170503 by The Southern Cross

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

May 3 to May 9, 2017

Our Lady 1000 times around the world

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Reg No. 1920/002058/06

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No 5030

Why true friendship is a divine gift

Priests, nuns tell vocations stories

Page 7

Pages 8-13

Papal surprise for KZN nun By SyDNEy DuVAl

P Bishop Xolelo Kumalo of Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, presents Nardini Sister Sola Schaumann, 97, with the papal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal. (Photo: Sydney Duval)

Soccer star now a Catholic STAFF REPORTER

FORMER Bafana Bafana striker who was received into the Church is “a quiet, modest type of guy”, according to a priest. Kaizer Chiefs striker Bernard Parker received the sacrament of confirmation with eight other converts over Easter at St Dominic’s church in Boksburg. He had been preparing for two years while following the RCIA programme under Deacon Bob Johnstone and catechist Tony De Campos. “As a professional footballer his journey to Catholicism was eventful in that he had constantly to plan ahead so that his football fixtures with Chiefs and his weekly attendance at his catechumen class didn't suffer,’ said Fr Paddy Noonan OFM of St Anthony’s. “It was a tightrope at times” for the 31year-old football star, the Franciscan added. As one of two Catholics on the Chiefs teams—the other is Venezuelan Gustavo Paez —fans will have noticed him making the sign of the cross lately on the field of play. “He is already giving witness to his new Christian status in his chosen life,” Fr Noonan said. Mr Parker’s wife, former reality TV star Wendy Parker (née Cherry) welcomed her husband to the Catholic faith in an Instagram message. They married in 2012 in Ballito, KwaZuluNatal.

The

Football star Bernard Parker is blessed by Fr Paddy Noonan OFM as (from left) Deacon Bob Johnstone, catechist Tony De Campos (behind him), Fr Jeff Jawaheer OFM look on at St Anthony’s church in Boksburg. His wife Wendy stands behind him as sponsor. (Photo: Wendy Parker/Instagram) Mrs Parker told TshisaLIVE that her husband had been “nervous but excited” before the confirmation. “I am happy because this will bring more stability into his life,” she said. The Boksburg-born player has represented South Africa in 70 games from 2007-15, scoring 21 goals. His clubs before joining Chiefs in 2011 included Thanda Royal Zulu, Red Star Belgrade in Serbia and FC Twente, with whom he won the Dutch league in 2010.

OPE Francis had a big surprise for Eshowe’s Bishop Xolelo Kumalo and Sr Sola Schaumann, a 97-year-old Franciscan Nardini nun dubbed the “Florence Nightingale of Nkandla”. Bishop Kumalo had asked the pope to honour Sr Sola’s 60 years of missionary service in the diocese with the Bene Merenti medal. When he opened the package from the Vatican it contained the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal, the highest papal honour for distinguished service to the Church and the pope by laity and religious. Bishop Kumalo shared this news with local VIPs, clergy, religious and laity gathered for the celebration Mass at Holy Trinity church at Nkandla. “I asked for a papal award that would not only honour Sr Sola, but through her all the religious who have done such tremendous work, from the time of the pioneers, by deepening evangelisation through health care, education, pastoral outreach and socio-economic development of the local people in this diocese,” Bishop Kumalo explained. “I received a request for more information about Sr Sola which I sent off. Imagine my great surprise when I opened the package from the Vatican to find not the Bene Merenti, but the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal.” Addressing Sr Sola, he said: “You are a beautiful woman who has done wonderful work for God and his people. We need more young religious to follow your inspiring example.” The regional superior of the Franciscan Nardinis, Sr Ellen Lindner, noted that seven years ago former German President Horst Köhler honoured Sr Sola with his country’s highest civil award, the Distinguished Service Cross, for her work in health care and alleviating poverty. “Today it is Pope Francis who honours Sr Sola for her work as a missionary whose work of evangelisation included making the world around her a better place for families and communities,” she said. “Sr Sola was able to do this because she had the wonderful gift of reading, understanding and responding to the needs of the times. Her maternity work at the old Benedictine Mission Hospital, now Nkandla District Hospital, sensitised her to the socio-economic circumstances of the communities served by the hospital. “She wasted no time in doing something

S outher n C ross &

100 Years Fatima A spiritual journey to Fatima • Lisbon

1 - 10 October 2017

about it—in living out the charism of our [congregation’s] founder, Bl Paul Joseph Nardini, who was a great social reformer of his time. She, too, felt compelled to act with the compassion of Christ,” Sr Ellen noted.

n weekends Sr Sola accompanied the Benedictine priests to the outstations, bringing her in closer touch with the realities of the hardships caused by apartheid: the disruption of families through men migrating for work; poverty and severe malnutrition; and the heavy burden carried by women in caring for their families. “Sr Sola immediately saw the advantages of the health department’s mobile health clinic system which she introduced to Nkandla. She set up women’s clubs at the clinic points with more intensive teaching in health issues, nutrition, child care, and encouraging them to explore various ways of improving their situation through incomegenerating initiatives. She set up community gardens and sewing clubs, followed by training in handcrafts,” Sr Ellen noted Sr Sola soon saw the need for a more structured approach and in 1976 she established Sizanani Centre as an adult education facility, with support from the motherhouse at Mallersdorf in Germany. She offered courses in sewing, weaving, beadwork, knitting, culinary skills, and smallscale farming. Credit clubs were added. These were efforts to help people overcome adversity as integral to her missionary calling. She also brought the women together in a spirit of sharing, of worship, of solidarity, of becoming spiritual companions on the way to selfupliftment. When Sr Sola arrived in South Africa in 1955 she was told that she would have to redo her nursing training to qualify for service here. She went off to the Benedictine Sisters at Nongoma where she trained under Sr Reinolda May, the visionary of Ngome whose cause for beatification has been opened. Sr Sola got her driver’s licence only at the age of 54. Br Bernard Pachner OSB of Inkamana is still driving her old Land Rover that has now clocked up more than a million kilometers. Noting that Sr Sola has served the people of Eshowe diocese and Nkandla, “as a missionary who has made God’s love for humanity a lived experience”, Sr Ellen concluded: “She is a woman of value. A woman of our times. And Pope Francis thinks so, too!”

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The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

LOCAL

Sending Our Lady 1000 times around the world STAFF REPORTER

VERY time he thinks his ministry is completed, somebody else needs a statue of Our Lady of Fatima to spread the devotion which over the next five months celebrates its centenary. “I started out just over four years ago with the idea of offering 12 handmade statues of Our Lady of Fatima—one for each apostle—to parishes in South Africa through The Southern Cross to promote the devotion to Our Lady and the rosary,” recalls Portuguese-South African José Câmara, a retired businessman. “In the first week after the article appeared, I received 63 requests– but I had only 12 statues to donate. I was sad about that. My concern was that people out there wanted to pray to Mary,” he recalled. “Now I have sent more than a thousand statues to parishes, schools, convents, Catholic movements, prisons and so on—and even to some individuals—all over the world.” And every time he decides his mammoth task is finished, a new email reaches him from regions that are in need of Our Lady of Fatima, most recently from Mozambique. “But I cannot continue forever,” Mr Câmara said. Apart from the expense of buying the statues and the even greater cost of having them shipped to their destination, the administration—import duties!— and stress about delivery is becoming a strain for a man who is “not getting any younger” and has to contend with worsening health problems. And, he admits, “my life savings are almost depleted”. Mr Câmara’s generous ministry started with an article in The Southern Cross of January 9, 2013. From the offer of those 12 statues (plus three for parishes outside South Africa), the ministry spread around the world. For a long time he asked to remain anonymous. He allowed the use of his name only when Southern Cross editor Günther Simmerma-

Left: Parishioners of Our lady of Fatima parish in Dube in Soweto in a street procession with a statue donated by José Câmara. Right: Mr Câmara (centre) with Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen and Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher in Fatima in September 2014. Inset below: The Southern Cross front-page article in January 2014 that started it all. cher and international publications that interviewed him insisted on it. “I don’t seek any credit; I only want to serve Our Lady and the Lord,” he said. He has been in contact with inspiring people along the way, such as a priest in Namibia who drove 900km each way to collect a statue for his parish. Unfortunately, he has also come across “a number of opportunist crooks who pretend to be priests”, which necessitated the implementation of strict application rules. Mr Câmara said he was disappointed with a few parishes that received a statue but never contacted him again, “not even to say thank you”. But if those parishes are using the statues to promote the rosary and devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, “then I don’t mind so much; that is much more important”. The statues are handcrafted and handpainted in a workshop in Fatima. Coming in various sizes, they are intended for use inside churches. In exchange for a statue, recipient parishes had to promise to recite the rosary once a month as a community, and to place the statue

at an altar in the main church or in a side chapel or shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. “I have received many e-mails with photos from parishes, schools and convents to show that they are promoting the devotion. It makes me very happy to see that,” Mr Câmara said.

he Portuguese businessman used to live in Cape Town as a parishioner of St Mary’s cathedral. He was an estate agent auctioneer and valuer in Woodstock, the suburb whose parish, St Agnes, is about to receive the largest statue he has donated, “in appreciation of my dear clients”. He used to let the priests at St Agnes know which new arrivals in the area were Catholics so that the priests could bless the people in their new homes and give them a warm welcome to the parish. Today he lives in Cascais, about 30km from Lisbon, and 160km from Fatima. He goes to Fatima as often as he can. When The Southern Cross’ pilgrimage with Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen came to Fatima in September 2014, he made it a point to join the group for Mass there. “I know the Rodrigues family well. It was nice to meet the bishop in Fatima that day,” he recalled. Health permitting, he plans to meet up with The Southern Cross’ pilgrims who are coming to Fatima later this month, led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin. “The archbishop’s cathedral [St Mary’s in Cape Town] has reserved a chapel for Our Lady of Fatima,” Mr Câmara noted.

He has sent statues to more than 30 countries: throughout Africa and to places such as the Holy Land, India, the Philippines, Australia, Britain, Germany, Guatemala, the United States— and even to parishes in Portugal. Some of them are remote, such as Reunion, Mauritius and the Rodrigues Islands. But of all the statues of Our Lady he has donated over the years, two personal encounters stand out. They involved a dying woman and a prisoner. The former concerned a woman in Plumstead, Cape Town, who was dying of cancer. Her fervent wish was to be in the company of Our Lady of Fatima as she awaited death, to pray with her. “Although I usually don’t donate to individuals, I sent her a statue as a personal gift. But there are always delays with customs and so on. A statue normally takes four months to arrive. It didn’t look like the statue would arrive in time, but I sent it anyway, placing my trust in Our Lady,” Mr Câmara recalled.

our months later the woman’s sister e-mailed the bad news: the woman was on her deathbed in hospital, and the statue had not arrived. Mr Câmara ascertained that it was at customs in Cape Town, so on a Friday afternoon the sister rushed to have it released and brought it to the hospital. “They took photos of the woman holding the statue, looking happy to be with Our Lady. She died the next day, 24 hours later. That was faith. I did not believe that she would see the

The Benedictine abbey at Inkamana, near Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal, saw two jubilees celebrated. Fr Peter Blue OSB marked 65 years of monastic profession and Fr leo Eireiner OSB 50 years of his mission assignment to Zululand. Pictured (from left) are Fr Eireiner, priory administrator Fr John Paul OSB, and Fr Blue.

De La Salle Brothers

Ex-SA priest now head in Austria STAFF REPORTER

PRIEST previously based in South Africa and Zimbabwe has been appointed head of his congregation in Austria. German-born Fr Christoph Eisentraut (pictured) will begin his term as regional superior of the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries of Austria, the homeland of the order’s founder, Abbot Francis Pfanner, on June 1. Fr Eisentraut came to Bulawayo archdiocese in Zimbabwe shortly after his ordination in 1989. After studying canon law through St Au-

gustine College in Johannesburg, he was app o i n t e d chancellor of Bulawayo archdiocese in 2004. His congregation transferred him to South Africa in 2006 to build a heritage centre at Emaus mission. Fr Eisentraut left South Africa after he was elected to serve on the general secretariat of the Mariannhill Missionaries in Rome in 2010.

statue,” he said. The other experience that stands out is that of a young girl in England who wrote to Mr Câmara “to request a statue for her daddy who was in prison” in Kent. He was touched by the girl’s dream of having her dad home for Christmas lunch. And he remembered that the Fatima visionaries— Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia—were also jailed for interrogation in August 1917. So he sent a statue to the jail. “He now prays the rosary with his fellow inmates in prison.” Sending statues to jails has also made a difference in Mozambique. As a result of the prayer groups that have formed in prison around the Fatima statue, “baptisms are taking place. Some are now going to church when they leave jail, though of course not all of them. Some had never been to church before but are now regulars,” Mr Câmara said. Every morning as I bless myself I ask, “How can I do something for you today, Mother? She gives the ideas, I can assure you,” he said. “Giving money is easy. I believe real philanthropy means getting involved: taking your jacket and tie off, rolling up your sleeves and facing the project—and even heavy bills. The money means nothing to me. I came into this world with nothing and I will leave it with nothing. And one must be doing it not for personal glory but with love for Our Mother,” Mr Câmara said. He paused and added: “Our Lady has been dropping blessings from above.”

