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SA nun briefs pope on abuse

BY CAROL GLATZ

T

HE secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has said that she is using her position to continually encourage all the bishops to be committed, active and accountable in child protection.

“I am really pushing our bishops by saying, ‘In a diocese, what is actually happening? You have lay experts, you have social workers, you have psychologists there, but are you actually using those services effectively?’,” said Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS. “So they know I make a lot of noise about that,” said the secretary-general who in Rome addressed Pope Francis on behalf of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

More than 200 workshops or seminars have been held all over the world, including at the Vatican, seeking to raise awareness about the crime of sexual abuse against minors and vulnerable adults, and the Church’s duty to educate, train and protect its members, the commission said.

“But more needs to be done,” even in communities where people are already aware of the seriousness of the problem, Sr Makoro told Catholic News Service.

The Precious Blood Sister noted that Pope Francis recognises the difficulties the commission has faced and urged them to keep going.

“With the pope’s support, things are going to happen,” she said. “It’s going to be difficult, but I’m sure step by step, little by little, things are going to take shape.”

The commission presented Pope Francis with a list of suggestions, including changing the way confidentiality is imposed during Church investigations of child sexual abuse.

Vatican norms maintain the imposition of

Pope Francis listens as Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS, secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, speaks during an audience with commission members at the Vatican. The pope told commission members that the Church was late fighting abuse, and he promised a policy of zero tolerance for abusers. (Photo: L’Osservatore Romano via CNS) “pontifical secret” on the Church’s judicial handling of clerical sex abuse and other grave crimes, which means they are dealt with in strict confidentiality.

Vatican experts have said it was designed

to protect the dignity of everyone involved, including the victim, the accused, their families and their communities. Confidentiality, however, is meant to have limits in the relationship with civil authorities as bishops are

required to comply with civil law that requires reporting of abuse accusations.

Experts on the 15-member commission have called for a new look at how the principles regarding the “pontifical secret” are applied during canonical processes and see where canon law may impede the reporting of suspected child abuse to civil authorities.

They also called for exempting cases that involve “sexual delicts” and crimes against minors from those norms governing pontifical secret.

The commission, which the pope established in 2014, also promotes safeguarding at the national, regional and local levels of the Church and works with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for the protection of children and vulnerable adults.

Pope Francis has endorsed an approach of “zero tolerance” towards all members of the Church guilty of sexually abusing minors or vulnerable adults.

Having listened to abuse survivors and having made what he described as a mistake in approving a more lenient set of sanctions against an Italian priest abuser, the pope said he has decided whoever has been proven guilty of abuse has no right to an appeal, and he will never grant a papal pardon.

If an ordained minister has abused a minor, it “is sufficient [reason] to receive no recourse” for an appeal. “If there is proof: end of story,” the pope said; the sentence “is definitive”.

The Catholic Church has been “late” in facing and, therefore, properly addressing the sin of sexual abuse by its members, the pope said.

The commission has had to “swim against the tide” because of a lack of awareness or understanding of the seriousness of the problem, he said.—CNS

Christianity most persecuted religion in the world

BY MATT FOWLER

T

HE “revolting reality” of recent wars shows just how urgent it is that the international community act to protect religious minorities in situations of conflict, a top Vatican official told the UN General Assembly.

“As all of us have seen, in the last several years in various blooddrenched parts of the world, war and conflict often provide the

backdrop for religious minorities to be targeted,” which shows the need to focus on safeguarding religious minorities in these situations, Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher told the UN. Although every recognised faith group experiences some form of oppression globally, Christians remain the most persecuted, the archbishop said. He cited findings from a number of extensively researched reports.

Of the world’s 196 countries, 38

showed “unmistakable evidence of significant religious freedom violations, with 23 amounting to outright persecution”, Archbishop Gallagher said. “When we survey the world situation, we see that persecution of religious minorities is not a phenomenon isolated to one region.”

Archbishop Gallagher listed some strategies that are essential for stopping the persecution of religious minorities. They included: l Blocking the flow of money

Catholic Ireland A pilgrimage with Bishop Victor Phalana Feast day at shrine of Our Lady of Knock, PAPAL MASS in Dublin*, and much more * subject to confirmation

The

and weapons to those who intend to target and harm religious minorities. “Stopping atrocities not only involves addressing the hatred and cancers of the heart that spawn violence, but also removing the instruments by which that hatred actually carries out that violence,” he said. l Dialogue between religious followers to overcome the assumption that interreligious conflicts are unavoidable. That dialogue must aim “to overcome the cynical as-

sumption that conflicts among religious believers are inevitable, and to challenge the narrow-minded interpretation of religious texts that demonise and dehumanise those of different beliefs.” l Confronting and condemning the abuse of religion to justify terrorism and the killing of innocent people in the name of God. “Social, political and economic issues that demagogues can exploit to incite violence must also be tackled,” the archbishop said.—CNS

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NEWS FEATURE

Hurley Centre garden named for popular priest STAFF REPORTER

T

HE Denis Hurley Centre in Durban has added a splash of green to the busy commercial hub surrounding it in naming the centre’s upper terrace the Paul Nadal Garden.

Paddy Kearney, one of the main inspirations behind the development of the centre next to Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral, described the action as recognition of Mgr Paul Nadal as a patron, trustee and generous donor to the centre—a place seen as a home for the homeless and refuge of the distressed.

Family, friends, clergy and religious met at the centre to celebrate the naming, blessing and opening of the meditative garden and its companion terrace collection of Mgr Nadal memorabilia, hosted by centre director Raymond Perrier.

A strong presence from Mariannhill affirmed Mgr Nadal’s work as

founding director of Khanyisa Pastoral and Catechetical Institute—and his co-authorship with Sr Theodula Müller CPS of the “People of God” series on South Africa. Also present were Mgr Nadal’s nieces Loueen Tolken and Gillian McGregor.

Two friends of some 60 years, journalist Sydney Duval and retired businessman and local Church stalwart Manrico Barbieri, paid special tribute to Mgr Nadal, 85, sketching his personality, achievements and long service to the local Church.

This included a PhD in philosophy on transcendence in Marxist philosophy from a Christian perspective.

Mr Duval recalled signposts to a friendship that began with a train journey in 1958 from Durban to St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria.

Mgr Nadal was in his sub-diaconate year, already a graduate in law; Mr Duval in his first year of philosophy.

He came to know Mgr Nadal for

Mgr Nadal blessing the terrace garden named in his honour.

his irresistible sense of fun—“and his personal interest in my wellbeing”.

“I was struck by Paul’s formidable talent for intuitive discernment of people and situations,” Mr Duval recalled. “His insights were usually sharp and forthright. This mellowed with age and is now more of a prising open rather than an extraction without a painkiller.”

A

nother signpost was Mgr Nadal’s ordination in Emmanuel cathedral on December 8, 1959.

“One Sunday morning, a few weeks later, I drove Paul and his mother to Montebello mission where he would learn Zulu. He carried his suitcase down the steps, knocked on the door, and his priestly life had begun. But the Ford Prefect I was driving back to Durban was on the verge of flooding with a mother’s tears,” Mr Duval recalled.

In 1987, Mr Duval had moved on from fulltime journalism to working as personal assistant to the late Archbishop Stephen Naidoo of Cape Town. This took him to the bishops’ plenary sessions where Mgr Nadal appeared in 1992 to introduce RENEW as one of the ways of implementing the Pastoral Plan.

“Paul spoke with a passion that lit a fire in many of us. Here was something new, something heartening, something inviting to grab hold of,” Mr Duval said.

Mgr Nadal was present in Cape Town’s Good Hope Centre when 10 000 local Catholics, with Archbishop Lawrence Henry, “illuminated that vast structure with their candles, their music and their faith to launch RENEW”, Mr Duval said.

“Supporting the Pastoral Plan, of being ‘a community serving humanity’, has been an ongoing part of Paul’s ministry, even to this day.”

Mr Duval spoke of Mgr Nadal demonstrating “his own humanity through friendship—in good and hard times, celebration, death and

On the new terrace garden at the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban are (front from left) Sydney Duval, Mgr Paul Nadal and Manrico Barbieri, and (back) gardeners Roanne Scott, Victoria Brennan and Coral Vinsen. mourning, and for laicised priests living with distress in dire adversity”.

“Paul knows all about the ecstasy and struggle of the spiritual and priestly life. But he has kept the faith.

He has helped so many others do the same,” Mr Duval noted.

“Naming this amenity the Paul Nadal Garden is a fitting honour. A valiant, compassionate heart of Durban beats here and in these surrounding streets,” he said.

M

anrico Barbieri, a close friend of Mgr Nadal since schooldays at St Henry’s Marist College in Durban, applauded the dedication of the garden in the name of Paul Nadal as a fitting tribute to someone who had given exemplary service in his ministry for an unbroken 58 years.

“It also entrenches the memory of his close relationship with his mentor, Archbishop Denis Hurley, whom he served as vicar-general from 1983 to 1992,” Mr Barbieri said.

He noted that Mgr Nadal had completed six Comrades marathons,

several Two Oceans, the Cape Argus cycling race, and the Camino Walk.

Mr Barbieri said Mgr Nadal’s 30 years’ residence in the grounds of the Assumption church provided an opportunity to develop his love of gardening for flowers, fruit, herbs and vegetables: “In season, when visiting us, he often brought brinjals, wild bananas, herbs like basil, rocket, and homemade Mauritian mazavaroo.”

The garden team comprised landscaper Victoria Brennan and Coral Vinsen, both experts on indigenous plants, Roanne Scott and Holy Family Sister Cathy Murugan, who runs the centre’s Sustainable Livelihood and Employment Service—all with Mgr Nadal’s collaboration in planning and setting up the terrace garden. The bench, flower box and stands were made by Eddie Majola from recycled pallets.

Sr Murugan said the garden is an invitation “to come and rest awhile”. It also offers a homeless person employment through tending the garden and selling the excess herbs and vegetables.

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The Southern Cross, October 4 to October 10, 2017

LOCAL

3

Christianity a ‘yes’ to our deepest desires A

Fr Deneys Williamson said Christopher West’s talks on the Theology of the Body inspired him anew.

JOHANNESBURG priest has said that a talk by a US speaker on the Theology of the Body to local clergy was inspiring.

Christopher West, international speaker and presenter of the Theology of the Body, offered sessions to clergy in Gauteng and Cape Town during his tour of South Africa last month. In Johannesburg he addressed priests at the archdiocesan chancery.

“To those present, the content of his 1,5-hour presentation was probably not new,” said Fr Deneys Williamson. “What was refreshing and inspiring to all was the way he presented these teachings. The novelty of the Theology of the Body is precisely this—that it presents the perennial teachings of the faith in a language that responds to the needs of our context today.”

Mr West spoke of human sexuality in God’s plan “as a sign pointing to our ultimate union with him in heaven. Marriage and sexual intimacy are in this life a reflection and foretaste of that eternal union we have been created for with God in the next,” Fr Williamson said.

