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The

S outher n C ross

October 31 to November 6, 2018

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Church leaders condemn state plundering STAFF REPORTER

Saints on the colonnade of St Peter’s Square are pictured as the sun sets at the Vatican. In Southern Africa the feast of All Saints, which in the universal calendar is on November 1, is transferred to the next Sunday, this year on November 4, to enable all Catholics to meet their holy day obligation. The transfer of a feast does not preclude its celebration on the actual date in parishes or in private. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS)

Slattery: We’re on right track STAFF REPORTER

T

HE spokesman for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has reiterated on a television documentary that the Catholic Church’s response to clerical abuse has been under “better control since 2000”.

Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria appeared on eNCA’s “Checkpoint” programme to respond to the case of William Segodisho, who was abused as a teenager by English Jesuit Father Bill MacCurtain in the late 1980s.

The archbishop stressed that all allegations of abuse must be reported to the civil authorities for investigation and prosecution.

Archbishop Slattery acknowledged that the Catholic Church had failed to deal with the incidence of clerical abuse. “We really apologise for that,” he said.

He also noted that most cases of abuse and their mishandling precede the 2000s when the local Church introduced progressively tighter protocols.

In the programme, Mr Segodisho outlined how Fr MacCurtain groomed and then sexually abused him.

Initially, the priest gave the teenager from Limpopo gifts and special favours, and arranged for the Church to sponsor Mr Segodisho’s schooling.

“I was feeling very special because there was a white priest taking care of me,” he said.

It felt like “a present from God”.

When the abuse started and continued, culminating in rape, Mr Segodisho recalls: “I felt so helpless, so tired, so defeated, because he [Fr MacCurtain] let you know the alternative was the streets.”

Fr MacCurtain was suddenly transferred to England in 1990. The Church soon stopped paying Mr Segodisho’s fees.

Mr Segodisho filed a formal complaint in 2001, and subsequently received a payment of R22 000.

His lawyer, Ian Levitt, is now seeking the extradition to South Africa of Fr MacCurtain, who is now 84 and living in Bournemouth.

In a letter, the priest has apologised to his victim, but without addressing him directly.

Mr Segodisho hopes that his testimony will encourage other victims of abuse to come forward and for the Church to heal itself.

“I don’t think the Catholic Church is an evil institution, but I want to affirm, from my personal experience, that there are people within that institution who do not deserve that title of ‘priest’,” he said.

“Unless the Church starts doing something about these people, they will continue to tarnish the good name of the Church and the good work it strives to do the world over.”

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EADERS of all significant South African churches, including the Catholic Church, have condemned the evident “plundering of public resources”, blatant waste of taxpayers’ money, prevailing corruption, and weakening of public institutions.

The National Church Leaders’ Consultation (NCLC) reflected on the state of the nation at their annual meeting, held at OR Tambo International in Johannesburg.

The Catholic Church was represented by Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

Reflecting on the moral, political, economic and social situation in South Africa since democracy in 1994, the Church leaders acknowledged “with appreciation the achievements of our government in asserting constitutional democracy, shifting state resources to the poor in the areas of grants, housing, water and electricity, [and] working towards a transformed and inclusive society.”

However, they also were alarmed by “the increasing evidence of the plundering of public resources as so far revealed in the commissions and reports addressing state capture, the VBS heist, the South African Revenue Service and the Public Investment Corporation”, among others.

The Church leaders noted the widespread service-delivery protests and violence which “attest to the fact that the numbers of unhappy people are seriously escalating”.

They also recognised “the growing pain in the feeling of exclusion and marginalisation of the coloured community; and the emerging political attack on the Indian population which undermines the quest for nation building.”

With a view to the 2019 elections, the Christian leaders pledged to refuse being “captured by State propositions, ideologies and party-political interests”.

They called for events that will “soak the electoral season in prayer”.

“We seek to reclaim the message and role

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of the Church as we exemplify the life and teachings of our Lord, Jesus Christ, live the Gospel imperatives, proclaim good news to all and advance the ideals of the Kingdom of God,” they said.

They committed their churches to: • Speak truth to the Church and to power, • Reclaim the prophetic voice of the Church; • Work against racism and xenophobia in our public discourse; • Act against violence and the exploitation of women in Church and society.

• Uphold morals, values. and serve the common good of society; • Contribute towards the development of “responsible and accountable leadership” in all spheres of life, including Church, politics, business and labour; • Work towards the unity, reconciliation and peace of the “rainbow nation”; • Restore partnerships that are effective in addressing the needs of the poor and create opportunities for the youth, women and children; • Engage “courageous conversations” to address difficult issues such as land expropriation, racism, service delivery, and so on; • Provide leadership and guidance to political leaders and the nation in the lead-up to the elections; participate in processes to ensure a free, fair and violence-free election; and monitor the development and implementation of election promises after the election.

The churches committed themselves to use their “expertise and skills in various areas to help us address issues in our country”, including in areas such as education, social justice and land reform.

On the latter issue, the NCLC has appointed a task team on “Land and Justice”, saying: “We are committed to playing a vital role as churches in addressing the issue of land reform and redistribution.”

The meeting also emphasised the need for ecumenism and to build inter-faith cooperation. To that end, the NCLC is seeking to reconstitute the National Religious Leaders’ Forum.

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The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

LOCAL

Catholics call for protection of abused asylum seekers A

BY CHRISTEN TORRES

In a statement, Cardinal DiNardo said that “these vulnerable women will now face returning to the extreme danger of domestic violence in their home country”.

Within Africa alone, a 2016 World Bank report proposes that one third of African women have experienced domestic, sexual or physical violence.

According to the World Bank report, 51% of African women are suffering physical abuse by their husbands, with countries such as Malawi and Mozambique recording particularly high levels of acceptance of domestic abuse.

Ms Law also noted that a 2016 report by the SADC Parliamentary Forum found that sexual violence is the fastest-growing crime globally and regionally—and the least likely of crimes to be reported.

A 2013 report in Zimbabwe revealed that 68% of women experience some form of violence, and in 2015 it was discovered that in Zimbabwe a girl under the age of 16 is reportedly raped every two hours.

“It is not beyond the bounds of

RESEARCH paper by the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office gives an in-depth analysis of asylum seekers who need protection because of domestic abuse.

The report, written by Lois Law, urges South Africa to continue to support protection for those seeking asylum, particularly when it concerns the preservation of human life.

The research paper notes a change made this July to US immigration law which instructs officials to not take into account any claim that is based on asylum seekers escaping from gangsterism or domestic abuse, saying these are “private crimes” and only those seeking asylum involving “state crime” will be eligible to apply for asylum.

Critics, including US bishops’ conference president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, have said the US government has failed to understand “intimate partner violence, mislabelling it a ‘private matter’ between husband and wife limited to the domestic sphere”, the CPLO noted.

possibility that women and girls seeking protection from such forms of domestic violence would cross the border, looking for safety in South Africa,” Ms Law said.

However, she noted, South Africa itself has horrific statistics regarding violence against women.

In 2016 the SA Medical Research Council revealed that one in four women are physically abused by a partner or ex-partner, and every six hours a woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner.

The CPLO report called for continued efforts to strengthen campaigns that aim to end violence against women.

The report also calls for South Africa to establish a policy which gives individuals crossing the border to escape sexual violence entitlement to proper protection.

The issue is “a matter of principle and solidarity”, said Ms Law. “South Africa must ensure that protection is not only guaranteed for its own citizens, but for all who cross our borders seeking this most fundamental of rights.”

Fr Rico Talisic celebrated his first onboard Mass for Filipino seafarers of a bulk carrier, in port in Cape Town to offload grain.

New chaplain says Mass onboard

F

ATHER Rico Talisic, a new shipvisitor in Cape Town, celebrated his first onboard Mass for a group of sailors.

Fr Talisic is a Scalabrinian priest from the Philippines and now shipvisits for Catholic seafarers’ charity Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) in the archdiocese.

He accompanied two other AoS ship-visitors, Gerard Assam and Anthony Erispe, on board the bulk carrier MV Paulo U.

The ship has a crew of 21, all of whom are Filipinos, and was in port for five days to offload grain.

Captain Joseph Balbido, the ship’s master, asked for Mass on board as the crew would not get the chance again for several months at sea.

The seafarers were grateful for the chance to celebrate Mass, which they said would help sustain their faith during the long voyage.

Two Kenyan sailors from another vessel were also present at the Mass.

Parish priest receives loving farewell

BY SIKHUMBUZO BEN

P

Fr Chris Chatteris (right) with plumbers Dave Borthwick (centre) and DJ Dyantyi beside the pressure pump of the newly installed groundwater system for flushing the toilets at St Francis Xavier Seminary in Cape Town.

This marks the end of another phase of “greening” the seminary.

ARISHIONERS in Khayelitsha, Mfuleni and Crossroads in Cape Town were sad to say goodbye to Fr Bafana Ndlovu OMI, who has left for the archdiocese of Johannesburg to minister in Soweto.

Fr Ndlovu had worked with the community for more than four years. Parishioners said that with his skills and hard work, the Oblate of Mary Immaculate priest has fostered parish unity.

His farewell was held at St Matthias church in Mfuleni, one of the parishes he served, as well as St Kizito, St Josephina Bakita, Our Lady Queen of Africa and Site B. Parishioners presented Fr Ndlovu with gifts—but most importantly, they came to show their gratitude,

love and support.

Among the guests was Fr Nkululeko Meyiwa, the newly appointed parish priest of Our Lady Queen of Africa; Cape Town vicar-general Fr Peter-John Pearson; Fr Matsepane Morare, superior of the Jesuits in Cape Town; and Oblate vicarprovincial Fr Zweli Mlotshwa.

Fr Morare, in his homily, urged the congregation to not allow the devil to whisper gossip about others and turn people against each other.

Fr Pearson paid tribute to Fr Ndlovu: “It is a great loss to lose a priest like Fr Bafana who does his job with passion and love, someone who treats everybody with respect, regardless how old or young the person is.”

Parishioners said they would keep in touch with Fr Ndlovu and visit him in his new parish.

Fr Bafana Ndlovu (right) at his farewell in Mfuleni, Cape Town, with Fr Thato Nketu. He is moving to Soweto in Johannesburg.

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The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

LOCAL Fr Pearson for annual Hurley lecture

T

HE annual Denis Hurley Lecture presented by the Justice & Peace Commission of the archdiocese of Durban will be delivered by the head of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office.

Fr Peter-John Pearson will speak on “Racial Division and Racism within the Church”.

Fr Pearson replaces the originally planned speaker, Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley, who had to meet episcopal commitments.

The lecture and related events will be held on November 10 from 9:30 to 14:00 at St Joseph’s parish in Morningside, Durban. Entrance is free.

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‘We must accompany Lesotho migrants’

BY PAUL SAMASUMO

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HE Church in Lesotho must do more for young people who move to South Africa, the bishop of Qacha’s Nek has urged.

