202201

How to read the news and keep the faith

New Year’s Resolutions: Keep them with God’s help

Why Our Lady is the Mother of God

Southern Cross

Est. 1920

The

January 2022

The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa

R30 (incl. VAT in SA)

Our Bishops’ Dream Team THE SAINT OF THE MONTH: ST FRANCIS DE SALES

FR SBONGISENI MSOMI: A PRIEST AND HIS MUSIC

S outhern C ross P ilgrimages

Join us in 2022 on our spiritually enriching, specially-designed and perfectly arranged journeys of faith!

OBERAMMERGAU AND HOLY LAND Led by Archbishop William Slattery OFM 19 to 31 August 2022 • Only few open seats left

See the great holy shrines of the Holy Land, including the sites of Our Lord’s Passion, before flying to Germany to tour in Bavaria and see the famous Oberammergau Passion Play.

www.fowlertours.co.za/oberammergau

CAMINO TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

Official 7-Day Camino 30 Sept to 9 Oct 2022 • Led by Fr Chris Townsend

Walk the ancient ‘Camino Primitivo’ route from Lugo to Santiago de Compostela! Timed for school spring holidays!

Bonus: Your luggage will be delivered to your hotel every day!

www.fowlertours.co.za/camino

MEDJUGORJE, ROME, ASSISI, CROATIA Led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin 9 to 18 May 2022

Before Medjugorje, you will visit Rome (with papal audience in St Peter’s Square), Assisi, Loreto (with the House of Our Lady), and the beautiful Croatian city of Split.

www.fowlertours.co.za/medju

Contact Gail at info@fowlertours.co.za or call or WhatsApp 076 352-3809 *All dates subject to confirmation

Our pilgrimages are expertly arranged by

Welcome

Est. 1920

Southern Cross The

The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa Published Monthly

PO Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000 Tel: 083 233-1956

www.scross.co.za

LEADERSHIP TEAM:

Editor: Günther Simmermacher editor@scross.co.za Business Manager: Pamela Davids admin@scross.co.za Digital Editor: Claire Allen c.allen@scross.co.za Features Writer: Daluxolo Moloantoa daluxolo@scross.co.za Advisory Editor: Michael Shackleton ADVERTISING: advertising@scross.co.za SUBSCRIPTIONS: subscriptions@scross.co.za

AnnuAl suBscriptions: Print & Digital: R480 (SA); Digital only: R300; Print only: R480 (SA) Subscribe at www.scross.co.za/subscribe

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: R Shields (chair), Bishop S Sipuka, Bishop S David OMI (alt), S Duval, E Jackson, B Jordan, C Mathieson, N Mpushe, Fr H O’Connor, R Perrier, D Shikwambana, G Stubbs

Become an Associate and help thE southErn cross survive: www.scross.co.za/ associates-campaign/ Advertising ratecard is available from advertising@scross.co.za or download at www.scross.co.za/advertising /ScrossZA @scrossZA

@thesoutherncross_ All content is copyrighted.

Unauthorised reproduction in any form or distribution is forbidden.

The Southern Cross is published by the Catholic Newspaper & Publishing Co. Ltd (Reg. No: 1920/002058/06)

A special saint for us

O

Dear Reader,

NE OF OUR MOST POPULAR features, if feedback serves as a measure, is the Saint of the Month spread. I’ve been told that some people collect these features or frame the posters of saints for display at home. One reader told us that he keeps the articles in a flipfile, thereby creating an attractive “book of saints”.

For us at The Southern Cross, this month’s saint is particularly special: St Francis de Sales is the patron saint of the Catholic press. In December 2022, the Church will mark the 500th anniversary of the death of this kindly man of letters and Doctor of the Church.

In an unplanned twist of serendipity, or by the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit, our columnist Nthabiseng Maphisa framed her contributions around our Saint of the Month. So should there be readers who didn’t know much about the great St Francis de Sales before, this month’s issue provides relief.

W

e do need the continued intercession of St Francis de Sales. While the progress The Southern Cross has made since it transitioned from a weekly newspaper to a monthly magazine in September 2020 is remarkable, under the circumstances, it is alarming that many Catholics — even some former readers of the newspaper — don’t even know that this magazine exists. What does that tell us about the Catholic Church in Southern Africa? What can be done about it?

The question goes deeper than just the Catholic press. How many Catholics-inthe-pew know who their bishop is? How many know about the work of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC)? And if the faithful don’t avail themselves of Catholic media — print, radio, digital — then how will they know?

If the faithful do not receive Catholic media — either because of their own indifference or that of those who might introduce them to it — where will they come to know about the good works of the Church, its evangelisation efforts, and its challenges? And where, outside the weekly sermon at Mass, do they receive their ongoing Catholic formation?

C

oinciding with the feast of the patron of the Catholic press, we are running an interview with a Catholic journalist who has published a new book, titled Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith, on what amounts to media literacy.

In the interview, Christopher Altieri rightly notes: “It’s important for everybody to know about what the Church is doing locally.”

Our cover story on the team that runs the SACBC’s secretariat in Pretoria is an example of telling the public “what the Church is doing locally”. Fr Hugh O’Connor and Sr Phutunywa Siyali neither need nor seek the spotlight of the media — featuring them was entirely our idea — but the Catholic public should know, and should want to know, who is guiding their Church on a national level.

One year into their term, the priest and the Holy Cross Sister are building on the robust legacy of long-serving secretary-general Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS. On the cover, we call them a “Dream Team”, which is a comment on their respective qualifications as well as on their complementary and collegial leadership.

On pages 22-23 we feature a tribute to Salesian Father Pat McNaughton, an Irish missionary in South Africa. It is fitting to highlight the accomplishments of a Salesian priest in the month of the feasts of both the founder of the Salesians, St John Bosco, and the saint after whom Don Bosco named his order, St Francis de Sales. Fr Pat certainly merits a tribute as an individual, but we hope that he will also stand as representative for all the great work done by the Salesians and, indeed, by all missionary priests.

Thank you for reading The Southern Cross, and please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine!

St Francis de Sales, pray for us!

God bless,

Günther simmermacher (Editor)

Contents JANUARY 2022

8

The Bishops’ Dream Team Meet the two heads of the SACBC’s daily operations: Fr Hugh O’Connor and Sr Phuthunywa Siyali

11

How to Be Media-savvy Catholic journalist Christopher Altieri talks to us about how to read news and still keep the faith

14

The Priest and His Music We interview Fr Sbongiseni Msomi about his new CD and his life as a musician and composer

16

The Best Gift Ever A reluctant pilgrim to the Holy Land has written a book on his experiences in the land of Jesus

21

9

Why Mary is the Mother of God For her feast day on January 1, Fr Ralph de Hahn explains how Mary is the Mother of God

22

The bishops’ dream team

Celebrating a Missionary Priest In the month of St John Bosco and St Francis de Sales, we pay tribute to a Salesian missionary in SA

24

After Our New Year’s Resolutions How we can keep up our New Year’s resolutions, with God’s help

25

Should We Skip ‘Midnight Mass’ A Catholic review of the Netflix series Midnight Mass

EVERY MONTH 5

FROM OUR VAULTS

6

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

The Southern Cross 75 years ago You ask, and our team of experts replies, on questions about the Magi, funerals, and the pope and Islam

17

SAINT OF THE MONTH The life of St Francis de Sales — with pull-out poster

26

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Have your say!

27

THE MILLENNIAL CATHOLIC Nthabiseng Maphisa on a great saint

28

RAYMOND PERRIER On the Christian faith in the secular world

29

FR RON ROLHEISER OMI On how to sing the song well

30

PRAY WITH THE POPE Fr Chris Chatteris SJ reflects on the pope’s prayer intention for January

31

14

The priest and his music

Did you know?

In our digital edition, all links to websites are live .

Just click, and the site opens in your browser!

Try iT!

PRAYER CORNER Your illustrated prayers, to cut out and collect

32

TWO PAGES OF PUZZLES Two Crosswords, Wordsearch, Dropped Letters, Catholic Trivia Quiz, and Anagram Challenge

34

COOKING WITH SAINTS Grazia Barletta tries out recipes from the past.

This month: St Fiacre’s leafy salad

36

...AND FINALLY History in Colour, Inspiring Quotes on the Epiphany, and a Last Laugh

Netflix series Midnight Mass reviewed

25

The life of St Francis de Sales

17

75 Years Ago: January 1, 1947

FROM OUR VAULTS 31-year-old bishop for Natal

Pope Pius XII has appointed 31-year-old Fr Denis Hurley OMI as bishop of the vicariate of Natal.

Fr Hurley, who was born in Cape Town on November 9, 1915, is the current rector of the Oblate House of Studies [now St Joseph’s Theological Institute] near Pietermaritzburg. He was ordained in Rome in 1939.

Papal delegate visits orphans

The apostolic delegate [now papal nuncio] to South Africa, Archbishop Martin Lucas, visited Polish refugee orphans at their Oudtshoorn camp.

Dr Skowronski, leader of the camp, told the archbishop of the hardships the children had gone through in World War II, and how they came from temporary refuge in Iran to South Africa.

Protest in support for pope

250 000 people came to St Peter’s Square in the Vatican to pledge support to Pope Pius XII amid anti-clerical campaigns in Italy. The pope addressed the crowed for 20 minutes, being frequently interrupted by applause and affirming chants.

Editorial: Beware the Reds

In his editorial, Fr Owen McCann wonders whether the year 1947 will bring “peace or continued disturbances with the threat of war”. In a stridently anti-communist article, Fr McCann writes that “we cannot be blind to the assault that the powers of darkness [meaning communists] are staging upon Christianity and particularly the Catholic Church”.

With pull-out poster!

Previous “From The Vaults” articles at www.scross.co.za/vaults

What else made news in January 1947:

• South Africa is gearing up for the first royal visit to the country, by King George VI of England, his wife Elizabeth, and their teenage daughters Elizabeth and Margaret, set to commence in Cape Town on February 17.

• A communist-led bloc of parties claims 80,1% of the vote in Poland’s first parliamentary elections since World War II, which were marred by intimidation, violence and evident falsification of results.

• The first issue of the influential German news magazine Der Spiegel is published on January 4, and in the United States, President Harry Truman’s State of the Nation address is the first to be televised.

Fr Desmond Hatton blesses P Lawless and Nell White during their wedding in St Patrick’s church in Mowbray, Cape Town.

Right: An ad announcing the forthcoming construction of a new church to be dedicated to Bl Martin de Porres in Craighall, Johannesburg, with a request for financial support.

Left: A road-safety ad for December. Yes, even then!

The Southern Cross

5

What’s behind pope’s agreements with islam?

Q. I’d like to know more about the agreements which Pope Francis has made with Islamic leaders. Could you advise me about the parties involved, the purpose, the manner to implement it, and if it includes any redline?

I

N LINE WITH THE DIRECTIVES OF THE SECOND VATICAN Council, particularly in the document Nostra Aetate, Pope Francis has in the course of his pontificate reached out with two profoundly symbolic gestures to the Islamic world.

The first, in 2019, was his trip to Abu Dhabi and his meeting with the grand imam of al-Azhar, Sheik Ahmed elTayeb, who on that occasion represented the whole world of Sunni Islam. With him the pope co-signed the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together”.

The second was his March 2021 trip to Iraq, particularly his visit to the city of Najaf, where he met with Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, in a sense completing his pastoral approach to the house of Islam by embracing the Shi’a family. In both these pastoral visits the pope encountered two leaders from radically different worldviews and contexts, but with the same burning desire for an end to sectarian hostility and violence.

Beyond any words that might have been spoken or joint declarations made, or documents that were signed, the pope’s visits were primarily symbolic gestures: building on the words of Pope Paul VI, Pope Francis has grasped the reality that peace will never be attained without justice, and that for just structures to become a reality, a truthful human brotherhood and sisterhood is crucial.

The “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” is itself not an all-embracing roadmap

Your Questions answered

Do you have questions for implementation or about our faith? Send them to: a binding contract, but editor@scross.co.za simply a series of Subject line: Q&A pointers and suggestions for the Christian and Muslim communities — hooks upon which to hang their own politically and socially contextual ideas and concerns. It may need future clarification and development, but for the present it offers crucial practical possibilities for a greater human harmony, as well as a sufficient number of issues that might lead to a more profound interreligious conversation about the ethics and theologies we hold in common.

(Fr Christopher Clohessy)

Pope Francis and Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt’s al-Azhar mosque and university, after an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2019.

Funerals: Must the body be present?

Q. I have always been taught that during a funeral service or Mass, it is necessary for the body to be present. I now hear that ashes are acceptable. Is this due to the Covid pandemic, and will the rule revert when the pandemic ends?

6

The Southern Cross

Photos: Paul Haring/CNS; Diocese of Faridabad

T

HE NORM IS FOR THE BODY to be present at the Requiem Mass or funeral service. As Catholics we have ways of bidding farewell to the faithful departed.

Occasionally a service without the body being present is permissible, for example in cases of death on a battlefield, an earthquake, or a similar disaster where it is physically impossible for the body to be present.

A burial at sea will also fall into this category.

During the initial stages of the Covid pandemic — bearing in mind that there was no “dress rehearsal” for our responses to Covid deaths — neither the Church nor the underIndian Archbishop Kur iakose Bha ranikula nga ra takers knew what the bles ses the ashes of a Francisc an Sist er who safety protocols were redied of Covid-19 dur ing her fune ral Mas s in 2020. garding funerals. We relied on what we ouring “the body of the deceased as assumed to be the safest practices. a temple of the Holy Spirit” and We have subsequently learned that presumes the presence of the body.

Covid cannot be transmitted by a One could argue that the ashes do corpse, and with the usual social dis- constitute mortal remains, but tancing and other safety protocols doing the ritual with the ashes inwe now have funerals with the stead of the body seems to go body in the church. against established practice.

The Book of Rites refers to hon(Bishop Sylvester David OMI)

Who were the Magi?

Q. All we read in the Gospel is that some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east (Matthew 2:2). Why do we say they were three kings, or three wise men, called Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar?

T

HE GOSPEL TELLS US NOTHING biographical about these men, and even the apocryphal writings do not add much. We have to speculate about who they were and where in the east they came from.

Wise men is a translation from the Greek word magoi. The term indicates men of a priestly caste common among the ancient Medes and Persians. The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who had served in the army in Persia, wrote that the Persian magi based their wisdom on the Brahmins, an Indian priestly order who were the most superior of the Hindu castes.

Also, the 17th century Portuguese poet Luis de Camoes identified the magi as Indian Brahmins.

