202212

T h e The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa

Put Christ into

Dear Reader,

Time marches on relentlessly!

It ’s hard to believe that this is already the third Christmas edition of The Southern Cross as a magazine That, of course, follows 99 years of Christmas editions as a newspa per and this month we are reviewing one of them in our popular “From the Vaults” column. As ever y year, in this issue we are showcasing Christmas greetings from Catholic bodies and busi nesses from across South Africa. What a wonderful example this is of the Catholic Church as a community in our region! I t i s i m p o r ta nt t h at at t h i s t i m e o f t h e ye a r e s p e c i a l l y, C at h o l i c s s h o u l d ge t T h e S o u t h e r n C r o s s a n d o t h e r C at h o l i c m e d i a i nto t h e i r h a n d s M o re t h a n at a ny o t h e r t i m e , i n D e c e m b e r we a re d i st ra c te d f ro m w h at m atte rs i n o u r fa i t h i n p a r t i c u l a r t h e co m i n g o f t h e L o rd b y t h e a g g re s i ve co m m e rc i a l i s m a n d s e c c e l e b rat i o n s s u r ro u n d i n g C h r i st m a s . We h o p e t h at a m i d a l l t h e s e c u l a r h u st l e a n d b u st l e o f D e c e m b e r, t h i s p re s e nt i s s u e w i l l h e l p u s to p u t C h r i st i nto C h r i st m a s , at l e a st i n o u r l i ve s , a n d to ke e p o u r fo c u s o n A d ve nt a n d t h e fe a st o f t h e N at i v i t y.

Of course, the idea of putting Christ back into Christmas presumes that there was a time in some recent past when he still was inside Christmas The slogan itself goes back to at least the 1940s. The advance of secularisation in our globalised world has marginalised the Christian basis of the festival further, but the rampant commercialism was part of the season as far back as the 1880s, at least in Britain and the US Before that, the feast was not much holier In fact, when the Puritans banned Christmas in Britain and some US colonies in the 17th centur y, it was prompted in large part by the lack of piety in the people’s celebrations and, of course, by a hefty dose of anti Catholicism

The sentiment of putting Christ back into Christmas, because he is “the reason for the season” , is commendable

It is indeed important to sound the reminder that Christmas is about the Incarnation, not about Santa Claus and the accumulation of posses sions And that needs to start with us: Are we putting Christ into Christmas in our own lives?

Putting Christ into Christmas must firstly be a personal challenge, before we get caught up in heated debates about suitable wordings of Christmas greetings or participate in the polemics about the supposed “ War on Christmas” . When Christmas is a cause ghteous or ideological nger, then we signally fail to put Christ into Christmas. If there is a “ War on Christmas” , then it resides not in awkward greetings, alternative designations, or the absence of Nativity scenes n shopping malls We, ever, can locate the war on Christmas in the spending mania that is accompanied by a general indiffer ence, or even hostility, towards people on the peripheries, especially the poor

The real war on Christmas is found in the hypocrisy of people who piously sing carols about there being no room at the inn while shouting about keeping migrants out; people who sing about silent and holy nights while at the same time helping by action or inaction to fan the flames of intolerance, division and war elsewhere

Christ is taken out of Christmas when we lack mercy and love.

We hope that this issue of The Southern Cross provides an antidote to the frenzy of the secular Christmas season. All of us at your monthly Catholic magazine wish you a blessed and reflective season of Advent, a joy ful and peaceful Christmas, and a good slide into the New Year! God bless, Günther simmermacher (Editor)

Justice Under a Tree

Dennis Xulu proposes a new system of justice

Inkamana Abbey at 100 A century of the great Benedictine abbey in KZN

Chef on Food and Faith For Kabelo Segone, food and faith go hand in hand

The Christmas St Thérèse Grew Up At home with the family of St Thérèse of Lisieux

Tribute to Fr Albert Nolan OP Terence Creamer remembers the great Dominican theologian

How To Have a Meaningful Advent

great tips for expecting the coming of the Lord

Advent Is a Cure For Spiritual Crisis JD Flynn on the transformative powers of Advent

The Historical Picture of the Nativity What our images of the Nativity story get wrong

Christmas Traditions in Three Countries Christmas in Ethiopia, Jamaica and Lebanon

Christmas Around the World Last year’s Christmas caught in photos

First Christmas in Space The story of three astronauts going around the moon

The Biography of a Hymn The story behind ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’

Power

SA’s first nuncio ordained

Prior to his departure in February 1923 to become South Africa’s first apostolic delegate, Dutch Dominican Father Giordano Gijlswijk was consecrated titular archbishop of Euchaita in the Dominican church in Rome Archbishop Gijlswijk had spent 23 years in the Dominican mission on the Caribbean island of Curaçao

New church for Pofadder?

Plans are underway to build a church in the mission at Pofadder in the Northern Cape, with statues of Our Lady and the mission’s patron, St Vincent de Paul, already received However, it is difficult to have a settled congregation because most Catholics are forced to migrate in search for work, especially since it hasn’t rained in Pofadder for almost two years, since February 1921

New missionaries in Swaziland

Six Servite missionaries one priest, four Sisters and a Brother arrived by ship in Durban and travelled by car to Swaziland Fr Bonaventura will be based at Mater Dolorosa in Mbabane

In praise of Mgr Kolbe

In a letter to the editor, M O K of Johannesburg recalls hearing as a young man in 1883 sermons by Mgr Frederick Kolbe, a regular contributor to The Southern Cross and one of South Africa’s lead ing intellectuals “We Catholics in the Transvaal have one regret in regard to Mgr Kolbe, that is that he is so far away, and we so seldom have the blessing of hearing any of his beautiful sermons ” P r e v i o u s “ F r o m T h e Va u l t s ” a r t i c l e s a t w w w s c r o s s c o z a / v a u l t s

What else made news in December 1922:

• Xhosa prophetess Nontetha Nkwenkwe is detained by the South African government, supposedly to prevent another Bulhoek massacre, when police killed 163 people in May [In March 1923, Nontetha would be forcibly committed to an asylum until her death in 1935 ]

• Pope Pius XI issues his first encyclical, Ubi arcano Dei consilio, calling for world peace

• The Irish Free State Constitution Act, which creates an independent Ireland, becomes law and the last British troops depart The Irish Free State will be formally established on December 7 [The same day, the parliament of Northern Ireland demands secession from the Irish Fee State, leading to its partition ]

• Poland’s President Józef Piłsudski resigns after parliament limits presidential powers. His ally and successor, Gabriel Narutowisz is assassinated by a right winger on December 16, only two days after taking office.

• Soviet Russia is renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Soviet Union.

• The Allies War Reparations Commit tee claims that Germany has deliber ately defaulted on war repayments [This would result in the occupation of industrial regions of Germany, followed by hyperinflation, in 1923 ] L

SOME YEARS AGO AN ELDERLY NUN TELEPHONED

The Southern Cross to inquire about the proper disposal of her favourite Catholic newspaper. My predecessor, Michael Shackleton, gently advised her that she needn’t be scrupulous about it, and that she could even line her birdcage with the pages of The Southern Cross The dear Sister was quite shocked by the very idea of it What if the unthinkable should happen to a photograph of the pope?

I do not recall by what means Sister eventually agreed to dispose of The Southern Cross, but if scruples plagued her, she could in good conscience bury or burn the newspa per or, better yet, recycle it

Burying or burning religious items that are no longer wanted or damaged is the traditional and safest way of getting rid of them This depends, of course, on what they are made of For example, burning an item made of rubber or plastic is not advisable

The Church is rather vague on the issue of discarding re ligious items Canon law states that “sacred objects, which are designated for divine worship by dedication or blessing, are to be treated reverently” (1171). So the rule of thumb should be: if the item was blessed, or you aren’t sure

whether it was, best discard it with reverence If it was not blessed the cheap rosary you bought from a street vendor in Rome along with the kitschy paperweight of the Colosseum you have more flexibility in their disposal

But consider: What might be unwanted by you may be desirable to others (other than your broken statues or the Colosseum paperweight) If the items are in good condition, a fellow Catholic or your parish bazaar might find use for it

(Günther Simmermacher)

Q M y s o n a b a n d o n e d t h e f a i t h h e g r e w u p w i t h a f t e r c o n f i r m a t i o n H e h a s n ’ t l e d a b a d l i f e b u t n o w t h a t h e i s i n t e r e s t e d i n r e t u r n i n g t o t h e f a i t h , h e b e l i e v e s t h a t i t i s t o o l a t e f o r G o d t o a c c e p t h i m ? I know it’s never too late, but how can I explain that to my son?

YOU ARE RIGHT, IT IS NEVER TOO LATE GOD’S love for us is deep and everlasting The Second Letter of Peter tells us that the Lord “is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (3:9)

Think of the criminal on the cross who turned to Christ only hours before his death and was promised that, on that very day, he would be with Jesus in paradise Or think of the well known parable of the Prodigal Son God rejoices in all who return to him

Also think of St Augustine, who lived a dissolute life as a young man, fathering a child out of wedlock, and who, for years, followed various philosophers only to become disillusioned with their teachings

When he was in his thirties, Augustine was inspired to pick up a Bible and “chanced” upon these words from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh” (13:14). Soon after, he was baptised by St Ambrose and became one of our greatest saints.

Later, reflecting on his experience, Augustine made this keen observation: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

(Fr Kenneth Doyle)

Is it ever too late to return to God?

How was Mary conceived?

Q D o e s t h e I m m a c u l a t e C o n c e p t i o n o f M a r y m e a n t h a t S t A n n e c o n c e i v e d h e r b y t h e H o l y S p i r i t ?

TH E M O S T I M P O R T A N T T H I N G T O

k n o w a b o u t t h e I m m a c u l a t e C o n c e p t i o n i s t h a t i t r e f e r s t o M a r y h a v i n g b e e n b o r n w i t h o u t t h e s t a i n o f o r i g i n a l s i n ( w e d i s c u s s e d t h e t e a c h i n g o f o r i g i n a l s i n i n o u r A u g u s t 2 0 2 2 i s s u e ) I m m a c u l a t e m e a n s w i t h o u t s t a i n ; i n t h i s c o n t e x t , t h e m e t h o d o f c o n c e p t i o n b y S t A n n e i s o n l y o f i n c i d e n t a l i n t e r e s t

A n d , o b v i o u s l y , w e m u s t n o t c o n f u s e t h e I m m a c u l a t e C o n c e p t i o n o f M a r y w i t h M a r y ’ s c o n c e p t i o n o f J e s u s , a s m a n y p e o p l e d o S t i l l , b o t h w e r e m i r a c u l o u s c o n c e p t i o n s

A c c o r d i n g t o t r a d i t i o n , S t A n n e a n d h e r h u s b a n d J o a c h i m h a d b e e n u n a b l e t o c o n c e i v e a c h i l d , m u c h t o t h e i r s o r r o w S t A n n e w a s a t a n a g e w h e n w o m e n d o n ’ t n o r m a l l y c o n c e i v e , b u t G o d a n s w e r e d t h e i r p r a y e r s w i t h a n u n e x p e c t e d p r e g n a n c y T h a t c o n c e p t i o n i s c o n s i d e r e d m i r a c u l o u s , r e g a r d l e s s o f w h e t h e r i t i n v o l v e d t h e i n t e r v e n t i o n o f a f a t h e r

T h e p a t e r n i t y q u e s t i o n i t s e l f i s t h e s u b j e c t o f a d e b a t e w h i c h g o e s b a c k t o t h e e a r l y C h u r c h I n t h e 8 t h c e n t u r y , S t J o h n D a m a s c e n e , t h e S y r i a n D o c t o r o f

t h e C h u r c h , a r g u e d t h a t G o d ’ s s u p e r n a t u r a l i n t e r v e n t i o n a t M a r y ’ s c o n c e p t i o n w a s s o c o m p r e h e n s i v e t h a t A n n e a n d J o a c h i m w e r e f i l l e d a n d p u r i f i e d b y t h e H o l y S p i r i t , a n d t h u s f r e e d f r o m s e x u a l c o n c u p i s c e n c e

T h e 1 9 1 7 v e r s i o n o f t h e Catholic En cyclopedia t a k e s a d i f f e r e n t v i e w : “ [ M a r y ’ s ] b o d y w a s f o r m e d i n t h e w o m b o f t h e m o t h e r , a n d t h e f a t h e r h a d t h e u s u a l s h a r e i n i t s f o r m a t i o n ”

E i t h e r w a y , t h e m e c h a n i c s o f M a r y ’ s c o n c e p t i o n b y A n n e a r e n o t p a r t o f t h e

Your Q ue s t i o n s answered

C a t h o l i c d o c t r i n e o f t h e I m m a c u l a t e C o n c e p t i o n , a t e a c h i n g t h a t g o e s b a c k t o t h e 4 t h c e n t u r y b u t w a s d e c l a r e d a d o g m a o n l y i n 1 8 5 4 b y P o p e P i u s I X , i n t h e a p o s t o l i c c o n s t i t u t i o n Ineffabilis Deus

“ I n t h e f i r s t i n s t a n c e o f h e r c o n c e p t i o n , b y a s i n g u l a r p r i v i l e g e a n d g r a c e g r a n t e d b y G o d , i n v i e w o f t h e m e r i t s o f J e s u s C h r i s t , t h e S a v i o u r o f t h e h u m a n r a c e , [ M a r y ] w a s p r e s e r v e d e x e m p t f r o m a l l s t a i n o f o r i g i n a l s i n , ” Ineffabilis Deus s t a t e s

T h e s t a i n o f o r i g i n a l s i n d i d n o t n e e d t o b e r e m o v e d f r o m M a r y ’ s s o u l , a s i t i s f r o m o t h e r s b y b a p t i s m , b e c a u s e i t n e v e r w a s i n h e r s o u l r e g a r d l e s s o f t h e g e n e r a t i v e a c t i v i t y o f h e r p a r e n t s .

D o y o u h a v e q u e s t i o n s a b o u t o u r f a i t h ? S e n d t h e m t o : e d i t o r @ s c r o s s . c o . z a

POPE FRANCIS DEFINES HOLINESS as “consisting in the habitual openness to the transcendent, expressed in prayer and adora tion The saints are distinguished by a spirit of prayer and a communion with God” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 2018) To St John of the Cross, holiness is the “en deavour to remain always in the pres ence of God in whichever form, and in so far as is permitted in your works”

It is in these virtues that the lives of Domitilla and Danny Hyams can be best described. In 1967, the couple founded Little Eden, a Johannesburg based non profit entity which provides lifelong care to hundreds of children and adults with profound intellectual disabilities Today it is operating in two centres in Gauteng.

The inquiry for the cause of beatifi cation and sainthood of Domitilla and

Danny Hyams was opened by the arch diocese of Johannesburg in 2018 The Hyams, who met in Italy during World War II, could one day become the first South African couple to be declared saints. In 2019, in a first for the Catholic Church in South Africa, the couple were given the status of “Servants of God” by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome If they are eventually canonised as saints, they may be the first married couple to be declared as saints after Ss Louis and Zélie Martin The par ents of St Thérèse of Lisieux were canon ised in 2015

Cause is underway

Fr Deneys Williamson, vice postula tor of the Hyams cause, told The Southern Cross that the cause for the possible be atification and canonisation of Domit illa and Danny is well under way The

first stage was the preliminary investiga tive phase “We formed a committee, as we needed to check on a few things. Once this was done, a formal petition was made to Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg by a person known as the postulator He’s responsible for promot ing the cause,” Fr Williamson explained Archbishop Tlhagale gave his approval of the petition, and in August 2018 the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Con ference (SACBC) also offered its support for the petition.

