140820

The

S outhern C ross

August 20 to August 26, 2014

Reg No. 1920/002058/06

No 4887

www.scross.co.za

CSI star Sinise: My journey to Catholic faith

R7,00 (incl VAT RSA)

How a storm inspired a favourite hymn

Page 8

Page 7

Adoration: A cup of coffee with the Lord

Page 7

Bishops: We need laity’s knowledge

BY STUART GRAHAM

T

HE bishops of Southern African want to establish a laity council to “enrich” the Church with knowledge in fields such as medicine, law, politics and economics.

Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria said the decision to establish the council of experts from a wide variety of fields was made at the August plenary session of the Southern African Catholics Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) in Mariannhill.

“The laity are experts in so many fields, including medicine, health, social welfare, markets, politics, education and many others,” Archbishop Slattery told The Southern Cross.

“The bishops want to make use of these experts—how, for example, we can have a Christian view in economics, politics, journalism, education and welfare. These are the areas where the laity are specialists and where the bishops need to be enriched.”

Archbishop Slattery said the bishops had established a steering committee to look into the functioning of the laity council.

“The steering committee has the task of establishing the council, of defining its mandate and of helping to elect members,” the archbishop said.

“The bishops’ conference needs to continue dialogue with the laity in so many aspects of modern life,” he added.

Bishop Slattery said the bishops also discussed establishing a council for deacons.

The council would facilitate training and offer opportunities for deacons and bishops to enrich one another, and to “have discussions on other areas of Church life”.

An area of concern for the bishops was the drop in the contributions to the Lenten Appeal collections from last year as the Church seeks to be more self-sustaining.

“We continue to emphasise: we must become a self-sustaining Church,” Archbishop Slattery said.

“We can’t depend on overseas funding.

The Lenten Appeal was down on last year, at about R9 million, but we are hopeful some parishes and dioceses will be able to contribute further. We will be calling for a

Jesus, played by Denzil Deane, and the apostles in the representation of the Last Supper in the 2011 Durban Passion Play. Auditions are being held this month for the next Passion Play, to be staged next Easter.

(From left) Bishops Joe Sandri of Witbank, Jeremiah Masela of Polokwane and Joao Rodrigues of Tzaneen at the SACBC plenary session. Among the bishops’ discussions were the establishment of councils of the laity and deacons, financial self-sufficiency, and the crises in Iraq and Gaza. greater effort.”

The bishops also discussed issues beyond our borders, focusing on current conflicts in the Middle East.

The SACBC has called for an end to the persecution of Christians in Iraq. A special day of prayer and fasting for Christians in Iraq was called at short notice for August 15.

A Week of Prayer for Peace in Iraq will be held from September 21-27.

“We have called on fair-minded Muslims to work for peace, which is an aim of Islam, in Iraq,” Archbishop Slattery said.

In a statement, the bishops called on “on faithful Muslims who believe in our common humanity to plead with those driven by extremism to cease their oppression of deeply religious communities and to seek that peace which Islam itself endeavours to promote”.

The Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, has caused more than 100 000 Yazidis and Christians to flee for their lives (see page 4).

“It is absolutely abhorrent that the Christian community of Iraq, a tradition that goes Continued on page 2

Casting calls go out for Durban’s Passion Play STAFF REPORTER

T

HE producers of Durban’s Passion Play, which is based on the Oberammergau version, are holding auditions for their 2015 production.

The Durban Catholic Players Guild will be staging the 14th production of the Durban Passion Play in the Playhouse Theatre during Easter next year.

The play, set in Jerusalem, portrays the last week of the life of Jesus.

Unlike the Oberammergau Play, which is held every ten years, the Durban Play is staged every five years.

It was first staged in 1952 under the guidance of the late Fr Noel Coughlan in preparation for the National Marian Centenary Congress.

Archbishop Denis Hurley obtained permission from Oberammergau to stage an abridged version of its world-famous play, which was granted on the understanding that the production would be performed before non-segregated audiences.

The Passion Play was last performed in 2011. The usual five-year cycle had to be disrupted because the Playhouse Theatre complex was closed for six months in 2010, including the time covering Lent and Easter.

Southern Cross & Radio Veritas Pilgrimage For info phone Gail at 076 352 3809 or 021 551 3923 info@fowlertours.co.za fowlertours.co.za

THE SAINTS OF ITALY Led by Fr EMIL BLASER OP

Rome, Assisi, Florence, Padua, Milan, Venice and more

6 - 18 September 2015

Rome WITH PAPAL AUDIENCE | Assisi | Venice | Padua | Florence | Milan | Cascia (St Rita) | Siena (St Catherine) | Norcia (St Benedict) | Birthlace of St John XXIII

Directed by Dawn Haynes, the 2011 production featured Denzil Deane and Brett Montanari in the role of Jesus.

All actors are amateurs who receive no payment for their performance. The play is open to all denominations and all ages.

Auditions for Passion Play 2015 will be held at Holy Family College in Glenmore: Saturday, August 23: 11:00 to 14:00: Female leads (Madonna, Mary Magdalen, Veronica, Martha) 14:00 to 1:00: Male leads (Jesus, Caiaphas, Peter, John, Pontius Pilate, Herod Antipas) Sunday, August 24: 13:30 to 17:00: Crowds and people of Jerusalem.

Saturday, August 30: 13:30 to 15:00: Apostles and the sanhedrin 15:00 to 17:00: Herod’s dancers and Roman soldiers.

Sunday, August 31: Call-backs.

To celebrate the guild’s sound finances, a thanksgiving Mass will be celebrated on August 24 at 9:30 at St Michael’s parish in Redhill, Durban.

n For enquiries please contact Heather Neave at 084 247 5597 or Patti Hunt 084 511 2005. For more information on the Durban Catholic Players Guild visit www.catholicplayersguild.co.za

2

The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

LOCAL

Private money can aid housing shortage STAFF REPORTER

P

Holy Rosary School staff and students in Edenvale, Johannesburg, contributed 40 pints of blood at the recent blood drive held at the school. Seen here with South African National Blood Service representative Lazarus Ramolefo are Kelsey Korras and Gabriella Salgado.

RIVATE investment in affordable housing can substantially reduce South Africa’s housing crisis while delivering “positive returns” for financiers, a report by the Parliamentary Liaison Office of the Southern African Bishops’ Conference says.

“Private equity investment in affordable housing will not be a panacea for the housing shortage, but can play an effective role in helping to lessen it,” the report says.

Existing impact investment funds, which seek to generate measurable social impact and financial returns, have resulted in the creation of tens of thousands of new homes while delivering positive financial returns to their investors, it says.

The report says this recent trend in impact investing among South African private equity professionals is “a good sign”.

Sant‘Egidio helps Marikana

BY QUERISHA PESTANA BASTOS

“This creates the opportunity, though, to expand investment opportunities for potential private equity funds so that they can diversify their exposure while still committing capital to impact areas.”

The appeal of impact investing is its ability to combine two seemingly disparate goals, namely social impact and financial return.

“By directing capital towards impact investments, both goals can be met, thereby achieving social impact and financial return on invested capital.”

The report says that several factors have driven the growing popularity of impact investing.

In a recent survey, money managers listed client demand, social benefit and returns as reasons for incorporating social criteria into their investments.

“In short, these investors want to do good and to do well, and they believe that both are attainable.”

Holy Spirit Centre upgrades

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

F

OR the past three years, the Holy Spirit Centre (HSC) Catholic charismatic renewal in Maitland, Cape Town, has been working on generating funds for an upgrade.

“The oldest part of the building is more than a hundred years old and was in need of repair,” said centre manager Margaret Okkers.

The centre received help from many quarters.

Volunteers assisted the parish by repairing the plumbing, and doing electrical and carpentry work.

T

HE Community of Sant’Egidio in South Africa has delivered non-perishable food items and toiletries it collected to assist a number of impoverished families of Marikana.

Marikana, a mining town in the North West Province, was adversely affected by the five-month long strike in the platinum sector earlier this year. Businesses and entrepreneurs in the area also endured the effects of the strikes, as members of the community could not even afford the bare necessities.

In his Southern Cross feature article on the aftermath of the strike (August 6), Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg noted that many small businesses had closed, and are unlikely to return, leaving many unemployed.

Members of the Community of Sant’Egidio collected donations from various quarters, with many people coming forward to assist.

Gratitude for the initiative came not only from the families that were assisted, but also from Bishop Dowling and parish Priest Fr Nel Mahlala.

Bishop Dowling called on the Community of Sant’Egidio to thank

There is however, substantial room for improvement and raising awareness about investment opportunities is “a crucial first step”.

“Investors are concerned about risk and return, and impact investing often includes greater risk and potentially smaller returns,” the report says.

“By incentivising investments with tax breaks, however, South Africa can motivate investors to put their money to work by lessening the risk they might otherwise face, thereby making impact investing more profitable and more desirable.”

The housing shortage—around 13,6% of South Africa’s approximately 53 million people live in informal settlements—and many of the other issues South Africa faces are interrelated, the report says.

“Related problems like transportation costs, infrastructure, and unemployment will have to be concomitantly addressed.

St Timothy’s parish in Tafelsig, Mitchell’s Plain, gave the centre 12 beds.

Parishioners from Bridgetown parish in Athlone donated a consignment of duvets, bedsheets and pillowcases.

Tony do Santos of LT Discount paints in Woodstock donated 100l paint, as well as items such as paintbrushes, rollers and sandpaper.

Brights Hardware in Stikland donated 40l of paint and 5l of varnish.

The HSC still has some remodeling to do, but Ms Okkers believes that many more people will reach out to help them fulfill their goals.

