Responding to Günther Simmermacher’s article “Was Jesus black?”, anyone would know that Jesus looked like a typical Middle Eastern Jew of that era, swarthy to a greater or lesser extent. It’s understandable that Western Europeans depicted him as relatively fair-skinned …
JH Goossens, Pretoria – Archbishop Stephen Brislin calls the pope the Church’s central unifying aspect. But for the last two years Pope Francis has been that no more.
John Driver , Daveyton – Jesus, who was truly man, received baptism from John the Baptist to “fulfil all righteousness” (Mark 1:4-9). The Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove after his baptism. Jesus was 30 years old (Luke 3:23).
What are we Catholics doing in response to the call for a New Evangelisation? The success of the many new anti-Catholic agents is due to their taking advantage of the tepidity and indifference of many of us Catholics who are not up to the level of their aggressive evangelising methods.
Father Ron Rolheiser in his column “We give birth to Christ too” imagines that Mary suffered “excruciating pain” during the birth of Jesus. Venerable Fulton Sheen, the late bishop of Rochester in the US, would respectfully disagree.
Those who are serious about celebrating the birth of Christ, in a meaningful way, should consider leaving December 25 to the pagans and atheists. Let them have their fun and merriment on their “happy holidays” but refrain from hijacking our very important feast.
Thank you for Günther Simmermacher’s article on “Stille Nacht”, one of the most-loved carols, and the belated recognition of writer Fr Joseph Mohr and composer Franz Gruber.
May I mention some beautiful carols which are not as well known?
It is difficult for the believer to discern what to do when medical terms and reproductive technologies such as IVF, surrogacy, sperm banks, cloning and embryo splitting, which purport to offer hope in the area of fertility, are not found or explained in the Bible.
Church / Gospel / Your Letters
Frank Bompas, Johannesburg – There have been a few articles in The Southern Cross detailing challenges made by conservative Catholics...
