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Church tackles child marriages in South Africa

By ERiN CARElSE

T Australian funder Mei Wen touches an area of the Holy Stairs where Jesus is believed to have fallen, during restoration work in Rome. Ms Wen is one of the major donors who contributed to the restoration of the sanctuary. Pilgrims will have the opportunity to climb the bare marble stairs for at least a month after the April 11 unveiling of the renovated sanctuary. The stairs had previously been covered by wood. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

No wood on Holy Stairs, for now

By CARol GlATz

F

OR the first time in 300 years, the marble steps of the Holy Stairs are free from the thick wooden panels installed in 1723 to protect the stairs, and will be left uncovered for the public for a while.

For at least 40 days, people will be able to touch and climb the bare stones that, according to tradition, are the ones Jesus climbed when Pontius Pilate brought him before the crowd and handed him over to be crucified.

The soon-to-be cleaned steps and newly restored frescoed stairway will be unveiled on April 11, the week before Holy Week, during a special blessing ceremony at the Sanctuary of the Holy Stairs. The marble steps are going to be left open to the public temporarily before the original and restored wooden panels are put back on.

The sanctuary’s restoration has been a 20year-long project overseen by the Vatican Museums.

Paolo Violini, the Vatican Museums’ head fresco restorer, and his team were so astonished and moved when they saw the degree to which the stone steps had been worn away, he felt this hidden testimony of faith had to be seen and experienced—even just tem-

porarily—by today’s faithful.

Tradition holds that St Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine, brought the stairs to Rome from Jerusalem in 326 AD. The sanctuary, whose walls and ceilings are covered with newly restored decorative paintings and frescoes depicting Christ’s passion and events of the Old Testament, was built specifically for the stairs to be venerated by the public in the late 1580s, by order of Pope Sixtus V. Since then, millions of people had climbed the steps on their knees, slowly and unintentionally digging deep undulating ruts and furrows into the soft stone. One of the 28 steps was so worn away by people’s shoe tips, a hole had been bored straight through the thick slab of stone.

This happened, Mr Violini said, because that was the step where pilgrims lingered longer, to lean down and kiss “the most important step” above, which is cracked down the middle and adorned with a metal cross and a raised metal grate. According to tradition, Jesus fell at the 11th step, cracking it with his knee. The cross marks the point of impact, Mr Violini said, and the open grate covers what was said to have been a spatter of his blood.—CNS

HE Justice and Peace Commission (J&P) of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has joined forces with United Nations Women to end child marriages.

“Child marriage is a human rights violation that has affected more than 650 million girls and women. It is estimated that every year 15 million girls around the world are married before the age of 18,” said J&P director Fr Stan Muyebe OP. J&P and United Nations Women will hold consultative processes aimed at identifying risk areas, and strategies to address the problem.

“Despite efforts by government, the practice of child and forced marriage is not completely eradicated in South Africa,” Fr Muyebe said. “This prevails especially in remote rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.”

In South Africa, a child is a person who is under the age of 18 years. Child marriage, therefore, is a marriage concluded when one or both of the parties to a marriage are under the age of 18.

State statistics show that in 2010, some 785 girls and 57 boys were minors at the time of concluding a marriage. By 2013, the numbers had declined to 79 girls and nine boys.

But, Fr Muyebe said, these statistics do not tell the full story.

“They do not account for unregistered marriages in customary settings or other circumstances in which marriage and registration are not monitored or recognised,” he noted.

“Therefore, it is likely that child marriages are more prevalent in South Africa than actually documented by Statistics South Africa,” he said.

Fr Muyebe said that the reported incidents of child marriages manifest and perpetuate gender inequality and poverty.

There are cases where poor families marry off their daughters for money. In other in-

Every year, 15 million girls worldwide are married below the age of 18, a phenomenon that also exists in South Africa. (Photo: Steve Buissinne) stances, the girls are married off to men with community participation and sometimes accompanied by the support of other women.

Girls marrying young results in them dropping out of school and in turn being denied an education. These two factors may lead to higher levels of poverty.

Several countries have emphasised the importance of outlawing child marriages to ensure that girls are afforded the legal right and agency to decide who and when to marry.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals call for the elimination of child marriage before the year 2030, and progress towards this goal is measured by estimating the proportion of women aged 20–24 who were married before age 18.

“The current legal framework concerning marriage in South Africa permits child marriages—in violation of the international and regional laws binding on South Africa,” Fr Muyebe said.

“In order for South Africa to comply with its constitutional, regional and internal mandates, the government is required to ensure that its current legal framework prohibits and criminalises child marriages.”

J&P appeals to those with information about incidents of child marriages in their areas to e-mail tchepape@sacbc.org.za

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LOCAL

Diocesan Sisters: We need more engagement

By ERiN CARElSE

S

UPERIORS-GENERAL of Sisters of Diocesan Rite and their vicars met with bishops to share their life experiences, ministries, and challenges.

The aim of the meeting at Lumko Conference Centre in Benoni, Gauteng, was to highlight the importance of the Sisters of Diocesan Rite working in collaborative ministry with bishops, priests, and laity.

“A congregation or an institute of diocesan rite is founded by a bishop for his diocese, and is under the authority of that particular bishop,” explained Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria.

“They are not bound to work only in that particular diocese; they can work in many,” he explained.

A congregation of pontifical rite—most of the commonly known orders and congregations—is di-

rectly under Rome and not under a particular bishop. “They can work anywhere in the world and are founded for a particular charism or saint,” the archbishop said.

At the Lumko meeting, the particular needs of the Sisters were identified and recommendations made on how to address these.

Archbishop Slattery said bishops and priests must firstly appreciate these religious.

“These are local women who have dedicated their lives to the Gospel and also to the life of their home diocese,” he said.

“They are also asking for the spiritual and pastoral care that all Christians in the diocese need. Special efforts must be made to make sure the Sisters have opportunities for retreats, reflections, and continuous spiritual input.”

Among the challenges Sisters

Sisters of Diocesan Rite leaders and their vicars met with bishops to highlight the importance of such Sisters working in collaborative ministry with bishops, priests and laity. raised was finance. The archbishop noted that some of these congregations have small numbers with minimal income, and some Sisters are

aged and depend on social welfare.

“It is important that the bishops, who always support priests having enough financial assistance, also

support these diocesan congregations with financial help,” he said.

“They can do that by approving the applications these Sisters make to donors and, secondly, by making sure young candidates or members are well trained to become professional people who can support themselves,” Archbishop Slattery said.

He also pointed out that a Sister of a diocesan congregation works hard to prepare children for confirmation. Often after confirmation, the priest and bishop are given gifts from the parents, but sometimes the Sister who has done a lot of the work behind the scenes is forgotten.

The Sisters also asked that dioceses show greater interest in engaging them in pastoral life.

When a new superior is elected, they said,the diocese and the bishop must make sure to meet with her to work out a common programme.

Growing a self-sustaining SA Church

W Gauteng-based pilgrims taking part in the Southern Cross pilgrimage to the Holy land and Rome in May came together for a preparation meeting at the Jesuit institute in Johannesburg. it was a time to pick up useful hints on how to prepare for the journey and also to meet one another. A similar meeting was held in Cape Town.

The Johannesburg group was addressed by Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, who will lead the pilgrimage, Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher, and Gail Fowler of Fowler Tours. The pilgrims also received a copy of Günther Simmermacher’s book The Holy Land Trek (now in its second edition) to help them prepare for the many great sites of the land of Christ.

A thanksgiving Mass was held for Fr Simon Sibisi at the parish of the immaculate Conception in Pinetown, just a day after his ordination in Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral. Fr Sibisi is seen flanked by members of his family. The parish congratulated Fr Sibisi and said it was privileged to host him and his family.

ITH the vision of creating a self-sustaining Church instead of always relying on financial support from overseas, the bishops initiated a project in 2009 with this aim in view.

The Catholic Bishops’ Foundation began with the goal of raising R50 million as a capital invested amount to generate sufficient funds to sustain the bishops’ conference.

“It got off to a great start with a countrywide collection, but then tapered off and momentum was lost,” said Fr Barney McAleer.

The foundation was registered as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) with SARS in 2010, with a certain change of direction. In accordance with SARS requirements, 75% of interest gained had to be used for education and charitable projects.

On average, the foundation distributes more than R500 000 each year to different projects across the conference region. Its accounts are audited annually.

Three years ago, Fr McAleer took up responsibility for the foundation. The trustees are the five archbishops, with an execu-

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Plane crash priest felt South Affrican

BY ERIN CARELSE

The youth of Sacred Heart parish in Montclair, Durban, spent a day of prayer and fun at the beach. Joined by other members of the community, they prayed the rosary and played indigenous games. On the same day, they elected the youth committee: (from left).

Nonjabulo Cele, Akhona Ngcongo, Andiswa Khwela, Mpilo Mkhize, Thina Mkhize, Mandisa Mkhize and Ngo Sabela. (Photo: Sisanda Nxele)

Martyred priest on fast-track

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

T

HE French archdiocese of Rouen has concluded its sainthood inquiry into the life and death of a French priest who was murdered while celebrating Mass.

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen presided over the final session of the diocesan inquir y into the life and martyrdom of Fr Jacques Hamel, Va atican News reported.

Fr Hamel was killed on July 26, 2016, when two Islamic fundamentalists stormed a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray y near Rouen while he celebrated Mass. After taking several hostages, the attackers slit Fr Hamel’s throat and seriously injured another parishioner. In a tandoff, police killed the attackers.

Traditionally, the formal sainthood process, which includes compiling the candidate’s writings and gathering sworn testimonies about his or her life and holiness, can begin no sooner than five years after the person’s death.

However, Pope Francis set aside the restriction and allowed for the French priest’s sainthood cause to begin in 2017.

The inquiry gathered the testimony of 66 witnesses, including five people who witnessed Fr Hamel’s murder. The documentation from the diocesan inquiry will be sent to the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes, which reviews the gathered information.

Pope Francis has on several occasions recognised Fr Hamel’s holiness and cited him as an example of courage who gave his life for others throughout his life as a priest until his brutal murder.

The pope celebrated a special requiem Mass F r J a c q u e s H a m e l for the slain priest several months after his (Photo: Paroisse death in the chapel of Saint-Etienne via Domus Sanctae EPA/CNS) Marthae, in the presence of Archbishop Lebrun and Fr Hamel’s sister, Roselyne.

Archbishop Lebrun said he had brought a photo of Fr Hamel and asked Pope Francis to sign it with a note for three Sisters who had been with Fr Hamel at Mass that day.

Instead of signing the photo before Mass, the pope “immediately told me to put it on the altar”, the archbishop told reporters later.

