190529

The

S outher n C ross

May 29 to June 4, 2019

Reg no. 1920/002058/06

no 5137

www.scross.co.za

Nazareth House Durban invites all to reopening

R12 (incl VAT RSA)

Requiem for a great Catholic organisation

Getting to know the Gospels

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Egypt bomb pilgrim: God protected us

By ERin cARElSE

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EACON Carl Emmanuel, one of the South African pilgrims on board the bus hit by a roadside bomb near the Grand Egyptian Museum, next to the pyramids in Giza, Egypt, believes they had God’s protection over them, and is thankful to be home safely.

The 25 South Africans, travelling with MiCaSa Tours, had completed their pilgrimage to the Holy Land and were on their way home.

They had arranged to see the pyramids as they were stopping over in Egypt for several hours.

Deacon Emmanuel recalls the harrowing details of that day with The Southern Cross.

“We arrived in Cairo at midday on Sunday, May 19, and as we had prearranged the pyramids visit, we had a tour guide and bus waiting for us. On boarding, we noted a sniffer dog checking the bus, and were told there would a security person accompanying us,” he said.

For Deacon Emmanuel, who last visited Egypt about 12 years ago, seeing new developments en route was interesting. The guide on board pointed out that they were coming up to a new museum which, when it opened in October, would be the largest in the world.

“We could see it in the distance,” the deacon recalled. “I was sitting in the third row from the front next to my wife who was against the window. As we got closer, I remember turning slightly in my seat to speak to one of the other pilgrims and that’s when I experienced a gush of air, followed by a loud bang and things hitting me.” Deacon Emmanuel said he turned and grabbed hold of his wife.

The tyres of the bus had exploded and the driver, who was still in control, was trying to accelerate away from the situation.

“I was amazed that there was no screaming or shouting, everyone remained calm, partly due to shock, and then we heard the guide saying, ‘It’s OK, the aircon exploded,’ but I knew that was not the case,” Deacon Emmanuel said.

The bus then came to a standstill, and there

Two pupils at Holy Rosary School in Edenvale, Johannesburg, have been selected to represent their age-level Gauteng schools’ provincial netball teams. U13 Zinhle Fakude (left) and U12 Tyraleigh de Bruin are the two chosen from Holy Rosary.

The bus carrying South African pilgrims that was damaged in a bomb blast near the Giza pyramids in Egypt. was confusion, as many were not sure whether to remain on the bus or exit. Eventually, they decided to get off, as they weren’t sure whether there were bombs on the bus itself.

It was only once they were off the bus that they could see the extent of people’s injuries: some had received the full impact of the blast on their faces, and others had minor injuries.

“This was when the frightening part began,” the deacon said. “We were standing on the side of a four-to five-lane freeway, and weren’t sure if we were still in danger.” Everyone was covered in glass; some were crying.

Deacon Emmanuel wasn’t sure how long they waited until the first emergency response, the army, arrived. “They didn’t know what to do, they couldn’t speak English, they didn’t know what to say to us,” he recalled.

Slowly, other emergency vehicles arrived, including an ambulance, and those with serious damage to their eyes and gashes in their heads were taken to the nearest hospital. Others were cleaned up at the scene.

Because the pilgrims had only light luggage with them as their main luggage was already booked in on their Johannesburg return flight, they decided to take everyone’s luggage off the bus and just keep it all together.

Eventually, someone arrived who could speak English, and told them arrangements were being made to take them to a safe place.

The group were taken to the nearest hotel under police escort, which Deacon Emmanuel says was also quite frightening, as this drew attention to them.

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he pilgrims were concerned at this point about their passports, which had been taken away. Deacon Emmanuel and Fr Michael Foley, also on board the bus, were instructed to go to an office where ten officials, who said they were from national security, were waiting.

“They seemed very concerned that there were only 25 pilgrims on board as, initially, our pilgrimage had 28,” the deacon said. “The other three had chosen not to join the bus tour, which they found suspicious. The officials cross-examined us and didn’t want to return our passports until we signed statements in Arabic. We knew our flights to South Africa were booked, and we just wanted to leave.”

Eventually, the South African ambassador and the Minister of Tourism came to their aid.

Those discharged from hospital joined them and that night all were escorted to the airport.

“We are all so happy to be back with our families. For us as pilgrims, it was not what we expected, although when you go to the

S outher n C ross Pilgrimage

Middle East you are aware there is conflict,” Deacon Emmanuel said. “When we got to Egypt, we knew we were only going to be there a little while so I don’t think we really thought about the possible threats.

“But in hindsight, when we think about what happened, this bomb was intended to kill people, it was a powerful bomb, but the impact was at the bottom of the bus, not the top.

We are so thankful to God for his protection, and that there were no fatalities or critical injuries. Every single one of us was able to walk off that bus that day,” Deacon Emmanuel said.

South African tour operators expressed their shock and sadness on hearing of the attack.

Sandro Sfreddo, MiCaSa Tours director, said their prayers and thoughts were with everyone injured and affected by this cowardly act and they were also praying for speedy recoveries.

Gail Fowler of Fowler Tours said she was shocked at this senseless attack on pilgrims, whom she and her group had met just days earlier in the Holy Land, and gave thanks to God that all could return to their loved ones.

“We had our last tour to Egypt a year ago and had already cancelled the only one planned for this year. We won’t include Egypt in our plans for the foreseeable future. This attack will have a devastating effect on all the decent and dedicated people in Egypt’s tourism industry who are also victims of the terrorists,” she said.

Val Tangney of Tangney Tours said she was sorry for the people involved and will pray for all of them, including the attackers.

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The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

LOCAL

Nazareth Durban reopens with invitation to all

By ERin cARElSE

T

HE official reopening of Nazareth House in Durban takes place on Saturday, June 8, and members of the public have been invited to tour the facility and meet the management team.

This time last year, its future was uncertain. With the cost of living increasing, the departure of the Sisters of Nazareth, and ongoing operational challenges, Nazareth House was in danger of closing.

However, with the arrival of a new management team in mid-2018, determined to keep the facility open, in just a few months of planning, reorganising and refurbishment, Nazareth House Durban is now ready

to open its doors once again as a care facility for the elderly, emphasising the social and personal requirements of senior citizens.

Nazareth Care provides a safe, tranquil environment, offering independent living, assisted living, frail care, palliative care and respite care services. It also has a specialised dementia care unit called The Villa.

“Caring for a loved one with dementia poses many challenges for families and coping strategies are often realised too late,” said dementia care specialist Melody Ziervogel.

“We know that working with dementia clients requires dedication and attention to detail. Families can rest assured their loved ones will be

well taken care of,” she added.

Nazareth Durban offers 17 dementia care rooms, six newly-added independent living rooms, and 16 frail and assisted living rooms.

Founded on the core values of the Sisters of Nazareth, who arrived in South Africa over 130 years ago, Nazareth Care spans the Southern Africa region, with care facilities and outreach centres in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Warrenton and Harare. n The official reopening on June 8 takes places at 82 Mazisi Kunene Road, Berea, for 09:00 to noon. To RSVP, please contact Aletia Ritter on aletia@nazarethcare.co.za or call 074 1342-296.

The entrance to nazareth House in Durban, which is reopening on June 8, following a period of uncertainty regarding its future.

Salesians young burns-survivor says No to schoolyard bullies

By ERin cARElSE

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Burns-survivor Thalitha Sabile, 17, is among the young people celebrated in the Salesians’ 30 Stories in 30 Days campaign this month.

N June 2014, Salesian Life Choices launched the 30 Stories in 30 Days campaign to celebrate National Youth Month. The campaign shares one inspirational youth story a day for the month of June, honouring young people and their life struggles.

“The campaign is a showcase of the post-apartheid Born Frees and their personal stories of triumph over adversity,” said Salesian Life Choices managing director Sofia Neves.

One such story is that of Thalitha Sabile, 17, of Cape Town, a serious burns-survivor with prominent scars on her face, who believes she is now bullyproof after enduring verbal abuse from schoolmates.

Thalitha’s burns resulted from

boiling porridge her mother had left to cool. “I ran, picked it up, and I can’t fully remember what happened next but the porridge fell all over my face and neck,” she said.

“I began screaming. My mom came immediately, tried to wash it off with cold water.”

She was quickly taken to Red Cross Children’s Hospital, where she stayed for two weeks, with another two weeks in a convalescent hospital. Thalitha had multiple operations, and three times a year would visit the surgeon for her scar tissue.

She remembers how naive she was after leaving hospital for the first time. “I was so happy to be home and to be able to go back to school. Everyone was very supportive, and my mom kept telling me

how beautiful I was. The only thing I noticed as different was how some people stared at me in the street.”

However, in Grade 6, in a new school, Thalitha faced a tough reality: the main languages were English and Afrikaans, which she wasn’t proficient in, and she didn’t know anyone at the school.

She was singled out by bullies because of her scars and insulted daily. “For the first time, I felt I was less, and each time they called me names I would run back to class. I was embarrassed and stopped liking myself. I isolated myself.”

Thalitha’s mom encouraged her to report the bullies to teachers and there were times she did. The bullies faced repercussions such as detention and this had some effect.

At the beginning of Grade 7, a year after starting at the new school, she changed her response to taunts.

“During the holidays, I began telling myself I needed to step up.

They picked on me because I was new, and didn’t have it in me to fight back. A bully is trying to boost his or her ego or satisfy his/her friends. No, I will not be bullied again.”

Thalitha has forgiven bullies. “I forgot their names and even their faces. They wouldn’t know if I had a grudge, so what’s the point?”

She says beyond our physical appearances we all have much more valuable traits: “Mine are: I am intelligent. I am strong. I am a survivor.” n To read past stories in the 30 Stories in 30 Days campaign visit www.life choices.co.za/voice/30-stories

The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

LOCAL The statue of Our lady of Fatima and the cross were carried by pilgrims from the Blessed Sacrament church to the Schoenstatt Shrine during the annual Gauteng Fatima pilgrimage.

(Photo: Manny de Freitas)

Bishop: evangelisation comes from testimony of daily lives

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Gauteng Fatima pilgrimage joined by 2 000 participants

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HE annual Fatima pilgrimage in Gauteng saw a significant turnout, with coordinator Manny de Freitas saying more than 2 000 pilgrims participated.

The pilgrimage started from the church of the Blessed Sacrament in Malvern East, Johannesburg, and after a 4km walk, while the rosary was prayed, ended with Mass at the Schoenstatt Shrine in Bedfordview.

The Gauteng Fatima pilgrimage continues to be the largest of its kind in South Africa, though it started in 1991 with only around 50 pilgrims.

The pilgrimage celebrates the apparitions of Our Lady to three shepherd children from the months of May to October in 1917 in the hamlet of Fatima in Portugal.

During these apparitions, Our

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Lady appealed for prayer, especially by praying the rosary for conversion and peace in the world.

Mr De Freitas announced that the Fatima Five Saturdays will again be instituted, for the sixth year running.

The Five Saturdays originated when one of the visionaries, Sr Lucia dos Santos, then a postulant, received a vision of the Child Jesus and Virgin Mary in her convent cell.

As requested by Sr Lucia, the Five Saturdays start on the first Saturday of each month from June until October, also a month devoted to Mary.

All are invited to recite the rosary at 17:00 on the Saturdays of June 1, July 6, August 3, September 7 and October 5 at the Blessed Sacrament church, cnr Geldenhuis and Mullins streets in Malvern East.

EMBERS of the Neocatechumenal Way (NCW) movement gathered for a national meeting in Port Elizabeth.

