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www.scross.co.za

July 18 to July 24, 2012

HOPE&JOY: The Church’s revolutionaries

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Suicide a result of illness, not free choice

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R6,00 (incl VAT RSA)

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4784

What chaplains expect at London Olympics

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Jo’burg priest’s 2009 murder part of new TV series

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

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Pope Benedict leads the Angelus prayer from the window of the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, a town with a population of 8 834 in Italy’s Lazio region near Rome. As is tradition, the pope is in Castel Gandolfo for the European summer and is not expected to return to Rome, except for brief visits, until September. He will, however, lead the weekly Sunday Angelus prayers and, in August, hold audiences at the papal summer residence. He is also scheduled to celebrate Mass on the feast of the Assumption on August 15 at a local church.

(Photo: Max Rossi, Reuters/CNS)

At ordination, bishop calls for unity of priests

BY FRANCIS NGADI

S

PEAKING at the ordination of three priests in Mthatha, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka noted a generation gap among priests in the diocese, which he said is leading to lack of understanding between young and older clerics.

He urged young priests to accept the guidance and mentoring from older priests, and told older priests not to bully the young priests, but to accept them as brothers and offer them assistance.

“A relationship between priests that is not good filters down to the people you serve,” the bishop warned.

Bishop Sipuka was speaking at the ordination of Frs Motlasi Phomane from Mariazell, Thembalethu Sandondo from Maclear and Luthando Xhamlayo from Ngqeleni.

In his homily, Bishop Sipuka noted that just as one has no choice over who one’s siblings are, so does a priest have no choice who his brother priests are.

The ordination of the three young priests represented a message from God of “unity and communion”, the bishop said.

However, he added, it would be hypocritical “not to acknowledge the present challenge of disunity among us”.

Bishop Sipuka called on the newly ordained priests to play their part in bridging divisions. “You must all pursue one goal guided by the pastoral policies of the diocese under the direction of the bishop,” he said.

The bishop observed that some priests who have abandoned the ordained min-

Bishop Sithembele Sipuka ordains three priests in Mthatha. istry should not have left, but noted that with the ordination of the three new priests, God appeared to be “making up for those priests who left”.

At the invitation of Bishop Sipuka, Mthatha recently received six priests from Congo and Zimbabwe to address the huge shortage of priests in the diocese. “So today we are grateful to God because we now have a total of nine [new] priests in one year,” the bishop said.

He committed himself to creating a homely environment that will help priests to stay in the priesthood and urged all people to help priests to do so.

HE shocking murder of a Johannesburg priest in 2009 will be featured in the new television series Crimes Uncovered, as it is a story that “needs telling”, producers said.

The story of Fr Lionel Sham will be featured in the 13-part series on South African crimes.

Fr Sham was attacked in his house, robbed, tied up and forced into his car before being dumped in the open field where his body was found. His murderer, Velaphi Malgas, was convicted of the crime in October 2010.

The series features true-life South African crimes that have “captured the hearts and minds of South Africans and have resulted in the successful capture and prosecution of the perpetrators”. Stories include the murders of Leigh Matthews, Taliep Petersen, Baby Jordan and Lucky Dube.

Fr Chris Townsend, communications officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, knew Fr Sham for more than 20 years and was involved in the filming process.

“Fr Sham was the vocations director for the archdiocese of Johannesburg when I started discerning a call to priesthood. He was an incredibly generous man with arms always wide for a hug, but also capable of being very clear and direct—a result of his training as a social worker and his experience at Boys Town,” Fr Townsend said.

Fr Townsend was also involved in the search for Fr Sham at the time he went missing, as well as liaising with the Sham family, and identifying his body. Fr Townsend called the TV crew “very professional and compassionate” when dealing with the story of his friend.

According to director Sharon Black, viewers of the show will get to know the victims and their families and share their traumatic experiences.

“Through interviews, dramatisations and archive footage we uncover the mysteries and reveal what really happened. We get a glimpse at the inner workings of the police and judicial services, and witness some of the excellent police, forensic and legal work that has been achieved in South Africa,” she said.

S

tories were chosen based on the type of crime and the investigation that took place. They ended with a successful arrest, trial and effective conviction. In addition the story needed to be something that people would have remembered reading about.

“Fr Sham was chosen in particular because of the type of crime and the fact that it crosses the boundaries of all that is supposed to be ‘untouchable’,” Ms Black said. “A leader of a community and church should never be associated to such violence, and the fact that [Fr Sham] knew and had helped the man who killed him was shocking to the core.”

The director said Catholics would be interested in the series, not only because of the story of Fr Sham, but also to see that “we do have effective and efficient police men and women, who care regardless of race, creed or social standing and in this case they

Mourners wear T-shirts with the image of murdered Fr Lionel Sham at his funeral in 2009.

The priest’s murder is the subject of one episiode in the M-Net series Crimes Uncovered. really went to the ends of the earth to ensure that Malgas answer to society for his part in this terrible crime”.

Ms Black said that even after an incident in which Fr Sham had been stabbed in his home, he told friends and family that it was his duty to be accessible and available to anyone who might need him.

“I can well imagine that a priest is hard pressed when it comes to matters of security and reasoning, as he is there to serve the Lord and in doing that serve his people,” Ms Black said, adding that this would be food for thought for many.

Crimes Uncovered comes from the makers of Criminal Minds, a similar show broadcast 12 years ago.

M

s Black said there were very particular reasons for sharing these stories. “We need to celebrate and congratulate the men and women that work in our police service— detectives, forensic specialists, as well as the prosecutors and finally the judicial system.

We want people to know that often they get it right and are very seldom thanked and recognised for this.”

In addition, the director said South African society has become “statistically numb and we need to understand that behind each number, each headline is a human being, a family and a community that will suffer the consequence of actions like these”.

Finally, she said the show is a means to honour the victims and what they stood for in life.

“Fr Sham seems to have been a man with a great capacity to love, guide and share and this is the memory that we want to leave behind in the viewer’s mind.”

Ms Black hopes that Crimes Uncovered will encourage people to “sit up and take note of what is happening around them, to become more conscious of their safety and the security of those they love”.

Fr Townsend said the story needed telling “as no person deserves to die in the way that Fr Lionel did”.

“The more we speak openly about the impact of crime on normal people, the more chance we have of realising that this South African lifestyle of violence is not what God wants.” n Crimes Uncovered is broadcast on M-Net every Wednesday evening at 21:30. The story of Fr Sham will be broadcast on September 19.

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LOCAL

The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

Girls home makes a Rotary enables youths to enjoy an outdoor adventure difference in Pretoria STAFF REPORTER

STAFF REPORTER

F

T

HANKS to a donation from the Rotary Club of Claremont in Cape Town, some 25 children from Mbekweni, Paarl and surrounding rural areas enjoyed a fun-filled weekend at Edmund Rice Camps in Stellenbosch.

Twenty-one of the children who participated in the camp belong to St Kizito Children’s Programme (SKCP), a parish-based movement that reaches out to orphans and vulnerable children in the archdiocese of Cape Town.

SKCP is currently active in more than 16 communities, where volunteers provide a range of services to children and families in need.

Along with 35 young adult volunteers, the children participated in a recreational camp run by Edmund Rice Camps (ERC). St Kizito’s Shirley Dunn said the theme of the weekend was “Survivor”, and children participated in a number of activities such as sports, crafts, a scavenger hunt, fashion show and bake-off. Teams created their own songs and banners, and competed for the title of “Ultimate Survivor”.

“The children who attended the weekend camp live in very poor communities and very rarely have the opportunity to travel outside their environments. The camp provided these children with the rare opportunity to leave their harsh living conditions, relax in the campsite’s beautiful surroundings, interact with children from other communities and enjoy being children,” said Ms Dunn.

SKCP received the donation

St Kizito’s Children’s Programme Guguletu Kids’ Club receives the donation for their camp with the Edmund Rice Network. from the Rotary Club of Claremont to enable the organisation to build and expand its “Kids’ Clubs” programme.

“Kids’ Clubs provide children living in disadvantaged communities with a safe environment to spend their afternoons and school holidays. At Kids’ Clubs, children participate in various sports, lifeskills, art and cultural activities and are provided with care, stimulation and supervision.

The expansion of the Kids’ Clubs programme is also enabling children to enjoy excursions, outdoor activities and camps,” said Ms Dunn, adding that it was not only the children who benefited from the programme but also the volunteers who are trained on the establishment and running of

afternoon clubs and holiday programmes.

The partnership between the two Catholic organisations has been in effect since 2006.

“Through its camps, ERC provides disadvantaged children with educational experiences, friendship, joy, care and love. ERC also provides young adult volunteers with leadership training and opportunities,” said Ms Dunn.

The camps match the young volunteers to the children to ensure that each child is properly looked after and mentored. n For more information on Edmund Rice Camps, call Jennifer Fredericks on 021 880 0795. For more information on St Kizito Children’s Pro call Wayne Golding on 082 301 9385 or by visiting www.stkizito.org.za.

OR 53 years, Fatima House in Pretoria North has been providing a caring and supportive environment for young girls and women who found themselves pregnant and in need of shelter.

Today, the home’s service is extended to teenagers who are in crisis. In 1998 Fatima House became part of the children’s court system. The home’s Elisabeth Jones said the reasons girls arrive at Fatima House range from rape to child sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse, and dysfunctional family systems.

“As a result of such histories these girls often present behavioural problems and addictions and are labelled ‘problem girls’ or ‘bad news’. We believe there is no such thing as a problem girl—only a girl with problems she cannot handle,” said Ms Jones.

