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COULD PONTIUS PILATE BE A SAINT?

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FR CYRIL AXELROD: A BEACON OF LIGHT

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THABILE MBHELE ON HER FAITH AND TV CAREER

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To see our good news

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Dear Reader,

HEN The SouTheRN CRoSS was still a weekly newspaper, we would invite guest editorialists for our Christmas and Easter editions, drawing from bishops and clergy, religious and laity. It never ceased to amaze me how every year, these writers would offer a fresh perspective on their subjects, about which so much had been written and preached already for two millennia.

One insight, from the 2011 Easter editorial, stays with me. Fr Russell Pollitt SJ wrote: “Our celebration of Easter is a proclamation of our triumph over the ash and the cross. It is an invitation to us to name experiences of victory over bad news in our lives and in our world. We are invited out of the tomb of bad news (death) and defeat into the glorious light of resurrection. It is a celebration in which we rejoice that Jesus has risen from the dead and that, in our own lives, some of our stories end in happy endings.

Can we identify and name those stories?” (www.scross.co.za/2011/04/live-theresurrection/) Every issue of The Southern Cross tries to do that: to identify good news in people’s lives. Our interview with the former TV personality Thabile Mbhele on page 10 this month shows an example of that. Retrenched by the SABC after 20 years of service, Thabile has found her “happy ending” — and a new beginning — in what could have been a time of personal disaster. Her deep faith no doubt guided her to that personal victory over bad news. The good news stories needn’t be dramatic or worthy of banner headlines, but we must tell them. And first, we must be able to spot them!

Sometimes the graces we receive are obvious. When we read of the miracles presided over by Fr Colin Bowes of De Aar, whom we feature on page 9, there is no need for us to wonder about divine intervention. I witnessed something similar during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2010, when a young woman who was chronically on crutches, whom I had just helped to descend the Mount of Olives, experienced a cure in the Garden of Gethsemane. She cast away her crutches (a member of the group took them, just in case), and for the rest of the tour — which also took us to Oberammergau, which we are visiting this month on pages 14-16 — she never used them again.

Pilgrimages have a way of working miracles. On the Southern Cross youth

pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000, the group prayed in Cana that an apparently infertile couple might conceive.

Within a year, they had a baby daughter, who now is a beautiful young woman.

And an unspectacular but personal story: In October 2019 our group of pilgrims visited Lourdes (whose St Bernadette is this issue’s Saint of the Month). While there, I let water from the Virgin’s spring run over my arthritic thumb joint. Nothing happened. A few months later, I noticed that the joint was not hurting anymore, even though I had stopped taking my anti-inflammatory tablets for quite a while. Two years later, the joint is still swollen, but it is entirely pain-free, without any medication or dietary changes. No doctor I’ve asked has been able to explain it. This may not be a miracle by the Catholic Church’s strict definitions — it was not instantaneous and perhaps not permanent — but I see the intervention of God through Our Lady in my ability to wiggle my thumb at will.

We all have experiences graces and perhaps even miracles in our lives, but we need to be open to seeing them and to discern God working in our lives. It can be the difference between the stone sealing the dark tomb and seeing the stone rolled away.

A wonderful example of that can be observed in the witness of Fr Cyril Axelrod CSsR, whose new book we review on page 22. Born deaf, he gradually lost his sight until he went totally blind in 2000.

At the age of 58, this personal calamity naturally scared him intensely. He experienced the tomb, but with God’s grace he rolled away the stone, and now regards his deaf-blindness as a gift. And, we may add, Fr Cyril is indeed a gift to us.

Christ’s resurrection always gives us hope, in our temporal lives and for our lives everlasting. Thanks be to God! And thank you for reading The Southern Cross. Please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine.

We at The Southern Cross wish all our readers, associates, advertisers, sellers, contributors, supporters and friends a blessed and holy Easter season!

Günther simmermacher (Editor)

Contents APRIL 2022

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Pope Francis Looks To Holy Year 2025 To prepare for the Holy Year 2025, the pope has called for “a symphony of prayer”

9

Exorcist priest’s 50 years In his 50 years of priesthood, Fr Colin Bowes has presided over miraculous healings

10

The Faith of a TV Legend Thabile Mbhele, for many years a prime-time TV newsreader, speaks about faith, family and career

12

The Catholic Politician

10 TV legend Thabile

On the centenary of Julius Nyerere, a writer looks at the late Tanzanian leader’s faith and politics

14

Mbhele: My faith

The Season of the Passion We look behind the scenes of Oberammergau’s world-famous Passion Play.

22

The Light of a Deaf-Blind Priest We review the latest book by Fr Cyril Axelrod CSsR

23

Could Pontius Pilate be a Saint?

The Ethiopian Church regards Pontius Pilate as a saint. Fr Ralph de Hahn wonders if that is possible

24

Proof of Christ’s Divinity?

Author Paul de Marco explains how natural phenomena of Good Friday prove Christ’s divinity

EVERY MONTH 5

FROM OUR VAULTS

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YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

The Southern Cross 17 years ago You ask, and our team of experts replies, on questions about the resurrection, Jesus in hell, and aquamation

17

SAINT OF THE MONTH The life of St Bernadette — with pull-out poster

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17

COOKING WITH SAINTS

The life of St Bernadette

For Holy Week, Grazia Barletta offers two recipes

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With pull-out poster!

22 We review Fr Cyril

Axelrod’s new book

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Have your say – over two pages!

28

RAYMOND PERRIER The voices of young people

29

FR RON ROLHEISER OMI On Easter and the Earth’s resurrection

30

PRAY WITH THE POPE Fr Chris Chatteris SJ reflects on the pope’s prayer intention for April

31

PRAYER CORNER Your illustrated prayers, to cut out and collect

32

TWO PAGES OF PUZZLES Two Crosswords, Wordsearch, Dropped Letters, Catholic Trivia Quiz, and Anagram Challenge

34

THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC Nthabiseng Maphisa writes two prayers

36

...AND FINALLY History in Colour, Inspiring Quotes on Freedom, and a Last Laugh

Did you know?

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Oberammergau: Season of the Passion

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Cover image: Jesus encounters his mother on the Way of the Cross, as depicted in the Oberammergau Passion Play. ©Passionsspiele Oberammergau 2022/Birgit Gudjonsdottir

17 Years Ago: April 27, 2005

FROM OUR VAULTS SA reactions to new pope

PAGE 5

Bishop Oswald Hirmer of Umtata [now Mthatha] has said that newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI is “a brilliant theologian who can express difficult topics very convincingly and simply”. While the Church can rely on the pope’s orthodoxy, the bishop hopes he will listen to his advisers when they speak about the needs of those within the Church. Sr Jennifer Slater OP, dean of studies at St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria, said: “I think the cardinals were looking for someone with a good universal understanding of the Church and good dogmatic insight into the life of the Church, whether in the educational or moral sphere, and it is not very easy to find someone like this.” Fr Stuart Bate OMI, theology lecturer at St Augustine College, Johannesburg, praised Pope Benedict’s clear grasp of issues, particularly in a time of “rampant consumerism” and a culture that encourages people to pursue their personal desires without any consideration for the consequences.

Consecrated host sold on eBay

Church officials in the US diocese of Sioux City said they were deeply offended when they found out that an unidentified person from Iowa sold on eBay what was described as a host consecrated by Pope John Paul II during a Mass in Rome in 1998. The host was marked sold for a reported $2 000 [about R12 600 in 2005].

Editorial: Give pope a chance

PAGE 12

Consecrated host was for sale on eBay

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Pope Benedict: I seek unity and dialogue

Pope Benedict XVI

BY JOHN THAVIS

A

FTER celebrating Mass with the cardinals who elected him, Pope Benedict XVI pledged that he would lead the Church on the path of unity, dialogue and evangelisation.

“I turn to everyone with simplicity and affection, to assure them that the Church wants to continue to build an open and sincere dialogue with them, in the search of the true good of man and society,” he said at the end of a liturgy in the Sistine Chapel.

Dressed in light gold vestments, the pope read his four-page Latin message in a clear and forceful voice, paying tribute to Pope John Paul II and outlining the priorities of his own pontificate.

Pope Benedict said that, like his predecessor, he considered the Second Vatican Council the compass for the modern Church.

In particular, he stressed his commitment to ecumenism and dialogue and said he was aware that “concrete gestures” were sometimes needed to promote breaking through old antagonisms.

At the same time, he said the chief priority for the modern Church is to announce Christ to the world.

“The Church today has to renew its awareness of the task of re-proposing to the world the voice of the one who said: ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’,” he said.

“As he begins his ministry, the new pope knows that his task is to make the light of Christ shine before the men and women of today: not his own light, but that of Christ,” he said.

The white-haired pope faced 114 cardinals seated at the same long tables used in the papal election and spoke from a chair beneath Michelangelo’s fresco of the “Last Judgment.”

The pope said he had been completely surprised at his election, which came on the fourth ballot of the conclave. He said he began his papacy with two emotions: a sense of “inadequacy” and the confidence that God would help him.

As head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation since 1981, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was a controversial figure for many in the Church because of his strong line against dissent, his disciplining of theologians and his criticism of some of the ways Vatican II has been implemented.

In his first major talk as pope, he went out of his way to say he would proceed along the lines taken by his predecessor.

“I want to forcefully affirm the strong desire to continue in the task of implementing the Second Vatican Council,” he said.

He said Vatican II’s documents were especially relevant to the modern Church and today’s globalised society and that the council’s “authoritative” rereading of the Gospel would guide the Church in the third millennium.

Pope Benedict also stressed the need for close unity between the pope and the world’s bishops. This collegial communion, he said, favours “unity in the faith, on which depends in large measure the effectiveness of the Church’s evangelising efforts in the modern world.”

He pledged to make the search for Christian unity a special priority. He called ecumenism a “compelling duty” and said he would “spare no energy” in trying to bring Christian churches together. —CNS

Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, on the balcony overlooking the masses of people on St Peter’s Square who came to see their new pontiff.

PHOTO

FROM

SA Church on new pope

BY MICHAIL RASSOOL

M

EMBERS of the Southern African Church have reacted with optimism to the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, in a statement signed by Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, described Pope Benedict as “a defender of faith and a staunch advocate for the preservation of the Gospel values embedded in the Catholic tradition.”

The bishops said they expect that Pope Benedict will “continue the work of promoting and defending the sanctity of life, to stand against violence and war as a way of solving conflicts, to be the voice of the voiceless in the world and to build bridges among peoples of different religions”.

Fr Emil Blaser OP, director of Catholic radio station Radio Veritas, said he knows the former prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith to be “a very affable, humble, personable and prayerful man, with much pastoral heart, so I’ve seen him in a positive frame.”

But he has spearheaded the centralisation of the Church, “which is sad because Vatican II encouraged local churches to assume more responsibility,” Fr Blaser said.

He said among the many issues the German-born pope faces, to which many expected him to respond, is the reChristianisation of Europe. Pope Benedict’s election will be a serious setback for advocates of women’s ordination and the marriage of priests.

Fr Blaser said he would like to see the new pope, like Pope John Paul, engaging with

youth, which his predecessor did with characteristic verve and personal appeal.

Schoenstatt Father Michael Hagan, the national youth chaplain, said that in the election of an older pope “the cardinals were probably seeking stability and character for the uninterrupted continuation of Pope

world today,” Bishop Hirmer told The Southern Cross. However “hard-line” or orthodox he may be, the pope is “a gentleman, someone I can talk to,” the bishop added.

“I think the cardinals were looking for someone with a good universal understandJohn Paul’s legacy.” ing of the Church and good dogmatic It is the former Cardinal Ratzinger’s defin- insight into the life of the Church, whether ition of conscience that is significant now, Fr in the educational or moral sphere, and it is Hagan said, according to which the not very easy to find someone like this,” said informed conscience overrides even the stric- Sr Jennifer Slater OP, dean of studies at St tures of Church authority, one that provided John Vianney National Seminary in Pretoria. much inspiration to Church activists “Very good news,” declared Fr Stuart Bate, involved in HIV/Aids prevention. provincial of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Michael Shackleton, former editor of The Immaculate, who lectures in theology at St Southern Cross, who attended Vatican II in Augustine College, Johannesburg.

He praised 1965 as private secretary to the late Cardinal Pope Benedict’s clear grasp of issues, particuOwen McCann of Cape Town, remembered larly in a time of “rampant consumerism” the young Fr Ratzinger, then advisor to and a culture that encourages people to purGerman Cardinal Josef Frings, as an ardent sue their personal desires without any con“progressive, wanting to open the windows sideration for the consequences. of the Church to the world.”

Bishop Louis Ndlovu of Manzini, “Deep down, I think Pope Benedict is a Swaziland, was quoted by Catholic News Vatican II man; I don’t think he is that con- Service (CNS) as saying that it is unlikely servative,” Mr Shackleton said. that Southern Africa would be high on the Bishop Oswald Hirmer of Umtata—who new pope’s list of priorities.

“He is a bit hails from the German diocese of reserved and is not a man who loves travelRegensburg—was thrilled that the new pope ling. But you never know, he may want to comes from his native Bavaria in Germany, follow in the steps of his predecessor.” and even attended the same seminary. He Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg told described Pope Benedict as “a brilliant the- CNS that Pope Benedict’s reputation as a conologian who can express difficult topics very servative suggests “there will be little opporconvincingly and simply.” tunity for openness of debate on issues”, such He said while the Church can rely on the as condom use for HIV/Aids prevention or pope’s orthodoxy, he hopes he will listen to poverty and structural injustice. his advisers when they speak about the “We have to allow for the Holy Spirit to needs of those within the Church. work and the possibility that he may change “I hope Pope Benedict changes his practi- through the different experiences a pope cal approach to applying theology to the might be exposed to,” Bishop Dowling said.

In his editorial on the election of the new pope, Günther Simmermacher writes that “critics of Pope Benedict’s election will have to give the new pope a fair chance to become their pope too. And supporters of his election must be careful to abstain from a triumphalism that is alien to the new pope’s crisp intellect”.

