The Southern Cross - 100526

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Dowling elected Pax Christi head

New light on Inquisition

50 years on, Pill’s promises are unfulfilled

Catholic side to martial art

www.scross.co.za

May 26 to June 1, 2010 Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4677

SOUTHERN AFRICA’S NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY SINCE 1920

Hurley biographer wins award

Inside St Thérèse leads the way A youth group in a Johannesburg parish is taking its inspiration from the “Little Way” of St Thérèse of Lisieux.—Page 2

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‘Moral panic’ unhelpful A lack of expert opinion in media coverage of the clerical sex abuse scandal has led to a climate of “moral panic”, which does nothing to help people understand the tragedy of abuse or keep children safe, according to an influential Jesuit journal.—Page 5

Why we need melancholy In his monthly column, Mphuthumi Ntabeni suggests that experiencing sadness is necessary for having joy.—Page 9

Jesus in the gospels A new monthly series on the Good News starts with a discussion of why there are differences between the four gospels.—Page 9

What do you think?

In their Letters to the Editor this week, readers discuss selling Catholic land, contraception, the Divine Mercy feast, communal guilt trips, and Catholic support for the old government.—Page 8

This week’s editorial: The new missal

The lighter side of John Paul II

BY CINDY WOODEN

P

R5,00 (incl VAT RSA)

OPE John Paul II’s suffering and death in April 2005 left a deep and lasting mark on his long-time personal physician, but Dr Renato Buzzonetti’s memories of his service to the pope also include lighter moments.

Dr Buzzonetti, 85, was Pope John Paul’s personal physician for more than 26 years.

The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano interviewed the retired physician who was present at all of the pope’s public ceremonies inside the Vatican and accompanied the pope whenever he left the Vatican.

Dr Buzzonetti not only travelled on official papal trips, but was also present each time the pope “snuck out” of the Vatican to ski, hike in the mountains or walk along the seashore.

As the pope aged, the doctor said, the skiing disappeared and even the long walks became a matter of finding an isolated place with a nice view where the pope, his secretaries, Vatican security officers, police and Dr Buzzonetti would eat a bag lunch.

“Near sundown, before heading back to Rome, the pope loved to listen to [Polish] mountain songs sung by his small entourage, who were joined by the Vatican gendarmes and members of his Italian police escort,” the doctor recalled. “It was up to me to direct the improvised choir, under the amused gaze of John Paul II.” As for the pope’s final illness and death, Dr. Buzzonetti said: “They were days that left a profound mark on my life. For a Christian physician, a man’s agony is an image of the Lord’s.”—CNS

Good Shepherd School in Mthatha celebrated a culture day with six neighbouring schools. The aim of the programme was to encourage learners to develop a greater independence by bringing out their latent talents. The activities dominating the day were based on the four strands of the arts and culture discipline: drama, music, visual arts and dance. With participants dressed in the traditional Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu and Indian attire, the multiculturalism that has marked Good Shepherd School as unique in Mthatha was evident. The activities were also meant to teach cooperation among children of different age groups.

HE author of the biography of Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban, Guardian of the Light, has been awarded this year’s Andrew Murray-Desmond Tutu Prize for the best Christian/theological book in an official language of South Africa.

Paddy Kearney, the former director of the KwaZulu-Natal Diakonia Council of Churches who was recently awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of KwaZuluNatal, was to be presented with the award at a dinner in Cape Town.

The judges said that Guardian of the Light “shows that both Church and state must be open to the light of Christ and that the prophetic role of the Church cannot be compromised by seeking to please either ecclesiastical or secular powers. We are also powerfully reminded of the role of the Church as servant and that the ‘first must be the servant of all”.

Dr Frits Gaum, chairman of the Andrew Murray-Desmond Tutu Prize Fund noted that this year’s award “must be something of an ecumenical breakthrough: an award named after a 19th century Dutch Reformed dominee and an Anglican archbishop-emeritus, is awarded to a Roman Catholic writing about a Roman Catholic archbishop”.

New missal will be used from Advent 2011

BY MICHAIL RASSOOL

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HE newly translated English version of the Roman Missal will be in use by the start of Advent 2011, and the Southern African Church is gearing up for its implementation, according to the coordinator of the bishops’ liturgy department.

The new English translation of the Roman Missal was formally approved by the Vatican in late April.

Before its implementation celebrants, liturgists and others will be involved in a process of familiarisation of the new text, said Dominican Sister Jordana Maher, coordinating secretary of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s Department of Christian Formation, Liturgy and Culture.

She said the idea is for intensive workshops to be run in the next few months in several sites—particularly the metropolitan sees of including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town—specifically for diocesan liturgists who are expected to take the information back to their dioceses, and through whom the new material will be implemented.

A DVD set with four hours of interactive material will be used in the workshops.

These will also be made widely available.

Sr Maher said that Fr Peter Williams, who has led the international group in the preparation of the material and is the coordinating secretary for liturgy of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, will be in South Africa at the end of July to introduce the programme. This, she said, will provide for a more integrated process of implementation.

The study material will help towards a

The new English translation of the Roman Missal at its presentation to Pope Benedict at the Vatican. The new English edition is a translation of the Latin edition promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 2002. The new translation, which adheres more exactly to the Latin, took eight years to produce, and will be imlemented in Southern Africa in November 2011 PHOTO: ARCHBISHOP TERRENCE PRENDERGAST, CNS

deeper awareness of the Mass and of Eucharistic life, the theology behind the Mass, and of the complex reasons for the textual changes, said Sr Maher. She added that the changes are not only relevant to English speakers but to all language groups, and to all other aspects of life in the Church.

Local Catholics have already had a foretaste of the new texts because parts of the new translation have been in use in SACBC territory since Advent 2008.

At the time of going to press, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference was still waiting for the final version, Sr Maher said, which the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline

of the Sacraments had sent back to the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) after approving it.

Explaining the lengthy, rigorous process that goes into translating and/or revising liturgical texts, Sr Maher said that shortly after the 1970 (post-Vatican II) English-language version of the Roman Missal was implemented, significant people in the Church, including the late Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban, were aware that it would need to be revised thoroughly at some point.

Sr Maher, who has witnessed the ICEL at work, commended the commission for its thoroughness. She said that aside from having personnel who are experts in various disciplines that would enable them to produce the most effective translation, the ICEL also works prayerfully, reflecting on the true meaning of each of the myriad elements of the work at hand.

As the segments of the missal were translated, they were sent to each of the 11-member episcopal conferences for discussion and comment. Once the revisions and re-translations had been taken into account the texts were voted on by each bishops’ conference.

“This consultative process has been far more extensive than many realise, making use of people with linguistic, liturgical and pastoral expertise,” she said.

The complete Missal was then submitted to Rome for its final recognitio, which was granted in late April, with a presentation to Pope Benedict. The texts will then be sent to each conference for publication.

“We look forward to the full implementation, which will be an opportunity for a whole process of renewal and enrichment,” Sr Maher said.

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LOCAL

The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

Sisters honoured for their commitment and dedication to their community STAFF REPORTER

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Part of the Africa team at the Pax Christi International Triennial World Assembly in Strasbourg, France, are Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, John Ashworth of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute in South Africa and Jane Maina of IKV Pax Christi, with two colleagues from Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. At the meeting, Bishop Dowling was elected co-president of Pax Christi International.

SA bishop co-heads Catholic peace body

BY MICHAIL RASSOOL

B

ISHOP Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg has been elected co-president of Pax Christi International, a Catholic peace movement that works in various fields including human rights and security, disarmament and demilitarisation and conflict resolution.

The election took place at the Pax Christi International Triennial World Assembly in Strasbourg, France.

Representatives from several countries were present. These included Pax outgoing co-president, Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo and several bishops, laity, nuns and priests.

Bishop Dowling and John Ashworth, acting director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute (DHPI) in Pretoria, represented South Africa.

Bishop Dowling and Marie Dennis from the US, will each serve a three-year term as co-

presidents Bishop Dowling is known for tacking controversial life as well as justice and peace issues, in Africa and worldwide.

A statement issued by Pax after the assembly, emphasised the importance of respecting human rights.

“In a world where the Catholic Church is now generally associated with clerical sexual abuse, it’s good that there are still parts of the Church which give a more positive message,” the Pax statement said.

With its theme, “There are many Rooms in the House of Peace”, the assembly heard testimony from several clergy who spoke about the atrocities taking place in their countries.

Also speaking at the assembly, Mr Ashworth gave a presentation on transitional justice and impunity, while other groups looked at forced migration, nuclear disarmament, youth violence, radicalisation and climate change.

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Sandra Leukes, CWD Tafelsig Community Centre manager, Sr Denise Boardman, of the Holy Family Sisters, Lungisa Huna, CWD director and Fr Emmanuel Siljeur, who represented the Cape Town archdiocese. be saved from developing bad habits and drug dependence on the streets.

“We wanted a place where fun would be planned for the whole community in the form of outings and sporting activities and where a centre manager and her helpers would listen to people’s problems and help them to get the assistance they needed.”

