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The

S outher n C ross www.scross.co.za

April 12 to April 18, 2017

Couple’s 75 years of marriage

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Three lessons from the Resurrection

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Bishop to Zuma: Launch probe into state capture STAFF REPORTER

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The risen Christ emerges from his tomb in this image from the Resurrection altar in Rosary basilica in Lourdes. The feast of Easter, which marks the Resurrection of Christ, this year falls on April 16. Unusually, this year Easter is celebrated by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches on the same date. (Günther Simmermacher)

No 5067

HE head of the bishops’ Justice & Peace Commission has urged President Jacob Zuma “to show leadership and institute a commission of inquiry on corporate state capture, especially corporate involvement in cabinet appointments”.

Such inquiry, said Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley, “would restore public confidence in the office of the president and its ability to appoint ministers in the interest of the common good”.

It should “cover all corporates, and not only the alleged capture by the Gupta family”.

The bishop noted, however, that recent cabinet reshuffles seem to serve the president’s political survival, not the nation.

“Since the dismissal of [Nhlanhla] Nene as the finance minister [in December 2015], a strong impression has been created that the cabinet reshuffles by the president are done in the interest of the president’s political survival and his patronage networks, and not in the best interests of the nation,” said Bishop Gabuza.

The recent cabinet reshuffle, which saw among others finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas fired, “has failed to remove such an impression”, he said.

“Despite the government’s rhetoric around radical economic transformation, it is evident that uncertainties around the treasury, as well as continued political uncertainties, are not in the interest of the economy and the poor,” Bishop Gabuza said.

Bishop Gabuza lauded Mr Gordhan and Mr Jonas “for being men of integrity and for defending the principles of clean governance and fiscal discipline”.

He indicated that new finance minister Malusi Gigaba would be evaluated especially on “his ability to protect the treasury from corporate capture and undue influence”, an apparent reference to interference by the Gupta family.

“We therefore expect the new minister of finance to consider the common good and the poor, and not the vested interests of corporate sectors that are linked to political

elites and their patronage networks,” Bishop Gabuza said.

“This is particularly critical in the way the new minister will handle the immense pressure around the procurement of nuclear energy, the establishment of Gupta-linked bank and financial bail-outs of underperforming state-owned enterprises,” the bishop said.

In a statement, Mr Gigaba pledged that “I will not betray our people by allowing individual or special interests to prevail over the public good. Every decision I make will be for the public good, and I will be responsive and accountable to the public on those decisions.”

The Jesuit Institute of South Africa echoed the hope that Mr Gigaba “will continue to display the kind of honesty, integrity and fiscal prudence that marked Mr Gordhan’s time as head of the treasury”.

In a statement, the institute emphasised that “the treasury belongs to the people of the country and is not a feeding trough for a select few”.

The Jesuit Institute suggested that Mr Zuma did not undertake parts of his reshuffle rationally, as he is required to.

“While we recognise that the Constitution grants the president tremendous power, we are compelled to emphasise that the Rule of Law dictates that such power must be exercised rationally and for legitimate purposes,” the statement noted, adding that “the reasons put forward by the presidency do not point convincingly to this being the case”.

Mr Zuma cited apparently discredited intelligence reports that accused Mr Gordhan of colluding against the president as a reason for the finance minister’s dismissal.

The Jesuit Institute encouraged “forthright engagement by all sectors of society”, calling on South Africans to “make your voices and concerns heard in legitimate ways”.

“We appeal to all South Africans to join together in charting a path towards a peaceful and decisive resolution to this crisis for the common good of South Africa,” the statement said.

“The interests of our nation must be put before any other consideration at this time.”

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2

The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

LOCAL

Grail member: 60 years on

By MANdLA ZiBi

A Edward and Mathilda Ferdinando on their wedding day in 1942 (left) and together still today (above) after 75 years of married life.

Couple celebrates 75 years of married life

By MANdLA ZiBi & KEENAN WiLLiAMS

A

WHOLE parish is celebrating this week as a couple of stalwart parishioners celebrate their 75th anniversary.

Edward and Mathilda Ferdinando were married on April 11, 1942, and the parishioners of Our Lady Help of Christians in Lansdowne, Cape Town, are joining the couple in celebrating three quarters of a century of marriage at the ages of 99 and 97 respectively.

The couple’s extraordinary story began on an ordinary day in 1937.

Mr Ferdinando, then 19, had not taken his usual train to work that day because he was running a little late. Normally he did not take much notice of his fellow passengers, but that morning a beautiful young woman captured his heart:

17-year-old Mathilda.

They became friends, fell in love and five years later tied the knot at St Mary’s of the Angels in Athlone.

Later they became parishioners at Our Lady Help of Christians after moving to Claremont.

Mr Ferdinando faces another milestone this year when, God willing, he turns 100 on December 20.

Fondly called “Tilly” by her friends, Mrs Ferdinando converted to the Catholic faith from the New Apostolic Church.

Over the years Mrs Ferdinando became a hit with visitors to her home for her cup of tea and also for her Hertzog biscuits. Sadly she is not in the best of health. Her husband, however, is still going strong as he still potters about the house with the use of his cane.

Their advice for a long marriage: “Live by your wedding vows.”

MERICAN Emilia Charbonneau has celebrated her 60th anniversary as a leading member of The Grail and 60 years of working in Southern Africa.

The Grail is an international lay women’s movement whose members include single and married women, and women living in chosen lifelong celibacy.

Started by Dutch Jesuit Father Jacques Van Ginneken in 1921, the movement has become a vibrant ecumenical initiative involving thousands of women from countries including South Africa, Germany, Australia, the US, Brazil, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria.

“As The Grail has continued to grow, through several generations and in all continents, it has gathered into itself a rich experience of different cultures and environments, social involvements and spiritual journeys,” Loek Goemans of Gauteng Grail told The Southern Cross.

At a Eucharistic celebration followed by a festive luncheon, the Gauteng chapter of The Grail honoured the Detroit-born Ms Charbonneau together with her long-standing friend and colleague at Lumko Institute, Fr Dick Broderick.

“Having carefully chosen the readings for the day which spoke of hope, of God’s deep, compassionate love for us and our response in our care for those in need, Emilia put up a photo and newspaper display of some of the many significant moments of her life,” Ms Goemans said.

“We appreciated seeing her as a 2year-old in her godfather’s arms and as a 20-year-old with her parents, five

American-born Grail member Emilia Charbonneau (front, second left) with fellow Grail members celebrating her 60 years of work in Southern Africa. sisters and three brothers.”

The display included photos of Ms Charbonneau “at work” firstly as a student from 1957-60 at the-then Catholic University of Basutoland (later the National University of Lesotho). Ms Charbonneau was the second US Grail member invited to study at the university.

Ms Charbonneau held a number of positions within the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) as secretary of the youth department and later as secretary of the laity commission.

She was also part of a team that introduced the Training for Transformation programme in some dioceses in South Africa.

Later she joined the staff of Lumko, the SACBC’s pastoral institute, giving adult formation courses nationally and working on various projects, including the SACBC’s pastoral plan, where she oversaw the

publication and distribution in nine languages of all texts and educational materials needed in parishes.

After retiring in 1992, Ms Charbonneau entered a training programme with Personality and Human Relations (PRH), an international school of adult development which offers personal growth programmes using innovative self–discovery methods designed for adults.

She received her licence as a PRH educator in 1998 and worked professionally for 12 years in different provinces in South Africa.

“We are deeply grateful to Emilia for having chosen to live and work among us these past 60 years. She continues to be an inspiration to us even in her ‘active’ retirement where she is still very much involved, especially as a resource person for Grail formation within the SA Grail leadership team,” Ms Goemans said.

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The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

LOCAL

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Organist releases new CD of passion, joy

By MANdLA ZiBi

W

HEN the organist Diane Coutts was two years old, she crept into her family’s piano room and on her toes gently lifted the piano lid, depressed a single note, and listened. Thus began her life-long love affair with music.

“My aunt said that the look of bliss that came over my face convinced her that I was musical,” says the broadcaster, recording artist and long time—38 years—organist for St Bonifatius Catholic church, Johannesburg, now in her seventies.

Her latest recording, titled Passion and Pleasure, marks a kind of milestone in her life and career.

“Last year being 65 years since my first music lesson, I decided to celebrate it by recording a new solo piano CD. This has proved to be popular and by request I am already in the process of preparing to record Volume 2,”said the Durban-born musician and piano teacher.

“Having been a broadcaster all my working life I have numerous CDs of myself” as a soloist on piano and organ, including recordings with the SABC’s National Symphony Orchestra, she said.

From a very young age she had been fascinated “by the large and shiny silver organ pipes” in the church and knew that she would one day be an organist.

Acclaimed musician diane Coutts (left) and the cover of her new Cd Passion and Pleasure.

“Both my Dutch great aunts were organists, one in the Methodist Church and the other in the Anglican Church, both in Eshowe—so it must have been in my genes for me to become an organist.”

She attended school at the Convent of the Holy Family, St Joseph’s school, and also at Durban Girls’ High School.

“I began piano lessons at the age of nine and the following year, when 10, made my solo piano debut, playing the Mozart Piano Concerto in A major K488 with the Durban Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying me,” she said.

