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Cremation is OK, but T&Cs apply – Vatican By CINdy WoodeN

ROFESSING belief in the resurrection of the dead and affirming that the human body is an essential part of a person’s identity, the Catholic Church insists that the bodies of the deceased be treated with respect and laid to rest in a consecrated place. While the Catholic Church continues to prefer burial in the ground, it accepts cremation as an option, but forbids the scattering of ashes and the growing practice of keeping cremated remains at home, said Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “Caring for the bodies of the deceased, the Church confirms its faith in the resurrection and separates itself from attitudes and rites that see in death the definitive obliteration of the person, a stage in the process of reincarnation or the fusion of one’s soul with the universe,” the cardinal told reporters. In 1963, the congregation issued an instruction permitting cremation as long as it was not done as a sign of denial of the basic Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead. The permission was incorporated into the Code of Canon Law in 1983 and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches in 1990. However, Cardinal Müller said, Church law had not specified exactly what should be done with “cremains”, and several bishops’ conferences asked the congregation to provide guidance. The result, approved by Pope Francis after consultation with other Vatican offices and with bishops’ conferences and the Eastern churches’ synods of bishops, is “Ad resurgendum cum Christo” (“To Rise with Christ”), an instruction “regarding the burial of the deceased and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation”. Presenting the instruction, Cardinal Müller said, “shortly, in many countries, cremation will be considered the ordinary way” to deal with the dead, including for Catholics.

Cremation, in and of itself, does not constitute a denial of belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, the instruction says. Nor does it “prevent God, in his omnipotence, from raising up the deceased body to new life”. However, the Catholic Church wholeheartedly recommends continuing the “pious practice of burying the dead”, Cardinal Müller said. It is considered one of the corporal works of mercy and, mirroring the burial of Christ, it more clearly expresses hope in the resurrection when the person’s body and soul will be reunited.

Put a name on it In addition, he said, when a person is buried in the ground—and, at least to some extent—when the urn of the person’s ashes is placed in a columbarium or tomb, the final resting place is marked with the person’s name, the same name with which the person was baptised and by which the person is called by God. “Belief in the resurrection of the flesh is fundamental,” he said. “A human cadaver is not trash” and an anonymous burial or scattering of ashes “is not compatible with the Christian faith. The name, the person, the concrete identity of the person” is important because God created each individual and calls each individual to himself. In fact, when asked if there was any way to rectify the situation when a person’s ashes already had been scattered, Cardinal Müller suggested making a memorial in a church or other appropriate place and including the name of the deceased. What is more, he said, labelling an urn or tomb in a public place is an expression of belief in the “communion of saints”, the unending unity in Christ of all the baptised, living and dead. “Other believers have a right to pray at the tomb” and to remember deceased members of the Catholic Church on the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Keeping ashes at home, he said, is a sign not only of love and grief, but also of not

Nicole and Monique Robertson are newly-appointed ushers at St John Bosco chapel in Booysens, Johannesburg. Their duties include selling The Southern Cross to parishioners before and after Sunday Mass. “Sales of The Southern Cross are bound to increase with two pretty young women promoting our Catholic newspaper,” their fellow parishioner Kevin Luk wrote. Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher said he was delighted that St John Bosco is involving the youth in selling the newspaper. “It always helps a lot when there are people physically selling The Southern Cross at churches, and we are so grateful to the many who do that every week. They truly are part of our social communications apostolate—and it is especially great when young people are involved in spreading the Good News.” understanding how the loved one belonged to the entire community of faith and not just to his or her closest relatives. “Only in grave and exceptional cases,” the instruction says, local bishops may give permission for ashes to be kept in a private home. It is up to local and national bishops’ conferences to determine what those “grave and exceptional” circumstances might be. Placing the ashes in a sacred place also “prevents the faithful departed from being forgotten or their remains from being shown a lack of respect,” which is more likely to happen as time goes on and the people clos-

est to the deceased also pass way, the instruction said. Asked specifically about the growing trend in Germany of “forest burials”, where people pay to have their ashes in urns interred at the base of a tree in a designated forest burial ground, Cardinal Müller said the German bishops were not thrilled with the idea, but accepted it with the proviso that the tree be marked with the name of the person buried at its base. In some countries, a growing number of Catholic cemeteries set aside sections for Continued on page 5

How we offer a key towards a better life

n the gospel of St Matthew, Jesus says: “I was in prison and you came to see me” (25:36) At The Southern Cross we have taken to heart the Lord’s message and deliver the nation’s Catholic newspaper weekly to all prison chaplains who request it for distribution among inmates. That way we not only visit those in jail, but also help inspire them towards living a better life. Many former prisoners can testify to how being visited by Catholics and

reading the Catholic newspaper has changed their lives. One even reported back to us that he had decided to convert to Catholicism after being inspired to change his life by reading The Southern Cross. This outreach programme, one of several conducted by The Southern Cross, is made possible by our Associates Campaign. The Associates Campaign is also a way by which readers can help safeguard the future of The Southern Cross

by building up reserves to cover the newspaper in times of crisis. And it is a way for Catholics to be

part of the Church’s response to visit, as commanded by Christ, those who are locked up, and thereby offering them a key to turning their lives around. To do so is easy: choose one of the categories of Associates you would like to join—Cardinal McCann Associate (R1 500 and above), St Maximilian Kolbe Associate (R500-1 499), St Francis de Sales Associate (R100-499), or Dorothy Day (any amount by debit order). Make your contribution into the account: The Southern Cross, Standard

Bank, Thibault Square Branch (Code 020909), Acc no: 276876016. Please e-mail or fax payment details and your name and contact details to admin@scross.co.za or 021 465-3850. Or visit www.scross.co.za/associates -campaign for details. Cardinal McCann Associates receive a free subscription (print or digital) for the year. Two annual Masses are said for the intentions of our Associates and the repose of those who have passed on.

The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

LOCAL

Church against ICC withdrawal By BRoNWeN dACHS & STAFF RePoRTeR

OUTH Africa’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court could encourage a large-scale African exodus from the court and entrench impunity, the Justice & Peace commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has warned. South Africa announced in late October that it would withdraw from the court, which is tasked with prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. “Given the increasing levels of political instability, manipulation of terms limits and

democratic reversals,” Africa needs strong deterrence mechanisms against genocide and other crimes “that shock the conscience of humanity”, the commission said in a statement signed by its chairman, Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley. Urging the government to reconsider its decision, the commission said the African National Congress “must show the high moral ground that was its trademark during apartheid and stand in solidarity with the victims of human rights violations in Africa”. South Africa plays a leadership role on the continent, and countries in the region “certainly take note of what

we do and follow our example”, Mike Pothier, research coordinator for the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, told Catholic News Service. The J&P statement rejected the government’s argument that its obligations under the Rome Statute bring it into direct conflict with obligations to observe international diplomatic norms and standards that include immunity. “We appeal to the government to reconsider its decision and remain within ICC until such a time that Africa has developed a credible and effective regional court with the capacity and will to demand accountability of all state officials and leaders, particularly

the serving heads of governments,” the statement said. “Instead of withdrawing from the ICC, we appeal to the South African government and other members of the African Union to use their regional bloc advantage to ensure that their repeated calls for reforms are urgently and effectively addressed,” it said. The bishops’ conference called on all parliamentarians “to listen to their conscience and do the right thing when the bill relating to ICC withdrawal is debated and voted on”. They said that “this is a matter that requires voting in terms of one’s conscience, and not only in terms of the partisan mandates”.

The Chinese Catholic community in the south of Johannesburg arranged its first house Mass, with about 40 people attending. The Mass was celebrated by Fr John Thompson SdB of Robertsham (back), with Vietnamese Salesisan Father Peter Nguyen concelebrating (second from left). Chinese parishioners, mainly from St John Bosco parish in Robertsham and St John Paul II parish in Linmeyer, attended, joined by a Catholic on holiday from Hong Kong. Seen here are the priests with deacon Victor Ho (left) and the Ho Tong family, who hosted the Mass.

Religious leaders warn on constitutional crisis Fatima statues donor now M goes for 1000 STAFF RePoRTeR

ORE than 30 religious leaders, among them the Bishop of Mthata, Sithembele Sipuka, have warned that South Africa has a constitutional crisis and have called for investigations into “an enormous leakage of state funds”. The crisis “manifests itself in

leadership and political factional conflicts in public institutions”, said a statement issued after the annual National Church Leaders’ Consultation. These conflicts, including President Jacob Zuma’s battle with finance minister Pravin Gordhan over control of state finances, create instability and distract attention from South

Africa’s fundamental challenges, such as job creation, they said. “We are convinced that this situation is aggravating the already desperate situation of the poor. We are thus saying this in solidarity with the poor and pray that justice will prevail.” Commenting on the student protests, the leaders said that

“an education system that is free, decolonised and of high quality is a just and moral plea for our society to give content to the promise of freedom won in 1994”. They warned that the current crises “will come back to haunt us again” unless the “systemic problems within the education system at large” are addressed.

