The Southern Cross - 110420

April 20 to April 26, 2011

www.scross.co.za

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Why university students are converting to the Catholic faith Page 8

Reflection: Saved by one man’s sacrifice

No 4722

Brother: I know what it’s like to be dead Page 10

Page 9

Hope&Joy programme to launch May 8 STAff REpoRTER

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CATHOLIC network, Hope&Joy, focusing on popular education for adults, will officially launch on May 8 with a website, free SMS service, media articles and homilies at Mass.

Hope&Joy has brought together dozens of Catholic bodies to help Southern African Catholics to understand and live out the promise of Vatican II, “to be Church in the Modern World”, according to Raymond Perrier, who has spearheaded the programme.

Hope&Joy, which is unique to the Southern African region, “functions as a network; there is no central head office”, said Mr Perrier, who is also director of the Jesuit Institute South Africa. “Through the Hope&Joy network, organisations will be able to work together, share resources and share a common logo.”

Individual elements will include booklets, newspaper columns, one-off lectures, videos, training courses, parish events, radio programmes and so on that will be linked under the name Hope&Joy. “Because the network is open, there will be space to take initiatives at different levels: diocesan departments, national and diocesan Catholic organisations, parish groups, schools, religious congregations, sodalities and other grassroots organisations, or even individuals,” he said.

A website (www.hopeandjoy.org.za) and Facebook group “will help the different elements come together and cross-fertilise”.

Catholic parishes, schools and individuals are encouraged to sign up as members of Hope&Joy by e-mailing info@hopeandjoy. org.za.

Hope&Joy has been welcomed by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) with “much appreciation”. Several SACBC departments have already signed up, and individual bishops have shown great enthusiasm, Mr Perrier said.

Network days have been held in Johannesburg and Durban, with more to come in other centres.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban spent the whole day at the KwaZulu-Natal workshop this month, Mr Perrier said. The cardinal reportedly described Hope&Joy as a “manifestation of the Spirit”.

Coinciding with the May 8 launch, there will be a feature spread on Hope&Joy in The Southern Cross, as well articles in diocesan newspapers and in the Catholic Link, the parish newsletter prepared by the Redemptorists. Radio Veritas will cover Hope&Joy in its programming and the website (www.hope andjoy.org.za) will go live.

Also as of May 8, Hope&Joy will launch a free SMS service whereby subscribers will receive a weekly inspirational message (SMS the word “Joy” to 31222). As of July, subscribers can receive daily messages for R3,50 per week, Mr Perrier said.

Priests have been asked to preach about Hope&Joy in their homilies on May 8. To assist the homilists, Hope&Joy has e-mailed homily notes to many priests. Priests who have not received these may request them from info@hopeandjoy.org.za, Mr Perrier said.

Among the national Hope&Joy activities will be a series of articles on particular themes in the Catholic Link, starting in July, and in The Southern Cross, starting in September.

The Resurrection of Christ is depicted in a mural in the sanctuary of Holy family church in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Easter, the feast of the Resurrection, is celebrated in the Latin rite Catholic Church on April 24 this year. (photo: Debbie Hill, CNS)

The Editor and staff of The Southern Cross wish all readers, advertisers, Associates, supporters, contributors and friends a blessed Easter filled with the hope and joy of our Risen Lord.

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LOCAL

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

Community gives thanks as priest accused of abuse walks free

BY CLAIRE MATHIESoN

T

HE parishioners of St Emmanuel in Landsend, Mthata, held a thanksgiving Mass to celebrate the dropping of charges brought against Fr Guy Cloutier CMM of alleged abuse.

“There will be great rejoicing among all the people”, said Fr Casimir Paulsen CMM of the day Fr Cloutier walked away a free man.

“One thing I feel must be addressed is the speed with which the news media pounced on the news that a senior priest of the Catholic Church of Mthatha had been arrested for rape.” Fr Paulsen

said the news spread quickly and he hoped the news of the charges being dropped would travel just as quickly.

Fr Cloutier was known for his work helping young men through Sabelani Home. Fr Cloutier focused his efforts on those who were either on the street or too poor to get ahead in life.

“He acts as the surrogate father to these boys with a home routine which includes keeping the place clean, doing the dishes and washing and ironing their own clothes, taking turns doing the cooking, saying their evening prayers together, having regular meetings to sort out the inevitable problems

that arise when up to 13 young men are all sharing the same space and trying to keep order in the house and grounds,” explained Fr Paulsen.

Fr Cloutier spent 22 years in Papua New Guinea as Missionary of Mariannhill. He also worked in Central America for a few years before coming to South Africa, where “he immediately got involved in the informal settlements, being with people, praying with them, counseling and consoling them, taking funerals for them and catechising them,” said Fr Paulsen. “These were people who didn't fit into the usual Catholic parish structures. He knew little

Learners from Marist Brothers primary School in Linmeyer, Johannesburg show off their Lenten table. Each class was given a project to make a Lenten table with symbols of reminder for this six week period. Tracey Edwards from the school said the learners were encouraged to give extra money to the poor, to read the Bible and pray more frequently and to make a little sacrifice of something they really like.

“Most of the children made their commitments in writing and these are also kept on the tables as reminders,” Ms Edwards said.

When : Where : Time :

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Xhosa but that didn't stop him. He communicates by his love and commitment to people.”

When the allegations were made, Fr Cloutier was arrested and removed from his parish duties.

Since the case was dismissed, Bishop Sithembele Anton Sipuka has requested that Fr Cloutier return to his pastoral work and “administrative leave” has been removed.

Fr Paulsen said Mass was celebrated in a packed cathedral and the community’s support did not stop. “This crowd kept coming to visit Fr Guy at home to console, support, and pray with him. Every day people would come to spend some time and tell him how much

they appreciated what he was doing for them and how he inspired them, which came as a surprise to Fr Guy, and which also made him cry. It is this support that has kept his spirits up.”

“Catholic and non-Catholics feel that their prayers have been answered. It is amazing that people from the neighbourhood, mechanics, sales persons, nurses and teachers walking down the street would all say, ‘We’re praying for you, Father’”.

Fr Paulsen said Easter had come early for the community of Landsend as the community continues to celebrate Fr Cloutier’s freedom.

Mariannhill monastery tea garden re-opens

BY MAuRICIo LANgA

L

ocal residents as well as visitors to Mariannhill monastery will once again be able to enjoy their favourite refreshments and light meals, thanks to Amaqhawe Tourism Services (ATS) which has re-opened the famous Mariannhill Monastery Tea Garden.

After lying idle for more than a year, the monastery management saw a need to have the tea garden re-opened to the public, prompted by numerous inquiries from visitors. Apart from providing light meals, the establishment is also set to provide catering services for weddings, small birthday parties and concerts.

ATS has strong links with Mariannhill. The company currently runs and manages the Tre Fontane Lodge and B&B in Mariannhill.

Amaqhawe was formed by former students of St Francis College as part of their social responsibility programme to help support their former school financially as well as promoting Mariannhill to the outside world.

“It has been our concern that we benefited from the school, and we thought of coming up with a sustainable project, such as ATS, to

J.M.J

help generate funds for the school,” said Mr Sabela, director of Amaqhawe.

“It is a way of giving back to the community that did so much for us,” he said, adding that as part of their involvement in the Mariannhill Monastery Tea Garden ATS also hope to promote the area to the outside world with a view to attracting tourism.

“We see ourselves playing a significant role towards tourism in the area and we want to capitalise on the influx of various people coming to Mariannhill for different reasons, and offer them refreshments and light meals,” he added.

Fr Gideon Sibanda, superior of Mariannhill monastery, said the reopening of the tea garden is a significant step forward in ensuring that people visiting Mariannhill can also enjoy a tranquil filled monastic environment as they are served coffee and light meals.

The tea garden is open from 9:00-15:30 on Tuesdays to Saturdays, and from 10:00 to 15:30 on Sundays. n For further information, Zama Sabela can be contacted on 031 700 9028

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The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

3

Catholic centre fights for refugee teachers

BY CLAIRE MATHIESoN

T

HE Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town has facilitated the placement of 76 foreign unemployed educators in unpaid internships in schools across the city—but the centre has faced challenges from both Home Affairs and the Education departments.

The Foreign Educators Internship Programme (FEIP) aims to provide the teachers with “a platform to gain experience in South African schools and to thus work

towards paid employment”, said Scalabrini volunteer, Wouter de Clerck.

The programme also hopes to address staff shortages at local schools by providing the required assistance through highly skilled foreign professionals.

Mr de Clerck said despite the positive work done by the centre, two recent developments which have obstructed the centre’s work.

“Firstly, there has been the Department of Home Affairs’ new programme to document Zimbabweans in South Africa through the

issuing of work, business and study permits under less strict conditions.” He said Scalabrini has been closely following this programme since many of the foreign teachers in the FEIP originate from Zimbabwe.

The centre has aided and encouraged the Zimbabwean participants to register. However, through its daily contacts with Zimbabwean teachers, the centre found many registered while working in lower-income jobs. “These lower skilled positions now reflect on their work permits, limiting

their employability to occupational categories (hospitality, housekeeping) which have no relation to their professional qualifications as teachers,” Mr de Clerck explained.

The centre is working with the Department of Home Affairs to find a solution.

Mr de Clerck said the second concern was with the Western Cape Education Department’s lack of policy to consider foreign educators’ applications for permanent teaching positions. He said the department seemed to disregard foreign applicants on the grounds

of not being South African.

The centre has reminded the department of the unlawfulness of this practice. “When a foreign educator holds a valid work permit or has been recognised as a refugee pursuant to the Refugee Act, he or she has the right to take up employment in the South African teaching sector.”

The Scalabrini Centre will be working with both the education department and Home Affairs to address these issues and assist refugees looking to make a new life in the country.

Fire prevention campaign launched

BY CLAIRE MATHIESoN

B

USINESS and outreach organisations have joined forces to launch fire prevention campaigns in the Cape Town township of Masiphumelele in preparation of the winter season which notoriously sees an increase in shack fires and devastating effects of the Cape’s heavy winter rainfalls.

The “Crisis Relief Stakeholders’ Joint Fire and Floods Awareness Campaign” has been endorsed by the mayoral executive committee member for safety and security, JP Smith.

The event, which was attended by more than 200 community members, brought together stakeholders including Eskom, the Paraffin Safety Southern Africa Association, the Phoenix Burns Project, various City of Cape Town emergency services, fire and rescue services, as well as Catholic organisations, the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town and Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD).

The crisis stakeholders were commended for their efforts devoted to prevention and fire safety.

Mr Smith said it was important that the stakeholders were working in conjunction with the community to work towards a safer living environment.

Nontsikelelo Dwangu, manager of CWD Crisis Relief, told the gathering that 10% of South Africa's 44 million population live in urban informal settlements.

Annually more than 50 000 dwellings are razed and 200 people die as a result of fire.

Ms Dwangu said more than 1,2

Hawa Hassan of alternative energies firm Ezylight (second from left) presents a solar lighting unit to Masiphumelele single mother Ntombekhaya Sobethwa, a casualty of recent shack fires in the area. She is flanked by CWD's Crisis Relief and prevention manager, Nontsikelelo Dwangu (right) and Denise Klassen (left), manager of CWD's Siyakhulisa Community Development Centre in Masiphumelele. million households or 4,4 million people are at risk to fires. She said lack of access to electricity leads to the use of dangerous sources of light and heat, such as paraffin stoves and candles. Minimal water supply makes it impossible for shack dwellers to effectively fight fires themselves and thus the efforts from the stakeholders were necessary.

Various presentations were made to the community at the launch. Those dealt with paraffin distribution, poisoning and storage, treating ingestion, indoor pollution, fire escape routes, construction techniques and materials, as well as the dangers of alcohol consumption and how it leads to irresponsible behaviour.

According to CWD’s communi-

cation manager Michail Rassool, individuals in the community were invited to come forward to be asked questions about certain aspects of safety and prevention they had learnt. Those who answered correctly received a gift pack that included safe paraffin lamps, safe paraffin container, paraffin safety calendars, a funnel for pouring paraffin, T-shirts and candle jars.

CWD was further involved in community safety when the “Safety and Prevention Indaba” was launched by crisis relief stakeholders including Ezylight, CWD’s Crisis Relief programme, the Paraffin Safety Association South Africa and Eskom. The event took place today at the organisation’s Siyakhulisa Community Develop-

ment Centre in Masiphumelele.

