Why Married Priests Won't Really Fix the Shortage

Catholic News Agency (CNA) || By Mary Rezac || 09 April 2017

In 1970, there was one priest for every 800 Catholics in the United States.

Today, that number has more than doubled, with one priest for every 1,800 Catholics.

Globally, the situation is worse. The number of Catholics per priest increased from 1,895 in 1980 to 3,126 in 2012, according to a report from CARA at Georgetown University. The Catholic Church in many parts of the world is experiencing what is being called a “priest shortage” or a “priest crisis.”

Last month, Pope Francis answered a question about the priest shortage in a March 8 interview published in the German weekly Die Zeit. The part that made headlines, of course, was that about married priests.

“Pope Francis open to allowing married priests in Catholic Church” read a USA Today headline. “Pope signals he's open to married Catholic men becoming priests” said CNN.

But things are not as they might seem. Read a little deeper, and Pope Francis did not say that Fr. John Smith at the parish down the street can now ditch celibacy and go looking for a wife.

What the Holy Father did say is that he is open to exploring the possibility of proven men ('viri probati,' in Latin) who are married being ordained to the priesthood. Currently, such men, who are typically over the age of 35, are eligible for ordination to the permanent diaconate, but not the priesthood.

However, marriage was not the first solution to the priest shortage Pope Francis proposed. In fact, it was the last.

Initially, he didn't even mention marriage.

Pressed specifically about the married priesthood, the Pope said: “optional celibacy is discussed, above all where priests are needed. But optional celibacy is not the solution.”

While Pope Francis perhaps signals an iota more of openness to the possibility of married priests in particular situations, his hesitance to open wide the doors to a widespread married priesthood is in line with his recent predecessors, St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, as well as the longstanding tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.

So why is the Church in the West, even when facing a significant priest shortage, so reticent to get rid of a tradition of celibacy, if it is potentially keeping away additional candidates to the priesthood?

Why is celibacy the norm in the Western Church?

Fr. Gary Selin is a Roman Catholic priest and professor at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver. His work Priestly Celibacy: Theological Foundations was published last year by CUA press.

While the debate about celibacy is often reduced to pragmatics – the difficulty of paying married priests more, the question of their full availability – this ignores the rich theological foundations of the celibate tradition, Fr. Selin told CNA.

One of the main reasons for this 2,000 year tradition is Christological, because it is based on the first celibate priest – Jesus.

“Jesus Christ himself never married, and there’s something about imitating the life our Lord in full that is very attractive,” Fr. Selin said.

“Interestingly, Jesus is never mentioned as a reason for celibacy. The next time you read about celibacy, try to see if they mention our Lord; oftentimes he is left out of the picture.”

Christ's life of celibacy, while compatible with his mission of evangelization, would not have been compatible with marriage, because “he left his home and family in Nazareth in order to live as an itinerant preacher, consciously renouncing a permanent dwelling: 'The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,'” Fr. Selin said, refering Matthew 8:20.

Several times throughout the New Testament, Christ praises the celibate state. In Matthew 19:11-12, he answers a question from his disciples about marriage, saying that those who are able by grace to renounce marriage and sexual relations for the kingdom of heaven ought to do so.

“Of the three manners in which one is incapable of sexual activity, the third alone is voluntary: ‘eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs [emphasis added].’ These people do so ‘for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,’ that is, for the kingdom that Jesus was proclaiming and initiating,” Fr. Selin explained.

Nevertheless, it took a while for the “culture of celibacy” to catch on in the early Church, Fr. Selin said.

Christ came to earth amid a Jewish people and culture who were instructed since their first parents of Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28, 9:7) and were promised that their descendants would be “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (Gen. 22:17). Being unmarried or barren was to be avoided for both practical and religious reasons, and was seen as a curse, or at least a lack of favor from God.

The apostles, too, were Jewish men who would have been a part of this culture. It is known that among them, at least St. Peter had been married at some time, because Scripture mentions his mother-in-law (Mt. 8:14-15).

St. John the Evangelist is thought by the Church fathers to be one of the only of the 12 apostles who was celibate, which is why Christ had a particular love for him, Fr. Selin said. Some of the other apostles likely were married, in keeping with Jewish customs, but it is thought that they practiced perpetual continence (chosen abstinence from sexual relations) once they became apostles for the rest of their lives. St. Paul the Apostle extols the celibate state, which he also kept, in 1 Corinthians 7:7-8.

