160420 by The Southern Cross

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No 4973

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The Holy Eucharist liberates us

Page 7

How we redeem our sexuality

Page 7

r8,00 (incl VaT rSa)

The situation of Holy Land’s Christians

Page 10

SA reaction to the pope’s new family document By MaNdLa ZIBI

N the wake of Pope Francis’ exhortation on family life, Amoris Laetitia, Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria has urged the establishment of marriage and family desks in each diocese as part of a big campaign aimed at healthy marriages and a stable family life. “Pope Francis’ document exhales a spirit of the Gospel; it is concrete, full of mercy and seeks to strengthen marriage and family life,” Archbishop Slattery said in a statement. “Marriage is a joint project with God. The pope says: ‘No family drops down from heaven perfectly formed, families need to constantly grow and mature in the ability to love’.” Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban said the document requires local application. “Different cultural understandings of marriage within South Africa would give the Church here different challenges to those faced by churches in other parts of the world,” he told Catholic News Service. “What is new about this exhortation is its tone. It calls on all ministers to be warm and caring in the way they deal with people in difficult circumstances,” Cardinal Napier said. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Local churches are urged to adapt Church teachings from the synod to their particular circumstances.” In his final statement, Pope Francis suggested that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics could receive Communion from bishops and priests on a case-by-case basis. “Drawing from the discussion from the Synods of Bishops on the Family [in 2014 and 2015], Pope Francis affirms the Church’s traditional teaching on family life and marriage, but also emphasises the role of personal conscience and pastoral discernment,” noted Archbishop Slattery. “The document is big on tenderness, compassion and common sense. It is very appropriate for the situation in South Africa, where you have a lot of extended, wounded, and broken families. There are no fathers in lots of cases. Divorces occur in many cases through no fault of one of the spouses, especially the mother,” he said. Calling for more community involvement

Teketel Lobgicho Bulamo and Genet yohannes Wolde were married in Sacred Heart church in Thohoyandou, Tzaneen diocese. Fr andré Stephan MSC officiated. at their traditional wedding feast Fr Tekelmaiam Bulamo was the guest speaker. The couple is active in the Ethio-Eritrean Catholic Community, but also earned the praise of Sacred Heart parish council representative Mrs Tshilidzi who noted that they attend and support the parish as local Church members. Copies of Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, are displayed in English, German, Italian and Spanish. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) in the nurturing of marriage and family life, he said that mostly it is the parish community that judged divorced people, rather than the priests themselves. He said the duty of marriage counselling is not only the priest’s but that of the whole Church community. He suggested that women should be part of the formation period of priests regarding family ministry. “Traditional teachings on marriage are affirmed but we should not burden people with unrealistic expectations,” Archbishop Slattery said. “The pope places a lot of emphasis in this exhortation on pastoral adaptation (the internal forum solution). In fact he states such couples, ‘should not be pigeon-holed or fit into overly rigid classifications, leaving no room for a suitable personal and pastoral discernment’.” Reiterating the call for more diocesan marriage and family teams, Archbishop Slattery decried the traditional South African preoccupation with the wedding day. “South Africans behave as if the wedding day is the final moment; it is actually the beginning of a very challenging process. Three or four years down the line, the initial passion has cooled, the couple start finding things Continued on page 2

Bishop: ‘Devil worship a reality’ By FraNCIS NjuGuNa

EVIL worship is a reality, affects Christians and non-Christians, and “young people are being lured into [it] through promised educational scholarships”, a Kenyan bishop has warned. Bishop Emanuel Barbara of Malindi said he hopes the Year of Mercy will help Catholics remain strong. At a theological symposium on the occult and satanism, Bishop Barbara said devil worship is growing quickly in his country and that it has global implications. During the question-and-answer session afterward, some appealed to Kenya’s bishops to move from “talking about the issue to acting on it”. “Education on how to battle out this issue is lacking among us, the Catholic faithful,” said one participant. Another asked the bishop for literature on the issue. In an interview, one participant (who did not want his name disclosed) was quick to mention those behind the recruitment of people into devil worship as effectively exploiting the areas of unemployment, illiteracy and the unmoulded minds of young people. “No wonder the issue is more pronounced in schools and colleges, for example,” he explained.

Fr Clement Majawa, currently lecturing at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, said the Church and government have to sensitise the public to the reality of devil worship. He suggested introducing courses on secret religious societies and traditional African religions. He also suggested Catholics work with the education ministry to develop curricula on this issue and to have a team of chaplains and counsellors on hand for challenging situations. In 1999, a presidential inquiry into devil worship in Kenya, chaired by the late Archbishop Nicodemus Kirima of Nyeri, concluded that devil worship could be found in schools, churches and even government offices. Archbishop Kirima, who chaired the commission of senior religious leaders, told the BBC that the investigation was launched to find out whether devil worship was linked to ritualised killings or other unlawful activities. The report was presented to the government, but has still not been released publicly and was only recently made available to religious leaders. Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper recently quoted it extensively and said self-declared devil worshippers gave consistent details of ceremonies and rituals.—CNS

The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

LOCAL Priests and the congregation of Kempton Park parish held a divine Mercy procession, with the Eucharistic Sacrament on top of a bakkie, during a three-day parish mission.

Jhb Fatima walk returns

N Saturday, May 14, hundreds of Catholics are expected to take to the Johannesburg streets again for the 17th Fatima procession. It will be the tenth time in succession that this pilgrimage will be taking place. The pilgrimage celebrates the apparitions of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the hamlet of Fatima in Portugal in May 1913. During these apparitions, over six months, Our Lady, as “Our Lady Queen of the Rosary”, appealed for prayer, conversion and peace in the world. “Since these apparitions, mil-

lions of people have changed their lives positively and come to practice the messages of Fatima,” explained Manny de Freitas, co-convenor of the pilgrimage. He said that because those apparitions took place in Portugal, the Portuguese community has a special devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. Blessed Sacrament parish in Malvern East, led by parish priest Fr Tony Daniels OMI, will be undertaking the pilgrimage on foot. It will start from the church, corner Geldenhuis and Mullins roads on May 14 at 18:30, and end with Mass at the Schoenstatt shrine in Bed-

fordview (corner of Van Buuren and Florence roads). “All are invited to join. We are aiming to beat last year’s estimated attendance of 2 000 pilgrims,” Mr de Freitas said. Participants are advised to wear comfortable shoes and to bring a candle. Moreover, Mr de Freitas said, the Five Fatima Saturdays will again be taking place this year, now in its third year. The Five Fatima Saturdays will take place at 17:00 in the Malvern East church, before the 17:30 Mass on June 4, July 2, August 6, September 3 and October 1.

SA reaction to pope’s Amoris Laetitia Continued from Page 1 don’t like about each other and financial issues start creeping in,” Archbishop Slattery said. “Engaged couples certainly need preparation for marriage. Catholic couples should seek to accompany young couples in the first years of married life. While the pope regards divorce as an evil, the most important pastoral task of the Church is to help families to strengthen their love and help them to heal wounds,” the archbishop said. He noted that the document accords well with African reality, as the pope does not restrict the definition of what a family is. “Family life for the pope includes aunts and uncles, cousins, relatives of relatives, friends. He does not focus on the nuclear family. The spirituality of marriage has a deeply social character. The pope speaks beautifully of the relation-

ship between youth and the elderly as well as the relationship between brothers and sisters,” Archbishop Slattery said. “In speaking of pastoral care for the family, the pope insists that families need to be more involved in the formation for family ministry while formation of seminarians needs to be improved so that they better understand married life. This is exactly what we need in South Africa” the archbishop said. The pope’s document rejected marriage between homosexual persons, saying there are “absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and the family”. While the Church cannot consider same-sex unions to be a marriage, he also insisted that “every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or

her dignity”. A spokesperson for a local LGBTI support group was positive on some of Pope Francis’s pronouncements. Sharon Ludwig of the Triangle Project, a non-profit organisation advocating for rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, said the pope “had at least affirmed same-sex sexualities”. “Considering that he is the leader of a well-entrenched, very conservative global organisation, the pope took a big step. I am glad for the Catholic Church and for the priests who are working hard to change attitudes inside the Church,” she said. “Powerful leaders like the pope are very influential. Others like him stand in front of their congregations and preach hate. And people listen and respond accordingly. The root of hate is the idea that it is not OK to be who you are,” Ms Ludwig said.

Mission centred on Christ By rudo MuNyaI & FarayI MaToNdo

ARISHIONERS came in their numbers to hear the word of God unpacked in a robust, interactive way by a three-day parish mission at Our Lady of Loreto parish in Kempton Park, Johannesburg. The mission was led by Fr Alvin Tauro, supported by parish spiritual leader Fr Peter Rebello. On day one the message was centred on Christ, the visible image of invisible God We were called to remain faithful to our baptismal vows as even the Son of God himself was baptised before he began his ministry, Fr Tauro explained, adding that we should renew these vows more often and live by them visibly in our daily lives. He suggested that our lives should be guided by Christ’s words in the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11). Day two centred on Christ’s healing ministry The line in the beatitudes, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted” should be a direct challenge that we should not run away from suffering but en-

dure it like Christ, the mission was told. Jesus never asked that we dump the cross in order to be free but that we take up the cross, facing up to our challenge, Fr Tauro said. Death on a cross in that time was shameful, but Romans 8:18 has a wonderful promise: “I consider that the suffering this present time is nothing compared to the Glory to be revealed to us…” That is our destiny, he said. Day three centred on Jesus’ preaching to the masses. Jesus was so humble that after hearing or performing miracles he charged the healed to tell no one, Fr Tauro pointed out, noting: “This is pure humility.” “When we carry Christ in our hearts because of our spirituality, we become people of substance. We begin to do things not of human recognition, but for God himself,” he said. Our life therefore should be a witness to others about the love of Christ, he said. Fr Tauro challenged the congregation to read the Holy Scriptures every day, even if just one verse.

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The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

LOCAL

‘Negative media disheartens public’ By MaNdLa ZIBI

AR from plunging us into gloom, the recent Constitutional Court decision on Nkandla should fill us with renewed confidence in our democracy, according to the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC). “Our media have been dominated by statements of total negativity regarding our political scene. This disheartens the general public,” the SACBC said in a statement signed by Archbishop William Slattery, conference spokesman. “We must, however, remember

that we have a lot to be proud of in South Africa. For a start, our Constitutional Court has been free in making its courageous and just decisions. We are a country which conducts fair elections and have an open parliament where the public has access to the proceedings. Our media is free,” Archbishop Slattery said. The Constitutional Court judgment ruled that President Jacob Zuma did not uphold his constitutional responsibility and found further that parliament had erred in not recognising the primacy of the Public Protector’s report on Nkandla.

