200429

The

S outher n C ross

April 29 to May 5, 2020

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 5184

Pope writes new prayer on Covid-19

Page 5

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R12 (incl VAT RSA)

A visit to St John Vianney Seminary

Priest’s journey from Nkandla to France

Page 10

May 3 is Vocations Sunday See the panel adverts and our features inside! What is God’s call to you?

Centenary Jubilee Year

Page 11

Ngome priest: Mary didn’t appear to me STAFF REPORTER

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Two learners of Holy Rosary College in Edenvale, Johannesburg, pray with their school community during their remote learning in the time of the coronavirus lockdown. See page 8 for more photos of Catholic school leaners going about getting their education while at home.

HE rector of Ngome shrine in KwaZuluNatal has slammed fake news which claim that he had a Marian apparition.

“The message being spread on various social media platforms concerning the Divine Mercy prayer, supposedly from me is not true,” Oblate Father Wayne Weldschidt said in a statement.

The widely circulated message read verbatim: “Our Lady appeared to Fr. Wayne of Ngome @11am today (Wed 22 April 2020) & She has asked everyone to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy ‘every day’ @3pm. We must pray to end this virus. She says it is going to end through this prayer.”

Fr Weldschidt said that he has “no idea” of the message’s origin or objective. He has asked the faithful not to respond or spread “this false message”.

“Instead, I think we should be very clear about the importance and necessity of daily prayer during this very difficult time in the history of human community,” he said.

“Please be inspired to pray deeply and sincerely, as I’m sure that so many of us have more time for prayer and reflection,” the priest advised.

He asked the faithful to keep praying daily for “God’s mercy upon the world”.

Fr Weldschidt also encouraged the daily prayer of the Divine Mercy rosary chaplet at 15:00, “since that is the request of the Lord to Sr Faustina”.

The Divine Mercy chaplet is based on the apparitions of Jesus reported by St Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun who lived from 190538.

The chaplet is recited using ordinary rosary beads of five decades. It is preceded by two opening prayers from the diary of St Faustina and followed by a closing prayer.

(Click here for full instructions).

The Ngome shrine, in Eshowe diocese, is

Fr Wayne Weldschidt OMI, rector of Ngome shrine, has denied social media rumours that the Blessed Virgin appeared to him. based on ten apparitions by the Blessed Virgin reported by Benedictine Sister Reinolda May from 1955-71. Devotion to the apparitions was approved by the late Bishop Mansuet Biyase in 1984.

In October 1992 Bishop Biyase declared Ngome a “Place of Prayer”, but it has had visits from devout pilgrims since 1961. (For more, see www.scross.co.za/2018/09/the-sainthood-of-sr-reinolda-may/ or click here).

The process of the sainthood cause for Sr Reinolda, who died on April 1, 1981 at the age of 79 was unanimously approved in 2018 by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

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The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

LOCAL

Campaign to supply facemasks in Eastern Cape

BY ERIN CARELSE

I

N the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Rural Development Support Program (RDSP), an associate body of the Southern African Catholics Bishops’ Conference, has started a campaign to supply families in the rural villages of the Eastern Cape with facemasks, to aid in continued efforts to check the spread of the virus.

The NPO, which serves various regions, has been working in the Eastern Cape for over 15 years and in the past six years has been operating a satellite office in Bhisho.

RDSP staffer Nosakhele Mpush, who knows and understands the local communities and runs the work in the province, explained that the organisation started the campaign on April 20, because it saw the need for hygiene items in neighbouring villages due to the pandemic.

Ms Mpush has identified three villages where there is a great need: Bhalasi Location, Tyutu Location and Ilitha Township in King William’s Town.

“The unemployment rate is very high in these villages and many people depend on the elderly and child support grant only. They live in small

houses or shacks where there are about five or more in one household, and there are no taps in their yards for water,” she explained.

“Some family members have to go to public healthcare centres and collect their grant payouts—places where they need to wear facemasks. When I inquired why they do not follow the instructions of wearing masks, they said they cannot afford to buy them, and access to the shops where they can buy them is difficult,” Ms Mpush said.

A major concern is that residents could easily get the virus and spread it to their families without intending to.

“Soon it is going to be grant paydays, so they will be at high risk for contracting the virus if not equipped with masks and hand sanitisers [due to the limited access to water]. Besides having limited food during this Covid-19 pandemic, they have the added burden of keeping themselves and their families safe and protected,” she noted.

Nomthetho Kwinana, 49, who was born and bred in the rural areas of Keiskammahoek where she is currently based, makes the cloth facemasks with the help of her neighbour. She charges R20 per mask.

“Due to unemployment and unfore-

seen circumstance, in 2001 I started to make use of the skill that I have as a seamstress to put food on the table.

Now I am sewing facemasks due to this Covid-19 pandemic,” Ms Kwinana said.

She explained that the masks she makes are safe because they comprise three layers to ensure the virus cannot be spread easily.

“This project helps me in making sure we are living in a protected community. This pandemic has caused distress to self-employed people like myself; now at least I get to use my skills and keep myself busy by making facemasks,” Ms Kwinana said.

To date, the RDSP has raised R8 600, which means that they will be able to supply 430 people with masks.

It hopes to reach many more rural people through this initiative.

The organisation would also like to supply communities with hand sanitisers, and asks for donations for these as well.

The banking details are: Standard Bank Sea Point branch, account number 071059210, account name Rural Development Support Program. The reference is Covid-19 Response. n For more information on the campaign, contact Faith Brown on 071 095-3156 or faith@rdsp.co.za

The Rural Development Support Program, an SACBC associate body, is campaigning for funds to supply Eastern Cape rural families with facemasks and hand sanitiser in the continued effort to check the spread of the coronavirus.

Nomthetho Kwinana (right), with the help of a neighbour, is sewing three-layered cloth facemasks for sale.

Nazareth Care launches fund to support staff members

BY ERIN CARELSE

A

LTHOUGH classified as an essential service and therefore able to continue operations during lockdown, Nazareth Care Africa has faced implications not just to vulnerable residents, but to staff who care for them and the organisation’s ability to remain sustainable.

During this time, maintaining quality of life for residents has been of utmost importance, says Wayne Devy, Nazareth Care Africa CEO. “With the general day-to-day activities being suspended, new resident activities have been implemented to practise social distancing. Residents have been staying in touch with their families thanks to forms of digital communication, such as Skype and WhatsApp,” Mr Devy said.

Nazareth Care has also initiated the campaign “Say hi to mum or dad”, whereby families, friends and loved ones of residents are encouraged to write digital letters and notes or send digital pictures which are then shared with residents.

The first wave of restrictions in March led to Nazareth Care implementing firm procedures at all its residential facilities and child and youth care centres, to limit access to their properties before the lockdown.

In a bid to think proactively and recognise the risk and exponential spread of the coronavirus in South

Nazareth Care Africa’s income has been hit by the national lockdown, and this has had implications for staff members. The organisation has launched the CEO Staff Support Fund to help staff affected.

Africa, especially among the most vulnerable and older persons for whom they care, an internal Covid19 response group was established.

This group was tasked to deal with issues such as monitoring the spread of Covid-19, assessing contamination risks, and acting to safeguard both residents and staff.

Furthermore, internal staff training was implemented to educate staff who interact with the residents, both young and old, on im-

proved hygiene practices.

Current standard practices within all Nazareth House care facilities are in line with those advised by the government and the World Health Organisation, and those implemented on a global level. A strict policy of social distancing has further been adhered to between staff and residents where possible, and protective equipment is to be worn at all times.

Currently, the organisation faces

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a significant funding shortfall every month and—and that shortfall is soaring.

The impact of the national lockdown to date, and for weeks and months to come, has resulted in an exponential and unbudgeted increase in costs, which Nazareth House is struggling to accommodate.

Furthermore, due to the restriction on admitting new residents, income is dramatically reduced and cannot be recouped at this stage.

This results in a major shortage of funds available and affects each Nazareth House’s ability to cover its operational costs including salaries.

According to Mr Devy, to ensure the organisation will make it through this crisis, and in an effort to reduce the impact where possible and the possibility of having to retrench employees, numerous hard decisions needed to be made.

These include surcharges levied on residents where possible, and placing all non-essential staff on “temporary layoff” and apply the notion of “no work no pay”.

Further, employees’ annual salary and wage increases have been postponed until further notice, and a “provident fund holiday” has been initiated.

“These decisions are extremely difficult and directly affect the very persons who are looking after the most vulnerable elderly and children

within our society,” Mr Devy said.

As a father and family man, and as the CEO, he has initiated the CEO Staff Support Fund to try to raise money to help in covering the shortfall of income both non-essential and essential staff at Nazareth Care will have to endure. In his personal capacity, he has pledged R5 000 to kickstart this fund.

The expected loss to Nazareth Care staff over the next two months due to the coronavirus pandemic is at this stage expected to be a minimum of R480 000 across the region.

“I call on fellow colleagues, families, residents, friends of Nazareth, corporates and CEOs alike, to please help and pledge anything, small or large, meet my pledge or beat my pledge. Let us look after our own, those persons in the frontline and those who need our support during this time of crisis,” Mr Devy said.

To assist the CEO Staff Support Fund, donations can be made via EFT. All funds raised will be dedicated to supporting the staff of Nazareth Care Africa.

The banking details are Standard Bank branch 051001, account 011837241, account name Nazareth House Head, SWIFT code SBZA ZA JJ, and reference CEOStaffSupportFund. n For more information on how to help, and to learn more about Nazareth Care’s campaigns, visit www.nazarethcare.co.za

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We Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are an International Congregation

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Pray that AFRICA and THE WORLD may draw closer to the HEART OF CHRIST 2 Chron 7:14

Matthew 7:7-12

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The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

LOCAL (Top row from left) Archbishop Abel Gabuza, Bishop Frank Nubuasah, Bishop José Ponce de León, Archbishop Stephen Brislin, and (Bottom row) Bishop Duncan Tsoke, Bishop Sylvester David, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, and Bishop Victor Phalana. (Photos: Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba, Fr Paul Tatu CSS, Sheldon Reddiar)

Bishops’ encouragement during Covid-19 crisis STAFF REPORTER

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EVERAL Southern African bishops have encouraged the faithful to be strong during the coronavirus crisis.

Archbishop Abel Gabuza, coadjutor of Durban, said during the lockdown “we have witnessed the goodness in many people”.

“The health professionals have been wonderful in doing their work, given the various challenges faced in each context,” he said.

Archbishop Gabuza said that life must be “celebrated in whatever situation we find ourselves”.

Encouraging the faithful, he said: “Wherever you are and however you feel right now, be strong and know that God is a ‘Wellspring of Hope’. God is the heart of compassion.”

Bishop Frank Nubuasah of Gaborone, Botswana, said “the poor and needy are those who bear the brunt of any pandemic”.

However, he added: “God in his mercy has intervened in such occasions as these in the past, and he will intervene again.”

Bishop José Luis Ponce de León of Manzini, Eswatini, said that “no matter what we are going through, the Risen Lord always walks with us”.

Reflecting on last Sunday’s Gospel reading of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the bishop said when “they discovered that Jesus is risen, they chose not to remain in Emmaus but to return to Jerusalem, the place where they had chosen to leave”.

“Being a Christian is not about running away, but looking at life under a new light, the light of the Resurrection of Christ,” Bishop Ponce de León said.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town echoed the message of God “throughout the history of salvation, in every era”.

That message, he said, is: “Be strong. Stand firm in faith. Take

heart. Have courage. And do not be afraid.”

Bishop Duncan Tsoke, auxiliary in Johannesburg, noted that “although separated during the lockdown, we are called to remain united in faith and to be in solidarity with the most vulnerable among us: the homeless, the elderly, the orphans, the migrants and refugees, domestic violence survivors, and all the neglected”.

He said faith in Christ can “sustain and empower us through this difficult and trying time”.

Bishop Tsoke said the Spirit of God calls on us to believe our God is still in charge even in these chaotic and frightening times.

“God’s light cannot be overcome by darkness. His love is stronger than Covid-19 and death. Do not, therefore, be afraid,” he added.

“It is important for us to remember and find solace in God’s love which continues to conquer death in our daily life. The resurrected Christ will be with us during and beyond this Covid-19 crisis,” the bishop said.

Bishop Tsoke called on the People of God’s faith to give “a strong sense that we are not alone but interconnected”.

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ishop Sylvester David, auxiliary in Cape Town, said earlier this month that “we have domesticated the cross and look for it only in antiseptic places”.

“The real cross was not perfumed. It was covered with blood, dust, sweat and tears, human suffering,” he noted.

“So when we have to contend with sickness and impending death in the family, we actually live the cross out of the rocks of Calvary implanted firmly in our homes. It is through the cross, the real cross, that we have salvation,” Bishop David said.

At Easter, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban wrote: “I know some people regard the

lockdown as a total disaster.

They can see no good whatsoever coming from it. In a way, they are as negative and despondent as the two disciples on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

Everything that they had hoped for, everything that they had banked on, everything that they had invested their energies in, was over and done with.

“That was their mood as they decided to leave the Church. But they could not have known and dreamed that Jesus would come to them at the very moment that they doubted him most. In fact, they had given up on him. That is when he came to them,” Cardinal Napier said.

Jesus “comes to them and meets them where they are in their hopelessness, and it is from there that he begins to rebuild their lives and faith. He begins by bringing them back to the basics.”

The coronavirus will not have the last word, said Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp.

He noted that in the State of National Disaster and lockdown, “we are in pain. We are grieving.

Our people are infected and affected. Others are dead.”

However, he said, “for us Catholics, the Resurrection of Jesus means that Jesus will go with us through the storm of coronavirus”.

“Covid-19 will not have the last word! Christ calls us to life and he promises to remove the stone of this pandemic. He is the specialist ‘stone remover’,” Bishop Phalana said, referring to the Gospel account of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:39).

“Be strong. I cover your family with the Precious Blood of the Sacred Heart of the Passover Lamb: Jesus the Christ.”

“May the stone blocking your success, healing, peace, joy and courage be rolled away! Be free!

Be delivered! Be healed,” Bishop Phalana wrote.

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CPLO backs economic and social corona measures

BY ERIN CARELSE

A

S President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a limited easing of the national lockdown from Level 5 to Level 4, effective as from May 1, he referred repeatedly to this being “a time of caution”. According to the director of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO), this is the lens through which the speech and the activities proposed need to be understood.

Level 4 is the second-most stringent level and applies when there is still a “moderate to high spread of the virus and low to moderate response”.

CPLO director Fr Peter-John Pearson said two aspects seem to be shaping South Africa’s response.

“One, much is still unknown about the virus; how it spreads is only partially understood, and the toll it could eventually take, including the possibility of a future peak in the pandemic, remains largely unknown,” he said.

Second, he noted, despite gaps in our knowledge, we do know more than a month ago, and can determine the kinds of economic activities better geared to principles such as social distancing, spaces where hygienic standards can be more rigorously enforced, and industries whose contribution to the nation’s economic life is indispensable.

Fr Pearson pointed out that we also have a better picture of where the pandemic is most intense, and so variations in response can be permitted.

He noted that Mr Ramaphosa made clear that there would be room for dialogue around these issues. The attempts to find consensus have been positive markers of how government has worked during the pandemic, Fr Pearson said.

There will be no immediate easing of restrictions on gatherings.

“To emphasise the potential gatherings have for contagion, the president noted that both a funeral and a religious gathering that ignored earlier restrictions had caused a rapid spread of the virus,” the priest observed.

Mr Ramaphosa also underlined the need for people who could work from home to continue to, which Fr Pearson said was couched as an obligation.

