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November 13 to November 19, 2019

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 5161

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Centenary Jubilee Year

Bishop Phalana: Why I rejoiced at Springbok triumph

Pilgrims in Lourdes and Nevers

Xolani Gwala died with Catholic faith

R12 (incl VAT RSA)

J&P warns govt to get waterwise

BY ERIN CARELSE

T Posing with a sculpture of Nelson Mandela on the balcony of Cape Town’s City Hall were members of a group of the German association of Catholic communicators. The group met with Catholic journalists and experts, and visited several projects. The balcony is where Mr Mandela held his first public speech after he was released from prison in February 1990.

Street renamed for Kearney

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

Pilgrimage 2020

S outher n C ross

HE late Paddy Kearney, founder of the Denis Hurley Centre and former director of the Diakonia Council of Churches, will have Cathedral Mall, a pedestrianised walkthrough in Durban, renamed in his honour.

The honour marks the first anniversary of his sudden death on November 30 last year.

Paddy Kearney Way runs alongside the Denis Hurley Centre and is next to Denis Hurley Street, named for Mr Kearney’s mentor.

“It is a fitting location since it connects Emmanuel cathedral and the Grey Street mosque—and Paddy did so much in his life to promote social cohesion and bring together people of different faiths,” said Raymond Perrier, director of the Denis Hurley Centre.

According to Mr Perrier, Mr Kearney himself had been keen to have Cathedral Mall renamed, though not after himself.

“He was frustrated that it was called a ‘mall’, since most people associate that now with a covered shopping mall,” Mr Perrier explained.

The death of Mr Kearney prompted an outpouring of tributes from across the board

in KwaZulu-Natal. He was praised not only by religious and community but also by political leaders.

One of the proposed ways of honouring him was the renaming of Cathedral Mall in his honour.

The proposal received support from all the main The late Paddy local stakeholders includKearney ing Cardinal Wilfrid Napier and Emmanuel cathedral, Juma Masjid for the Muslim community, Gandhi Development and Memorial Trusts and MK Gandhi Library for the Hindu community, and Victoria Street/Early Morning Market for the business community.

Public support for the proposal had already been expressed by Deputy-Mayor Belinda Scott, former KwaZulu-Natal Premiers Willies Mchunu and Zweli Mkhize, and local ward councilor Ntando Khuzwayo.

The unveiling of Paddy Kearney Way will take place on Saturday, November 23. All are welcome.

HE head of the bishops’ Justice & Peace Commission has called for a ten-year moratorium on mining in 22 strategic water source areas across South Africa.

The response to the water crisis in South Africa requires both behavioural and policy change. Citizens need to adopt the habit of using water sparingly—but government needs its own ecological conversion concerning water source areas, said Dominican Father Stan Muyebe.

In South Africa, there are 22 water source areas located across the various provinces where much of the country’s surface water, including water for streams, rivers and wetlands, originates from.

“There are a lot of human activities that are disrupting, depleting and polluting the water in the water source areas. The worst among them is mining, especially coal mining,” said Fr Muyebe.

“Given their value, one would have expected that the government would enact radical protective measures for the water source areas. The current legal framework is, however, limited in its ability to protect the water source areas, and there is no specific legislation dedicated to water source areas,” he pointed out.

“Therefore, mining will continue in water source areas, inflicting immense harm on the water security for the current and future generation,” he said.

He said that there is nothing to prevent the government from closing the policy gaps that allow mining to continue in watercatchment areas. However, Fr Muyebe noted, the “political will is lacking”.

He also pointed out that last year, the Water and Sanitation Department mooted the idea of including a mining ban in its “masterplan” for water management. Lack of political will and inter-departmental politics within the government prevented the escalation of the idea into a clear policy position.

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“The need to grow the economy and stimulate job creation has often been used as an excuse for government failure to protect water source areas. It has been argued that banning mining in water source areas would jeopardise the country’s investment competitiveness as well as the growth objectives associated with the mining industry,” Fr Muyebe said.

“Such argument has not been supported by strong evidence,” he added.

In March 2018, J&P joined the call by the Centre for Environmental Rights for the banning of mining in water source areas.

In its statement, it warned the government “to reconsider its pursuit of short-term economic gains and narrow outlook on energy that prevent our nation from protecting water as a scarce resource and as God’s precious gift”.

Fr Muyebe said that the root causes of the current water crisis are “complex and multifaceted”. This is why the water crisis “necessitates multiple interventions, targeting both the demand and supply side of the water-security system”.

Water-governance systems should be strengthened and investment structure for water infrastructure be reviewed, Fr Muyebe said. However, he urged, “the protection of 22 water source areas should be prioritised”.

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, November 13 to November 19, 2019

LOCAL

Late broadcaster’s ‘deep faith’ sustained him T STAFF REPORTER

HE late broadcaster Xolani Gwala was a man of deep Catholic faith who made time to appear on Radio Veritas.

Mr Gwala died on November 1 at the age of 44 in Johannesburg after a long battle with cancer.

His Requiem Mass was held on November 9 at St Joseph’s church in Mr Gwala’s hometown of Impendle, in the KwaZulu-Natal, about 60km from Pietermaritzburg.

Memorial services were also held in Johannesburg, at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church in Rivonia, St Michael’s Anglican church in Bryanston, and at Radio 702.

Having started his 24-year career

in radio, Mr Gwala went on to host SABC1’s popular Asikhulume talk show and SABC3’s News Hour.

After a time with a radio station in Palestine, he returned to South Africa, first rejoining the SABC and then moving to Radio 702.

Mr Gwala spoke openly about his battle with cancer, which last year was in remission. When it returned, Mr Gwala underwent treatment in a clinical trial in Israel.

His wife, banker and former Miss SA Peggy-Sue Khumalo, said in a public letter: “While the miracle did not materialise, these last few months have been precious, and we are eternally grateful that Xolani has been able to spend them with us as a family.

“This journey has made our family so much stronger and

brought us ever closer together.”

Mr Gwala, a father of four girls, was a man of faith, said his friend and fellow Catholic Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane.

Mr Sikhakhane visited Mr Gwala during the latter’s treatment in Tel Aviv.

“I was struck by the fact that this young person with so much faith in his God and so much faith in life could speak about something that confronted him with such grace and dignity,” he told the SABC, noting that Mr Gwala insisted that the two friends pray the rosary together.

Fr Lawrence Ndlovu of Johannesburg, a journalist and radio presenter himself, noted that Mr Gwala “always had a very priestly demeanour about him”.

“Xolani was very deeply involved in serving humanity, and he was so gifted,” Fr Ndlovu told The Southern Cross.

“In his craft as a journalist, the supremacy of the story was the most important thing for him. He was really driven to always get to the truth of the story…which is why you see how journalists, politicians and so on are all mourning him—because they fundamentally understood that he was a good person,” the priest said of his friend.

“Him being a good person has a lot to do with the fact that he was a serious Catholic,” Fr Ndlovu said. “His faith meant a lot to him, and it gave him strength even when the disease was ravaging him.”

Catholic broadcaster Xolani Gwala, who died of cancer, has been hailed by his peers. (Photo: Radio Veritas)

Workshop teaches novices communications in digital age

T

HE end of Extraordinary Mission Month marked a special moment for more than 50 missionary novices of different religious congregations in Gauteng who, together with their formators, celebrated the month differently.

The 50 novices, who were sent by the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life (LCCL), directed their focus on the importance of communications and media in their call to being missionaries in the digital world of today.

For three Mondays in October, the novices, who were sent from different countries of Africa—including South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania,

Missionary novices with their formators during their visit to the SACBC’s new Khanya House headquarters in Pretoria.

the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe—came together for workshops on communications and media at the archdiocese of Johannesburg’s chancery.

The workshop was facilitated by Fr Paul Tatu CSS, communications officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

Some of the topics covered were understanding the vision and structure of the local Church; looking at Church documents addressing the need to integrate communications and media as important tools for advancing the mission of evangelisation; realising the importance of proper use of communications and media for effective evangelisation;

and being objective as future missionaries on the use and understanding of digital media.

During their final workshop, the novices visited Khanya House, the SACBC’s head office in Pretoria, to be familiarised with what the Church is doing daily.

At a Mass, Fr Sakhi Mofokeng, coordinating secretary for the Department for Formation, Life and Apostolate of the Laity, emphasised that through baptism the People of God are called to be disciples.

“Though some are called to be missionaries, others to married life, the call is personal, but through baptism, all are called to live in the mission of Christ,” he said.

IMBISA focus on Laudato Si’ SA venture with German business gives hope to young job seekers T HE Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA) will be held in Maputo, Mozambique, from November 13-17 on the theme “Reinforcing communion in IMBISA for effective collegiality to respond better to the protection of children and vulnerable persons as well as the earth our common home”.

“The plenary follows the Extraordinary Mission Month which emphasised the obligation of all Christians to rediscover their missionary mandate,” said Fr Dumisani Vilakati of IMBISA’s pastoral department “Three matters, which are properly missionary, can be discerned from the theme: the summons to communion and collegiality, protection of children and vulnerable persons, and care for the earth,” he noted.

“The first is communion and effective collegiality, especially important among bishops. This recalls the fact that

missionary work is never done solo,” Fr Vilakati said, noting that Jesus sent missionaries out as a group or in pairs.

The second point is the protection of children and vulnerable persons.

“Those who have been abused have felt some spiritual, physical and psychological harm and seek some form of liberation,” he said. “Attention to the matter of sexual abuse [has to be] at the very heart of the Church’s missionary endeavours,” Fr Vilakati said.

The third point refers to the protection of the earth as our common home.

Fr Vilakati recalled the words of Fr John Selemela at the last IMBISA colloquium on Laudato Si’: “The aspect on ecology has always been seen as an area of what is now famously known as eco-spirituality. A careful examination of the Church’s understanding of mission… can help us to appreciate the growth in the Church’s awareness of her mission as all-inclusive, beyond just proclamation.”

