200311

The

S outher n C ross

Centenary Jubilee Year March 11 to March 17, 2020

Priest-poet publishes new book

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Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 5178

NEW SERIES: The last days of Jesus

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Lent 2020

R12 (incl VAT RSA)

Interview with founder of SA lay movement

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Church reacts to Covid-19 By eRiN CARelSe

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Pilgrimage 2020

S outher n C ross

ITH confirmed cases of the coronavirus, Covid-19, now in South Africa, various dioceses have issued guidelines to be implemented as preventive measures concerning the celebration of the Mass and liturgical services.

This came after Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) president Bishop Sithembele Sipuka asked the bishops to give health precaution guidelines in their own dioceses.

“All of the situations are different in each diocese and the bishops may have different ways of dealing with it. The coronavirus is a serious disease, and we may seem to be too fastidious, but not saying or doing anything will come back to haunt us,” Bishop Sipuka told The Southern Cross.

“I encourage people to adhere to the directives given by their bishop and the health authorities and take the necessary precautionary measures. We also need to pray for the wellbeing of all who have been infected and that a cure may soon be found,” he said.

Bishop José Ponce de León of Manzini in Eswathini instructed parishes in his diocese to omit the Sign of Peace and Communion on the tongue for the duration of Lent.

By doing this, he said, parishes go through this Lenten season “in communion” with those affected in other countries.

Bishop Ponce de León also asked that “a prayer is said at every Mass for those infected, those who care for the sick, and those who are working towards finding a cure”.

Among dioceses which have issued directives are those of Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. Their guidelines include all or most of the following: • Stop the practice of holding/shaking hands during the liturgy, possibly to be replaced with a bow of the head or other appropriate gestures.

• Remove holy water from fonts (the archdiocese of Durban advises to drain and refresh the water more frequently if not emptied).

• Suspend the distribution of the Precious Blood. According to Catholic teaching, the whole Christ—in both his body and his blood—is present when only the Host is re-

ceived. Special provisions should be made for Catholics who can receive only the Precious Blood because of celiac conditions.

• Holy Communion is to be received in the hand only.

• Hand sanitisers are to be available before and after Communion for priests and all those who assist with the distribution of communion.

• Parishioners are advised to cough and sneeze in the elbow rather than into a handkerchief or into their hands.

Importantly, those who are sick or are experiencing symptoms of sickness are not obliged to attend Mass.

Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp was reluctant to issue directives but said he would be meeting with the clergy and will send out a decree after consultation.

“We must not create panic and go to certain extremes which undermine our faith and Catholic rituals and practises. We must not abandon our Catholic rituals in the name of corona,” Bishop Phalana said.

“But we must also not put people’s lives and health in danger. The coronavirus is a challenge for our times but we must be reasonable, realistic and responsible,” Bishop Phalana said.

The director of the Catholic Health Care Association of Southern Africa (CATHCA) also noted that it is not useful to panic.

“The best form of prevention is to wash hands frequently with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser,” said Thomas Joseph.

“Covid-19 is spread by droplets which stay on surfaces and transfer from the hands to the face. Those with a cough or cold should cover their mouths with their elbows while coughing or sneezing or dispose of tissues used safely. The less one touches one’s face, the less likely that the virus will be transmitted,” he said.

“The coronavirus has been reported in many countries but relatively few people have got it,” Mr Joseph noted.

Most fatalities are among those with a weakened immune system or other underlying illnesses.

“Whether one shakes hands or not in Mass or liturgical services should be a personal decision given that the incidence is still so very low,” Mr Joseph said.

Nobertine Father Subeesh Kalappurackal of Fish Hoek parish in Cape Town celebrates mass on Slangkop mountain after his parish did a Stations of the Cross. The procession started from St Joseph’s chapel at the Norbertine monastery up to the cross on the Slangkop, which overlooks False Bay. Seen with the priest is eucharistic minister James Henning. (Photo: magda Kus)

England turns to Our Lady

By SimoN CAldwell

C

ATHOLICS are preparing for the historic rededication of England as “Mary’s Dowry” in the hope that it will spur the re-evangelisation of their country.

The English bishops decided to rededicate the country at a meeting in 2017 and are now encouraging Catholics to pray the Angelus daily ahead of the March 29 National Day of Rededication.

The event involves English Catholics making a personal “Angelus promise” to God in union with the “Yes” of Mary at the Annunciation.

The original dedication of England was carried out in 1381 by King Richard II. With the title of “Mary’s Dowry”, the intention was that England and her people would be set aside for the special guidance and protection of Mary.

At noon on March 29, communal acts of entrustment will be made in cathedrals, renewing the vows of dedication made by King Richard. Schools are invited to join the rededication on March 30.

Pope Francis has supported the rededication by blessing an icon of Our Lady of Walsingham by iconographer Amanda de Pulford ahead of the event, and it will go on a per-

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manent tour of English parishes.

The devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham focuses on the Annunciation and the willingness of Mary to carry out the will of God. “There is much for us to learn about being the Dowry of Mary and the love which is expressed in that title. It is rich in history, even if not contemporary in language. I hope we can use these coming weeks to deepen our knowledge of this ancient and lovely devotion,” said Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

“Mary will always lead us to her Son,” he added. “She will take us to him so that he can show us his love and mercy.”

The Marian icon depicts Our Lady of Walsingham dressed in Anglo-Saxon clothing and holding up the child Jesus.

The original dedication of England as “Mary’s Dowry” coincided with the growth of the Walsingham shrine into one of the major pilgrimage destinations of medieval Europe.

The original statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was burned by Protestant reformers in the late 1530s, during the reign of Henry VIII, but the shrine was rebuilt on the same site in Norfolk by Catholics and Anglicans in the 19th century.—CNS

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!

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The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

LOCAL

Removing cathedral refugees a ‘tough decision’ By eRiN CARelSe

Cape High Court.

Fr Rohan Smuts discovered the refugees on the church premises at the end of Sunday Mass.

“I was standing outside and greeting parishioners and guests when someone drew my attention to the fact that one of the leaders of the refugee group had been at Mass, and I was not privy to it,” said Fr Smuts.

“When I went to the sacristy afterwards, one of the sacristans said to me that I have some ‘visitors’ outside, and my thought was that there were people to see me. When I came down the stairs from the sacristy I knew what she meant, and immediately thought that this needs to be addressed,” he explained.

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HE administrator of St Mary’s cathedral in Cape Town had to make a difficult decision when a group of refugees had to be removed from the church’s grounds.

The group of asylum-seekers tried to occupy the cathedral and its premises.

The refugees had for months been camped out at the Central Methodist church in the city’s Greenmarket Square.

They were removed by police and law enforcement officers after the City of Cape Town obtained an order allowing the enforcement of its municipal bylaws by the Western

Fr Smuts said the cathedral parish has had to contend daily with vagrancy issues in the public areas around the cathedral, and knows the difficulties of just keeping the facility clean.

He immediately got hold of mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith, and informed him of what was transpiring. At that stage, there were around 70-80 people—but what concerned Fr Smuts further was that they were being dropped off in taxis.

“What pushed me was the aggressiveness of it and the arrogance of it. Nobody spoke to me or asked me anything,” he said.

A parishioner later told him that

just as Mass started, the refugees started making their way inside the cathedral.

That, the priest said, was when he knew he needed to act quickly and he laid a charge of trespassing.

The police arrived and after Mass removed the trespassers from the cathedral.

It was only later that Fr Smuts saw that well over 200 refugees were outside the church.

Once the police got the refugees outside the premises, the situation was still volatile because their goods were still inside.

As a result, 17:00 Mass was cancelled.

“We didn’t want to open the

church up and then have the problem resurface again. I couldn’t guarantee the safety of those coming to Mass,” Fr Smuts explained.

Deciding to lay a charge of trespassing to have the refugees removed was not an easy decision, he said.

“The consequences of not acting meant that it would not only impact the cathedral and parish but the vicinity and all that goes with it,” Fr Smuts said.

“We have to acknowledge too that as a parish community within our own means, we are also struggling financially. So it wasn’t an easy decision—but it was definitely the right one,” he said.

Budget signals beginning of the end of great state monopolies By eRiN CARelSe

ical statement as it is a fiscal one.

“Just as government has finally, albeit years too late, begun to deal seriously with the terminal declines in Eskom and other state-owned enterprises, so it has now also found the courage to face the fact that we cannot continue to spend 40 cents out of every tax rand on civil servants’ salaries; especially when we have to borrow more money every year to keep up the payments,” he said.

Predictably, the unions have already reacted with threats of strikes, shutdowns, and ungovernability.

“There is much truth in their argument that workers are being made to pay for the government’s corruption and mismanagement,” Mr Pothier pointed out. “But there is equal truth that the public sector wage bill has grown in real terms by 40% over 12 years without any concomitant increase in productivity.”

He said it seems this budget has marked the start of the end of evermore consumption expenditure.

Another R16 billion will be made available to South African Airways for its debts and interest payments.

Against this figure, R2,4 billion has been promised to the National Prosecuting Authority and the Hawks to employ more investigators and prosecutors to fight corruption.

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ESPONDING to the budget speech by finance minister Tito Mboweni, a Church analyst said that with Sars collecting less revenue than needed, and with government going deeper into debt, the last thing anyone expected was that some money would be “put back into taxpayers’ pockets.”

This small amount of personal tax relief took almost everyone by surprise.

While the unexpected tax cuts might have helped give the economy a small temporary boost, it will be funded by more borrowing. This will not escape the attention of longterm investors, ratings agencies and currency speculators, said Mike Pothier, head of research at the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO).

“The real reason for the tax cuts, and for the minster’s airy dismissal of talk about a VAT increase or a ‘once-off’ tax, is that they are a quid pro quo to be used in the upcoming wage negotiations with the public sector unions,” said Mr Pothier.

The public sector wage bill is to be cut by R160 billion over the next three years and, according to the CPLO research head, in this sense, the 2020 Budget is as much a polit-

Mr Mboweni also confirmed that municipalities will be allowed to source their own electricity, and third-party operators will be given access to the national rail network.

“Both moves, which will no doubt take quite some time to come to fruition, are concessions that the days of the great state monopolies like Eskom and Transnet, going back to the beginning of the last century, are coming to an end. Many commuters will hope the Passenger Rail Authority of South Africa monopoly over passenger rail will also come to an end soon,” Mr Pothier said.

