gospel”.

In his morning meditation, Fr Ronchi spoke about fear, which entered the world after Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden.

This fear, he said, indicates the effect of sin which keeps the possibility of mercy far from him. For Christians, he added, this fear “produces a sad Christianity, a God without joy”.

Reflecting on the passage in Mark’s gospel where Jesus calms the storm, Fr Ronchi said that “God does

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active part in politics in order to protect the country’s Christians and other minorities. A man of great commitment he decided not to marry. He lived a life of celibacy. He had no possessions and saw his activity as a service. I believe that Clement Shahbaz Bhatti was a dedicated lay Catholic martyred for his faith”.

Mr Batthi’s brother Paul succeeded him as Pakistan’s minister of National Harmony and Minority Affairs. He told the Catholic News Agency in 2013 that he has no doubt that is brother “is a martyr, because his whole life was dedicated to the teaching of the Bible and he was a

strong believer of Our Lord Jesus Christ…we are getting help from him.”

Mr Shahbaz “never negotiated his faith, and he expressed his faith openly everywhere, even when he knew he could be killed”, Paul Batthi said.

“He believed so strongly that he laid down his life for his Christian principles and for Jesus Christ.”

Before his death, Shahbaz Bhatti told Fides that “I am a man who has burnt his bridges. I cannot and will not go back on this commitment. I will fight fanaticism and fight in defence of Christians to the death.”— CNA

Curia preacher: Be men free from masks

Join Fr. Michael Clement on an incredible journey!

PILGRIMAGE TO HOLY LAND 21st to 30th August 2016

Relatives, friends and residents carry the the casket of Pakistan's slain minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti (inset) before his burial in his native village of Khushpur. (Photo: Mian Khursheed, Reuters/CNS)

Pope Francis arrives for the annual lenten retreat flanked by curia members. (Photo: l’osservatore Romano/CNS) not take us out of the storm but supports us within the storm.”

The Church, which “for a long time has transmitted a faith mixed with fear,” is called instead to free men and women from the fear of God”.

Fr Ronchi chose to reflect on the Church’s mission to give a true witness to Jesus on the retreat’s third day. Drawing from the Gospel reading on Peter’s profession of faith, the Italian theologian said Jesus’ question, “But who do you say that I am?” is a query that “digs into the soul”.

“The answer Jesus is looking for are not words. He is looking for people. Not definitions but engagements,” he said. “Jesus does not give lessons, he does not suggest answers; he gently leads you to look inside of yourself.”

Jesus’ question, he continued, is striking given that he “does not indoctrinate anyone” nor compels the disciples to give a “prepackaged response.” Peter’s answer that Christ “is the son of the living God” is a witness that “Christ is living within us”.

“Our heart can become either God’s cradle or his tomb,” he said.

Jesus’ ordering of the disciples “to tell no one that he was the Messiah”, F Ronchi said, extends to the Church, which sometimes has preached a “deformed” perception of God and is called to preach through their own personal witness.

“We clergy look all the same: the same gestures, words and clothes.

But people are asking us to ‘Give me an experience of God.’ Jesus is not what I say of him but what I live from him. We are not mediators between God and humanity; the true mediator is Jesus,” he said.—CNS

Capitalism needs an ‘infusion of virtue’

BY GABY MANiSCAlCo

B

Y using the tools of capitalism and the market effectively and ethically, the world can reach “full human flourishing and sustainable development”, said Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

But when economic progress is “propelled primarily by self-interest, by greed, by zeal for material accumulation and unfettered consumption, the result is dysfunction and imbalance”, the cardinal said 5 at the Global Responsibility 2030 conference in Bad Honnef, Germany.

“Rapacious profits are not intrinsic to well-functioning markets; corruption, bribery and cruelty are not intrinsic to well-functioning markets,”said Cardinal Turkson.

A well-functioning market is propelled not by an exclusive search for profit, but by virtues such as “trust, honesty, solidarity, reciprocity and cooperation”, he said. Those virtues promote other virtues, including concern for the “common good, sustainability and solidarity”.

“If we do not slow down and reassess our behavior, we will destroy the bountiful earth given by God to all of us. In doing so, we undermine the conditions for human flourishing—especially for the poor and for future generations,” the cardinal said.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

5

Vatican: Church ‘anything but indifferent to clerical abuse’

BY EliSE HARRiS

V The Click to Pray mobile app aims to connect people around the world to pray for the pope’s monthly intentions. (Photo: Nancy Wiechec/CNS)

Mobile app connects people through prayer

BY GABY MANiSCAlCo

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HE Apostleship of Prayer has created a mobile app—Click to Pray—that aims to connect people around the world to pray for the pope’s monthly intentions.

The app was created as part of the re-launch of the Apostleship of Prayer, the Jesuit-run outreach that has given Catholics the pope’s monthly prayer intentions since 1890.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Jesuit Father Frederic Fornos, international director of the apostleship, said the app responds to Pope Francis’ message for World Communications Day 2016, which stresses the power that modern means of communications have to build bridges between people.

“The app accompanies you throughout your day. It connects you with thousands of people who find purpose in praying every day for the challenges of humanity and for the mission of the Church as the pope proposes in his monthly prayer intentions,” according to the Click to Pray website.

The app allows the user to

choose three times throughout the day to receive prayers. “You set the time you want to start your day in the morning. You select another moment during the day to receive an inspirational thought. And, finally, you select a moment in the evening to close your day with a daily review,” the website said.

Vatican Radio reported that users also can opt to receive notifications to remind them to pray, and the app offers the option of writing one’s own intention or prayer.

The app is the second new media feature to be rolled out this year by Apostleship of Prayer. Working with the Vatican Television Centre, it also began a video series in January featuring Pope Francis discussing his universal prayer intentions on the first Friday of each month.

The Click to Pray app is available for iPhone, Android and Windows, and the prayers also can be found at clicktopray.org. n Jesuit Father Chris Chatteris writes the Pray with the Pope column every month. See www.scross.co.za/praywith-the-pope

Sainthood cause of French nun, Spanish bishop

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OPE Francis advanced the sainthood causes of 12 men and women, including paving the way for the canonisation of Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity, a French Discalced Carmelite mystic and writer.

The pope also approved a second miracle needed for the canonisation of Bl Manuel Gonzalez Garcia, a Spanish bishop known as the “bishop of the tabernacle” because of his devotion to eucharistic adoration.

During a meeting with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the pope

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broke out in 2002.

“The Church, wounded and humiliated by the plague of abuse, intends to act not only for her own recovery, but also to make available her strong experience in this field, to enrich her educative and pastoral service to society as a whole, which generally still has a long way to go to realise the seriousness of the problems and to address them,” Fr Lombardi said.

He said that we ought “to give credit” to Cardinal Pell and the group of 15 abuse survivors who travelled from Australia to Rome for the deposition, both for the cardinal’s “dignified and consistent” testimony, as well as the survivors’ willingness “to establish a construc-

tive dialogue”.

Three of the abuse survivors from the Catholic diocese of Ballarat— David Ridsdale, Andrew Collins and Peter Blenkiron—took time to meet twice with Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, while in Rome.