Fr Grant james Co (right), new head of school at St dominic’s Priory in Port Elizabeth, with convent prioress Sr Margaret Kelly oP and Fr Michael Theron Co, head of ethos.

Priest heads school By MaNdLa ZIBI

AINT Dominic’s Priory school in Port Elizabeth has appointed Fr Grant James CO as the new head of school. Fr James is a seasoned educator. He is an alumnus of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (formerly UPE), where he obtained his PhD in semiconductor physics. While there he joined the Oratory of St Philip Neri. After completing a year of post-doctoral studies, he entered the Cape Town archdiocesan seminary to study philosophy and theology. He later returned to Port Elizabeth, completing his priestly studies via St Augustine College where he obtained an MPhil in theology (cum laude). Before joining the staff at St Dominic’s Priory, Fr James was a physical sciences teacher at Victoria Park High School in Port Elizabeth. The Oratorian priest was appointed the deputy head of school in April 2015, and has been acting head since January this year. “We believe he has the capability and temperament to lead the school actively in accordance with its vision and mission. We congratulate him on his appointment, assuring him of all the support he needs in realising that goal,” said school spokeswoman Laura Croft.

“Citizens’ rights are respected. We have freedom of speech, conscience, thought, assembly, religion, movement,” the statement continued. “Our people are free to mobilise and protest which is becoming a cottage industry in our country. These freedoms were not always enjoyed in this country and no president in the past apologised for repression.” The statement did, however, admit that many of the hopes of post-apartheid South Africa had not materialised. “The great hope that racism

would end after 1994 has not been realised, unfortunately. Recent public events show how racially polarised the country still remains. We as churches have also failed to adequately form a united people.” Archbishop Slattery also pointed out the effect of increasing social inequality, where only a few were benefiting from the status quo. “This is evident in education, access to medicine, access to employment. Great numbers of our people are housed in informal settlements and overcrowded townships while a minority continues to enrich itself.

“It is said that the corporate sector controls R600 billion and is holding back from reinvestment in our country. This money generated by South Africans is not being used for the general population,” he said. “One is concerned that if the present unequal situation continues and if we are presented with ever more examples of corruption, our young people will lose all interest in participating in the political and civil life of our country. “The Scriptures and all our human covenants with God demand that we act justly,” he said.

Students from US shown historical SA parliament

HE Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) recently hosted a group of students from Fordham University, New York. Currently based at the University of Pretoria, they came to Cape Town to do some volunteer work for their formation. The CPLO treated the group of 27 to an eye-opening tour of parliament. The students had a look at the old chamber of parliament, now used as a committee room, which was the scene of some of the most iniquitous legislation in South

African history being passed. These included the passing of the 1913 Land Act, all apartheid laws, and the Sobukwe clause banishing Pan Africanist Congress leader Robert Sobukwe to solitary confinement for years on Robben Island without him setting foot in a court of law. It was also where Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was assassinated in 1966. The visit formed part of the CPLO’s outreach, which includes raising political and civic consciousness among students and visitors to South Africa.

Students from Fordham university in New york listen to a presentation by Fr Matsepane Morare Sj (not pictured).

Witbank diocesan youth coordinator Mthunzi Manda presented a trophy and a small amount of prize money to joseph Palmer from Sacred Heart parish, ackerville, in Witbank diocese, for being the best 2015 Grade 12 learner in the diocese. Mr Manda presented two trophies, one to the learner and the other to the parish. “The aim is to encourage young people to do their best in their studies so that they can achieve more in life. We are establishing a bursary committee for the diocese to help young people to achieve their dreams. We would like to thank the men of St joseph’s and the diocesan youth committee for their contribution.” Mr Manda made an appeal for donations to the bursary. He can be contacted at 082 297 4087.

CPLO hosts hidden economic burdens talks

HE Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) hosted a roundtable discussion on “Hidden Economic Burdens”. Guest speakers were Ayabonga Cawe, co-founder and chair of Rethink Africa; Pippa Green, journalist and media consultant to the Research Project on Employment, Income Distribution and Inclusive Growth; and Andrew Kerr, senior researcher at DataFirst, UCT.

Mr Cawe spoke on household debt and the informal and formal loan sectors, as well as the so-called “black tax”—the expectation that employed family members in the black community contribute to the maintenance of the extended family, and shoulder the cost of funerals and other rituals. He attributed the widespread indebtedness in South African households to asset deficits and conspicuous consumption. Ms Green addressed the issue of rural

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The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Warning: Beware of ‘polite persecution’ By juNNo aroCHo ESTEVES

C Cathedral of St Gregory the Illuminator in yerevan, armenia. Pope Francis will visit armenia in late june. (Photo: Sergei Chirikov, EPa/CNS)

Pope Francis to visit Armenia and Georgia, Azerbaijan By CINdy WoodEN

EINFORCING bonds of dialogue and respect with Orthodox leaders and visiting small Catholic communities, Pope Francis will travel to Armenia in late June and to Georgia and Azerbaijan in September, the Vatican announced. The Armenia trip from June 24-26 comes in response to an invitation from the patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, and from the government, the Vatican said. Travelling to Georgia and Azerbaijan from September 30 to October 2, the pope is accepting an invitation from Geor-

gian Patriarch Ilia II and the governments of the two nations, the Vatican said. In all three nations, Pope Francis will be the second pope to visit. Pope John Paul II visited Armenia in 2001, Georgia in 1999 and Azerbaijan in 2002. According to Vatican statistics, Catholics make up about 9,6% of the population in Armenia, about 2,4% of the population in Georgia and less than 1% of the population in Azerbaijan. Almost 97% of the population in Azerbaijan is Muslim. The majority in Armenia are Oriental Orthodox and the majority in Georgia are Orthodox.—CNS

Abuse archbishop told to stay out of the limelight By joNaTHaN LuxMoorE

POLISH archbishop who resigned after sexually molesting Catholic seminarians has been warned by the Vatican to stay away from commemorations of Poland’s Christian conversion and an upcoming visit by the pope. “The Holy Father decisively reiterates his invitation for you to live a life of privacy in repentance and prayer,” said Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s Warsaw-based nuncio. The letter to Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, formerly of Poznan, was released by the Polish bishops’ conference after the archbishop told local journalists he saw “no reason” not to take part in the Poznan celebrations, which were to be attended by Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Meanwhile, the bishops’ conference press office said the archbishop had been warned by the Vatican in 2013 to “refrain from participating in public celebrations”, adding that it was “hard to imagine” he would again ignore the order during the

pope’s July 27-31 visit to Poland for World Youth Day in Krakow. Pope John Paul II accepted Archbishop Paetz's resignation in 2002 after the archbishop was accused of repeatedly abusing seminarians. However, the archbishop continued living at the Poznan curia and participating in Church events, including the consecration of bishops, as well as attending audiences with the pope in Rome. In 2006, he was shown on Polish TV greeting Pope Benedict XVI during the now-retired pope’s visit, while in 2009 a telegram from the pope was published at Archbishop Paetz’s request in a Catholic weekly, congratulating him on his “fruitful service” and “saving work for the good of the Church”. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ confirmed in June 2010 that the archbishop's “rehabilitation was without foundation”, adding that removing a 2002 ban on administering sacraments in his former diocese would depend on Poznan’s current archbishop, Stanislaw Gadecki.—CNS

HRISTIANS must beware of a “polite” persecution that is cloaked in a disguise of “culture, modernity and progress,” Pope Francis said. Those who suffer this kind of persecution are not persecuted “for confessing Christ’s name, but for wanting to have and manifesting the values of the son of God”, he said during Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. “We see every day that the powerful make laws that force them to go on this path, and a nation that does not follow these modern, cultured laws, or at least does not have them in their legislation, are accused [and] are politely persecuted,” he said. The day’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles (7:51-8:1) recalled the martyrdom of St Stephen, who was stoned to death after firmly rebuking the scribes and elders who “always oppose the Holy Spirit”. The pope said that persecution

XPOSURE to pornography harms children to such an extent it should be considered child abuse, Australia’s Catholic bishops have said in a call for action. “Children have a right to be children, away from the pressures applied by advertising and other images on television and the Internet for them to dress and act as mini-adults. Bombarding children with sexualised images can hurt their normal development,” a commission of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference said in a statement to the Australian Senate committee. The committee was making an inquiry into the harm of Internet pornography. Australia’s Catholic bishops said there is an obligation to protect families from pornography. They said that pornography has become mainstream and is now “the wallpaper of young people’s lives”. They lamented sexualised images in advertising, music videos and computer games. The statement was signed by Bishop Peter Comensoli of Broken Bay, acting chair of the Australian

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from this harm, but also to save the broader community from the harms of adults damaged in their childhood,” the bishops said. They also noted the Christian case against pornography, citing Jesus Christ’s words from Matthew 5: “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The bishops said pornography “harms the fabric of our community” and makes it more difficult for men and women to relate to each other in a mutually respectful and loving way. Pornography “objectifies people as less than real persons and offers a distorted view of relationships”. Where parents can’t or won’t act to protect children, the community has a duty to do so, they said. The bishops suggested an Internet filtering system, with an optout for adults. They advocated research on parental awareness of pornography’s dangers for children and a public education programme for parents on how to prevent pornography exposure.— CNA

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Bishops’ Commission for Family, Youth and Life. “Allowing children to be exposed to pornography is a form of abuse,” the bishops said. “The Church has its own shameful history of child abuse and, particularly because of that terrible experience for victims, does not want to see other forms of abuse of children such as the harms from the increased availability of pornography.” They cited a link between children’s exposure to pornography and their likelihood of becoming victims of sexual violence. Many children are first exposed to pornography before the age of 13, according to the studies the bishops cited. Children exposed to pornography are more likely to agree with sexual relations before marriage, more likely to have sexual relations before their peers, and more likely to adopt risky sexual behaviour. They are more likely to regard women as sex objects and to molest other children. “There is compelling evidence of the need for the Australian community to act to save children