“Consequently, celibacy—the voluntary foregoing of marriage and sexual intimacy—is not about unhealthily repressing one’s urges but about redirecting them to their ultimate end.”

Celibacy, Mr West noted, is a gift that witnesses to the deepest meaning of human sexuality.

“The core of West’s message is to show that despite what the culture thinks, Christianity is at bottom a ‘yes’ religion and not a ‘no’ religion.

Christianity is not a system of rules that stifles desire to keep one in check, but in fact a yes to our deep-

est desires, which in Christ find their complete fulfilment,” Fr Williamson said.

“All human desires—including sexual—are expressions of a much deeper need, echoes of an original cry for union with Another, union with the infinite. Eros, the classic Greek term that comprises human passion and desire, is not just erotic love but desire for complete fulfilment. Eros is hunger for God,” he said.

To illustrate this, Mr West used a compelling image, Fr Williamson said. “Each of us is like a rocket that has been made to reach the stars.

The fuel that powers our rocket upwards is eros. But sin has inverted our rocket engines, warped them.

Instead of aiming above we fly down to what is below and base.

We are stuck on earth.

“But God, in his goodness, has

not abandoned us. In Jesus Christ his Son he has come down to point our rocket engines back upwards, to take us back to himself.

“Through the Cross, which reveals the depths of God’s divine love, Christ redeems our warped loves and transforms them into Love, so that we can reclaim our destiny and reach the stars,” Fr Williamson explained.

“In our increasingly secular society the bulk of the work of re-evangelisation will consist in showing through beauty, art, literature, music, and finally the witness of a holy and joyful life, that Christianity does not poison desire, but on the contrary is the very thing that brings them to complete fulfilment,” he said.

Mr West was brought to South Africa by the Foundation for the Person and the Family.

Big music names for Care parcels delight retired priests school’s annual festival

BY ERIN CARELSE

A

CATHOLIC school will be hosting stars such as Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse, award-winning DJ Euphonik and socialite La Sizwe as well as some of Johannesburg’s best youth jazz musicians for its fourth annual festival.

Sacred Heart College in Observatory, Johannesburg, will hold the festival on October 7.

All proceeds will go to the Scholarship Fund at Sacred Heart, which provides a quality education for deserving students.

The festival caters for the whole family and includes a children’s entertainment area, food vendors, market stalls and live entertainment.

“In keeping with the value of ‘presence’, one of the five pillars of Marist founder St Marcellin Champagnat, families are invited to bring extended family and friends to enjoy this community-oriented day, with delicious food on sale and a selection of music, across all gen-

res,” said the school’s public relations officer, Lynn Walker.

The iconic Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse, will make a guest appearance on stage with his son’s jazz band, joining other school jazz bands on stage.

House band Hov n Bae will take the day into the sunset by entertaining festival patrons with a variety of party classics.

Euphonik DJ, La Sizwe and RISE Academy DJs will also be on the decks in support and will close off the evening.

Lots of entertainment will be provided for those of 12 years and under, including a giant inflatable area and facepainters. There will be a dedicated entertainment area for younger children aged three to six, with child-minders offered. n Tickets from the college at 15 Eckstein Street in Observatory or at www.sacredheartfestival.co. za. For more information contact Josi Kruger at josi@uparty.co.za or 011 447 6651.

A

FTER a winter filled with ailments, the retired priests at Nazareth House in Cape Town were spoiled with care parcels.

Catholicare, an initiative of Milnerton/Brooklyn parish, visited the retired priests to deliver parcels that included personal care items as well as fruit, charcuterie, savouries, chocolates and some tipple.

“This small gesture was our way of letting them know that we remember our retired Fathers and the enormous contribution they have made to our faith, our Church, and our communities,” said Mireille Wenger, chair of Catholicare.

“It was truly wonderful to see their excitement and appreciation.”

Catholicare was founded in 1991

by Fr Stan Botha as the parish’s charitable programme whereby Catholics would be able to practise their charity to those in need of any assistance.

Activities often include helping the poor, unemployed and homeless, and caring for the sick, housebound and seniors, as well as for prisoners.

Catholicare also offers HIV/Aids counselling, and links to other Catholic

Women parishioners at Christ the King church in Wentworth, Durban, have started My Sister’s Keeper ministry to support and uplift women.

Several members are seen with parish priest Fr Jean-Baptiste Mpuni Langong OMI.

New women’s support ministry

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

HE Durban parish of Christ the King in Wentworth has started a new ministry, My Sister’s Keeper.

The group of 30 women, which continues to grow in numbers, is dedicated to uplifting and supporting women who are single mothers, affected by divorce, have experienced the death of a spouse, are in abusive

and difficult relationships, and other situations that affect family life.

There will be monthly meetings, outreach support from a network of sisters, and spiritual activities.

Founded on the values of St Margaret the Barefooted—the patron saint of brides, victims of abuse, difficult marriages, widows and the poor—the group will seek to support the broken-hearted in the same way.

Retired priests Fr Ralph de Hahn (above) and Bishop Reginald Cawcutt (right) received care packs from Catholicare at Nazareth House in Cape Town. and non-Catholic organisations.

“We have been blessed with donors through our fundraising efforts which allow us to visit the sick and housebound, and care for the elderly in our community, among many other activities. We also make contributions to the retired priests’ medical aid fund whenever possible,” Ms Wenger said.

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Talk to group on substance abuse

BY JACOB M EIMAN

T

HE newly formed Holistic Women’s Group at St Mary Magdalene parish in Lentegeur, Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, had its first awareness talk on substance and alcohol abuse.

The group called on the services of the Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre and director Ashley Potts addressed the gathering.

Members said the talk was informative and helpful, and they discovered that support dealing with substance abuse was indeed on their doorstep.

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Women at St Mary Magdalene parish in Lentegeur, Cape Town, hear a talk on substance abuse by Cape Town Drug Counselling director Ashley Potts.

The retired priests wrote a letter thanking Catholicare for the gifts they received. “Although as elderly residents we need to watch our appetites and diet, there is so much here that we are all happily satisfied. Thank you for such loving kindness to us in the ‘departure lounge’. With love and deep gratitude, ‘The Retired Gentlemen’.”

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The Southern Cross, October 4 to October 10, 2017

INTERNATIONAL

Pope: Political corruption ‘banalises evil’, like mafia

BY CINDY WOODEN

W

HEN politics becomes all about partisan interests and secret deals, it leaves behind its true vocation and becomes susceptible to the same influences of corruption that allow the mafia to flourish, Pope Francis said.

Authentic politics is “an eminent form of charity”, which strives to ensure a future of peace and full dignity for every person, whereas “a deviated politics” no longer listens to the conscience, but “banalises evil, confuses truth with lies and profits from the role of public responsibility it has been given”, the pope said.

Meeting with members of Italy’s anti-mafia parliamentary commission, Pope Francis praised Italian

laws that seek to involve the government and citizens, religious communities and volunteer associations in the fight against organised crime.

In particular, he cited the wisdom of provisions whereby some of the convicted mafia members’ property, confiscated by the government, is turned over to nonprofit groups to provide training and jobs to students and the unemployed.

Corruption, poverty and social injustice are the “fertile fields” upon which organised crime grows and thrives, he said.

Corruption is not interested in the common good but focuses on the self-interest of an individual or group, he said. The corrupt think they can get ahead by being “sly”.

While direct legal attacks on the

mafia are essential, they will not be enough to end organised crime, the pope said. Politicians must work for “greater social justice because the mafia has it easy when it can offer itself as an alternative system in a region where rights and opportunities are lacking: work, a home, education, health care”.

But economic manoeuvres are also necessary for “the correction or cancellation of those mechanisms that generate inequality and poverty”, he said.

Too often it seems that “finance is sovereign over democracy”, which enables organised crime to make billions through trafficking drugs and weapons or through manipulated contracts for public works or toxic-waste handling.—CNS

Milone had been in office just two years, although he had a five-year contract.

The position of auditor-general was seen as a key component of Pope Francis’ efforts to reform Vatican finances and bring greater transparency in financial dealings.

According to statutes issued by Pope Francis, the auditor-general has the power to audit the books of any Vatican office and reports directly to the pope.

Mr Milone, 68, an Italian accountant and expert in corporate risk management, was chairman of Deloitte Italy and served three years as a member of the audit committee of the United Nations’ World Food Programme.

The Vatican statement expressed surprise that Mr Milone had gone to the news agency Reuters and other news outlets when, at the time he left the Vatican, he had agreed not to discuss the circum-

stances of his leaving.

Mr Milone told Reuters his troubles had begun in 2015, when he suspected that his office computer had been tampered with. He contacted an external company that had done work for him before to check for surveillance devices “because there are no such specialised people” in the Vatican.

The company discovered that his computer had been the target of an unauthorised access, and that his secretary’s computer had been infected with spyware that copied files, he told Reuters.

But Archbishop Angelo Becciu, Vatican undersecretary of state, told Reuters there was proof that the outside contractor had been helping Mr Milone to spy on others, “including me”. The archbishop added, “If he had not agreed to resign, we would have prosecuted him.”—CNS

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, swings a censer in front of a reliquary that holds a relic of Bl Stanley Rother during his beatification Mass in Oklahoma City. Bl Rother (inset) was murdered in 1981 in the Guatemalan village where he ministered. (Main photo: Steve Sisney, Oklahoma City Archdiocese)

Catholic schools told: Vatican auditor: I was forced to quit ‘Be agents of hope’

BY CINDY WOODEN

T

HE first person to serve as the Vatican’s independent auditor said he was forced to resign after opponents of Pope Francis’ financial reforms mounted a campaign against him.

But the Vatican press office responded saying Libero Milone, “going outside his competencies, illegally hired an external company to undertake investigative activities about the private lives of representatives of the Holy See”.

“This, besides being a crime, irremediably strained the trust placed in Dr Milone,” the statement said.

It added that the Vatican’s internal investigation of his actions was conducted with care and respect.

Without providing an explanation, the Vatican in June announced that Mr Milone turned in a letter of resignation, which was accepted by Pope Francis. Mr

T

HE Vatican is asking Catholic schools and universities to take the lead in pioneering education networks that value individual identity and talent, but also help students see how their gifts can contribute to the common good.

The Congregation for Catholic Education presented broad guidelines in the document Educating to Fraternal Humanism.

“The document underlines how urgent and necessary it is to humanise education, favouring a culture of encounter and dialogue,” Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the congregation, said. Firmly convinced Christ’s offer of salvation is open to all people, Catholic schools should be agents for “globalising hope”, educating young people to promote solidarity, brotherhood and care for the environment.

Currently, there are more than

216 000 Catholic schools “with a student population that exceeds 60 million pupils from every faith and ethnic group”, the cardinal said. In addition, there are some 1 800 Catholic universities around the world.

The new document describes “the need to look after the good of others as if it were one’s own” as “a clear priority for the political agenda of our civil systems”, and something Catholic schools are well-equipped to help foster by educating students with Christian values.

