202109 by The Southern Cross

LEGION OF MARY: 100 Years of Service

SAINT OF THE MONTH: St Vincent de Paul

PRAY WITH YOUR EYES How to do Visio Divina

Southern Cross

Est. 1920

The

The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa

September 2021

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Which way for our youth? ST ANNE SODALITY PRESIDENT INTERVIEWED

‘THE CHOSEN’: SEASON 2 OF BINGE-WATCH TV

S outhern C ross P ilgrimages 2022 will be our year!

In 2020 we looked forward to some wonderful pilgrimages, taking us to places of faith such as the Holy Land, Rome, Assisi, Medjugorje, the Oberammergau Passion Play, and the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Then the pandemic closed down travel throughout the world for two years. But after several delays, we are confident that in 2022 the borders will be open again, and we can resume going on pilgrimage. Join us on our spiritually enriching and perfectly arranged journey of faith!

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

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MEDJUGORJE, ROME, ASSISI, CROATIA Led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin 9-18 May 2022

Before Medjugorje, you will visit Rome (with papal audience in St Peter’s Square), Assisi, Loreto (with the House of Our Lady), and the beautiful Croatian city of Split.

www.fowlertours.co.za/medju

OBERAMMERGAU AND HOLY LAND Led by Archbishop William Slattery OFM August/September 2022

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.

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

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Est. 1920

Southern Cross The

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The Youth of Today

Dear Reader,

HICH WAy FOR OUR yOUNG people? That’s the question we ask on our cover this week, with the image of youthful dangling feet ready to embark on their journey towards maturity. Bishop Sithembele Sipuka in his reflection on page 8 considers the situation of the youth in South Africa today. At a time when the youth unemployment rate stands at an alarming 74%, it is difficult to muster optimism for the future. In his article, Bishop Sipuka identifies several problems, and these reside with society and governance, but also with young people. And so do the solutions. Obviously, a writer can’t cover the entire scale of cause, effect and solution in one relatively brief article — that would require a book-length treatment — but the bishop is seeking to stimulate what our friends in the world of NGOs might call a “paradigm shift”, a new way of looking at things. We do well to heed his words. This month’s article by Imelda Diouf on absent fathers illuminates an important angle in the question of how our youth is raised. While many single mothers do heroic work and must not be stigmatised, the absence of fathers in raising children creates relational and economic problems.

hese articles made me reflect on the subject of youth in general. Isn’t it true that every older generation looks at the youth of the day, and sees in them a deterioration of conduct and values? It’s pretty safe to say that no matter how old you are, dear reader, in your young days there always were (or are) elders who would sagely shake their heads and sadly exclaim: “The youth of today...” Indeed, the collective heads of elders have been shaking for the past 2 400 years, when the Greek philosopher Socrates thundered: “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gulp up all the delicacies on the table, cross their legs, and tyrannise their teachers.” The more things change, the more they stay the same, as

the French writer JeanBaptiste Alphonse Karr once observed. But societies do change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, and young people reflect these changes. And often they drive them, as we saw in South Africa when the youth reignited the struggle against apartheid in 1976.

ometimes, young people can teach the older generations a few things. Take the example of several young football stars who are engaged in all manner of activities aimed at improving the lives of others. Every generation should be inspired by the example of the English footballer Marcus Rashford — son of a single mother, incidentally — who supports underprivileged children, through his own money and by using his prominence to support and advocate for the feeding of Britain’s poor children. When the 23-year-old was racially abused for the crime of missing a penalty in a game of football in July, he rose above it with a dignity that undoubtedly gives strength to kids who are themselves subjected to racism. Marcus Rashford is the conscience of a nation which is in dire need of it. Perhaps not coincidentally, Rashford is a Christian who makes the sign of the cross when he enters the football pitch, and says: “The faith we have in God is shown by the people that we are.” Many young people today are trying to create a better world. Think of global figures such as Malala yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, Isra Hirsi, or South Africa’s Ndlovu youth Choir. One might look at the youth today and see their tattoos, strange fashions and attachment to electronic devices, but beneath that, I have found today’s young people to be no less empathetic and polite, and also no less capable of cruelty, than previous generations of youths. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Thank you for reading The Southern Cross, and please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine. God bless,

Günther simmermacher (Editor)

Contents SEPTEMBER 2021

The Faith in Purple Action Daluxolo Moloantoa interviews the national president of the St Anne Sodality.

Deacon: Why I Wrote My Story For a Johannesburg deacon, writing his memoir ticked off another bucket-list item.

Binge-worthy series The Chosen

The Slave of the Slaves

Fr Paddy Noonan OFM explains how the life of St Peter Claver encouraged him.

With pull-out poster!

Legion of Mary turns 100 The history, spirituality and purpose of the Legion of Mary, which marks its centenary this month.

In Pain, Look to Our Lady We may offer our grief to Our Lady of Sorrows, Fr Oskar Wermter SJ suggests.

When Fathers Are Missing Imelda Diouf looks at the economic and relational effects of missing fathers.

EVERY MONTH 5

FROM OUR VAULTS The Southern Cross 33 years ago.

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

17 The St Vincent de Paul story

Have your say!

THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC Nthabiseng Maphisa on the smell of angels.

RAYMOND PERRIER On SA’s culture of impunity.

FR RON ROLHEISER OMI Nine things to know about suicide.

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

PRAYER CORNER Your illustrated prayers, to cut out and collect.

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

COOKING WITH SAINTS Grazia Barletta tries out recipes with the saints. This month: St Francis de Sales’ Honey Breakfast Bars.

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

What future for SA’s youth?

Learn how to pray with your eyes

33 Years Ago: September 11, 1988

FROM OUR VAULTS The pope in Southern Africa

On the front-page, The Southern Cross welcomes Pope John Paul II as the pontiff prepares to visit two countries in the SACBC territory — Botswana and Swaziland — as well as Lesotho (to beatify the missionary Fr Joseph Gérard OMI on September 15), Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The pope is not visiting South Africa and Namibia because of the apartheid regime (see also page 36).

SACC HQ bomb condemned

In a letter to South African Council of Churches secretary-general Rev Frank Chikane, the Catholic bishops condemned the bombing of the council’s Johannesburg headquarters Khotso House by operatives of the apartheid regime. (Shortly after, the SACBC’s own headquarters, Khanya House in Pretoria, would be bombed.)

SACBC on ECC restrictions

Newly-announced restrictions on the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) are “yet another example of the government’s failure to address the root cause of the problems confronting the country”, said the SACBC in a statement.

Pope meets jazz legend

Pope John Paul II has met with the legendary US jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, who has recorded an album of the pope’s poetry sung to jazz accompaniment. • Previous “From The Vaults” articles, with full scans, at www.scross.co.za/vaults

What else made news in September 1988:

• United Democratic Front (UDF) activist Trevor Manuel is detained for the third time. [The future finance minister would be released only in 1989.] • A spate of bombings hits South Africa, including several in public places, killing one and injuring 67. • Chile’s dictator Augusto Pinochet loses a national referendum on his rule. [He would relinquish power in 1990.] • German tennis star Steffi Graf beats Gabriela Sabatini to win her first US Open title, thus completing the rare Grand Slam. • The Amnesty International “Human Rights Now!” tour with Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Youssou N’Dour, Peter Gabriel, and Tracy Chapman kicks off in London. It would come to Harare, Zimbabwe, on October 7. Left: Standard 5 pupils at Loreto Convent in the Strand, Cape Town, after a netball match that was part of a day of sports, Mass and a braai that also involved the schools of St Mary’s, Retreat; Holy Cross, Bellville; Springfield, Wynberg; St Anne’s, Plumstead; St Agnes, Woodstock; and Star of the Sea, St James.

Janet Mawelle leads the Children of Mary in a procession dance at a Mass to close the Year of Mary in Regina Mundi church in Moroka, Soweto. The closing ceremony was attened by around 10 000 people.

The Southern Cross

What is a Catholic patriarch? Q. The caption to your colourised photo of Pope St John XXIII’s funeral in your “History in Colour” item (June 2021) refers to the late pope as the former “patriarch of Venice”. In Christianity, I know that title as an office in the Orthodox Church. But what is a “patriarch” in the Catholic Church?

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

EFORE THE SCHISMS IN THE Church, there were five patriarchs who ranked above all the other bishops. They were the heads of the sees of Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem and Rome. Many Churches have retained these titles, but use them in a different manner. In Orthodox and several other Churches, the position of patriarch implies a position of primacy (which is governed by the hierarchical structures of these Churches). In the Catholic Church, we refer to the patriarch of Rome by a different title: Pope. But the leaders of Catholicism’s “autonomous particular Churches” — Armenian, Maronite, Chaldean, Syrian, Greek-Melkite, Syro-Malabar, SyroMalankara, Catholic Coptic, Romanian and Ukrainian — are automatically given the title patriarch to indicate the primacy of their position in those rites.

Cardinal Albino Luciani, patriarch of Venice, the future Pope John Paul I, with Pope Paul VI (left) in 1972.

Additionally, there are four titular patriarchs in the Latin (or Roman Catholic) rite. These are the archbishops of the patriarchates of Jerusalem, Venice, Lisbon and the East Indies (based in Goa, India). They have no special powers, but enjoy privileges in protocols which prescribe their place in papal processions, and items of vestments and other formal attire they may wear. Other ancient patriarchates have

Why did Lucifer fall? Q. My issue is twofold: Do we need Satan to tempt us when we can create evil all by ourselves? And if angels have superior and immediate knowledge of God, what kind of lunacy could make them rebel against him?

HE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC Church affirms that Satan exists (see paragraphs 391-395). It quotes the Fourth Lateran Council: “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.” Pope Francis has reaffirmed our faith that the devil is a malign power and not a myth (Gaudete et exsultate, 2018). It has been conjectured that selfadmiration and the desire to be like God, or even greater than God, triggered the demons’ audacity. Our natural curiosity, which you express, wants to know more. What really motivated them to

The Southern Cross

Your Questions answered

rebel against their creator? The New Testament’s book of Revelation, written by John of Patmos, describes the author’s series of visions. Among them is a “warfare” in heaven in which Michael and his angels defeat Satan and his angels (12:9). Supporting scriptural texts are found in Isaiah 14:12, Ezekiel 28:17, 2 Peter 2:4 and Luke 10:15. We hesitate to make sense of this. God’s angels picking a fight with one another? John doesn’t explain. He just reveals God’s mysterious design in imagery which our finite and logical minds cannot fully comprehend. Among many attempted explanations for the angelic “lunacy” is the following, which you may consider plausible. Satan knew that the second person of the Trinity would become incarnate. God the Son would take on human nature as the man Jesus who would do the Father’s

been suppressed over the centuries, some as recently as the 1960s. One of them was the ancient patriarchate of Grado which in 1451 became the patriarchate of Venice, a sign of the power which that city-state enjoyed at the time. Lisbon was made a patriarchate in the 18th century at the request of the Portuguese king. It has the distinction of being the only patriarchate with the enshrined right to have its head elevated to the rank of cardinal. The present incumbent is Cardinal Manuel Clemente, generally known as Patriarch Manuel III. He is currently the only titular patriarch-archbishop to be a cardinal. Once they receive the red hat, patriarchs are usually referred to by the title Cardinal. The patriarchate of Venice has supplied the Church with three popes: Pius X, John XXIII and John Paul I.

“Fall of the Rebel Angels” (1760) by Christoph Anton May in St Michael’s church in Innichen, northern Italy.

will and sacrifice his life so that humanity could be given eternal life. Satan did not principally rebel against God. He rebelled against God in human flesh. He, in his spiritual angelic splendour, was not going to be subservient to Jesus the man, even if that man was also God. St Paul reminds us that “all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus” (Phil 2:10). Satan was not prepared to do that. (Michael Shackleton)

Photos: Sheldon Reddiar, Vatican Media, Günther Simmermacher (2), NJR-ZA

What is the difference between church, chapel, cathedral and basilica?

Clockwise from top left: Christ the King cathedral in Johannesburg; St Peter’s basilica in the Vatican; Conventual church of Mariannhill monastery; Miraculous Medal chapel in Paris; and Llandaff oratory in KwaZulu-Natal, one of the world’s smallest chapels.