What else made news in April 2005:

Previous “From The Vaults” articles at www.scross.co.za/vaults

• Pope John Paul II’s funeral takes place on April 8 in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. England’s Prince Charles postpones his wedding to Camilla Parker-Bowles by a day to avoid a scheduling conflict.

• The New National Party, successor to the apartheid-era National Party, votes to dissolve itself following poor results in last year’s elections. Its elected representatives join the African National Congress.

• Zimbabwe’s opposition party Movement for Democratic Change claims widespread election fraud after the ruling Zanu-PF gains a two-thirds majority in the March 21 elections.

• Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who had reigned since 1949, dies on April 6 at the age of 81, and influential South African painter Gregoire Boonzaier dies in Hermanus on April 22 at the age of 95.

• The first-ever YouTube video is uploaded, titled “Me at the zoo”.

Left: South Africans, clergy and laity, celebrate the election of Pope Benedict XVI in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

Right: A Conrad cartoon depicts an imagined scene from the conclave.

L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

‘Got a match, anybody?’

estions Do you have qu nd Se them to: about our faith? o.za editor@scross.c A Subject line: Q&

Q. I read that after his funeral, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s body was aquamated, not cremated, as had been reported. It seems the Anglican Church allows it, but does the Catholic Church approve of that method?

A

QUAMATION IS NOT A NEW technique: it has been used for a long while in the disposal of animal carcasses — and, in a way, by criminals to make the corpses of their victims disappear. It has been described as “water cremation”.

In essence, aquamation is a chemical process called alkaline hydrolysis which uses a solution of 95% water and 5% potassium hydroxide (also known as lye) or sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) to reduce the tissue and organs of a body to liquid. The remaining bone fragments are dried and pul-

Does the Catholic Church allow aquamation? verised. It is said to use 90% less energy than cremations and does not emit any harmful greenhouse gases.

The technique is not approved yet in all countries; in South Africa, there are no regulations governing aquamation. Likewise, the Catholic Church has issued no guidelines on this relatively new method of disposing of corpses. Presumably, if the Catholic Church were to state a position on aquamation, it would be very similar to its position on cremation.

For centuries, the Church didn’t authorise cremations. In 1963, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction permitting cremation, as long as it was not done as a sign of denial of the basic Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead.

Did Jesus go to hell?

Q. In the Apostles’ Creed we say that Christ “descended into hell” before rising on the third day. How could the Son of God possibly descend to hell?

H

ELL IS AN ENGLISH WORD OF Germanic origin. Its earliest meaning was the underworld, the place that is home to the souls of the dead. The same place was called Hades in Greek mythology. The Hebrews termed it Sheol.

The concept of its being below the earth comes out more clearly in the Latin. In the Apostles’ Creed, “He descended into hell” is “Descendit ad inferos”, that is, he went down below or down to the grave (the word “inferior” is a variation of that word). It is unfortunate that the English text still uses the word “hell”, because hell is commonly understood to mean

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The Southern Cross

Photo: Mike Hutchings/Reuters/CNS

Your Questions answered

not the place where disembodied people go but where unrepentant sinners are punished for their evil lives. Nonetheless, the English text has preserved the word hell. Even the English Reformers did so. The result is the confusion that you find yourself in, because the meaning of words is not forever constant.

We believe that, before Christ’s resurrection, he went to the underworld of the dead. Why? To affirm that if he truly rose from the dead, he had to be dead in the first place.

This has been confirmed several times since, most recently in 2016, when the Vatican issued an instruction “regarding the burial of the deceased and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation”. While the Church prefers the ancient custom of burying the body, it acknowledges that in some instances, cremation may be the more practical and even necessary option.

However, in such cases, ashes should not be scattered (unless this is necessary), buried anonymously, or be kept at home. The earthly remains of a person should be buried or interred in a marked resting place — as was also the case with the aquamated remains of Archbishop Tutu, which were entombed in Cape Town’s Anglican St George’s cathedral.

(Günther Simmermacher)

This abode of the dead was not where good and evil souls dwelt contentedly on equal terms. In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, the good souls are happy there whereas the bad souls are in agony. Lazarus is in “Abraham’s bosom” or paradise; the rich man is in torment — yet both are among the dead (Luke 16:19-31).

In descending among the dead, Christ presented himself to the souls in Abraham’s bosom as the Messiah, the one who had at last redeemed the living and the dead, and led them to salvation. St Peter described this by saying that in his spirit, Christ went to preach to the spirits in prison, referring to the righteous souls waiting in Abraham’s bosom (1 Peter 3:18) for him to do so.

Christ assured us that he had died, yet he now lives for ever and ever, holding the keys of death and of the underworld (Revelation 1:18). In other words, he is the one and only redeemer of the living and the dead, past, present and future.

(Michael Shackleton)

Did nobody report the Resurrection?

Photo: Günther Simmermacher

Q. How do we explain the lack of reaction to Christ’s resurrection from Jewish people and Roman officials?

Even at a time of no media coverage, how could Christ’s return to life have gone unnoticed by the very officials who had clamoured for and authorised his death?

And why didn’t the Roman guard stationed at the tomb report such an incredible event to his superiors?

O

UR CHRISTIAN FAITH STANDS OR FALLS ON THE fact that Jesus rose from the dead. As Paul says: “If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

It is far from true that the resurrection of Jesus went “unnoticed” by civil and religious officials of the day.

When those who had been appointed to guard the tomb reported to the chief priests “all that had happened”, the chief priests assembled the elders to determine a plan of action.

It was decided to bribe the guards with “a large sum of money”; the guards were directed to tell anyone who asked that “his disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep”. The chief priests also assured the guards that, if the news reached Pilate’s ears, “we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble” (Matthew 28:11-15).

That “stolen body hypothesis” never caught on — first of all, because the dispirited band of Jesus’ followers, whose dream had seemingly died with their master, were then huddled together in fear and unlikely to risk going anywhere near the tomb of Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus was destined to cause enduring problems for Roman and Jewish leaders, and it would have been worth their every effort should they have been able to disprove it. Imagine the effect of being able to produce the body of Christ and parade the “stolen” corpse through the streets of Jerusalem. But any investigation on the part of civil and religious authorities came up empty.

The rapid spread of Christianity in the first century was fuelled by the accounts of more than 500 witnesses to whom Jesus appeared in the 40 days following the resurrection. Writing some 25 years later, Paul says that most of these 500 “are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:6) — in effect, challenging deniers: “If you don’t believe me, talk to them.”

The pyramids of Giza in Egypt, Westminster Abbey in London, or the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, are famous as the burial sites of those renowned by history. The tomb of Jesus, instead, is empty, and Christ’s epitaph is carved not in stone but spoken by the angel who greeted the women at the tomb, “He is not here ... he has been raised” (Luke 24:6). And yet, for me, the strongest proof of the resurrection comes not from an empty tomb, but from the living witness of Christ’s first followers.

Of the Twelve Apostles, only John died of natural causes. The others — so convinced were they that they had seen Jesus after the resurrection, spoken with him in the Upper Room, eaten with him on the shore of the Sea of Galilee — were willing to die by violence for the truth of that claim: James, son of Alphaeus, by stoning; Peter hung on a cross upside down. That is a pretty high price to pay if you’ve made up the story to start with.

(Fr Kenneth Doyle)

Christ’s resurrection is depicted at the culmination of the Stations of the Cross at San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.

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P

OPE FRANCIS HAS ASKED FOR A “GREAT SYMPHONY of prayer” ahead of the Jubilee Year in 2025. And to prepare for that, the Holy Father wants the Church to devote 2024, the year preceding the Jubilee event, to intense prayer.

In a letter addressed to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation, Pope Francis explained that a Jubilee Year is “an event of great spiritual, ecclesial, and social significance in the life of the Church. Ever since 1300, when [Pope] Boniface VIII instituted the first Holy Year — initially celebrated every 100 years, then, following its biblical precedent, every 50 years, and finally every 25 years — God’s holy and faithful people have experienced this celebration as a special gift of grace, characterised by the forgiveness of sins and in particular by the indulgence, which is a full expression of the mercy of God.”

Two kinds of Holy Year

There are two kinds of Jubilee or Holy Years: “ordinary” when they fall after a set period such as 25 years, and “extraordinary” when they mark notable events. The celebration in 2025 — the year that marks the 1 700th anniversary of the

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Pope Francis wants a SYMPHONY OF PRAYER for Holy Year 2025

Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St Peter’s basilica to inaugurate the Jubilee Year of Mercy 2015 at the Vatican.

Preparations for the Holy Year 2025 have already begun.

Council of Nicaea — will be the Catholic Church’s first ordinary jubilee since Pope John Paul II presided over the Great Jubilee of the year 2000. The Jubilee of Mercy overseen by Pope Francis in 2015 was an extraordinary jubilee.

“The Great Jubilee of the year 2000 ushered the Church into the third millennium of her history. St John Paul II had long awaited and greatly looked forward to that event, in the hope that all Christians, putting behind their historical divisions, could celebrate together the 2 000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of humanity,” Pope Francis wrote.

“Now, as the first 25 years of the new century draw to a close, we are called to enter into a season of preparation that can enable the Christian people to experience the Holy Year in all its pastoral richness. A significant step on this journey was already taken with the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which allowed us to appreciate anew all the power and tenderness of the Father’s merciful love, in order to become, in our turn, its witnesses,” the pope said.

The 2025 Jubilee will include the opening of the Holy Door in St Peter’s basilica. Pilgrims who pass through the door, and those of the other three major Roman basilicas, can receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.

The Holy Doors are opened only during Jubilee years.

Holy Doors will open

The 85-year-old pope said he hoped that the 2025 Jubilee would help to restore “a climate of hope and trust” amid the “doubt, fear and disorientation” caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “This will indeed be the case if we are capable of recovering a sense of universal fraternity and refuse to turn a blind eye to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of our human dignity,” he wrote.

The Vatican announced in January that the motto of the Jubilee Year 2025 will be “Pilgrims of Hope”. Looking ahead to 2024, the pope said: “In a word, may it be an intense year of prayer in which hearts are opened to receive the outpouring of God’s grace and to make the ‘Our Father’, the prayer Jesus taught us, the life programme of each of his disciples.”—CNA

Exorcist priest’s 50 years

By Gail Walters

W

HEN FATHER COLIN BOWES, a renowned exorcist of De Aar diocese, celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, he could look back to a life with many great experiences, which have included presiding over miraculous healings.

He celebrated his golden jubilee with a Mass at Christ the King cathedral in Johannesburg, followed by a celebratory luncheon, with frequent collaborators Frs Barney McAleer and Joseph Wilson MSC among the guests. A second celebration, mainly for family and friends, was held at All Saints parish in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg, where Fr Bowes grew up. He was the first priest to come from the parish.

Fr Bowes, now 87, joined the priesthood in his early thirties and was ordained at the age of 37 at Christ the King cathedral in Johannesburg, the city in which he was born and raised. Due to racial challenges, he transferred to the diocese of De Aar, to help bring the “Living Water” to the parched centre of South Africa. There he served for many years as vicar-general.

The devotee of the Catholic Charismatic Movement has also served for decades as the director of the internationally renowned Amazing Grace Retreat Centre in Noupoort, which he founded.

In 2012, Fr Bowes was an invited exorcist priest at St Charles Borromeo parish in Victory Park which was hosting a Renew-Africa Mission. Hundreds attended and his works in Gauteng strengthened. Fr Bowes has received invitations as part of his healing ministry from parishes in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Western Cape, Northwest, Free State, Botswana, and Malawi.

Some 3 000 pilgrims per day attended the healing seminars in Malawi. Many healings took place. Two particularly bad manifestations took place. Fr Bowes confirms that during the laying of hands, there were demonic manifestations in a woman and a young man.

In Noupoort, a similar incident occurred when Fr Bowes prayed for a woman in a wheelchair. He lifted her out of the wheelchair and said: “In the name of Jesus Christ!”

A doctor in Kimberley had said she would never walk again, but at the healing session, she got up and walked. She is still walking without a spinal brace, and is a healthy, spiritually healed woman. Fr Bowes emphasises that he is only a servant of Christ, as the healing is not from him but from heaven.

Other highlights of Fr Bowes’ priestly ministry include concelebrating Mass with Pope John Paul II in Harare, Zimbabwe, and Gaborone, Botswana, during the papal visits there in 1988.

Fr Bowes fondly recalls an occasion at San Giovanni Rotondo, the shrine of Padre Pio in southwestern Italy, when he was asked to bless priests, nuns and pilgrims with St Pio’s gloves.

And in Medjugorie, Ivanne, one of the visionaries, invited Fr Bowes to accompany him at the altar of the church there.

At the age of 87 years, Fr Bowes believes that his vocational calling is his biggest blessing in his life, and says that he is fulfilling his priestly calling with a passion in bringing people closer to Jesus Christ, with the aid of the Holy Spirit and our Blessed Virgin Mary. He believes his priestly vocation is getting ever-stronger, and that it will grow until he departs from Earth.

HOPE, FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE YOU CAN TRUST

‘Get up and walk!’

In 2018, during Africa’s Alpha and Omega mission to a healing seminar for a team of Catholic Charismatic Renewal members in Portugal’s Algarve region, he encountered a local woman, Maria José Encarnação, who had been in a wheelchair for five years. Fr Bowes prayed to Our Lord for her healing, and during his prayers, he helped Maria to go on her knees. He then instructed her to get up and walk — and she did.

Fr Colin Bowes delivers a spiritual healing for the Covid19 era via YouTube from the Amazing Grace Centre in Noupoort in the Karoo in September.

Inset: Maria José Encarnação on the morning after her miraculous healing in Portugal in 2018.

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The Southern Cross

9

Television legend:

MY FAITH IS ALWAYS AT THE CENTRE

Known to millions of South Africans as a popular news anchor on SABC TV, Thabile Mbhele is also a devout Catholic. She spoke to Daluxolo Moloantoa about her faith, family, career and future.

U

NTIL QUITE RECENTLY, Thabile Mbhele (née Maphanga) was a regular face on SACBC, presenting the evening news. Leaving the national broadcaster last year has opened new doors for the member of Phiri parish in Soweto.

Born and raised in Bulwer in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, Thabile was the first of four children of two teachers.

