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This was Pope Francis’ year 2018

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‘Coadjutor’: What it means for Durban STAFF REPORTER

The Creative Expressions group performs a liturgical dance during an ecumenical Advent service at Mariannhill Monastery. The service was led by Mariannhill Missionaries Father Lawrence Mota. (Photo: Patricia Ferrandi)

Pope’s ‘G9’ now down to six

P

OPE Francis’ “G9” Council of Cardinals—his group of papal advisers on curial reform—is now down to six members following the departure of three members, including controversial Australian Cardinal George Pell.

Their departure precedes the conviction for sexual abuse of Cardinal Pell in an Australian court this month.

According to Greg Burke, director of the Vatican press office, Pope Francis wrote to three cardinal-members at the end of October, thanking them for their service.

The three are Cardinals Pell; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, DRC, who has retired; and Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, 85, retired archbishop of Santiago, Chile, who is facing questioning by a local prosecutor over his handling of abuse allegations.

No new members of the Council of Cardinals were set to be appointed at this time, Mr Burke told reporters.

He said that this month’s meetings, from December 10-12, had been attended by five of the now six remaining members: Cardinals Sean O'Malley of Boston, 74; Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, 75, of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Oswald Gracias, 73, of Mumbai, India; Reinhard Marx, 65, of Munich and Freising, Germany; and Giuseppe Bertello, 76, president of the

commission governing Vatican City State.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 63, Vatican secretary of state, was unable to attend because he was leading a Vatican delegation at a United Nations meeting in Morocco.

The council will meet again from February 18-20, ahead of the February 21-24 summit for bishops' conferences on the prevention of the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

Cardinal Pell was found guilty in a jury trial in Melbourne on five charges related to serious sexual misconduct involving two boys in the 1990s. A first trial in August had resulted in a hung jury.

The trial, the specific charges, the testimony and almost all other details involving the accusations against the 77-year-old cardinal are covered by a court-issued "super injunction", which forbids all media in Australia from reporting on it.

Cardinal Pell is expected to appeal the conviction, but not before he is sentenced in February.

He faces a second trial, focusing on the alleged events in Ballarat in the 1970s. Reportedly it will begin in March.

The cardinal was appointed head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy in 2014 but took a leave of absence from his position in mid-2017 to face the charges.—CNS

B

ISHOP Abel Gabuza, 63, will be installed as coadjutor archbishop of Durban on February 10, at which point his current diocese of Kimberley will fall vacant.

When he eventually succeeds Cardinal Wilfrid Napier as archbishop—which his appointment as coadjutor guarantees—he will become only the sixth ordinary in Durban since 1851.

As coadjutor archbishop of Durban, Bishop Gabuza will take on the role as vicargeneral, as prescribed by canon law. More importantly, as coadjutor he has the right to automatic succession when the incumbent archbishop, Cardinal Napier, leaves office due to retirement or death.

Since Cardinal Napier, who will turn 78 in March, is past the retirement age for bishops, the time as coadjutor will give Bishop Gabuza an opportunity to become familiar with the archdiocese before he takes over as its archbishop.

The timing of his succession will be determined by the pope, who decides when he will accept the canonically-required resignation which Cardinal Napier had to submit on turning 75 in 2016.

Bishop Gabuza will not inherit the title of cardinal, which is awarded to individuals.

Bishop Gabuza will succeed unusually long-serving heads of Durban archdiocese: Cardinal Napier has been archbishop of Durban since 1992. His predecessor, Archbishop Denis Hurley, headed the archdiocese for 45 years. Before him Bishop Henri Delalle served for 42 years (from 1903-46), and Bishops Charles Jolivet and Marie-Jean-François Allard for 29 and 23 years respectively.

Bishop Gabuza was appointed bishop of Kimberley by Pope Benedict XVI on December 23, 2010. He was ordained a bishop on March 19, 2011.

Ordained a priest in the archdiocese of Pretoria on December 15, 1984, Bishop

S outher n C ross Pilgrimage

Bishop Abel Gabuza, future archbishop of Durban. He will be installed as coadjutor archbishop in February. (Photo: Mathibela Sebothoma) Gabuza was the first of three successive vicars-general of Pretoria to be made bishops.

His successors, Bishops Dabula Mpako and Victor Phalana were appointed to Queenstown and Kimberley respectively in 2011 and 2014.

After the sudden resignation of Archbishop Paul Mandla Khumalo in November 2009 and the appointment of Archbishop William Slattery in December 2010, Bishop Gabuza led the Pretoria archdiocese as apostolic administrator.

Before becoming Pretoria’s vicar-general in 1999, he also lectured at three seminaries, and served South Africa’s orientation seminaries in Pretoria and Cape Town as rector from 1991-94.

In a letter to the faithful of Kimberley, Bishop Gabuza said: “This message came as a shock to me. This was totally unexpected.

I was stunned. I had mixed emotions. I froze Continued on page 2

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The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2019

LOCAL

Jesuit docu on migrants in Musina launched

BY RICARDO DA SILVA SJ

The documentary also has a considerable amount of information from subject experts who detail the international state of affairs relating to forced migration.

Jesuit Institute director Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, in his pre-screening reflection, pointed to the contradiction of this year’s 70th anniversary of the UN’s Declaration of Universal Human Rights, intended to celebrate the inherent dignity of all persons and their most basic rights to security, and a world still so averse to the other.

Denied Access, he said, is intended as a sobering reminder of the desperate plight of so many in our world and also as a witness to the “fortitude” of those who have been forced to leave their homes and begin their lives afresh in a new and often hostile environment.

The screening was followed by a discussion on forced migration and statelessness, led by some of those interviewed in the film.

One of the most startling statements, regarding birth certificates, was that by Lusungu Kanyama Phiri, a lawyer and legal counsellor at Lawyers for Human Rights.

T

HE premiere of a new documentary film by the Jesuit Institute South Africa, held at its Johannesburg premises, drew an audience of about 100 people.

Denied Access: Stories of Forced Migrants in South Africa, co-sponsored by the Society of Jesus, was filmed mostly on location in Musina, a South Africa-Zimbabwe border-town.

Thousands of people find themselves there, having been forcibly displaced from their home countries for myriad reasons, including escaping from political or religious persecution or fleeing wars.

The film was directed by Sr Katleho Khang SNJM who—with fellow Jesuit Institute media team members Francis Tuson and FikileNtsikelelo Moya and the Jesuits’ social ministries coordinator Fr Rampe Hlobo SJ—travelled to Musina to document the stories of forced migrants living there.

Much of the documentary allows people to tell their stories in their own words. Their identities are largely concealed, given their vulnerable status.

Sr Katleho Khang SNJM, director of Denied Access, at the documentary film’s premiere at the Jesuit Institute in Johannesburg.

She noted that recently the Department of Home Affairs proposed a change in legislation, which would deny birth certificates being issued to children born of foreign parents in South Africa.

This would mean that these chil-

The Mater Domini Home in Cape Town for women with crisis pregnancies held a Nativity play with a young mother and her newborn infant in the roles of Mary and the Christ-child.

Next archbishop of Durban: I’m digging deep for strength

Newborn is Christ-child in Nativity play

T

HIS year’s Nativity play at a home for women with crisis pregnancies featured a sixday-old infant.

During the play at Mater Domini Home in Cape Town, it was a special moment when the newborn baby was placed in the crib by her mother, who played the part of Mary.

Carols were led by Dale de

Windt, the teenage organist of St Mary’s cathedral, and were sung during the play, with solos by opera singer Janel Speelman.

As the event came to a close, a candle was lit for each baby born at Mater Domini during the year.

The home offers short-term safe shelter and support for mothers in crises pregnancies and women in

dren would be at risk of becoming stateless, especially if their parents are undocumented.

Ms Phiri confirmed that in practice these parents are being denied the registration of their children’s birth in South Africa.

She said a recent judgment by the Eastern Cape High Court declared this an unconstitutional practice and an incorrect interpretation of the law which requires a parent to be documented before a child can be registered. The South African Constitution states that every person has a right to a name and nationality and that this must be upheld.

Following the discussion, Jesuit Institute deputy-director Ursula van Nierop made a special presentation, thanking Holy Cross Sister Francis Grogan, who features in the film.

Irish-born Sr Grogan has ministered in South Africa for 37 years.

For the past three years she has been running a women’s shelter in Musina which often is the first port of call of migrant women seeking protection. Currently it shelters 74 women and 24 children.

Audience members made donations of food and clothing to support the work being done there by this Catholic Sister and other interdenominational organisations.— Spotlight.Africa n Denied Access can be viewed on YouTube at www.bit.ly/2EqXfED

situations of abuse.

“This year has been difficult, with rising costs,” said Mater Domini’s Bernadette Ross.

To support its work and ensure its future, the home is relaunching the “100 Club”, with supporters contributing R100 a month. n Contact communications@mater domini.net or 061 052-3650.

Continued from page 1 for a moment and was overcome with fear. ‘Surely I am having a bad dream,’ I told myself. Why me?”

Bishop Gabuza said he was sad to be leaving his diocese. “I had just landed in Kimberley and now I am expected to uproot myself and start all over again.”

He told his faithful that he is apprehensive about the move from a largely rural Kimberley diocese to the more urban archdiocese of Durban.

The bishop said he was wondering whether he will “have the stamina to venture into a new environment with all its complexities” and whether he will meet “the high expectations that accompany the position”.

Bishop Gabuza noted that Dur-

ban is a complex area.

“Basically, there are two categories of Catholics: those who prefer things as they are and those who are crying for change, a new vision and a new dream of being a Church in these challenging times,” the next archbishop of Durban said.

Much as the new appointment is daunting, through prayer and interior strength he has begun to “dig deeper” and “eliminate what can hold me back”.

The archdiocese of Durban is numerically South Africa’s fifth-largest diocese (after Johannesburg, Mariannhill, Cape Town, and Pretoria), serving around 161 000 Catholics, compared to Kimberley’s 150 000, according to the last available Catholic Directory (2016-17).

