202010

RAYMOND PERRIER: On New Beginnings

VOCATIONS: A Lay Journey

TEN GREAT TIPS: How To Be A Happy Catholic

Southern Cross We Are Here!

Est. 1920

The

The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa

THE MILLENNIALS’ SAINT: THIS WAS CARLO ACUTIS

October 2020

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Welcome

Like a phoenix, we rise again Dear Reader,

S

CRIPTURE AND POP MUSIC AGREE ON ONE thing: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose, under heaven” (cf. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). The publication you are holding in your hand, or reading on the screen of your choice, bears a familiar title but appears under a very different format. What for very, very close to 100 years was a weekly newspaper is now a monthly magazine.

“A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.” These words from Scripture and pop music, once sung by The Byrds, describe the journey of The Southern Cross — and that of many of us — in this lost year 2020. In July, The Southern Cross was forced to retrench all of its staff. Three of us remained on deck on a freelance basis to keep The Southern Cross going until we could launch this magazine.

Losing the weekly newspaper just a few weeks before its centenary has been traumatic. But it was a time to break down and a time to build up. And what we have built up is this magazine, a format which, we hope, will meet the needs of this time well.

But we will look back to the newspaper we lost, this great publication for which such giants as Mgr Frederick Kolbe, Archbishop Denis Hurley and Owen Williams used to write. So every month we will dig out from our vaults a past edition of The Southern Cross. This month, on page 5, we go right back to the beginning: the firstever issue, dated October 16, 1920. The front-page of the first newspaper pictured Pope Benedict XV. The cover of the first magazine features Pope Francis — a deliberate call-back to that first issue.

In its life, The Southern Cross, led by ten editors, served the Catholic community of Southern Africa under nine popes. Our prayer is that this service will continue under many more pontiffs and editors yet.

And next month, we will look back at the history of The Southern Cross. We hope to have a good centenary party in these pages. “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together.”

Southern Cross The

This edition was created with no full-time staff. It is the fruit of the work of great contributors, an active board of directors, generous volunteers, and my dedicated compadres in the trenches: Pamela Davids, Claire Allen and Rosanne Shields. This is the time when all of us can dance — even as we still mourn our newspaper.

The demise of the weekly newspaper will irreversibly change the Church in South Africa, as Fr S’milo Mngadi rightly observed in an essay for the website of IMBISA, the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa.

The fate of the weekly Catholic newspaper must serve a note of caution to the Catholic community: the demise of the weekly was a great loss; the death of The Southern Cross altogether — as a magazine and as a news portal on the Internet and social media — would be a disaster for the local Church. It must not happen.

The coronavirus lockdown has left this publication with no full-time staff, and barely any operating capital.

Without the generous help of so many readers, we would not still be here today. With humility, we need to appeal to our friends and the Catholic community to keep supporting us with such wonderful generosity.

And we need the Catholic community to help us sell this magazine. Make it a parish initiative that every family buys a copy, or takes out a subscription. Sell The Southern Cross magazine; talk about it; be part of our determined effort to keep The Southern Cross alive, so that it can continue to edify, educate and entertain.

I hope you will enjoy this inaugural magazine edition of The Southern Cross and look forward to our centenary issue next month.

Thank you for being with us now. Please support us and keep us in your prayers!

Yours in Christ,

Günther Simmermacher (Editor)

LEADERSHIP TEAM Editor: Günther Simmermacher editor@scross.co.za Digital Editor: Claire Allen c.allen@scross.co.za Business Manager: Pamela Davids admin@scross.co.za Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: R Shields (Chair), Bishop S Sipuka, Bp S David OMI (alt), S Duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, C Mathieson, N Mpushe*, R Perrier *, D Shikwambana*, G Stubbs

www.scross.co.za

ADVERTISING: advertising@scross.co.za

The Southern Cross is published by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co. Ltd (Reg. No: 1920/002058/06)

Tel: +27 083 233-1956 PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000

SUBSCRIPTIONS: subscriptions@scross.co.za

All content is copyrighted. Unauthorised reproduction in any form or distribution is forbidden.

The Catholic magazine for Southern Africa • Est. 1920 Annual subscriptions: Print & Digital: R480 (SA); Digital only: R300; Print only: R480 (SA)

Published Monthly

Contents OCTOBER 2020

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NUNS on the Covid-19 frontlines In the fight against Covid-19, many religious Sisters work on the frontlines, at great risk to themselves and their communities.

12 How we spread the GOOD NEWS Prof Michael Ogunu reflects on the rights and duties of lay Catholics in the Church’s mission to evangelise

15 MARY SEACOLE’s Catholic faith The “Greatest Black Briton” and famous nurse, alongside Florence Nightingale, was a convert to the Catholic faith.

With pull-out poster!

St Teresa: She died 11 days apart

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16 Parents with ALZHEIMER’S Jesse Neve tells of the hurt and graces of caring for her dad with Alzheimer’s disease

21 PROFILE: Puleng Matsaneng Daluxolo Molantoa interviews a spiritual director of the Jesuit Institute about her journey on a lay vocation

31 How to be a HAPPY CATHOLIC Put a smile on your face! We give 10 good tips on how to live your life and faith happily

EVERY MONTH 6

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED You ask, and our team of experts replies

27 THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC Nthabiseng Maphisa searches for truth

What is the role of sodalities?

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Sister: This is my vocation story

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28 RAYMOND PERRIER looks at change and new beginnings

29 FR RON ROLHEISER OMI explains that any of us can be a mystic

32 PRAY WITH THE POPE Fr Chris Chatteris SJ on the pope’s prayer intention

33 PRAYER CORNER Illustrated prayers: To cut out and collect

34 Trivia Quiz, Crossword, Word Search 36 History in Colour, Church Chuckle 4

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Carlo Acutis: A saint for millennials

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Cover photo credit:Tony Gentile (Reuters/CNS)

100 Years Ago: October 16, 1920

FROM OUR VAULTS Pope blesses first Southern Cross

Pope Benedict XV features on the cover of very first edition of The Southern Cross. In a blessing, the pope expresses his “joy at this praiseworthy initiative, which will without doubt be the source of untold good for the cause of Christianity in your far-off climes”.

Second ordination in Jo’burg

For only the third time in Transvaal and the second time in Johannesburg, there has been a ceremony of ordination to the priesthood.

Fr Balthazar was ordained by Bishop Cox at the cathedral in Kerk Street.

‘Old Seventeen’ dead at 81

Known by all in Cape Town as “Old Seventeen”, after his number in the Cape Police, Irish-born Charles Rudden died at the age of 81. Born in 1839, Mr Rudden came to South Africa in 1877, fought in the Zulu War at Rorke’s Drift and Eshowe, and came to Cape Town in 1881.

Editorial: This is our purpose

In his editorial, Fr James Kelly writes that there “can be now no longer any doubt that a Catholic newspaper in South Africa is a necessity”. The Southern Cross’ purpose, Fr Kelly explains, “is, in brief, to stimulate Catholic life and activity in South Africa and to aid our priests and Catholic laity in their work of keeping bright and clear the lamp of Faith in a land which we all love”.

What else made news in October 1920:

• Police in Port Elizabeth kill 24 people and 126 are wounded as black strikers protest outside Baakens Street police station for the release of union leader Samuel Makama Masabalala.

• The death of Irish-independence hunger striker Tomas MacSwiney, major of Cork, leads to new outbreaks of violence against the British occupiers.

• English suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst is sent to prison for six months for sedition after calling on striking workers to “loot” the docks amid a national coal strike.

• Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin escapes an assassination attempt.

Left: A photo on page 4 of bishops and priests at the silver jubilee of Durban’s Bishop Henri Delalle, when The Southern Cross “was projected”.

Right: An advert in the first issue of The Southern Cross.

The Southern Cross

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What exactly has Christ saved us from?

Your Questions answered

Q. Christ, we are taught, has saved all by his sacrificial death on the cross. What has he saved us from? It was certainly not human sinfulness and death, and all the doom and gloom we still see around us. One can easily lose heart.

Do you have questions ab out our faith ?

Send them wi th your name and location to: editor@sc ross.co.za Subject line: Q&A

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INFULNESS, DEATH, DOOM AND gloom seem the lot of human life, yes, but we have been saved from it.

How? Because by the sacrifice of his human life, Christ opened the gates of heaven for us to share his divine life.

Those gates had been shut because of Original Sin, which made us lose our close communion with God and our neighbour and our personal peace of mind. Christ has made us now “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart”, the People of God (1 Peter 2:9).

At this minute Jesus hugs us lovingly because we share his humanity.

We celebrate the Eucharist with him and with one another, as well as the other sacramental signs of his love.

Jesus Christ assured us that he is among us always (Matthew 28:20),

and he will return to bring closure to our pressures, anxieties and grief. As the Risen Lord, he gives us confidence that we too shall rise from death to

be with him.

The comfort we have from knowing this, however, does not release us from the effects of Original Sin which in this earthly life devastated the first holy bond of communion between God and us. We remain, as we say in our prayers, “the poor, banished children of Eve”.

Yet we shall pass through the gates into heaven in time.

St Paul put it bluntly: “For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved. Our salvation is not in sight. We should not have to be hoping for it if it were. But, as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet. It is something we must wait for in patience” (Romans 8:24-25).

So do not lose heart. Christ has saved us!

(Michael Shackleton)

How should we address a BISHOP properly?

Q. I find the different ways by which we address our bishops and clergy very confusing. How do we properly address the dignitaries?

T

HE FORMAL STYLE OF ADDRESS for bishops is “Your Lordship” or “My Lord”, though this is rapidly falling out of fashion. The honorific “Your Grace” is reserved for archbishops, except the apostolic nuncio, who is “Your Excellency” (a title used in the US for all archbishops instead of Your Grace, to confuse matters). Cardinals are referred to as “Your Eminence”, and popes, of course, as “Your Holiness” or “Holy Father”.

But today most bishops and cardinals prefer to be addressed less formally. There is no offence in calling them by their job title:

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Bishop, Archbishop, Cardinal. Except Pope Francis, who says he prefers to be addressed as “Padre”, or “Father”.

If you are writing an invitation or other communication that requires formalism (or you choose to use it), the proper usage is to prefix the names with the following honorifics: • His Eminence (First Name) Cardinal (Surname) • The Most Reverend (Most Rev.) Archbishop.

• The Right Reverend (Rt. Rev.) Bishop/Abbot • The Reverend Mother (Name) for an abbess/prioress • Priests: Reverend Father/Monsignor (Name) • Deacons: Reverend Mr (Name) or

His Lordship, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp

Deacon (Name) • Religious: Sister or Brother (Name). Add the religious order’s postnominals — that’s the abbreviation for their order, such as OP for Dominicans. If a priest belongs to a religious order, don’t neglect his postnominal.

Photos: Günther Simmermacher (page 6) & Catholic News Service (page 7)

Why don’t we pray for the pope emeritus in prayers over gifts at Mass?

Q. Why don’t priests include Pope Benedict XVI, as emeritus pope together with Pope Francis, when they pray over the gifts at Mass?

T

HE EUCHARISTIC PRAYER IS A carefully structured rite. Christ’s saving death and Resurrection are recalled and, mysteriously, are made present. In this most sacred moment, we pray for God’s blessing upon all who offer the sacrifice: pope, bishop, clergy and faithful. Pope Innocent I wrote about this in 416AD. When a priest prays for those making the offering, he prays for the bishop for whom he is deputising. He also includes the pope who

is our visible sign of unity, the “first among equals” in the brotherhood of bishops.

When a bishop retires as the head of his diocese, he is no longer prayed for by name. To do so would be cumbersome, especially in those dioceses where two or three past bishops are still living.

As we slowly become accustomed to the possibility of bishops of Rome retiring, as Pope Benedict XVI did, we may sometimes pray for them in the Prayers of the Faithful, but will not hear their names in the theologically fine-tuned Eucharistic Prayer.

(Fr Thomas Plastow SJ)

Was this second baptism necessary?

Q. A woman was baptised as a baby by a nurse in hospital because she was in danger of death. She was later rebaptised in a non-Catholic church. The reason was that baptism must always be a public ceremony celebrated by the whole congregation, so the first baptism was invalid. What is the Catholic viewpoint?

Q. Is it true that there have been two popes named John XXIII?

Y

ES — IN A WAY. WE KNOW OF Angelo Roncalli, who reigned as Pope John XXIII from 1958-63.

However, in 1410, during what is called the Western Schism, Baldassarre Cossa was elected pope, taking the name John XXIII. But there were two other claimants to the papal throne: Gregory XII, favoured by the Roman faction, and Benedict XIII, from Avignon. Cossa — a political rather than holy man — was in opposition to both Gregory and Benedict.

With the resolution of the schism in 1417, the Church decided that Gregory XII, who had been forced to abdicate, was the legitimate pope, and the other are considered anti-popes. The regnal number XXIII thus became vacant for a future Pope John, but it went unclaimed for more than 500 years.

(Günther Simmermacher)

Pilgrimages for 2021

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OME NON-CATHOLIC CHURCHES insist that baptism is valid only if done as you describe, often because they do not accept infant baptism.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that it is the Lord himself who said baptism is necessary for salvation, and he commanded his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptise them (1257).

The Church has baptised infants from around the second century when whole families, including little

Two Johns XXIII?

babies, were given new life in Christ.

