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September 7 to September 13, 2016

Pope Benedict on resigning, favourite saints

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Daswa: Pray for his intercession

By ManDla ZiBi

A

S the first anniversary of Bl Benedict Daswa’s beatification approaches, the promoter of his cause for canonisation has called for a “groundswell of prayer” to provide the one irrefutable miracle needed for the Vatican to declare him a saint.

“I have been urging people to pray with great confidence to God for the favours they need through the intercession of Bl Benedict Daswa. The first anniversary of his historic beatification is an opportune time to highlight his story and encourage prayer through his intercession,” said Sr Claudette Hiosan.

Bl Daswa was beatified by Cardinal Angelo Amato as a martyr before 30 000 people at Tshitanini village near Tzaneen on September 13, 2015, five years after the cause for his beatification began. He is the only person born in the Southern African region to be beatified.

Born in 1946, the school principal was bludgeoned to death by fellow villagers on February 2, 1990 for resisting witchcraft. His feast day is on September 1.

The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) at its plenary meeting in Botswana last month approved a special Prayer for Canonisation which will be coming out in print soon through Mariannhill Media.

Sr Hiosan’s previous meeting with the bishops in Pretoria had been “very fruitful, enthusiastic and encouraging”.

“It was suggested that we make an effort to refresh people’s memories of last year’s wonderful celebration of the beatification and recapture some of the enthusiasm and joy which was so evident in the country at that time,” she told The Southern Cross.

The bishops also gave the green light for a Blessed Daswa Novena for the nine days preceding the anniversary, beginning on September 4. Generally, a novena is a devotion consisting of prayers said on nine consecutive days, appealing for the granting of special graces.

“In my correspondence with people, both the novena and official Prayer to Obtain Favours have been used very efficaciously by many, and I’m receiving many reports of answers to prayer, including some healings,” Sr Hiosan said.

The Church requires only one inexplicable healing miracle for Bl Daswa to be canonised a saint of the Universal Church, “so it is important that we encourage a groundswell of prayer”, she said.

A majority of answered prayers came from

The martyr Bl Benedict Daswa was beatified a year ago on September 13. around South Africa, and mostly involved areas of peoples’ lives which Bl Daswa would have been quite interested in, Sr Hiosan said.

This ranged from people who had found jobs after having been retrenched, to small businesses which had revived after closing due to hard economic times.

“People need to know that Bl Daswa is receiving our prayers of intercession. We therefore have to take the huge energy and passion of last year and fan it into a flame for healing and an avenue for the obtaining of our favours from God,” Sr Hiosan urged.

The next step will be canonisation, for which a miracle is required—none was needed for the beatification because Daswa was declared a martyr for the faith.

After a report of a miracle is forwarded to the Vatican, it is investigated by independent experts who must declare it inexplicable, spontaneous and permanent. Once the pope is satisfied that the miracle can be approved and that there are no impediments to sainthood, he may issue a decree of canonisation.

Novena booklets and prayer cards with the Prayer to Obtain Favours are available in Venda, Tsonga, Sepedi, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, Afrikaans and English from the diocesan office in Tzaneen and also online. Novena booklets are R5 each and prayer cards R3 each. For supplies, contact Sr Hiosan at 076 570 8843 or e-mail bendaswa@mweb.co.za To report favours obtained and to get further details about the Servant of God, Benedict Daswa, you can write to the e-mail above or to: Sister Claudette Hiosan FDNSC, Diocese of Tzaneen, PO Box 261, Tzaneen, 0850, or visit benedictdaswa.org.za n See also page 11 for the prayer for Bl Daswa’s intercession, for you to cut out and keep.

Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington presides over Mass to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Kamieskroon parish near Springbok in the northern Cape. See report on page 3.

Hair row an ‘opportunity for overdue dialogue’

By ManDla ZiBi

T

HE head of one of South Africa’s oldest racially integrated Catholic schools welcomed last week‘s “hair protests” by black girls at former white schools as a “fantastic, wonderful opportunity for dialogue and change”.

Colin Northmore, head of Johannesburg’s Sacred Heart College, spoke after protests broke out at Pretoria Girls High School and spread to at least three more schools in Gauteng, Free State and the Western Cape, where black girl learners demonstrated against policies on hair, claiming that these are racially discriminatory.

The protests provide an opportunity for a long-delayed conversation on many issues that still plague the education sector in South Africa, Mr Northmore told The Southern Cross.

“One of these is the difference between tolerance and diversity. As a school, you have to understand that diversity means you give up your most cherished traditions and embrace a new shared identity,” he said.

“Tolerance means: yes, you can be with us at our school but you must do everything our own way. [But] that does not work in a country like ours. We should do away with an ‘Us versus Them’ attitude in our schools.”

Girls’ hair has become a topic of controversy—and of opportunity, according to a Catholic school principal. (Photo: Ulrike May) Mr Northmore agreed that rules, on issues like hair and dress, are important, but he maintained that the key consideration should be “the educational value or purpose of any such rule or policy code”.

“It is a sensitive balancing act but you can’t just be arbitrary about making rules. There must be a clear relation between the rule and its practical value for the learner’s life after Continued on page 3

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The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

LOCAL

80th anniversary goes off in style A

Bishop Zungu with parishioners after the packed two-hour 80th anniversary Mass at St Patrick’s church in Sydenham, Port Elizabeth. The Mass was broadcast on Safm radio last week. (Photo: Hilton norton)

PORT Elizabeth parish celebrated its 80th anniversary in fine liturgical style with a special Mass presided over by Bishop Vincent Mduduzi Zungu.

St Patrick’s church in Sydenham was packed for the two-hour Mass, which was followed by a threecourse lunch.

“The 80th anniversary reminds us that God is the Lord of history,” Bishop Zungu told the parish as he congratulated the community on the anniversary.

He asked the parish to strive to “become the dream Church” of Pope Francis.

The pope said: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined

and from clinging to its own security.”

The current Jubilee Year of Mercy “is a moment of grace that occurs in God’s perfect timing during which we are all encouraged to be ‘merciful like the Father’ (Lk 6:30),” Bishop Zungu said.

“It is ‘God’s year of favour’ that challenges all of us to rekindle the wonderful gift of faith that we have received in baptism and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

“He directs all the events of our life,” the bishop said. “The Church herself is not just a static or fixed institution; it is rather a dynamic, lifegiving community of believers where God’s abiding presence, love, mercy, forgiveness, justice, peace and joy are experienced and celebrated through full, active and con-

scious participation in the Eucharist, which is the ‘source and summit’ of all our Christian life.”

Fr Henry Chibukie Ezewanne CO, priest-in-charge at St Patrick’s, noted that the parish has “not only historical richness”, but is also a cosmopolitan community with 15 nationalities: apart from South Africans, it includes Burundians, Cameroonians, Congolese, Chinese, Ghanaians, Greeks, Indians, Italians, Irish, Malawians, Portuguese, Nigerians, Zambians and Zimbabweans.

“For the past six years, since 2010, I have been in this parish through the grace of God and the support of the people. There have been gradual, but notable transformations that have taken place,” Fr Ezewanne said.

Apostleship of the Sea offers vital support to world’s sailors

T

HE Apostleship of the Sea (AoS), a Catholic ministry which is active in South Africa and worldwide, is always ready to support seafarers in crisis.

Recently, crew members of the cargo ship MV Moonray were left shocked when an accident on board resulted in the death of a colleague.

The dead seafarer was a 26-yearold Filipino man, a member of a close-knit crew—or a “family” at sea.

“The bereavement had a huge effect on the emotional and psychological wellbeing of the other crew members,” said Terry Whitfield, national director of AoS in Durban.

They received immediate support from AoS in Mombasa, Kenya, where the ship had docked.

AoS Mombasa port chaplain Fr George Sunguh went on board the ship to support the crew and organised Mass to be said on board.

This proved great comfort to the grieving seafarers, Mr Whitfield said.

Despite still being in a state of shock, the crew members had to carry on working and the MV Moonray continued its voyage regardless.

“Unlike shore-based workplaces, seafarers don’t normally get timeoff for bereavement or the necessary support. This is where AoS port chaplains are able to fill such gaps,” Mr Whitfield said.

When the ship arrived in Durban port, AoS port chaplain Fr Herman Giraldo attempted to board the ship after having tracked the vessel.

“Unfortunately, this was not possible as the ship arrived at 2am and set sail again three hours later,

Members of the Maris Stella choir give their all at a choir concert at Durban’s Emnanuel cathedral.

apostleship of the Sea chaplain Fr George Sunguh held Mass on a cargo ship docked in Mombasa after a death on board. spending only a few hours at the port with the crew working all out to get the ship turned around quickly,” said Mr Whitfield.

Ships nowadays have to meet strict schedules—unnecessary delays mean additional costs, he explained.

“This case illustrates the difficulties posed by short turnaround times when trying to provide support to crew,” Mr Whitfield said.

When the ship docked at Santos port in Brazil, AoS port chaplain Fr Samuel Fonseca and his team visited the crew on board. They were reassured by the ministry’s continued prayers and support for them.

Mr Whitfield said that 90% of world trade is transported by ship,

“but the life of a modern seafarer can be dangerous and lonely. They may spend up to a year at a time away from home, separated from their family and loved ones, often working in harsh conditions.”

AoS chaplains and ship visitors “welcome seafarers to our shores, regardless of their creed, and provide them with pastoral and practical assistance. They recognise them as brothers and sisters with an intrinsic human dignity which can be overlooked in the modern globalised maritime industry”, Mr Whitfield said. n For more information contact Terry Whitfield at venture@saol.com or visit www.apostleshipofthesea.org. za

Catholic schools raise their voices in song

C

HOIRS from six Catholic senior schools took part in the third annual “Sing With One Voice” concert in Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral.

Some 200 young people from Maris Stella, St Benedict, St Francis Mariannhill, Our Lady of Fatima Dominican Convent, St Henry’s Marist and Holy Family College sang a wide variety of choral pieces at the concert, hosted by the Denis Hurley Centre.

The works included South African favourites like “Malibongwe” and “Mowbray Kaap”, and international hits such as “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Laudato Si’”.

A special religious piece titled “Paracletos”, which was composed

by Madelein O’Toole of Fatima convent, was also performed.

The finale saw the combined

choirs give a stirring rendition of “Weeping”, the 1987 hit by South African band Bright Blue.

In addition to many hundreds of parents and supporters, special guests included Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, Bishop Barry Wood and papal nuncio Archbishop Peter Wells.