He said the integrated approach The event was aimed at increas- that Masiphumelele had seen, in ing awareness around solar light- which disaster management, law ing and to dissuade individuals enforcement, civil society and from relying on candles which are communities work together was considered an expensive risk fac- conducted with the hope that tor. “local communities will be more Two community members were equipped to respond to, or to recipients of the Ezylight solar avoid, disasters in their environlighting units.

Recipient ment and to adopt more vigilant Ntombokhanyo Fani said the new attitudes, and thus foster a culture technology will be especially use- of safety and prevention”. ful to her children for study purThe campaign is set to move to poses. She explained that one other communities during the electricity grid serves about ten year. families in her neighbourhood, and at night she often runs out of electricity, a problem that may well be alleviated through solar lighting.

The units, by using the sustainable and renewable energy of the sun, are viable alternatives to open flame lighting.

The safer units are suitable for We Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate cooking and Conception strengthen our lighting. relationship with God by prayer in Mr Rassool order to serve Him and His people. We work said the deva with all age-groups and where the Church stating effect of needs us. shack fires can be diminished or avoided altoIf you wish to know more about us, contact: gether through The Vocations Directress at awareness and more safety-conPO Box 2912, Middelburg, 1050. scious practices.

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4

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

INTERNATIONAL

Vatican stargazing through Galileo’s eyes

BY CARoL gLATz

T

OP Renaissance scientists and scholars gathered on a grassy hill overlooking Rome one starry spring night 400 years ago to gaze into a unique innovation

by Galileo Galilei: the telescope.

“This was really an exciting event. This was the first time that Galileo showed off his telescope in public to the educated people of Rome, which was the centre of culture in Italy at that time,” said Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, Vatican astronomer, as he stood on the same knoll.

The original gathering on April 14, 1611, was sponsored by the world’s oldest scientific academy— the National Academy of Lincei— of which Galileo was a member.

Today, the grassy hill is part of the American Academy in Rome, which wanted to celebrate its connection to Galileo with a number of events that included a discussion of faith and science with Br Consolmagno.

Christopher Celenza, the director of the American Academy, said that the Renaissance scholars “gathered here to celebrate Galileo and the invention of what they termed at this meeting, the telescope. It was the first time the word telescope was used” to refer to the device Galileo had perfected in 1609 and started using to study the heavens.

The Renaissance men gathered on the Janiculum hill included Jesuit scholars, such as Fr Christopher Clavius, who had helped devise the Gregorian calendar 40 years earlier. They came to see what Galileo had been reporting— a number of celestial bodies circling Jupiter.

Br Consolmagno said that the unveiling of the telescope was so significant because “this is the first time that science is done with an instrument. It’s not something that just any philosopher could look at. You had to have the right tool to be able to be able to see it,” because one’s own eyes were no longer enough.

“People then wanted to look for themselves and see if they were seeing the same things Galileo was seeing,” he said.

People often don’t realise that Galileo was in very good standing with the Church and with many Church leaders for decades before his trial in 1633, he said.

Just a few weeks after he demonstrated his telescope on the Roman hillside, Galileo was “feted at the Roman College by the Jesuits, who were really impressed with the work he had done. At this point, he had burst onto the scene as one of the great intellectual lights of the 17th century”, Br Consolmagno said.

“Even at his biggest point of trouble, Galileo was always a faith-

Silent Night on UNESCO list

BY JoNATHAN LuxMooRE

T

HE world’s most popular Christmas carol, “Silent Night”, has been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in recognition of its role in fostering cultural diversity.

“This is a song of freedom for the world, whose beautiful melody and text have inspired versions in more than 300 languages,” said Michael Neureiter, president of Austria’s Silent Night Society. “Although it comes from the Catholic tradition, its calm, harmonic sound has made it accessible internationally. As such, it’s not just a Christian song, but also a human song.”

“Stille Nacht”, or “Silent Night”, was written as a poem in 1816 by Fr Joseph Mohr in Mariapfarr, where he was assigned as an assistant parish priest. It premiered as a carol for two solo voices on Christmas Eve 1818 at the

newly established St Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, with music composed by the church organist, Franz Gruber.

Speaking at a news conference in Vienna, Maria Walcher, director of the Austrian Commission of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), said the carol had been added to the heritage list for its “key contribution to sustaining cultural diversity”.

“This song is viewed worldwide as expressing the essence of the Alpine Christmas. It has a clear foundation of identity because of this,” Ms Walcher said.

Mr Neureiter said items on the World Heritage List must be recognised as being of universal cultural and social value by UNESCO member-states. He said Archbishop Alois Kothgasser of Salzburg had backed efforts to have the carol recognised and protected.—CNS

Telescopes belonging to galileo galilei displayed at the galileo Museum in florence. (photo: Alessia pierdomenico, Reuters/CNS) ful son of the Church—his two daughters were nuns—and he was friends with many of the people of Rome, including future popes.”

Br Consolmagno said the real reason that Galileo was eventually brought before the Inquisition and found guilty of suspected heresy is still a mystery. Numerous authors have proposed different findings and the trial is still “a great puzzle for historians”.

Thanks to having many friends

in high places, Galileo for years managed to evade any problems for maintaining that the earth revolves around the sun, the Jesuit said.

Galileo received permission, including from the pope’s personal censor, to publish his book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.

“He’s done everything right, he’s followed all the rules and suddenly out of nowhere he’s called

Indian Church feels unjustly treated

BY CINDY WooDEN

T

HE Vatican and many of the Latin-rite bishops of India are not treating the SyroMalabar Catholic Church with justice, and that makes the Church look bad, Auxiliary Bishop Bosco Puthur of ErnakulamAngamaly told Pope Benedict.

While other Christians and other religions enjoy the freedom to build churches and conduct services anywhere in India, the Eastern Catholic churches “are denied it, paradoxically not by the state, but by our own ecclesiastical authorities”, the bishop said.

Bishop Puthur, administrator of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, made his remarks to Pope Benedict at the end of the Syro-Malabar bishops’ ad limina visits to the Vatican to report on the status of their dioceses.

Generally, the leaders of the Eastern Catholic churches such as

the Syro-Malabar Church enjoy full freedom to elect bishops and erect dioceses only in their Church’s traditional territory; otherwise, the responsibility is left to the pope, often in consultation with the Latin-rite bishops of the region concerned.

In the case of the Syro-Malabar Church, Bishop Puthur told Pope Benedict that its traditional territory was all of India until Latinrite missionaries arrived in the 15th century. Now any of its faithful living outside Kerala state are subject to the authority of the local Latin-rite bishop.

“We are convinced that it is the credibility of the Apostolic See that is at stake if this jurisdictional right is not restored to its pristine status,” the bishop said.

Bishop Puthur presented five requests to Pope Benedict: the restoration of “all-India jurisdiction” to the Syro-Malabar Church; permission to establish dioceses

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throughout India; permission to set up archdioceses in Delhi and other large cities; the establishment of a special jurisdiction for the Persian Gulf states, in order to serve the tens of thousands of Syro-Malabar Catholics from India working in the region; action to improve the pastoral care of Syro-Malabar Catholics in Europe, Australia and other parts of the world.

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has about 3,7 million members around the world, Bishop Puthur said.

In his talk to the bishops, Pope Benedict urged them to work for unity within their dioceses, in their Church and with the all the bishops of India.

“This responsibility is of special importance in a country like India where the unity of the Church is reflected in the rich diversity of her rites and traditions,” he said.—CNS

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to trial,” Br Consolmagno said.

Galileo was willing and eager to make any corrections to the text, he said, but the inquisitors would not allow it. They were unable to find him guilty of heresy, however, “so they changed the verdict at the last minute to [find Galileo] guilty of vehement suspicion of heresy,” Br Consolmagno said.

“All of which makes me suspect that the trial was a political setup that had nothing to do with philosophy.

“The Spanish ambassador to the Holy See had accused Pope Urban VIII in public of being a closet Protestant because he wasn’t vigourously enough supporting the Spanish” side in their fight against the so-called Protestant side, he said.

Punishing Galileo was a way to “pay off some people who were mad at Galileo anyway; to send a message to the Medici (the ruling family of Tuscany) to stay out of the war; and to show the Spanish that ‘look, I really am not a closet Protestant’,” Br Consolmagno said.

Whatever the political reasons were behind the trial and its verdict, he said the “terrible mistake” was that the Church had used its religious authority for political ends.

Galileo’s reputation was restored in 1992 by a special Vatican commission established by Pope John Paul II.—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

5

Sudan bishops: Peace in new nation

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Visitors on scaffolding look at a panel of the newly restored 14th-century fresco “The Legend of the True Cross” by Agnolo gaddi in Santa Croce basilica in florence, Italy. The basilica is offering visitors the unique opportunity to climb scaffolding for a close-up view of newly restored frescoes adorning the walls and ceiling around the main altar. proceeds from the 10-euro fee for the visit will help cover the cost of the restoration. (photo: Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters/CNS)

King’s Speech, Toy Story 3 win Catholic awards

T

HE feature films The King’s Speech, Toy Story 3 and Secretariat were among the 17 winners of the 62nd annual Christopher Awards honouring book, film and television productions that affirm the highest values of the human spirit.

A documentary film also won a Christopher: The Human Experience, which follows two brothers as they live homeless on the streets of New York, take care of disabled children in Peru and visit lepers in Africa as their way of affirming the inherent dignity of all people.

The Christopher awards will be conferred on May 19 in New York.

Among the television programmes that won Christophers was Making the Crooked Straight, the real-life story of a Long Island doctor whose mission to heal sick children in Ethiopia is founded on the Orthodox Jewish belief that “he who saves one life, saves an entire world”.

Also honoured was A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism, about an Icelandic woman who travels to the United States to learn more about autism therapies that could potentially help her son.

In addition to the movies and TV shows, Christopher Awards were bestowed on nine books.

Among them was Thea’s Song: The Life of Thea Bowman

by John Feister and Charlene Smith, which chronicled the life of the late African-American convert and Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life by Fr James Martin SJ. Also awarded was Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas, an in-depth look at the life and faith of Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who called for German churches to speak out against Nazi policies, and was killed for his role in a plot to overthrow Hitler.—CNS

UDAN’S Catholic bishops have called upon the people of Sudan and the emerging nation of South Sudan “to embrace a culture of peace and to reject violence” and to respect human life and dignity as both regions prepare for the formal Declaration of Independence of the South on July 9.

Meeting in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference said that the work of creating what in reality are two new countries will require patience, understanding and restraint on the part of all citizens, political parties and armed forces.

“We call upon them to turn away from division, incitement, hate speech, rumours and accusations and to resolve disputes through dialogue in a spirit of unity,” the bishops said in a statement. “We are all children of God, regardless of geographical boundaries, ethnicity, religion, culture, or political affiliation, and we insist

on respect for diversity.”

Violence has been reported in key regions of Southern Sudan, where more than 98% of voters approved independence from Sudan in a January referendum.

Intensive clashes have been reported between rebel factions and the army of Southern Sudan since the vote was announced.

Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed and injured in violent outbreaks in Bahr el Ghazal, Unity and Upper Nile regions, according to the German Catholic agency Aid to the Church in Need.

The bishops also addressed government officials in both countries who are preparing for the final stages of Southern Sudan’s independence, calling upon authorities to “act justly and foster openness and participation in spirit and action”.

“Citizens must recognise that great changes are not completed overnight; there is a process which may not always meet immediate

expectations. Legitimate authority must be respected, but leaders must work selflessly for the common good and avoid exaggerated political ambition. Leadership is a service to the people, and offices must be surrendered willingly at the end of the requisite term,” the bishops said.

Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok Kur of Khartoum, Sudan, told the German agency that although the conflicts were intense, they did not threaten the path to independence for the South.

He also urged officials in Southern Sudan to resolve the underlying problems causing the violence, some of which may be linked to the arming of rebels by the Islamic North.

“It would be best to sit down and discuss the issues,” he said.

“We have to ask the people, ‘What is the root of the tension?’ If we do not address that, after some months or years it will cause the disturbance to widen.”—CNS

John Paul II’s feast set for October 22

BY CINDY WooDEN

T

HE feast day of Blessed John Paul II will be marked on October 22 each year in Rome and the dioceses of Poland.