Because marriage was such an integral part of Jewish culture, even for the apostles, early Church clergy were often, but not always, married. However, evidence suggests that these priests were asked to practice perfect continence once they had been ordained. Priests whose wives became pregnant after ordination could even be punished by suspension, Fr. Selin explained.

Early on in the Church, bishops were selected from the celibate priests, a tradition that stood before the mandatory celibate priesthood. Even today, Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, most of which allow for married priests, select their bishops from among celibate priests.

As the “culture of celibacy” became more established, it increasingly became the norm in the Church, until married men who applied for ordinations had to appeal to the Pope for special permission.

In the 11th century, St. Gregory VII issued a decree requiring all priests to be celibate and asked his bishops to enforce it. Celibacy has been the norm ever since in the Latin Rite, with special exceptions made for some Anglican and other Protestant pastors who convert to Catholicism.

A sign of the kingdom

Another reason the celibate priesthood is valued in the Church is because it bears witness to something greater than this world, Fr. Selin explained.

Benedict XVI once told priests that celibacy agitates the world so much because it is a sign of the kingdom to come.

“It is true that for the agnostic world, the world in which God does not enter, celibacy is a great scandal, because it shows exactly that God is considered and experienced as reality. With the eschatological dimension of celibacy, the future world of God enters into the reality of our time. And should this disappear?” Benedict XVI said in 2010.

Christ himself said that no one would be married or given in marriage in heaven, and therefore celibacy is a sign of the beatific vision (cf. Mt 22:30-32).  

“Married life will pass away when we behold God face to face and all of us become part of the bridal Church,” Fr. Selin said. “The celibate is more of a direct symbol of that.”

Another value of celibacy is that it allows priests a greater intimacy with Christ in more fully imitating him, Fr. Selin noted.

“The priest is ordained to be Jesus for others, so he’s able to dedicate his whole body and soul first of all to God himself, and from that unity with Jesus he is able to serve the church,” he said.

“We can’t get that backwards,” he emphasized. Often, celibacy is presented for practical reasons of money and time, which aren’t sufficient reasons to maintain the tradition.

“That’s not sufficient and that doesn’t fill the heart of a celibate, because he first wants intimacy with God. Celibacy first is a great, profound intimacy with Christ.”

A married priest's perspective: Don't change celibate priesthood

Father Douglas Grandon is one of those rare exceptions - a married Roman Catholic priest.

He was a married Episcopalian priest when he and his family decided to enter the Catholic Church 14 years ago, and received permission from Benedict XVI to become a Catholic priest.

Even though Fr. Grandon recognizes the priest shortage, he said opening the doors to the married priesthood would not solve the root issue of that shortage.

“In my opinion, the key to solving the priest shortage is more commitment to what George Weigel calls evangelical Catholicism,” Fr. Grandon told CNA.

“Whether you’re Protestant or Catholic, vocations come from a very strong commitment to the basic commands of Jesus to preach the Gospel and make disciples. Wherever there’s this strong evangelical commitment, wherever priests are committed to deepening people’s faith and making them serious disciples, you have vocations. That is really the key.”

He also said that while he’s “ever so grateful” that St. John Paul II allowed for exceptions to the celibate priesthood in 1980 – allowing Protestant pastor converts like himself to become priests – he also sees the value of the celibate priesthood and does not advocate getting rid of it.

“...we really do believe the celibate vocation is a wonderful thing to be treasured, and we don’t want anything to undermine that special place of celibate priesthood,” he said.

“Jesus was celibate, Paul was celibate, some of the 12 were celibate, so that’s a special gift that God has given to the Catholic Church.”

Fr. Joshua J. Whitfield is another married priest, who resides in Dallas and is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He recently wrote about his experience as a married priest, but also said that he would not want the Church to change its celibacy norm.

“What we need is another Pentecost. That’s how the first 'shortage' was handled. The Twelve waited for the Holy Spirit, and he delivered,” Fr. Whitfield told CNA in e-mail comments.

“Seeing this crisis spiritually is what is practical. And it’s the only way we’re going to properly solve it…. I’m simply not convinced that the economics of (married priesthood) would result in either the growth of clergy or the Church.”

A glance at what the priest shortage looks like in the United States

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the largest diocese in the United States, clocking in at a Catholic population of 4,029,336, according to the P.J. Kenedy and Sons Official Catholic Directory.