Fr Zollner said the victims wanted to meet primarily to discuss ideas they have about “healing and the future to protect children from institutional abuse”.

He noted that the abuse survivors spoke at length about models of education for children, parents and teachers so that effective changes can be made to ensure the safeguarding of children.—CNA

Theologians on women preaching at Mass

BY CARol GlATZ

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HE Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published several commentaries reflecting on the possibility of allowing laypeople, including women, to preach at Mass.

Women already guide retreats, lead conferences and preach in some circumstances, wrote French Dominican Sister Catherine Aubin.

“So why can’t they preach before everyone during a celebration” of Mass? asked the commentary—one of a series to appear in the newspaper’s monthly insert dedicated to women.

Church liturgical norms say that people who are not ordained—including nuns—may not preach the homily at Mass, although they can preach in other situations.

The Catholic Church’s Code of

Canon Law teaches that qualified and committed lay Catholic men and women are allowed to preach in particular circumstances and cooperate in exercising the ministry of the word. Preaching during Mass, however, is reserved to those who have received the sacrament of orders, that is, deacons and priests.

Sr Aubin, who is a theologian and professor at Rome’s Pontifical Urbanian University, said people who have experienced the joy and love of Christ are unable to “stop themselves from going out to speak it, to announce it, to proclaim it, because it is him, Christ, who makes all men and women—encountered along his journey—witnesses, messengers and apostles”.

Swedish Dominican Sister Madeleine Fredell wrote in her article that preaching is part of her vo-

cation as a Dominican, and “even though I can [preach] almost anywhere”, she regretted “not being able to give the homily during Mass”.

“I am convinced that listening to the voice of women at the moment of the homily would enrich our Catholic worship,” said Sr Fredell.

Enzo Bianchi, prior of the Bose ecumenical community, wrote in the newspaper’s main section that the issue of allowing laypeople, especially women, to deliver the homily “is sensitive, but I believe it is urgent to address it”.

“It would be important, without changing traditional doctrine, to offer the possibility to laypeople, men and women, to speak in the liturgical assembly with some clear conditions,” he wrote.—CNS

the associates Campaign is an integral support to The Southern Cross ensuring that it continues its apostolic outreach, developing the means of transmitting our Catholic values in the new forms of media and safeguarding its future in these uncertain economic times.

□ Cardinal owen mcCann □

Parent Anthony Foster holds a picture of his daughters Katie and Emma, who were raped by a priest in Melbourne, Australia, as he speaks with media in front of the Hotel Quirinale in Rome where Cardinal George Pell was testifying via video link to Australia's Royal Commission. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

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A

also signed a decree recognising a miracle attributed to the intercession of Discalced Carmelite Father MarieEugene of the Child Jesus.

The 20th-century French priest, who dedicated his life to the laity, founded the Secular Institute of Our Lady of Life.

Pope Francis also recognised a miracle attributed to the intercession of Maria Antonia de San Jose, an 18th-century Argentine consecrated laywoman who founded the “Holy House of Spiritual Exercises” in Buenos Aires.—CNS

ATICAN spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ has cautioned that the recent Oscar-win for the film Spotlight and the lengthy deposition of a top Vatican official, Australian Cardinal George Pell, on institutional responses to clerical sex abuse could paint a false picture of how the Church has responded to the issue.

“The sensationalistic presentation of these two events has meant that, much of the public, especially if less informed or of short memory, [might be] thinking that the Church has done nothing or done very little to respond to these horrible tragedies,” Fr Lombardi said in a statement.

An objective consideration of the facts, he said, “shows that this is not true”.

Fr Lombardi referred to the media frenzy garnered by the film Spotlight, which won the Oscar for best picture for its portrayal of a journalistic investigation of the sex abuse crisis in Boston, as well as the deposition by video link of Cardinal Pell before Australia’s Royal Commission.

As prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy and a member of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis on reform of the Roman curia, Cardinal Pell is the most senior Vatican official to have testified before a legal body on clerical sexual abuse.

In his statement, Fr Lombardi said the events shouldn’t lead people to think that the Church has remained silent on the issue, and outlined several initiatives and reforms that have taken place since the Boston crisis

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6

The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Rolheiser perplexes on ‘angry’ God

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

F

ATHER Ron Rolheiser’s article “Understanding the ‘angry’ God” (February 17) refers.

I read the article more than once to make sure I sufficiently grasped the gist of it, but I was and still am left with abiding concern.

Fr Rolheiser, as a theologian, attempts to assist laity like me to broaden our ability to interpret scripture, but where does one begin and end when one does not attach literal meanings to biblical texts?

While I accept the point that “context and interpretation are not rationalisations”, is there not a possibility of us believers running the risk of not being “more faithful than the scribes (teachers of the law) and the Pharisees in doing what God requires” (Matthew 5:20).

The Pharisees and scribes ques-

Opening the pulpit

A

CONSTANT refrain in the Church, from the pope down into the pews, concerns the perceived deficiency of quality in Mass homilies.

It is indeed true, as is often argued, that poor preaching—in delivery or content or both— can drive people from a parish or, in cases where a person’s foundation in the Catholic faith is already weak, even from the Church.

It is also true that every homily that is not listened to is a lost opportunity of bringing the lived faith closer to people.

A poor sermon may turn off listeners because it is poorly delivered or incoherent or too long, or it might do so because its content simply does not speak to people.

But it is also true that preaching, like public oratory, is a special gift. Indeed, it requires a combination of talents.

Firstly, a good preacher must be able to produce engaging and relevant content based on specialist knowledge of Scriptures and the context to which it must be applied. Secondly, he must possess the skill of oration to deliver that content in ways that engage the listener.

These abilities can be picked up through training, but they also require a certain natural disposition. Not all priests have that innate aptitude, and not all priests who lack that gift are able to compensate for it by application.

Parishioners should therefore go easy on their priests when homilies do not meet expectations.

Fr Chris Townsend in his column last week outlined eloquently how parish priests have to discharge a range of functions which require diverse skills and talents. It is unreasonable to expect our priests to excel in all of these.

In their pastoral and administrative tasks, parish priests may be able to delegate some tasks to lay parishioners, thereby easing their workload. However, unless they have deacons or assistant priests, Church law does not allow for the delegation of homilies to others.

A collection of three articles published this month in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, proposes that this should change.

This, they argue, would mark

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.

a return to a long tradition that held in the Church for the first 1 200 years of its existence.

It was only in the 13th century that Pope Gregory IX limited the preaching of sermons to priests exclusively. And just as it looked as though this might slowly change after the Second Vatican Council, Pope John Paul II tightened the ban on lay preaching.

Since the 13th century there have been many effective lay preachers who evangelised outside the Mass. One, St Catherine of Siena, preached so loudly that she persuaded the popes to return to Rome from their comfortable exile in Avignon.

More recently, lay people such as Scott Hahn, Sr Joan Chittister and Bo Sanchez have evangelised through what in essence is preaching.

The notion that lay people, including and especially women, should be allowed to preach at Mass merits serious consideration.