He also noted almost complete silence on the National Health Insurance scheme, other than a vague statement that “taking forward consultation on the NHI is important”.

“Mr Mboweni is acutely aware that, even as government presses ahead with legislative preparations for the NHI, he simply has no money to pay for it,” Mr Pothier said.

“If and when he wins the battle of the public sector wage bill, and if and when he is able to stop giving away billions to SAA, Denel, Prasa and other failing state enterprises, this will be his next big fight,” he said.

“On his performance so far, South Africans should pray that he sticks around for it,” Mr Pothier said.

The new Carmel Retreat Centre in Benoni, Johannesburg archdiocese, was opened at a celebratory mass.

New Carmel Retreat Centre opened in Benoni

By SANeT KARAm

T

HE new Carmel Retreat Centre, a dream of the Carmelite friars of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Benoni, was opened amid great celebration.

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg was the main celebrant at a Mass concelebrated with Carmelite provincial superior Fr Charles Serrao, all six South African-based Carmelite friars, invited and visiting priests, and dea-

cons from local parishes.

The church was packed, with the congregation comprising Carmelite nuns, architects, benefactors, contractors, donors, fundraisers, and parishioners.

All had worked hard and selflessly, donating time, energy, resources and talents to achieve this spirituality centre for the greater glory of God. The centre is now open for religious, priests and lay people for retreat.

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The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

LOCAL

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Mini World Youth Day 2020 packages revealed By eRiN CARelSe

T

HE 2017 Mini World Youth Day saw the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) and the archdiocese of Durban end up with a shortfall of over R5 million—which must be avoided this year, according to the SACBC youth chaplain.

Fr Mthembeni Dlamini CMM pointed out that the R5 million shortfall translates to over R1 500 per participant in Durban. It was this consideration which caused delays in the approval for this year’s Mini World Youth Day (MWYD) In Pretoria.

“We have to take responsibility and own this pilgrimage. MWYD is preparation for bigger events, besides preparing to attend World Youth Day (WYD) and evangelising our young people,” Fr Dlamini said.

“The world is looking for a future

host of WYD in Africa.”

Two packages are now available for the youth to purchase to attend MWYD in the archdiocese of Pretoria from December 9-13.

The early bird package (5% discount) is valid from March 1 to June 30. To qualify, payment will need to be deposited within this period.

Groups have 14 days to pay a 50% deposit after uploading their lists and should pay the full amount before June 30.

Full registration costs R2 850.

Full registration plus Days in Parishes is R3 040.

The late registration package is valid from July 1 to August 31. To qualify, payment needs to be deposited within this period, and failure to do so will see the registration cancelled and the deposit forfeited.

The group has 14 days to pay the 50% deposit after uploading its lists and should pay the full amount be-

fore August 31.

Full registration costs R3000. Full registration plus Days in Parishes is R3200.

Both packages include the hiring of venues and paying suppliers, lunch from December 9 to breakfast on December 13, transport during the days of MWYD to accommodation, catechetical parishes and the main venue, which is the Tshwane Events Centre, and accommodation from December 9-13.

Fr Dlamini recommended that to save on costs and fund their trip, participants might avoid hiring a bus if they have access to public buses.

He also suggested that they take the early bird package and use the money saved for transport.

In terms of funding for their trip, he suggested that groups write to their municipality or businesses for sponsorship for either their transport or the pilgrimage, as well as re-

questing sponsorship from parishioners or individuals in their community.

Approaching sodalities, movements and associations are also avenues they should try, as well as arranging fundraising activities.

Registration is now open, and the registration link, which can be found on the MWYD site and will be emailed to the dioceses, is meant for group leaders to begin to register their groups. The registration will allow groups of 15 or 25 or 50 participants. The group leader is required to manage the registration on behalf of the group.

Groups are either from parishes, deaneries, dioceses, associations, sodalities, or movements. Correct information is required and the registration team will verify the authenticity of the information submitted before a group leader is approved to continue with the reg-

istration process.

A group leader cannot register two or more groups under his or her name, as the system will charge a full fee each time they add their name to a group or repeat a name.

This is meant to avoid having one person leading a large group and losing control of it.

Groups of 15 must be accompanied by at least two responsible adults. Groups of 25 must have at least three responsible adults.

Groups of 50 must have at least five responsible adults.

“The time between September and November will be reserved for spiritual preparation. The issue of having our young people attending large gatherings unprepared has been raised on many platforms. The Mini World Youth Day is a pilgrimage and some level of spiritual preparedness is required,” Fr Dlamini said.

Priest publishes poetry volume on SA democracy By eRiN CARelSe

A

JOHANNESBURG priest has published his second book of poetry— and had a former president write his foreword.

Fr Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu’s latest book, MAYIBUYE: 25 years of Democracy in South Africa, is a collection of poems chronicling the 25 years of democracy in SA starting in 1994.

“I have written poems, long and short pieces, chronicling our journey and the major events that took place such as the first elections, the passing of the Constitution, the inauguration and so on,” said Fr Ndlovu, who serves Roodepoort parish, is the chaplain to the archdiocesan Sacred Heart Society and a theology lecturer at St Augustine College.

In the foreword to Fr Ndlovu’s latest anthology, former President Kgalema Motlanthe wrote: “This collection of poetry is a useful addition to the body of literature that is helping our nation to critically reflect on its past, while at the same time imagining the future that lies ahead.”

“I’m grateful and apprecia-

Fr lawrence mduduzi Ndlovu has published his second book of poetry, Mayibuye, chronicling the past 25 years of democracy in South Africa, tive that the former president went through my work and wrote the foreword. I’m deeply honoured,” said Fr Ndlovu.

The book is divided into three sections, the priest said: “‘The Hope’, about the hopeful days in 1994; ‘The Turn’, about the horrible downturn we went through; and ‘The Fire’, which deals with #feesmustfall, land issues and so on.”

The final section in the book is entitled “Still Worth Loving”, in which the poet explains why he still loves South Africa.

The Soweto-born priest said he has written poetry from his high school days, stopping and picking up at different times.

This will be his second book, the first, In Quiet Realm, also a book of poems, was published in 2018.

Mayibuye will officially be launched at the Johannesburg Theatre on March 29.

“I’m very excited about this because I felt I should do this work chronicling our journey in the post-democratic era, so that we have a body of work,

The new church of the Good Shepherd in mogwase was dedicated by Bishop Kevin dowling of Rustenburg.

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UK parish gave statue of Our Lady to new church HE naming of a church often has meaning for the local community. In Mogwase in Rustenburg diocese, the local Batswana are traditionally cattle farmers and know how to take care of their livestock.

So it followed that naming the new church there after the Good Shepherd, Modisayo o Molemo, would speak clearly to the people that the Good Shepherd takes care of his sheep—a witness to the loving caring presence of God. The Good Shepherd is the second church at Mogwase, the first being St Theresa’s. The new church building began three years ago, in 2016.

The Good Shepherd was dedicated by Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, in the company of

reflections and thoughts,” Fr Ndlovu said.

“I tried to go through what a lot of people are feeling, and what I myself have gone through. Poetry is always subjective but I’m delighted.”

Mayibuye is published by African Perspectives Publishing (www.africanperspectives.co. za) and sells for R180. It will be available in major bookshops at the end of March. n For more information or to attend the launch, contact Rose Francis at francis@africanperspectives.co.za

parish priest Fr Vincent Brennan and his confrères from the Society of Missionaries for Africa, deacons, church members from surrounding villages, Sisters, visitors (including from overseas) and local neighbours.

A carved statue of Our Lady has been presented to the church by a parish from Britain which had also assisted with donations.

Carved in Kenya, the statue had been given to a retiring priest who returned to the UK. On his death it was bequeathed to his former parish, which felt it should come back to Africa. Now Our Lady of Africa adorns the church of the Good Shepherd.

The church is now open daily for private and public prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

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Participants in last year’s annual Good Friday procession in Cape Town are seen outside immaculate Conception Catholic church in Parow. The 11th annual procession from the church in Parow to St mary’s cathedral opposite parliament will be held on April 10 this year. Starting at 8am, the procession is held in solidarity with the Palestinian Christians of the Holy land and all persecuted Christians.

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The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

INTERNATIONAL Asia Bibi, pictured in Paris last month is seeking political asylum in France less than a year after fleeing Pakistan for the safety of Canada.

(Photo: Thomas oswald, Aid to the Church in Need/CNS)

Asia Bibi seeks political asylum in France

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SIA Bibi is seeking political asylum in France less than a year after fleeing her native Pakistan for the safety of Canada.

The Catholic mother, who spent nearly a decade on death row in Pakistan after she was falsely accused of blasphemy against Islam, wants to live closer to French writer Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who was influential in her fight for freedom and helped her to write her autobiography, Enfin Libre (“Finally Free”).

At present, Ms Bibi is in France to help to promote the book, which so far has been published only in French, and also to be made an “honorary citizen” of Paris.

During an interview with

French radio station RTL, Ms Bibi declared: “My great desire is to go to France.”

She said that although she had no meeting scheduled with President Emmanuel Macron “obviously I would like the president to hear my request for asylum”.

In a news release from Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity, Ms Bibi confirmed that she was seeking asylum in France.

“I have found a lot of love here,” she said. “I think I’d be fine.”

“Obviously I am enormously grateful to Canada,” she added.

An English translation of her book is expected to be on sale by September this year.—CNS

Thousands flee Burkina Faso

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UNDREDS of thousands of people have been forced out of their homes in Burkina Faso as Christian communities are targeted in a spiral of Islamist killings.

The surge of attacks has forced some families to flee and leave everything behind, and the violence is threatening to spread to other countries, said Jennifer Overton, West Africa regional director for Catholic Relief Services.

“Burkina Faso is home to some of the world’s poorest communities — even without this violence, people face chronic food shortages, high unemployment, climate change and

environmental degradation,” Ms Overton said.

She said dozens of Catholic schools had been forced to close after their teachers fled.

Security has rapidly deteriorated in largely arid Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, with more than 4 000 killings by armed groups in 2019, according to a statement by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The statement said more than 4 000 people were now fleeing their homes daily in Burkina Faso, with 150 000 “terrified residents” uprooted in the last month alone.— CNS

New norms: Fighting abuse in lay movements O

By CiNdy woodeN

RGANISATIONS, Catholic or not, led by a charismatic leader who is followed uncritically and commands or demands control over members are at risk for cases of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, according to Jesuit Father Hans Zollner.