This fundraising initiative was originally started by three pupils from Maris Stella High School who wanted to do something in solidarity with other pupils to raise funds for the Denis Hurley Centre which works with the poorest and most destitute in Durban to help uplift and better their lives in many creative ways. n For more information on the Denis Hurley Centre or how to contribute or volunteer, e-mail info@denishurley centre.org

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The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

LOCAL

New time for SC on Veritas

young altar servers listen to the homily at Mass at St Peter Claver church in Pimville, Soweto.

(Photo: Sello Mokoka)

T

HE new broadcast time for Fr Emil Blaser’s weekly interview with The Southern Cross’ editor every Friday morning on Radio Veritas is now 8:30.

In the segment, Fr Blaser and Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher discuss the latest issue

I

T is not enough for President Jacob Zuma to say that he can’t intervene in the standoff between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Hawks. “The president can and should do more,” said Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley, chair of the Justice & Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

Mr Zuma has said that he cannot bring the probe to a halt, even if it affects the economy negatively. In late August Mr Gordhan snubbed a Hawks demand to present himself at its offices for a warning statement about charges that stem from his time as commissioner of the South African Revenue Service.

“We ask the president to intervene in the current impasse in a manner that assures the country that the probe against the finance minister is not politically motivated‚” said Bishop Gabuza.

The bishops’ concern is “that

current uncertainties around the future of the finance minister and the Treasury are not in the interests of the poorest of the poor”, he said.

“In the context of the current fragile economy‚ and given the enormous hardships that the poor are already facing in our country‚ it is ethically improper of our political leaders to create uncertainties around the Treasury and diminish the country’s ability to avert a credit-rating downgrade that would hurt the poor‚” the bishop said.

“That is why we are calling on the presidency and parliament to do more to intervene in the current crisis around the Treasury,” he said.

“As there is a lot at stake for the economy and the poor, we ask the president to offer the country a greater level of assurance that the Hawks’ probe against the finance minister was not initiated as part of a broader ploy to remove the finance minister from office and weaken Treasury’s capacity to fight tender corruption and inefficient

governance of state-owned enterprises,” Bishop Gabuza said.

Mr Zuma’s claim that he is unable to intervene “has failed to offer such a high level of assurance. More needs to be done”, the bishop said.

Bishop Gabuza stressed that “as Church leaders we do not have the competence to determine the merits and demerits of the alleged criminal case against” Mr Gordhan, adding that nobody, including finance ministers, is above the law However, he added: “We strongly caution our political leaders against the use of state agencies and judicial processes to fight their factional battles and advance their narrow interests‚ without regard to its consequences on the economy and the poor.”

Political analysts have attributed the Hawks’ investigation into Mr Gordhan as a ploy by Mr Zuma or those close to him to undermine the finance minister, who has refused to sign off on certain tenders, bail-outs and projects.

Kamieskroon parishioners and wellwishers gathered for a weekend of pilgrimage, festivities, prayer and Mass on the parish’s 70th anniversary.

Springbok mayor leads parish pilgrimage

By ManDla ZiBi

T

HE newly-elected Catholic mayor of Springbok in Northern Cape, Lorenzo Faber, carried the cross during a pilgrimage to celebrate 70 years of the Kamieskroon mission in the Keimoes-Upington diocese.

The hour-long walk from nearby Kroonsig to the mission was part of a weekend of festivity, prayer and sacraments to mark the founding of Kamieskroon parish in 1946, when it became independent from Rietpoort.

Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington presided over the final Mass on Sunday.

Titled “Mary Mother of Mercy Pray for Us”, the pilgrimage, which featured praying the rosary and scripture readings, also incorporated the Year of Mercy theme.

The idea was the brainchild of parish priest Fr Phumlani Ndlovu, who said that he “is one of those people who are crazy about pilgrimages”. He was also inspired by the recent Day of the Assumption celebrations in midAugust.

“I use every possible event in our parish as an excuse for a pilgrimage.

For me, any stretch of time without a pilgrimage seems a lost opportunity

for a deeper connection with our Lord and our faith,” said Fr Ndlovu.

Other highlights of the weekend included a live broadcast of the launch by the local community radio station, Radio NFM, a book reading and a documentary film screening on the history of Kamieskroon mission. The author of a yet to be published book is local teacher Willem Fortuin, while the documentary was compiled and produced by Fr Ndlovu.

“It features stories and testimonies by residents of the parish; old teachers and students of the old Kamieskroon Boarding School and workers at the mission,” he said.

Sadly, the Catholic boarding school is no more; it was closed around ten years ago and merged with a government-owned institution. It had been a source of employment in the area, Fr Ndlovu told The Southern Cross, with some of its students coming from as far as Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

The priest thanked Bishop Risi and all those who had been part of the anniversary: “What a privilege it is to be a child of faith! My friends from Holy Rosary parish in Okiep also brought a beautiful flavour with them towards the pilgrimage and liturgies.”

of the newspaper, highlighting stories of particular interest to Catholic readers.

For many years Mr Simmermacher was a weekly guest on Brian Letellier’s Monday evening programme, reviewing the past week’s edition. as part of the Dominican jubilee celebrations, marking 800 years of the order’s foundation, the Grade 7s of St Thomas aquinas’ School in Witbank, Mpumalanga, visited the local hospital to hand out gifts to mothers. (Photo: Kerrelin Khan)

‘Do better on Gordhan’ STaFF REPORTER

3

Dialogue needed in schools Continued from page 1 school, for instance for purposes of finding a good job,” Mr Northmore said.

“Another important issue is that rules must be part of and reflect the culture of inclusivity and diversity of the school.

“You also need to provide an appeal process for learners so they know that they can challenge the rules,” the principal said.

The educationist called on society and education authorities “not to vilify” the management of schools affected by protest, but to give them the space necessary for dialogue to take place.

The Catholic Institute of Education (CIE) also urged “open dialogue” around issues of

Candle

Lord, May this candle be a light for you to enlighten me in my difficulties and decisions.

May it be a fire for you to burn out of me all pride, selfishness and impurity.

May it be a flame for you to bring warmth into my heart towards my family, my neighbours and all those who meet me.

Through the prayers of Mary Virgin and Mother I place in your care those I come to pray for (especially…………..)

I cannot stay long with you in this church; In leaving this candle I wish to give to you something of myself

Help me to continue my prayer into everything I do this day. enlarge- print- frame it - distribute

Amen

transformation in schools.

“We encourage schools to develop policies in line with Catholic social teaching in pursuit of the common good, such as dignity of the person, subsidiarity, social justice, and solidarity,” the CIE’s Kelsay Correa said in a statement.

“Policies must also be in line with current legislation. Engaging learners, staff and parents in the development of policies is encouraged in order to ensure the support of all members of the community.”

Ms Correa said the CIE’s Building Peaceful Catholic Schools Programme emphasised improved listening skills and understanding of race and gender issues facing South African society in order to change prejudices and attitudes.

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The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Benedict XVI’s ‘travel companions for life’

By EliSE HaRRiS

S Pope Francis met with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan at the pope’s residence Domus Sanctae Marthae, in the Vatican. Mr Zuckerberg presented Pope Francis with a model replica of aquila, a solar-powered aircraft that will beam internet connectivity to areas with limited or no connection. On his Facebook page, Mr Zuckerberg expressed his admiration for the pope: “it was a meeting we’ll never forget. you can feel his warmth and kindness, and how deeply he cares about helping people.”

Non-violence theme for World Peace Day 2017

By JUnnO aROCHO ESTEVES

W

HEN non-violence is the basic approach of political decisions and public policy, it promotes the restoration and consolidation of peace, the Vatican said.

In his message for the January 1, 2017 celebration of World Peace Day, Pope Francis will offer reflections on the importance of non-violence as a political choice.

“Non-violence: A style of politics for peace” is the theme the pope chose for World Peace Day 2017, the Vatican said. A papal message on the theme will be sent to heads of states around the world in December.

Pope Francis’ frequent references to a “third world war in pieces” highlight the “serious negative social consequences” of violence.

“Peace, by contrast, promotes socially positive consequences and it allows the achievement of real progress. Therefore, we should act

within what is possible, and negotiate ways of peace even where they seem tortuous and impractical,” the Vatican statement said.

By recognising the rights and equal dignity of every person, nonviolence as a political method can “constitute a realistic way to overcome armed conflicts”.

“In this perspective, it becomes important to increasingly recognise not the right of force but the force of right,” the statement said.

In choosing non-violence as the World Peace Day theme, Pope Francis wants to indicate a “path of hope” in a world that needs to learn to settle disputes through negotiation rather than resorting to conflict fuelled by the “scourge” of illegal arms trafficking.

“It does not mean that one nation can remain indifferent to the tragedies of another. Rather it means a recognition of the primacy of diplomacy over the noise of arms”.—CNS

INCE he resigned from the papacy over three years ago, Benedict XVI rarely gives interviews.

In a recent exception, however, the former pontiff took the time to chat not only about his successor, but the saints who have accompanied him throughout his life.

In the interview, published in Italian newspaper La Reppublica, Pope Benedict said he has been serene and happy since his resignation, and that while there were “smaller and larger difficulties” in his pontificate, there were also “many graces” that came from the fact that he wasn’t alone.

“From the beginning I was conscious of my limits and I accepted, as I have always sought to do in my life, in a spirit of obedience,” he said.

“I realised that all I had to do I couldn’t do alone and so I was almost forced to put myself in the hands of God, to entrust myself to Jesus, to whom, as I gradually wrote my volume on him (Jesus of Nazareth), I felt bound by an old and ever deeper friendship.”

Aside from Jesus himself, Pope Benedict said Mary also played a key role in supporting him through the difficulties he faced.

He also named several saints and Doctors of the Church who have played a key role throughout his life and pontificate.

He said his “travel companions for life” have always been St Augustine and the Franciscan St Bonaventure, whom he referred to as “my masters of the Spirit”.

The retired pontiff also pointed to his namesake, St Benedict of Nursia, whose motto “Prefer nothing to Christ” became “ever more familiar” throughout his time as bishop of Rome.

Finally, Pope Benedict said that St Francis, “the poor man of Assisi”, has been another close companion on his journey. St Francis, he said,

Ss Bonaventure and augustine, whom retired Pope Benedict XVi named as being among his “travel companions for life”. was “the first to intuit that the world is the mirror of the creative love of God, from whom we come and toward whom we are journeying”.

Pope Benedict said the consolation he received during his pontificate came not just from above, but arrived daily through the letters of “humble and simple people that wanted to inform me that they were close to me, that they prayed for me”. This support, he said, hasn’t stopped.

Speaking about Pope Francis, he said that obedience to his successor “was never in discussion”. Since Francis’ election, a feeling of “deep communion and friendship” has arisen between the two.

