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Catholic schools scored another great matric

By MAndLA ZIBI

C Brescia House School in Johannesburg was one of the independent Catholic schools that recorded a 100% matric pass rate in the IEB exams. Brescia House also achieved a 100% pass rate as well as a 100% university entrance rate. The school also celebrated individual accomplishments. Kelly Shepherd was awarded an Outstanding Achievement for being placed within the top 5% of IEB learners in six or more subjects, and Jessica-Lyn Peo was awarded a Commendable Achievement for being placed within the top 5% of IEB learners in 5 subjects. In addition, ten candidates were placed within the top 1% of IEB learners in their specific subjects.

What the pope didn’t say W IDELY shared quotes attributed to Pope Francis, in which he advocates for a merging of the religions of Christianity and Islam, have been denounced by the Vatican as fake.

One of the quotes falsely attributed to Francis states: “Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Jehovah, Allah. These are all names employed to describe an entity that is distinctly the same across the world. For centuries, blood has been needlessly shed because of the desire to segregate our faiths.”

Another false quote states: “We can accomplish miraculous things in the world by merging our faiths, and the time for such a movement is now.”

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke emphasised that the quotes are “invented”.

Various versions of this story can be found on different websites and blogs, going back to at least as early as 2015.

It is not the first time quotes have been

falsely attributed to the pope.

A widely-circulated meme, shared in good faith by some Catholics on social media, originated around December 2014. It falsely quotes Pope Francis saying that belief in God “is not necessary” to be a good person. The quote has not been corroborated by any official text or statement of Pope Francis.

On another occasion, during World Youth Day 2013 in Brazil, a poem falsely attributed to Pope Francis went viral on social media. The original source of the poem cannot be verified, but the first English version of the poem appeared online as early as 2010, three years before Francis’ election to the Petrine ministry.

Media experts have advised users of social media to double-check content before sharing it on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to avoid circulating material that contains false or distorted information.— CNA

ATHOLIC school matrics were among the top achievers in the 2016 National Senior Certificate results, with schools writing Independent Examinations Board (IEB) examinations expected to clock an “outstanding” pass rate.

The Catholic Institute of Education (CIE) congratulated and thanked “the teachers at Catholic high schools for their dedication and hard work, sometimes in trying circumstances. There are many teachers who spend hours assisting struggling learners,” said Anne Baker, the organisation’s deputy director.

The IEB examinations were written by 21 private Catholic schools, the majority of which are in Gauteng. Another 83 Catholic schools across all provinces are public schools on private property—which means they are state-funded—and write the staterun National Senior Certificate examination.

The CIE is in the process of analysing the various matric results.

Ms Baker counselled, however, that far too much emphasis is placed on matric results while not enough attention is placed on the entire schooling system.

“We shouldn’t have all the hype around matric. It is important for the country as a whole to understand that the early years of education are the key to future success and as such our efforts need to be put into early childhood education and primary school rather than focusing on Grade 12,” she said.

The national matric pass rate has increased to 72,5%, an increase of 1,8% over last year’s pass rate.

A major talking point this year was the large number of so called “progressed learners” in the exams. Progressed pupils are those who fail a grade for two consecutive years but are then promoted to the next grade.

According to basic education minister Angie Motshekga, more than 100 000 pro-

gressed learners passed in 2016. The pass rate without the progressed pupils was 76,2%, up from 74% last year.

A total of 610 178 full-time candidates wrote matric exams in 2016.

Of the 2016 matriculants, a total of 151 830 matriculants achieved bachelor’s passes, which are necessary for admission to universities.

The Free State was the country’s top-performing province, with a pass rate of 93,2%, followed by the Western Cape at 87,7%, Gauteng at 87%, North-West at 86,2%, the Northern Cape at 82,2%, Mpumalanga at 81,3%, KwaZulu-Natal at 66,5%, Limpopo at 68,2% and the Eastern Cape at 63,3%.

“The increase in the [national] pass rate will no doubt be analysed, criticised and researched at length, but we should always remember that many young people have worked hard and we should be careful not to detract from their efforts,” said Ms Baker.

Seventeen young people from Catholic schools were in the “commendable” and “outstanding” IEB lists.

Those who achieved within the top 5% of learners in six or more subjects and scored 80% or more for life orientation were Kelly Anne Shepherd (Brescia House); Karin Lee and Alexia Anna Pascolo (both Holy Rosary School); Shawn David Ingle (St Benedict’s College, Bedfordview); Andrea Franco Giuricich, Justin Matthew Hall, Nicholas Matthew and Shane Weisz (all St David’s Marist Inanda).

Those who achieved within the top 5% of learners in five subjects and scored 80% or more for life orientation were: JessicaLyn Peo (Brescia House); Sarah Jean Herrington and Olivia Hope Keirby-Smith (Maris Stella, Durban); Keegan Hawkins (Marist Brothers Linmeyer); Sabrina Miljus (Our Lady of Fatima Dominican Convent); Jared Fraser O’Reilly and Matthew JeanMarc Pepin (both St Benedict’s College, Bedfordview); Kenan Jared Petersen (St Benedict’s School, Pinetown); Joshua Robert Clegg (St David’s Marist Inanda).

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The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

LOCAL

3

Stepping into the limelight

W

HEN “Karabo from Alex”, as this bubbly teen describes herself, arrived at Johannesburg’s Sacred Heart College on a scholarship in 2012, it was the first time she had encountered peers of other races.

As a top student at Orchards Primary, Karabo Makhanya was asked by a teacher to sit for a test to see if she could qualify for an Alexandra Education Committee scholarship.

She did and she could.

After arriving at the private Catholic school, she recalls: “I didn’t know anyone; it was a complete shock.” But she soon emerged from what she calls “a blur”.

“I immediately found friends, because everyone was kind and welcoming. For the first time in my life I had friends of other races. It was mind-broadening.”

Karabo lives with her mom, stepdad and seven-year-old sister. The 2016 matriculant says her mother was “there with me the whole way”.

“She doesn’t care about results.

She is just proud I got through school and have remained respectful.”

Having passed her matric,

2016 matriculant Karabo Makhanya is hoping to make a name for herself in drama.

Karabo’s future lies in the arts.

“I want to do drama/performing arts at AFDA (The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance),” she says.

“When I came to Sacred Heart I didn’t know what drama was, but when I discovered it, I was hooked.

From Grade 9 I worked backstage

on productions and by Grade 10 I took part in the major production and house plays where I had the main role. That play was chosen to go to the Festival of Excellence in the Dramatic Arts,” she says.

“In Grade 11, we did Theatrelink, where two schools, one from South Africa and one foreign, exchange scripts that the students have written. We had to write a site-specific play, centred around a specific place, and I directed it,” Karabo says.

Needless to say, drama was one of her matric subjects.

A special memory for Karabo is the tradition of the matric class leading the new Grade 1s into Mass at the beginning of the last school year. “The matric assembly was amazing,” she says.

Of her time at Sacred Heart College, Karabo says: “It’s the best—we are like a family, a place that I can call home, with people that I look up to, and laugh with, and people that take care of me when I’m not feeling well, whether physically or emotionally. We are diverse and proud of it.”

Priests, deacons and lay ministers celebrate Fr Alois Ganserer’s 25th jubilee as a priest (Fr Ganserer is wearing a black cassock).

Winelovers to celebrate together with Mass 25 years as ‘treasured’ priest STAFF REPORTER

W

INELOVERS in the Western Cape will again have the opportunities to celebrate their passion with a Catholic Mass this month.

The 23rd Annual Winemaker and Distillers Mass will be held on Thursday, January 26 at 11:00 at St Nicholas’ Catholic church in Stellenbosch, followed by lunch.

As every year, the collection at the Mass will go to Stellenbosch Hospice.

Most winemakers and distillers bring a bottle or more to the church to go into the offertory basket at the church entrance.

These donations will go up to the altar with the offertory procession, said coordinator Dave Hughes.

After the Mass, congregants will proceed to La Pineta restaurant on

Pope Francis has called us to a greater awareness of ecology. The Shields family in Cape Town took this idea to a new level by deciding that The Southern Cross Christmas issue would make for topical, attractive and environmentally-friendly wrapping for gifts—after having made sure that every family member had their opportunity to read this special edition.

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the R44. Guests may bring their own wine; no corkage will be charged on the day. Mr Hughes is asking that those who plan to lunch at La Pineta let him know, “so that I can give La Pineta some idea as to numbers to cater for”. Meals and any drinks purchased will be for guests’ own account. n Contact Dave Hughes at hughesd @iafrica.com or 021 865 2175.

Frail/assisted care in shared or single rooms.

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Rates include meals, laundry and 24-hour nursing.

Day Care and short stay facilities also available.

F

ATHER Alois Ganserer, parish priest of Christ Light Of the Nation (Kriste Lesedi La Ditjhaba), celebrated his 25th jubilee in Bloemfontein.

Fr Ganserer was ordained in Germany and came to South Africa in 1996.

He served in, among other places, Fouriesburg, Senekal, Witbank, Mashabela, Schoonoord and Middelburg, and arrived in the

Bloemfontein diocese in 1999.

Fr Ganserer was assigned to a new township of that time named Chris Hani and became its first parish priest.

Sr Winnie Mosolodi OSF said Fr Ganserer was a dedicated servant of God. “We will always regard him as God-sent. The people of Bloemfontein treasure him and love him wholeheartedly,” she said.

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4

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

INTERNATIONAL

Church in India Congo welcomes a forms transgender Church-mediated accord support group

By JOnATHAn LUxMOORE

C

ATHOLIC leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo said they hope for lasting peace, after the bishops' conference helped mediate a government-opposition accord.

“We’re all saluting this great step, the fruit of a dialogue arranged by the Church,” said Mgr Leonard Santedi Kinkupu, rector of Kinshasa’s Catholic University and former secretary-general of the bishops’ conference.

“Being a Catholic country has given us an advantage over other African states when it comes to seeking peace, and it’s good the Church and its bishops have been instrumental in bringing this about,” he said as talks opened on practical implementation of the accord between opposition leaders and representatives of President Joseph Kabila.

Mgr Kinkupu said that Congo’s feuding politicians had been unable to arrange their own talks and could be thankful for the “huge benefits” offered by Catholic mediators.

“The Church has always been involved in the work for peace and could use its moral authority to bring about direct negotiations,” he said. “We now have a real chance of sparing our country from further violence, and this is why everyone has welcomed the Church’s engagement and offer of hope.”

In August, the bishops’ conference launched a mediation bid after opposition leaders accused Mr

T

Congolese Bishop Fridolin Ambongo Besungu signs the accord between the opposition and the government of President Joseph Kabila at the bishops’ conference in Kinshasa. (Photo: Kenny Katombe, Reuters/CnS) Kabila of seeking to delay elections, but the bishops withdrew from a national dialogue in October amid worsening violence.

Shortly before the expiration of Mr Kabila’s second and final term, both sides agreed to resume talks mediated by Church officials.

Under the accord, which was witnessed by foreign diplomats, Mr Kabila will remain in power pending elections by the end of 2017, alongside a government headed by an opposition-nominated prime minister. Mr Kabila will comply with constitutional provisions barring him from seeking a third term.

In March, a National Transition

Council, headed by 84-year-old opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, will be established to monitor the electoral process.

The bishops’ conference president, Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani, welcomed the accord and said he counted on all groups to “apply it in good faith”.

However, he cautioned it would be “another thing to put the compromise in place”, and said he counted on the new 28-member national council to provide a “support institution for democracy”.

Catholics make up around half the 67,5 million inhabitants of the Congo.—CNS

HE Church in India’s Kerala state has formed a group of priests, nuns and laypeople to respond to the pastoral needs of transgender people.

Formed in Cochin under the aegis of Pro-Life Support, a global social service movement within the Church, the ministry is significant as it is one of the few outreach programmes for the transgender community by the institutional Church in India.

“The whole Church has a big role to play,” said Fr Paul Madassey, who is in charge of prolife support for the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council. He noted Pope Francis had talked about the need to give “pastoral care to the LGBT community”.

“There is an active sex racket from North India eyeing transgender people in Kerala. They are trying to exploit the discriminatory situation they face,” Fr Madassey said.

India has an estimated 500 000 transgender people. They are often ostracised from their families and—without adequate state support in terms of employment, health and education—end up on the street begging for money or are exploited in the sex trade.

Sisters of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel offered their buildings to form an exclusive school for dropouts among transgender people, considered the first of its kind in the country. The nuns offered their venue after at least 50 building owners declined

A member of the LGBT community attends a pride parade in Bangalore, India. The Church in India’s Kerala state has formed a support group to respond to the pastoral needs of transgender people.

(Photo: Jagadeesh nv, EPA/CnS) to let out their buildings, indicating the discrimination prevalent in society, Fr Madassey said.

Earlier this year Caritas India announced a programme to fight such discrimination.

Vijaya Raja Mallika, a leading transgender activist in Kerala, is pioneering a three-month pilot school for transgender school dropouts in Cochin. Ms Mallika said the “Church has been very supportive” of their struggles.

“Religion plays an important role in social and behavioural change at the grassroots level,” said Ms Mallika.—CNS

Pope Francis enters the US House Chamber to address a joint meeting of Congress in Washington during his visit to the United States in September 2015. Catholics make up almost a third of members in the new Congress, well above the proportion of Catholics in the general population. (Photo: Paul Haring/CnS)

Catholics make up a third of US Congress members

By CAROL ZIMMERMAnn

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HEN the newly-elected US Congress begins its new session, Catholics will comprise almost one-third of its membership.

Catholics make up about a quarter of the US population, a proportion that is reflected in the US Senate.