If you believe that God calls you

Our mission has always been to give human and Christian education to the young, especially to the poor. Saint John baptist De La Salle gave a new meaning to the school by making it accessible to the poor and oﬀering it to all as a sign of God's kingdom and as a means of salvation. Today, De La Salle Brothers, in addition to teaching in school, are also involved in educational ministry. Br Patrick Letswalo, De La Salle Brothers Po Box 35687, Northcliﬀ 2115 078 344 8238, patrickletswalo@yahoo.com

The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

LOCAL

Churches come together STAFF REPORTER

Sacred Heart students presented their research on Marist Brothers founder St Marcellin during a two-day event focusing on the school’s Marist roots. The Marist Brothers celebrate 200 years of existence this year.

Sacred Heart students delve into Marist roots

UNIOR high students in Grades 7 and 8 at Sacred Heart College in Observatory, Johannesburg, spent two days learning more about their Marist roots. Guest speakers included Mike Greeff, director of the Marist School Council, and Jason Grieve, St Henry’s alumnus and founder of the youth mission programme Sharing Our Call. Mr Greeff shared his journey from the corporate world, via the NGO sector, to working full-time with Marist South Africa. He emphasised the importance of actively engaging with the needs of the world, working with a community, and finding depth and meaning through spiritual commitment. Mr Grieve shared stories of working with children in the Addo, Port Elizabeth, area, where the Marist Brothers and Mercy Sisters make a dif-

ference to the destitute with hands-on care. Among the Marist alumni was Gqibelo Dandala, the CEO of Future of the African Daughter organisation, who challenged students to find their dream and live it. The Grade 7s and 8s also heard the stories of Three2Six volunteers, young people from South Africa and abroad who give a year or two of their lives to serve refugee children and help them through access to education. The event ended with a celebration in which the Sacred Heart students shared their research into Marist founder St Marcellin’s life, Marist values and the history of their school. They also prepared food and décor from Marist countries around the world, and sang the theme song from the Marist international youth conference, Dare to Dream.

Hurley Centre backs cause for YCW founder

HE Denis Hurley Centre has added its voice to those who pray that the sainthood case for the founder of the Young Christian Workers (YCW) will soon be introduced. In a letter to the YCW in Belgium, centre chairman Paddy Kearney and director Raymond Perrier note that the movement will observe the 50th an- Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, niversary of the death of seen here as a young founder Cardinal Joseph priest, was the founder of the young Christian Cardijn this year. The Belgian cardinal Workers organisation. founded the YCW, which by the late 1960s had more than 2 million members worldwide, in 1919. He died in 1967 at 84. “In the archdiocese of Durban we were made powerfully aware of Joseph Cardijn and his beloved Young Christian Workers by the late Archbishop Denis Hurley,” the centre’s letter noted. Archbishop Hurley had become an admirer of YCW as a seminarian in the 1930s, and adopted Cardinal Cardijn’s methodology of “See, Judge, Act”. The late archbishop saw the YCW method “as the most effective way of undertaking action for justice”, the letter said. Early in his episcopate, Archbishop Hurley sent a newly-ordained Oblate Fr Albert Danker to Britain for training in the YCW methodology. Fr Danker subsequently became the national YCW chaplain. The Denis Hurley Centre gave “thanks for the enormous contribution made by Joseph Cardijn, a great son of the Belgian Church. We hope to hear that the cause for his canonisation will soon be introduced.”

GOD BLESS AFRICA

Guard our people, guide our leaders and give us peace. Luke 11:1-13

HE town of Sedgefield in Oudtshoorn diocese is a shining beacon of ecumenism. The town has a vibrant group of seven churches whose members meet regularly. They have organised two annual events for the past years—at Christmas and Easter—which give the communities of these churches an opportunity to celebrate together. This Holy Week, each of the church communities presented a scene of a meal with Jesus. “All visitors are requested to become pilgrims and walk from one church to the next, experiencing the Christian vibe that is conveyed to all through the scene presented to them,” said John Laros, chairman of Catholic parish St Anthony’s pastoral committee. The other six churches involved are the Anglican Church, Die Suid Kaapse Familie Gemeente, Sedgefield Community Church, the Dutch Reformed Church, St Francis Union of Churches, Church of Nehemiah, and the Efese Christelike Gemeenskap. One of the most symbolic mo-

Fr Ralph de Hahn has his feet washed by Sonia, wife of the pastor of the Suid Kaapse Familie Gemeente, during the celebration of the Way of the Cross in Sedgefield. ments in this year’s joint celebrations came when visiting Cape Town priest Fr Ralph de Hahn, who conducted the paschal triduum services at St Anthony’s, had his feet washed by Sonia, the

wife of the pastor of the Suid Kaapse Familie Gemeente, during the Way of the Cross. “Fr De Hahn’s colourful but simple homilies will long be remembered,” Mr Laros said.

IN CARMEL’S HEIGHT BY DAY AND BY NIGHT, SOMEONE’S PRAYING FOR YOU.

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Contact us at: Carmelite Convent, P.O. Box 121, Retreat 7965, Cape Town, Tel. no. ((27) 021 713 6744 email: carmelitenunsretreat@gmail.com

Pilgrimage to The Holy Land

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led by Fr Pierre-Thaddee Mbayi Bakadibamba (Bloemfontein) Visit St. John’s Cathedral, the museum of St. Maximiliam Kolbe, Sightseeing of Krakow, Visit Wadowice and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Visit the Blessed Sister Faustina Convent 10 – 20 September 2017 R29 995.00 incl. Airport taxes

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led by Bishop Joale John Tlhomola 10 – 22 October 2017 R 44 995.00 incl. Airport taxes Tel: 012 342 0179/Fax: 086 676 9715 info@micasatours.co.za

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Tel.: 011.452.5283 Vocation Director: 072.987.2990 Email: mavocsa@gmail.com

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The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

INTERNATIONAL

Your cellphone could be aiding Congo bloodshed By SIMON CAlDWEll

G Charlotte le Bon, Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale star in a scene from the movie The Promise. The film dramatises the genocide of Armenians in the Turkish-ruled Ottoman Empire. (Photo: Open Road Films)

Armenian genocide film took 50 years to make By MARK PATTISON

‘T

HE Promise, a film dramatising the genocide of Christian Armenians in the Turkishruled Ottoman Empire at the outset of World War I, was two years in the making, but probably a half-century in the idea stage, according to George Winter, one of the movie’s producers. Kirk Kerkorian, the ArmenianAmerican who owned the MGM studio from 1969-86, had wanted to make a film about the genocide, but could not. “It was a controversial topic, even when he owned the company,” Mr Winter told Catholic News Service. Before Mr Kerkorian died in 2015, “he set aside the money and wrote the checque” to get the movie made “at the quality level he wanted it”, Mr Winter said. The Promise stars Oscar Isaac as an Armenian medical student in Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Christian Bale as a globetrotting Associated Press correspondent detailing the growing horror of the genocide—when he’s not drinking.

Bale, who earned an Oscar nomination for his performance in The Big Short, and Isaac, more popular than ever after his star turn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, “don’t have to do these kinds of movies. Christian Bale doesn’t need money, but both of these actors did their own research to understand what the characters, what the story was about. They become the face of the story when the movie comes out.” It was not long after filming began in Spain in 2015 when Pope Francis quoted St John Paul II in describing the deaths of an estimated 1,5 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks as the 20th century’s first genocide. When Pope Francis visited Armenia last year, he used the controversial word “genocide” repeatedly, and Mr Winter recalled that Eric Esrailian, another producer, burst onto the set with the news. “I think you need to make movies that will stand the test of time and are worthwhile and will last. That’s why this story is being told. It was relevant years ago, it’s relevant today,” said Mr Winter.—CNS

LOBAL demand for metallic ores used in cellphones is thwarting efforts to end war and violence in the Democratic Repulic of Congo, said a priest. Any person who possesses a cellphone or other electronic device with components derived from such “conflict minerals” is benefiting from bloodshed, said Fr Richard Muembo, rector of a Congolese seminary firebombed earlier this year. “Anyone who uses modern technology nowadays is in some way using the blood of the Congolese people,” he said in an interview with the United Kingdom branch of Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical foundation helping persecuted Christians. “Looters from all over the world come here to exploit the country,”Fr Muembo said Fighting in the DRC is being perpetuated by a struggle over access to such ores as coltan, from which niobium and tantalum are extracted, he said. The ore is used in the produc-

tion of batteries for smartphones, computers and GPS devices. Catholic leaders have worked to end the violence between the government and the criminal gangs and armed groups, which sell the ores to buy arms, only to find themselves the target of attacks. The seminary of Christ the King, of which Fr Muembo is rector, was partially destroyed in a firebomb attack after Church leaders refused to allow it to be turned into a military outpost. The 77 seminarians were forced to flee the complex in Malole in the central Kasai region of the country to continue their studies 400km from their classrooms. Catholic schools were burned and the cathedral of St John the Baptist in Luebo, near Malole, was desecrated by militia fighters earlier this year. “Schools have been closed, hunger reigns and parts of the population are hiding in the jungle,” Fr Muembo said. “We dream of an end to this pointless war.”

The Congolese bishops’ conference launched a mediation bid after opposition leaders accused President Joseph Kabila of seeking to retain power when his second and final term expired on December 20. The bishops brokered a peace accord, signed on December 31. In late March, the bishops abandoned attempts to arrange a government-opposition power-sharing settlement and, within days, violence erupted in eastern Congo. Fr Apollinaire Cikongo, a member of staff at the seminary, said: “It is necessary to say no to violence, to the industry of death, to the arms factories and the arms trade. “Technology should make lives easier, not end lives,” he said in the Aid to the Church in Need statement. Western firms have been accused of working with violent gangs in the DRC to obtain minerals used for producing electronic gadgets and of allowing trade in resources to perpetuate human rights violations.—CNS

Pope: War only benefits a few By CAROl GlATZ

IOLENCE is not the way to fix a broken world, rather it only benefits a handful of “warlords” who profit from human bloodshed, Pope Francis said. “I think that today, sin manifests itself with all of its destructive force in wars, different forms of violence and mistreatment, and in the abandonment of those who are most fragile,” he said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica.

Benedictine Sisters of St Alban

Those who pay the price for all this violence and malice are “always the least, the defenceless”, he said. He said he appealed once again for peace in “this world subjugated by arms traffickers who make money off the blood of men and women”. When asked towards what ends all these many wars are being waged, the pope said: “I always ask myself the same thing. For what purpose?” The only thing war seems to achieve is to trigger acts of revenge and a spiral of “lethal conflicts that

benefit only a few warlords”, he said. People are forced to flee or emigrate with considerable suffering, he said. Huge amounts of valuable resources are taken away from the daily needs of young people, families in difficulty, the elderly, the sick and the great majority of the world’s inhabitants, with the money going to the military, he added. “I've said it before and I'll say it again,” the pope said, ”violence is not the remedy for our broken world.”—CNS

“Listen my daughter… with the ear of your heart”

(Rule of St Benedict, Prologue)

Do you feel called?

 to glorify God in prayer and work?  to be a witness of God’s presence in the world of today?

