191016

The

S outhern C ross

October 16 to October 22, 2019

Reg no. 1920/002058/06

College hosts peace imam and pastor

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no 5157

www.scross.co.za

20 years: The story of Radio Veritas

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R12 (incl VAT RSA)

What was in The Southern Cross 50 years ago

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J&P Tavern Project lauded

by UN group

by ERin CARElSE

U

Pilgrimage 2020

S outher n C ross

NITED Nations Women and National AIDS Councils from Zimbabwe and Malawi spent a week with the Justice and Peace Commission (J&P) of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference learning more about the HeForShe Tavern Project, which they hope to implement in their own countries.

With the issue of gender-based violence and violence against children on the rise in South Africa, the HeForShe Tavern Project, in collaboration with the global HeForShe Campaign and J&P, aims to inform and educate tavern owners on gender-based violence.

Anne Githuku-Shongwe, the representative for UN Women’s South Africa Multi-Country Office, which is responsible for women’s empowerment and gender equality in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia as well as South Africa, said she is very impressed with the J&P initiative.

“This week has been a wonderful opportunity to learn and showcase work that has been underway with the partnership we have with J&P and UN Women on the HeforShe initiative,” Ms Githuku-Shongwe told Radio Veritas’ Sheila Pires.

“From years of working on HIV, ending violence against women and femicide, what we understood and learnt is that we’ve left men behind in many instances to continue to perpetuate violence, intergenerational sex, and behaviours that perpetuate and drive HIV infections,” she said.

Ms Githuku-Shongwe highlighted the importance of this chance to bring Malawi and Zimbabwe to come and learn from this programme but also for them to come and share their own initiatives with men.

“This is really an exchange and an opportunity to create a model that works, where men take responsibility and challenge one another and the norms and stereotypes,” she said.

Fr Patrick Rakeketsi CSS, associate secretary general of the SACBC, explained that when starting the initiative, taverns were identified as high-risk areas as they are maledominated and alcohol is a factor in much of the violent crime in South Africa.

“We see the use of the taverns as a place where men can meet and have open dialogues around the violence against women and children,” he said.

Apart from the dialogues, Fr Rakeketsi said the initiative also aims to fight alcohol-related violence and encourages tavern owners to have a zero-tolerance attitude when acts of violence occur within their establishments and their communities as a whole.

“The campaign has helped tavern owners realise that a firm stand must be taken on violence against women. It saw them pledge their support and promise to fight harassment of and violence against women, by making sure patrons do not drink excessively and are encouraged to be responsible,” he said.

Fr Rakeketsi noted that since the implementation of the project women have felt safer in their communities and in taverns, and that men have been more involved in creating safe spaces for women and children.

“We see that police cases of gender-based violence in these areas have diminished, which is as a result of the close relationship between the police sector and stations, tavern owners, and men in general,” he said.

Ms Githuku-Shongwe agreed and said men are already beginning to testify that they recognise their previous harmful behaviours, thanks to the work done by mentors, trainers, and change agents within communities.

To date, there are 144 taverns involved in the Tavern Project initiative.

“The fantastic thing about J&P is that because they live in the community, they stay with the programme, and day after day they conduct these dialogues until a change is visible. It is such an honour to work with them,” Ms Githuku-Shongwe said.

Flashback to November 1928: The Southern Cross is sold at Emmanuel cathedral in Durban during Press Sunday. With this issue, the national Catholic weekly is turning 99 years old. Over the next 12 months, we will be looking back at old editions from our archives, starting on page 15 this week with an edition from 50 years ago.

We are 99 years old W

ITH this issue, The Southern Cross is turning 99 years old—which means, as the arithmetically-gifted reader will have correctly deduced—that in exactly a year’s time, The Southern Cross will celebrate its centenary.

In the 12 months building up to our big jubilee—which we shall, of course, celebrate in good style with a special edition—we will mark this newspaper’s long history with a new weekly feature in which we look back at an old issue from our archives.

The magnitude of The Southern Cross’ length of service to the Church in Southern Africa is driven home by the fact that even in a full year, the revisited issues cover only about half of the number of years this newspaper has been read by generations of Catholics.

Our centenary year will also be a good time to remember the many people who over the past ten decades got The Southern Cross to the people: the editorial teams and contributors, the administrative staffs, the directors, the supporters and Associates, the printers, the various distributors, those who handled, promoted and sold the newspaper in the parish, and the readers and friends.

We remember all of them—known or unknown, currently active or long dead—in our prayers.

At the conclusion of the Extraordinary Mission Month, a centenary logo will adorn the earpiece next to our masthead. It will re-

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mind us of the long history of The Southern Cross but also serve as a signal that we are looking into the future.

We look to the future with confidence that this newspaper, which has accompanied the Catholic Church in this region for almost half of its existence here will live on for a long time yet.

For that, The Southern Cross will need the support of the Catholic community: by financial means through the Associates Campaign, and by means of keen promotion of the newspaper—in print and digital format—by the bishops, clergy and laity.

The Southern Cross was first published on October 16, 1920, but a long time of funding and planning was already taking place a hundred years ago, starting in late July 1919 when the decision to establish a national Catholic weekly was finalised in Durban.

Since that first issue, The Southern Cross has appeared every week, without fail. That is a proud record indeed.

Over those 5 000-plus weeks, The Southern Cross has told many stories and influenced many lives, from young men (like little Denis Hurley) who became priests to the prisoner who credits his conversion to the Catholic faith to receiving the newspaper in jail.

If you have a good story involving The Southern Cross, please email it to the editor at editor@scross.co.za with a view for possible publication.

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, October 16 to October 22, 2019

LOCAL

Miss SA: ‘Use your voice to benefit others’ Former Miss South Africa Peggy-Sue Khumalo, now chief executive of Standard bank Wealth SA, was the keynote speaker at this year’s Domitilla and Danny Hyams Memorial lecture hosted by the little Eden Society.

Ms Khumalo, seen with a little Eden resident, said those who had been given much were called on to give much back.

by DAluxOlO MOlOAnTOA

T

O those whom much is given, much is required. This was the message delivered by former Miss SA Peggy-Sue Khumalo in her keynote address at the third annual Domitilla and Danny Hyams Memorial Lecture held by the Little Eden Society.

In attendance at the lecture in the Bishop Shanahan Hall at Holy Rosary School in Edenvale, Johannesburg, was Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, a former guest speaker.

Before the main address, the evening’s MC, media personality Ed Jordan, called on Fr Deneys Williamson to give a brief update on the sainthood cause for Domitilla Rota Hyams, founder of Little Eden. Fr Williamson, the episcopal delegate for the cause, noted that a nihil obstat, a declaration of no objection to the cause, had been received from the Congregation of the Cause of Saints for Domitilla; one is still being awaited for her husband Danny.

Delivering her address, themed

“Paying It Forward”, Ms Khumalo recalled how her first encounter with former president Nelson Mandela changed the trajectory of her life beyond her reign as Miss SA in 1996.

She told of how, a day after winning the beauty contest, she visited Mr Mandela at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg. Ms Khumalo, who is the current chief executive officer of Standard Bank Wealth SA, and a long-time ambassador of Little Eden Society, related that she told Mr Mandela of her wish to pursue tertiary education and a career in the banking sector.

“As a reigning Miss SA, Mr Mandela would invite me on various local and overseas trips to attend functions and state-related events,” she pointed out. “It was on one of these trips that he introduced me to Mr [Stephen] Koseff, the then-chief executive officer of Investec Bank.

Mr Mandela told Mr Koseff about my intentions.

“At the end of my reign as Miss SA I was offered a bursary by Investec to study for both a degree in economics and political science,

and a master’s degree in economics, both at Manchester University in England,” she recalled.

Ms Khumalo revealed how being the first in her family to obtain a university degree transformed both her and her family’s fortunes. She had taken Mr Mandela’s example of “Paying It Forward”, and made it a part of her life too.

She further stated that she was a firm adherent of the African philosophy of ubuntu, and that she was an example of the functionality of the African idiom, “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Ms Khumalo also spoke about how her husband Xolani Gwala’s battle with colon cancer compels her to speak out publicly about the need for early detection of the disease.

She said public platforms, such as the Domitilla and Danny Hyams Memorial Lecture, can play a critical role in driving public debate about issues around disability in South African society today.

“It is for those of us who have been afforded a voice to use it to society’s benefit,” she said.

The Southern Cross pilgrims to “Catholic France” are seen with Fr lawrence ndlovu after Mass in lourdes. The group also visited Paris, Marseilles, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Para-le-Monial and many other places, remembering Our lady, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and St Eugene Mazenod.

Accountant VACAnCy

200 years young on Trinity Sunday 2020 - The Holy Family Association began, a Family of different vocations in the Church – women and men lay associates, priest associates, religious sisters: apostolic and contemplative, and consecrated secular members – all living in very many different ways, one spirit and mission throughout the world.

Our shared mission is the living and promotion of COMMUNION – the oneness Jesus prayed for in his prayer “that all may be one” (Jn.17) This is not a oneness of uniformity but Trinitarian Oneness that creates, promotes and respects inclusive love within amazing unity in diversity – the reality of the whole Earth Community – that today, sadly, our world seems to deny.

In South Africa today, having shared in the ministries of healing and education for 155 years, in many different contexts, now as a Family of diverse vocations, we seek, together with many Holy Family friends, a 21st century-Holy-Family-way- forward for promoting COMMUNION in our hurting country.

If you’re interested in being part of our seeking new ways within the mission of the church, please contact Sr Colleen Moore on 076 0543 673.

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The successful applicant must have proven ability in IFRS for SMEs accounting, payroll, financial controls, receivables, payables and cash flow.

REquIREMENTS include compulsory professional qualification in accounting or auditing, at least 5 years’ experience, impeccable integrity and reliability, and a willingness to learn the accounting system of the Archdiocese. Applicants need not be Catholic, but must subscribe to the Church’s mission.

A competitive, market-related salary, commensurate with experience and ability, is offered.

Please send your CV with at least three contactable references to Mr Graham Wilson vacancy@adct.org.za

The closing date for applications is Friday 1 November 2019.

If you have not been contacted by 8 November, you should assume your application has been unsuccessful.

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

3

St Anne’s head elected to international board

by ERin CARElSE

T

Fikile Motsa, former national president of St Anne’s Sodality, has been elected to the board of international Catholic women’s organisation WuCWO.

HE former national president of St Anne’s Sodality in South Africa has been nominated and confirmed as a World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (WUCWO) board member.

“It’s through God’s grace and honour that I have been appointed to the board of WUCWO, I feel very blessed,” Fikile Motsa said.

Every four years, new board members are appointed to WUCWO, one from each country.

South Africa is a member country of WUCWO, and currently, has two organisations registered, St Anne’s Sodality and the Catholic Women’s League (CWL).

In South Africa, the two organisations alternate each term. Jennifer Hammond from the CWL was the board member from 201418.

Ms Motsa was nominated by

her sodality to stand for the new term. The CWL approved her nomination and she was confirmed in Senegal during the WUCWO general assembly, which took place in October 2018. Her term will run until 2022.

At the assembly, among resolutions passed by the delegates was one calling on its members to recognise their collective responsibility, as participants in the human race, to care for the planet that God created and to take steps to reduce and reverse the damage already sustained.

The four WUCWO resolutions are: • Let us recognise that a healthy planet depends on all of us.

• Let us take care of the family in difficult situations, especially its most vulnerable members.

• Let us eliminate discrimination and violence against women.

• Let us educate to respond to the call of holiness.

As a board member Ms Motsa will attend board meetings organised by the international office, write reports and send them to the secretariat, and make sure that WUCWO resolutions are implemented.

“We are currently in a process of formalising the South African Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (SAUCWO),” she explained, adding that a proposal has been drawn up and they are awaiting approval by stakeholders, after which it will be presented to the bishops for approval.

“My mission is to make sure that by 2022, almost all Catholic women in South Africa are fully aware of WUCWO and SAUCWO and are involved in WUCWO activities,” Ms Motsa said.

WUCWO, whose head office is

in Rome, was established in 1910. It now represents almost 100 Catholic women’s organisations worldwide, is active in around 60 countries including all continents and some island states, and counts on more than eight million Catholic women of every walk of life.

In 2006, WUCWO was made a Public International Association of the Faithful by the Holy See. The organisation aims to promote the presence, participation and co-responsibility of Catholic women in society and the Church, in order to enable them to fulfil their mission of evangelisation and to work for human development.

