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The

S outher n C ross www.scross.co.za

March 13 to March 19, 2019

Pilgrims now spread the word about WYD

R10 (incl VAT RSA)

Ireland’s apostle St Patrick was six years a slave

What Church has to say about sports

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Reg No. 1920/002058/06 No 5126

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Pope: How to be a Catholic politician

BY CINDY WOODEN

W

hat makes a politician “Catholic” is not party affiliation, but dedication to promoting the common good, particularly through listening to and empowering people who often are overlooked, Pope Francis said—just around two months before South Africans go to the polls in the national and provincial elections.

A Catholic politician, he said, always looks for “the possible good, even if it is modest” the pope told 26 young Latin America leaders attending a course on politics and the social teaching of the Church.

Quoting Pope Paul VI, Pope Francis told the young leaders: “In concrete situations, and taking account of solidarity in each person’s life, one must recognise a legitimate variety of possible options. The same Christian faith can lead to different commitments.”

For that reason, he said, Catholic politicians will join different parties and will work with people of other faiths in pursuing the common good.

“Being a Catholic in politics does not mean being a recruit from a group, an organisation or a party,” but striving to serve others based on one’s baptismal calling and strengthened by regular participation in a faith community, the pope said.

Without that support, he said, one risks facing “the challenges of power, of strategies, of action” alone.

“I invite you to live your faith with great freedom, never believing that there exists only one form of political commitment for Catholics, a Catholic party,” the pope said.

Pope Francis called for “a new presence of Catholics” in politics, meaning not just “new faces in the electoral campaigns, but mainly new methods that are simultaneously critical and constructive”.

True democracy can never mean “for the

people, but without the people”, the pope said. To be Catholic is to recognise that one belongs to a community, to listen to the community, and to respond to the real needs of people in the community.

Pope Francis said there are three groups that need particular attention, and listening to them offers real hope for finding concrete solutions to the region’s problems: women, the young and the poor.

Women, he said, are “a pillar in the building of the Church and society”; young people have “the dissatisfaction and rebelliousness that are necessary to promote true changes and not merely cosmetic ones”; and, through service to and with the poor, “the Church shows her fidelity” to Christ, the pope said.

“Their presence, their joys and, especially, their suffering are a strong wake-up call for those who are responsible for public life,” he said, and in responding to their needs, a government goes a long way in truly working for the common good in ways that are concrete and not simply slogans.

“If we do not want to get lost in a sea of empty words, let us always look at the faces of women, young people and the poor,” the pope said. “Let’s look at them as subjects of change and not as mere objects of assistance.”

Pope Francis also quoted at length from a homily delivered by St Óscar Romero in 1978: “To be a good political activist one need not be a Christian, but Christians involved in political activity have an obligation to profess their faith in Christ and to use methods that are congruent with their faith.

“If a conflict arises in this area between loyalty to the faith and loyalty to the organisation, genuine Christians must choose faith and demonstrate that their struggle for justice is for the justice of God’s kingdom and no other.”—CNS

Nomsa Mashabela takes the little ones of Holy Family Care Centre in Ofcolaco, Limpopo, for a walk. The home was founded in 2002 and is run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. It serves young children who are very ill and who, in many cases, have been orphaned or abandoned. The centre, which can accommodate 70 children, is always stretched to full capacity. For more information: www.holyfamilycentre.fkraak.com/index.html

Last chance for Fatima statues STAFF REPORTER

A

PORTUGAL-BASED businessman who has donated 1 250 statues of Our Lady of Fatima to parishes and institutions around the world is inviting parishes and schools to apply for one of the last 50 statues he will give away.

The applicants will have to cover the cost of freight, said formerly Cape Town-based José Camara, but he will take care of all the other costs, taxes and paperwork on his side.

In return for his donation of the handpainted statues, which are made in Fatima, recipient parishes and schools must undertake to recite the Rosary once a week with families in their communities and promote the First Saturdays devotion.

The statues are available in sizes of 70cm and 55cm, and are suitable for indoor use only.

Mr Camara said he will consider only applications from priests on parish letterheads.

He said that in the past he had received many fraudulent applications, but after having sent more than a thousand statues around the world, he has acquired a knack for spotting fake applications.

His mission of donating the statues as a way of promoting devotion to Our Lady of Fatima began in January 2013 with an offer in The Southern Cross to give away 12 statues to parishes in South Africa.

Demand was high, and from there his mission spread first to other countries in Southern Africa and eventually all around the world.

Mr Camara has sent Our Lady of Fatima to 47 countries as far apart as Saudi Arabia, Japan, Haiti, Britain, Australia, Mozambique, and India.

To apply for a statue, or to request prayers and other material to assist parishes in establishing the Five First Saturdays devotion, contact Mr Camara at jjvcamara@gmail.com

A note from the Southern Cross chair

Below is an excerpt from the address delivered by chair Rosanne Shields at the 2019 AGM of the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co, which publishes Southern Cross.

We start our countdown to our jubilee year in 2020. To keep a quality religious weekly newspaper with a high percentage of local content in circulation every week for 100 years is quite a unique achievement. The number of papers similar to ours that are still in circulation in the rest of Africa can be counted on one hand.

I wonder whether those who founded our paper imagined that it

would survive for 100 years Carrying this legacy forward is a grave responsibility for all of us and we are up against many challenges.

We need to face them and make an unshakeable commitment to keep going for another hundred years, probably in a format that we cannot even imagine.

But today, the financial situation at The Southern Cross is of great concern. We cannot trim our publishing costs much more—up by 7.6% year on year—and our operating expenses have increased by only 2,4%, due to very careful control.

Once again, our Associates have rescued us from bankruptcy!

Improving circulation, growing our digital presence and increasing our income in order to fulfil our mission of “Catholic Media in Every Catholic Home” requires more capacity, both in staff and capital investment.

As we approach with joy, and some trepidation, our jubilee year, let us continue to bring Jesus’ message to our readers through all the good news stories that we carry, by paying tribute to those who have built our Church, by carrying different viewpoints that enrich our understanding

of one another, and by being loyal supporters of the reforms Pope Francis is bringing about. Let us make this our mantra: “We lift up our eyes to the mountains; where is our help to come from? Our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

There are many ways to support The Southern Cross to ensure its survival: by buying it, by promoting it in the parishes, by advertising in it, and by supporting our Associates Campaign with an annual contribution.

To do so is easy: choose one of the categories of Associates you would

like to join—Cardinal McCann Associate (R1 500 and above), St Maximilian Kolbe Associate (R500-1 499), St Francis de Sales Associate (R100499), or Dorothy Day (any amount).

Make your contribution into the account: The Southern Cross, Standard Bank, Thibault Square Branch (Code 020909), Acc No: 276876016.

Please e-mail or fax payment details and your name and contact details to admin@scross.co.za or 021 465-3850.

Or visit www.scross.co.za/associ ates-campaign for details.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

LOCAL

J&P backs lawsuits of miners with lung diseases

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HE Justice and Peace Commission (J&P) of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference continues to work with sick miners fighting mining corporations that prioritise profit over mineworkers’ health, said J&P director Fr Stan Muyebe OP. This, he said, is one of the ways the Church identifies with the struggles of the poor and brings God’s hope in situations of injustice.

“We work with miners from both the gold and coal industries,” Fr Muyebe said. “For years, the mines

have deliberately exposed them to unsafe levels of mine dust while pursuing maximum profit.”

Last year, a class-action lawsuit by gold miners with the lung diseases silicosis and TB resulted in a R1,4 billion settlement agreement by mine owners, provisionally approved by the High Court.

However, before the agreement can be made into an order of court, interested parties have to be given an opportunity to object to, or opt out of, the settlement agreement.

To the end, a hearing will be held

in May. If there are objections, the matter is likely to be drawn out for another six months or more.

This would delay sick miners receiving compensation, and many are dying while waiting for conclusion of the agreement.

J&P intends to make a submission at the May hearing to appeal for an expeditious conclusion of both the settlement and the establishment of the compensation trust which will facilitate payments for victims.

“We would like to ensure that as many victims as possible, especially

‘Training of priests to see faithful as without rights part of roots of abuse’

BY ERIN CARELSE

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ART of the abuse crisis in the Church resides in clericalism, as Pope Francis has said, but another cause can be located in the training of priests, according to the rector of South Africa’s Catholic university.

Professor Garth Abrahams, president of St Augustine College, wrote in an article published in the weekly Mail & Guardian: “In many countries, including South Africa, aspirant priests are selected by their bishops and are trained in seminaries; a model described by Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova University in the US, as one of ‘quasi-monastic isolation from the rest of society’, which reflects ‘the pre-modern idea that the faithful have no rights before the hierarchy.”

Prof Abrahams added that seminarians still depend totally on their superiors

for their future.

“An alternative model, and one embraced in many countries, accords a much greater role to lay Catholics in the training of aspirant priests,” he noted.

“Thus, while aspirant priests might receive their human and spiritual formation from fellow priests, lay Catholics contribute to pastoral formation, encouraging and assisting aspirant priests to be of service to the surrounding community.”

Prof Abrahams said intellectual formation is provided in academic institutions that are not exclusively clerical; lay Catholics constitute an important proportion of both faculty and student body.

In that setting, aspirant priests are obliged to compete with lay people, with women, with persons from different faith traditions.

“This, after all, is the reality that will be lived following ordination,” Prof Abrahams said.

A NEW WAY OF HELPING THE SOUTHERN CROSS There is a NEW way to become part of The Southern Cross through a monthly contribution to the Associates’ Campaign.

Dorothy Day was an American Catholic social activist and newspaper publisher.

Our new Dorothy Day patron category is available for those who wish to make a monthly credit card contribution of any amount.

Please support our Associates Campaign with a monthly or annual contribution (our other patron categories still apply) For more information please visit www.scross.co.za/associates-campaign

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in remote rural areas, are able to lodge claims and receive justice,” Fr Muyebe said. “We are already working with traditional leaders in various provinces to set up collection points for the application forms.”

There are also thousands of miners in the South African coal industry who suffer from pneumoconiosis, also known as black lung disease.

J&P is assisting those with black lung disease to initiate their own class-action lawsuit. Seven companies are involved and preparations are in the final stages. The case

starts in June after the conclusion of the silicosis and TB case.

To exert pressure on the mining companies, J&P is working on media campaigns with miners who are ill.

“The campaigns will include a book that will be released in April, newspaper articles, a WhatsApp video in April, a TV documentary, and an exhibition at Constitutional Hill in June,” said Fr Muyebe.

“These are designed to shine a light on the difficulties and hardships of sick miners.”

Chaplain tells prisoners’ stories

BY ERIN CARELSE

I

N his new book, Light Through the Bars: Understanding and Rethinking South Africa’s Prisons, a prison chaplain says criminals have personal stories, and crime invariably has roots.

Fr Babychan Arackathara MSFS has been working as a chaplain in Southern African prisons, mostly in the Western Cape, for nearly 20 years. In his book, he shares insights into the brokenness of our society and communities—and offers suggestions for fixing them.

Fr Arackathara tells readers many behind bars are guilty of no crime other than poverty—and innocence doesn’t pay bail.

“During my years of ministering to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families, I have come to know the life situations of many people and felt obligated to write about why young and old turn to crime, and tell the wider public that no child is born a criminal,” he said.

In his book the priest suggests ways of breaking the cycles of addiction, trauma, and crime—to reach for reconciliation and transformation.

Fr Arackathara told The Southern Cross that in his experience, offenders’ stories are often entrenched in deprivation or abuse.

He highlighted society’s responsibility in reducing crime by

Prison chaplain Fr Babychan Arackathara’s new book, Light Through the Bars, outlines how we can help prisoners transform themselves. offering offenders second chances and creating opportunities.

“I want to tell the public that offenders are our own brothers and sisters.

“Jesus came to call sinners to repentance and we have a mandate to proclaim this Good News.

All of us should hate crime but approach offenders with love and the intention to help transform them.”

Ultimately, Fr Arackathara said, we should do all we can not to shut them out from family, community, and society.

“It is my wish that many will read this book with open minds and also open hearts, recognising that we are all offenders and

victims, and are all on a journey to restoration and reintegration,” he said.

Light Through the Bars was written under the guidance of veteran restorative justice writer David Le Page, and author and editor Helen Moffett.

