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The

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

October 17 to October 23, 2018

What’s needed for a good lay spirituality

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At synod, Napier hails pope’s ‘genius’

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Church’s response to abuse claim STAFF REPORTER

Fr Tulani Gubula of Queenstown diocese had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis during a reception surrounding the Synod of Bishops on Youth in the Vatican. The encounter was particularly special as it was on Fr Gubula’s birthday. The priest, who is currently studying in Rome, is serving as an assistant to the general secretariat of the synod.

Irish-SA links shown in exhibit STAFF REPORTER

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N exhibition in Cape Town’s Waterfront depicts the various aspects of South Africa’s rich ties with Ireland—a relationship so close that South Africans need no visas to enter the Republic.

Hosted by the Irish South African Association, the “Call for Freedom: Ireland and South Africa” exhibition at the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island opened on July 12 and will run until October 30. Entrance is free.

“In a nutshell, South Africa’s ties with Ireland are considerable and span some of the most critical decades in the lead-up to and beyond South Africa’s democracy of 1994,” the Irish South African Association said in a statement.

At a Freedom Day rally organised by the Irish anti-apartheid movement in Dublin in 1979, then-African National Congress president Oliver Tambo said that the liberation struggle in South Africa was greatly inspired by the Irish nation’s struggle for freedom.

“Ireland played such an important role in our freedom struggle,” said anti-apartheid activist and former Constitutional Court judge Albie Sachs.

“Irish people had fought for their Independence. They appreciated our struggle with their hearts as well as their minds,” he said.

“It was no accident that the first draft of

the Bill of Rights was written on the kitchen table of the home of Kader and Louise Asmal in Dublin in 1988. It is wonderful that South Africans will be able to visit this exhibition and learn about a solidarity that was born out of our shared idealism,” Mr Sachs noted.

“The Irish South African Association felt that it was particularly fitting to hold this exhibition in this, the centenary year of Nelson Mandela’s birth,” said Michael O’Brien, chairperson of the Cape Town chapter.

He noted that Dublin was first city to grant Mr Mandela “Freedom of the City” status—in 1988 while Mr Mandela was still jailed.

Mr O’Brien said the exhibition includes banners reflecting South Africa’s strong links to Ireland, which have been reciprocal, noting that President Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer mediated in the Irish peace process that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

The exhibition also includes 42 etchings which cover aspects of the 1916 Rebellion, or Easter Rising, against the British occupation in Ireland.

The Irish South African Association facilitates social contact between Irish people or those of Irish descent, and anyone who has an interest in the Irish and in Ireland. It was founded in Cape Town in 2001. In 2008 a Gauteng chapter was started, followed by a KwaZulu-Natal chapter in 2011. n For more information on the Irish South African Association see www.ireland.co.za

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LEADING Jesuit has praised a man who alleged abuse and rape by a priest in Johannesburg for his “dignity and compassion”.

In a letter to William Segodisho, who alleges that he was systematically abused in the 1980s by a British Jesuit, the Jesuits apologised.

The priest has been identified in a statement by the Jesuits as Fr Bill McCurtain. Fr Damian Howard, provincial of the British province of the Society of Jesus, said: “You have shown both dignity and compassion throughout your long struggle to come to terms with what Fr McCurtain did. I am profoundly moved by your generosity.”

Fr Howard expressed doubt that Fr McCurtain, who is now in a nursing home, would apologise to the victim. Advising against a conversation, he wrote: “I very much want to save you further distress from this man.”

The Jesuits apologised for the abuse Mr Segodisho experienced and emphasised their “commitment to place the protection of children and vulnerable adults at the top of our list of priorities”.

The letter was published this month, after Mr Segodisho went public with his allegations of abuse, which he described in shocking detail, between 1986 and 89, when he was a preadult teenager.

All Church officials concerned have treated the allegations as credible.

Fr McCurtain was sent back to Britain in 1990. The Jesuits said that they were first informed of the abuse allegations in 2001, whereupon he was removed from public ministry.

The Jesuits said that Mr Segodisho’s is the only complaint against Fr McCurtain they have received, and pledged to cooperate with a police investigation into the case.

Mr Segodisho’s attorney, Ian Levitt, said that due to the priest’s alleged ill health, he has little hope for his extradition to South Africa to face criminal charges. But, he added, a civil

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The NGO South African Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse has demanded “that the Catholic Church in South Africa and Britain release all records relating to credible allegations and investigations into Fr McCurtain during his tenure at all parishes where he was active”.

Mr Segodisho alleged that the Church had repeatedly blocked his attempts over the past 17 years to get the priest reported to the police and have him extradited to South Africa to stand trial.

Fr Thabo Motshegwa‚ chair of the archdiocese of Johannesburg’s Professional Conduct Committee‚ said that “the first we heard about this case was in February. It was never formally reported to the Catholic archdiocese of Johannesburg or any of its professional conduct committees.”

He noted that the Catholic Church has special local and national professional conduct committees‚ which investigate every reported case, liaising directly with the victims‚ police‚ schools and the National Prosecuting Authority on reported cases.

The Protection of Minors policy includes strict guidelines to be adhered to by all Catholic institutions. “This is currently being updated. It involves security checks for all staff in religious institutions, from cleaners to priests,” Fr Motshegwa said.

Until recently, the Jesuits active in South Africa fell under the British province of the Society of Jesus. An investigation into Mr Segodisho’s allegations was carried out by the British province of the Jesuits because that province had jurisdiction over the priest.

The Society of Jesus in South Africa adheres to the protocols laid out by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) for all Jesuits ministering in South Africa.

The SACBC’s protocols, including the procedure of reporting an allegation, are at www.sacbc.org.za/protection or e-mail communi cation@sacbc.org.za

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The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

LOCAL

Tribute to Catholic Filipino fishermen in SA

BY ChRISTEN TORRES

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T least 80% of families in Kalk Bay, Cape Town, are believed to have traces of Filipino blood, and thus a Catholic heritage.

This will be commemorated later this month when the 19th-century steps in the suburb which lead from Boye’s Drive to the old Filipino cemetery are renamed the Manila Steps.

The event will celebrate the legacy of the Filipino communities which settled in Kalk Bay, and who revitalised its fishing village legacy in the 1860s.

The Filipinos’ history in Kalk Bay dates back to early 1800s records.

The first Filipino settler is believed to have been Staggie Fernandez.

More detailed records of Filipino settlers in Kalk Bay date to the 1860s, including Catholic baptism, marriage and burial registers.

At the time, Kalk Bay was a miniport for Dutch settlers in Cape Town and a whaling station.

The Filipinos are believed to have come from either nearby ships which anchored in Simon’s Town, or sailors who jumped ship and swam to Kalk

Bay because of the harsh conditions they suffered on board.

The arrival and settlement of the Filipino community renewed Kalk Bay as a fishing village. They were known locally as “Manilas”, after the capital of the Philippines.

The fishing community in Kalk Bay also included Muslims, English, Afrikaners, Portuguese and Russians.

The immigration of Filipino communities continued into the 1900s, with settlers travelling from the Philippines and the island of Panay.

The nearest Catholic church was that of St Simon and St Jude in Simon’s Town, but Filipinos struggled to attend weekly Mass as the only way to get there was by sailing.

They also had difficulty with the languages at Mass as they spoke only Spanish and their native tongue Tagalog.

One of the key figures in the life of the community was Fr John Duignam, who for five decades served the Filipinos, from 1874 to 1925.

Fr Duignam is credited with maintaining a “strong and happy community”. He could also communicate easily with the Filipino com-

The mural on the post office at St James, on Cape Town’s False Bay coast, commemorates the Filipino Catholic settler community of fishermen and their families of nearby Kalk Bay. munity as he spoke Spanish, and he often advocated on behalf of them.

Fr Duignam spearheaded the building of the local church and convent of St James, between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay, and the Star of the Sea school.

Some 120 people reportedly attended the laying of the foundation stone of St James—named after the

patron saint of Spain, under which the Philippines was then governed.

Settlers and their descendants formed the backbone of the parish for many years.

The Filipinos were renowned seamen, which linked back to their own maritime heritage. “Many of them owned their own fishing vessels and also owned their own prop-

erties,’’ explained Tony Trimmel, a descendant from the Erispe family.

Along with trading in fish they also grew vegetables and kept animals, which helped supplement their diet. When there were scarce fishing days, klipkous (abalone) would be collected off the rocks for local dishes such as frikkadels.

Today Kalk Bay’s harbour and fishing industry still operate, but at a low scale, with much of its attraction now centred on its antique and art shops, and restaurants.

The renaming of the Kalk Bay steps event will take place on October 28, starting with a walk from the Anglican Holy Trinity church hall to the steps, where the Philippines’ ambassador will unveil an information board commemorating the Kalk Bay Filipinos. The renaming event initiative was led by the Kalk Bay Historical Association.

“I think it is quite something to know your heritage. And we still have the documentation,” says Filipino descendent Stephanie Eckardt. n To confirm attendance or for further information contact arcadia49er@ gmail.com

Struggle pioneer hailed by bishop STAFF REPORTER

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The Capuchin Poor Clares in Swellendam, Western Cape, celebrated the 90th birthday of Sr Maria Ignacio Adams (centre). At a Mass celebrated by Fr Edward Alkaster, the Sisters gave thanks “for the gift Sr Maria is for the community and the Church”. (Submitted by Sr Irma)

N archbishop has lauded late AZAPO activist, advocate and Catholic Chris Mokoditoa, saying he “epitomised generosity, nobility and service”.

In an obituary in the Johannesburg daily City Press, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale highlighted Mr Mokoditoa’s pivotal role in the Black Consciousness Movement.

With others, he “fought for the human worth of black people, their God-given dignity”.

The archbisop noted: “This was his calling here on earth, in this country, among his own people. This courage set him apart, made him a champion and the unsung hero of

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the downtrodden.”

Archbishop Tlhagale added that the soft-spoken Mr Mokoditoa did not use his “Struggle credentials” for personal gain.

He was also a man of deep faith and a practising Catholic, the archbishop said.

“In many ways, his commitment to the freedom and advancement of black people was an expression of his faith that underscored service to others. When the blind see, the lame walk, prisoners are set free, God’s reign is with you,” Archbishop Tlhagale said.

Mr Mokoditoa, who died at 79, was buried from Our Lady of the Assumption church in Molapo, Soweto.

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The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

LOCAL

3

Church calls for more voices at next jobs summit STAFF REPORTER

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HE head of the bishops’ Justice & Peace Commission has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to consider broader representation in the next jobs summit, scheduled for 2019.

“Generally, we are happy with the resolutions of the summit,” said J&P president Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley.

“At the same time, we believe that

the summit could have achieved farreaching results if civil society, academic institutions, faith leaders, unemployed youth, and women had a space at the table,” he said.

The problem of unemployment in South Africa “wears gendered faces and young faces”, Bishop Gabuza said.

“We therefore expect more women and more unemployed youth to be well-represented in any platform designed to address the

unemployment crisis,” he said, adding, “Nothing about them, without them.”

Bishop Gabuza welcomed that, through President Ramaphosa, the ANC seems to be finally conceding that the goals of the National Development Plan—launched in 2012 with the aim of eliminating poverty and reducing inequality by 2030— are unrealistic.

“We hope this will lead to effective consultations with all the stake-

Archbishop praises minister’s ‘crucial role’ at Requiem Mass

BY DAluxOlO MOlOANTOA

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LATE government minister served God and her country, Archbishop William Slattery told mourners in Pretoria’s Sacred Heart cathedral.

The Requiem Mass for veteran ANC minister Edna Molewa was also broadcast live on Radio Veritas.

In his homily, Archbishop Slattery said Ms Molewa, who died at 61, played a crucial role in the development of South African society.

“She made her Creator and service to the nation her utmost important priorities throughout her

remarkable life,” he said.

The Mass was attended by a number of state ministers.

At the end of the service, family spokesperson Dr Snowy Khoza thanked all present and said the family would like people not to mourn but to celebrate the life of “a leader rooted among our people, a warrior”.

“We celebrate and give thanks to a mother, grandmother and community worker who sacrificed so much for her family, and people,” Dr Khoza said.

A final closing prayer was said by cathedral administrator Fr Amos Masemola.

M

DRC wars, and asked students to raise awareness among their peers.

During the workshop, students adopted the mission of improving their own communities by actively participating in their affairs, raising awareness of social injustices in their communities, and working for social change.

They also discussed guidelines for social media, especially WhatsApp, regarding appropriate use and time limits.

There were 42 participants from five different schools: St Martin de Porres in Orlando West; Immaculata in Diepkloof; McAuley House

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an Infrastructure Fund”.

In the context of technical recession, rising prices of basic food items and increasing unemployment, several civil society formations have called for “a basic income grant and a serious review of the youth wage subsidy”, Bishop Gabuza noted.

“We hope that the president and his cabinet will give critical consideration to these recommendations,” he said.

New St Joseph’s head says students are top priority

BY DAVID MOhANOE

T A banner in Pretoria’s Sacred heart cathedral honours the late ANC minister Edna Molewa.

