131211

The

S outhern C ross

December 11 to December 17, 2013

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4852

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Preventing corruption in the Church

Telling the story of our local Church

Can kids’ TV habits be changed?

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Abuse fight: Back to basics

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

A

Before breaking up for the summer holidays, the Grade 6 pupils of Brescia House in Johannesburg presented the Love of Christ Ministries Children’s Home in Eikenhof with a large variety of essential baby products. The TLC home, founded by Catholic Thea Jarvis, cares for unwanted babies.

S part of an interfaith stance against partner abuse and gender-based violence, Archbishop Stephen Brislin, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has become part of a set of videos which showcases South African faith leaders taking a stand against the social ill gripping the country by going back to the basics of theology.

The initiative was the brain child of Elizabeth Petersen, executive director of the South African Family and Faith Initiative (Saffi).

“We have called religious leaders to be accountable for their words in their congregations. These words are heard by victims, survivors and perpetrators. We want these leaders to be aware of the power their words have and who is receiving and interpreting the messages,” Ms Petersen said.

Saffi has positioned itself as a resource for leaders. “We believe that only faith leaders can contextualise and interpret the scriptures for their followers and must do so clearly so there is no misunderstanding. Religious leaders have huge authority in the lives and consciences of South Africans,” Ms Petersen told The Southern Cross.

Since the vast majority of South Africans identify themselves as belonging to a faith group, the initiative believes the abuse statistics can be changed from within our places of worship.

In his video message (www.saffi.org.za) the

Archbishop Stephen Brislin features in a video for the “We Take A Stand” campaign against the abuse of women. archbishop says: “We as people of faith need to break the silence on violence and women and children. We need to take it into our own hearts to act with integrity and courage.”

Ms Petersen said she was encouraged by Archbishop Brislin, who also heads the diocese of Cape Town.

“We want to propagate these kinds of messages to help people to protect and hold themselves in relation to others,” she said.

The archbishop will continue to share messages through the media on this issue along with the other faith leaders.

“Faith communities are doing a huge amount of work in the care of victims: support centres, care facilities and shelters,” but perpetrators still find hiding places within our Continued on page 3

Swaziland hails appointment of its new bishop

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

S

WAZILAND has rejoiced at the news that Bishop José Luis Ponce de León will become their new bishop and successor to the late Bishop Louis Ncamiso Ndlovu.

Bishop Ponce de León will be translated to from the vicariate of Ingwavuma, which he has headed since 2008, to Manzini, Swaziland’s only diocese, of which he has acted as apostolic administrator after Bishop Ndlovu’s sudden death in August 2012.

Bishop Ndlovu, a former president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), had headed the diocese since 1985.

In a reversal of roles, Bishop Ponce de León will now be the apostolic administrator of Ingwavuma.

His appointment to Manzini comes just in

time for the diocese’s centenary celebrations in January when 29 bishops from around the SACBC region will travel to the Southern African country to celebrate the great work done in the Church since the diocese’s inception—and to witness the installation of Manzini’s sixth bishop on January 26.

Sunday morning newspapers across Swaziland carried headlines announcing the appointment, and social networks displayed positive reactions with a few supporters changing their profile pictures to the image of the Argentine-born bishop.

“We sing praises to the Lord for he has sent us a great shepherd,” said one supporter.

Bishop Barry Wood of Durban said Manzini is “truly blessed to have you as its shepherd.

We will miss you. Be assured of my prayers of support, peace and love”.

Fr S’milo Mngadi of the SACBC’s Communications Office called the bishop a good leader, noting that this quality is needed “to deal with the political state of affairs in Swaziland. We feel he will be able to deal with the tricky situation presented there.”

The 52-year-old bishop will keep his coat of arms from the vicariate of Ingwavuma but will change the motto, “The Word became flesh”, from isiZulu to Seswati.

Bishop Ponce de León said he was caught by surprise and was overwhelmed when the mission was entrusted to him in 2008. The

feelings were the same when his new position was announced. But the move will not be simple for the Consolata Missionary.

“I believe you all understand it is not easy for me to leave the vicariate of Ingwavuma after just a few years,” the bishop-elect said in a letter to the people of Manzini. However, he added, “I am encouraged by the warm welcome you have given me in every community in the last 16 months of my service among you and the messages you wrote since you got the news.”

Bishop Ponce de León said he will be praying for the people of Ingwavuma as they await the appointment of a new bishop.

The diocese of Manzini serves about 60 000 Catholics in a population of 1,2 million in 15 parishes, some of which serve several outstations. It covers the whole area of Swaziland.

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2

The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

LOCAL

Knysna responds to call of synod STAFF REPORTER

T

Residents of St Antonoine’s home are seen at the opening of the new frail care centre which will serve the community of Ladysmith.

Ladysmith frail care centre opens

BY CLAIRE MATHIESON

T

HANKS to the generosity of donors locally and internationally, the much-needed new Marius Banks frail care centre—complete with a nursing station and nursing home—was officially opened in Ladysmith at St Antonoine’s home.

The centre has been named in honour of the late Mgr Marius Banks OFM, prefect apostolic of the former prefecture apostolic of Volksrust since 1968 (now the diocese of Dundee).

The purpose of St Antonoine’s is to give new hope and dignity to those who have lost everything. St Antonoine’s is a home for the aged which cares for the elderly, abused and destitute.

“Thanks to the dedicated team under the leadership of Sr Lucia Raseipone, the home provides a safe and stimulating environment, encouraging the residents’ participation by creating a caring community fostering new trust along with new friendships,” said Fr John-Allen Green OFM. The priest said the home is a registered NGO and is overseen by a board of management that ensures proper financial controls and reports.

“Through this, St Antonoine’s home has formed global affiliations with other homes following the philosophy of the ‘Eden Alternative’.”

Fr Green said the core concept of the Eden Alternative is to teach people to see places where elders live as habitats for human beings rather than facilities for the frail and elderly; to learn what nature has to teach us about vibrant, vigorous living. “Most importantly, Eden teaches us that decisions belong with our elders, or as close to our elders as possible.”

The Franciscan priest said the traditional institutional model that has been dominant in the care of our elders has many shortcomings.

“The plagues of the human spirit run rampant in these cold, sterile, social and physical environments. Our elders need and deserve an opportunity for a life worth living, not just time spent waiting to die,” he said.

The new centre will provide frail care for 12 patients with mid-care for another 12. “These patients are mostly from the local area but it is open to anyone who is referred as destitute and or abused, or in need of care.”

Fr Green said the involvement of the Knights of da Gama under the leadership of Donald Grant has been invaluable “due to their extensive expertise in the area of building and running similar habitats around the country”.

The home, which dates back to 1968, is situated at the Amakhazi mission station in the KwaZulu-Natal rural area about 50km from Ladysmith.

Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Holy Childhood of Jesus

HE four very diverse communities that make up the Greater Knysna Catholic parish held a week-long congress on the theme “Church as family, and family as Church” which was facilitated by Toni Rowland of the Marriage and Family Life Desk of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

Parish priest Fr Brian Williams said the congress was part of a redrawing of the Greater Knysna parish life around eight parish pastoral priorities as stipulated by the statutes for parishes of the diocese of Oudtshoorn. These include spirituality and worship, faith formation, marriage and family life, youth, catechesis, communication, ecumenism and justice, and reconciliation and peace.

“The parish pastoral plan for the next three years will continue to explore the theme “Church as family, and family as Church”.

This focus is in line with the upcoming synod of bishops, the resolution of the bishops of Southern Africa at their IMBISA conference in Botswana as well as the United Nations 2014 focus,” Fr Williams told The Southern Cross.

The priest said the workshop opened up the subjects of bereavement, loss, single parenthood, same sex unions, old age, youth, divorce, annulments, and how to set up and implement a parish-based marriage and family life ministry.

“Although the congress sessions were spaced over almost a whole week, with day and evening sessions in the different communities making up the parish, it was difficult to address in any great depth the topics that had been identified by the communities beforehand,” said Fr Williams, adding that this served as a great incentive for a followup programme of action.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of the congress was building bridges between the different cultural groups,” Fr Williams said, a view that was endorsed by the leaders of the communities.

The preparatory document, The Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelisation, of the synod of bishops in 2014, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and literature from the marriage and family ministry, MARFAM, were extensively used throughout the sessions. Dullah and Dawn Brown assisted the parishioners to explore a variety of topics that arose.

The Greater Knysna parish of four communities is ministered to by Fr Williams, assisted by Fr Patrick Claassen, and Deacons Michael Tavendale and Lucas Timmers. n Parishes interested in organising a similar event can contact prbrian@telkomsa.net

Justice minister praises Hurley STAFF REPORTER

M

INISTER of Justice and Constitutional Development Jeff Radebe has praised the work and legacy of Archbishop Denis Hurley and challenged the Church to continue instilling moral rectitude, which will contribute to reducing crime in the country.

“Born into a lighthouse he became a shining light himself.

Shunning the privileges of his colour, he brought inspiration to many others,” the minister said, speaking at the 18th annual Archbishop Denis Hurley Lecture which was held for the first time in the Denis Hurley Hall at the Diakonia Centre in Durban.

“Driven by a sense of justice, Archbishop Hurley gave hope to the hopeless. Beneath the purple cassock was a steely resolve to deal with the inequalities in society while at the same time catering for people’s spiritual needs,” he said.

Mr Radebe said the late archbishop of Durban exercised his authority with dignity and humility in a time that called for “a captain of the ship with a steady hand and an unshakeable resolve to give the guidance that was needed”.

The minister praised in partic-

(From left) Fr Cyril Xaba, vicar for justice, peace and development in the archdiocese of Durban, Minister Jeff Radebe and Sipho Mnguni, coordinator of Durban’s Justice and Peace Commission. (Photo: Kudzai Taruona) ular the many pastoral letters that came from the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference during Archbishop Hurley’s time and urged that they be revisited to see the extent to which what the archbishop had suggested has in fact been implemented and what still needs to be done.