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For further information contact: Ms Judith Turner Kolping National Coordinator 021 975 9722 nationalcoordinator@kolpingsa.co.za

STAFF REPORTER

A

N HIV/Aids organisation and business have joined forces to introduce an ambitious programme to help young people qualify for employment.

HOPE Cape Town and the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry have signed a memorandum of understanding to introduce the German Dual Vocational Training system to the Western Cape.

“The programme is a farreaching and ambitious plan to restore and re-empower youth from under-resourced communities to achieve a high level of learning and experience,” said Fr Stefan Hippler, co-founder and chairman of HOPE Cape Town.

“This is the modern-day context in which one of the most exciting educational projects in South Africa is unfolding.”

Fr Hippler explained that this model of education will make it easier for young people to access the labour market; and enable workers to improve their productivity, learn faster on the job, and raise their incomes.

“The linkage between industry and training institutions is essential,” Fr Hippler explained.

On completion, students re-

Fr Stefan Hippler of the HOPE Cape Town Trust and Matthias Boddenberg, CEO of the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, sign a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on the introduction of the Dual Vocational Training and Education system in the Western Cape. ceive dual certification which qualifies them to enter jobs in both South Africa and Germany.

The first training programme, in logistics, is scheduled to begin mid-2020, with future plans for the expansion of curriculum development in tourism, mechatronics and agriculture.

Fr Hippler noted that youth aged 15-24 are the most vulnerable in the South African labour market, with the unemployment

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rate among this age group having reached nearly 60% in the second quarter of 2019.

“Education and skills development are key to these young people’s prospects improving,” Fr Hippler said.

“A country with a future orientation is a country that develops the capabilities of its youth,” he added. n For more information visit www. hopecapetown.com

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

3

Foreigners, locals share views of one another STAFF REPORTER

T

HE Justice & Peace Commission (J&P), with the help of the Commission for Refugees and Migrants, hosted a workshop on social cohesion to create a space for foreign nationals and South Africans to help to engage and improve understanding of each other.

The recent unrest in Pretoria, around Johannesburg, and in the Durban area, spurred J&P to organise a workshop which saw 66 men and women from South Africa, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Malawi, the DRC, Congo and Kenya participating.

The objective of the workshop was to dispel rumours and misconceptions regarding foreign nationals, and help them live as fellow Africans within South Africa.

Points for discussion included beliefs that foreigners steal local women and jobs, sell drugs that kill local children, occupy buildings illegally, are responsible for the escalating crime level, sell expired or fake goods without regulation, and easily enter the country without proper documentation.

The Justice & Peace Commission and the Commission for Refugees and Migrants hosted a workshop to help foreign nationals and South Africans to engage and improve understanding of each other.

The workshop established that most foreign nationals fleeing wartorn countries ravaged by political intolerance prefer South Africa to other African countries because they see it as a safe haven and economically strong.

Many also see it as a united African country, owing to its stabil-

New OMI Lesotho head

BY FR JULIUS RAMASHAMOLE OMI

During the ceremony, Frs Gabriel Tlaba and Emmanuel Njezula were named councillors of the province.

The province of Lesotho has just gone through a process of consultation, conducted by Frs Muthunda and Anton Bochm, general councillor for Europe.

The final appointment of the new provincial will be in early 2020.

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most South Africans don’t seem to understand the pain and suffering some foreign nationals endure in their countries,” he said.

Mr Senyane added that most foreigners claimed it was easy to buy your way in at South African borders due to corrupt local army and police officials.

He also pointed out that foreign nationals make up 3% of South Africa’s population, and that it cannot be said that crime has gone up since their arrival.

J&P, the participants, and the Refugees and Migrants Commission of archdiocese of Durban therefore collectively recommended that the Department of Home Affairs fasttrack asylum seeker permits, that together they find an alternative to deal with undocumented foreign nationals humanely, and that skilled foreign nationals be engaged in training local unemployed youth.

The group also recommended that priests participate in men’s ministries, and that the Church run more workshops to dispel myths about foreign nationals among locals.

Retreat focuses on mystery of Creation

A

T

HE superior-general of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate has appointed (pictured) Fr Mothusi Sidney Boatile OMI, 37, as the administrator of Lesotho province.

This comes after incumbent Fr Jacob Ramosa Salooe OMI resigned for health reasons. He had been provincial since June 2017.

At the installation ceremony, Fr Guillaume Muthunda OMI, general councillor for the AfricaMadagascar region, thanked Fr Salooe for his efforts in animating the province since 2017, and Fr Boatile for having accepted the task of leading in challenging times.

ity, beauty and popularity.

Foreigners added that even xenophobic attacks are nothing compared to the civil wars in their own countries.

They said they work here to survive and send the little they get to their families back home.

South African workshop partici-

pants expressed that they feel threatened by the influx of foreigners.

They said that cybercrimes have escalated due to some foreign nationals being involved, that their sisters are forced into prostitution

by Nigerian pimps and are easily trafficked, and that those who are undocumented cannot be traced if they commit crimes.

They also spoke of the non-compliance of some foreign-owned shops, which don’t pay VAT or any form of tax; and the selling of fake merchandise, which affects the South African economy.

Local participants did, however, have positive things to say about foreigners too, among them that they have business skills that can be used to train South Africans.

They also felt that the government should allow children of foreign nationals born in the republic to enter public schools regardless of their parents’ nationality.

Durban J&P coordinator Kalie Senyane said the workshop taught him some important things.

“The workshop taught me that

N intergenerational retreat was held for parishioners and confirmation candidates of St Peter’s parish in Strand, near cape Town, on the theme “The Mystery of God’s Creation”.

The retreat was facilitated by Dominican Sister Katy van Wyk of Johannesburg.

The background for the theme was Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, the first creation account in Genesis, and some chapters from the Book of Job. In her introduction, Sr Van Wyk quoted the 20th-century rabbi Abraham Heschel: “Awareness of the Divine begins with wonder, awe and radical amazement.”

She explained that being in awe of God’s creation leads to deep gratitude and respect.

“This attitude also opens our eyes to see and to hear the cries of

our Earth and to want to do something about it, however small,” she said.

Sr Van Wyk invited participants to reflect on how the theme might fit in with their everyday lives generally, and then show it applied to the confirmation candidates.

“The questions God posed to Job (38-40) not only leave us marvelling at his creation but lead us to ponder more deeply, and find ourselves speechless, humbled, and like Job, to just respond: ‘Wow, my eye has seen you (42:5),’” the Dominican Sister said.

Participants welcomed the fact that the intergenerational retreat helped parishioners get to know one another better through sharing in large and small groups.

Fr Bernard Makore and Deacon Lester May also participated in the retreat.

St Peter’s parish in Strand, near Cape Town, held an intergenerational retreat on respect for God’s creation. (Photo: Steven Rees)

4

The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

INTERNATIONAL

Pope: If Church does not evangelise, it will decay

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

T Franciscan Brother Peter Mokaya Tabichi, who teaches mathematics and physics at Keriko Secondary School near Nakuru, Kenya, has been named Person of the Year by the United Nations in Kenya. (Photo: UN Kenya/CNS)

Franciscan Brother named UN Person of the Year

A

FRANCISCAN Brother who teaches mathematics and physics in rural Kenya has been named Person of the Year by the United Nations in Kenya.

Br Peter Mokaya Tabichi, who teaches at Keriko Secondary School near Nakuru, was recognised for his work in promoting education for all young people.

He received the award during United Nations Day celebrations in Nairobi .

Br Tabichi declined to take full credit for the award, saying he preferred to share it with others.

“I feel shy to describe it as Br Tabichi’s or that of the Catholic Church where I belong to in matters of faith,” he said. “It is for each one of us, as many have chipped in, teachers, students and the local community.”

During the UN recognition ceremony, Br Tabichi, 37, said that about six million girls of school age around the world—the majority of them in Africa—do not have the opportunity to attend classes.

“At the same time, 72 million children are in danger of missing education in Africa due to war, floods and other challenges,” he told the UN gathering.

Education, Br Tabichi said, should not be a matter of luck but a right.

“Today people continue to struggle even more than what I went through. The role of education should be to unlock the best in people and give them the ability and skills to be able to relate and connect with others in the society,” he said.—CNS

HE Catholic Church must follow Jesus’ command to preach the Gospel to every person, otherwise it will not fulfil its mission of bearing witness to Christ, Pope Francis said.

In an excerpt of a new booklength interview published by Fides, news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the pope said the phrase he uses—“a Church on the move”—is not meant to be a “fashionable expression” but a summary of the Church’s mission.

“The Church is either on the move or she is not the Church. Either she evangelises or she is not the Church. If the Church is not on the move, she decays, she becomes something else,” he said.

The book, titled Without Him, We Can Do Nothing: a Conversation About Being Missionaries in Today’s World, was written by Gianni Valente, a journalist for Fides.

The pope said that to evangelise means to deliver Christ’s teachings “in simple and precise words like the apostles did” without the need to “invent persuasive discourses”.

“The proclamation of the Gospel can even be whispered, but it always passes through the overwhelming power of the scandal of the cross.

And it has always followed the path indicated in the letter of the apostle Peter, which consists in simply providing reasons of ones hope to others, a hope that remains a scandal and foolishness in the eyes of the world,” he said.

Asked about missionaries of the

Pope Francis meets indigenous people during the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican. The Church is either on the move or she is not the Church, the pope said in an interview book published by Fides.

(Photo: Vatican Media/CNS) past and debates that arose regarding “who was worthy to receive baptism”, Pope Francis said that, in the 16th century, Pope Paul III rejected those who theorised that indigenous people “were by nature ‘incapable’ of accepting the Gospel”.

However, even today, there are “circles and sectors that present themselves as enlightened and even seize the proclamation of the Gospel through their distorted reasoning that divides the world between ‘civilised’ and ‘barbaric’”, he said.

The pope said that this form of thinking was prevalent among those who criticised the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon.

