200610

CORPUS CHRISTI

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S outher n C ross www.scross.co.za

June 10 to June 16, 2020

Benoni parish launches drive-in Mass

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 5189

R12 (incl VAT RSA)

The ‘Covid-19 Matrics’: What we’ve learnt

Mission looks back at great 100 years

Page 2

Centenary Jubilee Year

Page 3

Pages 8-9

SACBC bishop’s letter to friend George Floyd STAFF REPORTER At first sight, Pope Francis’ surprise endorsement of The Southern Cross looks convincing, especially since the content of the message is plausible—the Holy Father does indeed support Catholic media. At a second glance, it is obviously fake. Firstly, it is unlikely that the pope would appear on TV to order the faithful to subscribe to a newspaper in far-off South Africa. Secondly, the TV news image lacks a broadcaster’s logo.

With this image, The Southern Cross was just having some fun, but often doctored images are used for malicious purposes, and we all must be vigilant to that as we consume information and are tempted to share it on social media.

Pope called protest bishop

BY RHINA GUIDOS

A

FTER a US bishop protested against racism by “taking a knee”, he received a phone call from Pope Francis.

The kneeling gesture was initiated by many athletes to protest against police brutality, and has become a statement of solidarity following the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, became the first Catholic bishop to publicly participate in the gesture, surrounded by priests from his diocese who also kneeled with him while holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign.

The photo of him kneeling went around the world via Twitter and ended up on an Italian website for the diocese of Rome. Perhaps it was there that his boss, Pope Francis, saw it.

A few days later, the phone rang.

“I answered and a voice said in English that he was the Holy Father’s secretary,” Bishop Seitz said. “The Holy Father would like to speak with me. Would I like to speak in Italian or Spanish?” He chose Spanish.

“The Holy Father said that he wanted to congratulate me for the words I am saying,” Bishop Seitz said.

“I told him I felt it was very important at this time to show our solidarity to those who are suffering. I told him I had just come from Mass at which I was praying for him and I always do. He thanked me and said that whenever we celebrate Mass, we are praying together, he where he is and me at the border [to Mexico]. I told him that I am very honoured to serve here.”

The pope also phoned Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, another outspoken critic of racism.

The phone calls to prelates in the US shows that the Holy Father “is anxious for the Church to be responsive in a pastoral way to participate in the response, in solidarity with those who have experienced racial discrimination”, Bishop Seitz said.

Last year, Bishop Seitz wrote a pastoral letter on racism, weeks after an August 3 shooting at a supermarket in El Paso, a violent and bloody event that authorities believe targeted Latinos.—CNS

I

N an emotional “farewell letter”, a bishop from Botswana recalled meeting and befriending George Floyd and his family while in the United States.

Bishop Frank Nubuasah of Gaborone said he met Mr Floyd—who died on May 25 while being pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police officers—in the 1990s at a baseball game in the Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, while Mr Floyd was on a trip to the city in Pennsylvania.

The Ghana-born bishop said that Floyd was “barely 20” when they met, which places the time at around 1993/94, about four years before the Divine Word Missionary was appointed head of the Botswanan vicariate of Francistown.

Bishop Nubuasah declined to comment on his letter.

“I am unable to talk about my pain at this time. It’s still too raw. I hope you will understand,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Southern Cross.

In his letter, which addresses Mr Floyd directly, the bishop recalled: “You came wearing blue jeans, T-shirt, a cap on, holding a huge paper cup filled with Coke in one hand and a bag of popcorn in the other…We got to chatting and become friends.”

Bishop Nubuasah said he cherished Mr Floyd’s “very infectious smile”.

“It was as if the coronavirus learnt from you how to infect people,” the bishop joked.

“Your heart was very big and accommodated people. It was always okay with you to reach out to one more person. Yes, you would run a mile for anyone.”

Noting that his letter would be “my last communication with you in this ‘land of the living’ that rejected your right to live”, Bishop Nubuasah asked: “How can I forget you, George?”

“Your distinctive features are a large nose

Bishop Frank Nubuasah of Gaborone, who wrote an emotional farewell letter to his friend George Floyd, the African-American who died at the hands of police officers.

(Photo: Fr Paul Tatu CSS) and thick lips; very African traits. I know, you always reminded me that you are not African but African-American. Both backgrounds were important for you and you did not want to lose any.

“You were standing solidly with both feet in two traditions. Between these feet of yours was a lot of water called the Atlantic Ocean. You never got to cross it,” the 70year-old bishop wrote.

“My heart is heavy as I sit in my prayer corner to write you this missive, knowing well that others will read it but you will not.

We humans through a representative of ours made sure that your eyes were closed and would not open again,” the bishop noted.

But, he added, “your eyes will remain forever seeing the fire you started at death”.

Continued on page 2

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The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

LOCAL

Carmelite priests open up with drive-in Mass

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

HE Carmelite Fathers in Benoni, Gauteng, borrowed a page from the drive-in cinema model when they held their first drive-in Mass for the faithful on Saturday and Sunday.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and government restrictions on all public gatherings, priests have had to come up with innovative ways to celebrate Mass together with parishioners, all while adhering to guidelines that limit the number of people who can gather, in an effort to slow the spread of Covid-19.

This was the case when 50 cars

gathered in the parking lot of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Benoni this past weekend, where Frs Ryan Pais and Arvin Tauro celebrated their first drive-in Mass on Saturday at 16:00 and on Sunday at 09:00.

“We received such an overwhelming response to our drive-in Mass, that we had to close the gates on Saturday at 15:30 and turn people away as we had reached capacity,” Fr Pais told The Southern Cross.

On entering the premises, parishioners were asked to fill in a register and provide their car registration details.

They were also told that they are

Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Benoni, Gauteng, celebrated its first two drive-in Masses last weekend. They proved so popular that congregants had to be turned away. The parish is planning more Masses for this weekend.

not allowed to leave their cars while hearing the Mass. Even the cars had to social distance.

The pulpit was moved to the parking lot and parishioners watched Frs Pais and Tauro from a specially raised outdoor altar, while speakers also broadcast the Mass across the church carpark.

The priests distributed Communion as congregants sat in their cars.

“The parishioners were very happy and have requested possibly increasing the number of Masses, which we are considering. We are looking at celebrating maybe two or three Masses a day,” Fr Pais said.

Denis Hurley Centre’s homeless tell their own stories on film

BY ERIN CARELSE

A

Sandile Mthembu is the subject of one of Samora Chapman’s striking photographs that are now for sale. He is also the writer-director of the made-in-lockdown film No Kings of the Street.

The

GROUP of men staying under lockdown at the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC) in Durban have brought their creative ideas and lived experiences together to write, direct, and perform in a short film.

No Kings of the Street was written and directed by Sandile Mthembu, produced by Lwazi Sithole, and made entirely with a cast and crew of men staying at the DHC. They were assisted by Durbanbased filmmakers Michael James and Jared Hinde.

The 20-minute film, a cautionary tale of life on the streets by people who have experienced the harsh reality first-hand, can be watched on YouTube (CLICK HERE).

“This film, made with zero

budget, zero props, limited time, and two simple cameras, is testimony to the commitment and creativity of these men and to the human capacity to create meaning even in the midst of struggle and tribulation,” said Raymond Perrier, director of the DHC. “It highlights the vital importance of storytelling as a way of connecting human beings beyond the confines of race, class, gender and faith,” he said.

“We, as people, each have our own part to tell of the essential human story—and to this end, we are proud of these men who were bold enough to begin telling their part of the tale,” Mr Perrier explained.

The specific story of writer-director Sandile Mthembu is one of those featured in the work of

A protestor in Detroit in Michigan holds a photo of George Floyd during a demonstration against his death during an arrest by the police. (Photo: Sylvia Jarrus, Reuters/CNS)

S outher n C ross

Jubilee Year Camino to Santiagode Compostela

Official 7-Day Camino From Lugo to Santiago de Compostela

September 2021 With spiritual director Fr Chris Townsend

To book or for info contact Gail at

info@fowlertours.co.za or call 076 352-3809

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Samora Chapman published in the Daily Maverick, and highlighted in The Southern Cross last month.

These stories are still online and signed limited edition prints of some of the photographs are available as a way of supporting the DHC, the artist and the person featured (CLICK HERE).

At Level 3, the team from the DHC Street Bookseller project—to help homeless people by giving them the chance to sell secondhand books—can also go back to selling their books.

However, they are struggling to find venues, as church services and arts events are not happening on any scale. n To invite a bookseller who can offer quality books at good prices to staff in a workplace, contact Illa Thompson on pubmatgal@gmail.com

Bishop Frank Nubuasah’s letter to friend George Floyd Continued from page 1 “The revolution that your sacrificial death inspired and the new movements and alliances against racism, classism and discrimination are growing. You lit a fire that is burning for peace and change,” Bishop Nubuasah wrote.

“So, my friend, when you hear the chant, ‘Yes, we can’, know that we are doing it in your name and for you. Gone, but very much here! On the mother continent we would call you ‘the living dead’.”

Speaking of his own reaction to the killing of Mr Floyd, the bishop wrote: “Right now, I am angry because I am human and never thought humans can stoop so low” as the officers who have been charged in connection with Mr Floyd’s death.”

But the bishop also remembered happy memories he had of his friendship with the Floyds.

“I recall the vacation I spent with you and your folks. Quincy [younger Floyd brother] was a baby boy at the time,” he wrote.

“What great BBQs we enjoyed in the summer evenings. I thought we in Southern Africa eat a lot of meat, but, boy, you love your rare steak with blood on it,” Bishop Nubuasah wrote, echoing a culinary theme highlighted at Mr Floyd’s memorial service in Minneapolis last Thursday.

The bishop also recalled attending a football game with Mr Floyd—

”a real football game not the American version”.

“Oh, yes, you were bored to the bone. You wanted your version of the game. I remember trying to educate you that the world governing body is called FIFA and not FISA when you refer to football as ‘soccer’.

All that is water that has gone down under [the] bridge near the Three Rivers Stadium, where we first met,” Bishop Nubuasah said.

He noted that Mr Floyd had plans to visit Africa. “I had suggested that you attend the Pan African cultural festival…in Ghana, and then come over to beautiful Botswana to visit with me. I was going to take you to see wildlife in their natural habitat, not a zoo. You were to visit a cattle post and a masimo (plowing field), and enjoy our coveted delicacy of pounded meat, seswaa.”

In the Father’s house, the bishop told Mr Floyd in his letter, “you just have one more task to perform. It is to prepare to welcome the notorious four who killed you into heaven when their time does come and show ‘em round the jolly place we call heaven”.

He concluded: “I will miss you George. You can now breathe eternally the breath of love. Rest in Peace!” n To read Bishop Nubuasah’s letter in full, CLICK HERE).

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

3

Church identifies the vulnerable as priority

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

HE National Church Leaders’ Consultation (NCLC) has identified the saving of human life amid Covid-19 as the main challenge the people of God in the country are facing.

A collective message signed by NCLC chairman Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha called for a response that is holistic and humane.

“The main challenge facing South Africa now is not the issue of legality or rationality—although these are very important and valid principles in our constitutional democracy—but of saving lives, caring for the sick and feeding the hungry,” the NCLC statement said.

It added that therefore the ulti-

mate legitimacy test for all measures dealing with Covid-19 is the answer to the question: Does it enhance our capacity, efficiency and commitment as a country to care for those most affected: the sick, the hungry and the most vulnerable in our society?

“We need to ready ourselves to deal with the peak of the pandemic and learn from other parts of the world that are experiencing major outbreaks of this pandemic how to effectively respond to the outbreak in a holistic and humane way,” the Church leaders said.

They also expressed their appreciation for the government’s efforts alongside other stakeholders in the fight against Covid-19.

But the group of Christian leaders

listed serious concerns about the impact of the pandemic too.

Among them are the number of people with no food or insufficient food increasing enormously; serious incidences of police or army violence in the execution of members’ duty to enforce lockdown measures; and the consequences of the additional tensions and stress in society which have resulted in an increase of incidences of violence in families.

The NCLC also noted there are far too many fraudulent and selfserving schemes, in all sectors, to exploit the current crisis for self-enrichment—robbing valuable resources that should benefit the most vulnerable in society.