Mr Radebe also praised the role that Diakonia and the Diakonia Centre played in the struggle years. “Buildings like the Diakonia Centre became sanctuaries of refuge for those who were in pain,

those who were internally displaced by the internecine violence of the 1980s and early 1990s.”

The minister encouraged the Church to continue working for social justice and peace.

Mr Radebe commended efforts made by the Church and urged her to continue to stand by victims of crime and support their families, to form partnerships through interaction with community policing forums, and to instil moral rectitude to help cut criminality in South Africa.

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The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

LOCAL

3

St Augustine looks ahead How taxis and stars are STAFF REPORTER

connected to our faith

S

TAFF, students and board members of St Augustine College, South Africa’s only Catholic university, have bid farewell to retiring president Dr Michael van Heerden and have welcomed his successor, Sr Madge Karecki, as the university heads into new territory in the coming year.

The good wishes were expressed during a special lunch function at the university which earlier this year announced that it would be closing its doors to undergraduate students and selling its Victory Park campus due to financial pressure.

Bobby Godsell, chairman of the board of directors, thanked Fr van Heerden for his nearly six years at the helm of the college.

“These have been challenging years and Dr Michael’s guidance and commitment to staff and students has been a real feature of his term of office,” said Mr Godsell.

The chairman also welcomed Sr Karecki as the new president.

“She has left her native America and the archdiocese of Chicago to take up the challenge of steering the ship SS Augustine into the future,” said Mr Godsell, wishing her well in her new position.

Prof Marilise Smurthwaite thanked President Emeritus Sr Edith Raidt and Professor Rex van

STAFF REPORTER

F Outgoing St Augustine president Fr Michael van Heerden is pictured with incoming president Sr Madge Karecki and their personal assistant Val Thornton (Middle) at a year-end function at the Catholic university.

Vuuren for their input over many years. Prof Raidt had been the founding president of the college in 1999, and shortly after its initial launch Prof van Vuuren joined the staff as academic dean.

Their many years of labour in the education field elsewhere were brought to bear on starting the new Catholic university. It had been a very challenging period and had borne good fruit, Prof Smurthwaite said.

Prof Nick Rowe offered a brief thank you to each member of staff who was leaving at the end of the year, with comments on their personal contributions and

particular strengths.

Due to financial constraints, the university has had to shift its focus and will not have undergraduate classes in 2014. Undergraduate students were assisted in their placement in other tertiary institutions for the new year and retrenched staff members were assisted in finding posts elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the university’s board, along with the new president will propose a revised structure—including a model for financial sustainability—for the college before the end of the year so as to see a secure future for St Augustine.

Faiths join to fight gender abuse Continued from page 1 congregations, Ms Petersen noted.

“They go to church with a yearning. They are struggling with the fact that they are abusive.

They listen, carefully looking for answers.” Ms Petersen said sometimes messages are misinterpreted. The priest needs to remember he is preaching to the victim, survivor, children of victims—but also to the perpetrators of abuse. “Each is listening carefully and hoping for healing.”

Saffi provides the training to assist Church leaders to deliver their messages appropriately.

“We are asking our leaders to be mindful. We believe only they can teach on matters of faith.”

Ms Petersen said in her experience, there are only a few perpetrators who act many times and have many victims. “We need to work towards breaking the cycle and providing care and

counselling for perpetrators.”

The director said teaching positive images of both men and women could make a difference.

“We need to revisit the stories we tell at Sunday school. What are the impressions we are teaching of Bible heroes and men?

How do we talk about Mary? Was she only meek and mild or was there something about her strength and courage? Was she a role model for women today— someone women could look up to? We need to present a balanced picture for our women and children,” said Ms Petersen.

Saffi will also be working with Church leaders to help deal with perpetrators—which requires a very different type of counselling.

“The cycle cannot be broken if we don’t reach out to the abusers. Abuse is a crime against the Church, faith and the individuals and is an indictment against God.”

Do you feel called to the Franciscan way of life?

Saffi believes perpetrators should be held accountable but not all should be locked up.

“Many women don’t want to see their husbands behind bars.

They want intervention; they want help. Too many times we tell women that if they want to be safe they must leave—an option not viable for many. We need to be there to help these women and help heal the men in their lives,” Ms Petersen said.

“This is not new theology. But there is a particular urgency for the Church to understand how their Sunday morning messages are being received,” said Ms Petersen.

Archbishop Brislin said family is “fundamentally important in our Christian tradition, yet so much violence and abuse takes place within the family.” He said it is imperative that as people of faith, we take a stand against abuse.

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OLLOWING an evening on the banks of the Vaal Dam, one priest has told novices that their Catholic faith is connected to some unlikely topics: taxis and the stars.

Fr Mokesh Morar of Johannesburg was joined by Dominican novice master Fr Mark James and three novices one evening to ponder upon the stars.

“Among the beautiful constellations that could be seen was Scorpio and the ‘Tea Pot’ of Sagittarius,” said Fr Morar.

“When looking at the Tea Pot you are looking in the direction of the centre of our galaxy, though the centre itself is not visible. This part of the Milky Way is called the Arm of Sagittarius and the sun is situated between this arm and the arm of Orion, usually seen in the summer months,” the priest explained.

The priest told the novices that the facts of the galaxy—the sheer numbers of stars and vast distances between them—were “mind boggling” just as the Catholic faith can sometimes be astounding.

“Our solar system takes 225 million years to orbit the centre of the galaxy and the light from the galaxy of Andromeda, the farthest object visible by the naked eyes, close to the Square of Pegasus, takes 2,5 million years to reach us,” said Fr Morar.

As the priest shared the cosmological facts, the group debated the link between the universe and the Catholic faith.

Fr Morar said faith can be compared to the beauty of the moon and stars and God as Creator.

“The novices shared their stories when they would visit their grandparents in villages in Zambia and Zimbabwe and how beautiful the Milky Way appeared away from the light pollution of cities and big towns.”

Fr Morar said it was clear that something as simple as stargazing could lead one to explore one’s faith, and learning more about the galaxy in detail can encourage one to learn more about the Church.

“Our faith is linked not only when we ponder the vastness of the universe and that which is beyond our human

grasp and imagination, but to everyday experiences.

Yes, even taxis—the way they drive and test our faith—and the wonderful songs of the birds can remind us of our faith, the priest said.

“At times we hardly hear them or we take them for granted but all these things can be linked to our faith,” the priest told the novices.

“We are challenged to see the taxi drivers as our fellow human beings, and to realise the importance of public transport and how much they contribute in saving the planet.

“If every person this planet owned and drove a vehicle, we would be destroying the Earth much, much quicker,” Fr Morar said.

“So despite their dangerous driving, at times, the taxis are fulfilling an important role in saving our planet and many of us need to make use of the public transport system.”

Fr Morar said we also needed to try to make sure the taxi drivers drove more safely—a big challenge for our faith.

We also need to advocate for an expansion of the public transport system, one that is safer, affordable and reliable. We need to see this as part of our faith, our belief that God has called us to be co-creators of in this world.

“God is calling us to grapple with the matters of the stars and the issue of public safety as part of our faith.

These topics don’t seem connected, but taxis and the stars are not separate from our faith,” Fr Morar said.

“How often do we as believers neglect to look at our faith in a more holistic manner and not appreciate the way life is interconnected and how we as human beings are interdependent on each other?” he asked.

“We are tempted to see the other first as a threat or enemy and only consider our safety above others. Jesus challenged us to ‘consider the lilies of the field’ in order to appreciate the beauty of nature, but also to trust in God. “Jesus also said we must ‘read the signs of the times’ and read them critically to link our faith with everyday actions, be it corruption, care for others or mother Earth.”

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4

The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

INTERNATIONAL

German bishops plan to allow Communion for some divorced/remarried

BY JONATHAN LuXMOORE

C

hurch officials in Germany defended plans by the country’s bishops’ conference to allow some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, insisting they have the pope’s endorsement.

“We already have our own guidelines, and the pope has now clearly signalled that certain things can be decided locally,” said Robert Eberle, spokesman for the archdiocese of Freiburg.

“We’re not the only archdiocese seeking helpful solutions to this problem, and we’ve had positive reactions from other dioceses in Germany and abroad, assuring us they already practise what’s written in our guidelines,” he said.

Mr Eberle’s comments followed the late November disclosure by Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart that the bishops’ would adopt proposals on reinstating divorced and remarried parishioners as full members of the Church during their March plenary.

Mr Eberle said “many points” in the pope’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”) suggested the German Church was “moving in the right way” in its attitude toward remarried Catholics.

Uwe Renz, spokesman in the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, also defended the bishops’ stance.

He said he believed the bishops were acting “in the spirit of the pope’s teaching”.

“Our own dialogue process has shown this is a major issue for both lay Catholics and priests,” Mr Renz said.

“Pope Francis has called on bishops to exercise a wise and realistic pastoral discernment on such problems, and our bishops want divorced and remarried Catholics to be a full part of the Church community, with full rights,” he explained.

Archbishop Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reaffirmed in October Church teaching that prohibits divorced and remarried Catholics from the sacraments without an annulment. His announcement came after the Freiburg archdiocese issued guidelines making Communion available to divorced and remarried parishioners.

I

n a 4 600-word article in the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano, Archbishop Müller said the “entire sacramental economy” could not be swept aside by an “appeal to mercy”, adding that if remarried divorcees were “convinced in their conscience a previous marriage was invalid”, this should be “proved objectively” by a Church tribunal as required by canon law.

In an October 8 letter to Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of the German bishops’ conference, the prefect said the Freiburg archdiocese’s guidelines contained “unclear terminology” and violated Church teaching by suggesting remarried Catholics could take a “responsible decision in conscience” to receive sacraments after consulting their priest.

However, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, one of eight members of the international Council of Cardinals advising the pope on reform of the Roman curia, criticised the prefect’s stance. He said Archbishop Müller could not “end the discussion”.

Meanwhile, Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier told the daily Trierischer Volksfreund that the sacraments offered a “chance for reconciliation and a new beginning”. He said the Church needed a “more intense and honest account of the concrete reality facing many couples and families”.

Several German Church leaders earlier welcomed the Freiburg

guidelines, including Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Berlin. He told KNA, the German Catholic news agency, in October that divorced and remarried Catholics were “welcome in our parishes” and “belong to us”.

In a speech to the lay Central Committee of German Catholics, Bishop Fürst said a commission of six bishops had been drafting guidelines since 2010 for faithful couples to “gain readmission to the sacraments in justified individual cases”, and would present them for approval at the bishops’ March meeting.

He explained that the commission had drawn on the Freiburg archdiocese’s document as well as a 1993 pastoral letter on the subject by three other bishops.

The bishop told the central committee to applause that he would “make arrangements” in his own diocese if the bishops’ plenary failed to “agree a common line”.

S

peculation about a change in Church practice has grown since Pope Francis told reporters in his plane back from World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in July that a Synod of Bishops in October 2014 would explore a “deeper pastoral care of marriage”, including the eligibility of Catholic divorcees to receive Communion.

In Evangelii Gaudium, the pope said the magisterium should not be expected “to offer a definitive or complete word on every question which affects the Church and the world” and cautioned against “a monolithic body of doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance”.

He added that the “doors of the sacraments” should be not “closed for simply any reason,” and said the Eucharist was “not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak”.—CNS

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli performs to support the Vatican-related Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital during a charity concert in Paul VI hall at the Vatican. (Photo: Stefano Rellandini, Reuters/CNS)

Pope speaks on sex abuse

BY FRANCIS X ROCCA

I

N his clearest public reference as pope to the subject of clerical sex abuse, Pope Francis has urged bishops to support abuse victims while also reaching out to priests who have “fallen short of their commitments”.

The pope made his remarks to bishops from the Netherlands making their first visits ad limina apostolorum since 2004.

Speaking in French, the pope brought up sex abuse near the end of his talk, in a section devoted to bishops’ care of priests under their authority.

“Like fathers, find the necessary time to welcome [your priests] and listen to them, every time they ask.

And do not forget to go out to meet those who do not approach you; some of them unfortunately have fallen short of their commitments,” he said.

“In particular, I want to express my compassion and assure my prayers to all victims of sexual abuse and their families; I ask you to continue to support them along their painful path of healing, undertaken with courage,” the pope said.

It was Pope Francis’ most explicit reference to clerical sex abuse, in public or in a statement released by the Vatican, since his election in March.

Pre-school to Grade 12

According to a 2011 report by a Dutch government commission, as many as 20 000 children might have been abused in the country’s Catholic institutions from 1945-81.

In his remarks to the pope, Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, president of the Dutch bishops’ conference, said the conference had established an independent foundation to assist victims.

“We are determined to recognise the problems of the victims, to compensate them for damages and help them to heal as much as possible,” the cardinal said.

Pope Francis also urged the bishops to promote Church teaching on marriage and euthanasia through dialogue with the rest of society in the Netherlands, whose population is approximately 30% Catholic.

“In your society, strongly marked by secularisation, I encourage you to be present in public debate, everywhere man is involved,” he said.

The Netherlands was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2001, and permits physician-assisted suicide.

Cardinal Eijk told the pope that Catholics in the Netherlands have been steadily diminishing in number, and predicted that a “third of the Catholic churches in our country will be closed by 2020 and two thirds by 2025.”—CNS

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St Kizito’s provides the following services to the Orphans and Vulnerable Children:

Corner: Cussonia Ave & Pretoria Street, Pretoria Tel 012 804 1801 Fax 012 804 8781 Email admissions@cbcpretoria.co.za

l l l l l l l l l l

General Education General Health Nutritional Support Programme Child Protection HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Shelter Intervention Vocational Education Psychological Care Household Economic Strengthening Clinical Nutrition

Currently the Organisation is caring for 738 children who are registered on our database. In order to continue with our work, we require ongoing support from generous donors. We need funds to cover costs for the above-mentioned activities for the Orphans and Vulnerable Children.Grants and donations of any size are always appreciated for the Community benefit; donations of material things are also welcome.

Should you wish to donate please contact the Coordinator: Mr. Johannes Khehla Mabuya 058 789 8438 (tel), 079 371 8765 (mobile), 086 562 3193 (fax), stkizitocp@gmail.com

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

5

Pope: I once was a bouncer 2015 to be the ‘Year

BY CAROL GLATz

of Consecrated Life’

BY CINDY WOODEN

I

N addition to having worked sweeping floors and running tests in a chemical laboratory as a teenager, Pope Francis has revealed he also used to work as a bouncer.

No longer kicking troublemakers out of clubs, he has discovered the secret to bringing people back, this time, into the Church.

Visiting the parish of San Cirillo Alessandrino in a working-class suburb on the outskirts of Rome, Pope Francis chatted informally with a large number of parishioners before and after celebrating Mass.

He told one group that when he was young, he worked as a bouncer, and that his work later in life, teaching literature and psychology, taught him how to get people back into the Church.

He said it’s enough to be a witness of hope and, as St Peter said, “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope”.

Recounting how he discovered his vocation to the priesthood after confession with a priest he had never met before, the pope joked it was common knowledge that the best confessors are priests the penitent does not know and priests who are deaf.

“Hypocrisy is a grave sin,” he said, underlining how important credibility was in helping the Church grow, not through proselytism, but by attraction.

A woman asked the pope how she should pray for one of her relatives who was going to become a Franciscan friar.

The pope said to pray that the man would have “the perseverance to go forward, but also the courage

D

Pope Francis confirms a young man during Mass at the parish of San Cirillo Alessandrino in Rome. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) to turn back if he understands that this is not the right path”.

Before celebrating Mass, he met with parents whose newborns were baptised within the last year, and he urged them to be patient with their children.

“Patience with children is beautiful just as it’s beautiful to talk with them and teach” them the things that matter in life, he said. But even more beautiful is remembering baptism brings “a sign of the divine” back to the home.

Parish youngsters preparing for their confirmation presented Pope Francis with a paper daisy. They asked him to pluck each heartshaped petal to reveal a question they had prepared.

One question was how the pope spent his day. “I pray, then I celebrate Mass, and then I start work,”

which includes reading letters, cards, documents and reports as well as meeting cardinals, bishops, priests and laypeople, he told them.

He said he eats lunch between noon and 1 pm, then rests for about 30 minutes before returning to work until the evening.

In answer to another question, he admitted feeling a bit of stage fright as pope and that he felt a little nervous celebrating his first Mass after being elected pontiff.

Pope Francis also gave a bit of advice, saying it was important to be nice and good and to be a good example for others.

When asked how to manage that, the pope said “pray all the time, don’t speak badly of others because gossip destroys friendships, and always greet people nicely, always with a smile”.—CNS

URING a three-hour meeting with 120 superiors general of men’s religious orders, Pope Francis said the Church would make consecrated life its focus in 2015.

Consecrated men and women “can wake up the world”, the pope told members of the Union of Superiors General at a closed-door meeting during which he listened to the superiors and responded to their questions.

The Vatican did not release a transcript of the pope’s remarks but issued a communiqué outlining the topics discussed, summarising some of the pope’s points and including a few direct quotations.

The questions and answers focused on the identity and mission of consecrated people in the Church,

vocations, formation, community life, relations between religious orders and dioceses and the mission of religious in the world today.

In the discussion about the difficulty some orders are having in attracting new vocations in some parts of the world, Pope Francis spoke about how the “younger churches” in Africa and Asia are providing many vocations today, which requires orders to look at their charism or identity to determine how that can be lived in different cultures.

Pope Francis told the superiors that as their orders become increasingly international and multicultural, their leadership teams also must include people who show the order’s charism can be lived in different cultures.—CNS

Pope’s Christmas schedule

BY CINDY WOODEN

A

T least liturgically, Pope Francis’ first Advent and Christmas at the Vatican will follow the schedule set during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. Mgr Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies, published Pope Francis’ liturgy schedule for Christmas and January.

At 21:30 Roman time (22:30 South African time) on December 24 he will begin the celebration of Christmas Mass in St Peter’s basilica.

On Christmas Day, at noon, he will address the crowds gathered in

St Peter’s Square and give his blessing urbi et orbi (to the city and the world).

He will celebrate evening prayer on December 31 in St Peter’s basilica and lead the Te Deum to offer thanks to God for the year that is ending.

On January 1, the feast of Mary, Mother of God and the World Day of Prayer for Peace, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass at 10:00 in St Peter’s basilica, as he will on January 6, the feast of the Epiphany.

On the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, January 12, he will celebrate Mass in the Sistine chapel and baptise babies.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Every child deserves to be loved

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

A crisis few know of

W

HILE the world’s attention is firmly fixed on the civil war in Syria, a possibly even greater tragedy is being played out in the middle of Africa.

When in March the president of the Central African Republic (CAR), François Bozizé, fled his country in a helicopter, much of the world, in as much as it noticed, seemed to take some satisfaction from the removal from power of another venal exploiter of people.

There were exceptions. South African troops fought on behalf of Bozizé against the coalition of rebels, and our government lost a strategic ally when the president admitted defeat and took off.

Even before Bozizé’s departure, warnings were issued by the Catholic Church and other Christian leaders that the rebel forces, known collectively as the Séléka (the Alliance), were not so much interested in the shortcomings of Bozizé’s democratic ways as in fomenting sectarian violence, pitting Muslims against Christians.

In a country where the majority is Christian, with 15% Muslim and the rest animist, the Séléka is dominated by Muslims, mostly from Chad and Sudan, and is followed by many of the republic’s Muslims.

