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Centenary Jubilee Year February 26 to March 3, 2020

Pro-life movie comes to SA screens

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Bishop slams unholy Sunday shopping

BY ERIN CARELSE

W The Durban Passion Play brought two couples together, and now their children are involved, too. At left are Chantal and Cuan Saunders, with children Liam (front with flowers) and Shaylee and (right) Malcolm and Angela with children Alexander (centre back) and Catherine. The Passion Play will be performed from March 25 to April 12. (Photo: Illa Thompson)

Passion Play a family affair

BY ILLA THOMPSON

T

HE Passion Play, performed by the Durban Catholic Players’ Guild, embodies love—both spiritual and secular!

Cast members claim their involvement in the Durban Passion Play to be life-changing in myriad ways. For one family this is certainly the case.

Cuan Saunders and his sister Angela Stewart are Passion Play diehards. And through the Passion Play both siblings met the loves of their lives.

Cuan met his wife Chantal, and Angela met husband Malcolm while in the cast of the Passion Play.

Performed only every five years, the Durban Passion Play comes to the Playhouse Drama Theatre from March 25 to April 12— starting with the date of the Annunciation and closing on Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord.

The Passion Play is very much part of the family’s five-yearly ritual, and their children are now members of the cast too. This is Cuan’s seventh, Chantal’s fourth, Angela’s seventh and Malcolm’s sixth production.

“I have been involved in the Passion Play

since I was 11,” said Cuan. “I met my wife here in 2005 and it is part of my life.”

This stay-at-home Dad is the production’s graphic designer and plays the role of John.

He is probably the only non-Christian in the production.

A ballet dancer for 25 years, wife Chantal is the production’s choreographer and dances in the show. Their children Liam, 4, and Shaylee, 8, are in the production too. It is Liam’s first and Shaylee’s second production.

Angela, a pre-school teacher and Malcolm, an advocate, have been in six productions together. They met in the 1992 production.

Malcolm plays Nathaniel and Angela is a crowd member.

Their children, both accomplished piano players, are on stage too: Alexander, 15, has been in four productions, and his sister Catherine, 10, is in her third.

The Passion Play is performed by a large cast who volunteer their time and skills as part of their Lenten preparations. The play involves seven months of commitment from a 150-plus cast who receive no remuneration. n Book through Webtickets. Block bookings and entire performances can be arranged through Dominic Sandiah on 082 460 7677.

ORSHIP of God today is weak because it has to compete with the “the worship of selling and buying”, according to the president of the bishops’ conference.

“People are not satisfied to buy and sell from Monday to Saturday morning; they also want to do the buying and selling on Sundays as well—so Sundays in terms of business are just like any [other] day,” said Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha.

That commercialism is reflected not only in weakening Sunday worship, but also in people’s general attitudes.

“Many people, even though they would deny it, are gradually believing that their worth lies in what they eat and in things that they have,” Bishop Sipuka said.

“The more we have of [these things], the more we want of them—and they leave us empty,” he said.

Paraphrasing the famous quote by the French philosopher Descartes, Bishop Sipuka said: “’I buy, therefore I am’ seems to be the defining principle of our identity. And so the command to keep the Sabbath day holy has been largely ignored,” he said.

“You will find, in fact, that sport has dethroned God. People are more in stadiums on Sundays and spending many hours in front of DStv’s SuperSport flipping channels for the latest game than being with God,” the bishop noted.

Bishop Sipuka was speaking at the episcopal ordination of Bishop Joseph Kizito in Aliwal North in the town’s Sauer Park stadium.

He emphasised that both Bishop Kizito and the Catholics whom he will be leading in the diocese have to find ways of remaining true to the commandment of keeping the Sabbath holy for the worship of God. “May worship in this diocese be genuine and lead to an encounter with the true God, and not an encounter with God in our own image,” Bishop Sipuka said.

Church Chuckles

Bishop Joseph Kizito of Aliwal North, at whose ordination Bishop Sithembele Sipuka was the homilist. (Photo: Fr Paul Tatu CSS) Ugandan-born Bishop Joe Kizito’s ordination was well-attended.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town presided over the ordination, which was attended by 23 bishops, including three from Uganda and two from Lesotho.

The new bishop’s mother, Christine Babirye Nsubuga, was present as well.

The 52-year-old prelate is the sixth and first black bishop of the diocese.

“I am so thankful to everyone who came and supported me on this day, especially Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town who presided over my ordination, and the bishops and diocesan clergy and priests. I felt very loved,” Bishop Kizito told The Southern Cross.

He especially appreciated Bishop Sipuka’s homily by which he felt both urged and encouraged to lead his people in proper worship and liturgy.

In his homily, Bishop Sipuka warned Bishop Kizito that he will find existing erroneous ways of worship, which as a bishop he will have to correct.

This is something Bishop Kizito plans to Continued on page 3

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The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

LOCAL

Row over ejection of pro-lifers at UCT event

BY ERIN CARELSE

T

HE dean of the law faculty at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has dismissed claims by a Christian group that pro-life activists were ejected from a student orientation event on the grounds of abortion being a constitutional right.

The Christian View Network (CVN) alleged that Prof Danwood Chirwa ejected the UCT Students For Life group, “saying that the pro-life view was contrary to the constitution as taught by the faculty of law”.

The Law Students’ Council (LSC) organised a show of student-led organisations at UCT where students showcased the work they do on campus and in communities, Prof Chirwa told The Southern Cross.

During the day, he said, he was told of “a fracas as some students were getting upset” by the messages of pro-life activists.

“I sought out the LSC leaders who showed me the list of the invited organisations and the organisations they had accepted for attendance.

The organisation the two gentlemen

claimed to belong to—there was nothing on their table which disclosed which organisation they represented—was not invited by my students,” Prof Chirwa said.

“The two gentlemen also confirmed that they were not students.

They falsely claimed that they had been invited but did not produce any proof of an invitation. Some of the students who were confronting them at the time were LSC leaders who had personal knowledge of their status as trespassers,” he said.

The CVN version of events claims

the Students For Life group had been invited by the LSC, and that Prof Chirwa “did not accept written evidence of permission, and refused to wait for the LSC representative to confirm the invitation which arrived a few minutes later”.

CVN said that “a member of Amnesty International had been shouting and swearing at law students demanding they not accept pro-life pamphlets or join the society, which she crumpled up. She also threw a rubber unborn baby in the direction of a pro-life activist.”

Prof Chirwa said the faculty does open some of its activities to the public, but this event was meant for students only. He said the pro-life activists are not UCT students.

“My students were hugely disturbed by the behaviour of these gentlemen. They clearly have their right to freedom of expression, but they cannot interrupt our educational activities meant for students of this university,” he added.

Prof Chirwa said pro-life activists “are entitled to their opinions and are free to express those opinions”.

St Augustine to launch business ethics centre

BY ERIN CARELSE

S

AINT Augustine College, South Africa’s Catholic university, will be launching a Centre for Ethical Business Leadership in August.

Inspired by the values of Catholic Social Teaching, the CEBL aims to promote ethical thought and practice in South Africa’s business community through acting as a forum for debate and discussion, and by offering courses aimed at building capacity in the field of business ethics.

It will run under the directorship of Fr Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu of Johannesburg and the patronage of human resources expert Elizabeth Maepa, currently of the Sifiso Learning Group.

Fr Ndlovu is a theology lecturer at St Augustine and a trustee of the institution.

On August 11 the CEBL will formally be launched with a conference to be addressed by, among others, former South African deputy-president Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Over the course of the months ahead, the CEBL will host a series of guest lectures on a range of relevant topics.

The CEBL will host the Christian Business Leadership Course, which is based on the teaching, philosophy and pedagogy of Fr Joseph Kentenich (1885-1968), founder of the Schoenstatt Movement, and applied to the world of business as an appropriate leadership style.

The course has already been offered to hundreds of business leaders across South Africa and beyond. Offered over two weekends each semester, it aims at applying Christian Social Teaching to the concrete situation of South Africa with its socio-political, multinational and multicultural problems, and to find appropriate solutions.

Designed by St Augustine’s founding president and Schoenstatt Sister Prof Edith Raidt, the course is co-presented by psychologist Tony de Gouveia, human resources businessman Deacon Francis Graham, and Fr Ndlovu.

In addition, the CEBL will host an online

short course, “Introduction to Ethics and Ethical Decision Making for Accountants”.

The course, designed by Prof Marilise Smurthwaite, covers the many challenges, both ethical and other, within the accountancy industry.

The course provides a basis for the identification and discussion of some of these challenges, as well as for differentiating ethical issues and challenges from the nonethical, looking at ethics in the context of organisational culture, and enabling participants to understand ethical implications and actions within the work context.

It also includes three hours of on-demand video, 11 articles, and 11 downloadable resources.

The course can be accessed via www.staugustine.ac.za. A certificate of completion will be issued to all those who complete the course.

All the degrees and certificates offered by St Augustine are accredited by the South African Council on Higher Education and the South African Qualifications Authority.

St John Bosco parish in Robertsham, Johannesburg, celebrated the feast day of St John Bosco with an outdoor Mass celebrated by acting parish priest Fr Tim Wrenn SDB, with Fr Sean McEwen SDB delivering the homily. Catechists were recognised as altar servers presented them with lanterns symbolising their mission of lighting up the word of God, certificates, and scrolls. (Photo: Mark Kisogloo)

Caritas building capacity in Southern Africa

BY SHEILA PIRES

C

OORDINATORS from Caritas Southern Africa (Eswatini/ Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa) met at Padre Pio Retreat and Conference Centre in Pretoria, for a weeklong workshop.

Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference associate general- secretary Fr Patrick Rakeketsi opened the workshop with a recap of Caritas Southern Africa’s achievements over the past three years.

Through the Institutional Development for the Engagement and Sustain-

ability of Caritas in Southern African project, the workshop aimed to meet the needs of member organisations in terms of professional standards and competencies to enable them to fully carry out their socio-pastoral mission.

The global objective of this project is to contribute to the capacity-strengthening of Caritas Southern Africa member organisations.

In an interview with Radio Veritas SA, regional coordinator of Caritas Africa Albert Mashika said the workshop was an opportunity to equip member organisa-

tions with the necessary tools to overcome some of the major challenges such as funds.

Mr Mashika said mobilising resources, dealing with natural disasters and getting Caritas well rooted in communities are some of the main challenges Caritas Africa faces presently.

Over the next four years (2020-23), Caritas Africa will work on building strong networks of Caritas members, improve professionalism to enable it to respond effectively to natural disasters, and advocate for public policies to be pro-poor.

Parishes of Umzimkulu diocese in KwaZulu-Natal went on pilgrimage to Lourdes mission on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The diocese also launched its synod, at which parishes, sodalities, associations and religious congregations received Holy Family pictures, candles, and plants symboling their faith. (Photo: Bishop Stanislaw Dzuiba)

Pinetown GriefShare course offers help with loss

A

PARISH in Durban has started the first of its GriefShare programmes for the year, and there is still time to attend any of the remaining self-contained sessions.

The 13-week programme, aimed at those in need of grief counselling and support, started on February 6 at Immaculate Conception parish in Pinetown, Durban. The course can be joined at any time.