Fatima House is run by the Good Shepherd Sisters working for the upliftment and healing of girls and women in marginalised and abusive situations.

“At Fatima House the girls are not only given physical care and antenatal care, but are assisted through a holistic programme which includes intensive therapy to rediscover their own value, make peace with themselves, oth-

ers and God, and moreover experience healing in the hurting and fear-ridden area of their life,” said Ms Jones.

She added that it is not only the girls themselves who received counselling. “The families of the girls are also worked with and where possible reconciliation with their families worked towards or an alternative permanent placement is sought for. In some cases we assist these girls in launching out into life—continue their education, their first job or their first flat,” Ms Jones said.

The girls who are placed privately are often unable to pay towards their stay and for those placed through the children’s court only a minimal state subsidy is received, Ms Jones said.

“The girls often arrive with only the clothes on their backs, and they need to be clothed, fed, educated and healed as well as have provision made for recreation.

This responsibility falls completely on Fatima House and often on the group of adult volunteers.”

Ms Jones said donations in any form were always welcome and go a long way in helping those who were given a rough start, gain a positive direction in life. n For more information visit www.fatimahouse.co.za or call 012 546 5856

Famous Jesuit’s memoirs to be launched

BY PADDY KEARNEY

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HE memoirs of Fr Ted Rogers SJ will be launched at Mariannhill during the plenary session of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference on August 2.

Ted Rogers: Jesuit, Social Pioneer and Aids Activist in Zimbabwe is published by Cluster Publications of Pietermaritzburg as the first in a new series titled “Christian Lives in Africa”.

Until recently Fr Rogers was based in Zimbabwe where he held

The

a number of significant positions: as a teacher and headmaster of Jesuit schools such as St Peter’s, Kubetana; founder and first principal of the School of Social Work at the University of Zimbabwe; director of IMBISA, as an Aids activism pioneer in a number of Zimbabwean high schools.

After 51 years in Zimbabwe, because of his failing health, he has now been assigned to the Jesuit retirement house in Boscombe, near Bournemouth, England.

The launch will be held in the

St Anne’s chapel next to the Monastery church at Mariannhill.

Speakers will be Cardinal Wilfrid Napier and Professor Philippe Denis OP, representing Cluster Publications, and Fr Rogers, via a video message.

Copies of Fr Rogers’s book will be available at the launch at the price of R100. The normal sale price is R150 available from Cluster Publications (cluster@clusterpub lications.co.za).

To receive an e-mailed invitation to Fr Roger’s book launch, call 031 201 3832.

Souther n Cross

HOLY STONES, LIVING STONES PILGRIMAGE TO

Members of the choir and marimba band of Dominican Convent High School in Johannesburg shared the music of Africa when they travelled to Britian. They performed at South Africa House, Salisbury cathedral and Sherborne abbey to audience members which included the South African High Commissioner and Sir Richard Branson, who is seen with the group.

The choir was led by Rosalia Motha and marimba band instructor Linky Kokolo.

The Catholic Theological Society of Southern Africa Annual Conference And General Meeting

THE COUNCIL’S LEGACY

HOLY LAND • ROME • ASSISI • CAIRO 27 September - 11 October 2013 with

BISHOP JOE SANDRI MCCJ

Join The Southern Cross and the Bishop of Witbank on a special pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Meet with local Christians – the Living Stones – before travelling to Rome to see the Pope and to Assisi to see original relics of St Francis and St Clare.

HOLY LAND: Jerusalem (with Via Dolorosa). Bethlehem. Nazareth. Cana (with an opportunity to renew marriage vows). Mount of Beatitudes. Capernaum. Boatride on the Sea of Galilee. Mount Tabor. Jordan River. Ein Kerem. Dead Sea, and much more.

ITALY: Rome with PAPAL AUDIENCE, the four major basilicas (including Mass in St Peter’s), catacombs, ancient sites. Assisi and the beautiful Rieti Valley, where St Francis lived and invented the Christmas crib.

CAIRO: Pyramids. Sphinx. Nile Dinner cruise.

Estimated price: R 29 300 (incl. airport taxes, subject to currency fluctuations)

FOR FULL ITINERARY OR TO BOOK: Gail at 076 352 3809 or Fax 021 465 3850 or e-mail info@fowlertours.co.za www.scross.co.za/pilgrimage-2013 or www.fowlertours.co.za

Presenters

September 10-12, 2012 Venue: Koinonia, Johannesburg

Denis Hurley & Keeping Alive the Dream of Vatican II • Mr Paddy Kearney Catholic Social Thought on Two Inseparable Rights: Life and Private Property • Prof Mogabe Ben Ramose Women, they too have their story: Women's Role in the Church.

• Ms Puleng Segalo A Protestant Perspective on Vatican II + 50 years: An engagement with Dissent • Prof Graham Duncan Climate Justice for All • Ms Elizabeth Mokotong The Challenges and Contributions of Black Theology • Mr Itumeleng Mothoagae Challenges for the Church Today: a South African Reformed Perspective • Dr Jaco Kruger Conference Fee: The Church: A Safety net?

• Dr Anselm Prior OFM • Two days R325 Interpreting the Council • One day R200 • Dr Judy Coyle IHM For cost of meals, accomodation etc contact: Fr Anselm: 073 220 0234, email: prior.laurence@gmail.com or Nicky Luyckx on Tel/Fax (011) 463 9093 or e-mail nluyckx@icon.co.za

LOCAL

African theology for all parishes in Africa T STAFF REPORTER

HE Jesuit Institute’s Winter Living Theology programme got off to an excellent start in Port Elizabeth before moving on to four other South African cities.

This year’s Winter Theology speaker is Fr Laurenti Magesa, a Tanzanian prierst who teaches at Hekima, the Jesuit college in Nairobi.

As well as being one of the continent’s foremost theologians, Fr Magesa is also a working parish priest. His lectures draw on his extensive pastoral experience and so he was very keen to do workshops in parishes as well as the formal courses.

Apart from the three-day course attended by priests, religious and interested lay people, the programme also involves workshops in 15 parishes across the country.

Kwa Zakhele in Port Elizabeth gave him a very warm welcome despite the cold Eastern Cape weather. More than 60 people of all ages came from Don Bosco and neighbouring parishes. They listened intently as Fr Magesa described the role of the African Church in the wider Catholic world.

“Though it did not specifically address the Church in Africa, Vatican II opened up the way in which three successive popes then visited and addressed African Catholics,”

Fr Laurenti Magesa leads a workshop on the African Church in Kwa Zakhele, Port Elizabeth.

Fr Magesa said.

He explained how Pope Paul VI affirmed the need for the Church in Africa to reflect African Christianity and how he stressed his respect for African religious traditions.

“This was then continued in the work of the African synods and in two apostolic exhortations “letters of encouragement”—The Church in Africa of Pope John Paul II and The Gift of Africa of Pope Benedict XVI.” Fr Magesa expressed surprise that the parishioners he met here knew so little about the synods or the letters and hoped that his workshops would help Catholics

in South Africa to appreciate the “rich intellectual, cultural and religious heritage” of the continent, said Raymond Perrier, director of the Jesuit Institute South Africa.

The parish workshops—“An African Church in the Contemporary African Reality”—continue in Bloemfontein on July 24 at the cathedral, July 25 in Heidedal, July 26 in Bochabela (all starting at 18:00); and in Johannesburg on July 31 at 19:00 in Braamfontein, August 1 at 18:30 in Leondale, and August 2 at 18:30 in Diepkloof, Soweto. All are welcome. n For more information contact info@jesuitinstitute.org.za or call 011 482 4614.

The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

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Toy drive gives home hope STAFF REPORTER

A

SMALL parish made a big gesture with a toy and clothing drive for a children’s home.

St Bernard’s church in Newlands, Cape Town, launched an initiative in support of Tenterden Children’s Home in Wynberg after the institution announced that it is setting up a trauma room.

Tenterden is a place of safety for vulnerable children run by the Western Cape province. The children have been removed from their homes and stay at Tenterden until the circumstances at their homes become stable again.

Alternatively, they are sent to a foster home. There are 30 boys and girls in the 6-12 age group at the home at any one time.

The parish collected enough boxes of toys and clothes to fill the back of a bakkie. Among the toys were teddy bears, children’s books and stationery. These will be allocated to the place of safety’s trauma room.

An existing staff room at the centre will be converted into a space that will allow new arrivals to play, to express themselves creatively and to feel nurtured.

The room will be a space for the social worker and careworkers at the home to work on a therapeutic level with the children.

St Bernard’s toy collection drive forms part of the first phase of this initiative.

“We get children who are very traumatised—children who have been raped, who have been physically abused and abandoned,” said

Elise Kassiem, head social worker at Tenterden.

“We give them trauma counselling. The trauma room will be an extension of that counselling.

It will be where children will have access to soft toys and will have the privacy to vent and cry. In this trauma room they will be safe.

This is going to be their special place where they will have a voice,” Ms Kassiem said.

Kevin Williams, secretary of St Bernard’s parish, said the toy drive was an important initiative to raise awareness of Tenterden and the work they do.

“St Bernard’s parish is very generous and the children at Tenterden are very dear to all our hearts,” he said.

“People should become aware of Tenterden—they should know that it’s there, that it is helping the children and that they do need all sorts of support. Child abuse is a terrible thing and the children get scarred by either sexual, mental abuse or physical abuse so any sort of toy or any sign that somebody thinks of them or cares for them can help.”

Ms Kassiem said the parish’s toy drive has filled with hope.

