The Southern Cross - 100915

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Créches fly solo

She chose life

Vatican II’s unseen expert

Mystics, prophets and journalists

September 15 to September 21, 2010 Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4693

www.scross.co.za

R5,50 (incl VAT RSA)

SOUTHERN AFRICA’S NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY SINCE 1920

Inside Bible teaching through roleplay A new way of interacting with the Bible is beginning to take off in South Africa.—Page 2

St Augustine’s feast day Staff, students and friends of St Augustine’s College celebrated the feast of St Augustine with a series of lectures. —Page 3

Pope’s WYD 2011 message The decision to follow Christ is not an easy one to make, so young people should look for support from the Christian community and the Church.—Page 4

New master for Dominicans Fr Bruno Cadoré has been elected superior general of the Dominicans by the general chapter of the order.—Page 5

Proclaim Africa’s saints African Catholic saints should be studied and emulated the same way their European counterparts are.—Page 9

What do you think?

In their Letters to the Editor this week, readers discuss more education, less schooling, don’t be misled, discerning truth, Mgr Pietersen tribute, and the laity in Church decisions—Page 6

This week’s editorial: Media must be fixed

Comic winner’s life changed by Jesuit

The Culture of Life/Anti-Abortion group in Johannesburg held a successful fundraiser for Johannesburg’s first Mater home in the AFM Church Noordheuvel Krugersdorp, entitled “Celtic Praise Sing Along”. The One Accord singers and musicians entertained an audience of about 600 with a variety of lively religious songs composed by Robin Mark of Belfast, as well as a medley of traditional Irish and Scottish tunes. Proceeds from the concert—about R30 000—will go to the Mater Dei Home that is soon to open on the West Rand, where underpriviledged pregnant women will be encouraged and supported to give birth in a caring and loving environment. There are already several Mater Dei homes in KwaZulu-Natal and Cape Town. See report on page 7.

PHOTO: MAURO MOSCA

Shadow of SA over Maputo riots

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

A

S television viewers tuned in to find out who would be the 2010 “Last Comic Standing,” finalist Felipe Esparza was walking back and forth on an NBC stage, microphone in his right hand.

The young man with an Amish-style beard was talking about his Mexican father who liked to patrol the neighborhood for discarded furniture.

One day he returned with what young Felipe, and his five brothers and sister thought was the most humongous television set they’d ever seen with a dial that had 500—yes, 500—channels.

“When I got older, it didn’t have 500 channels,” the stand-up comic deadpanned.

“It was a knob from the oven. My favourite channel was 300 degrees. It was a hot show.”

The TV and online audiences voted Esparza the “Last Comic Standing,” awarding him the $250 000 grand prize along with a one-year development deal with NBC. But Mr Esparza’s life has not been a laughing matter. He became involved with a gang “just for the drugs,” started drinking at 15 and by 19, he said, was an alcoholic.

His mother went to the priest at Dolores Mission, their parish. Jesuit Fr Greg Boyle came to the family’s house and talked to the young Esparza, persuading him to turn in a weapon and telling him about a drug treatment centre that had helped other youths.

Esparza ended up staying at the centre for more than a year and returned for another six months as a volunteer.

While he was going through the 12-step programme, the priest offered him further encouragement.

Now, Mr Esparza says he has been sober for more than 12 years, and he believes his time in the centre and Fr Boyle helped him to realise his dreams.—CNS

C

OULD the recent riots in the Maputo, Mozambique, over the sharp increase in food prices happen in South Africa?

The answer, some suggest, is that it has already happened and is likely to continue.

The Caritas International representative for West Africa, Jorge Neto, said Mozambican bishops had warned of instability in the country in 2008, saying a country without opposition in government could be dangerous for society.

“The riots seen in Mozambique are a consequence of this,” he said.

Protestors in the country started marching against the 25% increase in the price of bread as well as increases in fuel and water.

The September 1 march, declared illegal by the government, quickly turned hostile with protestors throwing stones and burning tyres. Local police responded to the escalating violence with force, resulting in the deaths of several protestors, bystanders and police officers. The South African embassy and roads to the country were blocked and many South Africans were evacuated from the Mozambican capital.

Mr Neto said much of the support for the protest was “a spontaneous movement spread by SMS” and was a result of local frustration and not the work of syndicates or political parties.

Dominican Fr Mike Deeb, of the Justice and Peace Department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, believes such rioting could happen anywhere.

“All countries are vulnerable. We’ve seen riots in developed countries like France as well as those that are considered developing,” he said, adding that if the level of anger and frustration in a country contin-

ued to increase, protests were bound to happen and violence likely to ensue.

Commenting on the recent public servants’ strike, Fr Deeb said the lengths demonstrators resorted to were directly due to the frustration and helplessness they felt over their financial situation. Their actions were not unlike those in Maputo.

Fr Deeb believes the huge inequality between rich and poor was to blame for the extreme reaction associated with the recent strikes in South Africa—and potential future strikes were also indicated. “People will never understand price increases. But they are even less likely to understand these when there is such a gap between those at the top and those at the bottom of the scale.”

Br Mauricio Langa, a Mariannhill religious and journalist from Mozambique, also believes the gap between rich and poor was the cause of the Mozambican riots. There was no organised union leader in Mozambique, he said, but individuals were united in their anger over the high cost of living, the price of basic commodities and the high price of even locally made items.

He suggested that it was not South Africa that would be influenced by the riots in Mozambique, but rather the public servant strike that had impacted on Mozambique.

The political cultures of South Africa and Mozambique were different, but the commonalities had resulted in similar action.

There were also similarities in their suffering and the two countries were likely to influence each other in their struggle against poverty.

“It’s possible the public servant strike influenced the riots in Maputo as the riots started two weeks into the highly publicised South African strikes,” he said.

Continued on page 3

Sharing the Franciscan spirit in the modern world

BY SYDNEY DUVAL

T

HE extended Franciscan family will gather for their 37th convention at La Verna Italy on September 26 to spend six days exploring their role in the modern world—their spirituality, their ministry and their prophetic witness.

In particular, the family known as the Franciscan Association, will be challenged to share their response to the injunction: “I have done what was mine to do, may God show you what you are supposed to do.”

According to Sr Melvina Abraham HC, the association’s coordinating secretary, the Franciscan Association comprises some 23 congregations and institutes, including the Third Order Regular Secular Franciscans— the lay membership—who form a big group, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.

The aim of the association is to promote unity in the Franciscan family in southern Africa so that it may grow in the spirit of St Francis and St Clare; promote a deeper appreciation of the Franciscan charism; support each other in the promotion and education of the various constituents that make up the whole Franciscan family in southern Africa; and make a united response to national issues in the area of justice, peace and the care of creation.

Fr Bonaventure Hinwood OFM said all parts of the Franciscan family were present and active in the Church in South Africa, bringing to the various works in which they were engaged St Francis’ spirit of openness and approachability, of tenderness and compassion, of generosity and service. continued on page 2

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The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

LOCAL

Bible teaching through roleplay

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

A

NEW way of interacting with the Bible is beginning to take off in South Africa.

Bibliolog is a Bible study tool that encourages a deeper understanding of the stories told in the Bible.

Andrea Schwarz, who runs Bibliolog in South Africa, described it as a “way to look at the Bible as a participant”.

Ms Schwarz said already familiar stories could be better understood by considering all involved in the story. Stories about the 12 disciples would have 12 different points of view, but we currently only consider one.

Bibliolog tries to fill the gaps by asking about the other people in the story, and participants are encouraged to imagine what they

might have felt. Understanding these “gaps” would help us understand and embrace the Bible further.

Bibliolog is aimed at participants looking at the Bible at a deeper level, enabling them to gain a new understanding of an old story by slowing it down to give different possibilities.

Ms Schwarz said Bibliolog was suitable for most as participants do not have to be literate because storytelling and roleplaying are the mediums used to examine the stories.

Ms Schwarz said: “Young people enjoy the experience as there is no right or wrong way to experience Bibliolog. Older generations also enjoy it because they are able to share their own ideas and are not being told how to experience the Bible.

“Jesus spoke to the little people and not just the educated. Bibliolog is a way for everyone to engage with the Word.”

Ms Schwarz hoped Bibliolog would encourage people to apply lessons learned from the Bible to daily life. The aim was not necessarily to bring people back to Mass but rather to help people to “live in the force of life”.

Bibliolog hoped to show people what Jesus meant by this promise.

The next four-day training session of Bibliolog leaders will take place at the Convent of the Sisters of the Precious Blood at Mariannhill during November. 3 After completing the training, leaders are certified to conduct Bibliologs in their communities.

People wanting to get involved should contact their local parish to arrange training in their area.

Inter-Catholic schools sports day a success

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

C

ATHOLIC Primary Schools in the Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and the Sundays River Valley area participated in a sports day at St Dominic's Priory.

The gathering was the first of its kind organised by the Eastern Cape Catholic Schools’ Office and is set to become a regular feature on the calendar.

Maurine Mesimela, of the schools office, said the day was

aimed at Grade 7 learners who played hockey and soccer matches against each other. However, there were no winners as “all the children were treated the same—the aim was just to have fun”.

Teachers, principals and staff accompanied the learners from across the region.