Students nix cellphones for three days EMBERS of the Young Christian Students (YCS) movement attending a workshop gave up using their cellphones for three days to show solidarity with the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Wars in the DRC are fought to control mineral-rich areas, which include natural resources such as coltan and cobalt, used to make cellphones.

At the workshop, held at Christ the King church in Orlando East, Soweto, YCS organiser Fr Mokesh Morar recommended the film Mercy Congo by Paul Freedman on the

holders—not just like-minded people—on the required adjustments to fit the current economic climate.

The non-democratic, already ‘agreed’, framework the president is talking about has flaws which we shall constructively engage him on in due course,” the bishop said.

Bishop Gabuza is also happy “with the president’s leadership regarding the economic Stimulus and Recovery Plan, together with his commendable decision to establish

and Holy Family College in Parktown; and Summat College in the CBD. A volunteer facilitator from Bophelong/Vanderbijlpark working with three high schools there— Tsollo, Bophelong and Dr Oliphant—also attended.

“They had lots of fun, and without the disturbances of cellphones, increased their participation significantly,” Fr Morar said.

Students, some as young as 14, also practised their skills in chairing, minute-taking and report-writing, he added.

A new YCS Gauteng executive was also elected.

HE new president of St Joseph’s Theological Institute (SJTI) in Cedara, KwaZuluNatal, sees his primary role as ensuring the institute offers students the best opportunity to succeed.

Fr Ewen Swartz, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, became the fifth and youngest president of SJTI when he was installed this month at a Mass in St Joseph’s chapel.

At the Mass, Fr Swartz was offered the keys and the constitution of SJTI, a sign of leadership and responsibility. His term runs for a period of four years, with the possibility of renewal.

Fr Swartz succeeded Fr Neil Frank who had been in office since 2016.

His term was cut short as he was elected to be provincial of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

“I feel honoured and humbled to be regarded as suitable to be appointed to this position,” Fr Swartz said in an interview after the ceremony.

“The first responsibility of the president is to the students and their respective sponsoring organisations,” he said, referring to mainly religious congregations who send their candidates for study at the institute.

“Thus all that is done in the institute will be focused on ensuring that the students are given the best

Fr Ewen Swartz, the new president of St Joseph’s Theological Insitute, was installed at a Mass in the institute’s chapel. opportunity to succeed.”

Fr Swartz has lectured at SJTI in canon law and pastoral theology.

He had been acting as the academic dean of the institute since 2016, while also serving as assisting parish priest at St Mary’s church in Pietermaritzburg.

He is a formator at Cebula House of Formation Prenovitiate, presiding judge at the Inter-diocesan Tribunal in Durban, and SJTI representative in the SACBC Department for Formation, Life and Apostolate of the Laity.

Since Fr Frank’s appointment as Oblate provincial in April, Fr Swartz has been St Joseph’s acting president.

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The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

INTERNATIONAL

North Korea wants Iraqi archbishop: ISIS not defeated only underground the pope to visit N C

BY SIMON CAlDWEll

HRISTIANITY in Iraq is just one wave of persecution away from extinction, warned the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Basra.

Archbishop Habib Nafali said there were now so few Christians in his country that the Church there would disappear if it was subjected to further persecution.

He said the displacements and murders of Christians over the past 15 years constituted genocide.

“Another wave of persecution will be the end of Christianity after 2 000 years,” he said.

“There is a global game, and the peaceful people—the minorities—in the end will be the ones who are destroyed,” he said.

He said he was fearful of renewed persecution because he believed ISIS had not been defeated, but had gone underground. It was suspected of being behind a recent spate of murders of women who had chosen to dress themselves in Western fashions, he said.

“We have seen with our own eyes how they attack Christians,” he added.

Archbishop habib Nafali of Basra, Iraq, speaks to schoolchildren in Chester, England, about the persecution of Christians in Iraq. (Photo: Simon Caldwell/CNS) He said Iraq’s Christians had suffered “systematic violence” intended to uproot and eradicate them, to “destroy their language, to break up their families and push them to leave Iraq”.

“If this is not genocide, then what is genocide?” he asked.

Christians have lived in what was known as Mesopotamia since the time of the Apostles and speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. But the archbishop said their number has plunged from 1,5 million to just

250 000 in the last 15 years, and they now represent about 1% of the population, compared to 6% a century ago.

In the decade that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, a church or a monastery was destroyed every 40 days on average, the archbishop said.

“There are still more than maybe a quarter of a million of us struggling to stay in our homeland,” added Archbishop Nafali.

“Others went to more than 70 countries, which is a crime against humanity when you find Chaldeans and Syrian Christians everywhere— in Sweden, Denmark, in the UK and the United States.”

Besides the threat from terrorism, Christians continue to face discrimination in the labour market, with many of them finding it almost impossible to get a job because their faith is an obstacle to employment, he said. He added that such factors prevented the return of refugees.

The archbishop was in Britain as a guest of Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity that helps persecuted Christians around the world.— CNS

ORTH Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un wants Pope Francis to visit his country, and has asked his South Korean counterpart to pass on the invitation.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was scheduled to meet the pope on October 18 at the Vatican.

The evening before the meeting, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, will celebrate a Mass for peace on the Korean peninsula in St Peter’s basilica, and

Mr Moon will attend.

Mr Moon’s office told reporters that Kim Jong Un said his country would offer a “fervent welcome” to Pope Francis if he accepted an invitation to visit the capital Pyongyang.

Mr Moon’s spokesman, Kim Euikyeom, said: “President Moon suggested that Chairman Kim meet the pope, pointing out that he is very much interested in peace on the Korean peninsula.”—CNS

A woman holds a malnourished child at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. Aid agencies and Catholic officials are sounding the alarm on Yemen’s spiralling humanitarian crisis, calling on the combatants to end the war and make badly needed assistance available.

(Photo: Khaled Abdullah, Reuters/CNS)

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ID agencies and Catholic officials are sounding the alarm on Yemen’s spiralling humanitarian crisis, calling on the combatants to end the war and make badly needed assistance available.

Yemen is facing the largest humanitarian crisis globally at present, according to the United Nations. The impoverished nation at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula has now the most food-insecure population in the world, due to the four-year-old conflict.

“A war is ongoing in Yemen, but the big world does not seem to be very interested,” said Bishop Paul Hinder, apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia, which includes Yemen.

“There are innumerable people internally displaced because they fled from the war,” he said “A wonderful nation with a cultural tradition spanning millennia is about to be destroyed,” warned Bishop Hinder, decrying the lack of international resolve to end the conflict tearing Yemen apart.

Observers say Yemen has been caught up in a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its regional archrival, Iran. More than 10 000 people have been killed, millions have been displaced and it has pushed Yemen to the verge of starvation.

Nearly 21 million people in Yemen need humanitarian aid; two-thirds of the population is on the brink of starvation, without access to adequate food and clean water to survive each day.—CNS

Eastern-rite priests’ families a unique example

BY CAROl GlATz

T

HE families of Eastern-rite Catholic priests give an important witness to what is healthy and wonderful about family life, Pope Francis said.

Speaking to laypeople, clergy and religious of the Slovak Catholic Church—a Byzantine-rite Church that has maintained its tradition of ordaining both celibate and married men—the pope said: “The families of priests live a unique mission today.”

“When the very model of the family is called into question, if not attacked outright, you offer a healthy and exemplary testimony of life,” he said in his talk.

The pope encouraged the small Slovak Catholic Church to safeguard its Byzantine tradition, “which I, too, came to know and love when I was younger”.

“Rediscover it and live it to the full just as the Second Vatican Council taught,” he said.

“The European continent, both east and west, needs to rediscover its roots and vocation; and from Christian roots, only solid trees can grow which bear the fruits of full re-

A Marian icon is seen as Pope Francis leads an audience for laypeople, clergy and religious of the Byzantine-rite Slovak Catholic Church at the Vatican. (Photo: Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters/CNS) spect for the dignity of the human person in every condition and every phase of life,” the pope said.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

5

Napier hails pope’s ‘genius’ STAFF REPORTER & CINDY WOODEN

C Italian Alessandro Battaglia wears a T-shirt reading “Abused when I was 15 by Father Mauro Galli” as he demonstrates near St Peter’s basilica in Rome during the Synod of Bishops on Youth. (Photo: Tony Gentile, Reuters/CNS)

Asia Bibi’s fate after 8 years

BY SIMON CAlDWEll

C

ATHOLIC Asia Bibi has been held in solitary confinement in Pakistan since November 2010, when she was sentenced to hang for insulting Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

Ashiq Masih, her husband, said that if Bibi is released she and her family will immediately seek sanctuary in one of several countries that have offered them exile, because it was too dangerous for them to remain in Pakistan.

Mr Masih, a builder from Sheikhupura, Pakistan, was in England with his and Bibi’s youngest daughter, Eisham Ashiq, 18, as guests of Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity helping persecuted Christians.

They said when they visited Bibi in Multan prison, this month, that she was in good health, contrary to speculation that she was developing dementia.

Mr Masih said Bibi was praying constantly and that she deeply believed she would win her freedom.

“She is psychologically, physically and spiritually strong,” Mr Masih said. “Having a very strong faith, she is ready and willing to die for Christ.

She will never convert to Islam.

“She also wanted to deliver a message to the international community that they must remember her in

their prayers. She is spending her life praying with a very strong faith and is reading the Bible every day. She feels when she is praying, Jesus is encouraging and supporting her,” he continued, adding that she also received Communion in jail.

In June 2009, Bibi, who worked as a farmhand, was accused of blasphemy against Islam after Muslim women objected to her drinking from a common water supply.

Bibi was sentenced to death for violating Section 295C of the Pakistan penal code, which makes insulting Muhammad a capital offence.

No one has been executed under the law so far, but Christians who are falsely accused often are lynched or spend many years in prison.

A special bench of the Supreme Court, sitting in Islamabad, reached a verdict, but publication has been deferred until an unspecified date, amid fears of riots.

If the court has upheld the execution order, the only option open to her lawyers will be a direct appeal for clemency to President Imran Khan.

Bibi’s case has divided Pakistan, with millions of Islamic militants reportedly willing to kill her to obtain a reward of 500,000 rupees offered by a Muslim cleric for her murder; some moderate Muslims have called for her release—resulting in the murder of a govenor and government minister who called for her release.—CNS

ARDINAL Wilfrid Napier has hailed Pope Francis’ genius in following the two synods of bishops on the family with the current one on youth.

The cardinal-archbishop of Durban said that in the process of reforming and renewing the Church, Pope Francis and his advisers had been wise to focus first on the family and then the youth, because “youth are the next ones forming the family, so let’s get them on board in this new way of more positive thinking about the Church”.

Cardinal Napier is one of three South African bishops to represent the local Church at the Synod for Youth which will run until October 28. The others are Bishops Stanislaw Dziuba of Umzimkulu and Siegfried Mandla Jwara of Ingwavuma.

The cardinal identified as one of the main challenges in the ministry to young people that the youth need the “feeling that they belong to the Church, that the Church is welcoming them. We must bring them in to know Jesus Christ, and learn to do it by seeing their elders” having a relationship with Christ, he told Vatican Radio.

Another challenge, he said, is the secular influence on young Catholics.

“There is this drive by the world media, and world ideology, to take over the minds of young people and pull them in a certain direction,” Cardinal Napier said.

A religious Sister called on the synod to trust young people “to design what a welcoming and open

Bishops Siegfried Jwara and Stanislaw Dziuba with Cardinal Wilfrid Napier at the Synod of Bishops in Rome.

Church is and looks like today”.

Young Catholics can “challenge all the people of God in living our common purpose of revealing God’s love”, said US Sister Sally Hodgdon.

“Can we let go and walk the path with them?”

In addition to the horror of the sexual abuse scandal, she said, Church members betrayed young people “through non acceptance, a lack of integrity and transparency and a lack of authentic Gospel living”.

Reversing that, Sr Hodgson said, could be done by expanding parish and diocesan leadership to include young people and giving them “the freedom to lead in a different way”.

A French bishop told the synod members they must “speak freely about sexuality” and find ways to provide sexual education to young people, including seminarians.

“Too often, young people discover sexuality through the prism of pornography or the embarrassed silence of older generations,” said

Bishop Emmanuel Gobillard, auxiliary of Lyon.

Young people have also had their say at the synod, telling the pope and bishops that they no longer want to remain on the sidelines but want to take an active role in the Church.

“Young people don’t just want to be treated as such,” said Silvia Retamales of the Chilean bishops’ youth office. “We need a different and open Church that doesn’t close the doors on social, sexual and ethnic minorities.”

The role of women in the Church, she added, must also be strengthened in areas “of real decision-making and participation in our communities”.

Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, Central African Republic, said the key question before the synod is: “What is God trying to tell us through young people?”

Finding better ways to pass the faith on to younger generations is one part of the task. The other part is to encourage them and support them in sharing the faith with others.

Prominent evangeliser Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary of Los Angeles, proposed a “renewed apologetics and catechesis” to help young people who are tempted to leave the Church due to convictions “that religion is opposed to science or that it cannot stand up to rational scrutiny, that its beliefs are outmoded, a holdover from a primitive time, that the Bible is unreliable, that religious belief gives rise to violence, and that God is a threat to human freedom”.