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STAFF RePoRTeR

PORTUGUESE businessman who has donated hundreds of statues of Our Lady of Fatima to parishes, schools and convents throughout Southern Africa and beyond has decided to continue his remarkable ministry to a thousand donations. “I was going to stop at 800, but with the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima next year, I have decided to go for 1000,” said José Camara, a former Capetonian who now lives in Portugal. The retired businessman began to donate the statues, which are handmade in Portugal, in January 2013 with an appeal for applications in The Southern Cross. At the time, the offer was for just 12 statues. The statues are bought by Mr Camara and shipped to South Africa at his own expense. His motivation is to spread devotion to the rosary and to Our Lady of Fatima. Donations come with conditions: parishes must undertake to pray the rosary as a community, promote devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, and one of the hundreds of display the statue in a the so far nearly 800 prominent place inside statues which retired the church (they are businessman José Camara has donated to not suitable for use churches and schools outdoors). in South Africa and all “I want Our Lady to over the world. be known around the world,” he said, “so I’m sending statues to other countries as well.” One special recipient was an inmate in a British prison who asked for a statue to help him and fellow inmates pray to Our Lady. This, he said, has led to several conversions. Mr Camara said that he will be happy to deliver a statue to priests who lead pilgrimages from South Africa to Fatima during next year’s centenary celebrations. He said he hopes to come to Fatima especially when The Southern Cross pilgrimage with Archbishop Stephen Brislin comes there in late May 2017. Mr Camara also met the previous Southern Cross pilgrimage to Fatima in September 2014, joining the group for Mass there with Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen. Applications for the statues must be made by the parish priest on an official letterhead (if no letterheads are available, state the page number in the Catholic directory which lists the parish details). Outside of South Africa, applications must be on a parish letterhead, or with a supporting letter from the local diocese. Mr Camara also offered to arrange free subscriptions for anyone to the English-version of Fatima Luz de Pas, the quarterly publication of the shrine of Fatima in Portugal. n Send applications for statues or requests for subscriptions to Mr Camara at jjvcamara@gmail.com

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

Look behind scenes from Vatican insider By FR RuSSeLL PoLLITT SJ

HE South African-born director of Vatican Radio’s English language section, Seán-Patrick Lovett, gave audiences in Johannesburg and Swaziland intimate insights behind the Vatican scenes. During his whirlwind visit to Southern Africa, the Cape Townborn journalist conducted a workshop in Benoni, and gave two talks: in Manzini, Swaziland, and at the Jesuit Institute in Johannesburg. In his talks Mr Lovett focused on the five vowels in English to speak about the Vatican and Pope Francis. He spoke about how “Art” and symbolism are important in the Catholic Church, beginning with the architecture of St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. Bernini’s columns, he said, “hug” St Peter’s Square and are a symbol of the Church reaching out, arms wide open to welcome anyone. He told his audiences to watch the symbolic gestures of the pope. “They tell us what the pope is thinking and say things words cannot.” For example, the ways in which Pope Francis goes out to children, the elderly and the poor are “very significant symbols”. “Evangelisation”, he said, is at the heart of who and what the Church is. All we do in Vatican communications is to evangelise, to bring the Good News to others. We communicate the voice of the pope to the world for the very purposes of evangelisation,” he said. The Catholic Church, he pointed out, is one of the most “Influential” institutions in the world. After the United States, the Vatican has the

each other in a world where we are so often fearful of others.”

second-biggest diplomatic network in the world, with ambassadors in many countries and at globally recognised institutions like the United Nations. “The world wants to know and is interested in what the Vatican has to say and thinks about issues that affect us all,” Mr Lovett said. “Just look at how, through the diplomatic arm of the Vatican, Pope Francis managed to facilitate a discussion between Cuba and the US— people who did not talk to each other for so long!”

peaking about the “Office of the pope”, Mr Lovett—who has worked for the Vatican for 40 years and served under five popes—said that he always believes that the Holy Spirit chooses the right man for that moment in history. “The Spirit always give the Church who she needs now to lead her.” He described how Pope Paul VI was the first pope to travel on an aeroplane and how he was present when Paul VI, visiting New York, gave his famous speech at the UN in 1965 saying: “No more war. Never again war!” Mr Lovett joked that he learnt geography while working for St John Paul II who, according to calculations, travelled “to the moon and back twice” in his 26 years on the chair of Peter. Mr Lovett recalled the shock in Rome on the day that Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation. He said that he would “never forget” where he was on the morning of February 11, 2013 when Pope Benedict shocked the world.

Seàn-Patrick Lovett, head of Vatican Radio’s english section, teaches at the “Comms workshop” at Lumko, Benoni. The Cape Town-born Vatican veteran was in South Africa to lead the workshop for Catholic communicators and give two talks on the Vatican and Pope Francis in Johannesburg and Manzini, Swaziland. (Photo courtesy Jesuit Institute) “Pope Francis is right when he says Benedict XVI was a humble and most courageous man for doing what he did. That was always my experience of him, even when he was still a cardinal,” he said. “Pope Francis, as you know, has brought his own personal gifts to the papacy,” he said. “Every pope is unique and brings unique gifts. John Paul II had great affection for youth and reaching out to people; Benedict was a wonderful theolo-

Seen here with apostolic nuncio Archbishop Peter Wells (second from right) and his counsellor Mgr Kevin Randall after the diamond jubilee Mass at Maria Regina church in Lyttelton, Pretoria, are Louis and Vincent Butler. They were altar servers in october 1956 when the foundation stone of Maria Regina was laid and have been members of the parish ever since. A feature of the Mass was its emphasis on the multicultural composition of the parish and the commissioning by the nuncio of this year’s confirmation class. Archbishop emeritus George daniel preached the homily in which he mentioned how he had worked in the city council’s architecture office in the 1950s when the chief architect, a Protestant from Northern Ireland but married to a Catholic, designed Maria Regina church. He also recalled how his mother, a convert, was confirmed in the church. (Submitted by Fr Kevin Reynolds)

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gian; and Francis is the pope of the peripheries, the poor. Just look at what he has done for the poor and refugees in the last 18 months.” Mr Lovett noted that Pope Francis has never called himself “pope” but preferred the title “Bishop of Rome” or “First Servants of the Servants of God”. “I think Pope Francis teaches ‘Us’ to go down to where people are and serve. He teaches us to be servants of one another, not to be afraid of

r Lovett was invited by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference to come to the region and give a workshop to diocesan and church communicators at the bishops’ training centre, Lumko in Benoni. He had given a similar workshop to the bishops themselves two years ago. Mr Lovett and his team, made up of independent workers and staff of the Jesuit Institute, covered a number of topics, including how to communicate holistically, how to choose content and focus, how to interview and be interviewed, journalistic ethics, and how to use technology and social media effectively. The team created a media crisis scenario and broke participants up into groups to respond effectively. To simulate reality, the teams were interrupted three times as the story “developed” and had to respond accordingly. A “press conference” was called and the participants had to prepare to answer questions on the crisis. Unbeknown to them, four journalists from media agencies in Johannesburg, including the Daily Maverick, TalkRadio702 and Eye Witness News, were brought in to conduct the press conference. Mr Lovett’s visit to Southern Africa was sponsored by the Frenchbased Centre for Research and Communication. The Jesuit Institute, with the SACBC Communications Office, is looking at possibilities to announce a follow-up workshop.

The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

INTERNATIONAL

Papal summer home opens to the public By JuNNo ARoCHo eSTeVeS

OPE Francis is throwing open the doors to the papal apartment—including the bedroom where popes have slept—in the Apostolic Palace at Castel Gandolfo. The palace was for centuries the summer residence of the Roman pontiffs, but Pope Francis has decided not to use it. Instead in 2014, he opened the palace gardens to the public and last year opened a portion of the Apostolic Palace as a portrait gallery. Pope Francis “wanted this place —so rich in history and so significant—to be a gift for the people”, Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, said at the grand opening of the papal apartment. “Whoever passes through the gate of the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo will find pure beauty,” Mr Paolucci said. Among the rooms open now to the public are the Room of the Throne, the Consistory Room, the pope’s bedroom and private study. Unlike his predecessors, Pope Francis spends his summers in Rome rather than at the peaceful residence 32km away in the cooler hills. However, Sandro Barbagallo, curator of historical collections at the Vatican Museums, said that the “non-presence of the pope fits perfectly within the palace’s history”. “Thirty-three popes have reigned since the Apostolic Palace was first acquired. Of those 33 popes, only 15 have actually resided here at Castel Gandolfo,”

The pope’s bedroom is pictured in the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Private areas of the papal villa are now open to the public. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) he noted. To celebrate the papal apartment’s grand opening to the public and its historical significance, artists from the Guangzhou Opera House in Beijing performed a short concert titled, “Beauty unites us”. Playing both classical and traditional instruments, the eight female artists filled the palace courtyard with the sounds of China while famed calligrapher Cui Zimo painted an artistic representation in honour of the Year of Mercy titled Anima Mundi (“The Soul of the World”). Mr Zimo said his artwork, as well as the presence of the musicians from the Guangzhou Opera House, was “an artistic contribution to the pope’s Year of Mercy”, and he hoped that it would be “a

new start to the relationship between China and the Vatican”. The artwork, he said, was inspired by Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam”, in which God is depicted reaching his finger toward Adam, “yet their fingers are barely touching”. Mr Zimo said he suddenly realised “what those hands mean” when he had a chance to meet Pope Francis and shake his hand. “It is love that allows those hands to be together and that small distance between them can disappear,” he said. “This merciful love not only means the coming together of two persons but also the coming together of different peoples and different nations,” Mr Zimo said.—CNS

Peru’s president consecrates nation to Sacred and Immaculate Hearts

ERU’S President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has consecrated the country, his family and himself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Taking part in a National Day of Prayer in the capital Lima, Mr Kuczynski in his capacity as president offered the prayer of consecration, written by the Mission for the Love of God in the Whole World. Participating in the event were important business and political leaders in the country. Of the 21 prayer breakfasts that have been held in Peru, this is the

first time a president attended. Event organiser Aldo Bertello Costa said that the intent of the breakfast is to pray for the leaders as well as to “bring to all Peruvians a message of optimism and reconciliation. Everyone united together for our beloved country”. During the ceremony, President Kuczynski entrusted to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary “my government with all its workers and citizens who are under my responsibility. I offer to Almighty God my thoughts and decisions as president so that he may use them for the good of our country and always bearing in mind the Ten

Commandments in governing it”. He asked God’s forgiveness “for all the transgressions I may have committed in the past, all those committed by the republic in the past, and for all those decisions that may have been made contrary to his commandments and I ask for his help in changing everything that separates us from him”. The consecration received a mixed reaction on social media. Some celebrated the gesture, while others noted that some members of Mr Kuczynski’s party have recently promoted initiatives to decriminalise abortion and homosexual unions.—CNA

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The Church of the Transfiguration in the Galilee which was broken into and statues damaged. The contents of the donation box, thought to be less than $100, was stolen. Several chalices also were taken, as was the ciborium, after the hosts were discarded on the floor. Police and Church officials are treating the break-in at the church as a criminal matter. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

