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The

S outhern C ross

March 5 to March 11, 2014

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Thousands gather for Daswa cause

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SA Catholics: How Pope Francis inspires us

Pope Paul VI miracle approved

Page 9

Page 5

Response to family survey ‘impressive’

By CLAIRe MATHIeSoN

T Grade R learners of St Mary’s Primary in Gardens, Cape Town celebrate the opening of their new purpose-built classroom and playground. The dominican school marked its 150th anniversary in 2013. (Photo: Claire Mathieson)

Benedict XVI: It’s absurd to ask if I quit validly

By CINdy WoodeN

I

N a letter to an Italian journalist, Pope emeritus Benedict XVI said questions about the validity of his resignation are “absurd”.

“There is absolutely no doubt regarding the validity of my renunciation of the Petrine ministry,” the retired pope wrote in a letter to Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican correspondent for the newspaper La Stampa and the website Vatican Insider.

Mr Tornielli said he had written to the retired pope on February 14 after reading articles questioning the canonical validity of his announcement last year that he was stepping down.

In the letter, Pope Benedict described as “simply absurd” doubts about how he had formulated his announcement to cardinals gathered for a meeting about canonisation causes.

According to the Church’s Code of Canon Law, “the only condition for validity of my resignation is the complete freedom of my decision”, he wrote to Mr Tornielli.

Mr Tornielli also had asked Pope Benedict why he continues wearing a white cassock— a simplified version of what he wore as pope—and why he did not go back to using his given name, Joseph Ratzinger.

“I continue to wear the white cassock and kept the name Benedict for purely practical

With

The

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI greets Pope Francis at the conclusion of a consistory at which Pope Francis created 19 new cardinals in February. In a letter to a journalist, the retired pope dispelled questions about the canonical validity of his renunciation of the papacy. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) reasons,” he said. “At the moment of my resignation, there were no other clothes available. In any case, I wear the white cassock in a visibly different way to how the pope wears it. This is another case of completely unfounded speculations being made.”

The retired pope said his only task in the Church today is to support Pope Francis with his prayers.—CNS

HE results of the survey on family life and the Church in Southern Africa have “led the bishops to already consider how better to respond to the pastoral challenges faced by families in our conference region”, said Fr Grant Emmanuel, associate secretarygeneral of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).

The survey, which saw what Fr Emmanuel described as an “impressive” 24 of the 29 dioceses in the Southern African conference contribute to the document on family life and the Church, has been submitted to the Vatican.

The Vatican had sent a questionnaire to all bishops’ conferences in preparation for the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on family life within the context of evangelisation in October. It asked for a realistic view of families and how effective pastoral and education programmes have been in promoting Church teaching on sexuality, marriage and family.

The region’s bishops, who have for many years focused on family life, hope the process will result in a resolution from the Church to strengthen and support the family.

Fr Emmanuel said the response to the questionnaire was “truly amazing”, both on account of the short and tricky time the questionnaire went out (over November and December), and in terms of the quality of responses the SACBC received.

“Each diocese was asked to compile a synthesised report of the response. It was evident from the data we received that the questionnaire was reflected upon by individual lay people, married couples, parish pastoral councils, family movements, sodalities, and at clergy gatherings,” Fr Emmanuel said.

He said the form in which the reflection and engagement took place varied, with some dioceses handling the information through diocesan meetings and the family apostolate over weekend meetings, while others collated information through the pastoral councils of individual parishes.

H

e said the bishops were pleased with survey, which they believe provides an honest account of family life in Southern Africa.

He did not provide details of the answers the bishops received.

“People were not afraid to highlight the joys and hopes as well as the challenges and frustrations that are experienced in trying to live out the faith from day to day,” Fr Emmanuel said.

Perspectives varied from region to region, but there was “nothing startling”.

“It is clear that there is a wide variety in people's experience of family life. The number of typical families is declining, but these are still families, no matter how they are constituted,” Fr Emmanuel said.

“What is clear is that people value family life greatly, and they are trying hard to keep their families together, despite facing very challenging circumstances at times. They are looking and hoping that the Church will give them direction and support, while also mindful that a lot needs to be done by themselves within their own homes and communities, so that we can reclaim and celebrate the essence of family life.”

Fr Emmanuel said the bishops had for more than a decade expressed concern about family life. At the January plenary session the bishops passed a resolution to focus on family life for the next three years. “The bishops would expect a stronger family ministry at various different levels.”

P

ope Francis has asked families to pray for the success of the synod which will examine the “pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelisation”.

In a letter to the world’s families, the pope wrote that the synod would be dedicated to the “challenges of marriage, of family life, of the education of children; and the role of the family in the life of the Church”, Catholic News Service reported.

Pope Francis has said the synod will take up the subject of Church teaching and practice on marriage, including the eligibility of divorced and civilly married Catholics to receive Communion—an issue he has said exemplifies a general need for mercy in the Church today.

In his letter, the pope noted the October gathering would be followed by an ordinary Synod of Bishops on the same subject next year, and by the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September 2015.

The responses to the Vatican questionnaire about Catholics’ family life reflect a great amount of suffering around the world, “especially by those who feel excluded or abandoned by the Church because they find themselves in a state of life that does not correspond to the Church’s doctrine and discipline”, said Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general-secretary of the synod The results compiled by the bishops’ conferences, he said, show “the urgency of recognising the lived reality of the people and of beginning a pastoral dialogue with those who have distanced themselves from the Church for various reasons”.

Southern Cross to Fatima • Lourdes • Avila with Bishop João Rodrigues & Günther Simmermacher Join The Southern Cross and the Diocese of Tzaneen on a Pilgrimage of Prayer for the Sainthood Cause of Benedict Daswa to places of Our Lady in France, Spain & Portugal!

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2

The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

LOCAL

Parish celebrates 40 years

By PoRTIA MTHeMBu

S

AINT Maria Goretti, in Riverlea, south of Johannesburg, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

A special Mass will be celebrated on March 16 by Archbishop of Johannesburg Buti Tlhagale. Previous clergy who served the parish during its 40 years, including current parish priest Fr Laszlo Karpati, are also expected to attend.

The first parishioners moved into Riverlea in 1962 and travelled by bus to St Andrew’s in Noordgesig where they celebrated Mass, the anniversary planning committee of St Maria Goretti said.

The late Fr Patrick McCullagh OMI, parish priest of St Andrew’s, was also assigned parish priest of the Catholic community in Riverlea.

Proceedings to build a church in Riverlea began and a working committee was established to start raising funds towards the church. “Every Catholic family in the area contributed to the building fund,” the committee told The Southern Cross.

Throughout the years St Marks, as the Riverlea parish was initially to be named, received substantial support from St Andrew’s parish and the local Anglican church, which offered the use of its church building for the celebration of Holy Mass.

Sodalities in the parish were formed.

“The Women’s Working Committee visited the sick and cared for the needs of the elderly,” the committee said.

As Riverlea grew, the Riverlea Community Centre was built and “the parish had permission to use the community hall for the celebration of Mass”.

As teenage pregnancies had also started to become prevalent in the area, Fr “Mac”—as Fr McCullagh became af-

Front view of St Maria Goretti church in Riverlea, Johannesburg fectionately known in the community—suggested that the parish be named after the youngest saint in the Catholic Church, St Maria Goretti, said the committee, as a means of “inspiring and encouraging the youth to spiritually connect with God and themselves”.

In 1973 the “first soil was turned, and on March 17, 1974, the late Bishop Hugh Boyle officially presided over the opening and dedication of St Maria Goretti church,” the committee said.

In the early years, some parishioners went on a pilgrimage to Rome, Lourdes, the Holy Land and Nettuno, the birthplace of St Maria Goretti.

“Arrangements to bring a stone from Maria Goretti’s home and a statue of the saint to the parish in Riverlea began,” the committee told The Southern Cross.

“They were shipped to South Africa a year later and Mrs Botterill, the Italian lady involved in the arrangements, personally presented the stone and statue to the parish.”

Currently, the planning committee of St Maria Goretti is gathering historical photographs to be displayed in the church’s hall. All material gathered will form part of the parish archives.

St Patrick’s Day will be celebrated at the Cape Town Waterfront on Sunday 16th March.

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Thousands of the faithful took part in a night vigil to pray for the success of the sainthood of Benedict daswa—potentially South Africa’s first saint.

Thousands pray for Daswa sainthood M STAFF RePoRTeR

ORE than 3 000 people from Tzaneen, Polokwane, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Witbank, Klerksdorp and Kimberley descended on Mokopane in Polokwane to partake in a night vigil of prayer to ask for God’s blessing on the sainthood cause of the Servant of God Benedict Daswa.

Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo of Bloemfontein, representing the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, representing the metropolitan region, were present and concelebrated the concluding Mass with Bishop Jeremiah Masela of Polokwane.

Also in attendance were the two bishops from Tzaneen—the home diocese of Mr Daswa.

Bishop João Rodrigues and retired Bishop Hugh Slattery were joined by the Benedictine monks from Subiaco. The vigil saw a large number of religious from different congregations join together with large numbers of the faithful, many of them in sodality uniforms.

According to the promoter of the cause, Sr Claudette Hiosan FDNSC, the eight adult children of Mr Daswa, some with their spouses, his two remaining brothers, some of his nieces and other relatives were also present.

“Benedict’s mother, who was 93 last December, was not there as the long trip to Mater Dei Pastoral Centre followed by the night-long prayer vigil, would have been too much for her. She is, however, praying very earnestly to be alive for her son’s beatification,” Sr Hiosan said.

She said the 24-hour vigil was

“permeated by a very joyful yet really prayerful atmosphere”.

Some of the evening’s highlights included testimonies given by people who knew and had worked closely with Mr Daswa, including his eldest daughter, Helen.

“Helen spoke very courageously and simply about her father,” said Sr Hiosan. “She said that she was only 13 years old at the time of her father’s murder and was the last person to speak to her father, who had asked her to tell her mother that he would be a home bit late as he was going to drive an old man carrying a 12,5kg bag of mealie meal to his house.”

A

fter dropping the man at his house, Mr Daswa was ambushed by a mob of youths goaded on by some adult men, then stoned and finally bludgeoned to death.