“At the end of Mass, when he was greeting everyone, he signed it and said to me, ‘You can put this photo in the church because he is ‘blessed’ now, and if anyone says you aren’t allowed, tell them the pope gave you permission.’”—CNS

or

F

RIENDS have remembered the Kenyan priest with South African connections who died in this month’s Ethiopian Airlines crash in Addis Ababa as a jovial man with a sense of humour who had an outstanding character, and did what others feared to do.

Mariannhill Missionaries Father George Kageche Mukua, 40, was among the 149 passengers and eight crew members who died in the crash.

Among the other victims was Sr Florence Wangari, a Kenyan Notre Dame de Angers Sister, who served as a missionary nurse in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. She had been on her way to Nairobi to renew her passport.

Four Catholic Relief Ser vice staff members, all Ethiopians on their way to a training session in Nairobi, were also among the victims.

Fr Francis Ngadi, like Fr Mukua a Mariannhill Missionary, recalled the moment he learnt that his friend had been on the illfated flight to Nairobi.

“This was spine-chilling news to all of us,” h e t o l d T h e S o u t h e r n C ro s s , a d d i n g : “ A painful grimace engulfed us all.”

Fr Nagadi, chaplain at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, and Fr Mukua travelled the road to the priesthood together, beginning with the postulancy programme in Kenya back in 2000. They then proceeded to the novitiate in Mariannhill Monaster y and later to St Joseph’s Theological Institute (SJJTI) in Cedara, KwaZulu-Natal.

Fr Mukua made his first profession in the congregation on Februar y 2, 2004.

“He was a great handyman and could fix anything,” Fr Ngadi recalled. “ A t o n e p o i n t h e a n d t h e l a t e F r Vi t u s Mjengu sacrificed their holidays in order to volunteer and do general renovations. They painted the entire scholasticate building in

S ou o u t h e r n C ross ro oss ss Pilgrimage outher Led by Archbishop William Slattery OFM For more information or to book, please contact Gail at info@fowlertours.co.za or phone/WhatsApp 076 352‐3809

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left: young Gerry on his motorbike

SA bishops decry racist terrorism STAFF REPoRTER

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Fr George Kageche Mukua’s final Facebook post with the caption: “Kenya here I come”, shared the night before he died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Cedara; something that powerfully resonates with the selfless character of Abbot Francis Pfanner, our founder.”

Fr Mjengu died on November 6, 2018, from injuries sustained in a car accident.

Fr Mukua studied theology at SJTI from 2007-10 and is remembered by the scholasticate’s president, Fr Ewen Swartz OMI, as a hard-working student.

“He was dedicated to his studies and an active member of the institute community.

We were both shocked and saddened to hear Continued on page 11

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tion, taken up and spent all in one go on identified recipients.”

“Every contribution is a blessing,” Fr McAleer said, adding that every November, “We pray for every contributor’s special intentions.” n To make a donation and have a share in this nationwide initiative, contact Fr McAleer at bmcaleer@ sacbc.org.za or phone 072 4694710.

Bottom right: The pair on the day he was ordained 25 years ago.

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Understanding Maryy’s role in salvation

tive committee of lay people who look after its day-to-day running.

“The difference between the Catholic Bishops’ Foundation and the Lenten Appeal is simple,” Fr McAleer said.

“A foundation is long-term, building up capital to make funds available for time to come,” he said.

“The Lenten Appeal is a collecDeacon Gerry Masters of Holy Spirit Catholic church in East london celebrated the silver anniversary of his ordination at Mass with his wife Norah at his side (top right).

PRICE CHECK

For the price of one issue of The Southern Cross you get a chocolate bar – with a bite taken out

At a recent meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Foundation trustees were (from left) SACBC secretary-general Sr Hermenegild Makoro CSP, Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, Fr Barney McAleer, Coadjutor Archbishop Abel Gabuza of Durban, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo of Bloemfontein, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, and John McKay.

S

PEAKING from an experience of attacks on mosques in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, and a history of racism in South Africa, the bishops of Southern Africa said they were “deeply appalled and grieved by the heinous attacks” on worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Australian right-wing extremist Brenton Tarrant, 28, murdered 50 Muslim worshippers in two terror attacks in Christchurch. In court following his arrest, he appeared lucid and mentally stable.

The death toll from Tarrant’s terror attacks exceeds New Zealand’s annual homicide rate.

In 2017, the latest figures, 35 people were murdered nationwide.

“We are particularly disturbed by the naked racism and Islamophobia that the known perpetrator expressed so openly and the threat that this act poses to religious diversity, the common good, and world peace,” Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) president Bishop Sithembele Sipuka said in a statement.

“Such dastardly acts put all of these noble values at great risk,”

he said.

“As a country that has borne the brunt of centuries of racism, we know only too well the atrocities that such twisted thinking can lead to.”

The bishops voiced their solidarity with “the people of New Zealand and with our Muslim sisters and brothers worldwide who are all rendered vulnerable by this attack”.

“In this sacred season of Lent we pledge anew our commitment to work for a just and peaceful world in which we can all live together as brothers and sisters,” the SACBC said.

The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

LOCAL

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Bishops to discuss sexual abuse of nuns

By FR RUSSEll PolliTT SJ

T

HE bishops of Southern Africa have decided to address the issue of sexual abuse of religious Sisters in the region.

Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), confirmed the decision had been made at the bishops’ last plenary meeting.

“Given the power imbalance between nuns, religious Sisters and priests, and the fact that we live in a patriarchal society, one expects this form of abuse. Now that it is being put on the table, hopefully cases will be revealed so that we can confront it,” he said in an interview with Spotlight.Africa.

“I have also learnt that abuse is not only committed by priests against religious Sisters. Statements suggest that some older Sisters groom and sexually abuse younger Sisters,” he said.

Bishop Sipuka emphasised that the responsibility of addressing this

problem resides not only with the bishops but also with religious superiors.

“Fortunately, in Southern Africa, there is a platform for engagement.

The Leadership of Consecrated Life and the bishops’ board meet twice a year. We will address this problem together,” Bishop Sipuka said, adding that Sisters must be empowered to reject sexual abuse.

“Women religious must be empowered to refuse any form of abuse by priests,” he said.

I

n terms of abuse in the Church generally, Bishop Sipuka said the biggest obstacle in addressing it “is the culture of silence”.

He also noted that “people don’t know where to turn when they have been abused”.

“I think the issue of abuse should be included in schools and catechetical programmes, and in the ongoing formation of the laity—in various groups like sodalities,” Bishop Sipuka said.

“First of all, we need to educate

people about sexual abuse. Secondly, we need to encourage people to come forward and report sexual abuse when it happens,” he said.

“Procedures and protocols for preventing abuse must be publicised and made widely known.”

The SACBC protocol for investigation of sexual abuse of minors by clergy was first published in 1994, and has been revised five times since.

“Already, cases of abuse in Southern Africa have been investigated and concluded. Some are still ongoing,” Bishop Sipuka said.

There is always room for improvement, he said, noting that the SACBC committee on professional conduct will study discussions from the recent Rome summit on abuse, at which Bishop Sipuka represented the SACBC, and follow up on them.

The bishop added that more emphasis and focus must be on prevention. “I will be advising that we study preventative measures, in-

Workshop for region’s young on synod

By ERiN CARElSE

A

WORKSHOP was held in Johannesburg for young people on the final document of the Vatican’s 2018 Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment.

The workshop, hosted by the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (Imbisa), was facilitated by Mike Greef, an associate of the Marist Brothers.

Youths at the workshop came from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. They were challenged to make concrete plans for their respective bishops’ conferences so that the synod becomes alive in their communities and the region.

Discussions on the document revealed the hunger young people have for constant contact and communication among themselves.

The idea of having a large gathering of youth, akin to World Youth Days, was mooted as a forum for

Bishop Sephamola Mopeli of Qacha’s Nek, lesotho, with some participants at an iMBiSA-hosted a workshop on the synod on youth. faith-sharing in the region.

Bishop Sephamola Mopeli of Qacha’s Nek, Lesotho, who is responsible for Imbisa’s pastoral department, followed all the discussions.

At the end of the workshop, he expressed his desire that the synod on young people become a true flame of hope in the communities where young people find themselves.

Bishop Mopeli also expressed his joy at seeing young and intelligent Catholics showing interest in such an important activity of the Church.

Participants were also led through a reflection on Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment and social justice, to spur them to be protagonists for care of the earth.

Contact Vocation Coordinator on: 072 989 2286 nardvocprom1855@gmail.com Facebook: Franciscan Nardini Sisters of the Holy Family

cluding the issue being part of formation in schools and catechetical programmes.”

B

ishop Sipuka said he supports a “zero-tolerance” approach.

“As far as I am concerned, any proven case of direct and intentional abuse of a minor must include that person being removed from the priesthood,” he said.

“A priest who abuses a minor is a sick person who should not have been ordained in the first place.

When abuse is proven, I think it also nullifies his ordination,” the bishop said.

“You could argue, using sacramental theology, that such a priest is defective material for the sacrament of orders. This renders his ordination invalid.

“Somebody who sacramentally represents Christ and acts in persona Christi, as it were, cannot abuse children and still claim to represent Christ,” Bishop Sipuka said.

This also requires steps to reduce ordaining “the wrong people” and

“intensifying human formation in our formation system”, he said.

“In regard to others who may have contributed to the abuse of children in an indirect way—like failing to prevent sexual abuse or making a misjudgment that leads to sexual abuse—they have to be dealt with according to each case,” the bishop said.

“Sanctions against such people, which may include expulsion from the priesthood, would have to be determined according to the gravity of their omission or commission.”

The SACBC president said that priests and bishops will be held accountable for abuse in Southern Africa.

“I can assure you that they will be held accountable wherever there is proof and responsibility/guilt.

“This will also apply for cases in which there is proof of negligence in preventing the sexual abuse of minors and in dealing with it when it occurred,” Bishop Sipuka said.

The Durban Catholic Players’ Guild will present the Way of the Cross at Mariannhill on Palm Sunday.

Brett Montanari played Jesus in the 2016 production.

Durban to perform Way of the Cross

T

HE Durban Catholic Players’ Guild will present its annual theatrical presentation of the Passion of Christ on Palm Sunday in Mariannhill, near Durban.

“The Way of the Cross” is being staged in association with the Knights of da Gama on April 14 at

15:00 at the grounds of the Mariannhill monastery church (behind the tea garden).

There is no entrance fee and all are welcome.

Parking is available in the monastery grounds. n For enquiries phone 083 564-2929.

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The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

INTERNATIONAL

German Church: We must debate sexuality, celibacy By ziTA BAlliNGER FlETCHER

T A recent study conducted worldwide, shows that cohabiting relationships are significantly less stable than marriage relationships.

Study: Cohabiting is far less stable than marriage

A

NEW study found that in 11 countries across the globe, cohabiting couples have more doubts about their relationship lasting and give less importance to their relationship than married couples do.

