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December 10 to December 16, 2014

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Lutherans and Catholics prayed over beer

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Survey: Drugs, drink cause partner abuse STAFF REPORTER

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The choir of Holy Family parish in Gaborone, Botswana, conducted by Thato Kgasoane, competes at the annual “Clash of the Choirs” contest held by the Interdiocese Catholic Church Choirs Association and Radio Veritas, which this year was held in Mafikeng and opened by Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley. Some 39 choirs took part; the best performing one was Moya parish in Tembisa, Pretoria. Themba Tshabalala of St Angela’s church in Dobsonville, Soweto, won the inaugural St Cecilia Award, presented by Radio Veritas for best conductor.

Yvonne Chaka Chaka helps hospice

BY STAFF REPORTER

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USIC legend Yvonne Chaka Chaka (pictured) has donated R50 000 to the Church-run Tapologo Hospice in Phokeng, Rustenburg, through her Princess of Africa Foundation.

Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg said the hospice was humbled by Ms Chaka Chaka’s visit to their centre, which cares for orphans, HIV/Aids sufferers and vulnerable children.

“After we discussed the link between tuberculosis and HIV/Aids and the devastation this is causing, she presented us with a R50 000 cheque for the programme,” Bishop Dowling said in an interview on Radio Veritas.

“It is a very generous donation for us and very helpful for our orphan programme.”

Ms Chaka Chaka, born Yvonne Machaka in Dobsonville in Soweto in 1965, earned

fame though hits like “Umqombothi”, “I’m Burning Up”, “I Cry For Freedom” and “Makoti”.

Bishop Dowling said he and the singer travelled to Freedom Park where the community sang for her.

He said Ms Chaka Chaka had visited Tapologo some years ago and was very interested in the vulnerable children’s programmes.

“She met one of the orphans who had lost her parents and whole family to Aids-defining diseases,” Bishop Dowling said.

“She had become so close to this girl, and she asked to come back with her international advisers who work with her foundation. They Continued on page 2

NEW survey reveals that alcohol and drugs are perceived to be the leading cause of domestic abuse in South Africa.

The latest Peace Maker Barometer survey was conducted online and completed in November by Acentric Marketing Research on behalf of the Justice & Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) The survey was weighted to approximately represent South Africans living in metro areas in terms of age, race, ethnic group and income.

Respondents who were aware of cases of abuse were asked to rate the extent to which they believed various factors contribute to incidents of violence and abuse among friends, relatives and the community in general.

The results revealed a long list of perceived causes. While the cause most frequently perceived to be a main cause included substance abuse (alcohol or/and drugs) (54%), other leading causes included economic stress (39%) and the way the courts handle abuse (35%).

At the opposite end, the less likely causes of abuse included a perceived inequality between women and men in politics (20%), the perceived inequality in accessing education and training (21%), and traditional laws on child custody and maintenance after divorce or widowhood (22%).

Differences in opinion by demographic were also apparent. Male respondents interestingly were significantly more likely to view the laws on child custody and maintenance as a main cause of abuse (28% versus 16%). Males were also more likely to believe that an inequality between men and women in accessing education and training was a main cause (27% versus 16%).

In line with international research, the survey highlights the complex nature of abuse. While almost 47% of respondents were aware of male respondents physically abusing female partners, 20% were aware of women who physically abuse male partners.

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A survey commissioned by the Southern African bishops’ Justice & Peace Commission has found that drugs and alcohol are perceived as being the leading cause for partner abuse, followed by economic stress and deficiency in our court system.

Almost equal percentages of male to female, and female to male verbal abuse occurred (48% to 47% respectively) and similarly 40% to 32% in the case of emotional abuse.

As part of the 16 days of activism, from November 25 to December 10, more than 2 000 Catholic men across the country were using the results of the Peace Maker Barometer to stimulate community dialogues and develop action plans to combat violence in their communities.

“As Church, we have a huge responsibility to inspire behavioural change in relation to alcohol abuse and gender-based violence,” said Bishop Abel Gabuza, liaison bishop for Justice & Peace, in a statement.

“At the same time, we urge the police to develop firm partnerships with the churches, the community policing forums and tavern owners to ensure compliance and enforcement of the national liquor laws,” he saud.

“We also ask the government to develop and implement a national strategic plan to combat gender-based violence,” he said.

“Without such a plan, national efforts at ending gender-based violence will always remain uncoordinated, under-resourced and ineffective,” Bishop Gabuza said.

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The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

LOCAL

Church concern at health inequality STAFF REPORTER

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Sister Gladness Ntuli meets with a patient to review her health and distribute antiretroviral drugs for treatment of Aids at a clinic in Phelandaba that operates under a partnership between the South African Bishops' Conference and Catholic Relief Services. While the Church provides health care throughout the country, citizens are concerned with the performance of the government’s Department of Health. (Photo: Debbie DeVoe/CRS)

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HE Church is deeply concerned with the high levels of health care inequality in South Africa, the coordinator of the bishops’ Justice & Peace Department has said.

“In our pastoral ministry to the sick, especially among the poor in rural areas and townships, we encounter a lot of cases of people losing their loved ones as the result of the collapse of services in public sector clinics and hospitals,” Fr Stan Muyebe OP said at the launch of a “report card” on the health minister.

“Informed by the Catholic social teaching, we believe that the poor in South Africa also deserve access to that standard of health care necessary to preserve human life,” the Dominican priest said.

Fr Muyebe said the government has made a lot of promises to the poor in relation to equal access to quality care. Through the health minister report card, the Church seeks to “be a consistent voice of conscience”.

The health minister’s report card tracks the approval ratings of the health minister on 30 indicators.

These include the realisation of universal health coverage in ten health districts, the transformation of public clinics into ideal clinics, the prevention and successful management of HIV and TB, and the reduction of maternal, infant and child mortality.

Fr Muyebe said that in the current round of the health minister’s report card, South Africans think the health department should be called to account for its performance in relation to ensuring short queues in the hospitals and clinics, and “ensuring nurses treat pregnant women with respect”.

Other important issues that concern South Africans include controlling the rising costs in private health care, providing sufficient ambulances, especially in rural areas, and ending stock-outs of medicine in hospitals and clinics.

Moreover, citizens call for solutions to the rise in court cases against health providers and for a rise in medical malpractice insurance. They also called for an ombudsman to investigate health care complaints.

Fr Muyebe called on the health department to ensure that progress reports for NHI pilot districts are made available to the public.

Transparency and accountability are critical for the successful and accelerated implementation of universal health coverage, he said.

The Justice and Peace Department applauded the National Health Department for launching operation Phakisa 2 aimed at transforming all public sector clinics into ideal clinics and for developing policies that have the potential of fixing the six pillars of the health system.

Book brewing at Mariannhill STAFF REPORTER

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WO Christian traditions came together on the subject of beer, and shared a prayer.

Mariannhill Mission Press, a Catholic printing works, has designed and printed The Beer Book, written by German-born Lutheran Holger Meier.

The history of Mariannhill gave the project some extra spice: it was originally a Trappist monastery, of an order that is famous for the outstanding beers its monks have produced in many countries around the world.

Mr Meier came to Mariannhill Mission Press with wife Brenda and daughters Kate and Jessica to sign off the proofs of his book. Before sending the colour plates for the book off to be printed, the family gathered to say a prayer.

After Mr Meier signed, the family stood with the staff of Mariannhill Mission Press and prayed out loud.

They thanked God for the blessing of this book in their lives, for the fact that they as a family worked on it together, as well as for those who helped them in any way.

They then asked for a blessing on Mariannhill Mission Press and thanked God for his love.

When the prayer ended, Jessica and Kate simultaneously pushed the start button of the printer and the beer book began its run of 6 000 books.

“Holger camped out at our offices over the period of four months it took to put this book

Holger Meier, author of The Beer Book, with wife Brenda and daughters Jessica and Kate sit on the paper for the book at Mariannhill Mission Press. together,” said Rob Riedlinger, director of Mariannhill Mission Press.

“We worked with him in photographing 500 bottles of beer, designing and laying out the book,” Mr Riedlinger said, noting that “his strong faith resonated from him in a humble and unassuming way”.

Mr Meier dedicated his book to his wife, and thanked God for the gift of her in his life.

“Kate and Jessica helped with the bottle groupings and storage, arranging the bottles in alphabetical order for easy access should we need to reshoot a bottle,” Mr Riedlinger said.

The Beer Book features 501 photos of bottled beers from 101 South African breweries, with descriptions, and tips on breweries to visit for a beer tasting. n The book can be ordered from www.beerbook.co.za

Yvonne Chaka Chaka and the bishop Continued from page 1 asked to meet us at Tapalogo Hospice,” Bishop Dowling said.

While in Freedom Park, Ms Chaka Chaka met the girl, who is now in Grade 8.

Bishop Dowling said it had been a very difficult year for Tapologo due to the long mineworkers’ strike in the area.

“There was great danger to our workers, to our child carers and to the orphans,” he said.

At one point the food store at Freedom Park was burgled and all the food stolen.

“It became too dangerous for our kids to come from school to our orphan centre where they get

a cooked meal,” he said.

“We gave them food parcels.

Those were also taken off them by the miners.”

When the children returned to their homes, which are mostly shacks, they would have their food taken off them and it would be distributed among the community.