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Pope Francis waves as he leads his angelus prayer in the Vatican. (Photo: alessandro Bianchi, reuters/ CNS)

“Those Christians celebrating Easter in Pakistan were martyred precisely because they were celebrating the risen Christ. And like so, the history of the Church goes forward with its martyrs,” the pope said. However, he added, there is also a “polite” persecution that “takes away from man and woman their freedom, as well as their right to conscientious objection”. “Jesus has named the head of this ‘polite’ persecution: the prince of this world. And when the powerful want to impose behaviours, laws against the dignity of the son of God, they persecute them and go against God the Creator. It is the great apostasy,” the pope said. Pope Francis said that although Christians are besieged by persecution, Jesus will always remain close. “The Lord has promised that he will not be far from us: ‘Beware, beware! Do not fall for the spirit of the world. Beware! But go forward, I will be with you’,” he said.—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

2007 document gives clue to pope’s mind By CaroL ZIMMErMaNN

Pope: End death penalty, find new ways to peace By CaroL GLaTZ

F you want to know what Pope Francis considers important, the Aparecida document written by the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2007, is a good place to start, according to an Argentine theologian. The theologian, Fr Carlos Maria Galli, helped collaborate on this document written by then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, and has continued to discuss the role of the Church with his then-archbishop, now Pope Francis. When it was issued, the Aparecida document provided guidelines and a pastoral vision for the region’s Church, which was experiencing a sharp decline in its Catholic population. But the document’s call for Catholics to be missionaries was hardly only a local message just for that time. It is something the pope continues to emphasise, Fr Galli said. The document was named for Brazil’s shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, where the bishops met for the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. Safe to say, the priest knows Pope Francis more than your average theologian. He said he met the pope 40 years ago and has worked with him for about 30 years. Not only was the pope his archbishop in Argentina, but he was the chancellor at the university where Fr Galli works. Currently, the priest is a member of the International Theological Commission, a group of theologians who serve as advisers to the pope. The priest said the 2007 document by the Latin American bishops

The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

P Fr Carlos Maria Galli of argentina says: read the aparecida documentto to know what Pope Francis considers important. (Photo: Tyler orsburn/CNS) communicated the “full life of Christ” and was the essence of the pope’s message six years later in the apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) where he spoke of the Church’s mission of evangelisation in the modern world. Aparecida’s message of Church outreach, going out to the peripheries and meeting others where they are, is central to what the pope aims to do in his writings and travels, Fr Galli said, noting that the pope continually stresses that the “Church must go where the others are”. The pope’s notion of reaching out to others is “not to make them the way that I am” either, but is a whole culture of encounter, the priest added and is reflected in his writings and in what he says and does in his visits to other countries.—CNS

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OPE Francis urged abolishing the death penalty worldwide as well as eradicating the external debt of developing countries. Working to build dialogue, peace and justice in “our complex and violent world” is a huge and difficult task that requires seeking the common good, he said in a written message to participants at a conference in Rome. Dialogue, he said, requires “being ready to give and also to receive, to begin not with the assumption that the other is wrong, but to begin with our differences, to seek—without negotiating—the good of all, and in the end having found an agreement, to firmly stick to it”. The pope’s message was addressed to Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The council, Pax Christi International and other Catholic organisations were hosting a conference to discuss the Catholic understanding of non-violence and just peace. The pope asked for support in his appeal to world leaders during this Year of Mercy for a moratorium and end to the death penalty wherever it is still in force. He also called for “the cancellation or the sustainable management of the international debt of poorer nations”. He encouraged the renewal “of the active witness of non-violence as a ‘weapon’ to achieve peace”. Choosing the path of non-violence, he said, is a “daunting” task as is “reaching people’s very souls” through compassion and dialogue, building bridges and fighting fear. Theologians, Church leaders and peacebuilding experts attending the conference also

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Human rights activists hold placards during a rally against the death penalty in Peshawar, Pakistan. (Photo: arshad arbab, EPa/CNS) discussed the rejection of a “just war” mentality in favour of alternative conflict resolutions based on non-violence and justice. The Church’s stance has evolved over time, Cardinal Turkson said. When St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas developed the concept of “just war”, he said, “Europe was governed by barbarian peoples for whom the only thing that counted was violence”. The Church at the time was seen as “a civilising power because of its religious nature” and, therefore, it sought to influence leaders by continually restricting the conditions that would justify their use of force, he said. However, with secularisation, leaders in Western nations began to claim for themselves “the right to decide whether or not a recourse to war was just” rather than look to the

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The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Ascension and Assumption days

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Guest editorial: Fr Anthony Egan SJ

HERE is certainly a lot of merit in the view of Nicholas Mitchell (March 2) that maintaining the solemnities of the Ascension of the Lord and the Assumption of Mary on their traditional calendar days could affirm the place of holy days in a secular society. In their submission to the Congregation for the Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the bishops stated that it was their intention to encourage priests and laity to use the tradi-

Time for us to grow up

HAT is striking, and refreshing, about Pope Francis’ new document Amoris Laetitia is not its originality—there is no dramatic change in Church teaching on the family here—but the hopeful way in which he invites the whole Church to dialogue. Dialogue and communication is both explicit and implicit in the way in which he takes us through the extensive exposition of marriage and family life as a process—from love, through engagement and the liturgical celebration, and the continuing process that is the sacrament of marriage. Similarly, he guides the way seminarians and priests are called to study and understand the sacrament, to accompany married couples and those preparing for marriage. Dialogue and communication pervade the parts about parenting and the education of youth about marriage and family life. And above all it is essential to accompanying people whose marriages are troubled or have failed. One may sense too that Pope Francis is shifting the way we think about marriage and family from a classical and deductive paradigm to one that is historical and inductive. To explain: a paradigm is a way we think and act on something, a broad guiding principle. The classical and deductive paradigm starts from overarching theological ideas that seem unchanged and unchangeable, often expressed as laws that are then applied to specific cases—in effect forcing the specific cases into the pre-existing idea. The historical and inductive approach starts with the specifics, lived reality itself, and then draws upon principles, theology and law to interpret and challenge that reality. The Amoris Laetitia exhortation is precisely this: looking at family in all its complexity and applying theology to it to see how lived reality might better grow into the universal values we embrace. Drawing on St Thomas Aquinas, the pope asks us all to focus on the particular so that our theology may actually help real families deepen in faith, hope and love as they strive to grow into a greater identification with what our theology proclaims.

The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit published letters. Letters below 300 words receive preference. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances and at the Editor’s discretion. Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

The pope’s approach is subtle on the questions of divorce, annulment, remarriage and the question of Communion to those in what often is called irregular unions. He reaffirms strongly the need to implement the shorter, streamlined and cheaper annulment process he introduced last year, including in some cases the right of the bishop to personally annul cases where grounds for annulment are clearcut. Arguing strongly for a more case-by-case approach, he also turns more firmly to the internal forum of prayerful dialogue between priest and persons in a complex marital situation to resolve the question of Communion. Here he advocates prudent discernment among the parties—reflection rooted in prayer on the circumstances they find themselves in, seeking the good God desires. Fundamental to this process is conscience, formed and informed by Catholic teaching and the specific context. Above all, Francis reminds us that mercy fulfils justice, that love transcends and is the purpose of law. Such an approach may be unsettling to some. Some may find this insufficiently clear and decisive, a kind of wishy-washy ethics. However, we are sinners. We are redeemed sinners, who strive and fail and strive again to live up to the demands of the Gospel. Christ welcomes this striving; indeed, the gospels are full of his scathing remarks about the rigorous and proud who look down on those striving sinners with whom Jesus associated. His call to us is to keep striving for the good, recommitting ourselves to the “prize” when we fall short. This was the vision of Aquinas too, and it is the vision of Pope Francis. We are a Church of the imperfect, not the perfect. Of greater concern is whether the Church can put into practice what Pope Francis calls us to do. There is a nasty undercurrent of condemnation and exclusion. By condemning others we fool ourselves that we are perfect. Genuine dialogue between laity and clergy is often replaced with relations of power. This is sick, the worst kind of pharisaic behaviour. Pope Francis is calling us to grow up as Christians. May we all respond generously to his challenge and the challenge of the Gospel.

tional days of the solemnities for celebrations in Catholic schools, institutions like hospitals and old age homes. It follows a parish may celebrate the feast on the calendar day with the status of a memoria, without making it a solemn celebration which is reserved for the Sunday. The decision to transfer the solemnities to a Sunday was taken on pastoral grounds in that the bishops weighed up the situation in Southern Africa where the majority

Celebrate Mother of Africa feast

Crusade and negotiate peace—the Sultan agreed (and Franciscans still hold the guardianship of Holy Land shrines) but the Crusaders continued the siege of Damietta (Egypt) and thousands died, which jihadists still remember. Let us ask every Catholic we know to say a rosary (or even a decade or Hail Mary) on April 30, for Africa and the world. For a free leaflet, SMS your name and postal address to 083 544 8449. Athaly Jenkinson, East London

‘I

F my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). These words are from Divine Mercy Sunday earlier this month, and also on a red wristband worn for 15 years since 2001 when an ecumenical gathering prayed for Africa and eventually the world. Henri JM Nouwen wrote in Seeds of Hope that “we have turned prayer into a last resort to be used only when our own resources are depleted...We try to find solutions (or expect others to find them) and we lose patience and faith. Or we pray just for ourselves and our own families or groups and their immediate problems, and leave it to others to pray about the big problems which beset our land, our world. Yet God has promised...” On April 30 the Mass of Our Lady Mother of Africa is celebrated in African countries. In 2014, Pope Francis prayed for our bishops on that day: “May the saints of Africa intercede for you, may Our Lady of Africa be always at your side.” But we never pray for Africa ourselves... Mary, a loving, caring mother, will not forget us in Africa. Tradition tells us that a thief, Dismas, persuaded his accomplices to ensure the Holy Family’s safety in Egypt—he received the grace of repentance on Calvary—and Simon, who carried her Son’s cross, was from Cyrene, in Libya, Africa. St Francis of Assisi risked his life to meet the Sultan during the Fifth