Pope: people bound to the law may lead double lives By CARoL GLATz

EOPLE rigidly bound to the law suffer pain, pride and often live a double life, Pope Francis said in a morning homily. God’s law was made not “to make us slaves but to make us free, to make us children” of God, he said in his homily during Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae in the Vatican. The pope looked at the day’s Gospel reading from Luke 13:10-17 in which the leader of a synagogue is furious that Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath. The pope said that in the Gospel Jesus often accuses those who rigidly adhere to the law as being hypocrites; they are not free children of God, but “are slaves of the law”. Behind this inflexibility, he said, “there is always something else. And that is why Jesus says, ‘Hypocrites!’” There is something “hidden” in that person’s life, “in many cases a double life, but there is also some kind of illness”, he said. Inflexibility is not a gift of God, he said. “Meek-

ness, yes, benevolence, yes, forgiveness, yes, But rigidity, no.” Those who are rigid suffer when they realise they are not free, he said. “They do not know how to walk within the law of the Lord and they are not blessed. “They seem good because they follow the law, but there is something underneath that doesn’t make them good—either they are hypocrites or they are sick.” Lurking just beneath the surface, he said, there is often pride—the pride of believing oneself to be righteous. “It’s not easy to walk within the law of the Lord without succumbing to rigidity,” he said. God’s grace is needed. Pope Francis ended his homily asking for prayers “for our brothers and sisters who believe that walking in the Lord’s law entails becoming rigid”. God prefers “mercy, tenderness, goodness, meekness and humility”, the pope said.—CNS

120 priests at shopping mall ‘Confess-a-thon’

OR two days, a shopping mall in Bogota, Colombia, was transformed into a “Confess-a-thon” as 120 priests administered the sacrament of reconciliation to shoppers and those passing by. Priests from all over the country flocked to the Gran Estación mall for the confession event. This is the second time that the initiative has taken place. Last October, the first Confessa-thon was held at the mall, with great success. Some 70% of the country is Catholic. The Colombian Conference of Catholic Bishops said that the event is a sign of the Jubilee of Mercy that “is inspired by what the pontiff has asked for: to be a Church that reaches out, as a sign of the presence of God”. The event took place during the Faith Cup, a football tournament among priests to help build fraternity and outreach.

The first day of this year’s Confess-a-thon began with some people looking at the priests with surprise and curiosity. Others lined up to take part in the sacrament. Gladys Lopez was among those who went to confession. She said that it was an opportunity to unburden herself. “You come totally convinced that God is giving you the chance to have a clear conscience and to be able to remove those things that are weighing us down in our lives, and it’s an opportunity that everyone should take advantage of,” she said. Miguel Marquina Acevedo was surprised to see this initiative. In Bogota just for a visit, he and his children went to confession. “It’s not just an occasion to get closer to God, but also to be reconciled, because we often don’t have time to get to the church,” he said.—CNA

Vatican rules on cremations Cellphones: 083 963 3848 083 544 1504 082 730 7180

Fr Urs Fischer Bro Crispin Mrs n Qupa

Continued from page 1 “green burials” for bodies that have not been embalmed and are placed in simple wooden caskets that eventually will biodegrade along with the body. “We believe in the resurrection of the body and this must be the principle of our understanding and practice,” Cardinal Müller told

Catholic News Service, noting that there is a difference between allowing for the natural decay of the body while protecting the environment and seeing the body of the deceased primarily as fertiliser for plants and trees. n The English text of the instruction can be found at www bit.ly/2eBe2Yt

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

Vatican opens archives on Argentina’s ‘dirty war’ By CARoL GLATz

OLLOWING the authorisation and recommendations of Pope Francis, documents housed in the Vatican and Argentine Church’s archives pertaining to Argentina’s “dirty war” will be made available for review, said a joint press statement. The aim of cataloguing, digitalising and unsealing the materials for consultation only to people closely affected by the military regime’s atrocities was to serve “truth, justice and peace, continuing dialogue open to the culture of encounter”, it said. The joint statement was released by the Vatican Secretariat of State and the Argentine bishops’ conference.

In Buenos Aires, Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli told a news conference: “We believe this service is a service to the homeland and for the reconciliation of Argentines. We are not afraid of the archives. The archives contain the truth of history.” The joint statement said the procedures required for consulting the documents were to be detailed shortly, and if specified that only those who were victims, immediate family members of the disappeared or detained and, “in the case of religious or clerics, also their major superiors” were allowed to have access to the materials. It said members representing the Vatican secretariat and the

bishops’ conference met at the Vatican to evaluate the now-completed work of cataloguing and digitalising materials from 1976-83 stored in the archives of the national bishops’ conference, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and the apostolic nunciature in Buenos Aires. It said the process of organising and digitalising “is completed” and had been “carried out in conformity with the decisions and indications of the Holy Father”. The project was also “a continuation of work already begun years ago by the Argentine bishops’ conference”, it said. Pope Francis was a priest in Buenos Aires during Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship; he

served as the provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina between 1973-79. The clandestine war led by government security forces saw as many as 30 000 Argentines kidnapped, tortured, murdered or disappeared, never to be seen again. Many priests were killed by the military for their work. Other priests involved themselves with the dictatorship. In 1996, Argentina’s bishops admitted they did not do enough to stop atrocities during that period. The Association of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which advocates for justice in the name of their children who were disappeared during the war, has said the Church’s silence was harmful. Hebe de Bonafini, one of the as-

Irish archbishop: 2018 families meeting to include solutions By SARAH MAC doNALd

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RCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said the next World Meeting of Families, which takes place in Ireland in August 2018, would be about developing “concrete ideas for the renewal of marriage and family in our Irish Church and society”. The theme chosen by Pope Francis for the World Meeting is “The Gospel of the Family—Joy for the World”. Acknowledging that there is “no such thing as the ideal family”, Archbishop Martin said that did not mean “we renounce presenting an ideal, which men and women and young people can aspire to and hope to achieve”. Archbishop Martin said Amoris Laetitia would provide the framework for the World Meeting of Families. The archbishop said focusing on those issues in an isolated way had resulted in people not seeing the creative pastoral approach that Pope Francis wishes the Church to use when dealing

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www.catholic-pe.co.za/stpius Archbishops eamon Martin of Armagh, Northern Ireland, and diarmuid Martin of dublin after launching the World Meeting of Families 2018 in dublin. (Photo: John Mc elroy/CNS) with these issues. “Bishops and cardinals have publicly criticised the document or have tried to place their own interpretation on it in such a way as to fail to grasp the insights of Pope Francis. They fear that the emphasis on mercy will weaken the promulgation of the truth,” Archbishop Martin said. He said it was important not

to “allow ourselves to become entangled in trying to produce definitions of the family. Family is such a transcultural value that it cannot be defined simply. Family is about love, no matter how imperfect and failing: It is about a love which enriches lives”. The last World Meeting of Families was in Philadelphia in September 2015.—CNS

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With only one church, Somalia is a dangerous place for Christians By MóNICA zoRITA de LA MoReNA

‘E

VEN silently, it is better to be here than not be here.” These are the words of Bishop Giorgio Bertin, apostolic administrator of the diocese of Mogadishu, Somalia.. The prelate, who has been in the region for almost 40 years and is also the bishop of Djibouti, was hinting at the grave risks Christians face in the Horn of Africa. There is only a single church in Somalia: St Anthony of Padua in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, a semi-autonomous region. Saying Mass has been and continues to be “very dangerous”, the bishop told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. Just last January, after the church had been boarded up for some 20 years, the bishop was able to re-consecrate it. The church now also serves as a base for humanitarian activities sponsored by Caritas. “Not many people come to Mass—ten at most—but none theless, it is important,” the bishop said. The church is a silent witness in a country where “there are more and more mosques”, thanks to financial aid from Saudi Arabia, he added.

sociation’s founders, had a private two-hour meeting with Pope Francis in May. A once-fierce critic of thenArchbishop Bergoglio, she told journalists she had been mistaken about his role during the regime’s reign and learned that “he had played a role on the side of the people” by working behind the scenes to save suspected dissidents. The pope also met in 2014 with Estela de Carlotto, founder of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo—a group that had asked the pope to open up Church archives to find information identifying or locating children who were taken from their mothers while they were under military detention.— CNS

St Anthony of Padua in Hargeisa, Somalia’s only Catholic church. (Photo: ACN) For Catholics, however, “there is no possible way of having a presence in Mogadishu, since it is very dangerous. There are a few Catholics, but if they engage in any activities…they will be risking their lives. We can only be present there through the intermediary of other Somali associations”. It was 27 years ago, following the assassination of Bishop Salvatore Colombo, that the Holy See asked Bishop Bertin to become apostolic administrator of Mogadishu, after rebels had destroyed almost the whole of the Somali capital and the Church’s entire infrastructure. “They deliberately targeted us, though not only us; in fact they destroyed everything, including

embassies, and all public institutions,” the bishop recalled. To this day, Somalia has remained a completely dysfunctional state, with a host of unrecognised self-proclaimed independent regions, such as Somaliland, and the constant threat of the jihadist militia of AlShabaab. Fortunately, in neighbouring Djibouti, the mainly Muslim former French colony where Bishop Bertin resides, the Church has freedom. “We are left in peace there; there is no danger and the Church is respected,” he said. The local Church comprises 5 000 Catholics, most of them expatriate, with only very few native faithful. Providing education and humanitarian work are the primary tasks of the Church, which, the bishop stresses, is not out to make converts. The Catholic schools almost exclusively serve Muslim students, however. Still, the prelate said, “we are sowing the seed of the Gospel among the people”. The bishop said that “a priest or a religious sister is not there for the Catholics only; they are there as a presence in society, in contact with the people and open to them. We cannot remain closed up within our structures”.—CNA

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The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Put an end to Protestant-bashing

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Responding to abortion

WENTY years ago this month, parliament voted to pass the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, which legalised abortion in South Africa. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice organisation, admiringly called South Africa’s abortion law “one of the most liberal in the world”. It took effect on February 1, 1997. The 2004 amendment act liberalised the law further. At the time of the parliamentary debate in 1996, the Catholic Church and other pro-life bodies made representations to parliament and in the public forum to explain why the act should not be passed. But the African National Congress refused to allow for a “free vote” in which their MPs could take positions according to their consciences, and so the passage of the law was assured. With that, abortion became part of South African life, even as a significant proportion of the population opposed the killing of unborn lives. It is inconceivable that the law on abortion will be reversed, so there is little point in campaigning for its repeal, other than to raise awareness about abortion. It is necessary that such awareness be maintained. But this must be accompanied by a focus on finding ways to relieve the conditions in which most abortions take place. While for some women, terminating a pregnancy may be a freely-elected decision of convenience, most abortions take place in a context of desperation and deprivation. Every abortion is a tragedy— usually for the mother, too. Moreover, psychologists attest to the long-term trauma many women suffer after having an abortion, especially if aborting their child was a response to a crisis. The pro-life movement must act with compassion towards women who have abortions, whose circumstances we may not know. Much of the movement, though not all of it, understands that. So it was all the more damaging when US presidential candidate Donald Trump—a very late arrival to the pro-life cause—proposed to “punish” women who have abortions. Where the law permits abortion, the answer to it must be to limit its incidence through education, compassion and mercy, not by threat and censure. People’s consciences must be

