200527

The

S outher n C ross

May 27 to June 2, 2020

How churches reopened in Botswana

Page 2

www.scross.co.za

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 5188

R12 (incl VAT RSA)

Centenary Jubilee Year

Why Pentecost was an earthshattering event

Twin duo sings of hope in pandemic

Page 8

Page 3

Churches may now open after Zoom meeting

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

HE archbishop of Cape Town and other faith leaders met with President Cyril Ramaphosa in a Zoom meeting ahead of the government’s decision to allow for the reopening of places of worship, and the call for a national Day of Prayer on Sunday.

The discussion was part of the president’s ongoing engagement with stakeholders for the progression of the country to Alert Level 3 of the national lockdown.

“I was grateful to be invited, as Cape Town is considered the South African epicentre of the disease,” said Archbishop Stephen Brislin.

Most of the discussion centred on a return to worship. There seemed to be a general consensus among faith leaders that there will have to be a phased-in return to worship, said Archbishop Brislin.

Addressing the nation on Tuesday evening, Mr Ramaphosa announced the reopening of churches and other places of worship, with restrictions which were proposed by the religious leaders.

The numbers of congregants will be limited to a maximum of 50 or less, depending on the size of the place of worship.

Social distancing must be observed and facemasks be worn at all times. Hygiene protocols are to be enforced, with thorough cleaning and sanitation of places of worship before and after services.

All rituals—including Communion—must be conducted in ways that avoid even the slightest risk of the transmission of the virus.

It is advised that the elderly and others with pre-existing conditions and thus vulnerable to Covid-19 be asked not to return to public worship immediately.

In the meeting with the president, the religious leaders proposed that livestreaming of services and other ways of pastoral care and support should be provided to them.

In that meeting, Mr Ramaphosa was receptive to the recommendations of the religious leaders, whom the president specifically thanked in his address to the nation.

“However, he did point out that government’s thinking in this area had also been informed by ‘Patient 31’ in South Korea, who had unwittingly passed on the virus to many people at a church service, and also the many people who had become infected at a church gathering in Bloemfontein,” Archbishop Brislin said.

In his televised address, Mr Ramaphosa noted that “faith has seen us through dark times...and sustained us” as a nation.

Religious leaders, he said, have provided guidance, pastoral support and social relief.

“We have strongly felt their presence.”

Calling for the National Day of Prayer on May 31, Mr Ramaphosa asked that the people of South Africa pray for the “healing of our land and the protection of our people”.

He asked that on Sunday, South Africans turn their thoughts to those who are bereaved due to Covid-19, and those who are on the frontline in fighting the pandemic.

In the meeting with the religious leaders, the president also gave an update on the Covid-19 situation in South Africa.

“President Ramaphosa noted that the lockdown has worked, and the curve has been flattened—this can be scientifically demonstrated. The number of infections is expected to peak in August or September,” Archbishop Brislin said.

“Speaking of the way forward, the president assured us that the government is taking professional advice from different sources nationally and internationally,” he said.

“There are two ‘pockets’ of advice: The World Health Organization’s recommendations that restrictions should be eased only Continued on page 3

Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp with a truck transporting food parcels which the Justice & Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference is distributing to impoverished people in his diocese. J&P has been distributing food donated under the United Nation’s Covid-19 programme in different areas. On Saturday, food parcels were distributed at the Mercy Centre in Winterveldt, Pretoria archdiocese, as part of the programme. (Photo: SACBC Justice & Peace Commission)

May you pass us around?

I

S it allowed to pass the digital edition of The Southern Cross around on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook?

This is a question which has been asked of The Southern Cross several times since the newspaper went digital-only for the duration of Covid-19 restrictions.

The simple answer is: Yes, please feel free to share your Catholic weekly as widely as you like—but with a couple of qualifications, said Rosanne Shields, chair of the board of directors of The Southern Cross.

“Firstly, we ask that the subscribers’ version of the digital Southern Cross rather not be shared until the weekend,” she said.

“A benefit of subscribing to the digital edition is that you get it on Wednesday morning, or even on Tuesday evening. That is something the subscribers have paid for. So it’s only fair to them to wait a few days before sharing the latest issue with others,” Ms Shields said.

“Secondly, if you share The Southern Cross, please ask the recipients to subscribe or to make a donation, even if it’s just the cover price of R12,” she said.

“We’ve made it easy for people to make such a donation with Snapscan, and EFT is

also an option,” Ms Shields added.

“But having said that, we are very happy that readers love our newspaper so much that they share it. In doing so, they are introducing The Southern Cross to many people who maybe never saw it before—and that is a good thing.”

In the meantime, the free digital Southern Cross is still coming out every Sunday on our website (www.scross.co.za).

“Please tell people about it, because often we still hear from readers who say they are missing their weekly fix of The Southern Cross, but didn’t know that it still appears every week,” Ms Shields said.

“We encourage our readers to tell as many people as possible about The Southern Cross, especially in these difficult times when we can’t go to church,” she said.

“Our hope in making The Southern Cross available for free is to bring the Church into people’s homes.”

• To subscribe to The Southern Cross, go to www.digital.scross.co.za/subscribe (or click on the link) • To make a donation to The Southern Cross go to www.scross.co.za/donate-tothe-southern-cross/ (or click on the link)

How can you help The Southern Cross D

iD you know that The Southern Cross is entirely independent and unsubsidised, surviving on revenue from sales and advertising — and the kind support of our readers?

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 now the survival of our only national Catholic weekly is in great danger.

The closure of our churches in the national lockdown has robbed us of our main source of income: sales at the church door.

We have made the weekly edition available for FREE on our website, going online every Friday at 11:00. That way, all Catholics will have access to the Catholic weekly. Subscribers get their edition on Wednesdays, with premium content for the duration of the lockdown.

We are asking those who take up our offer of the free newspaper to make a donation, or to subscribe. An encouraging number of people have already done so.

We remain positive that by God’s grace we can survive this crisis. But that also requires YOUR help.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

• Subscribe and encourage people to subscribe to The Southern Cross. Go to digital.scross.co.za/subscribe (or click HERE) or 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. Contact Yolanda at advertising@scross.co.za • Support our Associates’ Campaign which helps us build up reserves and undertake important outreach work.

Go to digital.scross.co.za/associates-

campaign for details (or click HERE) • 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 or 021 465-3850.

• 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 our national Catholic weekly alive. Thank you for your generous help!

May God bless you and us all!

Snap here to help us!

2

The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

LOCAL

Gaborone leads way as Botswana churches reopen

BY ERIN CARELSE

P

UBLIC Masses reopened in the diocese of Gaborone, Botswana, on May 22 after parliament amended the Covid-19 regulations, introducing the next step of interventions in the country’s battle against the pandemic.

Gaborone thus became the first diocese in the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference to reopen churches for public Masses.

As of Tuesday, Botswana had reported 15 active cases of Covid-19.

Eswatini’s Manzini diocese, also part of the SACBC, is awaiting government instructions governing the reopening of churches.

Bishop Frank Nubuasah of Gaborone said the reopening of churches in his diocese went well.

In Botswana, places of religious worship may conduct services twice a week, with a maximum of 50 people allowed at each service, including the celebrant.

“Masses with 50 people were celebrated on Friday, May 22, and Sunday, May 24, and I think the reopening went very well. We prepared well and shared information with the priests,” Bishop Nubuasah said.

“Our people are generally happy about the reopening of the

churches. The only cry they have is that 50 is too limiting—but we are complying until the authorities decide otherwise.”

Before places of worship could open certain things needed to be put in place. Bishop Nubuasah said this took time as he had to crosscheck all regulations to ensure the churches would be fully compliant.

Each parish was provided with one infrared contactless thermometer by the diocese. Where more than one is needed, parishes are advised to procure the extras.

“For example, if there are two priests who have five outstations, having a second thermometer to be used in the outstations is a good idea,” Bishop Nubuasah explained.

As parishes are permitted to have one service during the week and one at the weekend, the bishop proposed celebrating the Sunday obligation on Friday and on Sunday.

He acknowledged that this may not work for some parishes. These could decide on another day, while keeping in mind that they are not permitted to have two Masses at the weekend in the same building.

The priest can celebrate a number of Masses in different churches or chapels, but not more than two in each place per week.

Pews can be demarcated 2m

places of worship or halls try to fumigate the premises.

Parishes are also encouraged to organise a clean-up campaign at the end of the month.

E

Bishop Frank Nubuasah (left) of Gaborone in Botswana which has reopened churches and Bishop José Ponce de León of Manzini in Eswatini which is preparing to reopen public Masses. (Photos: Fr Paul Tatu CSS) apart to meet the required physical distance by skipping one row and then marking the next.

Priests are advised to do what is possible and be creative, as the health of Massgoers is paramount.

The provision of handwashing facilities before one enters the church building is also required.

Sanitisers are to be provided for use by worshippers before they enter the church or chapel.

Each Mass attendant must register their name, ID number, contact details, and address. These records must also include the temperature reading for each person. This must be kept safe for the authorities.

Should a parishioner register a high temperature reading, the individual is to be referred immediately to a clinic or hospital, and not be permitted to attend the Mass.

It is also recommended that all

swatini is also apparently allowed to reopen churches, but according to Bishop José Luis Ponce de León of Manzini, communication from the government is still unclear.

As of Tuesday, Eswatini had reported 96 active cases of Covid-19.

In a letter to his priests, Bishop Ponce de León said that although the diocese received news of changes in the way the lockdown applies to churches, public Masses will not resume until clarity has been provided by the government.

“Unfortunately I have not been able to access any official information from our government. While we are normally able to download a document after a speech from the prime minister or the minister for health, nothing has been made available in this regard by government,” he said.

“I, therefore, cannot comment or indicate a way forward based on what we hear in the media.”

However, Bishop Ponce de León added, the diocese “will start discerning what we would do if it is decided to allow more than 20 people at church services”.

Justice Desk steps up for those in need during Covid-19

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

HE award-winning human rights organisation The Justice Desk is doing its bit to help thousands of individuals from under-served communities, and is calling on community members to assist its work during the coronavirus crisis.

The Justice Desk is part of the Edmund Rice organisation, named after Bl Edmund Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers.

During the time of Covid-19, the NPO is working hard to help those most affected in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“It has been said that we learn and grow as a country through the

powerful stories, lived experiences and the collective trauma we share,” said founder and executive director Jessica Dewhurst.

“In the time of Covid-19, it is our hope that the lessons learnt are those that recognise the need for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

The Justice Desk has mobilised to provide food relief, and distribute reusable masks, soaps, sanitisers and hygiene products to thousands of people in underserved communities.

It provides educational materials too, to help vulnerable communities learn about the dangers of Covid-19 and how they can protect themselves.

The organisation is also distributing information to women and children who may be locked inside with their abusers during lockdowns, on how to reach out for help.

Ms Dewhurst called for united action in advocating for the human rights of all people, with special efforts being made to advocate for those most impacted by Covid-19: the poor.

“We hope that we realise that injustice was here before this pandemic, and it’s surely here during it,” she said.

“Throughout this pandemic, Covid-19 has painted a clear picture—that those who have limited access to their human rights and

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fundamental freedoms are the ones who suffer the most; prior, during and after a pandemic,” she said.

“Women and girls fear the virus as well as the abusers they may be trapped inside lockdown with,” Ms Dewhurst noted.

She observed that people are told to wash their hands when they don’t have access to running water.

Meanwhile, families fear contracting the virus but also the threat of starvation and never working again.

“These are fears and lived realities that many people in underserved communities face that have far deeper roots than this virus,” Ms Dewhurst said.

The Justice Desk is calling on all to become an “Everyday Activist”.

“In the world we live in, the most powerful tools we have are our adaptability and compassion,” Ms Dewhurst said.

“Support us and together we can make a practical, sustainable and powerful difference,” she added.

To make a donation to the Justice Desk’s Covid-19 relief campaign, CLICK HERE www.given gain.com/cc/tjdcovidresponse/ Donations can also be made directly to: Account name The Edmund Rice Justice Desk, Standard Bank Constantia branch, Account 1151755834. n For more information e-mail info@ justicedesk.org

CPLO offers top commentator videos

T

HE Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) has produced a series of video interviews with leading social and political commentators.

“During this time of lockdown and the disruption of normal activities, the CPLO, like many organisations, is exploring ways of contributing to national debates and of helping to share information and analysis with our network,” a statement from the Cape Town-based office said.

“To this end, and with the generous support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, we have launched a series of video interviews in which we will be bringing you the views and insights of various commentators, politicians and experts.”

The series poses questions about the Covid-19 crisis and its effects, but also looks at nonCovid matters.

