190306 by The Southern Cross

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

March 6 to March 12, 2019

What’s new at SA’s Catholic university

Anti-crime priests on patrol

WO priests who go on regular patrol for their local Neighbourhood Watches are encouraging other priests to take part in such activities to fight crime and as a way of connecting with people of all walks of life. Fr Stan Botha of Milnerton/Brooklyn, Cape Town, and Fr Stefan Hippler, chairman of HOPE Cape Town, said that Neighbourhood Watch “is one of the most effective ways for neighbourhoods to reduce crime in their surrounding areas”. “It assists in protecting property, reducing car break-ins and house burglaries, and teaming up with police, other law enforcement and armed response companies means more peace of mind for those living in the area,” said Fr Botha. “This should also concern the local parishes and their priests—being part of such initiatives is also a great way to connect to people of all walks of life,” he said. Fr Botha, who moves constantly between his parish’s two presbyteries in Brooklyn and Milnerton, often begins his patrol at 4:00 with his dogs, Donovan and Sipho, a pointer and a

In Lent, keep your eyes on the cross

Page 9

Page 10

Fr Stan Botha of the Cape Town parish of Brooklyn/ Milnerton and his dogs Donovan and Sipho are seen before going on patrol for the local Neighbourhood Watch. The priest is encouraging other clergy to join community crime-fighting activities as a contribution to society as well as a way of connecting with people from all walks of life.

dachshund respectively. He feels strongly about community, whether Catholic or not, and has roved the neighbourhood with motivated Jews and the local Dutch Reformed dominee. He said the scariest patrol he experienced was entering railway tunnels with other Neighbourhood Watch members in late afternoon. “But people living there are often friendly, though we do find much of our stolen goods, too,” Fr Botha said. Fr Hippler, a German fidei donum priest and founder of HOPE Cape Town, lives in the Blaauwberg neighbourhood of Parklands, and has also been a patroller for years. In spite of his heavy schedule and frequent trips around the world for HOPE, he finds time to show by example that we can all do a little extra for our communities. Both priests have been long-standing members of Rotary International and seek to encourage Christians to be involved in the broader community, especially with those most vulnerable. “Being part of the solution for a peaceful and crime-free society is one way to do so,” said Fr Hippler.

R10 (incl VAT RSA)

No 5125

The Catholic heart of Panama City

Page 3

STAFF REPORTER

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

Sipuka: After summit we need action BY ERIN CARELSE

HE Vatican summit on abuse “will be a turning point in the life of the Church— things will not be the same”, according to the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC). Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha was among the presidents of bishops’ conferences who were called to Rome by Pope Francis to attend the “Meeting on the Protection of Minors” which aimed to enforce responsibility, accountability, and transparency in the Church as it responds to the clerical sexual abuse crisis (see round-up on page 4). “This was a very moving meeting for me,” Bishop Sipuka told The Southern Cross. “What struck me the most and made a really big impression on me was witnessing the testimonies of the victims. It made a great impact on me because you were drawn into the experience when you hear people talk about it—it grips you,” said Bishop Sipuka, who assumed the SACBC presidency in early February. He said the meeting has given him “a heightened awareness and empathy for the victims of sexual abuse”. “I’m glad that we have this child protection policy,” he said, referring to the SACBC protocols on dealing with reports of abuse by Church personnel which are currently being updated throughout the conference region, a process he believes will receive additional impetus from the summit. “I think that it’s important that we implement and publicise [the policy] so that people will have a platform,” Bishop Sipuka said, noting that “most of the victims we heard had nowhere to turn to; there was no support and nothing in place—even their parents did not support them”. The SACBC president said he appreciated the pastoral aspect of the summit, as well as the technical part of it, as this will lead the bishops to formulate very clear policies. “There were a lot of points that came from

Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, who represented the SACBC at the Vatican’s abuse summit (Photo: Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba) the discussions that will help strengthen and improve the policies. The time has come for revision,” he said. “With this information now and the sharing of ideas, we need to look at the policies again so that they become more effective and more widespread,” he said. Bishop Sipuka emphasised: “We need to publicise the support structures for the victims and also to listen to them.” The bishop observed that the issue of clerical sexual abuse are more prominent in the US, Europe and Australia, whereas it is seen as less of an issue in Africa and Asia. He ascribed this to a culture of taboo and a tendency of denial about it in those regions, whereas in the West, people are “more forthright”, which makes it easier to confront the crisis. He said the Church in Southern Africa will have to talk more openly about abuse, and pledged that he will encourage this. In an interview with Vatican News, Bishop Sipuka said that he was grateful to the media and to the victims who have raised awareness. “We have been in denial and covering it up. If the victims had not had the courage to Continued on page 3

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The Southern Cross, March 6 to March 12, 2019

LOCAL

Jesuit Institute launches podcast series

HIS month the Jesuit Institute is launching a bi-weekly podcast series available every first and third Thursday of the month. The series, titled “Expanding Horizons”, will look at diverse issues in conversation with different guests. Each podcast will focus on a specific issue that is current and relevant to society, Church, and faith. The entire podcast, including music, will be produced by the Jesuit Institute in its studio in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, said institute director Fr Russell Pollitt. Podcasting is a free service that allows internet users to download and listen to audio files on their computers or mobile devices. “As more and more ways of com-

municating and engaging have become available, it is important that we use as many of them as possible to fulfil the mission of the Jesuit Institute—to build bridges between faith and society and expand the horizons of hope,” Fr Pollitt said. The podcast will be hosted by staff from the institute, according to topic and expertise. In the first of the series, Fr Bryan Massingale, professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University in New York, speaks to Fr Ricardo da Silva SJ about the recent sex abuse meeting hosted by Pope Francis in Rome. Fr Massingale believes there are still much-deeper systemic issues that need to be examined in the

Church if we are to move through this dark part of the Church’s history and put it behind us. Fr Pollitt said more and more people, as technology has developed, are listening to podcasts during their daily commutes. “People can download these 30-minute programmes and then listen to them at their convenience,” he said. “For two years the institute has offered a weekly podcast reflection on the Sunday Gospel, with positive feedback,” Fr Pollitt said. “This new series will, we hope, build on that, and offer more diverse listening opportunities.” n The podcast can be downloaded at jesuitinstitute.org.za/expanding -horizons

Top theologians for St Augustine post-grad course BY ERIN CARELSE

HIS year South Africa’s only Catholic university has more than 250 students registered across its various qualification offerings. And the number of students at St Augustine College in Johannesburg is expected to increase. “Applications for postgraduate study are received throughout the year; while a July intake for the higher certificate in biblical studies, and the bachelor of arts and commerce degrees will also attract additional students,” said university president Prof Garth Abrahams. Apart from the qualifications traditionally on offer—MPhil in theology, philosophy, applied ethics, and culture and education—a number of students registered for the reintroduced honours degree in peace studies. The next postgraduate teaching week will run from April 1-5. It week will include a module by Dutch theologian Prof Jan Jans on “An Introduction to Ethics”, and a module on bioethics in which Dr Fr Anthony Egan SJ will address a range of life and death issues.

Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, the main celebrant and preacher at Bl Benedict Daswa’s feast day Mass, receives gifts offered during the offertory.

Plans for Daswa 30th underway STAFF REPORTER

T St Augustine College students now have the option of the reintroduced peace studies honours degree and modules on ethics and bioethics. Apart from registered postgraduate students, these modules are also open, as non-degree courses, to those who simply want to enhance their own personal knowledge. As an option for deacon training, which is endorsed by the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, most candidates for the diaconate in the archdiocese of Johannesburg and the dioceses of

Witbank and Klerksdorp are now completing their biblical studies section through St Augustine. Other deacons and lay persons— drawn from a range of Christian denominations from across the country—are also registering for the qualification, Prof Abrahams said. n For more information on St Augustine’s programmes, visit www.st augustine.ac.za

HE year to prepare for the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bl Benedict Daswa is now underway, with parishes making pilgrimages to his tomb in the church at Nweli in Tzaneen diocese and other places of interest associated with the martyr. In the runup to the anniversary on February 2, 2020, every parish in Bl Daswa’s home diocese will make such a pilgrimage. Parishes from other parts of South Africa are invited to also make a Bl Benedict Daswa pilgrimage. Moreover, March 23-24 will see a women’s pilgrimage, followed by a men’s pilgrimage from March 3021, both led by Fr Sakhi Mofokeng, coordinating secretary of the Council of the Laity of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The pilgrimages are hosted by Sibasa parish, which also organised the liturgy for this year’s feast day Mass.

Divine Renovation UK conference inspires SA STAFF REPORTER

AVING returned from the Divine Renovation Conference 2019 in Birmingham, England, the head of regional development for Alpha Africa says the model of parish renewal proposed by Canadian priest Fr James Mallon is taking root in many countries, including South Africa. Alpha Africa’s Tom Miles attended the conference with Fr Godfrey Solomon of Cape Town. It was based on Fr Mallon’s book Divine Renovation, which proposes a theology and model for how Catholic parishes can move from simply maintaining themselves to becoming missionary communities Fr Mallon visited South Africa last year for a series of workshops on how to implement his model of parish renewal.

Fr Godfrey Solomon of Cape Town meets a parishioner after Mass during his visit to England for a Divine Renovation conference. “What we experienced from diverse parts of the United Kingdom and parishes was illuminating,” Mr Miles said. “We were amazed and took great heart that Divine Renovation is taking

root around the world.” Mr Miles said it was no longer true that parish renewal applied only to the original Canadian experience in Nova Scotia and couldn’t work in South Africa. “People and parishes in different parts of the country are being transformed,” he said. “They are concretely adopting the Divine Renovation model.” Mr Miles added the fruits are already being seen in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg parishes which have taken on the move from maintenance to missionary parishes. He said Divine Renovation is now spreading to Kenya: “We are about to embark on sharing the model with the Kenyan bishops’ conference.” n For more information on Divine Renovation, contact Tom Miles at tom.miles@ alpha.org or 083 447-6170.

To mark the prepatory year, each of the roughly thousand participants at the official celebration of Bl Daswa’s feast day at Tshitanini village on February 1 was given a symbolic pearl, in the form of a bead. Sr Tshifhiwa Munzhedzi OP, the promoter for the cause of canonisation of Bl Daswa, said the turnout was very good, for a weekday. “Some pilgrims came from as far as Polokwane, Johannesburg and the Western Cape,” she said. Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, main celebrant and preacher at the feast day Mass, challenged all people to live by the word of God and to be willing to stand up for the faith even in times of trouble and difficulties, as Bl Daswa did. To organise a Bl Benedict Daswa parish pilgrimage, contact Sr Munzhedzi at bendaswa@mweb.co.za or Chris Mphaphuli at cmphaphuli6 @gmail.com. They will help facilitate the numbers coming to visit. n For more information on Bl Daswa contact bendaswa@mweb.co.za or visit www.benedictdaswa.org.za

Crucifixes stolen at Mass BY ERIN CARELSE

BLATE crosses, some more than 100 years old, which had been passed down among priests from generation to generation, were stolen during a church service in Cape Town. Fr Jeremiah Gama OMI, pastor of St Mary Magdalene parish in Lentegeur, Mitchell’s Plain, said his cross, which was among three stolen, had previously belonged to a Belgian priest who had worked in South Africa for many years. “He inspired me to become a priest,” Fr Gama said. The crucifixes were stolen while Mass was being celebrated in the parish church. “After Mass, we went to the sacristy to put away our cassocks. We looked for the crosses and saw they were gone,” he said. The crucifixes are given to Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate priests during the final phase of their formation. Fr Gama has asked that the crosses be returned as they have immense sentimental value. n Police spokesperson Sgt Jerome Voegt said that anyone with information can call the Lentegeur police station on 021 377-5000.