This is not the time for political parties to serve sectional interests as this weakens our national effort and goodwill to stand together in the current situation, the Church leaders said.

In terms of immediate and longterm action, the NCCL said any obstacles hindering collaboration between all sectors—faith communities, government, private sector, civil society—to mobilise resources (including international resources), services and especially volunteers must be addressed urgently.

“This must be reviewed systematically and formally—mere ‘consultations’ are not enough, since it does not change the way programmes are implemented,” they added.

In this context, “the challenge for government is not to attempt to control and deliver all services on its own, but rather to act as true servants of the public—as facilitator, coordinator, and to support the numerous initiatives and proven networks of capacity within faith communities, NGOs, civil society and business that have the capacity to implement such programmes,” the Church leaders said.

“The consequences of Covid-19 demand immediate action—but also demand a rethink and design of how different sectors could collaborate more meaningfully to deal with the longer-term impact and consequences in the years to come,” they said.

Return of Grade 12s: ‘Proud to be the Covid-19 Matrics’

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

HE Class of 2020 at St Teresa’s High School in Rosebank, Johannesburg, has been dubbed the “Covid-19 Matrics”.

Headgirls Brogan Hughes, Robyn Shearer and Busisiwe Khumalo shared their experiences being back at school.

Brogan Hughes said arriving at school for the first time in months felt so strange.

“Everything was the same but it felt so different. I had to constantly sanitise and watch my distance with friends,” she said.

“The brief we got on the rules at the start of the day really cemented the reality that we are the Covid-19 Matrics.”

One of her teachers, Lize Els, made her stop and think about that nickname.

“We are a historic grade who will come out of this stronger and more resourceful than probably any other matric class before us,” Brogan said.

“It made me feel inspired about the label on my matric class instead of averse to it. I’m a Covid-19 Matric and I’m proud of that.”

As soon as Busisiwe Khumalo left the car, it felt like she had been transported straight into a sci-fi movie.

Matric girls returning to classes at St Teresa’s High School in Rosebank, Johannesburg, arrived ready to maintain the protocols of social distancing and wearing a facemask. 2020 headgirls (from left) Brogan Hughes, Robyn Shearer and Busiswe Khumalo said their experiences returning to campus included a sense of the surreal, delight at seeing friends again, hilarity, and the determination to complete their matric year.

“There were so many processes to go through before I could even greet my friends, not to mention the initial awkward encounter between us when I first saw them.

Having to distance was extremely hard—but also exceptionally hilarious,” she said.

“Instead of comparing weekends, we were comparing our body

temperatures—how insane? But through all that, I still felt incredibly safe at school. I honestly felt so blessed to be at a school with such dedication to our wellbeing and safety,” Busisiwe said.

For Robyn Shearer, driving into school also felt surreal, having grown accustomed to the comfort of her home during lockdown.

“I was feeling uncertain about going back to school, but after seeing the extensive measures and precautions the school has taken to ensure our safety, however, I was put at ease,” she said.

“Arriving at school and getting our belongings sanitised, standing in a queue to have our temperature taken, greeting friends by tapping

feet and having to shout in order to be heard through our masks are new and interesting challenges which our grade is facing and will slowly get used to,” she said.

“We are the Covid-19 Matrics, and through our resilience, hard work, support from our teachers and fellow [students], we will make the best of this situation and leave a legacy unlike any other matric class,” Robyn said.

Principal Elsa de Bod said the high school had undergone deep cleaning and the staff had worked hard to set up workspaces in anticipation of the Grade 12s’ return to the school campus.

“Every precaution was taken to comply with the prescribed standard operating procedures in line with the guidelines set by the government, Department of Basic Education and the World Health Organisation,” she said.

“Daily sanitisation schedules have been created, and parents have received permits as well as documentation containing all relevant details and precautions to be followed by the school, parents and girls,” Mrs Bod said.

For learners who have elected to remain at home, St Teresa’s online learning programme continues.

Racial justice lectures now free online

T

HE Jesuit Institute has made the Winter Theology 2018 lectures, delivered by Fr Bryan Massingale, available for free as podcasts on its website.

Fr Massingale (pictured) is a leading theological expert on racial justice and professor at Fordham University in New York (see also page 5).

The annual Winter Theology Series is cohosted by the Jesuits and the bishops’ conference.

The topic of the six-lecture series was “Racial Justice and the Demands of Discipleship”.

“In these lectures Fr Massin

gale explored the dynamics of racism and how people might begin healing and finding a way forward together,” said Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, Jesuit Institute director.

“He describes racism as a ‘soul sickness’ that makes the whole body sick. As the world has consciously begun to face the scourge of racism after the killing of George Floyd, the Jesuit Institute has made the lectures avail-

able in audio form on their website,” Fr Pollitt said.

The lectures have been released in stages over two weeks on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, having started on June 8.

“Fr Massingale’s prophetic lectures are deeply challenging but also teach us how our Christian tradition gives us the hope and tools we need to face the sin of racism,” Fr Pollitt said.

“Now, more than ever, we need to reflect on his words,” he added. n Go to www.jesuitinstitute.org. za to listen.

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4

The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

INTERNATIONAL

Africa’s bishops call for debt cancellation

BY FRANCIS NJUGUNA

A

FRICA’S bishops have called on donor countries and agencies to exercise solidarity with the continent—including cancelling debt—as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit hard.

The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences in Africa and Madagascar (SEACAM) also urged the African Union to sensitise its member countries to contribute to the creation of a solidarity fund, which the bishops stressed will be used to improve the health of the people.

In their statement, signed by SECAM president Cardinal Philippe Ouedraogo of Burkina Faso, the bishops urged African leaders to ensure that “the limited available resources be used to assist those who really need help, especially the poorest of the poor, and not end in the pockets of the politically connected people through corrupt practices”.

Acknowledging the initiatives already taken by international aid

A healthcare worker takes a swab from a child during mass testing in Nairobi, Kenya, during the Covid19 pandemic. (Photo: Baz Ratner, Reuters/CNS) agencies in the management of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the bishops asked them to take a closer look at the continent, which currently lacks resources in the fight against the pandemic.

“We would like to go further to plead for the massive cancellation of debts of African countries, to enable them to revive their economies,” the bishops said.

They also called on multina-

tional businesses that rely on raw materials from Africa to make significant contributions to the host countries to enable them to provide basic social services such as hospitals, schools, adequate and affordable housing.

“We appreciate the efforts that have been made by the respective governments to contain the brutal spread of the virus in the continent, and we encourage them to protect the health of the population,” the bishops said. “We also thank all the health professionals and religious nuns who have shown extraordinary dedication to alleviating the suffering of the sick.”

The bishops added that God had not abandoned his children in these difficult times, especially those infected and affected by Covid-19, but was daily working through doctors, nurses, health workers, volunteers and caregivers who have been on the frontline of this emergency, risking their lives.—CNS

China makes preaching patriotism compulsory to reopen churches

C

ATHOLICS are upset about a directive from China’s communist government tellingpriests to “preach on patriotism” as a condition for reopening liturgical services, suspended earlier this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. the reported Ucanews.com Catholic Patriotic Association and the Chinese Catholic educational administration committee of Zhejiang province jointly issued a notice on the resumption of liturgical activities.

“Religious places that meet the conditions of epidemic prevention will resume services from June 2,” it said while adding the patriotism requirement.

Fr Liu of Hebei said it would be good to resume Church activities, but the “requirement on patriotism

is wrong. As members of the universal Catholic Church, we cannot accept and glorify what communists consider patriotic education”.

Jacob Chung, a Wenzhou parishioner, said the government’s move “has seriously interfered in the internal affairs of religion”.

A Church observer in China who sought anonymity said the government was forcing religious leaders to add patriotism and Sinicisation as part of religious teaching.

Amid the ongoing trade war with other countries and an economic slowdown at home, the Chinese Communist Party “is afraid of a counterrevolution. So they want people to hold on to patriotism”, he said.

He said the communists want to

“suppress and transform” the Church to sing the communist tune lest Christians criticise the regime.

Religious activities have been gradually resuming since June 2 in Shaanxi province, Sichuan province and Shanghai after the Joint Conference of National Religious Organisations held a video conference about plans to reopen religious places.

The other terms in the notice issued by Zhejiang authorities, however, are associated with preventive measures against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The notice asked churches to avoid non-essential religious activities, reduce the number of participants and shorten religious activities.—CNS

A statue of St Anthony and a relic of the saint are seen in the church of St Anthony in Lisbon, Portugal, which stands on the place of his birth. This year marks the 800th anniversary of St Anthony entering the Franciscan order. The feast day of the saint, who died at the age of 36 in 1231 in Padua, Italy, is on June 13. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

Pope: St Anthony of Padua a model for today

BY CAROL GLATZ

P

OPE Francis asked that the world’s Franciscans and those devoted to St Anthony of Padua (or Lisbon) be inspired by this 13th-century saint to be “restless” to hit the road and share God’s love through word and deed.

“I am thinking most of all about the young: This saint, so ancient and yet so modern and brilliant in his insights, can be a model for new generations to follow, so that their journey may be made fruitful,” the pope said in a written message.

His remarks came in a letter addressed to Friar Carlos Trovarelli, minister-general of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, marking the occasion of the 800th anniversary of St Anthony entering religious life.

Pope Francis recalled how this young man, born in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal, decided to turn his life around after learning about the martyrdom of five Franciscans killed because of their faith in Morocco.

On this physical and spiritual journey that began 800 years ago, the saint went to Morocco to “ex-

perience the Gospel in the footsteps of the Franciscan friars who had been martyred there”, the pope wrote.

The saint then landed in Sicily after being shipwrecked on the Italian coast, “an event which happens to so many of our brothers and sisters today”, he added.

From Sicily, he travelled with St Francis of Assisi in Italy and France, then moved to Padua, where his body is preserved.

“I hope that this significant anniversary will arouse, especially in the Franciscan religious and the devotees of St Anthony around the world, the desire to experience the same holy restlessness that prompted St Anthony to travel the roads of the world bearing witness, through word and deed, to the love of God,” Pope Francis wrote.

Born Fernando Martins de Bulhoes, St Anthony was renowned for his powerful preaching and devotion to the poor and ill. He was beatified and canonised just one year after his death in 1231. His feast day is June 13, and he is the patron saint of lost objects, animals, pregnant women, travellers and many others.—CNS

Australia’s Church to change governance

BY MICHAEL SAINSBURY

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USTRALIA’S bishops and religious are considering the recommendations for change in a 208-page review into governance of the Church.

If implemented, they would see administrative and financial control of dioceses and parishes radically reshaped and shared between the clergy and laypeople, and an increased role for women.

In mid-May, the bishops considered the report, “The Light from the Southern Cross: Promoting Co-Responsible Governance in the Catholic Church in Australia”, submitted by the Implementation Advisory Group’s Governance Review Project Team. They are continuing to mull a response to 86 recommendations.

The report was initiated by the Australian Catholic Bishops’

Conference in May 2019 in response to a key recommendation of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The governance report was written by 14 people, handpicked lay and clergy—men and women—from Australia as well as international experts.

People familiar with the process who declined to be identified said the report was to have been kept secret until about November, but it was leaked to the Internet.

A spokesman for the bishops said: “The version that has been published is not the final document.”

Catholic News Service verified the report with two of the authors, who said any changes would be minor tweaks.

The report recommends that bishops would be required to

have a college of consultors that would include laymen as well as laywomen. They would be consulted on appointments and finances, and bishops would also be required to consult with independent subject-matter experts when appropriate.

Both dioceses and parishes would have to establish pastoral councils and introduce more transparency, including the regular auditing of finances and child safeguards.

The report recommended that the bishops’ conference be required to make the process of selecting bishops transparent.

In mid-May, ACBC president Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane congratulated the governance review project team for “producing such a substantial piece of work, with far-reaching implications for the Church's life and mission”.—CNS

Pope donates items to benefit hospitals

BY CAROL GLATZ

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S

PORTS fans and collectors will have an opportunity to bid on unique items and memorabilia as part of an online charity auction to benefit healthcare workers in northern Italy.

Pope Francis has donated some of the items to be auctioned off on CharityStars.com, including a custom-made bicycle he received from three-time

world road-race champion cyclist Peter Sagan.