The interviews, 20 to 30 minutes in length, are also available as podcasts. The interviewer is Mike Pothier of the CPLO.

The first interviewees in what is planned to be an ongoing series include: • Dr Mamphela Ramphele, co-founder of Re-imagine SA, businesswoman and social entrepreneur; • Lawson Naidoo, executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution; • Fr Peter-John Pearson, director of the CPLO;

• Prof Steven Friedman, research professor in the department of politics at the University of Johannesburg.

For the videos, go to www.cplo.org.za/videos/ and for the interviews in podcast format go to www.cplo.org.za/ podcasts/ The interviews are also being broadcast by Radio Veritas.

The CPLO welcomes feedback, as well as suggestions.

Send us your Community pics during life under the national coronavirus rules!

We publish your photos from schools, parishes, groups and individuals of livestreaming, learning, praying and engaging online.

Send your photos to pics@scross.co.za

The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

LOCAL

Young Catholic twins sing a light of hope during Covid-19 struggle

BY DALUXOLO MOLOANTOA

A

DUO of Catholic twin singers has released a song in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lebone and Lesedi Khunou, who are known by the name The Light, are twin sisters from Alexandra in Johannesburg. Their song “This Too Shall Pass” features two other artists and has been well received.

“We saw how South Africa and the world were so distressed, scared and hopeless. True to our group name, we thought we’d be that light that shines through in this difficult and dark period,” Lebone Khunou said.

“We wanted to let people know that this too shall pass, and that God will see us through.”

She said The Light included other artists in the song “to help us in spreading this message of hope as well as to show unity and togetherness and that, if we come together as a people we can fight the virus”.

The identical twins, who are marketing graduates from the University of Johannesburg and parishioners at St Hubert’s in Alexandra, started to sing in the church youth choir.

They became serious about being musicians in 2015.

The Light was an obvious group name choice. “Both our names trans-

Twin sisters Lebone and Lesedi Khunou, in collaboration with other artists, have released their song “This Too Shall Pass” to give comfort and strength during the coronavirus pandemic. late as light in English,” Lesedi explained. “Added to that, the name holds a significant weight in our call to ‘bring the Light of Christ to the world through our music’.”

The group took off in the same year, after an overwhelming response to a Facebook challenge for people to post videos of themselves singing Christmas carols.

“The reception was phenomenal as we saw how touched people were.

We posted more videos, and started a YouTube channel,” Lesedi said.

In 2017 they released their debut CD, titled Filled With Hope. The Light’s repertoire is made up of popular Catholic songs, and their own compositions.

Their fanbase has since grown to include Catholics and nonCatholics alike.

“Catholics make up the majority of our fanbase. They love how we have taken the traditionally sung Catholic hymns and revamped them to give them a new expression,” said Lebone.

“The non-Catholics love both our own compositions as well as the Catholic hymns, most especially the Marian song ‘Kwake Kwathi’, which was quite interesting to us given the widespread misconception about Our Lady and her role in the Church,” she said.

The sisters are busy on a song about the new Pastoral Plan, and hope to release it soon.

They are also planning to host their second annual Christmas Carols concert, and are looking at releasing their second album before the end of the year.

CLICK HERE to listen to The Light’s “This Too Shall Pass”.

President Ramaphosa talked to faith leaders Continued from page 1 when the number of infections is being properly managed downwards. The other pocket is summarised by those who say that the lockdown has served its purpose and we should move quickly to Level 1, using other items in the ‘toolbox’,” Archbishop Brislin explained.

“The lockdown was considered the ‘bazooka’ in the toolbox, but there are other tools such as screening, testing, case management, behaviour change, and so on.”

In the Zoom meeting, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize gave facts and figures regarding testing, transmission, and field hospitals.

“One figure I found shocking was that, at that time, about 500 health workers had been infected with the virus,” Archbishop Brislin said.

Also addressing the meeting was cooperative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

On Level 3, the number of industries and workplaces that will be able to reopen as of June 1 will be

subject to hygiene and health protocols, and social distancing.

Some restrictions will remain in place, including those on restaurants for sit-down meals, beauty parlours, interprovincial travel, and social gatherings.

Faith leaders expressed their concern over some police action, the seeming inappropriateness of some of the regulations, the plight of healthcare workers, and the need for everyone to take responsibility for behaviour changes.

“Government is asking for the

support of all—behaviour must change,” Archbishop Brislin said.

“People must wear masks when out of their homes; they must keep washing hands, social distancing, and so on. I would like to emphasise that,” he said.

“We must protect ourselves and we must protect others. We have a choice between selfishness and taking responsibility. The virus is real and among us. We can limit infection rates and thereby help save lives, but we need to be responsible,” the archbishop said.

3

Good Shepherd Sisters come to people’s aid

BY FR PAUL TATU CSS

M

ADIDI, one of the most impoverished communities in North West Province, experienced a helping hand from the Good-Shepherd Learning Centre, run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, when the Sisters delivered food parcels, sanitary towels and clothing.

This was organised by Sr Colleen Simpson, director of the centre, who has worked with the community since 1990.

The organised food parcels were meant to cover only 50 people, but hundreds of people joined the queue.

“It was hard for us to return them empty-handed, knowing their poverty,” Sr Simpson said.

She promised more food parcels soon for those who went back home with nothing.

The social development department of Madibeng municipality also helped with the distribution of parcels, as did the police, to ensure Covid-19 safety.

Henrietta Poo, director of the department, praised the good work the Good Shepherd Centre has been doing for the impoverished people of Madidi.

“The gesture of distribution of food parcels means a lot to the people, especially during this time of Covid-19 misfortunes.

“When people have something to eat in the house, they stay home and help in curbing the spread of coronavirus,” Ms Poo said.

Alpheus Malatse, councillor of Madidi, said that more than 75% of the people of Madidi rely on social grants for survival, and that makes life very hard.

He added that many locals who succeed prefer not to stay in the area.

“They go and live in better places [and] come back to the community only on special occasions. This leaves Madidi with a majority of poor people and children,” Mr Malatse said.

Fr Tulani Gubula of Komani (Queenstown) cathedral delivered congratulatory messages from parishioners to Joseph Mokawem on his 90th birthday. Mr Mokawem’s wife of 64 years, Laura, had celebrated her 89th birthday five days earlier. Fr Gubula printed out the birthday greetings received from parishioners via WhatsApp, and took these to Madeira House, where the couple stay. Standing outside the home, he also blessed Uncle Joe and Aunty Laura, as the couple is known to all at cathedral parish, while taking preventative health and safety measures.

(Photo: Andrew Asare)

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The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

INTERNATIONAL

Pope: Church’s preferential option for the poor is non-negotiable

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

A

MISSIONARY or Church reality that is truly inspired by the Holy Spirit “manifests predilection for the poor and vulnerable as a sign and reflection of the Lord’s own preference for them”, Pope Francis told the Pontifical Mission Societies.

The pope said that those involved with the Church’s missionary activity “should never justify their lack of concern for the poor with the excuse, widely used in particular ecclesiastical circles, of having to concentrate their energies on certain priorities for the mission”.

“For the Church, a preference for the poor is not optional,” he said.

The mission societies help poor churches and communities around the world and support more than 9 000 health clinics, 10 000 orphanages, 1 200 schools, 80 000 seminarians and 9 000 religious Sisters and Brothers in more than 1 150 mission dioceses—mostly in Africa and Asia.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the societies’ annual general assembly was cancelled, prompting the pope to send them the message “in order to share what I had in-

Spanish Missionary of Charity Sister Paul supports a patient at the House for the Dying in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Pope Francis told the Pontifical Mission Societies that “For the Church, a preference for the poor is not optional.” (Photo/Paul Jeffrey/CNS) tended to say to you personally”.

Reflecting on the celebration of the feast of the Ascension, Pope Francis said that it was that event, followed by the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost, that defines the Church’s mission, which “is the work of the Holy Spirit and not the consequence of our ideas and projects”.

“This is the feature that makes missionary activity bear fruit and preserves it from the presumption

of self-sufficiency, much less the temptation to commandeer Christ’s flesh, ascended to heaven, for narrowly ‘clerical’ projects and aims,” he said.

Recalling his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), the pope reiterated several “features of mission” that centre on faith as a gift from God and not a result of proselytism.

“If one follows Jesus, happy to be attracted by him, others will take

notice,” he said. “They may even be astonished. The joy that radiates from those attracted by Christ and by his Spirit is what can make any missionary initiative fruitful.”

Pope Francis also encouraged them to maintain gratitude, humility and a focus on facilitating an encounter with Christ, recognising “the real condition of real people, with their own limits, sins and frailties” instead of taking on an attitude “like those frustrated vendors who complain that people are too unsophisticated to be interested in their wares”.

He also warned of situations in the Church today where “the primacy of grace appears to be no more than a theoretical concept or an abstract formulation”.

“Instead of leaving room for the working of the Holy Spirit, many initiatives and entities connected to the Church end up being concerned only with themselves,” the pope said. “Many ecclesiastical establishments, at every level, seem to be swallowed up by the obsession of promoting themselves and their own initiatives, as if that were the objective and goal of their mission.”

Pope Francis also urged the mis-

sion societies to avoid certain “pitfalls” that may threaten their unity in faith, such as self-absorption that can cause Church organisations and agencies to devote “energy and attention primarily to promoting themselves and to advertising their own initiatives”.

The pope also called on the societies to avoid the trap of presuming to “exercise supremacy and control over the very communities they are meant to serve”, as well as falling prey to elitism and striving “to increase their own influence in collusion or in competition with other ecclesiastical elites”.

A sense of superiority derived from elitism, he said, can create intolerance “towards the rest of the baptised, towards the people of God who may attend parishes and visit shrines but are not ‘activists’ busy in Catholic organisations”.

Pope Francis encouraged the Pontifical Mission Societies to let their work be illuminated by the “spark of true love for the Church as a reflection of love for Christ”.

“Move forward with enthusiasm!” the pope said. “There is much to do on the journey that awaits you.”—CNS

Italy: Study shows increase in prayer, religious fervour

BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES

T

HE uncertainty and restrictive measures in place due to the coronavirus pandemic have caused an increase in prayer and religious fervour in Italy, a recent study said.

The study was conducted by the State University of Milan, to “daily monitor public opinion during the Covid-19 emergency” and the impact it “has had on the religiosity of Italians”.

After lockdown restrictions forced churches to close their doors, “the frequency of prayer and participation in religious services increased, although these could be attended only virtually”, the report stated.

The study was based on interviews with 4 600 people across Italy from April 20 to May 15. It showed the highest percentage increase in prayer during the pandemic was among Catholics who did not attend church at least once

a week. Sixteen percent more of those who reported going to Mass at least once a month, but not every week, said they prayed each day during the pandemic.

The study, which asked participants about their behaviour prior to the pandemic, reported an 11% increase in daily prayer among what it described as “nominal Catholics”, those who said they were Catholic but seldom or never went to Mass.

However, it added, “the growth of religious practice was primarily influenced by the most acute phase of the crisis. In fact, the frequency of prayer decreases with the reduction of those infected”.

Those who had a family member infected by the coronavirus “significantly increased their participation in religious services and prayer”, it said.

Participation at Mass—in person before the pandemic and online during it—was only

minimally different for people over the age of 45, the study said.

However, there was an increase of 17% in Mass participation among those under 45.

The study also revealed the sentiments of both practising and non-practising Catholics toward the pope and the Church.

“Trust in Pope Francis,” the report said, “is much higher than trust in the institution of the Church. The gap between trust in Pope Francis and trust in the Church is growing, especially for less religious people.”

Most importantly, the report noticed that political affiliation influenced the opinion of Catholics towards the pope.

Catholic members of Italy’s right-wing parties—the Northern League and Brothers of Italy— “have less trust in Pope Francis, while their trust in the Church is similar to that of other individuals”, the report said.—CNS

The late Jesuit superior-general Fr Adolfo Nicolàs (front centre) with South African Jesuits during his visit to Johannesburg in December 2009.

(Photo: Society of Jesus SA)

Former Jesuit superior Adolfo Nicolàs dies

T

he former superior-general of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, Spanish-born Fr Adolfo Nicolàs, died on May 20 in Tokyo. He was 84.

He was a member of the Jesuit community of Loyola House in Kamishakujii and had been ill for several years, reported ucanews.com.

When Fr Nicolàs visited South Africa in December 2009, he visited Regina Mundi church in Moroka, Soweto, the apostolic nunciature in Pretoria, and the Jesuit Refugee Services.

He also blessed the foundation stone of the library at the new Auckland Park, Johannesburg, premises of the Jesuit Institute.

The Jesuits in South Africa said in a statement that Fr Nicolàs will be remembered with two words: “Universality” and “depth”.

