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The

S outher n C ross

Centenary Jubilee Year July 29 to August 4, 2020

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

www.scross.co.za

No 5196

Find the Kingdom in daily things

Atomic bombs still a threat to us today

In lockdown, port chaplains get creative

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R12 (incl VAT RSA)

Priest: Stop lockdown – it has failed STAFF REPORTER

L Brides wearing wedding dresses hold a flash mob near Rome’s Trevi Fountain to protest against the postponement of their weddings due to the coronavirus pandemic. Italian bishops are being asked to consider ways to reach parishioners for programmes during phase three of pandemic reopening. (Photo: Yara Nardi, Reuters/CNS)

New bishop on August 8 STAFF REPORTER

T

HE episcopal ordination of Bishopelect Noel Rucastle as the ordinary of Oudtshoorn diocese will take place on August 8. Due to Covid-19 compliance regulations, his ordination will be attended by 50 people only. These will include SACBC president Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, bishops from Cape Town metropolitan region, SACBC secretary-general Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS, all priests of Oudtshoorn diocese, and invited guests. Archbishop Stephen Brislin, as the head of the metropolitan region which includes Oudtshoorn, is set to be the principal consecrator. Bishop-elect Rucastle, a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town since his ordination in July 2000, was appointed bishop of Oudtshoorn on May 4. Born in Upington, Northern Cape, the

Bishop-elect Noel Rucastle 52-year-old bishop-elect succeeds Bishop Frank de Gouveia, who headed the diocese from 2010-18.

The

OCKDOWN has failed because of years of corruption, and it is “time to try something else”, according to a Jesuit priest. Acknowledging that “many won’t like what I have to say”, Fr Anthony Egan, a theologian and commentator, noted that the purpose of a lockdown is “to give the health services time to prepare for the surge of patients manifesting Covid-19”. Its purpose, he said, “is not to prevent infection until we get a vaccine”, which may still take a long time to come. “By that time under lockdown, there will be no functioning economy, hence no means to create and distribute a vaccine. And many will have died from starvation, anyway,” Fr Egan warned in an article published on the website of the Jesuit Institute SA (www.jesuitinstitute.org.za). The priest blamed corruption for the failing public health sector. “Unfortunately, our health services have been so looted by criminals that even such a stalling tactic [as lockdown] is a bit like trying to bail water out of the Titanic with a tablespoon,” Fr Egan wrote. “Lack of government will or public outrage gave thieves impunity” to destroy the health service, he said. “So: what we have, we have. It isn’t much and is not likely to get any more even if we stay on lockdown for years,” he warned. Fr Egan suggested that many South Africans have lost faith in lockdown, and government promises have been unfulfilled. “Promises of care for those unemployed during lockdown have substantially not manifested. In some cases...state support has been unevenly distributed...or simply disappeared,” the priest said.

Lockdown has failed, and it is time to end it, Fr Anthony Egan SJ has argued. (Photo: Matt Seymour) Noting that the lockdown has accelerated unemployment and that “countless small and medium businesses” are facing bankruptcy, South Africa is facing the prospect of becoming “even more of a ‘state on welfare’ than we already are—with even less income tax to provide benefits”, Fr Egan said. “Keeping lockdown going is now pointless,” the priest said. The alternative is to “return to a new normal, where we get on with our lives—with masks and sanitisers and as much reasonable social distancing as possible”, Fr Egan said. “We must face the fact that many, perhaps most, of us will eventually get Covid19—and some of us will die,” he said, noting that this is the case even in lockdown. Fr Egan argued that “we are out of options and must make the best of things”. “Ethics is not always what’s best, but what is (a) possible, (b) workable, and (c) the lesser of two evils,” he said. “It’s time to grow up, unlock ourselves of delusions, and live responsibly.”

S outher n C ross

Jubilee Year Camino to Santiagode Compostela

Bookings open: Official 7-Day Camino September 2021 • Led by 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


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