The formal investigation into the Hyams’ lives was launched in 2021 At this point, the cause is at the local or diocesan phase “In this phase, all we are doing is to gather as much information on the couple as possible. We conduct interviews with eyewitnesses and other witnesses A historical commission is formed to gather ever y scrap of docu mentation on their lives. We don’t form an opinion or a judgment We put every thing together, and send it off to enter the Roman phase at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints They will use their experts to review all the testi mony,” Fr Williamson said.

“This information is collated into a document, which is then circulated

December 29 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Danny Hyams, co founder with his late wife Domitilla of the Little Eden homes for people with intellectual disabilities. Daluxolo Moloantoa looks at the state of the couple’s sainthood cause

among some cardinals, who take a vote If the vote is favourable, it goes to the Holy Father, and after discernment he will decide whether to pronounce the person or persons under the investiga tion as venerable ”

Miracle needed

The Hyams, who were awarded posthumous honours in both South Africa and Italy, have been described as people who lived out the virtues of pru dence, charity, faith and hope in their parish community in Johannesburg and in their work at Little Eden Society

“We would like them to become blessed and eventually saints,” Fr Williamson said. “What this requires is a miracle Only after the declaration of heroic virtue will a miracle be consid ered We are still awaiting this stage If there is an alleged miracle, an investiga tion needs to take place to ascertain the veracity of the alleged miracle If it’s favourable, then it will be taken into consideration, and the candidates for be atification could be declared blessed

“We would like people to please re port any favours or graces they may have received through the intercession of Daniel and Domitilla Hyams to us; all the information is on the website and also on the prayer cards,” Fr Williamson said

“If we see that the couple enjoy in tercessory power in heaven and favours are being granted through their interces sion, this is obviously a sign that we should proceed with the investigation So I encourage people to make use of the prayer cards and to ask for favours ”

Raising awareness

Elvira Rohrbeck, a granddaughter of the couple, is currently involved in a project to create awareness and publicity for the cause “While at an archdiocesan Meeting of Families in June, I realised that there were people who knew about the cause for Domitilla and Danny, and there were people who knew about Little Eden Society However, there seemed to be a missing link where the cause and Little Eden are connected. After discus

sions with both Luigi Slaviero, a son in law of Domitilla and Danny, and Fr Phuti Makgabo, who runs the commu nications for the cause, it was estab lished that parish visits were much needed to promote the cause,” Elvira said

This endeavour started at St Joseph’s church in Primrose, which received Elvira warmly, as did parishes she subse quently visited In her presentations, she speaks about the cause and the Little Eden Society

Domitilla Rota Hyams was born on May 7, 1918, in Albenza, near Bergamo in northern Italy. She met Daniel Hyams while he was a fugitive prisoner of war in her home region during World War II He was born on June 1, 1921, in Jeppestown, Johannesburg. They mar ried in Italy on September 8, 1947, before moving to Johannesburg, where they became members of St Thérèse parish in Edenvale. They had six chil dren, all born between 1949 57

Domitilla died on January 18, 2011, at the age of 92; Danny, who had worked as a chartered accountant, died on December 28, 2012, at the age of 91. For more on the Hyams’ cause see www hyamscause org za For Daluxolo Moloantoa’s four part Southern Cross series on their lives, go to www bit ly/3UMLJHo

Justice under the tree

A KwaZulu-Natal priest has written a book that offers an alternative to our society ’s ways of justice and dispute resolution. Dawn haynes explains.

THE CONVENTIONAL WESTERN

m e t h o d o f a d m i n i s t e r i n g j u s t i c e i s n o t e n t i r e l y s u i t e d t o t h e A f r i c a n o r e v e n C h r i s t i a n w a y o f d o i n g t h i n g s , a r g u e s F r B o n g i n k o s i D e n n i s X u l u i n h i s b o o k J u s t i c e U n d e r t h e Tr e e K n o w n t o m o s t p e o p l e s i m p l y a s F r D e n n i s , t h e a u t h o r o f t h i s b o o k s p e n d s h i s t i m e c o m m u t i n g b e t w e e n D u r b a n a n d R i c h a r d ’s B a y i n E s h o w e d i o c e s e , s i n c e h e i s t h e j u d i c i a l v i c a r o f t h e i n t e r d i o c e s a n t r i b u n a l i n D u r b a n a n d a l s o m i n i s t e r s t o t h e c o m m u n i t y o f S t M a r t i n d e P o r r e s p a r i s h i n E s i k h a l e n i , R i c h a r d ’s B a y

W h i l e r e s e a rc h i n g h i s d o c t o r a l t h e s i s a t t h e C a t h o l i c U n i v e r s i t y o f L e u v e n i n B e l g i u m , F r X u l u b e c a m e p a r t i c u l a r l y

i n t e r e s t e d i n t h e r e s o l u t i o n o f j u d i c i a l c o n f l i c t s i n a s y s t e m c o m p o s e d o f t h e C a t h o l i c C h u rc h a n d i t s c l e r g y, t h e l a w s o f t h e c o u n t r y, a n d t h e w i s d o m o f t h e t r a d i t i o n a l e l d e r s i n A f r i c a . I n t h i s v i s i o n , e v e r y b o d y h a s a r i g h t t o s p e a k H e r e f e r s t o t h i s a s a “ p a l a v e r ” a n a r b i t r a t i o n p r o c e s s c o m b i n i n g t h e r i c h C h u rc h h i s t o r y o f c a n o n i c a l m e d i a t i o n w i t h a n e u t r a l p a r t y f r o m t h e e x t e n d e d f a m i l y / c l a n / c u l t u r e o f t h o s e i n v o l v e d

F o c u s o n h u m a n d i g n i t y

This system was evident in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where the focus was on human dignity, equality and dialogue, transcending cul ture, race, nationality and circumstance P r o f e s s o r E m e r i t u s We r n e r M a n s k i o f t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f L o n d o n w a s

i n v o l v e d i n t h e e a r l y s t a g e s o f t h e b o o k I t i s b a s e d o n F r X u l u ’s d o c t o r a l t h e s i s a t L e u v e n w h i c h P r o f M a n s k i h a d h e l p e d s h a p e

“ P r e s e n t l y t h e r e a r e s o m e h o p e f u l g l o b a l i n i t i a t i v e s t o r e k i n d l e a n e w f o r m o f a c a d e m i c d i s c o u r s e t h r o u g h t h e o r i s i n g , a n d u s e t h e m f o r t h e b e t t e r m e n t o f p e o p l e ’s l i v e s i n t h e p r e s e n t a n d i n t h e f u t u r e D o i n g s o , t h i s t a s k i s n e v e r n e u t r a l , a s i t i s a p o l i t i c a l l y c h a r g e d a c t i v i t y, ” P r o f M a n s k i n o t e d

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h i s b r i e f t h e o r e t i c a l d e l i b e r a t i o n s a s s i d u o u s l y w i t h p r a c t i c a l q u e s t i o n s , w h i c h a r e u l t i m a t e l y h i s m a i n c o n c e r n a s a n a l e r t m e m b e r a n d s e r v a n t o f t h e C a t h o l i c C h u rc h i n S o u t h A f r i c a , ” P r o f M a n s k i s a i d

A l t h o u g h i t s o r i g i n s a r e i n t h e a c a d e m i c s p h e r e , F r X u l u ’s b o o k i s a i m e d a t a n y o n e w h o i s i n t e r e s t e d i n a p p l y i n g a m o r e a c c e s s i b l e j u d i c i a l s y s t e m i n o u r c o u n t r y T h i s b o o k i s a l s o a u s e f u l r e f e r e n c e i n t h i s t i m e o f t h e C a t h o l i c C h u rc h ’s s y n o d a l p r o c e s s , i n w h i c h P o p e F r a n c i s e n c o u r a g e s d i a l o g u e a n d i n v o l v e m e n t o f t h e w h o l e c o m m u n i t y t o g e t h e r w i t h t h e c l e r g y

F r X u l u s u g g e s t s a s y s t e m w h e r e p e o p l e w i l l n o t l i v e i n f e a r o f r e t r i b u t i o n b u t w i l l r a t h e r b e i n a p o s i t i o n t o f a c e t h e i n j u s t i c e s o f t h e i r s o c i e t y a n d d e a l w i t h t h e s e o p e n l y a n d h o n e s t l y.

D u r b a n b a s e d A d v o c a t e We n d y G r e e f , a f o r m e r s t a t e p r o s e c u t o r, s u p p o r t s t h i s S h e n o t e s t h a t i n d e l v i n g “ i n d e p t h i n t o t h e q u e s t i o n o f h o w d i s p u t e r e s o l u t i o n m a y b e u s e d a s a t o o l i n t h e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f j u s t i c e , b o t h w i t h i n t h e C h u rc h a n d i n s o c i e t y,

[ F r X u l u ] m a k e s a c o m p e l l i n g c a s e f o r r e c o n c i l i a t i o n b e i n g u s e d a s a t o o l t o r e s o l v e p r o b l e m s a t a l l l e v e l s ”

S i m i l a r s y s t e m s h a v e b e e n h i g h l y s u c c e s s f u l i n o t h e r c o u n t r i e s a n d w e c a n c e r t a i n l y l e a r n f r o m t h o s e w h o h a v e a p p l i e d t h i s s y s t e m o f j u s t i c e

J u s t i c e i n h a r m o n y

B o r n i n E s h o w e , F r X u l u g r e w u p i n a l o c a l c o m m u n i t y w h e r e t h e p e o p l e , t h e e n v i r o n m e n t , n a t u r e , t r e e s a n d

a n i m a l s w e r e a l l i m p o r t a n t p a r t i c i p a n t s n t h e d a i l y l i f e o f t h e a r e a C a r d i n a l Wi l f r i d N a p i e r, r e t i r e d a rc h b i s h o p o f D u r b a n a n d c u r r e n t a d m i n i s t r a t o r o f t h e d i o c e s e o f E s h o w e , n o t e s t h a t b a c k g r o u n d w h e n h e s a y s : “ J u s t i c e U n d e r t h e Tr e e d e f i n e s t h e A f r i c a n a p p r o a c h t o j u s t i c e u n d e r t h e g u i d a n c e o f t h e a n c e s t o r s . B e c a u s e t i s i n h a r m o n y w i t h t h e s u n , t r e e s , v a l l e y s , m o u n t a i n s , g r a s s , r i v e r s , b i r d s a n d o t h e r k i n d s o f w i l d l i f e , t h i s e n s u r e s t h a t j u s t i c e i s p a r t o f t h e u n i v e r s e .

“This warm and welcoming approach stands in stark contrast to the cold formality of courts and tribunals of the West. It seeks to touch the person holistically, not mentally only In this way, an offence is not merely against human beings or neighbours but it [also] touches the whole of life,” he said.

“ T h i s m e a n s t h a t t h e o f f e n c e s o f h u m a n s d i s t u r b n o t o n l y o t h e r h u m a n b e i n g s b u t t h e w h o l e o f c r e a t i o n ” J u s t i c e U n d e r t h e Tre e i s a v a i l a b l e f r o m s u n r i s e p u b d h @ g m a i l . c o m a t R 1 5 0 . F r X u l u c a n b e c o n t a c t e d a t b d x u l u @ y m a i l c o m

0 0 y e a r s

I n k a m a n a

THIS YEAR THE BENEDICTINE

Inkamana Abbey in northern KwaZulu Natal clocked 100 years of its existence On Au gust 3, 1922, the first missionary Bene dictines around Eshowe’s future Bishop Thomas Spreiter (1865 1944) celebrated the first Mass at Inkamana, located 6km northwest of Vr yheid, a coal mining and cattle ranching town

A century after starting from mod est beginnings, the Missionar y Bene dictines of St Ottilien remain bearers of light, unity and ser vice to the society. The monks are engaged in pastoral work, teaching, youth skills develop ment through internships in agriculture and hospitality, social projects for chil dren and the needy, giving retreats, guiding pilgrims, counselling, manag ing a guesthouse, farming and garden ing, and running and maintaining a number of workshops I n k a m a n a H i g h S c h o o l h a s b e c o m e o n e o f t h e l e a d i n g s c h o o l s i n t h e countr y, offering Catholic, holistic and a c a d e m i c e d u c a t i o n t o f u t u r e l e a d e r s o f S o u t h A f r i c a I n m a t r i c r e s u l t s r a n k i n g s , i t r e g u l a r l y f i n i s h e s i n t h e c o u n t r y ’s To p 5 , s o m e t i m e s t o p p i n g t h e n a t i o n a l t a b l e .

The school will celebrate its own 100th birthday soon It opened on Feb ruar y 2, 1923, as an intermediate school with only a Grade 5 class of 15 pupils, four boys and eleven girls, all boarders at Inkamana They paid sixpence a month for school fees and brought farm and garden produce to pay for their boarding.

Ever since it became a high school in 1932, the matric failure rate has always been low The school has recorded a 100% matric pass rate since 1969. At present the student enrolment is 200 with one class for each grade

A cursed beginning

A cursed beginning

The beginning of Inkamana could be described as a blessing from a curse In 1921, after Germany’s colonies in Africa were seized by the victorious World War I powers, almost a hundred Benedictines of St Ottilien and Sisters of Tutzing were expelled from Tanzania, as were all other Germans living there Among them was Thomas Spreiter, the bishop of Dar es Salaam since 1906 The following year, a small group of Bene dictines under the leadership of Bishop Spreiter came to South Africa, almost like refugees They were given initial shelter by the Mariannhill Missionaries

Having made an explorator y tour through Zululand, they decided to erect the first mission station on the farm Mooi Plaas (Beautiful Farm), near Vr y heid. Bishop Spreiter, now the prefect of Zululand, renamed the place Inkamana, which means Sacred Heart. The first Mass was celebrated in the farm cottage

Between 1922 and 1967, a total of 57 Fathers and 61 Brothers of the Ot tilien congregation were sent out to the Zululand mission, and 20 main stations were opened. During the same period, the Missionar y Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing provided 97 Sisters for the vari ous missionar y tasks in Zululand, in cluding healthcare and education

Among these Sisters was the midwife Sr Reinolda May, whose visions of Our Lady in the 1950s gave rise to the Ngome shrine

The process of Inkamana as an in dependent monastery began rather cau tiously It became a simple prior y in 1961, a conventual priory in 1968, and finally an abbey on February, 25, 1982, with Fr Gernot Wottawah (1940 2007) as its first abbot This obviously helped to attract vocations ironically after many years when the Benedictines did not encourage local vocations so it became necessar y to extend the monastery. Today, Inkamana Abbey can accommodate more than 100 monks

To enhance pastoral needs, Bishop Spreiter founded the Benedictine Sisters of Twasana for local vocations. The first attempts at getting young men inter ested in monastic life were made in 1954 when the Benedictines opened a formation house at one of the mission stations But this failed and soon had to close. Subsequent efforts were also unsuccessful

The way Inkamana monks prayed, worked, spent their recre ation and cooked their meals was strongly influenced by German customs. Candidates faced consid erable problems in adjusting to this and some monks were not welcoming (remember, it was the apartheid era) It became obvious that Inkamana could get local vo cations only if the German monks

C l o c k w i s e f r o m t o p l e f t : B i s h o p S p r e i t e r ( f r o n t c e n t r e ) w i t h p i o n e e r m o n k s , i n c l u d i n g t h e i n n o v a t i v e F r T h e o d u s S c h a l l ( f r o n t l e f t ) • B r s G a u d e n t i u s B r u c h a n d W i l l i g u s w i t h h e l p e r s a s t h e y q u a r r y s t o n e f o r t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f I n k a m a n a A b b e y • T h e m i s s i o n a r y m o n k s u s e d m o t o r b i k e s r a t h e r t h a n h o r s e s t o r e a c h t h e p e o p l e • S r R e i n o l d a M a y , t h e v i s i o n a r y o f N g o m e • T h e B e n e d i c t i n e S i s t e r s o f T u t z i n g o n t h e m o v e i n a r o u n d 1 9 2 5

made greater efforts to adapt and inte grate elements of local culture and tra dition into the formation programme

How challenging it was to train the candidates in the monastic way of life is shown by the fact that only a small per centage of those who entered the monaster y persevered and made it to final profession Of the 241 young men who were accepted as candidates at Inkamana between 1965 and 2022, only 30 made it to final profession.

