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January 10 to January 16, 2018

Top journalist: My journey back to the faith

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Pope: Devotion to Mary is a Christian duty

BY HANNAH BROCKHAUS

P

OPE Francis has said that having a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary isn’t just something that is nice or good to do, but also an obligation in the life of a Christian.

“Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life,” the pope said.

“The gift of the Mother, the gift of every mother and every woman, is most precious for the Church, for she too is mother and woman,” he said.

“If our faith is not to be reduced merely to an idea or a doctrine, all of us need a mother’s heart, one which knows how to keep the tender love of God and to feel the heartbeat of all around us.”

Reflecting on the line in Luke’s Gospel that says, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (2:19,51), he noted that in the Gospel account of the Nativity, Mary does not speak a single word.

What we learn from her silence is that in quiet is how we “keep” ourselves, how we “keep” our soul free from being corroded by consumerism, “the blare of commercials, the stream of empty words and the overpowering waves of empty chatter and loud shouting”, Pope Francis said.

“As we look on in silence, we let Jesus speak to our heart. His lowliness lays low our pride; his poverty challenges our outward display; his tender love touches our hardened hearts.”

This is Mary’s “secret”, the pope said, and we should seek to imitate her in this way: Not closing our hearts out of fear or distress, but handing everything over to God, dwelling on it with him.

Pope Francis noted that the beginning of a new year is a good time for Christians to also start anew, leaving behind past burdens and baggage and starting over from what really matters. And, he added, “we have before us the point of departure: the Mother of God”.

The

Twenty deacons were ordained at St Vincent’s parish in KwaMpumuza, Durban archdiocese; 18 of them Missionaries of Africa and two of them Dominicans. Cardinal Wilfrid Napier was the ordaining bishop. Concelebrating with him were Bishop Jan de Groef of Bethlehem and Bishop Santo Lino Wanock of Nebi in Uganda, a friend of one of the candidates. (Submitted by Fr Luigi Morell)

23 Church workers killed in 2017

BY CAROL GLATZ

Pope Francis prepares to incense a statue of Mary at a Mass in Bogota, Colombia, in September. The pope has reminded Catholics that having a devotion to Our Lady is a “requirement of the Christian life”. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) “For Mary is exactly what God wants us to be, what he wants his Church to be: A Mother who is tender and lowly, poor in material goods and rich in love, free of sin and united to Jesus, keeping God in our hearts and our neighbour in our lives,” he said.

Addressing crowds in St Peter’s Square for the Angelus, Pope Francis explained how Mary performs a very special function, as intercessor between her Son Jesus and anyone who is suffering.

“She intercedes, aware that as a mother she can, indeed, must, make present to the Son the needs of men, especially the weakest and most disadvantaged,” he said, adding that migrants and refugees are among the weakest and most disadvantaged among us.—CNA

T

HE majority of Catholic Church workers violently killed in 2017 were victims of attempted robberies, the Vatican’s Fides agency said. Nigeria and Mexico topped the list of countries where the most brutal murders were carried out.

The agency said 23 people working for the Church worldwide—13 priests, one religious brother, one religious sister and eight lay persons—died violent deaths in 2017; that number was down from 28 people killed in 2016.

Each year, Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for Evangelisation, publishes a list of pastoral workers who died violently during the previous year.

For the ninth year in a row, the Americas continued to be the continent most affected by violence against Catholic Church workers with 11 people killed there in 2017; with four of those deaths in Mexico, that nation continues to be where the greatest number of priests in Latin America are killed.

Ten pastoral workers were killed in Africa— half of them in Nigeria—and two workers were killed in Asia, both in the Philippines.

“Once again the majority of the pastoral

S outher n C ross

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care workers were killed in attempted robberies, and in some cases violently attacked— a sign of the climate of moral decline, economic and cultural poverty, which generates violence and disregard for human life,” Fides said in its report.

“Hardly any investigations conducted by the local authorities led to identifying and convicting the perpetrators and the instigators of these killings or the reasons why they were carried out,” it added.

Those killed “are only the tip of the iceberg”, Fides said as the report does not include the number of pastoral workers or Catholic faithful who are assaulted, beaten, robbed or threatened, nor does it document properties owned by the Catholic Church that are attacked, vandalised or looted.

The report also spoke of the Church’s concern for the ongoing kidnappings of priests and nuns, who are most often abducted by extremist groups or by captors seeking ransom. The fates of many kidnapped religious sisters and priests still remain unknown, Fides said.

According to Fides, 424 pastoral care workers, including five bishops, were killed worldwide from 2000 to 2016.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

PERSONALITY

Journalist: My way back to the faith

BY ERIN CARELSE

L

EADING journalist FikileNtsikelelo Moya was raised a Catholic but spent about a decade in an angry conversation with God, making it known to God that he thought he had let him down badly.

Then one Sunday morning he decided to attend Mass at his childhood parish, and things began looking clearer.

Mr Moya, until recently editor of The Mercury daily in Durban, was born and raised in Dobsonville, Soweto.

His paternal family had arrived there in the early 1960s along with others from Roodepoort West from where they had been forcibly removed as a result of the Group Areas Act. His paternal great-grandfather had been the first in his lineage to be baptised Catholic.

As a result, his father went to the local Catholic school, St Angela’s in Roodepoort West, and continued at the same school when, after forced removals, the school re-emerged in Dobsonville.

The young Fikile attended the same school.

Despite this Catholic lineage, Mr Moya’s formation had everything to do with his mother.

“Although my mother was a great influence for me attending First Holy Communion and later Confirmation classes, she did not need to persuade me, the same could be said for attending Mass regularly,” he recalls.

“Apart from attending Mass as learners at the school—which is in the same complex as the church— my childhood friends and I practically lived in our parish. We did our homework at the church hall, played table tennis there in the week, and served on the altar on Sundays,” Mr Moya said.

Growing up in the 1980s when political turmoil was at its height

Journalist Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya, seen with his wife Lolo, returned to the Church after ten years away. He says Catholic social justice teachings are close to his heart. in South Africa, he believes he was lucky to have Sr Christine Obotseng, a member of the Companions of St Angela congregation and an anti-apartheid activist, as teacher and principal.

Sr Christine, who died in 2009, was the first to draw the picture for him as to why social justice was a Gospel imperative.

“I remember Sr Christine saying that if black and white people did not learn to live with each other in harmony on earth, they would have a cultural shock when they got to heaven, because in heaven there would be no separation of people because of the colour of their skins, Fr Moya recalled.

“This simple illustration made

me realise that the Church and our faith could not be separated from what could be termed political.”

A

s he grew older and his reading and learning broadened, Mr Moya started to adopt the Marxist notion that religion was the opiate of the masses.

“I increasingly became agnostic and eventually an atheist. I was not satisfied with how my own faith had not spared me from the harsh realities of social and economic life,” he said.

“It was made worse by the fact that an administrative bungle at the Johannesburg diocesan chancery resulted in a bursary that I had received no longer being

given. Nobody could account for it. I reckoned that it would be pointless to trust earthly people who could not keep their earthly promises,” Mr Moya recalled.

“I spent about a decade in an angry conversation with God. I made him know that I thought he had let me down badly.”

There was no big Damascus moment that returned Mr Moya to the Church. One Sunday morning he found he had some time on his hands and decided to go to Mass— for “the fun of it”.

“I had no pressures from my family nor any situation that made me feel like I ‘needed’ God,” he said, adding: “I was sincere in my belief that I did not.”

It was his visit to his childhood parish, St Angela’s, that he said was like awakening from a dream.

“Things just looked clearer and grander. The choir seemed to sing more beautifully than I had last experienced. I felt like there was a welcome-home party for me. I returned the following week, and then the next and the next.”

Mr Moya said he is grateful for this time away from the Church because it has made him appreciate the compassion and love of God. “I have felt that God had listened, even in my bitterness. I feel that contrary to what I had assumed as a child, God is a God of all situations and of all conversations. I feel my faith is deepened by this understanding of God being for better and worse.”

As a journalist, he is passionate about social and economic justice and feels that journalism is a vocation through which he can contribute to promote social justice in the country.

Scripture sustains that notion.

“Luke 4:14 feels like a commissioning statement to me: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free’,” he said.

“I feel that I am blessed with the aptitude and the platform to proclaim the good news to the poor, freedom to abused prisoners, sight to those blinded by ignorance, and to send a message that freedom is around the corner.”

Mr Moya hopes that in time he will be able to start his own publication or media platform where the message of the Gospel would be lived and practised. In the meantime, he tries to be an exemplary father to his children, a good husband to his wife Lolo, and an overall good human being.

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Deputy Principal Primary School

CBC Mount Edmund invites applications for the following position which will be available from 1st April 2018. Applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced individuals who believe they have the required skills and competencies to take on this position.

The requirements of the position: • A proven track record of leadership and management within a primary school.

• Must have the appropriate academic and professional qualification.

• Excellent interpersonal skills with staff, learners and parents.

• Good communication skills.

• Promote high standards in the management of all aspects of the primary school.

• Have a proven record of innovation, commitment and professionalism.

• Understand, identify with and contribute to the Catholic ethos and values of the school.

• Proof of registration with SACE. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to reside on the college campus.

Interested candidates should submit a detailed CV as well as a covering letter motivating their suitability for this position.

• Details of three(3) contactable referees are to be included.

• All applications are to be emailed to headmaster.pa@cbcpretoria.co.za • Closing date: Tue, 30 January 2018.

CBC Mount Edmund is an equal opportunity employer. Only suitably qualified and experienced applicants will be considered. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted. CBC Mount Edmund reserves the right not to appoint should a suitable candidate not be found.

An application will not in itself entitle the applicant to an interview or appointment and failure to meet the minimum requirements of the advertised post will result in applicants automatically disqualifying themselves from consideration.

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The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

LOCAL

Don’t need it? Donate it

N

AZARETH House Durban urges those cleaning house to think of them, and donate your clutter.

They will take everything from second-hand clothing to furniture to bric a brac to used shopping bags at their charity shop—where it is sorted out, priced, and turned into cash to help fund Nazareth House’s homes for the aged and for or-

phaned children.