The Church also has accepted for centuries that laypeople can baptise validly in extreme cases. From a Catholic point of view, her rebaptism was not necessary.

(Michael Shackleton)

• May: Lourdes, Rome, Assisi, Loreto, Medjugorje, Croatia Led by Fr Keith Gordon-Davis • June: Medjugorje, Rome, Assisi, Loreto, Split & Dubrovnik Led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin • September: Camino Santiago De Compostela (Camino Primitivo Route) Led by Fr Chris Townsend • September: Holy Land with Radio Veritas Led by Bishop Duncan Tsoke • October: Sacred Heart Pilgrimage to Lourdes, Paris & Paray-Le-Monial Led by Fr Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu Contact Gail at 076 352 3809 or info@fowlertours.co.za

www.fowlertours.co.za

The Southern Cross

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Meet the first millennial saint

On October 10, Pope Francis will beatify a teenager who created a popular website: a patron saint for ‘geeks’!

Jonathan Luxmoore tells us about Carlo Acutis.

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HEN ON OCTOBER 10 Pope Francis beatifies the Italian teenager Carlo Acutis, who died at 15 in 2006, he may raise to the altars a potential patron saint of IT. Carlo was a London-born Italian teenager who used his computer skills to foster devotion to the Eucharist. According to a British Catholic who lived with his family, Carlo offers a model of sanctity for Christians in a new era of lockdowns.

“What’s struck me most is the exceptional simplicity of his formula for becoming a saint: attending Mass and reciting the rosary daily, confessing weekly, and praying before the Blessed Sacrament,” said Anna Johnstone, a professional singer and longtime friend of the Acutis family.

“At a time when lockdowns could separate us from the sacraments, he’d encourage people to see the rosary as their domestic church and find shelter in the heart of the Virgin Mary,” Johnstone said.

Carlo, who died of leukaemia on October 12, 2006, was to be beatified earlier this year, but the ceremony was postponed because of the pandemic, so as to allow more young people to attend. The beatification will be in the basilica of St Francis in Assisi, Italy.

The teenager developed a database and website that chronicled worldwide eucharistic miracles. Johnstone said Carlo was convinced that “good could be achieved through the Internet”. She said Catholics worldwide had found the information he disseminated “massively affirming” during global coronavirus pandemic.

The Southern Cross

“Carlo would urge young people today to avoid bad aspects of social media and fake news, and to go to confession if they fell prey to it,” said Johnstone, a Cambridge University theology graduate who also acted as governess to Acutis’ twin siblings, born four years after his death.

“But he would also show how the power of the lay life rests in simple, regular devotions. If we’re forced to stay home, with churches closed, we can still find spiritual harbour in Our Lady,” she said.

Born in London on May 3, 1991, where his Italian mother and half-English father were studying and working, Carlo received his first Holy Communion at age 7 after the family moved to Milan. He died a year after he used his self-taught skills to create a website, www.miracolieucaristici.org, which is still active today and now lists more than 100 eucharistic miracles in 17 languages.

A sense of purpose

Johnstone said Carlo had combined the generosity and courtesy of intelligent and hard-working parents, which imbued him with a “sense of purpose and direction”. She believes God had been the “direct driving force” behind the boy’s religious journey, which later brought his agnostic mother, Antonia Salzano, to the faith.

“Children sometimes have very intense religious experiences, which can’t be properly understood by others.

Though we can’t be privy to what happened, God clearly intervened here,” said Johnstone.

Carlos’ beatification was approved

by Pope Francis on February 21 after

Photo: courtesy Sainthood Cause of Carlo Acutis

IN FOCUS THIS MONTH

recognition of a miracle credited to his intercession involving the 2013 cure of a Brazilian boy.

Johnstone said the “first big surprise” for the Acutis family had been the huge turnout for his funeral. The rector of his Milan parish, Santa Maria della Segreta, realised that something was happening when he later received calls from Catholic groups in Brazil and elsewhere asking to “see where Carlo worshipped”.

“The family has a new life now, but are deeply involved in continuing Carlo’s work, helping with investigations and facilitating access to relevant resources,” said Johnstone, whose father, a former Anglican vicar, became a Catholic priest in 1999.

“Although press coverage has stressed Carlo’s role as a computer geek, his greatest focus was on the Eucharist—what he called his ‘highway to heaven’. Though we can’t all be skilled with computers, we can all become saints even during lockdowns, and get to heaven by placing Jesus at the heart of our daily lives,” she said.

Pope Francis commended Carlo as a role model in Christus Vivit (“Christ Lives”), his 2019 exhortation on young people, saying the teen offered an example for those who fall into “self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasure”.

“Carlo was well aware that the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism,” the pope wrote. “Yet he knew how to use the new communications technology to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values and beauty.”—CNS

For Sisters on Covid-19 frontlines, work goes on In the fight against Covid-19, many religious Sisters work on the frontlines, at great risk to themselves and their communities, as Doreen aJiambo and rumbi ChaKamba report.

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HE DEATHS OF FIVE NUNS IN June due to Covid-19 at the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood Glen Avent convent in Mthatha left Sisters across Africa worried about how to carry out their ministries amid the pandemic.

The deaths of Srs Celine Nxopo, Maria Corda Wardhör, Martha Dlamini, Beautrice Khofu and Ambrose Shabalala began with the infection of a Sister who served as a nurse at a Mthatha hospital.

“It’s shocking and I have never seen such a thing in my life,” said Sr Nokwanda Bam, the head of Glen Avent convent, who has recovered from Covid-19. “The virus attacked and killed nuns who were doing missionary work. We are all devastated and deeply saddened by the deaths of our colleagues.”

Thousands of the more than 70 000 Catholic women religious in Africa are on the frontline of facing an infectious disease and are at the highest risk of contracting the illness and cross-infecting others, including their own congregation members. A majority of religious Sisters are working in hospitals as nurses, doctors or other hospital staff to serve patients with Covid-19. Others run schools to educate children, projects to serve individuals living in poverty and homes to care for the elderly.

Sisters have also been active in slums and poor villages across the continent to disseminate information about the virus. The nature of their work puts the Sisters at an increased risk of catching any communicable disease, including Covid-19. Despite some losing their lives, Sisters are still braving the risk of contracting the disease so they can reach out to vulnerable people and also deliver critical medical services.

In Lagos, the most populous city in Nigeria and Africa, Sr Prisca Igbozulike

of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and four other Sisters of the community, work at St Catherine of Siena Medical Centre, a hospital run by the archdiocese of Lagos.

Like a war

Sr Igbozulike said that the battle against the virus has parallels to participating in a war. Armed with masks, gowns, gloves and goggles for protection, Sisters work round the clock to defeat the virus while risking their own lives. “The situation we find ourselves in at the moment has not been easy, but we have to take care of the sick,” said Sr Igbozulike, who serves as the administrator of the hospital.

Every day the Sisters of her community pray and make petitions for their vocations. When the Sisters arrive at the hospital at 8am, they sing praises and say their prayers before getting to work. “We rely on God’s help for everything we do here by asking him to take control of our activities,” Sr Igbozulike said.

There are some challenges facing the work of the Sisters in the pandemic. Sr Igbozulike said they lack basic protective equipment to work at the hospitals, making them more vulnerable to the virus. “We protect ourSr Nokwanda Bam CPS

The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth who run Pabalelong Hospice in the village of Metsimotlhabe, Botswana, have been tasked with caring for hospice patients and ensuring that staff members remain healthy and protected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo: Rumbi Chakamba

selves in the little way we can. We don’t have the money to buy protective equipment because it’s expensive.

If you buy them, you will not have the money to pay salaries, maintain the hospital or buy drug supplies.”

Necessary changes

When Botswana recorded its first three cases of Covid-19 in March, Sr Sunila Erumangalathu of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth knew that she had to act quickly to adapt to the pandemic. As the administrator of Pabalelong Hospice in the village of Metsimotlhabe, she was not only tasked with taking care of her patients but also ensuring that the staff members at the hospice were healthy and protected. This meant changing the way the hospice operated.

“We had to stop admitting patients from the community due to the fear of infection. We also decided not to discharge any patients who were admitted before the pandemic, as we did not want something to happen to them after being discharged from our facility.

We had to ensure they test negative for the virus before admitting or discharging them,” she said.

Sr Bam, the head of Glen Avent convent in Mthatha who is also a nurse and trains nurses in the field, asked for prayers for Sisters and health care workers as they continue to be on the front lines of Covid-19.

“We pray that God interveness,” she said, adding in reference to Covid19 restrictions against bathing and dressing the body before burial: “The virus has brought fear and stigma, and our colleagues are even being buried without dignity.” n This is an edited version of an article first published on www.globalsisters report.org The Southern Cross

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What’s the role of

Sodalities

Many lay people live their faith in sodalities. What are sodalities and how do they fit into the Church? In the first of a series of articles, Fr S’miLo mnGaDi explains.

A

D FONTES! BACK TO THE SOURCES!” That was the call of Vatican II. The sources tell us that Christianity began as a lay movement. Jesus was a lay person.

The apostles were lay people. The rest of the disciples were lay. Even the Jewish priests who converted (Acts 6:7) became lay within the Christian movement.

The great movements of renewal of the Church were also layinitiated. Monasticism, with its precursor, eremitism, has its roots in the laity, as do the mendicant movements of the 12th century.

Due to various historical developments, over centuries, the clergy became the “Church”, to the point that anyone who became a priest, a monk or a nun was said to have “joined the Church”. However, some lay people, with the help of priests and religious here and there, kept the lamp of the “active, full participation” of the laity burning. This was done mainly through confraternities and various formations which we now generally call sodalities.

When missionaries came to Southern Africa, they brought with them “sodalities”. Some were later transposed over years. Others were founded here. All of them constitute an integral part of our Church polity and are canonically called “associations of Christ’s faithful”. They bear different designations such as associations, leagues, societies, tertiaries, unions and so forth.

Diversity in ministry

Sodalities are very diverse.

Some are involved in ministries like charity work, care for the sick, teaching of faith, and so on. Some

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are groups according to age, gender or marital status. Others focus on a certain mystery of the Lord or a particular saint whose devotion they perpetuate and promote.

However, sometimes they are seen to be competing with the parish and have even been labelled “mini-churches”. Why though?

They have a spirit of camaraderie very similar to that in the early Church, as found in the Acts of the Apostles. They are our expressions of the Latin American Small Christian Communities.

Sodalities provide a sense of belonging, warmth, sharing, common vision and concrete expression of filial love which is largely found wanting in our parishes. To a great extent, the latter tend to be bureaucratic and many have practically become, in the words of St John Paul II, “sacramental filling stations”.

Need for renewal

Like any ecclesial formation though, sodalities stand in need of on-going formation and continuous renewal (the aggiornamento of Vatican II). A number of them do overemphasise monetary matters and uniform issues, and some get involved in unhealthy competition with each other to the point of neglecting their foundational charism and core vision.

A number of people have raised a concern about the increasing number of sodalities, many of which are “duplicates”: different names/patron saints but same apostolate. But the same is true of religious congregations. The Catholic Directory of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference lists 111 religious congregations; he number of sodalities is far below that figure. If religious congregations despite their multiplicity can co-minister in the same wide vineyard of the Lord with no unmanageable challenges, then the sodalities, which are fewer, should be able to do likewise.

With the fatherly guidance of the bishops, the icons of unity, these different parts of the one Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:431) can only enhance our witness of Christ and his love to the world. n Fr Mngadi is a priest of the diocese of Mariannhill. He will look at different types of sodalities over the next few editions of The Southern Cross.

Is seeing believing?

How the Church faces claims of Marian apparitions Some Marian apparitions, such as those in Fatima, are quickly approved, but others are treated with great caution by the Vatican. CaroL GLatZ explains why.

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Pilgrimage 2021

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HE Catholic Church has always been very cautious when it comes to judging reported Marian apparitions. More than 1 500 visions of Mary have been reported around the world, but in the past century fewer than a dozen cases have received Church approval as being worthy of belief.

Determining the veracity of an apparition is an enormous job that falls to the local bishop.

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith established a set of norms in 1978 to help bishops and guide them in the process of discernment and investigation of reported apparitions and revelations.

The process is never brief. For example, a series of Marian apparitions in the US diocese of Green Bay received approval in 2010 — that’s 151 years after the first apparition was reported in 1859. But that’s just half of the nearly 300 years it took the Church to approve the apparitions of Our Lady of Laus in France.

The process is lengthy because visionaries and witnesses must be questioned and the fruits of the apparitions, such as conversions, miracles and healings, must be examined.

According to the norms, the local bishop should set up a commission of experts, including theologians, canon lawyers, psychologists and doctors, to help him determine the facts, the mental, moral and spiritual integrity and seriousness of the visionary, and whether the message and testimony are free from theological and doctrinal error.

The longer the alleged apparitions last and the more popular an apparition site becomes, the more evidence accumulates — and the longer it takes the Church to reach a judgment.

When the bishop’s investigation is complete, he can come to one of three conclusions: he can determine the apparition to be true and worthy of belief; he can say it is not true, which leaves open the possibility for an appeal; or he can say that at the moment he doesn’t know and needs more help.

In the last scenario, the investigation is taken to the national bishops’ conference. If the body of bishops cannot reach a conclusion, the matter is turned over to the pope, who delegates the doctrinal congregation to step in and either give advice, send a commissioner, and/or set up a commission to investigate. At every step of the investigation, however, the bishop remains in charge of the process.

