Think of others, cardinal tells crowd

RISE up and stand.

This was the message from Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, Order of Friars Minor, of the Catholic Church, speaking at the Diakonia Ecumenical Good Friday service yesterday.

Napier said one of the challenges facing the church, and the country, was the rise of rampant relativism.

“Relativism is an ideology which places the individual, his rights, his values, his needs and desires above everything else. The individual is the only reference point. There is no place for other people, their rights, their values, their needs and desires, least of all, the poor and marginalised.

“This challenge is growing apace in our country. Basic morals, basic values, basic rights, basic institutions are being replaced by the ideologies of political correctness that slavishly follow the dictates of tiny but powerful lobby groups at the UN and so called Western democracies,” said Napier to a 1 000-strong crowd gathered at the Durban Exhibition Centre yesterday morning.

Present were city, provincial and national political leaders, including IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

“As we reflect on and pray in commemoration of the Passion and Death of Jesus, who in a similar way broke the beliefs and traditions of the ideologies of his day, we must be prepared to stand for the truth as we did nearly a generation ago.

“Just as then, so now must we be convinced that our faith has the answers. It is that faith which we must live and pass on as ordinary men and women,” he said.

The service was followed by a silent walk, and the carrying of the cross, from the Exhibition Centre to the Durban City Hall.