The State of Vocations in the Church
On Vocations Sunday we pray in a special way that God’s call to service in the priestly or religious ministry will find many open ears and hearts. The vocations crisis in Europe and North...
Author: Editor
The Southern Cross: A Question of Survival
Later this year, The Southern Cross will enter its 100th year of publication, culminating in its centenary in October 2020. That jubilee will be a good time to reflect on a long history of...
South Africa After 25 Years
The Rainbow Nation, it has turned out, was just as elusive as the appearances of colours created by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light. In the 25 years since those exhilarating days when South...
Why We Can Say: Hosanna in the Highest
Hosanna! The crowds in Jerusalem afforded Jesus a euphoric entry into Jerusalem. Within five days, the blink of an eye in a lifetime, Jesus died an unheralded death on a cross. At Mass...
Mentality of Arrogance
The report that British officials turned down asylum applications by Christians from Iran by mocking their faith is symptomatic of the increasing lack of respect given to people of faith in secularised countries. An...
The Ideal Politician
As South Africans prepare to vote on May 8, they will survey the promises, ideologies and track-records of the various parties and the candidates they are fielding for election. By and large, they will...
THAT is the Church
Those people who regard the Catholic Church as a body in ruins after all the scandals and betrayals don’t know the Church. Of course, the institution has been devastated by failures of its own...
The Pius XII Files
The announcement by Pope Francis that documents in the Vatican Secret Archives relating to the pontificate of Pope Pius XII between 1939 and his death in 1958 will be opened to scholars next year...
No More Fudging!
Whatever the Catholic Church does in addressing the abuse scandal, it will never be seen as being good enough. And given the dimensions of the scandal, how could it ever be? Still, it is...
The End of Clericalism
It is not easy being a Catholic priest at a time when on various fronts they are being criticised. One of the many tragedies of the abuse scandal is that it has cast a...
Fruits From a Summit?
This week’s Vatican abuse scandal summit, which ends on February 24, may be expected to produce big solutions to the Church’s greatest crisis since the Reformation, but those who entertain such hopes will be...
World Youth Day in South Africa?
The announcement that the next World Youth Day, in 2022, will be held in Lisbon, disappointed many Africans who are still waiting for the event to be hosted on their continent. There are indeed...
