Brothers,

I was honored in my recent speaking tour in Capetown, South Africa to be invited by former Archbishop Desmond Tutu for a personal visit.  I was happily accompanied by one of our initiated men on the CAC staff, Paul Swanson, who took the picture you see here.  We also laid the foundation for a hopeful first MROP in South Africa in early 2012.  Black, "colored," (a common term used in the region that refers to people of mixed race) and white men from South Africa plan on making the MROPs in Scotland and California in the coming year, an important step toward forming our team there.

The most outstanding thing about the time with Desmond Tutu was his happiness, even as a man in his late 70s or early 80s!  He seemed to find humor in so much of his life, even the hard parts when he was leading the marches against apartheid.  I guess the single bit of advice that I will most remember is that he told me that people like him and me are just "light bulbs"!  People see what they think is our light, praise us, and give us all the credit. With his smile and a wink, he told me that, "We both know that if the light bulb gets unscrewed from The Socket, there is no light at all. It goes out. That is what we truthfully know, and we must always know to keep ourselves both humble and honest."

What good advice—and for you, too, our fellow "light bulbs"!

Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M.