The musician says she loves both piano and organ equally. “The one big difference between the two in-

struments is in the practising, in that the piano practice can be done at home whereas with the organ you have to go to a church to practise and this can be an inconvenience.”

She described organ-playing as “a whole body work-out, so after a solid two-to-three-hour practice you would expect to be physically tired”, Ms Coutts noted, adding that “yet somehow you feel uplifted, refreshed and at peace”.

One special performance she looks back on is one she did of the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony accompanied by the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra held in the

Johannesburg City Hall. It was the last time that the magnificent Norman & Beard organ there was being used for a major performance.

“Due to damage and vandalism the instrument was in a serious and almost unplayable condition. It had been ‘patched–up’ for the performance and the tuner was on standby in case of any further deterioration,” Ms Coutts recalled.

She need not have worried as the instrument produced the “perfect angelic sound for the music’s requirements, and the final resounding and triumphant movement showed the instrument in its full glory,’ she said.

“I felt so privileged to be on the organ bench, coaxing the ‘King of Instruments’ through its last journey,” said Ms Coutts.

Through many performances in churches of differing denominations, she says she has gained “so many spiritual blessings”.

But the “reverence and depth of the music in the Catholic Masses have convinced me that my spiritual home is in Catholicism and that I have an inner need to be part of the celebration of the Mass by returning my gift of music to God”, Ms Coutts said. n Order the Passion and Pleasure CD from Diane Coutts at diane@pluto. co.za or phone 011 793-2873 or 083 449-5592

New confirmation series

A

NEW chapter in catechetics began as confirmation candidates of St John Bosco parish in Robertsham, Johannesburg, and many more within the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), continued their faith journey with the use of the new confirmation series prepared

by Sr Patricia Finn FMA and Fr Eoin Farrelly SDB. Fr Farrelly, a Salesian priest, is the former coordinator for catechetics for the SACBC. Currently he is parish priest of Our Lady Help of Christians parish in Lansdowne, Cape Town, and also team leader

Long-serving catechist Eddie Garrido (front left) and his confirmation class of St John Bosco parish in Robertsham, Johannesburg. This is one of several catechism classes that take place every Saturday at the Salesian provincial house in Booysens.

for the catechetical team in the archdiocese of Cape Town.

Sr Finn, also a Salesian sister, taught catechetics at St John Vianney Major Seminary in Pretoria. She is currently the coordinator for catechetics for the SACBC. She is actively involved in Robertsham parish.

The confirmation series is based on the Sunday Gospel readings.

The organisers hope that this series will help guide young people towards a closer and deeper friendship with Jesus, and respond positively in discerning God’s will and making the Word a living experience.

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The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

INTERNATIONAL

Care of Catholic shrines shifted to new department

By CiNdy WOOdEN

H Syrian refugees Ramy and Suhila and their children Khodus, Rashid and Abdul Mejid in Rome after Pope Francis brought them with him from a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

Vatican welcomes three Syrian refugee families

By JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

T

HE first three refugee families from Syria welcomed by the Vatican left their temporary homes to start their new lives in Italy, and three new families took their places in Vatican apartments.

The papal almoner’s office, which helps coordinate Pope Francis’ acts of charity, announced that two Christian families and one Muslim family moved to the apartments that housed the first refugee families welcomed by the Vatican in late 2015 and early 2016.

The two Christian families, the papal almoner’s office said, arrived in March after “suffering kidnapping and discrimination” because of their faith.

“The first family is composed of a mother with two adolescent children, a grandmother, an aunt and another Syrian woman who lives

with them,” the office said.

The second family is a young couple, who had their first child—a daughter named Stella—shortly after moving into the Vatican apartment, the almoner’s office said. “The mother had been kidnapped for several months by ISIS and now, in Italy, has regained serenity.”

The third family—a mother, father and two children—arrived in Italy in February 2016, the office said. The children have been attending primary school in Italy while the mother has been attending graduate courses and currently has an internship.

The Vatican welcomed the refugee families after an appeal made

by Pope Francis in which he called on every parish, religious community, monastery and shrine in Europe to take in a family of refugees, given the ongoing crisis of people fleeing from war and poverty.—CNS

IGHLIGHTING Catholic shrines’ potential to strengthen the faith of Catholics and draw people to Christianity, Pope Francis transferred responsibility for coordinating the activity of shrines to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation.

“Despite the crisis of faith impacting the modern world, these places still are perceived as sacred spaces where pilgrims go to find moments of rest, silence and contemplation in the midst of a life that is often frenetic,” Pope Francis said.

Issued motu proprio, or on his own authority, the document moves responsibility for Catholic shrines from the Congregation for Clergy to the Council for New Evangelisation.

While in most cases, religious orders or dioceses run Catholic shrines, the Vatican still has responsibility for providing some regulation and, especially, encouragement of their pastoral activities.

The papal document specifies the pontifical council now will be responsible for: approving the designation of international shrines; studying and promoting the evangelising activity of shrines; organising and supporting national and international meetings to promote common pastoral initiatives; promoting specialised training of shrine workers; and ensuring that pilgrims are offered the spiritual support they need to grow from

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Caregivers push pilgrims in wheelchairs at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) their pilgrimage.

Pope Francis, in the document, praised expressions of popular piety as reflections of real faith on the part of the pilgrims who visit the shrines, whether they are the Holy Land sites, places recognised as the site of Marian apparitions or churches associated with the life of a saint.

“Here they experience in a profound way the closeness of God, the tenderness of the Virgin Mary and the company of the saints,” the pope wrote. Many shrines, he said, have been so popular for so long that they are part of the life and identity of families, communities and even nations.

In addition, Pope Francis said,

Catholic shrines are known as places that “throw open their doors to the sick, persons with disabilities and, above all, to the poor, the marginalised, to refugees and migrants”.

The enduring popularity of Catholic shrines, “the humble and simple prayer of the people of God” and the Catholic liturgies celebrated in the shrines offer “a unique opportunity for evangelisation in our time”, he said.

Many people today, he said, have a longing for God, and shrines “can be a true refuge” where people can be honest about themselves and “find the strength necessary for their conversion”.— CNS

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Pope Francis greets the crowd after a meeting with people in Mirandola, italy. (Photo: Alessandro Garofalo, Reuters/CNS)

Pope: Corruption stifles the fresh air of mercy

By JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

W

HEN people become corrupt—allowing sin to take over their lives—it leaves no room for mercy, Pope Francis said.

While Jesus judges sinners with mercy, corrupt people often subscribe to an interpretation of the law that “is so rigid that it does not leave space for the Holy Spirit”, the pope said during morning Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

“Why does corruption come to a person?” the pope asked. “Corruption happens when sin enters; it enters your conscience and leaves no space, not even for air,” he said.

The day’s first reading from the prophet Daniel told the story of Susannah, a righteous woman falsely accused of adultery, and the day’s Gospel reading was the story of the woman caught in adultery.

Although the readings give two different examples of women accused of sin, the pope said that both feature “innocence, sin, corruption and the law” because “in both cases there were judges who were corrupt”.

Although Susannah’s inno-

cence was proven, the woman in the Gospel was caught in the act of adultery and presented by her accusers before Jesus, the “true Master of the law”.

“Jesus says very few things. He says: ‘Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And to the sinful woman he says: ‘I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more,’” the pope said.

“This is the fullness of the law,” he said, not the interpretation given by “the scribes and Pharisees who had corrupted their minds making many laws without leaving space for mercy. Jesus is the fullness of the law and Jesus judges with mercy”.

Pope Francis said that the Gospel reading is an invitation for Christians to take a moment before passing judgment upon others and to follow the example of Jesus’ mercy toward sinners.

“We, too, judge others in our hearts, eh? Are we corrupt? Or not yet?” he asked. “Stop. Let us stop and look to Jesus who always judges with mercy: ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go in peace and sin no more.’”—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

5

Scientists: Jesus’ tomb major risk of collapse H

AVING just undergone an extensive restoration, the site of Jesus’ tomb at the church of the Holy Sepulchre is at risk of significant structural failure if nothing is done to reinforce its foundations, scientists have warned.

“When it fails, the failure will not be a slow process, but catastrophic,” Antonia Moropoulou, chief scientific supervisor with the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), told National Geographic.

A team of scientists with NTUA just recently completed a year-long restoration of the site believed to be the tomb of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. National Geographic has been extensively covering the restoration process.

During the restoration process, the team of scientists determined that the edicule (Latin for “little house”), a small shrine within the church of the Holy Sepulchre that encloses Jesus’ tomb, was resting on an unstable foundation of tunnels, channels, rubble and crumbling foundation mortar.

According to the gospels, the body of Christ was laid in a new tomb hewn out of rock, in which no one had ever been buried. The Gospel of Mark details that the women who went to the tomb to anoint Christ’s body instead found that he had risen.

Veneration of Christ’s burial place dates back to at least the 3rd century. The original church of the Holy Sepulchre was built beginning in 326 and enshrined the tomb.

The shelf on which Christ’s body was laid is the central point of veneration, which has been enclosed the edicule.