“They consider a large part of the human family as if they were a lower-class entity, unable to achieve

decent levels in spiritual and intellectual life according to their standards. On this basis, contempt can develop for people considered to be second rate,” he said.

Pope Francis said that Christianity “does not embrace only one cultural model”. Citing Pope John Paul II, he said that while the Church remains true to itself in proclaiming the Gospel and preserving its traditions, “Christianity will also reflect the different faces of the cultures and peoples in which it is received and takes root”.

“When meeting new cultures, or cultures that have not accepted the Christian proclamation, we must not try to impose a determined cultural form,” Pope Francis said.—CNS

Ahead of 2020 US election, campaign stresses civility

BY DENNIS SADOWSKI

A

S the United States prepares for a year of election campaigning in the run-up to the national elections next November, the country’s bishops have launched a campaign to remind people that civility in political discussions is a virtue.

With rancour in politics, especially these days, being the norm, the Civilize It campaign of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops stresses that respectful dialogue—rather than name-calling and nasty barbs—can occur among people with differing political views.

“In part, this campaign is really in response to the vitriol that we see in public discourse on both sides of the aisle,” said Jill Rauh, director of education and outreach in the US bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development.

“Civility is something that we, at least in theory, should all agree on,” she said. “Catholics don’t always come down on the same side in terms of where they discern to be voting. But everyone should agree that we can be modelling love for neighbour and we can be modelling the example of Christ.”

The campaign’s cornerstone is a three-part pledge that individuals can take to respect civility, to root political views in the Gospel and a well-formed conscience, and to encounter others with compassion.

Other resources include a pastoral aid that includes homily guides, promotional materials for use in parishes and discussion groups, and examples of social media messaging.

The campaign “is a way the Church can be an example”, Ms Rauh said. “We can bring our moral voice to the public square.”—CNS

Cathedral robbed in battering-ram raid

A

CATHEDRAL in south-western France was robbed of chalices and other religious items after a gang rammed open the door of the church with a specially-outfitted car.

A car with a battering ram was driven into the door of Cathedral Sainte-Marie d’Oloron, breaking it open. The cathedral is in the French town of Oloron-Sainte-Marie, about 50km from the Spanish border and located along the Camino de Santiago, a traditional pilgrimage route to the tomb of St James.

Once inside the cathedral, the thieves made their way to the chapel, where many sacred and liturgical items are stored. They sawed down the iron bars that were protecting the cathedral’s chalices, ciboriums, and other objects used in the Mass.

Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne

and Oloron said the crime was a “sacrilegious robbery since the stolen items are objects of worship, some of which are still used today in certain great circumstances”.

In addition to the religious items, a centuries-old nativity scene and vestments were also taken. It appears that the thieves had made a prior visit to the cathedral and were wellprepared for the crime.

The cathedral was built in the 12th century, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.

The attack on the cathedral in Oloron is the latest in a wave of church attacks and robberies in France. In 2018, there were 129 thefts and 877 incidents of vandalism at Catholic sites in France, a number that was quadruple that of 2008.—CNA

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

5

Pope adds feast of Our Lady of Loreto to liturgical calendar

BY CAROL GLATz

P

OPE Francis has approved adding the December 10 feast of Our Lady of Loreto to all calendars and liturgical books for the celebration of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

Putting the celebration of the feast day on the universal calendar “will help all people, especially families, youth and religious to imitate the virtues of the perfect disciple of the Gospel, the Virgin Mother, who, in conceiving the head of the Church also accepted us as her own”, the decree said.

The decree was published by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

According to tradition, the Holy House of Loreto was carried by angels from Nazareth to the Italian hillside town of Loreto on the night of December 9-10 in 1294 after making a three-year stop in Croatia.

Custodians of the shrine have said the stones of the house were removed from the Holy Land and carried by ship by a member of the Angeli family.

The family name is also the Italian word for “angels”, thus being the probable reason for the more popular notion of winged angels flying the house to Italy.

Despite the possibility that the house came by way of ship, Our Lady of Loreto is still the patron

Pope Benedict XVI uses incense in front of a statue of Our Lady of Loreto at the sanctuary of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) saint of aviation and air travel.

Tradition holds that the small house, made of three stone walls, is the place where Mary was born, where she was visited by an angel and conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and where the Holy Family later lived.

The decree said the shrine in Loreto “recalls the mystery of the Incarnation” and helps visitors

“meditate both on the words of the angel announcing the Good News and on the words of the Virgin in response to the divine call”.

And it has been able to “illustrate powerfully the evangelical virtues of the Holy Family”, it added.

Millions of pilgrims flock to Loreto each year to venerate the tiny cottage. It is Italy’s most important and popular Marian shrine city and was one of the shrines St John Paul II visited the most.

The Southern Cross pilgrimage to Italy and Medjugorje, led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin, is scheduled to visit the shrine on May 22.

“Before the image of the Mother of the Redeemer and of the Church, saints and blesseds have responded to their vocation, the sick have invoked consolation in suffering, the people of God have begun to praise and plead with Mary using the Litany of Loreto, which is known throughout the world,” the decree said.

“In light of this, Pope Francis has decreed, by his own authority, that the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar on 10 December, the day on which the feast falls in Loreto, and celebrated every year.”

“Therefore, the new memorial must appear in all calendars and liturgical books for the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.”—CNS

Pakistani Christians hiding in Bangkok fear attending papal Mass

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HEN Pope Francis celebrates Mass in a Bangkok sports stadium on November 21, tens of thousands of Catholics from across Thailand will be there to celebrate with him.

Several devout Catholics may not be among them, however much they might love to join. Ucanews.org reported that by venturing outdoors to attend the Mass in person, these believers would run the risk of being detained by the authorities.

They are Pakistani Christian asylum-seekers who fled their homeland in fear for their lives in recent years. They were driven away by the increasingly militant form of Islam that has come to dominate the public sphere in Pakistan, putting further restraints on the rights and freedoms of religious minorities.

These Christians, many of whom are Catholic, live in Bangkok, waiting for a chance to relocate to a welcoming third country. Because they are not recognised as bona fide refugees in Thailand, they are regarded as illegal migrants who are subject to arrest and deportation.

“Any time we go outside, we could be arrested,” said a man identified only as James, an asylumseeker from Lahore, Pakistan, who works part time, illegally, as an interpreter for a Bangkok-based

Catholic organisation.

“We are suffering. It’s very difficult. I’ve been in Bangkok for nearly seven years. It might take another year and a half before I can leave.”

But James said he will attend the Mass to see the pope.

“I’ll be there,” he stressed.

“I think every Catholic should be there.”

To avoid being incarcerated in overcrowded immigration detention centres, asylum-seekers like James are hiding in small apartments in low-rent complexes, doing their best to stay out of sight. Even when they venture outdoors—to stock up on groceries at nearby convenience stores—they do so only briefly, lest they bump into immigration police officers on their patrols.

“When you live like us, you have a constant fear in your mind that makes you paranoid. You keep looking over your shoulder, thinking everyone is staring at you. It’s very

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damaging psychologically,” James said.

Another Pakistani Catholic asylum-seeker who lives in Bangkok said: “I don’t know if I can go and see His Holiness. If I go there and the authorities stop me, that will be a big problem for me, because I don’t have any documents.”

He fled Karachi after he was accused of defaming Islam, a capital offence in the conservative Muslim nation. He arrived in Thailand on a tourist visa, which has long since expired. He lives frugally on monthly handouts and food packages from Christian charities.

If he does decide not to attend the Mass, he will be able to follow it from a distance because it will be broadcast live on a Thai television channel.

“If I could meet Pope Francis in person, I’d ask him to please help us,” he said. “Pope Francis often speaks up for refugees. Maybe he could do that for us, too.”—CNS

Fr Ricardo Rivera, a theology teacher at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, dances with cheerleaders during the school’s homecoming pep rally. Video of the performance has gone viral. See the video https://bit.ly/32jz02D. (Photo: Cardinal Gibbons High School/CNS)

Pope at cardinals Mass: Journey towards God

BY CAROL GLATz

W

E are invited by Jesus to always go to him, which, Pope Francis said, also means no longer making life revolve around oneself.

“What direction is my journey going? Do I only try to make a good impression, to protect my position, my time and my space or do I go to the Lord?” he asked during a memorial Mass for the 13 cardinals and 147 bishops who died over the preceding year.

Celebrating Mass in St Peter’s basilica, the pope reflected in his homily on God’s will that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life and be raised on the last day.

“In the day’s Gospel reading, Jesus says: ‘I will not reject anyone who comes to me.’ Jesus extends this invitation so people may be “inoculated against death, against the fear that everything ends”, the pope said.

Going to Jesus means living each moment of the day in ways that put him at the centre—with one’s thoughts, one’s prayers and one’s ac-

tions, particularly by helping someone in need.”

The pope said: “People must ask themselves, ‘Do I live going to the Lord or do I revolve around myself?’, only being happy when things go well for myself and complaining when they do not?

“You cannot belong to Jesus and revolve around yourself. Whoever belongs to Jesus lives going outward towards him,” he said.

The bridge between life on earth and eternal life in heaven, Pope Francis said, is to show compassion and “to kneel before those in need to serve them.”

“It is not a bleeding heart, it is not cheap charity; these are questions of life, matters of resurrection,” he said.

It would do people well, the pope added, to think about what the Lord will see in them on judgment day.

People can find guidance when making an important decision in life by seeing things from the Lord’s perspective—what fruits resulted from which seeds or choices made today, he said.—CNS

Bishops: Bring gifts for the poor to Mass

C

ATHOLIC leaders in the Philippines have appealed to churchgoers to donate gifts for the poor when they attend Mass, especially during the observance of World Day of the Poor on November 17.

Archbishop Rolando Tirona, head of the social action arm of the Philippine bishops’ conference, said the sharing of gifts “is a small gesture to restore hope for the poor”.