In the Eastern Church there are traditionally 12 wise men.

Our Western tradition is that there were three, probably because of the three gifts they presented to Christ of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Most of the other legends, such as their names, seem to have derived from the Eastern Church, where it was customary to interpret scriptural events in a more symbolic way than in the West.

For example, gold was regarded as a gift fit for a king, frankincense for God, and myrrh as symbolic of Christ’s bitter death.

The names probably come from the tradition of the ancient king of Arabia (Bithisarea or Balthasar), king of Persia (Melichior or Melchior) and king of India (Gathaspa, Gaspar or Casper).

In the 3rd century, Tertullian referred to the wise men as the Kings of the Magi, perhaps seeing a connection between them and the words

is Alpha Catholic?

“Adoration of the Magi”

by Fra Angelico (1395-1455)

of Psalm 72:10-11: “The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will pay him tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba will offer gifts; all kings will do him homage, all nations become his servants.”

(Michael Shackleton)

Q. Is the Alpha course approved for use in Catholic parishes?

A

LPHA IS A PROGRAMME OF CHRISTIAN evangelisation first developed in 1977 at an Anglican charismatic parish in London.

It consists of ten interactive sessions in which participants discuss basic questions of faith, such as “Who is Jesus?” or “Why and how do I pray?” The goal is to bring people into a closer personal relationship with Christ.

Alpha is compatible with Catholic teaching, although it does not deal specifically with issues like the theology of the sacraments. There is also a version called “Alpha for Catholics”, which supplements the basic programme with teachings specific to the Catholic faith. That version is being used in South African Catholic parishes. Since its inception, Alpha has been used in thousands of Catholic parishes in more than 70 countries.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna — one of the editors of the Catechism of the Catholic Church — has said: “Alpha is for meeting Jesus... For me, the Christian life has something to do with simplicity, friendship, closeness and joy. That’s what I feel about Alpha, and I think that’s a sign that it works and that it’s given from the Lord.”

In South Africa, Catholic Alpha offers adult and youth programmes, webinars, a course for prisoners, and more.

Find out more at www.alpha.org/catholic-context/ (Fr Kenneth Doyle)

Marriage Preparation Weekends

We are passionate about your marriage and want to help you prepare for it. cAtholic EnGAGED EncountEr is an online interactive marriage preparation programme designed to help you both prepare for the Sacrament of Marriage.

Catholic Engaged Encounter, Johannesburg, is offering marriage preparation weekends via Zoom video conference.

Couples from all parts of south Africa are welcome to attend.

Weekends are offered on a monthly basis at a cost of R600 per couple. Couples should have access to a good internet connection using Wi-Fi or data.

see our website for weekend dates and booking details at: www.engagedencounter.co.za/Dates_And_Bookings.html to make a booking for a weekend, complete our booking form which can be found at: https://engaged-encounter.herokuapp.com/ Financial assistance is available on request for couples who cannot afford the weekend fee or data costs.

For queries, contact steve at 083 4571245 or email us at info@engagedencounter.co.za

‘A wedding is a day – a marriage is a lifetime.’

The Southern Cross

7

sA Church’s dream team Fr Hugh O’Connor and Sr Phuthunywa Siyali HC are in charge of running the daily affairs of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Daluxolo Moloantoa spoke to them.

T

HE RECIPE IS SIMPLE: “THE ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a winning team.” Motivational speaker Lewis B Ergen’s statement rings true for the duo that runs the secretariat of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC).

Fr Hugh O’Connor was installed as the SACBC’s secretary-general as of January 1, 2021, just three months after he was appointed associate secretary-general. Shortly thereafter Holy Cross Sister Phuthunywa Catherine Siyali was appointed associate secretarygeneral, a position that puts her “second-in-command” in the secretariat.

But Fr O’Connor is quick to point out that there is no hierarchy in the way they work together. Both took their office at short notice, succeeding Precious Blood Sister Hermenegild Makoro, who retired after 15 years in the secretariat, almost nine of them as secretary-general. Sr Siyali’s experience of having worked with the SACBC has been a benefit.

The first year in office of the new team has been characterised by challenges and victories — and a number of important lessons along the way.

Importantly, says Fr O’Connor, he and Sr Siyali have travelled that journey side by side. “Working as a team has been a wonderful experience,” he says.

“I think that we make a good team as we both bring different gifts to the SACBC secretariat, and there is room for different views and visions. I could not have wished for a nicer associate, and consider myself very blessed.”

For Fr O’Connor, who will celebrate 25 years of priesthood on July 4, coming to Khanya House, the SACBC’s headquarters in the Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof, has been a leap. His previous appointments have been in his

home archdiocese of Cape Town. One of these, however, concerned the Church throughout the SACBC region.

Between 2006 and 2019, Fr O’Connor was a formator and lecturer at the national orientation seminary, St Francis Xavier in the Cape Town suburb of Crawford. In Pretoria, his office is adjacent to the national seminary, St John Vianney.

Sr Siyali’s path

Sr Siyali was born in 1970 in Aliwal North, Eastern Cape. She grew up and was educated at the Holy Cross

Fr Hugh O’Connor and Sr Phuthunywa Siyali, who run the secretariat of the SACBC.

with the Holy See in making sure that liturgical documents were duly submitted for approval, recognition received, and so on. “All this work was done in collaboration with the executive committees of the various SACBC commissions. We received advice as to what is going on in the dioceses, so that we’d journey together with them,” she explains.

Previous to her SACBC work, she had worked in various posts in the diocese of Aliwal North, such as a diocesan catechetical coordinator, animator, and HIV/Aids coordinator. The honours graduate in theology is also a spiritual director and retreat director through the Jesuit Institute.

‘Women in the Church have always played a vital role, especially in schools and hospitals’

8

The Southern Cross

Sisters’ Mount Carmel mission. She joined the Holy Cross Sisters in 1989 and made her final vows in 2000.

For Sr Siyali, the journey in the SACBC secretariat has been something of a mixed bag. “This position is overwhelming and yet in many ways a mystery to be unravelled. I realised that I would need to tap into the already prevalent culture of teamwork, and also open myself to new learnings. It was clear to me that I’d have to do a lot of compromising and letting go, and also to submit myself to the new and unknown road ahead.

That was both stimulating and exciting for me.”

The SACBC was not a new experience. She had already served the bishops’ conference for eight years. From 2013 she was the coordinating secretary for culture in the Department for Christian Formation, Liturgy and Culture. This role included writing policy documents and training clergy and laity in matters of healing and inculturation. From 2016-19 she served as the liturgy coordinator in the same department. Her role involved liaison

Women in the Church

Both SACBC leaders agree that women have played a major role in the Church, especially those who nurtured and provided education in the mission schools and congregation-run hospitals. “I think that the Church is taking a right direction in as far as women’s development is concerned.

Women in the Church have always played a vital role, especially religious women in schools and hospitals. They might not have been recognised as such, but the decline of the religious congregations over the years has proven how crucial their role was in the past,” Sr Siyali says. “The impact they made is enormous and remarkable. They showed that women are capable of leadership in the Church, especially to lead in positions which were previously reserved for men.”

She notes that she is not the first woman in the SACBC to hold her

position. In the 1980s, during the height of apartheid, Sr Brigid Flanagan HF served in that position, with Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa as secretarygeneral. In 2005 Sr Makoro became associate secretary-general, working with Fr Vincent Brennan, and later Sr Tshifhiwa Munzhedzi OP was appointed to that position. “This en-

couraged me to accept the appointment with the hope and knowledge that I will be supported by the leadership of the Church and the secretarygeneral,” Sr Siyali says.

The past year has brought many highlights for both of the current SACBC leaders. One that is still fresh in their minds is the October 2021 solidarity and pastoral visit to Eswatini, one of the three countries that make up the SACBC region, along with South Africa and Botswana. The visit came at the height of the government’s crackdown on protests and claims of human rights abuses.

“The truth is, whatever happens in Eswatini affects South Africa, and viceversa. The pastoral visit was necessary for us since the diocese of Manzini, Eswatini’s only Catholic diocese, belongs to the SACBC,” Sr Siyali says.

“We went to Eswatini to listen to all that they are going through, as well as to offer support to our Catholic faithful and the people of the country, as well as to Bishop José Luis Ponce de León. The mainstream media always gives us conflicting messages, and being in Eswatini gave us a closer look

Catholic Institute of Education

Called in faith

to serve

Catholic schools and skills centres

at the reality on the ground and what was truly going on.”

She believes that dialogue is needed in the kingdom. “Some neutral body needs to step in and help both the government and monarchy to engage in a serious and meaningful dialogue for all in the country. Prayers are not enough — something concrete needs to happen,” Sr Siyali emphasises.

Qualified estate agent

Sr Siyali and Fr O’Connor are roughly the same age. Fr O’Connor, whose father Patrick was a long-serving director on the board of The Southern Cross, is turning 54 on January 2. The priest has a natural sense of curiosity.

At one point he qualified as an estate agent, simply out of interest. He has not practised that profession at all. So meeting new and interesting people, learning new skills, and being part of some thought-provoking discussions have been among the fulfilling aspects of his and Sr Siyali’s work.

Both say that they are motivated by being part of the processes that

Secure Your Child’s Success Open Day - Sat 19 Feb 09:00 - 12:00

Register on Website

Educating today tomorrow for the common good.

Private Catholic School for Girls with Co-ed Pre-Primary

www.holy rosary school.co.za The Southern Cross

9

Sr Siyali’s Christmas memories F

OR OUR CHRISTMAS ISSUE IN 2015, we asked ten South African Catholics about their most cherished Christmas memories. One of them was Sr Phuthunywa Siyali HC. Here’s what she told us:

Fr Hugh O’Connor (centre) at his ordination in Cape Town on July 4, 1997, with fellow ordinands (from left) Ricardo Smuts, Eugene Jackson, Jerome Aranes and Pierre Goldie. Photo: Sydney Duval

aim to make a difference in the life of the Church in Southern Africa. “The Church’s historical and universal role is to give guidance and support to the local Church, which are the dioceses,” Sr Siyali notes. The SACBC, as a coordinating body in the service of all dioceses, is part of that process.

At the moment the pastoral plan of the bishops’ conference — launched in January 2020 with the title “Evangelising Community Serving God, Humanity and All Creation” — is a point of priority through the SACBC’s six departments. Another focal point is the process leading up to the 2023 Synod on Synodality. In the current diocesan stage there is a special priority on being a listening Church, with “Communion, Participation and Mission”, which is crucial in the work of evangelisation.

The SACBC is also concerned with the various challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are there to support dioceses and people who need healing and restoration,” Sr Siyali says. The SACBC is also working with the South African Council of Churches “to encourage our congre-

Tel: +27 (0) 11 514 0063 or 010 592 2321 Ground Floor, Coral House, 20 Peter Place, Lyme Park, Sandton

admin@schreuderattorneys.co.za

10

Because we can be of Value and Assistance to you.

The Southern Cross

gations to vaccinate and preserve life and protect one another”.

Fr O’Connor, who has a strong background in education in the Church, says the pandemic has posed a number of challenges which have required an appropriate response by the SACBC secretariat. He lists them as follows: The Youth: What is going to happen with the youth in a post-pandemic Church?

The Elderly: The process for the re-establishment of ministry in the home, through extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist taking Communion to the sick at home.

Mass attendance: Will people come back to Church and what will worship look like?

The Synod: The Synod on Synodality is not being held for the sake of just holding a synod. Rather, the synodal process serves as an invitation to envision the Church in new ways — more listening, more dialogue, more respect, more discernment, more wisdom, more context, and more evangelisation.

Visit scross.co.za for your Catholic news!

Christmas was always marked with a celebration of the Christmas Eve Mass and as well as Christmas morning Mass. I grew up on a farm called Mount Carmel in Aliwal North, which belonged to the Holy Cross Sisters. I remember as a child, I took a role in the Christmas play and I was Mary, the mother of Jesus. What a great honour I had and I could see in the small parish church our parents watching us.

My mother and father were among those at Christmas Mass, watching me with care and pride. I had such joy in taking a role in that play, more than the new Christmas dress I was to wear afterwards. It made me aware of the gift of family life and belonging to the Catholic Church.

I say this because I did not know any other denomination then except the Catholic Church, and I thought all Christians were Catholics [laughs].

After Christmas Mass, we would be going from house to house in our small farm village, exclaiming, “HAAAPPY”! We would receive from each house a packet of homebaked biscuits and a glass of lovely and refreshing homemade ginger beer — or as we would call it in Afrikaans, gemmer.

By midday we had the Christmas celebration to the full. We would have a special lunch cooked by my eldest sister and still we left room to share the meal at our neighbours, and they would come to our house as well. This was a free community and open to all. The true spirit of ubuntu was lived out.

Haaaaaa! How I long for those simple yet cherished Christmas celebrations!

How to be MEDIA-SAVVY

Catholics today have unprecedented access to media which offer information on the Church and the secular world. But what news can be trusted? Günther simmermacher interviewed Catholic journalist and author Christopher Altieri on his new book Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith.

A

S A CATHOLIC JOURNALIST who for many years worked in and for the Vatican, Dr Christopher Altieri is wellplaced to see through the smoke and mirrors of Church politics and the reporting on these. He has put that experience to work in his latest book, Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith, which he intends to serve as a crash-course for Catholics in media literacy.

Media literacy is the ability to consume the news in a way that helps the reader to discern between truth, manipulation, incompetence and lies.

This is particularly important in the digital age, where much news is not put through the rigours of an editorial process and often is patently fake (though, as we have learnt in South Africa, even once esteemed newspapers are prone to fabricating news and even telling outrageous lies).

From 2005-17, Altieri worked for Vatican Radio on its English newsdesk, which was headed by Cape Town-born Sean Patrick Lovett.

From 2018-21 the American served the Catholic Herald in various roles, including executive editor.

Since 2018 he has also been contributing editor of the Catholic World Report, and has written for several leading publications The holder of a PhD in philosophy, Altieri is a founding affiliate (external) of the Benedict XVI Centre for the Study of Religion and Society at St Mary’s University in London.

Reading the News Without Losing

Your Faith, which is published by the Catholic Truth Society, is Altieri’s third book, after The Soul of a Nation: America as a Tradition of Inquiry and Nationhood (2015) and Into the Storm: Chronicle of a Year in Crisis (2020).

The 45-year-old father of two shares his time between Rome and his native Connecticut.

Q: Your first observation in Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith is that for much of the Church’s existence, almost no Catholic knew who the pope was. Obviously today virtually every Catholic knows.

When did that change, and how?