“I wish I could thank each of the parishioners at St Bernard’s personally. They will never know the value of their donations and the extent of the healing that will take place for the children as a result.” n Volunteers interested in contributing their time, paint or furnishing to the Tenterden’s trauma room can call Katja Hamilton at 021 797 7408.

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The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

INTERNATIONAL

Most bishops’ conferences now have abuse protocols

BY CAROL GLATZ

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HE majority of bishops’ conferences in the Americas, Europe and Asia have complied with a Vatican mandate to draw up anti-abuse guidelines, said the Vatican’s top investigator of clerical sex abuse.

Without counting Africa, “more than half of the conferences responded” by the May deadline, Mgr Charles Scicluna of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said in an interview with the Italian monthly Catholic magazine Jesus.

All those who did not send in their proposed guidelines would be getting “a letter of reminder,” he added. The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference drafted its protocol several years ago.

While the result is gratifying,

Mgr Scicluna said that Africa “has a particular situation with great difficulty in Church structures”, presumably referring to the lack of needed communications and other infrastructure that help a nation’s bishops draw up national policies.

Evaluating each country’s proposed policies and guidelines for dealing with cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors will take “at least a year”.

Countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany are among those with the most comprehensive and binding guidelines or norms, but in many cases, those norms came only in the wake of revelations in the media of abuse, said the former prefect of the congregation, Cardinal William Levada.—CNS

Papal knighthood for Irish leader

BY MICHAEL KELLY

O

NE of the key architects of the Northern Ireland peace process has been honoured

by Pope Benedict for his commitment to peace and reconciliation in the region.

John Hume (pictured), a foundermember of the mainly Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party, was credited with initiating the political dialogue that brought about the 1994 ceasefire by the Irish Republican Army. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998.

Pope Benedict named Mr Hume as a Knight Commander of the

Pontifical Equestrian Order of St Gregory the Great.

Born in a Catholic area of Derry in 1937, Mr Hume had studied for the priesthood for several years before he became a teacher.

It was a Belfast-based priest, Fr Alec Reid, who convinced Mr Hume to begin his dialogue with IRA’s political representatives which culminated in the 1998 peace agreement.—CNS

Excommunication and praise after ordinations of bishops in China

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EWLY ordained Auxiliary Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin of Shanghai failed to show up for his first Mass at St Ignatius cathedral after telling the congregation at his ordination that he would step down from the local and national offices of the government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association to devote himself entirely to his ministry.

Local church sources told the Asian Church news agency UCA News that Chinese authorities have restricted Bishop Ma from exercising his episcopal ministry.

Bishops who participated in his ordination ceremony have been included in a government investigation.

Bishop Ma is the first government-approved bishop in recent years to announce publicly that he would give up his duties with the Catholic Patriotic Association, UCA News reported.

A Shanghai priest said Bishop Ma was having a rough time.

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Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin following his episcopal ordination in Shanghai. (Photo: UCAnews) “It is painful, but is good for the conscience of the Church in China. His witness is an encouragement for our Catholics, so we can only pray for him.”

Meanwhile, Chinese Father Joseph Yue Fusheng has been automatically excommunicated for allowing himself to be illicitly ordained a bishop in Harbin,

despite repeated warnings from the Vatican, Catholic News Service reported.

Fr Yue was ordained bishop on July 6 without papal mandate following an acrimonious exchange of notifications between the Vatican and Beijing on the issue of illicit ordinations.

Five Vatican-approved bishops took part in the rite. The Vatican said that those bishops who took part in the ordination had “exposed themselves to the sanctions laid down by the law of the Church”, which entail automatic excommunication.

Bishops’ ordinations that are not authorised by the pope generally bring the penalty of automatic excommunication; however, because in some cases there may be mitigating circumstances— including fear of reprisal, necessity or serious inconvenience—those bishops in attendance “must give an account to the Holy See of their participation in that religious ceremony”, the Vatican said.

Cardinal Eugenio de Araujo Sales, the retired archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, died on July 9 at 91. Serving as archbishop of Rio de Janeiro for 30 years, the late cardinal had been outspoken against human rights violations during the decades of military rule in Brazil.

He supported the Vatican’s efforts to sanction Brazilian theologians and close seminaries that had strayed from Catholic principles in their focus on liberation theology.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1943, made a bishop in 1954, and was transferred to Rio de Janeiro in 1971. He was a participant in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council.

Created cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1969, the Brazilian prelate had been the longestserving cardinal in the Church before he died. There are just three prelates still alive who had been created a cardinal by Pope Paul: Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, 90, of São Paulo; Cardinal William Baum, 85, of Washington; and Pope Benedict XVI, 85.

Cardinal Sales’ death leaves the College of Cardinals with 208 members, 121 of whom are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave.

Vatican budget in deficit, but income and donations up

BY CAROL GLATZ

T

HE Holy See sustained its largest budget deficit of the past decade in 2011 as a result of global financial trends, the Vatican said. But Vatican City State, which includes the incomegenerating Vatican Museums and Vatican post office, ended 2011 with a surplus of 21,8 million euros (R220 million).

The budget of the Holy See, which includes the offices of the Roman curia and its communications outlets such as Vatican Radio, recorded a deficit of 14,9 million euros (R150 million) at the end of 2011. It was the largest budget deficit recorded in the past decade and reversed the 2010 surplus of 9,8 million euros (R98,6 million).

Total expenditures for the Holy See in 2011 were 263,7 million euros (R2,65 billion) with 248,8 million euros (R2,5 billion) in revenues.

A brief summary of the Vatican’s financial report released to the press blamed the deficit on “the negative trend of global financial markets, which made it impossible to achieve the goals laid down in the budget”.

The majority of the Holy See’s expenditures were related to wages and other personnel costs for some 2 832 people, it said.

The budget of the Holy See includes the Vatican Secretariat of State and its diplomatic missions around the world, Vatican congregations and pontifical councils, the Holy See’s investment portfolio and properties as well as the Vatican’s newspaper, radio, publishing house and television production center.

Its revenues included 49 million euros (R493 million) from the Vati-

can bank—which donates to the pope profits from its investments— as well as contributions from dioceses and religious orders, and returns from the Holy See’s financial investments.

Last year, despite continued economic difficulty around the world, donations from the faithful and Catholic organisations were up.

Contributions from dioceses amounted to about R263 million in 2011, up from R222 million in 2010.

The Peter’s Pence collection, used by the pope for charity and emergency assistance, brought in R570 million, up from R553 million in 2010.

The United States, Germany and Italy provide the biggest contributions every year, according to the Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ. There is a separate budget for Vatican City State, which employs nearly 1 900 people.

The bulk of its income in 2011 came from the museums, which saw 91,3 million euros (R920 million) in revenues, up nearly 10 million euros from 2010. Fr Lombardi said that the increase was caused by the growing number of museum visitors as well as extended opening hours.

The figures were released after a two-day meeting of a council of cardinals in charge of reviewing the Vatican budgets. The 15-members of the council include Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban.

In a statement, the council members said that their deliberations on the budgets had called for “prudence and limiting costs, though while maintaining jobs”.— CNS

INTERNATIONAL Pope Benedict receives a gift during his visit to the Society of the Divine Word’s Ad Gentes retreat centre in the village of Nemi in the Alban hills south-east of Rome. The pope recalled staying at the centre as a priest during the Second Vatican Council. (Photo: L'Osservatore Romano/ Reuters/CNS)

The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

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Vatican astronomer: Higgs boson may unlock new discoveries

BY CAROL GLATZ

T

Pope visits missionary centre

BY CAROL GLATZ

B

RINGING God’s word to mission lands is successful only when missionaries live the Gospel with joy and share the love and goodness they receive from God, Pope Benedict said during a brief visit to a centre belonging to the missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word.

The pope, who began his vacation on July 3 at the papal summer villa of Castel Gandolfo, took a short trip to the centre in the nearby village of Nemi.

The pope said he had fond memories of the centre where he

spent a week in 1965 working with three dozen other prelates to draft the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes.

He praised the flourishing of vocations in the Society of the Divine Word, which has more than 6 000 members in 70 countries, including South Africa and Botswana. Bishop Frank Nabuasah of Francistown, Botswana, is a member of the order.

“Clearly missionary dynamism lives on and it lives only if there is Gospel joy and if we experience the good that comes from God that must and wants to be communicated.”—CNS

HE discovery of a new subatomic particle—the so-called Higgs boson—may help scientists discover how the hidden structure of all matter in the universe works, a Vatican astronomer said.

“It indicates that reality is deeper and more rich and strange than our everyday life,” Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno said.

When people go about their everyday business working or relaxing, they don’t think about the tiniest building blocks of physical matter, but “without these underlying little things, we wouldn’t be here”, he said.

Physicists working with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research laboratory in Geneva, announced this month that they were 99.999% certain they found evidence of a new particle that might be key to the structure of the universe and to understanding nature.

British physicist Peter Higgs first hypothesised the existence of the particle in the 1960s as the final missing element in a framework called the Standard Model, which explains how sub-atomic particles and forces interact.

Over the decades, with the help of increasingly powerful and sophisticated high-energy particle

Br Guy Consolmagno SJ (Photo: Alessia Giuliani, Catholic Press Photo) accelerators, scientists have been searching for what atoms are made up of, what the smaller components of atoms are made up of, what the nature of those smaller components is, and so on, Br Consolmagno said.

But it wasn’t clear why some materials, such as protons and electrons, have mass and therefore are attracted to each other by gravity, while other materials, such as photons, have no mass, he said.

“Higgs, 50 years ago, worked out a model called the Standard Model, that would provide reasons for attraction and why there is mass,” the Jesuit said.

