190821

The

S outher n C ross

August 21 to August 27, 2019

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 5149

www.scross.co.za

Ramaphosa meets with Church leaders

Page 2

The women in the Gospel of Luke

Page 10

R12 (incl VAT RSA)

Bible Sunday August 25

What’s behind Nigeria’s religious strife?

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Bishops: We must act on SA’s violence STAFF REPORTER

T Archbishop Dabula Mpako ordained Rev Harry Bopape (left) and Rev Johannes Sibanyoni (right) to the transitory diaconate at Sacred Heart cathedral in Pretoria. The transitory diaconate is the final step before ordination to the priesthood. (Photo: Mathibela Sebothoma)

Soccer boss’ racism slammed A

Pilgrimage 2020

S outher n C ross

RACIST slur by a leading German football functionary has created an opportunity for a Catholic development agency to correct misconceptions about Africa.

The development aid organisation Misereor, which has a long record of supporting projects in Southern Africa and other regions of the continent, condemned a speech made

by Clemens Tönnies, the chairman of the Schalke 04 club.

In a speech protesting against tax increases in the fight against climate change, Mr Tönnies suggested financing 20 power plants in Africa per year.

“Then the Africans would stop cutting down trees and stop making children when it gets dark,” the billionaire businessman said.

After a huge public outcry, he apologised for his remark and volunteered to a threemonth suspension from his post at Schalke, a club which once counted Pope John Paul II among its honorary members.

The comment was “undoubtedly marked by racist stereotypes”, Misereor CEO Martin Bröckelmann-Simon said, according to the German Catholic news agency KNA.

The German government’s commissioner for Africa, Günter Nooke, also condemned Mr Tönnies’ remarks.

He said that problems such as the disappearance of the rainforest and population growth in African are “real, and must be discussed, if necessary controversially”.

However, according to Mr BröckelmannSimon, the central African rainforest is not disappearing because of missing power plants, but because of “continuing logging”, the exploitation of natural resources, and the advancing plantation economy—and all that is happening for the European market.

Mr Bröckelmann-Simon said it was “unbearable” that one might ascribe population growth in Africa to people’s “uncontrolled impulses to reproduce”. Rather, the situation of population growth should be addressed by better income, more education for women and girls as well as basic public services delivered by responsibly governed states.

He noted that “it is precisely us [Westerners] who are the greater burden on our global ecosystem, much more than the Africans”.

That must be part of the agenda “if we really want to seriously discuss global overpopulation”.

HE bishops of Southern Africa have expressed their alarm at the escalating violence in society which is expressed in service delivery protests and violence against women—and said that the leaders of the Church need to do more to address these issues.

They noted that “the almost universal ‘service delivery protests...are the source of the growing culture of destruction of property”.

This culture also penetrates into the family, “where much violence is taking place”, the bishops said in a statement.

The family, therefore, “has to be the place where we focus of our fight against the culture of violence, which is destroying us as a people”, they said.

“In particular we commit ourselves to making a special effort to make the safety of women a major priority in the Catholic Church.”

The bishops urged all in South Africa, “starting with our leaders, to cultivate a culture of respect for life and limb, a culture of responsibility towards the weaker ones in society, and accountability for how we are keeping our brothers and sisters”.

“We urge especially our political leaders to live up to the expectations, hopes and aspirations of those who voted them into positions of service and responsibility by doing their duties faithfully and as a sign of their patriotism,” the bishops said.

The bishops aligned themselves with the analysis of concerns voiced by Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, who in his address at this month’s plenary session in Mariannhill urged the Church to identify and deal with the root causes of the violence.

One of the problems, the bishops said, “is the tendency to put our politicians on a pedestal, from which they dictate what is good for us, rather than listen to what we their fellow citizens are highlighting as the

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most urgent needs”.

In his address, Bishop Sipuka told his brother bishops that those who protest often undermine their cause and look unreasonable because they “destroy facilities they have in order to get another facility. If they want a road, they will destroy a clinic, and if they are angry against crime they burn a school”.

Part of that violence, he suggested is due to the absence as Church leaders, who can take the grievances of the people to those in authority.

“When people are left alone in desperate situations, they resort to emotionally desperate and destructive measures,” Bishop Sipuka said.

In their statement, the bishops echoed Bishop Sipuka’s call on Church leaders to not “retreat to our sacristies, especially at this time when our people need us to be engaging actively with our political leaders”.

The bishops acknowledged that they need to “do more than just issue occasional statements, no matter how important those might be.

“Rather, we need to be fully engaged in walking with the people, as we did in the past during the apartheid regime,” they said.

The bishops condemned all forms of corruption, “which is tainting the image of our infant democracy”, and which must be rooted out.

“We are aware of the damage done to the economy by state capture, and especially how difficult it will be to get the economy back on track,” the bishops said.

“For that reason we affirm our support for the different institutions which are key to turning things around.”

The bishops urged all South Africans “to hold hands together and work selflessly to restore basic trust and confidence needed to lift our country back onto the path to growth”.

The Catholic bishops renewed their commitment “to engage fully in building a better society”.

Pray in Medjugorje and visit Rome, with papal audience, Assisi, the town of St Francis, Loreto with Mary’s House.

Plus a tour of historic Split in Croatia.

Three countries in one tour!

2

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

LOCAL

Ramaphosa to Church leaders: Let’s meet again

BY ERIN CARElSE

P

RESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa agreed with Church leaders that things are not good in South Africa, and pledged to meet again with the Christian leaders.

The delegation of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) which met with the president and several government ministers included Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), as well as SACBC secretary-general Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS and associate secretarygeneral Fr Patrick Rakeketsi CSS. “President Ramaphosa was keen and eager to meet with us and received us very well,” Bishop Sipuka told The Southern Cross.

“He listened with openness to our observations about the state of the country, and also expressed his view.”

Sr Makoro CPS echoed the impression that the president was open and honest when engaging on critical matters, especially the economic situation.

Bishop Sipuka said his overall impression was that the president means well, and wants to take things forward.

“President Ramaphosa agreed with us that things are not good. He acknowledged that there are difficulties, but reassured us that the government is working on it,” Bishop Sipuka said.

Mr Ramaphosa had a big delegation of ministers with him, which gives the impression that he takes our concerns seriously,” he added.

“He is keen to continue to talk

President Cyril Ramaphosa with the delegation of the South African Council of Churches, which included the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference president Bishop Sithembele Sipuka (front, third from right) and its secretary-general Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS (front far left) and associate secretary-general Fr Patrick Rakeketsi CSS (front, fourth from left). with us and said the next time the meeting should be held at the SACC headquarters.”

The SACC delegation was led by its president, Methodist Bishop Ziphozihle Siwa and its general-secretary, Ethiopian Episcopal Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana.

The delegation presented a range of initiatives the SACC will undertake. These can be a collaboration with various levels of government.

While commending the president for the sense of hope that his administration represents, the council also raised issues of concern, including the high level of unemployment, especially among the youth; the rising levels of poverty

and inequality; the scourge of substance abuse; and the need for everyone to act in ways that restore hope to the nation.

The council also brought to the president’s attention the outcome of its 18 month-long National Convention of South Africa initiative, a vehicle for public engagement and the mobilising of technical expertise to craft practical solutions to “Reimagine, Reorganise, Rebuild the South Africa we pray for”. It culminated in the launch of a Civil Society Manifesto in March.

The SACC is an interdenominational forum that unites 36 member churches and organisations, including the Catholic Church.

‘Youthful’ Sisters show great joy

BY SR PHATSIMO VERONICA RAMOKgWEBANA SC

A

CHRISTIAN Brother who facilitated the general chapter of the 53-year-old Sisters of Calvary in Botswana said the congregation’s joy was observable in what the Sisters had in common: a love for Jesus and a shared youthfulness.

Br Michael Burke, of Boksburg in the archdiocese of Johannesburg, said it was a privilege for him to facilitate the congregation’s sixth general chapter at St Gaspar Bertoni Retreat Centre in Notwane.

“I find it a privilege to deal with people who are striving to be their best, looking at the way to go and into the future, looking sincerely at themselves as they are,” he said.

He found the Sisters to be a very joyful group. “Clearly that joy does not just come from scenes of having a party together but I think it comes from something much deeper: the attraction to follow Jesus which they have in common, and also a youthfulness—a combination of senior and junior Sisters as well as young ones. It’s lovely to see the mix and the way that they respect and need each other.”

The chapter was attended by 31 of the congregation’s 35 finally-professed Sisters. Their main focus was on studying more profoundly the charism of the institute, to evaluate the congregation’s journey, to deal with general problems, and to set

Sr Boitumelo Matlhabe is given a lit candle after her election as the new superior-general of the Sisters of Charity, as a sign of being the light of the congregation lines of action for the future.

It also elected the superior-general and her councillors.

After a Mass celebrated by Fr Andrew Makgetla CP, vicar general of the diocese of Gaborone, the chapter elected Sr Boitumelo Matlhabe as the new superior-general, and Sr Bernadette Masekamela as vicaress.

The council members are Srs Masego Ramaphoi, Seipato Moumakwa and Otsetswe Musindo.

“There is nothing we can do without your support,” Sr Boitumelo told her fellow Sisters.

“I promise that I will do my best to take the congregation to the

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highest level, and I can only do that and succeed with your cooperation.

I know you, my Sisters, and I know that if you want to do something you will succeed in it,” she said, also invoking “God’s help and guidance”.

Interviewed after the chapter, Sr Boitumelo said that “the congregation should expect to see women of prayer, women who work hard, women who care for each other, women who are prepared to take the congregation” further.

“The congregation is only 53 years old and already showing positive signs of having youthful Sisters, and it is the mandate of older sisters who have been in the congregation for a very long time to groom the young Sisters,” she said.

“If they see good things from us, they will also follow suit, they will work hard if they see us working hard, they will live out their commitment to their level best if they see us. Thus the theme of this Chapter has reminded us of who we are what we have been founded for and what is expected of us,” she said.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town ordained Frs Joseph Malama Chimfwembe (left) and Alfredo van der Schyff to the priesthood and Rev Theo Angelo April (right) to the diaconate at Our lady Help of Christians church in lansdowne. Fr van der Schyff has been posted to Stellenbosch.

Fr Chimfwembe, a Zambian who belongs to the Neocatechumenal Way, will serve at Somerset West. Deacon April, who is from Elsies River, will serve in Paarl. (Photo: Andrea Plaatjies/Spotlight.Africa)

J&P backs demands of farmworkers

BY ERIN CARElSE

T

HE Justice and Peace Commission (J&P) of the Southern African Catholics Bishops’ Conference has for years been working with various formations of farmworkers in their struggle against labour exploitation and inhumane living conditions, and helping them reclaim their “21 demands for justice”.

In South Africa, the farmworkers constitute one of the most exploited and ignored categories of the working poor, according to J&P director Fr Stan Muyebe OP. “The concerns of farmworkers and their struggle for justice are not new. Various studies have documented and shone light on their plight, and all concluded that the conditions under which farmworkers work and live under constitute a gross violation of human rights,” he said.