The Global Family and Gender Survey (GFGS) examined living situations in various countries. It found that among adults age 18-50 with children under age 18 living at home, married couples had more confidence in the lastingness of their relationships than those who were unmarried but living together.

Across Anglosphere countries, participants who were cohabiting with their partners were significantly more likely, in the past year, to have had serious doubts that their relationship with their partner would last.

The greatest difference was found in the US, where 36% of cohabiting couples indicated having had serious doubts, in contrast to

only 17% of married couples.

In Britain 39% of cohabiting couples were doubting their relationship’s stability. In Australia that number was 35%, in Canada and Ireland 34%, and in France 31%.

In South America, cohabiting parents were less likely to have relationship doubts, with the least likely being Argentina, where only 19% of cohabiting couples expressed doubt.

The smallest difference found was in France, where relationship confidence between married and cohabiting couples differed by only one percentage point.

In addition to relationship stability, the study also found that overall, cohabiting parents were less likely to define their relationship as “more important than almost anything else in life” compared with responses from married couples, though the difference varies from country to country.—CNA

Pope: ‘Corruption a cancer’

By CARol GlATz

T

HE constant temptation and cancer of corruption is one of the most devastating illnesses to befall society, Pope Francis said.

Corruption causes considerable damage both ethically and economically, he said in an audience with judges, administrators and staff from Italy’s court of audit, a government accountability office with judicial powers.

The pope told his audience that corruption, with its “illusion of fast and easy gains, in reality impoverishes everyone, erasing trust, transparency and integrity from the entire system. Corruption disheartens individual dignity and shatters all good and beautiful ideals”.

Public assets, he said, must be safeguarded for the benefit of everyone, especially the poor.

Whenever such assets have been used irresponsibly, Pope Francis added, “the state is called to carry out an indispensable function of vigilance, duly sanctioning illegal behaviour”.

“The meticulous inspection of budgets puts the brakes on the temptation—recurrent in those holding political or administrative office—to manage resources with an eye on patronage or mere electoral consensus rather than with prudence,” he said.

Everyone, including individual administrators, is called to be responsible and operate with transparency and honesty, strengthening a sense of trust between citizens and the government—a trust whose unravelling “is one of the gravest signs of the crisis of democracy”, Pope Francis said.

Christians believe Jesus himself “is urging us to openly face this evil and to go to the roots of problems”, the pope said.

“He teaches us to personally pay the price in this fight, not out of pursuing an unrealistic heroism and undisguised attention-seeking, but with the humble tenacity of a person who does his or her job, often hidden, resisting the pressures of the world.”—CNS

HE Catholic Church in Germany is at a point where serious debate—including on priestly celibacy and the role of women—and openness to doing things in a new way must encouraged, said the president of the German bishops’ conference.

“Shakeups demand special proceedings,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx, conference president, said at the end of the bishops’ plenary meeting in Lingen.

The sexual abuse scandal and demands for reform have changed the German Church, the cardinal said.

“The Church in Germany is experiencing a break. The faith can only grow and deepen if we are liberated from blocked thinking, in order to pursue free and open debates, and the ability to take new positions and go down new paths.

“The Church needs a synodal advancement. Pope Francis encourages this,” said Cardinal Marx. “We will create formats for open debates and bind ourselves to proceedings that facilitate a responsible participation of women and men from our dioceses.

“We know about the cases of clerical abuses of power. It betrays the trust of people searching for firm footing and religious orientation.

What must be done to achieve the necessary reduction of power and to construct a fairer and legally bound order will be to clarify a synodal path,” Cardinal Marx said.

Germany’s bishops said they are still working on how to move forward following the sexual abuse scandal and other pressing issues.

“Many voices can be heard saying that there must be a concrete list of measures. I can only say in reply that

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich speaks during a news conference at the bishops’ spring meeting in lingen. The sexual abuse scandal and demands for reform have changed the German church, the cardinal said at the end of the meeting. (Photo: Harald oppitz, KNA/CNS) we have this catalogue and we are still working on the points named there,” Cardinal Marx said.

During the meeting, the bishops heard the analyses and opinions of theology professors, female administrators within the Church, and Church officials on issues pertaining to the sexual abuse crisis, Church law, women in Church administration, and Catholic sexual morality.

He said debates on celibacy require further study.

“We treasure celibacy as an expression of religious commitment to God. How far it must adhere to the witness of priests in our Church, we will find out,” he said.

Cardinal Marx also said Catholic sexual morality is in need of development. “We perceive that we are often not versed in questions regarding modern sexual behaviour,” he said.

The cardinal said he was aware that the results of the conference would not satisfy many people.

He also acknowledged the wide-

spread disillusionment among German Catholics.

“At this assembly, we have seen, heard and experienced that you, the believers in whose service we stand and with whom we feel bound in community, accompany our consultations with criticism,” said Cardinal Marx.

He thanked the faithful for their prayers and their criticism.

“We would like to tell you that we see and hear you. Your criticisms, worries, hardships, doubts and demands,” he said. “I tell you sincerely—we understand it.”

Cardinal Marx also commented on his experience attending the Vatican summit on protection of minors, convened by Pope Francis.

“The conference was not about a hastily assembled list of measures, but rather a globally realistic view and the awareness: We bear responsibility to the victims across the whole world,” he said. “None of us can negate or completely taboo the problem any longer.”—CNS

‘Church must accept and follow local laws on abuse’

By CiNDy WooDEN

T

HE Catholic Church must respect the law and accept court decisions regarding clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up, said Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, a leading expert in child protection.

Interviewed by Vatican News, Fr Zollner noted that in 2011 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made it clear to bishops’ conferences around the world that the Church must obey civil laws regarding cases of abuse.

“So, if a state—in a durably democratic, regulated and legitimate situation—arrives at the conclusion that a representative of the Church, whether a deacon, priest, bishop or cardinal has committed a crime, this must not only be respected, it must be accepted. This must be the norm of the Church,” said Fr Zollner, a member of the Pontifical Commis-

sion for the Protection of Minors and one of the chief organisers of the summit on child protection held at the Vatican in February.

In an interview looking back at the February meeting, Fr Zollner said several bishops’ conferences already have revised or begun revising their guidelines for protecting children and handling abuse allegations.

And, he said, results should be seen “soon” on projects promised by the Vatican: namely, the promulgation of guidelines for Vatican City State; and a vademecum (handbook) by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explaining, step by step, how bishops and religious superiors should handle abuse allegations and how they should prepare the relevant documents for the doctrinal congregation when an accusation is found to be credible.

Fr Zollner also noted how, “im-

mediately after the meeting ended”, the Catholic Church experienced “very terrible and upsetting news” with the conviction and sentencing of Australian Cardinal George Pell on charges of sexual abuse of minors and the conviction of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon on charges of covering up abuse by a priest.

The French cardinal, 68, was given a six-month suspended sentence in the case. He has met with Pope Francis to submit his resignation.

The guilty verdict against Cardinal Pell, who maintains his innocence and is appealing his conviction, and against Cardinal Barbarin, Fr Zollner said, demonstrate that Church officials, including cardinals, are “no longer untouchable” and that governments will apply the law to them as well.—CNS

Pope hopes to visit S Sudan

By CiNDy WooDEN

A

S the process to implement a peace accord in South Sudan continues, Pope Francis met with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and expressed the hope that, finally, he would be able to visit the country.

During the meeting in the papal library, the pope and president discussed “matters regarding the implementation of the agreement recently reached by various parties with a view to a definitive solution to the conflicts, the return of refugees and displaced persons, and the integral development of the country”.

In December 2013, tensions be-

tween political factions erupted and civil war broke out in South Sudan and tens of thousands of people have died in the past year and millions have been displaced.

Pope Francis “expressed the wish to ascertain the conditions for a possible visit to South Sudan, as a sign of closeness to the population and of encouragement for the peace process”.

In late 2017, Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro of Juba and other Church leaders invited Pope Francis and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury to visit South Sudan together to bring a message of peace directly to the country’s leaders and citizens.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

5

African youth network: Listen to young people

By FREDRiCK NzWili

T The cross of St Michael is seen in Montserrat, Spain. A group of nine Spanish seminarians were beatified as Catholic martyrs from the country's civil war persecution. (Photo: Susana Vera, Reuters/CNS)

Church beatifies nine more Spanish martyrs

A

22-YEAR-OLD who was shot 11 times in the street and a 21year-old stabbed to death after being imprisoned in his local church are among a group of nine Spanish seminarians beatified as Catholic martyrs from the country’s civil war persecution.

“They wanted to be priests, but God chose the altar of highest sacrifice for them in a Mass that does not end,” Archbishop Jesus Sanz Montes of Oviedo said in a pastoral letter.

“Spain’s Christian history tells a paradoxical story through the bodies of its martyrs—the joy of life that survives the agonising death of Christians killed in hatred of the faith, victims of a terrible confusion, a crazed persecution, a repression in the name of freedom which killed freedom.”

The archbishop published the letter to mark the beatification of Angel Cuartas Cristobal and four fellow seminarians, who were dragged from their seminary and shot before an angry crowd on October 7, 1934, when republican forces overran Spain’s northern Asturias region.

Another seminarian, Mariano Suarez Fernandez, was shot at Oviedo the previous June, while the remaining three were killed during the subsequent 1936-39 civil war.

Archbishop Montes said all nine had given their lives “in a gesture of supreme freedom, with a holy heroism made possible by God’s grace”, adding that their stories should summon local Catholics “to awaken their faith, and shake off any lethargic or comfortable mediocrity”.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes, who celebrated the beatification Mass, said the seminarians, ages 18-25, had all come from “simple Christian families and humble social origins”, but had also been “enthusiastic, cordial and devoted”, and “convinced of their vocation to the ministerial priesthood”.

“They were determined to follow the call of Jesus, despite the climate of religious intolerance, and knew the snares and dangers they faced,” Cardinal Becciu told those gathered in Oviedo cathedral.

“Their identity as ordinands amounted to a death sentence, which could be executed immediately, and there was no doubting the fate that awaited them once identified. In these tragic circumstances, each of them therefore consciously offered his life for Christ.”

Around 8 000 Catholic clergy and religious order members and tens of thousands of lay Catholics were killed during the 1930s conflict, after an anti-clerical Popular Front government sanctioned a campaign to desecrate and destroy churches, convents and monasteries.

An Oviedo archdiocesan statement said one seminarian, Gonzalo Zurro Fanjul, had shouted “Viva Christo Rey” (Long live Christ the King) when he was shot, while another, Sixto Alonso Hevia, had urged his family to forgive his persecutors before he was killed with a knife after being held in the local church with his father.—CNS

HE head of an African youth network urged the world’s religions to embrace the voices of young people, as the leaders explore ways to tackle the current global ecological crisis.

Allen Ottaro, founder and executive director of the Catholic Youth Network for Environment Sustainability for Africa, said young people were aware of the current realities of climate change and were ready to join in the search for solutions.

