Frances Correia's blog

Again the situation of women in South Africa is in the spotlight. The notorious Noordt Street taxi rank and the rapes, and sexual molestation of women there; and the horrific gang rape of Ina Bonnett and murder of her son have brought the rights of women and children again to the forefront. We know that we live in a country in which women’s rights are still very much only part of the constitution. Legally we are all equal, however culturally we are not. Every day in this country many women and children are abused. These abuses happen at every level of society, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. As we sit in our churches this Sunday there are those sitting in the congregation who fundamentally do not believe in the equality of men and women. Men who believe that they have greater rights than the women in their lives. Women who believe that they are created less than men.

This Sunday the church celebrates the feast of All Saints.  Lumen Gentium gives us two reasons for venerating the saints. On the one hand their lives provide us with inspirational examples of how to follow Christ. On the other we remember that the Church is the whole Mystical Body of the living and the dead, united in Christ. (LG50).  United as a community from generation to generation, we pray for the dead and ask the saints to pray for us.

25 years ago Blessed John Paul II celebrated the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi.  Pope Benedict XVI has announced that this October, he too will undertake a pilgrimage to Assisi and has invited other religious leaders to join him.  The attitude of reverence and acceptance for people of other faiths that underpins this pilgrimage is at the heart of the Second Vatican Council’s document on Other Faiths (Nostra Aetate). 

‘Promoting the restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the chief concerns of the Second Vatican Council’(Unitatis Redintegratio, 1).

This week’s Gospel speaks directly to our theme of being ‘Hope and Joy for other Christians’.  It is very easy for us to be ‘comfortably Catholic’: to regard ourselves as being ‘better’ than other Christians.  But Vatican II challenges Catholics to enter into the movement for the unity of all Christians, known as ecumenism. The document on ecumenism is called Unitatis Redintegratio which means ‘On the restoration of unity’.  Like Peter we are called to step out of our comfort zone, and courageously, with our eyes on Christ, step towards our Christian brothers and sisters. As Pope Benedict said in his speech on Ecumenism in Germany 2005, ‘It is the Lord who gives unity, but we must go to meet Him.’

In the closing message of the Second Vatican Council the Church acknowledged a new movement in society related to a new awareness of the dignity and equality of woman. “The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved.”(Pope Paul VI, Closing Message, 1965).

I am not sure what it says about us as Catholics but we tend to have a great emphasis on Lent and then to somehow miss the point that Lent is just the preparation for Easter.

Easter is the point of our faith, the pivotal change from death and despair to life and hope. We followers of Christ are in essence an Easter people. So what does that mean? Especially what does it mean for me, for my family, for my life?

This weekend as I sit to write this article Japan has been devastated by earthquake and tsunami. As the first terrifying images have come through I find myself thinking how can this be happening. How can a loving God allow such devastation?

Jesus came as one of us. In Lent we are busy remembering God who chose to experience our human condition with us. God who chose to be powerless and vulnerable, displaced in Egypt and crucified in Jerusalem. By suffering with us Jesus redeems our human suffering. He offers us hope in the midst of a world that makes no sense.

My colleagues thought that as I have just had a baby it might be good for me to write something for the ‘Christmas’ reflection. I look at images of the nativity and I am struck by how tenderly Mary and Joseph are depicted looking at Jesus. As I hold my child I am constantly overwhelmed by how she evokes a profound tenderness and love from me.

Recently the Jesuit Institute hosted Jerusalem-based Rabbi David Rosen, one of the leading figures in the interfaith movement, who once ministered to a congregation in the Cape. He spoke about the growth in the relationship between the Jewish and Catholic communities, particularly during the pontificate of John Paul II. He pointed to the understanding that now exists between our two faiths as an example of how interreligious dialogue can heal even the most damaged of relationships.