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6

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Our missonary mandate

O

N Mission Sunday we recall with gratitude the great legacy of priests and religious who over the past 150 years left their home countries to bring the Good News to our region.

Even today, our local Church benefits from young missionary priests who come from other countries to minister in Southern Africa. But where in the past such missionaries would come mostly from Europe, they now come increasingly from Asia (especially from India) and other parts of Africa.

We give thanks for their sacrifice.

At the same time, there is a growing recognition in the Church that missionary work is not the domain of priests and religious alone. By their baptism and confirmation, all Catholics are missionary disciples of Christ.

All Catholics are called to spread the Good News of salvation, even if they do so in different ways.

Missionaries in the consecrated and sacerdotal life are specifically trained to evangelise in ways that most lay people are not. So the Church is calling on the laity to evangelise simply by the example of their faith-filled lives.

This is good advice, even if the mandate to evangelise by worthy example ought to be backed up by good formation and education.

More than priests or religious, it’s lay Catholics who are most likely to be confronted by others with criticism of the Church or reservations about their faith.

Some of these may be theological or ideological, but most concern preconceived notions about Catholicism. And these prejudices, fed by secular media that are hostile to the Church, can also lead baptised Catholics away.

In the context of the Synod for Youth this month, the wellknown evangeliser Bishop Robert Barron proposed a “renewed apologetics and catechesis” which could help young people who are tempted to leave the Church due to convictions “that religion is opposed to science or that it cannot stand up to rational scrutiny, that its beliefs are outmoded [and] a holdover from a primitive time, that the Bible is unreliable, that religious belief gives rise to vio-

lence, and that God is a threat to human freedom”.

Such apologetics and catechesis is also needed for all Catholics who have to explain their faith and correct misconceptions about it, hopefully in a manner that communicates Christ’s love. The first recourse to bringing such apologetics and catechesis is Catholic media, such as The Southern Cross.

But all this will be ineffective if Catholics don’t mind their ways.

How can we propose Jesus when the Body of Christ is divided? How can we speak of Christ’s love when we clearly don’t love one another but instead engage in ideological warfare? How can we invoke the peace of Christ when there is so much evident hatred among his followers, even and especially among bishops and cardinals?

How can we proclaim the Good News when we are broadcasting bigoted and toxic views?

How can we defend Christ when we also defend the indefensible?

As a Church, we must find ways of proposing and reproposing Christ by living out God’s infinite mercy and with it the joy of our faith, which is rooted in Christ and not in men.

And where that is not enough to persuade others, we must identify and propose what marketers would call our “unique selling proposition”.

One of these selling propositions is the sum of what sets the Catholic Church apart: our sacraments, our devotional life, our unity (albeit imperfect) through the pope, our special dedication to our Blessed Mother and the saints, our sense of charity and so on.

All of this gives Catholics a unique identity. Even at a time when scandals make it increasingly difficult to ward off disenchantment with the institutional Church, we can nonetheless joyously live these elements of that identity, which are independent of the failures of men.

It is in communicating the joy of our faith and attaching importance to our Catholic identity that we can attract those who reject it. We cannot measure this by how many membership forms are filled in. Our aim is simply to open hearts to the message of the Good News.

When we do that, we are fulfilling our missionary mandate.

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No stopwatch when praying D IFFERENT folks, different strokes! I have always had a problem with set prayers rattled off in community, or perhaps even on one’s own. It seems to me that prayer is, or should be, a communion between oneself and Our Lord, or perhaps to a saint asking for intercession.

The words of a prayer, be they impromptu or set, should be said with the meaning in mind, with

Mary as Mother and Advocate

T

HE feast of St Francis falls on October 4, during the month of the rosary, and I have often wondered, who was the Blessed Virgin Mary for St Francis?

She was Mother, Advocate and Queen, St Bonaventure tells us.

The saint, one of the original Franciscans, bears witness that St Francis honoured Mary as Mother, when he says: “He loved with an unspeakable affection the Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, forasmuch as that she had made the Lord of glory our Brother, and that through her we have obtained mercy.”

St Bonaventure said further: “In her, after Christ, he put his chief trust, making her his own patron and that of his brethren.”

Later, the doctor of the Church noted that in honour of Mary, St Francis “fasted devoutly from the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul unto the feast of the Assumption”.

St Francis took this Mother and Queen as Advocate too. “In her, after Christ, he put his chief trust, making her his own patron and that of his brethren,” St Bonaventure wrote.

This devotion bore great fruit, as the saint noted: “…and by the merits of the Mother of Mercy, he did himself conceive and give birth unto the spirit of Gospel truth”.

Fr Sekabata Solomon Mphela OFM, Johannesburg

Why I won’t vote with my feet

R

EFLECTING on the sex abuse scandals, we humans are called to worship our God, and being a Catholic I try to do so in accordance with the Church’s requirements.

The commandments I am called to respect are those of God, based on those given to Moses.

I do not know how Almighty God views the multiplicity of religions and sects which all claim him; I am not even aware of who does verifiably know this. But I am a Catholic, and I have no intention of

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

Is God perhaps calling you to do this?

Should you wish to know more about us, contact: The Vocation Directress, PO Box 773, Nelspruit/Mbombela, 1200.

Tel 076 692 8477 , or 013 741 4520 franciscansnelspruit@telkomsa.net

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.

sincere intent, not rattled off with the object of “getting it over with”.

I have no problem with the saying of the rosary taking 20 minutes, being said with reverence and with the meaning of every word being sincerely intended; rather that than a 12-minute sprint where one might as well be reciting “Mary Had A Little lamb.”

I could be wrong; I have just as much trouble contemplating 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

becoming anything else, or even of becoming nothing.

As Günther Simmermacher in his editorial of August 22 wrote: “Our faith resides not in men, but in God.” Jesus told us: “The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practise and observe what they tell you, but not what they do, for they preach but do not practise” (Mt 23).

He then goes on to list their failures. So fallibility on the part of religious leaders is nothing new, and we have known of the sins of the Catholic Church all our lives— many non-Catholics are most eager to highlight them for us.

I believe the truth lies in Catholicism, but I also acknowledge that a few of our “leaders” have failed us, caused us shame, and decisive action needs to be taken.

There have been many letters and articles berating the Church for the situation, but if there have been concrete solutions offered, I have missed them. We in this country are well aware of the futility of commissions and enquiries, which tend to spawn subcommissions and further enquiries.

Action, barring revolution, can come only from above, from the pope himself—I have little faith in any of the in-betweens.

Having said all this, I must confess that I am as guilty as any of those who have not provided the solution—I don’t have it either, apart from passing the ball to Pope Francis!

I have no intention of “voting with my feet”, as some have suggested. The Mass and the sacraments are still there—they have not been affected by the sins of the clergy, of the hierarchy, and the Lord knows what lies in the hearts of his faithful; he will treat them ac-

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different mysteries of the rosary whilst saying the prayers, perhaps because I cannot multitask.

My belief is that the words of the Hail Mary should be meant when said, not used as a background chant.

As I said, different strokes for different folks, and if it works for you, then that’s well and good. I just don’t think that anything is achieved by putting a stopwatch on the recital of the rosary, or any other prayer.

Tom Drake, Johannesburg

cordingly. As Peter said on one memorable occasion, “Lord, to whom should we go, You have the words of Eternal Life” (Jn 6).

Cecil Cullen, Johannesburg

Pope Francis left to handle crisis

T

HE Church is in crisis. Can we remember when the last pope was called upon to resign by his fellow cardinals and bishops?

Yet, Pope Francis has been handed the “priest paedophile” hot potato to handle which, for all Catholics, is a shameful indictment.

One can surmise St John XXIII was led by the Holy Spirit when he said: “Throw open the windows of the Church and let the fresh air of the spirit blow through.” Perhaps this humble saint meant “… and cleanse her” (the Church).

Recent revelations show one important thing: the clergy and laity are all in the same boat. Humanity is made up of all types of sinners, which was highlighted 2 000 years ago by an extremely wise man.

Through the ages, Christians have placed emphasis on the role of Judas Iscariot, yet in the 15th century the Czech theologian Jan Hus was enticed to attend a conference in Germany headed by the thenpope, ironically named John XXIII, treacherously arrested and kept in confinement until being burnt at the stake, even though he had been “guaranteed” a safe passage.

Likewise, in the 16th century, an Italian Dominican friar, Giordano Bruno, was also betrayed by his own people and burnt at the stake. No doubt, many of his thoughts were contrary to Church doctrine. Yet he was a forward thinker, not only concurring with the Copernican theory of heliocentricity, but postulating all distant stars were similar to our own solar system.

Pope Francis wisely replaced Cardinal Gerhard Müller as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, after his five-year tenure.

Our humanitarian pope understands full well the actions of Jesus’ writing in the dust.

Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

PERSPECTIVES

Fr Chris Townsend

Jesus makes case for priestly celibacy Fr John Atkinson I N the Cleansing of the Temple, Jesus quoted a passage from Isaiah 56:7, namely: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Mk 11:17).

The American theologian Brant Pitre reflected on Mark 11 and offers the following understanding of the scripture text.

A little background on the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus can be useful to understand the context of Jesus’ quoted words from Isaiah 56.

In 19 BC, King Herod built on some extra space to the Temple for the sacred use of Gentiles. In this added space, the Gentiles—the non-Jews—who were seeking to honour and worship the God of Israel would be welcomed.

What happened in the meantime was that trade started to take place in the Court of the Gentiles. During the time of the Passover, Jews and non-Jews came from all over the world to pay their respects and offer their sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple. They needed sacrificial offerings like doves and sheep and were prepared to pay for it by different world currencies. And therefore, the money changers would assist them by providing the means whereby the different world currencies were exchanged for the used currency in Jerusalem.

Jesus’ anger was addressed to these traders who took up the sacred space of the non-Jewish people who came to worship and pray to the God of all nations.

These traders occupied the meeting place of the Gentiles and the true God. By quoting Isaiah 56:7, Jesus’ mind was on the prophecy of Isaiah. Starting with the 4th verse of Isaiah 56, the prophet speaks about eunuchs.

There were three types of eunuchs, namely those born as such, secondly those made eunuchs by men, and thirdly those

freely giving themselves to be eunuchs (Mt 19:12).

T

he prophet says that eunuchs should not see themselves as non-producing individuals—they should not say to themselves, “I am naught but a barren tree” (Is 56:3)—but know that they will be richly blessed.

And therefore, the Lord makes a promise in saying: “I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; an eternal, imperishable name will I give them” (Is 56:5).

This prophecy continues to tell about

In the cleansing of the temple, Jesus made the case for the celibate priesthood, argues Fr John Atkinson.

Pastor’s Notebook

Point of Reflection

What is our mission today?

foreigners who will come to love and worship the one true God, those who will respect the Sabbath and will rejoice in the presence of God in the house of prayer.

We should also recall that the ministry of the priesthood exclusively belonged to the Jewish priests, yet the prophet Isaiah further says that God will welcome foreign priests whose “holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar” as part of his divine intention (Is 56:7].

Recalling the prophecy of Isaiah 56, Jesus’ cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple from traders who misused the Court of Gentiles points to the greater salvation plan of God for “all races and tribes, nations and languages” (Rev 7:9].

This biblical insight tells us that Jesus wanted his hearers to remember this prophecy and the importance of the eunuchs and their pertinent role at the altar for the spiritual good of all peoples of the whole world.

Therefore, the celibate priesthood should be cherished and respected as coming from God. God gave the Hebrew people, through the voice of Moses, instructions how he wished to be worshipped. Jesus came to fulfil this old covenant and established a new covenant in which he divinely instructs “all nations” of the envisioned celibate priesthood.

This feeds our ability to answer with confidence the questions: “Who am I? What is my destiny?”

I

T’S Mission Sunday on October 21. And with all that the Church has gone through in the last few tumultuous months, we might well ask: What is the mission of the Church?

With the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report, the Church has once again been thrown into a crisis that has seriously questioned the moral fibre of our leadership.

Bishops and priests and those who colluded with them have been called out on failures that exposed a great structure that had forgotten the power of the nameless, faceless and useless. We were Old Testament, not New Testament.

Looking into the substance of the report though, we might have missed that there were very few cases reported after the introduction worldwide of procedures and protocols. These have seen a radical shift in the Church—but a shift that’s not complete.

So where does this leave us Catholics? What is our mission?

Firstly, ask how all this affects your parish community? If we feel sufficient indignation and moral outrage, our first effort must be to make our communities the safest spaces possible for all persons, especially the minors, children, the nameless, faceless and useless.

This is a direct challenge and opportunity to use the power and energy released in disappointment and anger to rebuild and recreate safe spaces for our communities, where our churches are often true places of refuge.

What about running support groups for survivors of abuse and for those who face the reality of ongoing abuse by others?

Just because we didn’t always get it right doesn’t absolve us of the responsibility of trying. Let’s talk about child safety, safety from adult bullying, and teach each other to listen respectfully.