In a 2012/13 farmworkers ‘ strike in the Western Cape—South Africa’s biggest so far—workers protested against what they said were slave wages and working and living conditions. Their concerns were condensed into 21 demands for improvement.

In 2014, then-Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa had several negotiations with the Vulnerable Workers Forum (VWF). Since then according to Fr Muyebe, there has not been any tangible and meaningful progress.

“Government should demonstrate greater responsiveness to the 21 demands as it is seen by many as a progressive means of effectively addressing the general plight of farmworkers,” he said.

Policy measures, drawn up in an attempt to respond, have not been “radical and comprehensive enough to respond to complex conditions that the farmworkers face in their struggle for justice”, Fr Muyebe said.

Three categories are discernible in the 21 demands:

• Wage justice: R150 per day, and an end to wage discrimination through the principle of equal pay for equal work.

• Living conditions of farmworkers: housing contracts, safe farmworker transport, no deductions for rent of dependants over the age of 18, a moratorium on evictions, access to health care in the farms.

• Fair working conditions.

One of the 21 demands calls on the government to establish an inter-ministerial committee and define the role of the agricultural sector in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) to specifically look at farmworkers.

Additionally, the farmworkers demand that a fund be set up to support the unionisation of the sector.

“This is especially linked to the fact that most of the farmworkers are not allowed to join trade unions. There are a lot of cases of farmworkers being dismissed for trying either to join a trade union or to start a trade union,” Fr Muyebe explained.

“Through the writings of various popes, the Catholic Social Teaching has affirmed that a trade union is one of the mechanisms that are effective for the protection of the dignity of the working poor, and therefore J&P is focusing on the conditions necessary for formation and strengthening of trade unionism among farmworkers,” he added.

In 2019, J&P asked the South African Human Rights Commission to again conduct a national hearing on the human rights situation in the farms in a manner that equally covers two issues: farm killings as well as the inhumane working conditions of farmworkers.

“In God’s eyes, the human dignity of both white farmers and the farmworkers is one and indivisible.

The dignity of both requires protection without discrimination,” Fr Muyebe said.

Samkelo Mthethwa, Kassia Botaz, Emma Botaz and Francine Nzombo of Holy Family College in Durban attended the Interreligious Youth Forum on Climate Change at Overport Secondary School. Students from Durban schools formed a committee to commit to a response to climate change and reforms.

The programme will run until 2020. It will include making the public aware of the urgency to act on behalf of preserving our natural resources, planting indigenous trees, meat-free days and symposiums.

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

3

Abuse: We must bring light to SA – bishops STAFF REPORTER

T

At the age of 84, Ranganayagee Moodliar converted from Hinduism to the Catholic faith. Seen here with her daughter and sponsor Pragashnie, Mrs Moodliar was baptised and received into the Church by Fr Bhkeki Shabalala CMM in Mariannhill. The new Catholic said she was inspired by her daughter’s witness as a Catholic at their home.

HE bishops of Southern Africa have welcomed “the sense of outrage and urgency” in the presentations of Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, who this month spoke throughout South Africa on the sexual abuse crisis in the Church.

Fr Zollner SJ, a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors addressed the bishops as well meetings in the archdioceses of Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Bloemfontein on the latest “concrete and effective actions” that are being taken in the Church to fight sexual abuse.

“It was good and necessary to feel the sense of outrage and urgency” in Fr Zollner’s presentation, one bishop commented, and SACBC president Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, thanked him for, among other things, precisely, his passion.

After speaking about sexual abuse in the Church in general, Fr

Zollner highlighted significant facts of Pope Francis’ apostolic letter Vos Estis Lux Mundi (“You are the Light of the World”) which followed February’s summit on abuse attended by the presidents of all bishops’ conferences.

Fr Zollner was among the summit’s organisers.

The document names four specific crimes: • Sexual acts with anyone by violence, threat or through the abuse of authority • Sexual acts with a minor or a vulnerable person • Child pornography, including production, exhibition and recruitment • Omissions or failures to act, especially on the part of bishops.

A procedure is now in place to report any of the above crimes alleged to have been committed by a bishop.

On submission to the local metropolitan (or archbishop), such reports must be sent to Rome who

must then respond within 30 days, and a final report must be completed within 90 days.

“As is always the case with legal processes, there is more detail; however, the above facts illustrate the determination of the pope and the Church to hold us bishops accountable,” the bishop said in a statement.

“We cannot in any way avoid our responsibilities. In simple terms, we cannot ‘sweep things under the carpet’,” the bishops said.

“Besides this grave responsibility [of Vos Estis Lux Mundi] that lies on our shoulders—personally and collectively—we recognise the urgent need for the work that must be done in the seminaries of the conference and also and especially, in the ongoing formation of our clergy and religious,” the bishops said.

“We confess that where a terrible darkness has entered the Church, we are committed to do all in our power to restore light to Southern Africa,” they said.

Catholic university offers course in Christian business leadership

BY ERIN CARElSE

S

OUTH Africa’s Catholic university has hosted its first Christian business leadership course.

Clinical psychologist Tony de Gouveia and Deacon Francis Graham, a businessman working in the field of human resources, presented the course at St Augustine College, based in Johannesburg.

Designed by Schoenstatt Sister Dr Edith Raidt, first president of the college, the course is based on the teaching, philosophy and pedagogy of Schoenstatt founder Fr Joseph Kentenich (1885-1968).

Over two weekends, participants explored five themes in the teachings of Fr Kentenich—organism; or-

ganisation; authority and power; pedagogy of values; divine providence—through ten more specific units.

“The course aims at applying Christian social teaching to our current context, with its socio-political, multinational and multicultural problems, and to find appropriate solutions,” explained Prof Garth Abrahams, president of St Augustine College.

“Since it was first developed in 1982, hundreds of business leaders have taken part in the course, not only in South Africa but also in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany,” he said.

Participants in the St Augustine

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course included company directors, human resources managers, those involved in education, and young people preparing for future leadership positions.

All participants will receive a certificate of attendance at a graduation ceremony to be held on September 7.

St Augustine will offer the next edition of the course on October 1920 and November 2-3. If a participant is an employee of a company that is registered for skills levies with a SETA, the employer might claim the cost from the relevant SETA. n For more information, visit the St Augustine website at www.staugustine.ac.za

The youth group and some of the families from St Mary’s parish in Nyanga, Cape Town, who will host young participants in the international Taizé “Pilgrimage of Trust” which will take place in Cape Town from September 25-29.

4

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

INTERNATIONAL

Pope’s interview on rise of nationalism, new synod

BY CAROl glATZ

T

HE upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon is an “urgent” gathering, not of scientists and politicians, but for the Church whose main focus in discussions will be evangelisation, Pope Francis said in a new interview.

However, the importance of the Amazon region’s biodiversity and current threats it faces also will be addressed because “together with the oceans, the Amazon contributes decisively to the survival of the planet. Much of the oxygen we breathe comes from there. That’s why deforestation means killing humanity,” he said.

The pope also talked about the dangers of surging nationalism and isolationist sentiments, saying, “I am worried because you hear speeches that resemble those by Hitler in 1934: ‘Us first, We! We!.’.”

Such thinking, he said, “is frightening”.

The pope’s comments came in an interview by Vatican Insider, the online news supplement to the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Asked about the dangers of “sovereignism” or nationalism, the pope said it represented an attitude of “isolation” and closure.

“A country must be sovereign, but not closed” inside itself, he said.

National sovereignty “must be defended, but relations with other countries, with the European community, must also be protected and promoted”.

“Sovereignism,” on the other hand, he continued, is something

Pope Francis greets a member of an indigenous group from the Amazon region during a meeting in Peru. The upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon will take place in October (Photo: Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters/CNS) that goes “too far” and “always ends badly—it leads to war.”

When asked about populism, the pope said it was one thing for people to be able to express their concerns, but quite another “to impose a populist attitude on the people”.

“The people are sovereign,” with their own way of thinking, feeling, judging and expressing themselves, he said, “while populism leads to forms of sovereignism. That suffix, ‘-ism’, is never good.”

Asked about “the right path to take when it comes to migrants,” the pope said: “First and foremost, never neglect the most important right of all: the right to life.”

“Immigrants come above all to

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escape from war or hunger, from the Middle East and Africa,” he said.

When it comes to war, “we must make an effort and fight for peace” as well as invest in Africa in ways that help the people there “resolve their problems and thus stop the migration flows”.

Concerning immigrants already in one’s home country, certain “criteria must be followed”, he said.

“Governments must think and act prudently, which is a virtue of government. Those in charge are called to think about how many migrants can be taken in.”

If that threshold is reached, “the situation can be resolved through dialogue with other countries” because some countries need people, especially for working in agriculture or for reviving their economy and breathing new life into “half-empty towns” because of low birthrates, he said.

When asked why he convened a synod on the Amazon, Pope Francis said: “It is the child of Laudato si’.

Those who have not read it will never understand the Synod on the Amazon. Laudato si' is not a green encyclical, it is a social encyclical, which is based on a ‘green’ reality, the safeguarding of creation.”

Among the environmental issues the pope is concerned about, the one that “has shocked me the most,” he said, is the way resources are increasingly being consumed faster than they can be regenerated.

“It’s very serious. It’s a global emergency,” the pope said.—CNS

‘Cellphones are stained with childrens’ blood’

F

ATHER Willy Milayi is a Missionary of the Immaculate Conception who lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He works rescuing children who have fled the coltan mines and offers them a place to live and learn a trade.

The DRC is one the world’s top producers of coltan, a rare mineral used in the manufacture of many electronic devices, such as cellphones.

Working conditions in the coltan mines are dangerous and the workers, including young children, are often exploited.

“The exploitation of these miners is in the hands of the guerrillas,” explained Fr Malayi.

“Our cellphones are stained with the blood of the ‘walking dead children’.”

Fr Malayi works with children who have escaped forced labour in the mines. Many of them are living on the streets when he finds them.

Some 20 000 children live on the streets of Kinshasa alone.

The Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception have started an educational centre in the city. He described the centre as “a home where they can learn a trade that assures them of a future away from the mines and to never return to the streets”.

The priest recounted one boy he encountered in his ministry, who had escaped the mines and fled hundreds of kilometres.

The boy said that his family had been kidnapped from their house by militiamen, who told them to choose between death and mining

A miner in eastern DRC. The coltan mines are notorious for forced labour, including children. A DRC priest helps children who have escaped these mines have a normal life. (Photo: griff Tapper/CNA) coltan 13 hours a day.

When riots broke out against the militias, they raped and killed the boy’s mother and father and two teenage sisters.

“He managed to escape. But he told me amid tears: ‘I’m not afraid of death, I’m a corpse and a corpse does not fear death’,” the priest said.

At the educational centre, the Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception teach the children “to take care of each other”, Fr Malayi said.

“In our world this concept has been lost, and we have put material things ahead of people,” he said.

“What is killing us today is indifference. We don’t want to know anything about other people’s problems, and we just talk about our own.

What is more worrisome than material poverty is spiritual poverty,” Fr Malayi said.—CNA

Priest: Mozambique rejoices at papal visit

P

OPE Francis’ visit to Mozambique on September 5-6 will be a moment of rejoicing for Catholics in the region, who greatly look forward to the encounter, according to a priest from the country.