In June 2003 CWD opened their Tafelsig Community Centre, but due to lack of funds the centre was run from two converted shipping containers.

“With the growing services offered by the centre the two shipping containers where not adequate and that is why the dona-

BY MICHAIL RASSOOL

Y

OUNG people of St Francis of Assisi parish in Yeoville, Johannesburg, are finding their strength in the “Little Way” of St Thérèse of Lisieux.

Junior Kabi Cibiribiri, a 19-yearold matric learner and parish youth leader, said the saint’s “Little Way” teaches that being a disciple of Jesus Christ consists of seeking holiness of life in the ordinary.

He said many young people nowadays have energy for many things, but not many work for God. Young people tend to be more susceptible to outside pressures, especially of being part of the trendy and fashionable, which often has far-reaching implications includ-

ing lifestyle choices, he said.

The “Little Way” parish group was formed after Missionary of Charity Sister Sneha El-Balawi started the “Child of Mary” group at St Francis. At that stage many of the youth belonged to “Child of Mary”, which taught them about the lives and charisms of saints. It was then that the group learnt about St Thérèse's “Little Way”.

The “Little Way” has two fundamental convictions: that God shows love by mercy and forgiveness, and that one cannot be “perfect” in following the Lord.

St Thérèse took her assignments in the Carmelite convent of Lisieux to manifest her love for God and for others, and did not

seek prominence or recognition, said Sr El-Balawi.

The group now regularly visits Nazareth House Old Age Home in Yeoville, and the Mother Teresa’s Home in Bellevue East, which has an orphanage and homes for men and women with HIV/Aids. Young people, especially young Catholics, have tangible role models to emulate to live out their Christianity, he said.  From June 25 to September 27 parishioners will have the opportunity to view relics of St Thérèse, in various parishes, including Yeoville parish, in the Johannesburg archdiocese. For details on the itinerary of the relics contact Fr von Lillienveld on 083 7630 870.

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tion by the Holy Family Sisters is a dream come true,” said Sandra Leukes, the centre manager.

Over the years the centre has played an important role in providing much needed emotional support to those affected. It also acts as a place of safety that vulnerable children can count on.

The centre extended its services to focus on poverty and crisis relief by supplying the community with food vouchers/parcels, blankets, plastic sheeting and clothing.

About 250 people have benefited from this in the past year, with a further 200 receiving counselling for substance abuse. The cetre also runs a sewing group for the elderly.

Youths learn through the ‘Little Way’

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HE Holy Family Sisters, who have been passionate about the well-being of children for years, were honoured by a Cape Town agency, Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD), with a plaque unveiled in their honour.

The sisters were honoured for their work done in the community of Tafelsig in Mitchell’s Plain and for the R375 000 they donated to the building and upgrade CWD’s Tafelsig Community Centre.

According to the CWD, the sisters’ greatest desire was to see the children of the area fed, clothed and taught the importance of education and attending school.

The sisters recognised the poverty and unemployment in the area—with drugs and liquor readily available—as one of the greatest challenges that needed to be overcome.

It was for this reason that the sisters, who are housed at St Timothy’s parish in Tafelsig, approached CWD with the idea of buying a tract of land to build a community centre.

Holy Family Sister Denise Boardman said: “We longed for a centre where little children could find a place to play, old people could meet and learn new skills, school children could have aftercare and keep out of mischief and

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LOCAL

The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

3

Partnerships essential to better healthcare system

BY MICHAIL RASSOOL

S

PEAKING at a recent health forum organised by the Catholic Commission for Justice, Western Cape MEC for Health, Theuns Botha, outlined the province's integrated healthcare vision and the need for strategic partnerships.

Mr Botha, the keynote speaker, opened the floor to community and parish representatives to air their grievances on the ongoing problems in the public healthcare system.

Mr Botha told the forum, held at St Mary of the Angels church hall in Athlone, Cape Town, that realising an integrated vision depends on effective partnerships between government and civil society.

“Because the government believes people are fallible it must

create a safety net,” said Mr Botha.

This is the reason behind social assistance—so that ordinary people may attain the “right lifestyle”.

He said the provincial government has three strategic objectives: • To fight substance abuse in the Western Cape; • To form strategic partnerships with key organisations and groups in promoting the well-being of its citizens; and • To promote economic development.

Mr Botha said substance abuse, which includes alcohol abuse, is a huge problem in the province.

He told the forum that economic development is the solution to poverty and social decay, which includes substance abuse.

About 14 million of South Africa's citizens are on social grants, and there is a need to create solutions that will lead citizens

away from this situation, he said.

Such an intention, Mr Botha said, should exist as an economic driving force on its own.

Of the 5,3 million people in the province, 3,8 million people are dependent on the public health system—the highest proportional number of all the provinces.

He said for access to provincial health services, the Western Cape is seen as a “national catchment area” and a continental one, where up to 17 million people (many whom are local and international tourists) visit its 600 public health facilities.

Over the next five to ten years the department will spend R800 million to maintain, upgrade and build facilities, and to address its shortfall of R8,5 billion through innovative plans.

Mr Botha said the province is working towards achieving at least

30% wellness among its inhabitants after the same period.

To this end, he referred to new hospitals that are going up in Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain.

About 80% spending in the province on preventable diseases and conditions such as HIV/Aids, teenage pregnancy and substance abuse comes from the government.

Mr Botha responded to several issues raised at the forum. These included misdiagnoses of illnesses, under-stocked pharmaceutical facilities, erratic patient-related administration, long queues, rude staff members and problematic referrals.

He said problems such as long queues are being solved through implementing prioritising systems, such as triage.

“Things are expensive, but ethics and dignity are free. We

need to change mindsets as well as interaction between government facilities and citizens, and the answer to this lies in forming strategic partnerships.”

He said it is only natural that private sector healthcare exists as a benchmark for the public sector to measure itself against as it develops its resources.

He said the provincial health department was now forming public/private partnerships with the private health sector, where a percentage of care received in the private sector by the disadvantaged would be subsidised by the province.

The department is also setting up an ombudsman-like facility or “quality control centre”, where members of the public can evaluate the service they receive, Mr Botha added.

Pro-democracy stalwart praised after death

BY MICHAIL RASSOOL

T

HE director of the bishops’ Justice and Peace Department has paid tribute to the late advocate of South African democracy and former politician Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, who died on May 14, aged 70.

Fr Mike Deeb OP described Dr van Zyl Slabbert as courageous in the political choices he made.

He said it took courage for Dr van Zyl Slabbert to leave active politics, stepping down as leader of the opposition Progressive Federal Party (PFP) in the white apartheid parliament in 1986. Dr van Zyl Slabbert did so because he felt the institution had become irrelevant in the context of the turbulent extra-parliamentary South African politics of the day, he said.

He and fellow former PFP MP Alex Boraine founded Idasa (the Institute for a Democratic Alternative in South Africa), which in 1987 began a negotiated process between white South Africans and the leaders of the banned African

Good Shepherd English Medium School in Mthatha, celebrated its Culture Day programme in style. The schools invited six neighbouring schools, Vela School, Holy Cross Education Center, Faith Primary School, Siseko School, St Martin’s and Khanya High schools, to be part of festivities. The aim of the programme was to encourage learners to develop a culture of independence.

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National Congress in Dakar, Senegal, ushering in a shift in mainstream political thinking.

That conference included mainly Afrikaner politicians, academics and businessmen, in a process that intensified after the unbanning of political parties in 1990, culminating in the advent of a new democracy in 1994.

Fr Deeb also praised Dr van Zyl Slabbert’s ongoing work to promote and consolidate democracy in South Africa and elsewhere.

Dr van Zyl Slabbert also worked as regional facilitator for the funding organisation, the Open Society Foundation of Southern Africa, which identifies and invests in worthy projects in nine African countries, and which is backed by global financier and philanthropist George Soros.

The J&P director also applauded Dr van Zyl Slabbert’s ongoing role as a political analyst. He praised the former University of the Witwatersrand sociology professor and former Stellenbosch University chancellor’s dogged stance in favour of a constituency-based

Dr Fred van Zyl Slabbert, who died this month. electoral system rather than the current proportional representation system because of its more widespread accountability implications.

Dr van Zyl Slabbert was also a businessman, having co-founded Khula, a black investment trust, in 1990 and having been appointed chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Adcorp Holdings in 1998.

He also sat on the boards of several other JSE-listed companies including Wooltru, Investec, Metro Cash and Carry and Radiospoor.

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

Nun ‘reassigned’ over abortion Bishop fined for election ‘interference’ A

BY CHRISSIE LONG

C

OSTA RICA’S elections tribunal said Bishop José Ulloa Rojas of Cartago should pay a fine for interfering with the country’s elections, but his fellow bishops said he was exercising freedom of speech.

The Costa Rican bishops’ conference said freedom of expression is “a human right upheld in any democratic society”, and by not recognising the Church’s freedom of speech the tribunal is discriminating against the Catholic Church.

In September, Bishop Ulloa told Catholics in Cartago, a farming community southeast of San José, to refrain from voting for candidates that do not share the values of the Catholic faith.