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

informed on the ethics of abortion: that terminating a pregnancy is killing a sacred human life. The reason why the Church, and most of the pro-life movement, opposes abortion must be clearly conveyed: life begins at conception, even at the point when that life is still a cluster of cells. From that very point, life is sacred and must be protected. This is not a question of political ideology, and the teaching remains authentic regardless of political perspective. But abortion has become a battleground of ideology, with the dividing lines usually being between conservatives and liberals, and hostility towards the other’s position so deeply entrenched that one’s position on it serves as a litmus test. This has bred on both sides an extremism that makes dialogue impossible. For many on the pro-life side, those who favour access to abortions are “baby-killers” whose inherent morality is repudiated. On the pro-choice side, those who argue against abortion are seen as fanatical misogynists who pursue a right-wing anti-women agenda. To be sure, there are those who fit these descriptions. But most who take a position on abortion either way do so with genuine compassion in the belief that they are advocating for the greater good. Acknowledging this does not compromise one’s pro-life position but creates a basis for dialogue between people of goodwill on both sides, no matter how irreconcilable the respective principles are, in order to create the conditions that would limit abortions—not by threat or prohibition but by education and giving women access to alternatives to abortion. The Catholic Church in South Africa has shown a way of how to offer alternatives to abortion through its various homes for mothers in difficulties. There such mothers are assisted in their pregnancies, as we will describe in next week’s edition. But more such homes are needed: to save unborn lives, and to save mothers from the very real possibility of suffering long-term trauma. If the government really wants to give women “choice” in their difficult situations, as the title of its abortion law promises, then it must also allocate funding to alternatives to abortion.

HILE I am conscious of the sensitivity of many of us Catholics to discussions about sex, nevertheless I found the letter by JH Goossens (October 19) to be very judgmental towards other Christians. No doubt that all Christians

need to confront all the sexual issues mentioned in the article, but to label all others as Protestants and in the wrong is both unkind and uncharitable. Furthermore, in the spirit of Pope Francis, in his quest for the unification of all of the Christian

ubuntu to one’s own family, tribe or ethnic group). St Francis of Assisi risked his life when he unsuccessfully tried to stop the Fifth Crusade at Damietta (Egypt), so perhaps Africa will again help to carry the cross of the world’s suffering and sin behind Jesus? Athaly Jenkinson, East London

Here’s how to watch EWTN

URTHER to the appeal to have EWTN included on the roster of DStv channels, I have been watching EWTN for over a year on YouTube, for free. Furthermore, I have the free EWTN app installed on my tablet as well as on Apple TV, which has replaced DStv in my life. Although Apple TV costs a onceoff fee of R3 000, there are no monthly payments for channels that I do not watch, as is the case with DStv. EWTN's YouTube channel has a back catalogue of all programmes which I can watch whenever I wish to do so. DStv has become redundant in the light of live streaming television. Rather invest the monthly DStv subscription in better bandwidth and enjoy television of the future. Jacques Batista, Port Elizabeth

Tutu on death: questionable view

HE recent views expressed by the Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in support for euthanasia is not a new event in the life of the Church of England. In 1913 legislators in England proposed the eugenics legislation before parliament. Two primates of the Church of England, the archbishops of Canterbury and York, endorsed and supported that bill which was later withdrawn by Winston Churchill who switched to the conservative side. In 1924 Anglican Bishop Barnes of Birmingham, in his publication The Eugenics Review, offered reasons why Christians should support the selecting-out of all people who are mentally or physically defective. After spending much of his life fighting for the abolition of the death penalty, it is mind-boggling that Archbishop Tutu has been converted by a convicted crusader such as Sean Davidson, who hopes to have his conscience soothed should the law of the country allow assisted suicide, which is a euphemism for assisted murder. The legalisation of assisted suicide will nullify the Hippocratic oath taken by caregivers and physicians who ought to heal, preserve, extend and make life comfortable for the sick and infirm. Archbishop Tutu’s support for assisted suicide, a crime of choice, will make him complicit in the harm and death of partakers in this heinous exercise that parades falsely as “mercy” and “dignity”. When the killing of the unborn was legalised in the United States the 1970s, “stringent” requirements were mandated. Sadly, the killing of the unborn—whose rights have been dismissed by many countries including our own—is carried out on demand as a luxury requirement in most cases. There can certainly be no guarantee that assisted suicide will not follow the same path and be used as a means to clearing

Jesus has early roots in Africa

UR Lady has appeared in various places in our world, such as Lourdes, Fatima, Guadeloupe, Ngome—but we forget she was in Africa long before. She brought her son, sparing his life for his mission: to help us overcome our self-centredness, born of the basic survival and group instincts embedded in our DNA. He came to teach us to love God and one another, our neighbour, our enemy, and suffer his death in atonement for our failures. As Fr Rolheiser wrote in The Southern Cross: “Too many of us do not realise that God loves everyone equally.” Mary prayed, and Jesus not only prayed as a priority, he also taught and encouraged us to pray, for others as well as ourselves. This letter is to thank all who requested, prayed and distributed so many copies of the “prayer for Africa” leaflets—God bless you! Now it is time to pray for others in our troubled world. Africa helped the Holy Family as refugees, and Simon of Cyrene (Libya), an African, was the only man who helped Jesus on his terrible journey (even though African traditional custom often limits

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faith, we should drop the description “Protestant” in relation to other Christians. If anything, we Catholics should engage more with other Christians to promote and encourage far more compassion, understanding and discussion of the issues at stake, and the setting of moral and ethical standards for society as a whole. Antonio Tonin, East London beds in hospitals and care institutions for the disabled and mentally challenged, and “rid” families of individuals who are an obstacle to their freedom. The official Dutch government report on the practice of euthanasia, conducted in 1991, reported the following: 400 doctors assisted patients with a means to kill; 1 040 patients were killed without their consent or knowledge, and 4 942 doctors actively administered drug overdoses without patient consent. Individuals who for all intents and purposes have the duty to end a life on request become medical executioners and criminals, because the practice does not require a knowledge of medicine, but a knowledge of how to do harm, which is the basis of every premeditated deadly and life-threatening activity. When a person loses their natural faculties and function, it does not follow that their dignity is lost. It is rather the so-called carer who questions the dignity of the other through their subjective arbitrary views based on the uncalled-for burden and nuisance their loved ones have become in their lives. Family situations and conditions that are devoid of empathy, patience and a complete love for the weak and suffering do propel family members to “coach” the sufferer into considering and agreeing to assisted suicide. When someone who suffers say they want to die, they don’t necessarily indicate that they want to end their life. What they do cry for is patience and merciful love and caring from their family members. Regrettably, faith-based institutions and leaders such as Archbishop Tutu have become the converts of secularism with its relative subjective views that defy sacred scripture, human biology and natural truths. Personal rights in essence have become a “I say so” legal prescriptive. Henry R Sylvester, Cape Town opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate. Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately. Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

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Urban mission in the spotlight BY MANDLA ZIBI

OLY Trinity church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, became the focus of the Catholic Church’s “urban mission stations” when violence between protesting students and police spilled over its precincts, with the parish priest shot in the face by police. Just as Catholics were celebrating Mission Month, Holy Trinity’s role as a safe and sacred space, and as a bridge-building agent in the political turmoil, made international headlines with photos of a bleeding Jesuit Father Graham Pugin being led away for treatment after being struck in his mouth and chest by rubber bullets. “Holy Trinity is an urban mission station because we are in the midst of the inner city and the university. Our mission is to reach out to people in that context, offer the Good News to men and women on the streets, to professionals who work in the area, and to university staff and students,” Fr Pugin told The Southern Cross. Holy Trinity church is adjacent to the Wits University campus, and also provides chaplaincy to the nearby University of Johannesburg. In the chaos that followed stalled negotiations on the resumption of classes—with police and student confrontation flaring up again at Wits—many students fled to the church for refuge. As students gathered in the church yard, police riot vehicles drove past and fired rubber bullets at them. Fr Pugin stood impassively at the entrance to the church grounds, blocking the police from entering it. After several attempts to enter the church compound, police fire struck Fr Pugin in the chest and face. “I was praying to God that their aim was good and that they were shooting past me,” said the priest, who had been imprisoned during the apartheid era for refusing to serve in the SA Defence Force. This month’s events have served to highlight the presence of the Catholic Church and its work in cities as mission stations in a post-apartheid, and rapidly urbanising South Africa, with its many social problems such as homelessness, disease, violence and marginalisation. “In the heart of the city we are the physical presence of the Gospel—not just the building, but also in the way that we witness by being there and also by reaching out to meet needs in that context,” said Fr Pugin. “Many people come for help—material help but also spiritual help. Quite a few people come for spiritual direction,” he said. Holy Trinity “is also an important place of meeting in the area”, he said.