With 1,051 diocesan and religious priests combined, the archdiocese has one priest for every 3,833 Catholics – more than double the national rate.

Despite the large Catholic population, which presents both “a great blessing and a great challenge”, Fr. Samuel Ward, the archdiocese's associate sirector of vocations, told CNA he doesn’t hope for or anticipate any major changes to the practice of priestly celibacy.

“I believe in the great value of the celibate Roman Catholic priesthood,” he said.

He also sees great reason for hope. Recent upticks in the number of seminarians and young men considering the priesthood seems to be building positive momentum for vocations in future generations.

The trend is a national one as well – CARA reports that about 100 more men were ordained to the priesthood in 2016 than in 2010. Between 2005 and 2010, there was a difference of only 4.

In the Archdiocese of New York, the second largest diocese in the United States, there is a Catholic population of 2,642,740 and 1,198 diocesan and religious priests, meaning there is one priest for every 2,205 Catholics.

“I think we’re probably like most every other diocese in the country, in that over the past 40-50 years, the number of ordinations have not in any way kept pace with the number of priests who are retiring or dying,” said Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese.

It’s part of the reason why they recently underwent an extensive reorganization process, which included the closing and re-consolidation of numerous parishes, many of which had found themselves without a pastor in recent years.

“Rather than wait for it to hit crisis mode we wanted to be prudent and plan for what the future would look like here in the Archdiocese of New York,” Zwilling said.

Monsignor Peter Finn has been a priest in New York for 52 years, and as rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary for six years in the early 2000s, he has had several years’ experience forming priests. While he admits there is a shortage, he’s not convinced that doing away with celibacy would solve anything.

“After 52 years of priesthood I’m not really sure it would make any big difference,” he told CNA.

That’s because the crisis is not unique to the vocation of the priesthood, he said. The broader issue is a lack of commitment – not just to the priesthood, but to marriage and other vocations of consecrated life.

Fr. Selin echoed those sentiments.

“It goes deeper, it goes to a deep crisis of faith, a rampant materialism, and also at times a difficulty with making choices,” he said.

So if marriage won’t solve the problem, what will?

Schools, seminaries, and a culture of vocations

The Archdiocese of St. Louis, on the other hand, has not experienced such a drastic shortage. When compared with other larger dioceses in the country (those with 300,000 or more Catholics), the St. Louis Archdiocese has the most priests per capita: only 959 Catholics per priests, in 2014.

John Schwob, director of pastoral planning for the archdiocese, said this could be attributed to a number of things – large and active Catholic schools, a local diocesan seminary, and archbishops who have made vocations a pastoral priority.

“...going back to the beginning of our diocese in 1826, the early bishops made repeated trips to Europe to bring back religious and secular priests and religious men and women who built up strong Catholic parishes and schools,” he told CNA. “That has created momentum that has continued for nearly 200 years.”

These three things also ring true for the Diocese of Lincoln, which has a smaller population and a high priest-to-Catholic ratio: one priest for every 577 Catholics, which is less than one third of the national ratio.

As in St. Louis, Lincoln's vocations director Fr. Robert Matya credits many of the diocese's vocations to Catholic schools with priests and religious sisters.

“The vast majority of our vocations come from the kids in our Catholic school system,” Fr. Matya said.

“The unique thing about Lincoln is that the religion classes in all of our Catholic high schools are taught by priests or sisters, and that is not usually the case … the students just have greater exposure to priests and sisters than a kid who goes to high school somewhere else who doesn’t have a priest teach them or doesn’t have that interaction with a priest or a religious sister.”

The diocese also has two orders of women religious – the Holy Spirit Adoration sisters (or the Pink Sisters) and discalced, cloistered Carmelites – who pray particularly for priests and vocations.

Msgr. Timothy Thorburn, vicar general of the Lincoln diocese, said that when the Carmelite sisters moved to the diocese in the late '90s, two local seminaries sprang up “almost overnight” - a diocesan minor seminary and a seminary for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter.

“Wherever priests are being formed the devil is going to be at work, and cloistered religious are what we would consider the marines in the fight with t hepowers of darkness, they’re the ones on the frontlines,” Msgr. Thorburn told CNA.

“So right in the midst of the establishment of these two seminaries, the Carmelite sisters... asked if they could look at building a monastery in our diocese.”