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The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2019

LOCAL

3

Call for Africa to aid Holy Land Christians STAFF REPORTER

A

PRETORIA Franciscan has called on his confrères throughout Africa to set up local commissaries of the Holy Land.

At present, the South African commissary is the only one on the continent. Its head, Fr Hyacinth Ennis OFM, urged that every country with a Franciscan presence appoint a commissioner.

Fr Ennis made the call at the International Congress of the Commissaries of the Holy Land, which brought together 63 commissioners from 51 countries at St Saviour’s monastery in Jerusalem’s Old City.

He noted there are Franciscans in many African countries—including both Congos, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya and throughout West Africa—and said there is no reason they should not have commissaries to promote pilgrimages to the Holy Land and solidarity with Christians there, and to other regions covered by the Franciscan Custody.

“The conference was very con-

cerned about the situation in Syria and Iraq”, where the Franciscans care for holy shrines and local Christians, Fr Ennis told The Southern Cross.

The conference’s emphasis was on how the Franciscans, who take care of most Christian shrines in the Holy Land, can further the ethos of pilgrimages. This was encapsulated in the conference’s theme, “The Pastoral Care of the Pilgrimage: welcome, memory, evangelisation”.

Experts from the order and outside emphasised the importance of promoting pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The conference stressed that pilgrims need contact with friars, the reading of appropriate Scriptures at various sites, and the right liturgy being available to them.

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the Vatican’s prefect for the Congregation for Eastern Churches, added that pilgrimages to other Christian shrines should be encouraged too, referring to the newly renovated Holy Stairs in Rome as an example.

With the accent on pilgrimage as evangelisation, Fr Russel Murray,

Franciscans in procession in the church of St Catherine in Bethlehem, Palestine, at the closing Mass of the International Congress of the Commissaries of the Holy Land. Fr Hyacinth Ennis OFM, commissioner for the Holy Land in South Africa, is second from right. (Photo: Nadim Asfour/ Custody of the Holy Land) general animator for evangelisation, said: “Pilgrimage includes all three words—memory, welcome, and evangelisation—because those who visit the Holy Land remember a past

story which returns to be present; they are welcomed and they welcome; and because a pilgrimage cannot be made in solitude but as the body of Christ, these things experi-

enced in depth are evangelisation.”

Fr Michael Perry, the order’s minister-general, told the Franciscans: “The mission of God continues to welcome people, accompanying them all as brothers in the Holy Land. And to bring this message to all corners of the world, that what God has made available for the future of humanity gives great hope, much more than we see today.”

The delegates were taken on a trip to Samaria, almost completely in Palestinian territory, where the programme included a visit to Jacob’s Well, which is in the custody of the Greek Orthodox church.

Fr Ennis said that during the conference he spoke to Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the acting patriarch of Jerusalem and former custos (head of the Custody) to the Holy Land. The archbishop took an interest in the wellbeing of South Africa, Fr Ennis said.

The conference ended with Mass in St Catherine’s church in Bethlehem, which is attached to the church of the Nativity.

Youth Christian group’s revival ‘important’

A

The children of St John’s parish in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, put on a Nativity play. Here Mary, played by Engela gazes at the newborn Christ-child, “played” by baby Callum (with an unbiblical dummy in his mouth!). The angels are (from left) April, Elisabeth (obscured), Zoë, Catherine and Rae.

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GROUP of 13 Young Christian Students (YCS) members, representing four schools, planned, organised and facilitated a one-day workshop at Christ the King parish in Orlando East, Soweto, to discuss and draw up plans for 2019—including difficult and sensitive social issues.

In line with the YCS constitution and its vision of a “safe, secure and healthy community for young and all people”, they envisaged how to bring about constructive change.

Issues discussed included violence against women and girls, inculturation, and young peoples’ mental health in their schools and communities.

“Young Christian Students is known for using the See-Judge-Act method in tackling problems,” YCS organiser Fr Mokesh Morar said.

“That helps them build their own leadership for the benefit of their communities and society at large, in line with the Gospel and

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4

The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2018

YEAR-END REVIEW

Looking back at the pope’s year For Pope Francis, it was a year of coming to terms with the abuse crisis in the Church, leading a synod on youth, releasing a new document, canonising two big names and striking a deal with China. CINDY WOODEN looks back on the pope’s 2018.

P

OPE Francis marked the fifth anniversary of his election in March in the midst of a firestorm over his handling of clerical sexual abuse and bishops’ accountability in Chile.

He soon apologised for his slow response and invited Chilean abuse survivors to the Vatican and then all the country’s bishops to meet with him in May. By mid-October, the pope had dismissed two Chilean bishops from the priesthood and accepted the resignations of seven others.

The firestorm began when Pope Francis visited Chile and Peru in January, but the trip also included a meeting with the region’s indigenous peoples, marking an important stage in the preparation for the 2019 special Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, which will focus on safeguarding creation and on the pastoral care of the people who live in the region.

Also during 2018, Pope Francis travelled to the Geneva headquarters of the World Council of Churches to celebrate the ecumenical body’s 70th anniversary; he went to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families; and he visited the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

He spent most of October presiding over the Synod of Bishops on young people, and during the synod, he celebrated the canonisations of Ss Paul VI, Oscar Romero and five others.

But the sex abuse crisis dominated news coverage of the pope’s year, particularly after accusations were deemed credible that former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, had abused a minor and for years had sexually harassed seminarians.

Pope Francis accepted Cardinal McCarrick’s resignation from the

College of Cardinals, forbade him from publicly exercising priestly ministry, and ordered him to “a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined” in a canonical process.

Less than a month later, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former nuncio to the United States, inflamed the situation by claiming that Pope Francis had known of Archbishop McCarrick’s history of sexual misconduct and of supposed sanctions imposed on him, but ignored or lifted them. Archbishop Viganò later admitted sanctions were never formally imposed, but he continued to insist the pope ignored warnings about Archbishop McCarrick.

In mid-September, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis was calling the presidents of all the world’s bishops’ conference to a four-day meeting at the Vatican in February to address the abuse crisis and better ways to protect children.

At the synod on young people, faith and vocational discernment, some bishops—especially from Australia and the US—insisted the abuse crisis be a topic of discussion.

Australian Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney used his speech at the synod to formally apologise to young people for all the ways the Catholic Church and its members have harmed them or let them down.

In the presence of Pope Francis, he apologised “for the shameful deeds of some priests, religious and laypeople, perpetrated upon you or other young people just like you, and the terrible damage that has done”.

Archbishop Fisher apologised “for the failure of too many bishops and others to respond appropriately when abuse was identified, and to do all in their power to keep you safe; and for the damage thus done to the Church’s credibility and to your trust”.

W

hile each of the 14 working groups at the synod reported having discussed the abuse scandal, in the end the final document removed a reference to “zero tolerance” of abuse that had been in the draft document.

The synod was enlivened by the presence of three dozen young people in their 20s and 30s who addressed the assembly, participated in the small groups, spoke at press

briefings and—uncommonly at a synod—cheered for some of the speeches of bishops and other observers.

In the end, the synod affirmed that the Catholic Church and all its members must get better at listening to young people, taking their questions seriously, recognising them as full members of the Church, patiently walking with them and offering guidance as they discern the best way to live their faith.

P

ope Francis’ trip to the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in September coincided with the announcement that after decades of talks with China’s communist government officials, the Vatican had reached a provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops.

Giving the government input on bishop candidates in exchange for official recognition of their office was a move widely debated. Some people, including the pope, saw it as an essential step towards ensuring the unity of Catholics in China with the universal Church, while others viewed it as an unacceptable concession to the Chinese government and a betrayal of Chinese Catholics who have risked their lives for decades by refusing to allow the government to control the Church.

One positive result, however, was that for the first time, two bishops from mainland China were allowed to attend a Synod of Bishops, although they had to leave early.

Canonising Ss Paul VI and Oscar Romero during the synod, Pope Francis focused on Jesus’ call to leave everything behind and follow him.

“Do not walk behind Jesus only when you want to, but seek him out every day,” the pope said. “Do not be content to keep the commandments, to give a little alms and say a few prayers: find in him the God who always loves you; seek in Jesus the God who is the meaning of your life, the God who gives you the strength to give of yourself.”

The sainthood ceremony came seven months after Pope Francis published his third apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad”) on how every person is called to holiness.

“We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves,” he said.

He cited the example of “saints next door”, as seen, for example, in “parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile”.— CNS

Pope Francis gives a thumbs up as he greets the crowd after celebrating the canonisation Mass for seven new saints in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on October 14. Among those canonised were Ss Paul VI and Oscar Romero.

Pope Francis arrives to celebrate Mass at Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland, on August 26.

A child hugs Pope Francis outside the shrine of St Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile on January 16.

Pope Francis gestures as he greets Tendai Karombo from Zimbabwe during a pre-synod gathering of youth delegates at the Pontifical International Maria Mater Ecclesiae College in Rome on March 19. (All photos: Paul Haring/CNS)

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The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2019

5

Pope revamps Vatican City State structures

BY CAROL GLATZ & JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

P A nun lights a candle next to a photograph of Bishop Pierre Claverie at his grave in St Mary’s cathedra in Oran, Algeria, where a vigil was held before the beatification of Bishop Claverie and a group of 18 others who were martyred in the course of the Algerian civil war. (Photo: EPA/CNS)

‘Witnesses to peace’ T HE lives of 19 religious men and women martyred during the Algerian civil war are a testament to God’s plan of love and peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims, Pope Francis said.

In a message read at the beatification Mass for the six women religious and 13 clerics, Pope Francis said it was a time for Catholics in Algeria and around the world to celebrate the martyrs’ commitment to peace, but it was also a time to remember the sacrifices made by all Algerians during the bloody war.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, celebrated the Mass in Oran, Algeria, for the martyrs who

were killed from 1994-96.

Both Christians and Muslims in Algeria “have been victims of the same violence for having lived, with faithfulness and respect for each other, their duties as believers and citizens in this blessed land. It is for them, too, that we pray and express our grateful tribute", the pope said.

