God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

10/20/2009 • 12:30 am Comments Off on 20.10.2009 vatican meeting

20.10.2009 vatican meeting

A real experience. Joachim and myself arrived in time at the papal council’s seat close to St. Pieter’s. Last Friday we were told by email that Bishop Jose will be out for another meeting and that Monsignor Jean Marie, undersecretary will be available to discuss the matters with us. After 1 hour of waiting I enquire and find out, that the undersecretary has not arrived yet. When he arrived we quickly discover that we need somebody to translate from English into Italian as he is francophone. To organise that it takes another hour – at 11 we finally are sitting together to discuss matters, not a very good start into good business.

The first point is quickly resolved. The press text to be published in the council’s magazine about the cape2cape is in some points not completely adherent with the teaching of the magisterium, so we are told and I take the text to have a second look and promise to re-submit. I will spend one of the next evenings to do so…
Then we discuss a planed project where we wish the involvement of the Holy Sea, the council and the pope. We agree to submit a written proposal and meet again in May next year.

The last point is the question of HIV positive priests, religious, clergy and I explain our project, our pastoral aims. This is met with a serious discussion and the recognition that there is surely a tricky but important task ahead, which has not been started in the church yet. We discuss possible steps forward, which I will take to our project group and I promise to send a report back to Bishop Jose and again: May would be a good time to discuss this further, maybe even with other departments of the Vatican.

The two hours waiting was a difficult time, specially for Joachim, who is simply not used to be treated like this. In all fairness I must say that both representatives of the council apologised profoundly at the end for letting us wait so long. I attributed the wait rather in a not very good preparation and hand over for the meeting – and I make it very clear at the end of the meeting that my way from Cape Town to Rome is not just for fun but that I mean serious business and we are really interested in engaging in meaningful discussions and solutions which will be beneficial for all concerned.

I had the impression that at the end we might have a good starting point for a further engagement and possible cooperation in one matter and starting a process of serious consideration for the matter regarding HIV positive clergy. I don’t want to go into detail about the way forward regarding the POZ initiative as I think it should first concern the project group in Cape Town and I will report back to them. But I can tell without telling too much that our planed strategy seems to fit in very nicely to bring the process forward.

Back to Wolfsburg were I will stay the next two days discussing cooperation with Joachim Franz and his team – and after an almost sleepless night in Rome I will now sleep this evening very tight. The flights with Swiss Air have been rather nightmares than pleasures – but flying hasn’t been a pleasure for a long time…

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, Networking, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10/10/2009 • 11:29 pm 3

10.10.2009 Are you still a priest?

I am not sure how often I have been asked that question. Even this evening, after supplying mass in a local parish people are worried about my status of priesthood. Many are confused about being a priest, but not having a fixed community to serve. Well, even when it was the 11th hour – I remain a priest and in employment of the church. The next question people ask is about the Fidei Donum priest – most have never heard of it.

Fidei Donum is the title of an encyclica of pope Paul VI where he encourages western churches to give priests to churches in developing countries. Most Fidei Donum priests of my diocese are in Bolivia as we have a partnership between Trier and Sucre in Bolivia.

The agreement says that I am now for the next 5 years as a Fidei Donum priest here in Cape Town with the portfolio of HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town, Catholic Aids Network and other entities and besides that, I will supply for parishes in need of a priest for the eucharist.

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

09/19/2009 • 5:17 pm Comments Off on 19.09.2009 a whitey…

19.09.2009 a whitey…

a Cape Town, Saturday, 19.9.2009 @ round about 10 am in the morning. With a friend of mine I visit the FNB Bank in the pedestrian zone and we have to wait quite a while until somebody attends to us. Everybody needs some time to resolve his or her problem. Looking around in this big room, I suddenly realise that I am the only white person in the crowd of customers. I realize it and I find it amazing. When I arrived in Cape Town in 1997 the city was known for her “white colour”.  Coloureds where common, but not so many black South Africans. The first time I experienced me being a minority was in Johannesburg a couple of years ago, when I went to Hilbrow and the muti market.
This country is really transforming, but race remains an issue. Most applications, most forms have a space where you must identify yourself either as black, coloured, white or asian/indian. Knowing the race means knowing a bit of the history of the family the person is coming from. It is knowing a bit of the trouble, this person, if old enough, had to go through in life.