Easter disgrace in preparation

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

E have just completed the Easter services in our parish church and I am left with questions. 1. Has our priest forgotten what it means to be a shepherd to his flock? At no time during the weeks before Easter did he attempt to give any explanation or education as to the various celebrations that would take place in the lead-up to Easter Sunday (Holy Thursday and the Eucharist, Good Friday and the Passion, Holy Saturday and the Vigil service), nor was there any encouragement given to parishioners to attend or participate in these services 2. Does the small size of the congregation not merit his service? Preparations for the various liturgies were minimal: no readers/proclaimers arranged prior to any of the liturgies; no explanation about the Washing of the Feet; no flowers at the altar of repose; no explanation about the different parts of the Friday liturgy; no altar servers arranged for the vigil service; no mention of the need to bring candles to the vigil service; no candles provided for members of the congregation and minimal flowers for Easter. 3. What does complaining about the smallness of the congregation achieve? Is it not the role of the priest, the shepherd of his people, to educate/explain the various services and invite people (especially the youth) to participate by outlining what is involved, and to invite and prepare parishioners to give their service in meeting some of the

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of Catholics do not have the opportunity to celebrate liturgical feast days of such importance because of the work situation of many of them and the rural situation of most of the Southern African church. The decision was also motivated on the grounds that giving most Catholics the opportunity to celebrate these solemnities on the same day witnesses to and brings about the unity of the Church. Bishop Edward Risi OMI, Chairman: SACBC Christian Formation, Liturgy and Culture Desk needs such as providing flower arrangements, serving at the altar, offering to read/proclaim, caring for the vigil fire and so on? 4. Is it simply a case of a parish priest who is just plain lazy? We, who are just the laity, are fully aware of how many of our clergy would not be able to hold down ordinary 9-5 employment, both in terms of professional abilities and basic attitudinal work skills. Being a priest allows for a very comfortable and secure existence. Surely those of us who are trying to be faithful in an already besieged Church deserve more? Religious sister, Name withheld

Church assailed by minorities

AVING quietly moved into my 80th year on this beautiful planet, I can but express my eternal gratitude to those wonderful Sisters of the Holy Cross and Marist Brothers for having taught me my Catholic faith from an early age. It is a faith with which I have always been comfortable. Nowadays Mother Church is being bombarded on all sides by pressure from minority groups with their own evil agendas, aided by a self-serving media causing rightminded people to walk on eggshells for fear of being labelled bigots. Such groups are championing their causes under the banner of human rights and this is where I have a problem. We can be loving, caring and forgiving but our conscience can never be gainsaid. There are human wrongs and I challenge anyone to try to convince me that abortion is a human right. This applies also to same-sex marriage, homosexuality and the other “shall not’s” inscribed in Mosaic law. It is in this context that I applaud the bishops of Malawi in their stance on abortion (March 30). We have an all-forgiving God and will be given every opportunity—especially in our later years when our perspectives are less clouded—to seek forgiveness for our wrongdoings. That is my hope. Ernie Wertheim, Johannesburg

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Court ruling a victory for democracy STAFF REPORTER

A r c h b i s h o p P e t e r We l l s , t h e n e w n u n c i o t o S o u t h e r n A f r i c a i s s e e n d u r i n g h i s o r d i n a t i o n t o t h e e p i s c o p a t e b y P o p e F r a n c i s i n S t P e t e r ' s b a s i l i c a a t t h e Va t i c a n o n M a r c h 1 9 . T h e U S born archbishop has said that he hopes to have taken up residency in the nunciature in P r e t o r i a b y t h e t i m e o f t h e o r d i n a t i o n o f M g r D u n c a n Ts o k e a s a u x i l i a r y b i s h o p o f J o h a n nesburg on April 30. As nuncio, his role will be to represent the pope in the local Church—including his proposi n g n e w b i s h o p s — a s w e l l a s t o s e r v e a s t h e Va t i c a n ’s a m b a s s a d o r t o S o u t h A f r i c a , Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia and Lesotho. Look out for an interview with Archbishop We l l s i n n e x t w e e k ’s i s s u e . ( P h o t o : P a u l H a r i n g / C N S )

LL South Africans should celebrate the Constitutional Court’s ruling which proved that nobody in this countr y is above the law, according to the director of the Jesuit Institute. The Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that President Jacob Zuma failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution as the supreme law of the land by disregarding the Public Protector’s report that ordered him to repay some funds used in the upgrade to his homestead in Nkandla, KwaZuluNatal. In its report, the Public Protector found that the construction of a cattle kraal, chicken run, swimming pool, visitors’ centre and amphitheatre were not essential security features, and that the president should therefore repay the state for the expenditure incurred. The government and speaker of the National Assembly contended that the Public Protector’s order was not binding. The Constitutional Court found that they, in fact, are binding. “Neither the president nor the National Assembly is entitled to respond to the binding remedial action taken by the Public Protector as if it is of no force or effect, unless it has been set aside through a proper judicial process,” Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said in the ruling. “The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and the judgment shows that nobody is above the law,” Jesuit Father Russell Pollitt told The Southern Cross. “This is something that all South Africans should celebrate.” The priest said that the ruling showed “that our democracy has institutions that function as they should and that justice can and will be a reality if we allow the system to work as it should”. He called the Constitutional Court “a treasure in South Africa”, saying that “the people of this country can have absolute confidence in this Court”. He also praised the role of the Office of the Public Protector “which has now proved, again, to function exactly as it should: to pro-

President Jacob Zuma: Not above the law tect the people of South Africa”. Fr Pollitt said Advocate Thuli Madonsela had been vindicated, adding: “It would also be good for all those in the ANC who accused the Public Protector of all sorts of [misdeeds] to publicly apologise.” The ruling African National Congress in a statement said it accepted the ruling and expressed its “full confidence in the judiciary”, saying that, “given the serious nature of the judgment delivered”, it would “study it in detail”. The opposition Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters said that they would initiate impeachment hearings against Mr Zuma. “It is now, more than ever, that the ANC must show leadership and do what is for the good of the country and not what is good for the image of the ANC or Zuma himself,” Fr Pollitt said. “President Zuma, if he really cares about the future of this countr y and respects the ANC, should seriously consider resigning. I am not sure how he can and will ever recover from this judgment. He is now, more than ever, a morally compromised and failed president,” Fr Pollitt said.

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PERSPECTIVES

Redeeming our sexuality D URING the Easter season we rejoice in Christ’s glorified body. In his Resurrection, we are also glorified. The body of Jesus is no longer rooted in time and space, but instead carries a trace of the life that exists beyond the physical reality, a reality that will also be ours when we are united to God in eternity. How often do we stop to consider that we carry divinity within us? Every time we receive Christ in the Eucharist, we become living tabernacles of love, carrying Jesus into our homes and into our relationships. Our bodies are sacred chalices. Do we really grasp the enormity of that? We treat the Eucharistic chalice on the altar with utmost respect, knowing that it is the vessel that holds the wine transformed into the blood of Jesus. So then, if our bodies are also sacred vessels for the God who lives within us, do we accord them the same reverence and respect as our bodies? The current focus on healthy lifestyles has given us a deeper awareness of how to care for our bodies by eating healthy food, getting sufficient sleep and regular exercise. It is our Christian duty to take good care of our bodies, because they are gifts from God. A healthy lifestyle is our way of thanking God for the life he has given us, but it is also a sacred reverence of the divinity that lies within us. But how often do we consider that our sexual lives can also enrich or stunt the sacred tabernacles of our bodies? Our culture has reduced sexuality to little more than a bodily function of selfgratification. In a short span of little more than 60 years, sexual intercourse has been removed from its place of privilege within marriage to temporary liaisons between people. As Fr Ron Rolheiser pointed out in The Southern Cross earlier this year, our culture has become so focused on sexuality as an end in itself that many young people have opted out of committed relationships and

chosen instead to “hook up” for as long as the one partner can make the other feel good. Once the excitement and pleasure are gone, each one moves on to the next sexual partner. The problem with this culture of “temporariness”, as Pope Francis describes it, is that we lose the ability to form connections with others. It negatively impacts our ability to give and receive love. Love itself becomes nothing more than a superficial feeling and is unable to evolve into agape love—a love that pours itself out for the other and is ready to sacrifice all things out of a genuine desire to serve the other. Agape is a reflection of God who, out of love for us, allowed his own Son to suffer death on a cross. When we respond with that same love, we share in God’s vision of a perfect love.

ut when our ability to love becomes stunted by fear, rejection or an obsessive focus on sexual pleasure, we miss the deeper love God has planned for us. Furthermore, we become unable to love in return. Without love, we become empty vessels, and even passing sexual pleasures

“We are called to be tabernacles of hope by redeeming the body of our culture that has become enslaved to transitory sexual liaisons but still aches for fulfilling and lasting love.” (Photo: Tyler orsburn/CNS)

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eventually lose their appeal. If we are to share in Jesus’ resurrected and glorified body, our bodies need to be places where love matures. We do this through a life of chastity. For those who are unmarried, chastity becomes a patient waiting and prayerfulness in preparation for lasting and life-giving love—either in a future marriage or life as a consecrated or single person. By refraining from transitory sexual encounters, the unmarried person is called to delve into the heart of God’s deep love and share this love with others. For those called to marriage, chastity takes the form of faithfulness to the marriage covenant. In his new apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), Pope Francis says that marriage “involves mutual self-giving, includes and integrates the sexual and affective dimensions, in accordance with God’s plan” which includes an “openness to new life”. By bearing children, the spouses become co-creators with God of bringing new life to the world. Pope Francis goes even further, saying that “the sacrament of marriage is not a social convention” but a “gift for the sanctification and salvation of the spouses” because their union represents the “same relationship between Christ and the Church”. The presence of God walks through the world in the living tabernacles of his sons and daughters who choose the fullness of life and love in God. We are called to be tabernacles of hope by redeeming the body of our culture that has become enslaved to transitory sexual liaisons but still aches for fulfilling and lasting love. In this season of new life, we are also called to reflect on our own sexual lives and hear God’s call to deepen our marital love for our spouses.