Trevor Manuel, former finance minister and struggle activist, wrote the foreword, and Cape Town’s Archbishop Stephen Brislin an endorsement.

Light Through the Bars is being published this month and will be available in most bookshops and on Amazon.

It will cost R220 and proceeds will fund the training of prison spiritual-care workers and restorative justice facilitators.

Theological conference focus is healing

S

AINT Joseph’s Theological Institute will hold its sixth academic conference from April 25-27 at its Cedara campus near Pietermaritzburg.

This year’s theme is “The Mission to Save and Heal”, drawing from Pope Francis’ 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel).

The pope wrote: “Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others...

“The Church is herself a missionary disciple; she needs to grow in her interpretation of the revealed word and understanding of truth. It is the task of exegetes and theologians to help ‘the judgment of the Church to mature’.”

The research group of St Joseph’s is working on papers for the conference dealing with social media addiction, healing 25 years after the Rwanda genocide, emotional healing for the clergy and religious, and idealising ethics of beauty, among others.

The institute is inviting authors, academics and others to submit abstracts of papers they would like to present at the conference by April 6.

St Joseph’s has secured two important partners for the conference: the Napier Centre for Healing, led by Fr Stephen Tully, and the Denis Hurley Centre, led

by Raymond Perrier. Both will address the conference explaining their missionary activities.

The Napier Centre is a new project beginning this year. It will be an after-care facility for postrehab addiction residents. The final phase of the programme will include training for employment, to give recovering addicts ownership of their lives, and purpose and hope for the future.

The Denis Hurley Centre serves the poorest people of Durban through its clinic, feeding scheme, vocational training, educational and community support, and pastoral outreach. n For more information on the theological conference, contact Christine Ngubo at 087 353-8940, Fr Luigi at 063 116-1256, or e-mail conference2019@sjti.ac.za or visit www.sjti.ac.za/conference2019

Music programmes ‘boost creativity’ All learners need an outlet, other than pencil and paper, to express themselves and this is one of the many reasons why learners should get involved in the school music and cultural programme.

This is the view of Holy Family College in Durban which put its advice into action when members of the school’s choir participated in a choir workshop.

“The knowledge and skills learned will help the participants to develop confidence as they master singing in the

Choir admin badges were awarded to Thandiwe Bhengu, Athenkosi Maphalala and Zamathaba Mathaba. school choir,” the school said.

Another programme for

learners is the recently established Ukusamusic programme, which offers the opportunity to learn an instrument such as piano, guitar or saxophone.

The philosophy behind the programme is that learning an instrument improves concentration, reinforces self-discipline and boosts creativity.

Holy Family College offers several extracurricular of activities and clubs, believing that involvement in school activities helps build positive memories which learners can look back on when they are older.

The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

LOCAL

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SA youth tell about fruits of WYD T

BY ERIN CARELSE

WO World Youth Day pilgrims are taking to heart the appeal by national youth chaplain Fr Mthembeni Dlamini CMM to share their life-changing experiences in their parishes and communities.

Andrea Giuricich from Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Rivonia, Johannesburg, and Keanan August from St Timothy’s parish in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, were among the about 150 pilgrims who represented South Africa at WYD in Panama.

Both say they returned from WYD feeling joyful, fulfilled, and with a newfound confidence to share the Gospel with others.

Andrea said he’ll treasure the memory of saying, “Here I am Lord”, together with 1 million Catholic youth from over 100 nations.

He believes that the youth need to be the living Church on earth— every day, and not just once a week.

“The true strength of the Church was evident to me by the sheer number of pilgrims who gathered in Panama out of choice,” he said.

The Johannesburg World Youth Day group with flags in Panama City and (right) Keanan August from St Timothy’s parish in Cape Town speaking to young rural Catholics in KwaZulu-Natal after his return from WYD. “I realised that God’s voice is like a whisper, which is always there, but first, you have to listen out for it. One of the key WYD messages was Mary’s fiat—saying yes to God’s call and using your successes as a way to live the Word,” said Andrea, who went to Panama with his sister Victoria, an aspiring model who has featured in The Southern Cross.

“Using WYD as inspiration, we are planning to grow and enrich the youth group at our parish, to collectively answer yes, as Mary did—and

collectively take a stand as the youth to live our faith.”

Since returning from WYD, Andrea, who studies in Pretoria, has pledged to go to Mass twice a week.

He has addressed his Rivonia community, inviting young people “interested in becoming part of the living Word” to speak to him “to grow youth activities in the parish”, and has also given a talk at Opus Dei seminary on his WYD experience.

Capetonian Keanan August said he felt inspired by Pope Francis’

words at WYD, which helped him realised that the hope, energy and inspiration he experienced during those two weeks in Panama could be a part of his daily life.

Gathering with so many young Catholics from around the world gave him energy. One of the most profound realisations at WYD was that the Church is bigger than his own limited experience of it.

“There is a hope that you feel, knowing that we are able to come together as Catholics from every

country and be proud of who we are, together. As the youth, we need to have faith and we need to have initiative. We are in charge of future generations and the now,” he said.

After returning from Panama, Keanan made a two-week visit to KwaZulu-Natal where he shared his experience with youth from rural communities and motivated them to take part in Church activities and “make a difference in their parishes”.

“Pope Francis said at the closing Mass that young people ‘are not the future but the now’,” Keanan said.

“So let’s focus on ourselves now, and make a difference. Just because we are young doesn’t mean we are incapable of creating change and improvements in our parishes.”

Andrea said spiritual life cannot be separated from everyday life.

“Our faith needs to pervade every aspect of our lives, and we all need to take a stand within our communities, families and our country as a whole,” he said.

Both young men are looking forward to attending the next World Youth Day in Portugal in 2022.

Catholics join Pretoria pro-life rally to protest against abortion

BY NICOLETTE WHITTLE

A

PLACARD-CARRYING participant at an anti-abortion protest in Pretoria this month would like to see more Catholics swelling numbers at such events.

“It would be an excellent idea for more Catholics to consider joining pro-life rallies, since they belong to a church of great numbers in South Africa, and one in which an uncompromising pro-life stance is maintained,” the protester said.

He added that there was a need for greater coordination of regional pro-life organisations, in order to provide a united front to protest South Africa’s abortion law.

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14), exulted a slogan on a protester’s T-shirt, displaying the Hands of God holding a little child. Other banners and placards declared: “Choose life. Say no to abortion”, “Adoption, better

than abortion”, and “The unborn have no choice.”

A pro-life pamphlet handed out

by Life Chain participants at the rally noted: “Murder is never justified, regardless of whether the person be in the womb for eight days, eight weeks, eight months, eight years or eight decades. God has the power over life and death. We have no right to take that power into our own hands. Make your stand for God and against abortion.”

Life Chain member Marion Swanepoel said the group holds Monday and Saturday demonstrations in front of the Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Pretoria.

“Abortion does not make you un-pregnant, but the mother of a dead baby,” Ms Swanepoel said.

Another group at the rally, Remain Standing, aims to be the voice of the innocent.

Several pro-lifers encouraged people they met to put their crosses

beside the names of pro-life candidates in the May elections.

Supportive passers-by stopped to pray with protesters and receive pro-life pamphlets.

Others registered their objections to the rally. One group in a passing car called out, “Women have the right to take charge of their own bodies”, to which a prolifer responded, “Women inside other women have the right to refuse to be murdered.”

The rally affirmed that it is vital for Christians to present alternatives to abortion and babies mothers cannot care for.

Adoption is one viable answer to unplanned pregnancies, and there are shelter boxes where mothers who feel unable to care for infants can leave their babies in safety.

The rally also noted that Christians must be consistent in love and practical support for expectant mothers and newborn babies.

A pro-life rally was held in Pretoria this month, with Catholics among those protesting South Africa’s abortion law.

Equally important is support for women who have undergone abortions and feel in need of counselling.

After the rally, the group proceeded to Marie Stopes where they

Past pupils of CBC St Boniface High School in Galeshewe, Kimberley, honoured Sr Marie Bernarde OP (seated centre) and Brs DD Madden CB (seated left) and Liam Mullally CB (not in photo).

Past pupils honour religious for uplifting Kimberley community

BY GEORGIA LINKS

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AST pupils of CBC St Boniface High School in Galeshewe, Kimberley, celebrated a Thanksgiving Mass with Sr Marie Bernarde OP and Brs DD Madden CB and Liam Mullally CB, honouring them for their commitment and contribution over 50 years to the education and upliftment of the Galeshewe community.

St Boniface, established in 1951, has produced pupils who are in positions in education, sports, business and religion. The first premier of Northern Cape, Manne Dipico, and Judge Yvonne Mokgoro are among those who attended St Boniface.

For past pupils, the Thanksgiving Mass, celebrated by Fr Modisa Sekao and Frs Thabang Molefi and Jean-Marcel Gatshuya, brought memories of their schooldays, with song and prayers.

The reflection of the day involved sharing on what it means to be a religious, and on being part of a community supporting religious through voluntary involvement in their development and education programmes.

Tokens of appreciation and certificates were awarded to the celebrants.

Contact Vocation Coordinator on: 072 989 2286 nardvocprom1855@gmail.com Facebook: Franciscan Nardini Sisters of the Holy Family

concluded their protest. n For further information on ongoing protests in Pretoria and elsewhere in the country, contact Gregory Pereira at 083 798-7360.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

INTERNATIONAL

Pope: Let history tell Pius XII story

BY CAROL GLATZ

D Missionaries of Jesus sisters in Cochin, India. They protested the alleged rape of their former superior by a bishop. (Photo: Saji Thomas, Global Sisters Report)

Sisters in Indian rape case: We are Church outcasts

BY SAJI THOMAS

A

S the Vatican grapples to devise stronger protocols and responses following a historic summit focused on clergy sex abuse of minors, five nuns in India complain of Church repression for their support of a former superior general who was allegedly raped by a bishop.

“The Catholic Church leadership has been treating us as outcasts after we went public against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar. Even the Vatican has not bothered to acknowledge our complaints,” Sr Anupama Kelamangalathuveli, spokeswoman for five Missionaries of Jesus nuns, told Global Sisters Report.

The alleged sisters seek attention from the Vatican for the plight of women religious abused by clergy, with clearer protocols and more protection. For now, the five Sisters are living with the alleged victim in a convent in Kerala state, refusing orders to return to their own communities while the case is ongoing.

They are caught in a wrangle between a bishop who supports their refusal and their congregational

leadership, and they endure the rancour of Sisters in their community who ridicule them and discount the alleged victim’s allegations.

The Sisters have rallied behind their former superior general who complained to the police in Kerala that Bishop Mulakkal had sexually abused her multiple times, from 2014-16.

Sr Kelamangalathuveli said the alleged victim first wrote to Church authorities in January 2017, the apostolic nuncio in India in January 2018, and then to the pope, seeking Church action against Bishop Mulakkal. She copied prefects of the congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith and for Bishops, and later sent reminders before going to the police. She has received no response, Sr Kelamangalathuveli said.

Bishop Mulakkal was arrested and subsequently imprisoned, before being granted bail.

The bishop has consistently denied the allegations and claimed the case was due to the nun’s personal vendetta for his initiating disciplinary action against her. He was then the patron of the congregation that comes under the Jalandhar diocese in northern India.—CNS

Pope:Give up gossip for Lent

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ENT is a good time to concentrate on fighting the urge to gossip about others and instead try to correct one’s own faults and defects, Pope Francis said.

“We all know it usually is easier or more comfortable to notice and condemn the defects and sins of others rather than seeing our own with that kind of clarity,” the pope said after reciting the Angelus prayer at the Vatican.

Unfortunately, he said, people seldom stop at just noticing others’ defects, something “we are experts at”.

What almost always happens next, he said, is that “we talk about them”, not telling the person to his or her face in a way that could help the person improve but indulging freely and happily in gossip.

“It’s something that, because of original sin, we all have, and it leads us to condemn others,” the pope said. “We are experts in finding the bad things in others and not seeing our own.”

Pope Francis said it would be great if everyone tried during Lent to reflect on Jesus’ words regarding seeing the faults only of others and on the temptation of gossip.

Catholics should ask themselves: “Am I a hypocrite who smiles and then turns around to criticise and destroy with my tongue?”