"Everywhere he went visiting Jesuits, he encouraged us with these words. Jesuits were to always keep in mind the ‘universality’ of their vocation and our mission and the spiritual and intellectual ‘depth’ for the sake of our mission,”the statement read.

“Fr Nicolàs gave of himself throughout his life. It was a life marked by intense service, calm availability and a deep ability to inculturate in Japan, where he went as a young Jesuit. It was a culture he loved dearly and to which he committed himself,” said Fr Arturo Sosa, current superior-general.

“His time as general was marked by his sense of humour, his courage,

his humility and his close relationship with Pope Francis. All of us here at the Jesuit general curia mourn him, and a special Mass will be offered here in Rome as soon as we can organise it.”

Fr Sosa said all who worked with Fr Nicolàs in the general curia greatly appreciated his presence.

“He will be greatly mourned throughout the society as a wise, humble and dedicated Jesuit,” the current superior-general said.

Fr Nicolàs had a strong relationship with Pope Benedict and close and warm bonds with his fellow Jesuit Pope Francis.

Fr Nicolàs was born in Palencia, Spain, on April 29, 1936. He entered the Society of Jesus in September 1953 and was ordained a priest on March 17, 1967.

As a scholastic, he was sent to the mission of Japan, where he was a professor of theology, rector of scholastics and provincial, later dedicating himself to social work with immigrants in Tokyo.

For ten years, he lived in the Philippines, serving as director of the East Asia Pastoral Institute (EAPI) and as president of the Conference of Provincials of East Asia and Oceania.

After presenting his resignation as superior-general of the Jesuits, he was a spiritual director at EAPI and in the Arrupe International Residence in Manila.

Fr Nicolàs served as superior-general of the Jesuits from January 2008 to October 2016.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

Pope, Catholic shrines to offer rosary for Mary’s help

BY HANNAH BROCKHAUS

P A man cuts branches of an uprooted tree in Kolkata, India, on May 21, 2020, a day after Cyclone Amphan made landfall in India and Bangladesh. (Photo: Rupak De Chowdhuri, Reuters/CNS)

Catholics help victims of Cyclone Amphan

C

ATHOLIC volunteers provided food and shelter to hundreds of people in coastal eastern India after Cyclone Amphan devastated the region on May 20, killing 80 people and destroying thousands of homes.

The most powerful cyclone to hit eastern India and Bangladesh in more than 20 years tore down homes, carried cars down flooded streets and inundated farmland. Reports said it was the first such cyclone that Kolkata had experienced in about three centuries.

Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state, asked parishes to open their facilities to people left homeless by the storm, feed them, and assist anyone in need.

Although Odisha state frequently witnesses cyclones and the last superstorm hit it in 1999, West Bengal usually has escaped powerful cyclones.

Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, was once India’s capital under British colonial rule.

“It was the worst and most terrifying experience I ever had in my life,” said Fr Franklin Menezes, social work director of the archdiocese of Kolkata.

“I just shut the doors and windows of my residence and kept reciting the rosary as the wind battered the windows with a sound like a roaring lion,” Fr Menezes said.

Sajjad Qarim of Mandarmani village said the mandatory use of masks and social distancing to mitigate Covid-19 have had to be abandoned.

“Over 30 people are now staying in two rooms as several houses were destroyed. The devastation was seri-

ous as many houses are made of mud,” Mr Qarim said.

The storm hit most of Kolkata, uprooting thousands of trees and destroying the city’s green cover, Fr Menezes said.

“Public roads were flooded and even dead bodies were found floating in water as many died of electrocution,” the priest said.

Local officials said nearly 1600 villages were inundated by flooding and wind damage.

“Church people have not been successful in establishing any contact in those areas. Once we establish contact, we will be able to understand their plight,” Fr Menezes added.

Archbishop D’Souza said that the death toll could have been much higher had the state government not evacuated more than 500 000 people to safer places.

“Many churches and other institutions of the Catholic Church suffered damage. However, there is no loss of life from the community,” he said, adding that the “top priority is to arrange food for so many people who have lost everything”.

Several Church facilities in coastal areas are accommodating people and providing them with food and basic requirements.

In Odisha, Amphan caused widespread devastation, with farmers suffering widespread crop and land damage, said Fr Lijo George, social work director in the diocese of Balasore.

“The wind and rain swept away thousands of acres of rice paddy ready for harvest, groundnuts and vegetables,” the priest said. Some villagers also lost livestock.—CNS

OPE Francis will pray the rosary in the Vatican Gardens’ Lourdes grotto on Saturday, as Catholic shrines from around the world join via video streaming.

The intention of the worldwide rosary is for the Blessed Virgin Mary’s help and solace during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a letter sent to shrine rectors by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, the livestreamed prayer will take place at 17:30 South African time on May 30.

Catholic shrines have been asked to participate by holding their own recitation of the rosary, in accordance with local health measures, at the same time as the Rome event and to promote the initiative.

They have also been asked, if possible, to provide satellite or streaming connections with the Vatican’s Television Centre so that video footage of the rosary at the different shrines can be shared during Pope Francis’ livestream.

During the coronavirus emergency, many Catholic shrines have had to close to the public, including the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, which only partially reopened to pilgrims on May 16.

The shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal has also been closed, and the May 13 anniversary of the 1917 Marian apparitions was celebrated without the presence of the public for the first time in its history due to the pandemic.

The rosary with Pope Francis is being organised by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation, which in its letter to

T

T

WENTY-FIVE years ago, Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on ecumenism, Ut unum sint, put the papal seal of approval on a shift in the Catholic Church’s approach to the search for Christian unity.

For the 30 years from the Second Vatican Council to the publication of Pope John Paul’s encyclical on May 25, 1995, official ecumenical dialogues tended to focus on comparing and contrasting Catholic teachings or practices with the teachings or practices of its dialogue partners.

The search for what Christians held in common was a necessary first step in recognising each other

as Christians, called by Jesus to be one.

But in Ut unum sint (Latin for “That they may be one”), Pope John Paul said that dialogue is more than “comparing things”, said Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Dialogue, Pope John Paul said, is “an exchange of gifts”.

In the new approach, which has become known as “receptive ecumenism”, Christians say to each other: “What I have is a gift to you and what you have is a gift to me,” Bishop Farrell said.

Recognising that other Chris-

T

tians have gifts and being willing to accept them as something that could help one’s own community grow in faith takes both individual and collective conversion, the bishop said.

For Catholics, one of the gifts it wants to offer is the ministry of the bishop of Rome—the papacy.

Pope John Paul made headlines around the world when, in Ut unum sint, he invited “Church leaders and their theologians to engage with me in a patient and fraternal dialogue” on how the bishop of Rome could exercise his ministry of unity among all Christians.—CNS

Catholic media vital for news, stories of hope

BY JULIE ASHER

T

HE president of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, urged the world’s bishops as the “chief storyteller” in their diocese to use all media at their disposal to “make known” stories “of faith and hope” and of local Catholic heroes who exemplify Christ’s love to give people courage in difficult times, like this current pandemic.

Catholic media outlets also can provide “basic tools” to the faithful to spot false stories, such as “danger-

ous fake cures”, said Helen Osman, who heads SIGNIS, which is based in Brussels.

Pope Francis’ message for last week’s World Communications Day was: “That you may tell your children and grandchildren” (Ex 10:2): Life becomes history.

The pope “reminds us of the importance of the stories we tell, especially in the midst of the din of media that leaves us feeling dislocated”, Ms Osman said. “The narratives that we live by must reflect the vision of the interconnectedness of

Movement said.

The announcement came as Catholics worldwide were observing Laudato Si’ Week to mark the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis signing his encyclical on the environment and the common good on May 24, 2015.

Daniela Finamore, divestment campaign coordinator with the Global Catholic Climate Movement, said it was important to continue the four-year-old divestment campaign in the face of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

“The faith community,” Ms Finamore said, wanted to share the message that “we need to change the curve on using fossil fuels and not go back to the way things were before the lockdown, that this is the right moment to invest in the right things, in the resilience of our communities”.

The divesting entities include the archdiocese of Semarang, Indonesia; the dioceses of São José dos Campos, Brazil; Arundel and Brighton, England; and Ossory, Ireland.—CNS

Vatican cautions Israel over West Bank annexation plan HE Holy See is concerned about an Israeli plan to unilaterally annex a large portion of land in the West Bank, said a Vatican statement.

“The Holy See is following the situation closely and expresses concern about any future actions that could further compromise dialogue,” said the statement.

The Vatican press office said the statement came after Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister, was contacted by telephone by Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator and secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Mr Erekat, it said, wanted “to inform the Holy See about recent developments

rectors paraphrased the Acts of the Apostles 1:14: “All joined together constantly in prayer, along with Mary.”

“In light of the emergency situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic that has caused the stoppage of the normal activity of all shrines and the interruption of all pilgrimages, Pope Francis wishes to express a gesture of closeness to each of you with the recitation of the Holy Rosary,” Archbishop Fisichella wrote.

The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation has been responsible for Catholic shrines since 2017.

Globally, there have been more than 5,4 million confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, with more than 340 000 recorded deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.—CNS

25 years of searching for Christian unity

24 Catholic entities divest from fossil fuels HE Justice & Peace Commission of the Bangladeshi bishops’ conference as well as dioceses in Brazil, Indonesia and Ireland are among the latest institutions announcing their intent to divest from fossil fuel companies.

The entities are among 24 Catholic and 18 other faith institutions in 14 countries that have decided to divest or to avoid investments in oil, coal, natural gas and other carbon-based energy sources, the Global Catholic Climate

5

in the Palestinian territories and of the possibility of Israeli applying its sovereignty unilaterally to part of those territories, further jeopardising the peace process”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz reached an agreement to form a coalition government, and Netanyahu was sworn in again as prime minister on May 17.

He had promised to bring a proposal to the full government as early as July 1 to annex the land on which some 130 Jewish settlements are built in the West Bank, settlements the UN Security Council has declared a “flagrant violation” of

international law.

The Vatican statement said: “The Holy See reiterates that respect for international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions is an indispensable element for the two peoples to live side by side in two states, within the borders internationally recognised before 1967.”

The Vatican also expressed “its hope that Israelis and Palestinians will be soon able to find once again the possibility for directly negotiating an agreement, with the help of the international community, so that peace may finally reign in the Holy Land, so beloved by Jews and Christians and Muslims”.—CNS

all human life.”

“Faced with a pandemic, we are called to create a narrative that can change lives and history itself,” Ms Osman continued. “With our fellow Catholics and all people of goodwill, we can weave a story worth telling those who come after us, one that will stir their hearts and give them courage when they inevitably face their most difficult times.”

She added: “Our Catholic tradition is an ongoing story that must be renewed with each generation.” — CNS

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6

The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

The

LEADER PAGE

S outher n C ross Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Stop the lies

T

HE Eighth Commandment admonishes us not to bear false witness—but the sin of lying is becoming ever-more easy to commit as our access to means of communication increases.

When we spread false information on social media, blogs or email, we make ourselves complicit in the act of bearing false witness, knowingly or unknowingly.

Of course, fake news is not a new phenomenon. Disinformation and propaganda are age-old strategies in the games for power and influence. Often they fuel wars and violence, as the histories of places like Nazi Germany, Rwanda or Cambodia teach.

But in the past, fake news was the domain of political leaders, writers and news media. Today, anybody with Internet access can produce disinformation—in order to manipulate public sentiment, to “satirise” current affairs, to demean others, to spin conspiracy theories, or just to accumulate clicks—and circulate it under a banner of implied credibility. And their mischief is then distributed by other users of the Internet.

Combined with an increasing distrust of traditional media, especially in the West, the spread of fake news is creating uncertainty among many people who then abandon discernment and believe only what they want to believe— usually to confirm their own preconceptions and prejudices.

In his message for World Communication Day, observed last Sunday, Pope Francis noted: “Often on communication platforms, instead of constructive stories which serve to strengthen social ties and the cultural fabric, we find destructive and provocative stories that wear down and break the fragile threads binding us together as a society.

“By patching together bits of unverified information, repeating banal and deceptively persuasive arguments, sending strident and hateful messages, we do not help to weave human history, but instead strip others of their dignity.”

The effect of spreading fake news, which is becoming increasingly sophisticated, is almost always injurious. The purpose usually is to fan the flames of fear and prejudice, provoke anger, or to feed wild conspiracy theories—of which there is no short supply in these con-

fusing times of the Covid-19 pandemic.

People of faith who are guided by the Commandments, and all people of goodwill, must reject fake news. Those who help to spread untrue content make themselves complicit in the lie, whether they share the falsehood deliberately or unknowingly. Ignorance simply is no defence.

