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No communal guilt trip needed
From Bonaventure Hinwood OFM, Pretoria
There is an urgent need for the child sexual abuse issue to be brought into perspective.
What we are dealing with is a small percentage of clergy and religious guilty of abuse, normally given as 1,5% — compared with the usual figure of 10% for the general population. There is small percentage of bishops and Vatican officials involved in cover-ups. I have seen no statistics, but I doubt if it is as much as 3%.
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Going golfing with editors
It can’t be much fun working for a big commercial newspaper these days. Journalists all seem to be paranoid about losing their jobs because of takeovers, retrenchments or just being the wrong demographic. Editors are stressed out by mounting political pressure on press freedom, being the wrong demographic or having to go out and flog advertising. Everyone seems to take the business of newspapering far too seriously these days. And it’s a crying shame.
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Why we need a bit of melancholy
As someone raised in a tradition that comes very close to what in the Western culture would be termed stoic (I happen to be very attracted to the writings of Seneca), I often wonder about the modern aversion to the melancholic disposition. Read more…
In our mother’s month
This is the month of our mothers, because it is our Mother’s month, she who is the Queen of our hearts, whose heart and body are without macula, free of the stain of the first sin. In the city where I study is the oldest known icon of Virgin and Child in the world, here on Rome’s Via Salaria, deep in Priscilla’s catacomb (”queen of catacombs!”, cry the early writers): here is the mother in this icon painted on the rock feeding her Divine Son. Read more…
Sell Catholic land to the poor
From Alan Sauls, Johannesburg
After 16 years of democracy and many achievements, millions of South Africans are still waiting for one of the most basic of freedoms, in economic activities.
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May 26 to June 1, 2010
Headlines
» SA Church will use new missal from Advent 2011
» Youth follows St Thérèse’s way
» New light on the Inquisition
» Ntabeni: Why we need melancholy
» The Catholic side to martial art
The new missal
Within the next couple of years, possibly by late 2011, the English-speaking Church worldwide will be using the newly translated Roman missal, which received the Vatican’s recognitio (or approval) in late April.
It is likely that many lay Catholics and clergy will protest against what they believe to be deficiencies in the new translations, as many did in Southern Africa when the first phase of the new formulas was introduced in November 2008. Read more…
Breaking the alliance of abuse in Church
The Catholic Church is now looking to recover from the sex abuse scandal. COLLEEN CONSTABLE looks at why things went wrong, and how children can be kept safe in the Church.
Aborted morals
From Franco De Grandis, Knysna:
I was shocked by the case in Italy where a pregnant mother was allowed to have an abortion on the grounds that her 22-week-old foetus had malformations on the palate and lip, as you reported in the May 12 issue.
Read more…
Being a Holy Land pilgrim
In September, God willing, I’ll be going on my fifth pilgrimage to the Holy Land, this time with Bishop Zithulele Mvemve of Klerksdorp. Five times might sound like a fair bit, but I’ve met people who have gone to the Holy Land as pilgrims dozens of times; some have even notched up undefeated centuries.
For the Christian the Holy Land is a magical place: being in the geographical proximity to the events on which we base our faith is a transforming experience, every time and in different ways. Read more…