The initiative, called “We Run Together”, runs from June 8 to August 8.

The money raised will go to nurses, hospital workers and medical personnel at the Pope John XXIII hospital in Bergamo and a hospital in Brescia; the two facilities had been overwhelmed during the Covid-19 pandemic.—CNS

Pope Francis receives a bicycle painted in the colours of the Vatican flag from cycling world champion Peter Saga of Slovakia. (Photo: L’Osservatore Romano/CNS)

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

Racism ‘as much a prolife issue as abortion’

BY DENNIS SADOWSKI

T

HERE have been times, said Fr Bryan Massingale, who is black, when he has been invited to a parish or school to speak about racism and is asked to enter such a conversation “in a way that doesn’t make white people uncomfortable”.

“When they asked that question, I say, ‘Let’s pause...and think about that question’,” Fr Massingale, professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University in New York, said in an online discussion.

“Why is it that the only group that’s never supposed to feel uncomfortable when in a discussion about race are white people?” asked the priest, who in recent years toured South Africa twice on lecture tours organised by the Jesuit Institute in Johannesburg.

“The presumption is that we should be able to talk about this issue in a way so that white people are never made to feel uncomfortable and can leave the conversation at the end of the day and feel good about themselves,” he continued.

“That’s the biggest mistake I think the Catholic Church has made,” he said in a programme sponsored by the justice advocacy group Faith in Public Life.

Fr Massingale participated in the 70-minute discussion with writer Olga Segura, from the Dominican Republic.

Both speakers called racism a prolife issue that must be addressed with the same passion and vigour the Catholic Church brings to the public square when it speaks about abortion.

They echoed Pope Francis’ words during his June 3 audience in Rome in which he said: “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every

Olga Segura, author of the book Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, was part of an online forum on racism, calling it a pro-life issue that should be addressed by the Church with the same vigour that abortion is. human life.”

The pope was speaking in support of the nationwide demonstrations in the US that have emerged since the May 25 death of George Floyd while being pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer. The pope also decried the violence that paralleled demonstrations in some areas.

Ms Segura said the protests have demonstrated “what it means to be fully pro-life and in solidarity with each other”.

Unfortunately, she added, the definition of “pro-life” has been narrowly interpreted by many Catholics as being against abortion. Having looked into the backgrounds of some of the protest leaders, she learned

they are being guided by their faith to address injustice.

Fr Massingale welcomed Pope Francis’ comments, saying it was a relief to hear that “someone in high authority [in the Catholic Church] has been saying what people of colour in the Catholic Church have been saying for a long time—that racism is a life issue”.

For too long, he continued, people and clergy within the Church have framed the definition of being pro-life “around the very narrow meaning of being anti-abortion”, allowing people of faith to give political leaders “a pass” on other issues of social justice including poverty, criminal justice reform, mass incarceration, and access to healthcare and affordable housing that go unaddressed and disproportionately harm people of colour.

“It’s high time to stop this fiction that we can be racist and support policies that are detrimental to people of colour, and yet still see ourselves as pro-life,” he said.

Ms Segura noted how women religious have been doing behind-thescenes work to promote racial justice for years.

Agreeing with Fr Massingale, she called on white Catholics and white Catholic leaders to join the current wave of demonstrations.

Having “visible leaders in their collars” would show “this is a religious and spiritual challenge, that it’s not simply a political issue”, Fr Massingale added.

“That’s something the civil rights movement [of the 1960s] taught us, that one of the reasons it was so successful is that it’s a moral issue and a religious issue. And when bishops show up, not to take over, but to be there in solidarity, it shows that this is a key element of Catholic faith.”— CNS

5

Pope Francis greeted the few hundred visitors who had assembled in St Peter’s Square as he led the Angelus, maintaining social distancing and many wearing masks.

The pope urged caution, saying: “Be careful, do not sing 'Victory!' yet, do not celebrate victory too soon! It remains necessary to follow the rules in force carefully because they are rules that help us to prevent the virus from gaining ground.” (Photo: Vatican Media/CNS)

Vatican backs new ‘Catholic Netflix’

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

V

ATICAN officials expressed their support for a new videoon-demand service aimed at adding religious programming and content to the already jampacked field of video-streaming services.

During a news conference announcing the launch of “VatiVision”, the new streaming site, Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, said the platform will allow people to “access content of quality and value that would be otherwise unobtainable, lost or forgotten”.

“For this reason, I am happy that VatiVision will also distribute some content made in collaboration with Vatican Media,” he said.

Despite its name, Mr Ruffini said that VatiVision is an independent initiative and that the Vatican is neither funding the service nor does it have any say in what content will be made available.

VatiVision also received praise from Mgr Dario Vigano, vice-chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Mr Ruffini’s predecessor. The new platform, he said, is an example of Pope Francis’ observation about “the great potential that new technologies offer us”.

“We are before a gift from God, that is, a resource that can bring good fruits,” Mgr Vigano said.

The video-streaming site is a video-on-demand service where users can either rent or purchase programmes.—CNS

Pope Francis: We cannot be silent as our planet is plundered

BY CAROL GLATZ

B

UILDING a healthier, better world depends on everyone, Pope Francis said in his message marking World Environment Day on June 5.

“We cannot remain silent before the outcry when we realise the very high costs of the destruction and exploitation of the ecosystem. This is not a time to continue looking the other way, indifferent to the signs that our planet is being plundered and violated by greed for profit, very often in the name of progress,” he wrote.

“We have the chance to reverse course, to commit ourselves to a better, healthier world and to pass it on to future generations. Everything depends on us, if we really want it,” he added.

The pope sent his message to President Iván Duque Márquez of Colombia, which

had been scheduled to host a global meeting on World Environment Day. Events, instead, were being held “virtually” because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his written message in Spanish, the pope said the pandemic served as a reminder that “in the face of adversity, new paths always open in order for us to be united as a great human family”.

The environment and the planet’s biodiversity affect everyone, he said, which is why “we cannot pretend to be healthy in a world that is sick. The wounds inflicted on our Mother Earth are wounds that also bleed in us”.

Caring for ecosystems is part of a wider concern for life, and protecting those ecosystems is meant to benefit everyone.

“Our attitude toward the present state of our planet should indeed make us con-

cerned for and witnesses to the gravity of the situation,” Pope Francis wrote.

Highlighting the fifth anniversary of his encyclical, Laudato Si’, the pope invited those organising and taking part in virtual events for World Environment Day “to participate in the special year that I have announced to reflect in light of that document and, together, to become more committed to the care and protection of our common home and of our most vulnerable and marginalised brothers and sisters in society”.

“I encourage you in this task that lies before you. I trust that your deliberations and conclusions will always foster the building of an increasingly habitable world and a more humane society, where all of us have a place and no one is ever left behind,” he wrote.—CNS

Vatican arrests broker involved in property deal

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

V

ATICAN authorities arrested and took into custody an Italian broker who was involved in the Vatican Secretariat of State’s majority stake purchase of a property in London’s posh Chelsea district.

In a statement the Vatican said Gian Piero Milano, Vatican chief prosecutor, and his deputy, Alessandro Diddi, authorised the arrest of the broker, Gianluigi Torzi, after he was interrogated at the Vatican prosecutor’s office.

The arrest was “in relation to the wellknown events connected with the sale of the London property on Sloane Avenue, which involved a network of companies in which some officials of the Secretariat of State were present”, the Vatican said.

Mr Torzi faces charges of extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud and money laundering. If found guilty, he faces up to

12 years in prison.

The arrest is the latest chapter in the saga related to the London property which first came to light in October last year when Vatican police conducted a raid on offices in the Secretariat of State and the Vatican financial oversight office.

The day after the raid, the Italian magazine L’Espresso published an internal notice as well as leaked documents, alleging the raid was part of the Vatican’s investigation into how the Secretariat of State used $200 million to finance a property development project in London’s Chelsea district in 2014.

According to Vatican News, Mr Torzi served as the middleman in the Vatican Secretariat of State’s eventual purchase of the majority stake in the London property in 2018 from London-based Italian financier, Raffaele Mincione.

In an interview published on June 6 with Italian news agency Adnkronos, Mr

Mincione denied any connection with Mr Torzi’s involvement in the deal and said he “sold the property to the Vatican”.

“I sold it to [Venezuelan Archbishop] Edgar Peña Parra, I didn’t sell it to Mr Torzi,” Mr Mincione said. “Mr Torzi was commissioned by the Vatican to buy the property for them.”

While the Vatican incurred debts from the purchase, Mr Torzi received an estimated 15 million euros (R252 million) for brokering the deal.

The October raid also prompted questions regarding Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s involvement in the deal. The Italian cardinal defended the purchase, saying that making property investments in Rome and abroad was a common Vatican practice.

He also denied accusations that money from the annual Peter’s Pence collection, which is earmarked for helping the poor, was used in the deal.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

The

LEADER PAGE

S outher n C ross Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Trouble with booze

A

MONG the more controversial restrictions imposed by the government during Levels 4 and 5 of lockdown was the ban on the sale of alcohol.

As with many of its restrictions, the government did a poor job of communicating its thinking behind the liquor ban in relation to managing the Covid-19 pandemic, to the point that many South Africans believed it was arbitrary or even driven by personal agendas.

It turns out that the government had good reasons to ban the sale of alcohol.

Within days of alcohol sales resuming, with conditions, under Level 3 as of June 1, hospitals were flooded with patients who had come to harm due to alcohol-related incidents, many of them violent in nature.

Reportedly, cases of domestic abuse, interpersonal violence, and traffic accidents linked to excessive alcohol consumption spiked. Some trauma units reported being overwhelmed by such cases, placing undue pressure on hospitals that have to provide care for Covid-19 and other patients.

The healthcare system that had been relieved of the burden of alcohol-related trauma now has to battle with hospitalisations as a result of accidents and violence linked to alcohol abuse.

It is not surprising that there are some calling for the reintroduction of the ban on alcohol sales.

This would be unfair on those who consume alcohol responsibly, peacefully and in moderation—but the injustice should then be ascribed not to the government but to those who will have forced its hand.

For many consumers of alcohol, enjoying an occasional drink or even a rare overindulgence is a pleasurable experience. And yet, alcohol is not a benign constituent in the lifestyle of many others, nor in society.

Relatives of those who excessively consume alcohol will know the destructive effect of this not only on the individuals themselves, but also on the entire family and beyond.

In many cases, alcohol abuse results in a breakdown of family dynamics. In extreme but not rare cases, this is accompanied by physical or psychological domestic abuse.

There can be financial pain, too.

In some families, an inordinate portion of a limited household budget is spent on drink, possibly at the expense of necessary payments.

Alcohol abuse also impacts on

society in general. Many incidents of public violence, including sexual assault, are due to the inebriation by one or more of the parties involved.

Only in recent years has the deplorable habit of driving under the influence of alcohol assumed an antisocial reputation. Alas, this notoriety will not deter all drivers from putting at risk their lives and those of others.

The government’s decision to set the legal blood-alcohol limit to 0%, meaning that drivers will not be allowed to drink alcohol and drive at all, is justifiable.

Excessive alcohol consumption also produces well-known health risks, especially of the liver and heart.

Sometimes even the innocent are harmed. Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, which in some parts of South Africa has assumed crisis proportions, retards the development of children born to mothers who drank excessively during pregnancy.

In light of all this, why should alcohol be viewed with such benign indulgence in society, even among those who do not aspire to escape their daily existence by planning to get drunk over the weekend?

The experience of the twomonth prohibition on alcohol sales and the spike in liquor-related incidents on their resumption should motivate the government’s initiatives against alcohol abuse.

A prolonged ban would be untenable. It would lead to greater criminality in the inevitable black market, and the production of moonlight hooch which could pose health risks.

Rather, the government will have to identify the means by which society will be persuaded of the destructive consequences of excessive alcohol consumption.

As individuals and as the Church, we too can play a part in conscientising society.

It is also necessary that the state and society begin to understand the disease of alcoholism better.

Alcoholics must be supported in their struggle, not stigmatised.

They must not be written off as morally defective, but accepted as victims of a condition not of their choosing (other than their choice to fight the disease).