The president also sanctioned an increased deployment of 70 000 defence force members to help in ways other than support for “law and order” activi-

ties. The defence force has come under severe criticism for transgressions in the lockdown, and Fr Pearson warned that its conduct needs to be watched vigilantly.

Also, facemasks will have to be worn in public, and companies, including small firms, are busy producing these.

Earlier in the week the president also made available an “extraordinary coronavirus budget” of R500 billion that will prop up businesses, subsidise wages, create new jobs and—above all—have a strong focus on the poor and vulnerable.

A

ccording to CPLO project coordinator Kenny Pasensie, the president has gone a long way to aiding South Africans and has injected life into an economy being suffocated by Covid-19.

“Finding the necessary funding for the economic stimulus and social relief package meant the government had to rob Peter to pay Paul: R130 billion of the R500 billion will be funded by reprioritising the current budget,” he noted.

“President Ramaphosa probably had an easier task convincing his cabinet to find some money in the current budget than convincing them that approaching international institution like the IMF and the World Bank was necessary,” Mr Pasensie added.

He said it was encouraging that the president and cabinet took to heart proposals by civil society to top up social security grants and relief for the jobless.

“Putting money directly into the hands of people is arguably the best way of getting food on the table for people wrestling with hunger. The top-up money will help more than just the 18million grant recipients because many support entire households,” he added.

Mr Pasensie said it was good to see the government recognising the roles of those in the informal economy.

Over and above the R100-million assistance already given to SMMEs, spazashop owners and other informal businesses, an additional amount of R2 billion will be made available to them.

Waste pickers will also get assistance.

“Overall, government’s response to fighting Covid-19 has been excellent from a public health perspective; now the hope is that it will strive with the same zeal on economic and social welfare measures to save livelihoods and protect the economy,” Mr Pasensie said.

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The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

INTERNATIONAL

Serenading priests bring many neighbours together

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

W Our Lady of the Fountain shrine in Caravaggio, Italy, where bishops will consecrate Italy to the care of Mary. The shrine is near the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in Bergamo.

Bishops to consecretate Italy to Mary’s care

BY CINDY WOODEN

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HE bishops of Italy will begin the Marian month of May consecrating their nation to the care of Mary with special prayers for her intercession in ending the coronavirus pandemic.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Citta della Pieve, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, announced the special consecration, saying it was in response to hundreds of requests from Italian faithful.

The bishops will “entrust the entire country to the protection of the Mother of God as a sign of salvation and hope”, the bishops’ conference said. “It will do so at 21:00 on May 1 with a moment of prayer in the basilica of Our Lady of the Fountain near Caravaggio,” a town in the hard-hit province of Bergamo.

“The choice of the date and the place is extremely symbolic,” the bishops’ statement said.

“May is the month traditionally dedicated to Mary, a time marked by praying the rosary, pilgrimages to shrines and by the need to turn to Mary with special prayers of intercession,” it said. “Beginning this month with an act of consecration to Mary in the current situation acquires a very special meaning for all of Italy.”

The place, Caravaggio, the statement added, symbolises “the suffering and pain experienced in a land harshly tried by the health emergency”.

During the prayer service on May 1, the bishops will entrust to Mary the sick, doctors and other healthcare workers, families and the deceased.—CNS

HILE the coronavirus pandemic has forced people in Madrid to isolate themselves in their apartments, it also has paradoxically brought people together in new and unexpected ways.

Seeing so many people in the neighbourhood stand on their balconies applauding those on the frontlines of the pandemic “brought a lot of joy to my heart”, Fr Gabriel Benedicto, pastor of the church of Our Lady of La Paloma in Madrid, said.

As he and the other priests in his parish locked the doors, Fr Benedicto said he was faced with a question that countless priests have asked themselves amid the pandemic: “What do we do now?”

One day, after seeing people applauding from their balconies, Fr Benedicto made a decision.

“One priest said to me, ‘Hey, we need to sing!’ And I said, ‘Yes. To-

Fr Gabriel Benedicto, along with other priests have been serenading their parish neighbourhood since the nationwide lockdown in Spain.

(Photo:YouTube) morrow we must sing,’ because it was this spontaneous feeling that came from the heart,” he said.

The following day, Fr Benedicto and the other priests of the parish grabbed their guitars and serenaded the neighbourhood with a festive repertoire of music.

In addition to people watching live, thousands viewed the video and

subscribed to the parish YouTube channel.

It wasn’t what he was expecting, he said, “but it was what God had in mind”. Nevertheless, Fr Benedicto said that he, along with the parish’s other three priests and a young missionary who live at the parish, “threw ourselves into this adventure” and were consoled that their parishioners and neighbours could “end the day finding some of the peace that only God can give”.

The priests’ new popularity has brought new opportunities for ministry, including the celebration of a wedding where, because of lockdown restrictions, only the newlyweds and their parents could be present.

“We also were the photographers; we carried the train of the bride’s dress. We did everything,” he said.

“It was truly a beautiful moment and the couple were grateful that all their guests could connect” online and celebrate with them.—CNS

Kenya faces floods, mudslides

BY FREDRICK NZWILI

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ATHOLIC leaders in Kenya are appealing for humanitarian support in regions where landslides and floods have displaced thousands, as the country battles increasing cases of the coronavirus.

Church sources said the disasters had left a trail of death and destruction in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya regions, while introducing a new twist in the Covid-19 fight.

At least 4 000 have been displaced in the West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet counties in the Rift Valley in mudslides that have also killed 12 people. In Nyando, part of Kisumu County, an estimated 1 600 people are trapped in villages by floods, according to the sources.

Catholic leaders in Kenya are appealing for humanitarian support in areas where landslides and floods have displaced thousands. (Photo: Marius Bosch, Reuters/CNS) “The parish centre, a convent and nearby school are now submerged in water following days of heavy rainfall. The parish priest and nuns had to be evacuated, but the people are still trapped in their homes. They are crying for help.

With a canoe, we can evacuate

them to safer zones,” Fr Joachim Omollo, an Apostle of Jesus priest in Kisumu archdiocese, said.

“I think all the attention is on Covid-19, but these people need emergency aid. If we don’t act quickly, waterborne diseases will soon strike, adding to the burden when the health systems are on the alert over Covid-19,” he said.

The mudslides swept away a main market, a school, a police post and villages. With their homes and houses destroyed, the displaced families have camped in schools and other places on safer ground.

The government, the Red Cross and Churches—including the Catholic Church—have moved to provide some relief, including food and clothes. County governments are promising to help the displaced people fight Covid-19 by providing water and soap and encouraging social distancing.—CNS

Pope prays for poor families and for the conversion of loan sharks

BY CINDY WOODEN

Contact us: Tel 041 373-0039 / Mobile 074 376-5833 / Email retreat@catholic-pe.co.za

Brothers of Charity

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OPE Francis prayed for families struggling economically during the Covid-19 pandemic and for the conversion of loan sharks who prey on them.

“In many places you hear about one of the effects of this pandemic: many families who are in need, who are hungry and, unfortunately, a group of loan sharks ‘helps’ them. This is another pandemic,” the pope said at the beginning of his early morning Mass.

The pope described as a “social pandemic” the fact that many day labourers or people paid under the table have not

Pope Francis gives the homily during his Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican. (Photo: Vatican Media/CNS) been able to work during the lockdown, so “they have nothing for them or their children to eat”.

“And moneylenders take what

little they have,” he said. “Let us pray. Let’s pray for these families and their many children”, and also “for the moneylenders that the Lord would touch their hearts and convert them”.

In his homily at the Mass, which was livestreamed from the chapel of his residence, Pope Francis focused on the transformation of St Peter from a “coward” who denied Jesus to a bold preacher who stood up to the Sanhedrin.

“Peter was able to make the journey from being a coward to being brave with the gift of the Holy Spirit thanks to the prayer of Jesus,” he said.—CNS

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HE Italian bishops’ conference accused the government of adopting plans to ease the country’s Covid-19 lockdown rules in a way that “arbitrarily excludes the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people”.

The statement was released shortly after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced a very gradual easing of the lockdown measures in stages through to June 1. The measures foresee the possibility of once again holding funeral services, with a maximum of 15 people present, beginning on May 4,

but not regular Masses. Masses have been banned since March 9.

The bishops said Catholics had “accepted, with suffering and a sense of responsibility, the government limitations imposed to face a health emergency”.

But during their talks with the government over the past month, the statement said, the bishops explained “in a very explicit way that once the limitations imposed to deal with the pandemic began to be reduced, the Church demands that it be able to resume its pastoral work”.

“Now after weeks of negotiations in which the the bishops’ conference presented guidelines and protocols to be used during the transition phase in full conformity with all the health norms,” the bishops said, Mr Conte’s plan “arbitrarily excludes the celebration of Mass with the public”.

The prime minister’s office responded with a statement saying: “In the coming days, a protocol will be studied that would allow the faithful to participate in liturgical ceremonies in maximum safety as soon as it is possible.”—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

Pope composes prayers for end of pandemic

BY CINDY WOODEN

P

OPE Francis asked Catholics to make a special effort in May to pray the rosary, knowing that by doing so they will be united with believers around the world asking for Mary’s intercession in stopping the coronavirus pandemic.

“Contemplating the face of Christ with the heart of Mary, our mother, will make us even more united as a spiritual family and will help us overcome this time of trial,” the pope said in a letter addressed to all Catholics.

The month of May is traditionally devoted to Mary and many Catholics already are in the habit of praying the rosary at home during the month, he noted.

“The restrictions of the pandemic have made us come to appreciate all the more this ‘family’ aspect, also from a spiritual point of view,” he said.

“You can decide according to your own situations” whether to pray individually or in groups, he said, noting that “it is easy also on the internet to find good models of prayers to follow”.

Pope Francis wrote two prayers to

Pope Francis prays at the altar of the Chair in St Peter’s basilica at the Vatican. (Photo: Andrew Medichini, Reuters/CNS) Mary that can be recited at the end of the rosary, prayers he said he would be reciting “in spiritual union with all of you”.

Both prayers acknowledge Mary’s closeness to her son’s followers and ask for her protection and for her intercession just as she interceded with Jesus on behalf of the newlyweds at Cana who had run out of wine for their wedding feast.

“We know that you will provide, so that, as at Cana in Galilee, joy and celebration may return after this time of trial,” one of the prayers reads.

Pope Francis’ prayers also include specific intentions for those who are sick, for those who care for them, for those who have died and those who mourn for them, for scientists seeking cures and vaccines, and for government leaders who must find a way to protect their people.

“Mary Most Holy, stir our consciences, so that the enormous funds invested in developing and stockpiling arms will instead be spent on promoting effective research on how to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future,” one of the prayers says.

“Beloved Mother, help us realise that we are all members of one great family and to recognise the bond that unites us, so that, in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity, we can help to alleviate countless situations of poverty and need,” it continues.

“Make us strong in faith, persevering in service, constant in prayer.”—CNS The text of the letter and prayers in English can be found HERE

Cardinal: Seminaries must hire more women

BY CINDY WOODEN

F

OR some priests and seminarians, “women represent danger, but in reality, the true dangers are those men who do not have a balanced relationship with women”, said Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

The Canadian cardinal was interviewed about the role of women in seminaries and seminary formation for the May issue of the women’s supplement to the Vatican newspaper.

Asked if a lack of women involved in priestly formation programmes is to blame for the discomfort women and priests can experience in each other’s company, the cardinal said that “the problem is probably

deeper” than that and begins with how women are treated in one’s family.

“There is awkwardness because there is fear—more on the part of the man towards the woman than the woman towards the man,” he said.

“We must radically change” how priests interact with women, the cardinal said, which is why “during formation it is important that there is contact, discussion, exchanges” with women.

Having women on seminary formation teams as professors and counsellors, Cardinal Ouellet said, also “would help a candidate interact with women in a natural way, including in facing the challenge represented by the presence of women,

Eucharistic Congress delayed

P

OPE Francis, the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses and local organisers have agreed to postpone by one year the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress, the Vatican announced.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the travel and assembly of large groups of the faithful, the pope, the papal committee, congress organisers and the bishops of Hungary decided to postpone the congress, to be held in Budapest, until September 2021, instead of this year.

The announcement came after the Vatican announced the next World Meeting of Families would be pushed back until June 2022 and the next international gathering for World Youth Day would be postponed to August 2023.—CNS

attraction to a woman”.

Isolating future priests from women is never a good idea, he said, and is no preparation for them entering ministry.

Asked whether he agreed with the notion that if women had been involved in seminary formation long ago, it could have helped prevent the sexual abuse scandal, the cardinal said: “There certainly is some truth in that because if interaction between the sexes is missing, there is a risk of developing compensations.”

These can “express themselves in the exercise of power or in closed relationships, a closure that becomes manipulation and control...and which can give rise to the abuse of conscience and sexual abuse”.—CNS

Pope Francis prayed for students and teachers worldwide who have had to adapt to online learning. (Photo: Rick Musacchio, Tennessee Register/CNS)

Pope prays for teachers and pupils who are learning online

BY CAROL GLATZ

P

OPE Francis prayed for teachers and students who are trying to adapt and do their work online during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Let us pray today for teachers who have to work so hard in order to do lessons on the internet and other media,” the pope said at the beginning of his early morning Mass.

“Let us also pray for students who have to take their exams in a way they are not used to,” he said.

In his homily at the Mass, which was livestreamed from the chapel of his residence, Pope Francis looked at how Jesus was always teaching his apostles to be servants who are never afraid to be close to the people and give them concrete assistance.

“Jesus loved being in the middle of the crowd” because, in addition to being the best way to serve them, it was “a symbol of the universality of redemption”, the pope said.

But the crowd was “one of the bigger things the apostles did not like”, he said, because they wanted to be “close to the Lord, to hear the Lord, to hear everything the Lord said”.

The apostles’ attitude was understandable, he said, because “they were chosen and they felt a bit like a privileged few, a privileged class,

an ‘aristocracy’, let’s say, close to the Lord and the Lord did things to correct them so many times”.

For example, he said, when Jesus got angry with the disciples who were trying to turn the children away from him for fear of them being a nuisance.

Jesus was always teaching and showing his disciples to be close to the people of God, the pope said.

“It is true that the people of God tire out a pastor, he gets tired,” he added, and the better the priest is at doing good things for people, the more they will keep knocking and asking for help.

The people of God are always asking for things that are concrete, he said.

Sometimes they are wrong in what they ask for, as in how after Jesus fed the multitude, as told in the day’s Gospel reading, they wanted to make him a king, he said.

But they are always asking for something concrete, and, in the reading, Jesus tests the disciples by asking them where they could go to buy enough food for all the people who had gathered around them, the pope said.

Essentially, he was telling them it was their responsibility to get the people something to eat, which is the same thing Jesus is saying to priests today, Pope Francis said.— CNS

Is God calling you to serve young people as a Salesian Brother or Salesian Priest?

Church expects euthanasia rise

A

DUTCH cardinal predicted that the number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands will surge after the country’s highest court gave the green light to allow the killing of dementia patients no longer able to give their consent.

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that doctors could euthanise patients with severe dementia and who could no longer express their wishes if they had left an advance request in writing to say they wished to die.

“Physicians in nursing homes therefore fear that they will be put under pressure by patients with dementia and their relatives to perform euthanasia as a consequence of the Supreme Court’s judgment,” Cardinal Willem Eijk of Utrecht said.—CNS

5

Salesians, Signs and Bearers of God’s Love for the Young!