The comment came in the middle of a presidential cam-

paign and at a time when politicians were debating a move away from the Catholic Church and towards a secular state.

The elections tribunal saw this as an abuse of a position of authority because there were not “sufficient and opportune resources to counter” his statement.

According to the Costa Rican Constitution, clergy are not permitted to involve themselves in any type of political propaganda for religious motives.

But local bishops argued that Bishop Ulloa was fulfilling his duties as a pastor in providing guidance during the political campaign.

“He never forced the faithful to follow his criteria, nor did he indicate that noncompliance would be a sin,” they said in their statement.—CNS

N American nun who concurred in an ethics committee’s decision to abort the child of a gravely ill woman at a Phoenix, Arizona hospital was “automatically excommunicated by that action”, according to Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix.

Mercy Sister Margaret Mary McBride also was reassigned from her position as vice-president of mission integration at St Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix after news surfaced about the abortion that took place late last year. The hospital did not say what her new job would be.

The patient, who has not been identified, was 11 weeks pregnant and suffering from pulmonary hypertension, a condition that the hospital said carried a near-certain risk of death for the mother if the pregnancy continued.

“If there had been a way to save the pregnancy and still prevent the death of the mother, we would have done it. We are convinced there was not,” said a letter to Bishop Olmsted

from top officials at Catholic Healthcare West, to which St Joseph’s belongs.

But the bishop said in a statement that “the direct killing of an unborn child is always immoral, no matter the circumstances, and it cannot be permitted in any institution that claims to be authentically Catholic”.

“We always must remember that when a difficult medical situation involves a pregnant woman, there are two patients in need of treatment and care, not merely one. The unborn child’s life is just as sacred as the mother’s life, and neither life can be preferred over the other.”

Sr McBride, who has declined to comment, was on an ethics committee that was called to decide whether doctors could perform an abortion to save the mother’s life.

Catholic institutions are guided in making such decisions by a directive which states that “every procedure whose sole immediate effect is the termination of pregnancy before viability is an abortion”,

which is never permitted.

But the Catholic Healthcare West officials, in their letter, asked Bishop Olmsted to clarify the directives, citing another section that reads: “Operations, treatments and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.”

In a letter to the editor of The Arizona Republic, Dr John Garvie, chief of gastroenterology at St Joseph’s, called Sr McBride “the moral conscience of the hospital” and said “there is no finer defender of life at our hospital”.

“What she did was something very few are asked to do, namely, to make a life-and-death decision with the full recognition that in order to save one life, another life must be sacrificed. People not involved in these situations should reflect and not criticise.”—CNS

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BY CAROL GLATZ

T

HE Roman Inquisition and the Index of Forbidden Books obviously do not represent the brightest chapters in Catholic history, but newly published documents from Vatican archives should help scholars distinguish between the truth and the dark legends.

Hundreds of documents detailing the Church’s investigations of individuals and of written works during the Roman Inquisition have been published—most of them for the first time—in a new series released by the Vatican.

Reproducing records from the Inquisition’s activities—records held in the formerly secret archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—the series hopes to shed light on how the Roman Inquisition really worked and to dispel old biases.

A lack of access to the archives, which were opened to the public only in 1998, meant some scholars and historians made “sweeping generalisations without sufficient foundation” about the Church’s aims during the Inquisition, Cardinal Georges Cottier, theologian of the papal household under Pope John Paul II, wrote in the volume’s preface.

By focusing only on cases in which the Church acted extremely harshly—such as the condemnation of Galileo Galilei and the burning at the stake of Giordano Bruno—some historians concluded the Church was engaged in a vicious war against science, the cardinal wrote.

It is “misleading to see the activity…as a struggle against science undertaken in the name of faith” when the Roman Inquisition actually was concerned more with preventing Protestant ideas from spreading.

The first volume represents 13 years of organising, studying, cataloguing, and then transcribing thousands of documents from the Roman Congregation of the Holy Office, which dealt with individuals suspected of heresy,

The newly published compilation of Holy Office documents from 1542 to 1600.

PHOTO: PAUL HARING,CNS and the Congregation of the Index of forbidden books, which handled the suppression or correction of written works.

Titled Catholic Church and Modern Science: Documents from the Archives of the Roman Congregations of the Holy Office and the Index, the series’ first volume reproduced all the doctrinal congregation’s documents concerning science and natural philosophy from 1542 to 1600.

The volume contains the documents in their original Latin, but offers extensive footnotes, summaries and commentary in English by co-authors Ugo Baldini—a history professor at Italy’s Padua University and an expert on Galileo Galilei—and Leen Spruit, an expert on the censorship of science in early modern history.

Dr Spruit said that the Roman Inquisition did not target science and natural philosophy. Rather, he said, certain individuals and authors were condemned “often for their faith or religious creed”.

A perfect example, he said, is Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish scientist who first proposed in 1543 that the earth revolved around the sun—a theory that would get Galileo in trouble a century later. Copernicus was virtually ignored by censors until a Protestant wrote about his work and that author was put on the Index—not for supporting heliocentrism, but for being a Protestant.

Scientific ideas and proposals never mattered to inquisitors unless those theories negatively

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impacted the Church’s religious view of mankind, he said. And then it was the unorthodox anthropology that received condemnation, not the science.

The first and only purely scientific trial the Roman Inquisition pursued was against Galileo.

In addition, scientific works like those written by Copernicus and Galileo were not condemned until they were published in the vernacular rather than in Latin, Dr Spruit said, “because then they could be more dangerous for a broader audience”.

New documents pertaining to Galileo’s trial are to appear in the series’ next volume dealing with the 17th century, which is expected to come out in 2014.

The authors suggested that historians will now be able to make a more honest assessment based on the series’ full reproduction of the archives.

Of the 86 cases handled in the 16th century, most individuals involved were given very lenient sentences and their careers most often continued to thrive.

Prof Baldini said authors in some disciplines, particularly astrology, became “more cautious” and censored more “risky” ideas themselves before publication. The Inquisition certainly produced a climate of fear and intimidation, but any claim that it was so oppressive that science was stunted “is enormously exaggerated”.

Even though the Roman Inquisition obviously violated many of today’s basic human rights, the inquisitors actually introduced novel juridical procedures that are now fundamental in modern democracies.

According to the book’s authors, the Inquisition’s juridical innovations included “the defence attorney, testimony under oath, appeals to a higher court” and the adoption of the principle in which uncorroborated testimony is inadmissible, as well as reducing life sentences to a few years of incarceration and offering a public defender for the poor.—CNS

5 INTERNATIONAL ‘Media panic harms abuse prevention’ The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

BY CAROL GLATZ

A

Family members watch as the casket of entertainer and civil rights activist Lena Horne is carried away at her funeral at the church of St Ignatius Loyola in New York.

Horne, who died on May 9 at age 92, was a Catholic and one of the first black performers hired to sing with Charlie Barnet’s white orchestra in the early 1940s, playing at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City.

PHOTO: BRENDAN MCDERMID, REUTERS/CNS

LACK of expert opinion in media coverage of the clerical sex abuse scandal has led to a climate of “moral panic”, which does nothing to help people understand the tragedy of abuse or keep children safe, according to an influential Jesuit journal.

By presenting existing problems as being brand new and not providing accurate statistics, media outlets have helped create a sense of alarmism, and the resulting “moral panic doesn’t help anybody”, said La Civiltà Cattolica.

The media “distort people’s awareness of the problem and compromise the effectiveness of measures meant to solve it”, the journal said.

The article was a follow-up to a May 1 article examining the social and psychological characteristics of sex offenders. The Rome-based

Pill’s promises ‘unfulfilled’

BY NANCY FRAZIER O’BRIEN

F

IFTY years ago this month, the US Food and Drug Administration gave its approval for the use of a combination of the hormones progesterone and estrogen that the pharmaceutical company Searle said would prevent pregnancy 99.7% of the time.

Known simply as “the pill”, it was a development that was heralded as the liberation of women from male domination that would lead to fewer divorces and a steep decline in the number of unwanted pregnancies and in the number of abortions. But statistics show just the opposite.

“It’s very easy to find summaries from that time of everything that was promised,” said Helen Alvare, an associate professor of law at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia.

The pill “was supposed to reduce unwanted births and the number of people looking for abortions and to increase the well-being of children, because only wanted children would be born”, Prof Alvare said. But it didn’t turn out that way.

In a talk called “Contraception: Why Not?” that has been reprinted or downloaded more than a million times since it was first delivered in 1994, moral theologian Janet Smith said that “it was not a stupid expectation” in the 1960s “that contraceptives would make for better marriages, fewer unwanted pregnancies, fewer abortions”.

“But I think the cultural evidence today shows absolutely the contrary,” added Prof Smith, now a professor of moral theology at

Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

There are plenty of statistics that prove her point:  As the use of the pill became more widespread, the divorce rate doubled from 25% of all US marriages in 1965 to 50% in 1975.