“If, by the end of Lent, we are able to correct this a bit and not go around always criticising others behind their backs, I assure you the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection will be more beautiful.”—CNS

ECLARING that the Catholic Church is unafraid of history, Pope Francis announced that documents in the Vatican Secret Archives relating to the wartime pontificate of Pope Pius XII will be open to scholars in 2020.

Researchers, particularly those interested in Catholic-Jewish relations, have pressed the Vatican to open the archives and allow a full study of Pope Pius’ actions during World War II, including what he did or failed to do for Jews during the Holocaust.

“The Church is not afraid of history, on the contrary, she loves it and would like to love it more and better, just as she loves God. Therefore, with the same confidence as my predecessors, I open and entrust to researchers” this wealth of documents, Pope Francis said.

The pope met with supervisors, staff members and assistants working at the Vatican Secret Archives during an audience to mark the 80th anniversary of Pope Pius XII’s election.

Staff at the Vatican Secret Archives, which holds the bulk of the documents related to the wartime pope, have been working for the past 13 years to get the material organised, catalogued and accessible to researchers.

Bishop Sergio Pagano, prefect of

Pope Pius XII, who led the Church from 1939-58. Pope Francis announced that all the documents on Pope Pius in the Vatican Secret Archives will be made available to researchers starting March 2, 2020. (Photo courtesy of Libreria Editrice Vaticana) the archives, said the years of work were necessary to pull together and catalogue material previously held in a variety of Vatican offices; this includes documents from the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, records from Vatican nunciatures around the world and thousands of

notes regarding Pope Pius’ charitable activity in Italy and abroad.

Pope Pius, who guided the universal Church during World War II, already has been a subject of intense study and discussion, “even criticised—one could say with some bias or exaggeration”, Pope Francis said.

While a small portion of some material produced during the pontificate of Pope Pius has been made available, all documents in the archives from his election in 1939 to his death in 1958 will be made available to researchers starting March 2, 2020.

Pope Francis said he made the decision in consultation with trusted advisers and was confident that “serious and objective historical research will know how to evaluate in the right light, with suitable criticism, moments of praise of that pope and, without doubt, also moments of serious difficulties, tormented decisions, of human and Christian prudence, which to some could look like reticence”.

Instead those moments of prudence were attempts—at times tormented attempts—to keep, “during periods of the greatest darkness and cruelty, the small flame lit of humanitarian initiatives, of hidden but active diplomacy, of the hopes of the possible positive opening of hearts”, the pope said.—CNS n See editorial on page 6

Religious persecution harms everyone

BY CAROL GLATZ

V

IOLATING religious freedom harms not only the individuals being persecuted, it also damages communities and often opens the door to further violence, a Vatican representative said.

Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, the Vatican observer to UN agencies in Geneva, also insisted governments should make sure laws allow for conscientious objection, so people can “act freely, in accordance with their deepest conviction”.

The archbishop spoke during a session of the Human Rights Council devoted to a report on freedom of religion or belief.

“The right to religious freedom blossoms or withers together with all human rights,” he said.

Despite decades of progress in putting the freedom of religion and belief alongside the right of freedom of expression “as one of the centre pillars of the architecture of human rights”, he said “recent reports on the abuse of this right are astonishing”.

Another aspect of freedom of religion that “should be given due consideration”, he said, is the freedom from any form of coercion to act contrary to one’s faith.

Displaced Iraqi Christian boys serve at Mass at a church in Amman, Jordan. The Vatican observer to the UN said that violating religious freedom harms not only individuals, but also damages communities and often causes further violence. (Photo: Muhammad Hamed, Reuters/CNS) With so many more people of different cultures, religions and beliefs living side by side, it is “vital and sensible to incorporate into legislation, with due prudence and wisdom, options that allow everyone, when faced with a problem of conscience, to act freely, in accordance with their deepest conviction”.

Archbishop Jurkovic lamented increasing calls to restrict the right

of conscientious objection.

Quoting a statement by Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister, he said the desire for such restrictions “show how some politicians and even some quarters of international agencies, forgetting their nature and acting without a mandate, are still uncomfortable with the right of freedom of conscience and belief”.—CNS

The ill need spiritual assistance

BY CAROL GLATZ

“Here I am Lord”

T Cell: +27 72 769 7396, or +27 83 471 6081 E-mail: vocation.office@dehonafrica.net www.scj.org.za

AKING care of those who are sick or struggling with illness requires taking care of the whole person—including their spiritual needs, Pope Francis said.

Offering care and healing is focused not just on “the disease of an organ or of cells but of the person in his or her entirety”, he said.

“The fact that the spirit transcends the body means that this is included in a greater vitality and dignity, which is not that of biology, but that of the person and the spirit,” the pope said.

He was speaking to members of Italy’s national Association Against Leukaemia, Lymphoma and

Myeloma, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

The pope encouraged those doing scientific research and praised those assisting and offering comfort to the suffering and ill.

“Like Mary, who remained at the foot of Jesus’ cross, volunteers, too, remain at the bedside of those who suffer,” he said. They understand the importance of being close to and tenderly consoling patients, especially since they are prone to feeling isolated and separated from the rest of the world, he added.

Pope Francis said that all those who are ill are not alone—“The Lord, who endured the difficult experience of pain and the cross, is there beside them.”—CNS

INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

‘Church a bridge between Muslims and Christians’

BY BETH GRIFFIN

T

HE Catholic Church is working to bridge the gap between Muslims and Christians in a country where the divide between the groups is fraught with large and small issues, said a Nigerian archbishop.

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, a former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, gave examples from his archdiocese in the central part of the country.

In Jos, the bustling administrative capital of Plateau state, the archbishop established the Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace Centre in 2011 to “attempt to narrow the gap between different groups that are hostile to each other”, he said.

It is a place where “Muslims and Christians walk together”, the archbishop said.

“I have lived through all different types of crisis. I didn’t want to wait for big solutions, but wanted to do something small,” Archbishop Kaigama said. “It’s a safe space to talk to one another and a proactive centre to forestall crisis and possible violence.”

“We bring in Muslim and Christian primary and secondary school students and train them together in peace education. We also bring in traditional grassroots leaders to encourage people to cultivate dialogue,” he said.

Of Nigeria’s 200 million people, 30 million are Catholic. The

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, Nigeria, speaks during a forum addressing international religious freedom issues at the UN. (Photo: Gregory Shemitz/CNS) Church “is an influential member of the Christian community because we tackle issues of a spiritual, pastoral and social nature, speak on behalf of the people and are a voice of the voiceless”, Archbishop Kaigama said. “People are waiting for our words of encouragement and our challenge to those in authority.”

Other Nigerian Christian groups are Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Church of Christ and Pentecostal, the archbishop said.

Christians and Muslims each make up approximately 40% of the population, and the balance adhere to traditional African religions.

In the predominantly Muslim north-east of the country, Boko Haram militants have killed more than 28 000 people and displaced

Priest numbers decline for first time in decade

BY CAROL GLATZ

The

The CloudMinds XR1 robot performs for visitors at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Technology holds the potential to benefit all of humankind, but it also poses risky and unforeseen results, Pope Francis said.

(Photo: Rafael Marchante, Reuters/CNS)

Pope: Don’t let robots run us

BY CAROL GLATZ

T

ECHNOLOGY holds the potential to benefit all of humankind, but it also poses risky and unforeseen results, Pope Francis said.

The rapid evolution of increased technological capacities, for example with artificial intelligence and robotics, creates a “dangerous enchantment; instead of handing human life the tools that will improve care, there is the risk of handing life over to the logic of instruments,” he said.

“This inversion is destined to create ill-fated results—the machine is not limited to running by itself, but ends up running mankind,” the pope said.

Pope Francis made his remarks during an audience with members of the Pontifical Academy for Life plenary assembly, which included a two-day workshop entitled “Roboethics: Humans, Machines and Health”.

In his speech, the pope noted the “dramatic paradox” at work today: Just when humanity has developed

the scientific and technological abilities to bring improved wellbeing more fairly and widely to everyone, instead there is increasing inequality and worsening conflict.

The problem is when technology is pursued solely for mastering a whole new ability while neglecting technology’s true purpose and for whom it is meant, Pope Francis said.

Technology should never be seen as a “foreign and hostile” force against humanity because it is a human invention—a product of human creativity and genius.

That is why technology should always be at the service of humanity and respectful of every human person’s dignity, he said.

The pope encouraged continued dialogue and contributions by people of faith in the quest for universally shared values and criteria to help guide technological research and development.

Having ethical guidelines can help leaders and those in positions of authority to make the right decisions and help protect human rights and the planet, Pope Francis said.—CNS

S outher n C ross Pilgrimage to

T

HE percentage of Catholics in the world has remained steady, while the number of priests has decreased for the first time in almost a decade, according to Vatican statistics.

Meanwhile, the numbers of bishops, permanent deacons, lay missionaries and catechists have all increased, it said.

At the end of 2017, the worldwide Catholic population exceeded 1,3 billion, which continued to be about 17,7% of the world’s population, said a statement published by the Vatican press office.

According to the statistical yearbook, the number of Catholics increased on every continent. But while that growth in Africa and the Americas kept pace with their respective region’s population growth, Asia showed a 1,5% increase in the number of Catholics while the region’s population grew bt less than 1%.

At the end of 2017, most of the world’s Catholics (48,5%) were living in the Americas, followed by Europe with 21,8%, Africa with 17,8%, 11,1% in Asia and 0,8% in Oceania.

The yearbook showed the number of bishops in the world continued its steady increase over the past six years, going from 5 133 in 2012 to 5 389 in 2017.

For the first time in since 2010, the Vatican statement said, the total number of priests—diocesan and religious order—around the world decreased, going from 414 969 in 2016 to 414 582 in 2017. Ordinations of diocesan priests continued to decline slowly from 6 577 in 2012 to 5 815 in 2017.

The number of brothers in religious orders continued a steady increase only in Africa, as Asia continued a recent downturn that began in 2016. The number of religious brothers worldwide was down to 51 535 in 2017 from 52 625 in 2016.

at least 3,8 million. They also use kidnapping and terrorism in their effort to establish the so-called Islamic State of West Africa Province. Violence is ongoing and is perpetrated by individuals and groups beyond Boko Haram.

In the north, Christians face discrimination and must keep a low profile to avoid harassment and attacks, Archbishop Kaigama said.

But, he is impressed with the religious tolerance and acceptance in the predominantly Christian southern part of the country. He described seeing one Muslim governor at a Mass in a southern state.

“He knelt when we knelt and stood when we stood. I thought he was Catholic until he addressed the congregation at the end of Mass,” the archbishop said.

“The governor’s wife was Catholic, and he didn’t keep her from being sacramental. That’s what you want: harmony,” Archbishop Kaigama said. Claiming that Islam forbids Muslims to marry Christians limits social interaction, he said.

In the days surrounding the national election in February, Archbishop Kaigama said, he was asked to host a meeting of Muslim and Christian leaders at his home, “so the meeting would have more integrity. This is the fruit for me of what we are trying to do: We are not partisan. We are not judgemental. We are there for everyone.”—CNS

CATHOLIC The percentage of Catholics in the world has remained steady, while the number of priests has decreased for the first time in almost a decade, according to Vatican statistics.(Photo: Tyler Osbourne/CNS) The number of women in religious orders showed an ongoing downward trend of about a 1,6% decrease each year worldwide since 2013, the yearbook showed. The slight increases in Africa and Asia weren’t enough to offset the reductions in Europe, the Americas and Oceania. Catholic women’s orders went from having more than 792 000 members in 2001 to just over 648 910 women at the end of 2017.

The number of candidates for the priesthood—both diocesan seminarians and members of religious orders—showed a continued slight decline worldwide, decreasing from 116 160 at the end of 2016 to 115 328 at the end of 2017.

The number of permanent deacons reported—46 894—was up 582 over the previous year. The vast majority—97,3%—of the world’s permanent deacons live in the Americas and in Europe.

The number of lay missionaries worldwide increased by over 1 000 people to 355 800 and catechists were up by 34 000 people to 3,12 million by the end of 2017.

There were more than 15,6 million baptisms around the world in 2017 and more than 2,3 million Catholic weddings.—CNS

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Physical pain of illness can bring spiritual healing CLOSE friend of mine has men- while pleading for the gift of his di- to my healing, along with the SacraA ment of the Sick a caring priest gave tioned from time to time how vine healing.