There is nothing objectionable about drinking responsibly. However, it should become our collective purpose to establish irresponsible behaviour in alcohol consumption as an act so antisocial that few should want to engage in it.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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.

Online SC maintains our Sunday mornings!

O N Sunday mornings my husband John and I used to go to 7:30 Mass (now it’s 9:00 online!), and then have a bacon-and-egg breakfast. While we’re eating, I read The Southern Cross, and John a Sunday newspaper, and then The Southern Cross.

Recently we encountered some kind of technical problem in loading The Southern Cross online, and thought you were no longer offering it in “newspaper” format—although it was good seeing many of

Base to accuse cardinal of racism

H

OW unworthy of Paul Collins to accuse Cardinal Napier of racism (May 6).

It is the cardinal’s good right to distance himself from WAACSA, as it is Mr Collins’s good right to distance himself from the Catholic Church, which he incessantly does, witness his letters to The Southern Cross.

Mr Collins rejects the Church’s stand on homosexuality. That is why he unloads his anger against the Church on South Africa’s highest Church representative.

The cardinal’s annoyance with WAACSA gives Mr Collins a pretext to release his dislike of the Church by accusing the cardinal of racism.

JH Goossens, Pretoria

Our unanswered prayer struggle

U

NANSWERED prayer is something that everyone struggles with at times, but it may not be that mysterious after all.

Particularly with hindsight, when I consider life backwards, I am rather relieved that God didn’t answer some prayers and even

the articles on the web page. We realised that formatting the articles as if producing a newspaper must be quite a lot of work, but we missed the columns by Fr Ron Rolheiser and Nick King, and—especially—the letters.

How pleased we were when, on checking later, to find the complete current Southern Cross on your website, with all those things and more, presented in the lovely “flipover” pages.

Something we’ve just realised 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

more relieved that he didn’t answer prayers said for me by others or I may have been peppered with lightning bolts and drenched in lashings of Greek fire long ago! Fortunately God is irritatingly patient with sinners.

Our prayer life goes hand in hand with our evolving or developing relationship with God. From follower to disciple to servant to friend and then to son (or daughter) and at each point there is a different attitude to prayer, a different level of intimacy with God, and often a quite different result as our hearts are brought into closer harmony with his.

Sadly, many stop praying when they discover that God is not Santa Claus and not there to cater to our whims or often selfish demands.

He has so much more to offer than mere trifles. Perseverance is cer-

about a newspaper article, as opposed to one online, is that you can see, before you begin, how long it is!

We really appreciate The Southern Cross (despite the opinions of Fr Willem Basson in his letter of May 27) with all its pages and illustrations and sections, and are so happy that we can go on reading it while the churches are (sensibly) closed.

So thank you to all concerned for the continuing work!

Biddy Greene, Cape Town

tainly a part of the training in prayer and some things can take months or years of prayer, but listening is also crucial, asking the right questions in order to refine your prayer until it comes in line with his desires. As CS Lewis noted, “Prayer does not change Him, it changes me.”

Perhaps this underlines too the usefulness of seeking the intercession of the saints, as when we pray the Rosary, for example, as we offer our prayer through Mary. Uniquely related to God as daughter, mother and spouse, she can “correct the grammar” and perfect the prayer, as she would be aware of what is needed more precisely than us.

With time, practice and an open heart, prayer will become a joy, a dynamic two-way street and as God changes our hearts more and more, we will be increasingly attuned to know the right things to pray for, and answered prayer will become as normal as breathing.

We have a tradition in our prayer group where at the end of the year, we have a prayer of thanksgiving for the year that passed and petitions for the next, which we record and review. There are very few unanswered or delayed, nowadays.

Stephen Clark, Manila, Philippines

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The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

PERSPECTIVES

Why arts are important in our lives A Raymond Perrier S we have moved to Level 3 lockdown, some more elements of what used to be our normality are coming back into place.

I see this very clearly in the centre of Durban, where I am. Most shops are now open, many more people are able to work, our streets have definitely started getting busier again—though the level of social distancing is very inconsistent.

But there are three important aspects of city life that are still missing—our religious celebrations, our sporting events and our artistic gatherings.

All of these are traditionally premised on the ability of large groups of people to come together and share an experience: and that is the one thing that we do not want to encourage.

So our churches, mosques and temples are still mostly empty or have chosen to stay closed despite the permissions that have been given; our stadiums are completely empty; and our theatres, music venues and art galleries will remain shut.

I am especially anxious at the moment about the state of the arts and of artists.

One of the upsides of lockdown, for those who have good WiFi connection, has been the profusion of free high-class artistic performances available on the internet.

I am pleased that I have been able to find the time to enjoy theatre from London’s West End and opera from New York, though I have not yet had that free afternoon to do a virtual tour of the Prado or the Louvre.

In these ways, I can still be nourished with the words, music and images of artistic visionaries.

Missing the joy of the arts

But I do miss the joy of our local arts scene. Here in Durban, we would, by now, be in the middle of a KZN Philharmonic Orchestra season; various dance and theatre groups would have been lighting up the stage at one or other of our theatres; our galleries should have been filled with fascinating and provocative exhibitions, together with crowds of art lovers to appreciate them.

The arts are a critical part of what gives a city life. Creators and performers can draw on the multiplicity of cultural and religious threads that make up our history and, from those, weave productions that are a unique statement of who we are as a nation.

It is frustrating for all of us during lockdown. But imagine if you were an actor or a dancer or a musician whose very lifeblood comes from collaborating with others to produce something beautiful.

Many of us reading this (myself included) are regulars in choirs, and so we have some small insight into this sense of loss.

Yes, I can sing at home, or I can even try and team up with an online choir; but for the performer it is a pale imitation of the usual pleasure of artistic interaction.

It will be some months probably before we can return to church choirs, or indeed any form of public performance.

The sung Mass that we had planned with all the Catholic junior schools to celebrate Mary during her month will have to wait for another May.

An actor named as Musa in the film No King of the Street, which was made by novice film-makers Sandile Mthembu, 26, and Lwazi Sithole, 29, both of whom were homeless men based at the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban during lockdown.

(Image courtesy Michael James)

Faith and Society

My annual pilgrimage to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown/Makhanda will have to be a journey to the website instead. My interaction with Durban musicians who make my life so rich will have to stay as a nod when I pass them cycling on the beachfront. Though I must thank them for the attenuated pleasure they have given through online benefit concerts they have organised for the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC).

Art needed now more than ever But it is important that we hold on to the idea of a return to live performance.

The arts help us make sense of our world; we will need that more than ever in 2020.

Sometimes they do so by giving us a chance to escape to another world; sometimes they help us bring together complexities of competing ideas; sometimes they help us access the emotional resources that we need when we cannot comprehend a situation by reason alone; sometimes they help us imagine new possibilities and collectively create a vision of what could be.

Again, in this year more than any other we will need those elements as we re-build our world.

In the meantime, we can get some comfort and sustenance from online arts.

An unexpected example of that has emerged at the DHC: some of the homeless men in residence here worked together to produce a short film expressing their worries and hopes.

While assisted by professional videographer Michael James, they personally took responsibility themselves for the script, the acting and the directing. The result is No Kings of the Street, which reflects their very personal stories of dealing with drugs and with drug dealers.

This is now available on the DHC’s Facebook page.

Let me encourage you not only to enjoy the vast offerings of the worldwide web but also to seek out local ones. Many of our South African venues are offering online video performances.

And if they ask for a small contribution, please don’t shy away: that way you can feed your soul but also (literally) help feed the creative artists.

It is critical that our artists, and the people who enable them, survive economically.

We need to make sure that they are still there to serve us, inspire us, entertain us and challenge us with the creativity and vision that we will be seeking in life after lockdown.

A end-of-the-world mood in Zaka Fr Peter T Chimombe HE six-week lockdown of Zimbabwe between March 30 and May 14 has greatly affected the economy, and the vast majority of the population has felt its bitter consequences.

An estimated 95% of the working-age population ekes out a living from informal trading, through their small and medium-sized enterprises.

By last Thursday, there had been 134 reported cases of people infected by Covid-19 and four deaths. Health experts attribute this relatively low number to the shutdown, hygiene measures such as the thorough washing of hands, and social distancing.

But other experts are warning that while the coronavirus may not account for many deaths in the impoverished country, hunger and stress may kill many people in the months to come.

In the Church, many people have missed their Sunday Masses, prayer meetings in Small Christian Communities, diocesan congresses, recollections, retreats and pilgrimages. This has not gone down well with traditional Catholics who see this virus as an attack on their faith.

The majority of the Catholic population in Zimbabwe is in rural areas—like Zaka, the place in Masvingo diocese where I minister. There the people have

Letter from Zimbabwe

A woman walks out of her home in Harare during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has had bitter consequences for most Zimbabweans. (Photo: Philimon Bulawayo, Reuters/CNS) no Internet or television services.

There is a general feeling among many of them that the end of the world is near.

Others, who have heard about past pandemics like the bubonic plague and the 1918-20 Spanish ‘flu consider Covid19 to be another plague which will end, just like swine ‘flu, SARS and Ebola.

Pandemic plus drought While their urban compatriots are updated on developments and can follow

them on social media, including livestreaming of Mass and other religious events, the majority in the rural areas can only speculate about the implications of this pandemic.

And they do so as things have been made even worse by the current severe drought. The World Food Programme says close to 7 million people in the country will need food aid this year alone.

The return of economic migrants, who had gone to look for job opportunities in South Africa, Botswana and Europe, will further complicate the situation as some of them may bring the virus home.

Some of the returnees are avoiding mandatory testing and quarantine, thus potentially exposing their communities to the virus.

Remember the plight of Zimbabwe in your prayers. n Fr Peter Chimombe is currently stationed at St James Chivamba mission in the rural Zaka district of Masvingo diocese.

7

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Is hellfire truly eternal?

Our Lord spoke of hell where the wicked are punished in “a fire that shall never be quenched” (Mk 9:43). This appears to me to be extreme. A loving God who is goodness itself could not, I think, coexist with evil that, in logical terms, would also never be quenched. Is it possible that we have misunderstood the idea of eternal damnation?

Could it be only a temporary experience?

H

EAVEN and hell are opposites. Christian theology accepts that our idea of heaven is where God is and where we belong because he created us to live in his love and in the love of all like us, our neighbours. Heaven is eternal happiness in which we want for nothing.

Hell is where there is no presence of God, no neighbours to love or to be loved by. In biblical terms this is the fire that shall never be quenched.

It is a yearning for love, something we all have in this life, yet something unattainable in the next life. All human wants are denied.

Heaven is not a kind of reward for being good and hell is not a punishment for being bad. Each is the culmination of a life that starts on earth.

Where there is love for God and neighbour (Mk 12:39-41) among us, there is the continuous progression of that love into eternal happiness.

Where there is no such love, or even blatant hatred, the logical evolvement is the total lack and impossibility of love in the “fire that shall never be quenched”.

It is very human to imagine God like a tender mother who punishes a thoroughly naughty child but who is moved by love and compassion when the punishment leads to tears and tantrums and ends in the inevitable warmest of loving hugs and kisses.

To think that God cannot or will not permit anyone to enter eternal damnation is to ignore the very solemn warnings that Jesus has given us. Aside from the text you quote, there are also warnings in Mt 25:46 and Jn 5:29.

While we must respect and accept the word of God here, we can remember that there is no suggestion in Scripture that any particular individual has ever been damned to hell. We do know, however, from the Church’s invariable practice, that those who endure martyrdom or live heroically holy lives are in heaven.

Heavenly bliss with God and hell’s banishment from God are everlasting, as the Church teaches us.

Some scholars have interpreted the words of Mt 10:28 to imply that the soul and body could be annihilated in hell, making their pain a temporary misery. Neither Scripture nor Tradition supports this view.

Essentially, we must bear in mind St Paul’s words: “Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face.

The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known” (1 Cor 13:12).

Eventually the mysteries of our faith will be revealed, setting us free from speculation about matters that are not clear to us now.

n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town,

8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za. Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.

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Extra for Subscribers: The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

SHRINES

The world’s Top 10 Marian shrines Our journey with GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER to the world’s Top 50 Marian shrines concludes this week with the Top 10.