When we see people share evident untruths, we Christians have a moral obligation to make them aware of their complicity in lies. We must do so not in a spirit of reprimand but as an act of charity, to keep such people from committing the sin of breaking the Eighth Commandment.

It is incumbent on all of us who consume social media and news to become savvy about what we read.

There are techniques of media literacy which all consumers of media and users of the Internet should master.

Firstly, be incredulous. If a report makes a big claim, be suspicious and research if credible news sites have covered that news in a slightly different way.

If no credible news source reports that Bill Gates has advocated genocide, or the pope has praised the devil, or cancer has been cured, then it’s probably fake.

Check if the article is from a “satire” or fake news site dressed up as a news organ. Does it provide reliable sources? Is the writing style professional?

If in doubt, use myth-busting sites such as Snopes.com to confirm whether a story has already been flagged as fake, or confirmed as true.

Secondly, be discerning. If a headline rouses you to anger or fear, calm down and employ the steps above. If the story is true, there’s still time to get angry or fearful.

Beware of alarming capital letters in headlines to articles and YouTube videos. If the assertion in the article or video is supported by the claim that it is the mindblowing truth the mainstream media doesn’t want you to know, then it is almost certainly a fabrication or conspiracy theory.

Let us pray for the facility of discernment in the face of information overload, so that we may not be tempted by the cynical to become party to the sin of lying.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Govt-aided self-help schemes will ease poverty U NEMPLOYMENT in a falling economy equals hungry masses, rioting and looting.

The solution is Christian (kibbutz-like) farming.

1. Communal/self-help farming of specified areas.

2. Communal kitchen, basic foods, tools and seed made available.

SC needs to reach all Catholics

I

UNDERSTAND the difficult situation in which The Southern Cross and its staff find themselves at this Covid-19 moment. It would be very sad if this paper had to close.

But clearly the newspaper is not reaching most of the 3,8 million Catholics in South Africa.

I respect in principle the editorial independence. In a recent article in the Catholic Herald, Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher pointed out that his idea of a Catholic newspaper is that it must be “at the service of evangelisation, to proclaim the Gospel in the context of our lives and our faith today”.

He notes that this can take different forms, such as reflecting the debate and scope of opinion within the Church. I support him wholeheartedly in this endeavour.

Every time The Southern Cross is struggling, we hear about the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s 51% stake in the newspaper in founders’ shares. If that’s the case, why can’t the bishops be part of mapping out the future of The Southern Cross?

The crux of the issue, as I understand it, is not the support for The Southern Cross (or lack thereof), but how the paper fails to be the voice of all South African Catholics.

It seems to me that the question which arises is the ecclesiology of The Southern Cross.

Is it an “oppositionist” ecclesiology? Such an ecclesiology will not assist the paper in becoming the voice of all Catholics in South Africa, especially those without a voice, the majority of whom it does not engage.

As a way forward I propose an overhaul of The Southern Cross.

1. Work on a strategic plan with the entire community, that is, readers, advertisers, contributors, regular letter writers, and so on.

2. Take a serious look at the readership, reach out to new areas.

3. Do an honest reflection and discernment on what more The Southern Cross can offer the Church in the New South Africa where we have set ourselves the vision of be-

Church Chuckles THE BIG BOOK OF CATHOLIC JOKES

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.

Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate.

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

Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

coming an “Evangelising Community Serving God, Humanity and All Creation”.

This overhaul is best facilitated by an outside facilitator with an objective view.

The Southern Cross can become a medium of bringing all South African Catholics together, which is what our leaders, the bishops, have set themselves to do.

Fr Willem Basson, Kamiesberg, Northern Cape

in each town, as poverty is everywhere. Water and sanitation per tanker.

6. Each parish could start a pilot scheme on Church property for its destitute members; feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless.

M Joaq, Cape Town

world, including ourselves, which have legalised the killing of unborn babies by abortion have in fact aligned themselves with these forces, and have thereby prejudiced the Divine aid they would have received, had they not taken this action.

Nevertheless, because of his infinite mercy, Almighty God will accept back,a nd bless and assist, any nation which repents of this action and attempts to reverse it.

Mr President, in conclusion, I respectfully ask you to reflect on what I have stated herein, and I pray that Almighty God may bless you and guide you to take whatever action is necessary to see our nation through this crisis.

With kind regards and best wishes.”

Damian McLeish, Johannesburg

Napier view on saddens Nation’s abortion WAACSA AVING followed the conversation on your letters page belaws offend God H tween Cardinal Wilfrid Napier and

T

HIS is a copy of an open letter I have sent to the president.

“His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa Dear Mr President I am a retired Catholic attorney aged 79, and am respectfully writing to yourself for the following reasons.

First, to thank and congratulate you on the measures you have instituted against the coronavirus which is threatening the world and our nation.

Second, to inform you of my following convictions, with which you, as a Christian, may sympathise, even if your party does not support them.

I have a duty imposed on me by Almighty God, to do this.

Our nation is crucially dependent on the goodwill and assistance of Almighty God to enable us to survive this crisis.

However, our Creator, although infinitely merciful, is also infinitely good and just, and thus incapable of cooperating or aligning himself in any way with the world’s forces of evil.

Sadly, those nations of the

We Are All Church SA (WAACSA), it occurred to me to wonder whether the cardinal’s episcopal motto Pax et bonum (“Peace and goodwill”) is still applicable.

My association with His Eminence reminds me of our humble beginnings in East Griqualand, as he was born two years after me in Swartberg, very near to my birthplace of Kokstad.

When he was appointed bishop of Kokstad in 1980, my wife Lynn was largely responsible for the floral decorations which graced this event.

So we have both come a long way since then—and we have admired his progress.

However, as a founder-member of WAACSA, I must now admit that I am bitterly disappointed in his unforgiving and militant attitude which does his apostolic motto no credit.

It would seem his clericalism is diametrically opposed to our beloved Pope Francis’ wishes for our Church.

Geoff Harris, Rooiels, Western Cape

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The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

PERSPECTIVES

7

New chapter in my great book of life Nthabiseng W Maphisa ELL, here we are. We find ourselves sitting on the benches in an arena as spectators to a fight between world leaders and this most unwelcome virus.

Caught in the crossfire are healthcare workers and supermarket staff who are working hard to serve us.

In this time I have oscillated between sanity and insanity, boredom and amusement, happiness and deep sorrow.

I have laughed and I have lamented. I have blessed and I have cursed. I have celebrated the sanctity of life and I have grumbled at the futility of it. I have been hopeful and pessimistic, excited and cynical, afraid and brave.

As we watch the world scramble to bring order to where there is none, a new chapter is being written for the Church, for the world—and for me.

The Church is no stranger to crisis. In its history it has continued its mission in spite of plagues and wars.

But for many of us, especially us millennials, having faith in a time of uncertainty is proving to be a real test or purification as some would see it.

On Easter Sunday, we proclaim that Christ is risen and that Christ will return.

And sure enough, in the presence of the Eucharist and with the intercession of the saints, one confidently proclaims it.

But now, not only must we grow in greater faith in the Resurrection, but also more creative effort must be put into sharing this message with others.

Despite my many doubts, I am certain that God has allowed this time for the seekers to seek, for the inquirer to question, and for the believer to overcome his unbelief.

The world, too, must write a new chap-

ter for itself. It must write a story of dreams once crushed and now possible, of famine leading to feasting, and of idleness to labour.

Never has there been a greater opportunity for each nation to reimagine its economy, and in so doing to strive to bring prosperity to its citizens.

New chapters in employment?

Having lost my job at the end of March, I understand the plight of people around the world who are desperate to return to work and earn a living again.

There is something so frustrating about being unemployed. It brings about moments of self-doubt and incessant questioning of self-worth, and myriad other insecurities.

As employers transition to a digital workspace, it is my hope that all those who have great potential may be able to realise it in this new chapter.

I’m certain that no one can go through this and remain unchanged. I have changed—whether for the better or

The Covid-19 pandemic is writing a new chapter in all our books of life.

Let Holy Spirit teach us H APPY Pentecost! That is my wish and prayer for families as we explore how we have managed our spirituality during these months of lockdown.

My hope and dream at the start of the lockdown was that many families would try something new, take on board the SeeJudge-Act method of faith-sharing on the current realities they face, enlightened by Scripture and a passage from Church teaching.

A simplified, basic outline of the SeeJudge-Act method of faith consists of a number of steps.

Step 1: SEE. Look at Life, a situation taken from experience or a news item and ask: “What is going on here?”

Step 2. JUDGE. Consider the situation more deeply. Ask: “What would God say about it, and why?” Seek information from Scripture and Church teaching that is relevant.

3. ACT. Consider if some action is required, decode and conclude with a moment of prayer about the situation or other needs.

Parish leaders, priests, catechists, family ministers, Justice & Peace teams and teachers could be encouraging this type of spiritual approach well suited to family life.

That approach is the basis of MARFAM’s “Daily Thoughts” which I labour over every month, with themes such as this year’s environmental focus on “Our World, A Family of Families”.

I’ve recently become aware how many references to creation there are in the Old Testament, and also in hymns that we sing without taking particular note of the words.

One of my favourite hymns, Archbishop Denis Hurley’s “God our Maker, Mighty Father, All Creation Sings Your Praise” (can be sung to the tune of

The Holy Spirit is depicted as a dove in alabaster glass in St Peter’s basilica in the Vatican.

Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”), in the second verse includes the line: “Man and woman, you created that united heart and home they might work and strive together till your endless kingdom comes.”

The third verse is about Jesus: “Firstborn of your new creation holding all in unity… leading all in power and glory to a glorious destiny.”

Isn’t that beautiful catechesis? I suggest googling and reflecting on it.

Pentecost and relationships A family activity titled “Celebrating Pentecost” (get it at www.marfam.org.za) suggests that families could reflect on these qualities of wisdom, understanding, and so on.

We may consider what we see in other family members, and what quality we each would like to request from the Spirit, in order to be better missionary disciples.

Maintaining positive family relationships across the age groups and dealing with conflict and other serious issues are important while we are still quite confined

Pop Culture Catholic

worse, time will reveal.

Though, I am embarrassed to admit, I have developed an increased fondness for the fridge and its contents. This has made some of my clothes rather unfriendly and judgmental.

In more positive news, I have begun the ascent to the summit of a spiritual mountain. Up until the current chaos unfolded upon all our lives, I had felt in many ways that I was on a spiritual plateau.

Seeing my need for humility, the Lord has brought to my attention the steep and rock-filled climb that lies ahead of me. It is an ascent that is bound to last a lifetime.

In the midst of praying and not praying, of eating and overeating, I have also wondered what the world of dating will look like.

I once cringed at the thought of dating apps, but now I see that there are fewer alternatives. How will I meet new people in the future? How will couples interact in public?

One can only imagine the new means of courtship that will emerge from the pandemic: Future Man: “I dare say, that is a very groovy bottle of hand sanitiser you have there.”

Future Woman: “Oh thank you, it came with this groovy mask.”

How very romantic indeed.

To one another, may we give love, and wait for guidance from above.

Toni Rowland

Family Friendly

to our homes.

Coming back to the Holy Spirit’s teaching role: thoughts of sickness, life and death, screening and testing have occupied our minds almost to the exclusion of anything else lately.

Only a few months ago climate change and global warming featured much more.

The main reason this has stayed in the picture is the good news about the positive aspects of the lockdown. Air pollution has been cut and waterways are cleaner. We hope that the subject will not disappear, as there is so much to learn about God’s intentions.

It is five years since Pope Francis published his encyclical Laudato Si’, on care of our common home. It seems to me that its very valuable messages about the unhealthy state of our environment and our human responsibility for causing this has not yet become a major part of our catechesis for all ages as it should have been.

Maybe, having seen some positive changes, this is the time to focus on how to sustain them.

In creation at all levels, in all life forms, relationships exist—with us humans, and also with plants and animals.

There is much that the Holy Spirit can teach us, as families, for the good and sustainability of society and the Church, God’s family.

And let us be grateful to the Spirit who will bring to mind many things that Jesus has told each of us as we have journeyed through a rather foreign environment, alone or together, these past months. n www.marfam.org.za/shop is now open for downloadable and resource materials.

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Pray with the Pope

Proclaim the love of the Lord Intention: We pray that all those who suffer may find their way in life, allowing themselves to be touched by the heart of Jesus.

HEN I was young and thought I could save the world, I received a memorable dose of reality by working with some profoundly mentally and physically challenged patients in a hospital run by the St John of God Brothers in Yorkshire, England.

Many of the patients were severely damaged in their physical and mental capacities, and there appeared no prospect of repairing the damage, no complete healing ever.

