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The

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August 24 to August 30, 2016

Reg No. 1920/002058/06 No 4995

Winter Living Theology was a hit in seven cities

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Fr T: Our Church is young, good-looking

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Why ubuntu is key to peace and justice

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Bishops to set up new With Our Lady to Olympic glory laity council

Jamaica sprinter Usain Bolt is seen wearing a Miraculous Medal after winning gold in the 100meter final during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He was one of several Catholic superstars at the Olympics, alongside athletes such as swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles. (Photo: Dylan Martinez, Reuters/CNS)

By MANDLA ZiBi

T

HE fastest man alive entered the pantheon of sporting immortals at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this month, but there is only one medal close to his heart—and it features Our Lady.

Jamaican sprint champion Usain Bolt won his third successive 100m gold in Rio, making him one of the greatest sportsmen of all time. Always close to him is his Miraculous Medal.

The Catholic athlete prays before and after every race, making the sign of the cross. The Miraculous Medal could be seen hanging from his neck as he celebrated his unprecedented sporting feat.

Like Bolt, 19-year-old US gymnast Simone Biles prays before competing. And where Bolt wears a Miraculous Medal, Biles carries with her a white rosary—and sometimes even a statue of St Sebastian, patron saint of athletes.

The double gold-winning gymnast, already regarded by many as a future great, says she prays before competing, but not necessarily the rosary. “I’ll just pray normally to myself, but [the rosary] is there just in case,” she said.

Biles doesn’t train on Sundays, a day she sets apart for Mass and her family.

Like she did four years ago, US swimmer Katie Ledecky, also 19, again dominated the Olympic pool. She prays the Hail Mary before every race, including those that this year yielded four golds and a silver.

“My Catholic faith is very important to me. It always has been and it always will be.

A Swimmer Karie Ledecky (left) and Simone Biles, both devout Catholics, celebrate Olympic gold in Rio. (Photos: Reuters/CNS) It is part of who I am and I feel comfortable practising my faith. It helps me put things in perspective,” Ledecky recently told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the archdiocese of Washington.

“I do say a prayer or two before any race.

The Hail Mary is a beautiful prayer and I find that it calms me,” the teenage champion from Bethesda, Maryland, said.

One outspoken Catholic who just missed out on gold was Argentinian tennis star Juan Martin Del Potro, who lost the Olympic final against Scotland’s Andy Murray.

In 2013, Del Potro presented Pope Francis with the racquet he used in his 2009 US Open final win over Roger Federer—another devout Catholic.

NEW laity council designed to open ongoing dialogue with the bishops was one of a slew of decisions announced at the end of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s (SACBC) mid-year plenary session in Gaborone, Botswana.

SACBC spokesman Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria told The Southern Cross that the new council would comprise both bishops and lay people, aiming to close a “knowledge gap” between the two.

“Lay people have skills and expertise that the bishops don’t have, and that is the main reason we have decided to bring them together so that we can enrich the body of knowledge of the Church,” Archbishop Slattery said.

The council, to be launched at the next bishops’ plenary in January 2017, will comprise representatives from dioceses across the Southern Africa pastoral region (South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland).

As expected, marriage and family life featured prominently in discussions at the gathering, with the laity’s role again coming under the spotlight.

“We set up structures to help families with their married lives. Laity must be involved in helping couples prepare for the life of marriage and its enrichment,” the archbishop said.

“The meeting also dwelt at length on Pope Francis’s request to us to consider the issue of the validity of certain types of marriages. For

Bishops at Mass in Gaborone, Botswana.

(Photo: Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba) example, in a situation where a woman is forced by her father to marry someone she does not want to, what kind of marriage is that? It is not a voluntary union, which a marriage is supposed to be. So we did consider the question of the nullity of marriages.”

The bishops also affirmed a decision, for pastoral reasons, to proceed with Rome’s advice on transferring the celebration of certain holy days of obligation, such as the Ascension and Assumption, to the following Sunday.

“The majority of people cannot come to Mass during the week because of work commitments. It therefore makes sense to celebrate these days on Sunday in order to make sure Continued on page 2

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The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

LOCAL

Jozi book fair embraces Catholic titles

By MANDLA ZiBi

T

WO bestselling books by Catholic authors will be up for the discussion at the annual Jozi Book Fair (JBF) at the Wits Science Stadium in Johannesburg, as the event incorporates for the first time a religious literature component.

Jesus Before Christianity, by Fr Albert Nolan OP and Jesus: A Historical Approximation by Fr José Antonio Pagola are the two books chosen as the subject matter of an interfaith “spiritual/contemplative” session at the festival, organised by Wits University and Khanya College, a nongovernmental organisation, on September 3 from 15:00 to 17:00.

Entrance is free.

“The book discussion, led by Fr Nolan himself, for the first time will

be aimed at introducing a religious reflection element into a very secular setting and also broadening the scope of an already existing reading group which is part of Holy Family College in Johannesburg,” said Fr Mokesh Morar, speaking for the college.

Although published 40 years ago, Fr Nolan’s book continues to provoke discussion and has been translated into several languages worldwide. In it he presented an account of Jesus’ radical involvement in the struggle for humanity in the context of first-century Palestine.

The book was a challenge to the rich to place themselves in solidarity with the poor, “a spirituality of solidarity that resonated with white Catholics seeking a new, progressive direction,” according to one commentator.

The Cape Town-born Fr Nolan himself is a renowned antiapartheid campaigner who had to go underground during the 1980s because of his writings and other activities.

In 2003, the South African government awarded him the Order of Luthuli in silver, in recognition of “his lifelong dedication to the struggle for democracy, human rights and justice, and for challenging religious dogma, including theological justification of apartheid”.

Fr Pagola is a controversial Spanish biblical scholar who uses a critical and theological method to study the historical Jesus.

He asks basic questions about who Jesus is; how he understood his own life; what the originality of his message is and others.

In 2011 the Vatican opened a

process of investigation against Fr Pagola’s book, but later withdrew it.

The book paints a lively and passionate story of Jesus of Nazareth within the cultural landscape of the first century, locating him in his social, economical, political and religious contexts based on current and accepted research, presenting a profound and scholarly reflection on the Messiah.

According to Fr Morar, the JBF was first hosted in 2009 with the overall objective of providing a visible public platform where key social partners can come together and promote a culture of reading and writing.

These comprise general readers, book clubs and study circles, writers and authors, and small, emerging and indigenous language publishers.

Khanya College is an independent, non-governmental organisation based in Johannesburg.

Established in 1986, the college assists working-class and poor communities to respond to the challenges posed by the forces of economic and political globalisation.

This it does through providing educational and training workshops, publications and research to organisations and individuals in these communities. n To attend the contemplative reading group, RSVP to mokeshm@gmail. com or SMS your name to 072 327 8246. For more information on the Jozi Book Fair contact Nozipho Mdledle on 079 101 5880 or jozibookfair @khanyacollege.org.za or visit jozi bookfair.org.za

What the bishops discussed

in the spirit of the Olympic Games in Rio, Holy Rosary School and St Benedict’s College Grade 3s in Johannesburg joined forces to become France, Nigeria, italy, Greece, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Argentina and Algeria in their very own Olympic Games. The disciplines were penalty shootout, discus, hula hoop, shot-put, javelin, skittles, rocket bounce, netball shooting, ring toss, and long jump.

Children need urgent help

By MANDLA ZiBi

A

BANDONED, abused and orphaned children being cared for by a Johannesburg charity organisation are in danger of going to bed hungry for lack of a bakkie to collect their food from suppliers.

The Look Forward Creativity Centre provides a home for needy children from infancy until they are old enough to start working for themselves. Each child has a space, clothes and toys and is given an opportunity to have a normal, independent and meaningful life.

“At present we have 23 children in our care, the youngest being five months old. We are working hard to deliver the most basic necessities.

When we fail to collect food, the children are the first to suffer and be left hungry,” said Ms Celeste Tobin, the centre’s admin manager.

“These children need your help.

Your sponsorship of a bakkie,

whether new or used in a good condition, is needed as we are struggling to collect food. Make a donation, whatever you can afford, for us to do more to protect and care for our vulnerable children.”

In addition, as electricity costs continue rising, the centre has appealed for donations towards the installation of solar geysers for two buildings at the centre.

“Electricity is a major cost in our work and we are calling on Good Samaritans out there who are willing to help us install solar geysers at St Christopher, our home for teenage boys, and at Holy Family, our home for the younger boys,” said Ms Tobin.

The centre has also put up a pool motor for sale. n To help or buy the pool motor, please contact Celeste Tobin at (011) 613 3867/073 454 1697, fax 086 546 5932 or e-mail info@lookforwardcre ativitycentre.org

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Continued from page 1 that as many people as possible attend,” Archbishop Slattery explained.

He was at pains to assure the faithful that this did not mean the Church is unmindful of the importance of these days. Giving the example of the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin on August 15, Archbishop Slattery stressed the high regard the Church had for its celebration.

“Ireland, for instance, has its St Patrick’s Day, and England its St George’s. The feast of the Assumption of Mary is South Africa’s own patronal day and we take it very seriously. It is just that it rarely falls on a Sunday when more people have time to celebrate—so the Church had to do something about that.”