The bishops of Lesotho are aware that they need to do more to accompany young people, particularly young migrants, most of whom go to South Africa in search of jobs, said Bishop Joseph Mopeli Sephamola, who was in Rome to attend the Synod of Bishops on the Youth.

“We need to do more for young migrants who go to South Africa and sometimes get lost there. Most times, even as they go to South Africa, it is not all of them who get jobs,” the bishop said.

“We need, as a Church, to come up with strategies and pastoral programmes that work for them,” he added.

Asked about the political situation in Lesotho, Bishop Sephamola said he was optimistic that tensions

Bishop Joseph Sephamola of Qacha’s Nek, Lesotho, at the Synod for Youth in Rome. (Photo: Vatican News) of the past would not be repeated.

“Politically, the situation in Lesotho is promising in the sense that member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) community have

insisted upon political reforms. It took some time before the reforms could take off. The programme of reform has now started, and that is promising,” the bishop said.

The SADC has urged the moun-

tain-locked kingdom to implement political reforms and engage in national dialogue with a view to easing the tensions that led to an attempted coup in 2014.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has led efforts prodding political players towards a constitutional review process as well security and public sector reform. Other reforms are to do with parliament and the judicial sector.

Bishop Sephamola was attending his first synod of bishops.

“In Lesotho, we are inspired by what the Holy Father said, that God is eternally young and that the youth are here; this is their Church,” he told Vatican News.

According to Bishop Sephamola, God being eternally young means he has all the youthful qualities of energy and vitality, which the Church needs in order to renew itself and its pastoral ministry towards young people.—Vatican News

Botswana: strong yes to community radio

S

EVERAL Catholics attended a national broadcasting conference in Gaborone, which also included facilitators from South Africa and other African countries.

The conference was hosted by the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority.

Among the participants were the Gaborone diocese’s communications officers Sr Phatsimo V Ramokgwebana SC, Fr Martin Magibisela, Sr Mabistso Rathari SC, and Dr Kennedy Ramojela from the University of Botswana, who is also a member of the interim committee of the

National Catholic Press Association.

The most heated discussions concerned community radio, with an overwhelming view that it must be supported, Sr Ramokgwebana said.

The Botswana broadcasting sector was established in 1966, but has never had any statutory provision for community radio.

Phil Molefe, chairman of the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa, made a strong case for community radio stations, saying radio is the most accessible of all media platforms.

Noting that Batswana society is

rooted in communities, even if they live in metropolitan areas, he said that community radio would allow these groups to “tell their stories, reflect their aspirations”.

Sr Ramokgwebana said it is important in a democracy that all people have a voice, not just the urban elite. She said rural communities must “have their stories aired, and daily life experiences reflected”.

Sr Ramokgwebana said it was important that communities of believers, such as the Catholic Church, have a radio service that addresses their own issues.

The Grade 2 and 3 classes at St Teresa’s School in Rosebank, Johannesburg, performed Let It Grow—The Musical. Adapted by drama teacher Kate Mobey from a Dr Seuss book, the concert chronicles the plight of the town of Thneedville where all the truffala trees have been cut down.

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Carmelite Father Boniface D’Souza celebrated his silver jubilee with parishioners from St Joseph’s in Actonville, Our Lady of Loreto in Kempton Park, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Benoni, fellow priests, and deacons.

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ARMELITE Father Boniface D’Souza celebrated his silver jubilee with parishioners from St Joseph’s in Actonville, Our Lady of Loreto in Kempton Park, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Benoni.

Fr D’Souza is well-known and appreciated by these three parishes, where he has worked hard to inspire a high level of spirituality.

He is also the diocesan vicar for catechism of the Johannesburg archdiocese and many deanery priests concelebrated Mass.

Fourteen priests, assisted by two deacons, led the congregation.

Two Carmelite priests from Cape town, Frs Mari Joseph and Anthony Stephen, joined local priests Fr Arvin Tauro, Fr D’Souza and Fr John Cyrus D’Souza for the celebrations.

Celebrating 35 years of religious profession that same day, Fr Mari Joseph preached the sermon.

Afterwards, everyone enjoyed a meal under a specially decorated canopy put up close to the church.

Other Carmelite news is the launch of the order’s 2019 version of the popular Springs of Carmel Bible diary for Southern Africa.

The launch was held at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in Benoni.

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The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

INTERNATIONAL

Pope seeks alliance between young, old to change world

BY CAROL GLATZ

W

An image of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador is seen in the chapel of the Divine Providence Hospital in San Salvador. The archbishop was shot by unidentified gunmen as he celebrated Mass in the chapel on March 24, 1980. (Photo: Octavio Duran/CNS)

Judge orders arrest of Oscar Romero’s assassin

BY RHINA GUIDOS

A

FTER the Church declared Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero a saint, a judge in El Salvador issued a capture order for a former military captain suspected of killing the religious leader in 1980 as he celebrated Mass.

Judge Rigoberto Chicas issued the order for national and international authorities to apprehend Alvaro Rafael Saravia, who has for years been a suspect in the killing.

He remains at large and is believed to be in hiding. It’s not the first time such an order has been issued against Saravia.

He was arrested in 1987 in Miami and has faced a variety of legal proceedings in El Salvador for years that proved fruitless in any meaningful prosecution because of an amnesty law that prevented prosecution of human rights violations by the military tied to the country’s 1980-92 civil war.

However, the 1993 law was thrown out by the country’s highest court in 2016 and the case involving the killing of the archbishop was reopened the following year.

On the day before his assassination in San Salvador on March 24,

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1980, Archbishop Romero had demanded that the soldiers stop killing innocent civilians and had advocated for an end to the violence engulfing the Central American country. The conflict went on to last another 12 years, claiming more than 70 000 civilian lives, including the archbishop’s.

Several investigations have concluded that the murder was carried out by a death squad linked to the military dictatorship, who falsely believed that Archbishop Romero was supporting Marxist guerrillas because of his concern for the poor of his country.

In his work with the poor and in his denunciations of the dictatorship, the archbishop was supported by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II during their pontificates.

In issuing the arrest order, Judge Chicas said authorities have sufficient evidence to charge Saravia for participation in the crime.

A United Nation’s Truth Commission accused another Salvadoran military strongman, Major Roberto D’Aubuisson, a right-wing leader suspected of organising the country’s notorious death squads, of being the architect of the archbishop’s assassination. D’Aubuisson died of cancer in 1992 and was never charged.—CNS

ITH the launch of a new book, Pope Francis is calling for a new alliance—between young and old—to change the world.

In an effort to counteract today's “culture of waste” that too easily marginalises or ignores the young and the elderly, the book by Loyola Press creates a model of storytelling, dialogue, connection and reflection to help inspire these two groups to come together and rediscover older people’s lost “treasure of their wisdom”.

Packed with large full-colour photographs of the elder contributors, the coffee-table-style book, titled, Sharing the Wisdom of Time, was released at a launch in Rome, which the pope attended.

The 175-page book fleshes out what Pope Francis said he feels “the Lord wants me to say: that there should be an alliance between the young and old people”.

This alliance entails elders sharing their past experiences, advice, insights and dreams with younger people who are hungry for guidance and support as they prepare for their future, the pope said in the book’s preface.

Older people need to be “memory keepers”, forming a choir of praise and prayers supporting the people around them, he wrote, especially younger people, showing them the secrets to not just survival, but finding meaning and living life to the full, he said.

The pope calls on young people

Pope Francis attends the release in Rome of the book, Sharing the Wisdom of Time. In the book, the pope offers commentary on the life stories of older people throughout the world. (Photo: Paul Haring/CNS) “to listen to and bond with their elders”. The book offers a starter course, of sorts, offering scores of stories and wisdom from older people from 30 countries and from every walk of life: retired lawyers and engineers, farmers, rubbish pickers, activists, refugees and a spiritual elder of the Lakota People in the United States.

They speak of their experiences with racism, forgiveness, imperfection, conversion, beauty and joy despite the setbacks.

The stories are spread over five thematic chapters: work, struggle, love, death, and hope, and each

chapter begins with Pope Francis reflecting on each theme. People’s stories are interspersed with the pope’s own reflections on an individual’s story, showing a model of how to mine its message for nuggets of advice that may mirror or be applied to one’s own life.

The book also includes a few stories by younger people sharing “What I learned from an elder” and how an older person acted like an anchor, offering hope, support or inspiration in their lives.

Some of the words of wisdom by the pope in the book: “Failure is the source of much wisdom,” he said. “No complaining allowed! It does not help. It does more harm than good.

“Our life is not given to us as an already scripted opera libretto,” where all the scenes are predetermined and fixed.”

“We can look at death and feel rich, because God lavishly wastes his grace poured out on us.”

“If God did not forgive sins, the world would have ceased existing a long time ago.”

“One person cannot solve all the problems in the world, but she or he can oppose it with being good, kind and caring to oneself and others. You can fight with a smile and with the readiness to be kind to others.

“Complaining rusts out the soul,” so do not pine over lost opportunities and temporal glory, remember the true final destination is to be with God.—CNS n To order the book in English: www.loyolapress.com/products/books/ pope-francis/sharing-the-wisdom-of-time.

Priest-witness against bishop found dead

A

CATHOLIC priest considered a prime witness against an Indian bishop accused of rape has been found dead, with his family suspecting foul play. However, local medical staff said he had a series of health problems.

Fr Kuriakose Kattuthara, 67, was found dead inside his room in Jalandhar, after Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar was granted bail by the state court in Kerala and went back to his diocese.

Ucanews.com reported Fr Kattuthara gave testimony against Bishop Mulakkal, who has been accused of raping a nun repeatedly between 2014 and 2016.

The priest’s brother said family members believe the priest was

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killed for his strong stand against the bishop, saying that “he was under tremendous pressure” to retract his statements against the bishop.

Medical staff at Sacred Heart Hospital in Jalandhar said Fr Kattuthara was a chronic patient receiving treatment for hypertension and diabetes.

“His blood pressure and sugar levels were dangerously high when he visited us prior to his death,” said Sr Laila Jose, a doctor at the hospital.

Fr Peter Kavumpuram, diocesan spokesman, told media that some nuns went looking for the priest when he had not awakened by 10:00 at St Mary’s church complex

in Dasuya town.

“When he didn’t open the door, they called for help. The door was then broken and Fr Kattuthara was found unconscious, and there was vomit in the room. We took him to the hospital, where he was declared dead,” he said.

Bishop Mulakkal was arrested after a nun of the Missionaries of Jesus, a diocesan congregation under him, accused him of repeatedly raping her in Kerala. The Vatican has removed him from diocesan administrative duties but retained his title as bishop.

Bishop Mulakkal returned to the diocese after his release from judicial custody in mid-October.— CNS

Call for better marriage prep

BY CAROL GLATZ

E

VERY heart longs for unconditional love and fidelity, Pope Francis has said.