Among those who were beatified were Bl Christian de Cherge and six of his fellow Trappists—Frs Christophe Lebreton, Bruno Lemarchand and Celestin Ringeard as well as Brs Luc Dochier, Michel Fleury and Paul Favre-Miville—who were murdered in 1996 by members of the Armed Islamic Group in Tibhirine, Algeria.—CNS

Merkel’s sucessor is a practising Catholic

T

HE woman who might succeed Angela Merkel as Germany’s chancellor is a practising Catholic.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected the new leader of Germany’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at a special party conference this month.

Widely known by her initials AKK, she was the preferred choice of outgoing CDU leader Ms Merkel.

A married mother of three, Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer as head of the CDU, is now widely regarded as a possible chancellor-in-waiting behind Ms Merkel, who has said she will step down at the end of her current term in 2021.

Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer is known for her traditional social views, and for her outspoken opposition to same-sex marriage and gay adoption.

She warned that same-sex marriage could create a legal precedent for recognising incestuous and polygamous unions.

While often characterised as a “devout” Catholic, Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer has been a vocal supporter

of female ordination in the Church.

Earlier this year, she told the w e e k l y newspaper Die Zeit: “It is very clear: w o m e n have to take Annegret Kramppositions of Karrenbauer leadership in the Church,” eventually including women-priests but beginning with the “more realistic goal” of a female diaconate.

In November, Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer told German television station NTV, that, with regards to Ms Merkel’s open-door policy to migrants, that she did not want to see an “eternal debate about what was done right or wrong in the autumn of 2015”. Instead, she said, she wanted to see an “honest” discussion about the current effects of years of migration “uncontrolled and without integration”.—CNA

Pope to visit UAE

W

HEN Pope Francis travels to the United Arab Emirates from February 3-5, he will meet with the international Muslim Council of Elders, participate in an interreligious meeting and celebrate Mass for the local Catholic population, the vast majority of whom are foreign workers.

The Vatican had announced that Pope Francis would be the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula, accepting invitations from both the UAE’s crown prince and from the local Catholic community.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, welcomed the announcement of the pope’s visit.

The visit, he said, “will strengthen

OPE Francis has approved a new set of laws concerning the structure and governance of Vatican City State in an effort to simplify the many offices and activities of the world’s smallest nation and to boost oversight, transparency and budgetary controls.

The measures were issued motu proprio (on the pope’s own accord).

The pope, who is also the head of Vatican City State, said the reorganisation was necessary to make it “suitable to current needs” while ensuring its mission to serve the pope and the specific aims of the departments and activities within Vatican City State.

The pope approved the legislation that had been drafted by a working commission headed by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the governing office of Vatican City State.

The new laws will go into effect on June 7 and fully replace the law approved by Pope John Paul II’s motu proprio in 2002.

While most of the new law reorganises existing offices and departments, it “suppresses”—that is, eliminates from its jurisdiction— the Pilgrim and Tourist Office, and it allows the Vatican pharmacy to maintain its “technical and administrative autonomy”.

The new law aims for greater

The

The Palace of the Governorate, seat of the administrative offices of Vatican City State. Pope Francis has approved a new set of laws concerning the governance of Vatican City State. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) transparency with the creation of an oversight and inspection body.

“This new position will have the specific tasks of verifying that the norms, procedures and evaluation of cost-effectiveness and efficacies are being observed” within the different departments and offices, said a note accompanying the new law.

It also creates a general secretariat office, which will be under the responsibility of the secretarygeneral of the office governing Vatican City State. The office will run the new oversight and inspection body, manage the “coordination of events” and take care of the central archives.

According to the legislation, the

organisational structure of the governorate will remain substantially unchanged, yet will have greater responsibility in supervising the offices in Vatican City State.

The changes that have been made to the operational structure were hoped to allow the governorate of Vatican City State “to operate effectively with regard to problems, emergencies and ordinary management”.

The legislation is also geared towards “a moderate decentralisation” as well as a strengthening of internal audits and strategic planning in preparing budgets that ensure “greater and more efficient functionality”.—CNS

S outher n C ross Pilgrimage 2019

HOLY LAND & ROME 5 – 17 May 2019

Led by

FR RUSSELL POLLITT SJ with Günther Simmermacher (Author of The Holy Land Trek)

St Joseph’s cathedral in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. our ties and understanding of each other, enhance interfaith dialogue and help us to work together to maintain and build peace among the nations of the world”.

Pope Francis will visit St Joseph’s cathedral in Abu Dhabi and celebrate Mass at Zayed Sports City.—CNS

To book or for info contact Gail at info@fowlertours.co.za or 076 352-3809

www.fowlertours.co.za/pollitt

6

The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

A new leader for a diocese of few bishops

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OPE Francis has made a wise and bold decision by appointing Bishop Abel Gabuza as coadjutor archbishop of Durban, and therefore as Cardinal Wilfrid Napier’s successor.

Having been born in Alexandra, Johannesburg, and having spent his clerical life as a priest of the archdiocese of Pretoria before becoming bishop of Kimberley in the Northern Cape, Bishop Gabuza has no roots in Durban.

He will come to Durban as an outsider. This does not preclude a warm welcome, of course. Bishop Gabuza was kindly received in Kimberley, a diocese which will doubtless miss him.

Complicating things further, Bishop Gabuza will come to an archdiocese which in the past 115 years has had only three ordinaries: Bishop Henri Delalle, Archbishop Denis Hurley, and Cardinal Napier. This is an archdiocese that is not used to change. Time will reveal how much appetite for change there is in Durban.

Much as coming in as an outsider can be a disadvantage, it can also be a benefit as the new incumbent may identify and amend local practices that do not work—at the same time being careful to avoid alienating the clergy and laity of the archdiocese.

Moreover, as an outsider, the new coadjutor archbishop will be unaffected by the social web of politics, loyalties and histories that exist in most dioceses.

As archbishop of Durban, Bishop Gabuza will tread a fine line. He will have to assert himself but also be accommodating of some entrenched practices and traditions. The pope has identified a bishop who has the attributes of navigating these fine lines.

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isely, Pope Francis has also given the eventual successor of Cardinal Napier time to settle in and become acquainted with his new archdiocese, by the act of naming him coadjutor archbishop first.

Coadjutor bishops are usually appointed for three reasons: to take charge of a diocese in which the incumbent is somehow unable to run it properly himself; or to guarantee an auxiliary bishop’s succession; or to give a bishop appointed to a different diocese time to settle in and “learn the ropes”.

In the case of Bishop Gabuza, the latter presumably applies. Cardinal

Napier will over the next months mentor his successor in the ways of Durban’s archdiocese: its mentality and culture as well as its challenges, but also where the sources of joy reside.

Certainly, Bishop Gabuza will inherit an archdiocese that has a strong Catholic spirit; a spirit which also has a presence in civil society and other faith bodies. He will be able to build on the legacies left by Archbishop Hurley and Cardinal Napier, and in so doing bring his own style of leadership to bloom.

With these two illustrious predecessors, Bishop Gabuza shares a passion for issues of social justice. As chair of the Justice & Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Gabuza has frequently spoken out powerfully for those on the peripheries. In Durban he will find many keen partners in serving the poor and advocating for them.

For example, the archdiocesan Justice & Peace Commission has been doing superb work, especially in giving women a voice in challenging the harmful effects of patriarchy. The Denis Hurley Centre is giving prophetic and concrete witness to the Church’s preferential option for the poor. The Mater Homes have offered women a genuine alternative to abortion. And so on.

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hen exactly the coadjutor archbishop will succeed the incumbent is up to the pope. But after Cardinal Napier’s marathon service of 36 years as bishop—27 of them as Durban’s ordinary, and almost 18 of these as cardinal—nobody will begrudge His Eminence the leisure time which he so often had to sacrifice in the service of the Church to follow his private pursuits, especially, of course, his beloved gardening.

In any case, Durban will not lose him entirely even when retirement comes. Presumably he will be available to assist his successor where needed. Certainly his personable style and sense of humour will be welcomed by the parishioners of the archdiocese.

For the clergy, new blood may create a new energy. It must be hoped that at the installation Mass on February 10 the priests of the archdiocese will applaud warmly and with enthusiasm when the mitre is placed on the head of Coadjutor Archbishop Abel Gabuza.

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Pray for peace as Christ’s birth signals new age

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HRISTMAS is when the birth of Christ is heralded by angels singing of a new age of peace.

We remember that St Francis of Assisi, who erected the first “crib”, was a man of poverty and peace, whose life and the prayer attributed to him help us to overcome the “self-centredness” borne in all our DNAs as survival.

The St Francis Prayer helps us to try to live up to God’s precepts: “love one another” (Jn 13:34); “love your neighbour” (Mk 10:21); and even “love your enemy” (Lk 6-27).

Just before Advent, our parish completed a season of RENEW. It soon became apparent that we needed the St Francis Prayer to help benefit from the lessons.

Two Fr Ron Rolheiser Southern Cross articles, “Struggle to love our neighbour” and “We must give up our anger” aided us too.

Also, Fr J Rebelo’s “Our peacemakers’ vocation” (Worldwide Dec/Jan 2017) helped. He said we should act daily to defuse potential conflict and promote kinship, and that peace is not cheap, but a divine gift that requires our commitment.

“To bring people to address disagreement, redress relationships that went wrong, demands humility, ingenuity, persistence,

Trinity is one distinct God

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N his letter “Trinity is three distinct persons” (November 7), Peter Hoar posits three distinct persons forming the Trinity as opposed to three persons in one God. The life and teachings of Jesus, however, do not manifest non-trinitarian philosophy.

Jesus’ teachings are clear.

God is one (Mk 12:29). Jesus and God are one, thus consubstantial (Jn 10:30). The Holy Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth (Jn 16:13, Jn 14:26). The role of the Holy Spirit of God is to prove the world to be in the wrong concerning sin, righteousness and judgment, because the prince of this world, Satan, stands condemned (Jn 16:8-11).

The Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, and is sent by Jesus (Jn 15:26). Jesus foreshadowed Pentecost and the confirmation sacrament by breathing the Holy Spirit on his disciples (Jn 20:22).

Jesus gave the great commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). 1 John 5:7 teaches: “For these are those that bear witness in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.”

In the beginning, the triune God was Godhood alone (Gen 1:1-2, Gen 1:26, Jn 1:1-4). Triune God reality made a shift at the Incarnation, entering human existence as Jesus. A new triune dimension emerged: humanity in hypostatic union with divinity. The Son found new expression in communication with the Father due to the incarnational shift.

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uring his crucifixion, Jesus thus called out in incarnate form to the Father. The Saviour expressed his fulfillment of ancient prophecy in Psalm 22 with words from the first verse: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus finally committed his incarnation back into the Father’s hands, his last sayings making perfect sense due to his incarnational hypostasis of human and divine.

and prayer,” he said, recommending the St Francis Prayer.

During RENEW, I read the November 2003 copy of the Knights of da Gama’s LINK. The Knights pray the version of the prayer distributed by our bishops, who appealed for a year of prayer for Southern Africa from January 1, 1985 (World Day of Peace).

At this time South Africa was still deeply divided and also involved in external conflicts.

Our elections in 1994 were peaceful. We prayed for ourselves, and many people in other countries prayed for us too, and for fellow African nations such as Rwanda.

A 1996 women’s meeting in Australia inspired an appeal for a peace prayer for Africa. It received the Vatican’s blessing and was widely distributed.

The bishops’ Justice & Peace Commission issued a prayer to say every Friday during Lent in 2018 to confront racism, using both the original and modified versions.

Also in The Southern Cross (November 21), Sarah-Leah Pimentel’s “Fight back with love” and Arinze Joseph Ani’s “God’s in your neighbour” helped us live up to the St Francis Prayer.

Let us pray the Peace Prayer:

Jesus referred to himself as God: “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (Jn 8:58). The great “I am” is the description of God to the nation of Israel. Jesus was crucified precisely because he claimed consubstantiality (equality and oneness) with the Father, thus incurring sentence of blasphemy.

Jesus’ teachings lead to Tertullian’s una substantia, tres personae: one substance, three persons.

Those being confirmed should indeed be taught regarding Pentecost of the coming of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father, sent by the Son: the Trinity.

Nicolette Whittle, Kroonstad

Catechism from fallible humans

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WOULD like to reply to Deacon Keith Fournier’s article “Why Mary is the Mother of God” (October 17) and to Nicolette Whittle’s letter “Mary gave birth fully to God” (October 31).

Neither of them, I believe, has succeeded in countering my statement on why the Church’s teachings of the doctrines of the Trinity and of Mary being the Mother of God are wrong.

Jesus never spoke of being part of three persons in one God, and he never claimed or intimated that his mother, Mary, was the Mother of God. Neither does the Bible do this.

Both Ms Whittle and Deacon Fournier rely on proclamations made by humans who, like us, are prone to making mistakes.

I feel that Deacon Fournier supports my statement when he says: “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 (my italics).”

Note that he does not say Mary conceived God but that she conceived none other than the Father’s eternal Son (my italics).

Both Ms Whittle (464) and Deacon Fournier (487) quote sections from the Catholic Catechism. We must acknowledge that the Catechism was promoting the 431 AD Church council’s proclamation.

PEACE PRAYER Let us plead for the help of our Saviour Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary, and the angels, saints, martyrs, holy souls, and our brothers and sisters everywhere to pray with us for our troubled world.

Let us say the rosary (or a decade, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be) and the Fatima Prayer, followed by: “O God of justice and love, bless us, the people of our country, our continent and the world, and help us to live in your peace.”

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, let me sow pardon; where there is discord, let me sow harmony. Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; to receive sympathy, as to give it; for it is in giving that we shall receive, in pardoning that we shall be pardoned, in forgetting ourselves that we shall fins unending peace with others. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Let us pray often, alone or with others, and pass the message on across the world. Let us be true peacemakers.

Athaly Jenkinson, East London

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. letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, cape town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

I

feel I need to mention an excellent article written by Fr Ralph de Hahn, “What’s needed for lay spirituality” (October 17).

Fr De Hahn said: “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 (my italics) 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.

“The perfect model of lay spirituality is Mary. She was a lay person, a virgin, a wife, a mother and a widow. She more that any other person had a wonderful encounter with her son (my italics).”

He goes on to say: “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.”

I am convinced that unless members of the clergy accept the challenge Pope Francis has given them, to return to the basics of Christianity, the Church will continue to self-destruct.

This return means losing clericalism, studying the Bible, meditating on it, and then putting it into practice; an end to relying on the old doctrines and proclamations to give meaning to faith.

The proof that the Church is self-destructing is seen in the large numbers of young adults leaving to join other Churches.

The Church needs to realise that since Vatican II, Catholics generally have gained a much better knowledge of the Bible, and that it must return to the basics, concentrating on the Bible.

If this happened, the Church would hopefully stop losing so many members.

Peter Hoar, Waterfall, KZN

PERSPECTIVES

The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2019

Star trekking to Planet Employment Nthabiseng I Maphisa MUST say, 2018 has been a wild year.

There is much that I have learned about myself and about others.

The close of a year always gives me time to reflect on all that has been done and all that has not been done. I imagine that many people will engage in deep introspection about their current state of life, most especially their working life.

There will be firm resolutions made to finally seek that promotion, ask for that raise or fire their employer (otherwise known as a “resignation”). Sometimes our work lives, or the pursuit of one, can feel like a journey through space as we sail from one volatile planet to another.

The world of work is a daunting universe. There are moons, stars and planets and meteors and nebulae. This complex collection of celestial beings brings much for the new job-seeker to learn.

He or she is unaware of the perils of the voyage that is about to take place. But before embarking on this journey, it will be made known to the job-seeker that it is necessary to acquire a suitable vessel.

“And what shall this vessel be?” you may ask. Well, it is none other than your Curriculum Vitae, the document that is meant to summarise your entire existence.

In one page you are to excite and impress prospective employers with phrases like “excellent management capabilities” and “is able to take criticism”. It is to be avoided to trumpet the overused sales tactics such as “team player” and “perfectionist”. Failure to resist these temptations will disrupt the mechanics of your vessel and you will be forced to inhabit the dark and crowded planet of Unemployment.

Many have found themselves here and

have yet to continue their voyages to the planets Middle Management and Associate Director of Something.

I have also learned that it is necessary to include recognised qualifications from accredited institutions. As such the inclusion of your Bachelor of Recreation degree specialising in Channel Surfing and Snacking is not advisable.

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ome voyagers will be fortunate enough to have their ships recognised by the beings of a far superior planet. They will be contacted and called in for an interrogation under the code name of “interview”. Such individuals are to be prepared for vague questions and statements such as “So can you tell us about yourself?” Heaven only knows what they want you to say.

Out of desperation one would like to respond with “Do you pay in money or peanuts? Can you explain what leave is and how do I take it?” Do not be surprised if you are sent back to that dark

Two men meeting on Planet Work.

Pop Culture Catholic

and crowded planet.

Some individuals will make it through this trial of fire and be invited to take up residence on Planet Work.

Here they will encounter strange beings from other worlds. They have been called “Crazy” and “Rude” and most notably “The Boss’s Favourite”. They will be tempted to contact their home planets to send space shuttles to collect them and transport these strange creatures back from whence they came.

Unfortunately Planet Work does not operate this way and all residents are required to get along.

These individuals will also be left to navigate a path through Office Politics, which is a weird and sometimes uninhabitable place. Here, people will annihilate one another through Office Gossip, a powerful substance that can be found in abundance on Planet Work. When it is used it can achieve the desired effect of the spread of rumours and dented reputations.

It seems the voyage to this planet cannot be avoided. It is then my sincere hope that all those looking for work in 2019 may find what they need to provide for themselves and their families.

May they fire their rockets and shoot for the moon and Mars.

May these journeys we take help us pay off our bonds and as Buzz Lightyear would say: “To infinity and beyond!”

The New Year: A time for hope A Raymond Perrier S we head towards the end of the year, I might be tempted to some degree of despondency. It has been a tough year.

I am put in mind of Queen Elizabeth II who in 1992, after seeing in one year the marriages of three of her children collapse and one of her castles almost burn down, declared it an annus horribilis.

The death of Paddy Kearney—my friend, my mentor and my boss—in late November has been a great blow to me and to many other people as well.

And then I look back over the year and see a whole series of deaths, most of them sudden, some of them violent. Each death leaves a hole that will not be filled—a sense of emotional emptiness but also an anxiety about the loss of people who helped get things done. Who will fill their shoes?

To that I can add the usual anxiety of anyone who runs an NGO—where will the money come from to carry on doing what we do, let alone to expand the services? And who are the competent managers I can rely on to just get on and do things?

To that I have to add the pain when people who should be a help turn out to be a frustration or indeed a source of harm. I encounter it in government but also sadly in the Church.

I am sure I am not the only reader of The Southern Cross who despairs at religious people (high and low) who claim to be helping the poor but end up doing the very opposite and then hide behind their office or religious language to justify their failures.

Meanwhile, the work to be done just gets bigger and bigger. Durban has always had a problem of homelessness. Three years ago with the Human Sciences Research Council we counted 4 000 homeless people just in the Central Business District. And the problem has definitely got worse.

National television coverage of the problem has shone a useful light but has also put even more pressure on us to come up with solutions. The creation of a municipal taskforce (of which I am chair) to tackle homelessness should be a reason for hope, but at the moment just feels like a lot more work without any concrete delivery as yet.

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hese are all just my personal reasons to despair. I am sure you have your own as well and they might well be worse. To those we can all add in Trump, Brexit,

Faith and Society

Students at the Drakondale Girls’ Choir School, which confounds despair.

Yemen, the Holy Land, climate change and loadshedding. And even the hopefulness of Ramaphoria has not lasted to the end of the year, with the rand still weak and fuel still expensive.