Participants included the team responsible for Southern Africa and all the missionary families and priests who carry on the work of evangelisation which characterises this charism of the Church.

Bishop Vincent Zungu of Port Elizabeth addressed the assembly.

In his speech the bishop spoke about faith, saying: “Faith is not a connection of doctrines but rather the connection of our lives with the Lord. It is when we can entrust our whole life with the Lord, even through the challenges that may appear.” He added that faith must be nourished with a good spirituality and a strong prayer life.

Bishop Zungu encouraged those present, saying that we cannot be sent on a mission without being called before, confirming the words of Pope Francis about the link between vocation and evangelisation.

He acknowledged that the NCW has developed the missionary aspect in its structure well, and highlighted the intercultural and

The neocatechumenal Way movement held a national meeting in Port Elizabeth, attended by the city’s Bishop Vincent Zungu. international aspect of the movement as positive for the work of evangelisation.

Bishop Zungu then spoke of how the NCW had touched him personally. He said the fact of being a missionary and the importance of being present, one of the aspects of the Franciscan way, is for him the real proof of how evangelisation is not only preaching but being a testi-

mony with our daily lives.

The bishop finished his speech by encouraging everyone to develop the roots of their lives in their relationship with Christ.

Dino Furgione of the NCW said that “the presence of the bishop was a great joy for all the members, and his words of encouragement were of great help for all the assembly”.

De la Salle tercentenary celebrated in Jhb

D Muslim clerics and students visited Our lady Help of christians church in lansdowne, cape Town, in sympathy after the Sri lanka bombings. (From left) Shaykh ighsaan Taliep, parish priest Fr Bonginkosi nhleko, Shaykh Fakhruddin Owaisi, and PPc chair Peter Bruyns

Muslims visit church with flowers after Sri Lanka bombings

By ERin cARElSE

S

HAYKH Fakhruddin Owaisi from the International Peace College of South Africa in Rylands, Cape Town, together with a group of its students, spent time in prayer with the parishioners of Our Lady Help of Christians parish in Lansdowne, as a gesture of their solidarity with the Christian community.

Fr Bonginkosi Nhleko SDB, parish priest of Our Lady Help of Christians, had received a call from Shaykh Owaisi expressing sympathy following the Sri Lanka Easter bombings by jihadi terrorists of several Catholic churches and also hotels which left more than 250 dead.

Fr Nhleko welcomed this gesture, and Shaykh Owaisi, Shaykh Ighsaan Taliep, and students arrived at Our Lady Help of Christians with bouquets of flowers. They processed into the church alongside Fr Nhleko, who invited them to place the bouquets in front of the altar.

Peter Bruyns, chair of the parish pastoral council, extended a warm welcome to the guests and gave a brief explanation of the various symbols in the church.

Shaykh Taliep led with a prayer and reiterated the need for forgiveness and a sense of peace among communities across the world, and Shaykh Owaisi emphasised that they do not condone violence of any nature.

Fr Nhleko presented a reflection on the profound impact of love on all humanity, and those present were invited to read aloud two prayers, one from a Muslim perspective and the other Christian, with a common purpose, a call to love.

E La Salle Holy Cross College in Victory Park, Johannesburg, marked the tercentenary of the death of St John Baptist de La Salle with an outdoor Mass on the school’s rugby fields.

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale was the main celebrant, with seven priests concelebrating, assisted by Deacon Paddy Maddison, a past pupil of the college. Learners, staff, board members, parents and alumni of La Salle College, De La Salle Holy Cross College and the Tsholofelo Community from Phokeng attended.

The liturgy of the Mass reflected the life of De La Salle and

the five core Lasallian principles: concern for the poor and social justice, quality education, respect for all persons, an inclusive community, and faith in the presence of God. Liturgical dance, marimba and drums, choirs and congregational singing in several languages added to the Mass.

In his address to the 2 000strong congregation, Archbishop Tlhagale said that “John Baptist de La Salle must be smiling down on us from heaven today”. He challenged young people to continue the work De La Salle started when he founded the Brothers of the Christian

Schools in 1684.

De La Salle devoted himself to the education of poor children and introduced new teaching methods. He was canonised in 1900 and declared the patron saint of teachers in 1950.

After the Mass, congregants were treated to refreshments, and then learners participated in a variety of activities. These included face painting, art, jumping castles, drumming workshops and motivational talks.

The day concluded with a variety concert, with traditional dancing, and music from college student Joshua Moreira and local band Easy Freak.

SA’s national catholic Weekly newspaper

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The successful candidate will: • Have a degree or recognised diploma in journalism • Have excellent written and verbal communication skills in English • Display attention to detail and problem-solving skills • Be a self-starter who is keen to learn • Be able to work on print and digital platforms • Contribute to the implementation of our social media strategy • Proofread both hard and electronic files • Be able to source news for both print and digital • Ideally have knowledge of Wordpress

We offer: • Hands-on training in print and digital journalism with a great scope for development in a small, dedicated team • A monthly stipend of R3,500

This position is Cape Town-based

This is a minimum six-months internship, which may be extended. While a Catholic background is not a requirement for the position, knowledge of the Church and affinity for its mission will be a distinct advantage.

e-mail applications with a motivating covering letter and CV to: editor@scross.co.za Deadline: 10 June 2019 The Southern Cross reserves the right not to fill this position.

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg at the lasallian tercentenary Mass. With him are server Diego de Abreu and Deacon Paddy Maddison.

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The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

INTERNATIONAL

Pope: Throwing away food Vatican sued for like throwing away people clergy abusers’ names

By MARiA WiERinG

By cAROl GlATZ

A

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OPE Francis condemned food waste, saying throwing away food is like throwing away peo-

ple.

“Waste reveals an indifference towards things and towards those who go without,” he said.

“To throw food away means to throw people away,” the pope told members and volunteers of the European Federation of Food Banks, including the Food Bank of Italy, which was marking its 30th anniversary.

Pope Francis thanked the organisations for all they do in providing food to those who are hungry while fighting against food waste.

“You take what is thrown into the vicious cycle of waste and insert it into the ‘virtuous circle’ of good use,” he said, saying their work is like what trees do—taking in pollution to give back oxygen to those in need.

“It is scandalous today not to notice how precious food is” and how much of it ends up wasted, he said.

“Wasting what is good is a nasty habit” that can creep in anywhere, even in charitable works, for example, when good intentions are blocked by bureaucracy or excessive administrative costs or when they “become forms of welfare that do not lead to authentic development”.

Charity today “requires intelligence, the capacity for planning and continuity”, and for people to care about each other, seeking to restore human dignity, the pope said.

He told those involved in food banks that their work shows—with action and not words—that progress

A farmer dries crops in Wuyuan, china. Pope Francis condemned food waste, telling members and volunteers of the European Federation of Food Banks that throwing away food is like throwing away people.

(Photo: Stringer, Reuters/cnS) “advances each time we walk with those who are left behind”.

“The economy has a profound need of this,” the pope said, lamenting how “the frenetic scramble for money is accompanied by an interior frailty”, disorientation and loss of meaning.

“What I care about is an economy that is more humane, that has a soul, and not a reckless machine that crushes human beings,” Pope Francis said.

Too many people are left without work, dignity or hope “and still others are oppressed by inhuman demands of production” that have a negative impact on the family and personal relationships.

The pope said it pains him when he hears parents say they have little time in the day to play with their

children because they go to work when the children are still asleep and get home when they are already in bed.

“This is inhuman: this vertigo of inhuman work.”

“Instead of serving humanity,” he said, the economy “enslaves us, subjugates us to monetary mechanisms” that are increasingly difficult to control.

“We need to encourage models of growth based on social equality, on the dignity of human persons, on families, on the future of young people, on respect for the environment,” he said.

“Even if evil is at large in the world, with God’s help and the good will of so many like yourselves, the world can be a better place,” the pope said.—CNS

TTORNEY Jeff Anderson of Minnesota in the United States has announced that he is representing five sexual abuse survivors suing the Holy See for names of clergy sexual abuse offenders worldwide and the names of Church leaders who have been involved in abuse cover-up.

The lawsuit’s defendants include Ben, Luke and Stephen Hoffman, brothers abused by then-Father Curtis Wehmeyer while he was at Blessed Sacrament parish in St Paul from 2006-12. He was removed from ministry in 2012, when the abuse was first reported to civil and Church authorities, and then laicised in 2015. He is serving a prison sentence in Wisconsin for his abuse of Ben Hoffman there in 2011.

Also participating in the lawsuit are survivors James Keenan, who was abused in the 1980s at Risen Savior in Burnsville by then-Father Thomas Adamson, and Manuel Vega, who was abused by a religious order priest in California in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The lawsuit alleges that the Holy See—meaning the pope in his role as head of the Catholic Church—was in a position to know the danger that the abusing priests in the plaintiffs’ cases posed to children but mandated policies of secrecy that discouraged Church leaders from reporting sexual abuse to civil authorities.

Mr Anderson said that the Church legislation Pope Francis released in his motu proprio did not go far enough in requiring Church leaders to report abuse allegations to

law enforcement.

That document requires abuse and its cover-up to be reported to Church authorities and for those authorities to comply with civil law, stating “these norms apply without prejudice to the rights and obligations established in each place by state laws, particularly those concerning any reporting obligations to the competent civil authorities”.

In the archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis, people with sexual abuse allegations are encouraged to contact law enforcement before contacting Church officials. Allegations made directly to the archdiocese are promptly reported to law enforcement.

Mr Anderson said that his office’s next step will be to serve the suit on the Vatican, which may be a lengthy process. He expects the Vatican to “put up sovereign immunity defences but that his office is ready for battle”.

Anderson & Associates previously sued the Vatican regarding clergy sexual abuse in 2002, but the suit was unsuccessful. Mr Anderson said during a news conference that he has confidence that this suit could have a different outcome because his body of evidence demonstrates “all roads lead to Rome”.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St Paul and Minneapolis said in a statement that “having met with scores of survivors of clergy sex abuse, I understand the anger and frustration at the Church that is apparent in the lawsuit filed today by Jeffrey Anderson”. —CNS

Pope to bishops: Apply 2015 annulment reforms!

The

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OPE Francis told the bishops of Italy that he was disappointed that so many of their dioceses had yet to implement the reforms he ordered to make the marriage annulment process quicker, more pastoral and less expensive.

“I am saddened to note that the reform, after more than four years, remains far from being applied in most Italian dioceses,” the pope, the bishop of Rome, told other members of the Italian bishops’ conference.

The bishops were holding their annual spring meeting at the Vatican, and Pope Francis opened the gathering. He gave a short speech focused on “synodality” and collegiality, marriage tribunals and the relationship of bishops to their priests.

In September 2015, Pope Francis issued two documents—Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus (“The Lord Jesus, the Gentle Judge”) for the Latin-rite Church and Mitis et misericors Iesus, (“The Meek and Merciful Jesus”) for the Eastern Catholic Churches—reforming sections of canon law dealing with requests for the declaration of the nullity of a marriage.

The reforms—which do away with an automatic appeal of all deci-

sions, charge diocesan bishops with responsibility for handling some cases and institute an abbreviated process for cases where the evidence is especially clear and uncontested— were meant to streamline the process and help couples in need of healing, the pope said.

Pope Francis also insisted in the documents that the annulment process be free of charge or as close to free as possible.

“This procedural reform is based on proximity and gratuity,” the pope told the bishops. “Proximity to wounded families means that the judgment, as far as possible, takes place within the diocesan Church without delay and unnecessary extensions. And gratuity refers back to the Gospel mandate which says, ‘Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.’”

