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WHAT AIDS? |
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MARFAM NEWS |
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SA CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE FAMILY LIFE DESK NEWS |
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WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES, VALENCIA, SPAIN, JULY 2006 |
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OTHER NEWS, SNIPPETS AND SOME CORRESPONDENCE |
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TAILPIECE |
| click here to visit our website for a printable version |
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REQUEST: BEFRIEND THE FAMILY
MARFAM has been promoting the cause of family life for more than 10 years. Your financial support helps us to operate, produce the publications, including this monthly enewsletter and maintain our website. Advertise your company or project on the website, enewsletter or various publications or send a donation to P.O. Box 2881, Randburg 2125. South Africa. Every Rand, Dollar or Euro helps to strengthen families somewhere, somehow.
A special request for financial support for the 2006 Marriage promotion project. Do you believe in marriage and that it needs all the support it can get? What about yours? Send us a cheque or make a small monthly donation into our bank account. Contact us for details. |
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WHAT AIDS? |
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HIV/AIDS has featured quite prominently in the news just recently. You might agree that there is a certain irony around the term AIDS. Coming from a teaching background, it still brings to my mind things that help, aids to understanding and so to integration. What has Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) taught us, the human race about this disease, about disease in toto?
HIV/AIDS is acquired, not inherited or contracted opportunistically. There are ways and conditions in which it is acquired, which all South Africans at least should by now know much about. We know the risks. Clearly because there is such a strong behavioural element there is a challenge to behaviour, to some sexual behaviour that we Catholics would consider immoral. Church teaching that sex belongs in a committed faithful permanent relationship of marriage is the greatest preventative teaching aid. “Prevention is better than cure,” a proverb, is a teaching aid. But the fact that as is claimed 2000 new infections still occur every day shows that the teaching is not taken on board. The SA Catholic Bishops’original statement on AIDS in 1990 invited us to learn, to reflect, to become informed. “Our moral awareness and attitudes have to grow and develop. Perhaps the AIDS crisis is God’s way of challenging us, to care for one another, to support the dying and to appreciate the gift of life. AIDS need not be merely a crisis, it could be a God-given opportunity for moral and spiritual growth, a time to review our assumptions about sin and morality. It is a challenge and an opportunity, to reflect more deeply on “the works of God.”
Reflecting and observing society teaches us about human behaviour: what are norms, what works and what doesn’t? Medical science studies and teaches about medicine. A series of articles in the Lancet in 2002 called for a medical rather than human rights response, stating that under normal circumstances a syndrome such as HIV/AIDS would have been a notifiable disease. But could one say ours is a normal society or not? By Christian standards the value of “the common good” as a social norm appears to have been overridden by one of personal self-indulgence and self-interest.
Life, of course, is the greatest teacher. The Jacob Zuma rape case is a clear example of irresponsible self-indulgent activity on the part of many, from the woman complainant, to Zuma, the defendant, to the way the media has pandered to the voyeurism of readers and exposed youth and children to an array of undesirable and unsavory details. Some teaching aid!
In the 2001 Message of Hope the SA Bishops refer Catholic spouses to their conscience in determining the response they can and must make, together, to protect one spouse if the other is infected. In essence people are called to mature moral decisionmaking.
In the SACBC Family Life Desk promotion of the theme MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, A TOWER OF STRENGTH the May and June themes of Marriage and Motherhood and Marriage and Fatherhood are teaching aids too. They do so in the area of strengthening family relationships overall but in the area of HIV/AIDS too. In a very practical way the themes can be teased out and applied to prevention, dissemination of information and care.
1. Promote marriage and married parenthood particularly as the most supportive environment for children. Both mothers and fathers have a very valuable role to play. In too many cases single parenthood is teamed with serial relationships, resulting commonly in a much higher risk of infection. .
2. A family is a social institution that socializes its individuals, teaches life skills and communal living. In spite of cultural taboos and expectations families have the responsibility to educate children, to present the facts and teach more decision-making, to live out in their own lives responsible parenthood and faithfulness, promoting abstinence in their youth by their example.
3. Families care for their own but often need support in doing so. Tremendous energy is spent on programmes for home-based care but are families themselves involved as much as possible?
4. Care for orphaned and vulnerable children. As the Health Systems Trust actuarial projection for the number of orphaned children in SA is close to 700 000 direct adoption of a child is one option, but indirect adoption through maintaining the orphans’ family units through various organizations is another option. Much assistance is needed here in different ways, from financial to practical and professional.
5. Information about mother-child transmission during pregnancy, child-birth and breast-feeding and the risks in various situations should be available.
6. What aids are there for working for family values, social and economic justice? There are calls on government interventions but such programmes can be and are run by churches and schools and other bodies such as NGOs. Even corporate activities such as team building, leadership training, coaching and wellness programmes could be harnessed to this cause.
7. Teaching compassion and concern. Is it possible to teach these basic Christian values that are in fact not Christian alone but are the foundation of all religions and of any well-functioning society? For us, Catholic Christians the Easter season continues. The month of May is dedicated to Mary, to motherhood and it is also a time of preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. We could do ourselves, our families and society a great service by using the liturgical year as a teaching aid too to become more fully human and fully alive.