Q. We all know what a church is, but what is the difference between a church and a cathedral, basilica, abbey or chapel?

ET’S BEGIN BY BRIEFLY DEFINING A CATHOLIC church: a building that satisfies certain precepts in design intended for the celebration of the Mass and worship, and in the case of pilgrimage churches, the veneration of a saint. By canon law, all churches must be solemnly consecrated, or at least dedicated to God by a blessing, before they can act as places of divine services.

Cathedral A cathedral is almost always the seat of a bishop in his diocese. The word derives from the Greek “cathedra”, which is the name of the presiding bishop’s seat (or throne). If a church is only temporarily serving as a cathedral, or serves as the seat of a bishop in a territory that isn’t a diocese, it’s called a pro-cathedral. Some of those have served that temporary function for a long time, such as Dublin’s St Mary’s church, the city’s Catholic pro-cathedral for almost 200 years. The old pro-cathedral in Johannesburg’s Kerk Street served as the bishop’s seat until Christ the King cathedral was consecrated in 1960.

Another term for small chapels, usually for private worship, is “oratory”. That term is also used for churches of certain societies of priests, such as the Oratory of St Philip Neri, such as the famous Brompton oratory in London.

Abbey An abbey is usually a large monastery which combines religious activities and income-generating operations which guarantee their self-sufficiency, as well as social institutions, such as a school. Often the churches of such monasteries are called abbeys, though more commonly in Protestant contexts. The more accurate term for houses of worship in abbeys and monasteries is “conventual church”. (Günther Simmermacher)

Basilica A cathedral can be a basilica, but a basilica doesn’t need to be a cathedral. The world’s most famous basilica, St Peter’s in the Vatican, isn’t a cathedral. But the pope’s cathedral, as the bishop of Rome, is also a basilica: St John Lateran. The term “basilica” generally denotes a particular style of architecture which goes back to the design of public buildings in ancient Rome, usually with an apse at the end of a nave with two or more aisles. When Christianity was decriminalised in 313 AD, enabling it to move out of its private house churches, the faith’s new places of public worship were usually based on these Roman structures — the 4th-century historian Eusebius referred to all ecclesial structures as basilicas. But in the Catholic Church (as in the Orthodox Church), “basilica” also denotes a canonical title of honour bestowed by a pope to church buildings in recognition of their importance. In the Catholic Church, there are four major basilicas, all in Rome, and more than 1 800 minor basilicas.

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Catholic schools and skills centres

Chapel

Educating today tomorrow for the common good.

A chapel, in the sense of a freestanding consecrated building of prayer and/or liturgy, is usually a small structure which has no priest attached to it, or is a satellite to a parish. It may serve an institution, such as a convent or a Catholic school or a retreat house, or it can be attached to private property, such as a palace or a farm. Chapels can be spectacular, such as the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican or Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Or they can be tiny, such as the Catholic Llandaff Oratory in Van Reenen, KwaZulu-Natal, which seats only eight people. It was built by Maynard Mathews, who would become a Dominican priest, in memory of his son Llandaff who died while saving the lives of eight colleagues in a mine accident in 1925. Chapels can also be interdenominational, such as those in airports or hospitals. The Southern Cross 7

7 9:40 AM

WHICH WAY FOR THE YOUTH?

With youth unemployment at 74%, change is clearly necessary. BISHOP SITHEMBELE SIPUKA challenges government, society, the Church, and young people themselves to be agents for a better future.

EING YOUNG IS ASSOCIATED with being joyful and looking forward to a happy, meaningful and bright future — but this youthful trait is not true for most of our young people. Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, addressing the gathering of his party on June 16, in his usual polemic tone, questioned the excitement about Youth Day, since both in its origin and in its commemoration, there is no reason for joy about this day for young people. And I think that he is right. The youth revolution of June 16, 1976, was a painful event that saw several young people maimed and killed, and many going into exile. While their sacrificial courage significantly contributed to the present democratic dispensation, the youth as a social group are the most negatively impacted by the government’s ineptitude at implementing policies and by the corruption of “deployed cadres”. With 74% of young people who have reached working age being unemployed, it is not surprising that unemployment is viewed as an overarching challenge for the youth today. Most young people humiliatingly depend on their parents’ grants for survival. As Church and civil society, we must make our contribution towards improving this sad situation of youth unemployment.

As a matter of fact

per The offic ial unem ployment rate, as , 2021 of rter -qua first figur es for the stands at a record 32,6%. Under an expa nded definition, whic h includes g for those who have given up sear chin a job, it stands at 43,2%. Under the ment latter definition, youth unem ploy stands at a shoc king 74,7%, whic h ol mea ns that only one in four scho are who a Afric h Sout in ers leav 24 or younger have a job.

The Southern Cross

Betrayed by the system

It would be superficial to deal with the present youth unemployment without raising other related problems leading to it — and the education system is the mother problem of them all. Youth unemployment is due to a spiral of problems that build upon one another. At face value, it appears to be due to a lack of skills and qualifications. This, in turn, can be attributed to a wide range of reasons, including poor matric results, lack of maths and science, dropouts before matric, dysfunctional teachers in public schools (but protected by the unions), poor or absent infrastructure for learning, youth

delinquency, drugs, dysfunctional families, poverty, and so on. Youth unemployment is also due to an educational system without vision which prepares our young people for nonexistent whitecollar jobs. This has resulted in many qualified young people

sitting at home because, qualified as they are, there is no market for their skills. The few that have potential for entrepreneurship also find themselves lacking support in training and funding to implement the business projects they are dreaming of. Those oriented towards vocational and practical skills are forced into theoretical streams that they cannot handle, and they end up dropping out. The lack of detection of a child’s capabilities at an early age has led many a child to failure in life because their

‘Youth unemployment is also due to the visionless educational system which prepares young people for non-existent jobs’

potential has not been identified and enhanced. They are forced into a system that eventually spits them out because they cannot cope with it. It is important that we recognise these omissions so that we can see where and how as Church and society we can make meaningful interventions.

Encourage and challenge

One mammoth challenge, which we can assist to overcome, is to convert young people from the mentality of aiming for salaried jobs to one of being creative. The government must be called to task where it fails its citizens in jobcreation, but as responsible citizens with Godgiven intelligence and energy, we must play our role in taking care of ourselves and others. Thus, young people need to be challenged for a laziness which sees them standing in long-winding queues with old and disabled people for

Photos: Zachary Nelson; Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba

the Covid-19 R350 grant, while the fertile backyards of their homes capable of producing healthy vegetables are overgrown with weeds that provide breeding habitats for rats and snakes. Young people need to be challenged in an attitude of entitlement which leads them to be destructive in their behaviour and abusive to their parents and grandparents, causing their elders stress and high blood pressure. They need to wake up from their inertia which leads them to boredom that gives the devil the opportunity to use them, turning them into drug addicts, tavern patrons, practitioners of crime and people of loose morals. Of course, this is not true of all young people. Some, from difficult and seriously disadvantaged backgrounds, make use of whatever opportunity there is to improve their lives. Some of them end up being successful, while others manage to survive and live orderly lives. One only wishes that there were more of such young people!

Do it yourself!

Our task as Church is to encourage this attitude “vuk’uzenzele” (“stand up and do it yourself”) instead of waiting to be taken care of. In the light of Jesus’ admonition against laziness (cf the Parable of Talents in Matthew 25:14–30), young people must be encouraged to “arise” and do something: volunteer, take care of a needy person or situation, offer to clean somebody’s yard, sell something, get involved in the Church, and avail themselves of possibilities. Mission lands, during the time of missionaries, were oases of development in poor rural areas. But today they lie abandoned, because we, the priests and religious of today, are trained only for spiritual pastoral work and not for development too. We can be effective in encouraging others about development if we, the leadership of the Church, instead of pontificating, model by ex-

ample. What made the early missionaries successful in their evangelisation drive was the holistic care they provided, inclusive of spiritual and physical development. There is a lot of pressure these days to immediately assign priests and religious soon after their training into parishes for the work of spiritual care. Given the glaring need for development, however, we must ask ourselves if the time has not come for mandatory training in development, after the completion of priestly and religious training. Better still, it would be good if spiritual care and development training were done concurrently, in a synergetic manner. It will, however, take a long time to change the present environments of training for such a unitive curricular; so doing it sequentially may be a better option for now. Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha (pictured above) is the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

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The Southern Cross

the faith in

purpLe aCtion

The members of the St Anne Sodality are known

throughout SA for their purple-and-black uniforms.

DALUXOLO MOLOANTOA spoke to current president

Sylvia Mbombo about her life, faith and the sodality.

VERYBODY KNEW. IN THE 1990s at Sunday Mass in St Matthias church in Mfuleni, Cape Town, that the fourth row of the pews was reserved for the Mbombo family. They occupied the entire row. “It was an exciting time for me. I was a new bride, and I was new to the Catholic Church. I had a burning desire to receive the body and the blood of Jesus Christ,” Sylvia Mbombo, national president of the St Anne Sodality, tells The Southern Cross. Born the fourth in a family of five children, Mrs Mbombo grew up in Qoboqobo village near Centane, a small town about 30km east of Butterworth in the Eastern Cape. Her family were Protestants. “I knew God through the teachings of my mother, a dedicated church member and a woman of prayer. She instilled the values that formed the foundation of my life, such as kindness, compassion, empathy.” Mrs Mbombo and her three sisters and one brother were raised by their mother. Their father, like most rural black men of his time, had to pack his bags and go to the big cities to find employment as a migrant labourer. The

children would not see him, except perhaps for the December holiday season. Sylvia attended primary school at Qoboqobo Junior Secondary School, and high school at Mabobothi Senior Secondary School. “This is where I met my loving husband,” she recalls. After her matriculation, she studied at the University of the Western Cape and graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Mrs Mbombo joined the St Anne Sodality in 1999 at Mfuleni parish. She was later inducted as a member of the sodality at Queen of the Holy Rosary church in Knysna. “I was accepted into the sodality on July 28, 2001 — two

days after the feast of St Anne. It was after an arduous but wonderful journey of two years in formation.” Soon after her induction into the sodality, Mrs Mbombo plunged herself fully into its activities, rising through the ranks in subsequent years. She served as secretary in her parish (200406), as the deputy-secretary of the sodality in the archdiocese of Cape Town (2006-08), and diocesan secretary (2008-10). In 2010, she was elected national deputy president for a term, followed by two terms as national secretary from 2013-19. On April 27, 2019, Mrs Mbombo was elected the sodality’s national president at the special national council meeting in Johannesburg. “The occasion was extra special for me as it was also Freedom Day.”

Covid presidency

Three generations: Sylvia Mbombo (second from right) and her family.

Mrs Mbombo appreciates the milestones of her presidency of the sodality so far. It is a presidential term which has been clouded by the Covid-19 pandemic. She credits much of the farreaching achievements in her presidency to the teamwork with the sodality’s national executive committee, alongside its chaplain, Redemptorist Father Bafana Hlatswayo.

The St Anne Sodality in brief

HE ST ANNE SODALITY WAS FOUNDED IN 1850 IN QUÉBEC, Canada, by Oblate Father Jean-Baptiste Honorat. It was brought to Southern Africa in 1934, via Lesotho, by Bishop Joseph Cyprian Bonhomme OMI. Its motto is to “serve the family, the Church and the community”. In South Africa today, the sodality is a strong support group for its members and a powerful resource for their parishes in over 20 dioceses. Members — dressed in their familiar uniform of a purple top, black skirt and beret — meet bimonthly for Mass, discussion, report-backs and prayers. Their

Sylvia Mbombo, St Anne Sodality president

The Southern Cross

social involvement includes visiting young mothers, lapsed Catholics and the bereaved, as well as attending to any other needs made known to them by their parish priests. Based on the virtues of St Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the following are included in the intentions of the sodality: to foster and encourage vocations to the religious life among children; to be exemplary to Christian women and models of married women and mothers; to comfort those in sorrow; and to love and care for the poor.