Contact Fr. Lingoane Tlaile +27 63 112 8870

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The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

A crack in everything

W

E know that the world will not be the same when we emerge from our coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions.

Some of these changes will be material.

Economies have crashed; businesses we used to patronise may no longer exist; many of us will have no money to spend on them anyway.

And every economic crisis produces political unrest, so we must be prepared for even greater social instability than there already was before Covid-19.

Things will be changed, even as we encounter this new world in a familiar environment.

Coronavirus has changed the world, and it will likely have changed our lives, too. And so in this claustrophobic darkness of lockdowns and restrictions, many are facing an uncertain future with anxiety.

The late Canadian songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen once wrote: “There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.”

From that light we draw hope in our experience of the present gloom. We can emerge as better people.

We may find that we will experience simple things with a new appreciation, like a walk on the beach or in the park.

We may find that visiting grandmother is not a burden but a privilege of which we were deprived.

We may find that the experience of withdrawal has infused a new empathy within us for the less privileged.

We may find a new hunger for community after having been separated from others for so long.

When we return to our parishes, things may change as well. Indeed, for the Church, there is the sudden grace of opportunity to transform.

The lockdown has exposed a tendency by many Catholics to regard priests as mere dispensers of sacraments and discipleship as a private matter. But that is not how Pope Francis sees it.

“Online Masses and spiritual communion do not represent the Church,” he has said. “This is the Church in a difficult situation that the Lord is allowing, but the ideal of the Church is always with the people and with the sacraments.”

The big question will be

whether those who do not have “an ardent desire” to unite their person with that of Christ in the Eucharist will find their way back to the Mass. Conversely, may there be those who have discovered their “ardent desire” through the experience of streamed Masses?

Whatever the case, a break of the old cycles of routine will give our parishes a chance for transformation. What was broken can now be built anew.

In 2018, Fr James Mallon toured South Africa to propose the “Divine Renovation”, a model for how parishes can transition from merely maintaining themselves—ticking along—to becoming missionary communities of disciples of Christ.

The Divine Renovation model has created a lot of enthusiasm.

But some parishes found it difficult to break the mould of their timeworn way of doing things.

Lockdown has broken the mould. Now is a time of grace, a time when parishes—and dioceses, and even bishops’ conferences—can begin a new way of being the Church of Christ.

The parish must be the place where both those of devout and of uncertain faith are united as a community in Christ.

Pope Francis sees the Church as a field hospital, where the spiritually wounded are treated with the healing grace of God’s love.

This means that churches must be open places of welcome, even and especially for those who are in most need of the Lord’s mercy.

In that sense, the Divine Renovation model calls us to act with compassion, kindness and love to all who put their feet into our churches. It means that we don’t reject them or greet them by quoting chapter and paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

It means that instead of the raised finger we offer open arms, as Jesus did time and again when he encountered the wounded and even sinners.

When we do this, then we are missionary disciples who can lead people to Christ and into a meaningful relationship with him in the community of the Church.

“Ring the bells that still can ring; forget your perfect offering,” Leonard Cohen advised.

“There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.”

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.

Christ himself urges us towards the truth

G

OOD thoughts come to us, and most times we assume that they are our own, that our great intellects spawn these inspirations.

Lately we have read about two disciples on the way to Emmaus, and their encounter with a stranger who explained many things to them, principally concerning the events in Jerusalem during what we today remember as Holy Week.

They hadn’t recognised Jesus, only doing so when he broke bread with them—and then he disappeared.

Now the thought occurs, how often are those ideas and inspira-

What exactly is WAACSA?

I

T often happens in Letters to the Editor that much more is left unsaid than is said.

For instance, what exactly does We Are All Church SA (WAACSA) stand for? Where and from whom does it gets its mandate to hold Church authorities accountable to it?

What are its founding principles?

Who set them up? Why do they need a bishop’s approval post factum?

In fairness, let’s begin with WAACSA’s founding principles: 1. The building of a Church of brothers and sisters that recognises the equal dignity and responsibility of all the baptised by including the laity in the election of bishops in their local Churches.

2. Free choice of either a celibate or a married life for all those who dedicate themselves to the service of the Church.

3. The admission of women to all Church ministries.

4. A review of the Church’s position on sexuality and sexual morality, involving lay people of diverse sexual orientations and states of life as well as scientists and theologians.

5. An ethos on the part of those in authority in the Church that is characterised by a proper humility in their service of the Church, that seeks to promote freedom of speech and thought and dialogue, especially with those critical of them, both within the Church and outside it. Anathemas and exclusions would never be seen as a way of dealing with these, especially in the case of theologians.

My immediate response is: 1. Where and in what document/s does Vatican II authorise any of the above? In particular, where does it give any group among the faithful the right or mandate to arrogate to itself the authority to make such judgments and demands?

2. There’s absolutely no commitment to evangelisation or the development of the faith or the

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tions we claim as our own really Christ himself speaking to us, gently urging us to some action or purpose, revealing to us his truth?

We know that he doesn’t interfere unasked, but he surely is ever with all of us, knowing each action or inaction even before these occur.

Is it not reasonable to accept that he sets our minds along the right path, inspires us with these ideas?

We readily shift the blame for bad thoughts to the evil one—passing the buck—but do we credit our God with the salutary thoughts which so often come into our heads, or do we unmindfully claim them as our own?

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. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate.

Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately.

Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372,

Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

preparation for and fruitful living of the sacramental life, especially in marriage and the family!

3. While 80% of the Catholics in South Africa are black, not one is reflected among the names of the signatories to the founding document!

4. What self-respecting bishop is going to subject himself to such a one-sided tribunal?

I grew up under apartheid, and all that apartheid entailed, and I am certainly not going to preside over its reintroduction under whatever guise that might be!

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier OFM, Durban

Our mission is focused dialogue

Y

OUR recent coverage of We Are All Church South Africa (WAACSA)—the interview with national coordinator Dr Brian Robertson (March 11) and the letter by Mervyn Pollitt (March 25)—has drawn attention to the fact that one of our main aims is to promote dialogue between laity and clergy.

However, dialogue is not simply a conversation; it is purposive. Our emphasis on dialogue must be seen in the context of our wider objectives as set out in WAACSA’s mission statement (see www.weareallchurch.co.za).

The statement opens with these words: “Our vision is of a Church of love, mercy and justice in which the voices of all its members can be heard and valued in a spirit of coresponsibility, and which is fully engaged with a changing world.”

And it continues: “Our mission is 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.”

We believe that we are called to take seriously the teachings of the Second Vatican Council on the significance of the laity in the Church and in the world. (See in particular Lumen Gentium 30–42.)

We are greatly encouraged by Pope Francis’ opening up spaces for lay people in the Church’s mission, a major theme in Evangelii Gaudium.

However, it was Pope Benedict XVI—perhaps surprisingly—who put this most forcefully in speaking of the laity’s “coresponsibility”.

In his own words: “Coresponsibility demands a change in mindset especially concerning the role of lay people in the Church. They should not be regarded as ‘collaborators’ of the clergy, but rather as people who

Christ has promised to be with us always. Perhaps we should believe this more, perhaps we should acknowledge his constant presence in our lives, and that the anonymous promptings which come to us are the whisperings of Jesus, his urging of us to action!

We should also acknowledge the Man walking with us, inspiring us with the truth, prompting us to do the right thing, to choose life, the Life he has promised.

Heed the thoughts, if they are good, but also realise from whence they come. Give thanks!

Cecil Cullen, Alberton

are really ‘coresponsible’ for the Church’s being and acting” (“Message on the Occasion of the Sixth Ordinary Assembly of the International Forum of Catholic Action”, August 12, 2012).

In this regard Pope Francis says emphatically that lay people “are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations.

We [the bishops] have been called to form consciences, not to replace them” (Amoris Laetitia #37).

It is significant that the pope is presenting a new way of thinking on moral issues. He is moving the Church away from an ethics based on rules to one based on discernment, in which facts, circumstances and motivations matter (see, for example, Amoris Laetitia chapter 8).

When we formed WAACSA ten years ago, we took as our motto Archbishop Denis Hurley’s episcopal motto: Ubi spiritus, ibi libertas (“Where the Spirit is, there is freedom”) (2 Cor 3:17).

Douglas Irvine, WAACSA coordinator, Gauteng

We need to work together for SC

C

ARDINAL Wilfrid Napier, as everyone else, has the right to his opinion. In this case, he does not have a passion for this paper in its current format. The tone of his letter of April 15 shows frustration with his previous engagements and suggestions not being taken up.

Readers don’t seem to understand that the cardinal is not letting his opinion influence the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) which supports The Southern Cross.

It is disingenuous of readers to insinuate that there is a disagreement between the cardinal and the president of the SACBC, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka. Aren’t both members of the SACBC? Readers also missed a crucial point: Cardinal Napier’s main reason for why he is not passionate about The Southern Cross.

Both readers and the editor have not engaged with his suggestion to “serialise the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching say about the burning questions modern culture is throwing up at us daily”.

I believe that his suggestion of making The Southern Cross more relevant for everyday Catholics in Southern Africa and helping them through faith to deal with the difficult life that many ordinary people endure is interesting and worthwhile to engage further. There is a missed opportunity here that we have not picked up on.

It seems to me that there is a need to reflect for everyone, the cardinal, the editor, and readers. Personalising the issue is not helpful.

We should focus on how we can make The Southern Cross more relevant to ordinary people and so build God’s kingdom in Southern Africa.

We all need to work together. A constructive debate in The Southern Cross would be a good start.

Andreas Scherer, Johannesburg

PERSPECTIVES

My first Easter as a priest was unusual Fr Runaine A Radine BOUT a year ago I was preparing earnestly for my priestly ordination.

For me, as I would imagine is the case with all newly-ordained priests, the “firsts” are always something to look forward to, and I have been marking them down, unpretentiously, ever since.

This does not at all imply a lighthearted approach to the celebration of the sacraments. Already as a deacon I was deeply struck by an old adage I once read on a sacristy wall: “Priest of God, celebrate this Mass as if it were your first Mass, your last Mass, your only Mass.”

And so, despite the pressure of doing it correctly, there is always a sense of zeal for the sacred in carrying out any liturgical action, even with the seemingly private ones, like anointing or confession.

Be it the “first” Mass or the first celebration of the sacraments of baptism or marriage, there is something exciting and, of course, spiritually fulfilling about it.

I remember wondering who was more nervous, me or them, as I looked at the first couple whose wedding I officiated.

By coincidence—and perhaps fortunately for me—the first baptisms I conducted as a priest were those of the children of two of my close friends. It was another special first I will not easily forget.

Some other firsts, perhaps frivolous, took some time to reach, like donning the purple chasuble six months after ordination only!

Ironically, I missed the Advent rose because I was attending an ordination of some of my classmates at that time—another first of a kind. I finally had the experience of Lenten rose on the Sunday before the nationwide lockdown.

I cannot say whether I have always been joyful since then but it certainly did come at an appropriate time.

Never could I have imagined that my

first Easter as a priest would be celebrated without the physical presence of the faithful.

These are indeed historic times—history in the making—and an Easter not to be forgotten. How is that for a first?

Now, the journey of a newly-ordained priest is one of “becoming” a priest, based not so much on function—that is, on what we do—but rather on identity, who we are.

If anything, the past few weeks have been a sobering reminder that I have to be a priest, with or without people. I am sure that when I look back to Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum of 2020, I will always remember the unique manner in which the mysteries were celebrated in a more quiet and reflective way.

T

he parish where I serve as assistant priest already had an online presence and so livestreaming of these celebrations were made available through its Facebook page.

Social media platforms logged an unprecedented number of church services

An Easter Mass is livestreamed during the coronavirus pandemic. For Fr Runaine Radine, his first Easter as a priest was a most unusual one. (Photo: Peter Rosengren, The Catholic Weekly)

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Point of Church

“All about us we see men and women following a vocational way of life in the service of others, often receiving a poor financial return for their labours,” writes Chris McDonnell. age as to what they want to do, and they doggedly pursue it unwaveringly through the years till they achieve their goal. Others cast around in their formative years seeking something they can respond to.

We often associate the wording “calling” with “vocation”. People are influenced by the company of others, those whose example suggests a direction that might be followed.

But there is a risk here, for if we undertake a task, it must be out of conviction that it is the right path for us to follow.

Mistakes are sometimes made and a fresh start is necessary.

P

reparation is necessary if we are to have even a moderate chance of success.

One of the fundamental flaws when we choose a particular calling lies in the expectation that you know what is ahead.

Yet none of us do.

There is a degree of trust involved, trust that our choice is the right one, trust that we have the strength to walk the journey, and trust that others will support us whatever the weather.

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over the past couple of weeks. It is possible that more people follow daily Mass now than they would under normal circumstances.

In all of this, there is a sense of being united in prayer. Spaces for prayer are created in the homes of believers, true expressions of the domestic Church.

More than ever before, Catholics followed the ceremonies from the Vatican, beginning with Pope Francis’ extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing in the fourth week of Lent, and the morning Masses with special intentions for all those most affected by the coronavirus, such as the elderly, the poor, and healthcare workers.

Judging from the testimonies of all the Christian faithful, the liturgy during this time has spoken to the reality of living through a plague.

The Passion of Our Lord, which highlights the experience of condemnation and betrayal, agony, suffering and death, the tomb, a fear which kept the disciples behind shut doors, all resonated with us at a deep level in our confinement.

It is into this reality that Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, breaks through, bringing joy and peace and giving us the courage to persevere amidst Covid-19.

The lesson that my first Easter as priest seems to have taught me is that we can only entrust ourselves to the mercy of God and live through this time by the help of God’s grace, trusting that Divine Mercy will have the first and final word in all things.

Chris McDonnell

Finding our vocations V OCATIONS Sunday is usually coincident with Good Shepherd Sunday.

Each year we are asked to “pray for vocations”—to the priesthood and religious life.

We have limited our understanding of the word. It is used in a restrictive and narrow manner. Yet all about us we see men and women following a vocational way of life in the service of others, often receiving a poor financial return for their labours.

What does it mean to “have a vocation”? Service, generosity, care and love are all involved. Teaching was once spoken of as being a vocational calling.

Whenever I had student teachers visit our school, I would advise them that if they genuinely liked children and really wanted to teach, then it was indeed a worthwhile and rewarding task; if not, then look for some other option.

We have lost so many of the values implied by vocation, often seeking only an increasing financial return for our labour.

The word “vocation” says something about the task being undertaken and our own response in rising to that challenge.

A busy doctor in the surgery or an overworked nurse on the hospital ward— especially in the current Covid-19 pandemic—or those in charge of a pre-school nursery unit, at the end of a day’s work all feel tired and often exhausted. But they also feel a degree of satisfaction knowing it has been a worthwhile job well done.

In a similar manner, aid workers express a vocational conviction.

So why do we limit our use of the word in the Church to the bishop or priest, the religious Sister or Brother?

Some people have a sense from an early

Paths of Vocation

That’s why ownership of our choice is so important. It is not good enough to live out someone else’s dream. It has to be ours and we need to be accountable for our choice.

We make plans, have bright ideas and set off with purpose. But then, quite unexpectedly, circumstances change and we are faced with a significant choice.

Life is not a pre-cast mould that come what may, we must accept and follow.

How we respond to the challenges that face us determines our path with all its joys and sorrows.

We judge others too easily, often reflecting fixed attitudes that allow for little compassion.

Returning to the use of the word vocation as determined by the Church, it can be a struggle framed in rigour.