In a letter to dioceses across the country, the prelate called for the holding of various events to aid the needy “so that no one feels deprived of solidarity”.

“In solidarity with Pope Francis’ intentions for the poor...I humbly ask your dioceses’ participation in this special event consistent to our vision of being a Church of the poor,” wrote Archbishop Tirona.

He suggested that parishioners visit poor communities, prisons and hospitals, and conduct social justice forums or dialogues.

Bishop Tirona said it was a challenge for Catholics to be mindful of their actions toward the less fortunate and the underprivileged.

Fr Edwin Gariguez, of the bishops’ conference, said Catholics cannot continue to be blind to injustice. He said the dignity of the poor should be regarded “in the same way as our own”.

The World Bank estimated poverty incidence in the Philippines at 21,9% for 2018. In a report released last month, it predicted this would fall below 20% from next year. It sees the Philippines’ poverty rate further declining to 19,8% and 18,7% in 2021.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

To be waterwise

I

N the face of climate change we will have to get used to increasingly frequent droughts in South Africa, a country in which many regions are already under pressure from water shortages.

It would be a mistake to think that the recent droughts in the Cape provinces, Free State and North-West, or the portents of a similar crisis in Gauteng, are aberrations. Scientists warn that droughts are likely to become more common, in Africa and elsewhere.

There are those who warn that future wars may be fought over access to water, and civil conflict may arise over the distribution of access to water.

Some conflicts over water, though not necessarily martial, are taking place as we speak: between Turkey, Syria and Iraq over the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers; between Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Syria over the Jordan River; between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the Nile; and between a range of former Soviet republics over the Aral Sea. Diplomacy is keeping a lid on armed conflict for now, and our prayer must be that when water crises hit hard, international cooperation will protect peace.

But governments in droughtafflicted countries must keep an eye on the potential for civil conflict in times of water shortages, especially when privatised water—as a commodity or for the exclusive use by industry and multinationals—is an issue.

Scarcity of water also drives up the price of food, which can give rise to civil unrest.

Water is essential for people, agriculture and industry. When water becomes scarce, how is it to be shared fairly?

This is the question addressed by the Justice & Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which has called for a ten-year moratorium on mining in 22 strategic water-source areas which provide much of our surface water across South Africa.

Opposition to the J&P call will be strong, especially from those who prioritise economic over ecological imperatives.

J&P director Fr Stan Muyebe OP suggests that there is no compelling evidence to suggest that the protection of water-source areas would have adverse economic effects.

This may or may not be so. Be-

yond dispute is that the government must have what Fr Muyebe calls an “ecological conversion concerning water-source areas”.

This would go some way to remedy the government’s abject failure over the past decade to secure adequate water supply to keep up with rising demand.

Government’s assent to the call made by J&P, and others, to protect the 22 strategic watersource areas would be a vital signal that long-term water-security is more important than shortterm profits.

With that, the government would approach the position taken by Pope Francis in his landmark 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ which states that “access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights”.

While government must indeed undergo an ecological conversion, so do the people who are used to ready access to water.

In their experience of water shortages, residents of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and other affected areas will be able to advise those from regions which may face restrictions.

It is fair to say that water shortages and the ensuing restrictions changed the consciousness and even lifestyle of many privileged people. Even after two rainy winters replenished the dams of the Western Cape, for example, many there have internalised the wisdom of two-minute showers, judicious flushing and other water-saving measures.

Importantly, those who did not adhere to the waterwise regimen risked social censure. A withered garden now was viewed as a badge of honour, a dirty car as a symbol of solidarity.

In this way, the strength of the response to the crisis resided in the unity of purpose in the community. There are worthwhile lessons in that experience.

Of course, the concurrent accomplishments and failures of national, provincial and local governments—before during and after the crisis—require close inspection. This includes the question of water supply to those who suffer shortages even in times of no crisis.

Changing weather patterns are a reality already. Future generations will judge us by how we adapt to that now.

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.

How I came to support the Springboks

S

OUTH Africa is poorer than its poverty-stricken people, and we are on a brink of an economic catastrophe.

Ordinary South Africans are disillusioned and angry, which is why we see many violent protests for service delivery and cries against corruption.

It is in this context that the Springboks’ Rugby World Cup victory came at the right time. During this tournament, South Africans spoke with one voice, something which is rare.

The nation stood behind Siya Kolisi, the first black South African rugby captain and Rassie Erasmus, the white coach who appointed him.

We must remember that rugby was a “hated” sport among black South Africans since it was associated with exclusion and white-minority rule but in Japan, we saw players and supporters from different races, language groups and cultures coming together and putting aside their differences.

Our players were a united force, aware that they represented our troubled and divided nation.

I am one of those who in the old days of apartheid would jump and sing at the defeat of an all-white cricket team, white boxers and an all-white rugby team. I opted to support, for example the Indian cricket team, the American boxer John Tate and the All Blacks, since they included black players.

Let’s talk about Southern Cross

C

ONGRATULATIONS, Günther Simmermacher and the editorial staff, as well as contributors, for your issue of October 30.

It was not all easy reading as there are so many areas of concern.

Letters to the Editor that week included “When has Church prayed for those abused?” and “My concern over Catholic practices”.

Fr Pierre Goldie in “The big ripoffs” wrote about dishonesty in business; and in “Let me speak boldly”, Toni Rowland reflected on the state of family ministry in the Church.

There were other articles on a more happy note, as well as cause for remembering that there is so much more to our faith than represented by the aforementioned articles.

But we do need to take cognisance of what is necessary to heal some of the areas of concern.

Fr Goldie’s final paragraph is worth repeating: “An interesting question was asked: Would we accept a guarantee that at our deathbed there would be a priest available for confession and Holy Communion or would we accept R10 now and ‘work out’ our salvation ourselves in coop-

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n November 2, those who felt our rugby is not transforming, those who are angry that our rugby is transforming, and those who do not appreciate the whole idea of “quotas”, were holding hands, singing and dancing, celebrating the Springboks’ victory.

We had about ten black players in a 31-man squad. This is progress.

Most of these players are beneficiaries of the government’s sports quota system and transformation policy.

Yet, these black players showed us Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy.

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

eration with God’s graces, without that guarantee?”

I may be preaching to the converted, but why are there not more contributors to our weekly newspaper? A further question: Do we— clergy and parishioners alike—talk about The Southern Cross and its importance in our parish life?

Kay Temple, Pietermaritzburg

Mass at the core

H

OW sad that some Catholics regard Holy Mass as a “weekly event”, vestments as “ludicrous attire”, and think that statues and relics are worshipped, as Kevin Uren wrote (October 30).

The consecration of daily Mass is central to our faith.

Relics and statues are reminders that Jesus, his mother, and the saints, are always present—as do pictures of loved ones on our cellphones.

The vestments the priest wears during Holy Mass have significance.

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Until recently, I was one of those who campaigned for SA Rugby to remove the Springbok emblem which, for me, represented rugby as the Afrikaners’ second religion.

But as I see more transformation and a willingness of many Afrikaners to make peace and to reconcile, I am no longer adamant that the emblem be removed.

Addressing members of the European Olympic Committee in November 2013, Pope Francis said: “It is important that those involved at the various levels of sports promote human and religious values which form the foundation of a just and fraternal society. This is possible because the language of sports is universal; it extends across borders, language, race, religion and ideology; it possesses the capacity to unite people, together, by fostering dialogue and acceptance.”

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that they are talented, fit and hungry enough to be in the national rugby squad. They were selected on merit.

We must pray that we have more black coaches on the national, provincial and regional levels. We must pray that all our young black players and aspirants can get the support and the resources they need to be able to succeed and to emulate their hero, Siya Kolisi.

Yes, we needed something to cheer us up. We needed something to remind us that we are South Africans before we are black, white, coloured or Indian. We needed to get a reminder that we are either going to make it together, or we are all going to sink in the ocean of mistrust, racism and the economic crisis we are in at the moment.

President Cyril Ramaphosa holding the world cup with Siya Kolisi reminded us that we are one nation, with one Constitution and with a dream of peace and prosperity. We aspire to a harmonious multiracial society.

We have to join our rugby players and the president in promoting the unity of this nation. We dare not fail in this project.

South Africans, let us remember the Word of the Lord urging us: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom 12:18).

Bishop Victor Phalana, Diocese of Klerksdorp

The Catholic Church is changing: albeit too slowly for some. There was a time when girls could not be altar servers, now they can be.

Perhaps a deeper study of the Catholic faith would bring a better understanding.

Lynn Petersen, Cape Town

Major Amazon ordination step

T

HE Amazon Synod recommended ordination of suitable men who have had a “fruitful diaconate”, receive adequate preparation for priesthood and who have a “legitimately constituted and stable family”.

We recall Bishop Fritz Lobinger, formerly of Aliwal North, who also recommended proven men, married, to the priesthood, to alleviate the shortage of priests in distant areas.

This is indeed a big step forward, which will no doubt elicit both approval and criticism.

Fr Pierre Goldie, Cape Town

Prince Charles deserves our invite

I

FULLY support Cynthia Jones’ letter (October 23) saying that Prince Charles should be welcomed at the Vatican.

The Prince of Wales has in the past spoken out against the persecution of Christians worldwide.

The prince and the late Princess of Wales were very willing to attend Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II in his private chapel, if the palace had not intervened.

He should be admired for postponing his wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles to attend the funeral of our beloved Pope John Paul II. One gathers that Prince Charles also greatly admires his fellow countryman, St John Henry Newman, as your October 23 article shows.

If the prince has erred, he should be forgiven, and it would indeed be more damaging to the Vatican if he were not allowed to visit.

The popes have done the right thing by welcoming this worthy future King of England as a fellow Christian.

England and the British sovereign have graciously welcomed both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI to their shores in the past.

John Wertheim, Cape Town

PERSPECTIVES

I’m #AngryForJustice C AN the #newnobility actually do any good? I recently noticed that a certain established bank—the editor won’t let me use its name, but it has green in its logo—recently supported international polo at the Inanda Club in Johannesburg.