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LOCAL

The Southern Cross, March 6 to march 12 2019

Archbishop Slattery: ‘Abusers must be removed’ STAFF REPORTER

RCHBISHOP William Slattery of Pretoria has said that priests who abuse minors must be removed from the priesthood, and those who cover up their crimes must be “dealt with”. Noting that the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has issued protocols over the past 20 years, the archbishop said that the “Meeting on the Protection of Minors” in the Vatican showed that Pope Francis and bishops from the whole Catholic world “have demanded concrete and immediate steps to totally eradicate this grave problem” of sexual abuse in the Church. “In the steps which the pope outlines, the Church must listen seriously to the cry of the survivors and victims. All must be assured that we will listen to them,” Archbishop Slattery said.

“There must be absolute removal of abusers. Those who conceal such crimes must be removed or firmly dealt with,” he noted in a statement. The archbishop said that human and spiritual formation of young priests and religious is essential. Moreover, he added, “the whole Catholic population must be alerted to the existence and prevalence of such abuse”.

Procedure to follow Archbishop Slattery outlined the procedure that must be followed when a person makes a complaint of abuse against a priest. “When a report is made, the diocese must appoint a contact person to immediately investigate the accusation,” he said. Contact details should be displayed in all churches. “If there is an indication of a

Catholic Women’s League member Delise Addis of Immaculate Conception parish in Pinetown near Durban (second left) was awarded the papal Bene Merenti medal. CWL members celebrating with her, her family and parishioners were (from left) diocesan president Loretta Ndelu, diocesan secretary Jenny Parent, and Pinetown president Nomsa Jakalase. Cardinal Wilfrid Napier concelebrated Mass with CWL spiritual director Fr Michael Nadaraju. Mrs Addis joins three Durban CWL women who have been awarded papal medals: Sabbath Mlambo, Colleen Dickson and Vera Bruce.

Sipuka: Victims and media woke us up on abuse Continued from page 1 talk, I’m not sure we would have woken up, we may still be trying just to keep the credibility of the institution”, Bishop Sipuka said. “I think the media and the victims are ‘godsends’ to us so we can address this problem,” he said. The scandal has decimated the Church in many regions, Bishop Sipuka told The Southern Cross. He recalled that at the summit, a bishop from Ireland told him that 20 years ago, the Church in that country thought that there was no problem. Almost 90% of the population in Ireland was Catholic, devout and practising, the Irish bishop said. Now that number is reduced to 30% because things “came out”. “The sobering moment for me was when the bishop from Ireland said to me: ‘Just because you haven’t heard of anything happening, does not mean that it has not happened,’” Bishop Sipuka said. The bishop said he was grateful to Pope Francis for calling the summit. “The Holy Father has done a great thing with this meeting. He has helped us to strengthen our policies for those of us who have them, and for those who do not, they will be helped to formulate them,” Bishop Sipuka said. “I take my hat off to the pope for being courageous and facing this.”

crime, the bishop must then suspend the person accused and remove him from all pastoral responsibility or contact with children,” the archbishop explained. If it is obvious that the alleged abuse involved a criminal act, the civic authorities must be alerted for investigation. “The Church waits for the legal process of the state” to conclude before it acts any further. “Later the Church picks up the investigation again, and if the accused person is found guilty, the bishop refers the case to the [Vatican’s] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” which will then arrive at punitive measures, which include the possibility of the removal of the guilty man from the priesthood. Archbishop Slattery said that recently “enormous publicity has arisen regarding the Church’s failure in dealing with child abuse. The findings of state investigations

in a number of countries have given statistics of failures of Church personnel in abusing and of Church authorities concealing the abuse.” Though the reports are recent, he said, “the incidents of abuse have declined enormously since the introduction of Church protocols after the year 2000”. “Most of the offences took place in the 1970s and ’80s. It took the Church and society time to realise the depth of the suffering and the violation of children caused by this crime,” the archbishop said. “The sad narratives of victims all show that the damage done leaves wounds that remain for life. Lives have been destroyed, trust has been betrayed, and ministerial responsibility has been violated,” he said. “In concluding the conference in Rome, Pope Francis expressed sincere sorrow and profound shame,” Archbishop Slattery said,

noting that the pope used words such as “satanic” and “the equivalent of human sacrifice” to express in words his horror of what has taken place.

Contributing factors The archbishop said that contributing factors to the abuse scandal include inadequate procedures for determining the suitability of candidates for the priesthood and the religious life; insufficient human, moral intellectual and spiritual formation; a tendency to favour clergy and other authority figures; and “a misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal”. Echoing Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Slattery said: “These failures lead to tragic consequences in the lives of the victims and their families, and have obscured the light of the Gospel to a degree that not even centuries of persecution succeeded in doing.”

Next archbishop of Durban preaches at city’s cathedral on Hurley Weekend

T the end of the first Memorial Mass of the Hurley Weekend in Durban, there was a candlelit procession to Archbishop Denis Hurley’s shrine in Emmanuel cathedral. Prayers were led by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, Hurley’s immediate successor, and new Archbishop Coadjutor Abel Gabuza, who will follow the cardinal as head of Durban archdiocese. Each year over one weekend in February, all the cathedral Masses are celebrated as Memorial Masses for Archbishop Hurley, who died in 2004, with prayers said at his shrine. This year the preachers at the Masses were Fr Neil Frank, provincial of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Southern Africa, and Archbishop Gabuza, in his first sermon in Emmanuel cathedral. The archbishop will not only succeed Hurley as head of the archdio-

cese, but has already followed him as the bishop responsible for Justice & Peace in the bishops’ conference. Archbishop Hurley’s legacy is honoured every day in the work of the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC), and the Hurley Weekend is a chance for the centre’s annual feedback meeting for stakeholders. Anglican Bishop Emeritus Rubin Phillip, a patron of the DHC, challenged the 200-strong crowd to take concrete action to transform the world, offering his late, close friends Archbishop Hurley and Paddy Kearney as examples. In his homily, Fr Frank also drew on these two men as an inspiration for how we have to be willing to be transformed in our own lives before we can transform society. DHC director Raymond Perrier gave a presentation on the centre’s work in 2018: statistics included over 100 000 meals served to the

homeless; 26 000 patients seen by the clinic team; R40 000 of secondhand books sold as just one of the economic empowerment projects for the homeless; 2 200 volunteering sessions in the kitchen; and 14 people with disabilities benefiting from paid employment at the DHC. He noted that while costs had increased by 11% to R4,6 million, funds raised had fallen by 18%. Awards for outstanding service were made in the name of the late Bishop Barry Wood OMI. The staff winner was Ruth Birthwhistle who runs the clinic; the volunteer winner was Vusi Dube, a young homeless man who works tirelessly in the kitchen. Earlier, a plaque was unveiled by the Kearney family honouring Paddy Kearney, the founder of the DHC and Archbishop Hurley’s biographer, who died suddenly on November 23 last year.

The Southern Cross, March 6 to March 12, 2019

INTERNATIONAL

Abuse summit: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;No more excusesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

HE clerical sexual abuse crisis has caused â&#x20AC;&#x153;serious scandalâ&#x20AC;? in the Catholic Church and in society â&#x20AC;&#x153;because of the dramatic suffering of the victims, as well as the unjustifiable lack of attention to themâ&#x20AC;? and attempts by Church leaders to cover up the crimes of the guilty, according to Pope Francis. Speaking after the summit on child protection and the clerical abuse scandal, the pope promised measures to ensure children would be safe in the Church and that the crime of abuse would stop. The summit brought together Pope Francis and 190 Church leadersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;presidents of bishopsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conferences, the heads of the Eastern Catholic churches, superiors of menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s religious orders, and Roman curia officialsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;for four days of listening to speeches, survivorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; testimonies, discussions in small groups, a penitential liturgy and Mass.

Survivorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; stories At a penitential liturgy, Cardinal John Dew of Wellington, New Zealand, read: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We confess that we have shielded the guilty and have silenced those who have been harmed.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kyrie, eleisonâ&#x20AC;? (Lord, have mercy), responded Pope Francis, bishops and religious superiors, after each of the nine faults confessed in the service. A survivor of abuse also spoke at the service, calmly telling the pope and bishops that as a victim, â&#x20AC;&#x153;what you carry within you is like a ghost that others cannot see. They will never see you nor completely know you.â&#x20AC;?

The memory of the abuse is always there, said the man, who was not identified. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I try to concentrate on my divine right to be alive. I can and should be here,â&#x20AC;? he said, choking up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This gives me value. Now it is over and I can continue forward, I have to go forward.â&#x20AC;? In addition to the handful of survivors who spoke at the summit itself, dozens of survivors from around the world gathered in Rome in solidarity with one another, and to speak to reporters and individual bishops.

Eight priorities In his talk concluding the summit, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church would focus on eight priorities: the protection of children; â&#x20AC;&#x153;impeccable seriousnessâ&#x20AC;? in dealing with clerical sexual abuse; genuine purification and acknowledgment of past failures; improved training for priests and religious; strengthening and continually reviewing the guidelines of national bishopsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conferences; assisting victims of clerical sexual abuse; working to end the abuse and exploitation of children and young people online; and working with civil authorities to end sex tourism. The survivorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; groups were, in general, not satisfied with the summit and insisted the time to talk about the reality of abuse was long past; it was time for action. The summit, though, seemed designed more to ensure that every bishopsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conference around the world recognised the gravity of the problem, even if in their country very few cases of clerical sexual abuse had been reported.

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Pope Francis at a Mass on the last day of the four-day meeting at the Vatican on the protection of minors in the Church. (Photo: Maria Grazia Picciarella/CNS)

Problem in Africa, too Addressing the summit, Nigerian Sister Veronica Openibo, congregational leader of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, called out bishops, particularly in Asia and Africa, who dismiss the abuse crisis as a Western problem. She cited several personal experiences she confronted while counselling men and women who were abused. Looking towards Pope Francis seated on the dais near here, Sr Openibo spoke directly about his initial denial and subsequent about-face regarding the abuse crisis in Chile and accusations of cover-ups made against bishops. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I admire you, Brother Francis, for taking time as a true Jesuit to discern and be humble enough to change your mind, to apologise and take actionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;an example for all of us,â&#x20AC;? she told the pope. Transparency, she said, also will mean treating equally all clerics who abuse children and not shying away from acknowledging the names of abusers, even if they are high-ranking churchmen or already have died.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki, who

has covered the Vatican since the1970s, gave a scorching challenge to the assembled leaders: â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you do not decide in a radical way to be on the side of the children, mothers, families, civil society, you are right to be afraid of us, because we journalists, who seek the common good, will be your worst enemies.â&#x20AC;? Journalists, she said, do not expect bishops to inform them of every accusation against a priest. Nevertheless, information pertaining to priests that have abused should be released as quickly as possible and â&#x20AC;&#x153;with clarityâ&#x20AC;?. Preaching at the closing Mass, Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane warned his fellow bishops that they would be called to account for what they did and what they failed to do to stop the abuse and assist the victims. For too long, he said, bishops and Church leaders tried to protect the Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reputation and not the Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s children. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have shown too little mercy, and therefore we will receive the same, because the measure we give will be the measure we receive in return,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We will not go unpunished.â&#x20AC;?

