200812 Free issue

The

S outher n C ross

August 12 to August 18, 2020

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 5198

Did Mary predict Covid-19?

Page 4

www.scross.co.za

R12 (incl VAT RSA)

The place where Our Lady was born

Centenary Jubilee Year

New bishop: What Covid-19 has taught us

Page 10

Page 8

Vatican: Your baptism may be invalid C

Masking-up was the order of the day when priests of the diocese of Kroonstad joined Bishop Peter Holiday at St Albert’s church fort he celebration of the feast of St John Vianney, the patron saint of priests.

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HANGING the words of the formula for baptism render the sacrament invalid, according to the Vatican.

Specifically, a baptism administered with the formula “We baptise you ...” instead of “I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is not valid because it is the person of Christ through the minister who is acting, not the assembly, said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

Anyone for whom the sacrament was celebrated with this formula must be baptised in forma absoluta, meaning the person should be considered as not yet having received the sacrament."

The doctrinal congregation’s ruling was published on August 6 as a brief response to questions regarding the validity of baptisms using that modified formula.

The CDF was asked whether a baptism was valid if it had been performed with a formula that seeks to express the “communitarian significance” and participation of the family and those present.

It responded that a baptism administered with a modified formula is not valid—and the baptisms would have to be redone for those individuals who had been baptised with the improvised wording.

The CDF said modifying “the form of the celebration of a sacrament does not constitute simply a liturgical abuse, like the transgression of a positive norm, but a vulnus [wound] inflicted upon the ecclesial communion and the identifiability of Christ’s action, and in the most grave cases rendering invalid the sacrament itself”.

The changes to the formula seem to have been made to emphasise the communal as-

pect of baptism and the participation of those present as well as “to avoid the idea of the concentration of a sacred power in the priest to the detriment of the parents and the community that the formula in the [Roman Rite] might seem to imply”.

Instead, such changes have “debatable pastoral motives” and the formula handed down by tradition remains fundamental because “the sacramental action may not be achieved in its own name, but in the person of Christ who acts in his Church, and in the name of the Church”, it said.

“Therefore, in the specific case of the sacrament of baptism, not only does the minister not have the authority to modify the sacramental formula to his own liking, but neither can he even declare that he is acting on behalf of the parents, godparents, relatives or friends, nor in the name of the assembly gathered for the celebration..

“When the minister says, ‘I baptise you’, he does not speak as a functionary who carries out a role entrusted to him, but he enacts ministerially the sign-presence of Christ,” it said. It’s really Christ himself who baptises and has the principal role in the event being celebrated, it said.

The CDF’s response did not include reference to the canonical or spiritual consequences of invalid baptism for the affected lay people, and the validity of the sacraments affected people have subsequently partaken in.

The Vatican has issued no guidance to the faithful on how to determine whether their baptism is valid, whether those in doubt should abstain from partaking in the sacraments reserved for the baptised, or how to seek remedy.

What’s the future of The Southern Cross?

he News that south Africa’s only national Catholic weekly will cease to be a newspaper in september has shocked the Catholic community.

The Southern Cross has survived for nearly 100 years on strength of tight financial management and the great sacrifices by its small, loyal staff.

But the closure of our churches in the national lockdown has robbed us of our main source of income: sales at the church door. since April we have made the weekly edition available for FREE on our website, bringing the Church to the people at a time when the people cannot go to church.

The generosity of many people has sustained the publication. It is thanks to those who have made donations that The Southern Cross is still alive.

several weeks. so we hope parishes will order some extra copies.

At the end of July, all staff had to be retrenched. That you are reading this issue is due to three ex-staffers who produce the newspaper on a freelance basis, at significant financial sacrifice.

The same three people will relaunch the newspaper as an attractive, entertaining and faith-building Southern Cross magazine in september.

The cover price will be only R30, to keep the magazine affordable.

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HOW YOU CAN HELP?

we will need the help of the Catholic community to make sure the magazine will get into the hands of people, especially if restrictions on the size of Mass congregations still apply. we will need parishes to make sure that those parishioners who want to buy the magazine will be able to do so.

If in every parish one or two peo-

ple canvas interested parishioners – perhaps through social media or other means of contact – and then place their order with Pamela (admin@scross.co.za), then we will know how many copies to print. since a magazine remains “fresh” for a whole month, it can be sold over

he Covid-19 crisis has depleted our reserves, and The Southern Cross is operating on the proverbial shoestring budget. we are grateful to the many people who have made donations – big or small – and even started their own campaign to rescue Catholic media.

These donations have sustained us and kept The Southern Cross alive – but our situation remains precarious. we still need financial help!

• Subscribe and encourage people to subscribe to The Southern Cross. Go to digital.scross.co.za/subscribe or e-mail subscriptions@ scross.co.za • If you run a business, advertising in The Southern Cross is a great way of supporting us. It could turn out to be a

great commercial decision, as many advertisers have found. Please contact advertising@scross.co.za • support our Associates’ Campaign, Go to digital.scross.co.za/associatescampaign for details.

• Make an EFT contribution into the account: The southern Cross, standard Bank, Thibault square Branch (Code 020909), Acc No: 276876016. Please email or fax payment details and your name and contact details to admin@scross.co.za.

• Make a contribution via Snapscan, using the QR code on this page – a safe and easy way to help The Southern Cross.

We depend on YOU to keep The Southern Cross alive. Thank you for your generous help!

May God bless you and us all!

2

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

LOCAL

Survey points to need to support family

BY STAFF REPORTER

M

ORE than half of respondents in an online survey noted a lack of parish understanding of the problems and needs of family.

The Sekwele Centre for Family Studies, based in Bethlehem, Free State, conducted its brief online survey under the theme “Family and Pastoral Plans” to assess participation and response to the Pastoral Plan, which was launched in Soweto in January.

The centre hopes that the outcome of the survey will aid in implementing the new Pastoral Plan, which is titled “Evangelising Community Serving God, Humanity and All Creation”.

More women (59,7%) than men participated in the survey, “a reflection of the general participation of women in parish activities”, the Sekwele Centre said in a commentary.

Respondents were mostly above 40 years of age; the 41-60 and 61-80 age categories accounted for 38,9% and 45,8% respectively.

“Again, this is possibly in line with parish demographics,” Sekwele noted.

However, it added a concern that “though the survey was conducted through Facebook, WhatsApp and email links, less than 10% of the respondents are below the age of 40 years”.

“Social media is an area of communication where young people thrive on these platforms. Yet there is a silence from this group. This could be a result of few young people having a voice and sharing opinions on family matters, which in turn points to an even greater problem of Church demographics and succession planning,” Sekwele said.

Of the respondents, 90,3% consider themselves to be active parish members, with two-thirds saying that upwards of two family members also participate in parish activities. Of these respondents, 12,5% indicate that five or more family members are active.

The survey recorded a Sunday Mass observance of 87,5%, as well as special days such as Easter and Christmas observance (44,4%). Respondents also participate in parish

councils (29,2%), sodalities (33,3%) and Small Christian Communities (31,9%).

Though 75% of respondents had heard of the Pastoral Plan and 70,8% believe that it is for everyone, only 11,1% say they had been involved in its development.

“This might point to a plan that was developed by Church hierarchy and a select group rather than ordinary members,” Sekwele said in its commentary, adding: “Consultation and participation during the development phase of a plan is key to successful implementation.”

Parish members might also be feeling a gap between the home and the Church, with more than 52% citing a lack of parish understanding of the problems and needs of the family, Sekwele noted.

Only 6,9% and 13,9% have participated in marriage counselling and family therapy support respectively. Likewise only 23,6% report participation in marriage preparation or renewal, it said.

“These low figures might point to a lack of relevant support for everyday struggles of families; including the difficulties faced by single parents, divorcees, widows, widowers and orphans,” Sekwele said.

“At its most basic definition, an organisation is an entity comprising people and having a particular purpose,” it said in the commentary.

“A school is designed to educate children, and a hospital to provide health to a community. Similarly, a Church or religious institution brings together a group of people of a specific spiritual discipline for fellowship and worship. Planning and governance of Church communities require successful translation of strategic direction into activities that embrace the family through the full life-cycle,” it said.

The Pastoral Plan “requires operations at parish level that embraces all constituent groups [and] recognise the needs of family as the most functioning basic unit that requires support and nurturing”, it said.

“The recognition of the 48,6% reported participation in family days and retreats is a starting point.

However, during this time of Covid19 and beyond, it is important to embrace a new understanding of

Gender

I have read the Pastoral Plan

going back to the drawing board to address mechanisms of support for family life within the Catholic Church of Southern Africa,” Sekwele said.

The Pastoral Plan’s section on marriage and the family notes that the family “a key part of pastoral care and the family is what happens when families are hurting and broken, when they are burdened”.

“Together, families, the clergy and religious play an important role in the formation and strengthening of family life. The parish can help parents and families in their everyday struggles as well as in special situations—single parents, the divorced, widows, widowers and orphans,” the Pastoral Plan notes.

“The parish is where all families can find support and solace, and the parish pastoral council needs to identify and work with organisations and Church movements which support family life.”

The Sekwele Centre noted that “though the Pastoral Plan provides strategic intent, implementation thereof is only as valuable as the activities that follow”. Its survey is intended to provide “information in this regard”.

Family members participate in ... (tick any applicable)

My parish understands the problems and needs of families

I have participated in the following parish activities ... (tick any applicable)

I have read the Pastoral Plan

A Pastoral Plan is mainly for ... (choose only one option)

I have been involved in the developement of a Pastoral Plan

My parish provides activities to improve family life

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

LOCAL

3

New study: Costs of alcohol abuse sky high

BY MIRIAM MANNAK

A

NEW baseline study commissioned by the Justice & Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) suggests the economic and social costs associated with alcohol abuse in South Africa are far higher than previously thought.

In some provinces, the burden may even outstrip the sector’s economic contributions, making alcohol the most harmful drug at a population level. What makes it worse is that many existing interventions, including law enforcement and legislation, are not effective in solving the problem.

In terms of the South African economy, the alcohol sector is a key player. The wine value-chain alone pours R36 billion per year into our Gross Domestic Product while employing 290 000 people.

While the wine, beer and liquor industry is important to our economy, employment creation, and export earnings, the social costs are

huge, the new J&P-commissioned report on alcohol-related harms in taverns and universities shows.

According to the data, the widespread excessive use of alcohol in South Africa is the third-largest contributor to death and disability, after sexually-transmitted diseases and interpersonal violence.

It is estimated that alcohol plays a role in 80% of deaths among young men.

The reality is likely worse, said Kezia Batisai, lead researcher and associate professor of sociology at the University of Johannesburg.

“These two issues themselves tend to be influenced by the excessive consumption of alcohol,” she writes in her report, compiled earlier this year for the SACBC’s Strengthening Communities Through Reducing Alcohol-Related Harms Project.

Prof Batisai adds that many previous surveys on the costs of alcohol look only at the direct economic impact, not at the social costs. The last one dates to 2003 and estimated the

economic impact of alcohol at R8,7 billion, exclusive of the social costs borne by drinkers and those affected by people’s drinking.

These include costs associated with gender-based violence, sexual crime, the implications of unsafe sex, mental health issues, and increasing levels of poverty, which are both a cause and a consequence of excessive alcohol use.

“Alcohol is the most widespread drug of abuse in South Africa and the most harmful drug at a population level,” the report says.

“Empirical evidence from the Western Cape province suggests that the costs of alcohol-related harms, along with the other social harms, outweigh the contributions,” it states.