Now, I’m no fan of polo or its trappings. Honestly, it is something I’ve never taken note of. I don’t move in those circles of princelings and elites.

But I do read, and I’m also a bank customer (I use the latter word guardedly, as most bank “customers” are really fodder for abuse).

Like other behemoth banks, the bank with a green logo is in discussion to downscale its staff and compromise its already shocking customer service. Some 1 500 jobs are being “renegotiated” at the green-logo bank alone.

And yet, the bank sponsors international polo, probably the most elite of elite sports. If I were a union member or a staff member being “renegotiated”, I would have serious questions about priorities.

And I have serious questions about how my bank, my cellphone provider and the myriad other economic elites use the money which I have to pay for their services to sponsor those who already are well-off (let’s not even talk about the bonuses those at the top of these companies award themselves).

It’s time for far greater scrutiny and shareholder activism.

In an economy as threatened as ours in South Africa, and indeed globally, it is up to ordinary people to take control of

boards and corporate spaces that promote and grow this new elitism.

Banks are a good place to start, but are generally untouchable and inaccessible at the higher levels.

It’s this closed space, these sealed units of #newnobility, the corporate elite spaces which need invasion.

I don’t propose to do this in the style of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who happily support and have the support of these corporate elites, but with the smelly, grimy stench of ordinary people.

It’s a space that needs to hear ordinary voices.

W

hat would the big-name medical aid’s results presentation look like if those who struggle to pay their premium increases were actually present in numbers. Those who have their claims and cover continually “reorganised”? Those on chronic medication who have to en-

When banks sponsor events for the elites while retrenching thousands of workers, it is time to act, Fr Chris Townsend writes.

Fr Chris Townsend

Pastor’s Notebook

dure the “just-enough” approach?

As the shareholder elites become the rarefied space of the polo set, the designer clothing set, we build a country where state capture enquiries and enquiries into enquiries become pointless. We distance ourselves from that set and they, the #newnobility, then claim more than they are entitled to.

It’s this space that is fuelling the Gini coefficient, which measures the economic inequalities in societies. It’s this space that needs challenge.

In the smoke and mirrors world of shares and holdings, it’s the people who live in the reality of retrenchment and struggle who have to make their voices heard.

What am I doing about it? I can do very little, but I can begin by making my voice heard. By writing about this in this newspaper, for example.

But above that, I have also decided to use my little space to close my accounts with the bank with the green logo.

It’s not going to cause much damage to the bank—probably about the cost of a few glasses of champagne at a polo event.

The bank won’t feel it. It probably won’t notice. But I can question, and force that questioning on others.

I challenge all parishes, dioceses, sodalities and groups to look at their banks, and start a simple process of asking why they should support a #newnobility in a world where we are so inequal?

Youth ministry: Time to be radical?

Keenan F Williams OR the Extraordinary Mission Month our parish decided to focus much of its attention on evangelisation and getting more “bench-warmers” to become game-changers in a ministry of their choice.

As the coordinator of my parish youth group, I had the daunting job of running, with the youth group, the final Mass for Mission Month. Our task was also to communicate with youth groups from across the archdiocese and to invite them to our youth Mass.

We had a vision to make it the biggest youth Mass our parish and possibly the archdiocese of Cape Town had seen in a long time.

Our only problem was that we had only four active and committed teens eager to meet for fellowship on a biweekly basis. So how were we going to pull this off?

As I was discerning on the matter, I stumbled across an article of Pope Francis’ message to the youth at the closing Mass of this year’s World Youth Day. The pontiff said: “You, dear young people, are not the future but the now of God.” It was the dreaded start of October and we planned on relaunching our youth group.

We had lots of work to do, we needed to change strategy and get everybody on board. We liaised with catechists and confirmation teachers and pushed for as many youths to join us that Friday. We had something exciting to share with them.

As I drove through the parish gates that Friday night, a sense of anxiety entered my very being. It was already 18:20 and I was still alone. Our youth session was to begin in ten minutes.

Some of the regulars began walking in along with facilitators who had been stuck in the Friday peak traffic.

As I stood there in fear, I watched as more and more youth entered the venue.

The four regulars were now lost among a crowd of about 15 young people. We started the session ten minutes late after our secretary returned with the digital register on his laptop.

Adding to my stress was the fact that both our parish priest and deacon along with all members of the PPC were there to observe our relaunch. You can imagine my anxiety levels when Father walked in with his “crew”.

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Talking Faith

The youth ministry of St Ninian’s parish in Kuils River, Cape Town, got new life when young people were put in charge of it.

Fast forward to the end of the night: it went quite well actually. We counted a total of 32 youth who had attended the session—compared to our four regulars, that was a healthy increase.

The following week came, and the following week ended; a total number of 38 youth had now attended. We were on an upward climb and it seemed like God had sent his angels to help us to the top of the mountain.

S

o, what had we been doing differently?

Well, we applied what Pope Francis was speaking about: we allowed the youth to be the NOW of the Church.

We decided to allow them to run their own youth sessions and to choose between four themes: spiritual, social, environmental and cultural. And we let them run their own sessions and talking points on topics which they were interested in.

We allowed them to choose their own music to be played while we gathered, as well as their own music for praise and worship to end off our youth sessions.

We also gave them points for bringing a friend along with them (which tied into our evangelisation mission).

As we planned our youth Mass and communicated with various role players

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from different ministries, we quickly realised how anti-youth some people in the Church are. Either anti-youth or stuck in their old ways of doing things.

I know that the youth group would have stagnated at our four or fewer youth members if we had kept doing what we were doing without allowing the Holy Spirit to redirect us.

It gets me to think back to our family trip to Germany in late August. There I attended the local Catholic church for Mass. The two “youth” in the church for Mass were the priest—who seemed to be in his mid-forties—and myself, in my late twenties.

The rest of the congregants were elderly. There was no sign of youth in that parish.

We could argue that this parish might not appeal to the youth. But when are we going to give the youth a chance to do things their way, reverently?

When do we “older youth” and those who have held positions within ministry past our sell-by date decide that now is the time to hang up our boots? Or should we die in our positions, or have our positions taken from us as we kick and scream, “It’s unfair! It’s unfair!”?

We need to quickly realise that Pope Francis’ words resound ever more clearly for us as a Church community.

The youth are not the future of the Church, they are the here and now.

We need to understand that, we need to embrace that, we need to embrace them, and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us through a radical change, with the youth taking the lead.

We may feel uncomfortable, we may not like it, but we need to understand that it’s not about us. It’s about the future of the Church, living here and now, creating that intimate personal relationship with God, in a way that appeals to young people.

Fundamentally, it is about the establishment of the kingdom of God. Maybe it’s time to be radical. If the Spirit wills it, let’s be radical through him, with him and in him.

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The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

7

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Sin, confession and penance As a sinner, I find myself confessing the same sins repeatedly. I have discovered that the priest gives a variety of penances for the same sin. This makes me wonder. Sin is an act of disobedience to God and any human penance offered in reparation for sin will always be disproportionately inadequate. Can you give me a deeper understanding of the need for me to do the penance imposed on me by the priest?

“Joe Bloggs”

E

VEN when our priests absolve us from sin in the sacrament of reconciliation, the harm done by sin remains.

When we steal something or hurt someone by our unkindness, we know we are forgiven—but those who bore the brunt of our sinful act have not always got over what we have done to them.

From practical experience, apologising to someone whom we have offended is usually a very satisfying way of getting back that feeling of reconciliation. But it is not easy to find ways of apologising or making up for every injury we have done to others.

In the Church’s tradition, our offences must be expiated not only to God who is offended but also to the community of the faithful. The early Church therefore practised ways for sinners to make restitution to the community.

These are known as temporal punishment, that is, penalties in the present moment rather than after death, which had to be publicly undergone for the sinner to be reconciled to the community.

Sacramental absolution was given only after this, usually on Holy Thursday, and then the bishop would admit the sinner to the Eucharist again at Easter.

In the 7th century, when sins such as apostasy and idolatry had become less frequent, the custom grew of confessing sins privately in the confessional as we know it today, rather than in public.

The penance was then also performed in private.

You would like to have a deeper understanding of the penance the priest gives you in the privacy of the confessional.

The priest is not simply a sympathetic listener.

It is up to him to judge the gravity of the sin and impose the appropriate penance, because he has been ordained for this (Jn 20:22).

As a minister of Christ, who sacrificed his life to win for us forgiveness and eternal life, the priest knows that no simply human repentance can make up to God for sin. When you do your penance, saying prayers or performing acts of reparation, always be aware that you are sincerely making up to the community of the faithful for your offences, while Christ has already absolved you from your sin.

Your penance is a real act of reuniting yourself with our Lord and his Church. Do it as devoutly as you can.

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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8

The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

St Dominic’s Catholic School for Girls in Boksburg, Johannesburg archdiocese, held a matric valedictory Mass.

Holy Trinity church in Musgrave, Durban, held a farewell Mass and lunch for departing parish priest Fr Sabelo Mkhize (left) who is pictured with the parish’s new priest, Fr Francis Cibane.

COMMUNITY

St Dominic’s parish in Hillcrest, Durban, celebrated the ordination of parishioner Wayne Redman to the diaconate. Deacon Redman is seen with his wife Lisa Redman and Cardinal Wilfrid Napier. (Submitted by Linda Maddon)

The Catholic Women’s League of St Charles’ parish in Victory Park Johannesburg, hosted a thank-you tea for retiring parish secretary Gussie Norse at Mountainview retirement village. They presented her with a thank-you gift for her dedication to all during her 40 years of service, when she was the “go to” person for any problems related to dates, fixtures and happenings in the church. Mrs Norse (third from left) is still a parishioner and, in her reply, mentioned Frs Ignatius Fidgeon (28 years) and James Ralston (nine years) as the two most recent priests with whom she worked. (Submitted by Ida Steyn)

Children of the Child Jesus Society and Soldiers of Christ group from Umzimkulu diocese celebrated the feast of St Teresa of the Child Jesus together in Izingolweni. The group of children shown, from Gamalakhe, took first prize in the Children Helping Children campaign, collecting more than all the other parishes.

