spotlight.africa: Recent Episodes
spotlight.africa
Spotlight Africa sheds light on the social, political and economic happenings in Southern Africa. It offers analysis and commentary – informed by Catholic Social Teaching and Christian ethics – on the things that matter to Africans.
With the Apostolic Letter “Patris corde” (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis recalls the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To mark the occasion, the Holy Father has proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from today, 8 December 2020, to 8 December 2021. Vatican News reports.
In a new Apostolic Letter entitled Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.
The Letter marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of the St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To celebrate the anniversary, Pope Francis has proclaimed a special “Year of St Joseph,” beginning on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 2020 and extending to the same feast in 2021.
The Holy Father wrote Patris corde against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which, he says, has helped us see more clearly the importance of “ordinary” people who, though far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every day. In this, they resemble Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence,” who nonetheless played “an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”
A beloved, tender, obedient father
Saint Joseph, in fact, “concretely expressed his fatherhood” by making an offering of himself in love “a love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home,” writes Pope Francis, quoting his predecessor St Paul VI.
And because of his role at “the crossroads between the Old and New Testament,” St Joseph “has always been venerated as a father by the Christian people” (PC, 1). In him, “Jesus saw the tender love of God,” the one that helps us accept our weakness, because “it is through” and despite “our fears, our frailties, and our weakness” that most divine designs are realized. “Only tender love will save us from the snares of the accuser,” emphasizes the Pontiff, and it is by encountering God’s mercy especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation that we “experience His truth and tenderness,” – because “we know that God’s truth does not condemn us, but instead welcomes, embraces, sustains and forgives us” (2).
Joseph is also a father in obedience to God: with his ‘fiat’ he protects Mary and Jesus and teaches his Son to “do the will of the Father.” Called by God to serve the mission of Jesus, he “cooperated... in the great mystery of Redemption,” as St John Paul II said, “and is truly a minister of salvation” (3).
Welcoming the will of God
At the same time, Joseph is “an accepting Father,” because he “accepted Mary unconditionally” — an important gesture even today, says Pope Francis, “in our world where psychological, verbal and physical violence towards women is so evident.” But the Bridegroom of Mary is also the one who, trusting in the Lord, accepts in his life even the events that he does not understand, “setting aside his own ideas” and reconciling himself with his own history.
Joseph’s spiritual path “is not one that explains, but accepts” — which does not mean that he is “resigned.” Instead, he is “courageously and firmly proactive,” because with “Holy Spirit’s gift of fortitude,” and full of hope, he is able “to accept life as it is, with all its contradictions, frustrations and disappointments.” In practice, through St. Joseph, it is as if God were to repeat to us: “Do not be afraid!” because “faith gives meaning to every event, however happy or sad,” and makes us aware that “God can make flowers spring up from stony ground.” Joseph “did not look for shortcuts but confronted reality with open eyes and accepted personal responsibility for it.” For this reason, “he encourages us to accept and welcome others as they are, without exception, and to show special concern for the weak” (4).
A creatively c...
As the Church begins a new year, marked as usual with the period of Advent to prepare and wait for Christmas, Grant Tungay reflects on how to enter this time prayerfully, especially within the context of this past year, marked with the trauma of COVID-19 and the experience of lockdown.
As we enter this season of Advent, we are coming to the end of a difficult year. One of the obvious difficulties we have experienced is how deeply this COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the normal functioning of our lives. From my own Christian perspective, perhaps the hardest aspect of this pandemic to deal with has been the interruption to the free practice of my faith. During the most intense times of lockdown in Kenya, I could not go to confession and I could not attend daily Mass physically, with all of my Mass attendance being done online. As a Jesuit, daily Mass has always been a given part of the routine, so when my community in Kenya stopped daily Mass for a couple of months under lockdown, this was a very strange and difficult time. It has been a strange and difficult time for the entire Church.
The global pandemic has not ended, even though some restrictions have been lifted in Kenya, in particular those relating to religious gatherings. We have a limited access to the practice of our faith, but it is not yet a free and unrestricted practice. We enter into Advent waiting – waiting for ‘normalcy’ to return to our faith, whatever that will look like. We wait for a vaccine to come, hoping that this will mean we can go to Mass unimpeded, that we can go to confession again without fear – even if that confession is in a confined and under-ventilated space. We wait for a time when weddings can be joyfully celebrated in large numbers once again, and when we can give our loved ones the kind of respect we want to – with a free gathering of people at a funeral. We wait for a time when hospital visits by chaplains can bring the much-needed comfort and strength that the anointing of the sick is designed to bring. We wait...
This theme of ‘waiting’ is an important aspect to the period of Advent in the Church’s calendar. The wonderful rhythm of the readings at Mass and in the Divine Office help us to enter into that ancient longing the Israelites had for their own salvation. In the very centre of this deep longing came the prophecies that God will come close: God heard the cry of his people and Christ’s coming is foretold on the lips of prophets. We meditate on these texts to remember what that longing of God’s people was like, as a way to prepare ourselves to invite Christ anew into our midst, into the centre of our own sufferings and struggles.
the Eucharist is the ultimate sacrament that nurtures our union with God and with one another
This rich meaning of Advent can surely attain a special significance in this year of COVID-19. As we wait for vaccines to come, and for all restrictions to religious observance to lift, our waiting does not have to be sterile. During Advent we can make a renewed connection to our own longings for the Lord, even in the midst of COVID-19’s challenges. This longing for union with the Lord is beautifully expressed in the ancient practice of ‘spiritual communion’. As the encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia acknowledges, the Eucharist is the ultimate sacrament that nurtures our union with God and with one another. Even when we can’t make it to Mass, just our deep longing for God can produce some of the fruit of the Eucharist – our deep yearning can draw us closer to God and can nurture his love in our hearts.
When we finally do resume our religious observance, are we ready to welcome all of our brothers and sisters in our community? Are we ready to be in solidarity with all whom we meet at Mass?
Advent also invites us to acknowledge that the Kingdom of God is amongst us, but it not yet fully established. In his recent encyclical letter, Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis acknowledges that the world is im...
Commenting on a Vatican meeting with popular movements in late October, Stan Muyebe OP observes that economic justice and overcoming inequality are at the heart of Pope Francis’ social teaching. The Holy Father’s first encyclical Evangelii Guadium and a recent letter to grassroots organizations point to a consistent message of hope by calling on communities living on the peripheries to become catalysts for the transformation of global economic systems.
On 24 October 2020, Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, and Cardinal Michael Czerny held an online meeting with popular movements on five continents. The purpose of the meeting — held annually — seeks to examine ways in which grassroots movements can “resist injustice and transform reality.”
Pope Francis has supported popular movements since the start of his pontificate. His encyclicals regularly return to the theme of economic justice and the chasm that exists between the rich nations of the world and the planet’s poorest people. In 2019, Pope Francis wrote the preface to a book published by the Vatican that encourages people who live on the peripheries of the economy to become agents of social change and transformation.
There is a great deal that popular movements can teach the world about greater equality, human dignity, and the transformation of political and economic systems so that they can truly be at the service of all people. This is the heart of Catholic social teaching.
Pope Francis has returned to this theme numerous times, beginning with his first encyclical Evangelii Gaudium. This text continues to provide a powerful reflection of Pope Francis’ social teaching on the global economy (EG 50-75). Instead of accepting the world as it is, he proposes creative dialogue with the social movements of the poor. There is therefore something that we can learn from such peripheral perspectives.
Viewing the world from the periphery
In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis notes that economic globalization generates immense wealth and human progress in both established and developing economies (EG52). Greed, however, concentrates this wealth in the hands of a small elite and mostly benefits rich nations. Despite promises of a trickle-down economy, wealth has not sufficiently filtered down to the peripheries, especially in developing nations (EG 54). Instead, large stakeholders at the centre continue to wield economic power but “the excluded are still waiting.” (EG54).
Greed concentrates this wealth in the hands of a small elite and mostly benefits rich nations.
It is precisely this “economy of exclusion” that the Holy Father rejects (EG 53). He says that “such an economy kills” because it is grounded upon the idolatry of money and the rejection of the role of ethics in an economy. It is a system that places money at the heart of the economy instead of the human person (EG 57-58).
This unequal distribution of wealth creates two conflicting world views. Evangelii Gaudium provides several examples: those at the centre throw away food, while the people at the peripheries are dying of hunger. The world of power balks at news that the stock market has lost two points, but the death of an elderly homeless person does not even make it onto the news (EG 53). These contradictions should be a cause of concern.
The massive concentration of wealth at the centre is the root cause of extreme economic inequalities. Resistance to these inequalities is shown in the outpouring of the cries of the poor against what Pope Francis calls “the globalization of indifference.” This resistance, often described as ‘terrorism’ by some governments, frequently takes on the form of violent confrontation between the peripheries and the centre.
Instead of examining the real and underlying frustration on the part of the poor, centres of political power typically blame poor nations and social movements for inciting violence. Iro...
During the Angelus on Sunday, 25 October 2020, Pope Francis announced that he was going to create 13 new cardinals. Vatican News reports that on 28 November, there will be 13 new additions to the College of Cardinals: 9 are under 80 years of age, among them is the Guardian of Sacro Convento in Assisi, Father Mauro Gambetti.
The Church will have thirteen new Cardinals. Nine of them are younger than 80 and therefore, have the right to participate in a future conclave. Four others are older than 80 years of age. Pope Francis’s announcement came as a surprise, after the recitation of the Angelus on Sunday, 25 October. He communicated the news regarding the creation of the new cardinals to the faithful present in St Peter’s Square as well as to those connected throughout the world.
Two of the new Cardinals work in the Roman Curia: the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Maltese Mario Grech and the Italian Marcello Semeraro, former Bishop of Albano and the new Prefect for the Congregation of the Causes of Saints.
Six other pastors in the Church throughout the world are joining them: the Archbishop of Kilgali, Rwanda, Antoine Kambanda; the Archbishop of Washington, United States, Wilton Gregory; the Archbishop of Capiz, in the Philippines, Jose Fuerte Advincula; the Archbishop of Santiago, Chile, Celestino Aós Braco; the Apostolic Vicar of Brunei, Cornelius Sim; the Archbishop of Siena, Italy, Augusto Paolo Lojudice.
In addition, the Pope has also appointed the current Guardian of the Franciscan Sacro Convento in Assisi, Mauro Gambetti.
To these Cardinals who are younger than 80 years of age, Pope Francis has also added four other Cardinals who are older than 80. They are: Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, Archbishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas (Mexico); former Apostolic Nuncio Silvano Tomasi, former permanent observer at the United Nations in Geneva who then worked in the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Papal Household; and the pastor of the Shrine of Divine Love, Father Enrico Feroci.
Cardinals wear the colour red which indicates their willingness to sacrifice themselves usque ad sanguinis effusionem, that is, to the point of shedding their own blood, in the service of the Successor of Peter, and even though they reside in the remotest regions of the world, they become the titular head of a parish in the Eternal City so that they are incardinated in the Church of which the Pope is Bishop.
Pope Francis is in the headlines again after a documentary film by the Russian Jew, Evgeny Afineevsky, was premiered at the Rome Film Festival on Wednesday. This time the Pope is strongly advocating for ‘civil unions’. Matthew Charlesworth writes about why this is not necessarily new, but it is a strong signal to members of the Church in countries that currently criminalise homosexuals to work for their legal protection. This follows from the Pope’s insistence that “nobody should be thrown out.”
This article was updated to include the Press Statement of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) on Friday, 23 October 2020 1pm.
The media was abuzz this week about a new documentary by Evgeny Afineevsky entitled ‘Francesco’. It premiered in Rome on Wednesday, and it has been reported that the Pope said in the film: “Homosexual people have a right to be in a family,” ... “They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it.” ... “What we have to create is a ‘civil union’ law. That way they are legally covered.”
In one sense this is news, but in another, it is not.
All Catholics are well-aware that the sacrament of marriage is held to be between a man and a woman. But Catholics are also aware that a sacramental marriage is different to a civil marriage, and that a marriage is different to a civil union.
The advantage of the legal protections Francis desires is familiar to us in South Africa, where we have the Civil Union Act which permits civil partnerships. It enables the legal recognition and protection of persons in a relationship. This allows for advantages in society, such as allowing parties to be permitted to visit a loved-one in hospital, to be assured of security and inheritance, and a host of other common-sense protections which without legal recognition could be unjustly or unfairly withheld.
Zealously defending marriage, some Catholics have, in various countries and at various times, sought to oppose the introduction and recognition of civil unions in the mistaken belief that this threatens the sacramental understanding of marriage. But this is not the case. Allowing civil unions does not diminish a Catholics’ understanding or right to celebrate a sacramental marriage between a man and a woman.
What Pope Francis has done neither threatens the sacramental understanding of marriage, but nor is it strictly speaking ‘new’. He is on record for supporting civil unions when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires whilst opposing redefining sacramental marriage. But in re-iterating his support for civil unions as Pope, he is signalling to the Church around the world that we should support civil unions in our own countries. Of course he has not done this in a formal teaching document, but he is communicating his view nonetheless, and Catholics around the world will take note.
This is a work of justice, especially in a continent where so many countries still criminalise homosexuals with imprisonment, or worse, capital punishment. In recognising civil unions he is signalling that criminalising homosexual behaviour can no longer be tolerated. It is not in keeping with the global understanding of human rights, nor the Christian law of love.
The Pope is reminding us of what the Catechism has long taught. Homosexuals “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” (CCC 2358).
Christians are called to see the individual person as deserving of dignity and not to narrowly stereotype them by their actions. Pope Francis is reminding us that we must encounter the whole person, and not reduce their lives and relationships to what sexual acts they may or may not do together.
It is possible to uphold the sanctity of sacramental marriage between a man and a woman, whilst recognising civil rights and protections for those in a relationship that is not, and does not claim t...
The 2020 edition of the United Nations General Assembly was conducted via videoconferencing, a clear sign that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over and continues to curtail human activities. It was within this context that Pope Francis addressed the General Assembly on 25 September, calling for greater solidarity among nations and issuing a stark reminder of the multiple threats that face our common humanity. Ricardo da Silva examines the key themes of the Pope’s speech.
At the 75th annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, Pope Francis criticised world leaders for failing on the promises they made in the five years since he first addressed them in New York.
In a pre-recorded video from the Vatican, aired last Friday, 25 September, on the General Assembly’s dedicated website, the Pope urged member states to act for the common good, especially in light of the globally crippling Covid-19 pandemic.
In what was possibly the most diplomatic expression of disappointment, the Pope reminded world leaders of his speech to them in 2015. “It was a moment of great hope and promise for the international community,” he said. But, quickly, he turned to reflect on his view of the present state of affairs.
“We must honestly admit that, even though some progress has been made,” the Pope confessed, “the international community has shown itself largely incapable of honouring the promises made five years ago.”
The Pope’s message came as global heads face the most urgent public health crisis in a century. This past Tuesday, the pandemic produced yet another sombre statistic for the international community. In the 10 months since Li Wenliang, the whistleblower doctor in Wuhan, China, announced the Covid-19 outbreak, more than one million people have died from complications related to the disease.
Compared with the intervention the Pope made in 2015, his address this year took a stronger tack, perhaps showing signs of his growing impatience toward leaders of member states who have failed to act on the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ratified in October 2015.
His address this year took a stronger tack, perhaps showing signs of his growing impatience toward leaders of member states.
Undeterred by the uncooperative stance of some member states, the Pope hit many of the same points he made in 2015, determined to impress once more the urgency of reaching the 2030 goals under the blight of Covid-19.
Power to choose
“The pandemic calls us to ‘seize this time of trial as a time of choosing,’” the Pope said, reiterating his message to the world this April when he stood alone in prayer on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica presiding over an empty square.
Although it might not be plain to an irreligious audience, the Pope’s strategy to present his audience with a choice and the subsequent consequences of each choice is a biblical one.
In the book of Deuteronomy, found in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the prophet Moses invites the Israelites to choose between life and death. “See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil,” the prophet says, before following with an explanation of where each choice will lead, imploring them to choose life over death. In much the same way, the Pope presented the options set before the world today.
Assessing the pernicious effects of the pandemic, the Pope characterised the present moment as either “a concrete opportunity for conversion, for transformation, for rethinking our way of life and our economic systems” or “an occasion for a ‘defensive retreat’ into greater individualism and elitism.”
Driving his point further still, the Pope went on to describe what he believed would be the consequences of choosing one way over the other.
The Pope characterised the present moment as either “a concrete opportunity for conversion ... or “an occasion for a ‘defensive retreat’ into greater individualism and elitism.”
“One path leads to th...
Pope Francis has written an Apostolic Letter for the 1600th anniversary of the death of Saint Jerome the “great doctor and father of the Church, who put the Bible at the centre of his life.” Vatican News reports.
St Jerome bequeathed to the Church “devotion to the Sacred Scripture, a ‘living and tender love’ for the written word of God,” says Pope Francis in a new Apostolic Letter on the 1600th anniversary of the death of the great Doctor and Father of the Church.
“Jerome’s profound knowledge of the Scriptures, his zeal for making their teaching known, his skill as an interpreter of texts, his ardent and at times impetuous defence of Christian truth, his asceticism and harsh eremitical discipline, his expertise as a generous and sensitive spiritual guide”, the Pope writes in Scripturae Sacrae affectus (“Devotion to Sacred Scripture”), “all these make him, sixteen centuries after his death, a figure of enduring relevance for us, the Christians of the twenty-first century.”
A life devoted to Christ and His word
Reviewing the life of the fourth century saint, Pope Francis notes that Jerome devoted himself entirely “to Christ and His word,” working unceasingly “to make the divine writings accessible to others. The Pope highlighted two dimensions of the saint’s life especially: his “absolute and austere consecration to God,” and “a commitment to diligent study, aimed purely at an ever deeper understanding of the Christian mystery.”