To know more about us please contact: St Benedict’s Convent, Box 2424, Elukwatini, 1192, Mpumalanga. Landline: 017 883 2379, Mobile: 082 535 5625 and 076 592 3120 Sr Antoinette, Vocations Promoter, Email: srantondu@gmail.com or stbenedict@lantic.net

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Individual, directed or private retreats can be arranged for periods of 2-8 days throughout the year. Diocesan, Parish and Church meetings and workshops should be booked well in advance Reception: 031 700 2155 Fr Urs Fischer 031 700 2890 Fax 031 700 2738 Email: monretreat@saol.com

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The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

INTERNATIONAL

Pope honours modern martyrs By CINDy WOODEN

HE Christian Church today needs believers who witness each day to the power of God’s love, but it also needs the heroic witness of those who stand up to hatred even when it means giving up their lives, Pope Francis said. At Rome’s basilica of St Bartholomew, a shrine to modern martyrs, Pope Francis presided over an evening prayer service honouring Christians killed under Nazism, communism, dictatorships and terrorism. “These teach us that with the force of love and with meekness one can fight arrogance, violence and war, and that with patience peace is possible,” the pope said in his homily in the small basilica on Rome’s Tiber Island. Departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis said he wanted to add to the martyrs remembered at St Bartholomew by including “a woman—I don’t know her name— but she watches from heaven”. The pope said he’d met the woman’s husband, a Muslim, in Lesbos, Greece, when he visited a refugee camp there in 2016. The man told the pope that one day, terrorists came to their home. They saw his wife’s crucifix and ordered her to throw it on the ground. She refused and they slit her throat. “I don’t know if that man is still at Lesbos or if he has been able to

leave that ‘concentration camp’,” the pope said. “Now it’s that man, a Muslim, who carries this cross of pain.” During the prayer service, Pope Francis wore a stole that had belonged to Chaldean Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, who was murdered in Mosul, Iraq, in 2007. Fr Ganni’s stole, along with dozens of other items that belonged to men and women martyred in the 20th and 21st centuries, are on display on the side altars at the basilica, which is cared for by the lay Sant’Egidio Community. During the prayer service, at which Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox clergy were involved, people who had been close to those honoured as martyrs at the shrine spoke. Karl Schneider’s father, the Rev Paul Schneider, was the first Protestant pastor martyred by the Nazis for opposing their hate-filled doctrine. He was married and the father of six children. “My father was assassinated in 1939 in the Buchenwald concentration camp because he believed the objectives of National Socialism were irreconcilable with the words of the Bible,” Mr Schneider told the congregation. “All of us, still today, make too many compromises, but my father remained faithful only to the Lord and to the faith.”—CNS

Italian bishop: Let me return to be a missionary By CINDy WOODEN

OPE Francis has accepted the early retirement request of an Italian bishop who begged to be allowed to return to missionary work or to be sent “to the farthest, most disadvantaged” diocese. The Vatican announced Bishop Gianfranco Todisco’s resignation as bishop of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa in southern Italy. The bishop is 71, and the normal retirement age is 75. In a letter to the people of his diocese, Bishop Todisco said he had received a letter from the pope saying he would think and pray about it. A few weeks later, Pope Francis phoned and “asked me if I was still ready to leave. My answer was yes”, the bishop said. In his letter to the diocese, the bishop said he was ordained to the priesthood as an Ardorini missionary and that was the life to which he felt

called. He accepted the call to become bishop of the Italian diocese in 2002 “because I always saw the will of God in the decisions of my superiors”. As a missionary, he had served at St Thomas Aquinas parish in Toronto from 1979-89 and in the diocese of Garzon, Colombia, from 1989-97. Throughout his years as bishop, he said, he continued to make overseas trips to visit Italian missionaries. “Although I’d return to Melfi recharged by the joyful witness of so many brothers and sisters who, despite the passing of the years, continued to remain in the trenches, within me there was an increasing unrest to return to the missions, even as a simple priest.” The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that the bishop already had a plane ticket to Honduras.— CNS

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The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Celibacy doesn’t deprive manhood

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Vocations today

VERY year on the fourth Sunday of Easter, Catholics worldwide are called to pray for vocations on Good Shepherd’s Sunday. Several articles in this week’s issue, and the many display adverts by religious congregations, are intended to present vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life as an attractive option. This week, more than any other, The Southern Cross ought to be presented to young Catholics who may know little about the priesthood or religious life. Somewhere a seed may be planted; at least a better understanding of the life in service of God’s people may be fostered. It is also important to stress that there are many lay vocations within the Church for those who do not wish to enter the clerical or consecrated state but nevertheless seek to serve God in a particular way. These lay vocations will become increasingly important in areas where there are insufficient vocations to the priesthood or religious life, or where the growth of vocations does not match that of the Catholic population. Different circumstances will require different, locally appropriate, responses. This is true even within Southern Africa, where the Church exists in a context of great diversity in cultural and societal norms as well as economic conditions. South Africa is increasingly affected by the changes that have contributed to shrinking vocations in Europe. For example, the tendency towards smaller families has reduced the pool of possible vocations, as has the decline in the number of people who profess to have religious faith, at least in westernised cultures. The status of being a priest or religious has diminished in increasingly secularising societies, accelerated by the various scandals involving Church personnel and leaders. In places like Ireland, where vocations used to flourish and the priesthood used to command huge respect, every new ordination is now front-page news in the Catholic press. Thankfully, we have not reached that point in South Africa, but even here to choose the priesthood or religious life is increasingly becoming a countercultural option. Where in the past such a decision might have attracted appreciative approval,

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

today it may also be met with bemusement, perhaps even derision. To follow God’s call takes courage at the best of times, but it does so especially when it goes against the grain of the prevailing culture. And this is particularly true in neo-liberal societies in which concern for the marginalised and vulnerable is secondary to the consumerist accumulation of wealth, status and possession; where the value of a person is more likely determined by the cars they drive, the size of their TVs or the price of their shoes. Neo-liberal societies, among which one may include South Africa, tend to be driven by the individualistic pursuit of accumulation and status. They encourage norms that place a primacy on the individual at the expense of community values, concern for fellow human beings, and solidarity with strangers in need. This finds expression in the decline of the welfare state and the parties that used to encourage social cohesion in many countries, often accompanied by the demonisation of the poor, and the rise of a populism that speaks to fear and demands exclusion. This self-centred culture is not the way of the Church, as successive popes have made very clear. And when Christians are conditioned to put self before community, accumulation before solidarity, and status before Christ, fewer young men and women are likely to take the counter-cultural path. So when we pray for vocations this week—and perhaps even every week—we must ask God for a conversion of those societies, including in our region, which sacrifice solidarity and service for materialism and self-interest. We must pray for a groundswell of people who may foster a greater sense of service and community in society, even if this comes at the cost of a smaller TV set. We must pray that the Church, and the vocations that are offered in it, may be seen as a genuine alternative to the isolating egotism of modern societies. And we must pray that every genuine call to a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life will find open hearts in an increasingly deaf world.

S a happy, contented and relatively effective celibate priest (when either covered or uncovered by my cassock-robe) and rapidly approaching the 53rd anniversary of ordination, I find Romany Rubin’s letter “Celibacy nowhere required by God” (April 19) all of offensive, distasteful and indicative of a private agenda. Mr Rubin should know very clearly that here is one priest who has never felt “robbed of his manhood”. In addition, I very much doubt whether all the good Catholics to whom I have enjoyed ministering ever regarded me as “taking the place of God in their lives”. You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time! Every relatively well-informed and intelligent Catholic is fully aware that the Church’s requirement of celibacy is nowhere prescribed in the gospels. Neither, for that matter, is fast and abstinence on Ash Wednesday

Celibacy not a Church imposition

AGREE with Romany Rubin (April 19) that celibacy is nowhere required by God—but most of Mr Rubin’s comments cannot be overlooked. Celibacy is not “a Catholic imposition”; it is an invitation to some by Christ (Mt 19:12). It does not “belong to the domain of virgins and women”, whatever was meant by that. It is not “corrupting, inevitably dangerous and soul-destroying for men” nor does it “give rise to terrible suffering…robbing men of their manhood”. It is a fact that a small fraction of religious and priests, like a proportion of married people, are sadly unfaithful to their vows, but to claim that “there are so many awful transgressions in religious houses” is disingenuous and unfair. And yes, there may be some “strange men who join the priesthood”, but not “because whatever they are involved in is covered by those robes”, but simply because there are strange people in all walks of life, married or unmarried. And by the way, the Catholic Church is opening its mouth and speaking for what is right in this domain as in others, and has drawn up draconian protocols to deal with those awful transgressions. There are already exceptions to mandatory celibacy for those freely responding to God’s call to priesthood, and within our lifetime we could see a change in this discipline, but this will not automati-

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nor Good Friday, the obligation of Sunday Mass, a wide range of pious devotions and the prescribed fast before reception of the Eucharist (by way of examples only). Perhaps Mr Rubin would be kind enough to inform us whether, in the gospels, there is any indication that Jesus was anything other than celibate? If Jesus was celibate would this (a) indicate that he was robbed of his manhood, (b) that his “service of God was restricted”, and (c) contradict his DNA? It is also interesting that Mr Rubin suggeststhat the virtue of purity “actually belongs to the domain of virgins and women”. Well, I never! I had always held that purity and chastity belonged not only to the ordained, celibate, clergy but also to all unmarried or married men and women. In addition, I wonder how many Catholic women will not be deeply offended to learn that only they, and not the male of the species, have to be chaste and pure?

cally make for more or better priests. And since at least 50% of priests belong to religious orders, in which celibacy is a constitutive element, most priests will continue to be unmarried. Marriage and celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom are not in opposition but reciprocally supportive and mutually affirming. Both are full-time vocations, and to try to fulfil both perfectly would require superhuman virtues. Despite the sacrifice and tribulations of celibacy, at this stage I can say that I am happy in my freely undertaken commitment to it. I thank my married friends who are my support group and inspiration, and I pray that God will continue to help me in my fidelity. And I wish celibacy had better PRs. We priests and religious have a job to do in order to present a more joyful and positive image of the celibate, especially in the face of all those scandals breaking out in the news every now and then. Fr Francois Dufour SDB, Johannesburg 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

As far as Catholic males are concerned, they might well be delighted to learn they are now free to make the journey onwards according to their God-given DNA animal instincts. I do know some “strange men” who are, and have been, priests. However, let me assure Mr Rubin that 53 years of priesthood have also, most successfully, introduced me to a good many strange men and women—both married and unmarried. Also, what about the “many awful transgressions” taking place in the Catholic homes of married men and women? Finally, is your correspondent suggesting that until the mandatory celibacy rule is abolished, we should cease praying for vocations to the priesthood? Is he communicating a certain satisfaction that if any mature young man in the process of discerning whether he has a vocation to the celibate priesthood, but reading his letter, decides to proceed no further? Fr PE Lavoipierre, Durban

Conrad cartoons set me chuckling

OME of Conrad’s cartoons, like the one of March 29 (the difference between in-law and outlaw), and the Church Chuckles are hilarious. I chuckle for days after reading them. Michael Phillips, Sedgefield

Double baptism by nuns and parents

REFER to the answer by Michael Shackleton (April 12) to a question posed by one of your readers on the above subject. My two sons were born at the Marymount Nursing Home in Kensington, Johannesburg, and we were reliably informed at the time that the nuns would baptise every baby born at the nursing home in case they died before the parents could have the child baptised in their church and thus would never go to heaven. The teaching of the Church at that time was that unbaptised babies would go to a place called limbo and thus the nuns would baptise the babies to ensure that they would go to heaven. I am informed that this teaching of the Church has since changed. My wife and I were never officially informed that our sons had been “provisionally” baptised and thus within a short period of time after leaving the nursing home we had them baptised in our parish church with the full ritual. GJ Pearson, Johannesburg

St Patrick’s Missionary Society Be a Priest An ambassador of Christ for God’s People Contact Fr Terry Nash on 072 668 2705 or Fr. Michael Murphy on 082 564 9096 St Patrick’s Missionary Society P O Box 139486 Northmead 1511

The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

PERSPECTIVES

Why we need contemplative nuns O NE of the functional jokes in the priesthood goes something along the lines that listening to the confessions of religious Sisters, particularly contemplative nuns, is akin to being stoned to death with cotton wool. It’s a truism maybe, but as I grow older and the sacrament of reconciliation takes on a deeper meaning for me, I wonder if the opposite is not true. Often people will say to me that the reason they don’t make use of the sacrament of reconciliation is because the sins they confess are the same. Well, that's the problem with habitual sin. It’s habitual. We do the same things again and again, unless we deliberately set out to sample all the deadly sins (of which there are way more than seven, in my opinion). It is the contemplative vocation within the Church that reminds each of us that without the distractions of our busy lives— distractions from our sins and sometimes distractions for our sins—we can build a focus on the habitual attitudes that become destructive to our spiritual lives and the community of those we live with. I grew up with the Carmelite Sisters in Rivonia, Johannesburg. From the age of about 13 I served Mass in their L-shaped chapel with the great Fr Michael Tuohy. When I first met the Sisters, I was too scared to look through their grille and see their faces. Not that it mattered, as I could only see one Sister who has since become a lifelong friend and mentor. The Sisters were mysterious and certainly strange. We couldn't meet them without a grille between us, and there were many dramatic moments when the curtain was pulled back to reveal the faces behind the voices. In the sacristy, Sister Sacristan was a

voice that spoke through a “drum”, a very clever, almost medieval invention, like a 44 gallon drum on a spindle with an opening on one side. One would put goods into the opening and then the drum was turned. The good Sister on the other side would get these goods out. Minimum of fuss. Contemplative life for the Carmelites in South Africa has changed much since then. No longer is it a vocation of splendid isolation but a considered withdrawal into the “desert space” that their monasteries seek to create. Things have changed.

et, somehow the timeless vocation of the contemplative remains. There is a need for the human community to be reminded of both a spiritual and material simplicity, a regular rhythm of prayer and community. A return to something that we can all desire and hanker after. It is in this space that the community

The contemplative vocation is a call to an awareness that the mystery of being is the greatest exploration, Fr Townsend writes.