Biyase (1933 2005), a diocesan priest from Mariannhill, as bishop of Eshowe Now that a local bishop was in charge of the diocese, the Benedictine mission aries emphasised anew the monastic role of Inkamana Bishop Biyase’s term was accompanied as of 1978 by that of Fr Wottawah as first prior and then abbot of Inkamana In 2004, Abbot Ger not retired and the abbey’s community elected Fr Godfrey Sieber as the second abbot of Inkamana

into Zulu. The monks also promoted genuine Zulu art and architecture by sponsoring local artists, sculptors and painters, and a studio was set up at Inka mana

Apart from building many churches and Inkamana High School in Eshowe diocese, the Benedictines have con tributed much to the development of the countr y The Nongoma Hospital, now under government control, was built and long managed by Bene dictines

Benedictine bishops

Benedictine bishops

B i s h o p S p r e i t e r r e t i r e d a s t h e f i r s t vicar apostolic of Eshowe in 1943 After a s t i n t b y t h e f a r s i g h t e d F r T h e o d o s Schall OSB as the vicariate’s administra t o r, F r A u r e l i a n B i l g e r i O S B w a s a p pointed Eshowe’s new bishop in 1947 The new bishop left no doubt that pas t o r a l c o n c e r n s m u s t t a k e p r e c e d e n c e over monastic considerations He trans ferred his residence from Inkamana to E s h o w e , a m o v e t h a t w e a k e n e d I n k a m a n a a s t h e c e n t r e o f c o n t r o l i n t h e diocese.

Being the head of the vicariate and the monastic superior at the same time enabled Bishop Bilgeri to implement his mission concept as he saw fit. But he could not do so with the Sisters of Tutz ing His attempt to found a diocesan congregation which he could control failed, so he invited other congregations of Sisters to Eshowe Four answered his call: Franciscan Sisters of Oberzell (also known as the Sisters of Siessen) in 1952, Benedictine Sisters of St Alban in 1954, Dominican Sisters of Oakford in 1955, and finally Franciscan Sisters of Mallers dorf (or Nardini Sisters), who would open a school in Vryheid, in 1956

Bishop Bilgeri died in 1973; in 1975 Rome appointed Fr Emmanuel Mansuet

Abbot Godfrey’s main focus was to rejuvenate the monastic life in the abbey With this mentality, he handed many parishes and even the Ngome shrine to the diocese When Abbot God frey retired in 2015, he was succeeded by the abbey’s first local abbot, Fr John Paul Mwaniki. He resigned in November 2021, and Fr Boniface Kamushishi was elected prior administrator of Inka mana. At present, only two Benedictine priests are still doing pastoral work in the diocese of Eshowe; all the others stay at the abbey or assist in other houses of the congregation

In 1992 a monk of Inkamana, Fr Gérard Lagleder, opened one of the largest hospices in South Africa in Man deni. The Blessed Gérard Care Centre is a non profit organisation and falls under the Order of Malta The centre also runs a creche which looks after or phans and vulnerable children

More recently, the abbey has started the old tradition of lay Benedictines, which is known as oblate formation There are also hopes of founding new houses in other countries, so as to em brace the missionar y mandate of the Benedictines of St Ottilien

Fruits of Inkamana

Fruits of Inkamana

Right from the beginning, the Bene dictines of Inkamana were involved in translating the liturgy and church music

A centur y on, the future of Inka mana looks bright and it is truly becom ing a centre of Benedictine monastic life in Southern Africa.

BEFORE THEY EAT A MEAL, MOST Catholics pray: “Bless us, O Lord, and these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty Through Christ, Our Lord Amen ” For Kabelo Segone, this prayer holds great significance in both his personal life and in his professional career as a chef.

Kabelo is a seasoned professional chef who has achieved great milestones in his career one he didn’t dream of when he was growing up near Rustenburg Born the second of two sons to parents who were both catechists in Chaneng village near Rustenburg, Kabelo and brother Tumiso spent their earliest years under the watchful eye of their grandmother. But while still in primar y school, Kabelo went to live with his parents in Swart

klip, a small mining town in Limpopo.

“With my parents both being ver y active church members, we were taught that prayer is the first thing to start our day with Bible sharing was done once a week The holy rosar y was our daily bread. Come rain or shine, we would not miss reciting it,” Kabelo told The Southern Cross

Growing up with this type of focus on prayer led him to become an altar ser ver at his parish, ser ving under Redemptorist Father Anthony Hunt. During his spare time, he would join the other children at the church to watch films about the Church and the saints He was confirmed by Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg

For his high schooling, Kabelo moved to Krugersdorp and attended Town View High School “During this

time, I began working on weekends and school holidays as a kitchen hand and waiter at various restaurants in Krugers dorp It was during this time that I discovered my passion for food and the hospitality industr y in general,” he said

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d i p l o m a i n H o s p i t a l i t y S t u d i e s i n H o t e l M a n a g e m e n t a t B i r n a m B u s i n e s s C o l l e g e U p o n t h e c o m p l e t i o n o f h i s d i p l o m a i n 2 0 0 3 , K a b e l o b e g a n a n a p p r e n t i c e s h i p a s a s o u s c h e f a t D a m a r k , a c a t e r i n g c o m p a n y i n J o h a n n e s b u r g A f t e r a t h r e e y e a r a p p r e n t i c e s h i p h e w a s e m p l o y e d b y t h e H o s p i t a l i t y Tr a i n e r s a n d A s s o c i a t e s ( H TA ) a s a l e c t u r e r t o t e a c h t h e v e r y s a m e a p p r e n t i c e s h i p h e h a d u n d e r g o n e

K a b e l o h a s w o r k e d w i t h s o m e o f t h e m o s t r e n o w n e d c h e f s i n S o u t h A f r i c a , i n c l u d i n g S t e p h e n B i l l i n g h a m , B r u c e B u r n s , J a m e s K h o z a a n d H e i n z B r u n n e r. S o m e o f t h e f l a g s h i p e v e n t s h e ’s b e e n a p a r t o f i n c l u d e t h e D S t v D e l i c i o u s F e s t i v a l a t K y a l a m i r a c e c o u r s e i n M i d r a n d i n 2 0 1 7 a n d 2 0 1 8 , a n d t h e Vo d a c o m Wa l k t h e Ta l k e v e n t i n J o h a n n e s b u r g i n 2 0 1 6

H e h a s b e e n f e a t u r e d o n a n u m b e r o f t e l e v i s i o n c o o k i n g p r o g r a m m e s o n S A B C c h a n n e l s a s w e l l a s t h e D S t v H o m e C h o i c e c h a n n e l H e h a s a l s o a p p e a r e d i n a n u m b e r o f l i f e s t y l e

m a g a z i n e s a n d w e b s i t e s s h o w i n g n e w r e c i p e s a n d m e n u s , a n d d e m o n s t r a t i n g h i s c u l i n a r y t a l e n t . H i s e p i c u r e a n e x p l o i t s h a v e t a k e n h i m b e y o n d o u r s h o r e s I n 2 0 1 3 h e r e p r e s e n t e d S o u t h A f r i c a a t t h e S e y c h e l l e s F r e t A f r i c a F o o d F e s t i v a l

Today, Kabelo is a managing direc tor of the HTA training and develop ment division

I n f u s e d w i t h f a i t h F o r K a b e l o , i t h a s n o t a l w a y s b e e n a b o u t b u i l d i n g a c a r e e r “ I s e r v e a s a v o l u n t e e r a t M e a l s o n W h e e l s , a n o n p r o f i t o r g a n i s a t i o n I g i v e c o o k i n g l e s s o n s a n d a l s o h e l p i n t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n o f m e a l s t o t h e n e e d y, ” h e s a i d .

I n 2 0 1 9 , w h i l e h e w a s a p a r i s h i o n e r

o f t h e H o l y S p i r i t c h u rc h i n S a n d f o n t e i n i n R u s t e n b u r g d i o c e s e , h e a t t e n d e d a s i x m o n t h m a r r i a g e p r e p a r a t i o n c o u r s e t o m a r r y h i s w i f e D i n e o i n t h e s a m e y e a r H e i s n o w a p a r i s h i o n e r o f t h e c h u rc h o f t h e R e s u r r e c t i o n i n B r y a n s t o n , J o h a n n e s b u r g .

K a b e l o ’s f a i t h h a s p l a y e d a n i m p o r t a n t p a r t i n h i s g r o w t h a s a p e r s o n a n d i n h i s c a r e e r. “ M y C a t h o l i c f a i t h h a s t a u g h t m e h o w t o b e c o m p a s s i o n a t e t o w a r d s o t h e r s ; i t h a s t a u g h t m e t h e s p i r i t o f g i v i n g w i t h o u t e x p e c t i n g a n y t h i n g i n r e t u r n ; i t h a s t a u g h t m e t o b e h e l p f u l I h a v e v e r y m u c h i n f u s e d t h i s i n t o m y p r o f e s s i o n a l l i f e a s w e l l , ” h e s a i d

H e a d v i s e s y o u n g p e o p l e w h o a r e h o p i n g t o f o l l o w a c a r e e r i n t h e h o s p i t a l i t y i n d u s t r y t o d o a n y t h i n g a n d e v e r y t h i n g w i t h h o s p i t a l i t y a t t a c h e d t o i t “ R e a d f o o d r e l a t e d m a g a z i n e s , w a t c h c o o k i n g s h o w s , p r a c t i s e c o o k i n g w h i l e a t h o m e . A b o v e a l l , a l w a y s w o r k h a r d , s t a y h u m b l e a n d n e v e r f o r g e t h o w t o p r a y ”

K a b e l o a n d h i s w i f e D i n e o a t t h e i r w e d d i n g i n 2 0 1 9 .

SCENES FROM ST THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX’S BELOVED spiritual autobiography Story of a Soul come alive when walking through the rooms of her childhood home in northern France. And it was on Christmas Eve 1886 that the Little Flower, as the saint is often known, experienced a life changing grace

The redbrick home at 22 Chemin des Buissonnets in Lisieux, in the northwestern French region of Normandy, nur tured a household of saints under one roof In addition to Thérèse, the youngest Doctor of the Church, her father Louis Martin was canonised together with his wife Zélie in 2015, and the cause of her older sister Léonie is currently being examined by the Vatican

Les Buissonnets has been a place of pilgrimage since 1911. Visits to the house have resulted in “many conversions”, according to Sr Veronique, a Carmelite who assists visitors to St Thérèse’s childhood home. “People are very touched by the witness of the Martin family when they come into this house They realise how much love was exchanged between the father and the children,” she told the Catholic News Agency, adding: “They feel that love and that this house has a soul ”

Thérèse was born almost 150 years ago, on January 2, 1873, in Alençon She was the ninth and youngest child in the family four of her siblings, two of whom were boys, died before she was born Louis was a watchmaker by profession, and Zélie, whose dream of entering the convent was dashed by ill health, started up a lacemaking business after their wedding in 1858. That venture was so successful that Louis eventually sold his clockmaking business and joined Zélie in hers

At the time, the family lived in Alençon, about 100km south of Lisieux and 173km west of Paris The Martin family settled in the house in Lisieux after Zélie died of cancer on Au 7, when Thérèse was only four years old Louis de ve the family to Lisieux to be near Zélie’s brother , so that they might help care for the girls The nted from a relative.

ure saint would recall: “It was with pleasure that I s Buissonnets, that’s where my life was truly for her first ten years there she also felt despair, e most painful period of my existence”

death of his wife, Louis Martin “educated his girls cing God at the forefront of the family”, Sr xplained “He went to Mass ever y morning, and ughters saw their father pray, they imagined him as a saint. Truly the Martin girls realised that they had parents who were saints and followed their example ” All of Louis and Zélie’s surviving daughters would become religious Sisters

Older sister became ‘second mother’

After Zélie’s death, Thérèse chose her older sister Pauline as her “second mother”. When Thérèse was ten years old, she learned that Pauline planned to enter the local Carmelite con vent as a cloistered nun She was very distressed by that and eventually became ill Her father asked for a novena of Masses to be offered for his daughter’s healing. His prayers were soon answered In Thérèse’s bedroom, on the second floor of the house in Lisieux, one can stand on the spot where on May 13, 1883, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mar y smiled at Thérèse, who as a result experienced a miraculous healing Thérèse recounted the event in Story of a Soul: “I turned to my Heavenly Mother, begging her from the bottom of my heart to have pity on me Suddenly the statue seemed to come to life and grow beautiful, with a divine beauty that I shall never find the words to describe The expression of Our Lady’s face was

ineffably sweet, tender and compassionate, but what touched me to the very depths of my soul was her gracious smile ”

With the grace of the smile from the Blessed Virgin, Thérèse was cured The white Marian statue currently in Thérèse’s bedroom is a copy of the original, which can be found above the shrine in the Carmelite chapel in Lisieux.

Hanging on the wall in the bedroom is St Thérèse’s real hair, cut before she entered Carmel The dining room contains the original kitchen table and chairs where the Martin family would gather for their daily meals The clock on the wall is signed “Louis Martin” by Thérèse’s father, the clockmaker

A decisive Christmas grace

Sr Veronique’s favourite stor y from the life of St Thérèse took place at the fireplace where Thérèse received a “Christmas grace” of complete conversion at the age of 14 in 1886

That Christmas Eve was a turning point in the life of Thérèse. Later she would recall how on that night she overcame the pressures she had faced since the death of her mother “God worked a little miracle to make me grow up in an instant ”

L o u i s a n d h i s d a u g h t e r s L é o n i e , C é l i n e a n d T h é r è s e a t tended Midnight Mass at the cathedral in Lisieux, but for var ious reasons, their hearts were heavy Only Thérèse, not quite 1 4 a n d s t i l l i m m a t u r e , w a s e x c i t e d R e f e r r i n g t o a F r e n c h Christmas tradition, the Little Flower recalled: “I knew that w h e n w e r e a c h e d h o m e a f t e r M i d n i g h t M a s s , I ’ d f i n d m y shoes in the chimney corner, filled with presents, just as when I was a little child, which proves that my sisters still treated me as a baby ”

When they came home, Céline and Thérèse overheard their father complaining that she was too old to behave like such a little child At his words, Thérèse started to cry and Cé line advised her not to go downstairs to the dining room yet

Suddenly, Thérèse composed herself, wiped her tears, and ran down the stairs “Though my heart beat fast, I picked up my shoes, and gaily pulled out all the things, looking as happy as a queen.” After nine sad years she had recovered the “strength of soul” she had lost when her mother died, and would “retain it forever”

I t w a s a b a n a l v i c t o r y o v e r h e r o w n s e n s i t i v i t i e s , b u t a huge victor y for Thérèse’s self awareness She pinpointed this moment as the time that she “regained, once and for all, the strength of mind” which she had lost at the age of four.