Pope Francis dwells on Jerome’s love of Scripture, which focused on the “humble character of God’s revelation,” more than on “the narrative and poetic genius of the Bible.” Jerome approached the Scriptures in an even “more systematic and distinctive way” than the other early Christian Fathers, emphasizing the necessity of knowing the Bible in order to know Christ.
Study steeped in obedience
Jerome’s study of the Scripture, the Pope says, was steeped in obedience, both to God Himself and “to those in the Church who represent the living Tradition that interprets the revealed message.” But, Pope Francis insists, “The ‘obedience of faith’ is not, however, a mere passive reception of something already known; on the contrary it demands an active personal effort to understand what was spoken.”
Pope Francis notes that many people find the Bible difficult to read—not because of illiteracy, but because they have not learned the skills necessary to make the sacred text intelligible.
“This shows the need for an interpreter,” writes Pope Francis, adding, “Jerome can serve as our guide... because he leads every reader to the mystery of Jesus.”
The Vulgate translation
The Pope notes that Jerome’s translation of the Scriptures into Latin helped to shape western culture. “Jerome’s work of translation teaches us that the values and positive forms of every culture represent an enrichment for the whole Church,” while at the same time witnessing “to the fact that the Bible continually needs to be translated into the linguistic and mental categories of each culture and generation.”
Pope Francis also explains the importance of translation as a form of “hospitality”: a translator, he writes, “is a bridge builder,” helping people of different languages and cultures not only communicate with, but also understand one another.
Devotion to Rome and the Popes
Saint Jerome was also known for his deep devotion to Rome and to the Popes. “At a turbulent time in which the seamless garment of the Church was often torn by divisions among Christians, Jerome looked to the Chair of Peter as a sure reference point.”
Jerome himself “was often involved in bitter disputes for the cause of the faith,” which he often carried out with great passion. Nonetheless, although willing to fight vehemently for the faith, Jerome loved and desired peace. “Today more than ever,” writes Pope Francis, “our world needs the medicine of mercy and peace.”
Example of love for the Scriptures
Concluding his Letter, Pope Francis appea...
Matthew Charlesworth visited his former high school, where he encountered an artistic composition that prompted a deeper spiritual reflection. The artwork calls for greater religious tolerance, but Charlesworth suggests that it reveals a far more encompassing image of God and the spiritual quest that necessarily values a tolerance that must lead us towards genuine fraternity.
“T.O.L.E.R.A.N.C.E.”, by sculptor and artist Guy Ferrer, is composed of nine bronze sculptures, each representing a letter of the word “tolerance” and depicting aspects of a religion, belief or spirituality. It is currently on display at St Stithians College and I went to visit it this past weekend. (Full disclosure: I’m an alumnus of the school). I thought I would share my impressions about this intriguing artwork.
The artwork is on loan to the school from the Everard Read Art Gallery in Johannesburg. Their website states that:
“Guy Ferrer is French, of Catalan descent by his father and Italian descent by his mother. He was born in 1955 in Algeria, and this work has been exhibited in France, Germany, Poland, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa. Conceived in the aftermath of 9/11 and in reaction to contemporary humanist religious tensions, this artwork presents Guy Ferrer’s reconciliatory vision. It is a message of hope stating that the communal and shared spiritual quest, inherent in our humanity, should be a source of convergence. Key to an essential commitment for respect and peace in the world, tolerance exists thanks to an effort of reflection, openness to others and imagination.
It is a message of hope stating that the communal and shared spiritual quest, inherent in our humanity, should be a source of convergence.
This major sculpture received wide acclaim through its exhibitions in La Monnaie de Paris (January, 2008) and in the Jardins du Luxembourg, French Senate (summer, 2008). It has also been installed at the Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany, 2009), the city of Poznan (Poland, 2009), the Palais des Rois de Majorque (2011) and the Campo Santo (2014) in Perpignan (France). Three of the eight editions of this work have been installed on a permanent basis at: the François Mitterrand’s park (Saint-Ouen, France); the forecourt of the Government Palace in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates); and the district of Port Marianne in Montpellier (France).”
The artist believes that each installation of this artwork “serves as a landmark, a focal point for welcoming other artists, students and entire communities to join in spreading the fuller message of Tolerance, Compassion and Brotherhood”, which is the artist’s intention behind creating an artwork that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. The placing of the figures next to each other represents how each can be pursued without threat to the other and yet stand together as testament to the importance and relatedness of all.
I am aware that the observations below are seen primarily through a lens of my own faith and spirituality, and from what I have encountered and read about in other spiritualities and religions. I hope that members of other Faiths might also contemplate this artwork and offer insights that resonate with their own tradition. There is certainly no last word in appreciating this conceptual masterpiece, but I humbly share my impressions in the hope that it might stimulate or awaken your own.
My impressions of the ‘T’ artwork.
Some people may immediately be drawn to the cruciform shape, and the branches that grow out of the figure’s head might remind one of a crown of thorns. But these thorns appear to have grown and appear more like living stems, and perhaps that is why the figure is not attached to the ‘crucifix’ but appears in front of it. There are some types of crosses, like the Franciscan Tau cross which has a T-shape too. I admit this could be something one can read in the artwork, but looking behind it there is no vertical beam, and so no cross,...
St Maria Goretti died in an attempt to protect her virginity. Levinia Pienaar considers her heroism alongside the values placed on virginity in Sudanese and South African societies. In both sexuality becomes a tool of oppression and violence, even if in vastly different expressions.
The Church recently commemorated the feast of St. Maria Goretti, a young girl who died fending off her would-be rapist. Her story is not unique. It is the experience of girls and women all around the world.
Rape has become a weapon of power against the most vulnerable members of society, and the price that young girls, boys, women and men pay is far greater than a jail sentence. Victims and perpetrators suffer for years in different ways, even when the bruises and memory of these evil incidents have passed.
The invisible rape victims of Sudan
When I was deployed to Darfur, Sudan as a UN peacekeeper, genocide and human rights violations were the visible signs of a deeper violence, one which women and girls often suffered in silence. Everyone felt the tension of the political strife, but for Sudan’s female citizens, life was unbearable.
In Sudan, boys are treated differently from girls, right from birth. Boys and girls hold a different status in society. We could see this every afternoon at 5pm when shops were closing. Boys would stand in front, while the girls waited behind them, hoping that the spaza shop owner might throw out some food. The rule was that boys received first, then the girls.
Boys also grow watching their fathers and other men around them. At a relatively young age, they begin dictating to their younger sisters and mothers. Men sit under a tree drinking tea. Boys play nearby. The women and girls go into the villages to get money and firewood. They break rocks or take on any other job to get food on the table.
In my work — on patrols or engaging in educational awareness programmes — I began to know some of the people in the villages. We had to requestion permission from male community leaders when we wanted to speak to the women about midwives and precautions to take during pregnancy. Even then, a few of the men would also be present. They were afraid that we would ”make their women clever and they would not obey and respect them”.
Schools were prodominantly for boys. On rare occasions girls were allowed to go to school, depending on circumstances at home and what the men of the family dictated. But in general, animals were more valuable than women.
One afternoon, I came across a woman and a 12-year old girl. When I asked through a language interpreter what was wrong, the woman and the girl revealed their fear instantly but refused to speak with us. Because it was getting late, we let them go home but told them that we would retun to the village the next day.
This is when the woman opened up and told us that the girl was her neice. Earlier in the day, the girl and her cousin had been sent to fetch firewood. They took their grandfather’s donkey with them. On their way back, some men stole the firewood and the donkey from them. The girl tried to fight them off, but her cousin managed to get away and told her mother what happened.
Meanwhile, the men raped the girl. She eventually returned to her aunt’s house, too afraid to tell her grandfather that the donkey was gone.
She intinctively knew that the donkey was more important than the fact that she had just been raped. Furthermore, she also knew that because she was no longer a virgin, her family would not receive a dowry when the time came for her to be married. She understood that she would be neglected as an outcast for the rest of her life, because she ”shamed the family” by being raped.
Instead, retrieving the donkey became the main focus. When the girl’s aunt informed the mother about what had happneed, the decision was for the girl to remain with her aunt for the night, in the hope that the men they sent into the woods would be able to find the donkey....
Discerning truth from falsehood and deliberate misinformation is becoming increasingly difficult as various interest groups compete to dominate the media space. Mark Potterton says that this poses a challenge for schools as they seek to encourage learners to develop critical thinking skills and to take an interest in the world around them.
At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, UNESCO warned that orchestrated misinformation campaigns about the virus, which pose a threat to fact-based journalism, were also putting human lives at risk.
Guy Berger, UNESCO’s communication expert and one of the agency’s pundits on disinformation, explained that falsehoods related to all aspects of COVID-19 have become commonplace: “There seems to be barely an area left untouched by disinformation in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, ranging from the origin of the coronavirus, through to unproven prevention and ‘cures’, and encompassing responses by governments, companies, celebrities and others.”
He noted that heightened fears, uncertainties and unknowns are fertile ground for fake news to flourish and grow. The big risk is that one falsehood, which gains traction, can negate the significance of a body of true facts.
Berger argues that when disinformation is repeated and amplified, including by influential people, the danger is that information based on truth only has marginal impact.
Berger’s answer to the problem is to improve the supply of truthful information and ensure that the demand for information is met by promoting greater transparency form governments and the disclosure of data in keeping with right to information laws.
Assessing the value of information begins in childhood
People have a lot to say about getting schools to work in South Africa and how to improve academic outcomes. However, these plans seldom equip pupils to become critical and discerning thinkers. I like the ideas of Neil Postman from his classic paper, “Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection,” delivered at a teacher convention in 1969. I still find Postman’s ideas relevant for today’s context and the pupils I teach.
Postman argued that the best thing that schools can do for children ‘is to help them learn how to distinguish useful talk from bullshit’. Postman maintained that every day, in almost every way, people are exposed to more ‘bullshit’ than it is healthy for them. This comment is even more pertinent today in a world of mass media and exploding fake news on social media.
Postman argued that the best thing that schools can do for children ‘is to help them learn how to distinguish useful talk from bullshit’.
Although the world has become so interconnected, general knowledge and an awareness of current affairs are dismally low. Many pupils are unable to think beyond their immediate and personal concerns. Yes, literacy levels or the poor state of school toilets are important, but education must also concern itself with extending the horizons of the young people in their care. It begins with small steps. For example, primary school children need to know that by bringing in newspapers for recycling, they are indirectly reducing the pressure on forestry.
This becomes especially important in high school to counter a youth culture that is pervasively focused on self-satisfaction. Young people need to realise that the world they inhabit exists beyond themselves. Political philosopher Hannah Arendt put it very well:
Four kinds of disinformation
Let us go back to Postman and his valuable lessons from 1969. Children today are exposed to a lot more ‘bullshit’ than they were in 1969! If pupils improve their crap detection skills, they are more likely to be critical thinkers as adults.
Postman deals with four kinds of ‘bullshit’: pomposity, fanaticism, inanity and superstition. He argues that many people are daily victims of pomposity when they are they are made to feel less worthy than people with grandiose titles (or fly past in blue light brigade...
On 12 July, President Cyril Ramaphosa painted a pessimistic picture of South Africa’s battle against COVID-19. Hospitals are struggling to keep up and the country has not even reached the peak of infections. Margaret Blackie notes the differences between South Africa’s infection and other badly-affected countries during their peak. As a consequence, she questions the government’s wisdom in allowing minibus taxis to operate at full capacity.
We have entered a new phase in South Africa – we are in the ‘surge’. The daily infection rate is such that our hospitals cannot cope with the influx of those who need to be treated. As a result, alcohol has been banned again. It is frustrating, but I am sure the medical staff are breathing a (small) sigh of relief. At least the preventable, alcohol induced injuries will free up some hospital resources.
So, just how bad is it in South Africa? We don’t know yet. Over the last five days we have had just below 13,000 new infections every day. To put that in perspective have a look at the table. Total population isn’t really a good counter indicator, but I am guessing that most of the readers of this article will remember watching the stories coming from these three countries in March and April. We have more than twice the daily infection rate of either Italy or the UK. And we don’t know whether we have hit the peak yet.
We have more than twice the daily infection rate of either Italy or the UK.
Bottom line it is very serious. The only element in our favour is that our population is a lot younger than any of these three countries and so we do have lower percentage of complicated cases and a lower mortality rate.
Country
Total population
approximate number of daily infections at the peak
UK
68 million
5,500
Italy
60 million
6,000
Spain
47 million
8,000
South Africa
58 million
12,058 (on 12 July)
Into this unfolding human tragedy, the government has made a truly bizarre decision. The only possible motive is political expediency. They have changed the regulations from requiring taxis to operate at 70% capacity to allowing full capacity for short journeys. Even at 70% capacity taxis were likely to be hotspots.
At 100% capacity one infectious person on a taxi will infect more people. Given that a large percentage of our population has no choice but to use taxis, it seems that saving the most lives possible is not the President’s top priority.
One infectious person on a taxi will infect more people.
This decision makes a mockery of the complex screening and entry procedures many businesses and organisations have had to implement at substantial expense. It is profoundly disappointing.
Nonetheless, we are — in the words of the President — in the centre of storm, the extent to which it will get worse depends on the actions of every single one of us. We are all tired, and the recent announcement by President Ramaphosa which began with him berating us rubbed salt into the wound.
However, flouting the simple rules of good hand hygiene, social distancing and wearing of masks will not help. And it will not ‘send a message’ or whatever it is supposed to do. The virus does not care! We need to take a deep breath and gently persist. There is nothing else to be done.
Reacting to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on 12 July, Matthew Charlesworth comments that the President could have done more to foster popular good will in pursuing the common good. Nevertheless, he urges citizens to continue to support the authorities by doing all they can to mitigate the effects of COVID-19.
President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed us again on 12 July. In his previous addresses, he spoke with a measure of reassurance. This time it felt like a real scolding — evidently because many South Africans needed to be scolded!
Everyone should be wearing a mask in public. It is an act of courtesy and respect for the lives of other people. Your mask protects me, my mask protects you.
Unfortunately, many people will not grasp this key message, which the President repeated several times during his address. Instead, everyone is talking about the reinstatement of the alcohol restriction without prior warning or apparent consultation with the Industry. It is not fair but forfeiting some of our freedoms directly frees up resources for the care of COVID-19 patients.
Restricting alcohol use is one “easy fix” to help ensure that there are as many beds as possible for COVID-19 patients.
We know that South Africa’s health system was broken long before COVID-19, but the hard lockdown earlier this year made it very clear that injuries due to the abuse and misuse of alcohol escalated when the sale of alcohol resumed on 1 June. The collapse of the health system requires an overhaul. There is no time for that now. Restricting alcohol use is one “easy fix” to help ensure that there are as many beds as possible for COVID-19 patients and those who are really sick.
Criticism is good but engagement is better
It was good to hear the President criticise the government’s progress on certain actions, and to hear his pledge to augment medical resources and infrastructure to ensure the maximum care possible for the escalating number of COVID-19 cases.
However, it was disappointing that once again, the President did not take questions from the press. By engaging with the press, he would have had the opportunity to explain the rationale for some decisions, such as 100% occupancy on taxis or the 9pm curfew, which on the surface, do seem to be inconsistent with his other announcements. Instead, he made announcements that sounded like commands, which based on media reaction in the last 24 hours, will increasingly be received with less generosity.
He made announcements that sound like commands, which ... will increasingly be received with less generosity.
The address was filled with admonishments and regulations, mostly seen from a narrow medical lens. What was missing was the government’s progress in supporting the economy, the unemployed and the measures to combat corruption and the illicit economies that are thriving at the moment, as well as a broader understanding of health (mental, emotional, etc.) Anxiety about the economy is a risk to health too.
The President should have used the address to once again remind the country’s security forces of their mandate to protect and safeguard human life, especially at a time when we are fighting a deadly pandemic. The police need to be seen to be serving the people, and not being a force against the people.
The social compact is under strain, and it would really help if we could see police crackdown on corruption rather than pulling poor people from their shacks in the middle of their baths.
Need for prayer and support
Despite the lacunas in Ramaphosa’s latest address to the nation, he often finds himself in an impossible situation, caught in the middle of conflicting political and economic interests.
Our leaders need our prayer and support. Let us continue to pray for them and that they continue to act in the interest of the common good. We also give thanks that we have Cyril Ramaphosa in charge, instead of someone else (Just imagine how bad it could be!?).
...
Schools spend too much time preparing students for exams, says Mark Potterton, who has served as the Chief Operating Officer for Umalusi, the South African examinations board. He makes a case for different forms of academic assessment that better prepare students for the world of work and can help to overcome structural inequalities in the current education system.
COVID-19 has resulted in an unprecedented disruption to education systems worldwide. Despite this, the education authorities in many countries, including South Africa, vow that the “school year has not been lost” and are forging ahead with year-end examinations for students completing their final year of schooling. This has placed untold amounts of stress on students as they race to complete the year successfully.
My argument over the years has been that we still put far too much emphasis on exam results. The National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams are high stakes exams that act as gatekeepers for too many pupils. Very few pupils achieve the required results to pursue higher education or enter the employment market. Passing matric does not necessarily open doors for school leavers. Former Planning Minister Trevor Manuel observed that it takes about seven years for the average Black female matriculant to find a job after completing school!
Very few pupils achieve the required results to pursue higher education or enter the employment market.
A lot of teaching time is lost to exams. In Matric, there are three sets of exams. This is three months of lost teaching time, forcing teachers to race through the curriculum and teach after hours to cover all the content.
Exams also create anxiety for students. Every morning, on my way to school I pass a huge billboard advertising over-the-counter medication to help pupils relax and concentrate better. While most pupils seem to navigate this stressful time without too much difficulty, for some pupils the stress is just too much, and the consequences are sometimes deadly.