In her younger years she and her siblings were reared under the watchful eye of their paternal grandmother, who instilled in the children a strong and unwavering Catholic faith.

“My grandmother taught me all I knew about being a devout Catholic from an early age,” Thabile tells The Southern Cross. “I remember how she made sure we all attended Mass every Sunday, without fail. We would walk a long distance to church, regardless of the weather. I remember the excitement in the air for us children leading up to our confirmation, when we would see the bishop for the first time in our lives. My grandmother was my catechist.” Thabile was confirmed by the late Bishop Paul Themba Mngoma of Mariannhill.

One of the lessons her grandmother taught was that it’s not enough to just be a church member; one must be active in church too. “Look around you. There will always be something that needs to be done. Find it and get involved, and do not just be a bench warmer,” her grandmother would say.

This came in handy for Thabile when she moved to Pelham in Pietermaritzburg in 1992 for high school. At the local parish of St Vincent she became an altar server and an active member of the parish youth group.

10

The Southern Cross

After high school she made another move, to begin her journalism studies at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). There she completed a national diploma in journalism and a bachelor of technology degree. After her studies she worked for a production company in Durban before joining the country’s largest radio station, the SABC’s Zululanguage Ukhozi FM, as a newsreader.

Later she was appointed general news reporter in the SABC’s Durban office.

In Durban, Thabile joined the Emmanuel Cathedral Youth Association. “I

My youth group groomed me to be the Catholic I am today can safely say that, apart from my grandmother, this youth group groomed me to become the Catholic that I am today.

It transformed my life, and those of my peers. It was a lively and very powerful youth group that did everything, including fun activities, prayer groups, and various fundraising activities.”

She later moved to the SABC’s head

Thabile and Sibusiso Mbhele at their wedding in December 2014

Thabile Mbhele, who until last year was a fixture on SABC TV news.

office in Johannesburg, first to work as a reporter, and soon taking over the health desk. Then came the big break when she became SABC TV 1’s primetime Zulu news anchor, presenting the 19:00 bulletin to the largest daily TV news audience in South Africa for more than 13 years.

Finding love at church

In the City of Gold, she found a new spiritual home for herself at St Peter Claver church in Pimville, Soweto, where she became, naturally enough, a proclaimer of the Word. More than that, Thabile found a new life at the church when she met her future husband, Sibusiso Mbhele, during the Stations of the Cross. The couple married in December 2014. The Mbhele family now attends Holy Rosary church in Phiri, also in Soweto, where the former news anchor is also a lector.

Part of her work as a senior health reporter involved international travel to cover health conferences. “One of the first things I’d do when I got to a country was to look for a local Catholic parish. I’d go in, have my prayers, and just marvel at the beauty of each church or cathedral. After that I would always come out feeling like I could conquer the world.” She celebrated her 30th birthday with a trip to Rome, with the Vatican as a highlight.

Thabile spent 20 years working at the SABC. “I loved the balance between radio and television news. I relished the independence and the creativity of telling radio stories as well as the team effort that goes into putting a TV news bulletin together. It is an intense process which involves so many people — from the news production team, to wardrobe, to makeup, to the studio crew, and so on. It is a mammoth production that

clear about what works and what does not work for me and for my family.”

happens every single day of the week,” she explains.

Thabile scooped four awards while working at the SABC: Radio News Journalist of the Year, Discovery Health Journalist of the Year, Tourism Journalist of the Year, and Community Builder of the Year.

Prayer partner

Daswa highlight

For all her career accolades, she rates her television coverage of the beatification of Bl Benedict Daswa in 2015 as the highlight of her journalism career.

“Among the numerous top stories I covered over the years, I must say covering the beatification in Limpopo province — and being afforded the opportunity to travel to the event with my then fourmonth-old daughter Abusiswe and my husband — remains one the most special and most memorable assignments.

My head of news at the SABC at the time, Angie Kapelianis, knew what it would mean for me, and she made it happen,” she remembers.

In March 2021 the SABC announced the retrenchment of 600 employees. These included Thabile.

But she is not bitter. “My retrenchment was a blessing in disguise. I was on maternity leave when I was retrenched, so this gave me more time at home with my newborn son. I also got to be present for my daughter who had just started Grade 1.

My time at home also gave me sufficient time to think about my future, what I wanted to do — and what not to do — career-wise going forward. One thing I knew for sure was that I no longer wanted to be part of a newsroom.

The long and irregular hours were no longer suitable for me. I got a lot of offers to be a news anchor elsewhere, and I turned them all down,” she says.

“I’ve done some freelance writing work, but at my own pace. I applied for jobs that I felt would be suitable for me as a mother with a growing family. My husband travels a lot, so we need at least one of us to be present at home with the kids. After five months at home, I finally got a most suitable post in the City of Johannesburg municipality. I work as a deputy-director for communications and stakeholder management in the city’s Department of Housing.”

At the Church’s service

Thabile continues to volunteer her journalism skills in the Church. “During my time as a member of the Catholic Women’s League, I became its de facto news correspondent, covering the organisation’s events at various parishes in

Thabile Mbhele with husband Sibusiso and two children, Abusiswe and Godide.

The couple, who married in December 2014, met during the Stations of the Cross at St Peter Claver church in Pimville, Soweto.

Johannesburg, and posting about them on the organisation’s social media platforms. I also published the articles in the Archdiocesan News. Currently I am a part of the team that produces the Zulu Mass service on Radio Veritas, which is broadcast every Sunday at 18:00.” Lately she

Before I went into the studio to read the news, I’d say a quiet prayer has also read the news on the Catholic radio station.

Thabile’s spirituality has had a great impact on her life as an individual, and in her family life. “My Catholic faith has definitely made me more disciplined in different aspects of my life. It has led me to make more mature decisions about my life and my family. Needless to say, it has also brought me closer to my God, and continues to push me towards listening to his guidance. The lockdown forced me to seek God more and to be

Having a life partner with a similar faith background is another blessing, she says. “He is my prayer partner. The decisions we make about our family come from a strong and committed common spiritual foundation,” she notes. As a couple, one of their greatest joys is to see the family’s seven-year-old daughter learning her Catholic prayers at this early age, a practice which evokes childhood memories for Thabile.

Staying true to herself as a Catholic is a constant in her life. It’s a belief that she urges young Catholics to adopt.

“Never be ashamed to live your Catholic faith, wherever you are. People may not understand you in the beginning, but they will accept you later in life,” she advises. “For over 13 years, when I went into the studio to read the news, I’d say a quiet prayer before every bulletin.

Non-Catholics would ask what it was and why I said it. Not once was I ashamed to explain it, and thereby I proclaimed my Catholic faith.”

She believes that Catholic professionals have a great role to play in the life and advancement of the Church.

“Their skills and talents are needed at various levels in the Church. There’s a huge need for career guidance for young people in the Church, and we have no shortage of professionals from various fields. If they could share with the younger ones, the Church would be so much richer,” she says.

“For me, it’s more than just making a financial contribution. We need all hands on deck and warm bodies to participate in church activities. Professionals need to bring interesting and innovative ideas to the Church.”

In the footsteps of St Eugene de Mazenod Pilgrimage to

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11

The Father of Tanzania turns 100:

Nyerere’s faith and politics April 13 will mark the centenary of the birth of one of Africa’s most remarkable leaders whose policies drew from his Catholic faith. ross Ahlfeld looks at the influence and legacy of Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere.

T

12

HE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S relationship with socialism is complicated. Long before the emergence of ideas such as liberation theology within the Catholic Church, papal encyclicals consistently and explicitly condemned the apparent godless materialism of socialism. Yet, how do we define socialism in the 21st century?

What does this word even mean? Do we think of the worst excesses of atheistic, totalitarian communism or do we mean the welfare state, such as the “New Jerusalem” built up by the UK’s post-World War II Labour government of Clement Attlee?

Indeed, none of these Labour policies — universal healthcare, unemployment protection, nationalisation — contradicted anything contained in Catholic Social Teaching. Even Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “In many respects, democratic socialism was and is close to Catholic social doctrine and has in any case made a remarkable contribution to the formation of a social consciousness.”

Which all brings me to Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the Tanzanian post-colonial leader who was born 100 years ago, on April 13, 1922.

Nyerere was a devout Catholic and deeply religious politician who served as the first leader of liberated Tanzania after independence, from 1960 until 1985. He died on October 14, 1999.

Nyerere, who converted from the Zanaki traditional religion to Catholicism at the age of 20, liked to attend daily Mass. He was a daily communicant and remained so for the rest of his life. He was also known for his active prayer life and frequent fasting. It is believed that Nyerere considered The Southern Cross

becoming a Catholic priest when he was studying in Edinburgh in the early 1950s. He enjoyed spending time sitting quietly in the city’s St Mary’s church.

In 2005 the cause for his beatification was opened with Vatican approval, and on May 13 that year, Pope Benedict XVI named Nyerere a “Servant of God”. I think this may be why I admire this political layperson so much: my late grandfather became a daily communicant after he retired, as is my father today, and if God spares me, so too will I be one day.

An African socialism

I first learned about Nyerere’s political philosophy from a book given to me by a fellow community worker friend who had studied Nyerere’s policy of Ujamaa at university. Ujamaa

Nyerere was known for his active prayer life and frequent fasting was Nyerere’s own blend of African Catholic socialism, which emphasised family, community, fraternity, selfreliance, and local production.

Nyerere, who in his speeches often quoted from Scripture, opposed Marxism’s “scientific socialism” and the notion of classs struggle, and drew little inspiration from European social democracy. He believed that a “socialist attitude of mind” was already present in traditional African society.

In 1970 Nyerere urged that the Catholic Church should partici-

Julius Nyerere (1922-99), the Tanzanian leader whose cause for beatification was approved in 2005.

pate in “the rebellion against those social structures and economic organisations which condemn men to poverty, humiliation and degradation”.

The hope was that Tanzania could apply Ujamaa to its rural agriculture to “decolonise” itself, and in doing so win independence peacefully, in contrast with the violent transitions taking place in other new African states. Most historians and Tanzanians agree that the collective farming plan of Ujamaa was an economic disaster which resulted in further hardship; the country remained extremely poor, hugely in debt and massively reliant on foreign aid to prevent famine.

However, there were also major improvements in healthcare and education, literacy rates and access to clean water. It should be noted too that the difficulties faced by Tanzania

‘Give them the education which will train their heads to refuse the wretchedness of mind and skill their hands to develop the resources of Africa.’ – Julius Nyerere

must be seen in the context of the crippling disadvantages faced by African nations freeing themselves from centuries of colonialism.

While in the late 19th and early 20th century “sacramental socialists” struggled with how Catholics might better relate to the emergence of socialism, Nyerere held these two tensions together by attempting to combine Catholic Social Teaching with socialist economic theory within a traditional African society.

Africa’s vibrant Church

During the pontificate of Pope Francis, Catholic socialists are once again looking to the vibrant Church in Africa. Similarly, we are now seeing an increase in radical 20th century lay people like Nyerere being considered

for canonisation, Dorothy Day and Bl Franz Jägerstatter being two others.

However, before Catholics can fully embrace and promote the cause for Nyerere’s canonisation, we should first listen to Catholics and nonCatholics in Tanzania to fully understand his complex reputation as the Father of the Nation, alongside the legacy of his one-party state and unsuccessful socialist reforms. Although admired for his idealism and personal integrity, Nyerere left a mixed political legacy, and his cause for sainthood has been initiated not for his political legacy but because of the way he conducted his public life as a politician, thinker and writer.

Therefore, to simply appropriate

Nyerere for our own political ends within the context of the Western Church’s ongoing “Cons vs Libs” culture war, without being guided by and informed by the people of Africa, would be to simply indulge in another act of neocolonialism rather than an act of solidarity.

What we can perhaps agree on is that all our well-intentioned political activism must always have its roots in a meaningful prayer life. Our desire for justice and peace flows from our sacramental life. As St John Henry Newman said: “He has not created me for naught, I shall do good, I shall do his work.”

Ross Ahlfeld is a Catholic writer based in Glasgow, Scotland.

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The Southern Cross

13

Oberammergau’s

Season of the Passion The Bavarian village of Oberammergau performs

the world’s most famous Passion Play, as it will this year — and only locals may take on roles.

Günther Simmermacher looks at Oberammergau.

I

14

N 1633, AT THE HEIGHT OF THE Reformation, the Black Death was sweeping through Europe, including the southern German region of Bavaria. The terrified people of one small village decided to do something to protect themselves from this lethal pandemic: by way of collective prayer, the villagers vowed to perform every ten years a Passionsspiel — a play depicting the Passion of Christ — should their hamlet be spared.

The pandemic indeed spared the village of Oberammergau, and on Pentecost the following year the villagers staged their first Passion Play, at the town’s cemetery. It has been performed by the villagers at regular intervals ever since, most recently in 2010, and by now in a big, semi-covered theatre, built in 1928.

In 2022, some 389 years after that pandemic, Oberammergau is ready to stage another Passion Play, at a time which the world is hoping will mark the end of another pandemic. Starting on May 14 and running till October 2, five days a week, the Passion Play was originally planned to be performed in 2020; but Covid lockdowns put paid to that. With foresight, the organisers decided to delay the play for two years.

Oberammergau, which is near the winter sports resort of GarmischPartenkirchen, subsists on the revenue of the play and the associated tourism. While those who put on and act in the play are driven by piety and The Southern Cross

local pride, the organisers of the modern Oberammergau Passion Play are motivated by economics, employing ethics in that pursuit which would not be out of place in the Temple in Jerusalem 2 000 years ago.

Sold-out performances

And they can afford to be cutthroat. Performances are sold out well in advance. In 2010, half a million people attended 102 performances.

One day fights broke out at the box office when 300 people came to compete for 40 available tickets. Many of these multitudes come from afar, and they must sleep somewhere, eat, drink, buy souvenirs. The whole region around Oberammergau benefits (presumably also Unterammergau, the sibling that is no less picturesque but whose villagers neglected to strike what would turn out to be lucrative deals with God).