Although the Séléka is aided by Islamic militants, such as alShabab from Somalia and the feared Janjaweed from Darfur, its sectarianism appears to be mostly an expedient. The conflict is about power and access to the CAR’s precious resources, which include gold, diamonds and uranium.

The Christian majority, which had previously maintained good relations with their Muslim neighbours, was caught off-guard as Séléka forces looted, raped and burnt their way through Christian villages, pointedly targeting also Church buildings. Arbitrary executions, even of children and frequently taking on grotesque forms, have become common; worse, whole villages are burnt to the ground in reprisal for resistance to the pillaging forces.

With many farmers unable to tend to their land, the country may face a severe famine next year, especially among Christians whose livestock has been looted and who have been prevented by the threat of random death from sowing new crops.

In a country which once had at its head the murderous mega-

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.

lomaniac Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the Catholic bishops felt compelled to note in June: “Never has our country known a conflict so grave in its magnitude and duration; never has any military-political disorder spread through our territory with such a violent impact. Never has a crisis caused such systematic and programmed destruction of what remained of our country’s slender industrial and economic fabric.”

The Church’s pleas for international intervention, including one by Pope Francis in March, have gone largely unheeded, as many such pleas from Africa have been in the past—usually until it’s too late.

It is indeed “the worst crisis most people have never heard of”, as the US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Powers, has put it.

A peace-keeping force of the African Union numbers 2 500 soldiers; totally outnumbered, it provides a presence that is more symbolic than interventionist.

Christian leaders in many parts of Africa fear the rise of warfare by insurgents who either seek the Islamisation of Africa, or are using religion as a pretext for grabbing power.

Increasingly African Church leaders, such as Bishop Tarcisius Ngalalekumtwa, head of Tanzania’s bishops’ conference, express the fear that attacks on Christian targets are intended by Islamists, often from other countries, to put into effect the 1989 “Abuja Declaration” by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The Abuja Declaration called for turning all of Africa Muslim and “to eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-Muslim religions in member nations” (which include South Africa).

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in the CAR is doing its best to provide shelter to the country’s 400 000 internally displaced.

St Anthony of Padua cathedral in Bossangoa, for instance, provides shelter for some 34 000 refugees— while the remnants of the now officially disbanded Séléka continue their campaign of terror against the population.

President Michel Djotodia, propelled into power by Séléka atrocities, is doing little to stop his erstwhile comrades; even if he could, observers say, he probably would be unable to control them.

And the world still averts its eyes.

R

ESPONDING to Sharon West’s letter of November 13, I have been Catholic my whole life but was at the same time pro-choice in “special” circumstances.

A lot of my fellow Catholics would get confused and asked how I could be Catholic and pro-choice as, honestly, the two have no commonality. But I couldn’t understand how would I keep a child born out of rape—surely the “hated monster”, as Ms West puts it,should not be born.

That was until I read Mother Theresa’s biography in which she

Hated monsters?

S

HARON West (November 13) calls pre-born babies who are conceived from rape “hated monsters”.

If she wants to know what happens to these little monsters if you feed them and keep them alive, she should read the biographies of Rebecca Kiessling, Ryan Bomberger, Eartha Kitt, Ethel Waters and Fr Luis Armijos, who were all conceived from rape.

For information about contraception she should read The Bible and Birth Control by Protestant Rev Charles Provan.

Catholic information about the topic is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

JH Goossens, Dundee

Each child a gift

I

REPLY to the letter “Is it really a sin?” from Sharon West.

“Thou shall not kill” are the words of God, not mine.

To refer to an innocent, unborn human baby as a “hated monster” is an insult to one of God’s precious gifts—the gift of life.

The rapist is the monster, not the innocent baby who had nothing to do with the way he or she was conceived, and the baby should not be punished by death—after all, the rapist isn’t.

In the same issue, there is a letter from Damian McLeish on abortion figures.

These figures do not include abortions which are performed under three months of pregnancy, as those abortions are recorded as “miscarriages” and not abortions.

Many of these “miscarriages” are brought on as a form of contraception.

I am truly sorry that Ms West had a negative personal “experience”.

May I suggest that she google, “What does the Bible say about contraception? One more soul”, for clarification.

Terry Throp, Cape Town

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said: “No child created is a mistake.” I asked myself, could that be true? If I believed that all life came from God, how could I be an advocate for abortion in any circumstance? This gave me serious food for thought.

After some time I was given another book to read, The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers, and that confirmed for me that if I proclaim that God is the author and finisher of all life, then I have to believe that as much as the child was created out of an act of violence, he or she

Abortion wrong

T

HE surmise of your reader Sharon West that a woman who is impregnated during an attack by a rapist will regard such a baby as a “hated monster” in the womb reads like a sweeping statement by someone in pain.

The infant is innocent of its mother’s plight. We cannot assume that the evil circumstance of rape automatically destroy the burgeoning of maternal love.

If it were true, the answer to the mother’s dilemma would be patience—not abortion.

The nine months have a way of passing. If she cannot raise her child, someone else has to do it for her. There is no reason to destroy a blameless infant in or out of the womb.

In the second part of her letter, Ms West asks the question where in the Bible it is stated that contraception is a sin. In Genesis 38:4-10 we read the story of Onan who died because his efforts at eluding fatherhood incurred God’s wrath.

Luky Whittle, Kroonstad

Napier support

C

ONTRARY to opinions expressed by correspondents in your issue of November 27 regarding the bishops’ book God, Life, Love and Sex (which I have not read), I stand foursquare in support of Cardinal Napier’s response to the critique by Fr Christopher Clohessy.

Fr Clohessy saw fit, at the priest level, to publicly direct a hostile rejection of the considered standpoint of his episcopate. Next we shall have a priest demanding that the Holy Father consign an encyclical to the papal dustbin!

WE Muller, Centurion

Crack the whip

O

N the subject of Cardinal Wilfrid Napier’s stinging article (November 13) concerning Fr Christopher Clohessy’s trashing of the SACBC book God, Love, Life and Sex, I reckon Cardinal Napier should take consolation that he is in good company. Namely Jesus Christ our Lord, who also became angry and zealously cleaned out the Temple, his Fathers house, by kicking over the money tables and taking out the whip to lash and chase out those vendors and people, who used the temple for their own agenda.

As for Prof Brian Gaybba’s attack on Cardinal Napier (November 27) I say shame on him for pouring fuel on the fire by calling Cardinal Napier “disgraceful”. Well then, Professor, was Jesus’ behaviour also disgraceful?

It seems we have the stirrings of a slight palace revolt in South Africa, which appears to have been brewing for some years among some clergy and learned Catholic folk like Prof Gaybba, who steadfastly kick against the goad of Catholic teachings such as no artificial birth control, divorce and remarriage of Catholics, and so on.

My wife of 40 years and I kicked out artificial birth control in 1977 to follow the truthful teachings of our faith. Oh, how liberating!

What is the result of artificial birth control? It has freely promoted a sexual revolution, led to serious immoral behaviour and cohabitation,

is still a human person who deserves to be loved and cared for.

No child created by the Creator deserves anything less than the opportunity to live. With God’s strength—not our own—we can overcome any circumstance we face. I believe that with every fibre of my being.

I am also a registered nurse by profession and I've seen how abortion under any circumstance can have devastating psychological effects which hang like a dark cloud over the female who decides to take that road.

Joezette MacKay, Pietermaritzburg breakdown of marriage, unfaithfulness of married partners since they can now sleep around, and promiscuity. Pornography has become acceptable, plus homosexual practices, and even anal sex among heterosexual couples is now seen as acceptable! We have become nothing but animals with intelligence.

Take heart, Cardinal Napier, many of us are on your side. Let the disobedient encounter the lash if needs be!

Ron Gerber, Port Elizabeth

Faith and reason

T

HE rise of ancient Greek philosophy is marked by the emancipation of thought ex cathedra proclamations, and it was in challenging these myths that Socrates et al would gain immortality in a certain sense.

Fr Christopher Clohessy, criticised by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier in his column of November 13, should take heart in the fact that Socrates too was persecuted, eventually to the point of being put to death.

In a 1991 lecture entitled “Conscience and Truth”, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger remarked that because of his search for truth, in a sense Socrates the pagan was a Christian prophet.

Fifteen years later at the University of Regensburg, as Pope Benedict XVI, he would reflect on the relationship between faith and reason, and go on to show how the two are and always were joined at the hip as far as the Church is concerned.

In fact, Benedict XVI on that occasion argued that it was a specific objective of Luther to emancipate faith from philosophy: Sola Fide.

This should give us an idea as to just how anti-Catholic anti-intellectualism is.

Yet I detect an anti-intellectualism in certain areas of the Church in Southern Africa.

The cardinal’s column characterises an anti-intellectualism, attacking one of the best intellectuals in Southern Africa at the moment, and it comes in defence of a bishops’ book that certainly smacks of anti-intellectualism.

But it doesn't stop with our bishops. We recently undertook a skills audit in our parish, but only after the parish pastoral council insisted that questions about people’s academic qualifications be scrapped because it may make people who don’t have tertiary qualifications feel inferior. I kid you not!

“Nobody has the truth,” Benedict responded to Peter Seewald’s question about papal infallibility, “at best, the truth has you.”

This thought should move us to humbly take responsibility for the positions we take, defending them on the basis of faith and reason, resisting the temptation of making ex cathedra proclamations, and certainly not attacking our interlocutors personally.

Anything else is anti-Catholic.

Wade Seale, 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.

Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za

PERSPECTIVES

Prelude to a Xhosa disaster W HENEVER the Xhosa nation is under heightened tensions, whether political or economic, it tends to appeal to numinous forces for solutions.