It would give substance to Pope Francis’ call for giving women a greater role in the Church.

It would also benefit priests to have recourse to people who can ease their preaching load, especially if that area of ministry is not their strength.

And it would benefit the laity in the pews who might have access to a broader spectrum of relevant homilies.

The lay preaching ministry would also help alleviate problems created by the shortage of priests.

However, every innovation also requires prudent and precise implementation.

Clearly there can and will be no situation where access to the pulpit would be open to all. It is self-evident that lay people would have to acquire some kind of training and qualification before they are allowed to serve as homilists.

They would also have to be properly authorised, perhaps by the local bishop, to preach at Mass.

It is no article of faith that only priests are competent to preach at Mass. Indeed, in an age when many lay people are at least as capable of doing so as the clergy, there is no reason why this discussion should not be had with all the seriousness it merits.

Contemplation

I

NOTED the various dialogues about contemplation in recent issues of The Southern Cross.

I issue an invitation to all to try to attend a Prayer and Life workshop in your area if you possibly can.

Prayer and Life workshops (PLW) are a dynamic programme started many years ago by a Capuchin priest, the late Fr Ignacio Larranàga.

The PLW are recognised and approved by the Holy See, confirmed per decree in 2002.

PLW are • based on the Bible • Christ centred • an exclusively lay service • a step by step prayer activity, of different experiences, of silent, centring and community prayer • a liberating and healing workshop made possible by transformation enlightened by the Word • a programme with commitment for the poor.

• aimed at promoting Gospel values and is a new form of evangelisation • open to Christians of all denominations.

There will be two workshops at Retreat for Retreat and Steenberg parishes.

Email Christina for more information on chrstn007@yahoo.com I promise to reply to all enquiries within 48 hours.

Christina Rosslee, Cape Town

Drug abuse and bad government

I

WRITE re the front page story “Cardinal Napier: Drugs are the new oppressor” (February 3).

The problem of drug abuse is enormous, almost insurmountable, and, as is written in the fourth para-

tioned Jesus about why his disciples disobeyed the teaching of the ancestors by not washing “their hands in the proper way before they ate”.

Jesus answered: “And why do you disobey God’s command and follow your own teaching?” (Matthew 15:2 -6). Jesus referred to the Mishnah, the oral law that was eventually written down and became more authoritative than the original law of Moses (Wiersbe Bible commentary on the New Testament, page 44).

In the same context I find 1 Corinthians 10:5-11 very clear, if literally interpreted, instructive and unambiguous: “God was not pleased with most of them [the Israelites whom Moses led out of Egypt], and so their dead bodies were scattered over the desert.”

Now, all of this is an example for

graph, this problem has two devious and hard to defeat allies, poverty and hopelessness.

What possibly was left out is that our present ANC government is responsible for this poverty and hopelessness. It is all very well to complain about the evils of apartheid, but that is 22 years gone.

We are expecting local elections in South Africa, and perhaps it’s time to point out that some of the defects of the reigning government, if they are made to improve and change, would be to the good of South Africa.

Otherwise the article rings true—we seriously have to do something soon.

Anne Teodorczuk, Johannesburg

Race hatred

I

N reply to Fr Joseph McCullough SPS’s letter (February 3) on the recent Facebook racist rant, I grew up in a society of hatred and discrimination like the rest of South Africa.

Fortunately my parents and faith had brought me up not to discriminate.

My nanny/housekeeper/domestic loved me as her own, and I likewise loved her.

There is only one race, the human race, made up of many cultures and beliefs.

I am reminded of Martin Luther King’s famous words: “An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”

Sheila Curror, Cape Town

Eucharist truth

I

WRITE in response to Patrick Dacey’s letter (February 17) On the Holy Eucharist, the Council of Trent 13:1, says: “In the first place, the holy synod teaches, and openly and simply professes, that, in the august sacrament of the

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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 un been turned into ba by students who la marches, won their in fees in 2016.

North-West Uni 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-

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

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us (Christians), to warn us not to desire evil things, as they did, nor to worship idols, as some of them did.

We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. We must not complain, as some did—and were destroyed by the Angel of Death.

As an ordinary layman I have come to accept that the Bible portrays God as most compassionate, most gracious, as loving us pardoned sinners unconditionally and as always ready to forgive us.

But we are also cautioned: “Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. People will reap what they sow” (Galatians 6:7), “Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please Him, with reverence and awe; because our God is indeed a destroying (consuming) fire” (Hebrews 12:2829).

Gregory MacMaster, East London

holy Eucharist, after the consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is truly, really, and substantially contained under the species of those sensible things.”

After the consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist is not dependent on faith or what Calvin taught about the faith of the receiver.

At this point it might help to refresh what a miracle is: a miracle is a sensible event that takes place contrary to the laws of nature through the special intervention of God, such as the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11).

At consecration a miracle has occurred.

The Holy Eucharist contains the body and blood of Jesus, truly, really, substantially.

On a laity level, ecumenical relations are better achieved not by toleration of the multitude of diverse opinions (the Eucharist is only one of them) that is opposed to revelation, the teaching authority of the one Church Jesus established or watering down the truth, but by knowing and spreading the truth (the Word) which is the good news.

Consensus cannot change: what Jesus revealed, the Gospels, what Pope Francis upholds regarding the Eucharist or what the councils have put into place on this matter.

Malcolm Bagley, Cape Town opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate. letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately. letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

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PERSPECTIVES Toni Rowland

Hear and see in Holy Week Y OU know the saying, “Hearing is believing”, and you might want to say: “No, seeing is believing.”

And you are right, of course. But at the moment, for me hearing is believing.

I decided recently to have a little holiday at a resort, from where I am writing this column. I expected to be sitting on the beach, wearing my newly-acquired swimsuit—only to discover that we are some distance away from the sea.

But in quiet moments, listening carefully, one can hear the constant pounding of the waves, a reminder that the sea is there, just over the hill.

Other senses are engaged, too. Time away for home is also for listening to the birds, smelling the flowers and generally appreciating the good things of life.

But time away is also for interior listening, and as Holy Week approaches, for imaginative listening to those events so central to our history and faith.

Imaginative listening can take different forms. Picturing the event, or even resetting it in a different context.

Today, as I write, being in rural KwaZuluNatal, I have taken out a book which I inherited from my mother: The Road to Calvary, Stations of the Cross, with wood carvings by African artists Ruben Xulu and Bernard Gcwensa accompanied by reflections by Fr Cyril Farrell.

Bernard, the older of the wood carvers, was partially disabled when he teamed up with Ruben, a young deaf and dumb boy.

Together, having discovered Christianity, they spent their lives creating religious art, with biblical scenes carved in many churches across KwaZulu-Natal. Their Stations of the Cross are particularly evocative.

One of my favourite stations—if “favourite” is the right word—has always been the sixth: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. Unlike Station V, where Simon of

Cyrene is forced to help, Veronica chooses to do so.

An unknown woman, out of her motherly intuition and compassion, recognises a need and comes forward from the crowd.

She wipes the face of Jesus, a man she does not know but who she sees is blinded by blood and sweat as he staggers forward.