“Because of the starvation in the area, people took that food and shared it among themselves instead of it going to the kids,” Bishop Dowling said, adding: “It was a very difficult time.”

The second half of the year has been much better, Bishop Dowling said. “The mine workers

are getting back to work. We have been able to get programmes functioning normally again.”

The relationship with the health department is also being built up. Bishop Dowling said the Church has made an offer of one of its buildings in the area to be an isolated TB ward.

“We may offer one of our facilities if we get that programme going,” he said.

There was still a “tremendous challenge” to find the funding to keep programmes going, but the Church is “working hard” at developing relationships with its funders, the bishop said.

LOCAL

The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

3

SA delegates attend UN review

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

T Koeberg nuclear power station near Cape Town. The Jesuit Institute has called on South Africans to demand accountability from the government and Eskom, South Africa’s troubled electricity provider. (Photo: Philipp P Egli)

Jesuits: Shine a light on Eskom STAFF REPORTER

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OUTH Africans must hold Eskom and the government to account over the electricity crisis, the Jesuit Institute has said.

In a statement issued by director Fr Russell Pollitt SJ, the Johannesburg-based Jesuit Institute South Africa expressed its concern “about the looming power crisis” and condemned “the lack of accountability of those responsible”.

It warned that Eskom’s inability to meet South Africa’s electricity needs will have “serious socio-economic implications for the people”.

Fr Pollitt recalled that the Department of Minerals and Energy had warned 16 years ago, in 1998, that unless steps were taken to ensure electricity demand did not exceed supply, generating capacity would reach its limit by 2007.

“The government ignored its own ministry’s advice and has, instead,

committed to an enormous, costly, and controversial revamp of the country’s armaments despite there being no apparent threat to national security,” Fr Pollitt said.

He noted that despite the crisis, Eskom continues to pay its executives large bonuses.

“We can no longer accept a situation that will disadvantage all the citizens of South Africa. The culture of non-accountability that has been nurtured by those in public office can no longer persist. We can no longer tolerate corrupt and unaccountable leadership,” he said.

The Jesuit Institute has urged religious bodies, civil society and all people of good will “to demand accountability from the management of Eskom and the South African government”, and to call on the government to “remove any red tape that is preventing private investors and energy producers from entering the South African market”.

Members of the Ethiopian and Eritrean community with their certificates after a workshop on human trafficking.

Trafficking workshop held STAFF REPORTER

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THIOPIAN and Eritrean community members attended a Human Trafficking in Persons (CTIP) workshop at the Bertoni Centre in the archdiocese of Pretoria.

The workshop was organised by evangelist Hailu Tumebo Adalo, the Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic community national coordinator.

It was run by Sr Melanie O’Connor HF, coordinator of the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life desk in conjunction with the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The aim of the training workshop was to build the numbers of concerned people to fight the evil of human trafficking, which is spreading in our society.

Catholic participants came together from Pretoria, Johannesburg, Tembisa and Rustenburg, and mem-

bers of the Ethiopian Pentecostal Church also attended.

The pentecostal group highly appreciated the Church’s Social Teachings, Mr Adalo said.

At the end of the workshop, participants elected Mr Adalo as chief coordinator and Fanose Haile as secretary .

In addition, area coordinators were elected: Dilamo Haile for Pretoria, Estefanos Worku for Johannesburg, Tesema Haile for Tembisa, Fanose Haile for Daveyton, Pastor Dasta Stagaye for Heidelberg, and Hailu Tumebo for Rustenburg.

At the end of the workshop, participants received certificates from the CTIP. They expressed great thanks to Sr Melanie.

The community hopes to arrange more workshop events at various diocesan centres for Church and society leaders.

WO representatives of the Edmund Rice Network in South Africa (Ernsa) attended the United Nations’ 20th universal periodic review in Geneva, Switzerland.

Malcolm Gertse and ShariAnn Kennedy took part in valuable training on social justice and advocacy as part of an Edmund Rice international delegation.

“This training allowed our representatives to enhance their knowledge and understanding of human rights, both from an academic and a practical perspective,” said Emily Masters, Ernsa’s field worker for the Volunteer, Social Justice and Advocacy Desk.

The UN’s universal periodic review involves a review of the human rights records of all UN member states. It is a state-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which, ac-

cording to its website (www.ohchr. org/en/hrbodies/upr/pages/uprmain.a spx), “provides the opportunity for each state to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations”.

During training Mr Gertse and Ms Kennedy received valuable knowledge about the UN and its mechanisms aimed at improving social justice worldwide. They attended various meetings and were given the opportunity to be directly involved in the international environment.

They reported that they were enriched by the personal connections they made with relevant personnel that provided continuous support and advice throughout the experience.

“It has helped me develop and strengthen my interest in human rights,” Mr Gertse explained.

“There is no doubt by the time I returned to South Africa, I had an

enriched knowledge and better perception of the state of human rights around the world.”

He expressed his enthusiasm for human rights within his field of education and his desire to make a more significant contribution to Ernsa’s work.

Through the training, Ms Kennedy said she was able to understand how she could make a difference in her own community, province and country, equipping her to stand up against injustices and educate fellow citizens on their human rights.

She said that “the training gave me more insight into how humanity’s enjoyment of rights has been—and still are being—violated. I was stunned at the number of people who are not aware of their rights, myself included, just because they have never faced the harsh realities of them being taken away.”

HOPE: health and fun in Blikkiesdorp

BY DYLAN APPOLIS

A

S part of their activities for World Aids Day, HOPE Cape Town held a health talk for parents from the Blikkiesdorp community and raised awareness about HIV/Aids and TB. The parents and their children were also treated to a hot dog and health drinks.

The children were also very ex-

cited to receive Christmas gifts and showed off their new toys, bringing joy for the day which helped them to forget their daily struggles.

“Blikkiesdorp is one of the communities that we are very active in and have a permanent presence here,” HOPE Cape Town donor relations manager Fahim Docrat said.

“On World Aids Day we were highlighting the need for awareness campaigns but also the need for outreach initiatives that address basic health and nutrition issues in such communities.

“Addressing HIV/Aids must be done in a comprehensive manner with full regard for the context and associated social ills,” he added.

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The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

INTERNATIONAL

Pope to Catholics: Thank God for gift of religious

BY CINDY WOODEN

D

URING the Year of Consecrated Life, all Catholics are called to thank God for the gifts members of religious orders have given the Church and the world, to join them in prayer and find practical ways to support them and their ministries, Pope Francis said.

“Let them know the affection and the warmth which the entire Christian people feels for them,” the pope said in a letter issued for the special year, which opened on November 30 and will close on February 2, 2016, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

The Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican court, issued a note specifying that both lay and consecrated people can receive an indulgence for participating in events related to the Year of Consecrated Life, going to confession, receiving the Eucharist and offering prayers for the intentions of the pope.

In his letter, Pope Francis also offered greetings to Orthodox communities of monks and nuns, and to members of Protestant religious orders, who also take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and are “expressions of fraternal communion and service”. Dialogue between Catholic religious and those of other traditions “can prove helpful for the greater journey towards the unity of all the churches”, he said.

The bulk of the pope’s letter was

addressed specifically to the world’s more than 900 000 Catholic religious priests, brothers, sisters and consecrated virgins.

“Leave your nests and go out to the peripheries,” he told a vigil in Rome’s basilica of St Mary Major.

“Live on the frontiers” where people are waiting to hear and understand the Gospel.

“Wake up the world, enlightening it with your prophetic and countercultural witness,” he said in a video message to those at a Mass in St Peter’s basilica.

T

he pope’s letter for the year explained that while he was writing as pope, he was also writing as a Jesuit, “a brother who, like yourselves, is consecrated to the Lord”.

Knowing the gifts and challenges of religious life from the inside, Pope Francis urged religious to “look to the past with gratitude”, rediscovering the way their predecessors read “the signs of the times” and responded with creativity. However, it also involves recognising the difficulties and inconsistencies resulting from human weakness and learning from them.

“In a polarised society where different cultures experience difficulty in living alongside one another and where the powerless encounter oppression, where inequality abounds, we are called to offer a concrete model of community which, by acknowledging the dignity of each per-

son and sharing our respective gifts, makes it possible to live as brothers and sisters,” he said.

“Don’t be closed in on yourselves,” he said, “don’t be stifled by petty squabbles, don’t remain a hostage to your own problems.”

A person’s attitude reflects what is in his or her heart, the pope said, and for consecrated people that means “to know and show that God is able to fill our hearts to the brim with happiness”.

“None of us,” he said, “should be dour, discontented and dissatisfied, for a ‘gloomy disciple is a disciple of gloom.’”

Countering the decline in the number of people entering religious life in the West will not be the “result of brilliant vocations programmes”, the pope said, but of meeting young people who are attracted by the joy they see in religious men and women.

The special mission of consecrated people in the Church has not ended, he told them. “A whole world awaits us: men and women who have lost all hope, families in difficulty, abandoned children, young people without a future, the elderly, sick and abandoned, those who are rich in the world’s goods but impoverished within, men and women looking for a purpose in life, thirsting for the divine.” n The English translation of the pope’s letter for the year can be found at www.bit.ly/12k1qex

Why did 35 prisoners die of a drug overdoses?