If I am layering the misery a bit, it is because that is what we can easily do when we allow the “bad spirit” to get hold of us. We see all the bad things—of which there are plenty—and we fail to notice or to give credit to the good things which are also there.

I can imagine Joseph at this time of year similarly totting up the debit side of his life: stuck in a draughty barn, a new baby to support, cut off from his business, a vulnerable young wife, odd visits from dirty shepherds, even odder visits from foreigners bringing highly impractical gifts, the prospect of a long journey home, and now rumours of death threats and having to flee to another country as a refugee. Could life be worse?

We know—as we hope that Joseph knew—that in the middle of that despair there was hope, light in the darkness. He would not yet have been able to read John 1, but he could have drawn comfort from Psalm 18: “For you will light my candle, the Lord God will enlighten my darkness”.

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t is useful then that the Christmas story of hope comes at a time when we are most likely to be in despair. In the northern hemisphere, it is a story of light that literally comes when the days are at their darkest.

We each need to find ways of reminding ourselves of the sources of light in our lives and giving them space to shine.

They may not instantly “overcome the darkness”, but they can help us to navigate our way through it.

For some it might be the joy of a newborn child or grandchild, for others re-

unions with family and friends. For some it could be simply the relaxation of being at home away from work, or for others the pleasure of travel. For extroverts, it is the joy of being with others; for introverts, the joy of being alone.

I find immense joy in music, one of the moments that I find I can move above the day-to-day anxieties and be touched again

by God’s spirit. I have found joy this year in making music (singing in choirs again after a long break) but also in hearing others make music.

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e are blessed in Durban at having a fantastic Philharmonic Orchestra and visiting international soloists. But we also have world-class talent that is homegrown. So at my darkest point before Christmas, light came in the form of a choir of angels disguised as ordinary teenagers.

The Drakondale Girls’ Choir School was singing at Holy Trinity church in Musgrave Road, and their “Ceremony of Carols” (by Benjamin Britten and others) was for me a sublime insight into the eternal.

The school was created only two years ago by John Tungay, one of the original founders of the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir who is also the organist at St Joseph’s parish in Howick.

The 16 young women at the school— including a bursary scholar under the name of Archbishop Hurley—follow a thorough academic regime but also have time to practise music eight hours a day.

The results are evident and were recognised by the gold medals they won at the recent World Choir Games.

With all the problems of funding a start-up project like this, John Tungay might have reason to despair. But the music his girls create is an endless source of hope for him and for all who hear them.

A god-daughter of mine recently confessed to me that she had left her choir because, with so much misery in the world, she felt she could not sing. I told her that this was exactly the time to start singing.

Despair and death do your worst: the Drakondale Girls will confound you!

7

Chris Chatteris SJ

Pray with the Pope

A Catholic revival of preaching General Intention: That young people, especially in Latin America, follow the example of Mary and respond to the call of the Lord to communicate the joy of the Gospel to the world.

ATHOLICS are not known for preaching on trains, even though the Second Vatican Council urged the laity to “evangelise the secular order”.

When we, at St Francis Xavier Orientation Seminary, take our seminarians on the train into Cape Town, I have often been amused by their reactions to our bible-wielding brothers and sisters who preach to us with such intensity.

The seminarians don’t quite know what to do—whether to try to beat them in argument or to join them in praise and worship. On one occasion, they joined in the praise and worship and then struck up with a hymn to Our Lady!

Much as we talk about evangelisation, the New Evangelisation, or South American evangelisation following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I think there are all sorts of obstacles holding Catholics back from a commitment to it.

We have traditionally left it to the specialists, of course—to the clergy and in particular the apostolic religious. And in mission territory, like South Africa, we have left it to foreigners. Evangelisers came from overseas.

So how did the Church grow, even in a country like this one with its past history of suspicion of the “Roman danger”?

I think the answer is, through its institutions—schools, hospitals, orphanages and parishes, through which people came to know of the love of God in Christ and signed up for a Church which seemed to offer access to this God. Many are the stories of how people who had anti-Catholic prejudice in their genes realised how wrong they were upon meeting Catholic Sisters in a clinic or a school.

Today, our institutions are radically depleted, religious orders are disappearing and the foreigners who were the backbone of both are no longer coming forward in the large numbers that we knew post World War II. Which raises the question: without our institutions, can we Catholics successfully evangelise, whether it be here in the fundamentally Protestant ethos of South Africa or even in traditionally Catholic countries?

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here are signs of hope to be seen, if we but look. Some Catholic schools, under the kind of lay leadership which cherishes the charism of the original religious order, continue to make their mark.

The enormous amount of Catholic work with migrants and refugees will surely result in the creation of new Catholic communities.

There is interest in Catholic spirituality among Christians and the unchurched alike. Some popular literature, such as Fr James Martin’s book on Jesus, has made it into the mainstream and is widely read.

And there is Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’, a document which often seems to me to be taken more seriously outside of the Church than within!

In one way or another, the Gospel is being proclaimed by the Catholic Church.

My personal dream here would be for Catholic preaching to become a major force for evangelisation. Imagine if our preachers had the reputation of being the best. It is well known that with good preaching, congregations grow.

And yet I wonder if we Catholics, particularly Catholic priests, think of the Sunday homily as part of the process of evangelisation. That it is not thought of as central to this absolutely vital work, is in itself telling.

Perhaps it is time for a revival in preaching, a time when clergy spend a whole day of prayer and study preparing their Sunday homilies.

Imagine the difference it would make to the life of the Church.

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8

The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2019

Fr Tom Segami OMI, assisted by Fr Mahlomola Skoto OMI and deacon Thabo Thokoane, baptised 10 infants and children during Mass at St Peter Claver parish in Pimville, Soweto.

(Photo: Sello Mokoka)

COMMUNITY

Pupils at St Teresa’s School in Craighall Park, Johannesburg, celebrated their First Communion.

The children of St Patrick’s parish in Benoni, Johannesburg archdiocese, performed a Nativity play for the congregation.

Send your photos to

pics@scross.co.za

Fr Petrus Shiya with parish councillor Paul Mabuya-Kasango at the combined celebration of Fr Shiya’s birthday and farewell from Maryvale parish in Johannesburg.

Altar servers at St Francis of Assisi parish in Matlala, Polokwane diocese, are seen with parish priest Fr Jan Klaas Moloto during the annual pastoral visit by their chaplain Fr James Mashamaite. During Mass, E Phukubje (far right in golden T-shirt) was commissioned by Fr Mashamaite as the adult support body for parish altar servers.

PRICE CHECK

The Catholic Women’s League at Our Lady of Fatima parish in Durban North set up their Nativity scene at the local library. (Submitted by Anna Accolla)

St Charles Lwanga church in Paarl, Cape Town archdiocese, celebrated the First Communion of youngsters in the parish. The group is seen with assistant Paarl parish priest Fr Shaun Addinall and catechist Lulama Tshaya.

(Submitted by J Pheiffer)

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IT’S WORTH IT!

Departing matrics at CBC St John’s Parkland in Cape Town donated their shoes and stationery. The bulk of the donations will be given to an organisation called SALT and distributed at Inkwenkwezi Secondary School in Dunoon.

FAITH

The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2019

9

How to get ready for the New Year As we enter another new year we make our New Year’s resolutions – and probably break them soon after. Deacon KEITH FOURNIER explains how to make these resolutions stick, with the help of God.

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Year’s Day—now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” But, this year can be different, if we turn to Jesus.

Pray before making lists When I was a young man, I would write my New Year’s goal list first. Then, in a fit of self-generated enthusiasm, I would ask the Lord to bless it.

I know better now. I need the light of the Holy Spirit to even comprehend what is needed if I ever really hope to change. Then, all my well-intended efforts are not enough. I need the grace of God. So now, I pray first. Then, my list becomes simple. Mary’s fiat (Latin word for let it be done) has become my prayer. I seek to make the meaning of it become the pattern of my life. The full phrase opens the door to beginning again and again and again—“Let it be done unto me, according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

I pray that in the Year of Our Lord, 2019, we may all find the fullness of grace and the new beginning which comes through entering into a living relationship with the one who makes all things new, Jesus the Christ (Rev 21:5).

There is a universal longing in every human heart to be made new, to begin again, because the Holy Spirit prompts it. It leads us back to the one who created us—and who can re-create us—through Jesus Christ.

In and through Jesus Christ, there is a path to being made new.

He walked that path up the mountain of Golgotha, and through the tomb to the Resurrection. That promise of being made new, being born again, is at the heart of the Gospel, the good news!

St Paul reminded us that “whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor 5:17).

New Year’s Day is a global existential moment, ripe with anticipation and expectations. It invites a spiritually cathartic time of reflection, offers us hope for change and invites us to make new choices.

Resolutions can become reality, when we turn to the one who makes it possible, the one who truly makes all things new, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Our choices make us become the persons we become. In our choosing we not only have the potential to change the world around us, we change ourselves. In 2019, may we choose to live our lives in, with and for Jesus Christ. That is the way to turn those resolutions into reality and experience a real New Year.

Happy New Year! May the Lord bless you and your family in the Year of Our Lord, 2019.—CNA

EW Year’s Eve celebrations are staggered around the globe due to the different time zones, but we all have this in common: No matter where we live geographically, we welcome the end of one calendar year and the beginning of a new one.

The manner of celebrating may differ, but we also share a common hope, that we can begin again. That hope can find its ultimate fulfillment by turning the one who can make all things new, Jesus Christ.