Part of the reason for the unstable foundation is because the site was built on the remains of a limestone quarry that was once used to

Pope Francis greets Norbertine Father Bernard Ardura, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, at a Vatican-sponsored congress as part of the 500th anniversary commemorating the start of Martin Luther’s call for reform. (Photo: L’Osservatore Romano/CNS)

People walk inside the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the restoration work on the edicule, which holds the tomb of Jesus' burial and resurrection. Experts have warned that the edicule could collapse due to problems in the foundation. (Photo: debbie Hill/CNS) house tombs of upper-class Jews.

Throughout the early history of the Christian Church, various shrines surrounding the tomb of Jesus were built and subsequently destroyed, depending on who was in power.

The edicule and the surrounding rotunda of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, complete with massive 22-ton pillars, rests on this unstable foundation of rubble and tunnels today. The site sees nearly 4 million visitors a year.

While the structural integrity of the site has been a concern for almost 100 years, National Geographic reports, disputes between the three main Christian groups that control the site—the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Patriarchates of Jerusalem and the Roman Catholic Church—and a lack of funds pre-

vented much restoration progress from being made.

Now, scientists are working with Church authorities to determine the best plan for restoration work on the foundation, which is estimated to cost 6 million euro and would take about ten months.

Archaeologists are also hoping to take advantage of the process, which would expose important sites for the first time in centuries.

Scientists on the restoration team with NTUA are compiling the latest data into a report, which will be given to authorities of the three main Christian Churches, which must reach an agreement before the process moves forward.

“This work is a collective work,”Ms Moropoulou said. “It doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to all humanity.”—CNA

Pope: Christians, must forgive sins of the past

By CAROL GLATZ

S

ERIOUS research on Martin Luther can help heal relations between Catholics and Protestants, highlight what was legitimate about the Reformation and pinpoint the errors and sins that led to the division of the Church, Pope Francis said.

“Today, as Christians, all of us are called to put behind us all prejudice towards the faith that others profess with a different emphasis or language, to offer one another forgiveness for the sins committed by those who have gone before us, and together to implore from God the gift of reconciliation and unity,” he said.

The pope spoke to about 150 people taking part in an international congress organised by the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences. The congress discussed the theme, “Luther: 500 Years Later. A Rereading of the Lutheran Reformation in the Historical, Ecclesial Context”.

Cardinal: Syria is hell

By HANNAH BROCKHAUS

S

IX years after the start of the civil war, Syria’s apostolic nuncio said that the country is in a “bloodbath”—a situation so desperate it leaves you with the impression of being in hell.

“I do not know how to describe these atrocities,” Cardinal Mario Zenari said in an interview with the Catholic News Agency. “I always say, whoever does not believe in hell, just go to [Syria] and it will convey the weight of hell.”

Cardinal Zenari has been the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to Syria since 2008. He was made a cardinal by by Pope Francis in the last consistory in November.

Last month marked the sixth anniversary of the start of the Syrian civil war. What began as peaceful demonstrations protesting against ongoing human rights abuses and suppression of free speech erupted into a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and forced millions from their homes.

Today an end to the violence is nowhere in sight. The majority of Syria’s population has been displaced. And new threats that have grown out of the situation—most prominently ISIS—have only added to the chaos.

Asked if Pope Francis is likely to visit Syria, Cardinal Zenari said that “he’s ready to come”, but it’s a question of security, not only for him, but also for the people there.

“If the pope comes to Syria he would have to stay at the nunciature” for safety, he said, but this causes problems because when the pope visits a country he “must meet the people, meet the crowds”.

With the danger of suicide

bombers in Damascus right now, the responsibility is too high for him to come, Cardinal Zenari said.

“If he’s ready, he’s ready, but you have to say, wait a bit just for the safety of all, of the faithful...because of what we see, really, these huge bloodstains.”

It is very important, the cardinal said, to continue to raise awareness of the “enormous suffering”. He is afraid that after a few years, people will gradually forget the trauma, stop talking about it.

It is necessary that we keep talking, praying, and working to influence governments to help as well, he said.

“There are so many of our brothers and sisters here, and, I would say, all-in-all, there are people of all faiths suffering.”

However, minority groups such as Christians are under the highest risk from others, he said. They understand very well the Christian view of suffering as universal and like the cross.

But though there is so much atrocity, Cardinal Zenari explained that “there are also many beautiful examples of altruism”.

Many volunteers, probably more than a thousand by now, have lost their lives bringing aid to Syria, he said, so they have these examples of generosity, people he calls “desert flowers”.

Several times he has heard people list these atrocities before international communities, Cardinal Zenari said, and every time, they see and do nothing.

“You should notice more of this suffering of the civilians, especially women and children,” he said. “It is time to notice and not just read about this but realise it means to do something.”—CNA

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The pope told the participants that his first reaction to hearing about “this praiseworthy initiative” was one of “a certain surprise, since not long ago a meeting like this would have been unthinkable”.

“Catholics and Lutherans together, discussing Luther, at a meeting organised by an office of the Holy See—truly we are experiencing the results of the working of the Holy Spirit,” he said.

“Serious research into the figure of Luther and his critique of the Church of his time and the papacy certainly contributes to overcoming the atmosphere of mutual distrust and rivalry that for all too long marked relations between Catholics and Protestants,” he said.

“An attentive and rigorous study, free of prejudice and polemics, enables the Churches to discern and receive all that was positive and legitimate in the Reformation, while distancing themselves from errors, extremes and failures, and acknowledging the sins that led to the division,” the pope said.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Offer prisoners another shot at life

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Guest editorial: Fr Ralph de Hahn

Mystery of life from death

N

EVER in the history of mankind was there such a shattering victory as when a dead man brought new life to a broken world.

It was the greatest battle ever fought: one for the souls of humans. And the inaccessible pure Light vanquished our devastating darkness.

God’s infinite love and mercy shone forth to repair the incalculable damage inflicted on his creation. Now we celebrate the glorious victory of life over death; the triumph of Christ who is the Light of the World.

The stunning truth is that the all-powerful Son of God, in fact, “emptied himself” and was humbled from the crib of Bethlehem to the heights of Calvary, and finally to a borrowed grave.

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb is the central tenet of Christian theology and the essential part of the Nicene Creed of 325AD. “On the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures.” The tomb was empty.

The many possible explanations offered were without any evidence. There was no eyewitness to the actual removal of the stone and the corpse coming to life. But we have the authentic testimony of his disciples who had sight of him over the 40 days before his ascension into heaven.

This was no ghost; he had a body, indeed glorified; he spoke to them, he ate with them, they touched his wounds, he conversed with two disciples at the inn on the road to Emmaus.

The amazing Pentecost event answered all their questioning and doubts.

A significant part of the resurrection episode is the vital part played by the women. It was to Mary Magdalene and the “other women” that the risen Christ first revealed himself, and called them to be his messengers.

We may presume that his mother, Mary, was well aware that her own son, her flesh and blood, had triumphed over death, and she was then able to unite and strengthen his disbelieving disciples. The Church today is listening to the scriptures and calling on believing women to take up their rightful place.

We recognise the date of our Easter corresponds roughly with the Jewish observance associated with the Exodus. Jesus gave the Jewish Passover meal a totally

new meaning, for “Christ our Passover Lamb was sacrificed”.

Fundamental to St Paul’s theology is the connection between Christ’s resurrection and redemption, for “just as we share in Christ’s death in our baptism, so we shall share also in his resurrection” (Rom 6:3-8 ).

But we still ponder the deep mystery of new life proceeding from death. Look again at the promises of the Lord who walked this earth: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it will produce much fruit” (Jn 12:24).

And again: “I am the living bread come down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever” (Jn 6:51).

Then reflect on Jesus speaking to Martha at the grave of her brother Lazarus: “Your brother will rise again.” This she knows, but assumes this to apply only to the final resurrection. Then comes that powerful declaration: “Martha. I am the Resurrection…

He who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:24-26).

We Christians live by that truth: that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again on the third day” (1 Cor 15:3-4). And Paul reminds us: “If Christ had not been raised then all our preaching is in vain, and your faith is futile…and you are still in your sins...and all those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished; and if our hope has been for this life only, then we are a people to be pitied” (15:12-19).

Easter is that season of supreme hope, a new brilliant light to expel the darkness surrounding us. And where do we find the greatest irrefutable proof that there was a bodily resurrection? We are that proof!

The early Christian Church of the first century lived and grew heroically on that sublime truth, and thousands died for it. Even today Christian martyrs give witness to this fact.

Death has been conquered. We walk daily in the light of the resurrection. We walk towards the sunlight, the shadows are behind us.

“Thomas, you believe because you can see me (and touch me).

Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet do believe” (Jn 20:29).

We have good reason to rejoice in the light of a glorious Easter.

I

SO admire and feel love for people who do things and make the best of the wonderful and incredible gifts our Lord has freely given us.

For example, I have three friends who all started with nothing: an Egyptian Jew of Ethiopian descent, a Congolese who is half Belgian, and another Congolese man. It’s truly amazing what they have achieved and without political friends or influence.

I believe we should do all we can to encourage and help those who are willing to help themselves.

For example, in biblical times, those who worked used to leave grain in the fields and a section of fruit, and so on, for the poor to col-

Finances must be transparent

B

Y way of comment on the letter from Fr Raphael Thomas entitled “Parish finance: A priest’s view” (March 22), I would like to turn attention to archdiocesan finances.