T

HE bishops of Venezuela have called for a government investigation into the deaths of 35 inmates who raided a prison infirmary and died of overdose and intoxication.

The Venezuelan bishops’ Committee on Justice and Peace issued the statement after nearly three dozen prison inmates at the David Viloria penitentiary centre in the western state of Lara stormed the infirmary and ingested a cocktail of medicines including pure alcohol,

anti-seizure drugs, antibiotics and hypertension treatments.

Humberto Prado, director of the Venezuelan Prisons Watch, blamed the massive overdose on prison officials, who have been repeatedly denounced for “abuse, torture, lack of nourishment and medical attention”, which reportedly led prisoners to begin hunger strikes.

The bishops’ statement expressed concern that prisons in the country have become overcrowded and places of “violence, punish-

St Francis de Sales Associate

D

WARFED by the grown-ups holding banners and signs around her, little Ruby Arizabal clutched a doll in one hand and a candle in the other.

“I’ve come here,” she said, “because the planet is sad.”

The six-year-old was one of the youngest participants in an interfaith candlelight march and prayer vigil to coincide with the UN climate summit, which is running from December 1-12 in this city of 9 million people that sprawls across Peru’s coastal desert.

The summit is seen as a crucial last step on the road to a new international treaty to curb emission of greenhouse gases, which a new UN study says could push global temperatures to dangerous levels by the end of this century.

“We don’t just want promises— we want them to be put into action,” Elias Szczytnicki, general-secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Council of Religious Leaders of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, told the marchers.

Development that ignores environmental impacts “will have very significant consequences for future

generations,” he said.

“We want to pray and to show publicly that religious communities are aware of what is happening and are committed to the idea that we must reduce emissions and we must pressure our leaders,” said Laura Vargas, former executive secretary of the Peruvian bishops’ social action commission and one of the organisers of the vigil and a related fast.

“Underlying all religious traditions are two basic principles,” she said. “The first is caring for others and the second is stewardship of nature.”

Valerio Mendoza, 83, held a poster proclaiming “SOS”, with a polluted Earth as the “O”.

“We’re not behaving well towards the planet,” said Mr Mendoza, one of more than 50 parishioners from Lima’s Santa Cruz parish who have been studying about the stewardship of creation and spearheading campaigns to clean up their neighbourhoods and promote recycling.

During the 12-day summit, negotiators are trying to finish drafting an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help countries adapt to climate change. The final version, to be approved in December 2015 in Paris, would take effect in 2020.—CNS

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The Southern Cross receives no subsidies and is entirely self-sufficient. This means that one bad year too many could put The Southern Cross in danger of following the many titles worldwide that have already closed down.

Named after the two-time editor of Southern Cross, those whose annual contribution is R1 500 or more. Cardinal Owen McCann Associates receive a free postal or digital subscription to The Southern Cross.

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ment and repression that weaken even further those who are deprived of liberty, instead of formation centres for social reinsertion”.

Consequently, they said, the government should “immediately launch an investigation to clarify the circumstances surrounding the deaths and intoxications of the prisoners”.

In addition, the bishops offered prayers for all those who suffer from prison violence each day.— CNA

Ruby Arazabel, 6, takes part in a vigil for climate change in Lima, Peru.

The UN climate summit is taking place in the city this month. (Photo: Barbara Fraser)

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

5

‘Nun’s Life’ website a growing vocations ministry

BY MARK PATTISON

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HAT started out as a blog at a time when few people knew about blogs, and hardly anyone was familiar with Twitter, is a living and growing ministry run by two women religious who are Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Srs Julie Vieira and Maxine Kollasch oversee their website A Nun’s Life from Toledo, Ohio, which is a quick drive from their order’s motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan.

Soon they will be joined by a third sister because the Internet ministry continues to expand. Blogs have been joined by podcasts and heart-to-heart question-and-answer message boards for women—and men—thinking about religious life and whether it is something they should pursue.

And early in 2015, A Nun’s Life (www.anunslife.org) will launch a redesigned website tailored to be more user-friendly, particularly for smartphone users.

Sr Vieira said she and Sr Kollasch both professed final vows with their order in 2006, and A Nun’s Life has been their ministry ever since.

In thinking of the missionary sisters “of today and yesterday, and all the things they had to do—build a house, find water”—it seems that what they are doing with A Nun’s Life is not all that different, she said.

She and Sr Kollasch were both looking online “for stuff on nuns, sisters, religious life,” Sr Vieira recalled. “All we found were caricatures. It was very problematic. No one was out there defining who we are as Catholic sisters.”

A Nun’s Life came from a joint realisation by the two nuns, along with their religious superiors, that the order’s newest members had some know-how in the online world, and that their own order— and many others besides—could benefit from an online presence.

“Facebook was just growing in 2006. Twitter started in 2006,” Sr Vieira said. “We started small, very small, with a free Wordpress blog.”

Back then, she added, the prevailing attitude was, “Oh! You’re Catholic sisters. Oh! You have computers! Oh! You’re using the Internet!”

A Nun’s Life was asking: “What’s it like to be a sister?” It “bust some stereotypes,” Sr Vieira said. “Then it became, ‘What’s it like to pray when God isn’t there?’”

Irish parish records to be made available online T

BY MICHAEL KELLY

HE Catholic Church and the National Library of Ireland have partnered to make almost 400 000 images of Catholic parish register microfilms available online for free.

A National Library of Ireland statement called the records the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 census.

Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover nearly 1 100 parishes throughout the island of Ireland and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records.

“Most census records from this period were destroyed in the Four Courts fire of 1922, so these parish registers are the most comprehensive surviving source of information on Irish families in the 1700s and 1800s,” said Colette O’Flaherty, head of special collections at the National Library of Ireland.

At a launch of the project in Dublin, she said she believed that the digitisation “will be of huge assistance to those who wish to

Holy Cross church in Kerry research their family history”.

“The NLI has worked with the Catholic Church to preserve these registers since the 1950s, when we were initially invited to make microfilm copies,” she said.

“Now, in the 21st century— and in keeping with our aim of enhancing accessibility through

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making our collections available online—we are delighted to embark on this major digitisation project,” she said.

The digital images will be available, for free, on a dedicated website, which will be launched in mid-2015.

The information in the registers varies from parish to parish but, typically, includes the dates of the baptisms or marriages and the names of the key people involved, including godparents or witnesses.

The microfilms have been available to visitors to the National Library of Ireland since the 1970s. However, this project means that, for the first time, anyone will be able to access these registers without having to travel to Dublin.

Estimates put the number of people around the globe who claim Irish heritage at some 80 million, including more than 36 million Americans, 14 million Britons, 4,5 million Canadians, 7 million Australians and up to 1 million Argentines.—CNS

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Sr Julie Vieira, who helps oversee the website A Nun’s Life, pictured left. (Photo: Bob Roller/CNS) She added that her favourite story from A Nun’s Life is that of a young man who took vows as a Dominican novice in the Netherlands. He gave much of the credit to A Nun’s Life for aiding his discernment.

“You’re the ones who helped me, let me ask all the dumb questions,” he told A Nun’s Life. “You let me see that religious are people, and now I am one, too.”

Sr Vieira herself had no access to any kind of online vocation or discernment website before she entered religious life in 1997. She was working for a Catholic publishing house and studying theology.

“I never imagined myself as a sister,” she said, adding she thought all nuns fit the popular stereotype of women in full habits and teaching in schools.

In her studies, she said she found herself “captivated” by the theology of the Jesuit theologian Fr Karl Rahner (1904-84). “It got to the point, ‘Why is this affecting my prayer life?’,” she recalled.

When Sr Vieira approached her professor about this, he said she might benefit from spiritual direction. “I was, ‘What?’,” she remembered reacting.

The spiritual director turned out to be an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister. “After several months, I was listening to her...talking about ‘my sisters’ with a warmth and love one would expect about blood sisters,” she recalled.

It convinced her to explore religious life “to be faithful to who I am as a Catholic woman”, she said. “I felt I had to do it, at least to cross it off my list.”

And now Sr Vieira is helping others be faithful to themselves as they explore vocations.—CNS

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6

The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The fallout from the long postal strike

T

HE long, protracted postal strike has done business in South Africa great harm.

It affected especially small and medium-sized enterprises which rely on the services of a postal system, even one as chronically unreliable and inefficient as that provided by the South African Post Office (Sapo).

The strike has also done great damage, probably lasting, to The Southern Cross, more of which later.

The strikers’ grievances, it must be noted, had merit, even if some vandalism in expressing these showed a deplorable disregard for those customers on whose patronage the Post Office and its workers would rely after the strike.

It has become an unfortunate feature of South African labour relations that in disputes between employers and labour, the needs and rights of uninvolved third parties are often treated with disregard and even contempt. For this, trade unions must be held answerable.

In the postal strike, however, the greater culpability resides with Sapo, which in its highest mismanaging echelons treated its workers poorly and in defiance of good labour practice.

The government must be held to account as well. How could the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services allow a situation where workers for a state-owned enterprise were exploited for so many years, and be deaf to their situation? Where was the due oversight? And what, if anything, did the ministry do to minimise the effects of the strike on the public and the economy?

Threats by the Communication Workers Union that the strike may resume if Sapo does not accede to its demands, which the union says are not covered by the deal that ended the industrial action in November, are ominous.