Primary school children in South Africa are not free from exam tyranny either. The Annual National Assessments have introduced young children to standardized multiple-choice tests to assess literacy and numeracy. Some argue that an overemphasis on standardized testing hurts the quality of teaching and that the current system of accountability, which uses the same tests to measure trends in achievement and ranks schools, necessarily reduces teaching to test success.
Exams do not produce the skills employers seek
South Africa’s education reforms since the advent of democracy introduced a variety of assessment methods, including coursework, projects, group work and other activities. Despite this, the written examination has still not been dislodged from its pedestal, and its weight remains far too great among the array of other possible assessment strategies. The current system is doggedly focused on the NSC and the outcomes of these exams.
The purpose of these examinations needs to be questioned, especially when employers regularly say that the education system does not provide the skills they are looking for in would-be employees, such as strong writing and presentation skills. They recommend that pupils should be given more opportunity to make oral presentations and to write in different styles for different audiences. Employers want workers who can think critically and solve problems.
Employers regularly say that the education system does not provide the skills they are looking for in would-be employees.
A case in point is that when former British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone took his final exams at university in 1831, oral examinations formed a central part of final degree results. It wasn’t only his memory that was put to the test, but his ability to think quickly, to make a case, and to demonstrate his capabilities as a lawyer.
I am unsure of where we are heading with education in South Africa. It appears that with all th...
Continuing her exploration of the relationship between poorly interpreted Scriptures and patriarchy, Mahadi Buthelezi presents the correlations she sees between toxic masculinity and gender-based violence. She warns that the rigid application of Church teaching and the poor formation of those in parish ministry only perpetuate the continued violence against women.
St Paul’s instruction that women remain silent creates a two-fold injustice. “Let a woman learn in silence and full submission”, says Paul’s first letter to Timothy. “I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. At best, if understood literally, this injunction teaches women that they ought to be subservient to men. Worse, it forces women to stay silent in situations of abuse, as if they must endure it as their God-given lot.
But we can no longer use the excuse of a narrow reading of St. Paul’s letters to silence women who are abused or dominated by men. Such interpretation only creates an environment that further promotes male superiority and dominance over women, perpetuating the circle of abuse.
Scriptural justification for violence against women
The religious upbringing of some women has included the teaching that God expects women to submit to their husbands. Nothing could be further from the truth. God wants mutual respect between men and women and not for one to dominate the other.
Consider this Bible passage often used to justify women’s subservience to men. “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,” writes the apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus. “Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church” (5:21-22). Later, he adds what is often left out in a male-serving presentation of the Scriptures. “Husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies” (5:25), Paul writes. Ending his discourse, he explains: “He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body.” (5:29-30).
In this intimate relationship of love, as revealed in this text, there can be no space for abuse. But, unfortunately, a culture in which men dominate women handpicks only the convenient and more shocking quotes from the Scriptures.
If we are to overturn this insidious culture in South Africa, where women too often are told to be silent and submit to male authority, we need to challenge the perceptions — even beliefs — of our male-led religious communities.
But, unfortunately, a culture in which men dominate women handpicks only the convenient and more shocking quotes from the Scriptures.
A problem in the formation of clergy
Priests have seldom addressed the problem of violence against women in their homilies, in my experience of the Catholic tradition. I have heard of priests who have actively encouraged women to endure abusive relationships, touting it as an act of faithfulness to their marriage vows. Priests have also encouraged women to pray for their abusive spouse, asking God to change their violent ways and bring peace to the family home. Not uncommonly, priests paint such counsel as an act of love, that the woman being abused should bear the suffering God has chosen for her as he made his son Jesus suffer on the cross for our sins.
Although the Catholic church is opposed to divorce, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the Church permits the physical separation of the couple and their living apart” (1649). But this message does not always filter through to victims of abuse. In the spiritual accompaniment women receive, they are often led to believe, and are even explicitly instructed, to remain in violent situations until death — often murder — do them part. In fact, in cases of abuse, the Church allows not only for separation. In some cases, an argumen...
Following the killings of several women and children in South Africa in the past week, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Southern African Bishops’ Conference’s Justice and Peace Commission issued strong statements calling for an end to the “war” against gender-based violence. Ricardo da Silva reports.
Tshegofatso Pule, Naledi Phangindawo, Nompumelelo Tshaka, Nomfazi Gabada, Nwabisa Mgwandela, Altecia Kortjie and Lindelwa Peni — these are the names of seven women murdered in the past week alone in South Africa.
In what was expected to be a nationwide address on the COVID-19 outbreak in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa also addressed South Africans last night about what he called, “another pandemic that is raging in our country”. Since relaxing the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, the president announced that 21 women and children had been murdered in what appears to be a rising trend in gender-based violence in South Africa — a country with an already appalling track record that sets it among the most violent in the world.
The president’s latest address, on national television, comes after his statement this weekend on gender-based violence. Earlier this week, the Justice and Peace Commission of Southern Africa’s Catholic bishops also weighed in, issuing a statement in which it “condemns the mindless and callous killings of innocent women and girls which amounts to a civil war”. The statement goes on to say that “God grieves deeply when we inflict gender-based violence on anyone” and “all violence inflicted on women is a desecration of God”.
“All violence inflicted on women is a desecration of God”.
SACBC Justice and Peace Commission
Ramaphosa’s call on Wednesday night was personal, he expressed, “as a man, as a husband and as a father”. The president spoke in words that echoed those of the bishops’ commission two days earlier. “I am appalled at what is no less than a war being waged against the women and children of our country”.
While Ramaphosa and the region’s Catholic bishops recognise that much has been done at the level of the government to address the scourge of gender-based violence and that the issue is on the agenda of national priorities, they acknowledged that even more needed to be done.
On 13 June — less than a week after Tshegofatso Pule, a 28-year-old eight-month pregnant woman from Dobsonville, Soweto, was found hanging from a tree with stab wounds to her chest — Ramaphosa condemned the violence visited on women and children in South Africa. He cited chilling statistics, noting that 51 percent of women in South Africa had suffered violence at the hands of their intimate partners, a statistic that places the country among the highest hit nations for physical and sexual intimate partner violence worldwide.
This is not the first time that Ramaphosa has raised the issue of gender-based violence.
Last September, he addressed parliament on the issue citing the names of three women murdered in that month and speaking in words, in part, almost identical to those he spoke on national television this past week. “Violence against women has become more than a national crisis”, he told members of parliament. “It is a crime against our common humanity”.
Then, the president’s resolve for change was sternly conveyed and he promised concrete actions to address the history of violence suffered by our country’s women and children. In his most recent address, the president suggested he had made good on some of these promises, attesting to reforms in the judiciary and prosecutorial process and to the implementation of greater support services, in the form of a dedicated gender-based violence hotline, safe shelters and centres for women and children, especially for victims of sexual violence.
“I am appalled at what is no less than a war being waged against the women and children of our country”.
President Cyril Ramaphosa
“I want to assure the women and children of South Africa that our criminal jus...
Some hospitals, especially in the Western Cape, are already under significant pressure. The announcement of the opening of casinos and restaurants does not mean we can do what we want. The sum of the actions of all of us will exacerbate that problem. Your choice is not just about you. It is about care for all writes Margaret Blackie.
The latest shift in lockdown regulations includes opening of casinos, restaurants and hair dressing salons. There is only one response to this – just because you can doesn’t mean it is safe.
Understand this: the risk of transmission increases with both proximity and time. The virus is borne by water droplets that we breathe out. Sitting in a restaurant, sharing a meal, means that most people will not be wearing masks. A typical shared meal may last around an hour. This means that if just one person in the restaurant is infected it is probable that more than one other person will be infected in the course of the meal. The time spent in the restaurant means that some of the droplets may circulate longer distances. And the time also means that the amount of virus laden droplets you inhale may well be sufficient to tip over the threshold to infection.
As you begin to engage more in the world, you cannot rely on businesses to protect you. Your health and safety is in your own hands.
Wearing a mask which is regularly washed and sanitized, and good hand hygiene remain absolutely crucial.
Without doubt though, the fewer people you interact with, and the shorter time you spend with any of them, the better for everyone. If we all keep strict social distancing then, we will reduce the rate of transmission. But this is a group project. We are all in this together.
It is hard to get our heads around this. We are so used to doing just what we want to do. We have to understand that every time I choose to interact with people whether shopping or socializing, I am increasing the probability of transmission.
In the Western Cape hospitals are already under significant pressure. The sum of the actions of all of us will exacerbate that problem. Your choice is not just about you. It is about care for all.
The news of dexamethasone does give some relief. According to the World Health Organisation the use of drug reduces mortality for those on ventilators by about 20% and for those on oxygen by about 33%. In other words, it helps, a bit, but it isn’t a ‘cure’.
Don’t focus on what your neighbour is doing. Deciding to start engaging normally with the world because your neighbour seems to be doing that escalates the problem. You have a choice about how much and under what circumstances you will interact with others.
Be discerning and choose the path of lower risk when possible.
To commemorate Youth Day on 16 June 2020, the Justice & Peace department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) penned a letter to the youth of South Africa, calling them never to give up in the face of adversity. Young people are encouraged to fly like eagles to achieve their goals.
Dear young South Africans,
Forty-four years ago, thousands of ordinary young men and women just like you did something extraordinary: they put the country ahead of themselves by taking to the streets to protest the injustices they were facing. They did so despite being met by heavily armed police, racist slurs, roaring police armored vehicles called Casspirs, tear gas assaults and live ammunition that killed 174 and injured 4000 of them.
Whilst taking decades to materialize, the sacrifices these ordinary young men and women made that day on 16 June 1976 were not in vain and helped pave the road to change, shifting our country’s narrative and destiny.
I would like you to ask you to remember the last part of that sentence: whilst taking decades to materialize, their sacrifices were not in vain and helped pave the road to change, shifting our narrative and destiny. Jesus said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). May this be your ideal when facing any of the profound challenges you are dealing with on a daily basis, of which I know there are more than I can possibly identify.
Whilst taking decades to materialize, their sacrifices were not in vain and helped pave the road to change, shifting our narrative and destiny.
Take unemployment. Currently, 30% of 16 to 24-year-olds and 46% of 25 to 34-year-olds in this country are not working, nor in any form of education and training. I encourage you: Do not give up now. Pray for light and make your discernment about opportunities and options. Consult your mentors, spiritual counsellors and life coaches to get more assistance. You can move from being a job-seeker to being a job-creator. I would like to remind our government that coordinated multi-stakeholder interventions are needed to empower young people through various skills training options that would equip them with the basic skills required to enter the labour market, whether this means bridging numeracy and literacy gaps, or equipping them with higher-level technical skills. Try, if you can, to acquire the necessary skills you need, to be employable.
To our students, both in High School and tertiary institutions. I feel your pain. I know that most of you are disillusioned. COVID-19 came unexpectedly and derailed your plans and interrupted your studies. This is not a time to give into depression and discouragement. The youth of 1976 went through a similar experience. Their studies were interrupted, schools and universities were closed and many had to jump our borders and go into exile. Those who stayed behind never gave up. They resumed their studies and are leaders today. You will catch up. Remain focused. This is a temporary set-back.
This is not a time to give into depression and discouragement.
Your experience as a young person in South Africa, is one of joy and success on one hand but also of pain and misery on the other hand. We celebrate successful youths of our country, in politics, industry, mining, business, academics, arts and sports, agriculture, etc. You come face to face with socio-economic ills of our country, crime, domestic and gender-based violence, health issues, COVID-19 pandemic, and many others. Allow me to comment on two of these challenges.
In the face of Gender-Based Violence, I say that you can be an ambassador of change. Educate your peers about this scourge. Appeal to their consciences to see the evil of violence and the devastating effect it has on families and on the society at large. The youth of 1976 and the 80’s formed groups of “Comrades”. They conscientized other youths about the evils of apartheid. They mobilized communitie...
The international media, on 6 June 2020, ran a story about a financial scandal involving an Italian businessman and the Vatican. Mike Pothier comments on the story, pointing out that the financial dealings of the Vatican are at odds with the values of Christianity that Jesus exemplified during his earthly ministry.
A long time ago a newly-ordained bishop shared this joke with me: “How do we know that the Apostolic Succession is true? Because so many bishops behave like Judas.”
Ha-ha? Not so ha-ha...
The crime
On 6 June 2020, the BBC website ran the headline, “Vatican arrest man over luxury property deal.” Reading on, we learn that “An Italian businessman who helped the Vatican to buy luxury property in London in a controversial deal has been arrested by Vatican police [...]The apartment block on Sloane Avenue, in London’s exclusive Chelsea, had been bought with church money by the Secretariat of State, the body charged with the Vatican’s diplomatic and political functions.”
Apparently, the businessman in question inflated the price – well, no surprises there. The Vatican’s financial dealings have been mired in ineptitude, as well as corruption, obfuscation, and non-accountability for as far back as anyone can remember.
In my case, that’s 1982, when Roberto Calvi – known as ‘God’s banker’ – the chairperson of Italy’s Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. The biggest shareholder in the Banco Ambrosiano was the Vatican Bank, which proceeded to cough up “US$224 million to 120 of Banco Ambrosiano’s creditors as a “recognition of moral involvement” in the bank’s collapse.”
Ineffective reforms
What does ‘recognition of moral involvement’ mean? I have no idea – perhaps Vatican-speak for “Oops, we’ve been naughty boys”? Since then, it has been one mess after another scandal on a fairly regular basis, until at last, Pope Francis arrived and decided to take things in hand. He appointed the no-nonsense Aussie Cardinal Pell to sort it out; but, as we know, Pell didn’t get very far before he was charged with sexual abuse crimes.
It has been one mess after another scandal on a fairly regular basis.
By the time he finally, and rightly, won his appeal, money matters at the Vatican were once again being conducted along tried and tested lines – shifty, fishy, and dodgy. Pell went so far as to suggest that his prosecution on flimsy evidence had been a set-up by Vatican money-people who feared that his new broom might sweep clean. Who knows? Nothing in that murky and self-important world is impossible.
Contradictory values
Back to the BBC story. The Vatican Secretariat of State has purchased an apartment building in a very posh part of London. The deal was worth £160 million, or roughly R3.2 billion. You might ask, why is the Vatican’s diplomatic and political body carrying out purchases of this kind? Furthermore, how was the Italian businessman able to pull the wool over the highly-qualified eyes of the Secretariat of State in this way? The answer to both these questions will be, “shut up, it’s none of your business.”
So let’s ask a different question. Why is the Vatican – an entity that is supposed to represent the Church – getting itself involved in the luxury end of the London property market? This is the epicentre of global greed, where Russian oligarchs compete with Saudi Arabian princelings and Colombian druglords in ostentatious displays of materialism, conspicuous consumption, unbridled avarice and various extremes of hedonism too distasteful to describe in refined company.
Why is the Vatican getting itself involved in the luxury end of the London property market?
Furthermore, the hyper-inflation of property values at the top end has a knock-on effect that elevates prices all the way down, to the point where it is now effectively impossible for a young couple of average income to dream of owning a home in London, not to speak of the social ills brought about gentrification)...
Despite the worldwide demonstrations in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, Sarah-Leah Pimentel argues that racism cannot be overcome until there is a profound structural transformation at the level of governments and other powerful institutions — including the Catholic Church.
I’ve been struggling to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement and protests in the United States. Partly, it comes down to my natural cynicism. This terrible crime was committed against a black man. It wasn’t the first time. Sadly, it won’t be the last.
Every few years there is an incident or a series of events that reminds us once again that the battle against racism isn’t over. Today, the focus is on black people in America. Last month, it was black people in China. Tomorrow it might be black migrants arriving on boats in Italy. Next year, it might be discrimination of refugees arriving from Syria or some other war-torn country.
How many times will I need to write “not in my name?”
How many times will I, as a white person, have to hang my head in shame and acknowledge that the people with whom I share a cultural and historic heritage have still not learnt that we are all equal before God? That no human being is ever any less deserving of respect and dignity than I am? How many times will I have to black out my profile picture as a sign of solidarity? How many times will I need to write “not in my name?”
And after the million-person marches, the posters, the slogans, and the debates, is there any real change in attitudes? Perhaps individual people come to a growing awareness that black lives, brown lives, Muslim lives are not expedient, that all lives are of equal value. That is a starting point.
But until we can see policy changes at the highest levels of the world’s governments, police departments, and border posts, we are going to keep seeing these travesties of justice throughout the world.
Subliminal racism in the Catholic Church
I felt that all I could do this time, was to take on the challenge set by Fr. Bryan Massingale, who provided a suggestion of how white people can respond to racism. It came in one line. “Sit in the discomfort this hard truth brings.” Sit with the discomfort of how these events affect me. Allow myself to recognize the limits of my ability to empathise, weep, be angry by the effects of racism in my own context.
I did, as a white, South African, Catholic woman. As my thoughts were leaping around in various directions, it suddenly hit me: How can we as a Catholic Church legitimately speak truth to power to the governments of the world, calling for an end to racism when our own institutional structures are white and male?
Sit in the discomfort this hard truth brings.
Fr. Bryan Massingale
Can we truly speak of transformation, when in 2,000 years of her history, all the popes have been white? Only now, in the latter age, is there a Pope who is not European. Even though Pope Francis is from South America, he is still of Italian heritage. How long will it take before there is an African or an Asian pope? The College of Cardinals is becoming more diverse in its representation, but I truly doubt that the centre of power has shifted sufficiently and that the Church would elect a person of colour as the next pope.
What message does that send to the Church’s 1.2 billion Catholics, most of whom are not white or European?