“At the moment of his election I experienced, as many, a spontaneous feeling of gratitude towards Providence,” he said, explaining that after having two popes from Central Europe, “the Lord was turning, so to speak, his gaze to the universal Church and invited us to a more extensive communion, more Catholic”.

Pope Benedict said he was deeply moved by Pope Francis’ “extraordinary human availability to me”

from the beginning.

He noted how immediately after Francis was elected, the new pope attempted to call him at his residence in the Vatican’s Mater Ecclesiae monastery. Having failed to reach him, Francis called again right after greeting faithful from the balcony of St Peter’s, this time succeeding.

Not only does Francis frequently send “little gifts” and personal letters to Benedict, but he also makes sure to visit his predecessor before embarking on every major trip he takes.

“The human benevolence with which he treats me, is for me a special grace of this last phase of my life for which I can only be grateful,” he said.

“What he says about availability to other men, are not only words.

He puts it into practice with me.

May the Lord in turn make him feel his benevolence every day. This I ask the Lord for him.”

Pope Benedict’s interview was given to Italian author Elio Guerrero, whose book Servant of God and Humanity: The biography of Benedict XVI was published in Italian, with a foreword by Pope Francis.—CNA

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How? By donating a new or pre-owned laptop to aid offenders with their studies for research and to enable them to submit online assignments.

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By JUnnO aROCHO ESTEVES

A

SPANISH monsignor found guilty of leaking confidential documents about the Vatican’s financial reform has begun serving his 18-month prison sentence at the Vatican.

Mgr Lucio Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, was found guilty of stealing and passing on documents to Italian journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi.

Following the court’s ruling, Mgr Vallejo Balda was allowed limited freedom of movement within the confines of Vatican City State. However, he was formally arrested by Vatican police and placed in a prison cell to begin his sentence.

The cell is located in the building of the Gendarme Corps of Vatican City State, as the Vatican police force is formally known. It

Mgr lucio Vallejo Balda is presumed to be the same cell prepared for Paolo Gabriele, the former papal butler who leaked reserved papal correspondence in 2012. Gabriele was pardoned by Pope Benedict XVI after serving less than three months of an 18month sentence.

Francesca Chaouqui, a member of the former Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, was given a 10-month suspended sentence for her role in encouraging the leaks

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while Nicola Maio, Mgr Vallejo Balda’s former assistant, was found not guilty and acquitted of all charges.

The information leaked by Mgr Vallejo Balda was published in Nuzzi’s book, Merchants in the Temple, and Fittipaldi’s book, Avarice. Both books focused on the irregularities uncovered by the commission Pope Francis established to study the financial activity of Vatican offices.

Citing freedom of the press, Judge Giuseppe Della Torre, head of the tribunal of the Vatican City State, also acquitted Messrs Nuzzi and Fittipaldi, declaring that the court had no legitimate jurisdiction over the journalists.

During the trial, Mgr Vallejo Balda was briefly under house arrest before he was remanded back to a Vatican jail cell in March after it was discovered he violated the terms of his house arrest by communicating with the outside world.—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

5

Pope sets up new Egypt to pass new church-building law mega-department

By MaTT HaDRO

T

HE Vatican has announced Pope Francis’ decision to form a new mega-dicastery merging the Vatican offices for Justice and Peace, migrants, charity and healthcare.

Dedicated to “Promoting Integral Human Development” the new department—also called a dicastery—will be headed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, who since March 2013 has served as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. It is set to take effect on January 1, 2017.

The new congregation will take on the tasks of the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, Cor Unum, and Healthcare Workers.

Pope Francis’ decision to establish the new dicastery is part of his ongoing reform of the Roman curia, and is a fruit of meetings with his Council of Cardinals, who advise him on matters of Church governance and reform.

During their meeting at the Vatican in September 2015, the Council of Cardinals submitted a proposal to the pope to establish two new mega-dicasteries, one dedicated to Laity, Family and Life, and

Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson has been appointed head of a new mega-dicastery. (Photo: CnS) one dedicated to Justice, Peace and Charity.

The new congregation for Laity, Family and Life was officially announced by Francis during the October 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family, and is headed by US Bishop Kevin Farrell. It went officially into effect on September 1.

In addition to taking on the tasks of the pontifical councils for the laity and the family, the new

department for Laity, Family and Life will also assume the competencies of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

While the name of the new Congregation for Integral Human Development was initially expected to include the elements of the councils it will merge, the final choice is a reflection of Pope Francis’ own personal style and is reminiscent of themes he has spoken of frequently since his election.

In his motu proprio Humanam progressionem that announced the new congregation, Pope Francis stressed that the Church is called to promote the integral development of the human person in the light of the Gospel, which “takes place by attending to the inestimable goods of justice, peace, and the care of creation”.

He approved the statutes for the new dicastery ad experimentum, explaining that it will be competent “particularly in issues regarding migrants, those in need, the sick, the excluded and marginalised, the imprisoned and the unemployed, as well as victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, and all forms of slavery and torture”.—CNA

C

HRISTIANS in Egypt are hoping that a new law will make it easier for them to build churches, particularly after old laws effectively forced many Christians to celebrate Mass in house churches.

Article 235 of the 2014 Constitution of Egypt mandated that the country’s parliament would “in its first legislative term” pass a new law about building churches “in a manner that guarantees the freedom to practice religious rituals for Christians”.

However, the parliament did not pass the law in its first term, and set a new deadline by the end of September.

Christians have encountered serious obstacles to building new churches in Egypt, thanks to old laws that require approval from the local community and from the president.

The group Coptic Solidarity noted that over the past six decades

only two churches per year have been approved in Egypt, and there are only 2600 churches in the entire country—about one church for every 5500 Christian citizens, the group said, noting that there is one mosque for every 620 Muslim citizens.

Christians have resorted to having Mass said in their houses or other buildings, “triggering countless acts of mob violence, often backed by official indifference, complacency, or state intervention charging Copts on the spurious basis of using unauthorised places of worship,” Coptic Solidarity said.

Thus, the new law to which the amendments are attached was supposed to ease the process of church building; Christians wouldn’t have to get approval from the president, but rather from the local leader, and there was reportedly a four-month timetable for an approval.

The cabinet is expected to send a draft of a bill to parliament by the end of this month.—CNA.

Bishop takes fight to domestic violence Burkini saga ends, but cultural A conflict continues in France

By MaRy REZaC

T

HE lifting of a controversial burkini ban in beach town along the French Riviera may signal an end to similar policies in the country—but it has not put an end to cultural tensions surrounding it.

A burkini is a type of full-body swimwear that some Muslim women wear in order to cover their arms, legs and hair.

The Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, ruled that the burkini ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet “seriously and clearly illegally breached fundamental freedoms”, including freedom of belief.

Grégor Puppinck, director of the European Centre for Law and Justice in Strasbourg, France, said that while he was glad that the burkini issue may be over—in terms of individual freedoms it is quite important”—it is not the end of the cultural conflicts in the country.

“We now are in a critical time of our history, and we are realising that Muslims are Muslims. We believed for decades that the immigrants could become secular, and could adhere to secular values. And now we

are witnessing in a large extent the failure of this idea, and now we see that this whole portion of the French population does not want to share these values of our modern, contemporary culture,” he said.

The burkini bans have sparked outcry and debate worldwide, with some people posting photos on social media showing Muslim women being fined by police and being forced to remove their clothing in order to comply with the bans.

Many people on Twitter criticised the burkini ban by posting photos of Catholic religious sisters in full habits at the beach.

Bishop Nunzio Galantino, the sec-

retary-general of the Italian bishops’ conference, also criticised the burkini ban, saying that he found it “ironic” that officials are concerned about women who are overdressed while going out for a swim.

“It’s hard to imagine that a woman [in a burkini] who enters the water is there to carry out an attack,” Bishop Galantino said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.

Religious sisters in full habit, including a long skirt, long sleeves and a veil, are a common sight on the beaches of Italy.

“We should remember that 100 years ago, the same Republican values were used against the Catholics,” he said. At that time, the Third Republic officially established state secularism in France, causing a subsequent wave of anti-Catholicism, which included the end of government funding for religious schools, mandatory civil marriage and the removal of chaplains from the army,” Mr Puppink said.

“So we should remember that the French Republic has always been anti-religious, so Christians should not imagine that the Republic is in some extent their ally, but keep faithful to our own hope and religion and values and faith.” —CNA

N archdiocese in Uganda aims to eliminate domestic violence.

“It’s a concern for the family, it’s a concern for the society, above all, it’s a concern for the Church, and we cannot keep quiet,” Archbishop Emmanuel Obbo of Tororo told the Catholic News Agency of Africa.

He said domestic violence is a major challenge present “in almost every family” in his diocese.

The archbishop lamented violence between spouses as well as child beating and the defilement of children. “Young girls are not free to live in this society,” he said.

Now the archdiocese of Tororo is taking action. Involving clergy, vowed religious and catechists, the archbishop has established a chaplaincy for domestic violence in each deanery of his archdiocese to oversee the campaign, and there are also domestic violence committees in each parish.

Archbishop Obbo said the committees draw people who have suffered or committed abuse to help parishioners consider what causes domestic violence and learn how to seek non-violent solutions to challenges.

“We get families who have passed through [domestic violence], who have been trained and cured or healed themselves, reconciled themselves, and they spread their witness to the others, teaching them from place to place,” he said.

The archdiocese uses radio pro-

grammes to discuss violence and to involve law enforcement officers to deal with perpetrators of domestic violence.

Archbishop Obbo objected to those who blame domestic violence on poverty. Rather, he said, domestic violence has become a “way of life” for people who cannot accept their personal situations.

“People are not satisfied with the way they live, the time is running, people are competing, they want to see better things but they cannot see better things in themselves, and that frustrates,” he said.

Another Ugandan prelate, Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, spoke up at the 2015 Synod on the Family about the issue of domestic violence, saying he saw “children suffering, but more the mothers who had given life to these children being put in a situation of stress and of pain”.—CNS

Priest-killer freed in Turkey Eucharist desecrated,

By JUnnO aROCHO ESTEVES

A

MAN imprisoned for killing an Italian Catholic priest in Turkey has been released after serving only less than half of his 18year sentence.

Oguzhan Akdin was among thousands of prisoners released early from prison in Turkey to make room for new prisoners allegedly involved in a July coup attempt, reported Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

Following the July 15-16 coup attempt, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a threemonth state of emergency, allowing his government to rule by decree and suspend some rights and freedoms.

Thousands of civilians, government employees and military per-

sonnel have been detained or imprisoned for their suspected involvement in the failed coup attempt.