How the Eucharist liberates us C ONTINUING from last month’s discussion of the Eucharist as a real encounter with Jesus, let us reflect on three other dimensions of the sacrament. First, we all know the Eucharist as “Holy Communion”. The encounter with Jesus does not just end as a meeting with Jesus. There is a deeper significance: When you and I receive Holy Communion, we are each united with Christ, and as each is united with Christ we get united with one another and with everyone else who receives him. Consider this: When you receive you are not only united with the person next to you, but with everyone else in your church and in the world who has received. Jesus’ body and blood mysteriously turn all of us into one single body—the body of Christ! Holy Communion also connects us with the roots of our faith. Jesus deliberately chose the time of the Jewish Passover meal to institute the sacrament of the Eucharist. Some parishes have what I consider to be a very good practice—commemorating the Jewish Paschal meal before Maundy Thursday. This is a reminder of our connection with the children of Israel who were to eat the Passover lamb before their departure from Egypt, the land of slavery. The lamb was to be a male without blemish, and each family was to sprinkle the doors of their houses with the blood of the lamb, and the Lord was to “Passover” all

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”When we receive Holy Communion we are united with the very source of life; we partake of the Lord’s divine nature.” (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) the houses on which the blood was put, and thus the children of Israel would be safe from the destruction that was meant for the Egyptians (Exodus 12). The Passover was to mark the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. For us Jesus is the Lamb of God that is sacrificed. The blood of this Lamb without blemish emancipates us from the bondage of sin and from the clutches and tyranny of Satan.

he Passover Lamb was a source of life for the Israelites. Jesus described himself as “the bread of life” that we must eat: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Jesus said these words before the night of the Last Supper.

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And so when he instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, he had prepared his disciples for this very hard teaching which caused many of his followers to desert him. “This is a hard teaching”, they said, “Who can accept it?” (John 6:60). Unfortunately, Christians in many churches today have the same doubts, as they do not believe in the real presence of Jesus in Holy Communion, believing that the bread and wine are only symbols. When Jesus asked the Twelve whether they also wanted to leave, Simon Peter gave the answer that guides us Catholics and others who share our faith: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Thus salvation comes from believing in Jesus Christ and his teaching, and from eating his body and drinking his blood. We can explain the importance of eating Christ’s body and drinking his blood by saying that all life comes from God. Away from God, there is no life. When we receive Holy Communion we are united with the very source of life; we partake of the Lord’s divine nature and are liberated from that which separates us from God and spiritually harms and destroys our souls.

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How is a bishop selected? How is a bishop selected in South Africa? What is the process involved and by whom is he selected? What qualifications should the candidate have? What are his duties, to whom does he report and from where does he get his financial support? Diana Lensen

HE process of selecting and appointing a candidate for episcopal ordination is the same in South Africa as elsewhere in the Church. Canons 377-402 of the Code of Canon Law provide the legal requirements for the procedure. Bishops of a particular region, such as the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, will be in possession of a list of priests who are considered likely candidates for the office of bishop. Their names are usually gathered from individual bishops and religious superiors. The list is given to the apostolic nuncio or similar representative of the Holy See, and he has the right to ask questions and seek further particulars about the suitability of each nominee. When he is satisfied, he submits the list to Rome. When a new bishop is to be appointed, three possible candidates are identified. The nuncio will scrutinise the previous list together with any more recent nominees and will discuss the selection with the regional bishops. To be a candidate a priest must be strong in faith and of good morals, piety, zeal for souls, wisdom, prudence and human virtues and talents to suit him for the office. He must also be of good esteem, at least 35 years of age, ordained at least five years and knowledgeable in theology, scripture and canon law, preferably holding an academic qualification. The candidate should fit into the cultural and linguistic features of the area, if possible being born or brought up there or thereabouts. The decision to appoint is made by the pope. An appointment is announced once the nominee has signalled his free acceptance. The bishop’s duties include the pastoral care of his flock and priests, to foster vocations, to teach and defend the faith, to exhibit holiness of life, to preside at the celebration of the Eucharist in his cathedral church on holy days. He must also visit his diocese in whole or in part each year and submit a report of the state of his diocese to Rome. As a successor of the Apostles, the bishop answers ultimately to Christ for his stewardship. As a member of the college of bishops in union with the bishop of Rome, he answers to that college if he is remiss in his duties. As the head of the college, the bishop of Rome may discipline him appropriately. The bishop relies on the people entrusted to his care for financial support, although he may look for funds beyond his diocese.

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

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

Tony Wyllie & Co. Catholic Funeral Home

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The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

COMMUNITY

youth at St Peter Claver parish in Pimville, Soweto, were confirmed by archbishop Buti Tlhagale. (Photo: Sello Mokoka) Twenty-five children were baptised at St Martin de Porres parish in Eshowe diocese by Fr Sibusiso Sithathu (back left). Catechist Pancraz Mnguni is pictured back right.

The choir of St agnes community in Lindley parish, Bethlehem diocese, raised funds for choir uniforms. They are seen in their new uniforms with parish priest Fr dikotsi Mofokeng (seated centre).

johannesburg’s Sacred Heart College deputy presidents jeremy Crouch and Cassidy Wood with presidents Masego Mafata and daniel o’Sullivan-Hewlett pour the blessed water from the jubilee celebrations of St david’s Marist Inanda into the quad fountain at Sacred Heart College, symbolising the college’s contribution to the establishment of St david’s 75 years ago.

a small prayerful group gathered at the home of john Laros for the pilgrimage visit to the statue of our Lady of Fatima in Sedgefield, oudtshoorn diocese.

The Holy Cross Sisters celebrated three diamond and four golden jubilees in the Immaculate Conception church in Parow, Cape Town. (From left) diamond jubilarians Srs rita jordaan, Gizela Willenbrink, and Mary Magdalen Knight and golden jubililarians Srs ancilla Nair, alma Kohler, Pascaline august and Clarina Gella (who is ill), are seen renewing their vows.

The Mbekweni group of St Kizito Children’s Programme in Paarl, Cape Town, started an initiative to teach children how to grow a vegetable garden. The volunteers from the Mbekweni group are pictured with some of the donated seedlings.

The St john Vianney seminary class of 2000 met in Welkom at our Lady of the rosary parish. (From left) Frs Michael rasello (Kroonstad), Elias Senona (Pretoria), Mokhesi Mokhesi (Bethlehem), Vincent Mepa (Kroonstad) and donald Mabitsela (Polokwane).

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The pilgrim cross, an ongoing tradition for the Grade 11s of Catholic schools in johannesburg, was passed on to Brescia House from St Theresa’s Mercy School. The cross is intended to create a sense of community and unity amongst Catholic schools. The cross will be presented at the Catholic Schools Mass in May at the cathedral of Christ the King.

The former Christian Brothers College in Green Point, Cape Town, class of 1966 held their 50th Matric reunion and posed for a renactment of a class photo taken in 1966. (Front row from left) Clive Walker, Mark ryan, Herschel Berg, Butch Green, Peter Cawcutt, david Querido. (2nd row) Colin Baigel, Hubert Van de Ghinste, Stuart Bennett, richard Martin, jan van Gysen, Neil Noble, Basil Gloyne. (3rd row) roy Curitz, Giampiero Pari, Vladislav Klanfar, Howard owen. (4th row) alfie andrade, david Barnewall, jeremy Porzig, Martin Lusty, andre de Kock. (back row) Frank Boyle, robert ashman, donald Parker, Nigel downey.

our Lady of Loreto parish in Kempton Park, johannesburg, has undergone remarkable changes.This is the view of the church that is now visible to commuters on both the railway and Pretoria road when entering Kempton Park to get to oliver Tambo international airport, proclaiming that our Blessed Mother is the protector of our homes and of aviation.

The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

CHURCH

Pope gets into the nitty-gritty of family life Pope Francis’ new document might be theological in parts, but it also gets into the nitty-gritty of family life. CINdy WoodEN analyses amoris Laetitia.

OPE Francis’ hymn to love and family life is more like a country song than a Disney tune. In Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the family, there is passion and devotion, but also heartache and sweat. The “magic” he writes about is not momentarily sparkly, but the result of prayer, grace, hard work and a willingness to apologise—time and time again. “Committing oneself exclusively and definitively to another person always involves a risk and a bold gamble,” he writes. But the payoff is huge. The papal reflection on love, family life and the importance of marriage and child-rearing has sections that are deeply theological, pristinely poetic or even homiletic, like his reflection on the meaning of each line of the passage from 1 Corinthians 13, used at millions of weddings each year: “Love is patient, love is kind...” But it also got into the nitty-gritty business of life when a man and a woman leave their parents’ home and try to make one of their own. However, while it quotes from some of his past speeches on family

life, it does not include references to “plates flying” during arguments and refrains from making motherin-law jokes, as he has been known to do. Pope Francis reviews the whole arc of married life from new and exciting young love to old age, sitting on the porch watching the grandkids play. “Young love needs to keep dancing towards the future with immense hope,” he says. “Hope is the leaven that, in those first years of engagement and marriage, makes it possible to look beyond arguments, conflicts and problems and to see things in a broader perspective.” While realistic about late nights and babies’ colic, the papal document is lyrical in its reflections on the blessings and challenges of welcoming children into families. He invites readers to join him standing in awe of God’s gift of children, marvelling that “God allows parents to choose the name by which he himself will call their child for all eternity”. Running after toddlers, supervising homework, trying to figure out how to be close to adolescents without smothering them and, finally, negotiating the “empty nest” syndrome all feature in the papal text. Reaching together the later stage of family life, he insists, is possible and beautiful. “Although the body ages,” he says, “it still expresses that personal identity that first won our heart. Even if others can no longer see the beauty of that identity, a spouse continues to see it with the eyes of love

Pope Francis greets newly married couples during a general audience in September. In his new apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia the pope gives advice on strengthening family life. (Photo: L’osservatore romano/CNS) and so his or her affection does not diminish.” The path to the porch won’t be easy, the pope warns. But “each crisis has a lesson to teach us; we need to learn how to listen for it with the ear of the heart”. The pope’s hymn includes the twang of yearning for that perfect, forever love. That yearning, present in most people from every culture and religion, shows that a stable, faithful union is what responds to human nature and to God’s plan for humanity. “Lovers do not see their relationship as merely temporary,” he writes. “Those who marry do not expect

their excitement to fade. Those who witness the celebration of a loving union, however fragile, trust that it will pass the test of time.” To turn that dream into reality, try a little tenderness, the pope advises. Tenderness is a virtue “often overlooked in our world of frenetic and superficial relationships”. A loving gaze also is essential, he says. “How many things do spouses and children sometimes do in order to be noticed! Much hurt and many problems result when we stop looking at one another,” the pope observes. “This lies behind the complaints and grievances we often hear in fam-

ilies: ‘My husband does not look at me; he acts as if I were invisible.’ ‘Please look at me when I am talking to you!’ ‘My wife no longer looks at me, she only has eyes for our children.’” Pope Francis’ ballad on family love, life and loss urges Catholics to be patient and merciful with themselves as well as with their spouses and children. “No family drops down from heaven perfectly formed,” Pope Francis says, so all must learn to grow together, including by making frequent use of the words “thank you”, “please” and “sorry”. “The right words, spoken at the right time, daily protect and nurture love,” the pope wrote. Finding the right words also is Pope Francis’ exhortation to the Church as a whole. While standing up tall for the family, the Church needs to stop whining about how often its teaching on love and marriage is attacked, the pope says. “We should not be trapped into wasting our energy in doleful laments, but rather seek new forms of missionary creativity.” Family life always has been challenging, the pope writes. Just read the Bible, which “is full of families, births, love stories and family crises”. But the Bible, he says, also holds out the promise of “the goal of their journey, when God ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore’.”—CNS

Amoris Laetitia calls for change to tone in Church In his new document Pope Francis’ offers no new doctrine or rules, but changes the Church’s tone. CINdy WoodEN sums up amoris Laetitia.