Similarly what message does the Church as an institution send to its faithful, when it acknowledges the hunger of its (almost exclusively black and indigenous) members in far-flung places like the Amazon or the Congo Basin who are only able to receive the sacraments sporadically, but does not offer them a meaningful and immediately actionable solution, even after an entire Synod dedicated to their concerns was held?
Even worse, the indigenous religious figure “Pachamama,” that served as a symbol of the Synod, was thrown into the Tiber river by a grou...
The Jesuit General Curia in Rome today announced that former Superior General, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás died, today, in Tokyo, Japan. He was a member of the Jesuit community of Loyola House in Kamishakujii, and had been ill for a number of years. He is deeply mourned by the Jesuits of Japan and Asia Pacific, his family and compatriots in Spain, and his many friends around the world.
“I offer my sincere condolences to the Jesuit province of Japan, to Fr. Nicolas’ family, to the Jesuits in Spain and the Philippines and to his many friends all around the world.” said Fr. Arturo Sosa, current Superior General.
“Fr. Nicolás gave of himself throughout his life. It was a life marked by intense service, calm availability and a deep ability to inculturate in Japan, where he went as a young Jesuit. It was a culture he loved dearly and to which he committed himself. His time as General was marked by his sense of humour, his courage, his humility and his close relationship with Pope Francis. All of us here at the Jesuit General Curia mourn him and a special Mass will be offered here in Rome as soon as we can organise it. Because of travel restrictions just now, I cannot travel to Japan for the funeral but I assure all his many friends there of my closeness, my compassion and my condolences.”
A man of grace and wisdom, simple, unpretentious, dedicated
All who worked with Fr Nicolás in the General Curia have appreciated greatly his presence during his time as General. “He will be greatly mourned throughout the Society as a wise, humble and dedicated Jesuit, a man of grace and wisdom, simple, unpretentious.” said Fr Sosa.
He had a strong relationship with Pope Benedict and close and warm bonds with Pope Francis.
“The Society was founded to serve the Lord alone and the Church His spouse under the Roman Pontiff” said Fr Sosa. “Fr. Nicolás helped the Society to live in a concrete way this dimension so characteristic of our charism. It was a relationship of availability to the Holy Father which was also full of sincere affection”.
Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator SJ, the President of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, wrote the following tribute to Fr. Nicolás: “The Jesuits, collaborators and friends of the Conference of Africa and Madagascar mourn the death of our beloved Father Adolfo Nicolás SJ.
May his soul rest in peace. We remember him as a wise and caring leader, steeped in our foundational spirituality and imbued with a clarity of apostolic vision. His gift of deep spirituality, apostolic creativity, and intellectual depth will continue to inspire Jesuits and partners in the mission of the Society of Jesus across the world.
Among the many acts of generosity and solicitude for the mission of the Society of Jesus in Africa and Madagascar, the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa stands as a lasting legacy of his visionary and inspirational leadership. May the Risen Christ welcome Baba Nico into eternity. Amen.”
A memorial mass will be celebrated in Rome in the Church of Gesù at a date to be determined. Social distancing rules will apply. Details to follow.
Discovering the life of Fr. Nicolás
A special website has been created where you can see photos and articles:
A video recording of a message from Fr Sosa is available on YouTube HERE.
An audio recording of a prayer composed by Fr Nicolás is available HERE.
The letter of Fr Sosa to the whole Society of Jesus is available HERE
For more information contact:
infosj-dir@sjcuria.org and dpa@sjcuria.org
Beyond the devastating effect of COVID-19 on human life and livelihoods, there is a desire for something better to emerge from this crisis. For some, like Chris Chatteris, it is a more equitable society. He argues that this is only possible by means of redistribution of wealth that gives the poor a greater share in the goods that many of us take for granted. As we celebrate Laudato Si week, this article serves as reflection to Pope Francis’ “appeal for renewed dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.”
Some economic historians believe that greater equality was one of the outcomes of the catastrophic bubonic plague of the 14th century. This was because the ordinary people had died off in their millions, labour was scarce and the survivors were in a strong bargaining position vis-à-vis landlords who were eager to re-start agricultural production.
The discussion has already begun about whether there will be a similar outcome after the COVID-19 pandemic. The casualty rate of COVID-19 looks set to be miniscule compared to the bubonic plague, both absolutely and as a proportion of the total population.
Further, COVID-19 mostly tends to kill the retired and infirm rather than the young and active. In other words, it doesn’t look as if it is going to significantly reduce the labour force, unless of course it returns in a seriously mutated form.
The value of essential services
But our response to the lockdown and other measures limiting social interaction has had a massive effect on the global and local economies. COVID-19 hasn’t reduced the labour force, but it has shown up the relative value of the different types of labour. The phrase “essential services” encapsulates this.
We have come to realise that some of our less well-paid workers – nurses, farm labourers, garbage collectors – are essential; we cannot live without them. On the other hand, some of our more ridiculously paid people – I hesitate to name them/us... let’s leave it as a kind of self-reflection exercise! Well, no one has died for lack of them.
Essential workers have been lauded and applauded for their courage and dedication, and everyone agrees that they should really be better paid. Parents have realised just how difficult teaching is.
We have come to realise that some of our less well-paid workers are essential; we cannot live without them
These would be small but significant areas of redistribution potentially leading to some reduction of inequality. But I would guess that once the pandemic has passed, some of these fine sentiments will fade from our minds as we struggle with the economic problems left in the disease’s wake.
There will be dogfights for whatever limited government money is available to kickstart businesses, whether they are essential or non-essential. The loudest voice and the greatest access to the politically powerful will most likely count more than how essential you are. Private finance is likely to go to those businesses most able to produce a return. Whether private financiers will distinguish between the essential and non-essential sectors of the economy is yet to be seen.
Politicians need quick results to win elections. Having an unemployed and starving population is not a good recipe for holding onto power. Political incumbents are already trying to get things back to the status quo ante as quickly as possible. We need only look at Donald Trump who has promised fabulous sums to airlines and oil companies, both areas in which bankruptcies are certain. The rush to get back to “normal” will see some spectacular financial meltdowns and “normal” will be postponed until we work out what “normal” looks like in our reduced circumstances.
Political incumbents are already trying to get things back to the status quo ante as quickly as possible.
Here in South Africa, the economic situation was extremely grave even before the advent of COVID-19, lockdown, masks and hand sanitiser. The unemployment project...
On 13 May, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference wrote a pastoral letter offering a message of comfort to “those in distress” amid the physical, financial, emotional and spiritual stresses of the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. The full-text is below, or can be downloaded here.
Letter to those in distress..., during the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
As the Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa we are concerned in a particular way for our many brothers and sisters who are experiencing stress at this time of lockdown. To defeat the pandemic and protect our neighbors we are physically cut off from consolation, companionship and joy.
We all go through times of distress in life; funerals, divorce, poor relationships, poverty, insecurity, financial breakdown, poor housing and hopelessness. Normally we can call on friends, sit with neighbors around a table, visit relatives, go shopping, visit a church and kneel before the Lord and on Sundays enjoy the companionship around the priest, the Word and the Eucharist. Isolated we feel our humanity is diminished. Deprived of social connections we find themselves feeling helpless and incapacitated. Life is by-passing us. In the past we have been able to rise and respond to challenges but now we sit behind closed doors. One may feel of ‘no use.’
But no, we are ‘of use’, we are valuable in the very sight of God, our Father, valuable for ourselves. He has no one else unique like each one of us. God has never loves for our usefulness. God is love and He rejoices in our very existence. As a mother simply rejoices in the presence of her baby, so God rejoices in us. The child’s smile and love is the mother’s reward.
Locked inside we await. The agony of waiting now weighs heavily upon us. Our modern lifestyle does not appreciate waiting. But there are signs that waiting and hoping are productive of great fruits. The children of Abraham waited forty years in the desert to enter the Promised Land. Jesus lived hidden from the world as a carpenter in Nazareth for 30 years. Mary Magdalene waited outside the tomb and the disciples in the upper room. What came from this waiting in the time of God was the transformation of life.
We are inter-connected in a very deep way spiritually.
At Fatima, todays feast, Mary requested the little children to pray and do penance. She showed that many were lost to God because they have no one to carry them in spirit, nobody to pray and do penance for them. We are inter-connected in a very deep way spiritually. Even now we can do wonderful things for others and for the world by our prayer and by enduring with faith the penance of helplessness.
We are woven into the body of Christ, we are not alone, and everywhere holy people are praying for us. Around the world devout children offer up prayers and sufferings, the old bearing their old age with faith are praying, the contemplative Nuns and Brothers have dedicated their lives to pray for us, Mass is being offered every moment of the day uniting us in the Lord.
Our hearts go out to all who are depressed. We understand the fear. The Church sees each as infinitely precious. We are living branches of the Vine. He is intimately within for He cannot be locked out.
Arise! We remember the words of Pope; “Faith begins when we realise we are in need of salvation. We are not self-sufficient; by ourselves we flounder; we need the Lord, like ancient navigators needed the stars. Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives.
“Let us hand over our fears to him so that He can conquer them. Like the disciples in the storm in the lake we will experience that with him on board there will be no shipwreck. Because this is God’s strength — turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies”.
Dear Brothers and Sisters the parishes are lonely for you, you are missed. We will meet again; He i...
Dr Mark Potterton reviews a book about the history of Catholic Schools in South Africa by well-known educationalist and Marist Brother Jude Pieterse, in collaboration with Robyn Picas.
Pieterse, J. in collaboration with Picas R, (2020). Open Schools Era (1976 -1986) Johannesburg: Marist Brothers 124 pages. R250
The Open Schools Era by Br. Jude Pieterse, F.S.M., was published in April. Unfortunately, the book launch never took place because of lockdown restrictions.
About the author
Br. Jude, a Marist brother, was one of the central figures in the desegregation of Catholic schools in South Africa. He was appointed chair of the Education Council of the Association of Religious in 1975. In the ten years he served in this role he was integrally involved in negotiating with the government for change in Catholic schools.
During this time Br. Jude participated in countless meetings and consultations with bishops, principals, teachers and government officials. He kept meticulous minutes and wrote several letters corresponding with the various political parties at the time, which became the source material on which this historic book is based.
Pioneering equal access to education for all
The book tells the story of what the Catholic Church in South Africa did to ensure that Open Schools became a reality. This was a time when religious congregations quietly defied apartheid laws and opened their schools to students all races.
The book develops a deeper understanding of the challenges and struggles faced by the owners of the former white Catholic schools. The role played by the archbishops and the congregations of teaching sisters and brothers is captured, together with the anecdotal and human stories behind the events and meetings that happened.
The Open Schools Era is an important historical record of the ground work done to prepare children, parents and teachers for the New South Africa.
Working with Robyn Picas, Br. Jude has managed to richly describe the excitement and angst of the time. The Open Schools Era is an important historical record of the ground work done to prepare children, parents and teachers for the New South Africa. Some have said that this “open” schools movement within Church schools that provided a catalyst that led to the eventual desegregation of state schools.
Br. Jude later became Secretary General of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference. In that role, on 17 July 1989 he wrote to the Minister of Justice saying:
The Minister replied saying that while he was not unsympathetic, he regretted that he could not be of assistance.
State vs Church
The historical context of the period, particularly the Bantu Education Act, is covered in the first chapter. Then Prime Minister Verwoerd said that education should stand with both feet in the reserves rooted in the spirit of being over “Bantu” society. In referring to the role that Churches played in education, Verwoerd argued that good relations between the races cannot exist when education is given to the “control of people who create the wrong expectations on the part of the native himself”. He wanted “native” education to mirror the policy of the state and to be subservient to the white population.
Destructively, the Bantu Education Act gave the State powers to obtain full control of the training of teachers, even at faith-based institutions. Verwoerd argued that the Church used the training of teachers to further their own interests and said that black teachers should not feel superior to their communities or desire to become integrated into the life of the European community.
This also provoked a crisis in the Church because bishops regarded the Catholic schools as a pivotal part of the Church’s evangelising mission.
Historian Sr. Brigid Flanagan observed that this also provoked a crisis in the Church because bishops regarded the Catholic schools as a pivotal part of the Church’s evangelising mission. Many felt that, withou...
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Church has had to find alternative ways to bring the Mass, and Easter celebrations in particular, into our homes. Mathibela Sebothoma looks at the vital role that communications technologies and social media have come to play as priests find ways to minister to their communities in lockdown.
In the early days of Radio Veritas, I presided at the Holy Mass in the studio with less than five people physically present. It was at noon. The studio SMS line was full of people requesting their petitions or “Mass intentions”. The radio Mass was always popular.
When I was in the seminary, we were taught how to prepare the Mass that was normally broadcast on Sundays on the then “Radio South Africa”, now SAfm. This was very popular.
I never missed the Christmas Mass and the Easter Mass celebrated live from the Vatican City.
Before COVID-19
On Ash Wednesday, we had Mass at noon in the Cathedral of Sacred Heart in Pretoria. Many people working in the Pretoria city centre used their lunch time to attend a daily Mass. At the time I had no idea that the COVID-19 would radically change our normal liturgies and it would be one of the last few times we would meet as a community.
A few days later many dioceses decided to restrict Mass participants to 100 people. A week later President Ramaphosa called for a far more stringent lockdown. The Churches once again did not oppose the decision taken by cabinet.
I, together with some priests and lay people, started talking about how we can still be spiritual without contradicting government’s stance of a lockdown. Some suggested we use social media to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 infections.
I had given up Facebook for Lent following the example of Fr Sello Makgale, who has been giving up social media for a number of years.
At the time I had no idea that the COVID-19 would radically change our normal liturgies and it would be one of the last few times we would meet as a community.
With the new challenges never seen before in South Africa, I prayed and God told me to “stay at home”.
A way around the lockdown
Recently I got a call from my mother – she is 90 years old. She has only ever missed Sunday Mass when she has been too ill to attend. She was very upset because Church doors were locked. She, however, understood the reason for the restrictions.
My mother was relieved and happy to be introduced to the Sesotho Mass on the Radio Veritas DStv channel, even though she could not receive Holy Communion. Spiritual communion was enough for her, though she cannot wait for things to be normal again.
Fr Joel Skhosana, a scripture scholar at St John Vianney Seminary, started trending on a WhatsApp voice note, giving people hope in the midst of the crisis we and the world are facing. I received one of his WhatsApp homilies from a doctor who is a Health Sciences lecturer and a member of the Uniting Reformed Church. When I called Fr Skhosana to congratulate him, he told me he had received positive responses from as far as Zimbabwe. Many of the priests followed his example by sending their parishioners the homilies and reflections they would have heard if they had been at Mass.
It was encouraging to see young priests using a platform like Facebook. Suddenly rosaries, the office of readings and novenas, among others, were reaching hearts and souls at home. Their messages were forwarded and shared. In the comments section, people have shown their appreciation for the new initiatives by the Catholic clergy.
Social media training
As with anything new there will always be mistakes. Not all priests are trained in broadcasting or social media.
Three South African priests have attended Italian universities to study social communications. They are Fr Phuti Makgabo (Johannesburg), Fr Ncamiso Vilakati (Manzini) and Fr Kabelo Mahemo (Kimberley). Sr Shana Monare from the Sisters of Calvary, who also studied in Rome, is doing good things in Botswana. F...
As we celebrate the hope new life during Easter, Salesian Life Choices shows how the youth of the Western Cape, South Africa are also offering hope and helping to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. They are using their access to technology to educate their communities about the virus and measures to prevent contracting it. They are also already thinking about how to help with the “reconstruction” that President Cyril Ramaphosa called for during his address to the nation on 9 April.
The African continent is a “young” continent and it is this reality that has given many people hope that South Africans and other African countries will pull through the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
Youth make up almost a third of the population in South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa population estimates for 2019.
Around the world, COVID-19 has hit older people hardest, but World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently cautioned young people not to become complacent, warning them that they are not spared.
Youth and social media
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national lockdown, that has now been extended to 30 April, to stem the tide of COVID-19 in South Africa. That has since been extended by a further two weeks.
In light of this, there is a growing movement of young people locally who are making the responsible decision to actively promote awareness about the virus, including physical distancing where possible. Tech-savvy youth are staying informed with up to date information about the pandemic. This is helping to facilitate conversations with peers as well as inter-generational dialogue with their parents and care givers about the pandemic. While social media can be a hotbed of inaccurate and potentially dangerous information (which government has warned against with penalties), it is important that young people are able to critically discern reliable information from false and untrue information.
Thembalethu Seyisi (20), is a third year LLB student at Stellenbosch University and a board member of the Cape Town based NPO Salesian Life Choices, also known as Life Choices.
There is a growing movement of young people locally who are making the responsible decision to actively promote awareness about the virus.
The NPO provides services to young people from the low-income communities of the Cape Flats. It does so through five building blocks that assist youth to thrive, that is: family stability, health, education, leadership and employment.
The organisation has been posting daily messages of support on social media during the pandemic to followers and supporters.
Seyisi explains that young people are key actors in the online space and urges them to use online platforms responsibly and as a form of civic engagement during the lockdown.
Finding common ground for the good of all
Seyisi explains: “The youth is much faster in getting information via different media platforms. I plead that the youth shares valuable and reliable sources with their networks.
We must use this pandemic to find common ground where youth and the older generation can work together going forward. Throughout the world, governments are seeking solutions to fight COVID-19. I suggest that we, the youth, step up to the challenge and join government in finding solutions. Not just solutions for COVID-19, but solutions for a fair and just world rooted in ubuntu.
Governments are listening now more than ever before. Let’s take to the social media “streets” with our solutions. My message to South Africa, the continent of Africa and the world, is that we will live to see better days if we work together, as guardians of Mother Earth, and do all we can to fight this pandemic. Let us listen to the experts and follow the measures put in place by government.