Fr Chris Townsend

Pastor’s Notebook

interactions and the work of the Holy Spirit on the self take on a transformative effect—and the little things that seem so trivial in the outer worlds, such as selfishness and the way we interact—become that much more pronounced. Cabin fever becomes desert fever. Interactions become limited to proximity, and it is on this confined space that the contemplative, enclosed community member is able to see the work on the Self, the huge and overarching self as a continuous action of the Holy Spirit. The contemplative, enclosed community is not for every Christian. In fact, very few are called and even fewer are chosen with the temperament to become selfless in such a simple way. In fact, one of the deep crises of the religious life is the loss of the contemplative dimension in the recent era. And yet—as much as it breaks my heart to see so few contemplatives in South Africa, maybe reflecting our national temperament—I see in the contemplative vocation a call to an awareness that the mystery of being is the greatest exploration, for my being and the Only Being Necessary. When we all find excuses for the triviality of our habitual sinfulness, it is the contemplative vocation that reminds us that ultimately it isn’t the new sins that kill our spiritual lives, but how the habitual sinfulness slowly strangles our Beingin-Being. The small things matter.

True friendship: It’s a divine gift Judith Turner T HERE is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship, said St Thomas Aquinas. Recently a friend circulated an article on friendship which I found very moving and true. I thanked her for the article and told her that I appreciated it. She responded by saying: “My parents were an inspiration to my love of friendship. They were always promoting how important friendships are, and I am very blessed to have you three ladies in my life.” Her message made me reflect for a moment on the friendships that I enjoy and the deep loss one can experience from losing a treasured friend. Here follows a small extract from the article she sent us: “After 50 years of life, here is what I learned: Time passes, life goes on, distance separates. Children grow up. Children cease to be children. They separate from their parents. They become independent. Children break our hearts. Jobs come and go. Illusions, desires, attraction, sex… weaken. People do not do what they should do. Colleagues forget the favours. People die. The race is over. “But, true friends are always there, no matter how long or how many miles they are. A friend is never more distant than the reach of a need. Barring you, intervening in your favour, waiting for you with open arms or blessing your life.” “When we started this adventure called LIFE, we did not know of the incredible joys or sorrows that were ahead. We did not know how much we would need from each other.” I have observed many friendships and I have heard many people speak about

Faith and life

“What most people cherish within a friendship is that there is somebody to talk to, someone to depend on, and someone to enjoy. How beautiful and rare a gift this is! (Photo: Adina Voicu) their friendships over the years. What most people cherish within a friendship is that there is somebody to talk to, someone to depend on, and someone to enjoy. How beautiful and rare a gift this is!

ow I want to quote from an article called “Friendship according to Thomas Aquinas”, which highlights the basis of true friendship. “Friendship involves a ‘mutual benevolent love on a common ground, and has as its normal rule unselfishness’. Taken from Genesis we know that it is not good for man to be alone. We are incomplete in ourselves. We want to share our lives with others both to expand our hearts and to receive help because of our smallness of heart. “Human friendship has its limits, in giving, sharing and time. It has been so ordered by God that the human heart only can find its fulfilment of friendship

in the Divine. With God the human limitations of friendship all disappear. “ The article continues: “God has infinite generosity and a creative love. He enables us to share in his inner life, which is the basis of the common ground of our friendship with him. This special friendship with God is called charity. This Divine friendship, which is charity, enables us to extend our love to everything belonging to God. “Today many are looking only for human friendship and love, but apart from the Divine friendship. ‘The human heart today is seeking, as it never sought before…that fullness...which can come only with a friendship that is Divine. In other words, the world of today is hungry for charity’.” What my friend’s article and St Thomas Aquinas’ views on friendship have in common is that friendship needs to be cherished and that it is about offering and giving. Aquinas says that we need a friendship with God first, the Divine Giver, and this will enable us to truly give of ourselves. Having somebody to talk to, someone to depend on, and someone to enjoy, is indeed a gift—a divine gift. And so I fully agree with Aquinas that “there is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship”.

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Burning confessions A priest asked us to put our sins in writing on paper when we went to confession. We got absolution, and then he took our written sins and burnt them all in public to show that they had gone up in smoke forever. This practice has since stopped. Was he right in doing this? Many parishioners like me did not like it at all. Name withheld

RESUMABLY you attended a penitential service where there were many penitents and more than a couple of priests hearing individual confessions. This kind of liturgy has developed in recent times due to the shortage of priests. In the past, during the seasons of Advent and Lent particularly, the parish priest would spend hours in the confessional as parishioners came in large numbers to seek absolution. Now, with fewer priests available, it has seemed that the sensible thing to do is to have more than a few priests hearing confessions in the same church at a designated time. In this way the load is shared and the penitential service does not last too long. Also, it has been argued that this kind of communal liturgy of reconciliation brings into focus our common need to repent for sin together as a parish and to make reparation to God and to his Church. It seems that some priests in some places may have taken the presence of a large congregation as an opportunity to dramatise the significance of God’s forgiving our sins. Instead of being content with the liturgical rite, which is dignified and beautiful in its expression of sorrow for sin and prayer for forgiveness, they judge it useful to put on a show, perhaps even indulge their own talent for showmanship. Setting fire to bits of paper on which sins have been written is a gimmick contributing nothing to the solemnity of the liturgical celebration. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a circular letter in 2000 entitled “Concerning the Integrity of the Sacrament of Penance”. Its purpose was to ensure that the rite of penance contained in the Roman Ritual and Code of Canon Law was correctly practised, and it called on Catholics “to encounter anew the uniquely transforming experience that is individual, integral confession and absolution”. It required that penitents at communal celebrations must individually confess their sins to a priest. It stated that this would exclude communal celebrations in which penitents are invited to present a written list of sins to the priest confessor because such innovations risk compromising the inviolable seal of a sacramental confession. The letter asked bishops to urge their people to go to confession frequently. This is a good way of keeping the soul healthy in spirit, with the consequential less need for them to feel pressured into participating in a seasonal penitential service

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, May 3 to May 9, 2017

VOCATIONS

Why we became religious sisters Every path to the vocation to the consecrated life is different. Here two Sisters of Nazareth share their vocations stories.

Nicknamed to be a nun By SR PRISCIllA TuMuluMBE MuDIMBA CSN

WAS born into a family of five girls in Binga, Zimbabwe. At my birth, my mother had two midwives: a nun from Spain, Sr Lola CMFC, and her assistant, a married lady called Maina. My twin sister Prisca, who was born first, was given the nickname of Maina, and I was given the nickname mukuwa Lola, meaning the white Sr Lola. So Prisca and I grew up with these nicknames, not realising that they would lead us to who we are today: Prisca is now a happily married mother; I have become a religious, like Sr Lola. Surprisingly, when I came to the age of reasoning, my religious vocation came to me as a dream, and began to grow in me. Still, I did not take the idea very seriously, although I loved to be involved in all the Church and parish activities. I became quite involved with the younger children in our parish: teaching catechism, playing and drawing with them, reading Bible

stories, and then praying together. This enriched my prayer life, and I hope it also enriched theirs. I enjoyed the children’s honesty, their prayers and their innocence. I also began to enjoy spending time alone, going for walks and enjoying the beauty of the nature around me.

ater on, some time after leaving school, there was a Youth Eucharistic Congress in my parish in Binga. During the congress I had the opportunity of much prayer and discernment before the Blessed Sacrament, and I felt a strong urge to give myself fully to God as a religious sister. Over the next couple of years, different religious congregations came to promote vocations in the parish. Somehow it turned out that I was not there when two Sisters of Nazareth came to visit and to talk about their way of life. But somehow, somewhere along the line, the seed must have been planted.

I had often been full of ideas and dreams about future careers, but it did not turn out the way I had expected because each time I ended up with more questions than answers, and there had to be something more that I could do to deepen my relationship with the Lord. “My Ways are not your ways…” I eventually took that step and joined the Sisters of Nazareth. As a pilgrim on a journey for the Kingdom of Heaven through God’s grace in imitating Jesus Christ, I pray for continuous zeal and strength, to have a humble and simple heart, and to be a true and faithful witness in my vocation. I thank all the people who have helped me along the way—beginning with the nun who first held me, Sr Lola! n Sr Priscilla made her first profession in 2012 and will hopefully make her final profession in a year or two. She has just moved to Port Elizabeth after being in Cape Town for almost four years where she gained experience in Child care and Elderly care.

Nazareth Sisters Agnes Mary Abrahams (left) and Priscilla Tumulumbe Mudimba, who on this page tell us the stories of their vocation.

In search of something that was missing By SR AGNES MARy ABRAHAMS CSN

W THE SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME DE NAMUR, their Associates and co-workers, invite yOU to join us in showing God’s Goodness to our world. For more information, contact sndsa@telkomsa.net, or Sr Gertrude: 056 218 1654

Daughters of St. Paul Dear Young Lady, We are simply women touched and transformed by the joy of God’s love, who cannot keep this experience just to themselves. For “the Gospel joy which enlivens the community of disciples is a missionary joy”. (Message of Pope Francis for 54th World Day of Prayer for Vocations)

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HEN I was 32, I left home in Pietermaritzburg to work in Cape Town. It was difficult to leave my parents and siblings; we were a very close and loving family and I missed them greatly. I had also been very much in love with a wonderful man who was also my best friend, but somehow I knew this was not enough. We broke up when I was 30. It was a very painful decision to make, but I realised that God was asking something else from me. Moving to Cape Town was good for me in the sense that I became more independent and experienced life in a large city. I made many new friends, loved to go to parties and clubs with them, and there was always a happy, carefree atmosphere around me. Yet somehow, again I had this strong feeling that something was missing in my life. On my way to and from work, I would pass the local Catholic church—Corpus Christi in Wittebome—and each day I realised I was being drawn in to just sit there for a quiet visit before the Blessed Sacrament. The more I did this, the more at home I began to feel. It was the time of the Renew movement, and I joined one of the Renew groups there. To my joy, I met young women who had the same interests as myself and we became good friends.

They also introduced me to the Schoenstatt Young Women’s League, and the times I spent with them were among the happiest times ever. And still I felt I was being pulled even closer to give my whole life to God. I took leave from work in order to discern what was missing in my life and what this yearning was all about. This searching led me to the moment of realisation that I was running away from what had been asked of me years before. I felt both frightened and excited at the same time. I fought against God and tried to make excuses that this was not for me. But like a fisherman he guided me into his net. He gave me the opportunity to love and to be loved, and to let go of all doubt. He waited and listened very patiently until at last I said: “I give up, Lord. Here I am, I am all yours!” From then on, I felt I was being planted, rooted and ready to grow fully in Christ. I made a visit to Nazareth House in Cape Town where I met the Sisters. The warm, joyful welcome which I received just made me all the more certain that I had come “home”—that this was where I truly belong. And it still is. n Sr Agnes made her first profession in 1998 and her final profession in 2003. She is based in Port Elizabeth but will shortly be transferred to Harare, Zimbabwe. She has been involved in child care and also catering and housekeeping. At present she is doing a formation course.