Congress remains significantly Christian, at 91%, similar to 1961, when such information was first collected and 95% of members were Christian.

The data on the religious makeup of the current senators and representatives was collected by the Pew Research Center.

The Pew report notes that the large number of Christians in Congress has shifted in recent years, with a decline in the

number of Protestants. In 1961, Protestants made up 87% of Congress, compared with 56% today. Catholics, conversely, made up 19% of the 1961 Congress, and now are 31% of the legislative body.

Looking at each party, 27% of Republicans and 37% of Democrats in Congress are Catholic.

Of the 293 Republicans in the new Congress, all but two, who are Jewish, are Christian.

Democrats in Congress also are predominantly Christian (80%) but they have more religious diversity among non-Christians, including 28 Jews, three Buddhists, three Hindus, two Muslims and one Unitarian Universalist in addition to one religiously unaffiliated member and ten who declined to state

their religious affiliation.

The Pew report points out that some religious groups, including Protestants, Catholics and Jews, have greater representation in Congress than in the general population. Jews, for example, make up 2% of the US adult population but account for 6% of Congress. Other groups—including Buddhists, Mormons, Muslims and Orthodox Christians—are represented in Congress in roughly equal proportion to their numbers in the US public.

Another significant finding is that the most notably underrepresented group in Congress is the religiously unaffiliated. This group—also known as religious “nones”—account for 23% of the US public but makes up just 0,2% of Congress.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

5

Fulani herdsmen are new terror threat to Christians

By MARIA LOZAnO

I 3,9 million pilgrims visited the Vatican in 2016

By JUnnO AROCHO ESTEVES

M

ORE than 3,9 million pilgrims visited and attended papal events, liturgies or prayer services during the Holy Year of Mercy in 2016, the Vatican said.

The Prefecture of the Papal Household, the Vatican office that coordinates the audiences and distributes the free tickets to papal audiences and liturgies, said a total of 3 952 140 people attended a papal event at the Vatican.

Although the total was slightly higher from the 3,2 million visitors

received by Pope Francis in 2015, for a jubilee year it still fell short of the 5,9 million pilgrims who visited in 2014.

Terrorists attacks in Europe throughout the year are also thought to have discouraged visitors from travelling during what are typically busy tourist seasons in Italy.

During 2016, 762 000 people attended the pope’s 43 weekly general audiences while 446 000 attended the 11 jubilee audiences held one Saturday a month.—CNS

SLAMIST violence and terrorism has killed more than 12 000 Christians in Nigeria, destroying some 2 000 churches. Boko Haram has perpetrated the bulk of the killings, but in the past year a new source of Islamist terror has hit the country in the form of the Fulani Herdsmen Terrorists (FHT).

In just the last three months, the group—drawn from the ranks of the nomadic Fulani people—has swept across half of Kaduna State, in northern Nigeria, a local bishop told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Bishop Joseph Bagobiri of Kafanchan gave an accounting of attacks in his area since September 2016: “53 villages burned down, 808 people murdered and 57 wounded, 1 422 houses and 16 churches destroyed.” Though little known in the West, FHT is becoming a huge menace to Christians and moderate Muslims alike.

Historically, there have been sporadic conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and farmers fighting over land, but Fulani herdsmen, the bishop said, are now using “sophisticated weapons they didn’t have before, such as AK-47s of unknown

Pope: Defend children from abuse, protect their joy

By CAROL GLATZ

S

TAND up and protect children from exploitation, slaughter and abuse, which includes committing to a policy of “zero tolerance” of sexual abuse by clergy, Pope Francis has told the world’s bishops.

Wake up to what is happening to so many of today’s innocents and be moved by their plight and the cries of their mothers to do everything to protect life, helping it “be born and grow”, he said in a letter sent to bishops commemorating the feast of the Holy Innocents.

Just as King Herod’s men slaughtered young children of Bethlehem in his “unbridled thirst for power”, there are plenty of new Herods today— gang members, criminal networks and “merchants of death”—“who devour the innocence of our children” through slave labour, prostitution and exploitation, he said.

Wars and forced immigration also strip children of their innocence, joy and dignity, he added.

The prophet Jeremiah was aware of this “sobbing and loud lamentation” and knew that Rachel was “weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled since they were no more”.

“Today too, we hear this heart-rending cry of pain, which we neither desire nor are able to ignore or to silence,” Pope Francis said.

“Christmas is also accompanied, whether we like it or not, by tears,” and the Gospel writers “did not disguise reality to make it more credible or attractive”.

Christmas and the birth of the son of God aren’t about escaping reality, but are a way to help “contemplate this cry of pain, to open our eyes and ears to what is going on around us, and to let our hearts be attentive and open to the pain of our neighbours, especially where children are involved. It also means realising that that sad chapter in history is still being written today”.

Given such challenges, Pope Francis told the world’s bishops

An Indian girl sells vegetables in Amritsar, India. In a letter to bishops Pope Francis said children must be protected from exploitation, slaughter and abuse, which includes committing to a policy of “zero tolerance” of sexual abuse by clergy. (Photo: Raminder Pal Singh, EPA/CnS) to look to St Joseph as a role model.

This obedient and loyal man was capable of recognising and listening to God’s voice, which meant St Joseph could let himself be guided by his will and be moved by “what was going on around him and was able to interpret these events realistically”.

“The same thing is asked of us pastors today: to be men attentive, and not deaf, to the voice of God, and hence more sensitive to what is happening all around us,” he said.

L

ike St Joseph, “we are asked not to let ourselves be robbed of joy. We are asked to protect this joy from the Herods of our own time. Like Joseph, we need the courage to respond to this reality, to arise and take it firmly in hand”.

The Church weeps not only for children suffering the pain of poverty, malnutrition, lack of education, forced displacement, slavery and sexual exploitation, the pope said, she weeps “because she recognises the sins of some of her members: the sufferings, the experiences and the pain of minors who were abused sexually by priests”.

“It is a sin that shames us,” he said, that people who were re-

sponsible for caring for children, “destroyed their dignity”.

Deploring “the sin of what happened, the sin of failing to help, the sin of covering up and denial, the sin of the abuse of power”, the Church also begs for forgiveness, he said.

“Today, as we commemorate the feast of the Holy Innocents, I would like us to renew our complete commitment to ensuring that these atrocities will no longer take place in our midst.

Let us find the courage needed to take all necessary measures and to protect in every way the lives of our children, so that such crimes may never be repeated. In this area, let us adhere, clearly and faithfully, to ‘zero tolerance’,” he said.

The pope urged the bishops to remember that Christian joy doesn’t ignore or sugarcoat reality, but “is born from a call” to embrace and protect life, “especially that of the holy innocents”.

He asked that they renew their commitment to be shepherds with the courage to acknowledge what so many children are experiencing today and to work to guarantee the kind of conditions needed so their dignity will be respected and defended.—CNS

A Fulani herdsman escorts his cattle with a gun on his shoulder. provenance”.

He added: “In addition to the social and economic conditions that have fuelled conflict since ancient times, such as the distribution of the land and shortage of grazing, the dimension of the problem has changed. The Fulani are Muslim and the land they are attacking belongs mainly to ethnic groups that are Christian; now there is religious hatred driving the violence.” Fulani aggression, the bishop said, “has turned into religious persecution”.

The prelate said that in many of the villages that have been attacked, especially the small businesses owned by Christians as well as churches have been singled out for

destruction. “Nor can it be said that the violence is directed against a particular ethnic group, since the Christians belong to various different ethnic groups.”

Bishop Bagobiri expressed dismay that “the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is not given anything like the same level of international attention” as the plight of Christians in the Middle East.

Even the Nigerian government, he charged, is not paying enough attention: “The attacks on Christians meet with seeming indifference on the part of the country’s leadership—either the police do not have the appropriate weaponry to intervene, or else they have not been given orders to do so.”

Bishop Bagobiri expressed his conviction that this new terrorist threat reflects the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria, in particular the imposition of sharia law, which has now been introduced into 12 of the 36 states of Nigeria, including Kaduna state. Sharia law, the bishop charged, is the source of “inequality and discrimination. For example, Islamic courts frequently set free Muslims who have committed crimes, such as the murder of Christians whom they have accused of blasphemy”.—CNA

6

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Our fight against corruption

T

HE health of a democracy can be judged by the extent of the corruption it permits.

And by that measure South Africa’s democracy is not well.

Our democratic institutions are still providing the antibodies needed to fight the disease of corruption, but the government seems determined to weaken even these.

The current chaos in the Office of the Public Protector, for example, gives little hope that the resolute work of the previous incumbent in investigating the venalities of the Zuma administration will be sustained.

In that light, we must commend the secretary-general of the African National Congress for acknowledging that officials of his party are “looting” state coffers.

Addressing an ANC rally this month in Evaton‚ Gauteng, Gwede Mantashe said: “There are people in the ANC who loot the state, and when you loot‚ you destroy the ability of the state to deliver services.”

Speaking on the needs of the community he was addressing, he said: “We can’t leave Evaton as it is much longer‚ with no streets.

We can’t complain that there is no money because there is money, but the problem is, ‘how do we use it’.”

Over the years, millions have been allocated for infrastructural improvements in Evaton which, however, did not take place. The experience of Evaton is replicated in many places around the country, to the detriment of the poor.

For this, the ANC, including its secretary-general, must be held accountable, because some of the individuals whom it deploys, even at the highest level, fail to meet their public obligations with integrity and competence. The ANC deployed the looters. This is a scandal which the party must address forthrightly.

Among the favourites to succeed President Jacob Zuma at the ANC’s National Conference in December is outgoing African Union Commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. As health minister under Nelson Mandela, she was at the centre of the first post-1994 government corruption scandal.

By today’s standards, the scandal around the commission and financial controls surrounding the Aids education play Sarafina II was small fry. South Africa’s lev-

Are we ‘undercover’ Catholics?

O

els of corruption have grown enormously since then—and this cannot be reduced to Mr Zuma, the Gupta family and their venal underlings at the trough.

The rot truly set in with the arms deal and the cover-ups associated with it under the Mbeki presidency (to which Mr Zuma, of course, was alleged to have been party). Of course, corruption was also part of South Africa’s political, economic and business firmament long before the ANC assumed power in 1994.

Unlike then, we have the advantage of democratic institutions and enshrined freedoms that allow for corruption to be revealed. It is those with something to hide who seek to weaken these institutions and freedoms.

But as we—the public as individuals, as organisations, as churches, as businesses and so on—condemn the corruption of public officials and congratulate Mr Mantashe for confirming what we already knew, we are also called to personal introspection.

For anyone, temptation and opportunism can be overwhelming, especially in an atmosphere where dishonesty is tolerated. If we are paying or receiving bribes or engage in otherwise fraudulent or iniquitous behaviour—whenever we try to “get away with it”—we are part of the cancerous culture of corruption.

These temptations, these sins, confront us at any time. Our resistance to them is an on-going project which must be linked to our respect for the self, for others and, most importantly, for God. Our challenge, moreover, is not only to avoid the temptation of corrupt behaviour but also to teach and encourage the observance of the virtues of truthfulness, honesty, personal integrity and respect for the rights of others.

The Catholic Church’s many schools and institutions are contributing towards inculcating a strong sense of morals based on the will of God and the love of Christ. We all need to make a greater effort as we witness corruption in politics, sport, business, and even in church groups and schools.

The colonialist Cecil John Rhodes once cynically observed that every man has his price, and this idea certainly did not die with him. That is why we must all work hard to prove him wrong.

NE gets the impression that secular attractions and hedonism with their subjective “feelings” have overrun the message of Christ and Church teachings when we observe how many laity and ministerial priests have withdrawn from the public square.

A silent acquiescence has descended over us and many have become comfortable undercover or cafeteria Catholics who pick and choose Church teachings and disciplines.

We have become silent about our Catholic faith on topical issues of faith and morals, perhaps out of fear. In a few words we have become ashamed of Christ, his Church, her teachings and the truths that she proclaims at home, our places of work and the public square.

For too long, we, the laity, have allowed our bibles to become door stoppers or show pieces in our homes. Our Protestant separated brethren have picked up on this tardiness and have confused so many with a few well rehearses scriptures and caused many to leave the faith.

A naive solution

F

RANS van Neerijnen in his letter (December 28) is correct to state that the safest method of protection from HIV/Aids is abstinence from sexual relations. But in our modern age and in almost every society in the world, people are not interested in abstaining from sex.

The Catholic Church has preached for a long time in favour of abstinence, and it has had no effect on the majority of people. Mr van Neerijnen’s confidence that if only the message of abstinence was amplified, everybody would see the light, is very naive. It was tried in Uganda, and after initial successes, the infection rate increased again.

I have absolutely no doubt that Sr Alison Munro OP, who leads the SACBC Aids Office, also considers abstinence as an ideal in combating the scourge of Aids, but we are living in an imperfect world and we must be realistic about what is possible.

The experts’ opinion is to advocate the delay in beginning sexual activity with the use of condoms as the next resort. But this is possible only for those who have agency in their sexual choices.

I agree with Mr van Neerijnen that we must continue to preach abstinence as the best method of preventing HIV-infection and as a moral teaching, but we must not fool ourselves into thinking that this will produce the results we are hoping for.

Paul Collins, Johannesburg

PRICE CHECK For the price of one issue of The Southern Cross you get 18 seconds with a lawyer The

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.

St Peter encourages us to “always be prepared to make a defence for anyone who calls [us] to account for the hope that is in [us]” (1Pet 3:15).