I am open to correction as far as specifics are concerned with regard to time and amount, but if my memory serves me correctly, quite some years back it was reported that the archdiocese of Cape Town was running an overdraft of some R6 million.

Not unexpectedly, this situation raised questions as to budgetary and financial controls, and as a consequence a call was made for financial assistance in the form of contributions/donations and investment of funds.

I am not sure as to the degree to which the call was successful, but since then matters appear to be under control and less likely to ever occur again, which presumably can be ascribed, in the main, to the levy in the form of a tax—on a sliding scale—prescribed by the archdiocese on the income of parishes where these exceed the prescribed exempted threshold.

As an example of the extent of such levies, the parish of which I am a member of its finance committee budgeted for the 2016/17 financial year for an amount in excess of R250 000 to be paid to the archdiocese, notwithstanding the relevant budget reflecting a projected deficit for the year.

In the light of this, questions arise as to the financial situation of the archdiocese and its budgetary allocations. My parish priest declines to provide any information in this regard nor provide a copy of the archdiocese’s latest budget.

This would appear to fly in the face of society’s expectation of the need for accountability and transparency with regard to monetary affairs.

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lect; it was not handed to them.

Apart from the lack of love and help today, we have a major problem with a lack of forgiveness.

I want to tell you of a small example. Years ago, after I was employed to start a new tea estate in KwaZulu-Natal, we built the factory and noticed some of our workers were stealing tea, obviously to sell and make some money.

I warned everyone and told them that we had to sell the tea so we could pay them for their work and if anyone else was caught stealing tea they would be sent to prison.

A man was caught and at his trial sentenced to prison for 18 months.

One morning I was standing out-

By virtue of being a monthly planned giver to my parish, a portion of my contribution is included in the levy referred to above and, as such, I need to enquire as to whether the archdiocese will provide a copy of its latest annual budget and outline its policy with regard to the provision of information of its financial affairs with particular reference to its annual budgetary allocations.

Tommy Sierra, Cape Town

n Graham Wilson, financial administrator of the archdiocese of Cape Town, responds: Mr Sierra is correct that the archdiocese was R5 million in debt almost 20 years ago. Parishes and individuals responded very generously with donations and loans to clear the debt, and all parish loans were repaid within four years.

Since that time, the archdiocese has been very careful to be as transparent as possible about its finances and financial health.

As part of this, its audited statements are distributed each year at the priests’ AGM. Also, a year ago, all parish finance councils were invited to one of two comprehensive financial presentations, which covered the history, current state, and future of parish and archdiocesan finances.

Parish levies currently make up half of the archdiocese’s annual income: the rest comes from fundraising, investments, bequests and donations.

Mr Sierra might not have participated in those meetings last year, Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate.

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

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

AUGUSTINE SHUTTE MEMORIAL LECTURE

“DOES GOD INTERVENE IN OUR LIVES?” IF SCIENCE TELLS US THAT GOD CANNOT CHANGE PHYSICAL LAWS

side my office and noticed the same man walking up the road, away from the estate, so called out to him and asked what he was doing.

He said he had come out of prison and had asked for his job back but was sent away because he had been to prison. I told him to get into my car, took him to the employment office, and informed them he had paid for his sin and was to be employed.

That same man became one of the best supervisors we had. Prior to his crime he had been a basic labourer.

So often people are sent to prison for a crime that at some time in our lives we all could have become guilty of, but for the grace of God never been caught or sent to prison.

Roy Glover, Tzaneen but he (or indeed any parishioner) is very welcome to contact me directly at any time to discuss the financial health of the archdiocese.

Contact the archdiocese at info@adct.org.za

Violation to refuse Communion

W

ITH reference to Brian Gouveia’s letter “Remarriage rule hypocritical” (February 8), surely the logic expressed then means that Jesus himself was being hypocritical when he dealt with the woman at the well?

We are to show mercy just as it was freely given to us. The Lord’s gifts are not ours to keep, they are to enable us to bless others.

How many married couples show an outward appearance to the Church yet behind closed doors are monsters? Why are they then allowed to receive Communion but the person struggling with a sin that is visible to the Church may not?

If one is so perfect in following the Lord’s way, then surely their need to drink or eat of the body of Christ is not as great as one who needs to “do this in memory of me”.

God is more than capable of being a judge and does not ever say in his word that he is recruiting judges after Christ was on earth.

He gave us his Spirit to convict us.

I think it is a gross violation to exclude anybody from Communion, because God looks at the heart. He does not look at the image you project to the world.

Why would anyone want to deny a fellow believer this precious gift of Communion?

Intolerance is also a sin and yet our precious Father shows us tolerance even when we have not shown it to others.

Let us, as the Body of Christ, try to imitate Christ’s actions and not be like the Pharisees.

Patricia Kissane, Kleinmond

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The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

PERSPECTIVES

Easter Bunny fake news; Jesus Good News

I

’M often surprised by the ways in which children interpret what we say to them, often taking things quite literally.

To give a quick example: on a rural farmhouse holiday many years ago, I happened to mention to my four-year-old son that the cows in the fields adjoining the farmhouse would get soaked in the torrential rain we were experiencing. To my great amusement, he appeared five minutes later with a bath towel—“to dry the poor cows with”, he said.

We rarely hesitate in passing on some child-friendly folklore to our offspring either. The most obvious of these is, of course, the tradition of Santa Claus.

While “Santa” derived from St Nicholas, a 4th-century Greek bishop, the notion of bringing gifts to every child in the world—provided they have been “good” throughout the year—remains pure fantasy.

And we don’t just stop there. There’s also the Tooth Fairy—a mythical creature who replaces lost baby teeth with a small payment. And finally the Easter Bunny— a folklore figure who provides children with Easter eggs, again depending upon how well behaved they have been at the beginning of Eastertide.

In fact, one of my young nephews was so enraptured by his belief in the Easter Bunny that his enthusiasm knew no bounds. Having been promised by his parents that this generous creature would im-

part gifts of yummy chocolate eggs the next day, he crept downstairs after his parents were tucked up in bed and left a dish of carrots by the front door as a token of his appreciation.

O

f course, a little fantasy in our often dark world can be enlivening and humorous. However, as we celebrate Easter this year, we know that there is a far more important person and event to be both recalled and conveyed to our children—and to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus died on the cross to atone for our sins and continues to be with each and every one of us until the end of time.

Pray for pope’s continent O FTEN I feel that the Western world struggles to understand Pope Francis.

Perhaps this is because the Western Church does not understand the Latin American context in which he worked as a priest and archbishop.

This is where we’re fortunate in South Africa. Pope Francis speaks our language. He preaches mercy for the poor, the disenfranchised, and those shunned by society.

This month as we journey in prayer towards the 100th anniversary of the message of Fatima, let us unite our prayers with Pope Francis for the people of his beloved continent.

South America is a place of great beauty, rich cultural traditions and a deep Catholic faith. But it is also a place of great disparity between rich and poor where many of its people are denied basic human rights.

Most South American countries are democracies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century, following decades of military dictatorships.

Conditions in places like Argentina, Brazil and Chile are much better today than they were under military rule, but many governments lack the political will to resolve the most pressing problems of the poor and often use force to crack down on calls for greater equality.

In March, over two million people in Chile took to the streets to demand the scrapping of the country’s pension system which they say benefits the rich, while the majority of low-level earners find themselves retiring on less than the minimum wage. In response to these concerns, the government sent riot police to halt the demonstrators.

We also witnessed similar protests in Brazil during the 2014 football World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. Protesters hoped that international visibility to their demands would place greater pressure on the government to create better living conditions. Instead, spectators were banned from stadiums for wearing T-shirts bearing protest slogans and at the time of the Olympics, peaceful protests were banned altogether.

A riot policeman fires his weapon while confronting demonstrators in Belem, Brazil, in 2013. (Photo: Ney Macondes, Reuters/CNS) Many Latin American governments have also failed their indigenous people. Countries like Bolivia have laws to grant access to land rights to indigenous populations who were dispossessed of their land by centuries of colonial rule, agricultural expansion and military dictatorships. In many of these countries these laws exist only in law books.

A

s large multinationals discover the untapped mineral wealth in many Latin American countries, there is a conflict of interest between the restitution of land to indigenous populations and access to these mineral deposits.

Amnesty International recorded 75 “targeted killings” of human rights defenders in Colombia and 47 activists were killed in Brazil after calling for mineral rights to indigenous communities. In Colombia, the government has further declared that there will be no land rights for indigenous populations in areas of “strategic interest”.

The Venezuelan economy has worsened following the decline in the oil price and decades of mismanagement. As a result the country is suffering from extreme food shortages. In March, the government called on the UN to step in to provide medicines to the country’s hospitals. According to the BBC, Venezuelan hospitals have only 5% of the medicines they need to provide basic medical support to the population.

Julia Beacroft

Point of Reflection

Christ’s resurrection from the dead banished death for ever, giving mankind hope for the future in life everlasting.

In short, Christ is our salvation.

Both Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny offer gifts on the condition that children have been “good”, and both are fictitious.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, loves each one of us unconditionally, awards us our own God-given gifts, and welcomes us with open arms even when, as fallible humans, we find it hard to be “good”.

Unlike those fictional characters, documentary evidence provides veracity for the historical Jesus. Yet more importantly, our hearts and souls clearly reveal God’s eternal presence to us, as we instinctively yearn to become ever closer to him.