And it’s easy to do too. If you can’t deliver to them, they will arrange to have your goods collected at no cost.

Contact the facility manager Nick Lombard on 032 261 220, 082 921 5345 or nick@nazhousesa.com Their physical address is 82 Mazisi Kunene Road (South Ridge Road), Glenwood, Berea.

Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Brislin attended a reunion in Kroonstad diocese, where he was bishop for three years. Previous altar servers organised the event. Pictured with the archbishop are Kroonstad diocesan Frs Thabo Chomane, Molibeli Lisene, Molula Mokhoamathe and Tebello Moeti. (Submitted by Mxolisi Ndakana)

Hurley Centre awards deadline

T

HE deadline is fast approaching to submit nominations for the inaugural Barry Wood Awards to honour those who work at the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban. Nominations will close at 9am on January 22.

The award is named after the late Bishop Barry Wood OMI, the auxiliary bishop of Durban and keen supporter of the DHC who died suddenly on May 2 last year at the age of 74.

“One of the reasons the late Bishop Barry was so at home at the DHC was that he personified what we stand for: genuine care for the poor, a hunger to challenge injustice,

a collaborative approach to working across faith traditions, and a willingness to go the extra mile, even at the risk of personal sacrifice,” said DHC director Raymond Perrier.

Anyone associated with the DHC is invited to nominate one staff member and one volunteer.

The nomination form can be obtained from centenary@denishurleycentre.org or from the DHC reception desk.

Nominations will be reviewed by a small committee which includes some of the trustees and Mr Perrier in his capacity as director.

The winners will be announced at the centre’s AGM on February 3.

Salesians’ course spurs business and job creation

BY ERIN CARELSE

A

PERSONAL tragedy inspired a young Cape Town man to start his own business. When his path crossed with Salesian Life Choices, his dream of establishing a thriving gardening service, Lawn in Order, become a reality.

After his father’s sudden death in 2010, Nick Adriaans of Zeekoevlei had to literally fill his dad’s shoes.

“My mom and dad were robbed one morning and that afternoon he died of a heart attack. We were devastated,” he said.

Mr Adriaans took over his father’s responsibilities around the house— and that included keeping up the garden and mowing the lawn.

He confesses gardening was not exactly a childhood passion.

“As a child, I didn’t enjoy gardening. When my dad was mowing the lawn, my duty was to hold onto the electric cable to prevent the lawnmower from running over it. I always hoped the lawnmower would break so that I could use the wheels to make a go-cart,” he joked.

But having taken over his father’s gardening duties, Mr Adriaans discovered his passion for nature and the satisfaction of getting his hands dirty. “I realised it’s fun and relaxing, and it’s very satisfying. It made me smile each day.”

As the youngest of five, he took a casino job to support his family, but the idea of his own gardening service had already taken root.

He saw a gap in the market when people in his neighbourhood WhatsApp group complained about unreliable gardeners and gardening equipment disappearing.

“I started to advertise my services on the WhatsApp group and many people were interested. It’s a comfort to the community to know that a familiar face is doing the work and not some stranger on a bicycle,” Mr Adriaans said.

He worked hard to save enough money to start his own business and did a lot of research to learn about gardening.

In 2014 he invested his savings

Nick Adriaans saw his dream of running his own business become reality with the help of the Salesians’ New Venture entrepreneurship course. of R70 000 in buying gardening tools and a second-hand truck.

He was constantly on the lookout for workshops to attend and advice from experts. In 2015 he saw an ad for Life Choices’ New Ventures entrepreneurial programme. “I took a leap of faith and applied to enter the programme. It was lifechanging because it took my business to a whole new level. I realised how little I knew about customer care and market research.”

S

alesian Life Choices is a lay organisation under the Don Bosco ethos. The team is multicultural and multi-religious, and serves people regardless of denomination.

Founded in 2005, Salesian Life Choices nearly shut down in 2013 in a funding crisis. A new business model had to be developed. One of the experts consulted was Caban Investments Ltd; together they forged the concept for New Ventures Studio.

The group (newventures studio.co.za) is now a partnership made up of young entrepreneurs, Salesian Life Choices and other service providers. The organisation provides free services to youth on family stability, health, education,

and employment, all aiming to give young people a fair chance in life.

The New Ventures intensive eight–week entrepreneurship course has helped to register Mr Adriaans’ company, develop a corporate identity, design marketing tools and set up a website.

“I developed a business plan and I have reached new customers. The support I received, and still receive, has been great. I have grown both professionally and personally,” Mr Adriaans said.

He sees his Lawn in Order business not only as an opportunity for himself but also as a way to empower and educate other people.

“We are an eco-friendly garden service, so we share tips for responsible gardening with clients and we train our staff on environmental issues. I am very proud of the team of gardeners I employ and the job-creation opportunities my business offers,” he said.

After starting small, Lawn in Order’s services now include lawncare, tree-felling, eco-friendly weed control, clean-ups, planting, irrigation, organic compost and fertilising, weed removal, pruning, high-pressure cleaning and gutter-cleaning.

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The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

INTERNATIONAL

Pope’s primacy: An obstacle to ecumenism?

BY ROBERT DUNCAN

M Charity Wanjiru Chomba of Kenya, Julienne of Congo and Ndayishimiye Ange Valentine of Rwanda, chat during one the retreat sessions in Nairobi, Kenya, offered by the Taizé Brothers Community for youth and young adults. (Photo: Francis Njuguna/CNS)

Taizé promotes faith in Kenyan Church

BY FRANCIS NJUGUNA

A

YOUNG Kenyan and a young refugee from Congo sitting next to one another may not seem to have much in common. The same could be said of a Rwandan girl sitting alongside a Ugandan.

But it’s their Catholic faith that brought them together with 60 other young people during a five-day retreat planned by the Taizé Brothers Community at the National Catholic Youth Center in Nairobi.

The retreat and the religious community’s other ministry outreach efforts have helped young people better understand their faith, study the Bible, pray and discern what God is calling them to in life.

Br Luc and three other brothers coordinate the ministry to young people for the Taizé community, which has been in Kenya for 10 years since being invited by the country’s bishops. He said the effort is meant to help young people integrate faith into daily life.

The Taizé Brothers Community is an ecumenical monastic order, incorporating both Catholic and Protestant brothers. While ecumenical, it is strongly

influenced by Catholic theology. The community has about 100 members drawn from 30 countries and its communities minister around the world.

The outreach in Kenya has gained a strong following among young Catholics, many of whom are refugees from neighbouring countries. Others involved are students, including those enrolled in universities, and young people with physical disabilities.

“It would seem we are out there to fill up a missing gap in the pastoral mission among the youth in the Church,” Br Luc said.

The retreats are meant to gather young people in a quiet setting to learn and share the Catholic faith. But ongoing activities in small groups outside the occasional retreats help participants understand the importance of living their faith constantly, Br Luc explained.

He credited Pope Francis for inspiring youth ministry leaders to continue their work of building a Church of missionary disciples who live their faith with joy.

The upcoming Synod of Bishops in October to discuss young people and vocations is an example of the pope’s leadership for the entire Church, he said.—CNS

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ANY people, including many Catholics, believe the pope always ruled over the Catholic Church as an absolute monarch, appointing the world’s bishops and definitively settling issues of faith and morals. Yet that exercise of the papal office is comparatively new.

The pope’s supreme power, both in governance and doctrine, was defined by the First Vatican Council in 1870 and has been seen as crucial to defending the Church from hostile governments and cultural forces around the world.

But at the same time, the pope’s universal jurisdiction and doctrinal infallibility have emerged as major obstacles to the long-sought goal of Christian unity.

The idea that the pope, as the “first bishop” of the Church, has a leadership role that other bishops do not is an especially large stumbling block for Eastern Orthodox Christians, but one that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are committed to discussing.

Recent popes have sought to explore ways to exercise papal primacy in terms more amenable to other Christians. According to Dominican Father Hyacinthe

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Pope Benedict XVI embrace.Recent popes have sought ways to overcome the obstacle of papal primacy in ecumenism. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) Destivelle, Pope Francis has furthered this effort with his frequent references to synodality—the involvement of a gathering of bishops in decision making, as practised in the Orthodox churches—and by often referring to himself simply as the “bishop of Rome”.

“The primacy that we know now, that the pope appoints all the bishops, is new, it’s from the 19th century; it was not at all the case in the first millennium,” said Fr Destivelle.

T

hat the papacy increased in power during the Middle

Ages and Renaissance cannot be dismissed simply as a power grab, said a German Jesuit historian.

In a very practical way, “Rome could judge more impartially over certain things than local institutions who were subdued to local pressures,” said Fr Klaus Schatz SJ. At the same time, Fr Schatz said the Catholic Church had a constitutional or “parliamentary” tradition of Church governance that did not fully give way to the monarchical model until the First Vatican Council.

The 2017 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation was another opportunity to discuss how a modified exercise of papal primacy might benefit Christians of all denominations.

The late medieval tendency to view the papacy “in terms of a pure exercise of legal power and not sufficiently in terms of a spiritual authority” needs to be overcome, said John Milbank, a prominent Anglican theologian.

“Sometimes,” he said, “it feels as if Catholic theology is too much a sort of debate about papal pronouncements, and I think maybe a stronger sense of every bishop as being a spiritual guide” would be a path forward.—CNS

Seafarers’ chaplain awarded MBE

A

CATHOLIC deacon has been awarded the British Empire Medal, or MBE, for his work serving seafarers and rescuing trafficking victims over the last eight years.

“I was absolutely stunned…a tear came to my eye—it really did,” Deacon Roger Stone told the British journal The Tablet.

“I love the seafarers…it’s not just words, I really do.”

Deacon Stone is stationed in Southampton, southern England, where he has been a port chaplain serving crew members for the past seven years through the Catholic charity Apostleship of the Sea (AoS).

“I am proud to work for Apostleship of the Sea, the greatest and most effective maritime charity in the world. I am privileged to serve so many wonderful seafarers from so many countries

Deacon Roger Stone, chaplain in the Apostleship of the Sea in Southampton. around the world,” Deacon Stone said, according to an AoS press release.

