202203

HEALING FROM PAIN OF ABORTION

‘THE ARCHBISHOP HURLEY I KNEW’

MIRACLE AFTER MEETING POPE FRANCIS?

Southern Cross

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March 2022

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Focus on matric THE INS AND OUTS OF LENT & ASH WEDNESDAY

SAINT OF THE MONTH: OSCAR ROMERO – with poster

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We’re staying Catholic

O

Dear Reader,

UR SAINT OF THE MONTH IN this issue will be popular with many people. Even 42 years after he was assassinated while celebrating Mass, Archbishop Oscar Romero still teaches us that Church and politics must mix when politics acts with injustice — as it so often does. The life of St Oscar Romero calls us to conversion towards obedience to Christ’s demand for justice.

The Church is full of heroes like Romero. Some are well-known and fondly remembered. Archbishop Denis Hurley, who became the bishop of Durban 75 years ago on March 19, is one of them. This month we read about Hurley in a reflection by his Oblate confrere Bishop Sylvester David, as well as in Raymond Perrier’s column. The always delightfully readable Raymond aptly calls Hurley, Romero and the recently late Desmond Tutu the “Three Golden Arches”. In an article by Fr Oskar Wermter SJ, we also read about the great social activist Dorothy Day, whose sainthood cause is underway, possibly to her dismay. She once said: “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.”

By proxy, we also celebrate this month the many other disciples of Christ who serve the Lord and his people in education. The panel adverts in this issue showcase the successes of several independent Catholic schools. These schools, their staff and learners merit our admiration for successfully navigating the colossal challenges faced over the past two years of the pandemic. But as we look at the photos of the high-performing matriculants, let us think also of the many others in the Catholic school system who beat the impossible odds — with a pass rate of almost 86% in the state exams, as Anne Baker explains in her insightful article on page 10 — to secure a good matric, and with it the hope for a bright future.

The Catholic Church’s education system in South Africa comprises around 350 schools, most of them located in townships and rural areas.

As it is with the Catholic primary health care system, most of these schools serve poor communities. If the Catholic Church were to pack up and shut all its operations, South Africa’s education and health systems would collapse (as it

would in many other countries, even in more developed places such as Ireland).

W

ithout a doubt, despite all the deplorable failures of people within it, the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world. Many people forget that truth when they think of the Church only as the institution run by powerful, often flawed men. The ceaseless stream of revelations of the abuse scandal and its cover-ups, now also implicating Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, are shaking many people in their faith, even driving great numbers from the Church.

But it is a shame that the Catholic Church should be measured not by the Christian witness of those at the coalface but by the failures of members of the elites governing it — and over centuries, the Church survived many mediocre and corrupt men, some of them evil, in its leadership, among them several medieval and Renaissance popes. What a pity that those who are leaving aren’t saying: “I’m staying Catholic because of what the religious and faithful are doing for the poor and the sick. I’m staying Catholic because of what the Church is doing in education. I’m staying Catholic because of the heroic example of people like Romero, Day and Hurley.”

If one looks even with half an eye, one finds Christ very much at work in the Catholic Church. And if one looks only to those with lofty titles and offices to define the Catholic Church, one is blinded to the great work done in Christ’s name by so many Catholics.

Indeed, by citing the failures of leaders as a reason to leave the Church, one is unjustly dismissing the selfless service of those faithful Catholics who are doing great things. When they ask, “How can I remain a member of that Church?”, then they haven’t really tried to find the answer. But it is right there!

I hope you will enjoy this special issue of your Catholic magazine. Please tell your friends about it.

God bless,

Günther simmermacher (Editor)

Contents MARCH 2022

8

Miracle After Meeting Pope Francis?

A 10-year-old made news when he jumped on a stage with Pope Francis — but was there a miracle afterwards?

10

The State of Education in SA The CIE’s Anne Baker reviews pressing education issues

12

Did you know?

In our digital ed ition, all links to websites are live.

Just click, and the site opens in your bro wser!

TRY IT!

Cooking with Faith Meet up-and-coming chef Karabo Masela

14

Healing from Abortion How Rachel’s Vineyard retreats give hope after abortion

16

10

The Holy Cloak of St Joseph A church in Rome holds the reputed garment of St Joseph

17

The state of education in SA

With pull-out poster!

Jesus Actor on ‘Spiritual Attacks’ The Chosen’s Jonathan Roumie on his faith and challenges

18

The Archbishop Hurley I Knew Bishop Sylvester David OMI reflects on the 75th anniversary of Archbishop Denis Hurley’s episcopal ordination

25

The Ins and Outs of Lent What to put into Lent, and what to cut out

26

Ash Wednesday Matches Why we should look out for other people’s smudges

28

What We Can Learn from Dorothy Day Fr Oskar Wermter SJ on how we can walk with the poor

30

The Life of a Priest for Workers We review the memoirs of Fr Joseph Falkiner OP

31

Colouring the Faith!

A Catholic couple has created colouring books for Catholic kids

32

How Long Should a Homily Be? Fr Chris Chatteris SJ considers the ideal length of a homily

33

The Two Faces of Mary A look at painter Bouguereau’s Madonna and Pieta

EVERY MONTH 5

FROM OUR VAULTS The Southern Cross 25 years ago

6

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

The life of St Oscar Romero

21

Lent: The season for change

25

You ask, and our team of experts replies

21

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

34

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Have your say!

35

THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC Nthabiseng Maphisa on finding peace

36

RAYMOND PERRIER On the ‘Three Golden Arches’

37

FR RON ROLHEISER OMI On religion and science

38

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

39

PRAYER CORNER Your illustrated prayers, to cut out and collect

40

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

42

COOKING WITH SAINTS Grazia Barletta tries out recipes inspired by saints

44

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

36 Raymond Perrier on ‘Three Golden Arches’

Cover photo: Matriculants Langelihle Nduku and Fabio Gouveia of De La Salle College, Johannesburg, after donating their shoes.

25 Years Ago: March 23, 1997

FROM OUR VAULTS New abortion law resistance

Following the legalisation of abortion in February, “reports are streaming in of nurses and doctors who are refusing to perform abortions”, according to the organisation Doctors For Life. It said that of about 1 000 nurses at the Pretoria Academic Hospital, only ten said they were willing to perform abortions. The organisation also said it would obtain legal advice for pro-life doctors and nurses if necessary.

Namibia Church breaks away

The recently constituted Namibian bishops’ conference was formally launched at a Mass in Windhoek’s St Mary’s cathedral. At the altar (as pictured on the front-page) were Archbishop Boniface Haushiku of Windhoek, papal nuncio Archbishop Ambrose de Paoli, and Bishop Josef Shikongo of Rundu. Previously Namibia had been part of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

Church is helping Africa

In his editorial, Michael Shackleton writes that “in spite of adversity, the Church is working in Africa to improve the spiritual and temporal welfare of all. Although its influence is often perceived as suspect, the Church must continue to help Africa to help itself.”

What else made news in March 1997:

• A security force presence of more than 1 500 moves to control violence that erupts in Johannesburg during a march to commemorate the 1994 Shell House shootings. Three people are killed and several wounded.

• Mother Teresa steps aside as leader of the Missionaries of Charity and is succeeded by Sr Nirmala Joshi.

• The Democratic Party and the Pan-African Congress decline President Nelson Mandela’s offer to join the Government of National Unity.

• Tara Lipinski, 14, becomes the youngest women’s world figure-skating champion.

The American teenager is a devout Catholic with a devotion to St Thérèse of Lisieux.

• 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult commit mass suicide at their compound in San Diego, California.

• South Africa’s cricket team loses the Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth tests against Australia, but win the dead rubber in Centurion.

• The Teletubbies debut on British TV.

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

Oblate novices (from left) Nduduzo Luthuli, Angelicus Mchunu, Wayne Cameron, Donovan Wheatley and Eugene Madlala behind the altar in the community chapel, fashioned by artist Deena Cormick, at the pre-novitiate in Cleland, KwaZulu-Natal. (Photo by Theo Lundall)

The Southern Cross

5

What’s the cross on the cover?

Q. I’ve noticed that each month, the cover of The Southern Cross features a cross with four smaller crosses. What do these crosses denote, and why are they depicted on your covers?

T

HE IMAGE YOU REFER TO IS THE Jerusalem Cross, which in the Holy Land represents the Catholic Church and the Franciscan Custody of the holy sites.

There is no consensus on the symbolic meaning of the five-fold cross.

Some say it represents Christ (the big central cross) and the four Evangelists. Others suggest it stands for the five wounds of Jesus, and another interpretation suggests that it is Christ and the four corners of the world.

The oldest known of these interpretations is that of the five wounds, dating back to the consecration of St Brelade’s church on the English Channel island of Jersey, before 1035.

In the 12th century, it was used on English coins minted under King Henry II.

The five-fold cross was also on the papal banner presented by Pope Urban II at the beginning of the First Crusade in 1095, but it wasn’t adopted as the official symbol of the Kingdom of Jerusalem until about 1285, just six years before the final defeat of the Crusaders by the Mamluk Muslims.

After the final expulsion of the Crusaders, the association of the Jerusalem Cross with the Holy Land was kept alive. It was incorporated in the coat of arms of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. The pontifical Order of the Holy Sepulchre also uses the Jerusalem Cross as its emblem, in red, which is also used in the arms of the Custodian of the Holy Land, which supports the Order.

And it isn’t only Catholics who have adopt the Jerusalem Cross. It has also been used by various Protestant entities over the centuries. England’s King Edward VII, the head of the Church of England, even had a tattoo

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The flag of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, with the Jerusalem Cross, flies on Mount Tabor, traditional site of the Transfiguration.

of a Jerusalem Cross on his arm (he had it done in Jerusalem in 1862, when he was the crown prince). The Jerusalem Cross also features on a national flag: since 2004, it is flown in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

And what is the Jerusalem Cross doing on all our covers since the April 2021 issue? Well, it was a reader’s idea that our covers should feature a cross in some way to express our Catholic identity. We agreed that this was a good idea, and chose the Jerusalem Cross to indicate our special closeness to the territory in which Our Lord was born, worked, died and rose again: the Holy Land.

Why do we light candles in church?

(Günther Simmermacher)

Q. Why do Catholics light candles in church?

T

HE CUSTOM OF LIGHTING CANDLES AS A MARK of respect and prayer actually predates Christianity.

In Judaism, the Talmud prescribed that there be a perpetual lit candle at the Ark of the Covenant, where the writings of the sacred Scriptures were kept — as a sign of respect for the word of God. This may well have contributed to the current practice of Catholic churches in keeping a lighted sanctuary lamp near the tabernacle to mark the presence of the Eucharist and to call believers to special reverence.

Today, many Catholic churches contain racks where vigil candles are lit by parishioners in honour of particular saints or in memory of someone who is deceased. The word “vigil” refers to keeping watch, and the symbolism is that the one who lights the candle desires to remain present to the Lord in prayer even while leaving to attend to other daily obligations. This Christian practice can be traced back as far as the 3rd century, when lit candles were kept burning in the catacombs at the tombs of martyrs by Christians honouring them and praying for their intercession.

(Fr Kenneth Doyle)

Has the Church changed scripture?

All photos: Günther Simmermacher

Q. We say at Mass, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed”, which comes from Mathew 8:8 — except the word “servant” has been substituted for “soul”. The Church isn’t permitted to change scripture. How did this happen?

Y

OU ARE QUITE CORRECT: THE Church may not alter the words of scripture when the scriptures are being proclaimed and when homilies are being preached. When the Bible is being quoted in public worship, we are expected to keep to the original text.

Yet the scriptures are also used as

Your Questions answered Do you have questions about our faith? Send them to: editor@scross.co.za Subject line: Q&A

inspiration in the composition of prayers and songs. A great many of our hymns have been inspired by scripture, but the words are not always exactly the same. Hymn-writers often borrow from more than one source, combining texts.

This applies also to prayers. Even the first half of the “Hail Mary” departs from scripture by adding in the names of Mary and Jesus to make the prayer more understandable. The same is true for what we say before Communion. The words of the centurion in Matthew 8 could have been rendered as “…and your servant will be healed” or “…and I shall be healed”. We depart from the text in order to make the soldier’s plea our own.

(Fr Thomas Plastow SJ)

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By Giulio Capece

I

T WAS ONE OF THE VIRAL VATICAN MOMENTS OF 2021: a boy in a black tracksuit, spectacles, and a facemask spontaneously walking up to greet Pope Francis in the middle of a general audience.

But there was more to the impromptu encounter in October than met the eye: the 10-year-old suffered from epilepsy and autism. His health had recently declined so severely that doctors feared he might have a brain tumour.

Paolo Bonavita was in Rome that day for medical tests. His mother, Elsa Morra, said that the papal audience was followed by an inexplicable improvement in her son’s condition. “It’s a miracle,” she said. “It’s a miracle, for us, for my family.”

Five minutes into the livestreamed audience on October 20, Paolo unexpectedly walked up the steps towards the pope in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. “Paolo did not have the strength to go up. In fact, when Paolo goes down stairs he needs some support — a hand, or a handrail. But that day he was able to go up alone,” Morra said in an interview with the Catholic News Agency. “He stumbled a little, two or three times, but he immediately had the instinct to get up again. The Lord was with him that day, close by, he had given him his hand, I’m convinced of it.”

When Paolo approached Francis, the pope smiled and clasped the boy’s hand. Mgr Leonardo Sapienza, the regent of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, who sits to the pope’s right at general audiences, rose and gave his seat to Paolo. Pilgrims applauded and Paolo joined them, enthusiastically clapping his hands.

The boy sat briefly on his hands, before standing in front of the pope again, bouncing on his toes. Pope Francis’ zucchetto caught his attention and he pointed it out to Mgr Sapienza, who was now seated behind the pontiff. Paolo then led a priest who was about to give a reading over to the pope to show him the white papal skullcap. Eventually,

Photo: Vatican Media

‘Miracle’ after meeting the pope

the boy walked back down from the platform proudly wearing his own zucchetto.

Pope Francis thanked Paolo in off-the-cuff remarks at the start of his general audience address: “The courage to approach the Lord, to be open to the Lord, not to be afraid of the Lord: I thank this child for the lesson he has given us all,” he said. “And may the Lord help him in his limitation, in his growth because he has given this testimony that came from his heart. Children do not have an automatic translator from the heart to life: the heart takes the lead.”