For instance, when Nelson Mandela and his fellow inmates came out of jail, a lot of people suddenly became mystical, wearing the regalia and trinkets zobugqirha and daubing their faces with white clay, as worn and used by those going through the process of becoming witch-doctors.

When you study black South African recorded history, which begins in the colonial era, the same Xhosa phenomena plays itself over and over again in different guises.

The Hundred Years War (1779-1880), popularly know as the Frontier Wars, was probably the epitome point of crisis in Xhosa history. The nation had to come up with new ways of dealing with British encroachment into the land it drew sustenance from.

The old ways were no match against the guns and cannons of the white colonists.

As a result, this period produced not just two historical figures, Nxele and Ntsikana, but two basic modes of resistance in Xhosa tradition that have stood the test of time.

Nxele was war-like and nationalist, embodying African beliefs and African culture. Ntsikana preached pacifism and acculturated Christianity with salvation that is enjoined through obedience to the will of God. Nxele grew up in the Cape Colony, around the area now named after him, the Makana municipality, which covers the territory around Grahamstown. In fact Nxele’s proper name was Makhanda, but the missionaries somehow mispronounced

it as Makana.

He was a son of a commoner who worked for a Boer farmer where he picked up Dutch, together with the knowledge of Christianity and European ways. Because of this Nxele was able to mediate between the two cultures.

At a young age he had experienced symptoms of ukuthwasa: living in the woods and fields, refusing to eat any prepared food, because it had become unclean through the sins of the people—much like John the Baptist. After his circumcision he began to preach around Xhosa villages, urging people: “Forsake witchcraft! Forsake blood!”

People found his behaviour too much even for a diviner. He was seized, bound, and a rope tied around his neck to hang him. But Nxele was saved by a man named Qalanga, a respectable man whose word was listened to. Nxele subsequently attributed this deliverance to the intervention of Christ, and this became his Damascus moment.

D

uring the early phase his Christian views seem to have been fairly ortho-

Nxele “Makana” Makhanda

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

dox, opposing witchcraft, polygamy, adultery, incest, warfare and the racing of oxen.

He spoke of God (Mdalidiphu, creator of the deep), his son Tayi, the creation, the fall, the flood, the passion and the resurrection.

Although his personal following increased slowly, unlike his contemporary Ntsikana, he had little impact on Xhosa society as a whole. He felt this was because the missionaries he was serving with, like J Read, kept him on too tight a leash, not treating him as their equal. At some stage he thought his relationship with the white missionaries should be reversed; since he was the one bringing Xhosa converts he should be the one providing the missionaries with protection.

From 1812 Nxele's religious development took on a growing radical panAfricanist appearance. This made it impossible for him to cooperate with the European missionaries for very long. He left them, saying he too was the brother of Christ on equal terms with them, but they ridiculed him, saying he was putting himself on the level of God by calling himself a son of God. (There is no evidence that Nxele was claiming divinity, only that he demanded equality with white missionaries.)

Around 1816, three years before his death, it became increasingly clear to Nxele that orthodox Christianity, as embodied by Continued on page 11

Point of Parenting

obesity, but discovered it was the kind of food kids ate when parked in front of the TV—the high-fat and high-salt stuff—that led to bad eating habits and the propensity for being overweight.

I

n a separate study, researchers found that the kind of TV shows children watch can modify their behaviour for the better.

Operating under the assumption that children imitate the behaviours they see on TV, researchers from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of Washington took 565 children ages 3-5 and split them into two groups. Children in one group watched whatever they wanted, with their parents being given only dietary ad-

vice for their kids.

The parents of children from the other group, though, were sent programme guides highlighting positive shows for young children, and newsletters encouraging parents to watch TV with their children and to ask questions during the shows about the best ways to deal with conflict.

The parents also received monthly phone calls from the researchers, who helped them set television-watching goals for their children, according to the study, which was likewise published in Pediatrics.

The total viewing time did not differ between the two groups, but the group of children steered toward programmes that showed more empathy and more pro-social behaviour—and fewer shows geared to adults—showed a modest reduction in hostile behaviours.

“Modest” may not be the best word.

While the change was small, it was statistically significant—and significant enough to warrant inclusion in a prestigious peer-reviewed journal.

The biggest improvements in behaviour, although the researchers could not say why, was among low-income boys.

Still, you can’t depend on kids repeatedly watching just a couple of good shows and expect that they will behave the way we want them to behave. In the absence of an outright ban on TV, tailoring time, along with monitoring and preapproving content, works best as long as parents and elders ask questions about what kids learned from TV that day as much as they ask about what kids learned at school.

7

Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Pushing the Boundaries

Can kids’ TV habits be changed?

Mark I Pattison T’S bad enough that parents realise it’s not good to let their kids have so much screen time in front of the television, the computer, the tablet or video games. What’s worse is that parents themselves feel powerless to do much about it.

That was one conclusion of a study led

by Dr Catherine S Birken, a paediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children and assistant professor of paediatrics at the University of Toronto, Canada, and published in the journal Pediatrics.

Dr Birken’s research team gathered the parents of 160 three-year-olds from the Toronto area. The kids were divided. The parents of half of the kids got a ten-minute intervention on how to reduce screen time; the parents of the other half got no intervention at all.

The study lasted a year. In all, 132 children, or 82,5%, went through the entire year. When the study started, children in both groups were watching, on average, less than two hours of TV a day, although some individual kids were watching far more than that.

The group whose parents had received counselling started out watching 94 minutes a day and cut their time to 85 minutes, a drop of close to 10%. But the group whose parents had no counselling had an even bigger drop, starting at 104 minutes a day and ending at 89 minutes a day, a decrease of 15%.

One bright spot in the study with regard to the effect of counselling, however, was that the group of kids whose parents had received that intervention did cut down the number of meals they ate each day in front of the tube. They had started at 1,9 meals a day and ended at 1,6 meals a day, a reduction of close to 16%. The other group stuck with 1,9 meals a day.

The Birken research team found that there was not a cause-and-effect relationship between watching TV and childhood

The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

How the devil tempts us When Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, he appeared openly to him and spoke to him.

When we say we are tempted by Satan, we never meet or see him and he does not talk to us. How can he be said to tempt us to do evil?

P Evans HRIST told us that we must be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48). We struggle to attain this immense ideal of moral perfection but we are hobbled by our defective human nature and its inclinations.

We experience fantasies of the imagination or memory, emotional upheavals and doubts which we find hard to control. There are people who hurt us. We want to get our own back. Such feelings are morally neither good nor bad. We call them temptations, because they prompt us to desire to do something against our better judgment which, if we did it, would be a setback on our path to perfection.

Are such feelings merely emotions due to our human frailty alone, or are they caused by the active intervention of Satan, the fallen angel whom Christ called the evil one (Mt 13:19), the enemy (Lk 10:19), a murderer, never grounded in the truth (Jn 8:44) and the prince of this world (Jn 12:31)?

Christ’s words affirm that Satan has some powerful hold over this world and us in it. We are warned with God’s help and strong in the faith, to stand up to our enemy, the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat (1 Pt 5:8).

St Thomas Aquinas maintained that the devil cannot destroy our free will or even know what is going on in our minds, but he can lead us astray by working on our imagination.

As the prince of this world, Satan tempted Christ’s imagination with the enticements of worldly power and pleasure. He seems to act in a similar way with us. When we are weak through fatigue, sorrow or disillusionment, we feel God has abandoned us or that his demands are unattainable. In this fragile state we can lose our spiritual perspective and succumb to the attractions of material comforts. In these moments Satan, a superhuman being, can work on our imaginations, although how he does so is unclear. He cannot force our consent to sin.

The Church cannot tell us how Satan achieves his purpose, which is to divert us from the path of perfection. But to be true to the Gospel, the Church teaches consistently that Satan and the powers of evil exist yet can be resisted with the help of God’s grace.

C

n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town,

8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za; or fax (021) 465 3850. Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.

Prison Care and Support Network

CANONISATION PILGRIMAGE Join The Southern Cross and Radio Veritas on a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi to witness the canonisation of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII in the Vatican

Led by Fr Emil Blaser OP • April 25 to May 4

Canonisation Ceremony | Papal Audience | St Peter’s | Sistine Chapel | Catacombs | Ancient Rome | Baroque Rome | Major Basilicas | Castel Gandolfo | Assisi | Porciuncola | Hermitage of the Carceri | Greccio (where St Francis invented the Nativity Scene) | Fonte Colombo | and much more.

021 531 0550 086 628 4499

For itinerary or to book phone Gail at 076 352 3809 or 021 551 3923 info@fowlertours.co.za www.fowlertours.co.za

8

The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

COMMUNITY

Pilgrims from St Clare’s parish in Elsie’s River, Cape Town, are pictured on the banks of the Jordan River. The group was led by Frs Babychan Arackathara and Joseph Namibia and coordinated by Deacons Joseph Arulandu and Arthur Classen.

A Bene Merenti medal was awarded posthumously to John Kane for over 60 years of service to the Society of St Vincent de Paul. Mr Kane, who died in 2012 at the age of 86, was a member of the society in the parishes of Observatory, Mowbray and Pinelands. Mgr Clifford Stokes presented the medal to the family of Mr Kane at Christ the King parish in Pinelands. (From left) Mgr Stokes and Mr Kane’s children, Sr Charbel Marie MC, Patrick Kane and Mary Swanson. John’s youngest son Peter, who lives in Britain, was unable to attend.

The superior of Nazareth House Port Elizabeth, Sr Illtyd McCarthy, retired at the age of 78. Sr McCarthy was the superior at Nazareth House for 12 years and has been a Nazareth Sister for more than 50 years. Mass was concelebrated by chaplain Fr Vales Dania, diocesan administrator Mgr Brendan Deenihan and 90-year-old Fr Ignatius Ou Te Lung. Sr McCarthy has moved to Nazareth House Pretoria. (From left) Fr Dania, Sr McCarthy and Mgr Deenihan.