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The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

VOCATIONS

After quake, monks take lead from founder Last year, the basilica holding St Benedict’s birthplace in Norcia, Italy, was destroyed by a devastating earthquake. Now the Benedictine monks are picking up the pieces in the spirit of their founder, as MATT HADRO reports.

S Benedictine monks in Norcia, central Italy, rebuild their monastery from the rubble caused by devastating earthquakes last year, they do so in the spirit of their founder, St Benedict. “For us, it’s very symbolic... being at the birthplace of St Benedict and St Scholastica—St Benedict being the founder of Western monasticism,” said Fr Martin Bernhard OSB of the Benedictine Monks of Norcia. He noted that St Benedict (480547) lived amidst “the collapse of the Roman empire” and the “collapse of society and structures”. The abbey of Monte Cassino in southern Italy was destroyed once when he was there as abbot. But, Fr Bernhard noted, St Benedict “didn’t give up, and he knew that the real answer was still the worship of God, that the primary thing he could do is just give back to God and to centre our lives and build our lives around [God] in a declining culture and world”. The Benedictines of Norcia “find ourselves in kind of a similar situation,” the priest said. “So we find great consolation in that we have this opportunity in a way to follow the spirit of our founding father.” Norcia was seriously damaged by earthquakes last year. An earthquake rocked the region in August, causing 247 deaths in Italy. Then a 6.6 magnitude tremor in October caused massive damage to the town and the Benedictine monastery. The basilica of St Benedict, built above the birthplace of the saint and his sister St Scholastica, was totally destroyed, and the town was rendered unsafe to dwell in.

Norcia’s city hall (left) and St Benedict church in Piazza San Benedetto in September 2015 and after the earthquake of October 30, 2016. The Benedictines are drawing strength from the experiences of their flounder, St Benedict, whose birthplace was preserved in the crypt of the destroyed church. (Photos: Günther Simmermacher & Remo Casilli/Reuters) Norcia’s main street has reopened for business but much of the town is still a “red zone” inaccessible to people, Fr Bernhard noted. A Benedictine monastery had existed for centuries in the town until they were suppressed in 1810 by the Napoleonic laws of the time. In 2000, monks based in Rome returned and re-founded the monastery. Now, the monks have moved outside the town to a property 2km away, the site of an old Capuchin monastery. They lived in tents for several weeks before moving into shelters suitable for the winter months. However, conditions are quite crowded in the two buildings of only 96m2 where the 14 monks sleep, eat, and pray. Their biggest need is simply a more suitable place to live and pray as they rebuild the main monastery, especially if the community wants to grow. The basilica will probably take years to rebuild. The whole ordeal has actually drawn the monks closer to God, however. “It’s been a very humbling and purifying process,” Fr Bernhard said. “The earthquake and kind of destruction that we had seen of material things has really reminded us

Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception

of the fact that we’re pilgrims here on earth, and that this world will pass away, and that the biggest, most glorious things man can build one day will come to dust, and it’s the soul that endures—and it’s God,” he said. “So even living in…more physically poor conditions, cold conditions due to winter, has really made us rely upon him [God] even more,” the Benedictine continued. “There’s been a lot of graces for the monks of the monastery.

A bottle of Birra Nursia, produced by the Benedictines of Norcia.

There’s actually a great peace and joy among the monks despite the great trials and hardships.”

he monks started brewing beer in 2012 and sold Birra Nursia to support the monastery. The monks brew two types of Belgian-style ales, “Blonde” and “Extra”. While the brewery suffered little damage from the earthquake, the poor condition of the buildings surrounding it mean that the monks cannot yet use it for brewing. Birra Nursia is still available for purchase online, however, with proceeds going to the monastery rebuilding effort and 15% going to the needs of local residents “who lost their livelihood because of the earthquake”, Fr Bernhard said. “We’re anxious to get back in there,” he said, noting that the monks hope to start small-batch brewing again soon. The beer is a pride of the town, he added. “It’s very important for us, not only for financial reasons,” he said, “but also because of the sign and the symbol that it gives to the town and to the community.” Local restaurant owners who sell the beer have been asking the monks when they will start brewing again. If the monks could come back to the town, that “gives a very tan-

We Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are an International Congregation

gible sign of hope to the town and to the people”, he added. The community’s needs are both material and spiritual, he noted. “I would say the town needs continued hope and faith, that is, the challenge for them now is to not lose that patience, perseverance, and endurance and to really trust in God and to move forward and trust that he has a bigger plan for, really, the care of their souls.” In addition to the clean-up and rebuilding efforts, the town also needs tourism, he said—an important source of revenue for businesses before last year’s disasters but one that has been put on hold as many businesses have not yet reopened. Those interested in donating to the monastery’s rebuilding efforts can either do so at the website www.nursia.org or through the purchase of Birra Nursia. “We live in a Western world that has many struggles and trials, and in many ways is collapsing, at least perhaps morally. Now around us, very physically, it has collapsed,” Fr Barnhard noted. “And we now have an opportunity to renew our faith and to rebuild with that spirit of centring everything around the worship of God, the most important thing for us.”—CNA

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Is GOD calling you to serve young people as

We try to deepen our relationship with Jesus and share our Joy of the Gospel with other people by serving them in various ministries, in the spirit of St Francis.

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Is God perhaps calling you to do this?

Should you wish to know more about us, contact: The vocation Directress, PO Box 773 Nelspruit/Mbombela, 1200. Tel 076 692 8477 or 013 741 4520 franciscansnelspruit@telkomsa.net

^ĂůĞƐŝĂŶƐ͕ ^ŝŐŶƐ ĂŶĚ ĞĂƌĞƌƐ ŽĨ 'ŽĚ͛Ɛ >ŽǀĞ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ z zŽƵŶŐ Brr. Clarence Watts [Y Youth Y outh Ministry] • Cell: +27 63 282 2 6981 • Phone e: +27 11 680 1235 5 Email: vocations@salesians.org.za sians.org.za • www.salesians.org.za g.za

The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

VOCATIONS

A joy we cannot keep for ourselves In his message for this year’s Vocations Sunday, Pope Francis puts his focus on the theme of mission: the call to proclaim the Good News, as ElISE HARRIS explains.

N his message for the 2017 World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis focuses on the need to be “missionary disciples” who first fall in love with God, and are then propelled into action, zealously spreading the Good News they have heard. “The People of God need to be guided by pastors whose lives are spent in service to the Gospel,” the pope says in his message. He asks parish communities, associations and various prayer groups within the Church not to get discouraged by an apparent lack of vocations, but to continue praying fervently “that the Lord will send workers to his harvest”. The pope prays: “May he give us priests enamoured of the Gospel, close to all their brothers and sisters, living signs of God’s merciful love.” Celebrated this year on May 7— always on the fourth Sunday of Easter—the 54th World Day of Prayer for Vocations holds the theme: “Led by the Spirit for Mission”. While Pope Francis’ previous

messages for the event have focused on the frequent summons he makes for the Church to “go out” of ourselves in order to hear the Lord and the importance of the ecclesial community as the place where God’s vocational call is born, this year the focus is on another topic often promoted by the pope: mission. In his message, the pope notes how those who are drawn by God’s voice and choose to follow Jesus “soon discover within themselves an irrepressible desire to bring the Good News to their brothers and sisters” through proclamation and charitable service. As disciples, “we do not receive the gift of God’s love for our personal consolation, nor are we called to promote ourselves, or a business concern,” he says. “We are simply men and women touched and transformed by the joy of God’s love, who cannot keep this experience just to ourselves.” Commitment to the mission isn’t some sort of “decoration” added to the Christian life, but is rather “an essential element of faith itself,” he says, stressing that we must overcome our own feelings of inadequacy “and not yield to pessimism, which merely turns us into passive spectators of a dreary and monotonous life”. “There is no room for fear! God himself comes to cleanse our unclean lips and equip us for the mission,” Francis continues, explaining that all Christians, but priests and consecrated in particular, are “bearers of Christ”. Priests, he says, are asked to “go

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, 97, prays with players of a Chicago basketball team. Sr Schmidt is the team’s chaplain. Pope Francis, in his Vocations Sunday message, stressed the importance of prayer before anything else can be achieved in mission. (Photo: Karen Callaway /CNS) forth from the sacred precincts of the temple” with renewed enthusiasm in order to “let God’s tender love overflow for the sake of humanity”. “The Church needs such priests: serenely confident because they have discovered the true treasure, anxious to go out and joyfully to make it known to all,” he said.

hen it comes to a Christian understanding of mission, Pope Francis says we can understand it by looking at three scenes from the Gospel: • the launch of Jesus’ mission at

the synagogue in Nazareth, • the journey he makes with the disciples from Emmaus after his Resurrection, and • the parable of the sower and the seed. Turning to the first scene, the pope notes that to be a missionary disciple “means to share actively in the mission of Christ”. Just as Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth said he had been “anointed” by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor, and that he had been “sent” to proclaim the release of captives and to heal the oppressed, “this is also our mission”, Pope Francis says: “to be anointed by the Spirit, and to go out to our brothers and sisters in order to proclaim the word and to be for them a means of salvation.” Pointing to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the pope stresses that we are never alone on our journey, but that Christ is at our side every step of the way. Life’s questions and challenges can “make us feel bewildered, inadequate and hopeless,” and the Christian mission at times appears to be “mere utopian illusion” beyond our reach, he says. However, if we contemplate Jesus on the road to Emmaus, we see a true “liturgy of the street”. “We see that, at every step of the way, Jesus is at our side! The two disciples, overwhelmed by the scandal of the cross, return home on the path of defeat. Their hearts are broken,” the pope observes. But instead of judging them, Jesus walks beside them. “Instead of raising a wall, he opens a breach” and gradually transforms their discouragement into hope, he says, explaining that the same goes for Christians who

never carry their burdens alone, but who even amid difficulty know that Jesus is by their side. On the parable of the sower and the seed, Pope Francis says it’s important to look at the passage to understand from the Gospel itself what Christian proclamation should look like. Even with the best intentions in mind, Christians can at times “indulge in a certain hunger for power, proselytism or intolerant fanaticism”, the pope notes. However, the Gospel tells us to reject “the idolatry of power and success, undue concern for structures”, and an anxiety “that has more to do with the spirit of conquest than that of service”. The seed of God’s Kingdom, “however tiny, unseen and at times insignificant, silently continues to grow, thanks to God’s tireless activity”, he says, explaining that our first reason for confidence in God is that he surpasses our every expectation and “constantly surprises us by his generosity”. Pope Francis then points to the importance of maintaining a life of prayer, stressing that “there can be no promotion of vocations or Christian mission apart from constant contemplative prayer”, above all in scripture by forming a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. “I wish heartily to encourage this kind of profound friendship with the Lord, above all for the sake of imploring from on high new vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life,” he says, and urges parishes and Church institutions to continue praying for vocations. Despite a general sense throughout the world that faith “is listless or reduced to mere ‘duties to discharge’”, young people want to discover “the perennial attraction of Jesus, to be challenged by his words and actions, and to cherish the ideal that he holds out of a life that is fully human, happy to spend itself in love”, the pope says. Pope Francis closes his message by entrusting youth to the intercession of Mary, who “had the courage to embrace this ideal”. He asks through her prayers that “we be granted that same openness of heart, that same readiness to respond, ‘Here I am’ to the Lord’s call, and that same joy in setting out, like her, to proclaim him to the whole world”. Vocations is a theme Pope Francis is likely to delve into in a deeper way over the next two years, since it will form the heart of the discussion for the next Synod of Bishops. The theme for the next Ordinary Synod, scheduled to take place in October 2018, will discuss “Young People, the Faith and the Discernment of Vocation”.—CNA

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Sr Agnes-Claudine Swartz OSFS

vocations director SCP PO Box 8, Roma Lesotho, 194

VOCATIONS

The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

Elephants sounded call to vocation A year after Hindu nationalists unleashed a pogrom against Christians in India’s Odisha state, a herd of elephants destroyed the farms and houses of those who had persecuted the Christians. For one young woman, the event sounded the call to the religious life.