Prof Higgs predicted that if a particle that produced the effect of

mass existed, it should be “visible” after two atoms were smashed together at high enough speeds.

The Higgs-boson had been nicknamed “the God particle” as “a joke” in an attempt to depict the particle as “almost like a gift from God to help explain how reality works in the sub-atomic world,” Br Consolmagno said. Because the particle is believed to be what gives mass to matter, it was assigned the godlike status of being able to create something out of nothing.

But such “God of the gaps” conjectures are not only bad reasons to believe in God, they are also bad science, Br Consolmagno said.

“You’ll look foolish, in say 2050, when they discover the real reason” for a phenomenon that was explained away earlier by the hand of God, he said.

However, another kind of faith and hope does exist in the scientific community, he said.

“No one would have built this enormous experiment”, tapping the time and talents of thousands of scientists around the world, “without faith they would find something”, Br Consolmagno said.

“My belief in God gives me the courage to look at the physical universe and to expect to find order and beauty,” he said. “It’s my faith that inspires me to do science.”— CNS

Pope Benedict affirms confidence in his controversial secretary of state

BY CAROL GLATZ

P

OPE Benedict has reaffirmed his trust in the Vatican’s secretary of state and defended him against a barrage of “unjust criticism” in the Italian media.

In a letter addressed to “dear brother” Italian Cardinal Tarcisio

Bertone, 77, the pope expressed his “profound appreciation for your discreet presence and wise counsel, which I have found particularly helpful over recent months”.

The Vatican has had to face a number of challenges recently, including leaks of confidential cor-

respondence to the pope and the secretariat of state; the arrest of the pope’s personal assistant in connection with the leaks; and the ousting of the Vatican bank’s president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.

Italian media had been speculating that Cardinal Bertone would

576 AM IN JO’BURG & BEYOND

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

soon be replaced as secretary of state because of the Vatican infighting revealed in the leaks scandal.

The cardinal formally requested permission to step down when he reached the usual retirement age of 75 in 2010, but the pope renewed the cardinal’s mandate to continue

serving as the Vatican’s No 2 official.

“Having noted with sorrow the unjust criticisms that have been directed against you, I wish to reiterate the expression of my personal confidence,” the pope wrote in the letter.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Our tax burden

I

N Matthew’s gospel we read that Jesus, like every citizen, paid his taxes, even in the face of unjust and corrupt governance.

He did so grudgingly—Simon Peter had to catch a fish with a coin in its mouth to settle the tax bill—but he did nothing to evade payment (17:24-27).

With the new South African tax season in full swing, many of those citizens required to submit their tax return will do so with a similar displeasure. Many will take full advantage of openings provided in tax law to reduce their tax bills, an endeavour which is of itself ethical.

It is not morally licit, however, to cheat on tax returns, nor to evade them by declaring income from one country in a tax haven elsewhere.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church places tax evasion on a list of morally illicit conduct which includes corruption, fraud, price fixing, cheque and invoice forgery as well the payment of unjust wages. These, the Church teaches, offend against the Seventh Commandment, “You shall not steal” (2409).

The Catechism lists the payment of taxes as a moral obligation of citizenship (2240). As insurance fraud is theft from those whose premiums increase as a result of scams, so is tax evasion an act of theft from those who faithfully pay their taxes.

The tax evaders might make self-righteous claims about not wishing to fund corruption and wasteful expenditure, but they nonetheless benefit from the services that are funded by taxes, however imperfectly, such as security, education, infrastructural development and so on.

Moreover, our taxes fund social spending for the indigent.

Withholding taxes therefore harms the poor. In the Gospel, Jesus has harsh words for those offend against the poor.

Tax avoidance by holding offshore accounts in tax havens and other such manipulations are no less sinful. The rock band U2 has been rightly criticised by Irish citizens for paying their taxes elsewhere, especially since their tax avoidance stands in conflict with the amplified pronouncements of solidarity with the poor by the band’s singer, Bono.

Last month British prime minister David Cameron accused comedian Jimmy Carr of “morally repugnant” tax dodging

through a fund-shifting scheme.

He accurately pointed out: “It is not fair on hardworking people who pay their taxes to see these scams.”

The prime minister was embarrassed, however, when it was pointed out to him that some of his donors, political friends and colleagues—most of them significantly more wealthy than the comedian—have engaged in similar tax avoidance schemes as Mr Carr, as have also Mr Cameron’s own father and father-in-law.

Tax avoidance schemes reportedly cost the British treasury some £4,5 billion a year—enough to scrap a controversial new tax on pensioners.

The corresponding figure is probably lower in South Africa.

Still, in May the South African Revenue Services’ commissioner, Oupa Magashula, told parliament that illegal tax dodges by multinational corporations are robbing the treasury of billions of rands.

While the payment of due taxes—whether by salaried individuals, self-employed entrepreneurs, scions of old wealth, speculators or businesses—is a moral obligation, it also entitles taxpayers to demand accountability and transparency from their government.

In particular, tax payers have a right to vigorously condemn the misappropriation of public funds and other forms of corruption, excessive salaries for public servants and extravagant purchases funded by tax money—such as, for example, a new presidential jet.

Indeed, all these instances amount to theft from the taxpayer—who in turn might face higher levies to compensate for the shortfall due to misspending— and from the poor. Taxpayers must therefore become increasingly engaged in those endeavours of civil society which campaign for greater fiscal vigilance.

Nobody likes to pay taxes, of course, but in Catholic teaching it is part of our collective responsibility for the common good.

In his 1961 encyclical Mater et Magistra, Pope John XXIII wrote that taxation “according to the ability to pay is fundamental to a just and equitable system”.

It is the duty of all those fortunate South Africans who are earning above a taxable threshold to meet their legal and ethical obligation in contributing to the common good.

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.

A good shepherd remembered

B

ISHOP Mogale Paul Nkumishe, who died at 74 on June 29, and I first met as students at St Peter’s seminary, near Pietermaritzburg. At the end of 1963 the seminary was relocated to Hammanskraal, and this is where we both completed our studies. As a student, young Paul was a quiet, studious and friendly fellow.

It was during these formative years that he showed a lot of interest in the development of young people, some of whom he later recruited to the priesthood. Since we were not in the same class, we did not compete with one another academically, though we did compete on the tennis court.

Thanks to the Dominican Fathers we were deeply inspired by the Second Vatican Council. I would boldly claim that my contemporaries at St Peter’s were typical products of Vatican II. It was not surprising therefore that progressive black priests and religious began to take seriously the challenges of injustice and the denial of human rights in our country. They felt that the Church needed to oppose the apartheid state more vigorously, as well as within its institutions.

Barely five years into the priesthood, Fr Nkumishe witnessed a

God comes to us

I

N a conversation with my fellow Catholics and the Catholic press, the expression “having an encounter with Jesus Christ” often comes up.

We should have an ongoing vital, dynamic relationship with Jesus, empowered by his Spirit, in which we know Jesus, not merely know about him.

For Catholics in the past the word mission meant proving to non-Catholics that the institution, the Catholic Church, was founded

by Jesus Christ, and that the fullness of truth subsisted only in it.

Many Catholics do not seem to know the basic gospel message—the kerygma—that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ and by his grace. The name of Jesus seldom gets mentioned in conversation, even when worshippers come out of church from Sunday Mass.

In 1 Corinthians 10:15 St Paul is clear: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel”. The same applies to us.

Since we cannot give what we do not have, holiness is given to us before it is expected of us. In Evangelii Nuntiandi Pope Paul VI spoke to those in pagan religions who stand, as it were, with arms out-stretched towards heaven.

Christianity on the other hand effectively establishes with God an authentic and living relationship.

God has come all the way to us.

massive protest march that was led by five black Catholic priests in Pretoria. While he was not one of the leaders, he and his colleagues were very supportive of the grounds for the march. That development led to the formation of the Black Priest Solidarity Group (BPSG), which was eventually joined by many black priests.

When we launched the BPSG, we elected Fr Nkhumishe as its first president, in absentia. He never chaired any of its formal meetings, much to the amusement of everybody. Typical of Paul, he preferred a low profile participation in the affairs of the BPSG. Everybody who knew him respected his decision.

We all knew that he would support our cause in every way possible, except to lead it nationally.

Bishop Nkhumishe was honest almost to a fault; he had an infectious smile and was very principled.

He was a man of his word and was courageous. He will be remembered for his ground-breaking decision for allowing his priest—myself—to become South Africa’s first Catholic priest to go into parliament.

Although canon law gave him the authority to do so under certain circumstances, it took a lot of courage and humility to exercise that right. He took some flak for As St Theresa of Avila, that great Doctor of the Church, believed: “We should be madly in love with Jesus Christ.” He should be at the centre of our lives and all our endeavours, he should be Lord in all situations.

If we experience that with joy, evangelising will be a priority—then it will be no longer I, but the Lord impelling me. The Lord Jesus Christ is the best news there is.

John Lee, Johannesburg

Value life!

A

CHRISTIANITY of charity without truth would be more or less interchangeable with a pill of good sentiments, helpful for social cohesion, but of little relevance.

In other words, there would no longer be any real place for God in the world. Without truth there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power, resulting in a social fragmentation.

If we love others with charity, then we are just towards them and act as such, we do not tolerate the variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where human life is weak or marginalised.

“Value Life” is a mission of revival to address our nation’s shame of such tolerance towards the weak. Its aim is to put, in the Lord’s name, a cross of repentance

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doing so, but he stuck to his guns.

When we parted he said he was hopeful that I would carry my priestly ministry into that challenging environment.