The same course is repeated in September and all denominations are welcome.

“If you’ve lost a spouse, child, family member, or friend, then attending a GriefShare programme can help in terms of support and encouragement. We offer a safe place to come and receive the comfort only God can give. Together, we will walk this journey with you, from mourning to joy,” Charmaine Swardling, one of the leaders of the programme, explained.

“We find that as new members join, and are prepared to share, they contribute greatly and we also learn from them, as we all grieve differently. We have had

very successful feedback from those who’ve attended,” Ms Swardling added.

Because each session is self-contained, you are welcome to begin attend the GriefShare group at any time; you do not have to attend in sequence.

The cost of each programme is R200, which goes towards the programme handbook. n For more information contact Charmaine Swardling at 0845756006. For courses in other areas, visit www.griefshare.org and click on the “Find a group“ button.

The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

LOCAL

3

Priest: Ramaphosa missed an opportunity

BY ERIN CARELSE

P

RESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa lost an opportunity to reassure the nation that the government will “clean up the mess” of Zuma administration’s corruption, according to a Catholic political analyst.

Reviewing the president’s State of the Nation address, Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office director Fr Peter-John Pearson noted that many South Africans had hoped for a sign that the country was moving to a point where action against those responsible for corruption, state capture and the theft of public money might be seen.

“It was interesting that, the day before SONA, a wide variety of responsible civil society organisations, led by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and Anglican Arch-

bishop Thabo Makgoba, mounted a public call to make 2020 the ‘Year of the Orange Overalls’,” Fr Pearson noted, referring to the colour of prison uniforms.

“It might well be said that this campaign, coming from people and groups who have no party-political points to score, is an important reading of the political temperature on the ground,” Fr Pearson said.

“The SONA would have been a good moment to reassure the country that this government is making good on its promises to clean up the mess it inherited. In this respect, it was an opportunity lost,” he said.

Fr Pearson said if SONA 2019 was big on dreams but short on specifics and low on progress reports, this year’s address returned to the tradition of reporting back to the country.

New Aliwal bishop’s plans Continued from page 1 work on immediately as he seeks to continue the legacy of Bishop Fritz Lobinger, who headed Aliwal North diocese from 1989 to 2004.

Another immediate plan is implementation of the new Pastoral Plan.

Programmes have already been prepared and will be introduced, Bishop Kizito told The Southern Cross.

In terms of challenges he faces in the diocese, Bishop Kizito said his major concern continues to be a lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

“In terms of vocations I am understaffed and a lot of priests are overworked. Most of my parish work is done by lay people,” he said.

Another challenge is to become a self-sufficient Church.

“I’m going to ask the people to own the Church; the Church belongs to them. We are the Church, we are the Church of today, and we are now. So let us support our Church,” Bishop Kizito said.

Born in 1967 in RubagaWakaliga, Uganda, Bishop Kizito has a science degree in technology from Urbaniana University in Rome. He was ordained to the

He noted that the 7 500-word address was often heavy on detail.

“The president sounded a sombre note referring to the dire state of public finances, minimal economic growth for over a decade, power insecurity and its consequences, and—several times—state capture and corruption,” said Fr Pearson.

“Even the other aspects of our reality, the numbers of children in school, the demographics of the improved matric results, and the Springbok World Cup victory, came across as a respectful reminder rather than an excuse to underplay the ‘stark reality’,” he added.

Fr Pearson pointed out that a close reading of the speech suggests that the president sought to offer some confidence through a commitment to strengthening safety,

with references to gender-based violence, to tightening bail conditions, to stricter sentencing and to amendments to the Domestic Violence Act and the Sexual Offences Act. President Ramaphosa also spoke about an increased intake of people joining the police force, deployment of officers to protect tourists, and stronger anti-gang units.

“The safety motif also found its way, expressed differently, into making the environment for investment and business more conducive. Everything from turnabout times for water-use licences, to easier registration, to meeting investment targets, spoke to the idea of safer business environments,” Fr Pearson noted.

Sadly, he found, the speech was short on hope or even recognition of the dire situation of migrants,

Salesians chalk up youth milestone

BY ERIN CARELSE

F

Dancers enter the grounds of Sauer Park in Aliwal for the ordination of Bishop Joseph Kizito.

(Photo: Fr Paul Tatu CMM) priesthood in 1997 in the diocese of Aliwal North. In 2003 he was transferred to Sterkspruit pastoral region as a moderator and priest-in-charge.

Bishop Kizito was appointed Bishop Michael Wüstenberg’s vicargeneral in 2008. The following year Pope Benedict XVI made him an honorary prelate, or monsignor.

refugees and asylum seekers, and the haunting spectre of xenophobia.

Fr Pearson noted some surprises, but also urged caution in setting expectations.

“The announcement of the creation of a national bank and a sovereign wealth fund came as a bit of a surprise, not least because such creations need good seed-funding, and it is difficult to see how this could happen in the present economic climate. Both have been part of the ANC’s policy,” he said.

The priest said the commitment to skilling young people struck an important note.

“The president was thick on detail in this regard: a new college, five new prototype sites to support young people, short courses to skill them for jobs and job readiness, will all offer some hope.”

The Salesian Institute in Cape Town is celebrating the 110th anniversary of its programmes supporting at-risk youth who graduate (above) with life skills and job training.

OR more than a century the Salesians have been providing education, shelter and emotional support to at-risk young people in South Africa.

This year, they’ll be celebrating 110 years of commitment to the youth of Cape Town.

“Celebrating 110 years of sustaining a dream, delivering education, training and employment to youth, will be the key message in all activities and campaigns of the Salesian Institute Youth Projects (SIYP) during 2020,” said chief executive officer Fr Pat Naughton SDB. In 1910 the Salesian Institute formally opened its doors at 2 Somerset Road in Green Point, Cape Town.

The organisation currently offers three programmes: the Learn to Live School of Skills for youth aged 14-18; the Waves of Change Programme, preparing young people from 18-35 for work in the maritime industry; and the Porsche PTRC-ZA Programme training youth as automotive mechatronic technicians.

“The organisation’s function has always been, and always will be, pro-

viding programmes of education and training for disadvantaged youth in Cape Town, irrespective of gender, race or religion,” Fr Naughton said.

The SIYP seeks to create opportunities for sustainable livelihoods for young people who do not have the means to further their education, the Salesian priest added.

This year, SIYP plans to sign up 110 new supporters per quarter through volunteering. These supporters will contribute in the form of gifts in kind and donations.

SIYP will also be sharing inspirational success stories, motivating communities, and engaging the youth in 110 different ways.

A potential new programme is being finalised. “It will be based on 21st-century educational principles, focusing on one Cape Town community per intake,” Fr Naughton said, offering an alternative to gangsterism, drug abuse and unemployment. n For more information on SIYP see www.salesianyouth.org. To find out more about its 110-year celebrations and campaigns, contact communications manager Frieda Pehlivan at 021 425-1450 or frieda.pehlivan@ salesianyouth.org.za

“Here I am Lord”

Mgr Paul Nadal (right) swings a leg during festivities at the retro summer afternoon jazz concert and old-style tea dance organised by the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban to raise funds for the DHC’s projects for the homeless. The event celebrated Mgr Nadal’s 60 years as a priest.

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The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

INTERNATIONAL

Pope: Say ‘thank you’, ‘sorry’ Final Pell appeal in March C E

BY CINDY WOODEN

VERYONE, including the pope, has someone they should thank God for and someone they should apologise to, Pope Francis said.

Celebrating an early morning Mass in the chapel of his residence, Pope Francis thanked God for a woman named Patrizia, who was retiring after 40 years working at the Vatican, most recently in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, a guesthouse where the pope and some other Vatican officials live.

Patrizia and other staff at the papal residence are part of the family, the pope said in his homily. A family isn’t just “dad, mom, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and grandparents”, but includes “those who accompany us on the journey of life for a bit of time”.

“It would do all of us who live here good to think about this family that accompanies us,” the pope told other priests and Sisters who live in the residence. “And you who don’t live here, think of the

Pope Francis has said everyone, including himself, has someone to thank God for and someone to whom they should apologise.

(Photo: Vatican Media/CNS) many people who accompany you on your life’s journey: neighbours, friends, co-workers, fellow students.”

“We are not alone,” he said.

“The Lord wants us to be a people, he wants us to be with others. He doesn’t want us to be selfish; selfishness is a sin.”

Remembering the people who assist you when you are sick, help you daily or simply offer a wave, a nod or a smile should lead to expressions of gratitude, the pope said, urging worshippers to offer a prayer of thanks to God for their presence in your life and a word of thanks to them.

“Thank you, Lord, for not leaving us alone,” he said.

“It’s true, there always are problems and wherever there are people, there is gossip. Even in here.

People pray and people gossip— both,” the pope said. And people lose patience with each other sometimes.

“I want to thank the people who accompany us for their patience and to ask forgiveness for our shortcomings,” Pope Francis said.

“Today is a day for each of us to give thanks and ask heartfelt forgiveness from the people who accompany us in life, for a bit of our life or for our whole life,” the pope said.—CNS

Evidence suggests cover-up

by Legionaries of Christ

BY JONAH McKEOWN

E

VIDENCE to be presented in an upcoming criminal trial suggests an elaborate coverup of sexual-abuse allegations against a former priest of the Legionaries of Christ whom an Italian court has convicted of sexual abuse of a minor.

The case, set to begin in March, names four Legion priests and a Legion lawyer who are accused of attempting to obstruct justice and extort the family of a sex-abuse victim, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

A cardinal, now dead, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to investigate the Legionaries of Christ, is also implicated in the cover-up.

The Legion of Christ, a religious congregation consisting of around 1 000 priests worldwide, was long the subject of critical reports and rumours before it was rocked by Vatican acknowledgment that its charismatic founder, Fr Marcial Maciel, lived a double life, sexually abused seminarians, and fathered children. Maciel abused at least 60 minors.

In 2006 the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, with the approval of Benedict XVI, removed

The late Cardinal Valasio De Paolis, tasked with reforming the Legionaries of Christ in 2010.

Maciel from public ministry and ordered him to spend the rest of his life in prayer and penance. The congregation decided not to subject him to a canonical process because of his advanced age, and he died in 2008.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Valasio De Paolis, a highly respected canon lawyer, to lead the religious order in 2010.

Cardinal De Paolis, who died in 2017, has faced criticism for leaving much of the leadership of the congregation from Maciel’s time in place and failing to investigate

claims of cover-up.

The present case chiefly concerns Mexico native Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez, who was ordained a priest in 2006 and immediately was sent to oversee young boys at the Gozzano youth seminary near Italy’s border with Switzerland, the AP reports.

The Legion has said it first received allegations of sexual abuse against Reséndiz in March 2011.

In addition, the son of Yolanda Martinez, a Church employee in Milan, revealed in 2013 during sessions with his psychologist that Reséndiz had abused him at the Gozzano youth seminary in 2008.

In October 2013, the Legion offered a settlement of 15 000 euros to Ms Martinez, but in return, her son would have to recant the testimony he gave to prosecutors that Reséndiz had repeatedly assaulted him.