For the report, Prof Batisai interviewed dozens of tavern owners and patrons in Klerksdorp and Port Elizabeth, as well as students at Nelson Mandela University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.

Legislation to prevent risky drinking behaviour is often not imple-

mented, thus not effective: 80% of Klerksdorp survey respondents said they knew about bylaws, but 64% said these do not help reduce alcohol-related harms, for instance, among minors.

“Some tavern owners like to do things as they wish, like having under-aged children in taverns,” one respondent said. “Underage drinking does not matter at all. You find that during the day a young boy in a full school uniform can get to a tavern and get a beer.”

In Port Elizabeth, patrons and tavern owners also noted a lack of implementation of and non-compliance with bylaws related to opening hours, which translates into most taverns, with a few exceptions, opening early and closing extremely late, if they ever close.

Inadequate and corrupt law enforcement officials are not aiding the situation. “In some cases, the police are the friends of the tavern owners, so they [the owners] are protected,” a Klerksdorp respondent said, while another confided the police are tak-

ing bribes from tavern owners.

That said, while most respondents enjoy drinking, many want to be part of reducing alcohol-related harms.

This is where the key lies in fighting South Africa’s alcohol-related harm problem, Prof Batisai says. Besides eliminating all corrupt law enforcement agents and hiring more officers to ensure adequate patrols and strict enforcement of municipal bylaws take place, communities should receive adequate tools that work within their context.

“Communities should urgently strengthen existing Community Policing Forums and revive those that collapsed in the past to ensure participation and involvement.”

Prof Batisai’s baseline study on the reduction of alcohol-related harms project in taverns and universities can be downloaded. nThis article first appeared on www.invisiblestories.org.za, a social justice website of the SACBC’s Justice & Peace Commission.

Salesian youth projects feel Covid-19 effects on their vulnerable learners

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HE Salesian Institute Youth Projects (SIYP), an NGO working with youth from at-risk communities in Cape Town in the field of education and skills training, has witnessed the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on learners firsthand. The Learn to Live School of Skills caters for youth aged 14-18 who can no longer cope in mainstream schooling.

“Since our learners come from socioeconomically marginalised communities, the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has been particularly evident. The ongoing and uncertain opening and closing of schools during this pandemic has brought much confusion and disruption to our learners, with emotional effects that we do not yet fully comprehend”, said Salesian Father Patrick Naughton, CEO of SIYP. To determine some of these effects, learners were asked to write a short essay on how the pandemic

has affected them so far. The results were sobering if unsurprising.

“As the virus started spreading, more people died, it is so sad. My mom lost her job, so there was no income and no money to buy food and make sure our family was OK. So as the firstborn, I must try and make a plan, but I don’t know how?” said a 14-year-old learner.

A 17-year-old said: “Covid-19 has become something very important in our lives. It is very dangerous, and I am depressed about this pandemic. None of my family members contracted the virus so far, and that makes me very relieved. My oldest sister lost her job and financially we are not coping so well. We have to ration our food and are struggling to make ends meet. This pandemic has changed our lives.”

The most pressing need throughout the country is for food. In response to this, SIYP secured some funding which enabled them to

provide food to the learners’ families on a biweekly basis: a small step towards assisting these families in need.

SIYP further supports learners with transport fares, to enable parents to send their children to school with no further financial burden. In addition, three meals are provided to the learners while at school, consisting of breakfast, a sandwich at teatime and a cooked lunch.

“The psycho-social support we offer is of vital importance. The Learn to Live school has a fulltime social worker on site, tending to learners’ psychosocial welfare: she is definitely seeing signs of additional strain”, said Fr Naughton.

The pandemic has revealed a need for additional support and funding to enable SIYP to provide a holistic solution to our vulnerable youth in need during these challenging times.

Go to SIYP web page to donate.

Orphans visit retired nuns

BY FR S’MILO MNGADI

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RPHANED and vulnerable children of the Sacred Heart Home in Mthwalume, KwaZulu-Natal, celebrated national Women’s Day by visiting the retired nuns of the Daughters of St Francis Assisi at St Jude’s Retirement Home in Port Shepstone.

Fifteen kids represented the rest of the 54 children who could not all come due to Covid-19 lockdown regulations.

They performed items of music, poems and motivational talks focusing on gender-based violence under the theme #NotInMyName.

They also gave the elderly Sisters gifts, including a flatscreen television set, sanitisers, surgical gloves, wipes and groceries.

Funds had been raised by the children themselves, largely supported by Our Lady of Fatima parish in Sea Park.

The Sacred Heart Home, operating as a child and youth care centre, is a registered NPO established in 1962 by the Dominican Sisters of Newcastle.

It has residential capacity of 80 and serves both boys and girls.

For some, it is a stopover until the situation at home improves, they are adopted or fos-

Marist Brothers Linmeyer’s Johannesburg mini-councillors, Dario Gouveia (left) and Karinah Chengalaryan (Grade 7 students), delivered 887 knitted squares, 105 scarves and 12 blankets to the city’s Mini-City Council for distribution to different charities. The school’s grandparents, mothers and students knitted all the squares and scarves, while some donated blankets to bring warmth and comfort to the less fortunate.

The

S outher n C ross

Jubilee Year Camino to Santiagode Compostela

Official 7-Day Camino From Lugo to Santiago de Compostela

September 2021 Children from the Sacred Heart Home in Mthwalume, KwaZuluNatal, performed for the retired nuns of St Jude’s Home in Port Shepstone on Women’s Day.They also gave them with a flatscreen TV set as a gift. ter homes are found for them.

Others remain until the exit age of 17, after which they are supported remotely when necessary.

Sr Cosma Cira, director of the home, said that this visit was aimed at conscientising the children about the inherent dignity of women, inculcating in them the value of giving, teaching them skills in fundraising and raising GBV-awareness in general.

The children were very happy that the project was a success and promised to do more for those less fortunate

than themselves in the future.

The home’s current dire need is the purchase of a “threephase generation” power system—necessary due to frequent electricity loadshedding in the area—and the repair of the solar power system for heating water.

The costs are estimated at R270 000 and R27 000 respectively. nFurther information is available on www.sacredheart cycc.org.za. To support the work of Sacred Heart Home, Sr Cosma may be contacted on 039 6998010 or 079 147-2335 or cos macira@gmail.com.

With spiritual director Fr Chris Townsend

To book or for info contact Gail at

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

www.fowlertours.co.za/camino

4

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

INTERNATIONAL

Lebanese demand reform, cabinet resigns

BY DALE GAVLAK

V

IEWING the burnt wasteland of the Beirut port, one’s eye catches a grey concrete slab in the foreground. It bears this stark message scribbled by the Lebanese in black ink: “My Government Did This”.

On August 10, Lebanon’s cabinet resigned over the August 4 blasts at the Beirut port. Reportedly the decision that was made under pressure as several ministers quit or expressed their intention to step down.

But observers believe that the changes many Lebanese demand to reform their political system could require a new electoral law, changes to the constitution and dismantling the sectarian-based system that has ruled Lebanon for decades.

After the explosions, griefstricken and furious Lebanese took to the streets, battling rubber bullets and teargas to demand their government’s dismissal over inaction and incompetence. The explosions killed at least 160 people and injured 6 000. A security official

An anti-government protesters waves a Lebanese flag during clashes with security forces in Beirut on August 8. (Photo: Goran Tomasevic, Reuters/CNS) was killed as protesters stormed various government ministries.

“They’ve taken our money.

They’ve taken our pride. We’ve had enough and we’re not going anywhere,” said one demonstrator.

Protesters want aid to rebuild the country only to reach the people, without government cronyism.

Vast areas of the capital have been destroyed by the explosion, leaving 300 000 people homeless, including 80 000 children, according to UNICEF. It’s estimated that $15 billion (R260 billion) will be needed in the short term to fix damage and aid the homeless in a city now in tatters and turmoil.

Other Lebanese formed armies of volunteers, sweeping up broken glass from destroyed buildings.

They also rescued the belongings of families whose homes are no longer safe to live in, delivered first aid and food as well as prayed for consolation with those traumatised by tremendous loss.

In his August 9 sermon, Maronite patriarch Cardinal Bechara Rai lent his voice to the popular rising tide against political leaders, many of whom were warlords from Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. He called for the cabinet to resign, saying it cannot “change the way it governs” the country, once known as the “Switzerland of the Middle East”, now ravaged by corruption, financial mismanagement, soaring poverty and hyperinflation.

Cardinal Rai pointed out that the angry demonstrations exhibited “the impatience of those who are oppressed”.

He also called for an international investigation into the deadly blast and expressed his “deep condolences to the families of the

Lebanese martyrs and hope for a speedy recovery for the wounded”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has led the charge mobilising international assistance, first bringing planes carrying equipment, rescue workers and investigators on August 6, then hosting an international donor meeting that raised $297 million to aid the disaster recovery.

Neighbouring Jordan sent medical workers to set up field hospitals around the blast site as Lebanon’s healthcare system was already buckling under the pressure of Covid-19 patients and tending some of the injured.

King Abdullah II has sent rescue teams, medical aid and food, joining dozens of other countries providing assistance. He also offered Jordan as a “logistics hub to facilitate international and regional humanitarian assistance to Lebanon”, since its main port is now destroyed.

Pope Francis donated 250 000 euro (R5,2 million) as initial aid to assist the Church in Lebanon’s difficulty and suffering.—CNS

Pope baptises twins after successful surgery Priest saves surfer from shark

BY CINDY WOODEN

F

T

HEIR heads encased in white bandages covering the wounds where they had been conjoined, 2-year-old twins Ervina and Prefina were baptised by Pope Francis in the chapel of his residence.

The babies from the Central Africa Republic are still hospitalised at the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù paediatric hospital in Rome, a spokesman said. But their mother, identified only as Ermine, “really wanted the pope to baptise them”.

A team of doctors, led by Dr Carlo Marras, chief of neurosurgery at the hospital, performed the final separation on June 5. Dr Marras attended the baptism, according to a photograph tweeted by Antoinette Montaigne, a former government official in the Central African Republic and lawyer specialising in children’s rights.

Pope Francis visited a hospital when he went to the Central African Republic in 2015; returning to Rome, he asked the Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome to begin a project there.

Mariella Enoc, president of the

Previously conjoined twins Ervina and Prefina after their baptism by Pope Francis in the chapel at his residence at the Vatican. On the far right, Dr Carlo Marras, director of the neurosurgery department at the Bambino Gesù hospital. (Photo:CNS) Rome hospital, met Ermine and her newborn twins during a visit to Bangui in July 2018. The twins and their mother arrived in Rome two months later.

After more than a year of tests and studies, particularly given how many veins the babies shared, they underwent their first surgery in May 2019; a second operation followed a

month later.

New veins and grafts were allowed to grow for a year before the final surgery to separate the girls, who had been joined at the back of the head.

A news release from the hospital said, “on June 29 they celebrated their second birthday looking in each other’s eyes”.—CNS

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ATHER Liam Ryan, a longtime surfer, was on holiday visiting his best friend in Western Australia when he noticed a fellow surfer in distress.

“I saw him off his board, looking really lost and there was half a board floating there,” Fr Ryan, 33, told The Catholic Leader, the publication of the archdiocese of Brisbane.

The priest was surfing at Bunker Bay, about 95km south-west of Bunbury.

Fr Ryan said it was ominously quiet before the 4m great white shark, which had bitten fellow surfer Phil Mummert’s board in half, resurfaced to continue its attack.

“And then we saw this huge breach. The shark rolled onto him… and then went back under,” he said.