The Vatican also said Catholics throughout the world will have a year to celebrate a Mass in thanksgiving for his beatification. While thanksgiving Masses for a beatification—like the observance of a feast day—usually are limited to places where the person lived or worked, “the exceptional character of the beatification of the Venerable John Paul II, recognised by the entire Catholic Church spread throughout the world”, led to a general permission for the thanksgiving Mass, said a decree from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

A local bishop or the superior general of a religious order is free to choose the day or dates as well as the place or places for the thanksgiving Mass, as long as the Masses are celebrated by May 1, 2012, which is one year after the beatifica-

tion, the decree said.

In the diocese of Rome, where Pope John Paul served as bishop, and in all the dioceses of his native Poland, his feast day is to be inserted automatically into the annual calendar, the decree said. October 22 was chosen as the day to remember him because it is the anniversary of the liturgical inauguration of his papacy in 1978.

Outside Rome and Poland, bishops will have to file a formal request with the Vatican to receive permission to mark the feast day, the decree said. The local-only celebration of a blessed’s feast is one of the most noticeable differences between being beatified and being canonised, which makes universal public liturgical veneration possible.

The only places where parishes and churches can be named after Bl John Paul without special Vatican permission are in the diocese of Rome and the dioceses of Poland or other places that have obtained specific Vatican permission to insert Pope John Paul’s October 22 feast in their liturgical calendar—CNS.

Look out next week for our

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6

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher Guest editorial by Russell Pollitt SJ

Live the Resurrection

H

AVE you ever wondered why our churches overflow on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but on Easter Sunday the number of congregants reflect those of any other Sunday?

Is it a sign of what we really believe? Or might it be that we have become so accustomed to living in a society which relentlessly drenches us with bad news that we find it much easier to identify with the ash and the cross?

Perhaps we hear so few stories with a happy ending that we are no longer attuned to good news. Bad news (in all its forms) is all around us; it’s become our staple diet in South Africa.

It’s easy for us to tell the bad news stories; it’s easy for us to point to all that is wrong in our own lives and in our country.

The media remind us constantly of the ever-present ash and cross. Yet our Christian story does not end like so many stories around us, it does have a happy ending—the ending we celebrate on Easter Sunday.

The resurrection of Jesus does not deny the bad news—he confronts and experiences bad news like we do. However, the bad news was not the end of the story for Jesus—and it shouldn’t be for us either.

Jesus, in his resurrection, sees beyond the bad news and invites us to do the same. It wasn’t easy for him and it isn’t easy for us (remember, after his resurrection Jesus’ hands and feet still bear the wounds of crucifixion). Like Jesus our wounds should not be and are not the end of our story.

Our celebration of Easter is a proclamation of our triumph over the ash and the cross. It is an invitation to us to name experiences of victory over bad news in our lives and in our world.

We are invited out of the tomb of bad news (death) and defeat into the glorious light of resurrection. It is a celebration in which we rejoice that Jesus

has risen from the dead and that, in our own lives, some of our stories end in happy endings. Can we identify and name those stories?

The Good News of the resurrection has a dramatic effect on the disciples—from being fearful “runaways” they become bold witnesses! The Good News of the resurrection gives them a new found confidence in themselves and God. It gives them new vision and empowers them to tell others. Our good news stories will do the same.

How different our country would be (and our own state of mind?) if we had a “resurrection” story as the lead story on TV and in our newspapers every day?

I had a powerful encounter with a 16-year-old in a trauma ICU. She was a victim of a terrorist attack. She almost lost one of her legs completely and the other was seriously damaged. Many of her companions lost their lives in the bomb. In a second her life was changed, the brutal inhumanity of one group towards another. Every day she was fighting to keep her legs and underwent many surgical procedures.

One day she was in the most indescribable pain and the threat of infection loomed.

Through her tears she told me that she hated what had happened to her and found it so sad that people could do this to each other. Then she told me, and this was beyond comprehension, how she couldn’t hold this against them: “I forgive them”, she said.

This was a moment of resurrection. In the midst of her bad news I heard words of good news. This young lady, like Jesus, was triumphant over the forces of darkness. She taught me something about resurrection.

All of us have a good news story to tell, and it doesn’t have to be dramatic. Celebrate your story with Jesus’ resurrection; rejoice in the triumph he won.

Live the resurrection, not the ash and cross.

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.

Don’t stop the music–mind the gap!

W

ITH reference to the type of music in the Catholic Church, the book Mind the Gap (Codrington and Marshall, 2004) has something interesting to say about the generation gap.

The so-called “silent” generation (born 1920s-’40s) was accustomed to organ music. I would add that the hymns tended to be of a high Christological nature, emphasising the divinity of Christ. The “boomer” generation (born ’40s’60s) have a clear preference for more folky and rock-orientated music.

Many of these folksy hymns portray a more personal Christ; a more

human Jesus, a form of low Christology.

This music is more personal, subjective, less doctrinal and intended to allow for the expression of intimate love and joy in the Lord. It is interesting to note that the folk groups of today still feature many of the boomer generation, with grey hair or no hair, middle-age spreads and the like!

The boomer music style is of course out of date for the subsequent generations, who have witnessed battles between the boomers and silent generation about music and liturgical style. Apparently, the Xer generation (born ’60s to ’80s)

The Church and Cosatu

own impact assessment, which it chooses to ignore. Most troublingly, despite quite respectable spending, the quality of our education system ranks dismally, even alongside poorer countries.

In much of this, incidentally, Cosatu has been deeply complicit.

Its teaching affiliate, the South Africa Democratic Teachers’ Union, deserves a special mention for unprofessionalism to the detriment of the poor (whom they claim to serve). And part of its own solution to the education malaise is to abolish private schools, including, I presume, those operated by its “lifetime allies”.

What to do? “Struggle”, says Mr Vavi. Maybe. Or we could use our votes to hold rulers accountable.

Government could actually perform the mundane business of governance. It could take corruption seriously. It could institute achievable growth-oriented policies. It could reform the regulatory and labour regimes to incentivise employment creation. It could stand up to SADTU and ensure that teachers attend diligently to the education of their charges— and reward those who excel. It could listen to warnings about the consequences of its policies.

This latter option is less dramatic and romantic than Mr Vavi’s, but I’ll leave it to your judgment which will have a better outcome.

Scripture cautions that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter heaven. Perhaps similar reservations are in order about people speaking for “the poor”?

Marti Wenger, DA MP

I

F our Catholic hierarchy and institutions concur with Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi about the relationship between his federation and the Church (“‘Lifetime allies’ Cosatu and bishops give the poor hope”, March 23), this is a position that requires explanation.

I cannot fathom how the pastoral and prophetic role of the Church can be reconciled with an “alignment” to an organisation that is unambiguously committed to a political party, and against other parties—and which proclaims a commitment to MarxismLeninism to boot.

The article raises important issues, but let me suggest that its premise is faulty. The poor do not need “hope”. They need results.

No one questions the seriousness of poverty, or of inequality, or of the need for employment as a means of addressing it.

To create jobs, we need job and wealth creators—real entrepreneurs. Economists advise us to look for the incentives in a system to predict its outcomes. South Africa’s record here is disappointing. An environment within which enterprises can grow and take on new staff has not been created.

Indeed, in many respects, the reverse is true: a cumbersome and costly regulatory framework; a labour regime that discriminates against small businesses and the unemployed; inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure; uncertainty over property protection; a state that in many areas is politicised, corrupt and dysfunctional.

As I write this, draft labour legislation is under consideration that will severely undermine job creation–according to government’s

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When in Rome

C

hris Moerdyk’s skilfully plotted fable “The Terrorist. The Vatican. The Sign” (March 23), reminds me of a story told about a pilgrim who had walked through Europe, partly on bare feet, to see

also prefers more personal, familiar music, ostensibly less reverential to older generations, while the millennials (born ’80s to ’00s) are quite eclectic and use computers and synthesisers.

Of course, we can argue that there are the classics which transcend time and the generations.

There are also special trends which over-ride generations, as does the type of rhythmic Pentecostal music, much of which comes from the United States.

Discernment is needed to judge the suitability of a particular song, but there needs to be allowance for the different sub-cultures and the different generations. Mind the Gap! Fr Pierre Goldie, Cape Town Pope John Paul II one Easter.

When the pope arrived to celebrate Holy Mass, the pilgrim, beaming with joy and love, tried to run up to him. Remembering earlier murder attempts, some security men quite rightly intervened. Unfortunately they went beyond the call of duty, beating the pilgrim off with savage brutality and throwing him down a flight of stairs where he lay in agony; his look of ecstasy changed to one of baffled incredulity in an instant.

Catholicism’s bloodied history is a monument to the fact that not all actions by Catholics are performed in a Christ-like manner.

While I found the fable thought-provoking, I considered the quip about the virgins in heaven, ascribed by Mr Moerdyk to the traffic policeman, as being unworthy of The Southern Cross. It is one of those jokes we tell because we cannot resist the temptation to repeat and which we can’t help chortling about guiltily. But in the end we are left with egg on our face. In humanity’s seemingly unavailing struggle for unity and ecumenism, no good has ever come of ridiculing another’s beliefs, no matter how extraordinary.

Moreover, there is a commandment against the irreverent use of our Lord’s name. Why couldn’t the American tourist have said; “Holy smoke!”? The Southern Cross contributors should be made aware that in a Catholic newspaper the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ is used exclusively with love, care and respect and never as an expletive. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Luky Whittle, Kroonstad n The dramatic conclusion to the story hinges on the tourist’s use of the expletive. Its use in the story is in no way approving of irreverence to the Lord’s name.—Editor

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LETTERS PAGE Which Church?

I

T seems to me that Brian Robertson (“Fiddling while Rome burns”, April 6) might have been struck by the lightning of relativism.

Conscience allows us to conceive of good and evil, but the unguided conscience too readily wallows in the treacherous seas of relativism. The Church guides our consciences with the wisdom garnered from the Holy Spirit, and without this guidance, we are dangerously adrift.

Misguided consciences allow abortions, terrorism, sexual abuse, and every other evil, thus I ask which church? Certainly not Church (with uppercase C)!

I pray that the “We are Church” group is not busy informing the consciences of good Christians that they can follow the dictates of their unguided concepts of good and evil. Release from the bonds of guilt, if indeed there is guilt, comes from rehabilitation of the guilty person, not from liberation of the conscience from Godly guidance. God rejoices at one sinner doing penance.

It is God’s energy (Holy Spirit) and love that is able to revitalise and guide us into following goodness, and from this goodness must emanate acts of goodness, so that the fires of the self-absorbed fiddlers are extinguished, and the whole of society is benefitted.

I believe that Bishop Barry Wood, the auxiliary in Durban whom Prof Robertson quotes, is a staunch proponent of the Church, which ever urges more societal action on the part of all of us whose consciences are, and should be, stung by the surfeit of bad in every society.

I exhort Prof Robertson to exercise his psychiatric expertise into provoking us into action, and recommending practical means of confronting these tragic and bad societal issues.

Dr John Straughan, Cape Town

Work for justice

B

ISHOP Barry Wood’s article on justice (March 16) is nothing short of brilliant, as was your incisive front-page sub-heading description of the article, “Why justice trumps charity”.

Bishop Wood emphasised that

Jesus always showed that he stood for the most down-trodden in society, and that we must therefore work for the necessary justice to alleviate their plight. Note, not charity, but justice to transform their lives, as opposed to only providing handouts which is as good as temporary relief always is. What was that old expression about teaching someone to fish, as opposed to giving a fish?

A good example was given about the compassionate villagers always helping the injured and dying found floating down-stream from around a bend in a river: charity; but no one went upstream to check out what terrible things were happening: justice.

Most telling was the bishops’ observation that the letters page in The Southern Cross overflows with discussions about a host of issues, but the deeper causes of injustice in our society are hardly confronted.

With local government elections upon us, let us pray for guidance and examine our Christian conscience in the light of seeing the complete picture, judging in the light of the teachings of the Gospel and the Church, and then acting upon injustices.

James Dryja, Justice and Peace group, Roodepoort parish

Raise a voice

S

INCERE thanks to Chris Moerdyk for his poignant, beautifully told story (March 23). Sincere thanks to The Southern Cross for having the courage to publish it.