I

‘ve always been fascinated by the fact that she saw the need and freely chose to help.

She was rewarded, according to tradition, by receiving an imprint of his Holy Face on her cloth, and that has tended to take prominence in the story.

Debates still continue about Veronica’s cloth, but whatever the truth is, the Holy

Veronica encounters Christ on his Way of the Cross, in a carving by Ruben Xulu and Bernard Gcwensa.

Family Friendly

Face can be seen as one of the focal points of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The opening words of Pope Francis’ bull proclaiming the Year of Mercy are: “Jesus is the face of the Father’s mercy.” Thousands of paintings, icons and sculptures have been created of the Holy Face.

Looking into the faces and eyes of those who suffer is looking into the face and eyes of Jesus. Mother Teresa of Kolkata responded in her own way. Many carers around the world do so, like Veronica, anonymously.

At this time Pope Francis writes: “Let us open our eyes and see the misery of the world, the wounds of our brothers and sisters who are denied their dignity, and let us recognise that we are compelled to heed their cry for help!

“May we reach out to them and support them so they can feel the warmth of our presence, our friendship, and our fraternity! May their cry become our own, and together may we break down the barriers of indifference that too often reign supreme and mask our hypocrisy and egoism!” May we be Veronica today !

During my few days of interior listening I intend to visit some of the places where Ruben Xulu worked and find his Stations of the Cross in Hlabisa.

Ruben, who sadly died violently at the age of 30, was given a great gift of faith. I want to see that with my own eyes, too.

And I want to discover if he ever carved the Resurrection.

Yes, seeing is believing, as is hearing and touching and being touched in merciful sharing of moments of pain and desolation.

May your Holy Week truly end with the joy of the Risen Lord.

Where do we meet the dying Jesus?

T Raymond Perrier HE solemn veneration of the cross on Good Friday is for me a profoundly moving ritual.

In fact, it was during this ceremony that I first resolved to turn away from my previous jet-set life and dedicate myself instead to working for the Church.

The words of the Good Friday hymn seemed to be addressed directly to me: “Love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all” (from Isaac Watts’ “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”).

So I share with other Catholics a commitment to the power of the crucifix as a symbol of my faith—so much so that I wear a small one round my neck. However, I suspect that like many Catholics I also sometimes forget that the symbol should not be a focus in itself but should point beyond itself to a deeper truth.

The crucifix comes into its own on Good Friday but, in fact, it has become the dominant symbol of Catholic Christianity all the year round. So even when we are celebrating the Risen Lord at Easter, or the newborn infant at Christmas, our churches are dominated by the symbol of the crucifix.

We are so used to this that we probably don’t realise how very Catholic this use of the crucifix is.

Of course, the cross is the universally recognised symbol of Christianity, even if in different forms. But Catholics have a focus on the crucifix—a cross with the body of the dying Jesus—which is not shared by other parts of the Christian family.

Our Protestant brothers and sisters would tend to have an empty cross to focus not on Christ’s death but on his resurrection. Our Orthodox cousins are more likely to have an icon that focuses on Christ in Glory than on Christ still dying on earth.

There are interesting theological, historical and artistic reasons why there are these different traditions. And if we do not under-

OR FOR D

CONStRUCtION

Faith and Society

An olive wood crucifix in a Bethlehem shop. (Photo courtesy of Nissan Bros.) stand those, we may fall into the trap of seeing the crucifix as a Catholic badge of honour—the one that we use to mark ourselves out from other Christians.

T

his came to a head for me when recently someone asked me if the Denis Hurley Centre, which I serve as its director, was truly Catholic.

I was taken aback by this. After all, the centre is named after a Catholic archbishop, the foundation stone has clearly been blessed by a cardinal, and there is a personally signed message from the pope in the foyer. Our Catholic origins seem to be pretty clear for anyone to see.

But the complaint was this: “Where is

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the crucifix?” Not “Where is the cross?”— there are plenty of these since they are part of our logo—but “Where is the crucifix?”

The concerned visitor went on to say that the presence of a crucifix is a constant reminder of Christ’s Passion.

I agree that the Passion is a key foundation of our faith—though so are the Incarnation and the Resurrection. A crucifix can remind us of the Passion. But, since we are not idolaters, we must remember that the crucifix is still just a symbol. We do not venerate it for what it is but for what it points to.

Christ’s Passion is the pre-eminent proof of God’s com-passion, God’s willingness to suffer with us.

The words in the Good Friday liturgy remind us “ours were the sufferings he bore”.

So the crucifix should be a reminder not just of the pain experienced by one man 2 000 years ago but also of the pains of all humankind before and since, which that one man carried.

I am reminded of that by a wooden figure on a cross. But I hope I am also reminded of that when I see homeless people looking for food, or drug addicts seeking rehabilitation, or sick people waiting for care, or refugees searching for a friendly welcome.

There are images of Christ’s suffering hanging in our churches. But in Holy Week 2016 there are also images of Christ’s suffering on the streets outside our churches.

Am I prepared to gaze on them as keenly as I gaze on the crucifix?

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7

Michael Shackleton

open door

Why are we guilty of Adam & Eve’s sin?

It is impossible in law to find someone guilty of a crime committed by another. I know the problem of original sin is part of the mystery of man’s relationship with God. But how can it be said that the whole human race shares in the guilt of Adam and Eve, our remote ancestors?

Pearl Pella

T

HE biblical description of Creation as a whole and of Adam and Eve in particular, was obviously not written by some eyewitness who sat back spellbound by its wonder.

Chapters 1-11 of Genesis were written by Jewish authors of various traditions over a long period. As their material they used the polytheistic stories current in the civilisations of the time, such as in Mesopotamia, attempting to explain how creation came into being and the imperfect condition in which human nature finds itself.

Being firm monotheists and writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit, these Jews adapted the myths and legends of the past so that the true God was the true creator in control of all reality.

God created man and woman to be in a supremely happy condition, and he walked with them in a magnificent garden. To account for the evil inherent in human nature, the writers told of the temptation and subsequent disobedience of the man and the woman. The pair immediately lost the grace of holiness, became afraid of God and death entered human history.

The story of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace continues into the New Testament.

The Catechism observes that “the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam’s sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the ‘death of the soul’. Because of the certainty of faith, the Church baptises for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin” (403).

The Catechism adds in the next paragraph: “By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state... And that is why original sin is called ‘sin’ only in an analogical sense; it is a sin ‘contracted’ and not ‘committed’, a state and not an act.”

You and I are not guilty of original sin, but because of it we are deprived of the original holiness that humanity ought to have possessed.

That holiness is restored through baptism, but our fallen nature awaits the final restoration in the resurrection of the dead.

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

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

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The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

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The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

CHURCH

9

The pope who tried to topple Hitler Far from being an appeaser of the Nazis, as is sometimes alleged, Pope Pius XII backed plots to overthrow Adolf Hitler, a new book claims. KEViN JoNES spoke with its author.

P

OPE Pius XII’s secret support for the attempted overthrow of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler is the subject of a new book that draws on wartime documents and interviews with the American intelligence agent who wrote them.

