Bring faith into the modern world

by Letters Editor · Published February 27, 2014 · Updated June 2, 2014

From Roy Glover, Tzaneen

I Very much admire the way you maintain the middle of the road with your editorials and your willingness to publish letters from the public that reflect both left and right views; it�s of great credit to you, Mr Simmermacher, as editor of The Southern Cross.

Pope John XXIII signs the bull convoking the Second Vatican Council Dec. 25, 1961. The document said modern society was advancing with technological and scientific progress for which there was no corresponding advance in morality. He wrote that he would convene the council so that the church would contribute positively to the solution of modern problems. (CNS photo)

I have noticed that recently there has been quite a lot of criticism of Cardinal Wilfrid Napier; however, I think he is doing wonderful work by bringing the Catholic Church into the modern world.

The cardinal�s column, �The state of the Zuma nation: SA�s sad story

of dashed hopes� (February 5) is brilliant and I so admire his courage for what he writes.

I have been very fortunate in that I have travelled a lot and worked in four countries. At the age of 82 I still consider beautiful South Africa to be one of the most wonderful countries in the world. But somehow we have to overcome this dreadful racialism because both black and white are affected by it, to the detriment of both, and it does not seem to be getting better.

What I admire about Cardinal Napier is that he is bringing the Church up to date, because we should never forget that our Lord is not in some distant place and living in the past; he is with all of us and if we kept that in mind this would be a far happier world. We should also not forget that it was people who were locked in the veneration of their religious past who crucified our Lord.

Another very good reason for bringing our faith into the modern world is the horrendous problem we now have with thousands being addicted to drugs. I would say drug addiction presents as serious a problem as HIV/Aids, if not worse, but for some reason it is not treated as such, so I do hope that Cardinal Napier will take the lead on this one.