Pope Francis said he hoped the reforms ordered in 2015 would find “their full and immediate application in all the dioceses” of the country.

The reforms, he said, aim to help dioceses demonstrate that “the Church is mother and has at heart the good of her children, who in this case are wounded by a love that has been shattered”.—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

Former patriarch: Time to move away from war

By JUDiTH SUDilOVSKy

A

PPEALING to Israel and the United States, Archbishop Michel Sabbah, retired Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said it was time to move away from war.

“It is time to look for more peace in the region and in Israel and Palestine,” he said.

Seemingly addressing US President Donald Trump, Archbishop Sabbah said since the president says he believes in the Bible, he should read it and pay attention to what is written there about peace.

The statement marked the date which the Palestinians commemorate as the Nakba, or disaster, when Israel declared its independence in 1948. Israel celebrates its independence according to the Jewish lunar calendar on the Jewish date of the 5th of Iyar, which every year falls on a different secular date.

Archbishop Sabbah called on both groups to “leave war” and urged Israel specifically to move towards the road of peace with the Palestinians, saying that the Palestinians wanted peace.

“After 71 years it is time for the

An israeli border policeman stands guard not far from Ramallah, West Bank, as Palestinians make their way to attend Friday prayer at AlAqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old city. (Photo: Raneen Sawafta, Reuters) war to stop and for the hostility to end,” the archbishop said in the statement. “Israel, do you want peace? ...You can decide the beginning of peace. The road is known.

The Palestinian constants are known. They are not the obstacle.

The obstacle is what is in the hearts.

The time has come for the people of Israel to live in peace and security, and to change their shout of ‘Death

to the Arabs’ with a shout of life and peace to all.”

He said it was time for Israelis and Palestinians to recognise each other as human beings with “the same dignity, rights and duties”.

“This is possible for those who want right and truth for themselves and others,” he said.

The retired patriarch reiterated a Church refrain that Jerusalem is the cornerstone of peace.

“He who loves Jerusalem fills it with truth and love, and God will fill it with peace. Jerusalem is a sacred city for two peoples and three religions. This is her nature. Thus, Jerusalem’s holiness will be affirmed.

Then, true believers of all religions will worship God in truth and spirit, and Jerusalem will become a way to peace,” Archbishop Sabbah said.

Washington announced it would hold a conference in Bahrain on June 25-26 and reveal the first part of President Trump’s plan for Middle East peace. However, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said any peace plan that ignores the Palestinian people’s aspirations for an independent state is doomed to fail.—CNS

Brazilian bishop accused of theft resigns

P

OPE Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Vilson Dias de Oliveira of Limeira, São Paulo, in Brazil.

The bishop, 60, is being investigated by authorities for extortion of priests, mismanagement of the diocese’s funds and covering up alleged cases of abuse against minors by area priests. .

“I request my resignation for the sake of the Church of Christ and for the good of this diocese,” said the bishop in a statement read to parishioners.

“I take with me in my heart this learning, in the confidence and assurance that this work is from God, and I place myself at the dis-

posal of the Holy Mother Church to serve her no matter the place and ministry entrusted to me by God from now on,” the bishop said.

According to the São Paulo state police, Bishop Oliveira took money from a local parish to build an artesian well in his beach house in Itanhaem. When faced with the accusation, the bishop confessed he obtained a “donation” from the parish and alleged he was facing financial problems.

Local media reported that the bishop gave investigators documents confirming that, in the past four years, he purchased two properties on the coast of São Paulo

state, worth more than R3 million.

The bishop, who has led the Limeira diocese for the past 12 years, is also under investigation for possibly having helped cover up cases of sexual abuse committed by Fr Pedro Leandro Ricardo, in the cities of Americana, Limeira and Araras.

Since February, several altar boys have accused Fr Ricardo of sexual abuse. The priest has been suspended from his religious duties until further notice.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Oliveira’s resignation and designated Archbishop Orlando Brandes of Aparecida as a temporary replacement.—CNS

Pope Francis prays during his general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The pope led thousands of pilgrims in prayer for Daughter of Jesus Sister ines nieves Sancho, a 77-year-old Spanish missionary who was killed outside her convent in nola, central African Republic.

(Photo:/Paul Haring/cnS)

Pope prays for nun murdered in CAR

By JUnnO AROcHO ESTEVES

P

OPE Francis led thousands of pilgrims in prayer for a Spanish missionary sister killed in Central African Republic.

While greeting French pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square, the pope said he was saddened to hear of the brutal murder of Daughter of Jesus Sister Ines Nieves Sancho, a 77-year-old Spanish missionary who was killed outside her convent in Nola, Central African Republic.

Sr Nieves, the pope said, before bowing his head in silence, “was yet another woman who gave her life for Jesus in the service of the poor”.

After several minutes of silent prayer, the pope led the faithful in praying a “Hail Mary” for the slain missionary.

According to L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, the Daughter of Jesus missionary Sister had dedicated her life to teaching children, especially girls, to sew in order to learn a trade and make a better life for themselves.

Bishops from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia call for disarmament of cattle herders

By FREDRicK nZWili

C

ATHOLIC leaders in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia are calling for coordinated and peaceful disarmament in a common border region, where an estimated 8 million illegal small and light weapons can be found among the herder communities.

The border triangle is the homeland of the Turkana and the Pokot of Kenya, the Karamoja of Uganda, Daasanach of Ethiopia and Toposa of South Sudan, who have for many centuries raided each other’s cattle as part of an age-old tradition.

At the same time, the region hosts the highest number of refugees in Africa and contributes to international forced migration, according to Church officials.

But the cattle raiding in the recent past has turned deadly partly due to its commercialisation and politicisation.

This has spurred a demand for AK-47s and other small and light weapons, with the communities racing to arm themselves with disastrous effect, said Bishop Dominic Kimengich of Lodwar, Kenya.

“Everyone in this region has a gun, but we are telling them that they don’t need all these weapons,” said Bishop Kimengich in an interview.

He said the cycle of revenge—cattle raids and counter-raids—has created a cycle of insecurity in the area, where a rifle costs about R3 000-4 000 or one or two cows. The guns have been easy to get, according to the bishop, since the area is surrounded by countries in conflict.

“One of the sources of the guns is South Sudan, where the local communi-

5

Authorities believe the missionary was murdered and mutilated precisely in the room where she taught the children, the Vatican newspaper reported.

In an interview with COPE, the Spanish Catholic radio station, Spanish-born Bishop Juan Aguirre Munoz of Bangassou said that Sr Nieves was “dragged out of her bed and on Monday she was found almost decapitated. We don’t know why”.

Authorities currently have no suspects or motive for the brutal killing but suspect that it was possibly carried out by people involved in human trafficking or searching for diamonds in a sadistic ritual meant to bring good fortune.

However, Bishop Aguirre told COPE that the political situation in Central African Republic is tense not only for Christians but for the entire population.

“It is a country where 80% of its territory has been conquered by 14 warlords who have trampled it underfoot,” the bishop told COPE. “It is a very delicate situation.”—CNS

Tangney

Special Interest Tours HOLY ROSARY PILGRIMAGE Spiritual Director:

Turkana warriors patrol with guns to protect their cattle from Dassenach warriors near Todonyang, Kenya. Kenyan, Ugandan and Ethiopian bishops are calling for disarmament in a common border region, where an estimated 8 million illegal weapons can be found among the herder communities. (Photo: Goran Tomasevic, Reuters/cnS) ties sell their guns to buy food,” said ment,” the leaders said in a statement reBishop Kimengich. leased after the conference.

The leaders converged at the St Teresa They said the proliferation of arms pastoral centre in Lodwar for the inter- has caused thousands of deaths and indiocesan conference on cross-border juries, displacement and forced migrapeace and evangelisation. This is a tion of people; it has hampered Church initiative launched in 2011. development, heightened insecurity and “We will no longer remain silent. We caused the loss of livestock. will no longer remain indecisive, and we The leaders proposed that the rewill no longer be fearful. We are com- gional governments launch a simultanemitted to highlighting the suffering ous disarmament process using an which small arms have caused in the “integrated peaceful disarmament apdaily lives of our people,” said the proach”. The approach focuses on preChurch leaders. vention and control of the small arms “Disarmament has to begin now,” and light weapons proliferation, seeks to they said. “Peaceful disarmament begins address reasons creating the demand, with the transformation of the individ- and seeks to transform all sectors of the ual and disarming the mind and the community. It also suggests a synchroheart. It can be done in an environment nised disarmament action in the three of trust, collaboration and commit- countries.—CNS

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The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Guest editorial: Michael Shackleton

Communication and Ascension

W

E are observing Communications Sunday again, a day that seems to penetrate little into the consciousness of Sunday Massgoers.

Yet communicating is something we cannot do without. As social beings born into communities big or small, our earliest awareness is of some other persons communicating their care for us.

Mother Nature is our exemplar of this interweaving of a multiplicity of living things, animal and vegetable, that need one another to survive. Every living organism’s relationship to every other one and their environment is important to the Church and the world right now, as Pope Francis has so incisively brought to our attention.

Mother Nature holds us all in a caring balance in a manner that can be understood loosely as each living thing communicating its intimate association with all others, its being there because the others are also there.

Human minds communicate at the highest level. They exchange ideas, emotions and information which have advanced over time from primitive signs and symbols of cooperation in a tribal social structure to sophisticated systems of non-cooperation in a modern tribal structure.

Our culture is replete with ideologies and propaganda that highlight the differences among peoples and their culture. This new tribalism shuns the views, the rights and cultural diversity of others, and feeds on hatreds and conflict.

The Church today asks us to be aware that we are members of one another, we are human communities.

Our inter-communication has to sense its roots in our common humanity.

Contemporary Massgoers, in particular those using social media devices, ought to know that the internet must be the medium of peace and goodwill.

The World Wide Web, taking its description from the spider’s network of sticky threads, can be a system that is so attractive that users can be caught in it to the detriment of their moral wellbeing. This outcome is inevitable if communications are divisive and confrontational, and designed to hurt and exploit.

We are members one of another. We have to evolve from network communities to human communities, listening to one another in responsible dialogue.

At this time, our liturgy draws us into the mystery of Christ’s Ascension. Our Lord returned to his Father in his human nature with the promise that our humanity would be united with his in a glory that is unimaginably magnificent.

This oneness of all with Jesus Christ in his kingdom of everlasting life must inspire us to prepare faithfully to be with him. A sobering start would be take Communications Sunday seriously and construct a web of human decency, love and mutual compassion in our togetherness.

It is not simply communication that keeps humanity and its environment in conversation. It is the Massgoer, as well as all Christians and people of goodwill, who can change the conversation using social media, and draw us into the liturgical celebration that we are all one in Christ who ascended to heaven to prepare a place for us.

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

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.

Catholic or Christian: on the outside looking in

I

HAVE a good Catholic friend who kindly lends me copies of The Southern Cross and although I do not belong to the Catholic Church, I read the paper with great interest.

As a fellow Christian, one thing that stands out quite frequently is the emphasis put on being Catholic, rather than on being Christian. For example, the blazing front-page headline of March 13 read “Pope: How to be a Catholic politician.”

I realise your paper is for Catholics and I am an outsider looking in, but I wonder if exclusivity is not a great weakness in your Church? Would such a headline not have had a greater impact on both Catholics and passers-by if it had said, “How to be a Christian politician?”

Make SC a vital read for Catholics

Y

OUR editorial “A question of survival’’ (May 1) makes me “despair” because there is very little I can do about your predicament.