Despite the pandemic, diocesan elections have been conducted successfully countrywide, and the operations and activities of the sodality have continued in all the dioceses. The sodality has given spiritual support to members and their loved ones affected by the pandemic. In spite of limited access, the sodality’s adoption of digital technology platforms has facilitated its effective communication at all levels. On July 26, the sodality celebrated the feast of Ss Anne and Joachim, as it does annually. It was no different this year, but with adaptations, so as to accommodate the restrictions forced by the pandemic. The feast of the sodality’s patron “is an opportunity for us to renew our vows and our devotion to St Anne, the mother of Mary and wife of Joachim. It is also an opportunity for us to renew our promise to love and follow the example of our patron saint for the rest of our lives,” Mrs Mbombo says. “This year, we intensified our prayers for the different needs of the family, the Church and the community, and for an end to the pandemic. We planned and executed a national programme of prayers and activities in this respect. We also used the opportunity to evaluate our various social programmes geared towards poverty alleviation, and combatting violence against women and children as well as child malnutrition.”

Why married women?

A frequent question is why the St Anne Sodality admits only married women. “The answer is quite simple: our patron saint, St Anne, was married to Joachim, and they were the parents of the Virgin Mary. In order to emulate this woman, who is epitomised in Proverbs 31, the sodality was formed so that St Anne can be a model of love, concern, loyalty and care to every married Catholic woman,” Mrs Mbombo explains. “It thus makes sense that the sodality is open only to married women, as part of their families. We must also remember that marriage in the Church is one of the seven sacraments, and the St Anne Sodality upholds this sacrament. We as members are called to defend the sacredness of life and holy matrimony.” During its long history, the St Anne Sodality has had a reputation of comprising mostly women of a certain maturity, but today more and more younger women are joining its ranks. Mrs Mbombo attributes this welcome development to a number of factors. “The sodality does not invite members to join. However, most young women

‘Young women in the Church have taken note of the good example set by members of the St Anne Sodality, and they are responding to it’

state that they joined because they saw the good work that’s being done by the sodality. Another reason is that young women nowadays are increasingly coming to terms with the fact that children learn good behaviour — or bad behaviour, for that matter — from observing their parents. Young women in the Church have taken note of the good example set by members of the sodality in this respect, and they are responding to it.” Furthermore, Mrs Mbombo says, “the need for spiritual fulfilment, deepening of their faith and being equipped to deal with life’s challenges have also contributed to young Catholic women’s desire to join our sodality.” In his letter to the Corinthians, St Paul says: “There is one body but many parts” (12: 12-27). “This verse reminds us, as women, that we have many talents which can contribute to one big effort of making a difference in others’ lives. Our work as women is greater than we have ever had before. We need to embrace this fact, and actualise it through our duties in serving our families, our Church and our communities,” Mrs Mbombo says. Looking forward, she sees a future anchored by a solid foundation built on shared trust, faith and confidence. “This is a time to take things into our own hands, with courage and unity,’’ she says. “We must remember that our God is the God of all hope. For this hope to be sustained, we need to stay connected to the eternal, limitless source of hope: God himself”.

Did you get your poster of St Anne? The Saint of the Month in our July issue was St Anne, with the biography of the mother of Our Lady, and a pullout poster of St Anne and the child Mary, from the chapel of St Anne in Lourdes.

Back-copies of that issue (and all previous editions of The Southern Cross magazine) can be ordered from Pamela at: admin@scross.co.za or call 083 233-1956

Hot tip: Order in bulk and save on postage! The Southern Cross

Born to serve Johannesburg deacon Walter Middleton fulfilled a long-standing dream of writing his life story. He told us what motivated him.

N HIS NINTH WEDDING anniversary on December 28, 1987, Walter Middleton made a list of what he still wanted to pursue or achieve in life. At #10 on that 12-point “bucket list” was the desire to one day publish his memoirs. In late 2020, the Johannesburg deacon could tick off #10 with the publication of his book Born To Serve (Write-On Publishing). In his memoirs, the now 73year-old charts his journey from poverty in his native India via Mozambique to South Africa, and tells of his work with two of the world’s largest humanitarian organisations, CARE and World Vision, where Deacon Middleton was responsible for feeding millions of poor and hungry people. “Several of my colleagues, friends and family members encouraged me to write my memoirs, to share my experience working in the humanitarian world, of feeding the poor and the hungry, so that others might learn and benefit from it,” he says.

“Born To Serve tells the story of a boy from a small village in India who was barely educated, and developed an obsession to create a world where every child is fed and hunger is not tolerated, and helped to save tens of millions of people around the globe to avoid starvation,” Middleton tells The Southern Cross. He received awards from the United Nations World Food Programme and the United States De-

‘As a deacon, I act as the bridge between the altar and the street’

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partment of Agriculture for his work. That part of his book, he says, is intended as “a guide for those embarking on a professional career in providing humanitarian assistance to those most in need in our world. I have also provided some case studies and best practices, based on experience.” Another feature of Born To Serve is

a witness to the Catholic faith. “I have included some quotations, tips, Bible references, and a chapter on Our Lady of Vailankanni. I hope readers of the book will be spiritually and mentally inspired by them, as I’ve been,” said the deacon who has met two popes (that, too, was on the “bucket list”, as was becoming a deacon). The Middleton family came from Mozambique to South Africa 25 years ago. Walter is a deacon at St Patrick’s parish in La Rochelle, Johannesburg. This is home now, he says. “The ‘Rainbow Nation’ has its challenges, but having travelled to over 75 countries around the world, I would say South Africa has more pros than cons. South Africa is definitely the last station in my life. God willing, from here I will go to my eternal home.”

Life of a deacon

Serving as a deacon is “a tremendous blessing”, Middleton says. One chapter in his book is devoted to his journey to the permanent diaconate. “As a deacon, I act as the bridge between the altar and the street. As a married man, I am ideally suited to perform this role, with one foot at the altar and the other in the street. My mission is to bring Christ from the sanctuary to everyday men and women in the community. “I enjoy doing the work of the Lord, and this I do by taking Holy Communion to the sick and housebound, assisting the parish priest with Communion services, doing Benediction and memorial services for the deceased when the priest is unavailable,

blessings of homes, administering the sacrament of baptism, giving homilies from time to time, assisting at the altar during Mass, and preparing couples who plan to get married, and running baptism preparation classes.” As a parishioner, the deacon coordinates the parish’s various works of charity. “This includes organising events to raise funds for our charity work, assisting with the soup kitchens, and distributing food parcels to the poor and needy. I also coordinate the work of the sewing class where we train migrants, refugees, and local women in all aspects of sewing so that they can feed their families.” He says that if the Church were to allow married clergy, he would like to be a priest, but only if that didn’t interfere with his roles as husband, father and grandfather. For Middleton, family is very important. And he urges families to pray together.

Advice for families

Asked to offer advice to young families, the words of wisdom keep coming: “Make time for your kids. Always encourage and praise each other. Set limits and be consistent with discipline. Be firm but flexible. Be a good role model. Show that your love is unconditional. Let your wants be subject to your needs and your means — in other words, live within your means. Always entrust your work to the Lord — you will never fail. Work hard, always have a positive attitude, and be sincere and honest in all you do. Finally, make life more enjoyable for the less fortunate through service and

Deacon Walter Middleton and his wife June with their family.

charitable giving.” And there must be time for leisure. In his free time, Middleton loves to cook and bake. The avid Southern Cross reader recalled that he marked his mother’s birthday in July by baking a St Anthony’s Bread from the recipe in the “Cooking With Saints” column. Out of the kitchen, he likes to ride his Harley Davidson motorbike, play the saxophone, and grow vegetables in his garden. “And most importantly,” he adds, “spending time with my three adorable grandchildren!” After a lifetime working in the field of feeding the poor, Middleton thinks world hunger is solvable — “provided there is a strong commit-

Call 082 561-1352 or 084 042-6218 walter_middleton2002@yahoo.co.in

ment from world leaders”. He explains: “Today the challenge is not only about volumes of production but also inequitable food system patterns from the field to the plate. Some people suffer from overconsumption while others are going to bed hungry. This is gross inequality, and I believe this can be addressed if less money is spent on arms and ammunition and more on fighting global hunger and improving the livelihoods of the most vulnerable. Hunger can indeed be avoided.” Born To Serve was reviewed by Günther Simmermacher on The Southern Cross website: www.scross.co.za/ 2020/12/born-to-serve-review/

the Slave of the Slaves

whom many loved to hate

In a time of slavery, many people despised St Peter Claver for his ministry to slaves — and FR PATRICK NOONAN OFM knows the feeling!

ICTURE THE SCENE: IT’S A DAY in the 1630s. A boat arrived this morning with human cargo. It’s like any other morning in the coastal town of Cartagena, centre of South American slavery between 1595 and 1640. At the port of Cartagena — on the northern coast of Columbia, near Panama — a vast Portuguese slavery story is unfolding. They are dropping, “unloading”, thousands of African slaves there each month. Perhaps 10 000 a year. The Spanish authorities need them to drive their economy. They certainly don’t see it as trafficking in human beings. That’s hindsight. Besides, they reason, everyone is doing it. The markets need it. Lisbon’s “Financial Quarter” can’t survive without it. Madrid’s “Wall Street” would collapse without it, said the pundits. A Spaniard, a Jesuit missionary living at the church in the city of Cartagena called Peter Claver, can’t take it any longer. He has had sleepless nights in this port after seeing what was being perpetrated by his own people — his own Spanish people. Peter has prayed about it a lot. He decides to be the answer to his own prayer. He knows he cannot fight the system of slavery alone at the political level. He is too far from Spain, the centre of power. He decides to do what he can to influence the situation on the local level. The clergy supports him, but not unanimously. We find Peter waiting to help disorientated slaves as soon as they come off the ships — often more dead than alive. Peter begins to have a doubtful reputation among the administrators of the colony. They wonder about him. Where do his loyalties lie? To the slaves or the Spanish government? To the blacks or the whites? Did he not come on the missions to provide for the spiritual welfare of his own people, the Spanish colonisers so far from home? Did he not want to make Spain great again? The authorities

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think that he is overzealous about “his” slaves and say he abuses the holy sacraments by giving them to black people who they claim are “without souls”. Some suggest a letter to his superiors in Spain or even Rome should fix that. Move him to a rural parish, away from “politics”, you understand.

St Peter Claver called himself ‘the slave of the slaves’ And another thing: fashionable ladies refuse to enter churches where Claver and slaves have been at Mass. The pungent human smell, the sweat, is too much for their noses.

Under suspicion

On occasion when he ventures out to a public gathering at the governor’s residence, Peter is tolerated with a certain condescension — and sometimes suspicion. And he encounters even hate and distrust from the slave auctioneers at the port who would ask him with a thinly disguised unease what he is trying to prove. They feel he lets the side down. Where is his racial solidarity with his own people, the Spanish? So it’s not

A man prays before a statue of St Peter Claver in Cartagena, Colombia. Photo: David Agren/CNS

surprising that Peter isn’t generally on invitation lists to colonial receptions. Spiritually, he embraces being shunned, and he finds strength and divine company in prayer and adoration. He calls himself “the slave of the slaves”. The moral stance of Peter Claver puts him into a sort of limbo in relation to his own people, the local Spanish authorities. I know the feeling. I was in that space in relation to South African whites during apartheid. Peter Claver (1580-1654) knew the Spanish were on the wrong side of history. He also knew that slavery was obscene, even though it was justified by “state theology”, meaning the theological justification of the status quo. We, the churches in the townships of South Africa, also knew apartheid was obscene, and we kept undermining it at every opportunity. An apartheid government inquiry into the 1984 uprising in the Vaal Triangle found, in typical scapegoat mode, that the mainline churches had used black, revolutionary and liberation theology to influence the demise of the apartheid system. The churches responded by pointing out, as calmly as possible, that they used the Bible’s prophetic word to announce, in season and out, “the way, the life and the truth”. I wrote about those events in my books They’re Burning the Churches (Jacana) and Township God (Write-On Publishing).

