The Cradle of Our Faith

 

Dear Reader,

The Christian Church was born in the Holy Land, but it grew up in the region we now call Turkey. The term “Christian” emerged in Antioch (Acts 11:26), and the first seven Councils of the Church were held in Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople. And the Book of Revelation specifically addresses the Christian communities of seven cities in Anatolia.

In May, it was the privilege of a group of Southern Cross pilgrims to visit first Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and then Turkey, with the Seven Churches of Revelation, as well as Istanbul, Nicaea and Hierapolis. In Medjugorje, the emphasis was on Mary pointing to her Son, asking us to listen to him. In Turkey, we had the opportunity to listen to Christ through the messages he communicated through John of Patmos to seven Christian communities.

Although they lived around 95 AD, these communities faced problems which Christians in our age can identify with, too: the temptations of the world, the threat of persecution in some regions, lukewarm faith, piety without a solid foundation, and so on. The letters to the Seven Churches have a lot to teach us even today, as the universal Church, national Churches, dioceses, parishes and individuals. Turn to page 22 to learn about them. The Medjugorje experience will be covered in August.

May’s Saint of the Month was St Joan of Arc, whom we proposed as a patron for issues of sexual violence. This month’s saint is an obvious patron for the same crisis. St Maria Goretti was just 11 years old when she was seriously and ultimately fatally injured in an attempted rape. Her sanctity was evident in the hours before she died, when she forgave the young man who took her life.

For generations, St Maria has been acclaimed for protecting her virtue by resisting rape. It is overdue that we drop this misogynistic idea, with the implication that rape victims have any agency in a sexual attack. It is cruel to even suggest that those who didn’t fight off their attackers to the point of death, as Maria bravely did, somehow had their “virtue” compromised. The important lesson in the life of St Maria Goretti resides in the purity of heart which this remarkable girl showed in forgiving her attacker. Her story, with the monthly pullout poster, begins on page 17.

In jail, St Maria’s attacker, Alessandro Serenelli, experienced a vision of the girl he had murdered. He was converted by that experience. It is the Church’s belief that conversion is possible for

anyone, even lowly criminals. In France, there even is a sainthood cause underway for Jacques Fesch, a murderer who was executed in 1957. As Jesus promised the criminal on the cross next to him, salvation is always possible. With God, mercy and forgiveness are eternal. Even and especially the most hopeless must be made aware of that.

This month, we feature two articles on the prison ministry. Both draw from the knowledge that this ministry was directly and explicitly mandated by Jesus (see Matthew 25:36). In a superb reflection, Sefatsa Qopane responds to this mandate. In our second article on the topic, Nathanael Siljeur introduces a practical method of bringing healing and reconciliation, and perhaps also conversion and rehabilitation, into prisons.

We must not underestimate the impact of faith on inmates. We know of prisoners who converted due to reading The Southern Cross — how much more impact can personal, human contact make?

In these tight economic times, money worries can be a constant companion. On page 21 we propose ten saints to whom we can turn when our finances are giving us sleepless nights. Especially during those dark nights, it is good to know that we are not alone with our troubles. God is always with us!

As ever, thank you for reading The Southern Cross. Please spread the word about our Catholic magazine. Our survival depends on the support of the Catholic community.

God bless,

Günther Simmermacher
(Editor)