A: I suppose it hasn’t been strictly true for several centuries. The world has

talk a little bit about it in my book, especially in relation to Humanae Vitae.

That was Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter issued in 1968 on the regulation of human fertility. Humanae Vitae was, and still is, a very misunderstood document.

There was a media fracas surrounding its development and eventual official publication. Things haven’t been the same since. I’d say that things had already changed, and the persistent controversy surrounding the document is a sign of how much things have changed.

So we have this focal point on the papacy, but do most Catholics today actually care what’s going on in the Vatican, or in the global Church, or even in their local Church?

Yes and no. There’s always a small number of people who are very invested — on an emotional level — in what’s happening in Rome. They’re spread across the spectrum of opinion in the Church and in society.

It is also true that the majority of Catholics in many, perhaps even most, places don’t care to know what’s doing in Rome. Who’s up and who’s down, which department of the Church’s central governing apparatus, the Roman curia, has put out what document, or what the pope said — all those are things about which most general news readers don’t appear to have much concern.

That’s not a big problem, but it’s important for people – everybody, not just Catholics – to know about what the Church is doing locally.

‘It’s important for everybody to know about what the Church is doing locally’

Right: Veteran Vatican journalist Christopher R Altieri, whose new book, Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith, advocates Catholic media literacy.

Top right: Newspapers in Dublin report on Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland in August 2018.

Photos: Günther Simmermacher; courtesy of Christopher Altieri

been getting smaller for a good while, now. Popes really began making news headlines between the two World Wars, and especially around the time of the Vatican Council II. How that all shook out would be a great subject for another book, but I

And why should they care?

The Catholic Church is an important element in every society in which she is present, and people have a right to know what the Church is getting up to — good and bad. When it comes to the Church, everyone has skin in the The Southern Cross

11

game — know it or not, like it or not.

The scandals and crises get all the headlines, but why are the good works of the Church not better known?

For two reasons, I expect. The first is that scandal moves copy. That’s a fact, rooted in human nature. I hear there’s a lot of that going around.

And journalism has a watchdog function to perform, too.

The second reason is that Christ tells us to do our good work in secret — by which he means that we shouldn’t call attention to ourselves when we do the good we do.

And in lots of places there are good reasons not to want too much publicity in any case.

The synthesis of the two reasons is in the old scribbling adage: “Commentary is cheap. Reporting is expensive.”

But I don’t know of a single journalist who wouldn’t jump at the chance to tell compelling stories of Catholics punching way above their weight in circumstances that are frequently very trying. I talk about this in the book, by the way. I could say lots more, but my publisher wouldn’t want me to give away the store!

Returning to a previous point, we have great numbers of faithful who are not really interested in Church affairs, but also some Catholics who are very invested. And among those, there are some who are fuelling partisanship and division. Lately even Pope Francis weighed in by criticising certain section in the Catholic media. What is the Catholic in the pew to make of all this?

The pope is a powerful man, and Pope Francis is a powerfully charismatic leader. His record of leadership is as amenable to criticism as any other leader’s. A wise leader will distinguish the misplacement or poor articulation of a critique from the substance of the complaint. The substance will often be reasonably founded. Complaints are often legitimate, even when the complainers express them unreasonably.

Pope Francis is not always as careful as I think a ruler should be to make such distinctions. He equates criticism of his conduct in office as criticism of himself. Since he is the office holder, criticism of his conduct is criticism of the office. Since the office stands for the whole Church, criticism

of his conduct is criticism of the Church.

At the risk of psychologising, that’s what seemed to me to be happening in the episode to which you referred in your question.

In the book, I quote John Adams, who was one of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States. He said something to the effect that citizens have a right to know about the character and conduct of their rulers. The Church is a power structure — at least, she has a divinely given hierarchical power structure — and that means that the faithful have a right to knowledge of the character and conduct of their rulers in the faith.

That’s also a big part of the answer to your earlier question about why it is important for Catholics to know what’s doing in the Church.

Especially in this digital age of clickbait on the Internet and diminishing expertise in religious matters in print newsrooms, how can Catholics know whether reporting, especially on the Church, is a fair reflection of the facts?

The short answer: To read widely and critically — to push back against our willingness to buy into narratives that fit our basic premises about the world and the figures about whom we’re reading. We also need to be more suspicious of “reporting” that paints the powerful people we do like in a sympathetic light.

Each of us, and all of us together, can decide — today — to look critically

Pope Francis calls for open ears

I

N THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH, CATHOLIC COMMUNICATORS must learn how to listen above all else, Pope Francis will say in his message for World Communications Day 2022, celebrated in most places around the world on May 29. The full papal message is expected to be released on or around the January 24 feast of St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists.

“Listen” will be the theme for the 2022 celebration of World Communications Day. “The pandemic has struck and wounded everyone, and everyone needs to be heard and comforted. Listening is also fundamental for good information,” said a Vatican statement announcing the theme.

The pope’s choice of the theme is drawn from Jesus’

12

The Southern Cross

words in the Gospel of Luke, “Take care, then, how you listen” (8:18).

The search for truth, the statement said, “begins with listening”, as does “bearing witness through social communications media. Every dialogue, every relationship begins with listening. For this reason, in order to grow — even professionally — as communicators, we must relearn to listen a great deal.”

The Vatican said that Jesus’ words are a reminder that in order to listen, Christians need “courage, an open and free heart, without prejudices”. It added: “In this time, when the whole Church is invited to listen in order to learn to be a synodal Church, we are all invited to rediscover listening as essential for good communication.”—CNS

at the people and the ideas and the views with which we tend to agree.

Is “turning off the Internet” for news a realistic option?

Father Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit, wrote a very helpful book some years back, called Cybertheology. Basically, he argued, with great depth of insight and quite convincingly, that the Internet is not a thing we use but an integral part of the environment. Digital media are part of the weave of the world, in other words.

So, the short answer to your question is: No. It is important for us to adapt our thinking so we can bring the part of the answer that says why it is not a realistic option more clearly into focus.

Catholic ProPublica...

We have something like ProPublica in South Africa: AmaBhungane, which means “dung beetle”...

An independent, non-profit investigative news outfit that works to expose abuse of power and betrayal of public trust.

finds expression in its various media. Is the Catholic media trustworthy?

That’s like asking whether newspapers are trustworthy. I can say I never miss an issue of The Southern Cross, and tell people every chance I get that they need to be reading it if they want to know what’s happening in the Church in Southern Africa, and I also say that they need to know what’s doing in the Church in southern Africa.

But I certainly don’t agree with every editorial or opinion piece you publish. I’d be very concerned if I did.

‘The faithful have a right to knowledge of the conduct of their rulers in the faith’

What can the Church do to foster the kind of media literacy you are advocating?

I think I’d reframe the question to ask what Catholics can do to foster media literacy. At risk of sounding like a particular group in the Church: We are the Church.

One thing we need is a sort of

A Catholic ProPublica — or indeed a Catholic AmaBhungane — wouldn’t be an initiative solely or even primarily dedicated to muckraking. I’ve never met anyone on the Church beat who wouldn’t love to have funding for deeply-researched reporting on people and issues close to home and around the world, or the chance to tell stories of Catholics doing all kinds of good, mostly on a shoestring, often without a “by your leave” from the institutions of the Church and society.

Polarisation in the Church also

And so would we!

Publications best serve their readers when they offer a broad range of opinion and let the readership make up their own minds. At the same time, a publication’s editorial line shouldn’t make much difference when it comes to straight news reporting.

Order Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith from the Catholic Truth Society at bit.ly/3BUqQzA or via online bookstores.

Be part of The Southern Cross’ 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:

cArDinAloWEn oWEnMccAnn MccAnnAssociAtE AssociAtE cArDinAl

SA’s first Cardinal and twice Southern Cross editor

securing the Future: Supporting the general running costs of The Southern Cross, including growing our digital footprint, and securing the title’s future.

BlEssED BlEssEDBEnEDict BEnEDictDAsWA DAsWAAssociAtE AssociAtE

SA’s first Blessed, a family father, teacher and catechist.

outreach: Providing free copies of our magazine to prisons, hospitals, seminaries, and distribution to the poor through Church agencies.

DorothY DAY DorothY DAY AssociAtEAssociAtE

Catholic newspaper publisher and social activist.

sociAl coMMunicAtions: For our journalists and contributors, to continue to spread the Gospel, social teachings, and Catholic local and worldwide news.

• You are welcome to select more than one option.

• Receive a free digital or print subscription if you contribute R200 or more per month.

• As an Associate, holy Mass will be celebrated for your intentions twice a year.

• Associates will receive regular updates on the campaign.

• sign up online and select R 1 200, R 2 400, R 3 000 or R 5 000 annual contribution or any amount via EFT. sign up online at www.digital.scross.co.za/ associates-campaign or email admin@scross.co.za for details

The priest

and his music

A KZN priest has released his first own album of sacred music. Fr Sbongiseni Msomi tells Daluxolo Moloantoa about his life in music.

complicated. Linda Makhathini, one of OST PRIESTS CELEBRATE his choristers in 2003, taught the musitheir tenth anniversary of cians some of the compositions before priesthood with a Mass Fr Msomi’s arrival in late August. The and a reception, or maybe priest had time to practise twice with a pilgrimage. Fr Sbongiseni Joseph the singers before the September 4 Msomi of Mariannhill, KwaZulu-Natal, recording session. is marking his anniversary in July 2022 A choir conductor for 18 years, Fr with a music album, titled Yehla Moya Msomi’s relationship with music goes (“Come Down, Spirit”) and a newly- back to his school days at Kwacomposed Mass.

Makhutha Comprehensive High “As I reflected on these few years School. “My high school conductor, Mr that God has given me as an ordained Khathi, really encouraged me to join priest, I realised that I have been very the school choir.” After matric, he involved in the ministry of music. So I joined the ML Sultan Technikon Choir thought I’d share some of my musical in Durban as a tenor singer, while compositions and traditional Catholic studying electrical engineering for two hymns and prayers with God’s people,” years, and also became a member of the Fr Msomi tells The Southern Cross from Ezimbokodweni Community Choir in Rome, where he is currently in his last KwaMakhutha. year of studying philosophy at the Ur“Our new community choir also asbaniana University. The album was sisted the Anglican church choir in recorded in September, while the priest KwaMakhutha when they were preparwas on leave in South Africa, and re- ing for their competitions. I conducted leased in late 2021. Fr Msomi had the a choir in the Anglican National Choir help of the group Song Therapy, with Competition, and won that contest on 12 singers and two organists, to put to- a national level for two years,” Fr gether the 12 tracks on Yehla Moya.

Msomi recalls. He has also conducted But this wasn’t the priest’s first foray the Ezimbokodweni Adult Choir in into the world of recorded music. “I KwaZulu-Natal competitions. As a recorded a CD titled The Lord Is My Shep- priest, he was involved in the diocesan herd with the St Peter’s Seminary Choir committee of choirs in Mariannhill as a conductor in 2006, and I was also a which prepared the diocese’s annual conductor of the St John Vianney Semi- Festival of St Cecilia. nary Choir when we recorded a live DVD It was during his time with the in 2008, and a CD in 2009. I was also a Ezimbokodweni Choir that Fr Msomi conductor of the Mariannhill Priests Choir when we recorded a CD in 2017,” Fr Msomi said. “But Yehla Musician and composer Moya is the first album that I initiFr Sbongiseni ated on my own and sang most of Msomi the solo parts on it.”

It is also his first album recorded with lay people. Some of these Catholic artists have already recorded their own albums, such as Zulu Pavarotti, Hlongwa Soul Healers and Nkululeko Ngcobo. With the artists being in South Africa and Fr Msomi in Italy, preparations for the recording sessions were

M

14

The Southern Cross

first started composing. “This developed further in the seminary, thanks to the organ course that we did for three years."

It was there that he developed the ability to read music.

Composing Masses

Apart from Catholic choral music, Fr Msomi has also composed Masses: one in 2019 dedicated to St Joseph, and one in Italian titled “Missa di San Gennaro”. At the moment he is busy composing another Mass which will be made available to the public in the course of 2022. “There are also many other musical compositions that I have done. A recent one is ‘Ngiyazi ukuthi ngiyakufa’, which I composed when Covid-19 killed many people in early 2020. Windy Heights Primary School in Umlazi, where Linda Makhathini is the choirmaster, asked me to write a song about African heritage. I composed this song, titled ‘Zithande’, in August. In future, I am planning to study composition and music theory,” he says.

“Some of those songs I’ve written haven’t been sung yet, which is one of the reasons I’ve started an ensemble choir that will sing most of my compositions in the future. I hope to expand the ensemble choir and work with different musicians from different parts of the country,” he says. Some of his compositions were prescribed for choir competitions and festivals in Pretoria, Bethlehem and Umlazi deanery in Durban.

Fr Msomi’s musical influences range widely. They include South African composers such as LMB Chonco, Phelelani Mnomiya and Prof Mzilikazi Khumalo. “I was also inspired by Fr Callistus Ngcobo CMM who was so willing to share his knowledge with me. He has composed so many Catholic songs which are sung in many of our Catholic churches in KwaZuluNatal. I am also inspired by Qinisela Sibisi with the kind of movements you get from his com-

FR EE !

positions. The conductor who inspired me in South Africa is Dr Mongi Mzobe, with his style of interpretation of vernacular songs. The late Fr James Dlamini also inspired me a lot when he chanted most of the Mass parts sung by a priest. I still do that even today; I usually chant the Mass parts that are said by a priest. Yehla Moya includes some of the chants that are sung by a priest in isiZulu.”

Fr Msomi believes that more can be done in the Church to support Catholic musicians nationally. “The late Mrs Motiang from the archdiocese of Pretoria once had the idea of having a forum where artists who are Catholics could meet and share their thoughts or ideas, and also to pray together. I remember in 2006 she organised a festival for Catholic artists who had recorded albums, and we participated as the St Peter’s Seminary Choir. She called that forum of musicians ‘Unity for Christ’.

This was a brilliant idea,” he says. “ It’s important that artists who sing gospel or Catholic music get a chance to pray and reflect, and frequent the sacrament of penance, so that they may renew themselves and prepare to proclaim the Good News through singing. We, as artists, must also encounter Christ so that Christ, whom we profess when we sing, may also be the Lord of our life, and the centre of worship,” he says.

cred music and liturgy at national or diocesan levels need to reflect on this and then find ways to revive Catholic music in parishes, dioceses and nationally,” the priests says. “The ministry of music in the Church is very important.