For the congregation, “humanising education” means helping each student develop his or her talents and discover his or her vocation while understanding that those talents and vocations are designed to be at the service of the community and, in fact, of the common good of all.—CNS

‘War robs S. Sudan kids of childhood’ How views of Martin W Luther have evolved AR in South Sudan has robbed young people of their childhood and given them challenges unknown to their peers in most other countries, said the head of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

“My heart breaks at the thought that your childhoods are being taken away from you daily, but I know that you have not lost your vision or your hope for a better future,” Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio, South Sudan, said in a statement.

The bishops’ conference includes all dioceses in Sudan and South Sudan, which split in 2011, when South Sudan became the world’s newest country. Barely three years after its independence from Sudan,

a power struggle pitting President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, plunged South Sudan into civil war. The war has killed thousands, displaced nearly one million people, ignited a man-made famine and destroyed the country’s economy.

In South Sudan and Sudan, it is “necessary for us to stop awhile” and “invite peace into our hearts, because we have lost everything to wars”, Bishop Kussala said.

Addressing young people, the bishop said that in the past few years, he has had “the bittersweet privilege to witness how quickly you grew, and how quickly you matured”.

The killings and incessant fighting that have plagued South Sudan

“have changed you”, he said, noting that he feels young people’s frustrations, which is evident on their faces, in their voices, in what they sing and in what they write on social media.

“It takes a lot of courage to take the first step, where our parents and elders have, sadly, failed,” Bishop Kussala said.

“Unlike you, we are entrenched in our old habits, prejudices, hate, injustices, and even pettiness, and it is not easy to let go of our selfishness, for it is how we have been able to survive and preserve ourselves in these dark times,” he said.

“But now it is time to look forward and we, living in a small country, can do that together,” he said.

—CNS

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BY MARK PATTISON

H

OW Protestants regarded Martin Luther has evolved as the Reformation he engendered has likewise evolved, according to German Catholic theologian Fr Peter Neuner.

“To us Luther is not only a historical person, but also a product of interested memory,” Fr Neuner said in an address during Georgetown University’s conference on “1517-2017: Lutherans and Catholics, Then and Now”. “He has become a symbolic figure,” he added. “But a symbol of what?”

Fr Neuner, a retired professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, noted that in the first decades after Luther’s death, “there arose a Lutheran orthodoxy, based on Luther’s writings. The reformer was regarded as the timeless prophet of the Christian message.”

By the time of the Reformation’s bicentennial in 1717, “Luther was praised as the religious genius who had concentrated Christian religion to an immediate experience of Jesus,” Fr Neuner said. With the Enlightenment-fuelled tricentennial in 1817, “Luther was regarded as the bringer of the light of reason, the liberator from the darkness and of the superstition of medieval times and of papal slavery,” Fr Neuner added.

From the Catholic perspective, though, “Catholic theology traditionally saw Luther as the false monk who had split the Church and destructed her unity. His work was reduced to a break from the perennial Church and her tradition,”

Martin Luther, who nailed his 95 theses to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, 500 years ago this month, in a painting at a church in Helsingor, Denmark. (Photo: Crosiers/CNS) Fr Neuner said.

However, he added: “There began among Catholic scholars a more adequate and fair evaluation.”

A 20th-century German Catholic theologian, Joseph Lortz, attributed a large part of the responsibility of splitting the Church “not to Luther, but to the official Church in the late Middle Ages,” Fr Neuner said. “In the words of Lortz: ‘Luther fought a Catholicism which actually was not catholic’.”

At its heart, he added, “Luther’s Reformation was not a revolution against the pope, but a breakthrough of the biblical message of justification.” Without that foundation, “the commemorations of this year are in danger of becoming rootless and superficial,” Fr Neuner said.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, October 4 to October 10, 2017

Holy Land Christians demand action on church attacks by extremist Jews

BY JUDITH SUDILOVSKY

C

HRISTIANS in the Holy Land, including Catholic leaders, have expressed frustration with lack of legal action against cases of desecration and vandalism of sacred places.

Even as the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land issued a statement condemning the desecration and vandalism of a Catholic shrine in Israel, some people criticised the statement’s “weak language� and asked, “How long will we be tolerant?� “Unfortunately, in these situations we feel how vulnerable we are,� one person wrote on Facebook.

The latest incident took place at St Stephen church inside the Beit Jamal Salesian monastery west of Jerusalem. The monastery is open for visitors and generally has good relations with its Jewish neighbours, including the resi-

dents of an ultra-Orthodox town, said Salesian Father Antonio Scudu, caretaker of the church.

Pilgrims to the church discovered the vandalism, which included a shattered statue of Mary, broken faces of figures on the stained-glass windows, and a destroyed cross. “I was shocked,� said Fr Scudu. “I didn’t expect to see something like this. The church is always open. If you see what happened, you feel they did it with hate.

They smashed everything.�

It is the third time the Beit Jamal community has been vandalised in the past five years.

Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said evidence had been collected at the site and the investigation was ongoing. He denied charges of police inefficiency in vandalism investigations. “There have been arrests in previous cases. We are looking into this case to see if it was an individ-

This kind of case is top priority.�

He said authorities do not believe there is any connection between most of the cases nor some sort of “vandalism cell� operating against Christian and Muslim holy sites.

As in past statements, the bishops called for better education towards tolerance and coexistence. “While we demand the state, with all its relevant bodies, to work for punishing the attackers and educate the people not to make similar offences, we pray to the Almighty for the retreat of the attackers and hoping that all peoples, especially at our Holy Land, learn to coexist with each other in A shattered statue of Mary and the love and mutual respect, regardless Christ Child after an attack by Jewto the diversities among them,� ish extremists in a church near they said.

Jerusalem. (Photo: Debbie Hill/CNS) Wadie Abunassar, adviser to the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of ual or a group. These are all sepa- the Holy Land, said there have rate cases,� said Mr Rosenfeld. been some 80 incidents of vandal“People can say what they want. ism against churches and Chris-

Group calls pope a ‘heretic’ T

HE signatories to the so-called “filial correction� of Pope Francis included several conservative priests and theologians, as well as a number of non-theologians, the head of a schismatic group, and a former head of the Vatican Bank who was dismissed for various reasons after being investigated for money laundering.

They also include a South African, pro-life activist and medical doctor Claude Newbury.

The “filial correction� accused Pope Francis of taking several heretical positions in some of his teachings about marriage, particularly about access to the sacraments for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Catholic News Service reported.

The best-known name among the signatories is Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior-general of the “traditionalist� Priestly Society of St Pius X, the group founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre which is not in communion with Rome.

The letter originally was signed by 40 people and delivered to Pope Francis in August; the writers said they did not receive a response, so they released it publicly The Vatican press office had no comment about the letter.

Neither Cardinal Raymond Burke nor Cardinal Walter BrandmĂźller, the surviving two of the four cardi-

nals who in September 2016 publicly released a critical set of questions, known as “dubia�, to Pope Francis, signed the letter.

As recently as August, Cardinal Burke spoke in an interview about issuing a “formal correction� of Pope Francis if he did not respond to the “dubia�. The correction, he said, would be a declaration of Church teaching, rather than a set of questions.

The new letter accuses Pope Francis of “the propagation of heresies effected by the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia and by other words, deeds and omissions of Your Holiness�.

Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love�) is the document Pope Francis released in 2016 reflecting on the discussions and conclusions of the meetings in 2014 and 2015 of the Synod of Bishops on the family.

In the document, Pope Francis affirmed Church teaching that the sacrament of marriage is the bond of one man and one woman united for life and open to having children.

However, the document also encouraged parishes and priests to reach out to couples whose marriages have failed, reminding them that they have not been excommunicated.

In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis asked pastors: to accompany those

who have remarried civilly; to check if their sacramental marriage was valid or if they could receive a decree of nullity; and to lead them in a process of discernment about their responsibility for the breakup and about their current situation in light of Church teaching.

The document seemed to open the possibility—in certain cases and after the discernment process—of allowing them to receive absolution and Communion even without promising to abstain from sexual relations with their new partner.

The so-called “filial correction� lists what its authors see as seven “false and heretical propositions� in Amoris Laetitia, including: a belief that God’s grace does not give a believer the strength to meet “the objective demands of divine law�; that divorced and civilly remarried persons “are not necessarily in a state of mortal sin�; that a person can break divine law and not be in a state of sin; that a person can decide in good conscience that sexual relations are morally permissible or even good with someone other than the person they married sacramentally; and that “our Lord Jesus Christ wills that the Church abandon her perennial discipline of refusing the Eucharist to the divorced and remarried�.

The letter asked the pope to publicly reject the seven propositions.

VIVA SAFARIS

tians sites over the last decade. In most of the cases, no arrests or indictments have taken place, he said.

Still, he said, arresting perpetrators would not be enough to prevent such incidents from recurring. Incitement charges must also be brought against those provoking such actions—including several prominent extremist rabbis, he said. “We get sympathy and nice words from everybody, but we are sick of that. We want convictions, not only indictments,� Mr Abunassar said. “It is a very sad story. People are asking why we should not go demonstrate, to protest.�

He noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to respond to several requests from the bishops to meet with him concerning the continuing vandalism.—CNS

Pope: Mercy scandalises those blind to own sin

BY CINDY WOODEN

P

OPE Francis has said it is interesting how many Catholics today seem to be scandalised when God shows mercy to someone.

In a homily at Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Pope Francis noted how Jesus sees Matthew, a tax collector—“one of those who made the people of Israel pay taxes to give to the Romans, a traitor to his country�—and calls him to follow.

Jesus looks at him “lovingly, mercifully� and “the resistance of that man who wanted money, who was a slave to money, falls�. “That man knew he was a sinner,� the pope said. “He was liked by no one and even despised.� But it was “precisely that awareness of being a sinner that opened the door to Jesus’ mercy. He left everything and followed.� “The first condition for being saved is knowing you are in danger,� he said. “The first condition for being healed is feeling sick.�

Pope Francis quoted the gospel of Luke: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who have no need

of repentance.�

But, the pope said, the Pharisees saw Jesus with Matthew and were scandalised that he would eat with tax collectors and sinners.

The Pharisees were people who continually repeated, “The law says this, doctrine says that,� the pope said. “But they forgot the first commandment of love and were closed in a cage of sacrifices, saying: ‘We make our sacrifices to God, we keep the Sabbath, we do all we should and so we’ll be saved’.�

But, the pope said, “God saves us, Jesus Christ saves us and these men did not understand. They felt secure; they thought salvation came from them.�

In the same way today, he said, “we often hear faithful Catholics who see mercy at work and ask, ‘Why?’�

There are “many, many, always, even in the Church today�, the pope said. “They say: ‘No, no you can’t, it’s all clear, they are sinners, we must send them away’.�

But, Pope Francis said, Jesus himself answered them when he said, “I have come not to call the just, but sinners.� So, “if you want to be called by Jesus, recognise you are a sinner�.—CNS

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6

The Southern Cross, October 4 to October 10, 2017

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: GĂźnther Simmermacher

Rebellion in the Church

W

E are living in an era of culture wars, and the Church is not immune

from it.