Here I came face to face with the stark mystery of suffering. There are no glib or easy answers when one is confronted by these most distressing manifestations of the human condition—permanent physical and mental illness.

Another placement that I did in my religious formation was to work at a hospice for the dying, one of the first of its kind, run by the legendary pioneer of the hospice movement, Cecily Saunders.

Again, my youthful utopianism took a severe beating when I had to confront the ultimate and terrible mystery of death. This, despite the incredibly inspiring atmosphere of Christian hope and palpable joy that Saunders fostered in this most impressive institution.

Bishop Robert Barron makes the point in one of his YouTube presentations that given the reality of original sin and its results, what humankind needs is not so much a teacher but rather a saviour. I couldn’t articulate it like that back then, but I think that is what I dimly understood.

Teachers and reformers are valuable, especially great religious teachers, (and Jesus was certainly the greatest of them)—but all the teaching in the world, all the greatest ideas, cannot ultimately free us from the fundamental brokenness of the human condition. We need the Jesus who does what his name means: Saviour. We need him to save us from our own sin, the sin of the world, and from death.

And if we pay attention in the Christian community, we can catch glimpses of how Jesus actually does this in the lives of those who find and follow him, among those who allow themselves to be touched by his heart.

W

W

e quite often meet people who by every human standard should be in despair, so severely do they suffer, and yet they are radiant with hope, and they somehow find the presence of Christ very powerfully in their daily struggles.

The most astonishing example of this for me while I was at the hospice was when I witnessed a woman of deep faith coming to the end of her life, comforting her distraught family.

They had come to support her in her final illness but they were falling apart and she reversed the roles, becoming the comforter herself with the strength and assurance of someone deeply rooted in the love of God. There are other, perhaps less dramatic examples. “Jesus calms your nerves,” a young man who was suffering from mental illness once told me.

Barring a miracle, he was never going to be healed in any recognisable medical way, and yet this profound sense that in prayer to Jesus he could find some calm and some peace was, I thought, a foretaste here and now of that freedom that he would ultimately find when he would be made whole in the liberating love of the Lord’s heart in the life to come.

We Christian believers are called to mediate the love of the Lord’s heart to believers and non-believers alike. Perhaps this time of pandemic can serve as a reminder of this.

Despite the fact that we cannot go and proclaim the love of Christ out on the streets, we have the means to touch others through the warmth of the human voice, electronically relayed of course.

There is probably someone we know, someone feeling isolated, who would welcome our voice and our listening ear, and who would thereby be touched by the heart of Christ through our ministry.

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Extra for Subscribers: The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

SHRINES

The world’s Top 50 Marian shrines GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER is counting down the world’s Top 50 Marian shrines. This week, we visit places 36-23

The devotion was quickly approved, and construction of the shrine began in 1872. It was consecrated in 1900, and today attracts about 200 000 pilgrims a year, many of them from Germany.

32. Ephesus, Turkey

T

HIS countdown of 50 shrines around the world dedicated to Our Lady (expanded from our previous series of 40 and featuring a new #1) started last week with numbers 50 to 37.

These took us to countries as diverse as Algeria, China, France, Lebanon, Canada, Poland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Vietnam, the Holy Land, Belgium, Syria, Malta, and the Philippines (if you missed last week’s issue, you can find it in the archives to which all subscribers have access).

Whatever views one might have of some or all Marian shrines, even when the source of the devotion may seem implausible, all of these places are sanctified by the sincere prayers of the faithful.

These 50 descriptions of Marian shrines offer just thumbnails of the various sites. Some shrines deserve to be investigated further. If one shrine or the other grabs your attention, why not read up on them, on the Internet or in the library?

Church of Our Lady of Tinos (Photo: Hans-Peter Schäfer/Wikipedia) intact was his carved Mary, floating on a lake. The locals soon began venerating the statue as Our Lady of Miracles.

It eventually found a permanent home in the city of Caacupé, where it is now kept in a church built in 1980.

Pope Francis celebrated Mass at the shrine in 2015 and declared the church a minor basilica.

34. Tinos, Greece

Our Lady of Almudena (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

As Fatima or Lourdes are to Catholics, so is Our Lady of Tinos to Greek Orthodox, whose devotion to Our Lady is no less than ours.

Located in Tinos, on the Greek island of the same name, the Marian sanctuary is a complex focused on a miraculous icon of Our Lady.

The icon was found buried in the ground after the Virgin, in an apparition, directed the nun Pelagia to it in 1822. It was the day after the founding of the modern state of Greece. Our Lady of Tinos is therefore the country’s patron.

Like several other icons we encounter in this series, legend attributed the icon to St Luke himself. Referred to as the Megalóchari (“Great Grace”), the icon is believed to have led to many miracles.

The shrine church is dedicated to the Annunciation, but its principal feast is the Assumption.

36. Our Lady of Almudena, Madrid There are several statues of the Virgin Mary that had been hidden away during the Muslim conquest of Iberia in the 8th century and recovered after the reconquest in the 11th century.

The people of Madrid, then a small town near the powerful city of Toledo, remembered that their ancestors had stowed away a statue in the city walls, but they didn’t know where. After prayer to the Virgin, they were guided to the right spot.

Interestingly, in naming the statue Our Lady of Almudena, they used the Arabic term for the word “citadel”.

According to pious tradition, this is another image of Mary painted by the evangelist St Luke, coming to Spain via the apostle James.

The statue was venerated for centuries at an Augustinian church and then in Blessed Sacrament church. It is now in the new Almudena cathedral, which was inaugurated only in 1992—more than 400 years after the idea of a cathedral for the Almudena first being raised.

Our Lady of Almudena is Madrid’s patron, and her feast day, November 9, is a holiday in the city.

Mary’s House in Ephesus, near modern-day Izmir in Turkey, is a popular Marian pilgrimage site—the problem is that there is no evidence that Mary ever was there.

The idea that Mary lived in Ephesus is based on the tradition that John, the beloved disciple to whom Jesus entrusted the care of his mother, moved to the city some time after the crucifixion.

There is no evidence that he did so before Mary fell into her eternal sleep—and we know from ancient records that this happened in Jerusalem (indeed, the text from which we know that is one of the foundations of the dogma of the Assumption).

We also don’t know when John moved to Ephesus.

Since his Gospel was possibly written in the city in the 90s AD, he might have come there late in life.

While there were tenuous notions as well as a local tradition of Mary’s presence in Ephesus, it was the 19th-century visions of the German nun Anne Catherine Emmerich which led to the identification of the “House of the Virgin”, which is now a hole in the ground.

The Catholic Church has not recognised Mary’s House as authentic, but three popes have visited the site: Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, and Benedict XVI in 2006.

Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillars (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

31. Zaragoza, Spain

Church of Our Lady of Pontmain (Photo: Thomas Baguette)

33. Our Lady of Pontmain, France In the evening of January 17, 1871, Prussian troops were advancing on the north-western French village of Pontmain when 12-year-old Eugène Barbedette saw a beautiful woman in the sky. The woman was wearing a blue gown which was studded with stars, and a black veil under a golden crown.

Three other children, including Eugène’s younger brother Joseph, also saw the image, but adults could at best see only a triangle of stars.

After three hours, the apparition disappeared. That same evening, Prussian forces inexplicably changed their plan to take Pontmain.

Eugène and Joseph later became priests, one of the other children a nun.

Our Lady of the Pillars is by far the earliest recorded apparition of Our Lady, possibly taking place even during her lifetime.

The apostle James the Greater had travelled to Spain to evangelise the pagan territory—and made very little progress. Then, on the second day of the year 40 AD, as he and his companions stood on the banks of the Ebro River, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him upon a pillar of jasper and instructed him to use it to build a church at that spot.

He did as he was told, and soon the Good News spread throughout Iberia.

Where St James built that first church now stands an imposing basilica dedicated to Our Lady of the Pillars, whom St John Paul II described as the “Mother of the Hispanic peoples”.

The reputed column is still venerated in the 17th century church. It is topped by a 15th-century statue of Mary, whose vestments are changed every day. Pilgrims can touch a small section of the pillar through the back of the chapel in which it is kept.

Basilica of Our Lady of Miracles in Caacupé (Photo: Santi Carneri/CNS)

35. Caacupé, Paraguay The story of devotion to Our Lady at Paraguay’s national shrine goes back to the time of South America’s evangelisation in the 1500s, when some tribes converted and others were violently opposed to Christianity.

One day, a convert named José went into a forest to find wood from which to carve a Marian statue for a chapel. Suddenly he was surrounded by hostile tribesmen.

José managed to hide in a hollow tree and prayed to Our Lady, who then appeared to him in a pillar of light. José was saved and in gratitude he carved two statues of Our Lady, one for the chapel and one for his home.

Some time later, in 1603, a flood wiped out everything in the area, including José’s old house. All that survived

Our Lady of the Golden Heart in Beauraing (Photo: Beauraing Shrine)

30. Beauraing, Belgium

Chapel at the House of the Virgin in Ephesus (Photo: Martin H Fryc)

Five children reported a total of 33 apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the Belgian village of Beauraing between November 1932 and January 1933 (just before the apparitions at Banneux, which we visited last week), mostly in the garden of the local convent school.

In this apparition, Our Lady was very kindly. She wore a heart of gold on her breast, earning her the title “Virgin of the Golden Heart”. After the visions, the children went

SHRINES on to live normal lives. The last surviving visionary, Gilberte Degeimbre, died at 91 in 2015.

The local bishop forbade any veneration of the apparitions until investigations cleared the way for them in 1943. The apparitions were formally approved in 1949, by which time two miracles had been reported at the site.

Ten pilgrim routes, ranging in length from 100m to 11km, have been designed to lead to the sanctuary of Beauraing.

Extra for Subscribers: The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

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27. Einsiedeln, Switzerland Einsiedeln has been Switzerland’s most important Marian shrine for a thousand years.

A chapel enclosed in the Benedictine abbey church houses a 15th-century statue of a “Black Madonna” which replaced an icon that had been destroyed in a fire.

The icon had darkened from centuries of soot from candle smoke. In 1803 a well-meaning artist restored the statue, removing the layers of soot and rendering Mary with a light skin. The faithful were so forceful in their objection that she was promptly painted black.

The town, which is also a popular winter sports destination, was a famous stop on the Way of St James coming from central Europe, and at one point rivalled even Rome for popularity.

Walsingham’s Catholic Shrine (Photo: Lawrence OP/Flickr) stroyed during the anti-Catholic suppression of Thomas Cromwell in 1538. The statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was burnt at Chelsea in London.

Today there are two shrines of Our Lady of Walsingham: one Catholic and the other Anglican. The Catholic shrine was re-established in 1897, with the chapel built in 1934 on the site of the “Slipper Chapel”, which stood a mile outside the original shrine. It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Annunciation.

The Anglican shrine was built in 1938. Relations between the custodians of the two shrines are now very good.

The cathedral of la Salette (Photo from www.saletini.cz)

29. La Salette, France When the weeping Virgin appeared to two peasant youths in the French village of La Salette, in south-eastern France, in September 1846, she foretold terrible punishment involving a shortage of potatoes. The following winter, there was a famine which hit France and Ireland particularly hard.

The apparition to the children, Maximin Giraud and Mélanie Calvat, was quickly taken seriously. By 1849, three miraculous cures had been reported.

Within five years of the vision, after a thorough examination, the local bishop authorised veneration of Our Lady of La Salette.

Mélanie went on to become a nun who was the source of some controversy; she died in 1904 at the age of 75.

Maxim lived a quiet life and died in 1875 at 39.

Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey (Photo: Anton Ignatenko)

26. Santa Maria de Montserrat, Spain The Benedictine abbey of Monistrol de Montserrat is built on the Montserrat mountain in Catalonia, Spain.

Founded in the 11th century, the current structure dates to the 19th and 20th centuries. Its centrepiece is the 95cm-high statue of the Virgin of Montserrat, a Black Madonna.

The provenance of the Byzantine-style figure is unknown; it is believed it was hidden from the invading Saracens in the mountain in the 8th century. Legend has it that when the Benedictines wanted to build their monastery there, the statue wouldn’t move and they had to build around it.

Devotion to the Virgin of Montserrat has a very long tradition. Among those who came to venerate it was St Ignatius of Loyola, who laid down his arms before her in 1522 and then entered a period of discernment that led to the foundation of the Jesuits.

More recently, the abbey of Montserrat gave refuge to opponents of the fascist Franco regime. For many, it is a symbol of Catalan nationalism.