“All this because he refused to give R5 to pay a sangoma to sniff out the supposed witch who had caused lightning to set alight a number of rondavels in the village the previous week,” Sr Hiosan said.

The night vigil was hailed a success by Bishop Rodrigues and the people of Tzaneen, according to Sr Hiosan. “The success of this prayer vigil gave a clear indication that the cause of Benedict Daswa is gaining wider recognition and support in Southern Africa. There is a definite sense among all who participated in the vigil that Benedict Daswa is indeed a true martyr of the Catholic Church and at the same time, a very special intercessor for people in Southern Africa,” Sr Hiosan said.

“It is vitally important to continue praying for his beatification in the hope that more and more people will do so and receive abundant blessings for their lives. Already there have been a number of favours attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God.” Sr Hiosan said the cause was dependent on the prayers of the faithful and also their generosity.

“Naturally, as the cause progresses, the demands will increase. This is especially true with regard to the development of the pilgrimage site and shrine in honour of Benedict Daswa. As the costs are huge, so much will depend on the success of seeking and receiving many generous donations both from outside the SACBC region and within it.”

Bishop Rodrigues has indicated that this cause will be an important focus of the forthcoming ad limina visit of the bishops of Southern Africa to the Holy Father in Rome this coming Easter.

Bishop Rodrigues will lead the Southern Cross pilgrimage of prayer for the cause of Benedict Daswa from September 25 to October 6 to Fatima, Lourdes, Paris, Avila and other places associated with Our Lady. To book, contact Gail on info@fowlertours.co.za or on 021 352 3809.

The Vatican will examine the cause in October. n For more information on the cause, visit benedictdaswa.org.za or contact 015 395 2215. Donations can be made to Diocese of Tzaneen: Benedict Daswa Cause, account number 330911538, Standard Bank branch 052749.

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The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

LOCAL

3

Christian Brothers Accolades for Mariannhill school open ‘green’ centre S

By MAuRICIo LANGA

By PoRTIA MTHeMBu

T

HE latest upgrades to the Christian Brothers’ Centre in Stellenbosch, archdiocese of Cape Town, were celebrated with the official opening of the newly named Mary Rice Centre.

The facility will house various adult and youth groups, who will be given the chance to strengthen their faith while living in harmony with nature.

Previously a novitiate and training house for Christian Brothers, the centre in Paradyskloof has over the years transformed into a facility for adult group education and camps for underprivileged youth groups, head brother of the centre, Br Terry Dowling, told The Southern Cross.

As manifested in its vision —“There will be peace on earth when we are at peace with the earth”—the Christian Brothers’ Centre focuses on living at peace with nature.

This eco-spirituality is a view held by the Christian Brothers globally, said Br Dowling. It is based on a fundamental belief in the sacredness of nature, earth and the universe.

“Groups and individuals can take time out to come and experience a ‘green’ facility while exploring and deepening their faith experience,” Br Dowling added.

Apart from being environmentally friendly, the centre is also committed to contemplation and compassion, as was displayed by the founder of the Christian Brothers, Edmund Rice, who showed great compassion in car-

young adults were key participants at the official opening of the Mary Rice Centre of the Christian Brothers in Stellenbosch, Western Cape. ing for his daughter, Mary Rice, a special needs child for whom the centre is named.

“We trust that the model of compassion shown by Edmund Rice will be experienced by youth and adult groups that use this facility and other facilities here,” Br Dowling said.

Among the guests at the opening were local and international Christian Brothers, and individuals who contributed significantly in building the centre. Youth members of the Edmund Rice Community in Green Point, a subsidiary of the Christian Brothers’ Centre, took part in leading the ceremony, offering a presentation that exemplified the centre’s communal vision and focus on the youth.

Having recently joined the Edmund Rice Community, a member shared his insights on community life.

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a great deal of personal satisfaction. It has offered me peace and tranquillity while also providing a social atmosphere. Over and above that, the community is dedicated to giving back to society, which is an important part of life, of being a Christian and the type of person I strive to be. Principles of respect, love, community and charity have been installed in the house.”

Offering his expectations of the Mary Rice Centre, the community member said: “There is much work to be done with today’s youth. Pope Francis once said, ‘The best tool for evangelising the young is another young person. That is the path to follow!’ These communities offer exactly this opportunity.”

The Christian Brothers’ Centre has further developments in line, including developing the old classrooms and old dormitories into a better retreat facility.

For the 13th year, Holocaust survivor, don Krausz (right with Brescia pupils) has spoken at Brescia House School. Mr Krausz’s talks focus on tolerance and understanding, and on asking just how something like the Holocaust could happen. He also challenges pupils to think about what they need to do as human beings to make sure they don’t get trapped into rejecting, bullying or abusing others—simply because they are different in some way. Mr Krausz teaches a simple mantra when faced with making a moral choice that could potentially hurt someone else—“This I do not do.”

of learners and educators had been recognised.

AINT FRANCIS College Not only did most learnin Mariannhill has reers of the 2013 matric class ceived two top awards achieve subject distincfor its outstanding results in tions, but they also obthe 2013 academic year. tained places at different The school obtained a tertiary institutions across 100% pass rate, sustaining the country. its achievement over the “We will continue workyears. ing hard to maintain, and St Francis first received try to improve further, the an award from Ethekwini St Francis principal standard we have set for our(Durban) municipality, pre- Jabulani Nzama selves over the years,” Mr sented at the Durban InterNzama said. national Convention Of the 92 matriculants in Centre.

2013, 90 learners attained bachelor Then the school was presented with passes and two obtained diploma an accolade from Cardinal Wilfrid passes.

Napier on behalf of the Catholic “Out of all the subjects, including Schools Board of the archdiocese of mathematics Paper 3, they have manDurban. aged to attain distinctions in every Accepting the awards, school prin- subject”, said Mr Nzama. cipal Jabulani Nzama said he was Nine learners obtained distinctions thrilled that the collective hard work in each subject.

Fr Haen: 50 years a Redemptorist

F

ATHER Jan Haen CSsR, a South African Redemptorist priest living and working in Holland, returned to the country to celebrate 50 years of life as a Redemptorist at the Church of the Holy Redeemer, Cape Town, where he first made his vows in 1964.

Sharing in Fr Haen’s thanksgiving Mass was resident priest Fr Sizwe Zungu CSsR and parishioners Pauline Mehl and Kirsten Mehl.

Fr Haen attended Marist Brothers’ School in Linmeyer, Johannesburg, and then CBC Pretoria.

Fr Larry Kaufmann CSsR, provincial of the South African Redemptorists, drew the comparison of Fr Haen with

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St Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists, who expressed much of his devotion and faith in painting, writing and even musical composition.

As a gifted artist, Fr Haen has transformed over 70 churches at home and abroad with murals, expressing the person of Christ in people’s everyday lives.

Also in South Africa, from the United States, was Fr Pat Flynn CSsR, who took his vows on the same day in 1964 with Fr Haen, and was visiting family in Durban.

Fr Flynn is remembered for being an outstanding preacher and is currently working in the US.

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4

The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

INTERNATIONAL

Unprecedented voice for laity in Vatican’s new ‘finance ministry’

By FRANCIS X RoCCA

C

ARDINAL Wilfrid Napier of Durban has welcomed the appointment of Cardinal George Pell of Sydney as head of the Vatican’s newly established Secretariat for the Economy.

Cardinal Pell is a “man who’s got financial things at his fingertips, and he’s a man who’s very decisive, and I think he’s got a good understanding of how Roman affairs work,” said Cardinal Napier, who sat on one of the advisory panels that reviewed the arrangements before the pope’s decision to set up a new Council for the Economy and the secretariat.

Cardinal Pell’s office will implement the policies devised by a panel which will include almost as many lay members as clerics, and is tasked with overseeing the finances of the Holy See and Vatican City State.

The move reflects both Pope Francis’ drive to reform the Vatican bureaucracy and his oft-stated desire to include laypeople in the leadership of the Church.

The Council for the Economy will include “eight cardinals and bishops to reflect the universality of the Church” and “seven lay experts of different nationalities with strong professional financial experience”, the Vatican said. They will “meet on a regular basis and to consider policies and practices and to prepare and analyse reports on the economic-administrative activities of the Holy See”.

The lay members of the new council will exercise an unprecedented level of responsibility for non-clerics in the Vatican, where

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney arrives for Pope Francis’ Mass with new cardinals in St Peter’s basilica.

The Australian cardinal has been appointed to head a new Vatican office overseeing Vatican finances.

(Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) the highest offices have always been reserved for cardinals and bishops.

The Vatican did not release any names of council members.

Reporting to the council will be the new Secretariat for the Economy, which will exercise “authority over all the economic and administrative activities within the Holy See and the Vatican City State”, including budget making, financial planning, hiring, procurement and the preparation of detailed financial statements.

C

ardinal Pell said in a statement: “I have always recognised the need for the Church to be guided by experts in this area and will be pleased to be working with the members of the new Council for the Economy as we approach these tasks.”

The statement said he would take up his new position at the Vatican in late March. The appointment means that Cardinal Pell will be replaced as archbishop of Sydney.

Pope Francis established the council and the secretariat with an apostolic letter given motu proprio (on his own initiative) with the title Fidelis dispensator et prudens (“Faithful and prudent steward”), a quotation from Luke’s gospel.

It also provides for the appointment of an auditor general, “who will be empowered to conduct audits of any agency of the Holy See and Vatican City State at any time”.

The pope acted on recommendations from the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, which he established in July to review accounting practices in Vatican offices and devise strategies for greater fiscal responsibility and transparency.

The recommendations were “considered and endorsed” by the pope’s eight-member advisory Council of Cardinals and the 15member Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See, which now ceases to exist upon the establishment of the new council.

According to Cardinal Napier, a member of the defunct council, “something really needed to be done”.

“For instance, there was no serious budgeting that you could call budgeting... It was quite clear that some of the procedures and processes that were in place were not adequate for today’s world.”—CNS

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Pope Francis speaks in a video recorded on an iPhone at the Vatican by Bishop Anthony Palmer, international ecumenical officer for the Communion of evangelical episcopal Churches. In the video the pope says all Christians share blame for their divisions and says that God will bring the miracle of Christian unity to completion. Bishop Palmer is a Pentecostal pastor the pope knew in Argentina.