“It is my wish and my prayer that all Catholic women in Southern Africa will be united, regardless of sodalities, organisations, or the colour of their skin, and that we work together towards one goal of serving mankind,” Ms Motsa said.

Catholic college to host Nigerian peacemakers

by ERin CARElSE

A

N imam and a pastor, former enemies who led opposing sides of a deadly conflict in Kaduna, Nigeria, will deliver a lecture at South Africa’s Catholic university on how they reconciled their differences to stand as an example to their community.

St Augustine College in Victory Park, Johannesburg, will host the October open lecture by Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, “The Imam and the Pastor: From Conflict to Healing, Nigerian Lessons for South Africa”.

Through their inner struggles and facing the effects of hatred and violence, they each discovered the strength, supported by their own very different faiths, to cross the huge gulf dividing them.

Both men are deeply rooted in their faith traditions: Pastor Wuye had felt a strong calling to the Church since graduating from high school, and Imam Ashafa is the 13th generation in his family to become an imam.

Pastor James Wuye (left) and imam Muhammad Ashafa of Kaduna, nigeria, came together to establish peace in their communities after years of deadly religious conflict.

During the Kaduna conflict, they destroyed. Families were attacked. felt a passion to unify and energise The need for revenge fuelled evertheir faith communities, and to pro- growing hatred, and the leaders’ tect them against perceived threats. roles became entrenched.

As the conflict escalated, both Both suffered heavy losses: Imam men trained militias to intimidate Ashafa lost two brothers and his and even kill members of the oppo- mentor, and Pastor Wuye, in addisite side. Crops and livelihoods were tion to losing close friends, lost his

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

right hand.

It was in 1995, during a United Nations Children’s Fund polio-immunisation drive, that the two leaders hesitantly agreed to put aside their differences as they realised that speaking together could convince more people to protect their children against the common threat of polio.

Their agreement was cautious and guarded at first, but over the years they built up the respect and trust necessary for partnership.

The two men eventually formed the Interfaith Mediation Centre, a grassroots organisation that heals rifts between Christians and Muslims across Nigeria. With over 10 000 members, they train former militia members to become peace activists., and have led successful efforts to rebuild the churches and mosques that fell during their conflict. n The public lecture will be on Wednesday, October 23, at 19:00 at St Augustine’s auditorium, 53 Ley Road, Victory Park, Johannesburg. Entry is free but a cash donation to the college would be appreciated.

Ren Webb (left) of immaculate Conception church in Parow, Cape Town, who has been selling the Southern Cross for over 15 years, is seen with parishioner logan. We love receiving your photos of parishioners selling The Southern Cross—please keep them coming!

Send photos to pics@scross.co.za

4

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

INTERNATIONAL

Pope to synod: Don’t kick the Holy Spirit out

by JunnO AROCHO ESTEVES

T People walk to their seats after presenting offertory gifts to Pope Francis during the opening Mass of the Synod of bishops for the Amazon in St Peter’s basilica at the Vatican. (Photo: Paul Haring/CnS)

Synod: Learn from other expressions of faith

P

EOPLE in Western countries need to see the different cultural expressions of faith that exist in other parts of the world, said some participants at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon.

Panellists attending a Vatican briefing were asked to comment on the way some media outlets and people on social media expressed shock, disdain or concern for the presence of a wooden statue of a bare-breasted pregnant woman during a prayer service in the Vatican Gardens and about the Catholic indigenous man who brought up the offertory gifts at Mass wearing a headdress adorned with feathers.

“It is even more important that the world of Europe and Rome learn that other cultures also know how to talk about life, about wellbeing, fraternal coexistence,” said French-born Bishop Emmanuel Lafont, who leads the diocese of Cayenne in French Guiana, bordering the Amazon basin.

“It is important people see there is another way to live,” he said. “There can’t be just one voice. Every culture has its voice and its wisdom,” the bishop added.

Once upon a time, these indigenous ways of life would have been considered forms of “idolatry” or a sign of “a lack of civilisation”, he

said, “because we thought that only we had the truth and other people had nothing”.

Giving visibility to different expressions and cultures not only will be a big part of discussions at the synod, but it also will be a “great service we can offer these people who believe they are more civilised than others”, Bishop Lafont said.

Bishop David Martinez de Aguirre Guinea, apostolic vicar of Puerto Maldonado, Peru, told reporters the best response to people’s concern or worry about indigenous adornments or expressions is to give indigenous people more visibility.

The indigenous headdress is worn for very special occasions—like the synod’s opening Mass, he said.

These images are very “striking” and that can make it hard for some people to go beyond appearances, said the bishop, who is a member of the Dominicans.

Commenting about the statue of the pregnant woman, the Spanishborn bishop said he had seen the image before and it seems to be a non-specific symbol for fertility, life and women.

The statue could be seen as symbolising “the Amazon like an entity that is pregnant with life for the entire planet, for all people”.—CNS

HE Synod of Bishops for the Amazon is a time of reflection, dialogue and listening to the needs and sufferings of indigenous people, Pope Francis said.

“The Holy Spirit is the primary actor in the synod. Please, do not kick him out of the room,” the pope said, opening the gathering’s first working session.

Speaking off-the-cuff, the pope said he was saddened to hear a “sarcastic” remark from a synod participant about an indigenous man wearing a feathered headdress who presented the offertory gifts at the synod’s opening Mass.

“Tell me: What difference is there between having feathers on your head and the three-cornered hat worn by some officials of our dicasteries?” he asked, eliciting applause from synod participants.

Instead of becoming a series of reductive discussions that only undermine “the poetry” of indigenous people and their cultures, he said, the synod is a way for the Church to walk with them “under the guidance of the Holy Spirit”.

The synod was not called to “in-

People participate in a prayer service in St Peter’s basilica at the start of the first session of the Synod of bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican. (Photo: Paul Haring/CnS) vent social development programmes or museum-like cultural guardianships or pastoral actions in the same noncontemplative style that leads to actions that give counter signs”, the pope said.

“We come to contemplate, to understand, to serve the people, and we do it by following a synodal path,”

he said. “We do it within the synod, not in roundtables, not in conferences and hidden discussions. We do it within the synod because a synod is not a parliament.”

The first full day of the synod began with a prayer service in front of the altar of St Peter’s basilica, with members of indigenous communities standing arm-in-arm with cardinals and bishops singing as they waited for Pope Francis.

When the pope arrived, he led the invocation of the Holy Spirit’s assistance with the chanting of Veni, Creator Spiritus (“Come, Creator Spirit”) before processing with the large group from the basilica to the synod hall.

In his speech, the pope highlighted the importance of responsible journalism in reporting the synod accurately, and urged participants to act with prudence when speaking to the press, adding that the synod “can be ruined a bit” by members speaking too freely with reporters.

Pope Francis said this often leads to forming two synods: one inside the Vatican and one outside.—CNS

Bishops call on European citizens to wake up

by JOnATHAn luxMOORE

E

UROPE’S Catholic bishops urged their citizens to “wake up” and find new hope by rediscovering the continent’s Christian roots.

In a meeting in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Church leaders from 45 European countries met in the run-up to Britain’s October 31 projected departure from the European Union and the November 1 inauguration of a new European Union governing commission.

“Europe, rejoice in the goodness of your people, in the many hidden saints who every day contribute in silence to the construction of a more just and humane civil society,” the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, or CCEE, said in a message

near the end of their assembly.

“As morning watchmen, vigilant and ready to point to the new day, we want to give a message of hope to Europe in distress and say forcefully: Wake up, Europe!”

It said Europe faced contradictions from “the desire for God, but at the same time the fragility of Christian life”, and “the desire for universal human rights, but at the same time the loss of respect for human dignity”.

“Every person has a secret desire to meet someone who helps their conscience to awaken; to rekindle the decisive questions of existence, of our future after death, of the evil that wounds us, and of the evils that destroy life and the cosmos.”

In a message to the meeting, Pope

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Community life is of great importance to us as we are seeking God together, intent upon him and upon our brothers and sisters, being of “one mind and one heart” like the primitive Christian community in Jerusalem (Acts 4.30) and according to rule of St Augustine.

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Francis said Santiago, burial place of the apostle St James, had long been a place where European pilgrims placed “their afflictions, supplications and hopes”, but also rediscovered “the great richness of Europe”.

CCEE’s president, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, Italy, said reactions to a devastating April fire at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris had helped reinstil awareness of Europe’s identity “beyond misunderstandings and contrasts, and beyond partisan interests and suspicions”.

He added that Catholics had a duty to “climb on the roofs and proclaim the lights that are there”, in a social and cultural context “marked by confrontations, suspicions, individualisms and disappointments”.— CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

5

Synod: Increase role of Voices offer contrasting women, laity in ministry opposition to synod

by JunnO AROCHO ESTEVES

T

S

YNOD participants offered several proposals to address the lack of priests in the Amazon region, including revising the formation programme for candidates to the priesthood and instituting new ministries for lay men and women.

According to a Vatican News summary, the proposals included discussing the “possibility of diaconal ordination for women, so as to emphasise their ecclesial vocation”.

While synod participants said there is a need for greater appreciation of consecrated life, they also proposed allowing local churches “to choose ministers authorised to celebrate the Eucharist or to ordain permanent deacons”.

Accompanied by pastors, lay ministers would assist in administering the sacraments and would help in “promoting indigenous vocations”.

The synod is not releasing the texts of individuals speeches and the summaries do not identify the person or persons who made the suggestions.

At a Vatican briefing, Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, told journalists that several speeches delivered in the synod hall highlighted the fact that indigenous Catholics often feel like “second- or- third-class Catholics.”

The “question the synod fathers tried to find an answer to is: How can the Church bring Jesus, (present) in the Eucharist, to these people who are not second-class Catholics?” he said.

Pope Francis greets people during the Synod of bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican. (Photo: Vatican Media/CnS) According to L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, synod members were “struck by the difficult pastoral situations of some dioceses”.

“There are areas, for example, in which the ratio between priests and territories is equivalent to one for every 25 000 square km or where to serve 1 100 villages there are just 45 priests,” the newspaper said.

“If the Church lives from the Eucharist, and if the Eucharist builds the Church, it is the people themselves who demand a permanent presence and not just a visit,” one member said, according to Mr Ruffini.

Synod members also reflected on the need for greater participation of the laity. The complexity and chal-

lenges in evangelising remote areas like the Amazon “require specific skills and knowledge to which priests cannot always offer all the answers”, the Vatican News summary said.

Several bishops also proposed the ordination of married viri probati, or men of proven virtue, to address the lack of priests, suggesting that the Church could “evaluate over time whether this experience is valid or not”.

However, Vatican News said, other synod members voiced their concerns that ordaining married viri probati may risk reducing the role of the priest to “a simple Mass officiant” rather than “a pastor of the communities, a teacher of Christian life and a concrete presence of Christ’s closeness”.—CNS

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WO groups who say their voices are not often heard by Church leaders held events to speak out against aspects of the Amazon synod with which they disagree, with both groups offering dramatic assessments about the meaning and significance of the synod of bishops.

Voice of the Family, a network of ultra-conservative groups, held a roundtable to express their opposition to this month’s meeting of a synod of bishops on the Pan-Amazonian region, which speakers said promotes paganism. Over the course of the three-hour event, speakers critiqued the preparatory document for the synod, which they said defers to pagan elements of indigenous religions.

The previous day, the organisation Voices of Faith hosted a very different event in Rome. Titled “And You Sister...What Do You Say?”, the meeting saw eight religious Sisters and nuns present their vision of gender equality and the future of the Church, including calling for women religious to be allowed to cast votes on the final document of the Amazon synod.

Voices of Faith created the #votesforCatholicwomen initiative in 2016, in response to what they see as the injustice of women religious taking part in the synod as consultors and auditors, but being unable to vote on the final resolutions and documents.

They noted that, in the past few meetings of the synod of bishops in Rome, a small number of non-

ordained religious Brothers have been allowed to vote in an exception to synodal norms that provide that only ordained clerics may vote on the assembly’s final document.

The Voice of the Family network took an opposite view of the role of women in the synodal process, and discussed the possibility that the Amazon synod will attempt to approve women’s ordination to the diaconate, as well as criticising what they termed “heresies” in the assembly’s working document.