Archaeologists have indicated that the stones of the structure might well have come from the Middle East; but nobody can be sure that what the Crusaders brought to Loreto was indeed Mary’s house. The discovery of 1st-century homes in Nazareth suggests that the Loreto house is architecturally different from the residences found in the Holy Family’s village.

A pilgrim basilica was built in the 15th century to enclose the house of Mary.

T

HIS countdown of 50 shrines dedicated to Our Lady is an expanded version from a previous series of 40 shrines—and features a new #1.

Unlike the previous series, which had the world’s most-visited site of Christian pilgrimage at the top of the list, this Top 50 is headed by the Marian place of the greatest significance.

Last week’s shrines took us to Austria, Egypt, Croatia, Cuba, Colombia, Rwanda, Palestine, Germany, Argentina, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Philippines, and Italy (if you missed last week’s issue, you can find it in the archives to which all subscribers have access).

Our Lady of Lebanon (Photo: Jamal Saidi/Reuters/CNS) 1907 on top of a hill in the village of Harissa, 20km from Beirut.

It attracts millions of pilgrims—not only Christians but also Lebanese Muslims and Druze, who have a devotion to Mary. As such, it is not only a site of Christian devotion, but also of interreligious encounter and national unity in Lebanon.

A large, modern basilica dedicated to St Paul serves the site’s liturgical needs. It was visited in 1997 by Pope John Paul II and in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Czestochowa shrine (Photo: Nancy Wiechec/CNS)

7. Our Lady of Czestochowa, Poland

The sanctuary of Knock (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

10. Our Lady of Knock, Ireland Around 1,5 million people annually visit the shrine of Knock in Ireland’s rural County Mayo—such numbers in small Ireland that an airport was built near the shrine.

On August 21, 1879—at a time of famine and rural strife under the British occupation—at 8pm on a rainy night, Our Lady appeared to 15 people on the gable of the local church of St John the Baptist. They also saw St Joseph, St John the Evangelist, angels and Jesus in the form of the Lamb of God in visions that lasted two hours.

Unusually, this was a silent apparition.

A Church commission found that all the testimony of the witnesses was trustworthy and satisfactory. In 1936, a new commission interviewed the last two survivors.

They confirmed the testimony received by the first commission.

Many healings are reported at the place known in Gaelic as Cnoc Mhuire (Hill of Mary).

Pope John Paul II visited Knock in 1979 and Pope Francis in August 2018.

9. Our Lady of Lebanon Members of Maronite parishes will be very familiar with the statue of Our Lady of Lebanon, which was erected in

Loreto shrine (Photo: Laurentiu Adrian Cretu/Pixabay)

8. Our Lady of Loreto, Italy Of Italy’s many great sites of pilgrimage, the coastal Adriatic town of Loreto is one of the most popular, with around four million pilgrims a year.

Legend has it that in 1295 angels miraculously carried the preserved house of Mary from Nazareth to eastern Italy. The rather less fantastical truth is that the structure—9m long, 4m wide and 5m high—was likely brought to Loreto by a Crusader family. Since they were named De Angelis, the tradition about house-moving angels evolved.

We have encountered several Black Madonnas on our journey through the world’s most popular Marian pilgrimage sites—and the icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa is the most famous of them all, attracting 4,5 million pilgrims a year to the monastery of St Paul the Hermit in Jasna Gora.

The devotion to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa goes back to 1384, but legend claims that the icon of our Lady is much older than that: painted by the evangelist Luke himself. The truth probably is that the 80x120cm icon was made between the 6th and 8th centuries.

Many miracles are attributed to prayer before the icon, including the protection of Poland by invading Swedes.

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, the Black Madonna was a symbol of resistance; during communist rule it was a sign of Catholic unity.

South Africa has a special link with Czestochowa: Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba and other priests in the diocese of Umzimkulu in southern KwaZulu-Natal are members of the congregation of the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit and were trained for the priesthood at Czestochowa.

6. Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal An estimated 9 million pilgrims came to Fatima in 2017 for the centenary year of the apparitions there, including two Southern Cross pilgrimages. In normal years, around 5 million visit the sanctuary that now occupies the field on which five of the six apparitions to three shepherd children took place between May and October 1917.

The last apparition drew a crowd of tens of thousand to see if the miracle which the children had promised

Some Marian shrines that missed the cut It would have been possible to compile a Top 100 of Marian shrines. Here are ten more that narrowly missed the cut.

Shrine of Our Lady of Ransom, Vallarpadam (Apparition, 1752)

Our Lady of Akita, Japan (Weeping Statue)

Lichén, Poland (Apparition to a soldier, 1913)

Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem (Mary falling into eternal sleep)

Our Lady of Peace, Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire (Devotion)

Madonna del Sasso, Locarno, Switzerland (Apparition 1480)

Our Lady of the Angels, Cartago, Costa Rica (Statue)

Șumuleu Ciuc, Romania (Protection in military battle)

Our Lady of Nazaré, Portugal (12th-century miracle)

Our Lady of Madhu, Sri Lanka (Devotion)

Photo credits: Vallarpadam/Akita/Nazaré/Yamoussoukro/Madhu: Wikipedia • Lichén: Diego Deslo/CL • Dormition Abbey/Madonna del Sasso: Günther Simmermacher • Șumuleu Ciuc: bocskairadio.org • Cartago: T Barron/CL

SHRINES

Extra for Subscribers: The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

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Soubirous near the south-western village of Lourdes.

Our Lady, who described herself as the Immaculate Conception (four years after the dogma was proclaimed

by Pope Pius IX), guided Bernadette to a spring which has become the source of the world’s most famous healing waters. Tens of thousands of miracles have been reported by people recovered from medical conditions; in all that time, the Vatican has cautiously approved, after long investigations, “only” 70 of them.

After initial resistance, veneration was permitted by 1862. Construction for the basilica began in 1870. St Bernadette, who became a nun in Nevers in central France and died there at 35 in 1875, was canonised in 1933. In the 1943 film The Song of Bernadette, she was played by Jennifer Jones, who won an Oscar for her role.

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Photos: P Mudarra/Pixabay)

Sanctuary of Fatima (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) would in fact take place. The Miracle of the Dancing Sun convinced them, and many others, that the children were telling the truth about “the Lady more brilliant than the sun”.

Within weeks a small chapel was built on the site, and it soon drew great crowds of pilgrims. In the late 1920s a hospice was built there and the Stations of the Cross were erected before construction of the basilica began in 1929.

The Catholic Church declared the apparitions “worthy of belief” in 1930.

St John Paul II ascribed his survival of the assassination attempt on him on May 13, 1981, to the intervention of Our Lady of Fatima, whose feast it was that day. He later had the bullet that nearly killed him placed into her crown on the statue at the sanctuary.

Pope Francis canonised the younger two visionaries who died in childhood, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, during the centenary in 2017; Sr Lucia dos Santos died in old age in 2005 and is awaiting beatification.

Velankanni basilica (Photo: BrownyCat/Wikipedia)

5. Our Lady of Velankanni, India Not very well known in the West, Velankanni is known as the “Lourdes of the East”, on account of the many miraculous healings reported there. Every year on its feast day alone, about 2 million pilgrims visit the shrine in the eastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Velankanni was the site of three miraculous Marian apparitions in around 1600: one (with Jesus) to a shepherd boy, another involving the healing of a lame buttermilk vendor, and the third saving Portuguese sailors in a violent storm in the Bay of Bengal.

It was the Portuguese seafarers who in thanksgiving first built a church there, which has been gradually expanded to eventually be declared a basilica in 1962. Quite plain in daylight, at night the basilica of Our Lady of Good Health is lit up in bright colours.

The Holy See has not approved the apparitions since they are recorded only by oral tradition, but Velankanni is an approved site of pilgrimage. It is also visited by many Hindus and Muslims.

apparition, an image of La Morenita (the dark-skinned) inexplicably appeared on the peasant’s tilma, or cloak.

That is the image we know as Our Lady of Guadalupe. The tilma became not only a potent religious symbol for Mexicans, but also of the struggle for independence from Spain.

Although St Juan Diego was canonised in 2002, there have been many, even in the Church and including a former abbot of the shrine’s basilica, who dispute that he ever existed.

Until the construction in 1976 of the huge basilica which can hold 40 000 people, a small church served as the shrine.

Aparecida basilica (Photo: Roosevelt Cassio/CNS)

3. Our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil Pope Francis’ first foreign trip as pontiff was to World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Before he went to Rio, he visited the shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in São Paulo state.

The shrine is little-known outside South America but central to the faith of that continent. With around 8 million pilgrims a year, it is the world’s second-most popular Marian shrine.

Our Lady of Aparecida is the place of the final Black Madonna in our series on Marian shrines. This Black Madonna is a clay statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception which fishermen retrieved in 1717 from the Paraíba river. Having fished out the headless statue and then its head, they prayed to the Blessed Virgin for a good catch: their prayer was granted in abundance.

Initially kept in the home of one of the fishermen and then in a small chapel he built, the statue soon was widely venerated, especially by Afro-Brazilians, and miracles were attributed to prayers before it.

By 1745, the statue had its own church. By 1934 construction for a bigger church began. In 1955, under the guidance of Redemptorists from Altötting (whose Marian shrine featured last week), the world’s biggest Marian pilgrim church, holding 45 000 people, was built.

In 1930, Pope Pius XI declared the Immaculate Conception under the title of Our Lady of Aparecida as the patron of Brazil.

The small statue probably was made around 1650 and was underwater for decades, hence its discolouration. It has survived two attacks: in 1978, it was stolen from the shrine and broken before it was recovered; and in 1995 a crazed Protestant minister insulted and vandalised it on live TV. An estimated 13 million people came to the shrine in 2017 to mark the 300th anniversary of the statue’s finding.

2. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico The world’s most popular Marian shrine is Guadalupe in Mexico City, which attracts around 20 million pilgrims a year.

In 1531 the Virgin Mary appeared four times to an indigenous man named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin: like him, she had the facial features of the Aztecs, and she addressed him (and in another apparition, his uncle) in his native Nahuatl language.

When Juan Diego spoke to the local bishop about the

Annunciation grotto (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

1. Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth The greatest Marian shrines must be the place where the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the teenage Mary in an obscure place in Galilee with that most mysterious commission: to bear the Lord incarnate.

Ancient tradition places that event, which gives us the first two lines of the Hail Mary, in a grotto that is preserved in the basilica of the Annunciation in the Palestinian city of Nazareth in Israel.

Successive churches dating back to Byzantine and Crusader times stood at that place—remains of them are still in evidence—but the impressive current church was built in the 1960s.

Of course, there are many other Marian sites of pilgrimage in the Holy Land, some of which have featured in this series: including Mary’s Tomb at the foot of the Mount of Olives; Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion; St Anne’s church (traditionally her birthplace in Jerusalem); the church of the Visitation in Ein Karem, where she recited the Magnificat as she visited her cousin Elizabeth; and Stella Maris (Star of the Sea) in Mount Carmel in Haifa.

n This concludes this series of 50 Marian shrines. We gave just thumbnails of the various sites. Some shrines deserve to be investigated further. If one shrine or the other grabs your attention, why not read up on them, on the Internet or (when they reopen) in the library?

All featured shrines at a glance

Lourdes sanctuary. (Günther Simmermacher)

4.Our Lady of Lourdes, France Lourdes is Europe’s biggest Marian pilgrimage destination. While the town outside the shrine is commercialised, the sanctuary itself is free of mammon and filled with a spirit of prayer and holiness—two worlds existing side by side.