One can only hope that there will be many more voices raised in much needed constructive criticism of the monolithic structure that reigns as “The Church” where, in fact, the kingdom of God should be fostered.

Bernard Straughan, Cape Town

Question of beliefs

M

ANY thanks to Fr Christopher Clohessy, our local expert on Islam from a Catholic perspective, for his enlightening “The Qur’an sadly misquoted” (March 30).

Many Catholics mistakenly believe that there is much in common between Islam and Catholic Christianity, simply because the

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Muslim Qur’an mentions Jesus and Mary, and knows the names of other biblical persons. These are superficial resemblances in Islam that block all acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Saviour of mankind. The Muslim belief that those “whose balances shall be heavy, shall be blest” (Sura 13:102, 140) is as far as can be from Catholic Christianity’s teaching that we attain salvation by grace and faith in Jesus Christ, manifested in graced good works of love (Gal 5:6).

Genesis 22:10 has Isaac, not Ishmael (as in the Qur’an) as the one who Abraham is to sacrifice.

According to the Qur’an, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in the form of a man who was in fact the Holy Spirit, through whose union with Mary, Jesus was conceived, yet also says that Jesus was no more than an apostle of God, the son of Mary, born from the dust.

In the Qur’an there is no Joseph.

The Qur’an also states that Mary went into the wilderness in the east and gave birth to Jesus under a palm tree laden with fruit.

After giving birth, Mary, hungry and exhausted, shook the tree (sic) and ate the fruit that fell to the ground. The infancy narratives in St Luke’s gospel were according to tradition narrated by Mary herself to the evangelist, Luke. How can two such differing narratives both be true? The Qur’an’s testimony of Jesus and Mary was recorded 600 years after the events, while the New Testament conveys eye-witness or first-hand testimony of the life and ministry of Jesus.

Muslims maintain they have two guardian angels and therefore bow to the left and the right during prayer. Some of these beliefs sound remarkably like those of certain Christian splinter groups, widespread during Mohamed’s life-time in Arabia and with whom, doubtless, he came into contact. For what reason do Muslims accord Mary such high status when her Son, Jesus, is nothing but a minor prophet?

With regard to the death of Jesus, the Qur’an also states “they neither killed nor crucified him; it had only the appearance of it” (Sura 4:157). Astoundingly, the Qur’an confuses Miriam, the sister of Moses, and the Virgin Mary (also Miriam).

Our attitudes towards Muslims

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

must be guided by Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate which recommends that we forget the many hostilities of the past and strive for mutual understanding, foster social justice, moral values, peace and freedom, difficult as it is with fundamentalist Islam, where there is a clear lack of reciprocity, as referred to by Fr Clohessy, and in Pope John Paul’s Redemptoris Missio which stresses the necessity to proclaim Jesus Christ as the only Way, Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6), while treating Muslims with sincere respect and recognising in them “glimpses of truth”.

John Lee, Johannesburg

Qu’ran revisited

F

ATHER Christopher Clohessy dismisses the book Facts on Islam by John Ankerberg and John Weldon (March 30). Fr Clohessy says that the authors “hail from a fundamentalist Protestant background and who are as antiCatholic as they are anti-Muslim”.

However, I don’t care whether they are Protestant or not or that the book is not about Catholics.

Their objective is to show what Islam believes and where it differs from the Bible.

Here is another “horrible” quotation from the Qur’an taken from that book: “God guides not the people of the unbelievers...the Messiah (Jesus) said, Children of Israel, serve God (Allah), my Lord and your Lord. Verily who so associates with God anything, God shall prohibit his entrance to Paradise, and his refuge shall be the Fire, and wrong doers shall have no helpers. They are unbelievers who say ‘God is the third of three’.

No God is there but one God.” As the authors point out, this passage states that those who hold that Christ is God are unbelievers, as are those who believe in the Trinity or associate Allah with Jesus; their punishment is the Fire.

Note that Jesus himself says this, thus contradicting what he states about himself in the Bible (Luke 10:22). This passage contradicts what Fr Clohessy says about “going to hell” for belief in the Incarnation or the Trinity.

The point of about reciprocity I took from the pamphlet Catholics for Truth, tract No II, and the last sentence of my letter was a direct quote from the tract, although the

7

source was omitted. Islam claims to be tolerant, but the tract points out that non-Muslim religions are forbidden in Saudi Arabia.

Fr Clohessy says I have forgotten the basic principle that religious principles should not be judged by practice. I have not forgotten, but sometimes principles inform the practices. The sixth pillar of Islam is “Jihad” or Holy war against the Infidel. Jews or Christians can convert or are “given the additional alternative of submission and tribute”—The World’s religions, JND Anderson.

The Catholics for Truth tract ends by quoting Nostra Aetate in which Muslims and Christians should strive for “mutual understanding, moral values and freedom”. Dialogue is a two-way street though.

Peter Onesta, Johannesburg

Power of pilgrimage

R

eaders may be considering overseas travel during 2011 and I would like to suggest the Holy Land as a destination.

For any Christian, the area of the Middle East encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Egypt, offer an undeniable attraction. This is where Jesus was born, lived, taught, healed the sick, was crucified and rose again.

After leading pilgrimages to the Holy Land in recent years, I have set up a website www.seetheholyland.net providing descriptions and photographs of more than 70 holy places, to encourage more Christians, especially from the , to go as pilgrims.

Besides the real spiritual benefit Christians receive from visiting places associated with the life of Christ, pilgrimages to the Holy Land are a positive way to express solidarity with the declining number of Christians still living there under difficult conditions.

Pat McCarthy, Auckland, New Zealand

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.

8

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

Students’ joy at converting Easter, the season of rebirth, is traditionally a time for converts to be received into the Church. CLAIRE MATHIESoN spoke to five university students who are joining the Catholic Church.

E

ASTER is a time for renewal.

University is a place of study and personal development.

These two factors have been combined at Kolbe House, the Catholic chaplaincy at the University of Cape Town, where five students are about to convert to Catholicism, having undergone the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) course.

The five students are from around Africa and are highly educated. According to Fr Graham Pugin SJ, UCT’s Catholic chaplain, the students are incredibly dedicated to more than just their studies.

“It’s permissible to be Christian on campus, but to be Catholic—that’s definitely not the norm. Catholics are just not making an impact,” Fr Pugin said.

The five converts have come to Kolbe House to learn and live a Catholic life. Fr Pugin said they arrived without their parents and without external pressures. “These students come because they want to.”

Kolbe House, while not hidden, is often overlooked. Located on the outskirts of the university’s grounds, it is on a popular walkway but hardly eye-catching. It is home to the Cape Town branch of the Association of Catholic Students (ACTS), but the society is not given much freedom to have a big presence on

campus. While Kolbe House tries to advertise, there are some residences that allow no religious paraphernalia to be displayed, and “the university can be tricky to work with”, Fr Pugin said. Despite this, Cape Town boasts one of the most active campus chaplaincies in South Africa, and Fr Pugin is the country’s only full time chaplain.

Those that come to Kolbe House really want to. It is either word of mouth or dedication that brings new students to the chaplaincy, and it is a vibrant student community that keeps them there. Kolbe house buzzes with activity even on a Friday night!

Originally from Chad, Roandje Nadjiasngar is studying towards his PhD in Engineering and has been attempting to convert to Catholicism most of his life. He missed the beginning of the catechism course at school and had to remain a year behind his friends in order to make up for it. Mr Nadjiasngar attempted again in boarding school, but missed the catechism again. So, when he came to Cape Town he decided this would be the time he got it right.

Mr Nadjiasngar had always considered himself a Catholic and knew it was what he wanted but he said he couldn’t be a Catholic until he really was. Completing the course, no matter how many times he attempted, was really important to him. ifth-year medical student Gabaza Mashele from Johannesburg said she came to “check out the Catholic Church” for marriage.

“My boyfriend is Catholic and we plan on getting married. But I was Pentecostal and he was Catholic. A compromise had to be made,” she said. Ms Mashele said she started

F

going to Kolbe House with a friend and liked the environment. She said the faith journey at Kolbe House had led her to believe that even if things don’t work out, she will keep her new found Catholic faith.

Similarly Tiapiwa Tevera, from Zimbabwe, said friends invited him to Kolbe house and he reconnected with the faith that was the basis of his schooling. He has had a long relationship with Kolbe House, attending from his undergraduate days. He is now studying towards his masters in Material Engineering.

He feels that “it is in the Catholic Church that I feel my most personal relationship with God”, but has taken him a while to become a Catholic because it was only recently that he felt confident enough to tell his Pentecostal family of his decision.

Despite his initial concerns, Mr Tevera has received his family’s support because the environment of his life choice is “moral”. He said his family was convinced by his confidence in the religion. ut not everyone in the converts’ lives has been entirely open to conversion to Catholicism. Actuarial Science student Franck Essomba from Cameroon said his brother had been reluctant to consider the Catholic Church because of the family’s strong Pentecostal beliefs.

Despite this, Mr Essomba said his passion for the Catholic faith had not dwindled and he was excited about his conversion and because of this passion, his family was now happy for him.

Another student from Cameroon, Christoph Toukam, said while he was sent to a Catholic school, he still felt nervous about telling his mother of his conversion.

B

New converts to Catholicism are pictured with their chaplain Jesuit father graham pugin. (Seated from left) Christoph Toukam, Tiapiwa Tevera, Roandje Nadjiasngar and sponsor zena Tahwa, and standing franck Essomba and gabaza Mashele. (photo: Claire Mathieson) He said becoming Catholic had made him a better person. Since being at Kolbe House, he has gained confidence in the relationships he has built. “It’s no longer an experience being here, but a feeling,” he said.

And it’s this “feeling” that Fr Pugin has most noticed in the group. He said in the last month there has been a “real deepening of faith and the students are on a completely different level to when they started the course”.

The students have been preparing for 12 months and will receive the Eucharist on Easter Sunday.

While this is one of the bigger groups of converts and despite a great sense of enthusiasm, it hasn’t been an easy ride. Fr Pugin said university students ask many more questions than usual. “At this time in their lives, the students are working out their spirituality and what place God has in their lives.”

He said working with students was immensely challenging but also immensely rewarding.

The students have been well prepared to live as Catholics. This includes dealing with criticism for the Church’s actions. “One Catholic cannot control what everyone else does. One person may receive bad publicity for an action but it doesn’t have to affect me,” said Zena Tahwa, a third-year Actuarial Science student from Zimbabwe who is sponsoring one of the converts.

Mr Tevera added that saying one is Catholic and being Catholic are two different things. He said the RCIA course had prepared him to fully live a Catholic life. The other students agreed, saying they were proud to be becoming Catholic.

The students have noticed changes in themselves. Mr Essomba said he felt more settled, Ms Mashele said it had brought her

Christoph Toukam (pictured) said at Kolbe House he has discovered a new journey which he is eager to take with his new-found faith. peace and in her relationship she has found greater understanding, security and has been brought closer to her boyfriend, and Mr Toukam said he thought he had become a better person by being “less selfish.”

With their reception into the Church nearing, there is much excitement. When asked what they were most looking forward to, they unanimously replied: “Finally receiving the Eucharist.”

For Mr Nadjiasngar, finally being able to say he is Catholic will be considered his “greatest achievement.” He said he can’t wait to see in what direction he will end up serving the Church.

Fr Pugin said he was incredibly proud of what had been achieved.

These students are highly educated and well-travelled, and yet their main goal at the moment is to journey with God. The excitement and energy in the room is contagious and one can’t help but feel enthused by their Catholic vigour.

“The sincerity and depth these young people are showing today is mindboggling!” said Fr Pugin, summing up the intensity this group has not only for converting, but also for becoming great Catholics.

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PERSPECTIVES

Towards an African Pentecost!

Evans Chama SMA A T the end of the African Synod II in October 2009 the reaction of the participants was like: “Were our hearts not burning?”

There was a feeling not just of relief for having finally reached the end, but also a remarkable sense of satisfaction for the job done. They didn’t hesitate to describe it as a “new Pentecost”.

Pentecost? Really? Perhaps strange!

Was it because they were still in Rome enjoying the fraternity, good ambience, buoyed by the idealism of the proposals while still far, a good break, from their struggles in Africa and dioceses? Was it what they experienced there and then or as hope of the fruit after applying those propositions?