Between the actions and inactions of labour, Sapo and the government, one might well speak of economic sabotage.

Several businesses have gone to the wall or have come close to it because of the long strike and its after-effects.

Accounts and payments have been undelivered, and trade by mail was made impossible in the absence of a cost-effective alternative. A group of publications is even considering a class action suit against the Post Office.

The Southern Cross was badly affected by the strike, as most of its readers will know.

T

he newspaper is distributed by post to most parishes around South Africa. Currently only the bigger parishes in Cape Town and Johannesburg receive direct delivery; in the case of Johannesburg this is so because even in good times the postal service in that city—South Africa’s commercial hub—is chronically unreliable.

In the absence of postal services during the strike, The Southern Cross took to distributing the newspaper to many regions by courier services. Sales by this method of distribution came at a deficit.

The grave injury inflicted by the postal strike on the newspaper was moderated by the understanding and generosity of

many parishes which decided not to claim against copies that were unsold because the newspapers were undelivered.

This week we publish the letter from one such priest, Fr Barry Reabow SAC, who explains the reasons for his parish’s decision to aid The Southern Cross.

The staff of The Southern Cross have been touched by the solidarity and generosity they experienced from many priests and parishioners in extremely difficult times: from the priest in Pretoria who on Facebook called on his fellow priests not to claim for unsold copies, to the priest who made a weekly 240km roundtrip by train to collect the bundle of newspapers for his parish, to the many messages of prayers from concerned priests and readers.

Even the staff of the newspaper, in both administration and editorial departments, are foregoing their annual Christmas bonus this year to aid their newspaper.

These various expressions of solidarity have helped the newspaper, which has always run on delicate financial margins.

Nevertheless, the injury of the postal strike has significantly weakened The Southern Cross’ finances.

T

he strike might have other consequences, too. There is a grave concern that parishes which cancelled their weekly order because of the strike might not resume selling The Southern Cross, or do so in diminished quantities (as some parishes have done already). In this way, the strike’s harmful effects are long-term, even permanent.

The massive loss of revenue and the cost of using alternative ways of distribution cannot be made up by normal operational income, except by instituting a price increase we currently do not want to make.

Because of the strike, the newspaper has had to draw from its reserves that it cannot replenish through income from sales and advertising, which is used to keep the operation running.

During the 2013/14 financial year The Southern Cross closed its books with a small surplus, showing that this wholly unsubsidised newspaper can still sustain itself.

However, another postal strike or a couple of successive bad years could see the demise of the 94-year-old Southern Cross.

The Southern Cross therefore needs the help of South Africa’s Catholic community. This can be done in several ways: • By becoming an Associate and giving direct financial support to strengthening and protecting the newspaper’s reserves, as well as to sustain The Southern Cross’ various outreach programmes; • Helping to boost circulating by actively promoting The Southern Cross in the parish, making the newspaper an integral part of parish life; • Using The Southern Cross as an advertising platform.

And, as in all things Catholic, you can also support The Southern Cross through your prayers.

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.

Back our treasured Southern Cross

A

S a parish priest, I feel it is not the time in the present crisis situation created by the long Post Office strike to claim for unsold copies of The Southern Cross.

There is a greater value at stake here: the voice of the Church through the printed media. We, at the cathedral of Christ the King in Queenstown, have probably lost heavily owing to late-arrivals, or no arrivals at all, but this parish will not

Collision course

A

RCHBISHOP Stephen Brislin rightly states that persons who align themselves with the cause of women’s ordination are on a collision course with the Church’s authority (November 19). From where does the Church get this authority?

Our Blessed Lord said to St Peter singly (Mt 16:19) and to the Apostles as a group (Mt 18:18) that whatsoever they should bind or loose on earth, heaven would ratify their decisions. Bind or loose was a phrase of the Jewish rabbis; it means to permit or forbid.

Thus Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis could declare that “the Church has no authority to declare priestly ordination on women”. And thus Pope Francis, in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium could state that “the reservation of the priesthood to males...is not a question open to discussion”.

Dr Mary Ryan is quoted as saying that “my Church has legislated that only celibate males may be ordained” (in Owen Gush’s letter, November 19). At every Holy Mass, we pray at the offertory: “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name, for our good, and the good of all his holy Church”. The problem is that it is not our Church but his. We need to remember it is his Church.

In the secular state, the authority rulers exercise is in the people, whereas in the Church it comes direct from God. Obedience has a sacredness; as St Paul writes in Hebrews 5:8-9: “Although Jesus was Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of salvation to all who obey him.”

While the Church’s laws exist, they ought to be obeyed, even if we think they could be improved upon.

Dominic Sam, Port Elizabeth

Count me in

I

WAS somewhat taken aback—and more than a little amused—at what appeared to me to be something of an incongruity between the headings of the news articles on

claim for any unsold copies.

If we have had financial losses, then The Southern Cross as such has certainly had much heavier losses than we have had. Our prayer is: may this senseless strike at Sapo never be able to crush The Southern Cross into giving up.

May God continue to bless you in your frustrating work at this time, and may he send us better days. And may this fantastic little your front page of November 19: “Bishops: Accept teaching on women priests” and “Pope: Clergy don’t know everything”. Surely the placement of the respective articles wasn’t deliberate.

I read both articles carefully, and I have also read the news articles regarding Dr Ryan’s ordination in The Southern Cross of October 15 and in the Mail & Guardian. I have also read carefully letters in your issues of November 5 and November 19, and have read most carefully the SACBC’s “Pastoral Statement on the Attempted Ordination to the Priesthood”, signed by Archbishop Stephen Brislin in his capacity as SACBC president.

Having read all of the above, having reflected seriously upon them and having prayed earnestly about this whole question of Dr Ryan’s ordination, I would like to be associated with the opinions expressed/questions asked in the letters of Boshell et al, Gabriella Broccardo and Owen Gush.

CI (Kit) McLoughlin, Johannesburg n The placement of the two news articles was entirely coincidental as we saw no relationship between the content of the reports.—Editor.

Accountability sorely lacking

T

HIS year the solemnity of Christ the King was celebrated with the gospel reading from Matthew 25:31-46. It reminded us as Christians and especially Catholics how we will be called to account for not acting on injustices against the least of our countrymen.

The gospel reading immediately challenged my conscience to become actively engaged on matters currently playing out in the National Assembly. Catholics are challenged daily to seek justice by opposing that which is unjust, especially against those who are vulnerable and weak.

In the South African governance system, separation of powers is the system employed to separate the executive, the legislature and the judiciary into three independent bodies or structures.

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paper—which I personally love more than I can express, right from the days when I was still a kid at school—regardless of difficulties, be blessed and go from strength to strength.

Anybody who does not love this paper is lacking in at least part of the love he or she should have for the holy Church.

May God’s super-abundant blessings be upon you all.

Fr Barry John Reabow SAC, Queenstown The executive consists of the president, and cabinet is appointed by the president.

The legislature consists of the speaker and members of parliament; the speaker is elected by all the members of parliament, likewise the president.

The executive and cabinet are tasked with bringing about muchneeded development on all levels to ensure South Africa is benefiting all its people, especially the vulnerable and weak. The National Assembly (legislature) monitors and holds the executive (president and cabinet) accountable in achieving that.

Currently the National Assembly, the body that should ensure the people of South Africa get the benefits they deserve, is highly divided on how to monitor and account for large amounts of funds spent on the president’s family home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.

This division is of extreme concern because it does not focus on the task of monitoring and holding the executive, in this case especially the president, to account.

The serious concern that exists is whether majority of members of parliament understand their commitment and support of the South African people, the South African Constitution, and the country as a whole.

Allan Sauls, Kempton Park

Catechism help

T

HERESA Lovall’s lament (November 12) as a self-confessed poorly catechised cradle Catholic should benefit from the pocketsized Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, available from Catholic bookshops at R95.

Highly recommended.

Adrian Kettle, Cape Town Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or staff of the newspaper, or of the Catholic hierarchy. The letters page in particular is a forum in which readers may exchange opinions on matters of debate.

Letters must not be understood to necessarily reflect the teachings, disciplines or policies of the Church accurately.

Letters can be sent to PO Box 2372, Cape Town 8000 or editor@scross.co.za or faxed to 021 465-3850

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PERSPECTIVES

Superfast cars and fast Internet E VERY now and then one has the good fortune to live out a childhood fantasy. Fortune smiled upon me and sent me to the middle of the parched and hot Kalahari desert of the Northern Cape.

Heat and dust are not ordinarily associated with good fortune. Some might even argue that being in the middle of the Northern Cape is most certainly not good fortune at all. But throw together Richard Noble, the Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC) team, fighter jets, helicopters, ICT and blistering fast Jaguars and you have a twelve-year-old’s dream in the middle of the desert.

Dave Rowley, Bloodhound SSC’s South African education programme director, said that the story starts approximately seven years ago.

As most men who have a world record, Andy Green—current land speed record holder and the only person to ever travel at supersonic speed on land at 1 149,303 km/h in the Thrust SSC—got the urge to top his personal best and went to see the then British defence minister in an effort to “borrow” a classified jet engine meant for a fighter jet. The minister responded with a much expected “buzz off!”.