“Youth have said they will do their homework, but you adults also need to do yours,” Mr Ottaro said during a side event during the UN Environment Nairobi Convention.

“While we are asking for space, we’re also prepared to take responsibilities. The best way to take responsibilities is to get involved in those decision-making processes that ultimately affect our future.”

Mr Ottaro was one of several delegates from faith and faith-related organisations who attended the UN convention in Nairobi. More than 5 000 delegates from around the world gathered to discuss ways of accelerating environmental protection.

“We can no longer delay taking action to protect people and this planet,” Joyce Msuya, acting executive director of the UN Environmental Programme, said at the opening session.

French President Emmanuel Macron echoed a similar call at the

Allen ottaro, who has called for youth inclusion in the search for solutions to the current global ecological crisis at the UN Environment Convention in Nairobi, Kenya.

(Photo: Fredrick Nzwili/CNS) meeting, noting that young people were pushing for urgent action.

“Our youths are saying: You are not moving fast enough. They are right to get impatient, because we are too late,” he said.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledged the presence of faith leaders at the meeting, saying they could provide useful lessons in environmental protections.

“Faiths for Earth” was a side event at the assembly. The Catholic Youth Network for Environment Sustainability for Africa joined Brahma Kumaris, a worldwide Hindu spiritual movement, to host a session during the side event, where Mr Ottaro spoke.

He said faiths should not fear

young people’s critical voices even when the matter is sensitive and controversial.

“Young people are not a time bomb. They are a key asset to tap into care for our common home. We need to tap into this asset, rather than see it as a time bomb. They are not the future but the now of God,” he said. He also urged young people to raise their voices so that they can be heard by their leaders.

Catholic youths from South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda and launched the youth network in 2012 after being inspired by Pope John Paul II’s 1990 World Day of Peace message, which called for increasing ecological awareness and finding fitting expressions in concrete programmes and initiatives.

The network aims to unite young Catholics in Africa in the response to climate change and environmental degradation, through creating awareness, training, networking groups and supporting parishes in work around the environment.

“We are looking at how we can use Catholic social teaching to form young people to discover how they are called to care for creation as Catholics. We are also looking at formation on ecological issues to understand what is happening to our common home through climate change,” Mr Ottaro said, referring to Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’.—CNS

Passion Pilgrimage 2020

Belgian Cardinal dies at 85

By JUNNo ARoCHo ESTEVES

B

ELGIAN Cardinal Godfried Danneels, retired archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, died on March 14 at the age of 85.

Born on June 4 1933, in Kanegem, Belgium, Cardinal Danneels was the oldest of six children. He was ordained a priest in 1957 and two years later became chairman of the department of theology and spiritual director at the seminary in Bruges. In 1969, he became professor of theology at Louvain University.

Known as a lecturer and a liturgist, he was appointed by Pope Paul VI as bishop of Antwerp in 1977.

Two years later, he was named archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and subsequently created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II. At 49, Cardinal Danneels in 1983 became the third youngest member of the College of Cardinals.

Throughout his life, the Belgian cardinal was outspoken in calling for a more decentralised approach to Church governance that relied more on consultation with the world’s bishops.

He also called for a change in the Church’s approach to evangelising in the modern world and called on the

Cardinal Godfried Danneels, 85, retired archbishop of MechelenBrussels, Belgium, has died.

(Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) Catholic Church to admit that it might be a part of the problem of people’s indifference to the existence of God. Despite being respected within and outside the Church, Cardinal Danneels faced criticism in 2010 for his handling of a meeting with a victim of clergy sex abuse by a local bishop.

Cardinal Danneels’ death leaves the College of Cardinals with 222 members, 122 of whom are under the age of 80 and, therefore, eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The ideal politician

A

S South Africans prepare to vote on May 8, they will survey the promises, ideologies and track-records of the various parties and the candidates they are fielding for election.

By and large, they will find little evidence in our politics of what Pope Francis calls a “noble activity”.

To the pope, and his predecessors, politics is a “high form of charity” that serves the common good.

While there certainly are politicians of integrity and good character even in South Africa’s chronically corrupt politics, the public will be more familiar with a low form of “charity”, in which the beneficiaries are the politicians themselves, their allies, their funders, their families and their friends.

Especially coming off a kleptocratic regime which plundered South Africa with impunity for nine years—and with the prospect of some of these economic saboteurs returning to sit in parliament instead of jail—the Holy Father’s notion of nobility in politics will be lost on many South Africans.

But in defining politics as a noble vocation, the pope is encouraging us to purify our parliaments and councils of those who negate that nobility.

“Politics is, first of all, a service,” Pope Francis has said. “It is not the slave of individual ambitions, of the arrogance of factions or interest groups. As service, it is also not a master that pretends to rule all the dimensions of people’s lives.”

In this way he also calls on politicians to reform themselves in their vocations as public servants.

What would the ideal Catholicminded politician look like?

The perfect Catholic politician, if there could be such a thing, would be a true servant of the people he or she was appointed to represent and serve.

Perfect Catholic politicians would be profoundly concerned with issues of social justice and peace, among the citizens they serve and among nations. They would strongly resist elective military action, placing dialogue and negotiation before acts of belligerence.

They would exercise a preferential option for the poor, and oppose unwarranted spending on armaments or unnecessary projects.

They would be, by inclination

and in practice, solidly pro-life and pro-family. They would seek to protect all human life from conception to natural death.

Perfect Catholic politicians would regard policies and practices that mutilate the environment as an affront to God’s creation, and take action accordingly.

They would stand up to corruption, nepotism and political deal-making. They would take the good fight to businesses which exploit and defraud the people by acts such as price-fixing and other forms of collusion.

They would defend the right of workers to strike for a fair salary, but also safeguard the people from the effects of undue excess in industrial actions.

They would exercise their faith in the Gospel within a political ministry, independent of secular ideology or party line. In their private lives they would always strive to be models of integrity.

And they would do all that without compromising their obligations to their constituents, not all of whom may be Catholic.

Such a politician is rare. Certainly, within systems of direct representation—such as those in the United States and Britain— they would find it difficult to be elected, or perhaps even to raise the requisite funds to fight an election campaign.

And because such a politician would not tolerate corruption, incompetence, mismanagement and other characteristics of the modern politician, but act with an independent sense of virtue, he or she would probably not be in the mainstream of popular parties—even as the members of these parties and the public may cry out for ethical leaders.

But, as Pope Francis told Latin American politicians in 2017, there is a clear need for leaders who passionately serve the people.

There is a need, the pope said, for political leaders who are in solidarity with the people’s sufferings and hopes, who “put the common good before their private interests, who don’t let themselves be intimidated by the great financial and media powers, who are competent and patient in the face of complex problems, who are open to listening and to learning in a democratic dialogue, who combine the quest for justice with mercy and reconciliation”.

We must support such leaders, and reject those who clearly are in it only for themselves.

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.

We have become mere ‘merchandise’

O

NCE the market was seen as a site of exchange, of encounter among people, as a place of demonstrating one’s own skills and productivity.

It was also a place of confrontation and a meeting of people where often minor issues of community living were addressed.

At the time of Jesus, the market of Jerusalem was the most important one in the region and was linked to the Temple. It was under supervision of the priests.

All four evangelists relate the encounter of Jesus with the merchants at the market. In the gospel of John the temple is named a “market hall” and in the synoptic gospels a “den of robbers”.

Jesus was a travelling carpenter and would have encountered people at market places in the villages.

The fact that he had never criticised those rural markets suggests that the noise and commotion associated with the one in Jerusalem had become incompatible with the respect and ritual associated with the temple as a place of worship for all members of the Jewish community and that the transactions had become unjust.

The prices charged for the animals needed for sacrifices to be offered according to the Law had

Our fasting offers us self-discovery

H

UMANITY falling away from God and into sin began with Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, of good and evil (Gen 2:17).

When Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry—not for food but for discovery. He was discovering his life and fighting temptation in the wilderness. As Christians, fasting during Lent is all about reflection and recovering our true spiritual nature.

Fasting is preparation for reflection on our own weaknesses, selfdiscovery, and change. Fasting is a means of self-discipline, and restraining of our appetites. Fasting saves and gives to the poor in need.

Stephen Mokoena, Odendaalsrus

Abuse summit empty repetition

W

ATCHING highlights from the Vatican summit on abuse, I cannot see how SACBC head Bishop Sithembele Sipuka can make the sweeping statement (March 6) that the summit “will be a turning point

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become too high for the majority.

The market in the Temple had become a tool of violence and thus a site of injustice and disrespect towards Yahweh.

In our economic system the market is no longer restricted to a place of meeting and bargaining, but includes negotiations between governments, major banks, advanced electronic media and huge shopping complexes.

An important part of these national and international markets is advertising, inviting people to unlimited consumption by arousing and persuading them of the necessity of satisfying real or mostly imagined needs by buying.

People are made to believe that there is a real link between their increasing engagement in buying and selling, and their happiness.

T

he ultimate goal of the modern market is not the creation of happiness or satisfaction, employment or care for others or the Earth, but to make profit for personal enrichment.

At present there is nothing, whether of a material make-up or of human or spiritual nature, that cannot and is not being sucked into the domain of advertising and marketing.

in the life of the Church.”

It has taken almost 20 years since the Boston abuse scandal first broke to come up with nothing new, the same old “we are going to fix things” and “zero-tolerance”.

This is regurgitated drivel and will continue to divide the Catholic Church until real responsibility is taken by the leadership who have covered up the many scandals, and by their silence continue to do so.

How many Church leaders have been prosecuted for the cover-up of abuse in South Africa?

They cannot receive mercy until they come clean. They haven’t fooled me. Not good enough. Epic failure.

Caine Stadler, Cape Town

Vatican fails again on root causes

F

ATHER Chris Townsend does not have much trust in high-level summits, saying they achieve little (March 6). He is right.

The Vatican summit on sexual abuse merely repeated promises that the Church will not tolerate abuse. Yet five years ago, the papal commission for the protection of minors had created a handbook, with the necessary steps to be taken in case of sexual abuse.

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The experience of what makes our lives not only worthwhile but also truly human and spiritual can be and is to be bought.

We have become “merchandise” valued for our capacity to add to the market by production and consumption.

The market has become one of the major tools to make money, the modern idol. Without money and material wealth we are without value, in fact useless.

Our earth is God’s creation. Yet the ongoing deterioration of creation caused by our lack of respect and care, and the exploitation of its resources—soil, water, forests, animals, minerals and justice—renders the earth a noisy market-hall, far from being a site of life, love and worship, as well as honest and enjoyable conversation.

Our trade relations too are mostly exploitative, allowing a minority of very capable and rich people to increase their wealth and power while rendering the majority near-powerless and increasingly poor.

If Christ came to walk among us today, would he not challenge many of us not to turn God’s temple—creation—into a noisy market hall with bandits engaged in trading?