“Pope Francis will be in Mozambique and that will be a big reason for rejoicing, for being grateful to the pope for choosing Mozambique, and for coming to comfort us, to sustain us, and to strengthen us in our faith,” said Fr Bernardo Suate, who is from the northern diocese of Pemba and has worked for Vatican News in Rome since 2013.

According to the 2017 census, Catholics make up 28% of the population of Mozambique. “We are very few, we have many challenges, we have many problems,” Fr Suate said, but with the pope’s visit, “we feel that we are part of the universal Church and that’s a lot, that’s a lot”.

Fr Suate said that while the outlook for the Church in Mozambique is good, especially for vocations to the priesthood, the country’s challenges are many.

There have been ongoing terrorist attacks, especially in the northern part of

the country—villages are being destroyed, people are being attacked and killed, he said.

Other problems are environmental. Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which hit in March and April, caused massive destruction and loss of life in Mozambique and other African countries.

In the south of Mozambique, people are suffering from drought, Fr Suate said.

Poverty is another issue in the country.

“So, very big challenges.”

The Catholic Church confronts these problems by trying to be a prophetic Church, he said, quoting one of their bishops, who says the Church should have “feet well-grounded in the earth, but with one eye towards God and another eye towards our people, our society”.

“After independence in 1975, we can properly speak about a Mozambican

Church,” he said. Since that time, he explained, the country has had several national pastoral assemblies, one of the most important in 1977, just two years after independence.

At that meeting, he said, it was decided that the Church in Mozambique is to be a ministerial Church.

This manifests through many layled ministries, Fr Suate explained. The shortage of priests had an influence on this decision, “but the laity are very important in the Church.”

Pope Francis’ visit to Maputo is part of larger trip that includes stops in the capital cities of the island nations of Madagascar and Mauritius.

It falls 31 years after the visit of Pope John Paul II to Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe in 1988; and almost 24 years after the only papal visit to South Africa.—CNA

Pope OKs new laws for Vatican Bank

BY JuNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

P

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

OPE Francis has approved new statutes for the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), often referred to as the Vatican Bank, which include structural changes and a mandatory external audit.

The renewed statutes were approved by the pope ad experimentum (on a trial basis) for two years.

In a document signed by the pope, he emphasised the changes were to reinforce the Vatican Bank’s intended mission to manage assets for “the works of religion or charity”.

Among the primary changes to the statutes is the inclusion of an external auditor which, according to the document, can be either an individual or a company that is proposed by the institute’s supervisory board and appointed

by the Commission of Cardinals overseeing the institute’s work.

The external auditor, the statutes state, will “express opinions on the institute’s financial statements in a special report” and “examine all the books and accounting documents”. The auditor may also “request any information useful for auditing activities”.

The statutes also removed the inclusion of internal auditors. Prior to the renewed laws, internal auditors served a three-year term that could be renewed indefinitely. Instead, the external auditor will review the institute’s finances for a three-year term that can only be renewed once.

It also includes renewed norms for the Board of Superintendence and the Commission of Cardinals overseeing the work of the IOR. Members of both entities serve a

five-year term that can be renewed only once. Previously, members of the Commission of Cardinals could serve as members indefinitely.

The new norms also increase the number of members of the Board of Superintendence from five to seven members.

In an article published by Vatican News, Andrea Tornielli, editorial director for the Dicastery for Communication, said that the renewal of the statutes “represents an important step in the process of adaptation to the highest international standards”.

“More importantly, it signifies a renewed fidelity to the original mission of the Institute for the Works of Religion,” he said. “The renewed statutes show a greater attention to guaranteeing management responsibilities, control, and supervision.”—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

Who benefits from Kenya’s wind farms?

BY FREDRICK NZWIlI

A

S turbines turn on Africa’s largest wind farm on the shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, Catholic leaders welcomed the project as good for the environment and important for human development.

Bishop Peter Kihara Kariuki of Marsabit, in whose diocese the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project is located, hailed the newly minted project as safe for the environment in the region, where climate change has led to dry pastures and water shortages that have ignited frequent, sometimes deadly, clashes among herder communities.

“The windmills turbines are not destroying the environment. They are not interfering with the climate,” Bishop Kariuki said. “I have followed the project since its start and I think it's a good one. I welcome it.”

From a remote rocky and hilly stretch of the wilderness in Loyangalani district, the ever-present winds in the region effortlessly turn the turbines, producing 310 megawatts, about 17% of Kenya’s current generating capacity. It’s enough to power 1 million homes, according to projections.

In all, 356 turbines stand on 162 000km of the land of the Turkana people and other nomadic indigenous communities that use the land for settlement, livestock grazing and access to water.

“The local people have accepted the project. They believe it will open

The power-generating wind turbines at northern Kenya’s lake Turkana Wind Power Project in loyangalani, Kenya. Catholic leaders welcomed the project as good for the environment and for human development. (Photo: Thomas Mukoya, Reuters/CNS) up their areas and bring more development. If the people are happy, we are also happy,” said Fr Martin Omondi Oluoch, a priest at Loyangalani parish.

Despite the acceptance, there is some concern among the indigenous peoples that the power has been connected to the national grid to the benefit of urban areas, especially the capital, Nairobi, 547km to the south, without much local benefit.

Church leaders said some people consider the power a local resource that is being stolen. They suggested that funnelling some of the power to local needs would ease those concerns.

“It is clear that the local community wants to benefit from the wind power. They are demanding it. That’s why they went to court,” said Bishop Kariuki, referring to a recent lawsuit seeking continued access to ancestral, cultural and cattle-grazing land.

“The area needs roads, education, health services and food security, among other urgent needs. The people hope these services will follow with the wind farm,” Fr Oluoch said.

Beyond the development, Church leaders are hopeful that the farm will bring peace among the Turkana, Rendille and Samburu, all indigenous herder communities that have claimed land in the region. The heavily armed communities often engage in conflicts, including cattle rustling, that have turned deadly.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta stressed that the project demonstrates the East Africa nation’s commitment to clean energy and a boost to international efforts aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The president’s views converge with those of the Catholic leaders. Fr Charles Odira of the Kenyan bishops’ conference, also called on the government to address local economic and indigenous rights because the wind farm is on their land.

“They want to see the benefits, but this should also be seen as a national resource which can benefit the whole country. I think the government needs to strike a balance,” he said.—CNS

Pope: War is the ‘great human defeat’

M

ARKING the anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, Pope Francis urged nations to recall the need to protect the life and dignity of the victims of war and armed conflict.

“Everyone is required to observe the limits imposed by international humanitarian law, protecting unarmed populations and civil structures, especially hospitals, schools, places of worship, refugee camps,” he said, after praying the Angelus with visitors gathered in St Peter’s Square.

The pope reminded people that the Geneva Conventions were “im-

portant international legal instruments that impose limits on the use of force and are aimed at protecting civilians and prisoners in time of war”.

“May this anniversary make states increasingly aware of the indispensable need to protect the life and dignity of victims of armed conflicts,” he said.

“And let us not forget that war and terrorism are always a serious loss for all of humanity. They are the great human defeat!”

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 expanded previous international agreements for the humane

treatment of military personnel who were wounded or captured, medical personnel and civilians, by including rules protecting prisoners of war from torture and mistreatment, and providing them with suitable housing, sustenance and oversight by the International Red Cross.

New articles also called for protecting wounded, sick and pregnant civilians as well as mothers and children. Civilians should have access to adequate medical care and must not be collectively deported or made to work by occupying forces without pay.—CNS

The sun sets behind a statue of Mary on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Senior Vatican representatives joined dozens of bishops and hundreds of priests at the first officially approved Church youth festival at the site, three months after Catholic pilgrimages were authorised by the pope. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

Official Medjugorje pilgrimages now legit

BY JONATHAN luxMOORE

S

ENIOR Vatican representatives joined the first officially approved Church festival at Medjugorje, three months after Catholic pilgrimages to the site in BosniaHerzegovina were authorised by the pope.

“We are called to share the difficulties of our contemporaries and we have a responsibility to care for them,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for New Evangelisation, told 60 000 young people from 97 countries.

“For something to happen, we have to offer something: our poverty, our misery, our borders, our contradictions. But God will change all that because God works miracles,” he said during the final evening of Mladifest, or Youth Festival.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, papal vicar of the Rome diocese, formally opened the event. Fourteen archbishops and bishops and about 700 Catholic priests joined the festivities.

Meanwhile, the pope’s apostolic visitor to Medjugorje, Archbishop Henryk Hoser, who presided over the festival, said the hilltop shrine had become “a place of meeting and knowing”, adding that “the secret of Medjugorje” was “an invisible reality, but intense and very present”.

More than 40 000 apparitions have been claimed over 38 years at Medjugorje, where six teenagers re-

Iraqi archbishop warns: Extinction is coming

F

IVE years on from the conquering of Christian communities in Iraq by ISIS, Christians in the country remain at the “point of extinction”, Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil said this week.

“The ISIS attack led to the displacement of more than 125 000 Christians from historical homelands and rendered us, in a single night, without shelter and refuge, without work or properties, without churches and monasteries,” Archbishop Warda told papal charity Aid to the Church in Need this week.

ISIS captured the Christian communities of the Nineveh plains in 2014. Christians were not able to return to the area until 2016, when Iraqi forces and their allies recaptured the area. To date, about 40 000 Christians have returned; many have emigrated.

Christianity has been present in the Nineveh plain in Iraq—between Mosul and Iraqi Kurdistan—since the first century. However, since the ousting of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Christians have been fleeing the region.

Archbishop Warda said there have been periods of tolerance between Muslims and Christians in the area. Christian engaged with Muslims in respectful dialogue from

The tomb of Jonah in Mosul, destroyed by ISIS after their invasion in 2014. the 8th century until the 14th century, he said, helping to usher in the Arab Golden Age. In the archbishop’s eyes, the imposition of sharia led to the decline of that Golden Age: “A style of scholastic dialogue had developed, and this could only occur, because a succession of caliphs tolerated minorities. As toleration ended, so did the culture and wealth which flowed from it.”

“Argue as you will, but extinction is coming, and then what will anyone say?” he continued.

Archbishop Warda called on Muslim leaders to acknowledge that changes need to be made to protect religious minorities.

“It is not enough to say, ‘ISIS does not represent Islam.’ We need more.”—CNS

5

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ported first seeing an apparition of Mary on June 24, 1981 while herding sheep.

Some of the visionaries say Mary still appears to them daily with messages at the town, which was largely untouched by the 1992-95 civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In May 2018, Pope Francis named Archbishop Hoser as apostolic visitor, after a papal commission recommended that Medjugorje, which attracts up to 3 million visitors annually, be designated a pontifical shrine with Vatican oversight.

A ban on pilgrimages organised

by Catholic dioceses and parishes was lifted under a papal decree, making possible the five-day festival.

Archbishop Hoser said the pope had “opened a great door to enter Medjugorje” with his decree, adding that he was “personally and intimately convinced” the Marian centre offered “a model for new evangelisation”.