Therein I experienced a unique me at the outset of my painful time. much he desires a miracle to make

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

The Pius XII files

T

HE announcement by Pope Francis that documents in the Vatican Secret Archives relating to the pontificate of Pope Pius XII between 1939 and his death in 1958 will be opened to scholars next year must be welcomed.

Pope Pius, whose papacy began 80 years ago—just half a year before World War II broke out—is perhaps the past century’s most controversial pontiff, owing to his supposed inaction in the face of the Holocaust.

To critics, Pius was virtually complicit in the persecution and genocide of Jews by his failure to loudly and repeatedly condemn the Holocaust.

This perception has even clouded Catholic-Jewish relations, which took a knock in 2012 when Pope Benedict XVI declared Pius XII “venerable”, thereby authorising his sainthood cause.

Pope Francis acknowledged these sensitivities when he expressed his confidence that “serious and objective historical research will know how to evaluate in the right light, with suitable criticism, moments of praise of that pope and, without doubt, also moments of serious difficulties, tormented decisions, of human and Christian prudence, which to some could look like reticence”.

Time will reveal whether evidence-based scholarship will correct those current narratives which portray Pius XII as either a Nazi stooge or a dithering coward.

It is a fact that Pope Pius issued no explicit condemnation which named the perpetrators and the victims of the Holocaust, though he did speak out briefly. In his 1942 Christmas broadcast, Pius said: “Humanity owes this vow [of working towards a just society] to those hundreds of thousands who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline.”

Everybody knew what he meant. Leading Nazi Reinhard Heydrich rebutted that Pius “makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals”.

For Pope Pius’ defenders, his reluctance to speak out more trenchantly was a prudent decision, intended to prevent tragic repercussions, such as the roundup of Jews and non-Aryan Catholics in the Netherlands, in reprisal for the local Church’s

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.

anti-Nazi pronouncements.

In early 1943, Pius told a priest: “No doubt a protest would gain me the praise and respect of the civilised world, but it would have submitted the poor Jews to an even worse persecution.”

Later that year, he told the College of Cardinals that every papal communication to “the responsible authorities” and public declaration had “to be seriously weighed and considered in the interest of the persecuted themselves in order not to make their situation unwittingly even more difficult and unbearable”.

It is academic whether or not Pius XII’s reticence to speak out was a prudent decision or a grave error. We cannot know whether public condemnations would have tempered the Nazis’ genocidal policy, especially when such censure came from a man whom that regime considered an opponent (whose imprisonment or assassination they reportedly considered after occupying Rome in 1943).

Whichever conclusion one may arrive at, the notion that Pius XII was indifferent to the Holocaust is not sustainable.

It is a matter of public record that Pope Pius did much to facilitate the Catholic Church’s initiatives in saving Jews, especially in Italy as well as through papal nunciatures such as those in Budapest and Istanbul. Indeed, the pope’s ostensible neutrality might have been a key to these efforts.

In Rome, around 5 700 of the city’s 6 730 Jews were saved from the Nazis’ October 16, 1943 round-up because they were given refuge in Church institutions. Historians may argue to what extent Pope Pius was involved in that rescue operation, and others like them throughout Italy, but it is inconceivable that it would have been possible without at least papal knowledge and approval.

Perhaps the archives will produce documentary evidence of Pius’ involvement. Post-war Jewish leaders such as Golda Meir, Albert Einstein and Roman Chief Rabbi Israele Anton Zolli needed no such proof: they hailed Pope Pius as a “righteous gentile” for his lifesaving efforts on behalf of Italian Jews.

Full access to the archives will likely provide greater clarity about Pius XII’s wartime record.

We must hope that these insights will be met with open minds.

him more vividly aware of God. Recently I told him that I had been privileged to experience exactly what he so earnestly wished.

It started a week before Christmas when out of the blue I found a belt of shingles on the right side of my body around my waist. I immediately obtained the necessary antiviral medication.

My shingles pain took off at the speed of knots. I experienced it most at night when I tried to sleep, and found some relief lying on my back as still as I could while focusing my mind on God alone, much as recommended in centering prayer.

By emptying my mind as much as I could of all other thoughts, I found a unique peace by superimposing my pain on that of Christ

RENEW’s small groups ongoing

I

N his letter “Offer us the best of our Church to stem exit” (February 20), Frans van Neerijnen offers a significant number of suggestions regarding engaging Catholics to keep them from leaving for Pentecostalism.

Among them is RENEW groups.

Mr Van Neerijnen says, “Renew was a good attempt at getting small groups going but there was no follow-up and no ongoing programme.” Since he also refers to Alpha in Bryanston parish in Johannesburg, I assume he is from there.

RENEW Africa is indeed running in Bryanston parish and has been in the Johannesburg, Pretoria, Klerksdorp, Port Elizabeth, Swaziland, and so on for some years.

In fact, I spoke at all Masses in Bryanston recently and completed a workshop there about the programme. Several thousand people in Johannesburg archdiocese have been following it since 2012.

The RENEW Africa process has segued into “Why Catholic?”, a way for Catholics to use the Catechism as well as the Scriptures to understand and develop our faith.

Other processes intervene from time to time for specific purposes, such as “At Prayer with Mary” and “Forgiveness and Reconciliation”.

What we are using for Lent 2019 is called “Live Lent!” It discusses the relationship of the Sunday Mass readings in Lent to the Old Testament, and provides a daily meditation, a Small Christian Community prayer, learning, faith sharing, and a call to action each week.

The “Why Catholic?” process is also ideal for people who have just completed the RCIA for adults or

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awareness of God, which made me more sensitive to the immeasurable healing of Christ’s suffering.

Of course, I quickly became aware of Christ’s wanting to heal not only my physical pain but all areas in my life that needed his restoring me to be the full person he had made me to be.

While experiencing this, I continued to take my medication to ultimately free my body of the shingles virus. After suffering great pain and discomfort for more than four weeks, a doctor recommended a particular painkiller to me which had immediate good effects.

Now that I am back to normal, I feel a somewhat different person.

Certainly the prayers many friends offered for my healing contributed

who are in Catholic Alpha connect groups who need material to continue.

There are further options for us to follow after “Why Catholic?”, which I am sure would satisfy Mr van Neerijnen’s need for follow-up and a continuing organised programme.

We also have a slot, “Renew On Air”, on Radio Veritas at 20:00 on Mondays (repeated at 17:00 on Saturdays).

If anyone should care to contact me at duncan@hyam.co.za I would be delighted to provide further information about Small Christian Community groups in your area or how you can get them started.

Duncan Hyam, Johannesburg

We need to truly take part in Mass

I

WAS intrigued by Frans van Neerijnen’s letter (February 20) on making the Church more attractive to the faithful to stem the loss of Catholics to Pentecostal churches.

May I offer a suggestion about helping us to truly take part in the Mass, about which I feel strongly?

The Sunday Missal covers every Sunday of all three cycles as comprehensively as possible, but it is the use and manner in which it is put across that, I feel, needs to be overhauled.

Let’s take the first part of the Missal for any Sunday, which contains the entrance antiphon, collect, first reading, responsorial psalm, second reading, Alleluia, and Gospel. Up to this point it is easy to follow exactly the form of the Mass, including the homily/sermon.

But following the rest of the Mass really gets tricky at the start of the Eucharistic prayer. There follow 34 different prefaces which cover all the important reasons for the Mass.

Here’s the first problem. Inevitably, the priest launches into a preface without giving the congregation any idea which one it is, so they are unable to follow. At this point everyone’s attention is somewhat compromised by looking for the correct preface of the day.

Then follow the four Eucharistic prayers, with the variations of the Communicantes in the first Eucharistic prayer, followed by the other three. For me this is the central part of the Mass, and not the time to be paging through Eucharistic prayers to find the right one. In these circumstances it is just not possible to immerse oneself in the solemnity of the Eucharistic moment.

It wouldn’t take that much extra time for a member of the congregation, with the parish priest, to select and announce to the congregation during Mass, each Sunday, exactly what the correct prayers to use are and where to find them quickly.

I’m sure this would make for a much deeper appreciation for the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us all, when he said: “Do this in memory of me.”

Antonio Tonin, East London

I am naturally grateful for their prayers and his ministration.

Of course, I do not wish the friend I mention to be afflicted with shingles so that he might have a similar miracle of being aware of God’s presence in him as I experienced through my pain.

I do hope, though, that he might still have his desire for a miracle in his life fulfilled. This might occur in an equally surprising area of his life as I had through my personal pain.

In this season of Lent, I naturally reflect more deeply on Christ’s suffering in terms of my recent shingles event. I pray, too, that all those who suffer daily might find some relief by also identifying their pain with that of Christ.

Fr Kevin Reynolds, 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

Wake up to stop loss of Catholics

T

HE article by Professor Michael Ogunu on the exodus of Catholics to Pentecostal churches (January 23) personally concerns me.

I have been affected by this sad loss for many years, with a member of my family walking over to a Pentecostal church, with her small baptised Catholic kids, because of happenings in our Church.

Prof Ogunu says in his article that to help stop Catholics leaving, we need greater involvement of priests in the lives of the faithful. I agree wholeheartedly.

When I grew up, our parish priest was my second Dad. We had regular home visits, with Father simply walking into our home for tea and my Mum’s homemade ginger biscuits.

Not anymore.

A good friend told me that, from the time her husband died, her parish priest stopped visiting her altogether.

She is an old lady in her 80s, frail, and can’t go to Sunday Mass anymore. And while we thank ministers of the Eucharist for their visits to the housebound, such visits are quick, and there is no time for real ministry, or spending a few more minutes with the person they’ve brought the precious Body and Blood of Christ to.

Why are there no community counsellors?

Why aren’t there Bible study classes for children and adults to be able to understand Scripture and the Mass?

Why are the youth, the future, not involved in parish life?

Talking about the Word Sunday after Sunday is not enough, so why aren’t readings explained more?

Why don’t we have rosary crusades, rallies, carnivals and other such events?

Because I am a rosary person, I asked my priest if I could visit families to encourage Mums to say the rosary at home. He said the parish council would have to agree to my request. I am still waiting to hear from my priest about that request, and I am sure Our Lady has felt very bad for me.

If I didn’t love Sunday Mass and the Eucharist so much, I would have gone to another church too.

Wake up, priests. You attend too many meetings on admin and money-making matters. We need you in our homes as well.

I pray the Church does something soon to keep Catholics in their home church where they belong.

Mary Bowers, Cape Town

The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

PERSPECTIVES

7-point plan to keep sane on social media Sarah-Leah E Pimentel VERY year, one of my colleagues gives up Facebook for Lent. The rationale is quite simple; she wants to use the time she would normally spend on social media to make more time for prayer, and to build her real-world connections with family and friends.

One year, I tried to do the same, but it just didn’t work for me. Not because I had some compulsive need to scroll through my newsfeed. For me, that newsfeed is a source of (real) news, or links to thoughtprovoking content that draws me into thinking, talking, and praying about the things happening in the world, the Church, and in the lives of my friends who live on the other side of the country or the world.

To me social media is like anything.

Used in excess, it can have damaging effects.

Gyming is good, but too much of it puts a strain on the body. Going for a drink with a friend is a wonderful social activity, but drinking too much is anti-social, has harmful impacts on our health and could possibly endanger ourselves and others. Every South African loves a good braai, but braaing every day of the year is probably a bad idea for your body and your pocket!

Moderation is the key. For social media use as well.

Equally important is to consider why we are on social media, and when we use it.

Young people have often told me that they can’t live without their Instagram accounts (that’s when I realise my age— teens tell me that Facebook is for old people!). But at the same time, they feel huge pressure to be constantly online.

A complex social etiquette system governs young people’s relationship with their social media accounts. To be cool, you need to post frequently, like your friends’ posts and comment on them.

Posting on Instagram is stressful. You have to post selfies of yourself looking good and having fun. Multiple takes are needed to

create the perfect selfie.

You also need to be tuned into the social media accounts of all the famous people who matter, so that you and your friends can talk (online and in person) about what they’ve posted. Social media is the gateway to news about whatever is trending on the music and celebrity scene.

I’ve had a teenager tell me that these necessary social norms stress her out and that she wishes she had more time to do other things.

Moderation—we all need to learn it.

Whether we’re teens or belong to that old, almost pre-historic Facebook generation!

H

ere are seven things that have helped me: • When I wake up in the morning, I do not log on to Facebook or Twitter until I’ve done my morning prayer.