The Medjugorje case

An example of a situation in which the country’s bishops requested the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation to intervene is the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The congregation established an international commission in 2010 to investigate the claims of six young people who said Mary appeared to them daily beginning in 1981. The apparitions apparently are continuing, and hundreds of thousands of people travel to the small town each year.

The Church’s approach has been to distinguish between an apparition,

The sun sets behind a statue of Mary on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje, BosniaHerzegovina. The Vatican has still not formally ruled on the reported apparitions that began there in 1981.

Photo: Paul Haring/CNS

which may remain unproven, and the spiritual consequences among the faithful, which may be quite evident.

This means that in places where an apparition is still awaiting Church approval, people can go to the site to pray and receive spiritual gifts, as long as they do not presume the apparition is authentic.

The Church approaches each claim with the utmost prudence, with rigorous investigation and with the invitation to live out the Gospel rather than follow the apparitions.

In fact, the Church never requires the faithful to believe in apparitions —

by Mary or by Jesus — even those recognised by the Church, because it teaches that public revelation ended with the New Testament, and that no private revelation will add anything essential to the faith.

The apparitions and messages are never the same, but, in general, Mary appeals for people’s conversion, and seeks to assure men and women that they are not alone in the world and can depend on God’s loving mercy. Her appearance is never meant to result in her glorification, but of God’s.—CNS

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Pray in Medjugorje and visit Rome, with papal audience, Assisi, the town of St Francis, Loreto with mary’s house.

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MISSION MONTH

How we can spread the

GOOD NEWS OF CHRIST Mission Month issues a call to all of us to spread the Good News. ProF miChaeL oGunu looks at the role of the laity in evangelisation.

D

ERIVED FROM THE GREEK word euangelion, “evangelisation” means “good news”. In the Christian sense, the “good news” is the revealed Word of God, especially the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The good news in this definition refers essentially to Jesus himself, who is the Saviour of all humankind. Jesus’ message to humanity including his promises and assurances, and his salvific work for mankind.

Jesus brought the good news for human salvation. To facilitate the proclamation of this good news, he called his followers — who themselves must allow the Word of God to thoroughly pass through their entire life — to be wellprepared agents for the announcement of it to all peoples.

Thus Jesus, having been sent by the Father, called his followers to become an evangelised entity — the Church — and entrusted it with the mission to evangelise others, the whole world, through the preaching of the Word and the planting of the Church among those who do not yet believe in Christ.

Drawing from the insights of Vatican II, and the deliberation of the 1974 Synod of Bishops, Pope Paul VI gave a concise definition of evangelisation in the Church today.

According to him, evangelisation means “bringing the good news into all strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new”.

The “all strata” of humanity includes: l people who don’t yet know Christ or relate with him on the strength of the Christian message; l people whose activities are contrary to the teachings of Christ; l people’s environment which have been polluted by sin and demonic forces; l people’s consciences which have been marked by the increase of wickedness; l people’s cultures or ways of life which have made the enjoyment of the freedom won for man by Christ impossible; l and also human relationships, and so on.

The activities involved in this exercise, according to the teaching of the Church, include explicit proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ in words through the Kerygma — the proclamation of the Christian Gospel in preaching. We

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also catechise to those who have not yet known Christ by our deeds through witness of life, so as to welcome into the Christian community those who have been evangelised.

The aim of this exercise, according to the above definition, include the renewal of the individual or society from within; interior change of persons or conversion and transformation with the power of the good news, of judgments, lines of thought, actions, points of interest, determining values, sources of inspiration and models of life which are in contrast with the word of God and the plan of salvation.

In practical terms, evangelisation in this context means bringing to others the good news of Jesus Christ which I have personally experienced; sharing with others the joy I have in my intimacy with the Lord and in experiencing his mighty deeds in my life; getting others to share in that joyful and marvellous experience of the Lord in me. It entails also deepening the faith and knowledge of those who have accepted to follow Jesus to enable them to take on the responsibility of evangelising others in turn.

It calls for the explicit proclamation to others of God’s love in Jesus Christ as the good news of salvation, of the name, teaching, life, promises, assurances, the kingdom and mystery of Jesus the Saviour, as well as the fact that in Jesus there is salvation from everything that oppresses humanity, especially liberation from sin, fear and evil.

It involves showing when and how God intervened in the hearers’ experiences in life, inviting them to make a faith commitment to Jesus; incorporating them into the ecclesial community where they may have the opportunity to deepen their faith and be prepared to take on responsibility within the Church.

Right to evangelise

In this broad understanding, all the faithful are called to evangelise in keeping with the possibilities of their situation. The magisterium reinforces the evangelisation-thrust of the Church as a right and a duty of all the faithful in every part of the world: “All the Christian faithful have the duty and the right to work so that the divine message of salvation may increasingly reach the whole of humankind in every age and in every land” (1983 Code of Canon Law).

This canon implies that evangelisation in this broad sense is not restricted to the ordained or those with a canonical mission or mandate or professional missionaries (although all these retain a special importance in the work of evangelisation for all Christians).

On this note, Vatican II cautioned that bishops, parish priests, and other priests of the secular clergy to remember that the right and duty of exercising the apostolate is common to all the faithful — whether clerics or lay — and that in the building-up of the Church, the laity too have parts of their own to play.

For this reason, priests are called to work as brothers with the laity in the Church and to have a special concern for the laity in the apostolic activities of the latter.

Pope John Paul II also stressed that “today evangelisation is the work of all the members of the Church: bishops, theologians, priests, religious and laity, both adults and youth”.

Canon law emphasises that, as a duty, the Christian faithful are obliged to spread the good news of Jesus, in the manner described above, whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself. It shows that, as a right, the Christian faithful need no other authorisation or commission to exercise this right in the various circumstances of their lives.

testament of love before his Passion.

Before he suffered, Jesus gave his disciples the greatest commandment: to love one another after his own pattern of love. This means a love that is self-sacrificing and that is employed in the humble service of others (John 15:12-4). The greatest act of love is manifested in evangelisation whereby one lovingly presents to another the message of eternal salvation for his soul. So, evangelisation is the most supreme act of love since it could lead to the greatest good: the salvation of souls.

The lay members of Christ’s faithful are invited by the Church to closely collaborate with the ministers in order to further the mission of evangelisation entrusted to the whole Church. Particularly, by their more direct presence in the temporal order, lay people should “strive so that the divine message of salvation may be known” and they “have the special obligation to permeate and perfect the temporal order of things with the spirit of God”.

Lay faithful can fulfil their role in the mission of evangelisation beginning with good participation in the organisation of family prayers and discipline, neighbourhood preaching, Small Christian Communities, Church societies and sodalities, Christian apostolates, collaborative ministries, and parish projects.

The faithful, from good morals and Christian discipline in their homes, can become springboards of evangelisation

Evangelisation is the most supreme act of love since it could lead to the greatest good: salvation

On whose authority?

Their authority comes from a divine commissioning that calls for the baptised to act in virtue of their own Christian commitment. Authorisation and commissioning by the Church authorities becomes necessary only for the sake of good order and especially where the evangeliser exercises this right in the name of the Church and in Church buildings.

The 1983 code gives the lay Christian faithful the authority to carry out this obligation either as individuals or in associations. Since the laity, like all the Christian faithful, are deputed by God to the apostolate through their baptism and confirmation, they are also bound by general obligations and enjoy the general right to work as individuals or in associations so that the divine message of salvation becomes known and accepted by all persons throughout the world. This obligation has a greater impelling force in those circumstances in which people can hear the Gospel and know Christ only through a lay person.

This canon suggests that lay persons have a special role in the task of evangelisation, because at times or in certain circumstances, it is only through them that the good news can reach certain categories of people, and it is only through the secular activities typical of lay persons that the temporal order can be transformed.

Pope John Paul II highlighted the mandate of Christ to his followers that “the mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion”. So, it is incumbent on every Christian to be zealous about furthering the proclamation of the good news — though, as Pope Francis tells us, we must not do so in a spirit of proselytising.

The term “mission” is derived from the Latin word missio, which means “to be sent out”. The Risen Lord in the final stage of his redemptive mission, commissioned his followers to go out and evangelise all persons in the whole world (Matthew 28:16–20). The high importance of this ultimate mandate of evangelisation is comparable to his last

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to all around them. They thus become “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) to those around and a shining example of high moral probity, good conduct and sources of admiration.

In addition, Christians could attempt actual verbal evangelisation of those around them by speaking of Christ to them, apart from their lives as living testimonies.

The A young Catholic addresses a mission rally faithful may, of the Neocatechumenal Way in Pretoria. therefore, pay some brief and friendly visits to neighbours around them. Show that you care about their neighbours’ welfare and asking them about how they are faring, materially and otherwise. These may serve as good preparatory steps to sowing the Gospel message which they may spontaneously imbibe from the Christian faithful at seeing the good works of their lives.

Indeed, according to Pope John Paul II, “the evangelical witness which the world finds most appealing is the concern for people, and charity towards the poor, the weak and those who suffer”.

Every lay faithful, according to individual state or profession in the world, should evangelise. They could preach as individuals or while forming a partnership of two, in the manner of the early disciples sent out by Christ (cf. Luke 10), to carry out evangelisation of their working environments.

As teachers and administrators of schools, they should discharge their functions so well as to make the spirit of the Gospel manifest. The Christian apostolate of catechising the young and old converts — as volunteer or professional catechists — is a laudable venture that lay faithful could also embrace.

Efficient premarital courses could also be well organised with the assistance of the lay faithful but with the full involvement of the clergy to ensure that the programme is successfully directed to meet especially its spiritual goal and that it is not a wasted endeavour.

As medical staff — doctors, nurses, auxiliaries or other health workers — should be conscious of the sensitivity of the states of patients as maximum opportunities to dis-

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charge their duties efficiently, mercifully, while also encouraging them to trust in God, be fully reconciled to faith and giving them the possibilities of sacramental visits especially of a priest.

20 ways to effective witness

Evangelisation is enhanced in groups or individual apostolates to prisons, hospitals, orphanages or other similar institutes where Christian mercy and charity are demonstrated.

The various ways and means by which the lay faithful can be effective witnesses to the faith as described above can be summarised in these 20 pointers: 1. Regular (weekly) confession to purify ourselves and be effective witnesses to the faith.

2. Frequent devout participation at Eucharistic celebrations and Eucharistic adorations.

3. Contributing to the diocesan development fund.

4. Praying for the conversion of those who do not yet believe in Christ and for the unity of all Christians.

5. Praying for our bishops, priests and religious.

6. Praying the rosary every day for an increase in faith, for conversions, and for a rise in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

7. Volunteering to teaching catechism in the parish.

8. Avoiding all forms of dishonesty, corruption, immorality and ungodly living.

9. Showing love and compassion to fellow human beings, whether Christians or people of other religious faiths, or no faith.

10. Discharging our duties creditably wherever divine Providence places us.

11. Striving to live exemplary Christian lives and being actively involved in parish activities.

12. Being on the lookout for lapsed and fallen Catholics, and doing whatever we can, with greatest charity, to bring them back to active membership and religious practice.

13. Making our families models of what Catholic families should be.

14. Showing complete dedication to Church activities by devoting time, talent and treasures for the growth of the Church.

15. Supporting the work of Catholic charities.

16. Supporting the propagation of the faith by contributing generously (financially) to it — including the support of Catholic media.

17. Reaching out to the alienated and lonely.

18. Reaching out to divorced and separated couples.

19. Making regular visitations to the sick and housebound.

20. Bearing witness to Christ through exemplary life in the family, in society, at work, and in the Church and offering to God your sufferings, uniting them to the sufferings of Christ for the salvation of souls. n Prof Michael Ogunu is the coordinator of the World Apostolate of Fatima in Africa.

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SA bishops to meet pope in May 2021 T

HE bishops of Southern Africa will travel to Rome next May to meet with Pope Francis and heads of Vatican dicasteries to report on the state of the Church in their dioceses and pastoral territories, and tell the pontiff about their concerns as shepherds of the Church in the region.

The bishops of a particular territory are required to make ad limina visits to the Vatican every five years. But given the tighter papal schedules—there are currently 3 017 dioceses, prelatures and vicariates globally—the period between these visits tends to be extended.

The last ad limina visit by the bishops of Southern Africa took place in April 2014, at the time of the canonisations of Ss John XXIII and John Paul II. Previous to that, the Southern African bishops had met with Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

For several bishops, the May 21 to June 2 ad limina visit will be their first: Bishops Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp, Duncan Tsoke of Johannesburg (auxiliary), Siegfried Mandla Jwara of Ingwavuma, David Sylvester of Cape Town (auxiliary), Joseph Mary Kizito of Aliwal North, and Noel Andrew Rucastle of Oudtshoorn.

Traditionally, the secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), currently Precious Blood Sister Hermenegild Makoro, accompanies the bishops on their ad limina visit.

The term ad limina apostolorum means “to the threshold of the apostles”, which requires bishops making such visits to pray at the tombs of St Peter and St Paul.