“The Holy See’s position has...two aspects: the pastoral aspect, which is fully accepted, and the doctrinal aspect, meaning study of the apparitions,” he told KAI, Poland’s Catholic information agency.

“The fact that apparitions are still continuing is the main obstacle to a final ruling, since it’s hard to decide on something which hasn’t finished.

For now, the question of recognising the authenticity of the apparitions remains in the hands of the Secretariat of State.”—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

To be prepared for the Word of God

A

S Catholics we are taught that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist which we receive at Mass; but often his presence in the Liturgy of the Word is treated as secondary.

In last week’s issue, Br Mike Chalmers CF wrote that “Christ himself is present in his Word, since it is he who speaks when Scripture is read in church”.

This insight must encourage our parishes to treat the manner in which the Word is conveyed and received at Mass with great care.

“It is not enough that the biblical passages are read in the vernacular if they are not also proclaimed with care, preparation, devout attention and meditative silence that enable the Word of God to touch people’s minds and hearts,” Br Chalmers wrote in his reflections for Bible Sunday, this year on August 25.

Successive popes have advocated for the proper training of lectors, which must also include guidance in their interior preparations.

At a general audience in January last year, Pope Francis issued a basic call: “We must look for good readers!”

He pointed out that good readers understand what they are reading and can therefore convey it well. This means that, at a bare minimum, readers have to read the text before Mass.

Experts suggest that readers might study the texts they are to read at Mass, and even prayerfully contemplate them.

This enables the lector to deliver the scripture passage with familiarity, taking care of details such as placing the emphasis on the sentence’s most important word.

Familiarity with the text can also help with confident diction.

And an evident love for the Scriptures will resonate with the listeners.

On the other hand, a poorly delivered reading can be a distraction and, indeed, a waste of the Word of the Lord if it results in the congregation becoming bored or restless, impatiently waiting for their chance to close the book with a collectively exhaled, “Thanks be to God”.

A well-delivered reading, the pope said last year, helps to create

“a climate of receptive silence”.

This is important because, he said, “it is not enough to hear with the ears, without receiving in the heart the seed of the divine Word, allowing it to bear fruit”.

So while the aptitude of the interlocutor of the Word of the Lord is important—and there are many practical websites dedicated to helping lectors improve their delivery—so is the disposition of those who are invited to hear it.

And here one must not let the people in the pews get away with making excuses about poor lectors.

Pope Francis reminds us: “God speaks, and we listen to him, and then put into practice what we have heard.”

But when we don’t hear the Word of God—be it because of a mumbling reader or our own distraction—we turn our attention away from him.

Ideally, congregants are prepared for the Liturgy of the Word before they even come to Mass.

We can do so by perusing the Mass readings—and perhaps also the verses that precede and follow the readings, to better understand the context in which they are placed—before we come to church.

Alternatively, or additionally, we can prepare by reading a reflection on the relevant Scripture passages.

In that regard, The Southern Cross is providing a service by its weekly publication of Fr Nicholas King’s reflections on the following Sunday’s readings. It is indeed a privilege for the Southern African Church to have one of the world’s leading scripture scholars write these reflections exclusively for this newspaper.

The website of The Southern Cross also provides helpful reflections on the Sunday Mass readings by Fr John Allen Green OFM (now available every Friday).

These reflections, and others like them, are excellent ways of preparing for the Liturgy of the Word, and they are also usefully studied after Mass as a means of consolidating the message of these readings.

In this way the readings can truly nourish us for the coming week, to “put into practice what we have heard”.

Without divine mercy, no Easter OME people still feel that cele- not, for I am with you; be not disStracts brating Divine Mercy Sunday de- mayed, for I am your God, I will from the greatness of Easter. strengthen you, I will help you, I will This actually shows a lack of understanding as the Divine Mercy Sunday celebration deepens the Easter experience. We would have no Easter if God were not merciful!

Jesus said: “I have not come to condemn the world but to save it.”

This is mercy, which is God’s greatest attribute.

The whole Gospel and indeed the whole Bible evidences God’s merciful love. Think of the healings, the feeding of the multitudes, the forgiveness Peter received from Jesus after denying Jesus three times. And many more examples could be mentioned.

The Psalms are full of words of praise to the mercy of God. An example from Isaiah 41:10 says: “Fear

Education must be top priority

T

HE Southern Cross is worth double what we pay for it. Your editorials continue to be exceptionally good and very relevant—however, I do hope that you and our spiritual leaders would give more attention to the subject of education and training.

For a country such as South Africa to have such unemployment as we do at present is a dreadful tragedy, and steadily we see poverty on the increase.

In fact, it’s not unusual to see able bodied men rummaging in dustbins for something to eat, and what a tragic notion it is that their faces should have to light up on receipt of anything.

Good education and training should be the most important item on any governments agenda.

We have all this talk of the fourth industrial revolution, but those without good education and training will not be able to take advantage of it—in fact, it will be to their disadvantage.

The difference between good education and training and not having that advantage, is the difference between prosperity and poverty.

This mustn’t be rejected as “not a religious matter”. On the contrary, because it’s of vital importance to the people our Lord created and loves.

Roy Glover, Knysna

A civic approach

I

READ the articles “Why we can be proud to be Catholic” by Dr Shrikant Peters and “Priest to Jo’burg mayor: Time to fix the mess” about Fr Jorge Guerra (August 7) with interest.

uphold you with my righteous right hand” This is our merciful God. To the thief on the cross Jesus says. “This very day you will be with me in Paradise.” Great mercy indeed!

There are so many instances in the life of Jesus where he evidences the mercy of God. Bearing all this in mind, it’s hard to understand how some people feel that celebrating God’s mercy on the Sunday after Easter is detracting from the Easter message or celebration.

To St Gertrude, in her visions in the 13th century, Jesus says, “The rigour of my justice is even thus limited within the bounds of mercy which I exercise towards men [peoOpinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate. letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately.

Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

Many years ago I was a senior assistant in biology in Indian education but during the heart transplant era my mind turned to an interest in the social sciences.

As a teacher, I came to use the concept of localising our syllabus.

My idea was to get learners to be involved in civics in social science and treat the city as a local whole and not Group Areas.

Armed with my camera and statistics from Stats SA, I’ve written an audio-visual powerpoint (with voice overs) for Grade 4-6 social science classes. All those local city photos were brought into focus in the classroom.

So Fr Guerra’s civics in his local parish is well understood by me.

QX Nobin, Pietermaritzburg

Abortion laws can be overturned

R

ESPECT is due to the tenacious Damian McLeish, who wrote to pope, cardinal, bishop and editor in his lonely fight against abortion in South Africa (July 31).

But there is no chance that abortion laws in South Africa will be revoked as long as the United States does not revoke first its abortion laws.

The US established a woman's right to legal abortion with the 1973 landmark decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Roe v Wade.

South Africa, which tends to fol-

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ple] in the dispensation of this sacrament [Holy Mass]”—Easter!

Then again to St Gertrude, Jesus says: “In order that you may know that my mercy is above all my works, and that the abyss of my mercy cannot be exhausted, I am ready to grant you, through the merit of this life-giving sacrament, more than you dare to ask me.”

This life-giving sacrament is our Catholic Holy Mass which is Calvary—Easter!

So following from this we can see why Jesus asked St Faustina for the celebration of his mercy on the Sunday after Easter, which to my mind shows us the greatness of the Easter celebration.

And we need not be sorry that when Jesus died on the Cross and rose from the dead, we were not yet born, because we have the Death and Resurrection of Jesus in every Catholic Holy Mass.

Moira Gillmore, Durban low the US in all its modes, followed suit with the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1997.

The revocation of Roe v Wade can only be effected after two conditions have been fulfilled. First Donald Trump, a Republican should be reelected as President in 2020. The election of a Democrat as President forestalls any future abortion law change, as all 20 Democratic presidential candidates are uncompromisingly pro-abortion.

The second condition to be fulfilled is that Republicans should have a majority in the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, which means that only after their death they can be exchanged for Republican ones.

JH Goossens, Pretoria

Saintly Newman!

Y

OUR article on Melissa Villalobos, who experienced the approved miracle that will see Bl John Henry Newman canonised in October, refers (July 24).

An ultrasound during her pregnancy had shown that she had a bloodclot on the foetal membrane.

At home, her placenta became partly detached and she was bleeding on the floor of her upstairs bathroom. But she couldn’t call for help as her cellphone was downstairs.

She prayed to Bl Newman, and the bleeding stopped. Doctors were astonished to find that the placenta had completely healed and there was no evidence of the blood clot.

Melissa later gave birth to a healthy girl, Gemma, now five.

What a great man Newman is, what with his autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua and his splendid hymns, such as “Lead, Kindly Light”!

Peter Onesta, Johannesburg

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PERSPECTIVES

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

7

As I approach the thumb stage of life Mphuthumi N Ntabeni OTHING exposes us to the vulnerability of life, and the inevitability of our own mortality, like the death of a child. It unsettles and makes us angry at the unnatural nature of things.

According to the Vanuatu culture, the stages of wisdom a person passes in life are marked off by the fingers of one hand.

The little finger represents a period of ignorance and vulnerability of childhood.

As you grow a bit bigger, you reach the next finger stage of youth, when you begin to question things. When you’ve learned enough, they circumcise your heart to allow the spirit of the ancestors and things you touch in life to dwell in you, thus gaining ethereal wisdom.

From this age, if you’re male, they bind your hair until your dreadlocks reach the bottom of your back. Then the old people release you into adulthood through a riteof-passage ceremony, saying: “He’ll be a man.” And they call this a middle-finger stage.

In strict orthodox Jewish culture, a male child is circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. Traditionally, his hair is also fastened, symbolising the beginning of his life-lesson, how to behave until his bar mitzvah when he enters the world of adulthood.

This tight fastening of hair, which is no longer a common practice, symbolises the act of fastening things he’s being taught— binding them into his head. It corresponds to the middle-finger stage of the Vanuatu culture.

When the Vanuatu say you’ve reached the stage of the tall middle-finger, you’re allowed to learn to do things on your own, and the things that you are doing come into you; that is, they dwell in your soul.

You’re now at an age of responsibility, when you are held accountable for your actions. It is a similar thing with the Jewish tradition, hence at one’s bar/bat mitzvah one is allowed to read the law, the Torah.

They can now represent themselves, family and nation—legally and otherwise.

The next finger is when you acquire your own children. The communal village gives you permission to teach others, espe-

cially the youth.

The last finger is the thumb, when you are old and have white hair. In this stage you sit down, on a stone—in your proper place.

Young people bring their blunt knives to sharpen them on your stone, and thus gain from your wisdom. They drink your wisdom because you’ve walked through almost all the life experiences.

T

he Xhosas also have something similar.

In the acclaimed first Xhosa novel, Ityala Lamawele (The Case of Twins), author S E K Mqhayi makes the judge, King Hintsa, kaKawuta of amaGcaleka, defer to the wisdom of the old man, Khulile (Grown One) for solution before he gives the final judgement. Khulile who is treated as isisele senyathi (wisdom of the ages)—the stone or last age—represents the resourcecentre of that Xhosa nation.