During a roundtable titled “Our Church: Reformed or Deformed?” participants aired concerns about the Amazon synod’s Instrumentum laboris, which participants said promoted pagan “Amazon religions” and “indigenous theology”, while seeking to undermine the discipline of priestly celibacy, and open a way for the creation of women deacons.

Participant Roberto de Mattei accused anyone who has approved of the Amazon synod’s Instrumentum laboris “of polytheism, or polydemonism”.

John Henry Westen, editor-inchief of Lifesitenews, said that the Amazon synod “is expected to be the most severe calamity to the faith the Church has ever known”.

Speakers at the event said that, despite their concerns, they do not consider leaving the Church, but continue to pray for the protection of the papacy and for Pope Francis’ conversion.—CNA

6

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Guest editorial: Rosanne Shields

As we turn 99

A

S we kick off the celebration of The Southern Cross’s centenary year, we begin by thanking you, our loyal readers, our associates and supporters, and the volunteers who sell the paper in our churches, as well as our dedicated staff, for making it possible to reach this milestone.

Also, entering our 100th year, we remember those who had the vision of a Catholic newspaper for our region.

It cannot have been easy to find the resources for a newspaper in 1920, and we know that much planning went into launching it.

The idea for a national Catholic newspaper was born at a St Patrick’s Day event, by two priests, one an Oblate from Durban and the other a diocesan cleric from Cape Town.

The newspaper is still standing 99 years later thanks to the hard work, prayers and intercessions of those who have gone before us.

To keep a quality religious weekly newspaper with a high percentage of local content in circulation every week, without exception, for 99 years is an exceptional achievement. The number of newspapers similar to ours that are still in circulation in the rest of Africa can be counted on one hand.

We know, too, that many Church publications have had to close worldwide, and only a few have managed the transition to media platforms other than print.

One may wonder whether those who founded The Southern Cross imagined that it would survive for so long. Carrying their legacy forward is a grave responsibility for all of us and we are up against many challenges.

We need to face them, stare them in the eye, and make an unshakeable commitment to keep going for another hundred years—probably in a format we cannot imagine.

Our founders and those who built up the paper would have laughed at a description of the Internet, e-mail and colour printing at the drop of a hat. They’d cry if they knew what had happened to the South African Post Office, as we all do!

What they would expect is our loyalty, creativity and courage.

The Southern Cross appears not just in print form, but also digi-

tally and online, reaching out via our active website and Facebook page.

More than 66 000 people use the website consistently, and our Facebook page records 20 000 engagements per quarter.

Women make up 56% of our readers and an encouraging 26% of our readers are under the age of 44 years.

The Polish poet Stanislaw Lec said: “The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper.”

We could choose to cover over that window, ignoring the difficult discussions that we, as Church, must have, and shutting down views that do not resonate with our own.

Instead we try hard to reflect the rich diversity of our region, to bring Jesus’ message to our readers through good news stories, and carry different viewpoints that enrich our understanding of one another.

Can we do more, do better?

Always! When we feel overwhelmed by the tasks before us, we can turn to Dorothy Day, the saintly US social activist and newspaper publisher: “People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”

The Southern Cross is an asset for the Church in Southern Africa. It is a unique vehicle for bringing the People of God together and a tool which can be used to fight the grave injustices that we see around us.

The Southern Cross is a forum in which women’s voices can be more clearly heard and their opinions valued in dealing with these crises and in shaping today’s Church. Without this, we disrespect half of God’s creation, and that is unforgiveable.

As we approach with joy, and some trepidation, our jubilee year, let us make this our mantra: “We lift up our eyes to the mountains; where is our help to come from? Our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

And it comes from you, too. n Rosanne Shields is the chair of the board of directors of The Southern Cross.

The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit published letters. Letters below 300 words receive preference. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances and at the Editor’s discretion.

Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

No country can handle uncontrolled immigration Y OUR editorial “The echoes of 1934” (September 4) refers.

You mention Pope Francis sounding a warning in a La Stampa interview, noting “much of the current political rhetoric reminded him of the populism applied by Adolf Hitler in 1934, as the Nazis were entrenching their power in Germany”.

Without reading the full transcript, it is difficult to understand that the pope was actually referring to one individual as responsible for the problems facing our world today.

I was pleased that Pope Francis condemned corruption in Africa on his recent visit. Corruption is probably the most serious reason for the uncontrolled illegal migration on the continent.

Such immigration, coupled with South Africa’s unprecedented unemployment levels, has led to anarchy, xenophobia and criminality, as is being witnessed.

No country in the world, no matter how rich, can cope with today’s increasingly uncontrolled migration.

Countries like Sweden, Denmark and Norway have closed their borders and other European countries

Pray for peace this Mission Sunday

T

HE report (September 25) on the IMBISA meeting of the bishops of South Africa, Eswathini, Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Principe, and Zimbabwe about the recent violence in our country reminds me of their appeal for a year of prayer in 1985, when SA was deeply divided.

The prayer they requested was a slightly modified version of the prayer attributed to St Francis of Assisi (as shown below).

We South Africans did not realise how many people overseas prayed for our 1994 elections, until by chance, during a world trip, we walked into the Hong Kong Catholic Centre as their Chinese and Filipino Catholic Women’s League ladies were praying for us, and those murdered in the Rwanda genocide!

Do those of us in South Africa who fail to pray for other peoples do this due to our DNA instincts of “selfpreservation” (Prof DP Domning in America magazine), selfishness and nationalism (pope’s address to diplomats in Southern Cross), or African tradition limiting ubuntu to one’s own family, tribe, group or nation (Prof PI Odozor (Tablet)?

We need to pray for God’s help to live by Christ’s “new commandment to love one another” (John 13:34), “our neighbour” (Mark 10:21), even “our enemy” (Luke 6:27).

Pope Francis prayed in January for

are limiting their intake.

A couple of years ago, I served on the board of an NPO dealing with refugees. We were working with only 16 young men, mainly from the Congo, and caring for their accommodation, feeding them, and assisting them in finding work was a daunting task.

I mention this as the problems facing countries with thousands of undocumented migrants—whether escaping from war, famine, persecution and ethnic cleansing, or moving for purely economic reasons—are almost insurmountable, and these host countries undoubtedly have my sympathy.

When you consider the migrant problems facing Europe and the United States today, you cannot in all honesty compare this to Hitler and Nazi Germany.

The current migration to Europe is from Africa (for the reasons listed) as well as from the Middle East (specifically Syria, due mainly to the Assad regime which has destroyed its own people in a terrible civil war).

The American migration situation is very different, and intimating that the Trump administration

is solely to blame is misrepresenting the facts, as related by Spanishspeaking members of the American Border Patrol as opposed to Democrat politicians.

There are over 11 million undocumented migrants in America, with many exploited by the very people who employ them knowing their status. Deporting 11 million people is impossible.

The only answer here is to begin a lawful procedure to bring about a humane solution, giving these people, minus criminals, amnesty and citizenship.

What has been completely ignored in the illegal immigrants debate, however, is the evil, untaxed economy of the drug cartels which encourage it, thus fuelling the accompanying social ills of prostitution, drug and human trafficking as well as general criminality. This has been glibly glossed over.

I believe solutions to the world problem of illegal immigration are extremely difficult, and I encourage people to pray the novena and chaplet to the Divine Mercy as well as the Rosary daily.

Bernard Moat, Cape Town

a New Year marked by tenderness, brotherhood, and peace, and September 21 was the annual UN International Day of Peace. On October 12, we prayed 1 250 Rosary rallies for SA. On World Mission Sunday today, let us ask St Francis and St Thérèse to pray with us for South Africa, Africa, and the world.

But perhaps we could ask Bishops Muendula, Tlhagale, Zungu, Sipuka and others from the SACBC to promote the addition of the St Francis Prayer at the IMBISA plenary meeting in Mozambique in mid-November?

And perhaps Bishop Sipuka could take it to SECAM, and we could all join hands with Pope Francis this time to offer a New Year gift to the world, of prayer by the world, for the world, offered with our faith, hope and love, worldwide.

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

Let us say the Rosary (or a decade, or Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer) followed by: O God of justice and love, bless us,

the people of our country, our continent and the world, and help us to live in your love, mercy, justice and peace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me bring love; where there is injury, let me bring pardon; where there is discord, let me bring harmony.

Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; to receive sympathy, as to give it.

For it is in giving that we shall receive; in pardoning, that we shall be pardon; in forgetting ourselves, that we shall find unending peace with others.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Athaly Jenkinson, East London

Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy.

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

We have no need for Vatican III

H

AVING read the article “Holy See: You can’t have Vatican III” (September 25), I have this comment to make.

We don’t need a Vatican III as we have Laudato Si’ and all the other documents of Pope Francis.

Read them, study them, share them and live them. Then we will be fulfilling the Mission of Evangelisation that the pope is calling us to. We do not need any permissions.

We have a duty to Pope Francis, to ourselves, to one another, and to the world, to do just that.

Fr Peter Cullen, Newcastle, KZN

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Is God perhaps calling you to do this?

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PERSPECTIVES Mphuthumi Ntabeni

The Gospel evangelises

I

WRITE this late in the evening on the feast of St Jerome. I’m a little exhausted, having just arrived from Johannesburg, after a rather hectic weekend of endless book discussions on Live Literature at the Market Theatre.

It is not lost on me that during one of St Jerome’s many travels, upon reaching Antioch in 374, fatigued by travel and by inner conflict, he rested as a guest of the priest Evagrius of Antioch. It is believed he may have composed his earliest known work, De septies percussa (“Concerning Seven Beatings”), there.

But my interest is more on the celebrated dream he had there, in mid-Lent of 375, during his near-fatal illness. St Jerome dreamt he was dragged before a tribunal of the Lord, and accused of being a Ciceronian (a follower of the 1st-century BC Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero), rather than a Christian. Having been severely lashed, St Jerome vowed never again to read or possess pagan literature, a vow he later disavowed.

Nobody can dispute his passion for Scriptures—he translated it into Latin while living in a cave in Bethlehem—but he also loved classics and rhetoric. It’s a love I caught from him and St Augustine.

Because in Jerome’s time the Church was young, the conflicting lines between paganism and Christianity were still being sharply drawn, and this brought spiritual conflict within him.

But Scripture, in its narrative, rests on the shoulders of classical literature, especially the Vulgate, which St Jerome masterly produced.

St Augustine, in The City of God, paid homage to classical literature even as he attempted to drag it into the transcendental realm.

This irony was not lost on me, as a lover of literature, and classics in particular, when I skipped Mass to attend the literature events in Johannesburg. My consolation is that I attend daily Mass whenever I’m able to, though I do feel something amiss when I don’t go to the weekend Mass.

At times it feels like my life is compart-

mentalised. I’ve to disregard my religious friends in order to attend to the literary ones, and vice versa. And I have to leave my secular friends to go to Mass.

It doesn’t really present any spiritual conflict in me. The funny thing is that my secular friends seem to be okay with my vacillations too, but I often notice signs of concerns from my religious friends.

When we organised a discussion on my novel The Broken River Tent with my parish folks, some seemed to confuse my harsh stance against Christendom—the misuse of religion to propagate and promote imperialistic/colonial precepts with white supremacist tendencies—as being anti-Christian.

Christendom, of course, can be a weapon of power and subjugation, but it can also be the result of naïve zeal, or lack of proper inculturation, as seen mostly in early missionaries.

T

he life and times of Ntsikana falls closely within this phenomenon of the love of art, song and literature seemingly clashing with religion.

Ntsikana was born into the Ngqika tribe, a son of Gaba. As one of the chief’s shepherds he frequented the Ngqika’s royal house. The Dutchman Nyengane (Theodorus van de Kemp, of whom I have written before) had just arrived in 1799 to

St Jerome, outside the church of the nativity in bethlehem beneath which he translated the bible. (Photo: Schalk Visser)

We are what we read M OST of us take the opportunity for a good clearout when we move house, especially if we are downsizing. Recently I have experienced this for myself.

When decluttering, there’s a useful rule of thumb: If you don’t use it, it doesn’t fit, or it’s not fit for purpose, then get rid of it! And I faithfully followed this advice. But as so often is the case, there’s a but…

I’m an avid reader and I’ve been acquiring books since my teenage years.

Admittedly, when I’ve been less than keen on a book, I have given it away, but this seems to have been the exception rather than the rule, with the net result being my own mini-library.

“You can’t possibly take all those books with you,” I was told. And indeed, this did seem to be the reality. The only problem was that when I started to sort through them, each one held a memory—both of the story itself and the circumstances in which I had read it.

