160323 by The Southern Cross

The

S outher n C ross

March 23 to March 29, 2016

Holy icon goes out from SA to the world

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reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4969

www.scross.co.za

r8,00 (incl VaT rsa)

South Africa’s first cardinal remembered

Where we can find Jesus in Holy Land

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The editor and staff of The Southern Cross wish all readers, advertisers, Associates, pilgrims, supporters, contributors and friends a blessed Easter filled with the hope and joy of our Risen Lord.

Race debate must take place By MaNdla ZiBi

T is still very difficult for whites in South Africa to accept what “white privilege” means, according to a Jesuit priest and commentator. Many whites attribute their success to hard work in the past, but the truth is that because of skin colour, they had more opportunities than blacks, Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, director of the Jesuit Institute, told a dialogue entitled “Continuing the Conversations that Matter— Racism in South Africa”. The meeting was co-hosted by the Jesuit Institute, the Goedgedacht Forum and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation in Johannesburg. “It is important that these spaces are created so that genuine conversations can take place about an issue that will be critical to the future of this country,” Fr Pollitt told the gathering, which featured a number of educational staff from Catholic schools. “It is not about how hard you worked, but how, because of your skin colour, you had many more opportunities and open doors than black people. That’s what the [apartheid] system did, it gave some people a headstart in life—not on merit but on skin colour—and we cannot deny this,” said Fr Pollitt He argued that racism, and how we deal with it now, will determine our collective future much more than economics or politics. Fr Pollitt’s comments came after the bishops of Southern Africa issues a landmark pastoral letter on racism, titled “A Call to Overcome Racism”, which was reproduced in full in last week’s Southern Cross. In it, the bishops said that repentance, spiritual healing and hard conversations are necessary to respond to racism and racial divisions in South Africa. “In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, as Church in Southern Africa, we commit ourselves to a credible and comprehensive conversation on racism,” the bishops said. “We realise that this is not an easy conversation, one that many of us may prefer to avoid.” This means acknowledging racism in the Church before, during and after apartheid. The bishops noted that such conversations can evoke emotions such as self-justification, self-righteousness, guilt and denial, or anger and sadness. They called on “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”. The bishops also encouraged South Africans to address the social trauma resulting from colonialism and apartheid. “We need to acknowledge the link between race, power and privilege,” they said. “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.” A participant in the Jesuit Institute/Goedgedacht meeting said that whites need to realise that they are not off the hook, and that they “must face South Africa’s racist past and take responsibility for a system they were part of perpetuating”. “Some white South Africans believe that we should all ‘just get on with it’, live as if we are colour-blind, and that will make everything

The finding of the empty tomb by the women is represented in this large relief cut into Mokattam mountain at the huge semi-cave church of st simon’s at the Coptic monastery of st simon the Tanner in Cairo, Egypt. reliefs are carved into the stone throughout the monastery complex by a Polish artist known as Mario. Easter, the feast of the resurrection of Christ, is celebrated this year on March 27 in the latin-rite. (Photo: Günther simmermacher) OK,” another speaker said. “It’s not OK! That just entrenches stereotypes and perpetuates the lie we are all living.” Many expressed their frustration with what they called the “lie of the Rainbow Nation”, saying it just makes things worse and is behind the current rage in society, especially at tertiary institutions. “We remain a divided and segregated society, and it is not all ‘living happily ever after’ as some would have us believe,” an educator added. Felicity Harrison, director of the Goedgedacht Forum, said these kinds of conversations “open up spaces for South Africans to talk about something which is highly sensitive yet fundamental in the country today”. Luke Spiropoulos of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation gave a talk on the foundation’s work, specifically about the launch of the Anti-Racism Network South Africa, of which the Jesuit Institute is a member.

Pope: New annulment rules ‘pastoral’ By ElisE Harris

OPE Francis has reiterated that the streamlined annulment process is pastoral, and seeks to reach out to families suffering from a broken marriage. “These measures have an eminently pastoral goal: to show the Church’s concern for those faithful who are waiting for a quick verification on their marital status,” the pope told a Vatican workshop on the new norms which he introduced in August. It is out of both charity and mercy, as well as lived experience, that the Church decided to create the new, streamlined annulment process, which aims to grow closer to persons with a failed marriage, and to meet “their legitimate desire for justice”, the pope said.

Pope Francis stressed the new procedures were created with a pastoral intention, and that for divorced couples living in a second union, the “most important” concern of the Church is that they don’t feel ostracised, but continue to participate in the ecclesial community. In his speech, Pope Francis noted that many divorced couples seeking an annulment found the process overly complicated, and many encountered difficultly in accessing the appropriate ecclesial judicial structures. Because of this, he said, he decided to streamline the process, putting into place a new set of norms aimed at simplifying the procedures so couples aren’t left waiting for an answer, often harassed by doubt.—CNA

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

LOCAL

Mission priest to lead SC pilgrimage R EDEMPTORIST Father Larry Kaufmann, the well-known author and parish missioner, will lead The Southern Cross’ Year of Mercy pilgrimage to the Holy Land in October. “We are very excited to have Fr Larry lead our pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the Year of Mercy because his preaching embodies the qualities which Pope Francis is calling us to in this Holy Year,” said Günther Simmermacher, editor of The Southern Cross. Fr Kaufmann has been travelling throughout South Africa for many years to lead the popular parish missions that are offered by his order. He is a former provincial (or regional head) of the Redemptorists,

and the author of several books. The Year of Mercy pilgrimage to the Holy Land has been designed to allow for some time for prayer and quiet reflection, especially at the Sea of Galilee. Fr Kaufmann will also be available for confession and individual spiritual guidance. Mass will be celebrated in holy places every day. The priest said he had fallen in love especially with the area around the Sea of Galilee when he spent some extended time there on retreat in 2014. He will bring together the vision of the all-merciful God and the sites that are associated with Jesus, his Blessed Mother and the Scriptures, with special reference to the Year of Mercy.

The pilgrimage will cover all the important sacred sites of the Holy Land, including Jerusalem (with the Via Dolorosa), Bethlehem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Mount Tabor (site of the Transfiguration), Jordan River, Jericho, Mount Carmel, Jaffa and so on. There will also be an opportunity to float on the Dead Sea. The pilgrimage will be guided by Rimon Makhlouf, a Roman Catholic and leading Christian guide in the Holy Land who has been in charge of several previous Southern Cross pilgrimages, including those led by Archbishops William Slattery and Stephen Brislin. As a bonus the pilgrimage also includes time in Cairo, where the

group will see the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, and visit old Cairo with the famous Hanging church and the grotto where the Holy Family found shelter during the Flight to Egypt. The projected price for the pilgrimage is R33 219 (calculated at R15,76 to the dollar, which means that should the rand improve, that price will come down). This includes daily breakfast and dinner in 4/5-star hotels as well as daily lunches in restaurants. n For more information or to book contact Gail at info@fowlertours.co.za or call 076 352-3809 or 021 5513923, or download the itinerary with booking form at www.fowlertours. co.za/kaufmann

Fr larry Kaufmann Cssr

Youth pray Stations on the beach

The heads of de la salle Holy Cross College High school in Johannesburg (back middle: Keannu Jardim and sofia Gouveia) spent some special time with members of the junior school, from Grade r upwards, telling them about their personal journeys through the college.

OLY Trinity youth of Matroosfontein parish in Cape Town took to Bloubergstrand to journey through the Stations of the Cross as part of their Lenten programme. The group, joined by the youth of St Catherine’s from Kleinvlei, carried the cross and had youth members read the stations. Once they completed the Stations, they were asked to collect stones to represent their bad habits. Participants then found isolated spots to reflect on at least one sinful habit keeping them from Jesus. They completed their meditation by throwing their rocks into the ocean and concluded with prayer, led by Matroosfontein’s Fr Thomas Vanderkunnel MSFS.

youth of Matroosfontein and Kleinvlei, Cape Town, prayed the stations of the Cross, on Blouberg beach..

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY 3RD APRIL 2016

A Priest Who Saw Heaven, Hell And Purgatory

I was born on July 16, 1949 in Kerala, India to my parents, Joseph and Theresa Maniyagat. I am the eldest of seven children: Jose, Mary, Theresa, Lissama, Zachariah, Valsa and Tom. At the age of fourteen, I entered St Mary's Minor Seminary in Thiruvalla to begin my studies for the priesthood. Four years later, I went to St Josephs Pontiﬁcal Major Seminary in Alwaye, Kerala to continue my priestly formation. After completing the seven years of philosophy and theology, I was ordained a priest on January 1, 1975 to serve as a missionary in the Diocese of Thiruvalla. On Sunday April 14, 1985, the Feast of the Divine Mercy, I was going to celebrate Mass at a mission church in the north part of Kerala, and I had a fatal accident. I was riding a motorcycle when I was hit head-on by a jeep driven by a man who was intoxicated after a Hindu festival. I was rushed to a hospital about 35 miles away. On the way, my soul came out from my body and I experienced death. Immediately, I met my Guardian Angel. I saw my body and the people who were carrying me to the hospital. I heard them crying and praying for me. at this time my angel told me: "I am going to take you to Heaven, the Lord wants to meet you and talk with you." He also said that, on the way, he wanted to show me hell and purgatory.

HEAVEN

This was the third year the group completed the Stations on the

beach. The group invites all youth groups to join them next year.

Fr Jose Maniyangat is currently the pastor of St. Mary's Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Maclenny, Florida. Here is his personal testimony:

Hell

First, the angel escorted me to hell. It was an awful sight! I saw Satan and the devils, an unquenchable fire of about 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, worms crawling over people screaming and fighting, others being tortured by demons. The angel told me that all these sufferings were due to unrepented mortal sins. Then, I understood that there are seven degrees of suffering or levels according to the number and kinds of mortal sins committed in their earthly lives. The souls looked very ugly, cruel and horrific. It was a fearful experience. I saw people whom I knew, but I am not allowed to reveal their identities. The sins that convicted them were mainly abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, hatefulness, unforgiveness and sacrilege. The angel told me that if they had repented, they would have avoided hell and gone instead to purgatory. I also understood that some people who repent from these sins might be purified on earth through their sufferings. This way they can avoid purgatory and go straight to heaven. I was surprised when I saw in hell even priests and bishops, some of whom I never expected to see. Many of them were there because they had misled the people with false teaching and bad example.

Purgatory

After the visit to hell, my Guardian Angel escorted me to purgatory. Here too, there are seven degrees of suffering and unquenchable fire. But it is far less intense than hell and there was neither quarrelling nor fighting. The main suffering of these souls is their separation from God. Some of those who are in purgatory committed numerous mortal sins, but they were reconciled with God before their death. Even though these souls are suffering, they enjoy peace and the knowledge that one day they will see God face to face. I had a chance to communicate with the souls in purgatory. They asked me to pray for them and to tell the people to pray for them as well, so they can go to heaven quickly. When we pray for these souls, we will receive their gratitude through their prayers, and once they enter heaven, their prayers become even more meritorious. It is difficult for me to describe how beautiful my Guardian Angel is. He is radiant and bright. He is my constant companion and helps me in all my ministries, especially my healing ministry. I experience his presence everywhere I go and I am grateful for his protection in my daily life.