Again in response to Pope Francis’s invitation to have a “special prayer and penance” for reparation for the scandal of sexual abuse within the Church and society at large, the bishops will be holding an event in honour of this in December this year. It will be part of civil society’s annual 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Children initiative, Archbishop Slattery said.

In connection with a soon to be introduced parliamentary bill on children and corporal punishment, which was presented to the plenary

by Lois Law of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, the archbishop said the bishops had welcomed the positive aspects of it, while also noting some possible concerns.

“The legislation has positive elements in that everyone wants to protect children from physical abuse. But at the same time we want the Bill to respect the prime

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serving God and his people”.

The bishops invited the 61 000 elected officials around the country to concentrate on the real challenges facing people, such as unemployment, poverty, violence and the “disenchantment of youth who feel excluded in society”.

Another issue was a report on this year’s Lenten Appeal, which the archbishop noted had dropped by 3%.

“The bishops are making a call that next year’s appeal be a special one because it will be the golden jubilee of the Lenten Appeal,” he said.

“We had a successful meeting, a wonderful welcome in Botswana. It was an auspicious time to hold our plenary there [for the first time].

The diocese is celebrating 50 years and Botswana is also celebrating 50 years of independence this year.”

Archbishop Slattery also expressed the bishops’ gratitude to the papal nuncio to Southern Africa, Archbishop Peter Wells, for being part of the event.

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obligations of the parent in the rearing of children. The privacy of the home is sacred,” he said.

Turning to politics, the bishops were pleased with this month’s local government elections, conveying the SACBC’s congratulations to the Independent Electoral Commission on organising a successful poll.

The election, they said, was a further “credit to the people of South Africa”.

“We are very happy that the parties seem to have accepted the results. We have now moved from monopoly to coalition government in our country. Coalitions can be good in that they involve dialogue and are likely to represent popular policy.

“But they can also be weak if they end up in wrangling and lack of respect for each other,” Archbishop Slattery said.

He said the SACBC urged all Catholic elected officials to remember that political life led with integrity is also an “excellent way of

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LOCAL

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

Winter Living Theology a hit A PARTICIPANT from Port Elizabeth in this year’s Winter Living Theology, presented from June to August throughout South Africa and Swaziland by US Jesuit Father John Baldovin, was enthusiastic.

“The Winter Living Theology was excellent. The presenter reminded me of my responsibility as a Catholic Christian, which we all need from time to time,” the participant wrote in the evaluation.

Fr John Baldovin, professor of historical and liturgical theology at the School of Ministry and Theology at Boston College, presented a series of workshops and full threeday courses in seven locations around Southern Africa.

The title of this year’s series was “Worship and Social Justice: The implications of belonging to a worshipping community”.

Fr Baldovin served as a consultor to the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) for many years. He knew the late Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban, who was on the commission, and told those who attended WLT in Durban that he held the archbishop in “high esteem for his tireless work on ICEL”.

In the course of the lectures Fr Baldovin looked at how the Scriptures, sacraments and justice are all a necessary “tripod” for the Christian life. “Without all three we are unbalanced.”

After a general introduction he looked at each of the sacraments individually and drew out the justice implications for Christians.

Baptism, for example, he called the “great equaliser”. He explained how this sacrament has very serious

implications for dignity and respect for every individual who is “equal in the eyes of God”.

He also explained why baptism was not a private affair but a very public one that should be celebrated publically.

In the talk on the sacrament of marriage, Fr Baldovin said that the exorbitant cost of weddings and funerals is a big justice issue.

He wondered how Christians, who truly understood the sacraments and live in a world where there is so much poverty and deprivation, could spend lavishly on weddings.

This generated much discussion in the group work afterwards—and many questions—in most locations where he delivered the lectures.

Many participants agreed that this was a problem for the Church in South Africa too.

One participant from Johannesburg wrote: “How justice needs to be considered when celebrating the sacraments of the Church and talking about the many justice issues we face was a real eye-opener for me.”

T

his year’s lecture format was changed from previous years.

After the lecture there was time for group discussion and then a time for questions. Many people reported that they found the new format very helpful and enjoyed the opportunity for group discussion.

One participant reported that it was “very helpful and pertinent to take what the lecturer gave us and apply it to our own communities and parishes”.

The attendance in some venues this year was disappointing, noted Fr

Russell Pollitt, director of the Jesuit Institute, which stages the annual Winter Living Theology in association with the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The tour also suffered disruptions due to health. In Cape Town Fr Baldovin fell ill and was unable to do a day of lectures.

“Fortuitously, the Jesuit Institute had made videos and sound recordings of his lectures in Johannesburg and Pretoria, and so these were used as substitutes,” said Fr Pollitt, who stepped in to facilitate the discussions.

Fr Stephen Tully (left) indicates the new portrait of himself in Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral boardroom, with current administrator Fr Nkosinathi Ngcobo. (Photo: Jean-Marie Ntamubano)

Portrait unveiled in cathedral

M

ARKING his 56th birthday, a portrait of Fr Stephen Tully, former administrator of Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral, was unveiled in the Cathedral boardroom.

It joins the portraits of the other 14 administrators from 1904 to 2015.

Present were the current administrator, Fr Nkosinathi Ngcobo, and two predecessors, Oblate Fathers John Patterson and Eric Boulle, members of the parish pastoral council and the finance committee, members of the Tully family, and artist Guy Savy with

his wife Dawn.

It was noted that Fr Tully had held the office for the second-longest period, 14 years, the longest-serving administrator having been Fr Leo Sormany OMI, who was administrator and vicar-general for 26 years. Fr Sormany, who died in 1951, is buried in the cathedral grounds.

Tributes were paid to Fr Tully by parish chair Bunny van der Merwe, finance chair Glenda Fredericks and Paddy Kearney, chair of the Denis Hurley Centre Trust.

Johannesburg’s monthly Thursday Divine Mercy Mass was celebrated at the church of Don Bosco, Robertsham. The celebrant was Fr John Thompson SDB (seen here welcoming the congregation) with Frs Sergio Durigon of La Rochelle and Paul Beukes OMi of Eldorado Park. Celebrations started at 18:00 with adoration followed by veneration while reciting the Divine Mercy prayers and the holy rosary. Parishioners were also invited to participate in the sacrament of reconciliation before Mass. (Photo: Mark Kisogloo)

Bloemfontein ordination and arrival of Fatima statue

T

Jesuit Fathers John Baldovin (right) and Russell Pollitt, director of the Jesuit institute South Africa, during this year’s Winter Living Theology, which Fr Baldovin presented from June to August in seven Southern African centres.

“Even though Fr Baldovin got sick, the Jesuit Institute presented a brilliant series in Cape Town with Plan B,” a participant wrote.

The written evaluations, from all over South Africa, were overwhelmingly positive, Fr Pollitt said.

“The Jesuit Institute is grateful for the feedback and suggestions it received from this year’s participants,” he said, adding that the plan for 2017 will be announced shortly.

Fr Baldovin’s talks will be available in various audio formats in October from the Jesuit Institute.

3

HE archdiocese of Bloemfontein celebrated the ordination of a new Franciscan priest, Fr Leeto Mabope from the parish of Mamohau.

He is the first Franciscan priest in Botshabelo, and now the second Franciscan ordained in the diocese of Bloemfontein.

In his homily, Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo reminded Fr Mabope of his Franciscan ministry: the love of nature, and selflessness while serving the people of God. He said dedication and prayer would make him a good priest.

Bloemfontein also celebrated receiving a statue of Our Lady of Fatima which has been circulating from Portugal throughout the world in preparation for the centenary of the apparitions to three shepherd children, which will be celebrated from May to October 2017..

The statue stayed at Secret Heart cathedral for a night during which many people prayed and praised God. At 9:00 on Sunday morning, Archbishop Nxumalo concelebrated the Mass. In his homily, he noted that the Catholics of Bloemfontein archdiocese are very Marian and deserved to be visited by the statue of Our Lady.

After Mass the statue was handed on to people who took it to the next destination.

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The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Congolese bishops to mediate peace talks

By JONATHAN LUxMOORE

A

N official of the Congolese bishops’ conference said he is optimistic that the government and opposition will work with them to restart peace talks.

Mgr Leonard Santedi Kinkupu, secretary-general of the conference, said the bishops were “encouraged by the confidence shown in us by the main political actors and their readiness to cooperate”.

“The bishops are doing everything to save the country, at a time when the lack of any consensus risks igniting violent confrontations —and both sides appear to be listening,” he said.

The peace initiative was launched by Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani, newlyelected bishops’ conference president. Mgr Kinkupu said the bishops had presented the initiative to US, UN and European Union officials, “and they’re all supporting our Church’s efforts to stop a descent into disorder”.

In an interview with Catholic News Service, he said the bishops’ conference was awaiting a response from the government of President Joseph Kabila to opposition demands for freeing political prisoners and returning seized media, but was confident progress would be achieved.