I hope that we can follow the example of the archdiocese of Cape Town in making the SACBC Child Safety Standards a reality in every space we are in, including the spaces away from the Church.

n Fr John Atkinson is the administrator of the diocese of Oudtshoorn.

Family must help shape future Church Toni Rowland I HAD a discussion the other day on the subject of “belonging”. Does one belong to a country before a religion? Is one a citizen before one is a believer?

The person I talked with saw one’s allegiance to one’s country as primary. I am inclined to have a mixed view.

One does have a duty to obey a country’s rules, but do we? When these conflict with teaching of one’s faith on an issue, such as abortion being legal but not moral, I have a problem.

Then one has to face the question of one’s family. Today few Christians, especially the youth, would adhere to very rigid family beliefs or practices. Take cohabitation.

However considering the role and function of family in socialisation, there is a definite need to find one’s identity, basic moral values and even practices as rooted in a family system.

Family rules are seldom taken as seriously as laws but they do form a basic standard of right and good living. Values such as respect for life, for one’s elders, a willingness to share, be polite, manage conflict without violence or abuse are learned and practised within a family first.

Today, however, many of the family’s functions in education and personal formation have been taken over by state, school and even Church. Does this not undermine the value or importance of family in one’s life?

At the same time, whenever there is a problem or even a need in society with regard to children, parents are said to be responsible. But what support is being given to parents, implicitly and explicitly, and what support, other than financial, is taken up by them?

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Young people at this month’s opening of the Synod of Bishops on the Youth in the Vatican. In her column Toni Rowland asks what role the family plays for Catholic youths— who one day may have their own families.

(Photo: Paul haring/CNS) I raise this issue at this time in the context of the Synod for the Youth being held this month in Rome.

Many consultations at many levels have been held to discuss the youth’s changing expectations and needs from the Church.

Catholic youth, church-going, nonchurch-going and others who are not Catholic have been consulted.

Young people live in many life situations, with the majority being poor and disadvantaged. Youths have not exactly made demands—as they have in our country— but they have quite forcefully stated their case.

T

he US weekly National Catholic Reporter summed up well the needs that should be addressed at the Synod.

In brief, the youth wants to be involved in leadership in some way, and this includes women. The youth wants community and for the Church to be relevant for

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nd what about the “medieval courts” we all run and participate in? The idea of clericalism comes from the use by the medieval courts of clerics to run the affairs of state. This is the origin, in part, of clerical dress as the many priests were quasi-governance officials.

This type of efficiency—a type of eunuch service of the Church and the rulers—stopped serving the nameless, faceless and useless, and instead built up a class of bureaucrats, with the attendant intrigues, that remains so much part of our group interactions.

I have lived through the era of the end of the rejection of the clerical and its rediscovery. I remember the Roman collars of colleagues growing wider and wider until they looked like they had wound a roll of toilet paper around their necks.

I have also seen how incredibly dangerous this new clericalism is among those who can’t rightly be called clergy.

Some sodalities, schools and groups operate on a level of medieval secrecy that would have embarrassed a de’Medici. Often this intrigue, the whispering, the secret e-mails (please people, delete the recipients list when you skinner—otherwise I have all your names!) revolves not around Gospel values or the person of Jesus.

Rather its about money, position and power. If that is your game, then you are no better than those who protected the abuser and lost the abused.

On this Mission Sunday, make it your mission to make the next year in your parish, your home, your surrounding a place of safety for all the nameless, faceless, useless. A year of passionate safe-space creation.

Make it your mission, too, to be a safe space personally. Crush the intrigue! Reject the power-games! Be honest!

That’s the mission of the Lord Jesus.

them in their lives. Young people are socially conscious and are concerned about the environment and climate change. And they want the sexual abuse issue in the Church to be dealt with.

It is recognised that the future of the Church must lie with the youth, but with the rise of the “spiritual but not religious” demographic, addressing these expectations can be tall orders for the 300 bishops delegated by episcopal conferences to participate.

At the same time I would think that some of these issues can also be thrown back into the youth’s own court.

Another question concerns me as a family minister. Youth is a transient stage in life, but even so is there a family focus for them and for this event? What is the role of families in all this—families from which the young people originate and families that they will hopefully form in the future?

Will the youth be planning to marry, have children themselves and instil the values that they should be absorbing from their own families into a future Church and society? We as parents, grandparents and other family members can only hope so.

October is Mission Month in the Church and Pope Francis has stressed the need for everyone, families too, to be missionary in their outlook and practice of the faith. Let us therefore not forget the future Church that is to be built by our own youth of today.

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The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

MISSION

What’s needed for lay spirituality All Catholics are called to be missionaries, but for lay people to evangelise well, they must be spiritually equipped, suggests FR RAlPh DE hAhN.

old Jesus chose to stay behind in the temple. Through the dark hours of his passion she displayed her incredible faith and unquenchable hope “and treasured all these things in her heart”—and that is what lay spirituality is all about!

Lay spirituality is not about regular Mass attendance, or devotion to the rosary or a saint or statue.

Rather, it is to humbly but boldly bring to others the news of this New Life that is the very heart, mind and teaching of the infallible Teacher.

And how is that done? By one’s behaviour in offering a new set of values. This new set of values is selfenriching; it is good news, it is a revelation, and it is contagious.

Lay ministers enter an arena where the pious religious dare not tread, and challenge the moral values of a dying society.

In fact, the deeply sincere lay Christian is the outsider in our modern age, just as Jesus was.

A

LL baptised Christians share the consecrated life in Christ and seek to “be holy as your heavenly father is holy”.

Lay people might seek that holiness in not quite the same way as our consecrated religious, who profess and live the three demanding virtues of chastity, obedience and poverty. But all Catholics have access to the powerful sacraments, above all the Blessed Eucharist.

While the many religious orders—the monks, priests and nuns— follow the rule of their respective founders, lay people seek true holiness in the very heart of a real world, in the everyday duties of home and office and employment of every description, and face daily challenges from a society which boasts of moral values of its own creation.

Yet, there is a lay spirituality; there is a call for them to carry the Good News into the soul of modern society, and to proclaim the living gospel by living courageously the Christian values as taught by Jesus Christ. On this Mission Sunday, we must amplify the call on the laity to evangelise as missionaries in the world.

We mustn’t forget that the gospels were written and addressed to the lay people; they were to be the leaven in the dough of society.

Lay spirituality does not dictate a prescribed formula; rather it directs seekers to embrace Jesus as the Good News and then allow the Lord to direct their lives in the ordinary circumstances in family and social life.

Jesus is the teacher and he alone can establish the God-man relationship, both horizontal and vertical.

All this simply demands an encounter with Jesus, a deep faith and conviction in the values he presents, and the deep spiritual joy in living those values in a godless society.

A great treasure to share

“God’s powerful Spirit is just as active in the lay disciple as in any pope, bishop or priest,” writes Fr Ralph de hahn.

The perfect role model The perfect model of lay spirituality is Mary. She was a lay person, a virgin, a wife, a mother and a widow.

She, more than any other person, had a wonderful encounter with her son.

Note how she does not flood the pages of sacred scripture with her presence, but when she is men-

tioned, it is a precious moment in the history of God’s people: the Annunciation, the silent birth of her Son, the presentation in the temple, the wedding feast of Cana, the long road to Calvary, the sorrowful witness to the crucifixion, and, finally, the joy of her resurrected son.

And like every other human mother, she was ever-caring—and worried to death when the 13-year-

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When listening to the proclamation of the Word do we know that God himself speaks to us, “and did not our hearts burn within”? (Lk 24:32).

The laity have this great treasure to share “if only you knew what God is offering” (Jn 4:10). However, the Gospel is good news only when people think and act as Jesus did in every situation. It is self-evident that lay spirituality begins with our knowledge of the four gospels and establishing a personal relationship with Christ.

Meeting the real Jesus in Scripture and in prayer will necessitate a conversion in our thinking and acting.

If there is no conversion then we have obviously not met the real Jesus; for with him we discover new values, a whole new life.

It is such a shame that so many Catholics still cling to the basic catechism lessons of the early grades.

Our present confirmation catechetical programmes are urgently in need of transformation. See how our Protestant catechists prepare their young and old as apostles to proclaim Jesus as Lord in the streets, and housetops, and even at your very door!

How is it possible that, having

matured in our relationship with Christ, we remain untouched?

Christianity without a conversion of some kind is meaningless.

We might well need to change our own system of values, says Paul (Phil 3:7-10). Lay spirituality must be able to state without shame that what we are announcing is that Incarnate Word we have personally heard and seen and watched and touched with our own hands.

Therefore, in seeking a deeper knowledge of Jesus and his teachings, we need to communicate with him; that is our prayer life which is, of course, basic to the lay ministry.

Without prayer and the helping grace of the Holy Spirit, nothing is achieved (Eph 2:8-9).

It is a further advantage if we are a community with a faith vision, believing in one another, praying together, acting in faith, supporting one another, enduring all things together with Mary (Acts 1:14).

This prayer community, formed in Christ’s name, will speak a common language—which, of course, is love.

Mindful of the Lord’s great miracle of feeding the 5 000 with so little, the laity move into the lion’s den fully aware that the Holy Spirit will multiply their offerings, for God’s powerful Spirit is just as active in the lay disciple as in any pope, bishop or priest.

If we wonder why the Church suffers the current clergy shortage, we may suggest that Divine Providence is calling on the hierarchy to promote lay spirituality more vigorously in penetrating a stubborn world.

So many of our people, on leaving the Church after Mass, leave behind their union with the Lord; they enter the ugly world alone.

It is unfortunate that we still hear the farewell greeting, “Go, the Mass is ended!” But the Mass is never ended; rather we take a Person and his Truth into a hungry, thirsting world.

Holiness is available to all believers. It is obvious that lay spirituality must be promoted and encouraged from our pulpits, as also must the Pentecostal spirit which Christ left to his Church. n Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest in the diocese of Cape Town.

Franciscan Sisters

Servants of the Holy Childhood of Jesus Are you called to join us to love God, in praising him in Prayer and serving him,as we care for people in need, especially women and children?

Write, phone or visit us Sr Bongiwe Xulu Holy Childhood Sisters Phone: 035 476 6262 P.Bag 553 Cell:076 306 4446 Eshowe 3815 holychildhoodsisters@gmail.com

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

MISSION

9

A brief history of orders in SA Religious orders and congregations did not just help build the local Church but also the country. FR ANThONY EGAN SJ gives a brief history of religious life in Southern Africa.

common part of the formation of many Sisters until well into the 20th century. Some qualified Sisters even got into the training of lay nurses; a thriving college of nursing was attached to Mariannhill Mission Hospital until well into the 1990s. Some Sisters were even doctors, mostly having qualified before entering the convent.

A locally-made order

I

T is almost impossible—in even a long-ish article such as this—to cover in depth the work of religious orders and congregations of Catholic women and men in South Africa.

This is a brief overview that looks firstly, and primarily, at the establishment and some of the founding works of some of these orders.

In the second part, to run in a fortnight, I shall examine how these congregations engaged with segregation and apartheid, before looking finally at the current state of religious life today.

The arrival Religious congregations of men and women came to South Africa from the mid-19th century. For the sake of giving form to an abundance of detail, I divide this into four “eras”, the first two of which I consider most significant in creating the forms (mainly active, occasionally contemplative) and focuses (mission, pastoral, education, health care) of the practice of religious life in the country.

In roughly the first 25 years, only a handful of orders, usually very small in number, arrived. Six Assumption Sisters and postulant—the very first order in the country—arrived in Grahamstown at the behest of Bishop Devereux, specifically to set up a school for Catholic girls.

The superior, Sr Marie-Gertrude, had grown up in Brussels’ high society before entering the convent, a major asset in Bishop Devereux’s eyes for creating educational excellence on the Cape frontier.

The second order to arrive were the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a congregation of priests destined for mission work and building up the Church in Natal. Once again, it was Devereux’s initiative. He had asked the Jesuits initially, and the Spiritans, but the former were already overstretched in their work—particularly since their restoration in 1814 they had been trying to re-establish themselves in many of their earlier apostolates.

The Oblates’ response had a major impact on the growth of the Catholic Church in South Africa— and, indeed, on the history of the congregation itself.

In the century and a half that followed, South Africa would become one of the two biggest apostolic areas of the Oblates (the other was Canada), with the congregation spreading from Natal north and westwards through the Free State, Lesotho, Transvaal and the Northern Cape.

This area would be divided up into a number of provinces, with hundreds and priests and Brothers who would eclipse the other men’s orders—and diocesan clergy—by their sheer size.

It was by no means easy. The early years in Natal were hard for the few Oblates who pioneered the way. Their superior, Bishop Jean Francois Allard OMI, in what became the Natal vicariate in 1850, would have multiple worries, not least financial.

Following the first religious congregations in this early phase were two congregations of Dominican Sisters (in 1863 and 1877), the Holy Family Sisters of Bordeaux (1864), the Loreto Sisters (1878), and the French-founded Marist Brothers (1867).