Next, my angel escorted me to heaven passing through a big dazzling white tunnel. I never experienced this much peace and joy in my life. Then immediately heaven opened up and I heard the most delightful music, which I never heard before. The angels were singing and praising God. I saw all the saints, especially the Blessed Mother and St Joseph, and many dedicated holy Bishops and priests who were shining like stars. And when I appeared before the Lord, Jesus told me: "I want you to go back to the world. In your second life, you will be an instrument of peace and healing to My people. You will walk in a foreign land and you will speak in a foreign tongue. Everything is possible for you with My grace." After these words, the Blessed Mother told me: "Do whatever He tells you. I will help you in your ministries." Words cannot express the beauty of heaven. There we find so much peace and happiness, which exceed a million times our imagination. Our Lord is far more beautiful than any image can convey. His face is radiant and luminous and more beautiful than a thousand rising suns. The pictures we see in the world are only a shadow of His magnificence. The Blessed Mother was next to Jesus; She was so beautiful and radiant. None of the images we see in this world can compare with her real beauty. Heaven is our real home; we are created to reach heaven and enjoy God forever. Then, I came back to the world with my angel. While my body was at the hospital, the doctor completed all examinations and I was pronounced dead. The cause of death was bleeding. My family was notified, and since they were far away, the hospital staff decided to move my dead body to the morgue. Because the hospital did not have air conditioners, they were concerned that the body would decompose quickly. As they were moving my dead body to the morgue, my soul came back to the body. I felt an excruciating pain because of so many wounds and broken bones. I began to scream, and then the people became frightened and ran away screaming. One of them approached the doctor and said: "The dead body is screaming." The doctor came to examine the body and found that I was alive. So he said: "Father is alive, it is a miracle! Take him back to the hospital." Now, back at the hospital, they gave me blood transfusions and I was taken to surgery to repair the broken bones. They worked on my lower jaw, ribs, pelvic bone, wrists, and right leg. After two months, I was released from the hospital, but my orthopaedic doctor said that I would never walk again. I then said to him: "The Lord who gave me my life back and sent me back to the world will heal me." Once at home, we were all praying for a miracle. Still after a month, and with the casts removed, I was not able to move. But one day while I was praying I felt an extraordinary pain in my pelvic area. After a short while the pain disappeared completely and I heard a voice saying: "You are healed. Get up and walk." I felt the peace and healing power on my body. I immediately got up and walked. I praised and thanked God for the miracle. I reached my doctor with the news of my healing, and he was amazed. He said: "Your God is the true God. I must follow your God." The doctor was Hindu, and he asked me to teach him about our Church. After studying the Faith, I baptized him and he became Catholic.

Jesus says whoever goes to Confession and Communion on Divine Mercy Sunday all Sin and punishment will be taken away. 082 411 9352

LOCAL

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

Urgent need to solve Redemptorist’s Our ‘stateless children’ crisis Lady icon off to Rome A A By Fr sEaN COlliNs Cssr

By MaNdla ZiBi

NEW crisis of “stateless children” is looming in South Africa, with an estimated 5 000 youngsters at risk of exclusion from school and future work opportunities. This was the subject of a round table discussion co-hosted by the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) and the South African Learning and Transformation Alliance at the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town. The meeting saw spirited participation from a range of people from the development sector, media, child welfare activists and others. All stressed the need for careful solutions on this sensitive issue. According to the CPLO, the Department of Education is depriving access to schooling and a good future to thousands of children who, for a number of reasons and through no fault of their own, have no birth certificates or IDs. An area especially hard hit by this phenomenon is Nkomazi in Mpumalanga. Cleopas Maseko, head of Thembalethu Nkomazi, an NGO based in the area, painted a bleak picture. “The issue of ‘stateless children’ or undocumented people is particularly serious in Nkomazi, being bordered by Mozambique and Swaziland. It is heightened by high HIV rates and many parents died before antiretroviral medication became available,” he explained. “So now you have children who were left behind due to HIV, but were never registered in the system by their parents. This means that when we want to intervene in terms of services they are non-existent and that is a major challenge,” said Mr Maseko. This affects first-time schoolgoers, children who have been in school for some time, as well as matriculants who cannot write their final exams. “There are many learners who wrote matric but their certificates are meaningless because they don’t have their ID numbers on them. And so they cannot get jobs or pursue fur-

(From left) Cleopas Maseko, director of NGO Thembalethu Nkomazi, Charlotte Manicom of scalabrini Centre, and Joan armstrong of the archdiocese of Cape Town, the round table director, at a discussion on stateless children in south africa. ther education,” Mr Maseko said. The issue of “stateless or undocumented” children is not new, but is being heightened by the education department’s recent tightening of the rules and the lack of communication between the department and Home Affairs.

harlotte Manicom, on behalf of Scalabrini Centre, led the discussion on how best to advocate for and highlight the plight of these children, saying it was time for concerted action from all stakeholders at the gathering. “We need to come up with strategic ways on how to deal with this challenge as a collective entity. There is a budding network of organisations on ‘statelessness’ and I call on all of us to build it into a strong voice on this issue. Already Scalabrini is working with Lawyers for Human Rights, Child Welfare Johannesburg and other civil society organisation in the Southern Africa region,” Ms Manicom said.

little Eden officers (from left) financial manager Peter Mannix and CEO lucy slaviero with French volunteers Jennifer Charles and Ophélie darras.

Home welcomes French volunteers

ITTLE Eden in Gauteng is delighted to welcome two young volunteers from France, Jennifer Charles and Ophélie Darras. The new volunteers will be based at Little Eden for the next two years. The Society is grateful for an ongoing partnership with Fidesco, which is a federation of associations which has been assisting Little Eden to source suitable long-term volunteers to contribute to the stimulation programme within the organisation. Little Eden is a home to 300 children and adults with profound intellectual disability. The majority (238) of the residents had been abandoned and some come from indigent families. n For more information, visit the website at www. littleeden.org.za, phone Nichollette Muthige on 011 609 7246, or send an email to marketing@littleeden. org.za

She urged caution, however, in not alienating government, but seeking ways of roping in structures within the state that are already working on the issue. “There have been a few cases where we have succeeded in getting papers for some children but those numbers are clearly not enough. But there is already a Department of Home Affairs steering committee working on statelessness and undocumented children and we must make it an ally of our campaign if we can,” she said. Other strategic avenues to explore included a legal challenge, or an amnesty campaign where the minister of Home Affairs could regularise all affected children at the stroke of the pen. One participant even raised the idea of taking up the issue with the Human Rights Commission as a “violation of the human rights of children” for an investigation which could lead to recommendations and redress.

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REDEMPTORIST brother in Cape Town has reproduced an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour which has been taken to Rome to aid the order’s Year of Mercy missions. Br Richard Maidwell CSsR was commissioned to write the icon, also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The original icon was entrusted to the Redemptorists in Rome in 1866 by Pope Pius IX for safekeeping, with the command to make it known throughout the world. This year the Redemptorists are celebrating the 150th anniversary of that mandate. The icon, one of the most famous in the world, is beloved and venerated both in the Eastern and Western Churches, with shrines, churches, basilicas and homes dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The original icon is kept at the Redemptorist mother church in Rome, dedicated to founder St Alphonsus Liguori, just around the corner from the basilica of St Mary Major. To celebrate this 150th anniversary of being entrusted with the icon, the Redemptorists worldwide

redemptorist Brother richard Maidwell with his reproduction of the icon Our lady of Perpetual Help. are going out to make the “Icon of Love” known, at the same time proclaiming the Jubilee Year of Mercy promulgated by Pope Francis, in keeping with their charism. To this end, Br Maidwell, a wellknown iconographer based at the order’s monastery in Bergvliet, Cape Town, was commissioned to write (icons are “written”, not painted) a fresh reproduction of the original.

Holy rosary Primary school in Edenvale, Johannesburg, collected 18 080 Easter eggs that have been donated to various charities through the Johannesburg Mini Council (JMC), and to the school’s Outreach Phumelela Programme. seen here is the class that collected the most Easter eggs, Grade 2CK, which contributed 3 954 eggs.

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Holy Year brings more confessions to St Peter’s By CiNdy WOOdEN

HE number of people going to confession in St Peter’s basilica increased noticeably in the first months of the Year of Mercy, but not among English-speakers, who apparently are staying away from Europe out of fear of terrorism, said the rector of the basilica’s team of confessors. Conventual Franciscan Father Rocco Rizzo, the rector, told the Vatican newspaper that from the opening of the Holy Year on December 8 he heard about 2 000 confessions in St Peter’s. In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Fr Rizzo said he usually hears 20-30 confessions a day in Italian or Spanish, but the number of penitents increases on Saturdays and Sundays, and he will offer the sacrament to at least 50 people each day on the weekend. Another phenomenon that is increasing, he said, is people coming to the confessionals who are not Catholic. “They want to confess to see what it is about,” he said. While confessors can listen to and counsel

Pope Francis hears confession from a man in st Peter’s basilica at the Vatican. (Photo: l’Osservatore romano, reuters/CNs) non-Catholics, it is not considered a sacramental confession in most cases. Catholics visiting St Peter’s basilica as tourists or even pilgrims may not be very familiar with the sacrament, Fr Rizzo said. Many young people will say they have not been to confession since they made their first Communion, and it is not un-

Sainthood cause finance reforms By JuNNO arOCHO EsTEVEs

N an effort to ensure greater financial transparency and accountability, Pope Francis has approved new regulations governing the financial contributions given for sainthood causes, the Vatican announced. The new “Norms on the Administration of Goods of the Causes of Beatification and Canonisation” states that because of the complexity

of the sainthood process, the causes incur substantial costs, including for diocesan-level investigations, work carried out by the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes and the beatification or canonisation ceremonies themselves. The norms were released several months after leaked documents allegedly written by a commission studying the financial activity of Vatican offices concluded there was “insufficient oversight of the cash-flow

usual for someone to come and say it has been 30 years since they last confessed. “I have had people come who listened to the words of the pope and then remembered that 30 or 40 years ago they committed a serious sin and they now feel the need to reconcile with the Lord,” he said. For the Year of Mercy, Fr Rizzo and the other priests who hear confessions at St Peter’s and the major basilicas of Rome have been given special faculties to extend absolution even in cases like abortion that normally require consultation with the local bishop or even with the Vatican. Another Year of Mercy change, he said, is in the penance given to those coming to confession. Increasingly the priests in the basilica will ask someone to show their repentance not by reciting a set number of prayers, but through a work of mercy, “like visiting someone who is sick, doing the shopping for an older person, paying a bill for someone who is lacking money” or helping someone get to church.—CNS for canonisations”. In his book Merchants in the Temple, Gianluigi Nuzzi claimed the Congregation for Saints’ Causes was among the most reluctant Vatican offices to cooperate with the papally appointed commission and needed immediate action to promote transparency and honesty. “In case of failure or administrative-financial abuses by those participating in a cause, the Congregation for Saints’ Causes will take disciplinary action,” the document says.— CNS

Sacred Heart Private Primary School

TEACHING 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, North West 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.

The following criteria will also be considered; • Teaching experience preferably in a Catholic educational environment. • 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. • Suitable teaching Qualifications with experience in a primary school. • Students with experience in the advertised fields and studying to qualify in education will be considered. • Can play a musical instrument Salary package is negotiable. Please send your CV to: The Principal, Sacred Heart Private Primary School, PO Box 5826, Taung, 8584. Email: Saheta@lantic.net - Giving details of Qualifications, experience and names of two contactable referees. Closing date: 30 March 2016

The school reserves the right not to proceed with the ﬁlling of the post. An application will not in itself entitle the applicant to an interview or appointment and failure to meet the requirements of the advertised post will result in applicants automatically disqualifying themselves from consideration. Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

refugee job seekers gather at a job fair in Berlin. (Photo: Michael Kappeler, EPa/CNs)

Christian refugees abused in camp By JONaTHaN luxMOOrE

N international charity has urged better protection for Christian refugees in Germany after Church officials said many face abuse in Muslim-dominated camps and reception centres. “We’ve heard much about the nasty treatment of Christians, and we’re compiling a report to push politicians into action,” said Rachel Marsuk, a spokesman for the Netherlands-based Open Doors International, which says it serves persecuted Christians worldwide. “We’ve had questionnaires returned detailing how Christian refugees have been psychologically abused, physically mistreated and denied food. The scale of this problem has been covered up or played down,” she said. Germany took in 1,1 million refugees from the Middle East and Africa during 2015 and granted 476 000 asylum requests. German newspapers have reported rapes, beatings and robberies in the country’s refugee centres, as well as abusive taunts against Christianity. In an interview with Catholic News Service, Ms Marsuk said:“It’s essential churches help address this problem, especially since many

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Christian refugees are too scared to speak out,” Ms Marsuk told CNS. “Politicians at [the] local and national level here have done nothing to help and don’t want to hear about these cases. They don’t see how religious differences have fuelled tensions and led to persecution.” Stefan Forner, Berlin archdiocesan spokesman, said Archbishop Heiner Koch had discussed the plight of Christian refugees at a meeting with local officials. He said many camp administrators failed to grasp the importance of religious and cultural differences and had failed to act to prevent anti-Christian violence. “Some people don’t even want to talk about Christians, fearing Muslims may have a problem with this,” Mr Forner said. “We need to help those dealing with refugees to understand the situation of Christians in Syria and other countries of origin and be aware of the potential hazards of putting all the refugees together,” he said. Several Christian communities in Germany have provided special facilities for Christian refugees, although politicians and Church leaders have resisted calls for refugees to be separated on religious and ethnic lines.—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

Auschwitz dates Top exorcist warns of satanic ‘vampire murder’ set aside for WYD By daVid raMOs

HE murder of a 24-year-old man in Chihuahua, Mexico, last month is being considered by authorities as a “possible satanic ritual” designed to transform the victim into a vampire. A report from the Chihuahua state attorney-general says that the four people accused of the murder— three men and a woman between 1825—“profess Satanism” and performed “an initiation rite in which they decided to have as their victim their friend Edwin Miguel Juárez Palma”. The four defendants took the young man “by deception, they bound his hands and lied to him, telling him that he would be initi-

By NaNCy WiECHEC

ated into the sect called ‘Sons of Baphomet 1’, unaware he himself would be the ‘sacrifice”. The young man asked to participate in the rite so he could “resurrect as a vampire”. Speaking to Catholic News Agency, exorcist and demonology expert Fr José Antonio Fortea warned that “the vampire fad is something that’s very close to Satanism”. “Vampire-ism totally amounts to devil worship,” Fr Fortea said. Fr Fortea stressed the relationship between a society steeped in violence and the growth of Satanism. “The more a society abandons the ways of God, the more cases of Satanism. The more a nation is Christian, there are fewer cases of devil worship,” he said.