Chance meeting

Morra, who lives in Bari, south-eastern Italy, was staying with Paolo at a hotel near St Peter’s Square. On the morning of the general audience, they had breakfast and left the hotel, planning to take an open-top sightseeing bus tour of Rome. As they passed the Vatican, they noticed a long line of people. When Morra asked what was happening, she was told that it was the queue for the pope’s general audience. She wanted to attend but was informed that it was impossible without a reservation.

A passing woman noticed that Paolo was upset and approached Morra, asking what was wrong. His mother explained that Paolo was disappointed because he had wanted to meet the pope for years. The woman happened to be a leader in the group Unitalsi, an Italian association helping ill, elderly, and disabled people to make pilgrimages. She said she could get them into the audience.

The mother and son initially sat in the fourth row in the audience hall, but they were invited to move to the front. Morra took off Paolo’s hat, scarf, and jacket. She turned to put her own jacket on the back of the chair when her son began to walk up the steps of the platform towards the pope. She called out: “Paolo, come here!” But nearby Swiss Guards assured her that the pope was happy for the child to approach him.

Later, Pope Francis greeted Morra. He took her hand and said: “Signora, forza,” using an Italian term of encouragement in times of difficulty. “The impossible does not exist for you. I will be close to you in prayer. Keep going.

You have done so much for your son. You are a supermom.”

Inexplicable recovery

Morra received a phone call that evening, asking her to bring Paolo for tests in their home city of Bari the following day. Doctors were concerned that Paolo had very high levels of prolactin, a protein secreted by the pituitary gland, which can rise following epileptic seizures. The mother and son attended the appointment on October 21, the day after the audience.

Three days later, a doctor called Morra to tell her that Paolo’s prolactin level had fallen from a high of 157 ng/mL to 106, though medics did not know how or why. The normal prolactin level for a boy is between 1,6 and 16,6 ng/mL. Morra said that she and Paolo returned to Rome on November 5 for further tests. “Within two weeks [Paolo’s prolactin level] had dropped to 26, which is another 80 points lower,” and almost down to normal levels. He also recorded an increased level of haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen around the body, which is critical for Paolo as he suffers from the blood disorder thalassemia.

Morra said that doctors were able to rule out the hypotheses that Paolo was suffering from a tumour or sclerosis, a scarring in the brain. This was an enormous relief for his mother, who worried that her son might not be able to withstand the rigours of surgery. She feared that an operation would lead to Paolo being confined to a wheelchair, or perhaps even dying.

When Morra was asked what she would like to tell Pope Francis following the life-changing meeting with her son, she said: “Thank you for the miracle!”—CNA

Watch Paolo interact with Pope Francis during the papal audience at youtu.be/4SY-Ex5KXmE?t=304

TO THE MATRICS OF 2021!

Issues SA

education must face

Photo: Suzy Bernstein/CIE

Catholic schools again outperformed the national average in the NSC matric 2021, but some areas of concern in education generally remain, and some misunderstandings need clearing up, writes Anne Baker of the Catholic Institute of Education.

T

HE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS’ CLASS of 2021 writing their National Senior Certificate (NSC) state matric examinations achieved an outstanding 85,9% pass rate. A total of 8 502 candidates wrote the NSC in 2021, with 6 955 offering the state exam and 1 547 the IEB. Some independent Catholic schools also write the state exam and the pass rate for Catholic schools was 82,6%, while the IEB pass rate was 98,8%. It must be remembered that the majority, but not all, of schools offering the IEB examination are well-resourced.

The quality of the pass is important, and 4 754 Catholic school matriculants can study at university with an additional 1 682 learners able to attend universities of technology.

There has been a decrease in pass rate of 1% compared to 2020. However, more learners wrote this year; the Class of 2021 can be compared to the Class of 2015 when Catholic schools last had over 8 500 learners writing the state examination. The period 2016-19, just prior to the pandemic, was marked with decreasing learner numbers, so more learners writing the examination is a welcome development. We must congratulate the learners, parents, educators and schools who have worked tremendously hard, especially given that learners have received their education under lockdown conditions for the past two years.

As is the case in many countries, there is s strong relationship in South Africa between the performance of learners in their school-leaving examinations and the state of the country itself. Since the results tend to be an indicator of how the government delivers services — and education is the biggest public service — the results become politicised.

South Africa may be unique in certain aspects. For example, we are one of a few countries where ministers and quality as-

10

The Southern Cross

surers hold press conferences. You wouldn’t find the secretary for education in the US or the British minister of education addressing the nation on the results, especially not at the beginning of the school year when they should be solely focused on ensuring that the new year starts off well for learners. Even our neighbouring countries do not release results the way we do. We may need to sort out our priorities when our minister of basic education is holding a celebration breakfast for former learners while more than 25 000 learners have not yet been placed in a school.

The annual results pattern There is a standard pattern in the announcement of matric results. First there is the build-up to the results, then the excitement of the pass rate announcement, followed by the celebration of top performers. Then comes the results hangover, when the “real pass rate” is analysed to include those learners who have dropped

out, and various opinion articles lament the failure of the education system. Many political calls are made and civil society demands are advanced based on interpretations of how the system is performing.

This year those calls included: pushing for a higher pass rates in some subjects, removing rotational learning, and calls for ending lockdown restrictions for learners.

This year we will focus on two key questions: how we measure success and celebrate the tremendous achievement of learners against learning in the time of plague. The second point is to look at the rate of dropout and what drives this phenomenon — and if it is really correct to speak about the “real pass rate”.

Due to the highly politicised nature of the results, there is an unhealthy and damaging aspect to analysis of them. We speak about pass rates and that then implies failure rates. The term “failure” is naturally loaded as it conjures images of learners having spent 12 years and not learning much or leaving school without the ability

Catholic and State Schools NSC Pass Rates 2001-21

Catholic Schools

StateSchools

to contribute and take a role in society.

The South African Depression and Anxiety Group works exceptionally hard when matric results are released, giving support to learners and families to avoid suicides which increase but don’t receive much media attention. The consequences of attributing failure are very clear and potentially fatal.

There is no ‘fail’ When you look at how results are captured, what is clear is that the NSC is a qualification. One either achieves the qualification or one doesn’t. Unlike other qualifications, this certificate is timebound in that you must do it at the end of the school year, and only under limited circumstances can you have a second chance.

Essentially, you cannot fail — the state results capture learners under the heading “not achieved” while the IEB captures these learners under the heading “did not qualify”. In both cases, these include learners who might have started writing the examination but could not complete due to ill health, or learners who achieved pass rates in all subjects except the key subjects. You will not find the word “failed”, because that would not be a correct reflection of the overall achievement of the learner.

As an analogy, if someone is studying towards a PhD, you will not say, “Oh there’s John, he failed his doctorate.” You are more likely to stay, “There’s John, he is studying towards his doctorate.” The same level of value needs to be placed on the NSC qualification so that we recognise that someone who has not achieved it is still in the process of achieving the certificate — and as lifelong learners, humans have the capacity to learn throughout their lives. You don’t stop learning just because you achieved the NSC. The results should never be a reason to end a life or to subject people to exclusion.

The second point is the more contentious one of dropout. It is a given that not all learners who start Grade 10 end up writing Grade 12. Some 146 000 learners who were in Grade 10 did not write the examination in Grade 12 last year. It is encouraging, as noted by Equal Education, that 2021 was the first time since 1994 that over 50% of learners who started Grade 1 completed the NSC. Some points worth noting: there are three times as many primary schools as there are secondary schools, and it is a given that dropout occurs between primary and secondary phases, and then dropout occurs again between Grades 10 and 12. The question is: Why does this happen? For the primary to secondary phase, the principal reason is that numbers are skewed by late starts and repetition (young learners who are sick tend to have to redo classes), so the actual number of learners in primary schools does not

follow a guaranteed progression — which is why there are more primary schools.

In particular in rural areas, studies show that many girls start school later than boys, as they are required to look after younger siblings. It is correct to look at Grades 1 to 12 throughput, but to really understand accurately what is happening, one needs to look at Grade 7 to Grade 8 transitions, for which very little research has been done. The second factor which affects Grades 10-12 is urbanisation as learners in cities and towns can be lured into employment from age 16, and there-

You don’t stop learning just because you matriculated fore do not complete their education. It is therefore no surprise that under lockdown, when jobs particularly in hospitality were affected, we record the highest level of throughput. Simply put, the factors that would pull learners out of school were dramatically reduced under lockdown restrictions, resulting in more learners writing the examination.

Free State’s success It is worth making the point that more rural provinces fare more poorly in large part due to the doublepull factor noted above; this is especially true of provinces that include former homelands and were thus underdeveloped. It is not surprising that the Western Cape and Gauteng do well in the NSC examinations as they have no previous homelands in their borders, and potentially benefit from stronger learners leaving rural areas to study in urban schools.

It is therefore unfair to compare provinces in the results. Though it is worth noting the success of the Free State, which includes two former homelands — a part of Bophuthatswana and QwaQwa — and is mainly rural.

And yet the Free

State is able to top the NSC board every year. There is hope, then, for all provinces. However, as ingrained inequality exists, the process of rating provinces is actually quite damaging and encourages a form of education migration.

While rural education affects the first set of dropout numbers, urbanisation affects the second. South Africa has a unique double-factor education pullout as people transition between both the rural and urban.

More research is required on the dropout issue, but one should be careful to not buy into the politicisation of dropout for two reasons. Firstly, because it builds into the narrative that matric is a be-and-end-all qualification, which undermines the notion of lifelong learning. Secondly, because the analysis of dropout does not accurately reflect the efforts of many to ensure that everyone has access to education.

Anne Baker is the deputy-director of the Catholic Institute of Education.

Follow the CIE on Facebook in celebrating the many outstanding achievements of Catholic schools and to keep informed about trends in education. Also see the CIE’s website at www.cie.org.za

Catholic Institute of Education

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congratulates catholic schools

teachers & learners on the hard work and dedication they put into the National Senior Certificate final exam.

We wish all schools a peaceful and fruitful 2022 with much fun, laughter and learning.

The Southern Cross

11

Cooking with Faith

Young chef Karabo Masela is quickly gaining a reputation as one of Gauteng’s great cooking talents. She spoke to Daluxolo Moloantoa about her journey of faith and in the kitchen.

F

EW HAVE EXPRESSED THE place of food in life better than the US food writer Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher: “First we eat, then we do everything else.”

From a spiritual point of view, Catholics might say: “First the Eucharist, then everything else.”

Food is first and foremost essential nourishment. But it is also a ritual and heritage. Food connects us to our beliefs, our communities, and our lineages. Christians are called to treat food like all of God’s gifts, with respect and gratitude, and to avoid overindulgence and waste.

For Karabo Masela, food is an expression of her spiritual path in life.

The 24 year old professional chef has been cooking for as long as her mind can remember. Raised in Diepkloof, Soweto, Karabo grew up in a strongly

Catholic family where various members took part in a range of responsibilities in the parish of St Margaret/Immaculate Conception.

Her grandmother was a member the parish’s St Anne Sodality, and her father was a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society. The family has among them a late priest as well as Bishop Jeremiah Madimetja Masela of Polokwane.

Karabo served as an altar server from the age of six until Grade 11, at Veritas High School in Springs, Gauteng. “The requirements for one to be an altar server was to either be attending first Holy Communion classes, or have already completed them. I had done neither yet. All I wanted at that young age was to see serve the Lord in my altar server garments at Mass. I was very insistent about it,” she recalls. “Fortunately

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Karabo Masela, an up-and-coming Johannesburg chef whose speciality is pastries

our parish priest at the time, Fr Benedict Mahlangu OMI, gave me a chance, and I started on my long journey of service to my parish as an altar server.”

Serving at Mass was one of Karabo’s big loves. The other is food.

“I have always loved food, and I was inspired by my hospitality teacher at Veritas High School to follow my love for food as a career,” she tells The Southern Cross.

Cooking for church

Memories of her adoration of food involve some events at church.

“As an altar server we would be given tasks to prepare certain meals for our deanery or fundraising events. I would be involved in a number of aspects of this, from the peeling and chopping of veggies to the mixing of the dough for scones or even the baking,” she recalls.

After finishing high school, she proceeded to train as a chef at the Food & Beverage Institute & Patisserie Academy in Randburg, Johannesburg. “I studied culinary arts and earned an advanced diploma in pastry.” After she completed those studies, she hit the highway to implement her skills abroad.

“I got the opportunity to go and work in the United States. I was based in Miami. I could write a book

about my special moments in the kitchen and out of the kitchen while there. I worked at one of the best restaurants in Miami, the Bazaar Mar, under world-famous chef José Andriés. He is a Spanish chef, and owns quite a few restaurants across the United States.”

Some of the highlights of her time in the USA include trying out new and various types of food that she had never known about, learning Spanish, and working with people from different parts of the world, some of whom are still friends with her today.

And in Miami, she made sure to stay connected with her Church. “Experiencing Christmas and Easter Mass at St Patrick’s church in Miami Beach is a memory I’ll treasure forever,” she says.

Upon her return from the US she started a cooking and catering business which she simply calls CHEFKURRY. “I do cooking, catering and baking for individuals and any types of events. I cater to the required menu, and also bake and do pastries.”

Sacred Heart Sodality

Apart from her busy enterprise, Karabo is also preparing to become a member of the Sacred Heart sodality at her new parish of the cathedral of Christ the King in Johannesburg. “I actually wanted to follow in my grandmother’s footsteps. She was part of the St Anne Sodality for 36 years. I wanted to join the St Anne Sodality, but it’s only for married women. So I chose the Sacred Heart Sodality, because I want my heart to be more like Jesus and preach the love of Christ,” she explains.

She has one piece of advice for young Catholic girls and boys who yearn to travel on the road to personal discovery and self-actualisation: “Before doing anything, career-wise or even church-related, always ask the Lord for guidance and wisdom. Follow your heart and follow your dreams. Choose a career that you are passionate about, a career that speaks to you. Be devoted to the Lord and your church — and do it wholeheartedly.”

Follow Karabo Masela on Facebook as Chef Kurry and on Instagram @_chef_kurry.

Karabo Masela in the uniform of the Sacred Heart Sodality

Healing from abortion Many women who have an abortion suffer long-lasting psychological trauma and deep wounds as a result.

The Rachel’s Vineyard ministry offers healing, and it’s being offered in Gauteng and Cape Town in March and April.

We talked to coordinator Marie-Anne te Brake.