Fr Graham Pugin SJ stands in the way of a Nyala armoured police vehicle before he was shot with rubber bullets outside Holy Trinity church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, where students were sheltering during unrest on Wits campus. (Photo: Edward Molopi) We have Masses, like any parish, and a normal parish schedule of meetings and events. The parish hosts many events and lectures of a faith formation nature. We collaborate with the Jesuit Institute and host events they offer too.”

very morning the church provides soup for between 80 to 200 homeless people, and a hot meal in the evening. The dedicated Society of St Vincent de Paul group also organises clothing, blankets, shoes, soap and showers for the homeless. All this is interspersed with regular weekly Bible-sharing meetings. There is also a free lunch for hungry students daily from Monday to Friday. The church also hosts a fortnightly clinic run by Wits University medical students to provide patients with primary health care

check-ups, examinations and diagnostics. The clinic was also used as a makeshift trauma unit for those injured during the student protests. “The staff are all a bit traumatised. It's been a tough few weeks with all that's happened on the campus. But, they have also all been wonderful, and when we were in the midst of the protest crisis, they worked as a great team. They are all committed to ensuring that Trinity is a safe and sacred space where people can meet, listen and dialogue. That’s important for us, building bridges,” said Fr Pugin. The commander of the police operation at Wits visited Fr Pugin, apologising to him and asking for forgiveness. “I told them I forgive them; that’s my Christian faith,” the priest told the Jesuit magazine America. “But I also made sure that

they knew that the way their operations were conducted was unacceptable. There was no need to shoot traumatised students who were seeking a place of safety.” The police have promised an independent investigation into the shooting. The mission of the Church and Holy Trinity is clear, Fr Pugin told The Southern Cross: “Our role is to preach the Good News, and we have an opportunity to be a voice of non-violence and forgiveness.” He said he remained hopeful that a resolution between the protesters, the university and government would be reached, but “we are concerned by the sense of distrust between all the role players. The high security presence and clashes between police and students have also heightened tensions, making negotiations, at this stage, much more difficult.”

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PERSPECTIVES Emmanuel Ngara

Lessons from Joseph I N last month’s column, we observed how God often tests his chosen servants or allows them to be tested. This week we shall examine one of the most popular characters in the Old Testament, Joseph, one of the sons of Jacob (Gen 37-50). Joseph had dreams that he told to his brothers. In the first dream, he and his brothers were binding sheaves of grain and his brothers’ sheaves bowed down to his. In the second dream, the sun and moon and seven stars were bowing down to him. Out of hatred and jealousy, his brothers sold Joseph to Midianites (Ishmaelites) who were going to Egypt. The Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials. Potiphar was so impressed by this young man that he put him in charge of his house. Because Joseph was a handsome and well-built young man, Pharaoh’s wife wanted to have sex with him, but Joseph would not succumb to her persistent temptations. One day she grabbed him by his gown and when Joseph ran away and left the gown in her hands, she then accused him of having attempted to rape her. Potiphar was so enraged that he put Joseph in prison. While in prison Joseph got to be known for his ability to interpret dreams—including Pharaoh’s own two sets of dreams. In the first set Pharaoh was standing by the Nile and saw seven sleek and fat cows grazing among the reeds. He then saw another seven cows, these ones gaunt and ugly, eating the seven beautiful and healthy ones.

He slept again and had a dream in which seven good and healthy heads of grain were swallowed up by seven thin and unhealthy heads of grain.

hen no one could interpret the dreams, Pharaoh’s cupbearer remembered how Joseph had accurately interpreted his dream. Pharaoh had Joseph called to interpret the dreams and the young Hebrew man told Pharaoh that both dreams meant that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of severe famine. Joseph went further and advised Pharaoh that he should appoint a wise and discerning man and put him in charge of all Egypt to collect and store up food during the seven years of plenty. This

A scene from this year’s Pieter Toerien production of the musical Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, which is based on the story of Joseph in Genesis 37. The story of Joseph holds important lessons in leadership, writes emmanuel Ngara. (Photo: Pieter Toerien Productions)

ten cathedrals, manors and simple houses, populated by a handful of elderly people. Of course, our society is not as dystopian as that of the fictional Hunger Games, but it is a reflection of the world we live in. Economic and political power are concentrated in the cities, and the mass production of global corporations make it impossible for small businesses to compete. s arable land is transformed into commercial farmland, bled of its natural resources or simply abandoned, the citizens of small towns feel they have no other alternative than to join the throngs in the cities fighting for limited resources. What work they can find is soul-less, transforming them into anonymous cogs in a wheel, never seeing what their hands have produced. What quality of life is that? In fact, Pope Francis says that “work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfilment” (Laudate Sí’). He criticises the over-emphasis on technology to replace human work, where the “orientation of the economy has favoured a kind of technological progress in which the costs of production are reduced by laying

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A woman and a child in a rural village. In her column, Sarah-Leah Pimentel argues that the exodus from rural villages must be reversed to fight urban poverty. (Photo: yolanda Coervers)

food would then be used to save Egypt during the seven years of famine. Pharaoh saw no better person than Joseph himself to do this, and so Joseph was put in charge of all Egypt to manage the process. But the famine affected the whole region, including Canaan, the land of Joseph’s family. This is how Jacob sent Joseph’s brothers to Egypt to buy grain, and this is how, when Joseph revealed himself, the whole family, including Jacob himself, migrated to Egypt at the invitation of Joseph. The story of Joseph teaches us some important leadership lessons. When God calls leaders he gives them gifts to serve both the Creator and humanity. However, these gifts must be accompanied by a righteous character. Joseph had two major gifts: He had the gift of interpreting dreams and was an excellent manager. So good were his management skills that Potiphar put him in charge of his whole household, and Pharaoh gave him the whole of Egypt to manage. But Joseph was also a virtuous and wise man. He would not sleep with his master’s wife, and he forgave his brothers who had sold him into slavery, and he recognised that it was God who had sent him to Egypt to save humanity and his own family. If you are called to a leadership position, recognise your gifts and use them to serve God, the Church and humanity.

Sarah-Leah Pimentel

The case for small towns I N the Hunger Games trilogy (2012), the Capitol is a metropolis that is a seat of economic and political power. It perpetuates its existence by keeping “the Districts”—the large administrative areas under its control—poor, submissive, and afraid so that the Capitol can continue to take the hard work of their hands to cater to the lavish lifestyles of the big city. The only recognition the Districts receive is the annual gladiatorial competition where the youngest and best citizens are picked to compete to the death for the coveted prize of a few extra scraps of food for their District. The main protagonist, Katniss, defies the time-held belief that anyone from the Districts can ever be anything more than the competitor who displays the worst of human nature to survive. By acting with dignity and compassion, Katniss is able to fool the game master and give hope to the people of the Districts, launching a revolution that seeks to displace the Capitol and create a new social order. We can relate this to South Africa. Millions of small-town and village people flock to the cities in search of opportunities and a better life. The countryside seems parochial and distant from the buzz of “civilisation”. Yet, in South Africa, unless you have resources and education, the city will spit you out and force you to live on its fringes. And so the squatter camps increase, desperation abounds, and what is left is a deep-seated resentment towards those who have it all in the suburbs. The dreams of the big city have failed them. Unfortunately, this is not unique to South Africa. Angola, for example, has a land mass that is slightly larger than South Africa’s, but a quarter of its 25 million population live in the capital Luanda on a cesspit of uncollected garbage and flooded streets in the rainy season. Urbanisation is global. In Ireland, as I saw a few months ago, the countryside is dotted with the ruined skeletons of forgot-

Christian Leadership

off workers and replacing them with machines”. In light of this world reality, the Holy Father argues that the antidote to “the progressive erosion of social capital” is to “promote an economy which favours productive diversity and business creativity”. Let us envision a different world. What if each town had its own ecosystem, so to speak? What if small towns could once again become self-sustaining, providing adequate employment for all its citizens, where each person could feel that they are an integral and necessary member that contributes meaningfully to the successful development of their “common home”? What if small towns could trade with one another, selling their excess and buying the goods and services they lack from others, bypassing the capital? If we could make our small towns work again, perhaps the poverty that clings to the ever-growing fringes of the metropolis would dissipate and we could restore dignity to the labour of the countless millions who now work dispassionately (if they are lucky to work at all) simply to survive. Perhaps this is the practical implementation of Pope Francis’ vision which he calls for an “integral ecology” that seeks to find “comprehensive solutions which consider the interactions within natural systems themselves and with social systems”. If we were to solve the social crisis, we might find that we could also find solutions to many environmental concerns, which draw on the unity of God’s plan of love for all his creation. Laudate Sí’ sums it up well: “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”

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The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

Michael Shackleton

open door

Is the Church the ‘Antichrist’? The Internet contains much anti-Catholic propaganda and downright lies about the teachings of the Church. There is still an abundance of vitriol that identifies our Church with the “Antichrist” mentioned in 1 John 2:18, and all sorts of other horrid incarnations of evil. Who really was or is the “Antichrist”? What is the Catholic teaching here? Donovan

OHN writes that “an Antichrist must come, and now several Antichrists have already appeared; we know from this that these are the last days”. The author acknowledges that Antichrists will beset the young Church. This was the Christian expectation, as indicated also in Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians (2:3-12) and similar passages. There were teachers around at the time contradicting the teachings of the Apostles, so John sees this as the context in which to repeat the exhortation to stand firm in the faith in readiness for Christ’s triumphant return to this world. Scripture and tradition give no consistent picture of the Antichrist. As you can imagine, differences among Christians would easily have caused groups to deride one another’s beliefs and customs and accuse one another of being the Antichrist. Such silly hostilities would strain the meaning of Scripture so that all the nastiness of an Antichrist figure would be applied to whoever had views contradicting your own. When the Reformation took hold in Europe in the 16th century, the Church was split into two antagonistic camps and, of course, to be antiCatholic was the politically correct thing to be. As the head of the Church the pope was the obvious single person to be bad-mouthed in order for the Reformers to justify their breaking from Rome. He was labelled the Antichrist who set himself up against the real Christ, the true head of the Church. In addition, the Reformers condemned any Catholic teaching that was not explicitly taught in the Bible. In 1563 the Church of England published its 39 Articles of Religion making it very clear how it rejected Catholic doctrine. Belief in purgatory, for example, was described as repugnant to the Word of God. Only baptism and the Supper of the Lord were accepted as sacraments and the sacrificial nature of the Mass was declared blasphemous. With this history it was not difficult for any other anti-Catholic groups and sects to climb onto the bandwagon, mangling Scripture to prove just how wicked the pope and the Church are. The Internet swarms with examples, generally making their negative and ignorant point in bold print and capital letters. These diatribes are not the work of scripture scholars and serious researchers but the vapid nonsense of pure prejudice. Today the idea of the Antichrist should be appreciated in its pastoral value, serving to encourage us all to be strong in keeping and defending the faith in order to counteract every new manifestation of the forces of darkness. n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town,

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

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The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

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LIFE

The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

How abortion became legal in SA Twenty years ago this week, parliament voted to legalise abortion. MANdLA zIBI looks back on the events leading to that vote, and the consquences of it today.