“We are taking small steps, and there are many obstacles, but we’re

Pope Francis sits with members of the Pope John xxiii Community in Rome. The pontiff paid a surprise visit to the community that is helping 20 young women get their lives back together after being rescued from prostitution. (Photo: L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters/CNS)

Pope visits women saved from sex slavery

By CiNDy WOODEN

and hearing”.

The young woman said she told the pope that she had been offered a job as a caregiver in Italy, but the offer was fake. Instead, “they kept me locked in an apartment for two weeks, drugged me, tied me up and the men, they did what they wanted with my body”.

She said she was taken to Italy in the boot of a car and forced into prostitution. When she disobeyed her traffickers, she was beaten, cut with a knife and burned with cigarettes.

When volunteers from the John XXIII Community started visiting her on the streets, she said, not only did she not believe she could escape, but she did not think she was worth saving. “You feel like a sack of trash” thrown on the side of the road, she said.

Pope Francis asked forgiveness of the women on behalf of all the men who had used and abused them and for the governments that continue to do little to stop human trafficking.

“You are witnesses of resurrection,” the pope told them.—CNS

C

ONTINUING his Year of Mercy practice of going one Friday a month to visit people facing special struggles, Pope Francis paid a surprise visit to a community helping 20 young women get their lives back together after being rescued from prostitution.

The pope visited the house operated by the John XXIII Community in northeast Rome. The community members, the Vatican said, were “20 women liberated from the slavery of the prostitution racket. Six of them come from Romania, four from Albania, seven from Nigeria and one each from Tunisia, Italy and Ukraine”.

The women’s average age is 30, “all of them have endured serious physical violence” and are now being protected.

One of the young women, identified only as East European, told Vatican Radio she never dreamed she would be able to see the pope up close and “tell my story to a holy person like him. I was very emotional and kept crying because I could not believe what I was seeing

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Congo’s opposition presidential candidate Moise Katumbi (centre) with blue sash, and his supporters react as police fire teargas at them in Lubumbashi. (Photo: Kenny Katombe, Reuters) optimistic about restarting the political process,” Mgr Kinkupu said.

“Both sides are absolutely ready to hear the voice of the Catholic Church and have welcomed our efforts.”

Up to 6 million people died in a series of 1996-2003 wars in Congo, formerly Zaire, where armed groups, some based in neighbouring countries, have since exploited a lack of stable government to plunder natural resources.

Mr Kabila succeeded his father

as head of state in 2001, with backing from Western governments, and claimed victory in 2006 and 2011 elections. However, opposition parties have accused the 45year-old president of seeking to keep power when his final mandate ends by delaying new elections, due in November.

Pope Francis deplored the “shameful silence” towards massacres perpetrated in Congo’s North Kivu province. In one of the latest, up to 51 civilians were massacred near Beni.—CNS

Pope’s message to Madeira after fires

By HANNAH BROCKHAUS

P

OPE Francis has voiced his sorrow for the damage done by wildfires that raged on the Portuguese island of Madeira, entrusting the victims to the intercession of Our Lady and offering his closeness to their families.

In a letter the pope expresses his dismay at the terrible news and asks for his condolences to be conveyed “to the families of the victims”.

Wildfires on the Portuguese island of Madeira

and in Spain killed at least five

people, and forced hundreds to evacuate their homes. More than 2000 firefighters were sent to help fight the flames.

Addressed to Bishop Antonio Cavaco Carrilho of Funchal, the letter asked for comfort and restoration to the wounded, urging “the courage and consolation of Christian hope for all those affected by the tragedy”.

The pope gave special mention of everyone working to combat the fires, and closed the letter by extending his apostolic blessing to those affected.—CNA

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Study after study has demonstrated that education, particularly higher education, is one of the most effective ways to break cycles of poverty, incarceration and re-incarceration because higher education creates inroads of advanced education in communities that suffer from a chronic lack of access.

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

5

Lessons learned from Ebola used to fight Zika

By BRONWEN DACHS

T

HE dust had hardly settled on Catholic Relief Services’ work fighting the world’s worst Ebola outbreak before the team was putting together a response to the Zika virus in the West African island nation of Cape Verde.

“We put an enormous amount of effort into public education” fighting Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, “and this experience is now helping us in our response to Zika” in Cape Verde, said Michael Stulman, CRS regional information officer for West and Central Africa.

Cape Verde, a tiny archipelago of islands about 500km off the west coast of Africa, has about 7 500 confirmed Zika cases in a population of 500 000 people. However, Roberta Rezende, who is coordinating CRS’s work in Cape Verde, said the number of infected people in the former Portuguese colony could be higher because, unlike Ebola, the symptoms of

Zika are mild and often go unreported.

“We already have 400 volunteers doing door-to-door visits, helping families in their communities to identify and eliminate breeding sites” of mosquitoes that spread Zika, Ms Rezende said. “We find that it is more effective to do this with families rather than simply telling them what they should do.”

Zika is transmitted primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito but can also be spread through sex. Only about 20% of people infected display symptoms, which include fever, joint pain and conjunctivitis.

The virus has been linked to a severe birth defect called microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and sometimes brain damage. Cape Verde has recorded 14 babies born with microcephaly.

“Most people here are unfamiliar”

with how the virus is spread, she said, noting that the CRS team in Cape Verde, working in partnership with Caritas, also tells people where to go for testing and treatment.

“We hope to extend our work to offer psycho-social support to mothers and babies” affected by the virus, Ms Rezende said.

People in Cape Verde who live in densely populated areas without decent water and sanitation are at greatest risk of infection, largely because mosquitoes “thrive in pools of still water”, Ms Rezende said.

“Our biggest concern is for pregnant women”, who are advised to use insect repellent and wear longsleeved clothing to avoid mosquito bites, she said.

The archipelago is the only African nation hard-hit by the Zika virus, although there have been a few cases in other countries on the continent, including four in Guinea Bissau on West Africa’s coast.—CNS

Priest comforted by pope dies

By CAROLiNA REqUENA

A

MAN of God and someone who endured illness with faith and fortitude until the end. This is how those who knew Fr Francisco Rencoret remembered him after the 35-year-old Chilean priest died of cancer this month.

Ordained in 2013, Fr Rencoret had been studying canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome but was forced to return home to receive cancer treatments after his diagnosis.

In June Fr Rencoret received an unexpected phone call—from Pope Francis. At the time the priest said that the Holy Father had heard about his illness and called him to “find out about my health and to tell me that he was praying for me, to give me a lot of support, encouragement and the love of the Church”.

Fr Francisco Rencoret, who died of cancer, had received a phone call from the pope.

Before finishing the conversation, the priest told Pope Francis that “I am offering some of my sufferings for your vocation, difficulties and sorrows” and that they were “very much in communion because in fact God is merciful”.

It is precisely with this peace that the young priest lived out his last moments in this world, recalled his friend Fr Mauricio Valdivia, who had been his fellow student at the

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“I believe that he was able to understand in one way or another, not without difficulty, that God gave him the gift of this time to prepare himself, and I believe the time was ripe for him to meet the Lord. He experienced such a radical self-surrender since he said that he wanted to be saved more than he wanted to be cured, and from that perspective he experienced it as a privileged opportunity,” the priest said.

“He was able to prepare his family, conveying to them peace and strength,” Fr Valdivia said.

“During our first assignment there was a man who was bedridden and Fr Rencoret got together clothes and things to bring to him.

He also did this with a lot of other people…he had the desire to bring comfort to everyone in need and to bring them the mercy of God,” he said.—CNA

A sheep looks over a wall in the cemetery at the basilica of St Patrick’s old cathedral in New york City. The parish uses three grazing sheep to cut the graveyard’s grass in the summer. (Photo: Gregory Shemitz/CNS)

Faith, Hope & Charity: Sheep in the city P ERHAPS a common sight in South Africa, sheep are definitely not native to bustling New York City, where an enterprising priest has taken on three to help keep the grounds of his church tidy For the third straight year, a historic New York City church has imported three sheep from a farm to serve as organic lawn mowers in its two-century-old cemetery. The woolly visitors graze on grass and weeds growing in between and around the weather-eroded headstones and obelisks in the north graveyard of the basilica of St Patrick’s old cathedral, a structure dedicated in 1815 and located in the Lower Manhattan neighbourhood of Nolita, for “North of Little Italy”.

The sheep arrived following a 140km ride in a pickup truck from a fibre farm in New Paltz, where the owner breeds Cormo Sheep exclusively for the high-quality fleece sought by knitters.

In New York they roam on a halfacre plot of land that contains the graves of Civil War heroes, aristocrats and other citizens of 19th-century New York. Mgr Donald Sakano, St Patrick’s parish priest said that the idea of bringing sheep to the cemetery was initiated in 2014.

“It started with a conversation I had with a groundskeeper who was planning to retire,” Mgr Sakano recalled. “I joked: ‘What do you expect me to do now, get sheep?’ The second I said it I thought, ‘That might be a good idea,’ even though I knew nothing about sheep-keeping here in New York City.”

The first sheep arrived and were subsequently named Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

In addition to helping maintain the grounds of the only Catholic cemetery in the borough of Manhattan, the sheep are a “good catechetical tool” for the parish, said Mgr Sakano.