Easter is a wonderful time of the year for adults and children alike. May your children celebrate with chocolate eggs and the sweetness of Christ. One is a “quick fix”, the other will last forever. n Julia Beacroft’s book Sanctifying The Spirit is published by Sancio Books. It is available on Amazon.

Sarah-Leah Pimentel

The Mustard Seeds

If the political and social problems throughout Latin America weren’t enough, natural disasters have displaced thousands of people and put even more pressure on struggling economies.

A decade-long drought in Chile coupled with suspected arson destroyed 1 500 homes and ravaged 580 000 hectares of land at the start of this year.

Floods in Peru have wiped out entire suburbs on the outskirts of the capital Lima.

The flooding has also clogged up the city’s fresh water treatment centres, making drinking water hard to come by.

Throughout the country the flooding has already displaced 650 000 people. Roads and other infrastructure have been damaged and 145 000 properties have been destroyed, according to Reuters.

There is so much we can pray for, but mostly we pray that the governments of Latin America, and other parts of the world, can see their poorest citizens not as a burden on state resources but rather as individuals with dignity, and provide them with basic access to goods and services that will enable them to become meaningful participants of society.

We pray with Pope Francis, from his beautiful prayer from Laudato Si’: “All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty. Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one. O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes.

“Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth. Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognise that we are profoundly united with every crea-

7

Michael Shackleton

Open door

A double baptism?

A newborn baby is baptised by a deacon because it is not expected to live. It survives, and the deacon arranges for the sacrament of baptism to be completed later in a ceremony in the parish church. Why is this necessary? Doesn’t pouring the water of baptism complete the sacrament? Why have a subsequent ritual ceremony?

Pumla

I

N an emergency situation, the sacrament of baptism consists in a minister pouring water on the head of the infant, with the requisite intention and while simultaneously saying: “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. If a parent has already decided on a name for the baby, the minister should begin by addressing the child with that name.

It is not accurate to say that the baptism has to be “completed” later in a church ceremony. The deacon validly and lawfully completed the sacrament. So, why the subsequent ritual ceremony?

It is done because baptism is a community event.

The rite of baptism is a liturgical demonstration of the infant being brought into the community of the whole Church. It is a joyful occasion when priest or deacon, parents, godparents, family and friends come together to welcome the new member into their communion with Christ and his Church.

A baby baptised privately in a case of urgent necessity certainly becomes a member of the Church and receives the sanctifying grace enabling it to have a certain share in the life of God himself. But is still needs to be embraced by the community in a visible ritual expressed in scriptural readings, prayers and symbols.

The ritual in which this is done is exactly the same as that of the sacrament of baptism but without the pouring of the water.

The priest or deacon begins by reminding the parents and godparents of their duties and invites them to trace the sign of the cross on the baby’s forehead with him. Then follow the other parts of the ceremony, including the profession of faith, anointings and the presentation of the white garment.

A lighted candle is then handed to the parents with the solemn words: “Receive the light of Christ. Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ and is to walk always as a child of the light...”

Like the rite of baptism itself, the ceremony of receiving and welcoming the child into the community of the Church is always meant to be a warm and happy occasion. It reminds us that we belong to one another, united with Christ our Lord on our steady pilgrimage to everlasting union with the Holy Trinity.

n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za; or fax (021) 465 3850. Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.

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The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

COMMUNITY

Fr Kevin dadswell of the church of the Resurrection in Table View, Cape Town with three generations of parishioners: Loretta Apostoli (91 years old) and Jolanta Zakiewicz holding her grandson, 9-month-old Frederico Zakiewicz.

Catechism children of St Joseph’s parish in Middelburg, Mpumalanga were shown how the ashes are prepared for Ash Wednesday by catechist Goretti Fernandes.

Fr Tom Segami OMi blesses candidates preparing for baptism at Sunday Mass at St Peter Claver parish in Pimville, Soweto. (Photo: Sello Mokoka).

Send your photos to pics@scross.co.za

Holy Cross Sister Michelina Abtmeier celebrated her 103rd birthday.

Learners from Holy Cross Primary School in Aliwal North entertained Sr Abtmeier with a musical performance.

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The Catholic Women’s League of Our Lady of Fatima parish in durban North hosted a St Patrick’s tea.

Some of the participants of the retreat for families and couples which took place at Bosco Centre near Walkerville, Johannesburg on Human Rights day, organised by Ann Moodley (in her wheelchair).

Carmelite Father Mari Joe of Goodwood in Cape Town celebrated a Mass on the city’s Signal Hill to pray for rain.

The Mass was well supported by neighbouring parishes.

Cape Town has been hit by a long drought, with water restrictions having been imposed by the City Council.

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Holy Rosary High School joined the CNN initiative #MyFreedomday, and took a stand against human trafficking by participating in a march. The school made posters, and educated the school body during assembly about modern slavery, before taking to the streets of Elma Park to let their voices be heard.

The St Vincent de Paul Society and the Care Group of St Charles parish in Victory Park, Johannesburg, prepare breakfast for parishioners every Sunday

Sacred Heart College in Observatory, Johannesburg, held its 10th annual fundraising swim-a-thon with pre-primary and primary School learners, parents and educators.

The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

EASTER

exactly what the tyrants of the world want, for it poses no real threat to them.

Three Resurrection lessons For an increasingly secular world, the Resurrection of Christ is a disturbing fact, as BiSHOP ROBERT BARRON explains.

T

HE Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the be-all and the end-all of the Christian faith.

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, all bishops, priests, and Christian ministers should go home and get honest jobs, and all the Christian faithful should leave their churches immediately.

As St Paul himself put it: “If Jesus is not raised from the dead, our preaching is in vain and we are the most pitiable of men.”

It’s no good, of course, trying to explain the Resurrection away or rationalise it as a myth, a symbol, or an inner subjective experience.

None of that does justice to the novelty and sheer strangeness of the biblical message.

It comes down to this: if Jesus was not raised from death, Christianity is a fraud and a joke; if he did rise from death, then Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus must be the absolute centre of our lives. There is no third option.

I want to explore, very briefly, a handful of lessons that follow from the disquieting fact of the Resurrection.

First, this world is not it. What I mean is that this world is not all that there is.

We live our lives with the reasonable assumption that the natural world as we’ve come to know it through the sciences and discern it through common sense is the final framework of our lives and activities.

Everything—quite literally, everything—takes place within the theatre of our ordinary experience.

And one of the most powerful and frightening features of the commonsense world is death. Every living thing dies and stays dead. Indeed, everything in the universe, scientists tell us, comes into being and then fades away permanently.

But what if this is not, in fact, the case? What if the laws of nature are not as iron-clad as we thought?

What if death and dissolution did not have the final say? What if, through God’s power and according to his providence, a “new heavens and a new earth” were being born?

The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead shows as definitively as possible that God is up to something greater than we had imagined or thought possible. And therefore we don’t have to live as though death were our master and as though nihilism were the only coherent point of view. After he had encountered the risen Christ, Paul could even taunt death: “Where is your sting?”

In light of the Resurrection, we can, in fact, begin to see this world as a place of gestation, growth and maturation towards something higher, more permanent, more splendid.

Caesar lost!

Here’s a second lesson derived from the Resurrection: the tyrants know that their time is up. Remember that the cross was Rome’s way of asserting its authority. Roman authorities declared that if you run afoul of our system, we will torture you to death in the most excruciating (ex cruce, “from the cross”) way

Salvation open to all

The risen Christ is depicted in the painting “Resurrection” by 15th-century italian master Andrea Mantegna. in his article, Bishop Robert Barron draws three important lessons from the Resurrection. (CNS/Bridgeman images) possible, and then we will leave your body to waste away and be devoured by the beasts of the field.

The threat of violence is how tyrants up and down the centuries have always asserted their authority. Might makes right.

The crucified Jesus appeared to anyone who was witnessing the awful events on Calvary to be one more affirmation of this principle: Caesar always wins in the end. But when Jesus was raised from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit, the first Christians knew that Caesar’s days were numbered.

Jesus had taken the worst that the world could throw at him and he returned, alive and triumphant.

They knew that the Lord of the

9

world was no longer Caesar, but rather someone whom Caesar had killed but whom God had raised from death.

This is why the risen Christ has been the inspiration for resistance movements up and down the centuries. In our own time we saw how deftly John Paul II wielded the power of the cross in communist Poland. Though he had no nuclear weapons or tanks or mighty armies, John Paul had the power of the Resurrection, and that proved strong enough to bring down one of the most imposing empires in the history of the world.

Once again, the faculty lounge interpretation of Resurrection as a subjective event or a mere symbol is

The third great lesson of the Resurrection is that the path of salvation has been opened to everyone.

Paul told us that “though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself and took the form of slave…accepting even death, death on a cross.”

In a word, Jesus went all the way down, journeying into pain, despair, alienation, even godforsakenness. He went as far as you can go away from the Father. Why? In order to reach all of those who had wandered from God. Then, in light of the Resurrection, the first Christians came to know that, even as we run as fast as we can away from the Father, all the way to godforsakenness, we are running into the arms of the Son. The opening up of the divine life allows everyone free access to the divine mercy. And this is why the Lord himself could say: “When the Son of Man is lifted up, he will draw all people to himself,” and why Paul could assert in 1 Corinthians: “When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.”