I had occasion to visit Bishop Nkumishe before he died. He was very ill in the intensive care unit of a Pretoria hospital. Although in pain, he still managed to smile and make jokes. When his relatives joined us, I insisted that he should give us his blessing to prove that he is still our shepherd. He grinned and said: “Pat, I thought you should be giving me your blessing” (for some strange reason he never called me Smangaliso, but always Pat).

Fr Mathibela Sebothoma later administered the anointing of the sick and Holy Communion. It was humbling for us as priests ministering to our bishop and leader. Yet he was grateful towards our small gesture.

Fr Nkhumishe leaves behind a record of someone who was a great priest, pastor, bishop and a leader of the people. He exercised his ministry at a time when the apartheid regime had gone completely demonic, but he was fortunate that he did witness the transformation of South Africa from tyranny to freedom.

May his soul rest in peace.

Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Pretoria on to every illegal abortion advert that is displayed to our shame for the over one million babies killed under our tolerance.

These illegal adverts are displayed like a franchise holding— they are all the same format and either blue or red in colour but with a different franchise holder’s name.

“Value Life” is not an organisation and has no hierarchy. It is financed by the fellowship of individuals participating in their own communities at their own expense and fund-raising by the grace of Almighty God and by his direction alone.

Our country is bleeding innocent blood simply to accommodate our self-indulgence. The minister of health is still unable to furnish the abortion statistics for 2011. Are they embarrassed of the shame of the big lie that they are selling, or have they exchanged God for a pill of good sentiment for a social cohesion that will never result in love of truth? Abortion is evil. Value life.

Peter Throp, Cape Town Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy.

The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate. Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately.

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PERSPECTIVES

Christian faith and African tradition Emmanuel Ngara

A

T a conference held recently on spiritual direction, I asked the question: “To what extent can we accommodate traditional African beliefs that are not consistent with the Gospel message of Christ?”

Many who commented acknowledged this was an important question, but no one gave a clear answer. In this column I hope to start a serious debate on the question by taking us back to the teachings of the apostles.

It is necessary to begin by articulating three important principles: First, inculturation—presenting the faith through the culture of the people—is a positive approach to evangelisation.

Second, there is no culture which is superior to another, meaning that teaching the Christian faith to African people through the medium of Western culture, as many missionaries did on the grounds that traditional African culture was primitive, was a wrong approach, even if the intentions were good.

Third, Jesus said he came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them (Mt 5:17). This statement is relevant to the way the Church should deal with traditional African beliefs.

The issue of the relationship between the Christian faith and traditional beliefs and practices has been an important consideration since the very early days of the Church. In fact, what may be called the first Council of the Church was held to deal with this very issue.

In Acts 15 we are told about how some Jewish Christians from Judaea went to Antioch and taught that Gentile Christians had to be circumcised. After praying about it and debating it, the apostles sent Judas and Silas with Paul and Barnabas to deliver this message to the believers in Antioch: “It seemed good to the Holy

Christian Leadership

A Catholic woman sings during Mass at a church in Garissa, Kenya. (Photo: Goran Toma sevic, Reuters/CNS) Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:28-29).

By this the apostles meant that Gentile Christians did not have to adopt Jewish traditions. They were also telling Gentile Christians to abstain from certain Gentile practices that were not consistent with the Gospel.

In his later writings Paul emphasised that even for Jewish Christians like himself, certain religious practices that were allowed under the Law of Moses were no longer necessary as these had been superseded by the supreme sacrifice made by Christ on the Cross. Consequently, circumcision and the offering of the blood of animals were no longer necessary.

I

n the same vein, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews explains that Christ made his sacrifice through a tabernacle that was superior to the tabernacle of the Ark of the Covenant. “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once

for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption” (Acts 9:12).

What are the implications of this discussion for African Christians? There is no space here to comment on the issue in anything like sufficient detail. Suffice it to note the following: If the sacrifices that God allowed our Father in faith, Abraham, to perform, and the circumcision which God ordered Abraham to undergo in terms of the Old Covenant, have been superseded by the supreme sacrifice of Christ, it consequently follows that all traditional African practices such as circumcision, divination and the sacrificing of animals and birds have also been superseded by Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, and should accordingly be discontinued.

Dependence on traditional beliefs and practices such as those just mentioned is an indication of faith that is still immature, still in its infancy. If we want to assist some of the African believers in townships and rural communities to have a more mature faith, we must help them to develop a Christianity that empowers them to encounter God through faith in Christ.

Paul urges all of us to develop a mature faith, to “no longer live as the Gentiles do”: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching …Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (See Ephesians 4:14-17).

Three feasts in a week can teach us a lot Fr Kevin Reynolds

I

N the last week of this month, the feasts of three saints remind us of a couple of interesting aspects of the human life of Christ.

The feasts on July 22 and 29 focus our attention on Christ’s friendship with Ss Mary Magdalene and Martha respectively, while the feast of Ss Joachim and Anne on July 26 recalls Christ’s maternal grandparents.

The introduction in the Divine Office to the feast of Ss Joachim and Anne states: “An old tradition going back to the second century gives these names to the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The veneration of St Anne dates from the sixth century in the East and spread throughout the West in the tenth century; that of St Joachim is more recent.”

In our Catholic tradition much is made of Jesus’ relationship with his mother, Mary, and his foster father, Joseph. However, it comes almost as a surprise to realise that he might well have had a relationship with his maternal grandparents, Joachim and Anne.

Because Mary was a young woman when she gave birth to Christ, in all probability her parents were alive at that time.

Tradition gives us the impression that Joseph was some years older than Mary, in which case his parents might have died by the time of Jesus’ birth. Be that as it may, Joachim and Anne surely played a role in the formative years of the human Christ.

Their feast encourages us to reflect on the importance of grandparents in the upbringing of a child. Generally speaking grandparents’ love and care for their grandchildren is enriched by their having brought up their own children.

A friend of mine recently became a grandmother when her eldest daughter gave birth to a little boy. For her, this was an event that had never occurred in human history, so profound and unique it seemed to become a granny.

When I asked if she felt that she loved her new grandson more than she had loved her own babies, she immediately said yes. She explained that her former experience of bringing up her son and three daughters had empowered her to love her baby grandson with a greater capacity.

Of course, our South African experience of many children growing up with

Point of Reflection

Ss Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate in a 14th-century fresco by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. their grandparents—because their parents’ work prevents their living with them, or because thre are no parents— confirms how many grandparents become surrogate parents. This reality in our society is not unique, being experienced in other countries, too.

One’s memories of the senior members of one’s family are usually positive. I am sure that Jesus’ memories of his maternal grandparents were precious, especially as Joachim and Anne had contributed richly to his human formation.

The feasts of Ss Mary Magdalene and Martha remind us how Jesus’ growth in his humanity was aided also by friendships in his adult life.

Unfortunately the attitude of the pre-

sent world creates a warped view of adult friendships. This owes to an exaggeration of how relationships must have a sexual dimension.

Sadly, the friendship that Jesus enjoyed with Mary Magdalene is seen by many in such a skewed way. A good example of this is Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, which refers to Jesus and Mary Magdalene having had a marital and sexual relationship.

Current attitudes have become so “hyper-sexed” that some cannot accept the possibility of adults’ enjoying friendships with no sexual dimension. They refuse to accept that platonic relationships can facilitate true human growth.

That was certainly not the reality of Christ’s friendships with Mary Magdalene and Martha. The gospels record that Jesus had several friends of both sexes, including Martha’s brother and sister, Lazarus and Mary of Bethany. His example in this area of human interaction can inspire us to become richer persons by nurturing our own adult friendships.

Many believers find it difficult to come to terms with Christ’s growth in his human condition. Hopefully, though, our celebration of these July feasts helps us to accept his full humanity by recognising the value of grandparents and

The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

Anthony Gathambiri IMC

7

Point of Reflection

Finding God at the altars of nature

N

ATURE is God’s icon. It could be a holy door to meet God. Holy men and women seemed to understand this fact better than most. I am enthralled at how these great people discovered their mission in those natural places.

They did so not in the busy streets of Johannesburg or Nairobi or London, but in the still environments.

Muhammad was in the cave of Hira when he received the Holy Qur’an. The prophet spent 40 days in the place. Siddhartha Gautama did his meditation under a tree called Bodhi. He stayed there for 49 days round the clock and became enlightened. Yahweh speaks to Moses in the burning bush. He was told to remove his sandals because of the sacredness of the place. He then meets him on a mountain where he receives the Decalogue. Elijah experienced God in the cave at the mountain. At Jordan River, Jesus was baptised and then spent 40 days in the desert. St Anthony the Abbot left for the desert to find God and became the founder of monastic life.

Scientists of this age spend days and nights in front of screens in well-furnished laboratories.

They are glued to their computers. They work within the framework of those sages who accepted the environment to talk to them. Yet, Sir Isaac Newton sat under an apple tree when he discovered the gravity theory.

Today, the gulf between the human person and their environment is huge. Isn’t it absurd to restrict our worship to structures when we have untainted altars of nature?

Does ordinary contact with nature touch us?

When we eat fresh food, do we feel the taste?

When we pass beautiful trees, do we notice them? When we pass through flower gardens, do we smell the sweet different fragrances? How alienated are we from our environment?

It feels good to get away from the daily noise of the engines, loudspeakers and traffic for some time; away from the smelly haze, exhaust fumes and chemicals.

Last year I climbed Mount Kenya, the dwelling place of Ngai, the god of the Agikuyu people.

Every shape of the tree canopies was a fingerprint of God to me. It felt like a spiritual journey.