The biggest evil that we will have to deal with once the virus is under control is capitalism; that which perpetuates inequality among gender, class an...
Pope Francis’ ‘Urbi et Orbi message on Easter Sunday challenges us to ban indifference, self-centredness, division and forgetfulness during this time of COVID-19 – and to spread the “contagion” of hope. Seàn-Patrick Lovett, of Vatican Media, writes:
No banner hung from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica. No bands played the Vatican anthem. No floral arrangements decorated St Peter’s Square. Nearby streets were empty and silent, as Italy continues to respect a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Inside the Basilica, surrounded only by his closest collaborators, Pope Francis delivered his traditional Easter Urbi et Orbi message to the city of Rome and the world.
A different “contagion”
Millions of people watched and listened on various media platforms as the Pope repeated the Easter proclamation: “Christ, my hope, is risen!”. He called this message “a different ‘contagion’”, one that is transmitted “from heart to heart”.
This Good News is like a new flame that springs up “in the night of a world already faced with epochal challenges, and now oppressed by a pandemic severely testing our whole human family”, said the Pope.
Christ’s resurrection is not a “magic formula that makes problems vanish”, he continued, “it is the victory of love over the root of evil”. This victory “does not ‘by-pass’ suffering and death, but passes through them, opening a path in the abyss, transforming evil into good”, he added.
Comfort for those affected by the coronavirus
The Pope’s thoughts turned immediately to those directly affected by the coronavirus. “For many, this is an Easter of solitude, lived amid the sorrow and hardship that the pandemic is causing, from physical suffering to economic difficulties”, he said.
“This disease has not only deprived us of human closeness, but also of the possibility of receiving in person the consolation that flows from the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and Reconciliation”, said Pope Francis.
“But the Lord has not left us alone”, he added. “United in our prayer, we are convinced that He has laid His hand upon us”.
Gratitude to those providing essential services
The Pope then expressed his gratitude and affection to doctors and nurses, and “to all who work diligently to guarantee the essential services necessary for civil society, and to the law enforcement and military personnel who in many countries have helped ease people’s difficulties and sufferings”.
Encouragement to work for the common good
Pope Francis acknowledged that “this is also a time of worry about an uncertain future, about jobs that are at risk”. He encouraged political leaders “to work actively for the common good”, providing the means “to enable everyone to lead a dignified life and, when circumstances allow, to assist them in resuming their normal daily activities”.
Not a time for indifference
This is not a time for indifference, said the Pope, “because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic”. He prayed that the risen Jesus may grant hope “to all the poor, to those living on the peripheries, to refugees and the homeless”. Pope Francis also called for the relaxation of international sanctions and for “the reduction, if not the forgiveness, of the debt burdening the balance sheets of the poorest nations”.
Not a time for self-centredness
This is not a time for self-centredness, continued Pope Francis, because “the challenge we are facing is shared by all”. Europe, in particular, was able “to overcome the rivalries of the past” following the Second World War, “thanks to a concrete spirit of solidarity”. It is urgent “these rivalries do not regain force”, the Pope continued. We all need to recognize ourselves “as part of a single family and support one another”. Selfishly pursuing particular interests risks “damaging the peaceful coexistence and development of future generations”, he added.
Not a time for division
This is not a time for division, said the P...
President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on the continuing efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The President’s address followed a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council held yesterday, 8 April 2020 and consultations that the President held during the course of the day with various social partners. In his address he announced the extension of the lockdown for a further two weeks, and outlined a three-part strategy of concrete measures to save lives and protect livelihoods in South Africa. This involves: an intensified public health response to slow down and reduce infections; a comprehensive package of economic support measures to assist businesses and individuals affected by the pandemic; and a programme of increased social support to protect poor and vulnerable households. The full-text of his address is reproduced below.
My Fellow South Africans,
At midnight tonight, it will be exactly two weeks since our country entered into an unprecedented nation-wide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
During the course of these last two weeks, your lives have been severely disrupted, you have suffered great hardship and endured much uncertainty.
We have closed our borders to the world, our children are not in school, businesses have closed their operations, many have lost their income, and our economy has ground to a halt.
And yet, faced with such daunting challenges, you, the people of South Africa, have responded with remarkable patience and courage.
You have respected the lockdown and largely observed the regulations.
You have accepted the severe restrictions on your movement and many of the daily freedoms that we all take for granted.
You have done so because you have understood the devastating effect that this disease will have on the health and well-being of all South Africans unless we take drastic measures.
You have also understood that we must do everything in our power to prevent the massive loss of life that would occur if we did not act.
For your cooperation, for your commitment and above all for your patience, I wish to thank you personally.
I wish to thank you for reaffirming to each other and to the world that we South Africans are a people who come together and unite at moments of great crisis.
Earlier today I had a most productive meeting with our Premiers about the work they are doing in provinces and districts to stop the spread of the virus.
I also had a discussion with the leaders of all our political parties represented in Parliament, who collectively pledged their support for the efforts that are being made to combat the pandemic.
Through this we are demonstrating that we are able to work together across party lines to confront a common threat.
Since I announced the lockdown just over two weeks ago, the global coronavirus pandemic has worsened.
Two weeks ago, there were 340,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the world.
We now have over 1.5 million confirmed cases worldwide.
Over 90,000 people across the world have died from this disease.
The health systems of many countries have been overwhelmed.
Even the most developed economies in the world have not had the means to treat the many thousands who have fallen ill.
They have struggled to find the medical supplies and personnel necessary to deal with the pandemic.
The devastating effect of this is that many people have died.
The global evidence is overwhelming.
It confirms that our decision to declare a national state of disaster and to institute a nation-wide lockdown was correct and it was timely.
While it is too early to make a definitive analysis of the progression of the disease in South Africa, there is sufficient evidence to show that the lockdown is working.
Since the lockdown came into effect, the rate at which new cases have been identified here in South Africa has slowed significantly.
From 1,170 confirmed cases on the 27th of March, the number of confi...
The spread of the coronavirus was exacerbated by air travel. The virus itself crossed over from animals to humans because of the unsanitary conditions in which animals and human beings co-habited. Chris Chatteris says that the coronavirus serves as a warning that the way we live is not sustainable in the long run. In order to avoid ecological collapse will require us to live and work in more environmentally friendly ways.
Until the pandemic has run its course, we won’t be able to catalogue all its lessons, but some are already fairly obvious.
It’s clearly not a good idea to eat bats and pangolins. Of course, we knew of the dangers of eating wild animals from the Ebola and HIV epidemics. How not to raise domestic animals is also something these viruses should teach us. Most of us remember Swine Fever and Bird Flu, but who remembers what caused Mad Cow Disease?
Maybe what we are discovering is that we have to learn these lessons several times before we finally take action. The Chinese government claims to have shut down 20,000 wild animal farms, but have they really and if so, will the ban last?
A very clear lesson is the fragility of the globalised economy and, in particular, how air travel, the symbol of globalization, has proved to be at the heart of the problem, spreading the virus rapidly from Asia to the other continents. Here in South Africa, this is as clear as anywhere. The first cases picked up were people who had travelled from or through affected countries.
The rational thing for the world to have done, once the contagious nature of the virus became known, was to immediately ground all international flights. Obviously, that could only happen on another economic planet, so apparently essential has air travel become to the economy of the 21st Century.
A very clear lesson is the fragility of the globalised economy [is responsible for] spreading the virus rapidly from Asia to the other continents.
But there’s no escaping it; what the world has to think hard about for the next big virus[i] is precisely the problem of rapid, global transmission by air. Should we, can we, create a global protocol that actually grounds all international flights if necessary? Should the world’s growing ‘airport class’ be persuaded to cut back on its air miles and depend more on the internet in the interests of making the economy less vulnerable in future? One thing we can certainly take away from this crisis is that many of the trips, meetings and gatherings that were cancelled were perhaps not as essential as we thought. No one died because they missed a conference, a workshop or even a pilgrimage!
A mild warning
The fact is that so far, this pandemic is a rather mild warning if one focuses just on the health issue. Most people recover and the death toll looks as if it will be small in comparison to past epidemics like the so-called Spanish flu or the Bubonic Plague. I do wonder whether the absolutely massive dominance that the issue has enjoyed in the media is precisely due to the fact that it affects people who can fly and cruise around the world and whose assets are in stocks and shares. Coronavirus certainly threatens a certain privileged lifestyle. The contrast with the media awareness of diseases like TB or malaria couldn’t be starker.
Of course, Coronavirus does also infect and affect the poor, and if it gets into the informal settlements of this country, it is going to be very difficult to contain. The aged and infirm of the townships, and especially those with respiratory diseases, will be at very high risk. The death-rate may well rise dramatically and the loss of income to the poor will be much harder to absorb than for wealthier people.
Within the broadest picture, that of the environment, I think the pandemic mediates to us the most urgent question of our age, namely can we continue to live like this? Environmentalists have noted that the precipitous drop in economic activity, particularly in China, has ...
We are interdependent. As a global community we are facing the largest health, economic, and social challenge in this millennium. Ranjeni Munusamy reflects on how the Covid-19 pandemic has forced nations to work together for our collective survival and hopes that the lessons learnt will teach us how to cooperate with other global problems and to appreciate the true value of “human touch.”
One of my scariest childhood memories is of a television series called V. The plot was about aliens who infiltrate the planet under the guise of being friendly visitors but turn out to have an evil agenda.
Many of my night terrors stemmed from horror scenes of human skin being ripped off to reveal the reptilian creatures underneath and whole rodents being swallowed by the aliens impersonating humans.
The film industry has for a long time exploited people’s fear and fascination with humanity coming under attack. Then, on the brink of the apocalypse, we get saved by either Will Smith’s character or Mr Bean as 007 and live happily ever after.
Even with a few thousand deaths, many parts of the planet under lockdown and the global economy in free fall, there is still a surreal sense around the Covid-19 outbreak.
Many of us have not taken the warnings seriously and there remains a belief that in a few weeks, the mass hysteria will subside and life will go on as normal.
But will it?
Unlike the V series that came to an abrupt end, the Coronavirus disease is a reality that is testing human resilience and changing life as we know it. Even if the infection rate is halted through a worldwide clampdown on human movement and interaction, the damage from imploding economies, job losses and collapsed health systems could last for years.
The Coronavirus disease is a reality that is testing human resilience and changing life as we know it.
Covid-19 has exposed many of the vulnerabilities of the human race, from economic inequality, deficient healthcare, water scarcity, unhealthy modes of travel and the disastrous social conditions in which millions of people exist.
It has also shown that despite the increasing disenchantment with governments and political systems, we are completely reliant on those in power, particularly in times of crisis.
Political leaders now control our destiny more than ever before. The future of humanity is dependent on political decisions on restrictions of movement, education, testing and treatment of the virus, and support systems as economic activity slows down.
In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa went from being a reluctant debutante to a decisive leader and taskmaster. When the infection rate started to rapidly climb, he stepped up and took charge. He marshalled his government in the way many had hoped he would since he took power two years ago.
Our country is, however, in a precarious state with the health, electricity and economic crises set to collide. But for the first time, there is a feeling that all hands are on deck and government is finally communicating wisely.
Any weakness in government’s response could prove to be deadly. So far, the management of the outbreak in our country has been good and built public confidence.
Beating the virus requires a planetary consciousness that has not been possible up to now – even on other issues that threaten humankind like climate change.
Humanity has never before acted so quickly and so decisively to save itself.
Beating the virus requires a planetary consciousness that has not been possible up to now.
Survival is now dependent on our strength of mind and self-discipline.
Covid-19 has highlighted how interdependent our lives are and how difficult it is to get 7.5 billion people to suddenly keep our distance from one another.
In fear of contamination, we are learning the concept of social distancing, which is counterintuitive to human instinct.
We congregate to work, to pray, to celebrate, to travel, to eat, to exercise, to mourn and t...
On 15 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the people of South Africa to communicate a series of measures that the government is implementing to minimise the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Margaret Blackie explains why it is important to take these measures seriously, not only for ourselves but for the members of our communities who have reduced immunity.
Covid-19 is a virus which affects the lungs. It presents as a dry cough with a fever. Most people who get it will recover, in the same way that we recover from flu. The problem is that the elderly and those who are immunocompromised i.e. those with diabetes, hypertension, TB etc. are likely to develop complications. For these people, the cough may develop into pneumonia and this will require hospitalization and can result in death.
The idea of social distancing is to reduce the rate at which the virus spreads through the population, to minimize the number of people who may need hospitalization at any one time. If the virus spreads at the rate it has done in Wuhan or Italy, our hospitals will not be able to cope and many people will not have access to the treatment they need.
In this scenario, many who could have survived if they had hospital care will tragically and needlessly die.
The virus is transmitted from person to person especially through droplets emitted when coughing or sneezing. The virus will remain alive on surfaces and clothing for several hours.
The idea of social distancing is to reduce the rate at which the virus spreads through the population, to minimize the number of people who may need hospitalization at any one time.
You are most likely to contract it by touching a surface that has been contaminated by someone who is sick and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes.
There are several things you can do to reduce your own chances of getting the virus:
(1) Reduce the time you spend in public spaces and keep social interaction to a minimum. This is called social distancing.
(2) Wash your hands frequently with soap and water especially after being in a public space, touching door handles, handling money, grocery shopping etc. The soap will destroy the virus. If you cannot wash your hands, use an alcohol-based hand-sanitiser (at least 60% alcohol).
(3) Try not to touch your mouth, nose or eyes. Transferring the virus to these membranes will likely result in infection.
The virus takes several days before the symptoms appear. Whilst you are most likely to be most contagious when you have the symptoms, it is possible, however, that people can begin to transmit the virus before they show symptoms. If you are ill, or you think you have been exposed to the virus – self-quarantine. Stay at home and minimize contact with others, especially those who are more vulnerable. Cough or sneeze into the crook of your elbow rather than your hand. If you blow your nose or cough into a tissue, wash your hands with soap and water immediately.
It is likely that Covid-19 will spread through a large portion of our population. Our main goal at this time, is to try and slow down the spread so that those who may need medical assistance will be able to receive it. This will only be possible if we all participate in restricting our social interactions. For example, I am 44 years old. If I were to get Covid-19 it is likely I will be sick for a couple of weeks and then recover. But I could easily pass it on to someone who is more vulnerable. The only way to slow the transmission is to reduce physical interaction.
The reduction of interaction includes going to Church and attending mass or any Lenten program. If you are ill, please stay at home. Already holy water has been removed and communion is only given under one kind. It is important to recognize that the consecrated Eucharist can still be a vehicle of transmission. If the priest or extraordinary minister of the Eucharist has the virus on their hands, in handing you the communion wafer which you ...
The coronavirus has now spread to all continents and, in response, nations are issuing travel restrictions or placing entire cities on lockdown in an effort to contain the pandemic. Sarah-Leah Pimentel reflects on the positive reaction of governments but expresses concern and sadness at the way in which public panic has revealed unbridled levels of selfishness, even within religious circles.
Two things happen in a crisis. People pull together and find creative solutions to a difficult situation. Or else they tear at each other like a pack of wolves, because only one thing matters: individual survival.
The past few weeks have seen both of these scenarios playing out.
The value of human life
On a global scale, it is a sign of hope that governments (mostly) appear to be working together to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Countries are using what means they have to set up testing, isolation, and treatment facilities. Where some nations may be lacking in logistical infrastructure, they are cooperating with their neighbours to ensure increased monitoring and screening at border points, pooling efforts to fly their citizens home from China, and implementing regional testing centres.
We live in a globalised world. Solutions to a global crisis must be made jointly. If nations work together, we all stand a better chance of staying healthy, of slowing the spread of a disease that is brutal in its speed and the effect on those with compromised immunity.
The nations of the world agree that the protection of human lives is the paramount value.
I would even go so far as to say that this international health emergency has put the most important thing into stark perspective for the nations of the world. We may disagree on ideology, we may disagree on economic models, we may disagree on any number of things. But in this instance, the nations of the world agree that the protection of human lives is the paramount value, even above economic gain as trade grinds to a halt and stock markets go into freefall. Even talk of wars and conflicts seems to have been pushed to the backburner. Governments have chosen to present a united front to fight this disease. This is something to celebrate.
Survival of the fittest or the holiest?
Unfortunately, in contrast, a large group of people have chosen the Hobbesian response to the crisis where all that matters is personal survival. Just by way of example, we have witnessed toilet paper wars in supermarkets and the mass hoarding of food and personal cleaning products. We have seen disgusting expressions of racism and xenophobia towards perceived carriers of the disease.
This crisis has also revealed an alarming lack of charity, and most sadly so, within religious circles. As Catholic dioceses throughout the world issued directives on how to continue to hold public worship but do whatever they could to keep people safe, church groups and social media communities very quickly became divided.
One group understood the spirit of the measures and welcomed that the Church had considered the scientific evidence about the coronavirus and had reflected on which of its rituals and traditions could become conduits for the virus. Even if it brought sadness, many recognized that it is good to refrain from shaking hands, it is good to limit opportunities for contagion during the administration of the Blessed Sacrament.
The other camp, sadly, saw a new threat: not of contagion but of faithlessness. They accused the Church authorities of poor leadership by exhibiting what they considered to be a lack of faith. They felt that the traditions of the Church had been disregarded and that receiving communion on the hands (for a time) is a disrespect to the Body of Christ. The death knell for this group was to hear that the bishops in some dioceses had given their parishioners permission to not attend Mass if they were sick, to prevent contaminating others. What kind of Church encourages people to commi...
Many South Africans had hoped that the 2020 Budget Speech on 20 February would provide greater clarity on plans for the National Health Insurance (NHI) plan. However, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni mentioned the NHI only once, in passing. Shrikant Peters observes that despite the moral duty to grant quality healthcare to all sectors of the South Africa population, the feasibility of NHI is at the mercy of economic performance. An improved economy, he says, will result in a healthier population and increased taxpayer funding for the NHI.