Typically the noise in these social conflicts, today amplified by social media, is marked by hype, distortion and fear-mongering. These are some of the tools that have helped demagogues and extremists record electoral successes in many parts of the world.

These are also the tools that are being employed by some of those who have set themselves up in opposition to Pope Francis.

A narrative has taken hold that suggests that the pope’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia is doctrinally unsound— particularly in its vague pastoral provision on Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics. Of course it isn’t, as even Cardinal Gerhard Mßller, former prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine and an outspoken critic of the Holy Father, has acknowledged.

Indeed, all of Amoris Laetitia is a fair reflection of the 2014-15 Synod of Bishops on the Family.

If the pope is in error, then so is the majority of bishops.

Still, the rumpus around it continues. Last year four cardinals presented their unanswerable questions, the famous “dubia�, to the Holy Father and then presented their letter to the media, publicising their dissent.

Opinion pieces attacking the pope on all manner of things are getting broad audiences. Character assassinations of the Holy Father are in full swing.

And now a group of rightwing theologians, priests and laity have issued a “filial correction� of the pope, accusing him of heresy. Naturally they leaked the content to the media.

The PR work of that group deserves our respect; their “correction� does not.

Their letter accuses Pope Francis of propagating seven heretical positions on marriage, moral life and the sacraments in Amoris Laetitia and other “acts, words and omissions�. It is a serious but poorly substantiated charge which, since it was made public, is also a calumny.

And it has no ecclesiastical authority. This group’s only bishop is Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of St Pius X, which is separated from Rome; other sig-

natories are also aligned with that group.

On whose apostolic authority are they acting to issue a “filial correction�? Whom do they represent?

Their flamboyant claim that the last time such a correction was issued was in 1333 can be dismissed as PR nonsense. Every pope has received letters accusing him all of manner of heresies.

An authentic filial correction of a pope would require a complex process led by a representative group of people with the apostolic authority to do so—not a group of malcontents writing a stern letter.

Their public letter constitutes an open declaration of rebellion against the Chair of St Peter. No matter how these people couch their protest in the language of “concern� and invoke a theology which one may struggle to locate in the Gospel, theirs is not an initiative for sincere dialogue. It is rebellion.

That cannot be tolerated.

Those signatories who fall under the authority of the Holy See— priests in communion with Rome and Catholic theologians—should be held to account for participating in this impertinent attack on the Vicar of Christ.

But the anti-Francis lobby’s mission has been accomplished: to create confusion and to plant the idea among some of the faithful that Pope Francis is playing fast and loose with doctrine, theology and canon law, and may therefore be disregarded.

The sustained attacks on the Holy Father also have a longterm goal: to influence and intimidate those whose task it will be one sad day to elect his successor. By creating chaos, and then blaming it on Pope Francis, his opponents are hoping that the next conclave will elect a pope who is more to their taste, one who does not place God’s love and mercy above the law.

It is a dangerous game, for it attacks not just one particular pope but the papacy in general.

But the centre must hold, whether one likes the incumbent pope or not.

One may disagree with a pope on many things. Fair dialogue must be allowed to exist.

But it is a betrayal of the Church to deliberately undermine the Chair of St Peter.

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.

Travelling Abbot Pfanner’s terrain

I

T is wonderful that The Southern Cross is highlighting the apostolate of the remarkable Abbot Francis Pfanner.

What a magnificent man! With fearless courage, deep piety and indefatigable energy, this visionary made a beautiful Mariannhill domain in the lovely hills of the Drakensberg.

My wife Brenda and I, on a University of the Third Age tour, were inspired by the mission field of the Mariannhill Trappist monks, Fathers, Sisters and Brothers who created holy places of great impact.

Humanae Vitae truly justified

T

HE article “Behind the scenes of Humanae Vitae� (August 16) drew attention to the following.

In 1968 Pope Paul VI issued the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae, now an integral part of Catholic teaching, which prohibited all artificial birth control because of the following principles: 1. Sexual relations cannot be divorced from fecundity.

2. The above practice, by preventing conception and birth after sexual relations, breaches the law of nature, which is the law of Almighty God. There was immediate dissent from a large portion of world opinion, including many senior Catholic prelates, who then expressed their approval of the birth control pill.

This dissent, internationally and in South Africa, has proliferated over the years and is very evident in the Church today.

However, there has been a modern development which has rendered it unjustifiable, illogical and harmful. This is the indisputable medical knowledge today that most forms of artificial birth control are abortifacient and often destroy new infant lives in the womb.

This basic truth is lucidly verified and explained by American Randy Alcorn in his booklet “Does the birth control pill cause abortions?�, which can be read online at w w w. e p m . o r g / s t a t i c / u p l o a d s / downloads/bcpill.pdf and bought at www.epm.org This dissent is today resulting in increased human deaths in the womb and the loss of immortal souls. It should thus cease forthwith and be replaced in our churches by sermons and courses which support and explain Humanae Vitae and the immense benefits and blessings that can flow from this important encyclical.

Damian McLeish, Johannesburg

These were stationed usually one hard day’s donkey ride apart and were built from bricks made onsite.

They were named after famous shrines like Lourdes and Emaus and were established by missionaries whom the Mariannhill religious attracted from all over the world.

Well-researched commentary by our guide, Natal historian Nicki von der Heyde, gave us a vivid account of the history of the area.

At Lourdes we spoke to a Polish nun who, with a group of religious, is working hard to uplift local people.

Except for the church—which is

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

Killing those no longer ‘useful’

T

WO terminally ill persons, Dr Sue Walter, 43, and Dieter Harck, 68, jointly submitted an application at the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg in September, calling for the legalisation of euthanasia for consenting patients so that they can end their lives.

What is rather startling in this case is that a professional medical doctor is turning her vocation to heal, cure and comfort into the mouthpiece and test case for euthanasia. “Dying with dignity�, as the euthanasia campaign is called, is a euphemism for an act that lowers a human being to a utilitarian end.

The age and condition of the human person is now the yardstick that determines their value and ultimately their useful or uselessness to the family or society.

Supporters of euthanasia use flowery language and words to numb the senses to sell a lie as truth. Those who kill the innocent in society are murderers; those who kill the unborn are abortionists; those who seek to legally end the life of a human being because there is no cure for their suffering can aptly be called executioners.

Is it rational that a medical doctor should write the script for sustaining life and also the script for deliberate death?

Assisted suicide is not “first prize�—healing, comfort, love and patience for the sick is. Just because we cannot rid the patient of the dis-

beautiful, as are the churches at every mission station—the buildings at Lourdes (former workshops) have fallen into disrepair. This group of volunteers has a desire to restore them but funds are lacking.

At Emaus, where Abbot Pfanner died, there are Stations of the Cross too steep a climb for most visitors to ascend. At the third station there is a shrine to Our Lady and at the summit a large silver cross—impressive, especially at night when floodlit. A nun from Malawi told us that the lights were stolen—but then mysteriously reappeared!

We enjoyed an interesting and inspiring few days.

Brian Commins, Cape Town

ease, it does not follow that we rid the patient from society.

Dr Walter has surely injected many patients to bring healing, as her profession requires. Surely the “medical experts� who wish to introduce a law should have the knowledge and understanding that filling a syringe with poison to be inserted into the vein of a living person places the burden on another to perform the act of an executioner.

The human endeavour is the pursuit of life and happiness. We have laws designed to order society for the common good of all. The golden rule of doing unto others what you wish they do unto you is the bedrock of just about all legal systems.

Why do we have laws that guide us on how to obey the road ordinances; how we build our houses; how we protect the safety of our citizens with fire systems and health and safety measures to protect all forms of life?

Why do we spend billions to do research to find cures for the myriad ailments that beset humanity?

Do we abandon our desire for the common good and give power to a few that espouse the desire for “some� good that excludes the aged, infirm, institutionalised, the innocent, and those who cannot speak for themselves?

Henry R Sylvester, Cape Town

Vinegar sponge an act of mercy

T

HE main drink of the lower ranks of the Roman army was vinegar-and-water. “The Roman Army marched on vinegar,� says Leonard Cottrell in The Great Invasion (referring to the invasion of Britain, published in1961 by Pan Books Ltd).

This fact will explain that when the centurion offered Jesus Christ a sponge soaked in vinegar, he was performing a charitable act. It was his own standard drink.

Adrian Kettle, Cape Town

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PERSPECTIVES

Old bones inspired me I HAVE just come back from Rome. As you walk around the “Eternal City”— and I walked 50km in four days—you are conscious that you are treading on the bones of the past.

That is partly because around every corner there is some ruin or other of Ancient Rome, the city of emperors and gladiators, and partly because they are so many famous graveyards—the catacombs; and even one Franciscan community that has preserved, in artistic arrangements, the bones of centuries of friars in an ossuary.

But the real reason is that so many of Rome’s churches have been built to honour the remains of our Christian ancestors.

It starts with the most famous church, St Peter’s basilica. Directly below the high altar, it is believed with strong justification, lies the site of the tomb of St Peter himself.

That is why the church was built there.

Indeed, the link between altars and bones is built into all our churches. The earliest Christians in Rome often celebrated Mass in the catacombs to hide from their persecutors and to feel close to those who had been martyred. So the tombs themselves served as the earliest altars.

That link continues today with the tradition that inside every altar there are relics of a saint, preferably a martyr, so that each one is, in a sense, a martyr’s tomb.

That is one of the reasons why the priest kisses the altar when he approaches it.

So, as I walked across Rome I stumbled into churches containing the relics of many of those famous martyrs whose names we hear in the liturgy: Philip and James, Cecilia and Agnes, Cosmas and Damian.

But Rome’s bones are not just of early martyrs. Holy men and women who died in Rome have also had churches built to honour their remains. So the fabulously baroque Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuits, contains the tomb of St Ignatius Loyola. The more modest Church of St Augustine contains the tomb of his mother St Monica.

Moreover, just because you did not die in Rome does not mean you cannot be venerated there. Religious orders are especially keen to bring a part of the body of a founder to Rome so that they are more visibly included in the communion of saints.

Most of St Francis Xavier is preserved in the Bom Jesus church in Goa in India. But his right arm is displayed just opposite his old friend Ignatius in the Gesù in Rome.

I was saddened to hear that the relic of St Eugene de Mazenod, founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which had been brought from France to Rome to be kept in the altar of their mother house, had accidentally been reduced to dust by an overzealous priest—but the dust is still there.

The Church, as you would expect, is quite specific about what counts as a relic.

Only a part of the person’s body is a “first degree relic”, the sort that can go into an altar. Something that they used or wore in life is a “second degree relic”, still precious and with some value of rarity. The “third degree relics” are anything which has touched a “first degree relic”, so these are obviously much more commonplace.

O

ften the most prized are body parts that represent something of the reputation of the saint. That is why it is Francis Xavier’s right arm which is there: it is the one he used for baptising so many thousands of converts.

In Padua, it is St Anthony’s tongue that is on display, recalling his reputation for oratory.