Nature can uplift our souls if allowed to. Many retreat centres have natural settings, large rural areas and gardens in urban centres, where people have an opportunity to hear God speak.

Man sees trees, animals, land, grass and even other human beings with a trader’s eye. He asks: “How much could this land sell for? How much could this indigenous tree cost? And how much could this rhino horn sell for.”

We fail our ancestries in faith and science when we disrespect nature. When we destroy our environment through our untamed habits, we deface the holy icon of God. We should repent of the sin of biocide—the crime of killing living things.

A moral conversion is necessary if we want to hear God in the birds, in the flowing river and in the swaying trees.

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COMMUNITY

The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

Sybil Stuurman (far right), a long time parishioner of the Kouga community of Jeffrey’s Bay and Humansdorp, celebrated her birthday. Her daughter (far left) travelled from Mthatha and her granddaughter (third left) and greatgrandchildren from East London to celebrate the big day with her. The four generations are pictured here after the celebration of the Eucharist at the newly-built Kouga church, St Francis of Assisi, in Humansdorp. Despite her age and various disabilities, Mrs Stuurman spends hours daily knitting squares so that they can be made into blankets for those in need. As Christmas time approaches, the squares are put aside and she starts knitting teddy bears. (Submitted by Marilyn Carstens ) Thomas Nott and Robert Lavelle, Grade 7 learners at St David’s Marist Inanda’s in Johannesburg, initiated a blanket drive. The aim of the initiative was to collect as many blankets as possible to assist various charities in providing warmth to those in need over the winter period. The competition included the prep boys school from Grade 1-7 and the prize for the winning class was to dress in civvies on a given day. A total of 314 blankets were collected, 47 of which were collected by Grade 6G, the winning class. (Submitted by Ashleigh Knowles)

IN FOCU S

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

Four new lay Dominicans made their first commitments for the chapter of St Dominic on the East Rand, Johannesburg. Fr Mark James OP, the national promoter of the Lay Dominicans in South Africa, received their promises and celebrated the Mass. The four, Bernadette Mancer, Carole Grant, Diane Deib and Barbara Toweel, have been active members of the chapter for the past two years.

The Catholic Women’s League of St Patrick’s church in East London welcomed Fr John Pullokkaren to the parish in a function held in the church hall. (Submitted by Ann Kent)

St Augustine College’s School of Theology lecturers take a break during activities at their open day.

(From left): Frs Gerard McCabe CSsR, Terence Bateman, Michael van Heerden and Wojciech Szypula SVD. (Submitted by Beverly Holzinger) The senior citizens from St Mary’s cathedral in Kimberley were treated to a tea party. Parish priest Fr Sipho Moatlhodi blessed and anointed each attendee after which they enjoyed the eats and gifts that were prepared for them.

ATTORNEYS

l

NOTARIES

Dominican Sister Jennifer Slater returned to the Catholic University of Fribourg in Switzerland where she successfully completed her second doctorate, a PhD in New Testament Studies. She said it is a privilege and an honour for her to have obtained this degree from a university that can be traced back to 1582, when the Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg. Sr Jennifer was also awarded with a Magna Cum Laude pass. (Submitted by Etienne Arends)

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HOPE&JOY

The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

Brothers and sisters: Today’s revolutionaries I

N a world of crime, corruption, sex, violence, scandal and misery, there are a few who dare to be different by showing the world that “living in peace and harmony can be done”.

Christian Brother Greg Kennedy from Kimberley is the community leader of his religious order in the diocese. “In times gone by, the Christian Brothers ran schools and extramural activities for Catholic school children.

But today, due to a lack of religious, we focus on being available,” he says.

Br Kennedy says while once religious communities were closed to the public, today many take a new attitude and are available to the needs of the community. The Christian Brothers of Kimberley still support the local schools but focus more of their time on food schemes, working with street children, and with HIV/Aids organisations.

The Franciscan Sisters of Siessen in the Free State serve all, through promoting a love for all creatures, humility, peace, joy and happiness. They care for the sick, visit the dying and pray with them to the very end. But they also have specific projects that contribute to the livelihood of the community.

“We are running crèches and most of those crèches are in places where people have lost hope because of poverty,” says Sr Winifred Mosololi. In addition, the sisters run old age homes in the region. “Many of the aged and sick people do not have families. Some of them we even have bury when they die”, as no one else will.

“We are also helping people who are still staying in the farmstead—those who are unskilled – we teach them skills to be able to look after themselves,” Sr Mosololi says, adding that the order also helps bring families

Claire Mathieson

A Church of Hope and Joy

together through counselling.

Br Kennedy says because of the services religious communities provide and the importance of these in the serving the people of God, being a religious brother or sister is not a lesser calling than the priesthood.

“It is not a stepping stone to becoming a priest,” he says.

“Brotherhood and sisterhood is a full vocation.”

Br Kennedy says the role of religious is vital in supporting the clergy in doing the work of the Church. “We are all a part of the priesthood of Christ,” he says.

T

he Poor Clare Capuchin nuns of Perpetual Adoration in Swellendam, Oudtshoorn diocese, believe the importance of a religious community is that its members are gathered and united as a family in the name of Jesus.

“A religious community is, as it were, an expression of that difficult struggle to bring about the unity of the entire Christian community,” says Mother Maria Guadalupe, “so that the world may believe.” (Jn 17:21).

“As a contemplative religious community, ours is essentially a praying community. This is our way of serving the greater community as well as building a community of peace.”

Mother Guadalupe says her community promotes a closer bonding in faith. “A religious community is essentially a community of faith. Its members having given themselves to a common mission require a big level of faith and human maturity in order to maintain this commitment.”

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Br Kennedy joined the Chistian Brothers at age 12, completing all his education through the order. “I’ve never looked back,” he says, 55 years later. “I’ve gained complete fulfillment through my vocation,” he says, despite living life “entirely differently to the average man”.

Br Kennedy referred to not ever having his own bank account, owning land, and loving his enemies instead of acting against them, as many might.

“We are different. We are revolutionaries,” he says. “We are proof to the world that a peaceful life can be lived.”

Sr Mosololi says she too has gained from her vocation.

“I personally have learnt to be aware of my own weaknesses and achievements or talents,” Sr Mosololi says. Becoming a nun has also meant becoming a jack of all trades. “I manage to do many things including things we think can only be done by men. I am equally adept at cooking, baking, dress-making and teaching.”

Sr Mosololi has also been the recipient of the Emerging Farmers award from the Master Dairy Association of South Africa for her work with Sr Priscilla Katase, the nuns’ farm manager.

The nun says she is easily motivated to work hard. “The life of a Franciscan is love at work,” she says.

J

ohannesburg-based Good Shepherd Sister Zelna Oosthuizen does not define what she does as a labour. “I enjoy the work I do because it is not work but service inspired by the love of God and this urges me to serve and give of myself totally to the people. The joy I receive is the joy I give to others.”

Sr Oosthuizen, whose order works predominantly with women and girls in difficulties, says the importance for the individual is that being part of a community gives you a sense of

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Sr Winifred Mosololi: “Becoming a nun has also meant becoming a jack of all trades.” She recieved the Emerging Farmers award from the Master Dairy Association of South Africa for her work with Sr Priscilla Katase (left), whom she assists. belonging, because “the community is focused on the same mission for the Kingdom of God”.

“As an individual you have a spiritual and emotional support structure which empowers you to give your best in service to the people you are sent to.”

The Good Shepherd Sisters in Johannesburg operate a safe haven, Fatima House, for girls in pregnancy crisis.

The Sisters assist the girls in choosing life for their babies, and run training and education programmes to help the girls get back on their feet.

Br Kennedy, who is one of three in his Kimberley community, says it is easy to be obedient and easy to deal with poverty, but celibacy is a challenge—but one worth dealing with. “I dare to be different. I am proof there are better ways to live life.”

He says there is definitely a place for people to enjoy all the gifts God has given—including sex, within marriage—but religious represent an example of how worldly activity need not be the centre of one’s life.

In the face of violence, corruption, and negativity, he says, “religious communities have to show an alternative to what is

J.M.J

really going on in the world, and to show people that a positive life can work”.

Sr Oosthuizen says the religious bear witness to unity, or communion, in diversity—“that even among different cultures, languages and races or whatever is different within this community there is dialogue, reconciliation, harmony and one purpose of mission. As community is for mission,” she says. “Community life is very important because without community religious life will have no witness value as during the time of Jesus traveling with his disciples.”

For Mother Guadalupe, “a religious community is above all else, a mystery which must be contemplated in the clear context of faith and in the entire dynamic of community life. Christ in the paschal mystery remains the model of how to construct unity.

Indeed, he is the source, the model and the measure of the command of mutual life.”

Sr Oosthuizen says that religious communities are living the Christian example. “In the New Testament the new Christians witnessed with their lives—‘see how they love each other’—that is what we are doing.”

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The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24, 2012

MINISTRY

What chaplains expect from the London Oympics The Catholic Church will have 16 official chaplains at the Olympic Games in London, which begin on July 27.

SIMON CALDWELL spoke to some of them.

S

OME people are simply gifted at sport; they excel at any challenge involving a ball, a stick or a physical contest nearly as soon as they turn their hands to it.

One such person is Fr Geoff Hilton, a priest from Salford diocese in northern England, who will be serving as a chaplain to athletes competing in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

It was because of his sporting prowess that the former police officer from Manchester was handpicked to become one of 16 official Catholic chaplains appointed by the Olympics organising committee.