A key factor in any study of economics is the concept of scarcity – unlimited needs and wants in the context of limited resources; applicable both to the microeconomics of households and individuals, and the macroeconomics of countries, corporations and international money flows.
The concept of scarcity featured front and centre in the finance minister’s budget speech this year. A scarcity of funds has resulted in decreased budgets for the financial year 2020/2021 to many government departments. However, this is not the largest threat to the health of the population – that dishonour belongs to our lack of economic growth, which perpetuates wide-spread unemployment, chronic poverty and the inequalities we inherited from our apartheid past.
Lack of economic growth, which perpetuates wide-spread unemployment, chronic poverty and inequality are the greatest threat to the health of the population.
During his budget speech, the minister sketched our recent growth trajectory, noting that following a period of pre-democracy recession in the early 1990s, we experienced economic growth until the end of the first decade of the 2000s, at which point our economic performance faded following the global recession precipitated by the US subprime mortgage crisis of 2008.
Although the minister’s economic strategy included “focused spending on education, health and social development”, he spent far more time laying out the need for an efficient and capable state. As opposed to the tax increases, which we know will be required to fund NHI, it was announced that we would in fact have some personal income tax relief. Social grants are being increased only marginally. And optimistically, decreases in the public sector wage bill and reallocation of funding is earmarked to free R261 billion.
These measures are being put in place because, over the next three years, our growth rate is predicted to be under 1%, hampered by a lack of reliable energy supply. R60 billion of this money is being earmarked to stabilise South African Airways (SAA) and Eskom. Our debt is set to increase to 65.6% of our gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of the 2020/2021 financial year. And with a focus on efficiency and saving, where does this leave the health of the country’s citizens?
Wage bill cut to hamper national health strategy
All government departments have been asked to cut expenditure in line with these reallocations. Interestingly, however, due to the federal nature of the country, this reallocation of funds will affect different provincial health departments differently, as it is up to the provinces themselves to decide how to allocate their budgets and budget cuts.
A new Human Resources for Health strategy is being developed for the country. Although it is not yet finalised, it is guaranteed that the final strategy will call for more healthcare workers to be employed by the state. Clearly, however, this cannot and will not happen in the short term.
Although government has promised to have NHI fully implemented by 2026, the fine print indicates that only certain services will have been rolled out, beginning with essential services such as those related to maternal and child health. Across the globe, countries that have been relatively successful in implementing universal health coverage have taken decades to implement it. Thailand, which is often held up as exemplary, took 80 years. The United Kingdom, whos...
The recently published Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis, at surface value, focuses almost exclusively on the environment. Martin van Nierop highlights some of the passages that most clearly communicate the spirit of Querida Amazonia, but leaves us with the warning that any option for the environment is also an economic and social challenge. Ultimately, he reminds us that Pope Francis’ appeals cannot reside solely on paper, but must take shape in our hearts and lives.
Pope Francis has written the Apostolic Exhortation, Querida Amazonia, after the Synod on the Amazon in 2019. What has this document to say about the environment?
Given that Pope Francis has structured this document in the context of four dreams that inspire him when reflecting on the Amazon, and that one of these is “An Ecological Dream” [paragraphs 41-60], the document clearly has a fair amount to say about environmental issues.
While this Apostolic Exhortation is focused on the Amazon region, the message is applicable to everyone, everywhere, as Pope Francis reminds us: “Yet I am addressing the present Exhortation to the whole world [5].
Addressing issues holistically
The key message, as was the case in Laudato si’, is that environmental issues can only be addressed successfully when done so holistically. This means that social and cultural aspects have to be addressed simultaneously with the ecological issues.
It also means that not addressing social and cultural issues will result in environmental degradation.
An ongoing global concern
However, while the health of the Amazonian ecology is important for the people in that region, especially the indigenous people, the Amazonian ecology is also of concern globally:
Destruction of the Amazon rain forest is worsening the rate and impact of the climate change we are experiencing. Climate change is a global issue with local impacts. Africa is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We cannot be blind to the ecological damage being done to the tropical rain forests, both in the Amazon and on our own continent.
Pope Francis indicates that solutions lie, among others, in two constructs:
And again:
Pope Francis has again presented us with a challenge that inspires us to holistically care for our common home.
Are we listening?
However, it saddens me that five years after Laudato si’, we are still taking about the same ecological issues. Are we listening? On the face of it there has been no movement. People have even been lamenting the lack of movement on some of the other issues that the Synod spoke about, for example, the ordination of married men and women.
For me the most significant part of Querida Amazonia was in the introduction. The Pope said that the exportation is the vehicle to ” officially present the Final Document, which sets forth the conclusions of the Synod” [3].
Does this mean the Pope means insert the whole of the Final Document from the Synod here? Do the suggestions for changes in the ordination of married men (see paragraph 111 of the Synod Final Document) and women in this document carry the same weight as if it had appeared in the Apostolic Exhortation? Let’s all heed the words of the Pope and do as he did:
Now I will go away and listen and read as the Pope states:
The Pope’s eagerly awaited post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia was released on 12 February, and responds to the 6-26 October 2019 Synod on the Amazon. Dr. Annemarie Paulin-Campbell notes the general theme of inclusivity but notes that the document continues to exclude women from sacramental ministry.
I have been asked to specifically reflect on the document in relation to what it says about women. In fact the document says very little about women, as this is not its focus. The section on the strength and gift of women accounts for only five paragraphs of the one hundred and eleven paragraph document.
However, much of what it does say in those five paragraphs, in my view, reveals a theological stance and an attitude towards women which is harmful to women, (and ultimately therefore also to men,) and which does not sit well with much of the rest of the document which is inclusive, sees the tradition as not static but unfolding, and which advocates respect for the human dignity of all.
Interconnectedness of natural and human ecology
In his Apostolic Exhortation, Pope Francis exhorts us to protect the endangered Amazonian forests and the cultural heritage of the indigenous people of the region. He slates consumerism, individualism and greed and highlights the destructive impact on the region and its peoples. The document commends the treasures of cultural wisdom passed on through the oral tradition of the indigenous people and advocates sharing, dialogue and the building of bridges.
Welcome emphasis is placed on the interconnectedness of natural and human ecology and the vital duty we have to care for and respect Creation. The document states clearly in relation to inculturation that the Tradition of the church is not static and that the Gospel must be preached in a way that “rejects nothing of the goodness that already exists in Amazonian cultures” (66) – a quote from Gaudium et Spes. Yet, it seems that when it comes to issues of women and ministry, the tradition is seen as static.
... when it comes to issues of women and ministry, the tradition is seen as static.
Many, including Pope Francis himself, have expressed frustration that key ecological issues are being overshadowed by the media’s focus on priestly celibacy and role of women in the church – which are clearly not the intended focus of the document. The issues of the environment are undoubtedly the most pressing and require us to heed the document’s call to a deep conversion in this area, not only with regard to the policies we support, but also a recognition that our own day-to-day decisions as to how we use and steward the earth’s resources have an impact far beyond ourselves as everything is connected.
Theology around women tainted by patriarchy
In addition, I believe it is legitimate to also look at what the document is saying about women. Firstly, because the document itself affirms, everything is interconnected. The document rightly stresses the need for care of the creation and a recognition of the dignity of the indigenous people of the region and a genuine respect and willingness to learn from them. This deep stance cannot be separated from how women are treated in the church.
We have had to shift from an incorrect reading of Genesis through which we believed we had been given ‘dominion’ over creation to a recognition of all of us as part of an interconnected web. In a similar way our theology around women is still tainted by a patriarchal way of understanding the relationship between men and women which also needs to shift.
Secondly, issues of ecclesiology and access to the sacraments were also clearly significant topics at the Synod itself. If issues of priestly celibacy and the role of women in ministry are naturally evoking much discussion perhaps it is because they are issues which are currently emerging strongly within the church and therefore also merit engagement.
If issues of priestly celibacy and the role of w...
The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has, understandably, created a lot of anxiety, especially among those whose immune systems may be weak. That, however, says Shrikant Peters, is no excuse for discrimination, human rights violations, or any other form of harmful stereotyping. All people are created in God’s image and deserve respect and, should they contract the illness, access to dignified and adequate healthcare.
Although it has captured the imagination and invoked fear in global audiences only recently, coronaviruses have existed for many years.
The coronavirus is one of the causes (although not commonly) of the common cold. This fact is sure to escape many members of the public within the current hysteria. In reality, coronaviruses can kill (just like the flu virus can kill), and recent international outbreaks of other coronaviruses such as the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome outbreak (MERS) of 2012 and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak (SARS) of 2003.
This current outbreak is a new strain of coronavirus, hence it has only recently been recognised, first as a cluster of cases of initially unexplained pneumonia, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Japan, Italy, the USA, the Philippines and Thailand have also reported nCov-2019 cases and deaths. The disease can present (although not always) as a fever, cough and shortness of breath.
These symptoms are similar to those caused by many other respiratory viruses and bacteria. Therefore, healthcare workers will typically inquire about the patient’s travel history, especial to Wuhan city in China, or whether they have had contact with any infected persons within the 14 days preceding their symptoms, as part of their diagnosis.
The virus is now able to spread person-to-person, obviously aided by international travel ... in a short space of time.
The virus is assumed to have crossed the species barrier in China from animals to humans. Although the first cases were due to inter-species transfer, the virus is now able to spread person-to-person, obviously aided by international travel, which is evident in the disease’s ability to travel rapidly in a short space of time. Currently, treatment is supportive and there is no cure or vaccine for the disease. Antibiotics have no effect on viral illnesses, although they may be used if a bacterial infection is also suspected.
A public health emergency of international concern?
The word “outbreak” takes me back to the year 2014. I was on duty as a fully qualified medical officer, in a dirty hovel of a clinic in inner-city Johannesburg. The air was rife with the stench of urine and sweat. The world was in fear at the threat of a far more vicious virus – Ebola; a viral haemorrhagic fever, which had recently reared its head again in West Africa.
With Johannesburg being a major port of entry to foreigners from the rest of Africa, clinics had been placed on high alert. Posters were up in each casualty department regarding the personal protective equipment and screening techniques to be used in the event of suspected cases. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any of this equipment. Asking whether South Africa is ready to deal with an outbreak of novel coronavirus is then a fair question indeed!
Ebola is rightfully feared for its transmissibility and high case fatality rate; around 50% (but up to 90% in certain outbreaks). Luckily, unlike Ebola, the case fatality rate of novel coronavirus is actually quite low; as such only 1 in 5 patients will experience severe symptoms, and by the end of January, although almost 8 000 cases had been identified, this had resulted in fewer than 200 (ie <2.5%) deaths.
The case fatality rate of novel coronavirus is quite low; as such only 1 in 5 patients will experience severe symptoms, and by the end of January ... this had resulted in fewer than 200 (ie <2.5%) deaths.
This does not mean that one should not take the necessary precautions, however, especially when trav...
The Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) has released its reading of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA) on 13 February. The CPLO describes the address as a “sombre note” about South Africa’s “dire” public finances. It highlights Ramaphosa’s recognition that consensus by means of social compacts “is a means of achieving progress, but expressed disappointment that failure to address corruption and tackle “the haunting spectre of xenophobia” was an “opportunity lost.”
After the now to be expected political antics of the third largest party resulted in a 90-minute delay in proceedings and a 10-minute suspension of the business of the House, President Ramaphosa was at last able to deliver a much-anticipated State of the Nation speech. It was long, about 7500 words, it took about 50 minutes to deliver, and was often quite heavy on detail.
The President delivered this SONA against the background of widely reported surveys which showed that only 28% of South Africans had confidence in the direction the country was moving in, while the surveys also showed that the he himself enjoyed a high degree of personal support at 61%. The level of national confidence was 10 percentage points less than in May 2019; hence there was an expectation that the President would leverage his personal support levels in order to push back against the dropping levels of confidence in the country’s future.
But he sounded a sombre note, referring to the dire state of our public finances, minimal economic growth for over a decade, power insecurity and its consequences, and – several times – state capture and corruption. Even the other aspects of our reality, the numbers of children in school, the demographics of the improved matric results, and the Springbok World Cup victory, came across as a respectful reminder rather than an excuse to underplay the ‘stark reality.’
Minister Ebrahim Patel commented afterwards that while the previous SONA was about putting down foundations, this one was about building on them. The President’s preferred theory of change, that of creating bridgeheads of consensus as a means of achieving progress, was very much in evidence: “Achieving consensus and building social compacts is not a demonstration of weakness. It is the very essence of who we are.” He framed several of the successes of recent times in this language, from the recovery of broken municipalities to the putative social compact on electricity.
In one of two moments of cross-party consensus, the President’s affirmation of municipalities’ right to tap into non-Eskom electricity, and the permission for various groups to generate limited amounts of electricity, was warmly welcomed across the benches. The other agreement across parties was the anger they all felt at the behaviour of the EFF, and their shared commitment to have this behaviour referred to the powers and privileges committee.
A close reading of the speech suggests that the President sought to offer some confidence through a commitment to strengthening safety. There were references to gender-based violence, to tightening bail conditions, to stricter sentencing and to amendments to the Domestic Violence Act and the Sexual Offences Act to better protect victims. He also spoke about an increased intake of people joining the police force, deployment of officers to protect tourists, and stronger anti-gang unitsin three provinces. The safety motif also found its way, expressed differently, into making the environment for investment and business more conducive. Everything from turnabout times for water use licenses, to easier registration, to meeting investment targets, spoke to the idea of safer business environments. There is however a long road ahead.
As was expected, Eskom, SAA, and the other SOEs came in for scrutiny. On Eskom, the President spoke of divisionalising the structure (the language favoured by the new CEO). He confirmed that load-shedding will rem...
The Vatican released Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia on 12 February, responding to the 2019 Synod on the pastoral challenges in the Amazon region. Over the next few weeks, spotlight.africa will publish several commentaries of the text. The first reaction by Anthony Aduaka SJ welcomes the content of the document, saying that the controversial issues of celibacy and female ordination should not overshadow the Church’s mission to address individualism, exploitation, and other forms of inequality.
Finally the long awaited post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis Querida Amazonia on the Amazon and its controversial issue on married priests and female deacons has been released. It is indeed an exhortation from a father to his children given the gentle tone of the document and its understanding character of the Amazon issues.
“May it inspire in some way every person of goodwill” says the Pope. This means that the Pope is aware of the disappointment and anger his teaching will evoke in various part of the Church given the overwhelming votes (128-41) with which the proposal for married priests and an increased female role in the Amazonia Church was made. However, the Pope is calling on missionary men and women to become more proactive in propagating the gospel around the world rather than reducing the whole mission of the Church to celibacy or ordination.
The Pope was bold and prophetic in his assertions and pronouncements in the document. He encourages the Christian faithful to be heralds of good news and to take each society, culture and their values as part of the body of Christ, which must be cared for by all. With outstanding courage, he addresses the cultural individualism, economic exploitation, social inequality and relativism that challenge and ravage our world.
Pope is calling on missionary men and women to become more proactive in propagating the gospel around the world rather than reducing the whole mission of the Church to celibacy or ordination.
On the controversial issues of married priests and women’s ordination, the Pope affirms that limiting our “understanding of the Church to her functional structure would lead us to clericalize women [to the point of diminishing] the great value of what they have already accomplished, and subtly make their indispensable contribution less effective”. Many feminist theologians and liberals will disagree with the Pope asserting that the Church has no theological grounds for denying the ordination of women.
However, this pronouncement ends the recent rumour surrounding the Synod on the Amazon alleging that the apostolic exhortation will give way to married priests. It also calls into question the statement by Bishop Erwin Kräutler who said “that indigenous people in the Amazon were unable to understand the evangelical witness of celibacy”.
So, where do we go from here as a Church? What lesson(s) should the African Church learn from this document?
Discerning among the many voices
As St Ignatius of Loyola says in his Rules for the Discernment of Spirits in the Spiritual Exercises: one should not make or change decisions while in consolation or desolation.
This is a perspective that can be read into this exhortation. Given the many challenges that the Church is facing in the modern world, the Pope seems to be slowing down in making the forms of change that many consider a slippery slope.
While reading the document, I personally felt that the Pope was not addressing the issues concerning the Amazonian Church alone, but the universality of the Catholic Church in the face of too many voices. Thus, to limit the reading of the apostolic exhortation to the issue of married priests will constitute a narrow reading and thereby miss the point. The document calls for an openness of heart to see how we have failed as a Church – not only in the Amazon, but also in different parts of the world, and how our complacency as a Church has contributed ...
A statement by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accusing political groups of fuelling ethnic tensions in the country has generated controversy in the region. Sarah-Leah Pimentel examines the Church’s duty in speaking out against any form of oppression, but points out the dangers that can cloud a sound discernment in speaking truth to power.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a place of untold hardships. Violence, countless rebel groups, belligerent political groups, a tenuous peace – often forged with bloodshed. Human rights abuses abound and communities live in fear.
Communities and ethnic groups become pawns serving the political interests of one or another group. Rebel incursions and political alliances between warring groups often disrupt these already fragile communities. The result is that for many communities, especially in the large rural expanses, people are constantly on the move, continually displaced as they flee from the fighting. Those who are unable to leave are captured, raped, tortured and killed.
In this world, there is no stability. There are no certainties. There is only a perpetual homelessness; a constant sense of unbelonging. The only way to survive is to trust no one, much less the promises of the many political factions vying for power.
The Church brings together fractured communities
Despite the hardships of this environment, the Catholic Church (and Christianity, in general) in the DRC continues to grow. About half of the country’s 83.3 million people are Catholic. Their faith provides them with the courage, hope and perseverance to continue. The Church and Christ become a rock of future promise and a refuge from the uncertain present.