In 2014, a group of Southern Cross pilgrims joined the SACBC bishops at their

The Sisters and novices of the Daughters of St Francis of Assisi in Izotsha, Umzimkulu diocese, joined the global #JerusalemaChallenge craze of dancing to the gospel-house song “Jerusalema” by South African DJ and producer Master KG (Facebook link). The song has become a global hit. See page 3 for an article on the Dominican Sisters of Montebello taking part in the #JerusalemaChallenge.

Pope Francis with the SACBC bishops during their last ad limina visit in 2014.

(Photo: L’Osservatore Romano/CNS)

Pope audience public again

Mass at St Paul’s tomb in the basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls.

Each bishop will present a “quinquennial report” on the state of their diocese, outlining its activities and challenges in several chapters. These may address issues concerning the liturgical and sacramental life of the local Church, Catholic education, evangelisation, social communications, social justice, finances, and so on.

The bishops will presumably present the pope and the Vatican departments with the new pastoral plan, “Evangelising Community: Serving God, Humanity and Creation”, which was launched in January.

When the bishops made their ad limina in 2014, they raised such issues as human trafficking, the need for pastoral role models, the sainthood cause of Bl Benedict Daswa (who was beatified the following year), the inculturation of the faith, and various pastoral concerns.

The SACBC confirmed that the ad limina would take place but offered no further information.

M

EMBERS of the public will be able to attend Pope Francis’ general audiences again from September 2 after an almost six-month absence due to the coronavirus crisis.

The prefecture of the Papal Household announced that the pope’s September 2 general audience next Wednesday would take place “with the presence of the faithful”.

It said that audiences would be held in the San Damaso Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace throughout September, following advice from authorities seeking to restrict the spread of the coronavirus.

General audiences are usually held in either St Peter’s Square or the Paul VI Audience Hall. But when the pandemic struck Italy in March, the pope transferred his general audiences to the library of the Apostolic Palace, where they took place without public access.

The first livestreamed general audience from the library took place on March 11.

The Holy See press office said that the decision was “necessary in order to avoid the risk of the spread of Covid-19 due to the

Swiss Guards in the Vatican’s San Damaso courtyard. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) gathering of people during security controls for access to the square, as requested by the Italian authorities”.

The prefecture noted that general audiences in September would start at 9:30 and would be “open to all those who wish, without the need for tickets”.

Those attending will be admitted to the courtyard from 7:30 via the Bronze Doors, located under the right-hand colonnade in St Peter’s Square.—CNA

How parishes can earn with us!

As you will have seen by now, The Southern Cross will relaunch as a magazine in late Sep­ tember — in print and digitally.

We are very excited about the magazine, which will sell for only R30, and we are certain that many Catholics will be interested in this new publication with a proud history.

And for parishes and sodalities and organisa­ tions who sell The Southern Cross magazine in their communities we have more good news:

For every magazine sold, we give a commission of R5,00.

Of course we are aware that nobody knows when parishes can return to holding their full schedule of Masses. But we could not delay the launch of The Southern Cross magazine any further — the alternative was to close the

publication down altogether.

So we need help in the parishes and sodalities to make sure the printed magazine gets into peo­ ple’s hands. This is a matter of keeping The Southern Cross alive!

PROF MICAEL OGUNU: Spread the Good News!

VOCATIONS: The lay experience

CATHOLIC TRIVIA QUIZ: What do you know?

Southern Cross o ou out outh outhe outher r ro ros We Are Here!

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T Th The

The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa

We are asking parishes to stock The Southern Cross magazine, and make it known to parishioners through your various channels of communication, like Facebook and WhatsApp: to spread the word about the magazine and to encourage parishioners to order theirs.

Your Catholic weekly newspaper may be gone, but the news go on.

FOR YOUR WALL: ST TERESA OF AVILA POSTER

They could fetch it from your parish office while we wait for Masses to resume, or maybe a kind parishioner might drop copies off at the homes of those who can’t or shouldn’t come out.

October 2020

R30 (incl. VAT in SA)

GREAT CATHOLICS: THE PIONEER MARY SEACOLE

Or parishes could appoint one of their ministries (like the ushers) or sodalities or the SVP to take charge of making sure that all parishioners who would like the magazine will get it.

Maybe even YOU might volunteer to get together a group of people from your parish to make sure there’ll be a Catholic magazine in as many Catholic homes as possible.

The possibilities to help keep The Southern Cross alive are endless!

Is the magazine the end of Catholic news? Of course not: our website and Facebook page will continue to bring the latest news.

And what will feature in the magazine? Well, an array of articles relating to all things

Catholic: faith and society, interviews, person­ alities, burning questions, travel, prayer, millen­ nials, family, education, spiritual reflections, a pull­out poster of a Saint of the Month, as well as fun stuff like the popular crossword, word­ search, trivia quiz, and much more...

We are taking orders already so that we can get the magazine to you by the beginning of October. Parishes and sodalities/organisa­

tions/shops can order copies for sale by email­ ing admin@scross.co.za or calling Pamela on 083 233­1956.

Remember, the cover price is R30, including VAT and we are offering R5 to the parish as commission for every copy sold. You will not be charged for any unsold copies!

The future of our Southern Cross is in your hands! PLEASE help us get the new magazine out there.

Visit scross.co.za for your Catholic news!

Mary Seacole: The Catholic faith of ‘Greatest Black Briton’

S

HE WAS VOTED THE “GREATEST Black Briton”. A statue of her stands opposite the Houses of Parliament in London. Her heroic life is taught to students in England as part of the National Curriculum. Yet few people know that the famous nurse Mary Seacole was a Catholic convert.

There may be a good reason for that: although the 19th-century businesswoman who, alongside Florence Nightingale, cared for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War (1853-56) is a celebrated figure today, little is known about her journey to Catholicism.

“I was unable to find out much about Mary’s Catholic faith myself, but given that she was a convert, I can only assume that it meant a great deal to her,” said Jane Robinson, author of a 2004 biography of Seacole.

“It’s frustrating that in this, as in many areas of her personal life, information is scant. She obviously considered it to be a private affair.”

Seacole was born in 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica. Her father was a Scottish lieutenant in the British Army and her mother was a Jamaican “doctress” who taught her how to treat illnesses using herbal remedies.

She travelled to Britain in the 1820s, and worked as a nurse in the Caribbean and in Central America. She treated patients suffering in the cholera epidemic of the time.

When the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Seacole tried to join a contingent of nurses but was refused. She decided to travel independently to set up an establishment called the “British Hotel”, offering “a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and con-

Mary Seacole, the great 19th-century nurse, was a convert to the Catholic faith. (Colourised photo)

valescent officers”.

“Mary Seacole never sought to be a nurse — she was a well-to-do business lady who ran a shop selling snacks and sweets to the officers,” Catholic author and broadcaster Joanna Bogle explained.

“She was certainly kind and helped sick soldiers, offering them comfort and doing what she could for them, and sometimes offered some of her family remedies, learned from her mother and grandmother in Jamaica,” Bogle said.

“Above all, she offered the strength of her faith, and the warmth of her heart. There are touching accounts of her holding dying soldiers, and saying, ‘Mother is here…’. She became known affectionately as ‘Mother Seacole’, and years later, living in London, would recall with tears the poor dying soldiers whose last hours she had shared.”

When the war ended in 1856, Seacole returned to England with little money and in poor health. Prominent supporters, including the Duke of Wellington and William Howard Russell, war correspondent of the London Times, raised funds on her behalf.

Becoming Catholic

Mary Seacole is pictured in a cartoon in Punch magazine of May 30, 1857.

Seacole was received into the Church in 1860, at the age of 55. It appears that she became a Catholic in England, but because her reception oc-

curred after the publication of her autobiography, she left no record of her reasons for embracing the Catholic faith, which was reemerging in Britain after centuries of suppression.

After Seacole died on May 14, 1881, she was buried in St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green, northwest London. Her gravestone, which was restored by the Jamaican Nurses Association in 1973, describes her as “a notable nurse who cared for the sick and wounded in the West Indies, Panama and on the battlefields of the Crimea”.

The restoration of her grave was part of a wider rediscovery of her life, which had been all but forgotten in the decades after her death. In 2004, Seacole came top of a list of 100 great Black Britons. The poll took place after a BBC series asked viewers to vote for the “100 Greatest Britons”, but no black people featured in the top 100.

Following the poll, Seacole was the subject of a television documentary, several biographies, and an exhibition at the Florence Nightingale Museum. A portrait was discovered and placed in London’s National Portrait Gallery.

A statue of Seacole was erected in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital, London, in 2016. The statue, which faces the Palace of Westminster, was believed to be the first of a Black woman identified by name in Britain.

Reflecting on Seacole’s selfless service during the Crimean War, author Bogle said: “I remember reading that when men are dying they often call for their mothers. It is apparently something noted by many nurses over the years. I am rather moved by the thought of kindly Mother Seacole responding to the cry of a dying soldier, so that at least he felt loved and caressed… and perhaps somewhere in all of that is the thought that surely Our Lady heard their cries.”—CNA

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IN THE NOW

Image: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay

What caring for my dad with Alzheimer’s taught me about being present Once her father was the supportive rock — now he can’t remember anything. JeSSe neve tells of the hurt and graces of caring for her dad with Alzheimer’s.

H

I, PAPA. IT’S ME, JESSE.” Nothing. No response. I dipped my head down trying to catch his gaze. “Hi,

Papa!”

He looked up. He saw my eyes.

“It’s me! Your daughter, Jesse!” He finally understood, “Jesse! Why, yes it is!” My smile grew into a huge grin. I could tell it was going to be a good visit.

Recently, we had been vacillating between good and bad visits. Well, “bad” isn’t the right word. Maybe, “more aware” and “less aware” is better. My family and I had been going to visit my father every other day since he moved to the memory care facility, and some days we just could not “catch” him. It was like his attention was elsewhere. He was awake, but trapped inside his own thoughts, and sometimes he was stuck there.

Just a few months before, Papa had been living with us. Before that, caregiving for my 64-year-old father with Alzheimer’s disease at the same time as caring for our four children never crossed my mind as something I would accomplish… but we achieved it for almost 10 years. We survived (and even thrived) as a sandwich family, with three generations living under the same roof.

When Papa first moved in, his memory loss was very mild. So we could have normal conversations with him using words like “yesterday” or “last week”.

But as time went on, we learned that the only real time Papa knew was now. He could make reference to

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the past or future, but he didn’t really understand time anymore. When telling him a story, he was all-in, listening intently, laughing at the punchline… but then it was gone, almost instantly, afterward.

It was a great reminder to try to stay “here” and not be tempted to multi-task when Papa was around.

When we were talking to Papa, we were talking only to Papa.

So on days like this one, when I knew I had “found” Papa inside of himself, I wasn’t going to let him go.

I was fully dedicated to our conversation.

Fleeting memories

I asked him about his dad and his mom, and their days working together on the family farm, since I know those are happy memories for him. I mentioned all of the wonderful baked goods his mom used to make — we had all inherited her sweet tooth. He always had a special grin and nod when I talked about his little brother and best friend, my Uncle Daniel. I could imagine that he was telling me of times working in the woodshop with Dan. His English wasn’t the best anymore, but I’d heard all of the family stories before anyway, so I knew when to respond and laugh. He mumbled and garbled, but I paid close attention and was 100% focused on him.

I told him about our latest adventures with the kids and what everyone was up to. He nodded and smiled and laughed, too. I am pretty sure

that he no longer could identify his four grandkids, the joys of his life for the last 10 years, but he loved hearing my stories, and I could talk for hours about their adventures and shenanigans.

We were absolutely not having a typical conversation, but we were both fully present and as focused as we could be. I was very aware of how precious this time was for us. It’s unusual, under normal circumstances, to be so purposely aware during a conversation. But, I knew that it was possible — even likely — that this would never happen again, so I wanted to soak in every feeling, every memory.

I felt so thankful and filled with praise that I was still able to connect with him. It was like a special gift God had given us.

At one point, Papa responded to one of my stories by mumbling incoherently for about 30 seconds and with his head down, and then lifted his head and looked right at me and said: “You do good.” He was still building me up and being my dad after everything he’d been through.

For my whole life, Papa had been my supporter and my great example in life and in faith.

I often think of this short affirmation Papa had for me that day, and I know that his faith and spirit shines out through me every time I cheer my kids on and encourage them.

All the way home, I smiled. I know that the minute we left, he had no recollection of our conversation or the fact that we’d been there. However, I bet he had a little happy feeling in his heart, like I did, and the rest of his day was a little bit brighter because we were there to spend time with him. Time: His (and really all of our) most precious gift.

• This article was originally published on BustedHalo.com on August 27, 2020.

Saint of the Month: St Teresa of Avila

Why St Teresa of Avila’s feast day took a big leap A great reformer and mystic, St Teresa of Avila’s popularity as not diminished in five centuries.

Günther SimmermaCher looks at her life.

A

FEW HOURS COULD have made the difference as to whether St Teresa of Avila died in 1582 on October 4 or on October 15.

Teresa was already famous in her lifetime as the great reformer of the Carmelite Order. It was on a tour of the convents she had founded that she fell ill, in the town of Alba de Tormes, near the great city of Salamanca.

She had arrived at the Annunciation Convent, which is still active today, in mid-September. While she was ailing for 15 days, she asked that her sickbed be installed above the altar, so that she could be close to the Eucharist. She stayed there until just before her death. Her tomb was eventually installed in that spot, looming above the altar.