I should not, therefore, have been surprised when I walked into one church and found the foot of St Mary Magdalene—after all this was the first foot which stepped into Jesus’ empty tomb on Easter Sunday

Raymond Perrier’s highlight of Rome: The tomb of St John XXIII in St Peter’s basilica.

What is our real mission?

I AM a lay person involved in ministry, aware of the role of the laity in the temporal domain.

This self-description sometimes clarifies the idea of mission for me and at others totally confuses it.

What and where and how and for and to whom is our mission, the mission for which Jesus sends us out?

Since Vatican II the role of the laity has been described frequently. Pope John Paul II in his 1988 apostolic exhortation Christefidelis Laici states that the role of the laity is in the temporal domain—the world.

Politics, economics, social and cultural affairs; all these and more are our evangelising field. In my mission, I see all that with family eyes, trying to make them “familyfriendly”.

John Paul II, in presenting the tasks of the family in the Church, also refers to the temporal domain, before sharing in the mission and life of the Church. But what exactly is that mission and where is the locus for ministry and evangelisation?

Pope Francis in his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium tells us the New Evangelisation is aimed at three areas.

Firstly, ordinary pastoral ministry is “animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as to inflame the hearts” of the regular faithful towards their spiritual growth.

Secondly, it is for those baptised who lack a meaningful relationship with the Church for a variety of reasons.

Thirdly, he writes, “evangelisation is first and foremost about preaching the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus Christ or have rejected him”.

The pope explained: “Christians have the duty to proclaim the Gospel and appear as people who wish to share their joy, point to a horizon of beauty and invite others to a delicious banquet.”

They may be seeking him but will only respond to our attractiveness. Therein lies the challenge for me. Are our families cared for and supported in their need to be examples of the experience of joy?

Pope Francis has newly initiated the

Belgian songwriter Jacques Brel in 1963.

Toni Rowland suggests one of his songs for meditation. (Photo: Nationaal Archief) World Day of the Poor, to be observed on November 19, the Sunday before the feast of Christ the King.

In the latest Family Matters magazine a summary of his message is partnered with a reflection activity on “Blessed are the poor in spirit”.

Over half of our population in South Africa—and that means the different types of families—are reported to be living below the breadline. Poverty is an enormous world problem but spiritual poverty can also be an empty-headed focus on externals, building and refurbishing structures, rather than building up people and families.

As laity we can throw money at the building projects or even poverty alleviation projects, compensating for lack of attention to the neighbours in our homes and street.

I

s this a cry from the heart? The premise of the recently published Australian report on child sexual abuse in the Church is that the Church is behaving ostrich-like, burying its head in the sand and choosing to ignore two issues: one is that the abuse is real; the other is that priests are not considered ordinary people like the rest of us, and are somehow put on a pedestal.

Are we all, the laity included, genuinely holding one another to account? I’m ask-

Raymond Perrier

Faith and Society

morning. But as I admired the precious reliquary that contained the bone, and the devotion of the people praying there, I could not help but feel a pang of scepticism.

Surely it was pretty unlikely that Mary Magdalene had her foot preserved and brought to Rome. This could really only be a “pious tradition”. And then I started worrying about all the other relics, how many were genuine and how many were not.

Does it matter? I would like to suggest that it does not. We do not—or we should not—believe that relics are magic amulets that contain some sort of supernatural power. That would be paganism. Instead, they are important for what they represent and what they trigger in us.

When standing in front of something which may or may not be the foot of Mary Magdalene, I am better able to reflect on that Easter dawn and the experience of encountering the Risen Lord. That is what matters.

St Jerome put this most eloquently: “We do not worship, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator. Instead, we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are.”

So seeing inscriptions marking the tombs of martyrs, I recall those who have suffered for the faith, and pray for those who continue to suffer for the faith. Visiting the tomb of St Monica, I recall how much she endured as she saw her son’s tortuous spiritual journey, and I pray for all long-suffering mothers (whose patron she is).

My highlight of Rome was kneeling in front of the glass coffin of St John XXIII, his infectious smile still evident on his embalmed body.

And there I prayed for the vision of the Church that he began to realise when he called the Second Vatican Council. I recalled bishops like Denis Hurley OMI who worked to bring that vision to reality.

So as I returned from Rome to Durban it was not Good St John’s bones but his spirit that propelled me back with renewed zeal for the Church.

Toni Rowland

Family Friendly

ing because I believe there is much that is wrong with the way we in our families conduct ourselves too. Can there be joy if we are preaching one thing and living another?

Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia asks, “Where are our children?” Do we as parents know where they are and what they are up to? Do we as pastors and ministers know and don’t care, or do we know and care but are frustrated in our efforts?

A very special song for me is Jacques Brel’s “If We Only Have Love”. It’s not one I have heard in church—although Brel was a Catholic—but it captures the sentiments of Pope Francis very well, even though it was written some 50 years earlier.

The song and the words can be downloaded and meditated upon as a missionary activity. “If we only have love, then tomorrow will dawn and the days of our years will rise on that morn,” Brel sings.

“If we only have love we can melt all the guns and can give the new world to our daughters and sons.”

“If we only have love with the little we are, we’ll have conquered all time, all space, the sun and the stars.”

Is that what our true mission is and are we well on the road to addressing that, or are we building empty edifices to dead idols?

If, as Pope Francis begins in Amoris Laetitia, “the joy of the Church is the joy of families”, we might learn from St Francis of Assisi.

When Jesus told him to “Go and rebuild my church”, Francis initially thought he was asked to fix a building— but, no, it was the people who needed to be reformed, to reignited with that love, and to experience his joy.

We in Marfam want to see it as our mission, and we need help in that. Visit www.marfam.org.za or contact info@ marfam.org.za to join in our mission.

And the full lyrics of the Jacques Brel song are at www.bit.ly/2xtyjIw

The Southern Cross, October 4 to October 10, 2017

7

Tony Magliano

Point of Justice

50 years occupation is just too long

F

IFTY years is a long time to endure forced suffering. Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War— when Israel captured and occupied the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the remaining part of the West Bank and Gaza—the Palestinian people have lived under the heavy yoke of Israeli military occupation.

“Whether it’s a child imprisoned by a military court or shot unjustifiably, or a house demolished for lack of an elusive permit, or checkpoints where only settlers are allowed to pass, few Palestinians have escaped serious rights abuses during this 50-year occupation,” according to Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch in the Middle East (see more at www.bit.ly/2s9rc5n).

Bishop William Shomali, auxiliary bishop of the patriarchate of Jerusalem, told me that one of the most pressing problems facing Palestinians is the Israeli-imposed restrictions on movement.

For example, he noted, Palestinians living in Bethlehem or Ramallah need to obtain a permit to go just 10km to Jerusalem. And permits are given only during principal feasts.

He said the ongoing illegal building of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is an extremely serious roadblock to a peaceful solution.

According to Amnesty International, “swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories stand in stark contrast next to Palestinian villages whose inhabitants struggle to meet their essential domestic water needs.

“In many places Palestinians receive water only one day per week or every few weeks, in some areas not for months at a time.”

B

ishop Shomali told me that “Gaza is the worst case. It’s an open-air prison.” With the blockade, Israel completely controls who and what comes and goes in Gaza.

He said that Hamas’ numerous attacks against Israelis are also morally wrong. The many violent Israeli injustices against Palestinians, and Hamas’ violent attacks upon Israelis is a vicious cycle that can only be broken with peace, he said.

To correct these injustices, Bishop Shomali said Israel needs to participate in good-faith negotiations towards the two-state solution: the establishment of an independent, viable Palestinian nation coexisting peacefully with a fully recognised state of Israel.

He emphasised that the two-state solution continues to be firmly supported by the Holy See. Jessica Pollock-Kim, communications director of Churches for Middle East Peace, told me: “Beyond all the tangible impacts of ongoing occupation that I’ve witnessed in person and from a distance over almost 20 years is something equally, if not more damaging, the eroding of hope.”

To help restore the priceless gift of hope for our Palestinian brothers and sisters let’s take to heart the words of Pope Francis: “We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent is worth it.” n Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. You can read his fortnightly articles at www.scross.co.za/category/ perspectives/tony-magliano/

8

The Southern Cross, October 4 to October 10, 2017

COMMUNITY

De La Salle Holy Cross College Junior School in Johannesburg’s pupils, teachers and support staff celebrated Heritage Day by coming in traditional dress. Everyone paid R10 to go towards charity at Christmas. At a special assembly pupils sang the national anthem and African songs, and prayed for their country. Some brought dishes of their national food to share, the Grade 3s had a braai and the Grade 6s made stokbrood.

Pupils at St Benedict’s College in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, won the 2017 Inter-Catholic Chess Competition. Twenty teams competed in the tournament, with two teams per school. The full team photo shows (back from left) T Walters and Y Govender and (front from left) N Li, E Yaun, H Lei, J Kum, E Coelho and D Young.

At the Catholic Provincial Music Competition in Johannesburg diocese, St Peter Claver parish in Pimville, Soweto, took home three trophies. They won the Western section (with “Come Gently Spring”) and the African section (with “Busa Morena”) and came second in the hymn section (with “Rara wa Rona”). Choir members presented parish priest Fr Tom Segami OMI with their trophies.

(Photo: Sello Mokoka)

St Patrick’s parish in Mowbray, Cape Town, held a Harvest Festival and Thanksgiving Mass.

Pictured are members of the parish in various cultural dress with parish priest Fr Brian Gelant on the steps to the church entrance.

(Photo: Ruben CC Brown)

INVITATION TO THE MIMOSA SHRINE

You are cordially invited to a special day of celebration in honour of the 100th anniversary of the apparition of our Lady at Fatima

This celebration will be held at the Mimosa Shrine, 2 Saasveld Road, Bellville, Cape Town, on Saturday 14 October, commencing at 14h00.

Our Lady Help of Christians church in Lansdowne, Cape Town, celebrated the Confirmation of young parishioners. Seen are the confirmation candidates with Archbishop Stephen Brislin and Salesian Fathers Eoin Farrelly (left), Bart Walsh (middle back) and Bongi Nhleko (right).

Send your photos to

pics@scross.co.za

We will welcome our Lady of Fatima to the Mimosa Shrine. Thereafter, we will carry the statue of our Lady, in procession, through the garden, to the Glorious Cross, reciting the Rosary and singing hymns of praise.

Holy Mass will follow, including the Blessing of the Sick and Benediction.

Tea and refreshments will be served.

Further details may be obtained from Sr. Marian Keysers, mariankeysers@gmail.com.

You may also phone on 021 762 3197 or contact Rina at the Shrine on 021 919 1511.

Youth ministry delegates from the various Salesian provinces in Africa met in Accra, Ghana, as part of their annual gathering. The meeting was a moment of reflection on various topics such as the synod on youth in 2018, Salesian youth ministry in Africa and Madagascar, and preparation for the conference on family and youth ministry in Madrid later this year. It also gave the delegates an opportunity to share their own experiences of youth ministry in their provinces. The meeting was initiated by members of the youth pastoral team based in Rome, councillor-general for youth Fr Fabio Attard and Fr Patrick Anthony.