“This book is the truth—as best I could establish it in a number of years of research—about the pope’s secret operations in World War II,” historian Mark Riebling said “Its main premise is that Pius opted to resist Hitler with covert action instead of overt protest. As a result, he became involved in three separate plots by German dissidents to remove Hitler,” he said.

“I thought this idea—that the Church engaged in secret operations during the bloodiest years in history, in the most controversial part of its recent history—was not just a footnote; it was something worth pursuing,” he said.

Mr Riebling tells this story in his book Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler, published by Basic Books in September 2015.

In the late 1990s, debate over whether Pius XII did enough to counter the Nazis reached a high point with the publication of the deeply controversial book Hitler’s Pope by British journalist John Cornwell. The book was highly critical of Pius XII, charging that he was culpably silent—if not an accomplice—in the rise of Nazism.

“If you read the fiercest critics of the Nazi-era Church, the major ones all concede that Pius XII hated Hitler and worked secretly to overthrow him,” Mr Riebling said. “Yet they say this in their books in just a clause, a sentence, or a paragraph.

To me, this episode merited more curiosity. If ‘Hitler’s Pope’ wanted to help rid the world of Hitler, what’s the story?”

Mr Riebling said there were sev-

Reg. number 012-905 NPo

eral sources of inspiration for the book. During his Catholic upbringing, he learned the long history of the Church: in its first centuries, Christianity was an underground organisation. In post-Reformation England, the Jesuits were involved in clandestine work.

This history prompted him to ask how a historian would document it and find evidence.

He also drew inspiration from the story of James Jesus Angleton, a famous US intelligence officer who during World War II ran an operation to penetrate the Vatican for the Office of Strategic Services, the Central Intelligence Agency’s predecessor.

During research on his previous book, Wedge: The Secret War between the FBI and CIA, Mr Riebling discovered wartime documents from Mr Angleton’s Rome section of the Office of Strategic Services.

“There were at least ten documents implicating Pius XII and his closest advisers in not just one, but actually three plots to remove Hitler—stretching from 1939 to 1944. These were typed up by someone using a very distinct nickname.”

That nickname, “Rock”, belonged to Ray Rocca, who is still alive. Mr Rocca served as Mr Angleton’s deputy in Rome and for most of his later career. His career included responsibility for the CIA’s records concerning the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy.

“So, here’s a guy who had been in the Vatican; who had been charged with penetrating the Vatican; and who knew a thing or two about assassination probes. I thought: here’s an interesting guy to get to know,” Mr Riebling said.

Mr Rocca did not violate his oath of secrecy, but his interviews with Mr Riebling are among the book’s sources.

According to Mr Riebling, his book does not charge that Pope Pius XII “tried to kill Hitler”. Rather, the pope’s actions were more subtle.

“Pius becomes a key cog in conspiracies to remove a ruler who is a kind of Antichrist, because good people ask for his help, and he searches his conscience, and he

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Pope Pius Xii (right) had contempt for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler (left). A new book claims that the pope gave his backing to three assassination attempts on Hitler. agrees to become an intermediary for the plotters—their foreign agent, as it were—and thereby he becomes an accessory to their plots.”

The historian described these actions as “some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy”.

P

ius XII had connections with three plots against Hitler.

• The first, from October 1939 to May 1940, involved German military conspirators.

• From late 1941 to spring of 1943 a series of plots involving the German Jesuits ended when a bomb planted on Hitler’s plane failed to explode.

• The third plot again involved German Jesuits and also German military colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Although the colonel successfully planted a bomb near the Nazi dictator, it failed to kill Hitler. The priests had to flee after the failed attempt. Those unable to escape were executed.

During his research, Mr Riebling discovered that Pius XII secretly recorded the conversations held in his office. Transcripts of the pope’s

talks with German cardinals in March 1939 show that he was deeply concerned that German Catholics would choose Hitler instead of the Church.

“The cardinals asked Pius to appease Hitler, so that German Catholics won’t break away and form a state church, as happened in Tudor England,” Mr Riebling said.

“Pius heeded the German episcopate’s advice. Instead of protesting openly, he would resist Hitler behind the scenes.”

Pius XII’s agents provided the Allies with useful intelligence about Hitler’s war plans on three occasions, including Hitler’s planned invasion of Russia. In all three cases, the Allies did not act on the information.

For their part, the Nazis regarded Pius XII with suspicion since his election to the papacy in 1939.

“He worked hard to allay those suspicions, to minimise persecutions of German Catholics. But the Nazis never dropped their guard,” Mr Riebling said.

At one point Hitler planned to invade the Vatican, kidnap the pope and bring him to Germany.

Heinrich Himmler, the head of the

feared SS, “wanted to have the Holy Father publicly executed to celebrate the opening of a new soccer stadium,” Mr Riebling said.

“Pius became aware of these plans, through his secret papal agents; and, in my view, that influenced the Holy Father’s decision to become involved with the anti-Nazi resistance.”

For Mr Riebling, the assassination plots against Hitler were an admission of weakness, “because it’s saying that we can’t solve the problem by some other means”.

“Knowing what I do about Pius XII, and having researched him for many years, I believe he wanted to be a saint. He wanted people in Germany to be saints,” he added.

“When he heard that a priest was arrested for praying for the Jews and sent off to a concentration camp, he said: ‘I wish everyone would do that’,” he said.

“But he didn’t say it publicly,” the writer acknowledged. The pope’s words were made in secret in a letter to a German bishop.

“So I think what really happened here is: Pius XII wanted to lead a Church of saints. But had to settle for a Church of spies.”—CNA

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10

The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

PILGRIMAGE

Nazareth, where the story of the incarnation begins The story of the Saviour’s incarnation begins in Nazareth, and that of his active ministry with the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana. In the first part of his series on the recent Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers, GüNTHER SiMMERMACHER reflects on those two towns.

W

E know their faces from countless works of art and icons, and yet we don’t know what Mary or Joseph or the disciples really looked like.

I believe that we have a good idea of Jesus’ real face: the physiognomy of the face on the Shroud of Turin and the 6th-century icon of Christ Pantocrator, on which so many images of Christ are based, match up perfectly. If one believes that the Shroud is that of Jesus—which in my view is very likely—then we can imagine his human face.

But what about his blessed mother, the teenage girl from Nazareth? We can see her face in any number of the Palestinian girls we encounter today on the streets of Nazareth or Cana or Bethlehem.

The Palestinians are the indigenous people of the Holy Land.

Today most of them are Muslims—the Christ i a n proportion has shrunk dramatically in the past hundred years, mostly because of emigration.

But before the Islamic conquest of 637 the Palestinians were Christians, and before that they were Jews, much as Italians were first pagans, then became Christians.

The forced removal of Palestinians from their ancestral land that accompanied the founding of Israel in 1948 dramatically changed the distribution of the Holy Land’s original people, and with the mushrooming of the illegal settlements built by Israel in the occupied territories, it keeps changing.

The actions of one man ensured that we can still see the face of Mary in Nazareth, the place where the story of the incarnation begins.