Adding to this malaise are many “undercover” priests and religious who avoid wearing clerical garb or “suitable clerical clothing according to the norms issued by the episcopal conference and according to legitimate local customs” (Canon 284) as legislated by their respective orders on their “on or off” days.

To be sure, clothes don’t “maketh the man”, however, does not a military or police office bearer or foot soldier go to battle in uniform to fight the enemy and to be a visible presence of public safety and security?

Casual attitudes and the neglect of wearing clerical garb when “on duty” is a sign of disobedience to the calling of servanthood and discipleship as mandated by the magisterium.

St Paul found it important to remind St Timothy to bring the tools of his trade—his cloak, books and parchments—to Troas which he obOpinions 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

Confession needed

I

N his letter, John Driver writes: “I certainly do not need to go to a priest to have my sins forgiven.

Jesus did this for me on the cross of Calvary, and so justified me” (December 21).

This statement may be right in so far as it regards venial sins only, although the confession of these sins is also recommended.

It is true that through the sacrament of baptism, our first conversion, we are justified through Christ’s redeeming death. But we lose this baptismal grace through mortal sin and therefore are in need of a second conversion which is the sacrament of reconciliation.

Only the merciful God can forgive sins. But fortunately through God’s representatives on earth we can obtain forgiveness of our sins, regain our state of grace and be admitted again to Communion with God and his Church.

But first we have to tell our sins to a priest. If a sick person is ashamed to show his wounds, frequently of sexual origin, the doctor

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Church to back gender equality on slave’s feast

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HE Southern African Catholics Bishops Conference (SACBC) has proclaimed the feast day of St Josephine Bakhita on February 8 as a day of prayer and reflection on the continuing scourge of women and children abuse, particularly its ties to human trafficking.

Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, SACBC spokesman, posed the question: “Are the churches doing enough for the progress of gender equality?”

“Despite men and women being equally children of God, women have been massively discriminated against; they are paid less, even when allowed to do the same work as men; they are sexually abused; forced into early marriages; abandoned to care for children alone. They bear the brunt of domestic violence, and with children they are the objects of human trafficking,” Archbishop Slattery told The Southern Cross.

The announcement follows the SACBC’s call in early in December in which the bishops enjoined the faithful to three days of prayer and fasting “for an end to abuse wherever it occurs, whether in the Church, in the family and elsewhere in society”.

The statement formed part of the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign and the pope’s own injunction that “the universal Church fast and pray for the healing and consolation of those who have been sexually abused, especially women, children and vulnerable people”.

In December the Catholic Church was part of a “Day of Awareness and Reflection” in Witbank, jointly organised by the SACBC’s Justice & Peace Department and the United Nations Women’s Organisation to address abuse of women and children.

The gathering featured addresses by the Ndebele King, Makhosonke II, and ANC parliamentary chief whip Jackson Mthembu.

Archbishop Slattery stressed that the Church has become aware of the plight and role of women in society, and is addressing the issue of trafficking in women and children.

St Josephine Bakhita, whose feast day has been appointed as a day of prayer against the abuse of women and children.

“The religious congregations have opened houses of shelter around the country and over 400 trafficked women have been rescued. Capacity-building workshops for people, especially young women, to alert them to the danger of being trafficked, have been organised, and inspired by the vision of the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life (LCCL) in South Africa,” he said, noting that the SACBC also has an office to deal with issues of human trafficking.

However, the Church needs to address a bigger issue, which Archbishop Slattery identified as patriarchy.

“Central to the problem of gender inequality is the culture of patriarchy. This refers to an entrenched system of domination by males,” the archbishop said.

He referred to Pope John Paul II, who wrote: “Love excludes every kind of subjection whereby the wife might become a servant or slave of the husband, an object of unilateral domination. Love makes the husband simultaneously subject to the wife and thereby subject to the Lord himself, just as the wife to the husband.”

Some of the major issues which stand in the way of making gender equality a reality include the devaluation of maternity, the trivialisation of abortion, the distortion of what it means to be a family, “and, above all, Continued on page 2

Men in traditional attire guide camels during a parade marking the feast of the Epiphany in St Peter's Square at the Vatican last year. The feast of the Epiphany, also known as Three Kings' Day, marks the adoration of the Christ-child by the Wise Men from the East and celebrates the revelation of God in his Son as human in Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on January 6. In Southern Africa it has been transferred to Sunday, January 8. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

Pope releases priest from jail

P

OPE Francis has officially granted clemency to Spanish priest Mgr Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, who had already served half of his 18-month jail sentence for leaking confidential Vatican documents.

The Vatican announced said that the pope had given Mgr Vallejo Balda the "benefit of conditional release" and that the priest will now fall under the jurisdiction of his home diocese of Astorga, Spain.

In July, after an eight-month trial, the Vatican court convicted the priest of leaking and disseminating confidential financial documents.

Mgr Vallejo was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Italian PR woman Francesca Chaouqui was found guilty of conspiring in the crime, but was not charged with the actual leak of the documents, due to a lack of evidence.

After his initial arrest on November 2, 2015, Mgr Vallejo was transferred to the Vatican’s Collegio dei Penitenzieri, a residence run by Conventional Franciscans, on house arrest. However, after violating the terms, he was moved back to the cells of the Vatican Gendarme, before eventually returning to the Collegio dei Penitenzieri.

Both Mgr Vallejo and Ms Chaouqui are former members of the Commission for Reference on the Organisation of the Economic Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA).

The commission was established by Pope Francis in July 18 as part of his plan to reform the Vatican’s finances, and was dissolved after completing its mandate.

After a November 6 Mass celebrated for prisoners in St Peter’s basilica, Pope Francis in his Angelus address appealed for better prison conditions and asked that as part of the Jubilee of Mercy, competent global authorities would consider granting clemency to eligible inmates.

“I would like to make an appeal for better conditions in prison life, so that the human dignity of the detained is fully respected,” the pope said.

He emphasised the importance of the need for a criminal justice “which isn’t just punitive, but open to hope and the re-insertion of the offender into society”.

In response to an appeal made by Pope Francis for governments to grant clemency to prisoners, Cuban president Raoul Castro released 787 prisoners.—CNA.

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viously treasured (2 Tim 4:13). Being undercover, invisible and “silent” disciples, whether priests or laity, diminishes our calling of true discipleship.

Living in the shadows of the Gospel strengthens our fallen nature and can contribute to being tempted or become part of scandalous situations and lead to a lukewarm relationship with Christ. A true disciple of Christ cannot have a public face; a Sunday face; a work face, and a home face!

Jesus foresaw our possible fears and timidity. He encourages, and also warns, us: “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man also will acknowledge before angels of God; but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8-9).

Indeed, there will be those who will pour scorn on us for our public and living witness, but despite these attacks we should never be ashamed of carrying our cross of the timeless Gospel truth even unto suffering and death.

Henry R Sylvester, President: Catholic Witness Apostolate, Cape Town cannot heal what he does not know.

JH Goossens, Pretoria

More Marist info

F

URTHER to the letter by Alan Flowerday and subsequent correspondence regarding Marist Brothers College, St Patrick’s, Port Elizabeth and Walmer, I would like to share my recollections.

The high school—Standard 5 to matric—moved from Bird Street to Walmer in 1954.The junior school did not follow until many years later. I matriculated in 1959; there was no sign of projected new construction then.

The last classes in Walmer were held in 1982. The school closed at the end of that year and lay derelict for a few years, until commercial rezoning was approved. The school was located between 14th & 17th Avenues, Walmer, not at 10th Avenue.

The old school building in Bird Street, “Fleming House”, survives today as the Art School of the Nelson Mandela University. The old museum and the world-famous snake park next door are long gone.

The playgrounds have been built upon.

Mrs Bella Aspeling, mentioned

by Mr Flowerday and a close personal friend of my mother’s, was an excellent teacher in English and Afrikaans. To this day, I still end my letters the way she taught us.

Alan Campbell, Port Elizabeth

PERSPECTIVES

What is it about the sea?

W HAT is it about the sea? This summer we were holidaying on the north coast of KwaZuluNatal. It’s not my favourite place to holiday but as I had left it too late to book anywhere else I accepted a generous offer when it came along.

But something sickened me. It was the ostentatious display of greed. Houses as far as one can drive, competing for sea views. Huge mansions squeezed next to one another, all challenging architects’ abilities to ensure every room faces the sea. What is it about the sea?

But here’s the bit that got my back up: most of these houses were empty. Their owners were absent.

These houses, which are likely bigger than the owners’ homes in Jozi—so that the whole family can use it for two and a half weeks a year) are empty for most of the year! In a country that is short of housing. I was beginning to see Julius Malema’s point about land reform...

At least these residences create employment for the mostly poor inhabitants of the area. But there is an irony in that.

People from simple, at best, homes are paid to wake in the early hours, take public transport and arrive at their places of employment, on time, to keep these houses clean on the off-chance that the owners decide on a whim to visit the sea.

So the people who clean and maintain these stately homes spend more time in

them than the owners themselves.

What is it about the sea? White privilege is what it is. Yes, yes, I know, these absentee owners worked hard for it...

W

hat is it about the sea? It can’t be about the beaches? There are much better beaches in other parts of the country, and in neighbouring countries. The beaches here are the size of postage stamps and most are not suitable for swimming or long walks. So why the overpopulation then? Because it is the most accessible sea-point to Jozi?

What is it about the sea? Don’t think that I purely bemoan the situation on the KZN coast. There are many places around the world that offer similar

A garden with sea view. In her article Kelsay Correa reflects on seeing lots of empty houses on the KZn coast

Kelsay Correa

Point of Reflection

refuge to city dwellers. It is the juxtaposition of the socioeconomic context that makes the situation so stark here.

Then there’s the litter on the beaches.

I was at the seaside with two “littlies” who refuse to wear shoes, so I was very aware of hazards for small feet. The amount of broken glass around the place was shocking. Presumably those who indulge leave their empties behind, shattered.

Perhaps the locals enjoy it when holidaymakers arrive with their big cars and trailers and behave as if they own place— because they do own the place, in a manner, and certainly behave as if they do.

The two ladies I overheard in the pharmacy didn’t seem to enjoy the holidaymakers. One of them was in a wheelchair and hadn’t been able to find an empty disabled parking bay. I hadn’t seen any other disabled people around.

Indigenous to the area are vervet monkeys. They forage daily for food, struggling more and more as the development of human housing continues unabated.

There’s not much of their natural habitat left but they are considered the pests.

What is it about the sea? n Kelsay Correa is a member of the Southern Cross’ Editorial Advisory Board.

In 2017, let God plan your future Judith Turner ‘F

OR I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Many of us know the cycle of making New Year’s resolutions. We make them by January 1 and a few weeks later—perhaps as early as when you read these lines—we fall back into our old habits.

That is because old habits are difficult to change. Psychologists tell us that it takes about three weeks to learn a new habit and by that time many people have already given up.

St Augustine, who knew more than most about the difficulty of breaking old habits, once put it this way: “I longed to give myself wholly to you, Lord, but I was bound by my own will, as by a chain. Because my will was perverse it changed to lust, and lust yielded to become habit, and habit not resisted became necessity. These were like links hanging one on to another—which is why I have called it a chain—and their bondage held me bound hand and foot.”

St Augustine illustrates the difficulty of breaking habits. If habits are so difficult to break, then why make New Year’s resolutions at all?

I believe in New Year’s resolutions. I make some every year, although I don’t stick to them throughout the entire year.

But I make them.

I make them because at the start of each new year I feel hopeful again. I feel again that I have a chance to make the new year better than the previous year.

All of us want that. Nobody wants the new year to be worse than the previous year. Everybody hopes for a better year.

There is something inside us that wants old habits to be broken down and re-

Faith and Life

new year’s Eve is long over,, and so may be our resolutions. In her column, Judith Turner suggests placing our future in God’s hands. placed by new habits that make our lives better. And that is where our New Year’s resolutions come from.

S

omething inside us hates some of our old ways. That something is always there; it refuses to die and it drives us to greater heights. That something is hopeful and it believes it is possible to “sing a new song to the Lord”.

At the start of a new year there is hope and at this time in particular we think of

our future. We reflect not only on what this coming year will hold for us, but generally we think of our long-term future too. We think of our plans and our aspirations and it is at this time that we should be reminded of the prophet Jeremiah’s words at the beginning of this article.

What great assurance these words hold for us! God has plans for us. What we need to do on our side, then, is to resolve in faith that we will trust his plans for us and then to live accordingly.

He has a plan for each one of us. To me he is saying: “For I know the plans I have for you, Judith, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” And he says that to you, too.

God continues to love us, even when we can’t live up to the resolutions we have made. That is what we believe. We express our belief in God every time we fall and try again, hoping for a fresh start.

To make New Year’s resolutions, to try again, to give it another go, precisely when bad habits have kept me for so long in a certain helplessness, is to believe the words of the prophet Jeremiah when he proclaims: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” n Catch up with Judith Turner’s previous monthly columns at www.scross.co.za/ category/perspectives/turner/

ST. KIZITO CHILDREN’S PROGRAMME St. Kizito Children’s Programme (SKCP) is a community-based response to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children, established through the Good Hope Development Fund in 2004 in response to the Church’s call to reach out to those in need. Operating as a movement within the Archdiocese of Cape Town, SKCP empowers volunteers from the target communities to respond to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) living in their areas.

The SKCP volunteers belong to Parish Groups that are established at Parishes in target communities. Through the St. Kizito Movement, the physical, intellectual, emotional and psycho-social needs of OVCs are met in an holistic way. Parish Groups provide children and families with a variety of essential services, while the SKCP office provides the groups with comprehensive training and on-going support.