Pope: All Christians to blame for division

By CINdy WoodeN

I

N an unusual video message, recorded on an iPhone by a Pentecostal pastor Pope Francis knew in Argentina, the pope says all Christians share blame for their divisions, speaks of his “longing” for their unity, and insists that God will bring the miracle of Christian unity to completion.

“Pray to the Lord that he will unite us all,” the pope tells a group of Pentecostals meeting in the United States. “Let’s move forward, we are brothers; let us give each other that spiritual embrace and allow the Lord to complete the work he has begun. Because this is a miracle; the miracle of unity has begun.”

The video, posted on YouTube and never released by the Vatican, begins in English with the pope apologising that he will have to switch to Italian, although mostly, he said, he would speak from the heart, which is “a more simple, more authentic language”.

Addressing Bishop Palmer as “my brother, a bishop-brother” and saying they had “been friends for years”, the pope offered what he said were greetings “both joyful and full of longing” to participants in a meeting of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries, a Pentecostal group that sponsors large prayer gatherings around the world.

The joy, the pope said, comes from knowing that “the Lord is working all over the whole world”.

But he said he is full of longing because Christians are still separated, “separated because of sin, our sins”.

“Who is at fault?” he asked. “All of us are, we are all sinners. There is only one who is just and that is the Lord.”

Pope Francis said he longs for the day when “this separation would end and there would be communion”.

“Let’s allow our longing to increase so that it propels us to find each other, embrace each other and to praise Jesus Christ as the only Lord of history,” the pope said.

The video begins with Bishop Palmer telling a Pentecostal gathering about the importance of Christian unity for preaching salvation in Christ to the world.

He said that the Catholic-Protestant divisions have had no reason to exist since the 1999 CatholicLutheran Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. The agreement recognised that “by grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works”.

Bishop Palmer told his audience: “Brothers and sisters, Luther’s protest is over. Is yours? We are not protesting the doctrine of salvation [taught] by the Catholic Church anymore. We now preach the same Gospel.”—CNS

Ugandan bishops ‘reserve judgment’ on anti-gay law

By JAMeS MARToNe

U

GANDA’S Catholic bishops have reaffirmed their opposition to homosexuality, but reserved judgment on a recently ratified bill imposing harsh punishment for homosexual acts in the East African nation.

“Our reaction from the Church is very clear, we don’t support homosexuality,” said Mgr John Baptist Kauta, secretary-general of the Uganda Episcopal Conference.

He said that when the anti-gay bill was first discussed, the country’s bishops had been against the harsh penalties it involved for homosexual acts, including the death penalty.

“The bishops were not in favour of that,” he said. “We were for compassion, and we believe [homosexuals] can change.”

Uganda’s anti-gay bill was signed into law on February 24 by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

The bill originally proposed the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, but first-time offenders will now face life in jail, instead of an originally proposed 14-year

prison term.

Western donor countries and international rights groups have termed the new law an abuse of human rights and are asking for its repeal.

Michelle Kagari, Africa deputy director at Amnesty International, said the new law would “institutionalise hatred and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in Uganda”.

There was no immediate reaction from the Vatican on the new law.

Earlier in February, however, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, said that the Church’s affirmation of the full dignity of all human beings led him to oppose laws that outlaw homosexuality.

Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries, and Western opposition to anti-gay measures is often criticised there as “imperialism”.

Mr Museveni said the law was necessary and accused the West of promoting homosexuality in Uganda and the rest of Africa.—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

5

CAR bishops praise brave missionaries C

ATHOLIC leaders in the Central African Republic praised the courage of missionary priests and nuns who remained in the country during the current conflict, despite offers of evacuation.

“That most have remained here is the greatest act of witness our Church has given,” said Bishop Nestor-Desire Nongo Aziagbia of Bossangoa.

“Even when life is insecure, people still look to their priests and religious as a sign of hope and to Catholic missions as places of refuge. This makes their continued presence very important,” he said in an interview with Catholic News Service.

The bishop said most missionaries and foreign religious order members had defied dangers and remained in the Central African Republic, where French and African forces are attempting to restore order after more than a year of fighting.

Paul VI miracle approved

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stay, their presence has a mitigating effect,” he added.

Catholics make up around a third of the 4,4 million inhabitants of the Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest countries; Muslims are about 15%.

Missionary clergy and religious order members, many from the US, France, Italy, Spain and Poland, as well as from other African countries, have helped circulate information and offered shelter to some of the estimated 1 million people displaced by the violence, which has continued despite the December deployment of 1 600 French paratroopers under a UN mandate.

Archbishop Nzapalainga said he believed the continuing violence had made people “more fervent” in religious beliefs and practices.

He added that he also had rejected offers of asylum during a January visit to France, concluding “the devil scatters, but God brings together.”—CNS

Catholic opposition to death penalty call for Boston Marathon bomber

A Swiss Guard stands under an arch in the San damaso courtyard after Pope Francis met Haiti’s President Michel Martelly at the Vatican. (Photo: Paul Haring)

HE consulting theologians of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints have approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Pope Paul VI, moving him closer to sainthood.

Vatican Insider’s Andrea Tornielli reported that the congregation’s theological experts had unanimously recognised the healing of an unborn child through the intercession of Pope Paul, who died in 1978.

In the mid-1990s in California, the then-unborn child was found to have a serious problem with a high risk of brain damage. Physicians advised that the child be aborted, but the mother entrusted her pregnancy to Paul VI. The child was born without problems, and now as a healthy adolescent, he is regarded as having been completely healed.

The healing had already been announced as medically inexplicable by the medical commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

A miracle must be approved by both the members of the congregation and Pope Francis in order for Pope Paul VI to be beatified—the

Bishop Nongo said some members of his diocese’s religious congregations had been forced to leave.

“One group of nuns called me in the morning to say their house had been under fire all night. But even then, though their lives were at stake and they clearly couldn’t stay, one of the nuns still decided to remain.”

The bishops’ conference president, Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need that missionaries provided “reference points and ramparts” for local people as a “manifestation of the power of love”.

“In many places, the missionaries have stayed and haven’t wanted to leave, although we placed no obligation on them and left them free to decide,” Archbishop Nzapalainga said.

“They should be given support to remain as a light in the night. In every crisis, when the missionaries

last step in the canonisation process prior to being named a saint.

Paul VI’s sainthood cause was opened in 1993, and in December 2012, Pope Benedict XVI signed a decree recognising his predecessor’s “heroic virtue”, bestowing on him the title “Venerable”. This title means the individual practised outstanding faith, hope, and charity, as well as extraordinary virtuous actions with readiness over a period of time.

Paul VI was born Giovanni Montini in 1897, and was ordained a priest at the unusually young age of 22. He served as archbishop of Milan before he was elected pope in 1963.

As Pope, he oversaw much of the Second Vatican Council, and he promulgated a new Roman missal in 1969. The year before, he published the encyclical Humanae vitae, which reaffirmed the Church’s teaching against contraception.—CNA

By NAVAR WATSoN

T

HE US Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) and other Catholic bodies have registered their opposition to the proposed death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber.

“Christ calls us to love our enemies and travel the long, difficult, but humanising and liberating road to reconciliation,” the conference said in a statement.

It came in response to US attorney-general Eric Holder announcing that the federal government will seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, who is currently being held in prison for his alleged role in the Boston Marathon attacks on April 15 last year.

The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty in nearly all cases, saying that “the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent”.

For some, Tsarnaev’s case is no exception.

“The death penalty is sort of an illusion [that] we can protect life by taking it,” said Catherine Jarboe of the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty.

“We’re perpetuating the cycle of violence.”

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Flowers lie on the pavement at the site of the first Boston Marathon explosion last April. (Photo: Jessica Rinaldi, Reuters/CNS) ors of Men said it weeps for “all the harm done” at the bombings in April, including the harm Tsarnaev and his family felt.

“Dzhokhar both significantly contributed to the harm yet also experienced harm,” their statement said. “Our political leadership continues to deepen the harm and wounds by advancing the use of the death penalty.”

The conference is made up of the leaders of men’s religious orders who represent more than 17 000 Catholic religious brothers and priests in the United States.

Tsarnaev, along with his brother, Tamerlan, was accused of planting two homemade pressure-cooker

bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in April 2013, killing three and injuring some 260 people. Tamerlan died in a police shootout several days later.

Tsarnaev’s trial is scheduled to begin on November 3.

Ms Jarboe said a key issue of the death penalty is that it “takes focus away from the victim and [puts it] squarely on the offender.”

She also said the death penalty, which can take up to months and years of trials, delays the beginning of the healing process for the victims’ families.

Prosecutors predict the trial itself will last 12 weeks, The Boston Globe said. After that, if Tsarnaev is convicted, it could take around six weeks to present evidence to jurors, who will either recommend the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The United States is one of few “developed” countries to allow the death penalty, the CMSM said, “which speaks to a serious cultural deficiency”.

The CMSM said restorative justice is the more dignified choice.

“The truth is that the death penalty fails to humanise our lives,” the CMSM said. “Love is about increasingly becoming a people of empathy, compassion and the courage to transcend our destructive habits.”—CNS

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The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Younger Catholics lost to the faith

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The Church and money

A

YEAR ago the cardinals in conclave sent the freshly elected pope into his new mission with a mandate to institute reforms in the Roman curia, the Vatican’s administration, which was perceived as being inefficient and touched by corruption.

Within 12 months Pope Francis has made great strides in meeting this mandate. He established a special commission to investigate the Vatican Bank, expanded the Vatican City laws concerning money laundering, and began an overdue revamp of the curia.

The establishment in late February of a new structure to deal with the Vatican’s finances is the most significant move yet.

The Council of Economics and its secretariat will replace what seems to have been a shambolic mess, one that created budgets which, in Cardinal Wilfrid Napier’s estimation, were not fit to bear the name.

Where fiscal oversight is deficient, corruption is nourished.

Pope Francis has signalled with clarity his determination to root out financial mismanagement.