What made these congregations distinctive was their common commitment to founding schools throughout the Cape Colony. The Sisters also started up hospitals, particularly in small towns where pub-

The Missionaries of Mariannhill with their confrere Bishop Adalbert Fleischer after his elevation to head the new vicariate of Mariannhill in 1922. lic health care was limited or nonexistent.

Following this pattern, the last religious community in this period, the Society of Jesus, also came to South Africa initially to start a school.

Having turned down the opportunity to be the main missionaries to Natal, the Jesuits were recruited in 1875 to run St Aidan’s College, the Catholic diocesan boys’ school in Grahamstown. For the next 98 years there would be a contingent of Jesuits in Grahamstown, most of them teaching at St Aidan’s. It closed by the mid-1960s with the school financially strapped.

In the next 30 years of religious congregation foundation in South Africa, similar patterns emerged. Sisters’ focused mainly on schools and nursing or working on new missions in southern Africa (including movement into Lesotho and Swaziland).

Male congregations were primarily missionaries in the expanding territories that would in 1910 become the Union of South Africa and the British Protectorate States: Basutoland (Lesotho), Bechuanaland (Botswana) and Swaziland (Eswatini).

A few, like the Irish-founded Christian Brothers and the Salesians of Don Bosco, focused on education and pastoral care, the Salesians placing particular emphasis on mainly urban ministry focused on schools and skills training for boys from poorer backgrounds or coming from difficult home situations.

The role of the Sisters—as teachers and in health-care—is particularly significant in this period for a number of reasons.

In the first instance, wherever the Sisters went—whether Dominicans, Holy Family, Holy Cross, Nazareth, Augustinians, Ursulines, etc—the pattern was familiar: set up a community, build a school (the latter two sometimes simultaneously), and often set up a hospital or clinic.

Often these would be set up adjacent or close to the local church, building up in the process a kind of Catholic “centre” in places were Catholics were more often than not in a minority.

Many of the schools were ”open” schools, where all races could attend. As time passed and formal, legislated segregation grew—and often as the Sisters themselves were drawn into the colonial establishment—the Sisters would set up satellite schools in the “locations” outside the white town centres.

Relations with Protestants Another policy the Sisters followed in schools was the frequent (often intentional) inclusion of nonCatholics.

This openness to Protestants was often a powerful way for them to thaw the mutual tension between Protestant and Catholic. In some places where Catholicism was for parts of the 19th century still a prohibited religion—like the early Transvaal Republic—Catholic schools (and sometimes hospitals) run by the Sisters served to open up relations.

The Dominican Sisters’ school in Potchefstroom was initially viewed

with deep suspicion by the Calvinist authorities but since it was about the only school in the country at one point, even dominees sent their children there. From a cool beginning, relations between the sisters and the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek warmed. And the toleration of Catholicism soon followed.

Similarly in medicine, many congregations helped to improve health care, in missions and in towns. Mission hospitals developed from humble beginnings into major concerns.

Perhaps the most significant in the 19th century was the hospital the Holy Family Sisters started in Johannesburg, the mining camp that became a great city in a few years of gold rush.

Medical facilities when they arrived was poor to almost non-existent. The first major hospital, in which these Sisters cared for sick miners and their families without regard to race (to the shock of many a white observer), became the city’s first general hospital.

When the state took it over, there was a shock in store for the Sisters: the government no longer accepted their French nursing qualifications, demanding instead training along British lines. Some Sisters retrained; others were required—in a supreme irony for those who had worked there for years—to become assistant nurses.

Despite this, nursing was a very

The most significant event in this period for religious men began with a swop of a mission station that ultimately created South Africa’s first local men’s congregation.

Thirty Trappist monks from Germany and Austria-Hungary, led by Abbot Franz Pfanner, set up a monastery and farm on the Sundays River near Port Elizabeth in 1880.

When the Jesuits decided to extend their missionary work into southern Africa beyond the Transvaal Republic (where they were not welcome), the Trappists passed on the farm at Dunbrody to the Jesuits, who turned it into a centre of formation and base for their “Zambezi Mission”. The Trappists moved to Natal, near Pinetown, outside Durban, where Pfanner acquired land which he called Mariannhill and reestablished the monastery.

While the Zambezi Mission ultimately led to a strong Jesuit presence in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Dunbrody was an ongoing disaster, leading to the Jesuits having to sell the land by the 1930s.

Meanwhile at Mariannhill, Pfanner realised that the contemplative life could not be maintained amid what he saw was the urgency of mission work among the amaZulu. The monks became missionaries, very successful missionaries, but the Trappist Order objected. In 1909 the monastery was turned by the Vatican into the Congregation of Missionaries of Mariannhill.

More orders come The third great phase of religious congregations in South Africa— from after 1902 to the 1960s—saw once again an influx of religious orders and communities of men and women.

Many orders that are well-known throughout the Catholic world—

Redemptorists (1912), Dominicans (19717), Capuchins (1923), Franciscans (1930s), as well as two Benedictine monasteries (1904 and 1922)— were among the male religious that arrived.

The Sisters were not to be outdone either: the Notre Dame (1907), Franciscan and Capuchin (1922, 1932, and 1955), Holy Cross (1937), Schoenstatt (1934) and other communities arrived. Contemplative Carmelite Sisters also set up convents (from 1931) – and became the makers of altar breads not only for Catholics but ultimately for many Protestant churches.

In the last phase in my structure, from the 1960s to the present day, more communities followed, often highly specialised groups who were moving away from the conventional works of mission and pastoral ministry (for men), education and health care (for women).

These conventional works were themselves shifting, no longer reflecting the tasks of a Church being built, but of a truly local Church coming of age: from charity to development, from parish-based pastoral work for the most part to often specialised work with youth and students, and from the 1980s onwards a mission overshadowed by the struggle against apartheid and the battle against HIV and Aids.

Even in the post-apartheid era new challenges—notably refugees and migrants—as well as perennial struggles about poverty and development occupied new congregations like the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (arrived 2001), Sisters of St Vincent de Paul (2004) and the Kiltegan Fathers (1989).

During the last period (1960s to the present) the religious orders and communities in South Africa grew increasingly aware—and by the 1960s started to respond—to the complex politics of a segregationist and apartheid state. n This article was produced in association with the Leadership Conference Of Consecrated Life SA to mark 200 years of the Catholic Church’s establishment in South Africa. Part 2 of Fr Anthony Egan’s history will appear in the issue of October 31.

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10

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

REFLECTION

Why Mary is the Mother of God How can Mary, a child of God, also be the ‘Mother of God’? Deacon KEITh FOuRNIER explains how in his journey back to the Church he found an answer to the question which puzzles many Christians.

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AM what is often called a “revert” to the Catholic Church. Though raised as a Catholic, I fell away from the practice of the ancient faith when my family all but stopped participating in the sacraments.

We were “Cultural Catholics”, but the faith and the Saviour had little to do with our life. My teenage search for meaning in life and the truth finally led me home to the Lord and his Church. However, the route was circuitous.

Among the places it led was my reading of the “Fathers” (early leaders) of the first centuries of the Church. In ancient Christian writings I discovered how the early Christians viewed their participation in the Church as integral to their belonging to Jesus Christ.

After intensely questioning many of the A painting of the Madonna with child is depicted on a Russian stamp. In 451 AD the Church teachings of the Catholic Church in my pronounced Mary the Mother of God, or Theotokos. journey home to the Church, I came to see that the pronouncement of the early Church Council of Ephesus (431 AD) that Mary is Theo-tokos—Greek for God-bearer, or votion, from the extraordinary frescoes in ciple whom he loved standing near, he said Mother of God—was a profoundly Christo- the catacombs to the reflections of the early to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.’

Church Fathers on the significance of her Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your logical declaration. It speaks about Christ.

It was spoken to confront and correct role in salvation history and her continued mother’” (Jn 19: 26-27).

Throughout the Church’s rich history growing heresies in the Church which un- role in the life of the Church. and tradition great theologians, mystics, dermined the core proclamation of the Not yet ‘my mother’ popes and saints have all viewed John as Gospel about who Jesus is: The second perAs my knowledge of the lives of the representing you and me. The last gift Jesus son of the blessed Trinity, the Word made flesh, Jesus the Christ, was truly both God saints, and their prayer lives, increased, I gave before giving every drop of his sacred had to decide whether all of their blood was his mother. and man. writings about Mary reflected We who are baptised are now “incorpoThe incarnation was central to The last gift some kind of “bad theology” or, rated” into Christ. We live our lives now in the Christian claim. The one perhaps, I had missed something. body (1 Cor 12). The head and the body whom Mary bore was and is truly Jesus gave Fortunately, I arrived at the proper his are eternally joined in a communion of God and truly man. love.

I studied the historical back- before giving conclusion.

But, even after all that, Mary St Augustine—and countless saints both ground of the proclamation and came to understand what was truly every drop of was still to me the mother of the East and West—writes concerning the Lord. I could accept in concept that “whole Christ” as both head and body (cf. at stake. his sacred she was a mother to the Church, Col 1:15 23, Ephesians 4:15,16).

When I read this simple proclamation of the Catechism of the blood was his but not yet “my mother”.

Everything Jesus has, he has given to his The progression continued. It Church. That includes his Mother. She is Catholic Church years later, was only as I prayerfully reflected also the mother of his mystical body, his “What the Catholic faith believes mother about Mary is based on what it beon the last hours of Jesus’ earthly Church, and we are members of that family lieves about Christ, and what it ministry recounted in the fourth which he has formed called the Church. teaches about Mary illumines in turn its Gospel, the one attributed to the beloved Mary and saints faith in Christ” (487), it all made sense. disciple John, that this all began to unfold My study of early Church history re- and become personal for me.

As the years unfolded I found that every vealed the presence of Marian piety and de“When Jesus saw his mother, and the dis- one of the great influences in my Christian

life from that communion of saints to which we are all joined was profoundly “Marian”.

From Francis of Assisi, Bernard of Clairvaux, the early Fathers, St Josemaria Escriva, all the way up to my champion, St John Paul II, all had a deep love and devotion to Mary as mother. I began to pray St John Paul’s prayer of consecration and motto, “Totus Tuus”, and made it my own.

Then, the grace was given. This little Virgin from Nazareth whose “yes” brought heaven to earth and earth to heaven went from being the mother and a mother to “my mother”.

Our Catechism reminds us: “What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ. ‘God sent forth his Son’, but to prepare a body for him, he wanted the free cooperation of a creature. For this, from all eternity God chose for the mother of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, ‘a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary’” (487-8).

Mother of the Church So, let us reflect on the Mother of God as mother of the Church and our mother.

“Called in the Gospels ‘the mother of Jesus’, Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as ‘the mother of my Lord.”

In fact, the one whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly ‘Mother of God’” (Theotokos), (CCC, 495-6; Council of Ephesus).

From antiquity, Mary has been called “Theotokos”, or “God-bearer”.

The term was used as part of the popular piety of the early first-millennium Church.

It is used throughout the Eastern Church’s liturgy, both Orthodox and Catholic. It lies at the heart of the Latin rite’s deep Marian piety and devotion.

This title was a response to early threats to orthodoxy, the preservation of authentic Christian teaching.

The Council of Ephesus insisted “If anyone does not confess that God is truly Emmanuel, and that on this account the holy virgin is the Theotokos (for according to the flesh she gave birth to the word of God become flesh by birth), let him be anathema.”—CNA

Uniteed by the same passion: Passion fo P for God Passion fo or Affrrica Passion fo or humanity

Fiilleed with w the joy of the Gospel and guided d by the Sp pirit, we are an inteercu ultural missionary Society with a fa amily Spirit.

Voc cation Director:: P.O. Box 513, Merrivale 3291/ Cell: +27713379448

Email: mavocsa@gmail.com/ / Facebook: MAfr SouthAfrrica Vocations

MISSION

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

11

The work of Holy Land Franciscans Most of the sacred Christian shrines in the Holy Land are taken care of by the Franciscans.

Two friars speak about their vocations to be Holy Land Franciscans.

A

RELIGIOUS vocation to serve in the Holy Land is demanding, but there is nothing like walking where Christ walked to strengthen the life of a Christian, Franciscans in the Holy Land say.

Fr Benjamin Owusu OFM decided to join the Franciscans of the Holy Land out of “a love for the land which received our Lord and a love to serve in this unique place, to meet people from all walks of life”.

“If you really don’t have the passion to be in that place, you will definitely leave, especially in hard times,” said Fr Owusu, a Franciscan for 20 years from Ghana.

“The holy places have a big draw.

It is very powerful,” said Fr Athanasius Macora OFM, guardian of the Flagellation monastery at the beginning of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.

“When you come here, people are very moved by the experience. It puts the Gospel in perspective,” he said. “It’s a very powerful tool for evangelising or re-evangelising Catholics.”

Fr Macora, an American, spent two years in Jordan, three years in Damascus, and the past 20 years in Jerusalem.

The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land is among the oldest and largest Catholic institutions in the Holy Land. The province was founded by St Francis of Assisi in 1217, just eight years after he founded the Franciscan order.

The Custody’s primary role is the care of the holy places and for pilgrims, while the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has pastoral responsibility for Catholics who live in the region.