An Italian court convicted Reséndiz in absentia in March 2019.

The Legion reported that since its founding in 1941, 33 of its priests have been found to have committed sexual abuse of minors, victimising 175 children.

The preliminary hearing for the present criminal trial in Milan is scheduled for March 12.—CNA

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BY MICHAEL SAINSBURY

ARDINAL George Pell will have his last chance to have his conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys overturned when his lawyers plead his case to the High Court of Australia on March 11-12.

But the full bench of Australia’s highest court—either five or all seven justices—will take several months, at least, to determine the fate of the former senior adviser to Pope Francis.

If the High Court fails to overturn the verdict of a 12-person jury that found him guilty of four counts of

sexual assault and one count of child rape, Cardinal Pell, 78, will spend at least 32 more months in prison.

That’s the remainder of his minimum three years and eight months, of a six-year sentence.

The first appeal by Cardinal Pell was dismissed 2-1 by a panel of judges of the Supreme Court of Victoria state in August.

Once the court proceedings conclude, Vatican officials have said they will proceed with an investigation of the prelate, who has been the most powerful figure in the Australian Catholic Church for more than two decades.—CNS

Popular Rwandan Catholic gospel singer Kizito Mihigo, who was found dead in a police cell in Kigali in what authorities claim was a suicide.

(Photo: Jean Bizimana, Reuters/CNS)

Catholic star dies in jail

BY FREDRICK NZWILI

P

RIESTS in Rwanda have suggested the death of a popular Catholic gospel singer in a police cell in Kigali, Rwanda, might not have been by suicide, as claimed by the authorities.

Kizito Mihigo, 38, died on February 17, three days after he was arrested for allegedly fleeing the country to join a rebel group in neighbouring Burundi and for allegedly trying to bribe those who arrested him.

His body was found hanging from the window of his cell, where he had been confined alone.

Marie Michelle Umuhoza, Rwanda Investigation Bureau spokeswoman, was quoted by Rwanda’s The New Times saying Mihigo had displayed “signs of a depressed person”.

Mihigo was viewed as one of Rwanda’s biggest cultural icons. An ethnic Tutsi, he was a survivor of the

1994 genocide during which 800 000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutus were killed; he produced a song that promoted forgiveness and healing.

In 2014, he was arrested and later sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of conspiracy to kill President Paul Kagame and other senior leaders. He pleaded guilty to the charges. He received a presidential pardon in 2018.

Several priests contacted by Catholic News Service would not speak openly about the death, but indicated they were not sure the official position was the truth. One indicated people should look at Mihigo’s history to know why he died.

Mihigo is not the first figure to die under mysterious circumstances while in custody in Rwanda.

Dr Emmanuel Gasakure, Mr Kagame’s personal cardiologist, was found dead in police cells in February 2015.—CNS

Next synod to be in 2022

P

OPE Francis has decided the next general assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be held in late 2022, but he has not announced the theme for the gathering, the Vatican said.

Meeting with the pope, members of the ordinary council of the Synod of Bishops formally presented the pope with three possible themes and discussed the work accomplished by the council after the synod on young people in 2018.

While the Vatican statement did

not list the three possible themes, in his closing speech to the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon in October, Pope Francis had said “synodality” was among the three themes “voted on and that obtained a majority” of support from synod members.

“I do not know whether it will be chosen; I have not decided yet,” the pope had said. “I am reflecting and thinking but I can certainly say that we have journeyed a lot and we must still journey more along this path of synodality.”—CNS

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INTERNATIONAL

The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

5

Why Pope Francis is disappointed by reaction to Amazon document P

OPE Francis told a group of bishops that he is disappointed with the reaction to his document on the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

Coverage of the apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazonia) focused almost exclusively on the pope’s decision not to allow the ordination of married men in certain regions of the Amazon.

The exhortation doesn’t mention celibacy or the ordination of married men, but addresses areas such as inculturation, synodality, ecology and social justice.

“You could see his consternation when he said that for some people it was all about celibacy and not about the Amazon,” said US Bishop William Wack.

“He said some people say he is not courageous because he didn’t listen to the Spirit,” the bishop recalled. “He said, ‘So they’re not mad at the Spirit. They’re mad at me down here,’” as if they assume the Holy Spirit agreed with them.

The pope told the bishops that months or even years go into producing documents and what gets reported by the media “is one line” or that “the pope didn’t have the courage to change the rules of the Church”.

In the apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis declared that the Amazon region is “facing an ecological

disaster” and that its people are “witnessing an increase of xenophobia, sexual exploitation and human trafficking”.

“Cities, which should be places of encounter, of mutual enrichment and of exchange between different cultures, become a tragic scenario of discarded lives,” Pope Francis said, yet “the Amazon region has become a source of artistic, literary, musical and cultural inspiration”.

W

ith the exhortation, the pope has made it clear that the Church— and the world—must listen to them and recognise the native people of the Amazon region as equals, said Moema Maria Marques de Miranda, a lay Franciscan from Peru who was an observer at the synod.

That message is woven into the document from the beginning, where Pope Francis describes four dreams. He says he dreams of an Amazonia that fights for the rights of indigenous peoples, an Amazonia that preserves its cultural riches, an Amazonia that preserves its natural beauty, and Christian communities that give the Church “new faces with Amazonian features”.

That image of dreams has a double meaning. For most Westerners, dreams express hopes for the future, but for indigenous people, they transmit messages from God, just as they did for some Biblical figures,

Exhortation is part of Church’s magisterium

BY HANNAH BROCKHAUS

P

OPE Francis’ post-synodal exhortation on the Amazon is part of the Church’s ordinary magisterium—that is officially a kind of Church teaching—while the final document of the Vatican’s 2019 Amazon synod is not, Cardinal Michael Czerny, special secretary of the Amazon synod, said.

The distinction in the authoritative weight of the two documents was also emphasised by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, and by Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office.

“So we have two documents of two different kinds,” Cardinal Czerny said in a presentation to journalists.

“The final document, consisting of proposals made and voted by the Synod Fathers, has the weight of a

synodal final document,” he said, whereas the apostolic exhortation, “reflecting on the whole process and its final document, has the authority of ordinary magisterium of the Successor of Peter”.

This synod ended with the presentation to Pope Francis of a final document, which was voted on by synod members, setting out a series of recommendations based on the issues discussed during the preparation phase and synodal sessions.

Pope Francis “encourages everyone to read the whole document”, Cardinal Czerny stated, but added that suggestions made in the synod’s final document remain in discussion only “as proposals made by the synod”. This means that Catholics are not required to believe, or even agree with, the proposals, or regard them as teachings of the pope.—CNA

First Mass in cathedral since Reformation

T

HE first Catholic Mass in nearly 500 years will be celebrated at a cathedral in Geneva on February 29. Mass will be said in the Cathedral of SaintPierre de Genève in a decision announced by the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg’s episcopal vicariate for the city.

The cathedral was the seat of the Catholic bishops of Geneva from the 4th century until the Protestant Reformation. The last Mass celebrated at the cathedral took place in 1535.

After the Reformation, the building was taken over by John Calvin’s Reformed Protestant Church, which destroyed the cathedral’s statues and paintings, and banned Catholic worship.

Fr Pascal Desthieux, the Catholic episcopal vicar for Geneva, described the cathedral as the “central and symbolic location of Geneva’s Christian history”. Following the

Reformation, the cathedral became a location “emblematic of the Calvinist reform”, Fr Desthieux said.

John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism, lived in Geneva, and the city was a destination for French Protestants who were forced to flee France due to persecution.

Saint-Pierre de Genève was Calvin’s home church and his chair is displayed next to the cathedral’s pulpit.

The Catholioc diocese of Geneva was eventually absorbed into the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva, and Fribourg. Today, just under 40% of Switzerland is Catholic.

While acknowledging that the return of Catholic Mass to the cathedral is a cause for rejoicing, Fr Desthieux warned against any “triumphalism”, as well as any language suggesting the Catholics are looking to “take over” the building.—CNA

A leader of the Celia Xakriaba peoples walks along the banks of the Xingu River in Brazil. (Photo: Ricardo Moraes, Reuters/CNS) Ms Miranda said.

Such dreams are visions “that connect with something very deep within the person”, said Medical Mission Sister Birgit Weiler, who works in Peru and was an expert at the synod. “It commits you to taking a new path.”

One message that stands out clearly in the exhortation, she said, is that the Church sides with indigenous people who defend their lands against extractive industries like logging and mining or the encroachment of industrial-scale farming

and ranching.

That is also a sign the Church workers “have the backing of the pope” when they accompany communities in those struggles, she said.

Such efforts sometimes draw criticism from others in the Church, but the pope has made clear that “they can’t call you communist” for opposing industries or infrastructure projects that threaten communities, she said.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has submitted draft legislation to that country’s Congress seeking to open indigenous territories to extractive industries.

“The businesses, national or international, which harm the Amazon and fail to respect the right of the original peoples to the land and its boundaries, and to self-determination and prior consent, should be called for what they are: injustice and crime,” Pope Francis wrote.

W

hen businesses seek profit above all, corrupt authorities give companies easy access to timber and minerals, and companies “raze the forests and pollute the environment, economic relationships are unduly altered and become an instrument of death”, he added.

Although Pope Francis warns that extractive industries are a new form of colonialism in a region where the Church must work to dismantle the vestiges of a colonial

past, the exhortation is not a political statement, said Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho, Brazil.

The pope’s words “make us aware that we must respond to the cry of God in the cry of the poor and the cry of creation”, Archbishop Paloschi said. “More than a political impact, it needs to have an impact on the Church and require us to take a united stand.”

Nevertheless, the Church “must become more and more prophetic” in speaking out against policies that threaten indigenous peoples and the environment, said Sr Rose Bertoldo, a Brazilian Missionary Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

For Sr Bertoldo, one notable omission in the exhortation was the concept of “ecological sin”. Synod participants had recommended that actions like pollution, environmental destruction and environmental injustice that endanger future generations be recognised as “ecological sins of commission or omission against God, against one’s neighbour, the community and the environment”.

Archbishop Paloschi said that in leaving that out of the exhortation, the pope chose to encourage the Church toward a necessary conversion rather than taking a punitive approach.—CNS

6

The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

LEADER PAGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor: Günther Simmermacher

Silence of pope’s cry

P

OPE Francis has reportedly expressed his disappointment at the reception of his new document on the Amazon, Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazonia).

The Holy Father is quite right to object that the focus was on something he didn’t specifically address at all: the proposal, made by a voting majority of participants in last October’s Synod of Bishops, to allow for the ordination to the priesthood of married men in particular circumstances, the viri probati model.

Many had expected, or feared, that Pope Francis would approve that step.

And since mandatory celibacy in the priesthood is not a prerequisite for all who are in Holy Orders—witness the Eastern Catholic rites which have married priests or the married clergy in the Latin rite who converted from other denominations—that option was open to Pope Francis.

The pope took the view that mitigating the priest shortage by “facilitating a greater presence of ordained ministers who can celebrate the Eucharist [would be] a very narrow aim”, though he offered no plausible alternatives to a pastoral crisis which denies groups of people access to the Eucharist, “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium).