FEW weeks before the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996 (TOP), which allowed abortion on demand for the first time in South Africa, was passed 20 years ago this month, Archbishop Denis Hurley sounded a warning in a speech published in The Southern Cross. “The great regret we must entertain is that we did not act in time In october and November 1996, the parliamentary vote to legalise abortion dominated the news in The Southern Cross, as it did on the front-pages of to marshal the support of the so- october 13 and 27 and November 10 that year. The law was passed 20 yrears ago this month. called silent majority against the pro-abortionist trend.” and there would be more control. tion mounted a legal challenge to Bill attacks life,” he said. “We say it Twenty years later However, he added, “we still the TOP. In 1998 the Transvaal would be cowardly for a Catholic Twenty years on, Mr Pothier But we still find more illegal have the time to proclaim and pub- provincial division of the High MP not to vote [on the issue]. They does not believe the political fall- posters up for abortion. There is no licise the traditional Judeo-Christ- Court dismissed it, on the very have to uphold Catholic teaching out of the TOP was significant. “I monitoring of the counselling ian view, to witness to our faith grounds anticipated by Arch- in public.” don’t think there have been any given to women before and after and to support that witness with bishop Hurley, a case questioning One interesting legal manoeu- noticeable political consequences. abortion,” she said. fervent and prolonged prayer.” “If they say this is a human vre in the battle at the time was Abortion is not a hot-button issue the constitutionality of the act. The Church, together with alMr Pothier said he had no proposed by Dr Claude Newbury, in this country as it is, for example, rights issue, does our country look lied Catholic organisations, did doubt that many ANC members the president of Pro Life, who said after the women when they have in the United States,” he noted. make its voice loudly heard against and MPs were against the idea of that for Catholics the “courageous” emotional scarring because of their “However, socially, it could be the ANC government’s intentions abortion on demand, but they thing to do was to refuse to certify abortion, when they go through argued that the availability of aborto make abortion widely available were not prepared to make it “an the entire draft constitution of depression or suffer from anxiety? tion on demand has further eroded to South African women. These are just some of the psychoissue of resignation”. To test this South Africa until the abortion our respect for life,” he suggested. “The Church made a formal idea the SACBC, together with or- issue was re-opened. This was after logical consequences,” she said. He explained: “To some extent submission to parliament during ganisations like the Southern the draft document had been sent She warned of health hazards the public hearings on the law [in African Council of Priests SACOP back to parliament for amend- it promotes a ‘throwaway’ culture linked to abortion such as damage that allows people to avoid responOctober 1996]. Archbishop had appealed to all parties, espe- ments that however were unrelated to the womb, the fallopian tubes, sibility for their actions. In this re- possible death from haemorrhagLawrence Henry of Cape Town, cially those in favour of the Bill, to to abortion. and a Catholic advocate from Dur- allow a free vote. “Courageous action of this na- spect I am thinking more of the ing and future infertility. ban, Noel Pistorius, delivered the Ms Thomas said one of the main The ANC had initially made ture is essential and urgent if the men who impregnate women, essubmission. Fr Peter-John Pearson vague assurances towards this. [campaign] of the Catholic bishops pecially young women, and then instruments in their fight against and I were also present,” said Mike President Nelson Mandela said al- is to succeed,” said Dr Newbury in walk away; they do not have to abortions is prayer, especially in face the consequences of their fun, front of abortion centres. Pothier of the Catholic Parliamen- though the abortion Bill had the a letter to The Southern Cross. whereas the woman has either to tary Liaison Office (CPLO) as he full support of the ANC caucus, “One of our campaigns in Cape bring the child to term and then Town since 2012 is 40 Days for Mother Teresa weighed in reminisced last week about events MPs who had conscientious objecThe Catholic community in care for it as a single mother, or Life, a spiritual battle conducted in 20 years ago. tions to it might abstain from votAfter the meeting, Adelaide ing. However, when it came to the South Africa could not have had a deal with the trauma of having an peace, fasting and prayer to save Tambo, an MP and widow of for- crunch, the NEC maintained that more powerful advocate in the abortion.” the life of unborn children by For Colette Thomas, national di- God’s power,” she said. mer ANC president Oliver Tambo, no free vote of conscience would world—bar the pope himself— approached the Catholic delega- be allowed, as abortion on demand when Mother Teresa lent her voice rector of Human Life International “The mission is to bring toin South Africa, aside from the hor- gether the body of Christ in a spirit to the cause. tion to offer dialogue on what was official party policy. In a letter sent to President Man- rendous fact of a million and more of unity with the purpose of repencould be done about the Bill, The free vote dilemma dela, and published in The Southern abortions since TOP, the spiritual tance and seeking God’s favour to which she herself found problemAccording to a Southern Cross re- Cross, St Teresa of Kolkata declared and psychological damage of the turn hearts and minds from a culatic, recalled Günther Simmermacher, now editor of The Southern port, a “source” within parliament that “the greatest destroyer of Act for women who have aborted, ture of death to a culture of life, still remains dire. Cross, who covered the story for had declared that if Catholic and world peace today is abortion”. thus bringing an end to abortion.” “When the law was passed, it “If a mother can kill her own Muslim ANC MP alone had been the newspaper. Next week: A Catholic response to Catholic engagement with the allowed to vote according to their child, what is there to stop you or was said this will bring down the number of backstreet abortions abortion today. ANC preceded the submission to consciences, “the proposed Bill me from killing each other? would probably fail, indicating My dear brothers and sisters Parliament. “A month or two before the widespread dissatisfaction with the in South Africa, your country has set such a beautiful public hearings, a delegation from Bill among backbenchers”. Mr Simmermacher recalled that example to the world—that the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) vis- in an interview in The Southern persons of whatever colour, ited the ANC head office in order Cross in June that year, Fr Smangal- religion or creed can live in iso Mkhatshwa—proba- peace and unity as brothers to argue that the party bly the most prominent sisters. Let us not forget that should allow its MPs a ‘If Catholic Catholic figure in the the little unborn child in free vote on the issue. ANC and deputy minis- the mother’s womb is also The ANC delegation and Muslim ter of Education at the my brother, my sister,” she was led by Thabo Mbeki and Cheryl Carolus, the MPs had been time—had made clear implored. “What is there, that we his opposition to the party’s deputy president allowed to must be afraid of the little proposed legalisation. and deputy secretary“When it would child, that we must deny general respectively,” vote freely, come up for a vote, he him life? Is it because we Mr Pothier rememwould be ‘guided by the want an easier life? More bered. the Bill might teachings of the comfort? More conven“They held to the view that abortion on have failed’ Church’. When it came ience? More ‘freedom’? God to the vote, he absented has called us to love. And demand was ANC polhimself from parlia- love, to be true, must hurt. icy, and that its MPs would be bound to vote in accor- ment,” Mr Simmermacher said, It must cost us something… dance with that policy. So, I am adding: “I can’t hold that decision I am offering my prayers for your country.” not sure what else the Church against him.” Realising that the inThe late Sr Bernard Ncube, then could have done. As mentioned, abortion was part of ANC policy, still a Catholic nun, was a promi- evitable would come to pass, and was also supported by some of nent ANC parliamentarian who the National Right to Live Campaign called for mass the other parties, so there was openly voted for the Bill. “There were quite a few MPs action to protest the Bill. A never any doubt that the law who privately opposed the Bill,” plan for a National Prayer would be passed,” he said. He added: “It must also be re- said Mr Simmermacher, who spoke Rally on November 2—sigmembered that…there was al- to several of them. “All of them nificantly on All Souls Day, ready a law from the 1970s that had to make a very tough choice: when Catholics remember allowed abortion under limited to defy their conscience or defy their dead—was unveiled. circumstances, and it was rela- their party. I suppose, your con- This included the handing tively easy for people to get an science won’t ruin your political in at noon of petitions to government institutions by abortion if they could persuade a career.” Archbishop (later Cardinal) Catholic-organised gatherdoctor that there was some seriWilfrid Napier of Durban, who had ings across South Africa. At ous reason for it.” Archbishop Hurley himself also been part of a delegation which best, isolated groups of felt that an appeal to the Constitu- met deputy president Thabo Mbeki Catholics came out in pubtional Court against the law would and health minister Dr Nkosazana lic protest. And so in November fail, citing a legal tradition which Zuma in Cape Town in Sept 1996, regarded the unborn as not legal was also among the most vocifer- 1996—parliament passed the Act by 209 votes to 87 persons and therefore having no ous voices against the Bill. “My real problem is that the (5 abstained, 99 were abrights except in some matters of struggle against apartheid was one sent). It came into force on succession to property. The Christian Lawyers Associa- for the human right to life, but this 1 February 1997.

The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

CHURCH

Why a refuge for peace shut its doors Holy Trinity church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, closed its doors to the student protests after chaos at a meeting. But the reasons for that go far back into history, as FR RuSSeLL PoLLITT SJ explains.

GROUP of Catholic missionaries accompanied people from present-day KwaZuluNatal to Johannesburg in the mid 1890s. The rush was on: get to Jo’burg and you might find your golden fortune—not dissimilar to many people today who have migrated to Johannesburg looking for a better life. The missionaries set up shop in present-day Braamfontein and the parish community of Holy Trinity was born. The Sisters of Mercy opened a school next to the church—it would later relocate to Milpark and become the present-day McAuley House School. The old school, known to many as “The Nunnery”, still stands next to the church. The building was sold to the adjoining University of the Witwatersrand and is today its digital arts centre. The building retains its brand “Convent School” above the door because it, like Holy Trinity, is a heritage building. In 1904 the South African School of Mines moved from Kimberley to Johannesburg. In 1906 the school was renamed and, thereafter, called Transvaal University College for 16

years. In 1922 the college was given university status and the University of the Witwatersrand was born. From 1897 there was a church on the site where Holy Trinity stands today. The current church, which was one of the bigger buildings in the area at the time, was completed and opened in 1939. The church, over the years, watched Wits grow and expand. As the university got bigger and larger buildings sprang up, the church building lost its prominence in the landscape of Braamfontein. Despite being overshadowed by the concrete jungle it inhabits, this church sprung to prominence again in September and October, with the FeesMustFall protests. It became the place where people who would not and could not meet anywhere else, were able to encounter one another. It was seen, across the board, as a neutral space, a safe space, a place where anyone of any persuasion was welcome. Homeless people often wander in and out of the gate. Some come for food, others for clothes, others for fresh water and some, just because they can, for a chat with whomever they find on the premises. Often you will see people sitting on the retaining wall in the car park, laughing and chatting and exchanging life stories. Some people may be perplexed as to why Holy Trinity church provided space for meetings of various groups from the university during the turbulent weeks when higher education in South Africa was plunged into a deep and dark crisis. Some people suggest that the Church is guilty of partiality. True, the Catholic Church has always

The exterior of Holy Trinity church, which was built in 1939 to replace a previous church from the 1890s.