Less than two years later, Thérèse left the childhood home where she had spent 11 years of her life and entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux, where she remained until her death from tuberculosis at 24 years of age on September 30, 1897 Louis died three years earlier, on July 29, 1894 Her sur viving sisters lived to old age: Louise died at 79 in 1940, Pauline at 89 in 1951, Léonie at 78 in 1941, and Céline at 89 in 1959. St Thérèse will be the cover star in our January issue, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of her birth.

A n u n d a t e d v i n t a g e p o s t c a r d o f t h e f r o n t o f t h e h o u s e i n w h i c h t h e M a r t i n f a m i l y l i v e d i n L i s i e u x a f t e r Z é l i e ’ s d e a t h T h e m a i n p i c t u r e o n t h e f a c i n g p a g e s h o w s t h e b a c k o f t h e h o u s e , w h i c h t o d a y i s a m u s e u m , w i t h a s t a t u e o f S t L o u i s a n d S t T h é r è s e

Photos: www therese de lisieux catholique fr

IF Y O U ’ R E L I K E M E , T H E B E A U T Y

a n d d e e p m e a n i n g o f A d v e n t c a n g e t a w a y f r o m y o u v e r y f a s t O n e m i n u t e y o u ’ r e l i g h t i n g t h a t f i r s t p u r p l e c a n d l e a n d s i n g i n g “ O C o m e , O C o m e E m m a n u e l ” , a n d t h e n w h o o s h ! i t ’s J a n u a r y.

T h e u s u a l A d v e n t w r e a t h s a n d m i n i c h o c o l a t e c a l e n d a r s a r e t r i e d a n d t r u e p r a c t i c e s ( b e c a u s e , h e y, w h o d o e s n ’t l i k e c h o c o l a t e ? ) a n d t h e y c a n c e r t a i n l y h e l p u s f o c u s o u r t h o u g h t s o n t h e c o m i n g o f t h e i n f a n t k i n g . B u t p e r h a p s g o i n g b e y o n d t h e e x p e c t e d t r a d i t i o n s c o u l d m a k e u s p a u s e f o r a b i t m o r e m i n d f u l n e s s t h i s s e a s o n

H e r e a r e t e n u n i q u e t r a d i t i o n s t o b r i n g m o r e m i n d f u l n e s s a n d j o y t o t h i s t i m e o f y e a r

1. Find an unconventional Advent calendar

Do you want to break away from the usual cardboard and chocolate affair?

With a little creativity, you can easily put your own spin on an Advent countdown.

If your preteens love Legos, for example, you might indulge in a Lego Advent calendar Or, for the truly patient, try an Advent jigsaw Every day adds one new piece of the puzzle

Whatever you choose, a personal touch will help keep your kids (and you!) engaged in the sense of anticipa tion that Advent brings.

2. Try a reverse Advent “calendar”

We just covered out of the box Advent calendars, but for this one, you’ll need to think inside the box In a so called reverse Advent calendar, you’ll start with an empty box Each day leading up to Christmas Eve, place an item inside for donation This could include non perishable food items, used clothing in good condition, or kids’ toys. On Christmas Eve, give the collection to your parish SVP, local charity or a family in need

You can even let friends and neighbours know about your project they can join the giving Not sure what items to pick? Call your local charity and ask what they need most.

3. Keep an Advent jar

Here’s another giving back tradition: the Advent jar Keep a change jar somewhere in your house throughout Advent. Any time you have some extra coins, drop them in Then give the haul to a cause you care about Even kids who aren’t old enough to get pocket money can pitch in by decorating the jar with festive stickers

4. Make Sunday a true Sabbath

There’s no better time than the hustle and bustle of December to make Sun

day a real day of rest. Though it could seem like a tradition of doing nothing, creating a sanctuary of non activity each Sunday can bring much needed refreshment during the busiest time of the year

Doing so is one of the greatest steps I’ve ever taken for my spiritual health It sends me forward, readier to take on the challenges each new week inevitably brings plus it helps me reflect on the week that has passed.

5. Learn something new about Advent each week

Like anything we’ve done year after year, we can easily go through the mo tions of many Advent traditions with out really knowing much about them Ever wonder what the “Gaudete” in Gaudete Sunday actually means? Or where the Advent wreath comes from? (Well, for the latter, just turn the page )

Identify some questions you have about the season and commit to dis covering one answer each week You’re guaranteed to enrich your understand ing of this special time of year (and have something interesting to share at Christmas parties)

6. Make an Advent playlist

If you judged by the songs on the radio, you might think the Advent season is all about jingling bells, reindeer on rooftops, and being good for the man in the red suit There’s nothing wrong with these types of songs, but as Christians we know there’s much more to Christmas

To orient your thoughts toward the true meaning of Christmas, try putting together a list of songs that focuses on spiritual truths or the Nativity story. Then, play it regularly!

Personally, even hearing in passing about “glory to the newborn king” or “heavenly hosts sing alleluia” can make me pause and consider the real wonder and beauty of this season.

If you use Spotify, try the playlist of songs which Günther Simmer macher has played on his Rhythm & Truths Christmas Special shows on Radio Veritas. Go to: https://spoti.fi/3T0Gvau

7. Craft a paper chain

7. Craft a paper chain

If you have young kids at home, a colourful paper chain can be a fun visual countdown to Christmas Simply staple together paper loops of red, white and green (or purple and pink, for Advent) and hang the chain somewhere accessible

Let everyone in the family take turns snipping off one link each day Even for adults, this simple craft is a helpful illustration of the coming of Christmas (And a helpful reminder of just how many days you have left to finish shopping!)

8. Try “Advent Angels” instead of Secret Santa

8. Try “Advent Angels” instead of Secret Santa

Instead of drawing names for gifts to give friends or family members, Advent Angels involves choosing a friend or family member you’ll commit to pray for or do acts of kind ness for throughout the season. (Beats that ill fitting jersey or strongly scented body lotion any day.)

This one works best with a large group of family or friends, or a church ministry.

9. Celebrate saints’ feast days

9. Celebrate saints’ feast days

Many inspiring saints have their feast days in December Get to know their stories by having mini celebrations for, say, St Francis Xavier on December 3, St Nicholas on December 6, St Juan Diego on December 9, or St John of the Cross on December 14. Bringing to mind their righteous lives may encourage you to think about steps you can take towards more holiness in your life

10. Write out the Christmas story day by day

10. Write out the Christmas story day by day

The story of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2 stretches from verses 1 20 To meditate on the narrative bit by bit, try writing down one verse each day of December until Christmas Eve (with a built in four days “off”).

You can do this in a special place, like a poster hung in your kitchen or in your journal Each day, take a few moments to ponder the verse you’ve copied By Christmas Eve, you’ll have savoured the whole story of Jesus’ birth.

This article originally appeared on BustedHalo com Sarah Garone is a Catholic mother, nutritionist, and food blogger at www alovelettertofood com

Why Advent is a cure to spiritual crisis

by ‘Cooking W ith Saints’ columnist Grazia Barletta

Any of us, he said, can affect a certain kind of religiosity without sincerity, any of us can be tempted to put on the trappings of faith without the interior disposition Any of us can be tempted to give the appearance of love when, in truth, we do not love

Real faith grows when we have the humility and the honesty to profess what we really believe, to speak what we really know, and to stand before God and one another as we really are. Jesus transforms us, Newman taught, when we come before him as we are That lesson resonates with many Catholics The Church faces a crisis that does not need ongoing enumeration, but it is a crisis in which sincerity has come into question, in which trust has been eroded, and in which many Catholics are no longer certain whom they can believe, and what they can trust And, for at least some Catholics, it has occasioned a crisis of faith itself Ad vent is the spiritual remedy to that crisis

Return to heart of faith

Advent, Pope Benedict XVI taught, is an invitation to return “to the heart of our faith, which is the mystery of Christ, the Messiah who was expected for long centuries and was born in poverty, in Bethlehem” Christ came into the world because sin is real, and because he sets us free from sin This Advent, we need to remember that.

“In coming among us, he brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his love and his salvation,” Pope Bene dict XVI said in an Advent homily in November 2009

Because Christ is present, Ben dict said, we “may speak to him, presenting to him the suffering that afflicts us, our impatience, the questions that well up in our hearts We may be sure

that he always listens to us! And if Jesus is present we may continue to hope, even when others can no longer assure us of any support, even when the present becomes trying ”

Sin is defeated

That we are marred by sin should be no surprise Advent reminds us that sin is defeated, in the Messiah who came into the world at Christmas, and who will come again

In fact, the trying afflictions of the present moment are exactly why Jesus has come because sin exists in the world, even among members of the Church It is Christ in whom we can place our trust because Christ is the one who came into the world to defeat sin and death through his own Passion

Advent also reminds us that the Church, the Body of Christ, is human and divine, just as Christ himself is That the holiness of the Church does not depend on the holiness of her members or ministers That even as she must follow a path of penance and renewal, the Church is more than what we can see, and especially more than the headlines

There is a danger, amid scandal, that we might reduce our vision of the Church to the sociological, that we might see only the scandal and not the grace Christ is present to us in and through his Church even if actions undertaken in the Church’s own name, set amid the disordering chaos of sin, are the source of our pain, or even of our despair. That is the scandalous proposition of the Gospel

Advent reminds us that the Church is Christ’s Mystical Body, and that even as her fallen humanity is on full dis play, she is nonetheless the sacrament of our salvation The Church, the Body of Christ, is a source of grace, even as she is in need of grace

Jesus has come into the world, and he is coming again He is pres ent, even in our great difficulty He loves us as we are, and he wishes to transform us. Advent is here! Come Lord Jesus, come!

F r o m b e l o v e d s a i n t o f c h a r i t y t o S a n t a C l a u s o f c o m m e r c e

at a

THE FIGURE OF SANTA CLAUS is much a creation of American marketing expertise, entering popular culture in the 19th centur y and propelled to superstardom with Coca Cola popularising the image of the jolly, portly, luxuriously bearded, white haired, red dressed, elf dominat ing, reindeer driving, chimney sliding, ho ho hoing deliverer of Christmas presents

Santa Claus, as most people will know, is based on the 4th century saint Nicholas of Bari (or Myra). In iconogra phy, St Nicholas, too, has always been depicted with a full beard, though of a slimmer physique than the figure we encounter in shopping malls and on greeting cards

An image created in 2005 by the British facial anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson, and updated in 2014, based on data collected after the saint’s skull and bones were temporarily removed from their crypt in 1953, reveals a man with strong facial fea tures, especially the chin, and a dominant forehead (see page 24) He was of medium height for his time, at 1,67m From the state of his teeth, we even know that St Nicholas’ diet was mainly vegetarian

St Nicholas was born in or around 270 AD tradition says on March 15 to wealthy parents in Patara, on the Mediterranean coast in what is now southern Turkey. His parents, often named as Epiphanius and Johanna, died in some kind of epidemic when Nicholas was young, leaving the boy with a rich inheritance, which he would disburse in acts of charity

The young Nicholas was taken care of by his namesake uncle, the bishop of nearby Myra, who trained his wealthy

young charge for the clerical life, and eventually ordained him to the priesthood. That was before the Roman Emperor Constan tine legalised Christianity in 313 and protected the faithful from harassment, such as the Dioclet ian persecution of 303. That was the final and most severe pogrom against Christians in the Roman Em pire, and at its most ferocious in the East, where Nicholas lived

n t s b r o a d c a s t e r s , t h e f a l s e l y a c c u s e d , r e p e n t a n t t h i e v e s , b r e w e r s , p h a r m a c i s t s , a r c h e r s , p a w n b r o k e r s , u n m a r r i e d p e o p l e

ity, for on the third night he waited un dercover for the sponsor’s return

Generous bishop

At some point Nicholas succeeded his uncle as bishop We know that he was present at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 making him a signa tory to the Nicene Creed, which we still recite today. But Nicholas is not remem bered as a mover and shaker of the Church in its nascent rise to power, but for his acts of charity

One stor y stands out Nicholas had learnt about the problem of a local man who had no funds to provide a dowr y for his daughters Unable to marr y them off, the only future the father saw for his girls was a life of pros titution (those, clearly, were different days). In the still of the night Nicholas came to the house and anonymously dropped a bag containing gold coins through the window The next night he did the same with a sec ond bag

The astonished father of the girls obviously was keen to know the iden tity of the anonymous benefactor, who either was too modest to make known his act of charity or wished to spare the family embarrassment The father evi dently cared little about either possibil

The identity of the benefactor now known, word of this merciful act of gen erosity spread and became entrenched in the story of Bishop Nicholas of Myra Other stories accompanied his legend Some, such as his aid to sailors, ring true; others less so, such as the raising from the dead of three children who were pickled in vats by an evil butcher.

No doubt Nicholas was a holy man, as the cult that emerged soon after his death would confirm But he was prob ably also a man of fierce temperament One story has him slapping the heretic Arius at the Council of Nicaea, which even then was not a conventional method of settling theological disputes Caroline Wilkinson, the facial anthro pologist, also reported that Nicholas’ skull showed evidence that his nose had been broken at least once.

Maybe the saint had his share of scrapes; more likely he suffered a brutal assault during the Diocletian persecu tion The state of his bones suggested that he also had lived for some time in damp and unhealthy conditions, such as a jail

Soon after Nicholas died on Decem ber 6, 343, in Myra, the locals built a new church in which to inter his re mains Myra, since 2005 known as Demre, soon became a popular place of pilgrimage, sustained by reports of many miracles attributed to the saint’s intercession The veneration became in ternationally famous owing to what is called manna, aromatic water that forms

S t N i c h o l a s o f M y ra , a 4 t h c e nt u r y s a i nt f ro m m o d e r n d ay Tu r key, h a s m o r p h e d i nto b e i n g t h e co r p u l e nt b r i n ge r o f g i f t s f ro m t h e N o r t h Po l e . G ü nt h e r s i m m e r m a c h e r ex p l a i n s h ow.

S o u t h e r n

u r y f r e s c o o f S t N i c h o l a s i n t h e c h u r c h o f A y i o s N i k o l a o s t i s S t e y i s i n C y p r u s

around the bones of the saint Report edly it happens even today.

By the 11th century, trade in relics had become big business. Towns that had the relics of famous saints not only enjoyed the spiritual benefits of vener ating their patron but also the economic advantage of attracting pilgrim tourism. Most Italian towns of note could boast the bones of some saint or other. The Adriatic town of Bari, however, had no relics, and therefore no pilgrims.

Robbing saint’s relics

This disagreeable state of affairs would find cause for relief when the ter ritor y around Myra was conquered by the Seljuk Turks in 1071 Although con trol of the region had changed periodi cally over the following years, the Church in the West was concerned about pilgrims’ access to holy shrines Bari and Venice announced their inten tion to bring the remains of St Nicholas to Italy, ostensibly for safekeeping, but also with a keen eye on commercial op portunities

The issue was not yet settled when in 1087 a crew of 62 sailors set off from Bari for Myra When they entered the town’s cathedral, their leader, Matteo, smashed the tomb of St Nicholas, robbed the grave of much of its bones, and took those to Bari, where they have been ever since The names of the sailors were engraved into the cathedral, though that was of little consolation to them since the local church had re neged on a deal whereby the grave rob bers were to be given a cut of the profits generated by the relics they had stolen

The Venetians later collected what their counterparts from Bari had left be hind Modern forensics have confirmed that the bones in Bari and Venice come from the same person Relics said to be those of St Nicholas in the Antalya Mu seum in Turkey cannot belong to the saint

With the miracle of the manna con tinuing in Bari, the cult of St Nicholas spread throughout the West, to the point that St Nicholas became one of the most popular saints in the Church, with his feast day, December 6, widely celebrated

In the 12th centur y, French nuns instituted a tradition of putting apples and nuts into the stockings of sleeping children on the eve of St Nicholas’ feast

It caught on throughout Europe; even today childr’en in many parts of Europe receive little gifts in stockings or boots they put out before going to sleep on December 5 When they rise in the morning, they find their stockings or boots filled with favours by St Nicholas

In the Netherlands, the feast of St Nicholas, rather than Christmas, re mains the primary date for giving gifts.