Hero in death

Of course, when it was all over, Peter became a hero to all and sundry. Nobody could remember belittling him or his ministry to the marginalised. Political amnesia had quickly set in. And in time, Peter was “rehabilitated” by his growing number of admirers, leading to his canonisation in 1888. The despised slave helper became the saint Peter Claver. A 19th-century Catholic litany “for the conversion of the negro race” describes him, in the language of its day, as “the apostle of

Photos: javier Del Pino/Unsplash, Pedro Szekely/CCA2.0

St Peter Claver at a glance

The shoreline of Cartagena, where St Peter Claver ministered to slaves.

the negro” and “the shining light of Cartagena”. When Pope Gregory XVI condemned slavery in 1839, Peter Claver became a worldwide role model for Catholics against slavery. Petitions appeared in prayer books “to obtain freedom for the slaves of Africa” (The Voice of the Sacred Heart, 1897). One prayer runs like this: “O Jesus, Who didst die that all men should be free, look in pity, I beseech Thee, on the misery of the poor slaves in Africa, and come and hasten their deliverance. Let not their oppressors triumph over them, but by means which Thou alone canst devise, hasten the day which will set them free, and in that day make them know Thee, their own true God and Saviour. “Our Lady of Mercy, pray for the

Born: June 1580 in Spain Died: September 9, 1654, aged 74 in Cartagena, Colombia Beatified: 1850 Canonise d: 1888 Feast: September 9 Patronag es: Slaves, race relations , seafarers

poor slaves, and obtain their redemption. Guardian angels of the poor slaves, pray for them, and protect and console them in their misery. Amen.” Remember that at the time, this was praying for the fall of an economic system that had lasted for hundreds of years. Slavery was the muscle on which the world’s most powerful economies were built. Business people and those in the pews who had lived off slavery must have found these prayers very disconcerting, even subversive. Again, I

The church of St Peter Claver in Cartagena, which holds the saint’s tomb.

recognise the situation. I was accused of similar prayers for the fall of apartheid. Mary’s Magnificat could have been banned! Many white professionals were known in those days to anger easily when South African bishops distributed anti-apartheid statements to the faithful. On one occasion in Vanderbijlpark in the 1970s, parishioners rolled up episcopal statements into balls, thrust them into the sanctuary, and then stomped out of the church in a serious huff. Those were distressing times for the parish priest, Fr Valerian Gavin OFM of happy memory. As in the case of St Peter Claver SJ, all is forgotten now. Fr Patrick Noonan is a Franciscan priest based in Johannesburg archdiocese. He is the author of several books.

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100 years of the LEGION OF MARY This month marks the centenary of the founding of the Legion of Mary. MARIA STEVENS & CHRISTEN TORRES look at the great lay movement.

N SEPTEMBER 7, IT WILL BE 100 years since an Irishman named Frank Duff cofounded the Legion of Mary. It would soon spread around the world, including South Africa, to become one of the greatest Catholic lay movements of the 20th century. The Legion of Mary is a lay apostolic association of Catholics which, under the leadership of Mary Immaculate, serves the Church in about 170 countries with 10-14 million members, making it the largest apostolic organisation of lay people in the Catholic Church. It came to South Africa in 1933, starting in Port Elizabeth, and is now active in several dioceses. The Legion’s activities aim to encourage Catholics in their sanctity, and to attract nonCatholics to the faith. When Frank Duff co-founded the Legion of Mary on September 7, 1921, at St Nicholas of Myra parish in Dublin, he intended to help lay people to live their dedication to the Church in an organised structure which would be supported by fraternity and prayer. The group started out by visiting women with cancer in hospitals, but it soon spread its activities among the most destitute, including prostitutes.

Spread around the globe

The new organisation soon became very popular, and it spread across the world. But the Church authorities were suspicious of lay movements generally, so the Legion was mistrusted until Pope Pius XI publicly praised it in 1931. Even so, in Dublin, the Legion suffered obstruction from successive archbishops. The Legion was established in South Africa by Dominican Sister Helena Raleigh, bringing to fruition the desire of Bishop Hugh MacSherry of Port Elizabeth. Irish-born Sr Helena was

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the prioress of Holy Rosary convent in Port Elizabeth. In a 1932 letter to Duff, she acknowledged the role of the organisation in her vocation. With the blessing of her parish priest, Fr Brassil, she inaugurated the Legion’s first meeting on September 8, 1933, with the praesidium — the basic unit of the Legion — dedicated to Our Lady of Victories. From Port Elizabeth the Legion spread quickly to other parts of South Africa. By 1934, a praesidium was founded in Johannesburg. More regions would follow.

Legion’s structure

In the Legion of Mary, a praesidium is normally based in a parish, with members meeting weekly. Each meeting includes a set series of prayers. Four additional levels supervise the work throughout the Legion’s structure. The highest level is the concilium, which is based in Dublin and has control over the Legion worldwide. Any Catholic may join the Legion to serve God by practising the corporal and especially spiritual works of mercy. Full membership is preceded by a three-month probationary period. There are two types of membership: Active and Auxiliary. Active members engage in spiritual exercises of prayer but are also engaged in the corporal apostolate of the Legion. Auxiliary members, the majority, support the Legion through their prayers. The spirituality of the Legion of Mary is partly based on Louis de Montfort’s 1712 book True Devotion to Mary, which promotes a total dedication to Christ through devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Legion also promotes the adoration of the Holy Spirit, and the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Miraculous Medal.

Who was Frank Duff?

RANK DUFF WAS A PIONEER OF lay apostolates at a time when his own archbishop didn’t want to hear of them. But the founder of the Legion of Mary never gave up, fighting his mission with humility and determination. Tellingly, Duff secured an audience with Pope Pius XI long before Archbishop Edward Byrne of Dublin finally agreed to see him.

Born into a wealthy Dublin family on June 7, 1889, Duff had a special concern for the poor, and was a member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul. A civil servant by profession, Duff and a group of women set up the Legion of Mary on September 7, 1921, to help ill and poor women. He was adamant that single mothers must be helped, and that nobody should take their children away from them — an attitude that was not shared by much of the Irish Church, society or state, with terrible consequences. Soon the Legion opened up to men as well, and spread rapidly all over the world. Duff remained involved in guiding the Legion until his death at 91 on November 7, 1980. The Legion of Mary is said to be the largest international association to have been founded in Ireland. The lifelong bachelor was also a keen writer of booklets. Perhaps the most famous one is Can We Be Saints?, published in 1916. In it, Duff insists: “Every person that is born is called to be a saint. Take it as most certain that you — no matter how unfitted your life may seem for holiness — are being given graces sufficient, if corresponded with, to bring you to sanctity.” One day Duff may become a canonised saint: his sainthood cause was introduced in 1996.

Saint of the Month: St VINCENT DE PAUL

From slave to saint of charity The Society of St Vincent de Paul is active in many parishes around the world. But who was the saint after whom the society is named?

PRIEST WHOSE LIFE STORY included being sold into slavery went on to inspire a new sense of organised charity in the lay apostolate named after him — and helped set the scene for the Miraculous Medal, one of Catholicism’s most beloved devotions. St Vincent de Paul was born on April 24, 1581, in the small south-western French village of Pouy (which in 1828 would be renamed after the saint). He was the third of six children born to peasant farmers Jean and Bertrande de Moras de Paul. In his childhood, Vincent tended livestock, but even then his intellect stood out. At the age of 15 he was sent to a Franciscan seminary school in the nearby town of Dax. His father paid for the boy’s education by selling the family’s oxen — a big sacrifice for the poor family. In 1597 Vincent moved to the University of Toulouse to study for the priesthood. He financed his studies by tutoring other students. The student environment in Toulouse was anything but holy, but despite his short temper, Vincent kept out of trouble. His ordination to the priesthood in 1600 caused trouble, however. The Council of Trent, which had concluded in 1563, set the minimum age for priests at 24, and Vincent was younger than that. Rather than fight his case, he resigned a premature appointment as parish priest and continued his studies Statue of St Vincent de Paul in the yard of the Miraculous Medal chapel in Paris. Photo: Günther Simmermacher

in theology and canon law, first at Toulouse and then in Paris. By the time he was ready to start life as a parish priest, fate intervened again — at least by Vincent’s account, which some modern scholars are disputing.

St Vincent at a glance

Name at birth: Vincent de Paul Born: April 24, 1581, in Pouy, south-western France Died: September 27, 1660, in Paris, France Beatified: 1729 Canonised: 1737 Feast: September 27 Patronages: Charities, volunteers, hospitals, leprosy, prisoners, lost articles, spiritual help, St Vincent de Paul Societies

Sold into slavery

In 1605, on a sea voyage in the Mediterranean, Vincent was captured by pirates, taken to Tunis, and auctioned off as a slave. According to his letters, Vincent had three masters. The first was a fisherman, but Vincent suffered chronic seasickness and was soon sold. The second master was an old alchemist and inventor, from whom the young priest learnt a lot. But that master died on a voyage to Istanbul — and Vincent was sold once again. His new master was Guillaume Gautier, a former French Franciscan priest who had converted to Islam in order to be liberated from his own enslavement. Gautier lived in the mountains with his three wives. The middle one of these was a Muslim by birth who took an interest in the slave’s religious faith. Impressed by Vincent, she persuaded her husband to revert to Christianity and escape with the slave to France. They arrived on French soil on June 28, 1607. Things took a better turn after Vincent’s return. First, he was sent to Rome to continue his studies, and after he came back to Paris in 1609, he received some prestigious appointments, including one

as chaplain to the aristocratic Gondi family. By then he was under the spiritual direction and mentorship of Abbé (later Cardinal) Pierre de Bérulle, a priest and statesman close to the French royal court. Vincent seemed to have attained what he had hoped for when he had entered the priesthood: a comfortable life in good society with future prospects. The good times were briefly overshadowed when a friend with whom he stayed falsely accused Vincent of theft. For six months he suffered the calumny until the real thief confessed to the crime. This experience taught Vincent the virtue of humility and encouraged his spiritual growth. He adopted the “Rule of Perfection” of the English mystic and priest Benet Canfield, which helped him control his petulance and to be of service to others. It also sensitised him to the struggles of the poor.

The turning point

When one day in 1617 Vincent heard the confession of a dying peasant in the rural town of Folleville, his life changed. He left the employ of the Gondi family, and instead took up a parochial appointment and the chaplaincy to galley slaves. Over time, with the financial help of the Countess de Gondi, he set out to improve the lives of the poor, especially rural peasants. Seeing the great need for both material and spiritual help among the country poor, he organised wealthy women of Paris to fundraise for his growing range of missionary projects. These would include feeding projects, hospitals, relief funds for war victims, and — drawing from his own experience — the ransom over time of 1 200 galley slaves from North Africa. The Southern Cross

The

Southern C ross St Vincent de Paul

‘

I f God is the centre of your life, no words are necessary. Your mere presence will touch hearts.

’

A Timeline of St Vincent de Paul 1581

Born on April 21 in Pouny, France, the third of six children of peasant farmers Jean and Bertrande de Moras de Paul.

1596

Enters Franciscan seminary school in Dax, then studies theology at the University of Toulouse.

1600

Ordained to the priesthood, but can’t take office because the minimum age for priests is 24.

1622

Appointed chaplain to galley workers and slaves.

1625

Founds the Congregation of Priests of the Mission to evangelise and undertake charity work.

1633

With St Louise de Marillac establishes the Daughters of Charity as an apostolate among the poor, the sick and prisoners.

1635

Establishes a seminary at the Collége des Bons-Enfants.

1605

Captured by pirates and sold into slavery.

1640s

1607

Escapes slavery to France with his master, an apostate Franciscan priest.

1609

Becomes chaplain to the French Queen Marguerite of Valois

1611-17

Becomes parish priest of Clichy in Paris, and tutor-chaplain to the Gondi family.

1617

Hears confession of a dying peasant, and slowly begins various charitable efforts, with funds raised by wealthy Parisian women.

Becomes a spiritual adviser to Queen Anne of Austria, regent of France.

1660

Dies at 79 after a long illness, on September 27.

1729

Beatified by Pope Benedict XIII.

1737

Canonised by Pope Clement XII.

1833

Bl Frédéric Ozanam sets up a new charitable society and names it after St Vincent de Paul. The society spreads around the world.

Inset above: Poster for the award-winning 1947 film Monsieur Vincent, with Pierre Fresnay as the saint.