Akdin was found guilty of committing murder in 2006 of Italian Father Andrea Santoro, who was shot twice in the head while he prayed at St Mary church in Trabzon, Turkey.

Witnesses say Akdin, who was 16 at the time, shouted Allahu Akbar (God is great) while he shot the priest. After his arrest, Akdin said he murdered the priest in response to cartoon depictions of the prophet Mohammed published in Denmark.

Despite Akdin’s confession, observers had expressed doubt about the swiftness of the investigation, Fides reported. The suspect’s young age also guaranteed a lighter sentence than those given to an adult under similar circumstances.—CNS

nuns hurt in robbery

T

HREE men broke into the Missionaries of Charity house in Mar del Plata, Argentina, beat the sisters and desecrated their chapel.

The three unidentified men entered the house of the community—which was founded by St Mother Teresa— and proceeded to beat and gag the five sisters who reside there. They then ransacked every corner of the house and finally took 50 Argentinian pesos (R50), which was the only cash the sisters had.

They also entered the chapel in search of valuable objects. They opened up the tabernacle and emptied out the consecrated hosts that were there in the ciborium, presumably to steal the sacred vessel. When they realised that it was not made of gold, they left it behind.

This marks the second time in recent weeks that the Eucharist was desecrated in Argentina. Unidentified men entered Our Lady of Mercy parish in the Santa Fe province of Argentina, where they desecrated and stole a bronze tabernacle containing consecrated hosts.

An act of reparation was offered in the desecrated church presided over by the Archbishop of Santa Fe, José María Arancedo.—CNA

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6

The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

A nation of rape

W

HILE President Jacob Zuma took to the podium to sign off the results of last month’s municipal elections, a protest by a group of women reminded the nation of his rape trial ten years ago.

Although Mr Zuma was acquitted, the verdict in the court of public opinion is still not unanimous. But the protest was not only about the president’s past but also about the present reality in South Africa where one in four women can expect to be raped in her lifetime.

The incidence of rape in South Africa is so common that sometimes our traumatised nation fails to be adequately shocked.

The crime statistics for 2014/15 record 43 195 reported rapes, a decrease of 7% over five years but nevertheless an average of 118 reported rapes every day.

Research studies suggest that, depending on the locality, as little as one in 13 rapes are reported to the police.

Some studies estimate that the true annual figure for rape could be as high as 482 000—that translates to one rape every 11 minutes. At that level of prevalence, a decrease of 7% is negligible.

Compounding the scandal of rape in South Africa is the excess in brutality that often accompanies the crime. At least a quarter of all rapes involve more than one perpetrator, most commonly in gang-related crimes.

South Africa is desperately failing to protect its female population, and its society in general.

The experts point to various constituents to account for South Africa’s rape epidemic: a patriarchal society in which women, even if protected by civil law, are commonly prevented from exercising their rights, especially in terms of their sexual autonomy; a culture of violence in which aggression is displaced and directed at weaker members of society; a system of law enforcement and justice which fails to punish rapists for their crimes, with the consequence that few of the cases actually reported result in a conviction.

Deplorably, a significant number of South Africans routinely trivialise sexual assault. Some believe that a victim “enjoys” the assault (as some Zuma supporters claimed in the 2006 case); others blame her for attracting sexual

violence by the clothes she wears. And not a few South Africans believe it justifiable that lesbians—and male homosexuals—should be raped to “correct” their sexual orientation.

The stigma of rape seems to weigh heavier on the victim than it does on her attacker. In this respect, South Africa certainly is not unique. Worldwide, it takes an admirable measure of courage for a survivor of rape to speak publicly about her experience.

The often misogynist reaction to reported campus rapes in the United States testifies to this.

Even the comedian Bill Cosby, who is accused of drugging and raping scores of women, still has his vocal supporters.

The Catholic Church condemns rape robustly: “Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It is always an intrinsically evil act, and child-rape even more so” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2356). And yet, faced with responding pastorally to instances of sexual violence, even Church leaders have stumbled.

According to Rape Crisis, there are several reasons why most women don’t report sexual assault to the police. These include fear of retaliation or intimidation by the perpetrator, psychological trauma and selfblame, inadequate access to services, lack of confidence in the police and justice system, their relationship to the attacker (most rapists are known to their victims), fear of negative consequences when the victim is financially dependent on the perpetrator, and the social stigma attached to victims of rape in a community.

Some of these obstacles are immovable until the economic and social liberation of women is accomplished, but on others immediate action must be made possible, particularly in improving law enforcement and justice, providing access to services, and destigmatising rape victims.

As the statistics show, in South Africa the state and civil society clearly are not doing enough to rise up against the incidence of rape. We must speak out. We must work for the empowerment of women. And we must forthrightly stigmatise the rapists, not their victims.

Roots of Charismatic Renewal

C

ATHOLIC Charismatic Renewal started on the day of Pentecost on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, at the birth of the Church. On that day of Pentecost, 3 000 men were added to their number—not counting the women and children—because of the power, presence and infilling of the Holy Spirit.

The Church was vibrant, alive and active, introducing people to the Holy Spirit, and speaking in tongues was an everyday and normal thing.

Somehow, as some priests would remind us, “the Holy Spirit has become the most neglected person of the Triune God”. Therefore we have Charismatic Renewal, with “renewal” being the operative word.

As the Catholic Charismatic Re-

Baptism trend cause for concern

I

T is with great concern that I have noticed a new trend with regard to baptism in the Church.

I attended a baptism where the infant had four godparents, with the “main” godparent not even Catholic. Prior to the child being baptised, he was also “accepted” into the father’s church.

What is happening in the Church these days? What are people taught at the baptism instructions? Are we too scared to challenge non-Catholics, and can we not defend our faith?

The Church and our faith are under siege. I find this new trend unacceptable—can someone please explain.

Mark Kayter, Johannesburg

What of Jesus’ response to gays?

T

HE response by JH Goossen (August 3) to the letter from a young gay Catholic (July 13) was most inappropriate.

I was sickened by Mr Goossen invoking the loving generous response of Our Lord to his mother by turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana and then conjuring an imaginary incident where Our Lord would have rejected the embrace of a young gay Catholic.

Our Lord would more likely have returned the embrace and expressed sorrow about the way gay people, whom God has created, have been so badly treated throughout the ages.

Yes, of course the Church condemns debauchery, both by homosexuals and heterosexuals, but we are talking now about loving rela-

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newal movement we wish to re-introduce the charism and gifts of the Holy Spirit within the Church.

For many the Holy Spirit is lying dormant until they realise through a charismatic gathering that he is here to remind us of everything Jesus said and did.

Many people’s lives are being changed and transformed after having encountered the Holy Spirit.

“For how can we neglect such a gift?” He is a living person bringing to life that which is dead and lost.

Charismatic Renewal is not an enemy of the Church—on the contrary, we want to build up the Church and bring back the lapsed, the lonely and the least, including those who have left the Church for one reason or another.

Catholics should be encouraged

tionships between two committed people.

This reminds me of my experiences in the apartheid era when I felt that in many ways I had more in common with my Jewish and Protestant friends in the Progressive Party and its successors than I had with some of my fellow Catholic parishioners who were racist at that time.

June Boyer, Johannesburg

Evangelisation vs private Catholics

F

OR most of us, evangelisation means to proclaim the four marks of the Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.

The word evangelisation has overtones of Protestantism for many of us. In fact it is only in comparatively recent years that “evangelise” appears in official Catholic documents—chiefly since Pope Paul VI and Evangelii Nuntiandi.

Having been a member of many parishes in my life, it is clear from the terminology of many Catholics that the basic Gospel message, the kerygma, has not been fully apppropriated; that we are sacramentalised rather than evangelised.

Many aspire to the “teaching”, be good and God will love you.

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

to embrace this movement, not only to tolerate it but to celebrate it.

The leaders within the Church can guide us, lead us and teach us— and if we go wrong, redirect us gently onto the right path.

I would want to see a church packed with men and women who are hungry and thirsty for God; men and women who have surrendered their life to the lordship of Jesus.

Soon it will not be necessary to have a specifically charismatic group because the Church is by nature charismatic.

It is her birthright to operate, function and live just like Jesus did at all times.

I want to encourage Catholics to give Charismatic Renewal an opportunity to be a living presence in their parish and experience spiritual growth as never before.

Stephen Selbourne, Cape Town

However, God loved us while we were still sinners. We achieve salvation and are justified by saving faith in Jesus Christ, working in love.

I have great admiration for Jehovah’s Witnesses who are not afraid to stand on street corners, joyfully, while distributing their literature.

There should be no such thing as a so-called “private Catholic”. Others should know we are genuine Catholic believers by the contagious joy that flows from us to others.

Next time at Sunday Mass, let us approach someone, lovingly, whom we have never spoken to or who is a loner or a newcomer. We may receive an unexpected surprise from the Lord!

John Lee, Johannesburg

Herod, killer of Holy Innocents

I

N his Christmas message last year, the Anglican archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, compared the Middle East ISIS terror movement to the biblical King Herod of Antioch.

However, the act for which King Herod is notorious was his slaughter of many infants in an attempt to murder the infant Jesus Christ, an act which was the equivalent of the modern concept of abortion.

As England is recognised as the present abortion capital of the world (South Africa cannot be far behind), the archbishop’s ISIS comparison is thus one of extreme interest.

The comparison is especially relevant as it was made close to the Feast of the Holy Innocents murdered by Herod, December 28, which is today largely ignored by the Catholic Church, worldwide.

Damian McLeish, Johannesburg

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INSIDE: Souvenir poster and life story of Mother Teresa to mark her canonisation on Sep 4

Eighty-six-year-old Sr Madonna Buder (right) runs through a field for a Nike commercial. Known as the “Iron Nun”, she has completed 45 triathlons. (Photos courtesy Nike)

‘Iron Nun’, 86, in Nike ad W HEN stories mention the oldest athlete in history to compete in this sport or that sport, “oldest” usually means 31, 35 or perhaps early 40s.

But sportswear giant Nike has launched a new advertising campaign that features someone a lot older: 86-year-old Sr Madonna Buder, a Sister of Christian Community from Spokane, Washington.

The nun, who has completed 45 triathlons, featured in Nike’s “Unlimited Youth” ad campaign.

Sr Madonna holds the world record for the oldest person to ever finish an Ironman Triathlon, which she earned at age 82 by finishing the Subaru Ironman Canada on August 26, 2012.

The Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2,4mile (3,86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180 km) bicycle ride and a marathon (42,20 km) run, raced in that order and without a break. It is widely considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting ev “It wasn’t until I w introduced to runn I’m Sister Madonna Nun,’” she says in a leased in addition to “There was a poin see a pair of runni came in. That was a “There were a lot of failures and not reac set for myself. Then is not to try becaus

bounded determination and quick wit carry her through the tough circumstances that are typical of each Ironman competition. Cheers of “you go, girl” and “way to go, Sister” have spurred her along at each race.

The one-minute-long Nike TV spot opens with a still photo of her in her running togs, wearing medals and surrounded by trophies.

Then comes footage of her wearing her religious habit and kneeling in a chapel. When the narrator introduces her as an 86-year-old sister, she turns and says: “Shhh.” She’s in the middle of prayer.

Next she is seen going for a morning run.

“Good for you, Sister,” the narrator says. Then she is swimming in an open body of water.

“She’s still active at her age. That’s…great,” the narrator says hesitantly. As Sr Madonna rides her bike on a curv vy y country highway, the narrator says, “Whoa! Maybe a little too active.

Naptime, Sister?” She looks directly in the camera shakes her head and says firmly: “I

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A Pokemon might hide at your church

BY MANDLA ZIBI

I

T has been spotted on an Iraqi battlefield, at funerals, in labour wards—and in churches. It’s the Pokémon Go sensation, the smartphone GPS-based game that has engulfed the world since its launch in July.

Church buildings and other religious sites seem to be some of the favourite dwelling places of the Pokémon characters, according to Rob Riedlinger, managing director of Mariannhill Mission Press and social media expert.

“It is fascinating that many of the PokéStops are at faith centres—churches. We were excited to find one at the statue of the grave of Abbot Francis Pfanner at Mariannhill monastery. Another time, my children snuck into the parking lot of a Methodist church to catch a Pokémon they had to convince the

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on the screen as if they were in the same real-world location as the player.

When you capture a Pokémon, it gets added to your Pokédex, a sort of Pokémon database, where you can personalise them later.

And then the fun part begins; you can go to your local “gym” and battle your Pokémo n a g a ins t ot he r trainers who are

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PERSPECTIVES

The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

Lessons from 5 000 years ago A S I write this, you’ll find me in Ireland. It is a beautiful country with a deep sense of the religious. I’m not just talking about the fact that you find a Catholic church with the most incredible religious art on every corner—there is a deep spirituality here that precedes Christianity.

A friend took me to see the neolithic 5 000-year-old passage tombs at Knowth and Newgrange. These are burial mounds built out of layers of rock—carried many kilometres prior to the invention of the wheel—and earth before the start of the Iron Age. They stand several metres high above the surface of the ground and have not collapsed for five millennia. They are older than Stonehenge and the pyramids.

Many of the large rocks along the outside of the mounds are decorated with spirals, concentric circles, triangles and zigzags. Historians have no idea what these symbols mean because these ancient practices pre-date the oral and written traditions of later civilisations.

However, they agree that these megalithic representations are the oldest forms of art found in Ireland and they appear to have some connection with the sun and the moon, based on the direction of the entrances of these mounds in relation to the summer and winter solstices.

As impressive as all of this might be, what touched me was the importance that these ancient people gave to their dead. I don’t imagine they would have gone to so much effort to create these structures if this final rite of passage held no significance.

To me, this suggests that they may have seen the cycle of life extending beyond death and may have believed in some kind of afterlife and a higher power.

This made me think of the ancient traditions in Africa that also preceded the arrival of Christianity. The role of the ancestors and the existence of a supreme being also testify to the deep spirituality of the peoples of Africa who placed their faith in something greater than themselves.

This is the case with most of the traditions of the ancient civilisations. These cultures had no contact with one another, and yet, the animist religions share a com-

mon belief in the life after death and a supreme life that is greater than human endeavour.

What, you might ask, does all this have to do with our faith today? Pre-historic religions have now mostly been associated with the myths of the ancient world. Well, what strikes me most was their reliance on a higher power to order their daily needs— provide rain, a good harvest, deliverance from illness and famine, and safe passage to the afterlife. These people realised that they were not the masters of their own fate and that they could not control the elements.

We have come so far since then. Just tonight I sat on a train and watched how almost everyone was glued to their phones, consuming media of one form or another and fully trusting that the train would soon bring them home. Arriving home, they were likely to stop by the shop to pick up some food and prepare it quickly in a microwave or on the stove.

And tomorrow morning, the alarm on their phones will wake them up and begin a new day.

I

n the globalised world, we no longer have the same reliance on the sun to order our days. Rain or lack thereof might mean only the inconvenience of increased food prices as stores source produce from different places. Travel is also something that happens almost without us thinking about the human ingenuity that led to its invention in the first place.

We have become so reliant on ourselves that we struggle to see beyond ourselves.

a 5 000-year-old burial mound in ireland (Photo: Sarah-leah-Pimentel)

Leadership and the Bible

W

E ended our series of articles on the sacraments by reflecting on the blessings and challenges of both religious life and married life. In the next series of columns we will discuss what the young Christians of today, who are the future leaders of tomorrow, should know about the Bible.

Let’s begin with the Old Testament before we come to the New Testament.

You may ask: The Bible is such a big book, what is it that this column on Christian Leadership seeks to inform young Christian leaders about, and what books of the Bible will the discussions focus on?

This is a fair question because, indeed, the Bible is such a vast book and such a bottomless well as a source of knowledge, that to try and look at every part of it can become an endless and pointless exercise that has no real value. It will therefore be necessary to select some key themes and identify those parts of the Bible that exemplify those themes.

Among the themes we shall explore in the Old Testament are the following: l How God called leaders in the days of old and how they responded to God’s call. l What we, the Christian leaders of today and tomorrow, can learn from God’s servants of the Old Testament.

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a Bible is opened on the psalms. in his column Emmanuel ngara explains how he will link Christian leadership to the Bible.

l What we learn about the people whom Old Testament leaders led—were they any different from the people we are called upon to lead today and tomorrow? l What was the role of the prophet in society—are any of the leaders in our time called upon to do the work of the prophets of old? Are we as individuals called upon to act as prophets in our society? l What does the Old Testament teach us about faith, prayer and spirituality?

With these and similar themes in mind, we shall take examples from the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible,

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The Mustard Seeds

We no longer have a “need” to rely on a higher power to give us the basics of our everyday lives. Many of our friends even ridicule us for believing in God, saying that belief in a higher power is only for those who need the comfort of believing that there is something beyond ourselves.

Yet the human spirit thirsts for something more. That is why we constantly feel the desire to build better and faster technologies, find ways to become more efficient.

The criticism of our age is that we perhaps try to become God. But I think it is more than that. Deep down, we know that our human ability has its limits, and so we push it to the extreme. Like the builders of the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament, our generation pushes its intellect and its resourcefulness to the limits of human imagination in an effort to reach that something greater. However, the more we search, the more we become lost in ourselves.

This is where our neolithic ancestors have a lesson for us. Sometimes it is not in the building of the great structures that we touch the higher power. More often, God appears in the waiting.

The Newgrange burial mound fills with light once a year—at sunrise on the day of the winter solstice. When this happens the symbols inside the mound are visible for just a few minutes. And then the inner corridors of the structure return to darkness for another year.

It is only in the quiet of our hearts that we truly encounter God. Sometimes it is a heart that has suffered in the darkness of sorrow, pain or the chill of the world gone cold with hatred. Sometimes it is the stillness of joyful hope that grows day by day to see the revelation of God in our lives and to be united with him in eternity.

Like the people who built the burial chambers at Knowth and Newgrange, we wait for the resurrected Lord who touches our hearts and lights up our days.

Emmanuel Ngara

Christian leadership

namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. From that part of the Bible we will examine the call and leadership qualities of such figures as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and Moses.

We shall also draw lessons from the Books of Samuel, Kings and Nehemiah, learning from the examples of Samuel, David, Solomon and Nehemiah. For the prophets the focus will be on Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

For our lessons on faith, prayer and spirituality we will depend mainly on the Book of Psalms, the book for all seasons that teaches us about our relationship with God—how to praise him for his wonderful creation and mighty deeds; how to express our gratitude to him for all his gifts and benefits to us; how to call on him in times of sorrow and trouble; and how to humble ourselves and atone for our guilt when we have sinned against him.

Indeed, one of the greatest desires of the Christian leader should be to get closer and closer to God and do his will as Jesus did.

I look forward to making this journey through the Old Testament with you over the next few months.

7

Julia Beacroft

Point of Reflection

Why Cross beats Nought

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HEN my four children were growing up they went through a phase of being mad about playing the game Noughts and Crosses —anytime, anywhere, anyplace. At home, at their grandparents, in the garden or in the car, it really didn’t matter where they played because all that is needed is a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Oh… and a willing victim, of course, to play with.

They were rarely content to compete with each other. Although perfectly capable of this, they far preferred to inveigle an adult into the game and then preferably beat them hollow. And you’ve probably already guessed that the adult was usually me…

As I reflected upon the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which is celebrated on September 14, I was reminded of the game of Noughts and Crosses, so beloved of my offspring.

You will, I am sure, be able to instantly recognise why the “crosses” in the game would be reminiscent St Helena finds the of the Holy Cross. But you true cross: sculpture may wonder where the in the church of the noughts come into the Holy Sepulchre in equation. The reason for Jerusalem. this is quite simple.

A nought represents zero, nada or nil. It means nothing. According to the English dictionary, the adjective means worthless or useless. Indeed, the idiom “come to naught”, meaning without result or fruition, is a direct result of this.

Yet when we remember the Holy Cross in terms of the crucifixion, we know that historically the scribes, Pharisees and some of the elders of that time wished that Jesus was nothing. But, actually, he was everything.

They hoped that by having him put to death, his work on Earth would come to naught. But instead it took on an ever greater meaning due to the resurrection, until it meant everything. They wanted to believe that Jesus was worthless. Yet he was truly the Son of God. And so we know that despite his death, Christ atoned for our sins and continues to be with us until the end of time. In so doing he reversed the greatest negative of all time into the greatest positive. Christ died for us on the Cross but not for Naught.

So the next time you play Noughts and Crosses, perhaps you too will be reminded of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. n Julia Beacroft’s book Sanctifying The Spirit was published this year by Sancio Books. It is available on Amazon. See also page 10 for a review of the book.

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8

The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

COMMUNITY

Men for Change at St Mary Magdalene parish in lentegeur, Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, prepared an English breakfast for the women of the parish in celebration of Women’s Day. The men were able to serve breakfast to 147 women and 23 men using 10kg bacon, eight trays of eggs, 8kg viennas, 11 tins of baked beans, 500g tomato, coffee, tea, sugar and 20l juice—all donated by Men for Change.