Clericalism problem Throughout the summit, bishops and other speakers tried to identify attitudes and issues that have contributed to the Catholic

Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sex abuse crisis; repeatedly they pointed to clericalism, and especially an attitude that allows priests and bishops to think that they were somehow special and above the law and common human decency. To understand the full depth of the crisis, Colombian Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota said, bishops must stop looking at outsiders as the cause of the damage within the Church and recognise that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the first enemies are within us, among us bishops and priests and consecrated persons who have not lived up to our vocationâ&#x20AC;?. In her presentation at the summit, Linda Ghisoni, a canon lawyer who serves as a consultant for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and is undersecretary for laity at the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, urged the pope to consider a revision of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;pontifical secretâ&#x20AC;? covering canonical procedures and trials of clerics accused of abuse. Ms Ghisoniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suggestion was echoed by others, who insisted that while the accused have a right to a presumption of innocence and victims have a right to anonymity, the names of clerics found guilty of abuse, the crimes of which they were found guilty and their punishments should be made known, at least to the victims who brought the case.

Church mission impossible Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, president of the German bishopsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conference, speaking to the bishops about the importance of transparency, agreed with Ms Ghisoni. He also noted that the abuse of administrative power has obscured, discredited and made the Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission â&#x20AC;&#x153;impossibleâ&#x20AC;?. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed or not even created,â&#x20AC;? Cardinal Marx said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were regulated, and silence imposed on them,â&#x20AC;? he said, adding that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the rights of victims were effectively trampled underfoot and left to the whims of individualsâ&#x20AC;?. One example of how it hurts mission, he said, can be seen with what an abuse victim once wrote to him: â&#x20AC;&#x153;If the Church claims to act in the name of Jesus, yet I am treated so badly by the Church or its administration, then I would also like to have nothing to do with this Jesus.â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201D;CNS

Pope to publish set of laws and guidelines on abuse for Vatican BY JuNNO AROChO ESTEVES

HILE the four-day Vatican summit on the protection of minors has ended, the work to ensure that laws and concrete actions are in place is just beginning, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi. During a press briefing Fr Lombardi, who served as moderator of the summit, said Pope Francis will soon publish a new set of laws and guidelines concerning child protection for the Vatican City State. The measures, he said, will be issued motu proprio (on the popeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own accord), and will be â&#x20AC;&#x153;presented and published in the near futureâ&#x20AC;?. Another initiative that will be available in â&#x20AC;&#x153;a few weeks or a month or twoâ&#x20AC;? is a handbook, or vademecum, for bishops, prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fr Lombardi said that the

handbook will list a set of guidelines and â&#x20AC;&#x153;will help bishops around the world clearly understand their duties and tasksâ&#x20AC;? when handling cases of abuse. Lastly, Pope Francis has also expressed his intention to establish task forces â&#x20AC;&#x153;made up of competent personsâ&#x20AC;? that will assist dioceses and episcopal conferences â&#x20AC;&#x153;that find it difficult to confront the problems and produce initiatives for the protection of minorsâ&#x20AC;?, especially when they lack the needed resources and skilled personnel. Meanwhile, a number of survivors and advocacy groups were disappointed the pope and the Vatican did not go further with more direct mandates, especially in ordering bishops to implement what laws already exist. Miguel Hurtado, a survivor from Spain, said that the Church still needs a clear mechanism or process for bishop accountability and making public

the dismissal of a leader for negligence. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is what changes the hearts and mindsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; seeing a colleague lose his job,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t we see bishops ordaining women? Because they know it is a red line and they will be excommunicated if they cross it. Covering up child rape is not a red lineâ&#x20AC;? if there are no clear and serious consequences that go with it, he said. Anne Barrett Doyle of Bish opAccountability.org said that the summit was a failure only in terms of needed internal reforms. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But in a larger sense, it achieved a great dealâ&#x20AC;? by increasing global awareness of clergy sex abuse and facilitating â&#x20AC;&#x153;connections between journalists and survivors from many countriesâ&#x20AC;?, she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This was public education on a massive scale,â&#x20AC;? Ms Doyle said.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, March 6 to March 12, 2019

Pope on Lent: Let go of selfishness

BY JuNNO AROChO ESTEVES

T A young reveller participates in the annual Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross Society’s Children’s Carnival Competition at Queen’s Park Savannah in Port Of Spain, Trinidad. (Photo: Andrea De Silva, Reuters/CNS)

Catholic artists find Christ in Carnival BY LAuRA ANN PhILLIPS

T’S a flesh-fest. That’s the simplest definition of the Trinidad Carnival today: a feverish festival featuring a season of sizzling soca, fiery fêtes and heady nighttime limes on an island where you can still chug your beer standing in the street, culminating in a frenzied, two-day street parade featuring bands of near-naked masqueraders writhing in golden sunshine and glittering costumes. The festival is intrinsically Catholic—its calendar position immediately precedes Ash Wednesday as a “farewell to the flesh” before Lent, and it was introduced to the islands by 18th-century French Catholic refugees fleeing persecution. While some cringe, scores of Catholics are actively involved in producing costumes, public parties and soca music, then taking to the streets on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. And, that’s precisely where some artists say Catholics ought to be. “We need to own who we are through Carnival,” said singersongwriter Kees Dieffenthaller. “As a Catholic in today’s world, I think that it’s important that we find Christ in everything, in the profane and the profound. “Jesus walked among the tax collectors, Jesus walked among the man in the street,” he said. “If he was around today, there wasn’t going to be places that he was not going to be.” Archbishop Jason Gordon of Port of Spain has echoed that position. “The Catholic perspective praises and highlights the good, and challenges and confronts the bad,” he said. “Proposing ways of moral con-

version for individuals, thus evangelising the festival as a whole.” In examining the teachings of his three immediate predecessors over the past 50 years, Archbishop Gordon noted: “All of them acknowledged the beauty, creativity and splendour of Carnival. Evangelisation requires us to accept what is noble and good, and to challenge and transform what is not.” Mr Dieffenthaller believes balance is possible—making music that is joyful, celebratory and honours God. “As a musician, there is something about making music that touches your soul and touches God. I just enjoy creating with that level of consciousness and understanding the power of music. And what it really can do for change.” Because, he believes, a Catholic is meant to be a force for good in the world. “The world is outside of the Church,” he said. “The Church is a good recharging community; the Church brings together people who are believing the same. We’re celebrating what we believe. “That light that is built in there has to spread, it has to be in every day,” he added. “And, this is the message of Christ. His light was for everyone, for everything.” Second-generation band leader Aixa Hart, whose parents first produced a Carnival band 60 years ago, said: “You’re going to get all types in Carnival,” she said. “You’re going to get people who come in to Carnival who just want to have good, clean fun. You’re going to get those who are going to be vulgar and nasty; there is very little anyone can do about those.”—CNS

HE Lenten season is a reminder for Catholics that overindulgence ruptures communion with God, with others and with creation, Pope Francis said. A failure to live as children of God can give way to sin, which “takes the shape of greed and unbridled pursuit of comfort, lack of concern for the good of others and even of oneself”, the pope said in his message for Lent. “Unless we tend constantly toward Easter, toward the horizon of the Resurrection, the mentality expressed in the slogans ‘I want it all and I want it now!’ and ‘Too much is never enough,’ gains the upper hand,” he said. The pope’s Lenten message, centred on a verse from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans in which the apostle proclaims creation’s “eager longing for the revealing of the children of God”. This longing, the pope said, is “a journey from Easter to Easter towards the fulfilment of the salvation” that all Christians have received through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Reflecting on the Lenten “journey of conversion”, Pope Francis explained that when Christians live as children of God, all creation benefits from the grace of redemption. However, he warned, “the harmony generated by redemption is constantly threatened by the negative power of sin and death”. Sin, which is the root of all evil, disrupts “our communion with God” and “undermines our harmonious relationship with the environment” and leads “man to consider

Lent is a journey of conversion leading towards living as children of God, the pope said in his message for Lent. himself the god of creation”, the pope said. “It leads to the exploitation of creation, both persons and the environment, due to the insatiable covetousness which sees every desire as a right and sooner or later destroys all those in its grip,” he added. The journey to Easter, Pope Francis continued, is a time where Christians can renew themselves through “repentance, conversion and forgiveness”. “Lent is a sacramental sign of this conversion,” the pope said. “It invites Christians to embody the paschal mystery more deeply and concretely in their personal, family and social lives, above all by fasting, prayer and almsgiving.” Fasting, he explained, leads Chris-

Duterte: Stop threatening priests

FTER calling the country’s Catholic bishops “useless fools” who should be “killed”, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has now warned anyone against harming priests and prelates. The president made the warning after being told that people close to his family have threatened bishops and priests critical of his administration’s policies, reported ucanews.com. “Do not touch the priests, they have nothing to do with politics,” said Mr Duterte. “Do not try to do it,” he said, adding that “a religious has nothing to do with the vagaries of life”. “Lay off! Stop threatening them or you'll have to deal with me,” the president said in a speech before a

political gathering in the central Philippines. Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan confirmed in an interview that he has received death threats “I have been receiving them, but I do not know who they are from,” said the bishop, whose diocese has become known as a “killing field” of suspected drug users and dealers. Human rights groups estimate that, since 2016, more than 20 000 people have died in Mr Duterte’s “total war” against illegal drugs. The president earlier said he had received a message from Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila expressing concern over threats against members of the clergy. In his message, Cardinal Tagle told Mr Duterte: “Some priests re-