St Teresa was no conventional woman, and the timing of her death was suitably extraordinary.

The recorded date of her death is October 4, 1582. That was the day on

St Teresa at a glance

Name at birth: Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada Born: March 28, 1515 in Ávila, Castile (Spain) Died: October 4 or 15, 1582 (aged 67) in Alba de Tormes, Spain Beatified: 1614 Canonised: 1622 Feast: October 15 Attributes: Contemplative, mystic, visionary, religious reformer, writer Patronages: Spain, sick people, people in religious orders, people ridiculed for their piety, lacemakers

which Spain and other Catholic countries switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. So the day after Thursday, October 4 was Friday, October 15.

It’s not clear whether St Teresa died before or after midnight, so by our reckoning the date of her death could be either October 4 or October 15.

The official date is the 4th but — just to confuse things — the liturgical practice at the time counted the change of dates as of sunset, so according to that rule she died on the 15th, whether midnight had struck or not.

October 15 is St Teresa’s feast day, even though the 4th is her official date of death. Normally a saint’s feast day falls on the anniversary of their death, except when it clashes with another major feast. But October 4 was already the feast day of St Francis of Assisi (who actually died on October 3 but was given the 4th as his feast because of the liturgical rule mentioned above).

So the popular St Teresa could not share St Francis’ feast and so was allocated the day after her official date of death: not October 5, which didn’t exist that year, but October 15.

Now, with all that calendar excitement dispensed with, take a deep breath…

Jewish grandfather

St Teresa was born near Avila, in the Castile region of Spain on March 28, 1515 as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada. The house of her birth is now a church, built in the 17th century, (continued on page 20)

From left: St Teresa’s tomb above the altar of the convent church in Alba de Tormes

• Monument of St Teresa on Plaza San Pedro in Avila • Relic of

St Teresa’s right finger (with ring) in Avila

All photos (Pages 17 & 20): Günther Simmermacher

The Southern Cross

17

The

St Teresa of Avila

S outhern Cross

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass.

Detail from a painting by François GÊrard (1827)

A Timeline of Teresa of Avila 1515

Way of Perfection and Meditateresa de ahumada is born at Go- tions on the Song of Songs. tarrendura, near avila, on march 1567 28, to alonso de Cepada and his second wife beatriz de ahumada. Founds three convents. more follow over the years, including 1522 the convent of the annunciation attempts to run away with in alba de tormes (1571) brother rodrigo to the a reformed monastery for land of the moors to Carmelite friars is become a martyr of the founded by St John of Church. the Cross (pictured) in Duruelo.

1531 enters augustinian convent. returns home in 1532 due to illness.

1535

Joins Carmelite encarnacion de avila convent— against her widowed father’s will.

1537

Professes her Carmelite vows.

1538-9

a long illness culminates in a fourday coma. teresa spends the next three years in the avila convent’s infirmary.

1542-54

Spiritual struggle which teresa calls a time of “wasting”.

1554

radical Lenten conversion before a statue of the scourged Christ.

1560

begins to write her lifestory and begins to discuss her vision for reforming the monastic life.

St Teresa’s room with her desk in Encarnacion Carmelitas convent

1571

renounces the Calced Carmelite rule and is appointed, against her wishes, prioress of encarnacion convent in avila where she invites John of the Cross to be chaplain.

1575

teresa is interrogated by the inquisition after being denounced by a woman who had been expelled from the convent in Seville.

1562

1576-79

1562-64

1580-81

Permission to found the first convent of the Discalced reform, St Joseph’s in avila.

Writes the constitutions for St Joseph’s and begins to write The

Persecution of teresa’s reform movement continued while she writes The Interior Castle.

Pope declares teresa’s reform legal and new constitutions are formed for the Discalced Carmelites.

1580

Dies in the night from october 4 to 15 at alba de tormes (see main article).

1622

Canonised by Pope Gregory xv.

20

12th-century city wall of Avila

The Southern Cross

1970

Declared a Doctor of the Church

by Pope Paul vi.

(continued from page 17) with an ornate chapel marking the spot where the future saint came into the world.

Her grandfather was a Jewish convert — though likely not by choice — who was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition for reverting to Judaism. But her father, Alonso, bought a knighthood and successfully assimilated into Christian society. Her mother, a very pious Christian, died when Teresa was only four, an event that brought the child close to the Blessed Virgin.

As a young woman Teresa experienced religious ecstasies which she said brought her into perfect union with God. Later she reported distressing visions of Jesus in bodily form.

Teresa was also concerned about laxity among her fellow Carmelite Sisters, who she thought were becoming too worldly. It was a time when the Reformation was in full swing — Martin Luther had started it just two years after Teresa’s birth.

So Teresa was very much part of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and her role in it was to transform the Carmelite order. She implemented a strict regime geared towards contemplation and prayer, with the nuns living in poverty and seclusion from the world.

In all that she worked very closely with St John of the Cross, the great mystic author. The Carmelite faction they led were called the Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites, the others the Calced Carmelites. The two Carmelite factions split formally only after the deaths of Teresa and John.

After initial opposition, Teresa’s way earned the favour of bishops and secular leaders. But the Calced Carmelites weren’t pleased, and in 1576 even managed to exile Teresa for three years. It ended, with the intervention of King Felipe II. Then Pope Gregory XIII (after whom the Gregorian calendar is named) also gave her his support, which enabled Teresa to establish more convents. Altogether she founded 17 convents throughout Spain.

St Teresa was canonised on March 12, 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.

This is my lay vocation Spiritual director Puleng Matsaneng:

Some people’s career is also a faith vocation. So it is for Puleng Matsaneng, a spiritual director at the Jesuit Institute. She spoke to DaLuxo moLantoa.

I

T WAS HER DESIRE TO understand events, both personal and political, that led Puleng Matsaneng on a spiritual path which ultimately turned into a vocation of guiding others on their paths.

Born and raised in Soweto, the third of four children, Puleng found her vocational calling with the Jesuit Institute. It makes sense that her thirst for understanding would lead her to the Jesuits, who are known for their centres of education and spiritual development wherever they are found in the world.

It has been a long journey for Puleng since 2001, when she joined what is now the Jesuit Institute, straight out of university (she studied for her second university degree while working at the institute).

Back then, the Jesuit Institute was known as Vuselela (Reawaken), and was more of a retreats project than the multipronged training and media institution that it is today.

“I initially came into contact with the institute when they came for a talk about retreats at my parish of St Martin de Porres in Orlando West, Soweto,” Puleng told The Southern Cross. “At the time I was just out of university, and I was trying to figure out what it is that I wanted to do with my life. I signed up to go on the retreat, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

In 2006 Vuselela became the Centre of Ignatian Spirituality. A few years later, the organisation became the Jesuit Institute of South Africa.

Puleng took up training in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola in 2005. In September of that year, she went to St Beunos Retreat Centre in Wales for a 30-day retreat and training course in Ignatian Spirituality. “After the training at St Beunos, I returned home and put my

training into practice” — by putting together a five-day retreat programme which she named Tsoseletsa (Revival).

She went on to introduce it, to a great response, at a number of parishes in the archdioceses of Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein, and beyond South Africa.

Strong Catholic family

Puleng credits the strong Catholic background in her family for much of what she has achieved in her career.

“Daily evening prayer was a staple diet in my home after dinner. On Sundays we all attended Mass as a family. My parents were particularly strict about that. Attending of the parish primary school, St Martin’s Primary School, also helped a great deal in terms of my early Catholic religious instruction.”

Adolescence is confusing at the best of times, but growing up in the heady days of the struggle against apartheid in the mid-1980s posed a particular challenge to Puleng. She just could not make clear sense of the events around her, especially in the townships.

“I suppose I was too young to understand, but the whole situation left me with a profound sense of weariness and confusion. It was at this time that I joined my parish youth group,” she said.

That changed things: “I immediately felt a strong sense of togetherness and common interest with other young people in the group. The Church and the group became my refuge and place of safety. I enjoyed learning more about the Church, and sharing and engaging with other young people. Through this I became more understanding of what was happening in the country and in the black townships”, she said.

The great reward

Today it is her job to share with others in the faith. Puleng said that she feels the greatest reward in seeing others benefit from her work. And her work has been recognised. “A great highlight for me was being invited to the Jesuits’ centres in Rome on two occasions to share my experiences, and to be trained in giving discernment workshops”, she said.

At the Jesuit Institute, her specialist role is to explore how African spirituality can be integrated into Ignatian Spirituality, and especially how the use of song and storytelling can be part of the prayer process.

Lately, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way Puleng and her colleagues do their work. Since lockdown, the Jesuit Institute has moved the majority of its courses online and to social media platforms such as Zoom and WhatsApp. Puleng’s work now involves a lot of interactive sessions on these platforms, particularly WhatsApp video and voice-calling.

Apart from her popular Tsoseletsa programme, Puleng has also added the Ngihamba neNkosi (Journeying with the Lord) course as an introduction to be a parish guide for Tsoseletsa retreat. These are all available via WhatsApp. Especially today, spiritual direction is necessary, Puleng emphasised.

“Covid-19 has shocked the world. I find myself praying at all times lately — not only for myself but for the whole world, too. We Catholics need to remain strong and vigilant in our faith, through constant activities such as spiritual direction,” she said.

We need that for our own wellbeing, she stressed: “It is similar to going for a doctor’s monthly checkup, except that it’s for one’s prayer and spiritual wellbeing. It’s something that we all know that we are in need of in these current times.”

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The Southern Cross

21

My vowed life as a Sister

VOCATION STORY

October is Mission Month, when we reflect on ways to evangelise and pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Here Sr bonGani eSter Chuma writes about her vocation journey and life as a Sister of Nazareth.

I

22

WILL NOT TAKE YOU THROUGH my life from the very beginning, but I will take you from the beginning of one of the big steps in my vocational journey as a Sister of Nazareth.

I took my temporary vows on September 24, 2014, in Harare, Zimbabwe, after two years as a novice in Hammersmith, London.

Since my first profession, I have been to four different communities of my congregation: Harare, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

In all of the four communities I experienced joy, challenges, sadness, excitement, loneliness, fulfilment and so on — but the Spirit of Nazareth is always the same.

On September 12, 2019, I took another very big step in my life. It was on that day, that I made my final profession, which means making a commitment to God for the rest of my life.

As Sisters of Nazareth we are a religious institute of pontifical right. We were founded by Victoire Larmenier, and we follow the Rule of St Augustine.

Six years back I professed the three vows: obedience, chastity and poverty. These vows are pointers for me to the Kingdom of God. They help me to follow Christ in a more radical way. Jesus Christ, for whom I left everything and whom I followed, was himself chaste, poor and obedient.

Many times I get asked questions like, “Why choose to be poor when you can be rich?”, “How do you manage chastity when you look so young?”, “Don’t you wish you were The Southern Cross

married?”, “Why do you have to report to someone about everything?”

“You say you live a poor life and yet you stay in big houses”, just to mention a few.

The reason why I have been happy with living my evangelical counsels (the vows) for more than six years is that I don’t do it all by myself.

It is grace that carries me through. I felt the call and I responded. Christ is the first reason why I am a Sister of Nazareth today. I strive to imitate him, and it is only he who gives me the strength and fulfilment. Appreciating what religious life is all about also helps me be faithful to my calling, bearing in mind that it’s all for the glory of God. I do not choose where and with whom I want to stay. I get sent to whichever community, and I believe God chooses the Sisters for me. He works and speaks through my superiors.

Being an international congregation, we are all from different countries, different cultures and different

Sr Bongani Ester Chuma made her final profession as a Sister of Nazareth a year ago.

My vows In my chastity, I am able to love without partiality. I see Christ, my spouse, in my Sisters and in all whom I care for. Being chaste frees my heart.

I live for Christ alone and therefore I do have an undivided heart. That makes me fully available to my community and to the people I minister to. In my chastity I develop a greater love for God. In imitating the Poor Christ, I die to self and think more of the other. In everything I do, I put my Sisters first, and when everyone practises that, peace and joy prevails in the house.

Professing poverty frees my heart for the Kingdom of God. I am not obsessed with material and worldly things. We are all aware how quick;y gadgets and fashion are being updated. We cannot keep up. With the vow of poverty, I am content with what I have and I don’t need to get the latest “whatever” on the market.

As a Sister of Nazareth, the vow of poverty allows me to be a good steward of everything that I use: such as the house that I live in, the cars and all community property. I don’t really

Being chaste frees my heart. I live for Christ alone and therefore have an undivided heart backgrounds. You might imagine that it can’t be easy to put all of us together and expect peace. Amazingly, though, it works.

It is the evangelical counsels that bring us together in unity. We are all striving for one goal.

own anything and what we have is for sharing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as the saying goes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;sharing is caringâ&#x20AC;?. We also find this in the early Church (Acts 4:32 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they held all things in common).

In my poverty I become dependent on God. I am constantly reminded that I need him all the time and am nothing without him.

First and foremost, obedience is to God. Jesus Christ, whom I imitate, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:8). It is a vow that goes against my will.

What gives me joy in living this vow is that each and every day I pray for the grace to see God in everyone and that I may not be obsessed by my own will but be someone who is pleased with the will of God in my life.

Prayer, community and ministry defines me. These three are part and parcel of my life. My day begins with

prayer and ends with prayer. Prayer is where I obtain my strength. It is in community that I am supported, encouraged, affirmed and it is in community that I am also challenged. It is through challenges that I grow and mature.