Bishops on Iraq and Gaza Marikana residents received welcome collections of non-perishable items from the Community of Sant’Egidio. them for their efforts and to express his love and encouragement.

Community members from Johannesburg and Pretoria spent the day with a number of impoverished families, many headed by children.

The Community of Sant’Egidio

is a Catholic lay association with 50 000 members in more than 70 countries.

Its mission is to work for peace— the community mediated the Mozambican peace process in 1992—and to help those in need.

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Continued from page 1 back almost 2 000 years, is suffering expulsion from their country and martyrdom,” the bishops said.

They assured “our Christian brothers and sisters of our deepest concern and we assure them that we have not and will never forget them.”

Archbishop Slattery said the bishops were taking up a collection all over the country to support the people of Gaza after the recent bombings by Israel. The money, he

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said, will be sent to the Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem.

The Southern African Church is sending R400 000 from its disaster management fund immediately to Gaza, also via the patriarchate.

“We want him to find one of the homes that was destroyed during the recent conflict and help the children there,” Archbishop Slattery said.

“We are aiming to help the children who are suffering most from this disaster.”

MICASA TOURS

Easter Pilgrimage to Lourdes Led by Lionel Samuel 01-09 April 2015

Pilgrimage to Fatima, Garabandal, Lourdes, Dozulè, Liseux and Paris Led by Archbishop Buti Tlhagale OMI 10-23 May 2015

Pilgrimage to Italy-Shroud of Turin, Passion Play in Sordevolo, Milan, Rome, Verona, Venice Led by Father Victor Phalana 09-21 June 2015

Holy Land Pilgrimage

Led by Father Christopher Townsend 31 August -09 September 2015

Pilgrimage to Fatima, Lourdes , Rome and Assisi Led by Father Robert Mphiwe 07-19 September 2015

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The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

LOCAL

3

Bishops condemn green light for porn TV screens

BY STUART GRAHAM

T

Young ballet dancers entertain the crowd at the Dominican Convent School in Johannesburg’s Awesome August celebration.

Community celebrates Awesome August Day

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

J

UBILATION and excitement was felt when the Dominican Convent School in Johannesburg’s families mingled in a spirited assembly of young and old at their Awesome August Day celebration.

The children had their faces painted, followed by jumping from one activity to the next.

The inflatable rocket, high slide, water-rollers, and a gladiator castle proved particularly popular with the children.

“When I first went on the rocket I thought it was scary, but it was great fun to go up in the air,” said Elizabeth Chimedza, a Grade 1 learner.

“I tried to walk in the roller on the

water, but it was very difficult,” said Oratile Mogase, also in Grade 1.

“After bouncing from place to place there was a spread of foods to feast upon. There were a variety of food stalls with many different food choices, a tea and cake area, and quite a few fleamarket stalls where small gifts and novelties were on sale,” said the school’s director of marketing, Renata Haywood.

Guests were entertained by ballet dancers, a drumming ensemble, marimba bands and the senior choir.

Adults and children alike tested their singing ability at karaoke, only to be replaced later by the thumping house beats of the Grade 7-12 disco.

Charity shop gets a revamp

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

N

AZARETH House in Cape Town is in the process of revamping its Little Kings charity shop.

“The revamp has been completely donated by the Foschini Group,” said Nazareth House development coordinator Gayenor Milne.

About two months ago the Foschini Group contacted Nazareth House, offering to paint one of their classrooms or bedrooms.

Nazareth suggested that they help out in its charity shop, by cleaning it up and making it more shopper-friendly.

“We are creating awareness about our charity shop and need donations which help us generate funds, that can help us buy nappies and toiletries for the children and elderly people in our care,” said Ms Milne The Foschini Group agreed to the idea and to being assisted by the staff at Nazareth House as well as some of the neighbouring staff from Larmenier Village in cleaning everything out of the charity shop so that they had enough space to work their magic.

The handing over of the keys took place on August 16.

HE Catholic bishops of Southern Africa have backed a legal battle in the Western Cape High Court to ban television channels from broadcasting “evil” and “destructive” pornography.

The Justice Alliance of SA (Jasa) filed the papers in the court in August in an attempt to prevent the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) from allowing three X-rated channels from being broadcast after 8pm.

“Jasa believes that it is a step too far to introduce pornography to the family TV, which is usually in the only living room in the home,” said a statement issued by the organisation, which is a coalition of churches committed to “the highest moral standards in South Africa”.

“Inevitably children will be aware of it, even if parents attempt to prevent them watching. The 8pm watershed period is absurd because teenage children settle down

to watch TV at that time after doing their homework,” Jasa said.

Jasa, which is supported in its application by Cause for Justice and Doctors for Life, says Icasa erred in law in failing to find that the constitutional rights of children were laws of general application, which should have trumped the right to freedom of expression.

It alleges that Icasa ignored its obligation to consider the moral and spiritual implications of TV channels.

Icasa granted a licence to On Digital Media (operating as Top TV) to air three pornography channels in April last year.

Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria said in a statement issued on behalf of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference that Catholics are firmly behind the call to ban pornography.

“Pornography is destructive of persons, detrimental to our society and is evil,” Archbishop Slattery said. “As Catholic bishops we are to-

tally opposed to the broadcasting of pornography in South Africa.”

Archbishop Slattery said any form of commercialisation and screening of pornographic sex is exploitative, engenders addiction and can only bring about degradation of everyone involved.

“Entertainment should enrich and not diminish human dignity,” he said. “We, therefore, call upon all people of goodwill, especially those with the responsibility of decision-making, to do all in their power to protect our people, in particular women and youth, from this evil of pornography.”

Top TV said the pornographic channels would be a separate package for subscribers, which required a separate monthly subscription, age verification and other security features, such as a secure pin code.

It said security measures would be put in place to ensure that only viewers who willingly subscribed to the channels had access to the pornography channels.

German youth help out in Ixopo mission

E

VERY year the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood’s Sacred Heart Home in Ixopo, Mariannhill diocese, invites four young mission helpers from Europe.

This year Pia, Rebecca and Oliver came from Germany, and Benjamin from Austria to work as volunteers.

“They shared their unique talents wholeheartedly with us and the surrounding community, and each made their own unique contribution to enriching the lives of those they came in contact with,” said Sr Clair Wade CPS. Their help included assisting teachers of Little Flower School in the classroom, coaching sport, and helping with administration and maintenance of the school. They also gave a hand in driving and service within the convent community which is their home for the year, Sr Wade said.

Young mission worker Pia Dierkes with children at Little Flower School in Ixopo.

The motto of the mission workers of 2014 was: “Children are not vessels to be filled but lamps to be lit.”

On Sunday afternoons they helped serve food to the poor and street children at Ss Thomas More and John Fisher parish, Ixopo, and afterwards spent time playing with the children.

For a week they participated in a youth training course, and thereafter assisted in giving youth retreats to the Grade 12 learners of St Francis College in Mariannhill.

“The Grade 12s appreciated it that young people like themselves spoke and shared their faith with them,” said Sr Wade. “For both the mission helpers and students alike it was a happy time of growth in their faith life.”

The mission helpers have now left Ixopo and returned home. “It is our hope and prayer that they too may mission to the parish and community back home,” she said.

Light a virtual candle to help the poor STAFF REPORTER

R

ADIO Veritas and the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) in a Johannesburg parish have joined forces to raise much-needed funds to feed the poor and hungry.

In a joint initiative, the SVP of St Patrick’s parish in La Rochelle and Radio Veritas’ Outreach Programme launched the virtual prayer candle

campaign. One can buy one or more virtual prayer candles at www.prayercandle.co.za for special intentions—for example, as an offering for a birthday or anniversary, for good health or to bless a newborn baby—at R20 each.

The virtual candle will be lit and a prayer request will be mentioned and prayed for live on Radio Veritas

during Holy Mass, which is said three times a day by a priest.

Radio Veritas broadcasts on 576 AM in Gauteng, on DStv audio channel 870, or streamed live from www. radioveritas.co.za Proceeds from the sale of candles will go to support the SVP’s feeding programmes and the Radio Veritas Outreach Programme.

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Interested applicants with relevant experience are requested to forward a short CV with two recent, contactable references to The Principal at stpaulusadmin@stpaulus.co.za.

31 August 2014 If you have not been contacted within 7 days of application, you may presume that your application has not been successful. St Paulus reserves the right not to make an appointment.

4

The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

INTERNATIONAL

Iraqi Christians beginning to die in refugee camps

BY SIMON CALDWELL & DOREEN ANI RAAD

I

RAQI Christians driven from their homes by Islamic State fighters are beginning to die in crowded camps, witnesses have said.

Sahar Mansour, 40, who lectured in chemistry at the University of Mosul before she fled the city in June, said newborn babies, the sick and the elderly in the Ankawa refugee camp on the outskirts of Irbil are dying from diseases, thirst and malnutrition. She now resides in the camp.

Ms Mansour told Catholic News Service in an e-mail that the 70 000 refugees at Ankawa were also frightened that Islamic State (ISIS) fighters had the capability to hit them within half an hour of launching an attack.

The camp at Ankawa was full, she added, and many Christians were sleeping outside in the town, wherever they could find space.

“The Christians are homeless.

There are no places for them—[they are] only sitting in the churches, parks, streets, in this heat of sun,” she said.

“People are dying because of the shortage of medicine, water and food,” she added.

Mansour said there was great fear among the refugees that they were insufficiently protected.

“We are facing the risk of a real genocide and a human catastrophe,” she said. “We need protection.

Please save our lives, we cannot stay in this country anymore.”