According to Mr Mummert and witnesses, the endangered surfer used half of his broken board to try to beat the shark away, and pummeled the shark’s head with his bare hands.

“I started screaming, ‘Help him, help him,’” Fr Ryan said.

Fortunately the priest’s calls for help were heard by a nearby surfer, Alex Oliver, who swam towards Mr Mummert and hoisted him on his longboard, which he and Fr Ryan then paddled to shore.

Mr Mummert was “bleeding profusely” by the time they reached shore, having sustained deep shark bites in his upper leg.

Fr Ryan said that once Mr Mummert had been airlifted to hospital, he took a “quiet moment of solitude in the sand dunes”.

“I had a little bit of a cry, and just blessed the Lord,” the priest said, adding that he didn’t hesitate to help.

“There’s something deep inside you that wants to help,” he said.

“Christianity is built on that principle of someone giving their life for you.”

Fr Ryan said that he didn’t want the experience to stop him from surfing and enjoying the water, which has always been one of his favourite ways to relax and enjoy God’s creation.—CNA

Alleged visionary: Mary foretold Covid-19 pandemic

BY ROBERT DUNCAN

A

N Italian woman who claims to regularly experience supernatural visions said Mary told her in September 2019 that a new disease would soon emerge from China.

“Pray for China, because new diseases will come from there, all ready to infect the air by unknown bacteria,” wrote Gisella Cardia in a message she alleges came from Mary.

On the third of every month, hundreds of Italians flock to Trevignano Romano, a small town 48km from Rome, to pray the rosary with Ms Cardia. The gatherings take place in an open field atop a cliff overlooking Lake Bracciano.

Ms Cardia says she receives messages not only on the third of the month, but regularly throughout each day. Hundreds of the supposed messages, which Ms Cardia claims she has been receiving directly from Mary or Jesus since April 2016, are published on the website of the Association of Our Lady of Trevignano Romano.

The 121-word message that Ms Cardia says refers to the coronavirus was dated September 28, 2019.

Catholic News Service was unable to verify that the message was actually posted on that date.

Mary spoke in September about an “unknown bacteria”, or, as Ms

Gisella Cardia, an alleged visionary, looks skyward in Trevignano Romano, Italy, where she claims Mary appears to her and reveals messages. (Photo: Robert Duncan/CNS) Cardia now says, a “‘virus that would arrive from China’—after a few months it arrived. It’s never long before what Mary says comes to pass”.

“The messages are always asking for conversion and prayer; they are not different from those of Fatima or Lourdes or other places,” Ms Cardia said.

Bishop Romano Rossi of the diocese of Civita Castellana said he was aware of the alleged visions and that while he was pleased to let the pilgrims use a church for their recitation of the rosary, he would be happier if more of them came to Sunday Mass.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

Pope lifts limitations on Arab patriarchs

BY CINDY WOODEN

P

OPE Francis has extended the authority of the Eastern Catholic patriarchs to their faithful living in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula.

The pope’s decision, published by the Vatican, sets aside instructions issued by Pope John Paul II in 2003 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 entrusting the pastoral care of all Catholics of any rite to the Latin-rite apostolic vicars.

The majority of Catholics in the countries on the peninsula— Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen—are foreign workers and most of them are Latin-rite Catholics. But almost all of the Catholic rites are present.

Given “the historic prerogative of the jurisdiction of the Eastern Catholic patriarchs over the Arabian Peninsula” and in response to their request “in view of the greater spiritual good of their faithful”, the Vatican said, Pope Francis set aside the previous restrictions, although the patriarchs are asked to coordinate with the apostolic vicars and can establish new territorial jurisdictions only with the prior approval of the Vatican.

According to Vatican News, the change involves six Eastern Catholic patriarchal churches: the Coptic, Maronite, Syriac, Melkite, Chaldean and Armenian Catholic Churches.

Catholics belonging to Eastern Churches without a patriarch con-

tinue to be under the jurisdiction of the Latin-rite apostolic vicars.

On the Arabian Peninsula that mainly involves Indian workers from the Syro-Malabar and SyroMalankara Catholic Churches.

Until the change, all Catholics in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were under the jurisdiction of the apostolic vicariate of Northern Arabia, and those in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen were under the apostolic vicariate of Southern Arabia.

Because the vicars are resident on the peninsula and the patriarchs are not, the apostolic vicars will continue to represent the Catholic community with government authorities, the statement said.—CNS

Tourists take a selfie with Mont Blanc in the background in the resort area of Chamonix, France, during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo: Denis Balibouse, Reuters/CNS)

Covid-19 restrictions can benefit rural tourism

Six women named to all-male T Vatican council for economy

BY CINDY WOODEN

R

ENEWING the membership of the Vatican Council for the Economy, Pope Francis named six women to the previously all-male board that oversees the financial operations of all Vatican offices and entities.

The pope also renewed the mandate of Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban Statutes for the council, approved by the pope in 2015, say the body will have 15 members: eight cardinals or bishops and seven laypeople, each serving a five-year term.

The original seven lay members were all men with experience in business, finance or government.

The six women the pope named to replace them on August 6 have a similarly high profile and background. The six are: Charlotte

Kreuter-Kirchhof, a German professor of law; Marija Kolak, president of Germany’s national association of cooperative banks; Maria Concepcion Osacar Garaicoechea, a Spaniard and founding partner of the Azora Group; Eva Castillo Sanz, former president of Merrill Lynch Spain and Portugal; Ruth Maria Kelly, a former banking executive, former member of Parliament and former secretary of education in Great Britain; and Leslie Jane Ferrar, former treasurer to Prince Charles.

The only layman named to the council was Alberto Minali, a former executive at Italian insurance companies.

According to Vatican News, Pope Francis renewed German Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s mandate as “cardinal coordinator” of the council. The cardinal, who is arch-

bishop of Munich and Freising, also serves on the pope’s international advisory Council of Cardinals.

The new cardinals and bishops named to the council are: Cardinals Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary; Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao Paulo; Gerald Lacroix of Quebec; Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey; Anders Arborelius of Stockholm; and Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of L’Aquila, Italy.

According to the statutes, the council is “responsible for supervising the administrative and financial structures and activities of the dicasteries of the Roman curia, of the institutions connected to or referring to the Holy See and of the administrations” falling under the governorate of Vatican City State.—CNS

Pope: Faith wobbles, but what counts is calling for God’s help

BY CINDY WOODEN

E

VERYONE, including the pope, experiences trials that can shake his or her faith; the key to survival is to call out to the Lord for help, Pope Francis said.

“When we have strong feelings of doubt and fear and we seem to be sinking, and in life’s difficult moments when everything becomes dark, we must not be ashamed to cry out like Peter, ‘Lord, save me,’” the pope said, commenting on the day’s Gospel story in his Angelus address.

In the passage, Matthew 14:22-33, Jesus walks on the water of the stormy lake, but the disciples think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus reassures them that it is he, but Peter wants proof.

Jesus calls him to walk on the water as well, but Peter gets frightened and starts sinking.

Peter cries out, “Lord, save me,” and Jesus takes him by the hand.

“This Gospel narrative is an invitation to abandon ourselves trustingly to God in every moment of our life, especially in times of trial and turmoil,” Pope Francis said.

Like Peter, he said, believers must learn “to knock on God’s heart, on Jesus’ heart”.

“Lord, save me” is “a beautiful prayer. We can repeat it many times”, the pope said.

5

BY CAROL GLATZ

HE drastic reduction in people’s mobility because of the Covid-19 pandemic could be an opportunity for moving one’s heart and mind instead—and for finding other ways to be close to and supportive of those in need, the Vatican said.

The tourism industry has been devastated by global and national restrictions aimed at containing the spread of Covid-19, it said.

The UN World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimates that international tourism could plummet by 60% or even 80% over the course of the year, putting millions of jobs at risk.

The tourism sector needs people’s support, said the Vatican’s message for the September 27 celebration of World Tourism Day. The message was signed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

The theme of the 2020 celebration, which WTO chose before the pandemic, is tourism and rural development—an area that could still be supported even with some Covid-related restrictions, the

cardinal wrote.

It is an invitation to support sustainable tourism in rural areas, small villages or streets and places that are hidden or get overlooked, he said.

These less crowded and less polluted places, when visited responsibly, can foster positive experiences for both travellers and the local community, Cardinal Turkson added.

Agrotourism, in particular, helps support local family farms, and visitors can learn a new, less hectic way of life in greater harmony with others and nature, he wrote.

Despite ongoing uncertainty about travel restrictions and changes, the cardinal said people dependent on tourism need support from governments, policymakers, pastoral programmes and individuals, in promoting responsible and sustainable activities.

“Tourism can become, precisely during this time, a vehicle for closeness,” Cardinal Turkson wrote; it can bring people and their hearts closer together by strengthening a “spirit of fraternity among peoples”.—CNS

MISSIONARY SISTERS OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD Eastern Cape Province/South Africa

TO ALL OUR ANONYMOUS BENEFACTORS “Whoever is generous to the poor, lends to the Lord, and he will repay him/her for his/her deed” (Proverbs 19:17) Pope Francis speaks as he leads the Angelus from St Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The pope said even popes may experience trials that can shake their faith. (Photo: Vatican Media/CNS) And believers also should reflect on how Jesus responded: immediately reaching out and taking Peter’s hand, showing that God “never abandons us”.

“Having faith means keeping your heart turned to God, to his love, to his fatherly tenderness amid the storm,” Pope Francis told his visitors.

“In dark moments, in sad moments, he is well aware that our faith is weak; all of us are people of little faith—all of us, myself included,” the pope said. “Our faith is weak; our journey can be troubled, hindered by adverse forces,” but the Lord is “present beside us lifting us back up after

our falls, helping us grow in faith”.

Pope Francis also said the disciples’ boat on the stormy sea is a symbol of the Church, “which in every age encounters headwinds, very harsh trials at times: we recall certain long and ferocious persecutions of the last century, and even today in certain places”.

“In situations like that,” he said, the Church “may be tempted to think that God has abandoned her. But, in reality, it is precisely in those moments that the witness of faith, the witness of love, the witness of hope, shines the most”.—CNS

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6

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

The

LEADER PAGE

S outher n C ross Editor: Günther Simmermacher

A nation of impunity

S

OUTH AFRICA is a nation plagued by a culture of impunity, in which trespasses against laws and ethics are disregarded by many because these acts are not subject to consequences.

Taxi drivers break the rules of traffic with impunity (and many other motorists follow their bad example). Racists and other bigots sow their hatred with impunity, increasingly without shame even in public on social media platforms.

Men beat and rape women and children with impunity. Criminals rob and violate the people with impunity, and people buy the stolen goods with equal impunity.

Urban terrorists burn public amenities with impunity. Businesses fix prices and exploit consumers, mostly poor, with impunity, the worst threat they face being monetary fines for their companies.

And officials of government and the ruling party continue to loot South Africa with impunity—and when that impunity is challenged, they insult us with their inane justifications.

African National Congress governments have actively impoverished South Africa in 25 years of corruption with impunity.

South Africa is by no means the most corrupt country in the world, as some falsely claim (we occupy a place in the mediocre mid-table), but a nation that in 1994 was reborn from the fruits of a principled struggle must measure itself not by chronically corrupt countries but by those that serve their people with integrity.

In the past 25 years, the ANC has shown itself to be deficient in integrity. It has followed the corrupt paths of the apartheid regime, which pioneered the concept of state capture long before the term gained currency in relation to the Zuma kleptocracy.

The ANC leadership not only failed to act against corruption but justified it and covered it up, thereby creating a culture of impunity.