It would indeed be very sad if The Southern Cross had to close. But do I buy the paper out of obligation or because I want to be interested, inspired and informed on matters Catholic? Sadly, in my case, it’s the former.

Please accept my criticisms in the humble spirit in which they are intended.

Sales will not improve by continually lamenting the dire straits the paper is in.

Most of its content is of little interest to many readers, for example, the May 1 front-page lead is a sales pitch for Cardinal Napier’s new book, certainly not front-page material.

Pages 4 and 5 have in their titles the phrases “septic tank grave”, “bad on homosexuality”, “genocide letter” and “Easter bombings”, not exactly family reading over the Sunday breakfast table!

The Page 5 article on the Columbine survivor who became a nun is good. It is interesting, inspiring and informative.

The articles on Pages 2, 3 and 8 are parochial and of interest only to those about whom they and the photos apply.

On Page 6, well, enough said about the editorial, and the main letter is depressing.

The writer is simply venting his spleen.

Page 7’s “How to preach better” is interesting only to those who preach, and can be summed up in its last five lines.

Pages 9 and 10 are good, interesting, inspiring and informative. If only we had some saintly politicians in South Africa!

It is noble to record the lives of outstanding people in the obituaries. They are interesting, inspiring and informative.

On the last page Fr Nicholas King SJ fulfils the three i’s...interesting , inspiring and informative and his articles, surely, are the basis for preaching better. Why does any priest struggle to write a homily when it’s already been done for him?

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI is learned and writes well but his articles are way over the heads of most readers, mine included sometimes. Enough criticism!

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I am an Anglican but I worship in an ecumenical church of Anglicans, Presbyterians and Methodists. I jokingly call myself an “AngloMethPreterian’”!

The important thing to me is that we should be Christian first and our denominational emphasis secondary. We all believe in the same basic precepts of Christianity along with the Catholic Church. Today more than ever, everyone who truly wishes to serve our Lord should be seeking every opportunity for unity in the face of rising fundamentalism, racial hatred, nationalism and a host of other evils.

Is it not to our shame that we are so divided? At Easter we pray from the Anglican prayer book “for the holy Church

Now for some suggestions which pass the three i’s test. What about articles on: • Fatima, Lourdes and Medjugorje and the relevance of Our Lady’s messages to our lives. Long overdue!

• The life of a saint and the miracles attributed to him or her. Do one per edition.

• What a novena is and why we should pray one.

• How to pray (what, when, how, why) with examples.

• Why we should go to confession.

• What a martyr is, with examples such as St Thomas More.

• How one deals with ridicule from non-Catholics on matters of faith.

I would like to see more about how I can deepen my faith, with examples from those whom we revere. Surely this is the raison d’être of a Catholic paper?

I support your efforts to keep The Southern Cross alive but a business cannot trade on its longevity. In conclusion: ‘’Work as though everything depended on you and pray as though everything depended on God’’ (St Augustine).

I rest my case!

Tom Kent, Cape Town

Centering prayer

D

EAREST Tom! Members of my centering prayer group took your letter (April 24) on contemplative prayer eluding you to heart.

I am not sure if you mean CP, or another kind of contemplative prayer? On CP, maybe it would help to see what Thomas Keating and Cynthia Bourgeault say on YouTube.

I see you live in Johannesburg. There are many CP groups here, if you would like to join one. I find it the perfect prayer to “do” with others. Veronica Hanouch can help you in this regard.

She and Julia also offer workshops, at any church which would like to invite them. Her email is hanouch@iafrica.com If you mean other kinds of contemplative prayer, you can contact the Jesuit Institute in Auckland Park. They have a wonderful course called Hearts on Fire, which made a huge difference in my life.

Remember, no time spent with God is ever wasted! Love and peace.

Ina Strydom, Johannesburg

of God throughout the world, that God the Almighty Father may guide it and gather it together so that we may worship him in peace and tranquillity.”

Christ prayed that his followers might be one. Is an attitude of exclusivity not part of what is weakening, rather than strengthening, the Catholic Church?

There is strength in diversity if we respectfully acknowledge one another under Christ and seek to work together to bring the kingdom of God. Surely it is better to dwell more on what unites us, rather than what separates us?

Let us all, as fellow followers of Jesus Christ, humbly acknowledge that no denomination has supremacy over another.

Hazel James, Johannesburg

Bishops totally remiss re SC

I

REFER to the May 1 editorial and am very distressed at the critical financial situation facing The Southern Cross.

I remember my parents buying the paper after Mass, and I myself subscribe annually to this excellent publication.

Indeed The Southern Cross is read cover to cover by myself and my devout Methodist wife. We pass it on to the local Methodist minister, and he and I often discuss articles.

Contrast this against the “indifference” highlighted by the May 1 editorial.

Three years ago I discussed with a senior archbishop the role the laity could, and should, play in the life of the Catholic Church in South Africa. Among the things I highlighted was The Southern Cross.

The archbishop’s response was a total shock. He attacked the paper as not representative of the Church, and further bragged about a number of parishes cancelling their weekly orders.

In all my 77 years I have never heard a member of the clergy speak with such anger and arrogance.

Clearly something is seriously wrong.

The bishops’ clear lack of concern, as set out in the May 1 editorial, indicates they are nothing short of negligent.

The Southern Cross is the only newspaper that gives Church news, publishes articles that explain Church doctrine, and expresses the views of we the laity in its Letters page.

If the paper were to disappear, how do our bishops believe they will be able to communicate with their flock?

Surely the time has come for clergy, starting with our bishops, to instruct priests to promote The Southern Cross with parishioners and, further, weekly highlight articles. Parents, too, should encourage their children to read it.

Indeed, Catholics at all levels have a duty to keep in touch and The Southern Cross is the ideal medium to achieve this.

The Catholic Church in South Africa will face a disaster if The Southern Cross closes and our bishops, with their total lack of concern, will be largely to blame.

Mervyn Pollitt, Waterfall, KZN

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PERSPECTIVES

Challenge of living in the ordinary B Raymond Perrier Y now, the excitement of the 2019 elections is over. An election campaign is always full of high points—moments where a politician gives us hope for the future—and low points—many more of these when the promises lack credibility or the infighting takes over or the legitimate protest rallies turn into violent and destructive marches.

This all culminated in the voting on May 8—success for some, setbacks for others—and now everything has gone back to “normal”.

The country did not descend into civil war.

But nor did the election bring about an overnight miracle of transformation.

There is a parallel here with our journey as Christians. A few weeks ago, we were in the midst of Lent—a period of reflection, making promises, trying to put our selves right.

This became even more intense with Good Friday, as we stood at the foot of the cross watching with Mary as our dear Lord suffered and died. But then a few days later we were celebrating the joy of Resurrection—our churches were filled with flowers, candles, bells and Hallelujahs! New life and transformation were now offered to us by the Risen Lord.

Six weeks later we are technically still in Eastertide—but the candles are now dripping, the flowers are drooping, and our Hallelujahs are not quite as fervent as they were.

We have to live with the reality that the transformation of the Resurrection is not an instant fix. Our daily lives continue and many of the problems that were there before are still there. Things are not as bad as they were on Good Friday. But they are not as good as we thought they were going to be on that Easter Sunday.

If that emotional journey sounds familiar, that it is because in many ways it mirrors the emotional journey of South Africa.

There was a long period of darkness (the “bad old days”) when the rights of the vast majority were ignored or actively trampled underfoot.

This was intensified in the last years of the old regime—our Long Good Fri-

day—when it looked as if the whole country would implode. We stood at the cross not just for a few hours but for many months; we stood not just with Mary as she mourned her son; but we stood with thousands of mothers who saw their sons and daughters suffer in the final struggle for freedom amid the violence that accompanied it.

And then Freedom came. Mandela was not the Messiah but in many ways April 27, 1994 was our national Easter Sunday. The moment when the country emerged from the darkness of the tomb, blinking in the light of democracy: the promise of new life and transformation.

It was not the scene from the Book of Revelation of angels robed in white singing psalms and waving branches; but the photos of all tribes and colours standing joyfully side by side in the sunshine waiting to vote were a symbol of a new Jerusalem.

Now, 25 years later, and having just had our sixth election, the Easter Sunday feeling is no longer there. Transformation has happened but not as much as is needed.

Change has come about but not everywhere. There have been steps forward but also many steps back.

The lines to vote were not as long; the feeling of common purpose not as strong.

Certainly, things are not as bad as they were

Our 2019 elections are over, and Eastertide is ending. We are back to ‘normal’, with the call to be both enduring citizens and christians, writes Raymond Perrier.

Faith and Society

during our years of Lenten darkness. But they are not as good as we thought they were going to be on that 1994 national day of Resurrection.

What do we do? Do we just shrug it all off as a false dawn, a dream deferred (to quote Langston Hughes)?

Let us take comfort that what we are going through as a nation is close to the experience of the early Church. They had 40 days of joy with the Messiah still with them; this then ended (as we are marking this week) with his Ascension. But they were buoyed up by the belief that he would return soon.

Then, as the years moved on, the disciples and their successors had to deal with the reality of living in a world to which the Messiah had not yet returned.

The Church did not collapse. But nor did it expand and grow in an effortless and predestined way. One step forward, two steps back!

The disciples of the early Church had to learn that Resurrection provides us with the opportunity for new life—but that we have to work hard at turning the opportunity into a reality.

In the same way, we as South African citizens have to learn that democracy provides us with the opportunity for a new nation—but that we have to work hard at turning the opportunity into a reality.

Elections are now understood not to be a magic fix. Democracy is a lot more than elections. It is about the week-in and weekout struggle to be aware of problems, identify solutions, and keep on challenging our politicians and public servants (and ourselves) until we deliver.

Continued on page 11

Property: Who does it belong to?

Fr Pierre T Goldie HE Catholic Church confidently sees itself as Mother and Teacher of all nations (Mater et Magister, 1961), a pillar and ground of truth. It communicates its social teachings in order to Christianise the conditions of the working classes, to alleviate poverty and to bring faith into the world of work and politics.

It continues the tradition of See (social analysis), Judge (in light of Scripture and tradition) and Act (making a pronouncement to rectify matters).

The Church’s social analysis in its social teaching documents (Centissimus Annus, Rerum Novarum and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis) unearths massive inequalities, a dispossessed, landless majority of poor, hunger in a world of plenty, domination of control of assets, and large-scale suffering.

The documents affirm the right to private ownership as originating in natural law.

The teachings reject socialism as a solution to poverty. No one can be a sincere Catholic as well as a true socialist.

Pope Francis asks for a social economy, not a socialist economy.

The state may control certain functions such as water provision, fire control, emergency services, but the principle of subsidiarity insists that general economic activities be undertaken by the people closest to that activity, not by any higher statutory body.

The various documents do not see private ownership as an absolute principle. It is subject to a social mortgage, the principle of the universal destination of goods, namely that God gave the earth and its assets to the whole of humankind, thus the goods of creation are

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Pope Francis asks for a social economy, not a socialist economy, writes Fr Pierre Goldie. meant for all without favouring anyone.

Gaudium et Spes states that everyone should consider their legitimate possessions as common property, to benefit all. A person who is in extreme need has the right to procure for themselves what is needed, from the surplus of others.

The ownership of goods is distinguished from the correct use of goods. Rerum Novarum argues that God will demand the strictest accounting from those with surpluses as to the correct use of their possessions. The document notes how Aquinas also argues that a person’s surplus should be used to relieve the poor.

Rerum Novarum also observes various biblical admonitions to the rich (such as Mt 19:23-26, where Jesus talks about the difficulty of the rich entering heaven, and Lk 6:24-25, one of the Beatitudes).