HE same mercy and patience that are essential for building a strong family must be shown to those whose families are in trouble or have broken up, Pope Francis says in his highly anticipated postsynodal apostolic exhortation. The document, Amoris Laetitia, contains no new rules or norms. However, it encourages careful review of everything related to family ministry and, particularly, much greater attention to the language and attitude used when explaining Church teaching and ministering to those who do not fully live that teaching. “No family drops down from heaven perfectly formed; families need constantly to grow and mature in the ability to love,” Pope Francis writes. People grow in holiness, and the Church must be there to give them a helping hand rather than turn them away because they have not attained some degree of perfection. The exhortation was Pope Francis’ reflection on the discussion, debate and suggestions raised during the 2014 and 2015 meetings of the Synod of Bishops on the family. Like synod members did, the pope insisted that God’s plan for the family is that it be built on the lifelong union of one man and one woman open to having children. Synod members, including priests, religious and laypeople serving as experts and observers, talked about everything from varied cultural forms of courtship to marriage preparation and from the impact of migration on families to care for elderly parents. Pope Francis’ document touches on all the issues raised at the synods and gives practical advice on raising children, urges a revision of sex-education programmes and decries the many ways the “disposable culture”

has infiltrated family life and sexuality to the point that many people feel free to use and then walk away from others. “Everyone uses and throws away, takes and breaks, exploits and squeezes to the last drop. Then, goodbye,” he writes. Much of the document is tied to the theme of God’s mercy, including Pope Francis’ discussion of welcoming the vulnerable. “Dedication and concern shown to migrants and to persons with special needs alike is a sign of the Spirit,” he writes. Both are “a test of our commitment to show mercy in welcoming others and to help the vulnerable to be fully a part of our communities”.

he synod issues that garnered the most headlines revolved around the question of Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, as well as Catholic attitudes towards homosexuality. “In no way must the Church desist from proposing the full ideal of marriage, “ Pope Francis says. The Church cannot consider same-sex unions to be a marriage, he says but also insists that “every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity”. On the question of families experiencing difficulties, separation or even divorce and remarriage, Pope Francis says responses to the questionnaires sent around the world before the synod “showed that most people in difficult or critical situations do not seek pastoral assistance, since they do not find it sympathetic, realistic or concerned for individual cases”. The responses, he writes, call on the Church “to try to approach marriage crises with greater sensitivity to their burden of hurt and anxiety”. Particularly in ministry to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Pope Francis said, pastors must help each couple look at their actions and circumstances, recognise their share of responsibility for the breakup of their marriage, acknowledge Church teaching that marriage is indissoluble and prayerfully discern what God is calling them to.

a journalist at the Vatican takes photos of copies of Amoris Laetitia. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) Pope Francis says it would be a “grave danger” to give people the impression that “any priest can quickly grant ‘exceptions’ or that some people can obtain sacramental privileges in exchange for favours”. At the same time, he insists, “the way of the Church is not to condemn anyone forever; it is to pour out the balm of God’s mercy on all those who ask for it with a sincere heart”. Divorced and civilly remarried couples, especially those with children, must be welcomed in Catholic parishes and supported in efforts to raise their children in the faith. Generally, without an annulment of their sacramental marriage, such a couple would not be able to receive Communion or absolution of their sins unless they promised to live as “brother and sister”. But every situa-

tion is different, the pope says, which is why the Church does not need new rules but a new commitment on the part of pastors to provide spiritual guidance and assistance with discernment. The diversity of situations—for example, that of a spouse who was abandoned versus being the one who left—makes it unwise to issue “a new set of general rules, canonical in nature and applicable to all cases,” the pope wrote. Quoting Pope John Paul II, he says “‘since the degree of responsibility is not equal in all cases’, the consequences or effects of a rule need not necessarily always be the same”.

ope Francis uses the document’s footnotes to specify that the consequences include whether or not the couple might eventually be able to receive Communion: “This is also the case with regard to sacramental discipline, since discernment can recognise that in a particular situation no grave fault exists,” he wrote. Those who are in a state of serious sin are not to receive Communion. Another footnote comments on the Church’s request that remarried couples who had not received an annulment and who want to receive the sacraments forgo sexual relations. “In such situations, many people,

knowing and accepting the possibility of living ‘as brothers and sisters’ which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, ‘it often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffers’,” he notes. Pope Francis says that he understands those “who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion. But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street.” Turning to those who believe allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion waters down Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage, the pope says, “we put so many conditions on mercy that we empty it of its concrete meaning and real significance. That is the worst way of watering down the Gospel”. In many respects, Pope Francis writes, Church members themselves have presented and promoted such a dreary picture of married life that many people want nothing to do Continued on page 11

PRIESTS OF THE SACRED HEART “Here I am Lord” Cell: +27 72 769 7396, +27 83 471 6081 E-mail: vocation.office@ dehonafrica.net

Founder: Fr. Leo John Dehon (1843-1925)

The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

PILGRIMAGE

The ‘Living Stones’ of the Holy Land In the sixth part of his series on the Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers, GüNTHEr SIMMErMaCHEr looks at the situation of the Christians of the Holy Land – the ‘Living Stones’.

‘A

LLUHA AKHBAR!” Our ears perked up. The Palestinian priest just said—at Holy Mass!—the words which Western minds associate with hirsute jihadists driven by murderous rage. “God is great,” the 91-year-old priest said, by way of praise for the Lord of Life. The diminutive but sprightly Mgr Sleiman Samander was the main celebrant at a Mass in Arabic, the language of the Christians in the Middle East, in the church of Our Lady of Sorrows on the Mount of Olives which our Pilgrimage of the Peacemakers group attended with local Catholics. Mgr Samander has been a priest for almost 68 years, entering the clerical life just seven weeks after the state of Israel was founded in 1948. Attached to the parish is a home for disabled elderly people, run by the Sisters of Notre Dame des Dolours. Our group visited the home. One resident told every one of us as we passed, “I love you”, another greeted us with the word habibi, Arabic for “friend”. Our visit meant more to these people than we can imagine. No doubt word spread throughout the parish and the Christian community of Jerusalem that day about our visit and presence at a local Mass, especially since that also involved our Archbishop Stephen Brislin. The story of the Palestinian Christians, a fast-diminishing community due to low birthrates and emigration, is rarely told. The world sees the conflict between Israel and Palestinians as being about religion, Jews versus Muslims. But Israel makes no such distinction: Palestinians are oppressed and humiliated without regard to their religion. Palestinians are robbed of their land or assaulted by settlers regardless of whether they are Muslim or Druze or Christian. The Christians are also feeling the pressures of being a minority within a majority of Muslims, in an envi-

above: Mgr Sleiman Samander and archbishop Stephen Brislin after Mass at our Lady of Sorrows church on the Mount of olives in jerusalem. right: School’s out! Learners at the Catholic Terra Sancta Girls’ School in Bethlehem. (Photos: Günther Simmermacher) ronment where group identity is important in the competition for limited access to scarce resources. They are caught between the hammer and the anvil, with Israel as the hammer. As long as the hammer strikes, as it relentlessly does, the anvil isn’t the bigger problem. In fact, the Christians of Palestine share the experience of oppression and dispossession with their Muslim neighbours. They share the experience of the Nakba, a word that means catastrophe and refers to the expulsion of Palestinians from their ancestral homes by Jewish militias and then the Israeli army that preceded and followed the founding of the state of Israel. Bands of militia or troops would commit selected massacres in Palestinian towns and villages. With the threat of more to come, the terrified residents of neighbouring village would then flee, taking the keys of their houses with them. But they could never return. The refugee families have kept these keys, and many Palestinian towns have public displays of a key as a reminder of the Nakba and a symbol of the claim for the Right to Return (a demand that is a fundamental sticking point in any negotiations, as I’ll explain next week). Israel is still taking Palestinian land by force today in the West Bank through its illegal settlements that are built in contravention of international law. One such case, in the Cremisan Valley near Bethlehem, has

prompted much protest by the Catholic Church and even Western governments after Israel expropriated land belonging to the Salesian order to build the Separation Wall. The plans to build the illegal settlements that will be protected by the wall are already in place.