R

ACHEL’S VINEYARD WAS developed and founded by US psychologist Dr Teresa Burke as a way of addressing the deep wounds often suffered by women who have had an abortion. The name draws from the book of Jeremiah in which Rachel “mourns her children”, but the Lord offers his consolation.

The approach of the Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreat and support group model utilises some of the “Steps of Healing”, but does so in a process where the stages of healing are incorporated into a spiritual journey using scripture exercises, meditation, therapeutic techniques, rituals for grieving, and the sacraments to help the individual bring the deep pain and grief of their abortion to the Cross of Christ.

“The Rachel’s Vineyard retreat process has proven to be an invaluable

resource for many ministries responding to those traumatised by abortion,” said Marie-Anne te Brake, coordinator for Rachel’s Vineyard in Johannesburg.

“Rachel’s Vineyard is a safe place to renew, rebuild and redeem hearts broken by abortion,” Marie-Anne told The Southern Cross. “Weekend retreats offer a supportive, confidential and non-judgmental environment where women and men can express, release and reconcile painful post-abortive emotions to begin the process of restoration, renewal and healing.”

She said that the Rachel’s Vineyard retreats are “open to anybody who is struggling with the effects of abortion”, regardless of religion. “There are different expressions of the model that Dr Burke developed, but South Africa at the moment has the Catholic model.

However, if someone who isn’t Catholic would like to attend, they

would most certainly be welcomed with open arms,” Marie-Anne said, adding that there always are some “non-Catholic brothers and sisters at our retreats”.

Brothers? Yes! The retreats are also open to men who have been affected by or were party to an abortion, and are suffering as a result. Some men might have led or even pushed a woman into having an abortion, and “suffer with the guilt, shame and pain of coercing their partner or wife to abort their child”. But, Marie-Anne noted, there are also many men who “feel powerless to stop the decision of the mother of his child from aborting. Fathers have no rights when their partner makes a decision to abort. Rachel’s Vineyard helps him to grieve his loss and to deal with the powerful feelings of anger and depression he might be struggling with.”

In short, Rachel’s Vineyard retreats are open to anyone who struggles with the aftermath of an abortion. This may also include parents of people who were involved in an abortion, who may be heartbroken over a lost grandchild or troubled by their role in it.

Dismantle isolation

“During the Rachel’s Vineyard weekend, we encounter healing through seeking reconnection, integration, and wholeness. Such healing can only happen when the isolation and secrecy are dismantled, and one’s story is revealed to others who do not seek to judge and condemn. Only then is it finally possible, with the support of a small community of others who compassionately affirm the loss and respect the grief, to grieve one’s losses to their fullness,” the Rachel’s Vineyard website counsels (rachelsvineyard.org/faq/index.aspx).

The retreats are absolutely confidential, Marie-Anne emphasised. “Confidentiality is guarded and serious.

Signing up for the retreat ensures confidentiality, and a name will never be shared with any other individual or group under any circumstance. Even

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enquiring about the retreat now, a person is welcome to specify how he or she would like to receive any information.

Often people from Johannesburg will attend the Cape Town retreat or vice versa to ensure anonymity. And that’s okay,” she said.

What happens?

Each weekend is led by a group of people who have been trained in the Rachel’s Vineyard process. “These teams consist of a professional counsellor, women and men who have also experienced abortion, loving and nonjudgmental lay volunteers, and a representative of God, such as a minister or priest,” Marie-Anne explained.

Bishop Emeritus Hugh Slattery will minister at the Johannesburg retreat in March.

“The team members volunteer their time freely, because they understand the importance of healing and recovery surrounding the pain of abortion. They are competent and caring individuals who will respect where the person is in the grief process and help him or her to move into a deeper level of healing,” Marie-Anne said.

“The weekend comprises readings, reflection and exercises where each is a free invitation to explore feelings and emotions. The person is invited to share with the group, but can also

process the experience privately within the silence of their own heart. There is no effort to proselytise or convert, but simply an invitation to dialogue with their Creator through a very personal and intimate process,” she said.

The retreats are predicated on confidentiality and privacy, but often retreatants find that they make wonderful friends on the weekend.

Rachel’s Vineyard offers a reunion for

those who wish to participate.

“Some women and men might even feel called to get involved in other ways by helping on a future retreat team or other involvement with Rachel’s Vineyard,” Marie-Anne said.

Ideally, Rachel’s Vineyard plans four weekends a year in South Africa; two in Johannesburg and the other two in Cape Town. Covid interrupted that cycle over the past two years, but 2022 sees the resumption of the retreats. The first will be held in Benoni, near Johannesburg, from March 19-21. The second will be held in Cape Town from April 1-3.

The price of the retreats covers the costs of accommodation, meals, and materials supplied to participants.

“We would not want somebody who is really struggling to not attend because they can’t afford it, and so we have some financial assistance available,” said Marie-Anne. To that end, Rachel’s Vineyard invites donations from anyone who would be willing to support this ministry.

For more information on Rachel’s Vineyard or to book for the Johannesburg/Benoni retreat, call Marie-Anne at 078 534-0386. To book for the Cape Town retreat, call Angie at 082 852-1284. All calls are dealt with in strict confidence.

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The devotion to the Holy Cloak of ST JOSEPH Some Catholics swear by a 30-day novena to St Joseph associated with a relic of his cloak, which is kept in Rome. In the month of the saint’s feast, we look at the devotion and the legend of the Holy Cloak.

Photo: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

T

HE HOLY CLOAK OF SAINT Joseph, a unique relic of the foster father of Jesus, and a veil said to have belonged to Our Lady, travelled from church to church in Rome during the Year of St Joseph in 2021, after having spent 16 centuries unrecognised in an ancient Roman basilica.

The cloak, which tradition says was brought from the Holy Land to Rome by St Jerome in the 4th century, is accompanied by a still-colourful veil believed to have belonged to the Virgin Mary. Both relics were hidden in Rome’s basilica of Sant’Anastasia for more than 1600 years.

It is believed that St Jerome might have celebrated Mass in the basilica, located close to the Circus Maximus.

The relics are kept in a glass case encrusted in gold and jewels. The upper part of the reliquary holds the piece of Mary’s veil, while the chest below holds St Joseph’s cloak. Are these authentic relics? St Jerome lived in Bethlehem, in a cave at the basilica of the Nativity, where he translated the Bible into Latin. It is possible that relics of the Holy Family had

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survived in the three centuries after their lifetime. However, there is little evidence to back up claims of the authenticity.

Nevertheless, the mantle is the inspiration for a novena to the Holy Cloak. A novena is typically prayed over nine consecutive days, but some people pray this novena for 30 days. One shorter version of the prayer reads as follows: “O, Glorious Patriarch, St Joseph, you who were chosen by God, above all others, to be the earthly head of the Holy Family, I ask you to accept me within the folds of your holy cloak, that you may be the guardian and protector of my soul, of my family, parish and world. From this moment on, I choose you as my father, protector, help, and patron — and I ask you to place me in your care — my health and wellbeing, my faith, my life, and my death.

“Look upon me as one of your children; defend me from all harm and from my enemies — invisible or otherwise. Assist me always in all my necessities; console me in the bitterness of life, and especially at the hour of my death. Say but one word for me to the Divine Saviour, who you were worthy to hold in your arms, and to Mary, your

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spouse. Ask, please, for those blessings that will lead me to Jesus. Include me among those who are dear to you and I shall try to prove myself worthy of all I know you will do. Amen.”

There is also an old legend that claims to reveal the origin of the sacred cloak as a relic. According to the tale, St Joseph went to Mount Hebron, where he intended to buy timber for his carpentry work, but he had only about half the money he needed. His wife, Mary, had suggested that Joseph give the cloak she had given him on their wedding day to the wood merchant as a pledge to pay the rest of the money he owed.

The seller, named Ishmael, was a stingy fellow and protested at first, but eventually he decided to accept the cloak. It turned out that Ishmael had been suffering for some time from ulcers in his eyes, and had not been able to find a cure. But the day after St Joseph gave him the cloak, he woke up healed.

Ishmael’s wife, who was a hard woman with a difficult temperament, also woke that morning transformed into a mild person. The timber merchant’s best cow was also cured of illness when the cloak was held over him. After receiving these gifts, Ishmael refused to part with the cloak. He forgave the debt and provided Joseph and Mary with all the free wood they needed from that point onward.

According to the story, Ishmael and his wife also visited the Holy Family in Nazareth, bringing them gifts. At that time, the Virgin Mary told them that God would bless anyone who placed themselves under the mantle of her husband, St Joseph.—CNA

Jesus actor on ‘spiritual attacks’

I

N THE INTERNET-BASED SERIES The Chosen, Jonathan Roumie plays Jesus — and that role, said the Catholic actor, has spiritual challenges. “I think there are always forms of spiritual attack whenever you devote yourself to serving God and serving Jesus and making Jesus’ name more known around the globe,” he said in an interview with the Catholic broadcaster EWTN. He said The Chosen, which is primarily viewed through the show’s app, has been downloaded in every country on earth and translated into over 50 languages so far. “So anytime you are taking on such a significant task and a mission, as it were, you’re always going to be subject to attacks from the enemy,” he added. “But, it’s okay because we all know how the story ends.”

The idea of the acclaimed series on the ministry of Jesus and those who follow him “is that if we can see Jesus and meet Jesus through the eyes of those who knew him best — the disciples, his friends — and see how they were impacted by his life, then we too, as viewers, can also be impacted by Jesus’ life”, the 47-old actor explained.

Just as The Chosen is international in

terms of viewership, those who create and work on the show also come from diverse backgrounds.

The creator of the show, Dallas Jenkins, is an evangelical Protestant and there are numerous ecclesial communities represented on set. “It’s truly been an ecumenical effort that, I think, TV shows and even just workplaces could use as a guideline for how to kind of work and live and create a project truly in harmony,” Roumie said.

Roumie was born and raised in New York City. His father was Egyptian and his mother Irish. Raised in the Greek Orthodox faith, he later converted to Catholicism.

Roumie has a particular devotion to the Divine Mercy. “I did three days of filming on a [touring multi-media] project about St Faustina Kowalska called Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy, and that was a significant introduction to St Faustina,” Roumie said of his first time acting as Christ. While his father also has

had a devotion to the Divine Mercy for the past 30 years, Roumie credits this project with sparking his own devotion.

The actor, who last August met Pope Francis, also has a devotion to the sacraments. “I think that the sacraments are what bring us into literal and metaphorical communion with Jesus Christ himself.

So, for me, I feel an immense peace whenever I partake of the sacraments. I think spiritually, it gets me closer and closer towards this level of human perfection that we’re always encouraged to attain by Jesus,” Roumie said.

It’s a deeper spiritual meditation on Christ’s life, Christ’s being, who he is, what he did, what his sacrifice was. I think all of it is meant to get us closer to the beings that God created us to be.”

Both seasons of The Chosen can be watched at bit.ly/3xSdna5 or get the app at Google Play or App Store.

See our review of Season 2 at bit.ly/3196XZl

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The Hurley I knew On March 19, 1947, Denis Hurley OMI was ordained as the world’s youngest bishop.

75 years later, Bishop Sylvester David OMI

remembers Durban’s archbishop of 45 years.

I

T IS A PRIVILEGE TO PEN A FEW lines about the late Archbishop Denis Hurley OMI of Durban, who was ordained a bishop 75 years ago on March 19. I was born and raised in the archdiocese of Durban during the 45-year-long episcopal ministry of Archbishop Hurley.

There was a strong Oblate presence among the clergy of Durban in those days — not encountering an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, whose numbers included Hurley, was more the exception than the rule. My parents, uncles and aunts, siblings, cousins and I all received the sacraments during the time Hurley had oversight of Durban. He confirmed me in the 1970s — and in 1991, he

ordained me, by then also an Oblate, to the priesthood.

There used to be a blurred distinction between the office of the Oblate provincial and that of the archbishop. For example, shortly after my ordination to the diaconate at the hands of Bishop Daniel Verstraete OMI, then of Klerksdorp, Hurley visited the scholasticate at Cedara and asked what my plans were. I told him that it had been discussed by the congregation that I should study family therapy and, in fact, had already completed postgraduate studies at UNISA. He thought it was a bad idea and that I ought to get into parish ministry as soon as possible. I will never forget the discussion

as he concluded it by physically showing me how a famous South African fast-bowler’s action was correct and not out of sync as was speculated by some cricket commentators!

Growing up in an Oblate environment which was frequented by Fr Charles Langlois OMI, Hurley’s vicargeneral at the time, many of us young people in the parish were exposed to the Church’s Social Teachings as the archbishop arranged lectures, discussions and talks. These discussions made sense and stimulated us to start asking questions. We noticed in Hurley an undying commitment to justice, and there were times when he took to the streets in protest. Indeed, his episcopal motto was “Ubi Spiritus,

The life of Hurley: A Timeline

1915: Born on November 9 in Cape Town, the second of four children of Irish-born lighthouse-keeper Denis Sr and Theresa Hurley.

1968: Convenes first diocesan synod in South Africa’s Catholic Church in Durban.

1931: Matriculates at St Charles’ College in Pietermaritzburg.

1969-74: Member of Congregation for Divine Worship.

1932: Joins the Oblates of Mary Immaculate novitiate in Ireland.

1972-86: Apostolic administrator of the diocese of Umzimkulu.

1933: Sent to Rome to study for the priesthood at the Angelicum University.

1974: Attends his first Vatican Synod of Bishops (and again in 1977, 1980, 1985).

1939: Ordained to the priesthood on July 9 in Rome.

1975: Elected chairman of International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).

1940-43: Curate at Emmanuel cathedral in Durban.

1944: Appointed superior of St Joseph’s Oblate Scholasticate, near Pietermaritzburg.

1946: Named vicar-apostolic of Natal with the rank of bishop.

1947: Episcopal ordination on March 19.

1951: Elevated to rank of archbishop with the establishment of the archdiocese of Durban.

1952-61: First President of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).

1961: Appointed to the Central Preparatory Commission for the Second Vatican Council.

1962-65: Attends Vatican II, giving ten speeches and making four written submissions; elected member of the Commission for Priestly Formation and Christian Education. Writes anonymously from the council for The Southern Cross.

1965-66: President of the SA Institute of Race Relations.

18

The Southern Cross

1976: Founds the Diakonia Council of Churches in Natal.

1981-87: Second stint as president of the SACBC. 1984: Charged in the Pretoria High Court for making “false statements”concerning Koevoet atrocities in Namibia (his statements turn out to be correct, and the charges are dropped in February 1985).