The Catholic Women’s League in Kroonstad diocese presented Bishop Peter Holiday with a R20 000 cheque. CWL diocesan committee members are seen with Bishop Holiday and diocesan chaplain Fr Michael Rasello.

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St Anthony of Padua church in Kraaifontein, Cape Town, celebrated the First Communion of young members.

Parish priest Fr Francesco Fabris is seen with them. (Submitted by Portia Hendricks)

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St Francis of Assisi church in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, hosted the confirmation of young people from St Francis itself and St Joseph the Worker parish in Boipatong. The group thanked confirmation teacher Ivone de Gouveia and parish priests Franciscan Fathers Tony Thouard of St Francis and Benen Fahy of St Joseph. They are seen with Johannesburg Auxiliary Bishop Duncan Tsoke.

(Submitted by Elaine Prosper)

The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

LIFE

9

Why we can’t close doors on criminals The way that society deals with crime and those who have committed them needs a new vision, a priest says. CHRISTEN TORRES reports.

ex-offenders, and supporting their families.

A key aim is to provide continued support to ex-offenders to help them reintegrate into society.

The PCSN makes use of a variety of interventions in eight prisons within the Western Cape. These include one-to-one-sessions, personal development workshops, bursary support, and restorative justice programmes, as well as art support programmes, and a number of other activities.

The PCSN also runs programmes outside prisons, such as ongoing support for ex-offenders and their families, visits and telephone calls to ex-offenders and family members, clothing support and stipends for released offenders.

“Spiritual support for inmates is critical in changing their thinking and behaviour, given the emptiness and hopelessness they find themselves [when] inside the prison,” Fr Babychan noted.

S

OUTH AFRICA has the highest prison population in the whole of Africa, with the Justice and Correctional Ministry reporting in 2017 that 158 111 inmates made up the prison population, including pre-trial detainees.

Overcrowding is endemic. For example, at its worst, Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, once the forced “home” of Nelson Mandela, was overcrowded by 247%. According to the latest available figures, for 2018, the jail is overcrowded by 136%.

Many of the human rights violations offenders—and even awaiting trialists—encounter in their cells, are a direct result of overcrowding in prisons. These include dirty quarters, insufficient food, availability of drugs and contraband cellphones, lack of amenities, gang control and corrupt wardens, and mixing first-time offenders with hardened criminals.

Fr Babychan Arackathara, the former prison chaplain of the Cape Town archdiocese who is now based in the Texan city of San Antonio, explained what it is like for a firsttime prisoner.

“For the first-timer, it’s hugely a scary experience. To be with people you do not know and to be locked up most of the hours during the day is an awful experience,” he said.

“They go through trauma and depression. When the gate closes behind, them they feel rejected by everyone. Some of them even blame God, and go into deep depression.”

He said that “being with people you do not know, have no common ground with, to live with different characters, are all serious challenges they go through”, said the priest, who in March published his acclaimed book on prison ministry, Light Through the Bars.

“Lack of family support during incarceration can be a huge challenge that leads to low self-esteem, hopelessness and feeling of loneliness,” said Fr Babychan, who is almost universally referred to by his Christian name.

Violence is ever-present in prison. “Beyond the lack of freedom, many are also exposed to numbers-gang activities, violence and sexual abuse,” the priest said.

CATHOLIC NEWS THAT COUNTS

Nobody’s totally righteous Violence is ever-present in prison. “Beyond the lack of freedom, many are also exposed to gang activities, violence and sexual abuse,” says Fr Babychan Arackathara (inset).

Unshakeable stigma Things don’t get much better when an ex-offender is released from jail as the stigma of incarceration is not easy to shake off.

Fr Babychan understands the resentment society tends to have towards those who have committed crimes.

“In general the public is angry and upset about the high rate of criminality in the country,” he noted. “Most people are either directly or indirectly affected by crime, gangsterism and drug peddling. The communities are becoming more and more unsafe despite all the safety measures.”

But he also decried that often exoffenders struggle to reintegrate into society, particularly finding difficulty in securing work after they have been released from prison.

Ex-offender Denzel Bailey explained: “I got my freedom back, but companies will never look at me the same way again. In interviews, everything goes well until they ask about my record. If I play open cards, I never hear from them again.”

The difficulty in finding work not only affects the ability to make a living for ex-offenders and their families. In the absence of alternatives, limited opportunities increase

the chances of ex-offenders getting involved in crime again, even if they intended to go straight after their incarceration.

Communities may be “upset, angry and frustrated with the rate of crime in our country”, Fr Babychan said, but “how do we respond to these incidents of crime as individuals, community and as a country?”

Obviously, all must take a stand

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The Prison Care and Support Network (PCSN) is a non-profit organisation which falls under the umbrella of the archdiocese of Cape Town.

The PCSN, whose new chaplain is Fr Dominic Hemboldt, has been in existence for the past two decades with the aim of bringing about spiritual assistance and pastoral care to prison inmates and to

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in response to crime, he said, but how are we to do so?

“We could clamour, along with the vast majority of citizens, and burst out in emotional frustration and pain [in calling for] long sentences, harsher conditions, and even promote capital punishment,” he said.

“Or we could search for solutions by asking ourselves: what is happening in our community? Who are these criminals? Are our correctional centres really correctional in nature? Why do we have such a high recidivism rate?”

Fr Babychan proposes a new way for communities to approach offenders, calling on people to help those involved in the prison ministry under the auspices of the Church.

One such ministry he served as chaplain for many years.

He also offered spiritual guidance for the rest of society. “Nobody can claim to be righteous. In fact, it’s our self-righteousness that makes us think of prisoners as less than ourselves,” he said.

“They are human beings who, due to one or the other reasons, made mistakes and inflicted pain or loss on others. They have wronged the society—but can we write them off?”

There are a number of ways, Fr Babychan proposed, to fight both crime and the stigma attached to being in prison. These include the eradication of poverty and creation of employment; the promotion of education with particular attention to the vulnerable youth; serious interventions to fight corruption among police; transferring police on a regular basis to break corrupt practices and collusion with gangsters; and involving the community in finding solutions.

“Prisoners are from our own families, our brothers and sisters.

The families very often go through the painful prison sentence along with the incarcerated. There are several children whose either father, mother or both are incarcerated,” the priest said, appealing for some compassion.

As Christians we are mandated

by Christ “to visit the prisons”, Fr Babychan noted, pointing to Scripture: “Remember those in prison as if they were your fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourself are suffering” (Hebrews 13:3).

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The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

PILGRIMAGE

From left: Fr Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu outside Boly Mill, the building in Lourdes where St Bernadette Soubirous was born • The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in the cave where she appeared to St Bernadette • The Gave de Pau river that flows through Lourdes. The big placard on the building advertises a musical about St Bernadette • The incorrupt body of St Bernadette in her tomb in the convent chapel in Nevers, which is 700km from Lourdes. (All photos: Günther Simmermacher)

Getting close to Lourdes’ St Bernadette In October a group of Southern Cross pilgrims travelled through Catholic France, and visited Lourdes, where St Bernadette saw Our Lady, and Nevers, were Bernadette died. GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks back at two inspiring visits.

O

UR group stood at Montparnasse station in Paris, having missed our train to Lourdes by a minute—literally— due to a long flight delay from Rome.

One might expect this to be a point of crisis when a group of wary pilgrims stand with their luggage in the middle of a train station. But, remarkably, everybody was serene, even light-hearted, about it.

As tour director Giorgio and I scrambled to organise new tickets—at no cost to the pilgrims—for the next train to Lourdes, the pilgrims from all over South Africa bonded.

When I’m asked why I enjoy leading pilgrimages, as I have done for almost 20 years now, that is a big reason why: pilgrims are special people. And often, I learn from them.

We got to Lourdes on the express train, and after a late supper, some of us went to the sanctuary where Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette (whose 175th anniversary of birth was this year).

The sanctuary, only 250m from our hotel, was empty, but the basilicas of the Holy Rosary and Immaculate Conception, the grotto of the apparition and the beautiful statue of Our Lady that dominates the main plaza were still lit up.

The quiet, the nocturnal lighting and the holiness of this place inspired good prayer.

During the day the sanctuary is busy, though not in a way that forces pilgrims to jostle. There is plenty of space even on busy days.

But on some days, the queues for the baths especially can be long.

Our group was lucky. Everybody

who wanted to dip in those cold waters from the miraculous spring had an opportunity to do so.

Third-biggest pilgrim site Lourdes is the world’s thirdbiggest site of Marian pilgrimage, after Guadalupe in Mexico and Aparecida in Brazil. So this little town near the Spanish border in south-western France exists on tourism—so much so that in offseason, most shops and hotels shut their doors.

The many shops sell the same repertoire of tat, with no guarantee of quality.

One shop near the sanctuary boasts that English, German, Spanish and Italian is spoken there.

When I returned a faulty item I had bought there, the manager pretended to speak only French. It took a stern word to remind him of the advertised polyglot attributes which he had flaunted just 15 minutes earlier.

Lately, pilgrims have been warned of rotating gangs of pickpockets in the town. It’s surprising that the petty criminals have cottoned on to Lourdes only now. As in almost any place where there are tourists, one must exercise basic, common-sense care.

The sanctuary itself is not infested with the commercialism of the town. The air there is sanctified.

It is good to pray at the grotto, or on the grounds opposite, across the Gave de Pau river. It is good to do the Stations of the Cross, which are represented in life-size tableaux. It is good to follow the stations of the various mysteries, all represented at altars, in Holy Rosary Basilica; ideally while praying at least one of the mysteries.

Focus on Our Lady The focus in the sanctuary is very much on Our Lady. The girl who saw her, St Bernadette Soubirous, very much plays a secondary role.