INE years ago, Christians in the Kandhamal district of Odisha, India, suffered the worst attacks against Christians in modern times in the country. Around 100 people lost their lives and more than 56 000 lost their homes and places of worship in a series of violent riots by Hindu militants that lasted for several months. But since the devastation, the local area has seen an “unprecedented” increase in religious vocations, including Sr Alanza Nayak, who became the first woman from her area to join the order of the Sisters of the Destitute. Sr Nayak told Matters India that she decided to dedicate her life to God through the poor and needy after she heard “how a herd of elephants meted out justice to the victims of Kandhamal anti-Christian violence”. A Grade 10 pupil at the time of the 2008 attacks, Sr Nayak said she remembers escaping to the nearby forest so she wouldn’t be killed. A year after the attacks, a herd of elephants came back to the village and destroyed the farms and houses of those who had persecuted the Christians. “I was convinced it was the powerful hand of God towards helpless Christians,” Sr Nayak said. The animals were later referred to as “Christian elephants”, she added. After completing her candidacy,

Sr Alanza Nayak of the Sisters of the Destitute heard her religious calling after anti-Christian violence and a subsequent “retaliation” by elephants in the area of Odisha in India. (Photo: Matters India). (Inset) Cover of the book by Catholic journalist Anto Akkara titled Who killed Swami Laxmanananda? postulancy and novitiate with the order, Sr Nayak took her first profession on October 5, 2016, at Jagadhri, a village in Haryana. She is now a member of the provincial house in Delhi. In January, more than 3 000 people from Sr Nayak’s village of Mandubadi honoured her with a special Mass and festivities. Her mother said that she was “extremely fortunate” that God has called his daughter for “his purpose”. Sr Janet, who accompanied Sr Alanza at the thanksgiving Mass, said that while materially poor, the people of the area are “rich in faith, brotherhood and unity”. Parish priest Father Angelo, who presided over the Mass, said his people have “great respect for priests and nuns.” The congregation of the Sisters of Destitute was founded on March 19, 1927, by Fr Varghese Payyapilly, a priest of Ernakulum archdiocese. It has 1 700 members

THE CAPUCHIN POOR CLARE SISTERS

We are called to prayer, Adoration to the Blessed Sacrament, silence, penance, manual labour and joyful community life. Through this way of life, we join our lives to Jesus redeeming love, praying for the world and remaining hidden in the heart of Holy Mother Church.

For more information contact: Adoration Monastery "Bethania", P.O Box 43, Swellendam, 6740 Tel:( 028 ) 514-1319, Email: capuchin@telkomsa.net

who live in 200 communities spread over six provinces.

he violence against Christians in the Kandhamal district, which is still ongoing, has been religiously motivated. It started after the August 2008 killing of a highly revered Hindu monk and World Hindu Council leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, and four of his aides. Despite evidence that Maoists,

not Christians, were responsible for Laxmanananda’s murder, Hindu militants seeking revenge used swords, firearms, kerosene and even acid against Christians in the area in a series of riots that continued for several months. Seven Christians are in jail for the assassination of the nationalist Hindu leader, who was virulently anti-Christian. In his 2016 book Who Killed Swami Laxmanananda?, noted Catholic journalist Anto

Akkara outlined how the “Seven Innocents” were framed in a widereaching conspiracy. In the book Mr Akkara shows how the swami’s murder and the consequent attacks on Christians were “pre-planned and carried out by forces who had envisaged the collateral damage”. While the intensity of the violence has subsided since the 2008 attacks, violence against Christians in Kandhamal has continued. In July 2015, the Crux website reported on two unconfirmed reports of two Christians who were shot to death by local police in the district while they were on a hilltop, seeking out a better cellphone signal to call their children. This is just one example of the ongoing hatred of Christians in the district. Fr Ajaya Kumar Singh, who heads the Odisha Forum for Social Action, told Crux that such violence is common in a place where the social elites are upper-caste Hindus and the Christians are largely lower-class “untouchables” and members of indigenous tribes. “There’s a double hatred,” Fr Singh said. “Because Christians are from the lowest caste, they’re untouchable, and because they’re Christians they’re seen as anti-national…they’re treated worse than dogs.” Kandhamal district, which has around 60 000 Catholics, falls under the archdiocese of CuttackBhubaneswar. Archdiocesan officials say the district has seen an unprecedented increase in priestly and religious vocations since 2008.

The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

VOCATIONS

Priest: I used to spit on Catholics Do you Desire to grow in prayer, spirituality and to be of service to God’s people?

To ﬁnd out more contact: The Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth in your area. Sister Margaret at +27 012 4609420 or 076 399 1015. www.sistersofnazareth.com

Dominican Sisters, Cabra

Rooted in prayer, study and community; Upholding the values of love and compassion in our search for Truth; Promoting right relationships with God, people and creation so that we widen our circle of mercy – We invite you to continue discerning whether God is calling you to the Dominican Religious Life. you are welcome to contact us at: The vocations Promoter cabdoms@mweb.co.za

Augustinian Sisters of the Mercy of Jesus

We are the Augustinian of the Mercy of Jesus religious of a canonical Order; we came to birth in response to the needs of the Church, and the recognition of the face of Jesus in the poor and the sick. We live our Augustinian spirituality within a special type of life called Canonical life. Hence we are called Canonesses. We pray the prayer of the Church in the name of and among the people of God. The liturgy of the Eucharist is the most important part of our life. We are involved in the apostolate, which for us is doing works of mercy. Our mission ﬂows from our prayer and our mission stimulates our prayer. Community life is of great importance to us as we are seeking God together, intent upon him and upon our brothers and sisters, being of “one mind and one heart” like the primitive Christian community in Jerusalem (Acts 4.30) and according to rule of St Augustine. We are found in KwaZulu-Natal (Botha’s Hill, Estcourt and Pomeroy)

Juan Martinez used to hate the Catholic Church so much, he’d spit at people on their way to Mass in Spain–now he is a priest. How did he get there?

FTER an anti-clerical childhood and adolescence, filled with hatred for the Church, Juan José Martínez discovered “that God exists and wants me as his priest”. Fr Martínez recalls his shameful behaviour. “Sunday mornings I would peer out of the balcony of my house, and when the people were going by on their way to Mass, I would spit on them. I told them that the Church was a sect that wanted their money,” explained the priest, who ministers in the diocese of Almeria, Spain. Fr Martínez’s parents were not believers, and he had received no religious formation. But, he stressed, they did not raise him to be intolerant. In fact, he does not know where he got all those ideas, because the perception he had of the Church and God was that of a “multinational corporation with branches in every neighbourhood to extract money, like a sect”, he said. “I was absolutely anticlerical, I was the first student in my school and the town of Carboneras, Almeria province, to never be taught religion because when I was 8 or 9, I chose the alternative course, which was ethics. “In the following years, I went on convincing my friends to quit religion classes and to take ethics with me. In the end, my whole class ended up being taught ethics and none of them religion.” But what he never imagined is that the end of his journey would be to help his friends to come back to the Church. Fr Martínez remembers quite well that the first day he went into a Catholic church, “I went to make fun of those who had invited me”. “It was in January 1995, some friends from class invited me to a Catholic Charismatic Renewal prayer group at the parish. Obviously I told them I wasn't planning on going because I didn't want them to brainwash me. For a whole month they persisted. I finally gave in—it was a Thursday in February 1995 when I went into a Catholic church for the first time.”

A golden box A lot of his friends were there, and he was surprised because “they were all looking at a golden box at the back of the church. I didn't know what it was, but I thought it was where the parish priest kept the money.” That golden box was the tabernacle. Fr Martínez said that he came to make fun of them because “I thought they were crazy. Inside, I

was laughing at them a lot, but I was polite and concealed it. But I decided to come back the following Thursday to laugh at them some more.” And so, one Thursday after another, Juan José was slowly letting go of his prejudices against the Church and religion. “The pastor seemed to me to be a very wise man who was helping the people,” he recalled. And little by little, the love of God was penetrating his heart. “I was 15 years old and I started to sing at Mass, which meant I would attend Mass on Saturdays. I liked being in front of the tabernacle and little by little, I realised that God existed and loved me. I felt the love of God. The Charismatic Renewal group, which I had come to make fun of, helped me a lot,” he said. “My eyes were being opened and I saw that God was not a legend or story for the weak, but that he existed and that he was supporting and guiding me. I experienced that he loved me so much that he wanted me for himself and was calling me,” he recalled.

Resisting God’s call As a child Juan José had been baptised and made his First Communion because of his grandparents' wishes, but he did not have a relationship with God after that. “I made my confirmation as I was right in the midst of the process of conversion, and it was a genuine gift. That day I told the Lord, 'I am yours for whatever you need.' My mother came but my father did not. It was a unique moment in my life to receive the Holy Spirit and to put my trust in the Lord.” For months, the young Juan José was resisting the call to the priesthood. “I told the Lord that I didn't want any hassles and to quit talking to me. Until I had to make a decision and it was to follow him, becoming a priest.” One Saturday afternoon when he was 17, Juan José told his father he wanted to go to the seminary. His father beat him and said that “he would be a priest over his dead body”. “They did not understand that I would want to be a priest. In fact, my father offered to pay for me to go to college in the United States but [he told me] he would never pay for the seminary.”

St Teresa’s answer In such a difficult moment, Fr Martínez recalled that all he could think of was the prayer of St Teresa of Avila: “Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you. All you need is God.” And when his father stopped rebuking him, the young man gave him a hug and said to him: “I knew you were going to react like that, but I also knew that one day you'd understand.” In fact, his father went so far as to threaten to report the pastor to the police if it kept helping his son discern his vocation. “My father was trying everything, but the Lord is stronger,” Fr Martínez said. To obey his father, Juan José did not start in the seminary, and so he began to study teaching at the University of Almeria. For years he was patient, and continued to be faithful to his vocation to the priesthood. Until one day in May 1999, as he recalled, his mother told him that she had spoken to his father and that finally he would let him enter the seminary. “I began to cry and cry. I remember when I told the pastor about it he said ‘welcome’ and gave me a great big hug.” In September 2000, he finally entered the seminary. In 2006, Fr. Martínez was ordained in Almeria cathedral and his father even attended the ceremony. “In no way did he want me to become a priest, but he saw that I was happy and even though he was totally anticlerical, he decided that the happiness of his son came before his ideology, and if I was happy—even though he didn't understand it—he would have to accept it. “ Two years ago, “before dying, my father received the anointing of the sick. And it was I who administered it to him,” Fr Martínez said. “When somebody tells me he doesn't believe in God, I always tell him that neither did I believe in him, but I was mistaken, because I have discovered the genuine happiness that Jesus has given to me,” the priest said. “If you're not completely happy, ask the Lord to help you, because only he will give you the happiness that your heart needs.”—CNA

Pilgrimage of Graces

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VOCATIONS

The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

A priest’s quest for Holy-wood One priest’s vocation is to support ‘truth, beauty and goodness’ in Hollywood films, as MICHAEl WAHlE explains.

he path to priesthood doesn’t often include stops on the sets of soap operas. But for Fr Don Woznicki, a stint as a production assistant for the short-lived soap Sunset Beach in 1998 was a pivotal part of his exploration of his “calling within a calling”—his deep-seated desire to evangelise through the entertainment industry. The same year he entered the Mundelein Seminary in Chicago to begin his formation as a priest. “While I was in my pre-theological studies at Loyola University in Chicago, I sensed the Holy Spirit moving me to somehow be involved in an outreach ministry as a priest to Hollywood,” recalled Fr Woznicki. “I always loved entertainment, and it was at that point in my life, as I discerned the priesthood, that I had a deep conviction that somehow the Church needs to be more present because of that influence it can have on people and cultures.” As the Indiana-born Fr Woznicki assumed an associate pastor role at a Chicago-area parish, with the permission of then-Chicago archbishop Cardinal Francis George, he proceeded to trek to Los Angeles three or four times a year, for one week at a time during his spring and summer breaks, to continue his PA job with Sunset Beach. In LA he also did work with Act One (a mentorship programme for

aspiring Christian screenwriters) and soaked up as much additional exposure to the entertainment industry he could get. Twenty years and a handful of IMDB credits later, Fr Woznicki is now not only the pastor at Christ the King church in Hollywood (where he began serving last July), but also the director of New Ethos, an advocacy effort that strives to drum up support throughout the Catholic community for films that, as Pope John Paul II—who was an actor in his youth—once put it, “bring us to a personal encounter with truth, goodness and beauty”. “There is great power in film and television, because much of our senses are acted upon through visuals (cinematography, special effects, movement), hearing (screenplay, musical score, sound) and a personal connection with the actors,” explained Fr Woznicki. “Our celebration of the Mass and sacraments carry through its beauty the ultimate power to act on our senses, to have a personal encounter with our Lord and Saviour and transform our minds and hearts. When one encounters an overarching spirit of the true, good and beautiful in entertainment, one also is encountering Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life,” he said.