There is considerable comment in the

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Bible on property and riches. For example, Leviticus (25:8-17) postulates a jubilee year, which includes every person returning freely to their ancestral property. The New Testament also has warnings about the irresponsible use of riches (Lk 16:19-31, the story of Lazarus and the rich man and the failure to assist the poor). I add the story in Lk 12:1521, where a wealthy person builds bigger barns simply to house their surplus assets.

The Church does not suggest any formal legal mechanism for the transfer from those with surplus to those who are in need.

The Church emphasises that Scripture and tradition place a radical voluntary, moral onus on the rich to assist the poor, failing which there are negative spiritual consequences.

Pope Francis refers to a social economy, one which effectively ensures a fair share of the goods of the world for every person.

There is little mention of taxation, except by implication. Since socialism is firmly rejected, and socialism may employ taxes for redistribution, there is a limit on taxes, presumably only to be used for central services such as emergency services and those mentioned above.

This is the Church’s contribution to the vexatious question of property.

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The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

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lessons From luke

What are the Gospels?

A

T Mass, priest or deacon ends the readings with the words: “The Gospel of the Lord!” And the congregation responds: “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.”

In our faith tradition, the proclamation of the Gospel enjoys what we might call “pride of place” in the Liturgy of the Word.

During the first half of Mass, we give our attention to the readings from Scripture and to how those readings are opened up for us in the homily.

Our gestures (crossing ourselves over our foreheads, lips and heart) and posture (standing) draw attention in a special way to the Gospel proclamation. The words we hear proclaim Jesus to us.

The writers of the Gospels are not primarily journalists or biographers. While they call upon historical events and memories, they are not concerned with documenting their sources or providing a uniform sequence of events.

Rather, they are evangelists who write with the purpose of introducing the reader to the very person of Jesus, hoping that their words will invite a faith response from the reader.

Just as these writers are not professionally employed historians, the Gospels are not intended to be on-the-spot reporting.

Gospels are the product of the writers witnessing what Jesus did and who Jesus was, prayerfully reflecting on his impact in their lives over time, and desiring to effectively share this Good News.

The Gospels are a response to the work of the Holy Spirit in the early communities of faith, and it is the needs of those communities that help to shape how the individual writers shape the story of Jesus and pass on the Good News that he proclaimed.

A

mong the four Gospels, three of them share a very similar sequence of events or framework. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels.

The term synoptic simply means similar (syn) view or lens (optic). All three of these accounts begin with the appearance of Jesus in the ancient Middle East, two of them from the time of his birth and one of them from the time of his encounter with John the Baptist.

The Gospel of John, however, begins with his eternal nature as the Word of God made flesh, and organises the materials of his public life quite differently from the synoptic writers.

Although the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke share a storyline and much of the same material, each one also offers us something unique about Jesus and what it means to follow him.

Each Gospel writer speaks from within a community of faith in different regions of the ancient Middle East and employs the events and teachings of Jesus to address the needs of that community.

What emerges from reading all the Gospels is a more textured or three-dimensional portrait of Jesus. What emerges from a careful reading of each one on its own is awareness of its particular flavour and spirituality.

The Church helps us to appreciate these subtle differences by organising the Sunday readings in a three-year cycle, each one focusing predominantly on readings from one of the Synoptic Gospels.

We are currently in Year C of the liturgical cycle, and at present Luke is our guide.

The lessons Luke offers in his portrait of Jesus and his followers are the subject of this series.

Listen for the unique voice of Luke. His love for Jesus and the ways he interacted with all types of people, his care for proclaiming Jesus as saviour of the world, and his attention to the compassion of Jesus will resound in our ears.

We certainly live in a different time and place than Luke’s original audience but the human condition has not changed all that much. And the Jesus Luke reveals to us is still ready to teach and to heal. n This is the first in a ten-part series of articles on the Gospel of Luke produced by Little Rock Scripture Study and first published in the Arkansas Catholic.

7

8

The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

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COMMUNITY

Marist Brothers linmeyer in Oakdene, Johannesburg, hosted a charity fundraiser, the Mad Hatters’ Mother and Daughter Tea. Grade 11 students were given the opportunity to host tables with their moms. Above left (from left) are teacher Deirdre Petersen, Hillary lamb and teacher Amy Winfield. Above right (from left) are pupils Olivia Storrier (Grade PR), Rachel Storrier (Grade 1) and Holly Roberts (Grade 2)

national, diocesan and regional council members of the catholic Women’s league of Johannesburg archdiocese formed a working committee to plan ahead for the 2020 national conference to be held in Johannesburg. (Submitted by ida Steyn)

Holy Trinity parish in Musgrave, Durban, honoured Our lady of Fatima on the 102nd anniversary of her apparitions to the three Fatima children in Portugal. Fr Denardo Gyanapars and a newly ordained priest said Mass, after which people proceeded outside for a rosary rally.

Former US movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger attended the Schwarzenegger classic Fencing competition in Johannesburg. He is pictured with two young fencing stars, one of them Jessica Ramos of Assumption convent School in Germiston. She received silver for Under 15 épée and bronze for Under 17 épée, as well as bronze for Under 15 foil and bronze for Under 17 foil, where she competed against boys.

The young adults group of St Anthony’s parish in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-natal, celebrated Mothers’ Day with a special breakfast for all mothers. The youth group fundraised to pay for the breakfast and the gifts of chocolates and cards for the mothers’ event. (Submitted by lynette noel)

catholic Women’s league members in Johannesburg archdiocese came in their numbers to attend the annual World Union of catholic Women’s Organisations Mass at St Francis of Assisi parish in Reiger Park. (Seated from left) cWl diocesan spiritual director Fr Vincent Pienaar and national chaplain Fr Anthony Spencer. (Standing from left) Elaine Phillips (national second vice-president); Bongi Mavuka-nxumalo (national news correspondent); Bernice cocci (national president); Mavis ngwenya (national first vice-president); Gabriella Marsella (national treasurer); Matilda Dube (diocesan president) and nkele Mokalaboni (diocesan first vice-president)

This year the Gauteng regional Knights of Da Gama celebrated their 56th convention as well as the 71st year of the Knights of Da Gama. The event took place at Our lady of lebanon church in Mulbarton, Johannesburg, and the celebrants were hosting parish priest Fr Jean yamin, and Frs Sylvester Ponje and Matthew charlesworth.

(Photo: Alexis Santana callea)

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FAITH

9

Why I am not leaving the Church In the midst of the neverending abuse scandal, even committed Catholics might have thought of leaving the Church. Writer JEnny UEBBinG considered it.

Here she explains why leaving is not really an option.

2019 that we’re practising Christianity as Jesus Christ intended? If that’s the case, thank God for Google, rising adult literacy rates, and the printing press, right?

Church is for all humanity

I

T seems that there is no end in sight for the rage and pain felt by faithful and lapsed Catholics alike about the scandals of abuses and their cover-ups. How could this vile evil be seeping forth from the Church we knew and loved?

For survivors of abuse—men and women who knew all too well the evil that often lay hiding in plain sight—this pain was compounded by perceived silence and cowardice from on high. Where were our pastors and shepherds back at the height of last year’s scandalous and widely-splashed headlines?

Little by little we began to grapple with the ramifications of too few pastors speaking out due to, perhaps, their own lack of credibility.

It’s awfully hard to condemn the log in your brother’s eye when you’ve got a telephone pole sticking out of your own retina.

Others held back out of fear, perhaps on the advice of legal counsel.

Still others felt—rightfully—personally horrified and enraged by the failures of their brothers when they had themselves been struggling heroically, often with little support, to walk the walk.

In the US, where I am writing from, many Catholics left. Some had distanced themselves aeons ago, but made their separation a public affair after ingesting the wretched evil laid bare in the Pennsylvania report.

Others quietly stopped trusting, stopped believing, and stopped attending.

For those who stayed, each of us has had to answer, if only for ourselves, why we did.

Peter, do you love me?

God knew that each of us who profess a faith in Jesus Christ and the Church he founded would need to dig deep in these days “to give an explanation for the hope we possess”.

It’s not like this was a curveball to the Almighty. He tells us plain: “Whatever is done in the dark will be brought into light” (Luke 8:17).

In other words, truly private sin is a human fantasy. Maybe it’s one of the oldest fantasies—I wonder if Eve thought, somehow, that the same God who had fashioned her from nothing, breathed life into her lungs, would somehow fail to notice her small act of rebellion? Like he was super-busy checking on the mountains and fish and stuff.

Anyway, I’ve had numerous conversations with Catholics and others over the past months. I have answered hard questions from strangers about why we’ll stay, about why we’ll never, ever leave.

But I can’t say I haven’t considered it. Back in July, when revelations were coming to light seemingly faster than the Internet could link to them, I was daily overcome with rage and sorrow. And confusion. What I knew about the Church, the papacy, and the gates of hell all seemed, well…wrong. And I felt adrift.

I am a JPII-generation Catholic, as they say. I fell in love with the mystery and the history of Catholicism during the early years of Benedict XVI’s papacy, called home by a mysterious grace seemingly wrought just for me in the final hours of St John Paul II’s life.

My conversion solidified and matured at Franciscan University of Steubenville where I encountered the word “theology” for the very first time. I probably know more about Catholicism than the average

St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. it is the “headquarters” of the catholic church, but we must remember that the pope is not the “head of the church”—christ is, Jenny Uebbing points out. (Photo: Paul Haring/cnS).

Sunday Mass-going Catholic, if only because of the Aquinas and Kreeft and Hahn and DeLubac I was assigned to read.

And I still considered leaving.

It turns out you can’t reason your way into continued belief. Faith is, at the end of the day, a gift. And an act of the will.

I am becoming increasingly aware that faith is both gift and choice. And I know that, having been handed the gift, I will be asked over and over throughout my lifetime to reaffirm my choice, and to continue to grow both in love and in knowledge of the Faith with a capital F. Catholicism isn’t mine to interpret or define as I see fit. A radical notion for a postmodern mind, but one that we all fall prey to from time to time.

My impoverished philosophical foundation led me to believe some fairly common fallacies about the Church which greatly intensified my pain and confusion this past year. Here are two of the errors I didn’t even realise I was carrying around in my brain; consider this a sort of “Ecclesiology 101” (ecclesia = church, ology = study of).

Myth 1: The Holy Spirit picks the pope I don’t know that I literally thought this was what happened, but I certainly behaved as if I did.

Standing in a sodden St Peter’s Square and breaking into wild jubilation with a hundred thousand strangers while watching that white smoke billow out of the Sistine Chapel chimney on the night of Pope Francis’ election didn’t do much to help dispel this myth.

The papacy has always felt big and kind of magical to me. Probably because of the circumstances of my awakening to the Faith, and because of the big moments we’ve shared as a family with different Holy Fathers.

Never mind that the Church, in 2 000 years of Petrine ministry, had numbered in her ranks countless ineffective popes, weak popes, mediocre popes and outright evil popes.

Because my Church history was an inch deep and my love for the modern popes was a mile wide, I was primed to be deflated by any shortcomings in a Roman pontiff, either perceived or actual.

Reality: The Holy Spirit inspires the actions and deliberations of the College of Cardinals, assuming they are actively seeking his will and living lives of virtue. And then the Holy Spirit guarantees that whomever is elected can’t make a fatal mess of things.

As best as this armchair theologian can figure, the Holy Spirit really does this heavy lifting when it comes to preserving and protecting the deposit of Faith.

The apostles entrusted the “sacred deposit” of the Faith (the depositum fidei), contained in Sacred

Scripture and tradition, to the whole of the Church.