Was it not, therefore, too early to speak of Pentecost?

Anyway, whatever we may speculate, we cannot take from them the joy, and the satisfaction they experienced. It was a marvel at Rome, but the bishops at least had no intention of building tents in Rome. They were determined to come down the mountain to their churches.

And so what they experienced was only a foretaste; the real Pentecost would come when the fire of the Spirit descended which would burn and transform into itself the hopes and pains of their flock in Africa.

The true measure of the Pentecost is when the entire African Church welcomes the fruit of the Synod and begins living it. The descent of the Spirit happened on a certain morning, but the transformation has been on-going in the Church.

In that case, what the Synod Fathers proclaimed as Pentecost was but just the beginning of such long and huge work

that demands more than a good feeling, but a persevering effort that endures even the dryness of emotional consolation in confidence and faith in the One in whose mission we are only helpers. This transforming power of the spirit will start taking effect with a change of mentality.

Africa has suffered great wounds in history: slave trade, colonialism, injustice at international trade, the on-going wars fanned most often by external people who are blind to the horrible suffering of the innocent people just because for them it’s an occasion to gain.

Yet, despite all that, Africa is not just a passive victim. The injustice and oppression is not just something coming from without to which Africa is forced to submit. There are many Africans who themselves are active oppressors of their own people; they earn their bread by making victims their own people.

To move forward for a change, the African society needs a very serious introspection.

Moreover, real change and development will not come by crying over what others have done to us. In fact, every country on earth has a story to tell. The countries that we call developed or developing nations—for example Spain, Russia, Brazil, China or India—will tell stories of oppression, invasion and pestilence they endured for centuries.

In some Western nations too, flourishing as they may be today, things were not always rosy. They went through wars, dictatorial and repressive rule; each nation has a sad story to tell. But they have moved forward without having to disown their true, sad history.

Surely, we too must move. It’s not the crying over our history that is going to develop Africa.

Saved by one man’s sacrifice

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E are saved by the death of Jesus! All Christians believe this.

This is a central tenet within the Christian faith and the centre of almost all Christian iconography.

Jesus’ death on a cross changed history forever. The effect of his death so marked the world that, not long after he died, the world began to measure time by him. We are in the year 2011 since Jesus was born.

But how does this work? How can one person’s death ricochet through history, going backwards and forwards in time, being somehow beyond time, so as to effect past, present, and future all at the same time, as if that death was forever happening at the present moment? Is this simply some mystery and metaphysics inside of the Godhead that isn’t meant to be understood within any of our normal categories?

Too often, I believe, the answer we were given was simply this: It’s a mystery. Believe it. You don’t have to understand it.

And there’s wisdom in that. How we are washed clean in the blood of Christ is something we understand more in the gut than in the head. We know its truth, even when we don’t understand it.

Indeed we know its truth so deeply that we risk our whole lives on it. I wouldn’t be a minister of the Gospel and a priest today if I didn’t believe that we are saved through the death of Jesus. But how to explain it?

In my quest as a theologian and simply in my search to integrate my Christian faith, I have searched for concepts, imaginative constructs, and a language within which to understand and explain this: How can one man’s death 2 000 years ago be an act that saves us today?

One of the things that helped me in that quest was a counsel from Edward Schillebeeckx who, in his ground-breaking book on Jesus as the Sacrament of God, stated simply that we have no metaphysics within which to explain this. C H Dodd, whom I will quote below, simply states, “there was more here than could be accounted for upon the historical or human level. God was in it.” Part of this is mystery.

But, with those limits being admitted, I want to offer here two passages, one from Thomas Keating and the other from C H Dodd that, for me at least, have been helpful in trying to understand something which is for a large part ineffable.

Keating’s insight is more mystical and poetic, but wonderfully stunning; Dodd’s is more phenomenological, but equally helpful: Thomas Keating offers his comment in response to a question: Have we ever really understood how we are saved by Jesus’ death more than two millennia ago?

Scripture provides examples of persons who actually had an insight into this— for instance, Mary of Bethany, anointing Jesus at Simon the leper’s house. By breaking the alabaster jar of very expensive perfume over the whole body of Jesus and filling the house with that gorgeous scent, she seems to have intuited what Jesus was about to do on the cross.

The authorities were set on killing him.

What her lavish gesture symbolised was the deepest meaning of Jesus’ passion and death. The body of Christ is the jar containing the most precious perfume of all time, namely, the Holy Spirit. It was about to be broken open so that the Holy Spirit could be poured out over the whole of humanity—past, present, and to come—with boundless generosity. Until

Reflections on the African Synod

In the interventions of Sudanese Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum and his auxiliary, Bishop Daniel Marco Kur Adwok, we find a very significant position in shaping the mentality of both African Church and African society.

They observed that the most important thing for us Africans is not to surrender to the ills we suffered in the past, but that we should stand up with full force, despite our limitedness, to reconstruct our society; a project which demands of us believing in ourselves first.

This is kairos. At the pool of Bethesda, the paralysed man had Jesus in front of him, the opportune time for recovering his well-being, but he nearly squandered it all in accusing others.

“Do you want to be well again?” Jesus asked the man. “Sir,” replied the sick man, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said: “Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around” (Jn 5:6-8). Could we be far from squandering our kairos—our favourable time?

Of course, we have a history to tell, a true and even a sad one. But the solution to our situation today lies not in the sad history, but very much in the attitude with which we rise up to our challenges with the means available to us. n This concludes Fr Evans Chama’s series of reflections on the Second African Synod.

Ron Rolheiser OMI point of Reflection

that body had been broken on the cross, the full extent of the gift of God in Christ and its transforming possibilities for the human race could not be known or remotely foreseen.

C H Dodd describes how Jesus’ death ricochets through history in these words: There was more here than could be accounted for upon the historical or human level. God was in it. The creative purpose of God is everlastingly at work in this world of his. It meets resistance from the recalcitrant wills of men.

If at any point human history should become entirely non-resistant to God, perfectly transparent to his design, then from that point the creative purpose would work with unprecedented power.

That is just what the perfect obedience of Jesus affected. Within human nature and human history he established a point of complete non-resistance to the will of God, and complete transparency to his design.

As we revert to that moment, it becomes contemporary and we are laid open to the creative energy perpetually working to make man after the image of God. The obedience of Christ is the release of creative power for the perfecting of human life. A decision taken by a great man or woman can alter every aspect of life, for the present and for all that comes after.

Our moral actions all leave a trace, and sometimes if that moral act is equivalent to splitting the atom that effect lasts forever. Jesus’ death split the moral atom. n Fr Ron Rolheiser’s weekly reflections appear at www.ronrolheiser.com

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

9

Toni Rowland family friendly

A peace the world cannot give

E

VER since I chose the theme for the Easter month of April namely, “A peace the world cannot give”, I have been mulling over what that statement really means.

It was part of the Last Supper discourse from John’s gospel and similar words were also used as his greeting after the Resurrection by Jesus saying to his disciples: “Peace I give you. My own peace. A peace the world cannot give.”

Each sentence is significant, particularly at this time with so much non-peace in the world. Peace can be seen as the absence of war. It is most often seen as tranquillity and calm. One description for peace as “the tranquillity of order” takes it a bit further. Things have to be right not just calm, so some action is required.

I interviewed Fr Sean O’Leary of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute on the question, and he began by saying “people are inherently good”, meaning most people, as he did admit that there are those leaders who have exceeded the bounds of reason and may even be incapable of rational judgment.

Most people are concerned for a better world, for themselves and for their children.

Is that not the kind of peace Jesus brings, a peace of right relationships, not a peace of worldly benefits, of exerting power and control over others, of oppression and suppression? Such a peace is either self-interested or a tit-for-tat situation: “if you don’t shoot/steal/misbehave, I will do the same”, or vice versa.

My question concerns the motivation to achieve the peace Jesus brings? Where is the goodwill to give, forgive, share and sacrifice for others coming from if not from a relationship with him, a surrender, trust, letting go, letting God. Jesus himself has been our model, been there, done that. He doesn’t have the T-shirt, he has the cross—and I could not even hazard a guess as to how many crosses exist or are displayed in and on churches, homes, classrooms, round necks and in pockets.

But it is not only about the cross. We are not just Good Friday people. We are Resurrection people who can experience the joy—and peace—of renewed life, new life. Maybe our attitude needs looking into and changing.

All this applies equally to family life. Keeping peace as a means to avoiding conflict and violence is a false peace. Authoritarian parenting, just being the boss and instilling fear rather than genuine respect, is a false peace. Authoritative parenting, which is still not necessarily democratic, applies discipline but respects the rights of the child too.

“He who loves disciplines a child”, taken from the book of Proverbs, is the May family theme.

Every family, some more so than others, have their moments of peace, when all is well with their relationships and, like peace at any level, it needs to be worked for. But families do have the undoubted advantage of the natural love that is at the heart of family life and exists even in troubled families. This itself is the love of God. Fr Michael Murphy, in the current issue of Marriage and Family Living magazine, gives an imaginative description of the peace the world cannot give: “Lost in safe hands”, like a little child totally trusting of its father, lost in the hands of Jesus.

Our task is not only to lose ourselves but to provide those safe hands for others, starting at home, and especially for those most vulnerable, our little children, teenagers, older people. If our children do not experience peace at home how can they become peace-loving citizens?

May has been designated by our bishops as a month to focus on Family and Life. The invitation is issued to the whole Church, not just those directly involved in family ministry. Let us all work to strengthen our own and all other families. Let us pray for a greater awareness of the need to build and heal the relationships of the many families that are broken and hurting.

That is the way to achieve the peace of Jesus, the peace the world cannot give.

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10

FAITH

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

Monk says he knows what it’s like to be dead A religious brother in the United States believes he knows what it is like to be dying, and has written a book about it, as EMILY LAHR reports.

T

HE afterlife is a common topic of discussion for a religious brother in Santa Paula, California, since the publication of his book, Proof of the Afterlife: The Conversation Continues a book of hope, forgiveness and mercy.

“People can say: ‘Oh that wasn’t just a dream.’ God was having a conversation with their life,” said Br Gary Joseph, a member of the Servants of the Father of Mercy, an association of vowed and lay members in the archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Br Joseph said he has had encounters with God and been involved in conversations with the afterlife ever since his “near-death experience” on September 27, 2005.

At 1:15am, “an out of control” heart arrhythmia caused him to collapse and his heart to stop.

He felt the overpowering presence of God. In that state, according to his book, he was immersed in the embracing love of Christ and absorbed spiritual messages.

When he was resuscitated, Br

Joseph said, he awoke and noticed the clock read exactly 1:45am.

“I had been like a dead man, immersed in this encounter for exactly 30 minutes.”

A priest guided him to a spiritual director who at the time was planning on doing a film on spiritual encounters. The spiritual director encouraged Br Joseph to keep a journal and eventually write a book. The manuscript was sent to Cardinal Roger Mahony, then archbishop of Los Angeles, for theological review prior to its publication by the Servants of the Father of Mercy.

When people read his book, it helps them to connect the stories and dreams they have had in their life, Br Joseph said. “They never knew how to interpret them.”

There was a woman who had told him of her dream about her deceased husband who was wandering helplessly and in need of her prayers. The book helped her understand the dream, he said.

Br Joseph said people have “a fear of dying”, and they remain in the dark about it. He hopes his book will trigger hope for people.

“This [book] shows there is proof of the afterlife and what you do in this life will affect you in the next life,” he said.

In the few months since his book has been out, Br Joseph said he has already seen its effect on families in three cases. One family

ordered 16 copies to be handed out to relatives and friends.

He believes the book can help people who have a terminal illness, referring to his mother and a cousin, who both fought cancer.

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“It’s a perfect match for those with illness. It can give a lot of hope.”

Although the book has been well-received by many, including Cardinal Mahony, Br Joseph sometimes worries people will take it

the wrong way.

“I still wonder if people are ready to hear this, that God is talking with us,” he said.

When asked by Catholic News Service how one can tell if an encounter is from God, one’s self or the devil, he offered two basic filters to distinguish the difference.

The first is that the dream, vision or physical encounter will inspire greater acts of charity. Secondly, he said, the experience would increase the person’s faith.

Sometimes a person can encounter the devil, he said, but when one says, “Jesus is Lord”, the devil will dispel.

