Attached please see the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Statement on the Gordhan and Jonas Call Back.

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Attached is the Preparatory Document from the Vatican on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment for the Synod of Bishops’ XV Ordinary General Assembly

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Witnessing to Christ in South Africa Today – a Lenten talk given by Archbishop Stephen Brislin at St Michael’s, Rondebosch

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Attached please see Lenten Regulations for 2017, as given by Archbishop Stephen Brislin, Archbishop of Cape Town.

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We live in difficult times: shaky economy, corrupt politics, social disorder, the widening gap between rich and poor, rampant violence in many forms, the list can go on. There is a temptation to think in ‘end of the world’ terms. One sees a strong strand of fundamentalism re-emerging in religion and populism in politics, both using a language of the enemy outside (the threat) and fundamentalist formulas proclaiming certainties to combat them (the solution).

Whether of the Left or Right, fundamentalism and populism create an ‘Us/Good vs. Them/Evil’ dualism to explain and solve the world’s problems. If only X happens or Y disappears everything will be all right is the rhetoric. If only everyone adhered firmly to the Bible or Quran, free market capitalism or socialism, if only there were land redistribution, disarmament/rearmament, more taxes or an end to taxes; if only one or other country is crushed, one or other religion vanished (or in the case of new atheists all religions), abortion and gay rights banned, evolutionists silenced, heretics burnt, then everything will we okay.

We’ve heard this rhetoric. Unfortunately it’s nonsense.

Neither fundamentalism nor populism work. Nor do they offer hope because both are at bottom an angry expression of despair.

Populism as politics expresses rage at the ills of world and gives people an enemy to hate, offer charismatic leaders who claim to understand the people and quick-fix solutions. Religious fundamentalisms offer much the same, but pretend God is their ultimate leader and source of justification for their actions.

The underlying failure of both systems is that life and the world is more complex. Life is a complex system. Everything is connected: politics, religion, science, economy, culture. They interact, change and are changed by each other – or they die out. Every decision one takes has an effect on this complex system, both intended and unintended consequences.

Simplistic political solutions – often couched in terms of a ‘Final Solution’ used with lethal effect by a populist in the 1930s named Hitler – don’t solve problems in the long term, but usually end with ‘the People’ enslaved to a political tyrant. For a while there may seem to be improvement – at very least political certainty and ‘safety’ – but ultimately the ‘cure’ is more disastrous than the ‘disease’ populism attacks. Populism ultimately undermines the society it seeks to create.

Fundamentalist religion, in its many forms, likewise undermines the possibility of faith with its promise of certainty. As a ‘solution’ it may offer simple answers, an alternative to pessimism about the world and God’s presence/absence in it, but does so by avoiding the real questions life throws at us. In the end the answers no longer relate to the questions, and religion becomes a false escape from life.  Like populism, fundamentalism ultimately undermines itself, often destroying belief in God in the process.

Populism and fundamentalism are false hopes. In politics and religion, we need instead a pragmatic mixture and reason and realism to steer us through these difficult times.

By Anthony Egan SJ

Hospitality and welcome are part of our African heritage. As we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate the visit of the Magi. They come from the East seeking something they do not really understand. They come looking for the fulfilment of a prophecy. They come seeking hope. They are looking for something more. Their coming provides the impetus for the Holy Family to become refugees – to go into exile in Egypt – fleeing to protect their baby’s life.

These themes of travel and movement are not unique to our ‘global village era’. As the scripture text tells us, people 2000 years ago were on the move too. Then, as now, people flee from brutalisation, war or for economic reasons. They travel to new places in search of new ideas and new discoveries. They travel to survive.

The question for us – as it was for people migrating in biblical times – is:  How do we live with people who are different from us? How do we engage with those who don’t speak the same language, who don’t wear the same clothes, have the same culture, or look like we do?

Scripture consistently tells us that we have a duty to welcome the stranger in our midst, to draw them into our communities and to make them feel at home. Our current legislation in South Africa reflects our Ubuntu value of welcome and hospitality. This may change as new more restrictive legislation could be put in place. This, motivated by politicians’ awareness of growing xenophobia in the electorate, is already in the pipe line.

Last year the Brexit vote and the election of Trump (whose campaign at times hinted at xenophobia) has shown that there is a growing intolerance towards strangers across the globe. Watching the international news one might mistakenly think that the majority of the world’s migrants were arriving on European or American shores. In reality it is the developing world who still have the greatest number of refugees – Southern Africa and the Middle East particularly.

In South Africa we have people who have fled for their lives from many different places. They have arrived here to attempt to make a new life for themselves. We are offered a choice. We can turn our faces away from those who are different. We can object to them, or fear that they may threaten our way of life. Or, like Mary and Joseph in the scriptures, we can welcome the stranger in our midst. We can be open to accepting the gifts they bring us. We can ourselves be vulnerable to them.

Fundamentally we are offered a spiritual choice. Do I look at ‘the other’ with openness and expect to see Jesus looking at me? Or do I surround myself with walls (physical, emotional and intellectual) that keep all those ‘others’ out? This Epiphany, let us pray for the grace to open our hearts and minds to the strangers in our midst.

By Frances Correia

On behalf of the Catholic community of the Archdiocese of Cape Town, and the Catholic Church of Southern Africa, I wish to express our outrage and sadness at the defacement of the Simon’s Town Mosque. Such acts of intolerance, as well as hate speech which seems to be increasing in our country, further damage the fabric of our already polarized society. They contribute nothing to peace, stability or mutual understanding. This is a time in our country when we should be seeking and striving for the things that make for peace, unity and healing.

South Africa has a long history of religious tolerance. It is regrettable that a few irresponsible, intolerant people wish to destroy that. It is of utmost importance that they not be allowed to do so. I commend the leaders of the Muslim community in calling for calm and I trust that the Police Services will quickly bring the perpetrators to book.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin

(Catholic) Archbishop of Cape Town
President: Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference

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