Bishop Michael Coleman of Port Elizabeth opened the day with a welcome message and a “thank you” to the Catholic Schools’ Office, Catholic Schools’

Board and sponsors, and sent good wishes to the participants.

All team players were given lunch boxes and a goody bag including T-shirts and a certificate of participation.

Ms Mesimela said: “All those present agreed that it was great idea to get the Catholic family of schools together in the spirit of equal sharing for all.”

The day was cold but the atmosphere was warm with tangible energy from the learners.”

Maputo riots: Is South African strikes responsible?

Contunied from page 1 “The riots were not officially organised—information was spread via SMS messages. People communicated and responded to the call. South Africans protested for their rights and so did the Mozambicans —people are not going to keep quiet any longer.”

Fr Deeb said of the South African situation—when government officials were seen earning increases larger that the entire salary of a public servant (who has just been told there is not enough money for an increase) the reaction is likely to be extremely negative. This was the kind of reaction that would be associated with the increase of international wheat

prices which was expected to have a knock-on effect on other products. The only way to avoid this would be for the government to be seen to be addressing the inequality between the rich and poor in South Africa.

“People need to know where their money is going,” he said.

“Government should be educating people so that price increases are understood. Others need to know their money is being used to help reduce the inequality between rich and poor and not for unnecessary government expenditure.”

Fr Deeb added that Government needed to be seen to be actively distributing wealth in a just manner. Protests could come

from any level of wealth. If the level of anger and helplessness was high enough, the Mozambican riots could be seen in this country sooner than later.

The Mozambican government, responding to the September riots, has reduced prices of certain items.

The United Nations Human Development Index ranks Mozambique 175 of 179 countries in terms of health, education and income levels. More than half the country’s population lives in poverty.

Commentators believe the South African government faces a big challenge in avoiding similar riots which can only be addressed through financial transparency.

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(Back) Lungisa Huna, director of CWD, Rebecca Davids, Joyce Mokapane, Maggie Mbekushe, Eunice Matangana, Eunice Nomtshongwana, Sonia Nongwedle, (centre) Abigail Nceza, Esther Richards, Adelina Makara, Nzebekazi Creche; (front) Monica Tayitayi, Violet Pringane, Ethel Gwegwana, and Patricia Vuka, Thembinkosi Day Care Centre.

PHOTO: MICHAIL RASSOOL, CWD

Crèches to fly solo

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

N

INE crèches in the Mbekweni/Paarl area in the Western Cape have left the services of Catholic Welfare and Development’s (CWD) Early Learning Support Programme (ELSO) after a successful transformation through the programme.

The programme, established in 1982, takes neighbourhood crèches through a three-year developmental process of training, setting up proper systems and infrastructure, and acquiring skills to follow appropriate curricula.

Focus area manager Rebecca Davids explained this proccess as the only way schools can access government subsidies.

“ELSO is there to make this possible; the idea is that after three years the crèches are able to fly on their own and thus exit from the ELSO stable,” said Ms Davids.

Potential participating crèches are assessed for their needs in terms of equipment, the quality of their interaction, and the level of education and stimulation the children receive.

Ms Davids said although the crèches are never owned by CWD, the organisation takes them under its wing and improves the crèches' situation.

The initiative provides training for staff in the areas of nutrition,

first aid, as well as National Qualifications Framework Levels 1 and 4 (Grade R). This framework is the set of guidelines by which records of learner achievement are registered to conform to an integrated national system of education.

“The emancipation of these nine crèches, because we now feel they can stand on their own, is a particularly proud moment for me,” said Ms Davids. “They had been part of us for a few years and now have their own management committee, and function according to the model that ELSO developed,” she said.

Ms Davids said even though the schools were now subsidised by the Western Cape Department of Social Development, their relationship with ELSO will not be completely severed. ELSO will continue its involvement but on a smaller scale with ongoing training, quarterly progress monitoring meetings, and sharing sessions with other crèches.

Ms Davids said she was particularly thankful to the crèches’ funders, the HomeChoice Trust, Wings Of Support and the DSD for their contribution and support.

In 2009/2010, nine schools had passed through ELSO with this year's handover completed in a ceremony at the Mbekweni Community Hall.

LOCAL Celebrations as Zim chaplain becomes monsignor

BY MUNYARADZI MAKONI

F

R XAVIER Munyongani, Chaplain of the Zimbabwean community in England and Wales, has been installed as monsignor at Gokomere Mission in the Diocese of Masvingo.

Pope Benedict XVI had conferred the title on him earlier this year.

Hundreds of Catholics who attended the celebration heard the 60-year-old priest thank the Church leadership, local Catholics and Catholics from the Zimbabwean community in England and Wales for the love, generosity and sincerity they have shown and given him.

Fr Munyongani was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Gweru in August 1977. The diocese was later divided into Masvingo and Gweru in 1999.

Fr Munyongani, a diocesan priest, belongs to the Masvingo diocese and comes from Mutero in Gutu.

He attended the Minor Seminary in Gweru Diocese in 1967 and completed Form 4 in 1970. In

1971 he went to the Major Seminary at Chishawasha, just outside Harare, and stayed there until his ordination in 1977. From December 1977 to December 1981, he worked at St Anthony’s Mission in Zaka as an assistant priest.

In 2006 he ran the Pastoral Centre at Gokomere Mission, moving on to Silveira Mission in 2007.

In early 2008 until June that same year, Fr Munyongani continued his pastoral work at Rutenga.

It was in this position that he was appointed Chaplain to the Zimbabwe Catholic community in England and Wales.

A staunch football fan, Fr Munyongani is fluent in German, Italian and Ndebele.

The title of “monsignor” is an honour given to a priest by the Holy Father, guided by the recommendations of the local bishop, for their service and dedication to the Catholic Church and the local community. A monsignor is an honorary title without any special duties outside his responsibilities as a priest. Only five Zimbabwean priests have been installed as monsignors.

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

3

St Augustine’s celebrates with arts

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

S

TAFF, students and friends of St Augustine College in Victory Park, Johannesburg, celebrated the feast of St Augustine with a series of lectures and a presentation of paintings painted by the late Fr Frans Claerhout OMI to the college.

Tony Joseph presented the paintings, on permanent loan, from his private collection in honour of the saint’s feast.

During the presentation he spoke of the life of Fr Claerhout who died in 2006.

According to Mr Joseph the expressionistic artist and Oblate missionary from Belgium was “greatly” influenced by his faith and rural farm and village life.

Fr Claerhout had worked closely with the local impoverished communities near Thaba ‘Nchu in the Free State and had described his work as “an expressionistic pause in the life of a group of people, who by general humanity can be understood and loved”.

The college, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009, was entertained by the newly formed college choir, under the guidance of Dr Jakub Urbaniak, a Polish volunteer from Fidesco and col-

Fr Michael van Heerden, President of St Augustine College, looks on as Prof Edith Raidt, President Emeritus, thanks Tony Joseph for the permanent loan of his Claerhout paintings to the college. lege lecturer.

The celebration ended with Fr Enrico Parry, Rector of St John Vianney Seminary, concelebrating Mass with Fr Emil Blaser of Radio Veritas and Fr Michael van Heerden, President of St Augustine College, who also spoke on the life of St Augustine.

Also present was Fr Anthony Egan SJ, of the Jesuit Institute South Africa, who spoke on the

topic of “Blurring Moral Boundaries” and the ethics of struggle in South Africa.

The feast of St Augustine of Hippo is celebrated on August 28.

The college was named after the saint as one of the earliest Christian scholars of Africa.

St Augustine’s College focuses on studies in ethics, politics, philosophy and theology, commerce and humanities.

Franciscan spirit in the modern world Continued from page 1 An aspect of this openness was preparedness to dialogue with people holding beliefs different from their own.

Key speakers at the convention include Fr Patrick Noonan OFM on: St Francis and extreme ministry; Fr Makhomba Khanyile OFM on: Franciscans in the intellectual tadition; Mrs Albertina Dlamini SFO on: Human resources and life skills; Fr Six organisations, including the Catholic Bible College, the Jesuit Institute, the Lumko Institute, St Augustine’s College and TEE College, devoted to adult Catholic education in Johannesburg, got together to advertise their wares through a special pull-out supplement for the Archdiocesan News.

The supplement is entitled “Growing in Your Faith” and begins with a message from Archbishop Buti Tlhagale. It includes accounts of the experiences of a number of students, learning areas, options and choices, and a breakdown of courses offered by the organizations. The hope is that this supplement will draw more adult Catholics to learn more about their faith and deepen it. The supplement can be accessed on the Jesuit Institute website http://www.jesuitinstitute.org.za/en/node/278#attachments

ST PETER CLAVER SCHOOL, MAOKENG KROONSTAD St Peter Claver Intermediate School, Maokeng, Kroonstad (estd 1916) is an Independent English-medium school with a current pupil enrolment of over 860 learners in Grades 1-9. In 2011 the school will add Grade 10 at the present site and in 2012 the FET section of the school will be moving to the Old Convent property, now owned by the Northern Free State Institute for Community Development.