In addition to his work providing spiritual ministry to seafarers, the deacon has helped rescue several fishermen from in-

humane working conditions, including nine fishermen near Portsmouth harbour and another three Filipino men living on a boat in “slave-like conditions”.

Deacon Stone called the rescue of the Filipino men “a landmark thing in my life because they are such nice people being treated so abysmally”.

The MBE is an honour awarded to individuals for civil or military service worthy to be recognised by the Crown.

“I will always regard the medal as a symbol of the love I have for seafarers who rely on Apostleship of the Sea port chaplains and volunteers for pure pastoral care. Without Apostleship of the Sea, seafarers would simply not receive the love and care they need,” Deacon Stone said.— CNA

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

Dustbin digging for poor families

5

A (Left) This 1945 photo, taken after the atomic bombing in Nagasaki, Japan, was released by Pope Francis. The photo shows a boy carrying his dead brother on his back as he waits his brother’s turn to be cremated. (Right) The pope’s inscription on the back. (Photo: Joseph Roger O’Donnell/Holy See Press Office)

Pope’s postcard shocks

T

HE horrors of war and people’s yearnings for peace are on Pope Francis’ mind and in his prayers.

In an unusual move the pope had the Vatican press office and Vatican media distribute a copy of a famous photograph from the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

The photo shows a young boy, about ten years old, carrying his dead little brother on his back. The boy is taking his brother to be cremated.

On the back of the card, Pope

Francis wrote, “The fruit of war” and signed his name.

Below his signature, the pope explained that the photo was taken by US Marine Corps photographer Joseph Roger O’Donnell. After the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Mr O’Donnell was assigned to document the scenes.

“The sadness of the child is expressed only by his lips, bitten and oozing blood,” the pope wrote.— CNS

Pope in Chile, Peru to visit indigenous P OPE Francis’ week-long trip to Chile and Peru this month will take him to two regions that are among those countries’ poorest, where environmental issues and demands for indigenous land rights have led to sometimes-violent conflict.

In the Araucania region of southern Chile, Mapuche communities have been stripped of their land repeatedly—first by Spanish colonists, then by settlers who moved to the region to farm, and more recently by timber plantations.

The pope will celebrate Mass here and share lunch with a small group of “simple people, ordinary people from the region”, according to Bishop Hector Vargas Bastidas of Temuco.

Bishop Vargas said he expects the pope to bring a message “of hope, that hearts may be opened to peace, justice and dialogue”.

Pope Francis is due to meet with Amazonian indigenous people in Peru’s southeastern Madre de Dios region. His visit comes at a time when Wampis and Achuar people in Peru’s northern Amazon region, as well as groups in other parts of the country, are seeking greater autonomy and territorial rights.

Those rights are at the heart of conflicts in southern Chile, where protests have been marked by violence in recent years.

The construction of hydroelectric dams on the Biobio River displaced

indigenous communities and remains contentious, and recent decades have seen the expansion of pine and eucalyptus plantations across vast areas of southern Chile.

The plantations have depleted local water supplies and occupied areas claimed by Mapuche communities. Although they provide some local jobs, a study in 2016 found that plantations have done little to reduce poverty in the Araucania region.

Plantations have displaced indigenous people, who traditionally farmed, fished or raised livestock.

They also have left little of the native forest that is the centre of Mapuche spirituality, said Isolde Reuque Paillalef, a Mapuche woman and coordinator of indigenous ministry for the diocese of Temuco.

Pope Francis will hear similar concerns about territorial rights, environmental damage and the need for indigenous ministry when he travels to Puerto Maldonado, in the southeastern Peruvian Amazon.

Home to some of the world’s most biodiverse parks, that area has been devastated by a gold rush that has left large expanses of barren land pockmarked with pit mines.

The wildcat mining has led to forced labour, trafficking of women and girls for prostitution, and one of the highest murder rates in the country.—CNS

Mapuche leader Sergio Cataluf harvests lettuce at his home in Chile's Araucania region, where indigenous communities are fighting for rights to their ancestral territory. (Photo: Barbara Fraser/CNS)

FTER rummaging through supermarket dustbins, 79year-old Marta loads 40kg of edible food onto her bicycle every day. Three times a week she loads her car, and delivers the food to poor families in Casalborgone, a town about 30km from Turin.

Her charitable work was highlighted in the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire.

“It’s incredible how much is wasted. They throw out food near its expiry date or if the packaging looks damaged during transport,” said Marta, whose surname was not provided. “Recently, for example, there were oranges. If one is bad, they throw out the whole 5kg bag. It’s shameful,” explained Marta, who is retired and lives with her husband in Casalborgone.

Facing regular stares or criticism from curious or suspicious onlookers, Marta said: “It doesn’t faze me.

I do it because I know there are people in need and who are waiting for me.”

Marta’s project began several years ago, with a family that was about to lose everything because of an economic crisis. She then learned of others in need.

The eight families she now

Dustbin-digger Marta, a 79-year-old Italian who finds food for the poor from discarded supermarket produce. serves “always welcome me with open arms and with great decorum”, she said.

“They have never asked me for anything and they never waste anything: with the flour they make bread, with the milk they make some cheese.”

Deacon Benito Cutelle discovered Marta’s charitable outreach after noticing her digging through a skip. At first he thought she was

VACANCY

retrieving the food for herself.

“I was mistaken,” Deacon Cutelle said. “She was not searching through the rubbish for herself but for people who didn’t have anything to eat. I was really surprised. At her age she very humbly provides a service, an important service to benefit our poorest brothers. What she regrets is that when she’s too tired, there is no else one to help them.”—CNA

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR

6

The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: GĂźnther Simmermacher

A welcoming Church

T

HE decline of Christianity in Europe found alarming expression last month when a survey revealed that only half of all Germans were planning to attend church services for Christmas.

Worse yet, among Catholics that figure was only a third.

There was a time, not long ago, when churches could expect to be packed twice a year: for Christmas and Easter. Evidently, there is no more certainty of that, even in a country as tied to traditions as Germany.

In South Africa we have not yet reached that point. Generally, our churches are full, depending on the concentration of Catholics in a given area. Even in the cities, where the process of Western secularisation is more accelerated than it is in rural areas, Masses are still well attended, even outside the celebrations of Christmas and Easter.

But we must not fool ourselves that all is well. Many of our pews would be a lot emptier were they not filled by devout Catholics with origins in other African countries.

Certainly, the number of South African Catholics who have abandoned the Church of their youth—for other faith groups or no faith at all—is increasing. The spiritual disease generated by the forms of Western secularisation which reject and marginalise religion is spreading also in our country.

To some extent, the Catholic Church, like the other mainstream churches, has no control over that process. Every extended Catholic family, even the most pious, will have in it members who have abandoned the faith. And the reasons for them doing so are diverse.

At their best, such families and their parishes—and in some cases Catholic schools—have instilled in their young people a Christian ethos that will give them a sound moral basis from where they can do God’s work, even without realising it.

Even in a time when it is no longer common that Catholics return to the Church when they start their own families, surely some of them will return after a period of experimentation with alternative belief systems and due discernment, hopefully able to build on the foundation of faith

they received as children.

This places a huge responsibility on parents and catechists.

Their task is to provide the children and teenagers in their care with faith foundations which will inform their ethics and give them the spiritual means to remain in the faith, or to return to it if and when they are ready.

While catechism classes and good parenting are very important, and Catholic schooling desirable, the transmission of faith takes place most effectively through personal relationships.

The Evangelical churches know that, and most of them cultivate an atmosphere of welcome and personal outreach. Arguably it is that, more than theology or liturgy, which attracts Christians to them.

These churches not only use the terminology of fellowship but also practise it. Those who cross over from the Catholic Church, or other mainstream churches, to Evangelical bodies may well identify the attraction of fellowship, of the personal touch, as a key reason for leaving.

Many young Catholics, it may be added, also move fluidly between the different ways of being Christian, attending both Mass and Evangelical services.

When there is a sense of alienation from the local church community—of not being made to feel included in a parish when one comes to Mass—people are prone to drift away.

The need of a personal touch is perhaps felt even more keenly in an age when many human relationships are exercised by digital means. Often, contact on social media serves as a substitute for face-to-face encounters.

It is here where parish communities can be missionaries.

Sometimes a simple greeting for the stranger in a congregation can make a big difference.

Inviting a new member of the congregation for a drink or a braai can build the kind of personal relationship that is so powerful in transmitting the faith.

Evangelisation can take place over a cup of coffee or a beer.

By opening the doors to people who are unsure of their faith we can provide room in which they can encounter Christ.

This is what Pope Francis is calling for when he wants a Church that throws open its doors.

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.

Let’s take back our Christmas T HOSE who are serious about celebrating the birth of Christ, in a meaningful way, should consider leaving December 25 to the pagans and atheists. Let them have their fun and merriment on their “happy holidays� but refrain from hijacking our very important feast.

The Church practises the transferring of holy days. Those falling in the week could be moved to a Sunday, thus allowing for more of the faithful to celebrate the particular day without the weekday pressures of work and other obligations.

Is it not time that the Church and other Christian communities withdraw from the crazy, chaotic commercial celebrations of December 25?

In spite of a campaign some years

Carols we love

T

HANK you for GĂźnther Simmermacher’s article on “Stille Nachtâ€?, one of the most-loved carols, and the belated recognition of writer Fr Joseph Mohr and composer Franz Gruber (December 13).

May I mention some beautiful carols which are not as well known?

There is the French carol “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella� and the Polish “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly�.

I have these in a small booklet of carols which I was given by the Grail when they sang at a Midnight Mass in the chapel of the old Johannesburg General Hospital in Smit Street in 1959.

A delightful carol is “From Out of a Wood Did a Cuckoo Fly� in the Oxford Book of Carols. The cuckoo refrain can be imitated most effectively on a 2’ organ stop!

Finally, there is the Harold Darke setting of Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter�, which the former Maryvale choir sang one Midnight Mass.

In the Presbyterian hymnal the verse which mentions “a breastful of milk� is omitted—too much for the Victorians.