He will remain in custody at least until his sentencing on March 13. “After the guilty verdict in the first instance concerning Cardinal Pell, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will now handle the case following the procedure and within the time established by canonical norm,” said Alessandro Gisotti, interim director of the Vatican press office. The canonical investigation of Cardinal Pell announced by the Vatican is not the first Church investigation of allegations against him. In June 2002, then-Archbishop Pell temporarily stepped aside as archbishop of Sydney while an independent Church review board investigated a claim that he sexually abused a 12-year-old boy at a youth camp in 1961 while a seminar-

ian. The board found insufficient evidence to corroborate the accusations. According to information posted by the Vatican in conjunction with the recent summit on abuse, when the doctrinal congregation opens a process, two modes of proceeding are possible: either with a trial or with a shorter administrative process. In both cases, the accused has the right and opportunity to know the evidence against him and to respond. If found guilty, the penalties can vary depending on the seriousness of the crime and, often, the age of the accused. Possible penalties include removal from office, restricted ministry, “a life of prayer and penance” without any public ministry, and dismissal from the clerical state.—CNS

ceived death threats from someone claiming to be working for the president’s family.” “Just to let you know, somebody might be trying to destroy you. Thanks, we pray,” Mr Duterte quoted the cardinal as saying in his message. “Once you touch nuns, priests, or imams—don’t harm them. Those are religious people. You know them, we’ll have an encounter. They are not involved,” said the president. In December, Mr Duterte said Catholic bishops were “useless fools” who do nothing but criticise his administration. He described the Catholic Church as “the most hypocritical institution”.—CNS

VIVA SAFARIS

After guilty verdict, Cardinal Pell now faces Vatican inquiry OLLOWING Australian Cardinal George Pell’s conviction for child sexual abuse in a Melbourne court, the Vatican announced his case would be investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican has also confirmed that Cardinal Pell is no longer prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. Cardinal Pell was convicted in an Australian civil court in December on five charges of the sexual abuse of minors. A gag order preventing media from reporting on the trial and conviction was lifted on February 26 after prosecutors abandoned a planned second trial relating to allegations of abuse in Ballarat, Victoria, where Cardinal Pell was a priest until 1987, when he was made auxiliary bishop of Melbourne.

tians away from the temptation “to ‘devour’ everything to satisfy our voracity”, while prayer “teaches us to abandon idolatry and the self-sufficiency of our ego”. Additionally, almsgiving helps Christians “escape from the insanity of hoarding everything for ourselves in the illusory belief that we can secure a future that does not belong to us”. Pope Francis said that through their Lenten journey, Christians can bring “the hope of Christ also to creation, so that it may be free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God”. “Let us not allow this season of grace to pass in vain!” the pope said. “Let us ask God to help us set out on a path of true conversion.”—CNS

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The Southern Cross, March 6 to March 12, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Don’t sell off CWD grounds serving community! HERE are many of us in Athlone relevant and politically controver- ful, and unnecessary fate. T If the CWD was mismanaged, and surrounds in Cape Town sial topics, providing a platform for those who are responsible ought to who have become used to the raising social consciousness.

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

No more fudging!

HATEVER the Catholic Church does in addressing the abuse scandal, it will never be seen as being good enough. And given the dimensions of the scandal, how could it ever be? Still, it is regrettable that all missteps by the Church, even those made in ignorance, will cast a shadow over the good that is being done in its overdue response to the crisis. The recent Vatican summit on abuse provided examples of that. With several speakers, mostly women, issuing forthright, articulate criticism of the hierarchy in ways which the Vatican has rarely heard, and even Church leaders speaking out in their criticism of other Church leaders, the summit accomplished more than one might have expected. Moreover, the penitential service during the meeting issued exactly the kind of mea culpa which this newspaper had called for, with the pope at the forefront of the assembled prelates asking for forgiveness. Clearly, this was not the feeble talkshop which some observers had anticipated. And then, right at the closing of this historic summit, Pope Francis bungled by inappropriately locating the Church’s abuse scandal within a context of abuses elsewhere. From there it did not matter that the pope went on to issue exactly what the pundits said was missing from the address, chiefly a commitment to “no tolerance”. Having contrived to turn off the listening ears, Pope Francis promised: “If in the Church there should emerge even a single case of abuse—which already in itself represents an atrocity—that case will be faced with the utmost seriousness” (an undertaking which now permits no exception). By initially deflecting from the issue at hand—abuse within the Church—the pope set up a lightning rod which gave a pretext for selective reporting and some overwrought reactions which exceeded the bounds of legitimate critique. There was a lot for bishops to learn at the summit, and Pope Francis added to this by providing a cautionary lesson: that even the most naive error will be harshly judged. The Church can expect no generosity of spirit, and it is in no position to ask for it.

The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit published letters. Letters below 300 words receive preference. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances and at the Editor’s discretion. Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

There will be times when the Church will be judged unfairly, and there are also those who will judge it with impure motives. But criticism is becoming louder also within the Church, as the summit showed. Most of those voices submit their criticism not to tear down the Church but to help build it up again. In our report this week, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, described the summit on abuse as “a turning point in the life of the Church”, adding that “things will not be the same”. We must hope that his fervour will not dissipate and that it will be shared by his brother bishops and their collaborators. We must also hope that in implementing a new vision on dealing with abuse, the bishops and the faithful will find common purpose. It is necessary that the protocols governing the safeguarding of children and dealing with allegations of abuse are properly implemented, observed and supervised, and subject to constant evaluation, review and revision. In that regard, the Church in Southern Africa has done good work already. But the question is not only whether these measures are working, but whether they are perceived to be working. Most Catholics likely are unaware that they even exist, or that there is recourse for those who have been abused. When priests are defrocked for abuse, as has happened in South Africa, this should be reported so that the public can be reassured that the protocols are working, and as a sign of transparency and accountability. Too often the faithful are kept in the dark. Is it transparent and accountable when some situations are left to whispers, conjecture, secrecy and pretending that nothing happened? And how do we, as the Church, clean up the mess of historical cases: those that were mishandled, those that were kept out of courts at huge expense, those that still need to be reported because the victims have had no confidence in the Church? The speakers at the Vatican summit have made it very clear what is at stake. The bishops dare not fudge this.

“Athlone Cultural Hub”, a centre of the now-defunct Catholic Welfare & Development (CWD). Since the centre opened its doors to exhibitions and events it has given us—and our children and young people—ways of filling a vacuum with positive, educative and worthwhile activities. It is also easily accessible, and friendly and welcoming. Andre Marais did his level best to host interesting, thought-provoking and educative initiatives like lessons on art and music, and lectures and talks on cultural, social, environmental, and a host of other concerns. The centre has offered a place for rigorous debate about current,

Alternative burials an intriguing issue

TAKE the Southern Cross weekly and my husband (not a Catholic) turns first to Conrad and the Church Chuckle over breakfast before reading the headlines (at least) while I usually read it in its entirety. I remember that some time in the last two years or so (February 8, 2017) you published an article on the Church’s response to contemporary “green burials” and its view on burial rites. As I recall, the Church does not permit us to simply scatter the ashes of the deceased (even in a much-loved spot like a nature reserve or Table Mountain) but that these ashes should be interred in a consecrated repository, such as we have here at our parish. I was intrigued then to read a recent article on the BBC entitled “How do you compost a body—and why?” from the US and Canada. I followed this up by reading two previous related articles: “The rise of alternative funerals” (January 17, 2016) and “The world is running out of burial space” (March 13, 2015). They all make interesting reading! Over our early morning cup of tea, I read the first to my husband, who remarked, “I wonder what the Church would have to say!” Since our earliest matrimonial “argument/debate” 37-plus years ago was on the subject of composting, it looks like it might be our final too. My husband’s argument is that in the natural world, flora and fauna decompose and return to the earth and very little remains thereafter. I thought of the various fossils

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Mr Marais also hosted groups of students and other interest groups from abroad, taking them on guided tours around the city of Cape Town and elsewhere, exposing them to some of the many historical figures and places of the city. In short, the centre became a beehive of much-needed, positive, community activity. In my opinion, the sale many years ago of the St Columba’s High School buildings and grounds to a Muslim concern was a betrayal of the significant educational, historical, social, political and cultural contribution of a proud Catholic institution. The CWD building and grounds are facing a similar, devastating, shame-

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

and the skulls of elephants and so on, but he was not persuaded—not much evidence of all the dinosaurs, he commented. Particularly with the subject of land restitution here in South Africa, and the increasing rise in the population and number of deaths, there is an argument which could be made for composting. And since my husband feels strongly about land being used most productively, I may have to concede in the end. But I do not think that it would sit well with a large proportion of the population, and there was resistance from Orthodox Jews in Israel noted in the March 13, 2015 article on burial space. I look forward to your comments. It could lead to some very interesting discussions. Jacky Powell, Cape Town

Beautiful liturgy and music lost

ATHER Russell Pollitt SJ admonishes our priests and calls on them to raise the quality of the Mass (January 23). But the beautiful liturgical traditions he writes about were tragically discarded 60 years ago. So let us go back to those traditions, reverse the altar to the east, and sing Gregorian chants again. Cardinal Sarah would be pleased. JH Goossens, Pretoria

bear the brunt—not those who went out of their way to utilise it to its fullest potential. I am a proud Catholic, but I am not proud of the manner in which the Catholic hierarchy in this province is simply selling prime, useful property to the highest bidder— with very little, if any, consultation. I appeal to those most influential in this case: please do not personalise the problem. Surely the Catholic Church has more than enough human and financial resources to implement an alternative? There cannot be any merit or sense in selling off such a precious and useful property as the CWD’s! Basil Snayer, Cape Town

Bishops’ election guide a tough ask

DON’T want The Southern Cross to become too much of a “political” publication but there are certain political areas that must be discussed. Also, the Church should be a motivator in the political arena to assist people to choose between right and wrong. We have been victims of the ruling party over the past 25 years, and have unfortunately experienced a terrible increase in corruption and abuse of power in the past ten years. It has become almost an acceptable practice for government officials to misbehave and steal national assets. The plundering of the financial coffers is a disgrace! Interestingly, the bishops of Southern Africa in their pastoral letter on the May 8 election (February 20) listed eight points that should be considered when deciding on a suitable party to “take our country forward”. Without reservation, I would say the current corrupt office-bearers do not deserve the nod on any of these points. On the strength of these proposed issues, they ought to be voted out of power. Realistically, however, we are doomed to a further term under this corrupt and ineffective bunch. As in Zimbabwe, we are “on the skids” and the uphill task faced to improve our conditions is extremely steep. For the present incumbents it is impossible, and for any new governing party it will be a long and strenuous exercise as the damage already inflicted is incalculable. Hopefully the bishops’ thinking and views will be implemented widely as we need urgent change for the better. Brian Gouveia, Bloemfontein

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PERSPECTIVES

Our renewal must centre on Christ Fr Chris I Townsend DON’T have much trust in high-level summits. I really don’t think much is done or achieved by calling an SADC summit or even a summit to deal with the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. I admire Pope Francis greatly for continuing the courageous programme of Pope Benedict XVI in dealing with the sexual abuse crisis, and I revere him for allowing the voices of women and other survivors to be heard. I do think we are in an epoch of change because of this. But will summits do anything? Not really. There will be hand-wringing, discussion documents and other deliverables. But real change? Well, to change you need to define the problem and be willing to change. Anyone who deals with the trauma of sexual or gender-based violence knows that most of these crimes against humanity are crimes of power. Rape, as is so often said, is a crime of power. The crisis of the rape of the Church is a crisis of the role and responsibility of power within the Church. The sexual abuse of minors (and many others) has morphed from the exposure of perpetrators to the exposure of facilitators. Before you accuse me of being a Presbyterian (power to the presbyterium; that is, priests) or all in favour of the dissolution of the hierarchy—never. I don’t believe that is the way to go. It doesn’t change the problem of the exercise of power. I have been a parish priest long enough to know that there is no such thing as a power vacuum—and that some of the worst abuses of power happen when the rightful authority abrogates or abdicates legitimate authority. So where do we go? First, let’s call this scandal a colossal abdication of responsibility. And then let’s also call it an abdication of truth. Both of these need a

carefully considered response, not a kneejerk reaction. I have seen some knee-jerk reaction in the attempts to link this terrible problem to homosexual clergy within the Church. But this is not a homosexual problem or even a heterosexual problem. You see, we are no longer dealing with the issue of the sexual abuse of minors as much as we are dealing with a permissive culture of the exercise of power that forgets where the authority to exercise power comes from.