The Christian villages are now empty, she explained, adding: “It really looks like ethnic cleansing.”

As Iraq’s largest Christian town, Qaraqosh, and more Christian villages fell to Islamic State fighters this month, there was an influx of refugees into Irbil and Ankawa.

The roads were so jammed that it took 10 hours to make what would normally be a 90-minute trip, Ms Mansour said. Some refugees walked for two days to reach Irbil.

The Vatican has condemned the “shameful practices” of the ISIS “jihadists. These, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue said in a statement, include: • “The execrable practice of beheading, crucifixion and hanging of corpses in public places.”

• “The choice imposed on Christians and Yezidis between conversion to Islam, payment of tribute or exodus.”

• “The abduction of girls and

women belonging to the Yezidi and Christian communities as war booty.”

• “The imposition of the barbaric practice of infibulation,” or female genital mutilation.

• “No cause can justify such barbarity and certainly not a religion,” the document said.

“All must be unanimous in condemning unequivocally these crimes and must denounce the invocation of religion to justify them,” the Vartican said. “Otherwise, what credibility will religions, their followers and their leaders have? What credibility would remain to the interreligious dialogue patiently pursued in recent years?”

Middle East Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs have denounced the “total international silence” on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and called for Muslim religious authorities to issue fatwas (legal edicts) banning attacks against Christians and “other innocents”.

The patriarchs criticised the “weak, timid and inadequate” response of Islamic, Arab and international circles, a stance they said “does not reflect the seriousness of this phenomenon and its repercus-

Children prepare for first Communion in Karamless, Iraq, on August 1. Their August 8 ceremony never happened because Islamist terrorists drove these Christian families from their homes. (Photo: Sahar Mansour/CNS) sions on the historical demographic diversity of the peoples of the region.”

“We call upon the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court to take swift, effective and immediate salvaging action,” the patriarchs’ statement said.

“We appeal to the Islamic authorities—Sunni and Shiite—to issue fatwas banning attacks on Christians and other innocent people and their

property,” the patriarchs said.

Noting that Christians have a mission to continue in the Middle East, they criticised European nations that “encourage the exodus of Christians, ostensibly to protect them”.

Instead, “what is needed from the international community through the UN Security Council is to take a firm decision to ensure the return of the people to their lands by all possible means and in the quickest possible time.”—CNS

‘Singing nun’ renews her vows

Ebola: Bishops stop sign of peace

U

I

RSULINE Sister Cristina Scuccia, the young Italian nun who won the recent season of The Voice Italy, has renewed her temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience at one of the congregation’s convents in Sicily.

A member of the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Family in Milan said that a ceremony of vows had taken place but would not give her name because of harassment the community has endured from Italian tabloids.

A reporter from the Italian magazine Di Piu followed Sr Cristina and two others to a shop near their convent located on the outskirts of

Milan.

“Right now, I’m tired,” Sr Cristina told the reporter.

“The last six months have been hard. Right now my commitment is to take care of my interior life in order to be able to continue giving much to others.”

The magazine published the comments along with pictures of Sr Cristina and her companions making their purchases at the shop.

Following her win of The Voice Italy, Sr Cristina plans to record an album with Universal Music, although for the moment the project is on hold.

“It was always very clear, I went

HOLY CROSS SISTERS’ SCHOOL

[on the show] to send a Christian message,” she told Di Piu. After being announced as the winner, Sr Cristina invited the entire studio audience to join her in praying the Our Father. She said she wanted to say the prayer “so that Jesus will be present here”.

Despite winning, her priorities would always be to continue in religious life. She plans to make her perpetual vows in 2018.

Sr Cristina caught the attention of the world in March when she sang Alicia Keys’ “No One” on the popular programme. The video of the performance has received 56 million views on YouTube.—CNA

Holy Cross Sisters’ School is an independent Catholic School established in Bellville, Cape Town, in 1969. The school has a caring family atmosphere in the Holy Cross tradition and a record of quality, values-based education.

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INTERMEDIATE PHASE TEACHER and GRADE ONE TEACHER

The successful applicant will be:

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fully qualified to teach in the Relevant Phase of the GET able to teach all subjects in the grade trained in CAPS willing and able to promote the school’s Catholic ethos and teach Religious Education (preferably a practicing Catholic) registered with SACE willing and able to become fully involved in the school’s curricular and coach hockey or netball or play the piano

N an effort to curtail the spread of Ebola, the archdioceses of Lagos and Abuja have instructed their priests to suspend all forms of physical contact during Mass, including the sign of peace.

“Taking into consideration the fact that this rite is optional, we shall henceforth omit it...When you get to this rite, skip it,” Lagos Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins said in a statement.

He said while holy water could be used in homes and offices, the fonts at church entrances should be emptied. He also encouraged the use of gloves when counting money

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from Mass collections.

He advised priests to use extra care when visiting the sick, especially when administering the sacrament of anointing of the sick.

The archbishop also advised them “to avoid physical contact when giving out Communion”.

Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan told journalists that the Church was taking necessary precautionary steps to avoid the spread of the disease.

“We did not ban handshaking during Mass. We are only discouraging it, and it is going to be temporary until it is clear that Nigeria is no longer under the Ebola threat,” he said.—CNS

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Apply in writing, giving details of qualifications, experience and the names of three contactable referees, including your parish priest or minister, to: The Principal, Holy Cross Sisters’ School, P.O. Box 1016, Bellville, 7535 OR email: admin@holycross.co.za

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The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

INTERNATIONAL Palestinian girls pray before Mass at St Joseph church in the West Bank town of Jifna. The Church is battling to keep the Holy Land’s Christians from emigrating.

(Photo: Debbie Hill/CNS)

Iraq genocide: When is it right to strike back?

BY CINDY WOODEN

P

OPE Francis has echoed a century of papal pleas: “No more war!” But, referring to the outrageous violations of human rights taking place in north-eastern Iraq, he also begged: “Stop these crimes!”

The Catholic Church for millennia has taught that war must be a last resort to resolve problems. But it continues to recognise the right of people to defend themselves and, particularly since the pontificate of St John Paul II, the Church has taught that the international community has an obligation to intervene—with force, if necessary—to defend the lives of innocent people at risk of genocide.

“When all other means have been exhausted, to save human beings the international community must act. This can include disarming the aggressor,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican representative to UN agencies in Geneva.

The duty to defend the innocent explains how Pope Francis can appeal for peace and, at the same time, his representative in Baghdad can welcome US President Barack Obama’s decision to begin using military force against Islamic State positions in Iraq in early August.

Asked about the airstrikes, Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, the Vatican nuncio to Iraq, told Vatican Radio: “This is something that had to be done, otherwise [the Islamic State] could not be stopped.”

Given the brutality of the terrorists, Archbishop Lingua’s comments are in line with papal statements and Catholic social teaching.

Archbishop Tomasi told Catholic News Service: “From the teaching of Pope John Paul II we have a clear orientation and precise guidelines” for what is generally termed “humanitarian intervention”.

Armed intervention “must not be unilateral, but internationally recognised. All other means—dialogue, negotiations—for protecting the innocent must be exhausted; and real assistance for those whose rights are being trampled must be provided.”

T

he Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states: “The international community as a whole has the moral obligation to intervene on behalf of those groups whose very survival is threatened or whose basic human rights are seriously violated.

“As members of an international community, states cannot remain indifferent; on the contrary, if all other available means should prove ineffective, it is legitimate and even obligatory to take concrete measures to disarm the aggressor.”

St John Paul gave one of his clearest explanations of the problems of modern warfare and the ethically acceptable limits of humanitarian intervention in his message for World Peace Day 2000.

“Crimes against humanity cannot be considered an internal affair of a nation,” he wrote. “When a

civilian population risks being overcome by the attacks of an unjust aggressor and political efforts and non-violent defence prove to be of no avail, it is legitimate and even obligatory to take concrete measures to disarm the aggressor.

These measures, however, must be limited in time and precise in their aims.”

Speaking specifically about north-eastern Iraq today, Archbishop Tomasi said: “The point of departure for any reflection on the current situation should be the victims. We must help those who are being killed, whose homes are being destroyed, who are forced to flee.

“The problem is not the problem of the Church or the Christian community but of the human family.

Common responsibility should be exercised to protect human beings who have no one else to protect them,” Archbishop Tomasi said.

“This is not a religious issue, it is not a matter of Christians defending Christians, but it is a call for the defence of human beings by all human beings,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Tomasi recalled the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the fact that the massacre of Tutsis by the majority Hutus was on the front page of newspapers and was a topic of repeated discussions regionally and internationally, but international action was extremely limited.

“People met, but did nothing,” the archbishop said, “and we have mourned the Rwandan genocide ever since.”—CNS

CSI actor on journey to faith

BY TOM TRACY

A

CTOR Gary Sinise’s knowing smile and everyman disposition are instantly recognisable on screen.

Those qualities were not lost on members of the Knights of Columbus—the US version of South Africa’s Knights of da Gama—their families and Church leaders when the Catholic actor addressed them on his faith journey at a convention in Orlando, Florida.

Sinise is best known for his roles as Detective Mac Taylor in the hit TV series CSI:NY and Lt Dan Taylor in the 1994 film Forrest Gump.

He traced the deepening of his own spirituality and faith in part to the events of September 11, 2001, when he was invited, as a celebrity, to support first responders and later service men and women serving in Iraq.

He noted the example of Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, a chaplain for the New York Fire Department who died helping victims in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

“His simple prayer, ‘Lord, take me where you want me to go. Let me meet who you want me to meet. Tell me what you

Actor Gary Sinise addresses the Knights of Columbus as he recalls his journey to the Catholic faith.