As such his evidence brings about references of known cases from the ancient past.

Before the Xhosa people came into contact with the written word, old people were precious within their society as the custodians of knowledge. They were known as amalola—whetstones—similar to the Vanuatus’ thumb stage. Hence Mqhayi calls the chapter about the old man's verdict

A scene captured by Mphuthumi Ntabeni during his camino on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape during which he has been reflecting on the stages of life.

The Public Square

“Amava Enyange” (Experience of the Man of Old).

As inyange, Khulile introduces his verdict by first referring to a case from a generation of the remote past, namely, Nkosiyamntu versus Liwana. In this case Liwana had exchanged, ilifa lakhe, his position as heir for a piece of meat, granting Nkosiyamntu, the younger twin brother, seniority. (The biblical influences of Esau and Jacob story are replete in the story of Mqhayi, who was igqobhoka, or first-generation Christian convert.)

Incidentally, the Hindu culture also teaches about the stages of life, which they call ashramas. The first is Brahmacharya, the period of youth and young adulthood dedicated to learning. The second is Grihastha, when a person builds a career, accumulates wealth, and creates a family.

They warn about this second stage, because at that time most people get too attached to earthly rewards—money, power, sex, prestige and so on.

The third stage is supposed to be an antidote to worldly temptations. They call it the Vanaprastha, a compound Sanskrit word that means “retiring” and “into the forest”.

Within the Xhosa culture, an old man, when he felt death approaching, used to seclude himself into the forest or desert.

On reporting on it, the elder person says, “Ndiyo tyiwa ngama hlulungulu”, which means, “I’m becoming the meal for vultures”—the Xhosa didn’t believe in burying their dead. (Ntsikana, the 19th-century prophet, is the first recorded Xhosa person to be buried in a box and a grave. The practice spread due to his influence after.)

I am reminded of all this because this year is my 50th year, which marks the start of my Vanaprastha years, a time when I’m Continued on page 11

There are times to use cookie-cutters Fr Chris H Townsend AVING completed a move to a new parish responsibility lately, I’ve had reason to pause and think about the generations of priesthood.

Unlike cookie-cutter images of the priesthood that are perpetuated in media— and which, quite frankly, would make life a lot easier if they were true—we are all individuals and bring our own personalities to our ministry. We also bring our unique reception of formation and experience, and use that for our engagement in our communities.

This unique reaction to the life we have lived as priests has its funny and sad moments. I admit that moving parishes gets more difficult. As you get older, when you arrive in a new church and a new presbytery, you know what you like. You know what you need.

So when I removed the old mattress in the presbytery’s bedroom, I was reminded of an older colleague who once stated that he didn’t know why priests had to get a new mattress. After all, he had slept in Fr X’s bed for years…

We are also very different in the ways we manage our responsibilities.

I remember another older priest who fancied himself as a handyman, having constructed and reconstructed his presbytery and office space in his own image. It made perfect sense to him and he was incredibly proud of it—but to the outsider, it was a rabbit warren of wires and complete

Pastor’s Notebook

Priests do not meet the cookie-cutter image of popular imagination, but as different as they are, maybe in parish management a cookie-cutter approach is needed, argues Fr Chris Townsend. mystery. One light switch today switched on this light, tomorrow it didn’t.

Some of us are hoarders and others their complete opposite, the Scandinavian zen office filing approach. So in one parish I arrived in, every piece of scrap roneo and photocopy paper had been preserved.

Rooms full! Yellowed, water-stained and useless. In another parish, I arrived and was handed one (recycled) brown manila envelope that held the entire financial archive of the parish. All of three pages.

A

s we are challenged to become more professional in our approach to administration—externally driven by such re-

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quirements as the King IV report, the requirements of SARS and internally driven by the Gospel imperative to accountability—we need to work to a standard of administration that will see a common, standardised procedure and expectation.

I honestly think that we priests need to be able to build a manual of what is required and then do the most difficult of all things: hand this over to competent and trained parishioners who manage this.

Part of this difficulty is to ensure that parish finance committees are trained and then empowered to their role.

In fact, I strongly believe that the name “finance committee” is probably part of the problem. It is essentially a parish material or management committee. A finance committee must be responsible for anything you can touch or stab. If we separate the pastoral from the management process, I think we will go a long way to restoring the role proper to each.

There is both space and need to beef up our administration of the good and the goods of the Church. A cookie-cutter image, in this particular instance, might not be a bad idea.

In September Pope Francis is calling us to pray for united actions to protect the world’s seas.

Chris Chatteris SJ

Pray with the Pope

Laudato Sea: Why we must save oceans Intention: That politicians, scientists and economists work together to protect the world’s seas and oceans.

HE ocean is an incredibly important part of that environment. We may think that it’s just a source of seafood, but it’s far more than that.

The ocean’s currents are vital for regulating the world’s climate. If we mess those up, there could be catastrophic climactic consequences.

Our barbarous attitude to the oceans is graphically illustrated by how we use it as an immense dump. Everything from dangerous radioactive waste, through toxic chemicals, to raw sewage is pumped into the sea. We are systematically poisoning one of our greatest sources of food.

We are only now noticing the amount of plastic we are tipping into the sea. It seems that even the Mariana trench, the deepest part of all the oceans, has dumped plastic in it.

The most deadly dumping that we have done in the oceans is the one which is not visible to the naked eye—namely heat.

One of the reasons why it has taken us so long to wake up to the extent to which we have overheated our planet is that most of the extra heat has gone into the sea and only the scientists have noticed.

The increase in temperature of the seas may only be of the order of a degree or two, but it is beginning to have profound consequences which will play out over the next few decades.

Perhaps the most momentous is the melting of the glaciers around Antarctica and Greenland. The resulting rising of sea level is already causing communities in low-lying areas to be relocated to higher ground. Some islands will have to be abandoned completely.

The frozen part of the ocean known as the northern ice cap is needed to reflect sunlight back into space to keep the planet’s temperature stable, but we are mindlessly melting that vital natural mirror. As we do so we cause a “feedback loop” as the melted ocean left as the icecap retreats will be able to absorb yet more heat.

T

T

he problem is that the economists and politicians aren’t listening to the scientists. Economists are intellectually trapped in a philosophy—if one can dignify it with that word—of eternally expanding consumption. So, obviously even a resource as vast as the earth’s oceans will eventually be depleted if we continue to act according to this philosophy.

The same, of course, is true for all our other resources. No non-renewable resource lasts forever and no limited dumping ground can collect garbage forever. Even the sea, “vast and wide”, has its limits.

The politicians are in thrall to the same mindset of ever-expanding consumption and continue to promise a “good life” of ever greater greed. We are still waiting for the true political leader who can get up and tell us that he or she cannot promise us more stuff forever.

One who shows some insight and leadership is New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ahearn whose latest budget factors in people’s wellbeing as well as the traditional financial factors.

Obviously, if the environment is destroyed, no human wellbeing is possible. Ms Ahearn makes a step in the right direction, but at some point, someone is going to have to tell us that our average material standard of living will have to decrease for the sake of saving the environment which is the ultimate source of our wealth and our wellbeing.

This message is implicit in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, but until politicians can be found with enough courage to deliver this message, we will continue on our merry way to environmental Armageddon.

The good news is that surveys of many societies show that people would be open to such a message.

We pray that our leaders will listen to the message of mother earth and of the people who depend upon her.

8

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

COMMUNITY

This year’s Catholic Schools Bible Quiz in the archdiocese of Johannesburg was won by the team of Holy Rosary School in Edenvale. Seen here are head of religion Mary Fitzpatrick, Danielle Money, Angelique Shewring, Bethlehem Wourku and Keziah Naicken.

Send your photos to pics@scross.co.za

The field of St Teresa’s Junior Primary School in Craighall Park, Johannesburg, was a sea of colours as the grade 00-3 girls came out for their annual Big Walk. The buzz of happy walkers resonated the theme of “Bee…Happy, understanding, loving, Kind and Awesome”. girls were seen running, skipping and holding hands while walking ten laps around the sports fields, all in the name of raising school funds. After their laps, spirits remained high as the girls danced and formed conga-lines to popular songs like “Baby Shark”.

On returning to their classrooms, tired little girls enjoyed ice-pops with the grade 2 girls, declaring the day “The best school day ever!”

St Francis of Assisi parish in Vanderbijlpark, Johannesburg archdiocese, celebrated Christmas in July. The event was organised by the parish youth. Fr Anthony Spencer OFM was a particularly Franciscan Father Christmas. He is pictured here with a well-disguised parishioner. (Submitted by Modjadji Motupa) The parish of St Kevin’s church in Windvogel, Port Elizabeth, staged a Rosary Rally. Participants embarked on a march through the streets of the community of Hillside, Salt lake and Windvogel and ended their journey at the parish. Those gathered participated in chants and the rosary. (Photo from Jolindon Petersen)

Durban resident Andre Frederick is seen with his mother. When Mr Frederick found a bag while out walking his dog recently, he and his mother became sleuths. Eventually they traced the bag to the father of a learner at Holy Family College in glenmore. It turned out that the bag’s owner had been remote jammed at a petrol station. The bag contained his ID and other valuable contents and he was very grateful to have it returned. Mr Frederick could empathise: he had himself been a victim of a smash and grab recently.

Dina Mivumbi, a grade 11 learner at Holy Family College in glenmore, Durban, had an exceptional debating season this year. She has attained four “best speaker” awards in the Durban Coastal Debating league and has her sights set on qualifying for the senior KwaZulu-Natal team this year.

PRICE CHECK

The Men’s Forum of the parish of the Resurrection in Dawn Park, Boksburg, visited the St Francis Care Centre in the town to donate muchneeded items to the home.

(Submitted

by William Matloha)

Marist Brothers linmeyer in Johannesburg celebrated the life and work of the Marist Schools’ founder, St Marcellin Champagnat, on his feast day with a Mass celebrated by Fr David Dryden.

Sifiso Nkbande, grade 10 learner at Sacred Heart College in Observatory, Johannesburg, has been named one of the top ten “geeks” in the country by geekulcha, an organisation that focuses on empowering young people in IT. Sifiso is the youngest nominee on the list.

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or T h e b i s h o p s a n d d i o c e s a n a d m i n i s t r a t o r s o f v a c a n t d i o c e s e s o f S o u t h e r n A f r i c a w i t h s p e c i a l g u e s t F r H a n s Z o l l n e r S J ( f r o n t , t h i r d f r o m l e f t ) , a p o s t o l i c n u n c i o A r c h b i s h o p P e t e r We l l s ( f r o n t centre), and SACBC and nunciature officials during their mid-year plenary session in Mariannhill. The bishops come together twice a year to discuss issues of the Church and society. Their next meeting will be in late January/early February in Pretoria.

Bishop on abuse: Repent!

STA AFF REPORTER

T

WO bishops called their colleagues to collective repentance over the Church’s sexual abuse scandal Bishop Duncan Tsoke, auxiliary in Johannesburg, told the mid-year plenar y of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) that “the damage that the abuse has done to the Body of Christ is so deep that a mere adherence to the policies and protocols will not restore the trust in the Church”.