s soon as we forget our Christian relationship to Christ—the Head of the Body—we tie our power to a lesser authority, namely that of protecting assets. Avoiding scandal. Protecting the good name of the Church. Well, there is no more “good name” of the Church. We will need to reboot that idea. As we begin to change the way the world perceives the Church, we can’t be trading on the fact we started so many schools or built hospitals or missions, or

Bishops at a penitential liturgy during the recent Vatican summit on abuse. In his column, Fr Chris Townsend writes that the renewal of the Church can be possible only if all decisions are Christ-centred. (Photo: Evandro Inetti via CNS)

Pastor’s Notebook

whatever. This is the capital of another generation which we have no right to spend. So we start again. Every Christian. Every Catholic. Every leader. Every clergyman. Every bishop. Every administrator. We start by renewing a humility in Christ; an honest relationship. Soon we will begin to see that this abuse of power that has killed the good name of and goodwill towards the Church, and which has so severely compromised her mission, has its foul and festering heart in our loss of decision-making that is centred on Christ. This abuse will continue until we examine all our power relationships. Every decision we make. Every cent we spend. Every blind eye we turn. Every contingent decision made with false prudence to protect the name of a Church, her pastors, her money, her property. That false prudence is not a relationship with Christ. So much of what Jesus has done with his Church is done with the same exasperation as his cleansing of the Temple—tossing over the tables of the coin changers and causing a riotous exodus of everyone chasing the animals of sacrifice as they are liberated from the temple precinct. That ultimately is the biggest abuse. We have left a trail of suffering little ones in order to preserve the name and reputation of the big, bad bully on the block. Act justly. Tell the truth. Humble Church. Simple Church. Honest Church. Real Church. And a blessed Church.

Why Xhosa Christians are ‘Majakane’ Mphuthumi M Ntabeni Y friend, a theology PhD student, recently asked me why the first black African Christians in our region, mostly Xhosa, were called “Majakane”. What she didn’t know is that this means “the people of Johannes”. The root of that name was a Dutch missionary. Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp (1747-1811), who had been a military officer and doctor in the Netherlands, dedicated his life to missionary work after a tragic incident in which his wife and daughter drowned in a river. He joined the London Missionary Society (LMS) which sent him to the Cape Colony. He was the first white missionary to reach and settle in the Eastern Cape Colony, in the land of Xhosa chief Ngqika, in 1799. amaXhosa called van der Kemp “Jank’hanna”, sometimes spelt Jinkhanna. In printed publications it sometimes appears as Tinkhanna, perhaps because of the English tendency to read the handwritten Dutch letter J as T. Another word amaXhosa called him was Nyengane, which means iron-stone— they fondly regarded him as a hard, stubborn character. In her biography of van der Kemp, The Burning Man, American author Sarah Getrude sees a pejorative connotation in the name Nyengane, which she interprets as “One Who Steals His Way In”, but that this interpretation makes no sense. Even today, hard and stubborn characters are still called, without malice, i-nyengane. Chief S M Burns-Ncamashe was of the opinion that the name Nyengane means “The Bald-headed One”. My father, who was bald-headed and rather of stubborn

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The Public Square

Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp, in an engraving by C A hardivillier character, acquired the pet name of Nyengane. My other suspicion is that “Jank’hanna” is how the pronunciation of the name of Johannes sounded to the ears of amaXhosa when Coenraad de Buys— the Dutch man and one of the fathers of the Afrikaner nation who was already living with amaNgqika then—introduced him. It doesn’t really matter. What is clear is that the Xhosafication of Johannes van der Kemp’s name eventually gave birth to the Jank’hanna, whose plural became Amanjakane.

everend Albert Brutsch says these first converts to Christianity, through the evangelical work of van der Kemp, went as far as Lesotho. In a 1976 Lesotho census, no fewer than 15 towns in five dis-

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tricts still listed themselves as Majakaneg. During the Mfecana wars of the 1820s, thousand of Basotho fled to the south, into the Cape Colony area, and settled among amaXhosa in several towns, from Matatiele up to Graaff-Reinet. From 1834 most of them returned to Lesotho, where another missionary, Eugène Casalis, had meantime settled in Morija (1833), laying seeds for the now biggest church in Africa, the Zion Christian Church. In My Life In Basutoland, published in 1899, Casalis writes in the ways of his times: “van der Kemp had conversions, and left permanent traces of his work, among the Hottentots only. As to the Caffre, he only opened the door to other missionaries younger than himself. Nevertheless, up to this hour, in all parts of occupied by the Caffres and their immediate neighbours, the many natives who have embraced Christianity are frequently called Ma-Yankana, which means ‘the men of Van der Kemp’.” These were the Basotho who came back as Christian converts from the Eastern Cape, bringing with them the name of Majakaneg. In a diary entry, dated August 1866, Bishop François Allard OMI, the Catholic bishop of Natal whose territory also included Lesotho, also calls the Protestant Christians “Majakane”. Continued on page 11

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The Southern Cross, March 6 to March 12, 2019

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God And The Bible

The Bible calls us to integrity

FOUNDATIONAL theme throughout the Bible is the call to live an integrated life where one’s beliefs and actions go hand in glove, and individual and community priorities are those of God. In other words, the Bible teaches us the value of integrity, as a standard of moral behaviour and as a call to wholeness. From the beginning verses of the Bible, we are introduced to God the Creator who makes us in the divine image and who knows best what makes us whole. God’s command that humans care for creation (Gen 1:27-30) is not a burden but an invitation to discover our connections with all things that God fashioned. It is not about superiority over creation but about responsibility. These are first steps in the way of integrity. The Israelites learn in their desert-wandering that God desires a relationship with them, one that will bind them to each other as well. Like the commands given to Adam and Eve, those given to Moses on Sinai also are not intended to be burdens (Ex 20:1-17). Rather, they outline a way of life that will produce integrity, that is, moral living and wholeness. The first three commands deal with the love and respect that is due to God, something woven into our very nature as God’s creatures. The final seven commands deal with the love and respect we are to show to one another. Who better than the God who creates and liberates to know that we need God and each other? Who better to bring order out of chaos? When Israel settled in the land of Canaan and establishes its tribal lands, and eventually its monarchy, the priority within the community was to incorporate the commands of God into the pattern of daily interactions. Living in right relationship with God, exercising good judgment and justice in relationships with others, and showing mercy to those in need are the proscribed ways of ordering daily life for those in covenant with God.

hile it takes time for those same values to penetrate relationships with people outside God’s covenant, the Israelites’ good intentions often deteriorate even within their own community. It is the role of God’s prophets to issue the clear call to return to God, and to live in such a way that God is glorified by lives of integrity. The prophets insist it is not possible to worship God and to dabble in other religions (see Hosea 4:1-14); it is not possible to worship God and to neglect those in need (see Amos 2:6-8; Jeremiah 7:3-7). The prophet Zechariah sums it up this way: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Judge with true justice, and show kindness and compassion toward each other. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident alien or the poor; do not plot evil against one another in your hearts” (7:9-10). These same priorities are found in the words and mission of Jesus. When challenged by the Pharisees, who were known to be scrupulous in obedience (Mk 7:6), Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah: “This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” He chastises the Jewish religious leaders who make a display of their religion but neglect the widows and orphans (Lk 20:46-47) and, in a lengthy collection of teachings, Jesus calls out the leaders of his own tradition for their hypocrisy. They profess one thing and live another; they lack integrity (Mt 23). The term hypocrisy comes from the Greek word hupokrisis, which means to act out a theatrical part as on the stage. It is this type of “play-acting” that Jesus criticises most harshly. Hypocrisy destroys the integrity, or wholeness, of the human person. It allows us to be tricked into thinking we can compartmentalise our lives, believing and acting in opposite ways. Ultimately it damages our communities and our witness to God in this world. The Bible gives testimony to the value of a life that prizes the things of God above all else. When we profess belief in God, we are offering more than our intellectual assent. We are trusting in God who knows best what will make us whole, individually and as a community. May we pray for the courage and integrity to live, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:1, “in a manner worthy of the call” we have received. n This is the ninth in a ten-part series of articles produced by Little Rock Scripture Study and first published in the Arkansas Catholic.

The Southern Cross, March 6 to March 12, 2019

COMMUNITY

Young people from the Salesian Youth Movement met at Don Bosco Centre in Walkerville, Johannesburg, to reflect on the Salesian Strenna for 2019: “holiness for you too.” The Strenna is the annual message of the rector, Major Fr Angel Fernandez Artime, in the name of Don Bosco, to the Salesian family. (Submitted by Br Clarence Watts SDB)

Grade 3s Alyssa Fransch (left) and Maite Mmotla of St Dominic’s Catholic School for Girls in Boksburg, Gauteng.

The Catholic Women’s League at Our Lady of Fatima parish in Durban North helped the St Vincent de Paul Society in feeding the poor and homeless at a sit-down meal. (Submitted by Anna Accolla)

CBC St John’s Parklands in Cape Town celebrated Founder’s Day with a special Mass. The original CBC school, the first Edmund Rice school in the city, was established in 1935 in Green Point. This closed in 2001 and students transferred to the Parklands school. At the Founder’s Day event, students and staff paid tribute to the mission of founder Bl Edmund Rice.

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Coadjutor Archbishop Abel Gabuza was welcomed at St henry’s Marist College in Glenwood, Durban. With him in the photo are (from left) deputy headgirl Rebecca Simpson, headgirl Kelsey Jones, St henry’s chaplain Fr Sean Mullin CSSp, head of chapel Talia Samuel, and St henry’s principal Dr Stephen Leech.

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Bishop Graham Rose of Dundee presided at the academic Mass welcoming first-year philosophy seminarians into the community of St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria. First-year theology seminarians were admitted to candidacy. (Submitted by Fr Sbongiseni Joseph Msomi)

Pupils at Marist Brothers Linmeyer in Johannesburg celebrated Valentine’s Day by wearing red, white and pink. Grade 1s dressed for the day are (front from left) Shaelyn Kayter, Mateo de Matos, Diego Madeira and Thea Vallabh, and (back from left) Katia Alves, Micah Raj, Keagan Sankey, Sabrina Jardim and Cooper Jennings.