“It is the most referenced animal in the Bible,” he said, citing several examples, including the use of lambs for animal sacrifice, the “Lord is my shepherd” psalm, and the metaphor of Christ as the lamb of God. This year’s sheep have been named Faith, Hope and Charity.

The sheep are a popular neighbourhood attraction, drawing the attention of hundreds of adults and children each day, who stop, stare and snap photos. An innocent bleat will bring smiles to the faces of spectators of all ages.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

New kinds of priests?

T

HERE recently has been talk that the next Synod of Bishops might engage with the question of certain categories of married men being admitted to a new kind of priesthood, presumably as part of a wider discussion on the Church’s ministries.

The idea to ordain married men of proven virtue—so-called viri probati—to the priesthood has been mooted periodically for many years as a solution to the shortage of priests in many parts of the world where the faithful have very rare access to the Mass.

It was last raised at the 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, and rejected.

Such Mass-deprived regions exist even in South Africa, where some remote mission outstations don’t have Mass for many weeks because there are not enough priests to celebrate them. In some parts of Africa and South America, isolated church communities don’t have Mass for many months.

Bishop Fritz Lobinger, the retired bishop of Aliwal North in the Eastern Cape, has written extensively on the question. In his 2008 book Every Community Its Own Ordained Leaders, he wrote: “It is not right that [communities which most weeks have access only to the Liturgy of the Word, not the Mass] remain limited to such an incomplete faith life. Although it is already several decades that this has been happening, we should not accept it as something we cannot change. It must be changed.”

In several books and articles, Bishop Lobinger, who now lives in Mariannhill, proposed that groups of lay leaders within a community would be trained and formed on a continual basis by a local animator priest, whose function would be similar to that of an overseeing bishop.

Of these, small groups of men of proven character—viri probati— would be ordained to preside over the life of their faith community and its liturgies while continuing with their professional and family lives.

Although they would be ordained to the clerical state and incardinated into a diocese, they would not assume the role of the priest-in-charge. In other words, while they would be sacramentally ordained priests, they would not be clerics.

They would not be replacement priests who come into a

community from outside, but men from the local community itself, who are known and respected by the people, and who work voluntarily as a team without remuneration to build up their community into a truly Christian fellowship that ministers to itself.

Bishop Lobinger emphasised that this model provides a solution to a specific problem and would not be applicable universally. He also cautioned prudence in developing such a model, proposing pilot projects on diocesan levels.

Should the viri probati question form part of deliberations at a Synod of Bishops, this would serve as a signal that the Church is now looking to employing southern solutions to southern problems, rather than imposing them from a European worldview.

No doubt a revived proposal for viri probati priests, or the version of the concept outlined by Bishop Lobinger, will be met by strong opposition.

There will be concern that allowing some married men to become ordained priests could strengthen the case for relaxing the obligatory celibacy for Latinrite clergy (there are married priests in the Catholic Church’s Eastern rites).

The discipline of clerical celibacy, in any case, is not tied to any Church teaching, and the obligation—which has been in canonical force for less than half of the Church’s history—can be adapted or reformed.

Indeed, by admitting married Anglican ministers to the Catholic priesthood in terms of Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, the Catholic Church acknowledged that the celibate, unmarried state is not indispensable to the Latin-rite priesthood.

The institution of some form of viri probati priesthood would not be a novel innovation. Indeed, it would revive an office that existed already in apostolic times—it is attested to in the First Epistle of Clement in 80AD. The Church teaches that the Eucharist is the summit of the Church’s life. It is unjust when groups of Catholics are deprived of its regular celebration by dint of their location and the shortage of priests.

An open discussion on how to address this injury is long overdue.

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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.

Repeat holy days on closest Sunday

I

REFER to the letter in The Southern Cross, “Keep holy days holy” (July 27) by Nicholas Mitchell of Port Elizabeth.

Much as I agree with what Mr Mitchell says, I would suggest a different angle to his proposal that we should keep the feast dates holy during the week, with the correct

Much-loved popes (plus scoundrels)

W

ITH our much-loved Pope Francis drawing millions of our Catholic young people to worship with him in the latest get-together of youth in Krakow, one is drawn to reflect on some of the great “papal moments” in history, starting with St Peter’s anointed speech at Pentecost when about 3 000 were added to the number of believes (Acts 2:41) Pope Leo the Great (440-461AD) comes to mind as he heroically defended Rome against the pagans, persuading the Huns to retreat to the Danube, and intervened at the Council of Chalcedon, with his tome being accepted as a standard of Christological orthodoxy.

By the Renaissance, men less worthy of the successor of Peter were in evidence, such as Alexander VI (pope from 1492) witnessing 600 bridesmaids accompanying his illegitimate daughter Lecrezia Borgia processing up the aisle of St Peter’s on one of her marriages. A man of immoral life, and the executor of Savonarola, Rodrigo Borgia was also an astute politician and a patron of the arts.

Pope Julius II’s papacy (14431513) consisted mostly of various war campaigns in Italy, including defeating Venice. He was responsible for calling the 5th Latin Council in response to Louis XII calling the Council of Pisa to depose him!

More positively, Pius V called together a combined Christian army in 1571 which defeated the Turks at

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the Battle of Lepanto, thanks to the widespread praying of the rosary.

His excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I of England (in 1570) aggravated the position of the Catholic Church in England.

Pius VI, pope from 1775, was taken prisoner by Napoleon and died at Valance in 1779.

Pope Pius IX saw the papacy deprived of all temporal sovereignty.

The definition of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady was defined by Pius IX in 1854.

Pope Pius XI was responsible for the encyclical condemning Nazism, Mit Brennender Sorge (With Urgent Concern) to be read in all German churches on Palm Sunday 1937.

Pope Pius XII had Jewish families sleeping on the stairways at Castelgandolfo in World War II. His greatest admirer was Rabbi Zolli of Rome, who later converted and became a Catholic priest.

Also, Pope John XXIII, while apostolic delegate in Bulgaria, forged many baptism certificates for Jews to save them from Hitler’s ovens.

All subsequent popes have been among the greatest of all time, inOpinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate.

Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately.

Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

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Church no longer condemns Pill

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HE Church hierarchy in Rome has in recent years drastically ceased to condemn extra-marital cohabitation, and its logical consequence to prevent pregnancy, abortifacient birth control.

This lead has been followed by most churches worldwide, resulting in a dramatic increase by Catholics of the above practices, including increased abortifacient birth control, also by married Catholics.

This situation is an abdication by the Church of a crucial duty imposed on it by Almighty God which will result in the loss of immortal souls, something which will have to be accounted for on the day of judgment, as it involves the continued loss of infant human lives.

Rome should deal with it urgently, and with at least the same vigour as was evident in, for example, its recent propagation of the papal encyclical Laudato Si’.

The following is probably the most unequivocal statement ever issued against artificial birth control: “The purpose of marriage is not to have pleasure and be idle, but to create and bring up children, to support a household. Those who have no love for children are swine, stock, and are unworthy of being called men or women, for they despise the blessings of God, the creator and author of marriage.”

This statement’s author? Martin Luther Damian McLeish, Johannesburg

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cluding Paul VI, St John Paul II up to our present much-loved Pope Francis, who recently touched the hearts of the entire world by taking home with him to the Vatican after a visit to the many refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, 12 displaced families, all Muslim, to set up homes, jobs, citizenship and schooling for their children. History, I believe, will prove him to be one of the greatest of all time.

Despite the fact that a few popes were scoundrels, as we’ve seen, the Lord’s promise that no pope would teach false doctrine (Mt 16:17-18) has proved prophetic and true, over and over.

John Lee, Johannesburg

Popes Julius ii and Pius xi, two pontiffs mentioned by John Lee.

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readings for all those parishioners who can go to Mass on those specific dates.

I suggest that the bishops consider keeping not only the original feast day on its date—such as the Assumption of Our Lady on August 15—with the readings of that day, but then also have the feast day on

the following or nearest Sunday, repeating the same original readings again for all those who could not attend Mass for that feast day during the week.

In this way we all score, and cannot conceivably do any harm whatsoever. Let the Church move with the times, when increasing numbers of people are working full-day.

Frans van Neerijnen, Johannesburg

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PERSPECTIVES

Our youthful Church I

’M probably a bit old for this and every time I think about the effort of World Youth Day, I promise myself that it’ll be my last—yet how can I adequately describe the experience when I’m in it? It is nothing short of grace.

This July I accompanied 17 young people to Warsaw and Kraków for the Polish edition of WYD. St John Paul II’s vision of the WYD, which he initiated in 1983, had a homecoming in a sense—a return to the concept of a merciful Church so powerfully captured by the Divine Mercy heartland and Pope Francis’ rapport with our young people.

WYD is an overwhelming experience in many ways—overwhelmingly positive.

When our group got over its quirky characters—including mine—and the walks and uncertainty and sore feet (we walked over 160km in 11 days), we were able to celebrate an awesomely young Church.

This “Church of All Nations” that assembles at WYD is a very beautiful experience. The pilgrimage begins with a time in a diocese where the youth are introduced to the culture of the hosting country.