Ongoing formation on sacred music is also important, in dioceses and on a national level. Parish choirs should also be supported and motivated. Like all the other associations, sodalities and spiritual groups in the parish, the choir also needs pastoral care. If possible, a parish choir can also have a day of prayer and a workshop at least once a year.”

Advising young Catholic musicians, Fr Msomi says that the key is to know what we are passionate about in life. “When you are passionate about singing and also have a talent for music, then you know that this is what God has given you for a purpose. But there is a problem when you do something just for fame and not because you are passionate about it. The trouble with following the crowd for mere fame is that it won’t last, because it’s not something you love and are passionate about. It’s the same with music, as an artist you have to be passionate about music ministry. It should be something that heals you first as a singer and talks to you first,” he says.

“Even in music you should meet Christ as you sing. As St Augustine said, ‘The one who sings prays twice’. So follow your heart, find people who will help you. Equip yourself with knowledge, by studying and getting some professional help as well.”

Hymn archive needed

The musician-priest is concerned that sacred songs and Catholic hymns should be preserved through recordings which then should be archived on digital sites that cater for this, serving as libraries which archive sacred music. “I remember a priest once shared this brilliant vision with me, and I think it is important.”

Fr Msomi notes that in some schools, “no one is available to teach choral music or to conduct a school choir. Therefore, in many churches few people are able to read the musical notation in our hymnbooks.” This becomes evident when choirs find it difficult to sing certain hymns as they appear in the hymnbooks.

“The appointed coordinators of sa-

How to order Fr Msomi’s CD Fr Sbongiseni Msomi’s CD Yehla Moya is available at the Mariannhill Repository, Ngome Marian Shrine, Kevelaer Marian Shrine and many KZN parishes. Or email Fr Msomi at msomisj@yahoo.co.uk.

Yehla Moya is also available on almost all digital platforms, such as Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, YouTube and so on.

To sample some of the songs from the album, go to the YouTube channel “SONG THERAPY” at www.youtube.com/user/magqamu Fr Sbonelo Mbanjwa OMI holds Fr Msomi’s new CD

Our gift to you!

To celebrate our 101st birthday and the first year of the Southern Cross as a magazine, we have put together a special FREE digital edition of some of our best articles over the past year.

And we are inviting you to share

Review of the Fir

this “REVIEW OF THE FIRST YEAR”

st Year

with as many people as you can

Southern Cross

– on social media, WhatsApp,

T he

year es from our first A collection of articl FREE digital edition! in one as a magazine –

memory stick... whatever – so that you can show fellow Catholics

what they are missing when they FREE

MAY BE SHARE GIFT EDITION •

D

don’t get the Southern Cross!

Download it at: www.scross.co.za/sc-first-year This special edition does not replace the monthly magazine!

BOOK REVIEW

A reluctant pilgrim reviewed by pat McCarthy

THE BEST PRESENT EVER: A Sinner’s Guide to the Holy Land, by Sean Gunning. Clear Faith Publishing, Florida.

2021. 224pp

A

N ENGLISHMAN, AN American and an Irishman and an American went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land... Well, not quite. Sean Gunning is a Londoner of Irish stock who now lives in California, and he would rather have gone on holiday to France or Spain.

It’s just that one Christmas, in a last-ditch effort to redeem his family reputation as a failed gift-giver, he bought a ticket to accompany his more devout Mexican wife — whose reaction to the gift gave his book its title: The Best Present Ever.

The “reluctant pilgrim” is a type known to pilgrimage organisers — hanging back from group activities, distracted by non-religious attractions, missing from group photographs.

It’s a species I can relate to. On my first pilgrimage to the Holy Land 25 years ago, this destination was low on my bucket-list. But the group leader was a friend and I supposed that if the trip became too boring, he and I could always find a bar somewhere. Instead, that visit enkindled in me an enduring attraction for the land where Jesus walked.

Sean Gunning encounters Israel and Palestine like an everyman with an often-judgmental role in a morality play. When he is unsure of what he is expected to see, he observes what others overlook. And because he writes poetry, he has an Irish poet’s knack of expressing truth through contradiction. He pictures Jesus rambling in the hills with the “ordinary dudes” who became his disciples, and

takes a dive into recreating Jesus’ dialogue with his mother before the miracle of Cana.

So this book is more than a travelogue. Gunning has an evocative sense of place, immersing the reader in sights and sounds, and conjuring up felicitous phrases: in Nazareth “a perfume of eastern spices passes by on a magic carpet breeze”; the wooden boat on the Sea of Galilee is “so basic it could have been built with scrap from Noah’s Ark”.

His observations are acute — of fellow pilgrims, people on the street, the slick salesmanship of hawkers peddling souvenirs and holy items.

He is frank about his preconceptions and prejudices.

L

ike any pilgrim, especially a firsttimer to these often confusing places, he mishears the guide, he gets some facts wrong, he confuses Hebrew and Arabic. He gets angry at stragglers who are late on the bus, at those who chatter at sacred places, at pilgrims who have a rapturous devoAuthor Sean Gunning takes notes in Bethlehem’s church of the Nativity.

going soMeWhere?

FoWler TrAvel arranges all local or overseas holidays, local or international business trips, group tours — all tailored to your particular personal needs, with personal service. Travel with Peace of Mind!

expert advice for a smooth journey!

Call Michael at 083 704-5063 or email info@fowlertravel.co.za

16

The Southern Cross

tion to shopping.

Gunning’s three personas are affected differently. The Irish Catholic confronts uncomfortable facts on the ground: the birthplace of Jesus is in the hands of the Greek Orthodox; the church of the Holy Sepulchre is adjacent to a sprawling bazaar; the dome of the Ascension is owned by Muslims.

For the native Londoner, a chorus of “God Save the Queen” from a boatload of tourists on the Sea of Galilee brings one of those moments “when time becomes visible”, with the realisation he no longer regards England as home.

The Californian ponders Jesus forgiving Peter for his betrayal, but baulks at forgiving Islamic extremists for the mass murder of 9/11. Yet he knows that “this is what I must try to do”.

For those who know the Holy Land, this book will add a new depth of understanding. For those who have yet to go there, it may prompt a revision of the bucket-list.

Pat McCarthy, founding editor of NZ Catholic, has led several Holy Land pilgrimages and developed the website SeeTheHolyLand.net.

The Best Present Ever can be bought in hardcopy or as an eBook from www.amzn.to/3vfGYdm.

P O Box 379 Cape Town 8000 Tel 021 465 5904 WhatsApp: 063 222 2724 sales@catholicbookshop.co.za

Street address: The Grimley, 14 Tuin Plein (off Hope Street) Cape Town

Visit our new ONLINE SHOP at www.catholicbookshop.co.za

For all your Catholic reading, gifts, repository items.

Chalices, pyxes, candles, incense and charcoal, and more.

Join our email mailing list for news of new stock!

Saint of the Month: St Francis de SAles

The saint of kindness

St Francis de Sales, whose name lives on in the name of the Salesian order, was one of the Church’s greatest writers. Günther simmermacher looks at his life.

B

ORN INTO NOBILITY AND wealth, St Francis de Sales was destined to play an imposing role in politics. Instead, Francis became an evangeliser, a bishop, and one of the most influential writers in the Church’s history. And if we didn’t know that Pope Francis named himself after the saint of Assisi, we could well suspect that the saint of Sales was his role model.

François de Sales, as his teenage mother knew him, was born prematurely on August 21, 1567, in the Castle of Sales, the first of 15 children of a noble family of the duchy of Savoy in south-eastern France. His father was Lord François de Sales (generally addressed as Monsieur de Boisy); his mother was Françoise de Sionnaz, also of nobility. The child was named François Bonaventura. It combined the names of two great Franciscan saints, but they were in fact assigned to honour grandparents on both sides of the family.

As a young student at Paris University’s Jesuit-run Collége de Clérmont, Francis was tall and handsome with blue-grey eyes. He had good, if reserved, manners, as well as promising career and social prospects. He was outstanding husband material. Instead, as a 20-year-old he dedicated his life to the Blessed Virgin, pledging chastity. To please his demanding father he continued his studies, reading law and theology at the venerable University of Padua in Italy. Guided by his Jesuit spiritual adviser, however, he decided to become a priest. But first he went home: as a qualified lawyer.

In the interim, Francis’ father had his son’s future all figured out. He had secured a senator’s post for him, and a wealthy heiress to marry. Life was going to be good. For 18 months he lived the life his father had prepared for him — except Francis was still intent on be-

Name at birth: François Bonaventura de-Sales Born: August 21, 1567 in the Château de Sales, Duchy of Savoy Died: December 28, 1622 (aged 55), in Lyons, France Beatified: 1661 Canonised: 1665 Feast: January 24 Patronages: Catholic press, journalists, writers, deaf people, educators.

coming a priest. Informed of this, Monsieur de Boisy put up formidable opposition. It took the mediation of the bishop of Geneva, Mgr Claude de Granier, to open the clerical path to Francis, contingent on the young man getting the prestigious position of provost in nearby Geneva.

Within six months, Francis was ordained, on December 23, 1593.

Francis didn’t seek prestige, though. Nine months after his ordination, he volunteered to be sent to the nearby region of Chablais to evangelise in an almost completely Calvinist area, one in which the suppression of the Catholic Church had been lifted only recently and where hostility to Rome remained fierce. Against the wishes of his father — there was a pattern emerging — Francis and his cousin, Canon Louis de Sales, set off in September 1594 to return the Catholic faith to hostile territory.

Assassins and wolves

They were not warmly welcomed, except by the few remaining Catholics who were too scared to declare their allegiance openly. Twice Francis miraculously escaped assassination attempts and had to be guarded by soldiers of the duchy of Savoy. Another time a mob set Francis de Sales at the age of 12

St Francis at a glance

upon Francis, beating him. But this, as well as the pamphlets he distributed, only attracted greater attention to his missionary work, and Francis was able to record some successes. By 1599, the region’s capital, Thonon-les-Bains, was again predominantly Catholic.

But the dangers were presented not only by irate Calvinists. One winter’s day Francis was crossing a forest when he was set upon by a pack of wolves.

For safety he climbed up a tree and remained there for the night. By morning he was discovered by local peasants who took him in and nursed the frozen priest back to health, thereby saving his life. These peasants were Calvinists, a fact which impressed Francis as evidence that there were also good people “on the other side”. The story goes that he converted them to Catholicism.

But it wasn’t all angry mobs, devious assassins, hungry wolves and kind peasants. Francis’ nobility gave him access to the high rollers in the intertwined worlds of Church and politics, and so he secured alliances with Pope Clement VIII and King Henry IV of France, the dissolute king who later invited Francis to preach a Lenten retreat.

In 1599 Francis became coadjutor bishop of the diocese of Geneva; and upon de Granier’s death three years later, its archbishop. Like his predecessor, he resided in the safer town of Annecy, where he was known for his austerity and kindness. As a bishop he collaborated closely with the Franciscans, who bestowed upon him the highest order a non-Franciscan can receive: an official associate of the Order.

Francis built a reputation as a preacher in the era of the Counter-Reformation, operating in a fiercely Protestant region. But his method of preaching was neither polemic nor of the fire-and-brimstone variety. It was The Southern Cross

17

‘

’

Have patience with all things - but first with yourself. Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being.

You are a perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person, simply because you exist.

And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that.

The

S outhern Cross St Francis de Sales

A Timeline of St Francis de SAles 1567

1610

1587

1622

Born two months premature on August 21 in the Château de Sales into nobility in the Duchy of Savoy, south-eastern France.

Consecrates himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary and dedicates his life to God with a vow of chastity.

1592

Is awarded a doctorate in law and theology from the University of Padua, in present-day Italy.

Decides to enter the priesthood, rejecting plans by his father for a prestigious job and wealthy marriage.

1593

Ordained to the priesthood on December 23, and appointed provost of the cathedral chapter of Geneva.

1594

Volunteers to evangelise among hostile Calvinists in the Chablais region.

1599

Appointed coadjutor bishop of Geneva, with the seat in Annecy.

1602

Becomes bishop of Geneva.

1609

Publishes his first book, Introduction to the Devout Life.

20

Co-founds the women’s Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, or Visitandines, with St Jane Frances Chantal.

Dies on December 28 at the age of 55 while visiting a Visitandine convent in Lyons.

1523

Buried in Annecy on January 24 (hence his feast day).

1661

Beatified by Pope Alexander VII.

1665

Canonised on April 8 by Pope Alexander VII.

1859

Fr John Bosco in Turin, Italy, names his newly-founded congregation after St Francis de Sales. It becomes known throughout the world as the Salesians.

1875

Fr Louis Brisson in Troyes, France, names his newly-founded congregation the Oblates of St Francis de Sales.

1877

Declared a Doctor of the Church

by Pope Pius IX.

1923

Declared patron saint of the Catholic press by Pope Pius XI.

Above: Monument of St Francis de Sales in Annecy, south-eastern France.

Left: St Francis depicted in a painting from 1665 by Giovanni Battista Lucini.

The Southern Cross

gentle and persuasive. “He who preaches with love,” he would say, “preaches effectively.” In this he provided an echo of his namesake, St Francis of Assisi, and set a template for a future Francis, our current Holy Father.

He put that motto into action in the famous book which he addressed — unusually for the time — to the laity, An Introduction to the Devout Life and Treatise on the Love of God. It was a fairly revolutionary book. In its introduction Francis wrote: “It is an error, or rather a heresy, to say devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman.” Pointedly he added: “It has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world.”

Among the people whom Francis influenced was Fr Vincent de Paul, who was greatly inspired by de Sales’ books, especially An Introduction to the Devout Life. The two met once in Paris (St Vincent de Paul was our Saint of the Month in September). Francis wrote prolifically in his time, and his mystical writings were received enthusiastically.

He also was involved in founding religious congregations, most notably the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary with another future saint, Jane Frances de Chantal.

Death at 55

Francis de Sales died while stopping over at the Visitation Sisters’ convent in Lyon on his way home from a top-level meeting in Avignon. Over Advent and Christmas he had given the city’s faithful spiritual direction. But on December 27 he suffered a stroke. A day later, on December 28, 1622, he died at the age of only 55.

His influence, however, lived on. When St John Bosco (Saint of the Month in January 2021) founded his order in Turin in 1859, he named it the Society of St Francis de Sales; hence their common name, the Salesians. Likewise, the Salesian Sisters were named after him, as was another order active in South Africa, the Oblates of St Francis de Sales.

St Francis de Sales was beatified in 1661

by Pope Alexander VII — the first beatification to take place in St Peter’s Square — and canonised by the same pope four years later.