Don Bosco parish in Robertsham, Johannesburg celebrated the monthly Thursday Divine Mercy Mass at Our lady of lebanon in Mulbarton with Fr John Thompson SDB and Frs Sergio Durigon of la Rochelle and Paul Beukes OMi of Eldorado Park.

The year of mercy pilgrimage of the northern deanery was hosted by St Charles parish in Victory Park. The pilgrimage started with the Rosary at the grotto, procession into the church,confessions and Benediction and followed by praise and worship and Mass.

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Sixty youth from Salesian youth Movement gathered at Bosco youth Centre near Johannesburg for a leadership seminar, with a focus on Don Bosco and Salesian spirituality. youth were from Manzini, lesotho, Cape Town, and Johannesburg.

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Our lady of Fatima parish in Durban north observed the feast of the assumption, which is also the feast day of the Catholic Women’s league.

(From left) anna accolla, Fr Justin Stirton in Marian vestments, Carol Price and Eileen Chapson.

The Family life apostolate of St Theresa’s parish in Knysna in Oudtshoorn diocese, knitted blankets and gave food parcels to the less fortunate this winter. They also set up a soup kitchen to feed the hungry at Damsebos. (Photo: Rosa le Vack)

The Catholic Women’s league of St Joseph’s parish in Primrose, Germiston, had a rededication ceremony led by parish priest Fr John Finlayson.

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St Dominic’s Priory in Port Elizabeth competed in the annual life Sciences Olympiad.

Fifty-six Grade 11 and 12 pupils were awarded certificates, with ten silver and six gold awards.This year St Domincs was placed 4th in the country. (From left back) Ken Mackenzie, Warren Tarboton, Julia Penaluna and Jamie Porter, (front) Stavros Gregoriou, irshaad Hoosain and Sinebongo Willem

ntate Fusi Mokoena was accepted into the Sacred Heart of Jesus Sodality at St Peter Claver parish in Pimville, Johannesburg. (Photo: Sello Mokoka)

FAITH

The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

9

The Cross and the Crucifix As the Church prepares to observe the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Fr RalPH DE HaHn looks at the meaning of the crucifix to us today.

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E know from the four evangelists that during his three years of ministry on earth, Jesus of Nazareth preached from many pulpits.

He preached from the mountains, from the temple, from the streets of Jerusalem, from the barque of Peter, from Pilate’s portico, even at Jacob’s Well in Samaria.

Yet we cannot fail to acknowledge that the sermon preached from the pulpit of the cross was his greatest and is forever present; it is the unforgettable sermon! All this in the background of brutal tragedy and utter humiliation, and still a drama that speaks of triumph!

The whole Calvary scene speaks a loud message to the sinful world.

In his first utterance from his heart overflowing with love and mercy, he forgives his enemies, “for they do not know what they are doing”.

Then from his elevated position, his arms outstretched and embracing all humanity, came his second word as a response to the cry alongside him, “Lord, remember me…”

And from his parched lips flows the promise of paradise.

That was his mission as the Lamb of God, the Innocent One chosen and sent to take away the sins of the world.

His third cry from the cross was “I thirst”, yet he took nothing to his parched lips. He cried for a response to his love, he thirsted for love— and that hurt deeply!

What is interesting as we view the greatest pulpit in all human history is the presence of three vital figures at the foot of the cross: the immaculate mother of the Lord, St Mary Magdalene and St John. This could be interpreted as Pure Innocence, Repentance, and Priesthood.

There is no shame in our confessing that we cannot possibly comprehend the infinite love of God in his son, Jesus. That word, “love”, is universally abused, so misunderstood in so many circles.

And yet it is so clearly proclaimed in the sacrifice of our Lord.

Love is properly defined as the desire to give all for another, and it always involves sacrifice—and that is strongly proclaimed by the cross and the crucified. The Saviour struggled in great agony between the two kingdoms: heaven and earth!

He was rejected by the one and abandoned by the other; he was

a Coptic Christian carries a crucifix in Cairo • a stylised crucifix at the sanctuary of Fatima, Portugal • a crucifix on a wayside shrine in Bavaria, Germany • a Christian holds a crucifix at the of the Way of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem heard to cry “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” There is no true love without sacrifice.

St John Vianney rejoiced living his priestly life on a cross close to the crucified. Sin separates us from God, he said, but not suffering, nor death.

St Paul claimed that the only message he needed to preach is “only about Jesus as the crucified” (1 Cor 2:2) The language of the cross, he writes, may be illogical to those without faith, but to all believers it reveals the power, the love and the wisdom of Christ (1Cor 1:18).

The cross. with its horizontal and vertical beams speaks of that necessary union, man with God, and man with man.

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here still remains the controversy of the wooden cross without the corpus and the other with the dead Christ nailed to the wood.

Most of the Protestant churches insist that the risen Lord is no longer to be found nailed to a cross.

However, the Catholic Church will always display the crucified Christ from the rising of the sun to its setting, at every sacrifice of the Holy Mass being offered, as the crucifix is the only meaningful symbol in the context of the memorial celebration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

The celebration of the Holy Mass is never a new sacrifice, but the one and only sacrifice, recalling the Last Supper, the passion, and Jesus’ death on a cross.

True, the cross alone is still seen as an instrument of torture, but with the crucified it is the testimony of our salvation, our triumph over all sin.

“All is now consummated,” cried

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Jesus. His mission was accomplished, and his resurrection would prove it!

The argument persists that the Lord is no longer on the cross and therefore it should not be remembered as such. But, then, Jesus is no longer a babe in Bethlehem, yet we recall this event each year with the manger crib in churches and homes throughout the world. So where is the difference?

In the earliest days of the Church the most popular symbol for Christ was the fish and at times the chi-rho, from the first two letters of the Greek word for “the anointed one”, but with the passing of the age of pun-

ishment by crucifixion, the Christians began revering the cross, and on it the Crucified—the perfect symbol of sacrificial love and victory.

We are reminded that the wooden cross itself did not die for our sins, but the One crucified. The wooden cross without the corpus is meaningless. God’s foolishness is indeed wiser than human wisdom, says St Paul.

The apostle then goes on to state that our continued sinning, in some deep sense, opens the wounds of the crucified still on that cross.

Jesus is still on trial in the hearts of men; there are still people like Judas, the arrogant Peter, King

Herod, Pontius Pilate and a long stream of others.

There is little doubt that our veneration of the cross and the crucified strikes a chord to honest repentance. Many may feel humiliated to be seen at the foot of the cross, but it is far more agonising and humiliating to be on the cross—and as an innocent victim!

Jesus is asking us to follow him: not to hang on a cross as he did, but to accept the crosses and sacrifices to which we are called because we believe, we love and, therefore, we repent. n Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest in the archdiocese of Cape Town.

10

The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

BOOK REVIEWS

Finding St Francis in SA today ST FRANCIS UNCENSORED, by Patrick Noonan OFM. Choice Publishing, Ireland. 2016. 197pp Reviewed by Günther Simmermacher ECONDS after Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected pope in March 2013, his Brazilian confrere Cardinal Claudio Hummes whispered to him: “Don’t forget the poor.”

At that moment Bergoglio decided to take the name Francis, after the great saint of Assisi and founder of the Franciscan order, of which the author of this book is a member.

Fr Paddy Noonan knows about poverty. He has ministered in townships for four decades. And while he is aware that he can up and leave the townships at any time, unlike the people in the communities he serves, he draws from St Francis’ commitment to the poor.

In St Francis Uncensored, Fr Noonan seeks to present the 13th century saint as a radical whose message and example still have application today.

St Francis has versatile appeal. To

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some he is the proto-hippie who renounced materialism and preached to the birds. To others he was the adamantly faithful son of the Church, or the reformer, or the ecowarrior, or the ascetic mystic, or the apostle to the poor, or the peacemaker. Or a broth of all or some of these ingredients.

For Fr Noonan, St Francis is all of these, but more. His Francis Bernardone was a subversive who repudiated a life of privilege to start a social revolution. The key event, richly symbolic, is when Francis disrobes in the busy square of Assisi, in front of the mayor, bishop and townsfolk, and throws his garments at his distraught father—the textile merchant (for whom Fr Noonan has great empathy) is rejected with his own cloth.

Standing naked and vulnerable in the town square, like a newborn, Francis formalised his rebirth. Having broken so publicly with his family and life of privilege, he grabbed his freedom from the dictates of father and society. There was no turning back from that.

The Francis that emerges from Fr Noonan’s pages derives his power not from his eventual popularity— he and his associate St Clare were celebrities in their own lifetimes— nor from having the ear of the pope, but from occupying the lowest echelon of power, right down to the vulnerability of going unarmed at a time when life truly was cheap and everybody was bearing weapons. Having nothing material to lose gave Francis power.

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n South Africa, Fr Noonan suggests, we would find St Francis on the frontlines of the deepest poverty.

The author acknowledges the Francis who was devoted to the Eucharist, Our Lady, the cross, the Trinity, the sacraments, prayer, poverty and obedience. But, he argues, “the real Francis was more than his teachings”. To Francis, faith was not static but had to lead somewhere and “penetrate deeply into the broken body of Christ”.

Many of Francis’ activities “were a direct reaction to Church and

State arrogance, violence, corruption and evil”, Fr Noonan writes.

“Today, at this moment, there are new types of arrogance, violence, corruption and evil in our world and in our Church that challenge the lovers of St Francis to imagine new options, to contemplate new solutions, and to explore new choices.”

Fr Noonan also shines a light on St Francis the peacemaker, noting that his unconventional initiative in mediating with the Muslim rulers at Crusader-besieged Damietta would have found very little favour in Christendom. Yet the Damietta initiative showed a new kind of peacemaking, through negotiation, respect and giving courageous witness in situations of war.

No doubt Pope Francis was thinking of Damietta when he took the courageous decision to travel to a place of civil war, the Central African Republic, in November 2015—a visit which is now widely said to have been a decisive moment having brought (a hopefully lasting) peace to that country.

St Francis Uncensored, a brief book that might have benefited from more ruthless editing, is not a biography of the saint; it requires some prior, at least cursory, knowledge of his life.

Even today and even in South Africa, St Francis remains acutely relevant, as Fr Noonan persuasively shows. This is indeed an important book.

How God’s Spirit is with us all the time SANCTIFYING THE SPIRIT, by Julia Beacroft. Sancio Books, UK. 2016. 390pp Reviewed by Günther Simmermacher EGULAR readers of The Southern Cross will have read Julia Beacroft’s occasional columns which tie feast days of the Church to everyday life experiences.

