God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

12/10/2009 • 12:53 am Comments Off on 10.12.2009 Long dinner

10.12.2009 Long dinner

Invite for dinner – and it turns out to be a very interesting and chatty evening – coming home after midnight does not happen that often. It is nice to sit and chat around a table not feeling the time going by… it’s always also a compliment for the hosts to have been able to bring interesting people around their table.
Slowly but surely people getting into holiday mood, and also we from HOPE Cape Town starting slowly to wind down the operations, from mid next week, most employees will take leave and quite some will also travel to see their extended families where ever they live.
Slowly but surely another year comes to an end – Christmas is almost in reach. It will be the first time to be without my “Heilig Abend” service on Christmas eve, one of the most important and most emotional services I had to celebrate while being the chaplain to the German-speaking Catholic Community. I will miss it – and lots of people have asked whether I would not be able to come back for this one time. My answer is always the same: No, it is not possible. If you are gone, you are gone. Sounds easy, isn’t so easy, but it is the right thing to do. I hope that the service held by a fellow colleague will be touching the lives of the many coming to this very special occasion.
Yesterday we also had our last management meeting of HOPE Cape Town and our last meeting with the Catholic Aids Network for this year. Things have been wrapped up and the rest will be on the agenda again in the coming year. One can sense the intensity of Cape Town at this time. Almost everybody is tense at that time of the year – because everybody wants everything possible to be done before mid December, before the Mother city falls into the holiday coma – only awaken again mid January. Cape Town is fun, so one says, but Cape Town is also stress – because things are not done constantly, but at certain times of the year. And November till mid December is one of the most busy time – the summer holidays well deserved – for all but the priests, who have to work over the festive season… 😦 But I know from own experience that in between all the festive days there is also enough time for us clergy to rest a bit…,  so no complains but anticipation of this mixture of work and pleasure time for all of us in one of the greatest cities of the world: Cape Town 🙂

Filed under: General, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

12/08/2009 • 11:18 pm Comments Off on 08.12.2009 4 murdered priests in 9 month

08.12.2009 4 murdered priests in 9 month

4 Catholic priests have been murdered in the last 9 month – again yesterday a foreign priest, having dedicated his life for the needy and poor in South Africa. It seems that priests are becoming indeed soft targets, putting into account also all the robberies and burglaries of parish houses and convents.  My fellow German priest in Johannesburg, who served the German-speaking Catholic Community until 3 years ago was also held up a whole night with some gun swinging gangsters. And it is not only the priests – how many funerals have we as priests held for murdered people?
I don’t write this now to paint an odd picture of South Africa – but with 50 murders per day we definitely are having a problem here in the south of Africa. And the brutality and disrespect for life is surely something to be addressed urgently. Not only because we have this statistics, but also, because it seems that we are getting so much used to hear such news, that they only shock us partly. We take it as given, that we are burgled, robbed, that people are stabbed, gunned down – we mourn about it, but then we attend again our daily struggle – until the next time.

For me, this disrespect for life is one of the deepest trouble of South Africa as a nation – and we have to address it. May the Soccer World cup and the focus of the world on South Africa help not only to put infrastructure for cars and transport in place, but also an infrastructure in our South African hearts so that we learn again about the sanctity of life.

Filed under: Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, ,

12/06/2009 • 6:42 pm Comments Off on 06.12.2009 Tiger Woods or skeletons are always to find…

06.12.2009 Tiger Woods or skeletons are always to find…

I am amazed to read again and again stories about Tiger Wood, the golfer who is falling in the moment apart – at least when you believe the newspapers and all those, who have known always..  I personally find his story in the moment rather tragic – because I believe that everybody is a human being and only a human one – everybody has skeletons in his hidden cellar – some are lucky, other are less fortune and it is revealed still at lifetimes. It seems that the longing of people for “the hero”, the model who is superhuman – with no mistakes and no errors of judgement. Looking into politics, sports but also the church, how can one judge this often so overwhelming outcry, if a person of the public is caught red-handed in an affair or similar.

I have the impression that specially those, who are lucky for not being discovered yet are those who point fingers the most and the most vehement. And I also have the impression that one mistake or even a line of mistakes makes a whole life achievement invalid. Suddenly, the whole person is bad or not worthy to be on a pedestal Well, we, the audience, the spectators are puting people on the pedestal and we make people think that they deserve being up above us. It reminds me the “Hosianna” and “Crucify him” – the same screamers only days apart. We have not learned since 2000 years.