Toni Rowland
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MARFAM NEWS |
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See website www.marfam.org.za for details of existing publications.
Currently topical:
Marriage and Family Living magazine for April-June.
AIDS STRIKES AT THE HEART is a reflection and sharing booklet on the subject of the impact of HIV/AIDS on family life. A Reflection poem Who is my Family? is published on the web.
PARENTING A LABOUR OF LOVE is a booklet for faithsharing and Hello Mary a small activity booklet for young children.
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SA CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE FAMILY LIFE DESK NEWS |
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2006 THEME, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY A TOWER OF STRENGTH
May theme : Motherhood and Marriage.
Mary was mother but also wife. This month we celebrate and consider the role of motherhood and the related responsibilities. Single mothers should be included, however the main emphasis should be on the value of marriage and motherhood as an expression and gift of the love of the couple. Natural Family Planning and the topic of contraceptives can also be addressed.
Celebrate Mother’s Day on 2nd Sunday of May. Invite couples to pray the Rosary. Pray for all mothers for strength and that they will value the gift of motherhood as an expression of love.
A Mother’s Day blessing can be downloaded from the website. www.marfam.org.za
Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy in an article in the book “The Meaning of Marriage” was interviewed by Zenit. A brief extract follows. For the full interview visit www.zenit.org
Q: You say marriage is important for children. What's the evidence?
Gallagher: A large body of social science research now affirms the importance of marriage for the common good.
For example: Marriage reduces the risk of poverty for children and communities. The majority of children whose parents don't get or stay married experience at least a year of poverty.
Fatherless households increase crime. Boys whose parents divorced or never married, for example, are two to three times more likely to end up in jail as adults.
Marriage protects children's physical and mental health. Children whose parents get and stay married are healthier and also much less likely to suffer mental illness, including depression and teen suicide.
Parents who don't get or stay married put children's education at risk. Children whose parents divorced or never married have lower grade point averages, are more likely to be held back a grade and to drop out of school. They are also less likely to end up college graduates.
When marriages fail, ties between parents and children typically weaken, too. Adult children whose parents divorced are only half as likely to have warm, close ties to both their mothers and their fathers. For example, in one large national survey, 65% of adult children of divorce reported they were not close to their fathers -- compared to 29% of adults from intact marriages.
Caring about marriage is thus part of our shared Catholic concern for children, the common good and social justice.
ZE06041023
ADVANCE NOTICE: MARRIAGE DAY will be celebrated on 8th October, 27th Sunday of the Year. Resource material will be available soon.
I am available to give talks, retreats or workshops around the various themes of the year. |
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WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES, VALENCIA, SPAIN, JULY 2006. |
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A catechetical program for parishes worldwide is available from the website of the World Meeting at www.wmf2006.org on the theme "The Family, the First and Principal Transmitter of the Faith"
There are nine chapters or lessons with the following headings.
Introduction: Human Love Cannot Exist if it Seeks to Detach Itself From the Cross
1. The Family, the First and Principal Transmitter of the Faith
2. God One and Triune
3. The Person of Jesus Christ, the Center and Synthesis of the Christian Faith
4. The Holy Spirit and the Church
5. The Sacraments, Special Moments for the Transmission of the Faith
6. The Commandments of God's Law
7. Sunday: the Eucharist and Other Expressions
8. Popular Piety
9. The Blessed Virgin Mary
All families are invited to pray the prayer for the success of the meeting:
Prayer for the 5th World Meeting of Families
O God, who in the Holy Family left us a perfect model of family life lived in faith and obedience to your will, we thank you for our family. Give us the strength to remain united in love, generosity and the joy of living together. We pray, Lord, that this time of preparation for the World Meeting of Families may be a time of intense experience of faith and growth in our families.
Help us in our mission of transmitting the faith that we received from our parents. Open the hearts of our children so that the seed of faith, which they received in baptism, will grow in them.
Strengthen the faith of our young people, so they might grow in knowledge of Jesus. Increase love and faithfulness in all marriages, especially those going through times of suffering or difficulty.
Shed your grace and blessing on all families worldwide, especially those that are preparing for the next World Meeting of Families in Valencia. Bless, also, our Pope Benedict. Give him wisdom and strength, and grant us the joy of being able to welcome him in Valencia together with families from all over the world. United to Joseph and Mary, we ask this through Jesus Christ your Son, Our Lord. Amen
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OTHER NEWS, SNIPPETS AND SOME CORRESPONDENCE |
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CATHOLIC ENGAGED ENCOUNTER celebrates 25 years in South Africa. The first week was held in Johannesburg with 4 couples. In those years in the three centres Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town we believe some 10 000 couples will have been prepared for marriage. Weekends have also been held in Zimbabwe in Harare and Bulawayo and one in Lesotho.
Apart from its busy local programme COUPLES FOR CHRIST is gearing up for a 25th anniversary celebration in Manila, Philippines where the international visitors will join the locals in building houses for the poor.