In the event, he decided to leave all options open by not addressing the issue of viri probati at all. Some have called that a copout, others have celebrated the pope’s (non-) decision as a victory for the status quo.

It is neither of those things.

On the contrary: the pope issued a clear challenge to the Church’s culture of clericalism in which all leadership and all power is tied to priests.

By not approving the ordination of viri probati and women deacons (and his reasoning in the latter issue merits a separate discussion), the pope is saying that generally power in the Church needn’t and shouldn’t be tied to clerical position.

The pope is looking to declericalise the Church, and calls for new, synodal ways of governing the Church. In calling for new models of seeing, thinking and acting in the Church, Pope Francis is inviting the Church to follow the Holy Spirit into uncharted waters.

That is not an act of evasion, as his critics charged, but a radical

objective, with implications for the Church worldwide.

But if it is to honour the Amazon Synod, this is an important message that will need to be embraced internally and to radiate outwards. And one may have justifiable doubts that it will, because the guardians of clericalism will invariably place obstacles in the way.

That liability is manifested in the explanation by Cardinal Michael Czerny, the secretary of the October synod. Addressing reporters, he said: “So, if there are questions that you feel are open or that the Church feels are open, thanks to the exhortation they will continue to be debated, discussed, discerned, prayed over, and when mature presented to the appropriate authority for decision” [our emphasis].

And that is why Pope Francis’ non-position on the viri probati issue ideally needed a clear yes or no answer now.

It’s a shame that the question of celibacy is overshadowing the pope’s eloquent condemnation of capitalist exploitation of land and people, and the hugely important issue of inculturation.

Even those media and observers who by their nature would be inclined to focus on questions of ecology and social justice took positions of dejection-and-outrage because a small group of men won’t be ordained.

That narrow reaction was good news indeed for those who exploit the land and the people. It obscured the pope’s forceful language about the institutionalised injustice perpetrated against the people of the Amazon and against Creation.

Colonisation has not ended, the pope said, but “in many places, it has been changed, disguised and concealed, while losing none of its contempt for the life of the poor and the fragility of the environment”.

The consequences of that include murder, dispossession, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, apart from irreversible ecological destruction for shortterm profits.

This is the message the media should have focused on and the world should have heard. But the noise about celibacy silenced the Holy Father’s cry for justice and appeal for solidarity with the exploited and the brutalised.

And that is why Pope Francis had every right to be disappointed.

Some thoughts on sexuality G OD created them, male and female, blessed them and said: “Have many children.” Nowhere does it say, “...and then he created some of them differently”.

Even if he did, the decision to be sexually active is your own.

No sexual activity is morally licit for anyone unless legally married in the sight of God. “Do not lead me into temptation”—or, better still, “Lead me away

Let’s honour our Southern Cross

C

ONGRATULATIONS on reaching your long-awaited centenary year.

Having read about your financial struggles to keep the weekly miracle recurring, and the dedication of your staff evidenced in them giving up their salary increases, I respectfully doff my hat.

I have sent you a donation, regrettably only a small one, to celebrate the event and would like to challenge all those Southern Cross readers who, like myself, have not done so previously, to follow suit.

Drop a line to the paper when you have done so, not for the recognition but to encourage other readers and keep the ball rolling.

If we all play our part, maybe the staff will even start getting an increase again, for inflation never stops. It might represent a small effort on your part while helping the paper to turn the corner financially.

It’s embarrassing for the editor to have to keep nagging for funds when, after all, the Southern Cross is the responsibility of all Catholics.

To the editor, board of management, and staff: Thanks for everything and keep the Faith!

Luky Whittle, Kroonstad

Hymn favourites rarely heard now

M

AY I add some comments on hymns following Günther Simmermacher’s good article (December 18, 2019) on the Christmas carol “Once in Royal David’s City”?

Catholics are probably aware of George Matheson’s uplifting “O Love that wilt not let me go” (tune by AL Peace). This appeared in the 19thcentury Presbyterian Church Hymnal.

Some of my favourite hymns are

by George Herbert, the 17th-century Anglican curate. These include “King of Glory, King of Peace” and “Teach me, my God and King”.

The other writer is William Cowper, for his Olney Hymns, including “God moves in a mysterious way” and the lovely “O for a closer walk with God”. The SABC used to broad-

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Page 9

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BY ERIN CARELSE

T Dancing priest’s song for Ireland

A

P i l gr i mag e 2020

S outhern C ross

SINGING and dancing priest hopes to represent Ireland in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, one of Europe’s premier annual television events.

Fr Ray Kelly, 66, said if his song “Hallelujah Day” is chosen for the Eurovision, it could win the contest, though he conceded to The Irish Catholic newspaper that “I’d be biased though”.

If Fr Kelly (pictured) were to go all the way to win in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on May 16, it would be Ireland’s eighth winner, extending the record which the country holds.

But it would also be Ireland’s first win in 24 years, since Eimear Quinn won with “The Voice” in 1996.

But Meath-based Fr Kelly is also realistic.

He would be “shocked and amazed” to be chosen.

“I have had a great interest in the show, I’ve watched it from my early teens...going back to Johnny Logan in 1980 [winner with “What’s Another Year”] and even before; I was in school when Dana won it”, in 1970 with “All Kinds Of Everything”, Fr Kelly told The Irish Catholic.

The priest described “Hallelujah Day” as a “gospel song with a country-western flavour to it”.

While he was waiting to learn whether he

will sing for Ireland in Rotterdam—the decision is expected to be announced by early March—he was competing in the popular show Dancing with the Stars, staying in the competition by popular vote despite receiving low scores from the judges.

Fr Kelly—who obtained his bishop’s’ permission to take part in the show—acknowledged that he was receiving popular support not for his hoofing skills, “but maybe for my entertainment or my popularity in other ways”.

The priest became famous overnight in 2014 when a video of him singing Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah”, with adapted lyrics, at a wedding became a YouTube sensation, garnering 73 million hits.

Fr Kelly will release his debut album in April.

But the priest of the St Patrick’s Society for the Foreign Missions stressed that the singing and dancing is secondary to him: “My first love, first of all, is my priesthood, and that’s number one in my life.”

HE retired archbishop of Pretoria will conduct an apostolic visitation of South Africa’s second-most populous Catholic diocese.

According to a notice from the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the request for an apostolic visitation of Mariannhill diocese was made by its ordinary, Bishop Pius Mlungisi Dlungwane, “to assist him in enriching the life and pastoral activity of the local Church”.

The Holy See has appointed Archbishop William Slattery OFM, retired of Pretoria, as the apostolic visitor, a role that will see him spending time in the diocese this month and March.

The visitation began with a Mass held at St Joseph’s cathedral in Mariannhill on February 12.

“The apostolic visitation allows someone like myself to sit down with the bishop and his consultors and to reflect on the structures of the diocese and what they feel is going well and what needs to be improved,” Archbishop Slattery told The Southern Cross.

This will include meetings and consultation with the clergy, religious and laity of the diocese.

“Things we would look at are the strengths of Mariannhill, which is a pioneering diocese in South Africa, and after Johannesburg—in terms of Catholic population—is the secondbiggest diocese in the country,” the archbishop said.

“It has a lot of vocations and seminarians,” he added.

“I’ll also be talking to the bishop and we’ll be looking at the structure of the diocese, especially in light of the recently-launched Pastoral Plan, what kind of ongoing formation the clergy are engaged in, what kind of formation there is for the adults, as well as how catechetical programmes are being presented, the family situation and youth, and looking to see if these are adequately done,” Archbishop Slattery said.

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from temptation.”

That is what those of us who are sexually challenged have to pray.

Every minute, every hour of every day. It is our personal Cross to bear.

To come “out of the closet” means to advertise my particular sexual preferences, thereby attracting like-minded persons, and that is not conducive to staying away from temptation.

I believe that sexuality is a very Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross 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

No shelving of debate on women

M

UCH has been expected of Pope Francis in the debate on allowing women to play a larger role in Church affairs, but it appears this subject is a “very hot potato” which every pope since 1962, including Francis, has shelved.

We understand that the Catholic Church moves at a snail’s pace for good reasons. In fact, the Church is a good example of “how to be patient”, which we all know is an essential component in life.

It appears the real problem is breaking with Church tradition.

Yet it was Jesus who said: “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.”

It is not difficult in today’s world to see what is happening around us.

In all fields of life women are playing more significant roles, be it politics, the judiciary, business or sport.

Most importantly, there is no discrimination on the lines of gender which, unfortunately, in our Church is entrenched.

It is no longer acceptable for any leader in our Church to utter the words: “It is not up for discussion.”

Is our Church based on autocratic rule similar to Hitler’s regime?

Ironically, it is the German

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or

T

Pray in Medjugorje and visit Rome, with papal audience, Assisi, the town of St Francis, Loreto with Mary’s House.

Plus a tour of historic Split in Croa a.

Three countries in one tour!

W

E can forever be debating the validity of homosexuality. If we go back to scripture, God created male and female. He did not create anything in-between.

He did the same in the animal kingdom.

The primary difference between the sexes is for procreation. A man being with a man cannot procreate, as with women. Such relationships are unnatural, a variation.

Are we as mere humans going to try to change what God intended? Is it now fashionable to accept the “spirit of the world” by accepting abortion, homosexuality, and so on, in a secular way to appease man?

Maurice Camillori, Cape Town

Kidnapped nun needs our prayer

A

S another Lenten season begins, may I ask that we be mindful of the kidnapped Franciscan Missionary Sister Cecelia Gloria Argoti, who has been held captive after being abducted from her community in Mali, since February 2016, by Islamic jihadists there.

This will be Sr Cecelia’s fifth Ash Wednesday and Lent away from the free practice of her religion and of the sacraments, and of isolation from the Church and her people.

Perhaps we might also donate to the Gift of the Givers who are taking a direct interest in Sr Cecelia’s plight?

Donations can be made to their Standard Bank Account 052278611 Pietermaritzburg Branch 057525 ref Sister Cecelia Argoti.

Let us keep Sr Cecelia, and all who are kidnapped, and trafficked, in our prayers.

Fr Sean Collins CSsR, Uitenhage

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Page 7

he archbishop said he would meet with the diocesan pastoral council and parish pastoral councils, “and see how they feel they are being served, [look at] their relationship with their clergy and the relation of the clergy among themselves”.

An example of such pastoral problems may be a priest in a parish who “doesn’t relate at all to the local parishioners, and they are not getting any joy complaining, and they feel they are not being adequately served then”, Archbishop Slattery said.

“This will then be an opportunity for them to speak to someone on the outside, and then I could make sure that this issue is brought before the diocese, “ he said.

The Vatican defines an apostolic visitation as”an exceptional initiative of the Holy See which involves sending a visitor or visitors to evaluate an ecclesiastical institute such as a seminary, diocese, or religious institute.

“Apostolic visitations are intended to assist the institute in question to improve the way in which it carries out its function in the life of the Church.”

Often such visitations are prompted by obstacles in maintaining faith and discipline, and/or the need to correct abuses.