In 1948 the Israeli government under President David Ben Gurion had ordered the removal of all inhabitants from Nazareth, then a predominantly Christian Arab town.

But the commander of Israel’s Sev-

From left: Pilgrims look into Mary’s grotto, traditionally held to be her home, in Nazareth’s lower basilica of the Annunciation; the first-century house in Nazareth, with the front area that was covered by a structure and a cave at the back; Archbishop Brislin at Mass in the upper basilica of the Annunciation. inset below: Modern reliefs between the basilica of the Annunciation and St Joseph’s church depict (left) the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel and (right) a domestic scene of the Holy Family with Jesus as a toddler. enth Armoured Brigade charged with the expulsion of the city’s population, an Israeli-Canadian named Ben Dunkelman, refused to do so, on account of it being a Christian city.

Previously Dunkelman had participated in the ethnic cleansing of other towns and villages. His own accounts of that campaign, long suppressed by the Israeli army, are harrowing, involving war crimes such as firing “concentrated mortar barrages” into non-combatant civilian areas and looting by soldiers.

Declassified papers from the Israeli Defence Force also report on actions under Dunkelman’s command.

In one village, Saliha, his troops forced 60-90 people into a building, probably the mosque, and then blew it up, killing all inside it. In nearby Safsaf the Seventh Brigade shot dead 50-70 people and threw their bodies down the well. In Jish more massacres were committed, including that of four Christians, and a woman and her baby.

Not surprisingly the residents of other villages fled before the Seventh Brigade (and other such outfits) could arrive. Their flight of fear then gave rise to the myth that the Arabs of Palestine left their villages voluntarily.

In Saffuriya, a Muslim village near Nazareth—on the site of the ancient Sepphoris, which will be mentioned again in a moment— Dunkelman’s brigade dropped barrel bombs on the village just as residents were breaking that day’s Ramadan fast In short order, all inhabitants were driven out, and their homes razed. They were never permitted to return, even to tend to the graveyard that holds the remains of their

ancestors.

Today Saffuriya is a Jewish farming community and national park called Tzipori.

The Southern Cross’ Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers, which travelled to the Holy Land with Archbishop Stephen Brislin in February, drove through the area. As in Cape Town’s razed District Six, one can see the rubble of ethnically-cleansed homes. Lines of cacti show the old demarcations of the properties on which these houses once stood.

So it is no wonder that the people of Nazareth were grateful when Dunkelman offered them a surrender, rather than enforced exile.

The price they paid was the city’s forcible annexation into the state of Israel, against all international agreements and laws.

And so Nazareth was spared the fate of previously Arab cities that were given no such choice, such as Tiberias, Jaffa, Ein Kerem, Lydd, Ramleh, Acre, Baysan, Haifa and so on, places from where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents were driven by violence or the threat thereof.

Today these displaced people and their descendants still live in refugee camps, in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

T

oday Nazareth is a bustling city of 75 000, of whom 30% are Christians. It is dominated by a main road that is named after Pope Paul VI, the first modern pope to visit the Holy Land, and the imposing basilica of the Annunciation.

Our group had Mass in the upper level of the basilica, which the local Palestinian Catholics use as their parish church.

In the lower level, or crypt, is the grotto of Mary, the place where the Annunciation took place (though the Greek Orthodox argue that it happened at the city’s well, where they built St Gabriel’s church).

In 380 AD the Iberian pilgrim Egeria, whose accounts are considered perfectly reliable, reported having been shown the cave where Mary lived.

The Christians, who have had an

THE HOLY LAND TREK An itinerary of the great holy sites of the Holy Land and Jordan by Günther Simmermacher.

‘Simmermacher has captured the essence of the pilgrim’s Holy land.’

– Pat McCarthy, NZ Catholic

unbroken presence in Nazareth since apostolic times, obviously remembered through the generations the places associated with the Holy Family, and showed them to pilgrims from the earliest times.

Archaeologists have even found graffiti to support the early Christian presence and pilgrims’ veneration of Mary there. Indeed, the oldest known graffito to mention Our Lady was found here.

Next to the basilica a first-century domestic residence was found in 2009. The set-up of that house was typical of homes throughout the Holy Land: a dwelling would be attached to the front of a cave. Families would keep their animals in the caves, and live out in the front structure.

The excavated house shows how the Nativity story we know, with no rooms at the inn and wooden stables, is the result of Western imagination.

For one thing, at the time there were no “hotels” in Bethlehem which might put up “No Vacancy” signs. More likely, there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the front of the house—an area that served as kitchen, living area and, at night, bedroom. So Mary and Joseph were accommodated in the back area: the cave, where the animals were being kept.

So Jesus was born in a stable, but in a cave, not a wooden edifice. Either way, it was a very humble birth.

And nine months before that birth, there was the Annunciation, the feast of which we mark on March 25.

But if Joseph was from Bethlehem, and Mary from Jerusalem, what were they doing in Nazareth?

Our Roman Catholic guide, the learned Rimon Makhlouf, proposes

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that they had moved from Judea to the Galilean village for two reasons: firstly to escape the tyranny of King Herod, and secondly to find work in the nearby city of Sepphoris, which was being built at the time.

We know that St Joseph was an artisanal builder—the gospels of Mark and Matthew describes him and Jesus by the Greek word tekton, which means craftsman. Most probably they were stonemasons, not carpenters (another Eurocentric misconception).

So it makes eminent sense that a builder such as St Joseph would migrate to a place where work is needed.

And why was the teenage Mary there?

She might have come f r o m Jerusalem, where she was born, to Nazareth with her family, perhaps also in search of work in Sepphoris. Perhaps her parents, who were already old when she was born, had died by then and she came with an uncle and his family.

This would explain why Mary did not have to justify her mysterious pregnancy to an angry father.

A

s we know, that pregnancy changed the world. And just as Mary gave life to the Saviour in around 4 BC, so she launched his ministry some three decades later.

The place was Cana, a town just around the corner from Nazareth.

Married pilgrims today renew their wedding vows in the lovely Franciscan church there.

We know the story: a wedding feast—then three-day affairs—has run out of wine. Mary has compassion for the embarrassed hosts and asks her Son to fix the problem.

But Jesus is reluctant. “My hour has not yet come,” he tells his mother, who obviously has known his nature from the moment of the Annunciation back in Nazareth.

Is Jesus working on some sort of schedule which governs when his hour should come? No, his protest is much more emotional. He knows that in beginning his ministry he will inaugurate the chain of events that will lead to his gruesome death.

He wants to delay the inevitable, if at all possible (as he does again, hours before his crucifixion, in the Garden of Gethsemane).

Mary also knows what she is asking. She knows the prophecy of her Son’s fate. At the Presentation in the Temple, Simeon had told her that “a sword will pierce your own soul, too, so that the inner thoughts of many people might be revealed” (Lk 2:32).

Mary knows that her request marks the beginning of that terrible end. And yet, she instructs her obedient Son. And so Mary’s act of mercy for the hapless wedding hosts comes at a grave, ultimately heartbreaking sacrifice.

Next week: The places where we find the physical Jesus.