Makings of Santa Claus

In many parts of Europe after the Reformation, the veneration of the saints was suppressed, with var ying de grees of success. That of St Nicholas was an obvious target. In Puritan England, the tradition of presenting gifts was in formally transferred to the feast of the Nativity, with a new character taking St Nicholas’ place: Father Christmas Not coincidentally, artistic representations of Father Christmas looked much like those of St Nicholas

I n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s , m e a n w h i l e , German and later Dutch settlers popu l a r i s e d t h e t r a d i t i o n s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h t h e s a i n t t h e y r e s p e c t i v e l y k n e w a s

In America, as in Europe, Christ mas was not yet a holiday nor the fam ily feast we know now; above all it was a time for drunken raucousness, a state that persisted until the mid 19th cen tur y By the early 1800s, the traditions of St Nicholas in the US had mingled with those of the English Father Christ mas (and a bit of the Germanic pagan god Odin thrown in for good measure). The composite figure became en trenched with Christmas, with the Dutch name Sinterklaas gradually being corrupted to become Santa Claus.

T h e p i v o t a l p o i n t i n t h e e l i m i n a t i o n o f t h e s a i n t w a s t h e e a r l y 1 8 2 0 s . I n 1 8 2 1 , A m e r i c a ’s f i r s t l i t h o g r a p h e d b o o k , T h e C h i l d re n ’s F r i e n d , t o l d o f “ S a n t e C l a u s ” t r a v e l l i n g f r o m t h e n o r t h i n a s l e i g h p o w e r e d b y f l y i n g reindeer

Two years later, the famous poem “The Night Before Christmas” ap peared It was originally titled “A Visit from St Nicholas”, but its description of the eponymous character had little to do with the saint, but instead estab lished the template for the now familiar corpulent, jolly fellow who makes his visits on December 25, not on the sixth day of the month That template was entrenched with the drawings of Santa by the US artist Thomas Nast in 1869.

With that, the 4th centur y saint with a charism of charity and love of God was displaced by a figure of fiction that would become synonymous with commercial pursuits. But God has the last laugh: Santa Claus played a crucial part in turning Christmas from an oc casion for drunken revelr y into the family feast we know and value today

One suspects that St Nicholas would approve at least of that

S a n k t N i k o l a u s a n d S i n t e r k l a a s , w i t h t h e D u t c h i n N e w Yo r k b y t h e 1 8 t h c e n t u r y a s s o c i a t i n g t h e s a i n t w i t h C h r i s t m a s D a y, r a t h e r t h a n w i t h h i s feast on December 6

Paul Haring/CNS

Photo: Reuters/CNS

SORRY TO SPOIL YOUR NATIVITY

Play a little, but the story of Jesus’ birth in a lonely stable is at odds with the realities of the society into which the Messiah was born. Our images of the Nativity have been shaped by a European perspective, fostered in art and song and through Nativity scenes, which didn’t account for life in Palestine in the time of Jesus

When we hear that there was no room at the inn, we have an idea of the doors of guesthouses and hostels being slammed in St Joseph’s face, forcing the Holy Family to seek out an abandoned stable in the middle of nowhere so that the Virgin Mar y would have a place in which to give birth

There are at least two prob lems with that image and rais ing them doesn’t rewrite the Bible but actually clarifies what St Luke was tr ying to tell us

The Greek word in Luke 2:7 that has been translated as “inn” is “kataluma” It can refer to any dwelling where hospitality is offered In our culture, a “kataluma” could be a luxur y hotel or the spare room in your house in which you set up visitors.

Luke uses that term again in the Holy Week narrative to describe the Upper Room, which was a private dwelling of hospitality (22:11) However, when Luke refers to a public place of hospitality, in the parable of the Good Samaritan (10:34), he uses a different word, “pandocheion” So when there is no place at the “kataluma” , he most likely refers to a private residence

The importance of family

It is unthinkable that Joseph would not have received hospitality in Bethle

hem, the town of his ancestors, and possibly his hometown (it may be that Joseph moved from Bethlehem to Nazareth, where Mary was at home) Indeed, it would have disgraced his relatives, even if they were distant, to shut the door on Joseph and his wife And as a member of the House of David, Joseph would have been welcomed even by strangers

Conversely, it would have been seen as a dishonour to Joseph had he failed to seek out his kin when he arrived in Bethlehem Rather than having to knock on random doors, he knew exactly where he had to knock

Christians arrived at the idea that Mary gave birth in a stable In absence of anthropological knowledge of 1st century life in Palestine, it made sense to them that if Jesus was born in a place where animals lived though the Bible says nothing about animals being present at the birth and being laid in a trough (the manger), then the location must have been a stable of the kind they, the Europeans, knew

Warm place of welcome

So the bad news is that our time entrenched image of the Nativity is probably wrong The good news is that Jesus’ birth actually took place in a place of warmth and welcome. Thank God for that!

Yet, there was no room for Mary at the “kataluma” Was there a breach of honour? Likely not It may be that the guest room was already occupied, or that it was unsuitable for a mother about to give birth. So it seems quite probable that Mary was given a space in the warmest place in the house where the animals were kept

This may be how the European

So, should we throw out our Nativity scenes, rewrite our carols and tear up the Christmas homi lies? Not necessarily Even if they are historically inaccurate, the traditional image of the Nativity still has a lot to teach us about accepting into our midst the incarnated Lord and all people in need What is impor tant is that our sight remains firmly fixed on the Christ child

Günther Simmermacher is the author of The Holy Land Trek. An updated and revised third edition of the book will be published in 2023

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Chr i stma s i n 3 countr i e s

E T H I O P I A

T H E B U Z Z : Ethiopian Christians are mostly Coptic Orthodox, and their Christmas (or “Ganna”) is celebrated on January 7 The day before, Christians gather in public spaces to pray and chant, a celebration that lasts through the night Next day at church, congregants receive candles with which, once lit, they circle the church three times The Mass can last three hours, throughout which the congregation stands Little im portance is attached to gifts, with children usually receiving new clothes

T H E L O O K : The Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” observed with acute meteorological insight that there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time (except, the song’s writers forgot, on Mount Kiliman jaro) Ethiopia is thus spared the sight of sweating Santas and incongruous reindeer Generally, Ethiopian Chris tians don’t go in for ostenta tious Christmas decor

T H E F O O D : The typical Christmas meal is doro wati, a spicy chicken dish served on an injera Comparable to a roti, an injera is a pancake on which the food is held, and with pieces of which the stew is eaten

F A N C Y T H A T : In most Ethiopian churches, women and girls sit apart from men and boys

J A M A I C A

T H E B U Z Z : W e s t e r n t r a d i t i o n s p r e d o m i n a t e i n J a m a i c a , a l t h o u g h i n r u r a l a r e a s t h e J o n k a n o o c e l e b r a t i o n a t r a d i t i o n w i t h A f r i c a n r o o t s r i n g s i n C h r i s t m a s , w h i c h i n c l u d e s p a r a d e s o f m a s k e d m e n T H E L O O K : N o t m u c h d i f f e r e n t f r o m w h a t o n e m a y f i n d i n m o s t m e r B r i t i s h c o l o n i e s E F O O D : C u r r i e d g o a t , t a i l a n d r o a s t s , o f t e n c o m p a n i e d b y g u n g o e a n s , a r e p o p u l a r , o l l o w e d b y w a t e r m e l o n o r d e s s e r t A C h r i s t m a s p e c i a l i t y t h a t ’ s t y p i c a l l y a m a i c a n i s s p i c y r u m o r w i n e b a s e d , s p i c e d s o r r e l

R

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L E B A N O N

T H E B U Z Z : Children receive their presents on Christmas Eve Before the extended family gathers for lunch on Christmas Day, friends visit each other on Christmas morning Guests are likely to be offered coffee and liqueurs Bonfires are held in town centres, an occasion for meeting friends, singing carols and telling stories.

T H E L O O K : A few weeks before Christ mas, Lebanese Christians will plant seeds in cotton wool or flowerpots, in time for them to bloom around Christmas. The poinsettia plant forms part of traditional Lebanese Christmas decoration

T H E F O O D : If a family has had a new baby during the year, a special dessert called mughli is prepared

F A N C Y T H A T : At Christmas, a dance called the dabkeh is performed by traditionally dressed young men and women who hold hands in semi circles

F A N C Y T H A T : J a m a i c a i s t h e l a n d o f

a s t a f a r

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s m a n d B o b M a r l e y , s o o n e i s l i k e l y t o h e a r C h r i s t m a s s o n g s a n d c a r o l s s e t t o a r e g g a e b e a t

I T A L Y : I m a g e s o f N a t i v i t y f r e s c o e s b y t h e 1 3 t h c e n t u r y a r t i s t G i o t t o a r e p r o j e c t e d o n t o t h e f a c a d e o f S t F r a n c i s b a s i l i c a i n A s s i s i

V A T I C A N C I T Y : C h i l d r e n h o l d f l o w e r s a t t h e s t a r t o f P o p e F r a n c i s ’ c e l e b r a t i o n o f C h r i s t m a s E v e M a s s i n S t P e t e r ’ s b a s i l i c a

PALESTINE: Fireworks illuminate the church of the Nativity, which marks Jesus’ birthplace, as Palestinians light the famous Christmas tree at Manger Square in Bethlehem

G

U N I T E D S T A T E S : A t a x i c a b r e p l i c a m a d e o f C h r i s t m a s l i g h t s i s s e e

I R E L A N D : C h r i s t m a s s h o p p e r s w a l k a l o n g t h e f e s t i v e l y d e c o r a t e d G r a f t o n S t r e e t i n D u b l i n

T h e f i r s t C h r i s t m a s i n s p a c e

THE YEAR 1968 WAS TURBULENT, in the United States and Europe

The Vietnam War was in full swing; Rev Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F Kennedy had been assassinated; and riots were breaking out across the US But there was one event at the ver y end of 1968 that provided a glimmer of hope: the first Christmas in space, which saw three men circle the moon and broadcast a Christian message to an enraptured global audience of a billion Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, a PhD astronomer who directs the Vatican Obser vator y, remembers huddling with friends and family around a grainy TV set to watch the astronauts blasting off “These were moments that marked my life, and have since I was a little kid,” Br Consolmagno recalled

The USA had launched the Apollo programme in 1965, in response to Pres ident John F Kennedy’s 1961 challenge to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The Soviet Union had been

making strides in their own space pro gramme, and there were rumours that they would beat the US to the moon

The US space agency NASA shifted into high gear, and the mission on which the USA’s lunar aspirations rested, Apollo 8, was astonishingly ambitious The rocket they were planning to use had never carried a crew before A recent unmanned test mission, Apollo 6, had failed. Worst of all, in 1967, a fire in a test capsule had claimed the lives of three Apollo astronauts It would be an understatement to say that the odds were stacked against NASA

The timing of the mission was criti cal, as the distance between Earth and the moon varies By NASA’s calculations in 1968, the optimum date for a shot at lunar orbit was just a few short months away, in late December

By December 21, 1968, the Saturn V rocket was ready on the launchpad in Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders on board The Saturn V remains the most power ful

vehicle ever created by humans

The astronauts kept a running diar y as they took in sights no human had ever seen before By Christmas Eve, Apollo 8 reached lunar orbit Borman, Lovell and Anders became the first human beings to leave earth’s orbit, and the first to glimpse the far side of the moon And they set a new speed record for the human race: 38 938 km/h

Biggest TV audience

Record TV audience

The craft had a TV camera on board, and the men would send back a total of six broadcasts, the last of which was dur ing primetime on Christmas Eve It is this broadcast that Br Consolmagno remem bers so clearly NASA had not given the men any specific instructions on what they should say for the Christmas Eve broadcast, only that they say something “appropriate ” And so, with a global au dience of a billion hanging on their ever y word, Anders spoke first, followed by Lovell, and then by Borman:

“For all the people on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send to you.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness ”

And so it went on with the quota tion from the Book of Genesis. The astro nauts later said they picked the passage from Genesis 1 because of its importance not just for Christians but also for many of the world’s major religions.

Br Consolmagno said the choice of that particular passage of scripture was unexpected, but it made a lasting im pression on him. “I would have expected a Psalm about how the heavens proclaim

In 1968, three astronauts became the first humans to circle the moon and to spend Christmas in space.

the glor y of God, but instead to have chosen that particular reading was an act of genius that I would never have thought of,” he mused “To hear the stor y of Genesis read out in that way, in that ver y respectful way, it was fulfilling and affirming in a way that I would never have guessed ”

Home for the New Year

On Christmas morning, the astronauts ignited the craft’s engine and headed for home As they gathered speed, they feasted on a Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, and small bottles of brandy A few days later, their spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, and an aircraft carrier picked them up They had spent the first Christ mas in space, and made it home safely in time to ring in the New Year 1969.

The mission was an amazing achievement that galvanised the public, as the possibility of touching and tra versing the lunar sur face became all the more real And by July 1969, the astro nauts of Apollo 11 would do just that Unfortunately, this stor y in some ways doesn’t have a fair ytale ending. Anders, who read part of the Bible passage, said in later years that seeing the tiny Earth below them actually contributed to a loss of his Catholic faith

perhaps because it made ever ything seem so small

As of the time of going to print, all three astronauts are still alive. Borman and Lovell are 94, Anders is 89

As you might expect, not ever yone was happy that the astronauts had read

a Bible passage. One public atheist even filed a lawsuit against NASA which the Supreme Court threw out Br Consolmagno said all this wasn’t particularly surprising after all, prominent atheists had raised a stink just a couple of years earlier when A Charlie Brown Christmas, which had an explicitly Christian message, aired on TV.

There was a Christmas prequel to Apollo 8 On December 16, 1965, astronauts Walter Schirra Jr and Thomas Stafford aboard Gemini VI played an im promptu version of “Jingle Bells”, relayed from their spacecraft to ground control, making this the first piece of music broadcast from space Before their musi cal interlude, the astronauts joked about sighting a UFO namely Santa Claus

To this day, Br Consolmagno loves to talk about the Apollo 8 stor y. It helped set him on the path he’s on today, as a joyful practitioner of his faith but also as an accomplished scientist

“If you can find a day when it’s not cloudy, just pay attention to where the moon is ever y day And remember that 50 odd years ago, people were up there People walked on that sur face and the time will come when we get to go back,” the Jesuit said “It is part of God’s creation. And I think God is inviting us to explore there ” CNA

T h e s t o r y b e h i n d

‘ O C om e A ll Y e F ait hf ul ’

ONE OF THE MOST BELOVED

a n d m o s t C a t h o l i c Christmas carols in the Eng l i s h l a n g u a g e i s a l s o w e l l k n o w n b y i t s L a t i n t i t l e . W h e r e s o m e m a y s i n g “ O C o m e A l l Ye F a i t h f u l ” , o t h e r s m i g h t i n t o n e “ A d e s t e F i d e l e s ”

And some strike a compromise between t h e t w o W h e n t h e g r e a t v o c a l i s t N a t King Cole recorded a Christmas album i n 1 9 6 0 , h e o p t e d f o r “ A d e s t e F i d e l e s ” as the title, sang the first verses in Eng lish, and then switched to Latin (hear it at bit.ly/3OvdRdP).