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Holy Rosary High School in Johannesburg hosted a rowing outreach day with the Soweto Rowing Club in a community initiative as part of their outreach programme. It is hoped that the partnership between the two clubs will improve rowing and swimming skills, and provide equipment and assistance from the Holy Rosary girls and coaches.

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ROMAN UNION OF THE ORDER OF ST URSULA

St Martin de Porres parish in Lavistown, Cape Town, went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Pilgrims are pictured at St Joseph’s church in Nazareth.

St Angela Merici founded the Ursulines in the 16th century, naming them after St Ursula, leader of a company of 4th century virgin martyrs.

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Good Shepherd parish in Protea North, Soweto, celebrated the feast of All Souls. Mass, celebrated by parish priest Fr Joseph Matsau, took place at the garden of remembrance next to the grotto of Mother Mary.

FOCUS

The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

9

Church takes torch to corruption Corruption and mismanagement make headlines daily— and the Church is not immune to this social ill. CLAIRE MATHIESON learns more about the steps the Church in Southern Africa is taking to ensure fiscal responsibility within its structures.

T

HE South African Church takes mismanagement and corruption “very seriously” as it is “hugely damaging”, according to Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).

“Certain forms of mismanagement are corruption. We are dealing with other people’s money. We need to be honest and very professional as to how we handle our funds,” the archbishop told The Southern Cross.

Archbishop Brislin said there are strict rules governing finances in the Church.

“Dioceses and parishes have very specific laws in canon law governing temporal goods of the Church and part of the law includes structure,” Archbishop Brislin said.

For example, he said, a parish pastoral council is, in canon law, optional, but a finance committee is canonically required by canon law. Furthermore, canon law sets limits to what a bishop can do and what priests can do with regard to parish funds.

Dioceses should have policies regarding finances, the archbishop said.

Archbishop Brislin said the Church and her structures must also comply with civil law. “We call for transparency and accountability on a parish level and parishes have to report to the diocese, which is usually audited every year.”

Sr Alison Munro OP

Archbishop Stephen Brislin

Organisations such as the Society of St Vincent de Paul and similar projects are not entirely under the directorship of the bishop and have their own constitutions and their own boards. Usually they are registered as non-profit organisations.

“When there’s an issue, it falls to the board to deal with any mismanagement. Should this fail, the bishop would oversee a proper investigation to ensure compliance with the law at both the civil and ecclesiastical level,” Archbishop Brislin explained.

For Sr Alison Munro OP of the SACBC Aids Office, having systems in place to address mismanagement is a critical issue.

“Sometimes the Church finds itself reacting to serious issues only when the problem becomes one of public concern. Clearly, acting in situations as soon as possible, and decisively, is better for all concerned.”

The Aids Office has experienced a small number of cases of mismanagement of Aids funding. According to Sr Munro, there have been instances where people involved in the projects have not been accountable for the donor funds they have received, possibly spending, or trying to spend, money on things other than what the money is intended for, or even stealing it outright.

Munro said.

She said that in cases of financial mismanagement, her office has taken swift action to ensure work can continue to assist those in need—those for whom the office was originally opened to serve.

She said that in the past the Aids Office has dismissed a staff member, instituted legal action against another individual, and withheld all funding from a particular project until the board had taken the necessary action to put new controls in place. The office has also discontinued funding of a project until money owed has been repaid.

“The Church needs to model how to be trustworthy, how to handle other people’s money,” she told The Southern Cross.

Archbishop Brislin said it is essential to involve professionals in the running of an organisation’s finances. Rural areas have difficulties and a lot falls on the bishop there, but “we always try to ensure work continues and no project suffers”.

He said there is a need for continual vigilance, because temptations are ever-present. “No one is untouched by corruption,” he noted. “We live in a world of greed and people want worldly things.”

But, he added, “we have systems in place to make it difficult [for people] to simply take.”

“No one is untouched by corruption,” according to Archbishop Stephen Brislin. Because we live in a world of greed, the Church must have the systems in place to prevent corruption and financial mismanagement.

“The Aids Office has very tight financial controls in place and has been able to put a stop to mismanagement. In some cases this has meant that the people concerned have had to repay the money to the Aids Office before the project itself can continue,” she said. “In other cases this has meant the end of support for a particular Aids project since the SACBC Aids Office clearly does not tolerate theft, corruption, or mismanagement of donor funding.”

The Dominican Sister added that there is a difference between mismanagement and poor financial management. “The Aids Office continually assists such projects to improve their systems, since left unchecked, poor management could turn into mismanagement.”

W

hile the majority of incidents of mismanagement in the Church have been at a “petty level”, the bishops are taking seriously corruption at all levels of society, with the launch of the anti-corruption campaign and by aligning itself

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with Exposed, the international anti-corruption movement, Archbishop Brislin said.

He said the Church is “absolutely committed to complying with civil law”. If mismanagement of funds does occur, organisations work closely with funders and inform them as soon as possible of the situation and what action is being taken.

“Because we are dependent on the generosity of others, transparency is key to organisations within the Church,” Archbishop Brislin said. “We do everything in our power to prevent misuse of money, but when things do go wrong, we will take action.”

Sr Munro agreed: “Funders are reassured when they see action taken to address mismanagement or other problems. If you become aware that something has gone wrong, it is important to tell them what has happened and what you are doing to rectify the situation.

“We will not try and protect anybody. The Church has learnt her lesson of trying to cover things up,” Sr

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The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

BOOK REVIEWS

The work of SA Church is a story worth reading A STORY WORTH TELLING: Essays in Honour of Cardinal Napier, edited by Stuart C Bate OMI and Anthony Egan SJ. SACBC, Pretoria (2013). 391pp.

Reviewed by Claire Mathieson EADING A Story Worth Telling is like taking a tour through the passages of Khanya House, the Pretoria headquarters of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and being given a formal presentation on the work that the local Church does.

One may be overwhelmed, surprised even, by the far-reaching work the Church is doing in Southern Africa. For Catholics especially, it is information worth knowing— hence the appropriate name of the book.

The book is a collection of essays from a wide array of authors, edited

by Frs Stuart Bate OMI and Anthony Egan SJ. It provides a comprehensive breakdown on just how important the Church’s contribution to South Africa’s society is.

The voices of no less than nine bishops are heard, but A Story Worth Telling also gives a feel for the action on the coalface through the contribution of the many lay personalities who help to fulfil the Church’s pastoral mission.

R

With different authors, the book changes in flow and tone, style and subject. It is divided into three parts: evangelisation, justice and peace, and education. One can pick up the book and read from any point.

A Story Worth Telling is dedicated to the region’s longest-serving bishop, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban.

It was in 2012 that Cardinal Napier of Durban celebrated a series of milestones: his 70th birthday, 50 years a Franciscan, and ten years a cardinal (as well as 41 years a priest).

The book was suggested by Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg as a way of recognising not only the contribution which the cardinal has made to the Southern African Church, but also to show how the Church has grown during the cardinal’s time as a bishop.

For many South African Catholics, the essays may be something of an eye opener, especially if they are not familiar with the work of the SACBC. For those already familiar with its work, this book may serve as a source of reference—much of the information is not easily found online and some of the stories shared are personal accounts not found anywhere else, other than from the au-

thors themselves.

Predictably, the quality of the writing varies. Some of the essays read like end-of-year reports for donors—but in a way, that’s just what this should be. The faithful should know exactly what the Church is doing with their contributions and how the People of God are helping to make a difference through their giving.

Such essays might be tiring to read, but the information they convey will certainly boost the Catholic

reader’s arsenal of positive facts about the Church’s works.

Other essays succeed better in communicating a real sense of love and devotion behind the projects.

Thanks to the book’s structure, readers can choose chapters according to their mood and consume their SACBC information in bitesized chunks—some of which will require more chewing than others.

The second part of the book, entitled “A story of justice, peace, development and integrity of creation in our world”, will leave the Catholic reader feeling proud of the positive contribution the Church is making in South Africa.

Dominican Sister Alison Munro’s narrative on the Church’s response to the Aids crisis and Rosanne Shields’ account of the Rural Development Support Program’s work over the past 20 years stand out. Notably, neither of them believe their work is even nearly complete, despite having made great progress.

The book is not, however, a cheerleading effort that paints a rosy picture of the Church in Southern Africa. It also acknowledges challenges, failures and flaws—an honesty that the reader might find encouraging.

Fr Desmond Nair gives a fair ac-

count of the work done by the Profession Conduct Committee which documents precisely how the Church is learning from past mistakes in dealing with cases of sexual abuse by Church personnel.

He outlines the protocol followed upon alleged abuses being reported, but also shares the committee’s recommendations on preventative measures. These include on-going formation and support for newly ordained priests, psychological assessment prior to entering the seminary, and a house of wellness where priests needing spiritual and psychological assistance can go.

Given the Church’s dismal history on the subject worldwide, it is encouraging that the local Church has taken decisive action.

A Story Worth Telling does not include a contribution from the cardinal, and, curiously, he is not mentioned all that often, though he is obviously connected to the work outlined in the book, since that work accompanied his episcopal ministry. So this book is not his story, but it is very much part of his story, much as it is a part of the Catholics of Southern Africa. It is, indeed, a story worth reading. n Order from www.sacbc.org.za/ a-story-worth-telling/

The Bible and the Eucharist

Untangling the Rosary

THE EUCHARIST: A Bible Study Guide for Catholics, by Fr Mitch Pacwa SJ. Our Sunday Visitor (2013). 112 pp.

CONSUMING THE WORD: The New Testament and the Eucharist in the Early Church, by Scott Hahn. Image Books (2013).

161 pp.

Reviewed by Mitch Finley ONSENSUS among Catholic Scripture scholars tends to maintain that to gain the best understanding of any given biblical document—and, by extension, any part of that document— we need to understand the various stages of scriptural development.