Wax effigy of St Vincent de Paul containing his bones in his tomb in the Lazarist church in Paris. Photo: Günther Simmermacher

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Soon he met the recently widowed Louise de Marillac, a woman of noble background in her early thirties who yearned to enter the religious life. He became her spiritual advisor — but more than that, they became fellow workers in the Lord’s vineyard which they would cultivate to great effect. In 1625, he used funding from the Gondis to found the Congregation of Priests of the Mission (now also known as Vincentians or Lazarists) with the aim of evangelising the rural population and encouraging vocations to remedy a shortage of priests. The priests of the congregation renounced clerical preferment, and besides taking the usual vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, they took an additional one of stability. At a time when many priests were slacking, abusive, and ignorant, Vincent was a keen director of retreats for priests and an influential advocate for proper clerical training in seminaries. And with Louise de Marillac — also a future saint — he founded a new religious institute for women, the Daughters of Charity. It was the first congregation of unenclosed Sisters whose consecrated life involved an extensive apostolate among the poor, the sick and prisoners. The Daughters of Charity were very effective in raising funds, eventually building a huge complex which housed and fed 40 000 poor people.

A living saint

His work for the poor made Vincent widely known and admired in Paris. The once irascible priest still moved in THE elevated circles of refined society, but he had also become a humble servant for the poor. Vincent de Paul died on September 27, 1660, at 79, only six months after the death of Louise de Marillac. He was canonised in 1737; Louise in 1934. But the story of Vincent doesn’t end there. In 1833, almost a century after his canonisation, the young French scholar Frédéric Ozanam was inspired by the saint’s example to found a lay Catholic organisation working for the relief of the poor, and named it after him. Today, the Society of St Vincent de Paul is represented widely all over the world, including South Africa. A couple of years before that, Sr Catherine Labouré, a nun of the Daughters of Charity — the congregation founded by Vincent and Louise — had a Marian apparition which gave rise to the Miraculous Medal, one of the Catholic Church’s most popular devotions. The tombs of St Catherine and St Louise are in the chapel of the congregation’s motherhouse in Paris’ rue de Bac. It also includes the incorrupt heart of St Vincent, but the saint’s tomb, with his bones embedded in a wax effigy, is in the Vincentian church around the corner, in rue de Sèvres. St Vincent de Paul’s feast is observed on September 27.

Our grief is Mary’s grief Contemplating an image of Mary holding her lifeless son, FR OSKAR WERMTER SJ suggests that we offer our grief to Our Lady of Sorrows, whose feast is on September 15.

TATUES LIKE THE ONE SHOWN on this page — depicting Mother Mary holding the dead body of Jesus, just taken down from the cross, on her lap — have been rather frequent in the history of Christian art. The one shown here was created by one of Zimbabwe’s best artists, Artwell Dzinopana. He grew up in the country’s Midlands, and now resides in Harare. Mary is shown as a brave woman. She is facing death with open eyes. She is strong and upright. The catastrophe of losing her only son has not struck her down. Her face, showing deep pain, is focused on the body of Jesus. She cannot turn to anybody else. Her eyes are on the face of her slain son. But she is still alive, she keeps control of herself — there is no desperate crying or mourning. The body of her son is slack, loose and limp; death holds him, all life is gone. The mother holds his head. There is no one to support his arms that have fallen loose, no longer in control of anything. The eyes are still open, but don’t see anything. Countless mothers in Southern Africa have been through heartrending moments like this one in “wars of liberation”, or losing children and husbands in times of pandemic.

Identifiable sorrow

A much larger version of this relatively small sculpture can be seen in New St Peter’s church in Mbare, Harare. The women in that township have taken to this image of Mary and her son. They identify with this woman and her indescribable misery. You see them kneeling in front of this image which seems to ask them to leave all their pain and grieving at the feet of this mother. In the image, it is really her son’s pain and grief which the mother sees and feels. So there is nothing grieving parents cannot take to this mother, and to this son. He has seen it all and was

burdened with it everywhere in his life and death. At the end of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation, wives were waiting for their husbands to come back from the war, and mothers were longing for their children, whom they had last seen ten years before, to send a sign of life, to let parents know that they were still alive. It’s the way of war. I remember my own mother who was not sure if our father was still alive. Then one day a letter came from a doctor who notified her that our father had died the year before of typhoid.

Healing from suffering

This happened all the time, and still does. How could anyone comfort and console a grieving mother who was left with five children, but no husband and father? In such personal tragedies, a wife and mother needs another mother to help heal the wounds she suffered in war and merciless battles, in times of pandemic, in societies where the social fabric is torn, and so on.

Mother Mary holds the lifeless body of her son in this artwork by Zimbabwean sculptor Artwell Dzinopana

We need healing for such grievous suffering. Mother Mary, under the cross with the body of Jesus on her lap, is such a healer and compassionate companion in the tragedies of today. Artwell Dzinopana’s sculpture of Mary, who has nothing left, except the bleeding body of her son, is an image that may console us; there we may see the body of the son of Mary who has gone through our pain and grief before, and is still with us as we feel the pain of his wounds even today. Fr Oskar Wermter SJ writes from Harare. The feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows is on September 15.

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How to

PPRAY R AY with your eyes Images can help us pray in a deep and contemplative manner, as ELIzABETH MANNEH found when she tried the practice of Visio Divina. Now she shares her experience of praying with your eyes.

PICTURE, THEY SAY, IS WORTH A THOUSAND words. And recently, I’ve been using the practice of Visio Divina (Latin for “divine seeing”) to help me focus more fully on God in prayer. Drawing on the principles of Lectio Divina — the traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer — Visio Divina is the slow, thoughtful contemplation of a picture, photo, work of art, or really anything visual that invites God to speak to me in a deeper way. I first learned about Visio Divina from a Church worker named Adrian Wyatt who had begun exploring the practice using his own photographs. Now, he runs courses for others to do the same. Since I was already practising Lectio Divina, I was fascinated to know more about how I could reflect on visual prompts in a similar way. So I gave it a try, using published photos at first, but then widening my prompts to include artworks, textiles and some of my own photos. Visio Divina can be done in a group with others or practised alone. And it works for any age too — even kids can engage with this practice at their own level. An illustrated bible is the perfect starting point. So here are a few tips for getting started with your own Visio Divina practice:

Find inspiration Find inspiration

Inspirational prompts can include photos, images, fine art, or textiles — in fact, almost any visual media, pictorial

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If an image catches my eye, that’s the one I go for

or abstract. For example, centuries ago, illuminated bibles were created by monks, featuring flawless calligraphy and colourful decorations as a way to honour the Bible’s special status as a holy book. One of the most inspirational sources I’ve found is the St John’s Bible, a stunningly beautiful handcrafted modern illuminated bible. This amazing work was commissioned at St John’s Abbey in the US state of Minnesota, and completed in 2004. It was the first hand-illuminated bible to be created in more than 500 years. I found it easier to begin Visio Divina by following some guided sessions. The University of Portland has videos based on the St John’s Bible which are a great place to start (www.bit.ly/3doGCJF). But now, I’m beginning to develop my own practice. I’ve created a small portfolio of images to choose from, such as greetings cards, photos I’ve taken, and even images torn from magazines.

Open with a prayer Open with a prayer

I begin with a short prayer before choosing my source. I ask God to help me find a prompt that nourishes my soul, and one that will provide the insights God knows I need, not necessarily what I think I need! I might say, “Please help me choose the right inspiration for today, so you can speak to me,” or “Please prompt my decision today.”

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Again, taking time to be still helps me to be more aware of any message from God, and often helps me to think carefully about how I should respond to what God has revealed to me. Try taking notes or journalling to crystallise your thoughts. You might even feel inspired to create your own artwork in response to what you’ve experienced.

Respond to Visio Respond to Divina Visio Divina

The Gospel of Matthew in the St John's Bible, the first handwritten and illuminated book of Scriptures in 500 years when it was released in 2004. Photo: Dianne Towalski/CNS

Choose youryour inspiration Choose inspiration Next, I look through my online sources or page through my little stash of images, still mentally asking God to help me choose the best one for my situation. I don’t usually spend too long on this — if something catches my eye, that’s the one I go for. I might stick a photo or card in the middle of a plain scrapbook page, so I can annotate around it, doodle while I’m contemplating, or record Scripture verses. If I’m looking at wall art or something online, I make sure I’m sitting comfortably so I can focus. Then, I follow the following structure loosely:

Consider Consideryour yourfirst firstimpressions impressions

Let your eyes stay with the very first thing you see in your chosen image. Perhaps you’ll notice a small detail like a tiny bird in a vast blue sky, or maybe one vibrant colour in an abstract pattern may catch your eye. Don’t let your eyes wander around the rest of the image (not always easy!), but stick with your initial focus. I find it helpful to slow my breathing and continually bring my attention back when it strays. Consider what thoughts come into your mind and what emotions you’re feeling. Ask God to speak to you through what you’ve noticed, and then take time to listen. I usually take around five minutes to do this, but there are no hard and fast rules.

Pay attention to your Pay attention to your thoughts and feelings thoughts and feelings

Then I’ll let myself begin to take in the picture as a whole, considering other things that catch my attention. I’ll ask myself how the entire image makes me feel, whether it provokes any questions, or if it stirs up memories. Sometimes a verse of Scripture will come to mind, for example a verse from the Psalms about the glories of the heavens to accompany an image of the starry sky.

I usually finish my Visio Divina session by praying about what I’ve experienced through focusing on the image. Once I’m done, it’s all too easy to get on with the rest of my day and not give my Visio Divina time another thought. But if possible, I leave my prompt where I can see it — pinned to the fridge, tucked in the corner of a photo frame, or placed next to me on the couch — so I can continue to ponder throughout the day. It’s sometimes tempting to “hurry through” the steps, but I’ve found that allowing around half an hour for a session allows me time to consider things at a deeper level. Visio Divina is quite new for me, but I’ve found it’s opening up a whole different way of communicating with God, and I’m keen to keep exploring. So, why not give Visio Divina a try for yourself? You might find it deepens your relationship with God, too. Elizabeth Manneh is a freelance writer, sharing her time between the UK and The Gambia. This article was first published on www.bustedhalo.com. For an introduction to Lectio Divina, go to www.bit.ly/3w5eGRr

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ListenListen for God’s voice voice for God’s

Silence is an important aspect of practising Visio Divina. The Southern Cross

Write to us

We welcome your letters, while reserving the right to edit them. We may publish your letters on our website. Please include a postal address (not for publication). Letters should be no longer than 350 words. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances at the Editor’s discretion. Send your letters to editor@scross.co.za

Letters

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.

I am also grateful for your “Saint of the Month” series through which I have learned a lot about the lives of holy people whom I only knew by name, such as St Josephine Bakhita (February 2021), St Perpetua (April) or St Rita of Cascia (May). Again, hats off to your team for keeping The Southern Cross alive in this challenging time, and for producing this fantastic magazine.

Church music in SA is at a nadir

PLAYED THE ORGAN AT THE church of St Francis in Yeoville, Johannesburg, from 1958, when Fr Peron OMI was the delightful parish priest. I think the level of liturgical music has now reached its nadir. Last year I attended a Mass in which a thudding drum and noisy Hammond organ accompanied the shouting — I could hardly recognise “Glory be to Chee-zus”. Better a silent Mass than this cacophony! Pope Pius X in 1903 defined sacred music as “a complementary part of the solemn liturgy”, and Gregorian chant is cited as “the supreme model of what Church music should be”. While Pius X allowed the organ, he forbade the piano and “noisy or frivolous instruments”. Of course, the great composers from the baroque and later periods used other instruments, besides the organ. Food for thought in our frivolous age! Peter Onesta, Johannesburg

What a diﬀerence a book makes...

HAT A DIFFERENCE THE Catholic Bookshop in Cape Town has made for me, a retired Anglican priest, during the Covid lockdowns. Their weekly e-mail updates on new book arrivals and their swift response to orders is so very much appreciated. That, and your superb monthly Southern Cross magazine, which a kindly neighbour passes on to me every month. Rev Harry Wiggett, Cape Town

Hats oﬀ to The Southern Cross

’VE BEEN WANTING TO WRITE to you for a long time to congratulate you on the relaunched Southern Cross magazine. While I am still missing the weekly newspaper — especially the editorials and the Letters page, which was sometimes infuriating — I wouldn’t want to miss this excellent and attractive Catholic monthly magazine. I was happy to see that you have retained the columns by Fr Ron Rolheiser, Raymond Perrier and Nthabiseng Maphisa, all of whom are always very good. I also enjoy the new features, such as the colourised photos from history and the inspirational quotes on the backcover, the review of old issues of The Southern Cross “from the vaults”, and especially the section “Your Questions Answered”. Your short answer to the question about William Shakespeare’s Catholicism (July 2021) was very clever, in that there is indeed no proof for either side of the argument, but personally I still believe that he was a Catholic, based on articles on that subject that in past years also appeared in The Southern Cross.