• I refuse to follow celebrities on social media. Their lives only make me feel dissatisfied with mine. Instead I follow credible, balanced, news websites and respected thought leaders who allow me to stay in touch with what’s going on in the real world and the Church.

• I stay away from rabid left- or rightwing politics or debates about religion. It only makes me angry. There is no point

Social media buttons on a smartphone.

Teenagers are reporting stress over trying to keep up with Instagram. (Photo: LoboStudioHamburg)

The Mustard Seeds

engaging in conversations where people listen only to their own echo chamber and refuse to acknowledge that there is often a middle ground.

I also cannot tolerate mean, vindictive and uncharitable comments on Catholic websites.

• I unfollow friends who never post anything about themselves but share only cheap humour or demeaning memes and videos. It adds zero value to my life.

• I try, as far as possible, to share content that is uplifting, celebrates human achievement, and stimulates thought-provoking (sometimes robust) conversation.

• When I do post something that is controversial or upsets me, I explain why.

Those posts often generate great conversation.

• And yes, I post personal stuff too.

Rarely selfies, but I love to share photos of this beautiful country we live in and wonderful moments shared with family and friends.

The bottom line for me is authenticity: Does my newsfeed reflect who I am in the real world? Is my online content consistent with the views I hold in my everyday interactions? Is the language I use online the same as the language I use in my daily life? Do the things I post mirror my beliefs and my efforts to live a Christian life?

On Sunday, March 17, the Schoenstatt Movement in Cape Town will be holding a workshop for 15 to 25-year-olds.

The workshop will look at how young people can develop a healthy relationship with social media.

Anyone who is interested in this or a future workshop, please contact me on 111slpimentel@gmail.com.

What Church has to say about sports Fr Pierre I Goldie N my first column I concluded that we have excluded Christ from many key areas of society—including politics, business, education, entertainment, sport, science and other areas—and so rendered him virtually irrelevant to everyday life, apart from the sick and poor.

Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is a method, as well as a body of teachings, which bring Scripture and Tradition into real life.

A milestone in CST literature was an encyclical letter by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, Rerum Novarum, which courageously spoke out on the harsh workplace conditions of the majority of workers and other negative aspects of the industrial revolution, as well as promoting their right to form unions.

These documents from the Vatican apply a See (social analysis), Judge (judgment in the light of the Bible and Tradition) and Act (pronouncements, actions) methodology. This is a form of evangelisation, of bringing Jesus into all compartments of life.

Because sport is such as popular phenomenon, and because many readers will be surprised that the Church has something to say about sport, I look at the Church’s response to this topic.

The Vatican Congregation for Culture has a Department of Culture and Sport, to which many of the following observations are credited.

Their social analysis identifies sport as a mass phenomenon which mobilises hundreds of millions (and even billions on the day of the World Cup football final).

It arouses very strong passions, even violence on the field and off the field (such

Christ in the World

A scene from the World Cup semi-final between France and Belgium (in red) last year. (Photo: Antatoly Maltsev, EPA/CNS) as soccer hooliganism).

Sport is a great cultural aspiration of the world. It should not be condemned as degenerate (but what of contact fighting?).

To understand sport is to enter into its world and enable us to evangelise this area of human activity.

Sport can unite families who assemble to play, to enjoy sporting competition. Pope Francis has expressed his love for football.

The intention is to recreate, to go beyond ourselves, to forget for a while the worries of life, to relax, and to grow via good-natured competition and respect for rules.

S

ocial analysis, however, also unearths many problematic concerns. There are those who use performance-enhancing drugs. There is match fixing, cheating, even violence on the field. Cricket appears to accept “sledging” as a normal part of the game. Parents push children to extreme lengths for the glory of a medal. Some

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push themselves to extremes, motivated by greed for glory and money.

One sports fanatic announced on a radio programme that his favourite football team meant more to him than his family, girlfriend, work, church, and child!

We can “Judge”, as we immediately think of false idols, and of Jesus who asks us to put God before all things (as in Luke 14:26).

In Hebrews 1:3 we read that the Word (Christ) sustains all things in existence, so we owe our very physicality to Christ, and most sport involves our human bodies.

One Cape Town parish has a very popular Sunday evening Mass, where there is often standing room only. But one evening, as the priest and the rest processed into the church, Father stopped, and looked in surprise at the half-empty church. The men’s Wimbledon final had gone into overtime. Many chose tennis over God, who wants to cast his loving gaze on us!

I invite readers to reflect on sport, and to find appropriate Bible passages that bear relevance to sport.

The first Vatican document on sport is entitled “Giving the Best of Yourself”, issued in 2018 by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, addressed to all people of goodwill. Access it at www.bit.ly/2tqJoqi

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Point of Reflection

Work in progress: Building the kingdom

I

’VE lived in only four houses during my married life, but I’ve had extensive building works carried out on three out of the four of them.

And it was a nightmare!

I think it would be fair to say that building work and I are not a match made in heaven. I loathe the disruption, the mess, the eternal dust and the way that you can never find anything, despite your best efforts.

Our parish church is currently being re-ordered with—yes; you’ve guessed—massive renovations and structural work and all its accompanying chaos. I must admit that it’s less stressful than living with it in a home situation, but it is still fairly horrendous and difficult to work around.

However, we do the best that we can and are lucky to have both the use of a church hall to celebrate Mass in and a parish priest to do so.

Most of us experience building work at some time or the other in our lives, whether it’s in our own homes or in a neighbour’s, at a place of work or when we are waiting for a home to be built.

In fact “building” in its many forms is prevalent during our life journey. We build friendships and relationships, we build up our knowledge, we build upon our careers and we build up followers on social media. In fact, building of some sort or another is all around us.

Yet by far the most important type of building is that of the gradual strengthening of our relationship with the Lord. We are all the chosen children of God who longs for us, but it is up to us to create the space and time to share our lives with the Lord.

As St Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians: “You too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives in the Spirit” (2:22).

As we build our lives with our relationships, careers and homes, our spirit is being built up by the Lord. Our faith is probably the most essential building block that we have in our possession— and this one comes without mess and dust!

However, Jesus does stir us up when we choose to follow him—we may find that some of our paths are unexpected and we may be challenged in ways that we had not anticipated.

Yet we can be reassured. If our lives are built upon a strong foundation of faith, we too shall be like the man who built his house on rock: “Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock” (Mt 7:25-26). n Julia Beacroft is an author, editor, workshop leader and presenter in Catholic faith formation. Her book Sanctifying the Spirit is available on Amazon and other online stores. See www.sanciobooks.com for more information.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

SOCIETY

Welcome the stranger When we fail to welcome the migrant and the refugee, we fail the Gospel, according to ARCHBISHOP BUTI TLHAGALE OMI of Johannesburg.

M

ALE and female, he created them. He created them both in his own

image.

We all belong to one Father who created us in his image. This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)—to remind ourselves of that reality of a collective belonging.

The nations no longer stand together. The image of our common belonging and common origins is no longer visible.

Is it perhaps the long and arduous journey through time that has made us strangers to each other— or even worse, enemies to each other?

The truth is, today we human beings appear to have been made in the image of the biblical Cain.

We appear to be thirsty for each other’s blood. We seem to delight in inflicting pain on each other.

Race, nationality, ethnicity, culture and religion—these are the ideological walls we build in order to keep the unwanted people away from us.

Do you remember the Berlin Wall? Now see the obnoxious wall in Bethlehem that keeps the Palestinians at bay? Listen to the distressing debate on the Mexican-US border!

St Paul uses the analogy of the body: “God has formed the body together, giving all the more honour to the least members so that there is no bodily rupture and members are mutually concerned about one another” (1 Cor 12:24).

This powerful metaphor acknowledges the rich diversity of members and calls for mutualrecognition and collaboration. But these words of scripture do not appear to have moved our hearts.

They are, regrettably, like water off a duck’s back.

We are enjoined to embrace each other, to embrace the stranger with warmth because of the inborn love we possess in our hearts.

We ought to accept people as they are, because they are people.

We are moved by their plight and seek to be hospitable; to soften the blow of their predicament. That is what we would wish them to do for us, were we to find ourselves in a similar situation.

Zimbabweans carry their bags before boarding a bus home from a camp for those affected by anti-immigrant violence near Durban in 2015. Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg says that people must open their hearts to those who left their homes in search of safety and a better life.

(Photo: Rogan Ward, Reuters/CNS) At any rate, we show kindness and mercy because these virtues are the hallmark of being truly human and of being truly Christian. These are in fact the qualities of God himself.

The essence of love For St Paul, this is in fact the very essence of love. This is the power of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5).

Reaching out to those who are in search of a home and in search of the basic necessities of life, is in fact showing love to a neighbour, “loving one’s neighbour as oneself”.

One shows compassion to migrants and refugees because they are pushed from pillar to post.

They are blamed for the tardiness and even incompetence of the local people. They are called names and castigated simply because they genuinely seek better opportunities for themselves and for their children.

Some of them have taken great risks in leaving their own countries. They have fled wars and persecutions. They have fled hunger and lack of opportunities. They have made the ultimate sacrifice a man or woman can make for his or her family; to rise, to cross boundaries, to move into unknown lands and countries, and seek to establish oneself.

It takes a specific courage for people to uproot themselves from their country of birth in order to find a home elsewhere.

Migrants and refugees are thus the vulnerable people of our society. They are like the many women and children in our communities who bear the brunt of abusive men.

Migrants and refugees are the ones whom Christ calls the least of my brothers and sisters. “When you show any kindness to them, you show it to me” (Mt 25).

Exploitation of refugees

Many migrants and refugees remain fearful and vulnerable. Many employers exploit their predicaBecoming truly human ment and do not pay them a living The parable of the Good Samarwage. They exploit especially those migrants and refugees who do not itan cautions us “not to worry about who deserves to be cared have proper documents.

Many receive slave wages and for”. Rather, we should be concerned about us, ourselves, becomare continuously threating persons “who treat ened with arrest. Some are victims of corrupt ‘With hearts everyone we meet with dignity, respect and compolice officials. passion”. This is the heart And, as if that was of stone, we of the Gospel message. not enough, many have In the parable of Mary, measure the been victims of xenoMartha and Lazarus, Jesus phobia. worth of says: “Mary has chosen the When local commubetter part”—the listening nities go on a service persons by part. Here the emphasis of delivery protest, they falls not on providing misguided Jesus take out their anger on a service, such as in the foreign nationals. They criteria of case of Martha, but on reharass them, attack ceiving a gift, that is, rethem, destroy and loot race, culture, ceiving the other person their shops. It is most who comes into our space. nationality, This unfair for migrants and person, this migrant refugees to be made and religion’ or refugee, is a messenger scapegoats for the glarof grace. ing shortcomings of the We are encouraged to government and local authorities. see not the migrant—the other unThere are also those within the known person—as a threat, a rival, migrant community who give mi- a competitor. No, we should see grants and refugees a bad name. the other as a blessing in disguise; There are those who are heavily in- as an opportunity or as an instruvolved in drug-trafficking. ment that brings the best out of us, Drugs have become a scourge in making us worthy of being called: some of our communities. Thus human beings with a heart. the palpable anger of the commuIt has often been said that if we nities is understandable. are not going to be helpful to othThere are also those migrants ers, at least we should not harm or who are involved in robberies and hurt them. We should not burn human trafficking. their houses, destroy their properBut these aberrations by some ties, loot their shops or inflict pain

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should not lead to the wholesale condemnation of the entire community of migrants and refugees.

The freedom of individuals to host migrants and refugees in their homes should be protected and promoted.

But, realistically, local families are themselves under tremendous pressure because of the shortage of housing. The rapid expansion of informal settlements attests to the chronic shortage of land and residential areas.

It makes ample sense for the Church to promote welfare institutions that will be of service to migrants.

The efforts of non-governmental organisations and other religious institutions need to be strengthened in their serious attempt to alleviate the plight of migrants and refugees.

As Church, as Christians, we are concerned with relieving human suffering and enhancing human wellbeing on a large scale. Every person, irrespective of origins, deserves to be given a chance, a golden opportunity to make ends meet, to take care of their family.

This is what the golden rule of the Gospel demands: to go out of our way to serve others. To do to others what we would greatly appreciate, if it were done to us.

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Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg. (Photo: SACBC) on their persons.