One of the minister’s top officials, however, saw opportunity where none existed and called Andy and Richard Noble back, telling them that they could have the jet engine, provided they inspired a new generation of engineers and scientists to build jet engines like the one they needed.

So in as much as the Bloodhound team have ambitions of building a 1 600km/h car, a car that will be run on the flats of

Hakskeenpan in the northern parts of the Northern Cape, they also have the task of inspiring a new generation of engineers, while building it.

Some 6 000 British schools are signed on to the programme, which bodes well for the defence official’s wish to have young scientists and engineers inspired to build him better military toys. And there’s an awesome spin-off for South African schools as well.

D

ave Rowley heads the education programme here in South Africa, where 700 schools will participate in the programme. Of these, 97 schools are situated in the Northern Cape.

Fr Aloysius Roets, a Benedictine for 20 years and now a diocesan priest, is part of the education team for the Bloodhound SSC team. We visited one of these schools located in a town called Groot Mier, where the school and the church are the only

The Bloodhound SSC at completion. The 1 000m/ph (1 600km/h) car that is to smash the land speed record next year.

(Photo: Stefan Marjoram)

Gushwell Brooks

Talking about Faith

two places that could provide any sort of employment, never mind meaningful employment, in the area.

Fr Aloysius best describes the sense of dearth for the people living in the sparsely populated settlements around Hakskeenpan: “They have nothing else but sun, dust and sin.”

The MTN Foundation not only built a state of the art computer laboratory for the learners of Groot Mier Primary, but Fr Aloysius informed us of how everything at the school was repaired, from the roof to the signage.

The biggest benefit to the school is best summed up by the principal: “Before August 25 we did not know what Google was, but now the children of Groot Mier not only have their horizons broadened by Google, but they can link up to the school in Bristol, the school close to where the actual supersonic car is being built and exchange and share knowledge.”

At the heart of it, we are all still little kids who get giddy at the thought of a car travelling at 1 610 km/h, fighter jets that can’t keep up and helicopters that follow the action from the skies.

But the grown-up in me is very pleased with the fact that a bunch of kids in the Northern Cape, kids who hardly have access to water, let alone to the world, now can see what the rest of the world is getting up to via the Internet.

The surprising silence of Christmas Mphuthumi I Ntabeni HAVE never really been a fan of Christmas, but there is one year in particular that sends me down memory lane.

I was nine years old, meaning it was 1979. My brother and I knew by August that we would be getting bikes for Christmas.

My brother—just 17 months older than me, but he thought it was at least two years—answered our parents within a second of their asking what kind of a bike he wanted, right down to the colour: a red clipper with break pedal.

He was always much more prepared, decisive, than me in such things. So three months later, and my mother’s fraying nerves scorched, I delivered with my answer: “I want a chopper. I don’t care about the colour, so long as it’s not red.”

Come Christmas Eve I was unable to sleep with excitement. Because ours was a simple two-roomed house in a little town of Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, my head was facing the direction of the chimney that Father Christmas was coming through, and there was no way I was missing the chance to greet him that year.

I can remain still for hours; you would think I have turned into a statute of salt like Lot’s wife. Sometimes my mother, a professional nurse, would come take my pulse out of concern.

My stillness called my parents’ bluff that Christmas Eve. At twenty minutes past eleven (I was watching the clock, trying not to blink) they blew out the lamp, pretending to go sleep. The window curtain was left half drawn, letting in the silver light from the moon.

My parents’ silhouettes appeared shortly after midnight. I didn’t know how to react as they came dragging in the bicycles. I had never been that embarrassed for them before. I ended up crying, hiccoughing under the blankets. Luckily they

Pushing the Boundaries

A chopper bicycle: In 1979 it was an object of desire for a nine-year-old boy. never noticed.

When I awoke the following morning my brother was already riding the bike outside in the street. Problem is, he was riding my bike, not his. When I made for my mother to understand that he was doing a naughty thing by riding my bike, she told me they had decided the chopper was better off with my brother because it was a bigger bike; I could ride the clipper until I got older, then they would buy me a chopper.

I never even protested. I had waited so long, thinking, eating, boasting about nothing but that bike. Yet at the back of mind I had a sneaking suspicion the whole thing was too good to be true. I just knew it! Now I was being proven right. I went to sit outside at the pavement, watching my brother ride my bike. From then on things started getting complicated in my head.

L

ater on, our cousins came for Christmas lunch. It was back to bicycle riding for my brother. One of our cousins asked my mother if he could ride the other bike, which was where Father Christmas had left it. My mother cheerfully said: Of course, since its owner does

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not seem to care for it. She sarcastically added something about an ungrateful spoilt brat, but I couldn’t hear well, I was already out of the house.

The chain on the gate caught my hand and left a scratch. The stupid milk man was pedalling his carrier bike, on Christmas. On Christmas!

I crossed the road over to the reeds, waddling the stinking rivulet called Voyizana that gave the pejorative name to our area. Thinking it to be a stone I stepped on a rotten fish carcass—later at home I said it was shark, but I knew it was fish, a big fish perhaps, but a fish nonetheless.

Its skeletal bone dug into my foot. As I crossed to the other side my injured foot felt warm. I looked down. It was oozing blood. Alarmingly.

I knew the only thing to do was to go back home, but recalling the sarcastic emphasis on my mother’s face as she said: “Of course, since the owner…”, I thought better of it and risked the wild.

I proceeded ahead until I got to a small ditch before you get to the Chinese shop.

I lay there supine. My foot was starting to feel as if it was not there. I avoided looking down in case my suspicions were confirmed.

I tried guessing the shapes of clouds.

One looked like a smoking pipe, but I couldn’t be sure. Nevertheless I wondered if it was Father Christmas coming to sort out the confusion, since obviously when he handed my parents the bikes they misunderstood which belonged to Continued on page 11

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The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

7

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

Point of Faith

Let’s test the claims of faith-healers

T

HE junior doctors working in Zimbabwe’s major referral hospitals recently went on strike for better pay and improved working conditions.

An evangelical pastor named M Cedric, who is active in a faith ministry, made the claim that God heals all sickness and diseases if we only pray for it—which would make doctors superfluous.

Praying for and with the sick is something all Christians do. Even traditional religion is largely about driving out evil spirits to restore people’s health, and indigenous religious movements like the white-gowned, bearded “Apostles”, with a shepherd’s crook in hand, are attracting the sick to pray over them.

Nurses in a Harare hospital recently put up posters saying, “We treat our patients, God heals”.

Christians have always believed that they must take care of the sick and show their love to them just as Jesus did.

God uses the hands of doctors and nurses to heal the sick, and Christian doctors know they are doing God’s work and nurses pray for their patients while they look after them. They welcome priests whose pastoral care goes together with their nursing care.

The intelligence, ingenuity and skills of medical professionals are divine gifts for which we must be immensely grateful. Leaders of government and civil adminstration are morally obliged to provide health care facilities, and by that they are indirectly doing healing work.

Are medical workers trying to rival God? Are they showing lack of trust in the Divine Healer?

Is scientific medicine human hubris and arrogance? Not necessarily. Many physicians and surgeons know full well the limits of their craft.

There are surgeons who say a silent prayer when the theatre sister puts the surgical knife into their hands.

G

od enables and empowers. We honour him by using and developing the abilities he gives us. It is just bad theology to say God is working miracles for us so we can sit and do nothing. We don’t believe in a “god of free lunches”.

A reader wrote to a Zimbabwean Sunday newspaper recently, complaining bitterly about a “prophetic healer” who had persuaded his HIVpositive mother to stop taking her ARV medication: God will heal her through his prayer, if only she has faith. If she falls gravely ill again, will she think God has abandoned her?

Just visiting the sick and comforting them is not enough, we are told. We must pray to God, so he will remove all sickness. Really all?

The Church acknowledges rare divine intervention and healing. But we cannot force God to do our bidding. If there is a claim that a sick person was healed by divine intervention, the Church asks medical doctors, including agnostics, to investigate. If they find there is no scientific reason for the spontaneous and inexplicable recovery of a patient, the Church, normally inclined to be sceptical, accepts the claim.

Would it not be fair for the faith-healing “prophets” to subject their claims to a similar test? That, of course, would be the end of all propagandistic claims of sudden “mass healings”.

Some of our evangelical partners in dialogue state there is no heaven (Rev 6:14). They are concerned only about this our present existence.

But Christians must accompany their brothers and sisters also in their final hours. Death must not be a taboo. It is the door we all must go through. Medical science has developed palliative care for the terminally ill.

Not even “prophets” can claim that they and their clients are going to live forever. n Fr Oskar Wermter SJ works for the Pastoral Department of IMBISA, based in Harare.

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The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

COMMUNITY

The youth at St James parish in Kalk Bay, Cape Town, were confirmed by Archbishop Stephen Brislin. Archbishop Brislin is pictured with Jonathan Walters.

A group of pilgrims from Kokstad diocese travelled to Medjugorje accompanied by diocesan chancellor Fr Lizo Nontshe.

St Anthony of Padua parish in Pietermaritzburg held a parish family retreat hosted by the parish council for the Year of the Family. Fr Cajetan Amaku SPS directed the morning session on the theme “The Church as a family of God”. Natasha Tsouris who specialises in the Theology of the Body, directed the second session “Families we are born into as a little Church of the home”. The retreat ended with all participnts reaffirming their committment to the Church and their parish families at Mass conducted by parish priest Fr Noel McHenry SPS. (From left) Candice Padayachee, Theresa Naidoo, Fr Amaku, Natasha Tsouris, Fotunate Dlamini and Fr McHenry.