The words and music make this one of the finest and most uplifting pieces ever written. (I first heard it at evensong in St George’s Anglican cathedral in Cape Town.)

Peter Onesta, Johannesburg

No pain for Our Lady in childbirth

F

ATHER Ron Rolheiser in his column “We give birth to Christ too�

(December 20) imagines that Mary suffered “excruciating pain� during the birth of Jesus.

Venerable Fulton Sheen, the late bishop of Rochester in the US, would respectfully disagree.

He wrote in his book The World’s First Love: “As the Virgin conceived

ago to “put Christ back into Christmas�, the opposite has occurred.

Since the Church has already provided for the transferring of feasts, and because there is no definitive evidence that Jesus was born on December 25, moving Christmas Day should not pose any problems.

I would suggest that a major campaign be launched, throughout the world, so that no Catholic, and hopefully no other Christian, continues to celebrate Christmas on December 25.

Now that the pope is on good terms with the Lutherans and most other Christians, it is time to stand together and become statesmen/ stateswomen for God. A summit

Our Lord without the lusts of the flesh, so now she brings Him forth in joy without the labours of the flesh.

As Eve was taken out of the side of Adam, without any grief to him, so now in remaking the human race, the new Adam is taken from the new Eve without any grief to her.�

JH Goossens, Pretoria

Bring Jesus to the world this year

W

HAT are we Catholics doing in response to the call for a New Evangelisation?

The success of the many new anti-Catholic agents is due to their taking advantage of the tepidity and indifference of many of us Catholics who are not up to the level of their aggressive evangelising methods.

The effects of this insufficient cathechesis and formation on our part leaves many of us in lamentable helplessness before the fundamentalists’ recruitment work.

Many of us seem unaware of the fact that the Church’s primary reason for existence is to evangelise.

Many of us seem confused regarding the basis of salvation in Jesus Christ and see “ecclesiocentrism� as the central focus of our evangelising efforts.

The Evangelicals urge personal commitment to Jesus Christ, whereas many of our homilies are intellectually above the heads of the 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

ST ANTHONYS CHILD and YOUTH CARE CENTRE Keeping Children safe within families

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AM a prisoner looking for a penpal as it is very, very lonely here without friends.

I am 43, a Catholic, handsome, hard-working, love sports, kids—and anyone is welcome to write to me.

In the prison ministry here, I also love reading newspapers, and have been sent some issues of The Southern Cross.

May God bless you.

My address is Jacob Ruiters, Fauresmith DCS, Private Bag X06, Fauresmith, 9978.

My prison number and cell are No 206199197 and Cell 7.

Jacob Ruiters, Fauresmith, Free State

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people, and the Church is presented too much as an institution marked by structures and hierarchy.

The success of these new religious movements is a challenge and an opportunity.

We must never forget that the riches in Christ (Eph 3:8) are vital, and no culture or era can exhaust this reality. These riches are, first of all, Christ himself in a dynamic relationship with us because he alone is our salvation.

Absorbed in the inner problems of the Church and occasionally in issues of peace and justice, we contemporary Catholics feel little responsibility for spreading the faith.

The apostolate was, in the past, mainly directed at showing Protestants that Christ had founded a hierarchical Church which was to be accepted as the organ of divine revelation. The focus was more on authority than content.

Let us resolve in the new year to involve ourselves in evangelisation as a priority and to bring to the world, Jesus, who alone is the way, the truth and the life.

John Lee, Johannesburg

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should be called to address the issue of formally and internationally “putting Christ back into Christmas�.

Perhaps, the first Sunday after January 3 would be suitable. One would need to get away from the New Year celebrations. This, of course, would mean that the feast of the Epiphany might also need to be transferred to the next Sunday.

As this is already being done in many countries, including in the Southern African region, this should not be a problem.

How wonderful it would be if we Christians could relax and enjoy the “happy holidays� with the rest of the world and then celebrate our Saviour’s birth in a more-fitting, holy way, on our very own Christmas Day! Tony Meehan, Cape Town

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PERSPECTIVES

A place to get away E VERY year for the past ten years, a friend and I have taken off the first few weeks in January to travel to the Kruger National Park. That is the highlight of my year, and every year it seems that I need the break earlier and earlier…

One of the saddest stories I remember from a priest friend was how parishioners had generously given him a week of timeshare at Umhlanga one year—but while he was there, all he could afford to eat was bread and Marmite.

I thank God for the space and time to be able to get away for these two weeks.

It seems like a small thing, but the more the shortage of priests impacts on us clergy and the workload increases, the more important do these moments of rest become.

This year, as I am writing this article at the end of a day in the Kruger Park, I have shared this trip with a good friend and my godson—who has just finished matric— and his sister. I’ve had to pack four adults and our luggage into my Volkswagen.

Some of the places we have stayed do not have all the facilities (these are only for those who can afford to book them) and so we also had to pack coolers and utensils.

I had to practise some very astute 3D Tetris Packing—making me marvel at how my parents packed three boys into a car for holiday! And now things are so much more complex—nappy bags and three wheel prams. Impressive!

As I save up for the year for this break, being here gives me the chance to rest. The Kruger has that effect on me. I usually have to watch myself driving as the training to relax, to take things at the much slower pace often causes me to fall asleep. I’ve been very glad for the extra drivers in my car this year.

This year our odyssey began with a journey up from Pretoria to Pafuri Gate. I never really feel on holiday until I have passed Hammanskraal, site of my old seminary of St Peter’s.

From that exit on the N1, I began to actually leave the parish behind. That’s a very difficult thing to do, but I think with experience I’m getting better at it.

The northern part of the Kruger is very much quieter. On our first night we stayed at Pafuri River Lodge, in tents on stilts.

Here we met an old farmer who has the storyteller gene. With his gammy knee,

wheezy breathing and spider tales, he regaled us with stories of the bushveld and farming communities while we marvelled at the near 40°C temperatures from the very small pool. It was so nice being the one listening to stories rather than the one telling them—and he was brilliant!

From about Tshipise we also had no cellular reception—for a full 24 hours. What a way to start a real break—a break from technology and the demands and tyranny of social media—although we did use our phones to take some really fun pics as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.

The Kruger Park operates at a different pace and with a very different attitude. On a couple of occasions, I was reminded by the generally wonderful staff that we can’t impose our big city mentality—rather, there is time for chat, for kuier, for smiling and greeting.

M

y favourite animal is the elephant.

The wise and wrinkled have this amazing presence. Imagine my joy at having the first animal sighted being an elephant! And that was the pattern for the whole day.

As I age, I also find great joy in bird-

Fr Chris Townsend

Pastor’s Notebook

watching. My father is an avid birder, but as I was growing up, it was not something I could relate to. But being in a car with four enthusiastic birders, it is remarkable how this twitching—the act of travelling long distances to see rare birds—allows you to step out and marvel at the most spectacular of God’s creatures.

Every year, I meet up with parishioners in the park for a breakfast feast that includes their own speciality of Nutella and peanut butter. This sugar rush has to be balanced out by protein, otherwise you have to sleep off the hangover in a car park. It’s a blessing to be able to see parishioners when both you and they are in a different situation.

Clergy are entitled to four weeks including weekends out of the parish. Many find this very difficult to do as we struggle to find replacements. Of course, there are those who invert this and might be found in their parishes one out of four weeks a year—but that’s a story for another day.

Spare a thought for your priest—ask first if he has taken a proper holiday!

Fr Chris Townsend takes time out to birdwatch on his annual holiday in the Kruger Park.

In his column he describes the importance of getting away from urban life.

Why families must have spirituality Toni Rowland C HRISTMAS may be over, but before we know it, it’ll again be Advent and Christmas again. And then it will be good to remember that the 12 Days of Christmas are those after the feast of the Nativity, not before.

I’ve become interested in those days over the years. In part, it’s because I believe we shouldn’t stop singing Christmas carols on Christmas day which really is just the start of the Christmas season.

For some years I have offered a “Carols Galore” session at my place, mainly for those of us who sing in choirs and do carol services on request but seldom get to choose what we would like to sing. At those sessions we can enjoy many favourites and our own traditional national carols, too.

At my carol sing-a-long we do sing the carol “The 12 Days of Christmas” when “my true love gave to me” all those lords a-leaping and ladies dancing and the partridge in a pear tree, none of which appear to make much sense.

I have discovered that this is in fact a catechism lesson dating to the 17th century, the days of the persecutions of Catholics in England. The partridge is Jesus, the 12 lords a-leaping are the 12 articles in the apostle’s creed and so on— and the whole thing becomes a game.

So we played around with the “Carols Galore” sessions, but the idea of inviting people to sing carols after Christmas Day fell rather flat. Even grandchildren decided they wanted to go and spend their Christmas money.

How does one provide an opportunity to be in line with the liturgy and reflect on the events as they are written?

In the pre-Christmas “Carols by Candlelight” services little notice is taken of the order of events. “We Three Kings” is right for the Epiphany but that is two weeks after Christmas Day. Quite a few of the popular carols tell the whole story, such as “The First Nowell”. In a way,

Family Friendly

Marfam’s 2018 theme, “Ubuntu: Families Do Matter”, builds on a deep-seated belief that “I am because we are”.

“What Child Is This” can also be considered appropriate for the feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28—and even the Presentation on February 2 But what is most appropriate for the feast of the Holy Family, on December 31?

What family hymns are there really for us to choose from?

M

y point is that many carols and hymns at other times, such as Easter are time-hallowed and traditional and when they were composed they might have told a whole story, and didn’t take too much notice of the exact order of events. This is in any case quite difficult to reconcile chronologically as Matthew and Luke told different Nativity stories.

The gospels from time to time during the liturgical year seem to jump the gun chronologically. So from a family catechetical perspective I believe that the liturgy should definitely be a guideline but, as happens, if after 12 days a family has long forgotten Christmas it is sad not to have introduced them to the beautiful reflections in some of the carols.

Besides, don’t we tend to sing hymns without really thinking about the words?

Is it really true that, as has been said, “singing is praying twice”? I do wonder.