The appointment of Cardinal George Pell as the Vatican’s quasifinance minister has been received with joy by his flock in Sydney, but will have been met with disquiet by those who preferred the more casual management of the Vatican’s finances.

Cardinal Pell may not be a specialist in matters of finance—on these matters the experts on the Council of Economics will guide the trained Church historian— but the cardinal’s capacity to assert his agenda is well documented.

The conclave that elected Pope Francis a year ago met under the shadow of the so-called VatiLeaks scandal of 2012, in which confidential documents that showed corruption, mismanagement and incompetence within the curia were leaked to the media.

In October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was found guilty by a Vatican court on charges of having leaked the documents, and sentenced to a jail term of 18 months. Pope Benedict XVI pardoned him in December that year.

A report subsequently commissioned by Pope Benedict into maladministration in the Vatican was prepared by a group of three cardinals, but its content has not been publicly released. The cardinals’ findings reportedly were,

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.

however, the subject of deliberations in pre-conclave meetings.

These discussions and the report itself presumably have informed the nature of Pope Francis’ reforms.

Mr Gabriele has done the Church he professes to love a great service, even if in doing so he employed illegal means and embarrassed the pope.

As a whistleblower who has played a pivotal role in launching the process of the much-needed curial overhaul—reforms which the world’s cardinals saw as vital and which Pope Francis is carrying out energetically—Mr Gabriele deserves the Church’s gratitude.

It remains a cause for concern that Mr Gabriele should have to live with a certain notoriety while those whose trespasses he exposed have not been held to public account.

We are still owed an explanation, for example, as to why and at whose petition Archbishop Carlo Viganò was effectively fired from his position as secretary-general of the governatorate of Vatican City State after he turned, in just one year, a $10 million deficit into a $44 million surplus.

While the Vatican is cleaning up its fiscal act, dioceses and parishes must likewise ensure that their financial dealings are above reproach. They must be rigorously transparent and accountable.

Financial mismanagement in the Church damages our evangelising mission. The experience of German Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg is instructive.

The bishop’s extravagances— including the installation of a new bathtub in his episcopal residence at the cost of R225 000— scandalised not only the faithful but also many of his brother bishops.

As a result of the Limburg scandal, and the (now suspended) bishop’s arrogant response to criticism, an alarming number of German Catholics decided to formally leave the Church.

It is good, therefore, that almost half of the members of the new Council of Economics are drawn from the laity. This is very much in keeping with Pope Francis’ vision for the Church.

Indeed, there is no reason why other curial departments should not likewise be populated, and in some instances, run by qualified lay people, including women.

W

E constantly read in your informative Southern Cross, both in letters and articles, of the aims and objects of our ever-smiling Pope Francis to revitalise the Church by bringing Roman Catholics into the 21st century and making the Vatican bureaucrats more friendly to the needs and aspirations of the laity, whom they continually ignore.

The same problems are here in South Africa. As an octogenarian, I see clearly that we have lost two generations of younger Catholics, as almost every family can confirm.

Let us ask two questions.

1. Why have large numbers of formerly practising Catholics given up the practice of this faith of their forebears for centuries?

2. Why have so many of these socalled lapsed Catholics worldwide

Help with missal

I

READ with interest the letter of Fr Liam MacDermott OFM (February 19). I know Fr Liam to be very passionate about the proclamation of liturgical texts and even singing them.

The new texts do present much challenge and they are different.

Many priests have been helped by keeping to one line at a time which was the advice given to us when the new texts were introduced.

There is an excellent little book by Fr Anscar J Chupungco, The Prayers of the New Missal—a homiletic and catechetical companion.

I recommend this as reading for every priest who wants to make the best of proclaiming the prayers of the liturgy.

It was the author’s hope that his work would become a companion to priests and faithful alike “as they journey in liturgical worship along the (as yet) unfamiliar terrain of the new English translation”.

Bishop Edward Risi, Keimoes-Upington

Change the missal

I

TOTALLY agree with Fr Liam MacDermott (“New missal text lost in translation”, February 19), especially his concluding suggestion regarding the 1998 revised translation by the original ICEL. That version is framed in beautiful English, accurate to the letter of the original Latin text, and makes for comfortable proclamation by the celebrant and intelligent understanding by the congregation.

It would be pastorally enriching if our Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference had the courage to tell the Congregation for Divine Worship that the Church in this region wants to replace the

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turned to the pentecostals, the fundamentalists and, in South America, the pope’s home ground, to the Seventh Day Adventist Church?

At my age I have heard the same monotonous homilies chirped out 25 times. Many of the parables in the Gospel teachings could easily be rewritten in today’s language, and about situations which face the faithful every day. Without a doubt, the faithful could then relate to them.

Christ preached to the masses in his day in terms they could understand, and they were mainly people of the land. Today our priests must preach to the masses who understand cellphones and computers. I am sure that some of our wonderful priests could write the gospel parables in today’s terms that people could relate to.

present English missal with the 1998 revised translation.

At the time of his tenth anniversary of death, such a request to Rome would also be an appropriate expression of gratitude to the memory of Archbishop Denis Hurley OMI for the vital role he played in ICEL for nearly 40 years.

Fr Kevin Reynolds, Pretoria

Move in, Father

L

AST year we were privileged to have a mission in our parish. In years gone by, this was often an annual celebration. It’s good to recharge one’s spiritual life and to take stock of where you are and how you are coping in a world of many crises and problems.

Lynette Paterson (“Clerics obsessed”, January 22), writes: “I get the impression that Catholic clergy are fixated on sex and think that’s what lay people worry about and do every day”.

I wonder if there could be a simple and yet possibly an earnest solution to our troubled clergy and their alleged obsession.

At the beginning of each year, when all the Advent and Christmas pressures are off, our spiritual shepherds should be seconded to Catholic family homes for a twoweek “mission”.

The first week should be the week before school starts and the second week should be the one after school has started.

The ideal family should comprise a father, mother (both working) and, preferably, three children. Two in junior school and one going into first year at high school.

In this domestic “war-zone” period of frenetic pace and hyperactivity, much will be learnt about God, love and life; or, conversely, the frustration-aggression hypothesis.

Fortunately or unfortunately, nothing will be learnt about that obsessive word—sex.

In exposing the clergy to Ms Paterson’s “spiritual spring-cleaning with a good dose of reality”, I think we would all benefit greatly.

Tony Meehan, Cape Town

Hurley as pope?

Oh, no!

P

ADDY Kearney, in his article about Archbishop Denis Hurley (February 5), quotes Ela Gandhi. Referring to Pope Francis, she reportedly said: “You could have had a pope like that long ago if you had elected Archbishop Hurley.”

Archbishop Hurley as pope? Ms Gandhi, in her holy innocence, can be forgiven for that utterance because she is not Catholic.

Archbishop Hurley as pope would have meant the acceptance of contraception by the Catholic Church, and in doing so, becoming accomplice to the sexual revolution and holocaust.

Does Ms Gandhi not know that the widespread use of contraception has led to a general decline in morality?

In my younger days, educated and inspirational priests would take one or two verses from the readings, and often parishioners would leave the church strengthened spiritually and physically to face the problems of the coming week. This is exactly what our Protestant ministers do every week, otherwise they would be out of a job.

My advice is to scrap homilies based solely on the readings and let the priest be led by the Spirit to produce a homily to which the faithful can relate in today’s world.

As one non-Catholic attending a Catholic Mass said to his Catholic friend: “Do you have to put up with this week after week?”, to which his Catholic friend said rather shamefully and reluctantly: “Yes, we do”.

Today we have the messengers but, unfortunately the messengers have lost the message.

RG Pitchford, Middelburg According to author Janet Smith, “premarital sex is now the norm, pregnancy outside of marriage is at epidemic proportions, in some cities the number of abortions is higher than the number of births, divorce is a common experience, pornography has entered our living rooms through internet and TV, Aids and other sexual diseases are rampant”.

Fortunately, the Holy Spirit in his wisdom prevented the installation of Archbishop Hurley as a cardinal, so that he never could become a pope.

He might have cut a good figure as an Anglican pope, because it was the Anglican bishops who started the sexual revolution in 1930 by allowing the use of contraceptives.

Anglicans also ordain women as priests. Archbishop Hurley did not disapprove.

Ms Gandhi’s grandfather was a wise man. He said that contraceptives put a premium on vice, that moral degradation would be the result. He also stated: “Man has sufficiently degraded woman by his lust, and contraception, no matter how well meaning the advocates may be, will still further degrade her.”

It is known that Mahatma Gandhi practised abstinence after the birth of his last child.

JH Goossens, Dundee

Murder of the innocents

I

N St Matthew’s epiphany in the Sunday gospel read from the pulpit, the following sentence is always omitted: “Then Herod, seeing that he had been tricked by the Magi, was exceedingly angry; and he sent and slew all the boys in Bethlehem and all its neighbourhood who were two years or under, according to the time that he had carefully ascertained from the Magi.”

This sentence describes the murder by Herod of “the Holy Innocents”, the precursor of the modern mass murders of unborn infants by abortion.

It is imperative that this sentence be read in the said Gospel for the following reasons: 1. It would make us realise that the season of peace and goodwill is largely illusory during the said Mass. Murders, amid no attempt to halt them.

2. It would necessitate, from our pulpits, a brief discourse on the evils of abortion around the feast of “the Holy Innocents”, on December 28, largely ignored by our churches today.

Damian McLeish, Johannesburg 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 or faxed to 021 465-3850

PERSPECTIVES

Has anyone told you?

T HE book of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, God, Love, Life and Sex, has continued to draw comments. It reminds me of a book that appeared a couple of years ago with the arresting title Nobody Told Me by Pam Stenzel, who has visited this country to speak to youth groups.

The title just jumped out of the candid stories of young people. They were looking for the truth, for guidance and support in the whole area of sex, relationships and unborn life. I suspect some who read God, Love, Life and Sex will expect a similar reaction: Why didn’t somebody tell me? Why haven’t I heard this beautiful and attractive Church teaching before now?

No doubt they have heard some but probably not enough of this liberating message to enable them to cope with the sexsaturated and anti-life culture of today’s world.