The Resurrection shows that Christ can gather back to the Father everyone whom he has embraced through his suffering love.

So on Easter Sunday, let us not domesticate the still stunning and disturbing message of Resurrection.

Rather, let us allow it to unnerve us, change us, set us on fire.—CNA n Bishop Robert Barron is an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

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BY SYDNEY DUVAL

K

WAZULU-NATA TAL premier Willies Mchunu gave a rousing welcome to the relaunch of Um mAfrika, Mariannhill’s iconic weekly Zulu newspaper which was closed in 2013 after being published for some 84 years.

Addressing some 60 community, business, political, religious and media leaders gathered in the monaster y dining room, Mr Mchunu spoke of the long history of Mariannhill and Um mAfrika in supporting the holistic development of people.

“The priests and missionaries were an integral part of our lives—they were close to us,” he said. “They were active in supporting youth development and education, in agriculture and teaching us to till the land to grow food, in crime prevention, and in teaching people to care for what they have and to share what they have.”

Mr Mchunu called for a new partnership with UmAfrika in building social cohesion, moral regeneration and human development in the nation.

The newspaper could play a critical role in nation-building because of its non-partisan approach to journalism.

Mr Mchunu called on the newspaper to report accurately and objectively, with a balanced view of events and issues. the ANC politician added: “Like everyone else in society, Um mAfrika needs to point out what is wrong, but also what is good.”

M r M c h u nu n ot e d th a t M a ri a n n hi ll i t s e l f had also served a critical role during the political strife in the 1990s in giving refuge to people fleeing violence. He himself had found refuge at the Mission Centre.

“We must remember, too, the ecumenical spirit in which churches cooperated against social injustice,” he noted.

Guests at the breakfast relaunch were able to browse through their copies of the newlook UmAfrika which has retained much of the design of the old masthead.

One speaker with a long association with the publication said: “Here’s the good news:.

Um mAfrika is back!”

In his opening prayer, Fr Bheki Shabalala, provincial of the Congregation of Mari-

Cyril Madlala (left) with new UmAfri rika editor Thulani Mbatha. Under Mr Madlala’s watch UmAfrrika became the country’s biggest alternative newspaper. (Photo: Sydney Duval) annhill Missionaries, recalled that Um mAfrika was founded on virtues proclaimed by God’s Word.

“May the plans that we have for this publication never deviate from the truth and may our reporting always be influenced by a spirit of excellence and honour. May this newspaper assist our people to praise you better through its aim, which is that of evangelisation,” Fr Shabalala prayed.

“We appreciate UmAfrika’s role in supporting the liberation struggle and we appreciate its commitment to being a non-partisan voice in public life,” said city councillor Sfiso Mkhize, representing Durban mayor Zandile Gumede, who was away in London.

“We support this initiative in the belief that the people of KZN do need an objective voice in giving us the news and reporting on what the municipality is doing to uplift people’s lives.”

Other speakers included new editor Thulani Mbatha; Fr Mxolisi Ngcobo OMI, who works with the Mariannhill Development Office at Pfanner Centre; and Sinenhlanhla Gwala, the marketing administrator, who presented a marketing strategy with plans in the pipeline to take the weekly fu urther afield to the Eastern Cape and Gauteng.

Among the VIP guests were Archbishop Continued on page 3

Youth group members of the parishes of All Saints and St Kevin’s in Brackenfell and Northpine, Cape Town, conquered Lion’s Head during Lent as part of a team-building exercise. The complaints of tired legs and chimes of “whose idea was this anyway” which commenced within a metre of the start of the trail had all but vanished when all members reached the summit together in a little under two hours. Members motivated others who wanted to quit—even strangers who sat recovering on the side of the trail. (Photo & report: Leigh Everton)

Fatima seers saints this year?

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HE bishop of Fatima, Portugal, believes the centenary of the Marian apparitions there would not be complete without the announcement of the canonisation of Bls Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the children who witnessed the apparition.

“We are in time for it to be on May 13, but everything depends on the exclusive competency of the pope,” Bishop Antonio dos Santos Marto of Leiria-Fatima said.

In late March Pope Francis approved the decree recognising a second miracle attributed to the intercession of both siblings. This opens the way for their canonisation.

To ogether with their cousin Lucia Santo, the brother and sister witnessed the 1917 apparitions of Mary. Francisco and Jacinta died soon after,, in 1919 and 1920 respectively. Lucia became a Carmelite nun, and died in 2005.

Bishop dos Santos Marto said the announcement was not a surprise but he hadn’t expected it “to be so soon”.

Now there’s just one remaining decisive step, “which belongs to the Holy Father: choosing the date and location of the canonisation”.

He indicated that information will not be available until the April 20 consistory.

The postulator for the cause of canonisation of Bls Francisco and Jacinta, Sr Angela Coelho, pointed out that “the little shep-

pentecost flames chasuble and matching stole set R2500

The visionaries of Fatima: Lucia Santo, and siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto. herds, who died at the age of ten, will be the youngest saints in the history of the Church, with the exception of child martyrs”.

Sr Coelho said the miracle attributed to the intercession of the children involves the cure of a child in Brazil. The healing began to be studied in 2013, but “more details on the case are not allowed to be revealed” because it concerns a child and the need to protect the child’s identity.

The religious is also the vice-postulator of the cause for the beatification of Sr Lucia. No announcement is expected concerning the process of Sr Lucia’s beatification. “That’s a separate cause,” she explained.—CNA

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The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

TRAVEL

How the Crusaders changed the world In February GüNTHER SiMMERMACHER made a private visit to the Holy Land. In the fifth of a series of six articles, he considers the Crusaders and their legacy.

W

HEN the terrorists of ISIS announce their plans to ethnically cleanse Christians, they usually do so by reference to the followers of Christ as “crusaders”. You wouldn’t want to take history lessons from those murderous maniacs.

For one thing, the Christians in Iraq, Syria or Egypt mostly descend from the original Christians at those cradles of the faith. Their unbroken presence there precedes that of Islam by at least six centuries.

As communities, they do not descend from the Crusaders, nor are most of them adherent to Latin-rite Catholicism, the denomination which the Crusaders represented.

You can’t even accuse ISIS of spreading “fake news”: the crusades took place nine centuries ago; they are as much news to us now as the Norman conquest of the AngloSaxon kingdom.

And ISIS, with its notions of sovereignty over land being determined by theology, should appreciate the fact that the aim of the crusades was the reconquest of lands that once were Christian. The Crusaders and ISIS aren’t that different.

The First Crusade accomplished its objective with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099. The pretext for the crusades was Pope Urban II’s desire to return the Holy Land to Christian control and make it safe for pilgrims.

But the broader context was to give military aid to the Orthodox leaders in the East, who were subject to advancing Muslim conquest in Asia Minor. Urban’s hope was that by joining forces with the Eastern Church in temporal terms, the

From left: Remains of the Knights Templar harbour in Acre, with the church of St John the Baptist in the background • inside the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which was rebuilt by the Crusaders in the 1100s • The unchanged Crusader church of St Anne in Jerusalem, the reputed birthplace of Our Lady. (All photos: Günther Simmermacher) great schism of 1054 could be healed.

As it turns out, it didn’t, and the Catholic and Orthodox Churches remain divided.

The Sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade in 1204—for which Pope Innocent III excommunicated the Crusader leaders—entrenched an enmity which has lasted for centuries. The damage

done to Constantinople (or Istanbul, as we know it now) ultimately prepared the ground for the great city’s calamitous conquest by the Ottoman Muslims in 1453.

Crusaders: Good and bad The Crusaders were heroic, committed, resilient and strong. They showed great piety—and sometimes behaved abominably.

The refectory, or dining hall, in the Crusader citadel in Acre, the headquarters of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. By tradition, the Crusaders would reserve their best food for pilgrims in their inns and patients in their hospitals. More on the citadel next week.

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They showed both qualities on their long way to Jerusalem, suffering extreme hardships, and in turn visiting hardships on others. But all that was a prelude to the deplorable conduct that would follow in the Holy City.

The conquest of Jerusalem led to several massacres of civilian Muslims and Jews. In many cases the victims were people already under arrest.

The common memory of soldiers walking ankle-deep in blood is an obvious exaggeration. That very likely was the result of Crusaders taking poetic licence to impress their bloodthirsty audiences back home who were baying for the blood of Saracens.

By the laws of physics, it’s not possible that blood might flow ankle-deep through the streets of Jerusalem. Today the bragging of the Crusaders is being used by the critics of Christianity and those who just don’t know better (such as, for example, former US President Bill Clinton).

But let there be no doubt that the Crusaders murdered with atrocious abandon. Several thousand defenceless people, including women and children, were slain.

The best guess at the number of victims is about 3 000.

We can’t ascribe this to the signs of its times. Conquest was rarely civil, but even in the 11th century it did not normally involve the massacre of innocent civilians. The vanquished population could expect to lose their possessions and be held to ransom. And those who couldn’t pay a ransom would suffer the awful fate of enslavement. But massacres of civilians were not the norm.

It is absurd to hold Christianity today accountable for the actions of soldiers more than 900 years ago, but in the history of our Church, the events of 1099 are a stain.