His feast day is on January 24, the date of his burial at Annecy. Pope Pius IX declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1877. As one who evangelised through his writings, St Francis de Sales was named the first patron saint of writers, journalists and the Catholic press in 1923 by Pope Pius XI. And on account of the missionaries of the Oblates of St Francis de Sales in the Northern Cape, he is also the co-patron of the diocese of Keimoes-Upington.

Also see page 27.

Next month: St Scholastica

Why Mary is the MOTHER OF GOD

New Year’s Day is also the feast of Mary, Mother of God. Fr ralph de hahn unpacks what this feast means.

W

HEN THE PREGNANT Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, she exclaimed: “All generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me” (Luke 1:4850). And that has certainly come to pass. From all corners of the earth, to this very day, the “Ave Maria” hymn is prayerfully sung by the world’s great choirs. And Mary has been given litanies of wonderful titles. The greatest of these is Mater Dei — Mother of God. This title has been challenged and strongly opposed in many religious quarters. Between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, dispute over that title was a breaking point. Of course, God — the supreme Being, the eternal God, and Creator of all that is — is pure spirit and has no father or mother. He has no beginning and no end, and he certainly has no mother. So this mystery needs to be carefully explained.

We begin with the Mystery of God himself. We learn from the Bible and from the teaching of Jesus that God is a Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Three persons but only one God. All three are divine, equal in all things.

Jesus proclaimed: “I and the Father are one; he who sees me sees my Father also” (John 14).

Now, the Bible teaches that all humanity was plunged into sin because of the disobedience of our first parents,

Adam and Eve. But God the Father, in his infinite mercy and compassion, promised to send a Saviour to redeem all humanity. He promised to send his own son, second person of the Trinity, because only God could heal the grave sin against the all-pure God. So the Father sent Jesus into the world to redeem humankind, but his son — God becoming human — needed a human mother who would offer herself, her flesh and blood, to bear this Redeemer. She would have to be all pure and sinless from conception, since her child would be the sinless Lamb of God

‘The Virgin of the Lilies’,

by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)

sent to redeem the world from eternal death. This mother would nurse and mother him to the day he would publicly proclaim his mission and the kingdom of his Father.

Mother of the God-man

Now comes our response to the mystery: Jesus, the Incarnation, is the natural son of Mother Mary, her flesh and blood. He is the God-man, and she is his mother. Therefore she earns the title Mother of God — not because of what she is, but because of who he is: the second person of the blessed Trinity.

She is not the mother of the Father God but only of the son incarnate. She is human with that one nature, but Jesus now has two natures: he is both God and man.

There is an argument, this one made by many Protestants, that Mary is not so important a person in the Bible, because she appears on only a few occasions. True. But she appears at the most vital moments in our Salvation history: at the Annunciation, the Incarnation (or birth) of Jesus, at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, at Calvary, and at Pentecost. Mary is the New Eve. The first Eve brought death; the New Eve, Mary, brought Life. Jesus and Mary are inseparable. Mother and son.

Jesus loved his mother, and so should we! Mary will lead us to the very heart of God. Mary…this immaculate mother of God, the Immaculate Conception. His mother, our mother.

Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town.

PILGRIMAGES FOR 2022 Lourdes, Rome, Assisi, Medjugorje

Our Lady of Guadalupe

18 May to 3 June 2022

6 to 19 June 2022

MEXICO

Led by Fr Keith Gordon-Davis Join the Our Lady Pilgrimage, with plenty of time in Lourdes in France and Medjugorje in Bosnia. Also includes Rome, Assisi and Loreto in Italy, and Split and Dubrovnik in Croatia!

Illustrated itinerary with booking form at

fowlertours.co.za/ourlady

Led by Fr Russell Pollitt SJ

Explore the world’s most popular Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the tomb of St Miguel Pro, and many more religious and cultural sights of beautiful Mexico!

BOOK NOW!

Illustrated itinerary with booking form at

fowlertours.co.za/mexico

Call Gail at 076 352 3809 or info@fowlertours.co.za www.fowlertours.co.za

The Southern Cross

21

Tribute to a builder of faith and skills To mark the month of the feast of the founder of the Salesians, St John Bosco, Sydney Duval collects tributes to a missionary of the order who in 2021 celebrated his 50th anniversary of ordination.

T

22

HE FOUNTAINHEAD FORMED

by St Francis de Sales flowed from Savoy into Turin in 1841 to be embraced by Don John Bosco, who devoted his ministry to creating practical and holistic support for young people affected by the Industrial Revolution — abandoned, lost, ill-educated and unskilled.

Don Bosco himself became a new fountainhead that flowed onward into night schools and trade schools, adding a new dimension to religious life and ministry that spread as a river of life from country to country — a source of hope and renewal for the young people on street corners crying out to the world for help: teach me to write and read; show me how to make things or how to use a sewing machine; show me how to repair what’s broken; show me how to be a printer or carpenter; show me how to use a computer to connect to the new world forming around me; give me a football that I may learn to pass and dribble; show me how to serve other young people vulnerable to drugs and crime; make me a servant of those afflicted by TB and HIV/Aids. From street corners across the world there rose a common cry: Show us how to rise above adversity to celebrate life through training, service, work and compassion.

The river of Salesian ministry flowed into Cape Town in 1896, first to Buitengracht Street, then in 1910 to the Salesian Institute in Somerset Road, a cherished landmark and lighthouse of compassionate ministry that pulses to this day with an empowering and inspiring message of hope for those who are lost and, through Salesian skills training, find themselves.

Steering a barge on that river has been Fr Padraig “Pat” Naughton, who in 2021 celebrated his golden jubilee of priesthood. Salesian vice-provincial Fr The Southern Cross

Alberto Villalba SDB noted that in these 50 years of priesthood, Fr Pat had brought “the presence of God into the midst of the people [he[ met along the way: the mercy of God through Reconciliation, Jesus himself through the Eucharist, healing through Anointing of the Sick, the covenant of God among us through the sacrament of Marriage...”

A Groundbreaker

Fr Pat began his priestly life on his own terms. His sister-in-law, Maureen Naughton, recalled her wedding in Rome to Padraig’s brother Joe. It was then that they first heard that Padraig wanted to be ordained at home in Galway, Ireland — and in his native Gaelic tongue. This had never been done before, but it was very much in keeping with the Gaelic cultural traditions the family had honoured all their lives.

Preparations included Maureen’s brother translating the Rite of Ordination into Gaelic, which required the approval of the dean of Maynooth College at that time. The dean was a Gaelic scholar and delighted with this creative innovation. One neighbour recalled how as a young lad he collected peatturf for lighting bonfires which lined the roads with flags to the local church and the hotel where the festivities would take place — all in honour of the first-ever ordination in Gaelic.

Maureen said: “It was a grand occasion with celebrations lasting all summer — a testament to the person who Padraig is. Through the years, Padraig has used the Gaelic traditions of spirituality and community, whatever the occasion or activity, whether it was fishing for mackerel and sharing the abundant catch with all, or working hard alongside us when he was home.

“Padraig celebrated countless Gaelic Masses around the kitchen table to ensure that these traditions were embedded in all our kids, whether through

Salesian Father Pat Naughton

lighting the candles or ringing the bell at Mass. He has brought so much joy to us — especially to his brother Joe.” Close friend, former pupil and former confrere Patrick Boucher views Fr Pat as a true example of his native roots on the west coast of Ireland. Pádraig ÓNeachtain — Patrick Naughton’s name in Gaelic — could speak only Irish until he was 12. And he rode horses bareback!

Priestly formation and practical training had taken the seminarian Padraig to St John Bosco College at Walkerville, south of Johannesburg, where he was already showing signs of his warmth, mentorship and an irrepressible sense of humour, always strongly but fairly challenging the students to grow and better themselves, Patrick Boucher recalled.

Later, after returning to South Africa as a priest, Fr Pat served as rector of the Bosco community and school, then as provincial of the Salesian Southern African Province — much to his dismay. An introvert by nature, he did not relish the public profile. But here he honed his skills in leadership and participation. This was also at the height of apartheid when Fr Pat gave extraordinary witness to the Gospel, by exposing apartheid for the lie it was.

One daring way was to give critical interviews on Radio NaGaeltacht (in Irish, of course), and telling the apartheid government to “téigh go hilfreann!” (“Go to hell!”).

No matter where he found himself, Fr Pat was the same — deeply reflective and spiritual in his priesthood and humanity. “His priesthood has impacted profoundly on thousands of people — students, parishioners, colleagues and friends. The man is simply amazing,” Patrick Boucher said.

An undimmed vision

Fr Jeff Johnson SDB, former rector of the Salesian Institute, recalled working with Fr Pat in the mid-1990s. He was a newly-ordained priest and Fr Pat was the second provincial of the newly-formed Southern Africa ViceProvince comprising South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Fr Johnson recalled Fr Pat’s pioneering work in shaping the new vice-province: “He was all about paradigm shifts. Nobody knew what he was talking about, but that did not stop him from forging ahead with his vision of our Salesian mission to youth — a vision that remains undimmed today.”

Fr Jeff described his six years as the institute’s rector, starting in 2013, as the most challenging and fulfilling of his Salesian life. He felt privileged

Fr Naughton at his ordination in 1971.

to join Fr Pat as the driving force behind the Salesian Institute Youth Projects in response to the needs of Cape Town’s poor and disadvantaged youth. He has images of Fr Pat working late at night, early in the morning and long daytime hours, planning and scheming, improving projects or developing new ones, in meeting after meeting, consulting, appealing and cajoling, seeking options, shifting paradigms.

Old friend Dermot Mullins from Scotland first met Fr Pat 40 years ago at the Salesian Institute. He was immediately struck by Fr Pat’s aura and spirit

which exuded warmth, humility and love to all. People naturally sought his company and were only too willing to support Fr Pat’s work. “I often found myself asking myself, how did I get roped into that?”

Salesian Father Jonathan Daniels has known Fr Pat for 31 years. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard him raise his voice in anger. He is quiet and soft-spoken yet firm; gentle and kind; stubborn and pig-headed; he has a great passion for the upliftment of young people. He works best behind the scenes — and, yes, he’s stubborn.”

Stubbornness seems to be a quality that goes hand in hand with all great men and women. “The prophets of old were stubborn: Moses told God that he was going nowhere, for he had a speech impediment. Jeremiah said, ‘Leave me alone, I’m too young.’ Elijah said: ‘I’ve had enough,’” Fr Jonathan noted.

“It would seem that Fr Pat is in good company. He is stubborn because he is passionate. He is passionate for the work of Jesus as set out for us by Don Bosco. In 50 years of priesthood, Fr Pat has raised many a person from spiritual death and restored them to life again. He continues to do so,” Fr Jonathan said. Fr Pat, he added, is “a much-needed role model for our day and age”.

Equipping anyone, anywhere for Ministry Accessible Theological Education for all denominational, cultural and educational backgrounds.

Theology programmes

Christian Ministry programmes

• Bachelor of Theology • Diploma in Theology • +LJKHU &HUWLÀ FDWH LQ 7KHRORJ\

• Christian Leadership and Management • Christian Worship • Christian Proclamation • Pastoral Care

Information brochures available from the College website and on request Registration for 2022 opens on 1 November 2021.

Theological Education by Extension College W www.tee.co.za E admin@tee.co.za T (011) 683 3284 / (010) 615 0130 The Theological Education by Extension College is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as aPrivate Higher Education Institution under the +LJKHU (GXFDWLRQ $FW RI 5HJLVWUDWLRQ &HUWLÀ FDWH 1R +( 1RQ 3URÀ W &RPSDQ\ 5HJLVWUDWLRQ 1R

How to keep up your

New Year’s resolutions Does making new Year’s resolutions work for you?

Pete Sheehan has some ideas that may help you — especially if we keep the meaning of christmas at the forefront.

L

IKE NEW YEAR’S EVE, New Year’s resolutions begin with great hopes but often end too soon in disappointment.

The question of what your New Year’s resolution will be arises each year with the inevitability of widespread hangovers on New Year’s Day. Many answer with enthusiasm — citing hopes to lose weight, get better organised, start exercising, save money, spend time with family or improve one’s marriage, perform volunteer work, pray or go to church more regularly. Others respond, “What’s the point?”, recalling past failures through that annual ritual.

A study in the US found that 45% of people still regularly make New Year’s resolutions, of whom 75% reported maintaining the resolution through the first week, tailing off to 64% after a month, and 46% after six months.

On the other hand, the same study found that those who make explicit resolutions are ten times more likely to achieve their goals.

The problem of keeping New Year’s resolutions is understandable: trying to change long-established habits. Reversing years of behaviour is difficult, especially if the behaviour is deeply ingrained psychologically.

Often people don’t understand the struggles of those who are trying to change. I’m thinking of a counsellor and youth minister — now a tall, fit-looking figure — who was once afflicted with morbid obesity. People would ask: “Why don’t you just go on a diet?” Of course, he had tried that many times unsuccessfully. Yet people had no clue as to how

difficult it was for him. Only when a priest took a personal interest and developed a relationship with him was he able to effectively confront his disordered eating habits.

A Methodist minister I know suggests that rather than making resolutions for the year — failing, and feeling

more successful in making positive change.

Still, I find that a both/and approach works better than an either/or commitment to the larger goal as well as those practical targets and more manageable steps. It’s important to be clever. Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous also have support programmes, which should be part of any effort for positive change. That might also mean other kinds of help — reading a specialist book, psychological counselling, diet counselling, a formal exercise programme, anger management or spiritual direction. A couple wanting to improve their marriage would do well to consider Marriage Encounter or Retrouvaille.

When I wanted to enhance my spiritual life, I found that membership in some kind of prayer group, whether Catholic Charismatic or another group, can offer a lot.

The other lesson from Alcoholics Anonymous is the importance of calling upon our faith. The 12 Steps they use include a personal acknowledgement that one is powerless over one’s addiction or compulsion, and making a conscious decision to turn one’s life and will over to a “higher power”. God knows and understands those who ask him to remove the defect in their life.

Not everyone is trying to overcome an addiction or that deep a compulsion, but my experience is that asking God’s help — even as one struggles and sometimes fails — is essential to the long-term process of changing my behaviour for the better. “If God does not build the house,” the psalmist observes, “in vain do the masons toil.”

Remember, before we face the New Year, we celebrate Christmas — our belief that Jesus, the Word of God, became flesh and dwelt among us, and continues to be with us as we face our struggles and try to follow him.

Asking God’s help is essential to the process of changing my behaviour for the better

too Much stuFF! too littlE spAcE!