(Photo: Tom Tracy/CNS) want me to say. And keep me out of your way,’ is very special to my wife [Moira] and I,” Sinise said.

In the late 1990s, Sinise recalled, his family was in North Carolina where he was working at the time, when a hurricane approached.

“As we are racing down the highway in the rental car, trying to outrun the storm as lightning

and wind and rain and thunder are chasing us...Moira, out of the blue, turns to me and says, ‘When we get back home I’m going to become a Catholic, and our kids are going to a Catholic school,’” he said.

After two years of classes, on Easter Sunday in 2000, Sinise’s wife was confirmed in the Catholic Church “and my children and I were there by her side. We were so proud of her and how far she had come,” he said.

In 2010, on Christmas Eve, he told his wife and kids they were going out for a special dinner. Unbeknown to his family, he had been attending private sessions to be confirmed, he said.

So before their dinner the family stopped to see a priest, “and in a small quiet ceremony on Christmas Eve, surrounded by my family, who I love and cherish dearly, I was officially confirmed into the Catholic Church. It was a very special night in our lives,” Sinise recalled.

“The Church has been a rock for me and my family in some of our darkest and most difficult times,” he said.—CNS

Franciscans work to keep Christians in Holy Land

T

HE Franciscans in the Holy Land are committed to helping the region’s Christians remain in their homeland.

“We pray and we work,” said Father Peter Vasko OFM, president of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land. “That’s how we will help preserve the Christian presence in the Holy Land. That’s our goal.”

Since 1994, the foundation has run humanitarian programmes in education, child care, housing and employment to help Christians remain in the Holy Land despite pressures like discrimination and the Israeli occupation that encourage them to leave.

There are about 150 000 Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land, and about 500 families leave each year, Fr Vasko said.

Christians in Gaza now number about 2 500.

Fr Vasko said Gaza’s Christians are caught in the crossfire between Hamas and Israel. However, the ma-

jority of the Franciscan foundation’s daily ministries have not been affected by the recent clashes.

Fr Vasko said this was because “we are serving Christians both in Israel proper and in the West Bank, far enough away from the rocket fire and Israeli ground movement and airstrikes”.

The renewed conflict has affected the Franciscans’ spirits. “For us it is very discouraging to see how hatred and fear continue to prevail,” especially given the hope for “new initiatives towards peace” after the papal visit in May. “It will take a concerted effort to bring the warring parties to peace,” Fr Vasko said. “The expectations of both sides can sometimes be unrealistic, based on politics and economy.”

He said that Israel’s 8m high separation barrier, which stretches for hundreds of kilometres, has played an important factor in the conflict.—CNA

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Ukraine’s Catholic Church could vanish in crisis

BY JONATHAN LUxMOORE

T

HE head of Caritas in Ukraine warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the country’s east, as the Vatican’s nuncio also highlighted the worsening plight of Catholics in the country’s conflict.

Andrij Waskowycz, Caritas Ukraine president, called the destruction in eastern Ukraine “enormous” and said help was needed from the international community.

“Ukrainians have been killed

and maimed for months, but only when EU citizens were killed did people realise a war was being fought here,” said Mr Waskowycz, who is also vice president of Caritas-Europe.

John Ging, director of the UN Coordination and Response Division, has warned that almost 4 million Ukrainians now faced hardships because of wrecked infrastructure. He said 70% of health service personnel had fled rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk.

Meanwhile, the Vatican’s Kiev-based nuncio, Archbishop

Thomas Gullickson, warned that “if the country remains destabilised, we may see the Roman Catholic presence in Ukraine practically disappear—as it is, it’s small and in danger, but how can parents ask their children to stay in a country with no prospects?”

Speaking to Vatican Radio he said: “The Greek Catholic Church is even more at risk, but for different reasons—in terms of persecution from the side of Russia and others who’ve never really accepted the reality of this beautiful Church.”—CNS

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The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Mental illness: little from clergy

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The mental health stigma

T

HE recent death by suicide of the actor Robin Williams, who reportedly suffered from bipolar depression, brought the question of mental health into the public spotlight.

Like most suicides, that of Mr Williams was tragic. For those who have not stood at the abyss it is difficult to understand how a successful, popular and wealthy man such as Robin Williams should end his life.

Whenever a celebrity commits suicide, the degree to which variations of the “he had everything" line are being used reveals how far society has come in understanding suicide and mental illness.

The broad public sympathy that was extended to Mr Williams’ suffering and nature of death may have helped to destigmatise both mental illness and suicide. It must be hoped that the voices of empathy are reserved not only for celebrities, but for all who live with mental illness.

The ignorant idea that those with clinical depression can simply “pull themselves together” and “snap out of it” is quickly losing currency, though depression and other disorders are still not well understood.

Clinical depression, schizophrenia and other disorders are the result of chemical imbalances.

They are not matters of personal failings but illnesses, and should be recognised as such.

Reports suggest that those who live with mental health disorders still tend to fear being subjected to prejudice, especially in the workplace, should their condition be revealed. This shows that the stigma endures, and with it undue discrimination.

The terminology of mental health itself might contribute to this as it covers a broad spectrum of disorders, from treatable depression and anxiety to disabling illnesses that require institutionalisation.

A recent Sunday Times study found that one in three South Africans has some form of mental health issue, such as clinical depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, post-natal depression, addictive disorders and schizophrenia. Of those, 75% are not seeking or receiving treatment.

Alarmingly, where treatment is offered in economically disadvantaged areas, it is utterly inadequate.

And that is to be expected when the Department of Health spends only 4% of its annual budget on

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.

mental health as it invests greater resources in fighting diseases with higher mortality rates.

It seems that mental health is indeed, as the South African Depression and Anxiety Group puts it, the “orphan” of the country’s healthcare system. Meanwhile, NGOs that address mental health issues receive very little support from the state.

The mentally ill, particularly the young and the elderly, are sometimes rejected by their families, the Sunday Times study found.

Presumably not all of these families do so because they are indifferent to the conditions of members with mental health issues.

It would seem apparent that families are not equipped to deal with members to whom they find it difficult to relate, whose condition they cannot understand, whom they cannot help, and who cannot or do not want to obtain help.

And so mental health issues can lead to ruptures in families. If a third of all South Africans suffer from mental health disorders, then a significant number of families will be affected by it.

As the Catholic Church in South Africa observes its threeyear focus on the family, the issue of mental health should form an important part of it.

The courageous writer of our lead letter this week reports that she feels priests had been indifferent in providing pastoral care to her family as it struggled with a schizophrenic son.

It might well be that many priests simply feel unqualified to minister in situations of such family problems, even less so if they do not understand the nature of mental health.

Nevertheless, clearly there is a need for pastoral care for families affected by mental health disorders, and the Church, in its concern for the family, must respond to that need.

Such pastoral care should also include ministry to those families that are affected by suicide.

This requires the formulation of a coherent pastoral programme in conjunction with training among clergy.

The Church has access to clergy and laity who are experts in the fields of psychology, psychiatry and social work. These resources need to be marshalled to create suitable pastoral care, to individuals and to families.

F

ATHER Ron Rolheiser’s article “Suicide: Reclaiming memories” (July 30) was indeed a timeous read for my family and me, having some weeks before experienced the horror of all horrors.

Our much-loved son, an architect and gifted in many fields, took his own life at the age of 56. He had suffered for 25 years from the tragedy of schizophrenia, itself an indescribable horror.

As one who has walked that sad, lonely and difficult road with my son, I agree with Fr Rolheiser when he says that his article needs constant repetition, for mental illnesses of all kinds—depression, bipolar, schizophrenia—are certainly all too common in today’s frenetic world, and often end in suicide.

Coping with grief

F

ROM time to time, particular issues of The Southern Cross are extraordinary in the light of their collections of reports, articles, letters, obituaries, opinion pieces and editorials. To my mind, your July 30 issue was such an issue.

I am aware that the recent “gem of an issue” that moved me deeply was owing to an experience in my life and ministry in May and June this year.

Owing to his condition in recent years, I grew accustomed to the late Fr Arsene Muhau, parish priest of Maria Regina parish in Lyttleton, Pretoria, calling upon me—at a moment’s notice—to stand in for him in celebrating Mass and the sacraments for his loving community.

At the weekend Masses following Fr Muhau’s death at only 48 on June 2, I told Maria Regina parishioners in my homily how grateful I had been for the advice Archbishop George Daniel had given me the day my mother died in 1994.

He had told me how important it was that I should take sufficient time to grieve the loss of my dear mother, Frances. He gave me that sage advice because, he said, when his own mother had died he had not given himself the necessary time to grieve his loss.

I naturally suggested to Maria Regina parishioners that they should take time and use the opportunity given them to grieve as a community the loss of their dear pastor. I was touched how many of them thanked me after Mass that weekend for what I had said about their need to grieve.

Like the death on June 22 of Fr Michael Fitzpatrick of Bryanston, Johannesburg, Fr Muhau’s death had the added poignancy that he had died while still in office.

It was thus only natural that I found several items in the July 30

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So families not only have to deal for years with these illnesses, but in the end also with the terrible pain of the suicide of those with and for whom they have struggled for so long.

There is enormous need for public perceptions to change, and that includes those of our priests as well.

We have been blessed in having had incredible support from family, friends and parish, plus expert and deeply caring help from our local mental health facilities, stretched as they are. But—and I have to be brutally honest here—very, very few clergy.

In fact, only three took the trouble to communicate with us 25 years ago when our son went walkabout for three years, and we knew issue of The Southern Cross particularly meaningful. An obvious thread ran through them.