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Paul Collins, Johannesburg

The free market is always a gamble

WISH TO COMMENT ON FR Chris Chatteris’ “Pray With the Pope” column headlined “The bondage of the free market” (May 2021). A free market is supported and driven by people who are (1) greedy and (2) gullible. Therefore, they are to blame if the bets are bad. It starts with people making debt. The first duty of people is to pay off all debts before investing in the free market. If after that you have funds to “invest”, do so where the capital is guaranteed refundable, like a fixeddeposit account. Don’t use money market accounts where the bank can gamble with people’s funds on the stock market. The free market has always been a gamble with no control over how funds are used. Maria Joao, Gordon’s Bay

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the smell of angels

DID YOU MISS AN ISSUE?

Photo: Michele Bitetto/Unsplash

T OCCURRED ONE DAY, IN THE glory of the heavenly court, that a foul and offensive odour poured through the air. The pungent and rancid smell wafted through pillars of gold and meandered its way to the throne of God. The disobedience of Lucifer was a heavy and violent stench. But there emerged an angel who drew close to his creator and drew strength. To the one who dared to think himself equal to God, he cried out in a loud voice: “Who is like God?” And soon Lucifer was banished from the heavenly realm. The humility of St Michael conquered the envy of Satan. The majesty of God reigned, and with a holy pace, the stink of the serpent left as he fell from grace. Rarely do we think about angels and the role they play in our salvation. Perhaps it is because they remain unseen and unheard by us. They are often caricatured by mainstream media. In the cartoons I watched growing up, angels were often depicted as miniature versions of the main character, clothed in white robes, gold haloes and fluffy white wings. In some paintings from the baroque and rococo periods, angels are shown as naked, chubby babies, delicately floating in the air. With these images in our minds, it can be difficult to see angels as beings powerful enough to cast out evil. The role of St Michael — whose name in Hebrew means “Who is like God?” — is explained by the prophet Daniel: “At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book.

Angel on the Ponte Sant’ Angelo in Rome.

Nthabiseng Maphisa: Millennial Catholic

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever; others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendour of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever” (12:1-3).

Evil is purged

And isn’t that the point of it all? Evil is cast out, purged, discarded to make room for the glory of God, the

brightness of Christ who is the light of the world, accompanied by virtues, powers, thrones, dominions, cherubim, seraphim and all the other hosts of angels. They come together to serve and adore him: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). And what was that stench that reeked in the heavenly kingdom? It was the pride and envy of he who wanted to assume the power of God for himself. The ruled one wanted to make his own rules, and in the final course to rebel against his nature of being a messenger of God. How chilling it is, then, when we, especially the baptised, imitate this behaviour — when we dare to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong? But in exchange for this wretched odour, we can indulge in the sweet fragrance of Christ who is obedient to God — obedient unto death, even death on a cross. In this time, when we are desperate to conquer many evils, let us, like St Michael, humble ourselves before God and fulfil the purpose for which he has created us. Then shall a sweet aroma rise to heaven and reach the throne of God. We pray: St Michael the Archangel Defend us in this day of battle Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil May God rebuke him we humbly pray And do thou O prince of the heavenly hosts Cast down into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits Who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen

We rarely think about angels and the role they play in our salvation

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With Saint of the Month posters: St Teresa of Avila; St Martin de Porres; The Holy Family; St John Bosco; St Josephine Bakhita; St George; St Rita of Cascia; St Charles Lwanga & co, St Anne, St John Vianney etc.

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The Southern Cross

BINGE

GOSPEL Da llas Jenkins, produc er and dir ect or of The Cho sen

he means. The Chosen has high production values, a superb cast, and a fresh attitude. The characters use contemporary phrases, just as the disciples would have used the idioms of their time. And for a series based on Scripture, The Chosen exhibits a refreshing sense of humour. At one point, Mary observes that “Jesus was always a hard worker”. After a pause, she adds: “He gets it from his father…well, both of them perhaps.”

Focus on the disciples

In the first season of The Chosen, Jesus doesn’t feature until the third episode, while the focus is on Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, Andrew and Matthew. In Season 2 we see a bit more of Jesus, but the focus is firmly on the disciples, especially Philip, John, “Big James”, Nathaniel (aka Bartholomew), Thomas and Simon the Zealot. For now, Jude Thaddeus and “Little James” are peripheral, and Judas Iscariot joins the group in the season’s finale. To tell their stories, and how the disciples relate to Jesus and one another, requires a lot of artistic licence (and some chronological innovation). Obviously, The Chosen is not a historical

Photos courtesy Angel Studios

F ALL OF THE THINGS JESUS DID “were written down in detail, I do not suppose the world itself would hold all the books that would be written”, St John wrote to conclude his Gospel. There’s indeed much we know about Jesus, and yet so much more we don’t. The captivating TV series The Chosen seeks to provide a glimpse of what life with Jesus might have been like for the disciples — an area of Our Lord’s life we know only from isolated snapshots. The Chosen, a critically-acclaimed series now in its second season, is a response by filmmaker Dallas Jenkins to compensate for the shortage of good Bible-themed dramas. Since producers aren’t lining up to produce religious material, Jenkins took the modern route of financing The Chosen through crowdfunding. And this gives his Angel Studios the freedom to make the series available for free on its website or via an app (which chromecasts in great quality to your TV). In this way, The Chosen is perfect for binge-watching. In a commentary, Jenkins says that he doesn’t really like most Christian productions, and I think I know what

Günther Simmermacher watched Season 2 of the Gospel-based series The Chosen — and liked it.

Jesus (played by Jonathan Roumie) with the purple cloak walks with (from left) “Big James”, Thomas, Simon Peter, John and Andrew in a scene from The Chosen.

26 The Southern Cross

documentary but a dramatisation of events, some recorded in the Gospels and some imagined. But it serves to illuminate the context of the time. More than that, it asks good questions, such as how the disciples from Capernaum related to the former tax collector Matthew. By extension, those scenes ask us to contemplate how we relate to our adversaries. Most importantly, the series allows us to join this bickering band of brothers, who are united by their complete dedication to the Master, as they try to make sense of their journey. The disciples — they are “the chosen” of the title — are great company. They are earthy people who tease, annoy and support one another; they are puzzled by the ways of Jesus; they are sometimes conflicted about what they have joined up for; some of them feel unworthy — and sometimes a little too worthy.

Catholic Jesus

Initially it might be difficult to identify which beard belongs to which disciple. But at the core of the story is the main beard: Jesus of Nazareth. I can’t think of a better portrayal of Jesus on film than that by Jonathan Roumie. The actor, who describes himself as a “born-again Catholic”, is a persuasive and accessible Jesus. In The Chosen, Jesus is not an obscure wandering preacher. He attracts the suspicions of the Romans and of the Jewish establishment, which makes Jesus not just a religious but also political figure — a reality that will come into play in the events of Holy Week. There is still a long way to go until that point in The Chosen. Dallas Jenkins plans on producing seven seasons, all of which he intends to finance by crowdfunding. But even seven seasons might not be enough. If all of the things Jesus did were filmed in detail, I do not suppose the Internet itself would hold all the films that would be made.

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 1 at bit.ly/3kyaYhf/

When fathers are missing

Imelda Diouf on Family

SAW THIS ADVERT ON THE SITE of a well-known Internet store: “To Dads with Kids, a novelty T-Shirt inscribed ‘I’M YOUR FATHER – NOT ATM’. Sizes range from small to 3XL in different colours.” Great marketing! But, jokingly or otherwise, fathers of most South African children probably do not need this T-shirt. Driven by a dominant male narrative of “lover and Lothario” one minute, and “courts and child maintenance” the next, for many fathers, the “automated teller machine” has become the only link to their offspring. They are scolded, cajoled, threatened and reminded of their fatherhood by the women who have birthed children, by social scientists, the courts, and the very children who carry their genes. South African men, irrespective of racial or ethnic group, carry a burden of history. Through eras of colonialism, apartheid and into the current democratic dispensation, men have been weighed down by their manhood. Oppressor, oppressed, wealthy, poor, victims, perpetrators, emasculated, empowered — they all carry the yoke of male dominance. “Men are important. Men are in charge.” Language fuels the expectation of protectors, breadwinners and heads of households. Despite the high levels of unemployment, family violence and substance abuse, these male responsibilities remain entrenched. Culture and religion do very little to challenge the perceived role and thus perpetuate the belief in the all-powerful male who will provide.

Men are broken

And in the process men break further. Families are broken because men are broken. But as we tell the story of broken families, we should not feed into the male narrative and tell the story through the lens of men. The story of broken men must be told through the lens of broken families. Many children in South Africa are reared in families where relational bonds are weak. The data on household economy and family is grim. Household poverty is highest where marital unions are weakest. Marital unions are at a staggeringly low 26%. Unsurprisingly, the mainly single-female-headed households suffer extreme and chronic poverty. Non-marital child birth is 56%, and

The number of children who are reared in households with both their biological parents is below 35%. Fathers are increasingly absent. 62% of birth registrations do not include the name of the father. The number of children who are reared in households with both their biological parents has now dropped to below 35%. Fathers are increasingly absent. When the presence of fathers is demanded by the courts or family, they are called upon in terms of their ATM rather than their relational value. Love and bonding with a child is seen as less valuable than the money transfer. Despite policy envisaged by the government’s “White Paper on Families” — which views the family as a key development imperative to overall socio-economic development in the country — the economic condition of households and the families that occupy them remains paper-thin and substantively weak. Policy might detail empowering families and their members by enabling them to “identify, negotiate around, and maximise economic, labour market, and other opportunities available in the country”, but the reality is that the absence of fathers erodes and weakens families.

The no-father effect

The economy of a family is not a one-off event. It is built and maintained over successive generations: a home, a business, equipment, knowledge and land are long-term acquisitions. Thus, where fathers are not part of the lives of their children, generational investment cannot be built. Relational poverty and economic poverty are inextricably linked. The presence of fathers in the lives of their children ultimately leads to bet-

ter generational outcomes for families. Of course, separation and divorce is a reality for many families. This reason, however, is not enough for the relational absence of a parent. Children have the right to know and be supported by both parents. This might require that adults look beyond their own needs and put in place bonds that will lead to better outcomes for children. The Family International Monitor, in a 2020 “Report on Family and Relational Poverty”, stresses that “family solidarity is an even more valuable resource in conditions of poverty, because it allows [the possibility] to increase the economic availability of the family itself.” This is important especially in multigenerational families who can jointly use material resources. Informal resources within the family, for example time, can also be used jointly towards care of children, the elderly and other vulnerable family members, thereby guaranteeing a greater freedom of action for the economically active members of the family. Who wants an “ATM Dad”? Many children (and their mothers) would shout in unison: “I do!” Future generations, however, will look back at bonds, and at the strength or weakness of relationships — beyond the influx of money. Yet, sadly, for many families an “ATM Dad” is probably better than no dad at all. Imelda Diouf is the director of the Centre for Family Studies. This is the second in a series of four articles on family and relational poverty. The Southern Cross

SA’s culture of impunity

Raymond Perrier on Faith & Society

RE WE IN DANGER OF creating a culture of impunity? While we might have good reason to justify certain individual acts of lawlessness, where will the accumulation of those acts lead? For me, the interesting connection between the looting in July and Jacob Zuma is that both were examples of people who seemed to have no fear of the law: either they felt that it did not apply to them, or that, if challenged, they could use force or bravado to keep the law at bay. And in the aftermath I was surprised to hear comments which, instead of condemning those who have taken things, saw this as “good for them” for helping themselves. This is sometimes excused as a peculiar form of social justice. The argument is that people are poor, so they are entitled to take what they need. Or that people have been robbed in previous generations, so this generation can take goods in recompense. Undoubtedly there has been gross injustice in South Africa and clearly there is still massive poverty. I see this every day with the homeless people we serve at the Denis Hurley Centre in central Durban. But does that make it moral to loot? There were certainly homeless people involved in the looting, judging from the smart shoes that some have been wearing (not necessarily the right size or even a matching pair). But there were many homeless and poor people who did not steal. What are we saying to them? That they were fools for not having helped themselves? That their innate sense of morality should have been suspended in the free-for-all? Meanwhile, judging by the smart cars involved, there were many looters who were far from destitute; these people were driven not by need but by greed. What is our reaction when we dis-

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28 The Southern Cross

cover that some of the looters attend our churches, work with us or live near us, are members of our families? Do we pretend not to notice the smart new TV? A professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal told in me that she had seen one of her star pupils — a woman whom she had grown to admire and trust — posting unselfconsciously on social media photographs of the spoils of her looting. Should the professor just shrug her shoulders at the young woman’s evident lack of conscience? I have found a strange convention in South African society that we should just turn a blind eye to clear wrong-doing. When I first arrived at the Denis Hurley Centre I became suspicious of a man who ran our homeless feeding programme. There were odd discrepancies between the food items donated to us and the food being used. I applied some simple investigative techniques, found evidence, invited a lawyer to conduct a disciplinary hearing, and the man was found guilty and fired. Afterwards, his fellow parishioners said to me: “We’re so glad you fired him; we all knew he had been stealing for years!” When I asked why nothing had been done about this, the reply was: “Oh, we didn’t want to ruin his reputation.” As though his reputation was harmed not by his stealing but by our shining a bright light on it.