In Germany, where I was born, race was never really an issue when I was young. As Bitburg, where I grew up, had a big US base, the colour black was rather associated with “having money”.  So here in South Africa I had to learn to appreciate this race issue – and I struggled with it. Because for me, so i always argued, race does not matter…
Well, I had to learn here, that it does matter, one or the other way, in the past of South Africa, in its present times and it looks like this will still go on quite a while. I must admit, I am getting used to it – and do not understand anymore, when visiting Europeans start arguing about it..  I guess, I am becoming more and more a real South African; or should I say: a real Capetonian?? 🙂

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

09/17/2009 • 9:15 pm Comments Off on 17.09.2009 School anniversary in Brooklyn

17.09.2009 School anniversary in Brooklyn

Yesterday evening I was invited to join a performance of students of the Holy Cross Primary School in Brooklyn near Cape Town – and as every year, it was marvellous to see how the first till seven grader performed and transformed a school hall into a studio, a landing on the moon, a school class 50 years ago and much more, all done with lots of music, singing and dancing. Seeing in the clear eyes of most of these youngsters one wonders while watching the performance how they will do in life. What will they achieve after leaving school? What future is for them in this wonderful paradise called South Africa, where the beauty and the beast are always in reach. Where world icons like Nelson Mandela live side by side by with people killing each other on a daily base for a cigarette, some Nike shoes or a handful of Rand.  Where the triumph of mind over 27 years of imprisonment meets the downfall of millions who cannot make a living for themselves still in our days and rely more or less on a handout of the government, too little to live, too much to die…

What kind of dreams, of hopes I had when I was in that age? I cannot remember exactly but I surely had not the worries and sorrows of everyday struggle these kids endure sometimes on a daily base. This from Holy Cross Sisters lead school is like an island of hope: a beacon of assurance that there is a way forward in this new South Africa. We can not honour enough those teachers and educators, be it in this particular school or all over the country who try their very best to give those kids a chance in life in giving them a base of knowledge. And yes, knowledge is part of development, is part of being able to be self-determined as an adult and to be able to contribute towards society and the community they live in.

But Brooklyn Holy Cross Primary School is for me also travel back in time, the school is a sort of deja-vu of my own school time – the way of teaching, of discipline … it all reminds me on my good old school days somehow ages ago.
In May I attended the 30th anniversary of my own “Abitur” and I it was amazing to see all those faces again I left in 1979 when starting to study theology and philosophy. How most of them had changed but still: again the deja-vu of behaviour patterns – not everything changed really.

I went home after the performance with joy in my heart having seen another generation hopefully being able to do better as we have done, being more wise in using our resources, caring more about nature and the ecology, avoiding meaningless wars and battles and.. and .. and.. And in my heart I also know that it will be most probably not the case. Is the world really going only in circles? Is every generation hoping that the next does not make the same mistakes? Like every parent is hoping to provide a better future for their own kids?

I am not sure, but nobody can take away the joy this eve seeing those kids having a fun of a lifetime while performing, parents to be proud of their kids, nobody can take away two hours of just being content with the world, the people around me and myself. That is more than I hoped for. Thanks to all students and teachers of this school.

Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

09/12/2009 • 11:31 pm Comments Off on 12.09.2009 The olive tree

12.09.2009 The olive tree

During all the hectic in the last days I totally forgot to mention, that my pastoral community council presented me with a small olive tree – knowing, that I love this sort of things. I promised to look after him very very careful and I will find an appropriate place for the tree. May he grow and grow, like the other two, we have on the premises of the Mediterranean Villa. The older one was already a small tree when I bought the Villa for the German Bishops Conference, the second was planted by Karin in memory of her parents – and also this one is already in a juvenile stage. Olive trees are marvellous – while I was living in Andalusia (Spain), I could never have a enough of seeing olive trees, these old “knorrige” trees – ages old and still bringing fruit. A symbol for fertility, the fruits delicious prepared in so many different ways and even the wood is special.

This olive tree will still stand and grow somewhere when I am already dead and maybe the German speaking Catholic Community gone – and it will bear witness from a time where people gave it to me to bring some joy into my life. I am really grateful for this gift. May it blossom and bring fruits for the next generation.

Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

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