The Johannesburg Catholic Women’s League diocesan council held its annual general meeting at Victory Park. Pictured are outgoing diocesan president Elaine Phillips and her successor, Jill McPhail.

The fifth annual Archdiocese Men’s Weekend was held in Bainskloof in Wellington, Cape Town archdiocese. Over 253 men from 39 parishes attended the weekend, which had a focus on strengthening and encouraging men to stand and take up the challenge of living out a Christian Catholic life.

Speakers included Fr Peter-John Pearson and youth chaplain of Ecclesia Sean Lategan. Members of “The Men’s Band” are pictured at the retreat. The 2015 retreat will be held on November 13-15. Contact info@catholic men.co.za.

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Pilgrimage to Fatima, Garabandal, Lourdes, Dozulè, Lisieux and Paris led by Archbishop B Tlhagale OMI & Fr T Motshegwa 10 - 23 May 2015 Pilgrimage to Camino De Santiago Compostela in Spain led by Fr David Rowles 10 – 21 September 2015 Pilgrimage to Rome, Assisi and San Giovanni Rotondo led by Fr. Karabo Baloyi 20 – 30 September 2015 Pilgrimage to Medjugorje led by Fr Gavin Atkins 16 – 28 September 2015

St Michael’s parish in Redhill, Durban, held a junior catechism Christmas party.

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Pilgrimage to the Holy Land led by Fr Chris Townsend 31 August – 12 September 2015

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Dibueng Bosman (centre) was named head girl of Brescia House School in Johannesburg for 2015. She is pictured with two deputy head girls, Kopanang Moripe (left) and Katherine Atkinson.

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Sixteen young adults from the Mossel Bay churches of St Blaize, St Charles and St Thomas received confirmation from Bishop Francisco de Gouveia of Oudtshoorn.

Tableview parish celebrated the anniversary of the ordination of Deacon Stephen Armstrong (fourth left), with Mass concelebrated by Frs Carlo Adams (second left) and Kevin Dadswell (third left). Deacon Armstrong’s sons Kieran and Justin served at the altar for Mass.

POPE FRANCIS

The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

9

Pope on Turkey’s empty streets In Turkey, a country that is almost 100% Muslim, Pope Francis met with Christian and Muslim leaders, spreading his message of hope for reconciliation and peace.

FRANCIS X ROCCA analyses a very different papal trip.

A

NKARA and Istanbul were grey and cold, at least compared to Rome, during Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey.

And the general reception, outside of the pope’s official meetings, was hardly warmer. There were none of the enthusiastic crowds that usually greet him on his trips, no masses waving signs of welcome along his motorcade route or behind police barriers at the stops.

Pope Francis, who seems to thrive on contact with the public—especially with the young, the aged and the infirm—seemed dispirited by the lack of it this time.

Despite his relatively light schedule—six speeches over three days, compared to 14 during his three-day visit to the Holy Land in May—he looked attentive but increasingly weary at his public appearances.

There was an obvious reason, unrelated to the pope himself, for the general indifference to his presence. An observer did not need to know that Turkey is 99,8% Muslim to see that both cities he visited are dotted with the domes and minarets of countless mosques, miniature versions of the great monuments, Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, that he toured in Istanbul.

Even a brief experience of Christianity’s marginality in that part of world makes it easier to understand why Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, whom Pope Francis travelled to Turkey principally to see, is the papacy’s best friend in the Orthodox Church and an eager participant in ecumenical dialogue.

the West is, increasingly, Christian only in name. His late November visit to the European institutions in Strasbourg, France, where he arrived to find the streets practically empty, was a recent reminder of that reality in the Church’s traditional heartland.

A

T

(Top from left) Pope Francis meets with young refugees from civil wars in Syria and Iraq, a few hours after joining Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to denounce the plight of Christians there. (Photo: L'Osservatore Romano/CNS) Pope Francis speaks at the conclusion of a Divine Liturgy with Patriarch Bartholomew in the patriarchal church of St George in Istanbul. The liturgy marked the feast of St Andrew, patron of the ecumenical patriarchate. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) Pope Francis signs a book as he visits the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) (Below from left) Pope Francis visits the Sultan Ahmed mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, in Istanbul. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

The pope releases doves prior to celebrating Mass at the cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul. (Photo: Stoyan Nenov, Reuters/CNS) Pope Francis celebrates Mass in the cathedral of the Holy Spirit. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

he impressions of Christian lthough Patriarch Bartholoculture that the Muslim world mew is traditionally considered first among equals by encounters through globalisation are not the work of Orthodox bishops, his missionaries. LeavGreek Orthodox flock in ing Turkey’s PresiTurkey is estimated at The modern dency of Religious no more than 4 000 peoin Ankara ple, fewer than in many persecutors of Affairs after the pope’s American Catholic there, reparishes. Turkish au- Christians do not visit porters passed a thorities have kept his ask which luxury shopping church’s only seminary mall decorated closed for more than 40 Church their with lighted Christyears. Just across the victims mas trees. border, in Syria and In response to Iraq, Christian minoribelong to. the secularism of ties are being slaughEurope and other tered or driven from wealthy societies, their homes by militants Pope Francis has taken a different of the Islamic State.

Under such circumstances, it is tack from his two immediate predno wonder that Patriarch ecessors. The current pope deBartholomew would tell Pope nounces a “throwaway” culture of Francis: “We no longer have the abortion, euthanasia, unemployluxury of isolated action. The ment, economic inequality and modern persecutors of Christians environmental pollution. But he do not ask which church their vic- rarely speaks of secularism, and tims belong to. The unity that his teaching focuses less on the concerns us is regrettably already failings of contemporary society occurring in certain regions of the and more on the Church’s own world through the blood of mar- shortcomings as impediments to evangelisation. tyrdom.”

Whatever the advantages of In other words, necessity is the mother not only of invention but this pastoral strategy, Pope Francis ecumenism, which also makes it clearly does not expect short-term easier to understand why Patriarch results in Europe, which he deKirill of Moscow, who leads tens of scribed to the politicians in Strasmillions of Russian Orthodox and bourg as a “grandmother, no is closely allied with his nation’s longer fertile and vibrant” but “elgovernment, can maintain his derly and haggard”.

To see the Church’s future now, predecessors’ stance of refusing even to meet with the bishop of the pope must look elsewhere, such as the Philippines, where in Rome.

Rome obviously is a far less 1995 Pope John Paul celebrated a lonely place than Istanbul to be a single Mass in Manila with a conChristian. But Pope Francis follows gregation of more than 5 million.

Pope Francis travels there in Popes St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in recognising that January.—CNS

Why the patriarch kissed the pope

BY ELISE HARRIS

I

N a fraternal gesture Pope Francis asked for the blessing of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who marked a historic moment in ecumenical dialogue by kissing the head of the bishop of Rome.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ told reporters that “the pope asked the patriarch to bless him, and the patriarch kissed him,” adding: “It’s not the first time, I already saw the pope asking for the blessing of another brother, but this familiar way of the patriarch kissing the pope’s head was a first”.

The emotional moment came at the end of a busy second day during Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey.

The two have met several times before, including a shared moment of prayer in Jerusalem’s church of the Holy Sepulchre during the pope’s visit to the Holy Land in May, as well as at the Vatican in June for an invocation for peace between Israel and Palestine.— CNA

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10

The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

MINISTRY

Recognise the organists’ labour of love Are our Church organists appreciated in their parishes? Emeritus Professor NICHOLAS J BASSON, a leading organist and choir director, argues that more needs to be done to recognise their work and to provide training for future Church musicians.

H

AVING laboured at the organ in two separate parishes over a period of 55 years, I am encouraged to write this article as a matter of concern and not without some dismay.

My years of experience and service have without a doubt been a labour of love and absolute enjoyment. There is no doubt that being able to use one’s artistic talents to the honour and glory of God’s Church is an incomparable reward.

In order for organists to contribute meaningfully to the order of service at the celebration of Mass, they need to be believers in the true sense of the word.

However, although their spiritual disposition comes first, it can never replace the artistic knowhow. Faith, indispensable as it may be, does not make a person a capable organist; talents for and skills in organ-playing must go with it.

When the tabernacle was built, God himself filled men with his spirit, with ability and intelligence and knowledge of craftsmanship (Exodus 31:3-4). In dealing with the singers and musicians, the

scriptures speak about people “who were trained in singing to the Lord” (1 Chronicles 25:7). The word “skilful” is even used in this context.

From this it becomes clear that we should not be satisfied with a minimum, but should strive for the maximum (the optimum). Our rule should be: our best is not really good enough, for Christ holds the demand of perfection before us.

There are many parishes, unfortunately, which do not have the services of qualified, experienced organists. Understandably, they have to rely on the munificence of those willing souls with keyboard experience who labour religiously at the organ (or piano) during sung masses each Saturday and Sunday—not to mention the big feast days of Easter, Christmas, Pentecost, as well as parish missions and the weekly choir practices for those parishes lucky enough to boast a choir.