In order to continue its work, SKCP requires on-going support from generous donors. Funds are needed to cover costs such as volunteer training and support, emergency relief, school uniforms and children’s excursions. Grants and donations of any size are always appreciated. We are also grateful to receive donations of toys, clothes and blankets that can be distributed to needy children and families.

If you would like to find out more about St. Kizito Children’s Programme, or if you would like to make a donation, please contact Wayne Golding on 021 782 2880 or 082 301 9385 Email info@stkizito.org.za. donations can also be deposited into our bank account: ABSA Branch: Claremont, 632005; Account name: St Kizito Children’s Programme ; Account number: 4059820320 This advertisement has been kindly sponsored

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The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

7

Carl Kozlowski

Point of Movies

The 10 best and 5 worst films of 2016

E

ACH year I see more than 150 movies, and I’m pretty easy to please. But there’s always a few movies that stand out from the pack as ones I’d see over and over and recommend to anyone’s collection—and a few that I’d rather forget forever.

Following are my ten favourite movies this year, the ones that made me laugh the hardest, feel the most thrilled and occasionally made me cry. And after that are the five worst movies of the year.

1. La La Land. I’ve seen this four times already, and it gets better every time. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone team up for the best musical since Singin’ in the Rain, and it scores extra points because it is the original vision of writer-director Damien Chazelle rather than an adaptation of a Broadway classic.

2. Moonlight. As a straight white male, this movie blindsided me by drawing me in fully to the romantic travails of a black gay man. Writer-director Barry Jenkins crafted a mesmerising portrayal of loneliness and longing that is universal, following the story of a man from boyhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world. Moral warning: one scene implies manual stimulation between two teen boys, but nothing is actually seen.

The film is sympathetic to homosexuality, but it's really a movie that's universally about loneliness.

3. Edge of Seventeen. This thoroughly winning comedy struck some poignant points as well. Fantastic young actress Hailee Steinfeld giving Emma Stone and Viola Davis a run for best female performance of the year in this story of a 17-year-old girl struggling with dating and coping with the loss of her father.

4. The Nice Guys. Writer-director Shane Black struck action-comedy gold again with this 1970sset private eye flick that was largely overlooked in the summer blockbuster shuffle. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe teamed up to solve what appears to be the murder of a porn star but winds up being something altogether different. A pure joy.

5. Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds had one of the biggest comebacks ever by taking on the daring and edgy role of a superhero in this audacious mix of gutsy comedy and souped-up violence that was a gasp-inducing thrill ride from start to finish. This is definitely adults-only comedy and violence, and has an extended sequence of premarital sex, but most adults should handle it.

6. 10 Cloverfield Lane/Don’t Breathe. Both these movies were edgy, claustrophobic, edge-of-yourseat thrillers with a non-stop series of nasty surprises.

7. Snowden. Oliver Stone’s biopic of Edward Snowden moves beyond a mere recap of the controversial security analyst to create a timely call to arms about just how recklessly abusive world governments have become of average citizens’ privacy.

8. Sully. Clint Eastwood directs and Tom Hanks stars in an utterly brilliant rendition of the story of pilot “Sully” Sullenberger’s miracle landing of a packed jetliner on New York’s Hudson River.

9. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Tina Fey delivered perhaps the year’s biggest surprise, a masterful dramedy following the true story of a female journalist dodging both bombs and her inner demons while embedded inside the Iraq War. 10. Florence Foster Jenkins. Meryl Streep works wonders as the title character, a rich post-WWII socialite who became a sensation for being an utterly terrible singer who nonetheless managed to buy her way into Carnegie Hall performances. But it’s Hugh Grant as her husband and Simon Helberg as a vocal teacher who will be duking it out for the honor of Best Supporting Actor this year in the year’s most intelligent comedy.

And the five worst: 1. Dirty Grandpa. Robert DeNiro reaches an alltime low as a lecherous grandpa who joins his sleazy grandson for utterly offensive misadventures. Beneath contempt.

2. Hardcore Henry. This utterly vile shoot-em-up gave audiences the chance to see 90 minutes of reckless, bloody mayhem from the first-person POV of a ruthless killer on a rampage. Pure evil.

3. Passengers. This should have been a worldclass winner, with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as two people stranded on a spaceship who have to navigate a relationship while battling major malfunctions, but it fails on every level. Boring, bloated, overpriced and lazy.

4. Zoolander 2. Ben Stiller might have created the worst, most unnecessary sequel of all time with this pointless revisiting of an airhead male model and secret agent.

5. Keanu. Comedy team Key and Peele were masters of mirth on their Comedy Central series, but this embarrassing misfire featured them on the lam with a drug dealer’s kitten. It should be impossible for two black stars to make a racist comedy, but they pulled it off.—CNA

8

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

COMMUNITY

Ayanda Tembe OSM was ordained a deacon by Bishop Siegfried Mandla Jwara of Ingwavuma at Our Lady of Ingwavuma parish, KwaZulu-natal. (Photo sent by Fr Msweli)

Matriculants from Holy Rosary School in Edenvale, Johannesburg, after collecting their results: Cailin van Ginkel, Tayla Marcel, Taegan Truter, Karin Lee, Giulia Lencioni, Alexandra Roccas, Katlego Kgole, and Panashe Chikwaikwai.

Holy Rosary achieved a 100% pass rate and 100% bachelor’s degree pass. Of special mention is the school’s top academic achiever, Karin Lee (ten distinctions), who was also awarded the dux Scholarum Prize for top academic achievement in her Grade 12 year. Further outstanding achievement came from Alexia Pascolo who joined Karin in ranking in the top 5% of IEB students in six or more subjects.

St Joseph’s Guild members flanked by retreat givers, chaplain of ZimCatholicSA, Fr Jerome nyathi, and Fr Benedict Crelly ncube. Catholic men attended a retreat themed “Merciful Fatherhood in Closing off the Jubilee year of Mercy”.

Anelise Marwanqana from Mariazell Secondary School in the Eastern Cape, who achieved 2nd place in Quantile 1 schools, is pictured with her proud mother Bukelwa Patricia Marwanqana.

Anelise hopes to study actuarial science at Wits.

St Therese parish in Alberton held its annual Golden Oldies Lunch.

The Volunteers, who form part of the youth Ministry Team at don Bosco youth Centre, had a recollection day at St John Bosco parish in Salesian Brother Clarence Watts gave a talk on the theme “Mary Our Role Model” for youth ministry, focusing on prayer, faith, obedience and service to others.

The Catholic Women’s League of Our Lady of Fatima parish in durban north handed over goods collected for a member of St Joseph’s parish Amatikwe branch whose home had burnt down. (From left) Lindiwe, CWL Our Lady of Fatima president Anna, and nontobeko from Amatikwe branch who collected the goods.

Our Lady Of Good Help parish in Verulam, in the durban archdiocese, candidates received their First Communion. In the picture are the communicants, Fr Jude Fernando TOR, deacons Ray Sampson and Joseph Msomi, and catechists.

The parish of St Joseph’s in Goodwood, Cape Town, performed its annual nativity Play.

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The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

ANALYSIS

9

Enter the post-truth world As Donald Trump is about to be sworn in as US president, FR CHRIS CHATTERIS SJ looks at the “post-truth” society in which the Propaganda of Confusion reigns.

P

OLITICIANS have always had a difficult relationship with the truth. Some could be pretty cynical about it. Napoleon once said that it wasn’t necessary to bury the truth, just to delay its appearance until people no longer cared.

Has it got worse of late? There is considerable evidence that it has.

The Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2016 was “post-truth”, defining it as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”.

Many commentators are bemoaning the fact that during the US election campaign we entered a time in which there was a sustained and concerted assault on the truth.

Donald Trump is seen as the villain of the pack, though he is obviously neither the first nor the last politician to play fast and loose with the truth, or to delight in blurring the distinction between facts and feeling.

The appalling irony here is that the Trumps of this world frequently appeal to their supporters by posing as plain speakers, boasting of telling us how it really is.

Despite his claims to be a plain speaker it seems that the fact-checkers were overworked in the case of Mr Trump as they compared what

he said to what was actually the case.

However, what disturbs many commentators is that fact-checking and publishing the discrepancies had little effect on Donald Trump’s progress to the White House. His crafty tactic was to put out an outrageous tweet early in the morning which would immediately be picked up by the news networks and then be repeated ad infinitum.

It is difficult to resist the comment that Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would have loved Twitter because it enables a big lie to be repeated so many times, which Goebbels thought was the key to getting people to believe it.

The undebunkable Trump Mr Trump’s cleverly barbed lies were undebunkable, partly because of the sheer number of times they would be repeated or re-tweeted. An astonishingly barefaced example was the one he put out after the election in response to the statistical fact that he won the presidency but lost the popular vote.

“I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”, he tweeted, without producing any evidence to support his wild statement.

How does he get away with this?

The famed political theorist Hannah Arendt explained the psychology of it: “Since the liar is free to fashion his ‘facts’ to fit the profit and pleasure, or even the mere expectations of his audience, the chances are that he will be more persuasive than the truth teller,” she wrote in the 1960s.

As well as the fundamentals of crowd-pleasing psychology—which was something the Greeks understood well when commenting on

the dark side of rhetoric—there are modern conditions which have provided technological enhancements to this tendency.

I’ve already mentioned the way a clever and popular lie can go viral and thereby be almost unanswerable. In addition there is the capacity to plant what has recently been termed “fake news” on social media, which again, gets passed around, for example on Facebook, which now has over a billion members.

No matter that these fake news stories are outrageously untruthful—the fact is that because they are so lurid they are lapped up by our ever-itching ears as a kind of political “infotainment”.

Any teacher today frequently has to help young minds spot the lies, the fake news and the propaganda of confusion that pour through the electronic media portals of our era.

The Propaganda of Confusion is one of the most pernicious developments. More than one journalist has pointed out that Vladimir Putin, the ex-KGB operative, has created a whole media apparatus designed to confuse his domestic and global political opponents.

Propaganda of Confusion Russian TV, which purports to give an “alternative” version of the news and analysis of the Western networks, does not necessarily tell barefaced lies. Rather, it offers a variety of other “possible interpretations” intended to baffle us.

The obfuscation of the circumstances surrounding the shooting down of the Malaysian airline flight MH17 over the Ukraine in July 2014 is a case in point. The Russian government media’s alternative “narra-

donald Trump’s “cleverly barbed lies were undebunkable”, writes Fr Chris Chatteris SJ in his reflection on the post-truth society. (Photo: CnS) tive” was that the aircraft was brought down by a Ukrainian fighter. The insinuation here was that the incident was staged by the Ukrainian military in order to discredit the separatists.

Looking at the evidence this is extremely unlikely, but it is always a remote possibility. And that is enough to cast a modicum of doubt on the weight of the evidence. It is also a conspiracy theory and a lot of people love conspiracy theories.

A similar tactic of sowing just enough doubt has been employed by some of the big fossil fuel industries in the United States.

Many media outlets cooperated with this by giving a disproportionate amount of airtime to the socalled “climate sceptics”, despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of scientists affirm that climate change is happening and is being enhanced by the excessive burning of coal, oil and gas.

But incredibly, enough doubt has been cast on the scientifically demonstrated reality of climate change for such scepticism to become a quasi-credo of the Republi-

can Party, and Mr Trump is about to become almost the only climatechange denying head of state in the world. Unfortunately he will be the most powerful one as well.

What should set the alarm bells ringing in the Church is that we may be entering an era in which not only is truth hard to come by because there are so many powerful people who want to darken it, delay it, bend it and manipulate it to their selfish ends, but also that ordinary people may be giving up on truth itself.

When we all end up like Pilate with his jaded “What is truth?” on our lips, then we may find ourselves in a world in which the proclamation of the truth has become extraordinarily difficult, and in which when people meet the One who is the “way the truth and the life” they will find it harder and harder to recognise him.

If there is any reason, then, for the Church to be involved in the search for the truth, including in her political commentary, it is surely that for the next four years we will have to deal with a Trump-Putin post-truth world.

US nun wants healing after divisive election

By RHInA GUIdOS

N

O matter who won the 2016 US presidential election, “there would be a lot of unrest, division and hatred”, according to a nun who decided to do something about it.

Sr Rita Petruziello said she could feel the “contention and nastiness” in the air during the election campaign between President-elect Donald Trump and Democratic Party nominee Hilary Clinton. Instead of getting better as the process went along, it kept getting worse.

But she couldn’t just sit without doing anything about it and decided to find a way to counter all those bad feelings she was seeing and hearing.

Sr Petruziello, a member of the Sisters of the Congregation of St Joseph in Cleveland, Ohio, has since put together “Circle the City with Love”, an event that seeks to gather people across cities in the United States in the afternoon of January 15, have them join hands in their respective cities and, in silence, meditate together as a means to foster peace.

The intention behind the event is to reduce the acrimony around the country during and after the presidential election. The title and format had been used before during an event in Cleveland tied to the opening of the Republican National Convention there in July 2016. And it must have worked, she said, because Cleveland did not experience the violence many had feared during the convention.

“We had been expecting riots and nothing happened,” she said.

So now she wants to apply the concept nationally and has asked people around the US to organise local events that will result in harmony, not more rancour, prior to the inauguration of Mr Trump as the country’s 45th president on January 20.

More than 40 groups in 17 cities,

as well as a group in Australia— whose participants will gather at 4am local time—have agreed to participate. More continued signing up in early January at www.circlecity withlove.com, Sr Petruziello said.

Karen Clifton, of Catholic Mobilizing Network in Washington, said her group will participate, “to stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers across the country—and world—praying for peace, mercy, and justice as we begin this new chapter in history”.