Applications are invited for

HEAD OF SCHOOL Is a new position reporting to the Sisters of Notre Dame (proprietors of the School) and the Board of Governors. The Head of School will have overall responsibility for the whole school as well as the challenging task of introducing the FET section of the school in 2011, and relocating the FET section to the new site in 2012.

Applications are invited from experienced educationalists with the appropriate qualifications and skills required to take the school into this next stage in its development in preparation for its centenary in 2016.

The salary will be commensurate with the experience of the successful candidate.

The successful applicant will be:  Committed to maintain and develop the Catholic ethos of the school;  A motivator for and deliverer of quality education;  A team worker with excellent communication skills;  Registered with SACE  Cognisant of current educational trends and developments;  A good administrator and creative thinker.

Closing date for applications: 25 September 2010 Interested and qualified candidates to submit letter of application in own hand-writing, CV and details of THREE recent referees to: The Interview Committee, P O Box 476, KROONSTAD, 9500.

Only appropriately qualified candidates will be considered for an interview.

The Board reserves the right NOT to make an appointment.

Solomon Sekabata OFM on: St Francis and St Clare in the modern world; Sr Dumisile Sibisi FSF on: Franciscanism and youth in the modern world; Fr Victor Phalana on: the need for an integral evangelisation in our world today; Fr Christopher Neville OFM on: Franciscans exploring more along the lines of being prophetic.

The programme includes Mass and adoration; morning and

evening prayer; a concert, storytelling and live music.

Participants are reminded to bring samples of their home liturgy, cultural costumes and musical instruments.

The organisers are the Franciscan Sisters of Assisi, Ladybrand: Sr M Winnie Mosololi FSS on 051 433 3211 or 071 145 5574; or Sr M Vincentina Jaars FSS on 051 924 0096 or 073 726 6237.

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4

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

INTERNATIONAL

Pope’s message for World Youth Day 2011 for everyone, adding that the decision to believe in Jesus Christ and to follow him was not an easy one. It was hindered by our personal failures and by the many voices that pointed us toward easier paths. He urged youths to not be discouraged and to look for the support of the Christian community and the Church.

The pope struck a very personal tone in his written message, relaying some of his own dreams and worries from his youth. He spoke of his youth when he and his friends “were not willing to settle for a conventional middle-class life”.

Growing up during the Nazi dictatorship and Second World War had definitely contributed to their youthful ambitions of breaking free from the reigning power structures to “experience the whole range of human possibilities”.

But it was also true that a love for life and the urge to experience and achieve something great were pre-

BY CAROL GLATZ

T

HE decision to follow Christ was not an easy one to make, so youngpeople should look for support from the Christian community and the Church, Pope Benedict said in his message for World Youth Day 2011.

“Do not believe those who tell you that you don’t need others to build your life! Find support in the faith of those who are dear to you, in the faith of the church,” the pope wrote in his message.

Pope Benedict called on all young people, even those who were no longer active members of the church as well as non-believers, to attend the World Youth Day celebrations in Madrid, August 16-21, 2011, with the theme: “Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith”.

He said the international gathering offered people a powerful experience of Jesus Christ and his love

sent in every generation, he said, adding that “the desire for a more meaningful life is a sign that God created us and that we bear his ‘imprint’”.

He urged young people to strengthen their faith in God as the source of life, love, joy and peace.

Believing in God was especially difficult in cultures that chose to reject or marginalise God’s place in the world and tried to “create a paradise without him” here on earth.

“Yet experience tells us that a world without God becomes a ‘hell’ filled with selfishness, broken families, hatred between individuals and nations and a great deficit of love, joy and hope,” the pope said, noting that many young people today lacked solid values and stable points of reference on which to build their lives, establish a strong sense of security and make the right choices in life.

As St Paul had urged the Colossians, people needed to be rooted in

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Jesus, “built upon him, and established in the faith as you were taught”, the pope said, adding that putting down roots meant trusting in God and building on him meant accepting God’s call and putting his words into practice.

The pope said he knew from early on that God wanted him to be a priest, but after the war and while pursuing his seminary studies, he had to recapture that certainty. He needed to re-evaluate his true path in life, to understand if the priesthood really was God’s plan for him and if he would be able to be faithful and completely at God’s service.

A “certain struggle” to understand one’s vocation was normal, he said, but by listening to God and walking with him, he concluded that the priesthood was the right path for him because the Lord wanted him and would give him the strength he needed.

“What counts is not the fulfillment of my desires, but of his will.

In this way life becomes authentic,” he said.

People were constantly being seduced into thinking there were easier choices and an easier way of life, he told young people, “but you yourselves know that these are ultimately deceptive and cannot bring serenity and joy”.

Only God could show the way and he would walk with his children and sustain them, helping them face the difficulties and disappointments in life.

Being a Christian was to is build a relationship with Christ every day through prayer, reading the Gospels and participating in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist where Christ “is present and close to us, and even becomes food for our journey”.

Pope Benedict asked young people to spend the next year before World Youth Day 2011 in spiritual preparation for the event through prayer and mutual support.—CNS

Pope highlights ongoing relevance of Newman P ope Benedict’s decision to travel to Great Britain to personally beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman will give him an opportunity to highlight Cardinal Newman’s teaching about the relationship between faith and reason, the role of conscience and the place of religion in society.

During his trip, the pope will visit the Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow before travelling to London and Birmingham for the beatification.

Cardinal Newman was a 19th-century theologian and intellectual who was a leader in the Anglican reform effort known as the Oxford Movement before becoming a Catholic.

The pope will celebrate open-air Masses, meet Queen

Elizabeth II and Prime Minister David Cameron and make a major address to leaders of British society.

His visit includes a meeting with leaders of other religions, an ecumenical prayer service and a visit to a home for the aged. But the Vatican has billed the trip as a pastoral visit “on the occasion of the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman”.

Since his election more than five years ago, Pope Benedict has presided over several canonisation ceremonies, but he has always delegated the task of presiding over beatifications to highlight the different importance of the two ceremonies.

The pope’s decision to make an exception for Cardinal Newman demonstrates his personal

Katherine Milby from Abbotsford House, Scotland, looks at two vestments once owned by John Henry Newman, which will become holy relics after Cardinal Newman’s beatification by Pope Benedict.

PHOTO/DAVID

MOIR, REUTERS/CNS

admiration for the British churchman, an admiration he once said went back to his first semester of seminary theology studies in 1946.—CNS

Cardinal acuses BBC of anti-Christian bias A LEADING cardinal in Britain has accused the BBC of having an “institutional bias” against Christianity.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, claims that a radically secular and socially liberal outlook is tainting the corporation’s news and current affairs output, which is “utterly lacking” in professionalism and balance.

Cardinal O’Brien said disproportionate airtime was given to atheists such as Richard Dawkins, while mainstream

Christian views had been marginalised.

He said he was alarmed by a reduction in religious programming on the BBC and its failure to appoint a religion editor to mirror similar roles for the arts, science and business. “[Our] detailed research into BBC news coverage of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, together with a systematic analysis of output by the Catholic Church, has revealed a consistent anti-Christian institutional bias,” he said.

“The BBC’s director-general

[Mark Thompson] admitted that the corporation had displayed ‘massive bias’ in its political coverage throughout the 1980s, acknowledging the existence of an institutional political bias.

Senior news managers have admitted to the Catholic Church that a radically secular and socially liberal mindset pervades their newsrooms.

This sadly taints BBC news and current affairs coverage of religious issues, particularly matters of Christian belief, he said.

—CathNews

Aged priest and nun indicted for anti-nuclear protest F IVE people, including two priests and a sister, have been indicted on federal charges 10 months after an All Souls’ Day demonstration at a US Navy nuclear weapons storage depot in Bangor.

In indictments, a federal grand jury in Tacoma, Washington, charged Jesuit Fr Bill Bichsel, 82; Jesuit Fr Stephen Kelly, 61; Sacred Heart Sr Anne Montgomery, 83; Susan Crane, 65; and Lynne Greenwald, 61, with conspiracy, trespass, destruction

of property on a naval installation and depradation of government property.

Calling themselves the Disarm Now Plowshares, group members defended their actions as a requirement of their Catholic faith and as necessary under international law.

The five are accused of using bolt cutters to cut holes in three chain-link fences to enter the naval base Kitsap’s Bangor complex, 32 km west of Seattle.

The base is the West Coast home of the Trident nuclear-

armed submarine and the Strategic Weapons Facility, where more than 2 300 nuclear warheads are stored.

The government said the five posed a danger to national security. “All citizens are free to disagree with their government. But they are not free to destroy property or risk the safety of others,” said US Attorney Jenny Durkan in a statement announcing the indictments.

Each could face up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $250 000.

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

5

Jesuit rebuts Hawking’s ‘no creator’ argument

BY NANCY FRAZIER O’BRIEN

A

JESUIT priest has taken to YouTube and his blog to rebut arguments raised by British physicist Stephen Hawking, who says in a new book that God had no role in creating the universe.

Hawking, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said in his new book, The Grand Design, that “because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing”.

“Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking added. Fr Spitzer said Hawking’s

“fundamental assumption about the universe” is “that it came from nothing”.

But the priest said “what many term the first principle of metaphysics” is “from nothing only nothing comes”.