CLASSIFIEDS

Give yourself a Lenten team talk

BY THUSo dlAdlA

W

EEKS have passed as we walk the journey of Lent. And just as in every pursuit, there are intervals where we reflect on the path walked.

Think of a football match when during half-time the players reflect on the first half and strategise for the second half.

Likewise, as we near the end of Lent, we silently look back to the beginning of Lent and recall our personal goals and pursuits.

Some of us are still going strong; have discovered new spiritual journeys, new underlying personal strengths, new friendships.

However, some have faltered, eating that chocolate biscuit, sneaking a peek of that favourite soapie.

Others are in stasis, with no change.

At this point in our Lenten journey, let our initial goals re-

mind us of what is expected.

However easy or challenging our goals may be, we do encounter an unavoidable reality.

Athletes call it “hitting the wall”.

We are reminded to call for help and guidance—“Teach me, O Lord, your way, so that I may walk in your truth.”

Spiritual journeys are not simple; they can be incendiary and subject to temptation.

Perhaps you might have wanted to spend an hour or two at the orphanage, but now you’re

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday March 20, Palm Sunday Procession: Luke 19:28-40, Isaiah 50:4-7, Psalms 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24, Philippians 2:6-11, Luke 22:14--23:56 Monday March 21, Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-7, Psalms 27:1-3, 13-14, John 12:1-11 Tuesday March 22, Holy Week Isaiah 49:1-6, Psalms 71:1-6, 15, 17, John 13:2133, 36-38 Wednesday March 23, Holy Week Isaiah 50:4-9, Psalms 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34, Matthew 26:14-25 Thursday March 24, Holy Thursday Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14, Psalms 116:12-13, 15-18, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-15 Friday March 25, Good Friday Isaiah 52:13--53:12, Psalms 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25, Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9, John 18:1--19:42 Saturday March 26, Holy Saturday Genesis 1:1--2:2, Psalms 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12-14, 24, 35, Genesis 22:1-18, Psalms 16:5, 8-11, Exodus 14:15--15:1, Exodus 15:1-6, 17-18, Isaiah 54:5-14, Psalms 30:2, 4-6, 11-13, Isaiah 55:1-11, Isaiah 12:2-6, Baruch 3:9-15, 32--4:4, Psalms 19:8-11, Ezekiel 36:16-28, Psalms 42:3, 5; 43:3-4, Romans 6:3-11, Psalms 118:1-2, 15-17, 22-23, Luke 24:1-12 Sunday March 27, Easter Sunday Acts 10:34, 37-43, Psalms 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23, Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-9

exhausted. Or you wanted to make peace with your sibling, but somehow they are relentlessly hostile.

Fr Karabo Baloyi of Pretoria’s Sacred Heart cathedral put it succinctly for me: “Give until you bleed.” The magnitude of those words took me back to the first Saturday of Lent, highlighting the message, “If you pour yourself out for the hungry, then shall your light rise in the darkness.”

Lent is almost over, and we may well need a resolute strategy for the rest of it.

• How about some daily motivation? How about daily Mass.

Motivation is like taking a bath: it is best done on a daily basis.

• Acknowledging and repenting. “Have mercy, Lord, for we have sinned.” “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

• Ask, seek and knock. Humble the self; trust the Lord and ask for God’s help.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: 23 March: Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley on his 61st birthday

Community Calendar

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

CAPe tOWN: Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town. Followed by vigil at Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Bree Street. Contact Colette Thomas on 083 412 4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br daniel SCP on 078 739 2988.

DURBAN: Holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St Anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9am. Holy Mass and Divine

Mercy Devotion at 17:30pm on first Friday of every month. Sunday Mass at 9am. 031 309 3496.

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Overport rosary group. At Emakhosini Hotel, 73 East Street every Wednesday at 6.30 pm.

NelSPRUIt: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Peter’s parish every Tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed by Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 17:30pm.

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The Southern Cross, March 16 to March 22, 2016

ClASSIFIeDS

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

IN MeMORIAM

BARRY—Peter Francis. died in Cape Town on 17 Feb, 2016, aged 61, after a long battle with cancer.

Greatly missed and will always be lovingly remembered by his wife Margie, his mother Hilda, siblings Susan and Michael, nephew dimitri and nieces Jeanne and Shannon. Rest in peace as you pass from life to life in God’s eternity.

VOGel—Mervin. Sadly passed away in March 1996. We shall always cherish your cheerful smile, your heart of gold and the great example you set. Mom, dad and Tracy.

PRAYeRS

O MOSt beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of Heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. o Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth i humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is none who can withstand your power, o Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary, i place this cause in your hands. “Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days and then publish. RG. O MOSt beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of Heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. o Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth i humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is none who can withstand your power, o Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have

recourse to thee. Holy Mary, i place this cause in your hands. “Say this prayer for 3 consecutive days and then publish. d

FAtHeR in heaven, everliving source of all that is good, keep me faithful in serving you. Help me to drink of Christ's truth, and fill my heart with his love so that i may serve you in faith and love and reach eternal life. in the sacrament of the Eucharist you give me the joy of sharing your life. Keep me in your presence. let me never be separated from you and help me to do your will.

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

Amen

PeRSONAl

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editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory editor: Michael Shackleton, News editor: Mandla Zibi (m.zibi@scross.co.za), editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Mary leveson (m.leveson@scross.co.za), Advertising: Elizabeth Hutton/Yolande Timm (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Michelle Perry (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Accounts: desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za) Directors: R Shields (Chair), J o’leary (Vice-chair), Archbishop S Brislin, S duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, C Moerdyk, R Riedlinger, Z Tom

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the

Easter Sunday: March 27 Two gospels: Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-9

N

EXT Sunday (at last!) is Easter Sunday, where our Lenten journey has been headed all this while.

I hope that you will find time to attend the great liturgies of these days, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday night, as well as Easter Sunday morning. There you will hear a wonderful range of readings, and you will do well to read prayerfully through them before you get to the services in which they appear.

In particular there are two gospels that you will hear if you attend both Masses, at midnight and in the morning next Sunday.

At midnight you will hear Luke’s account of the discovery of the empty tomb, which is the very beginning of our faith.

We watch in admiration as the brave women arrive at the tomb “on the first day of the week, in the deep dawn, carrying the spices that they had bought” (and in passing we note that the ladies did not believe that Jesus would be raised from the dead, for that would have left them with no body to anoint).

However, they find “the stone rolled away from the tomb” (and the reader understands that God has done this), and “they did not

S outher n C ross

find the body of the Lord Jesus”. Instead, they meet “two men, with bright clothing”, who ask them, perhaps with a hint of reproach for their unbelief: “Why are you looking for the Living One with the dead?”

Then we are given the great Easter proclamation: “He is not here—no, he is risen”, and a reminder of how Jesus himself had predicted this, which the women then recall.

Then we follow them as they “returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the Eleven, and to all the rest”.

Only now are the women named (but that means you can check their evidence with them): “Mary the Magdalen, and Johanna, and Mary of Jacob, and the rest of the women with them”. The next step is for them to tell the disciples, but, Luke tells us: “These words seemed like babbling, in [the disciples’] judgment—and they did not believe them.”