“In the aftermath of a very divisive political season, it is vital that we move forward with mercy and compassion toward each other,” Ms Clifton said. “This event provides the perfect opportunity for each of us to stand united in the work to bring mercy and justice to our world.”

What she and her organisation seeks most is to bring people together in the hope of peace and healing, she said.

“Catholic Mobilizing Network hopes that this event can serve as an example of nonviolence throughout our country and promote a peaceful transition of administrations,” she said.

While registering online, organisers asked participants to pledge to a nonviolent and nonpartisan half hour of silence “in the spirit of love around the inauguration of the president-elect and all the demonstrations being held throughout the week.”

Some anti-Trump groups are organising protests and events on or around Inauguration Day in Washington to voice their opposition to the incoming president. On January 21, Washington will host the Million Woman March, an event organised largely via Facebook.

Sr Petruziello said her event is not “religious”, nor is it partisan, and is open to anyone who “wants to bring that peace and love into the universe, because we need it”.— CNS

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Brescia House Schoool applauds the Gra rade 12s of 2016

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10

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

RELIGIOUS LIFE

Remarkable life of Mother Marie Garnier The French-born foundress of a congregation of nuns at London’s Tyburn convent had a remarkable life, as MARy REZAC explains.

burn, the mons martyrum (“mount of martyrs”) in London’s Bayswater Road, near Marble Arch. Near the convent is the Tyburn Tree where 105 Catholic martyrs—including St Oliver Plunkett and St Edmund Campion—were executed during and following the English Reformation from 1535 to 1681 for their refusal to give up their Catholic faith.

Perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has continued night and day ever since the convent was established in London.

M

OTHER Marie Adele Garnier led no ordinary life.

Marked with spiritual and physical suffering, visions of Christ, political upheaval, and a dramatically thwarted engagement early in her life, she eventually became the foundress of an order of sisters based in London that has now spread throughout the world.

Due to her remarkable life and virtue, Mother Marie Adele Garnier, founder of the Benedictine Tyburn Convent in London, has now been given the title “Servant of God” by the Congregation for the Cause of Saints, the title given to individuals whose cause has officially opened—the first step to canonisation.

Her sisters have been trying to open her cause for 20 years, but lack of funds prevented them— vow of poverty, and all.

“But, in more recent times, on account of the increasing widespread fame of her holiness and her powerful intercession in obtaining both spiritual and temporal favours in response to prayers through her intercession, we firmly believe that the time has come to go forward with her cause for canonisation,” the order explains on their website (www.tyburncon vent.org.uk).

T (Left) A nun at perpetual adoration at Tyburn convent in London. The Body and Blood of Christ has been exposed there uninterrupted ever since the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre moved there in 1903 (right) Mother Marie of St Peter in 1924. (Photos courtesy of Tyburn Covent) Mother Garnier was born Marie Adele Garnier on August 15, 1838 in Grancey-le-Château, in the French diocese of Dijon, one of five children. For a long time she felt a desire to be close to Christ, but she did not always know her vocation was to be a nun.

At the age of six, Adele lost her mother. Two years later, Adele was sent to boarding school, where she would complete her education at age 16.

Shortly after she returned home from school, a young man asked for her hand in marriage, and

Marie accepted. But it didn’t last long.

According to a recollection of her life by a Benedictine monastery in France, Adele once overheard her fiancée joking with a friend that he would “get rid” of Adele’s piety once they were married.

Adele couldn’t stand it, and she stormed down the stairs and hurled back: “Sir, you will not have to take the trouble—I will never be your wife!”

An argument ensued, and in a dramatic display of despair, the young man plunged a pair of scis-

sors into his chest. It wasn’t a fatal injury, but suffice it to say, the two never married. Eventually the young man married someone else.

F

or years after the incident, Adele worked as a beloved governess for a French family at the chateau of Aulne. During her time there, she enjoyed serving as the chateau’s sacristan. It was there that a vision of Christ appeared to her on a host, which would eventually be the image on her order’s medals.

Soon after this vision, France was in the throes of the FrancoPrussian War, which resulted in the end of France’s Second Empire. On December 12, 1871, Adele wrote in her diary: “For France: to pray, expiate, suffer, love!”

The political upheaval of her country caused Adele great spiritual suffering and desolation, which her spiritual director ordered her to take to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. After a time of prayer, she was struck “wild with a joy that stripped me of reason, I felt as though struck by lightning, and remained in the grip of a rapture I cannot describe”.

Soon after this experience, and after the war had ended, Adele read an article in 1872 of a devout couple planning to build a church in Paris in honour of the revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90).

She heard Christ calling her to be at this particular church, and over the next several years she consulted with her spiritual director and with the archbishop to establish perpetual adoration there, which has now been happening nonstop at the basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmarte—the famous Sacré-Cœur of Paris—since August 1, 1885.

Adele longed to establish a community of sisters devoted to perpetual adoration at Montmarte, but her health and other logistical issues prevented her for several more years.

Finally, in March 1897, Adele and two other sisters set up residence in an apartment in the neighbourhood of Montmartre, dedicating their lives to prayer and apostolate work and wearing white scapulars under their secular clothing.

On March 4, 1898, Cardinal François-Marie-Benjamin de la Vergne of Paris authorised the establishment of the new order, and the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre were founded.

A few years later though, in 1901, the anti-clerical French government passed the Law of Associations, which greatly expanded the state’s authority over religious orders and regulated their educational work. As a result, the sisters went into exile in London, where they were able to freely wear a habit for the first time.

They eventually settled at Ty-

hroughout her life as a religious, Mother Garnier, who now went by Mother Marie of St Peter, experienced intense physical suffering, so much so that when she went more than two hours without suffering, she wondered if Christ had forgotten her.

Despite her sufferings, which included debilitating migraines, her sisters say she remained cheerful and gentle with everyone, and counselled other sisters through their trials.

She once told a particularly distraught young sister: “My poor little daughter, I have such pity for you. When you suffer so much, drag your cross on all fours if you must, and then, when things are a little better, try to get up and carry it more valiantly.”

The order as a whole also suffered financial problems and strange demonic attacks, including instances of possession or objects being picked up and thrown across the room. But Christ promised Mother Marie of St Peter that he would not let the order dissolve.

In a letter to a French priest, Fr Charles Sauvé, Mother Marie recalled how she saw the Blessed Sacrament turn to bloody flesh.

“At the moment in which the priest took a particle of the holy host and put it into the chalice I raised my eyes to adore and to contemplate the holy particle,” she wrote.

“Oh, if you could know what I saw and how I am still moved and impressed by this vision,” she continued.

“The fingers of the priest held not a white particle but a particle of striking red, the colour of blood and luminous at the same time…

The fingers of the priest were red on the right of the particle, as from a blood stain that seemed still wet.”

In 1922, Mother Marie reported an apparition of Christ telling her that she would suffer and die soon.

For the next two years, she suffered intense chest pains and congestion problems, until she became bedridden.

In spite of her sufferings, she once said: “I believe that I will be cheerful up to the final moment!”

She said she offered her sufferings “so that all nations might become Catholic”.

On November 15, 1923, on a host a priest brought her, she said she saw the Heart of Jesus, alive in the Eucharist. She died on June 17, 1924.

Today, the contemplative order has spread throughout the world, with convents in England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Italy, Nigeria and France.

In 1947, some sisters from Tyburn formed a new congregation, the Benedictines of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre, who serve at the Sacré-Coeur Basilica of Montmartre and other places of pilgrimage in France.

The Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre remain dedicated to “Eucharistic adoration for the glory of God and prayer for the needs of the whole human family”.

The next step in Mother Garnier’s canonisation will be for her to be declared Venerable, which means that the pope recognises that she led a life of heroic virtue.—CNA

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

CHURCH

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Pope’s reform can be boiled down to one thing For Pope Francis, the engine of the reforms he is implementing is personal conversion. ELISE HARRIS explains what that means.

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F there’s anything Pope Francis’ recent 12-point plan for the reform of the Roman curia shows, it’s that while his vision of a simple, less clerical body is clear, it is contingent on one thing: conversion.

In a December 22 speech to members of the curia—the administrative apparatus of the Holy See—Pope Francis outlined his guide to reform which he stressed will be effective “only if it is carried out with men and women who are renewed and not simply new”.

Merely changing staff and structures is not enough, he said, calling for the “spiritual, human and professional renewal among the members of the curia”.

Reform, he said, “is in no way implemented with a change of persons—something that certainly is happening and will continue to happen—but with a conversion in persons”.

“What we need also and above all is permanent conversion and purification. Without a change of mentality, efforts at practical improvement will be in vain.”

All this comes in the first part of a lengthy, in-depth speech Francis gave to the curia offering what he said are the key principles that ought to guide ongoing reform efforts.

He gives the speech to the curia every year, and his focus on conver-

sion seems to lay the groundwork for what his 12-point guide should be built on.

The pope identified the 12 “guiding principles” at the heart of his vision for the ongoing curial reform as follows: individuality (personal conversion); pastoral concern (pastoral conversion); missionary spirit (Christocentrism); rationality; functionality; modernisation; sobriety; subsidiarity; synodality; catholicity; professionalism, and gradualism (discernment).

True soul of reform Conversion is a theme alluded to throughout the 12 points. In his first note on individuality, the pope again reaffirmed “the importance of individual conversion, without which all structural change would prove useless”.

“The true soul of the reform is the men and women who are part of it and make it possible,” he said, explaining that personal and individual conversion eventually lead to and support conversion for the community as a whole.

He also cautioned that while one person can bring “great good to the entire body,” they can also cause “great harm and lead to sickness” if personal sanctity isn’t a priority.

However, the pope’s repeated focus on conversion coupled with some harsh critiques of unhealthy curial attitudes in the past have rubbed some the wrong way.

In 2014 Pope Francis held nothing back when he spoke to the curia, outlining 15 spiritual “diseases” involving not only the tendency towards careerism and an attitude of superiority, but also an uncurbed desire for wealth and power typical of

Pope Francis speaks during an audience last month with members of the Roman Curia in Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican. (Photo: Paul Haring/CnS) a “hypocritical” double-life that has forgotten the joy of serving God and others.

Then in 2015 he offered a “catalogue of virtues” the curial officials ought to adopt in order for their service “to be more fruitful”, including humility, respect, honesty and sobriety. These, in many ways, were the remedy for illnesses outlined in the previous year’s grilling speech.

Francis himself told members of the curia in December that the underlying reason for identifying these diseases and virtues is that the semper reformanda [always being reformed] must also become, in the case of the curia, a permanent personal and structural process of conversion”.

He added: “It was necessary to speak of disease and cures because

after Francis’ election, that “it’s impossible to understand anything this pope is doing without understanding personal conversion”.

He pointed specifically to “the very profound Jesuit tradition of the change of heart”, which he said goes hand in hand with the pope’s idea of conversion.

Mr Bermudez, who interviewed Francis a number of times while he was still in Buenos Aires, insisted that “only the changing of the heart will create a change in the Church, and a change in the Church is what will create a change in society and culture”.

So while the stern tone of the pope’s speeches might leave some feeling slighted and longing for a warmer approach, Francis seems to be indicating that sometimes tough love is needed more than a pat on the back.

A look at the bigger picture with conversion as the frame shows that for Pope Francis, who was elected with a mandate for reform, a thorough examination of conscience is needed as these reform efforts continue to roll steadily forward.

More than singling anyone out or taking a swing at his officials, the pope seems to be inviting curial members to ask themselves whether they might be infected with any of the “diseases” he identified, to apply the right virtues if the answer is yes, and to move on.

After all, the Church ultimately isn’t here to make us feel good, but to help us conform to Christ and draw nearer to him. The pope’s plan for reform, then, seems to be founded on and aimed at just that.— CNA

every surgical operation, if it is to be successful, must be preceded by detailed diagnosis and careful analysis, and needs to be accompanied and followed up by precise prescriptions.”

The pope’s emphasis on conversion, then, is not so much a jab at the curia, as some have made it out to be, as much as it is a jab at sin itself and how it manifests in the Church. If anything, his insistence on this point is evidence of just how crucial he sees conversion as being to the final, positive result of the reform.

Neither is it anything new. Pope Francis has spoken about the importance and necessity of conversion and attention to personal holiness even from his time as archbishop in Buenos Aires.

Springboard holiness In the 2010 book On Heaven and Earth, which is a conversation between Pope Francis and his good friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka, the then-Cardinal Bergoglio spoke on a variety of topics, but the centrality of holiness in regard to the Church’s mission was by far the most potent.

In the book, the future pope insisted that holiness is essential to leadership in religious organisations, saying it is “a springboard to the transcendent”.

“With regard to religion, holiness is unavoidable for a leader,” he said, and, touching on various periods of difficulty and corruption in the Church’s history, noted that “religion bounced back” when figures such as St Teresa of Kolkata appeared to “rejuvenate religious fervour”.

Alejandro Bermudez, the book’s translator from Spanish to English, said in April 2013, just two months

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The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

BOOK REVIEWS

Poetry for true contemplation IN THE BEGINNING WAS LOVE: Contemplative Words of Robert Lax, edited by Steve Georgiou.

Templegate Publishers, 2015.

125pp.

Reviewed by Michael Shackleton T must be about a year since I received this little book of contemplative verses penned by a remarkable man, Robert Lax. I delayed in reviewing it for many reasons, some avoidable and others not. Since then a second edition has deservedly come out with some additional verses.

After reading the 125 poems of mostly short and succinct verses and drafting an appreciative review, I abruptly realised that I had not truly attempted to dig deeper into the poet’s sense of the Creator’s imprint on creation. I took another and longer look.