Nations use different calendars, but the passing of one year to the next is universally marked by a de- The new year is about to dawn, but are we ready for it? In his article, Deacon Keith Fournier proposes we give our liberate period of reflection con- annual New Year’s resolutions a sound Christian underpinning. cerning the year that passed and a pledge to begin anew, to change, in of the Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

New Year’s celebrations, and help the invitation of God and make it the year to come. This is because we As we repent for the failures of us, by his saving grace, to make our own. We are called to make a all hunger to be made new and, in- the past year, we also reflect on the them become reality. place for him within us and become tuitively, we all know that means gifts it brought with gratitude to Mary is sometimes referred to in bearers of Christ to the world. For we must change within if we want God, and resolve to do better in the Catholic circles as the “Mother of he alone can make us new. to experience change around us. coming year. the New Creation” because the one Millions will utter sincere words The author GK Chesterton once We are also facing the reality of whom she held in her womb is the on New Year’s Eve and Day, promiswrote: “The object of a New Year is our human condition and our frac- only one who makes all things new. ing to do better this year. Lists will not that we should have a tured freedom. We face Mary was the first disciple, the be compiled and promises made to new year. It is that we the reality of sin. We prototype, the symbol of the whole oneself, to others and to God. Sadly, should have a new soul In 2019, know that our resolu- Church. We who are members of many will not be kept. and a new nose; new feet, tions to change often the Church, the body of her son, These words attributed to Mark choose to live a new backbone, new ears, end in failure. We are are invited to emulate her “yes” to Twain too often ring true: “New and new eyes. with and for prone to making wrong “Unless a particular choices in daily life. Clasman made New Year reso- Jesus Christ; sical Western theology lutions, he would make no speaks of this inclination resolutions. Unless a man that’s how to as “concupiscence”. starts afresh about things, St Paul wrote about turn those he will certainly do noththis experience to the ing effective. Unless a man resolutions early Christians in Rome: starts on the strange asI do not do the good into reality I“For sumption that he has want, but I do the evil I never existed before, it is do not want. Now if (I) quite certain that he will do what I do not want, it is no never exist afterwards. Unless a longer I who do it, but sin that man be born again, he shall by no dwells in me... Miserable one that I means enter into the Kingdom of am! Who will deliver me from this Heaven.” mortal body?”

Fortunately, he answered the Taking inventory question a few lines later in the letAs we end one year and look to a ter: “Thanks be to God through new one, we pause to take inven- Jesus Christ!” tory. In a rare moment of reflection Image of God and honest self-assessment, we admit our failures. We pledge to Our human freedom reflects the learn from them and move toward “Image of God”. We are not pre-dea better future. termined. Our choices truly matter.

We all want to be better, to live However, our ability to always our lives more fully and to love one choose what is true and good and another more selflessly. So, we beautiful was fractured by the efmake resolutions. fects of the first sin. In the words of On the first day of the New Year, Catholics celebrate the feast of the Every New Year I read numerous Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Solemnity of the Mother of God. They do so for a reason: she invites us to articles about the questionable effi- The Splendour of Truth, “freedom it- hear the words of her Son and Saviour Jesus Christ: “Behold I make all cacy of these New Year’s resolutions. self needs to be set free”. things new!” (Rev 21:5).

Still, we all make them. The experiThe good news is that freedom ence is universal. can be set free, through the saving The question is: why do we do life, death and resurrection of Jesus " it? I suggest that they reveal some- Christ. By his grace we are made cathing of our deepest longing. They pable of beginning to live our lives The lArgEST Catholic online present us with an invitation to ex- differently—and of choosing differshop in South Africa! ercise our human freedom and to ently. we specialise and source an extensive variety of products, choose a better way of life. But, we Freedom is set free by the one some of which include: *Personalised rosaries *Priest cannot do it on our own. We need who brings true freedom, Jesus Chasubles *Altar linen *Church items *Bells God. Christ. In the words of the Saviour: *Chalices *Thuribles *Personalised Candles, etc.

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Fax: 0123498592 Email: info@catholicshop.co.za poet T.S. Elliot, we find these often Jesus can make all things new The Southern Cross will host a pilgrimage to quoted words: “Both bad and good. within us—and then continues his 2øæ­¸Ø "ı̇øߺ̋ø̋¸"¬Æß̶" Last season’s fruit is eaten And the work of making all things new the Passion Play in Oberammergau and the " full-fed beast shall kick the empty through us. Even though our Holy land in SEPTEMBEr 2020, led by pail. For last year’s words belong to human freedom was fractured by last year’s language. And next year’s sin, the splint of the wood of the Fr NiCHOlAS KiNg SJ. words await another voice. What Cross is the lasting and life-changwe call the beginning is often the ing remedy which brings healing to end. And to make an end is to make the wound. a beginning.”

On the first day of the New Year, Over the years, I have come to Catholic Christians celebrate the realise that every end truly can be- feast of the Solemnity of the come a new beginning for the man Mother of God. They do so for a Contact Gail at info@fowlertours.co.za or woman who has a living faith in reason; this is no liturgical accident. or 076 352-3809 a living God who invites us to begin She who beheld the face of the Savagain, again and again. He alone ior invites us to hear the words of makes it possible, by sharing his life her Son and Saviour Jesus Christ: with us.

“Behold I make all things new!”

This gift is called grace—and (Rev 21:5). through receiving this grace we beJesus alone can fulfil the desire come what St Peter called “Partakers which is really at the heart of the

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The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1, 2019

CHURCH

Flashbacks to World Youth Days past On January 22, 2019, World Youth Day will be held in Panama City. Over the next few weeks, GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER will look back at all the WYDs that came before, since 1984.

I

N January, the international World Youth Day will be held in Panama City, the first time the event will be hosted in Central America. In preparation for this massive event, let’s look back at former World Youth Days.

While the Church celebrates a Youth Day every year on a diocesan level on Palm Sunday, World Youth Day is a bit like the Olympics of our faith: a time every two or three years when the Catholic youth (and non-Catholics, who are also invited) comes together from all over the globe.

The World Youth Day event was brought to life by Pope John Paul II, who based it on activities he ran as a young priest in Poland.

The first two Youth Days, both held in Rome, in 1984 and ’85 drew a respectable 300 000 to 450 000 pilgrims each. By 2000, also in Rome, it attracted 2 million— which is half the number that came to Manila, Philippines, in 1995!

1984: Rome

S

OME of the youth that will come to Panama City in July may well be the children of participants in the inaugural Youth Day. The first event had no scriptural theme yet: it just commemorated the Holy Year of Redemption. It also had no anthem, and was a youth meeting rather than the fully-packed event we have come to know since.

Pope John Paul II, in a speech in Milan, simply called the youth to come to Rome “for a prayer meeting” and “for sharing, conversion and joy”. And they came, in numbers.

Some people don’t count the Rome event as a proper WYD. Still, it brought together more than 300 000 young people who took part in a Mass in St Peter’s Square on April 15 that year.

And it inaugurated the 3,8mhigh Youth Cross, which makes its worldwide journey before it comes to the host city.

WHAT WAS HOT THEN: Music: “Jump” by Van Halen; “Weekend Special” by Brenda Fassie; “Hello” by Lionel Richie.

Movies: Footloose; The Right Stuff; Yentl.

On TV: Dallas; Knight Rider; Vyfster.

1985: Rome

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HE first Youth Day had been a success. With the United Nations having declared 1985 a “Year of the Youth”, Pope John Paul issued an invitation to the world’s youth to come to Rome on Palm Sunday to “celebrate, proclaim, bear witness together ‘that Christ is our peace’”.

And so the theme for the second WYD was “You are called upon to build peace”.

It was also the first Youth Day to

have its own anthem, “Resta qui com noi” by the group Gen Rosso.

This time 450 000 people attended the Youth Day Mass in St Peter’s Square. This impressed the pope who in December that year formally proclaimed that a World Youth Day would be held regularly.

St John Paul didn’t take credit for the success of the World Youth Days though. In his 1994 book Crossing The Threshold of Hope, he wrote: “No one invented the World Youth Days. It was the young people themselves who created them.

Those days, those encounters, then became something desired by young people throughout the world.”

Two years later, WYD became truly global: held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Left: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, greets a youth during the second International Youth Gathering in Rome in 1985. Right: Pope John Paul II greets people in Buenos Aires in 1987.

WHAT WAS HOT THEN: Music: “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears For Fears; “I’m In Love With A DJ” by Yvonne Chaka Chaka; “We Are The World”

by USA For Africa.

The movies: The Falcon and the Snowman; Witness; The Breakfast Club.

On TV: Newhart; The A-Team; Cheers.

1987: Buenos Aires

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HE first proper, formally proclaimed World Youth Day took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina—a signal by the globetrotter John Paul II that this was intended to be a truly global event.

In keeping with the original idea, the WYD Mass was celebrated on Palm Sunday, April 12, with activities and the vigil the day before.

Several dioceses in South Africa tied local celebrations to the event in Argentina.

WYD 1987 was themed: “We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves” (1 Jn 4:16). It attracted 900 000 young people.

In his message for the festival, Pope John Paul said: “The construction of a civilisation of love demands vigorous and constant strengthening, disposed to sacrifice and desiring to open new roads to the social life together, surpassing divisions and conflicting materialism.

“This is a specific responsibility of today's young people that they will have towards the men and the women of tomorrow.”

Pope John Paul combined the WYD celebration with visits to two other South American countries, Uruguay and Chile.

Much as the WYD meant a lot to the pope, when he reflected on his round-trip, he said his experiences in Chile had been the highlight.

And well he might: many historians say that the pope’s visit was a key factor in that country’s brutal dictator, Augusto Pinochet, being forced to introduce democracy there two years later.

WHAT WAS HOT THEN: Music: “Respectable” by Mel & Kim; “Scatterlings of Africa” by

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Left: Pope John Paul II arrives for World Youth Day in Santiago de Compostela in 1989, and (right) greets pilgrims at Czechostowa in his native Poland in 1991.

Johnny Clegg & Savuka; “With Or Without You” by U2.

Movies: The Mission; Platoon; Little Shop Of Horrors.

On TV: Family Ties; Hill Street Blues; Zap Mag.

1989: Santiago de Compostela

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OR World Youth Days, the accent is on the virtuous practice of pilgrimage, a journey that is not only physical but also spiritual.

And so 1989 WYD was held at one of Europe’s most ancient pilgrimage shriness— Santiago de Compostela, where the relics of the apostle James are said be kept (Santiago is Spanish for St James).