Since Christmas 2010, Proof of the Afterlife has being sold on online bookstores such as Amazon.

“All proceeds of the book are going to Servants of the Father of Mercy congregation serving homeless men, women, and children in America with food, water, clothing, blankets and spiritual supplies,” said Br Joseph.

The Servants follow the Rule of St Benedict. The community’s religious brothers and sisters take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Its lay members must commit themselves to practicing basic Catholic spirituality and serving homeless people at least five hours a month.—CNS n ‘Proof of the Afterlife: The Conversation Continues’ can be ordered at www.ServantsoftheFather.org

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PERSPECTIVE

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

11

Making sense of the Bible’s creation account We may never know why the world was created, but it was not a random event, argues gARY REABoW.

E

ARLIER this year, articles by Michael Shackleton and Raymond Perrier of the Jesuit Institute South Africa were very interesting, but they also raised some questions.

For example, one may ask what is the scientific and/or religious basis for Mr Perrier’s statement that Genesis “is answering the question of why we are here” and how Darwin “was answering the question of how did we get here?”

Genesis, in three different bibles, does not seem to tell the reader “why we are here”. Genesis recounts how God did what he did, but not why he did it.

After creating all the creatures on earth, God decided to make man, presumably on the eighth day, in his own image. God does not say why he did this.

Genesis tells us that “God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a vast waste (after it had been created), darkness covered the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water.”

One thing is very clear in all translations I have consulted: originally there was no heaven nor was there an earth; this can only mean that there was nothing existing originally, and then something happened to change this situation. The word creation, in the context that it was used in the articles, implies the original production of something that was not there previously; in fact the production of something from nothing.

This prompts the next questions; • How does Darwin’s theory work if there is nothing for something to evolve from?

That is, in the beginning there was no air or other gas, no electric or magnetic fields, no chemicals, no light, no water—in fact “no anything” but a possible vacuum? If there had been something present, then science would not still be trying to determine what and how it happened.

• Where in Darwin’s The Origin of Species is there a basis for creation to have taken place via an evolutionary process when the very word evolution is defined as “origination of species of…by process of development from earlier forms?” Clearly “earlier forms” is in conflict with there being nothing there to start with.

In reading sections and summaries of The Origins of Species, there does not seem to be an explanation or basis to account for evolution being “the silver bullet” for the creation of matter and life, and it certainly

Michelangelo’s depiction of the creation in the Sistine chapel, and (right) an artist’s concept of the early formative years of the Milky Way galaxy about 12,7 billion years ago. (photos: Nancy Wiechec & NASA) does not deal with the creation of the universe and of planet earth. There must have been a sequence of “creations” as Genesis describes; that is, of earth, possibly via some atomic occurrence, (or the input of huge amounts of energy along the lines of the mass energy equation), followed later by the creation of life when environmental conditions permitted this to occur. Surely Darwin’s theories only come into play after the second event?

In the case of the first event, science is getting ever closer to analysing various ways that the universe could have been physically created, with the “Big Bang” seemingly the most popular theory at present.

However, science is still a long way from explaining how this came about, what triggered it, and why it happened at the precise point in time that it did happen, in a vacuum without anything being present to fuel and then to trigger the required reactions.

So how do the authors relate this to Darwin’s theories?

With the second event, matter cannot create itself from nothing; there has to be

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other factor/s involved. To illustrate this, a number of experiments, (starting for example with the Millar “red goo” amino acid experiment) and many other attempts have failed in trying to show how life could have kickstarted itself into existence.

A

ll these attempts had to assume that there was something present at the start of the experiment. In Millar’s case he used a hydrogen-rich mixture of methane, ammonia and water vapor. That mixture has since been shown to be nothing like what an early earthly atmosphere could possibly have been composed of; after earth had been created via the first event.

Evolution is not a science; it is a theory.

Besides this, evolution can take place only if there is something for “something else” to evolve from.

Is evolution not a theory based on observations of the world’s flora and fauna in the 19th century, and the assumptions of one man, possibly using probability mathematics in trying to account for and to extrapolate his assumptions across species?

Darwin’s “evolutionary tree illustration” has also not been substantiated and has been judged, by certain authors, to have been a “dismal failure”; the theory behind this tree has not been supported by the physical evidence that scientists have found in fossils over the last 150 years.

For example, prior to the ”Cambrian geological period, about 540 million years ago, there were fossil records of a few worms, jelly fish, and sponges”. At the beginning of the Cambrian period there was the “sudden appearance of most of the major animal phyla that exist today, as well as some that have become extinct”. This change did not take place gradually as evolutionary theory predicts and biology requires; it happened suddenly in time, and the timing is supported by carbon dating.

Darwin’s 1859 theory of how animals and creatures of a given species in this world change and evolve to accommodate changing conditions and environments was and is still a ground-breaking tour de force; but the step taken by many others in using this work to try to explain creation, is many a step too far!

On what grounds did the Pontifical Council for Culture consider the Genesis story of creation to be compatible with the theory of evolution? Evolution can kick in and start to take effect only after the creation of life; not before it.

If the statements in the articles by Messrs Shackleton and Perrier are correct, then the Bible is wrong and there is no such thing as right or wrong in this world.

Take God out of creation and what is left? It is certainly not evolution, and it is definitely not a spectacular, randomly, unrelated, unguided and uncontrolled scientific incident.

God has to have been the initiator of turning nothing into something. He would possibly have used the laws of science, of which he knew, being the originator of them, but exactly how, why and when he did what he did, we may never know. n Michael Shackleton’s editorial leader referred to by Gary Reabow can be found at www.scross.co.za/2011/02/200-years-ofdarwinism and Raymond Perrier’s blog “Who do we think we are” at www.jesuitinstitute. org.za/en/node/305

12

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

COMMUNITY IN FOCUS

Edited by: Lara Moses 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

Kwazulu-Natal deacon aspirants and their wives attended a workshop held by Lyn Harrison of the Catholic Bible foundation of South Africa at glenmore pastoral Centre in Durban. (Submitted by germaine Landsberg)

The confirmation group from our Lady of Sorrows parish in Nigel, Johannesburg archdiocese. (from left) John goncalves, Chardonnay Loonat, Cindy Masuku, Claudia Christie, Michael pestana, Claudio pavan, Archbishop Buti Thlagale, Tanya Thomas, Noluvo Mzozoyana, Monica zamarian, olivia Rynders, fr Ken Single.

In preparation for WYD 2011, pilgrims from Sacred Heart in port Elizabeth participated in a seminar on the Teresian form of mental prayer explicated through a mystical reading of the Transfiguration account from the Synoptics. (from left) Nico Bagley, Shinay Terblanche, Bianca Bosch and Selwyn goliath. (Submitted by Alexis pillay)

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Bishop fransico De gouveia of outshoorn, assisted by fr Nazer van Tomme, confirmed eight candidates during Mass at St Maria goretti parish in Worcester. (front row, from left) Celdine pekeur, Relton van Wyk, Donovan olivier, felicia van Wyk, fr van Tomme. (Back row) Nadia Marengo, Ryan Links, Emilio Heugh, Nico plaatjies, Bishop De goveia and frans Baardman.

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BOOKS

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

13

Book on John Paul II misses nuances THE END AND THE BEGINNING: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy, by George Weigel. Doubleday, New York, 2010. 565 pp.

Reviewed by Agostino Bono OPE John Paul II was complex and nuanced as a man and as head of the Catholic Church.

So were the world’s political situation and the Church’s internal dynamics when Karol Wojtyla was elected pope in 1978.

He was a key figure in the collapse of the communist-ruled Soviet empire and he set the Church’s tone for almost 27 years, orienting its activity through to the end of the 20th century and into the new millennium.

As the first non-Italian pope in more than four centuries, he brought a new outlook and a cultural framework to the Vatican for understanding and configuring

P

Catholicism. Coming from communist-ruled Poland, John Paul also brought an urgency to the struggle for religious, political and personal freedom in the Soviet bloc. Added to this was his astute personal experience in living under—and negotiating with—communist leaders, making him a wily political strategist in the end game leading to the crumbling of the Iron Curtain.

Describing his role in changing world history and reorienting the Catholic Church as it was trying to find its feet after the Second Vatican Council is a difficult and subtle task worth pursuing.

But George Weigel’s book, The End and the Beginning, is superficial despite his qualifications. Weigel wrote a best-selling biography of the pope and is the author of several books on the mixing of Catholicism and politics in the public square.

Much of the time, though, he is more of a recording secretary. He

recounts what the pope said and did from day to day rather than provide astute analysis of papal activities.

Other parts of the book read more like a spiritual tract, using the pope’s own faith as an example of Catholic spiritual values.

Weigel’s attempt to shed light on the Soviet bloc’s war against the pope belabours what has been obvious for decades: The pope was seen

by Soviet bloc leaders as a major threat to stability in their countries, requiring strong actions to neutralise him. Even with the use of declassified documents of Soviet bloc secret services, though, he fails to add anything new to the key unanswered issue: Was Mehmet Ali Agca, who seriously wounded the pope in 1981, in the pay of the Soviet Union or one of its surrogates?

In some spots, Weigel shows little understanding of how the institutional Church works, such as in

his discussion of the child sex abuse scandal. He writes that the failures are more the responsibility of national bishops’ conferences than of the pope.

It is true that Pope John Paul is not responsible for the mushrooming of abuses as the overwhelming majority of the cases happened before his election. At the same time, bishops’ conferences aren’t responsible either and have much less power than the pope to resolve the crisis. A pope can remove a bishop who has covered up abuses. A national bishops’ conference can’t.

A pope can tell a bishop what to do in his diocese. A national bishops’ conference can’t. A national bishops’ conference can’t remove an abusive priest from ministry. The pope, through his Vatican agencies, can.

Weigel is right in blaming local bishops for not solving problems in their dioceses.

Throughout the book, Weigel paints with too broad a brush, hiding rather than illuminating the complexities of this pope and his times. n Bono is Catholic News Service’s former Rome bureau chief.

Stories of Renaissance convent life NUNS BEHAVING BADLY: Tales of Music, Magic, Art & Arson in the Convents of Italy, by Craig A Monson. University of Chicago Press, 2010. 264 pp.

Reviewed by Brian Welter EADING strict, enclosed lives, the need for fresh air or escape sometimes proved too much for some nuns. Or, bored and intellectually stagnant, they would pursue romance or magic. Yet, rather than sensationalism, Monson delivers a well-researched historical study of the all-too-human follies and failings of 16th- and 17th-century Italian nuns.

For such a religious environment as Italian convents (or perhaps because of it), a remarkable number of superstitious practices abounded. These were only occasionally centred on the devil. The women were more interested in telling the future or trying to figure out who stole what from the convent kitchen. They also wore protective amulets.

Abbot Ambrosia da Bologna charged some nuns at San Lorenzo in Bologna in 1584 with using

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“incantations, fortunetelling, love charms, but also the possible use of baptised lodestones.” In this instance, it was more than just magic, and sounded like devilry: “He too spoke of the mysterious levitating object, and of baleful howling, clashing of swords and mysterious lights in the night.

Some of the sisters were possessed.”

On one occasion, to divine a missing viola, “there was all sorts of fuss about someone using a bowl of water, and somebody else tracing some figure on the floor to find the missing viola”, Monson records.

The author gives readers a good impression that the convents were a beehive of activity, at least in some cases. Piety could certainly be present, and everyone seemed to accept the basic Christian dogma of the day and the authority of the Church. No one was against the system and its underlying beliefs.

Yet nuns and convents struggled to toe the line. Sometimes the bishops seemed unduly strict, as when they outlawed convent singing in the 16th or 17th centuries when a local nun or convent became too famous and were pressed with

REMEMBERING OUR DEAD

“It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins” (II Macc XII,46) Holy Mass will be celebrated on the first Sunday of each month in the All Souls’ chapel, Maitland, Cape Town at 2:30pm for all souls in purgatory and for all those buried in the Woltemade cemetery.

For further information, please contact St Jude Society, Box 22230, Fish Hoek, 7975 Telephone (021) 552-3850

crowds of people. Mass at that point became too boisterous for Church authorities, who also feared that the fame would take away from the inner life of religious.

Many nuns became quite famous at the local level through music, which shows the important roles nuns and convents played in towns and cities throughout Italy.

Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti cracked down on nuns singing in Bologna in the 1570s, resulting from the Council of Trent’s strict measures.

Cardinal Paleotti limited Bolognese convents to only one solo voice and the organ, outlawing polyphony and additional musical instruments such as the viola.

So much for poor, passive, obedient nuns: They went over his head and straight to Rome, getting permission for a softening of the edict on certain feast days.

This assertiveness reappears throughout these stories. The nuns’ independent streak and stubbornness could become a real headache for prelates.

Individual nuns, whether strong-willed, rebellious or down-

right kooky, caused consternation for their own convents, and not only for the bishops. By weaving fictional dialogues in with the narrative, Monson’s characters come to life, and readers can get attached to them.

Donna Christina, starved for culture, had a local priest, Don Giacomelli, sneak her out to the local opera dressed as an abbot—twice.

In the weeks leading up to Lent, carnival season, Bologna was a riotous festival of masked people dressed up as nuns, priests, abbots and royalty. Unnoticed, she succeeded on both nights, caught on the second sortie by a vigilant nun.

Church authorities and her own order were relentless in their persecution. Sadly, Don Giacomelli was arrested and thrown in jail, where his health rapidly deteriorated and he soon died.

Perhaps for some such as Donna Christina, the heavy institutional flavour of religious life, and of all of society, struck at her sense of freedom and passion.

Convent life was regimented, though one wonders if this was for the growth in holiness or so that

people could be easily controlled.

While Monson never attacks Catholic culture and beliefs in the way that so many contemporary academics do, he does note that holiness was not always a central focus of monastic life. What he unearths for readers is very real people who lived life fully. n Welter is studying for his doctorate in systematic theology and teaching English in Taiwan.

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The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

CHURCH

On-line giving: Will collection boxes start gathering dust?

Worldwide, and even in South Africa, people are spending money on-line. For the Church, this may be a boon, as EMILY LAHR explains.

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ITHIN a decade, collection baskets may be collecting more dust than cheques as more Catholics switch to electronic giving.

“I think it is an exciting new way for people to give to the Church,” said Michael Murphy, executive director of the International Catholic Stewardship Council. “We are beginning to explore a new catechesis in our Church.”

The Washington-based council provides educational resources, networks and information to promote Catholic philanthropy and advance the ministry of stewardship in parishes and dioceses.

With the chequebook becoming obsolete and more people shopping online, the Catholic Church and its related charities are learning about spending habits, said Mr Murphy.

Online giving has increased donations for many non-profit organisations. According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a study of 600 charities that used such a system showed that 79% of them raised more funds in 2010 than they did in 2009, while 21% raised less.

Another study showed that nonprofit organisations that have an annual budget of more than $10 million saw donations increasing more than 55% with online giving. Those with an annual budget of less than $1 million saw a 22% increase, and groups with an annual budget between $1 million and $10 million, there was a 16% increase.

“I believe we are on the verge of this growing tremendously in the next decade,” Mr Murphy said.

Faith Direct, an American company that describes itself as a “leading eGiving provider” for Catholic churches, recently celebrated a milestone—it processed 1 million gifts for Catholic parishes across the United States in 2010.

“It was one of those ‘wow’ moments,” said Brian Walsh, founder and president of the online giving programme since 2003. “This was a big deal.”

Faith Direct, which serves churches and nonprofit organisations from New York to Los Angeles, strives for a “cashless society” and says its full-service electronic giving programme allows clients to focus on their ministry more than their finances. The company said churches are seeing an increase in net revenue and a decrease in administrative costs and getting a clearer picture of cash flow.

The programme works directly with the client’s bank, making all transactions electronically. It is the same as other electronic fund transfer systems, debiting the bank

In some countrires, electronic giving has become the new collection plate, allowing some parishioners to turn to their computers instead of a basket in the pews. (Illustration by Emily Thompson, CNS)

account or charging the credit card automatically for the amount the client agreed to in writing.

Faith Direct provides “offertory cards” for parishioners to place in the Sunday collection basket as a visible sign of their electronic donation. Currently, the programme is in 45 dioceses across the United States and continues to grow.

“It has been my belief since Day One, up to 80% of the offerings will be processed electronically by 2015,” said Mr Walsh.

He remembers being told that electronic giving would never work, but he noted people’s habits and reliance on technology have changed drastically.

Those between the ages of 20 and 30 have little knowledge of how to use a chequebook, he said, and added that with retirees receiving social security benefits through direct deposit to their current accounts, they, too, are using cheques less and less.

“Seniors are more into technology than I gave them credit for,”

said Mr Walsh. He noted that onethird of the clients using Faith Direct’s electronic programme are between 50 and 55 years old.

Mr Walsh credited the success of his company’s programme to pastors talking about it to their parishioners, and to other priests and parish communities.

Fr Thomas Willis, priest of the cathedral parish in St Augustine, Florida, said that he had just recommended Faith Direct to his fellow priests that week.

“Guys you got to go for it,” he said he told them. Fr Willis said about 20% of his parish’s offertory collection comes via eGiving.

His parish has been using Faith Direct just shy of two years and has more than 100 families participating.

Early on, Fr Willis said, parishioners were sceptical about how the programme would affect them and what personal information they would have to supply.

Now he said he is amazed at the amount of support for it, especially from those between the ages of 50 and 60.

Mr Murphy said that online giving isn’t just about parishioners pushing a button to donate. The website, as an online giving programme, is also a good evangelisation tool to inform people who don’t necessarily know a lot about the Catholic culture.

“It’s not only in the giving itself but also in the communication,” said Mr Murphy.—CNS

The Southern Cross, April 20 to April 26, 2011

Sr Julie Philomena Langenwalder SND

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OTRE Dame Sister Julie Philomena Langenwalder died on March 11 at the age of 98.

She was born in June 1912, the seventh of ten children, in Deutenhausen, Bavaria. After school, she spent some time in Switzerland learning French, the first of several European languages that she endeavoured to master at different stages in her life.

Following that interlude, she went to England as a governess, to learn English. Here she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame in 1937.

It was difficult being a German national living in England during World War II. Contact with her family was very limited.

Sr Julie had to report regularly to the police who even visited her

once in Northampton to verify that she was not a spy in disguise.

At the end of the war she went to Notre Dame’s Mount Pleasant teachers’ training college in Liverpool, where her artistic talent blossomed in college art classes. Sr Julie Phil, as she affectionately became known, came to South Africa in 1953 and taught Art, French and German in Notre Dame convent schools in Kroonstad and Bergvliet, Cape Town. After her arrival in Johannesburg’s Melville Community in the mid-80s, Sr Julie found a spiritual affinity with people and parish life in St Francis Xavier’s, Martindale.

Throughout her long life Sr Julie loved art and music, and her artistic nature expressed itself in many ways when Notre Dame Sisters moved out of a traditional

Feast of Atonement, Divine Mercy Sunday and the Octave of Easter Holy Thursday: Ritual is set for the sacrifice of Good Friday and Holy Communion Good Friday: Christ offered as our Sacrificial Lamb for Atonement Holy Saturday: Waiting for Christ to rise and the Easter Vigil Easter Sunday: Rising of Jesus. Institution of Confession. “Grand opening” Easter Monday: Just like another Sunday Easter Tuesday: Just like another Sunday Easter Wednesday: Just like another Sunday Easter Thursday: Just like another Sunday Easter Friday: Just like another Sunday Easter Saturday: Just like another Sunday Octave of Easter/Divine Mercy Sunday: “Grand finale”

ClAssIFIEDs Births • first Communion • Confirmation • Engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • Thanks • prayers • Accommodation • Holiday Accommodation • personal • Services • Employment • property • others Please include payment (R1,15 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

DEATHs habit into the dress of the day.

She enjoyed matching colours and adding feminine touches around our community homes, where her good German sense of order also kept her fellow sisters neat and tidy.

She died peacefully, fortified by the Rites of the Church, at St Mary’s Dominican Convent, Hyde Park Johannesburg, where, due to her failing health, she spent the last three years of her life.

Sr Marie Andre Mitchell SND

Community Calendar To place your event, call Claire Allen at 021 465 5007 or e-mail c.allen@scross.co.za, (publication subject to space) 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: Holy Hour to pray for priests of the archdiocese, 2nd Saturday monthly at Villa Maria shrine Kloof Nek Rd, 16:00-17:00. good shepherd, Bothasig. perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in our chapel. All hours. All welcome.

Day of Prayer held at Springfield Convent starting at 10:00 ending 15:30 last Saturday of every month—all welcome. for more information contact Jane Hulley 021 790 1668 or 082 783 0331.

liturgical Calendar Year A Sunday, April 24, Easter Sunday Acts 10:34, 37-43, Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23, Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6-8, Jn 20:1-9 Monday, April 25 Acts 2:14, 22-33, Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11, Matthew 28:8-15 Tuesday, April 26 Acts 2:36-41, Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22, John 20:11-18 Wednesday, April 27 Acts 3:1-10, Psalm 105:1-4, 6-9, Luke 24:13-35 Thursday, April 28 Acts 3:11-26, Psalm 8:2, 5-9, Luke 24:35-48 Friday, April 29 Acts 4:1-12, Psalm 118:1-2, 4, 22-27, John 21:1-14 Saturday, April 30 Acts 4:13-21, Psalm 118:1, 14-21, Mark 16:9-15 Sunday May 1, 2nd Sunday of Easter Acts 2: 42-47, Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24, 1 Pt 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31

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DurBAN: st Anthony’s, Durban Central: Tuesday 09:00 Mass with novena to St Anthony. first friday 17:30 Mass—Divine Mercy novena prayers. Tel: 031 309 3496.

JoHANNEsBurg: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: first friday of the month at 09:20 followed by Holy Mass at 10:30. Holy Hour: first Saturday of each month at 15:00. At our Lady of the Angels, Little Eden, Edenvale. Tel: 011 609 7246.

PrETorIA: First saturday: Devotion to Divine Mercy. St Martin de porres, Sunnyside, 16:30. Tel Shirley-Anne 012 361 4545.

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO #441. ACROSS: 5 Kelp, 7 Providence, 8 Sham, 10 Novelist, 11 Alarms, 12 Latest, 14 Romans, 16 Snakes, 17 Idolatry, 19 Pass, 21 Carthusian, 22 Isle. DOWN: 1 Apes, 2 Ave Maria, 4 Adonis, 4 Snivel, 5 Keel, 6 Lay sisters, 9 Holy orders, 13 Trappist, 15 Satyrs, 16 Scythe, 18 Lace, 20 Sins.

Word of the Week Pallium: Worn only by the pope and archbishops, the pallium is a circular band worn about the neck and shoulders. It is made of lambs wool, solemly blessed at a pontifical Mass. It is only worn on special occasions and signifies, for archbishops, participation in the supreme pastoral power of the pope.

New palliums are blessed on the feast of Ss Peter and Paul.

sCollAN—Sr Rita. Holy Cross Sister, Sr Rita, recently of Holy Cross Convent, Mogwase, aged 61, passed away at Holy Cross Convent, pretoria, on 03 April 2011. Lovingly remembered by her family circle in Ireland and America and the Holy Cross Sisters. May she rest in peace.

PErsoNAl ABorTIoN WArNINg: ‘The pill’ can abort, undetected, soon after conception (a medical fact). See website: www.human life.org/abortion_does _the_pill.php CruCIFIXEs For AFrICA: Made in four complete sizes. phone/ fax: 046 604 0401, for details and brochure.

PrAYErs HolY St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. To you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. In return I promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. Amen.

EK. HolY St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. To you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Help me now in my urgent need and grant my petitions. In return I promise to make your name known and publish this prayer. Amen.

In thanks for prayers answered. pat.

HolY sPIrIT you who makes me see everything.

You showed me the way to reach my ideal. You who give me the divine gift to forgive and forget all that is done to me and you are in all the instincts of my life with me. I want to thank you for everything and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from you no matter how great the desires may be. I want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. This prayer should be said on 3 consecutive days, after the 3rd day, the request will be granted, no matter how difficult it may be. promise to publish the entire dialogue with the condition of having your request granted.

EK.

HousE To lET/For sAlE souTH CoAsT, uvongo: Three bedroom house, fully furnished, en-suite, lock-up garage. R3 000 per month.

Tel: Donald 031 465 5651, 073 989 1074.