Mariannhill diocese was erected as an apostolic vicariate in 1921 and was elevated to the rank of a diocese on January 11, 1951.

The diocese serves a population of 329,575 Catholics, according to 2017 statistics.

It has been headed by Bishop Dlungwane since 2006, after six years in which he served as auxiliary bishop there.

Secular view of sexuality not ours

We welcome prayers, volunteers and donations.

Centenary Jubilee Year

He said that he entered the visitation with no preconceptions about “the actual factual situation”, adding that “the task of his visitation is to find that out”.

“If there are problems within the diocese, we would reflect together about them in an objective way. In solving anything that happens in life we need to know what the problem is, if there is one,” Archbishop Slattery said.

private matter and belongs either in the bedroom, the confessional, or in private conversation with God. I have been very hesitant to write this letter as it exposes my own vulnerability. However, I feel the sentiments I am expressing are not highlighted enough.

There are great blessings in quietly living a life in obedience to God and, as an aside, life is not all about sex.

In fact, sex should be relatively unimportant.

Name withheld

Church which has recently taken a more democratic road with its “synodal way”, which hopefully will be the lifesaver the Church needs after the revelations of sex abuse perpetrated on minors by ordained priests.

Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg

cast “Morning Service” at 10:00. I recall that the minister would open with a hymn, and on one occasion chose “O for a closer walk”. The organ played a chord and King’s College Chapel Choir sang this perfectly.

Hymns by Catholics include John Henry Newman’s fine “Praise to the Holiest” and “Lead, Kindly Light”, and there is also Frederick Faber’s “Sweet Saviour, Bless Us ‘ere We Go”.

It is a great pity that old favourites like “Sweet Sacrament Divine” and “Hail, Queen of Heaven” are rarely heard today.

Peter Onesta, Johannesburg

Having faith with depression

Slattery probes SA’s secondbiggest diocese A baby watches as its mother receives ashes on Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on February 26. Ash Wednesday marks the start of the penitential season of Lent, a time of reflection, prayer, fasting and charity before Easter. (Photo: Rick Musacchio/CNS)

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.

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PERSPECTIVES

Why do we Catholics look miserable?

Keenan W Williams HY does it seem like many of us Catholics always seem to look so miserable?

I find it disheartening to see fellow parishioners, and sometimes clergy, walk around with drooping faces. It looks like they are dead within themselves.

In the Gospels, Christ says: “These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (Jn 15:11).

When we look joyless, it’s like we don’t have Christ living within us. We profess our faith, but if our faces, our actions and our relationships with one another do not emulate what (or rather who) exists within us, then we are basically “faking it” all.

It is the flipside to a song we used to sing back in primary school: “J-O-Y and its down in my heart, deep, deep down in my heart. Jesus gave it to me, and no one else can destroy.”

But what got us to this point where we bottle up this joy which exists within us and walk around like it’s the end of the world?

If we look like a Church without this joy, which is meant to enlighten the hearts of others, we become off-putting not only to outsiders but to also our brothers and sisters sharing the pews with us at Mass.

Pope Francis puts it quite aptly when he says: “The word of God is not ashamed of celebration.”

The Holy Father reflected a few weeks ago on how David danced before the people, expressing his joy without feeling shy.

The pope pointed out that David loved the Lord, and he was happy and joyful to bring back the ark of the Lord with dancing and singing like all the people.

Similarly, Pope Paul VI said: “The Gospel will not go forward with boring, bitter evangelisers. It will go forward only with joyful evangelisers full of life.”

Why then do we think we can take the Gospel into the homes of our families, schools of our children, the places we meet our friends and public spaces where strangers roam, with such a bitter attitude?

David danced before the people to express his joy, but it seems like we are told to “shackle up our joy” and to be more reserved as a Church. I find that this attitude of “do not lift your hands in praise and

worship” or strict prohibitions on dancing during Mass restricts us from fully expressing that joy which exists within us.

Yes, we need to be reverent in our worship, but we also need to praise the Lord with all that is within us. It seems that we are worried about obeying Church laws, rites and traditions but forget that, in fact, it’s all about that relationship we have with Christ and his people.

I work a lot among our brethren from other denominations and have attended a few ecumenical services. 99% of the time, I feel welcome and part of their family, even though I’m an outsider.

O

n New Year’s Eve, I drove around my neighbourhood looking for a church which would be open so that I could welcome in the new year with God and his people through prayer. My parish, unfortunately, had its Mass too early the evening.

As I drove through the streets of my community, I found a church which had just started its service. I parked my car, and as I walked through the foyer, I was warmly greeted by about four or five youth who had been assigned the “job” of being welcoming hosts.

I was then shown to a seat near the

As Christians, we should be showing joy— but too often we look like deflated misery guts, says Keenan Williams. (Photo: Nathan Dumlao)

Talking Faith

back. When I sat down the congregants on either side of me greeted me and whispered: “Welcome to the service, brother.”

After the service, which I have to say felt very Spirit-filled, congregants—people whom I didn’t know from a bar of soap— said “Happy New Year”, shook my hand, welcomed me, and wished me a “happy, healthy and prosperous 2020”.

I find it so strange for these clergy from other churches to walk around with huge smiles across their faces, emulating Christ who lives within them, while so many of us Catholics walk around miserable. Are we just going through the motions?

A priest once said: “One day of life and one day closer to death.” Is this how we want to live our lives? Is this the way we want people to see us as Church? A bunch of misery guts?

Sadly, it seems like we no longer want to smell like the sheep. We distance ourselves completely from the joy Christ plants within each of us.

To recall Jesus’ joke in the parable, it’s like hiding a lamp under a bed, not allowing its light to illuminate the hearts of others.

But we have recourse to profound examples of joy.

After driving through the streets of Kolkata with Mother Teresa, one woman couldn’t hold back her tears at the poverty the people there experienced.

Seeing this, Mother Teresa gently told her: “These people have enough tears of their own. What they need from you is your smile.”

The saint also said: “Just a simple ‘hello’ can make a person’s day brighter. This feeds more than food.

“Bread lasts but a day; love is for always.

“Be Jesus to everyone you meet. And in everyone you meet, see Jesus.”

As a Church, let’s start to unbottle that joy which exists within each of us, let us be more welcoming as a Church community, and through the bitterness of this world, remember to smile.

When we are feeling ignored...

Chris S McDonnell OME say that there is nothing worse than being ignored. It somehow reduces you to being a “non-person” whose opinions and values are of little consequence, not worth the time of consideration.

That has been the tactic employed by US government officials in responding to Greta Thunberg and others who have raised their voices of alarm and concern for the future of our planet.

Their voices are thought worthless because of their age and presumed immaturity. What they have to say is of little consequence and can easily be set aside.

Lately, that story has been given another twist.

After the recent meeting of world leaders at Davos, a group of young climate activists, including Greta Thunberg, Loukina Tille, Luisa Neubauer and Isabelle Axelsson, gave a press conference.

The name of a 23-year-old African woman from Uganda, Vanessa Nakate, is missing from that list of names although she too was there.

Her image in the group photograph was cropped in a version published by Associated Press.

Ms Nakate has called out racism in the media, for she was the only woman of colour in the group. In a video, which has since gone viral, she said that for the first time in her life she now understood “the definition of the word racism”.

Her feeling of not belonging was graphically spelt out in a very public manner.

As young children, many of us experienced the difficulties of not belonging when we attended creche or school for the first time.

Our friendship groups didn’t just “happen” but required careful nurturing of new relationships independent of the familiar family group. That can be hard, costing personal effort and often tears.

The security that we feel when we be-

Point of Church

“Being ignored is not a pleasant experience, for a silent rejection offers little chance of an exchange of view, nor the making of a relationship. To be sidelined is to be devalued,” writes Chris McDonnell. (Photo: Noah Silliman) long to a group is reassuring. Something is shared and we appreciate the companionship.

In a similar way, belonging to the Church is valued and gives purpose to our days—that space of time that fills the waking hours from morning light till the darkness of evening.

It’s not always easy going, in fact often it’s quite difficult and uncomfortable.

But then we were told once of a voice crying in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord, so we should not be surprised if now and then we too have to find our way through a wilderness not of our own making.

T

oo often, when we are critical of the Church, we hear the rejoinder: “If you find that awkward, why don’t you leave and go elsewhere?”

But that is no answer for those who question with the honesty and sincerity that is to be found in family.

Belonging is to be at home; it also comes with the implicit right to ask honest questions. Not that there will always

be neatly packaged answers, for if there were certainty, faith would have no meaning and we would be reduced to functional automatons.

That doesn’t make doubt any easier to manage but it does give some substance to the cloud of unknowing that envelops us all at one time or another.

It is then that we depend on others for a drink of water to quench our thirst, a hand offered in support when we stumble over loose stones.

Just as we seek sustenance in times of personal need, so must we be open to offering ourselves to others should the occasion arise.

Do not be indifferent when others need you. The Road to Jericho is evident in every town and city, both in the silent struggle, the inner conflict of those we meet, and in the homeless street-sleeper seated on the damp pavement, hoping for a few coins.

Being ignored is not a pleasant experience, for a silent rejection offers little chance of an exchange of view, nor the making of a relationship. To be sidelined is to be devalued.

Then we are left only with our memories, for each of us has a story to tell, the route map of how we got here, the praise and adulation, the pain of rejection, the Pandora’s box which we all carry yet are hesitant to open.

Whatever our circumstances, though others may ignore us, none of us are ignored by the God who gave each of us the gift of life. n This article was first published in the Catholic Times.

The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

7

Fr Mathibela Sebothoma

Point of Reflection

Treat suicide with compassion

S

UICIDE is a difficult subject to talk about, especially for those who knew the victim. It is even more complicated in the absence of a suicide note.

For Catholics it is even more daunting when suicide is committed by a priest.

Until recently, Catholics believed that the mortal sin of suicide was automatic entry into eternal hell. So many lay members of the Church were told that their children or siblings who took their lives were destined for eternal damnation.

Suicide was mentioned in some catechisms of the Church as a mortal sin because it is an act against the will of God and a violation of the fifth commandment: “Persons who willfully and knowingly commit such an act die in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of Christian burial.”

The sad death at 34 of Fr Evan Harkins of the US diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph recently gives us cause to reflect about suicide.

His diocese and the local police department agree that he had “taken his own life”. No foul play is suspected.

Many lay people who die of suicide are denied a Catholic burial because the priests and communities are ignorant about mental health issues.

But a priest who commits suicide will have fellow priests and the local bishop to justify why he qualifies for a decent Catholic send off.

Fr Harkins died in a public place which was close to a school. The police had to report the fact of his death. In the age of social media, the Church did not have a way of hiding his death, like it did with thousands of priests and religious who chose to die like him. Suicide notes were expunged to save the faces of the bishops and religious superiors. Selfish reasons.

Not so long ago a young Sister from East Africa died by suicide in South Africa. She was buried quietly to avoid embarrassment to her superiors.

Suicide is real—even in South Africa—among clergy, religious Brothers and nuns.

There is no reason for a bishop to explain that Fr Harkins used the “wrong medication” that led to suicide. Leave that to psychiatrists and the police. Let us support young women and men who want to follow Jesus Christ.