He said the bishops need to make visible their repentance for the failures in dealing with sexual abuse by Church personnel.

“Over and above the protocols and press statements that we make, the victims of abuse are waiting for this repentance. They are waiting for a repentance that enables us to see that healing their pain is more important that protecting the institutions in the Church,” Bishop Tsoke said.

“As bishops, if we have repentance in our hearts, we shall start to hold one another to account,” Bishop Tsoke urged.

“The crisis that we now face as a Church will lead to purification, if we open up to

this form of repentance.”

The abuse crisis was at the centre of the bishops’ plenar y session in Mariannhill. Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, a pointman in the Vatican on addressing the crisis, addressed the bishops before going to South Africa’s archdioceses to share his insights.

Fr Zollner spoke to the bishops not only about safeguarding measures but also urged them to offer pastoral care to those who have been abused.

SACBC president Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha said that the ordination of priests who are guilty of the sexual abuse of minors should be automatically rendered invalid.

“If one abuses children, he is obviously defective material for the sacrament of priesthood. He cannot be acting in persona Christi when he abuses children,” said Bishop Sipuka, who in Februar y represented the SACBC at the Summit on the Sexual Abuse of Minors in Rome, called by Pope Francis.

“So for a child abuser, it will not be a question of him being laicised, but a declaration that [they] never were priests in the first place, but sick men who were mistak-

enly ordained, and therefore incapable of sacramentally representing Christ,” he said.

A

t the same time, Bishop Sipuka counselled that “we must spare a thought for those priests who are falsely accused”.

While eliminating abuse from the Church is necessary,, “we can be so engrossed in protecting victims of sexual abuse to the point of neglecting falsely accused priests. They too need our compassion.”

The SACBC president also addressed the issue of sexual abuse of religious Sisters by priests, which is believed to be a crisis issue in many regions throughout the world.

While this crisis has not “significantly” affected the SACBC region, Bishop Sipuka said, the bishops are discussing the issue with the Leadership of Consecrated life in Southern Africa.

These discussions also include “the phenomenon of friendship between priests and nuns that sometimes extends to mutual sexual intimacy with no problem of conscience about being sexually active”, the bishop said.

When the nun becomes pregnant, he obser ved, she “has to bear the consequences

by having to quit religious life while the priest continues with his life and work as a priest”.

Bishop Sipuka also addressed the question of clericalism, noting that often lay people are also complicit in it.

Defining clericalism as the “use of clerical status or power for selfish reasons and getting away with it”, Bishop Sipuka noted suggestions that “trusting and collaborating with lay people is a solution to the problem of clericalism”.

“Yeet lay people themselves also contribute to the culture of clericalism by according priests exaggerated deference and honour, which make them unable to challenge the priests and to call them to account,” he said.

He said that some cases of alleged abuse have stalled “because the parents do not want to expose the priest by allowing the case to follow the normal procedure. They prefer to settle the matter privately, or culturally.”

“It is these two attitudes that must be tackled in fighting clericalism; abuse of clerical power and unhealthy deference by lay people,” Bishop Sipuka said.

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Twenty members from the various Salesian communities in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Eswatini and lesotho—which make up the AFM Salesian province—gathered at Bosco Youth Centre in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg, for the 11th provincial chapter which had as its theme “What Kind of Salesians for the Youth of Today?”. The chapter members reflected on topics concerning young people, the profile of the Salesians and their shared mission with the lay people. (Photo from Br Clarence Watts SDB)

AFRICA

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

9

Behind Nigeria’s religious conflict Muslim-Christian relations in Nigeria are marked by frequent violence, but there are also signs of hope, as ANI ARINZE explains.

A

morally, they have been more concerned about promoting narrow religious interests, engaging in reciprocal verbal attacks and sometimes making inflammatory statements that threaten peace and harmony. Sometimes it almost seems as if the nation is at the brink of a religious war!

In this article, I wish to identify some of the issues that threaten religious freedom in my country.

In doing so, I won’t dwell on enumerating the well-known incidences of massive destruction to lives and property by the Boko Haram insurgents or militant Fulani herdsmen.

Such incidences also include the abduction of the Chibok and Dapchi girls, the suffering of the internally displaced persons, the denial of rights and privileges to Christians in some parts of the north (including prohibitions on teaching the Christian religion), the kidnapping of Catholic priests and Sisters, fear and the psychological trauma induced by fanatics or militants, just to mention a few.

Along with other subtle actions and policies that qualify as persecution, these factors fuel the tension and hostility between Christians and Muslims. And that robs the nation of a calm atmosphere of peaceful coexistence.

NY talk about religious freedom in Nigeria, must necessarily refer to Islam and Christianity, the two dominant religions which both arrived with a burning desire for the conversion of multitudes from the traditional religions.

Islam gained a presence in Nigeria in the 9th century, in Kanem Bornu empire in what is now Borno state.

Christianity came much later, in the 15th century through Catholic Augustinian missionaries from Portugal.

After the death of the Prophet Muhammed in 632 AD, the Islamic empire expanded rapidly in the 7th and 8th centuries, largely by military conquests, to parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and even Europe.

Among the first of these military conquests was the Holy Land, with Jerusalem falling in April 637.

More than 400 years later, the Crusades made an effort to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

Violence flashpoints They succeeded in 1099, beginning Muslims populate mostly the a period of almost two centuries in which Crusaders ruled the Holy northern part of Nigeria; Christians form the majority in the south.

Land, or at least parts of it.

But there are significant and viThis Muslim conquest of the Holy Land and the Christian effort brant Christian and Muslim minority groups in both territories. Their in the Crusades to reclaim significant numbers canit are at the root of the sad and should not be history of interreligious In 2002, a not underestimated, glossed tensions between the adherents of those two world planned Miss over or ignored. Doing so is what ignites serious inreligions.

And ever since these World contest terreligious tension.

There is a greater two religions met in Nigein Abuja openness to peaceful coria, the struggle has often been for increased memled to riots existence, interreligious marriages and common bership, territorial expansion, or the use of religion which claimed celebrations of feasts between Muslims and to gain political capital.

200 lives Christians in the southUnfortunately, this notern part of the country too-cordial-relationship has continued to grow in intensity than in the north, where the hyperwith attendant negative conse- sensitivity to issues of religion is so heightened that the mere mention quences.

Even many centuries after those of a word that is thought to be blasbitter encounters between adher- phemy can lead to conflict and loss ents of Islam and Christianity, Nige- of lives.

In 2002, the planned Miss World ria continues to feel the hangover.

This finds expression in the way the contest in Abuja led to riots in umbrella Muslim organisation, Ja- which about 200 lives were needma’atu Nasril Islam and the Chris- lessly lost. A trigger was the moral tian Association of Nigeria behave objections in terms of the Sharia law, which had been introduced in and act towards each other.

One can see this from the ac- 1999 and propagated by the govertions and utterances of the leaders nor of Zamfara state, which poof these organisations. Instead of fo- larised the nation Even foreign incidents can spark cusing on how their religious values can complement one another to bloodshed, as it was in 2005 when lead the nation spiritually and a publication in far-away Denmark

No doubt, religion plays a very crucial role in the lives of Nigerians.

The unhealthy rivalry between adherents of Islam and Christianity always pushes the nation to religiously-inspired violence, especially in the north.

Violence has occurred in the name of religion, but deep at the roots there is social, economic, political and ethnic discontent by minority groups which begs for attention. There are religious leaders who ignite and fuel fires, while moderates try to quench the fires.

The peacemakers

Women attend Ash Wednesday Mass at Holy Rosary church in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The country’s north is predominantly Muslim, and the south is mostly Christian. (Photo: Afolabi Sotunde, Reuters/CNS) published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, which many Muslims deemed blasphemous.

Why the competitive spirit and even the hostility and intolerance between the two main religious groups in Nigeria?

One reason for the uneasy relationship between Christians and Muslims is political.

After the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914 and before Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the British colonial authorities favoured the north in their policy of “indirect rule”. The Hausa and Arabic languages were used as Muslim chiefs were imposed to rule over nonMuslim populations.

This in no small way aided the Islamisation of what is today northern Nigeria.

Education factor Another factor that has fuelled mutual distrust between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria is the fact that Christianity arrived with a functional Western education system which developed the capacity, knowledge and skills of the people.

By contrast, the Muslim education system did little to empower children, the youth and the women, apart from spiritual empowerment.

Furthermore the almajiri system, whereby children were allowed to escape parental control and wander on the streets in faraway villages or towns to acquire Quranic knowledge was seemingly encouraged.

Christian education, on the other hand, sort of “opened the eyes” of nonMuslim ethnic groups who then refused to remain un-

conditionally subjugated to northern Muslim interests and culture.

What may be a further reason for tension and violence today between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria is perhaps the perception by Christians that northern Muslims seem to consider their culture and religion superior. They will refer to Christians as infidels (pagan peoples) who must be subjected to Islamic rules and institutions.

This is at odds with the Nigerian Constitution which guarantees freedom of religion as a basic right for its citizens. Sadly, this constitutional provision is only partially translated into reality.

Religious freedom in Nigeria is somehow hallowed, so that Muslims have Sharia courts, up to the Court of Appeal, with judges paid from government coffers.

Muslims enjoyed official government subsidies for pilgrimages long before their Christian counterparts did.

Religious freedom?

There is no doubt that religious freedom as a principle is accepted in Nigeria. That is not in question. The bone of contention is the difficulty in curbing the excesses of some religious groups which infringe with impunity on the rights of others to freedom of worship and to peacefully live and work in any part of Nigeria.

Insurgency, radicalisation and religious indoctrination are real.

Today in Nigeria, there are fervent and frantic efforts made by both Muslims and Christians to encourage sustainable peace. That’s progress: there was a time when the silence of some leaders was deafening, especially when members of the opposite religion were the victims.

The Nigeria Interreligious Council has been very vocal about peace and harmony. The activities of the Federation of Muslim Women Association in Nigeria, the Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna headed jointly by a pastor and an imam, the recent conferences being hosted by state governments seeking common action to end insurgency and many other initiatives of NGOs are all positive indicators that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

The Justice, Development, Peace and Caritas Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, which operates at provincial, diocesan and parish levels also promote interethnic and interreligious harmony.

Many Muslim organisations are likewise seriously promoting interreligious harmony and the need for sustainable peace.

The Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace Centre which was started in the archdiocese of Jos of Plateau state in 2013, has continued to grow and foster trust, harmony and better understanding among Christians and Muslims.

Proactive meetings are held periodically with religious/traditional elders; youths, women and training for peace building have been carried out over the years.

There is hope.

n Ani Arinze is a young Catholic writer and Southern Cross columnist.

He can be contacted at chinenye4chinenye@yahoo.com

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The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

BIBLE

Meet the women in Luke’s Gospel For Women’s Month and for Bible Sunday on August 25, FR RAlPH DE HAHN looks at the women in the Gospel of St Luke, which we follow in the present liturgical year.