Certainly Judith Turner’s piece on the grace of grief—also written from her experience of losing loved ones—set the context in which to read the cover report of the tragic death of Bishop Tony Palmer.

Fr KE Shomang’s obituary of an Oblate confrere was all the more moving because it was written from his personal experience of the late Fr Mahatane Samson Kataka OMI, first as his novice master, and later as his predecessor in his present parish.

The back cover of my “gem of an issue” concluded with Fr Ron Rolheiser’s sustaining column on suicide, with the wise works of Nancy Rappaport and Mary Gordon quoted, left me with a sense of peace about a subject with which we usually feel uncomfortable.

I will certainly treasure my copy of the July 30 issue of The Southern Cross because in a unique way its contents bring home again the supreme paradox of our Christian faith: in death we find life, through death we grow ever stronger.

Fr Kevin Reynolds, Pretoria

Crossword glitch

T

HE Southern Cross crossword continues to delight us with his creative cryptic clues, delightful puns, great wit and profound knowledge. My wife and I look forward to doing it every week and we invariably learn something new as well as have fun in the process.

However, for the first time ever, we failed to solve two of the clues with the crossword 613 (July 30). 4 Across does not correspond with 5 Down and 19 Across does not correspond with 20 Down.

What happened? Did an early draft version get printed by mistake, instead of the final version; or did you perhaps print it like this deliberately just to see whether anybody would notice?

Thank you for The Southern Cross. I read other Catholic weeklies as well when travelling abroad but I regard this one as the best of them all. Well done.

Jim Needham, Cape Town n Crossword 613 indeed slipped through into print unchecked. We apologise to the puzzlers whom we vexed by that lapse. At the same time, the queries and complaints from readers have reassured us that the Southern Crossword is a popular feature. Should we ever consider its discontinuation, we shall bear that in mind.—Editor

Pontius Pilate

T

HE article “Who was Pontius Pilate?” (April 8) kept me thinking long and hard. Never, throughout my Catholic school years and later as a seminarian, have I come across the words, which your writer alleges, namely ibis in crucem, as having been pronounced by Pontius Pilate.

In fact, all four Gospel writers go out of their way to emphasise it was the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees who kept demanding, “Cru-

not whether he was living or dead.

This really hurt deeply, for we saw how people with cancer or other terminal illnesses are fussed over by the clergy.

And us? Usually we are simply left to get on with it ourselves. Is it because being “mad” lasts a lifetime and does not kill you? Or is it because to lose your mind is still the Big Unspoken? And what about all the other deaths one suffers: death of dreams and hopes and future, and of the wonderful person you used to be?

We have been enormously helped by our own faith all these years and this has been God’s gift to us, but there are thousands out there who have nothing to hang on to. “May God help them” is our constant prayer.

Jill Hopwood, Port Elizabeth cify him”, when Pilate asked: “What should I do with your king?”

Mr Simmermacher quotes extensively from the Gospel of St Matthew but then he follows this up with what might or might not have been.

He writes we can be “fairly certain” that Pilate did not wash his hands of the case as this was a Jewish custom. He supports this by writing: “It is improbable that Pilate, who despised the Jews, would adopt their custom.”

Does he hereby suggest we adopt the practice of the priest washing his hands in preparation for the offertory? His presumption that Pilate did not do this but that Matthew wrote it for his Jewish readers’ appeasement, cannot hold water. Matthew 27:24 says Pilate washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying: “I am innocent of the blood of this man.”

In the Latin Mass, the priest used to say, when washing his hands: “Lavabo inter innocentes manus meas”, meaning “I wash my hands among the innocents.”

Of course, the fact that Pilate’s wife told him she had a dream about this and warned him to “have nothing to do with this innocent man” does not feature in Mr Simmermacher’s suppositions.

As for the speculation that the Jews wrote the notice above Christ’s head “to frighten other insurrectionists”, they did not, according to the Gospels. In fact, the Jews asked Pilate not to write “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” but that he said he was the king of the Jews.

Pilate’s peremptory reply was “Scripsi, scripsi” meaning “What I have written, I have written.”

Finally, John 21:25 notes: “After all this had happened, I was the disciple who testified to these things and wrote them down. The disciples all know that this testimony is true.”

So it must be! After all, the writing of all four Gospels was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

D Charlton Andrews, Cape Town n Günther Simmermacher replies: The gospels reveal the truth about the nature of Our Lord and God’s plan for humanity.

They were written to persuade the audiences to whom they were intended of these truths, and sometimes did so by use of allegory (such as Pilate’s hand-washing). They were not written as history books as we understand the concept now.

So historians must also take into account other historical sources, such as Philo and Josephus Flavius, as well as the general anthropological and historical insights that are available in terms of the contemporary laws, cultures, customs and so on.

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

Thunderstorm inspired a great hymn Günther S Simmermacher WEDEN’S gifts to the world of music include pop giants ABBA, the great soprano Birgit Nilson, the classical composer Carl Michael Bellman—and one of the world’s most beloved hymn.

“How Great Thou Art” has topped many polls of favourite hymns, most notably one conducted by the BBC’s Songs of Praise programme.

But the hymn doesn’t come from Britain or the United States, but from Sweden. The melody, which lends itself to such glorious choral belting out at Mass, was originally an old Swedish folk tune.

But that wasn’t the hymn’s starting point.

That story begins in 1885 with Carl Gustav Boberg, then a 26-year-old a lay minister in the Mission Covenant Church, a reformed church which was Sweden’s second-biggest denomination, after the Lutheran Church.

One day Boberg was walking home from church near Kronobäck, enjoying the peace of the ringing church bells. Suddenly a fierce thunderstorm hit. And as suddenly as it had appeared, it again subsided, returning Kronobäck to its serene tranquillity under a rainbow.

“When I came home [to Mönsterås, on Sweden’s east coast] I opened my window towards the sea,” Boberg later recalled.

“There evidently had been a funeral and the bells were playing the tune of ‘When eternity’s clock calling my saved soul to its Sabbath rest’”. Reflecting on that as well as on the storm, the majestic beauty of the village’s shimmering bay and the birdsong from the green woods, he decided to write a poem about God’s goodness.

He titled the nine-verse poem “O Store Gud” (O Great God), and published it in March 1886, with no plans to set it to music.

In 1888, Boberg was surprised to hear his poem being sung in a church to the tune of an old Swedish folk song. When he became the editor of a Christian news-

paper two years later, he published the text with its musical arrangement. Soon the newly-minted hymn spread throughout Sweden and other lands in the Baltic where there were Swedish communities.

One such community existed in Estonia. There an ethnic German member of the Baptist Church, Manfred von Glehn, heard it, and in 1907 translated the hymn into German. It soon found great popularity as “Wie groß bist Du”—”How Great You Are”.

In 1912 a Russian translation of von Glehn’s text was published in a hymn book as “Velikiy Bog” (“Great God”). And there the hymn’s proliferation rested for a while.

I

n 1925 the American E Gustav Johnson rendered the Swedish version of the hymn as “O Mighty God”. It found inclusion in several hymnbooks, but didn’t catch on.

It is the version by the British Methodist Stuart Hine (1899-1989) which we sing today.

Hine first heard the hymn as a missionary in the Ukraine in 1931. He first tinkered with the Russian lyrics and added verses. After leaving Eastern Europe, on

Carl Boberg (left), who wrote the original words of “How Great Thou Art”, and Bev Shea, whose recorded version in the 1950s helped make the hymn world famous.

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ment-oriented public service.

• A diverse, socially cohesive society with a common national identity.

• A better South Africa contributing to a better Africa and a better world.

The best part in the NDP is its Diagnostic Report. It tells us what is wrong with our country and why.

Most of the NDP’s goals are based on aiming for the ideal. Nothing wrong with that since economic planning should always aim for the ideal, so long as the mechanisms and projections are realistic.

But the NDP assumes doing more of the same thing will yield different results.

That, according to Einstein, is the definition of madness.

The projections of the NDP cannot be achieved without, for instance, radically altering the current government economic policy.

A

lmost all of the NDP’s goals are underpinned by an economic growth of at least 5% in the few coming years. Let’s leave alone the fact that our economic growth is realistically projected at 3%, at best, in the coming years Statistics—summarised in books such as Capital in the Twenty-First Century by T Piketty—demonstrates that economic growth in our monetary system lead to inequalities, unless boosted by catastrophic events, such as war.

According to Piketty, these growing inequalities will worsen in the future, because the return on capital, as is historical evidence, outpaces the rate of economic growth, which leads to greater gains by those who hold most of the wealth.

It is a height of madness for a country

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Point of Reflection

Biography of Hymns

account of World War II, he eventually decided to create an English version. In doing so he worked not from the Boberg’s original but from the Russian translation of the German translation. And somehow he arrived back at the German title.

He kept adapting and adding to the text until 1949 when “How Great Thou Art” was finally published.

Despite the archaic English of its title— which might, in fact, be part of its appeal—the hymn quickly proved popular with British missionaries who spread it into their areas of evangelisation.

Billy Graham and his musical director George Beverley Shea, picked it up on a visit to London. They played it a few times, but the hymn became a huge hit when it was sung at a Graham Crusade in New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1957. Thereafter it was a musical highpoint of all Crusade events.

The Recording Industry Association of America ranks Shea’s recording at number 204 in its list of top recordings of the 20th century. Shea died in 2013, having lived to the age of 104.

“How Great Thou Art” has since been translated into many different languages, from Vietnamese to Esperanto. It has also been recorded by many pop singers, including Elvis Presley, Gladys Knight, The Statler Brothers, Connie Smith, Al Green, Carrie Underwood and Susan Boyle.