The devotion goes back to 1858 when the Virgin appeared 18 times to the 14-year-old peasant girl Bernadette

The Top 50 Marian shrines have featured the following, listed by geographical area: AFRICA: Kibeho, Rwanda (Apparition); Zeitoun, Egypt (Apparition); Ngome, South Africa (Apparition); Notre-Dame d’Afrique, Algeria (Devotion) AMERICAS: Guadalupe, Mexico (Apparition); Aparecida, Brazil (Statue); Luján, Argentina (Image); Las Lajas, Colombia (Apparition); El Cobre, Cuba (Statue); San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico (Miracle); Caacupé, Paraguay (Apparition/Statue); Notre-Dame-du-Cap, Canada (Intercession) ASIA (East): Velankanni, India (Apparition); Peñafrancia, Philippines (Statue); Piat, Philippines (Statue); La Vang, Vietnam (Apparition); Dong Lu, China (Apparition) ASIA (Middle East): Basilica of the Annunciation, Israel; Our Lady of Lebanon (Devotion); Milk Grotto of Bethlehem, Palestine (Historical); Ephesus, Turkey (Historical); Saidnaya, Syria (Icon); Mary’s Tomb, Jerusalem (Historical); Nourieh, Lebanon (Apparition) EUROPE (eastern/central/northern): Czestochowa, Poland (Icon); Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Apparition); Knock, Ireland (Apparition); Altötting, Germany (Statue); Marija Bistrica, Croatia (Statue); Walsingham, England (Statue); Kevelaer, Germany (Apparition/Image); Mariazell, Austria (Statue); Šiluva, Lithuania (Apparition); Lezajsk, Poland (Apparition) EUROPE (southern): Loreto, Italy (Historical); St Mary Major, Rome (Miracle); Tinos, Greece (Icon); Ta’ Pinu, Malta (Apparition); Kykkos, Cyprus (Icon) EUROPE (western/northern): Lourdes, France (Apparition); Fatima, Portugal (Apparition); Miraculous Medal Chapel, Paris (Apparition); Montserrat, Spain (Statue); Einsiedeln, Switzerland (Statue); La Salette, France (Apparition); Beauraing, Belgium (Apparition); Zaragoza, Spain (Apparition); Pontmain, France (Apparition); Almudena, Madrid, Spain (Statue); Banneux, Belgium (Apparition); Laus, France (Apparition)

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The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

COMMUNITY

Parish’s great first 100 years As the parish of the Most Holy Redeemer in Mmakau, North-West province, is preparing to celebrate its centenary, DALUXOLO MOLOANTOA looks back at this remarkable community’s first 100 years

F

ROM Here We Shall Never Move.

These were the words inscribed almost a century ago onto a cross and mounted on a mulberry tree in a small village to the northwest of Pretoria by Fr Camillus De Hovre OMI. The Belgian Oblate priest could not have known how these words would act as a forecast to the significance of the Most Holy Redeemer mission in the history of the Catholic Church in Pretoria, and in South Africa in general.

In January 2021, the mission in Mmakau Village will reach a century of existence. It is a centenary steeped in important historical milestones, particularly in the spread of the Catholic faith in Pretoria and beyond.

The beginnings of the mission run parallel to the evangelisation of indigenous African communities in the early to middle 20th century in South Africa.

In essence, its founding is a direct manifestation of the wishes of Bishop Eugène de Mazenod, the founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Fathers.

“It is to the indigenous communities that you have been sent. It is

their conversion which the Church expects of the Holy Ministry which has been bestowed upon you,” he told the members of his missionary order.

The Oblates went on to evangelise much of Southern Africa.

At the same time, the founding of the Most Holy Redeemer mission is an example of the few cases where the initiative came from the indigenous people themselves.

Birth of a mission In his diary entry in May 1921, founding priest Fr De Hovre wrote: “One evening, on returning home at St Teresa’s mission in Bantule Location, I found a deputation of seven men sitting around my dwellings. They had come from DeWildt [now known as Mmakau Village] to ‘find the True Church’ in Pretoria, as they stated.

“It was the feast of the Epiphany, on January 6, 1921. I saw in this the Hand of Providence. My bicycle came into good use as I began to make several trips to the village to speak to the people.”

In due course, a stone church was built by the people, and Bishop Charles Cox OMI, vicar-apostolic of Transvaal from 1914-24, came to bless and open the building dedicated to the Most Holy Redeemer.

The mission of the Most Holy Redeemer was the first African Catholic mission in what is now the archdiocese of Pretoria.

Its establishment acted as a base from which 68 outstations were later founded. Today they are all fully-fledged congregations in their own right.

From 1921 until 1960 the mission was under the stewardship of

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the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Among many milestones on their watch was the establishment of a mission school: a first for the village.

It was named De-Wildt Primary School and administered in conjunction with a number of congregations, including the Sisters of the Precious Blood and Sisters of the Holy Cross.

It was at the Most Holy Redeemer mission where Fr Joseph Verot OMI published the first Catholic hymns and prayer book in Setswana.

It was also under Oblate superintendence that the mission extended its tentacles into other areas, even beyond its 75km from Pretoria.

Similarly, it was to the Most Holy Redeemer mission that several surrounding communities were directed in their own search for the Catholic faith.

The Oblates depart In 1960 the mission was placed under the administration of the Stigmatine Fathers, who still run it today.

The arrival of the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata heralded a new and vigorous era of missionary endeavour for the mission.

In our human terminology, it was by sheer chance that the Stigmatine Fathers came to South Africa (of course, with God nothing is by chance).

In a section on the Most Holy Redeemer mission for the 1977 centennial book on the archdiocese of Pretoria, Archbishop John Garner recalled: “It was in April 1959 that I found myself in the United States.

Continued on page 9

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A pupil of Tsogo High School in Mmakau, in the North-West province part of the archdiocese of Pretoria, gives a cheeky greeting. The school, which counts business tycoon Patrice Motsepe and broadcaster Tim Modise among its alumni, is part of the parish of the Most Holy Redeemer, which will celebrate its centenary in January 2021.

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Fr Camillus De Hovre OMI, the founding priest of Most Holy Redeemer mission in Mmakau.

Continued from page 8 “I was on a tour to appeal for funds for our missions. Monday, April 27, I was at the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Springfield, Massachusetts. I’d arranged for supper with the Provincial of the American province of the Stigmatine priests, Fr Carmen Russo and a number of young Stigmatine priests,” Archbishop Garner recalled.

“During supper, one of the priests casually asked: ‘Archbishop, from what part of South Africa do you come?’ I replied: ‘Pretoria.

Fetch me a map, and I’ll show you.’

An atlas was fetched, and I pointed out to the archdiocese and its confines. The Fathers crowded around, looking at the map.

“Then suddenly one of them said: “I wouldn’t mind coming to South Africa.’ Half-jokingly I said: ‘You’d be most welcome. We’ll give you plenty of work!’

“Nothing more was said on the matter. When supper was ended, and while on my way out, Fr Russo took me aside and asked: ‘Archbishop, would you really like the Stigmatine Fathers to come to South Africa?’”

A meeting with the pope Fast forward to seven months later and to the basilica of St Peter in Rome. It is November 8, 1960. A group of four Stigmatine religious are kneeling at the tomb of St Peter.

Together they recite the symbols of the Apostles. A long silence follows, as if they are trying to draw strength from the rock.

They are no longer that young.

Fr Dario Wegher is 62. Fr Primo

The grotto at Most Holy Redeemeer. It is the only grotto in South Africa purposely built into mountain rock Carnovali is 51. Fr Lino Inama is 50, and Br Joseph Modena is 41.

The three priests had already been in the missions. They had spent a total of 19 years in China, before being expelled by the rise of communism and Maoism.

Their experience and age make them aware of the challenging task ahead. This is the reason for the extended period in silent prayer.

Then Br Modena makes a sign on his watch, saying to his confreres: “It is time to see the Holy Father.”

Pope John XXIII receives the four missionaries into his private study. Being a great friend of the Stigmatine Fathers, he enquires from them about their new mission in South Africa.

He then reminds them of that he has heard that the heavy thunderstorms of the Transvaal are comparable to Doomsday.

He offers to pray the rosary for them for the next three days for their future apostolic flock and success.

He takes four pictures from his desk, blesses them and wishes them a safe trip.

Visibly excited at the rare opportunity of a private audience with the Holy Father, and buoyed by his well-wishes, the four make their way to the airport. At 16:00 they board an Alitalia aircraft—by coincidence the first by the Italian airline to Africa—ready for their pioneering mission in South Africa.

Arrival in SA The arrival of the Stigmatine Fathers at the Most Holy Redeemer mission ushered in a revived period

of missionary zeal and progress.

They hit the proverbial ground running.

In a short space of time, several church buildings went up at the Oblate-founded outstations. New parishes also accompanied the urban townships springing up around Pretoria.

July marks a very important month in the mission’s calendar.

It was in July 1923 that Bishop Cox had blessed the foundation stone of the mission. And it was also in July, in the year 1962, that the mission hosted a revered figure.

On July 25, 1962 Cardinal John Baptist Montini, archbishop of Milan in Italy, came to visit the mission.

He was accompanied by Archbishop Garner and Archbishop Joseph McGeough, the apostolic nuncio. The cardinal said Mass for the primary school and spoke at length with local congregants.

Less than a year later, on June 21, 1963, Cardinal Montini was chosen as the new universal shepherd of the Catholic Church. He took the name Pope Paul VI. As a remembrance of his visit to the Most Holy Redeemer mission, the new pope sent a big Easter candle for the mission. It was used over several years.

Just as the first group of Stigmatine priests had enjoyed a special papal farewell with Pope John XXII, so did two departing Stigmatine seminarians, Brs Lino Vinco and Guilliano Melotto, have an encounter with Pope Paul VI before leaving for South Africa, and the Most Holy Redeemer mission in particular.

Two other Stigmatine seminarians had preceeded them to complete their studies in South Africa, at the John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria.

Frs Michele “Michael” D’Annucci and Giancarlo “Charles” Mittempergher were ordained as priests at Most Holy Redeemer in

9

Stigmatine Fathers Michael D’Annucci (left) and Charles Mittempergher, who served the mission in Mmakau for many years after their ordinations. Fr D’Annucci was murdered in a hijacking in Pretoria in December 2001 (he was declared a martyr in 2002); Fr Mittempergher died in Italy in December 2017.

1966 and 1969 respectively.

The mission and apartheid From 1973, the Sisters of Mercy began to take a particular interest in the expansion of Catholic education to the mission.

Coupled with the existing primary school, they wished to start a high school for the village.

Negotiations began between the nuns and the parish priest, Fr D’Annucci. The idea was to offer an “alternative” education from the one given in government schools, the Bantu Education system with all its intentional inferior quality.

In 1975 the school opened its doors to new learners. It was named Tsogo High (Tsogo is Setswana for “Resurrection”).

At its opening, Fr D’Annucci urged the new students: “Your task and duty is to fight apartheid and social injustice from the school desk, for a future free, and post-

Sr Kizito Tseleng, the first woman from the Most Holy Redeemer mission and Mmakau village to become a religious Sister.

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apartheid South Africa.”

At the height of the social unrest of the 1980s, the mission became a natural refuge for many political activists escaping the wrath of the apartheid state.

Many hid in the nearby mountain and came down to the mission at night for food and necessary ablutions provided by the nuns and priests.

In other incidents, activists were hidden in the sanctuary of the nuns’ convent or church, as the security police could not enter those spaces.

Many students of Tsogo High School, as well as activists who benefited from the compassion of the mission, went on to occupy major social, economic and political positions in the new political dispensation after April 1994.

These include entrepreneur Patrice Motsepe, journalist and broadcaster Tim Modise, sports administrator Cecilia Molokoane, author Dr Gomolemo Mokae, scientist Ramatsemela Mphahlele, and many others.

In 1988 another special visitor visited the mission: Mother Teresa.

But the mission also suffered heartbreak, none more so than when Fr D’Annucci, the long-time parish priest, was murdered in Soshanguve by hijackers in 2001.

The Italian missionary known as Masusumetsa (“Changemaker”) “was a great friend of South Africa, and its people”, Nelson Mandela said in remembrance of the priest.

Throughout its illustrious century, the mission of the Most Holy Redeemer has grown exponentially.

Added to its scenic natural beauty, it is a lingering expression of enduring commitment to the common good.

Most of all, the 100 years of the Most Holy Redeemer mission symbolise a testament to “Action Through Faith” which sets the scene for the next centenary.

10

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HOLY LAND

From left: The baptismal site Bethany Beyond the Jordan in the Kingdom of Jordan, only a few metres from the Israeli-controlled Qasr el-Yahud baptismal site across the river • Fr Russell Pollitt SJ leads the renewal of baptismal vows at Qasr el-Yahud in the West Bank • The Dead Sea, the world’s lowest-lying place (All photos: Günther Simmermacher)

Where Jesus was baptised In part 4 of our virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we go with GünTheR SIMMeRMAcheR to the River Jordan.