Writing his final reflections during the last six months of his life, a life of teaching from the very depths of his priestly mission, the writer Daniel O’Leary spoke of this conflict: “The Institution’s insistence on compulsory celibacy...this unnatural, un-incarnational and mandatory condition for becoming a loving servant of God’s people is at the root of most of the current tragedies raging in the heart of Christ’s community.”

One person, two vocations, is a reality we need to embrace, for the sake of individual men and women directly involved and for the mission of the Church that is our home. n This article was first published in the Catholic Times.

A HOLY PILGRIMAGE TO OUR LADY

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The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

Fr Joseph Falkiner OP

7

Point of Evangelisation

How we can evangelise A

LL Christians have a joint mission to take to the world: evangelisation. Recent popes, including Pope Francis, have been trying for years to make Catholics aware that the whole Church has this mission.

The new Pastoral Plan, launched by the bishops in late January, mentions the same aim.

Evangelisation means a gigantic effort to assist the general population to become knowledgable on the ideas expressed in the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Evangelisation is not a plan to make everybody become Catholics, although that would be welcomed. The idea is that everyone who is Christian or belonging to another religion or no religion at all should be assisted to discover what is contained in the Gospels.

Evangelisation is aimed at the general public.

This is where the Dominicans, the order I belong to, have such an important role to play (and what I will say here refers specifically to the order to of which I am a member, but also addresses all Christians).

For 800 years now the order has preached to both Catholics and non-Catholics about the Church’s theology and its doctrines.

Now, as the Church under Pope Francis begins to put more stress on evangelisation than on doctrines, in the same way we Dominicans will be starting to put more stress on the values and ideas expressed by Jesus and noted in the Gospels than we have done in the past.

H

ow do we reach the general public? I imagine that we will start by seeking ways to apply these Gospel values to the problems of our society. We all know what those problems are.

I imagine that Dominican priests working in parishes will speak frequently about societies’ problems in our sermons, whenever they can relate them to the Gospel of the day.

I imagine that the Fathers, Brothers, Sisters and Dominican laity and youth who are involved in catechetics at parish level or teaching in schools or universities will be doing something similar in their discussions with their students.

I imagine that those Dominican who preach retreats will be speaking more about this call to get involved in evangelisation in place of the more usual call to holiness.

I imagine that those Dominicans who work creatively in the media will use their artistic talents to produce videos, articles and booklets which will reach out to the general public and promote these Gospel values.

I imagine that those Dominican men and women who are involved in the literary world will produce poems, novels and stories that do the same.

I imagine that all Dominicans will see themselves as evangelisers, and that will become an essential part of our various apostolates.

We are all called to be Preachers of the Word of God. The official title as Dominicans is the Order of Preachers. That is why we put the letters OP after our names. This is our special mission. It is our traditional charism.

The final thing I imagine is that when we do this, it will bring a revitalisation in all branches of the Dominican order.

There may well be a surge in vocations, priestly vocations, religious vocations, and Dominican lay vocations, including the youth.

I invite people who are interested in this idea to contact their nearest Dominican community and offer to become involved in whatever way they can.

And when you visit them, take a copy (or screenshot) of this article with you to show them how you got the idea.

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The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

COMMUNITY

We’re looking for Community pics during life under the national coronavirus rules!

We welcome photos from schools, parishes, organisations and individuals of learning, praying and engaging online.

Send your photos to pics@scross.co.za

Students and teachers at St Dominic’s Catholic School for Girls in Boksburg, Johannesburg archdiocese, are communicating and studying online.

Seen are Grade 12 student Noluthando Magudulela (left) and Grade 1 teacher Sanet Adams (right).

St Henry’s Marist College in Berea, Durban, has taken to online learning during the coronavirus lockdown. Seen are students Sarah Wasserman (above left) and Nathan Lazarus (right).

Holy Rosary School for Girls in Edenvale, Johannesburg, started Term 2 with HRS DigiSchool.

Teachers and students are following the normal syllabus but working from home. Learner Amelia Curnick (left) gets down to work with headphones online.

St Benedict’s College in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, is busy working online. Pupil Nitha Seti (right) shows the Easter bunnies she made while learner Austin Mordt and his little brother Dustan (left) bake a cake at home with granny on Zoom.

Pupils at De La Salle Holy Cross College in Victory Park, Johannesburg, are busy learning from home. The McLaughlin family (above) are working together and say hello to junior school head Neil Berndsen, while Kayla Sydney and her brother Connor (above right) present their drawings, and Damien Goldfein (right) gets down to classes on his patio.

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Marist Brothers Linmeyer in Johannesburg welcomed back students and staff to Term 2 through its distance learning programme.

Twins Giséle and Isabella Ribeiro (above) read and draw, Nikiesha Jose and brother Joshua (left) work online, and Ronan Kalil (right) gets down to written work.

FAITH

Extra for Subscribers: The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

i

Mary, the great liberator Mary was not only the mother of Jesus, but a great woman in all she did. As such, she is a perfect model for modern women, argues COLLEEN CONSTABLE.

M

AY is “Mary’s month”. This challenges us to reflect on the role of this holy woman through a different lens: Mary as Liberator?

There is always great eagerness to ponder the Holy Mother in the context of purity, piety, humility and virtues. Somehow I felt the urge to connect with her in a different context that speaks to women’s experiences in the 21st century.

It requires an understanding that Mary’s Assumption into Heaven and her Queenship of Heaven and Earth are not merely spiritual titles.

It is an acknowledgement and recognition of her holiness, impeccable life and the various roles she has played on earth.

These roles are inclusive of her being virgin and mother of Jesus Christ, but go beyond virginity and motherhood. Could it be that in her role as liberator she may speak more profoundly to modern-day women of all ages, from teenagers to senior citizens?

What makes Mary a liberator?

What does her role as liberator hold for contemporary women?

Today women live in a changing world. For centuries women had no decision-making power over their own destiny, an aspect very prevalent when parents or elders arranged marriages, and women simply had to abide with the decision.

The tendency towards forced arranged marriages has not disappeared, and under the banner of culture many women still face this fate in some countries.

And women have not been able to escape the scourge of oppression.

Women are global victims of horrendous domestic violence, femicide and rape, with our beloved country taking the lead in genderbased violence.

Although the empowerment and emancipation of women in a contemporary world has erased much of the past discrimination, some negative cultural practices, traditionalist attitudes about gender, conservative mindsets and patriarchal attitudes have obstructed the progress.

Today women still feel unsafe in public and private spaces. And traditional exclusions of women from some roles in society still exist.

A woman of liberation It is against this background that Mary’s Queenship speaks a different language today. It resembles a woman of liberation: a woman of great faith, a woman of freedom, a woman of earth and heaven in touch with humanity and the divine, a woman in touch with herself and her inner soul, a woman of courage, confidence and dedication, a woman of action and bravery.

First, when the angel Gabriel ap-

peared to Mary with the divine message, she was disturbed. A teenage girl worried about the content of the message. Yet she wholeheartedly subjected herself to the divine plan.

She had a split-second opportunity to choose whether she wanted to be part of this higher plan. She knew that this announcement had the potential to change her life.

Mary knew what pregnancy for an unmarried girl meant at the time. Mosaic law prescribed death by stoning in such circumstances.

In the face of all this, not knowing how her life would turn out, she gave her “Yes” with great courage.

She accepted God’s will for her life without hesitation.

It is in the acceptance of this message that Mary’s faith and confidence in God, her sense of freedom to choose and her great courage came through: all that from a teenager at the age of about 14.

She was a well-balanced youth destined to become a great woman: a woman who cooperated with God and participated in the liberation of humankind.

Second, Mary encountered pain in her lifetime: it connects her deeply with all the women through the ages who have endured hardships: physical, psychological and emotional pain.

She was also a Jewish woman who knew poverty, discrimination and marginalisation. She suffered rejection as a poor pregnant woman desperate for accommodation, when there was no room in the inn: she experienced the lack of human compassion in a very sensitive situation.

She had to flee into a foreign country to protect the life of her child: she shared the pain and hardships that goes with immigration.

She felt the pain of a missing child when her son got lost, and she could not hide her anxiety when she finally found him in the Temple.

She stood by her son throughout his suffering till the end, accepting her role to support him who was prophesied by Simeon to be “a sign of contradiction”. This suggests that Mary embraced that prophetic role and knew that his journey ultimately become hers too.

A woman of strength While his fearful disciples abandoned him at the most crucial period of his earthly life, she stood at the foot of the Cross, with the other women, watching while her son died a painful and humiliating death. She became a woman of great strength and an activist of the Church: a brave woman.

As a Jewish widow, having lost her son, she did not isolate herself.

She stood by the frightened and disheartened disciples: a true pillar of support at a time when the disciples were disillusioned.

She was present at Bethany when her son ascended into heaven. And she was in the midst of the apostles as the “Mother” praying with them and being present when the Church was formed on Pentecost.

She was a woman of action: she did not allow stereotypes to keep her away from the role she was destined to fulfil.

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Third, she facilitated her son’s first miracle, at the wedding in Cana, as she understood his role and was clear about her own.

She had a healthy level of emotional intelligence. Her awareness of others’ humiliation—the hosts had run out of wine—and their need for support was high.

She was a woman who took initiative: not only to get water changed into wine and thereby protect a family from embarrassment, but also to visit the elderly, pregnant Elizabeth.

This three-month visit paved the way for unconditional charity as an act of love based on dignity and equality. She most probably calmed an anxious elderly pregnant woman.

Mary’s actions and joyous “Magnificat” is proof of her maturity at a young age, breaking the barriers that existed in society between the youth and the aged.

She was in touch with her inner soul, her neighbour and her God.

A woman of inspiration Fourth, Mary’s sense of dedication to Jesus, to her neighbour, to the apostles and her faithfulness to God is an inspiration.

As a teenager she exercised leadership in accepting a huge responsibility with a clear conscience and great faith.

As a young woman in her twenties, when she experienced the pain that only a mother of a missing child can testify to, she held steady when Jesus said, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know I must be about my Father’s business?”(Lk 2:49).

And as a young widow in her forties, when Jesus died, she exemplified perseverance as she endured the pain of his sufferings and death and embraced her new life with her “adopted” son, John, whom Jesus gave her on the Cross when he said, “Woman, behold thy Son” and “Behold, thy mother” (Jn 19:26-27).

Mary serves as a symbol of the holiness of women and a celebration of their freedom. Mary is a woman of great faith, free will, love and compassion: a courageous woman, an inspirational woman, a woman of great strength, a brave woman.

She offers contemporary women an opportunity to imitate her: change your lifestyle to be in touch with your inner soul, your neighbour and God. • Be resilient in difficult times, never give up!

• Be courageous. Whatever you start, complete it.

• Take decisions that will set you free and allow you to live God’s purpose for your life.

• Live in the present moment: be an activist from the heart.

• Seek God’s will for your life.

Never hesitate to fight against prejudice, discrimination or injustice.

• Embrace equality and treat others with dignity.

• Follow Jesus and become a true supporter of the poor, the destitute, the marginalised and the outcasts of society.

• Do not be afraid to be “the contradiction”. Have joy in your heart: follow the way of the “Magnificat”.

Mary sets contemporary women

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The Blessed Virgin Mary is depicted in a statue in the courtyard of the church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the place where Catholics believe the archangel appeared to her. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) free from the chains of gender inequality in their spiritual life. It is an acknowledgement of women’s status in the eyes of God and their holiness. Through Mary all women can claim their rightful place as they have been liberated.

Women have been vindicated by Mary. Her lifestyle on earth has set the tone for a well-balanced teenager

who developed into a powerful woman going about her role with simplicity and dignity.

Mary is the model of servant leadership for women in various roles. She was not only a virgin, mother, wife and home executive.

She was a liberator, a true supporter, an activist, caretaker, facilitator, intercessor and widow.

ii

Extra for Subscribers: The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

LIFE

Nuns and Nones in time of pandemic During the coronavirus crisis, members of an intergenerational movement of nuns and non-believers, or nones, give each other strength, as SOLI SALGADO reports.

For Mercy Sister Mary Kay Dobrovolny, the change in her Nuns and Nones conversations is noticeable less in what is being said and more in “the attentiveness to each other on the heartfelt, emotional level”.

“There’s something for me in the listening and being listened to that is hugely transformative. And that happens in community, to be able to see and be seen in profound ways that I think make us more whole,” she said.

It is something she experiences in her Mercy community as well as with Nuns and Nones, she said. “It truly is a community of significance for me. It’s become that.”

A founding characteristic of Nuns and Nones—and one that helped seal the bond between millennials and Sisters—is their shared concern for social justice issues.

In the time of the coronavirus, that common passion translates into a common hope that the United States’ systemic injustices the pandemic has laid bare will remain in the collective conscience when the dust has settled.

F

OR four years, the Nuns and Nones movement has been cultivating an intergenerational community that addresses the existential questions now plaguing the rest of the world amid a global pandemic.

There is a heightened longing for community coupled with more time for contemplation and a hope that today’s defeats will yield a more just future: such preoccupations are snowballing in the minds of most living in lockdown to curb the global spread of the coronavirus.

These are the same thoughts and desires that have animated Nuns and Nones since its founding in 2016, when deep dialogue between women religious and spiritually curious millennials grew into a national network of friendships.

Some prefer to call the movement “Sisters and Seekers”; most of the participating millennials don’t identify as “none”, a shorthand for the box one would check by religion.

For the group, those original reflections are now magnified.

And while the guiding conversational themes remain largely unchanged—exploring creative contemplation, community life and social justice issues—their prescience and relevance amid the rampant anxiety today are, for its members, not just a source of grounding peace, but also an indication that the movement is striking a fundamental chord.

“Being a part of these conversations has sharpened my understanding of the moment we’re in,” said Ellie Hutchison Cervantes, a 26-year-old master’s student at Union Theological Seminary and one of the leaders of the New York City group.

Before the virus, local Nuns and Nones groups sprinkled throughout the US would meet both in person and via group video calls.

Following the national trend, they’ve taken their regular sessions entirely online.

“It’s given me a vital space to process what this moment means collectively and what we can learn from it in order to live differently

Dominican Sister Connie Koch (second from right) says that organisers of Nuns and Nones retreats want an even ratio of Sisters and millennials so everyone can have a one-on-one exchange at their spiritual retreats.

The June 2019 retreat’s organising team: (from left) Eddie Gonzalez, Diana Marin, Jamie Fleishman, Gina Ciliberto, Sr Koch, and Sr Janet Marchesani OP. (Photo courtesy of the Dominican Sisters of Hope) in the future,” Ms Hutchison Cervantes said.

From a monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania, Benedictine Sister Linda Romey echoed that examination of this crisis.

“A time like this makes one become a little more introspective by nature and ask, ‘What’s the meaning of all this? How do I make sense of this? Why is there so much suffering?’” she told the Global Sisters Report, a project of National Catholic Reporter. “And Nuns and Nones has been asking the same questions.”

This intergenerational, interfaith alliance is pitched as a mutual exchange of practices and wisdom. Sisters frequently emphasise the reciprocity in these relationships; it’s not just millennials taking notes.

Learn from wisdom But right now, young people recognise the historic nature of this pandemic and the ensuing isolation and economic recession.

With the majority of Sisters being older than 70, millennials have become eager to learn from their experiential wisdom.

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Ms Hutchison Cervantes said selves, and it still is in us today,” she has learned from them to she said. “Human beings have al“have a larger view of time, zoom- ways looked for what ‘Nuns and ing out and not getting caught up Nones’ are looking for. At a time in the day-to-day like this, I feel like it’s changes”. intensified.”