The grave sin we commit in our times, is the sin of indifference to the plight of others.

We walk on the other side of the road like the priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan. We don’t want to see, we don’t want to know.

We carry around with us hearts of stone. We measure the worth of persons by applying the misguided criteria of race, nationality, culture and religion.

When we discriminate against our fellow Africans, we betray our own humanity; we diminish our own honour and worth as human persons. We obscure the image of God imprinted on our faces and in our hearts.

The fact is, we are creatures that find our perfection only by establishing a relationship with others.

It is this mutuality that makes us truly human.

It is a mutual relationship that cuts across man-made boundaries, geographical frontiers, cultural fault-lines and racial divides. Person-to-person relationships, irrespective of origin, language, race or culture, are generally warm and pleasant.

Relationships are poisoned by a prejudice that is embedded in society.

St Paul, writing to the Galatians, reminds us that we are all sons and daughters of God: “All of you have been baptised into Christ. Therefore there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. We are all heirs according to the promise” (3:26).

We must learn to bring down the walls among us, embrace each other and “do as God would want us to”. This is the moral posture and attitude human beings should assume.

We owe this one to ourselves. n This is a slightly edited version of Archbishop Tlhagale’s homily at the Mass of the Southern African celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), held at St Henry’s College in Durban.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

SAINTS

9

St Patrick: Six years a slave At a time when the Church acts against human trafficking, the witness of St Patrick can help to inspire us, suggests KEVIN JONES.

M

ANY know that St Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland, was once a slave— but few know of his heartfelt plea on behalf of girls and boys abducted into slavery.

“The pathos of St Patrick’s description of the fate of his victims is something I think we can identify with now,” said Jennifer Paxton, who teaches Irish Studies at The Catholic University of America.

“The girls stolen by [Nigerian terrorist movement] Boko Haram are very similar in their fates, I think, to captives of Coroticus.”

St Patrick’s “Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus”, written when he was a bishop, was intended to shame the fifth-century general whose raiding soldiers the saint declared to be “blood-stained with the blood of innocent Christians, whose numbers I have given birth to in God and confirmed in Christ”.

He denounced those who “divide out defenceless baptised women like prizes”.

St Patrick said he did not know what grieved him more: those who were slain, those who were captured, or the enslavers themselves— ”those whom the devil so deeply ensnared”.

The plea is all the more poignant because St Patrick was himself a former slave. In his letter he wrote that Irish raiders once took him captive and slaughtered the men and women servants of his father’s household.

“He would have known acutely what these slaves were going through, because he was the victim of just such a raid,” Dr Paxton said.

“In the fifth century this kind of raiding was endemic, all around the

British Isles. He was stolen from someplace—we’re not sure where— in western Britain, and taken to captivity in Ireland.”

He spent six years tending sheep for his master.

“Obviously he did not enjoy his time as a slave and wanted it to end,” Dr Paxton said. “So he would have definitely identified with these victims.”

The saint’s letter is a unique witness in medieval history.

“We do not have any other firstperson account of someone who was captured by barbarians and survived,” the history professor explained. “We have nothing else quite like it.”

The letter was written to be read aloud elsewhere, with the hope that the Britannic tyrant Coroticus and his men would eventually hear of it and come under popular pressure.

St Patrick said that those who hear the letter should “not fawn on such people” and should not share food or drink with them until they release their captives and “make satisfaction to God in severe penance and shedding of tears”.

Dr Paxton said St Patrick’s style is “somewhat defensive” because “he is up against tremendous odds, and he knows it”.

“He does not, as far as we know, ever get these captives back,” she continued. “What we have is this cri de coeur that has resonated down through the ages. But he doesn’t manage to save them.”

She speculated that St Patrick must have felt “the tragedy of seeing these people newly saved from damnation by baptism, and [then] taken away into slavery”.

Slavery today Modern slavery is an enduring problem. ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria have enslaved Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities.

In Nigeria, where St Patrick is a patron saint, Boko Haram became infamous for the April 2014 abduc-

As for St Patrick, his letter seeking the release of slaves was not widely circulated. It was preserved in a few places, including the “Book of Armagh”. Dr Paxton said the letter played little role in Christian debates over slavery, which was taken for granted for centuries.

Slavery’s decline in Europe does not owe much to the Catholic Church’s efforts, she said.

“It was more economic forces that led to its decline, I’m sad to say,” she remarked, adding that Coroticus himself was probably a Christian.

Patrick steeped in Scripture

St Patrick is depicted in the Carmelite White Chapel in Kildare, Ireland.

The saint’s feast is on March 17. (Photos: Günther Simmermacher) tions of several hundred girls from a school in the country’s northeast.

In December 2014 major religious leaders including Pope Francis signed a joint declaration at the Vatican urging the eradication of

modern slavery and the trafficking in humans. A 2014 report from the organisation Walk Free estimated that almost 36 million people worldwide suffer under some form of slavery.

St Patrick became known for his life of sacrifice, prayer and fasting.

Although he was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland, he is widely regarded as the most successful.

Dr Paxton noted that St Patrick’s letter and his other known work, The Confession of St Patrick, are “steeped in the scriptures”.

“He basically writes in scriptural quotations. That’s the way Patrick thinks.”

St Patrick’s use of the Bible is rare in a medieval text because he quotes from many different sections of the Bible: the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and numerous prophetic books.

Dr Paxton said she found Patrick “a really fascinating figure”.

In later legends he became a “wonder-working superhero” who expelled the snakes from Ireland and defeated druids in battle. “But the real St Patrick of his own words is really a far more moving and inspiring example for Christians of today,” she said.

“Ireland was never the same as a result of what he did. That’s something I think we should all be impressed by—somebody who himself was very marginal, who was not a major figure in his own Church, persevered in the face of all these obstacles and achieved something really wonderful.”—CNA

A brief life of Ireland’s apostle L

BY GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER

ITTLE is known about St Patrick’s life; what we do know comes from his two surviving writings—an autobiographical account and his letter to the Britannic tyrant Coroticus, as well as— less reliably—early hagiographies and traditions.

We know that he lived in the fifth century, but it is not clear that his name was actually Patrick.

He signed his documents with the Latin name Patricius, which could be a title he took as the father of his flock, or it could be the Latinised version of a Celtic corruption of what might have been his given name, Cothirtiacus.

Alternative names have been recorded, though these likely were titles rather than monikers.

A good guess is that Patrick was born in modern-day Scotland in the earlier decades of the 400s AD. In his Confessions, Patrick recalled that he was 16 years old when he was enslaved. The sixth-century Irish annals say that he arrived in Ireland in 432, though that is an unreliable assertion. However, if so, then Patrick was born around 416.

We know more about his background.

His father, Calpurnius, was a Roman decurion—a high-ranking civic leader in Roman times—and a deacon; his mother was named Concessa. Patrick’s grandfather, Potitus, was a priest.

But Patrick himself was not keen on religion—until he was captured by Irish pirates and trafficked to Ireland.

Enslaved on the strange island, Patrick worked for six years tending sheep—and found God. One day he heard a voice telling him to escape, with the advice that a ship was ready to take him home.

He escaped and walked for days until he found a ship which would take him home across the sea.

Having converted the ship’s crew on the way, he finally came home to Scot-

St Patrick observes the lakes of the Connemara at the foot of Croagh Patrick, the mountain where he spent 40 days fasting before, according to legend, driving the snakes out of Ireland. land, where he entered formal studies in Christianity.

One day, Patrick recounted in his Confessions, he had a vision of one Victoricus—possibly St Victoricus of Rouen, who had visited Britain in 396—who called him to return to Ireland to evangelise the people there.

Patrick did as instructed, and even though he wasn’t immediately welcomed by the Irish he soon found a following as he travelled across the land, baptising people and ordaining priests—and converting the powerful.

I

t seems that initially Patrick’s integrity was not yet fully formed. At one point he was tried for apparent financial improprieties. Having made necessary amends, he never accepted gifts again.

But that created problems: being incorruptible and entirely independent from patronage, he had no patron or protection. This led to many robberies, assaults and imprisonments, even the

threat of execution.

Patrick was fearless. His open letter to Coroticus, which demanded the release of his enslaved converts, was an immensely courageous act which possibly had serious repercussions.

It is true that St Patrick is the most important apostle of Ireland, though he certainly was not the first missionary there, nor the last one to exert evangelising influence.

Indeed, bishops were appointed to Irish sees before Patrick was even born.

One, Ciarán of Saigir, was the first bishop of Ossory in modern-day Leinster province, in the late fourth century.

And not everybody thought he was that important. St Columba, another evangelist and now co-patron of Ireland, didn’t even mention Patrick in his writings.

But the cult of St Patrick grew, helped along by legends of his druid-vanquishing martial prowess and his snake-clearing skills after a 40-day fast on Croagh Patrick mountain.

Both of these myths may be related.

There never were snakes in Ireland, but it may be that serpents were a metaphor for the druids, whom Patrick drove out by his evangelising efforts.

The story of Patrick teaching the pagans about the Holy Trinity by use of a shamrock is relatively new; its first known reference dates to 1726.

We don’t know for certain when Patrick died. Some historians suggest 460, but the best guess is around 493, based on annals which record that Patrick’s remains were moved in 553, “sixty years after his death”. The date of 493 is also supported by Patrick’s known association with people who were active in the late fifth and early sixth century.

But the date of his death was always fixed as March 17—and on that date, more than 1 500 years after his death, much of the world turns green in honour of St Patrick.

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The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

TRAVEL

A pilgrimage to St Oscar Romero Washington-based journalist RHINA GUIDOS and an Italian colleague made a pilgrimage to St Óscar Romero in El Salvador, the land of her birth. But more than shrines and monuments, it was personal encounters that made this trip very special.

T

HE clouds over the town of El Mozote looked as if they had been carefully placed in the sky that day, an arrangement of cotton in the baby-blue landscape overlooking the green valley below the feet of a large statue of El Salvador’s first Catholic saint.

With arms outstretched, the bronze figure, an unmistakable image of St Óscar Romero, looks as if it is blessing the space below, much like Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer.

The statue was purposely placed over the remote village in the highlands of El Salvador where, in 1981, about 1 000 men, women and children who lived below were tortured and subsequently massacred by death squads.

It was an unlikely place to take an Italian friend who had repeatedly asked me for a visit to my native country of El Salvador, a trip that, because of the schedules of two workaholics in two different continents, took about seven years and consultations with two Salvadoran priests to schedule.

I met Thierry Bonaventura, a Sicilian with a French accent who works in Catholic Church communications, in 2012. Neither one of us would have guessed the trip we were planning would turn into a type of pilgrimage on the trail of El Salvador’s St Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez.

Back then, the slain Salvadoran archbishop’s sainthood cause was still stuck at the Vatican. It would be given a green light to proceed

by Pope Benedict XVI later that

year but, even then, the slain archbishop’s figure loomed large in any discussion about El Salvador—and it was part of the country’s reality Thierry said he wanted to learn about.

When we arrived in El Salvador, even the capital city’s main airport had been named after the saint, whose name or mere image once caused great alarm among the country’s authorities—as well as at the Vatican.

Now, in 2019, what caused great alarm in me was travelling through San Salvador with a European who didn’t want a manicured version of El Salvador. That meant heading into neighbourhoods where the poor or middle-class live and are exposed to daily street violence. In recent years, El Salvador has ranked near or at the top of lists of most-violent countries not at war.

I had discussed the trip and safety concerns with my friend and fellow Salvadoran, Fr Moises Villalta, who agreed to drive us so that he, too, could better plan and plot a yet-uncharted route for a number of friends and pilgrims from abroad.

Guarded by evangelists Our first stop was San Salvador, a metropolitan area of 2,4 million, where most visits in search of St Romero’s history take place: the metropolitan cathedral of San Salvador, where he is buried; the chapel of Divine Providence Hospital, where he was martyred on March 24, 1980; and the small room nearby where he lived during his three years as archbishop, from 1977 until his assassination.

Our trek began with a prayer at the saint’s tomb, a once-forgotten and dusty space in the cathedral’s basement, now decorated with an elegant bronze sculpture that depicts St Romero as if he were sleeping while guarded by the four evangelists; a precious red jewel represents his heart.