1985: Brings Supreme Court application which leads to the first court-ordered release of political detainees.

1992: Retires as archbishop of Durban, and is appointed parish priest of Emmanuel cathedral until his retirement in 2002.

1993-98: Chancellor of the University of Natal.

2004: Dies of cardiac arrest on February 13, and is buried in the Lady chapel of Emmanuel cathedral after a Requiem Mass at Absa Stadium, Durban, on February 28.

2015: The Denis Hurley Centre, located next to Emmanuel cathedral, is formally launched on Archbishop Hurley’s centenary.

From left: Bishop Denis Hurley’s first official episcopal portrait in 1947 • The Hurley family with oldest children, Denis and Eileen • Bishop Hurley with the telegram informing him of his elevation to archbishop in 1951, with US Oblate superior Fr Charles Barry and Fr Joseph Pucci OMI, a former classmate in Rome • A page from The Southern Cross of December 29, 1965, which reveals Archbishop Hurley as its anonymous “special correspondent” from the council.

ibi libertas” — “Where the Spirit is, there is freedom”.

Hurley’s name became synonymous with a search for justice. I clearly remember the first time I voted as a South African citizen in 1994. I was 41 years old and the immediate feeling was one of relief. The first thing I did when I returned to the community was to write to Archbishop Hurley to thank him for all he had done to help usher in the new dispensation for our country.

Hurley had an intellectual curios-

ity that spilled over from theology and philosophy into such fields as quantum physics and the essential connectedness between mind and nature. He ventured into the thinking of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ and, at the drop of a hat, could give a discourse on the stages of development ranging from “bio-genesis” all the way through to “noo-genesis”.

Love of books

His love for the world of books was formally recognised in a mean-

ingfully way when the library at St Joseph’s Theological Institute at Cedara was named after him. He unveiled a bust of himself on that occasion and spoke of his favourite authors, listing such names as Yves Congar and Henri de Lubac, among many others. He described the 1950s as a period of great literary activity during which books poured out of the world’s printing presses in order to enlighten the mind of the Church in preparation for the Second Vatican Council — in which he would

play a leading role.

Hurley was associated with the Community of Sant’Egidio, a worldwide lay movement based in Rome, and he was frequently invited to the Eternal City to attended one event or another arranged by the community.

During my three-year sojourn in Rome, he visited the Oblate General House about five times. He readily joined in the community activities and often “stole the limelight” with his spontaneous and effervescent wit and humour.

Two of the best lectures I had in ecclesiology took place on St Peter’s Square — both given by Hurley. His insights were critical and his mind always razor-sharp.

He very fondly recalled an unusually loud applause after concelebrating bishops entered the square after a certain Mass in St Peter’s basilica. Thinking this might have been a special group on pilgrimage, he soon found out the real reason for all the excitement. It was not the impressive procession of bishops but a little woman in a blue and white sari who got the crowd going. Mother Teresa had just entered the square.

Though not given to being self-effacing, Hurley did possess the healthy attitude of being able to laugh at himself.

A decisive leader

Hurley’s leadership style was decisive. One always knew where one stood with him. If he was convinced of an idea, he committed to it. This does not in any way mean that he clung to false absolutes — on the

his time — referring in less than positive terms to his fellow South Africans who worked on the ship Carnarvon Castle which took him to distant shores, and symbolically to new horizons. Kearney reports that whereas Hurley left South Africa in 1932 very much “a white boy”, he returned in 1940 transformed by the Catholic Social Teachings he had learnt in Rome. The rest is history.

Only love matters

Archbishop Denis Hurley’s tomb in Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral.

contrary, he showed a great openness to change even prior to his priestly ordination. One is often reticent to speak of the need for growth in one’s heroes, but perhaps true greatness lies in the hero’s ability to overcome incorrect perceptions and to make the necessary adjustments. Hurley constantly preached conversion — a New Testament word which means to go beyond one’s ordinary way of thinking. It is an invitation to see the world through new lenses and to broaden one’s vision.

Hurley was such a man. In the early part of his biography of Denis Hurley, Guardian of the Light, author Paddy Kearney shows that Hurley embraced the social perspectives of

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Hurley spent the last days of his life in the Oblate Community in Sabon House, Durban. There, like all the other residents, he took turns to preside at Mass and at the Liturgy of the Hours. He enjoyed a very good sense of humour and readily engaged in community conversations.

I remember when shortly before his death on February 13, 2004, he joined the wider district communitygathering a bit late as he had just returned from pastoral work. He was enthusiastic about the reading from Zephaniah about God who will dance over his beloved children. He summed it up by giving what is now his famous tribute to love: “More and more I realise that love is the only thing that matters. Love makes the difference.”

In paying tribute to the virtue of love he quoted St Paul that three things remain — faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13) — and urged us never to forget that of these three qualities, love is the most important.

Bishop Sylvester David OMI is the auxiliary bishop of Cape Town.

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Saint of the Month: St Óscar Romero

The saint who was slain at Mass

The state-murder of a priest turned Archbishop Óscar Romero into a human rights activist. For that, he was also assassinated. Günther simmermacher looks at the life and death of the Salvadoran martyr.

O

Name: Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez Born: August 15, 1917, in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador Died: March 24, 1980 (aged 62) in the chapel of Hospital de la Divina Providencia, San Salvador, El Salvador Beatified: 2015 Canonised: 2018 Feast: March 24 Patronages: Christian communicators, persecuted Christians, Caritas International

grain that dies. We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us.” This served as the testament of a man who had no plan to be a political activist, never mind being a hero of a struggle that spans continents.

Skilled at carpentry

Born on August 15, 1917, to Santos Romero and Guadalupe de Jesús Galdámez, Óscar had five brothers and two sisters. The local school offered only Grades 1-3; after that he was tutored privately until the age of 13 while his father taught him the craft of carpentry, in which the youngster showed great talent. But he was also a pious boy, so at 13 he expressed his wish to become a priest, and entered a seminary school in San Miguel. After graduating, he entered the national seminary in San Salvador, completing his studies at the Gregorian College in Rome. He was ordained there on April 4, 1942.

Returning to El Salvador in 1943 — the journey home included a few months in Cuban internment camps — Fr Romero made his mark as a priest who got things done in the diocese of San Miguel. He went on to serve as the rector of the local seminary. As a young priest, as a Catholic newspaper editor, as a seminary rector, and after his ap-

pointment in 1970 as the auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, Romero was known to be overly scrupulous and firmly conservative. As the editor of El Salvador’s archdiocesan newspaper, Orientación, he gained a reputation as something of a reactionary. So his appointment in 1977 as archbishop of San Salvador was met with disappointment by social activist priests, who expected no support from him, and with satisfaction by the ruling classes, who expected no opposition from him. But Romero confounded these expectations.

Three weeks after becoming archbishop, his friend Fr Rutilio Grande SJ, an activist working with the rural poor, was murdered by the regime while on his way to a novena (Fr Grande was beatified in January this year). Archbishop Romero later recalled: “When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead, I thought, ‘If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path’.” That path put him increasingly in the crosshairs of the country’s murderous regimes. He spoke out against poverty, economic oppression, social injustice, assassinations and torture. He also condemned the support of the United States for the military junta.

As a former newspaper editor, Romero knew the power of social communications. Every Sunday he’d broadcast his enormously popular sermons on the Catholic radio station YSAX. He’d also include updates on

Photo: Octavio Duran/CNS

N THE HOLY FEAST OF THE Assumption in 1917, Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was born in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador. The life of the man the world has come to know as Archbishop Óscar Romero was ended cruelly by the bullets of a regime assassin on March 24, 1980 — while he was saying Mass in a hospital chapel.

Archbishop Romero is a hero to many for his courage in speaking out plainly against the right-wing regime’s brutal violence and injustice, and its ruthless oppression of the poor. His brutal martyrdom brought Romero to the world’s attention, more so than those of other Catholics who were murdered in those years, especially in Latin America, to silence their Christian witness. Archbishop Romero’s ecclesiastical title doubtless contributed to his posthumous prominence, as well as the circumstances of his murder — killing a priest during the celebration of the Mass is not just personal; it’s a calculated assault on Christ himself.

The day before his assassination, Archbishop Romero said in a homily: “Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grains of wheat that die.

They only apparently die. If they were not to die, there would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the

St Óscar at a glance

Above: Newly-ordained Fr Óscar Romero in Rome in 1942. Right: Óscar Romero as a boy. Far right: A painting of St Óscar Romero and Bl Rutilio Grande at San José church in Aguilares, El Salvador.

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Southern Cross St Óscar Romero

‘

’

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realising that. is enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

A Timeline of St Óscar ROMERO 1917

Born on August 15 in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador, one of eight children of Santos Romero and Guadalupe de Jesús Galdámez.

1930

Enters the minor seminary in San Miguel to complete his schooling.

1935

Enters the national seminary in San Salvador.

1937

Goes to Rome to study at the Gregorian College.

1942

Ordained a priest on April 4 in Rome.

1943

Returns to El Salvador, after spending several months in a Cuban internment camp.

1944

Commences parish and diocesan ministries. Goes on to become rector of an interdiocesan seminary in San Miguel.

1967

Appointed secretary of the bishops’ conference of El Salvador.

Thereafter also becomes editor of the Catholic newspaper Orientación.

1970

Appointed auxiliary bishop of San Salvador.

1974

Appointed bishop of Santiago de María, 112 km from San Salvador.

1977

Appointed archbishop of San Salvador, taking office on February 22.

His friend Fr Rutilio Grande SJ is murdered by the state on March 17, causing the previously apolitical Romero to speak out against the regime.

1980

Assassinated on March 24 while saying Mass. Many people are killed in the streets during his funeral Mass, which is aborted.

1990

Sainthood cause is introduced by the archdiocese of San Salvador.

1993

A UN Truth Commission concludes that army major and right-wing leader Roberto D’Aubuisson, who died in 1992, gave the order to murder the archbishop. Nobody has been prosecuted for the murder.

1997

Rome decrees Romero’s cause valid.

2015

Beatified on May 23 in San Salvador

by Cardinal Angelo Amato.

2018

Canonised on October 14 by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square, the first native saint of Central America.

Clockwise from left: Archbishop Romero’s bloodied shirt; the chapel of his murder today; his tomb in San Salvador’s cathedral; the poster for the 1989 film on Romero; procession in San Salvador to celebrate his 2018 canonisation. Photos: CNS

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disappearances, tortures, murders and so on.

On Mondays, he’d give another hour-long speech. For most Salvadorans, this was the main source of news, with 73% of the rural and 47% of the urban population tuning in regularly. A month before his death, the station was bombed by the regime.

In 1979, Romero met with Pope John Paul II, hoping to obtain a Vatican condemnation of El Salvador’s regime, which had detained and tortured Catholic priests, killing six of them by 1980. The pope declined his request.

But Romero’s activism was starting to attract international attention. In February 1980, the month before his assassination, Romero was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

Murdered at Mass

On March 23, 1980, Romero called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God’s higher order and stop carrying out the government’s repression and violations of basic human rights. The following evening, he celebrated Mass in a small chapel at the Divine Providence Hospital in San Salvador. As Archbishop Romero finished his sermon, a red car stopped outside the chapel. A gunman got out, stepped to the door of the chapel, and shot Romero in the heart.

Romero’s funeral Mass on March 30 was attended by more than 250 000 mourners from all over the world. During the funeral, smoke bombs were fired into the packed streets around the cathedral and snipers fired rifle shots from buildings, killing several people. More were injured or killed in the resultant stampede. It is estimated that 30-50 people died that day. The funeral Mass was aborted, and Romero’s body buried quietly.

Later that year, on December 2, a hit squad of the regime raped and murdered three US religious Sisters and one lay worker.

The regime sought to silence Romero, but the voice of the voiceless did not fall silent.

Even in Romero’s death, it spoke compellingly: truth to power, hope to the oppressed, encouragement to the faithful. The example of Archbishop Romero inspired countless Catholics, laity and clergy alike, around the world to join or persist with the struggle against injustice.

Among those who took inspiration from Romero was an Argentinian Jesuit, Fr Jorge Bergoglio. As Pope Francis, he beatified the martyr in 2015 and canonised him in 2018 — after the Vatican had, shamefully, stalled the saintly martyr’s cause for political reasons over many years.

Archbishop Romero’s life witnesses God’s call to us to always be open to personal conversion and transformation, to hear Jesus’ challenge to leave our comfort zones and follow the demands of the Gospel. St Óscar Romero teaches us that even for Christians who are not political and don’t want to be, there are times when our faith demands from us radical discipleship.

Next month: St Bernadette of Lourdes

The ins and outs of Lent

What to put into Lent and what to cut out? Sam Lucero offers some tips.

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ENT IS A TIME OF SPIRITUAL PREPARATION for Easter, highlighted by prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Below are a few suggestions on the “ins and outs” of making the most of the rest of Lent.

TUNE IN: Lent is a time to tune in to God’s word through prayer and reflection. We can do this by reading the daily Scriptures. If we have access to them, there are many websites and apps that offer commentary. For reflection on the Sunday readings, see the weekly column of Fr John-Allen Green OFM published every Friday on The Southern Cross’ website (www.scross.co.za/category/perspectives/fr-johnallen-green) TUNE OUT: By turning off the TV and social media, we can tune out the distractions that often impede our Lenten journey. Tuning out the buzz also allows us to put our focus on family and friends. When on the road, we also can tune out talk or music radio and instead listen to Radio Veritas (on 567AM if you’re in Gauteng, or livestream from radioveritas.co.za) or simply meditate in silence.

GIVE IN: By fasting, we can give in to the reality that many of our brothers and sisters don’t have a choice. Hunger is a way of life for them. Fasting is an act of solidarity with the poor. “On the one hand, it allows us to experience what the destitute and the starving have to endure,” Pope Francis said in his 2018 Lenten message. “On the other hand, it expresses our own spiritual hunger and thirst for life in God. Fasting wakes us up,” he said. “It revives our desire to obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger.”

Tune out by turning off the TV and social media over Lent.

PUT OUT: We can curb our culture of excess by donating used clothes and bedding items (in good condition!) to the Society of St Vincent de Paul or other charitable organisations. By “putting out”, Pope Francis says, we can “escape from the insanity of hoarding everything for ourselves in the illusory belief that we can secure a future that does not belong to us”.

CHECK IN: Spend 30 minutes or an hour in Eucharistic adoration and check in with Jesus.