There is an uninspiring church dedicated to her. It was built on the spot across the river where St Bernadette stood during the 18th and final apparition on July 18, 1858, when the authorities had closed off the area in front of the Massabielle—the outcrop of rock where the previous apparitions

Southern Cross pilgrims at the beginning of the nightly candlelight rosary procession in Lourdes. had taken place—to discourage devotions.

There is also a St Bernadette museum, which explains the apparitions and the young saint’s background in some detail.

I would suggest that it is better to read up on all that before coming to Lourdes, or at least to watch the classic film The Song of Bernadette, for which Jennifer Jones won an Oscar in 1944, and which was based on a book by a Jewish refugee, Franz Werfel (the movie is available in high definition on YouTube).

Helpfully, the museum has a model of Lourdes as it looked at the time of the apparitions.

The two principal buildings of St Bernadette’s life can still be visited: Boly Mill, where she was born and lived with her family until penury forced them to live in tiny accommodation in La Cachot, a converted jail which was not good for habitation by criminals.

Not a simpleton The popular narrative tends to present Bernadette as a bit of a simpleton. It is an unfair characterisation.

To be sure, she was no Descartes or Pascal, and her thoughts weren’t marked by great complexity, but her reputed backwardness probably had to do more with a

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lack of educational opportunity due to illness and poverty than with an innate stupidity.

In any case, what Bernadette lacked in intellect she compensated for with her faith, kindness, honesty, humility and determination, even when she was variously interrogated, mocked, scorned and mistreated.

Bernadette was not versed in the finer points of diplomacy. She could be brutally honest. When the artist who sculpted the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, based on Bernadette’s description, presented the finished artwork, she said: “It’s not her.”

The poor artist hadn’t managed to capture the smile accurately. But how do you describe a smile accurately for reproduction?

Two Bernadette anecdotes There are two stories about Bernadette which I find particularly appealing.

The first concerns one of the many encounters she had with Fr Peyramale, the local priest who was at first highly sceptical of her reports of the apparitions (wisely so).

He certainly was irritated when Bernadette reported that this impertinent apparition wanted a chapel to be built for her.

The girl never named her apparition as the Blessed Virgin Mary, only as “aquero”, a local dialect term which can be loosely interpreted as “that of which I’m speaking”. Of course, it was clear who aquero was.

The priest later came to accept St Bernadette’s reports as true and took the girl under his protection.

But Fr Peyramale was still a sceptic when St Bernadette came to report another apparition of aquero. The priest was most impatient with her and hustled her out of his presbytery.

Before she left, St Bernadette turned around and told the abbé: “She still wants the chapel.”

With Our Lady at our side, we can challenge the powerful.

The other story takes us to Nevers and the St Gildard convent of the Sisters of Charity, which St Bernadette was finally allowed to enter in 1866, at the age of 22.

When she came to Nevers, about 700km from Lourdes, Sr

Marie-Bernard, as she was now called, was treated harshly. She was the subject of jealousy, and her superiors were keen to cut her down to size in case the already famous visionary might get ideas of being a celebrity.

Her novice mistress, Sr MarieThérèse Vauzou, didn’t believe in Bernadette’s claims, and found her “vain and simple”. She later admitted to a certain fondness for Bernadette, but asked that any move to canonise her old charge be delayed until after her death, which was in late 1905.

So the young woman who had been favoured by Our Lady was given lowly cleaning jobs, before she rose up the ranks to take charge of the infirmary. Her lifelong health problems didn’t add any glamour to her presence.

One day a young novice arrived at Nevers. Of course, the young woman was aware of who lived in that convent, so naturally she asked which of the Sisters was Bernadette.

When the visionary was pointed out to her, the young Sr Bernard Dalias looked down on the diminutive Bernadette and dismissively exclaimed: “Not that!”

Amazingly, from this grew a very close friendship which lasted until the day Bernadette departed from this world, on April 16, 1879.

Incorruptible body Bernadette’s body was first interred in the chapel of St Joseph in the peaceful grounds of St Gildard’s convent. Since then, her body has been exhumed three times. Every time, it was found to be incorrupt.

After the final exhumation and before relocation to the chapel, wax imprints of her face and hands were made, to cover the blackened skin.

St Bernadette now rests in a glass casket in the convent chapel, where our group had Mass.

Much as the Sisters of Charity of Nevers did all they could to downplay St Bernadette and the apparitions during her lifetime— wisely so, but not always with the greatest charity—their convent is now all about her.

The public area is called “Espace Bernadette” (Bernadette’s Area).

There is even a recreation of the grotto in Lourdes, with a piece of rock from the spot on which the Blessed Virgin stood.

Remarkably, it was built, in 1884, at the directive of Sr MarieThérèse, Bernadette’s sceptical novice mistress.

In the large and refreshingly unmanicured gardens of the convent grounds, pilgrims can do the stations of Bernadette, to learn about her convent life and reflect on her spirituality.

There is a remarkable coda to the story of St Bernadette.

The two principal men in her life were her father François, and her mentor, Fr Peyramale.

The priest died on September 8, 1877, the feast of Our Lady’s nativity. François died on December 8, 1871, the feast of the Immaculate Conception—the name by which the Blessed Virgin revealed herself to Bernadette.

Next week: The Sacred Heart

The Southern Cross, November 13 to November 19, 2019

Sr Mary Carmel Collins AMJ

S

ISTER Mary Carmel Collins of Estcourt, KwaZuluNatal, died on September 18 at the age of 88.

Born Mary Philomena Collins on August 9, 1931, in Castlehaven in County Cork, Ireland, she joined the Augustinian Sisters of the Mercy of Jesus at Boarbank Hall convent in Cumbria on September 30, 1949, at the tender age of 18.

She took her first vows there in 1952 and shortly thereafter came to South Africa. Here, she studied towards a teaching and religious education diploma at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.

Sr Mary Carmel took her final vows at the Augustinian convent in Ladysmith in February 1957. She was fluent in French and Afrikaans, and taught at the convent school until it closed down in the early 1970s.

Sr Mary Carmel was known to be a humble, wise, intuitive, empathetic, generous and caring person. Some even described her as saintly, extraordinary, a fount of knowledge and deeply faithful.

She taught catechism for over 30 years, and three generations of parishioners at St Your prayer to cut out and collect

John’s church in Estcourt attest to her preparedness for her lessons and how she lived her faith.

The other Sisters jokingly called Sr Mary Carmel “Twinkletoes”—not just because of her amazing energy and upright posture, but also for her purposeful, dignified strides. She was an Irish dancer of note.

Sr Mary Carmel was a true missionary all her life. She would always find someone to take her to Kwezi, Trenchtown, Esigodlweni or Colita, where she taught catechism in parishioners’ homes, and would even get older family members to join in the prayers. She always took along little gifts for children and their families.

Her dainty floral arrange-

ments, stones, tree bark and shells all attested to her efforts to glorify her Creator. Her flowers in the convent chapel were always a visual treat. So too were her Nativity Scenes at various places in the convent.

Sr Mary Carmel valued the work of hospice and would visit the sick at Shepstone Place for the Aged, as well as those ill in their homes.

She did all this until she herself could scarcely walk upright and succumbed to further complications of pneumonia.

Sr Mary Carmel was the local Church’s “historian” and always made a point of learning people’s names. Above all, she loved to spend time with her Lord and Master, immersing herself in prayer.

Whenever one was in need of prayer, one could call her and be assured that she would light a candle in the convent chapel and pray for the intention.

Sr Mary Carmel is survived by a sister in the United States, as well as nieces and nephews.

The parishioners of St John’s and many members of the Estcourt community celebrated the life of Sr Mary Carmel at her Requiem Mass.

By Shirley Juan

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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.

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

Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sa-

John Paul II to meet Gorbachev A papal visit to the Soviet Union will be on the agenda when Pope John Paul II meets with president Mikhail Gorbachev in the first summit between a pope and a Soviet leader.

Gestures of solidarity When clergy have been at the scene of political conflict, “tremendous goodwill has been generated”, according to Justice & Peace chaplain Fr Peter-John Pearson. “Simple gestures of solidarity are helping to stem the exodus from the Church, especially among the youth,” he said.

English bishops call for SA sanctions

PRAYERS

MOST HOLY LORD, I see your works here on earth. I stand amazed at the beauty and magnificent scenes before me. Thank you for my joy that is not claimed by life’s sadness and disappointments. I thank you for keeping me in your wings of love.

You are so very precious to me and I will forever be yours in faith and hope. Blessed be your name in all of the earth, I pray. Amen.

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Phone 031309-3496 or 031 209-2536.

St Anthony’s rosary group.

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

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

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

SOLUTIONS TO 889. ACROSS: 5 Alms, 7 Absolution, 8 Pisa, 10 Infinite, 11 Scythe, 12 Reaper, 14 Beacon, 16 Trouts, 17 Discover, 19 Odds, 21 Reconciled, 22 Feud. DOWN: 1 Lamp, 2 Monastic, 3 Eunice, 4 Pilfer, 5 Anon, 6 Mistreated, 9 Incredible, 13 Apologia, 15 Novice, 16 Throne, 18 Cord, 20 Side.

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday November 17, 33rd Sunday of the Year Malachi 4:1-2 (3, 19-20), Psalm 98:5-9, 2 Thessalonians3:7-12, Luke 21:5-19 Monday November 18, Dedication of the Basilicas of Ss Peter and Paul I Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 6264, Psalm 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158, Luke 18:35-43 or Acts 28:11-16, 30-31, Pslam 98, Matthew 14:22-33 Tuesday November 19 2 Maccabees 6:18-31, Psalm 3:2-7, Luke 19:1-10 Wednesday November 20 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31, Psalm 17:1, 56, 8, 15, Luke 19:11-28

Thursday November 21, Presentation of Our Lady Zechariah 2:10-13 (14-17), Responsorial psalm Luke 1:46-55, Matthew 12:46-50 Friday November 22, St Cecilia 1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59, Responsorial psalm 1 Chronicles 29:10-12, Luke 19:45-48 Saturday November 23, St Clement, St Columban 1 Maccabees 6:1-13, Psalm 9:2-4, 6, 16, 19, Luke 20:27-40 Sunday November 24, Christ the King 2 Samuel 5:1-3, Psalm 122:1-2, 4-5, Colossians 1:12-20, Luke 23:35-43

Christ the King

Presentation of Our Lady

Addressing the Conservative Party’s conference in Blackpool, England, the Catholic and Anglican bishops of Liverpool call on Margaret Thatcher’s government to implement comprehensive sanctions against South Africa.