Chapel of Our Lady of Ngome in KwaZulu-Natal (Photo: Catholicportal/Flickr)

28. Our Lady of Ngome, South Africa The youngest shrine in this series, Ngome will certainly grow in popularity. Located in rural KwaZulu-Natal in the diocese of Eshowe, Ngome is the site that marks ten apparitions by Our Lady to Benedictine Sister Reinolda May between 1955 and 1971.

The German missionary was a very popular midwife at the Benedictine Mission Hospital in Nongoma—many thousands of newborns went through her hands.

Eight of her apparitions took place in the 1950s; during one of them, Our Lady pointed at the site of Ngome, requesting that a shrine be built there. After 12 years, the Virgin appeared for two more apparitions as Mary, the Tabernacle of the Most High.

First signs of devotion were evident already in 1966, but while the local bishop allowed a small church to be built there, he limited the devotion. But it grew rapidly after Sr Reinolda’s death at 79 in 1981. In 1992 Bishop Emmanuel Mansuet Biyase, who was initially reluctant, allowed the construction of a new church and encouraged pilgrimages to Ngome, where miraculous healings from the water there have been reported.

Sr Reinolda is buried at the nearby Benedictine Inkamana Abbey; her sainthood cause has been opened.

Kevelaer’s Mercy chapel and basilica (Photo: Thomas Schoch)

Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos (Photo: Alejandro Linares Garcia/Wikipedia)

23. Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico A miraculous resurrection of an aerial acrobat is the source of the shrine of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos (or St John of the Lakes) in central Mexico.

In 1623 a family of travelling acrobats came to the town, performing trapeze-type stunts, with swords and knives stacked on the ground for extra jeopardy.

During practice the youngest daughter fell and was killed. As the parents mourned over the dead child, the old wife of the local church’s caretaker placed a disused wooden statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception next to the lifeless body—which then miraculously revived.

News of the miracle spread and veneration grew, among Indians, Mestizos and Spanish. In 1732 a new church was built to hold the 50cm-high statue, which had been made in the early 1500s by Purépecha Indians using an indigenous technique.

Now, every year a million people come from all over Mexico at the end of January and early February for the festival of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos.

25. Kevelaer, Germany Germany’s second-biggest Marian shrine, in Kevelaer near Düsseldorf, attracts around 800 000 pilgrims a year. The devotion goes back to the devastating Thirty Years’ War. In 1641, a Catholic named Hendrick Busman decided to build a small wayfarer’s shrine in the village when he heard a voice from above: it was the Mother of God, instructing him three times to build a small chapel there.

At the same time, his wife had visions of a chapel, with an image of Our Lady in front of it. This persuaded Busman to build the chapel.

And when Busman saw soldiers from Luxembourg carrying an image of Our Lady of Graces, just as his wife had dreamt it, he bought it from them and installed it in the church (a copy of it is in the shrine of the same name in KwaZulu-Natal).

Many miracles have been reported in Kevelaer since, and the shrine is popular especially with pilgrims from the Rhineland and the Netherlands. Every year, a motorcycle pilgrimage draws several thousand leather-clad and helmeted faithful.

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24. Walsingham, England

Einsiedeln Abbey (Photo: Arnd Wiegmann, Reuters/CNS)

In 1061, the Virgin Mary appeared in the village of Walsingham in Norfolk to a pious English noblewoman named Richeldis de Faverches, in whose ecstatic visions Mary transported her to Nazareth to show how the Holy Family had lived.

Lady Richeldis erected a structure which she named “The Holy House”, which was then expanded to become a priory and England’s most important site of pilgrimage, enjoying the patronage of many kings. It held the original carved statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, which Lady Richeldis had obtained from Oberammergau in Germany.

The priory was suppressed and its riches looted or de-

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The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

REFLECTION

Why Pentecost was a shattering event Without the Holy Spirit, there’d be no Church, no Mass, no sacraments, writes FR RALPH DE HAHN in his reflection on the feast of Pentecost.

W

HEN we read the Acts of the Apostles presented by St Luke the evangelist— friend of Paul, a doctor and convert from paganism—we are highly impressed by his account of that “powerful wind from heaven” and the “tongues of fire”, followed by the amazing understanding of all present speaking foreign languages.

It is that shattering experience of Christ’s disciples, 50 days after the Resurrection of the Lord, which we refer to as Pentecost.

In this particular work, Luke is not repeating whatever has already been reported on the life and teachings of the Master. In the Acts, he presents that unique spiritual energy inside this new Body of believers that motivates its extraordinary and rapid expansion, within and even beyond the powerful Roman Empire.

Before his departure from the earth, Jesus had promised his disciples: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you, and then you will be my witnesses” (Acts1:8).

And when the disbelieving crowds mocked the disciples as “drinking too much new wine”, Peter stood up and declared: “This is what the prophet Joel spoke of— I will pour out my spirit on all mankind…I will display portents in heaven above and signs on earth below…and what you now see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit” (referring to Joel 3:1-5).

Luke tells us that on that very day, 3 000 were baptised and received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1434).

An incomprehensible power This is that awesome power that brought the world to be: the creation of all that is, and the new creation when the Father willed his Son, Jesus, to be born in the flesh in the great miracle of the Incarnation.

Pentecost is that renewal of incredible dimensions; a manifestation of a power beyond our comprehension.

But let us not be led to believe that the Holy Spirit made his debut on this Pentecost day in Jerusalem.

For even at the very dawn of creation, “God’s spirit hovered over the waters” (Gen 1:2). So, the Holy Spirit appears as early as the second verse of the Bible!

Already the Holy Spirit was active and the psalm expresses it so beautifully: “By a word from Yahweh the heavens were made…by the breath of his mouth” (33:6).

In the scriptures, the Holy Spirit

St Peter’s raising of Thabitha is depicted in Duc in Altum church in Migdal, at the Sea of Galilee. The episode in Acts 9:32-42 was one sign of the extraordinary powers exercised by the disciples, who were casting out demons, healing the sick, and even raising the dead to life!

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The Holy Spirit appears to the disciples on the first Pentecost. But we would be misled to think that this was the Spirit’s first appearance. As Fr Ralph de Hahn shows, the Old Testament is full of references to the Spirit, right back to the second verse of the Bible. is displayed in a variety of biblical episodes—as a dove, as fire, as a powerful wind, or a gentle breeze, as living water, and also as breath!

Yes, the power of God’s spirit was very active throughout the history of his chosen people, and boldly declared by the prophets. “Listen to the words Yahweh has sent by his spirit through the prophets in the past” (Zech 7:12).

We have the cry of Ezekiel again and again. “The spirit of the Lord has entered me, made me stand up and spoke to me” (3:24), and “the Spirit came and lifted me up” (11:24). How often do we hear the cry: “It is the Lord who speaks!”

The prophet Micah professes that he is “full of strength because of the Spirit of Yahweh” (3:8). Nehemiah is angry with his people: “You gave them your spirit to make them wise...you admonished them by your spirit, through your prophets, but they would not listen” (9:20,30).

The first book of Samuel records the anointing of King Saul: “The Spirit of Yahweh will seize on you, you will go into ecstasy, and you will be another man” (10:6).

We also recall the story of Samuel, taking the horn of oils and anointing David: “...and the spirit of the Lord seized on David, and stayed with him” (1 Sam 16:13).

Then David himself declares: “The spirit of the Lord speaks through me…His words on my tongue” (2 Sam 23:2).

In the book of Judges, when Yahweh’s anger flamed out against the Israelites for worshipping false gods,

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Jesus proves the Spirit The life of Jesus, as recorded by the evangelists, gives undeniable proof of the Spirit working through him, as does the Acts of the Apostles: “The many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone” (2:43).

The unbelieving Israelites questioned the extraordinary powers exercised by the disciples, who were casting out demons, healing the sick, and even raising the dead to life!

The courage and fortitude in the disciples’ orations and deeds spoke of that “power from on high”. Both Peter and Paul bore witness to this God-given power, and so did all the early Christian martyrs.

We will never fully comprehend the shattering event of that Pentecost; yet we can, in some measure, judge it by the fruits produced over the centuries.

Enough to mention the creation of the heavens and the earth out of nothing, absolutely nothing! How the inspired Jewish prophets guided the life of God’s chosen people through victory and crushing defeats! How the image of the un-

blemished Lamb becomes the centre of our salvation history. The unbelievable message to a young virgin that God is coming to earth in the flesh, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, Mary, and the power of the most high will overshadow you… and the child will be called the son of God” (Lk 1:35).

Then back to that amazing, awesome power revealed in the episode of Pentecost in the face of fear, cowardice and betrayals. That astonishing transformation of simple human and fragile humanity.

It is easy to lose sight of the Spirit’s power operating in the sufferings of Christ and in his last agonising hours as foretold by the prophet Isaiah. And then that Easter morning when the Spirit of Life conquered the darkness of sin.

And he breathed on them saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them” (Jn 20:22).

What we often fail to fully understand and deeply appreciate is the Spirit’s action through the priesthood of Jesus and the enormous gift of the blessed Eucharist.

Without the action of the Holy Spirit there could be no daily miracle of the Holy Mass, no human priesthood, and none of the seven sacraments. Even the Catholic Church would be an empty shell, certainly not the Body of Christ.

The spirit of Pentecost must not be allowed to fade. We Catholics must ever profess ourselves to be the Pentecostal Church. n Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town.

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we have the anointing of Othniel, son of Kenaz, and “the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he became a judge in Israel” (3:9-10).

We have a lovely text in the book of Job: “His breath made the heavens luminous…a whispered echo is all that we hear of him, but who can comprehend the thunder of his power” (26:13).

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The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

9

Women: Where we are in our Church A group of South African women took part in an international pilgrimage to Greece. CHRISTINE SCHENK spoke to four of them on their experience of being women in the Catholic Church.

Two months later

T

WO months ago—just before the Covid-19 pandemic made travel impossible—I was part of a remarkable international group of people touring ancient Christian sites in Greece.

While our focus was on women leaders in early Christianity, I could not help but notice some impressive female leaders travelling right alongside us.

The witness of four of the women from South Africa was especially compelling. They helped our group appreciate diverse understandings of God in an African cultural context.

At a pilgrimage prayer service Visiting famous hanging monasteries in Meteora, Greece, were (from left) dedicated to the “God Beyond all Mphuthi, Pride Makgato and Sagoema Maredi. (Photo: Dale Halladay) Names”, Dr Nontando Hadebe reflected that in most African lan- shops in faith communities finds “too rarely thought of” in guages there are no pronouns. throughout the archdiocese, train- South African seminaries.

“So for our understanding of ing people to be communion minThe beauty of faith God, it is more the mystery, the isters and lectors, and in other greatness of God,” said the theolo- liturgical ministries.

Pride Makgato describes herself gian of St Augustine College in JoBecause of traditional beliefs as “a 24-year-old proud black hannesburg, the country’s only about female menstruation, one woman” and cradle Catholic who Catholic university. problem Ms Mphuthi frequently “did all my sacraments”, until her “The gendering or masculinisa- faces is that parish leaders—in- mother gave her the option of tion of God is not something that cluding priests and pastoral coun- waiting to be confirmed. you find in African traditional re- cil members—sometimes resist After having a spiritual experiligions,” she explained. permitting women to distribute ence one Christmas, Ms Makgato Regarding traditional African Communion or proclaim the departed from her initial career religions, which are diverse and Word. path as a beautician. communal in origin, Dr Hadebe “They believe the women are “I don’t know if I can call it a explained that “they don’t have a not supposed to be entering the religious experience, but I think I founder such as Mosanctuary,” she said. had one. And being a beautician hammed or Moses or With the support of or becoming a makeup artist just Jesus”.

Archbishop Buti Tlha- didn’t make sense to me anyI love the African traditional regale, Ms Mphuthi works more.”

Catholic ligious “emerged over with communities, Her grandmother had asked the centuries from commutelling them they “need family to attend Mass together beChurch nities gathering together, to respect women”. fore Christmas dinner. acquiring wisdom and While inculturation is “And just being in a church because I’m reflecting on life”. a value, “they must un- after I hadn’t been to church in so For Africans, said Dr allowed to be derstand the Church long, really moved me,” said Ms Hadebe, “you express culture as well”, and the Makgato. your faith in God in the myself. I’m not Church culture is to inway you treat your fellow women. told what I clude human beings.

Other liturgical ele“The understanding should wear ments that sometimes of what it means to be require education and human is, you are intervention include aphuman in your relationship with propriate times for dancing and others.” drumming in Mass—fine at the Descartes said, “I think, there- Gloria, but not at the Agnus Dei fore I am”, but African traditional (Lamb of God). religions say, “I relate, therefore I The Dan Brown code am”, she explained.