L

UKE the Evangelist tells us that he did much researching among eyewitnesses who personally had known and heard the Master Jesus in his three-year ministry on earth.

Luke is the only gentile evangelist, a physician, an artist, and very human in his easy approach to the subject matter. Indeed, he is also a very good Greek scholar. He offers a popular account of Jesus’ life, parables and miracles.

He is careful to emphasise the Master’s compassion for the unfortunate and downtrodden people; also his dependence on prayer before his mission and his trust in the Holy Spirit.

What is, furthermore, very striking is the attention Luke gives to the women in these years of ministry. He certainly exalts womanhood.

He offers us a beautiful, carefully worded account of the Archangel Gabriel’s visit to the virgin maid of Nazareth, followed by that exciting encounter with Elizabeth, with the “Magnificat” as the hymn of praise and thanksgiving.

The joy of both Mary and Elizabeth is evident at the birth of John the Baptist. Luke expresses his concern and care for the difficult preg-

nancy of the young virgin mother, and one can feel his joy and relief as the Angel of God informs the shepherds of his silent birth in a cattle shed in Bethlehem.

And when the child is presented before Simeon in the temple, we hear of Anna, the 84-year-old widow who, with Simeon, was longing for the coming of the messiah.

Jesus grew into manhood in Nazareth, and Mary was the mother who, over those 30 years, “stored all these things in her heart”.

With reference to the murder of the Baptiser, Luke mentions the unlawful relationship of King Herod Antipas and his brother’s wife, Herodias, who used her daughter Salome’s allure to demand the head of John.

In Luke we witness Jesus’ visit to Peter’s mother–in-law. She is suffering from a dangerously high fever and Jesus is at her bedside to heal her by his gentle touch.

Helping the widow At the gates of Nain, at the foot of Mount Tabor in Galilee, Jesus stops to witness a funeral procession.

He is moved by compassion, for the dead young man is the only son of his widow mother. Here we must know that without a husband or a son, this widow was facing a life of extreme poverty.

Jesus halts the funeral procession and raises the young man to life. Note how beautifully Luke ends his story: “...and Jesus gave him back to his mother.”

Luke’s account of the woman

The woman touching the hem of Jesus’ garment is depicted in the Duc in Altum church in Magdala, the home town of Mary Magdalene at the Sea of galilee. (Photo: günther Simmermacher) “with a bad name in the town” is another refreshing story of the power and compassion of the Lord towards the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair and anointed them with oil.

Although the house is filled with only men—none of whom took care of the Lord’s feet—this woman is, in fact, the glittering star.

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The Lord rebukes his host, grants total pardon to the woman because of her love and staggering repentance, and whispers: “Go now, your faith has saved you” (Lk 7:48).

In chapter 8, Luke tells of the many women who accompanied the apostles “through towns and villages proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom”.

He names only a few, such as Mary of Magdala, Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna and several others. Some of them we’ll meet again at the empty tomb on Easter morning.

Raising Jairus’ daughter Another story of divine compassion: Jesus is summoned to the house of Jairus, the head of a synagogue, whose 12-year-old daughter has apparently died. Jesus raises the girl back to life.

Again, the Lord gave her back to her pleading father.

However, on the way to the home of Jairus, excited crowds were pressing against Jesus. Just then, a woman, suffering from a blood issue over 12 years, stretched forward to touch only the hem of his garment, believing in his love and power. Jesus stopped, asking who it was, knowing that power had gone out of him (Lk 8:47). This woman, too, was totally healed.

Again at a public gathering, a woman’s voice cries out in admiration “Blessed is the womb that bore you!” But Jesus replies: “Happier still are those who hear the Word of God, and keep it.”

In the course of his journey Jesus would often nestle in the comforting home of Lazarus, whose sisters were Mary and Martha, in Bethany, a small town on the other side of the Mount of Olives.

On this occasion, Martha complains that while Mary is resting at his feet, she is left alone with many home commitments. Jesus then makes a profound statement: “Only one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the better part.”

There is another amazing tale of the woman “the daughter of Abraham” who, over 18 years, was possessed by “a spirit which left her enfeebled and was bent double”.

Now, this took place in the synagogue, and on the Sabbath. Despite the anger and threats of the Pharisees, Jesus again shows his infinite compassion and heals her (Lk 13) Jesus watches the rich people dropping their offerings into the treasury, but his heart goes out to the poverty-stricken widow who, offering only two small coins “has put in more than any of

them”(them” (Lk 21).

Luke speaks of the Lord’s infinite mercy and compassion in his two brilliant stories, namely the Good Samaritan and the father of the Prodigal son. The key here is the attribute of mercy.

But Jesus was condemned and tortured by the Roman authorities without any mercy.

Women in the Passion On his way of the Cross, it was to the women, the daughters of Jerusalem, that he spoke: “Weep not for me but weep rather for yourselves and for your children” (Lk 23:28).

Finally, at the death scene with the dark clouds hovering above, and mockery and abuse being hurled at the Crucified, the sun was eclipsed, the veil of the temple was torn right down the middle, the crowds dashed off in fear and trembling, as also the apostles.

Remaining at the cross were the fearless women who had accompanied him from Galilee.

The women, says Luke, took note of the burial place: “Meanwhile the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus were following behind. They took note of the tomb and how the body had been laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.

And on the Sabbath day they rested, as the Law required.”

At dawn on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb with special spices which they had prepared.

Luke names two but there were others: “The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. And the other women with them...”

The tomb was empty. He had risen. Surprised and confused the women then carried the unbelievable message to the frightened apostles.

As we know so well, Mary Magdalene had that first recorded encounter with the Risen Lord, but Luke omits that.

We then fast-forward to the Acts of the Apostles, which Luke wrote.

Having witnessed the ascension of the Lord and his command to proclaim the Good News to all the world, we find the disciples—men and women—gathered around Mary, the mother of the Lord, to await the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, around Mary, for Jesus from the Cross had told them to “behold your mother!”

Indeed, Luke has without question exalted womanhood in his beautiful Gospel. n Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town.

The Southern Cross, August 21 to August 27, 2019

Cardinal Sergio Obeso Rivera

BY JuNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

C

ARDINAL Sergio Obeso Rivera, retired archbishop of Xalapa, Mexico, who was created a cardinal

by Pope Francis a little over a year ago, died on August 11 at the age of 87.

He was born in 1931 into a prominent family, which founded and operates one of Mexico’s main supermarket chains. Despite his upbringing, colleagues described the cardinal as austere and unassuming.

He entered the seminary in 1944, studied philosophy and theology in Rome and was ordained a priest there in 1954.

After his ordination, then-Father Obeso held various positions at the seminary in Xalapa and was eventually appointed rector.

He was appointed bishop of Papantla in 1971 but returned to Xalapa, the Veracruz state capital, in 1974 as coadjutor archbishop. He became archbishop in 1979.

Among his accomplish-

Cardinal Sergio Obeso Rivera, who has died at 87. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) ments before retiring in 2007, then-Archbishop Obeso led the Mexican bishops’ conference for nine years and worked closely on ending the official estrangement between Mexico and the Vatican.

In May 2018, Pope Francis announced that the retired archbishop would be among the 14 prelates created as cardinal.

Cardinal Obeso and two other prelates over the age of 80 were chosen for having “distinguished themselves for their

service to the Church”, the pope said.

Church observers said Cardinal Obeso’s inclusion into the College of Cardinals was an overdue recognition for the prelate, whose pastoral approach and personal austerity were seen as similar to those of Pope Francis.

After the announcement of his elevation, the Mexican bishops’ conference praised Cardinal Obeso as a “simple and austere man, extremely helpful and attentive to the social realities of Mexico”.

While in Xalapa, he promoted the canonisation of St Rafael Guizar Valencia, patron of the archdiocese of Xalapa, and as a retired archbishop, “continued celebrating worship and announcing the Gospel”, the bishops’ statement said.

His death leaves the College of Cardinals with 216 members, 119 of whom are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave.— CNS

Pope: God is close in suffering

I

N hopeless situations of pain and suffering, God never abandons his children but rather remains close to them, Pope Francis said.

“God’s answer to our pain is a closeness, a presence that accompanies us, that doesn’t leave us alone. Jesus made himself the same as us and for this reason we have him near us, to cry with us in the most difficult moments of our lives. Let us look at him, entrust him with our questions, our sorrows, our anger," the pope said in a letter published in the Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX. In his letter, the pope commemorated the first anniversary of the fatal collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa that killed 43 people and “inflicted a wound in the heart of your city”.

“In the face of such events,

Rescue workers are seen at the collapsed Morandi Bridge in 2018. (Photo: Stefano Rellandini, Reuters/CNS) the pain of loss is excruciating and not easy to relieve, as is the feeling of not resigning oneself in the face of a disaster that could have been avoided,” he wrote.

The pope said that while there is no answer to the sorrow

of losing a loved one, those who suffer must remember that they “are never alone” and that God responds to their cries not with words but through the presence of his son, Jesus.

“Jesus passed before us through suffering and death. He took upon himself all our sufferings. He was despised, humiliated, beaten, nailed to the cross and barbarically killed,” he said.

The pope also encouraged the people of Genoa to not lose sight of Christ and the Church who “is with you and shares your sufferings and difficulties”.

“I know that you people of Genoa are capable of great gestures of solidarity, I know that you roll up your sleeves, that you do not give up, that you know how to be next to those most in need,” Pope Francis said. “Do not lose hope, don’t let yourselves be robbed.”—CNS

As I approach the thumb stage of life Continued from page 7 supposed to focus less on worldly ambitions and become more and more devoted to spirituality, service, and wisdom.

We recently had to bury a very young life who had not even reached the second stage of life. It tore me asunder.

I feel a certain resignation, gravitas, but also an urgent need

to tidy up the loose ends of my life. As I write this, I am on a hike—a camino if you like— through the places of my early life around the Wild Coast.

I hear the call of the deep, what Michel de Montaigne writing in the 16th century defined in these words: “Let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it;

let us have nothing more often in mind than death.”

But I like more the defiant tone against death from my own Xhosa culture, Ndidleni maxhalanga ndidumbile!, which means “Devour me vultures, if you must; I’m ready!” Indeed, death is alien to us. n Dedicated to the fond memories of Gift Salizwa Dakada.

SALVE REGINA

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Hail our life, our sweetness and our hope.

To thee do we cry, Poor banished children of Eve; To thee do we send up our sighs, Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn then, most gracious advocate, Thine eyes of mercy toward us; And after this our exile, Show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ

YOUR CLASSIFIEDS

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Anniversaries • Milestones • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday accommodation Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Parish notices • Thanks • Others Please include payment (R1,90 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

IN MEMORIAM

HOUGHTON—Bill, husband of the late Agnes and dad of the late Mary, passed away on 29 August 1990. lovingly remembered by his daughters, Margaret, Bridget, Barbara, sons-inlaw Walter, Derick, Ben, grandchildren Stephen, Jeannine, Ryan, lauren, Catherine, Elizabeth, Susan and 10 great-grandchildren.May His Dear Soul Rest in Peace.

HOUGHTON—Bill. Always fondly remembered by The Southern Cross team.