“If the physical universe had a beginning [a point at which it came into existence] then prior to that point it was nothing,” Fr Spitzer said in his blog. “And if it was nothing then it could not have created itself [because only nothing can come from nothing].

“So what does that imply?” he asked. “The very reality that Dr Hawking wants to avoid, namely, a transcendent power which can cause the universe to come into

existence.”

Fr Spitzer holds a doctorate in philosophy, three master’s degrees—in theology, divinity and philosophy—and a bachelor’s in public accounting and finance.

Jesuit Br Guy Consolmagno, a Vatican astronomer who has studied both physics and philosophy, said that “the ‘god’ that Stephen Hawking doesn’t believe in is one I don’t believe in either”.

“God is not just another force in the universe, alongside gravity or electricity,” he added. “God is the reason why existence itself exists.

God is the reason why space and time and the laws of nature can be present for the forces to operate that Stephen Hawking is talking about.”

Released Cuban political prisoners Prospero Gainza, facing camera, and Normando Hernandez embrace upon arriving in Madrid. Left is Mr Gainza’s wife, Maria Esther Blanco, and their six-year-old son, Ronnis Gainza. The prisoner release was part of an agreement between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church to free 52 detained dissidents.

PHOTO: SUSANA VERA/REUTERS/CNS

Pope, Israeli president meet: 86th successor to hopes for Middle East peace St Dominic elected A A S the first direct peace talks in two years between Israeli and Palestinian leaders were launched in the United States, Pope Benedict and Israeli President Shimon Peres met in a private audience.

The two leaders expressed hopes that the renewal of direct talks in Washington would contribute to the “reaching of an agreement that is respectful of the legitimate aspirations of the two peoples and capable of bringing lasting peace to the Holy Land and the entire region”, the Vatican said. The closed-door, 40minute papal audience at the papal summer residence was “cordial”, the Vatican said in a written statement.

“The condemnation of all forms of violence and the necessity of guaranteeing better conditions of life to all the peoples of the area were reaffirmed” during the meetings, the Vatican statement said.

Discussions also included the role of inter-religious dialogue and “an overview of the interna-

Pope Benedict XVI meets Israeli President Shimon Peres at the pope’s summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. The two leaders expressed hopes that the renewal of direct talks in Washington would contribute to a Middle East peace deal.

PHOTO: GIAN ANDREA TURNATURI/CNS/COURTESY ISRAELI GOVERNMENT

tional situation”. Church-related issues such as an “examination of the relations between the state of Israel and the Holy See and those

of the state authorities with the local Catholic communities” were also discussed, according to the statement.

FRENCH physician and professor of bioethics, Fr Bruno Cadoré (pictured)has been elected superior general of the Dominicans Voting delegates at the general chapter of the order elected Fr Cadoré, 56, to succeed Fr Carlos Azpiroz Costa, to the nine-year term of office.

The last Frenchman to occupy this post was Br Vincent de Couesnongle, Master of the Order from 1974 to 1983.

About 130 delegates from all over the world met in Rome for the general chapter, the highest governing body of the order. The new superior will be charged with implementing the chapter’s decisions.

Before his election, Fr Cadoré served eight years as head of the Dominicans’ French province.

He was a physician and had worked in Haiti for two years when he entered the Dominican novitiate in 1979. He was ordained a priest in Lille, France, in 1986 and

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later received his doctorate in moral theology.

Fr Cadoré was director of the Centre for Medical Ethics at the Catholic University of Lille and taught biomedical ethics at the same university.

He is also a member of France’s national AIDS council.

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6

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

Advertisement

LIFE

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

7

Meet Jane aged 15—she chose life Many women, through no fault of their own, are forced into difficult decisions. One such woman is Jane*, who after being raped, decided to give birth and give her baby up for adoption. NADINE CHRISTIANS spoke to her.

constantly reassure me that giving my baby up for adoption is very brave and unselfish of me.”

When asked how she felt about the prospect of her baby being adopted by another family, she said: “It’s difficult but the social worker and the centre’s staff tell me all the time that my baby will go to a good home as the families are screened thoroughly before they can adopt a baby.”

J

M

ANE* is a brave woman. At 15 years of age she is 34 weeks' pregnant. It is her first baby.

But what makes Jane a brave woman? Jane was raped by a family member. Instead of having an abortion or even backstreet abortion, Jane decided to give her baby up for adoption.

“I didn’t want the baby as I was raped by my cousin. I was discouraged from laying a charge as it will cause division in the family,” said Jane, who is currently staying at a crisis pregnancy centre.

The centre allowed The Southern Cross to speak to Jane on condition of her and the centre’s anonymity.

Jane first heard about the centre when she went for a pregnancy test.

“I’m here because nobody besides my mother and grandmother know that I am pregnant.

The rest of the family and the neighbours are under the impression that I’m at a boarding school,” she explained She made the decision to give birth because she was “too far in my pregnancy to have an abortion”.

Jane also opted for adoption because she admitted to being too young to be a mother. She also wants to go back to school.

“It was easy to decide on adoption as I do not want to keep the baby. [I also wanted what was] best for the baby and for me,” said Jane, who has been receiving support and counselling from staff at the centre.

“They make sure I go for my check-ups and I see a social worker once a week,” said Jane. “The staff

any facilities in the country offer support to pregnant mothers not wanting either to keep their baby or go through an abortion: Birthright, Mater Domini Homes and the Catholic Women’s League (CWL), to name a few.

Birthright was started by Canadian Louise Summerhill to create an alternative for women who did not want to abort their babies.

Birthright has been active in South Africa for the past 30 years and is a national, non-denominational organisation.

Sabrina Porritt, a volunteer at Birthright, said: “We run offices with volunteers and any pregnant woman contemplating an abortion to stop and talk to us. We will always respect the right of the pregnant woman, but we firmly believe that is it imperative that she should take time to consider the full implication of what abortion means.”

Birthright focuses heavily on equipping the women who seek their help.

“We are also a counselling service to pregnant women as well as those that have found themselves thrown out from the structure of their homes and need a place that she can rely upon to help them through pregnancy,” said Ms Porritt.

2007 in response to the need for practical alternatives to abortion.

“We felt that the need for a home that would admit women who did not meet the criteria of other shelters. We wanted to provide a place where women in any stage of pregnancy could come— women who wanted to keep and raise their babies or make an adoption plan,” said Sally Hall, the Cape Town branch executive committee chairwoman of the campaign.

Mater Domini wanted to accommodate women with existing children, which “other shelters often excluded”, said Ms Hall.

“Most of our referrals come from hospitals and clinics. Welfare organisations, police stations, other shelters and private individuals who hear about us.”

She added: “We have a wide spectrum of women making use of our services. The average age is about 20. The women who stay at Mater Domini do want their babies. They come to us because they are desperately looking for a way to keep their babies.

“They are all in some way experiencing a crisis in their lives, and Mater Domini gives them a temporary respite to help them to resolve their crisis and to live independently.”

The CWL’s Adoption Society facilitates adoptions. Connie Jood, a senior social worker at the society, said the women who turned to them often kept in touch with the agency, “requesting photos”.

“The photos are a tool that help them cope and often, after a few years/moths, they stop phoning.

We would like to believe that it is because they are satisfied that they

T

he Right to Live Campaign, founded in KwaZulu-Natal, was started by Fr Massimo Biancalani of Holy Trinity parish, has 10 residential homes, known as Mater Domini, for women in crisis pregnancy or who have suffered abuse.

The Domini Homes opened in

Many young women opt for adoption rather than abortion.

PHOTO: RIGHT TO LIVE CAMPAIGN

made the right decision for their child.

“Other mothers prefer to sign consent and not ever hear from the agency again,” she said. * Jane is not her real name. It has been changed to protect her

identity.  For more information on services offered to pregnant women in crisis, visit www.matercapetown. org, www.birthright.co.za, or email the CWL’s Adoption Society on adoption@mwen.co.za

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8

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 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.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR More education, less schooling

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Media must be fixed O

T

HE bishops of Southern Africa have rightly protested against the transparent attempts by the African National Congress to place controls on the media.

This newspaper last month pointed out that the proposed Protection of Information Bill and Media Appeals Tribunal will constitute a malignant assault on the freedom of the media.

Even within the ANC, there is no consensus that these proposals are welcome. There are good reasons to believe that the information Bill, a law that most likely would not withstand scrutiny in the Constitutional Court, will be quietly abandoned.

This, however, should not comfort us. Civil society must become ever more vigilant and engaged in guarding South Africa’s hard-won democracy, because the ANC is increasingly showing itself to be in a tense relationship with essential democratic principles.

This is not to claim, of course, that the ANC is working to dismantle our democratic system. But it must be understood that democracy consists of many rights and obligations that go beyond periodic participation in elections.

The lifeblood of democracy is a government’s accountability in its service to the people, and society’s capacity and disposition to hold the government, the state and its organs answerable. The Protection of Information Bill would poison that lifeblood.

Indeed, it has the hallmarks of totalitarianism.

Likewise, as we noted last month, the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal seems to be intended not to address the many problems with the South African media, but to create conditions whereby critical and investigative journalists can be intimidated and tied up in complex processes.

There is a very real danger that the abuse of such a statutory tribunal would eventually compel editors, journalists and the shareholders of newspapers to apply the same kind

of self-censorship which the mainstream press applied under apartheid.