Only when the US had reached the point that all women who wanted access to the pill had got it did the divorce rate level off.  Although the percentage of pregnancies that were “unintended” in 1960 is hard to pinpoint, 6% of white children and 22% of black children were born out of wedlock that year, Prof Smith said. By the mid-2000s, one-third of white births, 70% of black births and half of Hispanic births were to unwed mothers.  Although abortion did not become legal throughout the US until 12 years after the advent of the pill, the availability of birth

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control has not reduced abortions, which totalled more than 45 million between 1973 and 2005. The number of abortions slightly decreased each year in the 2000s, but few credit the pill for the decline.  The well-being of children has declined by a variety of measures, from depression to diet to the number living in poverty and the number experiencing child abuse or neglect, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.

Prof Alvare, who served for many years as the US bishops’ chief pro-life spokeswoman, believes that the achievements women have made toward obtaining equal treatment with men have “nothing to do with the chemicals they’ve swallowed”.

Even though women today might have “access to places and positions that once belonged to men”, that “isn’t a full measure of women’s equality and dignity”, she said. “They are now in all the places where men were, but they have never been seen more as sex objects than they are now.”

The major disconnect caused by the arrival of the pill has been a loss of “the idea that men and women make babies”, Prof Alvare said. “In any literature today about sex, it seems that unprotected sex makes babies”, or even that technology can make babies apart from any human connection.

“That whole package of love, the intimate sharing of life was broken apart by the pill,” she said.—CNS

bi-weekly magazine is reviewed by the Vatican Secretariat of State before publication.

The article, titled “Fighting the Culture of Paedophilia”, was written by Jesuit Fathers Giovanni Cucci, a professor of ethics, and Hans Zollner, a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist.

The authors lamented what they called “a strange silence” in the media regarding expert commentary on the crisis in newspaper articles, talk shows and television programmes. However, there has been an abundance of hearsay and commentary by “unqualified people”, the article said.

The problem of diagnosing paedophilia and determining effective therapies is very problematic, and still needs more study and research, it said, adding that the psychological state of paedophiles seems to be increasingly pernicious and worrisome.

Sex offenders “do not recognise

there is a problem, they are very resistant to therapy, most of all they seem to not be aware of the seriousness of their acts, and their painful situation often ends in suicide”, the article said.

Clinical studies have shown many paedophiles suffer from “a pathological narcissistic personality…and sexual activity with prepubescent children can boost the fragile self-esteem of the paedophile”. The article also cited a study that found an abnormal attraction to weaker creatures also reflects a need to feel powerful.

Because paedophilia is a mental disorder thought to be linked to forms of brain damage and stunted neurological development, the problem cannot be solved by punishment alone, it said.

“Paedophilia is a perversion and, in order to be recognised as such and fought, the recognition of ethical and psychological norms” is necessary, it said.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

IN FOCUS

COMMUNITY

Edited by Nadine Christians Send photographs, with sender’s name and address on the back, and a SASE to: The Southern Cross, Community Pics, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000 or email them to: pics@scross.co.za

At Archbishop Lawrence Henry’s farewell organised by the Catholic Women’s League Cape Town, Chrissie Theron and Martha Jacobs were presented with their Steenberg branch badges. Ms Theron received her ten-year badge at the event.

At the quarterly Catholic Women’s League (CWL) Cape Town diocesan social, members bade farewell to Archbishop Lawrence Henry, of the Cape Town, who retired this year. Pictured with Archbishop Henry are (standing from left) Adele Dawson, Allison Hansby, Maureen McWean, (sitting) Anne Deary and Vera Crowther.

SUBMITTED BY ADELE DAWSON

SUBMITTED BY ADELE DAWSON

Actonville parish, south of Benoni, welcomed Manny Naicker stands beside the relocated Pieta grotto in the the newly appointed Fr Peter Rebello OCD. SUBMITTED BY BERNIECE EALES grounds of the newly revamped Actonville parish.

SUBMITTED BY BERNIECE EALES

Donald and Beaulah Goodwin, of Montana parish in Pretoria with blankets donated to them by the Knights of Da Gama in Pretoria. The Goodwins also run a soup kitchen and distribute toys, clothes and blankets they receive from Oasis to Tswane Hospital.

SUBMITTED BY JOE CALDEIRA

Be a light to others Servants of the Holy Childhood of Jesus.

In the Spirit of God Incarnate, we follow the way of the Gospel. We have dedicated ourselves to the service of disadvantaged women and children and to the education of the young.

Is God calling you to be a witness to the Light that is Jesus?

If so, please contact: Sr Gregoria, P. Bag 553, Eshowe 3815. Tel: 076 3492752

PEOPLE

The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

7

Award for Catholic martial arts teachers Two youth leaders who owe their success to their Catholic upbringing, spoke to MICHAIL RASSOOL about the imprtance of faith, dedication and being recognised as leaders in their community.

P

RIZEWINNERS Marcio Lopez and Anna Versveld say their strong Catholic roots play an important role teaching Capoeira, a martial art, to disadvantaged youths.

The pair received the 2009 Inyathelo Youth in Philanthropy Award. The award honours work done by young people in their communities.

Mr Lopez and Ms Versveld were involved in starting and running the Observatory-based Capoeira Educational Youth Association (CEYA), a development organisation that uses Capoeira to empower youth.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, dance and music.

Shelagh Gastrow, executive director of Inyathelo: The South African Institute for Advancement, said extraordinary people such as Mr Lopez and Ms Versveld make a difference in their communities and often go unheralded. But through the Inyathelo awards they have received national recognition, she said.

Mr Lopez, born in Angola and a parishioner of Holy Name, Observatory, said he was raised a Catholic and regular church attendance is a staple of life. He said the

values which he lives by were forged in the Church.

Mr Lopez, an information technology graduate, has been involved in Capoeira for 13 years.

He said it was a way of promoting physical and emotional confidence, and giving people a sense of belonging based on a shared interest and passion.

Capoeira, which has its roots in Afro-Brazilian slave culture, has through the years developed into a smooth, acrobatic, stylised and interactive “game” of attack and avoidance. Students of the art form, also regarded as a sport, require balance, agility, rhythm and extreme control.

Mr Lopez initially taught Capoeira as a hobby to students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) but decided to teach the artform on a full-time basis after he graduated.

He was the first person to start regular Capoeira classes in Cape Town and is today a recognised teacher, accredited to ABADÁCapoeira, the international body that promotes the expansion of Capoeira.

Ms Versveld told The Southern Cross that she and Mr Lopez were passionate about taking Capoeira to the Cape Flats.

Much of their work, she said, involves outreach to youth in Manenberg, Bonteheuwel, Langa and Delft, re-conceptualising the notion of physical confrontation.

For the pair, Capoeira is not only a way of keeping fit. It is about changing mindsets.

The pair have incorporated conflict resolution as part of their teaching because they work in areas that have a strong gang

Mario Lopez and Anna Versverld were awarded the Inyathelo Youth in Philanthropy award for their work done by teaching Capoeira, a martial art, to youths from difficult and underprivileged backgrounds. presence.

They say that within the first month of working with the youth, they can see a difference in attitudes. Young people become more disciplined, fight less, and are willing to face the challenges put to them by the sport.

Where they have been in poor physical shape, overweight, agitated and battled to concentrate, they start losing weight, feel good about themselves and communicate better.

Moreover, there are marked improvements in school results, concentration levels and self-confidence.

One of the unexpected outcomes of the programme has been the youngsters’ increased sense of belonging and identifying with Mr

Lopez and Ms Versveld.

Counselling has also become an essential part of the process and before starting a lesson, youth are encouraged to share their thoughts, fears and anger.

Mr Lopez said that in teaching young people about life, Capoeira makes use of metaphors or imagery that students can relate to.

“Through Capoeira we give something back—all that we have learnt—which serves to enhance our own self-knowledge, and which resonates with the Catholic teaching we know,” he said.

Young “capoeiristas” are brought together monthly to interact and “play” at the Observatory centre.

They attend the classes for free.

Funds raised through private classes sustain the centre. But CEYA needs financial support to extend its programme into other areas.

Mr Lopez and Ms Versveld have also donated thier own money to their organisation, and even though they are in need of funding, they are also in urgent need of trained teachers.

Ms Versveld, who is currently pursuing an MA degree in social anthropology at UCT said that she did not grow up in a strong religious household, even though her father had been raised Catholic.

Ms Versveld learnt the fundamentals of the faith from her paternal grandparents, Barbara and Martin Versveld, who were stalwarts of St Michael’s parish in Rondebosch.

Her grandfather was a wellknown Catholic philosopher, and her grandmother a member of the anti-apartheid organisation, the Black Sash.

It was in that atmosphere that she learnt about service and having respect for the needs and lives of others. This is why her more than six years of doing Capoeira have resonated with the Catholic lessons she received while growing up.

As with Catholicism, Capoeira is a promotion of empathy and the taking responsibility for the wellbeing of others by not forcing ideas upon them but engaging with them where they are and teaching them subliminally, she said.

Moreover, she said, Capoeira creates the space for self-reflection and provides a way to enhance one's ability to focus and concentrate.