“By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practising and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church (84). ...And in preventing heretical or erroneous teaching being promulgated ex cathedra, or “from the chair”, of Peter. Translation: The pope cannot err when proclaiming, with the full weight of the magisterium and in keeping with the revealed tradition of the Church, the truth of something pertaining to faith and morals.

Can the pope have a mistress?

Can he father illegitimate children?

Be a heretic, privately? Give dumb answers to questions journalists ask?

Believe wrongly that the superior flavour of gelato is crema? All yes.

Which is so hard to believe. But bear with me.

Myth 2: The pope is the head of the Catholic Church I mean, we do have a hierarchy, do we not? As somebody who lives in a society of rules and laws and order, familiar with the organisational structure of human institutions, this is another one which I, frankly, sort of took for granted.

Hence the outraged tweeting for the Holy Father to DO SOMETHING. FIRE SOMEONE. WHAT IN GOD’S NAME IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING???

But, um, guys…the Church is not

just a human institution.

Protects, defends, and transmits?

Occasionally, when it suits, and sooner or later.

The pope is the leader of the Church on earth. The head of the Church’s hierarchy, the shepherd of the universal Church on earth. But it isn’t Pope Francis’ Church, any more than it was Pope Benedict’s, or Pope Innocent’s, or Pope Gregory’s, or Pope John Paul II’s.

Reality: Jesus Christ is the head of the Church.

Christ “is the head of the body, the Church” (CCC 225). He is the principle of creation and redemption. Raised to the Father’s glory, “in everything he [is] preeminent” (226), especially in the Church, through whom he extends his reign over all things (792).

Jesus died for us, for his Church.

Jesus had to forfeit his life in exchange for ours, hot mess that we were/are.

And in an interesting throwback to myth number one, Jesus personally chose only the first pope: Peter.

So why have a pope? Why have a Church? Why have a Bible? Why not start from scratch every generation and do archaeological and anthropological research to try to piece together anew what the Christians of Corinth circa 67 AD must have practised and believed?

Is that what Jesus willed for us?

To have to start from zero every time the saving water trickles over the brow of a new Christian, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son…” The Trinitarian formula for baptism, by the way: How are we sure that’s a thing? Should we each be researching and verifying and making sure for ourselves way out here in

Irony aside: the Church is for all people, for all times. The Church is not only for moderns with Internet access and small-group Bible studies.

The Church is not only for white people with comfortable sanctuaries and good youth programming. The Church is not only for prisoners in need of mercy, for orphans in need of fatherhood, for prostitutes in need of conversion and redemption.

The Church is for all of us, for all of humanity, past, present, and future. The God who promised “I will not leave you orphans” has not abandoned us to our own devices.

We do not have to rely on our own wisdom, our own clever understanding of theology—or our notso-clever understanding, for that matter—or even on the goodness of one particular person who holds a position of power at a given time in history.

St Jerome says “ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”.

The words of the Old and New Testaments wash over me every time I go to Mass, whether I’m sitting in recollected silence or wrangling a nasty toddler.

I am steeped in Scripture when I sit in the church, which is mysteriously both a building and the Body of Christ, of which I am mysteriously a member and an essential physical component.

I am brought into deeper relationship with Jesus Christ through the ministry of his Church and the encounter of his Word. The Church is both guardian and guarantor of the written, living Word of God. I cannot turn away in solitude from the Body of Christ while clutching the Word of Christ to my heart.

What I read in Scripture casts new light on what I practise on Sundays. The liturgy is rooted in—not added onto—the Bible.

Without the Church, we’d have no Bible. Without the Church, we’d have no sacraments. Without the Church, we wouldn’t know what to believe—we need the Church’s authority to teach, lead us, and sanctify us.

Because we can’t live without Jesus. No matter how badly we humans behave. Perhaps because of how badly we humans behave; we need him all the more.

Come hell or high water—and perhaps the water will come right up to the gates—we need him.— CNA n Jenny Uebbing writes the “MamaNeeds Coffee” blog.

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10

The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

CHURCH

Requiem for a great organisation Once it was one of the great welfare organisations of the Southern African Church; in November it closed its doors. Over two articles, SyDnEy DUVAl looks at the growth and legacy of Catholic Welfare & Development, which was known to all as CWD.

I

N the Cape Town neighbourhood of Green Point, on the edge of the city centre, 37A Somerset Road is an iconic landmark of Catholic mission and service in Cape Town—and far beyond that.

The driveway leads up to the courtyard and great oak that floods summer green light on the stone building established by the Cabra Dominican Sisters in 1873 as their Sacred Heart convent and Sacred Heart School.

Berthed alongside 37A is Sacred Heart church and more stonework, also established in 1873. A squint across the road reveals the Salesian Institute, which has cared for youth since 1910.

Together they form a powerful memoir of Catholic life in Cape Town in pioneering times.

The Dominicans withdrew from the convent in 1965, but Sr Thomas Murphy and an assistant continued to serve the school from St Mary’s.

In the early 1970s the building was known as Cardijn House, a makeshift hostel intended to nurture the Young Christian Workers movement, inspired by Cardinal Joseph Cardijn and his “See, Judge,

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Pope Francis poses for a selfie as he makes a surprise visit to a free mobile health clinic to serveRome’s homeless and poor in St Peter ’s Square at the Vatican. Tourists and pilgrims in the square were caught offf-guard by the pope’s arrival, immediately snapping pictures and reaching out to shake his hand. (Photo: Vatican Media)

Padre Pio prayers led to miracle

M

AT TTEO Pio Colella was just seven years old when he contracted a deadly disease. Doctors believed there was no hope for the boy, but he made a full recovery.

His cure was the miracle that paved the way for the canonisation of St Padre Pio by Pope John Paul II in June 2002.

More than 16 years later, Mr Colella, now 27, has given an exclusive inter view to the Spanish news agency ACI Prensa on the occasion of the pre-release of the film El Misterio del Padre Píoo (The Mystery of Padre Pio) in Madrid.

The documentary is directed by writer and filmmaker José María Zavala and includes Mr Colella’s testimony.

On Januar y 20, 2000, Matteo was diagnosed with acute fulminant meningitis, caused by bacteria. The disease had affected his kidneys, his respirator y system and blood clotting. He was immediately admitted to the hospital founded by Padre Pio, the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (Home for the Relief of Suffering), located in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy,, where the saint’s monastery is.

The following day,, the boy went into a coma. His health deteriorated drastically, and doctors considered him a lost cause, thinking he would die within a few hours.

While he was in this critical condition, his mother Maria Lucia went to pray over the

Matteo Colella, whose inexplicable cure led to the canonisation of Padre Pio (right). tomb of Padre Pio to ask for her son’s healing.

“During the coma,” Mr Colella recounted, “I saw Padre Pio in a dream on my right and three angels on the left. One with golden wings and a white tunic and the two others with white wings and a red tunic. Padre Pio, on my right, told me not to worr y because I would soon be cured. In fact, my cure was like the resurrection of Lazarus.”

And that’s exactly what happened. The doctors considered Matteo to be clinically dead, but he came back to life.

The young man is grateful to Padre Pio for his intercession. He said he considers the saint to be like a grandfather in whom he can confide.—CNA

A

S a final act of caring before their retrenchment, the staff of Catholic Weelfare & Development (CWD) have volunteered their time and labour to ensure that those even less fortunate than they can receive at least a little something this Christmas through the annual Buckets of Love campaign.

CWD, the welfare agency in the archdiocese of Cape Town, is retrenching its entire staff as it is winding down because of an extreme lack of funding and mounting debts.

“Our staff insisted on running the Buckets of Love campaign, even though they are being retrenched,” said Eugene Jackson, head of staff development at CWD. He assured funders and supporters of the popular campaign that “ever y cent donated will be used for the buckets and the groceries that go into them, and for nothing else”.

CWD had served the poor in the archdiocese of Cape Town since it was set up in 1970.

Just two years short of its 50th anniversary it is closing down.

The financial crises that have led to the agency’s collapse can be ascribed to a combination of factors, including rapidly diminishing funding and strategic misjudgments.

Graham Wilson, the financial administrator of the archdiocese who joined the CWD board to help oversee the settling of its affairs, emphasised that there is no suspicion of funds having been criminally misappropriated.

Mr Wilson said that the retrenchment of the 49 staff members was unavoidable, emphasising that due process had been followed.

“CWD has had no option but to retrench its staff in a phased manner becau use of an extreme lack of funding and mounting debts.

Because CWD has little or no funds, the archdiocese of Cape Town has since October under written all salaries as well as the retrenchment packages that are now due to staff,” he told The Southern Cross.

“Given the enormity of the lack of fu unding and mounting debts that the new board has found, they have had no alternative at all but to take the drastic steps they have,” he added.

Mr Wilson acknowledged that the timing of the staff retrenchments so soon before Christmas is regrettab ble for “the impact it will have not only on CWD staff and their families but also on the beneficiaries of the various programmes that are affected”.

The archdiocese’s ability to intervene directly in CWD was limited by the agency’s constitution, though Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town had “tried on numerous occasions to alert the board to the fact that CWD appeared to be in severe financial difficulty”, Mr Wilson said.

Archbishop Brislin told The Southern Cross that he was “deeply shocked by what has happened at CWD” and expressed “regret action wasn’t taken sooner by CWD”.

Mr Wilson noted that “the future of most of CWD’s programmes remains extremely uncertain” but added that in terms of welfare organisation the archdiocese “is planning for the fu uture”.

The agency leaves a great legacy,, Mr Wilson said. “CWD does live on in the projects that had their genesis in the organisation. These have gone on to be welfare organisations in their own right, some more closely associated with the archdiocese than others.”

Examples of these are such organisations as the Caring Network, the small-scale urban farming project Abalimi Bezekhaya, Neighbourhood Old Age Homes (NOAH), the Credit Union Movement, Rural Development and Support, Shackdwellers International (formerly the People’s Dialogue), Abbeyfield South Africa, Help the Rural Child, and the Goedgedacht Roman Catholic Trust.

To contribute to Buckets of Love e-mail info@cwd.org.za or deposit into Standard Bank account “CWD Buckets of Love”, number 070526052, Thibault Square Branch (020909))

S outher o u t h e r n C ross ro oss ss P i l g r i m a g e

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H O LY LA N D & RO M E

The Southern Cross reports the closure of cWD in the issue of november 28, 2018.

practice and for its pioneering work in responding to the HIV/Aids pandemic that was described as sub-Saharan Africa’s own tsunami.

After nearly 50 years of bountiful service to the distressed of the world, CWD was closed in controversial circumstances in November last year, ending a story of compasAct” method of implementing sion and outreach that began on Catholic social teaching.

February 2, 1970.

The Dominicans were gone by On that day Schoenstatt Sister 1975 and the building became a Elizabeth Meyer and Muriel Howfacility of the archdiocese of Cape ell, tutors in social work at the Town, with Fr Roger Hickley the University of Cape Town, went next tenant. Together with Sam into St Mary’s cathedral to pray Gross he opened the Haven Night that the Catholic welfare service Shelter at the prompting of Peter they planned to start would take and Anne Templeton, social workers with the National Institute for root and grow.

“It was the cruellest time of the Prevention of Crime apartheid, when race (Nicro).