There is no high principle in the proposal. A tribunal answerable to parliament would do little to protect citizens from bad journalism, but do much to shroud unethical behaviour by government and state officials and their cronies.

Even if this proposal is being made by people with integrity, it does not require much imagination to see how a statutory tribunal can be abused by people with no integrity.

The ANC is correct to note, however, that the South African media is in need of reform.

Many local journalists have lost the compass of best practises in their field. There is a pervasive lack of respect, with undue irreverence sometimes being mistaken for valid critical observation. When factual error or unfair comment is published, some journalists are cavalier about their transgressions, as though rules of accountability do not apply to them. Editors, often strapped for staff, assign stories to reporters who have no knowledge of the field they are being asked to cover. Many reporters are just not well trained. The list of problems is extensive, and certainly not unique to South Africa.

Almost a decade ago, the South African National Editors Forum warned about the “juniorisation” of newsrooms”. Many experienced and talented journalists are still being sidelined, for demographic and financial reasons.

The problems in the South African media reside in editorial and managerial incompetence, ignorance, lack of professionalism, the profit motive and complacency more than they do in an exceptional lack of ethics.

These problems are not fixed by a tribunal, but must be addressed by the media themselves. And if they neglect to do so, the bad idea of a statutory media tribunal will not go away.

NE goal—Education for all!

That is the current outcry.

Millions of Africa’s children need an education; yet there is little mention of the most basic foundation of any decent society: the family unit.

Perhaps we ought to change the slogan to “One goal—a home for every family!”, because surely it is in the family environment that parents truly educate children, form their distinct personalities, guide their will in choosing right from wrong.

Character is dependent on the ability to say “no”. Unless education can give our children a training of the will, many “educated youth”

may slip into adulthood as mere slaves of propaganda and public opinion; instead of creating, they will be simply imitating.

A distinction must be made between education and schooling.

We need parents to educate and teachers to school our children. This basic education, demonstrating the virtues of love and truth, must be provided in a home where a family can gather as just that, a family. A teacher cannot replace a mother and father. There is an ugly tendency for parents to shift this responsibility on to the shoulders of “a good school and a lovely teacher”.

It seems clear that schooling is provided to promote growth in

knowledge and memory, with regular examinations to allow the learner to move onto a higher level. That is schooling, but not education.

Knowledge is for the mind, education at home is for the will! It is not a good thing to pour in knowledge without a will to self-discipline—a conscience to choose right over wrong.

A well-schooled child may well become a very clever devil, a brilliant thief or even a corrupt politician. In all this we need the grace of God. We may need to bring God back into our Constitution, our courts, our schools, and our homes.

Fr Ralph de Hahn, Cape Town

Don’t be misled

33 to sometimes hold the tension of an unresolved issue, rather than arrive at a premature conclusion: “The Church, as guardian of the deposit of God’s word, draws religious and moral principles from it, but it does not always have ready answers to particular questions.”

A case in point would be the moral question of slavery. The Holy Office’s 1866 instruction, signed by Pope Pius IX, answers questions raised by the vicar apostolic to the Galla in East Africa, Cardinal Massaia, who was concerned, inter alia, with the laws of Galla giving a master the right to kill a slave. The Holy Office replied: “Slavery itself, considered as such in its essential nature, is not at all contrary to the natural and divine law…It is not contrary to the natural and divine law for a slave to be sold, bought, exchanged or given.” Pope John Paul II would later assert slavery to be intrinsically evil and objectively disordered (Veritatis Splendor 80).

I suppose we should be extremely cautious when discerning truth, lest we fall into the trap of thinking we know fully the mind of God. Dr Vincent W Couling, Pietermaritzburg

We give thanks. God lent him to us for a while. We pray this brave and saintly priest rests in peace. We shall remember him always. His inspiration. His smile.

Majorie McCartan, Nazareth House

I

T is surely Catholic teaching that a woman who repents for an abortion in confession will meet her unborn infant again in the life hereafter.

If so, this consoling fact should receive much more publicity in our churches, as it would substantially alleviate the crippling post-abortion guilt presently suffered by many women.

Today, abortions are chemical, as well as surgical, largely by means of “The Pill”. Many Catholics due to their ignorance use this drug, which is supposedly a contraceptive only, that swiftly aborts undetected the many conceptions that occur during its use.

The manufacturers of “The Pill” actually inform women of this medical fact to assure them that their product is “fail-safe” efficient.

Ignorance on this issue could be eliminated and many human lives thereby saved by a permanent statement in all parish bulletins, such as: “Abortion Warning. ‘The Pill’ can abort undetected soon after conception [a medical fact].”

Damien McLeish, Johannesburg

Discerning truth

C

ARDINAL Napier (August 4) speaks of “putting in place a system of morality, which enables us to distinguish clearly and easily between good and evil, right and wrong, true and false”.

Such clear-cut distinctions can be problematic, especially as weighty matters are still being worked out.

In tackling moral issues, Vatican II cautioned of the need to be aware of “the changeable circumstances which the subject matter, by its very nature, involves,” and that it “happens rather frequently, and legitimately so, that with equal sincerity some of the faithful will disagree with others on a given matter” Gaudium et Spes 43), we are asked in

Msg Pietersen tribute

I

WISH to add this tribute from we old and frail at Nazareth House.

As soon as Mgr Pietersen was fit enough after his first operation, he joined Frs George Gallagher, Desmond Curran and Ralph de Hahn to say daily Mass for us in our small chapel. At times three to four were celebrating at the altar. This was a wonderful blessing as we had been without a priest for months.

We knew of Msg Pietersen’s serious illness and after the second operation he came again to Nazareth House, walking as did the other priests, down and up the hill, to say Mass in all weathers. To quote a fellow priest: “He had tremendous trust, tremendous faith.”

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Beware of laity in Church decisions

I

AGREE with Mervyn Pollitt “Church Crisis”, August 18 that “the views of the laity must be considered”—but how does one obtain those views and how does the Church proceed having obtained them?

We all have the human failing of being certain that our own views are the correct ones and are then disappointed if the Church does not agree with us. I am sure that the Roman curia does seek the views of the laity, even if not in the manner that those of us who are fortunate enough to live in democratic societies take for granted.

But to those members of the laity that would like to see the laity formally involved in the decisions of the Church, I say: “Beware!”. The Church of England has followed this path with its General Synod and what do we see? The accelerating painful disintegration of a once great Christian denomination.

I would rather that we all direct our prayers to ask that the Holy Spirit guides the pope to lead Christ’s Church with wisdom and understanding.

Paddy Ross, 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

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

9

Michael Shackleton answers your question

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

Pushing the Boundaries

Open Door

Let’s proclaim Africa’s saints

A question of indulgence

AST month, as I observed our parish making preparations for the visit of the relics of my favourite saint, St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I wondered why we never hear much about African saints within the Church.

I bet many Catholics do not know a single name of a Catholic African saint, with the exception of St Augustine of Hippo and his mother Monica, and perhaps Charles Lwanga. And if you are one of those people who think North Africa is not really Africa, then St Augustine does not really count.

Most canonised African saints lost their lives in defence of their faith, or their refusal to denounce it. But nothing much is known about them by the faithful. Is this because, other than St Augustine, no African saints have been named a Doctor of the Church (as St Thérèse has), prompting the in-depth study of their faith and spirituality by theologians, writers, professors, and so on?

In Acts 8: 26-40, we learn that Philip encountered an Ethiopian eunuch. The unnamed eunuch was “a court official of Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury”.

Obviously the first recorded African convert to Christianity (let’s ignore the speculations about whether Simon of Cyrene, who helped Christ carry his cross, converted to the faith or not) certainly was aristocratic, or rather an important and influential man who occupied such a high office in Ethiopia. In black Southern Africa, the trend of aristocrats being the first to convert to the faith continued during the missionary days.

Could you explain exactly what an indulgence is, and why so many people are opposed to them?

ARTIN Luther’s break with Rome in 1517 was due to the scandalous abuses of the granting of indulgences, and since then they have been widely misunderstood.

Indulgences have their earliest roots in the practice of imposing a penance on baptised persons who had confessed their sins before a priest. Early on in the Church’s history, these penances were often public because the sinner had wounded the visible communion of the faithful. Penances were imposed for a fixed period such as 100 days of fasting or prayer.

These penances were known as the canonical punishment because they were imposed by the jurisdictional authority of the Church.

However, because God himself was offended by the sin, the canonical penance was also intended to make atonement to God. In time some of the faithful found long penances too burdensome to perform. Accordingly, the Church would grant them a partial or full remission of the canonical penance and ask the community to make up for the shortfall in the penitent’s penance by their prayers and sacrifices on behalf of their brother or sister.

This communal act of prayer for the sinner was in fact the origin of our understanding of the indulgence today. It was the Church’s prayer that God would remit the temporal punishment, namely that penance due to God in this life for the debt of sin.

Historically, the emphasis in indulgences has shifted from the remission of the debt of canonical punishment before the Church to the remission of every debt of temporal punishment before God. This remission can be a partial or a plenary indulgence, and is dependent on the efficacy of the Church’s prayer in Christ for the sinner and also on the sinner’s dispositions. Because Peter was given the power of the keys to bind and loose on earth (Matthew 16:19), it is the pope who authorises the granting of indulgences.