The outcome of the first Synod Two millennial women, Saof Bishops on Africa, Ecclesia in goema Maredi and Pride Makgato, Africa (1995), and the work of offered youthful energy and fresh African theologians greatly bene- vision. fited inculturation and evangelisaMs Maredi describes herself as a tion, she said. “born and bred” Catholic.

Cultural values from African She studied theology with Dr traditional religions have been ap- Hadebe, an unusual choice for a propriated and reflected in African millennial woman.

Christianity “so that Christianity “It’s a very embarrassing story,” has an African face”. she laughs. The impetus came For example, the idea of the from reading “the buzz book” at Church “as the extended family of the time, Dan Brown’s The Da God” incorporates African com- Vinci Code. munal values.

“I went to watch the movie AnBorn into a Catholic family in gels and Demons with my sister, Zimbabwe, Dr Hadebe teaches sysand there was Tom Hanks in the tematic theology, pastoral minVatican, able to interpret all those istry and African spirituality at St ancient languages and statues and Augustine College.

A member of the Circle of Con- history,” she recalled.

“I decided, ‘He’s very smart, I cerned African Women Theolowant to be able to do that.’ I guess gians, she is passionate about gender equality, Africanisation I’ve lived my life wanting to be and social justice. These she brings like Tom Hanks.”

After majoring in the Old Testato her weekly programme on ment and Hebrew, Ms Maredi had Radio Veritas.

Thanks to Dr Hadebe’s initia- an opportunity to continue posttive and encouragement, three graduate studies but chose to enter other South African women—in- the workforce instead.

She now works at Baptist Theocluding two millennials—joined logical College in Johannesburg, our pilgrimage. where she was recently promoted Women in church to academic programme adminisAnnastacia Mphuthi heads the trator, the first black woman to Office of Divine Worship and hold that position.

Ms Maredi hopes to expand Liturgy in the archdiocese of Joawareness of the need for pastors hannesburg.

In this capacity, she gives work- to address social ills which she

Dr Nontando Hadebe, Annastacia

“It changed me, I guess. I don’t know, maybe it was the service that was held, but it evoked something in me.”

After the meal, Ms Makgato found information about St Augustine College in her grandmother’s Catholic newspaper.

She is now pursuing a bachelor of theology degree, an experience she says is “quite amazing”.

One of the things Ms Makgato loves about the Catholic Church is that it is different from other churches in her culture. These do not allow women to be in a room with men or with the elders without a head covering and a long skirt.

“So I think I also love the Roman Catholic Church because I’m allowed to be myself. And although it has not progressed to what we want it to be, I’m not told what I should wear.”

Ms Makgato was finally confirmed last November.

Since returning home in midMarch I have been in regular communication with each of the four woman. Thankfully all are healthy, though also anxious about their families and worried about the poverty-stricken.

After a generous benefactor helped with her fees, Ms Makgato is thrilled that she will be able to continue theology studies in June, if Covid-19 restrictions allow.

She is worried because classes will be online and her Internet access is unreliable.

She is also dismayed that so many government officials are “stealing food parcels that are meant to be given to the poor”.

Because of the quarantine, neither Ms Mphuthi nor her husband are working, so they are struggling financially.

They are also concerned about their son who is frustrated by the pace of online classes and poor Internet access. “But we give it all to God,” she writes.

The peripatetic Dr Hadebe is up to her usual good works, including joining with the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians “to respond to gendered aspects [of Covid-19], such as the rise in domestic violence”.

She is aiding an ecumenical effort to help grassroots pastors who have lost income due to church closures.

Earlier this month, she joined a panel of religious leaders on Soweto TV, addressing domestic violence through the story of the biblical Tamar.

Dr Hadebe’s reflection on Covid-19 is inspiring.

“It challenges us to answer the call that we are each other’s keepers, the pain of the other is my pain—reflected in the African teaching of ubuntu—I am because we are, my humanity is tied up with yours,” she said.

“Covid-19 calls us to renew our commitment to each other for the common good.” n This article was originally published by Global Sisters Report at www.globalsistersreport.org.

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The Southern cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

PILGRIMAGE

When Mary met Elizabeth In part 2 of our virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, we go with GüNThEr SIMMErMAchEr to the Judean hill country, where the newly-pregnant Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth.

A

BOUT 8km south-west of Jerusalem’s Old City is the suburb of Kiryat Ha-Yovel.

With its high-rise buildings and arty cafés, it is quite unlike most places pilgrims visit in the Holy Land.

Before 1948 it was a Palestinian village called Ein Karem, the name by which pilgrims still refer to it.

Its population was forcibly removed in 1948, no doubt helped along by the fears that followed the massacre in neighbouring Deir Yassin, in which Jewish paramilitaries killed 107 of the village’s four-hundred inhabitants, including women and children.

Two-thousand years ago, this was the countryside village to which Mary rushed from Nazareth to share the news of her peculiar pregnancy with her cousin Elizabeth (or Elisheba, in the Hebrew version of the name), who was also pregnant, with the child whom the world would come to

From left: The meeting of Elizabeth and Mary is represented in the lower church of the Visitation in Ein Karem • The Franciscan church of St John the Baptist • The spot marked as the birthplace of John the Baptist in the crypt of the church named after him. (All photos: Günther Simmermacher) know as John the Baptist.

This served to verify that the Archangel Gabriel had spoken the truth when he revealed to Mary that her much older cousin was six months pregnant.

St Luke’s description of young Mary deciding to go off to visit Elizabeth conveys an impression of a trip casually taken, perhaps even invoking the image of the girl jogging there (1:39-40). While Mary surely did hurry to start that journey, it was anything but easy.

Ein Karem is a journey of about 150km from Nazareth. A young girl couldn’t travel on her own, so Mary must have joined a caravan of people. That was the normal mode of travelling, for safety was in numbers.

The gate to the church of the Visitation, on top of Ein Karem’s hill.

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Some years later we’d encounter Mary and Joseph again in a caravan, returning from pilgrimage in Jerusalem. It would take them a couple of days to notice that their 13-year-old son was missing; presumably they thought that he was spending time with friends in another part of the moving group.

Elizabeth’s two homes So the newly-pregnant Mary and her fellows travelled through the Jordan valley—the rocky desert in which Jesus would set his parable of the Good Samaritan— to reach Jerusalem. From there, everybody would go their own way. Mary made her way to the village of her cousin in the hill country.

Two churches mark the homes of Elizabeth and her temporarily dumbstruck husband, the priest Zecharia.

Set at the foot of a knoll, the church of the Nativity of St John the Baptist is said to have been the site of the couple’s regular residence.

Evidently a family of means— the priests of the Temple were wealthy—they also had a summer residence on top of the hill. That’s where Elizabeth “remained in seclusion for five months” (Lk 1:24).

And it is there where Mary recited the canticle of praise which would inspire the name of millions of feline pets: the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55).

All that is remembered at the church of the Visitation.

It is a bracing walk uphill to reach the church. In its courtyard

is a striking abstract statue of Eliz- to a crypt, which once was a rockabeth and Mary greeting one an- cut cave. It marks the reputed spot other, and on the walls are plaques of John the Baptist’s birth with a of the Magnificat in various lan- star.

Luke doesn’t actually give the guages.

The encounter of the pregnant name of the village; he calls it “the cousins is also represented in a hill country”. It was a prosperous huge mosaic on the exterior of the area with a rich water supply and fertile land which had two-level church, which been populated at least was designed by the master architect Antonio Ein Karem is since the Bronze Age. The town is menBarluzzi and completed in 1955, as well as in a about 150km tioned in the Old Testament books of Jeremiah fresco in the lower-level from and Nehemiah as Beth church.

Nazareth, HaKerem.

The church of the The spring after which Visitation was built by the Franciscans above a and a young Ein Karem is named (it means “the spring of the Crusader church, part of girl couldn’t vineyard”) is located which had collapsed in halfway up the hill, be1860. travel on tween the two churches, During the rebuilding her own and is now covered by a works, the Franciscans small mosque. discovered a crypt which had been filled with soil Christians called it the and stones. After the crypt was “Spring of the Virgin” because of cleared of its landfill, the excava- a tradition that Mary drank from tors revealed a Roman-era subter- it on her visit to Elizabeth. In ranean water system which is now times of drought, the water of Ein regarded as the place where Eliza- Karem would even supply beth and the infant John hid dur- Jerusalem. ing Herod’s massacre of the Today, alas, it is polluted by sewinnocents. erage, and signs warn passers-by to A huge rock set in a niche is be- avoid drinking from it. lieved to be the stone that covered The oldest extant reference that the entrance to the refuge. links John the Baptist to Ein Karem dates from the late 4th cenBirthplace of St John tury, written by the Egyptian Coming back down the hill, the Bishop Serapion of Thmuis in his present church of the Nativity of biography of the harbinger of St John was built in the 17th cen- Christ, Life of John. tury on top of an old Crusader But that reference is shrouded structure. in legend, involving Mary and This presumably was the Jesus travelling to Ein Karem on a monastery mentioned by the pil- luminous cloud after learning of grim Saewulf in 1102/03 as having Elizabeth’s death. been the site of a massacre of 300 The pilgrim Theodosius in 530 monks, “slain by Saracens”. links a place that fits the descripThe church was constructed tion of Ein Karem to “Saint Elizawith funding from the Spanish beth, the mother of my Lord John royal family. Further renovations, the Baptist”. including a marble altar, were paid By the 7th century, Ein Karem for by the Spanish royals in the was widely regarded as John’s 19th century. birthplace, with the Jerusalem As a result, the church has a dis- Calendar in 638 marking a festival tinct Spanish feel, with paintings in honour of St Elizabeth on Auby Spanish artists and the typically gust 28. It’s now on November 5.

Iberian blue-and-white tiles covering the walls. Spain’s royal coat of n This is an extended version of an excerpt from Günther Simmermaarms looms above the exit.

In the far left corner of the cher’s The Holy Land Trek. Next church a flight of seven steps leads week: Bethlehem.

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The main altar of the church of St John the Baptist in Ein Karem. Note the distinctive Iberian tiles.

The Southern Cross, May 27 to June 2, 2020

YOUR CLASSIFIEDS

Lockdown in Grahamstown

BY FR GERRY O’REILLY OFM

L

OCKDOWN is a new experience for all of us. Three weeks before it officially started, we emptied the holy water fonts, and everyone who came to church had their hands sprayed with sanitiser.

In our church of St Patrick’s in Makanda (Grahamstown), we had a doctor speak before Masses to tell us what we should and should not do.

During the first week a woman said to me: “That’s all nonsense!”

Last week she said on the phone: “If there is a funeral, I won’t be there.” She is now wearing protective gloves and a facemask. Reality has caught up with her. Life has changed.

People go in big droves to the banks, the post office and the supermarkets to get money and food on pension and children’s grant days. We see on TV that it is the same all over the country.

It is difficult for people to keep the two-metre social distance from each other.

A person who normally comes to Mass asked me: “I want to go to Mass. When are you opening the church? There are more people in the banks and the supermarkets than could fit into the church.”

I replied: “We are waiting for President Cyril Ramaphosa to give us the prudent answer.” But even when that arrives, some people won’t come.

It is amazing how many priests have learned to use Facebook, WhatsApp and livestreaming in a short time. Even old fellows like myself are taking it up!

The rules for funerals—50 peo-

Last year St Patrick’s church in Makanda (Grahamstown) celebrated its 175th anniversary.

During lockdown, it stands empty. In his article, Fr Gerry O’Reilly OFM of St Patrick’s looks at how his parish’s clergy and faithful are coping.

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HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

ple at a maximum—are being reasonably observed. But some people failed maths at school and sometimes make mistakes in counting!

Strangely, I had a funeral every Saturday for the seven weeks before lockdown. Since then nobody has died in the parish.

Rhodes University is closed, but a number of the professors in the science department have been busy making sanitisers.

Many others with sewing machines are making facemasks.

They sell them and earn the cost of their dinner and baby nappies.

Towards the end of the third week of looking at each other, Fr Lucas Bambezela OFM and I, with the provincial’s blessing, decided to look at the Lord! We went on retreat, in the house where we live, the following week.

We had morning prayer and meditation from 9:30. Then we met for an hour and read and discussed some of St Francis’ writ-

ings. We had Mass at noon and faith-sharing after reading the Gospel.

In the afternoon we met again and spent an hour reading and discussing Fr Larry Kaufmann’s new book Become Love: Gradual Growth and Transformation from John [the Evangelist] to [Pope] Francis. We found this so interesting that we are still doing it each evening.

Then we finished off with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, evening prayer and meditation.

It was a good experience. We had no travelling to do, and were not exhausted at the end of the week while facing Sunday Masses.

When will it all end? That is the million-dollar question. Listening to the opinions on the TV and radio, it seems only God knows.