Sr Angelika Laub OP, Pretoria 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

Fr Townsend writes too that to change a thing you have to define the problem. He is right again. The summit concentrated on the symptoms of abuse, not its real cause.

The real cause of sexual abuse is clerical homosexuality.

Polish priest Fr Dariusz Oko published in 2015 the essay “With the Pope Against Homoheresy” and estimates 40-50% of all priests are homosexual, and 50-60% of all bishops.

Frédéric Martel, in his book In the Closet of the Vatican, estimates 80% of Vatican officials are gay.

There is another handbook, the Book of Gomorrah by St Peter Damian, circa 1050, which deals with clerical homosexuality and indicates what steps to take.

But their implementation is avoided by Vatican supporters of the gay lifestyle.

So don’t expect this abomination of clerical sodomy, which cries to heaven for vengeance, to disappear soon.

JH Goossens, Pretoria

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PERSPECTIVES “but since people are homeless, these items are really not that useful.”

The next two boxes contained curtains.

Again, it’s not exactly what homeless people need on account of being, well, homeless. Then some boxes with old picture frames. I could see a pattern here...

In the end, 19 of the 20 boxes went back in the car. To be fair, the kind woman seemed to understand why.

I

have no doubt that she had good intentions. She might have thought that she could give us everything and we could then get rid of what we did not want.

But it costs us time and fuel to get rid of things. A simple phone call would have saved her the R50 she wasted on fuel.

Often what is useless for us is also useless for other people, and we cannot make ourselves feel better about buying new clothes or new gadgets by dumping the obsolete ones on the poor.

And even when things are useful, they need to be targeted at the right organisation. Just because the Denis Hurley Centre does not need something does not mean that someone else might not have use for it. But that would require a donor having to ring different charities and churches to find various good homes, and that is a lot to ask.

In some cities, there are organisations

lots of shoes which might be useful to some but would be useless to homeless. in his column, Raymond Perrier asks that we take more care in choosing what old items to donate. (Photo: Steven Watts)

Faith and Society

that act as a storehouse for items to distribute to other organisations who will need them. They collect what people do not want—specialising in clothes, or furniture or toys—and then are known to be a collection point for individuals and organisations that need those same things.

It is something that around the world the Society of St Vincent de Paul has done with great success, though I do not know if they do it in many parts of South Africa.

The Dutch Reformed Church organises every year in June a national campaign called “Winterhoop” in which churches are drop-off points for donated goods.

These items—foods, blankets, clothes and so on—are sorted and stored so that organisations in the area can collect what they need for their outreach.

It takes hard work and you need a place to store things, people to sort items, and often a vehicle to collect. And it also takes the strength to say no to people who are just using you as a free disposal service.

In the age of technology, there are online versions of the same principle. Freecycle.org is a great website where, around the world, people in an area can offer things for free and other people in the same area can find things for free—provided they are willing to collect.

It is noticeable though that there are very few groups in South Africa, perhaps because the people who need free stuff generally do not have the access to the transportation needed to collect what is on offer.

Another solution to this is for charities to be specific about what they need— and for donors to listen to what is being asked for. We now do this at the Denis Hurley Centre with second-hand clothes.

We never make a general appeal for clothes since 95% of what we receive is of no use to us. It is mostly women’s clothes, whereas 80% of the people we see are men; and the men’s clothes we get are larger Continued on page 11

Catechesis the keys to evangelisation Ani Joseph C Arinze ATECHESIS, as we all know, is the traditional Catholic instruction of faith through Christ which is given to all Christians, especially when preparing for the sacrament of confirmation.

An effective catechesis is way beyond recitation of doctrinal instructions or formulas (as most obviously practised in our Catholic world today). It is also a tool to be focused and reflected on daily for a fervent reinstatement of our faith in Christ Jesus.

The faithful of this 21st century seemingly are ignoring that catechesis is a basic guidance to lead us to God’s words on how best to remain faithful to him and walk daily in his grace in all steps of our lives through the interpretations of Holy Scriptures.

In Nigeria, for instance, ignorance of the effectiveness of the catechesis has led to the loss of many Catholic faithful.

A priest once described the way we treat the catechesis as “a very thirsty man who is swimming in the purest of waters and refusing to drink of it”.

Catechesis is an evangelising tool which goes far beyond one man, one family, one community or one nation. It is meant to reach all nations, as evangelisation is an on-going attempt to fulfil the mandate given to the Church by Christ to make disciples of all nations. It cannot be a finite action with an endpoint; it is a continuous process that the Church must carry out until the end of time.

Yes, it is great if we can recite the vari-

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A family walks with gifts towards the altar during a Mass at Holy Rosary church in Abuja, Nigeria. in his column, Ani Joseph Arinze stresses the importance of catechesis within families. (Photo: Afolabi Sotunde, Reuters/CNS) ous prayers and formulas well, but it will be better if we can make the contents of the words a habit in our daily lives.

Although the methodology, strategy and scope of catechetics may be quite elastic and flexible, the content is sacrosanct.

But we must be flexible. The world is changing so rapidly that most of the evangelisation methods used in the past are becoming less effective.

At the same time, some of the old methods remain valid and useful for all times.

W

e need to evangelise through our catechetical activities, as well as turning evangelisation into a means of catechesis.

That is important because even

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Think before you give T HE Lord reminds us it is better to give than to receive. During Lent, I am sure that most readers are focused on the value of giving.

But as someone who runs an organisation that is often on the receiving end of people’s desire to give, I would like to offer some cautions.

A meme was running round Facebook the other day encouraging people to support a seeming act of Lenten self-sacrifice.

The idea is that for each of the 40 days of the season, you go through your cupboards and find some item of clothing or houseware or gadget that you do not want and set it aside. At the end of the 40 days, these can be “given to the poor”.

But hang on a minute. First of all, you are giving away something you don’t want—so not much self-sacrifice there. Secondly, you are doing it piece by piece—a sock today, a broken can-opener tomorrow—which is hardly an act of abundant generosity.

But most importantly the assumption is that all of the stuff you don’t want will be lapped up by the poor.

If you are in the middle of this act of Lenten devotion, may I ask you to pause and think about whether any of what you give is actually going to be useful to the poor for whom it is destined.

Have you given thought to what people need or have you asked one of the many organisations that caters for them? You might find that your sack of 40 “gifts” was better not to be given at all.

Let me give you a cautionary example.

A well-meaning woman arrived at the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban recently and started carrying in items cleared out of her house to be donated for the homeless.

Twenty boxes arrived.

I came out to thank her but also to check what was in the boxes. “Oh, this one has bed linen.” Good, I thought, blankets.

But no, the box had duvet covers and pillows. Not exactly useful for someone who is sleeping on the streets, especially since they have to carry their belongings around with them all day.

“Thank you,” I patiently explained,

The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

Catholics need on-going formation to keep them rooted in the household of faith— and to turn them into evangelisers, too.

Parish catechetics and external evangelisation efforts and outreach are the obvious forms of evangelisation, as are ministries of seed planting and of invitation and connection, and so on.

More often neglected is family evangelism.

The family is the most primary and vital place for catechesis. If it is lost in your family, seek a way to reinstate it, as it is the vital tool to the success of your family in Christ Jesus.

When love, happiness, luxury, earthly success can no longer hold the family together, Jesus and your faith in him as a family will.

Evangelisation is a call on all Catholic faithful, young and old, to a personal and life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ through the Church. It encourages us to hear the Gospel and deepen our understanding of the teachings of the Church, to apply that wisdom to lived Christian witness, and in turn to evangelise those around us and the society in which we live.

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A member of Doctors Without Borders attends to a patient in a refugee camp. in April, Pope Francis asks us to pray for humanitarian workers, especially those in dangerous regions. (Photo: MSF)

Chris Chatteris SJ

Pray with the Pope

Pray for those who risk their lives Intention: For doctors and their humanitarian collaborators in war zones, who risk their lives to save the lives of others.

HE fog of war is a dangerous place to be, but we are thankful that there are those who will take their chances in such a terrifying environment for the sake of humanity in general and for sick and injured people in particular.

There are many unsung heroes doing their best to protect and to save people in the world’s war zones. Some have given their lives for this.

We tend not to notice them precisely because they do not go out to attract notice. Grandstanding is not their style.

Furthermore, many of the conflicts where they do their good work have been going on for so long that “compassion fatigue” has turned the world’s attention away from them.

It has often been observed that most people are willing to make sacrifices, even the supreme one, for their own country and kin. But to go to another land and risk one’s life in someone else’s conflict commands our attention and admiration.

The risks to members of these organisations are not just that they labour in the physical danger of war-zones. The politics with which they have to contend can be equally deadly.

In such conflicts the protagonists often take the crude view that “you’re either for us or against us”. Groups which serve anyone, whichever side they are on, are suspect and vulnerable.

T

M

embers of the Red Cross, for example, can all too easily get hurt in the propaganda war that mirrors the actual war. If they raise their voices against one or the other side of atrocities, or even against both sides, this is very dangerous for them.

A Syrian organisation called the White Helmets has recently experienced this. It was set up to help save and evacuate the thousands of civilians caught up in the civil war in Syria. For a while it was the darling of the press, generating heart-stirring stories of heroism and dramatic images.

Suddenly a cloud of suspicion enveloped it. It was said to have been set up by a former British military man. It received Western financial support, so how could it be neutral in the struggle?

It was accused of staging photo-ops and even of being a terrorist organisation.

Fact-checking journalists took a closer look and came to the conclusion that these stories were fake news created by a Russian disinformation campaign. But, of course, once such stories have been injected into the Internet, they remain out there and continue to be read and passed on.

Some may go viral.

A concerted campaign of false news can effectively destroy a reputation, even if it is later corrected. Once a reputation has been destroyed, physical elimination may not be far behind in these savage circumstances.

These are some of the hazards of the groups that the pope asks us to remember in our prayers.

When you are trying to save lives under perilous circumstances in conflicts that seem neverending and you are being attacked by powerful propaganda machines, you need all the support you can get.

The universal reach of humanitarian organisations pays tribute to the way in which human rights have come to be seen as universal and indivisible. That the right to life and security should be enjoyed by everyone, not just privileged peoples in wealthy countries, and that if there are those who are not enjoying them somewhere in the world, then we are all threatened and even deprived.

“An injury to one” really is an injury to us all.

8

The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

COMMUNITY

Members of the Catholic Women’s league manned the tables on Shrove Tuesday at our lady of Fatima parish in Durban North.

(Submitted by Anna Accolla)

Send your photos to

pics@ scross.co.za

Marist Brothers linmeyer School in Johannesburg South celebrated Ash Wednesday. After liturgy readings and a talk by Fr Sean McEwan, the staff, students and parents received ashes on their foreheads, spread in a cross pattern to symbolise their repentance and willingness to change over the lenten season.