The souvenir shops are plenty, and the village’s world-famous woodcarvings are popular with visitors. But caveat emptor! Not all wood carvings on sale are produced in Oberammergau; some are made in China. Just as in the Holy Land, where pilgrims have to watch out that their souvenir olive wood rosaries are made locally, so it is in Oberammergau. Still, the souvenirs are generally of reasonable quality and price, and the commercialism falls just on the bearable side of frenzied crassness.

Photo ©Passionsspiele Oberammergau 2022/Birgit Gudjonsdottir

But it would be unjust to dismiss the Passion Play as a purely commercial exercise. The Catholic faith infuses the air in Oberammergau, as it does throughout the region (most of Germany’s remaining 21 Passion Plays are performed in Bavaria). The sincerity of those who take part should not be doubted. Only locally-born people or residents of at least 20 years may act in the play (musicians and members of the chorus may be drawn from surrounding areas). The cast also includes animals, which need not be local. In 2010, a horse, a donkey, three sheep and, marvellously, two camels took to the stage in Oberammergau.

Labour of love and faith

For the 2 100 villagers who take part (from a population of 5 400), it is a labour of love and, for many, an exercise in evangelisation. There is not much in it for most of them, but the sacrifices are many. Some actors take unpaid leave to take part. Outside the leading roles, the actors don’t earn much. And there are fines for transgressions, such as laughing on stage.

In return for their modest remuneration, the cast members invest many hours of practice every night from January to the curtainraiser in May. Then there is all the time they stand on stage, or behind the scenes as they await their sometimes brief time in the limelight.

The men must change their appear-

Photos: Günther Simmermacher

Above: Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in the Oberammergau Passion Play • Top right: The Passion Play theatre • Bottom right: Woodcarvings shop in Oberammergau

ance, growing long hair and beards — by promulgated decree of the mayor.

The actors who portray Christ, the disciples, and the judges of the Sanhedrin all look like hippies, in a region where people don’t tend to look like hippies. Since Ash Wednesday 2021, they have let their hair grow. Usually, the Ash Wednesday in the year preceding a Passion Play is also the last chance for a shave. But to allow for the comfortable wearing of Covid facemasks, the beard decree initially was not strictly enforced.

Two Jesuses

Everyone, from the leads — all of them cast with two alternating actors — to the ushers, has known since November 2018 what their role will be.

One of the two Jesuses, Frederik Mayet, a 41-year-old art director at a Munich theatre, had already played that role in 2010 — also on the day when a group of Southern Cross pilgrims saw the Passion Play in September that year. Years before that, he played the disciple John (and 2010’s John has been promoted to the role of Judas in 2022).

And before that Mayet participated in one of the roles for children (in 2010, some 500 children took part).

This year’s alternate Jesus is Rochus Rückel, at 25 the second-youngest actor

The Catholic faith infuses the air in Oberammergau to play the part in the Passion Play’s almost 400-year history. On the other hand, the two actors playing Annas, Caiaphas’ ruthless father-in-law, have been performing in the play since 1950.

Oberammergau didn’t invent Passion Plays. These were widespread in medieval times, performed throughout the German-speaking region as well as in countries such as France, Italy and England. Before and for long after Oberammergau’s villagers made their plague-avoiding bargain with God, the most famous Passion Play was that of Benediktbeuren, also in Bavaria, the first known script of which was written in 1300. The oldest complete script of a

Passion Play dates to the 14th century.

With the Reformation, in most parts of Germany Passion Plays fell out of common usage, but in the solidly Catholic Bavarian Alps and Austria they became increasingly popular. It was in that context that the Oberammergau play was born, along with 40 others in the region between 1600 and 1650.

Oberammergau gained a measure of pre-eminence in 1750 when its script was thoroughly reworked by the Benedictine Ferdinand Rosner of the nearby Ettal Abbey. That script was adopted by other Passion Plays throughout Bavaria. When in 1780 Passion Plays were banned in Bavaria — the beginning of a creeping process of anti-clerical secularisation that would culminate in the nationalisation of monasteries — Oberammergau’s was one of two plays that were given an exemption. This near-monopoly helped establish Oberammergau’s Passion Play, and in the mid-19th century it began to attract international attention and increasing popularity.

Continued on page 16

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15

©Passionsspiele Oberammergau 2022/Kienberger

By the 1930s, Oberammergau attracted 400 000 spectators. Among them in 1934 — the play’s 300th anniversary — was Adolf Hitler. Though decidedly not a friend of Catholicism, Hitler praised the Passion Play fulsomely. Presumably he approved in particular of the ugly manner in which it presented Jews.

Throughout their history, Passion Play runs generally were not a good time for a Jew to be seen in public — and not only in Germany. Stoked on by the hideous assertion that Jews are responsible into perpetuity for the execution of Christ and the ghastly blood libel (the rumours that Jews used the blood of Christian children for the production of matzos for the Passover), Christian crowds would attack Jews, even burning their homes.

Oberammergau did not solve the question of anti-Semitism in its script until the 1990s, almost three decades after Vatican II issued its decree Nostra aetate, which put an end to the final remnants of institutional anti-Semitism. The thoroughly overdue reworking came with Christian Stückl, who first directed the play as a 29-year-old in 1990 and has done so ever since. He supervised two comprehensive revisions to shed the play of any trace of anti-Semitism. The script now presents Jesus as the leader of a Jewish movement, rather than as a gentile victim of an in-

The stage of the Passion Play theatre in Oberammergau

trinsically bloodthirsty people.

Those in the know say the play is much stronger for it. It is indeed an impressive and intensely moving production. Artistically, the tableaux vivants — the living still images — and chorus

tivations. Judas does not betray Jesus for greed but in a tragically misguided strategic gambit. Likewise, we come to understand the causes of Caiaphas’ duplicity. His concerns are mostly political: Jesus is a danger to a delicate peace between the Jews and the Roman occupiers. We should not have much sympathy for Caiaphas’ deviousness or conduct, or that of Annas, but we may at least understand it as being motivated by cold expediency, not by hatred.

It is not spoiling any plotlines to reveal that the story culminates in the resurrection. In 2010, the last words in the Oberammergau play belonged to the choir which declared: “Hallelujah!

Praise, honour, adoration, power and majesty be yours, forever and ever!”

Next month we interview Jesus actor Frederik Mayet

In the play, Judas does not betray Jesus for greed productions especially are extraordinary. More importantly, the recreation of the events leading to Christ’s death is, as one might expect, intensely powerful — to my mind much more so than the shock-and-awe gore of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

The theology is modern and profoundly Christian: the play does not condemn but seeks to understand mo-

Go with us to Oberammergau & Holy Land

I

n August this year, The Southern Cross will take a group of readers to see the Oberammergau Passion Play, an opportunity that normally comes around only every ten years (and in 2022, it’s 12 years since the last one).

Our group will have a headstart over most members of the audiences: before we go to Germany, we will make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to visit and pray at the actual sites of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

16

Clockwise from top left: Ettal Abbey, the Asam church in Munich, and Calvary in Jerusalem’s church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The pilgrimage will be led by Archbishop William Slattery. As a Franciscan, he has a special love for and great knowledge of the Holy Land. It will be the popular archbishop’s fourth pilgrimage with The Southern Cross!

Having visited the great sites of the Holy Land — Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, Jericho, Bethany, and so on (and floated in the Dead Sea!) — we’ll fly to Germany. There we will have a special guided tour of Munich with its many beautiful churches, and have the opportunity to enjoy typical Bavarian dinners — with a traditional beer, if one is so inclined.

We will also visit the famous Benedictine Ettal Abbey and the lovely Wieskirche, with its miraculous statue of the Scourged Saviour. Both are located in the beautiful Alps, giving us scenic drives through gorgeous countryside. The highlight will be the world-famous Passion Play of Oberammergau, an attractive village with houses decorated with the murals, most of them religious, that are typical of the region.

Limited numbers of tickets are available — either for the full tour or just the Germany leg (you could plan a European holiday around the dates). But hurry: time is running out!

Departure from Johannesburg is on August 19; returning on August 31.

For the illustrated itinerary with booking form, please go to www.fowlertours.co.za/passion or contact Gail The Southern Cross at info@fowlertours.co.za or call 076 352-3809

Saint of the Month: St Bernadette

The simple girl who saw Our Lady

Lourdes is the third-most popular site of Christian pilgrimage. And it all began in 1858 with St Bernadette, as Günther simmermacher explains.

W

HEN THE 14-YEAR-OLD Bernadette Soubirous saw an apparition of a woman who’d declare herself “The Immaculate Conception”, she had no idea that her little hometown of Lourdes, in the French Pyrénées near the border with Spain, would one day become the world’s third-biggest site of Christian pilgrimage — and she a canonised saint.

Born on January 7, 1844, the eldest of the nine children of the miller François and the laundress Louise Soubirous, Bernadette was a sickly child, contracting cholera as a toddler and suffering severe asthma for the rest of her life. Her fragile health was not aided by the impoverished conditions in which her family often lived, and it disrupted her education. Standing at only 1,4m, she was physically unimposing, and her lack of education led people to believe that she was a simpleton, which was an unfair characterisation.

So when Our Lady chose to appear to this unremarkable girl, who spoke barely any French (her mother tongue was the local Occitan dialect) and came Sr Marie-Bernarde, formerly Bernadette Soubirous, after joining the Sisters of Charity of Nevers in 1866.

St Bernadette at a glance

Name at birth: Bernadette Soubirous Religious name: Sr Marie-Bernarde Born: January 7, 1844, in Lourdes, France Died: April 16, 1879 (aged 35) Beatified: 1925 Canonised: 1933 Feast: April 16 Patronages: Illness, poverty, lacemakers, shepherds, people ridiculed for their faith, France

from a family that was living in a disused jail cell known as La Cachot (the dungeon), many people were incredulous. But just as God had picked ostracised shepherds and disenfranchised women to announce the birth and resurrection of the Lord, so has the Blessed Virgin often chosen to appear to unlikely candidates. And so, on February 11, 1858, she appeared to Bernadette while the girl was gathering firewood with her sister Toinette and a friend near the grotto of Massabielle.

It was the first of 18 apparitions — 15 of them taking place in the space of three weeks — which lasted until July 16. In none of them did the apparition say she was the Blessed Virgin, and Bernadette never claimed it so. She referred to the apparition as “aquero”, a local dialect term which can be loosely interpreted as “that of which I’m speaking”. But the lady’s declaration, in the Occitan dialect, that she was the Immaculate Conception left no doubt that it was indeed Our Lady. The apparitions divided the community of Lourdes.

Even Bernadette’s mother was at first embarrassed by her daughter. Some thought Bernadette was insane and wanted her committed to an asylum.

Sceptical parish priest

that grew there”. Bernadette did as told.

In front of startled witnesses who thought the girl had lost her mind, she scratched in the ground and then washed in the emerging muddy water and drank from it. But when the people returned to the site the next day, the fresh spring which Bernadette had dug up with her hands issued clear water — as it does to this day, curing people of many ailments.

After rigorous interrogation of Bernadette, the Catholic Church approved the apparitions as authentic in 1862. A chapel was built, but soon that wasn’t enough to hold the pilgrims who came to Lourdes for the miraculous waters. Today there are two huge basilicas, built on top of one another, plus a massive underground basilica which can hold 25 000 people, and a modern church dedicated to St Bernadette in the Lourdes sanctuary.

Becoming a nun

Bernadette never liked the attention her experience was attracting, and sought to become a nun. After the Carmelites rejected her for health reasons, she joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers — who had taught her to read

Abbé Dominique Peyramale, the parish priest to whom Bernadette reported the lady’s request that a chapel be built at the site of the apparition, was initially highly sceptical of her reports of the apparitions (wisely so). He certainly was irritated when Bernadette reported that this impertinent apparition wanted a chapel to be built for her. But he later came to accept St Bernadette’s reports as true and took the girl under his protection.

The watershed, as it were, was on February 25. The lady instructed Bernadette “to drink of the water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat the herb The Southern Cross

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St Bernadette of Lourdes

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A Timeline of St Bernadette

1844

1907

Born on January 7, the eldest child Pope Pius X introduces the feast of of François and Louise Soubirous in the apparition of the Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes.

Lourdes, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France.

1858

First apparition of Our Lady at the cave of Massabielle at Lourdes on February 11. There’d be a total of 18 apparitions until July 16.

1862

Bishop Betrand Severt Laurence of Tarbes approves the authenticity of the apparitions.

1866

Enters the religious life with the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, and is given the name Sr Marie-Bernarde (after Mary and her godmother).

Moves for good to the congregation’s mother-house in Nevers.

1870

Pope Pius IX approves the Lourdes apparitions as worthy of belief.

1876

The basilica of the Immaculate Conception is built at the site of the apparitions in Lourdes.

1879

1909

First exhumation, on September 22.

It is found that the crucifix in her hand and her rosary had both oxidised, but her body appeared incorrupt.

1919

Second exhumation, on 3 April.

Her body is found with patches of mildew and a layer of calcium salts.

The skin has disappeared in some places, but is still present on most parts of the body.

1925

Beatified by Pope Pius XI.

Third exhumation. A mould of her face and hands is made for wax casts to cover her incorrupt remains which are transferred to her convent’s chapel.

1933

Canonised by Pope Pius XI on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

1944

Jennifer Jones wins an Oscar for At the age of 35 dies of tuberculosis her portrayal of St Bernadette in in Nevers on April 16 after a long the film The Song of Bernadette, based on Franz Werfel’s 1941 novel. illness.

Clockwise from top left: St Bernadette’s rosary • St Bernadette’s incorrupt body in Nevers • Oscar-winner Jennifer Jones in the 1943 film The Song of Bernadette • The Lourdes sanctuary.

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and write — in 1866, almost to the day eight years after the final apparition. She was given the name Marie-Bernarde, which she felt was a welcome escape from being Bernadette the Visionary.

She moved to the congregation’s motherhouse in Nevers, 700km from Lourdes in central France, which she would never leave, even when the basilica of the Immaculate Conception was consecrated in Lourdes in 1876.