The Vatican office that grants official recognition to international Catholic lay movements and organisations ordered the groups to develop detailed child-protection guidelines and norms for handling allegations of the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

The international organisations include hundreds of thousands of Catholics around the world, so “this is an important step”, said Fr Zollner, a professor of psychology and president of the Centre for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

By the December deadline, “90something percent sent in their guidelines”, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life said.

The dicastery has a juridical section led by a canon lawyer and is reviewing the guidelines from the organisations required to file them.

Several large international Catholic groups already have published their Vatican-approved guidelines online, including Com-

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, president of the Centre for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian university in Rome, and Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican’s dicastery for laity, the Family and life, participate in a meeting sponsored by the dicastery in Rome. (Photo: dicastery for laity, Family and life) munion and Liberation, Focolare and Chemin Neuf.

They promise safe-environment training for members, contain detailed rules for activities with minors, and clearly outline the responsibility of a person who is told about or suspects a case of abuse, including the obligation in most cases to report allegations to local police.

The Communion and Liberation posting included the names and contact information for the five people—a judge, a priest, an attorney, a psychiatrist and an educator —appointed to a commission to receive and assess abuse allegations.

Of course, victims always are free to report allegations to their local police and local bishops, Cardinal Farrell said. And if members of one of the groups want to work in a parish or diocesan programme, they also must fulfill local requirements for safeguarding training and background checks.

First under Pope Benedict XVI and now under Pope Francis, several small, newer communities— both religious orders and mixed groups of lay and religious—have been disbanded or placed under Vatican-mandated outside control because of sexual, physical or psychological abuse of members.—CNS

Bishops seek international help for Nigeria

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IGERIA’S bishops called on the international community to help the West African country in its fight against ethnic insecurity and terrorist groups such as Boko Haram.

“Barbaric executions of Christians by the Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom linked to the same group and other terrorists have traumatised many citizens,” the bishops said in a statement read in churches across the country.

The bishops’ conference urged

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the international community “to come to the aid of the Nigerian government in the fight against these daredevil terrorists who want to destabilise our country”.

Should they succeed, the consequences “will be grave not only for the West African sub-region but also for Africa as a whole”,' said the statement, signed by Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze of Benin City, president of the Nigerian bishops’ conference, and Bishop Camillus Raymond Umoh of Ikot Ekpene, secretary.

Christians have been targeted by Boko Haram as well as by bandits seeking to extort money from the Church.

“The level of insecurity in Nigeria today is such that whether at home or on the road, most Nigerians, in all the parts of the country, live in fear,” the bishops said.

The government should “immediately put a stop to this unprecedented wave of violence and brutality aimed particularly at Christians”, they said.—CNS

Arab World Youth Day proposed

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ISHOPS from the Middle East have proposed a regional youth gathering similar to World Youth Day for young Catholics from Syria to Somalia.

The proposed “World Day of Youth of the Arab Regions” would take place in Jordan as the first host country, with the goal of encouraging “mass participation” from the region, according to the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Bishops representing Catholics in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, Somalia, and countries of the Arabian Peninsula met in Rome and discussed the proposed Arab World Youth Day gathering at the meeting of the Conference of Latin Bishops of the Arab Regions (CELRA).

The Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem said that CELRA will meet again in Lebanon in February 2021.

World Youth Day is a massive gathering of Catholic youth which takes place every two or three years, with the goal of giving young people the chance to make a pilgrimage and encounter the worldwide Catholic community.

The Jesuit province of the Middle East has also organised smaller-scale “Regional Youth Days” since 2006. The last Regional Youth Days brought together 350 young Catholics in Jamhour, Lebanon, in August 2019.

The Southern African region has hosted two previous “Mini-World Youth Days”, with the next scheduled for December in Pretoria.

The next World Youth Day is scheduled to take place in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022 with the theme “Mary arose and went with haste.”—CNA

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

‘My life just isn’t as valuable as others’

By SimoN CAldwell

A

WOMAN with Down syndrome will take the British government to court in an attempt to change a law that permits abortions up to birth of children considered to be “seriously handicapped”.

Heidi Crowter, 24, says it is wrong to treat unborn children differently because of perceived disabilities.

“At the moment in the UK, babies can be aborted right up to birth if they are considered to be seriously handicapped,” she said in a statement. “They include me in that definition of being seriously handicapped—just because I have an extra chromosome.

“What it says to me is that my life just isn’t as valuable as others’, and I don’t think that’s right,” she added.

“I think it’s downright discrimination.”

Ms Crowter, who lives in Coventry, has launched her legal action jointly with Cheryl Bilsborrow of Preston, whose 2-year-old son, Hector, has Down syndrome.

Both object to the provisions of the 1967 Abortion Act that permit abortions of healthy babies no later than 24 weeks’ gestation but permit

Heidi Crowter with her mother liz the abortion of disabled babies to term, including those with Down syndrome, cleft lip and clubfoot.

They want the High Court in London to rule that the Abortion Act “impermissibly violates the dignity of people with disabilities” as a precursor to the law being changed.

Ms Crowter said she felt compelled to act after the government ignored advice from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to amend the law to ensure that babies with disabilities were not “singled out”.

Paul Conrathe, the lawyer representing Ms Crowter and Ms Bilsborrow, said: “The current law reinforces negative stereotypes and attributes lesser value and dignity to people with disability.”

Lynn Murray of Don’t Screen Us Out, a lobby group opposed to the abortion of disabled babies, said in a media statement that abortions on grounds of gender or skin colour would be “totally condemned” in the present political climate.

“But because it’s a disability such as Down syndrome, that’s somehow OK?” she said. “This is inequality, sanctioned, sponsored and funded by the state.”

She added: “We live in a society which proclaims that we want to empower those with disabilities, and that regardless of your background, you deserve a fair and equal chance at life. We believe that our laws must reflect this narrative.”

The latest figures from the Department of Health show that in 2018 there were 3 269 abortions on grounds of disability in Britain, of which 618 were performed because the babies were detected as having Down syndrome.

The figure represents a 42% increase in 10 years on the numbers of babies aborted for the syndrome, possibly arising from the introduction of early non-invasive detection techniques to replace amniocentesis.

—CNS

Pope asks Catholics to join week of climate action

S

AYING he wanted to renew his “urgent call to respond to the ecological crisis”, Pope Francis asked Catholics around the globe to participate in the international observance of “Laudato Si' Week” on May 16-24.

Sponsored by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and facilitated by the Global Catholic Climate Movement and Renova, the week is designed as an occasion for Catholics to look at

steps they have taken to protect the environment and assist the world's poor people, and to come up with next steps.

The sponsoring groups launched a website—(laudatosiweek.org)—that contains information, resources and a “toolkit” that includes several ideas that include lobbying elected officials, conducting an “energy audit”, planting a “pollinator garden” and reviewing one’s investment portfolio in favour of

companies that protect the environment.

In a video message released by the Vatican and posted on the website, Pope Francis said the week was meant to mark the fifth anniversary of his encyclical, Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home.

“The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” cannot continue to go unheeded, the pope said. “Let’s take care of creation, a gift of God, our good creator.”—CNS

Silenced archbishop: ‘Pope’s a usurper’

A

CATHOLIC archbishop has rejected a Church instruction barring him from public appearances and vowed to go on denouncing “heresy and sectarianism”.

“Christ gave me authority through the Church to proclaim the truth, and I’ll do so as long as I live,” said retired Archbishop Jan Lenga, 69, who lives in Lichen, Poland, after serving in Kazakhstan.

“I won’t yield to degradation by those whose own statements and actions are entangled with heresy and sectarianism,” he said. “What right do they have to recall what pertains to the Church when they themselves have never upheld it?”

Bishop Wieslaw Mering of Wloclawek ordered Archbishop Lenga to stop preaching, celebrating Mass or speaking to the media, after the archbishop accused Pope Francis of “spreading untruths” and refused to include the pope in prayers.

In an interview the archbishop claimed Bishop Mering’s order would have “no effect”, since no

Polish archbishop Jan lenga has been sanctioned by the Church for calling Pope Francis a heretic. one in the Polish Church had authority to prevent him from speaking out.

He added that he had no wish “to belong to a Church run by Protestants, Islamists and Jews”, and believed his critics should “form their own Church, rather than usurping power in the Catholic Church”.

Archbishop Lenga, born in Ukraine, trained secretly in Sovietruled Latvia and Lithuania and was

Nicaraguan poet Fr ernesto Cardenal at his 90th birthday celebration in managua, Nicaragua. Fr Cardenal died at the age of 95. (Photo: oswaldo Rivas, Reuters)

Fr Ernesto Cardenal, poet, revolutionary, dies By dAVid AGReN

F

ATHER Ernesto Cardenal, the Nicaraguan poet and revolutionary whose political work earned him a public admonishment from Pope John Paul II, died on March 1 in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. He was 95.

“He found, contemplated and loved Christ in the wonders of the cosmos, which he celebrated in his art, and in the people in need of compassion and liberation,” said Jesuit Father Joseph Mulligan, who serves in Nicaragua.

“He is remembered and celebrated as a kind person, humble, and somewhat shy, whose love for his people inspired him to be involved in the Sandinista-led insurrection against the right-wing Somoza dictatorship.”

Fr Cardenal became a critic of the Sandinistas under the increasingly corrupt and tyrannical rule of current President Daniel Ortega and suffered persecution for his opposition, said an acquaintance and others in Nicaragua.

The priest quit the Sandinistas in 1994 because he said the party would not allow moderate voices to be heard.

For its part, the Ortega government ordered three days of mourning for Fr Cardenal, who Nicaragua media reportedly suffered from respiratory issues and died of heart failure.

“We recognise his contribution to the struggle of the Nicaraguan people,” said a statement signed

by President Ortega and his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo.

“We also recognise his cultural, artistic and literary merits and his extraordinary poetry, in which he always knew how to praise God, in

heaven, on earth and in any place.”

Fr Cardenal—famed for his poetry, flowing white hair and beard, and for wearing a black beret—was born into a wealthy Nicaraguan family, but gravitated towards liberation theology, along with revolutionary thought and activities.

He participated in an unsuccessful attempt at ousting dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1954 and later joined the Sandinistas, who took power in 1979.