The penny is dropping: “God is in charge.”

So, with President Ramaphosa, we say: “God bless South Africa!”

Southern CrossWord solutions

Our bishops’ anniversaries

SOLUTIONS TO 917. ACROSS: 4 Stephen, 8 Rhodes, 9 Mission, 10 Utopia, 11 Trough, 12 Prophecy, 18 Ephesian, 20 Podium, 21 Scorch, 22 Go forth, 23 Strewn, 24 Shrouds. DOWN: 1 Triumph, 2 Molotov, 3 Zenith, 5 Triptych, 6 Pastor, 7 Enough, 13 Exempted, 14 Diaries, 15 Anthony, 16 Moloch, 17 Kimono, 19 Excite.

This week we congratulate: May 31: Bishop Patrick Zithulele Mvemve, retired of Klerksdorp, on his 79th birthday

FROM OUR VAULTS 95 Years Ago: May 27, 1925

The first SA-born bishop The first locally-born bishop for South Africa has been appointed by Pope Pius XI as the bishop of the apostolic vicariate of Transvaal. Fr John O’Leary OMI of Bloemfontein was born in Kimberley in 1880. In the Free State, Catholics and non-Catholics alike know him “for his genial fresh complexion, boyish face, and his little alert figure... You missed him four days from Bloemfontein and then you found that he had been driving into the rural homes of the Free State to give the consolation of the faith to some lonely Catholic, sick or dying.”

Death of a young priest Oblate Father Patrick McCarthy died on May 20 at the young age of 25 and in the first year of his priesthood.

The Limerick-born priest had arrived in South Africa soon after his ordination in Dublin in October 1924, coming to Kimberley. But due to his very poor state of health on his arrival in Kimberley, he did very little work during his time there.

11

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Help them, together, to reexamine their commitment in the light of Your love, willingly, openly, compassionately.

PRAYERS

LORD, inspire those men and women who bear the titles “husband” and “wife”.

Help them to look to You, to themselves, to one another to rediscover the fullness and mystery they once felt in their union. Let them be honest enough to ask: “Where have we been together and where are we going?” Let them be brave enough to question: “How have we failed?” Let each be foolhardy enough to say: “For me, we come first.”

POPE’S PRAYER TO MARY DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: O Mary, you shine continuously along our journey as a sign of salvation and hope. We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick, who at the Cross were near to the pain of Jesus, keeping your faith firm. You, Salvation of the Roman people, know

what we need, and we trust that you will provide for those needs so that, as at Cana of Galilee, joy and celebration may return after this moment of trial. Help us, Mother of Divine Love, to conform ourselves to the will of the Father and to do what Jesus tells us. He who took our sufferings upon Himself, and took up our sorrows to bring us, through the Cross, to the joy of the Resurrection, Amen. We seek refuge under your protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our pleas—we who are put to the test—and deliver us from every danger, O glorious and Blessed Virgin.

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

Amen.

Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday May 31, Pentecost Acts 2:1-11, Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34, 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13, John 20:19-23 Monday June 1, Our Lady, Mother of the Church Genesis 3:9-15, 20 or Acts 1:12-14, Psalm 87:1-7, John 19:25-34 Tuesday June 2, Ss Marcellinus and Peter 2 Peter 3:12-15, 17-18, Psalm 90:2-4, 10, 14, 16, Mark12:13-17 Wednesday June 3, Ss Charles Lwanga and Companions 2 Timothy 1:1-3, 6-12, Psalm 123:1-2, Mark 12:18-27 or 2 Maccabees 7: 1-2, 914 or Romans 8:31-39, Psalm 124:2-5, 78, Matthew 5: 1-12 Thursday June 4 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Psalm 25:4-5, 8-10, 14, Mark 12:28-34 Friday June 5, St Boniface 2 Timothy 3:10-17, Psalm 119:157, 160161, 165-166, 168, Mark 12:35-37

Editorial: Stupid accusations In his editorial, Mgr John Morris writes that in South Africa, “where the Catholic Community is comparatively small and has few opportunities for defending its position, Catholicism is very sadly misunderstood. We are surrounded by clouds of hostile witnesses who ‘testify’ to the most stupid and ill-informed accusations and charges against us.” These are not made in a spirit of persecution but through “a careless and reckless attitude of sheer ignorance”.

Saturday June 6, St Norbert 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Psalm 71:8-9, 14-17, 22, Mark 12:38-44 Sunday June 7, Trinity Sunday Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9, Responsorial psalm Daniel 3:29-31, 33, 32, 34 (3, 52-56), 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, John 3:16-18

St Charles Lwanga and Companions

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

Matthew 7:7-12

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Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, staff or directors of The Southern Cross.

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the

TRINITY SUNDAY (June 7) Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9; Daniel 3:52-56; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18 EXT Sunday, as always in the week after Pentecost, we celebrate the solemnity of the Holy Trinity, the richness of the identity of God revealed to us in the New Testament.

And it is not just the New Testament that gives us the God that is Three-in-One; for our First Reading comes from Exodus, where Moses is holding on to the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments are to be written (Moses had, for quite understandable reasons, shattered the two previous tablets, after God had inscribed them).

And what happens now is that in the early morning, up there on Mount Sinai, “God came down in a cloud to Moses and stood with him”. But notice what happens next: “God stood with Moses there, and called on the name of The Lord”; and then the depth of meaning in the name is given to us: “A God who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, full of love and truth.”

This is a wonderful vision of the Maker of the Universe, and it may help us to think, this week, about the rich identity of God that we call the “Trinity”.

Certainly Moses knows who he is dealing with: “Moses immediately bowed to the ground and worshipped”; but we must not forget that this is the God of compassion;

N

S outher n C ross

and so Moses feels able to appeal to him: “Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your own.” That is the God of both the Old and the New Testaments; and there are rich depths to this God. That is the God of our Responsorial, which is not strictly speaking a psalm, but part of the hymn sung to God by the young men in the fire, in the book of Daniel: “Blessed are you, God of our ancestors, and to be praised and exalted for ever—and blessed is the holy name of your glory, and to be praised and exalted for all the ages.”

This is the God of our first reading, rich in love and mercy, and the God of the Trinity, a God that is a community of love. So, the singer continues: “Blessed are you in the Temple of your holy glory…blessed are you on the throne of your kingship, and to be exalted for ever.”

This is a God (“who sits upon the cherubim…to be hymned and glorified for ever”) who is beyond anything that we can imagine, a God who is in intimate relationship with his people. That is the God for whose rich reality Christians eventually came up with the name of the Trinity.

The Second Reading for the solemnity is

I

life without meaningful connection, some became lifelong friends.

I share this not because I think it’s unique, but rather because it’s typical.

Today that’s really everyone’s story.

More and more friends pass through our lives, so that at a point the question necessarily arises: How does one remain faithful to one’s family, to old friends, former neighbours, former classmates, former students, former colleagues, and to old acquaintances?

W

hat does fidelity to them ask for?

Occasional visits? Occasional emails, texts, calls? Remembering birthdays and anniversaries? Class reunions?

Attending weddings and funerals?

Obviously doing these would be good, though that would also constitute a fulltime occupation. Something else must be being asked of us here, namely, a fidelity that’s not contingent on emails, texts, calls, and occasional visits.

But what can lie deeper than tangible human contact? What can be more real than that? The answer is fidelity—fidelity as the gift of a shared moral soul, fidelity as the gift of trust, and fidelity as remaining true to who you were when you were in tangible human community and contact with those people who are no longer part of your daily life. That’s what it means to be faithful.

It is interesting how the Christian Scriptures define community and fidelity.

In the Acts of the Apostles we read that before Pentecost, those in the first Christian community were all “huddled in one room”. And here, though physically to-

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God does: “God so loved the world, that he sent his Only Son.” That is the unbridled generosity at the heart of God’s enterprise, that there is nothing that God will not do for us; and the motive is “that everyone who believes in [the Son] will not be destroyed, but have eternal life”.

Then he goes a bit deeper into it: God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. This whole project is from start to finish a love story; and that is the secret of the astonishing mystery to which we give the deceptively easy name of “God”.

But there is an edge to the doctrine of the Trinity, which we should not miss: “The one who believes in [the Son] is not condemned, whereas the one who does not believe is already condemned, because of not believing in the name of the Only Son of God.” We tremble here on the brink of the mystery of the Trinity, which is all about God’s love.

Southern Crossword #917

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

gether, ironically they were not in real community with each other, not really a family, and not really faithful to each other.

Then, after receiving the Holy Spirit, they literally break out of that one room and scatter all over the earth so that many of them never see each other again.

Now, geographically at a distance from each other, ironically they become a real family, become a genuine community, and live in fidelity to each other.

At the end of the day, fidelity is not about how often you physically connect with someone but about living within a shared spirit.

Betrayal is not a question of separation by distance, of forgetting an anniversary or a birthday, or of not being able to stay in touch with someone you cherish. Betrayal is moving away from the truth and virtue you once shared with that person you cherish.

Betrayal is a change of soul. We are unfaithful to family and friends when we become a different person morally so as to no longer share a common spirit with them.

You can be living in the same house with someone, share daily bread and conversation with him or her, and not be a faithful family member or friend; just as you can be a faithful friend or family member and not see that friend or family member for 40 years.

Being faithful in remembering birthdays is wonderful, but fidelity is more about remembering who you were when that birth was so special to you. Fidelity is about maintaining moral affinity.

To the best of my abilities, I try to stay in contact with the family, old friends, former neighbours, former classmates, former students, former colleagues, and old acquaintances.

Mostly it’s a bit beyond me. So I put my trust in moral fidelity.

I try as best I can to commit myself to keeping the same soul I had when I left home as a young boy, and which characterised and defined me when I met all those wonderful people along the way.

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Sunday Reflections

the last words of Paul’s existing letters to Corinth, desperately trying to get them to put an end to their divisions, and to love one another. So he tells them to “rejoice, amend your ways, be comforted, have the same mindset as each other, deal in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you”.

Since that is how God is, that is how we must be; and so it is reflecting the reality of the One God that gives grounds for his exhortation to “greet one another with a holy kiss”.

Then Paul gets as close as the New Testament ever does to speaking of the Threeness of God: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the solidarity of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

This profound interrelatedness of God is what makes it possible for the Christians of Corinth (and our own divided world) to accept each other in love.

For the “Trinity”, make no mistake about it, is what makes it possible for God to drive on this great love story that is the Gospel.

That is what we encounter in the final reading for next Sunday, which is one of the most famous passages in the entire New Testament, and it is right at the heart of what

How to be a faithful friend GREW up in a close family, and one of the hardest things I ever did was to leave home and family at the age of 17 to enter the novitiate of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

That novitiate year wasn’t easy. I missed my family intensely and stayed in touch with them insofar as the rules and communication of the day allowed.

I wrote a letter home every week, and my mother wrote back to me faithfully each week. I still have and cherish those letters. I had left home but stayed in touch, a faithful family member.

But my life became a lot more complex and socially demanding after that. I moved to a seminary and began to live in a community with 60 others, with people entering and leaving constantly throughout my seven years there. So by the time I’d finished my seminary training, I had lived in close community with over a hundred different men.

That brought its own challenges. People you’d grown close to would leave the community to be replaced by others, so that each year there was a new community and new friendships.

In the years following seminary, that pattern began to grow exponentially.

Graduate studies took me to other countries and brought a whole series of new persons into my life, many of whom became close friends.

In more than 40 years of teaching, I have met with several thousand students and made many friends among them.

Writing and public lectures have brought thousands of people into my life.

Though most of them passed through my

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ACROSS

4. First Christian martyr (7) 8. Herod’s way around a Greek island (6) 9. Redemptorists may hold one in the parish (7) 10. St Thomas More’s ideal place (6) 11. Manger in the stable (6) 12. Isaiah’s prediction (8) 18. One Paul addressed in a sheep movement (8) 20. Conductor and singer may stand on it (6) 21. Burn some of the disc orchestra (6) 22. Press forward to preach the Gospel (2,5) 23. Scattered like confetti (6) 24. Wrappers for the dead (7)

DOWN

1. Victory of hurt imp (7) 2. Flaming cocktail of the Russian (7) 3. Highest point that starts with Buddhism (6) 5. Icon with three panels (8) 6. Church minister (6) 7. It’s as much as you need (6) 13. Given a special dispensation from an obligation (8) 14. You may keep them in your own hand every day (7) 15. Padua’s saint (7) 16. Canaanite god of 2 Kings 23 (6) 17. Dress of a Japanese parishioner? (6) 18. Give rise to enthusiastic faith (6)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

I

n his homily at Pentecost, Father explained how the Holy Spirit came upon the heads of the faithful with tongues of fire.

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