FATIMA 100

The Southern Cross, October 4 to October 10, 2017

9

What was it like when the sun danced?

On the last apparition of Our Lady in October 1917, thousands were witness to a miracle when the sun moved in an abnormal manner. MARIA VICTORIA PEREIRA looks at the Miracle of the Sun.

O

N October 13, it will be 100 years since a “scientifically inexplicable� phenomenon took place—one that was seen by more than 70 000 people.

Imagine that scene on October 13, 1917. You are on a field. Thousands of people are around you, all wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas. It is raining—it has been pouring with rain for two days all over Portugal. The terrain is drenched.

Still, despite the conditions, people have come to see a promised miracle—one promised by the Virgin Mary, or Lady of Light, to three little shepherds.

These children, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, have been persecuted for saying that they had visions of the Mother of Jesus requesting prayer and penance, and the praying of the Rosary as a means not only of saving souls but of bringing peace into the world.

The visionaries, through Lucia, had asked the Lady for a miracle, so that people would believe them.

And this is how you have come to be standing in the rain-soaked

Serra de Aire in Fatima, surrounded by those thousands of people with their umbrellas and raincoats.

The continuous rain shows no sign of letting up. It is near twelve o’clock.

Suddenly one of three visionaries says: “Look at the sun!�

You look into the clouds and see the sun bursting forth and spiralling towards the earth, the colours of the rainbow swirling everywhere.

People start crying, thinking that they are all going to die. They cry, they kneel, they pray...

After about 15 minutes the sun stops spiralling and slowly fades.

Everything is back to normal.

Well, not really, for everything is now dry! Inexplicably, bone dry.

What science says Scientifically, the amount of heat needed for this to happen in such a short space of time would have incinerated everyone present.

Scientists have declared the incident to be an “unexplained solar phenomenon�.

In recent years scientists tested the terrain at Fatima where the phenomenon took place. They found radiation at the site. Interestingly, this radiation is not harmful to human beings.

So what was all this? A mass hallucination, as the sceptics would claim? It can’t be. People more than 80km away saw the swirling of the colours of the rainbow.

Eyewitness Alfonso Lopes Vieira observed it from a distance of nearly 40km. He did not think of the prediction the children had made of a miracle occurring that day.

Some of the 70 000 people who were witness to the “Miracle of the Sun� at the Cova da Iria at Fatima on October 13, 1917. The Cova was a field belonging to the family of Lucia; it is now the sanctuary of the shrine of Fatima.

He testified: “I was enchanted by a remarkable spectacle in the sky of a kind I had never seen before. I saw it from this veranda.�

These were people who did not even know or remember that a “miracle� had been promised to the children—the miracle the children had requested so that people would believe what that “lady made of light’ was telling them.

She had indicated to the children that people don’t believe because of miracles, however had agreed she would comply with their request.

And the indisputable and mo-

mentous truth is that now, 100 years later, the message of Fatima is still causing vibrations and heated discussions.

Two years ago, there was a conference in Canada, on this very topic. It included 28 speakers, some lawyers and journalists, and many of them not even Catholic.

A peace plan from heaven According to the American historian W T Walsh, who went to Portugal to do research on the subject, we must give attention to the request made by that “Lady with a peace plan from heaven�.

Her message includes prophecies of future disasters and wars “if people don’t repent and pray, especially praying the Rosary�—which includes meditations on the life of Christ.

What are we seeing today? How many wars? Tsunamis, hurricanes, droughts‌?

How do we know that the peace of our future and that of our children, that the peace in the world, does not depend on something brought to our attention at this incredible event?

Is it possible our future peace is dependent on the humble acceptance by a sufficient number of people of this other Pathway for Peace —a message delivered to three children in Fatima, by the Mother of the World?

Should we, because of our different religious views, close our eyes and, like the ostrich, bury our heads in the sand and ignore what happened? Or must we acknowledge it and think, use our intelligence to ponder and strengthen our faith?

What was that “Miracle of the Sun�, seen by 70 000 people?

The director of a Lisbon newspaper, an atheist, had gone to Fatima “to laugh at the innocence of the people�. It amused him that people believed in three children claiming to be receiving apparitions from Mary, the mother of Jesus, with a special request for prayers and penance for peace in the world.

This cynic, after watching what happened, would write in his newspaper: “If God does not exist, I don’t know what that was!�

Eyewitnesses to a miracle BY MARY REZAC

O

N October 13, 1917, a crowd of 70 000— faithful and sceptics alike—gathered for what would be the last Marian apparition to the children in the Cova at Fatima, eager to see the sign from heaven that Mary had promised.

The crowds started to gather at 11:30, not realising that Mary would appear at solar noon, rather than at noon according to local time. The children, however, knew when to expect Mary, and arrived at 13:00, half an hour before the solar noon when Mary would appear.

As many witnesses described, a steady rain fell on the night of October 12 through the morning of the 13th. The freshly-ploughed ground of the field of the Cova was transformed into a muddy wet mess.

Dr JosĂŠ Almeida Garrett, a highly regarded lawyer and son of a scientist, was present and wrote down his eyewitness account.

At about half-past one, a pillar of smoke rose up and disappeared repeatedly at the spot where the children were. The clouds indicated Mary’s arrival.

Mary again repeated her request for daily rosaries, and asked that a chapel be built at the apparition site, honouring the Lady of the Rosary, which she revealed to the children as her identity.

Then, Mary “cast her own light upon the sun�.

The rain stopped, the clouds dispersed and the sky cleared, catching the attention of onlookers.

What happened next has been described as the “Miracle of the Sun� or “the time the sun danced�. “We looked easily at the sun, which did not blind us. It seemed to flicker on and off, first one way and then another. It shot rays in different directions and painted everything in different colours...What was most extraordinary is that the sun did not hurt our eyes at all. Everything was still and quiet; everyone was looking upwards,� recalled Ti Marto, the father of visionaries Jacinta and Francisco Marto.

O Dia, the newspaper in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, reported that “at midday by the sun, the rain stopped. The sky, pearly grey in colour, illuminated the vast arid landscape with a strange light.

The sun had a transparent gauzy veil so that the eye could easily be fixed on it. The grey mother-of-pearl tone turned into a sheet of silver which broke up as the clouds were parted and the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. A cry went up from every mouth and people fell on their knees in the muddy ground‌�

Even O Seculo, an anti-Catholic, masonic newspaper in Lisbon, reported the “Miracle of the Sun� from the perspective of the paper’s editor-in-chief, Avelino de Almeida, who witnessed the miracle for himself. “One could see the immense multitude turn towards the sun, which appeared at its zenith, coming

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A page from Ilustração Portuguesa of October 29, 1917, reporting on the “Miracle of the Sunâ€?. out of the clouds,â€? he wrote. “Before their dazzled eyes the sun trembled, the sun made unusual and brusque movements, defying all the laws of the cosmos, and according to the typical expression of the peasants, ‘the sun danced’.â€?

Dr Garrett added that the sun seemed “to be a living body...It looked like a glazed wheel made of mother-of-pearl.� He also recalled a moment when the sun whirled “wildly, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth, as if to crush us with its huge and fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was terrible.�

Numerous witnesses corroborated the phenomenon of the whirling, dancing colourful sun which at one moment seemed to be terrifyingly plunging towards earth, with the crowds “expecting the end of the world to come at any moment�.

After that moment, the once-soggy and muddy crowd discovered that they were suddenly completely dry.–CNA

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10

The Southern Cross, October 4 to October 10, 2017

EVANGELISATION

Why bishop uses humour on social media A bishop says that using humour on the Internet can be a tool for evangelisation.

ADELAIDE MENA reports.

B

ETWEEN the memes and quick explanations of Catholic doctrine on his Twitter page, Bishop Richard Umbers, auxiliary in the archdiocese of Sydney, says that online humour is about more than just the laughs.

In fact, he says, Christian humour online can help to reach out to parts of our modern world that are in the process of secularisation.

This kind of online engagement—with a wink—plays into a larger need for Christians to engage in society and to promote a vision of Christian life.

Bishop Umbers is quick to note in his Twitter bio that he is indeed an “actual person and a real bishop”, adopting the description given him

by Australian sports broadcaster Tommy Tighe: “Catholic Hipster”.

Whether in art, online culture, or political discussion, Christians should be giving an example of how to evangelise and to speak to the challenges society faces today.

“You need the contemporary expression of Christian faith,” Bishop Umbers said of what the Church needs from its faithful today.

The writings of Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis’ Laudato si’, can provide such a template for living an “alternative” lifestyle as a Christian, while also speaking to contemporary culture, he indicated.

“You can promote a coherent alternative lifestyle, which is what Catholicism really is in our society,” the bishop said.

Born in New Zealand and ordained an Opus Dei priest in Spain in 2002, he was consecrated a bishop in 2016, Australia’s youngest, at the age of 45.

Five or six years ago, he recalled, he got his first Twitter account and started to use it regularly. In the past several years, he has used his Twitter account to reach out on issues affecting Australian society—as well as to joke about a variety of topics: “You can have fun with memes.”

Part of the reason he’s drawn to

The Twitter page of Australian Bishop Richard Umbers—or “Bishop Down Umber”, as he styles himself. The auxiliary bishop of Sydney believes that humour online can contribute to effective evangelisation. memes—usually captioned photos that are intended to be funny to transmit a cultural symbol or social idea—is not only because they match his sense of humour, but because of his own limitations.

“I have an artistic vision with zero talent,” he joked.

More seriously, memes do indeed convey a message. Like political cartoons, which have spread powerful ideas and opinions for centuries, memes can also convey earnest information.

The creation of a meme culture in online Catholic spaces, or use of other kinds of social media outreach, can help reach out and participate in conversations.

Beware the ‘flame war’ In fact, Bishop Umbers said, people tend to take notice when a conversation is constructive, rather than a “flame war”.

But, he warned, any conversation can sometimes face the threat of miscommunication or of being “overly ironic”.

Honesty and consideration can add balance to online evangelisation. “I tell people all the time: be

yourself,” Bishop Umbers said.

He advocated that Catholics online display their convictions, and even make “strong comments”— but also advised them to consider what they say before they type.

The bishop urged Catholics online to have faith and conviction in their beliefs—especially if they dabble in memes or in online discussions. “[It] takes a certain confidence in your own faith,” he said of online participation and discussion. This confidence can even help bring out the humour of the whole situation.

While throughout history “believers have always had a go” during important disagreements, poking fun at topics and laughing about the misunderstandings is “a lasting human tradition”.

It’s this sense of conviction that Bishop Umbers hopes believers can bring to conversations happening not only online but also in dioceses, such as his archdiocese of Sydney.

Like many other Western societies, Australia is currently experiencing “rapid secularisation” and increasing “sectarianism”, he said,

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From ashes to beauty: A story of God

Page 9

Page 10

Drop bucket toilets, Church demands

BY ERIN CARELSE

or

T

South African athlete Terry Pellow-Jarman (left) with “Iron Nun” Sr Madonna Buder and daughter Catherine Pellow-Jarman in Canada after competing in a duathlon event. Sr Buder, 87, has completed more than 340 triathlons and would love to visit South Africa.