I have no doubt that the bishops’ book supplies much-needed knowledge, guidance and encouragement on a number of important issues relating to sex, marriage, family and life itself.

It was written in response to a felt need expressed by a number of lay people. They approached the bishops with their concerns in 2008, the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s great encyclical Humanae Vitae, dealing with the regulations of births in a morally right way.

Afterwards they also helped with the writing of the book, which is very readerfriendly. It draws on the Bible and the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church. It also makes extensive use of the writings of Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI—all very important figures at Vatican II and all deeply involved in implementing it.

It is always comforting and reassuring for us to know that we have Peter as the rock and foundation on which our Church is built. We remember the words of Jesus: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail over it” (Mt 16:18).

Down the centuries, faithful Catholics have gracefully and greatly accepted the authority and teaching of the pope—the rock of Peter—and of the bishops in union with him. In the words of Vatican II, the pope “as the successor of Peter is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and the whole company of the faithful” (Lumen Gentium, 23). This is well expressed by the old Latin saying: “Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia”, meaning “Where Peter is, there is the Church”.

T

here are many non-Catholics who envy us because we have the Holy Father who speaks with authority for the whole Church and keeps us all united in professing the true faith. He has his strengths and weaknesses like the rest of humanity, but by the grace of God and with the prayers of the Church he is our sure guide and leader.

Today our greatly loved Pope Francis is the rock of Peter who continues the great mission given to St Peter: “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep” (Jn 21:15-1). His vision of a poor Church reaching out to the poor is a very biblical and a very challenging one in today’s world. He is a great teacher and wants a Church whose members really know their faith.

While a cardinal in Argentina in 2005, he gave a pro-life homily in which he certainly didn’t mince his words. Talking about being sent out like sheep among wolves he said: “The Christian cannot allow

Factory workers assemble a car. Although the theories of Karl Marx coincide in some ways with the vision of the Church, there are very clear differences. (Photo: Rebecca Cook, Reuters/CNS) teaches its laity and religious to be?

So, that’s what my friend in the US wrote. I take a different perspective.

Writing in his communist Manifesto, Marx famously declared that “the history of all previously existing society is the history of class struggles”. The Catholic Church does not subscribe to this grand narrative, basing its own on the JudeoChristian history of religion. Scientists, feminists and others also have a problem with Marx’s grand narrative. ithout denying a correlation between the forces of production and class relations, the Catholic Church refuses to lock the two into feeding Marx’s historical scenario.

The Church agrees that there’s a great damage that can exist in the gap between excessive material wealth and moral health, but she refuses to see the material and spiritual as being in permanently irreconcilable conflict (the camel’s eye parable).

The Church does not see why, as Marx

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himself the luxury of being an idiot, that’s clear. We don’t have the luxury of being fools because we have a beautiful message of life and we’re not permitted to be fools.

For this reason Jesus says: ‘Be acute, be careful’. What is the astuteness of the Christian?

In knowing how to discern who is a wolf and who is a sheep.”

Today there are many wolves waging a relentless cultural war against the very pillars of any civilised society: respect for every human life from conception until death, and the protection of marriage as given to us by God to ensure the future of human life. They misrepresent and ridicule the Church and anyone who opposes them.

There is no need to be afraid of them because we truly have a “beautiful message of life” to share with the world. We should continually thank the Lord for this teaching, study it, become familiar with it, and promote it.

It is important that believers seek firsthand knowledge of what the Church actually teaches and not just rely on the opinions of others concerning her teachings.

They will find these teachings expressed in simple language in God, Love, Life and Sex. They should make good use of this book which can be purchased very cheaply.

I believe that no Catholic home, school or parish should be without it.

In view of the pope’s strong language about being fools and idiots, perhaps a good motto would be “Nobody told me but I’ll go and find out for myself!” n Bishop Hugh Slattery is the retired head of the diocese of Tzaneen.

Pushing the Boundaries

‘S

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Point of View

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

Why the pope is no Marxist O what of it if your pope is called a ‘Marxist’? It might be inaccurate, but both seem to rightly criticise the alienating factor of capitalism and the culture of greed it spawns.”

This is how my non-Catholic friend from New York responded after he read my last column in The Southern Cross about “the Catholic vote”. The following paragraphs are my summary of his e-mail.

Regardless of whatever else the Catholic Church has done, it has always been strongly against the commodification of lives and mindless culture of hedonism, and resultant steady haemorrhaging of human values.

As such it is hard to find an intelligent critique of capitalism that is not indebted to Marxism. This does not mean Karl Marx invented Marxism in that sense. Indeed, Marx’s critique of capitalism is rigorous and comprehensive, but plenty of anarchists, libertarian socialists and liberals— such as Hegel, Voltaire, Rousseau, and so on—had got there before him.

The Catholic Church has voiced similar concerns as well, more strongly since Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1892.

St Thomas Aquinas, naturalist and fairminded as he was, probably would be more comfortable with a socialist economic system (obviously, I might add, without the anti-clericalism that often, but not invariably, accompanies it) than a capitalist one.

Marx didn’t even invent socialism or communism; that is of ancient provenance. Even the idea of a revolutionary party emerged from the French Revolution, not from Marx.

Marx could be called a prophet, in a sense of denouncing injustice and invoking the fires of the revolution to punish and reform the evil of the capitalist system.

Isn’t this what the Catholic Church

Bishop Hugh Slattery MSC

says, the productive forces should always triumph over social relations. She puts more faith in changing the heart of man, including businessman, to determine better conditions for providing material wealth that benefits all. Marx places his trust in the violent upheaval of democratic revolution.

The Catholic Church’s social teachings also acknowledge, contra Marx, that free market capitalism will not invariably be replaced by socialism.

It might be succeeded by fascism—the African kind with its notions of nationalisation, or the national-socialism of the Third Reich.

Or it might morph into a monopoly capitalism which dumps market losses onto the taxpayer while the wolves of Wall Street greedily take all the profits—as we saw in the trillion-dollar bailouts in the United States after 2008.

Or it might be the ruthless state capitalism of the People’s Republic of China which disregards basic human rights. Or, as in Syria, it might be the anarchy of contending forces which create a state of tragic stalemate, one that delivers Marx’s “common ruination” of all.

The Church’s institutional memory is older than Marxism. She knows that if you attempt to build socialism in wretched economic conditions, you’ll end up not with an utopian system of equality, but with some species of Stalinism.

To be fair, Marx also knew that. This is why he accepted the need for a maturing capitalism that’ll implode from internal contradiction to deliver socialism.

He treated capitalism in the same manner as Catholics see the necessity of evil in God’s plan for humanity. He sought to use Continued on page 11

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7

Point of Reflection

Lent: Time to find hidden treasures

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ELCOME to Lent, brothers and sisters. It is a season of calming down and giving ourselves good introspection. Only by examining ourselves can Lent have a meaning in our lives and our faith.

Most of us have tight programmes, from sunrise to sunset. Still, we have to make time for God if we are serious about improving our relationship with him. When we introspect well, we will be able to see what cuts into our relationship with God and our neighbours.

If it’s gossip or imprudence that brings disharmony, then it’s time to do something about it. If it’s liquor that brings conflict into the family, then it’s time to do something about it. If it’s swearing that hurts a daughter or a grandson, then it’s time to do something about it. If it’s “outside relationships” that hurts a family, then it’s time to do something about it.

We have to own Lent and make it a time to move from behaviours which distance us from God and our neighbours. We have to deal with our various predilections and addictions that damage our fellowship with God and neighbours.

Lent is also a time for focusing on what is good within us. We possess talents which we might not realise we have. We are sitting on these good elements. Our introspection can help us identify strengths which we might not realise we have.

It’s through introspection that we can hear the voice of that friend who once told us that our food is always yummy, or we might discern the fruits of good advice we have given.

When we know what is good within us, we can then share what we have with those who don’t. That too is almsgiving!

Of course, almsgiving should not be limited to the 40 days of Lent. Lent is a time to inspect how we give alms, and how often, and to put these insights into action throughout the year.

There is a tendency to look at alms in material terms, and these are indeed very important. But a kind word to a heartbroken colleague also is an act of giving alms. Helping a student understand calculus could be seen as almsgiving, so is helping your neighbour prepare biryani for a special ceremony, or just washing the pots.

Almsgiving is everyone’s call, and it is possible irrespective of material wealth.

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Another unique and spiritual journey. Visiting Delhi, Goa, Chennai, Cochin, Mumbai and to include Our Lady of Velankanni shrine, the Eucharistic Miracle of Chirattakonam; pilgrimage sites such as St Thomas the apostle’s home and shrine.

Organised by Carl Emmanuel and Serge Adande. Spiritual leader Rev Fr Allan Moss.

Cost from R28 057 Tel: (031) 266 7702 Fax: (031) 266 8982 Email: judyeichhorst@telkomsa.net

(Please leave your contact details in case of donations)

admin@stanthonyshome.org

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The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

POPE FRANCIS APRIL: Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of the late Bl John Paul II in St Peter’s basilica on April 2, the eighth anniversary of the Polish pontiff’s death.

(Photo: L’osservatore Romano)

DECEMBER: Pope Francis waves to the crowds as he delivers his Christmas blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) from the central balcony of St Peter’s basilica on december 25.

(Photo: L’osservatore Romano) NOVEMBER: Pope Francis embraces Vinicio Riva during his general audience in St Peter’s Square on November 6. Mr Riva, who is afflicted with neurofibromatosis, said receiving the pope’s embrace was like being in paradise. (Photo: Claudio Peri, ePA/CNS)

FEBRUARY: Pope Francis looks at a life-sized replica of himself made entirely out of chocolate with 1,5 tonnes of cocoa, in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on February 5. (Photo: L’osservatore Romano)

Pope Francis’ first year in pictures

MARCH: Newly-elected Pope Francis checks out of the Churchrun residence domus Sanctae Martae on March 14 where he had stayed during the conclave. The pope insisted on paying the bill, despite now effectively being in charge of the business. He then decided to move into the guesthouse permanently instead of living in the papal palace. (Photo: L’osservatore Romano)

JANUARY: A lamb sits around the neck of Pope Francis as he visits a Nativity scene at the church of St Alfonso Maria dei Liguori in Rome on January 6. (Photo: L’osservatore Romano) AUGUST: Pope Francis poses with youths during a meeting with young people from the northern Italian diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio in St Peter’s basilica on August 28.