But faith is lived in daily life, in the home—and what happens there? Do we sing hymns or any other kind of songs at all these days? How many families pray together, or do a little faith-sharing on scripture and life?

Marfam’s 2018 theme, “Ubuntu: Families Do Matter”, builds on a deep-seated belief that “I am because we are”.

Families—the first communities—in their different forms do matter, not just on 12 days to remind us of Christ and Christmas but for 12 months of the year, the liturgical year and the family’s own liturgical cycle too.

Available materials, technology, family blessings and just ordinary traditional and cultural practices can be used. We are coming to realise that this is a new view but also an old form of catechesis—family catechesis as the first responsibility of a family.

Marfam promotes this as a way of developing family spirituality, which need not—and at times cannot—be strictly liturgically correct when it takes into account the life events of a family.

To highlight the role of parish and of family in a parish dedication or commissioning of new office-bearers at the beginning of a new 12 months, parents and families could be commissioned too as educators and catechists.

Why not? That is really taking the Church home, building the little domestic church of the home and putting the point across to the wider community too.

The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

7

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Is there a dress code for Mass?

More and more we see people coming to Mass dressed in casual wear. Especially during the summer months, people come to church looking like they are going to the beach and women are baring their shoulders. Isn’t there some kind of official dress code for Mass in the Church?

A concerned congregant

W

E all have biological urges that produce physical pleasure. Christians have to enjoy these in a healthy way and not go to such extremes as gluttony or lust. It is here we need to apply the virtues of temperance and modesty.

St Paul gave this warning: “We must be self-restrained and live good and religious lives here in this present world” while waiting for Christ’s return (Titus 2:12).

The virtue of modesty is not being observed in the way many Catholics dress, especially in the pews at Sunday Mass. This could be because the modern world seems to care little about it, seeing no harm in provocative fashions and advertising.

Photographs of near-naked celebrities in magazines and on websites have raised awareness that everyone has a right to preserve their privacy, particularly that of their own bodies. It is here that the Christian virtue of modesty comes in.

Modesty affirms the sacredness of the human person and so it preserves the human body from becoming an object of curiosity and lust.

The Catechism tells us that modesty is decency, inspiring one’s choice of clothing and keeping silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity; it is also discreet (2522).

Mass-goers should be made aware of this.

Most do not intend to be immodest or provocative, but they might forget that they are taking part in solemn worship in a holy place, not out on the public roads.

St Peter’s basilica in Rome, for example, enforces regulations forbidding admission to those wanting to enter in shorts and skirts above the knee, sleeveless tops, transparent or tight-fitting garments and even the wearing of excessive jewellery. This demonstrates that the basilica is not for commercial or other secular use, but exclusively for the worship of God, in which unbecoming clothing is inappropriate and offensive.

At Sunday Mass, similar restrictions ought to apply. This is not merely to stave off feelings of lust in others, but to help all present to focus on the sacred liturgy with as few distractions as possible.

Apart from these self-evident norms, there is no fixed dress code for attendance at Mass.

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

8

The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

COMMUNITY Precious Blood Sister Florence Mbanjwa mad e her final vows in the Mariannhill convent.

(From left) Bishop Pius Dlungwane of Mariannhill, Sr Florence’s aunt, Sr Florence, her mother, and her sister.

(Submitted by Sr MarieTherese)

Ronnie and Marrianne Jacobs celebrated 40 years of marriage at St Ninian’s parish in Kuils River, Cape Town. Archbishop Stephen Brislin, present for confirmations, blessed the couple and their family after Mass. (From left) daughter-in-law Carmelita, who is expecting the Jacobs’ first grandchild, son Devaroux, daughter Guinevere, Archbishop Brislin, Ronnie and Marrianne, and son Rolf.

Mary Hyam retired as head of De La Salle Holy Cross College Junior School in Johannesburg after 22 years of service to the college. A final farewell Mass and brunch were held in her honour where pupils presented her with gifts and photo albums.

Mrs Hyam will still be involved in learner support and religious education programmes. Neil Berndsen will be taking up the position of junior school head. Seen here are (from left) junior deputy head Martin Nolte, college head Debbie Harris, retiring junior head Mary Hyam and deputy junior head Carren Ilsley.

Bishop Frank de Gouveia of Oudtshoorn celebrated Mass at St Anthony’s parish in Sedgefield in thanksgiving for Deacon Lucas Timmers’ many years of service in the Greater Knysna area and in particular St Anthony’s. The Mass offered for Deacon Timmers and his wife, Agnes, was also a combined Mass for Greater Knysna. Bishop De Gouveia is seen celebrating Mass assisted by Deacon Timmers. (Submitted by Yvonne Morgan-Smith)

St James’ parish in Port Elizabeth celebrated with the First Communion class of 2017 and Fr Emmanuel Maduka. (Submitted by Brett Ingram)

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What SA can expect from 2018

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

HE Catholic Church has developed a stronger voice on political and social issues, especially through the statements by the bishops’ Justice & Peace Commission and its chair, Bishop Abel Gabuza, and in 2018 that pressure needs to be maintained, according to a Catholic political analyst.

With the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as president of the African National Congress, it has become even more possible to have a more constructive relationship and find ways of walking with government, said Mike Pothier, senior researcher for the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO).

Mr Ramaphosa now faces a complex task every bit as difficult as the one he faced 25 years ago when he led the ANC’s side in the negotiations for a post-apartheid, democratic dispensation, Mr Pothier noted.

Mr Ramaphosa has spoken out strongly against state capture and has promised to tackle corruption, address land reform, job creation, education and economic growth.

“Let’s hope that he succeeds and that he does not end up being martyred before he can complete his task,” Mr Pothier said.

The analyst doesn’t anticipate a breakaway in the ANC as a result of the elections, but further crumbling, fragmentation and infighting is a possibility.

Mr Pothier noted that there is a combination of political factors that are negatively affecting the economy.

“There is a lack of vision, a lack of direction and a lack of planning,” he said.

He predicted that Mr Ramaphosa will try to resurrect the National Development Plan, and engage with businesses and labour.

“I doubt whether it makes a difference in the short term, because our economy is beset by political and structural problems. Even if Madiba was still the president and our politics was perfect, we would still have massive unemployment because the mines are in shutdown. Our mining industry is just a declining

industry, worldwide commodity prices for things like coal and iron have been depressed, and if the Chinese economy remains relatively slow it will continue to be the case,” Mr Pothier said.

“We have these really deep structural economic problems which not even world’s best president could solve overnight.”

While there are signs that the economy is beginning to perk up a little bit, especially in agriculture, economic problems are going to be with us for a very long time, Mr Pothier said.

However, Mr Ramaphosa’s success will help prevent the final downgrade of South African bonds to junk status. “[Rating agency] Moody’s still have us one notch above junk status, and they would probably review that in February or March.

They may say the economy is looking kind of pear-shaped, but the Ramaphosa election does have the promise of creating stability, which could prevent us from that final downgrade—which will be huge. It will mean we import much less, food prices stabilise and should continue to do so and may even come down in some respects,” he said.

If the economy begins to strengthen, with inflation remaining low, which it is, the Reserve Bank may have the confidence to reduce interest rates.

Socially, most of the signs are fairly positive, Mr Pothier said. Many of our institutions are holding up very well, with the shining star being the judiciary.

Parliament has also been reasserting itself with good work on the Eskom inquiry, the new SABC board and other interventions.

The Church, he said, should continue to focus on the poor, with massive unemployment a big problem.

“The Church has to be asking questions of government and business about how resources are applied and how they are shared, he said.

“Business sits on huge amounts of cash, Continued on page 3

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

or Willie Lamont, vice-chancellor of the Oudtshoorn diocese, is presented with the papal Bene Merenti medal by Fr Wim Sabo in St Nicholas church. Mr Lamont, who has worked in the chancery since 1977, was only the fourth-ever recipient of the papal medal in Oudtshoorn diocese. More on page 3.

Pope to visit Padre Pio shrine

P

OPE Francis plans to mark this year’s 50th anniversary of the death of St Pio of Pietrelcina and the 100th anniversary of Padre Pio receiving the stigmata by visiting the famed Italian saint’s hometown and the paediatric oncology ward of the hospital he founded.

Pope Francis will travel to Pietrelcina, the birthplace of the saint, and San Giovanni Rotondo on March 17, the Vatican announced.

Both towns are in south-eastern Italy.

The pope will visit the children receiving treatment for cancer at the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (House for the Relief of Suffering), before celebrating Mass outside the church of St Pio of Pietrelcina.

Padre Pio was born as Francesco Forgione in Pietrelcina in 1887. He received the stigmata—wounds on his feet, hands and side corresponding to those Jesus suffered at the crucifixion—in September 1918, two years after the Capuchin friar moved to San Giovanni Rotondo.

He died 50 years later—on September 23, 1968—at the age of 81.

Pope John Paul II beatified Padre Pio in 1999 and canonised him three years later, on June 16, 2002 Pope Francis has praised St Pio as a devoted confessor, a channel of God’s mercy and a teacher of prayer.

During the 2015-16 Year of Mercy, the

The

Pilgrims at San Giovanni Rotondo, the shrine of Padre Pio in south-eastern Italy.

Pope Francis will visit the shrine in March.

(Photo: Günther Simmermacher) relics of St Pio were brought to the Vatican for veneration.

“The great river of mercy” that Padre Pio unleashed, Pope Francis said at the time, should continue through the prayers and, especially, the willingness to listen and to care for others shown by members of the Padre Pio prayer groups that exist around the world.

Padre Pio, he noted, used to tell people prayer is “a key that opens God’s heart”.—CNS

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Young adults were confirmed in the Maronite church in Mulbarton, Johannesburg. Mass was jointly celebrated by Archbishop Buti Thlagale, Maronite Church of South Africa superior Fr Maurice Chidiac and parish priest Fr Jean Yammine. (Photo: Joe Enriques)

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Holy Trinity in Olifantsfontein, together with Sacred Heart Midrand, saw young parishioners confirmed by Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria.

The group is seen with the archbishop and Frs Thomas and Joseph. (Submitted by Jeanette Lesisa) At the Christmas Vigil Mass, St John Bosco parish in Robertsham, Johannesburg, staged a Nativity tableau, and—for the first time—adults took part.