As for Carl Boberg, he moved from being a newspaper editor to becoming a member of Sweden’s parliament for 20 years. He published more than 60 poems, hymns and gospel songs before his death at the age of 80 on January 7, 1940.

How can we fix SA’s economy?

Mphuthumi O Ntabeni N August 7, I listened with great interest when Jeff Radebe , the minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, released the government’s comprehensive framework for implementing the National Development Plan (NDP) over the next five years.

In the end I felt that Mr Radebe’s presentation was damp squid.

The NDP touches on all of the Social Teachings of the Church, and on social and economic justice, so it concerns us not only as citizens of this country, but also as Catholics The objectives of the NDP are laudable.

No one in their right mind can disagree with them: • Quality basic education.

• A long and healthy life for all South Africans.

• Safety, and sense of safety, for all people in South Africa.

• Decent employment through inclusive growth.

• A skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path.

• An efficient, competitive and responsive economic infrastructure network.

• Vibrant, equitable, sustainable rural communities contributing towards food security for all.

• Sustainable human settlements and improved quality of household life.

• A comprehensive, responsive and sustainable social protection system.

• Responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government.

• Protected and enhanced environmental assets and natural resources.

• An efficient, effective and develop-

The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

Pushing the Boundaries

like South Africa, with the highest Gini coefficiency (a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution, and therefore disparities, of a nation’s residents) in the world, not to take radical means to alter this in its government plan.

Piketty calls for higher taxes on the rich—an 80% top income-tax rate, plus a separate tax on wealth—to try to reduce the gap between the rich and the rest.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990s proposed a wealth tax for exactly that reason, but Archbishop Desmond Tutu was howled down in our media when he made that suggestion.

The NDP could have added an Extraction Tax on our mining industry towards creating a Sovereignty Fund. It could have suggested that all parastatals be run along the lines of ACASA—majority owned by the South African government but legally and financially autonomous, operating under commercial law.

The government share of the profits would also contribute to the Sovereignty Fund in a transparent manner that avoids the secrecy and deviousness of hedge funding.

In turn the Sovereignty Fund would be run transparently by an association of academic institutions, business, retired Continued from page 11

My cup of coffee with the Lord

M

Y parish of Christ the King in Queenswood, Pretoria is one of only a few in the archdiocese to have Perpetual Adoration.

In Queenswood, it has been in practice for more than ten years, without a break.

Parishioners take hour-long “shifts”, according to a roster, most of them filling their particular spot permanently. All ages take part—this is not a “youth group” or “older generation” ministry in the Church. People of all ages are to be found here: school kids, varsity students, young adults, moms, dads, retired folk and so on. We all come for various reasons, but with a common goal.

I realised after a discussion with someone during my hour on Friday that there is a misperception of “acceptable rules” governing adoration, something of a belief that there is an “Adoration Code of Conduct”.

The normal rules of respect and reverence obviously apply, but the idea that you have to spend the entire hour on your knees, praying the rosary, praying every prayer you were ever taught, or listing your sins in detail, really is not the only acceptable form of adoration.

It is quite fine if that is the way one wishes to spend the hour with the Lord. At the same time, the fact that there is concern that any other way is unacceptable may well discourage some people to come.

I am not in a good mood seven days a week. I do not feel humorous seven days a week. I do not always feel like life is a song. So why should I pretend differently when I spend time with the Lord?

Yes, there are days when I spend the entire hour on my knees and there are days when I do recite the Rosary and say all my prayers. However, there are also days when I argue with the Lord because something has gone wrong. There are days when I question what his plan is for my life, and ask if he wouldn’t mind revealing it to me sooner rather than later.

I used to do the 11:00-13:00 shift, I now do the 8:00-9:00 morning shift. I take my coffee in an insulated cup and have “a cup of coffee with the Lord”—and why shouldn’t I? I go out for coffee with everyone else whom I Iove and want to spend time with.

During the cold months and the Knit-a-Square for charity campaign, I took my knitting with each time. Was the Lord offended? I doubt it. In fact, he was probably pleased to see my participation in forming blankets for a homeless shelter.

After all, the Lord encourages us to do charitable acts.

Last week I read my newspaper, much to the horror of someone who popped into the chapel for ten minutes. She questioned me on this. I told her it was simple: I had a very challenging week behind me. I had started a new job fulltime, I had personal issues to deal with, and I was mentally and physically exhausted. So I sat with the Lord in quiet. I read my newspaper—and in the silence the Lord spoke to me. Not a lot, but still he did.

I am reminded of the quote, “The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit beside without a word, and walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had”.

If you are in my parish or any other one that offers Adoration, try it. It may turn out to be the best conversation that you ever had.

Light a virtual candle and help feed the poor

Buy a virtual candle at R20 each and your prayer request will be mentioned and prayed for live on Radio Veritas during Holy Mass.

Proceeds go to the feeding programme of the St Vincent de Paul conference in La Rochelle parish, Johannesburg, and the Radio Veritas Outreach Programme.

www.prayercandle.co.za

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

8

The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

CHURCH

10 years of Bible Sunday

Next week the Church in Southern Africa will mark annual Bible Week, followed

by Bible Sunday on August 31. BR MIKE CHALMERS explains why these events are important.

S

INCE 2004, the Catholic Church in Southern Africa has celebrated Bible Sunday on the last Sunday of every August and Bible Week a week before.

So this year on August 31, the Church will celebrate the importance and sanctity of the Bible in the lives of her faithful.

She is calling on all Catholics to celebrate the beauty and relevance of the Word of God and its transforming power.

This year is special because there are double celebrations: ten years marking the time the Church has celebrated Bible Sunday, and the celebration of the “Year of the Family”.

The theme for the tenth anniversary is: “Together let us make the Bible known”.

The Bible Week and Bible Sunday celebrations are endorsed by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).

Quoting St John Paul II, the SACBC’s president, Archbishop Stephen Brislin called on all of us to put “the word of God as the first source of all Christian spirituality

(because) it gives rise to a personal relationship with the living God”.

Pope Benedict XVI in his apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini (“The Word of the Lord”) wrote that “it is the Church’s inescapable duty to communicate joy, experienced in an encounter with the person of Christ, the Word of God, in our midst.

“There is no greater priority than this; to enable people of our time once more to encounter God, the God who speaks to us and shares his love so that we may have life in abundance.”

As a result, Pope Benedict said, our times demand “that we be bold, determined and deliberate in proclaiming God’s Word and professing our faith if we are to impact the whole nation for good”.

He therefore invited families “to bring the Scripture message to life in a way that makes us realise that God is present and at work in our everyday life”.

In his message, Archbishop Brislin said the SACBC “endorses the celebration of Bible Week and Bible Sunday and encourages parishes and families to do so in a fitting way”.

With increased materialism, individualism, socio-economic challenges, hurts and pains in our society—all of which have grossly affected the true essence of the family—it is only appropriate that the starting point of evangelisation is the family.

The Church “recommends a greater biblical apostolate as a means of letting the Bible inspire

Pilgrimage Highlights

all pastoral work”, of which the family is part.

If families put the Word of God at the centre of everything they do, we will all contribute to building a bigger and stronger Christian community that operates on Christ’s values of love, joy and peace. “Seek Yahweh and you shall live” (Amos 5:6a).

Families are the nucleus from which society is moulded and developed. It is therefore important that they are inspired and guided by the Word of God. We have no excuse: “See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God and that is what we are” (1 John 3:1).

C

hildren carry the genetic imprints of their parents. As children of God, it is a privilege and an honour that we are born of the Father. We are therefore called to strive to be like our Father: loving, compassionate and merciful. This is possible if we follow in his footsteps.

“The Christian journey to Christ is based on the Word of God,” Pope Benedict wrote in Verbum Domini, and therefore requires that it becomes “the basis of all authentic Christian spirituality”.

As St John Paul II advises, it is necessary that we “make listening to the Bible a living encounter”, because it is at work in our lives every day.

If we look at the Bible as a study guide, it will remain so. If we look at it as a book to embellish our

In his article, Br Mike Chalmers (inset) says that if we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God we will cherish it as our daily guide in life. August 31 marks the tenth anniversary of Bible Sunday. This year’s theme is “Together let us make the Bible known”. bookshelves, it will remain pages of paper with some ink on them covered in a layer of dust.

If we go to church on Sundays and allow our children to attend catechism only so that they are admitted into Catholic schools, then it becomes and remains an obligation.

But if we take the Bible as the Word of God, our approach and experience changes. We will go to it as our daily guide and source of inspiration.

The Lord will speak to us through his Word; we will get wisdom, counsel, experience joy and peace even in difficult times and times of need. We will experience the transforming power of the Word: our lives will have more meaning, become more fulfilling, and we will become better people.

St Paul in his letter to the Hebrews put it like this: “The word of God is living and effective (4:12).

It has power “to build you up and give you your heritage among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

The effect of this experience can only be contagious and will have a ripple effect, bringing more people to Christ by our words and deeds.

Imagine a family that starts their day with God’s guidance?

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Imagine a community that puts the Word of God at the centre of everything they do? Imagine a nation that reads and lives the Word of God? “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who builds his house on rock” (Matthew 7:24).

Charity begins at home: A family that prays together stays together. “As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

The Word of God should not be taken as an ad hoc event starting and ending with Bible Week and Bible Sunday celebrations; it should be a lifestyle.

Bible Week and Bible Sunday gives us an opportunity to reflect back on the importance of the Bible in our lives. It gives us another opportunity to start afresh, questioning and allowing the Word of God to direct and shape our lives: “Seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 7:33).