The Templetons had You did not hear laws were forcing people from their homes opened the Night Shelto the Cape Flats and ter in Harrington Street the anvil and black people got pitisome years earlier. Peter ful pensions,” recalls bellows, but was to be a major force Ms Howell. in the development and CWD was an “Our dream was of influence of Catholic a bold agency Welfare & Development empowering offeringwelfare specialist and (CWD) in the succeedprofessional services forge where ing decades. to the community. We By the year 2000 scrap from the did not want a wishyCWD had become a washy organisation, multi-faceted organisapast was but a service that tion supporting more than 20 development hammered into would make a real impact on the poor and programmes, enabling new shapes needy.” the local Church to The quality of work touch the lives of thouthat developed under sands of needy people in communities from Elsies River to Peter Templeton was evidence of Khayelitsha, from Paarl to Atlantis. how well their prayers were anCWD also influenced the work swered.

The Catholic Family Welfare of the Church in many areas beyond Cape Town, such as the Council worked from two rooms Northern Cape, the Karoo and in the archdiocesan chancery, with the blessing of Cardinal Owen McEastern Cape.

Cann, who then was the archNew shapes hammered out bishop of Cape Town.

You did not hear the anvil and The chairman, Mgr Tom Gill, bellows, but CWD had become an promptly changed the name of the empowering forge where scrap fledgling organisation to Catholic metal from the past, old ideas and Welfare Bureau. He had an averapproaches, were hammered into sion to the words “council”, “assonew shapes as a practical response ciation” and “society”. to the rising tide of poverty, unemFr Mike Hulgraine, who was ployment and shacks forming much concerned with the poor livaround Cape Town. ing on the Cape Flats, opened his As an active response to “Call to Mowbray presbytery to meetings.

Conscience”, CWD also helped Even then, fundraising was an make the Pastoral Plan, to be a important need. Every Catholic community serving humanity, a family was asked to give R1 a year! lived reality known to all the In addition, the Catholic Welfare major Catholic donors from Mis- Bureau was supported by many ereor to Missio, from Broederlijk voluntary helpers, among them Delen to Caritas. From 37A on the indefatigable Mary Lack, who Somerset Road, a host of Good was the unofficial coordinator of a Samaritans went out to struggling group of women who distributed families and communities to bring soup to poor communities and humanity to humanity. food parcels to black pensioners.

In the human development Ms Lack was to become a world, CWD became renowned for beloved long-serving agent for its expertise, renowned for its in- Catholic social outreach, which tegrity and innovation, renowned Queen Elizabeth II recognised in for its networking and appropriate awarding her the MBE on Decemtechnology, renowned for best ber 31, 2005.

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The hub from which many great things emerged: the headquarters of catholic Welfare & Development in 37A Somerset Road in Green Point, cape Town. (Photo: Sydney Duval)

A response to apartheid

brought Australian flair to CWD. Political unrest was a major fac- She saw the importance of not tor in the 1970s, following the de- only training others but also of destruction of District Six and the veloping and training CWD’s own forced removal of its people. The staff. She also strengthened the politics and injustices of the day agency through sound internal demanded an organised, decisive structures and systems. response.

Mother Teresa’s Sisters A group of four Catholic social People’s Dialogue was a small workers at Nicro, Peter and Anne Templeton, Sr Marie McLoughlin in-house land and housing project SND and Fr Mick Crowley MSC, which got initial impetus from believed that the Church should Philip Greathead’s sandbag buildplay a much more active role in ing method.

Mother Teresa housed her first providing relief for those affected by social injustices, political crises group of Sisters in South Africa in a sandbag house in Z Section, and poverty.

Peter and Anne Templeton Khayelitsha, where we shared a wrote a proposal for Bishop celebratory meal of curry and rice.

Joel Bolnick put the project on Stephen Naidoo, then auxiliary to Cardinal McCann, suggesting how the map, inspired by Jesuit Fr Jorge the Church could better coordi- Anzerano’s work among street nate its welfare services to respond dwellers.

Mr Bolnick got people to think more effectively to people in need. differently about housing. He The decade ended on October 1, 1979, with the appointment of linked it to social solidarity—to Peter Templeton as the new coor- the idea that the product is not as important as the process, to awakdinator.

In early 1980 he moved into ening the homeless to their own larger offices at 37A Somerset Road potential power to overcome adwith Muriel Howell as social versity.

Breadline Africa was another worker, Fr Mick Crowley as chairCWD brainwave. This fundraising man, and Sheila Heilpartnership was shaped buth as a part-time

by Peter Templeton secretary. building on long-servThe organisaing board member tion was renamed Francis Greathead’s Catholic Welfare connections to in& Development fluential family, (CWD) and exfriends and profespanded rapidly. Sr sionals from Marie McLoughCatholic circles in lin, Sr Maureen England.

O’Reilly FMM One of the young and Anne Temmen who had grown pleton, all regiswith the agency was tered social Gerschwin Kohler who workers, came on became senior project board and Mary consultor, enriching coLack’s feeding workers with his skilled scheme was incorinterpretation of the porated into the concepts and moveagency. ments influencing situaAt that time, tions beneath the there were eight surface. soup kitchens, a food Buckets of love was a Fr Desmond Curran, parcel scheme for long-running annual who himself operated black pensioners and from a converted freight cWD campaign.

Ms Lack’s yellow container, brought the kombi for transport. distressing realities of life Sr Marie launched the Cape in Khayelitsha right into the Credit Union League. Then came agency during the time he served neighbourhood homes for the on the management board. aged based on the British AbbeyHe was directly responsible for field concept, and a cooperative getting the agency to improve its handspinning and knitting project constitution, with the help of Jock aimed at providing employment McConnachie, a long-serving for people with various disabilities. board member who was generous The food gardening project, in sharing his legal expertise with Abalimi Bezekhaya, was set up in the agency.

These are just some of the peoGugulethu and Khayelitsha. Dave Golding gave vision and substance ple who with dedication and innoto this pioneering, award-winning vation helped establish a welfare organisation whose work had an effort.

Zelda Groener started the first influence well beyond the boundpre-school, at Elsies River. She en- aries of the archdiocese of Cape couraged the involvement of a Town. local mother, initiating a con- n Sydney Duval is a veteran journalscious move by the agency towards ist and retired personal assistant to community members being the late Archbishops Stephen Naidoo trained to do the work. and Lawrence Henry. He served on Sandy Dowling used her vision- the board of CWD for 27 years, inary spirit to organise CWD’s out- cluding terms as chairperson. Next reach to Ocean View and week he will recall CWD’s work at Masiphumelele while Rebecca the height of the struggle in the 1980s Davids did the same in Atlantis. and its pioneering role in responding Sr Carmel Bennett FMM to the Aids pandemic.

The Southern cross, May 29 to June 4, 2019

YOUR CLASSIFIEDS

Patricia Mollin

P

ATRICIA Mollin, a great friend and supporter of the Salesian Sisters of the Southern African Province, recently died in Ireland at the age of 85.

Ms Mollin was born in Rahan Demesne, County Offaly, Ireland, on March 18, 1934.

Her faith and relationship with God played a major part in her life, handed down to her by her parents and the Presentation Sisters teachers in the convent and school in Killina (Ireland). Every day Ms Mollin prayed the prayer of abandonment of St Charles de Foucauld.

In her late 40s she came to Lesotho for two years to do voluntary work with the Salesian Sisters there, contributing to their skills training centre for

disadvantaged young women.

After her retirement, Ms Mollin took up residence in Cape Town and began doing volunteer educational work in Khayelitsha township.

The Salesian Sisters in Cape Town were looking to improve and expand their pastoral service in Delft, and Ms Mollin acted as a consultant to them.

Through her, the Sisters came in contact with the Streetwise Volunteers group from Ireland who contributed with voluntary labour and fundraising towards the construction of the Don Bosco educare centre and Don Bosco skills training centre, both in Delft.

The construction of the skills training centre was finished at

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DEATH NOTICES

SAVIO—Rita. Passed away May 15, 2019. A very special neighbour and friend, we shared so many wonderful, happy times together. i miss you, lovingly remembered by norma. MHDSRiP.

IN MEMORIAM

the end of last year and now offers skills training for the unemployed young people of Delft.

Up until a few months before her death, Ms Mollin kept in contact with the Salesian Sisters through the skills training centre.

Communication Day message: make internet relationships real

C

HRISTIANS must do more to make sure the media, especially social networks, are places of dialogue and respect for others, rather than instruments for highlighting differences and increasing divisions, said the prefect of the Vatican communications office.

“The risk in our time is that of forming tribes instead of communities—tribes based on the exclusion of the other,” said Paolo Ruffini, the new prefect of the Dicastery for Communication.

Pope Francis’ theme for this year’s World Communications Day on June 2 is “We are members one of another: From network community to human communities.”

The theme is a call for “reflection on the current state and nature of relationships on the internet, starting from the idea of community as a network between people in their wholeness”, the Vatican said.

“The metaphor of the web as

WINDVOGEL–Magdelene Martha. Mommy, Ma called home six years ago on May 24, 2013, to join husband John, who passed on September 23, 1968. We thought of you with love today but that is nothing new. We thought about you yesterday and days before that too. We think of you in silence. We often speak your name. now all we have are memories and your picture in a frame. your memory is our keepsake with which we’ll never part. God has you in his keeping. We have you in our hearts. We miss you dearly. Always in our prayers. your children, inlaws, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

PRAYERS

none who can withstand your power. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary, i place this cause in your hands. leon and Karen.

WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES

BLAIR—Victor and Maureen (née campbell). Married May 8, 1954, at Emmanuel cathedral in Durban. congratulations Mom and Dad on your 65th wedding anniversary, with all our love and best wishes from all your children, grandchildren and great-grandsons.

PERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: The truth will convict a silent church. See www.valuelife abortionisevil.co.za ABORTION WARNING: The Pill can abort. All catholic users (married or cohabiting) must be told, to save their souls and their unborn infants. See www.epm.org/ static/uploads/downloads/ bcpill.pdf PEOPLE OF THE CEDARS is a book on the lebanese South African community written by Ken Hanna. it is available on Amazon at https://msteve. kartra.com/page/inheritance

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

Pope Francis has called for reflection on the state and nature of relationships on the internet on this year’s World communications Day. a community of solidarity implies the construction of an ‘us’ based on listening to the other, on dialogue and consequently on the responsible use of language.”

Social media can nourish “true, beautiful, solid relationships”, Mr Ruffini said, but it also can “feed hatred and a friend or

Challenge of living again in the ordinary Continued from page 7 We can start just by being better informed of what is happening in our towns, our provinces and our nation.

Vatican II produced a document on the laity— the first time in almost 2 000 years that the Church addressed a document specifically to the 99% of people who make up the Church.

Its title—Apostolicam Actuositatem—implies in Latin that lay woman and man should intensify the work of the Apostles.

We have a dual role, as Christians and Citizens.

Neither of these is easy. Both have their challenges.

And both have their rewards.

But, in this long period between Easter Sunday and the Second Coming, let’s commit to work hard at both of these together: to be Christians who live up to the promise of Resurrection and Citizens who live up to the promise of democracy.

To advertise call Yolanda Timm on 021 465 5007 or e-mail advertising @scross.co.za

11

enemy mechanism. With this , there is no real relationship.”

Pope Francis, he said, wants people to use social media as a network, not a web, “not something that traps you, but something that frees you and that you make an instrument of freedom”.—CNS

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 865.

ACROSS: 5 Sift, 7 Obliterate, 8 Halt, 10 Remedial, 11 Script, 12 Nobody, 14 Career, 16 Taster, 17 Ignatius, 19 Ugly, 21 Arimathean, 22 Tsar.