“People historically This is a moment Their shared have risen to the occathinking and conin which the sion and overcome the stant communication challenges or figured are epitomised in injustices and out ways to live amid their overlapping rethem. We can similarly inequalities in flections and jarfind ways to live amid gon—quoting the our current this and find beauty same authors they and meaning and inspiare reading, such as systems are ration for tomorrow detheologians Walter spite the challenges that or being exposed Brueggemann surround us,” she said.

Howard Thurman; reHowever, the need to flecting on how stay inside—critical for people “hope is a muscle” that needs to be over the age of 65, who are at strengthened, an image inspired higher risk of severe illness—has by the podcast “On Being”; and made this a unique crisis for Sis- thinking about how they can ters, who are accustomed to help- adapt their pursuit of “sacred hosing those who are vulnerable from pitality”. the frontlines.

Isolation an opportunity They, like the millennials, are Rachel Plattus sees physical isonow left wondering what their role lation as an opportunity to “go and response should be.

“There’s a part of me that just deeper in our personal practice”, feels like I should be somewhere using just “the resources that we doing something,” said Sr Romey, have around us and inside of us”.

For the 32-year-old member of who is a key collaborator in Nuns the core team, the experience of and Nones.

Diana Marin, a 30-year-old mas- supporting one another “in collecter’s student at Harvard Divinity tive practice over a long period of School and a member of the Nuns time means that in this moment and Nones core team, which leads when we really need those practhe group’s operations, said her tices, we’re already in the habit of class readings are helping her cope doing that with each other and for with the uncertainty, particularly each other”.

She added: “We have those the early Christian contemplative writings that “stand outside of muscles” of hope. time”.

“Reading these texts makes me realise we’re in one of those timeless moments, which makes it more important to look at wisdom traditions for the insights that they have because it’s directly relevant,” she said.

Ms Marin said that, right now, she’s drawn to ancient sources that “make meaning at a time when everything seems devoid of meaning. There have been folks who have been holding that for centuries, and I find a lot of solace in having them accompany me.”

A transformation For Nuns and Nones, the ideal is a transformational reckoning.

“Once we’re back out in the world, can we take the use of this time and give that in new ways to those who are going to be hurting in new ways from lost jobs, from death, from illness? What will our response be when we’re back in the world?” Sr Romey asked.

“If we’re not thinking that way, then what’s the purpose of community, the purpose of prayer? It is not to take it and keep it; it’s to give it away. And that’s where ‘Nuns and Nones’ is coming from, also.”

Ms Hutchison Cervantes said this is “a moment in which the injustices and inequalities in our current systems are being exposed”.

“It’s clear we need to learn how to live differently together,” she said, noting that in an “individualist and a capitalist society, the majority of us don’t know how to live in a mutually beneficial and interdependent way”.

“Nuns and Nones feels particularly relevant in this moment because it’s a place where we can remember our responsibility to one another and all living beings,” Ms Hutchison Cervantes said.

She added: “It’s also a prophetic community in which we actively envision a more just and beautiful world, and right now especially, in difficult and chaotic times, we need those communities of support that help make those visions a reality.” n This story was originally published in full in Global Sisters Report. The full article is available at www.global sistersreport.org (or Click Here).

Read more about Nuns and Nones at w w w. g l o b a l s i s t e r s r e p o r t . o r g / series/nuns-and-nones (or Click Here).

The quest for meaning Seeking meaning is inherent in the human experience, Sr Romey said, pointing to Buddha, Abraham and St Benedict as examples of the relentless metaphysical quest.

“All the way back to the nomadic tribes, there was something that called them out of them-

A Nuns and Nones retreat at Mariandale, the Dominican Sisters of Hope’s retreat centre in New York. (From left) Sr Arlene Trant MM, Sr Patricia Magee OP, Sr Connie Koch OP, and Gabrielle Drouant (Photo courtesy of the Dominican Sisters of Hope)

CHURCH

The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

9

How we all should evangelise The new Pastoral Plan calls on us to evangelise, but how are we to understand that task? FR RALPH DE HAHN explains.

and its institutions to make it more Catholic.

And the key message to be proclaimed? “For God so loved the world that he gave us his only son, so that everyone who believed in him may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Knowing that we cannot save ourselves, God sent Jesus, his son, HE launch of the new Pastoral who came to pay a debt he did not Plan by our bishops in late owe, because we owed a debt we January was much antici- cannot pay! pated—with most Catholics still The term “to evangelise” has alwondering what the word “evange- ways been used in the Catholic tralisation” really means. dition in response to the command Many associate it with the cries of Christ in Matthew 28:19-20: of famous TV evangelists who en- “Therefore go and make disciples of tertain millions with their biblical all nations, baptising them in the presentations—with remarkable fi- name of the Father and of the Son nancial success. and of the Holy Spirit, I have been reading and teaching them to the lectures and articles obey everything I have of our Church leaders Christ’s message commanded you.” and journalists as well must not to be There is an essential as Pope Paul VI’s 1975 message to be prodocument Evangelisalost in codes of claimed. The Church tion in the Modern World bears this great responmorality or any sibility, (Evangelii nuntiandi), for it is the reaand wonder if we are son for its very kind of servitude. not misunderstanding existence. the concept of a New It must offer The divine power of Evangelisation. the message has evanfreedom Pope Paul’s exhortagelising power when it tion—supported also by is worthily proclaimed: Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis—stressed “I am not ashamed of the Gospel,” a “New Evangelisation making the cries Paul, “for it is the power of whole of creation new”, referring to God for salvation to everyone who has faith” (Romans 1:16). Note well: Revelation 21:5.

It emphasised three distinctive “who has faith”!

There is an awesome power in elements: • Interior conversion to Christ this proclamation of Truth revealed

by God himself. We must never forand his Church; • The individual and the whole get that the Bible was written by the culture becoming affected by this Church and for the Church.

Evangelisation is totally conversion; • Transformation of the culture Catholic. It reveals the mystery of

T

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A banner representing the theme of evangelisation is held up at the launch of the new Pastoral Plan in Soweto earlier this year. In his article, Fr Ralph de Hahn suggests that evangelisation begins with the self.

(Photo: Sheldon Reddiar) creation, original sin and recreation in Christ—a unique salvation history.

Where catechesis has failed We all need to learn the content of that precious message. And that is where our catechesis, in many aspects, has failed our people.

It is a terribly false impression that we proclaim this message in order to bring large numbers into our churches.

We will certainly accomplish this, but not by counting the number of converts, and not by proselytising, but by attraction. Pope Francis has more to say on this matter.

There is a divine command, a

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message which is unique and irreplaceable, initiated by the inflowing of the Holy Spirit, to be proclaimed to all of creation, but it must begin from within and is not based entirely on the human gifts and talents of God’s people.

Previous articles in this newspaper have already suggested how every believing Christian can, and should, play their part.

It is a process over space and time with steady meaningful growth, as foretold in the Lord’s parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matthew 13:24).

This precious message must not to be lost in codes of morality, or the do-and-don’ts of our childhood catechism days, or in any kind of

servitude. It must necessarily offer freedom.

Rather this message must lead all believers—laity, clergy and bishops and popes—to start with the true evangelisation of self.

There is no other way. A New Evangelisation demands a deeply personal surrender to conversion of mind and heart. Nothing less, or we shall fail!

We cannot share a fire that we do not possess. Pope Francis is adamant that if evangelisation is more of law than of grace, more of Church than of Jesus Christ, or even more of pope than God’s Word, then we are as unreliable as a pack of cards. We become onlookers while the Church stagnates.

We all confess we need a saviour, but we dare not place our hopes on human resources but rather on the power from on high—and that means a personal conversion, deep from within.

“Then will your light shine before the people, and they will see your light and be converted” (Ephesians 5:7-9).

It is indeed attraction. Our Catholic faith is so often poorly taught…but then for many thousands it is caught! It is contagious.

And we are not standing at the threshold of true evangelisation empty-handed.

In its editorial on the launch of the Pastoral Plan, The Southern Cross reminded us of the vital and indispensable power of the media, traditional and social—”a matter neglected by the Church for the past quarter of a century!” n Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town.

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The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

VOCATION

What we are growing at St John Vianney South Africa’s national St John Vianney seminary is training about 130 men for the priesthood. LUCY RUBIN visited the Pretoria campus and met three future priests there.

S

AINT John Vianney Seminary is probably one of the most beautiful centres of learning for priestly formation in Africa.

Located at the top of Main Street in Pretoria’s Waterkloof suburb, it is surrounded by many other Catholic institutions, most notably its new neighbours: the headquarters of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Khanya House.

And just up the road is the apostolic nunciature, the Vatican’s embassy.

Established in 1951, St John Vianney Seminary currently has about 130 seminarians.

The students do not pay fees and depend on Church initiatives and donations to continue.

They come from all over South Africa and from other parts of our continent—such as Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Nigeria—with the hope that after eight years of study and living in community, they will emerge as ordained ministers to and for the Catholic faithful.

The journey Speaking to three seminary “veterans”—John Legodi, Jason Lottering and Tshebang Dithipe— it was clear that living with their brothers in Christ is as much a journey in forming their characters as is accomplishing a bachelor of

Three men on the threshold of becoming priests: Tshebang Dithipe, Jason Lottering and John Legodi. (All photos: Lucy Rubin) philosophy and theology, learning Greek and Latin, and studying biblical archaeology.

All three say they did not have a Damascene experience that brought them to study for the priesthood.

The call slowly but surely grew through their teenage years of attending Mass and catechism.

They felt there was a desire to serve God which they wanted to realise through becoming priests.

Tshebang noted his grand-

Study timetable at St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria.

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mother as being the inspiration for this vocation.

He is a well-known singer in the choir. It is said that when he sings, he holds the floor and lifts the roof, and nobody goes home!

For John, the key to his vocation is humility. Being a priest, he said, is not about success but being faithful to God.

The daily regimen The day usually begins at 6:00 with morning prayer and meditation. Mass is celebrated every day in the chapel.

Within the community itself there are many duties, on top of attending classes and study groups.

Dinner is at 18:30, followed by evening prayers.

The seminarians have a common room where current events are watched on TV, but they have a maximum of an hour and a half in the evenings for this.

For recreation there is a gym and swimming pool.

Most trips outside the seminary are training- or service-related.

As part of their Catholic formation they must attend a joint ecumenical forum at UNISA every year, giving them the opportunity to meet ministers of different faiths in the community.

The seminarians have a student council, and a boardroom for fraternal correction.

URSULINE SISTERS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria, the largest in Africa.

They have formators—spiritual counsellors—with whom they regularly pray. The formators also scrutinise the attitudes of their charges, and when necessary challenge them.

During their eight years of study and preparations, and sometimes longer, the future priests have to do community service.

For six months they are placed in a parish to assist with catechesis and various other duties in the life of the parish.

Jason was placed to assist the chaplain of Weskoppies psychiatric hospital in Pretoria. John went to St Benedict’s in Polokwane, and Tshebang to Sacred Heart cathedral in Pretoria.

“I will go where I’m sent,” said John.

The patron saint He echoes his namesake and patron of the seminary, St John Vianney (1786-1859).

St John was just a simple parish priest in the village of Ars in France. And yet, immense numbers of people flocked to his church in this rural place in post-revolutionary France.

They were attracted by this holy priest who spent 16-18 hours a day in the confessional as people from all over France queued outside to receive the sacrament from him.

The Curé d’Ars, as he is known, was canonised in 1925. Four years later he was declared the patron saint of priests.

The seminarians value the boundaries and discipline of semi-

nary life. John noticed that without it, he found that his prayer life suffered while on holiday.

Tshebang noted that he must submit to his superior, and one day he, too, would expect the same respect to be given to him.

Jason said authority is about servant leadership. What this might mean is having to do the dirty work and praying that your brothers will follow suit.

And at the centre of their service is the Eucharist, not only in their daily lives but as the offering they bring to the towns or cities where they will go.

Besides establishing a eucharistic community spirit, Tshebang hopes to make God relevant to people in their life situations.

“If we move away from God, we lose hope. Look at Mother Teresa: she suffered, had doubts. I am inspired by that.”

John wants to be a counsellor.

He wants to “be blessed and broken”, and to serve the needs of the community in whatever form that may take.

Jason believes in the reevangelisation of the people, noting that the Mass is not just to be a Sunday practice but that people must fully assimilate the core Gospel values into their lives.

The seminarians noted that studying for the priesthood is a long road, and some fellow students have left that path to follow the vocation to marriage.

In the end, they said, faithfulness to your heart is the key to whatever you choose.

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The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

VOCATION

11

A KZN missionary to the world A young Oblate from Nkandla in rural to KwaZuluNatal is now leading retreats in the house of his order’s founding in southern France.

MIKE VIOLA traces the path of Fr Bonga Majola OMI.

I

N 1852, St Eugène De Mazenod sent the first missionaries of the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (OMI) to Southern Africa.

Those Missionary Oblates left from the port of Marseille in France, never to return home again.

Today, more than 160 years later, Fr Bongani Majola OMI from South Africa occasionally goes down to the port in Marseille.

As he looks out at the ocean, he says a prayer of gratitude for those early Oblate missionaries who did so much to evangelise Southern Africa.

As a South African, Fr Bonga is the fruit of their labour. He now helps people discover the wisdom of St Eugène at the birthplace of the congregation.

“I am truly blessed to be working in this ministry, and grateful for the Oblates before me who paved the way,” said Fr Bonga.

He is part of the Oblate team ministering at the Eugène de Mazenod International Centre in Aix-en-Provence in southern France, just a half-hour drive from the port of Marseille.

His ministry includes leading and animating the “De Mazenod Experience”, an opportunity for participants to discover the Oblate charism in their everyday life of mission and ministry.

An unexpected mission Fr Bonga never expected to be working at the most revered place in the Oblate world, especially so early in his priestly ministry. He was assigned to the Aix community just two years after his ordination.

Fr Bongani Majola with Southern Cross pilgrims last October inside the room in Aix-en-Provence where the congregation of Oblates of Mary Immaculate was founded, at the table in the photo. The group later had Mass at that table. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

Born in Nkandla, in rural KwaZulu-Natal in 1981, Fr Bonga knew very little about the Oblates growing up.

He met the Oblates at university and was drawn to their passion for serving the poorest of the poor.

He entered the novitiate in 2005 and was ordained in 2011 after completing his theological studies at the Gregorian University in Rome.

Fr Bonga’s first assignment was as an assistant parish priest at St Charles parish in Victory Park, Johannesburg.

There he was mainly responsible for the parish youth ministry, and also did vocations ministry for the local Oblate province.

Fr Bonga then got the shock of his life when he was asked by the Oblates’ superior-general to minister at the Eugene de Mazenod International Centre in distant France.

Fr Bonga thought the assignment might have been a mistake.

He didn’t speak a word of French, and admits that he didn’t know much about St Eugène de Mazenod.

“I always thought of myself as not an ideal Oblate according to St Eugène’s standards, that if he had been around, he would have kicked me out a long time ago,” the priest said.

Despite his early trepidation, Fr Bonga quickly embraced ministering in Aix. As a young Oblate, he brings a fresh perspective to the retreats he leads.

Most of the participants are veteran missionaries, and Fr Bonga says he finds much joy when they leave the retreats full of life, hope and recommitted to serving Jesus and his Church.

Fr Bonga also said that working in Aix has given him a much deeper respect for St Eugène and the founder’s total commitment to bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the most forgotten.

“St Eugène’s passionate love for Jesus Christ and the Church in-

From Botswana to Texas

BY MIKE VIOLA

spires me to work hard in deepening my personal relationship with Christ,” said Fr Bonga.