At Nevers, her superiors were keen to cut her down to size in case the already famous visionary might get ideas of being a celebrity. She took on humble jobs, working as a cleaner in the infirmary. Later she was a sacristan, making beautifully embroidered vestments and altar cloths. Though she never traded on her celebrity, it nevertheless provoked hostile jealousy from some fellow nuns. But even when she suffered degradations — especially at the hands of her novice mistress, Sr Marie-Thérèse Vauzou, who did not believe in the apparitions — Bernadette never lost her humility.

But she could also be brutally candid.

When the artist who sculpted a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, based on Bernadette’s description, presented the finished artwork, she said: “It’s not her!” The poor artist hadn’t managed to capture the smile accurately. But how do you describe a smile accurately for reproduction?

Final illness

Bernadette’s health never improved.

Tuberculosis of the lungs and bones eventually confined her to bed for several months.

On April 16, 1879, the Wednesday after Easter, she died at the age of 35. Her final words were: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner, a poor sinner.”

Bernadette’s body was first interred in the chapel of St Joseph in the peaceful grounds of St Gildard’s convent in Nevers.

Since then, her body has been exhumed three times. Every time, it was found to be incorrupt. After the final exhumation and before relocation to the chapel, wax imprints of her face and hands were made, to cover the blackened skin. St Bernadette now rests in a glass casket in the convent’s chapel.

Pope Pius XI beatified Bernadette in 1925, and canonised her on December 8, 1933, the feast day of the Immaculate Conception. Her feast day is April 16.

There is a remarkable coda to the story of St Bernadette. The two principal men in her life were her father François, and her mentor, Fr Peyramale. The priest died on September 8, 1877, the feast of Our Lady’s Nativity. François died on December 8, 1871, the feast of the Immaculate Conception— the name by which the Blessed Virgin revealed herself to Bernadette.

Next month we look at another young saint: St Joan of Arc

Cooking for Holy Week

GRAZIA BARLETTA prepares two offerings for holy week, with photos taken

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exclusively forThe Southern Cross by the chef in her Cape Town kitchen!

TRADITIONAL HOT CROSS BUN IS A yeasted sweet roll that’s lightly spiced, usually made with fruit, and marked with a cross on the top. It is traditionally eaten on Good Friday to mark the end of Lent. The bun is filled with symbolism: The cross on the top represents Jesus’ crucifixion; and the spices signify those used to embalm him at his burial.

The origins of the hot cross buns are not certain. One story goes that in 1361, Br Thomas Rodcliffe of St Alban’s Abbey in England baked the buns, decorated with the cross, and distributed them to the poor on Good Friday. These days, the buns are sold all year round and include non-traditional types containing chocolate or cranberries.

The buns do take a bit of time to make, but the recipe is really easy to follow and you might even have all the ingredients readily available.

They can be served toasted or plain with butter. preparation: 2 hours 10 min • Baking: 20-25 min • servings: 24

prEpArAtion: 1. Add the flour, yeast, warm milk, sugar, spices, salt and butter in a large mixing bowl. Using a mixer or wooden spoon, beat until smooth and elastic, for about five minutes.

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ASSOVER IS THE GREAT JEWISH FEAST of redemption and liberation, the memorial of the Israelites’ deliverance from their bondage in Egypt. The word Passover means “deliverance”, the ritual meal which commemorates the events of the Exodus is called the Seder. The Passover Seder is also the meal at the Last Supper at which Jesus instituted the Eucharist.

Hot Cross Buns

2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth after each addition.

inGrEDiEnts

• ½ cup of sugar • 1 cup of warm milk • 1 packet of instant yeast • 1 ½ tsp salt • ½ tsp ground nutmeg • ½ tsp cinnamon • ½ tsp allspice • 4 tbsp butter softened • 6 cups cake flour • 3 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla essence • ½ cup raisins

For the egg wash:

1 large egg white • 1 tsp water

For the crosses:

75g flour • 100ml water

Paschal Meal

The Seder meal is accompanied by commentary, prayers and song. The actual celebration of the Seder is a complete meal with supper during the ritual. It should be festive and joyous. Guests may be asked to bring something for the supper to increase the feeling of community. The table should be set as per a dinner. Each plate should have small portions of the following: Boiled egg: Often eaten with saltwater, hardboiled eggs are a symbol of life. It is also said to represent the second offerings presented at the temple in Jerusalem, sorrow at its destruction and the hope that it will be rebuilt.

3. Beat in the vanilla and the raisins, forming a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a large greased bowl. Turn once to coat the top and cover with plastic wrap.

4. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 to 1½ hours.

5. Punch down the dough. Cover with an inverted bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.

6. Divide the dough into 24 equal portions. Roll each portion into a smooth ball.

Place the balls about 4cm apart on a greased baking sheet or pan.

7. Let the rolls rise until doubled in volume, about 25-30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C. 8. Make the egg wash by mixing 1 egg white with a teaspoon of water. Brush the rolls lightly with the egg wash.

9. For the crosses, add the 75g flour to a bowl with 100 ml water. Mix together to make a paste and spoon into an icing bag. Pipe a cross over each bun.

10. Place the buns into the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Transfer them to a wire rack and let cool.

11. Enjoy with the prayer to Our Lord in thanksgiving for his sacrifice! the tears of the Jewish slaves.

charoset: A sweet mixture of roughly-chopped apples, almonds or walnuts, cinnamon and red wine, charoset represents the mortar that was used to construct the storehouses by the Jewish people when they were slaves in ancient Egypt.

Combine ½ cup chopped nuts. ½ cup diced apple. 1 tbsp honey, ½ tsp cinnamon, red wine as desired. lamb bone: The lamb shank bone is the one part of the Seder plate that is not eaten during dinner. Instead, it serves as a visual reminder of the special Passover sacrificial lamb offered at the temple in Jerusalem before its destruction.

Matzos: This represent the unleavened bread the Jews ate while fleeing Egypt.

Bitter herbs: Parsley or celery symbolise the coming of the northern spring. In the Ashkenazi tradition, it is dipped in saltwater to represent

red wine: Considered a royal drink, wine symbolises freedom, which is what the Passover Seder celebrate.

Music greatly adds to the celebration of the Seder, it can be sung by those present or recorded music can be used.

Grazia Barletta is an author, book designer, and food photographer & stylist. She can be contacted at graziabarletta1@gmail.com

The Southern Cross

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BOOK REVIEW

Fr Cyril Axelrod’s light shines brightly Reviewed by Günther Simmermacher

STILL ON THAT JOURNEY, by Fr Cyril Axelrod CSsR. Redemptorist Pastoral Publications. 2022. 122pp. R200

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cese in which Fr Cyril lives has withdrawn his faculties to celebrate public Mass, for what appear to be absurd and possibly prejudicial reasons.

For people struggling with disability, or other immobilising predicaments, Fr Cyril offers concrete hope, not only by how he has managed his disability but also by how he has embraced it as a gift and a vocation. He seeks to empower those facing disability. The story of his encounter with an anguished disabled learner in a Canadian school is one of the most moving passages in this book.

His message is “that the disabled should not depend on society to define who they are and what their place is.

HE LAST THING FATHER CYRIL Axelrod saw before he went totally blind was a candle which he had lit. In the knowledge that his eyesight was leavSense of humour ing him, he slowly saw the light fadAnd then there is Fr Cyril’s huing away. Fr Cyril told that moving mour. He has many amusing stories to story at the launch of his second autotell, and he shares them generously in biographical book, Still On That Jourthis book. At times, he delivers an inney, a sequel of sorts to his 2005 cidental zinger. Recalling a time when memoirs, And the Journey Begins. an airline assistant expressed surprise The Johannesburg-born Redempat Fr Cyril’s skilful navigation of an torist priest might have seen the light airport, the priest writes that he fade away that day in early 2000, but to the world he remains a beaReaders will be inspired by Fr thought better of quipping that he had done it so often, he could “do con of light. Readers of his new Cyril’s accomplishments, and it blindfolded”. book will be inspired not only by Fr Fr Cyril’s book is prefaced by an Cyril’s extraordinary accomplishby the tenderness with which erudite foreword by his confrere Fr ments — climbing Machu Picchu at Sean Wales, and an introduction by the age of 72 without sight or he has embraced his disability his close friend Fr Larry Kaufmann sound is a singular achievement — CSsR as the executive editor of the but also by the courage and the tenderRather, it all begins when disabled peo- book. Fr Jan Haen CSsR, formerly of ness with which he has embraced his ple themselves recognise and use their South Africa and now living in Amsdisability. Startlingly, he calls it a gift disabilities as gifts to society,” Fr Cyril terdam, tells the story of Fr Cyril’s life from God, albeit one he first had to writes. “It does not matter that this no- through comic strip drawings. For work hard to accept. tion of disability as a gift is, for the Fr Cyril is a thoroughly independ- present, a tiny mustard seed (as one of readers who don’t know that amazing ent man. He relies on the help of oth- Jesus’ parables puts it). It will grow as story, these pages are a useful scenesetter for the main narrative. ers when he has to, but he lives on his big as the largest tree one day.”

Still On That Journey is intended to own, is known to cook a good meal, Fr Cyril is also eager to help those mark Fr Cyril’s 80th birthday, which creates art that has been published in who are not sensory-deprived to un- was on February 24. So the second part a book, does clay modelling, grows derstand deaf-blindness, and not to of the book features tributes by various flowers, and so on. There is an inrun away from it in fear, as some peo- friends, cousins and admirers, such as domitable spirit that finds expression ple have done — even literally so.

Bishop Kevin Dowling CSsR, Fr Mark in this book, and that spirit, it seems, James OP, and a number of people who sustains Fr Cyril’s relationship with his have benefited from his guidance. deaf-blindness. His condition often A selection of colour photos gives places Fr Cyril in vulnerable positions, us a visual insight into Fr Cyril’s life. but one tries to exploit it at one’s own It may be startling to see one depictperil, as a dishonest London cabbie ing the South African Jewish convert found out the hard way! to Catholicism wearing a kilt of the McIntyre clan at Loch Ness!

Fierce independence Fr Cyril is an engaging writer. I Modern technology has aided Fr read this book twice, on both occaCyril in his fierce independence. It has sions in one sitting — simply because given him remarkable facilities: in I didn’t want to leave his company. communication with the outside world, in telling the time accurately, even in baking a pasta. So it is all the more distressing to learn that the dio-

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Fr Cyril Axelrod (right) with his close friend and fellow Redemptorist Fr Larry Kaufmann at the Cape Town launch of Still On That Journey.

Still On That Journey can be ordered from www.rpp.org.za/product/still-on-thatjourney/

Could Pontius Pilate be a saint?

One Church regards Pontius Pilate and his wife Claudia as saints.

Fr ralph de hahn wonders: Is it possible that Pilate was converted by his remarkable encounter with Jesus and its aftermath?

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S PONTIUS PILATE A SAINT, AS THE Ethiopian (Tewahhedo) Orthodox Church claims? It would indeed be a fascinating study to learn about the deeper feelings and emotions of Pontius Pilate during and after his historic encounter with Jesus — and whether there is any justification, from the pages of sacred scripture, in the claim that both Pilate and his wife, Claudia, were converted by that experience and are now saints in heaven.

We do know that not every word and action of Jesus — nor, obviously, of Pontius Pilate — is recorded in the Bible.

However, we can probe and read between the lines. It seems certain to me that Pilate admired Jesus. He made more than one attempt to save Jesus from execution.

We are told that Pilate was of an Equestrian family, married to a beautiful, highly educated Roman woman, Claudia Procula, who accompanied him to the Roman province of Judea, where Pilate served as governor for ten years, from 26-36 AD. Pilate had no scruples about using cruel methods and brute force wherever negotiations failed; the historians Philo and Josephus do not speak well of him. We know that Pilate was concerned with Rome’s judgment of his governing ability, and the Jewish authorities were ever threatening to report his conduct to Rome during turbulent times.

The four Gospels give a short account of Jesus’ unique trial: Pilate meets the Son of God face to face. The governor is the judge. He reminds the Jewish prosecutors that while they judge by the Mosaic law, he will judge by Roman law.

However the Sanhedrin cleverly reverts to Jesus’ claim of being a king — and thus an enemy of Caesar. The accused is now legally guilty of treason!

“Do you not hear how many charges are set against you?” Pilate asks Jesus. But to the governor’s complete amazement, Jesus offers no reply to the charges. Total

silence (Matthew 27:11-14). “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asks. Jesus quietly replies: “It is you who say it.”

Pilate is perplexed Pilate is perplexed about such a king and a kingdom not of this world. He stands on his authority — the power to execute or set the prisoner free — but Jesus reminds him that all power comes from above, from God. Pilate is fully aware that this man is innocent. “This man has done nothing to deserve death” — even Herod Antipas has agreed. He gives the mob the choice between Jesus and the notorious criminal Barrabas. The mob chooses Barrabas.

His wife Claudia sends a message of warning: “Have nothing to do with this man; I have been upset all day by a dream I had about him” (Matthew 27:19). Pilate believes the gods have spoken. The proud governor then stands before the crowd and over a basin of water

The executed man was seen alive. What was Pilate to believe? washes his hands: “I am innocent of the blood of this just man.” Pilate is shouted down, and in his weakness he succumbs to the mob, and orders Jesus’ crucifixion.

The Gospels bring the trial to an end; but now begins the inner story. To what extent did Jesus touch and haunt the heart and conscience of the Roman governor? The scriptures clearly indicate Pilate’s indecision when challenged by the mob. However, Pilate had met his master, for never did man speak so eloquently as Jesus spoke. Such silent nobility! This must have haunted Pilate for the remaining three years of his life (he died in 36 AD).

He himself wrote the notice to be attached to the cross, “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”, in Hebrew, Latin and

Greek. The Jewish authorities vigorously rejected this title. Pilate stood his ground.

Did he really believe that this noble figure, whom he had condemned, was truly a king from a kingdom far beyond?

Pilate had these three years, together with Claudia, to search his conscience.

Imagine the impact on Pilate when hearing the report of his centurion who witnessed the total happening on Calvary and his exclamation: “Indeed, this was a son of God!” There was the earthquake, the awesome fear that shook the soldiers, the people and the Jewish authorities; then the report that the huge veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The witness recalled the words he had heard from the cross: “All is now accomplished.” Pilate must have questioned what Jesus’ mission was, now fully accomplished by his death? There were Jewish prophecies of a messiah, but surely not one to be so cruelly humiliated. Then who was this Jesus?