“Christ reveals authentic love,” the pope said during his weekly general audience. “He is the faithful friend who welcomes us even when we make mistakes and he always wants what is best for us, even when we don’t deserve it,” he said.

“Indeed, no human relationship is authentic without fidelity and loyalty,” he told thousands of pilgrims in St Peter’s Square.

The pope reflected on Christ’s explanation of the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shall not commit adultery”.

“What God has joined together, no human being must separate” and whoever divorces their spouse to marry another, commits adultery, Jesus said according to St Mark’s gospel.

There are many forms of adultery, the pope said in his audience talk, and fidelity actually reflects “a way of being” and living in the world.

Men and women whose lives are “woven with fidelity” are “faithful and trustworthy in every circumstance”, he said.

But “our human nature is not enough” for bringing about this beautiful way of life. “It is necessary for God’s fidelity to come into our lives and ‘infect’ us”, he said.

The pope reiterated his call for stronger and more effective catechesis in preparation for marriage. This new catechumenate is necessary, he said, because “you

can’t play around with love”, especially when it comes to making a vow that lasts a lifetime.

A marriage preparation programme that involves just a few meetings is not preparation, “It is fake,” Pope Francis said.

It is the full responsibility of the parish priest and bishop to make sure the proper amount of time and discernment have been spent preparing for something that is a true sacrament, not just a formality.

Men and women seeking marriage must go beyond physical attraction and discover through a mature and lengthy discernment “the quality of their relationship”. They must discern with certainty whether “the hand of God” is leading and accompanying them on their journey.

A couple cannot promise to be faithful “for better, for worse” and to love and honour each other every day of their lives “only on the basis of good intentions or on the hope that things ‘work out’. They need to base it on the solid terrain of God’s faithful love.”—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

St Paul VI’s legacy of community in Holy Land

BY JUDITH SUDILOVSKY

F

OR Holy Land Christians, St Paul VI left behind a legacy of Catholic institutions to serve and strengthen the community.

On a more personal level, for two Catholic families living in the Old City of Jerusalem, he left behind a special blessing and a relic which has taken on more significance for them after his canonisation by Pope Francis.

During his January 1964 visit to the Old City, which then was under Jordanian rule, St Paul VI made a spontaneous stop at the home of a sick man to hear his confession.

Upon leaving the man’s home, he was received with a traditional cup of coffee from Fairuz Orfali and greeted by Laila Soudah, neighbours who shared the same courtyard.

The Orfali family has kept the plain white cup safely stored in a felt-lined glass and wooden box while the Soudahs have photographs of the visit.

After the pope took a symbolic sip of the coffee, Mr Orfali, in the old local tradition of welcoming honoured guests, poured the remains of the coffee at the pope’s feet.

“It gives me chills now, especially that he has been canonised,” said Soudah’s daughter, Hania, 52, who had not yet been born during the visit.

“This was the first visit of a pope to the Holy Land. My grandparents, mother, father, our neighbours welcomed him in the traditional way.

This is now something to be passed down generations of our family,” Hania said.

During the visit, Pope Paul VI

Pope Paul VI’s visit to the Holy Land is remembered at the basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

(Photo: Günther Simmermacher) called for the establishment of social rehabilitation and development projects. His call eventually led to the founding of Bethlehem University, Ephpheta Institute for hearingimpaired children in Bethlehem, Tantur Ecumenical Institute and Notre Dame Pilgrimage Centre in Jerusalem.

A

s early as the 1940s, the future pope—Mgr Giovanni Battista Montini—in his capacity as Pope Pius XII’s assistant responsible for displaced Palestinian refugees, had championed the Pontifical Mission Society’s relief efforts and continued to do so throughout his papacy.

At a November 1948 meeting in the Vatican, Mgr Montini named the head of Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) at the time, Mgr Thomas McMahon, to lead a papal mission specifically for

displaced persons in Palestine which became the Pontifical Mission for Palestine. Pope Pius entrusted the mission to CNEWA. As pope, he continued to show a deep commitment to CNEWA’s work by beginning his pontificate with the historic trip to the Holy Land, which he called a “pilgrimage of prayer and penance”.

“He wanted to establish such institutions that would help empower the situation of the local Christian community in the Holy Land,” said Joseph Hazboun, CNEWA regional director in Jerusalem.

“At that time, we were under Jordanian rule with a majority of Muslims, so for us these were very important,” said John Orfali, Laila Soudah’s son. “It made us feel that we belong here.”

The establishment of Bethlehem University provided for the first time a school of higher learning for young Palestinians so they would not have to go abroad to study and boost emigration, Mr Hazboun said.

A year after his pilgrimage, Pope Paul VI issued the groundbreaking declaration Nostra Aetate on relations of the Church to non-Christian religions.

“He was the continuation of the revolution but a completely different personality,” Rabbi David Rosen, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department of Interreligious Affairs, said of Paul VI. He noted that most Israelis—unfairly in his opinion—have a mixed response to Paul VI’s Holy Land visit because he refused to meet with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem and met them instead in the northern town of Megiddo.—CNS

Kenya churches ‘under threat’

BY FREDRICK NZwILI

A

S frequent terror attacks continue in north-eastern Kenya, Catholic bishops and priests are warning that the violence is posing threats to missions and their work.

That caution amplified when suspected al-Shabab militants killed two Christian teachers in Mandera, a region near the Somali border.

The assailants blasted a roadside bomb at a house occupied by four non-local teachers in Arabia Boys Secondary School, killing two.

“This is yet another incident when innocent Christian workers have become targets,” Fr Alfred Murithi, the priest in charge of Our Lady of Consolation cathedral in Garissa, said. “It has been an ongoing trend. I think there are some elements who don’t want to see Christian presence in this region.

They are misled to believe that Christians are infidels.”

Although the latest attacks are

concentrated in the predominantly Muslim north, their impact is being felt across the country, prompting a change in how churches carry out their day-to-day business. According to some Catholic priests, the attacks have forced a change in how people worship and how they mark important days and celebrations in the Christian calendar.

The changes also are visible in churches in Nairobi, where the militants recently attacked public places and transport hubs. At the same time, security agencies have been warning that the city’s churches are possible soft targets of the militants.

“Christmas and Easter celebrations used to kick off at 22:00 and continue late into the night. People used to wait in the churches until midnight, but this no longer happens. Nowadays, worshippers are required to leave early for their homes,” said Fr Maloba Wesonga, a priest at the Regina Caeli parish in Nairobi.

Night prayers and Masses used to be the norm, but they have decreased or stopped due to the threats, said Consolata Father Nicholas Makau of Nairobi.

“This is one of the measures churches are taking to ensure worshippers are safe.

There are also extra controls and increased patrols in parking lots and areas around the churches,” The said Fr Makau.

Fr Wilybard Lagho, vicar-general of Mombasa archdiocese, said some parishes had formed standby security committees to ensure the safety of the congregation.

In the recent past, the coastal city has experienced terror attacks linked to radical Islamists. Pastors from other denominations have been killed and some churches have been vandalised.—CNS

5

Vietnam has freed the well-known Catholic blogger and rights activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, who was jailed two years ago for posting antigovernment material on social media, and forced her into exile in the United States. (Photo: Vietnam News Agency via EPA)

Catholic blogger exiled from Vietnam

V

IETNAM has freed a wellknown Catholic blogger and rights activist jailed two years ago for posting anti-government material on social media and forced her into exile in the United States.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as “Mother Mushroom”, was driven from Prison Camp No 5 in Vietnam’s northern province of Thanh Hoa to Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers said.

“Security officers only allowed Quynh to speak to officials from the US embassy in Hanoi at the airport for five minutes before putting her on a flight at noon,” the network said Ms Quynh, 39, met her two children and mother on the plane, which arrived in Houston the same day, ucanews.com reported.

“Ms Quynh was freed after two years and seven days in jail in Vietnam. A new stage in the life of a woman who fights tirelessly for human rights, national sovereignty, and environmental protection will begin,” the network said.

Ms Quynh, a network cofounder, was serving a ten-year

prison sentence for publishing anti-government material and speaking out in support of political prisoners.

The blogger network said Ms Quynh would continue her fight for human rights and democracy in Vietnam from the US. “No one can defeat her will and dedication,” it said.

Nguyen Van Dai, A Christian attorney who heads the Vietnambased Brotherhood for Democracy, congratulated Ms Quynh on being freed and arriving in the US. Mr Dai, a former political prisoner who was sent into exile in Germany in June, said he hoped Ms Quynh would continue her fight for freedom, democracy and human rights in Vietnam.

Another former prisoner of conscience, Bui Thi Minh Hang, called on the international community to pressure Vietnam into freeing jailed rights activist Tran Thi Nga, a mother of two, who is serving a nine-year prison term for spreading “anti-government propaganda”.

“She has not seen her children or other family for the past three months,” Hang said.—CNS

S outher n C ross Pilgrimage 2019

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6

The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The Viganò papers

M

ANY Catholics have been left uncertain by the letters issued by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò which sought to implicate Pope Francis in the abuse scandal involving a disgraced US cardinal.

Archbishop Viganò, a former nuncio to the United States, dropped a bomb in late August when he issued his so-called “testimony”. In it he claimed, among other things, that Pope Francis had lifted sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI on Archbishop Theodore McCarrick—the former cardinal accused of serial abuse of seminarians.

Mainly on the basis of that claim, Archbishop Viganò called for the pope’s resignation—a remarkable act of rebellion.

The statement’s release was timed to coincide with Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland, which was overshadowed by the abuse crisis.

The same evening, the pope told reporters that he would not respond to the statement—a refusal to drink from a poisoned chalice—suggesting that its thrust would diminish when the facts became known. He was not wrong.

It quickly emerged that no formal sanctions had been imposed on McCarrick, only a request that he should keep a low profile— which he ignored to the point of freely attending papal functions with Pope Benedict.

There were no sanctions which Pope Francis could have annulled.

This has since been confirmed by Cardinal Marc Ouelett, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.

Moreover, at the time when McCarrick was supposed to have kept a low profile, Archbishop Viganò himself celebrated him as “very much loved by us all” at a 2012 gala in honour of the disgraced cardinal—six months after the supposed restrictions were communicated to McCarrick.

Viganò has now withdrawn the accusation that Pope Francis overturned formal sanctions—the very claim that underpinned his call for the pope’s resignation.

The Viganò statement—a cocktail of facts, half-truths, falsehoods, omission, distortion, deduction, innuendo and impudence—can be located within an ideological campaign against Pope Francis.

Given his diplomatic training, Archbishop Viganò did surprisingly little to disguise his purpose: the timing of the statement’s re-

lease and the now withdrawn call for the pope’s resignation leave no doubt that it was intended to cause confusion and damage the Holy Father’s reputation.

