Online Articles
FREE e-Newsletter
Sign up below to get our free weekly newsletter packed with news & updates.-
We Respect Your Privacy
War on human trafficking
Efforts by a group of women religious in 26 countries to tackle the distressing problem of human trafficking must be roundly welcomed and resolutely supported. Read more…
A month for kids
Did you know that November 1 is National Children’s Day? Maybe by the time this column gets to press there will have been some publicity around this day, but at the time of writing it is still a closed book.
I had to spend some time finding out who was responsible for what on this day. Eventually, through some contacts in the Social Welfare department, I established that it is the responsibility of the Office of the Rights of the Child in the Office of the Presidency. An event is to be hosted somewhere in the Free State. But that is not really the issue. Read more…
Eerie army of children brought hardened soldiers to their knees
IT started out as a bright and sunny day in the early 1960s, on the Congolese shore of what was then called Lake Tanganyika.
But it fast became dark and terrifying for a platoon of battled-hardened soldiers of fortune fighting against rebel factions in a country that just a few years before had been abandoned by its Belgian masters and left to become a morass of military mayhem that would torture it for another four decades. Read more…
Crime: who’s to blame?
The archbishop of Johannesburg is a thoughtful man, not given to im-petuous statements. Read more…
Feast of All Ancestors
I was visiting a family from our parish for a prayer. At the conclusion of the litany of the saints, the father of the house spontaneously started saying izithakazelo—family praises.
He recalled the names of his ancestors. In the act of remembering, those who have gone before us became present. Our forebears joined in our praise of the only living God. In the communion of saints heaven and earth become one. The wall of separation caused by death is broken. Read more…
What if God needed planning permission to make the world?
Many years ago—when I was in what was then called Standard 5; when schoolchildren were pupils, not learners; when peoplehole covers were manhole covers; and waiters and waitresses were not called waitrons—I got a smart clip behind the ear from a bishop for giggling in church. Read more…
Everyone is a missionary
The Church is missionary by her very nature. As we observe World Mission Sunday, this statement—a quote from Pope John Paul II’s 1990 encyclical Redemptoris missio—should serve as a basis for reflection by all the People of God. Read more…
Why does God bless some but not others?
I have two questions: Firstly, in Job 2:9, the Douay version has “Bless God and die”, whereas the New American Version has “Curse God and die”. Which is correct? Secondly, in my 72 years I have been spared to survive the war during the 1940s, immigration to South Africa, the blessings of wife and children, and I’ve got everything going for me. Why was I blessed in this way when so many millions died violently, despite desperately praying “Lord, let it end”? Read more…
The missing fourth vow
We start with a conversation between Mary, chairwoman of the Association of St Anne; James, a member of the Parish Pastoral Council; and Patricia, formerly a religious sister. Read more…
Chasing Rainbows – Bea Ellemcy
CHASING RAINBOWS, by Bea Ellemcy. Athena Press, London. 2007. 354pp.
Reviewed by Mary Ryan Read more…