The Spanish exorcist also explained that one does not spontaneously become a Satanist. “A person worships the devil only when he has come to the end of a complete process of moral degradation. There’s a very big difference between following your own passions and participating in a satanic ritual,” he said. In May 2015, Fr Fortea coordinated a major exorcism of the entire country of Mexico. The exorcism, which took place in the archdiocese of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, “puts up barriers to demonic action”, he said. “But unfortunately, that exorcism doesn't serve to prevent someone who is already morally degraded from approaching the devil asking for things.”—CNA

Church feeds children as famine strikes By BrONWEN daCHs

EEDING children to prevent them dropping out of school is a priority for the Church in Ethiopia, which is experiencing its worst drought in about 50 years, a Church worker said. “Children don’t go to school if they have empty stomachs,” Argaw Fantu, regional director for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, said. More than 10 million people of Ethiopia’s population of around 100 million require emergency humanitarian food assistance because of the

El Nino-driven drought. “If we are able to provide sufficient relief now, in these dire circumstances, the drought will cause the country to take only one step back and then continue on the development track it has been on for the past decade,” said Matt Davis, Catholic Relief Services’ representative in Ethiopia. “The commitment of the Church in Ethiopia is tremendous, and it punches above its weight,” Mr Davis said, noting that only 1% of Ethiopia’s population is Catholic, yet the Church is the second-largest provider of health and education

services, after the government. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia said in a statement: “It is not difficult to imagine the fate” of young people among the displaced “taking the risk of migrating to other countries through illegal means in search of work and a better life,” the bishops said. “To avoid this, we are trying to meet their food needs where they are” in the rural areas, Mr Fantu said, noting that children as young as 10 years old are coming to Ethiopia’s cities, where they beg for food and money. —CNS

HE Auschwitz memorial and museum is setting aside days exclusively for World Youth Day pilgrims who want to tour the former Nazi death camp. The museum has set aside July 20-28 and August 1-3 for participants in World Youth Day, which runs from July 26-31 in Krakow, about one-and-a-half hours away. World Youth Day officials set aside 300 000 spots and asked participants to register for the dates. In early March, they said about 57 000 spots remained. Participants who wish to visit the museum on the designated days must register at http://mlodzi.duszpasterstwa.biel sko.pl/auschwitz. A record 1,72 million people visited the Auschwitz memorial and museum in 2015. It was the largest group ever to tour the former Nazi death camp in any given year. Young people made up the majority of visitors, according to the museum’s annual report. Between 1940 and 1945, more than 1 million Jews and tens of thousands of Poles, Roma, Soviet POWs and others were murdered by the SS at Auschwitz. Auschwitz was the largest camp complex established by the Nazis. The main camp, known as Auschwitz I, was expanded to include Auschwitz II (AuschwitzBirkenau) in 1941 and Auschwitz III (Auschwitz-Monowitz) in 1942. Among those killed were St Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Con-

a guard tower is seen at the auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in Oswiecim, Poland. (Photo: Nancy Wiechec/CNs) ventual Franciscan friar, and St Edith Stein, a Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite nun. Auschwitz has stood as testament to the Holocaust for 70 years. Education, preservation and research is a large part of the museum’s ongoing mission. Among the exhibits are heaps of glasses, shoes, suitcases, Jewish prayer shawls, clothing, kitchenware, baskets and other personal items belonging to victims. Polish Catholic leaders have expressed hope that Pope Francis might visit Auschwitz in July when he comes to Poland for World Youth Day. St John Paul II visited in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.—CNS

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Guest editorial: Colleen Constable

SA needs Easter hope

HE risen Christ appeared to Mary of Magdala and said: “Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ And Mary went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’, and what he told her” (John 20:17-18). “And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe” (Matthew 16:11). The Resurrection of Christ represents new beginnings, new life and true transformation: a declaration of love, faith, truth and hope. But the encounter between Mary of Magdala and the companions of Jesus suggests denialism. They denied the truth of the risen Christ as presented by the first witness of the Resurrection, a “newly appointed prophet of the New Testament”—a woman. The patriarchal attitudes at the time contaminated their thinking and feelings. Their inclination towards prejudice allowed the voice of reason to escape. They failed to recognise “his voice” transmitted in the clearly articulated message they received. They failed to listen to the words of affirmation. Today in contemporary South Africa, this attitude of denialism has also emerged in various spheres of our societal life. We celebrate Easter in the midst of challenges: governance issues, nation-building and social cohesion, drought, violence and unemployment, to name but a few. Our biggest governance challenge is the credibility of the presidential office and the economic growth of our country. Denialism underpins the ruling party’s endorsement of a sitting president who has outraged the nation multiple times. Denialism informs the reluctance to recall him from public office. Denialism allows our beloved country to be sacrificed for the sake of one person. In an environment of denial, “hope” becomes a survival strategy: a technique to hold despondency and despair at bay. We cannot live without hope. We hold our breath as we await the next international rating agencies’ outcomes on the financial sustainability of the country. We sigh with relief that the first 2016 voter registration weekend exceeded all expectations: a record-breaking 3 million voters registered, with 78% of new registrations youths.

Voter maturity may facilitate transformation. Voters have learned that effective policy implementation and sustainable policy outcomes matter. And political parties have now learned that the growing discontent among the poor should no longer be ignored. As voters our heartbeats increase in the struggle to free ourselves from denial—unlike Mary’s denialist friends—by embracing hard facts and truths, knowing that we hold the true power: we hold the Easter candle in our hands. We recognise the urgency to upscale nation-building efforts and welcome Human Rights Day having beeen celebrated as a “national day against racism”. Churches should be more progressive in ending racism: it cannot be left to government alone. We hope that the drought is classified as a national disaster. We need sound policy approaches and sustainable financial support for the agricultural sector. We hope that the current wave of violence at universities ends. Although universities have been slow in institutional transformation for more than 20 years, violence as a tool to facilitate change can never be condoned. Youth unemployment is high: job creation is an utmost priority. Inequality produces poverty and violence. This vicious cycle needs sustainable interventions with measurable results. Easter reminds us that we step out of the suffering of Christ into the light of his Resurrection. Our faith is a lived experience modelled on the Resurrection that guarantees ongoing transformation. We need to think carefully how we react to the prodigal sons and daughters of the Church. It is usually the encounter at parish level that matters most and hurts most. Christ excludes no one. God’s mercy is not an incentive to sin but a vehicle that leads to conversion and ultimately completes the transformation of who we are and how we live our lives. We need to stand firm like Mary Magdalen in the midst of denial, lest we emulate the behaviour of her denialist friends. We must not let denying uncomfortable facts hold us back from orchestrating life-changing moments. n Colleen Constable is the founding CEO of the South African Institute for Violence Prevention and an institutional transformational consultant.

Eucharist and gospels change lives

ROM time to time the Eucharist has been mentioned in The Southern Cross as being central to our Catholic faith—and so it is! Also highlighted is the widespread abuse of the sacred host in the hands of uncaring persons. Rightly, we are encouraged to receive Holy Communion with a deeper reverence. I feel there is something missing, though, something more than mere faith. Because this incredible gift should bring about a real change in my Christian behaviour. “What do you want me to do for you?” asks Jesus (Matthew 20:32) Lord, that I may see the wonders of your work within me! But, first, I must believe, truly believe. Surely

Clergy funerals

N the Catholic Church, deacons, priests and even bishops are normally ordained on a Saturday. When they die, especially here in South Africa, they are buried during the week. Can anybody tell me what has changed in the circumstances in relation to a Saturday when they get ordained and when they are buried? In our neighbouring country Lesotho, deacons, priests, and bishops are buried, like everybody else, on a Saturday. The day is convenient because during the week people are at work or have other duties to attend to. I am writing this letter because many people have come to me to express dissatisfaction with this practice. I would like to hear what other people think about these practices and, if need be, express the opinion of the majority to the SACBC. Fr Thabang Molefi OMI, Bloemfontein

Catholic numbers are decreasing

E Catholics are filled with pride and rejoicing when we see the many millions attending Pope Francis’ Masses in visits across the world—and rightly so. However, this is not an accurate picture of the Church at the present time. This is reflected in financial giving in the United States: more than half of households contribute less than $1 a week to the collection plate. A recent Gallup poll shows only 30% of the Catholic faithful believe what the Church teaches on the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Among Hispanic American Catholics, who constitute a third of American Catholics, 5 million have left to join evangelical churches. It is estimated that 30% of

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then, as communicants, both religious and lay persons, we must have our lives touched and somewhat changed by this very intimate meeting with the all-powerful God. St Paul, writing to the Ephesians, prays: “that Christ may live in your hearts through faith… and you are filled with the utter fullness of God”. Pause on that truth! And believe that each sacred host is not just a part of Jesus, but the whole Christ and all his magnificent power. Paul concludes: “Glory be to Him whose power working within us can do infinitely more than what we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:17-20). Jesus, too, tells the apostles: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my

today’s 35 million American evangelicals are first- or second-generation former Catholics. In Canada, only 18% of teenage Catholics attend church. Only 24% to 30% of French Canadians now attend Sunday Mass. In Latin America, the situation is even worse—15%. In Brazil, barely a tenth of registered Catholics are churchgoers. The bright spot in Brazil, however, is the growth of the Catholic Charismatic Rerenewal Movement. Yet Brazil’s bishops estimate that at least 600 000 Brazilians leave the Church every year to join evangelical sects. There has, however, been remarkable growth among Catholics and Protestants in South Korea. The Philippines is the only Asian country where Catholics are a majority. The Catholic Church in India, though small, is relatively strong, due also to the strength of Charismatic Renewal. Cardinal Josef Tomko has said that the misunderstanding of the content of the faith opens the way to the proliferation of sects, and the lack of the explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ, which establishes the Christian community. In sub-Saharan Africa there is good growth in the Catholic Church, which Pope Francis observed on his recent visit to Central Africa, though the quality of the faith is generally immature. It is common knowledge that the traditionally great bastions of the faith in Europe, including France, 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

blood will live in me, and I will live in him” (John 6:56). But do we have the strong will and deep desire to experience this change in our thoughts, judgments, utterances, and in our relationship with friends and so-called enemies? Read the four gospels, and see why every meeting with Jesus Christ brought a change in so many lives. The Jesus of the gospels is the one we encounter in the reception of Holy Communion. So, where in our Catholic lives is the joy of the gospels and of the Eucharist? Are we, unknowingly, posing obstacles which cancel the powerful action of the Blessed Eucharist within us? When we get this right, there will be no lack of good religious vocations. Fr Ralph de Hahn, Cape Town “the first daughter of the faith”, are now viewed as “post-Christian”. We should strive with even greater effort to contribute with our share to the “new evangelisation”, however small, even if just with prayer from the heart. “He who denies me before men, I will deny before my father in heaven” is a warning from the Lord that remains as pertinent as ever. John Lee, Johannesburg