Pope wants Palestinian homeland Pope John Paul II has asked for “help and solidarity” for Palestinians living in Israeli-occupied territories, calling for a Palestinian homeland.

Editorial: Pollution is sinful In his editorial, Cardinal Owen McCann writes that Christians must concern themselves with the environment. “Pollution is sinful. It is destruction of God’s gift to the human race—the earth itself.”

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the

Christ The King: November 24 Readings: 2 Samuel 5:1-3, Psalm 122: 1-2, 4-5, Colossians 1:12-20, Luke 23:35-43

N

EXT Sunday the Church’s year comes to its end with the feast of Christ the King. The obvious question is: what kind of a king is Jesus?

In the first reading, one important aspect of kingship is mentioned, that of uniting those whose king he is: “All the tribes of Israel came to David and spoke to him, saying, ‘Look! We are your bone and flesh.’”

They also look for a certain proved competence: “When Saul was king over us (and we need to recall that Saul is now dead), it was you who led Israel out and brought them back.”

But there is a further point, that the new king must be the one God wants, and must be a “shepherd” rather than a “tyrant”, so they continue: “The Lord said to you, ‘You are to be the shepherd of my people Israel and you are to be the prince over Israel.’”

And the result is that “the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron in the presence of the Lord; and they anointed David as King over Israel”.

And that leads us to another aspect of kingship, namely the consent of his people.

Now the story did not work out all that well (read ahead the splendid narrative of David’s reign); but that is not the point. At least we have a notion of the kind of thing that the

S outher n C ross

Bible understands a king to be.

The psalm for next Sunday is actually attributed to King David, and we listen to the prayer of a pilgrim: “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of God.’” Then suddenly it is not “I” but “we”: “Our feet our standing in your gates, Jerusalem.”

Next we have the mention of the “tribes” whom we encountered in the first reading, and they are performing their task of “giving thanks to the name of the Lord” No kingship can function properly if the focus is not on God. The second reading is the lovely hymn to Christ from the letter to the Colossians. Here we are invited to see what our King has done for us, and “to give thanks in joy to the Father who equipped us for the lot of the portion of the saints in light”.

Not only that, but “he rescued us from the power of darkness and changed us into the kingdom of the son of his love”.

We get a glimpse that this kingship is about light and love, and “rescue” or “salvation”.

And it has a powerful effect, described as “redemption” (buying back slaves, in order to give them freedom) and “forgiveness of sins”.

Then Christ’s uniqueness is remarkably described: “He is the likeness of the unseen God,

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Eventually anger gives way to bargaining: “How much time can I still draw out of this?”

That is followed by depression and, finally, when nothing serves us any longer, there’s acceptance: “I’m going to die.”

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Classic Conrad

his is all very true. But Kathleen Dowling Singh in her deeply insightful book The Grace in Dying, basing her insights on the experience of sitting at the bedsides of many dying people, suggests there are additional stages: Doubt, Resignation, and Ecstasy.

Those stages help shed light on how Jesus faced his death.

The night before he died, in Gethsemane, Jesus accepted his death, clearly. But that acceptance was not yet full resignation. That took place only the next day on the cross in a final surrender when, as the Gospels put it: “He bowed his head and gave over his spirit.”

And, just before that, he experienced an awful fear that what he had always believed in and taught about God was perhaps not so. Maybe the heavens were empty and maybe what we deem as God’s promises amount only to wishful thinking.

But, as we know, he didn’t give in to that doubt but, rather, inside of its darkness, gave himself over in trust.

Jesus died in faith—though not in what we often naively believe faith to be. To die in faith does not always mean that we die calmly, without fear and doubt.

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Sunday Reflections

the first-born of all creation, because everything in heaven and on earth was created in him” (this is an almost unimaginable claim).

Then we are offered a list of various kinds of power: “thrones, lordships, rules, authorities”, all of them inferior to our King.

A powerful expression follows: “He is before everything and everything holds together in him”, which goes deeper yet: “The head of the body which is the church, the beginning, first-born from the dead, that he might be Number One in every respect, because in him the fullness [of God] was pleased to live, and through him to reconcile everything to God, making peace by the blood of his Cross”.

This is the kind of passage that it would be good to read over several times before next Sunday, to see how deeply we can get into it.

The Gospel comes, of course, from Luke; and here Jesus’ kingship is utterly different, seen through the eyes of various onlookers.

We start with “the people”, who in Luke’s Gospel are almost always those who understand Jesus.

Then there are the “rulers” (not like Christ the King), who “were sneering at him, saying, ‘He saved others, why doesn’t he save himself, if this fellow is God’s Messiah, the Cho-

Faith in the face of death E tend to nurse a certain naiveté about what faith means in the face of death. The common notion among us as Christians is that if someone has a genuine faith, she should be able to face death without fear or doubt.

The implication then, of course, is that having fear and doubt when one is dying is an indication of a weak faith.

While it’s true that many people with a strong faith do face death calmly and without fear, that’s not always the case, nor necessarily the norm.

We can begin with Jesus. Surely he had real faith and yet, in the moments just before his death, he called out in both fear and doubt. His cry of anguish, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, came from a genuine anguish that was not, as we sometimes piously postulate, uttered for divine effect, not really meant, but something for us to hear.

Moments before he died, Jesus suffered real fear and real doubt. Where was his faith? Well, that depends upon how we understand faith and the specific modality it can take on in our dying.

In her famous study of the stages of dying, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross suggests there are five stages we undergo in the dying process: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.

Our first response to a terminal diagnosis is denial: “This is not happening!”

When we have to accept that it is happening, our reaction is anger: “Why me?”

Nicholas King SJ

Our King transforms us

sen One?’” Then there are the “soldiers”, who “made fun of him, offering him vinegar, and saying, ‘If you really are the King of the Judeans, save yourself.’” And, we learn, there is an inscription declaring this dying convict to be “the King of the Judeans” (as a joke?).

And, finally,we are not surprised to learn that “one of those hanged with him blasphemed him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself! And us too!”

To our entire astonishment, however, the other crucified thief takes quite a different line. He reproaches his fellow-criminal: “Aren’t you afraid of God? You’re under the same sentence. We deserved it, but this man has done nothing out of place”.

And, quite unexpectedly, he hails Jesus, a dying criminal, as a king: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

And then, best surprise of all, Jesus for the first time utters, in perfectly regal tones: “Amen I am telling you: today you will be with me in the Paradise”.

This is the kind of King that we can cope with, the one whom we celebrate today.

Southern Crossword #889

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

For instance, the renowned biblical scholar Raymond E Brown, commenting on the fear of death inside the community of the Beloved Disciple, writes: “The finality of death and the uncertainties it creates causes trembling among those who have spent their lives professing Christ.

“Indeed, among the small community of Johannine disciples, it was not unusual for people to confess that doubts had come into their minds as they encountered death.

“The Lazarus story is placed at the end of Jesus’ public ministry in John to teach us that when confronted with the visible reality of the grave, all need to hear and embrace the bold message that Jesus proclaimed: ‘I am the life.’

“For John, no matter how often we renew our faith, there is the supreme testing by death. Whether the death of a loved one or one’s own death, it is the moment when one realises that it all depends on God. “During our lives we have been able to shield ourselves from having to face this in a raw way. Confronted by death, mortality, all defences fall away.”

Sometimes people with a deep faith face death in calm and peace. But sometimes they don’t and the fear and doubt that threatens them then is not necessarily a sign of a weak or faltering faith. It can be the opposite, as we see in Jesus.

Inside a person of faith, fear and doubt in the face of death is what the mystics call “the dark night of the spirit”. And this is what’s going on inside that experience.

The raw fear and doubt we are experiencing at that time make it impossible for us to mistake our own selves and our own life-force for God. When we have to accept that to die in trust inside what seems like absolute negation and can only cry out in anguish to an apparent emptiness, then it is no longer possible to confuse God with our own feelings and ego.

In that, we experience the ultimate purification of soul.

We can have a deep faith and still find ourselves with doubt and fear in the face of death. Just look at Jesus.

ACRoSS

5. They are given charitably (4) 7. The priest gives it sacramentally (10) 8. Town highly inclined towards tourist interest (4) 10. Divinely without limits (8) 11. Tool used by 12 ac (6) 12. Harvester with a grim reputation (6) 14. In which you can be a convert holding a light (6) 16. Tutors about fish (6) 17. Find the flying saucer above (8) 19. At them you are in conflict (4) 21. God and sinners … (carol) (10) 22. Prolonged quarrel resulting from 19 ac (4)

DoWn

1. It’s a light in darkness (4) 2. Life among the monks (8) 3. Timothy’s mother (2 Tim 1) (6) 4. Steal little things (6) 5. Among themselves, canons will act shortly (4) 6. Stream tide was badly handled (10) 9. Impossible to believe (10) 13. Cardinal Newman’s defence of his life (8) 15. Aspirant religious without a bad habit (6) 16. Let us approach the … of grace (Hb 4) (6) 18. Anatomically it could be spinal or vocal (4) 20. Bad kind of effect of your medication (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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HIS is a true story. Catechist: “Kids, we should always thank God for even the smallest things like sweets. Sachka, do you thank God before eating a sweet?”

Sachka: “No” Catechist: “Why not? Why is that?”

Sachka: “Because it’s not healthy.”

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