Become an Associate of The Southern Cross to help us spread the Catholic News Southern Cross Associates are kept fully informed about progress achieved in the various projects undertaken; benefit from the Holy Mass to be said annually for Associates on the feast of St Francis de Sales (January 24), patron of the Catholic press; are remembered on All Souls Day in a Mass for deceased Associates and their families; have their name published in the Christmas issue of The Southern Cross (of course, you may remain anonymous if you wish).

There are three categories of Associate: Cardinal Owen McCann Associate: named after the former editor of The Southern Cross (1942-48 and again 1986-92), for those whose annual contribution is R1 500 or more. In addition to the above, Cardinal Owen McCann Associates will receive a free postal or digital subscription to The Southern Cross*.

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Since Associateship is renewable annually there is no long-term commitment, but should you not wish to become an Associate we would be very grateful to receive whatever contribution towards our projects you may wish to make. * Cardinal Owen McCann Associates outside SA will receive a digital subscription.

Yes, I would like to be an Associate

W

hen we introduced The Southern Cross’ ASSOCIATES’ CAMPAIGN in 2002 our aim was to safeguard the future of the newspaper by building up reserves that would ensure its survival in bad times as well as bringing Catholic news to people who might otherwise not receive it.

The wonderful generosity of so many of our readers and supporters helped place The Southern Cross on a sound footing, and it has enabled us • to engage in outreach activities to prisoners, universities and hospitals, • to provide every seminarian in South Africa access to the country’s only weekly Catholic newspaper, and • to develop new models of spreading Catholic news by using new technology, especially the Internet.

All these needs require continuing support!

The global economic crisis is affecting The Southern Cross. Even as we are holding our circulation steady – one of the very few South African newspapers to do so – and advertisers have remained loyal, rising production and distribution costs are hurting us.

But with the Associates’ Campaign we are also looking to the future. We know how important it is to reach young people with Catholic news, reflections and discussions, all of which help in the on-going formation of our youth. We already have developed some means of reaching young Catholics through the Internet, and the next new frontier will be cellphone technology.

By becoming an Associate, you can help us make that happen!

Chris Moerdyk (Chairman)

8

The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

LEADER PAGE The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit published letters. Letters below 300 words receive preference. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances and at the Editor’s discretion. Name and address of the writer must be supplied. No anonymous letter will be considered.

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The new missal

W

ithin the next couple of years, possibly by late 2011, the English-speaking Church worldwide will be using the newly translated Roman missal, which received the Vatican’s recognitio (or approval) in late April.

It is likely that many lay Catholics and clergy will protest against what they believe to be deficiencies in the new translations, as many did in Southern Africa when the first phase of the new formulas was introduced in November 2008.

It would be most extraordinary should the Vatican entertain any of these protests, debates and pleas for the delay of implementation. The new missal, which places an emphasis on literal translations from Latin over linguistic grace, will inevitably guide our liturgy.

And the impassioned protests notwithstanding, the Southern African experience suggests that most congregants will impassively adapt to the revised liturgical texts, perhaps grumblingly but with confidence that those who decide such things know what they are doing. They will not occupy themselves much with the reasons for the changes, nor their background.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, writing in an article in The Southern Cross last year, summed up the background by saying that “key to the decision was the fact that a different philosophy [towards liturgical formulas] had gained the upper hand, and was being used by the Vatican”.

The philosophy of literal equivalence in translations is now supplanting the more interpretative dynamic equivalence method on which the current wordings at Mass are based.

In the same article, Cardinal Napier sharply criticised the negative reaction to the new translations. Of course, there is no infidelity in preferring one method of liturgical translations over another, or in disliking the final product, just as there was no disloyalty

among those who objected to the dynamic equivalence translations when those had the upper hand.

Indeed, the hierarchy should be joyful about such a lively reaction, because this affirms the profound love so many Catholics have for their liturgy, the manner in which it is celebrated, and the words we use to pray together.

The debate over liturgical texts provides an excellent catechetical opportunity to reflect on the meaning of what we say and do in the Mass, even in the absence of a consensus about the quality of liturgical innovations.

At the same time, however, those who strongly disagree with the revision of the missal must allow that those who advocated it love the Mass no less, and feel that they have genuine reasons for implementing and welcoming the amendments.

While sincere and courteous debate surely must be possible, the liturgy—our celebration of Christ’s loving sacrifice for us—must not be the occasion for acrimony between believers.

The implementation of liturgical changes must now be preceded by timely and effective catechesis and workshopping on every level of the Church. This will be essential especially in parishes, where the revised liturgy will need to be thoroughly explained and rehearsed.

The Southern African Church is preparing to do just that, as we report this week.

This programme must not be undermined by profitless hostility by critics or defenders of the new texts.

Within the next couple of years, all Catholics in Southern Africa and other Englishspeaking regions will recite new words in the Mass. Some will do so with joy, some with resignation, and many with detached acceptance.

But whatever we say and pray, no congregant must lose sight of what we are celebrating at Mass: the sacrifice of our Saviour and the promise of redemption through him.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Sell Catholic land to the poor

A

FTER 16 years of democracy and many achievements, millions of South Africans are still waiting for one of the most basic of freedoms, in economic activities.

Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa in his article “Cry, the beloved mission station” (April 21-27) makes an important contribution when he highlights the role and contribution of the Church in the past.

South Africans are crying for land and skills. Many South Africans move to cities in the hope of finding some kind of economic

activity instead of being subject to a life of hand-outs and no real dignity or integrity in what they are doing and achieving. Unemployment is one of the biggest economic concerns for South Africa, increasing especially during these uncertain economic times.

The local Church has played an invaluable role in the local economy through its land development programmes that existed within the missions. Many of these missions are now lying fallow and are in need of being used in a more productive manner.

Contraceptives are against life

Divine Mercy used to be banned

I

I

T would appear that there are conflicting views on the subject of contraception and birth control.

Contraception means contra conception in other words against conception. This is when deliberate actions are taken to prevent conception, such as the use of condoms.

This is preventing conception occurring.

The Pill, on the other hand, is not a contraceptive but an abortifacient in that it prevents the development of a conception that has already occurred. As such it is tantamount to murder.

Both methods are contrary to the Church’s teaching and in fact are part of the culture of death. The marital act is a life-giving act.

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is the use of a woman’s fertile/infertile period/s during the normal cycle to either not allow conception by abstinence, or to deliberately attempt to procure conception.

As such NFP is not deliberately preventing conception; it is simply that nothing happens! NFP is the only method accepted by the Church.

Life is sacred and belongs to God. We may not interfere with life.

Deacon R V Descroizilles, Johannesburg

D

R Vincent Couling’s averment that the Catholic Church might relax its ban on contraception (May 2-8) ignores the fact that most forms thereof can be abortifacient.

The most popular such form, the Pill, which supposedly is an infallible contraceptive, in fact aborts undetected the accidental conceptions that often occur during its use. Thus, any blanket approval by the Church of contraception would ipso facto amount to a condonation of abortion, a situation that could not be contemplated Damian McLeish, Johannesburg

RESPECT the responses to my article on the Divine Mercy feast, and appreciate the openness of your newspaper which allows a forum for sharing our views, especially matters spiritual and the life of the Church.

I stand by the ancient teachings and tradition of the Church. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “No new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (66). The Catechism goes on to say that “there have been socalled private revelations, some of which have been recognised by the authority of the Church. They do not belong however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help more fully by it in a period of history” (67).

So naturally I am more comfortable with divine revelation from the Bible, which belongs to all ages, than the private revelations from diaries of saints in certain ages.

“The Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline” (75), and to my mind, no diary equals that.

Private revelations are to be taken in the contexts of their times.

For example, Pope John Paul II had an ongoing interest in Sr Faustina who lived in his archdiocese, Krakow, in Poland. The diary of Sr Faustina was banned by the Church for almost 20 years (1959-78). Karol Wojtyla became pope in 1978.

Under Pope Pius XII and his immediate successors, the Holy Office (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), questioned its theology and language.

I have no objection to the feast of Divine Mercy per se, but do question the way it is prioritised and its imposition into the octave of Easter. I repeat that Easter is more than Divine Mercy.

All the great feasts of the Church, such as the Sacred Heart, Corpus Christi, Exaltation of the Cross and so on hold important places in our faith but the centre of our whole liturgical year is Easter, not to be overshadowed by another feast (or cult).

Fr Allan Moss OMI, Pietermaritzburg

No communal guilt trip needed

T

HERE is an urgent need for the child sexual abuse issue to be brought into perspective.

What we are dealing with is a small percentage of clergy and religious guilty of abuse, normally given as 1,5%—compared with the usual figure of 10% for the general population.

There is small percentage of bishops and Vatican officials involved in cover-ups. I have seen no statistics, but I doubt if it is as much as 3%.

This does not excuse or minimise the hurt and damage caused to individual victims. But we are dealing with a small fraction of the

The local Church should review its role in developing the local economy by selling this land to needy South Africans. However, the Church could contribute towards the redevelopment of the land and farming skills to communities who need it most.

The Church has a crucial role to play in establishing the liberty so many South Africans are yearning for—economic freedom.