These columns are brief.

Beacroft’s reflections in Sanctifying the Spirit are more comprehensive, taking various turns as they journey towards their conclusion.

In this book, intended as “a personal guide to catechesis and the New Evangelisation”, Beacroft reflects on themes such as faith, evangelisation, vocations (for laity too), prayer, healing, love, change, sin, freedom, the search for happiness and more. Each chapter is structured so that it can be read on its own, which means that this book

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can be approached out of sequence.

In her reflections, Beacroft, who has a masters in pastoral theology and serves as a catechist in her southern England parish, draws from her own life experience and those of others. In doing so she aims to show how God is at work in our lives in surprising ways.

God, Beacroft writes, is never apart from us, even if we don’t notice his presence. But being aware of his presence facilitates our encounters with the divine—sometimes most unexpectedly.

Our communication with God is called prayer, she notes, and the way people pray comes in all sorts of different ways.

Sometimes formulated prayers and guided spiritual reflections help to keep us on the right path. Other times and for other people, spontaneous, freestyling prayer and reflec-

tion is the best way to communicate with God, Beacroft suggests.

She is particularly good at chronicling how the latter type of prayer and reflection can produce great rewards.

Beacroft draws from many sources—the bibliography is extensive—but also invests much of her own personality in her reflections. A common hazard with that technique is that the author might come across as something of a pontificating know-it-all. Beacroft dodges that bullet by acknowledging that she doesn’t have all the answers.

For example, she notes how she observes people kneeling in deep prayer and wishes she could be in their heads “to hear how they pray”, because it seems to her “that those around me pray more effectively and with fewer distractions than myself”.

Such moments of honesty are disarming. There are many such potential “Me too!” moments in this book. In this way, reader and author are travelling companions on a spiritual treasure hunt.

Beacroft’s observations are astute: having noted that she often loses focus while praying, she observes that we can find God’s presence even in our distractions, and offers anecdotal examples to show how.

Sanctifying the Spirit reassures us that even when we think we are failing in our discipleship, as long as we are sincere in our task of following Christ, we are on the right path, and serve him even when we think we are not.

Being a true follower of Christ is not easy, nor is it supposed to be.

This insightful and energising book reminds us of this, repeatedly, but

also provides useful tools in making our discipleship easier—and in doing so it conveys in a credible way the joy of our faith.

A revolutionary priest tells his story FAITH & JOY: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Priest, by Fernando Cardenal SJ. Orbis Books, US. 2015.

254pp Reviewed by Paddy Kearney HIS is an extraordinary story of an extraordinary man. It begins at the point where Fr Fernando Cardenal, a Nicaraguan born in 1932, was finishing his Jesuit for-

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mation by taking part, at his own request, in a tertianship programme in Colombia, where he was exposed to great injustice and poverty.

His tertianship programme in the very poor Medellin neighbourhood of Paul VI proved to be a life-changing experience for him.

Most of the people in the Paul VI neighbourhood were unemployed and desperately looking for any sort

of work. Social services were just about non-existent in this shack settlement , and there was no access to medical attention. Cardenal felt acutely the suffering of this community he had quickly came to love.

When the end of his nine-month tertianship arrived, he made a commitment to this poverty-stricken community that “wherever I am sent in the future, I am going to work for justice, for the building of a new society, for the liberation of the poor in Latin America”.

Günther Simmermacher Once again there was a THE HOLY LAND TREK change of plans. He was appointed vice-president Let Günther Simmermacher guide you with insight and humour through for student affairs at the Jethe great sites of the Holy Land and Jordan on a virtual itinerary, examinsuit University of Central ing the great sites of the region and their history. Only R150 (plus R25 America in Managua, the p&p) See also www.holylandtrek.com capital of his native Nicaragua.

Given Cardenal’s pasChris Moerdyk sion for justice, he quickly MOERDYK FILES associated himself with A collection of the best Southern Cross columns by one of SA’s most popustudent protests over lar writers. Read about the day Nelson Mandela was sentenced, what the greater dialogue about great thurible swinger did at Mass, why a 400km detour was made to save how the university was the parents’ blushes, and much more... Only R150 (plus R25 p&p) run. When the students decided to occupy the university offices to make Owen Williams their point, Cardenal supported their strategy, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY which inevitably alienated An anthology of the best columns written by the late Owen Williams, The him from his superiors.

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the students decided to occupy the Managua cathedral to call for the release of some of their colleagues detained by the

National Guard.

The diocese and the papal nuncio wanted to suspend Cardenal and other priests involved in the students’ takeover of the cathedral and eventual hunger strike, but the Jesuit community and a number of diocesan priests opposed this step. But Cardenal was told to leave the staff of the university.

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ardenal had supported the occupations of the university and cathedral because he saw these as justifiable non-violent ways of protesting against the brutal dictatorship of the Nicaraguan President, Somoza. His view was that, if the students were barred from protesting in this way, their only alternative would be to resort to violence.

After his expulsion from the University of Central America, the Jesuits found another post for Cardenal in a college they ran in Managua. This gave him time and opportunity to raise awareness of the injustices of the Nicaraguan situation through addressing major Church organisations. Central to all his efforts was work with young people, his lifelong passion. He has used every opportunity to help them see the connection between faith and the struggle for justice.

In the midst of a second seizure of the Managuan cathedral in 1972, there was an earthquake that within seconds caused 10 000 deaths and the destruction of central Managua.

In the wake of the earthquake Cardenal set up a Christian Revolutionary Movement with young people. What they tried to impress upon

the population was that poverty was a result of unjust structures which could be changed, unlike the destruction caused by the earthquake over which people could have no control.

It was not long before Cardenal’s revolutionary efforts with the youth brought him to the attention of the left-wing Sandinistas who invited him to become a “militant member”. Cardenal accepted to join the movement, whose aim was to overthrow Somoza, on the basis of his understanding of the Gospel and the commitment he had made at Medellin, putting “all that was mine at the service of the liberation of my people”.

His usefulness to the Sandinistas became immediately clear when he gave evidence on Nicaraguan human rights violations at Congressional hearings in Washington— Continued on page 11

CLASSIFIEDS

Revolutionary priest tells his story Continued from page 10 which led to US military aid to Somoza being cut off just months later.

Cardenal’s next major role was as one of the so-called “Group of Twelve” highly respected members of the Nicaraguan elite who would be more successful than the Sandinistas in securing the support of rank and file Nicaraguans to form alliances against Somoza.

The Group of Twelve would also be tasked with organising a new government and drafting the new laws needed when the Somoza regime was toppled.

When the dictatorship had been overthrown and the Sandinistas were in power, Cardenal refused an appointment as ambassador to Washington, and instead headed the hugely successful national literacy campaign.

In a way it was a job he had waited for throughout his life. The result was that the rate of illiteracy decreased from at least 52% to 12,9%. No doubt Cardenal would call the campaign the highlight of his whole life.

However the Nicaraguan bishops and some people in the Vatican had a major problem with what Cardenal was doing.

They recalled that Canon 285 prohibits priests from working in government posts. But he also had support from at least one

very high-ranking cleric, Pope John Paul II’s secretary of state Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, who thought that the Nicaraguan situation was a clear case in which an exception might be made to Canon 285.

Pope John Paul II saw things differently, especially when Cardenal went on to become education minister in the Sandinista cabinet.

John Paul had famously wagged his finger at Fernando’s brother Fr Ernesto, rather than giving him a blessing when they met at Managua airport. Now he put much pressure on Cardenal’s Jesuit superiors, especially superior-general Fr Hans Kolvenbach, who eventually buckled and dismissed Cardenal from the order, though not without stressing his high regard for him.

A remarkable aspect of Cardenal’s clash with ecclesiastical authorities is how he always carefully consulted his religious community and superiors as he made each important decision about his future, and how they were generally most supportive.

Even after he had ceased to be officially a Jesuit, he continued to live in the same Jesuit community, a situation unanimously accepted by the community, and he also continued to observe his vow of celibacy.

Throughout his life from the time of his ordination right through to the present, his iden-

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 723. ACROSS: 5 Pain, 7 Euthanasia, 8 Harm, 10 Oddities, 11 Homily, 12 Defect, 14 Penned, 16 Comedy, 17 Scythians, 19 Nude, 21 Aggressive, 22 Stay. DOWN: 1 Mesh, 2 Champion, 3 Unholy, 4 Ashdod, 5 Past, 6 Interceded, 9 Adolescent, 13 Feminist, 15 Doings, 16 Censer, 18 Tray, 20 Ewer.

LORD May everything we do Begin with Your inspiration, Continue with Your help, And reach perfection under Your guidance.

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday September 11 Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14, Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19, 1 Timothy 1:12-17, Luke 15:1-32 Monday September 12, Most Holy Name of Mary 1 Corinthians 11:17-26, 33, Palams 40:7-10, 17, Luke 7:1-10 Tuesday September 13, St John Chrysostom 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31, Psalms 100, Luke 7:11-17 Wednesday September 14, Exaltation of the Holy Cross Numbers 21:4-9, Psalms 78:1-2, 34-38, John 3:13-17 Thursday September 15, Our Lady of Sorrows Hebrews 5:7-9, Psalms 31:1-5, 14-15, 19, John 19:25-27 Friday September 16, Ss Cornelius and Cyprian 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, Psalms 17:1, 6-8, 15, Luke 8:1-3 Saturday September 17, St Robert Bellarmine 1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49, Psalms 56:10-14, Luke 8:43-45 Sunday September 18 Amos 6:1, 4-7, Psalms 146:7-10, 1 Timothy 6: 11-16, Luke 16:19-31

tity has always been that of a religious and a priest.

When the Sandinistas lost the first election after they had seized power, Cardenal began to notice many instances of serious corruption and fraud in the leadership. It took him many years to speak out about such practices, but once he started he did so with vigour.

However, he felt his words were having no effect and so he decided to withdraw from his membership of the Sandinista Front.

Even before he had renounced his Sandinista membership, Fr Kolvenbach had confided in him that the Society had decided to invite him back into their membership. He would be the only Jesuit in the order’s history to be expelled and then readmitted.

“Young people”, he writes, “need two conditions to become agents of change. First, they need a noble and significant cause that inspires them, and second, they need credible people with moral authority leading that cause.”

Certainly they have found both conditions fulfilled in the life and work of Fr Fernando Cardenal SJ as recounted in this impressive, fascinating and challenging autobiography which was published only months before his death at 82 on February 20, 2016.

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

cAPe tOWN: Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town.

DUrBAN: Holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9am. Holy Mass and Divine Mercy Devotion at 17:30pm on first Friday of every month. Sunday Mass at 9am. 031 309 3496 or 031 209 2536.