His political participation proved controversial for some in the Church hierarchy, however, including Pope John Paul II. Fr Cardenal went to greet Pope John Paul II during the pontiff’s 1983 visit to the Central American country. But the greeting—captured in a famous photo of the pope wagging his finger at a kneeling Fr Cardenal—became an admonishment for the priest to “get right with your bishop”, according to witnesses.

Fr Cardenal’s permission to perform the sacraments was subsequently suspended, though reinstalled prior to his death.

Fr Cardenal promoted liberation theology and embraced Marxism. “Christ led me to Marx,” he said in a 1984 interview.

His poetry was eclectic and touched on topics ranging from science to Scripture to Marilyn Monroe.

Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Báez of Managua remembered Fr Cardenal in a tweet: “He now can sing his Psalm 15 before God: ‘There is no joy for me apart from thee! I worship neither movie stars nor political leaders, and I worship no dictators.’”—CNS

ordained in 1980, later becoming newly-independent Kazakhstan’s first bishop. He was named bishop of Karaganda in 1999, ministering mostly to Catholic families deported to Central Asia under czarist and communist rule.

After leaving Kazakhstan in 2011, he co-signed several letters urging Pope Francis to clarify marriage and family teachings after the pope’s 2016 encyclical Amoris Laetitia. He also signed a May 2019 “Declaration of Truths” alongside US Cardinal Raymond Burke.

In a book-length interview, circulating in Polish on YouTube, he said he still recognised Pope Benedict XVI as pope and had dropped the “usurper and heretic” cordially invites you to a Pope Francis from his prayer intentions after concluding he was Querida Amazonia: A Case of Jesuitism? spreading “untruths and Unpacking the issues and controversies sparked sins” and “leading the world astray”.—CNS by the post-synodal apostolic exhortation

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6

The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Don’t spread the corona hype

I

T was inevitable that the panic surrounding the coronavirus (or COVID-19) should have reached South Africa, even at the time when all of Africa had recorded three cases, the nearest of those to South Africa being more than 4 500km away in Nigeria.

So it was understandable that many Catholics were asking whether the local Church had issued any preventative health measure directive regarding the Sign of Peace or other forms of physical contact during Mass, including the reception of the Blood of Christ from the chalice, to avoid possible contagion.

Understandably, too, the bishops chose not to react to a situation that had no application in South Africa.

It is up to parishes to decide whether to suspend the Sign of Peace, holding hands during the Our Father, or the administration of Communion on the tongue and of Christ’s Blood in the Cup as a public health measure.

But if parishes do so at a time when the coronavirus has not been diagnosed in our region, will they also do so in winter during the annual influenza seasons?

Of course, for many Catholics this is a moot point: they place themselves under the protection of God, and trust that this protection will be especially potent during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

In that regard Psalm 91:10-12 offers us great comfort.

As with all public health crises, we must be cautious about the coronavirus, but we must not succumb to fear.

Even if people are infected by the coronavirus, mortality from diagnosed cases stands at around 2% (and lower than that if we account for unreported infections).

Even so, the virus has constituted a public health threat—the virtual shutdown of northern Italy was an extreme preventative measures—and it must not be minimised. But it must also not be exaggerated to create hysteria where none is necessary.

Alas, this has been the effect of irresponsible media coverage, which transformed what is a moderately nasty ’flu into a modern variety of the plague.

The catastrophising media coverage recalls many previous cases of doomsday reporting,

such as the Y2K computer bug or the bird ’flu or Sars, which turned out to be less than the emergencies we had been led to expect.

The public panic has to be ascribed to the media, but it also draws from a natural psychological phenomenon.

We are programmed to be alert to threats. Usually, this is unconscious.

For example, we are naturally disgusted by rotting food or excrement as a caution that these contain dangerous pathogens.

We are inclined to be repelled by street rats or cockroaches as we regard them as carriers of disease.

And much by the same defence mechanism are we programmed to overestimate the dangers of reported health risks, giving rise to pervasive public alarm, as we have been witnessing over the past weeks.

In our dread, it’s easy to miss that most people who contract the coronavirus will experience no more than relatively mild symptoms, and the 2% of deaths among diagnosed cases were mostly due to an already-weakened state of the patient’s health.

In other words, if those of fair health were to catch the virus, their chances of surviving it would stand at 98% or better.

Those are very good odds.

Our chances of catching it are even smaller. The reported coronavirus cases amount to 0,0001% of the world’s population, with most of those concentrated in China.

By comparison, ordinary seasonal influenza globally requires the treatment of 0,06% of the world population (on top of all the untreated cases).

Should the virus reach South Africa, we patently have no cause to yield to the temptation to panic.

But the health concerns that have been raised in the light of the coronavirus regarding certain liturgical practices may be fruitfully discussed, especially with a view to the winter season, which is only a few months away, and the assorted aches and sniffles it brings.

Meanwhile, we must pray for those who have died from the coronavirus, and those who have been affected by it, directly or indirectly.

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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.

Many Old Testament taboos redeemed by Christ J

H GOOSSENS of Pretoria (February 19) tells us that we should rely on the Bible when talking about homosexuality.

As a mother of a most wonderful son who is a homosexual, I would like to point out that, if we go to the Bible for answers on this subject, we must also remember that Leviticus forbids us the eating of shellfish because this, like homosexual relations, is “an abomination” (Exodus 35:2).

End obsessive attacks on others

T

HE attacks by reader JH Goossens on lesbians and gays has surely reached saturation point.

His obsessive dislike for them is sickening.

Almost every other week, we are subjected to Dr Goossens’ ranting and demeaning of our fellow human beings.

I couldn’t care less whether it is in the genes or whether there is any scientific explanation, as homosexuals’ choice in life does not affect me in any shape or form.

If Pope Francis is able to utter the words, “Who am I to judge”, then surely Dr Goossens could listen very closely to what the Holy Father says.

Is it necessary to grant this correspondent publication space, as the only topic discussed by him is hatred towards gays and lesbians, ad nauseam?

Dr Goossens, please try to rid yourself of this hatred for fellow human beings and start “loving thy neighbour”.

Sherwin Schreiber, Port Elizabeth

God made us all: straight and gay

I

N his letter, JH Goossens wrote that the Bible states that homosexuality is an abomination. But Jesus never ever said anything like that.

The Bible also says that people who work on the Sabbath should be put to death (Exodus 35:2) and Leviticus states in many chapters that you should stone people to death for all sorts of alleged sins, including “If your sons are disobedient stone them to death”, and “If a man marries a woman and her mother, all three shall be burnt to death” (26:27-29).

These are contradictions of the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”, and it is ludicrous to attribute them to a loving God. The Bible says nothing about inter-sex babies, one in every 1 500 births of innocent creatures born with male and female genitals. Is

The Bible commands that people who work on the Sabbath be put to death, as must be done to men who cut their hair around their temples (Leviticus 19:27).

Farmers who plant two different crops on the same field, and people who wear clothes made of different fibres, all have the fires of damnation awaiting them.

I could go on and on but suffice to say that the Old Testament is not

this a “choice”? How do you explain this?

Regarding Henry Sylvester’s letter (February 19) and the idea that the roots of homosexuality have more to do with environmental conditioning within the family and society than genetic factors, this is absolute nonsense and an insult and very hurtful to homosexuals’ families, implying that the parents are to blame for what is actually how our Creator has made them.

It is as if this is something that has to be corrected—like an “addiction” that must be addressed by the disgraceful torture of young people being subjected to “conversion therapy” which has been banned in the US, thank God. Imagine what this does to their self-esteem.

Recent research provides evidence that there is no one gay gene but that many genes play a role. Research is still ongoing.

Perhaps our Creator did not include one specific gay gene in the design in the knowledge that it would result in homophobic people aborting gay babies, thus resulting in the loss to the world of artistically gifted, talented, intelligent people who have contributed so much to various cultures and the development of the human race.

This has already been done in the case of Down’s syndrome, enabling people to test for the Down’s gene, with such babies being aborted.

I wonder whether homophobic people ever feel guilty about the fact that the way society has treated gay people is responsible for the fact that four times as many young gay people commit suicide; though I doubt it.

No wonder retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said that he would rather go to hell than to a “homophobic heaven”.

Who in their right mind would choose to be gay if they were not actually made that way and sometimes show signs from early childhood?

Thank the Lord that the younger generation is accepting and nonjudgmental about the diversity of creation and our gay sisters and brothers will no longer have to suffer in the future.

June Boyer, Johannesburg

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a reliable guide to morality.

Jesus tells us to love one another, so I send you love and God’s richest blessings.

I close with the pope’s words when asked a question about homosexuality by a journalist on the plane returning from World Youth Day in Rio back to Rome: “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has goodwill, then who am I to judge?”

Cynthia Jones, Durban 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

Let us turn aside from abortion

T

HE following are inescapable facts. Almighty God, although infinitely merciful, is also infinitely good and just, and is incapable of assisting the forces of evil in any way.

Thus, any nation which legalises abortion, the murder of unborn infants, thereby proclaims itself a godless and secular state, turns its back on its Creator, and forfeits any right it has to divine assistance.

Nations which have done this are the United Kingdom, which, with 220 000 abortions a year, is the abortion capital of the world.

Another is South Africa, with annual abortion numbers not far behind and which legalised abortion on demand in 1996.

Our nation is in dire need of divine assistance at present and can return to the favour of our Creator by sincere and contrite prayer against abortion (for example, through our Sunday Mass bidding prayers) and concerted public action against it (for example, by voting to eliminate it in our national elections; we have political parties that are directly opposed to it).

To achieve this, it is imperative that first, our clergy recommence their pro-life sermons which disappeared from our parish pulpits many years ago, and second, that our Catholic schools start again to educate our youth on this crucial issue.

Almighty God will not abandon our nation in these troubled times if a sufficient number of God-fearing persons start to act as above to eliminate the abomination of legalised abortion in our beloved country.

He would not have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah if he had found ten good men there.

Damian McLeish, Johannesburg

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PERSPECTIVES

See the suffering of Christ in others Sarah-Leah L Pimentel ENT is a time when we seek to deepen our relationship with Jesus who died on the Cross to redeem us.

This means looking, really looking, at Christ Crucified. It means coming face-toface with suffering, both the suffering of Jesus on the Cross and the suffering of those around us.

It is an uncomfortable exercise. We live in a world that rejects suffering, choosing rather to glorify pleasure and promote a picture-postcard existence.

Of course, we all want to avoid suffering, but our generation has gone a step further. For us suffering has no purpose. We hide it or we look for ways to escape it.