We spent time in the parish of the Nativity of Our Blessed Mother, a church that bordered the Warsaw Ghetto. Here was history and an unbelievable pride in the uprising of the Jewish ghetto against the Nazis that spread to become the Warsaw Uprising. It was history real and present, to realise that in a tiny area so many had fought and so many were killed in the fight against their annihilation.

We also realised that the Polish Church is very youthful and clerical. There are about 800 diocesan priests in the archdiocese of Warsaw. By comparison, the SACBC region probably has about 600 diocesan priests in its whole territory.

It takes a Polish priest about 18 years to become a parish priest. Most of us in South Africa are parish priests before the oil of ordination has been absorbed. Yet there are so many young priests and religious in Poland. It’s beautiful.

It is also a Church without many lay liturgical ministries. There has been no need to develop them.

At WYD the youth move from initially being very conscious of themselves and

their country at the beginning of the programme to realising just how the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church truly is universal.

I love the energy that goes into swapping flags. As an older person I also observe how the young men are circling the pretty girls and how the very handsome boys are mobbed by teenage girls—we are a truly good-looking Church!

By the end, our common faith and humanity have broken down our narrow national and cultural distinctions—and the genius of St John Paul is realised: a world of Happy Faith.

I had the privilege of hearing confessions during the catechetical phase of WYD. These were not rote forced moments but beautiful experiences of mercy—deeply felt, hungered for and chosen.

T

his time we were privileged to listen to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga and Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane. They powerfully and directly witnessed to their faith and integrated that to the theology of the Church.

They took on some questions that directly concerned the youth, such as facing same-sex attraction and the vocation crisis.

We also tried to get into a massively oversubscribed Life Teen Concert in an arena. Think the Good Hope Centre or the Standard Bank Arena or Coca Cola Dome filled to capacity with Catholic youth!

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it in, but

Fr Chris Townsend with Bishop José Luis Ponce de Leon of Manzini and South African pilgrims in Warsaw.

Life’s detours help us grow I N her 2014 book Once Upon An Ever After, Angela N Blount writes: “Odd, how life makes twists and turns. I never would have guessed that I’d end up where I am now, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I wouldn’t trade this path I’m on for the whole solar system, for that matter. If I’ve learned anything these last several months, it’s that sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take.”

Travelling through Montagu in the Western Cape on Route 62 recently, I had to take a detour because of road works and mountain blasting between Montagu and Ashton. I have travelled this road at least 30 times in my lifetime. It was only now, when I was forced to take a detour, that I discovered the most beautiful scenery, as well as a peaceful neighbourhood which one cannot easily notice by driving down the main road.

I do not like detours because they are unpredictable. You do not know what to expect, how long the detour will take, what the condition of the detour road will be, and so on.

On a detour you experience a bit of the unknown. Although the area in general is known to you, that particular detour road is not. This does makes you feel a bit unprepared. And generally detours delay the journey and make it longer. You feel like you are wasting time by taking the detour.

And that is how life is. Life has detours.

Life has twists and turns, as Blount writes.

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in life God sends us on detours. Good or bad, these are opportunities for us to grow, writes Judith Turner.

Sometimes these detours are short and take us through beautiful and exciting experiences, and at other times these detours are many years long and take us through hurtful and painful experiences.

For example, your flight might be delayed and you and your friends then have to spend another night in an exciting place at the airline’s expense. That is a short and exciting detour in life.

Another example: you are in a relationship for many years which ends up in a hurting and painful experience. This is a long and agonising detour in life.

W

hether short or long, detours are not really time-wasters. Detours in our life give us the opportunity to expand our knowledge and experience. Each detour is

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Pastor’s Notebook

had our own concert outside with games and even some Polish line dancing.

It took us some time to work out Kraków’s fantastic public transport system, but once we did, the walks became a little less far.

We went to the Shrine of Divine Mercy and saw where St Faustina lived. Divine Mercy as revealed to her was always something a little distant for me, formulaic even, but seen from the perspective of Poland’s Church and history, it made so much more sense. Her death shortly before World War II showed just how divine mercy would be needed, in the war and its aftermath.

We followed a group of the Sisters of Divine Mercy out of one of the huge events, and they were rocking to the music—just the example of joy that we needed.

World Youth Day climaxes in a walk to a huge open-air venue for a vigil with the Holy Father and then a Mass. We were part of a crowd of three million who had made the effort to gather in the name of Jesus.

Nothing matches that.

There were downsides, of course. People push to see the pope. The walks are long.

The toilet situation is really a Catholic Glastonbury.

There is also a new movement whose members seem to do their best to ruin the experience with their incessant inconsiderate tambourine circle cult trance dance— the same group every WYD. Young people snog in the corners and tan in the sunshine. Yet: no alcohol, no fights and a wonderful experience of over 90% of the people there taking a full, conscious and active part in the liturgies and prayers—and in the sacred silence. Being part of this is life-changing.

We walked, caught trams and buses home in a seven-hour journey with a group of fellow South Africans who were pushing in a wheelchair one of their own who had broken her ankle playing soccer. To me, that was a culmination point in a pilgrimage of mercy.

Who knew you could have so much fun with a wheelchair in the pouring rain and 8 000 of your closest brothers and sisters!

Judith Turner

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

7

Chris Chatteris SJ

Pray with the Pope

Tend to the ‘garden’ General Intention: That each may contribute to the common good and to the building of a society that places the human person at the centre.

HEN the problems of our world seem insoluble and the common good is in jeopardy, our knee-jerk reaction is often isolationism.

We cut ourselves off from what is going on out there. We stop watching the news or reading it in the papers or on the internet. We retreat into private life or a private spirituality, insulating ourselves from the perceived outer darkness.

It’s an understandable reaction to the sense of powerlessness that we feel at the enormity and systemic nature of some of the world’s problems.

What can we, as individuals, do about the arms trade or corruption or human trafficking, to name but three massive evils which systematically infect modern society?

At the end of his rather depressing novel Candide, which presents a relentlessly gloomy view of the human condition, the 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire leaves us with the enigmatic phrase: “We must cultivate our garden.” The reader feels a little let down at this apparently weak punch-line. “That’s it?” one is tempted to say; “All I have to do is go out and do a little gardening and that will solve the problems of the world?”

There are many interpretations of this now celebrated line. One is that Voltaire may be having a dig at philosophers who are all talk and no action.

As a gardener I am tempted to take it literally but I suspect a broader interpretation is in order. It is perhaps to be understood in the same vein as the Chinese saying about it being better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

The world is a tough place and there are many things wrong with it, but one must take responsibility for one’s own little bit of it. Voltaire was probably thinking of a vegetable garden, rather than a rose garden. The benefit of veggies is obvious in every culture. The current movement of creating urban community vegetable gardens indicates the abiding value of the metaphor.

Voltaire’s use of the word “cultivate” is also very useful. If we “cultivate” people in the sense of nourishing and building them up through our loving care and creating good human relationships, then we will be doing our little bit for the common good while, as the intention states, putting “the human person at the centre”.

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Faith and Life

a deposit into our bank of wisdom.

After spending an extra night in a place with your friends, you might make another friend, or see another interesting show, or even find a partner. This short detour has grown you in some way.

Coming out of a long and hurting relationship brings its own lessons and wisdom. You might learn how to appreciate others more. You might learn how to appreciate yourself more. You might learn how to love others and yourself for the right reasons. This long detour in life has grown you emotionally and spiritually.

During our long and painful detours in life we must trust that God is with us, that he is leading us through the journey as he led the Israelites out of slavery.

The Israelites also did not know the way they were going, they also complained, and their road was long. They wanted to know why they had to make that journey and if it would not be better to go back to Egypt.

The way God leads us may not make sense to us, but he has reasons for each and every detour of our life.

And once we reach the new life that he has designed for us, we can agree with Angela Blount, saying: “I don’t know how I ended up here, but I would not trade it for the world.”

When life takes you on a detour, enjoy the ride and learn from the experience.

The Christian mission Missionary Intention: That by participating in the sacraments and meditating on Scripture, Christians may become more aware of their mission to evangelise.

There is a special grace in being able to see something very familiar with new eyes, but when it happens it can change a person’s life.

Many of the great founders of religious orders had drunk from the wells of Scripture and the sacraments since their childhood. They had heard the word and received the sacraments many times before they felt called to their particular vocation.

At some decisive moment, however, these fundamental sources of inspiration took on a new and deeper meaning and changed everything for them.

TS Eliot’s oft-quoted lines in the “Four Quartets” come to mind.

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.

Cradle Catholics very often take their Catholicism for granted. We take the sacraments and the word—these two extraordinary manifestations of God’s presence in our world—as ordinary, mundane, familiar parts of our lives.

If we’re honest, we will admit that at times we have even found them boring. In this intention we seek the grace truly to know them for the first time so that things can begin to change in the household of our lives.

If we receive this grace with generosity then it will naturally lead us outwards to others where we will freely share what we have discovered anew.

8

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

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The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

THOUGHT

9

Why ubuntu is the key to African justice and peace In the efforts to work for justice and peace on Africa, the philosophy of ubuntu is essential. FR PETER CHiMOMBE explains what is meant by ubuntu and how it is applied to justice.

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UGUST 27 and 28 are the feast days of two venerable African saints who happen to be mother and son: Ss Monica and Augustine.