It started with the relatively small-scale Sarafina scandal in the 1990s, presided over by our current minister of cooperative affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who survived the scandal unscathed.

That scandal set a deplorable pattern.

The looting culture took deep roots with the arms deal scandal, presided over by President Thabo Mbeki.

That scandal and the furious cover-ups and internecine warfare that followed infected the whole ANC with the cancer of corruption.

The frenzied looting of public funds and disintegration of accountability under the Zuma government was a consequence of the culture of impunity that was cemented by the arms deal.

And let nobody say that this was unexpected. Many voices, including many from within the Catholic Church, warned at the time of the arms deal that South Africa was taking the fork in the road leading to rampant state corruption.

Many might have hoped that after the locust years of the Zuma presidency some semblance of ethics might return to the ANC, with the election as its president of Cyril Ramaphosa, a man credited with greater integrity than his predecessor.

The election to top positions at the same time of officials with histories of dubious ethics indicated that the ANC’s corruption problems were not over.

The brazen theft from the poor in the State of Disaster, from the award of tenders and misappropriation of public funds to the theft of food parcels—and the preposterous rationalisations trotted out by some ANC leaders—have shown that the corrupt culture of impunity is now firmly encoded in the DNA of the ruling party, the efforts of leaders with integrity notwithstanding.

The people are now angry.

While the vast majority of South Africans have suffered due to lockdown, ANC officials are popping champagne corks in celebration of awarded tenders—or, lower down the chain, eat the food parcels intended to nourish the poor.

It is now time to hold the ANC to account for having stolen South Africa’s future. Decisive and visible action is needed now to shut down this culture of impunity.

The time for lofty soundbites and ineffectual commissions is long over. South Africa cannot be satisfied until her people hear the clanging of handcuffs on the wrists of the guilty.

Brothers of Charity

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.

The Southern Cross: A luta continua!

I

T is with profound sadness that I have become increasingly aware of the predicament of this great newspaper which is an essential element in the life of the Church in South Africa.

Over close to 100 years it has appeared without fail. I have read the paper for almost 80 of those years: it has been an integral part of my life and that of my family.

To enjoy, to learn from, to write letters to, to fight with, and to demand more of.

Thank you for The Southern Cross

I

T is with sadness and regret that I read about the changing fortunes of The Southern Cross.

I have been a reader of your wonderful newspaper for over thirty years and find it hard to believe it has come to this.

The reporters and writers have done an exemplary task of keeping Catholic readers well informed on Church matters, both locally and globally—as well as giving us interesting and fascinating articles, such as those on the Holy Land, the Marian shrines, the Beguines, various saints, London’s Catholic history, to name but a recent few.

I will especially miss the wonderful articles written by the editor, Erin Carelse, Nthabiseng Maphisa, SarahLeah Pimentel, Keenan Williams, and others.

In addition, Fr Ron Rolheiser’s column, with his advice and wisdom, has helped me immensely when I have faced various challenges in my daily life.

Yet I am thankful that The Southern Cross will continue in a different format and wish to express my sincere gratitude to those who are making this possible.

I would also especially like to thank those dedicated staff whose efforts over the years have made this publication what it is today—it is not easy being retrenched and I will hold them all in my prayers.

Finally, I would like to extend

The

And now it will no longer appear in hard copy form. This has become inevitable over almost all of the publishing world. It is not the fault of anyone connected any way to this newspaper.

That it will not continue to appear weekly in digital form is a stunning indictment of the present clerical and lay leadership of the Catholic Church in South Africa.

The professionalism, courage, dedication and sacrifice of the staff over the years needs to be Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy.

Letters can be sent editor@scross.co.za

every good wish and success to those who are attempting to steer The Southern Cross in its new direction.

Thank you again, one and all, and may God continue to bless you.

Mary MacGregor-Frew, Stellenbosch

Why the world pities the USA

I

N his letter (July 1) J H Goossen opines that South Africa should wish to have a president like the narcissist Donald Trump—the thrice-divorced, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, ignorant (as confirmed by his former national security adviser, the arch-conservative John Bolton) person in the White House.

Mr Trump purports to be concerned about the abortion rate and the unborn—but once they are born, he has no compunction about taking children, and even young babies who are still being breast-fed, away from their migrant parents and locking them in cages, as he does on the Mexican border.

They are still there; imagine the

S outher n C ross

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praised and recorded for posterity. The willingness to open up for discussion difficult, indeed disturbing but crucially important, issues in the life of the Church is particularly to be lauded. To do so is a proper, indeed cardinal, value of the authentic Vatican II Church.

Current attempts to continue in monthly magazine format must surely succeed with God’s blessing.

A luta continua!

Paul Goller, Johannesburg

damage that they will have for life, and disgraceful, holier-than-thou politicians are happy to go along with it.

Mr Trump’s foolhardiness and lack of leadership in stemming the damage of the coronavirus has resulted in the unnecessary loss of thousands of American lives.

The harm he has done to our planet by reversing all the agreements to save the environment is immeasurable.

Our President Cyril Ramaphosa is an exceedingly more intelligent man than Trump. He respects and acts on the advice of scientists, and displays empathy and compassion which Mr Trump seems to lack entirely.

Everything Mr Trump does is rooted not in strong religious beliefs and respect for human life, but in whatever he thinks will secure him another term as president of the United States, which was once the leader of the free world but is now an object of international pity.

June Boyer, Johannesburg

Like coming home

O

N the subject of reopening churches, we say thank you God and Fr Ignatius Fidgeon OMI for allowing us to go to Mass every day at Holy Rosary church in Krugersdorp.

It is like coming home.

Barry and Marilyn Cheketri, Krugersdorp

PERSPECTIVES

Marriage no longer means the same Fr Chris L Townsend ET’S face it: the law governing marriage in South Africa is useless. At best it is a product of its time and deeply flawed.

It was written to try and encompass the Christian view of marriage to some extent—after all, in 1968 we were a “Christian country”—but the law fails in a number of respects and tests. I think it tried to be both too much and too little.

This apartheid-era law (now, don’t stop reading here) couldn’t cope with non-Christian marriage, traditional customary marriage, or the developments of a new South Africa such as “civil unions”.

When I was preparing to write my marriage officer’s licence 20 years ago in (a not much transformed) Department of Home Affairs office in Johannesburg, we questioned the failings and shortfalls of the law.

Basically, we were told to do as the law told us and leave the bigger issues to the politicians and officials. With hindsight, that’s the worst place to leave any responsibility for law.

We questioned why we had extra forms for “black marriages” (there was such a form!) where the man promised that there were no other customary marriages in place. So traditional wife two, three or more had no inheritance or child-support rights—because the man had signed them away.

Simply put, because the law couldn’t cope with any form of polygamy, it just ignored a reality in order to make the reality conform to the law. Again, that’s not a great way to deal with normative law-making.

The law was further challenged in that it took it for granted that Christian ministers would be state marriage officers but made it very difficult for non-Christians to exercise that function.

As a result, many Muslim marriages, while valid under the disciplines of Islam, were never licit in the eyes of the law as they were never registered as marriages.

If there is no legal recognition of the Goods of Marriage—children, stability and property—then there can be no protection for those who might suffer.

I think the ultimate test—and the beginning of the end—came not with the adoption of the Constitution but with the passage, against significant opposition, of the Civil Unions Bill.

With that law, it became possible for there to be various legitimate and illegitimate ways of being married/in union.

This brought to the fore two issues: that of conscience and that of contract.

Conscience clause a danger The newly-released draft amendments to the 1968 law, as amended ad infinitum, now remove the critical conscience clause for the officials of the Department of Home Affairs. In essence, this little move criminalises and penalises people for acting in the interest of their consciences.

This conscience clause remains in place for religious officials of the department, such as myself. But it sets a dangerous precedent.

The state is changing this law and the

When the Church and the law say “marriage”, they no longer mean the same thing, and that must have consequences, argues Fr Chris Townsend.

Pastor’s Notebook

changes may not stop here—if you work for the state, the state is your conscience.

The 1968 law tried to encompass the Goods of Marriage—spousal consent, the responsibility for children and property.

But it never really got very far.

In the Catholic Church, we have seen a massive drop-off in the number of sacramental marriages, and therefore there also must be a decline in state marriages.

Many couples opt, for various reasons, not to get married. I don’t think we communicate the idea of the sacramental grace of marriage very well, but we certainly can’t be caught in a vision of marriage being only a contract. That’s all the state can do: contract. Marriage law is now becoming merely contract law.

There needs to be a massive revision of all the marriage laws.

If we allow polygamy, we must allow polyandry (a woman taking more than one husband). If we allow civil unions, we must allow all unions of persons to be civil unions.

As we value freedom of association, the contract law becomes a law of contract between persons—no longer male and female, no longer just one, but polyamorous.

Marriage then becomes simply a contract between natural persons.

That’s not how we see marriage. It is time for our bishops to seriously interrogate this question and come up with a brave stance to say that our priests and deacons now have to cease being state marriage officers.

This is a difficult thing to say, but when the Church and the state say “marriage”, they no longer mean the same thing.

Ten tips for good ethics S OUTH AFRICA was already a country full of people in need. But now the Covid-19 pandemic, and the related economic lockdown, means that there are even more people in need than before.

Let me give just one example of this. In central Durban at the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC), we were serving 250 hot meals a day before the lockdown; we are now serving 500 meals most days (plus brown bags of sandwiches). I can imagine that across the country our charities are seeing a similar picture.

At the same time, in the face of great need, there has also been a great response of generosity from across the various communities.

At the DHC we are able to serve so many people because of a great partnership we have with a number of Catholic parishes, other faith communities and local businesses.

People want to do their bit and they want to help organisations that they can trust. That need for trust has really come to a head as we read, every day, distressing stories of corruption and mismanagement from various parts of government.

As a Church, we can and should speak out about corruption. But we must also make sure that our own houses are in order and that our organisations are a model of good governance.

Faith-based organisations benefit from people’s trust, but this is not something we should take for granted. We need to constantly demonstrate that we are deserving of the trust both of those who give and of those who are in need.

It is hard for us to accuse others of mismanagement when we have parishes with opaque finances, charitable organisations that have no supervision, accounts that are not audited or reviewed, or board members that do not take their responsibilities seriously.

If we cannot be trusted, people will not give money; if we are not well-run, some of that money will be wasted or squandered— and it is ultimately the vulnerable who will suffer.

Thankfully, most of the larger charitable activities of the Church in South Africa are now constituted as NGOs. That means they have to keep good accounts, report to an independent board, and be transparent in their dealings.

Nevertheless, astonishingly, there are still major charitable works which are not set up

Catholic charities, even at parish-level, have a responsibility to be well-run, writes Raymond Perrier. in this way, but rather hidden within the finances of a parish or a diocese. Even if there is no mismanagement, they certainly do not give the appearance of being well-run. And if they were being run badly, the parish priest or the bishop might not even know.

Not all our works need to be formally set up as NGOs, but they should all follow some of the best practices of good governance.

I am the paid director of one NGO (reporting to a board), and I also sit as a trustee/ board member/advisor for some other organisations. I hope, therefore, that I have some useful insights from my own experiences.

Top 10 pieces of advice So if you are involved in running any kind of charitable activity, may I share with you my Top 10 learnings: 1. Have a “board” in place. Whatever your status is legally, make sure that you have a group of people overseeing the work who are not involved in the day-to-day activities.

That needs to be more than one person; and it should include people with the required skills and time. And they need to be given real authority.

2. Meet regularly and share information.

No organisation is so well run that it does not benefit from regular input from informed and committed external advisors. And to do that they need to receive good reports, read them, and ask questions.