Parishioners at St Margaret Mary’s parish in Green Point, Cape Town, enjoyed pancakes together on Shrove Tuesday.

(From left) Anne Power, Franca Falanga, Gloria links, and Teresa omodeo.

The event was a fundraiser for children’s catechism.

A tree-planting ceremony was held at De la Salle Holy Cross College in Victory Park, Johannesburg, in honour of the tercentenary of founder St John Baptiste de la Salle.

Fellow lasallian school la Salle College in Roodepoort gave the olive tree, which symbolises peace, to Victory Park. (Submitted

by Mary Hyam)

Junior primary pupils at St Teresa’s School in Rosebank, Johannesburg, celebrated Shrove Tuesday with pancakes.

The young adults group of St Anthony’s parish in Pietermaritzburg held a Taizé evening as part of their lenten journey. The invitation was extended to other parishioners in the vicinity. The evening included songs, scripture readings, prayers, meditation and listening.

Finally, all the participants came before the statue of our lady with personal prayer intentions. (Submitted by lynette Noel)

St Anthony’s parish in Sedgefield hosted the World Women’s Day of Prayer this year. More than 80 women from different denominations were invited, with the proceedings being in both English and Afrikaans. After the service, the women were served tea in the parish hall by the men of St Anthony’s. (Submitted by John laros)

Mater Domini Launches the Circle of Friends “100 Club” Planned Giving initiative.

Mater Domini is well known for its good work across the Cape Peninsula, providing vital services to Women in Crisis Pregnancy.

Join the 'The Mater Domini Circle of Friends 100 Club'. – donate at least R100 per month Please join hands with us and help us to make a strong start to this initiative!

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The U13 boys’ basketball team at Sacred Heart College in observatory, Johannesburg, won the St John’s Tournament.

CHURCH

The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

9

Our chance to be a listening Church With all the recent scandals, the Catholic Church is at a crossroad, with an opportunity to become a listening Church, argues SiPHiWE MKHizE.

O

N the road to Emmaus, according to Luke, there came a point when Jesus made as if to go on without the two disciples, but they pressed him to stay with them (24:28).

The universal Church in these strange times is at such a crossroads. The cases of defrocked excardinal Theodore McCarrick and Australian Cardinal George Pell may be instructive.

In the midst of crisis, the most common human reaction, understandably, is an impulse to do something.

As our Church reels from longoverdue revelations of clerical sexual abuse (both of minors and women, including religious Sisters) and corruption, there is an overriding, incontrovertible need for action.

When one receives diagnosis of a serious ailment, the response is often twofold: amelioration of symptoms and attacking the underlying disease. The vile symptoms of this disease afflicting the Church must always be condemned and rooted out.

But when abuse is aimed at the most innocent and most vulnerable, the need to address the severity of the symptom predominates, delaying further action.

However, this abuse must be addressed not only symptomatically but also causally. In other words, we must acknowledge and teat the underlying disease.

“The voices of others—especially the victimised, excluded, marginalised and denigrated—can restore the Church from its disease of power,” writes Dr Siphiwe Mkhize.

All forms of abuse are rooted in cultures of power and self-aggrandisement. Regretfully, our Church has persistently created and preserved hierarchies of power validated by spurious absolutist claims to superiority: male over female, clerics over nuns, those ordained over laity, and so on.

Judgment and exclusion A Church called to witness the love and compassion of the triune God too often has exercised judgment and exclusion instead, purportedly in the name of preserving truth. Church leaders have become comfortable as elite teachers more than companions and co-disciples.

As a result, they fail to attend to the voice of the Spirit amid the People of God. It cannot be said that listening

is absent. Catholics are well-practised in the art of listening, in one sense.

Papal announcements are listened to, after which everyone from across the spectrum (whichever spectrum you choose) responds within their own echo chamber.

Similarly, hierarchs and clergy and laity may listen to alternative voices, only to explain, within their own networks, why the alternative voice is misguided, in error or naïve.

While listening occurs, it fails to convert to a new understanding of the movement of the Spirit in our lives and in our world.

However, a listening Church necessarily is a Church of conversion, which will take us out of the crossroads.

Pope Francis has frequently ing” of privilege, this process decalled the Church, specifically mands nurturing and careful pracbishops, to become better listen- tice. To become a Listening ers. In his 2018 document Episco- Church of conversion, we need to palis Communio, he indicated that create structures of dialogue with a bishops must listen to the People little more openness to the other.

We need to acknowledge our of God to more fully discern the own personal fallibility movement of the Holy and so enter into any Spirit. dialogue with a little In other words, a bishop’s listening must Church leaders less certainty that being of listeners lead to his conversion, have become awillChurch bring, because disjust as the pope’s listening must lead to his comfortable cernment seldom takes a quick route. fuller understanding of as elite We need to be prehow he is to exercise pared to live in the tenthe charism of leaderteachers sion of seeing “through ship. a glass, darkly” (1 Cor However, listening more than 13:12) with only the cannot be limited to special occasions such companions certitude that, through our openness and huas Synod of Bishops, and mility, the Spirit will Summits on Sexual speak and “lead us to all Abuse, and so on. Lisco-disciples. truth” (Jn 16:13). tening must become Along with causing the very lifeblood of pain and outrage, the the Church.

This medicine for the disease of acknowledgement of the betrayal power which is devastating the of the Community of Faith, of its Church is a remedy that is not so Christian mission presents an opeasy to swallow. This listening de- portunity for decision/conversion. mands a new humility.

This time of crisis is a time for It is listening to the other, not simply being informed of their re- us, all members constituting the ality. Rather, it means listening in Body of Christ, to move from illsilence and asking how what I hear ness to health, to rebuild the Church as a community of listenreveals the Spirit to me. ers perpetually converted by the A Church of conversion gift of the Holy Spirit.

Clerics must listen to laity in When the two disciples made humility, not for politeness or their choice at their crossroads even respect, but rather with a they, through their encounter with willingness to hear truths which the stranger, went from wearing may change their ministry. downcast faces to burning hearts, The voices of others—especially from dependency to joy. the victimised, excluded, marginOur Church is at a similar crossalised and denigrated—can restore roads today, but having a Church the Church from its disease of that listens will lead us to converpower, but only when we who sion. have power internalise this process n Dr Siphiwe F Mkhize is an author of listening. and a member of St Dominic’s parish Requiring historical “unlearn- in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal.

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10

The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

TRAVEL

The Catholic faith in Cuba Recently GÜNTHER SiMMERMACHER visited Havana, the capital of Cuba. In the second of two articles, he looks at the Catholic faith on the island, and recalls an encounter with God.

T

HE Catholic Church is easily the biggest Christian denomination in Cuba, but the bigger religion is a hybrid of Catholicism and Afro-Cuban pagan traditions.

The Afro-Cuban religion arrived on the island with the slaves brought in from Africa, mostly Nigeria, after the Spanish colonialists had practically exterminated the indigenous population.

The Church and their colonialist friends in power naturally objected to people practising pagan religions, so a syncretised devotion developed underground. People would publicly be Catholics by day but after-hours practise the rites based on Yoruba beliefs and traditions.

Over time this became a new religion called Santería, which means “The Way of Saints”. Catholic saints would hold a dual portfolio: one in the traditional Catholic devotion, the other as a cover for representing a demi-god (or “orisha”) in the pagan practice.

So devotees of the Santería would outwardly have a devotion to say, St Anthony of Padua. But in the pagan practice, St Anthony represents Elegguá, the most important orisha in Santería. It was a perfect cover.

And it was fairly easy to syncretise: the traditions of Santería (and other Afro-Cuban religions) recognise one God who is surrounded by spirits. From there it is no huge leap to borrow from a religion that believes in one God surrounded by saints.

Today it is said that 80% of Cubans have some sort of relationship with Santería, though many of those practise the Catholic faith at the same time. It’s a duality which we are not strangers to in South Africa.

60% Catholic Cuba’s Catholic Church says that 60% of the country’s people are Catholic, which is pretty good in light of several decades of atheist indoctrination. But of that 60%, only 5% go to Mass regularly.

Indeed, when on our visit to Havana last month my wife and I went to Saturday evening Mass in the church of the Immaculate Conception, built in 1874 in the working-class neighbourhood of Havana Centro, where we stayed, there were about 20 people there.

Truth be told, it was a rather lifeless Mass, with no hymns. One can see why people might stay away.

I imagine that things are better in the city’s marvellous cathedral, the seat of the archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana, which held the remains of Christopher Columbus for 102 years before they were taken to Seville’s cathedral in 1898, after the Cuban War of Independence.

Coming from Havana’s main

shopping street, Calle Obispo (Bishop’s Street), one reaches the Plaza de la Catedral via Calle San Ignacio, which indicates a historical relationship with the Jesuits.

It was the Jesuits who started building the cathedral on the site of an older church in 1748. Construction was still going on when Spain’s King Carlos III expelled the Jesuits from the island in 1767. The church was completed ten years later.

The Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier famously described the cathedral as “music set in stone”, though with its asymmetrical towers (one of which can be climbed) and its relatively sober interior, that music might be more Stravinsky than Strauss.

The Jesuits were allowed back later and now run what might be Havana’s most beautiful church, the parish church of the Sacred Heart and St Ignatius, popularly known as the Reina church, on a busy street in Havana Centro. Built only in the 1920s, it looks and feels much older thanks to its gothic design.

Its newsletter suggests a lively parish life—and as long as events are confined to parishes, the faithful of Cuba now enjoy a fair amount of freedom. In fact, many parishes in Havana are reported to have an active community life.

In this way, the Catholic Church is enjoying a quiet revival in Cuba—and occasionally that can get loud these days.

How Cuba got a patron Every year on September 8, the faithful throughout Cuba hold processions in honour of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre (Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre).

She is the patron saint of Cuba, going back to the wars of independence from Spain in the 1870s and 1890s.

The story of that devotion begins in 1612 when three youngsters in distress while out at sea prayed to the Blessed Virgin, whereupon the storm that had tormented them spontaneously stopped.

Floating on the now calm water, they saw what they thought was a little girl. It turned out to be a statue of Mary floating on the water. On it was written, “I am Our Lady of Charity”. Remarkably, it was dry.

The statue became a popular destination of pilgrimage. Today, almost every Cuban church has an altar of the Virgen de la Caridad del

our lady of Charity of Cobre, Cuba’s patron, is seen in the church of St Francis in Havana.

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Above left: Havana’s cathedral of St Christopher. Right: The 20m statue of Christ that overlooks Havana.

Below left: The church of the immaculate Conception in residential Havana Centro. Right: St ignatius of loyola in the church dedicated to the Sacred Heart and himself. (All photos: Günther Simmermacher)

Cobre, often depicting the young people in a boat at her feet. A Cuban flag always hangs beside it.

Havana’s Catholics also come out in procession on Good Friday when they follow the Via Crucis (or Way of the Cross) through the narrow streets of Habana Vieja.