The next WYD, in 1991, would also be held at a great site of pilgrimage: the Marian shrine of Czestochowa in Poland. The idea of WYD as a pilgrimage itself certainly became formally entrenched afterwards.

For Pope John Paul II, every foreign trip was a pilgrimage. He used to call his travels “pilgrimages to the heart of the Church”.

When he invited the world’s youth to meet in Denver in the United States for WYD 1993, he said: “My visit to Denver will be truly a pilgrimage which I, along with so many young men and women, am preparing for through reflection, prayer and penance.” It is fair to say that before that, nobody had ever thought of a trip to Denver as a pilgrimage—and possibly nobody has done so since.

In 1989, however, the world’s Catholic youth gathered in northern Spain, at a place that has attracted huge numbers of pilgrims,

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before and after (and is fashionable these days even among non-Christians as the destination of the Camino walk).

The theme for the fourth international WYD was from John 14:6: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”, a reminder to the youth of the world that Christ always leads to the Father.

Pope John Paul called on the youth: “For all of you it must therefore become the day of a new, a more mature and a deeper discovery of Christ in your life.”

For the first time, the WYD event was not held around Palm Sunday, but from August 19-21.

Pope John Paul travelled to Spain, presiding over prayers before St James’ tomb, over a prayer service for the disabled and infirm, and, of course, over the night vigil and the closing Mass next day, both on the Monte del Gozo, with about 400 000 in attendance.

And at the vigil, Pope John Paul let out the secret of the meaning of life: “Keep loving. Only the person who forgets self in order to give himself to others fulfils his own life and expresses to the greatest extent the value of his earthly existence.”

WHAT WAS HOT THEN: Music: “Special Star” by Mango Groove; “Hand On Your Heart” by Kylie Minogue; “Forever Your Girl”

by Paula Abdul.

Movies: When Harry Met Sally; Ghostbusters II; Cinema Paradiso.

On TV: Who’s The Boss; LA Law; Orkney Snork Nie.

1991: Czestochowa

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HEN the globe’s youth gathered in 1991, the world was not the same as it had been at the previous World Youth Day just two years earlier.

In the interim, South Africa had effectively dumped apartheid. Nelson Mandela had been freed in February 1990, and the old apartheid leaders and the liberation movements were gingerly stepping towards negotiations for a democratic solution (albeit within a climate of much terrible violence).

More seismic internationally was the sudden collapse of communism in Eastern Europe—a domino effect that started in Poland. In August 1989, when WYD was held in Spain, the communist regimes of Eastern Europe were still in charge. By August

1991, they were all gone, with even the Soviet Union communist in name only.

So this was the first time that young Catholics from the formerly communist countries, where the Church was oppressed and citizens couldn’t travel freely, were able to take part in a WYD. About 100 000 did.

Altogether, an incredible number of 1,6 million participated in the event—four times as many as in 1989.

For Pope John Paul it was not his first visit to his homeland as a free country: he had travelled to Poland just two months earlier.

As mentioned previously, it was significant that the World Youth Days in 1989 and ’91 were hosted at sites of popular pilgrimage, because Pope John Paul wanted to promote the idea of WYD as a pilgrimage; and the idea of pilgrimage not as something that just older people get into but as an enriching spiritual journey—one that is devout and fun—also for young Catholics.

The theme for WYD ’91 was “You have received a spirit of sonship” (Rom 8:15). “These words,” the pope wrote in his message for WYD, “lead us into the deepest mystery of the Christian vocation: in the divine plan, we are indeed called to become sons and daughters of God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.”

In his message, the pope also promoted the idea of evangelisation—important especially in countries where the Church had been oppressed and silenced. He asked the youth for a “commitment to evangelisation in today’s world, looking towards the year 2000”.

WHAT WAS HOT THEN: Music: “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince; “Shiny Happy People” by REM; “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred.

Movies: Silence Of The Lambs; Fried Green Tomatoes; City Slickers.

On TV: Full House; In Living Color; Loving.

The Southern Cross, December 26, 2018 to January 1,2019

Did the angels really carry the Holy House of Mary to Italy?

BY COURTNEY GROGAN

Anniversaries • Milestones • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday accommodation Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Parish notices • Thanks • Others Please include payment (R1,80 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

iN MeMOriAM

MUrDOcK—Michael. Died on 20/12/2012. You were a good husband and father and as time has passed we miss you. Ilona, family and friends.

W

HAT do Galileo, Mozart, Descartes, Cervantes, and St Thérèse of Lisieux have in common?

They all travelled hundreds of kilometres to step inside the Virgin Mary’s house, which is preserved inside a basilica in the small Italian town of Loreto.

Catholic pilgrims have flocked to the Holy House of Loreto since the 14th century to stand inside the walls where tradition holds the Virgin Mary was greeted by the Angel Gabriel. If it is actually the house of Nazareth, it is where the “Word became Flesh” at the Annunciation, a point on which the history of humanity turned.

There is an often-repeated story that angels carried the Holy House from Palestine to Italy. While modern listeners may doubt the legend’s veracity, historical documents have vindicated the beliefs of pious pilgrims over the centuries—with an ironic twist.

Tradition holds that the Holy House arrived in Loreto in 1294 after a miraculous rescue from the Holy Land as the Crusaders were driven out of Palestine.

In 1900, the pope’s physician, Dr Joseph Lapponi, discovered documents in the Vatican archive, which stated that in the 13th century, the noble Angeli family rescued “materials” from “Our Lady’s House” from Muslim invaders and then had them transported to Italy for the building of a shrine.

The name Angeli means “angels” in both Greek and Latin.

Further historical diplomatic correspondences, not published until 1985, discuss the “holy stones taken away from the House of Our Lady, Mother of God”. In 1294, “holy stones” were included in the dowry of Ithamar Angeli for her marriage to Philip II of Anjou, son of King Charles II of Naples.

A coin minted by a member

YOUr clASSiFieDS

PerSONAl

The shrine of what is believed to be Mary’s house in Loreto, Italy.

(Photo: Tatiana Dyuvbanova/Shutterstock/CNA) of the Angeli family was also found in the foundation of the house in Loreto. In Italy, coins were often inserted into a building’s foundations to indicate who was responsible for its construction.

E

xcavations in both Nazareth and Loreto found similar materials at both sites.

The stones that make up the lower part of the walls of the Holy House in Loreto appear to have been finished with a technique particular to the Nabataeans, which was also widespread in Palestine. There are inscriptions in syncopated Greek characters with contiguous Hebrew letters that read “O Jesus Christ, Son of God”, written in the same style inscribed in the grotto in Nazareth’s basilica of the Annunciation.

Archaeologists also confirmed a tradition of Loreto that third-century Christians had transformed Mary’s house in Nazareth into a place of worship by building a synagogue-style church around the house. A 7th-century pilgrim who travelled to Nazareth noted a church built at the house where the Annunciation took place.

From St Francis de Sales to St Louis de Montfort, many saints

visited the Holy House of Loreto over the centuries. Pope John Paul II called the Holy House of Loreto the “foremost shrine of international import dedicated to the Blessed Virgin” in 1993.

Pope Pius V attributed the victory over the Turks at Lepanto to the intercession of the Virgin of Loreto.

Christopher Columbus made a vow to the Madonna of Loreto in 1493 when he and his crew were caught in a storm during their return journey from the Americas. He later sent a sailor to Loreto as a thanksgiving on behalf of the entire crew.

Queen Christina of Sweden offered her royal crown and sceptre to the Virgin Mary in Loreto in 1655 after her conversion from the Lutheran faith to Catholicism.

Napoleon plundered the shrine and its treasury in 1797, taking with him precious jewels and other gifts offered to the Virgin Mary by European aristocracy over the centuries. Yet, the object of real value in the eyes of pilgrims, the Holy House of Mary, was left unharmed.

In a homily in 1995, Pope John Paul II called the Holy House of Loreto “the house of all God’s adopted children”.— CNA

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

Avoid pro-abortion politicians.

PrAYerS

HOlY St JUDe, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. To you I have recourse from the depths of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Please help me now in my urgent need and grant my petition.

In return I promise to make your name known in distribution of this prayer that never fails. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be forever blessed and glorified. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and grant my request (name your request). Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be. Dermot @ George.

MOSt HOlY lOrD, I see your works here on earth. I

stand amazed at the beauty and magnificent scenes before me. Thank you for my joy that is not claimed by life’s sadness and disappointments. I thank you for keeping me in your wings of love. You are so very precious to me and I will forever be yours in faith and hope.

Blessed be your name in all of the earth, I pray. Amen.

O HOlY VirGiN, in the midst of your days of glory, do not forget the sorrows of this earth. Cast a merciful glance upon those who are suffering, struggling against difficulties, with their lips constant pressed against life’s bitter cup. Have pity on those who love each other and are separated. Have pity on our rebellious hearts.

Have pity on our weak faith.

Have pity on those we love.

Have pity on those who weep, on those who pray, on those who fear. Grant hope and peace to all. Amen.

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 SiMON’S tOWN: Marianella Guest House. “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

PAriSH NOticeS

NeW PAriSH NOticeS MOSt WelcOMe: If any parish notices listed are no longer valid, call us on 021 465-5007 or e-mail us at m.leveson@scross.co.za so that we can remove them.

Also, we’d welcome new notices from parishes across Southern Africa to run free in the classifieds. 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 4124836 or 021 593 9875 or Br Daniel SCP on 078 7392988.

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.

Prayer to Mary, Mother of God

Blessed Virgin, immaculate and pure, you are the sinless Mother of your Son, who is the mighty lord of the universe.

Since you are holy and inviolate, the hope of the hopeless and sinful, i sing your praises. i praise you as full of every grace, for you bore the god-Man. i venerate you; i invoke you, and implore your aid.

Holy and immaculate Virgin, help me in every need that presses upon me and free me from all the temptations of the devil.