Sam Lucero is the editor of The Compass in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Lent is a time for Prayer, Fasting and Giving

GIVE OUT: A friendly gesture — in normal times, a smile or handshake; in corona times a greeting or letting someone into the queue before you — takes little effort to give out.

However, it can make someone’s day.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that when we fast, “anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden” (6:18). Giving out a positive vibe to people around us while fasting will surely find favour with the Lord.

REACH IN: Yes, Lent is a time of almsgiving. It’s a time when we can reach into our pockets and donate to charitable causes. Many Catholic organisations sponsor projects that benefit needy people around the world. Support the bishops’ Lenten Appeal, and give generously to the Good Friday Collection which helps the Franciscans support the suffering people in the Holy Land.

Pope Francis also reminds us that almsgiving can “set us free from greed and helps us to regard our neighbour as a brother or sister”.

REACH OUT: Invite someone back to church, to confession, or to Stations of the Cross. It’s always a bit intimidating to invite someone to a religious service, but that’s what makes Lent so special.

PUT IN: Find time to volunteer in your community. Put in hours that will benefit someone else. Whether it’s a feeding scheme, library, nursing home or any other charitable or community programme, time given to others is a treasure that is never wasted.

Your support for the Poor and the Needy during Lent

Account Name: SACBC Lenten Appeal Account Number: 010009744 Bank: Standard Bank • Branch Code: 051001 Reference: use “BLA” your name and Diocese

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Ash Wednesday:

It’s a match!

On March 2, the season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.

Gretchen crowder suggests that on this day, we look out for others with matching smudges on their foreheads.

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COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, my then 6-year-old son came home from school on Ash Wednesday with the faint mark of ashes on his forehead. Like me, he often rubs his head while thinking during the day, so, also like me, his ashes had faded a lot since the morning Mass.

I leaned down to show him my mark as well. He stared in wonder at my forehead and said: “Mom, we match!” I could almost see his mind and heart making the connection that he and I had something deep in common. “Yes,” I said as I hugged him close, “we match!” Then I asked: “Did you know that Ash Wednesday is one of Mommy’s favourite days in the Church?”

Believe it or not, it is true. It was not my favourite day when I was his age, however. I remember when I was a child, Ash Wednesday marked the start of whatever Lenten sacrifice I planned to do. I would go to my Catholic school on that day already lamenting the absence of sweets from my daily diet (that was my go-to sacrifice at the time). And then I would receive the ashes on my forehead.

We are, for a day, imperfect, marked, and visibly human This was fine during school, but I would get self-conscious after school if we had to stop anywhere on the way home. After all, what was supposed to

be the shape of a cross had morphed into an odd-shaped smudge by the time 15:00 rolled around.

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his outlook changed when I grew up, became the director of ministry at a Catholic high school, and organising the Ash Wednesday liturgy became a part of my job. As I planned for the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and lectors and ash distributors, I started to learn even more about the day itself.

When I was a child, I thought Ash Wednesday was just something that

St Dominic and the Ash Wednesday miracle

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N ASH WEDNESDAY IN MOST years, the pope traditionally leads a penitential procession from the church of St Anselm to the basilica of Santa Sabina, where he receives ashes that are sprinkled (not smudged) on his head. The basilica has been in the possession of the Dominican Order since 1222, though the order moved there already in 1220, a year before the death of their founder, St Dominic.

And it was St Dominic who presided over an Ash Wednesday miracle, reported by a contemporary Benedictine nun, Bl Cecilia Cesarine, who claimed to have witnessed it herself.

It was Ash Wednesday 1218, and the Spanish-born saint, then 48 years old, was meeting with three cardinals at the monastery of St Sixtus when suddenly a man burst into the room,

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shouting wildly and tearing at his hair.

He had alarming news: the nephew of one of the cardinals, Stephen of FossaNuova, had fallen from his horse and died in the process.

The room fell silent as the bereaved cardinal fainted into Dominic’s arms, immune to the words of comfort Dominic and his brother cardinals were offering. After a while, Dominic decided to collect the badly mangled body of the dead nephew, Napoleon. In the interim, he instructed that a Mass be prepared in the nearby church. His instructions were executed in short order, and the Mass could proceed.

During the consecration, as Dominic raised the Body and Blood of Christ above the altar, he fell into religious ecstasy and began to levitate.

After the Mass, Dominic led the con-

gregation to the body of the cardinal’s dead nephew. He knelt over the body and prayed quietly for a while. Then he got up, made the sign of the cross — and began to levitate again, announcing loudly: “O young man, Napoleon, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Arise!” And the nephew stood up by himself, showing no signs of injury, and asked for something to eat.

Another story told by Sr Cecilia has St Dominic bring back to life the only son of a woman named Tetta.

This story calls us to reflect on the words of Jesus: “If your faith is even as big as a mustard seed, then you will say to this mountain: ‘Get from here to there!’ And it will move away.

Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

Photo: Dave Hrbacek/Catholic Spirit

started to see how the ashes on my forehead united me with other people, and not just Catholics. The smudge on my forehead that sometimes did and sometimes did not look like a cross reminded me that in our rich diversity we also had something universally in common — our humanity.

I increasingly began to notice others with ashes on their foreheads, both in person and on social media. Each time I scrolled to see a picture of someone displaying their ashes or ran into another person with ashes at the supermarket, I thought the same words my son had said aloud to me: “We match.”

W Catholics did. I assumed that when I saw ashes on another person’s forehead, they must be Catholic just like me. I learned as an adult, however, that there was no denominational restrictions to receiving ashes — anyone could receive them as a sign of their faith in Christ.

Once I realised this was true, I

hen we go to Mass as Catholics, we consume the Body and Blood of Christ, and the hope is that we take Christ with us as we leave the church and share Christ with others through our thoughts, words, and actions. On Ash Wednesday, however, we leave the church with a very physical sign of our faith. A dirty, messy, often unrecognisable sign of our humanity. We are, for a day, imperfect. We are, for a day,

marked. We are, for a day, visibly human.

As a day that begins our journey through the Paschal path of Christ, we are also united in this messy humanity, and mortality, with our Saviour. The cross of ashes on our foreheads reminds us that he was human, too. It reminds us that he died, just as one day we’ll die, too.

And, if we let it, the ashes we receive on Ash Wednesday can also remind us that we will one day be reunited with him in heaven. Our bodies to dust, but our souls to eternal life in him.

If Covid regulations allow for the distribution of ashes this year, let Ash Wednesday be a day when you look at someone else and think: “We match!”

Let Ash Wednesday this year be a day when you recognise the humanity in another person and let them recognise the humanity in you.

Wouldn’t that make you like Ash Wednesday even more?

This article first appeared on BustedHalo.com

How we can walk with the poor Fr Oskar Wermter SJ reflects on poverty through the lens of the great Catholic activist Dorothy Day.

L

ENT IS THE TIME OF FASTING and abstinence. It is the time of remembering voluntary poverty. Now is the time of listening to the cries of the poor.

We are surrounded by poor people, but what do we mean by poverty?

I think we should take “extra lessons” about that complex issue from a lay woman, Dorothy Day — who lived from 1897-1980, and is now the subject of a sainthood cause. Dorothy struggled with that question for most of her adult life as a social activist, promoter of charity, founder of “houses of hospitality” for homeless people, pacifist, and writer on human dignity and justice.

As a young journalist and writer, and not yet a Catholic, Dorothy Day was passionately concerned about the poor, their needs, the responsibility of the state for homeless migrants and our responsibility as individuals walking with Christ for our brothers and sisters who suffer from neglect, famine and lack of living space. When she converted to Catholicism, she brought her social concern into the Church.

Much later, after years of being engaged in works of charity, she said: “We have never faltered in our conviction…that hospices such as our Houses of Hospitality are a vital necessity in times like these. We are down in the slums, but we can never be as poor as Christ, or as those ragged and destitute ones who come to us in the morning to be fed. We are constantly overcome with a sense of shame because we have so much more than these others.”

Her concern about poverty and the poor was not academic or theoretical.

It was extremely practical. “When we succeed in persuading our readers [of The Catholic Worker newspaper, which she published] to take the homeless into their homes, then we will be known as Christians because of the way we love one another. We should have hospices in all the poor parishes.”

Dorothy made a clear distinction between poverty and destitution.

Destitution renders people helpless,

possessing nothing and unable to free themselves from their misery. Destitution, as a condition, was for Dorothy in every way despicable and undesirable. It had to be overcome. The d estitute seemed to be in a hopeless situation and great misery. They had to get out of this misery by being given a chance to work, obtain a small income so that they could live in “decent poverty”, which is very different from naked destitution. “Some of our houses have a decent poverty, which means that the men are reasonably fed

have the essentials) and through the works of mercy (mutual aid and a philosophy of labour).” Theory and practice: Peter wanted the workers to be thinkers, and the thinkers to be (manual) workers.

Dorothy Day insisted on ‘voluntary poverty’ for herself and her co-workers

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and sheltered in a certain amount of poor comfort which they mainly make for themselves,” she wrote.

Peter Maurin, the son of French peasants and a promoter of Catholic Social Teachings in theory and practice, worked for many years with Dorothy in their Houses of Hospitality and on farms where the poor would work and live in community. He never tired of teaching all who cared to listen: “Reach the people through voluntary poverty (going without the luxuries in order to

Police and farm workers flank Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day, seated in a farm workers picket line in California in 1973. She was arrested that day for picketing. (Photo: CNS)

Voluntary poverty

Dorothy insisted on “voluntary poverty” for herself and for her coworkers in the Catholic Worker movement. “Voluntary poverty was a means to an end, not only a way to reassure those they were helping that the [Catholic] Worker shared in their poverty and was not simply giving away what they didn’t need, but also as a way of helping to address societal imbalances.”

I know that when religious, who have made a vow of voluntary poverty, happen to be together and chat about the people they meet on a daily basis, some may well speak with disdain about beggars who knock at their doors. The poor who come for charity are deemed to be useless people. You do not have to be concerned about them — that is a common conclusion — because they are liars. Since they are not telling the truth, you have no obligation to come to their aid. It’s an easy excuse!

Even the heartbreaking stories they invent for you to take pity on them are part of their poverty. If our response is sarcasm and irony, if we merely ridicule them and chase them away with harsh words, we only drive them more deeply into their misery, their isolation and their self-contempt as outcasts. Such unfortunate encounters confirm the poor in their view that you are rich, without sympathy or understanding for them as the poor and miserable of this earth.

For Dorothy, voluntary poverty “was a basic necessity if you wanted to help others without hypocrisy. It was also a form of resistance and generosity”. She wanted herself and the charity workers to lead a truly poor life, without luxuries but not in misery and squalor, and walk with the poor and excluded who are seeking sustenance and a life of dignity.

True charity wants to delve more deeply into the real truth about the lives of the needy. “Take less so others have more.”

We should seek the encounter with the poor (or excluded) and make them part of our lives. That is why Dorothy Day and her Catholic Worker movement set up Houses of Hospitality and wanted to see such houses in every parish. Certainly there should be a network of charity workers’ groups in every parish (for example in the form of branches of the St Vincent de Paul Society), so that the helpers can visit the needy within their neighbourhood. This work is not reserved for “professional” Church workers like priests and religious, but should engage also volunteers from the Christian community.

Ready to go to jail

Dorothy, while working with a vast network of Houses of Hospitality, published her own newspaper — The Catholic Worker, which is still appearing in our time. Beside writing for the newspaper, she joined trade unions and demonstrated with them for just wages and living conditions, she went to prison for opposing conscription into the army, and opposed war as a pacifist. And in all these many activities, she lived in the presence of God. Jesus was never far from the poor.

His Spirit will open our eyes for the needs of the poor and enable us to give them of our time and accept them. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:33) who have a heart for the poor, the homeless, the hungry and those infected by diseases. If we are thus blessed and “poor in heart”, we will not bang the door shut in their faces or hurt them with harsh words. We will practise “voluntary

poverty” and keep the door open.

“Walking with the poor” means taking their burdens on our shoulders.

When Dorothy was asked by a doctor in a mental hospital why she bothered about mental patients in her house, she explained: “It is no light burden to place on others. It is placed there by Christ who said, ‘Take up your cross and follow me’. And that cross is our brother… It is easy to love one’s friends, those who are naturally lovable, but [quoting Dostoevsky’ Brothers Karamazov] ‘love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing’.”

Loving the poor, the miserable, and mentally disturbed makes us share in their burdens, feel the poverty, experience the contempt in

which they are being held, and share in their confusion of mind. “It seems that to love is to suffer,” Dorothy said, and this “suffering drives us to prayer”. You can carry a cross only in communion with Christ, in his presence, receiving it in prayer.

Destitution prevents us from engaging in mercy and compassion.

“Without poverty, decent poverty, with sufficient food, shelter and clothing, we cannot get out of the morass we are in,” Dorothy Day said.

“Certainly, too, we can do nothing without the works of mercy — an expression of our love for our neighbour to show our love for our God.”

Fr Oskar Wermter is a Jesuit priest in Harare.

BOOK REVIEW

A priest looks back

Reviewed by Günther Simmermacher

A PRIEST FOR WORKERS, by Father Joseph Falkiner OP. Cluster Publications, Pietermaritzburg. 2021. 245pp

B

ORN INTO A MIDDLE-CLASS family in the goldmining town of Springs, Joseph Falkiner grew up regarding the established order of racial segregation — and separation of township residents and migrant workers in the hostels — as a natural way of life. As he grew older, he realised that this perspective, from a position of privilege, wasn’t natural at all, and so Joe made it his life’s mission, chosen for him by God, to fight this established order — to become, as the book’s title promises, “a priest for the workers”. In his memoirs, Fr Falkiner recounts this ministry of over half a century.

Fr Falkiner has served workingclass people in many ways, most notably through the Young Christian Workers (YCW) movement, which was founded in the 1920s in Belgium by Fr Joseph Cardijn, and now so sadly largely dormant in South Africa. But before he got there, and to his vocation as a Dominican priest, he had to make a secular journey of eye-opening experiences.

The first awakening was a posting in the 1950s as a prospecting geologist for Anglo-American in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), where he was in charge of a group of rural workers who were subjected to merciless corporate exploitation. This was followed by a stint of diamond prospecting in Namaqualand, where he lost all respect for his employers and, indeed, all corporations of their kind. Both experiences guided Catholic-raised Joe to work for God instead.

Fr Joe and the pope

In 1962, at the age of 28, he joined the Dominican order; he would be ordained on December 13, 1969 — on the very same day, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, received his holy orders in Argentina.