The history of the crusades is complex, and mostly marked by discord with the popes. Their rule of the Holy Land didn’t even last long. They were defeated by Saladin in 1187, in 1228 negotiated control of Jerusalem, were driven out from Jerusalem in 1244, and finally from their last stronghold in the region, the port of Acre, in 1291.

The Crusader legacy But in that brief period of their rule of the Holy Land, the Crusaders made a lasting mark. For one thing, Crusader rule gave rise several chivalric orders which we still know, or know of, today.

The Hospitallers of St John were founded to provide medical care to pilgrims and the poor of any religion, and later to accompany pilgrims under armed protection for safety.

The order still exists in various forms. The Catholic Order of the Knights of Malta—which is, remarkably, a sovereign entity in international law—is the direct successor of the Hospitallers.

Various Protestant descendants of the order, such as St John Ambulance, the Johanniterorden in Germany and variations of these, operate throughout the world.

The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem also still exists. It was founded to pro-

tect holy shrines and Christian pilgrims, but the order’s biggest task was to oversee the rebuilding of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the place of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, which had been destroyed in 1009 by order of the mad Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the “Nero of Islam”.

These days the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre work to support the Christians of the Holy Land and the maintenance of the sacred sites there.

It has a South African chapter, of which Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town is the prior. My friend Rimon Makhlouf, the Catholic tour guide from Jerusalem of whom I have written before, is also a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre.

Those two orders have survived.

The most powerful of them didn’t.

The Knights Templar—or, to give their full unsnappy title, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon—were chiefly a military order. But the order also became a financial institution; indeed, it can be said that the Templars invented the modern banking system.

Their wealth led to their demise.

When the Holy Land was lost, the Knights Templar lost public support. And King Philip IV of France, a man of many debts and few scruples, took the gap to suppress the order, execute its leaders, and confiscate its riches on absurd pretexts, with the reluctant acquiescence of the pope.

The Crusader capital Remains of the Crusader presence pepper the Holy Land. Some are ruins of old churches and other structures; others are simply spectacular. For me, three places in particular stand out: the church of the Holy Sepulchre, which has remained almost unchanged since its reconstruction was completed around 1149; also in Jerusalem, the church of St Anne, the traditional birthplace of Our Lady with its remarkable acoustics; and thirdly the Crusader citadel of Acre.

Acre, known to locals as Akko, is on the Mediterranean coast.

As the hub of import and export, and the centre of the Crusaders’ many lucrative commercial activities, Acre was rich and powerful.

These days the great port in the area is in nearby Haifa, but in Crusader times Acre had a huge harbour.

Much of it is now subsumed by the sea. Looking down from the Crusader fortress wall one can see remnants of port structures sticking out of the waters. It is an impressive sight.

But the highlight is the Crusader citadel in Akko’s old city, a town which until 1948 was populated mainly by Arabs, many of whom died of disease when, according to the Red Cross, the water-supply was poisoned by the besieging Zionist militia. Akko is now mostly Jewish, but the Old City, where the citadel is located, is mainly Palestinian.

The citadel is now a well-curated museum which provides a glimpse into life in the Crusader kingdoms of the Holy Land, about which I will write next week in the concluding part of this series.

CLASSIFIEDS

Pope visits home for the blind

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Easter Prayer

Your prayer to cut out and collect

We thank you that Easter is not about a people, but all people.

THAT your love and your Salvation are for all who confess with voices, hearts and lives.

THAT the tomb is empty because Jesus is risen.

THAT we might know forgiveness.

THAT lives might be reborn and your name glorified now and for eternity.

Amen

Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday April 16, Easter Sunday Acts 10:34, 37-43, Psalms 118:1-2, 1617, 22-23, Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, John 20:1-9 or Matthew 28:1-10 Monday April 17, Easter Octave Acts 2:14, 22-33, Psalms 16:1-2, 5, 7-11, Matthew 28:8-15 Tuesday April 18, Easter Octave Acts 2:36-41, Psalms 33:4-5, 18-20, 22, John 20:11-18 Wednesday April 19, Easter Octave Acts 3:1-10, Psalms 105:1-4, 6-9, Luke 24:13-35 Thursday April 20, Easter Octave Acts 3:11-26, Psalms 8:2, 5-9, Luke 24:35-48 Friday April 21, Easter Octave Acts 4:1-12, Psalms 118:1-2, 4, 22-27, John 21:1-14 Saturday April 22, Easter Octave Acts 4:13-21, Psalms 118:1, 14-21, Mark 16:9-15 Sunday April 23, 2nd Sunday of Easter Acts 2:42-47, Psalms 118:2-4, 13-15, 2224, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

CLASSIFIEDS

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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 (R1,70 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

By CiNdy WOOdEN

OPE Francis returned to a practice he developed during the Year of Mercy: making a Friday-afternoon visit to people in need of or deserving special care.

For the visit, he chose the Sant’ AlessioMargherita di Savoia Regional Centre for the Blind in Rome. The centre is home to 37 adults and senior citizens who are blind or severely visually impaired, but the structure also offers specialised classes for 50 children with the same challenges.

“With this visit, the pope wants to continue the so-called Mercy Friday visits carried out during the Jubilee of Mercy,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The visits were designed to reflect the spiritual and corporal works of mercy with “those who live in situations of physical and social exclusion”.

The centre was founded in 1868 by lay Catholics with the support of Pope Pius IX and specialised in giving a general education to children who were blind, teaching them to read Braille.

It also teamed up with Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatory, offering many of the young students a musical education.

The Southern Cross, April 12 to April 18, 2017

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A blind girl feels Pope Francis’ head during the pontiff’s visit to the Sant’ Alessio-Margherita di Savoia Regional Centre for the Blind in Rome. (Photo: CNS/L’Osservatore Romano)

IN MEMORIAM

BROWN—William Christian. in loving memory of our father and grandfather who passed away on April 13, 2004. years have passed, but you are still in our thoughts and prayers.

Fondly remembered by Ruben, Gloria and family.

LINDSELL—Mary. died April 18, 1997. My mother died 20 years ago, at the age of 94. She will always be remembered in our prayers. John and family.

pERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelifeabortion isevil.co.za ABORTION WARNING: The Pill can abort. All Catholic users (married or cohabiting) must be told, to save their souls and their unborn infants. See www.epm.org/static/up loads/downloads/bcpill.pdf

THANKS

TO THE INFANT Jesus of Prague. you have heard my prayers and answered with infinite mercy and compassion. i will praise your name

Word of the Week

CApE TOWN: St Agnes parish in Woodstock is holding its annual festival on April 23. Mass is at 10.00, with the festival starting at 11.00.

Venue is St Agnes church, dublin St, Woodstock. Contact Fr Roman on 071 863 0023.

Retreat day/quiet prayer last Saturday of each month except december, at Springfield Convent in Wynberg, Cape Town.

Hosted by CLC, 10.00-3.30.

Contact Jill on 083 282 6763 or Jane on 082 783 0331.

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.

LORD GOD, this candle that i light here today reminds me of the light that you enkindled in me at my Baptism. Renew the flame of your Love in me. Let it burn away all my egotism, my jealousy, my pride and my failure to love. Let me have a warm and generous heart. Lord, i am not able to remain here in this church very much longer: i have to go. So, please accept this candle in my place. Let it be like a part of me that i give to you. Here, before the image of Blessed Mary, Mother of God, and imploring her powerful intercession, i ask you, as i offer you this humble candle, to allow my prayer to penetrate every activity and every facet of my life, so that everything will be shaped and formed by the burning flame of your Love. i ask this for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

LORD, inspire those men and women who bear the titles “husband” and “wife”.

Help them to look to you, to themselves, to one another to rediscover the fullness and mystery they once felt in their union. Let them be honest enough to ask:

SOLUTIONS TO 754. ACROSS: 3 Acropolis, 8 Rome, 9 Incipient, 10 Talent, 11 Amber, 14 Curio, 15 Tear, 16 Wrong, 18 Owns, 20 Hears, 21 Golan, 24 Anthem, 25 Jacaranda, 26 Iran, 27 Attendant.

DOWN: 1 Protector, 2 Imploring, 4 Cant, 5 Opium, 6 Olivet, 7 Inns, 9 In tow, 11 Adorn, 12 Regathers, 13 Presuming, 17 Ghana, 19 Solace, 22 Award, 23 Pact, 24 Aden.

Community Calendar

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

pRAYERS

Southern CrossWord solutions

Holy Chrism: The special oil used in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and holy orders.

Remission of sins: Forgiveness of sins through the sacraments of baptism and penance.

Retirement Home, Rivonia, Johannesburg Tel:011 803 1451 www.lourdeshouse.org

“Where have we been together and where are we going?” Let them be brave enough to question: “How have we failed?” Let each be foolhardy enough to say: “For me, we come first.”

Help them, together, to reexamine their commitment in the light of your love, willingly, openly, compassionately.

and tell of your love and mercy. Leela.

THANKS to St Jude for prayers answered. Mrs Martin.

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.

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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), 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, John O’Leary, 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

2nd Sunday of Easter: April 23 Readings: Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 118:2-4, 1315, 22-24, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

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HAT is the effect of Resurrection on your life? If we understand it properly, it ought to change absolutely everything. Well, according to the readings for next Sunday, it should have at least four effects.