N o b o d y r e a l l y k n o w s f o r c e r t a i n who wrote that beautiful melody, with t h e c o n t e n d e r s i n c l u d i n g e v e n a k i n g . T h e e a r l i e s t s i g n e d c o p i e s o f t h e n o t a tion are by John Francis Wade, an Eng lish Catholic who lived from 1711 86. H e h a d t o f l e e h i s h o m e l a n d a f t e r t h e c r u s h i n g o f t h e J a c o b i t e u p r i s i n g o f 1 7 4 5 , w h i c h h a d s o u g h t t o r e t u r n t h e Stuarts and thus Catholicism back to the English throne

T h e r e a r e s o m e w h o r e a d a c o d e d p o l i t i c a l m e s s a g e i n t o t h e w o r d s o f “ A d e s t e F i d e l e s ” o r “ I n N a t i v i t a t e D o m i n i H y m n u s ” , a s Wa d e ’s f i r s t s i g n e d p u b l i c a t i o n i n 1 7 5 0 t i t l e s t h e h y m n T h e s e w o r d s w e r e i n i t i a l l y f o u r verses of Latin, and are pretty much the e q u i v a l e n t o f w h a t w e s i n g i n E n g l i s h t o d a y I t ’s n o t c l e a r e i t h e r w h e t h e r t h e s e w e r e e v e n w r i t t e n b y Wa d e I n 1750 there were no copyright laws and a t t r i b u t i o n s w e r e o p t i o n a l Te x t s a n d m u s i c c o u l d b e f a i t h f u l l y r e p r o d u c e d , or they could be edited or adapted. And that was how Wade made his living in F r e n c h e x i l e : b y c o p y i n g a n d s e l l i n g plainchant and other music

There is a theor y that Wade might

h a v e b o r r o w e d t h e m e l o d y f r o m a comic opera, Acajou, by Charles Simon Favart, which was written in the 1740s, around the same time Wade is believed to first have written “Adeste Fideles”

Some musicologists have suggested t h a t “ A d e s t e F i d e l e s ” w a s w r i t t e n b y a n o n y m o u s C i s t e rc i a n m o n k s i n France, some time between the 6th and 1 2 t h c e n t u r i e s I t w o u l d n ’t h a v e b e e n t h e f i r s t C h r i s t m a s h y m n t h e f i r s t known one was written by St Ambrose in the 4th centur y but these were not common in medieval Europe

Written by a king?

T h e r e a r e s e v e r a l o t h e r c a n d i d a t e s f o r t h e a u t h o r s h i p o f “ A d e s t e F i d e l e s ” , a l l p r e c e d i n g Wa d e b y m a n y d e c a d e s L e a d i n g a m o n g t h e m i s J o h n R e a d i n g , a well known English composer and or g a n i s t w h o l i v e d f r o m 1 6 4 5 9 2 .

Another contender is King John IV of Portugal (1604 56). King John is bet ter known as the leader of Portugal’s se c e s s i o n f r o m S p a i n t h a n h e i s a s a tunesmith, but he was a keen patron of music and the arts, and himself a com poser of notable skill However, there is no written record of him having com posed “Adeste Fideles”, or other sacred works which some attribute to him His i n t e r e s t i n s a c r e d m u s i c w a s i n f o r m e d b y h i s d e v o u t C a t h o l i c f a i t h ; J o h n I V i n s t i t u t e d O u r L a d y t h e I m m a c u l a t e Conception as Portugal’s patron

But the king’s association with the h y m n m i g h t b e r o o t e d i n a m i s u n d e r standing. For a long time, “Adeste Fide l e s ” w a s k n o w n a s “ T h e P o r t u g u e s e H y m n ” , o n a c c o u n t o f i t h a v i n g b e e n performed at a recital in the Portuguese embassy chapel in London in 1795, in Wade’s version. The duke of Leeds wit nessed the performance and was so im p r e s s e d t h a t h e c o m m i s s i o n e d a n o rc h e s t r a l t r e a t m e n t , w h i c h i n t u r n popularised the hymn in England.

John Francis Wade’s unsigned notation from 1745 Above: Fr Oakeley, who translated “Adeste Fideles” into Eng lish, and (below) King John IV of Portugal

B y t h e n , “ A d e s t e F i d e l e s ” w a s a l ready popular in France and Germany, w h e r e i t w a s u s e d a s a C h r i s t m a s E v e processional In the late 18th centur y, a French priest, Fr Jean François Étienne Borderies, added three verses

“Adeste Fideles” was translated sev e r a l t i m e s i n t o E n g l i s h b e f o r e 1 8 5 2 , w h e n t h e w o r d s w e n o w k n o w a s “ O C o m e A l l Ye F a i t h f u l ” w e r e f i r s t p u b l i s h e d . T h e f i r s t f o u r v e r s e s , f r o m Wade’s Latin text, were translated by Fr Frederick Oakeley, a convert priest who l i v e d f r o m 1 8 0 2 8 0 A p r o l i f i c a u t h o r and later canon of Westminster diocese, Fr Oakeley was a follower of his fellow convert St John Henr y Newman

The three verses by Fr Borderies were later translated and published in 1885 as “Ye Faithful, Approach Ye” by William Thomas Brooke (1848 1917), an Anglican. He placed those verses after he second in Fr Oakeley’s version This s the order that now has become stan ard for “O Come All Ye Faithful”

“Adeste Fideles” has been translated nto at least 125 languages o r m o r e s t o r i e s b e h i n d t h e c a r o l s e e w w w s c r o s s c o z a / c a t e g o r y / e a t u r e s / b i o g r a p h y o f h y m n s /

Right:

IT WAS THE YEAR 1940 A MENACING TERROR WAS gripping all Europe War was in the air Holland cried and prayed for neutrality, but in vain Heavy Nazi ar mour and well equipped troops, and the destruction of Rotterdam by Wehrmacht bombs, crushed the Dutch re sistance within days in May that year. Yet, out of the dark pages of histor y come stories of untold heroism and coura geous Christian love

Else and her three daughters operated a laundr y business on Kortstraat in Utrecht Living with them was Else’s aged father, Opa Koos There were ver y few people in the region who did not know and respect this family Despite the Nazi occupation and the nightly curfew, the Dutch tried to live normal lives.

But normal it was not! Booming gunfire, overhead air craft in dogfights or bombing raids, screaming sirens through day and night all so scar y and threatening The most fearful cries and screaming, however, came from the streets where men, women and children were dragged from their homes and bundled into huge trucks for discharge to labour camps or, if they were Jews, the concentration camps The relentless persecution of the Jews had begun in the oc cupied Netherlands. The Nazis demanded that all Jews dis play on their sleeves the Star of David and carr y valid identity documents. Deeply offensive notices were planted all over the region, such as “No Jew need apply” or “No ra tion cards issued to Jews” or “This store is shut to Jews” There was no place to hide from the Nazi terror Soldiers and spies were ever ywhere, and some of the frightened local men were even collaborating with the enemy

But the Dutch underground resistance, Het Verzet, was very active, harassing and sabotaging the Nazi network. Hun dreds upon hundreds offered their lives in the struggle for freedom. Now, while the enemy was hounding Jews in every corner of the city, heroic Christian families were hiding the persecuted of every age in secret chambers, concealed base ments, dark attics, and behind cleverly designed false walls Else’s family used their large laundr y as a public front, and at times were hiding as many as 27 frightened Jews The ID cards were easily forged, but not the food ration cards Feeding the refugees from genocide was no easy operation Ner ves of steel stood up to the Nazi inspectors and the

Gestapo as they raided home after home

And how those who were doing the hiding and those who were hiding prayed to the one same God! Opa Koos would always remind his family that they were ser ving God’s Chosen People He himself was prepared to hide any one from the Gestapo, even at the risk of the certain penalty of death.

It was Christmas Eve That night the Jews in hiding some how felt liberated as they sat together with the Chris tians to celebrate the birth of the greatest Jew who ever walked the earth The rations that adorned the long table were simply black coffee and Dutch chocolate cake But a beautiful spirit of brotherhood prevailed within those walls, even while one could hear gunfire and occasional screams coming from the nearby streets

The night moved on towards the morning hours Prayers were led by Opa and Else; the daughters hummed “Silent Night”, almost silently There was quiet time for meditation Suddenly there was gunfire not too far from the front door Two underground fighters who had defied the curfew were shot dead on the street. The house alarm clicked in. The cele bration ended abruptly, the fugitives from Nazism scurried to their shelters. A heavy thumping shook the front door. “Open at once...the police,” echoed a heavily accented German voice. The door shook again as a rifle butt crashed against it.

Father Ralph de Hahn

All clear inside! Else double checked, then hurried to answer the door.

A Nazi colonel burst inside while a soldier with a rifle stood guarding the door The officer at once pointed his pistol at Else’s head “You are hiding filthy Jews speak the truth or you die,” he yelled, his wild gaze searching the entire room Opa Koos moved slowly towards the officer and gently addressed him in German: “Good evening, officer but are we not all God’s people?” The colonel looked angrily at the bearded man and turned his pistol at his head: “Quiet old man I am Oberst Bauer! You know nothing I am under orders my orders come from Berlin!”

a i s e d h i s v o i c e : “ S e e w h a t t h e y d i d t o y o u r J e s u s … a n d m y J e s u s ! ” N o b o d y m o v e d , n o b o d y s p o k e , u n t i l E l s e m o v e d c a u t i o u s l y f o r w a r d , u n a f r a i d . “ N o , O b e r s t , ” s h e s a i d s o f t l y. “ We b e l i e v e t h a t G o d l o v e s t h e J e w s . H e s e n t h i s o w n S o n t o u s a s a J e w ” B a u e r b u r s t o u t o n c e m o r e : “ B u t l o o k w h a t t h e y d i d t o H i m

Now Opa Koos looked Bauer in the eyes and gently spoke: “Oberst, what you are doing today to us to the Jews and to all Europe that is what put our Jesus on the cross ”

There followed an eloquent silence All eyes fixed on the officer, waiting for his violent response But before Bauer could collect himself, Else smiled at the Nazi and warmly said: “It’s Christmas Day, Colonel It’s the birthday of Jesus the Jew Are you not a Christian?” Bauer cleared his throat, looked around at all the family and replied: “Yes I am but I am also an obedient officer of the German army ”

Else saw an opportunity to challenge the officer on faith. “I agree, Colonel. And I am an officer and disciple of his kingdom, of His Christian army! And you, Colonel, as a Christian are you not obedient to His commands, too?”

The embarrassed officer felt himself cornered Quietly, almost inaudibly, he muttered: “Yes, I am ” He had no further answer Else dared to touch his arm: “Look, we are all one family in Jesus; brothers and sisters, Jews and Christians, the rich and the poor. That is why He died.”

The message hit the mark The German officer re turned his pistol to its holster, gazed around at ever y waiting face and then said: “I must leave. There is Holy Mass in the early morning ” Bauer began to move to wards the door, then suddenly stopped, turned to the family and delivered his final words: “If you are hiding any Jews, be careful. Happy Christmas.” And with that, he was gone. That morning at 7:00, the lovely church was packed Among the enthusiastic congregation were many members of the German army As Opa, Else and all the family genu flected before the Blessed Sacrament, their eyes caught Oberst Bauer awaiting his turn in the confessional queue, his cap under his left arm. He saluted them with a slight bow.

The choir burst forth in joyful praise “O come let us adore Him ” The colonel vanished behind the purple curtain to find the peace of Jesus awaiting him

Kneeling and in prayer and adoration, a thought flashed upon Else’s mind: “There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us!”

Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town Read his first Christmas story in The Southern Cross way back in 1952 at www.bit.ly/3UOyw0L

o k i n g w i t h Sa i n t s

ON D E C E M B E R 8, T H E S O L E M N I T Y of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, we also remember St Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary St Anne was the Saint of the Month in July 2021, when The Southern Cross told her story

Barren and childless into an advanced age, Anne and her husband Joachim remained faithful and hopeful as they prayed for a child God granted their prayers and blessed them with a daughter like no other: the Mother of God Thus, Anne was a key to carrying out the will of God: salvation for mankind.

Anne dedicated Mary to a life of service to God and his Temple, giving herself and her daughter at an early age to God. She raised Mary in a life of such purity that her daugh ter ’s womb was blessed to carry the Son of

St Anne’s Gateau

God, whose birth we celebrate this month

This gateau is perfect for celebrating the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, with its delicate sponge and contrasting cream cheese icing It has a fragrant lemony taste

When it ’s all eaten together, it ’s perfect just as St Anne was

preparation: 60 min • servings: 6 8

Prep aration:

1. Heat the oven to 180°C Grease a round bunting cake or spring form tin with non stick spray

2 In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together. Add the butter, flour, baking powder, salt and water, and mix with an electric beater

3 Stir the almonds and essence into the batter

Grate the lemon, and add the zest and juice and stir until thoroughly mixed

4. Pour the batter into the cake pan. Bake on the middle rack for approximately 45 50 minutes (check after 45 minutes) The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean

5 While baking is in progress, prepare the icing Cream together the butter and icing sugar, and add vanilla essence Then add the cream cheese and yoghurt Mix together till smooth If it is still a bit runny, add more icing sugar and vanilla essence to taste

6. After letting the cake cool down, cover it with the icing You can decorate with fresh berries of choice and perhaps edible flowers, just for the finishing touch

6 Enjoy with a prayer to St Anne and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception!

The church builders

YOUR ARTICLE “HOW TO DESIGN A church” (September 2022) sadly omitted the names of several people who were involved in the planning, devel opment, design and construction of the church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Rivonia, Johannesburg. Your description of Rory Snell as “the designer” was inaccurate; all Mr Snell did on the project was to assist the parish priest, Fr Peter Doherty, with the relocation and redesign of altar furni ture and some stained glass

As your article notes, the project was initiated by Fr Peter Doherty and myself I was the project leader both for the raising of the development finance and for the design and development of the church, and personally put the profes sional team together

The article should have made men tion of the lead architect on the project, the late John Banahan, who was involved with us throughout the ten years it took to raise the funds, finalise an appropriate design for a difficult site, and build the church

John had been recommended to us by the archdiocese of Johannesburg in view of the many church projects he had undertaken on its behalf. Sadly, John took ill and died weeks before the completion of the church and did not live to see his creation completed

He was ably supported by architect Luigi Salemi, who has similarly been of service to the archdiocese Ed Rouillard was structural and civils engineer and project manager, Flavio Maraschin from Norval Wentzel Steinberg was the quan tity surveyor.

The whole team were Catholics, and generously donated much of their normal fees to the project

Why we confess

ON E Q U E S T I O N I H AV E O F T E N

b e e n a s k e d i n m y m o r e t h a n 2 2 y e a r s o f t e a c h i n g R C I A ( R i t e o f

C h r i s t i a n I n i t i a t i o n f o r A d u l t s ) c l a s s e s i s : W h y d o I h a v e t o c o n f e s s m y s i n s t o a p r i e s t ? T h a t q u e s t i o n i s o f t e n a s k e d b y C a t h o l i c s p o n s o r s , t o o I n r e s p o n s e , I r e f e r t h e m t o t h e H o l y B i b l e w h e r e i t i s w r i t t e n : “ T h u s t h e p r i e s t s h a l l m a k e a t o n e m e n t f o r t h e s i n t h a t t h e m a n h a s c o m m i t t e d i n a n y o f t h e a b o v e c a s e s , a n d i t w i l l b e f o r g i v e n ” ( L e v i t i c u s 5 : 1 3 ) T h i s e x p l a n a t i o n i s m o r e r e a d i l y a c c e p t e d t h a n t h e u s u a l o n e u s e d b y C a t h o l i c s : “ A n d w h e n h e h a d s a i d t h i s , h e b r e a t h e d o n t h e m a n d s a i d t o t h e m , ‘ R e c e i v e t h e H o l y S p i r i t W h o s e s i n s y o u f o r g i v e a r e f o r g i v e n t h e m , a n d w h o s e s i n s y o u r e t a i n a r e r e t a i n e d ” ( J o h n 2 0 : 2 2 ) .