Some houses still bear a cross as a sign that their location used to serve as a station on the Via Crucis.

In centuries past, the procession would be led by a monk who was appointed to receive the scorn and abuse which was directed at Christ during his final walk to Golgotha.

The people would enjoy the opportunity to abuse the monk thus honoured rather too much. The poor man would be peppered with insults and rotten fruit.

The Franciscan monks had a way of making themselves unpopular. Near the harbour they had an impressive basilica, built between 1580-91. But they objected to the noise made by the people on the market held in front of it. So the Franciscans had the market moved to another square, the Plaza Viejo (which today is the jewel of Havana’s renovation programme).

The Franciscans lost their basilica during the brief British occupation in 1762 during which it was occupied by the Anglicans. After Spain reclaimed the island and the British left, the Franciscans decided not to resume possession of the basilica.

It is now a museum, but the Franciscan past is still prominent: on the façade is a cross, in front of it a statue of the Franciscan saint Junípero Serra with the boy Juaneño, and all that is located on the Plaza de Francisco de Asis.

The Franciscans, meanwhile, moved into a rather more modest but very beautiful church first built by the Augustinians in 1608. They have served from there for almost

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250 years, aside from a period after the revolution when they were expelled from their own church.

Jesus stands guard The whole city of Cuba is watched over by a 20m-high statue of Christ, on a hill in the suburb of Casablanca, across the bay from Habana Vieja.

The Cristo de La Habana was made in the 1950s of imported Italian marble, which was blessed personally by Pope Pius XII, at the commission of the wife of dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Cuban sculptor Jilma Madera tried to inculturate his Christ, giving him the facial features of an average Cuban. Unintentionally he inculturated more than he had bargained for.

Unlike most mega-statues of Christ, the Cristo de La Habana stands with his hands to his chest in a pose of giving a blessing, rather than with his arms outstretched.

The position of Jesus’ hands, the Cubans like to say, looks like he is holding a cigar in his right hand and a mojito cocktail in the other.

The statue was inaugurated on December 24, 1958. A week later, Batista plundered the Reserve Bank and fled the country in the face of Castro’s revolution.

On the military base next to the statue is Che Guevara’s house. It’s a nice thought that every time Che looked out of his front windows, he saw Jesus.

And with this pleasing notion we return to Animas, the street in residential Havana Centro where we had rented our apartment in a section of what in the 1920s was built as a palacio.

An encounter with God The front door of our building wasn’t easy to unlock. One evening, after a long walk along the Malecón seaside, we were struggling to open that door when a nice elderly man appeared from the neighbouring house. He greeted us and applied some key-turning trickery which effortlessly opened the pesky door.

It turns out that he was our neighbour. We had noticed that the front-door to the apartment opposite ours sported a number of religious plaques, along the lines of “God bless this home”.

Having climbed the stairs together and arrived at our respective front doors, I asked the man in my broken Spanish: “Eres Católico?”

He responded affirmatively. “Un

momento,” I asked and dashed into our apartment.

In my suitcase I had a few rosaries from Bethlehem, contained in a small plastic cases bearing different holy images. I randomly grabbed one and returned to my new friend.

“Un rosario de Tierra Santa,” I double-dutched in Spanish as I handed the rosary in its plastic case to the man.

The man looked at it and became visibly emotional. He called his wife and showed her what we had given him, whereupon she became emotional, too.

In the ways of people who don’t speak each other’s language, she explained that the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a medallion of whom she wore around her neck, had cured her of some throat ailment or other.

The image on the plastic container depicted the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The man was quietly weeping as he thanked us. I don’t suppose that it was the idea of receiving a gift from strangers that affected this couple so much, nor the coincidence of the image being one that had particular devotional meaning to them (they didn’t even know how easily I might have grabbed a plastic case with another image).

Obviously our gift, and the image on it, meant a lot to the couple, perhaps in ways we cannot even imagine. But I think what created so much emotion—and we too were swallowing hard to control those lumps in the throat—was the grace of God’s guidance that had brought us together at this specific moment for this specific encounter.

It was the presence of God, with us on this stone staircase.

The many memories of our four days in Havana will always remain with me. They will return whenever I drink out of my Ernest Hemingway mug, hear the music of the Buena Vista Social Club or see that famous image of Che Guevara.

But in a special way, that encounter with the old couple and God on the staircase of a crumbling building will forever be locked in my heart. Perhaps God guided us to stay in that place, in unfashionable Havana Centro with all the “crime” I mentioned at the beginning of this series, so that we could meet Him there..

After we closed the door and parted ways with that old Cuban couple, my wife just said: “God is good.” He indeed is.

The Southern Cross, March 27 to April 2, 2019

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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.

Is Cardinal Pell really guilty?

I

DO not share Günther Simmermacher’s confidence, expressed in his opinion article “We have a Pell dilemma” (March 14), that issues such as the conviction of Cardinal George Pell for sexual abuse of minors in a Melbourne court are best left to the review of competent court authorities, although, undoubtedly, the courts will have the last word.

Judicial proceedings are not necessarily designed to uncover the truth. As one of our more eminent judges put it: “To say without qualification that the law demands the discovery of the truth is not, I venture to suggest, to tell the truth about the law. A truer statement would be that, concerned as it often is with means no less than ends, the law requires the truth to be ascertained in ways it allows.”

I have prosecuted, defended and tried many criminal cases. I support Mr Simmermacher’s sentiments that people should be reluctant to jump to conclusions based upon newspaper reports.

This is not a criticism of court reporters—they report what people say in court; what they cannot comment upon is the witnesses’ demeanour when they gave evidence.

The details of the allegations against Cardinal Pell are sketchy and the proceedings themselves were not reported upon, except for the verdict.

We aren’t even privy to the reasons underlying a judgment because, this being a jury trial, there wasn’t a judgment.

But I gather that it is said the cardinal molested boys in the sacristy after Mass on Sundays.

If that is a correct reporting of the evidence, then the jury which convicted Cardinal Pell should have been alive to its inherent improbability.

In his article, Mr Simmermacher says: “Testimony of sexual violence tends to be nearly impossible to corroborate exactly because rape is not a spectator sport.”

That is true, to an extent, but it oversimplifies the issue. Cases such as these involve mutually destructive versions, but the surrounding circumstances can often be highly suggestive of what actually happened.

For example, if there were witnesses who testified to seeing the cardinal taking young men into the sacristy and locking the door, it would serve to convert an improbability into something highly suggestive of guilt.

But without such evidence, how would one conceivably reject Cardinal Pell’s denials “beyond a reasonable doubt”?

T

he events which are being described are said to have occurred more than 20 years ago.

This should militate very strongly against the possibility of a conviction for these reasons: • In most instances of an assault, the victim will be physically examined in order to establish whether there are any injuries consistent with the allegations. Here the evidence will be inconclusive.

• The complainant’s account will, given the lapse of time, usually be vague on critical details. (If the complainant is too sure of himself, that brings about a host of other problems.)

What reliance can be placed upon that version?

• In most cases where an accused is charged, it is in respect of something which is alleged to have occurred very recently and so any vagueness about the accused’s version might count tellingly against him. But here he has every reason not to re-

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member details. (Ask yourself this question: Where was I and what happened on July 17, 1993? Or how about August 16, 1997?)

Mr Simmermacher is wrong to argue that rejecting a person’s version necessarily implies calling him a liar.

It is not uncommon for judges to believe witnesses but find their evidence is such that it cannot be relied upon to make a finding beyond a reasonable doubt.

And I hope that I am remiss in sensing that Mr Simmermacher is arguing that because the Church has brought this scandal on herself (as she surely has), we should be disinclined to defend our clergy when we believe accusations made of them are unfounded.

The correct approach should be to immediately investigate any complaint of sexual assault and independently determine, on a balance of probabilities, whether the complaint is wellfounded.

If so, the priest should be immediately laicised. Full cooperation should be given to the investigative and criminal prosecution authorities.

And as for Cardinal Pell? I entertain serious misgivings about how safe the conviction is. I am not saying that he is necessarily innocent. If he isn’t, he deserves to go to jail for the rest of his life—but to my mind there is room for doubt.

I am not alone on this. At his first trial, ten jurors reportedly voted for his acquittal; there was a mistrial as two jurors held out for a conviction.

Why did the two juries decide the case that way? We will never know.

Adrian Collingwood, Durban

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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.

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Retreat day/quiet prayer last Saturday of each month except December, at Springfield Convent in Wynberg, Cape Town. Hosted by ClC, 10.00-15.30. Contact Jill on 083 282-6763 or Jane on 082 783-0331.

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Think before you give Continued from page 7 sizes (from well-fed middle class donors). But we need smaller men’s clothes since homeless men tend to be quite thin.

So we now make our clothing appeals specifically at boys’ high schools since teenage boys are generally the waist size of the men we are helping.

We are also hoping to revive a larger-scale project in Durban so that all kinds of clothes can be collected and then passed on to the different organisations that really do need them.

So if you are planning to give away things this Lent, please don’t stop. But do pause and consider whether they are really useful, who they might be of use to, and make sure you ask the organisations who know best what can be used.

Or take the stuff nobody can use to your local charity shop. Who knows: somebody might have use for it.

It is better to give than to receive. But it is best to ask first!

St Francis of Paola

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Tuesday April 2,

NOveNA TO SAiNT MARTHA, feast day July 29. O admirable Saint Martha, I have recourse to thee and I depend entirely on thy intercession in my trials. In thanksgiving, I promise to spread this devotion everywhere. I humbly beg thee to console me in all my difficulties. By the immense joy that filled thy soul when thou didst receive the Redeemer of the world at thy home in Bethany, be pleased to intercede for me and my family, in order that we may keep God in our hearts and therefore, deserve to obtain the remedy to our necessities, especially the present situation that overwhelms me (mention request). I implore thee, O Auxillatrice in all needs, help us to overcome our difficulties, thou who so victoriously fought the devil.

Amen. Say one our Father, one Hail Mary, one Glory Be and three times the

5-6, 8-9, John 5:1-16 Wednesday April 3 Isaiah 49:8-15, Psalm 145:8-9, 13-14, 17-18, John 5:17-30 Thursday April 4, St Benedict the African, St Isidore

St Francis of Paola

Exodus 32:7-14, Psalm 106:19-23, John 5:31-47 Friday April 5, St Vincent Ferrer Wisdom 2:1, 12-22, Psalm 34:17-21, 23, John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Saturday April 6 Jeremiah 11:18-20, Psalm 7:2-3, 9-12, John 7:40-53 Sunday April 7, 5th Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm 126, Philippians 3:8-14, John 8:1-11

PRAYeRS TO ST JOSePH OF CUPeRTiNO FOR SUCCeSS iN exAMiNATiONS. O great St Joseph of Cupertino, who while on earth did obtain from God the grace to be asked at your examination only the questions you knew, obtain for me a like favour in the examinations for which I am now preparing. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked. Through Christ our Lord. St Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us.