DOWN: 1 Noah, 2 Diatribe, 3 Regret, 4 Madmen, 5 Send, 6 Fit and well, 9 Archangels, 13 Besought, 15 Raisin, 16 Tuscan, 18 Ajar, 20 Yank.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate two bishops: June 7: Bishop Frank Nubuasah, bishop of Francistown, Botswana, and apostolic administrator of Gaborone, on his 70th birthday June 7: Bishop Xolelo Thaddeus Kumalo of Eshowe on the 11th anniversary of his episcopal ordination

O MOST BEAUTIFUL FLOWER OF MOUNT CARMEL, fruitful vine, splendour of heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth, i humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is

MARIANELLA Guest House, Simon’s Town: “come experience the peace and beauty of God with us.” Fully equipped, with amazing sea views. Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy.

Malcolm Salida 082 7845675, mjsalida@gmail.com

PARISH NOTICES

NEW PARISH NOTICES WELCOME: if any parish notices listed are no longer

GOD BLESS AFRICA

Liturgical Calendar

Guard our people, guide our leaders and give us peace.

Luke 11:1-13

Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday June 2, Ascension of Our Lord Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47:2-3, 6-9, Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23, Luke 24:46-53 Monday June 3, St Charles Lwanga and Companions Acts 19:1-8, Psalm 68:2-7, John 16:29-33 Tuesday June 4 Acts 20:17-27, Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21, John 17:1-11 Wednesday June 5, St Boniface Acts 20:28-38, Psalm 68:29-30, 33-36, John 17:11-19 Thursday June 6, St Norbert Acts 22:30; 23:6-11, Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11, John 17:20-26 Friday June 7 Acts 25:13-21, Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20, John 21:15-19 Saturday June 8 Acts 28:16-20, 30-31, Psalm 11:4-5, 7, John 21:20-25 Sunday June 9, Pentecost Sunday Acts 2:1-11, Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34, Romans 8:8-17, John 14:15-16, 23-26

valid, call us on 021 4655007 or e-mail us at m.leveson@scross.co.za. Also, we’d welcome new notices to run free in the classifieds.

CAPE TOWN: A Holy Hour Prayer for Priests is held on the second Saturday of every month at the Villa Maria shrine from 16:00 to 17:00. The shrine is at 1 Kloof nek Road in Tamboerskloof. The group prays for priests in the archdiocese, and elsewhere by request.

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

Perpetual Adoration chapel at Good Shepherd parish, 1 Goede Hoop St, Bothasig, welcomes all visitors. Open 24 hours a day. Phone 021 558-1412.

Helpers of God’s Precious infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, cape Town.

Followed by vigil at abortion clinic. contact colette Thomas on 083 412-4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br Daniel ScP on 078 739-2988.

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

St Anthony’s rosary group.

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

NELSPRUIT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Peter’s parish every Tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed

by Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/communion service at 17:30.

The

Southern Cross

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Published by the proprietors, The Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co Ltd, at the company’s registered office, 10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town, 8001.

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

Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, staff or directors of The Southern Cross.

the

Pentecost Sunday: June 9 Readings: Acts 2:1-11, Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34, Romans 8:8-17, John 14:15-16, 23-26

N

EXT Sunday, our long Easter season ends quite suddenly with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the infant Church. We should experience this as our story, and it may be helpful to observe what the Spirit does, in the readings appointed for this great solemnity.

In the first reading, what the Spirit does is unite the group of Jesus’ disciples “on the same mission”. Then we realise that it has certain symptoms: “Suddenly a sound from heaven, of the coming of a mighty wind; and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.”

In Greek and Hebrew (and in other languages as well) the word “Spirit” means a “breath” or a “wind”; and as the story of Acts unfolds, we feel that powerful wind blowing, driving the story along.

That is the first sign of the Spirit; and the second is equally powerful: “divided tongues, of fire, as it were, and it sat on each one of them”.

That is the first sign of the fire that will burn through the rest of Acts, and through the entire history of the Church, of course.

There is more, however, for the next thing that happens is that “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”; and they find themselves uttering “in different languages, in accordance

S outher n C ross

The Spirit blows within as the Spirit gave them to utter”.

Not only that, but they end up speaking to the entire known world, “every nation under heaven”.

Luke makes this quite explicit, identifying groups from every part of the known world, to whom these Galileans (with their laughable dialect of Aramaic) were managing to communicate: from Iran and Iraq and Jordan and the meeting of the Tigris and the Euphrates, Judaea (where the events are taking place), Cappadocia and Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia (all in what today we call Turkey).

Then the word crosses the Mediterranean into Africa (“Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene”), and back to Rome (so Europe eventually gets the Gospel).

And the audience includes all religious backgrounds (Jews and proselytes), as well as Crete, the largest island in the Mediterranean, and the mysterious area out East known as Arabia.

All these areas “hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things of God”. That is what the Spirit does.

In the psalm for next Sunday, the poet is starting to bless the Lord, and reflect on what God does; and especially God’s Spirit: “You take away their spirit, they perish and return to their dust.”

D

I’m looking for the marriage bed! That’s a great image for what the heart calls home.

At the end of the day, what is home? Is it an ethnic identity, a gender, a citizenship, a house somewhere, the place where we were born, or is it a place in the heart?

It’s a place in the heart and the image of the marriage bed situates it well.

H

ome is where you are comfortable, physically, psychologically, and morally. Home is where you feel safe.

Home is where your heart doesn’t feel out of place, compromised, violated, denigrated, trivialised, or pushed aside (even if it is sometimes taken for granted). Home is a place which you don’t have go away from to be yourself. Home is where you can be fully yourself without the need to posture that you are anything other than who you are. Home is where you are at ease.

There are various lessons couched inside that concept of home, not least, as this young woman came to realise, some valuable insights on how we think about love and sex.

Some of what’s at stake here is captured in the popular notion of longing for a soulmate. The trouble though is that generally we tend to think of a soulmate in very charged romantic terms. But, as De Vinck’s books illustrates, finding a soulmate has more to do with finding the moral comfort

Conrad

Sunday Reflections

By contrast, when God “sends forth your Spirit, they are created—and you renew the face of the earth”.

This “Spirit” is a powerful divine agency; the poet ends with, “I shall rejoice in the Lord.”

The second reading for next Sunday, from Romans, makes a distinction between “flesh” (humanity when closed to God) and “spirit” (humanity when open to God); and so, Paul says to the Roman Church: “You are in the Spirit, given that God’s Spirit lives in you.”

Then the argument comes right to the point: “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead lives among you, then the One who raised Jesus from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies, through his Spirit that dwells in you.”

So what the Spirit does is to give life: “If by the Spirit you do to death the actions of the Body, then you are going to live”; and he explains this a bit further, with a reference to Jesus’ Gethsemane experience: “…you have received the Spirit of sonship by which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’; and the Spirit himself bears testimony along with our spirit that we are children of God.” The upshot is that Christ’s life is ours, as “coheirs with Christ, if we suffer along with

Where exactly is home?

URING the years that I served as a religious superior for a province of Oblate priests and Brothers in western Canada, I tried to keep my foot inside the academic world by doing some adjunct teaching at the University of Saskatchewan. It was always a once-aweek, night course, advertised as a primer on Christian theology, and drew a variety of students.

One of the assigned readings for that course was Christopher de Vinck’s book Only the Heart Knows How to Find Them: Precious Memories for a Faithless Time. The book is a series of autobiographical essays, most of which focus on his home life and his relationship to his wife and children. The essays describing his relationship to his wife don’t overplay the romantic, but are wonderfully heartwarming and set sex into a context of marriage, safety, and fidelity.

At the end of the semester a young woman, 30 years old, said this to me as she handed in her term paper, a reflection on De Vinck’s book: “This is the best book I’ve ever read. I didn’t have a lot of moral guidance growing up and so I wasn’t always careful with my heart and was pretty free and existential about sex. I’ve basically slept my way through two Canadian provinces; but now I know that what I really want is what this man (De Vinck) has.

I’m looking for the marriage bed!”

Her eyes teared as she shared this.

Nicholas King SJ

him that we might be glorified along with him”. It is an awesome vision.

Finally, the Gospel gives us another angle on what it is that the Spirit does for us.

For the disciples are there in the Upper Room, huddled together against the darkness, with the sad question hanging over them of how they are to survive without Jesus.

Here the answer turns out to be the rather surprising one, called the “Paraclete”, or “Counsel for the Defence”, a gift from the Father, at Jesus’ request: “I am going to ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may be with you for ever.”

Somehow or other, this “Spirit” will enable us to keep Jesus’ word: “My Father will love that person, and we shall come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

And he goes on, in case we had not got it: “The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit which the Father will send in my name, that one will teach you everything, and will remind you of all the things that I have told you.”

Do you feel better, now that you have thought a bit more about the Spirit? Happy Pentecost.

Southern Crossword #865

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

and psychological safety of a monogamous marriage bed than it has to do with the stuff of romantic novels.

In terms of our sexuality, what lies deepest inside our erotic longings is the desire to find someone to take us home. Any sex from which you have to go home is still something which is not delivering what you most long for and is, at best, a temporary tonic which leaves you searching still for something further and more real.

The phrase, I’m looking for the marriage bed, also contains some insights vis-a-vis discerning among the various kinds of love, infatuation, and attractions we fall into.

Most people are by nature temperamentally promiscuous, meaning that we experience strong feelings of attraction, infatuation, and love for all kinds of others, irrespective of the fact that often what we are attracted to in another is not something we could ever be at home with.

We can fall in love with a lot of different kinds of people, but what kind of love makes for a marriage and a home? Marriage and home are predicated on the kind of love that takes you home, the kind of love that gives you the sense that with this person you can be at home and can build a home.

And, obviously, this concept doesn’t just apply to a husband and wife in marriage. It’s an image for what constitutes home—for everyone, married and celibate alike.The marriage bed is a metaphor for what puts one’s psychological and moral centre at ease.

TS Eliot once wrote: Home is where we start from. It’s also where we want to end up. At birth our parents bring us home.

That’s where we start from and where we are at ease until puberty drives us out in search of another home.

Lots of pitfalls potentially await us in that search, but if we listen to that deep counsel inside us, that irrepressible longing to get home again, then like the wise magi who followed a special star to the manger, we too will find the marriage bed—or, at least, we won’t be looking for it at all the wrong places.

ACROSS

5. Satan wishes to … like wheat (Lk 22) (4) 7. Totally destroy to liberate roughly (10) 8. Walk with a limp and come to a stop (4) 10. Derail me to turn to kind of schoolwork that improves you (8) 11. It consists of handwritten characters by the monks (6) 12. Spiritual yet someone not worth considering (6) 14. Occupation that’s not quite a vocation (6) 16. He will sample the wine first (6) 17. First Jesuit (8) 19. Like the duckling, not the swan (4) 21. Descriptive of Joseph, Jesus’ secret disciple (Lk 23) (10) 22. Rats disturbed in old Russia (4)

DOWN

1. First biblical sailor? (4) 2. Verbal attack, a bit dire (8) 3. Feel repentant (6) 4. They are insane (6) 5. Here I am. … me (Is 6) (4) 6. In good health (3,3,4) 9. They are seniors in the heavenly ranks (10) 13. Beseeched in an alternative way (8) 15. The dried fruit is in the rain (6) 16. He’s a native of Italy (6) 18. Showing the container partly open (4) 20. Pull out a tooth in New York (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE DRUNK was in confession and addressed the priest.

“Father, I did something terrible. I ran over a dinosaur with the car.”

“You did what?” the disbelieving priest said. “Dinosaurs are extinct.”

“Oh man, oh man,” the drunk wailed. “I really didn’t mean to do that!”

A

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