Little deference to law

It struck me, when I first moved to this country, that there is much less deference to the rule of law than I was used to in Europe. I pondered why this might be the case. Perhaps because in the bad days of apartheid, the law was something that no one felt they had to respect. White people did not need to care

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much about the law because they were regularly excused when they broke it. And the vast majority of people could justifiably treat the law with contempt since so many of the laws were neither fair nor just. This culture of thinking that laws are for other people did not end in 1994.

Probably each one of us has broken a law, and got away with it: because we were not caught, because we paid a bribe, because action was not taken, because people turned a blind eye. Of course, for most of us, those acts don’t involve looting or killing. But the law covers minor offences as well as major — and who is to judge where that line is? Legislation requires us to drive below the speed limit, to report our income for taxes, to pay our domestic workers what is due to them. When I break these laws, do I tend to regard what I do as a minor misdemeanour? The danger is that when I do not apply the law to myself, then I am too embarrassed to apply it to others.

Seventh Commandment

We are further justified in this because we are led by people who do not respect the law. The actions of Jacob Zuma and so many other politicians, from all sides, lead people to conclude that “I might as well help myself because everyone else does”. When some of the politicians challenging the corrupt also have unclean hands, their credibility and their ability to point fingers is undermined. So instead, we get a fudged view about what is right and wrong.

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI Even as politicians and less exalted looters try to blur the moral code, our religious tradition has a very clear line. The seventh commandment is very clear: “You shall not steal!” The Catechism of the Catholic Church rightly reminds us that our patterns of economic development are also covered by this injunction. But it does not excuse one form of theft to compensate for another. Some of our religious leaders have taken a strong line against looters and corrupt politicians. And, indeed, Pope Francis was praised recently for approving an indictment for fraud against an influential cardinal. But when previous accusations have been brushed under the carpet, the position of religious leaders is not always strong. I know of at least one bishop who has witnessed a priest steal millions from a parish and took no legal action. Is it a surprise when an employee of the same diocese then steals half a million rand and also expects nothing more than a gentle reprimand? We condemn political parties who protect their favoured sons and daughters from the might of the law, but then we repeat this in our own Church. The more we allow impunity, the more we encourage criminality. Each one of us who lives in South Africa needs to decide whether we care about the rule of law. If we do, we must accept that it applies to everyone: that includes the people we like, the people we support, and the people we have inadvertently sheltered. And this means that it applies to each one of us. If we are not prepared to defend the rule of law, then we cannot complain about the anarchy that follows.

MARIANELLA

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Understanding suicide

OME THINGS “NEED TO BE SAID and said and said again until they don’t need to be said anymore”. Margaret Atwood wrote that. I quote it here because each year I write a column on suicide and mostly say the same thing each time — because certain things need to be said repeatedly about suicide until we have a better understanding of it. What needs to be said again and again? u Suicide is a disease, something that in most cases takes a person out of life against his or her will, the emotional equivalent of cancer, a stroke, or a heart attack. v We, the loved ones who remain, should not spend undue time and energy second-guessing as to how we might have failed that person, what we should have noticed, and what we might still have done to prevent the suicide. Suicide is an illness and, as with a purely physical disease, we can love someone and still not be able to save him or her from death. God also loved this person and shared our helplessness in trying to help him or her. w We need a better understanding of mental health. The fact is that not everyone has the internal circuits to allow them the sustained capacity for steadiness and buoyancy. One’s mental health is parallel to one’s physical health: fragile, and not fully within one’s control. Moreover just as diabetes, arthritis, cancer, stroke, heart attacks, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or multiple sclerosis can cause debilitation and death, so too can mental diseases wreak havoc, also causing every kind of debilitation and sometimes death by suicide.

x The potential role that biochemistry

plays in suicide needs more exploration. If some suicidal depressions are treatable by drugs, clearly then some suicides are caused by biochemical deficiencies, as are many other diseases that kill us. y Almost invariably, the person who dies by suicide is a very sensitive human being. Suicide is rarely done in arrogance, as an act of contempt. There are, of course, examples of persons who are too proud to endure normal human contingency and kill themselves out of arrogance, but that’s a very different kind of suicide, not the kind that most of us have seen in a loved one. Generally, our experience with the loved ones whom we have lost to suicide was that these persons were anything but arrogant. Rather, they were too bruised to touch and were wounded in

some deep way that we could not comprehend or help heal. Indeed, when sufficient time has passed after their deaths, in retrospect, often we get some sense of their wound, and their suicide then no longer seems as surprising. There’s a clear distinction between being too bruised to continue to touch life and being too proud to continue to take one’s place within it. Only the latter makes a moral statement, insults the flowers, and challenges the mercy of God.

z Suicide is often the desperate plea of

a soul in pain. The soul can make claims that go against the body and suicide is often that. { We need to forgive ourselves if we feel angry with our loved ones who end their lives in this way. Don’t feel guilty about feeling angry; that’s a natural, understandable response when a loved one dies by suicide. | We need to work at redeeming the memory of our loved ones who die by suicide. The manner of their death may not become a prism through which we now see their lives, as if this manner of death colours everything about them. Don’t take down photos of them and speak of them and their deaths in hushed terms any more than if they had died by cancer or a heart attack. It’s hard to lose loved ones to suicide, but we should not also lose the truth and warmth of their mystery and their memory.

} Finally, we shouldn’t worry about

how God meets our loved one on the other side. God’s love, unlike ours, can go through locked doors, descend into hell, and breathe out peace where we cannot. Most people who die by suicide awake on the other side to find Christ standing inside their locked doors, inside the centre of their chaos, gently saying: “Peace be with you!” God’s understanding and compassion infinitely surpass our own. Our lost loved ones are in safer hands than ours. If we, limited as we are, can already reach through this tragedy with some understanding and love, we can rest secure that, given the width and depth of God’s love, the one who dies through suicide meets, on the other side, a compassion that’s deeper than our own and an understanding that surpasses ours. Julian of Norwich says,: “In the end all will be well, and all will be well, and every manner of being will be well.” I shall be, even after suicide. God can, and does, go through locked doors and, once there, breathes out peace inside a tortured, huddled heart. The Southern Cross

Photo: Bernard Hermant/Unsplash

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

Why we must ‘degrow’

universal intention: We pray that we all will make courageous choices for a simple and environmentally sustainable lifestyle, rejoicing in our young people who are resolutely committed to this.

REALLY HOPE THIS INTENTION is not too starry-eyed. While some young people are indeed resolutely committed to an environmentally sustainable lifestyle, not every young person is a Greta Thunberg. Not that I would blame them too much; we, their “wise elders”, have so structured the world towards consumerism and endless growth that it’s now extremely difficult for any of us, young or old, to conceive of an alternative. “A different world is possible” is a beautiful phrase, but to put it into practice means challenging very powerful interests and deeply entrenched ideas. Take Google and Facebook. These titanic organisations with which our lives are so intertwined, are fundamentally massive advertising agencies fuelling the engine of consumerist growth. We should remind ourselves of

this every time we log on. The fatal pact that we have made with them is that they give us access to their social media platforms and their informationgathering systems in return for us relinquishing our privacy.

Consumerism is a mental illness, but we are hardly even aware of it Our data is then analysed by algorithms, and we receive all those adverts we find so surprisingly interesting. Google and Facebook are the contemporary “hidden persuaders”, working relentlessly on us. They don’t want us to opt for an environmentally sustainable lifestyle but for an unsustainable one by appealing to our insatiable urges. They would deny this or say that they are simply presenting us with choices, but their huge influence as drivers of consumption is undeniable.

Consumers must consume

The title of a recent book by Jason Hickel, Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, illustrates the problem. Imagine putting the idea of “degrowth” or trying to reduce a firm’s output to the board of any business or to a meeting of its shareholders. Imagine putting it to any meeting of a parish finance committee. Try suggesting the “degrowth” of a four-day week; it makes people very nervous. I mean, it might encourage laziness or drunkenness! The real reason why we get nervous is because economists, politicians and advertisers have dubbed us “consumers”, and consumers we have become. Hence, if we are not working for The Southern Cross

the money which enables us to consume, or spending the money consuming products or “consuming” vacuous entertainment, we don’t quite know what to do. In other words, we are dealing on one level with a spiritual problem of pandemic proportions. Consumerism is a mental illness, but we are hardly even aware of it, and the advertisers are drugging us into ignorance and unconcern by ever-greater doses of their new opium of the masses (the worship of things material).

A spiritual pandemic

In the notion of infinite growth, we have imbibed an idea that is coming into collision with hard science. It is an idea that is held by politicians and economists across the spectrum, and it is only a very small group of thinkers that are beginning to question it. Common sense and hard science tell us that nothing grows forever, and the environmental data these days is arriving thick and fast to remind us of this fact. In order to have an environmentally sustainable lifestyle, we will have to avert the environmental crash that the hell-for-leather drive for endless economic growth is already causing. This means that we will have to relinquish the fairytale of endless growth and come up with an economic system that won’t destroy our one and only, beautiful, bountiful planet Earth. And no, this does not mean that we have to go back to living like hunter-gatherers, but it does mean that we will have to rediscover the huntergatherer values of sharing, conservation, and spiritual awe for our living, breathing Earth, of which we are part.

PRAYER FOR ANXIOUS HEARTS

Prayer Corner Your prayers to cut out and collect Do you have a favourite prayer? Please send to editor@scross.co.za

For the fruits of His creation, thanks be to God. For the gifts to every nation, thanks be to God. For the ploughing, sowing, reaping, silent growth while men are sleeping, Future needs in Earth’s safe keeping, thanks be to God. For the harvests of His Spirit, thanks be to God. For the good all men inherit, thanks be to God. For the wonders that astound us, For the truths that still confound us, most of all that Love has found us, thanks be to God.

Prayer from Fr Ralph de Hahn

Heavenly Father, lately I’ve been so worried about things that are out of my control. Help me to trust that You are working out every detail of my life and that I have nothing to fear or worry about. This I pray, in Jesus’ name.

Amen

OUR LADY OF SORROWS Father, you willed that Mary be at the foot of the cross, sharing in the sacrifice of Your Son. Grant that through her intercession, we may bear within ourselves, the image of Christ crucified and risen, and spend ourselves with untiring charity for the good of our brothers and sisters, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us

Prayer for Good Humour Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.

Amen

Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humour to maintain it. Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil, but rather finds the means to put things back in their place. Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments, nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I”.