L

T

he fact that the Ethiopian eunuch returned to his homeland glad (“he continued on his way rejoicing”) tells us that the Christian faith existed in Africa as early as the first century. Why is it that most of this is almost hidden?

The latest research counts about 701 black Catholic saints. Some led big groups of unnamed martyrs, who usually aren’t counted among these 701 (though Lwanga’s fellows are). There were, for example, the Martyrs of Alexandria, who were canonised due to their heroic virtue in assisting plague victims and burying the dead, in 261.

There is St Maurice of Aganaum and Companions who were martyred around 237 in Aganaum. St Maurice and his companions (said to be 6 000 soldiers) were martyred by Emperor Maximian because they refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods.

What strikes me most about them is the lack of the usual saintly truck, miracles et al.

They are recognised for countless acts of bravery as Christians who sometimes put their lives at tremendous risk by coming to the aid of those affected by the plagues and burying the dead and poor. This is a common daily thing in our continent, and many who make this supreme sacrifice go unnoticed on official books, though clearly known to the hearts of the communities they helped.

My interest in black Catholic saints was stoked by my spiritual mother, Sr Cleophas Trant, when we both still lived in Port Elizabeth. She worked then in a coloured community whose parish church was called St Martin de Porres.

St Charles Lwanga and St Martin de Porres are about the only black saints named in books on lives of the saints. Hopefully very soon the likes of Sudan’s St Josephine Bakhita will be included. There’s also the sainthood cause of Tzaneen’s Benedict Daswa, who was martyred in 1990, that surely should be of particular importance for us in this country.

I believe saints are special individuals who lead commendable lives we can all learn from. Some showed extraordinary courage in their faith; something that is slowly but surely being demanded of us in our era also. It is a grave mistake that the Church hides this light under the bushel instead of putting it on the mountain hill. These lives would certainly be relevant, especially to African children, to demonstrate that sainthood is not just a Western thing.

African Catholic saints, especially those who are black, should be studied and emulated in the same way their European counterparts are. For far too long have they been omitted from books on the lives of the saints and from the pulpits of our universal Church.

M This brass inscription plate, which had been attached to the wooden coffin of Cardinal John Henry Newman (inset), after the exhumation of Newman’s grave in 2008 at the Oratory House in Rednal on the outskirts of Birmingham. The grave was exhumed in expectation of plans for reburial, but both the cardinal’s body and his wooden coffin had decomposed.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE FATHERS OF THE BIRMINGHAM ORATORY

Vatican II’s unseen expert Last week, in the sixth part of Fr Austin’s series on the life of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who will be beatified by Pope Benedict on September 19, we observed how he earned public rehabilitation and ultimately a elevation to the College of Cardinals. In the final instalment, we follow the last two decades of Cardinal Newman’s life.

A

GREAT joy and vindication for Newman had occurred two years before he was made a cardinal. Just before Christmas 1877 he was delighted to learn that after his 32 years of exile, the Fellows of Oxford’s Trinity College elected him the first honorary fellow of the college. This gracious gesture cheered him no end. These two honours gave him a new lease of life.

For the next decade he continued his gruelling schedule, entering fearlessly into the arenas of religious combat. The British press and Protestants treated him more gently now and offered him the respect the British have for a great warrior, be he friend or foe.

As he entered his 90th year, his sight began to fail and his handwriting became scraggly. He suffered a fall in his room, breaking two ribs, and a few days later, when pneumonia set in, he died in his bed at the Oratory in Birmingham, gently and sweetly fortified by the rites of the Church.

With him was buried his cardinal’s coat of arms inscribed with the motto Cor Ad Cor Loquitor (Heart Speaks to Heart). No truer descrip-

Michael Austin SJ

The Newman Chronicles tion of the long and event-filled life of John Henry, Cardinal Newman, could ever be written.

Shortly before his death, reflecting on his long life, he had written in his journal: “After the fever of life, after weariness and sicknesses; fightings and despondings; languor and fretfulness; struggling and failing; struggling and succeeding; after all the changes and chances of this troubled state, at length comes death, at length the white throne of God, at length the Beatific Vision.

After restlessness comes rest, peace, joy—our eternal portion…” He had expressed these realities so poignantly in The Dream of Gerontius. Now he was to experience them.

John Henry Newman was called into God’s Church for something.

Seven decades after his death in 1890, there would be another Vatican Council, opening in 1962. The neglected realities of the faith which he had laboured so long to reawaken within the Church—religious liberty, a sense of the Church in the modern world, fidelity to conscience, the role of the laity, and a return to the sources of all theology, namely Scripture and the writings of the Fathers, would receive at this Second Vatican Council the emphasis and attention they deserved and which were the overriding concerns of Newman’s writings.

Referring to the council’s term for an expert, Cardinal John Henry Newman has rightly been called “the unseen peritus at Vatican II”.

 Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za; or fax (021) 465 3850. Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.

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10

FOCUS

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

By what authority? Mystics, prophets and journalists Journalists and mystical prophets have similar stances in and towards the world, argues CHRIS CHATTERIS SJ.

‘B

Y what authority?’ is a phrase which should occasionally run uneasily around a head which wears the journalistic hat.

The same question was thrown at Jesus when he, a Galilean worker, shook the religious status quo of his time. The carpenter from Nazareth threw it artfully back as another question: By whose authority did John the Baptist—that other unsettler of the established order—speak?

Whence, in other words, the authority of the prophet?

It is a question as relevant to the secular commentator as to the religious one. Richard Calland, the director of IDASA, relates in his Anatomy of South Africa how he once found himself the object of a well-organised, on-air inquisition by several African National Congress heavyweights who all phoned in on the one programme. They reminded him that they had been elected, overwhelmingly, to represent the people of South Africa, and wondered pointedly whom might Calland represent?

We hear this argument being used again today in the debate about the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal and the Protection of Information Act. However, it is a fair question for the politician to put to the journalist: by what authority does an individual citizen, or even a

foreigner, regularly serve up opinion pieces on South Africa?

Even in our inclusive, democratic age, few would argue that the journalistic prerogative should be distributed to everyone. Even Letters to the Editor tend to be the subject to acute guillotines of taste and literary merit. There’s always an editorial policy, written or unwritten, about who or what gets published.

The fact is that not everyone can have their say in the media.

Authority to comment with the written word, as with the spoken word, is given to one who garners a measure of societal approval.

The crowds approved of Jesus’ utterances because he “preached with authority”. How does the journalist write or speak “with authority”?

Is it the authority of technical competence? Yes, but not narrowly or exclusively so. Certainly there are specialist journalists with a particular competence— sporting, financial, political, and so on.

However, I suggest that we still believe that a journalist should be a generalist. Nothing should be beyond the pale of the journalist’s interest and pen. Indeed some would hold that it is precisely the person who can see a story in the utterly mundane who is the born journalist. G K Chesterton’s epithet about mud being fascinating puts it, well, earthily.

We assume talents therefore— for writing, producing radio and TV programmes—and some careful cultivation of these gifts. But what about the fundamental connection between the journalist

harsh, occupied homeland and something he said his followers were as capable of doing as they were of reading the weather. Of course in Jesus’ case the union with life is rooted in his union with his Father, his abba.

Y

Journalists in a busy newsroom in an age long gone. In his reflection, Fr Chris Chatteris SJ looks at the state of the press and the role of the journalist today. and the world? Is it stretching things too much to say that there is an analogy here with the mystic and the prophet?

M

ysticism is about union with the various levels of reality.

Now, it may seem strange to portray the average hack as someone seeking mystical union with the universe, or the poor of the earth, or even God! But the attempt that journalists frequently display to reach beyond, to another view or viewpoint, to transcend conventional wisdom, even to immerse their vulnerable frames in the smoke, smell and hell of battle, suggests that what they do is more than just a job.

There are intimations of vocation here, “something I just have to do”. And although there is an

HOLY SITES TRAVEL

HOLY LAND PILGRIMAGES MARCH 2011

element of independence and detachment required in the attempt to report with fairness and accuracy, the fuller the initial immersion in the topic, the better the final report.

Pursuing the analogy with the mystic, the commentator-journalist’s analysis is the fruit of reflection on objects anywhere on a scale stretching from the boring to the bizarre. The nature-mystic is also at one with all of life. Yet he or she must have an inner life to make sense of the exterior connectedness.

In Fr Albert Nolan’s Jesus Today, mystics are considered to be those who combine deep, prayerful reflection on life with a full, passionate participation in life. Gandhi and Merton are two examples, one a political activist with a rich contemplative life and the other a contemplative with a rich political life.

Significantly, Fr Nolan’s point of entry into Christian mysticism is not via Jesus’ prayer or visions but his reference to reading the “signs of the times”, something he did as he trudged around his

et mystical thought has always left room for non-theistic mystics who avoided or felt unable to seek divine union and were content with engaging the rest of reality.

“Nature-mysticism” has a ring of the druid or the tree-hugger about it, but it depends of course on the markers for what we mean by “nature”.