What is exceptional is Lax’s way of suggesting so much by using so few words and images. He conceals long hours of intense meditation which are imploded into brief written gems, each one of which the reader must contemplate with a spiritually sensitive mind.

That is the fascination of his verse: it needs a good meditative effort to internalise the imagery

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which is itself an inadequate telling of unique mystical and otherworldly insights.

The more I read his minimalistic jottings, the more I began to appreciate why he could not be too wordy. How can you use words to describe one sublime moment when the divine touches your soul and leaves you speechless?

The poems of the great mystic, St Teresa of Avila, were similarly brief yet laden with contemplative awe.

She famously wrote: Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes.

Patience obtains all things Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.

Only one who is fully conscious of the constant divine presence can write with such equanimity.

Lax is in the same category. At the age of 28 he was baptised in the Catholic Church, partly due to the influence of his friend Thomas Merton, the noted Trappist author.

Both men were converts but Lax’s roots and formation came from his Jewish parents, which is evident in his obvious reverence for the holy name of God and the sanctity of Creation.

Some of his verses are structured in the shape of columns of letters, perhaps three or four letters per line, so that the word he’s using is splintered. The eye cannot immediately grasp it. I understand this to signify the mystic’s way of telling us that individual letters of the alphabet are meaningless unless they spell something, and each bit of Creation is meaningless unless it finds its meaning in God. This may look like a naive assessment of great poetry but I know that there has to be more depth and spirituality in these compositions than rises to the surface on a printed page.

St Paul’s remark that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20) exemplifies the mystic’s intimate union with God through love. Life becomes a perpetual prayer and verses that spring from this rarefied experience can be meaningful to the mystic yet obscure to the outsider.

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dolphe Tanquerey in his classic The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology noted that holy souls in this state of sanctity, known as the Unitive Way, are characterised by purity of heart, mastery over self and a constant

Let Ghandi inspire you 101 GANDHIAN INSPIRATIONS,

by Fakir Hassen. Self-published, 2016. 175pp Reviewed by Paddy Kearney HERE are many good reasons why this book is worth buying and reading.

Those who still believe that Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi has much to say to the world will discover that there are lots of people in South Africa who would agree with them, and they will be inspired by what they are doing or have done to ensure that Gandhi’s ideas will be taken seriously.

They will discover that these Gandhi enthusiasts from all over South Africa are being highly creative in the ways they have chosen to keep his ideas alive: walking, marching, cycling, spinning, erecting statues, restoring buildings, giving peace awards, mounting exhibitions, organising cricket series and international soccer matches... the list is endless.

The one I found most moving:

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collecting school books for poor rural schools in the Free State— that province which was a no-go area for Indians for many years.

On a rather different note, readers will be reminded that Gandhi wasn’t born a mahatma, a spiritual title meaning “Great Soul”. He wasn’t even really a mahatma for much of his 21-year stint in South Africa.

Yes, there was even a time when he said things that we would now see as blatantly racist, but he moved on in his thinking, was willing to admit that he had been wrong, and came to see that all forms of discrimination against any group of people are totally unacceptable—and then he worked passionately against such discrimination.

This book by veteran Durban journalist Fakir Hassen is a treasure chest of information about South African history. It includes a most impressive collection of photos that one will want to keep visiting.

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One is also reminded of the many sayings of Gandhi, including this witty one, which is one of my favourites: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

The number of significant African leaders who have had the highest regard for Gandhi is striking: people like John Dube, Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, Kenneth Kaunda, Thabo Mbeki—and, most notably, Nelson Mandela.

Mandela said: “The voice of Mahatma Gandhi and his committed search for peace, is now more than ever, needed in world affairs.”

Finally, if you are feeling rather gloomy about South Africa’s prospects at present—and there are lots of reasons to feel gloomy—this book will give you 101 reasons to be optimistic.

Fakir Hassen must be congratulated on a fine achievement. n Order from the author at fakir@ vodamail.co.za

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need of thinking of God. You have to be ready to discern these characteristics in these verses, the ones that flow and the ones that seem stilted and eccentric.

They have been caringly edited

by Steve Georgiou whose book The Way of the Dreamcatcher (2002) brought Robert Lax’s simple life and simple poetry to the attention of so many like myself. In his introduction he offers a helpful understanding of how Lax’s life in the spirit was born and how he evolved into the hermit who lived on the holy island of Patmos where St John had been exiled.

Lax’s sense of awe when he realises that he has only a limited place and time to live is said this way: how big is the room? big enough how big is the room? small enough big as the universe big as the cosmos not too big not too small just right (just enough) how much time have we got?

Just enough

The poem may also express our limited time and space in the universe, suggesting that despite the decaying nature of our civilisation and planet, we still may have just enough time to make things right (and so make the transition into a new heaven and a new earth).

Lines such as these, understood as a true reflection of the poet’s spiritual disposition over and above their philosophical sense, can be a source of rewarding spiritual contemplation if we can appreciate them quietly amid the noise and haste around us. n Order at www.bit.ly/2hK4486

The pope and the plot to kill Hitler CHURCH OF SPIES: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler, by Mark Riebling. Basic Books, 2015). 384 pp.

Reviewed by Regina Lordan HO really was Pope Pius XII during World War II? Was he a weak pope, too afraid to speak out publicly against Hitler?

Or was he an expert diplomat, calculatingly using his position to help posture assassination attempts of the horrific German leader?

Mark Riebling’s book Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War against Hitler contends that the pontiff was indeed a skilled man who used his role to help German plotters attempt to kill Hitler. The book even suggests that his initiatives came at the cost of his legacy and reputation, a point of wide controversy for historians.

Church of Spies reads like a spy thriller that is exhaustively researched, as shown by its more than 100 pages of notes and sources.

Riebling, author of Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA, has researched and written about intelligence for various publications. He shares with readers many vivid details about the underground communication, secret meetings and failed attempts to take Hitler’s life; the book truly is a treasure trove of surprising information.

Church of Spies reveals that Pope Pius’ much-criticised public silence during World War II was in fact part of a cover for underground diplomacy, spy games and double agents.

So ingrained was the pope in his secrecy during this time that he had an audio recording system built into the walls of the papal library.

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key player in the master plan for a peaceful Germany, the pope was part of a network of people pretending to be something they were not to help link the internal and external enemies of Hitler. Pope Pius’ code name during the operations was “chief”, a name the pope apparently liked.

The main character in the book is Josef Müller, known by friends as “Joey Ox” for his rural Bavarian roots and brunt determination to get things done. A Catholic lawyer, book publisher and general jack-of-all trades, Müller’s many hats made him a man who knew many and was owed many favours. His connections included Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Nazi secret military intelligence, and his deputy Hans Oster.

Though on the Nazi payroll, Canaris and Oster were spies working with conservative opponents of Hitler. The German intelligence agency was in fact the headquarters of the German military opposition to Hitler, and they needed Müller to make contact with the pope.

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ope Pius’ rubber stamp of approval to plans gave the opposition the legitimacy needed for any real communication and cooperation between the German opposition and the Western powers.

To enable his trips back and forth to Rome, Müller acted somewhat as a triple agent. He spied for the Vatican while sharing information with Oster while pretending to spy on the Italians for the Nazis. In exchange for the life-threatening risks Müller took, he was married at the Vatican and was remembered in the pope’s daily prayers.

Pope Pius was a skilled leader of the Church, driven to politics by his nature and foreign affairs experience as then-Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli. Distrustful of Hitler from the beginning, he was not prompted to act until Hitler’s surge into Catholic Poland.

Interestingly, Riebling notes, “The last day during the war when Pius publicly said the word ‘Jew’ is also, in fact, the first day history can document his choice to help kill Adolf Hitler.”

The book shows that Pope Pius put his reputation, safety and security on the line for peace. And although plots to remove Hitler failed, the Vatican’s secret connections helped changed the course of the war in several ways that indeed saved lives.—CNS

PERSONALITY

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

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Best-selling author still has place for faith Her crime novels have made Catholic author Rhys Bowen a star in the word of literature, but she still holds on to her faith, as she told.

MIKE MASTROMATTEO.

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RITISH-AMERICAN novelist Rhys Bowen (real name Janet Quin-Harkin) had just returned to her California home after collecting yet another writing award in the crime/mystery genre.

It was the latest accolade in this prolific novelist’s work that has given life to a number of fascinating characters, whose stories unfold on both sides of the Atlantic and over several eras of the late19th and early 20th centuries.

Bowen’s books have won 11 major mystery awards to date, with no sign of slowing down.

The author turns out up to two new titles a year, while still finding the time to travel, research new plot outlines—and participate in parish life at churches in California and Arizona.

“This is definitely a full-time job,” Bowen said. “I do a lot of research ahead of planning a new book, then write every day until a first draft is finished. I’m also on the road doing book signings and speeches, so I am very busy.”

Before ramping up her fiction writing career, Bowen worked in the drama department of the BBC in London and, later, for the Australian broadcasting system in Sydney. She eventually made her way to the San Francisco area, where she has lived since 1966.

“I have belonged to St Isabella parish in California for 40 years

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HESE are the names of the Associates of The Southern Cross, who have contributed to our Associates’ Campaign in 2016.

The Board and Editor of The Southern Cross thank the Associates and contributors for their generous support. By becoming Associates or contributing otherwise, they have helped put The Southern Cross on a safer financial footing.

They have also assisted us in our apostolic outreach. Thanks to our Associates, every seminarian in South Africa now has access to the weekly Catholic newspaper.

The newspaper is also sent to prisons for inmates who wish to follow a Christian way of life, and to the Catholic university chaplaincies.

These needs are on-going. Existing Associates will be invited to renew their support for The Southern Cross as their annual associateship expires.

Readers who have not yet done so may become Associates at any time.

An annual Mass is celebrated for the intentions of our Associates on January 24, feast day of St Francis de Sales, patron of journalists, and on All Soul’s Day for deceased Associates and deceased family members of Associates.

and now spend my winters in Arizona, where I belong to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I sing in the choir at both, and am a Eucharistic minister,” Bowen said. “ “We usually go to Mass when we travel all over the world,” she added.

For Catholic readers, Bowen’s most interesting character perhaps is Molly Murphy, heroine of the same-titled series of books, set primarily in New York at the turn of the 20th century.

In the opening books of the series, Murphy is an independent, tough-minded single woman looking to start a new life in America after emigrating from the Irish old country.

Murphy is romantically linked with Daniel Sullivan, a police captain who becomes an unofficial partner in her home-based crime solving business.

Though clearly fictionalised, the Molly Murphy stories are like historical flashbacks of early 20thcentury real-life events, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, the 1905 Ninth Avenue train derailment, and, in a change of locale out west, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

But it is old New York that serves as the settling for most of Bowen’s Molly Murphy fiction.

“It started with a visit to Ellis Island [New York’s clearinghouse for many immigrants to the US at the turn of the 20th century], which made me feel such an emotional connection,” Bowen said. “I made my heroine an Irish immigrant as I am a fellow Celt and my husband is half Irish, hence I have good insights into the character.”

Since book one, Murphy’s Law (2001), “I have explored many

Mystery novelist Rhys Bowen facets of immigrant life in New York. There are so many great stories to tell.”

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n addition to the Molly Murphy series, Bowen has produced two separate bodies of fiction. The Evans series details the life and work of police constable Evan Evans in the Welsh countryside, and the Royal Spyness series, set in the 1930s, follows Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie (Georgie), a much-distant and near-penniless heir to the British throne.

The Royal Spyness books feature the character Darcy O’Mara who, like Daniel Sullivan in the Murphy series, is romantically linked to the heroine. O’Mara, however, is Catholic, and his subtle wooing of Georgie is complicated by the British monarchy’s attitude towards Catholics ascending to the throne.

“Our heroine wants to marry him, but she is related to the royal family, in the line of succession and, as such, is forbidden to marry a Catholic [in 1930],” Bowen said.

“He can’t see renouncing his faith.

We’ll have to see where that leads in future books.”

As to the central question, is Bowen a “Catholic writer” or a writer who happens to be Catholic, Bowen has a ready response: “Oh, definitely I’m a writer who happens to be Catholic. However, I hope my Christian set of morals are present in my characters’ search for justice.”

Her Molly Murphy character, for example, frequently refers to herself as a bad example of a Catholic, someone who has turned her back on the faith teachings of the Irish priests and nuns who guided her as a young girl.

Despite being somewhat estranged from the faith, however, Murphy never fails to call on it in times of crisis. The first book of the series describes a fearful first night on Ellis Island: “I very seldom prayed, but I prayed now. Holy Mother, let it be over soon. Get me out of here safely and I’ll say Hail Marys every day for the rest of my life.”

And as Murphy’s character matures and gains confidence in the ways of New York life, there is still a stubborn reliance on some Catholic essentials. The 2015 book, Away in a Manger, has Murphy praying the rosary after a health scare: “And I did find it [the rosary] comforting. Maybe I had stayed away from the Church because of my unhappy experiences with priests and nuns, and my hostility had nothing to do with

God. Maybe he had been there, unchanging, all the time.”

Critics are usually impressed with the historical detail and trueto-life atmosphere that Bowen weaves into her period pieces.

“I write historical novels, so the moral issues I tackle are those of the past,” she said. “I believe that my religious background drives the sort of things I am prepared to write about and those I will not tackle.”

Bowen has a place for the Catholic faith as a motivating factor for some of her characters, but that does not mean her heroines are all paragons of virtue. Some of her books show Catholic characters behaving in the worst possible way, such as her 2012 work Hush Now, Don’t You Cry, which— SPOILER ALERT—reveals a priest as a murderer.

To Bowen, these plot devices and characterisation have their place.