PRAYERS

O JESUS, Please be in the hearts and lives of all those who are suffering. Bring healing to those who are enduring pain. Bring value to those who are disregarded. Bring joy to those in great sorrow. Bring hope to those that have nothing to live for.

Bring provision to those who are hungry. Bring shelter to those without a home.

Bring community to those who are lonely.Please use and prompt me to be your hands of love across a hurting world. Amen.

PERSONAL

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Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday August 25, 21st Sunday of the Year Isaiah 66:18-21, Psalm 117, Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13, Luke 13:22-30 Monday August 26 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5, 8-10, Psalm 149:1-6, 9, Matthew 23:13-22 Tuesday August 27, St Monica 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Psalm 139:1-6, Matthew 23:23-26 Wednesday August 28, St Augustine 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13, Psalm 139:7-12, Matthew 23:27-32 Thursday August 29, Passion of John the Baptist Jeremiah 1:17-19, Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17, Mark 6:17-29 St Augustine and Friday August 30 St Monica 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6,10-12, Matthew 25:1-13 Saturday August 31 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11, Psalm 98:1, 7-9, Matthew 25:14-30 Sunday September 1, 22nd Sunday of the Year Sirach 3:17-20, 28-29, Psalm 68:4-7, 10-11, Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24, Luke 14:1, 7-14

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 877. ACROSS: 1 Rose, 2 Refunded, 7 Scatter, 9 Bread, 10 Thankless, 12 Exotic, 14 Skirls, 16 Brilliant, 19 Grain, 20 Attempt, 21 Sadducee, 22 Void. DOWN: 1 Rosaries, 2 Shaft, 4 Eureka, 5 Dresser, 6 Dodo, 8 Tradition, 9 Breakfast, 11 Asserted, 13 On board, 15 Please, 17 Tempo, 18 Ages.

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22ND SUNDAY: SEPTEMBER 1 Readings: Sirach 3:17-20, 28-29; Psalm 68:47, 10-11; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24; Luke 14:1, 7-14 NE of the great questions that afflict us today is that of how you find meaning in life. And the answer offered by the readings for next Sunday is that you do not— contrary to what we often suppose—find meaning in life by elbowing the opposition out of the way.

So in the first reading, the experienced and devout Jewish elder Jesus ben Sira‘ is telling the young how they are to find meaning in life: “Conduct your deeds with gentleness, and you will be loved by an acceptable person; and the bigger you are, the more you need to humble yourself, to find favour in the Lord’s presence.”

It is not our power that is important; instead, he says, “great is the Lord’s power, and it/he is glorified by the humble. A hard heart will be weighted down by labours”. It is all a matter of our inner attitude: “there is no healing for the affliction of the arrogant, for it is an evil plant: an attentive ear is the desire of the wise”.

Our task, you see, is to listen and learn, and not think that we know it all.

In the psalm we find ourselves present at an unidentified liturgy, and the vision that helps the just to find meaning in the Lord:

O

S outher n C ross Nicholas King SJ

Find meaning in life “The just will rejoice in the presence of God, and celebrate with great joy.” And, let us add, we find our meaning by worshipping the God who made us; which, in turn, means singing: “Sing to God, make music to his name, praise the one who rides on the clouds”.

And the psalmist adds one other source of meaning, for this God is the God of the defenceless: “Father of orphans, and judge of widows, God in his holy place”.

God is not only holy, but also is on the side of the oppressed, and those at the bottom of the heap; and that is where we can find meaning: “God makes the forsaken have a home, brings prisoner out into prosperity”. God is not, as is too often assumed, the “god of the well-to-do”.

As the second reading reminds us, the secret of finding meaning is to find out where we are: “It is not something tangible that you have approached, with darkness and blazing fire and a sound on the trumpet.” That is what we too easily imagine: “Instead, you have come to Mount Sion [where Israel finds its meaning], the city of the Living God, heavenly Jerusalem, with myriads of angels in festive

Sunday Reflections

array, and the assembly of the first-born inscribed in heaven, God the judge of all”.

Here we can, after all, glimpse the meaning that we seek. The heart of it is this: “Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and the sprinkling of his blood, which cries louder than the blood of Abel”.

Astonishingly, we are to learn now that we find meaning even in death, and most especially in the worst death of all, that of Jesus.

The gospel has Jesus attending one of Luke’s “disastrous dinner parties”.

You always know there is going to be trouble in the Gospels when you find the words “Pharisee” and “Sabbath” in the same sentence; and the mood turns still more sinister when we read that “they were watching him”.

We know that it is not out of admiration that they are doing so.

Then Luke invites us to notice something about the guests, that they were looking for meaning by scrabbling for the best seats; and Jesus chides them with a “parable”, noticing “how they were choosing the first positions”.

The parable is, on the face of it, only good common sense: “when you are a guest at a

party, go and lie down at the last place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘My friend, go up higher’; and then you’ll have glory in the eyes of all those who are lying down with you’.” .

Of course, Jesus’ teaching has nothing to do with getting “glory”, but with a readiness to humble yourself: “Everyone who exalt themselves are going to be brought low; while those who put themselves down are going to be exalted”.

Then, not content with teaching about meaning to his fellow-guests, he starts telling his host whom to invite. Not “your friends and family or kinsfolk or wealthy neighbours”, but the “poor, crippled, lame, and blind”. And that is where you will, remarkably enough, find meaning: “Congratulations to you, because they have no way of paying you back—and so you will be paid back at the resurrection of the just”.

Could that thought give your life meaning, this week?

Intelligence vs wisdom Southern Crossword #877 T

not contribute to the common good. Without a concomitant empathy, intelligence invariably becomes arrogant and condescending.

True learning, on the other hand, is humble, self-effacing, and empathic. When we develop ourselves intellectually, without sufficient empathy, our talents invariably become causes for envy rather than gifts for community.

Ironically, at the end of the day, intelligence not sufficiently informed by empathy will not be very bright, but instead it will be an arrested intelligence wherein its fault will not be in what it has learned (for learning itself is good) but in where its learning stopped. It will suffer from a hazard aptly described by the 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope, where “a little learning is a dangerous thing”, where we have read one book too many but one book too few!

O

ne might object here and make a plea for science and scientific objectivity.

Isn’t empirical science the product of a pure intellectual pursuit which refuses to be coloured by anything outside itself? Isn’t the ideal of all learning to be purely objective, to not have a bias of any sort? Where does empathy play a role in pure research?

Doesn’t an eye turned towards empathy fudge pure objectivity?

Pure objectivity doesn’t exist, in science or anywhere else. Science today accepts that it can never be purely objective. All measurement has its own agenda, its own angle, and cannot help but interfere (however infinitesimally perhaps) with what it measures.

Conrad

HERE’S a huge difference between being bright and being wise, between brilliance and wisdom. We can be highly intelligent but not very wise. Ideally, of course, we should strive to be both, but that isn’t always the case.

We’re living in a culture that rewards brilliance above wisdom and within which we pride ourselves first of all in being brighter than each other. Who has the highest degree? Who’s the most entrepreneurial? Who’s the most popular? Who’s the cleverest scientist, researcher, writer, journalist, TV personality? Who’s the most brilliant?

We never ask: Who’s the wisest? Today intelligence is valued far above wisdom, and that’s not always good. We’re a highly informed and intelligent people, but our compassion is not nearly on par with our brilliance. We’re bright, but not wise.

What’s the difference between intelligence and wisdom? Wisdom is intelligence that’s coloured by understanding (which, parsed to its root, means infused with empathy). In end, what makes for wisdom is intelligence informed by empathy, intelligence that’s grasps with sympathy the complexity of others and the world.

Learning, to be truly helpful, must be matched by an equal growth in empathy.

When this isn’t happening, then growth in intelligence is invariably one-sided and— while perhaps providing something for the community—will always lack the kind of understanding that can help bind the community together and help us better understand ourselves and our world.

When intelligence is not informed by empathy, what it produces will generally

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Final Reflection

Everyone and everything, including science, has a bias (euphemistically, a pre-ontology). Thus, since all learning necessarily begins with an angle, a bias, pre-ontology, the question is not, “How can I be purely objective?” but rather this: “What serves us best as an angle from which to learn?”

The answer is empathy. Empathy turns intelligence into wisdom and wisdom turns learning into something that more properly serves community.

However empathy is not to be confused with sentimentality or naiveté. Sentimentality and naiveté see a fault within intellectuality itself, seeing learning itself as the problem. But learning is never the problem. One-sided learning is the problem, namely, learning that isn’t sufficiently informed by empathy, which seeks knowledge without understanding.

I teach post-graduate students who are mainly preparing for ministry within their churches and so, for them, post-graduate learning is, by definition, meant to be more than just scoring high marks, graduating with honour, being informed and educated, or even just satisfying their own intellectual curiosities and questions.

By their very vocation, they are striving for wisdom more than for mere intelligence. But even they, like almost everyone else in our culture, struggle to not be onesided in their learning, to have their studies bring them as much compassion as knowledge.

We all struggle with this. It’s hard to resist a temptation that’s as endemic in our culture as bacteria are in our waters: the temptation to be clever and bright, more informed than everyone else, no matter if we aren’t very compassionate persons.

And so this column is a plea, not a criticism: To all of us, whether we’re doing formal studies; whether we’re trying to learn the newest information technology; whether we’re trying to keep ourselves informed socially and politically; whether we’re writing articles, books or blogs; whether we’re taking training for a job; or whether we’re just mustering material for an argument at our family table or workplace, remember this: It’s not good merely to be smart, we must also be compassionate.

ACROSS

1. Fragrant bloom may remind you of the Resurrection (4) 3. Paid back your money (8) 7. Disperse (7) 9. We pray for it daily (5) 10. Kind of task without appreciation (9) 12. Kind of plant that’s not indigenous (6) 14. Sounds of bagpipes (6) 16. Very bright like a star student? (9) 19. Smallest piece of sand on the wheat? (5) 20. Try and make an effort (7) 21. Member of sect in Jesus’ time (8) 22. Not valid (4) Solutions on page 11

DOWN

1. Finger them when praying (8) 2. Ray of light like an arrow (5) 4. Archimedes’ triumphant cry (6) 5. Sideboard for one who puts on clothes? (7) 6. Double do for an old bird (4) 8. Doctrine handed down (9) 9. First meal after Lent? (9) 11. Des tears up what he’d said (8) 13. How Noah took the animals (2,5) 15. Say it, asking nicely (6) 17. Musical time (5) 18. O God our help in ... past (hymn) (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

E

mmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet for a summit when suddenly God appears to the trio and instructs them to tell their people that the world will end in 40 days’ time.

In Paris, Macron appears on TV and announces gravely: “I have two items of bad news. Firstly, it turns out that actually does God exist. Secondly: the world will end in 40 days’ time.”

Putin holds a press conference: “I have good news and bad news. Good news first: God does exist! Bad news: the world will end in 40 days’ time!”

From his golf course in Florida, Trump tweets: “Two pieces great news, the best ever. Firstly, God appeared to me and spoke to me. Secondly, I will be your president until the end of time.”

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