Over the years, Fr Hilton has distinguished himself as a badminton player on a national level—losing in the men’s final in Madrid when he was a seminarian at the English College in Valladolid—as a football and a rugby league player, and later as a rugby league referee, working in two World Cups.

Now, at the age of 55, he takes time from his duties as pastor of St Osmund church, Bolton, to compete as a professional crown green bowler, a sport usually played only in the north of England.

For him, the chance to minister to athletes at the Olympic Village July 27 to August 12 was an opportunity too good to pass up.

“It won’t happen again in my lifetime, the Olympics coming to England, and I’m very much looking forward to it,” Fr Hilton told

Catholic News Service in an interview at the Red Lion bowling green in Westhoughton, near Manchester.

“I might have to give up my bowling for two-and-a-half weeks, but I can manage that,” he said.

“I am interested in most sports,” he continued, “and as a young man I was involved in a number of these sports.”

He said that he would be available throughout the Olympics for “anyone who needs spiritual support”, to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and confer blessings.

But the Church should separately also offer pastoral support to athletes who have ended their careers, he added.

“I understand how a lot of athletes suffer from depression. It is a worry. A lot of them seem to be discarded after they finish their professional careers. People need to know that they need support when they’re no long performing at the top level.”

O

verall, there will be 190 chaplains to serve followers of the world’s religions at the Olympics.

The number of Catholic chaplains is expected to increase to 24 when the teams of such countries as Italy and Poland bring their own chaplains with them.

At the Olympic Village in London, five rooms will be set aside for Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist chaplaincies, while Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Baha’i and Jains will share a space.

The Catholic chaplains have been selected from a range of backgrounds and include priests, deacons, sisters and laypeople, who will work eight-hour shifts beginning a week before the games open and up to a week after they close.

Besides athletes from all over the world, they will offer spiritual sup-

port to more than 50 000 unpaid volunteers and about 25 000 journalists.

The chaplains include Deacon Roger Stone, who will be chaplain to the sailing and water sports on the south coast, and Frankie Mulgrew, a former stand-up comedian who was ordained a deacon in Birmingham on June 30, ahead of his priestly ordination next year.

Deacon Mulgrew, 34, said that he volunteered to be a chaplain because, as the son of the popular British comedian Jimmy Cricket, he had spent his life with people in the public eye and had an “affinity” for them.

T

he chaplains also include Servite Sister Petronia Williams, a nun based near the Olympic Park who usually works with Gypsies and Irish Travellers.

Sr Williams said that she volunteered because she thought work as an Olympic chaplain would offer a “golden opportunity” to fulfil St Paul’s injunction to “welcome the stranger”.

“I am looking forward to the business of meeting people from other countries and being able to welcome them and being friendly,” she said. “That’s an important part of our Christian tradition, to show hospitality and welcome.”

Fr Christopher Jamison, a Benedictine monk of Worth Abbey, southern England, is the only Catholic priest to serve as a chaplain to the 25 000 journalists who will converge on the Olympic media centre for the games. He will be assisted by a Catholic laywoman.

“I am very pleased that the Church is involved,” Fr Jamison said. The Olympics “is a vast migration into the heart of London, and it would be quite wrong if the Church did not reach out to sup-

Fr Geoff Hilton will be one of 16 official chaplains serving the athletes competing in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. (Photo: Simon Caldwell, CNS) port those who are coming here”.

James Parker, the Catholic Church’s executive coordinator for the 2012 Olympics, said he would be serving as “the first ever lay Catholic chaplain to the Paralympic Games”.

“The picture on our TV screens can move rapidly from one Olympic event to another,” he said.

“The camera rarely covers the days and hours leading up to an athlete’s event and never fully covers how an athlete might respond to losing.

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“This could mean coming last, fourth, or even winning a ‘mere silver or bronze medal’ in place of the gold,” Mr Parker said.

“The accumulation of literally years of training and the pressure of national expectations can come crashing down on thousands of people within a very short space of time. As chaplains, we need to be ready to respond.” n Next week we will interview a South African involved in the Church’s pastoral activities at the London Olympics.

The Southern Cross, July 18 to July 24 , 2012

CLASSIFIEDS

Fr Stan Brennan OFM

F

RANCISCAN Father Stan Brennan of Reiger Park, Boksburg, died peacefully on July 6 at Sunward Park Hospital in Boksburg. He was 83.

His death heralded the sad end to an astonishing era for the people of Reiger Park in particular, and for everyone who ever met the saintly priest.

Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, on December 1, 1929, the seventh of ten children, Seamus Brennan decided very early on to dedicate his life to God. “Even as a young child, I thought God was all loving and all powerful and if we lived a good life he would reward us,” he later recalled.

As a young boy he had read the story of St Francis of Assisi which made a life changing impression on him. As early as he could he applied to join the Franciscan order, taking the religious name Stan. “There was something deeply compelling calling me to the Franciscans,” he said shortly before his death.

After four years studying in Rome and a year spent teaching at the Franciscan college in Dublin in 1957, Fr Brennan was posted to South Africa.

On arrival he spent a very happy time as spiritual director at the diocesan seminary in Boksburg and was impressed with the work the brothers were doing.

But he yearned to work with the local coloured community and when the opportunity arose, he grabbed it with both hands, until

advanced age and increasing frailty forced him to let go.

On July 1, 1965, Fr Brennan was appointed parish priest at St Francis’ church in Reiger Park and was given an old churchcum-school building with no electricity or running water.

From those humble beginnings the charming—but resolutely innovative, when it came to eliciting donations—priest went on to found the world class St Anthony’s Adult Education Centre in Reiger Park in 1966.

Over the years, thousands of students have passed through the centre to become valued members of every profession in the city.

In 1992, after visiting informal settlements and local hospitals, Fr Brennan became deeply disturbed by the lack of concern shown for HIV/Aids patients. He purchased a property to build a haven where terminally ill patients could be cared for.

Fr Brennan successfully fought fierce opposition from the local community, who feared being contaminated by those living with Aids, in the Supreme Court and formally opened the St Francis Care Centre in 1992.

Commenting on the case recently, he hinted at his steely resolve: “I said if the city council wants to close down the place, they must come and take all the patients and put them on the side of the road and then they can close it down.”

In 1998 Fr Brennan started the

Family Reflections JULY FAMILY THEME: GRANDPARENTS July 22: Christ the Good Shepherd. St Mary Magdalene has always been a controversial figure.

The gospel accounts are not clear as to her exact identity but in the Catholic Church it is generally accepted that she was a sinner, that she was forgiven by Jesus and became one of his most ardent followers, faithfully standing by him at the foot of the cross and being one of the first witnesses of the Resurrection. Her love for Jesus has made her legendary. Was her sin prostitution? Could she be one to whom intercession can be made to combat the evils of prostitution as not only sinful for the sex worker as seller but also for the buyer? Are conversion and true love the key?

“I will rise and go through the City; in the streets and squares. I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought but did not find him. The watchmen came upon me on their rounds in the City:”Have you seen him whom my heart loves?” Scarcely had I passed them than I found him whom my heart loves.” Song of Songs 3:4 Feast of St Mary Magdalen.

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House of Mercy, a multi-racial drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre. In 2004 he opened Mercy Haven for abused women and children.

Fr Brennan received more than 50 awards from various governments for his role in the social welfare development of Boksburg. In June he was presented in absentia, due to illness, with the rare Sixth Class Grand Cordon Order Award of the Rising Sun Silver and Gold Rays by the government of Japan.

He was a friend to gangsters, the poor, and politicians— including the families of current housing minister Tokyo Sexwale and assassinated ANC leader Chris Hani, who previously were in his parish.

Fr Brennan treated them all the same and simply adhered to the Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity and obedience while spending his life selflessly serving others.

David Gemmell CORRECTION: In our obituary for John Sebidi last week we mistakenly stated that he was a member the Handmaids of Christ the Priest; he in fact had been a member the Servants of Christ the Priest. We regret the error.

Liturgical Calendar Year B Weekdays Year 2

Sunday, July 22, 16th Sunday of the Year Jeremiah 23:1-6, Psalm 23:1-6, Ephesians 2:13-18, Mark 6:30-34 Monday, July 23, feria Micah 6:1-4, 6-8, Psalm 50:5-6, 8-9, 16-17, 21, 23, Matthew 12:38-42 Tuesday, July 24, feria Micah 7:14-15, 18-20, Psalm 85:2-8, Matthew 12:46-50 Wednesday, July 25, St James 2 Corinthians 4:7-15, Psalm 126:1-6, Matthew 20:20-28 Thursday, July 26, Ss Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary Sirach 44:1, 10-15, Psalm 132:11, 13-14, 17-18, Matthew 13:16-17 Friday, July 27, feria Jeremiah 3:14-17, Psalm: Jeremiah 31:10-13, Matthew 13:18-23 Saturday, July 28, feria Jeremiah 7:1-11, Psalm 84:3-6, 8, 11, Matthew 13:24-30 Sunday, July 29, 17Sunday of the Year 2 K i n g s 4:42-44, P sa l m 145:10-11, 15-18, E p h e si a n s 4:1-6, J o h n 6:1-15

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DEATH

CONNELLAN—Raymond Alfred. Died peacefully on June 10. Dearly loved father of Beryl and Johan, Lyn and Brian, Sandra and Ashley, Barbara and Karen.

May his dear soul rest in peace. Remembered by all his grandchildren and his sister Norah.

MEYER—Sr Clemens. Holy Cross Sister, Sr Clemens, aged 84, passed away at Holy Cross Convent, Fatima House Retirement Home, Aliwal North, on 11 July, 2012. Lovingly remembered by her family circle in Germany and the Holy Cross Sisters in South Africa and Lesotho. May she rest in peace!