Amen.

O St Joseph of Cupertino, who by your prayer obtained from God to be asked at your examination only the things you knew, grant that I may like you succeed in the (here mention the name of the examination, for example, history paper I) examination. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked. O St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for me. O Holy Ghost, enlighten me. Our Lady of Good Studies, pray for me. Sacred Head of Jesus, seat of divine wisdom, enlighten me.

The

Southern Cross

Published independently by the Catholic Newspaper and Publishing Co since 1920

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Business Manager: Pamela Davids Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000

Neighbourhood Old Age Homes

Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12, Psalm 46:2-3,

invocation “Saint Martha, pray for us.” Novena to be said on nine consecutive Tuesdays with a lit blessed candle. it is so powerful that one often obtains what one desires before the ninth Tuesday.

PRAYeRS

Isaiah 65:17-21, Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13, John 4:43-54

11

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The Southern Cross is published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd. Address: Po Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000. Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850 www.scross.co.za editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela Davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory editor: Michael Shackleton, Local News: Erin Carelse (e.carelse@scross.co.za) editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Mary leveson (m.leveson@scross.co.za), Advertising: yolanda Timm (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Michelle Perry (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Accounts: Desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za), Directors: R Shields (Chair), Archbishop S Brislin, S Duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, J Mathurine, G Stubbs

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the

5th Sunday of Lent: April 7 Readings: Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm 126, Philippians 3:8-14, John 8:1-11

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EXT Sunday we enter deeper into Lent with the coming of Passiontide; but the readings for the day are not as sombre as they might lead you to suppose. Rather the tone is upbeat, and there is a sense that God is doing something very new in what is unmistakably a very threatening situation.

In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah in Babylon is trying to persuade the Jewish exiles in that city to make their way back, across thousands of kilometres of desert, home to Jerusalem; and if they are doubtful, they are to be reminded that the Lord “opens a way in the Sea, and a path in the mighty waters”, a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt, with the reference to “chariots and horsemen”.

But something much more important than the Exodus is on the menu here: “Do not remember the former things, and the things of long ago you are not to consider…Look at me! I am doing something new!”

And then, looking ahead to the journey that faces them, they are reminded that “I shall place a way in the desert and in the wasteland rivers…for my chosen people to drink”.

So God is powerfully at work, even if the world around us looks rather menacing.

That is also the message that comes out of the psalm for next Sunday. It is one of the “songs of ascent” that pilgrims sang as they came up to Jerusalem; and here they remem-

S outher n C ross

ber cheerfully how that return from the Babylonian exile had been for them: “We were like people dreaming; indeed our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues exulted for joy.”

The point is that for all the difficulty and pain of the return, they recognised that “the Lord did great deeds for us; we rejoiced…those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy”.

Sadness is not far away, but the prevailing mood is joy at what God has done.

In the second reading, from Philippians, which is by some way his most joyful letter, Paul is in prison, and not at all sure whether he will get out alive; all that matters is his “knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord”, and in comparison to that, everything else is “well lost”.

What matters is “to know him and the power of his Resurrection, and solidarity with his sufferings, being shaped along with his death”.

What Paul longs to do for whatever remains of life for him is to “forget what lies behind [rather as in our first reading] and stretch out for what lies ahead; I am aiming for the goal, the prize that is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.

At this stage of Lent, when you are perhaps rather feeling the pace, that is what you need to keep your eye on: God in Jesus. That is how

W

Conrad

Among other things, because of this, we often struggle to enjoy what’s legitimately given us by God because, consciously or unconsciously, we feel that our experience of pleasure is somehow “stealing from God”.

This is an uneasiness that particularly afflicts sensitive and moral souls. Somehow, in the name of God, we struggle to give ourselves full permission to enjoy, and this leaves us prone to excess (which is invariably a substitute for genuine enjoyment).

Whatever the reasons, we struggle with this and thus many of us go through life deprived of a healthy capacity to enjoy and, since nature will still have its way, we end up alternating between rebellious enjoyment (“pleasure we steal from God”, but feel guilty about) and dutiful discipline (which we do without a lot of delight).

But we’re rarely able to genuinely celebrate. We rarely find the genuine delight we are looking for in life and this pushes us into pseudo-celebration, namely, excess.

Put simply, because we struggle to give ourselves permission to enjoy, ironically we tend to pursue enjoyment too much and often not in the right ways. We confuse pleasure with delight, excess with ecstasy, and the obliteration of consciousness with heightened awareness. Because we cannot simply enjoy, we go to excess, burst our normal limits, and hope that obliterating our awareness will heighten it.

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nd yet, celebrate we must. We have an innate need to celebrate because certain moments and events of our lives (for example a birthday, a wedding, a graduation, a commitment, an achievement, or even a fu-

Sunday Reflections

we are to make sense of it all.

The Gospel for next Sunday is one of the loveliest stories in the entire New Testament; and although it appears in John’s gospel, it was not written by the evangelist. It looks as though it was circulating in the oral tradition as a story about Jesus.

Certainly we must be grateful for whoever ensured we did not miss it by inserting it at this point; we should be the poorer without it.

The setting is in Jerusalem and Jesus coming in from the Mount of Olives to teach there: “And the whole people came to them; and he sat down and started to teach them.”

Then, however, the people disappear, and their place is taken by “the scribes and Pharisees”; and immediately we know without needing to be told that this means Trouble.

So it turns out; for they have “A Woman” with them, who has been caught committing adultery (there is, you may notice, no reference to her presumed male accomplice); and they present Jesus with a Question: “In the Torah, Moses commanded us to stone Women Like This. What is your word?”

Then the narrator reports: “When they said this, they were testing him, in order to have grounds for an accusation against him”; you may feel that we could have guessed this for ourselves.

How to celebrate well E don’t know how to celebrate things as they’re meant to be celebrated. We want to, but mostly we don’t know how. Generally we celebrate badly.

How do we normally celebrate? By overdoing things; by taking a lot of the things we ordinarily do, drinking, eating, talking, singing, and humouring, and bringing them to excess.

For most of us, celebration means eating too much, drinking too much, singing too loudly, telling one joke too many, and hoping that somewhere in all that excess we will find the secret to make this occasion extraordinary.

We have this odd idea that we can find special joy and delight by pushing things beyond their normal limits. But there’s precious little real delight in this.

Heightened enjoyment is found in connecting with others more deeply, in feeling our lives expanded, and in experiencing love and playfulness in a special way. But that doesn’t happen in a frenzy. Hence our celebrations are mostly followed by a hangover, physical and emotional. Why? Why is genuine celebration so hard to do?

Perhaps the main reason is that we struggle congenitally to simply enjoy things, to simply take life, pleasure, love, and enjoyment as gracious and free gifts from God, pure and simple.

It’s not that we lack the capacity for this. God has given us this gift. More at issue is the fact that our capacity to enjoy is often mixed with inchoate feelings of guilt about pleasure (and the greater the pleasure, the deeper our feeling of guilt).

Nicholas King SJ

Jesus won’t condemn you

Then Jesus brilliantly slows things down: “He bent down and started writing on the ground.” (We are not told what he wrote.)

They, however, persist, and he “looks up”, and makes a remarkable response: “The one of you that is without sin, let that one be the first to throw a stone.” Then “again he bent down and started writing on the ground”.

This is a devastating response, and blows the opposition out of the water: “When they heard this, they went out, one by one, beginning from the elders.”

But there is more to come; for now Jesus actually addresses the woman: “He bent up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?’”

For the first time she, who was until a few seconds ago on the verge of a painful and disgraced death, actually speaks: “No one, Lord.”

(And we notice that she has given the appropriate response by calling him “Lord”.)

After that human interchange we hear Jesus bring this lovely story to a beautiful ending: “Neither am I condemning you; on your way, now—and from now on, no more sinning.”

That is the God with whom you are journeying during this Lenten season.

Southern Crossword #856

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

neral) simply demand it. They demand to be surrounded with rituals which heighten and intensify their meaning and they demand that they be shared in a special, highlighted way with others. What we cease to celebrate we will soon cease to cherish.

The same is true of some of our deeper loving, playful, and creative moments.

They too demand to be celebrated: highlighted, widened, and shared with others.

We have an irrepressible need to celebrate, that’s good. Indeed the need for ecstasy is hardwired into our very DNA. But ecstasy is heightened awareness, not obliterated consciousness.

Celebration is meant to intensify our awareness, not deaden it. The object of celebration is to highlight certain events and feelings so as to share them with others in an extraordinary way.

But, given our misunderstandings about celebration, we mostly make pseudo-celebration; we overdo things to a point where we take our own awareness and our awareness of the occasion out of the equation.

We have a lot to overcome in our struggle to come to genuine celebration. We still need to learn that heightened enjoyment is not found in excess, deeper community is not found in mindless intimacy, and heightened awareness is not found in a frenzied deadening of our consciousness.

Until we learn that lesson, we will still mostly trudge home hungover, more empty, more tired, and more alone than before the party.

A hangover is a sure sign that, somewhere back down the road, we missed a signpost. We struggle to know how to celebrate, but we must continue to try.

Jesus came and declared a wedding feast, a celebration, at the centre of life.

They crucified him not for being too ascetic, but because he told us we should actually enjoy our lives, assuring us that God and life will give us more goodness and enjoyment than we can stand, if we can learn to receive them with the proper reverence and without undue fear.

ACROSS

1 and 13. In the Litany our Lady is its Queen (4,6) 3. Followed the example of a saint (8) 9. Not any hospital around for this saint (7) 10. The ends of prayer (5) 11. Jesus’ title for himself (4,8) 13. See 1 ac 15. Stop the car to prepare the marital contract (4,2) 17. Julius Caesar, for example (5,7) 20. The Italian Louis (5) 21. Lands with houses (7) 22. Puts forward for consideration (8) 23. Put your foot down (4) Solutions on page 11

DOWN

1. She’s at the top of all classes in school (4,4) 2. Game of chance (5) 4. Hey, Ma’am, there’s disorder all round (6) 5. Educator’s cats or other favourites (8,4) 6. It flies by the shortest route from here to there (3,4) 7. On Ash Wednesday we recall that we shall return to it (4) 8. Churchman who is averse to change (12) 12. Given information and is dapper (8) 14. Stocking to sing rot about (7) 16. Be sorry for sin (6) 18. It spins back and forth (5) 19. Sign that there is an addition (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

S

IPHO had been misbehaving and was sent to his room. After a while he emerged and informed his mom that he had thought it over, and had then said a prayer.

“Fine,” said his pleased mother. “If you ask God to help you not misbehave, he will help you.”

“No, I didn’t ask him to help me not misbehave," said Sipho. “I asked him to help you put up with me.”

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