These saints from the 4-5th century are an embodiment of all good African values which should make us proud to be African on a continent which is plagued by corruption, war, poverty, disease and man’s inhumanity to fellow man and woman.

The African value of ubuntu presupposes tolerance, forgiveness and good neighbourliness. Ubuntu links us as African Christians to the web of humanity and shapes our identity in the global village.

The concept of ubuntu literally refers to humanness and is at the base of African philosophy of life and belief systems in which people’s daily lived experiences are reflected. The philosophy is used on a daily basis in Africa to settle conflicts at different levels and is central to the idea of reconciliation.

Ubuntu, like any philosophy, is unique in that it takes a comprehensive view by questioning the fundamental conditions underlying human life such as truth, peace and justice. Through answers to these questions, it establishes principles which give direction and consistence, like respect for elders at all times and places.

Thus violence is an antithesis and deviation from this lived philosophy.

Anthropological and ethnological studies show that Africa, from time immemorial, had a popular, mythical unconscious and lived philosophy.

The South African philosopher Mogobe B Ramose, who was heavily influenced by Thabo Mbeki’s call for African renaissance, suggests that ubuntu is at the root of African being in the search for truth or worth of knowledge.

Fr Peter Chimombe, the author of this article, is seen on the Mount of Beatitudes in Galilee.

“Ubuntu is a wellspring that flows within African existence and epistemology in which the two aspects ‘ubu’ and ‘ntu’ constitute a wholeness and oneness,” Prof Ramose writes.

“Thus ubuntu expresses the generality and oneness of being human. In his/her existence, umuntu [a person] is the creator of politics, religion and law. Through these creative activities, umuntu gains experience, knowledge and philosophy of life based on truth.”

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n African philosophy of life that guides the thinking and actions of life is embedded in their historical experiences and not in the abstract concepts found in Western philosophy. The sense of justice and peace constitute that lived experience within the traditional African context.

Any accused person was presumed innocent until proven guilty by the traditional court of the headman (sabhuku) or chief (ishe). No instant justice or punishment could be effected until the accused had a fair hearing at the chief’s court, with the community as an assembly.

Even witches had to be proven guilty by n’angas (sangomas) before banishment or death by being thrown into the river tied to a rock.

Any son or daughter who assaulted his or her mother in traditional

African society of antiquity had to undergo public penance known as kutanda botso in Shona where he or she begged for food and wore tattered clothes.

The restoration of broken relationships and retribution were meant to ensure lasting peace, as happened in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide when “gacaca” tribunals were held. In Burundi there are the Bashingantahe, or men of integrity who are responsible for settling conflicts at all levels.

Ubuntu is linked to justice and peace also through logic. When we talk of a African renaissance today, reasonable arguments were given by many statesmen such as Thabo Mbeki and Ghana’s late President Kwame Nkrumah among others.

Their arguments were an eyeopener for African people, awakening us from our slumber through linguistic, psychological, religious and jurisprudence experiences.

Nkrumah wrote in 1964: “Consciencism is that philosophical standpoint which, taking its start from the present content of the African conscience, indicates the way in which progress is forged out of the conflict.”

The principles of forgiveness and reconciliation found in consciencism provide strategies for peace-building, as did the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in an endeavour to

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heal the wounds of apartheid and ensure justice and peace prevail in the post-apartheid South Africa.

The sense of peace and justice in ubuntu also comes out through semantics, or meaning of language, as found in African proverbs, metaphor, riddles and folklore.

Where Western philosophers like René Descartes said, “I think therefore I am” (cogito ergo sum), an African would say “I dance therefore I am” or “I am human therefore I belong”. Now, when elders danced or lived their daily experiences; they were conscious not to infringe on the rights and freedoms of other people. That is how they fostered justice and peace.

The South African saying “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” means that you are human because you live through others. A person with ubuntu does not feel threatened when others succeed since the success of others is also his or hers.

As humans we belong, participate and share so that justice and peace may prevail.

A

fricans believe that the dead continue to exist in a spirit form, and the living form a relationship with the ancestors.

Ubuntu philosophy holds that the living dead can intercede and advise the living in certain special circumstances, such as in times of conflict. Such intercession is crucial in reconciliation rituals where ancestors play a significant role.

The unborn who are recognised to exist in the future are prepared for and this conforms to the law of creation. The transformation of being from the unborn, then the living and then to the “living dead” occupy a continuous space in ubuntu metaphysics. Through these invisible forces, Africans seek explanations for certain happenings which cannot be explained by rational means.

Conflicts are part of these uncertainties which require rituals to summon the intervention of ancestors so that peace and justice may prevail.

In Shona custom there is an expression, “mushonga wengozi kuripa”. This literally means that the best way to appease an avenging spirit is by making payment.

This payment is usually in the form of cattle. It is widely accepted in Shona society that justice for the

PILGRIMAGE TO THE PROMISED LAND 2017 21-29 OCT 2017

murdered victim is served when payment is made—only then can peace prevail between the two families of the victim and perpetrator respectively.

Ubuntu philosophy is peculiar to African people, and it generally distinguishes them from the rest of humanity in that it is a lived or experienced philosophy which is others-centred and not self-centred.

This is a very important point in matters of justice and peace since the rights, privileges and freedoms of other people are given higher preference than individual needs and wants. Communalism takes precedence over individualism.

The late Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, a Catholic, came up with a more practical version of the ubuntu philosophy which he called Ujamaa, in which community ownership of land and property had to be practised. He wanted to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots for justice and peace to prevail.

Ubuntu also aims to improve community-life through the sharing of ideas and cooperation. It aims at developing the health of the community through careful use of traditional medicine. It enlightens the African people on solving their life problems through reasoning and adherence to African Traditional Religion as well as other world religions, such as Christianity and Islam.

Ubuntu as an African philosophy also aims at promoting unification and social harmony in the continent. Ultimately this would lead to a just and peaceful continent which is already credited for being the cradle of human civilisation.

Ss Monica and Augustine, intercede for us. n Fr Peter Chimombe is the parish priest of St James mission in the diocese of Masvingo, Zimbabwe.

Do you feel called to the Franciscan way of life?

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10

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

FAITH

How a sketchbook led Chinese woman to faith Yan Xu is an artist from Wuhan in central China.

What she drew one day would change her life.

ANDREA GAGLiARDUCCi & KEViN J JONES found out about her story of conversion.

C

ONFUSED about her future after resigning from a job in 2003, Yan Xu found herself in an unlikely place.

“At that time, I used to carry a sketchbook and pen with me, and spent all the day time on urban sketching,” she recalled. “I like to sketch the classical buildings of the city, and this is how I found St Joseph’s cathedral,” in the city’s centre.

She said she found the church “magnificent, beautiful”.

“I stayed there and then came back there to sketch my painting.

On the third day, a Catholic priest came and talked to me about the Catholic faith. For years, I had not cared about religion—and I wanted to know more about faith,” she said.

She began to attend Mass every Sunday, and “prayed to the Lord that he show me the way, even though I was not Catholic”.

It took her nearly seven years to be baptised, and she was received into the Church at St Joseph’s cathedral during the Easter Vigil of 2011.

Ms Xu said there is a sense in China that “more and more people are looking for a way, and for real life—the true life that is meaningful

and filled with mercy and the glory of God. So, praise be to the Lord”, she added.

“China is far from Rome, but Catholics in China always pray that the pope will visit our land someday in the future,” she said.

Being a Catholic in China, however, means being part of a minority. Out of 10 million people in Wuhan, just 30 000 people are Catholic.

“The People’s Republic of China is a socialist country. Most of the people have no religious preferences,” Ms Xu said.

However, the faith is lived in a very lively way. “I love my Church.

There are so many wonderful young Catholics,” Ms Xu said. “We often attend Mass, pray the rosary together…the Catholic faith makes me a better person.”

Among the main difficulties in living the faith in China, she said, is the lack of public holidays for Catholic feasts.

“Especially on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. If you want to attend the celebrations, you have frequently to ask for the day off,” she said.

Ms Xu always attends Mass on Sundays, serves as a lector, and is a member of the choir in the cathedral. She said that they can certainly celebrate Mass publicly, but this is “only permitted within the Church building—we can’t parade outside the courtyard”.

Though Rome is very far away, she has a way to feel closer to Rome by watching the Mass on the Catholic TV station EWTN every day. “We can read the news about the pope and the Holy See on the Internet,” she added.

When St Joseph’s cathedral opened its Holy Door on December 8 last year, “the celebration was

(Left) Battle for Life and Death and (right), the Christ Child by Chinese Catholic artist by yan xu, whose conversion began when she sketched St Josephs cathedral in Wuhan city, central China. very important”, said Ms Xu, who wasn’t able to attend because of work.

“The Holy Door is a very important symbol, because Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.’ People have to go through the Door of Christ to get salvation.”

But the opening of the Holy Door had another symbolic meaning in Ms Xu’s view, because “it connected us with the Holy Catholic Church. One, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church”.

