Our Prayers for 2016

As we close a traumatic year, locally and worldwide, we enter 2016 with little hope that things may improve. But as believers we draw our courage from the Creator, that his will be done through people with prayer and working towards justice and peace.

At the very basis of this are our prayers.

In South Africa we pray that the ineffective and ethically compromised presidency of Jacob Zuma will either reform itself or come to a swift end.

It is time that the many good people in the African National Congress wake up to the calamity of the Zuma presidency, and muster the unity and courage to effect changes in leadership, or they too must be held responsible for the lasting damage done to South Africa by an increasingly indefensible government.

We pray for a new culture of protest in South Africa. Even when grievances are valid, protests must not descend into a tyranny of bullying and intimidation, as happened with the student protests after the initially honourable campaign against university fee increases.

We pray for an end to the current drought and for wise action to counteract its effects.

While the current drought is due to the El Nino effect, we have an opportunity now to modify policy and lifestyles in anticipation of future water shortages caused by climate change.

We pray that nations will fully implement the agreement on carbon emissions reached this month at the COP21 summit in Paris, even if the powerful nations pulled back from making meaningful changes and instead keep us dancing on the edge of the abyss.

We pray that the war in Syria will find a quick and feasible resolution.

It is unprecedented in modern history that countries declare war on rebels in a civil war against the wishes of the government which is fighting these rebels.

The West clearly seeks to eliminate both ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but offers no plausible plan for the aftermath should they succeed in these aims.

It is a depressing reality when about the only voice of reason among world leaders is Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, a man who has no credible record of being an agent of peace.

We pray that a genuine peace process will be initiated in Israel and Palestine.

The level of injustices visited upon Palestinians, and the rampant theft of their land, far exceeds those suffered by the oppressed during the darkest days of apartheid in South Africa, as does Israel’s disproportionate response to Palestinian reaction.

Our prayers must be for a resolution that will bring peace to angry and fearful people on both sides, with the end goal being a constitutional democracy in a unitary secular state which guarantees entrenched rights for religious groups and minorities.

Within the Church, we have just entered the Year of Mercy. It is a year that calls for our personal transformation, but it will also be a time for the Church to review whether it always reflects divine mercy.

There will be strong disagreements over what it means to be a merciful Church, and opinions on that question will not always be expressed in a merciful manner, nor will the response to these opinions.

We pray that Catholics will remind themselves that dialogue must be rooted in respect, not in discord. While it is permissible to hold contrary opinions on the application of theology and doctrine, it was not Our Lord’s commandment that we should sow disunity among ourselves.

We also pray for Pope Francis, who turned 79 on December 17.

The pope maintains a punishing schedule that would exhaust many people half his age. He also faces much resistance to his efforts to reform the Roman curia, a long overdue project which must cause the Holy Father considerable stress.

On top of that, terrorists have the pope in their crosshairs, as the recent arrest of three plotters in Italy showed.

Our prayers for the pope must therefore be for his health and strength to exercise his Petrine ministry, especially as he seeks to implement necessary reforms, as well as for his personal safety.

And as always, we pray that the readers, associates, promoters, pilgrims, contributors, friends and supporters of The Southern Cross may have a peaceful and grace-filled 2016.