Pray for love

ESUS came to teach us to “love one another” (John 13:34), “love your neighbour” (Mark 10:21), “your enemy” (Luke 6:27). However, as he was human as well as divine, and mixed with all sorts of people, he knew this is perhaps the most difficult thing to learn, as our strongest basic instinct is “self-preservation”, with the “group” instinct not far behind. So he also taught us that we could pray for God’s mighty help to change our attitudes, our hearts. About 550 years before Christ, the Chinese sage Confucius taught that the ancients who wished to order the national, family and personal lives of people, would first “set their hearts right and wills sincere”. And 800 years ago, St Francis of Assisi wrote his beautiful prayer “Lord, make me an instrument (channel) of your peace”. As Anne Rice writes (Called Out of Darkness 2008): “The message of St Francis of Assisi was love—it’s the toughest way to live that there is.” Twenty-two years ago, an appeal for a prayer for Africa was inspired by hearing a CWL group in Hong Kong praying for our 1994 South African elections and the genocide in Rwanda. Let us all pray like that. For a free leaflet with the St Francis prayer (adapted from the 1984 SACBC card), SMS your name and postal address to 083 544 8449. Athaly Jenkinson, East London

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PERSPECTIVES

Redeeming the body of Christ T HE emotional rollercoaster we travel along during Holy Week to the glory of the Resurrection at Easter can leave us feeling raw. The Scriptures force us to encounter Christ who carries both the fullness of our humanity and suffering and the majesty of his divine kingship. On Palm Sunday we witness the triumph of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem on a donkey. But minutes later, we are put through the horror of Christ’s passion. It begins as we are seated in the calm of the Upper Room as Jesus and his disciples are sitting down to their Passover meal, as a band of brothers united by a common mission to preach God’s word. But then Jesus disrupts this peaceful retreat from the busyness of Jerusalem outside. He confuses the disciples by taking on the task of a servant, washing their feet and then delivers his final lesson to them: serve one another. A trace of fear overshadows this a short while later as Jesus announces that he will not eat or drink again until he enters His Father’s kingdom, and in the next breath proclaims that one member of this band of brothers will betray him and another will abandon him. Our anxiety reaches a new height when we see our Saviour sweating drops of blood as he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, struggling to submit his human will to God’s plan for salvation. We feel his loneliness as his closest friends falls asleep when he needs their strength the most. At his arrest a few minutes later we feel a little like Peter, wishing one moment to defend his friend but denying his association with him the next. Good Friday comes almost too soon. The morning dawns to the cracks of soldiers’ whips, the injustice of a rushed trial, a fainthearted appeal by Pilate and the rabid cries of the crowd baying for Jesus’ blood. With a lacerated heart, we help Simon of Cyrene carry the Cross, knowing that it will not change the final outcome. The three crosses on the hillside of shame beneath a merciless sun are almost

too much to bear. As Jesus gasps his last breath, the hope that this might have been the promised Messiah is shredded, torn in half like the stone wall of the temple. We are numb with shock, unable to believe that a week ago none of this seemed possible. Jesus’ body is laid in the tomb and we go into hiding, uncertain of what to do next.

n stealthy silence, we join the women in their post-Sabbath pre-dawn walk to the tomb to embalm the body. Then when things couldn’t get any worse, we find that the tomb is empty and we are certain that someone with evil intent has stolen the body of Jesus. We are so incensed with a new anger that we fail to see that the man standing before us radiates a supernatural light. Slowly, it dawns on us that we are standing on holy ground and that Jesus is alive. It cannot be possible. We hardly dare to believe that something so miraculous could have happened. Yet we know, he truly has risen from the dead. Our joy is complete when we meet him face-to-face and join Thomas in touching his wounds. Our own wounds are healed and we take comfort that we can face the future because Jesus has saved us from our human sinfulness and shown us the way to heaven. The emotions we experience in Holy Week affect us so deeply because they touch

Christ crucified: we need the brokenness of Holy Week to experience fully the joy of the resurrection at Easter.

Sarah-Leah Pimentel

The Mustard seeds

the core of our human frailty. The events of this sacred week place a strong emphasis on the body. The body of Christ is honoured on Palm Sunday, violated on Good Friday and glorified on Easter Sunday. This liturgical pilgrimage invites us to become more aware of our physical needs and the needs of those around us. Do we see the broken body of the elderly person lying in the hospice waiting for death, the hunger of the woman begging for scraps outside the restaurant, or the couple huddled and shivering under a bridge as they try to shelter themselves from the cold autumn chill? Do we hear the cries of the baby abandoned on a rubbish dump or see the thirst of those parched by the drought? Every time we pass through the holy doors in our dioceses during this Year of Mercy, Christ is calling us to visit him in prison, to meet him at the tomb, to feed and clothe him. We hear Jesus’ words: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). Corpus Christi parish in Wynberg, Cape Town, took up the spirit of the Year of Mercy and practised the corporal and spiritual works of mercy earlier this month when they visited various homes in the area dedicated to the care of the sick, homeless, children, and prisoners. The parishioners handed out food supplies and clothing to those in need, and spent time with those who are too often forgotten. They walked the modern-day Way of the Cross, redeeming the body of the suffering Christ by momentarily soothing the pain of our suffering brothers and sisters. I think Corpus Christi has set the challenge to the Church in the rest of South Africa. What can your parish do to meaningfully practise these works of mercy?

Communion is not just a ritual H UMAN beings like rituals. The problem is that we can easily turn something of great significance into a ritual of no consequence. This is true of the Eucharist. Very often receiving Holy Communion just becomes a ritual—at Communion time every Sunday we join the queue and go to receive. But are we really aware of what is happening when we come to this stage of our participation in the Mass? The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life”. It is a sacrament that is so complex and has so many dimensions to it that I need to write at least two essays on it. In this first essay I will refer very briefly to two facets: First, Jesus chose to institute the sacrament of the Eucharist during a meal. The Last Supper may have appeared to the disciples as a simple Jewish Passover meal, but on this night Jesus solemnly transformed the Jewish ritual into a banquet of the New Covenant during which we are nourished by his body and blood. The wafer and wine are no longer just bread and wine but his real body and blood. Jesus is really and truly present, and by consuming his body and blood we participate in his divine nature. Our participation in the Eucharist is a foretaste of “the wedding supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9) to which Jesus will invite us in heaven.

Emmanuel Ngara

Christian leadership

“Behold the lamb of God...” Indeed, Jesus himself told his disciples at the Last Supper: “I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom”(Mt 26:29).

econd, the Eucharist is also referred to as “the breaking of bread”. The synoptic gospels tell us that during the Last Supper Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take and eat; this is my body” (Mt 26:26). In my earlier days I used to see the priest breaking the big host before Communion and I wondered why. Some 15 years ago I participated in a Methodist course called “The Emmaus Walk”. This is a three-day course at the end of which the participants are expected to recognise Jesus in the same way that the

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two disciples who had been walking with him recognised him in Emmaus when he broke bread at table and began to give it to them (Lk 24:13-35). I have now come to realise that the Holy Mass is at one level a “walk to Emmaus” consisting of two major movements—the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Word, the Scriptures are explained to us in a similar way to the way Jesus explained to the two disciples all that the Scriptures had said about him, beginning with Moses and the prophets. The high point of the liturgy of the Eucharist is when the faithful are invited to the Supper of the Lamb: “Behold the Lamb of God… Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” So, as we join the queue going towards the altar to receive, we should remember that the Lamb of God is really and truly present, and that receiving Communion is a real encounter with Jesus—the same Jesus who will invite us to his banquet in heaven where we will see him face to face in the company of all the angels, the saints and all our relatives who have been saved by the blood of the Lamb.

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The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

Pete Sheehan

Point of reflection

The Christmas vs Easter debate

HERE is often that debate about what is the bigger holiday: Christmas or Easter. For popularity, it’s no contest. Christmas is so popular that it’s sometimes unpopular—entering our consciousness as early as September and becoming dominant into November and December. Movies and TV specials and Christmas music flood the airwaves. At Easter time, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a top 10 list of Easter specials, movies, or songs. Now, there are a number of good-intentioned movies about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, some succeeding better than others. Still, I don’t think that any of them are awaited like, say, A Christmas Carol. Interestingly, I seldom hear of controversy over celebrating, or even mentioning, Easter as I do with Christmas. For the Church officially, Easter is the primary feast because Jesus’ resurrection is of even greater significance than his birth. Of course, you get some people who make the argument that you couldn’t have Easter without Christmas so Christmas is more important. That, however, would be like arguing that married couples should celebrate the anniversary of their engagement as much or more than their wedding. Alas, many husbands already have enough trouble remembering one anniversary. I know of one priest who called for the same joy and excitement at Easter that we have at Christmas. The strains of Handel’s “Messiah” should be played as freely at Easter, he argued. In fact, the full version of “Messiah” encompasses Easter and includes the second coming of Christ, for which the “Hallelujah Chorus” was written. Still the “Hallelujah Chorus” is heard widely at Christmas but rarely at Easter.

uch of the disparity has more to do with psychology than theology. The Christmas celebration itself is more festive. Chocolate eggs and bunnies are nice, but they don’t hold a candle to Christmas presents. Santa Claus vs the Easter Bunny? Not even close. Yet there are liturgical and theological reasons as well. We think of Christmas in terms of pure joy, even though the story of Christmas includes its share of hardship, which we tend to romanticise. Christmas is a mystery, but it expresses something profound about God’s love in a way that hits home. To get to Easter, we have to go through Lent, which is not celebrated in the same severe manner as in the past, but it is still more of a challenge than Advent. Too often Advent becomes an early celebration of Christmas rather than a preparation or anticipation. And, of course, we have to go through Good Friday, which is sobering if we take it seriously. The birth of Christ is a wonderful, wondrous sign of God’s love for us. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, we can see more fully the depth of that love. When Easter arrives, the challenge is in some ways deeper. Rather than God coming to us as he does at Christmas, the risen Christ is calling us to him. Easter has a more otherworldly aspect to it, calling us to transcend but also to transform the world. We are left with an empty tomb rather than a crowded stable. Soon after Easter, Jesus ascends—still present yet paradoxically removed and pleading for us in heaven before the Father. The birth and life of Jesus gets our attention. The Crucifixion and Resurrection challenge us, through the grace of the Resurrection, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the Church here on earth, to respond. I love the Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox tradition of greeting one another at Easter with “Christ has risen.” Let us all ponder what that means and respond with the joy worthy of Christmas. “Indeed. He has.” n Pete Sheehan is the editor of The Catholic Exponent, newspaper of the diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, in which this article first appeared.

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The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

COMMUNITY

altar severs of immaculate Conception parish in East london after Mass. (Photo: PN Khasoane)

Missionaries of africa Father serge Boroto Zihalirwa was ordained in Bakavu, Congo, by Bishop Jan de Groef of Bethlehem, Free state.

Our lady of Perpetual Help in durbanville, Cape Town, joined in prayer and remembrance with the suburb’s saPs for police personnel who lost their lives while in the line of duty. Mass was celebrated by Fr Michael van Heerden (far right) assisted by deacon des Eyden (centre).

st anthony’s parish in Pietermaritzburg had a day-retreat for the Malawian community. it was conducted by Fr Martin Mulholland of st Patrick’s Missionary society in Chichewa. (Photo: Fr Terry Nash)

Maria de Freitas of the parish of the resurrection in Table View, Cape Town, celebrated her 104th birthday at sea Park Home in Melkbosstrand. she is seen with daughter Gilda Monteiro.

Fr Bram Martijn, parish priest at ss simon and Jude in simon’s Town, recently celebrated his 80th birthday in the parish hall surrounded by more than 100 parishioners as well as well as his sister who flew out from the Netherlands for the occasion. Fr Martijn has been parish priest in simon’s Town for 20 years and before that chaplain to the dutch Nato forces.

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PILGRIMAGE

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

Jesus was here! And that’s a certain fact There are sites in the Holy Land where we can locate the physical Jesus with certainty. In the second part of his series on the recent Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers, GüNTHEr siMMErMaCHEr takes us to these places.