“What I wanted to show was at one time, children were sent into the priesthood and religious life who had no vocation for it and who found themselves trapped in a life for which they were not suited,” Bowen explained. “If you had ten children, it was usual to expect several daughters to become nuns, at least one son to become a priest. And the harsh conditions of some orders caused weak natures to crack and warp.”

As a storyteller who draws on real events for much of her narrative art, she is not averse to injecting some hard realities.

“I am writing fiction,” Bowen said, but added: “My aim is to show life as it really was—to take the reader to a time and place, not to preach.”—CNS

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO The

S outher n C ross

ASSOCIATES Denise Armstrong-Dalpark; Peter Attenborough, Fish Hoek; BAA Bailey, Elsies River; Margaret Baxter, East London; Anne Marie Berry, Strand; Christopher Bradley, Somerset West; David Brokensha, Fish Hoek; Catholic Women’s League, Krugersdorp; Carmel Thapelong, Mafikeng; Catholic Women’s League-Stirling, East London; Bishop R Cawcutt, Cape Town; Louis Chappel, Springs; Christian Brothers Congregation(SA), Boksburg; MI Clarke, Knysna; Desmond Cox, Rondebosch; Cecil Cullen, Alberton; Adele Dawson, Parklands; Paul de Chalain, Umhlanga Rocks; Fr Ralph de Hahn, Vredehoek; Michael Denoon, Durbanville; Dr Francis Diab, Tyger Valley; Ursula Douglass, Welgelegen; Audrey Downs, Primrose; Magdalene Esau, Parow East; John Faller, Kengray; Steve Fanner, Durbanville; Peter & Dorothy Fewell, Simon’s Town; Prof Brian Figaji, Durbanville; Maria Frade, Randfontein; Priscilla Francis, Newlands West; Mervyn Gatcke, East London; Michelle George, Grassy Park; A P Goller; Laurence Gorman, Scottburgh; Pat Halloran,

Kirstenhof; Henry Hartley, Rustenburg; Fr Stefan Hippler (HOPE), Vlaeberg; Barabara Houghton, Sea Point; In memoriam of Mrs Ella Auer, Gordon’s Bay; Victor January; Ana Paula Jasmins Joao, Germiston; Barry Jordan, Rondebosch; Eric Joseph, South Hills; Fr Patrick Julie, Port Nolloth; John & Maureen Kilroe, Claremont; Cely & Terry Kingston, King William’s Town; Knights of da Gama Council 14; A J Krischke, Roosevelt Park; Mr & Mrs A H Lester, Greenfields; R Lopes, Edgemead; Loreto Sisters, Strand; Richard Low, Randpark Ridge; Brother Daniel Manuel SCP, Rocklands; Marist Brothers & Community, Rondebosch; John Martin, Sloane Park; Walter Middleton, Johannesburg; Paddy Milner, Constantia Hills; Cathy Mocke, Umhlanga; Molly Molyneaux, Umbilo; Estelle Moodaley, Port Elizabeth; Moore Family, Worcester West; Vincent Motabogi, Klerksdorp; Sheila Mullany, Vredehoek; F W Muller, Camps Bay; James Needham, Surrey; Cheryl Nolan, Meredale; P O’Connor, Camps Bay; Gavin O’Connor, Durbanville; Terry O’Kelly, Northmead; Melitza Oosthuizen, Polokwane;

Lawrence Osborne, Springbok; Mel Palmer, Rondebosch; Pauline Books and Media, Bruma; Patrick & Jane Pedersen, Fish Hoek; Enid Pemberton, Fish Hoek; Evarista Phiri, Rustenburg; Dr George Pillay, Bellville; Mervyn Pollitt, Link Hills; Fr Kevin Reynolds, Groenkloof; Eileen Reynolds, Mowbray; Rushta & Rushni; Peter Sadie, Orchards; Salesians of Don Bosco, Southdale; Bernard Sauls, Oudtshoorn; Henk Schoots, Edgemead; Paul Schwieger, Swakopmund, Namibia; George Skinner, Dullstroom; Elizabeth Skliros, Birchleigh North; St Michael’s Catholic Church, Rondebosch; HD Swinney, Durban; Faith Tasker, Kokstad; Mbali Thabethe, Johannesburg; Garth Towell, Honeydew; Diane Towers, Greytown; Michelle Trevor, Muizenberg; Dr Jan van der Mey, Port Elizabeth; Hans Karl Wagner, Stirling,EL; Agnes Wesson, Durbanville; Lorna Wicks, Kokstad; Ashley Williams, Port Elizabeth; Barbara Wood, Glenwood; Peter Yazbek, Brandhof; and others who asked not to be named...

The Southern Cross, Associates Campaign, PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000 l Account details: Standard Bank, Thibault Square Branch (Code 020909), The Southern Cross, Acc No: 276876016 (please fax or e-mail deposit slip or confirmation) l Fax Number: 021 465-3850, Email: admin@scross.co.za

The annual Mass for all Southern Cross Associates will be celebrated on Tuesday, January 24 at St Mary’s cathedral, Cape Town at 13:10pm. All welcome.

14

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

REFLECTION

Keeping the love of Christ’s Nativity alive in 2017 The essential message of Christmas cannot be forgotten by January, and SARAH-LEAH PIMEnTEL has found a way to make sure it won’t in 2017.

A

S I sat in Adoration for the last time in 2016, I thought back over that past year.

The first thing that came to mind is the number of loved ones and famous people who died in 2016. Almost every month this year I received news of the passing of someone I knew, personally or by dint of their celebrity.

Following the deaths of George Michael and Carrie Fisher as the year was ending, the comments on Facebook were almost of exasperation, as if we just couldn’t take anymore bad news that affects our lives, even if in some insignificant way.

Reflecting further, I thought of the many events in our country and world this past year that have caused us to be fearful about the future.

The waste of resources in South Africa left us angry and calling for a just share of the nation’s wealth.

Time and again, we were disappointed by politicians’ empty promises, the lack of respect for democratic structures, and we looked on sadly as Thuli Madonsela—our own national superhero— concluded her term as Public Protector. And we hoped that her successor would follow in her brilliant footsteps as the nation’s watchdog...

2016 wore us down. Every time we heard bad news, we became a lit-

tle more despondent and found it harder to be joyful or reach out to others. This wearying of the soul slowly starts to chip away at our ability to love ourselves and the people around us. And ultimately, it also hampers our love for God. When we are so weighed down, we are too emotionally exhausted to pray and the troubles of our lives and the world around distract us from communion with God, robbing us of the peace we desire deep in our hearts.

In Scriptures we are told: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 Jn 4:18).

These are difficult words to digest. If we cannot love, then we don’t know God. Conversely, if we know God, we experience his love and we respond by loving him in return, that love then infuses our relationship with our families and communities.

God knows that our human experiences often leave us feeling dejected. Lovingly and tenderly, he lifts us out of our sadness. What easier way to love than in the presence of a baby?

One of my colleagues had a baby this year and brought her baby girl into the office several times.

This had an immediate effect on the office environment. All work ceased. Irrespective of age or gender, colleagues got up from their desks for a chance to hold the baby or play with her on the floor. Others took an active interest by commenting on how much she has grown since the last time they saw her and asked questions about her development.

Even the least sentimental person could not walk past without smiling and pausing for a few mo-

Sarah-Leah Pimentel has not packed away this nativity scene, handmade in Peru, along with her other Christmas trimmings this year. ments upon hearing the baby’s delighted gurgles.

G

od knows that nothing pulls on our heartstrings more readily than a tiny, helpless child. He sent his own tiny, helpless child into the world, so that through him the world might be saved (cf Jn 3:16).

God did not send his son as a mighty conqueror or a superhero character who rescues the oppressed and afflicted. He sent a small, helpless child who can do nothing for us. Nothing. And yet, everything.

This is what we celebrate evey year at Christmas, as we did just a few weeks ago. On Christmas Eve we laid the Christchild in the

manger of our Nativity sets, at home and at Church. We opened our hearts and allowed ourselves to be touched by this child’s innocence, beauty, and joy. We allowed ourselves to be consumed by love.

This is the love that strengthens us and gives us much-needed fuel for the journey ahead. This love encourages us to love those around us more perfectly. This is love that draws us out of our protective shells and allows us to reach out to those needing our help.

The act of reaching out in love to a baby’s cries was evident in the widespread gestures of care and help given to The Love of Christ (TLC) Ministries in Johannesburg after the

awful kidnapping incident in November.

Robbers attempted to kidnap children and security guards from the home for abandoned children, which is run by the Catholic Jarvis family in Eikenhof. Police foiled the attempt.

Local businesses provided security upgrades to the Catholic-run children’s home, wholesalers Macro donated R60 000 of basic necessities for the year, and people of all faiths and backgrounds responded to Jacaranda FM’s call to help TLC. In general, South Africans are wonderful at coming together in times of crisis. But in this case, I genuinely believe that people’s hearts were opened in an extraordinary way because they felt called to help protect these innocent children who were so badly traumatized by the violation of their home.

As we make our way through 2017, with whatever joys and challenges it brings, let us not lose sight of the Christchild.

God brought love into the world with the birth of his Son, filling us with joy, wonder, and hope for the future. In the same way as the child grew in the home in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, and later revealed himself as the long awaited Messiah, may Christ also grow in our hearts this year so that we can reveal him to those who meet us.

I don’t want to forget the Christchild in this new year. So I’ve resolved to not put away my Nativity set.

I’ve packed away the tree and the tinsel, the lights and the Christmas music. But if you visit me in 2017, you’ll find a small Nativity set in my living room, a reminder that love is born into my heart each day.

S outher n C ross Pilgrimage HOLY LAND • ROME •ASSISI • CAIRO

Led by Archbishop William Slattery OFM 25 Aug - 8 Sept 2017 Sea of Galilee

St Peter’s

Jerusalem

Assisi

Papal audience

Pilgrimage Highlights Holy Land: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, Cana (with renewal of wedding vows) and much more...

Rome: Papal Audience, St Peter’s Basilica, Major Basilicas, Ancient and Baroque Rome, and much more...

Assisi: The places associated with the lives of St Francis and St Clare, including their tombs, and much more...

Greccio: A special excursion to the place where St Francis and companions stayed. It is here where St Francis invented the Nativity Scene.

Cairo: Pyramids, Sphinx, Hanging Church and more...

For more information or to book, please contact Gail info@fowlertours.co.za or 076 352-3809

www.fowlertours.co.za/slattery

CLASSIFIEDS

Sr Mary Bede McDermott OP

N

EWCASTLE Dominican Sister Mary Bede McDermott died on December 19 in Marian House, Boksburg.

She had celebrated her 96th birthday on November 20, and from then onwards her health deteriorated, causing her to be confined to her room, to her distress.

In spite of her age and physical weakness, Sr Bede liked to attend daily Mass with the community—saying her bidding prayer for Pope Francis and the needs of the world and her community.

Sr Bede and her companions sailed to South Africa in 1941 during the frightening conflict of World War II. She was involved in education in most of her order’s convent schools in South Africa. The longest spell of min-

istry was at St Elmo’s in Umzumbe, KwaZulu-Natal.

She had a great love and sensitivity for the needy children there and kept in contact with them for as long as they needed her guidance.

Sr Bede was a witty person, had a good sense of humour and loved the company of others, always making them feel at home.

She was most grateful for the care she received in her frail years in Marian House.

Sr Bede’s Requiem Mass was celebrated at Marian House by chaplain Fr Albert Nolan OP and Fr Mark James OP. The chapel was filled with a large congregation of Sisters, Christian Brothers, Salesians and Mercy Sisters, friends and staff of Marian House.

Sr Patricia Dunne OP

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 741. ACROSS: 3 King Herod, 8 Howl, 9 Innocents, 10 Saints, 11 Beige, 14 Locum, 15 Yule, 16 Spell, 18 Knee, 20 Ether, 21 Sneer, 24 Charon, 25 Royal rule, 26 Uses, 27 Eyelashes.

DOWN: 1 Ghostlike, 2 Two inches, 4 Inns, 5 Globe, 6 Energy, 7 Oats, 9 Items, 11 Blear, 12 Eucharist, 13 Weariness, 17 Lethe, 19 Entail, 22 Earns, 23 Holy, 24 Clue.

Word of the Week

INRI: The first letter of four Latin words that were written on the cross, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, which means Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

Transubstantiation: The teaching that the bread and wine in the Communion supper become the body and blood of the Lord Jesus at the Consecration during the Mass.

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

CAPE TOWN: Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Good Shepherd parish, Bothasig, welcomes all visitors. Open 24 hours a day. The parish is at 1 Goede Hoop St, Bothasig.

Phone 021 558 1412.

Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town. Followed by vigil at Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Bree Street.

Contact Colette Thomas on 083 412 4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br daniel SCP on 078 739 2988.

DURBAN: Holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St Anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9:00. Holy Mass and Divine Mercy Devotion at 17:30 on first Friday of every month.

Sunday Mass at 9:00.

Phone 031 309 3496 or 031 209 2536.

Your prayer to cut and collect

s t n e d u t S r Prayer foour God,

Lord urround us s u o y e v lo om and in your wisd universe. e h t f o s ie r ste nd with the my e students a s e h t n o p u irit Send your sp d blessings. n a m o d is w h your fill them wit themselves e t o v e d y a hey m er to you, s Grant that t lo c r e v e w ies and dra to their stud knowledge. ll a f o e c r u the so t our Lord. is r h C h g u o thr We ask this Amen.

Pregnant? Need help?

WE CARE

081 418 5414, 079 663 2634 DBN 079 742 8861 JHB

We welcome prayers, volunteers and donations.