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No people; cathedral for sale

CAT THEDRA AL in the Netherlands is expected to be closed and sold due to an ongoing decrease in attendance, as the ageing building has become more expensive to maintain. St Catherine’s cathedral in Utrecht will likely be sold to the Museum Catharijne Convent, a former convent that has been turned into a religious art gallery. An online petition has been opened by a group of parishioners who believe there is still a possibility for Catholic growth in the city. “Closing the cathedral and thus removing the visibility of Catholicism in the inner city will prevent growth of the community in the future,” the petition reads. St Catherine's was initially built as part of a Carmelite friary, between the 15th and 16th centuries. When the archdiocese of Utrecht was suppressed in 1580 amid the Dutch Revolt and the Protestant Reformation, the church was given over to Calvinists. It was returned to the Catholic Church in the 19th century, and it became the cathedral when the Utrecht archdiocese was re-established in 1853. Church historian Peter Nessen told NOS, a Dutch public broadcaster, that should St

St Catherine’s cathedral in Utrecht, Netherlands, which is to be to sold. Catherine's be sold, the bishop's cathedra could be moved to St Augustine parish in Utrecht, or to a church in Apeldoorn, more than 40km east of Utrecht. The historian added that it would be the first time a Dutch cathedral has had to be relocated because of insufficient fu unds and a low number of parishioners. From a high of 942 000 Catholics in 1980, the Utrecht archdiocese, the number of Catholics was 754 000 in 2017.—CNA

ARKING his silver jubilee as a bishop, the archbishop of Pretoria urged priests to find the meaning of their vocation in faith, to trust God, to be ministers of the Word, and to have initiative in supervising the ministries of the archdiocese in their parishes. “God’s grace is expressed in and by the ministries of the Church. Let all parishes and sodalities and individuals seek to contribute,” Archbishop William Slattery said in a letter addressed to his priests. The Irish-born archbishop turned 75 last September. He was ordained bishop of Kokstad on Februar y 19, 1994, succeeding his Franciscan confrere, Bishop (now Cardinal) Wilfrid Napier, who had been transferred to Durban. He was appointed archbishop of Pretoria in December 2010. In his letter to the clergy of his archdiocese, Archbishop Slattery urged priests to support the welfare of young families, especially through the parish, but in doing so let the laity lead. “Since perfect families do not fall down from heaven, parish communities must make every effort to support couples in preparation for marriage and accompany them especially in the early years,” the archbishop said, adding: “Here is a field where the lead can come from the laity.” He also encouraged priests to support the youth, by evangelising them and giving young people the freedom to lead. Archbishop Slattery reminded the priests that the youth are not the fu future of the Church but “the Church present already, now”. “Every generation is like a new continent to be won,” he said. “The youth are the agents of evangelisation to each other and to the whole Church. They must be encouraged to be the missionary disciples who will bring the light of faith to their peers.” The archbishop also urged parishes to have sodalities for children “which will engage

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Archbishop Wiliam Slattery, who has celebrated the 25th anniversary of his episcopal ordination. (Photo: Bishop Stanilsaw Dziuba) them not only in catechetics but [also] in the work of ser vice”, saying: “By participating they become.” With so few Catholic children in Catholic schools, the responsibility of parents and parishes in evangelising children and the youth is important, he said.. “While we have archdiocesan committees zealously at work, our volunteers need urgent assistance from parents and supervision from priests. Can we engage seriously with post confirmation young adults?” N o t i n g t h a t w e “ a re su r r o u n d e d b y i n t o l erable events; human trafficking, corruption, inequality, violence in the home, abuse and gender-based violence, racism, xenophobia, poor services and abuse of creation”, Archbishop Slattery called for increased Justice & Peace action in parishes. A great challenge this year is the May 8 election. It is a task for all parishes and sodalities to oversee a peaceful and free national election, he noted. As South Africa prepares to mark 25 years Continued on page 2

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M Fr Elvis Komane (right) was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Giuseppe Sandri of Witb a n k ( l e f t ) . T h e o r d i n a t i o n M a s s w a s h e l d i n t h e n e w p r i e s t ’s h o m e c o m m u n i t y a t S t A n d r e w ’s c h u r c h i n L o n g t i l l i n t h e p a r i s h o f S t e e l p o o r t , a m i n i n g t o w n i n L i m p o p o p r o v i n c e , o n the border with Mpumalanga. The mission and its outstations fall under the diocese of Witb a n k . F r K o m a n e , w h o w a s b o r n i n S t o c k i n g v i l l a g e , s t u d i e d a t S t J o h n Vi a n n e y S e m i n a r y in Pretoria. He was appointed to Mbombela/Nelspruit parish last year and will continue to serve there. (Photo: Mathiebela Sebothoma)

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REFLECTION

The Southern Cross, March 6 to March 12, 2019

In Lent, keep your eyes on the Cross During Lent we accompany Jesus on his Passion journey. As we await the glory of the Resurrection at Easter, we must keep our eyes on the Cross, suggests JOAChIM ANAKWENZE.

HE period of Lent reminds us of the Passion journey of Our Lord Jesus Christ. With him, through the 40 weekdays and six Sundays of Lent, we embark on a painful journey of his trial, denial, passion, crucifixion and death. Christianity was modelled on this journey to Calvary. It is a pity that often we find certain Christians presenting the risen Christ in their messages without any reference to the crucified Christ. They present a Cross-less Christ to the world as they preach a “gospel” of prosperity and success without suffering. I want to believe that in Catholic churches all over the world, the Gospel is different and the message is clear because we preach a Christ who is crucified and buried in a tomb before he can rise again on the third day. Even without hearing the words of a preacher, upon entering most Catholic churches, the central image above the altar or the sanctuary is Christ hanging on the cross. He thus becomes a role model to all who are willing to follow him and become his disciple. To anyone who wants to take this leap of faith, he says: “Whoever wishes to follow me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 16:24). These three steps characterise a true follower of Christ. He bore the weight of our sins, a weight too heavy to bear, on his shoulders and journeyed through the rough and stony roads that led to Golgotha. Like a lamb led to the slaughter, he moved quietly to the place of his death (cf. Is 53:7).

This is an example given by a Messiah who disappointed the people who took him to be a political redeemer, one who had come to liberate his people from the political tensions of his time. To those people, he has this to say: “My kingdom does not belong to this world” (Jn 18:36).

when we journey with our fellow Christians in prayer, penance, fasting, abstinence and almsgiving as our Lenten observances. Just as Our Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for our sake—he died for us while we were sinners (Rom 5:8)—in order to save us from sin, we, his followers, should also be ready to give up our lives Emblem of salvation for the sake of God’s kingdom. The cross, like the serpent lifted It is not an easy journey, but up in the desert, becomes an em- Jesus Christ will always walk with blem of salvation to all who look us and we will always hear him upon it with faith (cf. Jn 3:14-15). speaking to us as he says, “My Jesus accepted death on this cross grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor in order to save all mankind, and 12:9), and reassuring us that “I am bring to fulfilment the primary with you always, until the end of purpose of his coming into the time” (Mt 28:20). world which was his With these consoldeath on this cross. ing words from Our On this cross, he As we bear the Saviour and with God’s stretches out his hands Spirit living in us, and draws all men to crosses of Lent, there will be no road himself (Jn 12:32), that too rough or too stony they may come to have we look forward to journey on. eternal life by believing As we bear the to that joyful crosses in him and believing in of Lent, pathe One who sent him time when the tiently and submis(cf Jn 17:3). sively, we look forward We look up to this sad, moody and to that joyful time cross in our trying and the sad, moody gloomy faces of when challenging moments, and gloomy faces of and we get encouraged Lent will be brightened Lent will be when we see Jesus who up by the Light of brightened up Easter; when the was one with us in every respect except sin stone that by the Light of mighty (cf Heb.4:15). sealed the grave of This cross should, Christ will be rolled Easter therefore, be the central away; when the Angel image in our lives as we will proclaim the longjourney through Lent and always. awaited Easter message: “Do not be Jesus calls us time and again to afraid… He has risen” (Mk 16:6); give up ourselves in love for God when we will receive the crown of and humanity, to accept whatever unfading glory with the Risen sufferings we pass through for the Christ; a time when the Easter glory sake of God and the faith we have will fill the earth and sky; a time in him, and to follow him contin- when the whole world will shout uously and submissively as we Alleluia once again with joy and look forward to the crown of un- gladness. fading glory that awaits us in the Let us then brace ourselves and end (1 Peter 5:4). get ready for a fruitful and worthIn Lent, we deny ourselves by while journey with the Lord and shedding off and casting away with his Church in this Lenten fleshly and carnal desires and Season. I wish you a life-changing habits that beset us, and put on a encounter with Christ in this garment of righteousness by invit- Lenten Season and always. ing God’s spirit to come and dwell n Joachim Anakwenze writes from in us. Lent is a period of sacrifice Klerksdorp diocese.

An abstract version of Christ crucified stands in the church of St Sulpice in Paris. In his reflection, Joachim Anakwenze calls on us to keep our focus on Christ’s Passion on his way to Golgotha and his death on the Cross before we can celebrate his resurrection at Easter. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

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TRAVEL

The Catholic heart of Panama City In January, GÜNThER SIMMERMAChER visited Panama City to report on World Youth Day. Here he shares some impressions of the profoundly Catholic city.

ORMAL life will have returned to Panama City in the weeks since the 200 000 World Youth Day pilgrims departed. The banners welcoming the young people—every one of whom now knows that the Spanish word for welcome is “bienvenido”—have come down, but the happy memories of the Catholic youth festival will remain in this city of faith. Aside from the posters and banners relating to JMJ—the Spanish initials for WYD—the signs of the Catholic faith are everywhere. For example, of the many taxis I had to take in this sprawling, chronically gridlocked city, about two-thirds displayed a rosary or a small statue of a saint. It’s the sort of place where you’ll find a shrine of Our Lady outside a lively bar. And that faith-filled sensibility is reflected in the people, who in Panama City are warm, helpful and of good cheer (except for the staff at the extortionist airport who seem to be trained in wretched insolence). As in all traditionally Catholic cities, there are churches everywhere. In the old city, called Casco Viejo (“Old Helmet”, a geographical reference to the bay that almost encircles its shores), there are several remarkable churches dotted around the streets that flow from the cathedral.