Without these musicians, sung Masses are simply contrived attempts at successful congregational singing.

I

magine singing polyphonic Masses, the carols at Christmas or the time-honoured music at Easter without suitable accompaniment! No bride would dream of walking up (and down) the aisle on her wedding day without the bridal and wedding march, or a suitable substitute, being played on the organ.

Despite their loyalty and dedication, these unsung heroes are rarely given any praise or acknowledgment, by clergy or parishioners, who simply expect the organists to be “on the bench” be-

An organist plays at Mass in the cathedral of Santa María La Real de La Almudena in Madrid, Spain. In his article, Nicholas Basson argues that organists in our churches aren’t always appreciated—a view evidently shared by Pope Francis. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) fore the entrance hymn is announced.

A considerable amount of time, effort and practising goes into the organist’s weekly schedule so that a reasonable presentation is evident at Mass. Sadly though, priests and parishioners alike do not see this as important, as long as the organist is there to execute his or her duties.

Organists are usually the last persons to leave the church after the recessional hymn is sung and a suitable postlude is played. There is nobody to greet them or make an encouraging comment about their musical contributions.

If organists are considered an integral office bearer in the music

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ministry, then they should be honoured accordingly and not taken for granted.

T

here is evidence of a serious shortage of suitable organists in several dioceses, yet little tends to be being done, that I am aware of, to ensure that our parishes will indeed benefit meaningfully in the future by training and encouraging our youth to pursue studies in Church music.

Last year Pope Francis addressed organists in a message. He clearly recognises the fact that organists are unjustly treated and affirms his esteem for them. Among other remarks, Pope Francis asserts: • “Indeed, it is necessary to recognise that you are an ignored group. Even the place where you exercise your art is hidden, invisible to the great masses. Who moreover, ignore you or don’t pay attention to you.”

• “Rarely is there someone who gives you a compliment for a piece which you have so laboriously prepared and played with your entire

soul.”

• “You are a badly rewarded group despite the fact that you render a precious service to the Church.

Congregations are indebted to you as your harmonies touch the most intimate fibres of the heart and bring to life in them feelings of adoration and aspiration to goodness.”

• “When doing your job, you are so close to the Lord! In a way you are delegates and representatives of an entire people and you praise the Lord in their name; you gather together all the voices, all the lamentations, all the sighs of the faithful, and you express them to God through the voice of the organ, sometimes joyous, sometimes sad, sometimes weak, sometimes mighty.”

The pope even speaks of suitable remuneration for organists.

• “In the meantime, I wish that the talents put to the service of the Church by those among you who have accomplished professional study and earned academic diplomas should be fairly recognised from the financial point of view.”

Further in his message, Pope Francis stresses the importance of the training of organists and emphasises in conclusion that an organist must be a person of faith and of prayer.

With the music ministry itself in the process of development in the archdiocese of Cape Town, for example, it is incumbent upon all who are genuinely concerned about the state of music in our parishes to take the sentiments expressed by Pope Francis very seriously.

Appreciate and support your organists in their endeavours to make congregational singing and their musical input at Mass a pleasurable experience.

Create opportunities for the youth to be exposed to the beauty of Church music so that our future in the music ministry is assured.

Being a parish organist is a labour of love—but those who labour in this vineyard should never be taken for granted.

Demons: incubi and succubi go to Google: sine-glossa.blogspot.com Ursulines Ursulines of of the theBlessed Blessed Virgin Virgin Mary Mary We VirginMary, Mary, Weare arethe theUrsulines Ursulines of of the the Blessed Blessed Virgin called througheducation educationofofgirls, girls, calledto toserve serveChrist Christ through women and servants, pastoral and social work. women and servants, pastoral and social work.

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CLASSIFIEDS Sr Shirley Kay IBVM

L

ORETO Sister Shirley Kay died peacefully on October 17 after a short illness at the age of 95.

She was born in Pretoria on July 1, 1919, the seventh child in a family of 13. When Shirley was a baby, the family moved to White River where her father bought a farm, and called it “Avalon”.

In those early days there was no church in White River and one of the missionary priests came on horseback to the farm about once a month. The children were taught catechism and prepared for the sacraments in the family. Shirley went as a boarder to Loreto Convent in Lydenburg.

When Shirley was 21 she en-

tered the novitiate at Loreto Convent Pretoria.

One of her elder sisters, Patricia, entered the Notre Dame Sisters. Both of them had great love and knowledge of history.

Shirley majored in history and English and taught in Pretoria for many years, as well as in Sea Point and Glen Cowie. When she retired from teaching, she did sterling work organising the Loreto archives in Pretoria. Sr Shirley was also instrumental in initiating the Past Pupils Association.

Her grandmother went to school in Loreto Abbey, Dublin, and her mother was among the first pupils in Loreto Convent, Skinner Street, so Sr Shirley’s fam-

ily had a long association with Loreto.

Sr Shirley decided to end her days in an Irish community and was assigned to Balbriggan in Fingal, Ireland, where she was lovingly cared for.

The Loreto Sisters in South Africa have many happy memories and recall the laughs she gave them when she entertained them with stories of her childhood and life on the farm.

Many teachers, parents and past pupils remember her with love and appreciation.

May God give her a rich reward for her consecration and ministry she did for love of him all her life.

The Southern Cross, December 10 to December 16, 2014

CLASSiFiEDS

Births • First Communion • Confirmation • Engagement/Marriage • Wedding anniversary • Ordination jubilee • Congratulations • Deaths • In memoriam • Thanks • Prayers • Accommodation • Holiday Accommodation • Personal • Services • Employment • Property • Others Please include payment (R1,37 a word) with small advertisements for promptest publication.

in MEMOriAM

DOnnELLY—Eugene. In loving memory of our longstanding colleague, friend and loyal servant of The Southern Cross who left us December 18, 2011.

Remembered fondly by the staff of The Southern Cross.

PrAYErS

snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Psalm 51

The surprising silence of Christmas Continued from page 7 whom. I hated myself for making excuses for them.

I was feeling dizzy when I walked back home.

I woke up as the shadows from the mountains were thickening.

My foot was bandaged and I was feeling nauseous. My mother brought me a glass of ginger ale, still saying something sarcastic under her breath about infecting my foot vagabonding instead of riding my bike “with other normal children”.

The word “normal” stuck in

my head. It seemed to explain something, taking a weight off my shoulders. The problem was that I was not normal, that’s where the problem lay. I watched my anger against my mother dissipate. It was not her fault, I was just not normal.

From the outside I could hear the sounds of merriment coming from friends, cousins, brothers and neighbours. Everyone was happy it was Christmas. I was not angry, just indifferent.

The whole thing didn’t feel a part of me, and I was not inter-

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Liturgical Calendar Year B Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday December 14, Third Sunday of Advent Is 61, 1-2.10-11, Resp: Lk 1, 46-50.53-54, 1 Thess 5, 16-24, Jn 1, 6-8.19-28 Monday December 15 Num 24, 2.7.15-17, Ps 25, 4-9, Mt 21, 23-27 Tuesday December 16 Zeph 3, 1-2.9-13, Ps 34, 2-3.6-7.17-19.23, Mt 21, 28-32 Wednesday December 17 Gen 49, 2.8-10, Ps 72, 1-4.7-8.17, Mt 1, 1-17 Thursday December 18 Jer 23, 5-8, Ps 72, 1-2.12-13.18-19, Mt 1, 18-24 Friday December 19 Judg 13, 2-7.24-25, Ps 71, 3-6.16-17, Lk 1, 525 Saturday December 20 Is 7, 10-14, Ps 24, 1-6, Lk 1, 26-38 Sunday December 21, Fourth Sunday of Advent 2 Sm 7, 1-5.8-12.14.16, Ps 89, 2-5.27.29, Rom 16, 25-2, Lk 1, 26-38

ested in being part of it. I preferred the games of the mind, counting how long it would take for the fly on the ceiling to get bored with that position. Daring the fly a wager: first one who moves loses. Letting the fly off easily because a slight violent wind came through the window and scared it off.

And then silence: to surprise me, to play with me, to smile at me, to assure me I was normal that side of heaven.

Silence is the part I understand best about God.

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)

CAPE TOWn: Helpers of god’s Precious infants. Mass on last Saturday of every month at 9:30 at Sacred Heart church in Somerset Road, Cape Town. Followed by vigil at Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Bree Street.

Contact Colette Thomas on 083 412 4836 or 021 593 9875 or Br Daniel SCP on 078 739 2988.

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

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

DurBAn: Holy Mass and novena

to St Anthony at St Anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9am. Holy Mass and Divine Mercy Devotion at 17:30pm on first Friday of every month. Sunday Mass at 9am. 031 309 3496 Overport rosary group.

At Emakhosini Hotel, 73 East Street every Wednesday at 6.30 pm.

Contact Keith at 083 372 9018 or 031 209 2536 nELSPruiT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Peter’s parish every Tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed by rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 17:30pm.

ON TAPE

A group of readers is preparing audio tapes of excerpts from The Southern Cross for interested people who are blind, sight-impaired, unable to hold a newspaper or illiterate.

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.

11

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

Vanessa And Vera.