We hide mental suffering behind the mask of fake happiness. We contemplate euthanasia as a valid end-of-life option. We choose to ignore the suffering of those who live at the edges of our society.

For this reason, contemplating the Crucified Christ is probably harder than we might believe. It is easy to picture Jesus in the romanticised scenes of the nativity, but it is far harder to see his disfigurement on the way to Calvary.

I recently read a talk by Fr Joseph Kentenich, the founder of the Schoenstatt Movement. He explained that St Paul had a similar problem.

Paul persecuted the Christians, but not because he was a bad guy. He was a devout Jew and everything he had heard about this man Jesus and claims that he was the Messiah sounded like pure heresy to him.

And that kind of heresy enraged him.

The text says that “Paul’s soul was profoundly enflamed” because “someone who hangs on a tree cannot really be a redeemer”.

Paul’s conviction of the belief structure in which he was raised blinded him to a different truth, a new way of seeing Jesus.

His response, said Fr Kentenich, is that “he wanted to have everyone imprisoned who defended the wrong view which, in his thinking, was the wrong view of the world’s redeemer.” As such, he wanted “to eradicate, wipe out, stamp out this wrong view of the crucified redeemer of the world”.

And then the Damascus moment oc-

curred. His physical blindness released him from his interior blindness. Deprived of his pride and of everything he had previously relied on, he was finally able to encounter this “crucified redeemer”.

A newly found humility, in which he recognised his earlier misconceptions, enabled Paul to join the community of believers (and I can only imagine that he must have had a hard time convincing them of his change of heart).

I

wonder if we, as Catholics with a wonderful 2 000-year history, don’t sometimes suffer from the kind of pride that Paul had prior to his conversion.

We have fixed ideas of who Jesus is. We know (or think we know) what the Church teaches on a range of moral, theological, and social issues. We try to apply timetested strategies for ministry and the formation of the faithful.

And we do all this because we are devout Catholics and want to preserve the teachings of the Church because we know how important those teachings were for us.

I sometimes wonder, though, whether in doing this, we lose sight of the People of God. Many of them are not well-versed in the teachings of the Church. Many have experienced great suffering in their Christian journey, and the application of the law brings more hurt than healing. Others may be so steeped in the values of the world

olive wood crucifixes in Bethlehem, Palestine. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

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

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

I’m an avid reader and I’ve been acquiring books since my teenage years. Admittedly, when I’ve been less than keen on a book, I have given it away, but this seems to have been the exception rather than the rule, with the net result being my own mini-library.

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

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

In the same way that our choice of reading material alters and defines us, we too are transformed by our Lord Jesus Christ.

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that the teachings of the Church seem quite bizarre and need to be digested slowly, one piece at a time.

But we might miss all these nuances when we stand on the side of arrogance and pride. Like Paul, we want to “eradicate” anything that might seem like a diluting of the faith, or even worse, the creeping in of new heresies.

The Church is greater than the law. The Crucified Christ is greater than the structures of the Church.

The message of Christ suffering on the Cross is one of compassion. It is the suffering Christ, robbed of all his human dignity, who grants paradise to the criminal on the cross next to him. It is the bleeding, beaten Christ who cries to heaven, pleading for the forgiveness of all humanity.

We can see this Christ only if we also seek a change of perspective.

How might the way we teach Gospel values and pass on the teachings of the Church change if we, for example, place ourselves in the position of a woman who feels that she has no option but to abort her baby?

What changes if we imagine ourselves as the teenage boy who contemplates suicide because he can see no way out of present anguish or confusion? Or a gay couple who love each other and also love God? Or a community in the Amazon or the Congo Basin who have irregular access to the sacraments because no one is available to minister to them?

What misconceptions might we have about youth culture that sees nothing wrong with the “hook-up” culture? Can we see what they are hungry for and how can we speak their language?

What misconceptions might we have about our priests and the struggles they face in their ministry and honouring their Continued on page 11

Julia Beacroft

Point of Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yes, we are defined by what we read.

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

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The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

Fr Pierre Goldie

7

Christ in the world

Put Jesus into the economy

T

HIS month, from March 28-28, Pope Francis is convening a meeting of young scholars and agents in industry.

It is labelled “The Economy of Francis” and will be held in Assisi, a city referred to as the City of Peace since Pope John Paul II called a World Day of Peace there in 1986, when religious leaders from all parts of the world came to pray for peace.

Our mission surely is to put Jesus into the economy.

Mission is not just braving jungles and deserts; it is also braving the complex world of economics, challenging where necessary the unjust power structures in the world of commerce, searching for answers, having compassion, and overcoming the scandal of poverty.

Pope Francis has talked frequently about a social economy, one which provides a dignified living for all people, and lifts those who are on the margins of society.

His encyclical Laudato Si’ bluntly refers to the world economy as an economy that kills people and ecological systems.

I last referred to tobacco companies which market death (8 million deaths a year), and I now refer to a 2018 article by a university research office which states that Africa has become a prime target for tobacco companies, because of rising income, population growth, and—wait for it—”improved life expectancy”.

Surely these products will lower life expectancy!

The increase in the volume of cigarette consumption in Africa between 1990 and 2012 was 44%.

T

he claim that a capitalist system outdoes the socialist system is not helpful. We may be better off on the whole, but the lives of so many people with no food security, inadequate housing, inferior education, no provision for retirement, sporadic employment, entrenched in cycles of poverty, cries out for justice.

We are not envious of those with the best of everything. The contrast in realities of the jetset and the mass of poverty-stricken communities, however, is indicative of a world which can provide for all but is radically constrained by self-seeking practices that hardly help the poor.

Economist Adam Smith’s invisible hand is not working as it should. The 18th-century Scottish economist, often called “the Father of Capitalism”, argued that when people are free to pursue their economic interests, the overall effect is a gain in economic advantage for all members of that society.

As for expectations of adverse ecological consequences for the world from profit-dominated business, they are here—the damage has been done.

There are programmes cropping up globally to repair or mitigate damage. The UK plans to end the production of petrol, diesel and hybrid motor vehicles by 2035. A noble gesture.

There are many other signs of a new awakening, a new awareness. Even people who travel to work by car who organise lift clubs not only save money but reduce pollution. We need more champions, big and small—and prayer.

We welcome the coming meeting of minds in Assisi in March. We need more than talk; we need a spirituality of compassion, one which overcomes inertia and shallow excuses.

Again, Jesus’ assertion that the poor will always be with us (Mt 26:11) is not an excuse for capitulation, but rather is a damning indictment of humanity.

As long as someone is poor, the social sin of poverty is in evidence; there is an injustice.

Structures of sin derive from personal sins, and there is guilt where we fail to curtail injustice, effectively cooperating in social sin.

We may be accomplices in situations and institutions that are contrary to divine goodness (Catholic Catechism 1868/9).

Let us multiply the number of small and big initiatives.

We must not forget the spiritual powers that derive from prayer and the sacraments. The Eucharist transforms the bread into the Body of the Risen Lord. May it also transform the processes which produce that bread.

Matthew 25:31-46 is akin to an 11th Commandment—we cannot forget it.

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The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

COMMUNITY

Six pupils at de la Salle Holy Cross College in Victory Park, Johannesburg, took part in the South African Junior Chess Championship as members of the Jhb metro team. They are (from left) Amulya Kata, Alexia deAbreu, Stephen lynch, Jonathan Kata, liam Allison and Christopher Theophanous.

Grade 11 learners at Holy Family College in Glenwood, durban, visited the dennis Hurley Centre, Grey Street mosque and emmanuel cathedral to help serve others and spend time in prayer. (Submitted by Bernadette Stephenson)

Altar servers from Christ the King parish in wentworth, durban, participated in the annual altar servers’ mass held at immaculate Conception parish Pinetown. (Submitted by Alwyn wroots)

Altar servers lead the procession at the 30th anniversary event of the martyrdom of Bl Benedict daswa held at Tshitanini shrine near Thohoyandou in limpopo’s diocese of Tzaneen. (Submitted by Fr william Banda)

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St dominic’s School in Boksburg, Johannesburg archdiocese, hosted the first majorette competition of the season, with ten junior school and nine senior school teams from all over Gauteng. St dominic’s won both junior and senior competitions. Saints leader danae van der merwe is pictured.

A leadership workshop for members of Small Christian Communities, Parish Pastoral Councils and Parish Finance Committees was held at mofumahali oa Rosary parish in motsethabong, welkom. leaders are seen with parish priest Fr molibedi lisene and facilitator Fr Johny motsamai mphatse.

The new Chinese chapel in Port elizabeth was blessed in memory of the late Fr ignatius ou. The community celebrated with seven of Fr ou’s fellowpriests from Port elizabeth.

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St Anthony’s parish in langa, Cape Town, celebrated the First Communion of young members. with the group is parish priest Fr Charles Prince. (Submitted by Sheila Galo)

members of the Parish Pastoral Council at St mother Teresa of Calcutta parish in Crystal Park, Benoni, attended a leadership workshop offered by Sr Thandi moyo, odilon molapo and Tshepo Vilakazi. (Submitted

by Norma Seema)

The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

CHURCH

9

Ten years of fostering dialogue This year, the We Are All Church SA (WAACSA) movement will turn ten years old. GÜNTHeR SimmeRmACHeR spoke with co-founder Prof Brian Robertson.

T

HE We Are All Church SA movement sees itself as a facilitator of dialogue which aims at implementing the teachings and vision of the Second Vatican Council.

Originally set up as the South African chapter of the progressive We Are Church movement, the founders decided early on to place a distance between themselves and the international movement, adopting a similar but different name: We Are All Church.

It sees as its mission “to help strengthen and support the mission of the Church, especially in South Africa and in our local churches, through promoting dialogue and empowering lay people in particular to take up more responsible and informed roles as evangelising Christians”.

WAACSA currently has branches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal.

Many noted priests, religious and lay Catholics, as well as speakers from other faith bodies, have addressed WAACSA talks In the past few months alone, WAACSA has hosted events addressed by such speakers as Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, Mike Pothier, Dr Nontando Hadebe, Br Philippe Denis OP, Fr Larry Kaufmann CSsR, Sr Judith Coyle IHM, Fr Thomas Plastow SJ, Marumagae Moshe, Prof Douglas Irvine, Fr Anthony Egan SJ, Fr Neil Mitchell OP and others.