You may be surprised to hear that books actually change us. We are defined by what we read. And each book holds a particular and personal significance for us. In this way we become attached to each of these missives in a personal way.

“in the same way that our choice of reading material alters and defines us, we are transformed by Jesus Christ,” writes Julia beacroft. (Photo: Jaredd Craig/unsplash) In the same way that our choice of reading material alters and defines us, we too are transformed by our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we make both our earthly and our spiritual journey, the Lord works in us and through us. We become more finely tuned to both the love of Christ and to our own desire to serve him.

And in perspective, our particular faults and failings become clearer to us, as we try to fulfil what the Lord requires of us.

Open Door

evangelise among the amaNgqika.

Ntsikana frequented his prayer meetings.

When Nyengane left the amaNgqika, Ntsikana was about 16, and he continued with his Xhosa life, going to traditional dances and all. But the seed of the Word of God had successfully been planted in his heart, and so a few years later he had a Damascene conversion.

Today Ntsikana is regarded as the connecting link between the Xhosa irreligious era and that of Light. He played a crucial role in spreading the Gospel among the Xhosa, and is known as the one who actually brought forth Xhosa Christianity.

He loved composing songs, and was, perhaps, the greatest Xhosa hymn writer.

Zisani Tiyo Soga, the first ordained Xhosa, admitted that they were able to attract the amaXhosa to religion and church only through the use of songs, based on Ntsikana’s style, which became the prototype of all Xhosa worship songs—in the manner of King David establishing the psalmist tradition.

The missionaries following Nyengane wanted the amaXhosa to do away with most of their traditions, including songs, dancing and ulwaluko (circumcision), saying they were heathen practices.

Ntsikana refused to change these traditions. He claimed that Usifuba sibanzi— “The Broad-chested One”, the popular term for Christ then—didn’t shun his circumcised, dancing and singing self when he appeared to him in a vision.

The respect for native culture is the reason why Nyengane and Ngcongolo (James Read, the companion and successor of Nyengane in 1811) were much more successful proselytisers than the rest of the missionaries. They had a pleasing assimilating style to the Xhosa, and they didn’t compromise the Gospel values either.

When Gospel evangelisation does not follow and refine artistic and cultural expression, it loses effect. Poor preaching is also born of such.

Julia Beacroft

Point of Reflection

Of course, this is not always an easy path to tread. Recognising exactly where we go wrong, and attempting to rectify it, can at times be a somewhat painful process.

Yet during this process we also learn to perceive others in a new way. We can begin to recognise the face of Christ in each one of those people whom we may encounter.

When this is initiated we can be sure that the Lord is changing us, defining us in his own special way, and attempting to make us worthy followers of him.

We are defined by our life circumstances, our faith and even our reading matter!

Against all odds, my own “library” has been comfortably rehoused in my new abode, and I am happily rereading some old favourites.

Yes, we are defined by what we read.

But most importantly, if we allow ourselves to be open to it, we are defined by our Lord Jesus Christ. n Julia Beacroft’s book Sanctifying The Spirit is published by Sancio Books. It is available on Amazon.

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The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

Genesis written as recalling of past Genesis 4:17 says that Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, had a wife. Where did she spring from, considering that up to that point there had been on earth only Cain, his slain brother Abel, and their parents? I always find it hard to understand the first chapters of Genesis. How can we explain this odd story?

Tess Jacobs

L

ET’S begin not with the creation of Adam and Eve but with Abraham in Genesis 12.

God chose to reveal himself and his plan for humanity for the first time when he spoke to Abraham. He commanded him to abandon his country, family and father’s house with the promise that his descendants would become a great nation in a new country.

Abraham had faith in God and obeyed him implicitly.

These descendants became the people of Israel.

Through Moses God clinched a Covenant with this people.

If they observed the Ten Commandments that he gave them, they would always be his people.

If they disobeyed any of them, they would risk his punishment.

One of the Commandments was that the Sabbath day, the seventh day of the Jewish week, was to be kept holy. It was to be a day of rest when no manual labour was to be done.

Now, look at Genesis 2:1-4 where we are told that after completing creation in six days, God rested on the seventh day.

This means that the story of creation was not written before Abraham’s time but years afterwards.

It was written by Israelites who knew that the seventh day was to be kept holy and all must rest from their daily labours.

Even God had to rest on the seventh day because that was his own rule.

Where then did the biblical story of creation originate, since no one could possibly have witnessed its unfolding?

The Israelite writers were influenced by ancient myths of primeval chaos and creation, which were widely current in the lands surrounding them.

The genius of the Jewish writers, and there were different traditions among them, was to embrace these popular tales under divine inspiration and attribute all of creation to the one God, the God of Abraham and Moses.

This bluntly contradicted the acceptance of the gods of the pagans who worshipped created things such as the sun, moon and animals.

Much of the first 11 chapters are Genesis is tinged with this pagan background and we do not have to take everything literally.

Genesis contains no detective stories.

Wherever Cain’s wife sprang from is unimportant here.

It fades into the shadows against the biblical teaching that God is our Creator, Lord and Redeemer and we must learn the lesson of his infinite greatness, forgiveness and love.

n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za; or fax (021) 465 3850.

Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.

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The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On behalf of the Bishops of Southern Africa I would like to thank you once again, for your wonderful response to the Bishops’ Lenten Appeal collections in your different parishes. That is despite these challenging financial times, which is a true witness to your compassion, love and concern for the plight of the poor and needy served through the many projects, of the Church. At the time of writing this letter we have collected for the Bishops’ Lenten Appeal a total amount of R 9 805 616, 90

This is a decrease of 15% compared to what we raised last year which was R10 663 809, 88. On behalf of the Bishops’ Conference, I ensure you of our continued prayers and gratitude for your generous giving, fully aware that 2019 Bishops’ Lenten Appeal Contributions the cost of living is a daily challenge for all of us. Therefore we take this opportunity to humble ourselves and thank you so much for this contribution.

The Bishops’ Lenten Appeal is the primary source of financial support for our local Churches Works, especially in these trying time. The challenges we are facing, regarding the abuse of women and children is a daily battle for us because we need to value woman in our lives, as a male dominated society. So with your help we can support this Mission of the Church. We echo the words of Pope Francis who made it clear in Amoris Laetitia that violence is never an authentic display of masculinity: “Unacceptable customs still need to be eliminated. I think particularly of the shameful ill-treatment to which women are sometimes subjected, domestic violence and various forms of enslavement which, rather than a show of masculine power, are craven acts of cowardice. The verbal, physical, and sexual violence that women endure in some marriages contradicts the very nature of the conjugal union”. (Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, no. 54).

The Bishops’ in addition to being tasked with the responsibility of nurturing the spiritual well-being of our people, are also concerned with the holistic development of the People of God. Your generous contributions to the Bishops’ Lenten Appeal continue to make it possible for them to be with you in supporting your rights and spiritual insights. We are extremely grateful to you for helping us fulfil our mission and this you have done faithfully over the years.

This is how we will be using the money you so generously gave to the Bishops’ Lenten Appeal in 2019:

DISTRIBuTION: National Grants: R1 500 000, 00 will be distributed between 10 applicants

Diocesan Grants: R1 145 000, 00 will be distributed between 36 applicants Our Seminaries: R1 900 000

SACBC General Secretariat: R4 400 000,00 Lenten Appeal Office: R1 394 660, 94

This leaves us with a Deficit of R535 044,04 from the money that has been collected in Bishops’ Lenten Appeal in 2019. We also thank our anonymous donors who through the SACBC will help us with some of the projects.

May the good Lord continue to bless you all in the generosity of giving. It is through giving that we shall receive. May God bless your kindness.

In Christ Sincerely Bro. Ashley Tillek, OFM, BLA National Director

2019 SACBC LENTEN APPEAL ALLOCATIONS

MISSION

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

9

We must bring Christ into the world For the Extraordinary Month of Mission and Mission Sunday, ARCHbiSHOP STEPHEn bRiSlin reflects on how the People of God can bring Christ to the world.

C

HRIST entrusted the Church to continue his mission shortly before his Ascension to heaven.

He spoke the words well-known to us: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you” (Mt 28:18-20).

Fr Andrew Knott OMi (left) in conversation with a parishioner at Malvern, This is the Divine mission given during the recent archdiocesan synod in Johannesburg. in his reflection on to the Church: to go, to make dis- mission, Archbishop Stephen brislin of Cape Town writes that the primary ciples, to baptise, and to teach. agents of evangelisation are the laity, and especially young lay people.

Similarly, Jesus said: “You are the (Photo: Sheldon Reddiar) salt for the earth....You are light for the world....your light must shine Church of maintenance at the ex- gether. In the modern world it is in people’s sight, so that seeing pense of evangelisation. the laity who must be the primary your good works, they may give Furthermore, society has evangelisers. praise to their Father in heaven” changed rapidly and radically over Priests and religious are needed, (Mt 5:13, 14, 16). the past years. The advances in sci- and, again, together we fulfil the Every baptised person shares in ence and technology, as well as mission of the Church. But it is orthe mission of the Church (Cate- globalisation, have been accompa- dinary men and women—espechism of the Catholic Church, nied by growing secularism, athe- cially young people—who must 1213). Indeed, the mission has its ism and most especially take the lead because they have roots in the Old Testament: “And indifference to the reality of God. unique opportunities to “have their now YHWH has spoThere are extremely answer ready for the people who ken, who formed me in ominous signs on the ask them the reason for the hope the womb to be his serhorizon as “the world”, that they have” (cf 1 Peter 3:15).

We have vant, to bring Jacob The mission that the faithful are which has made so back to him and to remany advances in the called to is not to take the Gospel become too unite Israel to him... He promotion of the dig- to foreign lands (although some said, ‘It is not enough comfortable, too nity of the human per- might), and it is not confined to for you to be my sernow seems to be the proclamation to those who parochial and son, vant, to restore the slipping into a fright- have not heard of Christ. tribes of Jacob and It includes the strengthening of too concerned ening period of modbring back the surern-day slavery those who are fervent in their faith, vivors of Israel; I shall about Church (human trafficking), a but more especially it is urgently make you a light to the massive assault on life needed for those who have abannations so that my sal- matters that we (abortion, euthanasia), doned a Christian way of life. vation may reach the And so it is to bring Christ himpolarisation of people remotest parts of neglect the cry of (ideologies, national- self, and the “mentality” of Christ, earth’” (Is 49:5-6). the ‘blind and ism, populism), the de- into all sectors of human life These are the roots personalisation of (rather than to bring the “mentalof the missio ad gentes, the lame’ individuals, increased ity of the world” into the Church). “the first proclamation conflicts and threats of Successive popes have named to people, places and conflict, and the alarm- some of those sectors—the prevailnations not yet transfigured by the ing threat to the environment on ing culture, civil and political life, Passover of Jesus”. which all earthly life depends. the economic sector as well as the It is the evangelisation of the Add to this the disillusionment scientific and technological sector.

Church guided by the Holy Spirit experienced by many people, rePerhaps most pressing is social in its inalienable task of penetrat- sulting from a number of different media, considering the viciousness, ing, converting and transfiguring causes, but not least because of the the lies, the bullying, the destructhe world to the ends of the world, human failure of the Church in re- tiveness and negativity that can so that it may be saved. cent years and the apparent occur.

The Church proclaims Jesus hypocrisy of a number of Church Christ, crucified and risen, with the leaders who have not addressed unshakeable belief that he is the these failures with Christian honSaviour of the world, that his love esty. can overcome all barriers and obIt is no wonder that there is a stacles, that conversion is possible, deep longing for meaning, hope and that, in fact, the world is hun- and redemption. gry and thirsting for his Word, his The Church—always in need of love, his acceptance, his forgive- reform—must bring the light of ness, and his truth.

Christ and, indeed, bring Christ to those who are desolate, searching, Mission is not a salespitch isolated and “on the margins of soThe missio ad gentes is not the ciety”. sale of some commodity, but bringIt is an urgent task—we have deing others into an encounter with layed, become too comfortable, Christ who is risen and alive, who too parochial and too concerned transforms hearts and minds, who about matters “within” the Church forgives and heals, who makes (as important as they are) that we whole and redeems. neglect the cry of the “blind and Nor is it simply the kerygma (the the lame”. initial and essential proclamation Previously, to be missionary was of Christ as Saviour) but the com- mostly understood as being the prehensive Christianisation of peo- prerogative of priests and religious ple and society. but that it is the domain of priests The Church has always been and religious is not entirely true. concerned about mission and— A Church built by laity through the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit—has spread the Take, for example, the Church in Gospel “to the ends of the earth”.