Donate your unwanted goods —clothing, furniture, books, toys, household textiles, bric-a-brac — to our Cape Town charity shops to help vulnerable rural children!

We offer a FrEE collection service!

24

call us on 021 685 2810 www.ruralchild.org.za

The Southern Cross

guilty when the resolutions get broken — people should make resolutions for that particular day. Take a walk that day.

Don’t smoke a cigarette today. Read the Bible today. Write a letter for some worthy cause or help out at a soup kitchen that day.

Day-by-day Challenge

There is undoubtedly wisdom there. Alcoholics Anonymous and other groups that have adapted the 12-step programme use the motto, “One day at a time”, resolving not to drink, take illegal drugs, gamble or overeat that day.

People in groups like that have a much higher (if not perfect) success rate. Psychologically it is a lot easier to commit to avoiding self-destructive behaviour for that one day.

Though I think this is a great tactic, I doubt that it could succeed without an underlying commitment to keep piling up those daily successes. Which is why I think that those who make resolutions apparently tend to be much

Pete Sheehan is the editor of The Catholic Exponent, newspaper of the diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, in which this article first appeared.

TV

Should we skip ‘Midnight Mass’?

The Netflix horror-drama series Midnight Mass has the Catholic faith as its focus. But as chris Byrd finds, for Catholic viewers there are problems. (Warning: Contains spoilers)

H

IS EXPERIENCES AS AN of these peculiar happenings by commanding a paralysed local teen Leeza, altar boy and recovering althe daughter of Crockett Island’s coholic inform creator Mike mayor, to rise and walk. “God’s gifts are Flanagan’s Midnight Mass. as tangible as the ground beneath our Commendably ambitious but marred feet,” the clergyman observes in the by some highly problematic material, wake of this apparent miracle. the supernatural drama — which is While free of nudity or sexual constreaming on Netflix in seven onetent, Midnight Mass is challenging fare hour episodes — ultimately collapses for other reasons. In addition to the inunder the weight of an absurd conceit. clusion of much bloodletting and a fair Flanagan wrote, directed and exec- A scene from the Netflix series Midnight amount of strong language, the series utive-produced the series, which is also Mass, which is set within a Catholic takes an ambiguous approach in its something of a family affair: Flana- community. Photo: Eike Schroter/Netflix treatment of faith. Flanagan initially gan’s wife and frequent collaborator, who has been on pilgrimage in the affirms the value and significance of Kate Siegel, portrays one of show’s Holy Land. Fr Paul’s cover story is that Christian belief among his characters. leads, schoolteacher Erin Greene. Relihe is just filling in for the older priest.

Yet, as he reveals their extremism, they gious themes suffuse the series, as inSoon, strange, disconcerting events come across as simple-minded cultists dicated by such chapter headings as upset the isolated, tight-knit popularather than sincere Catholics.

“Genesis”, “Proverbs” and “Acts of the Apostles”.

This is exemplified in their In the show, Catholics come bizarre, savagely misguided interReleased from prison after a pretation of the words of Jesus, four-year sentence for vehicular across as simple-minded cultists recorded in the Gospel of John, homicide while driving drunk, by which he emphasised the neformer altar server Riley Flynn cessity for his followers to “eat my (played by Zach Gilford) returns to tion. After a storm, for instance, nuflesh and drink my blood”. Since this tiny, fictitious Crockett Island, his merous stray cats are found dead on a teaching serves as part of the foundachildhood home. Fr Paul Hill’s (Hamish Linklater) arrival in the com- beach, the cause of their demise un- tion for the greatest of sacraments, its munity coincides with Riley’s home- known. And a pet dog is fatally poi- sacrilegious misuse will disturb even coming. Unbeknown to his new soned. But not all the mysterious thick-skinned Catholic viewers. congregants, Fr Paul has come to re- events are negative. Thus elderly, Logically flawed as well as lurid, place the parish’s long-serving and homebound Mildred Gunning is grad- Midnight Mass turns out to be a mess.— CNS beloved shepherd, Mgr John Pruitt, ually restored to her youthful self.

Fr Paul facilitates the most startling

The Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office See our latest Responses Choosing the New Chief Justice

The Angolan Exemption Permit, 2021

See our latest Digest

Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office - SACBC

Enoch Godongwana’s MTBPS: Just like Tito’s but with better shoes

Migrants, Refugees and Displaced Persons

The Importance of Play during COVID-19

Enhancing the performance of SOEs by getting the governance right

Watch our latest webinar videos

Read the latest Briefing Papers

@CPLO_SA

BP 531: The Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health

12 Bouquet Street Cape Town |

0214611417 |

info@cplo.org.za

Participating in Public Policy

Write to us

We welcome your letters, while reserving the right to edit them.

We may publish your letters on our website. Please include a postal address (not for publication). Letters should be no longer than 350 words. Pseudonyms are acceptable only under special circumstances at the Editor’s discretion. Send your letters to editor@scross.co.za

Letters

Opinions expressed in The Southern Cross, especially in Letters to the Editor, do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication or those of the Catholic hierarchy.

God will decide on priests’ path

I

WAS CURIOUS TO READ IN YOUR May 2021 issue what seminarians had to say about the kind of priests they want to be. My question is: Is it really up to them? God gives us our purpose. Our upbringing and societal impact determines our values, beliefs and social patterns. Our faith competes with all of that for our attention.

Can the seminarians with all certainty say where their attention is right now?

Can they even know where their attention will be in several years time?

At the “ripe” age of 19, my younger brother Fr Brian Williams (whom we lost on December 22, 2020) left our home for the seminary, wide-eyed and full of dreams. For 30 years of his priesthood I walked his path with him, and I saw that it was never up to him to decide what kind of priest he would become.

God ordained him a priest in my mother’s womb. All true priests are ordained and anointed there already.

Many are called but few are chosen.

When my brother experienced his “transfiguration” at the altar of St Blaize in Mossel Bay, totally bathed in golden Christ-light, he knew that he was an ordained servant leader of God. He knew then that the calling of the servant to the service of God was never up to him. It was up to God and God alone.

For a seminarian, the question is how he will respond to his calling and the call to unconditional love, service to God and God’s people with humility and enthusiasm, in challenging times and through valleys and deep seas.

The new age brings with it deep challenges. What will life be like after

Tony Wyllie & Co. Catholic Funeral Home

Personal and Dignified 24-hour service

469 Voortrekker Rd, Maitland, Tel: 021 593 8820

48 Main Rd, Muizenberg, Tel: 021 788 3728 carol@wylliefunerals.co.za andrew@wylliefunerals.co.za Member of the NFDA

26 The Southern Cross

the pandemic? How will priests chart their course through the chaos and debris left for them to manage, service and align with? How will they access their deeper truths of who and what they are, regardless of circumstances?

How will they co-partner with God and tap into the wisdom of their preparation and mentoring received?

These are crucial conversations which my brother had and wanted to have with young men brave enough to enter the priesthood. He always said that the priesthood is not for softies.

He is not around anymore, so I wonder who will be bold enough to tell our seminarians this truth.

Julia Paris, Cape Town

Pray for lay vocations, too

I

T SADDENS ME THAT WHENEVER we pray for vocations, we ask for vocations to the priestly and religious life only. Shouldn’t we also pray for lay Catholics to be more involved in existing Church activities, and to establish and build new avenues of mission and service?

In my opinion, the great success and tremendous vibrancy of Pentecostal and Evangelical churches rest on three pillars: • They are effective at preparing the groundwork for personal conversion/experience of the Spirit; • They have a very strong focus on Scripture; • Crucially, they involve lay members in missionary activity and provide training in this area.

Engaging with mission keeps members involved and prevents Churches from being self-contained.

We live in a new reality where Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, are despised, vilified and persecuted, even in the West. It is high time that catechetics emphasised spreading the faith, assisting organisations that help support persecuted Christians worldwide and engaging with secular media to counteract negative perceptions of our faith.

Another reality is our country’s shocking unemployment level. Isn’t it time for the Church to be more involved in job creation and assistance to job seekers of all races?

Lastly, we have a huge number of healthy, mobile, time-rich over-60s whose skills and talents are not being tapped. Who will spearhead catalogueing and tapping into the manifold talents of this group?

Margaret Hicks, Nelson Mandela Bay

A good laugh... but seriously now

T

HE LAST LAUGH IS THE FIRST Item I turn to when I get The Southern Cross, and the one in the November 2021 issue — about the priest in a restaurant with too many choices — had me chuckling throughout the day.

On a more serious note, the restaurant in the joke could be symbolic of life, with all the choices one is faced with daily.

Sadly, there are those who prefer to depend solely on themselves instead of calling on the saints as well for help, as the priest eventually does in the joke. To that end, your “Saint of the Month” series is informative and a reminder that Catholicism is rich in resources to aid our journey towards eternal life.

Perhaps St Phillip Neri or St Lawrence can assist us in making good choices...

Lynne Peterson, Cape Town

A saint of true devotion

Nthabiseng Maphisa: Millennial Catholic

I

N THE GRAND HEIGHTS OF heaven the light of Christ is aflame.

Through the mercy of God, it pours forth to the earth. It is undeterred by the darkness of ages.

Some 500 years ago there was an ever-burning lantern of this light held firmly by St Francis de Sales. His preaching gave an antidote to heresy, a fire to tepid souls, and an invitation to board the pilgrim’s vessel that is the Church. He desired so ardently that many be saved that he spared no hour nor minute to bring others to accept the redemptive grace of Christ’s Passion.

One dares to imagine that in the dizzying streets of Paris and the hostile towns of south-eastern France, the Immaculate Heart of Mary would whisper to Francis’ despairing heart.

Through her fervent intercession and through God’s Holy Spirit, he would become a saint and a Doctor of the Church.

St Francis de Sales, the eldest of six brothers, was born in the Duchy of Savoy on August 21, 1567, to aristocratic parents. Like most saints, he sailed the many turbulent waves that one experiences when living a life of faith. It is said that after being haunted by a cloud of despair, he was converted as he knelt before the miraculous image of Our Lady at St Etienne-des-Grès, the “Black Madonna of Paris”. The numerous intercessions of the Blessed Mother were not in vain but bore much fruit in the life of the saint who would go on to become the bishop of Geneva.

In the years leading up to his episcopate, he demonstrated great zeal and courage. By this time in the late 16th century, the bubbling cauldron of the Reformation was spilling over.

Francis laboured in this toilsome field by preaching and hearing confessions.

And, remarkably, amid the busyness of IN MEMORIAM

EUGENE DAVID BRAAF 21/01/2010

We thought of you with love today, But that is nothing new.

We thought about you yesterday.

And days before that too.

We think of you in silence.

We often speak your name.

Now all we have is memories.

And your picture in a frame.

Your memory is our keepsake.

With which we’ll never part.

God has you in his keeping.

We have you in our heart. rest in peace.

Daphne, Eugenie, Michael, Noleen, Wayne, Lucretia, Carol, Ryan, Andrea, Amy-Leigh, Tehillah and Eli.

MARIANELLA

Guest House, Simon’s Town — experience the peace and beauty of God and nature with us”. Fully equipped, with amazing sea views. Secure parking, ideal for rest and relaxation.

Special rates for families, pensioners and clergy.

Malcolm or Wilma Salida + 27 82 784 5676 or bookings@marianella.co.za

St Francis de Sales with nuns of the Visitation, in a painting by Francisco Bayeu y Subías (1734–95)

episcopal life, he founded a religious order with St Jane Frances de Chantal, the Institute of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin, for young girls and widows.

He died in December 1622 in Lyon, France. On his deathbed, he was heard saying: “God’s will be done, Jesus my God and my all!”

Doctor of the Church

He was canonised by Pope Alexander VII in 1665 and was proclaimed a Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Pius IX in 1877. The latter spoke highly of St Francis de Sales when he said in his apostolic letter Dives in Misericordia Deus: “Rich in mercy, God never lacked his Church which militates in this world, but according to the various vi-

576 AM in Gauteng DStv Audio 870 or livestreaming from www.radioveritas.co.za

English Mass weekdays at 12:00 after the Angelus & Sunday at 11am.

Sesotho Mass on Sunday at 9am Zulu Mass at 6pm

WhatsApp your prayer requests to 066 473-8303 info@radioveritas.co.za

cissitudes of things and times he wisely administers the appropriate aid. While in the 16th century he visited with the rod of his fury the Christian peoples, and allowed many provinces of Europe to be shrouded in the darkness of heresies that widely expanded, not wanting to reject his people by themselves, he providentially aroused the new lights of holy men, so that, illustrated by the splendour of these, the children of the Church would be confirmed in the truth, and the same abusers were to be gently reduced to the love of her.

Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva, exemplary in holiness and a teacher of true and pious doctrine, was among such very clear men: he not only with his voice but also with immortal writings pierced the monsters of the rising errors, consolidated the faith, demolished the vices, amended the customs, and showed everyone the way that leads to heaven.”

Glow of Adoration

How often St Francis de Sales must have dwelt in the midst of Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament! I imagine that in the quiet moments of Eucharistic adoration, he saw the glow and glimmer of grace. And for our benefit and to the glory of God, that glow is shared with us, 500 years later.

In his book Introduction to the Devout Life, St Francis de Sales wrote: “Even as a man just recovering from illness, walks only so far as he is obliged to go, with a slow and weary step, so the converted sinner journeys along as far as God commands him but slowly and wearily, until he attains a true spirit of devotion, and then, like a sound man, he not only gets along, but he runs and leaps in the way of God’s Commands, and hastens gladly along the paths of heavenly counsels and inspirations.”

See also pages 17-20

CATHOLIC LITURGICAL ARTS 22A Valley Road, Robin Hills, Randburg

To all our customers we thank you for your support.

Contact us for your Liturgical needs, and enquire about our discounted prices on selected items.

083 951 6209 | catholicliturgicalarts@gmail.com

The Southern Cross

27

Catholics in a secular world

Raymond Perrier on Faith & Society

W

HEN I VISITED MY family in the UK recently, I was struck again at how secular the country has become.

Of course, church attendance the world over has been affected by the Covid pandemic — and in many countries people are not immediately returning to pre-pandemic patterns of religious practice. But what is more striking is the visibility, or lack thereof, of religion in public life.

South Africa has a strictly secular constitution in which there is no preference for one religion over another, or indeed for the religious over the secular.

The various discussions about former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s religious views have reminded us of these important constitutional safeguards, especially relevant given the history in South Africa of regimes promoting the concept of a state religion.