The 18th-century basilica of José was concerned that Morgan Santa Maria la Antigua de Panamá might find the golden altarpiece is impressive. It is the seat of what and steal it. A shrewd Jesuit, he had is believed to be the oldest diocese an idea: he painted it black. Who’d in the Americas, though the first want to steal an altarpiece made of bishops served from the original tin? Another story has the priest site of Panama City, which we’ll come to in a couple of paragraphs bury the altar in the mud; a plausible notion since the receding sea at time. The locals were immensely ebb tide leaves a plain of mud just proud when Pope Francis came to 50m from that church. Stripped of its ugly coat, or mud, elevate their cathedral to the status the altar was installed in the new of basilica. But there’s an even more impres- church of San José which was built when the new Panama sive church just a road City was constructed a couaway from the cathedral. Panama City ple of years after Morgan’s attack in a more fortifiable The church of San José has great story to is the sort of area 8km away; the area now called Casco Viejo. tell about its magnifiThe facade of another cent golden altar— place where incinerated church was which is made of wood you’ll ﬁnd a transferred from old and covered with gold Panama City to the new flakes. That altar stood in shrine of Our centre. ruins of the church the first church of San Lady outside of The Nuestra Señora de la José, in the original set(Our Lady of tlement of Panama City, a lively bar Merced Mercy) survive among which was founded by what’s left of the burnt the cruel conquistador city. On a niche above Pedrarias Dávila 500 where the altar once stood, a statue years ago, on August 15, 1519. That city was a gateway for the of Our Lady surveys what once was export of American gold and silver an impressive church. The walls still stand, but the to Spain, and a point of import of façade was removed brick by brick slaves from Africa. to be reassembled at a site in the Scorched earth piracy new city, where it is flanked by two The settlement of about 10 000 stucco towers whose bells chime went its prosperous slave-trading every 15 minutes. and gold-transporting ways, albeit The interior of the church of interrupted by earthquakes, until Our Lady of Merced is simple yet the British buccaneer Captain John ornate. The wooden roof is held up Morgan—the mass murderer cele- by columns that seem rather too brated with his leg-up pose on rum spindly for the job, which they bottles—sacked the city and burnt nevertheless seem to perform. it to the ground in 1671 (other There are statues everywhere. St sources suggest it was burnt down Anthony of Padua (or, for our Porby the governor before Morgan tuguese friends, of Lisbon) shares a could do so). niche with St Philip Neri and Our The priest at the church of San Lady. As almost anywhere in Latin America, St Rita of Cascia is present. Our Lady of Guadalupe reigns in all her glory, while St María de Cervelló, who is a patron for shipwrecked sailors, stands there with a boat in her hand. And the statue of the Cristo Probre (The Poor Christ) is clad in extravagant vestments, which are changed periodically. Near the sanctuary is a side altar dedicated to one of Latin America’s favourite saints: St Hedwig, or Santa Eduviges. Panamanians pray for her intercession in their housing needs. When their prayers are answered, the faithful place miniature houses at her altar. St Hedwig is good at interceding: at Our Lady of Merced, her altar is covered in miniature houses.

The skyline of Panama City is seen from Flamenco island which one reaches via a causeway built from the rubble of the excavations for the Panama Canal.

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Left: Panama City’s basilica of Our Lady of Antigua. Right: The golden altar of the church of San José. (All photos: Günther Simmermacher)

Left: People dressed as monks in recreation of 16th-century Panama Vieja. Right: The church of Our Lady of Carmen in Panama City’s banking district.

Left: The shrine of St hedwig in the church of Our Lady of Mercy, covered in miniature houses. Right: The view from the author’s balcony in the suburb of Rio de Abajo. Africa, Panama has a huge incomeequality gap. Excessive wealth, created by the canal and the long-deregulated banking system (which has facilitated money laundering and tax evasion), stands in contrast to dismal poverty. Panama City is proud of its impressive skyline of multi-millionaire towers, and its reputation of being “the Dubai of Latin America”. But the property development mania masks the city’s impoverished neighbourhoods. As in many cities in the world, gentrification is a real problem in Panama City. I contributed to it, in a way, by staying in a new apartment block built in the workingclass neighbourhood of Rio de Abajo. From the balcony I looked upon modest working-class homes. A couple of years ago, homes just like these stood where I was now enjoying my panoramic views (including Pope Francis’ endless convoy coming from the airport along the Via España). Soon, these houses I gazed upon might make way for another property development. Even more alarming is the city’s plan to turn the working-class suburb adjacent to Panama Viejo, which bears the same name, into a luxury resort. At present the residents are refusing to sell—what price a community?—but they are up against the mighty current of politicians and property developers, with all the potential for corruption that entails. Will they be able to hold out? The neighbourhood adjacent to Casco Viejo is also battling gentrification. Tourists are earnestly warned to avoid falling victim to crime by not wandering into the suburb El Chorillo, which begins just a couple of blocks from San José church. Casco itself used to be a rough area before it was renovated and sanitised, becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site. Now it boasts smart restaurants and hotels. As a result, El Chorillo has become targeted by property buyers and developers, slowly pushing out the neighbourhood’s community. It is a global battle in which politicians are never on the side of the poorer people and almost always complicit in gentrification, as one sees now in Cape Town’s BoKaap and Woodstock neighbour-

hoods. Invariably, communities and individual lives are destroyed in the process. As in South Africa, those affected by gentrification in Panama have recourse to the ballot box (in as far as that is any help to them). After gaining independence from Colombia in 1903, until 1989 Panama had a series of strongmen who undercut all attempts at creating a stable democracy.

Stable democracy That changed after the bizarre Manuel Noriega was toppled by the United States in 1989 (you may remember that the US drove him out of his refuge in the Vatican nunciature by means of blasting loud rock music 24/7). Since then, Panama has had a functioning democracy with governments changing regularly and peacefully. Like northern neighbour Costa Rica, Panama has abolished its army. Instead, the police is all-powerful. The alarming sight of two men on a motorbike with machine guns slung on their backs is common. And these guys don’t have a great sense of humour, if the resentment one of my more peculiar taxi drivers expressed about them is any indication. For people outside the Americas, Panama City is not an automatic tourist destination, so hosting WYD was an opportunity for the city to put itself on the tourist map (and the fact of the present article is the self-evident result of that). And Panama City is worth a few days’ visit. The Panama Canal, with its Miraflores Locks, is a marvel of engineering; the Metropolitan Park is a rainforest in the middle of a city; Panama Viejo is fascinating and Casco Viejo is lovely; the banking district’s skyscapers provide some architectural marvels (google F&F Tower for an example), as does the Biomuseum; and the Amador Causeway—made of rubble excavated during the building of the canal—provides for the unusual experience of being able to walk on terra firma to an island. And then there are the people; these kind, always polite people who sound like they are reprimanding you when all they want to do is to help. These are the people whom every World Youth Day pilgrim had learnt to love. Next Week: A visit to Cuba.

The Southern Cross, March 6 to March 12, 2019

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Sr Othmara Metzger (right) and as a member of a group of nine Pallottine Sisters (left) who arrived in South Africa in 1948, standing in front of the airliner that brought them here.

Sr Othmara Metzger SAC

ALLOTTINE SISTER Othmara Metzger, the longtime matron of St Joseph’s Home for Chronically Ill Children in Cape Town, died on February 17 at the age or 101. Born Justina Metzger in Werbachhausen, southern Germany, on July 17, 1917, she was the youngest of seven children in a very religious family. From an early age, it was her deep desire to enter religious life and to dedicate herself to the Lord and his people. In 1934, Justina applied to be admitted to the Pallottine Sisters, becoming a postulant in 1937. In August 1938 she received the name Sr Othmara. Her first profession was in 1940.

Sr Othmara served in several places in her homeland. During World War II she served as a professional nurse in the military hospital in Limburg, where she experienced first-hand the horrors of war. After the war, in1946, Sr Othmara made her final profession. In 1948, she was sent to South Africa with nine other sisters, at the request of Bishop Francis Hennemann of Cape Town, himself a Pallottine. In 1946 Sr Othmara’s sister Armella also joined the Pallottine Missionary Sisters. In April 1952, Armella followed her sibling to South Africa. Most of Sr Othmara’s missionary work was performed as

a professional nurse caring for the chronically ill children in St Joseph’s Home. She was the matron there for from 1964-81. She was well known as a generous, capable and courageous religious woman, who developed a large network of contacts worldwide. After her retirement in 1981, Sr Othmara came to stay at the provincial house, St Vincent Pallotti convent in Pinelands. For some time, she continued to visit former children and staff from the home until she was confined to bed. During this time the religious Sisters remember her as a loving, non-complaining community member.

World’s most popular Marian shrine

N the lively Mexico City neighbourhood of Tepeyac stands the most-visited religious site in the West: the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The national shrine receives 20 million tourists and pilgrims a year and is the spiritual centre of the devotion of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who was named “Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas” in 1945. The church was built near the hill of Tepeyac where the Virgin Mary was believed to have appeared to St Juan Diego in 1531, leaving an imprinted image on his cloak that is displayed today. The shrine’s popularity as a place of worship led to the opening of a new building next door to the original yellowdomed church, and the huge, stadium-like structure can hold more than 40 000 people. The image of the Virgin now hangs above the main altar, and the basilica is particularly busy

ABORTiON WARNiNG: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelife abortionisevil.co.za

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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: A holy hour Prayer for Priests is held on the second Saturday of every month at the Villa Maria shrine from 16:00 to 17:00. The shrine is at 1 Kloof Nek Road in Tamboerskloof. The group prays for priests in the archdiocese, and elsewhere by request. Retreat day/quiet prayer last Saturday of each month ex-

cept December, at Springfield Convent in Wynberg, Cape Town. hosted by CLC, 10.00-15.30. Contact Jill on 083 282-6763 or Jane on 082 783-0331. Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Good Shepherd parish, 1 Goede hoop St, Bothasig, welcomes all visitors. Open 24 hours a day. Phone 021 558-1412. helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town. Followed by vigil at abortion clinic. Contact Colette Thomas on 083 412-4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br Daniel SCP on 078 739-2988. DURBAN: holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St Anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9:00. holy Mass and Divine Mercy Devotion at 17:30 on first Friday of every month. Sunday Mass at 9:00. Phone 031309-3496 or 031 209-2536. St Anthony’s rosary group. Every Wednesday at 18:00 at St Anthony’s church opposite Greyville racecourse. All are welcome and lifts are available. Contact Keith Chetty on 083 372-9018. NELSPRUiT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Peter’s parish every Tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed by Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 17:30.

Southern CrossWord solutions

The shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is the world’s most popular Marian shrine. around December 12, the patron’s feast day. The Virgin of Guadalupe contributed to acceptance of Christianity by indigenous Mexicans. Fr Gerardo Garcia, a Mexican priest working in Cape Town, said that the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is not very

well-known in South Africa. He hopes a pilgrimage he is planning to lead to the shrine from September 5-15, and other sites of Catholic interest in Mexico, will make the devotion better known here. n Fr Garcia can be contacted at gerardogarciap@hotmail.com or 083 583-7490.

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday March 10, 1st Sunday of Lent Deuteronomy 26:4-10, Psalm 91:1-2, 10-15, Romans 10:8-13, Luke 4:1-13 Monday March 11 Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18, Psalm 19:8-10, 15, Matthew 25:31-46 Tuesday March 12 Isaiah 55:10-11, Psalm 34:4-7, 16-19,

Friday March 15

Matthew 6:7-15

Ezekiel 18:21-28, Psalm 130:1-8, Matthew 5:20-26

Wednesday March 13

Saturday March 16

Jonah 3:1-10, Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19,

Deuteronomy 26:16-19, Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8,

Luke 11:29-32

Matthew 5:43-48

Thursday March 14

Sunday March 17, 2nd Sunday of Lent

Esther 14:1, 3-4, 11, 13-14 or Esther 4:17n, p-r,

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18, Psalm 27:1, 7-9, 13-14,

aa-bb, gg-hh, Psalm 138:1-3, 7-8, Matthew 7:7-12

Philippians 3:17--4:1, Luke 9:28-36

SOLUTIONS TO 853. ACROSS: 5 Mope, 7 Terra firma, 8 Yore, 10 Implicit, 11 Schism, 12 Lactic,14 Argues, 16 Oceans, 17 Tenebrae, 19 Ezra, 21 Supplicate, 22 Meat. DOWN: 1 Stay, 2 Prie-dieu, 3 Affirm, 4 Propel, 5 Maxi, 6 Petitioner, 9 Occurrence, 13 Credence, 15 Script, 16 Openly, 18 Erst, 20 Area.