Southern Africa, which recently celWhat began with the selection ebrated its bicentenary. While we of the 12 apostles has now spread recognise the role played by relito a faith lived by about 2,4 billion gious (especially women religious) Christians, of which about half are and priests, the Church would Catholic. never have been established and Recent popes have called for a grown as it has without the sacrirenewed evangelisation. The rise in fice, goodwill and commitment of numbers of Catholics, particularly the laity. in the 18th and 19th centuries, has Their names and actions may be meant that the Church has had to forgotten, but we live with the ensure pastoral care for greater fruits of their labours today. numbers, and this has led us to beWhat has been achieved in come too comfortable and too “in- Southern Africa—as with everyward looking”—we have become a where else—has been done to-

Social media clearly reaches “the ends of the earth” and it is incumbent upon us not only to use social media wisely and responsibly, but indeed to Christianise it and to share on it “the reason for the hope which we have”.

Focus always on Christ The mission of the Church is never an individual affair. It is a mission given to the Church and not merely to individuals. Strengthened by the Body and Blood of Christ, and recognising the Eucharist as the source and summit of all Christian life, we do not preach ourselves but Christ.

The focus must always be on him. In the words of St John, “he must grow greater and I must grow less” (Jn 3:30).

Being part of the mission of the Church, means to be always faithful to the Gospel, to the teaching of the Church and to be in communion with the Holy Father.

We are not “tossed one way and another, and carried hither and thither by every new gust of teaching, at the mercy of the tricks people play and their unscrupulousness in deliberate deception”(Eph 4:14). It is to “proclaim the message, welcome or unwelcome” (2 Tim 4:2).

While many are hungry to receive the message of hope and encouragement, there will be those who will reject it, whether it is because of personal reasons, inability to accept the social teachings, or those of sexual morality, or because it is considered archaic.

We are missionary not through “preachiness”, condemnation of people or ecclesial elitism. We primarily proclaim Christ through our own fidelity in leading a life of discipleship, of always striving to deepen our desire and commitment to follow Christ and to live an authentic Christian life, with no contradiction between what we profess and what we do.

We endeavour always to show the same openness that Christ had to people and not to despise them because of their sinfulness. We try to live according to the “constitution” of the Gospel: the Beatitudes.

How we give witness We give witness by our willingness to volunteer to make ourselves available to give time for Christ.

Young people especially can contribute by volunteering perhaps for a year or two to make them-

Archbishop Stephen brislin, the author of this article on our missionary mandate. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) selves available to the Church.

We do this through our charity, our willingness to be involved and to participate in the corporal and spiritual works of the Church, to reach out to those who suffer and to make a contribution in bringing relief to those who are victims of the degradation and depersonalisation they may endure.

Most importantly, we give witness to Christ through our families and the promotion of family life.

Strong family life is essential for the wellbeing of society, for its stability and harmony. Similarly, family-life is essential for the Church.

So many of society’s ills can be traced back to the pain and brokenness of family life. It is an urgent aspect of mission to strengthen and promote the good of family.

This is a time for boldness, a time for us to bravely bring the person of Jesus Christ to people. It is not a time to shrink back.

God did not give us “a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7), and so we must fan into a flame the gift of God that we possess (cf 2 Tim: 1:6).

The boldness we need is beautifully captured in a prayer of blessing that may be given at the end of a Confirmation Mass: Confirm, O God what you have brought about in us, and preserve in the hearts of your faithful the gifts of the Holy Spirit: May they never be ashamed to confess Christ crucified before the world and by devoted charity may they ever fulfil his commands.

Amen. n Archbishop Stephen Brislin heads the archdiocese of Cape Town.

10

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

MISSION

A day in the life of a religious Sister What happens in the daily life of a religious Sister. SR Ann-MARiE niCHOlS of Cape Town tells of her day as a Schoenstatt Sister.

M

ANY ask: What do you do?

What do Sisters do? What does a day in the life of a Schoenstatt Sister of Mary look like?

Our community is a bit like a normal family; the day looks different for each one. However, like an average family, there are moments during the day that unite us.

My day begins with the ringing of my alarm clock (sound familiar?).

Sometimes I’m sure it’s too early!

Yet, at that sign I thank God for having kept me safe during the night and for giving me the opportunity to meet a new day.

Where I live, I have the opportunity, together with the other Sisters of our community, to gather in the Schoenstatt Shrine. Here we recite our common morning prayer.

Towards the end, we ring the shrine bell and pray the Angelus prayer. For many people living in the area, this has proved to be their “alarm clock”.

Holy Mass The second key moment of my day is Holy Mass.

Our founder, Fr Joseph Kentenich, said that we should “live from Holy Mass to Holy Mass”.

It is during this celebration that I can present to our Blessed Lord all the events of the previous day. I also entrust to him the coming day.

A particularly important time for me is meditation which I have directly after Holy Mass. I find a quiet space, generally the same one every day, and take half an hour to reflect on my own life.

In particular I focus on the blessings that God has given me.

Sometimes these are challenges that I face; at other times I give thanks for people whose path I have been blessed to cross.

During this quiet time, I also try to recall words of Holy Scripture or thoughts of our founder that have touched me and give me strength.

Tasks for the day

Sr Ann-Marie reading a book by Schoenstatt founder Fr Joseph Kentenich, while visiting the blessed Sacrament.

Then comes breakfast which I have with my fellow Sisters! I am not only strengthened for the day by nourishing food but also by the warmth of my community.

The workday then begins. Each day is different! However, let me share with you what I have been doing today, as I’m writing.

Shopping was my first priority. I am involved in running Villa Maria in the central suburb of Gardens, a residence for university students, and we love to provide them with good wholesome food, especially fresh fruit.

So, this morning I went to the local outdoor fruit market and picked up boxes of apples, oranges, pears and delicious guavas.

Sr Ann-Marie nichols at work. in this article, she describes a day in her life as a Schoenstatt Sister in Cape Town.

After purchasing a few other small items that we needed from the local shopping centre, I got home just in time for lunch. During this meal, I had the opportunity to discuss current events with my community and, as usual, one or two jokes were thrown into the conversation.

community prayer.

During the last working hour of the day, I will check my e-mails and attend to any wishes our residents may have.

I will then take time to plan the day ahead. I am looking forward especially to the afternoon tomorrow. Notably I will spend time with the Sisters discussing our spirituality, after which we will play a board game we all enjoy.

Regardless of whether or not I have answered all my e-mails or completed the tasks I wanted to do, I will try to go to bed at the appointed time.

Afternoon programme The next part of my day includes filling in at the reception.

Today, while waiting for calls, I am writing this article.

Later on, I will travel to a place close to the southernmost tip of Africa where I conduct a Schoenstatt Girls’ group.

To avoid traffic, I will leave early in the afternoon and stop off at our Schoenstatt Centre in Constantia.

There I’ll take time to relax, go for a walk and also pray in the shrine.

Every day we have time for spiritual reading and also to visit the Blessed Sacrament. These are special moments of the day where we focus on connecting with God. I like to read words from Fr Kentenich. His many inspiring talks have given me very practical ideas on how to live life to the full.

Great Silence The very last part of my day takes place during what we call “Great Silence”. Even while we are at work, we try to have times of stillness in order to connect with God. The evening and night, however, belong totally to him. No cellphone, no TV, no music, no work, just God and me!

Even after praying my community night prayer, I will spend some moments praying a personal night prayer.

It is important for me to reflect on my day. In particular, I will ask myself if I achieved what I promised God I would do. Where have I failed?

More importantly, I will consider where God has shown himself to me today. Where did his presence touch my heart? And then I’ll ask myself how I can respond more generously to his call of love tomorrow!

Am I any different to other Catholics?

My day is not so different to what any Catholic does—as Christians who follow Christ, we try to live our day with him, according to his values and standards and thus to make it a little more like heaven, to open the day for Christ in what I think, say and do, so that his grace and his love may enter into the everyday world and the everyday life of people.

As a religious Sister, my day is filled with little “stations”, or stop signs, where I consciously try to connect back with God so that I live the routine of my daily life as a Christian—someone who follows and witnesses to Christ and the supernatural reality of existence. n Read more about the Schoenstatt Sisters at www.schoenstattsisters.org.za/

Apostolate

Gu SPE EST A Fr. J o se K ER S ph W i l so n Fr. C v olin bo w es v

TO T A WH ECT g EXP r H e a l i n e e • inn iveranc orship l • De ise & W a • Pr y Mass l • Ho

Eventually, I will leave for the Schoenstatt Girls’ group. Today the topic is Mary and how she listened to the voice of God. I took this topic specifically because I realise that in our modern world, it is becoming more difficult to listen to the voice of God. Frequently I find that young people spend most of their time engaging with social media, gaming or getting lost in the black hole of YouTube. Consequently, they find it very challenging to be still and to hear the voice of God. We can learn from Mary who took time for God, how to learn to distinguish his voice from the voice of the world. She was able to live the life God had foreseen for her. Isn’t this what we wish for our young people of today?

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2018/03/27 12:43

VOCATION STORIES

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

11

The amazing journeys of a hermit-missionary Once he was a successful businessman; now he is a ‘hermit-missionary’ priest who loves to be on the road. RObERT DunCAn met Fr Mary Elias.

I

N the late 1990s, he was an active businessman and entrepreneur.

Mindaugas Cerniauskas travelled the world, started Rotary clubs, founded the first Free Economic Zone in Lithuania, and served as president of the country’s Chamber of Commerce.

He was civilly married and lived with his wife and two children in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital.

All that changed when he could no longer resist what he described as an interior “fire” in his soul.

It was a burning for religious truth that led him to separate from his family, flee the city and commence a spiritual quest that would lead—20 years later—to his priestly ordination in Rome this year and new name: Fr Mary Elias.

Fr Elias’ turbulent religious quest is an example of Christian conversion that many experienced in excommunist countries in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s col-

lapse.

Though he had been baptised as a child, Fr Elias had not been raised a Catholic because Soviet law forbade going to Mass. Nevertheless, he dabbled in some Christian devotions while also practising yoga and collecting New Age literature.

“Everything was mixed,” he said, noting that he followed an assortment of teachings from both Buddha and Jesus, occasionally prayed the rosary and went to confession.

After fully accepting Catholic teaching in 2003 as the result of what he called a “God-miracle”, Fr Elias began devoting all his energy to theological learning, fasting and pilgrimage.

“I burned all my esoteric books,” he said, and “left only [those about] Jesus, Mary, the Church.”

Life-changing walk One of his most significant adventures was a 4 300km walking pilgrimage from Lithuania to Jerusalem.

Upon arriving at Jerusalem’s church of the Holy Sepulchre, he vowed to God that he would live out the rest of his life as a hermit.

After returning to Lithuania, Fr Elias started wearing a Carthusianstyle habit, leading retreats and travelling to some of Christianity’s holiest sites around the world.

For example, in 2007, he got special permission to stay at Mount Athos in Greece, one of the most sacred places in Eastern Orthodoxy and home to several monasteries.

Alone one night at the peak of the mountain, he started collecting small white pebbles.

“I was inspired,” Fr Elias recalled, to take the stones back to Lithuania, embed them in silver crosses, and make a pilgrimage to deliver one to each of the major Marian shrines in Latin America.

“I thought, [the Orthodox] have such a strong love for Mary, and the Catholic Church” also has this love, he said, adding, “especially in Latin America, where in many countries Our Lady is the national patron.”

With only 10 euros (about R150) in his pocket, Fr Elias began a 77-day tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, leaving his stone-bearing crosses in 20 sanctuaries dedicated to Mary.

He relied on the generosity of local monasteries and individuals to fund his transportation.

“I think my vocation is very strongly built on the spirit of pilgrimage,” said Fr Elias, who enshrined his travelling and leading of spiritual retreats into the canonical, vows of a hermit he made in 2014. With his bishop’s ap-

Sent to SA by ‘The Voice’ P lightning through me, and I knew that this was the place where I could work for “the voice”.

Being a little bit radically inclined I needed something that would ask everything of me, and this was the answer for my search. Half a year later, not quite 18, I entered.

Then followed preparations for mission after the novitiate. I was asked to train as a mathematics teacher for high schools and my country of destination was to be South Africa (not a country one would have chosen in the apartheid years in the 1960s).