In El Salvador, art of that calibre is a rarity. But Thierry, a well-travelled European who has seen a great share of art, did not look as impressed as I’d been when I first saw

Italian pilgrim Thierry Bonaventura prays at the burial place of St Óscar Romero in a crypt in the metropolitan cathedral of San Salvador. The tomb is covered with a bronze sculpture that depicts the martyred archbishop as if he were sleeping while guarded by the four evangelists; a red jewel represents his heart.

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it. Maybe, like me, he simply was tired, but I wondered if it was because he’d earlier said he wasn’t interested in seeing monuments and was more interested in the daily life of the Salvadoran people.

St Romero, however, must have been listening to his wishes because, en route to our next stop, the Divine Providence Chapel, heavy traffic deviated us towards the Divine Providence bakery in Antiguo Cuscatlán. The bakery is owned by a couple in their 70s at whose wedding St Romero had officiated.

Coffee with Romero’s friend Over a cup of coffee, Adilia Villalta told us that though she had been civilly married for a few years in the 1970s to husband Guillermo, he wouldn’t agree to a Catholic Church wedding until one day, out the blue, he said he’d agree to it but only if Archbishop Romero, a frequent visitor and friend, officiated.

Romero quickly made some phone calls to clear it with their parish priest, Adilia said, and even secured a private chapel frequently used for society weddings. When some Church officials asked why he was using a chapel reserved for “special” occasions for the marriage of a working-class couple, he replied, “Well, they’re special to me,” Adilia recalled.

Perhaps surprised by the Italian’s interest in their story,—or perhaps because they simply are generous of heart—they showed Thierry a rare, well-worn book about the saint, which looked as if it had been read over and over. It was written by Tiberio Romero, the saint’s brother, and they gifted it to him.

Thierry, in turn, reached into a pocket in his pants and, to their great surprise and my great jealousy, gave them a present that brought tears to Adilia’s eyes: a rosary Pope Francis had given him.

The three hugged like long-lost friends and cleared tears near the bread display.

Mystified by what had happened and worn out by seven previous days of intense work, I lay in bed that evening sleepless, dreading having to wake up for a 6:00 Mass at nearby St Francis parish.

We were in the pews quietly waiting for Mass to begin when I noticed the celebrant was Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, a close friend of the saint.

After Mass, the cardinal greeted the children on the way to the parish school and stopped to meet us. He spoke for a long time in Italian to our foreign pilgrim and gave him gifts, including a book on daily meditations based on the saint’s writings.

In almost 20 years of travelling between the US and El Salvador, I’ve never bumped into the cardinal, even when he was an auxiliary bishop for years, and I wondered how it was possible that an Italian who’d been in the country for less than 24 hours could come into direct contact with those who intimately knew of the saint’s holiness as well as his frustrations.

Like the clouds in El Mozote, it was as if they had been carefully picked and placed in our path by a hand we couldn’t see.—CNS Next week: A visit to Cuba

Catholics stop by to pray at the cathedral in San Miguel, El Salvador.

St Óscar Romero, pictured in the large portrait, served for more than 20 years in San Miguel and helped strengthen local devotions to Our Lady Queen of Peace, the country's patroness. St Romero’s feast is on March 24, the date he was martyred in 1980. (Photos: Rhina Guidos/CNS)

Romero: What to see

BY RHINA GUIDOS

E

VEN before Archbishop Óscar Romero became a saint in October 2018, his native country of El Salvador saw an increase in tourism attributed to pilgrims or those wanting to know more about his life and death.

Figures from El Salvador’s tourism ministry say a “considerable number” of the 1,8 million tourists to the country who travelled there in 2013 went “exclusively to learn about the places where Óscar Arnulfo Romero lived”.

After his canonisation, the archdiocese of San Salvador published a list of towns and cities for those interested in learning more about El Salvador’s first saint.

The list includes San Salvador, the country’s capital, where many tours about St Romero begin and end.

Many pilgrims make a stop at the metropolitan cathedral of San Salvador, where the saint is buried in the crypt. His tomb is covered by a bronze sculpture, made by Italian artist Paolo Borghi.

Plaza Barrios outside, facing the facade, became the setting for a chaotic scene during St Romero’s 1980 funeral, when many were trampled after an explosion that sent mourners running for safety.

The capital also is home to the chapel of Divine Providence Hospital, the place where St Romero was martyred on March 24, 1980.

Visitors have easy access to the altar and the floor where St Romero collapsed; it is now covered with a protective glass.

Relics of Romero The chapel is a short walk from the small residence where St Romero lived the last years of his life and functions as a free museum that holds a trove of relics, including his car, clothing, a typewriter, a tape recorder he used to record his diary, books, personal documents such as a passport, notes and a

drawing of his friend Fr Rutilio Grande SJ, whose 1977 killing inspired a great change in the saint.

While the locations in San Salvador are accessible by taxi, it’s advisable to rent a car to get to the more remote locales outside of the capital city.

Though El Salvador is small— half the size of Gauteng—it takes time to get to less-travelled places because of the condition of the roads and because directions are not clearly marked.

But the more remote cities of Ciudad Barrios and San Miguel in eastern El Salvador are also of great interest to pilgrims.

National patroness San Miguel, about two-and-ahalf hours outside of San Salvador, is where St Romero lived and served for more than 20 years. The cathedral of Our Lady Queen of Peace (also known as the cathedral of San Miguel), is in the bustling city centre and has a large statue of the Salvadoran Madonna, to whom St Romero had a special devotion.

During his time there, St Romero helped revive and inspire local devotions to the patroness of El Salvador, and now a large portrait of the Salvadoran saint hangs near her.

Another hour by car, to the north of San Miguel, is Ciudad Barrios, where the saint was born.

The city’s main church, dedicated to St Óscar Romero, is located in its main square.

The home where he was born is also in the city’s centre. The twostorey structure has a chapel dedicated to St Romero.

Outside the chapel hang depictions of what the house would have looked like when he lived there during his childhood, as well as some renditions of Ciudad Barrios in the past.

Out of the city centre but within walking distance is the Iglesia de Roma—an old church where the saint was baptised and where he celebrated his first Mass.—CNS

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2018/08/01 11:32

The Southern Cross, March 13 to March 19, 2019

We have a Pell dilemma L

AST month the Church pledged itself to put the victims of abuse first, to listen to them with an open heart, to root out the culture of protecting priests accused of abuse.

Now a number of lay Catholics have undercut all these good and overdue intentions by challenging the conviction in an Australian court of Cardinal George Pell, who was found guilty of sexually abusing boys (charges he denies).

Let’s be clear about it: Nobody can claim to know conclusively whether Cardinal Pell is guilty of the charges put against him, except for two people alive: the accused and his accuser.

The jurors in the trial believed there was no reasonable doubt about the cardinal’s guilt.

It would be absurd if they all were in on a conspiracy, as some have suggested.

Maybe the jurors were mistaken; maybe they got it right.

Maybe Pell’s defence was inadequate and the prosecution’s case well-made. We don’t really know.

So the enthusiasm with which Cardinal Pell’s defenders—who include both ideological warriors and progressive Catholics—protest his innocence seems misplaced.

It’s one thing to wonder whether justice was truly done in this case, but another thing altogether to insist on the cardinal’s innocence (in arguments usually drawing from the defence’s case, which evidently failed to persuade the jury).

But that’s not the biggest problem with defending Cardinal Pell.

What should trouble us is that in the very first instance of a cardinal being convicted of abuse, so many Catholics immediately jump to his defence.

They instinctively believe the accused cleric, not the victim.

And this is exactly the mindset that helped create the scandal in the first place.

How do we communicate to victims of clerical abuse that the Church will hear them when Catholics implicitly, or even explicitly, label Pell’s victim/accuser a liar or deluded?

Günther Simmermacher

weren’t, then we exhibit a troubling lack of understanding of how victims of abuse might deal with what was done to them.

Thirdly, there is the precarious argument by some of Cardinal Pell’s defenders that he had no pattern of abusive behaviour.

Indeed, there are no previous cases of Pell proven guilty of abuse, but the allegations that have landed him in jail are not the first levelled against him.

A canonical investigation in 2002 into allegations of abuse

by Cardinal Pell, committed when he was a seminarian, was dropped due to lack of corroborating evidence.

Judicially and in charity, we must presume his innocence in that case, and we cannot declare him guilty of it simply on a hunch. But there is a record of allegations, and one cannot claim the absence of a pattern.

But even if the previous allegations were baseless, and even if Cardinal Pell had never faced any accusations at all, using that argument in his defence is a throwback to the times when allegations of clerical abuse were covered up because Father was not known to do “that sort of thing” (with the attendant belief that the accuser was lying).

Pell might well be the victim of an injustice, a consequence of public anger about clerical abuse and its cover-up (the latter he has been accused of as well).

Maybe the jurors in that Melbourne court got it right; maybe their decision was unreasonable.

That will be for the appeals court to decide in June.

We must pray that whichever way the scales of justice fall, the truth will be served.

In the interim, those defending Cardinal Pell by casting doubt on his accuser’s credibility ought to step back and consider how their actions, whatever the merits of some of their arguments, sabotage the Church’s response to the abuse scandal.

And they must be made aware of how such protestations constitute an act of abuse to all victims of abuse—especially those whose suffering was ignored, denied and rejected.

Point of Debate

How can we say we have zero tolerance for abuse and that those accused must face court, when fellow Catholics side with the cleric over the complainant and dismiss the bona fides and/or competence of the judicial system?

Whether or not Cardinal Pell is indeed guilty, some of the arguments raised in the lay defence of him are intrinsically problematic and best left to the review of competent court authorities.

Firstly, the argument that Pell should not have been convicted on the basis of the “uncorroborated” testimony of his accuser is appalling.

It is a common strategy deployed to disempower victims of rape everywhere. Testimony of sexual violence tends to be nearly impossible to corroborate exactly because rape is not a spectator sport. It happens in secret, usually without witnesses.

It may be that in this instance the accuser is lying. But without evidence that he is, we cannot conclusively know this to be so.

S

econdly, Cardinal Pell’s defenders refer to denials by the second victim—who has since died of a drug overdose—to his suspicious mother that he had been abused.

Perhaps his denials were indeed true. But there can be many reasons why a victim of abuse might issue such denials.

There is the shame which abuse inflicts on them, and the fear that they might not be believed.

If the second alleged victim feared he might not be believed, his denials of having been abused would be understandable—and the doubts Cardinal Pell’s defenders now direct at his friend would justify these concerns.

Such fears must be taken into account and respected. This tragic man’s denials might have been true, but if we do not entertain the possibility that they

Our bishops’ anniversaries This week we congratulate: March 19: Archbishop Abel Gabuza, Coadjutor of Durban, on the 8th anniversary of his episcopal ordination.

March 23: Archbishop Abel Gabuza, Coadjutor of Durban, on his 64th birthday.

Word of the Week Conclave: Meeting of cardinals to elect a new pope. All living cardinals are invited. Those under the age of 80 are eligible to vote.

Monsignor: Mode of address for members of clergy holding honorific titles granted by the pope, usually at the request of a bishop. Being a monsignor does not imply one is a bishop, nor being a bishop imply that one is a monsignor.

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NEW PARISH NOTICES MOST WELCOME: If any parish notices listed are no longer valid, call us on 021 465-5007 or e-mail us at m.leveson@scross.co.za so that we can remove them.

Also, we’d welcome new notices from parishes across Southern Africa to run free in the classifieds.

CAPE TOWN: A Holy Hour Prayer for Priests is held on the second Saturday of every month at the Villa Maria shrine from 16:00 to 17:00. The shrine is at 1 Kloof Nek Road in Tamboerskloof. The group prays for priests in the archdiocese, and elsewhere by request.

Retreat day/quiet prayer last Saturday of each month except December, at Springfield Convent in Wynberg, Cape Town. Hosted by CLC, 10.00-15.30. Contact Jill on 083 282-6763 or Jane on 082 783-0331.

Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Good Shepherd parish, 1 Goede Hoop St, Bothasig, welcomes all visitors. Open

Liturgical Calendar Year C – Weekdays Cycle Year 1 Sunday March 17,

Friday March 22, St Deogratias

2nd Sunday of Lent

Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28, Psalm

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18, Psalm 27:1,

105:16-21, Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

7-9, 13-14, Philippians 3:17--4:1,

Saturday March 23,

Luke 9:28-36

St Turibius of Mogrovejo

Monday March 18,

Micah 7:14-15, 18-20, Psalm 103:1-4,

St Cyril of Jerusalem

9-12, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Daniel 9:4-10, Psalm 79:8-9, 11, 13,

Sunday March 24,

Luke 6:36-38

3rd Sunday of Lent

Tuesday March 19,

Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15, Psalm 103:1-4,

St Joseph, Husband of Mary

6-8, 11, 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12,

2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16, Psalm

Luke 13:1-9

SOLUTIONS TO 854. ACROSS: 4 Pasture, 8 Raised, 9 Believe, 10 Muslim, 11 Ursula, 12 Apologia, 18 Ave Maria, 20 Tablet, 21 Espies, 22 Justify, 23 Rustic, 24 Readily. DOWN: 1 Gremial, 2 Mission, 3 Mexico, 5 Adequate, 6 Thirst, 7 Revile, 13 Grateful, 14 Artists, 15 Cassock, 16 Salute, 17 Elated, 19 Mosque.

16, Matthew 20:17-28

Jeremiah 18:18-20, Psalm 31:5-6, 14Thursday March 21 Jeremiah 17:5-10, Psalm 1:1-4, 6, Luke 16:19-31

MOST HOLY LORD, I see your works here on earth. I stand amazed at the beauty and magnificent scenes before me. Thank you for my joy that is not claimed by life’s sadness and disappointments. I thank you for keeping me in your wings of love. You are so very precious to me and I will forever be yours in faith and hope.

Blessed be your name in all of the earth, I pray. Amen.

MAY ALL I DO today begin with you, O Lord. Plant

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

Luke 11:1-13

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can help in the education of South Africans for the PRIESTHOOD at St Joseph’s Scholasticate, Cedara, KwaZulu-Natal.

Wednesday March 20

St Joseph

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

PRAYERS

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DURBAN: Holy Mass and Novena to St Anthony at St Anthony’s parish every Tuesday at 9:00. Holy Mass and Divine Mercy Devotion at 17:30 on first Friday of every month. Sunday Mass at 9:00. Phone 031309-3496 or 031 209-2536.

St Anthony’s rosary group.

Every Wednesday at 18:00 at St Anthony’s church opposite Greyville racecourse. All are welcome and lifts are available. Contact Keith Chetty on 083 372-9018.

NELSPRUIT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at St Peter’s parish every Tuesday from 8:00 to 16:45, followed by Rosary, Divine Mercy prayers, then a Mass/Communion service at 17:30.

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89:2-5, 27, 29, Romans 4:13, 16-18, Luke 2:41-51

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O VIRGIN Mother, In the depths of your heart you pondered the life of the Son you brought into the world.

Give us your vision of Jesus and ask the Father to open our hearts, that we may always see His presence in our lives, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, bring us into the joy and peace of the kingdom, where Jesus is Lord forever and ever. Amen The

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The Southern Cross is published independently by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Company Ltd. Address: PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000. Tel: (021) 465 5007 Fax: (021) 465 3850 www.scross.co.za Editor: Günther Simmermacher (editor@scross.co.za), Business Manager: Pamela Davids (admin@scross.co.za), Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton, Local News: Erin Carelse (e.carelse@scross.co.za) Editorial: Claire Allen (c.allen@scross.co.za), Mary Leveson (m.leveson@scross.co.za), Advertising: Yolanda Timm (advertising@scross.co.za), Subscriptions: Michelle Perry (subscriptions@scross.co.za), Accounts: Desirée Chanquin (accounts@scross.co.za), Directors: R Shields (Chair), Archbishop S Brislin, S Duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, Sr H Makoro CPS, J Mathurine, G Stubbs

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the

3rd Sunday of Lent: March 24 Readings: Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15, Psalm 103:14, 6-8, 11, 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12, Luke 13:1-9

W

HAT kind of God is this, with whom and towards whom we are journeying during this Lent?

In the first reading, we encounter a God of immense holiness who gives a runaway murderer (for that is Moses’ situation just now) his vocation, because God has heard the cry of the people.

Moses is minding his own business, looking after his father-in-law’s sheep, when suddenly “the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from inside the bush”; and Moses is intrigued that the bush is not devoured.

Then the story reaches a new level: “God calls to him from inside the bush, and said ‘Moses, Moses’. And he said, ‘Here I am.’” The repetition of his name and his appropriate response means we are now going to embark on an adventure with God; and the holiness of the event is signalled by the command: “Take your sandals off your feet, because the spot where you are standing is holy ground.”

God is then identified as “the God of your ancestors”, and we begin to see where the story is going (and where it is coming from).

Now we discover the all-important point, that God has heard the people’s cry and will do something about it. Or rather, Moses is

S outher n C ross

going to do something about it.

At this point Moses, not unreasonably, asks: “Excuse me, but who are you?” This introduces the solemn moment of the revelation of God’s name; and one of several ways in which it can be translated is “I AM WHO I AM”, a grand and solemn designation of the Maker of heaven and earth; but it is also the God of the People: “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

This is my name forever.”

It is an extraordinary moment, from which flows all the subsequent history of God’s people.

The psalm takes us deeper into the mystery of this God. The poet is determined to “bless the Lord”, and offers a description of what God is like: “the one who forgives all your sins”, “who heals all your ills” “who redeems your life from the Pit” and “who surrounds you with love and compassion”; then there is “the Lord who does righteousness” and who does “justice for all the oppressed”.

Then we hear of God’s relationship to Israel: “He made known his ways to Moses, to the children of Israel his mighty deeds.”

Next the poet replays an earlier theme:

A

your husband back for five minutes, what would you say to him?”

Without hesitation, she answered: “I’d tell him how much I loved him, how good he was to me for all these years, and how our little moment of anger at the end was a meaningless epi-second that means nothing in terms our love.”

The therapist then said: “You’re a woman of faith, you believe in the communion of saints; well, your husband is alive still and present to you now, so why don’t you just say all those things to him right now. It’s not too late to express that all to him!”

H

e’s right. It’s never too late! It’s never too late to tell our deceased loved ones how we really feel about them. It’s never too late to apologise for the ways we might have hurt them. It’s never too late to ask their forgiveness for our negligence in the relationship, and it’s never too late to speak the words of appreciation, affirmation, and gratitude that we should have spoken to them while they were alive.

As Christians, we have the great consolation of knowing that death isn’t final, that it’s never too late.

And we desperately need that particular consolation… and that second chance.

No matter who we are, we’re always inadequate in our relationships. We can’t always be present to our loved ones as we should, we sometimes say things in anger and bitterness that leave deep scars, we be-

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Sunday Reflections

“Merciful and compassionate is the Lord, slow to anger and rich in steadfast love.”

Finally, he offers us an extraordinary image for how different this God is: “As the heavens tower over the earth, so his steadfast love towers above those who fear him.”

In the second reading, Paul takes us deeper into the mystery of God; he is in the throes of trying to work out what the Corinthians are to do if they are invited to eat meat that has been offered to “idols”; and at this point the argument is that they should recognise how important is the invitation from God. They are reminded of what happened to the children of Israel, failing to recognise the presence of God (and Christ, interestingly) in all their experiences in the desert: the cloud, the escape through the Red Sea, the drink from the Rock (which Paul interprets as “Christ”, the spiritual Rock that followed them).

But the ancestors failed to recognise the presence of God, and the result was destruction. And they complained like anything, just like Paul’s Corinthians. So, he concludes: “If you think that you are standing firm, watch out that you do not fall.”

In the Gospel for next Sunday, Jesus is dealing with a couple of items in the day’s

It’s never too late to say it COLLEAGUE of mine, a clinical therapist, shares this story: A woman came to him in considerable distress, for her husband had recently died of a heart attack.

His death had been sudden and at a most unfortunate time. They’d been happily married for 30 years and, during all those years, had never had a major crisis in their relationship. On the day her husband died, they had got into an argument about something very insignificant and it had escalated to where they began to hurl some mean and cutting words at each other.

At one point, agitated and angry, her husband stomped out of the room, told her he was going shopping—then died of a heart attack before he got to the car.

Understandably, the woman was devastated, by the sudden death of her spouse but also by that last exchange. “All these years,” she lamented, “we had this loving relationship and then we have this useless argument over nothing and it ends up being our last conversation!”

The therapist led off with something meant partially in humour. He said: “How horrible of him to do that to you! To die just then!”

Obviously the man hadn’t intended his death, but its timing was, in fact, awfully unfair to his wife, as it left her holding a guilt that was seemingly permanent with no apparent avenue for resolution.

However, after that opening, the therapist followed by asking her: “If you had

Nicholas King SJ

God challenges and loves

newspaper, “about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices”.

We do not know anything about this event, but we need to remember that Jesus is another Galilean whose blood Pilate is shortly about to shed; so Jesus warns them that they should repent, or they too may be destroyed.

Then Jesus goes to another news report, about the skyscraper at Siloam that collapsed and killed 18 people. It does not mean, he says, that they were worse than anyone else; but still we have to repent.

And the point here is not that we must pacify an angry God, but that the God of Jesus is utterly mysterious; this point is then driven home by the parable of the fig-tree in a vineyard, which the owner wants to cut down because after three years it has not produced fruit.

In response the vintner begs the owner just to give it one more year of digging and manuring.

What does this say about our God, this Lent? At least this, that God challenges us as well as loving us.

Southern Crossword #854

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

tray trust in all kinds of ways, and we mostly lack the maturity and self-confidence to express the affirmation we should be conveying to our loved ones.

None of us ever fully measures up.

When Fr Karl Rahner says that none of us ever experience the “full symphony” in this life, he isn’t just referring to the fact that none of us ever fully realises our dreams; he’s also referring to the fact that in all of our most important relationships, none of us ever fully measures up.

At the end of the day, all of us lose loved ones in ways similar to how that woman lost her husband, with unfinished business, with bad timing. There are always things that should have been said and weren’t, and there are always things that shouldn’t have been said and were.

But that’s where our Christian faith comes in. We aren’t the only ones who come up short. At the moment of Jesus’ death, virtually all his disciples had deserted. The timing here was also very bad.

Good Friday was bad long before it was good.

But—and this is the point—as Christians, we don’t believe there will always be happy endings in this life, nor that we will always be adequate in life.

Rather, we believe that the fullness of life and happiness will come to us through the redemption of what has gone wrong, not least with what has gone wrong because of our own inadequacies and weakness.

GK Chesterton said that Christianity is special because in its belief in the communion of saints, “even the dead get a vote”. They get more than a vote. They still get to hear what we’re saying to them.

So, if you’ve lost a loved one in a situation where there was still something unresolved, where there was still a tension that needed easing, where you should have been more attentive, or where you feel badly because you never adequately expressed the affirmation and affection that you might have, know it’s not too late.

It can all still be done!

ACROSS

4. Where the flock may feed (7) 8. If Christ has not been ... (1 Cor 15) (6) 9. You do it in good faith (7) 10. Follower of Islam (6) 11. Saint who took a U-turn in the Urals (6) 12. Cardinal Newman’s Latin defence (8) 18. Angel’s Latin greeting (3,5) 20. Battle about stone slab (6) 21. Catches sight of (6) 22. Make righteous in God’s sight (7) 23. Trust Iceland to show peaceful country life (6) 24. Willingly alter the Spanish diary (7)

DOWN

1. I’m large in providing apron for the bishop (7) 2. Redemptorists may conduct one in your parish (7) 3. Where you’ll find the shrine of Guadalupe (6) 5. This is enough (8) 6. It shows you need a drink (6) 7. Re: Evil. Criticise it harshly (6) 13. With thanks (8) 14. Creative persons (7) 15. Clerical dress (7) 16. Respectful gesture (6) 17. Very happy indeed (6) 19. Where you may see one in 10 across (6) Solutions on page 11

CHURCH CHUCKLE

K

ELLY and Murphy are sworn enemies and have been feuding for years. The Lord finally sends an angel to have a word with Kelly.

The angel says to Kelly: “God is very unhappy with how you treat your neighbour Murphy. In order to remedy this situation and help you grow in brotherly love, God will give you anything you desire, on the condition that you let Murphy have two of them.”

Kelly says: “So if I ask for a Ferrari, then Murphy gets two Ferraris?” The angel says: “Correct.”

Kelly says: “If I win the lottery once, then Murphy wins twice?” The angel says: “That’s right.”

Kelly responds: “Okay, angel, I’ll take a glass eye.”

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