Bishop Sylvester David, auxiliary in Cape Town, is scheduled to deliver a talk on March 7 (see www.weareallchurch.co.za for details).

WAACSA also hosts seminars on subjects such as Scripture, and book launches.

Dr Brian Robertson, who with his wife Francoise initiated what would become WAACSA, is an emeritus professor in psychiatry and mental health.

What was behind the founding of WAACSA? Prof Robertson: In 2010 my wife and I sent an email to 12 Catholic friends, expressing our concern that the Church was going back to a defensive, pre-Vatican 2 stance.

We invited them to join us in establishing a South African movement to strive for a return to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

Our e-mail went viral and within a few months we had responses from about 500 people from all around the country, supporting our initiative.

Following further discussions we formed three branches: two larger branches in Gauteng and Cape Town and a small one in KwaZulu-Natal.

Not long after that, I described our new movement in The Southern Cross, calling for a change of heart in the Church following the example of St Pope John XXIII at the Second Vatican Council.

I also informed the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference and met with Archbishop Stephen Brislin [of Cape Town].

Subsequently we drafted a mission statement which has been updated regularly. Our current statement can be found on our website.

You suggest that WAACSA sees as its mission to keep alive the spirit and the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. How should we, as the Church, do that?

dr Brian Robertson and his wife Francoise who in 2010 spearheaded the founding of the we Are All Church SA movement, which sees as its aim to foster dialogue in implementing the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The wAACSA logo is pictured right.

We need regularly to remind and re-educate Catholics about the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, through talks and discussions within parishes and in Catholic publications.

Many of the teachings have not yet translated into practice, nor have we developed them further to keep them relevant to the changing world.

And, most importantly, we need to keep a dialogue open with those who find change difficult and would like to remain in the First Vatican Council era.

Initially you were inspired by the international We Are Church movement, at a time when that movement was regarded by some with suspicion. Since then, you’ve changed the name to We Are All Church, and broken structural ties with the international movement. What’s behind that?

We found the international movement too confrontational, even the name. That’s why we changed the name for our own movement right at the outset.

We don’t believe confrontation and demands are appropriate or effective strategies for bringing about transformation in the Church.

Also, we gradually realised that the international movement is not truly international as they seem to have difficulty representing cultures that are not Eurocentric.

Some people in the Church seem to regard WAACSA as a group of old white people who are discontented with the Church.

Does that observation reflect reality?

The reality is that due to a combination of apartheid, hierarchicalism and other structural evils, too many Catholic laity in South Africa remain unempowered and are reluctant to stand up against abuse and clericalism, and to call for the Church’s conversion, to use a favourite phrase of Pope Francis.

It is an indictment of our Church that it is largely, though not entirely, lay white seniors who are engaging with the Church to transform.

You have had the support of priests and also a few bishops as well…

Only a few bishops have openly opposed WAACSA, but they seem to have intimidated a number of clergy from collaborating with us.

Many bishops, priests and religious do support us and urge us to continue our important work of promoting open dialogue, empowering the laity and welcoming

the marginalised.

Archbishop Brislin for a long time barred WAACSA from meeting on Catholic Church property. He has now revised that policy. Did WAACSA do anything to change his mind, or how did this reconciliation

come about?

Apart from the ban on our Cape Town group, Archbishop Brislin has always been supportive and open to meeting with us.

Last year, after one of our members asked him why he continued to withhold permission for us to meet on Catholic property, he informed me that he had decided to lift the ban.

To my knowledge, no other bishop has banned WAACSA from meeting on Church property. Our Gauteng branch meets regularly in a Johannesburg parish.

What has the reaction of the “Catholic in the Pew” been to WAACSA? The average Catholic in the pew continues to be encouraged to “pay, pray and obey”. The hierarchy, perhaps unconsciously, instils a culture of fear that prevents laity from thinking for themselves.

That makes listening to and acting on your inner voice scary, and almost revolutionary. So a movement like WAACSA is threatening to many.

We have lost sight of the fact that Jesus was a revolutionary.

The pastoral approach of Pope Francis reflects the vision of WAACSA more than that of his predecessors. Isn’t that a case of “mission accomplished”? Or what still needs to change and be done in the Church?

We couldn’t believe it when Pope Francis came up with his appeal for “dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue”, because that is the first

aim in our WAACSA mission statement.

You ask, “What still needs to change in the Church?” The answer is: Everything.

Nothing has changed substantially yet, and I can’t see any change happening soon.

Without wanting to generalise, the hierarchy do not understand what dialogue is nor are they able to see how they abuse power. Pope Francis sees that, to a certain extent.

The laity see it more clearly because we live in the real world where we have learned that human beings cannot develop fully as individuals and in peaceful community unless there is dialogue and freedom from oppression.

What are the future plans for WAACSA? We will continue to invite all Catholics to think critically, to question what they do not understand, and to have more confidence in their ability to discern the truth so that we can move forward together on our pilgrim path.

We pray daily that the Holy Spirit will renew the Church, knowing that a radical transformation is needed for us to rediscover how to follow Jesus and bring about the reign of God. A specific plan that we are exploring is to create safe spaces for clergy and laity to dialogue so as to eradicate clericalism and become one People of God.

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The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

FAITH

Follow Jesus’ path to the Passion Why was Jesus crucified?

What events led up to Christ’s Passion? Over the next five weeks, GÜNTHeR SimmeRmACHeR will examine the events and their context, starting with the raising of Lazarus.

verse in the Bible). Then he instructs Mary to roll the stone away.

Mary protests that the smell of decomposition will be horrid.

And here we need to hit the pause button to consider a couple of things.

Firstly, Lazarus seems to have been entombed in the way Jesus himself will soon be laid to rest: in a rock-cut tomb.

The corpse had been anointed with spices and oil and wrapped in cloth (or, if burial is done in a In this five-part series we will follow hurry, covered in a shroud), so that the paths of Jesus in the weeks and it wouldn’t smell too badly while days before his crucifixion. By its namourners gathered in the tomb for ture, this will be a subjective interprethe first few days. tation of the Gospel record and The corpse would be left there information related to the context in for about a year, by which time the which these events took place, also flesh would be desiccated. drawing from the insights of many difThe bare bones would then colferent scholars of theology and history. lected and placed in an ossuary, a chest made out of stone or wood.

E join Jesus a few weeks That was the plan with Lazarus’ “The Raising of lazarus” by léon Bonnat (1857). The act of bringing the before the Passover in the remains, as it was with those of rotting corpse of lazarus back to life proved to many that Jesus was the desert at the River Jordan, Jesus. In both cases, there’d be a messiah—but it also gave his enemies the resolve to kill him. where his cousin John had bapchange of plan. tised him a few years earlier.

The second thing to remember More important things are hapOutside the house a crowd gathThat site is usually called as we stand outside the tomb of pening, for the people have seen ers, to see not only Jesus but also Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan. Today Lazarus (and later at that of Jesus), something that goes against na- the subject of his miracle, Lazarus there are baptismal sites on both is how the Jews of the time saw the ture: the resurrection of a decom- (who, according to John’s Gospel, banks of the Jordan: one in the process of death. posing corpse. is also a target for death by the reKingdom of Jordan, the other in They believed that after a perAnd while most of the witnesses ligious authorities). the occupied West Bank. son’s death, his or her soul would now believe that they have seen By now, Jesus is not just a rabbi On the western bank, the site is remain around the corpse for three the Messiah in action, some others with a knack for doing astonishing called Qasr el Yahud. days, after which decomposition are running to the High Priest to things. For many he is the Messiah The name means “the Gate of became observable. This meant report what they have seen—and who has defied every law of nature the Jews”, as this is where tradition that, in theory, a life could be re- the authorities are alarmed. by having raised Lazarus from the places the location at which the vived as long as its soul was still Arrival in Bethany In occupied Palestine at the stone-dead.

Jews of the Exodus crossed into the Bethany today is a West Bank present. time, religion and politics were inSo when Mary uses her hair to Promised Land.

So Jesus’ raising from the dead The symbolism of John baptis- town with the Arab name of al- of the widow’s son in Nain or of extricably linked, to the point that anoint Jesus’ feet, with “a pound the various denominations were of very costly ointment, pure ing the Redeemer at that particular Azariya, which means “Place of Jairus’ daughter was akin to political parties. nard” (Jn 12:3), the message is place is difficult to miss. It probably Lazarus”. And as the convoy arrives spectacular, but it was The major two par- clear: she is anointing the Messiah also was a spot of some traffic, en- here, Lazarus is already dead. regarded to be within Mary’s ties were the Pharisees (the synoptic Gospels set the Jesus’ friends Mary and Martha abling John to attract crowds. the limits of the possithe Sadducees. scene after the entry into Now we find Jesus and his com- are grieving not only for their ble, since the deceased’s anointing of andThe Pharisees be- Jerusalem, and at the house of panions in this area, near the oasis brother but also for what they see soul was still present. as the abandonment of the man Jesus as the lieved in the omnipo- Simon the Leper). town of Jericho.

But Lazarus has been tence and intervention One guest is not impressed.

It is possible that Jesus has spent whom they had trusted would heal dead for longer than Messiah is the of God, in total free Judas Iscariot, one of the two the winter in the area, where Lazarus. three days. Decomposiamong the Twelve, At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus tion has set in (Mary is- most subversive will, and in the resurrec- Zealots John’s Gospel places him after the tion of the righteous. protests: “Why was this ointment last visit to Jerusalem for the feast weeps (John 11:35 is the shortest sues a warning about Of all the Jewish not sold for 300 denarii and the the stench) and his soul act which Judas sects, it is the theology money given to the poor?” has departed.

Jesus tells him to let it be. John’s will report to of the Pharisees—whose There is no way that leaders so exasperated Gospel suggests that Judas, the Lazarus can be brought the high priest Our Lord that their group’s treasurer, is driven to his to life again—all bename has become a by- corrupt treason by greed, but the cause Jesus was tardy in word for hypocrisy—with which scholarly view looks at Judas as a coming before the three days were Christianity has the most in com- revolutionary driven by political up. That is why Mary and Martha mon. And it is the Pharisaic theol- motivations. reprimand Jesus. ogy from which the rabbinic In that view, Judas sees Jesus as Jesus, however, has a plan. Ad- Judaism of today evolved. the man whose kingdom will overdressing his Father, he says: “I The Sadducees believed that throw the hated Roman occupiers: speak for the sake of all these who God doesn’t intervene in life, that a political Messiah doing Yahweh’s are standing around me, so that we have total free will, that the ac- political work. they may believe it was you who tions of that free will are neither reThe Hebrew Scripture is replete sent me.” Then he calls: “‘Lazarus, warded nor punished by God, and with instances of Yahweh intervencome out!” ing in political affairs, so Judas’ exthat there is no afterlife.