Even as elements of his various accusations merit investigation, Archbishop Viganò’s “testimony” is discredited, not only by the false characterisation of the supposed sanctions but also by its perfidious intent.

By placing his grievances within the context of opposition to Pope Francis—his letters were disseminated through right-wing organs that are hostile to the pope—Viganò has compromised the investigation, now ordered by Pope Francis, into what was known about McCarrick as he rose up the ranks during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. There are other issues raised by Archbishop Viganò—and by Catholics from all ideological corners—which merit investigation and, if required, remedy. But before that can happen in a nonpartisan way, these issues must be divorced from the Viganò statement.

Among them is the rumour of a so-called “Lavender mafia” of active homosexuals among senior clergy in the Vatican and other levels of power in the Church.

If there are such networks of gay priests who work together in maintaining dissolute and potentially abusive activities—and talk about the existence of such cabals is by no means new—then this must be dealt with.

But precaution must be taken that this would not give rise to discrimination against gay priests who are exercising their ministry without reproach, never mind a purge of homosexual priests and bishops.

As for Pope Francis, for all his sincere attempts to do the right thing, he has revealed certain blind spots and occasionally poor judgment on the subject of abuse.

At the same time, his turnaround in the crisis in Chile indicates that he is open to reason and persuasion, and willing to act decisively.

Even as we may hope for more coherent papal leadership on the abuse crisis, it must also be clear that the weight of the scandal cannot be hung on one man who has more than his fair share of other responsibilities.

And we must not allow the abuse scandal to be hijacked for the purposes of ideological battles.

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.

Mary gave birth fully to God I N his letter (October 10), Peter Hoar stated that our faith is not based on mystery, but on Christic revelation.

Mr Hoar pointed out that because the Church declares the Trinity a mystery, three persons in one God, we wrongly believe that Mary is the Mother of God, when in fact she is the Mother of Jesus.

Herein lies the same dilemma with which the early Church wrestled, and which the Council of Ephesus clarified. The event of the Incarnation of the Son of God means that Jesus became truly man while remaining truly God. (Catholic Catechism 464).

The Council of Ephesus pro-

Wrong to knock ‘Church now in apartheid memoir transition period’

I

REFER to the letter (October 10)

by Mary Dantu on Beryl CrosherSegers’ book A Darker Shade of Pale.

Obviously Ms Dantu didn’t read the book before she commented on it. A Darker Shade of Pale isn’t a book of “sentimentality from yesteryear”, as she claims, but a condemnation of apartheid. Beryl’s book explains very well why she and her family had to take the difficult decision to leave South Africa.

What right does Ms Dantu have to deny Beryl her hurtful memories of apartheid, or publishing them?

It is good that the pain of the previously oppressed is told, and, yes, our struggle for equality continues.

Maybe Ms Dantu could use her time better writing her own memories rather than writing letters attacking others’ memoirs?

Let’s laud Beryl Crosher-Segers for giving victims of apartheid a voice.

Carol Jacobs, Cape Town

Pik Botha and elderly Irish nun

P

IK Botha’s recent death brought to mind the time the foreign minister visited a very old Catholic nun at Good Shepherd Convent, Hartbeespoort Dam, in 1979.

The elderly Sister of Mercy had written to him that she was praying for him and South Africa every day during the daily rosary, which she led in the convent chapel. Mr Botha responded with a letter of thanks.

He then visited her, bringing a rosary from the recently elected Pope John Paul II, with whom he had an audience in the Vatican.

This was a highlight in the life of the wonderful old Irish Sister; and unforgettable for us who happened to be there on that day.

Fr Sean Collins CSsR, Howick, KZN

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‘T

HE difficulty which we [the Catholic Church] face today, is that we are living in a transition period between a dying model of Church and an emerging model of Church.

“Much of the clerical structure of our Church reflects the now-dying model of Church. Besides the tendency on the part of the hierarchy to revert to the default position, there is also a small but vocal movement which seeks to resist change and to reestablish the old order.”

The above is an excerpt from an address by Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen of Paramatta, Australia.

His words echo those of one of the early Greek philosophers, Heraclitus, who maintained the world is governed by a law of change.

The Gospel was written at a time when there was a schism in Jewish society, due to leaders having differences in interpreting Mosaic Law. The Temple had gradually become corrupted during the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC), and the Essenes, who rejected Temple rituals, had moved to Qumran in the desert.

Two factions had emerged in Jerusalem: those who supported the “new way” and those determined to maintain old religious ways.

The story played itself out with Jesus arguing for a new direction which, as we now know, succeeded in becoming Rabbinic Judaism. This did not happen overnight; it took a further 500 years to be fully accepted as the normative religious practice of the Jewish people.

Coincidentally, it was 500 years ago that the foundation of Christianity was rocked with the advent of the Reformation, when its forerunners, similar to Jesus, dared to confront iron-clad doctrinal concepts.

Pope Francis showed us the (ecumenical) way by attending the 500-year Reformation jubilee in

Sweden in October 2016.

St John Paul II had done likewise, being the first pope to attend a Jewish service in Rome.

St John XXIII had seen the need for a “new way” with the inauguration of Vatican II. Will Pope Francis succeed in perpetuating his mission, and—more importantly—will the next pope continue with the “Francis baton”?

Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg

Pope and cover-up

C

OMMENTING on the crisis in the Catholic Church, Cecil Cullen (October 17) writes that decisive action needs to be taken but he does not trust commissions and enquiries.

He suggests action should come from above, from the pope himself.

But the pope himself does not set a good example. He does not practise what he preaches. He preaches “no tolerance of clerical abuse”, but his actual record includes silence and, if Archbishop Viganò’s allegations are true, cover-up, as we see in his handling of the Theodore McCarrick abuse case.

Covering up for predator priests is not new to Pope Francis. Already as president of the Argentine bishops’ conference, he defended notorious abuser Fr Mario Napoleon Sasso, and did not respond to the family’s request to meet him.

It is not admiration for the incumbent pope that defines a Catholic, but adherence to the faith.

JH Goossens, Pretoria 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. 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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claimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb.

“Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh (Catechism 466).”

The hypostasis refers to the union of Christ’s humanity and divinity in one hypostasis, or individual existence.

Mary is not the initiating princi-

ple of the first person of the Trinity, the Creator: she is the created. Neither is she the origin of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit: rather, she is the overshadowed at the Incarnation, the enkindled at Pentecost.

It is by virtue of the indivisible unity of the Triune God that Mary, in giving birth to Jesus—the second person of the Trinity—gave birth fully to God, as affirmed by the Council of Ephesus (DS 251).

This reality, though divine fact, is not always fully explicable to human understanding. Thus, mystery.

Mary is indeed a special and blessed woman: she is the Theotokos, the “Mother of God” or “God-bearer”.

Nicolette Whittle, Kroonstad

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PERSPECTIVES A few years ago, I worked in a camp for Sudanese refugees. I was with an American priest and lay workers from Uganda, Mexico and Poland. And there was a genuine fear of danger in the area.

We used to joke that if we ever got wiped out in a massacre, and our cause for saintliness was successful, we would still be forgotten to history since the group would become “St Mark Thibodeaux and companions”. The rest of us—no matter if we suffered as much as or even more than the priest—would end up as nothing more than the supporting cast in the tale of his heroic virtue.

Thankfully we all survived! But there is a serious point to this teasing.

R

emembering certain heroes of our faith is important and we should know their names and reflect on their lives. But let us not fall into the trap of the “Big Man Syndrome” (and it usually is a man) and believe that only that one name matters.

There are less well-known saints, there are saints who are technically canonised but effectively un-named, and there are those who are saints but will probably never be recognised by the Church.

That is why we have the feast of All Saints—a catch-all to remind us that in heaven there are not just headliners but all the great supporting cast of 144 000 who in their lives have built God’s King-

The call to sainthood is directed at all of us, as St Paul keeps reminding us.

God and slim margins A FEW random seconds made the difference between my writing these lines and never writing anything again.

Let me rewind: On a Thursday evening a few weeks ago, my wife and I were returning from a meal in a restaurant in Table View, Cape Town. The traffic light at the T-junction on the end of Beach Road was red.

As we waited for the lights to turn green to allow us to turn right into West Coast Road, my wife and I chatted. Our conversation must have been sparkling, because when the lights turned green, my wife, who was driving, didn’t move.

I was just about to ask what was keeping her when from the right along West Coast Road a car came speeding through the long red lights at a speed of at least 180km/h.

Had my wife crossed that lane when our lights had turned green, we wouldn’t have known what hit us. Literally. Our son and his girlfriend, who had left the restaurant just after we did, would have encountered a devastating scene.

My wife and I were strangely calm after that incident. “You know, if you had pulled away like a normal person, we’d be dead now,” I observed. We casually noted that sometimes a few seconds can be the big difference, then had a few words about that driver which might not have met the highest ideals of charitable thought...and then we talked about other things.

Sometimes we don’t even know what

Cars are stacked in a junkyard. A random few seconds can make the difference between disaster and survival. (Photo: Gary Scott) we might have escaped. Being delayed by a traffic light might mean you don’t encounter the crazy driver who would have crashed into you. Or it might mean that you do. Slim margins.

Soon we came home and went on with our newly spared lives. We even forgot to mention our close shave with fate to our son.

T

he next day I wrote about it on Facebook (though a mild shock set in only a week later, in an uneasy confrontation with my own mortality).

My Facebook friends were very kind in expressing their concern and relief. Some noted that God was looking out for us at that moment. The thought comforts but

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7

Raymond Perrier

We all can be saints T HE focus in the recent canonisation ceremony inevitably was on the two “headliners”: St Oscar Romero and St Paul VI. Their lives and their witness certainly have a lot to tell us as Catholics living in the early 21st century.

But there were three other men and two women canonised alongside those two celebrities. Because their names do not grab our attention as easily, there is a danger that we downgrade them as if they were not quite as saintly as the other two, or as if they were second-division saints, or just local saints. But a canonisation is for the Universal Church—which is why the ceremonies happen in Rome.

Even greater downgrading happens if you have the bad luck to be martyred as one of a group. You become forever afterwards remembered (or rather not remembered) as one of the “companions”. You might have noticed this in the list of feast days: “St Charles Lwanga and companions”, “Ss Perpetua and Felicity and companions”, “St Paul Yun and companions”, and so on.

When, as has often been the case in Church history, there is a massacre of a number of people at the same time and they are all later canonised, the name of just one of them tends to be memorialised and the rest are grouped together as “‘companions”. The fact that they all died together and usually underwent the same traumatic and painful torture and death, still is not enough for their names to be remembered.

The case of the companions of Charles Lwanga is even worse. Alongside him, dozens of other young men suffered the same brutal torture from the Bugandan king. They were all killed for being Christians: some were Catholic, some were Anglican, but they all died the same way and at the same time.

The Anglican shrine memorialises all of them; the Catholic shrine, sadly, acknowledges only the sanctity of the Catholics who died, and completely writes out of history their Anglican companions.