Fr Francois Dufour SDB, outgoing Salesian provincial superior, celebrated Mass and made a special point of addressing the children present.

Parish music coordinator Sharon Jones organised the tableau. (Photo: Mark Kisogloo)

CHURCH

The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

9

Why the Church must learn to listen Much has been done in the Catholic Church to make children safe since the clergy abuse scandal broke — but the Church must still learn to listen, argues FR HUGH LAGAN SMA.

T

HE Catholic Church worldwide is still only in its infancy in understanding the critical role listening and hearing play in the healing and empowerment of sexual abuse survivors by Catholic clergy and religious.

While the steep learning curve which many Church leaders have been obliged to engage with over the past three decades is bearing fruit, there still remains a disturbing disconnect between wellcrafted child-safeguarding policy documents and their field application as experienced by victims, survivors, their loved ones and advocates.

At the heart of this disconnect is the struggle by Church authorities and congregants to accurately hear and fully understand the devastating and pervasive impact of sexual abuse on victims and survivors in the absence of defensive posturing, stereotyping and paternalism.

The ambivalence of Church leadership to build a respectful and trusting working alliance with survivors and their advocates has and continues to be the single greatest obstacle to continued progress in safeguarding intervention and prevention, as well as healing and reconciliation.

Independent bestpractice reviews of faith-based child safeguarding structures clearly demonstrate that healing comes more through opportunities for survivors and Church leaders to encounter one another than eloquent public statements communicating the commitment of the Catholic Church to protect the most vulnerable.

Too much reliance has been placed on professionals by Church leadership to provide a window into how survivors see and experience their world, rather than to welcome the voice of survivors to tell their own stories, to articulate their own needs and to share their own wisdom.

Paradoxically, some survivor advocacy groups argue that the Catholic Church in the global north has now become so skilled at languaging and managing the “child abuse crisis” that it has lost the ability to listen to and hear those who have been most harmed.

The voices of survivors and their

loved ones have been silenced further by attempts by some Church authorities • to sanitise the abuse perpetuated by clergy; • to contextualise the higher prevalence of child sexual abuse within society as a distractive ploy; • to depict survivors singularly as individuals damaged for life and emotionally unpredictable; • to theologise clerical sexual abuse as a source of institutional purification; and • to justify the continued resilience of the Catholic Church in spite of abuse disclosures.

Furthermore, a common theme in the collective historical narratives of survivors who have disclosed abuse by clerics identifies a pattern in which the immediate urgency by most Church authorities has been to become more active in resisting or responding rather than firstly, to become more present in seeking to understand the very personal pain and injury of abuse.

Perpetual ‘victim’, ‘abuser’ The listening process must preempt the intervention process and the needs of vulnerable persons must always trump the interests of institutions.

The transposition of these subtle distinctions are why in many instances, Church leadership and survivors continue to re-enact many of the dysfunctional dynamics which facilitated and perpetuated the initial abuse.

The outcome can become a traumatic script in which the survivor as “perpetual victim” and the Church authority as “perpetual abuser” lose their unique identities and with that, the ability to listen to and hear one another.

The tragedy is that this script entraps the key protagonists and undermines even the most effective safeguarding structures and best intentions.

This perpetuation of the dominant abuse narrative can lead to a survivor becoming so enmeshed in feelings of anger and rage that it becomes counterhealing.

Additionally, it can contribute to some Church leaders feeling that their best efforts to listen to the survivor are not being reciprocated and so they turn in frustration towards self-preservation.

The result is that the advice of lawyers or senior clerics is permitted to rigidly define future communications as well as feed a growing paranoia and misperception that the sole motivation of adult survivors in bringing forward allegations at this point in their lives is financial retribution and the public humiliation of the Catholic Church.

In writing about her work with

Being believed in first disclosing having been sexually abused is the best predictor of life-long recovery.

Child-safeguarding contact persons and investigators of the metropolitan region of Pretoria at a one-day training workshop in September 2017 at Santa Sophia Centre, Pretoria. Presentations on child protection and safeguarding best-practices were given by Sr Hermenegild Makoro, Dr Thuli Nthuli, Adv Jan D’Oliveira, and Frs Vincent Brennan SMA, Patrick Rakeketsi CSS and Hugh Lagan SMA (far right).

In his article, Fr Hugh Lagan SMA argues that the Church can do harm to the survivors of abuse even with good intentions. Above all, the Church— and all who are confronted with situations of abuse—must learn to listen better to the survivors of abuse. clergy abuse survivors, Diane Knight, former chair of the National Review Board of the US bishops’ conference, stated that “survivors have much to teach us; about deep and lasting pain, justified anger, the capacity to heal, courage and the resiliency of the human spirit. They have taught me that we still have much to learn.”

Other commentators have echoed this sentiment and urged bishops, clergy and congregants to welcome survivors with humility and allow them to teach the Church how to become a better healer and an agent for positive change.

There resides within the resilience and courage of survivors a hard-won wisdom which needs to be welcomed by the Church as an asset rather than viewed as a threat.

Uncomfortably, the painful truth and deep hurt which survivors embody challenge the Church to move beyond rhetoric and proactively witness to its founding values of healing, restorative justice, renewal and reconciliation.

Believe first Resilience studies with survivors identify the experience of being believed in first disclosing a history of childhood sexual abuse to be the singular best predictor of life-long recovery and healing.

Sadly, disclosures of childhood sexual abuse can trigger often unconscious self-preserving reactions in those who hear them; all the more so when the perpetrator is a trusted family member, a respected educator or an esteemed religious figure.

Sexual abuse unravels so much of what society takes for granted. As the 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche rightly remarked: “Most people really do not want to hear the truth as they do not want their illusions destroyed.”

Professionals caution against defensive behaviours such as “victim blaming”, “abuse fatigue” and “Church-bashing” in response to disclosures of abuse.

The result—intentional or otherwise—places a distance between the survivor and the listener and functions to protect society from the discomfort and responsibility that the acknowledgement of childhood sexual abuse within their midst would bring.

This distance is further exaggerated within an institutional Church which has traditionally been more at home assuming a speakeroriented perspective than a

hearer-oriented perspective.

Let survivors speak Survivors have shared experiences of meeting with a Church leader who monopolised the conversation and whose primary intention in listening was to reply.

Others reported intrusive and at times voyeuristic questioning of the details of their abuse by underskilled Church personnel carrying out preliminary investigations, or meeting with Church bodies whose sole concern was image management, damage control and monetary compensation.

What was initially hoped to be the opening up of a respectful space quickly collapses as the sur-

vivor’s self-protective mechanisms become activated in the presence of another “abusive” cleric or Church representative who is perceived to be manipulating, dominating, disengaging and silencing.

While one would wish to believe that such instances are now confined to historical cases, anecdotal evidence from various parts of the world provided by survivors, clinicians and advocacy groups would suggest otherwise.

Of greatest concern is that many of these survivors do not re-engage following such encounters, even when a follow-up is initiated by Church support services. Nor do they pursue civil action.

Tragically, they perceive their only choice is to withdraw back into the shadows of silence and isolation.

Truth recovery begins when a Church leader chooses personal vulnerability over group defensiveness and risks internal transformation over institutional loyalty.

The restoration of credibility and integrity within the Catholic Church will depend on how well the entire global Church community can work with survivors and their advocates as collaborators rather than antagonists.

In walking this healing journey, Church leaders, congregants, victims, survivors, their loved ones and advocates are invited to incarnate the words of the poet T S Eliot: “And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know that place for the first time.” n Fr Hugh Lagan is a priest with the Society of African Missions and a clinical psychologist.

10

The Southern Cross, January 10 to January 16, 2018

SA CHURCH 200

Anti-Catholic prejudice at the Cape In his previous article on the history of the early Church in South Africa, MARTIN KEENAN showed that there was no ‘persecution’ of Catholics at the Cape, but this week he explains that there was anti-Catholic prejudice in the 1820s and ‘30s.

I

N this part of the history of the early Church at the Cape, about anti-Catholic prejudice, three lay Catholics feature—all of whom we have previously encountered or will meet again in connection with other matters.

Two laymen were attacked by anti-Catholic forces. One of them suffered immediate adverse consequences through loss of his highly remunerated and prestigious employment, while the other successfully sued his tormentor for libel.

The third, a laywoman, was recipient and witness of generalised anti-Catholic sentiment current in Cape Town in the 1830s of which we hear nothing from any other source.

An oath too far The attack on LieutenantColonel Christopher Chapman Bird (1769-1861) was launched in the early 1820s by the Irish Presbyterian William Parker, a former mayor of Cork in Ireland. It directly caused Bird’s dismissal in 1824 from the senior post he had held in the civil service since 1818.

Bird remained at the Cape comparatively impoverished, but with his honour and reputation intact.

His wife, a Protestant, had been received into the Church in mid1826 by the Catholic chaplain, Fr Wagener, and was expelled from the Dutch Reformed congregation in November that year. This may account for Bird in 1836 calling Calvinists “our enemies�.

The problem was that Bird’s appointment to an office under the British Crown required him to take an oath of loyalty to the British monarch—but the standard oath was designed to make it impossible for faithful Catholics to swear it.

A variant oath which was not offensive to Catholics had been devised for the French colony of QuĂŠbec, overwhelmingly Catholic, after it had been ceded to Britain

by France in 1763. That is the oath Bird took.

William Parker’s anti-Jesuit agitation was cooked up by the governor, Lord Charles Somerset, while pursuing his own vendetta against his one-time deputy, Sir Rufane Shaw Donkin.

or individuals arrived from Calcutta. O’Flinn forwarded a pamphlet to Bishop O’Connor, vicar-apostolic of Madras, another of her connections.

O’Flinn and her husband died in the 1850s, within two years of each other.

‘Let church be shut down’

Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Chapman Bird, who fell victim to anti-Catholic prejudice.

Lord Charles Somerset, governor of the Cape Colony from 1814-26, who was virulently anti-Catholic.

Cardinal Giacomo Giustiniani, whose relative, Margaret O’Flinn, reported anti-Catholic attitudes.