The curious case of Jesus We also cannot ignore Joseph of Arimathea’s visit to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus (Matthew 27:57). Mark writes that Pilate was astonished that Jesus should have died so soon (15:44).

Pontius Pilate must have grown increasingly curious.

Only a few days later rumours spread that Jesus’ tomb was empty and his body was missing. Surprise, consternation and disbelief! In fact, the man who died on the cross had been seen alive by some of his followers. What was Pilate to believe?

Did Pilate hear the words of the wise Pharisee Gamaliel, who cautioned the Sanhedrin: “If this movement is of human origin, it will break up of its own accord.

But if it is, in fact, from God, you will be unable to destroy them; and you will find yourselves fighting against God” (Acts 5:38). Thousands of believing Jews were turning to what would come to be called the Christian God. Pilate and Claudia were challenged to enter a new life, a new kingdom, and worship a new God. Did they do so? We have only tradition and rumours — not facts — that speak of Pilate’s conversion and the remorse he experienced, and then his suicide. One theory has it that Emperor Caligula ordered Pilate’s death and that his body be thrown into the Tiber. Could it be because Pontius Pilate had converted to the Christian faith?

The question remains: Is the Ethiopian Orthodox Church justified in regarding Pilate and his wife as saints?

Did Jesus truly convert the arrogant and brutal Pontius Pilate? The question remains unanswered. And yet one is left wondering: What if?

Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town

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The earthquake and darkness that befell Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ death on the cross are scientifically inexplicable – and offer proof of Christ’s divinity, as Paul De Marco explains.

Proof of Christ’s divinity

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HOMAS REFUSED TO BELIEVE that Jesus had risen from the dead, despite all the apostles telling him that they had seen Jesus alive again. He defiantly said: “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and can put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

When Christ appeared to the apostles for the second time, Thomas was with them, and the Lord told the doubting apostle: “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” A stunned Thomas could only utter the words: “My Lord and my God!” It’s easy to criticise Thomas for his lack of faith, but, like Thomas, millions of people refuse to accept the resurrection without hard evidence.

Surprisingly, there is physical evidence from the day of the crucifixion that points to the divinity of Jesus, such as the prolonged period of darkness during which the stars could be seen, and the severe earthquake which struck Jerusalem, damaging the temple.

From the Gospel accounts you would assume that there must have been a solar eclipse. However, the crucifixion occurred at Passover, which is always celebrated at the time of the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This makes it impossible for the darkness to have been caused by a solar eclipse, as these can occur only when there is a new moon, and not a full moon.

Also, the records show that the darkness lasted for a few hours. But a total solar eclipse cannot exceed seven minutes and 31 seconds, which is the maximum time it can take for the moon to pass over the sun. Total solar eclipses are very rare events, happening at any

given location only once in every 360 years. The darkness described in the Gospels couldn’t have been caused by a lunar eclipse either, because the darkness caused by a lunar eclipse can be present only on the night-side of the planet, and Jerusalem at midday was on the day-side of the planet.

What early historians say

This darkness was also described by the 2nd-century historian Tertullian, who clearly didn’t believe that the phenomenon was caused by an eclipse at all. He wrote: “In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ no doubt thought it an eclipse.”

darkness has been provided by science, in the same way that no satisfactory explanation for the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima on October 13, 1917, has been offered, despite the fact that it was witnessed by tens of thousands of people.

The Gospel writings also refer to the parochet — the heavy curtain that once covered the Ark of the Covenant — hanging in the Temple being torn in two. This massive curtain was 18m high and 10cm thick. The 1st-century historian Josephus wrote that it was so heavy that horses tethered to each side could not pull it apart. The curtain was suspended from a lintel, and it’s likely that the earthquake displaced the lintel and the support pillars, causing the curtain to be torn. However the timing of the event is extraordinary, as Matthew recorded that it happened at the very moment Jesus died.

There is massive symbolism in this event because the curtain provided a barrier to the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was placed, and the Jews believed that the presence of God on earth existed here. The curtain showed that man was separated from God due to his sinfulness, and only the High Priest could pass through the curtain to make atonement for their sins. Early Christians saw the exposing of the Holy of Holies at the time of Christ’s death as evidence that Jesus had become the new High Priest, and that it was he who now atoned for their sins.

But even if the darkness had been caused by a total solar eclipse, what would the probability be of an eclipse and an earthquake happening on that specific day in history? Science helps us.

The Dead Sea is extremely saline and doesn’t have organisms disturbing

The exposure of the Holy of Holies was evidence that Jesus had become the new High Priest

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The historian Phlegon, writing about 137 AD, also referred to the inexplicable darkness and to the earthquake in his History of the Olympiads: “In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad, there was an eclipse of the sun which was greater than any known before, and in the sixth hour of the day it became night; so that stars appeared in the heaven; and a great earthquake that broke out in Bithynia destroyed the greatest part of Nicaea.” The fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad ran from July 32 AD through to the end of June 33. The crucifixion of Jesus is believed by many to have taken place around April 33 AD. No explanation for the cause of this

The torn curtain

the sediment. This means that over geological time, there has been an excellent preservation of the sedimentary layers.

Much analysis of the upper 6m of the sediments has been undertaken, representing 4 000 years of deposition. Earthquakes are easily identified because they produce a band in the core samples in which the minerals are mixed, instead of being separated into their typical distinctive strata.

There’s evidence in the geological record for the earthquake described by Tertullian, Phlegon and the Gospel writers, as well as the earlier Qumran earthquake of 31 BC, which Josephus wrote had killed 30 000.

What are the odds?

It’s estimated that 20 major earthquakes have hit Jerusalem in the 1 958 years from the Qumran earthquake to the 1927 Jericho earthquake, which gives a probability of there being a major earthquake every 97,9 years. So the likelihood of one striking Jerusalem on the very day Jesus died would be 1 in 97,9 years by 365,25 days — which amounts to odds of 1 in 35 758. The chance of a total solar eclipse happening in Jerusalem on the day of the crucifixion would be 1 in 360 years by 365,25 days — or 1 in 131 490. The probability of

Mosaic of Doubting Thomas in the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine.

(Photo: Günther Simmermacher)

there being both a total solar eclipse and a major earthquake in Jerusalem on that day would therefore be 1 in 131 490 x 1 in 35 758 — or 1 in 4,7 billion!

We know that the events of that day were terrifying to witness, with Matthew writing: “When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed: ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’” In his Gospel, Luke wrote: “When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took

place, they beat their breasts and went away.”

We are also told that Pilate and his wife, Claudia Procula, went into fasting after seeing these startling phenomena.

The coincidence of this prolonged period of darkness, for which there’s no scientific explanation, and a major earthquake striking Jerusalem on the very day that Jesus was crucified, provides one piece of evidence that he was indeed divine!

Paul De Marco is the author of the book Doubt No Longer.

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Just ask, and you shall receive

My fond Easter vigil memories

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N HIS ANSWER CONCERNING JESUS’ “refusal” to work miracles when doubted by the people of Nazareth, Michael Shackleton suggests that this was so because the people would not have understood his miracles for theological reasons (“Your Questions Answered”, February 2022).

I believe the question itself adopts the wrong premise, and that Jesus did not so much refuse to work miracles as that he was not asked. The people of Nazareth were probably reluctant to consider him as anyone particularly special — after all, he had grown up among them, and it might have been this lack of faith, based on familiarity, which resulted in Jesus’ inactivity.

It is my belief that the Lord responds to the requests of those who petition him — and who without faith would so do? As we read in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and you will receive!” We have been given the power of free will, and his unsolicited interference would surely be an abrogation of that faculty.

Jesus himself often said, “Your faith has made you whole,” and “Do you believe?” It’s all about faith. He hears all prayers and responds, albeit not always as might be expected (1 John 5:14).

Cecil Cullen, Alberton

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26 The Southern Cross

Let South Africa be a peacemaker

S

OUTH AFRICA SHOULD SHOW ITS love for Jesus Christ by being peacemakers between Israel and the oppressed Palestinians, by encouraging dialogue between the two nations. After all, they are both children of Abraham, our common father in faith.

Foreign minister Naledi Pandor must show her love for Allah by taking the initiative to invite the ambassadors of Palestine and Israel — the lands where my God, Jesus Christ, and his mother, Mary, Our Lady Queen of Heaven and Earth, were born — for a cup of tea where they can jointly try and find a solution to their relationship.

South Africa can also make use of the scientific knowledge of Israel, such as its desalination technology, since we are a drought-prone and water-scarce country.

Let us make this year one of peace.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God, as our sacred scripture says.

Samuel Solomon, Cape Town

P O Box 379 Cape Town 8000 Tel 021 465 5904 WhatsApp: 063 222 2724 sales@catholicbookshop.co.za

AY I SHARE SOME MEMORIES of The Grail, that association of dedicated lay women who carried out group work, mainly with women? I got to know some of them through their joining St Francis church in Yeoville, Johannesburg, from about 1958, in the time of Fr Louis Péron OMI. One Easter week, they sang at Masses, with full Gregorian chant and the proper parts in Latin. The Easter Vigil was at midnight, and they got a priest with a splendid voice who sang all the set of readings from the Bible.

At Communion, we all sang the Haec Dies, however not to the usual setting but a cappella.

In 1959, Sr Marie-Therese McDermott, who was a matron at the old General Hospital, asked me to play the organ at the hospital chapel for midnight Mass. The service could begin only at 1am, as it was not a Catholic building. However, we stayed while the priest celebrated three Masses. After that, we went to Grail House in Joel Road, Berea, for refreshments.

There Sr Marie-Therese sang, in her magnificent voice, the verses of “Go Tell It On The Mountain”. At 9am I was back at St Francis church, joined by the choir and The Grail for Mass.

What a joyful time we had!

The Grail introduced us to the lovely “Gelineau Psalms”, and our choir used to sing them. Has anyone today even heard of these?

Peter Onesta, Johannesburg

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Memories of Tutu

ost of all, I recall the prophetic role played by Archbishop Desmond Tutu during the funeral of assassinated ANC leader Chris Hani. I don’t think the country had ever been closer to civil war than it was on that day. Archbishop Tutu skilfully focused on mourning a life needlessly lost; on engaging in prayers and dignified actions that would foster a peaceful outcome rather than inflame an already volatile situation. He did this by simply repeating his pleas for peace and calm as the best way to testify to the people’s fallen hero, Chris Hani.

But I also remember Archbishop Tutu as a Church leader deeply committed to the ecumenical movement, working ceaselessly to bring the Churches closer together in order to increase their effectiveness in narrowing the political, economic, and especially social divide which threatened to drive our people even further apart.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1990 with Catholic bishops. Then-Bishop Wilfrid Napier is at left; behind Archbishop Tutu are Archbishops George Daniel (obscured) and Denis Hurley.

However, this commitment did not stop Archbishop Tutu from making inappropriate comments about the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as pope in 2005. His comments focused on issues of Catholic moral teaching, which, to be honest, I must say he either did not study well enough to comment appropriately, or simply did not know well enough to understand. Hence his very wide divergence from Catholic teaching on issues like the use of condoms, homosexual acts, ordination of women, papal authority, and so on.

As I share these thoughts and memories, I am fully aware of the human grief that Archbishop Desmond’s passing has brought to his widow Leah, to his family and friends, but also to his brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion, and the nation. And so I pass on to them my heartfelt condolences and sympathies.

May he rest in peace.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier OFM, Archbishop Emeritus of Durban

Read the Gospels and be done

W

HEN GERMAN CARDINAL Reinhard Marx recently offered his resignation to Pope Francis, he stated, among other things, that the Church is at a “dead end”. In obedience to the pope, he withdrew his resignation with the proviso that “everything would be different” and “simply going back to the previous agenda cannot be the way Photo: Harald Oppitz/KNA/CNS

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Photo: Fr Anton Pramstrahler MCCJ/SACBC

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N AN OCCASION LIKE THE passing of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which you marked in your February issue, it is normal to want to recount memorable incidents from the life of one we had come to know, respect, admire and like, because of the human person that he had been first and foremost. In this case, warm, friendly, most approachable, and rather mischievous!

Then there are the memories that arise from significant words and deeds that he had spoken or done, significant by their very nature, or by the impact they had on you as a colleague and fellow Church leader. A third set of memories is most definitely linked to the political role which the man played, particularly in relation to the future development of the country and nation.

In the case of Archbishop Tutu, I would like to dwell on the third set of memories, his role as a Church leader, committed to addressing the crucial issues that were shaping the South Africa that the majority was aspiring to become — an independent, democratic, nonracial, egalitarian nation and country.

I remember him at his fiery best when he was leading protest marches and demonstrations against apartheid in general or against a particularly abhorrent new direction that the apartheid government was taking. But I also remember the fire with which he spoke as he pleaded with the different leaders of the liberation struggle to reconcile their differences for the greater good of the nation. One such example was his convoking of all black leaders at Bishopscourt in Cape Town to engage with the Church leaders to work out with them a common approach that would lead to the South Africa we all wanted!

Cardinal Reinhard Marx

forward”. The cardinal has called for bold Church reform to change a Church system that produced the worldwide clergy sex abuse crisis.

In any new agenda, serious considerations should be applied to many old-fashioned and outdated Church traditions and even some of its teachings. Sadly, the head-in-the-sand policy, as noted by Pope Francis, has led to the patriarchal systems which resulted in many mistakes; including the Irish laundries and the gross sexual abuse of so many innocent and trusting faithful Catholics.

Pope Francis has asked for a reform which does not consist of words but in attitudes and that we have the courage to be in “crisis” and to assume the reality, “whatever the consequence”.

For centuries, Catholics have got so bogged down with words and complex rules and Byzantine regulations and laws that it has forgotten the very uncomplicated and elementary examples of Jesus.

No academic wording and interpretations can usurp the four Gospels. The Pharisees “tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders” (Matthew 23:4-5).

W

hen Jesus cures a leper, he instructs him not to “tell anyone” but “show yourself to the priest” (Matthew 8:1-4).