In the first reading we see that Jesus’ disciples have been turned into a community, marked by “solidarity, the breaking of the bread, and prayers”, with “awe on every soul, and many portents and signs happening through the apostles”.

Better still, “all the believers were on the same mission and had everything in common” (do we have something to learn here?), and “distributed possessions according as any had need”, then praying in the Temple, and celebrating the Eucharist (“breaking bread”) at home.

Finally we see that they were “praising God” (just like the angels at the beginning of Luke’s gospel) and “finding favour with all the people”. Not surprisingly (is there a message for us today?): “The Lord was adding every day the numbers of those who were being saved.” So the first effect of Resurrection is the building of community.

Then the psalm (whose author of course knew nothing of the Resurrection, but knew all about his God) we get the second effect, as the

S outher n C ross

Four effects of resurrection poet sings a refrain that everyone (“Israel”, “the house of Aaron”, “those who fear the Lord”) is to join in: “[God’s faithful love] is for ever.”

And why? Because when he was in trouble “the Lord was my Saviour” and so: “The joyful sound of salvation is in the tents of the just—God’s right hand has done power.”

Then we are reminded that this God is not a fashionable one: “the stone which the builders rejected has turned into the cornerstone”, and so the second effect is that we are to gaze in joyful astonishment at God’s power: “This is the day that the Lord has made—let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

In the second reading, the start of 1 Peter, which we shall be following for the next four weeks, we find the third effect of the “Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”, which is that “through God’s great mercy he has reborn us into living hope”.

This is then expanded into “an indestructible and unpolluted and unfading inheritance”, picking up the Old Testament theme of the “People of God”.

Finally we discover that even if things are tough “being grieved by various kinds of test” which, under God, will lead to “praise and glory and honour, when Jesus Christ is re-

vealed”, when “you win through to the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls”.

And so to the fourth effect of Resurrection, which we shall encounter in next Sunday’s Gospel.

Actually this effect comes in three parts.

First, we have the removal of fear, and the gift of the Spirit. Even though Jesus has been raised from the dead, the disciples (the males, anyway) are terrified witless, and the doors are locked “because of fear of the Judeans”.

Into this panic-stricken high-security situation, Jesus effortlessly comes, and utters the lovely Jewish prayer “Peace to you” upon them, while showing them “his hands and his side”, presumably to demonstrate that it is indeed the one who died that horrible death.

After that, secondly, there is a commission: “he breathed on them, and said ‘Receive the Holy Breath [or Spirit]’”, and entrusted them with the power to forgive sins.

Then, however, comes the third part of the effect of Resurrection. At first sight it does not look very promising; for it turns out that Thomas had not been present when Jesus had appeared, and his colleagues lost no time in gloating over him: “We’ve seen the Lord!”

What is the resurrection’s power?

Fr Ron C Rolheiser OMI tion is the phoenix-myth, upgraded a bit by psychological and religious language.

And there is some depth and truth in this. Among other things, the resurrection is about positive thinking and the belief that positive energy makes good things happen, just as self-defeating thoughts are also self-fulfilling.

Positive thinking creates positive energy and that energy can help bring life out of ashes. This is true even physically. Sometimes in a serious illness the right attitude is just as important for a cure as the right medication: a proper attitude lets the right physical, emotional, and spiritual energy flow into the world and into the body.

For many people, this is what the resurrection means—it is a metaphor for the transformation that positive energy can bring into this world.

B

ut it is more than that. The resurrection is not just about the potential effect of positive human energy within us, it is too, and especially, about the power of God, miraculous energy, energy that can do for us what we can’t do for ourselves, energy that can do for us what nature, all on its own, can’t. The resurrection is about power entering our world and our lives from beyond. How might we understand that?

The 20th-century theologian Paul Tillich once made a distinction between what he termed: pseudo-religion, quasi-religion, and real-religion.

Pseudo-religion is when we use the lan-

Classic Conrad

LASSICAL writers in all religious traditions tell us that there is a secret to growth, namely, when we reach a certain point, we must let grace do the work. It isn’t that we cease making an effort; it’s just that we need to let our efforts be augmented by something beyond us.

Etty Hillesum, the Dutch diarist who chronicled her experience of the Holocaust and died at Auschwitz, explains this: “I don’t have to tinker with my life [anymore] for an organic process is at work.

Something is growing, and every time I look inside, something fresh has happened, and all I have to do is to accept it.”

Is this what we call “the resurrection”?

For many the resurrection is a metaphor, the faith equivalent of the phoenix-myth: Deaths aren’t final and we can, if we do it right, rise from our own ashes.

What gives us the power to rise from our own ashes? In this view, proper willpower and positive thinking. The idea is that if you think positively, good things will happen to you. If you believe strongly enough in something, it will happen. If you preserve long enough in hope the good thing wished for will be given you.

Faith, hope, and positive thinking make good things happen and resurrect life from its many deaths.

This is the basis for many self-help philosophies and a lot of religious groups.

They base themselves more on the power of the human spirit than on the power of transcendent grace. For them, the resurrec-

“They worship Mammon, but follow our liturgical year!”

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Sunday Reflections

Thomas is not having any of it, and insists on “evidence”, in a very crude way (“Put my fingers into his side”). This is duly accorded him on the Sunday after that first Easter Day, and Jesus (once again) breaks through the fearfully locked doors and singles out Thomas, answering his brutal request for “evidence”: “Bring your finger here and look at my hands, and bring your hand and throw it into my side” (Jesus is being here even cruder than Thomas in his language).

We are not informed whether or not Thomas does what he is told; instead we are given a dramatic version of the final effect of Resurrection, namely the discovery of who Jesus is, in the light of what God has done, as Thomas breathes, on our behalf, the awestruck words “my Lord and my God”.

We applaud as he does so, but need also to ask whether we believe what he is saying.

Otherwise the Gospel may fail in its intended effect, which is “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”.

Are you ready, this week, for all the implications of Easter?

Southern Crossword #754

Final Reflection

guage of religion—God, revelation, grace, resurrection—but in essence we use those words to refer to what is highest inside our individual consciousness. And that, at its best, can take us to human maturity and altruism, just as at its worst it can take us to narcissism and grandiosity.

In either case, in the end, we are recycling human consciousness, and will-power and positive thinking play the pivotal role in any growth and transformation.

Quasi-religion, on the other hand, does not use the language of religion but uses instead the language of social analysis, psychology, philosophy, economics, and anthropology. And it calls us to what’s highest, not in individual consciousness, but inside the collective consciousness.

Like real-religion, it calls us beyond ourselves to the transpersonal. Quasi-religion, in its best expressions inside some political and social ideologies—Marxism, Greenpeace, NGOs, social justice ideologies—like real-religion calls us beyond ourselves, but, unlike real-religion, it doesn’t ultimately bring transcendent air into our lives. It still only touches what is highest inside us, and our own willpower and positive thinking remain the real driving force.

Real-religion might use or not use the classical words of religion, but, in either case, what it opens up for us is not just what’s highest inside ourselves and what we can achieve through willpower and positive thinking. Rather it opens us to a power and grace beyond us. It doesn’t simply recycle the air inside our universe; it brings in air from beyond, divine, transcendent air.

The resurrection has a place for positive thinking and emphasises the importance of appropriate willpower.

But it’s much more. Ultimately, it is about the transcendent power of God breaking into nature and into our lives and doing for us what we can’t do simply through willpower and positive thinking.

It is a power that can rearrange the very atoms inside our physical bodies, our aching emotions, and our divided world and raise up new life from the ashes.

ACRoSS

3. Car pools I find where the Parthenon is (9) 8. Pilgrimage place back in your memories (4) 9. Ice in pint beginning to happen (9) 10. Aptitude for old Roman coin (6) 11. Light of caution (5) 14. Dog I bring nothing to is unusual (5) 15. Eye-dropper (4) 16. Dishonest kind of doing (5) 18. Takes responsibility for disturbing snow (4) 20. Everyone who ... my words (Lk 6) (5) 21. The heights in Bashan (Dt 21) (5) 24. Hymn of the patriots (6) 25. Tree featured in Canada Raj (9) 26. Persia is right for Ian (4) 27. One present providing service (9)

Solutions on page 11

DoWn

1. Role of your guardian angel (9) 2. Limp Ringo is begging for help (9) 4. Unable to do lip service (4) 5. The addict may abuse it (5) 6. Mount at which Jesus stopped (Lk 19) (6) 7. Hotels (4) 9. I won’t turn the car and drag it (2,3) 11. Make the altar more attractive (5) 12. Joins up with one another again (9) 13. Taking it for granted (9) 17. Through an arduous journey to African nation (5) 19. Comfort (6) 22. Hospital prize? (5) 23. Soft stage performance leads to agreement (4) 24. Dean moves into port (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

O

N Palm Sunday little Thabo missed Mass because he was sick.

When his family returned home, they were carrying their palm crosses. Thabo asked what they were for.

“People held palms over Jesus’ head as he walked by,” his slightly distracted father told him.

“Oh no,” Thabo exclaimed. “The one Sunday I don’t go to Mass, and he shows up!”

Hurley Memorial Pilgrimage Presented by the Denis Hurley Centre

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11 to 21 September 2017

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