The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

Faith and Society

dom, and whom we hope one day to emulate.

As a one-time British Jesuit, I was very inspired by the heroic stories of people like Edmund Campion and Robert Southwell. I tried also to remember the many hundreds of other British men who went as priests to Elizabethan England and sacrificed their lives to tend to their Catholic flocks.

But a wise older Jesuit pointed out to me the “martyrdom” (that is, “the witness”) of all the others. The ones that did not die, the ones that suffered the daily indignities and hardships and pains of being on the run but still carried on serving their flocks until eventually they died (young and old) in a bed somewhere rather than on the gallows at Tyburn.

They, he pointed out, should be no less an inspiration since the Kingdom is equally built by the everyday forgotten heroes who do the Lord’s work day in and day out and rarely get noticed, during their lives or afterwards.

(The fact that he was one of the foot soldiers in the Struggle made his comment all the more poignant. In our own country’s history we also tend to remember the big-name saints and martyrs and forget about those who did the day to day work).

So it is right that we remember St Francis of Assisi and the other inspiring founders of religious orders. But the impact of those orders also owes much to Francis’ early followers, to later generations of Franciscan Sisters and friars and priests, and also to the many, many lay people who have followed “a Franciscan way” through sodalities and third orders.

It is great that we have at least one parish priest who is canonised just for being a good parish priest: St Jean-Marie Vianney. But let him be a reminder to us of all the parish priests who selflessly work Continued on page 11

Günther Simmermacher

Point of Refection

also troubles me. Is it fair that God would look out for us but not for any of our friends and acquaintances who have died in traffic accidents?

I don’t know why my wife didn’t pull away in a normal manner when that light turned green. She doesn’t know herself. It is inexplicable. Had I, the less patient driver, been at the wheel, would I have been as tardy in pulling away?

We Catholics might refer to that experience as a miracle. Much as I don’t like the idea of God’s selective protection, I do feel his guiding hand on us that evening, which might explain that extraordinary calmness we had after almost being killed by a reckless maniac.

Why did God place his protective hand over us that night? I must just let go of that question. That’s his business. God is in charge.

Two weeks later I bumped into an old friend. He told me how he had been cycling at an intersection. As he was about to cross, he thought about my Facebook post and stopped. Just then a vehicle raced through a red light. Had my friend not hesitated, he’d have been hit by that car.

Did God spare me to save my friend through the medium of Facebook?

My friend, an atheist, would ascribe all this to chance. As a believer, I don’t. In what we may call “coincidences”, we can see God’s guiding hand.

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Road rage is not so different from being abusive on social media: the problem is isolation and superficiality.

Chris Chatteris SJ

Pray with the Pope

Be driving saints General Intention: In the Service of Peace. That the language of love and dialogue may always prevail over the language of conflict.

HIS is an intention well-suited to the age of Twitter and other forms of social media. These new technologies often encourage people to verbalise their coarser, less worthy thoughts, sometimes with disastrous consequences for relationships.

Maybe it’s because we haven’t got used to them yet. We haven’t developed ways to bite our tongues, as it were, when we are on our devices. Hence, the language of conflict can get out there more easily and be widely disseminated in viral fashion. Careers can end; people can self-destruct; relationships can collapse because of a few words which are harsh or vulgar or racist and which were tweeted in a moment of loss of self-control.

Young people, who are unable to envisage a world without social media, can be the victims of cyber-bullying in which the language of extreme violence can crush their young and delicate souls at a time when they should be shielded from such realities. I frequently thank God that I grew up in a world without Facebook and selfies.

One doesn’t want to blame technology for all our interpersonal failures, but unless we make positive efforts to become aware of the pitfalls that come with their use, it seems to me that we will continue to put ourselves in danger of serious conflict.

A less obvious example is road traffic. Why is it that when I am cut off from my fellow road-users in my private car that I can become so enraged with them in a way that would rarely happen if I was on foot and meeting them face to face?

One reads of otherwise perfectly respectable people completely losing it in a road rage incident and sometimes the shouting and screaming and rude gesturing leads to violence and even death.

Clearly, if one is shielded in a shell of steel, meetings with others are more likely to be superficial and fleeting. In this way the problems are not so different from the smartphone—isolation and superficiality.

T

W

ith the car we don’t even have the excuse of it being a new technology that we haven’t yet got used to. The problem is one of the awareness of “the occasion of sin” that this isolation and lack of proper human contact create.

Do we understand this? The fact is that driving a car—especially today in our heavy and stressful traffic—requires a level of awareness and self-control of an almost spiritual order.

Perhaps one has to be a bit of a saint to drive today. Food for thought for those of us given to irritation with their brothers and sisters on the road.

The dangers for individuals with their devices are hugely magnified for politicians. The US president has become a byword for intemperance in the Twittersphere. Stories of Donald Trump watching news channels into the night and sending off comments about world events and world leaders, and firing very much from the hip and without consulting his advisors, are a cause for real concern.

The fact that a Twitterstorm became so personal between the US president and the North Korean dictator, and that both countries have nuclear weapons, made the world a jittery place recently.

Commentators frequently say that our discourse is becoming rougher and more violent today. I am not sure about that, nor whether one can even make a judgment about it. What is fairly clear is that the technologies which are now simply part of our lives make it more difficult to restrain ourselves from letting fly with violent language.

The good news is that we can use the same technologies to communicate with the language of dialogue and love.

Tweets can be positive and uplifting, and often are. Courteous drivers can make way for one another and signal their appreciation for each other’s consideration.

Where sin abounds, grace does even more abound (Rom 5:20). n You can find a short but inspiring video on this theme featuring Pope Francis on www.thepopevideo.org

8

The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

Many gathered to celebrate the feast day of St Francis at the chapel of Assisi convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Siessen, in Marseilles near Ladybrand in Bloemfontein archdiocese.

Among those present were Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo, priests and Brothers from the archdiocese, Holy Cross Sisters from Botshabelo, Dominican Sisters from Bloemfontein, Sr Aloicia and Sacred Heart Brothers from Aliwal North, and the Order of Franciscan Secular from Kimberley, Botshabelo and Lesotho. (Submitted by Sr winnie Mosolodi)

COMMUNITY The girls’ cricket team from De La Salle Holy Cross College in Victory Park, Johannesburg, participated in the second annual Vryheid Girls Cricket Festival in KwaZulu-Natal. The team played against the Vryheid and Felixton teams as part of the festival and the Zululand Hub team as an additional game.

De La Salle Holy Cross won all three games. Part of the festival was mixed teams playing under lights in bright pink in aid of breast cancer awareness.

Three Sisters of the Little Servants of Mary Immaculate at Mahobe mission in the Umzimkulu diocese celebrated their tenth jubilees. They are Sr Patricia Mlambo (front with candle), Sr Phumzile Mhlongo (second left at back with candle), and Sr Zithobile Zondi (second right at back with candle).

Mass was celebrated by Fr Thokozani Masina SCP.

Parishioners from St Anthony of Padua church in Kraaifontein, Cape Town, visited the Ngome shrine in KwaZulu-Natal for the first time. There were also groups from other western Cape parishes: Langebaan, Khayelitsha, Kuilsriver, Stellenbosch, and Ceres. The Kraaifontein pilgrims are seen in front of Our Lady, Tabernacle of the Most High in Ngome. (Submitted by Ann van Niekerk)

PRICE CHECK

St John Bosco parish in westridge, Cape Town, celebrated the confirmation of its 2018 class. with them are (from left) catechist Lucinda Permall De wet, Deacon Mervin Solomons, and Frs Peter-John Pearson and parish priest Eddie O’Neill SDB.

St Thérèse parish in Edenvale, Johannesburg, celebrated its 80th birthday and feast day, with games and activities for children; varieties of food, a bookstall and gift stall, and music provided by the group Gifted Folks Musical Empire. Every sodality in the parish was represented.

Seen are three members of the music group who are parishioners at St Thérèse, with PPC chair and function coordinator Catherine Matthee. The young musicians are (left) Siphokazi, (third left) Isabelle, and (right) Daniel. The 20-member group’s next performance is at Theatre on the Square on Mandela Square in Sandton on November 18. (Submitted

by Barbara K Gregory)

For the price of one issue of The Southern Cross you get a chocolate bar – with a bite taken out T he

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Eight more of world’s Top 40 Marian shrines

What we can do for souls in purgatory

Victoria goes for her big dreams

Page 10

Page 9

Month of the Rosary

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Napier: Parishes should learn from youth

BY J D FLYNN

T

HE Synod of Bishops on young people can be a model for the way that Church leaders engage with youth in parishes and dioceses around the world, according to Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban.

At a press conference, the cardinal praised the contributions of 34 young people invited

by Pope Francis to be active participants in a meeting which comprises predominantly bishops.

The synod is closing on October 28.

The cardinal said that the young people are active participants in the synod, offering short speeches (called interventions), and taking part in the small discussion circles that will help to shape the synod’s final report.

“More important than just their being in the synod hall is their presence and participation in our small groups,” he said.

This is the eighth time Cardinal Napier has participated in a synod of bishops. He noted that the contribution of young Catholics in this synod makes it a very different experience from those he had previously attended.

He added that the “proactive involvement” of Pope Francis in the synod process has also made the experience unique.

Cardinal Napier said he hopes the active involvement of young people at the synod will become a model of the Church’s engagement with youth.

For most Catholics, “the daily face of the Church is the face of the priest”. For that rea-

son, synod fathers should encourage parish priests to listen to and actively engage young people in parish life and planning in the same way the synod has.

Cardinal Napier also criticised the synod’s working document for having been written from a "Eurocentric" perspective, saying that the synod’s work must take into account the situation of young people and the Church in other parts of the world, noting especially the needs of the Church in Africa.

African delegates to the meeting, he said, should “present the African reality much more clearly from our perspective”.

He noted that the document does not sufficiently recognise the impact of mass migration from Africa on the continent’s countries.

Africa is losing some of its most gifted young people to migration, he said, because of the exploitation of natural resources and the environment.

“Those who would have been living off the land are now unable to do so,” so they migrate, he said, because of the effect of deforestation and aggressive mining techniques.

The cardinal said there is another African reality.

"While many young people in the West are leaving Jesus, or at least his Church, [in Africa] young people are looking for Jesus and looking for answers to their problems” in the Church.

The growth of Christianity among young Africans, has important lessons for more developed nations, he said.—CNA

All Souls’ Mass for Southern Cross Associates

T

HE annual Mass for the deceased Associates of The Southern Cross will be said on November 2 at 13:10 at St Mary’s cathedral in Cape Town. All are welcome.

Every year two Masses are said for Associates, on All Souls’ Day for deceased Associates

and their famlies, and for the intentions of our Associates on January 24, the feast of the patron of journalists, St Francis de Sales.