A

T some point in the year 28 AD, the 15th year of Emperor Tiberius’ reign, the son of a minor-league priest named Zechariah gained some regional prominence for his fiery preaching in the Judean desert and on the banks of the Jordan (Lk 3).

Dressed in “a garment made of camel-hair with a leather loincloth round his waist”, his unbalanced diet consisted of “locusts and wild honey” (Mt 3:4).

And yet he attracted crowds from “Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole Jordan district” (3:5) whom he baptised in the river— immersion in water was an important spiritual cleansing ritual for Jews—thereby acquiring the moniker John the Baptiser (let’s stick with that version of the name, lest anyone get ideas that John was not Catholic!).

The most important of these baptisms was, of course, that of Jesus at Bethany Beyond the Jordan (not to be confused with the Bethany of Mary, Martha and Lazarus outside Jerusalem).

John evidently knew of the special mission of his cousin from Galilee for which he came to prepare the way.

The image of the foetus John leaping in his mother Elizabeth’s womb upon learning about Mary’s pregnancy, and Elizabeth’s response to the pregnant Mary, communicate to us that John’s family was well aware of Jesus’ unique purpose—to bring salvation to mankind. We may wonder how that affected family gatherings.

The story of the teenage Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem suggests that Mary and Joseph tried to give their boy a normal upbringing—else their attitude at his truancy in the Temple would have been: “Hey, he’s the Son of God; he can do as he pleases.”

But John was acutely aware of his cousin’s nature, and so he had to “prepare the way for the Lord”.

The baptism marked the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry.

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The site of the baptism As the Gospel of John (1:28) indicates, this most famous of all baptisms took place on the far side of the Jordan, on the river’s eastern bank.

Two sites in that area mark the baptism. One is Bethany Beyond the Jordan in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. On the other bank, just a few metres across the river, is the baptismal site in West Bank territory, Qasr el-Yahud.

Qasr el-Yahud means “Fortress of the Jews”, as it also marks the spot where the Jews crossed the Jordan to enter the promised land of Canaan, and where Elijah is said to have ascended to heaven.

Located on land which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war and still illegally occupies, it used to be inaccessible for 44 years—except for an annual pilgrimage under military escort—because it was in a heavily mined militarised zone, just metres from Jordanian territory.

In the 1990s, with a view to the Jubilee Year 2000, the Israeli government authorised the site’s development as a pilgrimage site, but that deadline was missed.

Then the outbreak of the Second Intifadah, or uprising, in September 2000 caused further delays, since the place is just 10km from the Palestinian city of Jericho.

Three years later, a flood washed away a newly-built pilgrims’ pavilion.

The site, with its expanse of old Orthodox monasteries, finally opened in 2010.

Qasr el-Yahud’s busiest day of the year is, as one might expect, January 8: the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

It is fast becoming a tradition for local Christians and pilgrims, particularly from the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, to come here in large numbers, to be blessed with the waters of the Jordan and to renew their baptismal vows.

Descending steps to the river, pilgrims can dip their toes in its waters. Many fill plastic bottles with the water to take home to their parish, maybe keeping some for the baptism of their children or grandchildren.

Baptismal ‘theme park’ Since for many years the historically most plausible baptismal site—Qasr el-Yahud and Bethany

A pilgrim (the author’s son) rides a camel near Jericho, with the Mount of Temptation in the background.

Beyond the Jordan—were difficult or even impossible to access, a more conveniently located commemorative complex was set up by a kibbutz near the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee to provide pilgrims with some access to the Jordan.

Named Yardenit (deriving from the Hebrew verb yarod, meaning to descend), it makes no claim to being the authentic place of Jesus’ baptism. Its position was chosen for ease of access and because the river is less polluted there than it is elsewhere.

With fortuitous timing and strong will, Yardenit can be a place for fruitful reflection. But most days it evokes the atmosphere of a religious theme park.

As visitors enter, they are greeted at the doors to the air-conditioned entrance hall by being handed a “discount” card for the generously stocked and immodestly priced shop. On the way to the famous waters, one will pass a sidewalk café and a large kiosk where one can buy batteries, icecream and bottled water from the adjacent river.

40 days in the wilderness The Holy Land is tiny. It covers about half the size of Mpumalanga —and that is South Africa’s second-smallest province. With that in mind, the geological and meteorological variations in the region

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are striking. One leaves the fertile, verdant Galilee and suddenly one is in the desert, where the sun shines much hotter, the air is much drier, and little grows.

After his baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness. He did not go of his own accord—Matthew tells us that Jesus was led there by the Holy Spirit (4:1)—and you can’t really blame him. The Judean desert is hot, dry and inhospitable.

John the Baptiser’s diet certainly was deliberately ascetic, but even if he had elected to follow a more lavish eating plan, necessity would still have prescribed a frugal regimen.

So these 40 parching hot days and 40 unnervingly cold nights which Jesus spent in the rocky desert was a time of thorough deprivation.

Temptation surely loomed large. And so the mountain on which Jesus is said to have stared down the devil bears the name Mount of Temptation. Its Arabic name is Jebel Quarantal (“Mount of the Forty”).

We don’t know if this was the actual place of Jesus’ 40-day struggle with the devil and all his temptations. The recorded tradition identifying Jebel Quarantal as the Mount of Temptation goes back only to the 12th century, and it might have been chosen because this was the highest spot in the

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vicinity of where the baptism was thought to have taken place.

Historians write donnish books in which they argue in precise detail about the exact locations of biblical events, and this is indeed a commendable academic pursuit.

For the pilgrim it is good to accurately locate events and people at particular places—but it is not essential.

The significance for us resides in what happened, not where.

Imagine, for a moment, the implication for humanity had Jesus chosen to yield to the devil’s empty promises. The possibility of salvation would have been denied regardless of the location of that desolate spot—though the devil might have put down a monument there to commemorate his triumph.

Of course, with God in charge, the odds were always stacked against the devil.

The Dead Sea All this is near the Dead Sea. It might have no religious significance, and the local tour guides might not like it much, but a float (and, yes, one does float) on the body of water at the world’s lowest point—400m below sea level—is an essential part of a journey to the Holy Land.

Having moments of fun is also part of a pilgrimage. We can be sure that the group around Jesus had their share of fun and laughter.

Besides, most pilgrims probably will not return to the Holy Land, so they should not be deprived of this unique experience.

The Dead Sea has a salinity level of 32%. By comparison, that of the Mediterranean Sea is a paltry 3%.

The minerals of the sea and the mud from it have medicinal properties; some people swear that the application of heated Dead Sea mud can relieve severe arthritis, and German health insurers even send clients struggling with skin conditions on cures to resorts at the Dead Sea. Moisturisers, soaps and beauty products are manufactured from Dead Sea minerals and mud by companies in Israel and Jordan, which controls the eastern shore of the lake. n This is an edited extract from Günther Simmermacher’s The Holy Land Trek. Next week: Cana.

576 AM in Gauteng DStv Audio 870 or livestreaming from

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The Southern Cross, June 10 to June 16, 2020

YOUR CLASSIFIEDS

Meghan Markle to Catholic students: Black lives matter

BY CAROL ZIMMERMANN

M

EGHAN Markle returned virtually to her Catholic alma mater, Immaculate Heart of Mary High School in Los Angeles, for a surprise graduation speech on June 3.

The six-minute address by the Duchess of Sussex focused on the current moment in the United States amid protests against racial injustice following the May 25 death of George Floyd. She said the graduating seniors of the allgirls school would have to play a part in the country’s rebuilding.

“I know sometimes people say, ‘How many times do we need to rebuild?’” Markle said. “Well, you know what? We are going to rebuild and rebuild and rebuild until it is rebuilt. Because when the foundation is broken, so are we.”

Markle, who grew up in the Los Angeles area, recently returned there with Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and their son, Archie, when the couple stepped back from their roles with the British royal family. She graduated from Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1999.

The school, founded in 1906 by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is located just a few miles from the landmark Hollywood sign.

Markle attended the school from Grade 7 to 12. She was chosen as a Kairos retreat leader during her senior year and took part in theatre productions.

The school has been following Markle through her role in the television drama Suits, her 2015 address at the United Nations on International Women’s Day, and her engagement and 2018 marriage to Prince Harry.

In her taped remarks to the school’s graduates, Markle said she was “so proud to call each of you fellow alumni, and I’m so eager to see what you’re going to do.”

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, and graduate of Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, gave a virtual graduation speech to her Catholic alma mater. (Photo: CNS/Reuters TV) She acknowledged this graduation was likely not what students had imagined, but she also implored them to view it as more of a beginning than an end, and a chance to “activate” all the work, values and skills of the school.

“You are going to lead with love and compassion and use your voice in a stronger way than you have ever been able to,” Markle said, telling the graduates they also would “have empathy for those who don’t see the world through the same lens you do”.

“I know you know that black lives matter,” she said, from their experience “with as diverse, vibrant and open-minded as I know the teachings at Immaculate Heart are”.

The famous alumna also mentioned that a teacher told her when she took part in a service project “to always put others’ needs above your own fears”.

“That has stuck with me through my entire life and I have thought about it more in

the last week than ever before,” Markle said.

Today, the school continues its active presence. The day before the graduation, the school’s student body president, Cleo Riley, who started a local group “Students for Floyd”, led a march in Hollywood that drew about 1 000 participants.

Riley told the local newspaper Los Feliz Ledger that she started the activist group because she hadn’t seen any student-based organisations involved in the issue.

The group also has helped clean up damage from protests, including graffiti, in Los Angeles.

Markle, who is biracial, apologised to the students that the world is not yet at a place “you deserve it to be” and she recalled her own experience as a 12-yearold when the 1992 riots took place in Los Angeles over the acquittal of four police officers in the Rodney King beating.

She remembered the looting, fires and curfew and “pulling up to the house and seeing the tree that had always been there, completely charred”.

“Those memories don’t go away,” Markle added.

Then, and now, she said there have been signs of people coming together, something she said she knows these students will be a part of.

At the start of her remarks, Markle said she had been a little worried about exactly what to say at this time until she realised “the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing”.

Her reason: “Because George Floyd’s life mattered, and Breonna Taylor’s life mattered, and Philando Castile’s life mattered, and Tamir Rice’s life mattered, and so did so many other people whose names we know and whose names we don’t know.”–CNS

11

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PRAYERS

PRAYER FOR THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI: Throughout the year, O Jesus, thou dost remain humbly hidden within the tabernacle, awaiting, receiving, and hearing the souls who come to Thy feet in search of sympathy and consolation in their sorrows, light and support in the trials of life.

Only on this day, leaving Thy silent loneliness, Thou goest forth, passing in triumph and benediction through the streets and squares of the cities in a maze of lights and music, incense and flowers, in the midst of joyous multitudes,

FROM OUR VAULTS 52 Years Ago: June 12, 1968

Robert F Kennedy, the Catholic Robert F Kennedy, the US presidential candidate who was assassinated on June 4, attended Mass in Pretoria cathedral almost exactly two years ago, Archbishop Jackie Garner told the congregation at a Mass for the late senator. “Faith was the wellspring of Robert Kennedy’s life, the reason for everything he did,” Archbishop Garner said, adding that sincerity and transparent honesty were the fruits of Kennedy’s faith.

Lenten Appeal ‘68 raised over R160 000 Cardinal Owen McCann praised the South African faithful for collecting a total of R160 714,93 in this year’s Lenten Appeal. He thanks in particular “the children who, by their mite-box contributions, showed also the spirit of penance”.

who fall down in adoration before Thee.

In the synagogue of Capernaum, the unbelieving throng, rebelling against Thy words of faith and love, deserted Thee; but in the Upper Room that last evening of Thine earthly life, when the dark clouds of betrayal were already settling upon Thy sorrowful soul, Thou didst make Thy divine promise a reality, perpetuating in the institution of the Holy Eucharist, as in a living memorial, the infinite love with which Thy Heart was overflowing towards mankind.

By means of this august Sacrament, Thou wouldst prolong Thy presence in the world even to the end of time; and the souls of men, seated at Thy heavenly banquet, were to taste inwardly the sweet irradiations of Thy grace and the ineffable delights of Thy love.