It is not difficult then, to understand why the Catholic Church is a particularly influential voice in the DRC. The Church has often stepped into the space of mediator and is a critical voice in a fractured country where institutions and a strong civil society movement are lacking.
In particular, recently appointed Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo has a long tradition of engaging the country’s political authorities. He was an outspoken critic of former President Joseph Kabila and called for him to step down, but he was also responsible for brokering a deal with Kabila, in 2016, which allowed him to stay in power for the remainder of his term so that democratic elections could be organised.
The Church [...] is a critical voice in a fractured country where institutions and a strong civil society movement are lacking.
During the volatile election a year ago, the Church strongly contested the election results, claiming that the elections had been “rigged” in favour of one of the other contenders, Felix Tshisekedi. The official Catholic Church communique described the results as a “robbery” against opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, who had been pegged to win at the polls.
New Cardinal speaks truth to power
Upon his appointment as Cardinal in October 2019, Fridolin Ambongo promised to help the Holy Father fulfil his mission of governing the Church, but also said that his own pastoral mission includes the role of “reconciler” to bring the people of the DRC together.
In an October interview with America Magazine, Ambongo drew parallels between the challenges of the Amazon region and his native Congo Basin, saying:
His message appears to be one that seeks to promote unity among warring factions, restore the balance between humanity and God, and ensure that the earth’s resources are used responsibly for the good of all.
In late December, Cardinal Amabongo visited the restive Beni territory in North Kivu Province, near the border with Uganda. During his visit, the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed about 20 people in a series of massacres. The Cardinal reacted strongly to the killings, accusing the authorities of “balkanization,” that is a “a precise program for the occupation of native lands b...
Pope John XXIII wrote in ‘Pacem in Terris’ that a person “has a natural right to be respected”, to a “good name”, “to freedom in investigating the truth”, “and — within the limits of the moral order and the common good — to freedom of speech and publication,” “the freedom to pursue whatever profession he or she may choose”, and “to be accurately informed about public events”. To further the rights proclaimed in the Pope’s 1963 letter, spotlight.africa publishes this article by Ranjeni Munusamy.
The Zondo Commission resumed its public hearings last week and looks set for extended play and further obfuscation. There is finally hope that I will be able to clear my name as Judge Raymond Zondo has granted my application to testify and cross-examine one of my accusers.
While I am one of two people whose life abruptly halted as a result of the commission’s crossfire – former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene is the other – there is a possibility that I might end as a mere footnote in the great state capture saga as the allegations against me may be considered peripheral to the inquiry’s core business. The false accusations against me feel, however, like a face tattoo – hideous and defining – and threaten to recast who, and what, I really am.
I am looking out at the rain-sodden thicket in the valley outside the big bay window of my room. Another heavy downpour is threatening, meaning I will be confined indoors rather than being able to wander the 20-acre expanse of my East African sanctuary.
“I presume you’ll be here to do your famous Garbo impression,” my friend had said when I confirmed my travel arrangements with him. My impression of a reclusive thespian was in that moment immaculate – dressed in all black, sprawled by the window gazing morosely at the forested vista as the heavens opened.
Greta Garbo, the ‘20s and ‘30s screen siren, immortalised the words: “I want to be alone; I just want to be alone”.
I, however, was not a recluse by choice. A man with no face and an ex-policeman with no evidence cast me into the role when they told the Zondo Commission in September I had received benefits from a Crime Intelligence Secret Service Account. I had to stop reporting while waiting for the commission’s protracted processes. Zondo responded to my requests for my matter to be dealt with speedily by saying I could not be seen to be receiving preferential treatment on the basis of my profile and the impact on my career. I understand this position – the commission has processes to follow.
I had to stop reporting while waiting for the commission’s protracted processes.
As I watch the raindrops slither off the foliage, I once again try to imagine the face of the man I have been granted the right to cross-examine. Lieutenant-Colonel Dhanajaya Naidoo was allowed to testify in-camera as he became a Section 204 witness after admitting to stealing from the slush fund he accused me of benefitting from.
I keep wondering if I will ever be able to see the face of my accuser as he remains under the protection of the state. Judge Zondo himself experienced Naidoo playing fast and loose with facts, as well as gaps and inconsistencies in his testimony. In an internal police disciplinary hearing chaired by Paul Pretorius SC, now the commission’s evidence leader, Naidoo was declared “brazen and dishonest”. Pretorius stated that Naidoo “is not in my view a person whose evidence can be trusted”. The state could not rely on his evidence in the criminal trial of his former colleagues and did not call him to testify. Still, he was able to present untruthful claims against me at the commission and languishes in witness protection without anyone knowing who or where he is.
It must be nice.
Naidoo was apparently ignorant of the reason he was sent to fetch my car sometime between 2008 and 2009 when I asked the police for help. The former presidency director-general Reverend Frank Chikane made the point in his testimony to the commission that we...
Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya observes that religious art in his parish and many African parishes depict religious figures as white, while black people are depicted as those in need of saving. He posits that religious art in the African Church still needs to be liberated from the tropes of colonialism and the ideals of white supremacy.
I am a parishioner in a church in Soweto. It is a 100% black church. The social divisions in the parish are the same as those that have appeared since the end of apartheid. There are huge gaps in wealth and education, and in the use and access to technology. Other than that, it is as black as Soweto.
As with many parishes started by European missionaries, its religious retains many elements of whiteness. It is normal to see a blond, blue eyed icon of the Holy Family or of St. Anne and St. Joachim. The Stations of the Cross reflect a scene more likely to have appeared in ancient Europe than Palestine. Everyone there is white.
It gets worse. The parish has an image of its patron saint, Peter Claver, standing and baptising and praying over kneeling black people. Peter Claver saw himself a “slave of the slaves” whose sainthood is inextricably connected to his mission of affirming the humanity of the African slaves sent to Columbia and dedicated his life’s ministry to ministering to people that the New World saw merely as a source of labour. But unless we know the story of Peter Claver, the image looks like yet another depiction of a white man lording it over hapless blacks.
Sacred art has a long history of controversy
On the one hand, religious art has been the source of theological debate for centuries. For another, blackness and whiteness are more than just colour, especially in the South African context where white (and maleness) equalled superiority, while black (and female) was shorthand for inferiority.
Religious art is not just a South African or a Catholic-specific issue. It is a historically hot theological debating point. Islam, for example, prohibits the depiction of the natural world and the divine.
In the first centuries of Christianity, the Church debated whether depicting the divine was permissible.
In Christianity, religious art is divided into at least two camps. The first, is similar to the Islamic view, where the divine is beyond all earthly forms and its depiction using earthly representations is profane.
In the first centuries of Christianity, the Church debated whether depicting the divine was permissible. Sacred art and its use in the Church and for private devotion was important enough to constitute one of the talking points at the Seventh Ecumenical Councils at Nicaea in 769 and 787, which concluded with very specific guidelines governing what was permissible in sacred art.
During the Reformation and beyond, the Calvinist and several other Protestant traditions also prohibited any forms of visual representations of God and the saints. They were highly suspicious and concerned that reverence for a holy image would draw worship away from God.
In contrast, one of the greatest Church thinkers, Thomas Aquinas, saw that religious art served a threefold purpose. According to Aquinas the purposes are to instruct the uneducated in place of books, to illustrate and remember the mystery of the incarnation, and to awaken the passion of devotion especially because viewing is more often effective than hearing.
According to Aquinas the purpose [of religious art] is to instruct the uneducated ... to remember the mystery of the incarnation, and to awaken the passion of devotion.
Based on this, one can easily see why — in a world where ignorance and levels of literacy unfortunately tend to track race and class — religious art merits serious attention as it bears directly on the effectiveness of Catechesis.
With regards to blackness and whiteness, and maleness and femaleness, the image of God being an elderly gentleman has been part of the Western motif for so long that...
A minor accident over the New Year period made Michaela van Nierop think about how internal scars are far more difficult to speak about and overcome than the ones we bear on the outside. Despite this, she explains that the internal and external marks shape who we are and become, but they are also a sign that we still alive and that life holds many more opportunities.
Now that we have stepped into a new decade, things should be different. Another opportunity to try again. People are calling it the “2020 vision”.
On New Year’s Eve, I fainted and hit my head on the side of a fireplace, cracking my head over my right eyebrow. I am guaranteed to have a scar there.
It got me thinking about scars. I am going into the new decade, with a slightly changed face. I am so used to internal scars; this one was a shock.
Several people asked what had happened. I probably needed a stitch or two, but naturally by that point it was too late. It fascinated me that the people who tended to notice first were mothers.
Unlike my internal scars, I couldn’t shrug this one off and act as though it hadn’t happened. It is on my face. I don’t think that is untrue of my other scars, but I think it just takes a more practised eye to see it and a more practised ear to hear what I am really saying.
During my various states of depression over the past few years, I always struggled to lie. Sometimes the hardest questions to answer were “How are you?” and “How was your week?” I don’t want to always be negative. I don’t always want to have the conversation circling around me. But I cannot lie. Well, I can, but very badly. And I also don’t want to. So instead I learnt tricks. I learnt how to tell the truth without actually revealing anything.
I learnt how to tell the truth without actually revealing anything.
I learnt how to tell real stories where I think most people thought I was exaggerating and thus found it humorous. I found ways to tell people how much I was hurting that seemed harmless. Only people suffering from mental illness or who had been raped saw through what I was saying.
These are the people who see the internal scars that you hide. Everyone has them for different reasons. But you can never compare one journey to another. You can never compare one story to another.
The weird thing about gaining a scar right before a decade changes, is that initially I felt like a changed woman, because my appearance had changed slightly.
But I came to realise it would so quickly become a part of me, just like my other scars. It would be there, telling a story, reminding me that I am still alive.
A new book, reportedly co-authored by Joseph Ratzinger and Cardinal Robert Sarah, cautions against calls to re-examine the law of priestly celibacy. Anthony Egan SJ explores what may be behind the timing of the book and the larger issues at play in a Church that is divided on a number of theological issues and pastoral approaches.
Josef Ratzinger, former Pope Benedict, has just weighed in and then backed out of the debate surrounding the partial relaxation of celibacy for Catholic diocesan clergy in Amazonia.
In a new book From the Depths of Our Hearts, to be released in French on Wednesday 15 January, which he apparently co-authored with Cardinal Robert Sarah, he spoke out against relaxing the rule of celibacy for diocesan priests in the Latin-rite Catholic Church. According to various reports, the retired pope expressly stated that Pope Francis should resist considering any change to the religious discipline.
“I humbly beg Pope Francis to ... veto any weakening of the law of priestly celibacy, even limited to one or the other region,” he is recorded as saying, the latter a reference to the recommendation of the recent Amazonian Synod to ordain to the priesthood married deacons and mature married men of good standing in local communities where celibate clergy are not present.
Shortly before publication, Ratzinger asked that his name and signature be removed from the book. His secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein claimed that he had not approved being named as co-author, but had simply contributed a text that his ‘co-author’ Cardinal Robert Sarah could do with as he wished. Sarah has denied this.
Poor timing and signs of dissent
What are we to make of this?
As parts of the book were published in the French newspaper Le Figaro earlier this week, a storm erupted, less about Ratzinger’s contribution – which seems consistent with his previous stand on celibacy – than its timing and possible political ramifications.
As church historian Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University in the United States observed, “It interferes with a synodal process that is still unfolding after the Amazon synod ... and threatens to limit the freedom of the one pope.” This seems to Faggioli (and many of us) an attempt to influence Pope Francis, who has the final right to make decisions on what to do with the Amazonian Synod.
“It interferes with a synodal process that is still unfolding after the Amazon synod ... and threatens to limit the freedom of the one pope.”
massimo Faggioli
Now, one might argue that expressing an opinion or advising Francis is itself innocuous, indeed a duty of any theologian who feels strongly about an issue and wishes to examine it systematically and responsibly. The problem is that by Ratzinger or others around him invoking the title of Pope Emeritus there is a risk of implicitly claiming more than this.
While I’m sure it was not his overt intention, it could be read by some as a challenge to Francis’ authority. Those familiar with the turbulent history of the late medieval papacy – of popes and anti-popes – might even detect a whiff of schism. At very least it suggested that Ratzinger had (I hope inadvertently) set himself up as a focus of unity for the anti-Francis faction in the Church.
The latter part of Faggioli’s comment is possibly a reminder that the concept of a pope emeritus is at best an anomaly, at worst theological nonsense. There is no such thing as a pope emeritus in Canon Law. At best it might be kind of religious ‘journalistic shorthand’, a term that has become associated with the former pope. When other popes have resigned in the past (so long ago that perhaps we have forgotten the historical details of such processes, few as they are), there was no question of such an idea – ex-popes returned to their earlier clerical state, whether cardinal, bishop or priest.
It is possible that in making such a statement as pope emeritus, Ratzinger recognised that he had (once again I qualify ...
The theme of Pope Francis’ annual Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” Message is “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”. Vatican News reports.
Addressing the faithful gathered in the Square on Christmas Day Pope Francis pronounced his annual “Urbi et Orbi” Message.
Urbi et Orbi, means literally “to the city and to the world”, and as always, this year the Pope highlighted the plight of many suffering people and nations across the globe, praying for the peace of the Lord who has come to save us.
Referring to the theme of this year’s Message, he said that “There is darkness in human hearts, yet the light of Christ is greater still.”
There is darkness, he said, in “personal, family and social relationships, but the light of Christ is greater. There is darkness in economic, geopolitical and ecological conflicts, yet greater still is the light of Christ.”
Middle East
In particular, the Pope turned his attention to the situation of “the many children suffering from war and conflicts in the Middle East and in various countries of the world.”
He prayed for comfort for “the beloved Syrian people who still see no end to the hostilities that have rent their country over the last decade,” and appealed to governments and to the international community “to find solutions to allow the peoples of that region to live together in peace and security, and put an end to their unspeakable sufferings.”
The Pope turned his thoughts to the people of Lebanon who are struggling to overcome “the current crisis and rediscover their vocation to be a message of freedom and harmonious coexistence for all.”
He mentioned the Holy Land, where he said, “so many people – struggling but not discouraged – still await a time of peace, security and prosperity,” and prayed that the Lord may bring consolation to Iraq “amid its present social tensions, and to Yemen, suffering from a grave humanitarian crisis.”
The Americas
Looking further afar, Pope Francis asked that the “tiny Babe of Bethlehem bring hope to the whole American continent,” where he said, “a number of nations are experiencing a time of social and political upheaval.”
His thoughts went to “the beloved Venezuelan people, long tried by their political and social tensions,” praying that they may receive the aid they need.
“May he bless the efforts of those who spare no effort to promote justice and reconciliation and to overcome the various crises and the many forms of poverty that offend the dignity of each person,” he said.
Ukraine
The conflict-torn nation of Ukraine was also in Pope Francis’s thoughts who said: “May the Redeemer of the world bring light to beloved Ukraine, which yearns for concrete solutions for an enduring peace.”
Africa
And Africa was also in his heart, as he expressed closeness to its people who are often forced to migrate because of persistent unjust social and political situations.
“May the Son of God, come down to earth from heaven, protect and sustain all those who, due to these and other injustices, are forced to emigrate in the hope of a secure life. It is injustice that makes them cross deserts and seas that become cemeteries. It is injustice that forces them to endure unspeakable forms of abuse, enslavement of every kind and torture in inhumane detention camps. It is injustice that turns them away from places where they might have hope for a dignified life, but instead find themselves before walls of indifference.
In particular he mentioned the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “torn by continuing conflicts.”
May the Redeemer, he said, “bring consolation to all who suffer because of violence, natural disasters or outbreaks of disease. And may He bring comfort to those who are persecuted for their religious faith, especially missionaries and members of the faithful who have been kidnapped, and to the victims of attacks by extremist groups, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.”
May our...
It is nearly Christmas but Sarah-Leah Pimentel finds it difficult to focus on the meaning of the season in the midst of bad news and other daily distractions. She has found that while it is might not be possible to totally withdraw from the busyness, she looks for the Christ Child amid the day-to-day events.
It’s less than a week to Christmas.
It’s been a difficult year for South Africa. The economy remained stagnant and jobs elusive. The general election was a lacklustre event and (once again) campaign promises did not translate into tangible improvements in the lives of the poorest members of our society.
Popular frustration at the lack of everything spilled out into xenophobic violence and senseless murders of women and children. Foreign nationals, fed up by the continued abuse suffered in South Africa, camped out at the UN offices, seeking some kind of redress with increased frustration. Their presence drew the anxiety of property and business owners in Cape Town and Pretoria. The police added to the violence by brutally removing the migrants.
And just as we were easing into the holidays, we were hit with the annual year-end bout of load shedding, with Eskom providing the now predictable excuses of wet coal, infrastructure breakdowns, maintenance requirements, lack of money to keep the lights on...
It’s less than a week to Christmas.
With the exception of isolated boosts to our national pride offered by the Springboks on bringing home the Rugby World Cup and the crowning of Zozibini Tunzi as Miss Universe, there’s not been a whole lot to celebrate.
It’s less than a week to Christmas.
If I look at the world around me, things are no brighter beyond our borders. The Amazon is burning. Australia is burning. Terrorists in Mozambique and Nigeria ravage villages. Corruption is rife throughout Africa. Politicians around the world use the politics of difference and division to sow distrust and fear in exchange for votes. The Church that professes itself to be “one, holy, catholic and apostolic” is fractious and divided on a number of theological and social issues.
It’s less than a week to Christmas.
How is it possible to find the peace, joy, love and beauty of the coming of Christ, when any vestiges of those fruits of the Holy Spirit are in such short supply in our society? As Christmas becomes ever more secularised, finding the spiritual and the religious significance of this season becomes really difficult, distracted as we are by last minute shopping, holiday plans, and the never-ending list of work tasks that must be completed before closing the office door for a few days.