As of 2016 the Custody had 216 friars. Their main presence is in Israel and Palestine, but there are also friars in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus and Egypt.

“I have always been fascinated by the Holy Land and it is a very rich

Franciscan friars in procession at Christ’s tomb in the church of the holy Sepulchre. Inset: Fr Benjamin Owusu OFM. and stimulating environment. I have got a lot out of it personally,” Fr Macora said.

“Of course, some periods have been better than others. A few times it has been really hard. There are many positive things about [home] that I miss, but I committed myself to being here.”

A place of conversion Fr Macora said he is most struck by the church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over both the place of the Crucifixion and the tomb in which Christ’s body was buried.

“The church is the place where the death, burial and Resurrection [of Jesus Christ] took place, and therefore it serves as a memorial to the Paschal mystery and the three most important days on the Christian calendar,” he said. “I think that Calvary and the Tomb are my favourite parts, but I like it when it is really quiet there.”

Fr Macora has witnessed the church of the Holy Sepulchre’s impact on pilgrims, like those who “decide to go to confession after 20 or 30 or even 40 years”.

Like many places of Catholic mission, the Holy Land Franciscans are also in need of vocations.

CAPUCHIN POOR CLARE SISTERS

“We do need more Brothers,” Fr Macora said. “The shrines need friars because sometimes it gets really busy, and you need to give the guys a rest. A presence is really important in the shrines and that requires a lot of friars.”

Besides accompanying pilgrims and staffing the shrines, Franciscan friars also work in areas like parish ministry and as directors of schools.

“A vocation is from God and so if one feels called to serve here [one has] to consider it,” Fr Macora said.

For Fr Owusu, knowing the Holy Land and developing a particular attachment to it helps contribute to one’s vocation and desire to serve

there. “Serving in the Holy Land opens one to the reality of the world,” he said, adding that this work opens one to others who do not necessarily share one’s faith.

Israel itself is majority Jewish, with a predominantly Muslim Arab Palestinian minority; Palestine is mostly Muslim. Many Palestinians Christians have emigrated in recent decades, and now make up about 2% of Israel’s population.

Jerusalem itself is politically contested, with both Israelis and Palestinians seeing it as their capital.

The majority of United Nations member states and most international organisations do not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over East Jerusalem, which came under its control after the 1967 Six-Day War, or its 1980 proclamation, which declared a “complete and united” Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

“It is a place where you meet different people, and different people have different views,” Fr Owusu noted, tying this diversity to the Franciscan mission.

“It has opened me to accepting different people, because we are international,” he said. “You meet a lot of friars, even within our monastery, who come from different backgrounds. It has enriched me more, as far as my Franciscan vision is concerned.”

Always something to learn Fr Owusu said being a Holy Land Franciscan means “there’s always something to learn”.

“You need to learn, first of all, to accept other people. You need to learn languages, and languages open you to culture, and culture also brings you that reality of the place.

“The MISSION of the FMM springs from a life of union with Christ centred on the EUChARIST.” DO YOU FEEL CALLED?

We are an international congregation The ChARISM of the Franciscan Missionaries of MARY is founded upon contemplative and active life

OF PERPETUAL ADORATION

We are called to follow the Poor, Humble and Crucified Jesus, through prayer, Adoration to the Blessed Sacrament, silence, manual labour and joyful community life; inspired in the spirit of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi.

Through this way of life, we join our lives to Jesus’ redeeming love, praying for the people of the world and remaining hidden in the heart of Holy Mother Church

- We are in 76 Countries - We are from 80 nationalities - We are in South Africa since 1903 - We are living in 7 Communities in South Africa

COME AND SEE!

Blessed Mary of the passion, our foundress, left a treasure in our hearts and hands through the GRACE of God we are caring with LOVE. TODAY – like yesterday – the FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES OF MARY live LOVE and express it in multiple ways: it is called strength of life, newness of the Gospel, passion, risk, commitment for justice.

It becomes a face, a word, a meeting, a dialogue, a presence, an outstretched hand.

It is questioning, risk and choice, peace and reconciliation, offering and gift, consecration and prayer, new life and hope.

“God sends us to those who are still waiting for Christ to be announced and testified: to those whose faces are lined by suffering, destitution, rejection, and exclusion…

We FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES OF MARY focus:

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

There is a lot to learn,” he said.

“Of course, you don’t have to understand all these things to be a friar,” he added. “What you have, will be developed. What you have as a friar can be developed from there.

There is always room to learn more.”

Pilgrimages to the Holy Land have resulted in some vocations. Fr Owusu said one such vocation is a California priest who was drawn by the organ played in the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

“We have another one who came from France on a pilgrimage. Afterwards he came back, and is now a friar over there.”

Fr Macora is also secretary of the Status Quo Commission of the Custody of the Holy Land. In that role, he takes part in agreements and negotiations among the Churches with claims to the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Status Quo agreement, reached in 1852, governs the ownership and rights of Catholic and Orthodox Christian communities at important sanctuaries, including the church of the Holy Sepulchre and Bethlehem’s basilica of the Nativity.

Fr Macora said the Franciscans of the Custody have a clear mission rooted in their history.

“We have a very specific identity which involves a heavy institutional burden, because we have to run so many projects,” he said.

“The institutional part is not seen as very Franciscan by the Franciscans themselves, but we are here for 800 years now and the existence of the shrines and the large institutional Catholic presence is due also to those guys hundreds of years ago, so we just have to keep doing it.”—CNA

 EUChARIST/ADORATION: Centre of our life  MARY: “Way within the way”  FRANCISCAN: Simplicity and joy of Gospel living  MISSION: Live and share together in international Communities

“The spirit of our missionary vocation is to bring the whole world to Jesus Christ.”

Blessed Mary of the Passion (Foundress of the FMM)

FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES OF MARY FMM Vocations, P.O. Box 1816, 1716 Florida hills, Gauteng. helenacoragem@gmail.com 079 645 68 08 / 011 672 82 73, www.fmm.org Facebook: Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in SA

12

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

COMMUNITY Assumption Convent School in Germistom, Johannesburg, inducted its new prefects. (Back from left) Jade McIver, Olivia Wood, Alexandra Marques, Carmen Mileder, Téah Slabbert, Savannah Sheerin, Jodie langdon, Shaylee Bekker, and Ilhaam Wadvalla. (Front from left) Mohini Dorasamy, zekeyo Mozagba, Chiara Bonanni, Amy Weinerlein, Chinenye and Daniela Domingues.

Marist Brothers linmeyer in Johannesburg celebrated unity in diversity on heritage Day, with staff and students dressing in clothes that represented their heritage. holy Trinity parish in Pescodia, Kimberley, held a fun run. The entrance fee was an item of non-perishable food and all participants who finished received a medal. The church is planning to make the fun run an annual event on its feast day.

(Submitted by Pageal Babi)

URSULINE SISTERS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

We are the Ursulines Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary caring for the sick, education and pastoral work. Do you feel called? Contact us!!!

Sr Irene Shange Cell: 061 854 0890,

Sr Cecilia Mavuthela Cell: 072 437 42 44 Email: zandileziningi@yahoo.com or Email: provincial@stursula.co.za

About 800 children celebrated the feast of St Teresa of the Child Jesus at Centocow mission in umzimkulu diocese, with Children’s Society chaplain Fr Albony zamisa and coordinator Sr zithobile zondi lSMI.

The birthday feast of Mary was celebrated at Syro Malabar rite St Thomas the Apostle’s church in laudium, Pretoria, with a 12km pilgrimage walk to St Thomas More church in Monavoni. St Thomas parish priest Fr Albin Paul said Mass before the walk. When the pilgrimage reached Monavoni, Fr Robert Mphiwe, vicar-general of the archdiocese of Pretoria, addressed the gathering, and Mass was then said in the Syro Malabar Catholic rite, which originates from Kerala in India. St Thomas parishioners also observed an eight-day period of rosary prayers.

St Benedict’s College in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, won the boys section of the Catholic Schools Inter-high Athletics.

Send your photos to pics@scross.co.za

Vocations director SCP PO Box 8, Roma Lesotho, 194

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REFLECTION

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

13

What the Rosary means to me October is the month of the Rosary. KElVIN BANDA OP explains what the Rosary means to him.

O

NE of the joys I experience as a Catholic and as a Dominican scholastic, is to pray the Rosary every day, either in the morning or evening.

The Rosary is a simple, yet profoundly powerful and beautiful prayer that Christians cannot afford to live without. Daily devotion to the Rosary is a powerful witness to prayer that enhances my spiritual life through the visiting of the inner sanctuary of God’s castles in prayer.

Whenever I say the Hail Mary, it resonates in my heart like the echo sounds of seraphim in heaven whenever they sing Holy, Holy to God. Even when I feel that I am unable to say the Rosary, such an experience revives me and gives me the strength to pray it anyway.

For me, the Rosary is a powerful, fruitful and unique example of devotion to Mary that rests in the heart of the Church. The Rosary is a unique prayer that is loved by many priests and laity alike; furthermore, it represents Mary’s particular role in our lives as an intercessor.

Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae (2002) described the prayer as “simple yet profound”.

“It still remains...a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness.”

There have been times when praying the morning Rosary that I

pondered in her heart are her Rosary. A living Rosary which she prayed uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life. And when we pray the Rosary, we too enter into those memories and the contemplative gaze of those memories.

have experienced this harvest of holiness. Actually we need only one special person whose holiness shines to pray with us, to feel what a harvest of holiness is like: the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Rosary has brought such joy in my life, as I believe it has done for many who pray with our beloved mother Mary. The Rosary is a part of my life, and of who I am. There is an authentic deep sense of consolation for me in Mary’s maternal presence.

The Rosary speaks so clearly of Mary’s abiding love for me and for all humanity. This happens whenever I pray, especially in times of trouble, loneliness, and so on.

Watch Christ through Rosary

A calming power Mary’s maternal presence smooths my anxiety and troubles.

This is because of the repetition of the prayer and the contemplation of the mystery at hand. It has a way of gracefully bringing me to a quiet resting.

The Rosary becomes even richer by calming me down before the mysteries of Christ when I am all alone in the early morning, either in my room, or in the chapel with only the light from the tabernacle radiating the presence of Christ and of our mother of perpetual help lit in my heart.

St Dominic spoke to God about people during the night and to people about God during the day.

By the time I have finished praying the Rosary, there is an intrinsically spiritual change in me as the Rosary echoes the mysteries of Christ and Mary’s maternal help.

This gives me hope that the day will be fruitful and beautiful, filled with many blessings and that even chal-

“The Rosary is a part of my life, and of who I am. There is an authentic deep sense of consolation for me in Mary’s maternal presence,” writes Kelvin Banda OP lenges that may come my way will be overcome. I doubt no longer that God, with Mary our mother of perpetual help, will carry and rescue me.

Each person has been gracefully blessed with their own spiritual insights as one ponders on the life of Christ in the mysteries of the Rosary. For me, it is the Rosary that has led to a beautiful growth of my spiritual life.

Pope John Paul II wrote in his apostolic letter on the Rosary that “to recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the Face of Christ”. Although the Rosary is Marian in its character; it is at its heart a Christo-centric prayer. It is rooted in Christ.

The Rosary is a compendium of

the whole Gospel—it echoes the prayer of Mary in the beautiful Magnificat where she praises God for the wonderful love God has for her.

“With the Rosary, we sit at the school of Our Lady and contemplate the beautiful face of Christ and experience the depths of the love of Christ,” John Paul II wrote.

Mary lived with Christ. She was his mother. Her eyes were always fixed on him. Her heart was broken because of the cruelty of those who crucified Christ. This can be the feelings of any of our mothers. Like any mother who raises a child, Mary had many memories of Christ. The Gospel of Luke tells us that Mary pondered and treasured the memories of Christ in her heart.

Those memories which Mary

Above all, Pope John Paul II writes, “the Rosary mystically transports us to Mary’s side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home at Nazareth.”

We watch Christ grow in wisdom, knowledge and grace in the Gospels as he moves from Nazareth, to the Sea of Galilee, and to his death in Jerusalem on Calvary, and finally to his Resurrection in the tomb in the garden.

The Rosary comes from the rose garden. The rose is the symbol of joy. In the Litany to the Blessed Mary, Mary is properly referred to as the “cause of our joy”. And so she is our joy as she brought and continually brings Christ to us. Christ is the joy of our lives.

From Mary and her spirituality, each person is led to a deeper joy in Christ. St Francis once said: “If a town does not pray, then, the town labours in vain.” This simple wisdom can be applied to the Rosary.

The Rosary is a prayer. It is not simply a repetition of words. It is a prayer from our hearts to the heart of Mary, our mother of perpetual help, and it leads us to treasure, like her, the very memories that she pondered in her heart. All those memories enable us to see and to bring us into the presence of Christ.

Pray the Rosary and experience the power that it brings to all those who are devoted to Mary.

14

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

FAITH

The world’s Top 40 Marian shrines In the first of five articles to run over the next few weeks, GÜNThER SIMMERMAChER counts down the world’s Top 40 Marian shrines.