O Jesus, make me feel the overwhelming attraction of Thy silent tabernacle, which has ever drawn not only the little ones, but has always been and will continue to be the joy of pure and great souls.

Grant me a living faith and an ardent love for Thee hidden under the sacramental species, so that, frequently drawing near to Thy table where the “Bread of Life” is set out, I may receive the

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: June 11: Bishop Frank de Gouveia, retired of Oudtshoorn, on his 69th birthday

germ of a life that will not die. Amen.

O VIRGIN Mother, In the depths of your heart you pondered the life of the Son you brought into the world.

Give us your vision of Jesus and ask the Father to open our hearts, that we may always see His presence in our lives, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, bring us into the joy and peace of the kingdom, where Jesus is Lord forever and ever. Amen.

LET NOTHING DISTURB YOU, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing; God only is changeless.

Patience gains all things.

Who has God wants nothing. God alone suffices. St Teresa of Avila

THANKS be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May I know thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, And follow thee more nearly, For ever and ever.

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 919. ACROSS: 1 Gods, 3 Straight, 9 Outdone, 10 Peers, 11 Body of Christ, 13 Orator, 15 Binder, 17 Accompanists, 20 Trips, 21 Renewal, 22 Money bag, 23 Iris.

DOWN: 1 Good Book, 2 Dated, 4 Trench, 5 Apportioning, 6 Guessed, 7 Task, 8 Monotonously, 12 Trestles, 14 Auction, 16 Sparta, 18 Sewer, 19 Item.

Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday June 14, The Body and Blood of Christ Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16, Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, John 6:51-58 Monday June 15 1 Kings 21:1-16, Psalm 5:2-3, 4-7, Matthew5:38-42 Tuesday June 16 1 Kings 21:17-29, Psalm 51:3-6, 11, 16, Matthew 5:43-48 Wednesday June 17 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14, Psalm 31:20, 21, 24, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 Thursday June 18

Sirach 48:1-14 (1-15), Psalm 97:1-7, Matthew 6:7-15 Friday June 19, Sacred Heart of Jesus Deuteronomy 7:6-11, Psalm 103:1-4, 68, 10, 1 John 4:7-16, Matthew 11:25-30 Saturday June 20, Immaculate Heart of Mary Isaiah 61:9-11, Responsorial psalm 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8, Luke 2:41-51 Sunday June 21, 12th Sunday of the Year Jeremiah 20:10-13, Psalm 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35, Romans 5:12-15, Matthew 10:26-33

Pray that AFRICA

and THE WORLD

Catholic daily banned in Spain Spain’s fascist government has ordered the suspension of the Catholic daily Madrid after the newspaper published an article comparing the political crisis in France with the situation in Spain.

The edition carrying the article was confiscated and the editor fined.

may draw closer to the HEART

OF CHRIST

The legacy of RFK

2 Chron 7:14

Acting editor Fr Cornelius Lynch writes in his editorial that the legacy of Robert Kennedy serves to remind us that “the gift of prophesy is by no means dead”.

Matthew 7:7-12

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the

12th Sunday: June 21 Readings: Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 69:810, 14, 17, 33-35; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33 HIS discipleship to which we are called is not easy, as next Sunday’s readings indicate; but there really is no other way to go.

The first reading comes from one of Jeremiah’s angry confessions. This one begins (though it is not in our reading), with a roar: ‘You seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced!’ Here he is cross because his enemies are all out to get him: “I hear the whisperings of many, ‘Terror on every side’.” And he is particularly angry with “the men of my peace [this means his so-called friends, of course] “watching for me to slip”.

However, his main thrust is not the discomfort that he is currently experiencing, but the fact that the Lord is protecting him: “The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion, therefore those who persecute me will stumble…they shall be put to shame.”

And he concludes with a cheerful hymn that we shall do well to imitate when we find ourselves up against it: “Sing to the Lord!

Praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the hand of the wicked.”

The psalm for next Sunday is in the same vein; it is very much a lament: “For your sake I am bearing insult, shame is covering my face.” And it is all because the poet is doing what God had asked him to do.

He has not lost his hope in God, however:

T

S outher n C ross

“But I am praying to you for the moment of your good pleasure, for the vastness of your steadfast love.” And he continues: “Answer me, Lord, because your steadfast love is good, in the vastness of your compassion turn to me.” Then he turns to those whom the Lord prefers: “See, you who are lowly, and rejoice, you who seek God, your hearts shall live.”

God, you see, cares for those who are at the bottom of the heap, “for the Lord listens to the poor, does not despise prisoners”.

In the second reading, Paul is continuing his explanation of why the Roman Christians should feel confident about what God has done for them in Christ. Here he does it by way of a contrast between Adam and Jesus. He explains that it is Adam’s doing that brought Sin, and its ally Death, into the world and into the human race.

It is not an easy reading, and we are encouraged to make what we can of it. Paul is trying to persuade his hearers that because of what Christ has done they do not need to worry about observing all the 613 commandments of the Mosaic Law, because (unlike the case of Abraham, who simply obeyed what God asked of him) “sin is not reckoned up when there is no Law”, but “Death was in power from Adam to Moses”, because of Adam’s disobedience; and Adam was a kind of counter-model for the Christ who was to come.

A magnificent defeat W

HERE’S the fairness in life? Why are some people so undeservedly blessed in this world while others are seemingly cursed? Why are craftiness, self-serving ambition, taking advantage of others, and dishonesty so frequently rewarded?

This has no quick answer.

In his book The Magnificent Defeat, the renowned novelist and preacher Frederick Buechner takes up this question by focusing on the biblical character Jacob.

Jacob, as we know, twice cheated his brother Esau. Catching him hungry and vulnerable, Jacob buys Esau’s birthright from him for a meal.

More seriously, he poses as Esau, tricks their father, and steals the blessing and the inheritance that was Esau’s by right.

Everything about this seems wrong and calls for retribution, yet Jacob’s life seemingly teaches the opposite. In contrast to his cheated brother, Jacob lives a very richly blessed life and is favoured by God and by others.

What’s the lesson? Are God and life really on the side of those who do this type of thing?

Buechner builds his answer by moving from the pragmatic and the short-range to the spiritual and the long-range.

Firstly, from a pragmatic point of view, the story of Jacob teaches its own lesson, namely, that as a matter of fact in this life, people like Jacob, who are intelligent, crafty and ambitious often do end up being rewarded in ways that people like

Esau, who are slower on the draw, don’t.

While clearly this isn’t the moral teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, other parts of scripture, including some teachings of Jesus, do challenge us to be intelligent, to work hard, and indeed at times to be crafty.

God doesn’t necessarily help those who help themselves, but God and life seem to reward those who use their talents.

But there’s a fine moral line here and Buechner draws it out brilliantly.

He asks: When someone who does what Jacob did and it brings him riches in this life, where is the moral consequence?

The answer comes to Jacob years later.

H

e is alone one night when a stranger leaps upon him and the two of them end up wrestling silently with each other throughout the entire night.

Just as dawn is breaking and it seems Jacob might win, everything is suddenly reversed. With an infinitely superior strength that he seems to have deliberately held back until now, the stranger touches Jacob’s thigh and renders him helpless.

Something deeply transformative happens to Jacob in that experience of helplessness. Now that he knows he is finally defeated, he no longer wants to be free of the stranger’s grasp; instead he clings fiercely to his former foe like a drowning man. Why? Here’s Buechner’s explanation: “The

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To be a true disciple

Sunday Reflections

The important thing, though, is not a matter of accounting: as you might say, “X number of sins have been committed, and that requires Y number of good deeds to wipe them out”. What matters is that God’s “free gift” is of a completely different order to the transgression to which it was a response.

Then Paul explains this uncomfortable truth: “If the many came to death because of Adam’s transgression, how much more did God’s free gift and the grace-filled gift of the other person, Jesus Christ, produce a surplus for the many?”

Don’t worry if it does not seem all that clear to you: the underlying point is that God’s generosity (our source of comfort) is unimaginably greater than the act of disobedience (our source of discomfort) that it came to sort out.

The Gospel for next Sunday is part of Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples as he sends them all out on their first preaching mission; and you will find here the same mixture of comfort and discomfort.

These new missionaries are told, “don’t be afraid” (which of course immediately makes us worried); and they are offered the contrast between what is public and what is private.

“Nothing is covered up that will not be unveiled, and nothing is hidden that will not be known.”

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

So if you feel that the discomforts of your discipleship pass unnoticed, be sure that the Lord has you in his benevolent gaze. Our task, therefore, is to repeat “in the light what I say to you in the darkness; and whatever you hear [whispered] into your ear, shout it on the house-tops”.

Then he mentions another kind of fear that comes with our discipleship: “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.” Whom are we supposed to fear?

“The one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.”

Jesus does not explain quite who is meant by this, but we shiver a bit. However, shivering should not be our principal response to the fear. Instead listen to that stunning image of “sparrows”: “Not a single one of them is going to fall to the ground without [the permission of] your Father.” God gazes with helpless love on each of us his creatures: “The hairs on your head have been counted.”

And our task? It is simple, though it may be a bit inconvenient: “Whoever acknowledges me before human beings, I shall acknowledge that person before my Father, the one in heaven.” That is the answer to any discomfort that this discipleship may give us.

Southern Crossword #919

Final Reflection

darkness had faded just enough so that for the first time he can dimly see his opponent’s face. And what he sees is something more terrible than the face of death—the face of love.

“It is vast and strong, half-ruined with suffering and fierce with joy, the face a man flees down all the darkness of his days until at last he cries out, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me!’ Not a blessing that he can have now by the strength of his cunning or the force of his will, but a blessing that he can have only as a gift.”

There’s an entire spirituality here. The blessing for which we are forever wrestling can only come to us as gift, not as something we can snatch through our own talent, cunning and strength.

By his wit and cunning, Jacob became a rich, admired man in this world. But in struggling for all those riches he was wrestling with a force he unconsciously perceived as someone or something to be overcome.

Eventually, after many years of struggle, he had an awakening. Light dawned, through a crippling defeat. And in the light of that defeat he finally saw that what he had been struggling with for all that time was not someone or something to be overcome, but the very love he was wrestling for in all his efforts to achieve and get ahead.

For many of us, this will also be the real awakening in our lives, waking up to the fact that in our ambition and in all the schemes we concoct to get ahead, we are not wrestling with a someone or something to be overcome by our strength and wit; we are wrestling with community, love, and with God. And it will undoubtedly take the defeat of our own strength (and a permanent limp) before we realise what we are fighting against. Then we will give up trying to win and instead cling like a drowning man to this face of love, begging for its blessing, a blessing that we can have only as a gift.

Believing that our blessing lies in winning, we strive to wrestle our lives away from others until one day, if we are lucky enough to be defeated, we begin to beg others to hang on to us.

ACROSS

1. Theatre gallery for divine ones (4) 3. Direct way for the upright (8) 9. Ode unto Confusion indicates one’s been surpassed (7) 10. Looks at your equals? (5) 11. Words of the minister of the Eucharist (4,2,5) 13. You hear him speak publicly (6) 15. One who puts book pages together (6) 17. It can compass those who support the choir (12) 20. Stumbles on pilgrimages (5) 21. Extension of the contract (7) 22. Parish collection may be found in it (5,3) 23. It’s in the eye of this girl (4) Solutions on page 11

DOWN

1. Not a bad compilation of sacred writings (4,4) 2. Took out because no longer fashionable? (5) 4. Ditch (6) 5. Sharing out the gifts (12) 6. Estimated the one invited, we are told (7) 7. Initially taking a spiritual knowledge undertaking (4) 8. How the dull preacher preaches (12) 12. Settlers disturbed supporting the table-tops (8) 14. Do some bidding while you’re at it (7) 16. A portion inside South Africa holds ancient Greek city (6) 18. We’re about south of the drainage pipe (5) 19. Just one thing (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

homeless man enters church for Mass. His Ahands are absolutely filthy, so the usher disapprovingly holds him to account: “And you want to present yourself to receive the Holy Eucharist with such dirty hands.”

The homeless man looks at the usher for a short while and then replies: “Well, surely it is better to receive the Holy Eucharist with dirty hands and a clean heart than the other way around.”

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