HERE are some things I will never understand. One of these is why for many devout Catholics it is not a burning desire to touch the rock on which Jesus’ cross stood and to pray at the place where Christ rose from the dead. Some Catholics prefer to roast on the beaches of Mauritius or to make a pilgrimage to Old Trafford football stadium when they could be at the places where Our Lord, the physical Jesus, once stood and walked, and died and rose from the dead. I suspect that the hesitation resides in the false idea that the places of veneration in the Holy Land were randomly appointed in a bid to exploit gullible pilgrims. The contrary is true: there are many places where we can locate the physical Jesus with certainty. Chief among those are the places of his crucifixion and resurrection, both covered by the church of the Holy Sepulchre. How do we know it is the authentic Golgotha? Well, let’s start at the beginning. The early Christians followed the religion of the Nazarene Messiah at great risk to themselves. First they were persecuted by the Jews, then by the Romans. Like the Christians of the Middle East today, they were truly devoted followers. So it is absolutely inconceivable that they might have simply forgotten about the important places of the Lord’s earthly ministry. The Christians of Jerusalem would have venerated especially the places of the crucifixion and resurrection over generations. The Romans made it easy for them to remember where. In around 130 AD, the emperor Hadrian decided to rebuild Jerusalem, with pagan temples at either end of the city. One of these ends was the garden of Golgotha, once outside the city walls but now within. The Romans covered the area around the hill with soil to create a platform on which they built a temple dedicated to Jupiter. The highest point of outcrop rock protruded, so they fixed a statue of Aphrodite on it. For the Romans, this was likely just sensible urban planning, but for the Christians, the grandsons of the first followers of Christ, it was a sacrilegious affront, for they knew that the tomb of the Lord’s resurrection had been covered by a pagan temple, with the goddess of love and fertility standing on the very spot of the crucifixion. For generations they’d point out the profanity to their children, and lead pilgrims to venerate at the slope of the temple. One of these pilgrims, from the second or third century, engraved a graffito on the wall. It has survived and can be seen, by appointment, in an Armenian chapel in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 313 the Roman empire legalised Christianity, and thus greenlighted the building of churches. In 325 the bishop of Jerusalem, Macarius, petitioned Emperor Constantine to be permitted to tear down Hadrian’s temple and build a church on the site every Christian knew to be Golgotha. Given the go-ahead, that’s what the Christians did. The excavation was quite simple since the Romans had covered everything with soil, not bothering to raze anything. The spot of the cross was easily identifiable, thanks to Aphrodite. There are no records of exactly how the tomb of Christ was identified, but it is probable that pre-130 Chris-

From left: Prayer in the tomb of Christ in the church of the Holy sepulchre; the 4th-century synagogue in Capernaum that was built on the still visible foundation of the synagogue in which Jesus healed; the Mont Zion steps on which Jesus, Mary and the disciples walked. (all photos: Günther simmermacher) tians had left their graffiti at this most holy of places, as they did at other sacred sites. By 335, the first church of the Holy Sepulchre, twice the size of today’s Crusader structure, was inaugurated. In the 1960s the noted Franciscan archaeologist Fr Virgilio Corbo led excavations at and around the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Among other things, he confirmed that this area had once been a quarry that was turned into a garden, confirming St John’s description (Jn 19:41) and explaining Mary Magdalene’s question to the risen Christ: “Are you the gardener?” (Jn 20:15). First-century tombs in the vicinity—one can be seen in a Syriac chapel just a few metres from Christ’s tomb— further show that this area was used as a cemetery. There can be no reasonable doubt that this is exactly where our Lord was crucified, died and rose on the

third day. Today pilgrims can touch the rock of the crucifixion, located beneath a Greek Orthodox altar, and pray in the place of the tomb, at a marble slab that covers the ledge from which Christ rose. Why would any Catholic not want to experience that?

here are other spots in the Holy Land where one locate with certainty the physical Jesus (and Mary and the disciples). The members of The Southern Cross’ Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers in February, led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin, had opportunity to see them. A good rule of thumb is that a place has a good claim to authenticity if (a) the event it marks was important enough to be remembered by the early Christians, {(b) veneration of it goes back to the fourth century—that is, as soon as churches were allowed to be built—and (c)

Jacob’s Well in the West Bank city of Nablus, the ancient shechem, where Jesus met the samarian woman.

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there are no rival ancient places. We must not underestimate the collective memory and oral history passed down over generations of Christians. Those of Nazareth would have remembered the location of the Holy Family’s home; those of Bethlehem that of Jesus’ birth; those of Bethany the house of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and so on. But even allowing for the slim possibility that they got it wrong, at some places we can pinpoint the physical Christ with 100% accuracy, almost to the metre. Two of them are wells. Nazareth had only one well, so it is without question that Jesus and Mary spent much time there, simply by dint of their residency in the village. Likewise, Jacob’s Well was the only source of water at Shechem, today’s city of Nablus in the West Bank, where Jesus’ had that amusing and momentous high-noon encounter with the Samarian woman. One of our group had the privilege of drawing water from that well, which stands in the crypt of a Greek Orthodox church—but first he had to navigate his tongue through a chunk of Shakespearean English as he read the relevant Bible passage. In Capernaum, the town on the Sea of Galilee where Peter, James, Andrew, John and the tax collector Matthew were recruited, we meet the physical Jesus in two places. A fourth-century synagogue there, impressively preserved, was built on the basalt stone foundation of a previous synagogue which, archaeology has revealed, was built in around 26AD. That was the synagogue in which Jesus preached and healed, and where he made that eternal promise: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54). Nearby is the house of St Peter. Fr Corbo, the archaeologist whom we

encountered earlier at the church of the Holy Sepulchre, found so much evidence there to prove that this was the apostle’s house, nobody with a shred of sanity could dispute it. He also ascertained that this type of house could not have sustained a permanent roof, all the better for enterprising men to remove it in order to lower their paralytic friend down to that healer from Nazareth. Besides Mary’s Well in Nazareth, one other place in the Holy Land requires neither Scripture reference nor archaeological proof to know that Jesus walked there. A flight of steps on Mount Zion, next to the church of St Peter in Gallicantu, has existed there since the first century BC. They formed part of the only plausible way one would walk from the Mount of Olives to Mount Zion. Jesus and the disciples most likely walked up these steps on the way to the Last Supper, and definitely walked down them en route to the Garden of Gethsemane. There are other places where we can roughly pinpoint Jesus, for example at the Pools of Bethesda or the Pool of Siloam or on the remains of the grand staircase on the southern wall of the temple. And there are very many other spots where tradition places Jesus— and even without the evidence that we have at the places described in this article, who exactly are we to question the local Christians from 1 700 years ago? Of course, it is more important to know what happened than where it happened. And yet, being in the presence of the physical Jesus, touching the rock on which his cross stood or reflecting on his earthly ministry while sailing on the Sea of Galilee inevitably deepens our relationship with him. And how does that not surpass even sunny Mauritius or noisy Old Trafford? Next week: Being in Galilee

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

‘simmermacher marshalls a mass of material, presenting it simply and vividly.’ – Paddy Kearney, The Southern Cross

‘Turning the pages of the book is a journey in itself.’ – Sydney Duval, Archdiocesan News, Cape Town

Also available as eBook

R150 (plus R 15 p&p in SA) from books@scross.co.za or www.holylandtrek.com or call 021 465-5007

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

HAPPY EASTER! CHRIST is RISEN! ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!

What is Jesus promising us on this ‘DAY’ of Mercy?

“Mankind will not have PEACE, until it turns with TRUST to MY MERCY.” #Diary 300

What is the CHURCH promising us this Jubilee ‘YEAR’ of MERCY?

BOOK REVIEWS

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

The enigma that shaped Natal THEOPHILUS SHEPSTONE AND THE FORGING OF NATAL, by Jeff Guy. UKZN Press, Pietermaritzburg. 592pp Reviewed by Paddy Kearney N 1983, Professor Jeff Guy produced a magisterial biography of John William Colenso, the first Anglican Bishop of Natal, entitled The Heretic. Though an atheist, Guy has a better understanding of Colenso’s theology than many theologians who have written on this subject. I was therefore keen to read this biography of Theophilus Shepstone because he and Colenso had initially been close friends but later had a major fall-out. I was keen to know why their relationship changed so drastically. Born in England, Theophilus Shepstone was three when his father, a Methodist minister, came to the Cape. He was educated on the mission stations at which his father worked, and he acquired great proficiency in isiXhosa and later on isiZulu. This would determine his whole career. For over 30 years, from 1846–76, he played an extraordinary role as “Diplomatic Agent for the Native Tribes” and later, “Secretary of Na-

tive Affairs, Natal”. Guy’s theory about Shepstone is that he made clear distinctions about his three main audiences: the colonial office in London, the white settlers in Natal, and the Zulus, keeping the “world of the written word” and the Zulus’ “oral world” quite separate. Because each of these three groups depended on him for their understanding of the others, he accumulated an immense amount of political power. From his youth he had developed a habit of selective revelation, holding back information that might not be strategic for the particular group he was dealing with and being deliberately vague or ambiguous so that different interpretations were possible for which he couldn’t be held accountable for being wrong. As a result, Shepstone is one of the most enigmatic colonial personalities—fighting for and against Africans and colonists, hated by some and admired by others, hiding his true thoughts and feelings with an “intimidatory silence”. In September 1861, Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice was quoted in the Natal legislative council to describe Shepstone: “I

am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips let no dog bark.” But Jeff Guy doesn’t let Shepstone get away with it—he does a great deal of barking about what comes from Shepstone’s lips and from his pen. Like a relentless prosecutor, he interrogates Shepstone and pursues his real intentions by comparing what he might write or say to the colonial office in London, or to the settlers in Pietermaritzburg, or what he told the Zulu people, thereby exposing his manipulation of the truth.

uy ultimately provides the key to the enigma of Shepstone. He wanted land for the Zulu people in order to prevent an African uprising. He tried to acquire this land for Africans not to achieve equality or justice but so that he could keep the Africans under his authority—in other words, in submission to patriarchal chieftainship. He was to be a kind of government-appointed king of the Zulus. No wonder he wasn’t keen to ensure the survival of the real Zulu kingdom! Which brings me back to the relationship between Bishop Colenso and Shepstone. When Colenso paid

a preliminary visit to his diocese in 1854 he soon became wary of the deeply racist settler views, but discovered that there was one man whose ideas, knowledge and dealings with Africans greatly impressed him: Theophilus Shepstone, with his “calm dignity and the respect he evoked from the people”. Both Colenso and Shepstone were intelligent men in their early middle age, living in an isolated colony, and both overwhelmingly interested in African affairs. Colenso rejected the view of Africans as an example of “hopelessly fallen man” and Shepstone the idea of them as “totally barbarous”. This set them apart from the settlers and was the basis of their close friendship lasting for 20 years—until Colenso discovered that Shepstone was also a hard man “who could be ruthless in pursuit of his political objectives and devious in the ways he defended them”. Guy claims that it was Shepstone who conspired to promote the invasion of the Zulu kingdom and its destruction by forces from Natal and the Transvaal. Colenso could never forgive him. Theophilus Shepstone and the Forging of Natal is a fascinating study: along with Jeff Guy’s earlier writ-

ings about Natal history it must surely establish him as the doyen of historians of what is now known as KwaZulu-Natal. Be ready to keep changing your opinion of Shepstone as he ducks and dives to escape the spotlight of Guy’s careful examination of all the evidence that can now be assembled. This includes what Shepstone kept from his Zulu audience, as opposed to what he kept from the colonial office in London or the settler legislature in Pietermaritzburg— as well as what he withheld from all three!

Books ask: How reliable are the gospels? THE CASE FOR JESUS: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ, by Brant Pitre. Image Books (2016). 256 pp. MYTHOLOGIZING JESUS: From Jewish Teacher to Epic Hero, by Dennis R. MacDonald. Rowman & Littlefield (2015). 164 pp. Reviewed by Brian Welter RANT PITRE, a professor of sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, packs a great deal of information into his new book, The Case for Jesus, as he aims to refute the scholarly argument that the four gospels were anonymously written after decades of only spoken transmission of stories about Jesus. Such an argument amounts to an attack on the reliability of the Gospels. Pitre shoots many holes in this theory, noting for instance “the utter implausibility that a book circulating around the Roman empire without a title for almost a hundred years could somehow at some point be attributed to exactly the same author by scribes throughout the world and yet leave no trace of disagreement in any manuscripts. And, by the way, this is supposed to have happened not just once, but with each of the four gospels.” In addition to this sort of reasoning, Pitre turns to the Church fathers and their unanimity about

the gospels’ authorship. He takes readers through the New Testament, comparing the synoptic gospels with each other and with John’s gospel. He shows just how closely the New Testament follows from the Old. The New Testament cannot be understood by itself, because it brings to fruition the Old Testament, he says. This is most clear when Pitre examines certain claims Jesus makes about himself, such as being the “Son of Man”. This term comes from the Old Testament’s apocalyptic Book of Daniel and expresses Daniel’s concept of the kingdom of God. Pitre’s discussion of the Transfiguration, and why Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus, also makes for satisfying reading. The Case for Jesus thus serves a great purpose to many Christians who read the New Testament but tend to avoid much of the Old. The book could give many Christians a renewed appreciation for the Old Testament. Pitre convincingly argues that we can understand Jesus and the New Testament only from the Old Testament and first-century Jewish culture. In addition, a knowledge of Greco-Roman culture, especially the first-century genre of biography, helps modern readers understand that the gospels were, in fact, ancient biographies of Jesus.