T

here are some tensions between the Catholic Church and the Chinese government, which has set up a parallel Catholic Patriotic As-

sociation that has sometimes named bishops without Vatican approval. Some Catholic clergy, including bishops, have been imprisoned for their loyalty to the Holy See. There is some legacy of these problems in Wuhan. Ms Xu said she always faces “prejudice from other people”.

“I would love to attend Mass every day, but I cannot, because Mass time conflicts with my working time.”

In 2007, she went back to school and took a graduate degree in art history. She saw this as “another way to help me be in touch with the Catholic faith”.

Ms Xu has created a special portrait of St Thomas Aquinas. She

won honours for the portrait in the “Veritas et Amor” international contest run by Circolo San Tommaso D’Aquino. The Italy-based cultural society is dedicated to the influential Dominican theologian, philosopher and saint of the 13th century.

Her portrait depicted Thomas Aquinas in the style of an illuminated manuscript.

“Thomas Aquinas makes me reflect about how to build the goal of my life, and find out the plans of God for me. In fact, the plans of God are often unfathomable, but you have just to pray,” she said.

Ms Xu said she finds comfort in art. “Painting, or depicting, things of God is a special way for me to pray.”—CNA

A NEW WAY OF HELPING THE SOUTHERN CROSS There is a NEW way to become part of The Southern Cross through a monthly contribution to the Associates’ Campaign. Our new Dorothy Day patron category is available for those who wish to make a monthly debit or credit card contribution of any amount.

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CLASSIFIEDS

Pray for creation on September 1

S

EPTEMBER 1 will see the second annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, an initiative launched by Pope Francis last year.

In doing so, the Catholic Church joined the Orthodox Church in their observance of a day of prayer for ecology, going back to 1989.

According to Pope Francis, “the annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvellous works that he has entrusted to our care, invoking his help for the protection of creation and his mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live.”

The Global Catholic Climate Movement suggests several plans of action for individuals, parish and diocesan communities, and small prayer groups.

Individuals can take part in the following ways: l Begin your day by praying with one of the prayers that Pope

Francis composed for his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’. l Continue to pray throughout the day: it could be a guided rosary on caring for creation, the Canticle of Creatures of St Francis (see below), or any other creation care prayer. l Attend a special service in your parish and/or ask the parish to celebrate the World Day of Prayer.

Parishes, dioceses and communities are encouraged to: l Host a Eucharistic adoration service: use the official prayer resource from the Vatican (www.bit.ly/1MQmdcA). l Incorporate creation prayers during daily Mass: you could simply pray the Christian prayer in union with creation and include special prayers of the faithful. l Host an ecumenical event, however big or small: Pope Francis invited ecumenical collaboration on September 1 so that “this World Day can become the sign of a path along which all believers in Christ walk together”.

The ecumenical celebration guide from the Franciscans for ecology (www.francis35.org/eng-

lish/ecumenical-celebration) or the ecumenical celebration guide from the Columbans (www.bit.ly/2b0rz9m) may be helpful.

Small prayer groups can utilise a guided prayer resource developed by Fr Terrence J Moran (available at www.bit.ly/2bbOY VN).

All are asked to sign the Catholic Climate Petition at www.catholicclimatemovement.glob al/petition/ Facebook users may invite their friends to join the Facebook event for September 1 (www.bit.ly/2bFXEpp), and share a pope video on Facebook (www.bit.ly/2bbQ6Zi) or YouTube (www.bit.ly/2bdbXyG).

September 1 also opens the Season of Creation, which lasts to October 4, the feast of St Francis of Assisi. The official website of the Season of Creation is www.seasonofcreation.org More prayer and action resources for the September 1 day of prayer can be found at www.catholicclimatemovement.glob al/world-day-of-prayer and at www.seasonofcreation.org/catholic

The Southern Cross, August 24 to August 30, 2016

CLASSIFIEDS

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

IN MEMORIAM

BLAISE—Andre Joseph.

Very Rev Father OMi. Our Father and founder of the religious Congregation of the Handmaids and the Secular institute of the Servants of Christ the Priest.

Called to rest August 7, 1992 at Bosco House, Hammanskraal, archdiocese of Pretoria. Will always be fondly remembered in our prayers and daily Mass. From your beloved Sons Bros Daniel Ambrose Manuel and Victor Pather SCP. Cape Town HOUGHTON—Bill. Husband of the late Agnes, passed away on August 29, 1990. Lovingly and always remembered by his four daughters, Mary, Margaret, Bridget, Barbara, sons-inlaw, Walter, Derick, Ben, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. May His Dear Soul Rest in Peace.

HOUGHTON–Bill. Fondly remembered by The Southern Cross team.

SETSUBI—Monica Shwane. Sunday morning, August 14, 1994, forcefully reminded us that our life is short. We will not live in this strange land forever. in this short time, we should become ready for the Promised Land, but will we waste our time and actually be strangers there? We hope and trust that our Lord graciously received you into eternal rest. your family.

PRAYERS

MIRACULOUS PRAYER to the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you who makes me see everything and shows me the way to reach my ideal, you who gives me the divine gift to forgive and forget all the wrong that is done to me and you who are in all instances of my life with me. i, in this short dialogue, want to thank you for everything, and affirm once more that i never want to be separated from you no matter how great the material desires may be. i want to be with you

and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. To that end and submitting to God's holy will, i ask from you...(mention your favour).

Amen This prayer should be said for 3 consecutive days. After the 3rd day, your sincere wish will be granted no matter how difficult it may be. Promise to publish it on granting of your favour. The idea is to spread the wonder of the Holy Spirit.

THANKS

HOLY SPIRIT, Thank you for Prayers answered.

Huge Thanks to ST JUDE for prayers answered. Mrs Martin and Mrs Malyon THANKS, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the divine Mercy, Our Lady of Medjugorje and St Joseph for all your help and assistance.

Ss Faustina, Josephine, Bakhita, Rita and Jude.

Our God, How great Thou art. Thank you for all blessings and prayers answered all our lives. NFT

EVENTS

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINAR, at Catholic Charismatic Renewal, cathedral of Christ The King, on the following dates and topics: Sept. 1—introduction Sept. 8—God's Love Sept. 15—Salvation Sept. 22—New Life Sept. 29—Receiving God's Gift Oct. 6—Baptism in The Spirit Oct.13—Growth Oct. 20—Transformation Oct. 27—Thanksgiving Mass Activity starts from 6pm to 9pm each day. Remain blessed as you come. Contact Joseph on 083 237 3745

PERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelifeabortioni sevil.co.za

Southern CrossWord solutions

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday August 28 Sirach 3:17-20, 28-29, Psalms 68:4-7, 10-11, Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24, Luke 14:1, 7-14 Monday August 29, Passion of St John the Baptist Jeremiah 1:17-19, Psalms 71:1-6, 15, 17, Mark 6:17-29 Tuesday August 30 1 Corinthians 2:10-16, Psalms 145:8-14, Luke 4:31-37 Wednesday August 31 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, Psalms 33:12-15, 20-21, Luke 4:38-44 Thursday September 1 1 Corinthians 3:18-23, Psalms 24:1-6, Luke 5:1-11 Friday September 2 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, Psalms 37:3-6, 27-28, 39-40, Luke 5:33-39 Saturday September 3, St Gregory the Great 1 Corinthians 4:6-15, Psalms 145:17-21, Luke 6:1-5 Sunday September 4 Wisdom 9:13-18, Psalms 90:3-6, 12-13, 14-17, Philemon 9-10, 12-17, Luke 14:25-33

Community Calendar

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

DURBAN: Ugu deanery revival. September 4 at St Francis Primary School sports ground, Park Rynie, South Coast.

8:00 till late.

To support Bishop Dlungwane to educate Catholic seminarians.

Phone Mariannhill dio-

cese at 031 700 2704.

Durban Catholic Players Guild feast day of St Genesius Mass. May 28 at 9am at St Joseph’s Morningside, celebrated by Fr Brett Williams. Refreshments served after Mass.

11

SOLUTIONS TO 721. ACROSS: 4 Absalom, 8 Unique, 9 Ageless, 10 Latvia, 11 Neater, 12 Diocesan, 18 Director, 20 Docile, 21 Tallow, 22 Passion, 23 Estate, 24 Consort. DOWN: 1 Our Lady, 2 Mistook, 3 Supine, 5 Beginner, 6 Afloat, 7 Ousted, 13 Side door, 14 Stellar, 15 Prowler, 16 Monaco, 17 Misses, 19 Elapse.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: August 30: Bishop Graham Rose of Dundee on the 8th anniversary of his episcopal ordination

To advertise call Yolanda Timm on 021 465 5007or e-mail advertising @scross.co.za

VISIT PIOUS KINTU’S official website http://ave maria832.simplesite.com This website has been set up to give glory to The Most Holy Trinity through the healing power of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

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

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

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MARIANELLA Guest House, Simon’s Town: “Come experience the peace and beauty of God with us.” Fully equipped with amazing sea views.

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Traditional Latin Mass Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel 36 Central Avenue, Pinelands, Cape Town Call 0712914501 for details.