In ministry I am fulfilled, and through ministry I give witness and

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I love being a Sister of Nazareth, I love being Catholic, and I love being Sister Bonganiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; become a sign to the people of God. Ministry draws me closer to God. After all the joys, the challenges, disappointments and the completeness I encounter in ministry and community, I bring it all to God in thanksgiving at the end of the day. For the times I could have done better or missed the mark, it is in prayer that I ask for strength and inspiration to be a better person tomorrow.

Incredible Way of Life

To sum up my way of life in one word, all I can say is: INCREDIBLE. I love my way of life, I am so in love with Christ who called me to this life.

I love being a Sister of Nazareth, I love

being Catholic, and I love being Sister Bongani Ester Chuma.

The challenges are there, lots of them, but deep down in my heart I am fulfilled and I have great joy. The challenges I have come across so far have strengthened me, they have made me a better Sister of Nazareth, and I thank God for them because they draw me closer to God. What keeps me going is knowing that I have two parents back home who love me unconditionally and a family that loves me and supports me, the Sisters (Nazareth family) who are supportive, good friends who always encourage me and are very open with me in advising me. Above all these, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prayer that has brought me this far. Without prayer, our life is meaningless. Each day I wake up, I ask God for the Grace to stay closer to him. I strongly believe he is faithful.

If I was to start afresh, I could not think of another better path to take. I would do it again. To all those who feel God is calling them, be it to the priesthood or religious life, my advice for you is: â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is no harm in trying.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let fear stand in between you and God.â&#x20AC;? When I said my first â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yesâ&#x20AC;?, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I followed the desire that was within me.

I am grateful to God for giving me the courage, and today am glad I made that first baby-step.

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Graces in lockdown

Lockdown came as a big shock to DeaCon WaLter miDDLeton, but amid the havoc it caused in everybody’s life, it has also been a new learning experience — and the grace of God was ever-present

T

HE LOCKDOWN AND THE closure of churches has separated us from the Mass celebrated in communion with our fellow Catholics, but my experience has also been one of graces and the potency of charity.

I have served as a permanent deacon at St Patrick’s church in La Rochelle, Johannesburg, since my ordination on February 10, 2018, having previously worshipped there for over 24 years.

As a deacon, I assist in conducting Communion services, baptisms and baptism preparation, funerals, pre-marriage courses, fundraising activities, and so on. I also help run soup kitchens and a sewing class for migrants, refugees and single mothers who have no source of income. We have trained more than 120 women, and a few men, over the past three years. Some women have started cooperatives and others are doing business from their homes, and have managed to significantly improve their lives. For the past two years our parish has been feeding over 350 people on the “World Day of the Poor” on November 17.

Before lockdown, my wife June and I made it a point to go to Mass every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday to participate in the Holy Eucharist.

24

The Southern Cross

Sometimes we attend Mass on Saturdays and on particular feast days.

So when the government announced a complete lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic on March 26, including the closure of churches, we were distraught at not being able to worship as a community. As a staunch Catholic and as a deacon, I was devastated as it meant I would not be able to participate in the Masses at the church.

However, our parish priest, Scalabrini Father Jorge Guerra, is an enterprising man with many ideas

Charity work during lockdown has been a hallmark of our parish and initiative. With the help of the two assistant priests, Frs John Panpogee and Pablo Velasquez, he immediately began livestreaming daily Masses for the parishioners of St Patrick’s (and, I suppose, online visitors from elsewhere). It was such a joy and blessing for all of us.

Awesome vigil

During Holy Week, the services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were beautiful and very meaningful. We felt as if we were participating in the Mass in the church. But it was the Easter Vigil

service which really stood out. It was the full service, awesome and extraordinary, with the fire burning outside the church, the lighting of the new Easter candle, the singing of the Exultets, the blessing of the water, the renewal of our baptismal vows, the several readings and the gospel, and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which we could not consume but partake in by way of spiritual Communion.

I was also blessed and privileged to participate in the Stations of the Cross, adoration and Mass which was celebrated by our three priests every Friday during Lent. In addition, we also had the weekday Mass. In short, the buildings were closed but the church continued in the homes. We were provided excellent spiritual readings by Fr Guerra for reflection and praying at home.

As is the annual practice in our parish, a Lenten talk was organised by our priests for the community.

Since we were under lockdown, our three priests held a virtual retreat, which was livestreamed on April 4.

They spoke on themes of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. This spiritual exercise closed with adoration and Benediction.

This experience is something I will treasure all through my life as this has never ever happened in my

71 years of life on this planet â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the livestreaming of the Mass, the participating in a virtual retreat.

Having been involved in the feeding of the poor and hungry during my professional career of 45 years with CARE and World Vision, I felt blessed to assist Fr Guerra in purchasing, packing and distributing 255 food parcels to the poor and needy on the day before the lockdown.

Facemask initiative

Since the government had mandated the wearing of facemasks, Fr Guerra and I arranged with the women from the sewing class to make 150 facemasks at their homes.

These were sold at a nominal cost to the parishioners. Some masks were given out free to people who could not afford them. Fr Guerra continues to distribute food parcels to poor people who come to the church. The charity work during lockdown has been a hallmark of our parish; I feel extremely proud to be part of this generous community.

Lockdown has given June and me the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of time in prayer and worship. I was able to set up five prayer groups of five persons each on WhatsApp where we spend time in prayer and intercession. The

Deacon Walter Middleton at the Chrism Mass in Johannesburgâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Christ the King cathedral in 2019. This year, Church life has been very different. Inset: Fr Jorge Guerra CS of St Patrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in La Rochelle, the parish to which Deacon Middleton belongs. Photo:â&#x20AC;&#x2C6;Sheldon Reddiar

groups are made up of people from our church as well friends from the United States, Britain and India.

This initiative has been spiritually uplifting and meaningful for all, especially in this troubling and stressful time we are going through.

At home, we have set up an altar in our living room, and we continue to participate in the livestreaming of Mass every day. At noon we pray the Angelus and a rosary for the end of the coron-

avirus. At 3pm we pray the Divine Mercy and then participate in adoration at 6pm. Before we retire at night, we again pray the rosary and the breviary.

June and I are greatly blessed. I am confident that with all the prayers and worship, this virus will come to an end, as God is in control. And for all the damage the lockdown has caused, it has also taught us important lessons. That, too, is a grace.

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25

Write to us

We welcome your letters, while reserving the right to edit them.

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Letters

Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication or that of the Catholic hierarchy.

Support the new Southern Cross

F

OR A HUNDRED YEARS THE beloved Southern Cross newspaper carried Catholic news to our homes. Sadly, it is no more. Isolated by the Covid pandemic, we have wondered where is everybody, where is the Church?

I welcome the birth of this magazine which will gather us together as family again. I congratulate the editor and his colleagues for their courage and commitment. In this new form, The Southern Cross will be reborn and will keep alive the heartbeat of humble local events and alert us of Catholic happenings around the world.

Catholicism offers a comprehensive social and religious vision and claims to speak authoritatively on the human condition. This is not appreciated by those who maintain the contemporary idea that religion is fine so long as it is held privately on an individualistic basis. South Africa needs the voice of 2 000 years of faith.

I await in the new publication a truly Catholic news which will discern the movement of faith and God’s presence within the world. We can find anti-Catholicism anywhere and everyday. Yes, we need the truth — but with Catholic sensitivities.

For we look at life with a benevolent, or “caritas”, understanding of the human condition. We want to discern more within the ordinary — which for us is sacramental. We believe in and emphasise relationship and community.

We love the traditions of Christian faith left by generations before us as we navigate the demands of modern life. We also love South Africa and so wish to build justice and peace and give birth to that long-lost animal: “fraternity”.

I heartily encourage our Catholic people and our many friends to support The Southern Cross reborn. We seriously need to create and proclaim our Good News.

Archbishop William Slattery OFM, Emeritus of Pretoria

26 The Southern Cross

Copies of the last-ever Southern Cross newspaper to be printed. For six months of lockdown, The Southern Cross came out weekly as a digitalonly newspaper. Now it’s back as monthly magazine, in print and digitally.

Southern Cross has turned a new page

W

ITH THE LAUNCH OF its new format as a magazine publication, The Southern Cross is turning another page in its history.

May all who used to read this valued “window on the Catholic world and beyond” in its tabloid format now continue to read, subscribe and contribute to the magazine with its coverage of the diversity of the Catholic community as it reaches 100 years of distinguished service to the social communications apostolate.

Pope John II called us to not only read the signs of the times but to also understand and respond to those signs. The Vatican pastoral instruction Aetatis Novae, published in 1989, was a profoundly prophetic response to those signs.

The document was itself a signpost of changing times and the work that needed to be done for the Church to continue its mission to bring the Good News to society. We were urged to prepare for a revolution in human communications.

“At the dawn of a new era, a vast expansion of human communications is profoundly influencing culture everywhere. Revolutionary technological changes are only part of what is happening,” the document said. “Nowhere today are peo-

ple untouched by the impact of media upon religious and moral attitudes, political and social systems, and education.”

Social communications, it said, should be an integral part of every pastoral plan for it has something to contribute to virtually every other apostolate, ministry and programme.

Thirty years later, from our daily experience of life and work and relationships, we know that society is already engulfed in a diversity of social media that consumes our behaviour. I once told a man who was trying to get the attention of his young sons, who were using a cellphone in a hospital lift, that he would do better if he called them by cellphone.

The challenge now for the newlook Southern Cross is to celebrate its centenary with a creative, intelligent and effective response to the times. The journalists and support staff cannot do this alone. The new dawn requires a shared response — a supportive scaffolding that extends from the hierarchy to the clergy, religious and laity: an inclusive readership that keeps the message of Galilee alive for our times.

The Associates Campaign has worked wonders for The Southern Cross, as have the funds received from Fowler Tours. The centenary celebration is an invitation for others to do the same.

Sydney Duval, Cape Town

Our search for truth

Nthabiseng Maphisa: Millennial Catholic

T

O THIS DAY, I WONDER where the saying, “Curiosity killed the cat”, came from. Did the cat drown in a river while peering over a bridge? Did the cat choke on something it shouldn’t have eaten? To whom did the cat belong and what made it curious?

We live in an information-saturated age. There are 24-hour news channels, and a Google search on any topic can give us thousands of websites where we may begin to find an answer.

When I was younger and landlines were still in wide use, our telephone rested on a giant phonebook which served as a pedestal. On the rare occasions when I was “curious”, I would open it and be sent into the world of area codes, school addresses, plumbers, post office, electricians and funeral homes. It was then that my younger self realised just how big the world really was. It was a big world for which I had big questions.

I like to think of our interior selves as long avenues. Along these avenues, some have trees that are tall and domineering, and others have shrubs and blinking street lights. If one dares to be still and listen, one will hear the whispering wind of curiosity disturbing the leaves and bringing branches to a sway.

The cult of celebrity

Many of us have a desire to know things. At the worst of times we want to know the inner lives of the rich and famous. The tempest grows to a tornado of gossip, fake news and distorted photos. Our still streets become so restless: we want to know what they eat for breakfast and where do they go on holiday. Do they shop for underwear by themselves?

that angers the sea? The moon hanging in the sky like a canvas, how does it play it so cool?

At our worst, the wind takes us to sleazy tabloids and bland talk shows. At our best, it encourages us to deepen our friendships and to become companions capable of empathy, laughter and interesting conversation.

Though curiosity is at times a wild gust and at other times a gentle breeze, it must be acknowledged that God desires to help channel this wind.

But this in itself is a scandal for the modern world. Usually we turn to everyone but God for answers to the big questions of life — perhaps mostly for convenience.

What will God reply?

At our best, we desire to know those closest to us. My dear friends, when I think of them, what do they dream of? Are they searching for fortune without the fame? Are they as conflicted as I am about how to find

I’ve never died before, I’m afraid to try it. happiness? Have they found love?

What does it feel like?

Somewhere down the avenue, behind a corner and into an alley, we desire to know what happens to us when the road ends. Who will meet us when we get there? Will there be judgment or mercy? I’ve never died before, I’m afraid to try it.

Up high upon a branch and staring into the distance, we can see the height of our intrigue. We desire to know the world around us. What brings the sun into my room in the morning? What makes the clouds restless? What is it

Are you yearning to understand the meaning of marriage in age of separation and divorce? Well, if you look hard enough you will find blogs and podcasts about it. Want to have an insight into the mysteries of the universe? There will be journals about that. But seldom do we care to ask God. Who would talk to God? I think most of us want to but we’re too scared that God might actually talk back. We’re frustrated that God will take his time and answer us in his way.

Nevertheless, let us be carried by that wind guided by grace. “Faith and Reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth,” Pope John Paul II once said. The possession of truth is one of the greatest desires of the human heart superseded only by the desire for love.

It is settled, then, that for big questions we can expect big answers. Fly then, dear reader, high above the trees and to the vastness beyond where there lies the truth you seek.

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The Southern Cross

27

To live well is to change often

Raymond Perrier on Faith & Society

I

N THE LAST FEW WEEKS WE have all started to get used to changes in our lives: what we are now becoming accustomed to call “the new normal”. We have seen this in workplaces, schools, gyms and in our churches as we have returned to in-person services, within the prescribed restrictions, for the first time in over five months.