Given the lively nature of New Testament scholarship, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Mythologizing Jesus strongly counters Pitre’s idea of the gospels as biographies. Dennis R MacDonald, a professor of New Testament and Christian origins at the Claremont School of Theology in California, regards much of the gospels of Mark and Luke as little more than rewrites of ancient Greek myths in attempts to turn the historical Jesus into a greater superhero than the ancient gods and goddesses were. Pitre, for his part, warns against reading too much of the modern mindset into the New Testament, such as by judging the gospels as biographies according to the contemporary understanding of biography. MacDonald’s “superhero” approach exemplifies precisely this error. While Pitre practises exegesis, drawing out the texts’ meaning, MacDonald seems to practise eisegesis, imposing his preconceived notions on the text. He tries to find parts of Mark and Luke that parallel more ancient Homeric and other Greek writings to convince the reader that Luke and Mark are basically Homeric

renderings of Jesus. His weak and confusing examples ruin his case. One section of Homer’s Odyssey finds a supposed later echo in Mark: “Odysseus arrived on the island of the Phaeacians naked and starving”; “Jesus arrived in Judea without money or a host.” Homer’s Iliad was supposedly recycled in Mark: “Zeus mourned the death of Sarpedon”; “Jairus...asked Jesus to heal his daughter. Later she dies.” Such snippets are merely vague echoes of each other. MacDonald’s parallel reading of Luke and Mark with various preChristian writings fails to convince. It is like claiming that the moon landings did not occur because of the many parallels between those news stories and earlier science fiction novels that

tell of landings, astronauts, and a return to the mother ship or original planet after some scientific activity. Pitre’s book works because he uses reason to show how the orthodox faith makes sense, in this case as applied to genre studies, biblical studies and history. Mythologizing Jesus is yet another attempt at reducing Jesus to a mere human, the Trinity to myth, and Christianity to good feelings and ethics. It is a failed use of reason.

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The sou he n C oss Ma ch 23 o Ma ch 29 2016

PERSONALITY

Cardinal edited The Southern Cross – twice No other newspaper can claim that it has been edited by a future and serving cardinal—except The southern Cross, in the person of Cardinal Owen McCann. MiCHail rassOOl looks at the life of South Africa’s first cardinal.

ORE than 50 years ago South Africa acquired its first “Prince of the Church”, when the archbishop of Cape Town, Cardinal Owen McCann, received his red hat from Pope Paul VI. Thus The Southern Cross became on of the world’s few newspapers to have been edited by a future cardinal. In 1986, as a retired archbishop, Cardinal McCann returned to edit The Southern Cross for five years. So South Africa’s national Catholic weekly became the world’s only newspaper to have been edited by a future and serving cardinal. It is for his service to The Southern Cross that Cardinal McCann was selected as one of the three patrons when the newspaper’s Associate’s Campaign was launched. Cardinal McCann headed the Cape Town Church for more than three decades, from March 1950 to October 1984, and died on March 26, 1994. In many ways he was a product of his time. He was a much revered figure who embodied the institutional pride of the local Church at a very high point in its history. Standing at 1,90 metres, “he was a firm and impressive person”, wrote the former Southern Cross editor Fr Bernard Connor OP. “It often took people a while to find the person under a rather gruff exterior. Small talk was foreign to him.” The timing of his cardinalate was significant, as the Church was then in the apogee of its growth, development, expansion and influence. His archiepiscopate coincided with sweeping changes in South African society. Apartheid and its unjust laws and practices forced the local Church, and other churches and religions, to take proactive stances. This was also a period of unprecedented expansion for the Church, especially in the archdiocese. Apartheid group areas led to the establishment of new parishes, in many instances with the cooperation of well-placed helpers such as the Salesian Fathers and Holy Cross Sisters. Like several other Catholic churchmen in Cape Town, Cardinal McCann began his sacramental life in St Agnes’ parish, Woodstock. Born on June 26, 1907 to Irish

archbishop Owen McCann greets well-wishers at Cape Town airport as he leaves for the first session of the second Vatican Council on september 28, 1962. (Photos: southern Cross archive) immigrant Edward McCann, a building contractor, and his Australian-born wife Susan, young Owen was educated by the Cabra Dominican Sisters at St Agnes’ Primary School. A proud son of the Church from his earliest days, Owen served as an altar boy, later joined the St Vincent de Paul Society, and continued his Catholic education under the Marist Brothers in Gardens and as a founding pupil of St Joseph’s Marist Brothers College, Rondebosch. After matriculating at 17, McCann worked for the South African Railways as a clerk while studying part-time at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Soon after, in 1930, he offered himself up for the priesthood and the vicariate-apostolic, as Cape Town was then, sent him and others to study in Rome to attend the Urban College for the Propagation of the Faith, where McCann also played cricket, another passion. A keen sportsman, he had played rugby and cricket for St Joseph’s College and became a member of Hamiltons’ under-19 rugby team. Owen McCann was ordained a priest in Rome’s basilica of St John Lateran on December 21, 1935, returning to Cape Town the following year. His first appointment was at Holy Cross church in poor, over-

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crowded District Six, where he assisted his future vicar-general, Fr John Galvin. There Fr McCann founded a Catholic Teachers’ Association and a Catholic division of the St John Ambulance brigade. In 1939, Fr McCann assisted at St Patrick’s in Mowbray, which then also served the burgeoning Pinelands. From 1940-42, he was secretary to Bishop Francis Hennemann, the “builder bishop”. In between he was appointed editor of The Southern Cross, in 1941, a post he held till 1948, when he was appointed administrator of St Mary’s Cathedral. Another special ministry was serving Italian prisoners of war.

oritised and, armed with overseas funding, the archbishop founded St Francis Xavier Minor Seminary in Crawford in 1956. The country’s social and political standing became increasingly fraught, and the future cardinal became “a voice of the voiceless”—a role evident in his statements—opposing, with other denominations and faiths, issues such as the government’s 90-day detention law against opponents and other increasingly repressive security measures. Archbishop McCann was also chairman of the Catholic Action Department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), convened the 1959 clergy conference on Catholic Action in Johannesburg, became executive chairman of the Cape Town Community Chest, and served on the Western Cape Board for Social Welfare. From 1960 to 1974, he also served as president of the SACBC. A significant moment was the founding in 1970 of the Catholic Welfare Bureau at the archdiocesan chancery, which went on to become Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD), the development arm of the archdiocese of Cape Town. Several new school buildings went up in Cape Town during his archiepiscopate. Archbishop McCann’s elevation to cardinal at St Peter’s basilica on February 25, 1965 occurred at a key moment in the life of the Church globally, when the reforming Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was in progress in Rome. Sources say Cardinal McCann, who attended all of the Council’s sessions, was ambivalent about it at its outset and one of its ardent champions at its end. During the ad limina visits to Rome, which bishops make every

ishop Hennemann’s ebbing strength led him to step down, and his helper, Fr McCann, was ordained bishop and seventh vicarapostolic of Cape Town on May 18, 1950—to the surprise of very few. In January 1951, along with the Durban, Pretoria and Bloemfontein vicariates, Cape Town was elevated to an archdiocese, and the recently ordained bishop became Archbishop Owen McCann. The next ten years saw the archdiocese’s local Catholic population grow from 33 000 to 60 000, giving rise to 17 new churches, and efforts to boost priest numbers and find new sources of financial support. Fostering local vocations was pri-

PRICE CHECK

Cardinal Owen McCann during his second stint as editor of The Southern Cross, from 1986-91. inset: Owen McCann as a seminarian in 1932.

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Bishop, pope: Slain sisters are martyrs BY ELISE HARRIS, ALAN HOLDREN & MANDLA ZIBI

OUTH African Missionar y 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 countr y,” said Sr Mar y 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 s i n c e h i s c h u rc h w a s a t t a c k e d a n d b u r n e d 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 mar

few years to report on their dioceses, the tall, imposing prelate from distant Cape Town made a very strong impression on popes from Pius XII to John Paul II. Cardinal McCann’s contribution was also recognised by the secular world; he received an honorary Doctorate in Literature from UCT in 1968 and, in 1984, received the Freedom of the City of Cape Town. Cardinal McCann retired as archbishop in 1984, making way for his former auxiliary, Archbishop Stephen Naidoo. His interest and involvement in Church affairs continued, despite failing health. He resumed editorship of The Southern Cross in 1986, joined Pope John Paul II on his visit to Southern Africa in 1988 and Angola in 1992, visited the sick, heard confessions, and taught accountancy to nightstudents at St Francis’ Adult Education Centre in Langa. Cardinal McCann died at his home in Wynberg on the afternoon of March 26, 1994, and after a wellattended Requiem Mass at Cape Town’s Good Hope Centre was interred in St Mary’s cathedral’s crypt, among episcopal predecessors and his successor, the late Archbishop Naidoo. In tribute, Nelson Mandela said: “[Cardinal McCann] showed himself to be a man of great ability and wisdom. His opposition to apartheid was always unwavering. He lived a life of service to God and to his people, which is an inspiration to all of us.” Cardinal Jozef Tomko, then prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of People, said Cardinal McCann had been “endowed with a profound sensus ecclesiae”— the mind of the Church—an apt portrayal of the Cape Town Church’s “most illustrious son”. n To become an Associate of The Southern Cross, please see the advert on page 13.

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 ser ves as apostolic vicar of the Arabian peninsula, said that he believes the sisters were a target b tain radical groups in the count do not support the presence of who ser ve the poorest of the poo He said the attitude obvio against the mainstream thoug Yemeni people, the majority of w ciate the presence of the Miss Charity as well as their “dedicat to the poor. The Missionaries of Charity present in Yemen since 1973 afte government of North Yemen fo vited them to care for the sick a

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The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

LIFE

Loreto nun helps girls escape mutilation Loreto Sister Ephigenia Gachiri’s crusade to save Kenya’s girls has seen her launch a Christian rite of passage as an alternative to the genital mutilation rite that many undergo. aTiENO OTiENO & MElaNiE lidMaN interviewed her for Global Sisters Report.

Cultural reasons for it include preserving a girl’s virginity, controlling her sexuality so she will not cheat on her husband, and promoting characteristics such as obedience and passivity. More than 130 million girls and women alive today have undergone the ceremonial cutting in the 29 countries where it is practised, mostly in Africa and parts of the Arab world. The World Health Organisation reports that there are about 2-3 million women who undergo the mutilation in Africa every year, or at least 6 000 per day. The United Nations has established International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, and aims to eliminate the procedure, known as FGM, by 2030.