The words “do not tell” seem quite strange when such a miracle has been performed. However, the words “show yourself” fully elucidate this matter. To tell is just to instruct, inform or communicate something or other, without the need for any personal faith in or commitment to that information. To show, on the other hand, allows the observer to experience more fully the miracle as well as the example of the transformation of that person requesting God to cure him or her. They will inspire others to have the faith that God is not only willing to listen but also wants to “cure” us.

“Telling” people and instructing them and judging them in the name of God, is insufficient. The promise of heaven (supposedly for Catholics only) and the throwing of venial and mortal stones at them has been somewhat of a disaster. The sharing of sin in the confessional, unfortunately, has given rise to some horrendous stories of abuse and turned the confessional into a very dangerous occasion for sin.

Get out there and “show” the faithful what God expects of them (St Mother Teresa, St Francis of Assisi.) Teach them as Jesus did. By the fruits of their examples we will know them and what God expects of them and us. Abandon the phylacteries, tassels, red hats and mitres, and rather seek the humility and truth in Jesus and His parables. Christianity is quite simple: Read the Gospels and be done!

Tony Meehan, Cape Town The Southern Cross

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The voices of young people

Raymond Perrier on Faith & Society

A

T A RECENT EVENT HELD AT the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban, we reflected on the legacies of two South African activist archbishops: Denis and Desmond. The challenge we looked at was what, if anything, the lives of these two men have to say to the up-andcoming generation of activists.

Many readers of this august journal are people who grew up in the time when these Church leaders were at their peak, and some will even have seen Hurley and Tutu in person. We perhaps take it for granted that they will not be forgotten. But to be relevant to future generations, there needs to be a link between what they did and stood for, and what young people are looking for today — and that link needs to be communicated.

We explored this with a panel of young activists, intentionally drawn from a range of faiths. It was especially interesting to see the variety of issues about which they were passionate. In a room full of activists, religious people, and some Church leaders, it was a relief that they all felt that religion still has a role to play in modern society. However, they pointed out, this needs to be claimed and demonstrated, and not just presumed.

Roanne Moodley is a South African Indian and a candidate architect who attends a non-denominational church.

She reflected on the way that her profession often distances itself from social issues, even while contributing unintentionally to injustice in the way that it impacts on cities. “We absolve ourselves from blame once the built environment is occupied,” she noted.

There is a parallel with the Church, which also sometimes fails to engage with the social issues around it and does not take responsibility for the way it might exacerbate problems in society, again unintentionally. When Roanne was a student, the “Fees Must Fall” debate was raging loudly, and yet Church leaders were mostly silent.

Pierre Buckley is from a Coloured background, an Anglican lay minister, and a married gay man. He observed: “Faith is really powerful. It is central to any social justice issue.” He runs an NGO that is focused on diversity and dialogue and so is keenly aware of the richness

and variety of human experience. The Church, he felt, has an opportunity to bring together people of different lived experiences in order to change and challenge perceptions. While the Denis Hurley Centre is one example of the Church doing this, he feared that there are also examples where the Church does the opposite and uses faith as a weapon to exclude people.

Being part of change

Grace Kisonga was the youngest of the panel. Born in DR Congo, her family settled in South Africa, and so her “African perspective” is a broad one. Last year she was headgirl of Holy Family College (Durban’s oldest Catholic school) and has just matriculated aged 16. She was fascinated to hear that Denis

us to turn away from the poor.” However, many religious people then stay quiet when things get difficult. “Peace does not come with minding your own business,” she said. This echoes Pope Paul VI’s famous dictum: “If you want peace, work for justice.”

Kapil Narain is a member of the Hindu Maha Sabha. He became involved in social justice through the Amnesty International group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and is now deputy-chair of the Active Citizens Movement in Durban. As a recently qualified medical doctor working in a rundown government hospital, he really feels the injustice that he sees at firsthand and the impact on the poor of the failure of government services.

Kapil also sees the shortage of whistle-blowers who are willing to speak out loudly and clearly against corruption. Faith groups have a duty to present an alternative model of South African society, places of hope and “celestial calmness” that people need in their lives. The love, compassion and kindness of the two archbishops were the core values of all faiths and provided the basis for a genuine unity in diversity, he noted.

The young activists all felt that religion still has a role to play in society

28 The Southern Cross

Hurley himself had also matriculated at 16 — and then, of course, went on to become the youngest bishop in the world!

She was inspired by the way in which Hurley and Tutu allowed themselves to be part of the change and did not give in to the temptation to stay out of the conversation.

Since her father is a pastor, she is keenly aware of the impact that religious leaders can have through what they talk about and what they choose not to talk about. She noted how all faiths preach peace and unity: “No faith encourages

Archbishops mirrored

The chair of the panel was S’bongiseni Vilakazi, executive director of the Valley Trust and author of Who Shall Stand?. He grew up in a Catholic parish. S’bongiseni remarked that all the young pane lists were mirroring the mission of the Church promoted by Archbishop Hurley and

Discussing activism at the Denis Hurley Centre were (from left) session chair S’bongiseni Vilakazi, Dr Kapil Narain, Pierre Buckley, Roanne Moodley and Grace Kisonga.

reflected in the title of the Catholic Church’s 1989 pastoral plan: “A Community Serving Humanity.”

He wondered what motivated Denis and Desmond to work for social justice.

In some cases, the inducement came from personal experiences of being excluded – the impact of feeling vulnerable, of experiencing xenophobia or rejection because of HIV-stigma. Pierre, the Anglican lay minister, lost both his parents to Aids and then suffered rejection by his own family. But for all panellists it was clear that “an injury to one is an injury to all”. As Grace put it: “If one of us does not have equality, we all lack equality. You are lying to yourself if you think you are not affected.” That’s a useful reminder as the memory of the July riots begins to fade.

Kapil reinforced this: “We need to take injustice personally. We cannot just say, ‘I am on my own and they are on their own; I am successful and they are not,’ and then stay quiet.” Instead those who can do something have a greater responsibility, to be a voice for the voiceless, as Hurley and Tutu were.

Roanne, the candidate architect, recalled the theological basis for this worldview: We are all made in the image of God and at the same time we all commune with God from the specific situation in which we are. If we understand that well, we will build good relationships with God and with each other. Pierre developed this by suggesting the image of each of us as distinct ingredients in the meal of faith — all different yet all equally valuable because of the presence of God in each one.

The impassioned and articulate way in which all of the young activists spoke impressed everyone present. If there was any doubt of the value of young people’s voices, Grace gave an excellent argument: “If I am old enough to be poor, if I am old enough to be rejected, if I am old enough to suffer from gender-based violence, then I am old enough to have a voice.”

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Earth’s resurrection

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CRITIC ONCE ASKED THE JESUIT scientist and theologian Fr Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “What are you trying to do?

Why all this talk about atoms and molecules when you are speaking about Jesus Christ?” His answer: I am trying to formulate a Christology large enough to incorporate Christ, because Christ is not just an anthropological event but a cosmic phenomenon as well.

In essence, what Teilhard was saying is that Christ did not come just to save human beings; he came to save the earth as well.

That insight is particularly relevant when we try to understand all that is implied in the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was raised from death to life. A body is a physical reality, so when it is raised up as a body — and not just as a soul — there is something in that which is more than merely spiritual and psychological. There is something radically physical in this. When a dead body is raised to new life, atoms and molecules are being rearranged. The resurrection is about more than something changing inside of human consciousness.

The resurrection is the basis for human hope, surely; without it, we could not hope for any future that includes anything beyond the rather asphyxiating limits of this life. In the resurrection of Jesus, we are given a new future, one beyond our life here on earth. However, the resurrection also gives a new future to the earth, our physical planet. Christ came to save the earth, not just the persons living on it. His resurrection ensures a new future for the earth as well as for its inhabitants.

Saving the earth from what?

The earth, like ourselves, needs saving. From what? For what? In a proper Christian understanding of things, the earth is not just a stage for human beings, a thing with no value in itself, apart from us. Like humanity, it too is God’s work of art, God’s child. Indeed, the physical earth is our mother, the matrix from which we all spring. In the end, we are not apart from the natural world; rather we are that part of the natural world that has become conscious of itself.

We do not stand apart from the earth and it does not exist simply for our benefit, like a stage for the actor, to be abandoned once the play is over.

Physical creation has value in itself, independent of us. We need to recognise that, and not only to practise better

eco-ethics so that the earth can continue to provide air, water, and food for future generations of human beings. We need to recognise the intrinsic value of the earth. It is also God’s work of art; it is our biological mother, and it is destined to share eternity with us.

Moreover, like us, it is also subject to decay. It too is time-bound, mortal, and dying. Outside of an intervention from the outside, it has no future. Science has long taught the law of entropy. Put simply, that law states that the energy in our universe is running down, the sun is burning out. The years our earth has before it, like our own days, are numbered, counted, finite. It will take millions of years, but finitude is finitude. There will be an end to the earth as we know it, just as there will be an end to each of us as we live now. Outside of some re-creation from the outside, both the earth and the humans living on it have no future.

St Paul teaches this explicitly in the Epistle to the Romans where he tells us that creation, the physical cosmos, is subject to futility, and that it is groaning and longing to be set free to enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God. St Paul assures us that the earth will enjoy the same future as human beings — resurrection, transformation beyond our present imagination, an eternal future.

A new power in the world How will the earth be transformed?

It will be transformed in the same way we are, through resurrection. The resurrection brings into our world, spiritually and physically, a new power, a new arrangement of things, a new hope, something so radical (and physical) that it can only be compared to what happened at the initial creation when the atoms and the molecules of this universe were created out of nothingness by God. In that initial creation, nature was formed and its reality and laws shaped everything from then until the resurrection of Jesus.

However, in the resurrection, something new happened that touched every aspect of the universe, from the soul and psyche inside every man and woman to the inner core of every atom and molecule. It is no accident that the world measures time by that event. We are in the year 2022 since that radical re-creation happened.

The resurrection was not only spiritual.

In it, the physical atoms of the universe were rearranged. Teilhard was right. We need a vision wide enough to incorporate the cosmic dimension of Christ. The resurrection is about people, and the planet.

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Photo: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters/CNS

PRAY WITH THE POPE Every month Fr chris chatteris sJ reflects on Pope Francis’ prayer intention

Support our healthcare workers

Pope Francis’ April Intention: We pray for healthcare workers who serve the sick and the elderly, especially in the poorest countries; may they be adequately supported by governments and local communities.

I

N 2020, THE FIRST WAVE OF THE Covid pandemic saw citizens around the world applauding heroic healthcare workers at hospitals as they went on duty to care for people suffering from the virus. There was no vaccination at that time, and the disease was frightening and little understood. The world admired the courage and dedication of these men and women, many of whom have suffered burnout as a result of the stresses the pandemic heaped on them.

There were calls for healthcare workers to be better compensated for their work. A general sentiment was that after the pandemic, society would remember with gratitude their sacrifices — which in many cases involved heath care workers giving their lives for the sick — and their salaries and working conditions would be improved.

they are mostly protected from contracting the disease themselves, and we hope that the worst is now over.

On the other hand, the patients they have to deal with now, in the third year of the pandemic, are mostly the unvaccinated. According to one estimate in the UK earlier this year, 90% of those requiring hospitalised care due to Covid were unvaccinated. It cannot be easy to care in a professional and compassionate manner for people who freely chose to risk getting seriously ill

No one any longer applauds or plays music for health workers as they go on duty

The music has stopped

Well, the pandemic is still with us and the doctors, nurses and carers of the aged and frail are still labouring long and hard with Covid patients, but conditions and attitudes have changed. No one applauds or plays music for them any longer as they go on duty. No doubt we still admire their perseverance, but we probably also reason that at least

as well as infecting others, when a free vaccine would have almost guaranteed protection from serious illness.

It must be endlessly frustrating to see valuable medical resources being used up by the unvaccinated while other patients’ treatments are put on hold. In some extreme cases, the desperate relatives of seriously ill, unvaccinated Covid patients have demanded that doctors administer quack treatments and even threatened them when they refuse.

Meanwhile, economies have taken

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The Southern Cross

serious knocks because of the pandemic, and no government that I know of is talking of raising the wages of doctors and nurses.

Rewards put on hold

I would imagine that here in South Africa, those who have to think about the remuneration of people in the public sector would say that in an economy with an official unemployment rate of 36%, at least the healthcare workers do have jobs. So it seems that our good intentions to reward healthcare workers better for their selfless service during the most dangerous period of the pandemic have been put on ice.

Another dire economic effect of Covid has been to increase inequality. Some categories of the rich and the super-rich have actually profiteered from the pandemic and seen their incomes rise (as, of course, have the corrupt!). Society, through its politicians, will have to address these imbalances if we are to avoid even greater social instability than we have at present.

In the process healthcare workers — those who serve the sick and the elderly, especially in the poorest countries — must not be forgotten but, as the pope asks this month, “be adequately supported by governments and local communities”.

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Your prayers to cut out and collect

Take my hands O Blessed Mother, Hold me firmly lest I fall, I grow nervous while walking and humbly on thee call.

Guide me over every crossing, Watch me when I’m on the stairs, Let me know you’re beside me, Listen to my fervent prayers.

Bring me to my destination Safely along the way, Bless my every undertaking and duties for the day.

When evening creeps upon me, I will never fear to be alone.

Once again, O Blessed Mother, Take my hand and lead me home.

Amen

Prayer Corner Do you have a favourite prayer?

Please send to editor@scross.co.za

Good Friday Prayer Eyes of Jesus look on me, Voice of Jesus call me, Feet of Jesus guide me, Hands of Jesus bless me Arms of Jesus hold me, Water from the spring of Jesus wash me, Body and Blood of Jesus feed me, Heart of Jesus love me, and make me one with thee, in wake and sleep, and for all eternity.

Amen

ST MARK PRAYER

O Glorious St Mark, through the grace of God our Father, you became a great Evangelist, preaching the Good News of Christ.

May you help us to know Him well, so that we may faithfully live our lives as followers of Christ.