For more about the Associates Campaign, please go to www.scross.co.za/associatescampaign/

or Images of St Paul VI and St Oscar Romero are seen on a T-shirt worn to their canonisation in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican by members of a Rome parish in a suburb named after Nelson Mandela. See page 2 for Raymond Perrier’s reflection on attending the event. (Photo: Raymond Perrier)

Israel ‘no friend of Christians’

T

HE Christian mayor of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank has told Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop pretending to be a “protector of Christianity”.

In a letter, Bethlehem mayor Anton Salman responded to comments by Mr Netanyahu at a Christian media summit in Jerusalem that put the blame for the decline of Christians in Bethlehem on the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Salman denied that Christians are persecuted by Muslim Palestinians.

“The decrease in the percentage of Christians in Bethlehem, as well as in the rest of Palestine was provoked with the Nakba of 1948 and is ongoing due to Israel's colonial plans and policies that started in 1967,” Mr Salman said, using the term used by Palestinians to describe their forced removal from areas that are now Israel.

“It is shameful that while calling himself a ‘protector of Christianity’, [Mr Netanyahu] would use Christians as a tool for his Islamophobic talking points," the mayor said.

Mr Salman, who before taking office in 2017 was a lawyer for the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, said that if Mr Netanyahu was truly concerned about the

S o u t h e r n C r o s s Pilgrimage

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situation of Palestinian Christians, “he would dismantle the annexation wall that divides Bethlehem from Jerusalem for the first time in 2 000 years of Christianity, and would stop imposing restrictions to Palestinian movement”.

The mayor also called for the return “of Bethlehem land illegally annexed to Israel for expansion of colonial settlements” on Palestinian land.

There are some 100 000 Israeli settlers surrounding Bethlehem from all sides, reducing the area of Palestinian control over the city to less than 13% of the district, “making it impossible to plan for the future of our city”, Mr Salman said.

He blamed Israel for preventing the return of Bethlehem Christians to the city, saying that thousands of Palestinian Christians living in exile cannot return “due to the Israeli control over the Palestinian population registry”.

“In Jordan alone, a few kilometres away, there are at least 20 000 Palestinian Christians from the Bethlehem area that are denied family unification and even cannot enter the city—not even to celebrate Christmas—due to the Israeli military restrictions”, Mr Salman said.

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The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

9

Religious orders: then and now Religious orders and congregations contributed heroically to the struggle against apartheid, but had a mixed record before then, as FR ANTHONY EGAN SJ explains in Part 2 of his brief history of the religious orders in South Africa.

best seen this crisis as an opportunity: to get back to original charisms or to move into new apostolates, new responses to the signs of the times.

During the time of missionary expansion, many congregations of priests became tied up with dioceses, serving territories sometimes as the only (or nearly the only) clergy there. There are still such areas and congregations that work in this apostolate. Other orders have withdrawn partly or fully from such work, discerning in the light of particular charisms where the needs of the times meet their founders’ visions.

New circumstances have created new works. Religious have been in the forefront of the Church’s work in HIV antiretroviral rollout and some communities have shifted focus from hospitals to homebased care.

Other religious communities have come to see the importance of communication, including new technologies, in evangelisation.

Within these circumstances, and faced with declining numbers, religious have more than ever to cooperate with lay people, with folk outside the Catholic Church— and even between religious congregations.

All this points, ironically, to a renewal of religious life that though not fully envisioned by Vatican II’s call, expresses the essence of what the Second Vatican Council called the whole Church to be. n This article was produced in association with the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life SA to mark 200 years of the Catholic Church’s establishment in South Africa. Part 1 of Fr Anthony Egan’s history appeared in the issue of October 14.

B

Y the 1960s religious orders and communities in South Africa grew increasingly aware and started to respond to the complex politics of a segregationist and apartheid state.

Certainly from the 1960s on- Delegates at this year’s’ AGM of the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life. In the second and final part of wards, and reaching its climax in his brief history of religious life in South Africa, Fr Anthony Egan SJ is looking at their work under colonialism and the ’80s, Catholic men and women apartheid, where they are now, and what the future may hold. religious took a strong and courageous stand against apartheid, a point well-documented elsewhere ated the practice of religious orders monasteries, convents and the apos- that makes the idea of obedience— and thoroughly acknowledged by and diocesan clergy in South Africa. tolate—particularly those who had even obedience rooted in dialogue religious and secular activists from a There was a presupposition that been well-educated in Catholic and discernment with superiors—a range of political persuasions in the African Catholics were “new Chris- schools—were the very people on little alien. struggle. tians”, still quite unlettered in the whom parents and families deWhatever the case, religious life From Fr Cosmas Desmond OFM, faith and needing firm guidance. pended. The sense of duty to family in South Africa is, by anyone’s estiplaced under house arrest in the This manifested itself in how might have drawn many away. mation, in general decline. There 1970s for his stand against the state- rural missions and parishes in “locaare fewer local priests, whether Similarly, the urgency of South forced removals in Natal, through tions” were managed, in the mandiocesan or religious, and still fewer priests like Frs Casimir Paulsen ner in which students were taught Africa’s political situation, the strug- Brothers and Sisters. gle for liberation.

Though it cerCMM and Theo Kneifel OMI who in schools, and in the early 20th Most orders are ageing. Many were exiled in the 1980s, to the century how some missionaries, tainly drew some to religious life as have had to close down works— an expression of service and the promany religious priests, Brothers and genuinely committed to the develhanding over in many cases schools Sisters detained in the States of opment of African Catholics, steered motion of Christian values of jus- and hospitals to lay Catholics or the Emergency of the late 1980s, them away from nationalist move- tice, the struggle may have drawn state. Some orders have done this Catholic religious have suffered ments and trade unions towards others away—to living out the same while still having members on along with fellow anti-apartheid ac- “Catholic” organisations that they values in trade unions and political boards of governors and working to tivists, spending time in hiding, a could properly lead. movements, and ultimately in the promote the original “ethos”. few even leaving the country.

The other current of thought was new struggle for building democSome religious became promi- the difficulty Africans would have racy and a more equal society.

A chance to reinvent nent figures in national opposition, adjusting to the Church’s (Roman While obviously traumatic, reliFinally, I sense a certain anarchic a few joining the underground re- plus English, Irish, French, German quality in the South African psyche gious congregations have at their sistance too. The more scholarly or Dutch) culture—the idea that culones served as advisors to Catholic tural adjustment could be mutual youth and student activists, or de- seemed unthinkable! veloped a local form of liberation In terms of the congregations theology. and dioceses themselves, it led to a Religious communities hid ac- decided unwillingness until the tivists—and for their troubles were early 20th century to consider adraided by the Security mitting African vocations.

Police. White seminariThe first generation of ans were active in the black diocesan priests, who Religious anti-conscription movewere ordained around ment, some openly em- congregations 1900, experienced probracing conscientious found difficulties with bishobjection. have at their ops and superiors.

Among their white African candidates for counterparts they were best seen the women congregations were part of the few who had either dissuaded or sent to vocations in the course of their for“diocesan congregations” mation lived and studcrisis as an or orders formed by Euroied with black people, pean Sisters for the purpose opportunity of fostering local vocations. been into townships and seen the black experiAmong some men’s conence of apartheid on the gregations—not all, one ground. In short, they lived in mi- must note—aspiring priests were crocosm the future that 1994 prom- nudged towards the dioceses or adised (though admittedly has not mitted as Brothers, then seen (quite contrary to any sound theology of fully delivered).

But this was not always the case. vocation) as a “consolation prize” Given the hostile anti-Catholic for men who couldn’t quite make culture of 19th-century South Africa priesthood.

Though many of the orders made and the cultural assumptions of European superiority that permeated adjustments in the 20th century, the the Irish, Dutch, English, French damage was done. Many vocations and German home environments of were lost. As religious life globally the congregations that came to started to decline from the late A collage at this year’s AGM of the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life records the history of religious orSouth Africa, a certain degree of 1950s onwards and the supply of ders and congregations in South Africa. missionaries from the North started racism was inevitable.

Social Darwinist theories of to dry up, many orders began havhuman evolution that presumed the ing to close and consolidate comsupremacy of Europeans was com- munities, or even consider whether mon. Catholicism itself was not im- their presence was still viable. mune to any of this, despite official Religious life in SA today opposition to Darwinism and I think it would not be an exagnotwithstanding the presupposition that all baptised Catholics were geration or even an expression of pessimism to say that, as in most of equal in the sight of God. the Catholic Church worldwide, reEuropean prejudices ligious life in South Africa is in deCatholicism, like all other forms cline.

It would also be true to say that, of Christianity in the colonies, was deeply rooted in European Greco- compared to the Church elsewhere Roman philosophy—so much so in Africa and the world, young men that adaptation of the faith to non- and women entering the priesthood European thought systems was un- and religious life was never high.

Many factors account for this, thinkable.

Christianity had even distanced apart from the tragic short-sighteditself from its Jewish roots, thor- ness of many orders mentioned oughly “othering” the Jews in the above. The commonly cited reason cell: +27 72 769 7396, or +27 83 471 6081 process, giving rise to varying levels —mandatory celibacy—is not the e-mail: vocation.office@dehonafrica.net of anti-Semitism. This perhaps only other major factor. Perhaps the www.scj.org.za largely unconscious racism perme- kind of people most likely drawn to

“Here I am Lord”

10

The Southern Cross, October 31 to November 6, 2018

FAITH

Top 40 Marian shrines: Places 24 to 17 Part three of GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER’s countdown of the world’s Top 40 Marian shrines takes us to Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Colombia, Austria, Mexico, Croatia and Rwanda.

T

HIS is the third instalment in the countdown of the world’s Top 40 Marian shrines.

As mentioned previously, these shrines are mainly sites of apparitions and miracles, ranked in an approximate order of popularity and importance.

These 40 descriptions of Marian shrines offer just thumbnails of the various sites. Some shrines deserve to be investigated further. If one shrine or the other grabs your attention, why not read up on them, on the Internet or in the library?

So here are numbers 24-17 in our countdown of the world’s Top 40 Marian shrines.

24. Our Lady of Almudena, Madrid There are several statues of the Virgin Mary that had been hidden away during the Muslim conquest of Iberia in the 8th century and recovered after the reconquest in the 11th century.

The people of Madrid, then a small town near the powerful city of Toledo, remembered that their ancestors had stowed away a statue in the city walls, but they didn’t know where. After prayer to the Virgin, they were guided to the right spot. Interestingly, in naming the statue Our Lady of Almudena, they used the Arabic term for the word “citadel”.

According to pious tradition, this is another image of Mary painted by the evangelist St Luke, coming to Spain via the apostle James.

The statue was venerated for centuries at an Augustinian church and then in Blessed Sacrament church. It is now in the new Almudena cathedral, which was inaugurated only in 1992—more than 400 years after the idea of a cathedral for the Almudena first being raised.