A

ROUND the world there are countless shrines dedicated to Our Lady. Some of them have their roots in apparitions or reports of miracles, others draw crowds of pilgrims as places especially built to foster Marian devotion, such as the shrine in the archdiocese in Johannesburg doubtless will.

This series of Top 40 Marian shrines includes mainly the former category—apparitions and miracles—and ranks them in an approximate order of popularity and importance.

To whittle down the hundreds of Marian shrines to just 40 means that worthy sites may be omitted to accommodate another worthy site.

Making these choices is, by definition, a subjective exercise. As is, of course, ranking them in any order of importance and popularity, though the closer we come to the #1, the more measurable the devotion to these shrines become.

It must be stressed that the apparitions mentioned in these articles are subjects of private devotion. No Catholic is required to accept any of them as authentic or have a devotion to them, even those that are approved by the Holy See as “worthy of belief”.

Some of them aren’t approved, most famously Medjugorje, though a recent Vatican commission suggested that the initial apparitions could be accepted. Likewise, the apparitions of Garabandal in Spain have been explicitly rejected by the local bishop with the backing of the Vatican.

While we include Medjugorje in this series as a place that enjoys some official tolerance, we exclude Garabandal and other places that have no Church acceptance.

Other shrines have not been approved by the Vatican yet, but, unlike Medjugorje or Garabandal, the local bishops have permitted veneration.

This is the case with Ngome in KwaZulu-Natal, where successive bishops of Eshowe have permitted and encouraged devotion to Our Lady through the visions of Sr Reinolda May. Some of the legends and reports of Marian apparitions seem implausible, and some certainly are just that: myths. Yet for others, there are no rational explanations. You, the reader, may decide what you feel is true and what isn’t.

Whatever views one might have of some or all Marian shrines, even when the source of the devotion may seem implausible, all of these places are sanctified by the sincere prayers of the faithful.

While most shrines featured are Catholic, a few Orthodox and Coptic sites will also be represented.

A recurring theme is the Black Madonna. These are statues or icons in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is depicted with dark skin, sometimes deliberately by way of inculturating Our Lady, more often due to discolouration. There are up

to 500 Black Madonnas in Europe alone.

These 40 descriptions of Marian shrines offer just thumbnails of the various sites. Some shrines deserve to be investigated further. If one shrine or the other grabs your attention, why not read up on them, on the Internet or in the library?

So over the next five weeks, here are the world’s Top 40 Marian shrines.

40. Notre-Dame d’Afrique, Algeria Few sites in this series will feature on the mere grounds that they are dedicated to Our Lady, but NotreDame d’Afrique—Our Lady of Africa—seems the right place to start our journey, since it calls us to prayer for Africa, for Our Lady’s protection, and for peace between Christians and Muslims.

The basilica, which overlooks the Bay of Algiers from a cliff, was inaugurated in 1872 by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Charles Lavigerie, who also founded the Society of Missionaries of Africa.

Bombing in World War II blew out its 46 stained glass windows, and an earthquake in 2003 did great damage to the building, which was not repaired for several years.

Rosary with 15 stations representing one of the traditional mysteries.

The present basilica was inaugurated in 1964. The church from 1988 was demolished a year earlier to create a plaza in front of what is now Canada’s national shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

35. Walsingham, England Above left: Notre-Dame d’Afrique in Algiers; (right) Our lady of China in Dong lu. (Photos: Kie1193/wikipedia & Yuyencia)

Our lady of Banneux in Belgium; and Our lady of Ngome in KwazuluNatal. (Photos: Julien Warnand, EPA/CNS & Catholicportal/Flickr)

39. Our Lady of China, Dong Lu The history of China’s national shrine goes back to the anti-foreign and anti-Christian Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901, when 10 000 hostile soldiers attacked the Christian village of Dong Lu, in Hebei province.

Just then, the Virgin Mary, dressed in white, appeared in the sky. The soldiers shot their guns at the image in the sky, but it would not disappear. Then a vision of St Michael on a flaming horse charged at the soldiers—who beat a hasty retreat, never to return.

In gratitude, the local priest, Fr Wu, commissioned a painting of the Madonna and child, dressed in the clothes of the pagan empress.

That image is now known as Our Lady, Queen of China.

Dong Lu’s new church became a place of pilgrimage in 1924 while the bishops of the country consecrated the Chinese people to Our Lady.

The church was destroyed by Japanese bombs in 1941 and rebuilt only in 1992. The image of Our Lady, Queen of China returned to Dong Lu in 1995, with 30 000 witnessing a solar miracle.

A year later the Chinese regime banned pilgrimages to Dong Lu and confiscated the image which still hasn’t been returned. Hopefully the recent accord between China and the Vatican will facilitate the return of the image—and pilgrims—to Ding Lu.

38. Our Lady of Banneux, Belgium In 1933, the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared eight times to 12-year-old Mariette Beco at Banneux, near Liège in Belgium. Declaring herself the "Virgin of the Poor", the “lady in white” told the girl: “I come to relieve suffering. Believe in me and I will believe in you”.

Although Mariette received a lot of ridicule, her visions also attracted veneration, with a chapel built the same year. The small spring which the Virgin said to be

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Notre-Dame-du-Cap in Canada; and Our lady of Walsingham in England (Photos: Saffron Blaze via www.mackenzie.co & lawrence OP/Flickr)

In 1061, the Virgin Mary appeared in the village of Walsingham in Norfolk to a pious English noblewoman named Richeldis de Faverches, in whose ecstatic visions Mary transported her to Nazareth to show how the Holy Family had lived.

Lady Richeldis erected a structure which she named “The Holy House”, which was then expanded to become a priory and England’s most important site of pilgrimage, enjoying the patronage of many kings. It held the original carved statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, which Lady Richeldis had obtained from Oberammergau in Germany.

The priory was suppressed and its riches looted or destroyed during the anti-Catholic suppression of Thomas Cromwell in 1538. The statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was burnt at Chelsea in London.

Today there are two shrines of Our Lady of Walsingham: one Catholic and the other Anglican.

The Catholic shrine was re-established in 1897, with the chapel built in 1934 on the site of the “Slipper Chapel”, which stood a mile outside the original shrine. It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Annunciation.

The Anglican shrine was built in 1938. Relations between the custodians of the two shrines are now very good.

34. Kykkos Monastery, Cyprus

Kykkos monastery in Cyprus; and Santa Maria de Montserrat abbey in Spain. (Photos: Oceco/wikipedia & Anton Ignatenko) miraculous now attracts pilgrims looking for healing.

In 1949 Pope Pius XII approved the apparition.

Mariette lived a long life, dying at the age of 90 in 2011, having withdrawn from public life soon after the apparitions. “I was no more than a postman who delivers the mail. Once this has been done, the postman is of no importance anymore,” she said in 2008.

37. Our Lady of Ngome, South Africa The youngest shrine in this series, Ngome will certainly grow in popularity. Located in rural KwaZuluNatal in the diocese of Eshowe, Ngome is the site that marks ten apparitions by Our Lady to Benedictine Sister Reinolda May between 1955 and 1971.

The German missionary was a very popular midwife at the Benedictine Mission Hospital in Nongoma—many thousands of newborns went through her hands.

Eight of her apparitions took place in the 1950s; during one of them, Our Lady pointed at the site of Ngome, requesting that a shrine be built there. After 12 years, the

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Virgin appeared for two more apparitions as Mary, the Tabernacle of the Most High.

First signs of devotion were evident already in 1966, but while the local bishop allowed a small church to be built there, he limited the devotion. But it grew rapidly after Sr Reinolda’s death at 79 in 1981. In 1992 Bishop Emmanuel Mansuet Biyase, who was initially reluctant, allowed the construction of a new church and encouraged pilgrimages to Ngome, where miraculous healings from the water there have been reported.

Sr Reinolda is buried at the nearby Benedictine Inkamana Abbey; her sainthood cause has been opened.

36. Notre-Dame-du-Cap, Canada In the 1870s, Fr Luc Desilets of the parish of Cap-de-la-Madeleine in Trois-Rivières in Canada’s Quebec region decided to replace the old church, which had been built as a field church in 1720. Trouble was that, with the St Lawrence River cutting off supply routes and bridges still scarce, it was difficult to get building materials to the site.

That problem was solved when during the otherwise mild winter of 1879, an ice bridge formed over the river—just long enough to get all the materials on-site. This was the answer to the parish’s fervent prayers to Our Lady, so the ice bridge was attributed to her intervention.

The new church was finished in 1888, but the older chapel—in which parishioners had prayed for her intercession—was preserved.

And that chapel became a site of pilgrimage.

In 1902, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate assumed guardianship of the shrine, installing a Way of the

Originally founded in the 11th century in the mountains of Cyprus, the Orthodox Kykkos monastery has been repeatedly burnt down and rebuilt.

The centrepiece here is the miraculous icon of the Panagia, as the Orthodox call Our Lady, which legend says was painted by St Luke himself—something which will be a recurring theme in this series.

The icon came to Cyprus via Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, in thanksgiving for the miraculous healing of his daughter by the hermit Isaiah. The emperor also funded the construction of the monastery to house the icon.

The first president of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, served as a novice at the monastery in 1926. When he hid there during Cyprus’ civil war in 1974, opposition forces shelled the monastery, causing damage to the building.

33. Santa Maria de Montserrat, Spain The Benedictine abbey of Monistrol de Montserrat is built on the Montserrat mountain in Catalonia, Spain. Founded in the 11th century, the current structure dates to the 19th and 20th centuries. Its centrepiece is the 95cm-high statue of the Virgin of Montserrat, a Black Madonna.

The provenance of the Byzantine-style figure is unknown; it is believed it was hidden from the invading Saracens in the mountain in the 8th century. Legend has it that when the Benedictines wanted to build their monastery there, the statue wouldn’t move and they had to build around it.

Devotion to the Virgin of Montserrat has a very long tradition. Among those who came to venerate it was St Ignatius of Loyola, who laid down his arms before her in 1522 and then entered a period of discernment that led to the foundation of the Jesuits.

More recently, the abbey of Montserrat gave refuge to opponents of the fascist Franco regime.

For many, it is a symbol of Catalan nationalism. n Eight more Marian shrines next week.

CLASSIFIEDS

Story of a modern missionary

T

HE director of the St Lucia Retreat and Training Centre in St Lucia, in the vicariate of Ingwavuma in KwaZulu-Natal, is a French missionary Sister who is filled with a spirit of service, humility, joy, awe and adventure.

Sr Elisabeth Marie Ansart, a Sister of the Ursulines of the Roman Union, came to South Africa three years ago.

She has developed a programme for children in the local villages for education, and the nutritional and medical needs of rural children.

Sr Ansart committed herself to life within the Ursulines of the Roman Union 20 years ago. It was her way of responding to the personal love of God. “I remember the day I chose my religious name, Elisabeth Marie, in accordance with the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elisabeth (Lk 1: 39-56). Her joy expressed in the Magnificat was mine,” she said.

“The context of life today in St Lucia is quite different…with crocodiles and hippos around,” Sr Ansart added, “but it is the same spirit of the mystery of the

French nun Sr Elisabeth Marie Ansart, of the ursulines of the Roman union, is working in St lucia, Kwazulu-Natal.

Visitation which is leading me.

A spirit of joy to know that God loves me without condition and the joy of being a witness of this love by the gift of my life.”

She said it was a spirit of adventure that made her leave everything, “a spirit of service that leads me to serve poor children and families. A spirit of humility because I am associated with God’s work, a spirit of awe

IN MEMOrIAM

VErGOTTINI—laura Celestine. In loving memory of our precious Mommy and Granny. Passed away October 24, 2005. Your golden heart stopped beating, hardworking hands, we cannot touch at rest. Your spirit has been set free, your beautiful, kind soul lives forever. God has you in his keeping, we have you in our hearts, your memory our keepsake. Enfolded in love as you soar on high, but for a while, we must say goodbye. So rest in peace, free from all pain, till we meet in heaven, united again, our dearest Mommy. With much love from Anthony, Alfred, Wendy and family.

Year B – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday October 21,

October 25: Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Reginald Cawcutt of Cape Town on his 80th birthday.

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

CAPE TOWN—looking for reasonably priced accommodation over the December/January holiday period?

Come to Kolbe house, set in beautiful, spacious gardens in Rondebosch, nestled just under Devil’s Peak. Selfcatering, clean and peaceful, with spacious gardens. Safe parking. Close to all shops and public transport. Contact Pat 021 685-7370, 073 2632105 or kolbe.house@ telkomsa.net MArIANELLA GUEST HOUSE—Simon’s Town.

