The Rosary and Our Stories

by Gunther Simmermacher · Published September 27, 2022 · Updated September 27, 2022

Dear Reader,

One of the highlights on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land is to say a short prayer in the right place. When pilgrims enter the church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, they are well advised to lower their cameras and say a Hail Mary — at the very place where the first two lines of that prayer were initially said by the Archangel Gabriel. Later, in Ein Kerem, the site of the Visitation, it is good to say a Hail Mary again, because that’s where the second verse originated.

Why am I telling you this? Well, our cover has given it away: this month we feature the rosary in an article that gives us some background to the devotion. Most active Catholics pray the rosary at least some of the time, and surely every Catholic owns at least one rosary. Some have a collection of rosaries. My wife and I have acquired a number on our travels. My favourite is an olive wood rosary from Bethlehem, and I cherish my papal rosary. In May I bought a colourful rosary in Medjugorje. Its beads look like sweets. I’m keeping it for the grandchild(ren) I might have one day…

An excellent British TV mini-series from 2017 titled Broken has as its protagonist a good but troubled parish priest. In a pivotal and moving scene, parishioners tell the priest, just as he is at his lowest, “Amen, you wonderful priest!”

That phrase came to my mind as I read Fr Dick O’Riordan’s commendable memoirs, Roots In Exile. On pages 14-15 in this issue, read Mike Pothier’s interview with this wonderful priest, coinciding with Mission Month.

Fr Dick’s ministry has seen joy and suffering. Suffering — Calvary — is, as Fr Ralph de Hahn explains on page 22, the lot of a priest, at least one who enters holy orders to serve, and not for the dignity of office.

Like all of us, priests are subject to the human condition, and as such, even the best of them may disappoint us sometimes, or even repeatedly. But even then, we must look for the good they do. And when we do find that good, we should tell them: “Amen, you wonderful priest!”

It is good that Fr O’Riordan has told his story, as have some of his contemporaries. As Raymond Perrier points out in his column this month, in our local Church we have been slow to preserve such stories, even of notable people such as Cardinal Owen McCann. But they need to be recorded before these memories fade away. There are so many remarkable stories waiting to be chronicled!

The Southern Cross seeks to contribute to the endeavour of telling the Catholic story in our local Church. This month we do so by marking the 75th anniversary of the death of the poet and academic Benedict Vilakazi, after whom Soweto’s most famous street is named. Vilakazi, South Africa’s first black African PhD holder, was a Catholic who at one point contemplated becoming a priest. How many Catholics know that?

The story of St Francis of Assisi is known to many Catholics; he might well be the most popular of all saints. We are telling his story in this issue, perhaps, as Raymond puts it in his column, “filling in the gaps” in our knowledge.

A few pages later, Franciscan Father Paddy Noonan, who has written a thought-provoking book on the saint, reflects on the world’s obsession with guns, and how St Francis converted from being one bearing arms to rejecting all weapons. It is an article that should give us food for thought.

Finally, we wrap up our three-part interview with Bishop Sithembele Sipuka. The bishop has been candid in his answers to our questions, raising some points which we, as the Church, should take further for reflection, discussion and action.

Thank you for reading The Southern Cross, and please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine.

Yours in Christ,

Günther Simmermacher

(Editor)