It was Somerset who pushed the British government to insist that Bird take the unmodified oath, which, as a faithful Catholic, he refused to do.

For that, at the height of his powers, Bird was dismissed from an office which paid ÂŁ2 000 a year plus emoluments. For comparison, Fr Wagener received an annual state salary of ÂŁ100 in 1826, rising to ÂŁ200 in 1831.

Bird lived in Cape Town until 1843 when he retired to Bruges, Belgium.

printed, since the editor (Charles Boniface), printer (Breda) and publisher (Neethling) all denied they had written the squib or caused it to be written, and claimed it was inserted unilaterally by one Bernardus Josephus van de Sandt who, they claimed, sometimes helped out with the typesetting.

De Sandt was, in later life, an editor in his own right and published The Cape of Good Hope Almanac and Annual Register from 1840 onwards.

The main object of the slur was Horstok’s medical standing, but the reference to his religious beliefs and practices (“Roomsch leek, ja, half pastoor, vuilaardig hypokriet; Schandvlekker van syn’ vrouw, die trouwloos’ prosyliet�) also exposed him to hatred, contempt, or ridicule (the standard definition of defamation).

The court awarded Horstok ÂŁ75 damages on September 7, 1830.

After serving for two years as one of the Catholic churchwardens, elected in 1832, Horstok returned to Holland in 1834.

in late summer 1836.

According to O’Flinn, Louis Giustiniani preached in all the Sunday assemblies, fulminating against the evils of Rome.

His book Papal Rome As It Is, By a Roman, published in Baltimore in 1843, contains his life story down to that date.

He was a renegade Catholic cleric ordained to the diaconate in 1826 whose faith was shaken by a book he chanced on.

Fleeing Rome (in secret, he says, to avoid the Inquisition), he reached Switzerland in mid-1829 where, having repudiated his Catholic faith, he was received into the Reformed Church in 1831.

The book mocks the cult of the saints and the doctrine of transubstantiation, and dilates on Rome’s avarice and immorality.

Particularly galling to Mrs O’Flinn would have been a passage in Louis’ book which recounts a riot allegedly provoked by Cardinal Giustiniani through his interference with an ancient Marian tradition.

There is a kernel of truth in the overblown story in as much as the cardinal had acquired a reputation for harshness when he was archbishop of Imola from 1826-32 (his successor in the see of Imola, incidentally, was elected pope in 1846, taking the name Pius IX).

Louis Giustiniani had stopped over at Cape Town on his way to preach the Gospel to the Aborigines in Western Australia, but was forced to abandon that mission field in 1838 and made his way to the United States where his book was published and where he went over to evangelical Lutheranism.

As if that were not enough, evangelical “New Lights� deluged Cape Town with anti-Catholic publications from India, presumably disseminated by an individual

A foul case of libel The libel on Dr Hubertus Bendictus van Horstok was published in the Zuid-Afrikaan Tydschrift of June 18, 1830.

Horstok had qualified in medicine in Amsterdam and his dissertation (on scurvy) was published there in 1821. On July 5, 1822 he was licensed to practise at the Cape as physician and accoucheur.

The libel was contained in a squib—a short piece of satirical writing—the English translation of which, for purposes of the litigation, was as follows: Singular epitaph on a Quack Doctor: Hereunder rots the corpse of Lubbert Marmoriset, escaped, God knows whence, as village or ship barber; Roman Catholic layman, yea, half priest, vile hypocrite, defamer of his wife, that faithless proselyte, too stupid even for the syringe, run-away hospital nurse, useless either to man or beast, pitiful scribbler; in short, here is a quack, a man murderer.

The Court accepted evidence that these words identified Horstok, and the only issue at trial was how the piece came to be

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Lies from an ex-priest Margaret O’Flinn, nĂŠe O’Connor, came out to the Cape with her husband Daniel in a party of settlers aboard the “Chapmanâ€? which left England in 1819. She was then 28, he a year younger.

Her evidence of anti-Catholicism is contained in a letter she sent in 1839 to Cardinal Giacomo Giustiniani in Rome, with whom she claimed some kinship through her mother.

She recounts the depredations among the flock of a “wolf� named—coincidentally—Louis Giustiniani, of whose presence in Cape Town on a stop-over from Europe to Western Australia we would know nothing were it not for her letter. From external sources we can place his stop-over

A final anecdote from this period is particularly perturbing, if true.

As reported in a Catholic journal published in London in 1841, the chief justice at the Cape in 1832 is alleged to have uttered blatantly prejudicial remarks during a trial relating to control of Scully’s Chapel, the first Catholic church in South Africa, built by Fr Patrick Scully. The journal reports: “‘Supposing,’ argued the counsel for the Catholic clergyman, ‘Supposing this chapel were to exist for very many years‌’, ‘I trust not,’ interrupted his honour; ‘I trust to see it shut up, and the congregation no longer frequenting it’.â€?

This irruption of anti-Catholic feeling in the 1830s contrasts with ecclesiastical charity in the 1820s.

Even if the goodwill shown by the numerous non-Catholic contributors to Fr Scully’s building fund in 1821 can be attributed to the temporary absence on home leave of the notoriously antiCatholic Lord Charles Somerset, that does not nullify what they did actually do in his absence.

Scully’s personal qualities will have contributed largely to the ecumencial harmony evident in the 1820s. All the non-Catholic clergy, the dissenting evangelicals excepted, were among those who publicly subscribed to the building fund.

Hugh Torrance, a young Scottish businessman on his way to Sydney, gave a brief account of merry evenings spent in Cape Town with Fr Scully who, he says, was a favourite with regimental officers, and Scully was given civil employment by an Anglican clergyman, the astronomer royal at the Cape, who also admitted him as a lodger.

A comic verse printed in a local English-language newspaper in February 1824 evinces affection for “Pat� Scully: Is this Chapel of Roman or Gothic, or what style?� said Dick to his friend, who replied with a Pat smile, “I should rather suppose, from the name of the priest, Mr. Scully, ‘tis Roman-Golgothic at least.

Scully’s Chapel collapsed in 1837. n In the January 24 issue, Martin Keenan will look at conflict between clergy and laity in the 1830s.

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Don’t worry about others’ sins

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

F

EAR and the shame of admitting one’s own sins leads to pointing fingers and accusing others rather than recognising one’s own faults, Pope Francis said.

“It’s difficult to admit being guilty, but it does so much good to confess with sincerity. But you must confess your own sins,” the pope said at his first general audience of the new year.

“I remember a story an old missionary would tell about a woman who went to confession and she began by telling her husband’s faults, then went on to her mother-in-law’s faults and then the sins of her neighbours.

Your prayer to cut out and collect

At a certain point, the confessor told her, ‘But ma’am, tell me, are you done?’ ‘No...Yes.’ ‘Great, you have finished with other people’s sins, now start to tell me yours,’” he said.

Recognising one’s own sins prepares a person to make room in his or her heart for Christ, the pope said. But a person who has a heart “full of himself, of his own success” receives nothing because he is already satiated by his “presumed justice”.

Confessing one’s sins to God and the Church helps people understand that sin not only “separates us from God but also from our brothers and sisters,” he said.

“Sin cuts, it cuts our relationship with God and with our

brothers and sisters, in our family, in society, in the community,” the pope said. “Sin always cuts, separates, divides.”

Christians also can find the courage to “take off their masks” by following the example of biblical figures such as King David, Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman and St Peter.

“To take the measure of the fragility of the clay with which we have been formed is an experience that strengthens us,” Pope Francis said.

“While making us realise our weakness, it opens our heart to call upon the divine mercy that transforms and converts. And this is what we do in the penitential act at the beginning of Mass.”—CNS

Prayer for the new School Year

God of wisdom and might, we praise you for the wonder of our being, for mind, body and spirit.

Be with our children as they begin a new school year.

Bless them and their teachers and staff.

Give them strength and grace as their bodies grow; wisdom and knowledge to their minds as they search for understanding; and peace and zeal to their hearts.

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Liturgical Calendar Year B – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday January 14, 2nd Sunday of the Year 1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19, Psalms 40:2, 4, 7-10, 1 Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20, John 1:35-42 Monday January 15 1 Samuel 15:16-23, Psalms 50:8-9, 16-17, 21, 23, Mark 2:18-22 Tuesday January 16 1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalms 89:20-22, 27-28, Mark 2:23-28 Wednesday January 17, St Anthony of Egypt 1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51, Psalms 144:1-2, 9-10, Mark 3:1-6 Thursday January 18 1 Samuel 18:6-9; 19:1-7, Psalms 56:2-3, 9-13, Mark 3:7-12 Friday January 19 1 Samuel 24:2-20 (3-21), Psalms 57:2-4, 6, 11, Mark 3:13-19 Saturday January 20, Bl Cyprian M Tansi, St Fabian, St Sebastian 2 Samuel 1:1-4, 11-12, 19, 23-27, Psalms 80:2-3, 5-7, Mark 3:20-21 Sunday January 21, 3rd Sunday of the Year Jonah 3:1-5, 10, Psalms 25:4-9, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, Mark 1:14-20

St Anthony of Egypt

Bl Cyprian M Tansi

IN MEMORIaM

HERDE—Charlotte Elizabeth. Beloved mother, mother-in-law and grandmother of Siobhan, Gary, Matthew and Stuart Brown, and much-loved sister of Margaret and Ursula who died on January 13, 2014.

Fondly remembered and always in our thoughts and prayers. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty—Psalm 91.

HYaMS—Danny and Domitilla. In loving memory of our parents and founders of Little Eden Society. May their dear souls continue to rest in eternal peace.

PRaYERS

O VIRgIN Mother, In the depths of your heart you pondered the life of the Son you brought into the world.

Give us your vision of Jesus and ask the Father to open our hearts, that we may always see His presence in our lives, and in the power

SOLUTIONS TO 793. ACROSS: 5 Sick, 7 Tie the knot, 8 Gala, 10 Abednego, 11 League, 12 Dundee, 14 Taurus, 16 Bazaar, 17 Advocate, 19 Reel, 21 Exaltation, 22 Ward. DOWN: 1 Stag, 2 Stranger, 3 Female, 4 Unheed, 5 Stun, 6 Congregate, 9 Alexandria, 13 Nazareth, 15 Scarab, 16 Breath, 18 Owed, 20 Link.