Overport rosary group. at Emakhosini Hotel, 73

East Street every Wednesday at 6.30 pm.

MArIANNHIll: Pilgrimage of Holy child on October 1 and 2 at Kevelaer Mission, Donnybrook, from 10:00 till Sunday. all children up to the age of 15 are welcome. Call 031 700 2704.

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

The Southern Cross, September 7 to September 13, 2016

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ABOrtION WArNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelifeabortion isevil.co.za VISIt PIOUS KINtU’S official website http://ave maria832.simplesite.com This website has been set up to give glory to the Most Holy Trinity through the healing power of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

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

PrAYerS

O MOSt Holy Virgin Mary, who chose to appear on the Sierra de aire, in the Cova de iria, to three young shepherds to reveal the treasures of grace held in the recitation of the Rosary, impress upon our souls a

fervent love for this devotion. By meditating on the mysteries of our redemption, may we learn how to use the teachings which lie therein and obtain the graces we ask in this prayer. For the Glory of God and the redeeming of our souls. amen. novena from 5 to 13 each month.

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tHANKS be to thee, my lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May i know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, For

Prayer for the intercession of Bl Benedict Daswa

O Blessed Trinity, you filled the heart of Blessed Benedict with great love and zeal in building up your kingdom. You chose him and gave him the courage and the strength to stand up for his faith without fear and bear witness unto death.

Loving God, like him, may I always proclaim the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by the witness of my life.

Keep me away from all deeds of darkness. Protect me from evil spirits and all the powers of evil. Make me a true Apostle of Life in my family and in society.

Father, through his intercession, and according to your will, grant me the grace that I ask of you…

I draw strength and courage from the life of Blessed Benedict whom we venerate as an intercessor and model of holiness.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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25th Sunday: September 18 Readings: Amos 8:4-7, Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8,1 Timothy 2: 1-8, Luke 16:1-13

S outher n C ross

Serving God or Mammon

M

ONEY is a curiously seductive thing.

In Jesus’ native language of Aramaic the name they gave it was “Mammon”, which may originally have meant “that which you can put your trust in”.

We often make the unreflective assumption that if only we had a bit more of the stuff then we should be all right; but in fact money turns out instead to be a slavery, and we never have “enough”.

That is the message of the readings for next Sunday. In the first reading, Amos indulges in a splendid polemic against wealthy money-traders who “trample on the needy and destroy the oppressed of the land”, and especially those who are notionally religious, and long for the festival or the Sabbath to be over, so that they can get back to the real business of life, which is making money and oppressing the poor (who are, of course, God’s favourite people).

And the brute fact is that we cannot serve both God and Mammon.

The psalm for next Sunday focuses on God rather than Mammon, and invites us to praise the Lord (if we get that right, then we shall be better equipped to resist Money’s seductions).

But we should notice that the poet is quite clear that God prefers the poor: “[the Lord]

raises the poor from the dust, and from the ash-pit he raises the poor.”

In the second reading, continuing our brief reading of 1 Timothy, the focus is likewise to be on God, by way of prayer for everybody. Interestingly enough, some of the prayer is to be made for the powerful: “Emperors and all those in authority, that we may lead a tranquil and serene life.”

The point is that God’s project is for “everybody to be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth”, and for that to happen, we all need to pray.

The Gospel for next Sunday ends with the mantra, “You cannot serve God and Mammon”; but it is a strange story that takes us there. We start with “a wealthy man”, which is always a bad start in Luke’s gospel.

Then we are introduced to his “housesteward”, who, we gather, has been “slandered” (which presumably means that the accusation is false) on the grounds of squandering his master’s possessions. He is then summoned, and, without anything resembling a hearing, told: “You can no longer be my house-manager.”

At that point, Luke, brilliant raconteur that he is, invites us to eavesdrop on the house-

manager’s inner ruminations, with which by now we have a good deal of sympathy: “What am I to do?...I am not strong enough for labouring, and I am too ashamed to go begging.”

Then we applaud as he comes up with the ingenious stratagem of getting his “Lord’s” (we should notice that this is the second time this word has been used. Does it refer to his master or to God?) debtors to rewrite their credit notes: fifty for a hundred measures of olive oil and eighty for a hundred kors of wheat.

We wait to hear what the reaction is going to be, and Luke tells the story rather oddly: “The Lord [but is this God or Jesus or the steward’s master?] praised the unjust housesteward because he had acted intelligently.”

Then we get an explanatory note: “because the children of this generation are more intelligent than the children of light with regard to their own generation”.

Does that mean that defrauding a boss is the way to go? Or does it simply mean that the followers of God need to be at least as committed as the followers of Mammon?

It seems that it may be the latter, for Jesus continues: “I am telling you, make yourselves

How to handle life’s let-downs W

Nersessian tends to blame liberal ideology for giving us this impression, but the unrealistic dream and expectation of Utopia is almost everywhere in our world.

In effect, we no longer have the symbolic tools to properly explain or handle frustration—neither in our churches nor in our world. How so?

When I was a child, my head didn’t just reverberate with Frank Gari’s “Utopia” song from 1960 but also with a number of other tunes I’d learned in church and in culture at large.

Our churches then were teaching us about “original sin”, the belief that a primordial fall at the origins of human life has, until the end of time, flawed both human nature and nature itself in such a way that what we will meet—and experience in this life—will always be imperfect, limited, somewhat painful, and somewhat frustrating.

S

ometimes this was understood in an overly simplistic way and sometimes it left us wondering about the nature of God, but nonetheless it gave us a vision within which to understand life and handle frustration.

At the end of the day, it taught us that, this side of eternity, there’s no such a thing as clearcut, pure joy. Everything has a shadow. Happiness lies in accepting these limits, in a practical, buoyant vision that, because it has already incorporated limit and has no false expectations, lets you properly receive, honour and enjoy the

Conrad

HEN I was a child there was a popular song by Frank Gari whose chorus repeated this line: “Everyone is searching for Utopia.” And we all are.

Every one of us longs for a world without limits, for a life where nothing goes wrong, for a place where there’s no tension or frustration. But it never happens.

There’s no such place.

The author Anahid Nersessian recently wrote a book entitled Utopia, Limited: Romanticism and Adjustment, within which she criticises various ideologies for, naively, giving the impression that we can have a world without limits.

She particularly blames liberal ideology which, she submits, privileges limitlessness by setting “itself, almost by default, against the governing and guiding of desire”.

But, as she argues in the book, limitation is what’s life-giving. We will find happiness only when we accommodate ourselves to the world by minimising the demands we place on it. For Nersessian, if Utopia is to be had, it will be had only by finding the realistic limits of our lives and adjusting ourselves to them.

She’s right. Believing there’s a world without limits makes for unrealistic expectations and a lot of frustration. By thinking we can find Utopia, we invariably set up the perfect as the enemy of the good; thus habitually denigrating our actual relationships, marriages, careers, and lives because they, unlike our fantasies, perpetually have limits and therefore always seem second-best.

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Sunday Reflections

friends from the Mammon of injustice, so that when it [what?] fails, they may receive you into the eternal tents.”

Luke perhaps leaves that uncomfortable question hanging in the air, and goes on to give some more teaching on money: “Those who are faithful in very small amounts are also faithful on large amounts.”

Then we are offered what looks like the moral of the story: “If you were not trustworthy regarding unjust Mammon, who will entrust you with regard to the real thing? “If you were not reliable with what belongs to others, who will give you what belongs to you?”

The real point, what we have known from the beginning, comes now at the end: “No one can serve two ‘Lords’, for they will either hate the one and love the other or put up with one and despise the other.”

Our task, this week, is to check which of the possible “lords” we are going to give ourselves to. Both are deeply attractive; but one enslaves us and the other sets us free.

Which are you going to follow, this week?

Southern Crossword #723

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

good things in life. Since the perfect cannot be had in this life, you then give yourself permission to appreciate the imperfect.

This religious vision was re-enforced by a culture which also told us that there was no Utopia to be had here. It told us instead that, while you may dream high and you may expect to live better than your parents did, don’t expect that you can have it all.

Life cannot deliver that to you.

Like its religious counterpart in its explanation of original sin, this secular wisdom too had its over-simplistic and flawed expressions. But it helped imprint in us some tools with which to more realistically understand life.

It told us, in its own flawed way, a truth which I have often quoted from Fr Karl Rahner: “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we ultimately learn that, here in this life, there is no finished symphony.” How succinct and how accurate!

It’s interesting to note how this religious view is paralleled in the atheistic view of Fr Rahner’s contemporary, the Nobel-Prize winning writer Albert Camus. Camus, who did not believe in God, famously proposed an image within which to understand human life and its frustrations.

He compared this world to a medieval prison. Some medieval prisons were deliberately built to be too small for the prisoner, with a ceiling so low that the prisoner could never stand fully upright and the room itself too small for the prisoner to ever stretch out fully. The idea was that the frustration of not being able to stand up or stretch out fully would eventually break the prisoner’s spirit.

For Camus, this is our experience of the world. We can never stand fully upright or stretch out fully. The world is too small for us. While this may seem severe, stoic and atheistic; in the end it teaches the same truth as Christianity, there’s no Utopia this side of eternity.

And we need, in healthy ways, to be integrating this truth into our lives so as to better equip ourselves to handle frustration and appreciate the lives that we are actually living.

ACROSS

5. Bodily suffering (4) 7. Patient killing? (10) 8. Bodily injury (4) 10. So tidied up to find strange things (8) 11. I’m back in a holy place for the preaching (6) 12. Blemish (6) 14. Having written in an enclosed space? (6) 16. Shakespeare’s play of errors (6) 17. Cynthia’s turn to be mentioned in Colossians 3 (8) 19. Painting barely seen (4) 21. Hostile (10) 22. Continue in the place (4)

DOWN

1. Comes home inside to get engaged (4) 2. I’m Pancho the hero (8) 3. Very wicked (6) 4. Philistine town (1 Sam 5) (6) 5. Bygone (4) 6. Mediated prayerfully (10) 9. Not yet an adult (10) 13. She’s all for women’s rights (8) 15. Activities in Acts? (6) 16. It emits aromatic fumes (6) 18. It’s within extra yard for holding things to carry (4) 20. Water vessel (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

T

HE priest was wired for sound with a lapel microphone, and as he preached, he moved briskly about the platform, jerking the microphone cord as he went.

Then he moved to one side, getting wound up in the cord and nearly tripping before jerking it again.

After several circles and jerks, a little girl in the third pew leaned towards her mother and whispered: “If he gets loose, will he hurt us?”

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