South Africa is a secular state and yet a very religious nation. The Pew Research Centre in 2018, pre-Covid, found 93% of South Africans affiliating to some kind of religion, with 75% saying religion is “very important” to them, and 55% attending a religious service at least once a week.

By contrast, the UK is a religious state and yet a very secular nation.

Constitutionally, the Church of England has a specific role, its bishops are appointed in the name of the queen (with some of them sitting ex-officio in parliament), and every resident, whether they choose to exercise it or not, is by default a member of their local Anglican parish. But the lack of religious behaviour could not be more marked!

While the same 2018 Pew study shows 77% of Brits affiliating to some kind of religion, it has only 10% saying religion is important to them and only 8% claiming that they attend a religious service at least once a week (though that may well be an overclaim). With similar sized populations, this means that on a given weekend, South Africa has 33 million people in church (or mosque or temple), while the UK has at most 5 million!

This secularisation means that a British newspaper could in a fit of hyperbole yet credibly announce: “Christ-

28 The Southern Cross

mas might be cancelled!” But this was not to suggest that there would be no celebration of the birth of the Messiah.

Instead the great British consumer might be losing out on their relentless annual pursuit of shopping, eating and drinking. For most of my British compatriots, these are the only signs of the festive season.

A moral crisis?

As someone for whom religion is important and who works for two faithbased organisations, it might be tempting to see this secularisation as a crisis.

Are we in danger of losing our moral compass if religion ceases to be important? The evidence does not support that fear. If we tried to plot a graph which mapped “being religious” against “being moral”, people of faith might hope (indeed expect) to see a straightforward line which shows that as people become less religious, they become less moral.

But it does not take a lot of reflection to see that’s not the case. We all know religious people who are far from moral; and you might well know moral people who are not interested in religion. I am pretty sure that there are many corrupt officials, rapists, wifebeaters, thieves, tax-cheaters among the 33 million South Africans praying in a religious building; equally, the moral edifice of the UK is not being held up solely by the 5 million Brits attending church.

In that case, does religion not really matter? After all, if religious and nonreligious people are both likely to volunteer in their communities, give money to charity, fulfil their civic duties, work hard and pay taxes, does it really matter what they do with their Sunday mornings? This has become a greater concern for us now in South Africa as we try to persuade our former churchgoers to return to their preCovid habits.

State and religion

There is one way of approaching this, which sees a clear distinction between the religious sphere and the secular; a version of Jesus’ famous injunction to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Matthew 22:21). Thus, we recognise a clear difference in Catholicism between a reli-

People pray in a church in Toronto, Canada. Secularisation and Covid have left churches empty in many parts of the world Photo: Michael Swan, Catholic Register

gious marriage (which cannot be ended by divorce) and a state marriage (which can). It is on that basis that some countries with strong traditionally religious populations have endorsed same-sex marriage (as recognised by the state) while not imposing it on those religious groups who prefer not to endorse it.

I once read an interesting extension of this argument as an answer to those who seek to “put Christ back into Christmas”. It suggested that we just accept that there are two different December festivals: one called “X-mas” starts in late November, involves much X-cess consumption and celebration, and ends more or less with a hangover on December 25.

The other called “Christing-mas” starts only on December 24 but lasts until the Epiphany on January 6 (or the Baptism of the Lord the following week), and is celebrated through religious observance. “Jingle Bells” is the theme tune of the former, “O Holy Night” the anthem of the other.

But that does not entirely work for us, as Catholic Christians. We see Christ as incarnate in the whole world, not just in delineated parts of it. After all, that is what we have just celebrated at Christmas. We believe that Christ’s transforming power is everywhere. The quotation above from Matthew continues: “…and render unto God the things that are God’s”. That is the key injunction. By definition, everything is God’s since God is the creator of all things (visible and invisible). How do we render them unto God? The model of the past — dating back to 313 when Constantine became

Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI the sole Roman emperor and legalised Christianity — was the creation of something called “Christendom”. Effectively, it was a political rule that saw Christianity as defining all aspects of public life. Historians can debate if this was ever a good thing, but it has been roundly rejected by countries that had held on to the concept for longest, such as Ireland or Spain, which have secularised most rapidly in recent years. Was medieval Christendom really very different from the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan where secular rule has been overturned by a staunchly religious one?

Render unto God

The hazard in this approach is that it reinforces the notion of two separate and competing realms — the sacred and the secular — and it tries to ensure that the religious approach is triumphant. If this is our hope, we will be disappointed when this is not the case. For example, one of the signs of secularisation in the UK is the rapid emergence of nonreligious people performing what we once regarded as religious roles: civic marriage officers have now been joined by humanist hospital chaplains and secular officiants at funerals. We feel that “religion” has lost some of its power. But if the religious people and institutions performing those roles for centuries really had spoken to the heart of human concerns, could they have been replaced so easily?

“Render unto God” is not the triumph of the religious over the secular world but the desire to see God’s will be done in both worlds.

Remember that Jesus had more to say to religious leaders who had lost their way than he had to political ones.

So let me offer this thought as we make our New Year’s resolution. Can I live my secular life and my religious life in a way that clearly shows that it is transformed by the incarnation of Christ? If I can show the wordmade-flesh in all aspects of my life, perhaps I can attract others to invite Christ into their lives as well.

For whom are you singing?

O

FTEN WHEN LISTENING TO someone singing live or on television, I close my eyes and try to hear the song so as not to let the singer’s performance get in the way of the song. A song can be lost in its performance; indeed, the performance can take over so that the song is replaced by the singer.

When anyone is performing live, be it on a stage, in a classroom, at a podium, or in a pulpit, there will always be some combination of three things. The speaker will be trying to impress others with his talent; he will be trying to get a message across; and (consciously or unconsciously) he will be trying to channel something true, good and beautiful for its own sake. Metaphorically, he will be making love to himself, making love to the audience, and making love to the song.

It is the third component — making love to the song — which makes for great art, great rhetoric, great teaching, and great preaching. Greatness sets itself apart here because what comes through is “the song” rather than the singer, the message rather than the messenger, and the performer’s empathy rather than his ego. The audience then is drawn to the song rather than to the singer. Good singers draw people to the music rather than to themselves; good teachers draw students to truth and learning rather than to themselves; good artists draw people to beauty rather than to adulation, and good preachers draw their congregations to God rather than to praise of themselves.

Admittedly, this isn’t easy to do. We are all human, and so is our audience. No audience respects you unless you do show some talent, creativity and intelligence. There’s always an unspoken pressure on the singer, the speaker, the teacher, and the preacher, both from within and from without. From within: “I don’t want to disappoint! I don’t want to look bad! I need to stand out! I need to show them something special!” From without, from the audience: “What have you got! Show us something! Are you worth my attention? Are you bright?

Are you boring?”

Only the most mature person can be free of these pressures. Thus, the song easily gets lost in the singer, the message in the messenger, the teaching in the teacher, and the message of God in the personality of the preacher.

As a teacher, preacher and writer, I admit my own long struggle with this.

When you first start teaching, you had better impress your students or you

won’t have their attention or respect for long. The same with preaching. The congregation is always sizing you up, and you had better measure up or no one will be listening to you. What’s more, unless you have an exceptionally strong self-image, you will be a perennial prisoner of your own insecurities. Nobody wants to look bad, stupid, uninformed, or come across as talentless.

Everyone wants to look good.

M

oreover, not least, there is still your ego (and its power can never be underestimated). It wants to draw the attention and the admiration to itself rather than to what is true, good and beautiful. There is always the temptation for the messenger to be more concerned about impressing others than about having the message come through in purity and truth. The subtle but powerful temptation inside every singer, teacher, speaker, preacher or writer is to draw people to themselves rather than to the truth and the beauty they are trying to channel.

I struggle with this in every class I teach, every article or book I write, and every time I preside at liturgy. Nevertheless, I make no apologies for this. It is the innate struggle in all creative effort. Are we trying to draw people to ourselves, or are we trying to draw them to truth, to beauty, to God? When I teach a class, how much of my preparation and energy is motivated by a genuine concern for the students, and how much is motivated by my need to look good, to impress, to have a reputation as a good teacher? When I write an article or a book, am I really trying to bring insight and understanding to others, or am I thinking of my status as a writer? When I preside at Mass and preach, is my real motivation to channel a sacred ritual in a manner in which my own personality doesn’t get in the way?

Is it to lead people into community with each other and to decrease myself so Christ can increase?

There is no simple answer to those questions because there can’t be. Our motivation is always less than fully pure.

Moreover, we are not meant to be uni-vocal robots without personalities.

Our unique personalities and talents were given by God precisely as gifts to be used for others.

Still, there’s a clear warning sign: When the focus of the audience is more on our personalities than on the song, we are probably making love more to ourselves and our admirers than to the song.

The Southern Cross

29

PRAY WITH THE POPE Every month Fr chris chatteris sJ reflects on Pope Francis’ prayer intention

A church damaged by fighting during the insurgency involving Islamist militants is seen in Mocímboa da Praia, Mozambique, in September.

stop the intolerance!

intention: We pray for all those suffering from religious discrimination and persecution; may their own rights and dignity be recognised, which originate from being brothers and sisters in the human family.

are often perpetrated by religious beHE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. lievers who acknowledge a God who It sounds rather a quaint created and loves us all. Scandalous phrase these days — and not behaviour such as this is one of the just because its formulation reasons why secularists frequently fails to mention half of the human blame many of the divisions in the race. For at a time when literally the world on organised religion. of all being “brothers and sisters in the whole of creation, through the rolling human family”. Where can we look to climate crisis, is frantically beseeching What Lennon imagined for this at a time when faith is discredhumanity to cooperate to survive as a John Lennon’s famous song ited? There are some allies out there. species, we still have great swathes of “Imagine” implies that a world where Biological science has demonstrated humanity where division and discrim- peace and love will reign is a religion- that we are a single human species. ination continue to divide us.

The social sciences have shown that less one — a simplistic idea which one Imagine if all the energy and rewe are essentially community creafinds frequently repeated in the media sources that are poured into fanatical tures and in that way human beings today (and which The Southern Cross and terrorist religious movements were reflect the interconnected natural showed in the November issue to be a instead put at the service of preserving world of which we are part. “Nature fallacy). a liveable climate for the world. abhors solitude,” as the Roman Imagine if all the energy and reorator Cicero put it. sources that are poured by gov- Intolerance between faiths gives And climate science is telling ernments into fighting these us that unless we cease just lookenergy to militant atheism movements could be repurposed ing after our own interests and for this ultimate common good. those closest to us and finally join Whereas Lennon gently asked us hands in global human solidarity, we But no, somehow we are trapped in the tendency, often encouraged by to join this idealistic, agnostic human risk at best creating a nightmare world cynical politicians, to marginalise and brotherhood, the contemporary anti- of climate disaster after climate disastrample on the rights and dignity of religious protagonists strike an alto- ter — and at worst condemning ourthose whose idea of God is different to gether more strident note. One thinks selves to extinction. ours. While the planet burns, we waste of Christopher Hitchens’ book God Is To choose life in the 21st century, our time and energy seemingly trying Not Great and Richard Dawkins’ best- we have to choose life not just for ourto repeat the mistakes of our medieval seller The God Delusion. Intolerance be- selves but for everyone else. Persecuttween faiths gives energy to militant ing each other for religion’s sake or for forebears.

The doleful irony in this is that re- atheism. whatever reason was always wrong; in We urgently need a renewed sense this era it has become utterly insane. ligious discrimination and persecution

T

Frail/assisted care in shared or single rooms.

Independent care in single/double rooms with en-suite bathrooms.

Rates include meals, laundry and 24-hour nursing.

Day-Care and short-stay facilities also available.

30

www.lourdeshouse.org

The Southern Cross

CB INDUSTRIAL AND FASTENER SUPPLIES

Engineering Supplies, Power Tools, Hardware, Lifting Equipment, Bolts, Nuts, all types of Fasteners in MS/SS/HDG Retirement Home, Rivonia, Johannesburg Tel: 011 803 1451

Contact Mervyn Francis: 082 353 5591

1 plein street, sidwell, port Elizabeth

Tel: 041 453 7536 Fax: 041 453 6022 cbindustrial@mweb.co.za

Prayer Corner Your prayers to cut out and collect Do you have a favourite prayer?

Please send to editor@scross.co.za

PRAYER FOR THE SUFFERING May our hearts be full of everlasting love and peace in life and may the Lord Jesus Christ watch over us every day and night.

I’ll stop and pray for everyone who’s sick and suffering every day and I’ll light a candle tonight for the sick and suffering.

May our Lord Jesus Christ heal all the sick and suffering in this life.

Amen

BREATHE ON ME, BREATH OF GOD Breathe on me, Breath of God Fill me with life anew That I may love the things You love And do what You would do

Breathe on me, Breath of God My soul with grace refine, until this earthly part of me Glows with Your fire Divine.

Breathe on me, Breath of God Until my heart is pure, Until with You I have one will To live and to endure

Breathe on me, Breath of God So death shall never be But live with You that perfect life Here and eternally.

Amen

May God bless this New Year 2022.

We suffered hardships last year, may God, in his mercy, let this year be easier. We pray for health and peace in Jesus’ name. Amen

Back to School Prayer

God, please bless my school. thank you for all the teachers who work so hard to help us learn. thank you for breaktime when we get to play with our friends.

thank you for providing a place where we can learn more about the world You created for us to live in, and how it works. please keep my school safe. protect all of the grown ups and kids that come to school everyday. help us to be kind to each other. in Jesus’ name, Amen

Prayer for Priests Lord, I thank you for establishing the sacred priesthood in the world as a sign of Your continued sacramental presence in the world.

I pray for all priests, especially those You have entrusted with my pastoral care.

May I always be open to You, speaking through them, in their sacred ministry.

And may I respond with abandon and generosity at the sound of Your voice spoken from their lips.

Give me humility, dear Lord, that I may always hear Your voice spoken through priests.

Jesus, I trust in You.