A person who “willfully and knowingly” chooses suicide would still be considered to be in a state of mortal sin. But the Church acknowledges that most people who die by suicide suffer from mental illness and are thus incapable of making a clear, rational decision.

This was first reflected in 1992 when John Paul II approved the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which clearly articulated this position for the first time.

In the meantime, we can love each other now, not after the fact.

Fr Evan Harkins is now at peace. n Fr Mathibela Sebothoma is a priest of the archdiocese of Pretoria. He writes in his personal capacity.

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The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

Station i: Jesus is Condemned to Death O Jesus, help me to appreciate your sanctifying grace more and more.

(Duomo, Florence, Italy)

LENT

Station ii: Jesus receives His Cross Station iii: Jesus Falls the First Time Station iV: Jesus Meets His Mother O Jesus, you chose to die for me. Help me to O Jesus, make me strong to conquer my O Jesus, grant me a tender love for your love you always with all my heart. wicked passions, and to rise quickly from sin. mother who offered you for love of me.

(Papal Palace, Avignon, France) (Polish Chapel, Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem) (Armenian Church, Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem)

Stations of the Cross all over the world

D Station V: Jesus is Helped by Simon O Jesus, like Simon, lead me ever closer to you through my daily crosses and trials.

(El Cerro de Monserrate, Bogota, Colombia)

Station Vi: Jesus and Veronica O Jesus, imprint your image on my heart that I may be faithful to you all my life.

(Good Shepherd Centre, Hartebeespoort, SA)

URING Lent we are called to follow Christ on his Passion journey to the Cross.

This week we take you through the Way of the Cross in images from a variety of places throughout the world.

The photos are accompanied by very short prayers from the Treasury of Novenas, but readers may wish to do the full set of prayers, privately or in the setting of the family or Station Vii: Jesus Falls a Second Time prayer group.

A good sample text for that is at www.lord O Jesus, I repent for having offended you. calls.com/dailyprayer/the-way-of-the-cross-the- Grant me forgiveness of all my sins.

(Via Crucis, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy) stations-of-the-cross

Station Viii: Jesus Speaks to the Women Station iX: Jesus Falls a Third Time Station X: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments Station Xi: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross O Jesus, grant me tears of compassion for O Jesus, let me never yield to despair. Let me O Jesus, let me sacrifice all my attachments O Jesus, strengthen my faith and increase my your sufferings and of sorrow for my sins. come to you in hardship and spiritual distress. rather than imperil the divine life of my soul. love for you. Help me to accept my crosses.

(Notre Dame de Paris, France) (Via Crucis, Lourdes, France) (Saalkirche, Munich, Germany) (Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem)

Prayer after the Stations Jesus, you became an example of humility, obedience, and patience, and preceded me on the way of life bearing your Cross. Grant that, inflamed with your love, I may cheerfully take upon myself the sweet yoke of your Gospel together with the mortification of the Cross and follow you as a true disciple so that I may be united with you in heaven.

Station Xii: Jesus Dies on the Cross O Jesus, I thank you for making me a child of God. Help me to forgive others.

(Via Crucis, Knock, Ireland)

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Station Xiii: Jesus is Taken From the Cross Station XiV: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb O Jesus, through the intercession of your holy O Jesus, strengthen my will to live for you on earth and bring me to eternal bliss in heaven. mother, let me be pleasing to you.

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The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

FILM

9

Pro-life movie to hit SA screens After a long wait, the prolife film Unplanned will come to South African cinemas on February 28.

NATALIE HOEFE spoke to the woman the film is about.

A

BBY Johnson’s life had already become an open book.

In 2019 it also became a movie.

“It’s not a film inspired by my life story,” she said. “It is my life story.”

Ms Johnson, 39, is a former facility director for the pro-choice Planned Parenthood organisation in the US—and now a pro-life advocate.

The film Unplanned, which opens in South Africa on February 28, is based on her 2011 book of the same name.

As suggested in the film’s tagline, “What she saw changed everything”, Ms Johnson said the movie exposes viewers “to the truth of what happens inside the abortion industry”.

But mostly, she noted, the film is about the “amazing, ready mercy of Jesus Christ that is available to

everyone—whether you’ve been touched by abortion or not—that Christ is so ready to redeem us”.

Ms Johnson admitted that the release of the film had made her feel “vulnerable”.

After watching the film for the first time with her husband Doug, she felt a bit of panic.

“I looked at Doug and said, ‘Is it too late? Can I back out?’ I felt so exposed, especially the scene with my RU-486 [chemical] abortion,” Ms Johnson said.

“I had to remind myself that I didn’t sign on to do this film to make ‘Abby Johnson’ a household name. I signed on to truly amplify God and make him a household name and show his redeeming power.

“None of this is about me. This is his story,” she said emphatically.

The turning point Ms Johnson’s story of God’s redemption in her life began to unfold in September 2009. Then one of Planned Parenthood’s youngest facility directors, she was called in to assist with an abortion.

What she saw on the ultrasound convinced her that what she’d been told about abortion— and what she’d repeated to women for nearly 22 000 abortions under her watch at Planned Parent-

Giving women a voice

Abby Johnson (left) on the set of the movie Unplanned with actress Ashley Bratcher, who plays her. The movie details the story of Ms Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood administrator who quit that job to join the pro-life movement after her up-close interaction with abortion. hood—was grossly wrong.

While her story had already been told in her book, Ms Johnson agreed to spread that story further when she was approached six years ago about making it into a movie.

But she didn’t say yes to just anyone to share her story on film; she turned to Chuck Konzelman

and Cary Solomon, both devout Catholics with years of experience in the film industry.

Mr Konzelman and Mr Solomon co-produced, co-wrote and co-directed Unplanned.

Unplanned provides an opportunity not just to observe compassion but to experience it as well.

At the end of the US cut of the film, Ms Johnson said, a number appears on the screen.

“So if a woman is in a crisis pregnancy, needs help after an abortion, if a man needs post-abortion help, if someone works or worked in the [abortion] industry—there will be help for them,” she explained.

“I think women who have had an abortion will have some vindication” after watching Unplanned, she said. “Their voices are silenced.

They’re told that [having an abortion] is no big deal.”

That’s what she said had happened to her.

“This film shows it’s not normal, it’s not an easy process to go through.”

Ms Johnson hopes that the film will inspire those involved with abortion to leave that industry.

She started a nonprofit organisation, And Then There Were None, in 2012 to help them do just that.

She noted that some people have said that it would be only Christians who’d go and see the film.

“I say fantastic. If half of the people sitting in our churches were taking more action,” she said, then abortion might not exist today.— CNS

Actress: This movie ‘going to change history’

BY DENIS GRASSKA

T

O say that actress Ashley Bratcher is enthusiastic about her film Unplanned would be an understatement.

“I think it’s going to change history,” she said of the real-life story upon which the film is based. “I think it’s just that impactful.”

She portrays Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic director who became an outspoken pro-life activist, in Unplanned.

Ms Bratcher knows the story’s transformative power because she has felt it herself.

Though she auditioned for the

role without even knowing that Ms Johnson was a real person and not the fictional creation of a screenwriter, Ms Bratcher later went home and did some research online.

She watched a video of Ms Johnson sharing her story and, she said, it “shook me to my core”.

The actress had identified as pro-life, but admits that she had been “middle-of-the-road” on the issue, having limited understanding of foetal development, not knowing much about what an abortion procedure actually involved, and being unwilling to tell

another woman what to do with, “so to speak, ‘her body’”.

But that video filled the gaps in her understanding, she said, and “really convinced me in my spirit to say, ‘Wow, people don’t know this.”

If video footage of Ms Johnson describing her experience in words can be that powerful, Ms Bratcher noted, a dramatisation would be even more powerful.

“With this movie, we allow people to see for the first time what they’ve never seen before, and I think that is going to be...really compelling,” the actress said.

In the US, Unplanned received an R-rating, meaning that teenagers may see it only in the company of a parent.

Ms Bratcher acknowledged the irony that young girls will not be admitted to the film without a parent, but she said that “abortion is R-rated” and “to make a movie about abortion and not have it be rated R would be a disservice”.

Both the real-life Johnson and her onscreen counterpart hope that the film’s audience will include both pro-life viewers and those who support legal abortion.

And they said it will challenge

both sides.

Ms Bratcher said she was grateful to pro-lifers who she knows will be supporting the film, but she warned them to be ready.

“To them, I say, ‘Thank you’, but I also say, ‘Prepare’, because we’ve had so many people who are pro-life see this film and—holy smokes!—it just lights them on fire because they’re seeing things that they didn’t even expect to see as a pro-lifer.”

The film is “an activator”, she said, and will inspire its pro-life viewers “to go out and do more”.—CNS

Truth, gore in ‘Unplanned’ film REVIEWED BY JOHN MULDERIG

Passion Pilgrimage 2020

T

HE hard-hitting, factbased drama Unplanned dares its viewers to confront the reality of what happens when a baby is aborted.

That’s an effective strategy on the part of co-writers and directors Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, not least because the peculiar institution of our day thrives on concealment, muddled thinking and Orwellian euphemisms.

But it also means that this emotionally unsparing film is not for the casual moviegoer of any age.

Adapted from the eponymous 2011 memoir by Abby Johnson (played by Ashley Bratcher), Unplanned traces her steady rise to become one of the youngest Planned Parenthood clinic directors in the country.

Yet it also shows how she gradually became uneasy about the organisation’s marketing of abortion.

The conversion in her outlook reaches a dramatic climax when Abby is asked to assist a doctor performing the procedure and witnesses via sonogram what it actually involves.

As the child in the womb tries to move away from the suction tube and medical containers quickly fill with blood, this scene may prove as upsetting for the audience as it was

Ashley Bratcher as Abby Johnson in Unplanned. for Johnson.

Her new stance is welcomed

by Abby’s husband Doug and parents, all of them pro-life. It also brings reconciliation with some of the protesters she once considered adversaries, including a pair of “40 Days for Life” activists.

Unsurprisingly, Abby’s ornery former superior, Cheryl, views her change of heart in a different light. Once Abby’s mentor, an infuriated Cheryl becomes the moving force in a lawsuit against her ex-protégé.

While Cheryl is clearly the villain of the piece, the script avoids demonising all those associated with Planned Parent-

hood. Nor does it present all pro-life activists in a positive light.

Whether this sense of balance will give Unplanned any traction with supporters of legal abortion is open to question, however.

Given that the full horror of slaughtering the unborn is on display here, the parents of older teenagers will have to decide whether the informative value of Abby’s story outweighs its disturbing elements.

These also include a sequence showing the sufferings Abby endured after taking RU486 in the second of her own two abortions.—CNS

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10

The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

FAITH

What you need to know about Lent We make our sacrifices and go through Lent every year, but we might be unable to fully explain Lent to others.

J D FLYNN offers this primer for Lent.

M

OST Catholics, even those who don’t often go to Mass, know that Lent is a time for Friday fried fish and “giving something up”. But many Catholics wonder what exactly the Church requires during Lent, and why.

Here are a few points that might help you have a great Lent this year:

related directly to the three temptations Christ faced in the desert.

