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Good advice for a good Lent
I was listening to some children outside Mass on Ash Wednesday talking about what they were going to give up for Lent. The conversation was all about sweets, cold drinks, movies, iPods and video games. These were not necessarily things they wanted to give up but rather things that they were eliminating from their list of things to give up because they liked them too much.
In short, like most kids — well, like I was when I was little — they wanted to make a contribution, but not with too much hardship. Their teacher overheard and gave them a wonderful lesson in what Lent was actually all about.
Read more…
Are we ready for the World Cup?
Receiving a query from a family I met last year in Mexico about accommodation for the World Cup in June for a group of young guys, I started wondering how family-friendly I have really been about the whole thing.
I decided long ago that the World Cup was something affecting families and so I have been involved with the rather loosely operating working committee, but I am asking myself (and others too): is the Church using this opportunity for evangelisation wisely and in a positive family-friendly manner?
What has been done to my knowledge is putting up the website www.churchontheball.com which does have some articles and information, including an article I wrote in January 2009 about families being “on the ball”. Some information about dioceses and parishes where the games will be played will be available as well as information about Mass times.
Apparently no major spiritual services or activities are being planned, although Masses in different languages have been suggested and may take place here and there. Youth Day, June 16, falls during that time and some dioceses and parishes may combine a youth celebration with the football event.
Some of us have been working on a Soccer World Cup Prayer booklet, to be made available throughout the country. This will contain basic prayers (some in local languages other than English), the Order of the Mass and a variety of other prayers. Some are for and about family life, others relate specifically to the games, for example prayer for success, for safety, for good sportsmanship, no crime and no trafficking of drugs or people — all serious concerns of the Church.
The Family Life Desk chose as its theme for 2010 “Families play the game”, and the calendar and MARFAM publications contain enrichment resources for family life around that theme all year. Parish talks and workshops that I give will incorporate the monthly themes too.
Will the games bring families together? Will they enjoy time spent together or will the World Cup split them up? Will they learn to communicate well and not fight about who gets to watch which match on TV? Will parents be willing and able to discuss with their teenagers the risks they could be taking as they could be exposed to drugs and drink? Will we talk about prostitution and trafficking, or is that something only for tourists?
All those points have been in my mind for some time. But then I got this request for accommodation. I started to make some enquiries. I tried the Johannesburg archdiocese and different places, but didn’t find anyone who could respond positively. If your 18-year-old son wanted to come to a foreign country with a group of his mates for a month to watch football and have a jol, would you want them to be hosted in a place where they would be safe from danger and harm? Would you be looking for a Catholic venue, retreat centre, or a Catholic family home? Or would you let them loose on the streets of a strange town and country? I think I would try to make contact with people I think I can trust, people who are like myself.
Retreat centres I contacted were concerned about rowdy behaviour, drinking and late nights. It is hard to find a home that can cater for six young men, and then what about transport around Johannesburg? I had been open to offer to accommodate a family I stayed with in Mexico City if they would choose to come for a week or so, but six young men for a month around the house is something else, (apart from the money I could make). So it seems that I will have to refer them to general accommodation providers.
So now, faced with this practical reality, I ask myself: is the Church in South Africa (and of course we are the Church) in the dioceses and parishes using this opportunity to provide a safe and healthy environment for young Catholic visitors, an opportunity for evangelisation and for enriching family life as well as we could. Are we serious about our faith in our lives?
I would be glad to hear from readers what you think and what is happening in other places.
St Paul to Zuma: Only one wife
From John Lee, Johannesburg:
I refer to Jacob Zuma and his many children from his several wives and other children from illicit liaisons. President Zuma has been quoted as saying: “We will rule till Jesus Christ returns”. It seems he has at least heard of Jesus Christ, but does he know the Gospel?
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February 24 to March 2, 2010
Headlines
» Bishops: Leaders must have morals
» The problems with polygamy
» Documentary on SA martyr
» New books by Fr Albert Nolan OP and Scott Hahn reviewed
» Vatican salute to classic rock
Abuse: Only the truth will heal
It is encouraging that the bishops of Ireland and Pope Benedict have acknowledged the gravity of the Irish Church’s failings in protecting minors from abuses by Church personnel. The Vatican has echoed what the present Irish episcopate has publicly accepted: “This grave crisis has led to a breakdown in trust in the Church’s leadership and has damaged her witness to the Gospel and its moral teaching.”
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A Slap in the Face
Cardinal Francis Rode, who is heading the Vatican Investigation (Inquisition) of American women religious (he who has been photographed wearing a red silk train nearly six meters long), has chided religious orders for turning to “foreign vocations” in Asia and Africa. He said that the orders have to remember that “quality of vocations is more important than quantity” (The Southern Cross, 17-23 February).
What a slap in the face to African and Asian women and men who have discerned a call to religious life and have entered religious congregations, whether founded in their own countries or in the West. Rode seems to assume that vocations from these parts of the world are somehow deficient.
Yes, quantity must not be mistaken for quality, which is a reminder to some places in Africa and Asia which are overflowing with young men who want to be priests.
But the Cardinal’s assumption is a very dangerous one.
One of the reasons he launched the Inquisition of American women religious is that the number of women entering religious life in the United States has diminished in the last thirty years or so. American sisters should tell the Cardinal, “We are looking for quality, not quantity. It is better that three excellent women enter per year than thirty mediocre women.”
That clumsy word in the Creed
In the Nicene Creed we now recite at Sunday Mass, we say that Jesus Christ is “consubstantial with the Father”. Why the choice of this clumsy word? Surely, to say “of one being with the Father” or “one in being with the Father” better conveys the idea that the Father and Son are one God?
Zoom-out time for Zuma
President Jacob Zuma is by some accounts, an extremely charismatic and charming man. By others, he also has the morals of an alley cat. But then I suppose the same applies to former US Presidents Bill Clinton and John F Kennedy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and an entire phalanx of prominent politicians going right back to the time when Adam and Eve’s offspring formed the first parliament. There seems to be little doubt that this sort of behaviour is universal.
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Let your heart be broken this Lent
By Br Simeon Banda FMS
As we enter the 2010 Lenten season, we recall the most catching words that inspire these 40 days: almsgiving, fasting, prayer, ashes, Stations of the Cross, abstinence, giving up, Palm Sunday and Holy Week.
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My friend’s pain in the Church
My friend and I call him the Africa Editor in Heaven’s Newsroom. Peter, as I shall call him (because I do not wish to reveal his real name), was in his late 30s when we first met. A very neat and calm gentleman with a wide smile and a boundless sense of humour, he looked every inch a Catholic priest. But Peter was a Catholic journalist. We easily became friends. Read more…