Sell the land to the people of South Africa, grow their skills and true freedom would reach ordinary South Africans. The local Church would positively contribute to the South African democracy.

Alan Sauls, Johannesburg

Catholic clergy. The Church does not tolerate, let alone encourage, child abuse.

Even though some news reports have tried to create this impression, it does not seem to me to justify opinions like people having left the Church “because the dimension of the scandal was too much of a betrayal for them” (your editorial, April 28).

Bishops, and even the pope, apologising in the name of the Catholic Church have fuelled such misconceptions.

In a family of four adult children, if one of them commits adultery, no one expects the father to apologise on behalf of the family, or the whole family to wear purple ribbons. Nor is the family written off as immoral.

It is the priests and religious who have misbehaved who need to apologise. It is the bishops and superiors who have covered up who must express their regret and make amends.

The rest of the Church needs to show compassion to the victims and help them in every way possible, but not to take on the blame.

The Catholic Church is not guilty, nor are the pope and the rest of the bishops, clergy and religious.

They have no reason to hang their heads in shame or to apologise.

There is no need for Catholics to go on a communal guilt trip.

Fr Bonaventure Hinwood OMI, Pretoria

Old govt had Catholic backers

A

S a Catholic, I was disappointed

by Chris Moerdyk’s article “Safety in numbers on the day Mandela was sentenced” (May 12.

The Southern Cross is a Catholic newspaper that focuses on spiritual guidance, growth and information.

I actually don’t give a toss what Mr Moerdyk felt like in 1964. They are merely his opinions, and the perceptions from his side.

As I was two years old at the time, I was too young to have participated in events on that day, but I know that there were also many God-fearing individuals (and Catholics) among the security forces and police. I am not impressed with Mr Moerdyk’s stance against the security police of the day. Many of them were just doing their job, and out of necessity, doing it well.

Your reporting should aim at building trust between the various race groups. Please remember that many, many Catholics (including myself) grew up in the ’70s and ’80s, and proudly supported the government of the day.

As Catholics, it is not our privilege to condemn or ridicule any one side, no matter how long ago it was.

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

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

PERSPECTIVES Mphuthumi Ntabeni

Pushing the Boundaries

Why we need a bit of melancholy

A

S someone raised in a tradition that comes very close to what in the Western culture would be termed stoic (I happen to be very attracted to the writings of Seneca), I often wonder about the modern aversion to the melancholic disposition.

Wondering perhaps is a wrong word. I’m appalled by how deeply entrenched is the psychological trait of cheapening joy in popular Western culture in its constant attempts to avoid, at all cost, the effects of sadness that sometimes make us appreciate joy more and deepen our commitment to life.

The Spanish-born Harvard professor and philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) put it well when he said: “Serious poetry, profound religion are joys of an unhappiness that confesses itself.” No doubt he would be at odds with our age and would be regarded by it as weird, even masochistic.

Chasing the thrill is the ultimate motive of our age; hence the obsession with sex or drugs, extreme sports and such things that come with addiction to adventure, perverted and otherwise.

Religion is one of the things whose joy is lost to the average modern man, or is sought for wrong reasons. In fact, our age finds religion irritatingly limiting. There frequently is general suspicion or thinly veiled hostility towards it.

Religion is no longer hated because it is intolerant (or something like that), but because it refuses to conform to the secular spirit. This is why wishy-washy religion, without rigorous precepts, is accepted, even celebrated, as being open-minded and enlightened. Here, openmindedness is defined by how much one acquiesces with the spirit of the world.

Secularism has become predominantly hedonistic and egotistical. It has adopted a spirit of organised conscience that fosters fundamentalist intolerance, almost the same position which religion took during the Middle Ages. This is where a stoic disposition comes in handy in my coping with the world.

Stoicism is not necessarily the best outlook of life, for it is bleak and melancholic. But it is reasonable. “To an egotistical, hedonistic modern audience, Marcus Aurelius’ strictures on pleasure and the indulgences of sleeping, copulating and over-eating seem neurotic, and Stoicism itself seems over-rational and joyless” (Marcus Aurelius: A Life, by Frank McLynn, 2009).

It is easy to dismiss most of Marcus Aurelius’ philosophical advice in our age; in fact, his modern admirers tend to cherry-pick what suits them and ignore the rest as rambling of an agile but senile mind.

Stoicism is a temperament of a mind that is inertly turned towards self-awareness, towards constant attempts to improve not just its individual ethics but also collective social behaviour.

I’m certain our age would profit much by making a detectable melancholic streak an indispensable part of its hedonist culture.

After all, it is clear to most of us that there’s a spanner in the works of our nature. Stoics understand this as well as the fact that we live by advancing towards death, hence an attempt to strip the journey of cant.

The presence of salient serenity and incorrigible courage in the stoic temperament cannot be by coincidence. It is a resigned sense of natural acceptance, like the grain of sand to the desert. By and large, the stoics are quite reasonable, and as Marcus said: “What is reasonable is consequential social.” Social in antiquity’s language does not mean gregarious but, in our modern parlance, useful for collective upliftment.

It is to me no wonder that the Church Fathers identified stoicism as the helpful life outlook towards answering the call of Christ.

The Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, a contemporary stoic, put it poetically in his 1967 song “Suzanne”: “Jesus was a sailor when he walked on the water. And he spent a lot of time watching from his lonely wooden tower. And when he knew for certain, only drowning man could see him, he said all men will be sailors then, until the sea shall free them.”

on DStv audio channel 170

Four encounters with Jesus in the gospels M Hearing the OST of us are aware that there are four gospels in our New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Recently, news stories, books, movies and television shows have reported the existence of other ancient writings that also claim to be gospels, but which are not in the New Testament. As a result, a number of people might be wondering why there are only four gospels in the Bible.

The answer is simple. The vast majority of Christian communities spread throughout the Roman empire of the first three or four centuries after Christ found little in the other so-called gospels that resonated with their faith in Jesus. The Jesus of these other books was not the Jesus they recognised so clearly in the four gospels that did become part of the New Testament.

More frequently, however, the question is asked, why are there four—shouldn’t there just be one?

In recounting the life of Christ, there has always been a tendency among Christians to take everything we read about our Lord in the four gospels and to lump all the information together. This is most noticeable when we retell the Christmas story.

Only Matthew and Luke tell anything about Jesus’ birth, and they each tell the story from different perspectives. Matthew focuses on Joseph’s role and Luke on Mary’s.

The details of their accounts are very different in some respects, yet on certain matters very similar.

There is no journey to Bethlehem, no manger and no shepherds in Matthew’s account, and no magi in Luke’s. Both have angels but in Matthew an angelic annunciation is made to Joseph, while in Luke, Gabriel appears to Mary. Mary’s virginity is emphasised in both.

T

he discovery that many of the details described in the gospels of the same event differ slightly from one gospel to another sometimes bothers Christians, who naturally read the gospels with faith in their divine inspiration. The assumption is sometimes made that divine inspiration would prevent differences from occurring in various gospel accounts of the same event.

Divine inspiration works in and through the human authors of sacred Scripture in such a way that the truth of God’s saving deeds and God’s will and plan for our salvation are communicated without error or confusion. God is truly the author of Scripture. The humans involved in writing, however, are no less the authors of Scripture than any other human who authors a work of literature (see Dei Verbum §11).

What is becoming clear to faithful Bible scholars is that the differences between the four gospels are

Clifford M Yeary

Good News there, not because the gospels are in conflict with each other, but because each gospel is concerned with communicating its own special insights into our Lord’s life and mission.

Fr Francis Moloney’s The Living Voice of the Gospels is a very readable exploration by a noted biblical scholar of each gospel’s special perspective.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all have accounts of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mount where he spoke with Moses and Elijah, but only in Luke do we hear that Jesus was transfigured while he was praying. Jesus’ prayer life is highlighted in many places in Luke. Other things are highlighted in Matthew and Mark.

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any of the differences between the gospels arise from their being written to meet the spiritual needs of the original communities for whom they were written.

Mark wrote for a community (perhaps in Rome) that needed courage to face persecution. His gospel emphasises the importance of the cross in ways that no other gospel does. Matthew was written for a community that included many Jewish believers in Jesus.

Jesus’ respect for Jewish law and his stature as a prophet greater than Moses are both emphasised in a special way in Matthew.

Each gospel’s highest purpose is not to be a strict historical document but to be a theological testament to the meaning of Jesus’ life.

They were inspired to bring us the good news of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ and that good news is like a multifaceted diamond.

Each gospel brings us a special encounter with Christ. The encounters are different but real. Each is important and each is told in a special way in order to make the encounter possible. They are each true in the best possible sense of the word.

Good biblical commentaries and Bibles with good introductions and footnotes help modern readers discover the rich theological insights proper to each gospel. The differences between the gospels are sometimes challenging, but when studied carefully, they reward us with a clearer vision of our Saviour.  Clifford M Yeary is an associate director of Little Rock Scripture Study in Arkansas. This article was originally published in the Arkansas Catholic, newspaper of the diocese of Little Rock.

It is the first in a series of 13 articles which will explore the four gospels.