While studying at the Dominican priory in Stellenbosch, with its prevail-

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ing spirit of social justice, Joe was conscientised further. Ministry with working-class youths from the local coloured community led to his involvement with YCW, then a potent movement in South Africa with its See-Judge-Act method, which puts the “Gospel into action”.

Fr Falkiner explains this method, which also guided people like Archbishop Denis Hurley, in vivid detail — in the memoirs section of the book as well as in the illuminating appendix, which also outlines the Church’s Social Teachings, the Theology of Work, and work through the lens of Scripture.

God guided Fr Joe into other areas of activism, such as the nascent black trade unionism, which pre-1976 was a primary arena of the struggle against apartheid. As a priest in KwaThema, he had a hand in the first case in South Africa in which dismissed non-striking workers of colour, in this case at the Raleigh bicycle factory in Brakpan, successfully sued for their reinstatement.

The See-Judge-Act method, puts the ‘Gospel into action’ The day after the court judgment, there were queues of people wanting to join YCW. And this increased membership led to the establishment of several unions — whose meetings would always begin with a prayer.

The ascendancy of Cosatu as the dominant union federation meant that faith-based worker activism would be frozen out. As a result, Fr Falkiner notes, history has ignored the pivotal role of YCW in the rise of black trade unions.

Apartheid’s great enemy

The regime certainly did not ignore YCW, whose members were routinely detained. At one point, Fr Falkiner recalls, police minister Jimmy Kruger singled out YCW as one of apartheid’s three greatest enemies. The 1988 bombing of Khanya House, the SACBC’s Pretoria headquarters — also mentioned in the book — showed just how much the

The cover of Fr Joe Falkiner’s memoirs, published by Cluster Publications, and (right) the priest, a Dominican, today.

regime saw the Catholic Church in general as a threat.

In the post-apartheid era, YCW faded away, for various reasons which Fr Falkiner outlines. But, as he explains, the See-Judge-Act method is still being used and promoted today.

As good memoirs do, this one name-checks important people whom the author encountered in his journey. Four notable representatives of Catholic Social Teachings activism stand out: the late labour leader Eric Tyacke; Sam Ntuli, an activist and convert who was assassinated in 1991; and the late Roddy Mzwandile Nunes and John Capel, who successively coordinated the SACBC’s Commission for Church and Work, until it was arbitrarily closed down in 2002, despite having sufficient funding (that decision put an end to the annual Workers’ Sundays).

Fr Falkiner runs through his life briskly, in short chapters. It is difficult to put this readable book down. Despite its weighty themes, there is some light relief in occasional anecdotes, including one in which Fr Joe finds himself propositioned by a prostitute. But Fr Falkiner doesn’t dwell long on personal matters: the author keeps the focus firmly on his ministry and God’s presence in it.

A Priest for Workers can be ordered at R200 plus p&p from Fr Falkiner at joefalkinerop@gmail.com

Catechism by colours A

N EASTERN CAPE CATHOLIC PUBLISHER HAS CREATED a series of colouring books for children, available as hard-copy books as well as in downloadable and printable format.

Created by Frank and Sylvia Nunan, the colouring workbooks in the “Suffer Little Children” series “are a fun way to introduce your children to Catholic words and concepts”, Frank said.

“I recently published the book Do You Speak Catholic?, which contains an alphabetical list of more than 220 words used in the practice of our Catholic faith, together with their explanations and definitions. This little book was quite well received, but someone mentioned that it would be nice to have something much simpler for children just learning about the faith,” Frank writes in the introduction to one of the books.

“But how to create a book for children that would be fun and easy for them, as well as being educational? The answer, of course, was a colouring and workbook! Here the children would be able to associate the words with pictures of the objects, events and people they encounter in the Mass and the Church.”

Frank Nunan, a former journalist, is the founder of SA Catholic Online Books and Write-On Publishing.

Frank’s collaboration with his artistic wife Sylvia has so far produced My First Book of Catholic Words and The Christmas Story. The Christmas book is also available in

Frank and Sylvia Nunan with the first colouring books in their “Suffer Little Children” series.

isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

At the time of writing, a third book, titled What Happens at Mass, was in production.

“Children, depending on their age, can either colour in the pictures provided or paste their own pictures into the book — or both,” Frank said.

Order at sacatholicbooks.co.za/shop-2/

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The Southern Cross

31

How long should a homily be?

In the fourth of his articles on preaching, using airplane metaphors, Fr Chris Chatteris SJ looks at the ideal length of homilies.

B

REVITY OF SPEECH HAS BEEN raised to the level of a counsel of perfection in the English-speaking world. By this standard, the preacher who is done in under five minutes should be canonised.

The desire for short homilies suggests that listening to preaching is inevitably tedious. This idea is sad; surely there must be English-speaking preachers who can keep us interested for more than five minutes. However, sensitivity to local cultures includes postmodern and Western cultures. The ancestors of people in the United States or Britain used to listen to preachers going for a good hour, but such a feat would be hard to pull off today.

The picture is complicated in a multilingual and multicultural South Africa where one culture might expect something between five and ten minutes while another would feel short-changed if that was all they got. Hence a certain cultural adaptability is in order. A priest who is used to preaching to urban whites would have to try to go for longer if posted to a rural mission, and vice-versa.

would be out of place; the occasion demands something with some depth of reflection — and this takes time. On the other hand, a long homily at a midday lunchtime Mass in a city centre church would be equally inappropriate. Quite simply, the members of the congregation need to eat and get back to work.

They come expecting a brief and focused few words for them to take away as their “daily bread”.

Within these limits there is always some leeway. Whether the preacher is given that leeway will depend on how good he (or even she, if we label the occasion correctly) is. If very good, then a preacher might be able to keep

Sensitivity to the occasion is a prerequisite for getting the timing right

Cultures are changing

32

But culture, as we are constantly being reminded, is a-changing. When people migrate from the country to the towns and cities, their habits and expectations change. Church is not the only thing on their Sunday agenda.

They may want to go shopping, play some sport, attend some form of entertainment. They no longer have all the time in the world on Sunday.

Sensitivity to the occasion is another prerequisite for getting the timing right.

Some occasions need to be dignified by something longer than usual. On the celebration of the centenary of the foundation of the church, for example, a brief reflection The Southern Cross

a Westernised congregation riveted for half an hour, and a rural one for over an hour and a half. I knew one popular missionary in rural KwaZulu-Natal who went on at great length, holding his hearers with long, rather melodramatic stories.

Losing the crowd

But even the finest preachers will sometimes have that sinking feeling of having lost the congregation. At this point they should cut their losses, shorten the homily and bring the plane in to land. Some preachers (and this is a tendency of other communicators,

perhaps particularly politicians) stand upon principle on this one. They insist on delivering their message in full, whether people are listening or not. A matter of principle it may be, but does it help the hearers?

Take the wise counsel of the late US Bishop Ken Untener. Asked how long a homily can be, he replied: “It can be as long as people are still listening, but no longer.” In other words, once people stop listening, in a real sense the homily is over.

But is it? The preacher is pulling things together and giving the other usual rhetorical signals that he’s coming in to land. If he suddenly gets another idea, aborts his landing and effectively begins another homily, then this is absolutely infuriating for congregations.

The new idea will normally be poorly thought through, and so his dealing with it can be akin to an aircraft circling — not really getting anywhere, just killing time. And when the homilist begins to attempt another landing, one can feel the tension rising in the congregation as they anticipate the possibility that he might have yet another last-minute idea and abort his landing again.

Note that all the time while the preacher is “circling”, the hearer’s attention is focused on the question of when this homily is going to end, and not on what is being said. This has to be one of the worst and most irritating of the many possible distractions that congregations can suffer.

The advice here is simple and brutal: if a new idea should pop into one’s head as the end comes into view, put it firmly aside — there’s always next Sunday.

Previous articles in this series appeared in the 2021 issues of March, April, and July. Backcopies can be ordered from admin@scross.co.za

The two faces of the Madonna

The French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau created several artworks of the Blessed Virgin Mary with her Son. Two stand out for the stark contrast they provide: The serene Virgin of the Lilies and the grief-stricken mother holding her lifeless Son in the Pieta.

The Virgin of the Lilies and the Pieta. Inset: Bouguereau

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he faces of Mary holding her Son in these two paintings are of the same model, yet they are starkly different in this dual character study by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), a devout Catholic. The Pieta of 1876 (right) actually preceded the Madonna of the Lilies of 1898 by 22 years.

In the Madonna of the Lilies, Mary is serene and fresh-faced as she holds little Jesus. Like other Madonnas by Bouguereau, her cloak has regal gold trimmings as she presides on a throne, like the Queen of Heaven she would one day be titled.

Mary wears the same clothes in the Pieta, but without the gold trimmings. Surrounded by grieving angels, she is still holding her unclothed Son, but now he is dead and she doesn’t know that he will rise again. Where the Madonna of the Lilies is lowering her gaze in peace, the ashen face in the Pieta stares at us in exhausted terror and defiant anger: she has seen things no mother should see. The rings under her eyes testify to the abundance of tears she has shed. Mary’s grief echoes that of the painter, who the previous year had lost his own son.

Note the wine jug: Jesus’ public ministry, which led to his death on the cross, began when his mother told him to perform the miracle at Cana. It ended at the Last Supper when he distributed the wine as his blood.

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

Will the real arch reveal himself?

W

HILE WORKING AT THE Board of Executors in Cape Town in the 1980s, I became aware of a protest march in Wale Street and went to the window, which overlooked the Anglican St George’s cathedral, to observe the event.

I was on the fourth floor, and directly below me there were some 40 anti-apartheid protesters, including clergy and Archbishops Desmond Tutu and Stephen Naidoo, the local heads of the Anglican and Catholic archdioceses respectively.

Blocked by police on all sides in Wale Street, they knelt down and began to pray the Our Father. Soon afterwards, a water truck arrived and all the protesters were knocked down by its water cannon. What happened afterwards was related to me by the late Fr Desmond Curran.

The clergy were rounded up and taken to the police station, including the two archbishops. At the station, the police officer demanded that Archbishop Tutu state his name and occupation. He answered: “I am Desmond Tutu, archbishop of Cape Town.” The same question was then addressed to Archbishop Naidoo, who answered truthfully: “I am Stephen Naidoo, archbishop of Cape Town.” Believing he was being taken for a fool, the agitated police officer demanded: “Now, who of you two is the real archbishop?” After a moment’s thought, Archbishop Tutu pointed to his Catholic counterpart and said: “Ag, it’s him, of course!”

They and the other clergy were released from custody, including Frs Curran and Gerry Lorriman SJ. The latter, as he left, said to a policeman: “Your water cannon wasn’t very strong today.” The policeman responded: “Sir, on a man of your age, we use only half power!”

This story is as accurate as I can recall, and occurred in about 1988.

Fr Pierre Goldie, Cape Town

34 The Southern Cross

A Big Mac error

Y

OU PROBABLY HAVE NOTICED it already, but the lovely article

by Sydney Duval about Salesian Father Pat Naughton (January 2022) renders the priest’s name incorrectly as “McNaughton”. I suppose these things happen.

Barry Jordan, Cape Town They do indeed. Thank you for pointing out the error, which occurred during an editing lapse in a find-and-replace process.

We apologise for the error, which has been corrected in our digital edition.—Editor

— everybody, not just Catholics — to know about what the Church is doing locally.” But since the loss of The Southern Cross as a weekly newspaper, we hardly have any sources for up-to-date news about the local Church.

If you hadn’t featured Fr Hugh O’Connor and Sr Phutunywa Siyali in January, how many Catholic people would even know who is managing the bishops’ conference? What are the bishops and our clergy going to do about this?

Paul Collins, Johannesburg The Southern Cross’ website at www.scross.co.za remains a source for local news.—Editor

Where do we get our local news from?

C

ONGRATULATIONS ON ANOTHER great issue in January. There were so many enjoyable articles. I was thrilled to see in the “From Our Vaults” the reproduction of an advert from The Southern Cross of January 1, 1947, for the construction of St Martin de Porres church in Craighall, Johannesburg. I once knew that church well.

But the article that made me write to you is the very interesting interview with Christopher Altieri, author of the book Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith. Dr Altieri refers to a problem that we have in the Church in South Africa. He says: “It’s important for people

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Fr Ralph’s 1952 story

T

HE CHRISTMAS SHORT STORY BY Fr Ralph de Hahn (December 2021) was illustrated with a clipping of a Christmas story he wrote in 1952. How can one get the full story if one is interested in reading the full story from 1952.

Tlalane Manciya, Cape Town

We have made the Christmas story from The Southern Cross of December 10, 1952, titled “When Darkness Falls”, available in its original presentation on our website. Go to bit.ly/3tHipqS.—Editor

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Where do we find peace?

Nthabiseng Maphisa: Millennial Catholic

F

OR A LONG TIME, I DID NOT understand why grown-ups always spoke of trying to get “peace and quiet”. It was as though “peace and quiet” was an elusive person forever inching forward, only to dash off in a hurry. Who wants “peace and quiet” when you can dive face-first into la vida loca?

I am out of sync with the rhythm of the hip and happening of our world, but I believe chaos is now referred to as “having fun”. I hold no knowledge of the intricacies of the mind, but I dare to say that a mild case of insanity could be diagnosed when one refers to chaos as “fun”. Perhaps I am finally growing up, or maybe I’m just boring, but these days I wouldn’t mind having some peace and quiet.

I imagine I am not alone in my experience of feeling increasingly weary, tired and worn out. I have had one too many naps that turned into embarrassingly long sleeps. I have woken up feeling sleepy and desperately wanting to crawl back into the fortress of sheets I built for myself.

I seem to keep myself spinning all in the name of productivity and socialising. I do too much, and I know it.

But now I often think to myself that if we truly believe that Jesus is

“Emmanuel” (God is with us), then why are we making ourselves rats in a race? Why have we become balls of panic, pumped with anxiety? If we hold in our hearts that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” and is truly in our midst, why are we so restless ? If he gives us a chance to gaze upon his countenance, why are we so dizzy? Does Jesus not bring us his peace?

I am not a philosopher, but I wonder if we needed something as drastic as a pandemic to slow us down just a little. What else would it take for the hurriedness that we impose upon ourselves to dissipate? I do not suggest that we should become lazy or disengaged, but if we continue with our endless “activities”, then we shall tumble our way into the grave.