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in Johannesburg & beyond

DStv Audio 870

www.radioveritas.co.za streaming live

41809 MASS followed by Mass Intention 41809 VERI followed by comments

PO Box 4599, Edenvale, 1610 (t) 011 663-4700 eblaser@radioveritas.co.za

15

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

IN MEMORIAM

Community Calendar

The Southern Cross, January 11 to January 17, 2017

SWARDLING—Reece dex “Miyagi”. In memory of a wonderful soul who works in Heaven now, defending against evil and being a Warrior of the Lord, you were taken at the tender age of 24 and on this the 4th anniversary of your passing (20/12) we remember you with love for the way you showed it to all, with gratitude for the time we had together and with faith and hope in a resurrected life when we will see you again. We miss you every single day and you will be forever in our hearts and minds. dad, Mum, Livy, Reagan, Tootoo and Trinity.

THANKS

THANKS to St Jude for many prayers answered for my husband and daughter.

Pamela.

PERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelifeabortion isevil.co.za ABORTION ON DEMAND: This is legalised daily murder in our nation, silence on this is not golden, it’s yellow! Avoid pro-abortion politicians!

PRAYERS

ALMIGHTY GOD, from

whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed, kindle in the hearts of all men the true love of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who make decisions for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility your kingdom may go forward, till the earth be filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

power of the Holy Spirit, bring us into the joy and peace of the kingdom, where Jesus is Lord forever and ever. Amen

O MOST beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of Heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity.

O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein that you are my Mother, O Holy Mary Mother of God, Queen of heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to secure me in my necessity.

There are none who can withstand your power, O show me that you are my mother. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine.

Amen.

FATHER in heaven, everliving source of all that is good, keep me faithful in serving you. Help me to drink of Christ’s truth, and fill my heart with his love so that I may serve you in faith and love and reach eternal life. In the sacrament of the Eucharist you give me the joy of sharing your life.

Keep me in your presence.

Let me never be separated from you and help me to do your will.

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

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

GORDON’S BAY: Harbour Park. Sleeps 2 adults and 2 children. Fully furnished.

R2 100, per week. Phone Alison on 084 577 1356 ordelton on 083 414 6534.

Traditional Latin Mass

Liturgical Calendar

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel 36 Central Avenue, Pinelands, Cape Town

Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday January 15, 2nd Sunday of the Year Isaiah 49:3, 5-6, Psalms 40:2, 4, 7-10, 1 Corinthians 1:1-3, John 1:29-34 Monday January 16 Hebrews 5:1-10, Psalms 110:1-4, Mark 2:18-22 Tuesday January 17, St Anthony of Egypt Hebrews 6:10-20, Psalms 111:1-2, 4-5, 9-10, Mark 2:23-28 Wednesday January 18 Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17, Psalms 110:1-4, Mark 3:16 Thursday January 19 Hebrews 7:25--8:6, Psalms 40:7-10, 17, Mark 3:712 Friday January 20, Bl Cyprian M Tansi, Ss Fabian and Sebastian Hebrews 8:6-13, Psalms 85:8, 10-14, Mark 3:1319 Saturday January 21, St Agnes Hebrews 9:2-3, 11-14, Psalms 47:2-3, 6-9, Mark 3:20-21 Sunday 22, 3rd Sunday of the Year Isaiah 9:1-4 (8, 23-9, 30, Psalms 27:1, 4, 13-14, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17, Matthew 4:12-23

Call 0712914501 for details.

Email:sspx.capetown@gmail.com

Neighbourhood Old Age Homes

We can use your old clothing, bric-a-brac, furniture and books for our second-hand shop in Woodstock, Cape Town.

Help us to create an avenue to generate much needed funds for our work with the elderly.

Contact Ian Veary on 021 447 6334 www.noah.org.za

The

Southern Cross

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Editor: Günther Simmermacher Business Manager: Pamela davids Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000

10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town, 8001 Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850

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Published by the proprietors, The Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co Ltd, at the company’s registered office, 10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town, 8001.

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

Editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton, News Editor: Mandla Zibi (m.zibi@scross.co.za), Editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Mary Leveson (m.leveson@scross.co.za), Advertising: yolanda Timm (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Michelle Perry (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Accounts: desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za) Directors: R Shields (Chair), J O’Leary (Vice-chair), Archbishop S Brislin, S duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, J Mathurine, R Riedlinger, G Stubbs, Z Tom Editorial Advisory Board: Fr Chris Chatteris SJ, Kelsay Correa, dr nontando Hadebe, Prof derrick Kourie, Claire Mathieson, Fr Lawrence Mduduzi ndlovu, Palesa ngwenya, Sr dr Connie O’Brien I.Sch, Kevin Roussel, Fr Paul Tatu CSS

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

the

3rd Sunday: January 22 Readings: Isaiah 8:23b-9:3a, Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17, Matthew 4:12-23

Y

OU probably find yourself looking occasionally at the state of things in this country today, and wondering what God is up to. It is possible that the readings for next Sunday may offer a clue.

The first reading comes from the time when an Assyrian invasion, in the last third of the 8th century BC, was menacing Judah, the southern kingdom.

And Isaiah is contrasting the crisis that they have just experienced in the northern kingdom (Zebulun and Naphthali) with the new thing that God is doing: “He has glorified the Way of the Sea, West of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwell in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, a light has shone upon them.”

And the upshot is not sadness but “abundant joy”, because: “The yoke of oppression… you have broken, as on the day of Midian.”

The psalm likewise picks up the theme of light and darkness: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?” God is at work in our darkened world: “The Lord

S outher n C ross

Stop the squabbling! is the stronghold of my life.” And then we hear the poet’s love for God (a model for us): “One thing I ask from the Lord, this is what I seek, that I should dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life.”

It is a beautiful picture, “to see the beauty of the Lord, to visit his Temple”; and the poet is confident: “I trust that I shall see the Lord’s goodness, in the Land of the Living.” And there is a message for us: “Be strong of heart, wait for the Lord.”

These are encouraging words if you are worried about how things are going in this country.

In the second reading, Paul is still trying to stop his Corinthians from fighting: “I am begging you, brothers and sisters, through the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ [this is as strong an oath as Paul can manage] that you all say the same thing, and that there should not be any schisms among you.”

It seems that he has information, “from Chloe’s people” (and we may imagine some of the Corinthians inwardly threatening,

“We’ll get that sneak Chloe!”) about their squabbles. And what are they squabbling about?

Absurdly, the quarrelling is about different apostles, like Paul and Apollos and Kephas; and, with grim humour, Paul comments, “Well, I’m for Christ”, and points out that “Paul was not crucified for you”, nor were they “baptised into Paul’s name”.

What counts is the power of Christ’s cross; and that is the answer to the state of things in our country today.

In the Gospel for next Sunday, we are starting our journey of following Jesus on his mission in Matthew’s gospel; this is a journey that will take us all the way through to November.

And to show that the same God is in charge of the story, Matthew begins the mission by quoting our first reading, “land of Zebulun, land of Naphthali”, and giving us Jesus’ mission-slogan: “Repent, for the Kingdom of the Heavens has drawn near.”

Then comes a very striking moment, the

Take soul time to read books S

O much of life, particularly today, constitutes an unconscious conspiracy against reading.

Lack of time, the pressure of our jobs, and electronic technology, among other things, are more and more putting books out of reach and out of mind. There is never enough time to read.

The upside of this is that when I do find time to pick up a book, this becomes a precious, cherished time. And so I try to pick books that I read carefully: I read reviews, listen to colleagues, and keep track of my favourite authors.

I also try to make sure that my reading diet, each year, includes some spiritual books (including at least one historical classic), some biographies, some novels, and some essays.

Among the books that I read this past year, these are the ones that touched me. I cannot promise that they will touch you, but each of them left me with something.

Among books in spirituality

Conrad

Gil Bailie: God’s Gamble, The Gravitational Power of Crucified Love. Bailie again takes up René Girard’s anthropology to shed some new light on how the cross of Christ is the most monumental moral and religious event in history. The text is very dense and (truthfully) a tough read, but its insights are exceptional.

Heather King: Shirt of Flame, A Year with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. This book will make for a very good, private retreat for anyone

struggling with an addiction or obsession, or just with mediocrity in their spiritual life.

Christophe Lebreton: Born From the Gaze of God, The Tibhirine Journal of Martyr Monk, 1993-1996. This is the diary of one of the Trappist monks who was martyred in Algeria in 1996. It is the intimate journal of a young man which chronicles how he moves from paralysing fear to the strength for martyrdom.

Kathleen Dowling Singh: The Grace in Dying and The Grace in Aging. According to Singh, the process of ageing and dying is exquisitely calibrated to bring us into the realm of spirit. In these two remarkable books, she traces this out with the depth that, outside of the great classical mystics, I have not seen.

Christine M Bochen (Ed): The Way of Mercy. This is a series of remarkable essays on mercy, including some by Pope Francis and Walter Kasper.

The Cloud of Unknowing. I finally had the chance to study this classic in some depth and it is, no doubt, the signature book on contemplation and centering prayer.

Among biographies and essays: Marilynne Robinson: The Givenness of Things, Essays. These essays are dense, deep, and robustly sane. Marilynne Robinson, the gifted novelist, at her religious best.

Michael N McGregor: Pure Act, The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax. This is the biography of the man who was Thomas Merton’s closest soul-friend, lived out his life as a secular monk, and who carried his solitude at a

BOOK NOW: 18-27 March 2017

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call of the two sets of brothers, “Simon called Rock, and Andrew”, at their work, with an immediate result: “They straightaway abandoned their nets and followed him”, and then “Jacob the son of Zebedee and his brother John”, with the same result.

Jesus does not stop, however, to give them instruction. Instead, the mission is now well and truly under way: “And he was going around in the whole of the Galilee, teaching in their synagogues [the word “their” may suggest a certain distance from the synagogue that we shall see again in this gospel].”

And Matthew tells us precisely what Jesus was doing: “proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and healing every sickness and every illness among the people”. Whatever was afflicting his hearers, Jesus was ready to deal with it.

And what is afflicting you this week? Are you prepared to follow the Lord on the mission to a darkened world?

Southern Crossword #741

Final Reflection

very high and noble level. It will help reawaken your idealism (see also page 12).

Fernando Cardenal: Faith and Joy, Memoirs of a Revolutionary Priest. This is a great read about an exceptional man, a priest and a Jesuit, who played a leading role in Daniel Ortega’s government in Nicaragua and was commanded by Pope John Paul II to step down. It is a private journal that tells the other side of what much of history has onesidedly recorded about the struggles for justice in Latin America. (Reviewed in The Southern Cross in September) Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings, Edited by John Dear. Daniel Berrigan died in late April of this year. His writings set the compass for what it means to be a Christian prophet, and this is an excellent selection of his writings.

Facing ageing and dying Michael Paul Gallagher: Into Extra Time, Living Through the Final Stages of Cancer and Jottings along the Way. A man of faith and letters, Gallagher shares the journal he kept during the last nine months of his life, when he already knew he was dying.

Katie Roiphe: The Violet Hour, Great Writers at the End. How did a number of great writers, including Sigmund Freud, John Updike and Susan Sontag face terminal illness?

This book tells us how.

Paul Kalanithi: When Breath Becomes Air. This is a remarkable journal of a young doctor facing a terminal diagnosis that documents his courage, faith, and insight.

Three novels that I recommend: Paula Hawkins: The Girl on the Train. This didn’t make for a great movie, but the book is a page-turner.

Ian McEwan, Nutshell and Edna O’Brien, The Little Red Chair: The pedigrees of these two authors alone is enough of a recommendation, but neither will disappoint you here.

A wildcard

HOLY LAND

Sunday Reflections

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Kenneth Rolheiser: Dreamland and Soulscapes, A Prairie Love Story. Full disclosure, Kenneth is my brother and I lived through many of the stories he shares, so there is admittedly a huge bias here. But the book delivers on its title and will give you a more realistic sense of what it was like to grow up in “a Little House on the Prairie”.

Happy reading!

LENT IN THE

Nicholas King SJ

ACROSS

3. Royal mass-murderer (Mt 2) (4,5) 8. Somehow learn of the dog’s cry in here (4) 9. See 23 down (9) 10. Stains upset the holy ones (6) 11. Fawn colour (5) 14. Your doctor’s alternative (5) 15. The log for this season (4) 16. The witch may cast it (5) 18. Every ... should bow (Phil 2) (4) 20. Number beyond the clouds (5) 21. Contemptuous smile, not all serene (5) 24. Anchor up for ferryman to Hades (6) 25. Really, our monarch’s authority (5,4) 26. Exploits unfairly (4) 27. Do they whip out when you blink? (9) Solutions on page 15

DOWN

1. How the apparition may appear to be (9) 2. One switch measures very little (3,6) 4. They were all full in Bethlehem (4) 5. The terrestrial sphere (5) 6. Vitality for your work (6) 7. Some do at school for breakfast (4) 9. Articles that make times change (5) 11. Abler to make the eyes dim (5) 12. Last Supper commemoration (9) 13. Risen as we show exhaustion (9) 17. Little thesis hiding mythological river of forgetfulness (5) 19. Involve Latin with the East (6) 22. Gets in return for the service (5) 23 and 9 ac. The victims of 3 ac (4,9) 24. It’s here for you to solve (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

O

NE day the children found a dead bird in the garden. They decided that the bird should have a proper burial.

They found a box, padded it with cotton wool, dug a hole in the flowerbed, and prepared to bury the deceased.

The Anglican vicar’s son was chosen to say the prayer. With great dignity, he intoned: “Glory be to the Father, and unto the Son...and into the hole he goes.”

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