The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

Chris Chatteris SJ

Pray with the Pope

Respect life globally General Intention: That every national and transnational institution may strive to guarantee respect for human life from conception to natural death.

LOBALISATION means the power of transnational institutions is a force to be reckoned with. FIFA is one such transnational institution which wields considerable power as local advertisers have discovered. Even the national government has had to kowtow to its demands.

The United Nations is the transnational organisation par excellence. From time to time it tries to impose its will by force and assembles an army of peacekeepers. These forces have often struggled to do their job satisfactorily. In some cases, such as during the war in the Balkans, they stood by while massacres were perpetrated and the right to life was not protected.

It is also increasingly common for international institutions with the noble aim to promote human rights, to fail to protect those of the unborn while simultaneously affirming the rights of those already safely born. Here the right to life of the unborn is judged to be less important than “reproductive rights”. Our instincts normally side with the weaker and more vulnerable party when there is a clash of rights, but for some reason not in this particular case.

International finance also has awesome power over life. The decisions made by international funding institutions such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund can literally mean life or death for the poor and the powerless.

The pope also asks us to pray for national institutions. These too sometimes only imperfectly do their duty to protect life. Recent examples are when the police shoot a child through carelessness, or the health service neglects an old person or a person with HIV/Aids and they die.

The poor and the unborn are invisible. They cannot alert the media to the threats to their lives. We pray with the pope for national and international institutions whose policies can preserve life or deal death.

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Asian courage Missionary Intention: That the churches in Asia, which constitute a “little flock” among non-Christian populations, may know how to communicate the Gospel and give joyful witness to their adherence to Christ. once visited the parish church at St Francis Xavier’s birthplace in northern Spain. In the party of pilgrims were a number of Asian Catholics—Indian, Philippino and Japanese.

It was a moving moment to see these Asian Catholics praying at the baptismal font where the apostle of their regions was baptised over 500 years ago. In ten years of untiring labour and arduous journeys, St Francis Xavier opened up a vast area of Asia to the Gospel.

Although Asian Christians have always been a minority, they have frequently made up in heroism what they lacked in numbers. The mass martyrdoms of the Japanese Church in the 17th century are comparable to the persecutions suffered by the early Roman reigns of terror under Nero and Diocletian. The perception and accusation that Christianity is a foreign religion has sometimes added a sense of isolation to persecution.

This was not always well understood by the Euro-centric perspective of the institutional Church when, for example, it banned the use of the vernacular and the veneration of ancestors in the so-called “Chinese rites” controversy. Hence it is true to say that the “little flock” of Asia has and continues to give witness to the good news often with great courage.

It seems to me that the Churches in Asia already know how to communicate the Gospel and that they do so by their faithfulness and fortitude, even by the shedding of their blood.

Our prayer should be that they be simply encouraged by the rest of the Church.

I

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The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

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The Southern Cross, May 26 to June 1, 2010

COMMUNIT Y CALENDAR

Thoughts for the Week on the Family FAMILY CALENDAR:

BETHLEHEM:  Shrine of Our Lady of Bethlehem at Tsheseng, Maluti mountains; Thursdays 09:30, Mass, then exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.  058 721 0532 BOTHASIG:  Good Shepherd, Bothasig Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in our chapel. All hours. All Welcome.

EDENVALE:  First Friday: at Our Lady of the Angels, Little Eden, Edenvale, 10:30. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament one hour before.  011 609 7246  First Saturday: Devotions: Our Lady’s Cenacle, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Rosary, at Little Eden, Edenvale, 15:00–16:00. Special devotion to Pur Blessed Lady for her priests:  011 609 7246 JOHANNESBURG:  First Saturday of each month rosary prayed 10:30-12:00 outside Marie Stopes abortion clinic, Peter Place, Bryanston.  Joan Beyrooti, 782 4331 PRETORIA:  First Saturday: Devotion to Divine Mercy. St Martin de Porres, Sunnyside, 16:30.  Shirley-Anne 361 4545.

CAPE TOWN:  Adoration Chapel, Corpus Christi church, Wynberg: MonThur 6am to 12pm; Fri-Sun 6am to 8pm. Adorers welcome.  021-761 3337  Holy Hour to pray for priests of the diocese, 2nd Saturday monthly at Villa Maria shrine Kloof Nek Rd 16:00-17:00.  Blessed Sacrament exposed daily Monday to Friday 09:00–22:00 in Holy Redeemer church, Bergvliet Rd, Bergvliet. Visitors welcome.

Entries in the community calendar, which is published as space allows, are free of charge. To place your event, call Nadine Christians, 021 465 5007, or email pics@scross.co.za

Mass readings for the week Sundays year C, weekdays cycle 2 Sun May 30, Trinity Sunday: Prv 8, 22-31; Ps 8, 4-9, Rom 5, 1-5; Jn 16, 12-15 Mon May 31, Visitation of Our Lady: Zeph 3, 14-18 or Rom 12, 9-16; Ps: Is 12, 2-6, Lk 1, 39-56 Tue June 1: St Jusin M, 9th Week of the Year, Psalter week 1: 2 Pt 3, 12-15, 17-18; Ps 90, 2-4.10.14.16; Mk 12, 13-17 Wed June 2, Ss Marcellinus and Peter Ms: 2 Tm 1, 1-3.6-12; Ps 123, 1-2; Mk 12, 18-27 Thur June 3, Ss Charles Lwanga and companions Ms: 2 Tm 2, 8-15; Ps 25, 4-5.8-10.14; Mk 12, 28-34 Fri June 4, feria: 2 Tm 3, 10-17; Ps 119, 157.160-161.165-166.168; Mk 12, 35-37 Sat June 5, St Boniface BM: 2 Tm 4, 1-8; Ps 71, 8-9.14-17.22; Mk 12, 38-44 Sun June 6, The Body and Blood of Christ: Gn 14, 18-20; Ps 110, 1-4; 1 Cor 11, 23-36; Lk 9, 11-17

2010 FAMILY THEME: “Families Play the Game.”

June THEME: The Beautiful Game INTRODUCTION The month we have been waiting for has arrived.

The World Cup football matches will be played over the next few weeks. Young people no doubt will be very involved, volunteering, helping, watching and enjoying the excitement and the atmosphere. It is also a time when things could go wrong, if selfish needs and greed are allowed to get out of hand. It is important not to lose touch with one another as families, to provide guidance and support where needed. We must also be aware of the evils of gambling, drinking, drugs, prostitution and trafficking which go along with international events like this.

How can you as a family make the most of this exciting time?

May 30, Holy Trinity Sunday. The Blessed Trinity is the perfect community of committed love, the kind of love that families should aim for. It is the love of the parents for one another that brings life to their children in the ever-recurring game of life. Each member remains an individual yet together, in the words of Pope John Paul II they “become an intimate community of life and of love. (Familiaris Consortio)”

Rolf Schmidt

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EACON Rolf Schmidt who died on May 9, was born in 1929 and grew up in Durban and Cape Town. He was a dedicated Catholic throughout his life.

As a young man he contemplated the priesthood and spent much time with the Dominicans at St Nicholas Priory in Stellenbosch.

After his retirement at age 59, his interest in the ministry was revived. He was ordained a deacon in 2000 and served for ten years on the Cape Town parish of Saint Ignatius in Claremont and St Pius X in Plumstead before retiring in 2009 at the age of 80.

As deacon, he had a powerful impact on many people. He was the weekly producer of elegant and thoughtful homilies that built on his talent for writing and interest in theology. He was due to start his theology masters degree

CONGREGATION OF MARIANNHILL MISSIONARIES

Ora et Labora The Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill, CMM, sprung from the Trappist Monastery of Mariannhill founded by Abbot Francis Pfanner in South Africa in 1882. We believe that: “Our missionary field is the Kingdom of God and that has not boundaries!” Faithful to the example of Abbot Francis Pfanner, the Mariannhill Brothers and Priests try to be of service to the local church through pastoral, social and development works. We make our contribution to the call for renewing, uplifting, developing and sustaining the human spirit, as our response to the signs and needs of the time. In our missionary life of Prayer and Work (Ora et Labora), we try to effectively proclaim the Good News to all people, especially to the poor and needy, so that there are “Better Fields, Better Houses, Better Hearts!”

To know more about us contact: Director of Vocations PO Box 11363, Mariannhill, 3601 or PO Box 85, Umtata, 5099

next year.

He was a caring minister with a faith focused on practical help to people. He spent a lot of his time visiting St Luke’s Hospice and providing comfort to the dying and bereaved.

At St Pius X, he took particular interest in the community of the Princess Vlei informal settlement.

Deacon Schmidt, with support from his wife Elizabeth, was a constant presence in that community.He was a great family man and a good and loyal friend.

He retired early because he wanted to make more of a contribution to the Church and society.

Deacon Schmidt had a rich and varied life. He was a long-standing Rotarian, a past president and Paul Harris award recipient.

Deacon Schmidt was diagnosed with terminal cancer in March this year. He is survived by his wife, three children and six grandchildren.