Amen

PRAYE R F OR T HE S I CK Watch, O Lord with those who wake, Or watch, or weep tonight, And give your Angels charge over those who sleep.

Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ,

Rest your weary ones, Bless your dying ones, Soothe your suffering ones, Pity your afflicted ones, Comfort your grieving ones, Shield your joyous ones.

And all for Your Love’s sake.

Amen The Southern Cross

31

Jesus Word Search

Anagram Challenge Unscramble the clues below to work out which Doctors of the Church hide in these words

1

I HO P u P O N F A TI G u e S

2

e N TI Ce A R e F A SHI O N

3

SA D F e LI N e S SCA R

4

B R A V A DO R A Ce R I N F Lu X

5

A F e A R V I O LA Te S

Find these titles of Jesus in the puzzle above

BREAD OF LIFE CHRIST EMMANUEL LAMB OF GOD LIGHT OF THE WORLD

LOGOS LORD MASTER NAZARENE NEW ADAM

RABBI REDEEMER SAVIOUR SON OF GOD SON OF MAN

DROPPED LETTERS: Place the missing letters to get the names in the Passion account CLUE: These names all appear in the narrative or tradition of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection

I

C E

, ,

A N

I L

C

N O

A P

N

,

I

I O

,

I

S

J

E

U S

,

,

M

,

R

A

C

FUMAT GOPHEA PUCOS LORT TAMID MACAPEA ONESHED ARMAT YEAH VAR LOSES JOSIP FADIARY

Easter Crossword

Across

1. The cleaning lady gets the coal for the incense (4) 3. Why Thomas was uncertain of the resurrection (8) 9. Executes like King Herod (7) 10. You won’t hear the online liturgy without it (5) 11. Rites recur on this great feast day (12) 13. Unlike the Thursday before Easter? (6) 15. Compensate for the fest of change (6) 17. The first two in the Garden (8,4) 20. A friend from Spain (5) 21. Friend in 20 could be one of high rank (7) 22. Foundation of a statue in church (8) 23. Old Roman day (4)

32

The Southern Cross

DoWn

1. Liturgical holder of the Bread of Life (8) 2. Cricket trophy awarded in Lent? (5) 4. Used to be expelled (6) 5. Excellent weather for a Happy Easter (9,3) 6. Where the risen Jesus appeared to the Apostles (7) 7. The quality of Friday in Holy Week (4) 8. Go sail cruise? It might be blasphemous (12) 12. Was the darkness at the crucifixion like this? (8) 14. Why Peter and John reached the empty tomb quickly (7) 16. Mysterious thing in game change (6) 18. Came to help in said Eden (5) 19. It lightens your clumsy palm (4)

For all solutions turn to page 34

Across

1. Old Testament prophet (7) 3. Sixth word of the Gloria (7) 4. Cardinal and ex-Southern Cross editor (4,6) 6. “Little Flower” saint (7,2,7) 8. Feast a week after Easter (6,5) 10. Saint of Cascia (4) 12. Cloth for wiping chalice (11) 13. Formal address for an archbishop (4,5) 14. Archangel (7) 15. Country of Cardinal Pengo (8) 16. SACBC secretary-general (4,7) 17. Late Fr Blaser (4) 19. Sung part of Mass (5) 20. Number of Jesus’ wounds (4) 21. Pauline letter (9) 22. Caiaphas’ father-in-law (5) 23. Leader of the Twelve (5) 24. Bishop of Polokwane (6)

DoWn

1. Aramaic form of Jesus (6) 2. Old Testament book (5) 3. SA archdiocese (12) 4. Nativity scene (4) 5. The Mission (1986) actor (6,5) 7. Only English pope (6,2) 9. Internet-based series on Jesus (3,6) 10. 20th-century SA priest or Polish saint (5) 11. Site of Upper Room (5,4) 13. African Church Father (9) 17. English Catholic author Graham (6) 18. Latin name for Golgotha (7) 19. African bishops’ conferences’ body (5)

CODEWORD: Combine the letters in the shaded boxes to form the name of an Apostle

Quick Crossword

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The Southern Cross EASTER Trivia Quiz

1. Which Gospel describes Jesus’ passion in least detail? a) Mark b) Matthew c) Luke

6. For whom did Mary Magdalene mistake Jesus on Easter morning? a) Angel b) Gardener c) Guard

2. According to tradition, what was the name of the “Good Thief” crucified alongside Jesus? a) Dionysius b) Diotrephes c) Dismas

7. Which direction from Jerusalem is Emmaus? a) East b) North c) West

8. Whose Gospel is the only one to 3. Where was the tomb of Jesus’ burial? report that the soldiers drew lots for Jesus’ seamless garment? a) Garden b) Mountain c) Quarry a) Mark b) Luke c) John 4. Which German town houses the

Holy Coat, the reputed garment Jesus wore during his passion? a) Cologne b) Oberammergau c) Trier 5. In Caravaggio’s painting “Ecce Homo”, which character is a selfportrait of the painter? a) Jesus Christ b) Pontius Pilate c) St John

Q5: Caravaggio

Q6: Mary Magdalene

9. Which saint is said to have inspired the custom of colouring Easter eggs? a) Martha b) Simon of Cyrene c) Stephen

11. In which Gospel does the crucified Jesus exclaim “My God, why have you forsaken me?” a) Mark b) Matthew c) John

10. When was the first church of the Holy Sepulchre, site of the crucifixion and resurrection, dedicated? a) 336 AD b) 536 AD c) 736 AD

12. Where did the Risen Lord first appear to the apostles? a) Golgotha b) Sea of Galilee c) Upper Room

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My two prayers

Nthabiseng Maphisa: Millennial Catholic

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ATELY I HAVE FELT INSPIRED to write prayers to aid us in our daily struggles and that alongside the sacraments and Sacred Scripture they may accompany us in spiritual warfare. I have found that they are in themselves a meditation and a stern call to repentance. I pray that they may bring you closer to God and his Peace.

Prayer for the Intercession of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven

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Prayer to Jesus of Nazareth at the Wedding of Cana

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Photo: Nancy Wiechec/CNS

esus our Lord and Redeemer, thou who deigned to perform this the first of thy miracles at the beckoning of thy Blessed Mother. Grant to us in our union commenced by the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony thy Divine Presence and perpetual intercession of the Blessed Virgin

SOLuTIONS

easterCrossword:

ACROSS: 1 Char, 3 Doubting, 9 Beheads, 10 Audio, 11 Resurrection, 13 Unholy, 15 Offset, 17 Original pair, 20 Amigo, 21 Grandee, 22 Pedestal, 23 Ides.

DOWN: 1 Ciborium, 2 Ashes, 4 Ousted, 5 Beautiful day, 6 Indoors, 7 Good, 8 Sacrilegious, 12 Starless, 14 Hurried, 16 Enigma, 18 Aided, 19 Lamp.

Anagram Challenge:

1 Augustine of Hippo, 2 Catherine of Siena, 3 Francis de Sales, 4 Bernard of Clairvaux, 5 Teresa of Avila

Dropped Letters:

Caiaphas, Joseph of Arimathea, Veronica, Pontius Pilate, Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Mary of Clopas, Judas Iscariot

34 The Southern Cross

Photo: Chaz Muth/CNS

ur Lady Assumed into Heaven, Blessed Virgin Mary our Mother.

We hail thee, Queen of Heaven, full of grace. Thou who was conceived without original sin; Thou who served as the handmaid of the Lord and laboured according to his word. Thou who humbled herself at the message of God’s Angel. Thou who was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and so took in her womb the first-hand of all creation, Jesus Christ.

God our Father, through his Son Jesus, preserved thee from corruption of sin and its final wage, which is death.

By thy mantle, veil us in our immodesty and help us to uphold the dignity of our femininity which is made in the image and likeness of God. Illumine us with the radiance of the sun which clothed thee at thine Assumption. By thy coronation, pray we be delivered from lust and all impurity and place at thy feet the head of the serpent which seeks to devour all women by degrading their flesh and consuming the fruit of their wombs.

Implore God our Father through his Son to raise us up to heavenly glory as that of your own. Call upon the Holy Angels to make a path which leads to thy throne in the heavenly temple. By thy Immaculate Heart, restore the souls of women lost through idolatry, envy, adultery, pornography and all sins of the flesh. Touch our faces and remove our blemishes, renew our skin, flesh and bones, and restore us to the beauty God had given at the dawn of creation.

Grant us peace and the perpetual intercession of your chaste spouse St Joseph. Take us as your daughters and raise us as your infants, and teach us the hymns of praise and adoration that the angels sang at the Nativity of Lord Jesus.

Call to mind our sins that led to his crucifixion thus bringing thy heart to the sorrows prophesied by Simeon. Give us hope in the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension into Heaven.

At the sunset of our life, call out to us, O Ark of the Covenant, and take us to thy Son Jesus, our Saviour and Redeemer. This we ask of God our Father through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Amen.

Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth. At thy voice, at thy command and at thy instruction, will that our toils, our joys and sorrows, and our flesh may be raised to the glory of Heaven, thy dwelling place and that of the Eternal Father.

Lord Jesus, before thine eyes is our emptiness and coldness. We beseech thee in thy mercy to fill us with thine own fullness and may the sweetness of thy grace overflow. Transform all that we are to heavenly perfection so that as the new wine was presented at Cana we may be presented as a worthy offering to God. Grant your final blessing as we depart from this life and welcome us into the eternal marriage feast, the heavenly banquet. This we ask of God our Father through thy Precious Blood flowing through thy Sacred Heart. Amen.

Quick Crossword: ACROSS: 1 Ezekiel, 3 Highest,

4 Owen McCann, 6 Therese of Lisieux, 8 Divine Mercy, 10 Rita, 12 Purificator, 13 Your Grace, 14 Gabriel, 15 Tanzania, 16 Hugh O’Connor, 17 Emil, 19 Kyrie, 20 Five, 21 Ephesians, 22 Annas, 23 Peter, 24 Masela. DOWN: 1 Yeshua, 2 Kings, 3 Bloemfontein, 4 Crib, 5 Jeremy Irons, 7 Adrian IV, 9 The Chosen, 10 Kolbe, 11 Mount Zion, 13 Augustine, 17 Greene, 18 Calvary, 19 Secam. — CODEWORD: Bartholomew

Catholic easter Trivia Quiz: 1. a) Mark; 2. c) Dismas; 3. a) Garden; 4. c) Trier; 5. b) Pontius Pilate; 6. b) Gardener (Jn 20); 7. c) West; 8. c) John; 9. b) Simon of Cyrene (he is traditionally believed to have been an egg merchant); 10. a) 336 AD; 11. a) Mark; 12. c) Upper Room

S outhern C ross P ilgrimages Join us on these holy tours!

Please note: New destination in May!

Due to ongoing travel restrictions to Italy, we have redesigned our three-country Medjugorje pilgrimage programme to now include Turkey, with Ephesus, Nicaea, Pergamon, Istanbul and more. See below:

MEDJUGORJE, TURKEY, CROATIA Led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin 9 to 18 May 2022: Bookings close soon!

Pray in Medjugorje, visit Ephesus in Turkey with Mary’s House and sites associated with St Paul, tour Istanbul with the Hagia Sophia, see the beautiful Croatian city of Dubrovnik, and more...

www.fowlertours.co.za/medju

CAMINO TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

Official 7-Day Camino 30 Sept to 9 Oct 2022 • Led by Fr Chris Townsend

Walk the ancient ‘Camino Primitivo’ route from Lugo to Santiago de Compostela! Timed for school spring holidays!

Bonus: Your luggage will be delivered to your hotel every day!

www.fowlertours.co.za/camino

OBERAMMERGAU AND HOLY LAND Led by Archbishop William Slattery OFM 19 to 31 August 2022 • Only few open seats left

See the great holy shrines of the Holy Land, including the sites of Our Lord’s Passion, before flying to Germany to tour in Bavaria and see the famous Oberammergau Passion Play.

www.fowlertours.co.za/oberammergau

Contact Gail at info@fowlertours.co.za or call or WhatsApp 076 352-3809 *All dates subject to confirmation

Our pilgrimages are expertly arranged by

Final Words Great Quotes on

FREEDOM

History in Colour

A snapshot from the past, colourised exclusively for The Southern Cross

‘Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.’

– Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)

‘The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed... For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.’

– Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

‘None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free.’

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

‘Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.’

– Albert Luthuli (1898-1967)

‘If it is not used well, freedom can lead us away from God, can make us lose the dignity with which he has clothed us. This requires the guidelines and also the rules, both in society and in the Church, to help us to do the will of God, thus living according to our dignity as human beings and children of God. When it is not shaped by the Gospel, freedom can turn into slavery: slavery of sin.’

– Pope Francis (b.1936)

‘People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought, which they seldom use’ – Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55)

‘The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.’

– Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931-2021)

Thousands of pilgrims — and a number of horse-drawn carriages — fill St Peter’s Square for Easter Mass around 1865, presided over by Pope Pius IX. Born on May 13, 1792, Pius IX is the Church’s longest-reigning pope — after St Peter’s traditional 35 years. Elected in 1946, Pius reigned for 31 years, until his death at 85 on February 7, 1878. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 2000.

Pope Pius’ reign was eventful: he called the First Vatican Council of 1868, which centralised power in the Church in the Vatican; he proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854; and he presided over the loss of the Papal States when these territories became part of the newly-unified Italy in 1870.

At the time this photo was taken, Rome was still under papal control, even after a failed revolution in 1848. After the unification of Italy, Pope Pius IX would refuse to leave the Vatican, declaring himself a prisoner. All his successors did likewise, until the Lateran Treaty of 1929 established the Vatican as an independent state.

The last laugh

Ernie goes to Mass once a year, and after Easter Mass has ended, he is cordially greeted by the priest outside the church.

After briefly exchanging pleasantries, Ernie turns serious and issues a criticism: “It was a beautiful Mass,

Father, but it seems to me that you are getting in a bit of rut.”

“How so?” asks the priest, clearly taken aback.

Ernie explains: “Because every time I come to church, you always preach about the resurrection.”

Buy the Church Chuckles book of Catholic jokes!

email books@scross.co.za or go to www.digital.scross.co.za/church-chuckles

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