“Come experience the peace and beauty of God with us.” Fully equipped with amazing sea views. Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Malcolm Salida 082 784-5675, mjsalida@gmail.com

PrAYErS

PrAYEr FOr CANCEr PATIENTS—heavenly Father, I come to you today to

Isaiah 53:10-11, Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22, Hebrews 4:14-16, Mark 10:35-45 Ephesians 2:1-10, Psalm 100, Luke 12:13-21 Tuesday October 23, St John of Capistrano Ephesians 2:12-22, Psalm 85:9-14, Luke 12:35-38 Wednesday October 24, St Anthony Mary Claret Ephesians 3:2-12, Responsorial psalm Isaiah 12:2-6, Luke 12:39-48 Thursday October 25 Ephesians 3:14-21, Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19, Luke 12:49-53 Friday October 26 Ephesians 4:1-6, Psalm 24:1-6, Luke 12:54-59 Saturday October 27 Ephesians 4:7-16, Psalm 122:1-5, Luke 13:1-9 Sunday October 28, 30th Sunday of the Year Jeremiah 31:7-9, Psalm 126, Hebrews 5:1-6, Mark 10:46-52

THANkS be to thee, my lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, And follow thee more nearly, For ever and ever.

PArISH NOTICES

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.

CAPE TOWN: Retreat day/quiet prayer last Saturday of each month except December, at Springfield

Convent in Wynberg, Cape Town. hosted by ClC, 10.00-15.30. Contact Jill on 083 282 6763 or Jane on 082 783 0331.

Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Good Shepherd parish, 1 Goede hoop St, Bothasig, welcomes all visitors. Open 24 hours a day. Phone 021 558 1412. helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town.

Followed by vigil at abortion clinic. Contact Colette Thomas on 083 412 4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br Daniel SCP on 078 739 2988.

DUrBAN: holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St Anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9:00. holy Mass and Divine Mercy Devotion at 17:30 on first Friday of every month. Sunday Mass at 9:00. Phone 031309 3496 or 031 209 2536.

St Anthony’s rosary group.

Every Wednesday at 18:00 at St Anthony’s church opposite Greyville racecourse. All are welcome and lifts are available. Contact Keith Chetty on 083 372 9018.

NELSPrUIT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Peter’s parish every Tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed by Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 17:30.

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SOLUTIONS TO 833. ACROSS: 3 Sensation, 8 Ekes, 9 Broad path, 10 Titles, 11 Blush, 14 Comes, 15 Sufi, 16 Thumb, 18 Sand, 20 Robot, 21 Tango, 24 No fear, 25 Validated, 26 Lima, 27 Machinist. DOWN: 1 Pentecost, 2 Testament, 4 Ears, 5 Stall, 6 To pass, 7 Oath, 9 Beast, 11 Bruno, 12 Humble pie, 13 Historian, 17 Brood, 19 Danish, 22 Grain, 23 Lama, 24 Nets.

29th Sunday of the Year

Monday October 22, St John Paul II

ask for your healing touch around the world for all cancer patients. For those who are in beds, sitting in a doctor’s office or cherishing this moment with those they love. I pray for your ministering angels to surround them in hope and the peace that surpasses all understanding.

May they experience your love and your wholeness in their life today. We ask in the name of Jesus for renewed strength and complete restoration. Amen.

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Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate:

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15

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and thanksgiving when I see God at work in the hearts of each one and in the beauty of the Creation”.

Sr Ansart noted that the founder of her congregation, St Angela Merici (1474-1540), “was in love with Christ, her ‘unique Treasure’”.

As an Ursuline of the Roman Union, she said, she is enthusiastic to be called to the same intimate relationship with Christ, and to let him be known, loved, and served across the world.

“My mission in St Lucia is part of the mission of the Ursulines around the world: education in its diverse forms, for the sake of evangelisation, arousing the power of life and of love within each person,” Sr Ansart said.

“I am grateful for those 20 years following Christ in the Ursuline life, and especially for these past years in mission in South Africa,” she said, and, quoting from the Magnificat: “The Lord has done great things for me and holy is his name.” n For more about the Ursuline Sisters of the Roman Union in Southern Africa see www.ursuline southernafrica.jimdo.com/

Franciscan Nardini Sister Melinda Seiler and Benedictine Brother Bernard Pachner, followed by Fr Francis Sibusiso zulu, lead the procession from Inkamana Abbey to the graveside following the Requiem Mass for Sr Agathana Trinkl FNS, who died aged 86 after 63 years of service as a religious and missionary in the diocese of Eshowe.

Presiding celebrant Bishop xolelo Thaddeus Kumalo of Eshowe had warm words of praise for her life and service to the Church and people. Fr zulu, of St John Vianney Seminary, used his homily to recall the virtues of Sr Agathana, who had supported him in his vocation. he noted that “agathana” in Greek means “goodness”, which Sr Agathana had in abundance. he recalled her saying to him one day: “To be happy in your vocation you must learn to be faithful.”

(Photo: Sydney Duval)

Liturgical Calendar

The Southern Cross, October 17 to October 23, 2018

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the

30th Sunday: October 28 Readings: Jeremiah 31:7-9, Psalm 126, Hebrews 5:1-6, Mark 10:46-52

O

UR human existence, including, of course, our life with God, is a mixture of joy and tears. There is something of that in all the readings for next Sunday.

The first reading is from the only seriously joyful part of Jeremiah, who is among the gloomiest of the prophets.

So we are given encouragement to “sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the head of the nations”.

The exile, it seems, is at an end: “I am bringing them back from the North Country, and gathering them from the furthest parts of the earth.” So there is great joy; but there are tears as well: “With weeping they shall come.”

But because God is God, the tears are not the end of the matter: “With consolations I shall lead them back, I shall make them walk by streams of water…for I have become a father to Israel.”

On the whole, joy wins out over tears.

The psalm for next Sunday likewise reflects on the tearful/joyful experience of the end of the exile: “When the Lord brought back the captives of Sion, we were like people who dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has

S outher n C ross

Tears won’t win the day done great things for them.’”

The tears are not forgotten, of course (how could they be?), but they feel different now, beautifully expressed in an image from harvest-time: “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy; those who go out weeping…shall come home with shouts of joy.”

The real point here is that God is in charge, and so in the end the tears will not predominate: “You see, every High Priest taken from among human beings is appointed over things that relate to God, to bring offerings and sacrifices for sin.”

And he is not seeking to punish: “For he can deal gently with those who are ignorant and wandering, because he too is beset with weakness.”

This is a God who is looking to bring us joy; and our author confirms this by applying two Old Testament quotations to Christ. So he quotes Psalm 2: “You are my Son, I have begotten you today”, and then Psalm 110: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Both of these were favourite psalms of resource for the early Christians, who found

God stirring there, bringing joy out of tears.

And joy turning to tears is what happens in next Sunday’s Gospel.

Jesus is in Jericho, and we know that is close to Jerusalem. So we are already aware that there are tears ahead; we have been told, no less than three times, that Jesus is going to die there, at the hands of the religious and political authorities.

Now something happens as he leaves Jericho, with his disciples and “a fair old crowd”.

The source of this something is a blind beggar, Bartimaeus (and, typically, Mark even gives the translation of his Aramaic name), who is, we are told, “sitting by the road”. (Remember that last word; we shall hear it again.)

When he is told that it was “Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, ‘Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me.’”

People try to shut him up, and we have to admire him when he persists, even louder: “Son of David, have mercy on me.”

You can feel the tears, but Jesus is on the case, and gives instructions: “Call him.”

Then we have the alarming sight of the elemental force, who “took off his cloak and

The soul vs the body M

Classic Conrad

ORE than 50 years ago, the psychologist James Hillman wrote a book entitled Suicide and the Soul.

The book was intended for therapists and he knew it wouldn’t receive an easy reception there or elsewhere.

There were reasons. He frankly admitted that some of the things he proposed in the book would “go against all common sense, all medical practice, and rationality itself”.

But, as the title makes clear, he was speaking about suicide, and in trying to understand suicide, isn’t that exactly the case? Doesn’t it go against all common sense, all medical practice, and rationality itself? And that’s his point.

In some cases, suicide can be the result of a biochemical imbalance or some genetic predisposition that militates against life. That’s unfortunate and tragic, but it’s understandable enough. That kind of sickness goes against common sense, medical practice, and rationality.

Suicide can also result from a catastrophic emotional breakdown or a trauma so powerful that it cannot be integrated and simply breaks apart a person’s psyche so that death, as sleep, as an escape, becomes an overwhelming temptation. Here too, even though common sense, medical practice and rationality are befuddled, we have some grasp of why this suicide happened.

But there are suicides that are not the result of a biochemical imbalance, a ge-

netic predisposition, a catastrophic emotional distress, or an overpowering trauma.

How are these to be explained?

Hillman, whose writing through many decades have been a public plea for the human soul, makes this assertion: The soul can make claims that go against the body and against our physical wellbeing, and suicide is often that: the soul making its own claims.”

W

hat a stunning insight! Our souls and our bodies do not always want the same things and are sometimes so much at odds that death can be the result.

In the tension between soul and body, the body’s needs and impulses are more easily seen, understood and attended to.

The body normally gets what it wants, or at least clearly knows what it wants and why it is frustrated. The soul? Well, its needs are so complex that they are hard to see and understand, let alone attend to.

As Blaise Pascal so famously put it: “The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.” That is virtually synonymous with what Hillman is saying. Our rational understanding often stands bewildered before some inchoate need inside us.

That inchoate need is our soul speaking.

Mostly we feel our soul’s voice as a dis-ease, a restlessness, a distress we cannot exactly sort out, and as an internal pressure that sometimes asks of us something directly in

Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

leapt up and came to Jesus”; he is not only blind but naked, and we imagine the crowds scattering before his advance.

But Jesus, not at all thrown by this, only asks: “What do you want me to do for you?”

He responds simply, quite accurately: “Rabbouni, that I may see again.”

Effortlessly, Jesus wipes away the tears, and says: “Off you go—your faith has saved you.”

Then, remarkably: “Immediately he saw again—and he began to follow him on the road.” So the one who had been sitting tearfully by the road is now joyfully on the road, and has become a disciple of Jesus.

So are all tears now permanently wiped away? Alas, no; because the very next destination on this road, and it comes in the very next verse, is Jerusalem.

And we know what is going to happen there; for the joy will be swamped in tears, and Jesus (we have already been told) is going to die there.

But will the tears win the day? They will not, because God is in charge.

Southern Crossword #833

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

conflict with what the rest of us wants. We are, in huge part, a mystery to ourselves.

Sometimes the claims of the soul that go against our physical wellbeing are not so dramatic as to demand suicide, but in them, we can still clearly see what Hillman is asserting.

We see this, for example, in the phenomenon where a person in severe emotional distress begins to cut herself (or, for that matter, himself) on her arms or on other parts of her body. The cuts are not intended to end life; they are intended only to cause pain and blood.

Why? The person cutting herself mostly cannot explain rationally why she is doing this (or, at least, she cannot explain how this pain and this bloodletting will in any way lessen or fix her emotional distress).

All she knows is that she is hurting at a place she cannot get at and by hurting herself at a place she can get at, she can deal with a pain that she cannot get to.

Hillman’s principle is on display here: The soul can, and does, make claims that can go against our physical wellbeing. It has its reasons.

For Hillman, this is the “root metaphor” for how a therapist should approach suicide.

It can also be a valuable metaphor for all of us who have to struggle with the death of a loved one by suicide.

Moreover, this is also a metaphor that can be helpful in understanding each other and understanding ourselves.

In my pastoral work or simply being with a friend who is hurting, I sometimes find myself standing helplessly before someone hellbent on some behaviour that goes against his or her own wellbeing and which makes no rational sense whatsoever.

Rational argument and common sense are useless. He’s simply going to do this to his own destruction. Why? The soul has its reasons.

All of us, perhaps in less dramatic ways, experience this in our own lives. Sometimes we do things that hurt our physical health and wellbeing, and go against all common sense and rationality. Our souls have their reasons.

And suicide too has its reasons.

ACROSS

3. Public excitement that you can feel (9) 8. Seek out, and then manages to make a living (4) 9. The way that leads to hell (Mt 7) (5,4) 10. Names given to the clergy (6) 11. The person in 12 down may do it? (5) 14 and 6. Takes place in biblical terms (5,2,4) 15. Muslim ascetic found in half of Suez and half of Fiji (4) 16. Digital screw of medieval torture (5) 18. Moses hid the slain Egyptian in it (Ex 2) (4) 20. Rob others with automaton in sight (5) 21. Dance the Samaritan got into (5) 24. Regarding God, the wicked man has it (Ps 36) (2,4) 25. Devil data made legal in canon law (9) 26. Home of St Rose (4) 27. I match sin of factory operator (9)

DOWN

1. Day of the descent of the Holy Spirit (9) 2. The will of the Bible (9) 4. Heads of the corn plants (4) 5. Stop running for the bench in the choir (5) 6. See 14 7. It is sworn ceremonially (4) 9. It had seven heads and more (Rv 13) (5) 11. Saint who founded the Carthusian order (5) 12. Food for a disgraced person? (6,3) 13. One who studies the Church’s past (9) 17. You ... of vipers! (Mt 23) (5) 19. Pastry from Copenhagen (6) 22. Small particle of 18 ac (5) 23. Tibetan monk (4) 24. The brothers left them to follow Jesus (4)

Solutions on page 15

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

LAWYER was on his deathbed when a friend came to visit him.

The friend saw that the lawyer was desperately leafing through a Bible, and asked him: “What are you doing?”

The lawyer replied: “Looking for loopholes.”

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