Holy Trinity church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. The parish was a place of refuge and mediation during the FeesMustFall protests, but after Wits students abused this sacred space, the church closed its doors to students and efforts at mediation. (Photos: Fr Russell Pollitt SJ) been partial: it has, right from its beginnings, been a partial community—if seeking ways to ensure justice is done earns you the label “partial”. Just a few years ago the community celebrated 100 years of the St Vincent de Paul Society—a group in the Church that looks after the poor and destitute. The Church is “partial” too if it insists that it is on the side of peace and will not accept anything that threatens it.

Why let in the students? To allow various different groups from the university to meet so that justice could be sought for students who are poor and cannot afford university tuition fees is in no way different to the work that Holy Trinity has been doing for over a century. The weekly clinic, which was set up by Wits medical students, soon became a place where injured students (and sometimes street people caught in the crossfire and violence) could get medical attention. Trinity has run a daily soup kitchen which has fed street people and refugees for years. Hungry, poor students have also found sustenance from the church’s kitchen. Similarly, students and people from the street could take refuge in the church when rocks, bottles and rubber bullets were flying around the campus and the streets of Braamfontein. This too, for the church, is not something that developed because of FeesMustFall. During the chaotic and bloody era called the European Middle Ages, many churches extended the tradition of monastic hospitality as

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laid out in the Rule of St Benedict, the “constitution” of Western monasticism, to people fleeing violence, persecution or conflict. The Rule of St Benedict, which governs the lives of those who choose to live in communities of work and prayer—monasteries—includes in its tenets hospitality: to welcome guests coming to the community for prayer or rest. Indeed, many of the great monasteries also included in this providing a rest stop for travellers. This principle was extended to include refuge or sanctuary. Anyone fleeing from conflict could claim this, and many did. Because it was Church land, the monastery or church was sacred ground. Violence on it was prohibited. No person seeking sanctuary was allowed to bear arms within this space. Nor were any persons pursuing a fugitive—even someone suspected of a crime—allowed to remove them. Monks often mediated between pursuers and pursued, even when they might have personally sympathised with one side or the other. These holy grounds became places where warring factions often met—under the same conditions, namely unarmed—to resolve disputes, to negotiate peace. This was further facilitated by the fact that from around the 9th century onwards unarmed clergy were regarded as non-combatants in wars, together with civilians and traders, under the widely-held principles of just war articulated by the Greek philosopher Aristotle and interpreted by theologians like St Ambrose of Milan and St Augustine of Hippo in the 4/5th century, and in the 13th century by St Thomas Aquinas. This was part of a continent-wide movement to moderate or reduce conflict, called the Peace of God. Even when the “independence” of church buildings from the state was no longer recognised in law, the tradition of sanctuary remained in many countries.

A history of mediation The Catholic Church has long served as a mediator in conflicts and disputes. The idea, if not also many of the practices, of contemporary conflict mediation and dispute resolution may well be traced to the Middle Ages practice of sanctuary. To this day, in many places the Church has acted as mediator or gobetween in conflicts. Some sections of the Church have even specialised in such work. For example, the end of the civil war following the 1975 end of Portuguese rule in Mozambique was brokered by one such group, the Catholic Community of Sant’Egidio. In South Africa the most prominent example in recent history was the role of Regina Mundi Catholic church in Soweto. It provided sanctuary from the apartheid police and became an iconic symbol in the fight for justice. When student conflict erupted at Wits University, Holy Trinity took the decision to uphold this monas-

tic practice and make it a “safe and sacred” space available for medics tending to the injured and for students fleeing campus. The parish insisted that all present within its grounds be unarmed and not engaged in planning any actions entailing violence and damage to property. It also allowed itself to become a space for dialogue and negotiation. Students met, mediators met and management met. Two words sum up the decisions made by Holy Trinity and its staff in recent weeks: sanctuary and dialogue. Trinity has long held to the importance of dialogue in matters of Church and state. It has provided space not only for theological but also socio-political discussions in the past. Its pastoral mission reflecting the four constituencies it serves—weekday attenders at Mass, homeless people, university chaplaincy, and the parishioners themselves— stresses openness and dialogue, rooted in a commitment to reason and faith, prayer and service. From these pastoral commitments, too, many on the staff were and are sympathetic to the principle behind the FeesMustFall movement in South Africa. The parish is staffed by members of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, who are well known globally for their commitment to accessible quality education. The idea that tertiary education should never exclude talented young people who are poor is a moral judgment. Similarly the judgment that the means used by some at Wits—class disruptions, damage to property, stone throwing and petrol bombs— is morally wrong (let alone strategically unwise), as is the often indiscriminate use of force by police, another moral judgment.

Why close the doors now? Why then has Trinity withdrawn from providing a space for meetings during the university crisis? The reason is quite simple: the very terms by which it provided space have been violated. The breaking point came with the aborted gathering, called by the Academic Staff Association of Witwatersrand University, which broke down with vice-chancellor Adam Habib being abused to the point that he had to be escorted out of the church, protected by clergy, peace monitors and organisers of the meeting. The aggressive intolerance that sections of the crowd showed to Dr Habib violated the principles by which Holy Trinity made itself available. It violated everything the church on that very spot has stood for in its 119 years of life. Contrary to some who imagined Trinity to be “their” exclusive safe space, the principles of sanctuary and dialogue extended to everyone. Nobody could be excluded. While circumstances on campus often led to the space being used mostly by fleeing students, it was never their exclusive space. It was not their right to decide who could or could not use the space. Holy Trinity is not part of Wits. It is the older institution of the two— the big brother or sister. And as the property of the Catholic Church, it is there for everyone. When monks gave people sanctuary in the Middle Ages, they gave it to everyone. Everyone was expected to abide by the rules. These principles cannot be violated like they were by aggressive students. It was not an easy decision to take. In fact, it was a very difficult one because it is in the very DNA of this church to provide sanctuary in multiform ways for everyone. If it cannot be a peaceful space where sanctuary and dialogue are respected, it cannot be a space for meetings either. n Fr Russell Pollitt SJ is the director of the Jesuit Institute and a former pastor at Holy Trinity. This is an edited version of an article first published on the Daily Maverick website.

The Southern Cross, November 2 to November 8, 2016

CLASSIFIEDS

God’s mercy calls on believers to be ‘a people’ M OST of us have experienced some form of rejection. Even the most worthy high school student can suffer rejection after applying to prestigious universities with limited quotas for new students. Home hunters may have a mortgage application rejected. Job seekers may suffer any number of rejections before landing a position they are happy with. A breakup of a marriage or romantic relationship is often experienced as rejection. These are all examples of rejection on a personal, individual level. The prophet Hosea, however, announced the onset of one of the most painful rejections of all time, the rejection by God of his own people, Israel—a rejection that came after Israel had rejected God by their worship of idols and by their treatment of the poor among their own people and among the foreigners living in their midst. Hosea was tasked with announcing God’s rejection by engaging in a painful prophetic demonstration. Hosea was told to marry a prostitute who would be unfaithful to him, and when she bore him a child he was to give his daughter an unenviable name: “The Lord said to him: Give her the name ‘Not-Pitied’, for I will no longer feel pity for the house of Israel: rather, I will utterly abhor them.” Later, when Hosea’s wife bore him a son, another woeful name was to be given to him: “Give him the name ‘Not-My-People’, for you are not my people, and I am not ‘I am’ for you” (Hosea 1:6, 9). No prophetic proclamation could have possibly carried worse news. From the time of Moses, Israel had understood it-

Clifford Yeary

year of Mercy

self to be a people precisely because they belonged to God. They were God’s own people. “Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:12). This rejection was only to be temporary, however. It was a rejection meant to communicate the seriousness of what it means to be separated from God’s lifegiving mercy.

ater, Hosea would deliver a message of hope: “I will betroth you to me forever: I will betroth you to me with justice and with judgment, with loyalty and with compassion.” The rejection would turn into absolute acceptance: “I will have pity on NotPitied. I will say to Not-My-People, ‘You are my people’ ” (Hosea 1:22, 25). Their temporary experience of rejection would be transformed into an ongoing experience of God’s compassion, of God’s mercy. In the New Testament, the first letter of Peter sees the fulfilment of Hosea’s more hopeful prophecy extending far beyond Israel. Israel had become God’s people through the events surrounding their Exodus from Egypt. Peter was not addressing Israelites when he employed Hosea’s words: “Once you were ‘No People’ but now you are God’s people” (1 Peter 2:10a). Peter was addressing Gentiles from many races and nationalities, a multi-ethnic assemblage that had never before thought of

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday November 6, All Saints Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14, Psalms 24:1-6, 1 John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12 Monday November 7 Titus 1:1-9, Psalms 24:1-6, Luke 17:1-6 Tuesday November 8 Titus 2:1-8, 11-14, Psalms 37:3-4, 18, 23, 27, 29, Luke 17:7-10 Wednesday November 9, Dedication of the Lateran Basilica Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 or 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17, Psalms 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9, John 2:13-22 Thursday November 10, St Leo the Great Philemon 7-20, Psalms 146:7-10, Luke 17:20-25 St Leo the Great Friday November 11, St Martin of Tours 2 John 4-9, Psalms 119:1-2, 10-11, 17-18, Luke 17:26-37 Saturday November 12, St Josephat 3 John 5-8, Psalms 112: 1-6, Luke 18:1-8 Sunday November 13 Malachi 3:19-20, Psalms 98:5-9, 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12, Luke 21:5-19 St Martin of Tours

themselves as a united people. However, because of their common faith in what the God of Israel had done for them in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they were now a “people”. “Once,” Peter tells them, “you ‘had not received mercy’ but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10b). This is also Paul’s message to the Gentiles, as found in his letter to Titus. “We,” he says, were people “who were once living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another.” Hardly the formula for the peaceful uniting of a people. But faith in Christ was to change all that. “When the kindness and generous love of God our Saviour appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:3-6). Mercy not only saves you and me, it unites us, making us a people. Western culture has come to focus on the person, the individual, as all-important. As Christians it is not uncommon for us to think of the Good News of salvation as a gift that offers individuals complete acceptance in Christ. God’s mercy towards us is even greater than that. God’s mercy brings us to new life in a community where we discover ourselves as a people embraced by God, sharing with each other all God’s promises. We have become the people of God. n This is the ninth column in a 13part series of reflections on the Year of Mercy. This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic.