But for a fruitful Lent, it is helpful to decide on one practice for each of those themes.

• Find some practice of prayer you can add to your day.

• Decide on some act of charity or work of mercy you’ll take up.

• And decide what you can fast from—it might be food, like sweets, or it might be your phone, or music and news on the car radio, or cool drinks.

The key is to choose something that you will sustain for the whole of Lent, and something that does not gravely disrupt your family life or the people around you.

If you drive a long way to work, don’t give up driving (though you could take up using public transport instead). If you take care of young children, don’t commit to all-night prayer vigils, at least not every night.

Ideally, the practices of prayer we commit to will become incorporated into our regular lives, and our sacrifices and almsgiving might become something we continue to do as well.

There is a story about the US Catholic activist Dorothy Day, who used to give up cigarettes each year, but who would annually become so grumpy that the members of her community would beg her to take them back up again.

Think about the people you live with, and work with, as you decide

on your Lenten practices. If you work in an office, don’t give up showering, please!

But think also about prayer. Eventually Dorothy Day decided that instead of giving up cigarettes for Lent, she would start praying daily: “Dear God, help me stop smoking.”

She prayed it faithfully for years, though she continued to smoke. One day, she realised she didn’t want to smoke. She never picked up a cigarette again.

Prayer should be the central focus of our Lent.

Without prayer, Lent will be just an endurance test for us. It’ll be a test of how strong we are, or how much willpower we have.

But Lent isn’t really about that. Lent is about how much we can turn to God the Father, through Jesus, and hand over our lives to him. That should be the centre of our Lenten discipline.

So, no sweets then?

Maybe on Sundays. Sunday is our weekly celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, and some Catholics decide to put aside their Lenten disciplines, in order to celebrate Christ.

There are no rules about this; it’s a matter of your individual conscience. If keeping Lenten practices on Sunday helps you to focus on Christ, keep them. If celebrating Sunday with sweets helps you to focus on Christ, that’s okay too.

Have a blessed Lent!

Lent 2020

The obvious question first: What is Lent?

At the beginning of his public Pilgrims take photos of the Mount of Temptation near Jericho in life, Jesus was baptised by his Palestine, not far from the Jordan River. The mountain in the desert cousin John the Baptiser in the Jor- is traditionally said to be the place where Jesus faced down the devil dan River. John was a prophet and over 40 days and 40 nights. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher) a preacher, and he urged people to be baptised as a sign of their repenkinds of aquatic creatures in certain abstain from meat on those days. tance for sin.

In 1966, Pope Paul VI said that After Jesus was baptised, accord- places.

If you really want to eat croco- the Church’s “law of fasting allows ing to the Gospel of Matthew, the Holy Spirit descended upon him dile on a Friday during Lent, check only one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in “like a dove”, and a voice from with your diocese.

Generally speaking, products de- the morning and evening”. heaven said: “This is my beloved This is often taken to mean that Son, with whom I am well rived from animals, like stock or gelatin, are not considered to vio- the most Catholics should eat on a pleased.”

People were amazed, but Jesus late the rule of abstinence. This is day of fasting is one normal-sized because the point is to meal—with no meat—and two immediately went away make a spiritual sacrifice smaller snacks. by himself into the desert.

Lenten Fridays in union with Christ, not Those who wish for a more inThere he fasted and to become consumed tense fast are not prohibited from prayed, and while he was should be with parsing ingredient more fasting, but it is generally a there, Satan appeared to lists for animal byprod- good idea to discuss this with a spirdays of him three times, tempting itual director, confessor or priest. ucts. him. simplicity, The point, really, is for Wait—so I’m 60, and my grandJesus stayed in the the Fridays of Lent to be son is 17. Does that mean we desert for 40 days. When so lobster in days of simplicity and don’t have to fast? he left the desert, he began calling his disciples lemon-butter even a bit of hunger— That’s correct. You are not rewhile seafood is allowed, and apostles, as the misquired by canon law to fast— sion that led to his cruci- sauce misses lobster in lemon-butter though you are still bound by the sauce probably misses fixion had begun. law of abstinence. This means that that point that point.

The Church says that whether to fast should be a matter All Catholics of the age Lent is a 40-day period of for your discernment, perhaps with unity with “the mystery of Jesus in of 14 and older are expected to ab- some guidance from your priest or stain from meat, although those the desert”. confessor.

By sacrificing small things, as who can’t do so for health reasons, What about sweets? Should I give along with pregnant and nursing well as fasting, praying, and giving that up? What’s that about anyto charity, Catholics are invited to women, are obviously exempted. way? I don’t even like sweets. experience a period of prayer like I have heard the Fridays of Lent I like sweets. But here are a few the one Jesus experienced, and to referred to as “days of abstiprepare themselves to resist Satan’s nence”. Usually when the Church thoughts on what to do for a fruitful Lent: temptation, and fulfil the mission talks about abstinence…

The season of Lent emphasises God has given the Church.

This is a surprisingly common Lent comes before Easter, and is question. When the Church talks three things: prayer, fasting, almsa preparation for that feast, which about abstinence in this context, giving.

Prayer means prayer, that’s is one of the most important in the she is referring to abstention from pretty simple.

Church’s life. eating meat.

Almsgiving refers to acts of charCool. So, I can’t eat meat then?

What about fasting? When do I ity or generosity.

During the Fridays of Lent, fast? And what do I do?

And fasting refers to going withThe two required days of fasting out something, especially someCatholics are to abstain from meat, in union with the fasting of Jesus, during Lent are Ash Wednesday and thing on which we’ve become and in memory of Christ’s death on Good Friday. These are also days of dependent, something we think we abstinence. a Friday. can’t live without, or something All Catholics who are 18 but not that distracts us from God. Fish is not considered meat for these purposes, nor are some other yet 59 are required to both fast and Actually, these three themes are

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The US Catholic social activist Dorothy Day is seen smoking on the poster of a documentary about her. The story is told that her colleagues would beg her to reverse the Lenten sacrifice of cigarettes due to Day’s bad mood caused by the nicotine-withdrawal. Eventually she prayed the cigarettes away.

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The Southern Cross, February 26 to March 3, 2020

YOUr CLaSSiFiEDS

Fr Mokhalinyana Sixtus Moahloli OMI

O

BLATE Father Mokhalinyana Sixtus Moahloli died suddenly on February 11, aged 37.

Fr Moahloli was born in Kanana, Orkney, on September 17, 1982. He was the eldest of three brothers.

His death at such a young age has torn the hearts of his family, his Oblate confrères, and the people who knew him.

Fr Moahloli entered the Oblate pre-novitiate the year after completing his matric. He was admitted to the novitiate in 2003 and made his first profession on February 2, 2004.

He pursued his studies for the priesthood at St Joseph’s Theological Institute, Cedara, and at the Theologische Hochschule in Vallendar, Germany, graduating with a masters degree in theology. Fr Moahloli was an academically gifted student.

He was ordained to the priesthood on November 12, 2011, at his home parish in Kanana, Orkney.

His first appointment was as

assistant at Sacred Heart cathedral in Bloemfontein. The people were enthralled with his powerful preaching, which inspired table discussions during the week in families and groups. They petitioned the archbishop and provincial to appoint him as the parish priest.

But as it goes for newly-ordained priests, he had to gain further experience and he was asked to serve other communities in the Bloemfontein-Botshabelo area.

Fr Moahloli’s last appointment was at the Our Lady, Tabernacle of the Most High Shrine at Ngome as an assistant rector.

His gift for languages and for theologically sound sermons was much appreciated—as the comments in Facebook testify.

Fr Ewen Swartz OMI, who was a student with Fr Moahloli in Germany, said: “He was a dedicated pastor who loved the Church and was always willing to serve the people. He was a compassionate brother who cared about others’ wellbeing. He was intelligent and able to expound on theology with

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ease and precision.”

Following the tradition of the Oblates, at his final vows Fr Moahloli asked for the oblation cross of Fr Karel Mariman OMI who had baptised him when he (Fr Moahloli) was only 11 days old.

Fr Moahloli had taken ill on February 11 while visiting friends, who immediately rushed him to hospital. He died that very evening. He is survived by his parents, Ntate Khofu and Mme Ncikazi, and his two younger brothers, Khotso and Ntai.

By Fr Neil Frank OMI

Free Fatima shrine magazine for parishes

P

ARISHES around the world are invited to take out a free annual subscription to the official magazine of the Fatima shrine.

Fatima Light and Peace is the English version of Fátima Luz e Paz, the bulletin of the shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, which has been published quarterly since 2004.

It appears in seven languages—Portuguese, German, Spanish, French, English, Italian and Polish—to serve “the message of light and peace that, as word of grace and mercy, God has sounded, at Cova da Iria [Fatima], through the Lady of the

Rosary”, according to its website.

Parishes are invited to request a subscription on a letterhead (or, absent that, the parish’s official stamp) with the full address, in-

BirTHriGHT of Durban: Mandate to function as a chapter of Birthright of South Africa has been withdrawn by the National Board of Birthright of South Africa. No further activity, for example, fundraising, counselling, by any member past or present of Birthright Durban is permitted. Birthright of South Africa 082 057-5561.

PraYErS

HOLY ST JUDE, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke you, special patron in time of need. To you I have recourse from the

cluding the country, from Catia Filipe at catiafilipe@fatima.pt.

Don’t forget to indicate the preferred language. Donations to offset postage are appreciated.

Liturgical Calendar Year A – Weekdays Cycle Year 2 Sunday March 1, 1st Sunday of Lent Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7, Psalm 51:3-6, 1213, 17, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11 Monday March 2 Leviticus19:1-2, 11-18, Psalm 19:8-10, 15, Matthew25:31-46 Tuesday March 3 Isaiah 55:10-11, Psalm 34:4-7, 16-19, Matthew 6:7-15 Wednesday March 4, St Casimir Jonah 3:1-10, Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 1819, Luke 11:29-32 Thursday March 5

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Esther 14:1, 3-4, 11, 13-14, Psalm 138:13, 7-8, Matthew 7:7-12 Friday March 6 Ezekiel 18:21-28, Psalm 130:1-8, Matthew 5:20-26 Saturday March 6, Ss Perpetua and Felicity Deuteronomy 26:16-19, Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8, Matthew 5:43-48 Sunday March 8, 2nd Sunday of Lent Genesis 12:1-4, Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22, 2 Timothy 1:8-10, Matthew 17:1-9

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depths of my heart and thank you for coming to my assistance. As I promise to make your name known in distribution of this prayer that never fails. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be forever blessed and glorified. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us. Thank you for your granting my request. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be. Dermot @george.

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

O Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are, Mother of God. Queen of heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in my necessity. There is none who can withstand your power. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands. “Say this prayer for three consecutive days and then publish.” Leon and Karen.

HEar ME, LOrD, on behalf of all those who are dear to me, all whom I have in mind at this moment. Be near them in all their anxieties and worries, give them the help of your saving grace. I commend them all with trustful confidence to your merciful

love. Remember, Lord, all who are mindful of me: all those who have asked me to pray for them, all who have been kind to me, all who have wronged me, or whom I have wronged by ill-will or misunderstanding.