ACCoMMoDATIoN oFFErED CAPE ToWN, Cape peninsula: Beautiful homes to buy or rent. Maggi-Mae 082 892 4502. Colliers International false Bay, 021 782 9263, maggi maev@colliers.co.za

HolIDAY ACCoMMoDATIoN BETTY’s BAY: (Western Cape) Holiday home, sleeps seven, three bathrooms, close to beach, R600/night. 021 794 4293, marialouise@mweb.co.za CAPE ToWN: Vi Holiday Villa. fully equipped selfcatering, two bedroom family apartment (sleeps 4) in Strandfontein, with parking, R400 per night. Tel/fax paul 021 393 2503, cell 083 553 9856, vivilla@ telkomsa.net CAPE WEsT CoAsT

Yzerfontein: Emmaus on Sea B&B and self-catering.

Holy Mass celebrated every Sunday at 6pm. Tel: 022 451 2650.

FIsH HoEK: Self-catering accommodation, sleeps 4.

Secure parking. Tel: 021 785 1247. gorDoN’s BAY: Beautiful en-suite rooms available at reasonable rates. Magnificent views, breakfast on request. Tel: 082 774 7140.

E-mail: bzhive@telkomsa. net HErMANus: pleasant getaway, self-catering double accommodation.

Comfortable, fully equipped, in tranquil church garden. five minute walk to Village Centre and sea-front.

R250 per day, minimum two days. get one night free for all bookings of three nights or more. phone church office 028 312 2315. Mon/Wed/fri 91pm or leave message and phone number.

KNYsNA: Self-catering accommodation for 2 in old Belvidere with wonderful Lagoon views. 044 387 1052. loNDoN, pRoTEA HouSE: underground 2min, picadilly 20min.

Close to River Thames.

Self-catering. Single per night R250, twin R400.

Email: houseprotea@hot mail.com. Tel 021 851 5200.

MArIANEllA guest House, Simon’s Town: “Come experience the peace and beauty of god with us.” fully equipped with amazing sea views.

Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Tel: Malcolm Salida 082 784 5675 or mjsali da@mweb.co.za uMHlANgA roCKs: fully equipped self-catering 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, sleeps 6, sea view, 200 metres from beach, DStv. Tel: Holiday Division, 031 561 5838, holidays@ lighthouse.co.za

Application: Archbishop Stephen Brislin received his pallium as a symbol of the pope’s authority vested in him to perform his functions as archbishop of Cape Town.

Ursulines of the Blessed Virgin Mary We are the Ursulines of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called to serve Christ through education of girls, women and servants, pastoral and social work.

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DAILY PRAYER FOR FAMILIES AND LIFE (can also be prayed at Mass): Lord God, you created humankind out of love, for love and for life. We praise and thank you for your gift of love lived most intimately in marriage and family life and yet problems and hurt are experienced most deeply in family relationships of all kinds. Through the power of you Holy Spirit helps us to overcome these difficulties. Strengthen our commitment to build strong families and to preserve and support all life from conception to natural death, in our own families and those of others. In that way the Church can truly be the Family of God in the service of the Kingdom. Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph pray for us. Blessed Mother Teresa, comforter and bringer of love and joy to those who suffer, pray for us Blessed John Paul, holy father for the family,pray for us.

A SACBC FAMILY LIFE DESK PROJECT Contact Toni Rowland @082 552 1275 or visit www.marfam.org.za/blog

Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, staff or directors of The Southern Cross.

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2nd Sunday of Easter: May 1 Readings: Acts 5:12-16, Psalm 118: 2-4, 1315, 22-24, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

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EXT Sunday, as always on the second Sunday of Easter, we shall hear the familiar story of “doubting Thomas”, a useful reminder that faith in the Resurrection does not come easily to those who have gone before us in the faith, nor to us who follow.

In the first reading, we breathe the air of the early Church in one of Luke’s “summaries” of what life was like for those first Christians. It is important not to get too discouraged, and think “it was easy for them”, for (as you will see, if you read on just a few pages in Acts) it was not always quite like this. But we can listen and admire, as we see them “persevering in the teaching of the apostles, and the solidarity in the breaking of the bread”, and how the apostles worked “portents and signs”, and how the community “were all in the same place and held everything in common, and they used to sell their possessions and their belongings, and divide them to each in accordance with their need”. (And did you realise that it was not Karl Marx who invented communism?)

They prayed, in the Temple and at home, and “they shared food with joy and with simplicity of heart, praising God, and in favour with the whole people”. Instead of feeling inferior, what we might do, this week, is to pray to recapture this enchanting

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Classic Conrad An extra easter egg all round if Father manages to light the Paschal candle first time

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Not seeing, yet believing Nicholas King SJ Sunday Reflections atmosphere in the life of our Church today.

The psalm is a song of thanksgiving, in which Israel and the Aaronic priesthood, and indeed all those who “fear the Lord” are invited to join; the singer has been in difficulty, but was rescued by God—“I was pressed hard; I nearly fell—but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my might.”

That is perhaps the mood that we should strive for in our life as Church, and then we shall hear “the sound of rejoicing and deliverance in the tents of the just”. But there is the admission that this deliverance does not come easily, and we hear the phrase that Jesus quoted from this same psalm: “The stone the builders rejected has become the corner-stone”, and the great line with which our section concludes: “This is the day that the Lord has made—let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

The second reading comes, as it will for

the next six weeks, from 1 Peter, a letter which seems to be aimed at persecuted Christians; but notice that here at the beginning, he is not spending too much thinking about their suffering, more about what God has done for them: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...who has given us a new birth into a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

That is the tone that we need to strike during this Easter season, no matter how grim things may get, even if, as the author says: “It is necessary to be pained by different kinds of trials,” not least, it seems, because they long for the revelation of Jesus Christ, “whom you love, though you do not see him, but you believe, and you exult with a joy that cannot be spoken”. Our joy, this side of the grave, never comes unmixed.

As we learn while we listen to next Sunday’s gospel. We start, after news of the Resurrection has filtered through to at least two of the apostles; but even so, they are not very brave, since, so we are told: “The doors are locked...out of fear of the Judeans.”

Jesus has a way with our cravenness, and there he is in the midst of them, uttering those precious words: “Peace be with you.”

Then he gives them a commission, breathing the Father’s Spirit upon them: “Whose

What attracts us to the Mass?

T HERE is, of course, no question about the motivation anyone should have for going to church: it is about two or more of us gathering in his name.

But I have often wondered whether there is a moral case for using incentives to get errant church-goers to gather in the first place. Or, for that matter, to get youngsters to want to go to church without being dragged there by their parents.

I read some time ago that a church in Melbourne, Australia, offered free beer afterwards to everyone who attended Sunday services.

I cannot recall whether it worked or not, but one thing is certain: more and more churches are resorting to incentives to get errant parishioners to attend.

Remember how in the old days threatening fire and brimstone was used? In the modern day and age this doesn’t seem to work anymore. Consumers have become a lot more canny and do not take kindly to threats. In any event the majority of the world’s population has no idea what brimstone is anyway.

I can fully understand the more conservative among us feeling decidedly uncomfortable about incentives, but perhaps there is a case for doing whatever it takes to get people who would normally not bother to go to church—just to come in once or twice with the hope that they would appreciate the joy, reward and inner peace that is a sure-fire consequence of two or more of us gathering in his name.

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Chris Moerdyk

The Last Word

When I was at school in my earlyish teens, I was forced to get up early on cold winter mornings to cycle up the hill to serve at Mass. That did not endear the Catholic Church to me one bit, and I must confess to contemplating everything from Buddhism to Judaism. But I discovered that the one thing absolutely every religion has in common is that at some stage or other one has to get up at the crack of dawn.

Something that did endear the Catholic Church to me, however, was a phenomenon that occurred every Wednesday evening at the monastery parish in Pretoria. This was novena time—benediction basically.

It started off with no more than a handful of faithful attending, and then some of those faithful started dragging their children along by the ears.

Soon though, I am ashamed to say, we CBC boys discovered that Loreto Convent girls were also being dragged along to attend the novena. The challenge, however, was for the CBC boys to actually socialise with the convent girls after novena.

I am even more ashamed to say that in

the absence of early teenage courage, this social integration took the form of both boys and girls squirting each other with water pistols.

Now, in those days no-one had real water pistols because I have the feeling that plastic hadn’t yet been invented. So what we did was use deodorant containers filled with water, the best brand being O-DO-RO-NO. This was not a roll-on or aerosol, but just a rubber bulb filled with a particularly astringent deodorant.

It wasn’t very big and had to be refilled several times in the roughly 15 minutes this post-novena ritual took place. And the only way to get the little spray nozzle out of the bottle neck was to clench it in one’s teeth and twist it out. All of this meant that one went home with an extremely tart taste in the mouth.

Needless to say, Wednesday night novena at the monastery parish became enormously popular and the church was always full to the brim.

The big question is this: did this experience have any effect on those teenagers in terms of both their Catholic faith and future attendance at Mass?

All I know is that for me it is an extremely fond memory, and I am delighted to say that I am still in frequent touch with at least three of those Loreto Convent girls, who are all pillars of their respective parishes.

Nowadays, of course, we don’t make a habit of going around after Mass squirting fellow parishioners with water pistols.

I have no doubt whatsoever that while accepting the main reason for going to church, one of the great by-products of it all is a sense of community.

In fact, that sense of community, of helping each other out, of being there in times of tragedy and sickness, is perhaps not so much a by-product of going to church, but one of the main reasons.

It is a little odd, I must confess, that every time I am dressing in a hurry and miss my armpit and spray deodorant up my nose, I think of church. n Do you have good stories about going to church? I would love to hear them.

Write to me at The Southern Cross, PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000, or fax (021) 465 3850 (marked for my attention), or email me at cmoerdyk@scross.co.za

sins you let go, they are let go.”

We should be foolish to conclude from this that the disciples are changed individuals after this encounter. For one thing, they cannot resist gloating over Thomas when he comes back from wherever he has been, which provokes him into an unspeakably crude demand for evidence—“unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and throw my finger into the mark of the nails and throw my hand into his side...”; and, we notice, when the story continues, eight days later, the doors are still locked—so they are still afraid.

Anyway, there Jesus is, once more; and, once more he is saying to them: “Peace be with you.” Then Thomas’ brutal image is taken up—and that is enough to change the doubter into a believer, in an astonishingly lofty phrase: “My Lord and my God.” The story does not end there, however, for we gaze over Thomas’s startled shoulder and hear the words that are addressed down the centuries at us: “Because you have seen me, do you believe? Congratulations to those who didn’t see, and yet believed.”

It is not cheap or easy, this Resurrection faith of ours; and it does not mean that we do not suffer. But it is the heart of our Christianity, and we must pray, this week, for the grace to live it out.

Southern Crossword #441

ACROSS 5. Seaweed (4) 7. God in his protective care (10) 8. Bogus (4) 10. Evelyn Waugh’s profession (8) 11. Loud warnings? (6) 12. Most recent (6) 14. Some of St Paul’s addressees (6) 16. They will pick up ... in their hands (Mk 16) (6) 17. False worship (8) 19. Route taken by Moses up the mountain? (4) 21. He’s a member of St Bruno’s order (10) 22. It’s surrounded by water (4)

DOWN 1. Primates (4) 2. Angel’s greeting (3,5) 3.A handsome young Greek (6) 4. To complain tearfully livens up (6) 5. It runs along the base of the ship (4) 6. Nun of old who did not do choir duty (3,6) 9. Sacred commands given to the clergy (4,6) 13. Silent Cistercian who catches animals? (8) 15. Woodland gods (6) 16. Grim Reaper’s cutting tool (6) 18. It may fasten shoe through eyelets (4) 20. They are the matter of sacrament of penance (4)

Answers on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

O

NE day Johnny’s teacher gave the class a test like this:

a) 7+5= b)19-8= c)8+8= Johnny wrote his answers: a) 7+5= Jesus, b)19-8= Jesus, c) 8+8= Jesus After marking the test the teacher called Johnny and said: “Can you please explain to the class how you got your answers?”

Johnny stood up, smiled and said: “That’s very simple. In catechism we’ve learnt that Jesus is the answer.” send us your favourite Catholic joke, preferably clean and brief, to The southern Cross, Church Chuckle, Po Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000.