In March this year it was exactly 50 years since I arrived in the mission station Mariannhill.

Teaching in a private mission school, we had the opportunity of filling the big gaps that were cut out of the Bantu Education syllabus. Many of my students in 19 years of teaching maths became doctors, or accountants and are now playing their role in the history of the new South Africa.

Eleven years of my stay in South Africa was with cerebral

palsied and other orthopaedically challenged children at Ikhwezi Lokusa, in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, the first homeschool for black children with disabilities.

If I was given a choice, I would never have left these children.

During nearly five years of parish work in Pretoria North we established ACTS groups in the technical college, thus enhancing Catholic tertiary students’ lives.

Being mostly with young people kept me young at heart and I was then able to serve my convent community in Mariannhill for seven years as superior.

Presently I am already in my seventh year at the skills training centre at Ikhwezi Lokusa Rehab for young adults with challenges.

A team of committed people, including volunteers from both overseas and local areas, give their best to help these trainees to obtain a proficiency certificate in sewing, pottery, crafts and leatherwork.

It is a joy to watch the transformation in these often-neglected youngsters.

proval, Fr Elias called his vocation that of a “hermit-missionary”.

“God created me this way,” Fr Elias said. “I like to lead retreats, I like to create music, but I also need solitude.”

The solitude Fr Elias now observes, however, came at the price of a heart-wrenching family dissolution in 1999.

“I am not perfect,” he said, recalling his decision to leave his 17-year marriage and teenage children to undertake his search for God. “It was not the right way.”

On the other hand, “If we look at the fruits and conversion of my former wife and our relationship now, she’s praying for me, for my vocation,” Fr Elias said.

His now-grown children even brought him vestments for his ordination to the diaconate.

When 59-year-old Fr Elias was ordained to the priesthood in June, his ex-wife and daughter were in the congregation. They were among the first to receive his blessing as a new priest.

The priest said his painful family breakup now will help him understand others’ difficulties, “especially in this moment, when the family really is so important”.

Asked what comes next after he completes his doctorate in Rome, Fr Elias replied: “I think it’s better not to talk about plans, because God sometimes changes all these plans.”—CNS

Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood

Jesus invites us!

If you want to follow his invitation contact:

Tapestry by Margaret Mkhize

RECIOUS Blood Sister Maria Corda Waldhoer (pictured) recalls her vocation story: I was born in rural Austria on July 25, 1940, at the beginning of World War II. My father was at that time already at the Russian front. I got to know my father only when I was five.

My missionary interest was wakened when I was 11, by a bearded jungle missionary from Brazil and the mission magazine Stadt Gottes (City of God). Still, until I was 17 I imagined my future to be that of a farmer’s wife.

Then our local youth leader entered our convent in Carinthia, southern Austria. From that moment my peace was gone and I was constantly reminded that in earlier years I had had the idea of becoming a missionary.

One day while working in the fields, I very distinctly heard a voice saying: “Why don’t you work for me?”

I didn’t know what to make of that until I visited the convent in Carinthia. Not having had contact with any nuns before, I asked the Sister who opened the door: “What type of nuns are you?”.

She very assuredly answered: “Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood.”

“Wow!” These words went like

Fr Mary Elias, a missionary hermit from lithuania, plays his beloved guitar.

(Photo courtesy Fr Mary Elias)

The Vocation Directress Mariannhill Convent P.O. Box 10487 Ashwood, 3605 or The Vocation Directress Glen Avent Convent P.O. Box 261, Mthatha, 5099

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St. Thérèse’ “Little Way” of loving God and making Him loved is Carmel’s hidden life of Prayer and Contemplation.

Would you like to follow the “Little Way” with us?

Carmelite Nuns around the statue of St Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower, Patroness of Missions

Contact: Mother Prioress, Carmelite Monastery 68 Retreat Road, Retreat 7945, Cape Town, South Africa Tel.#:021 713 6744 email: carmelitenunsretreat@gmail.com

For more information contact: Adoration Monastery "Bethania", P.O Box 43, Swellendam, 6740 Tel:( 028 ) 514-1319, Email: capuchin@telkomsa.net

12

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

COMMUNITY St Teresa’s School in Rosebank, Johannesburg, participated in the “leave your Print” initiative run by the Catholic School board to raise funds for underresourced schools in the Catholic school network. Girls were invited to arrive at school barefoot in solidarity with many of their brothers and sisters who have no option but to attend school without shoes, and to make a voluntary donation. last year “leave your Print” raised R396 000 which was used to provide toilet facilities for five schools which did not previously have flushing toilets.

Primary school teachers and Grade 5 learners at Holy Family College in Glenmore, Durban, welcomed benedictine monk Fr laurence Freeman to the school when he delivered an address entitled “A Gift for life: How to introduce Christian Meditation to the young”. Fr Freeman explained to teachers and learners how important, natural and welcome meditation is to the young and why we should teach meditation in schools.

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Catholic Women’s league members at St Francis xavier parish in bluff, Durban, celebrated Fr Sean bailey’s 79th birthday with him and his fellow priests. The CWl also presented the priests with new sheets and pillow cases for their beds.

(Submitted by nickole Whittock)

Three girls from the First Confession group from St lawrence parish in Delft, Cape Town, received the sacrament of baptism. Fr billy Coucher administered the baptism by immersion.

learners at St benedict School in Pinetown, Durban archdiocese, made jam sandwiches for the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban.

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First Holy Communion candidates of St Patrick’s parish in la Rochelle, Johannesburg, are seen with their teachers and priests.

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The Augustinian Sisters of the Mercy of Jesus celebrated the religious profession of their sisters at St John’s parish in Estcourt, KwaZulunatal. Sr nontobeko buthelezi (left), who professed her first vows, and Sr Vumile ngcobo (right) her perpetual vows, are seen with Archbishop Abel Gabuza. (Submitted by Sr Zonke Mdluli)

JUSTICE

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

13

Call to protect people with albinism People with albinism face not only prejudice in society, but also the risk of rape and ritual murder, warns FR STAn MuyEbE OP

ing ritual killings of people living with albinism, the incidents often go unreported and undocumented.

Nevertheless, the rate of criminal convictions of perpetrators indicates that there is a significant increase. This in itself should be a cause for serious concern.

W

ITH the focus of the nation being on genderbased violence and xenophobic attacks—all of which should continue to command urgent action—serious attention needs to be paid to people living with albinism and their struggle for justice.

Albinism is a rare, non-contagious, genetically inherited condition that occurs regardless of ethnicity or gender. It most commonly results in the lack of melanin pigment in the hair, skin and eyes, causing vulnerability to sun exposure. This manifests in white skin, white or strawcoloured hair and lighter, even blue eyes.

South Africans living with albinism are among the most marginalised categories of citizens in the country, especially in schools and workplaces. Every day, they face a stigma that sometimes diminishes equal access to educational and economic opportunities.

They live also in fear that they could be possible targets of violent attacks, including ritual killings and amputation, which are fuelled by deeply entrenched cultural myths and greed.

In some cultural traditions, there is a belief that the body parts of people with albinism possess magical powers that can make someone rich. They can make thousands of rands on the black market. Greed is a motivating factor behind the ritual killings.

Some confess that the threat of being kidnapped and killed is always on their mind. This is prevalent in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal (especially in the Ingwavuma area, close to the border with Mozambique), Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Eastern Cape.

Additionally, there is also a belief that having sex with a person living with albinism can cure HIV/Aids, which makes them vulnerable to rape In some cultural traditions, people also believe that people living with albinism are trapped spirits, like izithunzela (zombies) and iziporho (ghosts), which bring bad

CATHOLIC NEWS THAT COUNTS

Action is needed

A girl with albinism and friend. The Church and society must work to end prejudice and violence, sometimes of a grotesque nature, against people with albinism, argues Fr Stan Muyebe OP. (Photo courtesy Amnesty international) luck on communities.

Where’s the outcry?

That there is not much policy conversation and public outcry about the human rights situation of people living with albinism in South Africa is in some way explained by an assumption that the extent of ritual killings in South Africa has not yet reached the levels that one finds in other African countries.

In Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya, for example, there are a lot of reported incidences of ritual killings which have resulted in public outcry and comprehensive policy responses.

Around 150 people with albinism have been killed for their body parts since 2014 in countries that include Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and the DRC. At the moment, there are no credible and accurate statistics about the level of ritual killings in South Africa. Over the years, there have been a number of

criminal convictions.

In 2017, two young men, aged 19, and a 65-year-old sangoma were found guilty in the Vryheid Regional Court for the 2015 murder of Thandazile Mpunzi, a 20year-old woman with albinism.

The accused confessed that Ms Mpunzi was killed for body parts after the sangoma told them that the body parts would be used in a ritual to make them rich.

In 2016, a 28-year-old woman was arrested for kidnapping a fouryear-old boy with albinism in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal.

The woman confessed that she had planned to sell the child for R100 000 to a traditional healer in Emanguzi.

In August this year, a teacher was convicted in Mpumalanga after confessing that he kidnapped and killed a girl with albinism in January 2018 for ritual purposes.

The conviction rates do not paint a comprehensive picture of the extent of ritual killings. According to Amnesty International, given the code of silence surround-

There is still a lot that the government needs to do to address the human rights situation of people living with albinism. As yet, it has not finalised the establishment of a system for the comprehensive data collection of human rights violations perpetrated against people ikponwosa Ero, a nigerian advowith albinism.

This makes it difficult to ascer- cate for people with albinism who tain the prevalence of ritual visited South Africa last month. killings and rape, and to identify (Photo: Onu brazil) the types of measures that would be most effective in dealing with The hope is that Ms Ero’s visit the problem. will galvanise organisations repreThe 2013 Ekurhuleni Declara- senting people living with altion on the Rights of Persons with binism in South Africa to exert Albinism also called on the South pressure on the Department of SoAfrican Human Rights Commis- cial Development to finalise and sion to launch a national investi- implement the national strategy gation into incidents of human and programme of action on alrights violations against persons binism. with albinism. This is Ultimately, protecas yet to be impletion against human Body parts of mented comprehenrights violations of sively. people with albinism people with Some activists have requires joint and cooralso called for specific albinism can dinated response inlegislation directed at volving government, criminalising violence make thousands Church, traditional and discrimination, leaders, Chapter 9 inof rands on the including criminalisstitutions, and organiing the trade and trafblack market. sations working with ficking of body parts, persons with albinism.

Greed infanticide, abandonCertainly, the ment of children with Church needs to play a motivates albinism, and ritual big role, especially in murder. raising awareness and ritual killings The government, debunking the myths however, believes that and perceptions that the current legislation is sufficient give rise to violence against perto handle violent crimes directed sons with albinism. at persons with albinism.

People need to be educated about the biological condition of SA visit by activist albinism.

In September, Ikponwosa Ero, a It’s never too late for a parish or Nigerian lawyer and advocate for a diocese to talk about the condipeople with albinism and a United tion of albinism, the myths Nations Independent Expert on thereof, and the need to protect the Enjoyment of Human Rights people living with albinism. for Persons with Albinism, visited That would send a message to South Africa on a fact-finding misthe organisations representing sion. people living with albinism that She focused on issues including the right to life, health, education, the Church is serious when it employment and access to justice. preaches that all human beings are She also met people with albinism, made in the image and likeness of including women and children, in God. order to better understand their n Dominican Father Stan Muyebe is experiences in relation to stigma the coordinator of the SACBC’s Jusand discrimination. tice & Peace Commission.

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14

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

MEDIA

Radio Veritas: The first 20 years As Radio Veritas prepares to mark its 20th anniversary with a Mass and celebration on October 26, FR EMil blASER OP looks back at the broadcaster’s years of struggles and joys

O

VER the last 50 years tremendous strides have been made in many areas of life.

I remember being glued to the radio for the first-ever moon landing in July 1969. It was quite incredible.

Since then there has been an explosion of scientific advances never dreamt of before. The simple calculator is one such instance.

But even more astounding has been the advancement in the area of telecommunications.

I can recall using a wind-up telephone and calling the operator who would answer: “Number please”.

Young people today would have no idea what I am talking about.

In 1895 the Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi invented radio. In 1931 Marconi himself set up Vatican Radio.

Ever since then, the Church has encouraged the use of modern communication, and throughout the world Catholic radio came into being.