3. Do not be afraid to have people who ask difficult questions. There can be a tendency to see peace and easy agreement as a virtue. But often it is only through a robust discussion that the best solution can be found—and that means allowing dissenting or maverick voices.

It takes a piece of grit to grow an oyster!

4. Be wary of well-meaning but ill-informed outside interference. Other people

Raymond Perrier

Faith and Society

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

7

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

Point of Reflection

In lockdown, we are disembodied

C

OMMUNICATION—getting in touch with each other—has been conducted for some time now without letters (which will be a great loss for the generations after us) and increasingly also wireless, even though it has been more intensive than ever before, due to Internet technology.

During this time, due to strict restrictions by state and Church authorities, communication is even body-less. We live a disembodied existence.

To keep a safe distance is now prescribed as a means to choke the coronavirus epidemic. Maybe the British people do not mind this very much, but people from Africa or the Mediterranean countries miss touching, hugging and shaking hands.

The bodily expression of mutual sympathy and love, if it is done in all honesty, often says more than many words.

Jesus was a man of words, but he expressed his Good News also through signs and gestures, and he was not afraid of touching others.

Jesus did not just say, “I will be with you to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20), but also gave us the visible sign of his invisible presence, of the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, which we can receive and actually touch by hand.

Church is present in its members The Church is not just an idea, a theory. She becomes present in the members of the Body of Christ. That is why it is painful for us just now that church buildings, where we normally assemble, have to remain locked up, or can only be used to a limited extent.

So we can no longer celebrate the Last Supper, a meal of the farewell and of the beginning of a new presence of Our Lord, as a community.

The healing Christ is at work in the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Visiting our loved ones when they are unwell is for us a great need.

It is very painful for us, that at this time of the pandemic we have to leave them alone. The priest may not even make the sign off the cross on the forehead of the elderly, the sick, the frail and children, or anoint sacramentally the sick with blessed oil as a sign of the presence of the healing Lord (Mk 6:13). We are aware of the danger of infection, so refrain from that visible gesture.

This time of “disembodiment”, when faith and meditation of Holy Scripture have to take the place of being in communion with one another and receiving Holy Communion, is going to teach us a lot that can be of spiritual benefit (such as the use of the new social media) to the Church, even when eventually the danger to our lives has been banned.

Perhaps it will show our newly-baptised Christians how vitally important the “body” of the Church is and how precious the sacraments are as a sign of the presence of the Lord, even if at this time we have the Lord present only spiritually because of this enforced “disembodiment”.

At such a time we need more than ever visible and palpable signs of charity: coming to the aid of sick neighbours, sharing what we have with the needy, to appease their hunger.

After all, we are not that “disembodied” that we can live without bread.

may from time to time wish to offer advice—and may have the best of intentions—but they are not responsible for the work in the long run.

Moreover, since they may only see part of the picture, and could have other agendas, they can unintentionally do more harm than good.

5. Do not be in awe of titles. As Catholic organisations we are likely to work with people who are Fathers and Sisters and bishops. While they have great commitment to the cause—and might have useful experience in running charitable works— they do not have a monopoly on truth.

Neither vows nor ordination make someone an expert in finance or marketing or employment law. So focus on what is said, not on who is saying it.

6. It is not enough to “do no harm”. Sometimes, we are happy to just apply a negative test: Did we make sure we did not break the law/act immorally/breach our processes?

But what ultimately matters is how much the charity actually delivers.

An organisation that does great work that is worth R50 000 but spends R100 000 to do so, may not be acting illegally, but is certainly acting unethically.

7. Keep a paper trail. Even if you do not get your accounts audited, act as if they might be.

So make sure that discussions and decisions are recorded, that all financial transactions and donations of goods are clearly written down, and that any remuneration to people involved (salaries but also gifts and loans) is duly approved and recorded.

8. Balance change and continuity. Organisations certainly benefit from having people who have been around for a long time and carry the institutional memory. But without regular inputs of “new blood”, we can become complacent or stuck in our ways. So we need a good balance and should constantly be thinking about how we can bring in new ideas.

9. Have checks and balances. A good rule is that the more significant the financial transaction, the more people need to be in-

volved in the process of completing it—and it should never be just one person acting on their own.

One of the best way to keep things balanced is to make sure that information and power are not concentrated.

10. Live up to your principles, both the values of the organisation and the values you hold as an individual. To do so will take courage and sometimes sacrifice—and influential people might not like you for it.

These ideas might seem self-evident but, I’m afraid, they are not always applied by organisations, even Catholic organisations!

Formal NGOs need to follow these principles (and more) for legal reasons. But as Catholics we should care about good governance—not just to comply with the law but to deliver the most good to those in need.

In recent years, we have seen long-established faith-based organisations collapse: they have suffered from poor governance, an unwillingness to ask hard questions, a desire to protect the reputation of individuals, paralysis in the face of change, or a fear of owning up to mistakes.

And, as with mismanagement in government, it is always the poor and vulnerable who suffer. n Raymond Perrier is the director of the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban.

8

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

CHURCH

‘Covid-19 Bishop’ on his first months Ordained to lead the diocese of Aliwal North in the Eastern Cape just a few weeks before Covid-19 hit South Africa, BISHOP JOE KIZITO reviews his first few months in office.

I

HAVE been nicknamed, a “Covid-19 Bishop”. I was ordained on February 15.

Three weeks later there was a call for coronavirus lockdowns around the world, and soon this also hit South Africa.

Every new bishop looks forward to going around his diocese for the first few months, visiting priests and the faithful in different parishes. Unfortunately, this was not to be for me.

I had also been looking forward to my first Easter liturgies. This turned out to be another experience for me, one I never expected.

Moreover, the initial few weeks were marked by some sorrow.

During my preparation for the episcopal ordination I was busy with one of our priests, Fr Boniface Kasali Isaho, who was extremely sick.

I had planned to accompany him back home to the Democratic Republic of Congo so that he might get a kidney transplant.

This was not possible due to the visa processes.

Fr Boniface left by himself, and within two weeks he died, on Sunday, April 26, in his home diocese of Butembu-Beni. His funeral took place the following day.

Fr Boniface served in South Africa for 17 years. I, as his bishop, the priests and the people of Aliwal diocese shall miss him very much since one could count on him for any issues on pastoral work.

On a happier note, we were able to launch the new Pastoral Plan, “Evangelising Community Serving God, Humanity & All Creation”, in the diocese before lockdown.

This Pastoral Plan is going to take ten years of implementation.

During these years we shall have study days by using the different Church documents, the Bible, diocesan policies, the Code of Canon Law, discussions, workshops, prayers and pilgrimages.

To run this Pastoral Plan we will use the various pastoral structures within the diocese: the diocesan pastoral council meeting, regional meetings, the senate of priests, sodalities, Small Christian Communities (SCCs), youth groups, parish councils and committees, and so on.

Once the Pastoral Plan’s eight focal areas have been dealt with, we will have an evaluation and chart a way forward. Each focal area is led by a priest and a lay person (in the case of “Care of Creation and Environment” a priest and religious Brother).

This Pastoral Plan, we hope, will bring a new life, spirit and attitude after the Covid-19 pandemic. We need to respond to the needs of the Church by offering hope and new insights.

Letters to the people In a period of just two months after my ordination, I wrote three pastoral letters to the priests and the faithful.

All these pastoral letters gave updates on how to keep the faithful in prayer in their homes.

During the first month of my episcopal administration there had been feelings of emptiness and sadness, since one could not feel the joy of Easter.

Conversely, however, there have been new pastoral insights and experiences that we, as the Church, should capitalise on.

One of my first experiences was family prayer in the domestic Church. The lockdown of Covid19 called me to look at families with new eyes. They are the Church, what we call the domestic Church.

This Easter experience reminded me of the SACBC’s pastoral directive of 1994 about coresponsibility in the Church.

It came up with the topic “We are the Church”. This is the reality which in our daily pastoral programmes we have overlooked for

many years, until Covid-19.

It is the family Church that has kept us going in the diocese of Aliwal. We did not go for online Mass and prayers but we asked families to pray in their homes.

Yes, there are a lot of people who went to virtual Mass through livestreamed liturgies, but we had to turn to the domestic Church, and we called on it to take its rightful place.

We offered the domestic Church guidelines on how to celebrate their own home liturgies. By reinforcing the domestic Church, we are able to look at family theology.

Covid-19’s opportunities The priesthood of the baptised was realised by empowering them to keep their Sunday obligations.

The Covid-19 crisis has been an opportunity to minister to families spiritually. It has opened many ways for priests to work and relate to the laity.

This is one of the focal areas in the new Pastoral Plan. Covid-19 did open up the vocation of the laity, more than before. They were to take up a lot of family initiatives to make Easter 2020 a reality in their homes.

We, as priests, empowered the faithful with the use of WhatsApp, a very simple way to be in touch with them. This gave our priests and families a sense of identity and spiritual creativity.

We became partners with equal responsibility to make this Easter a joyful home celebration by complementing each other. Families were able to reflect on the word of God together by sharing different

Bishop Joe Kizito of Aliwal North after the first Mass in Mlamli after the four-month lockdown due to Covid-19.

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Bishop Kizito with members of the St Anne’s Sodality in Aliwal North, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit South Africa. The bishop believes that lockdown has shown the importance of the laity, and especially families, in the mission of the Church. roles and experiences.

The missionary theme of “Baptised and Sent”, as a family, was also experienced. Every person in the Church has a role in bringing the Gospel to others.

Looking at our Xhosa hymn and prayer book, one finds that there is not a well-developed morning prayer. So it is the family which must be the first house of prayer formation.

There has been also a call for families to become more generous with their gifts, and works of both spiritual and material charity.

The baptismal priesthood of the faithful has been exercised at its best. Covid-19 has made it easy for them to see how their family prayers can transform their daily prayers.

One of the questions that I got from a family was: “Can a single mother lead the Sunday prayers?”

Most of our people are still thinking that Sunday prayers should be led by men—just like what they see in the Church.

I had to assure them that family prayers are not based on one’s gender. It’s a role bestowed on both the father and the mother by the sacrament of baptism.

It was an experience for me to see that there was change of old and outdated attitudes among families.

This was also a good moment for the families to raise up their own family petitions. Apart from their Sunday obligations, families were also able to look at other devotions, such as the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Rosary.

It is very important to me that I could support families to look at the different devotions.

I did call upon the priests to pay a special attention to the pastoral care to these families via their social media.

The Covid-19 lockdown has taught me that the family is and should be the grassroot-basis for our evangelisation.

Pope Paul VI said that the family has a role in evangelising itself.

Parents must do their part to communicate the Gospel to their children. Likewise, children must also evangelise their parents.

Furthermore, Pope Paul VI encouraged families to help other families to know Jesus.

Challenges must be faced But there were some challenges in the domestic Church which will need our pastoral attention.

The reality is that most of our families do not pray together as families. This is a call for us now to ask fathers and mothers with all the children to have a family prayer. It may be something new to them, and for some it may even be uncomfortable.

One mother shared with me that when it was prayer time, the father would refuse to come out of the bedroom to join the family.

Families are used to waking up

on Sunday and just going to church. Not much preparation is needed from their side. It is all about a few leaders on the roster, and the rest is the work of the priest and the choir group.

When it comes to family prayers, it has always been the role of the mother, and sometimes the children.

Now, during lockdown, since the father has been around, this role was transferred to him, as the head of the family.

It should worry us if men feel that it’s not their responsibility to lead the family prayers. We need to give support to our men.