We pray that families will have the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ so that they can experience freedom and his abundant love. n Br Mike Chalmers is the director of the Catholic Bible Foundation.

Bible Sunday

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The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

FOCUS

Portugal’s hard times faced with hope The economy is not only struggling in South Africa.

Portugal is in a deep economic crisis which has led to a brain drain, but citizens in the overwhelmingly Catholic country face economic crisis with pragmatism and hope, as TOM TRACY reports.

A

RESTAURANT maitre d’ in Almada tells patrons about his recent return home after a long hospitality career in Belgium. A business conference planner in Luxembourg returns to the Lisbon coastal communities for birthday and family celebrations.

And in Lisbon’s historic Alfama district, after singing in a one-hour choral concert before the Sunday evening Mass at the cathedral of St Mary Major, Dina Antunes wonders about her career prospects in the sciences.

Ms Antunes, who was born in Lisbon, said she just finished a master’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Lisbon.

“I will find work this year I hope,” Ms Antunes said, noting that she completed an internship in Germany at the prestigious Max Planck Institutes and is open to the idea of working long-term in Germany.

“In my field and other fields of science most students have to go abroad to finish their studies,” said Ms Antunes.

Portugal, recipient of a massive set of loan bailouts over the last four or five years, is considered among the poorest of the major Western European nations.

Amid a Eurozone economic downturn, deep national austerity measures, high youth unemployment rates and a widely monitored banking crisis at Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo, the Portuguese have protested against their hardships a little less publicly and less

robustly than their neighbours in Spain—but they are facing housing and health care cost increases.

Whereas leaving the country to seek work is not necessarily anything new for the Portuguese, who have responded to economic hard times in a variety of ways during the last century, government and even Church officials in Portugal and Spain have expressed some alarm at the high rates of talented young and professional workers who have been leaving for employment outside the region.

At the same time, waves of both legal and undocumented foreign workers from South America and Africa, along with retirees, have been coming to Portugal to live or find low-wage employment positions that the Portuguese leave vacant.

Summer, with its season of festas and family-oriented get-togethers, often brings expat Portuguese workers home to their villages of origin.

At Lisbon’s São Sebastião da Pedreira parish in the city’s midtown area, Maria Pinto Basto, a senior citizen who sold copies of the archdiocesan newspaper Voz da Verdade, spoke about her four children. Two of them have worked abroad for years; her two other children stayed in Portugal.

“I have a daughter who is a lawyer without a job, but I have to be patient. She likes the idea of working in the hotel business,” Mrs Basto said.

The region’s high unemployment is hard on everyone, she said. “We have a problem, but we must have calm.”

D

avid Rocha, 21, an altar server at São Sebastião da Pedreira, recently earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and started his master’s degree in management. He said that Iberians should embrace workplace change.

“It’s the price we pay for a globalised economy, and of course some people leave Portugal because they are facing difficulties, but globalisation is the idea be-

Maria Pinto Basto, who has two of four adult children working abroad and one unemployed at home, sells copies of the Lisbon archdiocesan newspaper Voz da Verdade following a Mass. (Photo: Tom Tracy/CNS)

hind all the migration—it has happened before with other generations,” Mr Rocha said.

“I don’t perceive emigration as a big deal, because when the markets start to open and if things are well-regulated, it doesn’t matter anymore where you go: There are people going out and people coming in,” he said,.

Globalisation is still a new concept for many countries, but national mentalities are changing fast, he noted.

“We can make great things happen as we have for the last centuries for Portugal, and I don’t think it is a matter of right and wrong but a matter of the future— the thing we really lack right now is optimism, and if we gather a bit of that we can go very far,” he said.

At the Lisbon cathedral, choir member Sophia Fernandes said she is retooling her career with studies in neuro-

Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Holy Childhood of Jesus

science, but currently works only part time as a physical therapist— an area with few full-time jobs available.

“Although historically the Portuguese have gone to work in France, Luxembourg or England, nowadays there is unemployment in those places, too, and so they are going now to northern Europe... along with Arabia, Dubai, Malaysia and to Africa,” she said.

“I think the situation will improve—not this year but maybe in the next couple of years,” Ms Fernandes said, adding that meanwhile, “we have had people coming from Brazil, India and Africa, so the empty spaces are filled with new people coming looking for new spaces”.

João Póvoa, a young adult cathedral parishioner who owns an information technology business and who employs several others, said he is one of the lucky Portuguese who has a needed service; he sells accounting and payroll

software. He said he worries his clients’ economic pain will affect their ability to keep commitments with him.

Mr Póvoa said some of his colleagues have chosen to work in high-tech and industry sectors in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa, including Angola.

“Angola needs technology and there is a lot of money to be made because the big export companies have resources to spare—they bring people for three or four months at a time—so Africa is one of the best ways to make a living if you can get there with some key skills and key contacts,” Mr Póvoa said.

He said Portugal’s economy has been helped by a steady flow of Europeans retiring in Portugal because of tax breaks and a good climate.

“We will probably see more of that in the coming years,” he said “They love the weather, our food.”—CNS

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CLASSIFIEDS How to fix South Africa’s economy Continued from page 7 members of the judiciary and public officials appointed by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Its main duties would be to fund government programmes of social and economic develop-

ment, emphasising on skill development and entrepreneurship. It could even assist in funding the necessary national health programme and a turnaround strategy on education by retraining those of our educators who require it.

Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 616. ACROSS: 4 Galilee, 8 The way, 9 Emirate, 10 Expire, 11 Greece, 12 Strength, 18 Laywoman, 20 Naming, 21 Persia, 22 Hittite, 23 Cleric, 24 Eliphaz. DOWN: 1 Atheist, 2 Vespers, 3 Barren, 5 Almighty, 6 Israel, 7 Entice, 13 Golgotha, 14 Amusers, 15 Infancy, 16 Daniel, 17 Lift up, 19 Weekly.

Community Calendar To place your event, call Mary Leveson at 021 465 5007 or e-mail m.leveson@scross.co.za (publication subject to space)

KEIMOES-UPINGTON A 10km pilgrimage from Klipeiland (St Nicholas parish) to Blaauwskop (St Joseph parish) on Saturday, August 23.

The theme of the walk is I Love my Family—Ek is Lief vir my Familie.

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

Good Shepherd, Bothasig. Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel. All hours. All welcome.

St Luke’s cnr 16th Avenue and Facreton Avenue in Facreton presents a gospel extravaganza on September 14 at 2:30 for 3:00. Tickets are R50 per person including tea and cake. Children under 12 R30. Contact Karen on 084 805 8254.

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.

DURBAN: St Anthony’s parish in Durban has Holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony every Tuesday at 9am.

On the first Friday of every month there is Holy Mass and Divine Mercy Devotion at 5.30pm.

Sunday Mass is at 9am.

Phone 031 309 3496.

Walk for Life celebration on September 13 will begin at 10:00 at Holy Trinity parish (210 Musgrave Road) with Holy Hour followed by a prayerful walk to Curries Fountain where a Mass of Reparation will be celebrated by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier OFM and Bishop Barry Wood OMI.

HOLY SITES TRAVEL

The much talked about state bank, to create access to capital for small business, could also be partly funded through this.

I shall inspect the NDP—its problem areas and possible solutions—further in next month’s column.

Liturgical Calendar Year A Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday, August 24, 21st Sunday Isaiah 22:19-23, Psalm 138:1-3, 6, 8, Romans 11:33-36, Matthew 16:13-20 Monday, August 25, St Louis IX of France 2 Thessalonians 1:1-5, 11-12, Psalm 96:1-5, Matthew 23:13-22 Tuesday, August 26 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 14-17, Psalm 96:10-13, Matthew 23:23-26 Wednesday, August 27, St Monica 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18, Psalm 128:1-2, 4-5, Matthew 23:27-32 Thursday, August 28, St Augustine 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Psalm 145:2-7, Matthew 24:42-51 Friday, August 29, Passion of St John the Baptist Jeremiah 1:17-19, Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17, Mark 6:17-29 Saturday, August 30, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, Psalm 33:12-13, 18-21, Matthew 25:14-30 Sunday, August 31, 22nd Sunday Jeremiah 20:7-9, Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 16:21-27

Our bishops’ anniversaries

CLASSIFIEDS

Liturgical colours: Colours used in vestments and altar coverings to denote special times in the Church. Green is used in ordinary times, red denotes feasts of martyrs or the Holy Spirit, purple denotes penitential times, and white is used for joyful occasions including Christmas, Easter and some saints’ days.

DEATHS

KIMMER—Sr Mildred.

Holy Cross sister, Sr Mildred Kimmer, aged 99, passed away in Holy Cross Home, Pretoria, on August 6, 2014. Lovingly remembered by the Holy Cross Sisters and the Kimmer family circle in Germany. May she rest in peace.

SARDINHA—Alice (Rodrigues) passed away July 3, 2014. Deeply mourned by her husband Elmano and children Ivonne, Louis and Terry, brother Adelino Vasco Feandeiro, wife Celsa Maria and children Valeria, Andres and families in Europe.

IN MEMORIAM

SETSUBI—Monica Maleshwane. Sunday morning August 14, 1994 is memorable when your youngest brother pledged his prayers at Holy Mass for your recovery, but God recalled you to eternity.

Blessed be his Name. Always loved and prayerfully remembered till then. Your family.

HERHOLDT—Berty who passed away August 23, 2003. Still miss you so much and you will always stay in our thoughts. From your loving family.

PRAYERS

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publish this prayer. Amen.

Remo Ciolli.

O MOST beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of Heaven, blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity.