PRAYeR FOR PeACe IN AFRICA o God of justice and love, Bless us, the people of Africa. And help us to live in your peace. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, let me sow pardon. Where there is discord, let me sow harmony. divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be understood, as to understand. To be loved, as to love. To receive sympathy, as to give it. For it is in giving that we shall receive. In pardoning that we shall be pardoned. In forgetting ourselves that we shall find unending peace in others. AMeN

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IN MeMORIAM

CIOLLI—Mary-Anne (dickie) née dixon. Who passed away on January 18, 2015, after a long illness, borne with dignity and great courage, deeply mourned and will be forever remembered, with great love, Remo, Catherine, Michael, david, Stephan and grandchildren. RIP

eVeNTS

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PRAYeRS

LORD, inspire those men and women who bear the titles “husband” and “wife”. Help them to look to you, to themselves, to one another to rediscover the fullness

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

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

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33rd Sunday: November 13 Readings: Malachi 3:19-20, Psalm 98:5-9, 2 Thessalonians 37-12, Luke 21:5-19

HE Church’s year rushes to its end at this point, and you may be wondering how you are to cope, particularly if, as you look around you at this moment in the world’s history, and gaze at the newspaper headlines, you find yourself unable to imagine what God is up to. The answer is that there is no situation so bad that God cannot be found at work in it. The first reading comes from Malachi, the last prophet in our Bible, and he insists that God is indeed at work: “For look! The days are coming, burning like a fire…the day is coming, says the Lord of hosts.” And our task is to respond in hope: “For you who fear my name there is a sun of justice, healing in its wings.” In the psalm for next Sunday, the invitation is to loud and cheerful celebration of the presence of God: “Sing to Lord on the harp, on the harp with the sound of music”; and it is to be a noisy celebration, what is more: “On trumpets and the sound of the horn; make a fanfare in the presence of the King, the Lord.” This is to come from all of creation, it seems: “Let the sea make a noise, and all that

S outher n C ross

fills it, the world and those who live in it.” Then in an impressively dramatic image: “Let the rivers clap their hands, the mountains together shout for joy.” And it is all about God: “For he comes to judge the earth; he will judge the earth with justice, and the peoples with uprightness.” It is a cheerful vision for the end of the year. In the second reading, the question is how the Thessalonians are to cope with their situation. For one thing, it seems, they are to “imitate” Paul in not “behaving inappropriately” or eating food that they have not earned. “We gave you ourselves as a model for you to imitate us.” It seems that one or two people might have decided to take things easy, given that the end was nigh, and Paul has to legislate: “If someone is not willing to work, let them also not eat. For we hear that some of you are behaving in a disorderly manner among you, not working, but rather meddling.” Then comes an instruction (is it addressed to you as this year ends?): “I order and en-

courage people like this to work calmly and eat their own bread.” We cannot, of course, reconstruct the situation at the other end of the correspondence, but clearly there was more than one way of handling the imminent end of everything. In the Gospel for Sunday we eavesdrop as people exclaim at the beauty of the Temple (and Herod’s Temple was affectionately remembered for its loveliness), “decorated with beautiful stones and votive offerings”. Chillingly, Jesus responds with a warning that it cannot last: “The days are going to come when all these things that you see, there will not be a stone left upon a stone”. Not unreasonably, they ask the obvious question: “When?” And Jesus does not offer them much illumination on this, beyond a warning not to get deceived by people who “come in my name, saying ‘I Am’ and ‘The time has drawn near’”. Nor are they to be upset by what they read in the newspapers: “wars and disturbances”. Things will, it seems, get worse before they

Bored? It’s your own fault I

Conrad

N 2011, a book by a young writer, Bieke Vandekerckhove, won the award as the Spiritual Book of the Year in her native Belgium. Entitled The Taste of Silence, the book chronicles her own struggles after being diagnosed at age 19 with ALS. Commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a degenerative neurological condition that always results in a massive debilitation of one’s body and almost always results in death not long afterwards. Not an easy diagnosis for a vibrant young woman to accept. But, after a deep, initial depression, she found meaning in her life through meditation, silence, literature, art, poetry, and, not least, through a relationship that eventually led to marriage. Unexpectedly, her disease went into remission and she lived for another 20 years. Among the many rich insights she shares with us, she offers an interesting reflection on boredom. Discussing the prevalence of boredom today, she highlights an irony, namely that boredom is increasing among us even as we are daily producing every kind of gadget to help us avoid it. Given that today we carry in our hands technological devices that link us to everything from the world news of the day to photos of our loved ones playing with their children, shouldn’t we be insulated against boredom? Ironically, the opposite seems true. All those technological gadgets are not alleviating our boredom. Why not? We still wrestle with boredom because all the stim-

Nicholas King SJ

What is God up to?

ulation in the world doesn’t necessarily make for meaning. Meaning and happiness, she suggests, do not consist so much in meeting interesting people and being exposed to interesting things; rather they consist in taking a deeper interest in people and things. The word “interest” is derived from two Latin words: inter (inside) and esse (being) which, when combined, connote “being inside of something”. Things are interesting to us when we are interested enough in them to really get inside them. And our interest isn’t necessarily predicated on how naturally stimulating something is in itself, though admittedly certain events and experiences can be so powerful as to literally conscript our interest.

hat’s what explains our strong interest in major world events, championship sports matches, Academy Award celebrations, as well as our less-than-healthy obsession with the private lives of celebrities. Certain persons, things, and events naturally interest us, and we want to be on the “inside” of those lives and events. But major world news stories, championship sporting events, the Academy Awards, and the private lives of our celebrities are not our ordinary fare, our family dinner table, our workplace, our commute to work, our church service, our neighbourhood bake-sale, our daily routine, our daily bread. And it’s here where we tend to suffer boredom, because it’s here that we tend to

Sunday Reflections

get better: “Nation shall rise against nation and empire against empire, great shakings and in places famine and pestilence.” And the disciples are to expect trouble: “They will lay hands on you and persecute you, handing you over to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before emperors and procurators.” And they are, it seems, not even to practise their speech for the defence: “For I am going to give you eloquence and wisdom, that your opponents will be unable to resist or contradict.” And it is not going to be very comfortable: “You will be handed over by parents and siblings and kinsfolk and friends—and they will put some of you to death; and you are going to be hated by everyone because of my name.” In the end, though, it will be all right: “Not a hair of your head will be destroyed—in your patience you shall gain your lives.” No matter how awful things are just now, God remains in charge.

Southern Crossword #731

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

not be deeply inside the reality of the people and events with whom and with which we are interacting. It’s here that we often feel life as flat, dull and routine. But, at the end of the day, we wrestle with boredom not because our families, workplaces, colleagues, neighbours, churches, and friends aren’t interesting. We’re bored because we’re too internally impoverished, distracted, or self-centred to take a genuine interest in them. “Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” So said Aldous Huxley. Vandekerckhove highlights yet another irony: that we tend to wrestle with boredom and dullness when we are in the full bloom of our lives, healthy and working; whereas people like her, who have lost their health and are staring death in the face, often find the most ordinary experiences in life exhilarating. Her insights bear a lot of resemblance to those of the author Rainer Maria Rilke in his Letters to a Young Poet. Like Vandekerckhove, he too suggests that boredom is a fault on our side, a disinterested eye. In his correspondence with an aspiring young poet, he takes up the young man’s complaint that he, the young man, wasn’t exposed to the experiences that spawn poetry because he lived in a small town where nothing exciting ever happened. He went on to confess that he envied Rilke, who travelled extensively throughout Europe and met all kinds of interesting people. For him, Rilke’s poetic insights were very much predicated on the fact that he hung out in big cities, met interesting people, and was stimulated in ways that a young man in a small town could never hope to approximate. Rilke’s reply to this young man has become a classic answer to the question of boredom: “If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.” Finding life interesting isn’t dependent upon where you are and who you meet, but rather on your own capacity to see deeply into things. Life everywhere is rich enough to be interesting; but we, on our part, have to be interested.

ACROSS

1. Be indisposed (4) 3. Pagan representations in worship (8) 9. Closest to the eastern movement (7) 10. Roman god who shoots arrows (5) 11. negative quality of eternity (12) 13. It’s long and narrow and animals drink from it (6) 15. Decorative covering when you veer north-east (6) 17. Matched what St Paul did through his letters (12) 20. Make butter from cream (5) 21. Make an effort (7) 22. Abruptly (8) 23. Singles in honest business (4)

DOWn

1. Saintliness (8) 2. Attractive quality of what could be lucky (5) 4. Fist he manipulated having magical powers (6) 5. Sea-going vessels accompanying the thuribles (7, 5) 6. Deadlock due to mass pie movement (7) 7. Team that can be to the left or the right (4) 8. Warlike behaviour (12) 12. Happens at an earlier time (8) 14. Don’t our preachers turn to a pompous style? (7) 16. Serial about land of the Bible (6) 18. Devil returns through no medium (5) 19. 23 ac at the bridge table (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

N atheist was in the mood to tease his devoutly Catholic colleague. “Hey, John, why are you a Catholic?” he asked. John replied: “You see, my great-grandfather was Catholic, both my grandparents were Catholics, my parents are Catholic, my wife is Catholic…so we’re all Catholics.” “Ha,” the atheist said triumphantly. “And what if all these relatives were morons—what would that make you?” “Well,” John replied, “I suppose it would make me an atheist.”

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