Four Palestinian categories In the Holy Land there are four categories of Palestinian Arabs; three of these groups include sizable portions of Christians. l Firstly, some Palestinians are citizens of Israel, making up 20% of the state’s population. Nominally they have the same rights as Jewish citizens, though most would say that this does not always correspond with reality. When Israel or its supporters reject the accusation that it is an “apartheid state”, it refers to these citizens. These citizens, whom the state refers to as “the Arabs of Israel”, can travel freely on their Israeli passport, but they must obtain permits to visit their friends or families in the West Bank or Gaza. For Christians this becomes a problem if they want to travel from, say, Nazareth in Israel to Bethlehem in the West Bank to visit family or pray in the church of the Nativity at Christmas. There never is a guarantee that all family members will receive a permit. l Most Palestinians live in the West Bank—the area Israel annexed from Jordan after the 1967 war—in towns like Bethlehem, Bethany, Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron, and in many villages. Some parts of the West Bank are subject to Israel’s military occupation. Other parts are governed by the Palestinian Authority, currently led by the corrupt Fatah (corruption goes with the territory: Israel’s former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was jailed for corruption, joining in prison a former president convicted of rape). The Israeli Defence Force commits many documented human rights violations in the West Bank, from the detention of children—detention without trial, sometimes for years, is common among adults— to collective punishment (razing the house of a family whose son committed an act of violence, such as throwing stones), to burning down olive groves, to plain murder. West Bank residents may leave their area only with the permission of Israel. Very often, they receive no such permission. l Virtually all residents of Gaza are Palestinians, though the priest who runs the Catholic parish there at present is an Argentinian. An enclave on the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is

governed by Hamas whose deplorable practice of firing their ineffectual rockets into Israeli territory has been met by sustained hi-tech bombing by Israel in 2008 and 2014, which has destroyed much of the region’s already poor infrastructure. Churches are allowed in Gaza. There are only just over a hundred Catholics in Gaza, yet the Church there runs educational facilities, used mostly by Muslim children. These facilities are co-ed, with the permission of Hamas. Gaza is under a blockade, which means that influx of everything, from food to medicine, is controlled by Israel. Leaving Gaza requires a rarely granted permit. Entering Gaza isn’t easy either. In January a group of Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Brislin, were held up for eight hours at the border before they were allowed in. l East Jerusalem is the Palestinian part of the Holy City, though Israeli settlements are now being built there in violation of international law. Palestinians registered as residents of East Jerusalem are stateless. They have neither Israeli nor Palestinian citizenship. If they travel, they do so on Israeli and Jordanian travel documents. Importantly, East Jerusalemites are allowed to travel freely within Israel. They lose that right, however, if they live in the West Bank. So one might have a nice house in nearby Bethany or Bethlehem, but must rent at high cost in East Jerusalem in order to work in Israel.

Solidarity with Christians Living under these conditions, which affect Christians and Muslims alike, it is not difficult to see why Palestinian Christians see Israel as the primary aggressor. And that is why Palestinian Christians feel the pain when other followers of Christ choose loyalty to Israel, a state that disenfranchises and dispossesses them, over the community that can trace its history right back to the places and times of Our Lord in places like Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem. The Palestinian Christians feel the pain when Catholic pilgrim groups turn up in these places with a Jewish instead of a local Christian guide, of whom there are many. It is a puzzling choice; surely a Christian guide identifies with the faith of the pilgrim better than a guide who is not Christian. It is the difference between a pilgrimage as a journey of faith and a pilgrimage as faith-themed tourism. An example: on a previous pilgrimage our Roman Catholic Palestinian guide, Rimon Makhlouf, entered the church of the Annunciation and knelt down as he gazed upon the grotto where the Archangel Gabriel talked to Our Lady. Rimon began praying: “Hail Mary, full of grace…” It was the act of a devout Catholic guiding us through the medium of prayer to a sanctified place. But there is another reason to use Christian Palestinian guides and, where possible, Christian Palestinian services: in order to show soli-

darity with the descendants of Christ’s first followers and sustaining an economy that will keep them in the Holy Land. The Christians of the Holy Land are known as the “Living Stones”. If we allow the Living Stones to disappear, it is often said, the ancient stones—the sacred shrines—will be no more than museum pieces. To my mind, when Catholic pilgrimages don’t use Christian operators, they are failing their fellow Christians and their Church. And so are some of the shops at Catholic sites. The store on the Mount of Beatitudes, a Franciscan site, sells T-shirts and souvenirs extolling the oppressor of the local Christians: the state of Israel. That is unconscionable! Imagine a souvenir shop on Robben Island selling items of apartheid nostalgia.

A beautiful community The Palestinian Christians are a beautiful community. The rest of the Christian world has much to learn from them. Their faith is strong and devout. They are proud of their Christian traditions. And unlike the Christians that come to the Holy Land from afar to have petty fights in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Palestinian Christians love and support one another, as Christians should. Among them, sectarian differences are entirely unimportant. The great feasts are celebrated together, if necessary more than once, as at Easter or Christmas. Where the church of the Holy Sepulchre is a teeming mesh of division and tension, the faithful of Palestine truly are one, as Christ calls on us to be. This is not an idealised view. We find this unity practically everywhere where Christians are a persecuted minority. But where the persecution in most of the Middle East comes from radical Islam and in India from nationalistic Hinduism, in the Holy Land it is political. They are indeed caught between the hammer and the anvil, and many have escaped that intolerable situation by emigration. But some have returned from the rich and free West, like the beer-brewing Khoury family from Taybeh whom I mentioned in the article on Samaria, or Sam Hallhu, who produces gourmet salt from the Dead Sea. The Christian roots in the land are deep. These are the descendants of the first Christians, and of the Jews from the Old Testament, and they love their land deeply. The Christians of the Holy Land see themselves as agents of peace in a land that should be shared by all who live in it. Every Christian we spoke to about the conflict said the same thing: this is not about Muslim or Jew, or Arab or Israeli. This is about peace and justice. The Christians of the Holy Land want to act as builders of bridges. And all of them ask of their fellow followers of Christ: “Please do not forget us!” And, indeed, we must not forget them. Alluha Akhbar!

CLASSIFIEDS

Sr Fidelis Malat’si HC

OLY Cross Sister Fidelis Malat’si of Cape Town died on March 21 after a brief illness. She was 87. Sr Fidelis was born on April 24, 1928 to Frantz and Anna Malat’si in what was then the Northern Transvaal. At the age of 21 she entered religious life with the Holy Cross Sisters in Parow, Cape Town, and in January 1952 made her first profession, with Archbishop (later Cardinal) Owen McCann officiating as bishop. Initially Sr Fidelis was the community’s sacristan and cook but she later included house visiting, the Legion of Mary and taking Communion to the sick among her tasks. She bicycled in and around

Parow, Retreat, Salt River, Welcome Estate, Manenberg, Athlone, Lamberts Bay, Atlantis and Vredenburg where she taught sacristy work to mothers and young women. In his homily at the requiem Mass in Immaculate Conception church in Parow—with Archbishop Stephen Brislin as the main celebrant with 20 concelebrants—Fr Sean Cahill OFM Cap recounted his meeting with Sr Fidelis in Manenberg during the 1980s, a time of political turmoil. Undeterred by the unrest in the area, Sr Fidelis, who knew the area well and was loved by all people, not only Catholics, continued her work. He described her as having had a wonderful gift of compas-

tions,” the pope says. Yet, “we have been called to form consciences, not to replace them”. The role of an individual’s conscience makes frequent appearances in the document, not only regarding the situation of those who may determine their new union is best for their family, but also regarding decisions over how many children to have. Pope Francis praises Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which insisted every sexual act in a marriage must be open to the possibility of pregnancy, and includes a large section reiterating what has become known as Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”. John Paul II definitively opposed an old idea that considered “the erotic dimension of love simply as a permissible evil or a

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday April 24, 5th Sunday of Easter Acts 14:21-27, Psalms 145:8-13, Revelation 21:15, John 13:31-35 Monday April 25, St Mark 1 Peter 5:5-14, Psalms 89:2-3, 6-7, 16-17, Mark 16:15-20 Tuesday April 26 Acts 14:19-28, Psalms 145:10-13, 21, John 14:2731 Wednesday April 27 Acts 15:1-6, Psalms 122:1-5, John 15:1-8 Thursday April 28, St Pius, St Peter Chanel, St Loius Grignion de Montfort Acts 15:7-21, Psalms 96:1-3, 10, John 15:9-11 Friday April 29, St Catherine of Siena Acts 15:22-31, Psalms 57:8-12, John 15:12-17 Saturday April 30, Our Lady Mother of Africa Acts 1, 12-14, Responsorial Psalm Luke 1, 46-55, John 2, 1-11 Sunday May 1, 6th Sunday of Easter Acts 15:1-2, 22-29, Psalms 67:2-3, 5-6, 8, Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23, John 14:23-29

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sion, especially for the sick and underprivileged. Quoting Pope Francis, who challenges the Church to reach out to those on the periphery, Fr Cahill added that Sr Fidelis was a sister of the periphery, for she reached out to all, was loved by all, was at home among the marginalised where she exercised her gifts of compassion. The opening lines of the first reading of her Requiem Mass were: “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights.”

Pope wants change in tone of Church Continued from page 9 with it even though they dream of a love that will last a lifetime and be faithful. “We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life,” he writes. “We find it difficult to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfilment than as a lifelong burden. “We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situa-

The Southern Cross, april 20 to april 26, 2016

burden to be tolerated for the good of the family”, Pope Francis notes. “Rather, it must be seen as a gift from God that enriches the relationship of the spouses.” Pope Francis calls for Church leaders to ensure more married couples are involved as leaders in designing and carrying out pastoral programmes for families. Their witness is key, he says. “Marital love is not defended primarily by presenting indissolubility as a duty, or by repeating doctrine, but by helping it to grow ever stronger under the impulse of grace,” he says. “A love that fails to grow is at risk. Growth can only occur if we respond to God’s grace through constant acts of love, acts of kindness that become ever more frequent, intense, generous, tender and cheerful.”—CNS

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 703. ACROSS: 5 Exam, 7 My shepherd, 8 Door, 10 Increase, 11 Missal, 12 Editor, 14 Curses, 16 Postal, 17 Credence, 19 Chew, 21 Waterfalls, 22 Eton. DOWN: 1 Amid, 2 Choruses, 3 Uphill, 4 Rescue, 5 Edge, 6 Apostolate, 9 Obituarist, 13 Issachar, 15 Senate, 16 Poetry, 18 Down, 20 Wash.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: April 25: Bishop Valentine Seane of Gaborone on the 7th anniversary of his episcopal ordination April 27: Bishop Stanly Dziuba of Umzimkulu on his 56th birthday April 27: Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Umtata on his 56th birthday

Word of the Week

Delict: The church term for a crime. Church crimes are spelled out in the Code of Canon Law. Laity: In canon law, anyone not ordained a deacon, priest or bishop is a layperson.