Men should not be reduced to the role of providing only materially to the family. There is a need for the Church to dig deep into the cultural aspects of faithful.

Men need to feel that they are of value in the family prayer. We are to support and empower them, to see how they can learn to distribute the family roles.

One family shared with me that after some Sundays, the father of one of the houses agreed to share in the family prayers. This was a very new way for this family.

They were all full of joy to see that there is a new way of building and living a revitalised spirit. This was a new way of family evangelisation, which was called for by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Evangelisation in the Modern World (18).

Formation everybody’s job Family faith formation is another challenge that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed to us.

Most of faith formation in the family has been seen as the task or job of the mothers, but this responsibility must be shared by all family members. All families must help and support each other in passing on the faith.

In the centre of my coat of arms is the image of the Small Christian Community. This is one of the ways in our pastoral work in the diocese to share the word of God. It should also be applied to the prayer model.

The SCCs are our number-one instruments of teaching the faith in families. They are also the way to live and practise the faith in a well-lived daily family set-up.

It is our duty, therefore, to remember the call of Vatican II to support the domestic Church.

Families must feel that role in their wider Church.

I have been able to live under this “new-normal” reality with a transformed attitude that I should not be afraid of letting the laity in their families transform the Church.

Reading in the Second Vatican Council that “the laity have got a very special secular character” and the synod document on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful (15), I believe that we are to take care of the Church in a coresponsible way.

WORLD

The Southern Cross, august 12 to august 18, 2020

9

Why Hagia Sophia must matter to us The reconversion to a mosque of the church once regarded as the greatest in Christendom represents an assault on Christianity, argues FR ValENTINE IHEaNaCHO.

T

HE famous Hagia Sophia church—the church of Holy Wisdom—occupies pride of place in Western and Byzantine history.

Hagia Sophia, pronounced “Aya Sophia”, is an ancient, indelible and majestic edifice in the presentday Turkish city of Istanbul.

It used to be the mother of all Worshippers attend afternoon prayer at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul after churches in the Byzantine tradi- last month’s reconversion to a mosque. Designated as a museum in tion, with historical significance 1934, the Byzantine church building was revered as a symbol of for ancient Christianity. Famed for Christian and Muslim harmony—until Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip its massive dome, Hagia Sophia Erdogan ordered its reconversion. (Photo: Murad Sezer, Reuters/CNS) has been classed as the “eighth wonder of the ancient world” and one of the great achievements in the face of Christ, because it was system is, God willing, inevitable.” the history of architecture. built by a great Christian emperor Until its consolidation of power, Hagia Sophia was built with ex- and not by a Muslim caliph. the Erdogan regime shrewdly opertraordinary speed within a period This reality remains an in- ated with caution. It adopted the of five years after Emperor Justin- grained part of the history of the rulebook of gradualism, as drawn ian (527-67) commissioned a new ancient building, which has vari- up by the German-educated engichurch to be built in the place of ously served as a church (537- neer Necmettin Erbakan, Mr Erdoan old one which had been de- 1453), as a mosque (1453-1934), as gan’s political mentor. stroyed. a museum (1934-2020), and since He reputedly advised Mr ErdoAt its dedication on December last month again as a mosque. gan and his party to unveil their 27, 537, Justinian exclaimed at the Hagia Sophia, together with the Islamic agenda in a piecemeal grandeur and beauty of the new face of the Pantocrator embossed manner, waiting until the opporchurch: “O Solomon, I have sur- on it, is symbolic and reflective of tune moment, and using democpassed you!” the chequered history of humanity racy not as “an end but as a Hagia Sophia is much more of which Christ stands as its cross- means”. than an architectural road.

The initial period of self-remasterpiece. Its place C o n s t a n t i n o p l e , straint, and the pretence of embracand significance cannot Constantinople dubbed the “Queen of ing membership in the European be dissociated from the Cities”, and Hagia Union, were meant to help the AKP religious and political was the envy of Sophia, its symbol par ex- consolidate power and gain interworldviews of the acceptance. the Seljuk Turks cellence, have historically national Byzantine world.

Once that was accomplished, been coveted by the MusAs the mother of all – until they lim Turks. They stopped Mr Erdogan from 2010 began churches, the Byzannothing after their ini- weakening the once-powerful miltines saw Hagia Sophia, captured and at tial invasion of Anatolia itary and neutralised the constituwith its religious harfollowing the Battle of tional court—two institutions that ransacked it mony, as a reflection of Manzikert in 1071, and had protected Turkey as a secular heaven on earth. In the in 1453. the city of Constantine state. words of Patriarch GerThis was followed by the steady remained the object of manos of Constantinoprocess of uniting two powers in their focus. ple (715-30): “The Mehmet II used it as a prize to President Erdogan: political and church is an earthly heaven in motivate his soldiers in their last religious. which the super-celestial God He is already the de facto battle against the war-wearied dwells and walks about.” supreme leader of Turkey. The reByzantines.

In that empire interlaced as a Constantinople was the envy of cent reconversion of Hagia Sophia Christian society, the emperor had into a mosque serves to cement his his palace. The ecumenical patri- the Seljuk Turks until they finally aspiration to be the spiritual leader captured and ransacked it in 1453. arch who occupied Hagia Sophia of Turkey, too. did so almost like a caretaker on For Mr Erdogan and his fellow Erdogan’s takeover behalf of the emperor, who in his Islamists in the AKP, the golden Similarly, Hagia Sophia in our own turn, was considered God’s age to recapture and recreate is the time has been the envy of Turkey’s emissary on earth.

16th century that marked the heyWith the assistance of the patri- ruling Justice and Development day of the Ottoman Empire, which arch, the emperor ruled his Chris- Party (AKP) of President Recep tian subjects in a Christian empire. Tayyip Erdogan.

This is discernible in the words Christ the Ruler the populist and Islamic fundaThis was artistically illustrated mentalist Mr Erdogan uttered in in the iconic mosaic of Christ Pan- 1997 when he was the mayor of Istocrator in Hagia Sophia, the de- tanbul: “The mosques are our barpiction of Jesus as the ruler of the racks, the domes our helmets, the universe. minarets our bayonets, and the beAccording to Archbishop Rino lievers our soldiers.”

Fisichella, although it was covered In 2015, when Mr Erdogan had by the Muslims when Constan- been president of Turkey for five tinople fell into the hands of years, he addressed his electoral Seljuk Turks in 1453, Christ Panto- base with these words: “Change is crator can never be completely inevitable. The building of a new erased or destroyed.

Turkey is inevitable. A new constiHagia Sophia will always carry tution is inevitable. A presidential

Once the greatest church in Christendom, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia was turned back into a mosque last month. (Photo: Vedat Zorluer/Pixabay)

first began with the capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Politics is the art of the possible.

As Shadi Hamid has brilliantly shown in his book, Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle over Islam is Reshaping the World, the leaders of the AKP are shrewd and patient politicians. Their politics of stages has been a very effective strategy.

Hagia Sophia a mosque The eventual reconversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque has been an Islamic agenda of the AKP. It was only hidden from international view until the appropriate time.

In 2019, the Turkish government organised activities to mark the 567th anniversary of the conquest of the ancient Constantinople on Tuesday, May 29, 1453. In Byzantine history, that misfortune is known as “Black Tuesday”.

In a live televised national broadcast on March 29, 2019, President Erdogan assured his viewers: “Hagia Sophia will no longer be called a museum. Its status will change. It will become a mosque.

Tourists who will come to visit mosques in Istanbul will visit Hagia Sophia not as a museum but as a mosque.”

This speech was made against the background of the 2019 local elections, to garner the votes of his religiously-inclined Turkish electorate, especially in the rural areas.

In 2020, the first Islamic call to prayer in Hagia Sophia—more than 80 years after it became a mu-

seum under Kemal Atatürk— brings to memory the mournful lamentations of the Byzantines on “Black Tuesday” over their captured city of Constantinople and Hagia Sophia: “They have taken the City, they have taken it. They have also taken Hagia Sophia, the Great Monastery, that has many bells—each bell, a priest, each priest—a deacon.

Quick, send a message to France, that they may send three ships: the first to take the Crucifix, the other to take the Gospel, the third and the most splendid, to take our Holy Altar for the Holy Communion.

“The Church groaned, the candles were put off, the icons began to cry, and to shed black tears.”

Though these words echo the conquest of the magnificent Hagia Sophia and the demise of the glorious Byzantine Christian empire, it is a clarion mandate to preserve Christianity—symbolised by the crucifix, the Gospel, and the altar.

Our faith is already under attack from radical Islam, even in Africa as far south as Mozambique, and by secularism in the West.

The sad and unfortunate fate of Hagia Sophia may be indicative of the ultimate grand plans of those who wish to obliterate Christianity from history.

This may not come to fruition only if Christians learn to work together to preserve that which is dear to them. n Fr Iheanacho is a member of the Department of Historical and Constructive Theology at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.

Tourists look at the Deisis, the Byzantine mosaic depicting Christ Pantocrator in Hagia Sophia. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

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10

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

HOLY LAND

From left: A Palestinian trader sells traditional baked goods outside Zion Gate • A pilgrim photographs the spot where the Blessed Virgin was born, in the crypt of the Crusadereras St Ann’s church • Lions’ Gate, also known as St Stephen’s Gate, near St Ann’s church and the first station of the Via Dolorosa. (All photos: Günther Simmermacher)

Exploring the Holy City In part 11 of our virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we go with GünTheR SiMMeRMACheR to Jerusalem.

T

HE geography of Jerusalem can be quite bewildering. If one says Jerusalem, the meaning depends on context.

The Jerusalem of Jesus, for example, constitutes only a part of what we now call the Old City.

The church of the Holy Sepulchre, which covers Calvary, was outside the city walls at the time of the crucifixion, but soon after within.

But the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was arrested, was outside Jerusalem.

Mount Zion, where Jesus hosted the Last Supper and was later interrogated by the Sanhedrin, was within the city walls in his time, but later fell outside them, and remains so.

All that, and much more beyond, is now considered part of municipal (and partly illegally occupied) Jerusalem.

The most visible and recognisable landmark is the golden-roofed Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount, where once the Jewish Temple stood. Because of its size, appearance and elevated location, it can be seen from most places in Jerusalem.

The Dome of the Rock faces the Mount of Olives (which we visited over the past two weeks) to the east of Jerusalem, across a rift called the Kidron Valley. The mount is in fact a triple-peaked, 3,5km-long ridge.

To the south of the Old City is Mount Zion. It is the birthplace of the Church, for it is here that the followers of Christ gathered for the first Pentecost, in the same spot where the Last Supper took place.

The mount also holds the Catholic cemetery, with perhaps its most famous grave being that of Oskar Schindler, the industrialist who saved more than a thousand Jews from being murdered in the Holocaust. My good friend Rimon Makhlouf, whom many South African Catholics will have met or heard on Radio Veritas, is buried there, too.

To the west of the Old City is

the Jewish section of Jerusalem, with its shopping precinct, the Israel Museum, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, the Knesset and so on, as well as the residential suburbs which also stretch to the north and the south.

The residents of East Jerusalem are traditionally Palestinian Arabs, though lately Israel has encroached on that territory by building Jewish settlements, in defiance of international law.

The Old City is a warren of winding and snaking narrow roads; it is quite easy to get lost in them, but, because the Old City is so small, it is not difficult to get back on the right path.

A good method of orientation is to know the sequence of the eight gates in the city wall.

Lions’ Gate (or St Stephen’s Gate, after a tradition that Christianity’s first martyr was killed at this place), in the north-east of the Old City, is one of the portals to the Muslim Quarter. Almost every Christian pilgrim will use it as the nearest gate to the beginning of the Via Dolorosa.