Many inspiring documents have emerged from the Vatican, with lots of encouragement from popes and especially from the documents of Vatican II. Unfortunately, the Catholic

Left: Cardinal Wilfrid napier (right), Archbishop blasco Collaço, and Fr Emil blaser OP, celebrate Mass live on air to bless the new studios in Edenvale in 2006. in front are Karoly Kramli and Thomas Manamela. Right: The building which houses Radio Veritas and the Knights of Da Gama, in 2012.

Church in South Africa had little or no presence on the airwaves until 1999 when Radio Veritas came into being. This came after a long struggle, and one can recall the great contribution made by people like the late Fr Bonaventure Hinwood OFM, who himself was a regular on national radio.

The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) established the Radio Veritas Trust in 1998 when the bishops asked me to investigate setting up a Catholic radio station.

This was my life’s dream and I immediately started consulting people and putting together initial structures which were presented to the bishops.

Daphne Matloa draws the raffle winner of a pilgrimage to the canonisation of Popes John Paul ii and John xxiii as Fr Emil blaser is on air and producer and deputy station director Olinda Orlando looks on and competition organiser lydia Orsmond works in the background. Over the years Radio Veritas has staged many pilgrimages, often in association with The Southern Cross. in September 2020, bishop Duncan Tsoke will lead a Radio Veritas pilgrimage to the Holy land.

St Patrick’s Missionary Society Be a Priest An ambassador of Christ for God’s People Contact Fr Terry nash on 011 918 5243 or 072 668 2705

St Patrick’s Missionary Society P O box 1394814 northmead 1511

In 1998, Radio Veritas applied to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) for an FM community radio licence.

It marked the beginning of a long and often frustrating road to get Radio Veritas permanently on air.

In 1999 the SACBC decided to hand the project over to the Dominican Order, which felt only a production house would be feasible at that stage. Office space and a studio were hired while applying to funding agencies for assistance.

Our studio: My bedroom After six months the operation was moved to the Dominican property in Troyeville. My old bedroom became our first radio studio.

Programmes were produced and sent to Christian community radio stations around the country and were also made available to Catholics through bookshops and parishes.

We encountered reservations from non-Catholic radio stations in broadcasting material that came from a Catholic production house.

Not wanting to compromise the purity of our Catholic faith and voice, we decided not to supply these stations with programmes.

Early in 2000 we started broadcasting for two hours each evening on a medium-wave frequency, Radio Cidade, a Portuguese community station on a frequency based in Swaziland. Unfortunately, towards the end of that year the owner sold the station and we no longer had access to the frequency.

In 2001 we started broadcasting very successfully three to four times a year on 92.7 FM in Johannesburg, on one-month special events licences. These were very popular with Catholics and we broadcast our final one over the Easter period

RADIO VERITAS PILGRIMAGE

HOLY LAND with Istanbul

6 - 16 September 2020

Led by Bishop Duncan Tsoke For more information please contact Gail info@fowlertours.co.za or 076 352-3809

576 AM

www.fowlertours.co.za/veritas

in Johannesburg & beyond

DStv Audio 870

www.radioveritas.co.za streaming live

Catch our interviews with Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher every Friday on 8:30am 41809 MASS followed by Mass intention • 41809 VERi followed by comments

011 663-4700 info@radioveritas.co.za

in 2006, after which 92.7 FM was awarded to Radio 702. This left no FM frequencies available for special events licences.

In the meantime, while waiting for a reply to our application from ICASA, we decided to go the shortwave route, and on May 1, 2002, we took to the air as Radio Veritas on shortwave. We also started broadcasting on the SABC Vivid satellite service.

Both of these broadcasts ended in 2004, because the reception on shortwave was not good due to acute sunflares and we realised the subscriber base to Vivid did not warrant the expense.

Never give up We didn’t give up, however, and in a big breakthrough we started broadcasting on DStv’s audio bouquet, 24 hours a day.

In May 2005 we began live streaming Radio Veritas on our website. A month later we received NPO status in June 2005.

In May 2006 we had our very popular Sunday broadcasts on the SABC’s Radio 2000 from 11:00 to 13:00. These broadcasts were ended abruptly in April 2008, as a result of a change of emphasis at Radio 2000.

In 2005 a generous donor had given us R700 000 to buy our own premises. It so happened that at the time the Knights of Da Gama were also looking for premises, and so together we obtained a loan and bought the building in Edenvale, which we are still broadcasting from.

This is a tremendous asset. We have also equipped the building with an appropriate generator.

We celebrated the opening of our new studios live on air on July 11, 2006, with Cardinal Wilfrid Napier and the apostolic nuncio participating in the candle-lighting ceremony and the blessing of the building.

A renewed exploration of alternative opportunities to broadcast regionally and nationally began.

Together with our media lawyer, Justine Limpitlaw, and in collaboration with Radio Pulpit and Sentech, we lobbied vigorously with ICASA for the 540 and old 702 frequencies on medium wave to be declared open rather than commercial, as no commercial stations wanted them.

On air at last!

Finally, after years of meetings, hearings, applications and more applications, and campaigns in collaboration with The Southern Cross and others, our dream finally come true: we received the letter from ICASA granting us the medium-wave licence on the frequency 576.

Now we could move into top gear. We needed a transmitter, so I contacted the Italian bishops’ conference for support. They gave us €250 000! Without this generous donation we could not have started Radio Veritas on medium wave.

Vaughan Taylor, one of our trustees, was instrumental in investi-

gating and acquiring the transmitter.

During this time I was greatly assisted by Pat Rogers (whom we sadly lost last year) and deputy director Olinda Orlando, and staff members such as Khanya Litabe, Genni Rogers, Sheila Pires and Mike Carroll, not forgetting Stephen Paradza who now holds a senior position at the SABC. Over the years several staff migrated to radio stations such as the SABC, Radio 702 and Kaya fm. Perhaps if we’d had greater financial resources this would not have happened.

We opened our broadcasts on Radio Veritas 576 AM officially and with great joy with a Mass on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012.

Struggle to survive Throughout the 20 years of the station’s existence, we’ve been very anxious to secure sustainability. Almost every Sunday I would go to a different parish to inform people about Radio Veritas and to ask them to make a pledge. There are now about 2 000 donors who support Radio Veritas monthly.

The cost of running the radio station amounts to R500 000 per month and much of this is covered by our monthly donors.

But we still need to find the balance of approximately R200 000 per month.

Throughout these past 20 years we have literally lived from hand to mouth, and on many occasions we were close to the rocks and had to make special appeals to some of our donors. We are very grateful to them.

Apart from these contributions we have made annual fundraising efforts and have not received any funds from overseas.

Each year the bishops’ Lenten Appeal donates approximately R500 000. We are very grateful for this annual injection of funds, but it is a drop in the ocean of our annual budget. We need much greater resources if we are to produce the excellent and professional programming we aspire to.

The economic climate is a great challenge to us. Every month there are a few donors who drop out.

People continue to be good to us but we do not have a sufficient number of donors to cover all our costs. This is not unique to us, but it is a big concern.

We wish to thank all those who have contributed to the success of Radio Veritas over the past 20 years. You are too many to mention individually, but you know who you are.

We also thank all our loyal listeners and donors—without you we would not exist. May God bless you all for your commitment and generosity.

With the goodwill of our fellow Catholics throughout the country we hope to continue for many more years and thank God especially for these 20 fruitful and inspiring years of broadcasting “The Good News for a Change!”

The Southern Cross, October 16 to October 22, 2019

YOuR CLASSIFIEDS

Pope: ‘Beware those who want God to live up to their standards’

by CinDy WOODEn

T

OO many Christians today are obeying God “as long as” God and the Church meet their conditions and criteria for what is acceptable, just and righteous, Pope Francis said.

“The conditions Christian,” the pope said, says things like, “‘I am a Christian as long as things are done this way.’ ‘No, no, these changes aren’t Christian.’ ‘This is heresy.’ ‘This won’t do.’”

He said such Christians place conditions on the faith and the action of God. Celebrating an early morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Pope Francis focused on the day’s first reading from Jonah, noting how the prophet initially refused to do God’s bidding, was swallowed by a whale, obeyed God when given a second chance, and ended up

angry with God because God did not destroy the city of Ninevah.

Jonah was “stubborn” about what he thought faith was, the pope said. But “the Lord was stubborn in his mercy. He never leaves us. He knocks at the door of our hearts until the end.”

Jonah, he said, “is the model of those ‘as long as’ Christians, those Christians with conditions”.

Placing conditions on God and on the Church, he said, encloses Christians “in their own ideas and ends up in ideology. It’s the awful journey from faith to ideology. And today there are many people like this.”

Such Christians, Pope Francis said, are afraid “of growth, of the challenges of life, the challenges of the Lord, the challenges of history” and instead stick to “their first convictions”.

“They prefer the ideology to

faith,” he said, and they move away from the community because “they are afraid to put themselves in God’s hands and prefer to judge everything from the smallness of their hearts”.

The Vatican News report on the pope’s homily included no mention of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon or the controversy surrounding it, including accusations that some of the statements in the synod working document are heretical.

Pope Francis said God’s decision not to carry out his threatened punishment of Ninevah reveals “the Lord who draws near to all realities, who is not disgusted”.

“Things don’t disgust the Lord. Our sins don’t disgust him.

He draws near just as he drew near to the lepers and the sick because he came to heal and to save, not to condemn.”

Our bishops’anniversaries

Southern CrossWord solutions

This week we congratulate: October 25: Auxiliary Bishop Reginald Cawcutt, retired of Cape Town, on his 81st birthday

SOLUTIONS TO 885. ACROSS: 1 Code, 3 Antiphon, 9 Triduum, 10 Tests, 11 Overwhelming, 13 Impart, 15 Repair, 17 Consecrating, 20 Wrong, 21 Licence, 22 Treasure, 23 Aces. DOWN: 1 Catholic, 2 Drive, 4 Number, 5 Intemperance, 6 Hosanna, 7 Nest, 8 Outward signs, 12 Progress, 14 Propose, 16 Ocular, 18 Ionic, 19 Swot.

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday October 20, 29th Sunday of the Year Exodus 17:8-13, Psalm 121:1-8, 2 Timothy 3:14--4:2, Luke 18:1-8 Monday October 21 Romans 4:20-25, Responsorial psalm Luke 1:69-75, Luke 12:1321 Tuesday October 22, St John Paul II Romans 5:12, 15, 17-21, Psalm 40:7-10, 17, Luke 12:35-38 Wednesday October 23, St John of Capistrano Romans 6:12-18, Psalm 124, Luke 12:39-48

Thursday October 24, St Anthony Mary Claret Romans 6:19-23, Psalm 1:1-4, 6, Luke 12:49-53 Friday October 25 Romans 7:18-25, Psalm 119:66, 68, 76-77, 93-94, Luke 12:54-59 Saturday October 26 Romans 8:1-11, Psalm 24:1-6, Luke 13:1-9 Sunday October 27, 30th Sunday of the Year Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18 (15-17, 20-22), Psalm 34:2-3, 17-19, 23, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18, Luke 18:9-14

15

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

VERGOTTINI: laura Celestine. in loving memory of our much-loved Mommy and Granny. Passed away on October 24, 2005. A face that is always on my mind. A smile I have seen a million times. Soulful eyes that would light up the sky at night. A voice I long to hear one more time. My heart broke into a million pieces to see you leave. A bouquet of beautiful memories, sprayed with a million tears, I hold close within my heart. Your love is still our guide. We are proud to keep your dream and vision alive. We miss you our Mommy. With love from Anthony, Alfred, Wendy and family.

THANKS

WITH THANKS for prayers answered. Pamela Martin.

PERSONAL

ABORTION WARNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. See www.valuelifeabortion isevil.co.za

Word of the Week

ABORTION: Monthly Sunday Mass bidding prayer: “That Almighty God guide our nation to cease our murders of our unborn infants.”

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

CAPE TOWN: looking for reasonably priced accommodation over the December/January holiday period? Come to Kolbe House, set in beautiful, spacious gardens in Rondebosch, nestled just under Devil’s Peak. Self-catering, clean and peaceful, with spacious gardens. Safe parking. Close to all shops and public transport. Contact Pat 021 685-7370, 073 263-2105 or kolbe.house@telkomsa.net Visit our website www. kolbehouse.org.za MARIANELLA Guest House, Simon’s Town: “Come experience the peace and beauty of God with us.” Fully equipped, with amazing sea views.

Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Malcolm Salida

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PARISH NOTICES

NEW PARISH NOTICES MOST WELCOME: if any parish notices listed are no longer valid, call us on 021 465-5007 or e-mail us at m.leveson@scross. co.za so that we can remove them. Also, we’d welcome new notices from parishes across Southern Africa which will run free in the classifieds section.

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

Retreat day/quiet prayer last Saturday of each month except December, at Springfield Convent in Wynberg, Cape Town.

Hosted by ClC, 10.0015.30. Contact Jill on 083 282-6763 or Jane on 082 783-0331.

Prayer for Extraordinary Month of Mission seTswana

Vestments: Garments worn by those celebrating Mass or administering sacraments, for example, the alb or long white tunic, the chasuble or main outer-garment, and the stole or type of scarf worn around the neck. The stole is the principal symbol of ministerial authority and is worn by deacons, priests and bishops when administering the sacraments.

Evangelist: One of the four authors of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). More generally, someone who works actively to spread and promote the Christian faith.

Pontifical Council: A department in the Vatican which does not exercise formal jurisdiction (unlike a congregation), but which helps or advises the Vatican and the international Church with a particular expertise, or to promote a particular mission. Heads of councils are known as heads.

FROM OUR VAULTS 50 Years Ago: October 15, 1969

E

very week for the duration of our 100th year, we will dig an old issue of The Southern Cross out of our vaults, and highlight a few stories from that edition, as well as reproducing its front-page.

We hope that you, the reader, will enjoy revisiting the path your national Catholic weekly has travelled since its first edition on October 16, 1920.

Supplied by Missio SACBC

Help after Cape earthquake Help has already started to arrive in Ceres for the many people made homeless in the September 29 earthquake. Fr Theodore Dudler SAC, 53, of Ceres said he slept outdoors under six blankets in the bitter cold for several nights as tremors continued.

Pope Paul VI condemns eroticism Pope Paul VI has condemned eroticism which he said leads man to promiscuity, pornography and drugs.

Jo’burg priest jumps from the skies Fr Clayton Jackson of Florida parish on the West Rand took the plunge and joined the Pretoria Skydiving Club. He made his first jump on Settlers’ Day and intends to make many more.

Don’t forget apostolate of house visits In his editorial, Fr Louis Stubbs writes: “In these days of specialised apostolates, there seems to be a growing danger that an old and important apostolate may be forgotten: [home] visiting by the parish clergy.”

REGISTER TO BE AN ORGAN DONOR TODAY www.odf.org.za

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The Southern Cross is published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd.

Address: 10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town Postal Address: PO box 2372, Cape Town, 8000 Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850

Website: www.scross.co.za Facebook: www.facebook.com/thescross Twitter: twitter.com/ScrossZA Instagram: instagram.com/thesoutherncross_ Digital Edition: www.digital.scross.co.za Subscription Rates: Digital R420 pa and Print by Mail R550 pa

Editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela Davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton, Local News: Erin Carelse (e.carelse@scross.co.za) Editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Mary leveson (m.leveson@scross.co.za), Advertising: yolanda Timm (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Michelle Perry (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Accounts: Desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za), Directors: R Shields (Chair), bishop S Sipuka, S Duval, E Jackson, b Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, C Mathieson*, J Mathurine, G Stubbs

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

The Southern Cross is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa.

Printed by Paarl Coldset (Pty) Ltd, 10 Freedom Way, Milnerton. Published by the proprietors, The Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co Ltd, at the company’s registered office, 10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town, 8001.

the

30th Sunday: October 27 Readings: Sira 35:15-17, 20-22, Psalm 34: 23, 17-19, 23, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18, Luke 18:9-14

S outher n C ross

W

HOSE prayers get heard? We sometimes think “God is interested only in really important people” but, on the contrary, the message of the readings for next Sunday is that “God is not a snob”.

The first reading is from Jesus ben Sira, translated into Greek for us by his grandson, just over a century before the birth of Jesus.

And he is certain that “the Lord is a just judge, and does not take account of persons.

He has no snobbery about the poor, and he will listen to the plea of the one who has suffered injustice. He does not ignore the orphan’s petition, or the widow, if she pours out her speech.”

Those who get special treatment are defined: “The one who serves God willingly will be accepted—and his prayer will reach the clouds; the prayer of the humble went through the clouds, and until it draws near it will not rest.”

For this is a thinker who knows what God is like: “He will not stop until the Most High makes his visitation, and judges the just and makes judgement.”

The writer of the psalm knows all about this; he is, you might say, infatuated with

God: “I shall bless the Lord always, his praise permanently on my lips; in the Lord my soul shall glory, and the poor shall hear and rejoice.”

Once again, you notice, “the poor” are a favoured category, like the orphan and widow of the first reading.

Decidedly out of favour are (of course) “the wicked—to wipe out their memory from the earth”. And that lowest social class of the “broken-hearted” are the ones to whom “the Lord is close—and he will save the crushed in spirit”. Finally, “No one will be crushed whose refuge is in Him.” In the second reading, we listen to a Paul on trial for his life, on the point of death; once again, you see, God is no snob: “For I am already poured out like a libation-offering; the time of my destruction is imminent.”

Then he resigns himself to whatever happens next, with two sporting metaphors: “I have played the great game, I have completed the Marathon, I have kept my promise.”

Then he looks ahead to what God has on offer, and, once again, offers a sporting metaphor: “The crown of righteousness (equivalent to an Olympic gold medal) is set apart for

that many of them left to come.

In his letter, Fr Pandosy shares, verbatim, part of his conversation with Kamiakin: “It is as I feared. The whites will take your country as they have taken other countries from the Indians. I came from the land of the white man far to the east where the people are thicker than the grass on the hills.

Where there are only a few here now, others will come with each year until your country will be overrun with them…you and your lands will be taken and your people driven from their homes. It has been so with other tribes; it will be so with you. You may fight and delay for a time this invasion, but you cannot avert it. I have lived many summers with you and baptised a great number of your people into the faith. I have learned to love you. I cannot advise you or help you. I wish I could.”

S

Conrad

ound familiar? One doesn’t have to strain logic to see a parallel to the situation today as millions of refugees crowd the borders of the US, Canada, and much of Europe, seeking to enter these countries.

Like Chief Kamiakin, we who are living in those countries and passionately consider them our “own” are very much in the dark as to how many people are looking to come here, what pressures drive them here, and when the seemingly endless flow will stop.

As well, like those indigenous tribes who back then had their lives irrevocably altered by us entering their country, we too tend to feel this an unlawful and unfair invasion and are resistant to allowing these people to share our land and our cities with us.

Sunday Reflections

me.” And this is not because Paul has deserved it, but because that is the way God is.

Paul has been left on his own as he cannot afford an expensive lawyer to get him off: “In my first speech for the defence, no one stood by me; they all abandoned me.”

That is what happens to the poor. And they are precisely the ones God never abandons: “The Lord stood by me and empowered me, in order that…all the Gentiles might hear—and I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.”

He is confident about what lies ahead: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil work, and will save me for his heavenly kingdom.”

There is no snobbery here.

Even so, the Gospel for next Sunday comes as a very considerable shock. Luke tells us that the parable is aimed at “some people who relied on themselves, that they were righteous, and who despised everyone else”.

It starts off all right: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one of them a Pharisee.”

That is as it should be; the Pharisees were good men, who took the Bible seriously, and tried to live pure lives, so that the Messiah could join their community.

But then we hear about the other one: a

Arrival of refugees, old and new T HE religious congregation to which I belong, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, has had a long relationship with the indigenous peoples of North America. Admittedly it hasn’t always been without its shortcomings on our side, but it has been a sustained one, constant through more than150 years. I write this out of the archives of that history.

In the mid-1800s, a group of young Oblates left France to work with the native peoples of Oregon and Washington State.

Given the means of travel at the time, and the challenge of crossing the entire United States, much of it on horseback, it took them almost a year to get from Marseilles to the Oregon coast. Among that group was a young missionary, Charles Pandosy.

In the summer of 1854, Washington’s governor had called for a meeting of Native chiefs to discuss the tension between the US government and the Natives. One of the tribes was stubbornly rebelling, the Yakima, a tribe led by their chief, Kamiakin, with whom the Oblates and Fr Pandosy had been working. At one point, Chief Kamiakin turned to Pandosy for advice.

In a letter written to our Founder in France, St Eugene de Mazenod, dated June 5, 1854, Fr Pandosy summed up his conversation with the Yakima chief. Not knowing what Europe looked like and not knowing how many people lived there or what forces were driving people to come to North America, the Native chief had asked Fr Pandosy how many white men there were and when they would stop coming, naively believing that there couldn’t be

Nicholas King SJ

God hears the lowly

“tax-collector”. These people were serious sinners who were collaborators with the Roman occupiers, dealt in unclean goods, and made their living by exploiting their fellow-Jews.

A certain puzzlement may afflict us as we discover that the Pharisee “stood and made this prayer to himself”. He does also include God, but in effect is reassuring the Almighty that He is lucky to have him on the team, as he lists his virtues and austerities, while disparaging others, especially “this tax-collector here”. We do not feel this prayer is going quite as it should.

Now look at the other man. First of all, he does not feel able to go anywhere near the Holy of Holies, but “stood afar off and would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God—have mercy on me, a sinner.’”

Then comes the real shock, demonstrating that God’s priorities are not ours, that God indeed is no snob: “The tax-collector went home more justified than the Pharisee.”

Can we bear the surprises visited on us by this remarkable God?

Southern Crossword #885

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

When people initially came to North and South America from Europe they came for various reasons. Some were fleeing religious persecution, some seeking a way out of poverty and starvation, some coming to work to send money back to support their families, some doctors or clergy coming to minister to others, and, yes, some too criminals bent on crime.

It would seem not much has changed, except the shoe is now on the other foot.

We, originally invaders, are now the indigenous tribes, solicitous and protective of what we consider rightfully ours, fearful of the outsiders, mostly naïve as to why they’re coming.

This isn’t just the case in North America. Most of Europe is experiencing the exact same pressures, except they’ve had longer to forget how their ancestors once came from elsewhere and mostly displaced the indigenous peoples already there.

Admittedly, this isn’t easy to resolve, politically or morally: No country can simply open its borders indiscriminately to everyone who wants to enter; and yet, our scriptures, Jewish and Christian, are unequivocal in affirming that the earth belongs to everyone and that all people have the same right to God’s good creation.

That moral imperative can seem unfair and impractical; but how do we justify the fact that we displaced others to build our lives here but now find it unfair that others are doing the same thing to us?

Looking at the refugee crisis in the world today, one sees that what goes around does eventually come around.

ACROSS

1. System of symbols for the canon lawyer (4) 3. Hot pan in place before the psalm is sung (8) 9. Three-day retreat (7) 10. Tries you to see if you are able (5) 11. Turns moving wheel right to be crushing you (12) 13. Communicate that I’m a component (6) 15. Fix the separation of the married couple (6) 17. Declaring bread and wine to be Christ’s body and blood (12) 20. This can’t be right! (5) 21. Official permission (7) 22. Where your … is, there will your heart be also (Mt 6) (8) 23. Case about experts on tennis courts (4)

DOWN

1. Church known as Roman (8) 2. Carry in your car (5) 4. Kind of plate carried on your car (6) 5. Having no self-control holding temper (12) 6. Cry of praise (Jn 12) (7) 7. The swallow has found one for his home (Ps 84) (4) 8. Sacramental rites giving inward grace (7,5) 12. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s journey (8) 14. Make an offer of marriage (7) 16. It’s connected with the vision (6) 18. Kind of column of Greek architecture (5) 19. Study intensively in twos (4) Solutions on page 15

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A ‘Sister’s mission is to find out who planted the bubblegum.’

T a faith meeting Mr Brown, the old billionaire, decided to tell the story of how he got so rich.

“I give all the glory for the many blessings in my life to God. I remember the turning point in my faith as if it happened yesterday,” he began.

“I had just earned my first

S outhern C ross Pilgrimage

Rand and I attended a youth meeting that night. The speaker was a missionary who told us about his work,” Mr Brown continued.

“I had only that single R1 note, and I knew that either I had to give it all to God’s work or nothing at all. So at that very moment I decided to give

all I had to God,” he added.

“I believe that God blessed that act of giving, and that’s why I am a rich man today.”

When Mr Brown had sat down, the parish priest rose to respond: “That is a wonderful story of faith, Mr Brown! And today, I dare you to do it again!”

21 Aug - 2 Sept. 2020

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