Peter Knox SJ's blog

On 31 January we read that in six years’ time the coal supply in South Africa will be insufficient to meet the country’s needs for the generation of electricity.  This is not because we don’t have enough coal.  Nor is it because the coal is of the wrong grade to run power stations.  Nor is it because we are not mining it fast enough.  Rather, it is because mining companies make greater profit selling our coal to Asian customers than on the local market. 

Only 12 more shopping days till Christmas.  Panic.  Shop, shop, shop.  Panic.  What will I do?  Well, in fact, it’s 14 days.  Less need to panic.  Shops are open on Sundays now, breaking the Third Commandment: “Remember the Lord’s Day and keep it holy … by not working.” Instead we allow other people to work, keeping the shelves full of things to buy.  

On Thursday we will commemorate World AIDS Day. This annual reminder at the beginning of December recalls our human fragility and susceptibility to disease.  We remember friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances who are living with the HIV virus, or who have died because they did not receive the necessary treatment.

A little background to the teaching of Vatican II on freedom of religion makes for intriguing human drama. In 1953 a Boston Jesuit, Leonard Feeney, was excommunicated for refusing to budge on his affirmation that only Catholics can go to heaven. His motto was: ‘Outside the Roman Catholic Church there is no salvation.’ Around the same time, another American Jesuit, John Courtney Murray, was silenced by the Vatican for advocating freedom of religion and the separation of Church and State. Feeney ignored the Vatican. Murray maintained a humble dialogue, showing how his views reflected the teaching of Jesus that faith must be freely accepted. In the end, Murray was invited to attend the Second Vatican Council. His rigorous research and the conclusions he reached were eventually to be shaped into the Council’s decree called Dignitatis Humanae – ‘On Human Dignity’.

When we think of the Church’s view on issues of life, we often think of the beginning and the end of life – questions of contraception, abortion and euthanasia.  We know that Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae insisted that every sexual act should between a loving husband and wife and should be open to the possibility of conceiving a child.  The Church teaches that human life should be protected from the moment of conception to its natural end.  But do we sometimes miss similar teaching about the points in between?

Often we hear that religion is a private matter between an individual and God.  Religion belongs at home and in places of worship but not in the marketplace.  And this feels right:  I don’t want anyone pushing religion down my throat in a public space, at the supermarket, or when I’m relaxing with friends. 

If you have been even remotely involved in your parish you have probably heard heated discussions about the Mass, Father’s sermons, the music, the layout and decoration of the church, dates of particular feasts, the new translation, communion under both kinds, lay ministries, etc. Before the Second Vatican Council, these topics were not open for discussion. With little historical consciousness, it was believed that things had always been done a certain way, and that was how they would continue.

When we think of the Catholic Church, we sometimes think it means the pope, cardinals, bishops and priests. But what – or who – actually is the Church? Why do people sometimes feel that they don’t really “own” the Church? Whatever we may sometimes think, nobody is more “Church” than anybody else. The Second Vatican Council taught that the Church comprises every baptised Catholic. Lumen Gentium 21 states: “Here remains a true equality between with regard to the dignity and to the activity which is common to all the faithful in the building up of the Body of Christ.” We are all called to holiness and to do the work of the Lord, to be salt for the earth and light for the world (Mt 5:13-16)

I have recently had two experiences of treacherous roads.  Last month, travelling from the city to the airport of Kinshasa must be my all-time worst trip.  Fortunately I wasn’t the driver, so was able to hold white-knuckled onto the handgrips and my seatbelt.  The main road to the airport has potholes large enough to swallow a medium-sized car, in places constricting four lanes of traffic down into a single lane.  The competition and jostling for space slows the traffic to a snail’s pace, making the trip to the airport 90-minutes of unmitigated purgatory.  It is said that President Kabila likes to drive himself.  I bet he doesn’t do the airport trip too often. 

If you had ten trillion Rand (that is R 10 000 000 000 000), what would you do with it?  Whose lives would you improve?  I mean, after trivial expenditures like a few houses for yourself at the seaside, and the new car you need, and that holiday for your whole family you have always dreamt of, and the improved kitchen you deserve.  These would only cost several million Rand, if you were really generous to yourself.  They wouldn’t put a tiny dent in your ten trillion Rand.