In Jesus’ time the entrance to the area was called Sheep Gate, because the animals intended for sacrifice in the Temple were herded through it.

Birthplace of Our Lady And nearby, according to an ancient tradition first mentioned in the apocryphal Gospel of James of 150, the Blessed Virgin was born.

Just 50m from Lions’ Gate is the fortress-like St Anne’s church, a beautifully preserved Crusader structure with superb acoustics. It marks the reputed spot of the residence of the Blessed Virgin’s parents, Anne and Joachim.

Built in the 1130s to replace an older basilica dedicated to St Anne (or Hannah), it incorporates a crypt which marks the cave where Anne gave birth to Mary.

After Saladin expelled the Crusaders, the church became a madrassa, or Islamic school of theology. An Arabic inscription above the entrance bears the institution’s name, Salahiya, meaning “of Saladin”.

Over the centuries the structure became a stable and then was abandoned, falling into neglect. In 1854 the Ottoman sultan presented the site, with the adjacent Pool of Bethesda, to Napoleon III in gratitude for the French in-

Jaffa Gate was renovated in 1969. A plaque recalls, “Restored with the generous help of South African Jewry”.

Near Jaffa Gate stands the Tower of David and the citadel, which was first built in the second century BC and rebuilt many times since. The tower has nothing to do with David—it dates from 1635— but Herod’s mighty fortress, with its three famous towers, stood here.

The Christian quarter

The Western Wall, with the golden Dome of the Rock at the left, and the Mount of Olives in the horizon. volvement on the Turkish side in the Crimean War. The church was filled to the top with rubbish but was lovingly restored by the French government, which still owns the site.

It is cared for by the Missionaries for Africa, or White Fathers, one of whom will always be at hand to greet pilgrims and chat with them about the church, the horticulture in the beautiful garden, or life in Jerusalem (they have some outstanding ecumenical and interfaith programmes).

Next to the church is the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the paralysed man and sent him off with the words: “Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around” (John 5:2-18).

It was a profoundly subversive act and command. Not only did Jesus break the Sabbath abstinence from work, but he also encouraged another Jew to do so too, by commanding him to carry his mat, a violation of the Sabbath.

Bethesda, which means “House of Mercy”, comprised water reservoirs, probably used for cleansing rituals, and medicinal pools.

Excavations from 1900 proved that John did not make up the pools, as had been presumed: they showed that his Gospel’s description of the location and the architectural detail of the five porticos was accurate.

This proved that the Gospel of John, or at least that passage, was written by somebody who knew Jerusalem before its destruction in 70 AD, and that the story of the miracle was not intended to be

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metaphorical, as some scholars had hypothesised.

A stone’s throw away from the church of St Anne and the Pool of Bethesda the Via Dolorosa begins.

We will follow it in a couple of weeks.

Following the city wall in a clockwise direction, we pass the closed Golden Gate and the two sealed gates at the base of Temple Mount, the so-called Huldah Gates, to arrive at Dung Gate, at the Old City’s south-eastern corner.

The Wailing Wall Dung Gate, named after the 5th-century BC portal mentioned in Nehemiah 2:13, gives access to the Jewish Quarter of the city and leads to the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.

For many centuries the Western Wall was called the Wailing Wall, for it was here that Jews would come to mourn the loss of the Temple.

This tradition took hold only after the Crusader era. Before that, Jews would lament at the Eastern or Southern walls, outside the city.

With the establishment of the Jewish Quarter, benign Muslim rulers encouraged prayer at the Western Wall, even repairing it when necessary.

During the time of the Temple, this area was of no religious importance. The wall where Jews pray today was just a retaining wall for the platform on which the Temple precinct stood.

Until 1967, when Israel annexed Jerusalem from Jordan, residential houses and mosques stood close to the wall. These were demolished to make way for the large plaza in front of the wall and the security checkpoint.

At the south-western corner of the wall is Zion Gate, which connects Mount Zion with the Old City. It gives access to the Armenian Quarter. The gate, with its Lshaped passageway, is pockmarked with bullet holes from the 1948 and 1967 wars.

Jaffa Gate, at the western side of the Old City, is the point of entry which pilgrims coming from the west would have used; as the name suggests, it is the point where the road from the Mediterranean port of Jaffa ends.

To the north of Jaffa Gate is the Christian Quarter. It is, however, more directly accessed through the New Gate, or Abdul Hamid Gate. It is the portal closest to the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Christian Quarter of the Old City stretches from Jaffa Gate to Damascus Gate in the north.

Near New Gate is the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, with the Terra Sancta church, as well as the Latin Patriarchate.

Various Catholic schools and pilgrim centres are located within the Christian Quarter. The local Catholic parish church is St Saviour’s, part of a monastery complex on 1 St Francis Street.

The centrepoint of the Christian Quarter is, of course, the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of Our Lord’s crucifixion and Resurrection. We will visit the holiest of all the world’s churches in a future issue.

To the north, the imposing Damascus Gate, built in 1542, is the main entrance to the Old City, leading to the Muslim Quarter.

The northern-most entrance is Herod’s Gate, the most modest of the eight portals, and the secondyoungest, having been built in 1879. It takes its Christian name from the Crusaders’ belief that Herod Antipas had his residence here.

It is believed that when they conquered Jerusalem in 1099, the Crusaders entered the city through a breach in the fortification near modern Herod’s Gate.

One of the great attractions in the Old City is the shopping in the warren-like market, or Suq. Here one can buy fresh and baked produce, clothing ranging from tatty T-shirts to smart leather jackets, crockery, tapestries, hookahs, fake branded goods, musical instruments, antiques and the same kind of kitsch souvenirs one finds everywhere around the Holy Land.

As in any Arab markets, no price is set in stone. One is expected to haggle.

The traders have honed some remarkable skills. Some can predict, with greatest confidence, the nationality of passers-by, and greet them in the appropriate language.

You might even hear Afrikaans.

Once a trader, on learning that I was from South Africa, casually called out: “Hoe is die snoek in die Kaap?” I assured him it’s “altyd goed”. n This is an edited extract from Günther Simmermacher’s The Holy Land Trek. Next week: Mount Zion.

The Southern Cross, August 12 to August 18, 2020

Sr Andrea van Hal OP

Thokoza Msomi

D

T

OMINICAN Sister Andrea van Hal died on July 16 at Emmaus convent in East London. She was 92.

The Sisters had been notified after supper that Sr Andrea’s end was near. They gathered to sing the “Salve” and prayed until she died at 18:00.

Sr Andrea was born on April 9, 1928, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, one of four children in a devout Catholic home. Her mother attended daily Mass and her father sang in the church choir.

They had a hard and difficult time during the war. She went to a Montessori school, where the teachers discovered that she had a special interest in and ear for music.

Sr Andrea learned to play the piano and took lessons at home for eight years. Her teachers showed great interest in her progress for which she was grateful all her life.

At an early age Sr Andrea wanted to be a Carmelite Sister, but her father objected to it. Her brother was studying with the Mariannhill Fathers, not far from Venlo.

One day her brother and his friend visited the Dominican convent at Albertushof in Venlo. When the Sisters discovered that her brother had a sister, they invited her for a holiday. Sr Andrea decided that was where she wanted to enter.

She was 17 years old. Her

brother, seven years older, was ordained a priest in 1952 in France. Sadly, he died at the early age of 54 of cancer.

Sr Andrea made her first profession in Venlo in May 1947 and a few months later left for South Africa.

She developed into a very talented music teacher and held certificates and diplomas in teaching piano, violin and flute.

She taught music for 57 years in various places including Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp, Nigel, Witbank, and Welkom.

St Agnes’ School in Welkom was her last assigment. She taught there for 24 years, gave music and singing lessons, pre-

pared the pupils for concerts, and played the organ in the local parish church. There are hundreds of past pupils in different parts of the world who were taught music lessons by Sr Andrea.

In 2006 she retired to Emmaus Convent. She still enjoyed fairly good health and played the organ in the parish church at Cambridge and, of course, also for the Sisters in the convent chapel.

Unfortunately, her eyesight deteriorated until she could not play the organ at all anymore.

The Sisters tried everything to enable her to continue: an extended magnifying glass, a light on the organ, but soon Sr Andrea realised that her music career had come to an end.

This made her very sad and she struggled to accept her limitations. Something of her jolly, playful disposition died with this realisation.

Gradually Sr Andrea became more and more dependent and was transferred to the frail care section in November 2016. Over time, she became less and less mobile and her speech less audible. Often she did not even want to listen to a lovely CD with classical music she had enjoyed before.

In her last days, Sr Andrea caught a cold and started deteriorating more visibly. Her death was a peaceful one, surrounded by several Sisters.

FROM OUR VAULTS 31 Years Ago: August 13, 1989

Unjust elections in a climate of hope In a pastoral letter, the bishops of Southern Africa say that despite “deep tensions”, the September 6 election—which is “unjust because it excludes the majority of the people”—nevertheless is taking place in a climate of hope for steps towards peace.

Hurley speaks for Boksburg clinic Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban travelled to Boksburg to speak in defence of the House of Mercy drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, founded by Fr Stan Brennan, which the Conservative Party-controlled council wants to close because the multiracial clinic violates the Group Areas Act.

Italian missionary murdered in Angola Italian Capuchin Father Amedeo Giulatti, 47, was killed in Angola in an ambush attributed to Unita guerillas. He with a local priest and two boys, who were unharmed in the attack, were on their way from Negage mission to pick up supplies and medicines. Fr Giulatti had been in Angola since 1986.

HE cofounder of an event called “Imvuselelo yamaKhatholika naboBonke”, which annually raises more that R1,2m for the Mariannhill diocese’s Seminary Fund, has died at 70 after a long battle with cancer and diabetes.

Thokoza Msomi, a “cradle” Catholic and a retired traffic officer, together with his late brother Phillip Msomi, pitched the fundraising concept to the late Bishop Paul Themba Mngoma in 2000. Bishop Mngoma immediately gave it his approval.

It has been successfully running for 20 years this year; an epitome of selfreliance in a largely rural diocese.

Mr Msomi had an interest in music and theatre from a very young age. He was part of the original cast of uMabatha, a 1970 adapted Zulu-version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. He also produced many gospel music groups.

He felt the need to use his talent, learned skills and expertise for his Church.

Mr Msomi produced the first-ever commercial recording of Zulu Catholic music with the groups he founded: Ithemba lamaKhatholika and Inqaba yamaKhatholika. Even Isibani samaKhatholika owes its origins to his inspiration.

This good and faithful servant’s contribution to the evangelisation of

11

God’s people in the diocese of Mariannhill and beyond captured well the invitation of Pope Francis in Gaudete et Exsultate for the saints “next door”.

Mr Msomi was buried on July 31 at the Mariannhill monastery where he now rests alongside other great evangelisers such as Bishop Mngoma, and hundreds of missionaries and lay-people who laboured on the foundation laid by the Servant of God, Abbot Francis Pfanner, the “Apostle to the AmaZulu”, who lies at the centre of that cemetery.

Mr Msomi leaves behind his wife of 45 years, Sibongile, seven children and 18 grandchildren.