OMI STAMPS YOUR USED STAMPS

DEATHS

DA SiLVA (née Pillay)—Mary. Passed away peacefully at home on March 24 2016, at the age of 77. Fortified by the rites of the Church. Will always be fondly remembered by her brothers, sisters, relatives and many friends. May her soul rest in peace. SERiS—albert. aged 86, he passed away peacefully on March 17, 2016. Survived by his wife Elsie, daughters Michelle and Noleen, son-in-law Chris, daughter-in-law Cathy, grandchildren Brett, rowan, Leilah, ulrike, Istine and Hannalie, greatgrandchildren Stefan and Claire.

iN MEMORiAM

HOugHTON—agnes dympna (née janvrin-Vincent). Passed away on april 23 2014. Lovingly remembered by her four daughters, Mary, Margaret, Bridget, Barbara, sons-inlaw Ben, Walter, derick, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. May her dear Soul rest in Peace. ABRAHAMS—Mandy (née Petersen. In loving memory of our daughter, sister and mother of Carlisle. your third year away from us. Gone but not forgotten. Will always be missed. rIP. MATSEBA—Setumo, Tumi. In loving memory of my beloved daughter, an amazing mom to Tumelo and big sister to Kay and Zani, called to eternity on april 24 2014. We shall always cherish your cheerful smile, despite the pain you endured with unbelievable tenacity each day; your heart of gold and the great example you often set. We are also certain that the love you unconditionally showered upon us and beautiful memories are guiding Tumelo from way up in the sky. Miss you dearly. always in our thoughts and prayers. May your soul rest in peace.

PRAYERS

LORD, inspire those men and women who bear the titles “husband” and “wife”. Help them to look to you, to themselves, to one another to rediscover the fullness and mystery they once felt in their union. Let them be honest enough to ask: “Where have we been

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together and where are we going?” Let them be brave enough to question: “How have we failed?” Let each be foolhardy enough to say: “For me, we come first.” Help them, together, to reexamine their commitment in the light of your love, willingly, openly, compassionately.

FATHER, you have given all peoples one common origin. It is your will that they be gathered together as one family in yourself. Fill the hearts of mankind with the fire of your love and with the desire to ensure justice for all. By sharing the good things you give us, may we secure an equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. May there be an end to division, strife and war. May there be a dawning of a truly human society built on love and peace. We ask this in the name of jesus, our Lord. amen.

O ViRgiN Mother, In the depths of your heart you pondered the life of the Son you brought into the world. Give us your vision of jesus and ask the Father to open our hearts, that we may always see His presence in our lives, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, bring us into the joy and peace of the kingdom, where jesus is Lord forever and ever. amen THANkS be to thee, my Lord jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. o most merciful redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May I know thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, For ever and ever.

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PERSONAL

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the

6th Sunday of Easter: May 1 Readings: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29, Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8, Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23, John 14:23-29

HE joy of God’s Easter victory is not an easy joy. This is the message of all three of next Sunday’s readings, though it is expressed differently in each case. In the first reading we see the young Church facing an issue that might have destroyed it at the very beginning, namely whether it is necessary for Christians to obey the Law of Moses. They decided against it, but we need to recall that the religious people who wanted to insist on Mosaic orthodoxy had the Bible on their side. There is considerable tension between these conservative visitors on the one hand, and Paul and Barnabas on the other, as a result of this; and so the decision was taken to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to sort things out. At the meeting, after interventions by Peter and James, the Church reached the decision recorded in our reading, not to disturb the new converts by insisting on circumcision, and not to put any additional burdens on them, beyond avoiding food offered to idols (as well as food with blood still in it, or meat that has been strangled) and shunning

S outher n C ross

Celebrate hard-won joy sexual immorality. So the Church survived… The psalm is a hymn composed to thank God for a good harvest, asking God to be gracious, and praying that God’s “salvation be known among the Gentiles” (which is what provoked the crisis of the first reading, of course). There is a kind of refrain that goes “Let the peoples praise you, God; let the peoples praise you, all of them”, and a petition: “May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth revere him.” Those who know their agriculture will be aware that a good harvest is never guaranteed, and we are not wrong to detect the farmers’ anxiety within the lines of this hymn. The second reading certainly celebrates God’s victory; but the book of Revelation is written for those who have known cruel persecution, and who need reassurance that God is after all going to win. Our visionary manages this by showing “the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”; and he draws a

wonderful picture: “It has the glory of God, and its light is like a very precious stone, like crystal jasper.” Then we see some further details: “a great and high wall, with twelve gates and twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb”. Most interesting of all is that “I saw no Temple in it” (unheard of in a city in the ancient world), “for the Lord God Almighty is its Temple—and the Lamb”. Better still, “the city has no need of sun and moon to give it light—for the Glory of God gave it illumination, and the Lamb is its lamp”. You can really only grasp the reassurance that this vision brings if you remember that it is written down for the oppressed struggling in darkness. The Gospel for next Sunday starts with a puzzled disciple, huddled with the rest of them in the Upper Room against the menacing darkness, asking why Jesus will “show yourself to us and not to the world?” Our reading answers that the way to gain victory over darkness is to love Jesus and keep his commandments, and to know that this already puts them in touch with God, our

The reality of falling in love ‘T

Classic Conrad

O fall in love is to project the most noble and infinitely valuable part of one’s being onto another human being,” the famed psychologist Robert Johnson once observed. “We have to say that the divinity we see in others is truly there, but we don’t have a right to see it until we have taken away our own projections,” he said. “Making this fine distinction is the most delicate and difficult task in life. “ And indeed it is. Sorting through what is genuine in love and what is projection is indeed one of the more delicate and difficult tasks of life. We can and do, for instance, sometimes fall in love with persons who are utterly wrong for us, and we know from experience that once our initial infatuation is over our passion can very quickly turn into indifference or even hatred. For this reason we might ask: Whom or what are we really loving in those magical moments of infatuation when we see so much goodness and divinity inside another person? Are we really in love with that person or, as Johnson suggests, are we simply projecting some of our own noble qualities onto that other so that, in effect, this is more self-love than real love? The answer to that, as Johnson highlights, is complex. The goodness and nobility we see in the other person are in fact there, normally at least; however, until a certain projection, an idealisation within which

we envelop the other, is stripped away we are not yet really loving and valuing that other. As an example: Imagine a man falling in love with a woman. At that early stage of love his feelings for her are very strong, obsessive even, and his eyes are open mostly only to her good qualities and blind to her faults. Indeed, at this stage, her faults can even appear attractive rather than problematic. Of course, as bitter experience teaches us, that won’t be the case once the infatuation wears off. And so we are left with an important question: Are those wonderful qualities that we so naturally see in another person in the early stages of love really there? Yes. Absolutely. They are there; but they may not be what we are actually seeing. As Johnson highlights, and as spiritual writers everywhere attest to, at this stage of love, there is the ever-present possibility that the beautiful qualities we are seeing in someone are more of a projection of our own selves than actual gifts we see inside him or her.

hough the other person actually possesses those gifts, what we are really seeing is a projection of ourselves, an idealisation, so that in effect, at this stage, we are not so much in love with the other as we are in love with certain good qualities that are inside ourselves. That’s why we can fall in love with people of very different temperaments and virtue and, at an early stage of our

Nicholas King SJ

Sunday reflections

deepest reality: “The word that you are hearing is not mine, but that of the Father who sent me.” And there is more, to give us courage to struggle towards this hard-won victory, as Jesus speaks once more of “the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit”. This (counsel for the defence, if you like) is sent by the “Father in my name; he will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I told you”. Then comes the lovely tailpiece, which reassures us about the victory: “I am leaving you peace; I am giving you my peace—not as the world gives it do I give it. So don’t let your hearts be disturbed or afraid.” It is not quite as easy as that, we may reflect, but at least there is a sense here that Jesus fully understands how difficult it is for us. So Jesus’ absence is, after all, part of the victory: “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.” Let us pray for a real Easter joy at this hardwon victory.

Southern Crossword #703

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final reflection

love, still always have the same feelings. That’s also why falling love is such an ambiguous thing and needs the discernment offered by time and the counsel of wise friends and family. We can fall in love with many different kinds of people, including some who are very wrong for us. The heart, as Pascal asserts, has its reasons, some of which are not always favourable to our long-term health. What’s the lesson here? Simply this: In all our intimate relations we should be aware of our natural propensity to project our own more-noble qualities onto the other person and to be aware too that we do not truly love and appreciate that other person until we have withdrawn that projection so that we are actually seeing the other person’s goodness, not our own. The same holds true as regards hatred of someone else. Just as we tend to idealise others we also tend to demonise them, projecting our own dark side onto them and enrobing them with our own worse qualities. Thus, by Robert Johnson’s logic, we don’t have a right either to “hate” anyone until we have withdrawn our own dark projection. We over-demonise just as we over-idealise. In his classic novel Stoner, John Williams describes how his main character understands love: “In his extreme youth Stoner had thought of love as an absolute state of being to which, if one were lucky, one might find access; in his maturity he had decided it was the heaven of a false religion, toward which one ought to gaze with an amused disbelief, a gently familiar contempt, and an embarrassed nostalgia,” Williams writes in his novel. “Now in his middle age he began to know that it was neither a state of grace nor an illusion; he saw it as a human act of becoming, a condition that was invented and modified moment by moment and day by day, by the will and the intelligence and the heart.”

ACROSS

5. Max turned back to the east for testing (4) 7. Possessive way the psalmist accepts his pastor (2,8) 8. Kangaroo does hide back gate (4) 10. A sincere way to get more (8) 11. Some remiss altar server holds the book (6) 12. Important journalist (6) 14. Offensive words (6) 16. Kind of strike at your letter-box (6) 17. Belief there’s a sanctuary table (8) 19. Discuss what to do with the fat (4) 21. Zambezi’s big deluge? (10) 22. School direction from east to north (4)

DOWN

1. Among the sham ideologies (4) 2. Voices rose such that they sang together (8) 3. Christ’s struggle was, to the top of Calvary (6) 4. Save and secure (6) 5. The teeth were set on it (Jer 31) (4) 6. Pose a total change for the evangelical work (10) 9. One who writes the funeral oration (9) 13. Son of Jacob (Gn 30) (8) 15. A tense legislative chamber (6) 16. Beautiful verse (6) 18. Duck’s feathers are depressed (4) 20. Jesus is said to do it to others in John 13 (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

N atheist scientist thought he had it all figured out, and to prove it he came to God and said: “We have figured out how to make a man without you.” God replied: “Very well, let me see you do it.” The atheist bent down to the ground and scooped up a handful of earth. Quickly God stopped him and said: “Oh, no! You get your own dirt!”

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