Give all of us to bear each other’s faults, and to share each other’s burdens.

Have mercy on the souls of our loved ones who have gone before us. Grant them peace and happiness. Amen.

GOOD MOrNiNG GOD. You are ushering in another day, untouched and freshly new. So here I am to ask you, God, if you'll renew me too. Forgive the many errors that I made yesterday and let me try again, dear God, to walk closer in your way. But Lord, I am well aware, I can't make it on my own.

So take my hand and hold it tight, for I cannot walk alone.

HOLiDaY aCCOMMODaTiON

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Southern CrossWord solutions SOLUTIONS TO 904. ACROSS: 1 Elmo, 3 Compline, 9 Temples, 10 Ounce, 11 Incense boats, 13 Elixir, 15 Studio, 17 Fishers of men, 20 Peace, 21 Alabama, 22 Treatise, 23 Stun. DOWN: 1 Entailed, 2 Mimic, 4 Oyster, 5 Proportional, 6 Ignited, 7 Even, 8 Blandishment, 12 Fountain, 14 Imitate, 16 Organs, 18 Meant, 19 Spat.

FROM OUR VAULTS 30 Years Ago: February 25, 1990

SA bishops on Mandela’s release Welcoming the release from prison after 27 years of Nelson Mandela, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference says that “his release hopefully signals the end to a particularly sad chapter in South African history in which many lost their lives, and countless others suffered detention, imprisonment and exile in the struggle for justice”.

Jo’burg schools amalgamate Another two top schools in Johannesburg—St Paul’s College and Assumption Convent in Maryvale—have amalgamated, following the lead a few years earlier of Sacred Heart College (previously Marist College and Yeoville Convent) and De La Salle Holy Cross College (formerly Holy Cross Convent and De La Salle College).

Natal convent, school auctioned off All contents of St Elmo’s convent and school, where Archbishop Denis Hurley was educated, in Umzumbe, near Port Shepstone, were auctioned off after having been closed.

Editorial: Holy women down centuries

St Casimir

Ss Perpetua and Felicity

Commenting on Pope John Paul II’s documents on women, editor Cardinal Owen McCann writes that the example of holy women is to be found in the Old and New Testaments, and in the saints down the centuries of the life of the Church to our day.

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Second Sunday of Lent: March 8 Readings: Genesis 12: 1-4, Psalm 33:4-5, 1820, 22, 2 Timothy 1:8-10, Matthew 17:1-9

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HE key thing at this stage of Lent is not to look at how successfully we are managing to keep off the chocolates (or whatever) but to listen out for what the Lord might be saying to us.

In the first reading, Abram (at this stage no spring chicken) is being told: “Go from your land and from your families and from your father’s house, to the land which I shall show you.” That may be the kind of discomfort we are being invited to just now, and the promise that God makes will perhaps not make us feel much better: “I shall make you into a great nation”, and “I shall bless you and make your name great and it will be a blessing.”

But for Abram, to hear God’s command was to obey, and so the reading ends: “And Abram went as the Lord had spoken to him.”

That might need to be the motto for each of us during Lent.

What the psalm next Sunday is all about is the importance of God’s word: “For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his deeds are done with integrity; he loves justice and right; the Lord’s steadfast love fills the earth.”

Also: “The Lord’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his steadfast love.”

God is not, you see, out to get us; God’s

S outher n C ross Nicholas King SJ

Listen for God’s voice aim is “to deliver [our] souls from death in time of famine”. God, it turns out, is “our help and our shield”, and we can join in the prayer that “God’s steadfast love may be upon us, just as we have hoped in you”.

It is all about God, and about what God might be saying to us during this season.

The second reading is from 2 Timothy, and Paul, writing from prison, is once again concentrating on attending to what God might be saying: “Suffer along with the Gospel, in accordance with the power of God”.

Then he makes clear what God has done: God “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of anything to do with our works, but because of God’s own plan, and the grace given to us in Christ Jesus before all the ages, which has now appeared through the appearance of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought into light and incorruptibility through the Gospel”.

The point is that God has a plan, and rather than worrying about when was my last gin, or when will be the next one, our task is to work out what God is inviting us to do in this gracefilled season. And then, of course, do it.

The Gospel for the second Sunday of Lent

Speaking with authority W

E are growing ever-more distrustful of words. Everywhere we hear people say: “That’s just talk!

That’s nothing but empty words!”

And empty words are all around us. Our world is full of lies, of false promises, of glittering advertising that doesn’t deliver, of words never backed up by anything.

We trust less and less in what we hear.

We’ve been lied to far too often; now we’re cautious about what we believe.

But distrust in the words we hear is only one way in which our spoken word is weak. Our words can be truthful and still have little power.

Why? Because, to use Gospel terms, we may not be speaking with much authority.

Our words may not have what they need to back them up. What’s meant by this?

The Gospels tell us that one of the things that distinguished Jesus from the other religious preachers of his time was that he spoke with authority, while they didn’t. What gives words authority? What gives them transformative power?

There are, as we know, different kinds of power. There’s a power that flows from strength and energy. We see this, for example, in the body of a gifted athlete who moves with authority.

There’s power too in charisma, in a gifted speaker or a rock star. They too speak with a certain authority and power.

But there’s still another kind of power and authority, one very different in kind from that of the athlete and the rock star.

There’s the power of a baby, the paradoxi-

cal power of vulnerability, innocence, and helplessness. Powerlessness is sometimes the real power.

If you put an athlete, a rock star, and a baby into the same room, who among them is the most powerful? Who has the most authority? Whatever the power of the athlete or the rock star, the baby has more power to change hearts.

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he Gospel texts which tell us that Jesus spoke with “authority” never suggest he spoke with “great energy” or “powerful charisma”. In describing Jesus’ authority they use the word exousia, a Greek word for which we don’t have an English equivalent.

We don’t have a term for it, but we have a concept: Exousia might be described as the combination of vulnerability, innocence, and helplessness a baby brings into a room. Its very helplessness, innocence, and vulnerability have a unique authority and power to touch your conscience.

It’s for good reason that people watch their language around a baby. Its very presence is cleansing.

But there are a couple of other elements too undergirding the authority with which Jesus spoke.

His vulnerability and innocence gave his words a special power, yes; but two other elements also made his words powerful: His words were always grounded in the integrity of his life.

As well, people recognised that his authority was not coming from him but from something (Someone) higher whom he

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Sunday Reflections

is always the story of the Transfiguration, hinting of what lies before us as we turn towards Jerusalem, where the terrible and joyful climax of the Gospel will take place.

The story is set, as in Mark’s Gospel “six days later” (a less-than-perfect number) and Jesus is very much in charge, as he takes his “inner cabinet”, of Peter, James and John, “up into a high mountain, privately”. Now mountains are of immense importance, places of instruction and calling and healing, and so we shall do well to listen. Or, rather, observe.

For what happens next is a glimpse of the truth about what Jesus is like, and will be like when our Lent is over: “He was transformed before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light.” We are clearly in the presence of the numinous here, an impression strengthened by the persons with whom Jesus is chatting: “Moses” (representing the Law) and “Elijah” (the Prophets).

Then it is time for the disciples, led by Peter, to speak; and, as ever, they get it wrong.

For he gets all excited and exclaims: “Lord, it is beautiful for us to be here. If you like, I’m going to make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” So at

least he knows who is present; but building a campsite is not what the scene is really about.

Now, therefore, God takes a hand, in the form of “Look! A bright cloud!”, which overshadows them. Then the cloud talks: “Look! A voice from the cloud.” And it says something important: “This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”

The disciples are not able to cope with the divine speech, but “fell on their faces, and feared a great fear”. God is not out to get us, after all, as Jesus demonstrates: “He approached and touched them and said, ‘Up you get—and don’t be afraid.’”

Then they get in touch with reality: “They lifted up their eyes and saw nobody, except for Jesus himself, alone.”

That does not, however, give them blanket permission to spread the word: “As they went down from the mountain, they saw no one except Jesus himself, alone.”

Neither they nor we, though, can be in any doubt that God has been speaking to us here.

And what is God saying to you this week?

Southern Crossword #904

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI

Final Reflection

was serving. There was no discrepancy between his words and his life.

Moreover, his words were powerful because they weren’t just coming from him, they were coming through him from Someone above him, Someone whose authority couldn’t be challenged—God. You see this kind of authority; for example, in persons like Mother Teresa and Jean Vanier. Their words had a special authority.

Mother Teresa could meet someone for the first time and ask him or her to come to India and work with her. Jean Vanier could do the same.

A friend of mine shares how on meeting Vanier for the first time, in their very first conversation, Vanier invited him to become a missionary priest. That thought had never before crossed his mind. Today he’s a missionary.

What gives some people that special power? Exousia, a selfless life, and a grounding in an authority that comes from above.

What you see in persons like Mother Teresa and Vanier is the powerlessness of a baby, combined with a selfless life, grounded in an authority beyond them.

When such persons speak, like Jesus’, their words have real power to calm hearts, heal them, change them and, metaphorically and really, cast out demons from them.

But we don’t always have to look to spiritual giants like Mother Teresa and Vanier to see this. Most of us have not been so personally influenced by Mother Teresa or Vanier, but have been spoken to with authority by people around us.

In my case, it was my father and mother who spoke to me with that kind of authority. As well some of the Ursuline nuns who taught me in school, and some of my uncles and aunts who had the power to ask sacrifices of me because they spoke with exousia and with an integrity and a faith that I could not question or deny.

They asked me to consider becoming a priest and I became one.

What moves the world is often the powerful energy and charisma of the highly talented; but the heart is moved by a different kind of authority.

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ACROSS

1. Handel motet features fire of this saint (4) 3. Liturgical evening prayer (8) 9. Close to your ears there are places of worship (7) 10. Snow leopard of little weight (5) 11. Sailing vessels providing liturgical fragrances? (7,5) 13. Potion of longevity (6) 15. Art room (6) 17. New job Jesus promised for Peter and Andrew (Mt 4) (7,2,3) 20. Jesus gave it not as the world does (Jn 14) (5) 21. Bishop of Montgomery is from an American state (7) 22. I restate it’s a piece of writing (8) 23. Mixed nuts to daze you (4) Solutions on page 11

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1. Ten I lead are involved (8) 2. Take off operatic soprano and a hundred more (5) 4. Seafood on wrong storey (6) 5. Orion R Laptop provides you some share of the whole (12) 6. Got the Easter candle burning (7) 7. King Wenceslas found the snow like this (4) 8. A word of flattery about NT and blemish (12) 12. Water where King Wenceslas found the peasant (8) 14. Another word for 2 down (7) 16. They have pipes in the church (6) 18. Intended (5) 19. Petty quarrel (4)

CHURCH CHUCKLE

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HE priest was dejected before Sunday Mass and complained to the congregation: “Our town is in trouble. We’ve lost our faith. Nobody is listening to me anymore. Few people are coming to Mass these days. Even our organist didn’t turn up this morning.”

A voice came from the congregation: “So, who’s playing today?”

Another voice echoed through the church: “The Stormers against the Bulls!”

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