And Lazarus comes out.

It was the Sadducees who ruled pectation isn’t absurd (though it the temple, with Caiaphas and his doesn’t reveal him to be the most The political fallout predecessor Annas as their leaders. attentive of listeners).

The Gospel leaves Lazarus there, So to Judas, the whole religious ‘Jesus must die!’

Jesus, martha and mary are depicted in the church of St lazarus in his bandages being unwound (he Messiah business is getting in the briefly returns later, in the comBethany, Palestine, which likely stands on the site of the house where So as the religious authorities way of liberation. pany of his sisters).

Jesus often was a guest.

Maybe Judas hopes that getting confer about the shocking events arrested (but spared serious punishat Bethany, they are alarmed.

The Pharisees still seem a little ment) will move Jesus to some puzzled about what all this means. seditious fervour, or perhaps he is RADIO VERITAS PILGRIMAGE Caiaphas—a shrewd religious and disillusioned by the revelation of Jesus as the King of not the worldly political leader—sees no upside.

“You do not seem to have but another kingdom.

Whatever the case, it is probable grasped the situation at all,” he bewith Istanbul rates them. “You fail to see that it that Mary’s anointing of Jesus as 6 - 16 September 2020 Keeping is to your advantage that one man the Messiah is the most subversive should die for the people, rather act which Judas will report to the Led by Children safe than that the whole nation should high priest, for that pathetic sack Bishop Duncan Tsoke of silver. perish” (Jn 11:49-50). within families From that point on, Jesus’ fate is What became of Lazarus? sealed. And he knows it. With his We will reconnect with Jesus in disciples, Jesus goes into hiding in For more information please contact Gail the town of Ephraim, on the edge the next article. But what became info@fowlertours.co.za or 076 352-3809 of Lazarus? of the desert. www.fowlertours.co.za/veritas In the Gospel of John, we last That town still exists, and it is a remarkable place. Now known as encounter him at the supper in his Taybeh—the town was renamed in house, with the threat of death the 12h century by the Muslim gen- (again!) hanging over him.

The According to tradition, Lazarus eral Saladin—it is the only 100% later fled Judea and landed up in Christian village in the Holy Land.

So this town, today in the occu- Cyprus, where he met Paul and pied West Bank, is where Jesus hides Barnabas who appointed him out until he returns to the public bishop of Kition (now Larnaka). facebook.com/thescross He died for a second and final eye in the most spectacular way the week before the Passover, on what time 30 years after his resurrection (probably around 63 AD). twitter.com/ScrossZA we now call Palm Sunday.

It is said that in those 30 years, But before he will embark on that entry into Jerusalem, Jesus re- he never smiled, remembering the instagram.com/thesoutherncross_ admin@stanthonyshome.org turns to Bethany, where Mary, sight of unredeemed souls he had www.stanthonyshome.org Martha and Lazarus are hosting a seen during his first death. supper for him and his disciples.

Next week: The entry into Jerusalem.

W

of the Dedication (or Hanukkah).

That visit to Jerusalem was frightening. Jesus had narrowly avoided arrest and stoning for “blasphemy”, a foreshadowing of the terrible events ahead.

Presently, messengers arrive to inform Jesus that his dear friend Lazarus (or, in Hebrew, Eleazer) of Bethany, the brother of Mary and Martha, is mortally ill.

But Jesus doesn’t rush to Bethany—about 25km away, on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives—to heal his friend. Instead he cryptically says: “This sickness will not end in death, but it is for God’s glory so that through it the Son of God may be glorified.”

We may assume that his disciples wonder what this could mean, and then shelve the statement among all the other inscrutable things the Master has said, and continue to go about their business.

After two days, Jesus gets ready to go to Bethany, despite the misgivings of the disciples. They ask: “Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews were trying to stone you; are you going back there again?”

This generates another cryptic response, and they go on their way across the desert to Bethany—expecting the worst. Still, Thomas is resolute: “Let us also go to die with him.”

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The Southern Cross, march 11 to march 17, 2020

YOUr cLASSIFIeDS

Brothers teach Gregorian chant on free YouTube

D

OMINICAN Brothers Stefan Ansinger and Alexandre Frezzato are teaching people to sing 800-year-old Gregorian chant through free weekly lessons on their YouTube channel called OPChant.

Launched last November, OPChant is the only channel on the Internet that teaches Latin chant in the Dominican tradition in a systematic way. The channel is entirely accessible in English.

Each video includes in its description a PDF of the score and the Latin words so people can study along with the Brothers. They release one video a week, carefully following the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar.

“I know that our videos have helped Gregorian choirs in England and America,” said Br Ansinger. “That was the original purpose of our project.” There are also followers in across Europe and South America.

Reaction to the OPChant project among fellow Dominicans also has been good.

“I remember one of our older Brothers giving us some very useful advice when we recorded a few songs,” Br Ansinger said. “He

dominican Brothers Stefan Ansinger and Alexandre Frezzato teach weekly lessons in Gregorian chant in the dominican tradition through their youTube channel “oPChant”. asked us to extend some notes and breathe at times. It was really beautiful. An older Brother who had been trained in singing at the time was giving us advice to improve our singing, in a completely spontaneous way.”

The two make excursions to film videos “in beautiful monastic

churches”, Br Frezatto said.

The two Brothers said that, for them, the intellectual and spiritual fruits of carrying out this project are many, from the study of texts—“It’s important to know what you’re singing,” said Br Ansinger—to “efficiency, an increasing facility in deciphering, familiarity with Latin and an awareness of detail”, explained Br Frezatto.

“I find that the song resonates in me throughout the day. This can create a certain experience of ‘endless’ prayer, as St Paul puts it,” said Br Ansinger.

“What also touches me is the awareness of history; through this sacred song, which has remained the same, which accompanied the common prayer of the Brothers,” Br Frezatto remarked.

“We have here a treasure which binds us to those who precede us and who gave their lives for Christ in our Order. It’s our turn to pass it on!”

The Brothers teach anyone who is willing to learn. It’s entirely free, and it’s as simple as going to OPChant on YouTube and clicking the red button marked “Subscribe”.—CNS

Let us see the suffering of Christ in others Continued from page 7 vows? What of the woman who feels called to share in the sacramental ministry of the Church?

Or couples who are afraid of opening up to the possibility of new life by making a commitment to marriage or children?

Instead of asking, “What does the Church teach?” on all these hot-button issues, could we not perhaps ask, “How does Jesus call me to suffer with those who try to love Christ, but for whom the

Church’s teaching seems a burden too hard to bear?”

What if each day that remains this Lent we put ourselves in the shoes of those who suffer?

How will it have changed us when we contemplate the Crucified Christ in our crucified brothers and sisters who often suffer so much condemnation at the hands of the Church?

Fr Kentenich gave us the new Paul, after his conversion, as an example of what it means to suffer

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PrAYerS

PrAYer tO tHe VIrGIN MArY: o most beautiful lady of the Rosary, splendour of heaven, blessed mother of the Son of God. Queen of heaven and earth, i humbly beseech you to succour me in my necessities. There is none who can withstand your power. o mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy mary, i place this cause in your hands knowing it will be granted for my higher good, and those whom i intercede for.

PrAYer tO tHe trINItY: most Holy Father, Son and Holy Spirit. i see your works here on earth. i stand amazed at the beauty of your creation. 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 and protection. Blessed be your

Bishops call for ‘Yes’ vote

Princess Diana, Mother Teresa meet Princess Diana jetted to Rome for a 20-minute meeting with Mother Teresa at a retreat house run by the Missionaries of Charity. After the meeting, “the Princess and the Pauper nun” removed their shoes and entered the convent chapel where both knelt in prayer for a few minutes.

tHANKS

PrAYerFUL tHANKS to the infant Jesus of Prague for blessings and favours received.

PerSONAL

ABOrtION WArNING: The truth will convict a silent Church. See

This week we congratulate: March 19: Coadjutator Archbishop Abel Gabuza of Durban on the 9th anniversary of his episcopal ordination as bishop of Kimberley March 19: Apostolic Nuncio Peter Wells to South Africa on the 4th anniversary of his episcopal ordination as titular archbishop of Marcianopolis

FROM OUR VAULTS

White South Africans have the chance to apologise for apartheid by voting a resounding “Yes” in President FW de Klerk’s referendum on March 17, said the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. SACBC president Bishop Wilfrid Napier of Kokstad said in a statement that by voting “No”, the white electorate would choose conflict and bloodshed, but a “Yes” vote endorses peaceful negotiations. He noted that the referendum is a legacy of apartheid as only whites may vote.

name in all of the earth, we pray.

HeAr Me, LOrD, on behalf of all those who are dear to me, all whom i have in mind at this moment. Be near them in all their anxieties and worries, give them the help of your saving grace. i commend them all with trustful confidence to your merciful love. Remember, lord, all who are mindful of me: all those who have asked me to pray for them, all who have been kind to me, all who have wronged me, or whom i have wronged by ill-will or misunderstanding. Give all of us to bear each other’s faults, and to share each other’s burdens. Have mercy on the souls of our loved ones who have gone before us. Grant them peace and happiness.

Amen.

Our bishops’ anniversaries

with Christ: “He did not only want to suffer in order to grow in likeness to the Crucified; he did not only want to suffer in order that the Church in her entirety would repeat the suffering of Christ. He also wanted to suffer in order to make reparation—reparation for the sins of the world, reparation for the sins of humanity.” n For more articles by Sarah-Leah Pimentel, see www.scross.co.za/ category/perspectives/sarah-leah-pimentel/

28 Years Ago: March 8, 1992

11

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Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday March 15, 3rd Sunday of Lent Exodus 17:3-7, Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9, Romans 5:1-2, 5-8, John 4:5-42 Monday March 16 2 Kings 5:1-15, Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3-4, Luke 4:24-30 Tuesday March 17, St Patrick Daniel 3:25, 34-43, Psalm 25:4-9, Matthew 18:21-35 Wednesday March 18, St Cyril of Jerusalem Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9, Psalm 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20, Matthew 5:17-19

Thursday March 19, St Joseph, Husband of Mary 2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16, Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29, Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22, Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24 or Luke 2:41-51 Friday March 20 Hosea 14:1-9 (2-10), Psalm 81:6-11, 14, 17, Mark 12:28-34 Saturday March 21 Hosea 6:1-6, Psalm 51:3-4, 18-21, Luke 18:9-14 Sunday March 22, 4th Sunday of Lent 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13, Psalm 23:1-6, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41

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Fr Gabriel Goibaiyer, 50, celebrated Mass before going to Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town for a heart transplant.