Peace be with you

I suppose this is the part where I define what peace actually is. To be honest, I am still learning about it, but I have come to accept that it necessitates the presence of order and silence.

The former does in many ways bring us to contemplate the meaning of freedom. There was a time in my life when I thought freedom meant that I could do whatever I wanted. Isn’t it funny how this thinking seems to correlate

with laziness, gluttony and filth?

There was also a time when I could not stand the humming of my own thoughts, and so I drowned them in a pool of pop music. And when that was not enough, I ventured into a dark, harrowing vortex known as Twitter.

But thankfully, Christ in his mercy gives us peace through his presence in the Eucharist. “And behold I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). When we place our freedom in him, we find ourselves and our lives ordered by the Most Holy Trinity.

So, you ask, just what is peace? It is the fruit of much time spent with the source of peace itself, which is God. He allows us to share in that peace by holding the Sacred Heart of his Son and by touching his holy wounds. I believe that the ache that we experience when we feel rushed or overwhelmed is a crying out for the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus.

There are only so many pills we can take and only so many spas we can visit. Our weariness and frazzled minds need an antidote stronger than anything money can buy.

How silent is his dwelling place For heavy hearts that riot Peace drenches the holy place And chaos turns to quiet.

The Three Golden Arches

Raymond Perrier on Faith & Society

W

ITHOUT A VISION, THE people will perish. These resounding words from Proverbs 29:18 have been going round my head as I reflect on three Arches this month: not a reference to Durban’s magnificent (if empty) football stadium but rather to three towering figures in the life of the Church: two Catholic (but one not), two South African (but one not), one canonised (but two not).

Readers will have noticed that the “Saint of the Month” is St Oscar Romero (see pages 21-24). For years before he was canonised in 2018, he was already unofficially regarded by many as a patron saint for Latin America and for all those who fight for justice. Pope Francis — the first Latin American pope and the first Jesuit pope — was overjoyed to honour a fellow Latin American, and one who was greatly influenced by the Jesuits across Latin America, fighting for the poor in the face of oppressive dictatorships.

It was just such a struggle — overlaid with the added sin of racism — to which my two other Arches dedicated their lives. Much has been written about Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whose death at Christmas spawned a host of reflections and tributes. Even closer to my daily work is, of course, Archbishop Denis Hurley, who is also commemorated in this issue since it is 75 years ago on March 19 that he was ordained a bishop (see pages 18-20).

What did these three men have in common? And what can we learn from them as we consider leadership in the Church today?

36 The Southern Cross

The secular world will always look first at their external achievements: the courage to protest in the face of harassment and legal threats; the effectiveness with which they used their positions to be “a voice for the voiceless”; the care taken to collect information about the violations caused by government so that people could not claim “we did not know”. While these all seem so obvious now that “the battle is over”, we should not forget how hard it was to do this at the time, in the face of opposition both from outside and inside their religious families. When seeing the honour in which they are all held today, it’s easy to forget that this was not always the case.

Public enemies #1

Archbishop Romero was ostracised by his fellow bishops in El Salvador and given short shrift in Rome by Pope John Paul II (who later voiced his admiration for him). Even after his martyrdom while he was saying Mass — dismissed by some as political and not religious — Romero was treated as an embarrassment by some of the leading Catholic lights of Latin America. The exploitative ruling families and oppressive economic systems against which he campaigned were still in place, and they continued to exercise a powerful and malign influence over the Church.

Archbishop Hurley also did not always have the full support of his fellow bishops, nor of his priests. When standing on his own as he protested outside Durban City Hall, he was criticised, heckled and even spat at by passersby who felt they were doing their Christian duty to correct this wayward bishop. And some of the same newspapers which recently hailed Archbishop Tutu as a hero, ran headlines only one generation ago denouncing Tutu as the anti-Christ and “Public Enemy Number One”!

We might pause to consider whose prophetic voices in the Church we currently marginalise, aware that one day we may also come to see some of them as having been misunderstood. But for now we can congratulate ourselves that we do finally appreciate these three archbishops for the prophetic stance they took and the personal suffering they faced. The Arches have become Golden, honoured with garlands from both state and Church. There are streets and buildings bearing their names.

Moreover, the airport in San Salvador is named after their heroic archbishop, and there is a move for a similar

renaming in Cape Town after Tutu — surely the modern secular equivalent of a canonisation.

And Romero himself has had the official Vatican endorsement of being raised to the altars. Many feel that the cause for the canonisation of Archbishop Hurley also deserves to be taken seriously — “St Denis of Durban” has a very nice ring to it. I have no doubt that Hurley is showering us with miracles from heaven.

It is unlikely, however, that a future St Denis could be twinned with St Desmond: the Anglican Church does not have a procedure for official canonisation and the Vatican considers canonising only its own.

Two other aspects of these lives strike me as similar. One is that all three archbishops were known to be men of deep prayer: they certainly performed courageous acts in public, but only — in imitation of Christ himself — after turning inwards to spend time with God. Prayer was necessary, but not sufficient. In this they were, to use a Belgian phrase, méditant-militant (prayerful activists).

The Jesuit spiritual exercises describe a contemplation of God’s love that is so overwhelming that it cannot help itself from pouring over into love for others.

Love of God cannot be contained in the chapel! One of my favourite Romero quotes captures this: “To pray and then do nothing and wait for God to act, is not a sign of holiness — it is a sign of laziness!”

Religious identities

Another parallel is that all three were so confident in their own religious identity that they had the ability and the humility to work with people from other backgrounds who shared their vision.

Operating against an extreme right-wing

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI government, Archbishop Romero — an intrinsically conservative man with ties to Opus Dei — found common cause with some communist activists (which is what upset John Paul II). That does not mean that he agreed with them on everything, and he was strongly opposed to the use of violence, but he operated under the principle that “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”.

When Archbishop Hurley became a bishop in 1947, Catholics barely spoke to other Christians, let alone to non-believers. But it was a recurrent characteristic of his episcopacy that he reached out to fellow Christians and to people of other faiths to find ways of working together.

In doing this, he both anticipated and then realised the teachings of Vatican II. Archbishop Tutu was famous for his friendship with the Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, and also able to hold together the often disparate wings within the Anglican Church itself.

These archbishops believed in the “big tent” principle: bring together those who share your vision and focus on what you have in common, not on what divides you.

Such networks and coalitions served them well and served the mission of the Church.

And what of now? Do we have religious leaders who are visionaries, who are prophetic, who can inspire us? In contrast to 75 years ago, we are now open to the possibility of religious leaders who are not men and who are not ordained.

But the role of our bishops and archbishops is still paramount. We certainly need good administration in the Church — and so we need leaders who can either perform those tasks or genuinely delegate them to others who do have those skills. But more than that, we need a vision. We have the foundation of one in the new pastoral plan.

But leadership is now required which is courageous and which can articulate that vision: in words that everyone can understand and in actions.

Clear, decisive, prophetic actions which show what vision the Church has for South Africa today! For without such a vision the people, and the Church, might perish.

The Big Bang Theology

R

ECENTLY NASA LAUNCHED THE James Webb Space Telescope into space, the biggest and most expensive telescope ever built. It is taking six months to travel a million miles from Earth, find its permanent place in space, and then start transmitting pictures back to Earth.

Those pictures will be such as have never been seen before. The hope is that it will enable us to see much further into space than we’ve ever seen before — ideally to the very ends of our still-expanding universe, right to the first particles that issued forth from the original explosion, the Big Bang, that began time and our universe.

Scientists estimate that our universe began 13,7 billion years ago. As far as we know, prior to that there was nothing in existence, as we understand that today (except for God). Then, out of this seeming nothingness, there was an explosion — the Big Bang — out of which everything in the universe including our planet Earth formed. As with any explosion, the parts that were the most intimately intertwined with the expelling force are those driven furthest away. Thus, when investigators try to determine the cause of an explosion they are particularly interested in finding and examining those pieces that were most closely tied to the original force of the explosion, and generally those pieces have been blown furthest away.

The force of the Big Bang is still going on, and those parts of our universe that were most intimately intertwined with its beginnings are still being driven further and further into space. Scientists are investigators, probing that original explosion. What the James Webb Space Telescope hopes to see is some of the original parts from that unimaginable explosion that gave birth to our universe, because these parts were there at the very beginning, at the origins of everything that exists. By seeing and examining them, science hopes to better understand the origins of our universe.

New look at St John’s letter The excitement scientists feel around this new telescope, and their hopes that it will show us pictures of particles from the beginning of time, can help us understand why the evangelist John has trouble restraining his enthusiasm when he talks about Jesus in his first epistle. He is excited about Jesus because, among other things, Jesus was there at the beginnings of the universe, and indeed at the beginnings of everything. For John, Jesus is a mystical telescope through which we might view that primordial explosion that created the uni-

verse, since he was there when it happened.

Let me risk paraphrasing the beginning of the First Epistle of John (1:1-4) as he might have written it for our generation vis-a-vis our curiosity about the origins of our universe: “You need to understand of whom and what I am speaking: Jesus wasn’t just some extraordinary person who performed a few miracles or even who rose from the dead. We are speaking of someone who was there at the very origins of creation, who himself is the foundation for that creation, who was with God when the Big Bang occurred, and even before that.

“Incredibly, we actually got to see him in the flesh, with human eyes, the God who created the Big Bang, walking among us! We actually touched him bodily. We actually spoke with him and listened to him speak, he who was there at the origins of our universe, there when the Big Bang took place!

“Indeed, he is the One who pulled the switch to set it off, with a plan in mind as to where it should go, a plan that includes us. Do you want to probe more deeply into what happened at our origins? Well, Jesus is a mystical telescope to look through. After all, he was there at the beginning and, unbelievably, we got to see, hear, and touch him bodily!

Excuse my exuberance, but we got to walk and talk with someone who was there at the beginning of time.”

Science and religion There are different kinds of knowledge and different kinds of wisdom, along with different avenues for accessing each of them. Science is one of those avenues, an important one. For far too long, theology and religion did not consider it a friend.

That was (and remains) a tragic mistake since science has the same founder and same intent as theology and religion.

Theology and religion have been wrong whenever they have sought to undercut science’s importance or its claims to truth.

Sadly, science has often returned the favour and viewed theology and religion as a foe rather than as a colleague. The two need each other, not least in understanding the origins and intent of our universe.

How do we understand the origins and intent of our universe? Science and Jesus. Science is probing those origins in the interest of telling us how it happened and how it is unfolding, while Jesus (who was there when it happened) is more interested in telling us why it happened and what it means.

The Southern Cross

37

PRAY WITH THE POPE Every month Fr Chris Chatteris SJ reflects on Pope Francis’ prayer intention

When may we ‘play God’?

Intention: We pray for Christians facing new bioethical challenges; may they continue to defend the dignity of all human life with prayer and action.

his healing ministry.

The other is a tricky distinction between working with/imitating nature to effect healing and manipulating it to do so. Vaccines work by stimulating the body’s immune OES something being now question of the resources we put into system — working with nature. My scientifically possible, like human biological interventions seems recently inserted artificial hip joint is having a pig’s heart trans- to me to be the big unexamined moral an ingenious piece of “bio-mimicry”, plant, imply that we should issue of our time. The Covid pandemic and the procedure required very ordido it? That’s the nub of the bioethical has underlined the fact that the health nary healing processes for it to be problem — if it’s possible, does that of my poorer neighbour has an impact completed. I’m not so sure I would welcome a genetic alteration which on my own health. mean we should do it?

The Church often reacts with dis- would give me a hip with the power Another example: it might become possible to arrest or even reverse the may at biological processes which ap- and flexibility of, say, a baboon!

And yet, there are some genetic ageing process. Some of us might be- pear to be “playing God”. Things like come “amortal”. (Yuval Harari in his cloning or creating trans-species crea- modifications which can prevent seribook Sapiens points out that we would tures spring to mind. Again, it is not so ous illnesses. Such “gene-editing” can prevent the misery of sickle cell not be immortal since we anaemia, for example. Can could still be murdered, die Modern medicine is dedicated to extending we regard these genetic in accidents or by suicide.) variations as “mistakes” or The answer is not as easy the life of people who in previous times would “flaws” and try to correct as it seems. Our gut reaction is that we would certainly have been thought to have lived long enough them, in the analogous way that we regard a cleft palate not want to live for centuries since we would probably end up being easy to find a way through this. Doc- as a correctable flaw in a new-born bored, cynical and suicidal. And yet, tors actually “play God” all the time in baby?

The Church, rightly, proceeds with much of modern medicine of the last hospitals, in the sense of making lifecaution.

There are still many unreand-death decisions.

Unless we take a century has been dedicated to extending the life of people who in previous radical “let nature take its course” solved ethical considerations, such as times would have been considered to stance, then any attempt to heal an ill- the possible unintended consequences have already lived long enough. My ness or stave off death — or not — is of gene editing. The scientists tell us that they cannot yet be sure that one mother, who died in her nineties, once “playing God”. solution will not cause another worse said, in her eighties: “We’re living so Look to the healer Jesus problem. long these days; it’s ridiculous!”

There is a felicitous unanimity beThe beginning of an answer to But we do cling on to dear life, tween Church and secular ethicists on even when its quality is terrible. We this is that we believe in a God who is also spend vast sums clinging on to it precisely a loving and a healing God, the undesirability of editing our genes — funds which could be better used to made flesh in the healer Jesus. There- to enhance strength and intelligence or prevent millions of child deaths. The fore, we are encouraged to join him in determine the colour of our children’s eyes. Here we are moving out of the realm of healing into a kind of bioconsumerism which most probably would not end well. The last attempt to Frail/assisted care in shared or single rooms. breed a super-race, in the Third Reich, Independent care in single/double rooms should give us pause. And a race of with en-suite bathrooms. genetic superpersons would deprive us Rates include meals, laundry of the genetic variety which is fundaand 24-hour nursing. mental to the health of every species.

Retirement Home, Day-Care and short-stay facilities Pray for the ethicists who have to Rivonia, also available. grapple with these issues. These issues Johannesburg are coming thick and fast and they Tel: 011 803 1451 www.lourdeshouse.org change almost by the day.

D

38

The Southern Cross

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

Please send to editor@scross.co.za

S S P ERPETUA & F ELICITY Blessed Saints Perpetua and Felicity, please watch over all mothers and children who are separated from each other because of war or persecution.

Give special attention to mothers who are imprisoned and guide them to follow your example of faith and courage.

Amen

Merciful God, through your prophet Joel, you remind us of the true meaning of penitence.

As the holy season of Lent begins, turn my heart towards you.