Be my intercessor and advocate at the hour of death and judgment. Deliver me from the fire that is not extinguished and from the outer darkness. Make me worthy of the glory of your Son. O dearest and most kind Virgin Mother. you indeed are my most secure and only hope, for you are holy in the sight of god, to whom be honour and glory, majesty and power forever. Amen.

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 843. ACROSS: 1 Subtle, 4 Maniac, 9 Catholic faith, 10 Everest, 11 Osier, 12 Solve, 14 Atoll, 18 Power, 19 Idumean, 21 Nursing sister, 22 Seeing, 23 Cyprus. DOWN: 1 Sacred, 2 Better or worse, 3 Loose, 5 Affront, 6 Initial letter, 7 Cohort, 8 Gifts, 13 Version, 15 Opines, 16 Kings, 17 Snores, 20 Unity.

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The Epiphany of the Lord: January 6 Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6, Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13, Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6, Matthew 2:1-12

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EXT Sunday is Twelfth Night, the solemnity of the Showing Forth of Jesus to all the nations.

Our first reading is a lovely poem: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has shone upon you”, in contrast to the “thick darkness” that covers the earth.

One of the manifestations of God’s light is that unbelievers and foreigners are going to be welcomed in: “Nations [Gentiles] shall walk in your light and kings in your shining radiance.”

Then Israel is invited to “raise your eyes around you, and see: your sons gathered to you, coming from afar, and your daughters in the arms of their nurses”. It is a wonderful picture, enriched by “caravans of camels, dromedaries from Midian and Ephah, and all of them from Sheba, carrying gold and frankincense.

And they shall proclaim the Lord’s praises.”

Gaze on this picture, and rejoice at the Lord’s being made manifest.

The psalm for the feast-day is originally for a new king ascending to the throne, but it is a hat that fits Jesus, who is a king, but not necessarily of the type we mostly expect and seek.

This new king has to be reminded (as Jesus does not) that it is his task to “judge your people with rightness”, in order that “rightness

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may flourish in his days, and great shalom until there is no moon” (this last would be unimaginable, to the ancients as to us).

Only then does the poet pray for the new king to “rule from Sea to Sea” (presumably the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea), and to have some kind of dominion over “the kings of Tarshish and the islands…Arabia and Seba…all kings shall bow to him”.

But then he has to be reminded that he is to “Rescue the poor when they cry out, and the oppressed who have no one to help”…

“Show pity on the poor and needy and save the lives of the poor.”

Certainly any political leaders who were to behave like that, in that day or in ours, would shed a new light on the world.

There is unmistakable light in the second reading: “the plan of God’s grace”, which Paul describes as a “mystery revealed…to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit”.

The mystery is that, after all, God intends the whole of humanity (“the Gentiles”) to be “fellow-heirs and fellow-members-of-thebody” and “fellow-sharers in the promise”.

It is a powerful illumination, this, the discovery that none of God’s beloved human

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erful, and more through those outside the circles of power than those inside them.

When we examine how God works, we see it’s no accident that Jesus was born outside the city and that after he was crucified he was also buried outside the city.

God’s work in our world generally does not make the headlines. God never breaks into our world or our consciousness by showy displays of power. God works more discreetly, in quiet, touching soul, touching conscience, and touching that previously touched part inside us where we still unconsciously bear the memory of once, long before birth, being touched, caressed, and loved by God.

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hat’s why Christ was born into this world as a baby and not as a superstar, as someone whose only power was the capacity to touch and soften the hearts of those around him.

Babies overpower no one, physically, intellectually, or athletically. They lie helpless and cry for love and care. That’s why, paradoxically, at the end of the day, they’re more powerful than anyone else.

No physical, intellectual, or athletic power can ultimately touch the human conscience as can a baby—and similar sights of innocent helplessness, a wounded bird, a young child alone and crying. What’s best in us enflames, healthily, in the presence of powerlessness and innocence.

That’s how God enters into us, gently, unnoticed. That’s also why God tends to favour the abandoned and vulnerable.

For example, when the gospel of Luke records how John the Baptist came to be specially blessed, it takes a scathing swipe at the Roman rulers, the kings in Palestine, and the religious high priests, and then tells us plainly that the word of God bypassed them

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Final Reflection

all and came instead to John, a solitary, living in the wilderness (Lk 3:1-3).

According to the Gospels, the wilderness is where we’re most likely to find and experience God’s presence because God tends to bypasses the centres of power and influence to find a place instead in the hearts of those outside those circles.

You see this too, though admittedly without the same theological weight, as is manifest in scripture, in the various apparitions of Mary, Jesus’ mother, that have been approved by the Church.

What’s common to all of them? Mary has never appeared to a president, a pope, a Wall Street banker, the CEO of a major company, or even to an academic theologian in his study. None of these. She’s appeared to children, to a young woman of no earthly importance, to an illiterate peasant, and to various other persons of no worldly status.

We tend to understand power as residing in financial influence, political clout, charismatic talent, media influence, physical strength, athletic prowess, grace, health, wit, and attractiveness.

On the surface, that assessment is accurate enough, and indeed none of these are bad in themselves. But, looked at more deeply, as we see in the birth of Christ, God’s word bypasses the centres of power and gestates instead in the hearts and consciences of those outside the city.

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1. Rough bustle could be understated (6) 4. In Cana I’m finding a mad person (6) 9. It’s the Church’s profession (8,5) 10. Mount up which you could not go higher (7) 11. I rose to see the willow tree (5) 12. Find the solution to the clue (5) 14. Pacific coral reef (5) 18. The kingdom, the ... and the glory (Liturgy) (5) 19. Maiden takes U-turn to become an Edomite (7) 21. The nun in the infirmary (7,6) 22. Said to be visually believing (6) 23. Where to find the Catholics of Nicosia (6)

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1. Religious rather than secular (6) 2. Alternatives in marriage vows (6,2,5) 3. Whatever you ... on earth (Mt 18) (5) 5. An offence that’s not behind your back? (7) 6. A capital first epistle? (7,6) 7. Ancient Roman military unit (6) 8. The Holy Spirit’s talents?

(5) 13. Translation of the Bible (7) 15. Gives your viewpoint (6) 16. Bible book for royalty? (5) 17. Breathing sounds during tedious homily (6) 20. The aim of ecumenism (5) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

MAN dies and goes to hell. He finds that there is a different hell for each country.

He goes to the German hell and asks: “What do they do here?”

“First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they put you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil arrives and whips you for the rest of the day.”

This sounds awful, so the man searches for other countries’ hells. But France, Japan, Russia, Australia, China…all the same as Germany.

Eventually he comes to the South African hell, which has a long queue. Amazed, the

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Magi and asks them about the “exact time” when the star appeared.

We do not need to be told that he has not been overcome by a fit of religious piety when he sends them off to Bethlehem with instructions to “enquire carefully about the dear little child, and when you find him, come and tell me so that I too may go and worship him”.

As we listen, we are well aware that Herod is using that word “worship” in a quite different way, and with a thoroughly nasty intent.

So these simple-minded Magi go off on their quest for the light; and they find it, thanks to God’s star, which makes them “rejoice with a very great joy”; then they give their presents of “gold” (for a king), “frankincense” (for a priest) and myrrh (for the corpse that Jesus will be at almost the Gospel’s end).

After that, they fail to go back to Herod, thanks to a dream that came their way.

The light is finally victorious in this story; but it was a near thing. And we know all about the death that will take place at the end of this Gospel.

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

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Sunday Reflections

race is excluded from the plan.

The light is certainly shining in the Gospel for the feast. It is a powerful story; starting from the moment of Jesus’ birth, “in the days of Herod the King” (which always means trouble).

This is followed, however, by a comedy act, in the shape of “some Magi”, who might be widely regarded as charlatans. Except that these people have got it right: “Where is the one born King of the Judeans? We saw his star in the East—and we came to worship him.”

That word “worship” is a key word in Matthew’s gospel; it is the appropriate response to God or Jesus, and only to them.

And Herod knows that the Magi are right, for he (“and all Jerusalem with him”) is “disturbed”, and so he gathers “all the high priests and scribes of the people” (the ones who will be involved in Jesus’ death).

Now these religious experts are to tell him “where the Christ is to be born” (he knows the Magi are onto something). They press a button on their computers and come up with “Bethlehem”, and a scripture quotation to match.

At this point it turns nasty; for Herod “secretly” (and what a wealth of unpleasant meaning there is in that word) summons the

God’s different power OD, it seems, favours the powerless, the unnoticed, children, babies, outsiders, and refugees with no resources or place to go.

That’s why Jesus was born outside the city, in a stable, unnoticed, outside all fanfare, away from all major media, and away from all the persons and events that were deemed important at the time, humble and anonymous. God works like that.

Why? In the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, that question is asked of Jesus: Why’d you choose such a backward time in such a strange land? If you’d come today you could have reached a whole nation. Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.

Scripture answers by telling us that God’s ways are not our ways and our ways are not God’s ways. That’s true here.

We tend to understand power by how it works in our world. There it works through popularity, mass media, historical privilege, financial clout, higher education, idiosyncratic genius and, not infrequently, raw aggression, greed, and insensitivity to the needs of others and of nature.

But even a quick reading of scripture tells us that’s not how God works. The God that Jesus incarnates doesn’t enter into this world with a huge splash, as a royal birth announced by all the major media outlets, with photos of him and his parents on the cover of every popular magazine, with universal predictions as to his future greatness and influence, and then with privileged access to the best educational institutions and circles of power and influence.

Clearly—clearly—that’s not the story of Jesus’ birth, nor of how his life unfolded.

God, as scripture shows, works more through anonymity than through the headlines, more through the poor than the pow-

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Light emerges victorious

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man asks: “What happens here?”

“First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the South African devil arrives and whips you for the rest of the day.”

“But that’s exactly the same as the others.

Why are so many people waiting to get in?”

“Because Eskom is loadshedding, so there’s no electricity for the electric chair. The nails were paid for but never supplied. And the South African devil is a civil servant and won’t come in unless he gets his 12% increase—which will never happen!”

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