IGHTY girls wearing orange shirts held candles aloft at St Charles Lwanga church in Njoro, the flames shining in their eyes. After a week of lectures and seminars, these 80 girls were announcing to their families, their church and the world: We are the light that will shine across Kenya, we will not undergo female genital mutilation. The girls, from villages northwest of Nairobi, were participating in a Christian rite of passage, organised by Sr Ephigenia Gachiri as an alternative to genital cutting, which is a traditional, cultural rite of passage to mark the transition from girl to woman. The Loreto sister has been crisscrossing the country in her bright yellow car for the past 16 years, bringing her message to Kenya’s most remote corners: God made you beautiful, don’t ruin his creation with female circumcision. She soon realised that while it's important to educate parents, teachers and the girls themselves about the dangers of the cutting, education is only half the battle. To completely stop the practice, an alternative ceremony was needed to help girls gain the cultural maturity that the cutting ceremony provides without the dangers of the actual procedure. According to the World Health Organisation, female genital mutilation—also called female circumcision or female genital cutting—is defined as any procedure that alters female genital organs for nonmedical reasons. This ranges from removing part of the clitoris, to removing part or all of the labia, to infibulation, which means sewing the vaginal opening together, only allowing for the passage of bodily fluid.

hen Sr Gachiri first began working on this issue, she spent six months meeting every female circumciser that she could find in the Muranga district in Kenya’s interior. She had appealed to bishops in numerous regions, but found the most support among those in Muranga, a region that begins north east of Nairobi just as the urban sprawl of the capital region ends. Sr Gachiri, who has a doctorate in education, would sit for hours on low wooden stools, listening to the traditions leading up to the cutting ceremony. She knew that she could not approach communities to talk about this centuries-old practice unless she understood the entire ceremony and its place within the tribal culture and traditions. After she slowly gained the trust of the women circumcisers, they enthusiastically shared their traditions with Sr Gachiri. Some even gave her gifts of circumcising tools, convinced that she would be joining their sisterhood. When she had enough material to write a book, Sr Gachiri shifted from listening to activism. She secured permission from the village chiefs, Church leaders and government authorities, and began visiting schools during the week, asking to speak with the girls. On weekends, she’d visit churches, following a rural priest as he celebrated Mass at three or sometimes four different churches. “I’d talk about how God created us, and how beautiful we are and

a woman in Nairobi, Kenya, holds a sign reading “stop Female Genital Mutilation”. (Photo: stephen Morrison, EPa/CNs) how we spoil the body,” Sr Gachiri told the Global Sisters Report. “Sometimes they would run away from the church when they heard what I was talking about.” She has found that women can be more attached to the tradition than men. An enormous amount of cultural importance is placed on the ritual, believed to ready the girl for adulthood, motherhood and the rest of her life. Women attached to the ritual can view it as part of a celebration of sisterhood. Sometimes girls in tribes where the ceremony is practised even demand to get cut, because uncut girls are treated differently in many the communities, explained Sr Gachiri. Even if a girl has not been cut before marriage, perhaps because she comes from a place where the practice is rare, she is still at risk if she marries into an area where it is more prevalent. “If you marry a man and you’re not circumcised, none of his friends can come to your house and eat food,” Sr Gachiri explained. This complete isolation is difficult in rural areas where community support is essential.

n Kenya, 27% of women aged 1549 have undergone the genital cutting, according to the United Nations. The process usually takes place before a girl reaches puberty, though sometimes as early as 6 or 7 years old. After completing her research, Sr Gachiri started travelling more extensively in Muranga. She visited

Girls attend a community meeting in Katiola, ivory Coast, on female genital mutilation. (Photo: uNiCEF, assEliN/EPa/CNs) schools then shifted her focus to adults through women’s groups and Church groups. She asked to lecture on the dangers of cutting and show a video she made detailing the medical issues of the unhygienic operation. In her presentation, Sr Gachiri or a medical expert explains that the immediate health dangers include tetanus, urinary retention and infection, fever, sepsis or blood poisoning, and haemorrhaging, which can lead to death. Long-term problems include recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, infertility, fistula (a hole in the birth canal that leads to obstructed labour), complications during labour from scar tissue, formation of cysts, dyspareunia [painful sexual intercourse], anaemia and death. She also speaks about the psychological problems and the conflicts the practice creates in a marriage. Despite initial opposition, including cultural resistance in Kenya about discussing sexual matters in a public setting, this part of the message started getting through to the groups she visited. It took a few years of these seminars before Sr Gachiri realised she couldn’t just talk about the negative aspects of this rite of passage—she would have to provide an alternative. “They have to have a ritual, maybe not FGM, but something that tells the girl, ‘You are now mature and prepares them for life,’” Sr Gachiri said. She holds the Christian Rite of

Passage seminars in August and December each year, during school vacations, which are the most popular times girls undergo the cutting ceremony. After seven days, the girls, most ages 13 to 16, celebrate their journey in a special graduation ceremony attended by their parents, friends and church community. Sr Gachiri has noticed over the years working on this issue that there has been a shift. Part of that is due to a Kenyan law passed in 2011 making female genital mutilation illegal. However, enforcement of this law rarely happens for a variety of reasons, including police incompetence or collusion between police and community leaders. Making cutting illegal has now pushed it underground, meaning it is harder to stop, and often it is not accompanied by the traditional rituals and processes that place the ceremony within a larger cultural tradition. Sr Gachiri also has started to see results in her areas. There are many other NGOs working to stop the cutting ceremony. Information is slowly seeping to the villages, and people are beginning to realise that the cutting ceremony is dangerous and harmful to the girls, she said. “You can’t force it,” said Sr Gachiri. The answer, she explained, is education. “It is tough,” she admitted. “But it needs to be someone with a passion and a vision. I will not tire. I will not stop.”

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MEDIA

TV star brings his Catholic faith to the screen One of the most popular television personalities in the United States wears his Catholic faith on his sleeve. KURT JENSEN looks at the very public faith of talk show host Stephen Colbert.

N October US talk show host Stephen Colbert interviewed another talk show host, the militantly atheist Bill Maher. “I thought you were a practising Catholic,” Maher said. “I am!” Colbert replied. “Doesn’t mean I’m good at it!” Colbert’s inheritance of The Late Show from talk show legend David Letterman the month before—one of 2015’s landmark TV events in the US—generated considerable interest as well as speculation. Among the many questions posed by the shift was whether, appearing as himself and not as his highly successful parody of a moral scold which he had portrayed on his wildly comedy show The Colbert Report, Colbert would continue his notable forays into Catholic expression. This, after all, is a performer who once recited the entire Nicene Creed just to make a comedic point. While hosting The Colbert Report he also upheld the inerrancy of Scripture during an interview with Bart Ehrman, author of Jesus, Interrupted and critic of Christianity. And when writer Garry Wills stopped by to promote his 2013 book, Why Priests? A Failed Tradition, Colbert put up a spirited de-

fence of the core Catholic doctrines—including the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist—that Wills repudiates. Of course, straightforward piety, much less the art of apologetics, is rarely the order of the day. Thus late January found Colbert engaged in a lighthearted but attention-grabbing “Catholic Throwdown” with guest Patricia Heaton, who played a lead role in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. The actress, whose older sister Sharon is a Dominican sister, tried to best Colbert in answering such questions as “How many places did Mary appear?” (Colbert stumbled on Knock in Ireland.) As one of four Catholic-born late-night hosts on American TV— along with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O’Brien—Colbert is hardly the first to mine his upbringing for laughs. Years ago, Conan O’Brien, who also frequently mentions his background, even performed a routine that had him quoting canon law. But Colbert, a former catechism instructor, is the first to make Catholic belief the wellspring of his satire. It’s the serious weight that gives some of his most telling observations their heft. And his ascent to a fabled network post has done nothing, fundamentally, to alter that fact. Yet his religious perspective seems to have done nothing, so far, to broaden Colbert’s viewership. In October, a Hollywood Reporter poll showed that Colbert’s audience skewed towards highly educated, wealthy males, 30% of whom identified as atheists. The lion’s share of viewers who identify as Catholic, 41% watch Jimmy Kimmel on the ABC channel.

us talk show host stephen Colbert often brings up his Catholic faith. The former catechist once recited the whole Nicene Creed to make a comedic point in defence of Christianity. Of Colbert’s viewers, 47% identified as Democrats. Kimmel’s audience has the most political balance—34% Democrats, 33% Republicans. Though some conservative commentators jumped on the “liberal” label as the cause of Colbert’s weak ratings, he defies easy categorisation.

n December 7, at the crest of the controversy over Republican politicians expressing their “thoughts and prayers” after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, Colbert offered a thoughtful reflection on that phrase. He said such statements are made “admittedly not to fix the problem, but to try to find a way to share the burden of grief”. On occasion, Colbert’s erudition

The Prayer of Parents to St Joseph for the Children O Glorious St Joseph,

to you God committed the care of His only begotten Son amid the many dangers of this world.

We come to you and ask you to take under your special protection the children God has given us born and unborn.

gets in the way of the soothing effect late-night hosts are expected to achieve. Such was the case with the rest of his interview with Bill Maher—who was raised Catholic but now is an atheist—during which Colbert invited his guest to return to the Church: “Come on back, Bill! The door is always open! The golden ticket, right before you. All you have to do is humble yourself before the presence of the Lord, admit there are things greater than you in the universe that you do not understand, and salvation awaits you.” Not only did Colbert effortlessly slip in a reference to the Letter of James—specifically, Chapter 4, Verse 10—but he twinned it with the essence of “Pascal’s Wager” from 17th-century French philoso-

pher Blaise Pascal: Conduct yourself as if God exists. If there turns out to be no God, then the loss is relatively minimal; if God does exist, though, the loss would be infinite— but so would the reward. That same month, when Oprah Winfrey appeared to plug her “Belief” special, she and Colbert shared their favourite Bible verses. Colbert’s, which he paraphrased, is from Matthew 6. There Jesus’ warning against materialistic and secular preoccupations concludes with this rhetorical query: “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life span?” “What I like about it is, it’s a commandment to not worry,” Colbert said. “So if you worry, you’re being disobedient.” A routine on his show that may become difficult to sustain, “Stephen Colbert Gets All Up in Your Faith”, has taken lighthearted looks at the First Church of Cannabis in Indianapolis, and the Dalai Lama’s announcement that he may be the last Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism. Colbert returned to the gospel of Matthew when skewering former Republican candidate and fellow Catholic Jeb Bush in November over Bush’s assertion that only Christian refugees from Syria should be allowed into the United States. This time, again paraphrasing, he cited Matthew 25: “If you want to know if somebody is Christian, just ask them to complete this sentence: ‘Jesus said, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you ...’—and if they don’t say ‘welcomed me in’, they are either a terrorist or they are running for president.”—CNS

Southern YEAR OF MERCY PILGRIMAGE

HOLY LAND

& CAIRO

Fr Larry Kaufmann CSsR The popular priest who has led many parish missions throughout South Africa

Through holy baptism they become children of God and members of His Holy Church.

We consecrate them to you today, that through this consecration they may become your foster children.

Guard them, guide their steps in life, form their hearts after the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

St Joseph, who felt the tribulation and worry of a parent when the

Child Jesus was lost, protect our dear children for time and eternity.

May you be their father and counsellor. Let them, like Jesus, grow in age as well as in wisdom and grace before God and men. Preserve them from the corruption of this world and give us the grace one day to be united with them in heaven forever.

Amen.

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Fr Nel Sello Matlala CSS F

ATHER Nel Sello Matlala of Pretoria died on March 3 after a short illness. He was 44. Born on January 4, 1972 at Mamelodi East in Pretoria, he was the third child of Georginah Maggie Matlala. As a young man, he felt God’s call to serve him as a religious in the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata. Fr Matlala began his formation as a Stigmatine shortly after his 20th birthday in 1992 and three years later became a novice and was sent to Notwane in Gaborone, Botswana, making his first profession a year later, on January 23, 1996. He was then sent to St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria for his theological studies towards the priesthood. Fr Matlala was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop George Daniel of Pretoria on December 23, 2002. As a Stigmatine, he was known to be a joyful religious who loved community life and dedicated himself to its growth. He was known as a “happy priest” by his young confreres. Fr Matlala was known as the apostle to the youth of the archdiocese of Pretoria. He was talented in

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday March 27, Easter Sunday Acts 10:34, 37-43, Psalms 118:1-2, 16-17, 2223, Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-9 Monday March 28 Acts 2:14, 22-33, Psalms 16:1-2, 5, 7-11, Matthew 28:8-15 Tuesday March 29 Acts 2:36-41, Psalms 33:4-5, 18-20, 22, John 20:11-18 Wednesday March 30 Acts 3:1-10, Psalms 105:1-4, 6-9, Luke 24:1335 Thursday March 31 Acts 3:11-26, Psalms 8:2, 5-9, Luke 24:35-48 Friday April 1 Acts 4:1-12, Psalms 118:1-2, 4, 22-27, John 21:1-14 Saturday April 2 Acts 4:13-21, Psalms 118:1, 14-21, Mark 16:915 Sunday April 3, 2nd Sunday of Easter Acts 5:12-16, Psalms 118:2-4, 22-27, Revelation 1:9-13, 17-19, John 20:19-31

organising retreats and seminars for the youth. He knew how to approach them by using their language, and they loved being with him, listening to him. He dedicated his priestly life to the formation of young people, especially altar servers. Fr Matlala loved to serve the most disadvantaged areas; he was an outstanding organiser and parish administrator, with a burning desire to serve the people entrusted to him. From 2003-04, he worked as the vocations promoter for the Stigmatines in Southern Africa. In 2005 Fr Matlala was appointed parish priest in the Jericho area, and in 2007 in Brits. In 2012, Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg invited the Stigmatine Fathers to serve in his diocese, and so Fr Matlala was appointed parish priest of Bapong. There he again committed himself to rebuilding the community and to reaching out to the youth. He served without fail every week in preparing the bulletin for all Stigmatine parishes in South Africa and Botswana. He also loved to prepare booklets and programmes for Stigmatine liturgical cerebrations. He was an ardent soccer fan and supporter of Mamelodi Sundowns. Fr Matlala was buried on March 12 at the overflowing Most Holy Redeemer parish at Mmakau, archdiocese of Pretoria, concelebrated by Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, Bishops Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg and Valentine Seane of Gaborone, and many priests.