Let the mark of ashes remind me throughout the season of this call to conversion.

May my repentance be truthful and sincere.

May my prayer be open to your guidance and grace.

May my almsgiving be generous and without strings or restrictions.

In the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray Amen

Read the story of Ss Perpetua & Felicity: /www.scross.co.za/2021/05/ the-first-hand-account-of-africas-women-martyrs/

I’m not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God St Dominic Savio

I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked God for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked God for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked God for power that I might win the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given Life that I might enjoy all things.

I asked God for the cleverness to be like someone else; I was given the sense to be myself.

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among the most richly blessed. - Fr Ralph de Hahn The Southern Cross

39

Anagram Challenge 1

Bible Word Search

unscramble the clues below to work out which SA CATHEDRALS hide in these words

R I CHE ST K N I G HT

2 DEFILINGLY POTTY AFORETHOuGHT 3

u SI N G STA Tu E S

4

HE R CHE E R S R E MI TTE D

5

CA R E THR E A DS

Find the names of these Old Testament people in the puzzle above

AARON ABIGAIL ABRAHAM DEBORAH DELILAH

6 A DAME INTRAVENOuSLY HOuSED

ESTHER JACOB JOB JOSHUA MELCHIZEDEK MOSES

NAOMI RACHEL RUTH SARAH SOLOMON

DROPPED LETTERS: Place the missing letters to get the names of Catholic sports legends clue: These people have been champions in the disciplines of gymnastics, athletics, boxing, football, marathon, tennis, motor racing, and swimming

I Y

M

I

,

I

P C H

, ,

U

S U D

K

L

,

L

M

T

I A

O

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O K

,

B E L

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D

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FUCE RALE DE EWIN HATES SORGER ROTYOS NEIGN KITIO BAEY ELSI OF STAN LENO IROR

Southern Crossword

Across

3. Schematic arrangement for faith teaching (9) 8. He’s first in biblical knowledge (4) 9. No, Abram is to do with ancient bishop of Milan (9) 10. You don’t sing them in Lent (6) 11. The Pyrenees lack some points for hot funerals (5) 14. One who thinks is back in presuming things (5) 15. He comes third in evangelical writings (4) 16. Cut in the garment (5) 18. No old age home initially for an ancient sailor (4) 20. Son of Simon of Cyrene (Mk 15) (5) 21. Homes for those that fly (5) 24. Painful wrench right in Iberia (6) 25. Of greatest importance upon a tram (9) 26. He’s next after 8 across (4) 27. How the Apostles’ hair looked at Pentecost? (9)

40

The Southern Cross

DoWn

1. Old writing medium from trench map (9) 2. The arranger of liturgical vestments (9) 4. They’re given with kindness (4) 5. Kind of English from medieval times (5) 6. Lodging place on the pilgrimage (6) 7. Bridge on the days of your life (4) 9. Later shake-up makes you aware (5) 11. In church windows sounds of hurts (5) 12. The bishop for the bishop (9) 13. Thinking a signer-on is involved (9) 17. The church underground (5) 19. He says someone is after him (6) 22. Creature found in the petrol lorry (5) 23. Garment hidden among the rosaries (4) 24. Good King Wenceslas went out in it (4)

For all solutions turn to page 42

Quick Crossword Cl ue 1 do w n Cl ue 18 ac ro

Cl

ue

6

ac

ro

ss

Cl

ue

2

do

w

n

ss

codeWord: combine the letters in the shaded boxes to form the name of a MAriAn FeAST

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Across

3. English Catholic author Evelyn (5) 4. Hail Mary, full of... (5) 6. Polish Catholic soccer superstar (11) 9. Hebrew variation of Mary (6) 11. Pre-Holy Week collections (6,6) 12. One of the Gospels (4) 13. Birthplace of St Peter in Galilee (9) 14. Hymn ‘I Am The … Of Life’ (5) 15. Teaching order (6,8) 16. SA archdiocese (12) 18. Town of St Francis and St Clare (6)

20. Papal delegates (7) 21. Papal document (10) 22. Country of Our Lady of Guadalupe (6) 23. Discoverer of Holy Cross (6)

DoWn 1. Bells of St Mary’s actress (6,7) 2. Bishop of Klerksdorp (7) 4. Irish patron saint (7) 5. African country of Cardinal John Njue (5) 6. Commandment breaker (6) 7. Declaration of sainthood (12)

The Catholic Trivia Quiz

1. What happened on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem? a) Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem b) Jesus was arrested c) Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha 2. In which diocese is the parish of Sharpeville? a) Johannesburg b) Klerksdorp c) Pretoria

6. Which religious order for men is abbreviated SAC? a) Comboni b) Pallottine c) Salesian 7. Pope Francis was the first pope to choose a new and non-composed regnal name since 913. Who was the last one before him? a) Lando b) Leo c) Lucius

8. Where in Italy is the shrine of 3. In which century did St Patrick die? Padre Pio? a) 4th b) 5th c) 6th a) Castel Gandolfo b) Pietrelcina 4. In which song did Elvis Presley, a c) San Giovanni Rotondo Baptist, sing the Hail Mary? a) Crying In The Chapel b) Miracle Of The Rosary c) Our Lady of Fatima 5. Which country in Africa has the lowest number of Catholics? a) Algeria b) Mauritania c) Somalia

8. Pope Francis actor (8,5) 10. Female head of a community of nuns (6) 11. What one does before monstrance (6) 12. Chesterton’s priest-detective (5) 17. SA bishops’ body (abbrv.) (5) 19. Old Testament patriarch (5) 20. Northern Cape diocese (9) 21. French day before Ash Wednesday (5,4)

9. Which Old Testament book features the line “There’s nothing new under the sun”? a) Psalms b) Proverbs c) Ecclesiastes 10. Who was the first bishop of the territory of Durban?

Q4: Elvis Presley

Q12: Basilica

a) Francois Allard b) Henri Delalle c) Charles Jolivet 11. Who won an Oscar for his role as a handyman working among nuns? a) Gregory Peck b) Paul Newman c) Sydney Poitier 12. Which order runs the basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, where the angel appeared to Mary? a) Augustinians b) Dominicans c) Franciscans The Southern Cross

41

Cooking with Saints

s

Every month GRAZIA BARLETTA prepares a recipe inspired by saints

in her Cape Town kitchen, and shares it with our readers in text and photos taken exclusively for The Southern Cross by the chef herself.

THIS MONTH GRAZIA MADE:

St Patrick’s Spinach Tarts

AINT PATRICK’S DAY is celebrated annually on March 17, the anniversary of his death. St Patrick, who lived during the 5th century, is one of Ireland’s three patron saints and its national apostle. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He later escaped, but returned to Ireland to bring Christianity to its people.

In the centuries following Patrick’s death, the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in Irish culture: Perhaps the most well-known legend is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.

His feast is a holy day of obligation for Catholics in Ireland as well as a public holiday — and a day of celebration throughout the Irish diaspora. Religious symbols include serpents — according to legend, he drove all snakes out of Ireland — as well as the Celtic cross. Some say that St Patrick added the sun, a powerful Irish symbol, to the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross.

On St Patrick’s Day, it’s customary to wear green clothing or accessories. And we keep it emerald in this month’s recipe for a naturally green tart, seasoned with freshly grated Parmigiano–Reggiano cheese and a crisp fresh onion. It’s a delicious way to load

up on your greens, and a lot of protein, too.

This simple and simply delicious recipe can be served as an anytime-of-day meal. preparation: 30 min • Baking: 35-40 min servings: 6

prEpArAtion: 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 2. In a large mixing bowl combine the chopped onion, eggs, ricotta cheese, grated

cheese, pepper and nutmeg. Mix until well blended. Set aside.

3. Steam the spinach until it’s wilted. Drain it well and then press with a paper towel to remove as much moisture as you can. Roughchop the spinach and add it to the cheese-and-egg mixture. Fold all together until combined.

4. Line a baking sheet with foil.

Place six little tart pans (with removable bottom) on the baking sheet and fill with the spinach and cheese mixture, smoothing to level the top.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until just set in the centre and lightly brown on the edges.

6. Remove from the oven and let tarts cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pans. Serve warm or at room temperature. Garnish with additional grated cheese, if desired. This recipe can easily be halved.

10. Enjoy with the prayer to St Patrick!

Ingredients

• 620g baby spinach • 1 medium white onion, chopped • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten • 280g ricotta cheese • 20Og freshly-grated ParmigianoReggiano cheese • ½ tsp freshly-ground black pepper • ¼ tsp grated nutmeg • Extra cheese for garnish

Grazia Barletta is an author, book designer, and food photographer & stylist. She can be contacted at graziabarletta1@gmail.com Follow her blog at www.momentswithgrazia.com and connect with Grazia on Facebook/Instagram: momentswithgrazia

SOLuTIONS

SouthernCrossword: ACROSS: 3 Catechism, 8 Adam, 9 Ambrosian, 10 Carols, 11 Pyres, 14 Muser, 15 Luke, 16 Tunic, 18 Noah, 20 Rufus, 21 Nests, 24 Sprain, 25 Paramount, 26 Cain, 27 Windblown. DOWN: 1 Parchment, 2 Sacristan, 4 Alms, 5 Early, 6 Hostel, 7 Span, 9 Alert, 11 Panes, 12 Suffragan, 13 Reasoning, 17 Crypt, 19 Herald, 22 Troll, 23 Sari, 24 Snow.

Anagram Challenge:

1 Christ The King (Johannesburg, Queenstown), 2 Our Lady of the Flight Into Egypt (Cape Town), 3 St Augustine’s (Port Elizabeth), 4 Christ the Redeemer (Klerksdorp), 5 Sacred Heart (Pretoria, Bloemfontein), 6 Our Lady Assumed Into Heaven (Mthatha)

Dropped Letters: Simone Biles (gymnastics), Usain Bolt (sprint), Tyson Fury (boxing), Cristiano Ronaldo (football), Eliud Kipchoge (marathon), Roger Federer (tennis), Lewis Hamilton (F1 racing), Katie Ledecky (swimming)

42 The Southern Cross

Quick Crossword: ACROSS: 3 Waugh, 4 Grace, 6 Lewandowski, 9 Mariam, 11 Lenten Appeal, 12 Mark, 13 Bethsaida, 14 Bread, 15 Marist Brothers, 16 Johannesburg, 18 Assisi, 20 Nuncios, 21 Encyclical, 22 Mexico, 23 Helena.

DOWN: 1 Ingrid Bergman, 2 Phalana, 4 Patrick, 5 Kenya, 6 Sinner, 7 Canonisation, 8 Jonathan Pryce, 10 Abbess, 11 Adores, 12 Brown, 17 SACBC, 19 Jacob, 20 Kimberley, 21 Mardi Gras. — CODEWORD: Annunciation

Catholic Trivia Quiz: 1. c) Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, 2. a) Johannesburg, 3. b) 5th (c.461), 4. b) Miracle Of The Rosary (in 1971, 5. c) Somalia 6. b) Pallottines, 7 a) Lando, 8. c) San Giovanni Rotondo, 9. c) Ecclesiastes (9:1), 10. a) Francois Allard (of the Vicariate of Natal from 1851-73), 11. c) Sydney Poitier (for his role of Homer Smith in the 1963 film Lilies of the Field), 12. Franciscans

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

Please note: New destination in May!

due to ongoing travel restrictions to italy, we have redesigned our three-country Medjugorje pilgrimage programme to now include Turkey, with ephesus and istanbul. See below:

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

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

www.fowlertours.co.za/medju

CAMINO TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

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

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

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

www.fowlertours.co.za/camino

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

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

www.fowlertours.co.za/oberammergau

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

our pilgrimages are expertly arranged by

History in Colour

Final Words

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

Great Quotes on

CATHOLIC EDUCATION

‘A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.’

– Pope Benedict XVI (b.1927)

‘To raise children, we must love them and love them equally.

I cannot see a child without wanting to tell them how much God loves them.’

– St Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1440)

‘Parents who send their children to these [Catholic] schools are parents like my own, who actually have faith in the Church – faith that it will provide their children with safety, a decent education and values about life and others.

This is an institution that stands for all good in the world.’

– Justice Sonia Sotomayor (b.1954)

‘Catholic education aims not only to communicate facts but also to transmit a coherent, comprehensive vision of life, in the conviction that the truths contained in that vision liberate students in the most profound meaning of human freedom.’

– Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)

‘Learning without piety produces a proud device; piety without learning produces a useless one.’

– St John Baptiste de La Salle (1651-1719)

‘Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.’

– Aristotle (384–322 BC)

‘Let us thank all those who teach in Catholic schools.

Educating is an act of love; it is like giving life.

– Pope Francis (b.1936)

Tel: +27 (0) 11 514 0063 or 010 592 2321 Ground Floor, Coral House, 20 Peter Place, Lyme Park, Sandton

Archbishop Denis Hurley OMI, carrying a large cross, leads an ecumenical group of people past Durban’s Central Post Office during the 1988 Good Friday Procession of the Diakonia Council of Churches, with Anglican Bishop Michael Nuttall at back in the photo.

Archbishop Hurley was ordained a bishop 75 years ago this month. When he received his episcopal orders to head what was then the vicariate of Natal in an ordination Mass on March 19, 1947, he was the world’s youngest bishop, at only 31 years of age. When he became the archbishop of the newly-constituted archdiocese of Durban in 1951, he was at 35 the world’s youngest prelate to hold that title.

Archbishop Hurley headed the archdiocese of Durban for an impressive 46 years until his retirement in 1992. After that he served Durban’s cathedral parish for many years. He died on February 13, 2004, at the age of 88.

A detail of this photo illustrated the cover of the late Paddy Kearney’s magisterial 2009 biography of Archbishop Hurley, titled Guardian of the Light.

The last laugh

I

n 1850, Sullivan’s Island off the Atlantic coast of the US had a fair number of Irish Catholics, but no Catholic church.

One day the bishop of Charleston travelled across the bay to say Mass and hear confessions. For one penitent, it had been years since his last confession. The bishop urged him to receive the sacrament more frequently.

“Ah, I’m but a poor fisherman,” the

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man said. “All I have is my little rowboat, and it leaks. The water is choppy, and the weather changes quickly.”

As the bishop was trying to work out what that had to do with the sacrament of reconciliation, the man explained: “It’s a hard, dangerous trip to the city. If it’s only venial sins, it’s not worth the trouble. And if it’s a mortal sin, it’s not worth the risk.”

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