Email:sspx.capetown@gmail.com

The

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

Editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela Davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton, News Editor: Mandla Zibi (m.zibi@scross.co.za), Editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Mary Leveson (m.leveson@scross.co.za), Advertising: yolanda Timm (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Michelle Perry (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Accounts: Desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za) Directors: R Shields (Chair), J O’Leary (Vice-chair), Archbishop S Brislin, S Duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, J Mathurine, R Riedlinger, G Stubbs, Z Tom

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

the

23rd Sunday: September 4 Readings: Wisdom 9:13-18, Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17, Philemon 9-10, 12-17, Luke 14:25-33

S outher n C ross

Seeing things differently

I

F we are to respond to the Lord’s invitation, we have to learn to see things differently. Next Sunday’s first reading makes this point: “No human being will know God’s plan, or think what the Lord wants…our plans are liable to fail.”

Then the author reveals his Greek philosophical background: “A mortal body weighs down the soul, and the earthly tent is heavy upon the mind, fertile in thoughts. We can hardly guess at the things upon earth: it is difficult for us to find what lies to hand—who tracked down what is in heaven? Who knew your will unless you gave them wisdom, and sent your Holy Spirit from the Highest?”

Do you see how we have to see things differently?

The same idea is there in the psalm for next Sunday, which is putting before God our human condition: “You return humans into dust, and say ‘Go back, sons of Adam!’, for a thousand years in your sight are like a day, yesterday, for it passes.”

So we need God’s gift of wisdom: “Teach us to count our days, and we may gain wisdom of heart.”

Finally we ask the Lord for his favour upon

us: “Establish the work of our hands, establish the work of our hands.”

That is the way we have to view our achievements, as a gift from God. The second reading is one of our rare visits to the letter to Philemon, a tiny and charming postcard of a letter, that is not well enough known among Christians.

In the portion of it that we shall hear on Sunday, we learn that Paul is “an old man, and a prisoner of Jesus Christ”; evidently he is making something of a bid for Philemon’s sympathy.

The reason is that he is going to ask Philemon for a favour: “with regard to my child, whom I fathered in my chains—Onesimus”.

And if you listen carefully, you will hear Philemon bellowing, “You can not be serious”, for Onesimus seems to have been a runaway slave.

But Paul has not finished, for he describes Onesimus as “my innards” (and he has just praised Philemon for “giving rest to the innards of the saints”, so our man is now rather trapped).

Not only that, Paul suggests that his send-

ing Onesimus to Philemon is doing him a favour, because “I would much prefer to keep him with me, so that on your behalf he might serve me in my gospel chains”.

And Paul is, rather unusually, being terribly diplomatic here: “I was unwilling to do anything without your permission.” And now comes the crunch: “Perhaps he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him for ever, no longer as a slave, a beloved brother [and that eruption you just heard was Philemon bellowing “A What??”].”

Then the cherry on the cake: “If you regard me as in communion with you, welcome him as though it were me.” Philemon is really being asked to see things very differently indeed.

And the Gospel carries on in the same key; Jesus turns to the accompanying crowds and delivers himself of the following astonishing remark: “If someone comes to me and does not hate their brother and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even their very life, they cannot be my disciple.”

What is going on here? It is as well not to

How to die a happy death I

munion, and, shortly after, is struck down by a heart attack or an accident.

But grace has done its work: After years of moral and religious drifting, he has returned to the fold and dies a happy death.

Indeed, we all know stories that fit that description; but, sadly, we also all know stories where this is not the case, where the opposite happens, where good people die in very unfortunate, sad, and tragic situations.

We have all lost loved ones to suicide, to alcoholism, and other ways of dying that are far from ideal. We also all know of people, good people, who have died in morally compromised situations or who died in bitterness, not able to let their hearts soften in forgiveness. Did they die unhappy deaths?

Admittedly they died in an unfortunate way, but a happy or unhappy death is not judged by whether death catches us on an up-bounce or a down-bounce.

F

or every person that fits the picture of a happy death, as described above, where death catches us on an up-bounce, there are others whose lives were marked by honesty, goodness, and love, but who then had the misfortune of being struck down in a moment of anger, in a moment of weakness, in a moment of depression, or who ended up dying from an addiction or suicide. Death caught them on a downbounce.

Did they die an unhappy death? Who is to judge?

What is a happy death? I like Sr Ruth

Conrad

N the Catholic culture within which I grew up, we were taught to pray for a happy death. For many Catholics at the time, this was a standard petition within their daily prayer: “I pray for a happy death.”

But how can one die happy? Isn’t the death-process itself excruciating? What about the pain involved in dying, in letting go of this life,in saying our last goodbyes? Can one die happy?

But the vision here, of course, was religious. A happy death meant that one died in good moral and religious circumstances.

That meant that you didn’t die in some morally compromised situation, you didn’t die alienated from your Church, you didn’t die bitter or angry at your family, and, not least, you didn’t die from suicide, drug or alcohol overdose, or engaged in some criminal activity.

The catechetical picture of a happy death most often was an anecdotal story of some person who grows up in a good Christian family, is an honest, faith-filled, chaste, church-going person, but for a period of time drifts from God, from churchgoing, and from observance of the commandments, so that, at a point, he no longer thinks much about God, no longer goes to church, and no longer takes Christian morality seriously.

But, shortly before his death, some chance circumstance becomes for him a moment of grace, and he repents of his laxity, his immorality, and his negligence of church practice, returns to church, makes a sincere confession, goes to Com-

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Sunday Reflections

rush too rapidly into an explanation, but at least we can say that it is a bit of a challenge.

Perhaps what follows makes it a bit clearer: “Anyone who does not carry their own cross” (and we shall recall that Jesus is now on his way to Jerusalem, where, as we already know, he is going to do precisely that).

Then Jesus, as is his custom, offers two images for what is going on. The first is that of building a skyscraper, and doing the necessary preliminary calculations, to make sure that one can complete the enterprise; otherwise “they may all start mocking the person, saying ‘This fellow began to build, and did not have the resources to complete!’.”

Then the second image is that of going to war, and working out whether you have sufficient troops for the enterprise.

And, finally, the very challenging conclusion, forcing us to see things differently: “So, therefore, every one of you who does not bid farewell to all their possessions, cannot be my disciple.”

There is much to reflect on, this week.

Southern Crossword #721

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

Burrows’ description. A Carmelite nun, she shares the story of a fellow nun with whom she once lived.

This sister, Sr Burrows tells us, was a good-hearted but weak woman. She had entered a contemplative convent to pray, but she could never quite muster the discipline for the task. And so she lived for years in that state: good-hearted, but mediocre.

Later in life, she was diagnosed with a terminal disease which frightened her enough so that she began to make new efforts at becoming what she was supposed to be her whole life, a woman of prayer.

But a half century of bad habits are not so easily changed. Despite new resolutions, the woman never succeeded in turning her life around. She died in her weakness.

But, Sr Burrows asserts, she died a happy death. She died the death of a weak person, asking God to forgive her for a lifetime of weakness.

To die a happy death is to die in honesty, irrespective of whether the particular circumstances of our death look good religiously or not.

Dying in right circumstances is, of course, a wonderful consolation to our families and loved ones, just as dying in sad circumstances can be heartbreaking for them.

But dying in circumstances which don’t look good, humanly or religiously, doesn’t necessarily equate with an unhappy death.

We die a happy death when we die in honesty, irrespective of circumstance or weakness.

And this truth offers another challenge: The circumstances of someone’s death, when those circumstances are sad or tragic, should not become a prism through which we then see that person’s whole life. What this means is that if someone dies in a morally compromised situation, in a moment or season of weakness, away from his or her Church, in bitterness, by suicide, or by an addiction, the goodness of that life and heart should not be judged by the circumstances of that death.

Death caught that person on a downbounce, which can make for a more guarded obituary, but not for a true judgment as to the goodness of his or her heart.

aCROss

4. Son of David (2 Sam 19) (7) 8. Unlike anything else (6) 9. Hardly grow old out of time (7) 10. A vital Baltic state (6) 11. Ten are tidier (6) 12. The bishop’s clergy (8) 18. Governor who sounds like he’s straighter (8) 20. Obedient in finding old ice (6) 21. All in tow discover what candle’s made of (6) 22. Christ’s strong emotion?

(7) 23. Your property when you are dead (6) 24. Spouse of the monarch (7) Solutions on page 11

DOWN

1. The Blessed Virgin (3,4) 2. Made a wrong judgment (7) 3. Lying flat, having disturbed Pius at start of news (6) 5. Novice (8) 6. At sea and out of debt (6) 7. Used to have someone driven out (6) 13. Another way into the church (4,4) 14. Heavenly kind of wind in respect of horoscope (7) 15. He creeps stealthily as a burglar (7) 16. Where Monte Carlo is capital (6) 17. Unmarried ladies?

Sounds like a married lady (6) 19. Let time pass, please (6)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

S

OMETIMES wives are overly suspicious of their husbands.

When Adam stayed out very late for a few nights, Eve became upset. “You’re running around with other women,” she charged.

“You’re being unreasonable, Eve” Adam responded. “You’re the only woman on earth.”

The quarrel continued until Adam fell asleep, only to be awakened by Eve poking him in the chest.

“What are you doing?” Adam demanded.

“Counting your ribs,” said Eve.

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