O v e r t h e y e a r s I h a v e n o t i c e d t h a t P r o t e s t a n t s w i l l r e a d i l y a c c e p t a n e x p l a n a t i o n i f i t r e f e r s t o t h e B i b l e , a s t h e y c o m e f r o m t h e S o l a S c r i p t u r a ( “ s c r i p t u r e o n l y ” ) t r a d i t i o n S o t h e q u e s t i o n t o o u r c a t e c h i s t s , i n C a t h o l i c s c h o o l s a n d i n o u r p a r i s h e s , i s t h i s : S h o u l d y o u i n c l u d e s o m e s o r t o f a p o l o g e t i c s , u s i n g t h e H o l y B i b l e , i n y o u r s y l l a b u s ?

Dominic Sam, Gqeberha

Angels on a ladder

THANK YOU FOR THE GOOD articles in the September 2022 edition, particularly those on Mother Teresa and Fr Ron Rolheiser’s “Do

The latter reminds me of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:12 He sees “a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it” And then the splendid lines of Isaiah: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning” (14:12)

I recall Milton’s lines from his son net On His Kindness: “Thousands at His bidding speed, and post o’er land and ocean without rest.” And also the rousing Anglican hymn: “Ye holy angels bright/ Who sit at God’s righ t h a n d ” Peter Onesta, Johannesburg

Informative

LIKE TO THANK

FOR your article on Dr Benedict Vilakazi on the 75th anniversar y of his death (October 2022) I didn’t even know after whom the famous street in Soweto was named, nor that Dr Vilakazi was a Catholic That was ver y informative

Paul Collins, Johannesburg

MARIANELLA

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we have guardian angels?”

IN THE 1990S DOMINICAN FATHER

Albert Nolan wrote a column titled “Be Still” for the ecumenical maga zine Challenge, which he edited For those who knew him by reputation only, this title may have seemed incon gruous. Wasn’t this the same Albert Nolan who was a high profile anti apartheid activist and who was forced into hiding from the security police in the mid 1980s?

Wasn’t he that priest who was ac tive in the underground struggle, find ing safe houses for freedom fighters? Was he not the one who spent hours standing, koki in hand, in front of walls untidily laden with Prestik affixed newsprint delivering the “State of the Nation” to energetic and angry student activists? Was he not the man in never ending meetings, typically held in rooms thick with choking cigarette smoke?

Was he not the one at the front of those protest marches that always ended in a shower of lung busting tear gas and a volley of rubber bullets? Did he not preach at the funerals cum po litical gatherings of those activists who had been brutally killed by the security forces or their proxies?

Yes, he was all those things and much more From the outside, Fr Al bert’s life which began in 1934 in Cape Town and ended in the early hours of October 17, 2022 was a blur of activity and activism Yet, for those privileged to know him, the title “Be Still” was not at all discordant Fr Al

bert might have thrown himself fully into the troubles and misery of the world and the pain of the oppressed, but he was shaped and moved by his humanity and the humanity of other He truly sought to live in communio with the humanity of Jesus, which he brought to life for so many in South Africa and across the world in his bes selling 1976 book Jesus Before Christia ity In so doing, he brought a sense o stillness to a very chaotic South Afric

Fr Albert’s true gift

Fr Albert’s true gift, however, was his ability to use his incisive mind, h profound knowledge of the scriptures, his generosity and his sense of humour to deliver a simple but never simplis tic message that brought meaning to a generation of Christian activists and theologians who were struggling with their faith in a context of deep racial division and brutal repression.

While a gifted biblical scholar and theologian, Fr Albert was not interested in polemics about textual interpreta tions He wanted the scriptures to in spire, convert and transform people

He did this primarily by building small review groups that were taught to do theology themselves by using the See Judge Act method, to which he was introduced in 1975 during an Interna tional Movement of Catholic Students gathering in Lima, Peru He returned to South Africa with an understanding of how the method could empower groups of young Christians to understand their

y y , pret that context through the lens of their faith, and act in a way that inte grates the two Such reflections led to powerful interventions, including the publication of the landmark Kairos Document in 1985, which Fr Albert was central in formulating and editing

Fr Albert’s conscious decision to side with the oppressed also led to choices that were far from comfortable In his first term as Dominican provin cial from 1976 80, he sold the provin cial’s house in the leafy Johannesburg suburb of Houghton to join a simple lifestyle community in a rundown building in Mayfair, a working class suburb on the western edge of the city’s central business district

In 1983, he turned down the top position of Master (or global superior general) of the Dominican Order, based in Rome, to remain in South Africa and the Struggle And he continually reached out beyond the safety of the Catholic Church to other denomina tions, forming deep ecumenical bonds

As a priest, activist, author, and renowned theologian, Fr Albert offered a forceful yet gentle message of hope, particularly hope in the building of a non racial, non sexist, peaceful and en vironmentally sustainable South Africa and world Fr Albert is now gone, but that hope must live on.

The pandemic that remains

ONCE AGAIN ON THE FIRST day of December, we com memorate World Aids Day It might sound a bit uncaring, but in a sense it has become “once again” an annual mark on the calen dar taken as seriously, or not, as Women’s Day or All Souls or a wedding anniversary The day will be signalled by some portentous pronouncement by politicians, probably a revelatory report by an NGO hoping to get some media attention, maybe a special bidding prayer at Sunday Mass.

At one level, the general lack of no tice now given to World Aids Day could be a good sign. For decades, the spectre of Aids hung over families indeed over this whole countr y like the Sword of Damocles, hanging on a hair’s breadth and threatening to wipe out whole swathes of the population with its deathly smite As recently as 2006, Aids was the underlying reason for 40% of deaths in South Africa!

And then there was a miracle dis covery. Well, it might have been mirac ulous, but it was also the result of hard work, international collaboration, and the investment of billions of dollars. We now have antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) so that someone with HIV need not get sick; an HIV+ pregnant woman will not pass on the virus to her newborn baby; someone exposed to HIV need not be come infected; someone at high risk of being exposed can be protected in ad vance We do not yet have an antidote or a vaccine, but science means that what was once life threatening, and then life limiting, now mean just a small daily inconvenience

But Aids has not gone away When you go to the supermarket, about one in five of the adults you see are HIV+ The children who lost parents a few years ago are now grown up and have become parents themselves Gogos who have had to bring up two generations of chil dren are struggling with old age. And, re grettably, people are still dying of Aids related conditions: a UCT estimate for the Department of Health puts it at 52 000 deaths in 2021. That means in each of the last two years, Aids has been the cause of as many deaths in South Africa as Covid.

Even the ARV story is far from per fect. Free and easily available medication means that South Africa has the largest

ARV programme in the world But of the 7,9 million people living with the virus, only about 70% are on ARVs which means that 2,3 million people are quite unnecessarily at risk.

There are some people who have difficulty accessing ARVs and who also struggle to stay adherent. Before we point fingers at people who “can’t be bothered” to take one tablet a day, we might remember how often we fail to complete just a three week course of an tibiotics, even though the doctor in sisted we must see it through to the end!

The importance of trust

The clinic team at the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban, which I serve as direc tor, works with hard to reach groups Homeless people come to our clinic be cause they know they can trust us. We test people and, if positive, immediately initiate them on ARVs Thanks to a ded icated team of community health work ers, we can also chase up people daily, if necessar y to make sure that they are sticking to their medication

The refugee community with whom we work poses different chal lenges. While the stigma of Aids has greatly diminished among South Africans, it remains prevalent among people from other parts of the continent who have settled here And sadly, sometimes it is religious leaders who further marginalise people

There are, for example, some Con golese churches in Durban which require an HIV negative certificate before they will conduct a marriage but only from the bride, not the groom! In a culture like this, it is not surprising that refugees (and especially women) are reluctant to test, are more unwilling to accept a pos itive result, and slower to start on ARVs

We rightly should point to the ways in which our political leaders have failed us in the response to HIV One of the reasons for the gap in take up of ARVs is that there is still completely irrational suspicion about whether or not they are a good thing

It seems almost bizarre now to re member that we had a president and a

health minister who refused to imple ment ARVs and recommended potatoes, beetroot and garlic instead It would be funny were it not for the evidence that their denialist policies led to probably 330 000 avoidable deaths, according to a Harvard study That’s as many people as Idi Amin butchered in Uganda.

I think there is a lesson for the Church in this Thankfully we have not had (too many) bishops who are Aids denialists. But we have had senior Vati can officials who argued against all scientific knowledge that condoms have little holes that let the virus get through And, of course, we still have a theology taught, if not always received, that tells couples that they cannot use a condom when one of them is HIV+ This is despite the fact that St Thomas Aquinas’ principle of “double effect” long ago established that a “lesser evil” (in this case, condoms) can be risked as a way of preventing a greater evil (HIV infection).

The Church can be proud of some of the extraordinar y ways in which it has responded to Aids; but there are also reasons we should be ashamed In our region, the bishops included the princi ple of double effect in their 2001 pas toral letter on Aids I have been told that they were not unanimous on that ques tion, and most Catholics are unaware of this teaching, but its mere inclusion was prophetic.

The stigma sticks

Meantime, the stigma has not en t i r e l y d i s a p p e a r e d D e s p i t e t h e p r e v a l e n c e o f H I V, i t i s s t i l l r e l a t i v e l y uncommon to know someone’s status W h i l e p r i v a c y m e a n s t h a t n o o n e s h o u l d h a v e t o d e c l a r e , f e a r o f j u d g ment means that most people do not I f s o m e o n e i n y o u r p a r i s h h a s c a n c e r,

that rarely happens with Aids

Are our parishes places where people feel that they can be open? Or is there still a fear of stigma and judgment that, somehow, peo ple with HIV are blameworthy or immoral? When thinking of some one with HIV, are we really willing to say: “There, but for the grace of God, go I”?

I have recently been engaged in an interesting activity with young people to increase empathy At the Denis Hurley Centre, we have on display a panel which shows the faces of 100 people liv ing with HIV It was created by the South African artist Gideon Mendel for the 2016 World AIDS Confer ence in Durban The image illus trating this article is from Gideon’s Through Positive Eyes website, and you can see the images for yourself at www throughpositiveeyes org

I invite people to select one face “that speaks to them”, and then go away and imagine that they are that person: “How old am I? Who do I live with? What is my life like? Whom have I told about my HIV status and what was the reaction?” The r e s p o n s e s have been re ally deep and insightful and this raises all kinds of questions about the virus I then give them cards so they can read the real sto ries of these individuals (and you can do the same on the website)

Jesus was able to get close to people because he was not afraid to imagine what their lives were really like North American indigenous culture challenges us to “walk a mile in another person’s shoes” In the Incarnation which we are about to celebrate at Christmas Jesus took this to the most extreme: God becoming human

We cannot, as people of faith, have any meaningful comment to make about someone else’s life un less we are willing to see the world through their eyes.

Why we must live with tinsel

FOR MANY PEOPLE THE THOUGHT of Christmas brings fatigue It’s not the religious aspect that causes the tiredness but the overdrawn rituals that surround it: the overly decorated shops, the conscriptive shopping, the lights, the Santas, the Christmas trees, and the carols that begin to echo through our malls already in early November

And so it is asked: What does all of this, or any of it, have to do with the birth of Jesus? Hasn’t Advent, which is supposed to be a time of preparation for the feast, become an exhausting ordeal that brings us to Christmas Day already saturated with what we were supposed to be building up to? Wouldn’t we honour Jesus more if we spend the money we lavish on Christmas on the poor instead? Don’t our Christmas celebrations serve to obliterate our aware ness of Jesus’ birth more than highlight it?

Valid questions

Our annual Christmas celebrations, admittedly, do start too early, are too commercially driven, do focus too little on anything religious, and do not take the poor sufficiently into account Too often they serve to obliterate religious aware ness rather than to highlight it And so it is easy to be cynical about Christmas It contains too many excesses.

However, with that being conceded, we need to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water and that is more than a pun in this case Just be cause something is done badly does not mean it should be cancelled What is called for, I believe, is not the cancellation of the tinsel, the lights, the socials, the food, and the drink that surround Christmas, but a better use of them There are good reasons to cancel the rituals with which we surround Christmas, but there are even better reasons for keeping them

W h y w e l o v e t o c e l e b r a t e

What are those reasons? Why con tinue so many of these rituals when, al most invariably, they degenerate into excess and fatigue?

Because we have a congenital need to celebrate, pure and simple As human be ings we have a healthy, God given, geneti cally encoded need to sometimes make festival, to have carnival, to celebrate an elaborate Sabbath, to park our prudence for a few hours and to live life as if there wasn’t any reason to pinch our pennies or to be cold to our neighbours Christmas is Sabbath, the supreme Sabbath

There are seasons in life, and these should be on a regular cycle, that are meant precisely for enjoyment, for family,

for friends, for colour, for tinsel, and for good food and good drink There is even the occasional time for some prudent excess Jesus gave voice to this when his disciples were scandalised by a woman’s excess in anointing his feet with perfume and kisses

All cultures, not least those which are economically poor, have times of festival where, explicitly or implicitly, they take seriously the words: “The poor you will always have with you, but today it is time to celebrate ” Christmas is such a time, meant for festival.

John Shea, in his now classic book on Christmas, Starlight, tells the story of a family who decided one year to celebrate an alternative Christmas They did not put up a tree, did not string up any lights, played no carols, and did not exchange gifts They met for a simple, quiet meal on Christmas Day Asked by friends how it all went over, one family member replied that it “was pleasant” Another member, perhaps speaking more honestly, stated that it was “an existential abyss”

There is a God given pressure inside of us that pushes us to celebrate and instils in us an irrepressible sense that we are not meant for poverty, gloom and carefully measured out relationships, but that we are meant ultimately for the feast, the dance, the place of lights and music, and the place where we don’t measure out our pennies and our hearts on the basis of having to survive and pay mortgages The celebration of festivals and carnival, even with their excesses, help teach us that F e s t i v a l a l e s s o n i n f a i t h

Christmas is such a festival In the end, its celebration is a lesson in faith and hope, even when it isn’t as strong a lesson in prudence

To make a festival of Christmas, to sur round Jesus’ birthday with all the joy, light, music, gift giving, energy and warmth we can muster is, strange as this may sound, a prophetic act It is, or at least it can be, an expression of faith and hope It’s not the person who says: “It’s rotten, let’s cancel it!” who radiates hope That can easily be despair masquerading as faith

No. It is the man or woman who, despite the world’s misuse and abuse of these, still strings up the Christmas lights, decorates the tree, roasts the turkey, turns up the carols, gives presents to loved ones, sits down at table with family and friends, and flashes a grin to the world, who is ra diating faith, who is saying that we are meant for more than gloom who is celebrating Jesus’ birth

L e t t h e r e b e v o l u n t e e r s

Intention: We pray that volunteer non-profit organisations committed to human development find people dedicated to the common good and ceaselessly seek out new paths to international cooperation.