‘Iron Nun’ would love run in SA STA AFF REPORTER

T

HE legendary “Iron Nun” was amazed at learning that she had featured in Southern Africa’s regional Catholic newspaper and expressed her hope to visit South Africa.

Sr Madonna Buder at 87 takes part in Iron Man events, and has completed more than 340 triathlons. She last featured in The Southe r n C ro s s i n A u g u s t 2 0 1 6 i n a r e p o r t o n h e r starring role in a sportswear advertising campaign.

Teerry Pellow-JJarman, a parishioner of Paarl in the Western Cape, and her daughter Catherine met Sr Buder at the ITU Multisport World Championships in Penticton, Canada.

Mrs Pellow Jarman represented South Africa in the duathlon—10km run, 40km cycle and 5km run.

“Wee were lucky enough to meet Sr Madonna after she finished and have a chat to her,” Mrs Pellow-JJarman said. “She is an incredibly unassuming, humble woman. She

T Th h e The he

was quite amazed when I told her that I had read about her in The Southern Cross in South Africa. She expressed her wish to visit South Africa, and was very interested to know about the Iron Man events in the country.”

Sr Buder started her extreme sports career at the age of 48, at the suggestion of a priest.

She completed her first triathlon at age 52 and first Ironman event at 55.

She became the overall Ironman world record holder for the oldest person to complete the event in 2012, at the age of 82.

After taking part in the duathlon in Canada, she told a local newspaper, the Penticton Weestern Neews: “I thought I was the last one to finish, some friends assured me I wasn’t—but I’m not convinced.”

Sr Buder gives inspirational talks to groups, has written a book called The Grace to Race, makes TV appearances to talk about age and health—and even saved her neighbour from a house fire.

HE human rights of the vulnerable and the excluded in our society are being violated by unhygienic sanitation problems such as the bucket toilet system, according to the Justice & Peace Commission (J&P) of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

Bucket toilets, a basic form of a dr y toilet– which are either portable, situated inside a dwelling, or an outhouse—lack waste disposal plumbing.

Twenty-three years into democracy, multitudes of people continue to be subjected to the use of bucket toilets, one of the most deh u man i s in g f o r m s o f s ani ta ti on in t h e w or l d, and a legacy of apartheid.

At a national gathering of J&P activists this year, concerns were raised about sanitation problems in informal settlements, especially in the dioceses of Bloemfontein, Kroonstad and Port Elizabeth.

The activists then went home and identified the informal settlements which still have the highest levels of bucket toilets. In some cases, they identified informal settlements which have been struggling with this problem for more than ten years.

J&P presented this to the Human Rights Commission (HRC), with a view to investigating rights violations and instituting remedial action to restore dignity to those without decent sanitation.

The HRC is currently investigating municipalities in the Free State province which, according to Statistics South Africa, have the highest levels of bucket toilets. The same is being done in Nelson Mandela Bay municipality in Port Elizabeth.

Legal action on behalf of some of the communities is also being explored.

Once the report and remedial action from the HRC have been received, J&P will then work with its activists to monitor and ensure the speedy implementation of the corrective action.

J&P director Fr Stan Muyebe OP said there

S outher o u t h e r n C ross ro oss ss

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J&P director Fr Stan Muyebe OP is a need for a radical commitment to end the bucket toilet system in the Free State.

This should include setting up a strategic plan, with measurable timelines that are subjected to accountability “Government has made commitment to eradicate the bucket toilets, yet their deadlines keep shifting, which has been happening for the past 15 years,” he told The S o u t h e r n C ro s s .

“Wee sometimes forget that the bucket toilet matter is an affront to human dignity of our brothers and sisters, most of whom live in informal settlements. We need to restore their dignity as created in the image of God.” Catholic lawyers have been instrumental in helping to make various inter ventions on behalf of the poor, and J&P are grateful for their generosity and sacrifice, Fr Muyebe said. However, he added, more lawyers are needed.

“Wee are calling upon our Catholic lawyers to see their profession and their pro bono obligations as an opportunity to work with us so that we strengthen the role of the Church in defending the rights of the voiceless and the vulnerable in our country. They can encounter and ser ve God using their legal skills,” Fr Muyebe said.

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as issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia come to the centre of political debates.

While more Catholics continue to identify as Catholic, as opposed to the shift to “non-religious” among other Christian groups, some Catholic institutions have remained quiet or even supported positions that fly in the face of Church teaching.

“To stand up for Catholic teaching puts you, once again, on the margins”: Bishop Umbers explained that taking a counter-cultural position is likely to affect funding of Church programmes as time goes on.

Christian voice still relevant The marginalisation of traditional Christian beliefs, however, does not mean that people do not listen or that people do not take an interest in the Church’s arguments.

“You’re definitely not irrelevant,” he said of the Christian voice in the public square.

Rather, he said, effective communication and coordination seem to be the major stumbling-block facing the Church.”That’s where social

media can play a big role.”

For example, Bishop Umbers pointed to a successful social media campaign started by three young women which protested against the expansion of abortion in the Australian state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital. The young pro-life advocates started a Twitter hashtag that began to change the conversation surrounding abortion, and inspired local communities to get involved.

“Because of them, there was a huge campaign across all the parishes to have people sign a petition.” More than 80 000 signed the petition, which eventually contributed to the bill’s defeat in parliament, the bishop said.

The centre of a successful online campaign like the one in New South Wales, or of a meme, or of any mode of evangelisation, lies, at its core, in the truth, Bishop Umbers said.

“Really it’s an expression of who you are, and I think that’s where evangelisation comes from,” he said of online engagement. “It’s not a campaign. It is truly a sharing of your own convictions and your own thoughtfulness.”—CNA

The ‘Ten Commandments’ of good behaviour on the Web I N the privacy of one’s room, hidden from the world, it is easy to become a “keyboard warrior”—somebody who behaves on the Internet in ways they wouldn’t in “real life”, and say things which they ordinarily wouldn’t say, or dare to say, to another person’s face.

These days even US presidents take to social media to post aggressive statements. Many media houses have closed their comments section because of the hateful things written in them. Cyberbullying is even resulting in suicides.

Earlier this year an Italian organisation devoted to addressing aggression in the world, Parole Ostili (“Hostile Words”), launched a “Non-hostile Communication Manifesto”.

The organisation believes that the power of words is important, and that the negative use of words—including insults, untrue statements and unfair criticism—predominates on social media sites.

Their ten-point manifesto proposes a positive style of communication on the Internet, urging users to choose their words and tone of language carefully.

They apply to all forms of communication on the Web: Facebook, Twitter, message boards, comments sections, blogs and so on.

One might call it the Ten Commandments of decent behaviour on the Internet—many of which apply to all kinds of communication.

1. Virtual is real: I only say and write things on the Internet that I have the courage to say in person.

2. We are what we communicate: The words I chose reflect what kind of person I am—they represent me.

3. Words shape thought: I take all the time necessary to express my thoughts as best as I possibly can.

4. Before speaking, we must listen: Nobody is always right; not even me. I listen with honesty and openness.

5. Words are a bridge: I choose words in order to comprehend, make myself understood, and draw closer to others.

6. Words have consequences: I know that each of my words can have consequences, big or small.

7. Sharing is a responsibility: I share texts and images only after having read, evaluated and understood them, and ensured that they are not fake news.

8. Ideas can be debated: People must be respected. I don’t see someone who has ideas I don’t share as an enemy to be eliminated.

9. Insults are not arguments: I don’t accept the use of insults or aggressiveness, not even in favour of my own position.

10. Silence is also a form of communication: When the best option is to keep quiet, I keep quiet.

CLASSIFIEDS

KWT Dominicans celebrate 140 years in South Africa

CLASSIFIEDS

IN MEMORIAM

K

LEITE—Jacqui. Formerly of Cape Town, died on September 22, 2014 in Port Elizabeth. You suffered much, without complaint. Always in my thoughts and prayers. Missed and lovingly remembered by your brother Patrick.

maria832@yahoo.com and via cellphone (roaming within Africa) +243 99 0358275 +243 81 6090071.

PRAYERS

PERSONAL

Bishop Vincent Zungu of Port Elizabeth concelebrated Mass at the Dominican Sisters’ 140th anniversary of their presence in King William’s Town with twelve priests of Port Elizabeth diocese.

School for the Deaf was a building site was a reminder that our mission too is always a construction site of new ways of responding to the needs of the times.

At St Vincent’s, a Wellness Centre for the deaf community is being built, where they can find the help they need and which ordinary facilities cannot offer.

A strong reminder of the need for sharing is the fact that St Vincent and Pridwin are no longer just adjoining schools but share sports facilities and the auditorium where we enjoyed our celebration meal.

T

he jubilee Mass celebrated by Bishop Tsoke and concelebrated by five of our Dominican priests—Frs Martin Badenhorst, Lewis Tsuro, Emil Blaser, Seboka Vincent Mokete and Mark James—most certainly formed the highlight of our celebration.

Together with the many Sisters of other congregations, the Dominican Provincial Fr Stan Muyebe and some Dominican Brothers, representatives of past and present schools, as well as

Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday October 8, 27th Sunday of the Year Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalms 80:9, 12-16, 19-20, Philippians 4:6-9, Matthew 21:33-43 Monday October 9, Ss Denis & Companions, St John Leonardi Jonah 1:1--2, 1,11, Responsorial psalms Jonah 2:3-5, 8, Luke 10:25-37 Tuesday Oct 10, St Daniel Comboni Jonah 3:1-10, Psalms 130:1-4, 7-8, Luke 10:38-42 Wednesday October 11, St John XXIII Jonah 4:1-11, Psalms 86: 3-6, 9-10, Luke 11:1-4 Thursday October 12 Malachi 3:13-20, Psalms 1, Luke 11:5-13 Friday October 13 Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2, Psalms 9:2-3, 6, 16, 8-9, Luke 11:15-26 Saturday October 14, St John XXIII St Callistus, Saturday Mass of Our Lady Joel 4:12-21, Psalms 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12, Luke 11:27-28 Sunday October 15, 28th Sunday of the Year Isaiah 25:6-10, Psalms 23:1-6, Philippians 4:1214, 19-20, Matthew 22:1-14

friends and benefactors, the hall reverberated with more than 150 voices praising and thanking God for the gift of 140 years.

Added to this was the celebration of the jubilee of profession of six Sisters—Srs Dietmund and Megan (65 years), Sr Lauda (60 years) and Srs Eva-Maria, Maureen Yenson and Ottilia (50 years).

As a true shepherd of his people, Bishop Tsoke in his homily expressed his appreciation for all that the Sisters have done in the past and continue to do even now in spite of their reduced numbers.

The Heritage Centre made it possible for our visitors to connect with the history of our congregation, and two presentations were given, one by Sr Katy van Wyk (“Reflections and Quotations by Dominican Women and Men Past and Present”) and the other by myself (“God’s Call—A Call to Mission in South Africa and Beyond 140 Years of KWT Dominican Sisters”).