The selfie image immediately went viral. (Photo: L’osservatore Romano)

Ursulines Ursulines of of the theBlessed Blessed Virgin Virgin Mary Mary We VirginMary, Mary, Weare arethe theUrsulines Ursulines of of the the Blessed Blessed Virgin called througheducation educationofofgirls, girls, calledto toserve serveChrist Christ through women and servants, pastoral and social work. women and servants, pastoral and social work.

Do you feel God’s call? Join us.

Do you feel God’s call? Join us.

JULY: Pope Francis holds his personal briefcase as he boards a plane in Rome on July 22 for his first trip abroad as pope for World youth day in Rio de Janeiro. The image of the pope carrying his own bag made world headlines.

(Photo: Giampiero Sposito, Reuters/CNS)

JUNE: Pope Francis is presented with a leather Harley davidson jacket during his weekly general audience on June 12. (Photo: L’osservatore Romano)

Contact Vocation directress: Ursuline Sisters PO Box 36 Ngqeleni 5140 Cell: 072 958 2111 OR Box 212 Libode 5160 Contact Vocation directress: Ursuline SistersTel: Mount 047 Nicholas 555 0018

PO Box 212 Libode, 5160, E Cape Tel 047 555 0018 Cell: 072 437 4244 or 078 354 2440

OCTOBER: Pope Francis uses incense as he venerates the original statue of our Lady of Fatima at the end of a Mass in honour of Mary in St Peter’s Square on october 13. At the end of the Mass the pope entrusted the world to Mary. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

MAY: Pope emeritus Benedict XVI greets Pope Francis at the Vatican on May 2. The 86-year-old retired pontiff had been staying at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo since retiring on February 28, and returned to the Vatican to live in a monastery in the Vatican Gardens. (Photo: L’osservatore Romano)

POPE FRANCIS

The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

9

How Pope Francis has inspired Pope Francis has inspired millions around the world.

CLAIRE MATHIESON talked to South Africans about how they have been inspired by the pope.

The bishop Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town celebrates the fact Pope Francis is not pushing an agenda but is simply “calling us back to the Gospel and back to Jesus Christ”. The archbishop said he has taken the pope’s first apostolic exhortation—which speaks of the Church’s evangelisation mission—to heart.

“I’m still trying to digest Evangelii Gaudium. I’ve been overwhelmed by Pope Francis and by his words,” he told The Southern Cross in an interview.

He hailed the pope’s insistence that the Church is a place of mercy and is not made up of holy people but of sinners.

“We are all in need of mercy, and Pope Francis reminds us of this.”

The bishops will meet Pope Francis during their ad limina visit to the Vatican over Easter this year, something Archbishop Brislin said all the bishops are looking forward to.

“We’re all trying to keep up with him! He’s keeping us on our toes and it’s quite wonderful. He is certainly the right pope for the right time.”

judge?” he asked.

For Fr Hippler, this is a pope who understands that judgment is for God alone and that “we have to work to see the beauty of all created and all creation”.

Fr Hippler said many could feel the new energy going through the Church at the moment. “There is a new sense of freedom to think again for yourself without the anxiety of being judged if your thoughts do not conform to official teaching. That gives room for the Spirit to work, and theology can develop in the best sense of the word.”

Fr Hippler said he had also noted a big impact on nonCatholics and lapsed Catholics who are starting to see the Church as more than just a moral institution. “One used to be questioned or even attacked for being a priest working in the Church—now people ask questions and want to know more,” the German priest said.

“I feel a deep yearning of most Catholics to get answers to their questions of today instead of the old answers which were true a couple of hundred years ago. Francis triggered that interest and spiritual people ask the Catholic Church again,” Fr Hippler noted.

“He has given me a new sense of belonging to the Church in a very deep and profound way. I don’t think we need to put him on a pedestal—he surely has his weak sides—but he is humble, honest and believes in the unconditional love of God for everybody as far as I can see and, for me, that counts for a lot!”

The catechist

The SACBC

“The pope has inspired me because he doesn’t value material things,” said catechist Jennifer Jacobs of St Joseph the Worker parish in Pretoria West. “He drives an ordinary car and he does not live a lavish lifestyle.”

Ms Jacobs said the pope’s humble nature and the way in which he “comes down to the level of the ordinary man” has inspired her most especially in the age where aesthetics and wealth dominate.

“This is a time of greed and the love of money. Even priests and men of God seem to have fallen into this trap. Pope Francis shows us that money is not important,” she told The Southern Cross.

“He teaches us through his tweets and is a great inspiration and teacher. He even let an old friend ride with him in the popemobile, washed the feet of a Muslim female prisoner, he prays with the sick, and so much more.”

Ms Jacobs liked the fact that the pope considers family life and marriage so important. She said Pope Francis is inspiring more young people to get married and value married life.

Ms Jacobs, who is also the secretary of Pretoria’s archdiocesean pastoral council, is pleased that the pope has encouraged women in the Church and wants to see women doing more. She said it has helped make her job more of a pleasure.

The secretary general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS, said she is really looking forward to meeting the pope in April when bishops travel to Rome on their ad limina visit.

“This is a Church made up of rules and there are regulations, but he is not focusing on those. He is focused on compassion and mercy,” Sr Makoro told The Southern Cross. “He is looking at things differently and reminding us to focus on what is important—and that’s people, not rules.”

Sr Makoro said there is great excitement in the Church and a new energy found in all levels of the Church—from the bishops’ conference right down to the pews.

The priest “What really has me inspired is his theme of mercy and the conjunction between preaching the Gospel and going out to those living on the margin of society,” said Fr Stefan Hippler of Hope Cape Town, an NGO working in the field of HIV/Aids.

“I always believed that the Gospel must transfer into practical work—people must see and feel the unconditional love of God through our work. That is the deep meaning of missionary work—it’s hands-on, and that is what Pope Francis is calling for.”

One of the pope’s most powerful phrases was when on board a flight from Brazil he answered a question in reference to homosexuals in the Church: “Who am I to

This photo by Gregorio Borgia of Pope Francis embracing 8-year-old dominic Gondreau, who has cerebral palsy, captured the attention of people around the world. The moment took place after the new pontiff celebrated his first easter Mass in St Peter’s Square on March 31 last year. (Photo: AP/CNS) poor one is, we each have a purpose and a role to play in this world. In this materialistic world he actually represents a real example of self-detachment from the world.

He makes it easy and simple to live and follow the Gospel.”

And it’s not only the active Catholics on campus that the pope has motivated.

According to the ACTS secretary, who recalls the moment the pope hugged a man with a disfiguring skin condition, seemingly casual acts by the pope are inspiring to students because it’s refreshing and new. “He is a breath of fresh air everyone wants to see.”

The lapsed Catholic

The NGO

Shortly after being confirmed a Catholic, Kirsty Honeyman began to question Christianity and the Catholic Church in particular.

Without feeling a particular connection and without the Church making sense for her generation, Mrs Honeyman began to drift away. “It seemed archaic for our generation and many of my questions didn’t have clear answers,” she told The Southern Cross.

“However, in the last year Pope Francis’ humility and progressive, more liberal stance has piqued my interest.”

From the pope appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine to deciding to renew his Argentinian passport, this has been a pope of positive surprises and nonCatholics and even atheists are keen to see what he does and says next.

“Even though I still don’t agree with certain aspects of the Catholic doctrine, I am more interested in hearing about the Church and its message than I was a few years ago,” Mrs Honeyman said.

Carl Rohrbeck, sustainability officer at Little Eden, said he has been inspired by Pope Francis’ “absolute devotion to the poor”.

The Johannesburgbased home, which cares for more than 300 intellectually challenged children, relies on the generosity of the community. “I also try even harder to connect with the residents,” he told The Southern Cross. Mr Rohrbeck, a parishioner of St Therese’s in Edenvale, said he was inspired by the pope’s servant leadership style.

Mr Rohrbeck’s mother Agnes would love to see Pope Francis visit Little Eden as the home would “resonate with his beliefs and he would be able to identify with the values that founders Domitilla and Danny Hyams left—respect, sanctity of life and love and care,” she said.

“All of which the pope himself stresses that we should have for the people of the world.”

Mrs Rohrbeck consid-

The student “He has shown humility and simplicity,” said Komape Kwena Dominic, branch secretary of the Association of Catholic Tertiary Students (ACTS) at the University of Venda.

“He is strict on emphasising humility that no matter how great or

ers the pope a humble man, reminiscent of her own mother. “He has passion for doing things for people, not just preaching what should be done. He has his heart entwined with his soul.”

Mrs Rorhbeck said she learns more about Pope Francis through The Southern Cross and has been inspired to be a better person.

“He lives and works with the poor and embraces those who are different, he does not shun them.”

And non-Catholics have been

equally moved.

Little Eden’s marketing and communications officer, Nichollette Muthige, said she became interested in the papacy shortly after Pope Francis was elected.

“Every month Pope Francis has a prayer intention and more than once we have incorporated his prayer intentions into ours. This month, we are using one of his that says: ‘We need to pray as if it were all up to Him but work as if it were all up to us’.”

Cordially invites you to

The 10th Annual Bishop Hans Brenninkmeijer Memorial Lecture

The Christian Education Case and the Rights of the Child DELIVERED BY ALBIE SACHS JUDGE EMERITUS

Date: Tuesday 18 March 2014 at 14:30 for 15:00 Venue: Constitution Hill, The Old Fort, Human Rights Conference Room, 11 Kotze Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg RSVP before Wednesday 12 March 2014 to Hilda Chinyowa Tel: 011 433 1888 / Fax: 011 680 9628 Email: hilda@cie.org.za

MERCY SUNDAY - The DAY of ATONEMENT!

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Advertisement

The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

Divine Mercy Sunday is an annual celebration and like the Day of Atonement all sins and punishment are washed away in God’s infinite mercy!