THERE IS A BROAD SPECTRUM OF MOTIVES

driving volunteers The overseas school leavers I dealt with in violence wracked rural KwaZulu

Natal in the last days of apartheid wanted to see the world and in the process also do some good

Be part of our apostolic work by joining our Associates campaign. sign up for a minimum contribution of r100 per month. tell us how you would like your contribution to be spent by choosing from these three membership options:

In the pep talk I used to give them, I showed them where our valuables were kept money, keys to vehicles, and so on and told them that if anyone came to the door with firearms demanding these, they were to imme diately hand them over “We can replace the money and vehicles,” I would say, rather theatrically, “but we cannot replace you!” It was gratifying to note how sobering these cocky kids found my words of wisdom

Their youthful spirits soon revived, of course, and some played hard as well as worked hard, making sure they had a good time, linking up with contemporaries at the university and making other social contacts They were youngsters seizing the day, seeking a little mild ad venture In some cases such as a hijacking which could have ended in death or injur y they got somewhat more than they bargained for.

A c c e p t a n c e f r o m t h e c o m m u n i t y

Two outstanding volunteers, whom I remember fondly, chose to forego most of the fun side of volunteer ing and dedicated themselves generously to their task of teaching maths and science to young people of about their own age. They set up a classroom as a laborator y and cre ated in it various apparatuses for scientific experiments

These two boys were from the UK and were walking into another world, but their openness and their selfless ness overcame cultural barriers and thus they achieved a high degree of acceptance in the community It was a small example of international cooperation, enabling a mutually enriching meeting between young people from vastly different corners of the planet

I understand that these days volunteer organisations tend to draw their volunteers from more mature people, in cluding the retired This is because older folk bring great skills and experience to the tasks at hand and can act as mentors to the younger volunteers The fact that there are men and women who could spend their sunset years touring the world but instead choose to be people for others is surely a strong hint that the Holy Spirit is still at work in the world

Volunteer, non profit organisations are hugely diffi cult to run They have times of great energy and growth, and other times of diminution and decline May our prayers lend them courage and creativity coupled with vision and hope.

Every month Fr chris chatteris sJ reflects on Pope Francis’ prayer intention

ST FRANCIS DE SALES’ Prayer

Be at p

Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; rather look to them with full hope as they arise.

God, whose very own you are, will deliver you from out of them. He has kept you hitherto, and He will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand it, God will bury you in his arms. Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you then and every day. He will either shield you from suffering, or give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imagination.

Amen

Your prayers to cut out and collect

Prayer Corner

Do you have a favourite prayer? Please send to editor@scross.co.za

CHRISTMAS PRAYER

God of love, Father of all, the darkness that covered the earth has given way to the bright dawn of your Word made flesh.

Make us a people of this light. Make us faithful to your Word, that we may bring your life to the waiting world. Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

Prayer for the Ne w Ye ar

O God, thank you for helping us to make it through this difficult year Thank you that you’ve carried us through the uncertainty of deep waters, through the flames of trials, and through the pain of hard losses

We are constantly aware of how much we need you, your grace, your strength, your power working through even the toughest days Thank you for bringing us into this New Year. We look forward to all that You still have in store. In Jesus’ name, Amen

L O V I N G F A T H E R

LOVIN G FATHER , Lord and creator of all that is beautif ul, ex tolled in the heights of angelic powers in the splendour of ceaseless heavenly worship, look mercif ully on the pover t y and sinf ulness of your children, so that the name of Jesus, your Div ine Son, the Light of all the nations,

our ver y Life and Resurrection, may breathe new life and new faith into our sinf ul world.

Kindly grant that the praise that is sung in heaven may resound in the hear t of ever y liv ing creature on this ear th. All this we pray in Jesus’ precious name, Amen

December 28 marks the 600th anniversary of St Francis de Sales’ death

He was our Saint of the Month in January 2022

In the puzzle above, find these names from the Christmas story in the first two chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

Was bent on seeing the Crib (5)

Duet in E: a piece of music (5)

The nature of God made man (5)

How the merry organist feels at Midnight Mass (7)

Confer one city about Christmas sweets (13)

They go with the soup (6)

Shamed about the spuds (6)

Clue8down

Clue35across

Across 1 Alternative name for Jesus (8) 3 Twelve days after Christmas (8) 4 Hark! What kind of angels? (6) 6 Caesar at the time of Jesus’ birth (8) 9 Mary ’s conception (10) 10 Popular Christmas roast (6) 11 One of the Three Wise Men (8) 12 Christmas carol (3,2,3,5) 13 Spanish Father Christmas (4,4) 17 A Christmas Carol author (7,7) 18 Italian bringer of gifts (6) 19 Content of Santa’s bag (4) 22 King of Judea at Jesus’ birth (5) 25 Aromatic smoke at Mass (7) 27 Navigator, named Natal after Christmas (5,2,4) 29 Where Baby Jesus was laid (6) 30 Announcers of Jesus’ birth (6) 32 Territory of present day Bethlehem (9)

33 Glad news (7) 34 Spicy Christmas cake (11) 35 Santa’s mode of transport (6) 38 Month of Christmas (8) 40 Sound of a Silent Night (9) 41 One of the Magis’ gifts (5) 42 Guide to the Magi (4) 43 Category on Santa’s list (7) 44 Czech king from a carol (9) 45 English spiced Christmas punch (7) 46 Popular Christmas dessert (6) DoWn 2 December 6 feast saint (8) 5 Town of St Francis’ first Nativity scene (7) 7 How Jesus was wrapped in cloth (9) 8 Casablanca actor born on Christmas Day (8,6) 9 English tyrant who banned Christmas (8) 12 God becoming human (11) 14 Seasonal song by Wham! (4,9)

15 St Joseph’s father (5) 16 One of Santa’s reindeer (6) 19 Xhosa for Christmas (9) 20 Christianised pagan winter festival (8) 21 Roasting on Nat ‘King ’ Cole’s open fire (9)

Second Christmas day (6,3) 24 Regular SC Christmas story writer (5,2,4) 25 Gospel with Nativity narrative (7) 26 Praying posture (8) 28 Country of origin of “Silent Night ” (7) 30 Messiah predicting prophet (6) 31 Seventh word of “O Holy Night ” (8) 36 Third Sunday of Advent (7)

Christmas tree decorations (7) 39 An ox and donkey, for example (7) 40 Jesus’ title (6) 42 Composer of “ The Messiah” (6)

The Big Christmas Quiz

er 1 b) December 3 c) December 5

2 Which christmas carol includes the lines, “Glories stream from heaven afar, heavenly hosts sing Alleluia”? a) Hark! The Herald Angels Sing b) O Holy Night c) Silent Night

3. Between 1996 and 2013, where did south Africa play its Boxing Day cricket tests?

a) Cape Town b) Durban c) Port Elizabeth

4 in which Gospel is there no room in the inn for Mar y and Joseph? a) Matthew c) Mark c) Luke

5 For which us holiday was “Jingle Bells” originally written? a) Independence Day b) Labour Day c) Thanksgiving

6. Bethlehem was the city of which king? a) David b) Saul c) Solomon 7 Where do people use the seasonal greeting , “My christmas on you”? a) Gabon b) Kenya c) Liberia

8. Which seasonal greeting was popularised by charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? a) Compliments of the Season b) Happy Holidays c) Merr y Christmas

Solutions

9. What colour vestments do catholic priests wear for christmas Eve Mass? a) White b) Gold c) Purple

10 in which ocean are the christmas islands? a) Atlantic b) Indian c) Pacific

11 According to st Matthew, who was st Joseph’s grandfather?

a) Levi b) Mathat c) Nahum

12 in which movie did Bing crosby first sing “ White christmas”? a) Holiday Inn b) The Bells of St Mar y ’s c) White Christmas

13 Where is Father christmas known as “Julemanden”? a) Bulgaria b) Denmark c) Switzerland

14 in which language would one say “Jabulela ukhisimusi ” to wish you a Merr y christmas? a) isiNdebele b) SeSotho c) isiZulu

15 Which popular hymn was long wrongly attributed to protestant leader Martin luther? a) Away In A Manger b) Ding Dong Merrily On High c) O Little Town of Bethlehem

16 Where would you eat a traditional christmas food called “kawali ”? a) Panama b) Papua New Guinea c) Philippines

17 What did my true love give to me on the tenth day of christmas?

SouthernCrossword: ACROSS: 1 Deaths, 4 Wigwam, 9 Angelic chorus, 10 Acolyte, 11 Roman, 12 Knelt, 14 Etude, 18 Human, 19 Playful, 21 Confec tionery, 22 Spoons, 23 Mashed DOWN: 1 Dramas, 2 Aggiornamento, 3 Holly, 5 Inherit, 6 Word Made Flesh, 7 Musing, 8 Acted, 13 Lantern, 15 Shocks, 16 Spite, 17 Slayed, 20 Aroma

Anagram Challenge:

1 The Polar Express, 2 Jingle All The Way, 2 A Nativity Tale 4 Miracle On 34th Street, 5 A Christmas Carol

Dropped Letters: Nativity Shepherds Stable Advent Wreath, Candles, Frankincense, Angels, Christmas Tree, Rejoice

Quick Christmas Crossword: ACROSS: 1 Emmanuel 3 Epiphany 4 Herald 6 Augustus 9 Immaculate, 10 Gammon, 11 Melchior, 12 Joy To The World, 13 Papa Noel, 17 Charles Dickens, 18 Befana, 19 Toys 22 Herod 25 Immaculate 27 Vasco da Gama

a) Lords a leaping b) Maids a milking c) Swans a swimming

18 Which current head of government was born on christmas Day? a) Jacinda Ahern b) Emmanuel Macron c) Justin Trudeau

19 Who had a big hit in 1974 with the medieval carol “in Dulci Jubilo”? a) Emerson, Lake & Palmer b) Mike Oldfield c) Procol Harum

20 in which year did Fr ralph de hahn write his first christmas short stor y to be published in The Southern Cross? a) 1952 b) 1962 c) 1972

21 in which classic novel does a character complain: “christmas won’t be christmas without any presents”? a) Little Women b) Sense & Sensibility c) Vanity Fair

22 in which year was the first christmas card sent? a) 1818 b) 1843 c) 1868

23 Where were the writers of “ While shepherds Watched their Flocks” born? a) Great Britain b) Ireland c) USA

24 Whose feast is on December 26? a) St Simeon b) St Stephen c) St Sylvester

25 the first ever English Football league match to be played on Boxing Day was in 1889, between preston north End and which other team? a) Accrington Stanley b) Aldershot Town c) Aston Villa

29 Manger, 30 Angels, 32 Palestine, 33 Tidings, 34 Gingerbread 35 Sleigh 38 December 42 Star 40 Quietness, 41 Myrrh, 43 Naughty, 44 Wenceslas, 45 Wassail, 46 Trifle DOWN: 2 Nicholas, 5 Greccio, 7 Swaddling, 8 Humphrey Bogart, 9 Cromwell, 12 Incarnation, 14 Last Christmas, 15 Jacob, 16 Donner, 19 Krisimesi 20 Yuletide 21 Chestnuts 23 Boxing Day 24 Ralph de Hahn, 25 Matthew, 26 Kneeling, 28 Austria, 30 Isaiah, 31 Brightly, 36 Gaudete, 37 Baubles, 39 Animals, 40 Christ, 42 Handel

Christmas Quiz: 1 b) December 3, 2 c) Silent Night, 3 b) Durban (PE was the venue on six other occasions since readmission in 1992), 4 c) Luke (2:7), 5 c) Thanksgiving, 6 a) David, 7 c) Liberia, 8 c) Merry Christmas, 9 c) Purple, 10 b) Indian, 11 b) Mathat,

a) Holiday Inn 13 b) Denmark 14 c) isiZulu

a) Away In A Manger, 16 c) Philippines (a crusty, spicy pork dish), 17 a) Lords a Leaping, 18 c) Justin Trudeau, 19 b) Mike Oldfield, 20 a) 1952, 21 a) Little Women (uttered by Jo March), 22 b) 1843, 23 b) Ireland 24 b) St Stephen 25 c) Aston Villa

OF

Final Words

Great Quotes by Saints on CHRISTMAS

‘Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man… I tell you again: For your sake, God became man. ’ St Augustine of Hippo (354 430)

‘Arise, all ye nobles and peasants; Mary invites all, rich and poor, just and sinners, to enter the cave of Bethlehem, to adore and to kiss the feet of her newborn Son… Let us enter; let us not be afraid ’ St Alphonsus Liguori (1696 1787)

‘He was humbled in the womb of the Virgin, needy in the manger of the sheep, and homeless on the wood of the Cross Nothing so humbles the proud sinner as the humility of Jesus’ humanity.”

St Anthony of Padua & Lisbon (1195 1231)

‘A God who became so small could only be mercy and love.’ St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873 97)

‘Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness. No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all ’ St Leo I the Great (c400 461)

‘We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice.’

St Paul VI (1897 1978)

‘My prayer for you is that when Christ comes to you in Christmas, he may find in you a warm home, warm love like that of a heart full of love, like that of a simple shepherd who was the first one chosen to see Christ.’

St Teresa of Kolkata (1910 97)

History in Colour

G e r m a n s o l d i e r s o n t h e W e s t e r n F r o n t i n W o r l d

W a r I g a t h e r i n t h e i r t r e n c h a r o u n d a m o d e s t C h r i s t m a s t r e e , p r o b a b l y o n e o f t h e t h o u s a n d s w h i c h G e r m a n K a i s e r W i l h e l m

I I s e n t t o t h e f r o n t i n a b i d t o b o o s t m o r a l e

S o m e o f t h e c o l d a n d e x h a u s t e d s o l d i e r s a r e r e a d i n g l e t t e r s f r o m h o m e O n e s o l d i e r i s p l a y i n g t h e a c c o r d i o n , l i k e l y a G e r m a n C h r i s t m a s c a r o l

T h e f i r s t C h r i s t m a s o f t h e w a r , w h i c h h a d s t a r t e d a f e w m o n t h s e a r l i e r i n 1 9 1 4 , s a w a n u n d e c l a r e d c e a s e f i r e b e t w e e n B r i t i s h a n d G e r m a n t r o o p s , k n o w n a s t h e “ C h r i s t m a s T r u c e ”

P o p e B e n e d i c t X V , w h o a s c e n d e d t o t h e p a p a c y j u s t a m o n t h a f t e r t h e o u t b r e a k o f w a r , h a d i s s u e d a n a p p e a l “ t h a t t h e g u n s m a y f a l l s i l e n t a t l e a s t u p o n t h e n i g h t t h e a n g e l s s a n g ” T h e g e n e r a l s i g n o r e d B e n e d i c t ’ s h o p e , b u t s o l d i e r s i n t h e t r e n c h e s t o o k t h e i n i t i a t i v e t h e m s e l v e s T h e y n o t o n l y h e l d f i r e b u t e v e n e m e r g e d f r o m t h e i r t r e n c h e s t o m e e t t h e e n e m y , s h a k e h a n d s , s h a r e a d r i n k , a n d i n s o m e p l a c e s e v e n e n j o y a g a m e o f f o o t b a l l A f t e r C h r i s t m a s , t h e k i l l i n g r e s u m e d T h e r e w o u l d b e n o m o r e C h r i s t m a s t r u c e u n t i l t h e w a r e n d e d i n 1 9 1 8

The last laugh

Ohis son in London: “I hate to ruin your Christmas, but I need to let you know that your mum and I are getting divorced Forty five years of misery is enough.”

“Dad, are you crazy? What are you doing?” the son screamed

“Son, we’re sick of each other and I’m tired of talking about this,” Frankie said “Please call your sister in Perth and let her know ”

ly WhatsApped etting over the shock, the siblings decided to take charge of the situation The sister called Jo’burg and instructed her father: “We’re coming to home on the next available flight tomorrow Don’t do anything until we get there We’re going to sort things out then ”

Frankie meekly agreed and hung up the phone He then turned to his wife: “Problem solved, dear! They ’re coming for Christmas and they ’re paying their own fare!”