Our Lady of Almudena is Madrid’s patron, and her feast day, November 9, is a holiday in the city.

23. Einsiedeln, Switzerland Einsiedeln has been Switzerland’s most important Marian shrine for a thousand years.

A chapel enclosed in the Benedictine abbey church houses a 15thcentury statue of a “Black Madonna” which replaced an icon that had been destroyed in a fire.

The icon had darkened by centuries of soot from candle smoke.

In 1803 a well-meaning artist restored the statue, removing the layers of soot and rendering Mary with a light skin. The faithful were so forceful in their objection that she was promptly painted black.

The town, which is also a popular winter sports destination, was a famous stop on the Way of St James coming from central Europe, and at one point rivalled even Rome for popularity.

Above left: Our Lady of Almudena in Madrid’s cathedral; (right) Einsiedeln abbey. (Photos: Günther Simmermacher; Arnd wiegmann, Reuters/CNS)

22. Kevelaer, Germany Germany’s second-biggest Marian shrine, in Kevelaer near Düsseldorf, attracts around 800 000 pilgrims a year. The devotion goes back to the devastating Thirty Years’ War. In 1641, a Catholic named Hendrick Busman decided to build a small wayfarer’s shrine in the village when he heard a voice from above: it was the Mother of God, instructing him three times to build a small chapel there. At the same time, his wife had visions of a chapel, with an image of Our Lady in front of it. This persuaded Busman to build the chapel.

And when Busman saw soldiers from Luxembourg carrying an image of Our Lady of Graces, just as his wife had dreamt it, he bought it from them and installed it in the church (a copy of it is in the shrine of the same name in KwaZulu-Natal).

Many miracles have been reported in Kevelaer since, and the shrine is popular especially with pilgrims from the Rhineland and the Netherlands. Every year, a motorcycle pilgrimage draws several thousand leather-clad and helmeted faithful.

18. Marija Bistrica, Croatia Kevelaer’s Mercy chapel and basilica in Germany; and the basilica of Las Lajas in Colombia. (Photos: Thomas Schoch & Diego Delso/wikipedia)

Mariazell basilica in Austria; and Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos in Mexico. (Photos: Bwagh & Alejandro Linares Garcia/wikipedia)

21. Las Lajas, Colombia The sanctuary of Las Lajas in south-western Colombia may have the most spectacular setting of any in this series: the beautiful basilica is built inside a canyon and is reached by crossing a bridge across the gorge.

The basilica, built between 1916 and 1949, stands on the exact spot where in 1754 a woman and her deaf-mute daughter, Rosa, took refuge from a violent storm. Suddenly the mute Rosa exclaimed: “The Virgin is calling me”, as she pointed to an illuminated silhouette on the rock. Rosa and her mother kept the apparition a secret.

Soon after that Rosa died, and her mother went to pray for the child’s repose at that spot where they had taken shelter from the storm. Through that prayer, the child brought back to life.

A wooden church was built there within a couple of years of the reported miracle, and a bigger

The sanctuary of Marija Bistrica in Croatia; and the shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho in Rwanda. (Photos: Silverije; Kibeho Sanctuary) shrine in 1803. The current church was declared a minor basilica in 1994.

20. Mariazell, Austria A name that was adopted by Abbot Franz Pfanner in South Africa, Mariazell in Austria’s Styria region attracts a million pilgrims annually to pray to the 13th-century Magna Mater Austriae (Great Mother of Austria) figure.

Legend has it that in 1157 the travelling Benedictine missionary Magnus carried the wooden figure with him in the region when a huge boulder blocked his way.

After he prayed to Our Lady, the boulder split, giving the monk free passage to continue on his way.

When he arrived at his destination, he placed the figure on a tree trunk and built a cell around it, which served as both his accommodation and a chapel. The name given to the small structure was “Mary in the Cell”, which later became Mariazell (Mary’s cell).

Today a gothic three-towered basilica stands on the spot; with the monk’s wooden figure of Mary cloaked in finest cloth. Pope John Paul II visited the basilica in 1983 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.

19. Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico

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During practice the youngest daughter fell and was killed. As the parents mourned over the dead child, the old wife of the local church’s caretaker placed a disused wooden statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception next to the lifeless body—which then miraculously revived.

News of the miracle spread and veneration grew, among Indians, Mestizos and Spanish. In 1732 a new church was built to hold the 50cm-high statue, which had been made in the early 1500s by Purépecha Indians using an indigenous technique.

Now, every year a million people come from all over Mexico at the end of January and early February for the festival of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos.

A miraculous resurrection of an aerial acrobat is the source of the shrine of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos (or St John of the Lakes) in central Mexico.

In 1623 a family of travelling acrobats came to the town, performing trapeze-type stunts, with swords and knives stacked on the ground for extra jeopardy.

Croatia’s best-known pilgrim shrine is Marija Bistrica in the country’s south.

Devotion to its wooden statue of Our Lady with Child—another Black Madonna—goes back to 1545, a time when the Turks were on their march through Europe. As the Turks approached, a local priest hid the statue, which already was believed to work miracles, from the invaders. When he died, he took the secret of its hiding place to the grave.

The statue was found in 1588; according to legend when a bright light shone from the spot where the priest had buried it 43 years earlier. In 1650 the statue had to be hidden again—and this time remained lost until 1684.

In 1879 a new church was built to house the Black Madonna. During construction, a fire burnt down everything—except the statue and the main altar.

In 1971 the bishops of Croatia declared Marija Bistrica the “national pilgrim shrine” for the region’s faithful. In 1998, Pope John Paul II came there to beatify one of the shrine’s greatest devotees, Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac.

17. Kibeho, Rwanda Kibeho in south-west Rwanda is the only Vatican-recognised Marian pilgrimage site in Africa, nicknamed the “Lourdes of Africa”.

In 1981 Our Lady appeared in a series of separate visions to three young women as “Nyina wa Jambo”, which roughly translated means “Mother of the Word”.

The apparitions included an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda being engulfed by gross violence and hatred, with Our Lady calling the people to pray to prevent a terrible war. This is widely interpreted as foreshadowing the 1994 genocide—which claimed the life of one of the visionaries, Marie Claire Mukangango.

While pilgrims came flocking to Kibeho in great numbers already in the 1980s, the local bishop ordered a commission which culminated in its recognition as an official pilgrimage site in 2001.

Four other young people have reported visions, but they are not recognised. n Eight more Marian shrines next week.

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Fr Alastair Shaw CSsR

R

EDEMPTORIST Father Alastair Shaw of Cape Town died on October 10 after a long illness, less than two weeks short of his 40th anniversary of ordination.

His Requiem Mass, at which Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town presided and Redemptorist provincial Fr Sean Wales preached, was on October 19 at the Monastery parish in Bergvliet, where Fr Alastair had lived for the past 20 years.

Born in 1952, he attended Loreto Convent and CBC Pretoria, after which he entered the Redemptorist novitiate at Bergvliet in 1972.

After his studies at St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria and the Franciscan Study Centre in Canterbury, England, Fr Alastair was ordained at the Monastery in Pretoria on October 22, 1978.

A gifted preacher, he was immediately assigned to the Redemptorist mission team. To this day, people remember mis-

sions he preached.

In 1981 Fr Alastair was asked by then vice-provincial (now Bishop) Kevin Dowling to assume the sad task of being the last Redemptorist parish priest of the Monastery parish, Pretoria, which was due to be expropriated by the ever-expanding local university.

Fr Shaw’s grandparents had

been founder members of that parish.

After the closure of the Monastery at the end of 1982, Fr Alastair spent a couple of years in Melbourne, Australia, studying psychotherapy at the Redemptorist-run Hofbauer Institute. On his return to South Africa, he was much soughtafter for his skills as a counsellor and therapist.

Suffering a series of strokes in 1999, Fr Shaw was confined to a wheelchair but later was able to get around with the help of a walker.

Parishioners of Holy Redeemer parish in Bergvliet will picture him sitting daily at the front pew of the church from which he was able to concelebrate at Mass.

Fr Alastair Shaw will be remembered for his gifts as a powerful preacher, an understanding counsellor, a compassionate confessor, and a person who enjoyed a good laugh.

Fr Larry Kaufmann CSsR

Fr Dick Broderick MSC

S

ACRED Heart Missionaries Father Richard Broderick of Pretoria died on October 7 at the age of 83.

Richard Francis Broderick was born on January 29, 1935, in Lismore, County Waterford, in the south of Ireland. He was the youngest of four children.

Fr Dick, as he was known, joined the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1952 and was ordained in 1959, coming to South Africa within three months of his ordination.

On arrival, Fr Dick studied Sepedi to prepare himself for missionary work in the northern part of South Africa, in what was then Pietersburg, now Polokwane.

The territory would become a prefecture apostolic a few years later, and a diocese in 1974. It is now the diocese of Tzaneen.

Fr Dick became the first regional superior of the newly established Missionaries of the Sacred Heart region of Southern Africa in 1974.

His love and concern for the

poor involved him in Justice and Peace programmes in the area.

After a sabbatical in 1989, on his return to South Africa, he took up the challenging role of rector of the Lumko Institute.

This institute has contributed in no small way to the growth of the Church in Africa, with its emphasis on training lay people. Fr Dick was at Lumko for

ten years.

He was an outstanding witness to the love of God made visible in some tough times during the recent history of South Africa.

Fr Dick was very supportive of religious Sisters and Brothers, and empowering lay people with his unique and prophetic vision of Church.

He promoted the personality and human relationship programme over the past 20 years; it was dear to his heart and he gave it all his energy.

Religious life and community life in his congregation were very important to Fr Dick, as was his contribution to the formation and spiritual direction of young men for the religious life and the priesthood, and also young women who wished to join the religious life as Sisters.

Fr Dick served right up until the end. His smiling face and readiness to always see things in a positive way will be missed, and he will not be forgotten.

Fr Frank Gallagher MSC

Liturgical Calendar Year B – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday November 4, All Saints (transferred) Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14, Psalm 24:1-6, 1 John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12 Monday November 5 Philippians 2:1-4, Psalm 131, Luke 14:12-14 Tuesday November 6, All Saints of Africa Sirach 44:1, 10-15, Psalm 15:2-5, Luke 6:27, 38 Wednesday November 7 Philippians 2:12-18, Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14, Luke 14:25-33 Thursday November 8 Philippians 3:3-8, Psalm 105:2-7, Luke 15:1-10 Friday November 9, Dedication of the St John Lateran Basilica Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 or 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 1617, Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9, John 2:13-22 Saturday November 10, St Leo the Great Philippians 4:10-19, Psalm 112:1-2, 5-6, 8-9, Luke 16:9-15 Sunday November 11, 32nd Sunday of the Year 1 Kings 17:10-16, Psalm 146:7-10, Hebrews 9:2428, Mark 12:38-44

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FAlleR—Cecilia. Died November 7, 2002. Lovingly remembered by her 14 sons and daughters and their families. May she come to fullness of life in her new abode.