Faith in Hollywood And while many on the outside looking in have a preconceived notion of Hollywood being a spiritual wasteland, Fr Woznicki has found that Hollywood is, in fact, inhabited by its fair share of faith-filled industry professionals. Though they may not agree with all of the Church’s teachings, these people have an “attraction to, and

Fr Don Woznicki on Sunset Boulevard in los Angeles. It was a stint as a production assistant on a soap opera that convinced him his priestly vocation was in film. appreciation for, the Church’s ageold and sophisticated approach to the arts through the holy Mass, in sacred art and in the various other traditional and progressive mystical expressions of faith”. In order to support filmmakers and screenwriters who share his passion for truthful, beautiful storytelling, Fr Woznicki and his core team of film reviewers collaborate with studio marketing executives in a number of capacities to galvanise support throughout the Catholic community for films that fit the bill. His ultimate goal is for New Ethos to become an esteemed, respected voice for the films it wants to promote, and has not only a hand in production and development, but also “a place at the table of major

studios and independent production companies to have a meaningful influence on developing entertainment”. To this end, New Ethos is in the planning stages of working with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications to coordinate a twoday retreat at the Vatican for accomplished industry artists and establishing a “New Ethos Film Festival”, an independent film showcase event to be held annually in Los Angeles. For the time being, however, New Ethos’ primary efforts involve recognising quality films and awarding them the New Ethos “Logo of Excellence”, which promoters can in turn use for marketing purposes. New Ethos’ two most prestigious awards, the “New Ethos Excellence Award” and the “New Ethos Selection”, are awarded to films that excel in the categories of religion, values and art.

No to hokey Christian films Fr Woznicki hopes that, by recognising films that succeed as much in their efforts to explore universal human truths and propel the craft of filmmaking forward as they do in telling stories concerning matters of faith, that New Ethos will help shake the filmgoing public’s tendency to equate “Catholic” with “G-rated” and/or “hokey” (mawkishly sentimental). “New Ethos is not about just supporting films and entertainment media because a Catholic made it,” said Fr Woznicki. “Would you get on an airplane just because you heard a Catholic made it? Quality is the rule. Christ is constantly calling us to conversion, hope and to be transformed into his

image, and the reality is that a vast majority of us are works in progress, made holy in Christ’s mercy, but with many rough and hard edges to be smoothed out,” he said. “New Ethos films are not about promoting sanitised Christian propaganda, rather to that conversion, hope and transformation.” Just as we are all works in progress, so is New Ethos in its early stages. But Fr Woznicki firmly believes that New Ethos’ earnest intention to focus on promoting the best attributes of Hollywood, the goodness waiting to emerge in films hidden beneath the slog, will lead to a flourishing, symbiotic relationship between New Ethos and the entertainment industry. “The mission’s philosophy was founded on transforming Hollywood not through a self-righteous ‘Hollywood takeover’ to form a ‘Catholic Hollywood’, but rather encouraging and supporting and uplifting the true, good and beautiful in secular Hollywood productions, where much of God’s talent operates,” said Fr Woznicki. “[It’s not] about going to Hollywood wielding a stick to point out where they are leading our children into hell,” he continued. “Rather, [it’s] to form positive collaborative relationships, where the Church lets Hollywood be who they are: the most talented and creative storytellers in the world, which the Church needs, while Hollywood can use the Church not only for its large market potential, but also to tap into the Church’s wisdom to help guide the art-making process. It’s a winwin mission!”—CNA n This article originally appeared in Angelus News, newspaper of the archdiocese of Los Angeles.

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The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

FATIMA 100

Benefits of celebrating Fatima centenary As the Church prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima, Portugal, Prof MICHAEl OGuNu explains the benefits of celebrating the centenary.

AST week we looked at how to celebrate the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima which took place between May and October 1917 to three shepherd children—Lucia dos Santos and siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto—in that small town in northern Portugal. This week we look at the benefits of properly celebrating the apparitions of Fatima.

What is the significance of the Fatima centenary? The Fatima centenary is significant as a historical occasion on which we will express our praise and gratitude to the Most Holy Trinity for the love poured out, through Mary, on a humanity in need of being reconciled with God and longing to get up from the abyss. The message of Fatima is as relevant and significant today as it was 100 years ago. For even though the world has witnessed the demise of the Soviet Union, we find ourselves

faced with many of the same evils as faced the world in 1917. We only have to look around us to see how the world is engulfed in sin. An unparalleled explosion of sexual immorality, contraception, abortion, divorce, cultism, corruption, mindless bloodletting across the world and a host of other crimes abound today because too few people are fulfilling Our Lady’s request at Fatima. We should renew our dedication to the Holy Rosary and pray it at every opportunity. Prayer and penance can bring our sinful world back to God.

What is an indulgence? As defined in the Code of Canon Law (992) and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1471): “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.” In general, the gaining of indulgences requires certain prescribed conditions and the performance of certain prescribed works. An indulgence is either partial or plenary. While partial indul-

gence remits only part of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, plenary indulgence effects full remission of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has been forgiven.

What plenary indulgences has the pope granted for the centenary? According to an official statement released by the Shrine of Fatima, Pope Francis has granted plenary indulgence for the year of the centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima: a) To the faithful who visit the sanctuary of Fatima on pilgrimage and devotedly participate in some celebration or prayer in honour of the Virgin Mary, pray the Our Father, recite the Creed and invoke Our Lady of Fatima; b) To the pious faithful who visit with devotion an image of Our Lady of Fatima, solemnly displayed to public veneration in any church, oratory or adequate place, on the anniversary days of the apparitions (the 13th of each month, from May to October 2017), and who devotedly participate there in some celebration or prayer in honour of the Virgin Mary, pray the Our Father, recite the Creed and invoke Our Lady of Fatima; c) To the faithful who, due to their age, illness or another serious cause, are hindered of moving, if repented of all their sins and with the firm intention to carry out, as soon as it will be possible to them, the three conditions indicated below, in front of a small image of Our Lady of Fatima, on the days of the apparitions, joining spiritually the jubilee celebrations, offering with confidence to the merciful God through Mary their prayers and pains, or the sacrifices of their own life.

What are the conditions for a plenary indulgence?

The shepherd children lucia, Francisco and Jacinta are depicted in this artwork at the entrance to the modern town of Fatima. Francisco and Jacinta will be canonised on May 13, the 100th anniversary of the first apparition.

To gain indulgences, whether plenary or partial, one must be a Catholic, not excommunicated or in schism. It is necessary that the faithful be in a state of grace at least at the time the indulgenced work is completed. A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day. In order to obtain it, the faithful must, in addi-

The Apparition chapel in the sanctuary of Fatima, where Our lady appeared to the shepherd children in 1917. (Photos: Günther Simmermacher) tion to being in a state of grace: • perform the indulgenced work; • have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin; • have sacramentally confessed their sins; • receive the Holy Eucharist (it is certainly better to receive it while participating in Holy Mass, but for the indulgence only Holy Communion is required); • pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff (one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory Be).

What does the First Saturday Devotion consist of? The special devotion which Our Lady strongly emphasised should be practised by all Catholics in reparation to her Immaculate Heart is the First Saturday Devotion. The First Saturday Devotion consists of performing the following acts on five consecutive first Saturdays of the month: 1. Go to Confession (eight days before or after the First Saturday is still valid) 2. Receive Holy Communion (in a state of grace) 3. Say five decades of the Rosary 4. Meditate for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary with the goal of keeping her company

5. All the conditions above should be fulfilled with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary To those who perform the First Saturday Devotion faithfully according to the way it should be done as described above, Our Lady promised to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation.

What does Pope Francis say? Pope Francis on May 11, 2016, said Our Lady of Fatima “invites us once again to turn to prayer, penance, and conversion. She asks us to never offend God again. She forewarns all humanity about the necessity of abandoning oneself to God, the source of love and mercy. Following the example of St John Paul II, a great devotee of Our Lady of Fatima, let us listen attentively to the Mother of God and ask for peace for the world.” n Prof Michael Ogunu is a member of the International Board of Trustees of the World Apostolate of Fatima and Coordinator of the Fatima Apostolate in Africa. Join The Southern Cross and Radio Veritas on a pilgrimage to Fatima and other holy sites in October. For information or to book see www.fowlertours.co.za/fatima

Iona Convent School

Iona Convent is an independent Catholic School situated in Capital Park, Pretoria. It has a caring atmosphere in the Sisters of Mercy tradition, and a record of high quality values-based education.

HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

Key Performance Requirements: • Be a practising Catholic or have an understanding of the Catholic values and be committed to nurturing and developing the ethos and mission of the school • Have suitable academic and professional qualiﬁcations • Have an understanding of present developments in education • Have strong leadership, interpersonal and organisational skills • Have at least 5 years education management experience Starting Date: 01 January 2018 Interested applicants to email the information and 5 documents listed below, to rene.cru@absamail.co.za by 23 May 2017.

• Applicant’s Curriculum Vitae not longer than three A4 pages • Three contactable referees with contact numbers • A letter by applicant dealing with the applicant’s vision for the school and making reference to previous leadership achievements of the applicant • Certified copy of SACE registration together with copy of applicant’s identity document • Affidavit by applicant confirming that s/he has never been convicted of Sexual Offence/s against a child or mentally disabled person plus SAPS clearance. An applicant who submits an application and does not receive a response by 03 June 2017 must accept that s/he has not been shortlisted for an interview and/or does not meet the minimum requirements and/or a decision has been made to withdraw the position and/or not to fill the post. The Sisters of Mercy and the Board of Governors reserve the right not to proceed with filling the post. An application will not in itself entitle the applicant to an interview or appointment, and failure to meet the minimum requirements of the advertised post will result in applicants automatically disqualifying themselves from consideration.

The Southern Cross, May 3 to May 9, 2017

CLASSIFIEDS

Sr Bonifazis Sauer CPS

RECIOUS Blood Sister Bonifazis Sauer died on April 8 at the age of 92. Born on February 22, 1925, at Ettleben in southern Germany, she was baptised by the name Ludwina. With her younger siblings, Richard and Rita, she had what she described as “a very happy and protected childhood”. After completing a four-year commercial course in 1942, she worked as a secretary at the German airforce centre at Wernecke. Aged 21, Ludwina decided to enter religious life. This surprised not only her family but also her friends, who knew her to be an independent, fun-loving and enterprising young woman. While still searching for a suitable congregation, she met Precious Blood Sister Melita at Bad Kissingen. She was so touched and impressed by Sr Melita that she joined the congregation on October 1, 1946. She made her first profession on August 15, 1950, and was missioned to South Africa the following year. Endowed with considerable secretarial and managerial skills, Sr

Bonifazis spent almost her whole religious life in the offices of the congregation or its institutions, except for three years as boarding mistress of Little Flower School in Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal. For the first five years she was secretary at Centecow Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal and for a year in Mount Frere Hospital in Eastern Cape. In January 1966, Sr Bonifazis returned to Mariannhill to take up the secretary’s post at Pinetown Convent School, now St Benedict School. The staff and students of the school held a very special place in their hearts for Sr Bonifazis. It was with some sadness that she

gave up the secretary’s post at the school in June 1990 to become the assistant provincial bursar in the CPS provincialate. Although Sr Bonifazis grew increasingly weak, she still worked for a number of hours every day in the provincialate till December 2005. Her presence as welcoming hostess and “caring mother” was highly appreciated and eased the burden of the leadership team considerably. In December 2005, she was taken ill. A fall aggravated her back pain, and for months she could move only with a walker. In the last three years of her life she was bedridden. Sr Bonifazis had a pleasant personality, charming manners, and a caring nature. She also had a great capacity for friendship. Her close relationship with her sister Rita, who visited Sr Bonifazis several times in South Africa, was also a source of great comfort to her. Sr Bonifazis accepted the crosses in life with great equanimity. She died peacefully in the presence of her fellow sisters who prayed at her deathbed.

Via Lucis: Stations of the Resurrection

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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.

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PERSONAL

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

ABORTION ON DEMAND: This is legalised daily murder in our nation. Our silence on this issue is the reason why it continues. Avoid pro-abortion politicians.