VOCATIONS SUNDAY 7th May 1, 2006. Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that we are all called to live as sons and daughters of the Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus but the value and need for priests and others in the consecrated life is essential for the good of the Church.
THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY is held from Ascension Thursday to Pentecost. As most families contain members of different denominations this is particularly relevant for them.
Interaction continues with the SA Government’s Social Development Family Life subdirectorate. Of particular interest is the fact that by ordering 10 000 calendars from us on the theme MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, A TOWER OF STRENGTH the value of marriage is also being promoted in the wider community beyond the reach of the Church.
UN INTERNATIONAL FAMILY DAY – MAY 15th. Theme: CHANGING FAMILIES, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES. See What AIDS? above and other items in FAMILY MATTERS.
SNIPPETS
RADIO VERITAS - the only Catholic radio station in South Africa, that brings you “the Good News for a Change.” After weeks of expectation and then disappointment many listeners were immensely happy to be able to listen on the public frequency of Radio 2000 right across the country on Sunday 23rd April. As the frequency is shared with weekend sport – particularly cricket the next broadcast will only be on 14th May. Broadcasts are also on DSTV Channel 71 and the web. See www.radioveritas.co.za
THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES’ plenary session on the theme "Vanishing Youth? Solidarity with Children and Young People in an Age of Turbulence."
”Our title for this conference is "Vanishing Childhood" which, among other things, is an allusion to the fact that as birthrates decline -- and they are doing that even in the developing countries -- children become less visible, the voices of the people who speak for them are weaker.
So, the Catholic Church is able to do what Catholic social teaching helps us to do, which is to try to give policy-makers the wherewithal to bring the voice of the voiceless back into the debate, as well as the great themes of solidarity and subsidiarity, and keeping the human person at the center of concern.”
For more see Zenit.
SMARTMARRIAGES is gearing up for its June conference. There will be speakers, institutes/workshops on marriage, community healthy marriage initiatives, Africa-American issues, parenting, stepparenting, fatherhood programmes, etc. One that caught my eye was “Money
habitudes.” Spouses’ attitudes and how they spend their money impacts greatly on their marriage. Visit www.smartmarriages.com. for articles of interest, information about the conference and a directory of programmes. Search especially for materials on marriage and motherhood.
PRISON MINISTRY. I came across this a few times recently. This includes ministering to prisoners, to their spouses or partners and mentoring for the children of those incarcerated. Various denominations and the Alpha group are engaged in this.
HIV/AIDS information on the epidemic worldwide can be gleaned by conducting a websearch.
DEVELOPMENT WITH A DIFFERENCE. The “Olive Path out of Poverty” programme strengthens farm workers and their children and enables them to escape from poverty and participate in the new SA democracy. The initiative at the beautiful Goedgedacht olive farm about 100 kms from Cape Town focuses on local farm workers and their children to improve the quality of their lives, at home, at work and in school. Visit www.goedgedachttrust.org.za There is also a conference/retreat centre and a forum for social reflection.
CORRESPONDENCE
Prayer chain letters. Do you pass them on? Do you feel guilty about deleting them from your inbox as soon as they arrive? Surely a prayer chain is a good thing but some of us tend not to respond if they come with a proviso, e.g. make a wish and pass this on to 12 friends and your wish will be granted in four days. They can be beneficial, or harmless, a reminder and moment of closeness with a friend and of course a moment with God.
“Dare we Question?” Asks Greg Libera in a thought-provoking article. He holds that we should not take lightly the fact that we are being manipulated by a very calculating media and we need to protect our values and “for the sake of our children and for those we claim to love, we should ask our Blessed Mother to give us the courage to stand before Jesus and not to hide like mute donkeys among the silent crowd – for if we deny to carry Jesus, he will deny us! And, then, to whom shall we turn?
libera@icon.co.za
A statement was received from the 2ND WORLD CONGRESS AND 11TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FAMILY with the theme: RESTORE FAMILY LIFE AND SUSTAIN WORLD PEACE held JANUARY 2 – 6, 2006 in CHENNAI, INDIA
“Building stable marriages and healthy family life with a culture of peace is a great challenge facing humanity today. Peace is not the absence of war nor can peace be imposed from the outside. Peace needs to be developed from within the individual and the family in order to extend to the larger society.”
“We urge the United Nations, national governments, religious organizations, and other institutions of good-will to actively engage in a concerted effort to end internal and external conflict currently taking place in different parts of the world and positively and concretely start ‘Education for Family and Peace programmes.”
Article of interest and value:
“Fish still don't need bicycles. But maybe women do need men after all.” Laura Tennant examines the case for ... NS Essay Laura Tennant Monday 27th March 2006.www.newstatesman.com/Ideas/200603270020 –
With thanks to Breda Theakston, Family Life Ministry Coordinator of the Diocese of Leeds
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TAILPIECE |
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FINALLY A LIMERICK from South Africa.
A young working mother from Tshwane
Says, “I don’t have time to be funny.
I work till I drop
Then I still have to shop
‘cause their granny says, “sorry, ek kannie” (I can’t)
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