“Look, I come to make the whole of creation new!” Rev 21:5

Why do we need to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday?

Jesus’ words to St. Faustina: “... I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. on that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and all punishment.* on that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Diary # 699

Why does OUR LORD need to re-emphasize the infinite value of CONFESSION and HOLY COMMUNION? If we no longer recognize that we ARE SINNERS we cannot even begin to receive the Mercy of God. Our Lord is calling us ALL to be washed clean in HIS LOVE (confession), to be united in HIS LOVE (Holy Communion) and to begin our lives again! – HEALED! RESTORED! RENEWED!

gift

grace

SECOND BAPTISM!

An extraordinary

“..yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy, and I demand the worship of My Mercy through the Solemn Celebration of the Feast.”

Diary # 742

• • • • • • • •

of

that is comparable to a:

How to celebrate Jesus’ Feast of Mercy

Make a good confession. (Church made a provision - 20 days before or after Mercy Sunday) Receive Holy Communion on the day of the Feast. (in a state of grace) Venerate* the Image of the Divine Mercy (can be done during or at end of Mass) To receive mercy, we are required to show mercy in our actions, words and prayers.

Novena – Chaplet of Divine Mercy. (to begin on Good Friday) The homily by the Priest is to be on Divine Mercy.

The Image of Divine Mercy is to be solemnly blessed by the Priest.

Place all our trust in Jesus.

COME to THE FEAST of DIVINE MERCY - 27 April, 2014

*To venerate a sacred image or statue simply means to perform some act or make a gesture of deep religious respect toward it because of the person whom it represents – in this case, our Most Merciful Saviour.

OUR LORD has provided us on this 2nd SUNDAY of EASTER with a ‘re-newed’ UNDERSTANDING of HIS MERCIFUL LOVE poured out for us in the HOLY SACRIFICE of THE MASS:

This special celebration of God's mercy on the Sunday after Easter is not a new or radical idea stemming simply from private revelation. our Lord, through Saint Faustina, is re-emphasising what was strongly urged from the very beginning by Saint Thomas the Apostle! (see "Apostolic Constitutions.") There we read: "After eight days (following the Great Feast of Easter) let there be another feast observed with honour, the eighth day itself (octave) on which He gave me, Thomas, who was hard of belief, full assurance, by showing me the print of the nails, and the wound made in His side by the spear." (and Thomas no longer doubted but believed!)

Reconciliation-Tribunal of Jesus' Mercy:

Holy Eucharist-Presence of Jesus' Mercy:

Jesus' Image of Mercy:

Jesus' Prayers for Mercy:

Jesus: “Let no soul fear to come to Me, even if its sins be as scarlet…When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you!.. Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God's mercy! You will call out in vain, but it will be too late. (Diary # 699; 1448)

The Image, presents the eucharistic Lord Jesus, whose Heart has been pierced and now pours forth blood and water as a fountain of mercy for us. It is the image of God’s sacrificial gift of mercy made present at every Mass!

Jesus: “I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the Fountain of Mercy…that vessel is this image with the signature “JESUS I TRUST IN YOU”.. let every soul have access to it” (Diary # 742, 570).

Jesus: “Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me.. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy.”

(Diary # 1447)

The Eucharist the Greatest Gift of Divine Mercy!

The Chaplet of divine Mercy; 3 o’ Clock Prayer for conversion; Novena prayers etc; to implore God’s mercy for ourselves and for the whole world. A spiritual work of mercy, interceding and praying for the salvation of souls. (resources available Free, see below) Jesus: “I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or, when others say it for a dying person, the pardon is the same..The prayer most pleasing to me is the prayer for the conversion of sinners.”(diary # 811;1074)

"Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart…(….) Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy.” Diary # 1588

WILL YOU HELP ME?

Parish priests who require FREE material resources to promote and celebrate this outpouring of God’s Grace and Mercy; fax: (086) 689 6438 or e-mail: kennedyfam@mweb.co.za for available Divine Mercy Posters, Leaflets, (Eng/Zulu), Books, etc (excl postage) for more info: www.mercysunday.com

CLASSIFIEDS

The Church versus Marxism Continued from page 7 capitalism’s evil (the drive of selfinterest, ruthless competition, need for ceaseless expansion, and the ineluctable suffering it produces for the majority) to arrive at a better society.

The Church is also not convinced about the good in the “dictatorship of the working class”, or any dictatorship for that matter.

In our era we see a growing good practice of what is termed business with a social conscience.

Wealthy people, such as Patrice

Motsepe (who, incidentally, is a Catholic), use their wealth towards the greater good for all.

Marx would probably have a problem with that, since it delays the “natural laws of capitalism...working with iron necessity towards inevitable results” of its collapse.

On the other hand, Pope Francis and the Catholic Church are aiming at business with a social conscience. The Church wants to see a more egalitarian kind of capitalism, one that does not dehu-

Community Calendar

To place your event, call Claire Allen at 021 465 5007 or e-mail c.allen@scross.co.za (publication subject to space)

CAPE TOWN: Padre Pio: Holy Hour 15:30 every 3rd Sunday of the month at Holy Redeemer parish in Bergvliet.

Helpers of God’s Precious Infants meet the last Saturday of the month, starting with Mass at 9:30 am at the Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town. Mass is followed by a vigil and procession to Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Bree Street. For information contact Colette Thomas

on 083 412 4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br daniel Manuel on 083 544 3375.

Good Shepherd, Bothasig.

Perpetual eucharistic Adoration in the chapel. All hours. All welcome.

NELSPRUIT: Adoration of the blessed sacrament at St Peter’s parish. every Tuesday from 8am to 4:45pm followed by Rosary divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 5:30pm.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: March 8: Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban archdiocese on a happy 73rd birthday.

March 8: Bishop João Noé Rodriguez of Tzaneen on a happy 59th birthday.

Good Shepherd Sisters

manise the workers but instead uses profits to lift and benefit the majority, and thereby promotes human harmony.

Both Catholicism and Marxism want to get to the point of utopia, one where human labour is used for creative spiritual purposes. They differ on how to get there and, of course, to what purpose.

For the Church, the purpose is the greater glory of God. Marx never really revealed his purpose, except to indulge what he called our endemic nature of indolence.

Word of the Week

CHRISM: A holy oil consecrated for use in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and holy orders, the dedication of a church building and the consecration of an altar.

Liturgical Calendar Year A Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday, March 9, First Sunday of Lent Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7, Psalm 51:3-6, 12-13, 17, Romans 5:12-19 or 5:12, 17-19, Matthew 4:1-11 Monday, March 10 Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18, Psalm 19:8-10, 15, Matthew 25:31-46 Tuesday, March 11 Isaiah 55:10-11, Psalm 34:4-7, 16-19, Matthew 6:715 Wednesday, March 12 Jonah 3:1-10, Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19, Luke 11:29-32 Thursday, March 13 Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25, Psalm 138:1-3, 7-8, Matthew 7:7-12 Friday, March 14 Ezekiel 18:21-28, Psalm 130:1-8, Matthew 5:20-26 Saturday, March 15 Deuteronomy 26:16-19, Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8, Matthew 5:43-48 Sunday, March 16, Second Sunday of Lent Genesis 12:1-4, Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22, 2 Timothy 1:8-10, Matthew 17:1-9

We are an International Congregation of Sisters called to live the Mission of Reconciliation in the Spirit of Jesus the Good Shepherd.

“ONE PERSON IS OF MORE VALUE THAN A WHOLE WORLD.” The motto of the Good Shepherd Sisters.

You can reach us: Vocation Animator (27) 82 968 8493 /(27) 72 265 0735 Congregational website: www.buonpastoreint.org

CLASSIFIEDS

We have moved to: 2 Plein Street, Sidwell, Port Elizabeth

576AM IN JO’BURG & BEYOND

also on DStv audio channel 870 & streamed on www.radioveritas.co.za

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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 (R1,37 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

IN MEMORIAM

HAYES—Sr Marie odile oSFS. In loving memory of Sr Marie who passed away March 3, 2006.

Will always be remembered by the Congregation of St Francis de Sales in Namaqualand.

PERSONAL

ABORTION is murder—Silence on this issue is not golden, it’s yellow! Avoid ‘pro-abortion’ politicians.

CAN YOU be silent on abortion and walk with God? Matthew 7:21 See www.180movie.com CATHOLIC TELEVISION: To receive eWTN Global Catholic Networks via satellite in the PTA/JHB region, please contact Frans on 082 698 1096 MATURE lady seeks live-in companion position 071 332 3607 WEDDING FROCK for sale, winter or June bride. Also evening frocks, worn once. All size 34-36. Phone 021 465 9048 www.abortioninstru ments.com is the graphic truth that will set you free.

PRAYERS

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 592. ACROSS: 4 Pastors, 8 Indoor, 9 Beheads, 10 Halted, 11 Andrew, 12 Potiphar, 18 Loathing, 20 Rosary, 21 Delphi, 22 Obadiah, 23 Join up, 24 Depends. DOWN: 1 Bishops, 2 Adulate, 3 Bopeep, 5 Ave Maria, 6 Trends, 7 Redeem, 13 Holy Land, 14 Limping, 15 Agrippa, 16 Double, 17 Waddle, 19 Tremor.

Are you interested in joining us in our Mission As A Sister, A Lay Partner, A Prayer Partner Or a Benefactor?

The Southern Cross, March 5 to March 11, 2014

YOU, eternal Trinity, are a deep sea into which, the more I enter, the more I find. And the more I find, the more I seek. o abyss, o eternal Godhead, o sea profound, what more could you give me than yourself? Prayer of Awe— St Catherine of Siena.

ST MICHAEL the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, o Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

HAVE mercy on me, o God, according to your

steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. you desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, o God, and put a new and right spirit within me. do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Psalm 511

ALMIGHTY eternal God, source of all compassion, the promise of your mercy and saving help fills our hearts with hope. Hear the cries of the people of Syria; bring healing to those suffering from the violence, and comfort to those mourning the dead. empower and encourage Syria’s neighbours in their care and welcome for refugees. Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms, and strengthen the resolve of those committed to peace. o God of hope and Father of mercy, your Holy Spirit inspires us to look beyond ourselves and our own needs. Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies.

Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria, and fill us with hope for a future of peace built on justice for all. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Light of the World, who lives and reigns for ever and

ever. Amen. Prayer courtesy of the USCCB. THANKS be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, For all the benefits thou hast won for me, For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. o most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, May I know thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, And follow thee more nearly, For ever and ever.

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MARIANELLA Guest House, Simon’s Town: “Come experience the peace and beauty of God with us.” Fully equipped with amazing sea views. Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation. Special rates for pensioners and clergy. Malcolm Salida 082 784 5675, mjsalida@gmail.com SEDGEFIELD: Beautiful self-catering garden holiday flat, sleeps four, two bedrooms, open-plan lounge, kitchen, fully equipped. 5min walk to lagoon. out of season specials. Contact Les or Bernadette 044 343 3242, 082 900 6282.

STELLENBOSCH: Christian Brothers Centre. 14 suites (double/twin beds), some with fridge & microwave, others beside kitchenette & lounge, eco-spirituality library.

Countryside vineyard/forest/mountain views/walks; beach 20 minute drive. Affordable.

021 880 0242. www. cbcentre.co.za email: cbcstel@gmail.com OMI STAMPS

your used stamps can help in the education

of South Africans for the priesthood at St Joseph’s Scholasticate, Cedara, KwaZuluNatal. Please send them to: omI stamps, Box 101352, scottsville, 3209.

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.

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

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

Directors: C Moerdyk (Chairman), Archbishop S Brislin, P davids*, S duval, e Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, M Salida, G Simmermacher*, Z Tom

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

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2ND SUNDAY OF LENT: March 16 Readings: Genesis 12:1-4, Psalm 33:4-5, 1820, 22, 2 Timothy 1:8-10, Matthew 17:1-9

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HE trick in Lent is to keep our eyes not on our own rather interesting but in the end trivial misdemeanours, but on the invitation of God. The first reading for next Sunday shows us an Abraham who is ready to do what God asks of him, simply because God has asked, and he is to do the difficult thing: “Go from your land and your families and from your father’s house, to the land which I shall show you.” It is true that he is given a promise: “I shall make of you a great nation; and I shall bless you and magnify your name.”

Abraham asks no questions about what this might mean, raises no doubts about his own competence, shows no hesitation at all, and the narrator simply tells us that “Abraham went off as the Lord had said to him”.

We draw in a sharp breath and applaud his trust in God. But notice (and remember it all through Lent) that it is God who is in charge here.

That is something of which the psalmist has no doubt. He sings that “the Word of the Lord is upright, and all his actions are with integrity”. Then he gazes at God, and sings a touching description of the Almighty: “Lover of justice and righteousness, the love of the

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Keep your eyes focused on God Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

Lord fills the land.”

And the Lord is watching, but not in a frightening way: “The Lord’s eye is on those who revere him…to deliver their souls from death and to give them life in famine.”

It is all about God: “Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. Let your love be upon us, O Lord, as we have hoped in you.” It is a beautiful poem, and the poet is not narcissistically self-absorbed, but swallowed up in God. That would be a good policy for us, during this Lenten season.

In the second reading, Paul is encouraging Timothy to look away from his own interests, and “join in [Paul’s] suffering, in accordance with God’s power” (Paul is in prison at this point), and the focus is entirely on God, “who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not

in accordance with our own deeds, but in accordance with [God’s] own purpose and generosity, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal ages”.

The whole focus of attention here is what God is up to, and Timothy is invited (as are we, as we listen) to gaze upon “the appearance of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who cancelled out death, and shed the light of life and incorruption through the Gospel”. We listen, perhaps not fully understanding, but gazing hopefully.

The gospel, as always on this second Sunday of Lent, is the lovely story of the Transfiguration, this year in the version of Matthew’s gospel.

Once again, the message is that our attention is not to be on our own selves and our needs, but on God and on his Christ.

It starts with Jesus “after six days” (this phrase is given no explanation, but perhaps we are to imagine the six days of God’s creative work), taking his inner cabinet of “Peter and James and John his brother up a high mountain, privately”.

Mountains are very important in Matthew’s gospel, a place of encounter with

Do something creative today HERE are three kinds of performers: the first, while singing a song or doing a dance, are making love to themselves. The second, while performing, are making love to the audience. The third, while on stage, are making love to the song, to the dance, to the drama itself.

Of course it’s not difficult to discern who the better performer is. The one making love to the song, of course, best honours the song and draws energy from some deeper place.

He or she does this by entering into and channelling the energy of the song rather than by entering into and channelling their own energy or the energy of the audience.

What a good artist does—whether that be a singer, a writer, a painter, a dancer, a craftsperson, a carpenter, or a gardener— is tap into the deep energies at the heart of things and draw on them to create something that is of God, namely, something that is one, true, good, and beautiful.

In the end, and this is true of all good art and all good performance, creativity is not about the person doing the creation.

It’s about oneness, truth, goodness, and beauty.

This holds true for all creativity and art, and it holds true too for all good teaching, catechesis, preaching, and evangelisation. At the end of the day, it has to be about truth, goodness, beauty, and God, not about oneself or one’s audience.

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Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

This is important for many reasons.

Not least among those reasons is the fact that many of us hesitate to express our creativity for fear that we will be too-amateur and too-unskilled to measure up.

And so we don’t write poetry, write music, write novels, paint pictures, do sculpture, take up dancing, do carpentry, raise flowers, or do gardening, because we fear that what we will produce will be too unprofessional to stand out in any way or to measure up in a way that it can be published or exhibited publicly so as to receive recognition and honour.

Mostly, we mute and hide our creative talents because we cannot do what the great ones do. We punish ourselves by thinking this way: if no one will publish it, no sense writing it. If nobody will buy it, no sense painting it. If nobody will admire it, no sense doing it.

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ut that’s the wrong idea of creativity.

We are meant to create things, not because we might get them published and receive honour and money for them. We are meant to create things because creativity, of all kinds, has us enter into the deep

centre of energy at the heart of things.

In creativity we join ourselves to God’s energy and help channel God’s transcendental qualities: oneness, truth, goodness, and beauty.

Ultimately, it isn’t important that what we do gets publicly recognised, or earns us a monetary reward. Creativity is its own reward. When you act like God, you get to feel like God—or, at least, you get to feel some wonderful divine energy.

Moreover, the energy we feel in creativity, no matter how amateur and private the effort, helps still the fires of envy and hostility inside of us.

For example, Michael Ondaatje, the author of The English Patient, in a recent novel, Anil’s Ghost, describes an artist, Ananda, who has just refurbished a statue.

Finishing his work, Ananda looks with a certain pride and satisfaction on what he has just done and, though a non-believer, is filled with a godly energy: “As an artificer now he did not celebrate the greatness of a faith. But he knew if he did not remain an artificer he would become a demon. The war around him was to do with demons.”

Envy and hostility have to do with frustrated creativity. If we aren’t creating something, we’re hurting something. If we aren’t creative, we soon become bitter.

So how do we become creative?

The poet William Stafford, sharing something he himself did on a daily basis, used to give his students this challenge: get up every morning and, before you do anything else, write a poem. More often than not, the students would protest: how can you do that? A person can’t always be creative? Stafford’s answer: Lower your standards!

He’s right. We shouldn’t muzzle our creative energies because we don’t feel particularly inspired, or because no one will ever take our efforts seriously, or because we cannot get anyone to publish our work, or because what we produce seems amateur and second-rate in comparison to what professionals do.

We don’t write, make music, paint, dance, make crafts, do carpentry, or garden to have our efforts published and critically admired. We do it for our souls, to enter a divine dance, to connect ourselves to the heart of things.

Sometimes we cannot save the world, but we can save our own sanity and help bring God into the world by nurturing our own souls.

God. First, though, they have to see the truth about Jesus, who was “transformed before them, and his face shone like the sun, while his clothes became white as light”.

And there is more (once again their attention is firmly diverted from themselves): “Look! Moses and Elijah appeared to them, speaking with [Jesus]”. The point here is that we are to ask ourselves “Who is Jesus, then?”

Peter does not quite manage that, but contrives to suggest a tent-building operation; no answer is vouchsafed to that eccentric plan, for God intervenes directly, as “a radiant cloud overshadowed them”, and then they hear the voice of God, solemnly marked with a very Matthean “behold!”: “This is my Son, the Beloved—listen to him.”

This overwhelms the unfortunate disciples, “and they fell on their faces—and were very afraid”.

Jesus, however, raises them up, and guides them down the mountain with an instruction: “Don’t tell anyone about the vision until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.”

Once again, our gaze is drawn to God and to Jesus, and away from ourselves. Let us make that our policy, this Lenten season.

Southern Crossword #592

ACROSS 4. They guide the flock (7) 8. Kind of games played under cover? (6) 9. Decapitates (7) 10. Came to a stop in the procession (6) 11. St Peter’s brother (6) 12. Joseph was sold to him (Gn 37) (8) 18. A light on? You’re hating it (8) 20. A sorry way of praying?

(6) 21. Help Di to the place of the Oracle (6) 22. Shortest book among the Prophets (7) 23. Enlist and bring together (4,2) 24. Relies on (7))

DOWN 1. High churchmen in national conference? (7) 2. Laudate changes to praise excessively (7) 3. Nursery rhyme’s careless shepherdess (6) 5. Latin prayer in 20ac (3,5) 6. Fashions (6) 7. Save from sin (6) 13. And holly reveals where the pilgrims go (4,4) 14. Walking with difficulty (7) 15. He arrived in Caesarea (Ac 25) (7) 16. Twice as much (6) 17. Fifty waded, clumsy way to walk (6) 19. A little earthquake (6)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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oming home from catechism, a little boy spent several minutes staring at his baby brother. “Mom,” he said, “when will my brother start talking?”

“Not until he’s much older,” his mother said.

“That’s strange,” the boy replied. “Our Sunday School teacher said babies in Old Testament times could talk.”

“What exactly did your teacher say?” his Mom asked.

“Well,” the boy said, “she said, ‘Job cursed the day he was born!’“ Send us your favourite Catholic joke, preferably clean and brief, to The Southern Cross, Church Chuckle, Po Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000.