“The way St Eugène embraced the cross, in its different forms, allowing himself to be formed by it, gives me courage to faithfully carry mine.

“St Eugène’s thirst for holiness and to do all things for the glory of God and the salvation of souls has given me a new purpose in my life.”

Unofficial tour guide In recent years, Fr Bonga has become the unofficial tour guide of the community, showing visitors the Oblate sites and leading them on pilgrimages in Aix—St Eugène’s hometown—and Marseille, where St Eugène served as bishop.

Last year Fr Bonga guided two groups of South African pilgrims, an opportunity to hear the accents of home. Members of the two groups—Southern Cross “Catholic France” pilgrims led by Fr Lawrence

The

Ndlovu and a group from Johannesburg’s Eldorado Park parish led by Oblate Father Paul Beukes—were delighted with Fr Bonga’s care for them.

In Marseille, Fr Bonga likes to bring visitors to the cathedral where St Eugene is buried and to the basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, which was commissioned by the saint and is located at the highest point in the city.

With its panoramic views, visitors can see for miles across the Mediterranean Sea. It is a view that was experienced by St Eugène when he sent his missionaries out to evangelise the world.

And it is the same view experienced today by Fr Bonga, a disciple of St Eugène, who is evangelising missionaries from around the world. n This article first appeared in OMI World. To read Günther Simmermacher’s pilgrimage account of Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence, Click Here.

S outher n C ross

Jubilee Year Camino to Santiagode Compostela

B

ROTHER Fani Zane Nong has taken an Oblate journey that began about as far away as possible.

The young Oblate of Mary Immaculate grew up in a village in Botswana. He is currently studying for the priesthood at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.

His rector there was going to be a fellow Southern African, but before he could take office, Bishop Sylvester David was called by Pope Francis to serve as auxiliary bishop in Cape Town.

Br Nong grew up in a small village near Ramotswa in the diocese of Gaborone.

He attended Mass at St Ann chapel, an outstation connected to St Conrad’s mission.

The Oblates have served at the mission off and on since 1935.

“My vocation started very young because I was so impressed by the priests in the mission,” said Br Nong. “I wanted to always be like them, so I became an altar server and joined several parish youth programmes.”

Br Nong knew he wanted to be like the Oblates, but he wasn’t sure if he was being called to religious life. He thought about becoming a social worker and serving the poor that way, but the more he learned about the Oblates, the more he was convinced that he could best serve the poor through the priesthood.

“I joined the Oblates because of their charism. Oblates are sent to the poor, and that is what I want to do,” said Br Nong.

Nkandla-born Oblate Father Bongani Majola celebrates Mass in Aixen-Provence. A couple of years after his ordination in 2011, the young priest got the shock of his life when he was called to the birthplace of his order in southern France. (Photo: Mike Viola)

Official 7-Day Camino From Lugo to Santiago de Compostela

September 2021

Led by a spiritual director From Botswana to Texas: Br Fani Zane Nong explains how he became an Oblate of Mary Immaculate. (Photo: OMI World) Becoming a missionary Oblate required Br Nong to travel extensively on his path to the priesthood. Because there are less than a dozen Oblates in Botswana, there was no formal seminarian programme for him to join.

So he was sent to Lesotho, for his pre-novitiate and novitiate studies. In 2017 he returned to Botswana for his internship.

In 2018, a day before his 25th birthday, Br Nong got a big surprise. He assumed he would finish his studies in Africa, or possibly Asia. Instead, he was assigned to be part of the Oblate formation community in San Antonio, Texas.

Br Nong is the first Botswanan Oblate to study in the United States. He is part of a diverse

seminarian community in San Antonio with young Oblates from the Lesotho, Zambia, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, and the United States.

When he is ordained, Br Nong will become only the third Oblate priest from Botswana.

He will likely return to his home country to expand the Oblate presence there. But he could also be sent to another faraway place to best meet his missionary calling.

Br Nong knows that wherever his priestly ministry will take him, he will be fulfilling an Oblate charism that inspired him as a child—to be someone who brings the Good News to the poor with their many faces. n This article first appeared in OMI World.

To book or for info contact Gail at

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12

The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

BOOK REVIEWS

Book explores how Catholic schools defied apartheid THE OPEN SCHOOLS ERA (19761986), by Br Jude Pieterse in collaboration with Robyn Picus.

Marist Brothers, Johannesburg.

2020. 124 pp.

Reviewed by Mark Potterton ARIST Brother Jude Pieterse was one of the central figures in the desegregation Catholic schools during the apartheid era.

He was appointed chair of the Education Council of the Association of Religious in 1975. In the ten years he served in this role he was integrally involved in negotiating with the government for change in Catholic schools.

During this time Br Jude participated in countless meetings and consultations with bishops, principals, teachers and government officials.

He kept meticulous minutes and resolutions of these meetings, and he also wrote several letters corresponding with the different parties at the time.

These events and records became the source material on which this historic book, published in April, is based.

The purpose of The Open Schools Era is to tell the story of what the Catholic Church did under apartheid to ensure that open schools became a reality.

It develops a deeper under-

M

standing of the challenges and struggles faced by the owners of the former white Catholic schools.

The book acknowledges the role played by the bishops, the congregations of teaching Sisters and Brothers, and above all captures the anecdotal and human stories behind the events.

Working with Robyn Picus, Br Jude has managed to richly capture both the excitement and angst of the time. The Open Schools Era is an important historical record of the work done to bring about one aspect of a New South Africa long before its time.

The historical context of the time is captured in the first chapter, which considers the historical roots of Bantu Education. The main ideas of apartheid architect H F Verwoerd, that education should stand with both feet in the reserves with its roots in the spirit and being over “Bantu” society, was established.

Verwoerd argued that good regulations cannot exist when education is given to the “control of people who create the wrong expectations on the part of the native himself”. He wanted “native” education to be controlled in such a way that it should be in line with the policy of the state.

The impact of the Bantu Education Act is described, and it is made clear that the state wanted to

obtain full control of the training of teachers.

Verwoerd argued that for many decades the Catholic Church used the training of teachers for the furtherance of its own particular interests. He insisted that teachers should not feel “above their community” or have a desire to become integrated into the life of the “European” community.

In her history, the late Sr Brigid Flanagan HF, who in the 1980s served as the SACBC’s associate secretary-general, observed that this provoked a crisis in the Church because bishops regarded the school as a pivotal part of the Church’s evangelising mission.

The majority felt that without schools, the Church would lose its influence, vocations would diminish, and many Catholics would fall away from the Church.

Religious instruction given in state schools would be incapable of combating the consequence of secularised education, and there was no guarantee that the Church would have free access to state schools for the teaching of religion to Catholic pupils.

T

he particular strength of Br Jude’s book lies in chapters 3 to 8, where the negotiations with the state are captured with documentary richness.

The pioneering role of the reli-

gious Sisters is highlighted, particularly their eagerness to open their schools as soon as possible. Br Jude notes that the religious teaching Brothers were much more cautious than the Sisters were.

An extract from a contemporary newspaper article by Sr Margaret Kelly OP captures the feeling of some of the Sisters: “We rejoice that at least we have a Catholic school with the staff and pupils from all the parishes in the city.

Both staff and pupils experienced Christian community in all its richness of language, colour, gifts and sharing.

“In this atmosphere it is easy to learn the Christian virtues of understanding, tolerance, respect and love in the interaction within the microcosm of the school [which] forces us to look out on the city and country around us and to see the problems in the macrocosm.”

The integration of Catholic schools was difficult. Sr Evangelist Quinlan RSM notes that some white parents removed their children from open schools and wrote letters of complaint to the government.

According to Sr Evangelist, one parent wrote: “We admire you. We know it must happen. But not with our children.”

The Open Schools Era includes several newspaper clippings which reflect the feeling of the time.

Numerous articles were published about Transvaal administrator Sybrand van Niekerk’s position and the threats he was making in the Pretoria News.

One headline reads: “Schools threat sparks new row”. This article explored the tension within the Nationalist government at the time between the ruling party’s conservatives and progressives.

The timelines at the start of each chapter are useful in gaining a sense of the rhythm of things.

The photographs of different roleplayers lend the book a human dimension, and the extracts from letters, conversations and other documents add to the authenticity of the book.

The Open Schools Era reads easily and is a valuable text documenting both a difficult and tumultuous time in the history of South Africa. n Dr Mark Potterton is a former director of the Catholic Institute of Education and the current principal of Sacred Heart College primary school.

To order the book, contact Br Mario Colussi at mario.colussi@marist.org.za

Author untangles complex Crusader history CRUSADERS: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands, by Dan Jones. Penguin Random House. 2019. 423 pp.

Reviewed by Agostino Bono NTANGLING the nuanced religious, political, economic and territorial complexities of the Crusades is an endless task.

The complexities are so inter-

U

woven in the 200-plus years of fighting between Christian kingdoms and Muslim empires that eight centuries later people are still trying to untie the knots.

Complicating the matter is that there were no good guys and bad guys in this succession of wars that stretched from the end of the 11th century to the end of the 13th century. Christian and Muslim armies

rivalled each other in massacres, pillages and territorial gain by brute force. In the name of religion and freeing the world of “infidels” both sides slaughtered defenceless women and children.

Crusaders is a valiant effort to understand why this happened and provide insights into the entanglements.

Author Dan Jones has written

previous books on medieval topics and has consulted on various TV documentaries about the Middle Ages. In this book, he presents a balanced view, quoting extensively from contemporary Christian and Muslim chroniclers. The reader gets to know what each side thought of the other as well as the rivalries among themselves.

Jones doesn’t stick to a strict academic approach. He mixes recitations of key events and personages with storytelling, highlighting how events affected some of the everyday people experiencing the Crusades.

So we learn how St Francis of Assisi tried to convert Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil of Egypt as a way, he had hoped, to end one of the Crusades.

We learn about unarmed pilgrims with no military experience who joined the Crusades simply seeking safe passage to Christian holy sites.

T

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he book quickly deals with the anomaly of how followers of Christ, who praised peacemakers and advocated turning the other cheek, could have been so easily recruited and instigated by popes and preachers to kill their “infidel” enemies.

It notes how references were made to the Old Testament where a vengeful God was not above smiting enemies and choosing warriors to fight his earthly battles.

Added to this were spiritual and temporal inducements. Popes offered absolution from temporal punishment for sacramentally confessed sins. Key political leaders also offered immunity from lawsuits and exoneration of interest on debts.

Many kings and noblemen were also motivated by territorial and economic gain, trying to open or capture important trade routes to the East.

As it was a war against “infidels”, Christian armies often massacred defenceless Jewish communities they encountered along the way.

Ostensibly, the reason for the Crusades was to establish a Christian kingdom in the Muslim-controlled Holy Land to provide safety

for Christian pilgrims.

The First Crusade was successful, establishing the kingdom of Jerusalem as a united Christian fighting force faced a Muslim world splintered by rival empires.

But as Muslim forces united and started making inroads into Christian lands, the Christians had to send for reinforcements from Europe, spawning the series of wars known as the Crusades.

This often degenerated into a game of thrones, with Muslim and Christian leaders sometimes forging alliances with each other to thwart their co-religionists.

In the end, the Christians gave up, as European leaders were tired of constantly sending reinforcements of men and supplies to the Holy Land. It was a case of home field advantage.

Jones notes that historically the Crusades were not confined to the Holy Land. Popes extended the concept and benefits to Christians fighting Muslims and other nonChristians in Europe, especially Spain, and North Africa. In this scenario, the Crusades ended in 1492 with the expulsion of the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula.

The book also posits the need to understand the Crusades if people are to comprehend the animosity in the much of today’s Muslim world to any Western invasion, be it political, military or economic.—CNS

The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

LIFE

13

Sexuality ed: Much is at stake New technology, laws and social attitudes have given rise to an unhealthy view of sexuality which requires addressing, argues FR MICHAEL BENNETT SPS.

is a new form of colonialism.”

Ekeocha is a strong voice for the pro-life agenda, a voice that is freely heard on YouTube, as is Kuby’s.

Counter-cultural pope

O

N my way home to the township near Johannesburg where I live, posters on billboards and poles contain crude and unambiguous messages.

One reads in large letters, “PENIS ENLARGEMENT—for a better love life”. Another reads: “Affordable, guaranteed, ABORTION, quick, safe and pain free” (plus a telephone number).

The unkindest “cut” of all, an abortion poster adds the bargain basement statement: “STUDENTS HALF-PRICE”. How low can one stoop?

South Africa has very liberal sexual and reproductive health laws.

Abortion is available up until the 20th week of pregnancy, and even beyond in certain circumstances.

However, only 7% of government clinics/hospitals actually perform abortions as many nurses and doctors refuse to provide the service.

The slack is taken up by illegal abortionists, the ones advertising on the street poles.

There are about 100 000 legal abortions yearly in this country, and up to 150 000 illegal. (Worldwide, 40-50 million abortions per year; an estimated 1,7 billion in the last 40 years!)

A related issue. Pornography has been around since time immemorial, but what opens doors to it today—unlike the past—is the little gadget in our pockets. Some 72% of South African youth, aged 15-24, have mobile phones. On average, they spend three hours and 30 minutes daily on them.

There are wonderful pluses to IT, but there are also minuses.

The Internet provides access to a world of make-believe, manipulation and danger. Young people cannot cope with the rush of dopamine, a pleasure chemical, to the brain from exposure to pornography. Constant exposure can easily result in addiction.

The evolving field of neuroscience maps the impact of pornography and sexual activity on the developing brain. The frontal lobe is not fully developed until the midtwenties. What is the impact of pornography when children have barely reached their teens?

Considerable time is also spent watching TV “soaps”, where many young people receive their values.

Without mature adult figures to help them critique what they see and hear, their minds are exposed to a jungle of images, thoughts and pretensions. And adult parents are lacking: at least two-thirds of black South African children are reared by mothers and grandmothers in the absence of their fathers.

A hugely disturbing statistic is that one in four men in South Africa has admitted to raping a woman. Per head of population, South Africa has one of the highest levels of rape in the world.

The roots of rape are related to a false idea of manhood—the sexual entitlement of men. Sexual abuse and rape are part of the family context. The physical and emotional trauma of such violence leave deep wounds which are very difficult to heal.

A false view of sexuality What also influences this country is a more universal current—the liberal agenda that promotes the sexualisation of young people from a very early age.

“It is okay to live out your instincts; you can respond to how you feel. There is no need to set boundaries. Just protect yourself from dis-

A street poster in Pretoria is punting illegal abortions. In his article, Fr Bennett lists abortion as one of the causes of the corrosion of sexual ethics in our age. eases and pregnancy.” “Porn is pink”. “Masturbation is great”. “If you do not feel comfortable in your (male or female) body, it’s all right.

There are other options.” “Burn the binary” (in reference to gender dysphoria).

The Christian vision of sexuality is very, very different. This beautiful gift must be nourished and cultivated if it is to be expressed in loving relationships that lead to the creation of new life.

Open and truthful engagement with young people is required: listening to the challenges they face; giving them scientific facts (not just “God says”); explaining to them the “Why?” behind the “What?” (giving them reasons for their behaviour); providing them with guidelines and boundaries; alerting them to the consequences of their actions; enabling them to embrace their adolescent stage in a healthy, life-giving and joyful manner.

When this is denied—where consciences are blunted—there are consequences.

Those consequences of a physical nature—the dangers of pregnancy and disease—are well chronicled; but the emotional and spiritual much less so.

For human beings, sex affects much more than the body. Its emotional and spiritual dimensions make it distinctively human. Our entire person—mind, body, and feelings; our soul—is involved.