IN MEMORIAM

BARRY—Agnes from Bellville passed away 26/7/2011. Will always be remembered by her son Michael, the parishioners of Our Lady of Fatima, Holy Family Parish and the Legion of Mary in Bellville, Cape Town. Rest in peace.

LINDSELL—Richard died July 21, 2004. My dear son and our brother. Will always be remembered in our prayers. Rest in Peace.

John and family.

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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.

Joy/MBG/LL. MAY the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved throughout the world now and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us. St Jude helper of the hopelessness pray for us. Amen.

Thank you St Jude and St Anthony for all prayers answered. Please continue to look after us.

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Community Notice Turffontein Catholic Church Holy Family parish is building a New Wall of Rembrance and would like to relocate the existing Memorial Plaques to the new wall and garden.

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

The Southern Cross is published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd. Address: PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000. Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850 www.scross.co.za Editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela Davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton, News Editor: Claire Mathieson (c.mathieson@scross.co.za), Editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Lara Moses (l.moses@scross.co.za). Advertising: Elizabeth Hutton (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Avril Hanslo (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Dispatch: Joan King (dispatch@scross.co.za), Accounts: Desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za).

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17th Sunday: July 29 Readings: 2 Kings 4:42-44, Psalm 145:1011, 15-18, Ephesians 4:1-6, John 6:1-15

We are duty-bound to imitate God

W

Nicholas King SJ

E are alarmingly prone to project our own meannesses onto God; but we shall not understand the divine mystery until we grasp that generosity is the name of the game. That is the message of the readings for next Sunday.

In the first reading , Elisha, the slightly unnerving “man of God”, is absolutely certain of God’s generosity, and so when the man from Baal-Shalishah brings his offering of just twenty barley-loaves, Elisha instructs his servant “give it to the people and let them eat”, which is behaving the way God behaves, keeping nothing for himself, but insisting on feeding the hungry; it is also a matter of confidence in the generosity of God, who will not let his people go hungry.

So we are not really surprised (though perhaps we should be, if we were paying proper attention) when “he put it before them, and they ate, and there was a surplus, in accordance with the word of the Lord”.

The psalm for next Sunday, which is regularly used as grace before meals in monasteries, is also about the generosity of God, “all your works give you thanks, Lord, and your loved ones shall bless you”.

Then we are given a charming glimpse of

Sunday Reflections

God’s creation instinctively relying on that generosity: “The eyes of all are looking hopefully to you, and you give them food at just the right time.” There is absolute certainty here that God is incapable of letting us down: “The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call on him in integrity.” Not only may we rely on this generosity, of course; we are also in duty bound to imitate it.

In the second reading, we continue our reading of Ephesians, and the author underlines how we are to respond to this generosity of God: “I am begging you...to behave in a manner that is appropriate to the calling to which you have been called”, not by grabbing or by power-games, but by imitating the Lord: “With all humility, and gentle-

ness, and patience, putting up with each other in love.”

Above all, our aim must be (and how often we miss the mark here) to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the chains of peace”, and he emphasises the oneness to which God’s generosity calls us, and which our meanness too often shatters: “One body and one Spirit...one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”

It is an awesome responsibility, to respond appropriately, and not stingily, to the generosity of God. The gospel, as always at this time of this year, switches, slightly abruptly, from Mark, which we have been following since Advent, to John’s much lengthier account of the feeding of the 5 000.

This is of course just the beginning of a somewhat protracted discourse on the significance of that miracle, which we shall be hearing proclaimed on Sundays all the way through to the end of August.

Here it is simply the fourth gospel’s account of the feeding: Jesus is followed by the crowds who had “seen the signs”. Jesus

Why suicide is a result of illness E VERY year I write an article on suicide because so many people have to live with the pain of losing a loved one in this way.

I rarely go for even a week without receiving a letter, an e-mail, or a phone call from someone who has just lost a family member to suicide. In virtually every case, there is a corresponding sorrow that there really isn’t a lot of material out there, religious or secular, to help console those left bereaved.

A friend of mine, who through some very dark years has had to work through the pain of losing her husband to suicide, plans one day to write a book to try to offer consolation to those left behind.

There is a desperate need for just such a book.

When someone close to us dies by suicide we live with a pain that includes confusion (“Why?”), guilt (“What might we still have done?”), misunderstanding (“This is the ultimate form of despair”) and, if we are believers, deep religious anxiety as well (“How does God treat such a person? What’s to be his or her eternal destiny?”)

What needs to be said about suicide?

At the risk of repeating what I have been writing year after year: First, that it’s a disease, something that in most cases takes a person out of life against his or her will, the emotional equivalent of cancer, a stroke, or a heart attack.

Second, that we, the loved ones who remain, should not spend undue time

Conrad

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

and energy second-guessing as to how we might have failed that person, what we should have noticed, and what we might still have done to prevent the suicide. Suicide is an illness and, as with a purely physical disease, we can love someone and still not be able to save him or her from death. God too loved this person and, like us, could not interfere with his or her freedom.

Finally, we shouldn’t worry too much about how God meets our loved one on the other side. God’s love, unlike ours, goes through locked doors, descends into hell, and breathes out peace where we can’t.

Most people who die by suicide will awake on the other side to find Christ standing inside their locked doors, inside the heart of their chaos, breathing out peace and gently saying: “Peace be with you!”

But I also receive a lot of very critical letters every year suggesting that I am making light of suicide by seeming to lessen its ultimate taboo and thus making it easier for people to do the act: Wasn’t it G K Chesterton himself who said that, by killing yourself, you insult every flower on earth? What about this?

“Good grief now even the pope-mobile is leaking!”

Chesterton is correct, when suicide is indeed a despairing act within which one kills oneself. But in most suicides, I suspect, this is not the case because there is huge distinction between falling victim to suicide and killing oneself.

In suicide, a person, through illness of whatever sort, is taken out of life against his or her will. Many of us have known loved ones who died by suicide and we know that in almost every case that person was someone who was the antithesis of the egoist, the narcissist, the overproud, hardened, unbending person who refuses, through pride, to take his or her place in the humble and broken scheme of things. Usually it’s the opposite.

The person who dies by suicide has cancerous problems precisely because he or she is too sensitive, too wounded, too raw, and too bruised to possess the necessary toughness needed to absorb life’s many blows.

I remember a comment I once heard at a funeral. We had just buried a young man who, suffering from clinical depression, had committed suicide. The priest had preached badly, hinting that this suicide was somehow the man’s own fault and that suicide was always the ultimate act of despair.

At the reception afterwards a neighbour of the man who had died came up and expressed his displeasure at the priest’s remarks: “There are a lot of people in the world who should kill themselves, but they never will! But this man is the last person who should have killed himself; he was the most sensitive person I’ve ever met!” Too true.

Killing yourself is something different.

It’s how some of the Hitlers pass out of this life. Hitler, in fact, did kill himself.

In such a case, the person is not too sensitive, too self-effacing, and too bruised to touch others and be touched. The opposite. The person is too proud to accept his or her place in a world that, at the end of the day, demands humility of everyone.

There is an infinite distance between an act done out of weakness and one done out of strength. Likewise there is an absolute distinction between being too bruised to continue to touch life and being too proud to continue to take one’s place within it.

Only the latter makes a moral statement, insults the flowers, and challenges the mercy of God.

is privately up the mountain with his disciples when “he lifted up his eyes and saw that a great crowd was coming to him”; then he brings the two disciples with Greek names into play, first Philip and then Andrew, neither of whom is prepared to consider the possibility of feeding so many, while the evangelist, in a characteristic phrase, tells us: “Jesus knew what he was going to do.”

We are told that there were just “five loaves and two grilled fish”, and that when the 5 000 had had enough there were “twelve baskets filled with the surplus”.

(Jesus, you see, did not want to waste any!).

The story does not end there, however, for the whole of John’s gospel is a journey into the mystery of who Jesus is, and the crowd get part of the way there: “This is the prophet that is coming into the world.”

However they are going to produce the wrong reaction: “They were about to come and make him King” (which they had no need to do, of course), and so “he went back up into the mountain, just him, alone”.

God’s generosity never descends to seizing power.

Southern Crossword #507

ACROSS 5. Disorderly crowds (4) 7. How the Church historian looks (4,2,4) 8. Not sharp (4) 10. Wickedness (8) 11. A stage of stones (6) 12. They could be on pilgrimage (6) 14. Road to a meeting place (6) 16. Down like Lucifer (6) 17. It’s there with your heart (Mt 6) (8) 19. Carry somewhere into tearoom (4) 21. Pious aloofness from worldly things (10) 22. Poems in good essentials (4)

DOWN 1. Son of Naomi (Ruth 4) (4) 2. Body framework (8) 3. Unites yet undoes (6) 4. Tower builder unable to ... the work (Lk 14) (6) 5. List of dishes (4) 6. Improvement (10) 9. Not controlled by lawful authority (10) 13. Wait impatiently and stop the clock? (4,4) 15. With learner gone, quietly changes to fairness (6) 16. Kind of polish from Paris (5) 18. Idas comes round and helps (4) 20. Takes food to sate one (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

VERYTHING you need to know about life, can be learned from Noah’s Ark. E One: Don’t miss the boat.

Two: Remember that we are all in the same boat.

Three: Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark. Four: Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.

Five: Don’t listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

Six: Build your future on high ground.

Seven: For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.

Eight: Speed isn’t always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.

Nine: When you’re stressed, float a while.

Ten: Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

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