There is, however, one exception to this: “Peter rose up and ran to the tomb, and stooped down and saw the grave-cloths lying alone. And he went home, astonished at what

had happened.”

What had happened, do you think?

On Sunday morning, you will hear the slightly different take on the event that we find in the Fourth Gospel. Once again the key player is a woman, but John only mentions Mary the Magdalen, and says that it was “still dark” when she arrived; and “she sees that the stone has been taken from the tomb” (God at work, once again, we presume). She does not apparently hang around to see whether or not Jesus is present, but “runs to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved”.

There she declares: “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him.” So she is not of a disposition to believe in the Resurrection.

This revelation now launches Peter and the other disciple in a sprint to the tomb, won by the “other disciple”.

Though he gets there first, he courteously waits, doing no more than to “stoop down and see the grave-cloths lying there”. Peter goes in

The art of dying releases us I

ibrated to help ease our grip on this world and more gracefully move on to the next world? Dying matures the soul. How so?

Writing about ageing, James Hillman poses this question: Why have God and nature so constructed things that as we age and mature and are finally more in control of our lives, our bodies begin to fall apart and we need a bevy of doctors and medicines to keep functioning?

Is there some wisdom in the very DNA of the life-process that mandates the breakdown of physical health in late life? Hillman says, yes. There’s an innate wisdom in the process of ageing and dying: “The best wines have to be aged in cracked old barrels.” The breakdown of our bodies deepens, softens, and matures the soul.

J

esus teaches us this lesson, and it is a truth he himself had to accept, with considerable reluctance, in his own life.

Facing his own death the night before he died, prostrate on the ground in Gethsemane, he begs his Father: “Let this cup pass from me! Yet, not my will, but yours, be done.”

In essence, he is asking God whether there is a road to glory and the vision of Easter Sunday without passing through the pain and humiliation of Good Friday. It seems there isn’t.

Humiliation and depth are inextricably linked. After his resurrection, talking with his disciples on the road to Emmaus, he says to them: “Wasn’t it necessary that the Christ should so suffer?” This is more a rev-

Conrad

N a deeply insightful book, The Grace of Dying, Kathleen Dowling Singh shares insights she has gleaned as a health professional from being present for hundreds of people while they are dying.

Among other things, she suggests that the dying process itself “is exquisitely calibrated to automatically produce union with Spirit”.

In essence, she is saying that what is experienced by someone in the final stages and moments of dying, particularly if the death is not a sudden one, is a purgation that naturally lessens the person’s grip on the things of this world as well as on his or her own ego so as to be ready to enter into a new realm of life and meaning beyond our present realm of consciousness.

The dying process itself, she submits, midwifes us into a wider, deeper life.

But that does not come without a weighty price tag. The dying process is not a pleasant one. Most of us do not die peacefully in our sleep, comfortable, dignified, and serene. The norm rather is the kind of death that comes about by ageing or by terminal disease.

What happens then is not comfortable, dignified, or serene. Rather there is a painful, sometimes excruciating, almost always humiliating, breakdown of the body.

In that process we lose basically everything that is dear to us: our health, our natural bodily beauty, our dignity, and sometimes even our mind. Dying is rarely beautiful, save in another aesthetic.

And so how is the process of dying cal-

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

Nicholas King SJ

Lenten joy at Resurrection

and sees the same, but also the “sweat-cloth which had been on his head”, which turns out to have been “rolled up apart, in one place”.

This presumably proves that it was not graverobbers who have emptied the tomb.

Only then does the “other disciple, the one who had come first to the tomb” allow himself to enter. Notice what happens now: “He saw and he came to faith.” Then the evangelist offers his comment: “For they did not yet know the Scripture that it was necessary for him to rise from the dead.”

At this stage you and I have to ask ourselves what all this is about. We have been travelling all the way through Lent to this remarkable moment, which is absolutely at the centre of our faith.

We must ask ourselves: what happened on that Sunday morning? What did God do in the face of Jesus’ disgusting death? How are we to respond, now and for the rest of our lives?

Southern Crossword #698

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

elation of truth than a question.

The answer is already clear: The road to depth necessarily passes through pain and humiliation.

Kathleen Dowling Singh and James Hillman simply format this positively: Pain and humiliation are naturally calibrated to move us beyond what is more superficial to what is deeper. Pain and humiliation, and there is invariably a certain dying in these, help open us up to deeper consciousness.

And we know this already from common sense. If we honestly assess our own experience we have to admit that most of the things that have made us deep are things we would be ashamed to talk about because they were humiliating. Humiliation is what humbles and deepens us. Our successes, on the contrary, which we do like to talk about, generally produce inflations in our lives.

The famed psychologist/philosopher William James submits that there are realms of reality and consciousness that lie beyond what we presently experience.

All religion, not least Christianity, tells us the same thing. But our normal consciousness and self-awareness literally set up boundaries that prevent us from going there.

Normally, for us, there’s this world, this reality, and that’s all! The dying process helps break open that contraction in our perception, awareness, and consciousness.

It is calibrated to open us up to a reality and a consciousness beyond what we presently deem as real.

But there are other paths to this too, outside the process of dying. Prayer and meditation are meant to do for us exactly what the dying process does.

They too are exquisitely calibrated to loosen our grip on this world and open our awareness to another.

As Singh puts it: “The path to the transpersonal realms, which the saints and sages of every age have known through the practice of meditation and prayer, appears to be the same transformative path that each of us traverses in the process of dying.”

That’s consoling: God is going to get us, one way or the other.

St John Paul II Pilgrimage to Poland Southern Cross

Sunday Reflections

aCroSS

1. They are staged for a dram’s measure (6) 4. Jacob’s eldest son (Gn 29) (6) 9. They are not heavy when given by the confessor (5,8) 10. Drew cod from the packed throng (7) 11. Unrelaxed (5) 12. Father-in-law of Caiaphas (Jn 18) (5) 14. Cyril provides the tenor voice (5) 18. Send money for the mitre (5) 19. Very serious unction? (7) 21. Taint convenor discovered against the law (13) 22. He may keep hellfire burning (6) 23. Not a big insult (6)

DoWn

1. Violation of the law from Edict L (6) 2. Rota going Amen to Vatican II update word (13) 3. Played a role as cadet (5) 5. Precisely (7) 6. What you’ll do thinking carefully about (2,11) 7. What tensed bird did (6) 8. Tell them in the Rosary (5) 13. Treats a Greek goddess (7) 15. Blocks of ice-cream from Walls (6) 16. Dig deep into model vestry (5) 17. A snack in the cheap gallery (6) 20. Relating to the sound of music (5)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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HE catechist told the First Communion class the story of the centurion who had come to Jesus asking him to please heal his very sick servant in his house (Lk 7:6).

Revising the story and hoping to point out the faith of the centurion in the power of Jesus, the teacher asked: “Why did the centurion prevent Jesus from entering his house?”

After a long pause a little boy ventured: “He didn’t want Jesus to catch the germs.”

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!)