David Schmidt

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Corpus Christ - Year C (June 6th) Readings: Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 110:1-4; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9:11-17 EXT Sunday we celebrate the great solemnity of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ. The secret here is that communion enables us to discover the great presence of our Creator God in the midst of the ordinary things of life.

The first reading is the mysterious story of “Melchisedek, king of Salem” (which is normally understood as Jerusalem), who brings out bread and wine to Abram, in his capacity as “priest of God Most High”, in whose name (“Maker of heaven and earth”) he pronounces a blessing over Abram, and then pays him “one tenth of everything”, as well as asserting that it is God Most High who has given Abram victory over all his enemies.

What are we to make of this? Certainly at least this, that God is somehow present in this act of generosity, and that the mysterious priest-king, who is never heard of again (except in the psalm for next Sunday) helped Abram in his God-given task.

The psalm takes the occasion of the coronation of a new king in Jerusalem as an occasion for discovering the presence of God. The king is told (in a psalm that would later be applied by the early Christians to

N

T can’t be much fun working for a big commercial newspaper these days.

Journalists all seem to be paranoid about losing their jobs because of takeovers, retrenchments or just being the wrong demographic.

Editors are stressed out by mounting political pressure on press freedom, being the wrong demographic or having to go out and flog advertising. Everyone seems to take the business of newspapering far too seriously these days. And it’s a crying shame.

It’s all unlike the good old days when hacks didn’t give a hoot about losing jobs or being fired, because there were plenty of openings elsewhere. And editors could be brave and bold, eccentric, opinionated and rule a powerful roost because of a great big no-go zone that existed between themselves and their business managers and even boards of directors. It was in this environment that Harvey Tyson, editor of The Star in the 1980s, and his ilk not only prospered but made the newsroom a fun place to be.

Harvey has always been one of my favourite people for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was his ability to make me loosen up, laugh and stop sweating the small stuff.

I don’t know why I subjected myself to it, but whenever I had the chance I would inveigle myself into a golfing fourball that at the very least had Harvey in it, but at best both Harvey and Rex Gibson, the former editor of the Rand Daily Mail and subsequently Tyson’s deputy at The Star.

Harvey has this incredible ability to play golf and indulge in serious bird watching at the same time. It is not great for one’s golf, but it’s a laugh a minute.

Let s take into our hands our children s destiny lookfb_info@yahoo.com Tel: 011 613 3867

Do this, disciples, in Christ’s memory Fr Nicholas King SJ

Scriptural Reflections Jesus): “Sit on my right, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet,” and promises that “the Lord will extend your power from Sion”—a neat reminder to the incoming monarch that his reign is purely a gift from God, who is there in the ordinary things of life.

So there is nothing for him to be complacent about as he ascends the throne; for it is all God’s doing: “The Lord has sworn, and will not change his mind: you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedek.” The young king might ask what it was all about, but the psalmist is telling him nothing beyond the fact that God is at work here in his coronation.

In just the same way, that same God is at work in our Eucharist, in which the ordinary things of life, the “bread and wine” of our first reading, are seen to have a signifi-

cance far beyond themselves.

This is the message of the second reading for next Sunday, in which Paul is explaining to his rebellious Corinthians how badly they have got things wrong in allowing class distinction to create divisions in their weekly Eucharist. So he reminds them of what Jesus did “on the night when he was being betrayed”. In the earliest surviving account of the institution of the Eucharist, Paul reminds them how Jesus “took bread, and gave thanks, and broke, and said: ‘This is my body, which is for you’”.

We hardly understand it, even today, except that we dimly grasp that in the very ordinary things of life, like bread, we encounter the astonishing mystery of the death of Jesus; and similarly the ordinariness of wine is reinterpreted as “the new covenant in my blood”. So our task is to do this very ordinary ritual recognising that its significance is far from ordinary: “Do this, whenever you drink it, in my memory.”

Paul concludes to his squabbling Christians: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink the cup, you are proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes.”

The same appearance of God in the ordi-

Going golfing with editors I

for orphaned, abandoned, abused and neglected children

Chris Moerdyk

The Last Word In fact, now that I think of it, Harvey and I, along with that turbo-twitcher and another former editor of The Star, Peter Sullivan, hold something of a record for identifying 42 different species of bird at the Jo’burg Country Club all in the space of playing 18 holes.

It was on days like those that I recognised that Harvey Tyson was a quite outstanding editor. He has, you see, this incredibly annoying habit of talking nineteen to the dozen on his opponent’s backswing. But what sets editors apart from the rest of mankind is that where ordinary mortals would apply golfing gamesmanship by talking on their opponent’s backswing, Tyson would always display his obsession for both sides of the story by talking nineteen to the dozen on his own backswing.

Irritating as it might sound, particularly if you were his partner, Tyson’s constant gabble and heart-stopping yells of “Hey, isn’t that a Yellow-breasted Apalis?”, just as someone was about to putt, never really prompted anyone to avoid playing with him. Somehow, he has always had the knack of persuading you that talking on your backswing is ultimately good for your game.

It was the same argument he used in the mid-1980s when government paranoia over the English press was at its

CONRAD

highest and almost every week a contingent of security police would storm into Harvey’s office at The Star and tell him they were shutting the paper down.

Time after time Tyson employed all those golf course communications skills, and more often than not the cops would walk out of the building trying to remember what on earth they were doing there in the first place.

I believe Harvey Tyson was one of South Africa’s truly great editors. He was an excellent manager of people, a wordsmith of note and a public speaker of the highest order.

Only a year or two before he retired I remember leaving a dinner party just before midnight because of a date with Harvey and other members of the Finance Writers Golf Club at 7am on a course about 100km out of Johannesburg.

Tyson was only just warming up when most of us left him sliding down the banisters with a glass of J&B in his hand, whooping like a kid who had just cracked matric. But there he was at the crack of dawn the next morning, on the first tee, talking the hind leg off a donkey and looking as though he had put in a solid eight hours sleep.

We noticed something was wrong when he fell on his backside trying to play his first shot. He then proceeded to fall on his bottom after every shot for the next three holes.

It took him a good half hour to realise that the reason he kept falling down was because he had forgotten to don his golf spikes and was still wearing his dancing shoes.

Harvey lives in Hermanus now. He remains as active as ever and still is a barrel of laughs.

nary is evident in the gospel for next Sunday. Notice the first verb that is used (and it is typical of Luke): “Jesus made them welcome.” Jesus is our host, and that is what gives him a platform from which to talk to us “about the Kingdom of God” and to “heal all those who have need of treatment”.

The disciples, by contrast, are thoroughly inhospitable. “Get rid of the crowd,” is their brusque advice to Jesus, who responds with the instruction: “Give them something to eat yourselves.” The disciples can hardly hide their contempt for this suggestion.

Then, effortlessly, Jesus takes the ordinary things—“five loaves and two fish”— and gives them extraordinary significance, “having looked up to heaven, he blessed them and broke, and gave to his disciples”.

And the result? “They all ate and had more than enough.”

But this is not just about the ordinariness of having enough to eat (though God knows that would be enough); what matters here is that in the ordinariness God’s extraordinary generosity shines through.

May you discover that in the coming week.

Southern Crossword #393

ACROSS 2. He follows Islam (10) 8. The virtue of steadfastness (12) 10. Pockets could be so with corrupt money (5) 11. Little waterfall (7) 12. The Reformers turned altars into them (6) 13. You could be in form here (6) 16. Eyeglass (7) 18. Iraqi town of recent conflict (5) 19. They are neo-Pentecostals (12) 20. The Mass commemorates it (4,6)

DOWN 1. Pope’s approval of Vatican postage? (5,5) 3. Beyond time (7) 4. Does it provide Central News in South Africa? (6) 5. Signifies wealth? (5) 6. The craft of one having absolute power? (12) 7. Pews nearest the sanctuary (5,7) 9. He will bring up Hades as he rants and raves (4-6) 14. B&B in cage serves a vegetable (6) 15. Arises (4,2) 17. Persian king who freed Israelites (Is 44) (5)

SOLUTIONS TO #392. ACROSS: 1 Schism, 4 Stabat, 9 Charge the fees, 10 Abelard, 11 Ankle, 12 Cleft, 14 Ebony, 18 Ethel, 19 Askable, 21 Hostage-takers, 22 Listen, 23 Herder. DOWN: 1 Social, 2 Heavenly hosts, 3 Sigma, 5 The Lamb, 6 Breaking bread, 7 Tested, 8 Study, 13 Foliage, 15 Bethel, 16 Mater, 17 Lesser, 20 Knave.

CHURCH CHUCKLE esterday I went to the local police station to certify my documents. When I entered, I Y found a police officer reading the Bible, in the book of Genesis.

I was very impressed so I asked him: “Who killed Abel, Adam’s son?”

He answered: “I don’t know, ask the detective over there. He is the one who deals with murder cases.”

Elinor Milton

I can see religion becoming a lifestyle accessory for some

Send us your favourite Catholic joke to The Southern Cross, Church Chuckle, PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000, or e-mail editor@scross.co.za (marked ‘Church Chuckle’).