Finding the spiritual and the religious significance of this season becomes really difficult.
It’s less than a week to Christmas.
What are we waiting for? Like the Israelites of old, we are waiting for a Messiah. We are waiting for someone who can restore order in our world, to bring justice and righteousness to those who have none, to remove proud leaders from their thrones. We are waiting for something new to break through in a world that seems to be falling apart.
It’s less than a week to Christmas.
More than 2 000 years have passed and the world is not substantially different to the one in which God came among us as a human child. There is no perfect time for Christmas. But each year, Christmas comes. Each year, Christmas is a time in which “deep calls out to deep” (Psalm 42:7), stirring cold hearts and minds.
Herod missed all the signs and, after Jesus was born, all he saw was the threat of a new world that needed to be destroyed. The Herods of this world are also threatened by possible change to the status quo that keeps them in power and the poor on the margins of society.
The shepherds heard the angels’ voices and came to see the Christ Child. Seekers also saw the star and came in the hope that they would find a new promise. They recognized Jesus because they believed that a new world was possible.
Despite the ve...
On Tuesday, 10 December 2019, in commemoration of the United Nation’s Human Rights Day, the Jesuit Institute South Africa, in collaboration with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), premiered their new 21-minute documentary entitled “In Another Prison? Migrants in Johannesburg.” The documentary highlights the trauma that female migrants and refugees suffer on their journey to Johannesburg as a result of gender-based violence; a chilling reminder at the close of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
In the documentary, several migrants tell their stories. They are stories of fearing for their lives, and losing contact with family members, and struggling to survive in the inner city of Johannesburg, whilst facing rejection, discrimination and violence.
The documentary was filmed in the context of the recent xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg. It reveals how migration is not being well managed in the city, and how media and political officials pedal a false and inflaming narrative that scapegoats migrants and refugees.
In the documentary Diego Iturralde, the Chief Demographer at STATS SA, says that migration is not a problem to be solved but an opportunity that needs to be managed. He emphasised that the statistics on migrants and refugees are largely misunderstood and that in fact, the statistics include both documented and undocumented persons. There are currently less than 750,000 migrants in the City of Johannesburg, whilst South Africa as a whole has only 3.6 million persons who are foreign-born. This is far less than what some of the political rhetoric would have us believe, and at only 6.5% of the entire population, they cannot be held responsible for the problems facing the country at large.
In the documentary, the Archbishop of Johannesburg, and Chair of the Department for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Buti Tlhagale OMI, says the migrants and refugees come to the Church in South Africa bringing diversity that enriches the local African Church. He says that this gift is unfortunately marred by xenophobia.
The documentary, which was directed by Sr Katleho Khang SNJM of the Jesuit Institute, shows how migrants struggle materially and psychologically to make sense of their lives. With little support, many of them are living with the traumatic experiences of violence and rape. In the film, migrants explain how they are re-traumatised by ongoing discrimination and xenophobia.
Fr Tom Smolich SJ, international director of JRS, laments how across the world xenophobia is being used as a form of scapegoating. He says that this is exacerbated by weak leadership which has led to poor economic opportunities for many people. Smolich says that political leaders have realised that they can exploit the situation, for their own gain, by fuelling the flames of xenophobia.
Mr Jan Bornman, a journalist for New Frame who specialises in telling stories about migrants and refugees, agreed with this and challenged the media to interrogate stories that seek to scapegoat migrants and refugees and to work towards creating greater social cohesion.
Archbishop Tlhagale says that South Africans often use migrants as an excuse for the shortcomings of their own society, municipality and government. He says that the Church must offer them material and spiritual support and that he hopes that every Catholic parish would ensure they have a desk for migrants and refugees.
“You cannot not be moved by young people, strong, who could be making a contribution and yet are prisoners of their own situation, not of their own making, but of society,” Tlhagale says.
The premiere began with the Director of the Jesuit Institute, Russell Pollitt SJ, outlining the new Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus and highlighting how each of these preferences can be found within the Documentary.
The new Universal Apostolic Preferences for the Society of Jesus...
The proposals for a state-funded National Health Insurance (NHI) policy have generated a great deal of media reporting and reaction. While many people agree that global access to quality healthcare is a national priority, there are equally significant concerns about the cost and quality of the future NHI. Shrikant Peters unpacks the values underpinning the NHI and the implications of the proposals in their current format.
The National Department of Health recently published the NHI Bill, which sets out a roadmap to re-create the South African healthcare system. By doing so, government wishes to achieve the aim of universal health coverage, which will enable everyone in the country to access high quality, person-centred healthcare, without the risk of financial ruin, through a system of social solidarity cross-subsidisation.
The fact that the public healthcare sector is in dire need of reform has not been disputed by any health stakeholders. Although South Africa spends over R400 billion on healthcare per year (more than 8% of our GDP), the funds are evenly balanced between the public and private sectors. This is extremely concerning, given the fact that only 16% of the population has access to private sector healthcare through medical aid cover or “out of pocket” payments. The remaining 84% of the country have to make use of dilapidated, over-crowded state facilities where waiting times to receive care are long and resources limited.
This should come as no surprise, given that we are ranked by the World Bank as the most unequal country in the world, with a GINI coefficient of 63.4. Still, given a system that allocates six times more to a citizen accessing the private health sector than it does to citizens in the public health sector, one really must question the morality and sustainability of this model.
One really must question the morality and sustainability of this model (...) that allocates six times more to a citizen accessing the private health sector than it does to citizens in the public health sector.
Life expectancy in South Africa is 62 years, having steadily increased from a nadir of 52 during the disastrous years of HIV denial. However, South Africa still experiences a quadruple burden of disease, including HIV and TB, chronic diseases of lifestyle such as diabetes and hypertension, violence and injuries, and maternal and child mortality rates, which are unacceptable in a modern lower-middle income country. With the economy teetering on recession and our levels of human development stubbornly low, the need for efficient, effective and quality healthcare remains paramount.
The contents of the NHI Draft Bill
This is the third time that National Health Insurance has been proposed – the first being under the auspices of the pre-World War II (and pre-apartheid) Smuts government, and the second at the dawn of democracy in 1994.
The current process was started at the ANC’s Polokwane Conference of 2009, which set former Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi the task of drafting the initial legislative documents, aided by the World Health Organization and health sector experts, particularly health economists.
The proposed solution to inequitable expenditure distribution between the public and private healthcare sectors is to have a single pool of funding for all healthcare. This would be a national government entity, to be called the National Health Insurance Fund. It is to be funded completely by pre-payment through increases in taxation, and a growing diversion of funds away from medical schemes.
The proposed solution to inequitable expenditure distribution between the public and private healthcare sectors is to have a single pool of funding for all healthcare.
A single pool of funds also pools risk between the young and old, the well and the sick, and the wealthy and the poor. With a single payer, healthcare prices can be brought down in the private sector. Through an accreditation process, only faci...
The international 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence campaign ran from 25 November to 10 December. The Salesian Life Choices program works with young people in vulnerable circumstances and helps them to tell their stories. Spotlight.africa concludes this series with a story by Beni Kambwa, who fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to escape violence, only to find that it followed her to South Africa.
Beni Kambwa (18) is the middle child, she has older twin siblings (21) and a younger sister (14). Beni and her family were born in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC.
“When I was five there was war in the DRC. We were not be allowed to go outside, and we would often hear gun shots and people screaming. My dad was a soldier and would be away from home... we were scared for his life.”
“I was closer to my dad – physically we looked alike and I think this might be the reason I was his favourite. He was a soldier and because he knew the terrain, when there was less fighting, he would take me out. It would often just be the two of us. He used to call me his blessing.”
Beni’s dad treated her well which was a complete contradiction to the way he ruled the home. “My earliest memory took place at a neighbour’s wedding. We ran to see what was happening, I slipped and fell to the ground. When my dad saw, he grabbed my mother and told her that she was stupid and irresponsible to let me get hurt. I felt bad like it was my fault, because I knew my mother would never want anything bad to happen to me.
After this incident, I started noticing my mother crying often when my dad shouted at her, and sometimes he hit her. To see this made me sad but I kept hoping things would get better and he would be nice to everyone.”
“When the war escalated, my dad would often be away from home. He would visit us from time to time and each time his behaviour became more violent. On one occasion, my mom told us that my dad had killed a well-known rebel and that he had to go to a place of safety.”
[My father] would visit us from time to time and each time his behaviour became more violent.
“We knew the rebels were ruthless, so we were all worried. My dad was not a nice person to have around but he was still our father. After he left, we moved in with my grandmother about 200 kilometres away. I was happy to leave because we did not feel safe and were scared that the rebels would come to our home. My mother, who was a nurse, had to quit her job and we had to move into an already full home where my two aunts, uncle and three children were staying with my granny.”
“We enjoyed living there because we developed a closeness with my cousins. We also heard that after traveling for a while, my father was safe in South Africa.”
Coming to South Africa
Beni says that they stayed with her grandmother for a year, then they flew to South Africa to join her father in Cape Town.
“It was a confusing time, I was 8 years old and felt sad because I was leaving my family and friends behind but excited to be with my dad again. I felt happy seeing my dad – it felt like home, my dad was alive and safe. We rented a room in a house with another family. We had to create a border in the middle of the space to make one room for my parents and the other for the kids.”
It was a confusing time, I was 8 years old and felt sad because I was leaving my family and friends behind but excited to be with my dad again.
Unfortunately moving to Cape Town was not an easy process for the family.
“Because of the language barrier, my mother could not find a job and we could not find a school. My dad could speak a bit of English so he would teach us a few things.”
After a year of living in South Africa, a school was found and Beni met a guardian angel. “One of my teachers, Mrs Shura, offered to give me extra English lessons. It really helped me to adapt better. I struggled making friends, but at least I could communicate and understand what was happening in ...
His Holiness, Pope Francis, has appointed Fr Joseph Kizito, as the new Bishop of Aliwal in South Africa.
Msgr. Joseph Kizito had been the Vicar-General for the Diocese of Aliwal for many years. He had also been responsible for efforts to help stateless children, in the same diocese, acquire their identity documents so that they could access education.
Msgr. Joseph Kizito was born on 2 July 1967 in Kampala, Uganda. He studied Philosophy at St. Augustine’s Major Seminary in Roma, Lesotho, and Theology at St. John Vianney Major Seminary in Pretoria, South Africa.
He was ordained a priest on 27 September 1997, and incardinated into the Diocese of Aliwal. He subsequently held the following offices: 1997-1998: Parochial Vicar of St. Francis Xavier Parish; 1998-2003: parish priest of St. Augustine’s Parish in Dordrecht; 2003-2013: parish priest of Sterkspruit Catholic Church; and since 2008: Vicar General of the Diocese of Aliwal. Since 2013 he was the parish priest of Aliwal Cathedral.
The Diocese of Aliwal (Area: 31 200 sq. km.; Total Population: 510 000; Catholic Population: 16 174 [Source: SACBC]) began as an ecclesiastical territory entrusted to the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart in 1923, and was formerly known as the Gariep Prefecture. In 1936 the Prefecture was raised to the status of Vicariate and became known as the Aliwal Vicariate. It was erected as a diocese in 1951, but in 1953 the Western portion of the Diocese was detached and became the Prefecture of De Aar. The Diocese of Aliwal now comprises (parts of) the municipalities of Inkwanca, Gariep, Kopanong-Xhariep, Maletswai, Senqu and Ukhahlamba.
The Diocese of Aliwal had been without a Bishop ever since the resignation of Bishop Michael Wüstenberg in September 2017.
A spokesperson for the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, Fr Paul Tatu, said: “Let us remember Msgr Kizito during this time of his preparation to lead the Diocese of Aliwal.”
Mike Pothier comments that the media storm around the controversial display of an indigenous Andean goddess at the Amazon Synod distracted the Catholic world from the weightier issues discussed at the Synod. The real idolatry, he says, is not a wooden carving, but the extreme importance given to celibacy and a male priesthood, especially if these outward forms get in the way of ministering to the People of God.
Far too much has been written over the past few weeks about the supposed idolatry that took place during the Amazon Synod – the “worship” of the “idol”, Pachamama. Let me present a slightly different perspective.
As soon as pictures were circulated showing people at a gathering in the Vatican gardens bowing to the wooden likeness of a pregnant woman, the usual suspects popped up with their predictable views. Google “Pachamama” and you will find denunciations by Cardinals Burke and Müller, and a host of other prelates (most of whom, one suspects, are quite happy to be bowed to themselves as they have their episcopal rings reverently kissed by the faithful).
Soon enough, a young Austrian took it upon himself to remove some of the Pachamama statues from a church and throw them into the Tiber River. They were fished out by the Italian authorities and replaced. The non-Catholic world looked on, mystified.
Interpretations of the Pachamama
As predictable as the pained expressions and thunderous condemnations of the hyper-orthodox, so was the initial reaction from the Vatican. Various spokespeople and officials rushed to issue contradictory explanations. It was actually a depiction of the Virgin Mary. No it wasn’t; it was an “earth mother”. Or a “symbol of fertility and life”.
Pope Francis deepened the angst and confusion and made some of his staff look a little silly by referring to the statue as “Pachamama” when he apologised for the actions of the young Austrian. He went on to say that the statues had not been placed in the Church “with idolatrous intentions”. A debate now rages about whether Francis meant “Pachamama” as in the Wikipedia definition – “a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes” – or “Pachamama” as in “that wooden statue that everyone is fixated a at the moment”.
[Pope Francis] went on to say that the statues had not been placed in the Church “with idolatrous intentions.”
This will be grist to the mills of EWTN, LifeSiteNews, OnePeterFive and all those other self-appointed guardians of God for whom this papacy is providing such a boom in ratings and hit counts. Anyway, at least the Pope then moved on to other, more important things. He knows that God won’t mind a few little wooden statues; not as much, that is, as He minds great effusions of self-importance and righteous indignation.
Idolisation of celibacy and maleness
But whatever your feelings about Pachamama, there was some real and much more serious idolatry on display at the Amazon Synod: the idolisation of celibacy in the priesthood, and of Jesus’ sex.
We don’t need to restate the virtues and benefits of priestly celibacy. They are well-known, and the discipline has served the Church well for more than a thousand years. The trouble is that we have absolutised the celibacy requirement to the point where, in many parts of the world, rather than helping the Church to meet the needs of the People of God, it starves them spiritually, pastorally and sacramentally.
We have absolutised the celibacy requirement to the point where [...] rather than helping the Church to meet the needs of the People of God, it starves them spiritually, pastorally and sacramentally.
To tolerate a situation in which thousands of the faithful can celebrate Eucharist only once or twice a year due to a shortage of celibate ministers, is to place too high a value on celibacy. It is, in fact, to make an idol of it.
The thing about idols is that they distract us; they get in the way; they come between us and God. Those who argue for a strict c...
The Final Document of the Amazon Synod provides, among other things, a powerful contribution to Catholic social teaching and the Church’s pastoral response to the communities directly affected by the extractive industry. Stan Muyebe OP comments that African economies could learn a great deal from the Synod discussions, especially its criticism of unbridled extractivism as a model for economic development.
Much of the commentary around the Amazon synod has rightly focused on its doctrinal pronouncements, especially about married priests and pantheism. This should however not blind us to the Final Document’s (FD) contribution to Catholic social teaching. The Synod made some powerful recommendations for a pastoral response to extractivism as a model for development.
The Amazon Synod introduced the notion that, despite the economic crisis, any model that seeks to attract direct foreign investment and spur economic growth should adhere to ethical values, especially the care of God’s creation and respect for the human dignity of society’s most vulnerable members. This is a deep lesson that Africa and the Church on the continent should also embrace.
The darker side of extractivism
Extractivism is one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. Several countries in South America and Africa have adopted progressive extractivism as a model for development. It is a short-sighted strategy where countries build their direct foreign investment and economic growth on large-scale extraction and export of natural resources with little regard for human rights, care for the environment, and the long-term effects of unbridled extractivism.
Corruption is the dark face of extractivism. Many resource-rich countries in the global south have failed to benefit optimally from extractivism because of illicit financial flows and unfair trade agreements. The wealth created from the extractive industry often remains in the hands of an elite minority (FD 72). Meanwhile, the communities living in resource-rich areas have borne the brunt of climate change and the environmental crisis. In some places, it has also produced human rights violations and massive suffering for poor communities.
The wealth created from the extractive industry often remains in the hands of an elite minority.
They Synod sought to respond to the pastoral realities of the communities living with the negative effects of the extractive industry. It denounced a “predatory extractivism which responds only to the logic of greed” (FD 67). The Final Document catalogues a list of adverse effects of extractive economy, with a particular reference to the destruction of Amazon forest. (FD, 10-13). Some of the other issues cited in the Synod document echo the concerns previously cited by the United Nations and other human rights organizations, such as land dispossession and killing of anti-mining activists (FD 45-50, 69).
The Synod recognized that the effects of extractivism also present new opportunities for the Church “to present Christ with all His power to liberate and humanize.” (FD 15).
A Church that takes sides
The Synod decided that the Church cannot remain neutral in the face of the harmful aspects of the mining industry, which affect the poor in particular and harm the earth. “We may not be able to modify immediately the destructive model of extractivist development, but we do need to make clear where we stand, and whose side we are on” (FD 70). The Synod resolved to identify itself with victims of extractivism, namely God’s creation and the poor.
Taking sides requires the Church to distances herself from the new colonizing powers in the world in order to listen to the poor (FD 15).
Taking sides also entails becoming a Church which is as an ally of local communities “who know how to take care of the Amazon, how to live and protect it.”
Taking sides requires the Church to distances herself from the new colonizing powers in the world in order to listen to the p...