A Prayer by St Thomas More

Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humour. Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others. Amen The Southern Cross

Anagram Challenge

Prophets Word Search

Unscramble the clues below to work out which SOUTH AFRICAN DIOCESES hide in these words

A T CO W P E N

N O N E W Q U E ST

G O O N P U N K I E S TI ME

N O WO K E P A L

I N HA LLO W A R T

B LI TZ O THE R P E A

Find these Old Testament prophets in the puzzle above!

ABRAHAM AMOS DEBORAH ELIJAH ELISHA EZEKIEL

HABAKKUK HOSEA HULDAH ISAIAH JACOB JEREMIAH

MALACHI MELCHIZEDEK MICAH MIRIAM URIAH ZECHARIAH

DroppeD LetterS: Place the missing letters to get names of prominent South African Catholics B

E H

U N

S W

M L

N K

A A

, ,

P K

L R N

E S

S W

H E D I D I M A D I L O U A C Y O L A N M E B G I LTA G E R I H L A B E TA N E N E R E C E T TA M A G O S O S I T H

Southern Crossword

Across

4. The sower of seed will do it (7) 8. Not how to describe the Magi (6) 9. Earnestly ask about tear in broken net (7) 10. Walk of the baby Jesus (6) 11. Is this for the cleric’s workplace? (6) 12. It’s enormous, the deprivation in the fossil fuel (8) 18. Putting up with pain while still alive (8) 20. The deacon who baptised the Ethiopian (Ac 8) (6) 21. Place of the oracle of Apollo (6) 22. Wife of Nabal (1 Sm 25) (7) 23. Sheets of paper from the singers, we hear (6) 24. Where the Magi may have come from (3,4)

The Southern Cross

DoWn

1. Mark of the fair judge (7) 2. Wrap the baby Jesus (7) 3. Biblical book postscript before money for the poor (6) 5. Given comfort (8) 6. It shows you do not overspend (6) 7. Convex architecture conceals the governor (6) 13. They are very doubtful (8) 14. The sleepers’ breakfast food? (7) 15. A word of opposition (7) 16. Silly fear that boa has broken hip (6) 17. The pestilence of Exodus (6) 19. It’s what’s advantageous (6)

For all solutions turn to page 34

Quick Crossword

Cl ue 21 do w

CODEWORD: Combine the letters in the shaded boxes to form the name of a retired SA bishop Across

4. City of next World youth Day (6) 7. Roman emperor when Jesus was born (8) 11. Father of James and John (7) 12. Christian historical drama movie (3,3) 15. Honorary title for some priests (9) 17. Pretoria’s cathedral (6,5) 19. Catholic Church’s punishment (15) 21. Devotion of St Faustina (6,5)

22. Constantine’s saintly mother (6) 23. Famous Vatican chapel (7)

DoWn

1. Term for an episcopal see (7) 2. City of Mother Teresa’s birth (6) 3. Chesterton’s priest detective (6,5) 5. 18th word of the Apostle’s Creed (9) 6. Bishops’ visit to the Vatican (2,6)

the Catholic trivia Quiz

1. How many days did Pope John Paul I reign in 1978? a) 23 b) 33 c) 43 2. Which of these was the last to be elevated to the status of archdiocese? a) Bloemfontein b) Johannesburg c) Pretoria 3. Which Catholic-raised actor met with Pope Francis in 2016 to discuss climate change? a) Elijah Wood b) George Clooney c) Leonardo DiCaprio

8. Clerical item of clothing (7) 9. S. African country visited by John Paul II (7) 10. Star of 1959 ﬁlm A Nun’s Story (6,7) 13. Eucharistic liturgy (4) 14. City of Catholic-founded club Celtic (7) 16. “Cathedral” of Soweto (6,5) 18. Sport of Catholic athlete Simone Biles (10) 20. Another term for pope (7) 21. First pope (5)

6. In which year was Polish priest Fr Jerzy Popieluszko murdered by communist state agents? a) 1976 b) 1980 c) 1984 7. Which religious order did Martin Luther belong to? a) Augustinian b) Cistercian c) Servite 8. Who is the patron saint of brides? a) Martha b) Nicholas of Myra c) Rita of Cascia

Q1: John Paul I

Q10: Bl Joseph

a) 1988 b) 1993 c) 1998

4. How many altars are there in St Peter’s basilica? a) 11 b) 22 c) 44

9. Which African country’s population has the highest proportion of Catholics? a) Angola b) Cabo Verde c) Equatorial Guinea

5. In which diocese is the town of Graaff-Reinet? a) Aliwal North b) De Aar c) Kimberley

10. When was Bl Joseph Gérard, Oblate missionary in Southern Africa, beatified?

12. Which Old Testament book inspired the phrase “Fly in the ointment”? a) Daniel b) Ecclesiastes c) Isaiah

11. Which US playwright was a convert to Catholicism? a) Arthur Miller b) Eugene O’Neill c) Tennessee Williams

Cooking with Saints

Every month GRAZIA BARLETTA prepares a recipe from Catholic tradition 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 BAKED:

St Francis de Sales’ Honey Breakfast Bars

aInt FrancIS de SaleS waS born on august 21, 1567, in the family castle of Sales, France, the first-born child of Francis and Frances de Boisy. there were 12 children born to the family, five of whom died soon after their birth. Francis’ studies were lengthy and were accomplished. He was a gifted young man of brilliant intellect, persevering, purposeful, serene, affable, irresistibly charming – and, above all, consumed with the love of God. Francis expressed the best of his teaching in three remarkable spiritual books: Introduction to the Devout Life, Treatise on the Love of God, and the posthumously published Spiritual Discussions. In addition, he wrote many pamphlets and letters. the church has named him patron of the catholic press. Yet, he had no wish to be considered a writer. His preaching and writing were the result of inspiration and demanded by his pressing and urgent apostolate and pastoral experience. Francis was ordained bishop on december 8, 1602. He concerned himself with the reform of monasteries and catechesis of the young. He spent hours in the confessional, dialogued with the calvinistss, and preached advent and lenten homilies in many cities in Savoy and France.

One of his famous quotes goes: “always be as gentle as you can, and remember that more flies are caught with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar.” So these honey breakfast bars remind us to be “sweet” to people as St Francis was to the people in his life. Preparation: 50 min • Baking: 25-30 min (Preheat to 170°C) • Servings: 12 bars

IngredIentS:

¼ cup honey• ⅓ cup light brown sugar • 113g butter • 2 cups rolled oats • ¼ cup raisins • 1 cup soft dried apples • 1 large egg • ½ cup apple sauce • 1 tsp vanilla extract • ¾ cup cake flour • ½ tsp baking soda • ¼ tsp salt • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

PrePArAtIOn: 1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and honey. add the egg, apple sauce and vanilla essence. 2. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into the butter mixture. Mix until the flour is fully incorporated into the mixture. add the oatmeal and mix well. 3. chop the dried apples into small cubes and add to the batter. lastly, stir in the raisins. 4. Spread the batter evenly into a greased baking tin. the mixture should take up half the tin only. 5. Bake for 25-30 minutes. to prevent the bars from burning, lightly cover with foil for the last ten minutes of baking. when a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the bars, they are done. 6. remove from the oven, then cut into bars and serve.

7. enjoy with a prayer to St Francis de Sales, remembering the catholic press and The Southern Cross especially!

Did you win with Grazia?

The second winner of our competition for a copy of Grazia Barletta’s cookbook Delicious Italian Moments is:

Veronica Barrow of Cape Town

who remembered Grazia’s dish “St Joseph’s Day Pasta” in the March edition of “Cooking with Saints”. Delicious Italian Moments is a collection of authentic Italian recipes, with the author’s own photography. It can be ordered at R200 (plus p&p) from Grazia at

momentswithgrazia.com

SOLUTIONS

SouthernCrossword:

ACROSS: 4 Scatter, 8 Unwise, 9 Entreat, 10 Toddle, 11 Office, 12 Colossal, 18 Enduring, 20 Philip, 21 Delphi, 22 Abigail, 23 Quires, 24 Far East. DOWN: 1 Justice, 2 Swaddle, 3 Psalms, 5 Consoled, 6 Thrift, 7 Exarch, 13 Sceptics, 14 Kippers, 15 Against, 16 Phobia, 17 Plague, 19 Useful.

Anagram Challenge:

1 Cape Town; 2 Queenstown; 3 Keimoes-Upington; 4 Polokwane; 5 Aliwal North; 6 Port Elizabeth

Dropped Letters:

Benedict Daswa (martyr); Denis Hurley (late archbishop); Hermenegild Makoro (Precious Blood Sister, ex-SACBC secretary-general); Albert Nolan (Dominican author); Buti Tlhagale (archbishop of Johannesburg); Princess Charlene (of Monaco); Smangaliso Mkhatshwa (priest and activist)

34 The Southern Cross

Quick Crossword: ACROSS: 4 Lisbon, 7 Augustus,

11 Zebedee, 12 Ben-Hur, 15 Monsignor, 17 Sacred Heart, 19 Excommunication, 21 Divine Mercy, 22 Helena, 23 Sistine DOWN: 1 Diocese, 2 Skopje, 3 Father Brown, 5 Invisible, 6 Ad Limina, 8 Cassock, 9 Lesotho, 10 Audrey Hepburn, 13 Mass, 14 Glasgow, 16 Regina Mundi, 18 Gymnastics, 20 Pontiff, 21 Peter — CODEWORD: Kevin Dowling

Catholic Trivia Quiz: 1. b) 33 (from August 26 to September 28); 2. b) Johannesburg (elevated in 2005); 3. c) Leonardo DiCaprio; 4. c) 44; 5. b) De Aar; 6. c) 1984 (on October 19); 7. a) Augustinian; 8. b) Nicholas of Myra; 9. c) Equatorial Guinea (about 80% of the population); 10. a) 1988 (on September 15 in Lesotho); 11. c) Tennessee Williams; 12. b) Ecclesiastes (10:1 – ‘Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment...’)

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

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Final Words Great Quotes on

Music

History in Colour

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

‘To sing is to pray twice.’ – St Augustine of Hippo (354-450)

‘Music is God's gift to man, the only art of heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to heaven.’ – Walter Savage Landor (1775-1865)

‘I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music.’ – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

‘Whether it is Bach or Mozart that we hear in church, we have a sense in either case of what gloria Dei, the glory of God, means. The mystery of infinite beauty is there and enables us to experience the presence of God more truly and vividly than in many sermons. ’ – Pope Benedict XVI (b.1927)

‘Where there is music, there can be nothing bad.’ – Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)

‘Voices, musical instruments and compositions [express] the harmony of God’s voice, leading towards “symphony”, that is, universal fraternity.’ – Pope Francis (b.1936)

‘If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: “The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.”’ – Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

‘Praise the LORD! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!’ – Psalm 150

PIK ‘N POPE: South Africa’s foreign minister Pik Botha escorts Pope John Paul II through Jan Smuts Airport after the papal flight made an emergency stop in Johannesburg during the Holy Father’s flight from Botswana to Lesotho, during the papal visit to Southern Africa in September 1988 (see also page 5). The pope’s itinerary pointedly excluded South Africa because of the country’s apartheid system. The papal flight on board an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 707 had been ready for landing in Maseru but storms had knocked out the airport’s navigation beacons and radio signals. With too little fuel to return to Botswana, the plane was forced to land in Johannesburg — where a beaming Botha and a big entourage were ready to welcome the visibly uncomfortable pontiff. A motorcade of 25 cars, led by the pope in a bullet-proof silver BMW, brought the papal party safely to Lesotho, where John Paul would beatify the Oblate missionary Fr Joseph Gérard. (Read the story of that strange weekend at www.bit.ly/34LXNzY) Pope John Paul II would make a very short visit to South Africa in October 1995, still the only papal visit to the country.

The last laugh O

ne day Jesus took a stroll through heaven and noticed a lot of strange people walking about. So he went up to the gates and asked St Peter: “All those strange people I see on the streets of heaven... How did they get in here?” Peter said: “Sorry, boss, nothing to do with me.” Jesus replied: “What do you mean, nothing to do with you? I gave you the keys to my kingdom! So how did all these strange people get in here?” Peter shook his head: “Really, there’s nothing I can do about it. And I think there’s not much you can do either.” “What do mean, Peter? This is my kingdom!” Peter explained: “You see, it’s your mother. She keeps letting them in through the window.”

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