In other words, to best understand Scripture we need to take seriously that Scripture is the word of God in human—historically, culturally conditioned—words.

Without explicitly acknowledging all this in The Eucharist: A Bible Study Guide for Catholics, Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa leads the reader, either as an individual or as a member of a Bible study group, through a study of what Catholics can learn about the Eucharist from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures (Old and New Testaments).

While adult Catholics may well have appreciated at least a short chapter on contemporary Catholic methods of scriptural interpreta-

THE ROSARY by Gary Wills. Penguin Books (2006). 190 pp.

Reviewed by Michael Shackleton OT a recently published book but lately made available again by its publishers, Gary Wills’ fine analysis of the rosary is not only instructive for those who thought they knew all that needed knowing about the rosary, but is also a guiding light into a more profound spiritual experience of meditating on the twenty mysteries of the life of Christ and his mother Mary.

Wills, a respected religious writer, is a devotee of the Blessed Virgin and her rosary. He describes how he has so often had to disentangle his beads from the car keys in his pocket, and having to break them in the process.

Car keys and rosary beads in his pocket suggest how important the rosary is in his everyday living.

Hence, he has a go at disentangling the rosary itself from false ideas about it.

He explains that it was not St Dominic of the Order of Preachers who was first to promulgate the rosary, but Dominic of Prussia, a 14th century Carthusian monk. He also tells how in earlier centuries the faithful would race through the rosary prayers just to obtain whatever indulgences were granted by the pope for using blessed beads. This shifted the contemplative content of the prayers to the beads, reducing them to the status of a magical amulet.

Wills believes that meditation is something that many people feel a

C

tion, all that Fr Pacwa offers clearly depends on his own mastery of these methods and what he has learned from using them himself.

Fr Pacwa’s book is divided into six sections for use in the same number of Bible study sessions.

Following a section on Old Testament background to the Christian Eucharist, in the remaining five sections he leads readers through what may be learned from the Old and New Testaments about the Eucharist, and in some instances, he also draws on Jewish tradition as it is still practised today.

Parish Bible study groups, as well as individual Catholics, will find in this slim volume a helpful resource to gain a more complete scriptural background for understanding and experiencing the Eucharist.

N tion, including the writings of the early Fathers of the Church and other saints. He even draws on what may be learned from the Church’s responses to early heresies.

What may we learn about the Eucharist from the oral traditions that preceded the written New Testament documents? What may we learn from the New Testament documents themselves? What may we learn from the regional churches we find in the New Testament and from how the New Testament uses the Old Testament? What does it mean to say the Scripture is sacramental? How are the Lectionary and the New Testament similar and how do they differ?

By reading through what Hahn says in response to questions such as these, readers will find themselves and their understanding of both Scripture and the Eucharist greatly enriched.—CNS

I

n Consuming the Word: The New Testament and the Eucharist in the Early Church, which takes wholeheartedly contemporary Catholic methods of Scripture scholarship and interpretation, Scott Hahn says his overall aim is “to promote biblical literacy for Catholic laypeople and biblical fluency for Catholic scholars and clergy”.

To that end, Hahn not only draws on modern Catholic Scripture scholarship, but he takes quite seriously the role of sacred tradi-

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need for today, and now is the time for the rosary to make a major comeback to fill that emptiness.

He throws light on each of the elements of the rosary: Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be, demonstrating his scholarly background and his gift for simplifying theological notions. He then launches into a good look at each of the mysteries: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious.

The good look is not only the uplifting information from Scripture and tradition associated with each mystery, but also a series of colour reproductions of the magnificent paintings of the 16th century Venetian artist Tintoretto.

Wills’ comments on each illustration invite the reader to a visual appreciation of each mystery that can support the imagination as it loses itself in the wonder of God’s becoming man and redeeming the human race.

The five Luminous Mysteries are those added by Blessed Pope John Paul in order to give us a fresh view of Christ’s public ministry, which the other mysteries had bypassed. They are: Jesus’ Baptism, the Marriage Feast at Cana, the Sermon on the Mount, the Transfiguration and the Last Supper.

Catholics who have stuck to the traditional Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries and not yet grasped the significance of the Luminous mysteries through unfamiliarity or hesitation, will find Wills’ account of them encouragingly satisfying.

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The Southern Cross, December 11 to December 17, 2013

Fr Edward Tratsaert SAC

P

ALLOTTINE Father Edward Camille Tratsaert died suddenly on November 11 after a short illness. Fr Tratsaert was born on May 3, 1944, in Tielt, in West-Flanders province, Belgium.

Having matriculated at the Passionists’ high school in St Katelijne Waver, near Mechelen, in 1964, he applied to enter the Congregation of the Passionists. He completed his studies in philosophy in the Passionist Scholasticate in Wezembeek-Oppem near Brussels and at the Dominican St Thomas Institute in Louvain, and studied theology at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

From 1969-71 he devoted himself to two years of pastoral training in Belgium and in France. During this period he found himself re-thinking his vocation and decided to apply for admission to the Society of the Catholic Apostolate, the Pallottines.

He was accepted for the completion of his theolog-

Southern CrossWord solutions

SOLUTIONS TO 580. ACROSS: 5 Hail, 7 Do likewise, 8 Lama, 10 Godspeed, 11 Unfair, 12 Ringer, 14 Threat, 16 Gather, 17 Pleasant, 19 Veto, 21 Conventual, 22 Seth. DOWN: 1 Idol, 2 Vicarage, 3 Beggar, 4 Bidder, 5 Help, 6 Irreverent, 9 Annihilate, 13 Nativity, 15 Trains, 16 Gutter, 18 Arch, 20 Only.

Liturgical Calendar Year C Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday December 15, 3rd Sunday of Advent Isaiah 35: 1-6,10, Psalms 146:6-10, James 5: 7-10, Matthew 11: 2-11 Monday, December 16 Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17, Psalm 25:4-9, Matthew 21:23-27 Tuesday, December 17 Genesis 49:2, 8-10, Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8, 17, Matthew 1:1-17 Wednesday, December 18 Jeremiah 23:5-8, Psalm 72:1-2, 12-13, 18-19, Matthew 1:18-25 Thursday, December 19 Judges 13:2-7, 24-25, Psalm 71:3-6, 16-17, Luke 1:5-25 Friday, December 20 Isaiah 7:10-14, Psalm 24:1-6, Luke 1:26-38 Saturday, December 21 Song of Solomon 2:8-14 or Zephaniah 3:14-18, Psalm 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21, Luke 1:39-45 Sunday, December 22, Fourth Sunday of Advent Isaiah 7:10-14, Psalm 24:1-6, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-24

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ical studies at the Pallottine Theological Scholasticate in Vallendar on the Rhein, Germany. He made his first Promises as a Pallottine in 1973 and was professed in 1975.

From 1973-76 he was involved in the pastoral care of campers on holiday near Olpe, western Germany, taught religion at the local technical school and served as hospital chaplain.

On February 22, 1976, he was ordained to the priesthood in Vallendar by Bishop Manfred Gottschalk, the Pallottine bishop of Oudtshoorn.

Bishop Gottschalk had asked the Pallottine superiors for a priest to work as his secretary in Oudtshoorn.

Fr Tratsaert was appointed and arrived in South Africa on October 7, 1976, going on to serve in Oudtshoorn, Knysna and Mossel Bay. He remained in Oudtshoorn until January 1981, when he requested to be transferred to the diocese of Queenstown. There he served various mission parishes as well as the cathedral of Christ the King, Lumko, Lady Frere and Balfour.

In 1987 Bishop Herbert Lenhof appointed him priest-in-charge of St Theresa’s Afrikaans-language parish in Queenstown, where he remained until his death.

As diocesan communications officer, Fr Tratsaert managed the diocese’s website and wrote frequently for The Southern Cross.

Fr Tratsaert’s concelebrated Requiem Mass in Queenstown’s Christ the King cathedral was presided over by Bishop Dabula Mpako.

Fr John Barry Reabow SAC

Xhosa leader’s break with missionaries Continued from page 7 the missionaries, would not accept him as an equal partner in the evangelisation of the Xhosa, so he broke rank with them. He became more ambitious, seeing piecemeal conversion through individual persuasion as something below his talents. He rather coveted a mass conversion of the nation.

He wanted to achieve this through dramatic demonstration of his divine powers of healing, much like the evangelical pastors of our times.

When he lost the respect of the white missionaries he began to gradually move away from Christianity, “putting on red ochre”, as the term went for those who preferred traditional ways over new ways, and to dance (xhentsa) in the manner of diviners. Previously a staunch adherent of monogamy, he now married two young San women.

Whereas he had at first rejected gifts, he started to demand (ukuruma) the diviners due of cattle.

With that, the militaristic, nationalist-pseudomystic version of black resistance was born on the southern tip of Africa. And this was the seed of Nogqawuse’s disaster, the cattle-killing crisis of 1856–57 caused by the prophetess’s visions.

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CLASSIFIEDS

11

Births • First Communion • Confirmation • Engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • Ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • Thanks • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday Accommodation • Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Others Please include payment (R1,25 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

CONGRATULATIONS

DUMA—Thaoksane Thomas Ru, brother Servants of Christ the Priest. Congratulations on your ordination to the Priesthood on December 7th, 2013, on the feast of St Ambrose.

May the good Lord grant you the strength and grace to live your Priesthood in accordance of Christ the Priest, who gave his life for the ransom of many and serve your community entrusted to your care with love and devotion. You will always be in our daily prayers. From the brother servants Brothers Daniel Ambrose Manuel and Victor Pather SCP, Cape Town.

graphic truth that will set you free.

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. PN.

IN MEMORIAM

DONNELLY—Eugene.

In loving memory of our long-standing colleague, friend and loyal servant of The Southern Cross who left us December 18, two years ago. Remembered fondly by the staff of The Southern Cross.