That phrase “the new normal” is worth reflecting on: things are indeed “new”, but they are also now becoming “normal”.

Few of us are good with change: even changes for the better are hard because they take more effort than simply continuing with the ways things were. When the change is not immediately for the better — or, at least, means losing things we have cherished in the past — the effort feels disproportionately burdensome.

I fear that as Catholics we can be especially changeresistant. A lot of our selfidentity as a religious community comes from the notion of unchanging continuity (in contrast, we might argue, to those who introduce changes called “reforms”). We do what we do because it has always been that way.

Of course, it does not take much investigation into Church history to discover how many of our cherished “unchanging traditions” are not eternal at all: mandatory clerical celibacy (900 years), the rosary (at most 700 years), the image of the Sacred Heart (350 years), calling a priest “Father” (200 years), Vatican appointment of bishops (just over 100 years).

Indeed, the greatest change experienced in the lifetime of some readers — the move from the old-rite Latin Mass — is presented by some as the abandonment of an ancient tradition. But by its very definition, the Tridentine Mass dates only from the Council of Trent (450 years ago) and, in fact, replaced some much more ancient Mass texts.

This is not to say that these aspects of Catholicism are not good because they are not eternal; but rather to query whether what is oldest is necessarily the best or the most authentic.

God is the God of change

Change is often associated with the negative. A Jesuit friend of mine, when faced with any minor modification to his orderly way of life, would intone mournfully: “Change and decay in all around I see.” You might recognise those words, and complete the quotation with the line that follows: “Oh God, who changes not, abide with me.”

but because, we must assume, God wanted it that way.

St John Henry Newman captured this in a challenging quote: “Whilst in another world it might be different, to live in this world is to change; and to live well is to have changed often.”

We begin to understand the reason for that when we recognise that, while sometimes it is “change and decay”, more often we are given the chance of “change and growth”. Would we really be the same extraordinary creatures of God if we were born fully grown, already knowing all we need to know?

Not even Jesus of Nazareth was born in that way. The process of growing up and the change that comes with it makes us what God designed us to be.

Recall the famous quote of (another Jesuit!) Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

Sometimes we can anticipate changes: we mature, we leave home, we marry, we have children, our children grow up, we see our parents die. But even those changes are not always as expected or happen at the times we expect them.

Sometimes — out of a spirit of adventure or folly — we create change: I count that I have lived in nine different homes in six cities over the past 21 years. Sometimes change happens to me when it seems everyone else’s life is stable: an illness, or a death, or falling in or out of love.

In times of change, reflect:

‘What is God asking of me in the face of this change?’

28 The Southern Cross

This can be mistakenly justified as a basis for our aversion to change: that if God does not change, then all change must be un-godly. However, this is rather hard to back up theologically. God could have created a world which does not involve change — a planet of tectonic plates that never move. But God chose not to do that.

Every aspect of God’s creation is full of change (even those tectonic plates, albeit very slowly).

And we, as human beings who are made in the image and likeness of God and whom God proclaims to be not just good but “very good”, live lives which have change hardwired into us.

The time from conception to birth, through puberty and maturing, to aging and death, is a remorseless passage of change — not in spite of God

Seismic changes

And then there is the change we are all facing now because of Covid-19 — all of us, in every country, no matter what age we are, whether rich or poor.

These do not happen often but they are not completely foreign. After all, everyone in South Africa over the age of 30 has experienced a seismic social change in their own lifetime.

Change is inevitable. And institutions that resist change, or ignore it, will eventually die. The National Party refused to change and tried to persuade the rest of the world that South Africa would never change — and where are they now? Perhaps current political

parties should reflect on that when they think they are beyond change.

Whatever the source of change, I would propose that we approach it with a positive attitude: ask not “does this change come from God?” but rather “what is God asking of me in the face of this change?” Sometimes that’s easier for us to see than at other times.

But that just means we need to reflect a bit more intently.

Let me give you an example: the “new normal” means that if we go to church, we have to leave immediately after receiving Communion: this is a difficult experience for many readers.

But perhaps we can see it as a way of God reminding us — in case we have forgotten — that receiving Communion is not just an act of personal piety but also a commission to take Christ out into the world. We are now literally doing that, with the host still in our mouths as we walk out of the church.

In all change there is also continuity. This is the first time you will be reading my words in a monthly magazine — and yet some of you (generously) have been following my columns in the newspaper format over the past seven years. And this new format of The Southern Cross is just one in a series of changes it has undergone in its 100 years.

It is fitting that the new Southern Cross is coming out in spring. This is the season when God reminds us every year that the period of “change and decay” that is winter, is followed by a period of “change and growth”. In the northern hemisphere, Easter is in fact a springtime festival. Since many of us are going back to our churches for the first time since Lent, this year spring can also be a time of change and growth for us as Christians.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God: and the world reminds us of God’s promise of change and growth every year; and in fact, every day. So let me end with a quote from yet another Jesuit, the poet Gerard Manly Hopkins: “And though the last lights off the black West went/ Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs – /Because the Holy Ghost over the bent/ World broods with warm breast and with, ah! bright wings.”

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Everybody can be a mystic

W

HAT KINDS OF THINGS help induce mysticism in our lives? I was asked that question recently and this was my immediate, non-reflected, answer: Whatever brings tears to your eyes in either genuine sorrow or genuine joy; but that response was predicated on a lot of things.

What makes for mystical experience?

In the popular mind, mysticism is misunderstood badly. We tend to identify mysticism with what’s extraordinary and paranormal, and see it as something for the spiritual elite. For most people, mysticism means spiritual visions and ecstatic experiences which take you outside of normal consciousness. Mysticism can be that sometimes, though normally it has nothing to do with visions, altered states of consciousness, or states of ecstasy. Rather it has to do with a searing clarity of mind and heart.

Mystical experiences are those that cut through all the things which normally block us from touching our deepest selves, and they are rare because normally our consciousness is cut off from our deep, true, virginal self by the influence of ego, wound, history, social pressure, ideology, false fear, and all the various affectations we don and shed like clothing. Rarely are we ever in touch with our deepest centre, without filters, purely; but when we are, that’s what makes for a mystical experience.

Mysticism, as the British Carmelite Sr Ruth Burrows defines it, “is being touched by God in a way that’s beyond words, imagination, and feeling”. God, as we know, is Oneness, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. So any time we are genuinely touched by oneness, truth, goodness, or beauty, without anything distorting that, we’re having a mystical experience. What might that look like?

Burrows describes a mystical experience which radically changed her life when she was 18 years old, at a private high school for young women operated by an order of nuns, on a retreat preparing for graduation, and not very mature.

She and one of her friends were not taking this retreat very seriously, passing notes to each other and pulling pranks during the conferences. At a point, their antics were disturbing enough that the nuns pulled them out of the group and had them sit in silence in a chapel, chaperoned by a teacher, whenever the rest of the class was at a conference.

At first, Burrows confesses, they continued their joking around, but the hours

were long and the silence eventually wore her down. Sitting alone, bored and irritated, a mystical experience graced her, uninvited and unexpected. And it came upon her not as a vision or an ecstasy, but as a moment of searing clarity.

At a certain moment, sitting alone, she saw herself with absolute clarity for who she really was, in all her immaturity and in all her goodness. It changed her life. From then on she knew who she was — beyond ego, wound, immaturity, peer pressure, ideology, and all affectation. In that moment she knew her deepest self purely (and the only thing that was extraordinary was its extraordinary clarity).

So, what kinds of things might induce mystical experiences in our lives?

The short answer: anything that takes you beyond your ego, your wounds, your affectations, and the powerful social pressures within which you breathe — that is, anything that helps put you in touch with who you really are and makes you want to be a better person.

And this can be many things. It might be a book you read; it might be the beauty of nature; it might be the sight of a newborn baby, a crying child, a wounded animal, or the face of someone suffering; or it might be what you feel deep down when you receive an expression of love, bless someone, express genuine contrition, or share helplessness. It can be many things.

Several years ago, while teaching a course, I assigned the students a number of books to read, among them Christopher de Vinck’s, Only the Heart Knows How to Find Them. This is a series of autobiographical essays within which de Vinck simply shares very warmly about his marriage, his children, and his home life. At the end of the semester a young woman, with de Vinck’s book in her hand, said to me: “Father, this is the best book I’ve ever read. I’ve always fancied myself a very free, liberated person and I’ve slept my way through several cities, but now I realise that what I want is what this man has. I want sex to take me home. I want a home. I want the marriage bed. I know now what I need!”

Reading Christopher de Vinck’s book had triggered a mystical experience inside her, not unlike the one described by Ruth Burrows. Reading the Story of a Soul

by Thérèse of Lisieux generally does that for me.

So, here’s my counsel: seek out what does that for you. It doesn’t have to bring tears to your eyes, it just has to point you with searing clarity towards home!

The Southern Cross

29

RefLECTION

I am not myself on my own

All Catholics are part of the royal priesthood, and that means we are a community in which we are called to pray for one another.

Fr oSKar Wermter SJ explains.

T

HE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC lockdown has isolated us and cut us off from one another.

But we are still a community.

We are still one.

Though not yet fully united and able to share the Eucharist, we pray for one another. I promise my prayers. And you will include me in your prayers.

We are members of families, of communities of consecrated women or men. We are never alone. The Holy Spirit is in all of us and joins us together. We learnt to say “Our Father”, not just “My Father”.

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own” (1 Peter 2:9). We are a “priestly people”. A priest prays for others. He represents the Lord before the people and the people before the Lord. Ordained ministers are not the only “priestly people”. We all are priestly since we all are baptised and confirmed. We all are priestly in praying for all who belong to us.

A priest makes an offering. He gives gifts. He gives himself as his Lord did. Any prayer is self-giving.

Who is the ‘self’?

Who is this “self”? Is it just me, me alone? No, we have said we are never alone.

My “self” consists of me and all the brothers and sisters, friends and co-workers and companions I have ever known, I have taught or cared for, all those I have healed and been reconciled to, all those whom I have ever loved and that belong to me still, even if our communion was a long time ago.

When I was in isolation, quarantined and cut off, celebrating the Eucharist apparently made no sense because there was

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The Southern Cross

no community. But I was wrong. Even when “breaking the bread” of the Eucharist alone, I was not just one, but we were many.

I was in the one living Body of Christ and bound together with all whom I had ever shared Holy Com-

My ‘self’: that is countless people who still live in my heart munion with. Together with all whom I had ever proclaimed the Good News to, all I had ever cared about as my pupils or students, as readers of my papers, all with whom I had ever shared a meal with in friendship and kindness.

Maybe life took us to faraway places, maybe we had to say farewell to them, maybe our friends and companions said farewell to us. No matter.

They still belong to me and I belong to them.

“If one part suffers, all the other

parts suffer with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). And if one has great joy, he shares the joy with all others.

A space for many

I am my “self”. This self is like a hut, a house, indeed a village or a city.

It is my heart which offers much space as a refuge; it welcomes refugees and homeless people. Love makes space for many. And love lasts. I take them along, those whom I have loved, as I walk with Jesus, the Son, to his Father.

Just as Jesus never abandoned one of his own, so we, if we have the Spirit of Christ, will never abandon our loved ones or leave them alone on the road. Can a loving wife leave her husband out of her prayers?

Can parents pray without including their children?

My “self” — that is the history, or the story, of my life. It is a long story, like a drama with many actors. My “self” — that is my memory which is like a big storeroom where all my actions of kindness, compassion and justice, my deeds of charity, my words of truth are held like rare treasures. My “self” — that is all the good relationships I had with different people, that is a network of love and bonds of friendship and compassion.

My “self” — that is countless people who still live in my heart.

Jesus said at the Last Supper: “If I go and prepare a place for you. I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am, you also may be” (John 14:3).

If the Holy Spirit lives in me, he will widen my heart and make it big enough as a home for all the people I ever knew and loved and welcomed. In prayer I open my heart to the Lord to show him all my brothers and sisters, my friends and companions, even my opponents who have hurt me or rivals with whom I now live in the peace of Christ (John 20:21).

“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). n Fr Oskar Wermter SJ is based in Harare.

Ten Ways To Be A

HAPPY CATHOLIC

T

HE KEy TO BEING A HAPPy Catholic is quite simple: Place everything into God’s hands. With God everything is possible, and all suffering is eased by knowing that God is with us.

It’s important that we know that happiness is not the absence of problems or sorrow. Even when we suffer, we can experience the comfort and peace of God, and the joy that brings. A good rule of thumb is to do what God wants us to do.

Here are ten ways of life to help make us Happy Catholics.

1

Trust in God

The golden rule: Whatever happens, prayerfully leave it in God’s hands, and be open to grace. That doesn’t mean you must be idle and wait for God to make things happen for you. On the contrary, everything we do requires effort. But when things go wrong, when life deals us a rough hand, know that God is with us, and he is bigger than any cross we bear.

2

Keep the Commandments

The equation is simple: the less you sin, the clearer your conscience, and the better your relationship with the Lord. Sin can weigh heavily on us and destroy our faith. By living by the Ten Commandments and the teachings of our Church, we minimise our exposure to sin.

We all sin, and as Catholics we have the benefit of the sacrament of Reconcilation. Make it your goal to make the most boring confession possible!