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JOHaNNESBuRg: St anthony’s church in Coronationville is calling for donations of tinned fish, peanut butter, jam, butter and juice for their soup kitchen. Contact Faried and Nadine Benn on 073 906 6037 or 083 658 2573.

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

Amen.

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

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

PERSONaL

FaTHER, you have given all peoples one common origin. It is your will that they be gathered together as one family in yourself. Fill the hearts of mankind with the fire of your love and with the desire to ensure justice for all. By sharing the good things you give us, may we secure an equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. May there be an end to division, strife and war. May there be a dawning of a truly human society built on love and peace. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.

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

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

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aBORTION WaRNINg: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelife abortionisevil.co.za aBORTION ON DEMaND: This is legalised daily murder in our nation. Our silence on this issue is the reason why it continues.

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3rd Sunday: January 21 Readings: Jonah 3:1-5, 10, Psalm 25:4-9, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, Mark 1:14-20

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E are still very much at the beginning of the year, and learning to listen to God’s voice, the voice of Jesus. This is what the readings for next Sunday give us.

In the first reading we are in the middle of the story of Jonah. You may recall what had happened previously: Jonah had heard God calling him to go and preach to the unlikely and menacing city of Nineveh.

He did what we have all been tempted to do, namely to go running in the opposite direction; but God is not so easily thwarted, and there is a storm, and Jonah has to be thrown overboard, and swallowed by a large sea-monster. He sings lots of hymns, and eventually the fish vomits him up on the shore.

Now read on: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time”, and now he has learned the lesson, and does what he is told: “Go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation that I shall tell you.”

The city, we are told, “was a great city before God, a walk of three days”. After Day One, Jonah announces: “Forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” Amazingly: “The men of Nineveh believed God and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the

S outher n C ross

greatest to the least.”

The result is remarkable: “God saw their deeds, that they repented from their evil way, and God changed his mind about the evil that he had said he would do to them. And he did not do it.” Extraordinary things can happen if we listen to God. The poet who wrote the psalm for next Sunday is well aware of this: “Lord, make me know your ways, teach me your paths”, he cries, “guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour. Remember your mercy, Lord, and your steadfast love, for they are from another world.”

The Lord is the one who “shows the way to the humble in judgment, and teaches the humble his way”. This is a God who is closely involved with the human race, and whose voice is audible in our world.

In the second reading, Paul is trying to teach his Christians in Corinth what to do about sex; or, rather, what to do about the whole of life (and sex is, of course, a very important part of life), especially given that, as he puts it: “The time is drawn together.”

Looking at time from God’s perspective, he argues, should mean that “those who have

wives should live like those who have none, and those who are weeping should live like those who are not weeping; and those who are rejoicing as though they were not rejoicing, and those who are in commerce as though they possessed nothing. For the shape of this cosmos is passing away.”

In other words, once you start listening to God, things look very different indeed.

That, of course, is what happens in today’s Gospel; it is so familiar to us, but we should be listening in amazement to the story of the calling of the first four of Jesus’ disciples.

It begins, significantly, with the arrest of John the Baptist. That inauspicious moment is the signal, it seems, for Jesus to start his mission: he “came into the Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God, and saying, ‘The right time has been fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has drawn near: change your hearts, and believe in the Gospel’.”

There is more to it, however, than just the message; for the message needs others to proclaim it on Jesus’ behalf (yes, this means you).

For the first time in the Gospel we read of Jesus “passing by the Sea of Galilee”. After a bit, we shall realise that every time this hap-

My best ten books of 2017 T

Not historical, but well researched.

• Next, some religious autobiographies: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Coach Wooden and Me, Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court. You may wonder why I list this book by a basketball player as religious autobiography, but it only needs to be read to answer that question.

This isn’t a sports book but a book that reflects deeply on life, meaning, friendship, race, and religion. Raised a Catholic, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shares very candidly on what prompted his religious move to Islam. There are lessons to be learned here.

This is a wonderfully warm story amidst all the pain it shares.

Macy Halford: My Utmost, A Devotional Memoir. As an Evangelical Christian, Halford grew up with a deep faith, but one that wasn’t strongly challenged in her youth. As a young woman she moved to New York and then later to Paris to become a writer.

Surrounded now mostly by friends and colleagues who consider faith a naiveté, she struggled to root her faith, to withstand the challenge of her new world.

Her eventual solid landing within the faith of her childhood can be a help to all of us, regardless of denomination, as we struggle to keep our faith in an overlyadult world.

Bryan Stevenson: Just Mercy, A Story of Justice and Redemption. Bryan Stevenson is a Harvard-educated lawyer who has chosen to put his talents to work in helping the poor—in this case, prisoners on death row who don’t have any means of

Classic Conrad

ASTE is subjective. Keep that in mind as I share with you the ten books that most touched me this past year.

They may leave you cold, or angry at me that I praised them. Be your own critic here—nobody buys everything that’s advertised in a shop.

So, what ten books most touched me this year?

• First, I single out some wonderful religious biographies: Kate Hennessey: Dorothy Day, The World Will be Saved by Beauty. To my mind, this book is a treasure.

As Dorothy Day’s granddaughter, Kate Hennessey had an intimate relationship with Dorothy, but that relationship also had its headaches and heartaches.

Dorothy was a complex person who when called a saint, reacted by saying: “I don’t want to be dismissed that lightly!”

This book captures both the saint and the woman resistant to that label.

(See next week’s Southern Cross for an article on the author of this book.)

Jim Forest: At Play in the Lion’s Den: A Biography and Memoir of Daniel Berrigan. A great insight as to who American priest Fr Daniel Berrigan was as a man, a Jesuit, a friend and a prophet.

There will be numerous biographies still written on Fr Berrigan, but none, I venture to say, will surpass this one.

Suzanne M Wolfe: The Confessions of X, A Novel. This is fictional biography, a story of St Augustine’s mistress, Augustine’s love for her, their child, and St Monica’s role in breaking up that relationship.

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Sunday Reflections

pens in Mark’s Gospel, something extraordinary is about to happen.

Here the eye-catching event is not what Jesus does, really: “He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting in the Sea—you see, they were fisherpersons.” The extraordinary thing is what he said to them: “Come here, after me, and I am going to make you become fishers for human beings.”

This tiny joke has them not calling the police or the lunacy commissioners, as you might expect, but “abandoning their nets and following him”.

Odder still, this happens again, with two other brothers, the sons of Zebedee, who are “in the boat, repairing the nets”: “Immediately he called them. And they abandoned their father Zebedee in the boat, with the hired servants. And they went off after him!”

That is the kind of thing that can happen if you listen to the voice. Is it a good idea?

Well, imagine that you get the chance to ask Jonah, or the psalmist, or Paul, or those two sets of brothers. How will they reply?

Southern Crossword #793

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

helping themselves.

The issues of racism, poverty, inequality, and how we blind ourselves to them, are front and centre in this powerful book.

Nina Riggs: The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying. Nina Riggs died in February and this book shares her blogs as she, a young mother with two pre-teen children, journeys through terminal cancer, alongside her best friend, also a young mother, who is dying of cancer as well.

They died a week apart. While Riggs doesn’t write out of an explicit faith, she faces both life and death with a courage and wit that would make a saint envious.

A delightful, deep book: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry— and you’ll learn how death can be faced.

• A fine book regarding existentialism: Sarah Bakewell: At the Existentialist Café, Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails. This is one of the best books written on existentialism that’s accessible to a nonprofessional reader. It will introduce you to the giants of existential philosophy: Sartre, Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, MerleauPonty, Camus, Husserl, and Jaspers.

Bakewell believes you will understand a thinker’s philosophy much more accurately if you also have a picture of his or her life: “Ideas are interesting, but people are vastly more so.”

Those without a background in philosophy will get lost occasionally but if you continue reading you will soon find yourselves again fascinated by the lives of these famous, colourful thinkers.

• Finally, two books on spirituality, where the authors’ pedigrees are sufficient recommendation: Tomas Halik: I Want You to Be: On The God of Love. Halik, a Czech priest, is a renowned spiritual writer, winner of the Templeton Prize. This is a book of rare insight and depth.

Henri Nouwen: Beyond the Mirror, Reflections on Death and Life. The late Dutch theologian Fr Nouwen needs no introduction, though this is a unique book within his corpus, chronicling his neardeath experience after a serious accident.

Taste may be subjective, but these are good books!

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ACROSS

5. Jesus healed many in this condition (4) 7. Not a loose way to marry (3,3,4) 8. Festive occasion among regal alternatives (4) 10. One thrown into the fiery furnace (Dan 3) (8) 11. The Catholic Women may belong to it (6) 12. South African diocese with Scottish connection (6) 14. Bullish sign (6) 16. Middle-eastern market for parish fundraiser? (6) 17. A toad Eve found for the lawyer (8) 19. Lively dance with some rare elation (4) 21. Liturgical feast of the Holy Cross (10) 22. Draw back from hospital (4)

DOWN

1. Kind of party for the male deer (4) 2. Newcomer in the parish (8) 3. How God made half of us (6) 4. Pay no attention (6) 5. Nuts about shock (4) 6. How parishioners assemble for Mass? (10) 9. Egyptian city of St Cyril (10) 13. Where Jesus grew up (8) 15. Beetle sacred in old Egypt (6) 16. You may catch it after panting (6) 18. Was under obligation (4) 20. Division of a chain store? (4) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

PRIEST is walking down the street one day when he notices a small boy trying to press a doorbell on a house across from him. However, the doorbell is too high for the boy to reach.

After watching the lad’s efforts for some time, the priest steps smartly across the street, walks up behind the little fellow and, placing his hand kindly on the child’s shoulder, leans over and gives the doorbell a solid ring.

Crouching down to the child’s level, the priest smiles benevolently and asks: “And now what, my little man?” To which the boy replies: “Now we run!”

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