PRAYERS

DEAR SAiNT JOSEPH, you were yourself once faced with the responsibility of providing the necessities of life for Jesus and Mary. Look down with fatherly compassion upon me in my anxiety with my present inability to support my family. Please help me find gainful employment very soon, so that this great burden of concern will be lifted from my heart and that I am soon able to provide for those whom God has entrusted to my care. help me guard against discouragement, so that I may emerge from this trial spiritually enriched and with even greater blessings from God. Amen.

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.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: March 14: Bishop Stanley Dziuba of Umzimkulu on the tenth anniversary of his episcopal ordination

Why Xhosa Christians are called ‘Majakane’ Continued from page 7 Van der Kemp regarded his very limited time with the amaNgqika as a failure. In retrospect, the golden prize of his missionary work was a young boy mystic who must have quietly attended his sermons. When the boy grew up, he established one of the most powerful Christian revival movements in the Eastern Cape, whose members still partially referred to themselves as Amanjakane. This was the Xhosa prophet Ntsikane. Nyengane had been dead for over a decade by then. In my novel The Broken River Tent, I dramatise the influence of Ntsikane on the Xhosa psyche in general, and depict his rivalry, sometimes bitter, with the Pan Africanists, such as prophet and warrior Makhanda/Nxele, that won the day but not the stay. In the end, the influence of Ntsikane’s acculturised Christianity became triumphant among the amaXhosa, who embraced the religion of Christ in droves, also through the Presbyterian and Methodist missionary work that followed on the heels of Nyengane (which, remember, was Van der Kemp’s nickname). The Broken River Tent is the first instalment of a trilogy I call “The River People”, about the life of the amaXhosa in the 19th century. It depicts a nation invaded and plunged into crisis through the Frontier Wars against the British, which lasted 102 years. The second instalment, The Marked Men, will be about the lives of Van der Kemp and Tiyo Soga (Tiyo is the Xhosafication of Nyengane’s name Theodorus), depicting the clash of Christianity with Xhosa traditions, lore and spirituality. n Find more articles by Mphuthumi Ntabeni at www.scross.co.za/category/perspectives/ntabeni/

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2nd Sunday of Lent: March 17 Readings: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18, Psalm 27:1, 7-9, 13-14, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 9:28-36

ESPITE what you and I sometimes find ourselves thinking, God really does intervene (and for good) in our lives. That is the message for us in the readings for the second Sunday of Lent. In the first reading, Abram has been complaining to God that for all the divine promises he is still childless; so, in order to put him right, “God took him outside and said, ‘Please look at the heavens, and count the stars, if you can,’ and he said, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” Now Abram at last makes the appropriate response: “Abram put his trust in the Lord, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Then comes the crunch; and we need to be listening to this: “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land as your inheritance.” Abram is still not absolutely convinced, however, so the agreement is confirmed by a sacrifice, after which God makes a covenant: “I shall give this land to your offspring, from the River of Egypt to the Great River, the River Euphrates” (referencing Israel’s two great enemies, Egypt in the south-west and Assyria or Babylon in the north-east). This God of ours is not one who fails to act, even in Lent.

S outher n C ross Nicholas King SJ

God intervenes for us The poet who wrote our psalm for next Sunday knew this well: “Lord, you are my light; of whom shall I be afraid?” And he is asking God: “Listen, Lord, to my voice I shall call: have mercy and answer me”; indeed, he is telling God: “Don’t hide your face from me”; and he trusts his God: “I believe that I shall look on the Lord’s goodness, in the land of the living.” Then he brings his song to a serene end: “I wait upon the Lord; be strong and stout of heart—wait upon the Lord.” That is not a bad mood in which to continue our Lenten journey. One of the ways in which God can intervene in our lives is by way of other people; so in our second reading, Paul is bold enough to suggest that the Philippians should be like him: “Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and keep your eyes on people who walk, just as you have us as a model for doing.” To his immense sadness, he sees other Christians behaving as “enemies of the cross of Christ”. These people are looking to the wrong God: “Their ‘god’ is their belly; and they glory in their shame.” To move them in the right direction, Paul

reminds them where they belong: “We have a citizenship in heaven, from where we are waiting for a Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.” And he sums it up with this powerful sentence to his “brothers and sisters”: “My joy and my crown—stand firm in the Lord, beloved.” That is not a bad mantra for our journey through Lent. The Gospel, as always on this 2nd Sunday of Lent, is the story of the Transfiguration, a powerful example of God’s intervention that is meant to give us the strength to go all the way with Jesus. Luke tells the story his own way; in particular, the evangelist has Jesus at prayer “in the mountain”; then we learn: “As he prayed, the appearance of his face became different, and his clothing was lightning white.” Clearly God is very much in the story here. Next, we are invited to eavesdrop on the conversation between Jesus and Moses and Elijah, who “were seen in glory and were talking about his Exodus, which he was about to fulfil in Jerusalem”. Then we notice that Peter and the other two were “weighed down with sleep”, and Peter has the bright idea of making this di-

Our colonised minds I

HAVE been both blessed and cursed by a congenital restlessness that hasn’t always made my life easy. I remember as a young boy wandering the house, the yard, and then the open pastures of my family’s farm, seeking. Our family was close, my life was protected and secure, and I was raised in a solid religious faith. That should have made for a peaceful and stable childhood and, for the most part, it did. I count myself lucky. But all of this stability, at least for me, didn’t preclude an unsettling restlessness. More superficially, I felt this in the isolation of growing up in a rural community that seemed far removed from the big cities. The lives I saw on television and read about in the newspapers and magazines appeared to me to be much bigger, more exciting, and more significant than my own. My life, by comparison, paled, seemed small, insignificant, and secondbest. I longed to live in a big city, away from what I felt to be the deprivations of rural life. My life, it seemed, was always away from everything that was important. Beyond that, I tormented myself by comparing my life, my body, and my anonymity to the grace, attractiveness, and fame of the professional athletes, movie stars, and other celebrities I admired and whose names were household words. For me, they had real lives, ones I could only envy.

Moreover, I felt a deeper restlessness that had to do with my soul. Despite the genuine intimacy of a close family and a close-knit community within which I had dozens of friends and relatives, I ached for a singular, erotic intimacy with a soulmate. Finally, I lived with an inchoate anxiety that I didn’t understand and which mostly translated itself into fear, fear of not measuring up and fear of how I was living life in the face of the eternal.

hat was the cursed part, but all of this also brought a blessing. Inside the cauldron of that disquiet I discerned (heard) a call to religious life which I fought for a long time because it seemed the antithesis of everything I longed for. How can a burning restlessness, filled with eros, be a call to celibacy? How can an egotistical desire for fame, fortune, and recognition be an invitation to join a religious order whose charism is to live with the poor? It didn’t make sense and, paradoxically, that’s why, finally, it was the only thing that did made sense. I gave in to its nudging and it was right for me. It landed me inside religious life and what I’ve lived and learned there has helped to process my own restlessness and begin to live inside my own skin. Beyond prayer and spiritual guidance, two intellectual giants in particular helped

vine intervention permanent, with “three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”. Luke comments (charitably) that “he had no idea what he was saying”. Then God intervenes, in the form of “a cloud” which “overshadowed them” (as Mary had been “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation); and, quite rightly, “They were afraid when they entered the cloud.” Next, God’s intervention goes a step further: “A voice [clearly God’s] came from the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him.’” Then the intervention comes to an end: “And when the voice happened, Jesus was found on his own. And they were silent, and in those days said nothing of the things they had seen.” That is how God intervenes in our life, very discreetly, but quite firmly, and leaving us certain that God has been with us, and that therefore we can continue the pilgrimage. My prayer for you is that you will feel that presence on the journey to Easter.

Southern Crossword #853

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

me. As a student, aged 19, I began to study St Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. My mind was still young and unformed but I grasped enough to begin to befriend the restless complexities inside my own soul— and inside the human soul in general. Even at age 19 (maybe particularly at 19) one can existentially understand Augustine’s dictum: “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” And then there was Thomas Aquinas who asked: “What is the adequate object of the human intellect and will?” In short, what would we have to know and be in love with in order to satisfy every flame of restlessness within us? His answer: Everything! The adequate object of the human intellect and will is Being as such—God, all people, all nature. Only that would satisfy us. Except…that’s not what we mostly think. The particular restlessness I experienced in my youth is today in fact a near-universal disease. Virtually all of us believe that the good life is had only by those who live elsewhere, away from our own limited, ordinary, insignificant, and small-town lives. Our culture has colonised us to believe that wealth, celebrity, and comfort are the adequate object of the human intellect and will. They are, for us, “Being as such”. In our culture’s current perception, we look at the beautiful bodies, celebrity status, and wealth of our athletes, movie stars, television hosts, and successful entrepreneurs and believe that they have the good life and we don’t. We’re on the outside, looking in. We’re now, in effect, all farm kids in the outback envying life in the big city, a life accessible only to a highly select few, while we’re crucified by the false belief that life is only exciting elsewhere, not where we live. But our problem is, as German writer Rainer Marie Rilke once told an aspiring young poet who believed that his own humble surroundings didn’t provide him with the inspiration he needed for poetry, that if we can’t see the richness in the life we’re actually living, then we aren’t poets.

ACROSS

5. Poem to make you dejected (4) 7. Solid ground for an ancient Roman (5,5) 8. Former years (4) 10. Not precise that mischievous devil is lawful (8) 11. Separation in the Church (6) 12. In the land of milk and honey it refers to the former (6) 14. Gives reasons why some, so far, guess (6) 16. Canoes in big seas (6) 17. Solemn Holy Week liturgy with lighted candles (8) 19. Prophet initially early Zoroastrian reformed at last (4) 21. Ask humbly in prayer (10) 22. Food not available in Garden of Eden (4)

DOwN

1. Remain where you are (4) 2. The French kneel on it in prayer (4-4) 3. State emphatically (6) 4. Support the Spanish and push forwards (6) 5. Skirt, maybe worn by a nun (4) 6. One who presents a request for annulment (10) 9. Incident that is certainly a happening (10) 13. Belief in the table in the sanctuary (8) 15. It’s written by your doctor (6) 16. Frankly, it’s publicly done (6) 18. Some former St Peter from long ago (4) 20. Region of Caesarea (4) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

‘T

HE secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, and to have the two as close together as possible.”—George Burns (1896-1996), US comedian

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