May we continue our journey united in the spirit of Ss Dominic and Catherine.

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 779. ACROSS: 5 Mite, 7 Monstrance, 8 Opal, 10 Chaplain, 11 Orbits, 12 Theism, 14 Statue, 16 Exhale, 17 Snapshot, 19 Oral, 21 Reconciled, 22 Amok. DOWN: 1 Ambo, 2 Psalmist, 3 Graces, 4 Infant, 5 Meal, 6 Tonic solfa, 9 Puritanism, 13 Ethiopia, 15 Ethics, 16 Extent, 18 Pork, 20 Lady.

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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. Novena from 5 to 13 each month. For prayers/hymns write to jjvcamara@gmail.com ALMIGHTY GOD, from

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This week we congratulate: October 13: Bishop Pius Mlungisi Dlungwane of Mariannhill on his 70th birthday October 14: Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington on the 17th anniversary of his episcopal ordination

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ING William’s Town Dominicans celebrated their 140th anniversary in South Africa with a jubilee Mass in Johannesburg led by Auxiliary Bishop Duncan Tsoke.

As a congregation we have experienced a number of marker events of God’s transforming power in the last two years, within the congregation and as part of the wider community.

The Dominican Order celebrated its 800th anniversary worldwide in 2016, and 2017 opened with a final thanksgiving for those 800 years of Dominican spirituality manifested in the preaching of God’s Word into a world searching for meaning.

Although this marked a closure, it opened the door to usher in a year of three major thanksgiving events.

The centenary of Mary’s appearance to the children in Fatima certainly forms the centre of the year for many people, as Our Lady travels the world in the form of the original statue of Fatima in Portugal.

For the Dominican family and more specifically for the King William’s Town Sisters and the Dominican brethren, who recently celebrated their centenary of presence in South Africa, Fatima has had an even deeper significance since Mary is the patroness of the Dominicans and also of South Africa.

Mary’s presence centring the year symbolises the continuity of our God-given mission manifested in Our Lady handing Ss Dominic and Catherine the rosary.

This mission consists first and foremost in prayer and contemplation, and then preaching in word and deed to pass on what we have received in prayer.

The celebration of 140 years of King William’s Town Dominicans was also steeped in symbolism.

The fact that St Vincent’s

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28th Sunday: October 15 Readings: Isaiah 25:6-10, Psalm 23:1-6, Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20, Matthew 22:114

W

HAT does God do? God, according to next Sunday’s readings, generously invites to his party those who certainly do not deserve it.

The first reading offers an invitation to a feast: “On this mountain” (and we are talking here of the Jerusalem Temple, of course) “will make a feast for all the peoples”—not just for Jews, you see—and it is presented with Hebrew puns which emphasise the richness of the feast.

Then, in a different metaphor, God is depicted as undoing the “veil that veils over all the peoples, the web that is woven over all nations”—once more, you see, the invitation goes beyond the traditional people of God. Then, in yet another metaphor, that of a tender loving mother, he goes on: “The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces and remove the reproach from his people from all the earth.”

Then he offers a further metaphor, that of “salvation” (meaning both “rescue” and “victory”): “It will be said on that day, ‘Look! Our God; this is the One we have been waiting for,

S outher n C ross

and he will save us’.”

And the upshot, what God brings about, is very much what you might expect: “Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” The poet concludes with a lovely final picture: “The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.”

The psalm offers one metaphor at its beginning, that of God as “shepherd”, who feeds his sheep in “green pastures” (a powerful image in a dry country) and “waters of restfulness”.

Then the poet switches to another, that of God as benevolent employer, who provides resource even in the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” or the alert head waiter “who lays the table before me, in the sight of my enemies”, or even the prophet who anoints as Messiah: “You anoint my head with oil” and finally a genial host: “I shall dwell in the Lord’s house for all my days.”

In the second reading, God “empowers”, so that Paul can say “I have the strength for everything”: “I know how to be brought low and how to overflow…to be filled and to be hungry, to overflow and to fall short.”

It may help if we remember that he is writing from a Roman prison from which he would not normally expect to come out alive.

And God can be expected to do something else: “May my God fill up all that you need, in accordance with God’s riches, in glory, in Christ Jesus.” Finally Paul ends with a prayer to that God: “Glory to our God and Father for ever and ever. Amen!”

Finally, in the Gospel, God is presented as a generous host who invites everyone to a wedding feast “for his son”—and we know that we are thinking of Jesus here.

Then odd things happen (as so often in the parables).

First, “those invited” have to be reminded; in such a culture you did not need to be reminded of something as important as a wedding.

Secondly, “they did not want to come!”

That was simply unheard of.

Thirdly, the host is generous enough to give them another chance, and the original message is filled out: “Look! I have prepared my breakfast; my bulls and fatted calves are

A prayer for stillness ‘B

E still and know that I am God.” Scripture assures us that if we are still we will come to know God, but arriving at stillness is easier said than done. As Blaise Pascal once stated: “All the miseries of the human person come from the fact that no one can sit still for one hour.”

Achieving stillness seems beyond us and this leaves us with a certain dilemma, we need stillness to find God, but we need God’s help to find stillness. With this in mind, I offer a prayer for stillness:

phous aching, my relentless need for more intimacy. Quiet and order my earthy desires without taking them away.

Give me the grace to see others without a selfish sexual colour.

• Still my anxiety, my heartaches, my worries, and stop me from always being outside the present moment. Let each day’s worries be sufficient unto themselves. Give me the grace to know that you have pronounced my name in love, that my name is written in heaven, that I am free to live without anxiety.

• Still my unrelenting need to be busy all the time, to occupy myself, to be always planning for tomorrow, to fill every minute with some activity, to seek distraction rather than quiet. Give me the grace to sit in a quiet that lets me savour a sunset and actually taste the water I’m drinking.

• Still the disappointment that comes with age. Soothe the unacknowledged anger I feel from not achieving much of what I’ve wanted in life, the failure that I feel in the face of all that I’ve left untried and unfinished. Still in me the bitterness that comes from failure.

Save me from the jealousy that comes unbidden as I begrudgingly accept the limits of my life. Give me the grace to accept what circumstance and failure have dealt me.

• Still in me the fear of my own shadow, the fear I feel in the face of the

Conrad

GOD of stillness and of quiet…

• Still the restlessness of my youth: still that hunger that would have me be everywhere, that hunger to be connected to everyone, that wants to see and taste all that is, that robs me of peace on a Friday night.

Quiet those grandiose dreams that want me to stand out, to be special. Give me the grace to live more contentedly inside my own skin.

• Still the fever I inhale from all the energy that surrounds me, that makes my life feel small. Let me know that my own life is enough, that I need not make an assertion of myself, even as the whole world beckons this of me from a million electronic screens. Give me the grace to sit at peace inside my own life.

• Still my sexuality, order my promiscuous desires, my lusts, my polymor-

Nicholas King SJ

God invites the undeserving

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Sunday Reflections

slaughtered. It’s all ready. Please come to the wedding.”

Fourthly: “They did not care, but went off, one to his own estate, another to his shop, and the rest [can you believe this?] took hold of his slaves, and insulted them and killed them.”

Fifthly, things are now quite out of hand (and the meal is decidedly on the backburner), and the generous host sends in the army to kill the murderers and burn their city.

Sixth, a substitute set of guests is organised, from those in “the side streets”.

Finally when the dinner is full up (and by now a bit cold?), the genial host comes in to have a look, and notices to his horror a guest who has not sufficiently taken on board the momentousness of the occasion; he has failed to bother to dress up for it, so he is expelled into the outer darkness.

What is God doing in your life this week?

What is God demanding of you?

Southern Crossword #779

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

powerful, dark forces that unconsciously threaten me. Give me the courage to face my darkness as well as my luminosity.

Give me the grace to not be fearful before my own complexity.

• Still in me the congenital fear that I’m unloved, that I’m unlovable, that love has to be earned, that I need to be more worthy. Silence in me the nagging suspicion that I’m forever missing out, that I’m odd, an outsider, that things are unfair, and that I’m not being respected and recognised for who I am.

Give me the grace to know that I’m a beloved child of a God whose love need not be earned.

• Still in me my false fear of you, my propensity for a misguided piety, my need to treat you like a distant and feared dignitary rather than as a warm friend.

Give me the grace to relate to you in a robust way, as a trusted friend with whom I can jest, wrestle, and relate to in humour and intimacy.

• Still my unforgiving thoughts, the grudges I nurse from my past, from the betrayals I’ve suffered, from the negativity and abuses I’ve been subject to. Quiet in me the guilt I carry from my own betrayals. Still in me all that’s wounded, unresolved, bitter, and unforgiving. Give the quiet that comes from forgiveness.

• Still in me my doubts, my anxieties about your existence, about your concern, and about your fidelity. Calm inside me the compulsion to leave a mark, to plant a tree, to have a child, to write a book, to create some form of immortality for myself.

Give me the grace to trust, even in darkness and doubt, that you will give me immortality.

• Still my heart so that I may know that you are God, that I may know that you create and sustain my every breath, that you breathe the whole universe into existence every second, that everyone, myself no less than everyone else, is your beloved, that you want our lives to flourish, that nothing falls outside your love and care, and that everything and everybody is safe in your gentle, caring hands, in this world and the next.

Amen.

O RF OR D

CONSTRUCTION

ACROSS

5. Child with a small coin (4) 7. Venerate the sacred host in it (10) 8. Gemstone (4) 10. Priest in the services (8) 11. Paths of the planets (6) 12. In them is belief in the Creator (6) 14. Saintly figure (6) 16. Let the wind out (6) 17. You’ve taken this picture quickly (8) 19. Unwritten tradition (4) 21. Restored relations with God (10) 22. Run out of control this way (4)

Solutions on page 11

DOWN

1. See Lamb of God in the pulpit (4) 2. Tim slaps the hymnwriter (8) 3. Three charming goddesses having favours from God? (6) 4. Baby Jesus in Prague (6) 5. A part of Rome already providing dinner (4) 6. Coin St Olaf exchanged for musical keys (5,5) 9. Protestantism in the extreme (10) 13. Candace was queen of this land (Ac 8) (8) 15. Moral principles (6) 16. Size of the former shelter in camp (6) 18. Meat that’s not kosher (4) 20. She goes with the gentleman (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A PRIEST

A

PRIEST goes into a restaurant and is greeted by the hostess: “Smoking or non-smoking?” “Nonsmoking,” he replies.

He is seated and the waiter comes to take his drink order. Father orders a cola. The waiter asks: “Diet or ordinary?” “Ordinary.”

The priest orders a steak with vegetables and potatoes. “How do you want your steak done?” asks the waiter. “How do you want your vegetables?

What kind of potato? What kind of sauce?” And so it goes on.

Finally, Father snaps. He looks up to heaven and implores his patron saint: “I can’t take all of these choices! St Francis, help me please with all these decisions!”

Just then a voice booms from above: “Assisi, Xavier or De Sales?”

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