3

Read about your faith

The fact that you are reading these words suggests that you have already adopted this point. The more we understand our faith, the closer we relate to it. Read Scripture and explanatory texts (exegetics); read spiritually-enriching books; read

Catholic magazines such as The Southern Cross, listen to Catholic radio, visit Catholic websites that seek to build up (and not tear down).

4

Be Generous

When the disciples saw the hungry masses approaching, they advised Jesus to make tracks. But Jesus waited for the multitudes, and then fed them with five loaves and two fish. The message is that in charity there is always a little bit more we can give: of our material goods, of our talents, of our time.

Pope Francis warns against withdrawal into oneself, because that leads to stagnation. And “stagnant water,” the pope says, “is the first to be corrupted”.

5

Live and let live

In 2014, Pope Francis issued a list of how to live at peace. First up, he called us to be tolerant. He proposed the ancient advice of the Romans: “Campa e fascia campà”, or “live and let live.” By this he didn’t mean that we should be ignorant of sin, injustice and suffering, but that we should not be unduly judgmental about what others do. Let’s sort out our own sins first. And always be generous in defeat.

Jesus commanded us to love one another. While this doesn’t mean we have to like everybody, the commandment precludes us from hating others on account of their race, ethnicity, nationality, heritage, gender, sexuality, religion, social or economic status, even ideology. Encounter everybody with charity of spirit, even when the same isn’t shown to you.

6

Let it go

Connected to the previous point, don’t harbour bitterness or seek confrontation where none are fruit-

ful. In his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis wrote: “One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists — sourpusses.”

Don’t focus on what frustrates you and let the negative things slide.

And don’t let cynicism, anger and conspiracy theories drag you into darkness. Importantly: be ready to forgive — also yourself!

7

Enjoy the silence

8

Take time out

9

Cut the upgrades

Pope Benedict XVI stressed the virtue of silence, of quiet time during which to switch off from the cares of the world, and tune into our spiritual life. Escape from the noise of the world and find an oasis of silence for meditation, reflection, and prayer.

On the seventh day, God rested.

Use Sunday (or your day off, if you work on Sundays) as a day of rest.

After Mass, make it a day for leisure, companionship, adventure with the family, or just switch off with a good book, magazine or movie. Work can wait.

Is it necessary for you to have the latest gadget, the latest fashion, the latest car? “Consumerism has brought us many anxieties,” Pope Francis has warned. Keeping up with the Joneses doesn’t produce happiness but only anxiety that we’ll have to upgrade again soon.

10

Choose joy

The secular world tells us that happiness is brought by physical beauty, good health, wealth, and success. But joy is rooted in God’s unconditional love for us, and it’s ours even when we are ugly, ill, poor or professional failures.

The Southern Cross

31

PRAY WITH THE POPE Every month FR CHRIS CHATTERIS SJ reflects on Pope Francis’ universal prayer intention.

Why YOU are a missionary now!

Photo: Sheldon Reddiar

Universal Intention: We pray that the breath of the Holy Spirit engender a new missionary ‘spring’ in the Church.

very short. One thinks of the Church in Ireland or Québec where anticlerical reactions, hardened by the abuse scandal, destroyed a remaining sense of Christendom in a generation.

Today, however, when according WONDER IF POPE FRANCIS’ to Francis, “We are not the only ones Poland might be travelling the same crisp little phrase, “Christendom who produce culture, nor are we the troubled path today.

What we call “missionary work” no longer exists”, might turn out first or the most listened to”, our to be one of the more prophetic structures should be missionary rather is therefore no longer done just “on than those of maintenance. Today we the missions” in Africa, Asia and the one-liners of his pontificate.

The implications of his words are need to build Christian communities Americas. It’s done at home, in our important. He has tried to debunk an rather than great cathedrals and own neighbourhood.

I suspect that many older illusion — the illusion that there is a monasteries — and we need to enlist great swathe of the globe in which everyone, women and men, priests, Catholics who come out of Western culture hanker after a society in Christianity predominates. In its laypeople and religious. which Catholicism is a power in the place, Francis proposes the radically land and in which the Church, her contrasting notion that even the traOld deference is gone ministers and her religious, receive reditionally Christian countries should We can no longer expect the def- spect and even a measure of privilege. now be regarded as sites of mission. erence of a previous age. Christianity, Their early upbringing took place In the Christendom of the late Middle Ages, the Catholic Church in says Francis, “especially in Europe, in what we might call the “miniChristendoms” of Catholic Europe understood its role to a towns, villages and some coungreat extent as the safeguarding Today we need to build tries. Certainly, one gets the imof doctrinal order. In this it was Christian communities, and pression that this is the secure aided by the power of Christian which Benedict XVI monarchs, and so the Church everyone – priests, laypeople background fondly remembers — his rural tended to support the political and religious – must do that Bavarian upbringing where order as well. This was an essenCatholicism was the air that peotially defensive posture, very unbut also in a large part of the West, is ple breathed. derstandable in the context of the The prophetic nature of the prorise of Islam as well as various here- no longer an obvious foundation of sies which threatened the unity of our common life, but rather it is nouncement of the passing of Chrisoften denied, derided, marginalised tendom is clear in the light of that the Church and Christian society. old Chinese saying about how the The Church’s cultural influence or ridiculed”.

Pretending that we still call the function of the leader is to give in this era were remarkable. In a sense the Church was the only show in tune is self-evidently self-delusional. things their correct names. That is town, and when we gaze upon the Indeed, national churches where the what Francis has done. His naming of magnificence of the medieval cathe- attempt was made to shore up a sense the entire globe as “mission territory” drals of Europe, we get a glimpse of of Christendom through the exercise is correct, and therefore an act of real of cultural or political power came up leadership. If we look around, we this. know it’s correct.

And what that means for clergy and religious, but also for the laity, is Frail/assisted care in shared or single rooms. that we are all missionaries now. independent care in single/double rooms “Going out on the missions” isn’t with en-suite bathrooms. something someone else does in rates include meals, laundry some faraway country; it’s every and 24-hour nursing.

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I

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The Southern Cross

Prayer Corner A Morning Pra yer

Your prayers to cut out and collect. Do you have a favourite prayer?

Send it to us, please with a reference to its origin, to editor@scross.co.za

Thou, of all consolers best, Thou, the soul’s delightful guest, Dost refreshing peace bestow.

INSTIL those in religious life, parish ministries, and families with the confidence and grace to invite others to embrace the bold and noble path of a life consecrated to you.

Thou in toil art comfort sweet; Pleasant coolness in the heat; Solace in the midst of woe.

UNITE us to Jesus through prayer and sacrament,

If thou take thy grace away, Nothing pure in man will stay; All his good is turned to ill.

so that we may cooperate with you in building your reign of mercy and truth, of justice and peace.

Amen.

Adapted from the Message on the 51st World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Light immortal, Light divine, Visit thou these hearts of thine, And our inmost being fill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour thy dew, Wash the stains of guilt away.

Bend the stubborn heart and will; Melt the frozen, warm the chill; Guide the steps that go astray.

ge Museum) rbury Herita omas (Cante

Come, thou Father of the poor, Come, with treasures which endure; Come, thou Light of all that live!

n by John Th

Holy Spirit, Lord of Light, From the clear celestial height.

Thy pure beaming radiance give.

phen Langto

INSPIRE all of your disciples to mutual love and giving — for vocations blossom in the good soil of faithful people.

A prayer written around 1200 by Cardinal Stephen Langton of Canterbury (c.1150-1228)

Cardinal Ste

BLESS young people with the gift of courage to respond to your call.

Open their hearts to great ideals, to great things.

Stephen Langton’s Prayer

Maquette of

Pope Francis’ Vocations Prayer

Lord, Jesus, tod ay is Your day, and I want You r will to be done. So, what ever happens, hold my hand an d let’s face it together .

Amen.

Thou, on us who evermore Thee confess and thee adore, With thy sevenfold gifts descend.

Give us comfort when we die; Give us life with thee on high; Give us joys that never end.

Amen. Alleluia.

Prayer of the Unemployed

o God, who made us in your image and intended us for creative work; look with love on those of us who are unemployed. help us to enjoy life together with those who have work and to understand what kind of help we need to give one another, whether in paid employment or not.

Guide the leaders of our country, that they may take wise decisions which will benefit us all.

Finally we ask you, Lord, to guide us in the knowledge that we all have worth in ourselves and that we are all of equal value in your eyes, through Jesus Christ our Lord. amen.

The Southern Cross

33

Bible Word Search

© Memory-Improvement-Tips.com. Reprinted with permission.

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Southern Cross Quiz 1. In which year was Pope Francis born? a) 1936 b) 1939 c) 1942 2. What language was the New Testament originally written in? a) Greek b) Hebrew c) Latin 3. Who was South Africa’s first cardinal? a) Denis Hurley b) John Garner c) Owen McCann 4. What was the home village of the three visionaries of Fatima? a) Aljustrel b) Fatima c) Nazaré 5. What does apologetics refer to? a) Defending the faith b) Deferment from Mass c) Making a confession 6. Which TV series featured a priest named Fr Phil Intintola? a) The O.C. b) The Sopranos c) The Wire 7. Who was the pope when Word War II ended?

Q1: Pope Francis

a) Benedict XV b) Pius XI c) Pius XII 8. In which province is the Marian shrine of Ngome? a) KwaZulu-Natal b) Limpopo c) Mpumalanga 9. In which year was the first Southern Cross published? a) 1895 b) 1920 c) 1945 10. Which Gospel ends with the words: “They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God”? a) Mark b) Luke c) John

−

− Southern Crossword ACRoSS

1. take off your hat as you speed off (4) 3. Feast day of January 6 (8) 9. it may tell the time on a clear day (7) 10. is he found getting up on the staircase? (5) 11. Warm weather in late autumn (6,6) 13. Capacity to do your work well (6) 15. Join and give evidence at test (6) 17. Carrying off in ecstasy (12) 20. Your private teacher (5) 21. roman province where tarsus was situated (acts 21) (6) 22. remembered being summoned again? (8) 23. Caucasian conceals continent (4)

DoWN

1. Loathed (8) 2. Given a penalty (5) 4. nationality of St John Paul ii (6) 5. brusquely trip employer (12) 6. Severe and having no luxuries (7) 7. of times long ago (4) 8. he represents the bishop (5,7) 12. the marks of St Francis of assisi (8) 14. tracer i find is not regular (7) 16. native indian software? (6) 18. Find the old people of the andes, in case (5) 19. Could be King David’s emblem (4) Solutions below

7. c) Pius XII; 8. a) KwaZulu-Natal; 9. b) 1920; 10. b) Luke

Quiz Answers: 1. a) 1936; 2. a) Greek; 3. c) Owen McCann; 4. a) Aljustrel; 5. a) Defending the faith; 6. b) The Sopranos;

Crossword Solutions: ACROSS: 1 Doff, 3 Epiphany, 9 Sundial, 10 Riser, 11 Indian summer, 13 Energy, 15 Attest, 17 Transporting, 20 Tutor, 21 Cilicia, 22 Recalled, 23 Asia. DOWN: 1 Despised, 2 Fined, 4 Polish, 5 Peremptorily, 6 Austere, 7 Yore, 8 Vicar general, 12 Stigmata, 14 Erratic, 16 Apache, 18 Incas, 19 Star.

34 The Southern Cross

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Est. 1920

The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa

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Final Words Great Quotes on

New Beginnings ‘Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity.

Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’

Next Month: Look out for our centenary issue, celebrating 100 years of The Southern Cross ... plus all your new favourites!

History in Colour

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

– St John Paul II (1920-2005)

‘Beginning well is a momentary thing; finishing well is a lifelong thing.’

– Ravi Zacharias (1946-2020)

‘Nothing great is ever achieved without enduring much.’

– St Catherine of Siena (1347-80)

‘When Christ delays to help his saints now, you think this is a great mystery, you cannot explain it; but Jesus sees the end from the beginning. Be still, and know that Christ is God.’ – Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-43)

‘The only way to get rid of your past is to make a future out of it.

God will waste nothing.’

– Phillips Brooks (1835-93)

‘By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me.

The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.’

– Thomas Merton OCSO (1915-68)

‘See, I am doing a new thing!’

– Isaiah 43:19

The

In May 1917, three children in rural Portugal reported having seen apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a field at Fatima. The final apparition to Lucia dos Santos (left) and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto was on October 13, 1917 — accompanied by the “Miracle of the Dancing Sun”.

Ss Francisco and Jacinta died in 1919 and 1920 respectively; Lucia became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005. The three children are seen standing against the outer wall of the Marto home in the village of Aljustrel. The building and the wall still stand today, and can be visited by pilgrims.

The last laugh O

ne day in the 1980s, Catholic Archbishop Stephen Naidoo of Cape Town was arrested during an anti-apartheid protest with his betterknown Anglican opposite number, Desmond Tutu. At the police station, the sergeant, an Afrikaner, asked all the arrested to state their name and occupation. “Stephen Naidoo, archbishop of Cape Town,” His Grace reported. “Next!” the sergeant barked.

“Desmond Tutu, archbishop of Cape Town.”

The sergeant thought his leg was being pulled. “All right! Which one of you jokers is the real archbishop of Cape Town?”

“Ag, all right,” Tutu told the policeman, nodding towards Naidoo. “It’s him.”

(Told by Andrew Cusack in the Catholic Herald, May 20, 2020)

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