MURDOCH—Michael passed away peacefully on 20/12/2012. Missed by his wife Ilona, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Grandchildren Cullam and Micah make him cards. Also missed by his brother Allan and cousins. May God keep him in his care.

SOKOLIC—Margrit M died 2/11/2012. Special friend whose strong faith, clear informed mind became my lodestar as she vigilantly combated destructive abortion, morally and practically in pro-life messages. RIP. Elizabeth Nicholis

PERSONAL

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OH DIVINE Holy Spirit, who clarifies everything, who illuminates all my steps that I may reach happiness. You that grants the magnificent gift to forgive offences and even the evil done to me. You that are with me in all instances, I wish to humbly thank you for everything that I am, for all that I have and confirm once again my intention of not turning away from you, no matter how great the illusion or material temptation there may be, with the hope that one day I may deserve and may join you and all my brothers in perpetual glory and peace. Amen. MER.

O GREAT St Joseph of Cupertino who by your prayers, obtain from God the grace to be asked at your examinations the only questions which you knew. Obtain for me a like succes in the examinations for which I am now preparing and in return I promise to make your name

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THANKS

GRATEFUL THANKS to the Holy Spirit for Blessings and prayers answered and petitions granted. Publication promised. Basil and Johanna.

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GOD BLESS AFRICA Guard our people, guide our leaders and give us peace.

Luke 11:1-13 The Southern Cross is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations of South Africa. Printed by Paarl Coldset (Pty) Ltd, 10 Freedom Way, Milnerton.

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THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

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4th Sunday of Advent: December 22 Readings: Isaiah 7:10-14, Psalm 24:1-6, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-24

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HERE are just a few days to go before Christmas now, and in the readings for next Sunday, the Church invites us to see what God is up to at this time.

In the first reading, we hear the words from Isaiah, originally addressed to King Ahaz, in the 8th century BC, to encourage him to trust in God alone, and not in unreliable political allies. We shall hear those same words in the gospel, but here the context is that Ahaz simply does not want to know, and claims, piously enough, that “I am not going to test the Lord”.

The prophet, however, does not give him the choice, and simply declares that “the Lord is the one who will give you a sign: look! The young woman is pregnant, and will bear a son, and you shall call his name God-WithUs—Emmanuel.”

In the original context, that son was King Hezekiah, who was not a bad king, but later in his reign was unwise enough to show the Babylonian embassy his treasures, and was therefore thought to have been responsible for the exile, and was roundly rebuked by Isaiah.

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Prepare for the coming of God Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

So Hezekiah was not the ideal king promised by the prophet, and Christians are looking to another king during these days.

The psalm, describing God’s entrance into his Temple, is a reminder that if God is to come, then we have to prepare ourselves.

The song reminds us that “to the Lord belongs the earth, and all that fills it, the world, and those who dwell in it”.

But not everyone is permitted to “go up to the mountain of the Lord”, only those who are “clean of hand, and pure of heart”, and those who have not committed perjury, which may be a rather limited list.

And it ends, with a reminder to us, “This

is the generation of those who seek him, who look for your face, O [God of] Jacob”.

Our part is really just to long for God. The second reading is the opening of perhaps Paul’s most influential letter, which the deacon Phoebe brought from Corinth to Rome.

It starts with Paul’s view of what the gospel is really about: “his son who was born of the offspring of David, as far as the flesh is concerned, but who was appointed Son of God in power, in accordance with the Holy Spirit, out of the Resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord”.

It is a remarkably effective summary, this, and we shall do well to meditate on it during the Christmas season. What is God up to?

God has called Paul (and you who read these words) to receive grace and be apostles to those to whom we are sent.

In the Gospel we have a slightly different glimpse of what God is up to. It starts with a really alarming situation, that Joseph’s fiancée Mary is found to be “pregnant before they came together”, but Matthew reminds us

Every tear brings Messiah closer T HE author Nikos Kazantzakis once wrote: “People are always impatient, but God is never in a hurry!” Those words highlight an important truth: we need to be patient, infinitely patient, with God. We need to let things unfold in their proper time, God’s time.

Looking at religious history through the centuries, we cannot help but be struck by the fact that God seemingly takes his time in the face of our impatience. Our scriptures are often a record of frustrated desire, of non-fulfilment, and of human impatience.

It’s more the exception when God intervenes directly and decisively to resolve a particular human tension.

We are always longing for a messiah to take away our pain and to avenge oppression, but mostly those prayers seem to fall on deaf ears.

And so we see in Scripture the constant, painful cry: Come, Lord, come! Save us!

How much longer must we wait? When, Lord, when? Why not now? We are forever impatient, but God refuses to be hurried.

Why is God, seemingly, so slow to act?

Is God callous to our suffering? Why is God so patient, so plodding in his plan, when we’re suffering so deeply? Why is God so excruciatingly slow to act in the face of human impatience?

There’s a line in Jewish apocalyptic literature which metaphorically helps answer this question: “Every tear brings the Messiah closer!”

There is, it would seem, an intrinsic connection between frustration and the

Conrad

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

possibility of a messiah being born. It seems that messiahs can be born only after a long period of human yearning. Why? Human birth already helps answer that question; gestation cannot be hurried and there is an organic connection between the pain a mother experiences in childbirth and the delivery of a new life.

And that’s also true of Jesus’ birth. Advent is a gestation process that cannot be rushed.

Tears, pain and a long season of prayer are needed to create the conditions for the kind of pregnancy that brings forth a messiah into our world.

Why? Because the real love and life can only be born when a long-suffering patience has created the correct space, the virginal womb, within which the sublime can be born.

Perhaps a couple of metaphors can help us understand this.

St John of the Cross, in trying to explicate how a person comes to be enflamed in altruistic love, uses the image of a log bursting into flame in a fireplace.

When a green log is placed in a fire, it doesn’t start to burn immediately. It first needs to be dried out.

Thus, for a long time, it lies in the fire

and sizzles, its greenness and dampness slowly drying out.

Only when it reaches kindling temperature can it ignite and burst into flame.

Speaking metaphorically, before a log can burst into flame, it needs to pass through a certain advent, a certain drying out, a period of frustration and yearning.

So, too, the dynamics of how real love is born in our lives.

We can ignite into love only when we— selfish, green, damp logs—have sizzled sufficiently. And the fire that makes us sizzle is unfulfilled desire.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin offers a second metaphor here when he speaks of something he calls “the raising of our psychic temperature”.

In a chemistry laboratory it’s possible to place two elements in the same test tube and not get fusion. The elements remain separate, refusing to unite.

It is only after they are heated to a higher temperature that they unite.

We’re no different.

Often it’s only when our psychic temperature is raised sufficiently that there’s fusion, that is, it’s only when unrequited longing has raised our psychic temperature sufficiently that we can move towards reconciliation and union.

Simply put, sometimes we have to be brought to a high fever through frustration and pain before we are willing to let go of our selfishness and let ourselves be drawn into community.

The Czech philosopher Tomáš Halík once commented that an atheist is simply another term for someone who doesn’t have enough patience with God. He’s right. God is never in a hurry, and for good reason.

Messiahs can be born only inside a particular kind of womb, namely, one within which there’s enough patience and willingness to wait so as to let things happen on God’s terms, not ours.

Hence, ideally, every tear should bring the Messiah closer.

This isn’t an unfathomable mystery: every frustration should, ideally, make us more ready to love.

Every tear should, ideally, make us more ready to forgive. Every heartache should, ideally, make us more ready to let go of some of our separateness. Every unfulfilled longing should, ideally, lead us into a deeper and more sincere prayer.

And all of our pained impatience for a consummation that seems to forever elude us should, ideally, make us feverish enough to burst into love’s flame.

To offer yet another image: It is with much groaning of the flesh that the life of the spirit is brought forth!

that this is “of the Holy Spirit”.

Joseph has a problem; clearly he cannot accept Mary as his wife, but he does not want her stoned to death, so he ponders the plan of a secret divorce (hard though it is to see how this might be managed, in the circumstances). As he does so, God intervenes, in the shape of an angel in a dream, telling him: “Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife; because what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”.

The angel then tells Joseph what it is all about: “He will save his people from their sins” (which explains Jesus’ name).

Then the evangelist quotes from our first reading, with the slight difference that he is quoting the Greek text, which has “virgin” (better suited to Our Lady) instead of “young woman”.

But the important thing is that in Jesus “God-is-with-us”. And the next most important thing is that Joseph had no hesitation at all in obeying the Lord’s command.

That is what you and I have to do, when Christmas comes.

Southern Crossword #580

ACROSS 5. A greeting in the storm (4) 7. Jesus’ advice from parable of the Good Samaritan (2,8) 8. Slam a man who’s interiorly a holy one (4) 10. A swift blessing for your journey (8) 11. Darkly unjust (6) 12. One who tolls for the church (6) 14. Menace (6) 16. Form a congregation (6) 17. Delightful sea plant (8) 19. Forbid vote (4) 21. Belonging to a monastic community (10) 22. These lose a letter, and around Adam’s son (4)

DOWN 1. It may receive false worship (4) 2. Grace via the cleric’s house (8) 3. Breakfast food in the pub for Lazarus (6) 4. He may get the lot (6) 5. God, our ... in ages past (hymn) (4) 6. Disrespectfully flippant (10) 9. Obliterate (10) 13. The Birth of Christ (8) 15. Coaches for the railways (6) 16. Channel for the urchin snipe? (6) 18. Char the inner side of your foot (4) 20. Merely solitary (4) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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ITTLE Jonny was coming home from church one Saturday morning with his mother. His mother noticed he had a very serious look on his face.

“What’s on your mind, Jonny?” she asked.

“Is it true what Father said about us all coming from dust and all turning back to dust?”

“Yes, it is, Jonny,” she said. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, then when we get home,” he answered, “you better look under my bed, because someone’s either coming or going.”

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