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August 9 to August 15, 2017
Fr Rolheiser: How to deal with suicide
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Reg No. 1920/002058/06
Pregnancy and a women’s struggle with her body
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No 5044
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Cut-out and keep: Prayer for feast of the Assumption
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Daswa medal approved by local bishop BY ERIN CARELSE
A
DEVOTIONAL “saint medal” for Bl Benedict Daswa, the first to be produced in South Africa, has been given official Church approval. The medals, the design of which is not yet available to the public, are produced by Immaculate Heart Gifts and Media, based in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg. Bl Daswa was beatified as a martyr in Tshitanini in Limpopo in 2015. “Our first introduction to Benedict Daswa was in Mass. We saw posters outside the church seeking his beatification and were intrigued by his life, and researched who he was,” said Earl David, who with his wife Bernadette runs Immaculate Heart Gifts and Media. “We did not know that the company that we would start in the same year would form part of the team for the beatification in 2015.” In November 2014 the couple met with Radio Veritas station director Fr Emil Blaser OP and presenter Akani Malobola to propose the services they wanted to provide. A few months later, while finalising the merchandise, the date for the beatification was set for September 2015. "We created the official logo and merchandise for Bl Benedict Daswa, which is recognised worldwide, and Radio Veritas provided the opportunity for us to introduce the memorabilia for the beatification,” Mr David recalled. Fr S’milo Mngadi, then communications officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), asked them to produce a website and to generate the logo. After the beatification the couple met with Sr Claudette Hiosan, then-promoter of the Daswa sainthood cause, and Bishop Hugh Slattery, who as head of Tzaneen diocese initiated the cause for Benedict Daswa’s sainthood. “We proposed the idea of the medal, and both Sr Hiosan and Bishop Slattery suggested that we should do it ourselves, to keep it
D
Mary's Assumption is depicted on a relief in Fatima’s Holy Rosary basilica. The feast of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven, which is South Africa’s patronal feast, falls on August 15. In Southern Africa it is transferred to the following Sunday—this year on August 20.
Eight days of Assumption The official logo of the sainthood cause for Bl Benedict Daswa. Bishop João Rodriguez of Tzaneen has approved a devotional Daswa medal proudly South African. This would be the very first time a ‘saint-medal’ would be produced in South Africa," Mr Davids said. Sr Tshifhiwa Munzhedzi OP, who has succeeded Sr Hiosan, called the couple in late July with the news that ecclesiastical approval had been issued by Bishop João Rodriguez of Tzaneen, the diocese responsible for the Daswa cause. Bl Daswa was murdered by a mob on February 2, 1990, near Thohoyandou. A school headmaster, lay leader in the Church and father of eight, Bl Daswa was 43 when he died. His beatification by Cardinal Angelo Amato on September 13, 2015, was attended by tens of thousands. For his cause to proceed to cantonised sainthood, one approved miracle will be required. The images and medal will be released to the public once all logistics for international and national channels of distribution have been set up. Details on where and how to obtain the medals will be issued then, Mr David said.
BY ERIN CARELSE
T
HE feast of the Assumption of Our Lady on August 15 is transferred to the following Sunday in South Africa—this year on August 20—but the faithful and parishes are still encouraged to observe the national patronal feast also on its day, according to the bishop in charge of liturgy. “All our great feasts have a sense of eight days attached, which means that Catholics are free in families and homes, and by way of private prayer and devotion, to celebrate the feast on its calendar day of the feast and the days that follow,” said Bishop Edward Risi, chair of the Department of Christian Formation at the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) . But the focus must remain on the liturgical feast day when it is transferred, as is the case with the feast of the Assumption. This means that the liturgical celebration on August 15 and the days that follow must be conducted “with less solemnity, that is, without it outshining the celebration of the coming Sunday”, Bishop Risi said. This usually means that the Gloria may be omitted, the creed is omitted, and readings can be reduced to two. “The bishops in their dioceses encourage the celebration of the feast of the Assumption on the day itself or any other weekday within
the octave in schools and institutions which fall under the guidance and administration of the local diocese and parish,” he said. The feast commemorates Mary falling into eternal sleep and her bodily assumption into heaven. It is observed on August 15, as it was in the Middle Ages. Bishop Risi said that the bishops decided some years ago to transfer the feast to the following Sunday for pastoral reasons, “to facilitate the participation of the majority of the Catholic faithful” who have difficulties going to Mass on a weekday. The feast of the Assumption is a holy day of obligation—in Southern Africa this now applies to August 20 this year, not August 15. “A minority of people would be able to celebrate the patronal feast on the weekday, which does not allow us to, and even prevents us from, giving the feast the liturgical prominence it should have,” Bishop Risi explained. Moving the feast to the nearest Sunday gives more people the opportunity to celebrate the day with an air of liturgical solemnity. “This provision to transfer the feast was already foreseen in the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council,” he said. Bishop Risi noted that the solemnities of the Epiphany, Ascension, Corpus Christi, Assumption and All Saints are also moved to the nearest Sunday.
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