That is why sexual intimacy has potentially powerful emotional and spiritual consequences.

More and more young people suffer from emotional/psychological disorders—often related to issues of pornography and premature sexual involvement.

In Western countries the number of suicides among young people has risen significantly in recent times.

In South Africa, the issue is similar; Teen Suicide Prevention Week takes place each year in February.

Society gone off-course There are strong voices who say that society has largely gone offcourse and must get back to basics.

One significant European voice is Gabriel Kuby, a German Catholic sociologist.

Her book The Global Sexual Revolution (English edition 2015) is subtitled “Destruction of Freedom in the Name of Freedom”.

The book is a well-researched work providing serious reflection on a wide range of issues, including the sexualisation of children, the secular redefinition of marriage in a

growing number of countries, and the LGBT agenda.

A voice of note on the African continent is the Nigerian writer and broadcaster Obianuju Ekeocha.

Her book Target Africa, published in 2018, has the revealing subtitle “Ideological Neocolonialism in the 21st Century”.

Big international institutions and wealthy global corporations impose an external, non-African, approach to sexual matters on African people. She asks: “What right have you [outsiders] to tell us [Africans] what to believe in regard to sexual matters?” She adds: “This

Pope Francis arguably provides the most influential counter-cultural voice at this time. A few quotations (headings mine): On education in sexuality: “It is not easy to approach the issue of sex education in an age when sexuality tends to be trivialised and impoverished. It can only be seen within the broader framework of an education for love, for mutual selfgiving.

“The sexual urge can be directed through a process of growth in selfknowledge and self-control.

“Sex education should provide information...at a proper time and in a way suited to their [young people’s] age. It is not helpful to overwhelm them with data without also helping them to develop a critical sense in dealing with…the flood of pornography and the overload of stimuli that can deform sexuality (281).

“But who speaks of these things today? Who helps them to prepare seriously for a great and generous love? Where sex education is concerned, much is at stake (The Joy of Love 280, 281, 284).

On abortion: “So great is the value of a human life, and so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in the mother’s womb, that no alleged right to one’s own body can justify a decision to terminate that life” (The Joy of Love 83).

“Each child has a place in God’s heart from all eternity…think of the great value of that embryo from the moment of conception. We need to see it with the eyes of God, who always looks beyond mere appearances” (168).

A different approach In South Africa where there is so much dysfunctionality within families, domestic abuse, sexual vio-

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lence, STDs, teenage pregnancies, abortion, the government is obliged to provide sexuality eduction.

In Western nations the concept of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is more and more being promoted in schools, beginning at a pre-pubescent level. CSE is also making inroads in African nations.

What does one actually mean by an education in sexuality that is comprehensive?

Because of the need to engage with so many young people in the state school system in South Africa and the enormity of the challenges they face, there is a real danger that what is meant to be “comprehensive” can end up being largely amoral. It can become an exercise in damage limitation: “Do this or use that, and you should be okay.”

A Catholic comprehensive approach must be based on the dignity of human life and a relationship with God. Age-appropriate, open and honest discussions are paramount both in the Catholic school classroom and in the home. Christian parents provide a vital education in sexuality by their lived example.

Children learn that pornographic sexual acts are false and destructive. Boys are taught that girls are not objects to be used and discarded; that love is based on discipline, self-respect and respect for the other.

Thus the words “wait” and “no” are an essential part of the adolescent vocabulary. “Healthy fun” is a big part of it too. It is not a “killjoy” agenda but one that is life-enhancing.

But, as Pope Francis says: “Who speaks of these things today? Where sex education is concerned, much is at stake.”

The Christian community must speak. Not to speak is a denial of the gospel of life. There is too much at stake. n Fr Michael Bennett is a priest of St Patrick’s Society for the Foreign Missions serving in the archdiocese of Johannesburg.

S outher n C ross

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14

The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

OBITUARIES

Sr Helga Thomas OP

Fr Jack Viscardi IMC

D

C

OMINICAN Sister Helga Thomas died on April 1 at the age of 78.

Hildegard Roswitha Thomas was born on October 22 1941 in Homburg-Erbach in Germany’s Saarland region, the youngest of six children.

Her father was away during World War II, and her mother had to look after the six children alone.

Sr Helga was taught by Dominican Sisters throughout her schooling.

In 1957 she expressed her desire to become a Dominican novice and go to South Africa where her aunt, Sr Ewalda, was stationed in King William’s Town.

Sr Helga was received as a novice during the Eucharistic Congress in 1960 in Munich. There were 12 novices in her group. With other Sisters, she was sent to South Africa in 1962.

From King William’s Town they moved to Fort Beaufort for studies.

Sr Helga took exams in music besides her other studies.

In 1964 she was sent to Belgravia in Johannesburg, and stayed there until 1986. Then she was

transferred to Witbank.

In each convent, Sr Helga taught music to the children and enjoyed the experience. The children were taught to play recorder, guitar, Orff instruments and later marimbas; she also taught singing in all the classes. This gift of music was something that she shared all her life, no matter where she went.

In April 1998 Sr Helga responded to a new call of ministry to the sick and elderly sisters in Bethany convent in Brakpan, and she loved to care for them.

In May 2012 the majority of the Bethany Sisters moved to the newly refurbished St Mary’s Home in Johannesburg, with Sr Helga as their coordinator. It was a huge task for her to settle again into a leadership position so different from the former one.

During Sr Helga’s time, a lot of building was going on. The big open space in front of the entrance of the home gave way to 24 new cottages, St Mary’s Village.

Sr Helga generously gave of herself and her time. She had the gift of helping a Sister to settle down when it came to their retirement.

In August 2019, Sr Helga was assigned to the Emmaus community in East London. There she endeared herself to the residents with her music.

After Christmas she no longer played her accordion and her health took a downward turn. On April 1 she died peacefully.

Fr Liam McDermott OFM

F

RANCISCAN Father Liam McDermott died on March 9 at the age of 86.

A native of Ballymote in County Sligo, Ireland, where he was born in 1934, he joined the Franciscan Order in Killarney in 1953.

Fr McDermott made his Simple Profession in 1954, and after his studies was ordained to the priesthood in Rome in 1963.

He felt drawn to mission work, and came to South Africa to join the Irish Franciscans in Kokstad diocese.

Fr McDermott was involved in pastoral ministry in rural missions in the diocese and in various township parishes throughout the country. He also worked in the formation of young friars and in leadership roles among the Franciscans.

To have lived close to him was a privilege and a joy, for in him one met a man of gentle and practical service. The first time I met him, in February 1971, I found him lying under the bonnet of a car with a spanner in his hand.

For us friars, we have a wonderful example before us of Franciscan life. Fr McDermott lived a humble, simple life. He allowed nothing to come between himself and God. As the first Franciscan provincial of the new South African province in 1985, he listened to everyone, responded honestly, supported all in need and kept confidentiality.

Fr McDermott was Franciscan in that he was very close to the people. His first 15 years in South Africa, 1963-78, he spent as priest in the parish of Sharpeville. The place was still reeling after the massacre of 1960. He loved the people of Sharpeville and said: “These were the greatest days of my life.”

Fr McDermott had many stories of the characters he worked with

there, among them the old lady who frequently called him at night requesting the Last Rites. He put an end to this when he discovered that every time she ate fresh cabbage she had pains in her stomach and thought it was the last trumpet call.

Like St Francis, he drew people to God, not to himself. His friendship was sincere and lifelong.

For 25 years Fr McDermott was the spiritual assistant of all the Poor Clare monasteries in East Africa; it was work which inspired him. It took him to many countries across Africa, and he generally returned quite ill. One Christmas Day his dinner consisted of a single banana in the empty Dar es Salaam airport.

The messages from the Poor Clare monasteries speak of the high esteem and affection the Sisters had for their Franciscan brother.

It is not easy to speak of the hidden inspiration behind the life of Fr McDermott. He was a quiet man, a man of few and well-chosen words.

He once sent me a letter of four words: “Dear William…Yes… Liam.”

However, luckily, he revealed the secret of his life in the readings and hymns he chose for his funeral and thanksgiving Mass.

Fr McDermott chose St Paul’s

letter to the Philippians: “For the sake of Christ Jesus I have thrown everything away. I consider it all as rubbish so that I may gain Christ…All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his Resurrection.”

The Gospel he chose was of the disciples with their Master on the road to Emmaus. They walked with him and recognised him at the breaking of the bread.

It was in the liturgy that Fr McDermott above all met the Lord. He performed the liturgy with great attention and dignity. Everyone knew him as the “singing priest”. One Saturday morning the lady in the sacristy enquired who would celebrate the evening Mass. She asked: “Is it the parish priest or Pavarotti?”

Fr McDermott’s life was poured out to build up the Church. He did this not only by dedicated ministry but by patiently bearing agonising pain from severe arthritis for 30 years in union with Jesus.

In his slow, lingering death, he never complained but exuded peace and joy. Like his saintly friend, Mother Veronica, he used to say: “I am lucky in my vocation, whether I am ill or well, either daytime or the middle of the night, I can live it fully. I suffer and unite myself with the Lord for the Church.”

In very brief words, whenever Fr McDermott looked back over his life, we would hear these words almost as an antiphon: “But it was great.” It reminds us of the final words of St Clare of Assisi: “I thank you, Lord, for having created me.”

Indeed, Fr McDermott’s final words were: “It was a great life, thank God. That can be my obituary when I kick the bucket.”

By Archbishop William Slattery OFM

“Here I am Lord” Cell: +27 72 769 7396, or +27 83 471 6081 E-mail: vocation.office@dehonafrica.net www.scj.org.za

ONSOLATA Father Giovanni “Jack” Viscardi died on April 19 in Italy at the age of 88.

Born at Cernusco, near Como in Italy, on March 8, 1932, Fr Viscardi was ordained a priest for the Institute of Consolata Missionaries on April 2, 1960.

First he was posted to Tanzania for pastoral ministry and teaching, then he was called to be a Consolata pioneer in South Africa, with Fr John Bertè.

They arrived in the country on March 10, 1971. The first mission to be served was Piet Retief in the prefecture of Volksrust (now the diocese of Dundee).

When he came to South Africa, there were already two missionaries with the same first name as his— Giovanni, or John—so Fr Viscardi adopted the name Jack.

From 1978-83 he was director of the Pastoral Centre at Damesfontein.

He then returned to Piet Retief a second time from 1983-85, and a third time from 1988-89.

Fr Viscardi was in Pomeroy from 1989-1991.

He was part of the first Consolata team for the Newcastle deanery— they started ministering in that area from February 1991—and he was the priest in charge of Blaauwbosch till 1994.

Then Fr Viscardi served for a short time in London, after which he returned to South Africa.

He was also the first Consolata missionary, with Fr Alexius Lipingu, to minister outside the diocese of Dundee, going to Waverley and Mamelodi West in Pretoria in June 1995. He remained in Pretoria till 2003, when he went to minister in Italy.

Fr Viscardi came back to South Africa in 2008, first returning to Waverley, then serving as a member of the congregation’s formation team

at Merrivale Seminary in KwaZuluNatal.

In 2014 he went back to Italy.

Fr Viscardi would not allow age to bring him down. He kept the community alive, so much so that when he was not around, his confrères would easily notice his absence.

He had vigour, a sense of humour, and a love of manual labour.

Fr Viscardi was a storyteller too: about his first mission in Tanzania and President Julius Nyerere, and the political upheaval during apartheid.

He taught most of the Consolata missionaries isiZulu. Among his students was Fr José Luis Ponce de León, now bishop of Manzini in Eswatini.

Fr Viscardi was in love with the mission and with South Africa. One day he requested: “When I die, I want them to sing the South African national anthem, Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika, at my funeral.

He died on April 19 in Alpignano, Turin.

By Fr Rocco Marra IMC

Fr Kees Keijsper OP

D

OMINICAN Father Kees Keijsper quietly passed away on March 14 at the age of 83.

Cornelis Nicolaas Petrus Keijsper, or Kees, was born on December 20, 1936, in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

After completing school at St Dominic’s College in Nijmegen, he decided to join the Dominican Order.

He completed his novitiate in Huissen and was professed on September 18, 1956. He then studied philosophy in Zwolle and theology in Nijmegen.

He was ordained a priest on July 19, 1962.

In the spring of 1964, before Fr Keijsper was sent to minister in the Dutch vicariate in South Africa, he went to London to improve his English. After his arrival in South Africa, he went to Lesotho to learn Sesotho.

Until 1995 Fr Keijsper was pastorally active in the diocese of Kroonstad in the parishes of Virginia, Sasolburg, Viljoenskroon, Odendaalsrus, Welkom and Bronville.

He dedicated himself to the establishment of the local Church in the diocese and to developing catechesis.

Fr Keijsper expended much energy in introducing family and community catechesis to South Africa, especially when he became a member of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s Catechetical Commission.

In 1995, he was transferred to be parish priest of Springs. He was the superior of the Dominican House, which also included the novitiate.

In March 2000, Fr Keijsper became prior of the Dominican House of Studies at Cedara, KwaZuluNatal, and then was instrumental in moving the community to the new Emaphethelweni priory in Pietermaritzburg in September 2001.

He played an important role in financing of the new priory and was particularly delighted in the shape and artistic form given to the community chapel.

Fr Keijsper became very engaged

in raising funds for the Dominicans in Southern Africa and remained so till the end of his life.

In 2006, when his term as superior in Emaphethelweni came to an end, he returned to ministry in the diocese of Kroonstad, being appointed parish priest in Welkom for a second time.

He got involved in the training of deacons in the diocese and also established the Resource Centre and the Thabiso Skills Training Centre.

Fr Keijsper was a colourful personality. When he was in the room, everyone was aware of it. His voice was audible above all others.

Whenever you saw him, he was always carrying a bundle of papers in his hand, but this was nothing in comparison with all the bundles in his office and bedroom.

When writing, Fr Keijsper always used an enormous number of words in one sentence, divided with his own unique punctuation.

On August 21, 2012, he returned to the Netherlands. He was happy to remain fully occupied with matters of Dominican life.

Over the last couple of years of his life, Fr Keijsper had to endure and accept the gradual deterioration of his body due to a degenerative disease.

In October 2018, he came to South Africa to bid his final farewell to all his friends in the country.

By Fr Harry Penninx OP

The Southern Cross, April 29 to May 5, 2020

YOUR CLASSIFIEDS

Top Catholic app adds features to help people cope during pandemic

BY JOYCE DURIGA

I

N 2018, Alessandro DiSanto quit a promising job in finance to join friends in starting an app for Catholics centred around meditation and prayer.

That app, Hallow, is now the top Catholic app in app stores, has 150 000 downloads in 50 countries and has been used to pray over 1 million times, said Mr DiSanto, who is from Chicago.

The Hallow team also recently launched special features related to the coronavirus for the many people who must stay at home during this time.

Mr DiSanto and friends with whom he attended the Catholic University of Notre Dame in Indiana came up with the idea when they found they were all struggling with being connected to their jobs all the time and finding little peace in their lives.

“My experience personally was coming from this perspective of being just stressed, having rising anxiety living in a constantly connected world where my life was being run by my email inbox at work,” Mr DiSanto told the Chicago Catholic, newspaper of the archdiocese of Chicago.

He was working long hours and looking for a way to reduce stress. People told him that mediation and practising mindfulness would help. They recommended the apps Headspace and Calm, which he downloaded and used.

“But the more I created peace in my life in the sense of absence of activity, the more I realised that what I was actually searching for were deeper questions about purpose and what I should be doing with my life,” Mr DiSanto said.