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 699. ACROSS: 2 Witchcraft, 8 In holy orders, 10 Sting, 11 Enticed, 12 Hotels, 13 Grille, 16 Observe, 18 Fruit, 19 Comb one’s hair, 20 Ended class. DOWN: 1 Priesthood, 3 Illegal, 4 Cloven, 5 Cadet, 6 Agricultural, 7 Christ is Lord, 9 Adventures, 14 Refuses, 15 Vernal, 17 Robed.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: 28 March: Bishop Jan de Groef of Bethlehem on the 7th anniversary of his episcopal ordination.

The southern Cross, March 23 to March 29, 2016

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DEATH

BARRY—Peter Francis. died in Cape Town on February 17, 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.

withstand your power, O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary, i place this cause in your hands. “say this prayer for 3 consecutive days and then publish. leon and Karen.

IN MEMORIAM

SMITH—Ted. died March 28, 2006. My beloved husband, my heart never forgets you. so hard to believe ten years have gone, since i held you in my arms while you took your last breath. i know you are safe at home with God, but, oh my darling how i miss you, from your loving wife Carmen and all your family. SMITH—Michael. died March 23, 2007. dearly loved and sadly missed. How proud we all are of your achievements in your lifetime. We miss you and will never forget you. From your mother Carmen and all your family. VAN SCHOOR—Marchelle. My deepest wish would be today to have you back the same old way, to hear your voice, to see your smile, to talk to you just a little while.

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

ST MICHAEL the archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. amen. FATHER in heaven, everliving source of all that is good, keep me faithful in serving you. Help me to drink of Christ's truth, and fill my heart with his love so that i may serve you in faith and love and reach eternal life. in the sacrament of the Eucharist you give me the joy of sharing your life. Keep me in your presence. let me never be separated from you and help me to do your will.

PERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: The pill can abort (chemical abortion) Catholics must be

told, for their eternal welfare and the survival of their unborn infants. see www.epm.org/static/up loads/downloads/bcpill.pdf ABORTION WARNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. see www.valuelifeabortionis evil.co.za VISIT PIOUS KINTU’S official website http://ave maria832.simplesite.com This website has been set up to give glory to the Most Holy Trinity through the healing power of Jesus in the Blessed sacrament. View amazing pictures of Pious Kintu’s work in Congo and various african countries since 2007. also read about african stigmatist reverend sister Josephine sul and Padre Pio among others.

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ACCOMMODATION

EAST LONDON: Cambridge, st Pius Pastoral Centre. space for four students, price range from r1350-r1550. Cecil 082 853 8869.

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2nd Sunday of Easter: April 3 Readings: Acts 5:12-16, Psalm 118:2-4 2227, Revelation 1:9-13, 17-19, John 20:19-31

S outher n C ross

EXT Sunday we celebrate the octave of Easter, in a sense the climax of our Easter liturgies, and of the journey that we made throughout the whole of Lent. We do not find it all that easy to affirm our belief in the Resurrection, even though it is the absolute basis of our faith. So we may take courage from the less than whole-hearted expressions of faith in the readings for the day. The first reading sounds all right at first: “Many signs and portents took place through the hands of the apostles, and they were all together in the porch of Solomon”; but we notice that (as in this country today) not everyone has the courage to express their faith: “Of the rest, no one dared to join them.” But, on the other hand, “the people made a great thing of them”, and then, slightly to our surprise, we read that “rather people who believed in the Lord were added to them, crowds of both men and women”. Not only that, but healings are believed to take place: “They carried the sick out into the squares and put them on beds and stretchers, so that when Peter came, even his shadow might shadow one of them…they were all cured.” We notice that there is faith in the midst of the unbelief; and we also notice that Peter

has all unconsciously taken on some of the charisma of Jesus himself, which may give us courage as we think about the situation of the Church today. The psalm, as ever, has no truck with unbelief: “Let Israel say, ‘his love is forever’,” is the refrain on the lips of “the house of Aaron”, and “those who fear the Lord”. Then the poet reflects on what has happened, and even though the psalmist wrote centuries before Jesus, it fits him like a glove: “a stone the builders rejected became the pinnacle”; for “this is the Lord’s work”, you understand, “a marvel in our eyes”. There is faith: “This is the day the Lord made”, but also uncertainty: “Please save us, Lord, please, please deliver us”, but then confidence in the one whom the Lord has sent: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; may you all be blessed from the Lord’s house.” Then it ends with upbeat confidence: “The Lord is God, and has given us light.” The second reading is from the Book of Revelation, which we shall be following on the first six Sundays of Easter; and is a reminder that the Risen Lord does make himself known to those who are suffering: “I am John, your fellow-Christian and a partner in

Conrad

spices, expecting to anoint and embalm a dead body. Well-intentioned but misguided, what they find is not a dead body but an empty tomb, and an angel challenging them with these words: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? Go instead into Galilee and you will find him there!” Go instead into Galilee. Why Galilee? What’s Galilee? And how do we get there?

n the gospels, Galilee is not simply a geographical location, a place on a map. It is first of all a place in the heart. Also, Galilee refers to the dream and to the road of discipleship that the disciples once walked with Jesus and to that place and time when their hearts most burned with hope and enthusiasm. And now, after the crucifixion, just when they feel that the dream is dead, that their faith is only fantasy, they are told to go back to the place where it all began: “Go back to Galilee. He will meet you there!” And they do go back to Galilee, both to the geographical location and to that special place in their hearts where once burned the dream of discipleship. And just as promised, Jesus appears to them. He doesn’t appear exactly as he was before, or as frequently as they would like him to, but he does appear as more than a ghost and a memory. The Christ that appears to them after the resurrection is in a different modality,

sunday reflections

your sufferings and in the kingdom and in endurance in Jesus.” And, like many Christians down the ages, he is in exile, “on the island called Patmos”. He then hears a voice, “loud as a trumpet”, and sees “one like a Son of Man”, impressively clad in a long garment and “a golden girdle”, who “put his right hand on me, saying, ‘Don’t be afraid’.” Then we hear the visionary’s doubts addressed: “I am the First and the Last, and the Living One, and I became dead, and look! I am alive forever, and I have the keys of Death and of Hell”, and there are instructions to “write down what you saw”, to remove doubt in his fellow-Christians. Doubt is what we find in the Gospel, which is always read on the second Sunday of Easter. It is John’s account of Jesus’ first and second appearances to the disciples, and we start by discovering that their faith is not all that strong: “The doors were locked where they were, because of fear of the Judeans.” Then Jesus gives them the greeting of “Peace”, proving his identity as the one who died by pointing out his wounds, before commissioning the disciples with the Holy Spirit. At that point, we learn of the absence of Thomas, at whom the disciples gloat “we’ve

Go back to Galilee to find him! VERYTHING that’s good eventually gets scapegoated and crucified. By that curious, perverse dictate that is somehow innate within human life, there’s always someone or something that cannot leave well enough alone, but, for reasons of its own, must hunt down and lash out at what’s good. What’s good, what’s of God, will always at some point be misunderstood, envied, hated, pursued, falsely accused and eventually nailed to some cross. Every body of Christ inevitably suffers the same fate as Jesus: death through misunderstanding, ignorance and jealousy. But there’s a flipside as well: Resurrection always eventually trumps crucifixion. What’s good eventually triumphs. Thus, while nothing that’s of God will avoid crucifixion, no body of Christ stays in the tomb for long. God always rolls back the stone and, soon enough, new life bursts forth and we see why that original life had to be crucified (“Wasn’t it necessary that the Christ should so have to suffer and die?”). But how does this happen? Where do we see the resurrection? How do we experience resurrection after a crucifixion? Scripture is subtle though clear on this. Where can we expect to experience resurrection? The gospels tell us that, on the morning of the resurrection, the women-followers of Jesus set out for his tomb, carrying

Nicholas King SJ

Believe and enter life

seen the Lord”, and he makes a brutal demand to see the evidence, clearly not believing a word of it: “Unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails and thrust my finger into the mark of the nails and thrust my hand into his side, no way am I going to believe.” The inevitable consequence happens on the very next Sunday; Jesus reappears, and we notice that the disciples are still not sure about all this, since the doors are “locked”. Thomas is addressed in precisely the crude terms that he had used to his brethren, and then told (and the message is for us as much as for him): “Do not be an unbeliever but a believer.” Thomas then speaks for all of us, going way beyond the evidence, and addressing Jesus as “my Lord and my God”. It is a remarkable moment, and you and I are invited to ask ourselves: can we say the same? For the evangelist concludes: “These things have been written that you may have faith that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” There is the invitation for us, this week.

Southern Crossword #699

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final reflection

but he’s physical enough to eat fish in their presence, real enough to be touched as a human being, and powerful enough to change their lives forever. Ultimately that’s what the resurrection asks us to do: To go back to Galilee, to return to the dream, hope, and discipleship that had once inflamed us but has now been lost through disillusionment. This parallels what happens on the road to Emmaus in Luke’s gospel, where we are told that on the day of the Resurrection, two disciples were walking away from Jerusalem towards Emmaus, with their faces downcast. An entire spirituality could be unpackaged from that simple line: For Luke, Jerusalem means the dream, the hope, and the religious centre from which all is to begin and where ultimately, all is to culminate. And the disciples are “walking away” from this place, away from their dream, towards Emmaus (Emmaus was a Roman spa, a Las Vegas or Sun City). Since their dream has been crucified, the disciples are understandably discouraged and are walking away from it, towards some human solace, despairing in their hope: “But we had hoped!” They never get to Emmaus. Jesus appears to them on the road, reshapes their hope in the light of their disillusionment, and turns them back towards Jerusalem. That is one of the essential messages of Easter: Whenever we are discouraged in our faith, whenever our hopes seem to be crucified, we need to go back to Galilee and Jerusalem, back to the road of discipleship. The temptation, of course, whenever the kingdom doesn’t seem to work, is to abandon discipleship for human consolation, to head off instead for Emmaus, for the consolation of Las Vegas or Sun City. But, as we know, we never quite get to Las Vegas or Sun City. In one guise or another, Christ always meets us on the road to those places, burns holes in our hearts, explains our latest crucifixion to us, and sends us back—and to our abandoned discipleship. Once there, it all makes sense again.

ACROSS

2. Practice of magic on boat to the coven (10) 8. Sorry, I held on for the state of a priest (2,4,6) 10. Death, where is your ...? (1 Cor 15) (5) 11. Attracted to play with ten dice (7) 12. Slot he found among the inns (6) 13. Screen in the confessional (6) 16. See you obey the Commandments (7) 18. Blessed is the ... of thy womb (5) 19. One may do it after the wind blows through the locks (4,4,4) 20. What the school bell did at the close (5,5)

DOWN

1. The poor Sid gets into a sacramental state (10) 3. Forbidden by law (7) 4. Devil’s kind of hoof (6) 5. Acted as a trainee (5) 6. Tall guru Irac is into farm work (12) 7. What every Christian confesses (6,2,4) 9. Alice had them in Wonderland (10) 14. Does not accept (7) 15. Five learn about spring weather (6) 17. Vested for Mass (5)

Solutions on page 15

CHURCH CHUCKLE

Church definitions: Bulletin: Your receipt for attending Mass. Incense: Holy Smoke! Magi: The most famous trio to attend a baby shower. Pew: A medieval torture device still found in Catholic churches. Relics: People who have been going to Mass for so long, they actually know when to sit, kneel, and stand. Ushers: The only people in the parish who don’t know the seating capacity of a pew.

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