O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein that you are my Mother, O Holy Mary Mother of God, Queen of heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to secure me in my necessity. There are none who can withstand your power, O show me that you are my mother. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine. Amen.

THANKS

GRATEFUL thanks to our heavenly Father, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Divine Infant of Prague, Our Blessed Lady of Lourdes, Ss Bernadette, Joseph and Jude for prayers and petitions answered. Fellyn and Jessie.

PERSONAL

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

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This week we congratulate: August 25: Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo of Bloemfontein, on the 12th anniversary of his episcopal ordination (as auxiliary bishop of Maruannhill).

August 26: Bishop Joe Sandri of Witbank on his 68th birthday.

Word of the Week

The Southern Cross, August 20 to August 26, 2014

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Anyone wanting to receive tapes as part of this service, available for an annual subscription fee of only R50, may contact Mr Len Pothier, 8 The Spinney Retirement Village, Main Rd, Hout Bay, 7806 or phone 021-790 1317.

The Post Office will deliver and return tapes without charge. Should you know of any interested blind or otherwise reading-impaired person, please inform them of this service.

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

The Southern Cross is published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd. Address: PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000. Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850 www.scross.co.za Editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela Davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton, News Editor: Stuart Graham (s.graham@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).

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OMETIMES this discipleship business to which you and I are committed can be a bit uncomfortable; but still we have to do it, because that is what we want, at the deepest level in us.

In the first reading for next Sunday, Jeremiah, not for the first (or last) time in his prophetic career, is kicking and screaming, bellowing at the Lord: “You seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced—you were too strong for me, and you prevailed.”

Everyone, it seems, is laughing at him (and that can be a very severe suffering), but “Whenever I speak I must cry out”.

So, understandably enough, he decides (have you ever done this?) to give up taking God seriously: “I said, ‘I shall not mention him; I am not going to speak in his name’—but it was like a fire in my heart, imprisoned in my bones.” He is not a very happy prophet; but we should notice that he is still doing the job, for he knows he has no choice. And what about you, this week?

The psalmist expresses it with less anger, but is just like Jeremiah in that he is absolutely obsessed with God: “God, you are my God—for you my soul thirsts; for you my body longs, like a parched and thirsty land with no water.”

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AITH isn’t something you ever simply achieve. It’s not something that you ever nail down as a fait accompli.

Faith works this way: Some days you walk on water and other days you sink like a stone. Faith invariably gives way to doubt before it again recovers its confidence, then it loses it again.

We see this graphically illustrated in the famous story in the gospels of Peter walking on water.

The story goes this way: The disciples had just witnessed a major miracle, Jesus feeding more than 5 000 people with five loaves of bread and two fishes. Having just witnessed a miracle, their faith was strong.

Soon afterwards they get into a boat to cross a lake. Jesus is not with them. A few miles out they run into a fierce storm and begin to panic. Jesus comes walking towards them on the water. Initially they’re frightened and take him for a ghost. But he calms their fear by telling them, right from the centre of the storm, that he is not just Jesus but that he is God’s very presence.

Peter is immediately buoyed up in his faith and asks Jesus to let him too walk on the water. Jesus invites him to do so and Peter gets out of the boat confidently and begins to walk on the water.

But then, realising what he was doing and the incredulous nature of it, he imme-

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Tough times for God’s disciples Fr Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

Then he expresses a hope for when he gets to Jerusalem, that “I shall see you in the Sanctuary, to look upon your might and your glory”.

This poet is simply in love with God, and makes an astonishing claim: “Your steadfast love is better than life”, and uses a metaphor that may not quite speak to us: “I shall be sated with sweet fatness” (against all the canons of health and safety). Our portion of the psalm ends: “My soul holds fast to you, my right hand holds me up.”

The second reading for next Sunday is quite clear about the discomfort that discipleship can involve. At this point in the Letter to the Romans, Paul is turning now to what he knows of the tensions that are operating

in the Roman Church; and he starts the treatment by laying down the conditions for solving their problems, using language taken from the Temple-worship.

“I am begging you, brothers and sisters, through the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your rational worship.”

That sounds all right, but then we notice that there is a price to pay: “Don’t let yourselves be shaped to this world, but be changed, so that your minds are renewed, for you to test out what is God’s will.” That may not be so easy, but we have to do it.

In the gospel, Peter has just earned high marks, identifying Jesus as “the Messiah”. But he now goes right to the bottom of the class when Jesus explains what this means: “He has to go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed—and on the third day rise again”.

Peter finds this intolerable: “Steady on, Lord—no way will this happen to you!” He is then taught a very uncomfortable lesson: “Get behind me, Satan; you are a scandal to me; because you are not thinking with God’s

When we walk on water

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22nd Sunday: August 31 Readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9, Psalm 63: 2-6, 89, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 16:21-27

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Final Reflection

diately starts to sink, cries out for help, and Jesus has to reach out and rescue him from drowning.

What we see illustrated here are two things that lie at the heart of our experience of faith, namely, that faith (literally) has its ups and downs and that it works best when we don’t confuse it with our own powers.

Faith has its ups and downs. We see this, almost pictorially illustrated, in the incident of Peter walking on the water.

Initially his faith feels strong and he confidently steps onto the sea and begins to walk. But, almost immediately upon realising what he was doing, he starts to sink.

O

ur own faith works exactly like that; at times it lets us walk on water and at other times we sink like a stone. The gospel-image of Peter walking on the sea speaks for itself.

However, if we feel discouraged because our faith vacillates in this way, we can take consolation from these words from the

mystic Julian of Norwich.

Describing one of her visions, she writes: “After this [Jesus] showed a most excellent spiritual pleasure in my soul: I was completely filled with everlasting certainty, powerfully sustained without any painful fear. This feeling was so joyful and so spiritual that I was wholly in peace and in repose and there was nothing on earth that would have grieved me. This lasted only a while, and I was changed and left to myself in such sadness and weariness of my life, and annoyance with myself that scarcely was I able to have patience to live.

“And immediately after this, our Blessed Lord gave me again the comfort and the rest in my soul, in delight and in security so blissful and so powerful that no fear, no sorrow, no bodily pain that could be suffered would have distressed me. And then pain showed again to my feeling, and then the joy and delight, and now the one, and now the other, various times” (Showings 15).

Julian of Norwich was a renowned mystic with an exceptional faith and, yet, like Peter, she too vacillated between walking on water and sinking like a stone. Her confident feelings came—but they also left.

As well, faith works best when we don’t confuse it with our own efforts. For example, the British historian and theologian Donald Nicholl in his 1981 book Holiness shares a story of a British missionary working in Africa.

At one point, early on in his stay there, the missionary was called upon to mediate a dispute between two tribes. He had no preparation for this, was naïve, and totally out of his depth. But he gave himself over to the task in faith and, surprisingly, reconciled the two tribes.

Afterwards, encouraged by this success, he began to fancy himself as a mediator and began to present himself as an arbiter of disputes. Now, however, his efforts were invariably unhelpful.

Here’s the irony: when he didn’t know what he was doing, but trusted solely in God, he was able to walk on water; as soon as he began to wrap himself in the process, he sank like a stone. Faith works like that: We can walk on water only as long as we don’t think that we are doing it with our own strength.

The Sufi mystic Rumi once wrote that we live with a deep secret that sometimes we know, and then not, and then we know it again.

Faith works like that, too—some days we walk on water, other days we sink like a stone, and then later we walk on water again.

mindset but with a human mindset.”

Then the lesson is given to all the disciples (so it includes you and me): “If anyone wants to come after me, they are to deny themselves and take up their cross, and follow me.”

There is a deep sanity here, for we human beings are at our very best when we risk everything for the cause, or for the sake of love.

So Jesus reminds us: “Anyone who wants to save their life will lose it, and anyone who wants to lose their life for my sake will find it.” It is strong language, this, but we must not run away from the truth of it: “What will it profit a person if they gain the entire world and suffer the loss of their soul? What can a person give as an exchange for their soul?”

Then comes the uncomfortable reminder that we are going to have to account for our choices: “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father, with his angels—and then he will reward each one in accordance with what they have done.”

There is nothing easy about the gospel; but if we sit with it, this week, and listen to what the Lord is saying, we shall recognise the profound wisdom that is in it.

Southern Crossword #616

ACROSS 4. I allege it’s a region where Jesus taught (7) 8. I am... ..., the Truth and the Life ( John 14) (3,3) 9. IRA meet land of the Muslim ruler (7) 10. Come to the end (6) 11. Land of the Parthenon (6) 12. Might (8) 18. She’s not one of the clergy (8) 20. The ceremony of christening (6) 21. Cyrus was king here (Ezra 1) (6) 22. Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the ... (2 Sam 11) (7) 23. One of the clergy (6) 24. He comforted Job (7)

DOWN 1. He prays to no god (7) 2. Evening prayer (7) 3. Childless Elizabeth was ... (Luke 1) (6) 5. Title of the omnipotent God (8) 6. Mid-Eastern state is real (6) 7. Lure (6) 13. Place of the skull (8) 14. They entertain funnily (7) 15. Babyhood (7) 16. Prophet in denial (6) 17. ... ... your hearts (LIturgy) (4,2) 19. Every seven days (6)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

ND so it happened that the devil owed van der Merwe a favour, any favour.

“Right,” van der Merwe told the devil, “build me a highway straight from Klerksdorp to New York.”

That was a tall order, even for the devil. So the devil asked van der Merwe to state an alternative wish.

“OK, then,” van der Merwe said, “make me understand women.”

The devil replied: “That highway of yours… three or four lanes?”