“That was inherently a faithbased question for me, and really not addressed by those secular mediation apps.”

Alex Jones, Erich Kerekes and Alessandro DiSanto are the founders of a popular Catholic app called Hallow centred on meditation and prayer. They recently added special features to help people cope during the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo via archdiocese of Chicago) Then Mr DiSanto’s friend Alex Jones developed a rudimentary version of an app where friends, including Erich Kerekes, recorded passages from Scripture and spiritual books they could all use for meditation.

The more time they spent using it and developing it, the more their friends and family showed interest in using it too.

The turning point came when a friend told Mr DiSanto that she had used the app to discern a vocation to religious life.

“That was an ‘Oh, wow’ moment. Certainly, we didn’t do anything. That was God’s grace that moved her heart,” he said. “But it kind of hit us in the head and we thought maybe we should spend time discerning whether we’re being called to build this as a resource for the world to help them find God’s call in their lives.”

So the three friends quit their jobs and launched Hallow in December 2018.

It wasn’t easy for any of them to walk away from promising careers in the secular world, but all felt like God was calling them to make the leap.

They launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise initial funding to build the app. Now they have what they call “angel investors” who support their work. They also formed partnerships with parishes and Catholic groups around the US to promote subscriptions.

The app is subscription-based but free to download. Parts of the app are free to users and those areas are updated regularly. That’s a deliberate choice by Mr DiSanto and his cofounders to make it accessible to people who can’t afford a subscription.

Subscriptions cost $60 (R1 130) a year or $9 (R170) a month. There is usually a sevenday free trial period for the premium version, but that has been extended to three months because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The app has several sections, such as “lectio divina”, which is a meditative way of reading the Bible; a daily “examen”; traditional prayers like the rosary and stations of the cross; and “praylists”.

There are several options for meditation, such as one that walks users through the words of the Our Father, prayer challenges and “minute meditations” for when someone just wants a quick check-in with God. To help people during the pandemic, the Hallow team also released a 15-session “stuck at home” playlist with sessions focused on the power of prayer and finding peace in trusting God. They are also releasing a function within the app to allow users to create friends and family groups, helping people stay connected to their communities of faith during this time.—CNS

Your prayer to cut out and collect

PRAYER FOR STRENGTH

Lord God, we entrust to you the families and communities affected by coronavirus, wherever they may be.

We pray especially for healthcare workers, that you may guide and protect them.

We pray that your Spirit might inspire those researching new medicines and treatments.

And keep us strong in faith, hope and love. Grant us the courage and perseverance to be good neighbours.

May the words of your Son Jesus Christ in the Our Father, be our prayer as we entrust ourselves and all of us who are affected to your infinite power and love. Amen.

Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday May 3, 4th Sunday of Easter, Vocations Sunday Acts 2:14, 36-41, Psalm 23:1-6, 1 Peter 2:20-25, John 10:1-10 Monday May 4 Acts 11:1-18, Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3-4, John 10:11-18 Tuesday May 5 Acts11:19-26, Psalm 87:1-7, John 10:22-30 Wednesday May 6 Acts 12:24--13:5, Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8,

John 12:44-50 Thursday May 7 Acts 13:13-25, Psalm 89:2-3, 21-22, 25, 27, John 13:16-20 Friday May 8 Acts 13:26-33, Psalm 2:6-11, John 14:1-6 Saturday May 9 Acts 13:44-52, Psalm 98:1-4, John 14:7-14 Sunday May 10, 5th Sunday of Easter Acts 6:1-7, Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19, 1 Peter 2:4-9, John 14:1-12

15

Anniversaries • Prayers • Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Thanks • Others Please include payment (R2.00 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

PRAYERS

HOLY ST JUDE, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. To you I have recourse from the depths of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Please help me now in my urgent need and grant my petition. In return I promise to make your name known in distribution of this prayer that never fails. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be forever blessed and glorified. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and grant my request (name your request). Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be. PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT: Holy Spirit, thou who makes us see all and shows us the way to reach

our ideals, and in all aspects of our lives is with us granting the divine gift to forgive and forget, and in all aspects of our lives is with us protecting and opening ways which we thought never existed. We praise and glorify thee and hereby confirm never to be separated from thee, casting aside all material desires.

We pray to be with thee and our loved ones in thy perpetual glory. Say the above for three consecutive days and without asking further the wish will be realised no matter how difficult it may seem. Take the obligation to advertise and make public this prayer as soon as your wish has been granted to his glory.

O MOST beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity.

O Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are. Mother of God, Queen of heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is 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. Say this prayer for three consecutive days and then publish. Leon and Karen.

PERSONAL

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Southern CrossWord solutions

Our bishops’ anniversaries

SOLUTIONS TO 913. ACROSS: 3 Abyssinia, 8 Epic, 9 Adherents, 10 Pacify, 11 Speak, 14 Credo, 15 Pill, 16 Trial, 18 Etna, 20 Eight, 21 Tribe, 24 Repeat, 25 Confessor, 26 Void, 27 Childlike. DOWN: 1 Respected, 2 Miscreant, 4 Body, 5 Sheep, 6 Ice cap, 7 Iota, 9 Afoot, 11 Swine, 12 King Herod, 13 Platitude, 17 Leper, 19 Artful, 22 Basil, 23 Goth, 24 Rock.

This week we congratulate: April 30: Auxiliary Bishop Duncan Tsoke of Johannesburg on the 4th anniversary of his episcopal ordinatio May 1: Bishop Joe Potocnak, retired of De Aar, on the 28th anniversary of his episcopal ordination May 3: Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha on the 12th anniversary of his episcopal ordination

FROM OUR VAULTS 59 Years Ago: May 3, 1961

Region’s first black archbishop Southern Africa’s first African archbishop has been enthroned in Maseru, Lesotho. Archbishop Emmanuel Mabathoana’s installation was presided over before 8 000 people in the cathedral of Our Lady of Victories by the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Joseph McGeough.

Vatican II ready to start in 1962 If preparations continue successfully, the Second Vatican Council may start in the northern autumn of 1962, according to Archbishop Pericle Felici, secretary of the planning committee. No lay people will be invited as observers, but they will be heard through their bishops, he said. (The council began on December 8, 1962, with Archbishop Felici as its secretary).

Call for a universal franchise The Natal Convention, meeting in Pietermaritzburg under the co-sponsorship of Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban, calls for a non-racial parliamentary franchise on the common voters’ roll. The Southern Cross devotes a page to the convention’s resolution.

Car pilgrimage through Africa Peter and Michael Glenshaw, graduates of Christian Brothers’ College in Boksburg, are travelling by car through Africa and write about their pilgrimage/travel experiences in The Southern Cross, including their visit to Tanzania’s Cardinal Laurean Rugambwa.

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the

5th Sunday of Easter: May 10 Readings: Acts 6:1-7, Psalm 33: 1-2, 4-5, 1819, 1 Peter 2:4-9, John 14:1-12

E

VEN in the Easter season, we Christians do not always manage to get things right; but what Easter reminds us is that God is in there, no matter how messy things may seem to be, working to make it better.

In the first reading, we hear of racial and religious tension in the early Church in Jerusalem (were you thinking they were all perfectly harmonious in the Good Old Days?). There are complaints on the part of the Greek-speakers against the Hebrew-speakers, because “their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution”.

The point here is that Jews have always been very good at caring for those in need in their communities; but now the question has arisen about who belongs in the community; perhaps these Greek-speakers do not really belong.

So after negotiations, the Twelve agree that seven men be appointed to wait at table. That is duly done, and seven men of impeccably Greek names are selected; then they are prayed over and hands are laid upon them, while the apostles “continue with prayer and the ministry of the word”.

Interestingly, though, we hear of only two of these in the rest of Acts, namely Stephen and Philip; and neither is “waiting at table”.

S outher n C ross

Instead, when we next hear of them, they are preaching the Gospel. In Stephen’s case, he is so successful that his opponents have to kill him (with the help of “a young man called Saul”—but that is another story, one in which God also turns out to be unexpectedly at work). Philip is not, so far as we know, martyred, but he too does a good deal of preaching, and eventually settles down in Caesarea Maritima, where his progeny includes four prophet-daughters.

God is at work here, in ways far beyond the original tensions causing the problem.

The author of our psalm for next Sunday knows God is at work: “Rejoice, you just, in the Lord; praise is appropriate for the upright.”

Then there is an exhortation to go musical: “Give thanks to the Lord on the harp, and on the ten-stringed lyre make music to him.”

God, as far as our poet is concerned, can do nothing wrong: “The word of the Lord is upright; and all his deeds are done in truth.”

He insists that God is “a lover of justice and right”, and that God keeps a benevolent eye on us: “The eye of the Lord is on those who revere him, to deliver their souls from Death, and to keep them alive in famine.”

I

the twisters were empty, every one of them. Suspecting that possibly someone had taken them as a prank, I mentioned to the cashier at the till that all the twisters were gone.

Her answer took me aback: “But, Sir, we have never had them in this store!”

Thinking she might be new on the job, I said: “I’ve been coming here for more than ten years and you’ve always had them! You can even see their containers from here!”

With an assurance that comes from absolute certitude, she replied: “I’ve been working here for a long time, and I can assure you we’ve never had them!”

I pushed things no further, but, walking out of the store, I thought this to myself: “If she’s right, then I’m certifiably insane!

If she’s right, then I’m completely out of touch with reality, have been for a long time, and I have no idea what sanity is!”

I was certain that I had seen the twisters for ten years! Well, they had reappeared by the next time I entered the supermarket and they are there today, but that little episodic challenge to my sanity taught me something. I now know what it means that “God is One”, and why that is important.

T

Conrad

hat God is One (and not divided) is the very foundation for all rationality and sanity. That God is undivided and consistent within assures you that 2+2 will always be four—and that you can anchor your sanity on that.

Sunday Reflections

The second reading is a beautiful meditation in our Easter-time journey through 1 Peter.

Inevitably there is a reference to the death of Jesus, from Psalm 118: “The stone that the builders rejected has turned into the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock to trip you up.”

For the rest, though, it is a biblical meditation on the idea of “stone”; “a living stone”, which is “built into a spiritual house, a holy Temple”, and it reaches a triumphant conclusion (for God is, after all, in charge): “You people are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his possession, that you may proclaim the virtues of the One who called you into his wonderful light.”

This is a heartening vision for us to ponder this week.

The Gospel for next Sunday is likewise a reminder that we do not always manage to get things right, even in the light of Easter.

We must point out, however, that the setting is not really Easter, but that solemn moment of the night before Jesus died, as he talks to his bewildered disciples, huddled together against the darkness outside. To them, Jesus offers only encouragement: “Do not let your

2+2=4, and God is One T is funny where the lessons of our classrooms are sometimes understood. I studied philosophy when I was still a bit too young for it, a 19-year-old studying the metaphysics of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas.

But something from a metaphysics course remains indelibly stamped in my mind. We learned that there are four “transcendental” properties to God: Scholastic metaphysics tells us that God is One, True, Good, and Beautiful.

My young mind then had some grasp of what is meant by True, Good, and Beautiful since we have some common sense notions of what these are; but what is “Oneness”? What is divine about being undivided?

The answer to that didn’t come to me in a classroom or in an academic discussion, even though I have often tried to explain its meaning to students in a classroom. It came to me in a supermarket.

I had been shopping in the same large supermarket for 12 years when a trivial incident helped explain God’s Oneness and its importance to me.

The supermarket has a fruit aisle where you pick up apples, oranges, grapefruits, bananas and the like, and then bag them yourself in plastic bags the shop supplies.

Alongside the plastic bag dispensers there are small containers holding metal twisters you use to tie up the top of your bag.

One day, I picked up some fruit, put it into a bag, but all the containers holding

Nicholas King SJ

God is always at work

hearts be disturbed—keep your faith in God, and your faith in me.” And there are many ways God keeps a protective eye on us: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.”

We should notice that two disciples raise irritable questions; but it is precisely those questions that allow Jesus to make them aware that God is indeed in charge.

First, Thomas picks up Jesus’ reference to “the way”: “Lord—we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus takes them (and us) deeper: “I AM The Way. And The Truth. And The Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Then Philip alludes to Jesus’ mention of “the Father”, and demands “Lord—show us the Father; and that is enough.” He has to be told (as perhaps we do) that “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…believe in me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me…I am going to the Father”.

Like the disciples, we may not fully understand this, but we glimpse that for all our doubts, God is in charge, and all will be well.

Southern Crossword #913

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

That God is undivided assures you that if you saw package twisters in a store for 12 years, they were there…and you are not insane.

That God is One is the basis for our sanity. It undergirds the Principle of Non-contradiction: something is or it is not, it cannot be both; and 2+2 can never be five—and that allows us to live rational, sane lives. Because God is undivided, we can trust our sanity.

The truth of this was never jeopardised by the great epistemological debates in history. Doubts about rationality and sanity don’t come from Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Locke, Hume, Wittgenstein, or Derrida; these philosophers merely argued about the structure of rationality, never its existence.

What jeopardises our sanity (and is, no doubt, the greatest moral threat in our world today) is lying, the denial of facts, the changing of facts, and the creation of fake facts.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, is as dangerous and pernicious as lying, dishonesty.

It is no accident that Christianity names Satan the “Prince of Lies” and teaches that lying is at the root of the unforgiveable sin against the Holy Spirit.

When facts are no longer facts, then our very sanity is under siege because lying corrupts the basis for rationality.

God is One! That means that there is no internal contradiction within God, and that assures us that there is no internal contradiction possible within the structure of reality and within a sane mind.

What has happened, has forever happened, and cannot be denied. Two plus two will forever be four, and because of that we can remain sane and trust reality enough to live coherent lives.

The single most dangerous thing in the whole world is lying, dishonesty, denying facts. To deny a fact is not only to play fast and loose with your own sanity and the very foundations of rationality; it is also to play fast and loose with God whose consistency undergirds all sanity and all meaning.

God is one, undivided, consistent.

ACROSS

3. Ethiopia of old (9) 8. Nice picture containing a long poem (4) 9. Do they stick to their faith?

(9) 10. Bring peace (6) 11. Say something (5) 14. Mediocre donation conceals statement of faith (5) 15. It may be taken by the birth controller (4) 16. Kind of balance for the accountant (5) 18. Up the ante in Sicily (4) 20. Not the whole novena (5) 21. One named after a son of Jacob (5) 24. Say the response again (6) 25. Priest in the box? (9) 26. Not valid (4) 27. The way to be to enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18) (9) Solutions on page 15

DOWN

1. Sped around Crete and was esteemed for it (9) 2. Can mister become a heretic? (9) 4. Corpse (4) 5. All we like … have gone astray (Is 53) (5) 6. Does the missionary wear it in the Antarctic region? (3,3) 7. Extremely small Greek letter? (4) 9. Body part in progress? (5) 11. Pigs of the Gerasenes (Mk 5) (5) 12. He ordered the death of many (Mt 2) (4,5) 13. Titled up a trite statement (9) 17. Jesus made him clean (Mt 8) (5) 19. Cunningly clever in the picture gallery? (6) 22. Saint in the herb garden (5) 23. One who built a cathedral?

(4) 24. The Church’s foundation (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

M

OTHER went to see the parish priest and asked: “My son is very interested in becoming a priest.

How long will he have to study for that?”

The priest explained. “Well, if he wants to become a diocesan priest, he’ll have to study for seven years. But if he wants to become a Franciscan, he’ll have to study for ten years. And if he wants to become a Jesuit, he’ll have to study for 14 years.”

Mother listened carefully and then said: “Sign him up for that last one, Father. He is a little slow!”

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