PRAYER

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 where you

Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 1

Station 5: The risen Lord appears on the road to Emmaus (luke 24:13-27). Painting by Joseph von Führich (1800–76), Kunsthalle Bremen

Station 4: Mary Magdalene proclaims the Resurrection to the apostles (John 20:18) This is part 2 of our series of images to illustrate the Via lucis, or Stations of the Resurrection, for you to cut out and collect. Obtain the text of the readings, prayers and responses from the Salesians at sdbprov@iafrica.com

Station 6: The risen Lord is recognised in the breaking of the bread (luke 24:28-32). In the Franciscan Emmaus church at El-Qubeibeh, West Bank

Southern CrossWord solutions Our bishops’ anniversaries SOLUTIONS TO 757. ACROSS: 1 Samson, 4 Summit, 9 Comfort and joy, 10 Eminent, 11 Moron, 12 Wills, 14 Idles, 18 Least, 19 Abusive, 21 Crisis of faith, 22 Atoner. DOWN: 1 Sacred, 2 Mummification, 3 Ozone, 5 Unnamed, 6 Major religion, 7 Trying, 8 State, 13 Lattice, 15 Elicit, 16 Zadok, 17 Nether, 20 Unfit.

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

This week we congratulate: May 8: Bishop José Ponce de León of Manzini, Swaziland, on his 56th birthday May 9: Bishop Adam Musialek of De Aar on his 60th birthday

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Neighbourhood Old Age Homes

We can use your old clothing, bric-a-brac, furniture and books for our second-hand shop in Woodstock, Cape Town. Help us to create an avenue to generate much needed funds for our work with the elderly. Contact Ian Veary on 021 447 6334 www.noah.org.za

Sunday May 7, 4th Sunday of Easter Acts 2:14, 36-41, Psalms 23:1-6, 1 Peter 2:20-25, John 10:1-10 Monday May 8 Acts 11:1-18, Psalms 42:2-3; 43:3-4, John 10:1118 Tuesday May 9 Acts 11:19-26, Psalms 87:1-7, John 10:22-30 Wednesday May 10 Acts 12:24--13:5, Psalms 67:2-3, 5-6, 8, John 12:44-50 Thursday May 11 Acts 13:13-25, Psalms 89:2-3, 21-22, 25, 27, John 13:16-20 Friday May 12, Ss Nereus and Achilleus, St Pancras Acts 13:26-33, Psalms 2:6-11, John 14:1-6 Saturday May 13, Our Lady of Fatima Acts 13:426-33, Psalms 2:6-11, John 14:1-6 Sunday May 14, 5th Sunday of Easter Acts 6:1-7, Psalms 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19, 1 Peter 2:49, John 14:1-12

VIVA SAFARIS KRUGER PARK with

are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is none who can withstand your power, O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands. leon and Karen OUR LADY OF FATIMA: O Most Holy Virgin Mary, who chose to appear on the Sierra de Aire, in the Cova de Iria, to three young shepherds to reveal the treasures of grace held in the recitation of the Rosary, impress upon our souls a fervent love for this devotion. By meditating on the mysteries of our redemption, may we learn how to use the teachings which lie therein and obtain the graces we ask in this prayer. For the Glory of God and the redeeming of our souls. Amen. For a free subscription to Fatima Magazine write to jjv camara@gmail.com

Traditional Latin Mass Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel 36 Central Avenue, Pinelands, Cape Town Call 0712914501 for details. Email:sspx.capetown@gmail.com

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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

5th Sunday of Easter: May 14 Readings: Acts 6:1-7, Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 1819, 1 Peter 2:4-9, John 14:1-12

OU can rely on the Lord when things are tough; that is the message of next Sunday’s readings. In the first reading, the Church is threatened (not for the last time in its history) by racial and religious tensions, as there is a squabble between the “Greek-speakers” and the “Aramaic-speakers” because the widows in the party that spoke Greek were getting overlooked in the “daily distribution”. So the Twelve decide that it is not really their business to wait at tables; instead seven men of unmistakably Greek names are selected to do this job. So far, so good; but we notice that the only two whom we ever hear of again, Stephen and Philip, are found not waiting at tables but preaching the Gospel. Stephen, indeed, does this so well that he is murdered for it; and yet that in turn has an unexpected consequence, in that a) Saul is drawn into the story, and b) the Gospel is pushed outwards to “Samaria and the ends of the earth”. So things were tough; a solution was found, but (since it is the Spirit who is driving the story) the solution leads to quite unexpected consequences and the wider preaching

S outher n C ross

of the Gospel. None of this would have surprised the author of the cheerful poem that is our psalm for next Sunday; he is well aware that you can rely on the Lord when things are difficult. Indeed, the psalm ends: “Behold the Lord’s eye is on those who fear him, who wait for his steadfast love, to deliver their souls from death, and to give them life when there is famine.” So not even hunger and death can defeat God’s purposes. That is why the psalmist is inviting us to make such a melodious noise: “Give thanks to the Lord on the harp and on the ten-stringed lyre praise him, for the word of the Lord is upright, and all his deeds are done with integrity.” This is a God whom we can trust. Our second reading is well aware of this, a meditation on the different types of stone. Here Jesus is seen as a “living stone, rejected by human beings, but in God’s eyes chosen and precious”. In response, Peter’s audience are to become themselves “living stones, built up into a spiritual house, a holy temple”. Not only that, but Jesus is to become “a chosen and precious corner-stone in Sion”;

and at the very same time “a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal”. And why should that be? Why, because of the appalling death that Jesus had to endure, which during the Easter season we are learning to see as not the end but only a beginning; because we can rely on God in tough times and become “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people of [God’s] possession… called out of darkness into [God’s] astonishing light”. The Gospel comes at a decidedly tough time; for now we are in the Upper Room with the disciples, on the night before Jesus is to die. Once again the message is that we are to trust, no matter how difficult the times may be: “Don’t let your hearts be disturbed: trust in God, trust in me.” Then Jesus’ absence is spelled out, not as a catastrophe but as grounds for hope: “I am going to prepare a place for you. And where I am going you know the way.” But times are tough, and Thomas (not for the first or last time in John’s gospel) cannot see the way clear: “Lord—we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Be conservative and liberal A

integration. It glues us together. Decomposition begins the very second the soul leaves the body. Without the soul, every element goes its own way. The liberal instinct is mostly about the fire, the conservative instinct is mostly about the glue. The story of the man who was raised in such a strong conservative background and who now feels rooted enough to be more liberal illustrates that both are necessary. There is a time to be liberal and there is a time to be conservative, and it is important that we know which time is right, both as regards our own growth and as regards the growth of others.

alcolm X once said something to this effect: I have a strong allegiance to both Christ and Muhammad because we need them both. So many of the men to whom I am trying to minister need the discipline of Allah. Their lives are in such disrepair that they need clear, hard rules of discipline that are spelled out for them without ambiguity. Later on, once they have their lives more in order, they can turn more to the liberal love of Jesus. First we need the discipline of Allah, later the freedom of Jesus. He understood that there are stages to the spiritual life and that what is needed in one stage will sometimes be very different from what is needed in another. What are the basic stages of the spiritual life? The gospels, the mystics, and the great spiritual writers, with some variation in

Conrad

FRIEND of mine likes to explain his religious background this way: “I have powerful conservative roots. I was raised in a very strong conservative, Roman Catholic, immigrant, German, farming family, with all the inhibitions, protectiveness, exclusivity, and reticence that this entailed.” He’ll add: “It would be hard to find a more strongly conservative religious background than mine. And I’m grateful for that. It’s one of the greatest gift you can be given. Now I’m free for the rest of my life!” There is something both healthily conservative and healthily liberal in that assessment. The instinct within the liberal wants to push edges, to widen the circle, to move away from narrowness, to be more inclusive, to not always see the other as threat, and to protect the ineffability of God and God’s universal salvific will. Whereas the conservative intuits the necessity of being rooted in truth, in grounding yourself in the essentials, in having proper boundaries, and in not being naive to the fact that everything that’s precious and true will invariably be under attack. Both protect the soul. The soul, as we know, has two functions which are often in tension with each other. On the one hand, the soul is the source of all energy inside us, the fire that fuels everything we do. We know the precise moment when the soul leaves a body. All energy ceases. The soul is also the source of unity and

Nicholas King SJ

With us in tough times

Sunday Reflections

He (and we) get an answer that he had not been bargaining for: “I am The Way.” And there is more: “And the Truth. And the Life.” Still, though, the disciples are finding it tough: “If you knew me, you would know my Father also”, says Jesus, only to elicit another dubious reaction, this time from Philip who says (on our behalf, perhaps): “Lord—show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” For this he is roundly rebuked: “I am with you so long, Philip, and you don’t know me?” Then comes the all-important identification: “The one who has seen me has seen the Father.” The exhortation then runs much deeper: “Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me”, and we are left with solid grounds to rely on God, even when things are tough: “The one who relies on me will also do the works that I am doing; and they will do even more significant works—because I am going to the Father.” Are things tough for you, this week? And can you rely upon Jesus and his Father?

Southern Crossword #757

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

how they express this, concur that there are three clear stages to the spiritual journey or, in another way of putting it, three levels of discipleship: The first level, which might aptly be termed “Essential Discipleship”, is the struggle to get our lives together, to achieve basic human maturity (which itself might be defined as the capacity for essential unselfishness, the capacity to put others before ourselves). The second level can be called “Generative Discipleship” and is the struggle to give our lives away in love, service and prayer. The third level can be called “Radical Discipleship” and consists in the struggle to give our deaths away, that is, to leave this earth in such a way that our deaths themselves become our final gift and blessing to our families, churches and society. The first stage, Essential Discipleship, is precisely about essentials, about getting our lives together by properly channelling our energies through discipline (the origin of the word discipleship). By definition, that task is mainly conservative: learning proper teaching so as to have a healthy vision, submitting to rules of behaviour that ground us and move us beyond our instinctual selfishness, and being a learner within our family and Church community. Metaphorically speaking, at this stage we are learning the “discipline of Allah”. But, once this stage is achieved with a certain proficiency, the challenge becomes different. Now the task is to give our lives away—and to give them away ever more deeply and to an ever-widening circle. That’s a more liberal task and it becomes even more liberal as we move towards that truly great unknown—death—where all that we have grounded ourselves in must be left behind as we are opened to the widest circle of all, cosmic embrace, infinity, and the ineffable mystery of God. In our discipleship, our spiritual journey, there is an important time to be conservative, just as there is an important time to be liberal. We are not meant to pick one of these over the other.

ACROSS

1. Judge who brought the house down (Jg 16) (6) 4. High point of the high-level talk (6) 9. Christmas tidings bring this happy solace (7,3,3) 10. Met nine who are notable (7) 11. Dimwit showing up in no Roman place (5) 12. People leave them to be executed (5) 14. Avoids work in the Vineyard (5) 18. You did it to one of the ... of my brethren (Mt 25) (5) 19. A bus I’ve found is plainly malevolent (7) 21. Critical experience of Doubting Thomas (6,2,5) 22. Occupation of Simon who lived by the sea (Ac 10) (6) 23. One who makes amends (6)

DOWN

1. Consecrated and holy (6) 2. Old Egyptian’s state of preservation (13) 3. Invigorating sea air (5) 5. Anonymous, like a newborn baby? (7) 6. One of the important systems of belief (5,8) 7. Being in court can be hard to endure (6) 8. Say it’s a condition (5) 13. Cattle I shift to diamond-shaped structure (7) 15. Evoke from St Felicity (6) 16. High priest who carried the ark of God (2 Sm 15) (5) 17. The world that is hell (6) 20. Not in good health and unsuitable (5) Solutions on page 15

CHURCH CHUCKLE

ADDY, an old-fashioned sort of fellow, was selling some newborn puppies. He approached the vicar of the local Anglican church, offered several puppies, and said they were “good little Anglican puppies”. The vicar bought two. A week later, Paddy approached the local Catholic church, and offered puppies for sale to the parish priest, telling him they were “good little Catholic puppies”. The priest challenged him on his statement to the vicar, and Paddy replied: “Ah, yes, Father, I did say this to the vicar. But they have opened their eyes since then.”

S outher n C ross Pilgrimage HOLY LAND • ROME •ASSISI • CAIRO 25 Aug - 8 Sept 2017 • Led by Archbishop William Slattery Contact Gail info@fowlertours.co.za or 076 352-3809

www.fowlertours.co.za/slattery

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