Workers must profit Cardinal Owen McCann writes in his editorial that the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) must propose joint ownership of the means of work. “This means sharing by the workers in the management, and/or profits of business and so-called shareholding by labour.”

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4th Sunday in Lent: March 22 Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13, Psalm 23:1-6, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41

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EXT Sunday is the mid-Lent Sunday, when you can take a break from your austerity, and reflect on where you are on the journey. But be careful, for God sees things differently from us; and that seems to be the message of the readings for the day.

In the first reading, the prophet Samuel is (rather nervously) sent by God to anoint a successor to Saul, since God has “rejected” him “from being king over Israel”.

This is a dangerous operation, as Samuel is well aware, but he does what he is told anyway, and makes his way to Bethlehem.

There he reviews all the sons of Jesse, starting with the eldest, but is told that (like Saul) God has “rejected him”. After seven sons, Samuel asks if there is any other, and there is, but he is the youngest, doing the young person’s job of (as in Africa) herding sheep.

And it is he who is anointed, because “human beings see the eyes, but the Lord sees the heart”.

The psalm for next Sunday is that loveliest of all the psalms of trust, Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd”. This is a spectacular vindication of the fact that God sees things differently; indeed, the psalm is headed “a song for/of David”; and we discover that if shepherding is a lowly activity, then David is in excellent company, since God is also a shepherd.

S outhern Cross

Seeing from new angles It is a wonderful picture, this of a shepherd in a hot and dry region who “made me graze in green pastures, led me in safe waters”. And this is a shepherd on whom we can rely, “even if I walk in the Valley of the Shadow of Death”.

The poem continues happily with a vision of an unexpected reversal: “You have set a table before me, in the presence of my enemies”, and concludes with a lovely coda: “Indeed, goodness and steadfast love will pursue me, all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the Lord’s house to the end of days.”

God sees things differently.

That is the message of our second reading, from Ephesians, though it is expressed slightly differently, in terms of “light” and “darkness”: “Once upon a time, you were darkness—but now you are light in the Lord.

So behave like children of the light…testing out what is pleasing to the Lord.”

Then it concludes with a Resurrectionhymn: “Rise up, you who sleep, and be resurrected from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.”

This leads into the Gospel for next Sunday, the story of the Man Born Blind. Again, the point is that there are various ways of seeing things; and indeed this story offers many different kinds of blindness.

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munities for those with intellectual disabilities which he founded, nor cast any negative shadow on the dedication and good work of the many women and men who work there and who have worked there.

By their fruits you shall know them!

Jesus taught that and no one—no one— can deny or question the good work that L’Arche has done and continues to do in more than 30 countries.

L’Arche is a work of God, of grace, of the Holy Spirit. It turns out now that its founder had some flaws. So be it. Jesus is the only founder who had no flaws.

Indeed, the good work being done by L’Arche attests too to the fact that Vanier is and was bigger than his sins. Nobody who is essentially duplicitous can leave behind such a grace-filled legacy.

F

Pilgrimage 2020

S outher n C ross

Conrad

inally, the disillusionment and anger we feel says as much about us as it says about Jean Vanier.

In Luke’s Gospel, a young man comes up to Jesus and says to him: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

(18:18-23). Jesus immediately challenges the way he is being addressed by saying: “Don’t call me good! Only God is good.”

That was our mistake with Jean Vanier, just as it’s our mistake with other persons we cloak with divinity in an idealisation that’s supposed to be reserved for God alone.

And whenever we do that, and we did it to Jean Vanier, we cannot not ultimately be disappointed and disillusioned. Nobody, except God, does God well, all the

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Sunday Reflections

Most obviously there is the blindness of the “person blind from birth”; but this one turns out to be on a spectacular journey from blindness into sight.

Then there is the blindness of Jesus’ disciples, asking, “Who sinned…that this one was born blind?” Jesus’ response gives us all that we need to know, even though no one is really listening: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Then, effortlessly, Jesus heals the man’s physical blindness, with spittle and mud, and tells him to wash in Siloam. Naturally the healing is immediate and effective.

After that we are shown another kind of blindness: that of “neighbours, and those who saw him before”, uncertain about his identity.

Next there is trouble, and another blindness, in the shape of Pharisees on the Sabbath (a dangerous combination in the Gospels).

The formerly blind man simply repeats the truth in answer to all interrogation, while they have reached their verdict already: “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath”, and (later on) they say, “Give glory to God: we know that this man is a sinner.”

Then there is yet another kind of blindness, in the shape of the blind man’s parents, who are not going to take the risk of seeing any-

Jean Vanier revisited IKE many others, I was deeply distressed to learn of the recent revelations concerning Jean Vanier.

He was a person whom I much admired and about whom, on numerous occasions, I have written glowingly. So, the news about him shook me deeply.

What’s to be said about Jean Vanier in the light of these revelations?

First, that what he did was very wrong and deeply harmful, not least to the women he victimised.

Without knowing the specifics of what happened (and without wanting to know them) enough is known to know that this was a serious abuse of trust. No cloak of justification can be placed around it.

Second, what he did may not be linked to or identified with clerical sexual abuse.

Vanier was not a cleric, nor indeed a canonically vowed religious.

He was a layman, a public celibate admittedly, but his betrayal of his commitment to celibacy may not be identified with the clerical sexual abuse.

He broke the sixth commandment, albeit in a way that merits a harsh judgment, given his public stature and the abuse of a particular kind of sacred trust.

However, his breaking of his professed celibacy doesn’t put into question the legitimacy and fruitfulness of vowed celibacy itself, any more than a married man being unfaithful to his wife puts into question the legitimacy and fruitfulness of marriage.

Third, Vanier’s transgressions do not negate the good work of L’Arche, the com-

Nicholas King SJ

thing, and deny all knowledge, putting it all onto their son. He, however, is totally on top of the situation. When he is told “this man is a sinner”, he simply responds, “I don’t know about his being a sinner. But one thing I do know: I was blind, and now I am sighted.”

He sees a good deal more than is on the surface; so when they interrogate him again, he asks, impertinently, “Do you want to become his disciples?” and “There’s a remarkable thing: you don’t know where he is from—and he opened my eyes!” After this spirited response, he gives them a theological lecture, on how Jesus must be from God; but in their blindness, all they can do is expel him.

Finally, Jesus shows how much the man can now see, because he finds him and asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He is now ready for anything, and asks Jesus, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?”

Then, when Jesus tells him, he comes to full sight: “‘I believe, Lord’—and he worshipped him.”

It is an extraordinary story, with a devastating finish, accusing the Pharisees of real blindness. God sees things very differently.

Southern Crossword #906

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

rest of us eventually disappoint.

What Jean Vanier did to us was unfair.

We cannot not feel betrayed. Conversely, though, what we did to him was also unfair. We asked him to be God for us and that’s also not a fair request.

When I was a 21-year-old seminarian, searching for mentors, one of my seminary teachers came back from a Vanier retreat gushing, describing Vanier as the “holiest, most-wonderful, most single-minded, spiritual man” he’d ever met.

My critical faculties immediately put me on guard: “No one’s that good!” So, I deliberately didn’t look to Vanier for mentorship.

However, in the 50 years since, I did look to him for mentorship. Though I never met him personally, I read his books, was much influenced by numerous persons who counted him as a formidable influence in their lives (including Fr Henri Nouwen), I wrote a preface for one of his last books, and wrote a glowing tribute to him for the newspapers when he died.

So, I was also enough besotted with him so that now I too felt dismayed and disillusioned when I learned of his moral lapses.

However, disillusionment is a curious phenomenon. After the initial shock, you soon enough realise it’s a positive thing.

Disillusionment is the dispelling of an illusion, and an illusion is always in the mind of the one who is doing the perceiving rather than on the part of the one being perceived.

With Jean Vanier, the illusion was on our part, not his. There was, as we now know, a certain falsity in his life—but there was one on our part too.

Yes, the revelations about Jean Vanier shook me deeply, but not to my core for at our core, when we touch it, we know that no one, except God, is good, at least with a goodness that has no imperfections. Once we accept that, we can accept too that nobody’s perfect, even a Jean Vanier. At our core we can accept that, despite this betrayal, Jean Vanier did a lot of good and that L’Arche is clearly a graced reality.

La st cha nc t o bo e o k!

ACROSS

1. Place of Regina Mundi church in Johannesburg archdiocese (6) 2. The Son of Man came to give his life as a … for many (Mt 20) (6) 9. System of regular contributions to the parish (7,6) 10. Note that’s not sharp or flat (7) 11. Evidence that you were elsewhere (5) 12. Its capital is Damascus (5) 14. A … came and overshadowed them (Lk 9) (5) 18. One unmarried lady can go wrong (5) 19. Preserves the remains (7) 21. It is sacramentally in the chalice (8,5) 22. Slates that can become ornamental (6) 23. Not into temptation (4,2)

DOWN

1. Use pin, lying face upwards (6) 2. Donors with lots of money (7,6) 3. One who gets the right pitch for your piano (5) 5. David offered to marry her (1 Sm 25) (7) 6. They all ate the same … (1 Cor 10) (9,4) 7. I am Peg, the bird (6) 8. One who has reached the age of majority (5) 13. Divine influence to animate you (8) 15. It hangs from a mitre (6) 16. The Son of Man (5) 17. Remarks on stage for the audience only (6) 20. It contains the Testaments (5)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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CATHOLIC priest spied a parishioner enjoying a sausage on Friday during Lent. The priest told the man that for his penance he was to bring a load of timber to the church to help repair the roof.

The man grumbled, but went off to do his penance. And arrived at the church on the next Friday and proceeded to dump a huge load of sawdust into the parking lot.

“What’s this?” the priest demanded to know. “I told you your penance was to bring a load of lumber, not sawdust.”

The man replied: “Well, if that sausage I ate was meat, then this sawdust is timber.”

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