PRAYeRS

POWeRFUl NOVeNA—Saint

Jude never fails us. Holy St Jude, apostle and martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles. Kinsman of Jesus Christ and faithful intercessor for all who invoke your special patron in time of need. To you do I have recourse from the depths of my heart and humbly beg you to come to my assistance. Please help me now in my urgent need and grant my petition. In return I promise to make your name known in distribution of this prayer that never fails… .May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be forever blessed and glorified. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and grant my request (name your request). Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be. Say this for nine consecutive days and your request will be answered.

MAY All I DO today begin with you, O Lord. Plant dreams and hopes within my

soul, revive my tired spirit: be with me today. May all I do today continue with your help, O Lord. Be at my side and walk with me: be my support today. May all I do today reach far and wide, O Lord. My thoughts, my work, my life: make them blessings for your kingdom; let them go beyond today.

O God, today is new unlike any other day, for God makes each day different.

Today God's everyday grace falls on my soul like abundant seed, though I may hardly see it.

Today is one of those days Jesus promised to be with me, a companion on my journey, and my life today, if I trust him, has consequences unseen.

My life has a purpose. I have a mission. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. God has not created me for naught.

Therefore I will trust him. whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away.

God does nothing in vain.

He knows what he is about.

John Henry Newman

PeRSONAl

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We can all be saints Continued from page 7 week in and week out, and all the lay women and men working in our parishes in a saintly way but who will never be named as saints.

Remember that the term “saints”, when used in the New Testament, usually appears when St Paul is writing to all the Christians in Corinth or Galatia or wherever. He does not reserve the term just for those who are especially well known, or who are ordained, or who have suffered more than others.

St Paul reminds us that we all have the ability to be saints—and don’t need to be priests or nuns or martyrs to achieve that—and that the universal call to holiness that begins at our baptism is also a universal call to saintliness that continues throughout our Christian lives.

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: November 7: Bishop Frank Nubuasah of Francistown, who is also the Apostolic Administrator of Gaborone, on the 20th anniversary of his episcopal ordination.

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32nd Sunday: November 11 Readings: 1 Kings17:10-16, Psalm 146:7-10, Hebrew 9:24-28, Mark 12:38-44

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HAT kind of God are we dealing with? For next Sunday’s readings, the answer seems to be that ours is a generous if at times rather disconcerting God. You can see this in today’s first reading, when Elijah (at God’s command), finding himself in foreign territory, orders a widow, whom he meets as she gathers wood at the gate of the city, to bring him some water to drink and then, as an afterthought, “a handful of bread in your hand”.

This good lady then has to explain the facts of life to the male prophet, and we notice that it is in the name, not of her god, but “as the Lord your God lives”, that she explains that they have nothing left, and she and her son are going to die.

To our astonishment, the man of God tells her not to be afraid, then demands to be fed first: “Make me a little cake and bring it to me.”

Typical cleric, I hear you cry; but notice that something else is going on here: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be empty, nor the jug of oil run dry until the day when the Lord gives rain on the earth.’”

And, remarkably, that is what happens,

S outher n C ross

and it was “in accordance with the word of the Lord, which he had spoken through the hand of Elijah”.

The generosity of God especially embraces a widow and her child; but it is not especially comfortable.

In the psalm we hear the poet describing what God is like: “who keeps faith forever, who does justice for the oppressed, gives food for the hungry, sets prisoners free, gives sight to the blind, raises up those who are bowed down, loves the righteous, looks after the immigrant, helps the orphan and the widow”.

But, on the other hand, this God “thwarts the way of the wicked”.

Then in a final shout of joy, the psalmist sings: “The Lord shall be king for ever, your God, O Zion, from generation to generation,” and concludes with a deafening shout of “Halleluiah”. That is what God is like.

The second reading for Sunday offers a different angle on God’s generosity.

Meditating on what God has done in Jesus, the author comes up with the idea of “access”.

So, he says: “Christ did not enter into a Holy of Holies that was made by human

S

side that prison in St Petersburg, she waited with other women whose husbands or sons had also been arrested.

The situation bordered on the absurd.

None of them even knew whether their loved ones were still alive, and the guards made them wait for hours without explanation, often in the cold of winter.

One day, as Akhmatova was standing in line waiting, another woman recognised her, approached her, and asked: “Can you describe this?” Akhmatova replied: “I can,” and when she said this, something like a smile passed between them.

That smile contained some levity, and that allowed them both to realise, however unconsciously, that they were transcendent to that situation.

The smile alerted them both to the fact that they were more than what they were in that moment. Awful as it was, they weren’t ultimately prisoners to that moment.

Moreover, that smile was a prophetic and political act of defiance, based upon faith. Levity is subversive.

T

Conrad

his is true not just for how we live inside our faith lives; it’s true too for how we live, healthily, inside our families.A family that’s too serious will not allow for forgiveness. Its heaviness will eventually drive its members either into depression or away from it. Moreover, it will make an idol out of itself.

Conversely, a family that can take itself seriously but still laugh at itself will be a family where there is forgiveness, because

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Sunday Reflections

hands, which would be the opposite of the real thing. Instead, he entered into Heaven itself, to appear now in the presence of God on our behalf.”

Do you see what this means? It means that we are dealing with a God who is very much on our side, and who wants to invite us in, to give us “access”.

And in God’s graciousness, Jesus does not have to keep offering sacrifices, unlike the High Priest, using “blood belonging to others”. But Jesus makes his offering once, in God’s graciousness: “Christ offered himself just once, to take away sins, and a second time he will appear, without sin, to those who are waiting for him, for their salvation.”

We are dealing with a God who longs to give us access.

In the Gospel for next Sunday, we see what generosity looks like.

Jesus has just had a rather unexpected meeting of minds with a scribe, but now, to our surprise, he is bitterly reproaching this educated class, and warning us against them: “They want to prance around in robes and be greeted in the marketplace and to have the

Humour in life and faith HUSAKU Endo, the Japanese author of the classic novel Silence (upon which Martin Scorsese based his movie) was a Catholic who didn’t always find his native land, Japan, sympathetic to his faith.

He was misunderstood but kept his balance and good heart by placing a high value on levity. It was his way of integrating his faith with his own experience of occasional personal failure and his way of keeping his perspective on a culture which viewed him with suspicion.

Levity, he believed, makes faith liveable.

He’s right. Levity is what makes faith liveable because humour and irony give us the perspective we need to forgive ourselves and others for our weaknesses and mistakes. When we’re too serious there’s no forgiveness, least of all for ourselves.

What is humour? What is its meaning?

A generation ago, Peter Berger wrote a book, A Rumor of Angels, in which he looked at the question of humour philosophically.

I like his conclusion. In humour, he submits, we touch the transcendent. To be able to laugh at a situation, no matter how dire or tragic, shows that we’re in some way above it, that there’s something in us that’s not imprisoned by that situation, or any situation.

There’s a wonderful example of this in the writings of the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.

During the purges of Stalin, her husband had been arrested, as had many others. She occasionally tried to visit the prison he was in to leave letters and packages for him. Standing in long lines out-

Nicholas King SJ

God can be disconcerting

front seat in church and the best places at dinner-parties.”

Worse than that, it appears, and quite in contrast with the generosity of God, “they devour widows’ houses and make a pretence of praying for a long time”.

That should make those of us who claim to be religious wobble rather nervously.

Then, by contrast, we see a picture of what generosity looks like: “He sat opposite the Treasury, ‘noticing how the crowd was putting money in’. And many affluent people were putting in large sums. Then there came a single destitute widow who put in two tiny coins (a farthing!).”

It then turns out that she, and not the affluent classes, is the generous one: “This destitute widow put in more than all those who put into the Treasury. Because they put in from their surplus; but she, from her deficit, put in everything she possessed—her whole life!”

That is what God looks like, in the divine generosity: a destitute widow.

Does that make you start thinking?

Southern Crossword #835

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

levity will give them a healthy perspective on their foibles.

A family that’s healthy will sometimes look at itself honestly and, with the kind of smile that passed between Anna Akhmatova and her friend, say of itself: “Aren’t we pathetic!”

That’s true too of nationalism. We need to take our nation seriously, even as a certain kind of levity keeps this seriousness in perspective.

I’m a Canadian. As Canadians, we love our country, are proud of it, and would, if push came to shove, die for it. But we have a wonderful levity about our patriotism.

We make jokes about it and enjoy it when others make jokes about us.

Consequently, we don’t have any bitter controversies regarding who loves the country and who doesn’t. Our lightness keeps us in unity.

All of this, of course, is doubly true of faith and spirituality. Real faith is deep, an indelible brand inside the soul, a DNA that dictates behaviour.

Moreover, real faith does not sidestep the tragic within our lives but equips us to face the heaviness in life where we meet disappointment, personal failure, heartbreak, injustice, betrayal, the breakdown of cherished relationships, the death of loved ones, sickness, the diminishment of our own health, and ultimately our own death.

This is not to be confused with any natural or contrived optimism that refuses to see the dark. Rather real faith, precisely because it is real, keeps us inchoately aware of our identity and transcendence, will always allow us a discreet, knowing, smile, no matter the situation.

Like the English martyr St Thomas More, we will be able to joke a bit with our executioner and we will also be able to forgive others and ourselves for not being perfect.

Our lives often are pathetic. But it’s okay. We can still laugh with each other!

We’re in good hands. The God who made us obviously has a sense of humour, and thus understanding and forgiveness.

Too many books on Christian spirituality might more aptly be entitled “The Unbearable Heaviness of Faith”.

ACrOSS

1. Kind of stone needed for drowning (Mt 18) (4) 2. Times are changing in Muslim territories (8) 9. Biblical book for the bookkeeper (7) 10. There’s nothing among the sisters but words (5) 11. They’re your fault when you don’t quite reach your destination (12) 13. Undamaged (6) 15. Encourages the hen to do some laying (4,2) 17. Liturgical feast in a Rosary mystery (12) 20. Tropical fruit (5) 21. Where one may find a Caribbean bishop (7) 22. Twelve dozen set about being the most vulgar (8) 21. The avian Spirit (Jn 1) (4)

DOwN

1. To do with the monks (8) 2. Destination of a soul that is neither here nor there (5) 4. Russian Orthodox patriarchate (6) 5. Matter for baptism is not still (7,5) 6. Goes on pilgrimage with heavy steps (7) 7. Deacon’s stole (4) 8. Patent closes for some church members (12) 12. The Flood can do it (8) 14. Violent wind (7) 16. O God, Our Help ... Past (hymn) (2,4) 18. The state of an American Church (5) 19. Some pedagogues are eager (4)

Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

A

FATHER was reading the Bible to his young son. He came to the passage: “The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city, but his wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.”

At that point the boy interrupted and asked: “Yes, but what happened to the flea?”

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