Amen

The Southern Cross

31

Anagram Challenge 1

Bishops Wordsearch

Unscramble the clues below to work out which terms from the MASS hide in these words

R A T SLA V E E R R S

2

WE I G HTY LO R D O F R U T

3

I HU F F F O R TH SE P A R A TE LY

4

R E P O SI TO R Y O F F E R S CO N

5

A LSO R E SP E CTE D

6

CU R DLI N G N O TI CE

Find the names of these SACBC bishops in the puzzle above:

BRISLIN DZIUBA JWARA KIZITO KUMALO

MASELA MPAKO MPAMBANI NUBUASAH PONCE DE LEON

RISI RODRIGUES SIPUKA TSOKE ZUNGU

DroppeD leTTers: Place the missing letters to get the title of popular hymns O

G S I

E

P

L

T

,

I

E E

,

A

E

,

G

Y

,

C

,

A S

W

I V

R

HEMILL METOL ORZHAI YOURUHF AMANA GIVBOUW AHAREIW QUENTO HOU FATENUS RAID

Southern Crossword

Across

1. The Magi musical group (4) 3. Insults that are not on before the changing scene (8) 9. The first man with a bad tan who won’t change his mind (7) 10. They came down heavily on Noah (5) 11. Horse race in sight of a church (12) 13. It’s repeated for your meditation (6) 15. Not his Japanese religion (6) 17. Lost Ark reels when Noah has them on his boots (6,6) 20. Dance back from Aklop (5) 21. No pause (3-4) 22. Sect does arrange to be overprotected (8) 23. Insinuation that one may preach indistinctly (4)

32

The Southern Cross

DoWn

1. No smart move about the high window (8) 2. Picture the Magi out East (5) 4. He’s really the first person (6) 5. Kind of news to rock your world (5-7) 6. Turn it to be embarrassed (7) 7. Cloth in the window frame (4) 8. Contentedly letting go of the deceased (5,7) 12. One who may spread rumours (8) 14. Strips of pasta for stupid people? (7) 16. St Peter’s basilica’s holy door is also an alloy door (6) 18. The whole number (5) 19. Poem from some of the mixed spice (4)

For all solutions turn to page 34

Quick Crossword

CODEWORD: Combine the letters in the shaded boxes to form the name of a famous site of pilgrimage

Cl

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

ue 6 ac ro

Cl

ue

24

ac

ro

ss

ss Cl ue 20 do w n

Across

3. Part of clerical vestments (5) 6. Poet-priest Fr Lawrence (6) 7. Feast of the Magi (8) 10. Pope Francis’ hometown (6,5) 11. Irish shrine (5) 14. 12th-cent. German mystic nun (9,2,6) 15. Actor Max, played Jesus and a Jesuit (3,5) 18. Surname of first Southern Cross editor (5) 20. Persecutor of early Christians (4) 22. Pope Benedict XVI actor (7,7) 24. Mystic of Zimbabwe (4, 9) 25. What Mary unties (5) 26. Short form of Mary’s cousin’s name (4)

27. Country of Holy Family’s exile (5) 28. What Jesus calls us to be (6) 29. Where Jesus met woman at the well (7) 30. 11th word of Hail Mary (7)

DoWn

1. Second word in Lord’s Prayer in isiZulu (5) 2. Ex-head of Congregation for Doctrine (6) 3. Bishop of Dundee, KZN (6,4) 4. Liturgical colour (5) 5. Portuguese Eucharistic miracle town (8) 8. Babylonian king in OT (14) 9. Name of two Apostles (5) 10. New Testament king (5)

The Catholic Trivia Quiz

1. After the DR Congo, which African country has the highest number of Catholics? a) Cote d’Ivoire b) Nigeria c) Tanzania

6. Which US state was founded by a Catholic? a) Maryland b) North Carolina c) Virginia

2. Whom did Jesus raise from the dead at Capernaum? a) Jairus’ daughter b) Lazarus c) The widow’s son

7. Which Catholic actor portrayed a grieving father walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in the 2010 film The Way? a) Al Pacino b) Martin Sheen c) Sylvester Stallone

3. In which province is the Benedictine Inkamana Abbey? a) KwaZulu-Natal b) Limpopo c) Mpumalanga 4. When was Joan of Arc canonised? a) 1750 b) 1870 c) 1920

8. Which diocese did Archbishop Dabula Mpako head before he was transferred to Pretoria? a) Aliwal b) Mthatha c) Queenstown

5. Which of these precedes the offertory procession at Mass? a) The Gloria b) Prayers of the Faithful c) Profession of Faith

9. Who is the patron saint of secretaries? a) Genesius of Arles b) Thomas More c) Vitalis of Assisi

11. Found by St Helena in Jerusalem (4,5) 12. Teaching order (9,8) 13. Bloemfontein cathedral (6,5) 15. Colour on Vatican flag (6) 16. Brown scapular saint (5,5) 17. Second name of Sudan-born saint (7) 19. Statement of faith at Mass (5) 20. Catholic heavyweight boxing champ (5,4) 21. Founder of Salesians (4,5) 23. Zaccheus’ tree in Jericho (8) 25. Archbishop Jwara’s diocese (6) 26. Name of 16 popes (6) 28. Village of Bl Benedict Daswa’s shrine (5)

Q4: Joan of Arc

Q8: Archbishop Mpako

10. Which Old Testament book features the line “An eye for an eye...”? a) Deuteronomy b) Leviticus c) Numbers 11. Which classic supermodel is a practising Catholic? a) Christy Turlington b) Cindy Crawford c) Claudia Schiffer 12. How many popes reigned in the 1900s? a) 7 b) 9 c) 11

Cooking with Saints

Every month GRAZIA BARLETTA prepares a recipe from Catholic

tradition in her Cape Town kitchen, and shares it with our readers

in text and photos taken for The Southern Cross by the chef herself.

Saint Fiacre’s leafy salad THIS MONTH GRAZIA PREPARED:

Y

OU MAY WELL REMEMBER St Fiacre as one of the six saints for good health featured in the November issue of The Southern Cross. He is the patron saint of gardeners (as well as of taxi drivers and florists, among other things). Born in Ireland in the 7th century, Fiacre was raised in a monastery. During the Dark Ages, monasteries were repositories of learning, and it is there that Fiacre became a skilful user of healing herbs. As he earned fame for his knowledge of plants and their healing capacities, disciples flocked to him.

The attention was too much for Fiacre, so he sought solitude at a hermitage in a wooded area near the Marne River in France. Here Fiacre built a small chapel in honour of the Virgin Mary and a hospice where he received strangers. He himself retreated to a solitary cell, living a life of prayer and manual labour in his garden.

The legend upon which Fiacre’s sainthood rests is this: Fiacre asked the local bishop, Faro, for more ground on which to plant food and herbs. Faro told him he could have as much land as he could entrench in one day. After prayer, Fiacre used the point of his staff to turn the earth, topple trees, and dig up briars and weeds to prepare the land for a garden. A suspicious local woman was convinced that such a feat could be

performed only by sorcery. Bishop Faro, however, viewed Fiacre’s act as a gift from God and proclaimed it a miracle.

As word of Fiacre’s miracle spread, people began flocking to him for food,

inGrEDiEnts

• 100g baby spinach, rocket and watercress salad bag • 150g extra-fine beans (steamed) • 100g julienne carrots • 100g sprouts • 160g raspberries • 180g blueberries • 100g feta or parmesan shavings • Fried bacon or chicken breast (optional) • 20ml olive oil • Balsamic glaze (drizzle) • Salt and black pepper to taste

healing and wisdom. He once again was venerated by followers, and a monastery was formed.

The monastery grew fruits and vegetables to feed the hungry and cultivated herbs and flowers to use in healing the sick. Visitors to Fiacre’s garden brought seeds and plants from afar, and his gardens became famous throughout Europe.

In the New Year we aspire to start afresh, and what better way than to eat healthily and nutritiously. I have put together a salad using ingredients which St Fiacre would have grown in his garden. You may omit the bacon or chicken, or add a protein of your choice, or just leave it as a vegetarian dish. preparation: 15 min • servings: 2

prEpArAtion: 1. Arrange the leaves on a flat plate or platter.

2. Add the beans, carrots, sprouts and berries.

3. Add the cheese shavings, bacon or chicken, or protein of your choice.

4. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic glaze, then add salt and pepper.

5. Toss the salad lightly.

6. Enjoy with the prayer to St Fiacre!

Grazia Barletta is an author, book designer, and food photographer & stylist. She can be contacted at graziabarletta1@gmail.com Follow her blog at www.momentswithgrazia.com and connect with Grazia on Facebook/Instagram: momentswithgrazia

SOLUTIONS

SouthernCrossword:

ACROSS: 1 Trio, 3 Offences, 9 Adamant, 10 Rains, 11 Steeplechase, 13 Mantra, 15 Shinto, 17 Roller skates, 20 Polka, 21 Non-stop, 22 Cosseted, 23 Slur. DOWN: 1 Transoms, 2 Image, 4 Father, 5 Earth-shaking, 6 Crimson, 7 Sash, 8 Happy release, 12 Gossiper, 14 Noodles, 16 Bronze, 18 Total, 19 Epic.

Anagram Challenge:

1 Altar Servers, 2 Liturgy of the Word, 3 Prayers of the Faithful, 4 Offertory Procession, 5 Apostles’ Creed, 6 Concluding Rite

Dropped Letters:

How Great Thou Art, I Will Raise You Up, Amazing Grace, Hail Queen of Heaven, Abide With Me, Soul Of My Saviour

34 The Southern Cross

Quick Crossword: ACROSS: 3 Amice, 6 Ndlovu,

7 Epiphany, 10 Buenos Aires, 11 Knock, 14 Hildegard of Bingen, 15 Von Sydow, 18 Kelly, 20 Nero, 21 Knots, 22 Anthony Hopkins, 24 John Bradburne, 25 Knots, 26 Beth, 27 Egypt, 28 Loving, 29 Samaria, 30 Blessed.

DOWN: 1 Wethu, 2 Müller, 3 Graham Rose, 4 Green, 5 Santarem, 8 Nebuchadnezzar, 9 James, 10 Herod, 11 Holy Nails, 12 Christian Brothers, 13 Sacred Heart, 15 Yellow, 16 Simon Stock, 17 Bakhita, 19 Creed, 20 Tyson Fury, 21 John Bosco, 23 Sycamore, 25 Durban, 26 Gregory, 28 Nweli — CODEWORD: Lourdes

Catholic Trivia Quiz:

1. b) Nigeria, 2. a) Jairus’ daughter, 3. a) KwaZulu-Natal, 4. c) 1920, 5. b) Prayers of the Faithful, 6. a) Maryland (founded by George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, who sought to provide a religious haven for Catholics persecuted in England, 7.b) Martin Sheen, 8. c) Queenstown, 9. a) Genesius of Arles, 10. b) Leviticus (24:1920; also in Exodus 32:2-4), 11. a) Christy Turlington, 12. b) 9 (from Leo XIII to John Paul II)

The Good News

is a BIG deal!

Make sure it’s in YOUR home SUBSCRIPTION PRICES

THE CATHOLIC MAGAZINE FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA WWW.DIGITAL.SCROSS.CO.ZA/SUBSCRIBE

PRINT & DIGITAL COMBO

12 MONTHS 6 MONTHS 3 MONTHS

R480 R270 R140

PRINT ONLY

12 MONTHS 6 MONTHS 3 MONTHS

R480 R270 R140

DIGITAL ONLY

12 MONTHS 6 MONTHS 3 MONTHS

R300 R170 R90

S outher n Cros s

The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa

ADMIN@SCROSS.CO.ZA

EASY PAYMENT & RENEWAL ONLINE

Final Words Great Quotes on

The Epiphany

history in Colour

A snapshot from the past, colourised exclusively for The Southern Cross

‘For by gold the power of a king is signified, by frankincense the honour of God, by myrrh the burial of the body; and accordingly the Magi offer him gold as King, frankincense as God, myrrh as Man.’ – St John Chrysostom (d.407)

‘Coming to Bethlehem, the Magi found ‘the child with Mary, His mother’. After that of Jerusalem, this was their second great temptation: to reject this smallness.

But instead, ‘they fell down and worshiped him’, offering him their precious symbolic gifts. Again, it is the grace of the Holy Spirit which assists them. That grace, which through the star had called them and led them along the way, now lets them enter into the mystery.’

– Pope Francis (b.1936)

‘Therefore we wanted to open ourselves and sought for a star to show us the right way. And it arose for us in the grace of vocation. We followed it and found the divine infant. He stretched out his hands for our gifts. He wanted the pure gold of a heart detached from all earthly goods; the myrrh of renunciation of all the happiness of this world in exchange for participation in the life and suffering of Jesus; the frankincense of a will that surrenders itself and strains upward to lose itself in the divine will. In return for these gifts, the divine Child gave us himself.’

– St Edith Stein OCD (1891-1942)

‘Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body. As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die.’

– St Peter Chrysologus (406-450)

British soldiers at Pretoria’s first presbytery during the First Anglo-Boer War in 1880-81, situated where Loreto Convent in Skinner Street is today.

In 1877, Bishop Charles Jolivet OMI of the vicariate of Natal came to Pretoria to establish the Catholic Church there, taking advantage of Britain’s annexation of the South African Republic (or Transvaal), which had banned the Catholic Church in its territory.

Bishop Jolivet, a French Oblate who had been appointed to head the Natal vicariate in 1874, celebrated the first Catholic Mass in Pretoria on June 8, 1877, the feast of the Sacred Heart (to which today’s archdiocese of Pretoria is dedicated). On May 17, 1878, the first Loreto Sisters arrived in Pretoria. They included the bishop’s sister, Sr Mary Margaret Jolivet.

During the Boer siege of Pretoria in the 1880-81 war, the convent was converted into a sanctuary for the town’s women and children, while some 600 soldiers were camped on the fortified convent grounds. When a typhoid epidemic claimed Mother Margaret Mary Jolivet, she was given a military funeral and buried in the convent grounds.

The last laugh

T

hree men were discussing what the oldest profession was.

The doctor said: “Well, the Bible says that God took a rib out of Adam to make woman. Since that clearly required surgery, the oldest profession obviously is medicine.”

The engineer responded: “But the

Bible also says that God created the whole world out of void and chaos. To do that, God must have been an engineer. So engineering is the oldest profession.”

The politician smiled and asked: “Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?”

Buy the Church Chuckles book of Catholic jokes!

email books@scross.co.za or go to www.digital.scross.co.za/church-chuckles

DID YOU MISS AN ISSUE?

Back copies are available at R30 plus p&p from admin@scross.co.za

With Saint of the Month posters: St Teresa of Avila; St Martin de Porres; The Holy Family; St John Bosco; St Josephine Bakhita; St George; St Rita of Cascia; St Charles Lwanga & co., St Anne, St John Vianney, St Vincent de Paul, St John XXIII, St Catherine Labouré, Our Lady of Guadalupe...

or subscribe: www.digital.scross.co.za/subscribe or subscriptions@scross.co.za

For all your sand and stone requirements in piet retief, southern Mpumalanga

tel: 017 826 0054/5 cell: 082 904 7840 Email: sales@eskaycrushers.co.za