I believe that all life is trial and error, is achievement and failure – and that the last judgement is for God, nobody else. Life is always a struggle and nobody wins all battles in life. Or, as we Christians say: We are all saints and sinners at the same time.

I was attending the ordination to the diaconate today of Dominic – and obviously this is a moment where one reflects on all the promises done in this very moment of ordination, of all the goodwill , every ordained person has at the begin of his ministry. But life is long and many challenges are lying ahead. And also here I strongly believe one should never forget that also clergy is made of humans.  How often is such a “holy man” put on a pedestal in a community – whether he wants or not. I admit, some even like it – get used to it.. but every community or parish has also the duty to keep their priest on the carpet… And some helping hands after failure.

Reading about Tiger Woods the golfer and attending the ordination – I am more than ever convinced that more mercy – but also more privacy is deserved by each and everybody.

Filed under: Networking, Reflection, Society and living environment, , , ,

12/05/2009 • 7:06 pm Comments Off on 05.12.2009 visitor…

05.12.2009 visitor…

Friday’s FIFA draw brought a lot of visitors to Cape Town. Before the draw I had the pleasure to meet with The Begum Aga Khan, who also happens to be the patron of the Berlin AIDS Gala. As HOPE Cape Town benefits from the Berlin AIDS Gala, the Princess wanted to see the project and we spend more than 2 hours at Tygerberg Children’s Hospital where she was introduced to the project and its work. She came in touch with our little patients and their parents and could get first hand experience about the consequences of the pandemic. The kids were also excited to get also an early Christmas…

Such visits are very important, do I feel every time with such a visitor, that I fulfill my purpose: being a bridge between different worlds and trying to help to understand each other. And it is ont only a one-way road. For many patients it is also a very first opportunity to come in close contact with Europeans, their thinking and their habits. Such a visit, well prepared, serves all parties. But I must add that we from HOPE Cape Town never put up a “programme” – no singing, dancing, saying a poem. We are not producing a show and when I hear of or have to attend such a ‘show’ it leaves always a bitter taste. Life as it is, that is what visitors, dignities, officials or Mr. Mustermann should touch and feel and smell and taste. Nothing more. Life is so exciting, one does not need show in such an environment. For this, Artscape or any other theater is a the right place.

Well, the visit went very well and we will meet again in Berlin @ the Berlin AIDS Gala 2010. I am looking forward to it and I know, that a further piece of South African reality will be present there next year. So, not only for some soccer teams, but also for HOPE Cape Town was the 4.12. a good day.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, , , ,

12/04/2009 • 3:27 pm 1

04.12.2009 Small and big donations…

In a recent email I was advised that my blog contains sometimes too much about big events raising money for HOPE Cape Town and obviously as a consequence  too little about the small events and the single donors. And reading the remarks I must admit: Yes, one hears definitely more about major fundraiser events and almost nothing about Mr X or Mrs Z.

For me it was and is always clear that there is no “big” or “small” sponsor per se – every Cent, every Rand counts and makes the life of another needy person better. Everybody contributing to HOPE Cape Town does whatever he or she is able or willing to do – and that is in every case highly appreciated by us from HOPE Cape Town. We have once off donations, regular monthly donations, donations resulting from weddings, funerals, birthdays or bigger events. In every case there is a thoughtful mind behind it, a great intention – a willing mind to see the need of others and act on it. Every Cent, every Rand is a gift, a miracle – and we are grateful.

Surely on a blog, one reflects on the days events – and bigger events have more exposure – because I am involved more time wise and I reflect on my work and my involvement or what comes to my mind seeing a situation.

I also donate ones in a while – for different causes; give here and there and it is never mentioned anywhere – but I never had the feeling of being a second class donor – the opposite is the case: do I read about somebody given for the same cause much more, I feel joy that others have the same ideas, find the same important and add to it.
Obviously, there must be a recognition – we from HOPE Cape Town have published in the last years on our website always all names we have had on our sponsor list – I admit that nothing is 100% perfect and we do miss out names; we try to send out a thank you letter every year to those, whose address we have (and given the SA post office – some got surely lost in transit) – in other words: we try our best to recognise everybody as much as we can.

Improvement is always possible – if readers have ideas about the balance of recognition between small and big donations – please let me know: I am eager to learn.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , , , , ,

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