A reflective, compassionate and critical consideration of the fate of Pacific islands and their populations in the face of global warming might be a good example of how widely these markers can be set. One of the laws of environmental study is that “everything is connected to everything else”, the principle of ultimate union familiar to the mystic.

Finally, we expect our journalist to be nothing if not critical. Fr Nolan links the prophet and the mystic, holding that prophecy is the critical public face of mysticism and that, “mystics from Basil the Great to Catherine of Siena spoke out boldly against the injustices of the rich, of the political powers, and the Church leaders in their times”.

A modest claim and conclusion therefore is that journalists and mystical prophets have similar stances in and towards the world, and journalists might even have unexplored mysticalprophetic tendencies.

If they can get in touch with their inner mystics and prophets these might help them identify and understand the source of their journalistic authority.  Fr Chatteris is a Southern Cross columnist and journalist associated with the Jesuit Institute South Africa in Johannesburg.

ST BERNADETTE’S LENTEN JOURNEY with Fr Gregory Mitchell Call Elna at 082 975-0034, E-Mail: elna@holysites.co.za, www.holysites.co.za

For further info, contact: Vocations Director, St Norbert’s Priory PO Box 48106, Kommetjie, 7976 (Cape Town) OR Tel 021 783 1768 Fax 021 783 3742

on DStv audio channel 170 & streamed on www.radioveritas.co.za

The Southern Cross, September 15 to September 21, 2010

11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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Doing justice to Mgr Gerald Pietersen

Births • First Communion • Confirmation • Engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • Ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • Thanks • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday accommodation • Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Others

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OUR obituary of Mgr Gerald Pietersen, who died on July 6 after a long battle with cancer, did not do justice to this priest. No mention was made of all the love that was given to him in the different parishes, especially at St Raphael’s in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.

Due to his ill heath he was forced into early retirement at the Retirement Centre for Priests at Nazareth House, where no sooner was he back on his feet and was saying Mass for the old residents there.

Then he was taken back to hospital where he spent seven painful and really difficult weeks.

Again he fought with all he had to get better, and as soon as he could he was back saying Mass at Nazareth, and twice a week at Larmenier Health Care Centre.

His farewell Mass at Khayelitsha in May showed the great love and respect that the parishioners had for him. The love and thanks shown was heart-warming.

One after the other came up to the altar and with great love spoke about what this priest

COMMUNIT Y 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 CAPE TOWN:  Adoration Chapel, Corpus Christi Church, Wynberg: MonThurs 6am to 12pm; Fri-Sun 6am to 8pm. Adorers welcome  021-761 3337  Good Shepherd, Bothasig Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in our chapel. All hours. All welcome JOHANNESBURG:  First Friday Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 10:30. First Saturday: Devotions: Our Lady’s Cenacle, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Rosary, 15:00–16:00. Special devotion to Our Blessed Lady for her priests. Our Lady of the Angels, Little Eden, Edenvale,  011 609 7246  First Saturday of each month rosary prayed 10:30-12:00 outside Marie Stopes abortion clinic, Peter Place, Bryanston.  Joan Beyrooti, 011 782 4331  Rivonia parish social evening ‘Night Fever’ September 18, 18:30, Barnyard Broadacres. For tickets contact Elvira 011 803 1229 or elvira@rivoniacatholic.co.za.

KIMBERLEY:  St Boniface High School celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2011. The St Boniface Past students Union is currently preparing to celebrate this event. Past students are requested to contact Union’s PRO & chairman of the board of govenors, Mr Mosalashuping Morundi  073 768 3653 or at sbonifa@iafrica.com for further information PRETORIA:  First Saturday: Devotion to Divine Mercy. St Martin de Porres, Sunnyside, 16:30.  Shirley-Anne 012 361 4545 To place your event, call Claire Allen on 021 465 5007, or e-mail c.allen@scross.co.za

meant to them. They regarded him not only as their priest, but also as their father, mentor, friend and confessor.

Mgr Pietersen bore his illness with great dignity. He regarded it as a cross given to him by Christ and always said he would carry it to Calvary, and this he did without ever complaining. Never once did he question the Lord’s plan.

No matter how bad he was feeling he always had a smile for everyone.

Edith Papen, Cape Town

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DEATHS

Spiritual Pilgrimage to Italy

MANUEL—Doreen Magdalene (née Alexander) Born September 6, 1924 – died August 22, 2010. Our mother, our heroine. There have been many occasions upon meeting people individually and in groups, where we’ve been asked who inspires us, who do we admire most? Expecting us to laud the life of a fearless activist, a saint, a popular leader from the past, or a spiritual guru. From South East Asia, people are often taken aback when we declare that the person who has inspired us the most is our beloved Mrs Doreen Manuel, known as “Mama Doreen” to all.

Many people who Mrs Manuel came into contact with, would soon come to realise that our dear mother possessed many of the qualities of those figures of history who inspired them.

During the 1970s and 1980s Mrs Manuel was a founding member of the Justice and Peace Commission in the Archdiocese of Cape Town under then Auxiliary Bishop Stephen Naidoo CSsR, and served the parish community of Regina Coeli as a catechist.

She loved to teach about the faith and the church she loved much. She would teach the faith based on her own personal life experience. ‘In the Kingdom of God which is the Kingdom of love, mothers are queens because their motherhood is the greatest service to the Kingdom. Mary herself the handmaid of the Lord’ (Luke1:38). Putting herself at God’s service, she also put herself at the service of others, a service of love.

Precisely through this service many were able to reign. (John Paul II letter for women). This too was true for our mother who served and loved so many and took inspiration from our Lord and our Blessed Mother. Rest in peace our dear mother, our heroine. Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the heavenly Kingdom of the Lord.

Your legacy will live on in all of us. Mrs Manuel is survived by her 10 children, 16 grandchildren and eight great–grandchildren. Her requiem Mass was celebrated by Rev Fr Jerome Aranes. Bro Daniel Manuel.

SCP.

05 – 16 June 2011

IN MEMORIAM

Thoughts for the Week on the Family FAMILY CALENDAR 2010 FAMILY THEME: “Families Play the Game.”

SEPTEMBER : A SPORTING TRADITION 19th 25th Sunday. The parable of the dishonest servant can be confusing as he is praised for his astuteness in “feathering his own nest.”

When the time comes for judgment however the words of Jesus count. “You cannot be slave of two masters, of God and of money.” How are we keeping the balance correct in our own family? Pray for courage to do what is right and fair.

24th Heritage Day SA. On this day our South African heritage is celebrated. It is also good to look into our own family history. Who are the heroes and for what are they honoured and respected? Are we establishing good traditions and rituals in our own family that can be recalled to with pride for the future?

Mass readings for the week Sundays year C, weekdays cycle 2

Sun September 19, 25th Sunday of the year: Am 8: 4-7; Ps 113:1-2,4-8; 1 Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13 Mon September 20, Ss Andrew Kim Taegon & Companions: Prv3:27-34; Ps 15:2-5; Lk 8:16-18 Tue September 21, St Matthew: Eph 4:1-7, 11-13; Ps 19:2-5; Mt 9:9-13 Wed September 22, St Maurice & the Theban Legion: Prv 30:5-9; Ps 119:29,72,89,101,104,163; Lk 9:1-6 Thur September 23, St Pio of Pietrelcina: Eccl11:2-11; Ps 90:3-6,12-14,17; Lk 9:7-9 Fri September 24, St Stephanie: Eccl 3:1-11; Ps 114:1-4; Lk 9:18-22 Sat September 25, feria: Eccl 11:9-12,8; Ps 90:3-6, 12-14,17; Lk 9:43-45 Sun September 26, 26th Sunday of the year: Am 6:1,4-7; Ps 146:7-10; 1 Tm 6:11-16; Lk 16:19-31

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Dean, Michael and Kyle, Anne, Basil, Sarah and Warren and her sister Joan Swanson. May her soul rest in peace.

ROWE—James (Jimmy) Peter. Left for his heavenly home 1 year ago, 17/9/09 Remembered by his wife Violet and family. Rest in peace.

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PRAYERS

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PO Box 2372, CAPE TOWN, 8000 Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850

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Published by the proprietors, The Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co Ltd, at the company’s registered office, 10 Tuin Plein, Cape Town, 8001.

September 15 to September 21, 2010

SOUTHERN AFRICA’S NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY SINCE 1920 Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000  10 Tuin Plein, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001 Tel: (021) 465 5007  Fax: (021) 465 3850 Editorial: editor@scross.co.za  Advertising/Subscriptions/Accounts: admin@scross.co.za 26th Sunday – Year C (September 26th) Readings: Amos 6:1, 4-7, Psalm 146:7-10, 1 Timothy 6:11-16, Luke 16:19-31

Our calling to imitate Jesus

W

HOSE side is God on? We have an appalling tendency to suppose, albeit unconsciously, that God favours the wealthy. In the readings for next Sunday, that view is stoutly challenged, for the assumption is that the affluent are up to no good.

The first reading, like last week, is taken from Amos, who is in notably good form against the “fat cats”. “Woe”, he bellows, “to the smugly complacent in Zion”, and draws a picture of the upper classes lounging around on “beds of ivory”, who “eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall”. Among their other sins he lists “singing pointless songs on the guitar”, “drinking wine by the bowlful and smearing themselves with the best perfumes”. If we think that any of the above may apply to us, we wait nervously for the punishment that will inevitably follow, and it comes: “They shall now be the first to go into exile.” And Amos was right, as a matter of historical fact, which is why we are still reading him today.