HAVE mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than

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ALMigHTY eternal God, source of all compassion, the promise of your mercy and saving help fills our hearts with hope. Hear the cries of the people of Syria; bring healing to those suffering from the violence, and comfort to those mourning the dead. Empower and encourage Syria’s neighbours in their care and welcome for refugees. Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms, and strengthen the resolve of those committed to peace.

O God of hope and Father of mercy, your Holy Spirit inspires us to look beyond ourselves and our own needs. Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence and to seek reconciliation with enemies. Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria, and fill us with hope for a future of peace built on justice for all.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Light of the World, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

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

THAnkS

THAnkS to Sacred Heart of Jesus and St Jude for prayers answered. Alix.

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

Third Sunday

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4th Sunday of Advent: December 21 Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16, Psalm 89: 2-5, 27, 29, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-38

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Fr Nicholas King SJ

Sunday Reflections

And the “house” has two meanings: first, it is the “house” that David’s son Solomon is going to build, and second, it is house in the sense of David’s family. But there are going to be strict demands made on the family, and if David’s offspring act wrongly, then they will be given corporal punishment (not normally visited upon a Middle Eastern monarch). So what David was looking for will be given him: “Your house shall be established, and your kingdom, forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”

The passive verbs indicate that none of this is David’s achievement; God brings about the whole enterprise. There is a challenge here to those of us for whom Christmas is a

celebration of how well off we are.

In the psalm for next Sunday, the message has gone home, for the poet promises to “sing of the Lord’s loyalty…and your integrity”.

And the reason for this singing lies in what God has done for “my servant David”, giving him a succession “forever”, so that “he shall call me ‘my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation’.” Then for the third time the singer mentions God’s “loyalty and integrity”. The challenge is to see who is really in charge at Christmas.

The challenge is there in the second reading, too, from the end of Paul’s most influential letter. Here, what counts once more is what God has done, not what human beings might do: “The revelation of the mystery that was kept silent through eternal ages.” It is all done “by the command of the eternal God… glory for the ages to the only Wise God”.

The gospel is that loveliest of Luke’s stories, the Annunciation to Mary, painted by a thousand artists. What counts here is that God is actively at work: “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God.” Then comes a long description of where

Mohammed and the Eucharist I

N 1996, Muslim extremists martyred nearly an entire community of Trappist monks in Atlas, Algeria. Many of us, thanks to the movie Of Gods and Men are familiar with their story and also with the extraordinary faith and courage with which these monks, particularly their Abbott, Christian de Cherge, met their deaths.

Indeed the last letters of Christian reveal a faith and love that is truly extraordinary.

For example, in the months leading up to his death, when he already sensed what was to befall him, he wrote a letter to his family within which he already forgave his killers and hoped that they would later be with him in heaven, in the sun before God. As well, after his first face-to-face meeting with a terrorist leader, who has just beheaded nine people, he prayed: “Disarm me, disarm them.”

In his journals, which are published today, he shares this story: On the morning of his first Communion, he told his mother that he really didn’t understand what he was doing in receiving the Eucharist. His mother replied, simply: “You will understand later on.”

His journals then trace how his understanding of the Eucharist deepened during his lifetime, especially in the light of his interrelation with Islam and one extraordinary incident in his life.

This was the extraordinary incident.

From July 1959 until January 1961, Christian was an officer serving with the

Conrad

of Advent

Christmas is about to challenge us

O

NLY now is it permissible for us to mention the word “Christmas” in these weekly reflections, for it is nearly upon us (although in the shops they have been celebrating frantically for what seems like months).

And Christmas, to which our Advent has been pointing, is not what it is commonly supposed to be: gluttony for the affluent. Instead, and this is what the readings for next Sunday are telling us, the festival into which we are headed, is something of a challenge for us.

In the first reading, it is David who is challenged; he is doing very nicely, thank-you (and the author reminds us, “The Lord had given him rest from all his enemies round about”). David now has the bright idea that God needs to be rewarded for his generosity, “and I’ll build God a house”.

Nathan the prophet at first goes along with this, but then God has to admonish them both, that David is only “my servant” (twice), and he was just a shepherd-boy until God promoted him. Indeed, the boot is going to be on the other foot: “The Lord solemnly declares to you that he will build a house for you—The Lord!”

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Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

French army in Algeria. While there, he befriended a man named Mohammed, a family man, a simple man, and a devout Muslim. They soon forged a very deep bond.

One day, during a military skirmish, Christian was taken captive by the Algerian army. His friend Mohammed intervened and convinced his captors that Christian was sympathetic to their cause.

Christian was released, but the next day Mohammed was found murdered, in retaliation for his role in freeing Christian.

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his act of selflessness by his Muslim friend, who in effect gave his life for Christian, permanently seared Christian’s soul. It was never far from his mind, and his decision, as a monk, to return to Algeria and live in solidarity with the Muslim community at Atlas and remain there until he died, was largely a result of that foundational event.

But it also deepened his understanding of the Eucharist. His mother had told him: “You will understand later”, and now he did understand: the Eucharist doesn’t just make Jesus present; it also

makes present his sacrificial death for us.

Jesus died for us “and for the many”; but so too did his friend, Mohammed.

He also gave his death for another and in that sacrifice both imitated Jesus’ death and participated in it. Thus, for Christian, every time he celebrated the Eucharist, he celebrated too the gift of Mohammed’s sacrifice for him. His friend Mohammed had also shed his blood “for the many”.

Mohammed’s sacrifice helped Christian to recognise and more deeply appropriate Jesus’ sacrifice because he believed that, in the Eucharist, Jesus’ sacrifice and his friend’s sacrifice were both made real and present. Christian believed that Christ’s sacrifice includes the sacrifice shown in every act of sacrificial love and consequently his friend’s sacrifice was part of Christ’s sacrifice.

He’s right. At every Eucharist we memorialise the gift that Jesus made of his death, but that memorial includes too the sacrificial gift of everyone who has imitated Jesus’ selfless love and sacrifice.

In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ that we memorialise includes the sacrifice of all who have died, however unconsciously, “for the many”.

The Eucharist is a far-reaching mystery. We don’t ever fully grasp it. But we’re in good company. When Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, the apostles also didn’t really understand what he was doing, as is witnessed by Peter’s protests when Jesus tries to wash their feet.

Peter’s protests show clearly that he did not comprehend what Jesus meant in this Eucharistic gesture. And so, Jesus’ words to Peter and the apostles are almost identical to those of Christian de Cherge’s mother: “Later, you will understand.”

When I made my first Communion, I had a childlike understanding. My seven-year-old, catechised mind, believed I was receiving the real body of Jesus and that, at the Mass where the hosts were consecrated, we celebrated the sacrifice of Jesus that opened the gates of heaven for us.

Numerous theology degrees and 60 years later, I know now that what I understood about the Eucharist as a child was correct; but I also know that when those two things—Christ’s real presence and Christ’s sacrifice for us—are unpackaged, we find ourselves immersed in an ineffable mystery within which, among other things, all who sacrifice in love for us are also part of the Real Presence.

And so we keep going to the Eucharist, knowing that, later, we will understand.

the angel was sent; but it is the end of the next verse before we discover the name of the virgin that is Gabriel’s appointed destination.

The point is that God is running the whole show: “Rejoice, graced one; the Lord is with you…you have found favour with God. You are going to conceive in the womb and bear a son, and you are to call his name ‘Jesus’.”

However, even though God is in charge, that does not mean that our human reactions are unimportant. So Luke allows us to hear what Mary is feeling: “She was disturbed at the word, and asked about this greeting.” So she has to be reassured: “Nothing is impossible for God.” She is not dazzled by the prospects laid before her, that her son “will be great and will be called ‘Son of the Most High’; and the Lord will give him the throne of his ancestor David”. And God is limited; God cannot, will not, act without Mary’s consent. So we wait, a shade nervously, to hear Mary’s response: “Look—the Lord’s slave-girl.”

There is the real challenge to us, this Christmas: are we prepared, you and I, to say “Yes” to the plan of God?

Southern Crossword #632

ACROSS 1. It continues the story (6) 4. A chartered accountant and CIA meet at the tree (6) 9. It looks like wine (8,5) 10. They race to the post (7) 11. It’s needed in the soup kitchen (5) 12. Attach to the notice board (5) 14. Brusque, having rug around very loud (5) 18. Greek letter (5) 19. It may give you a malign look (4,3) 21. Fly on it to old Baghdad (7,6) 22. Pretending to be a model (6) 23. Not so long ago (6)

DOWN 1. Letter in damaged purse is magnificent (6) 2. She baked some royal tarts (5,2,6) 3. And after this our ... (prayer) (5) 5. Shoemaker at last (7) 6. The throng around Jesus (5,2,6) 7. Apostle of Scotland? (6) 8. Semblance (5) 13. You’ll read it in Rome (7) 15. How you mount the ladder (4,2) 16. Human existence (5) 17. Six players (6) 20. Effigy (5)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

PARISH’S deacon died, went to heaven, and was given a Mercedes for his good works.

A while later, its music director died, but was given only a small Toyota. Inwardly she was upset, especially when she saw the deacon driving around heaven in his silver grey Mercedes.

Then one day, the deacon saw that the music director had crashed her Toyota into a tree. She was outside the car, and laughing uncontrollably.

“Why are you standing here laughing when you have just smashed up your car?” he asked. “Because,” said the music director, “I just saw our priest go by on rollerblades.”

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