Fr S’milo Mngadi

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PRAYERS

LOOK down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while before Thy face I humbly kneel and, with burning soul, pray and beseech Thee to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity; true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment. While I contemplate, with great love and tender pity, Thy five most precious wounds, pondering over them within me and calling to mind the words which David, Thy

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 927. ACROSS: 5 Defy, 7 Obligatory, 8 Halt, 10 Residual, 11 Script, 12 Nobody, 14 Career, 16 Tester, 17 Ignatius, 19 Ugly, 21 Alexandria, 22 Tsar. DOWN: 1 Moth, 2 Diatribe, 3 Parrot, 4 Poison, 5 Dyed, 6 Fit and well, 9 Archangels, 13 Resounds, 15 Rained, 16 Tuscan, 18 Ajar, 20 Year.

prophet, said of Thee, my Jesus: “They have pierced My hands and My feet, they have numbered all My bones.” Amen REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.

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Rangers sign first Catholic player Glasgow Rangers football club, traditionally supported by Protestants, has signed its first Catholic players in 116 years of existence. Mo Johnston previously played for Catholic club Celtic. While religious leaders are hopeful that Johnston’s signing will break down sectarian prejudices, a Rangers supporters’ club protested against the signing by laying a wreath outside the club’s Ibrox Park stadium and burning the Rangers flag.

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Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday August 16, 20th Sunday, Assumption of the Virgin Mary Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10, Psalms 45: 10, 11, 12, 16, 1 Corinthians 15:20-27, Luke 1:39-56 Monday August 17 Ezekiel 24: 15-23, Responsorial psalm Deuteronomy 32:18-19, 20, 2, Matthew 19:16-22 Tuesday August 18 Ezekiel 28: 1-10, Responsorial psalm Deuteronomy 32:26-27ab, 27cd-28, 30,

St John Eudes

St Bernard of Clairvaux

35cd-36ab, Matthew 19:23-30 Wednesday August 19, St John Eudes Ezekiel 34: 1-11, Psalms 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6, Matthew 20:1-16 Thursday August 20, St Bernard of Clairvaux Ezekiel 36: 23-28, Psalms 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19, Matthew 22:1-14 Friday August 21, St Pius X, Ezekiel 37: 1-14, Psalms 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, Matthew 22:34-40 Saturday August 22, Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ezekiel 43: 1-7ab, Psalms 85: 9ab,10, 11-12, 13-14, Matthew 23:1-12 Sunday August 23, 21st Sunday Isaiah 22: 19-23, Psalms 138: 1-2, 2-3,6, 8 (8bc), Romans 11:33-36, Matthew 16:13-20

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21st Sunday: August 23 Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23; Psalm 138:1-3, 6, 8; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20

W

HAT matters, all the time and everywhere, including in the strange situation in which today we find ourselves, is what God is up to.

In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah (or God) is sacking Shebna (who is a foreigner and rather overinclined to live the luxury lifestyle) mainly because God (or Isaiah) did not wish him to rely on political negotiations with Egypt. So he is to be replaced by someone with the good Hebrew name of “Eliakim son of Hilkiah”.

This might well be the kind of reproach that God might offer to some of our contemporary politicians, who fail to ask, “What is God doing?”

And notice what we can expect of Eliakim: “He will be a father to the inhabitant of Jerusalem.” And that is clearly what God is about. Only such a man can be given “the key of the house of Jacob” and “a throne of glory for his father’s house”.

The psalm for next Sunday is clearly in no doubt about what God is up to: “I shall thank you with all my heart; in the presence of the gods I shall sing to you.” It shows immense and appropriate reverence: “I shall bow down towards your holy Temple, and praise your name above all names.” Then—and here is the key element—he reminds us that “the

Lord is great and cares for the lowly and knows the proud from afar”. He ends with a great shout of joy: “Lord, your steadfast love is forever; do not forsake the works of your hands.” The poet is well aware of what God is doing.

As indeed is St Paul in our second reading.

He has spent several chapters working out what God is up to, as he wrestles with the question of where the Jews feature in God’s plans.

The underlying question is this: Given that God’s Gospel is now on offer to non-Jews as well as Jews, where does that leave the Jews?

And Paul is absolutely clear that God has not changed his mind: The Jews are still the chosen race.

So now at the end of a long and careful argument to that effect, he breathes a sigh of astonished joy at what God is doing: “O the deep riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” He can hardly believe how good things are: “How unfathomable are his judgments, and how untrackable are his ways!”

The point is that we have no right to set ourselves up in judgment over God, “for who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Or who was his counsellor? Or who gave God anything in advance, to get repaid?”

The suicide stigma W

things, namely, the torment of human finitude, inadequacy and mortality.

For Cowan, modern psychology’s preoccupation with symptoms of depression and its reliance on drugs in treating depression show an “appalling superficiality in the face of real human suffering”.

For her—apart from whatever else this might mean—refusing to recognise the depth and meaning of melancholy is demeaning to the sufferer and perpetrates a violence against a soul that is already in torment.

And that is the issue when dealing with suicide. Suicide is normally the result of a soul in torment, and in most cases that torment is not the result of a moral failure but of a melancholy which overwhelms a person at a time when he or she is too tender, too weak, too wounded, too stressed, or too biochemically impaired to withstand its pressure.

L

eo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist who eventually did die by suicide, had written earlier about the melancholic forces that sometimes threatened to overwhelm him.

Here’s one of his diary entries: “The force which drew me away from life was fuller, more powerful, and more general than any mere desire. It was a force like my old aspiration to live, only it impelled me in the opposite direction. It was an aspiration of my whole being to get out of life.”

There’s still a lot we don’t understand about suicide and that misunderstanding

Conrad

E no longer understand melancholy. Today we lump all forms of melancholy together into one indiscriminate bundle and call it “depression”.

While a lot of good is being done by psychiatrists, psychologists, and the medical profession in terms of treating depression, something important is being lost at the same time. Melancholy is much more than what we call “depression”. For better and for worse, the ancients saw melancholy as a gift from God. Prior to modern psychology and psychiatry, melancholy was seen precisely as a gift from the divine. In Greek mythology, it even had its own god, Saturn, and it was seen as a rich but mixed gift.

On the one hand, it could bring soulcrushing emotions such as unbearable loneliness, paralysing obsessions, inconsolable grief, cosmic sadness, and suicidal despair; on the other hand, it could also bring depth, genius, creativity, poetic inspiration, compassion, mystical insight, and wisdom.

No more. Today melancholy has even lost its name and has become, in the words of Jungian analyst Lyn Cowan, “clinicalised, pathologised, and medicalised”.

So that what poets, philosophers, blues singers, artists, and mystics have forever drawn on for depth is now seen as a “treatable illness” rather than as a painful part of the soul that doesn’t want treatment but wants instead to be listened to because it intuits the unbearable heaviness of

Nicholas King SJ

What is God up to?

‘It’s more dress cents than dress sense I’m after’

Church Chuckles

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

you, but my Father, the one in Heaven.”

Then, revealing what this “Father” is up to: “And I am telling you that you are Rock; and on this Rock I am going to build my Church.

And the gates of hell will not have any strength against it.”

So that is what God is up to; and now Jesus continues with the image about “keys” taken from our first reading: “I am going to give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Then comes a promise: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you untie on earth will be untied in heaven.”

But then, very oddly, he “orders the disciples not to tell anybody that he was the Messiah”. Why ever not, you ask? Simply because they are still not in a position to work out what God is up to; for when Jesus goes on to tell them about his forthcoming Passion and Death (and Resurrection, though we hardly ever notice that), Simon, now called “Rock”, will have none of this nonsense and “began to rebuke him”.

But that is another story. What is God going to be up to in your life, this week?

Southern Crossword #927

Final Reflection

isn’t just psychological, it’s also moral. In short, we generally blame the victim: “If your soul is sick, it’s your fault.”

For the most part that is how people who die by suicide are judged. Even though publicly we have come a long way in understanding suicide and now claim to be more open and less judgmental morally, the stigma remains.

We still have not made the same peace with breakdowns in mental health as we have made with breakdowns in physical health. We don’t have the same psychological and moral anxieties when someone dies of cancer, stroke, or heart attack as we do when someone dies by suicide.

Those who die by suicide are, in effect, our new “lepers”. In former times when there was no solution for leprosy other than isolating the person from everyone else, the victim suffered doubly: once from the disease and then (perhaps even more painfully) from the social isolation and debilitating stigma. He or she was declared “unclean” and had to own that stigma.

But the person suffering from leprosy still had the consolation of not being judged psychologically or morally. They were not judged to be “unclean” in those areas. They were pitied.

However, we feel pity only for those whom we haven’t ostracised, psychologically and morally.

That’s why we judge rather than pity someone who dies by suicide. For us, death by suicide still renders persons “unclean” in that it puts them outside of what we deem as morally and psychologically acceptable.

Their deaths are not spoken of in the same way as other deaths. They are doubly judged, psychologically (“If your soul is sick, it’s your own fault”) and morally (“Your death is a betrayal”). To die by suicide is worse than dying of leprosy.

I’m not sure how we can move past this. As Blaise Pascal said, the heart has its reasons. So, too, does the powerful taboo inside us that militates against suicide.

There are good reasons why we spontaneously feel the way we do about suicide.

But, perhaps a deeper understanding of the complexity of forces that lie inside of what we naively label “depression” might help us understand that, in most cases, suicide may not be judged as a moral or psychological failure, but as a melancholy that has overpowered a suffering soul.

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Sunday Reflections

We need to get our perspective right, “because from him and through him and into him is everything” (we hardly understand here, but get the picture) “to him be the glory for ever”.

That may be something for us to chew over this week.

The Gospel is that extraordinary story of the dialogue with Peter (mainly) at Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus interrogates the disciples about “what are people saying about the Son of Man?” They make various helpful suggestions, of a vaguely religious sort: “John the Baptist; Elijah; Jeremiah; a prophet”. But if they are to get to grips with what God is up to in the light of Jesus, they have to reach an answer for themselves: “But what about you lot,” asks Jesus, “who do you lot say I am?”

That is the moment (as so often) for Simon Peter to open his mouth and get it right: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”— and we applaud, as he is raised to the top of the Christology class.

Later on, it is true, however, he goes down to the bottom again, as Jesus explains what God is up to in his life; but for the moment it is: “Congratulations to you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to

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ACROSS

5. Refuse to obey the rule (4) 7. Compulsory to catch glory boat I rocked (10) 8. Sudden stop for the lame walker (4) 10. Part of the remains of the relics (8) 11. Does the doctor write it for the Passion Play? (6) 12. A spirit that’s not important? (6) 14. Occupation that will advance uncontrolled? (6) 16. One who tries out the canopy over the bed? (6) 17. Saint of Loyola (8) 19. Not a pretty clue (4) 21. Great African city with Hellenic origins (10) 22. The confused Russian star (4) Solutions on page 11

DOWN

1. The insect of Matthew 6 (4) 2. Tie braid and get verbal abuse (8) 3. Fashion of a bird praying without thinking (6) 4. Ivy is linked to this toxic substance (6) 5. Passed away colourfully, it is said (4) 6. Flew and lit on being healthy (3,3,4) 9. Angles change under curved overhead structure, revealing God’s messenger (10) 13. Fills with echoes of the organ (8) 15. Came down from the heavens perhaps (6) 16. St Cuan could be from Florence (6) 18. Not quite open or closed (4) 20. Takes up a whole calendar (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

T

he Russians wanted to sell the preserved corpse of Lenin. They offered it to the Catholic Church. Not interested. They offered it to the Muslims. Not interested. The Buddhists.

The Hindus. The Zoroastrians. No takers. Even the Atheist World Federation didn’t want Lenin.

Eventually the Jewish Federation put in a bid.

But Vladimir Putin vetoed it.

Asked why, Putin explained: “Oh no, one of yours once rose from the dead. I’m not taking that risk.”

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