The psalm comes as something of a relief, at first sight, because it is drawn from the five great Alleluia psalms with which the Book of Psalms ends. But just have a look at the quali-

Fr Nicholas King SJ

Scriptural Reflections ties for which God is being praised: God “does justice for the oppressed, gives bread to the hungry, sets prisoners free, gives sight to the blind, raises up those who are bowed down, loves the just, protects the immigrant, looks after the orphan and widow”. Only then are we once more invited to praise God. If the aforementioned qualities are missing from our lives, then we might need to do something about it; but if they are there, then we have cause to praise God (but not ourselves).

The second reading continues our journey through 1 Timothy, and tells us, in the same vein as the preceding readings, to “chase after justice, godliness, faith, endurance, and gentleness”. So it requires a certain effort, as the author indicates by using a metaphor from athletics: “Do your very best in the contest.”

And we are reminded of our calling to imitate

Jesus, “who bore witness under Pontius Pilate”, and gently diverts our attention to God, “the blessed and sole ruler, the king of kings and lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen”. This God is quite beyond our grasp.

And the difficulty of being rich is that we can find ourselves saying, unreflectively, to ourselves, “Who needs God?” or, equally dangerous, “Why should I worry about the poor?” The gospel for next Sunday gives us a very challenging story to shake us out of that dangerous complacency. It starts with “a certain rich man, who used to wear purple and linen, partying conspicuously every day”; and we just know that there is trouble coming to him.

Then we see the other actor in the story; and he (unlike the rich man) has a name (“Lazarus”), and the name, significantly, means “God has helped”. His position is rather different; he is “flung at the [rich man’s] door, with sores; and he longed to eat some of the things that fell from the rich man’s table, but instead dogs came and licked his wounds”. Then both of them die, and the rich man is “buried” (he has the money for

The power of doing good A

FTER a particularly violent and destructive series of strikes and tragic news that swept this country, I looked desperately for some sign of unselfish South Africans who did not desert their hospital posts and leave babies to die or try to beat trains at level crossings killing school children in moments of reckless haste.

I turned to one of my favourite websites, www.sagoodnews.co.za, where I found this delightfully inspiring article written by Themba Makamo, about a delightful fellow called Mr Traffic.

“You won’t read about him in newspapers,” wrote Mr Makamo. “His face doesn’t appear on billboards or magazine covers, and I doubt you’ll ever see him on TV or hear about him on radio, but he’s the kind of person Nelson Mandela spoke about when he said that ‘we must use time wisely and forever realise that the time is always ripe to do right’.”

And, Mr Makamo said, “Mr Traffic is doing exactly that”.

“As one of South Africa’s many unemployed, he realised that he had time on his hands; time he could put to good use for the benefit of others. So, morning after morning, he takes to the streets, clad in his reflective jacket, and braves the biting cold to take his position at a busy pedestrian crossing on Sontonga Street in Katlehong, a township in Ekurhuleni.

“His duty: to ensure that pedestrian learners cross the busy roads safely on their way to school.

“He stands with the children, some as young as six-years-old, teaching them the rules of road safety. At the end of it all he won’t be paid nor will he receive a

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083 640 5848

Chris Moerdyk

The Last Word reward. He’s doing it out of the goodness of his heart.”

Mr Makamo wrote that Mr Traffic is what he—and Madiba—call a “good citizen”, adding that there are “hundreds of thousands like him, unsung heroes who toil tirelessly for the benefit of others”.

He points out that there are 58 000 registered non-governmental organisations in South Africa. The corporate sector gives R5 billion to “social investment”, but private individuals donate an estimated R9 billion.

Makomo cites John F Kennedy’s famous exhortation: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Mr Traffic evidently has taken that to heart. He realised that not all working parents could supervise their children on their way to school, on which they might cross busy and dangerous roads, and decided to do something about that.

And, wrote Mr Makamo, “it seems that many South Africans are also waking up to the call of doing good for the country in the name of nation building”.

In his view, that is good timing as the country faces challenges such as attacks on foreign nationals, youth apathy, affirmative action and BEE, unemployment, poverty, crime and lack of service delivery.

He attributes the change to the 2010 World Cup which, more than the 1994 elections, “have signalled that as a nation we are capable of great things”.

“In 1994 it was the power to forgive.

Now, in 2010, it is the power to actively demonstrate good citizenship.”

He is under no illusion that the process will take time, and quotes Kofi Annan, the Ghanaian former secretarygeneral of the United Nations: “No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime.”

But we are getting there. For the World Cup, 70 000 South Africans applied to be volunteers in a programme that had 18 000 places in fields such as transport, hospitality, media, accreditation and marketing.

“The World Cup volunteers were the unsung heroes of the tournament,” Mr Makamo wrote. “They once again demonstrated what could be achieved if we work as a collective towards a shared vision.

“And as we labour towards our goal of a ‘better life for all’, the actions of Mr Traffic and the World Cup volunteers should continue to inspire us into being good citizens and dedicating our time to the good of others.”

Mr Makamo concluded: “It is welldocumented that the greatest source of happiness is in ‘doing good’, making a difference to the lives of others. But most of us don’t know where to start. Happily more and more ‘public good’ initiatives are becoming part of the South African character.

“So, if you want to emulate Mr Traffic, tap into the growing social network of South Africans who want to demonstrate good citizenship and make a difference.

You’ll be amazed at the results!”

Wise words indeed from Themba Makamo. Thanks to him and people like Mr Traffic, my faith in nature—the backbone of South African society—has been firmly set back on the path to restoration.

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

HUSBAND comes home from Church; he greets his wife and lifts her up. He then carries her around the house.

The wife was surprised and asked, “Did the priest preach about being romantic today?” The husband said, “No, he said we must carry our burdens and sorrows.”

Send us your favourite Catholic joke, preferably clean and brief, to The Southern Cross, Church Chuckle, PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000.

that sort of thing).

Before that, however, we discover the poor man’s fate, “carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham”. And there is more, for we discover that the rich man is “in Hades”.

There is no sign of a trial; it is simply assumed that his riches have landed him in that plight. Then we meet the third actor, namely Abraham, whose task it is to interpret to the affluent what is going on here. First, the rich man gives orders: Lazarus is to come and quench his thirst. Abraham gently (“my child”) explains that this is not really possible.

So then Lazarus is to be sent as a messenger to the rich man’s family, to warn them of the dangers ahead; but that is not possible, either. Abraham indicates that it should be sufficient for them to read “Moses and the prophets”; the rich man makes one last attempt: “If someone were to come back from the dead, they’d repent.” And the dialogue ends with the doom-laden saying from Abraham, “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they are not going to be persuaded, even if someone were to rise from the dead”.

And, in just a few chapters from now, someone is indeed going to rise from the dead. Where is the challenge for us this week?

Southern Crossword #410

ACROSS 5. At times in the…

(Hebrews 1) (4) 7. He helps the criminal (10) 8. Lover loses head above (4) 10. They make crosses for the new pope (8) 11. What it did for a white Christmas (6) 12. Tooled around Spanish city (6) 14. Workshop (6) 16. Not Ian for the people (6) 17. Took (8) 19. They’re among the pans (4) 21. Happened in the old Bible (4,2,4) 22. Son of Adam (Genesis 4) (4)

DOWN 1. Circle of saintly light (4) 2. Felt distress (8) 3. People…their cloaks on the ground (Luke 19) (6) 4. Get rid of (6) 5. Animal’s furry skin (4) 6.The Eucharist (6,4) 9. Woman’s make-up holder for self-love?

(6,4) 13. The pontiff before this one (4,4) 15. Punctual (2,4) 16. Duty in unclothed state (6) 18. Every one (4) 20. Window frame the bishop wears? (4)

SOLUTIONS TO #409. ACROSS: 1 Coat, 3 Prefects, 9 Clothes, 10 Carol, 11 Confirmation, 13 Oblate, 15 Desert, 17 Johannesburg, 20 Awake, 21 Tremble, 22 Made easy, 23 Onus. DOWN: 1 Cockcrow, 2 Adorn, 4 Resume, 5 Face the ashes, 6 Corrode, 7 Salt, 8 Christmas Eve, 12 Staggers, 14 Leonard, 16 Unites, 18 Urban, 19 Calm.

The solutions to crossword #406 [Aug 25] were not printed; in addition, the following week’s crossword [Sept 1] was numbered #408. Solutions to #406 below. The Southern Cross regrets the omission.

SOLUTIONS TO #406. ACROSS: 4 Patrick, 8 Andrew, 9 Edition, 10 Beryls, 11 Elated, 12 Earthman, 18 Shepherd, 20 Assisi, 21 Medium, 22 Samaria, 23 Astern, 24 Denying. DOWN: 1 Babbler, 2 Adorers, 3 Wealth, 5 Audience, 6 Ritual, 7 Chosen, 13 Musician, 14 Resides, 15 Adamant, 16 Escape, 17 Litany, 19 Please.