A commitment to authentic and orthodox Catholic teaching is also important for vocations, Msgr. Thorburn noted.

“I grew up in the '60s and '70s and '80s, and many in the Church thought if we just became more hip, young people would be attracted to the priesthood and religious life … and the opposite occurred. Young people were repelled by that,” he said.

“They wanted to make a commitment, they wanted authentic Catholic teaching, the authentic Catholic faith, they didn’t want some half-baked, watered down version of the faith; that wasn’t attractive to them at all. And I’d say the same is true now. The priesthood will not become more attractive if somehow the Church says married men can be ordained.”

Pope Francis' solutions: Prayer, fostering vocations, and the birth rate

Pope Francis, too, does not believe that the married priesthood is the solution to the priest shortage. Before he even mentioned the married priesthood to Die Zeit, the Pope talked about prayer.

“The first [response] – because I speak as a believer – the Lord told us to pray. Prayer, prayer is missing,” he told the paper.

Rose Sullivan, director of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, and the mother of a seminarian who is about to be ordained, agrees with the Pope.

“We would not refer to it as a ‘priest shortage’ or a ‘vocation crisis.’ We would refer to it as a prayer crisis. God has not stopped calling people to their vocation, we’ve stopped listening; the noise of culture has gotten in the way,” she said.

“Scripture says: ‘Speak Lord for your servant is listening.’ So the question would be, are we listening? And I would say we could do a much better job at listening.”

Another solution proposed by Pope Francis: increasing the birth rate, which has plummeted in many parts of the Church, particularly in the west.

In some European countries, once the most Catholic region of the world, the birth rate has dipped so low that governments are coming up with unique ways to incentivize child-bearing.

“If there are no young men there can be no priests,” the Pope said.

The vocations of marriage and priesthood are therefore inter-related, said Fr. Ward.

“They compliment each other, and are dependent upon one another. If we don’t have families, we don’t have anything to do as priests, and families need priests for preaching and the sacraments.”

The third solution proposed by Pope Francis was working with young people and talking to them directly about vocations.

Many priests are able to trace their vocation back to a personal invitation, often made by one priest, as well as the witness of good and holy priests that were a significant part of their lives.

“A former vocation director took an informal poll, and he asked men, ‘What really got you thinking about the priesthood?’ And almost all of them said 'because my pastor approached me',” Fr. Selin related.

“It was the same thing with me. When a priest lives his priesthood with great joy and fidelity, he’s the most effective promoter of vocations, because a young man can see himself in him.”

Msgr. Thorburn added: “There is no shortage of vocations.”

“God is calling a sufficient number of men in the Western Church, who by our tradition he gives the gift of celibacy with the vocation. We just have to make a place for those seeds to fall on fertile ground.” 

Source: Catholic News Agency… 

 

Border Control from Hell: How the EU's Migration Partnership Legitimizes Sudan's "militia state"

Enough Project || By Suliman Baldo || 06 April 2017

Large-scale migration to Europe has precipitated a paradigm shift in relations between the European Union (EU) and the government of Sudan, and closer ties between both entities. This new partnership has resulted in the EU disbursing millions of euros to the Sudanese government for technical equipment and training efforts geared toward stopping the flow to Europe of migrants from Sudan and those from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa who come through Sudan.

Large-scale migration to Europe has precipitated a paradigm shift in relations between the European Union (EU) and the government of Sudan, and closer ties between both entities. This new partnership has resulted in the EU disbursing millions of euros to the Sudanese government for technical equipment and training efforts geared toward stopping the flow to Europe of migrants from Sudan and those from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa who come through Sudan.

The EU’s action plan will involve building the capacities of Sudan’s security and law enforcement agencies, including a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been branded as Sudan’s primary “border force.” The EU will assist the RSF and other relevant agencies with the construction of two camps with detention facilities for migrants. The EU will also equip these Sudanese border forces with cameras, scanners, and electronic servers for registering refugees.

There are legitimate concerns with these plans. Much of the EU-funded training and equipment is dual-use. The equipment that enables identification and registration of migrants will also reinforce the surveillance capabilities of a Sudanese government that has violently suppressed Sudanese citizens for the past 28 years.

Sudan’s strategy for stopping migrant flows on behalf of Europe involves a ruthless crackdown by the RSF on migrants within Sudan. Dogged by persistent armed uprisings led by opponents protesting chronic inequalities in the distribution of national wealth and political power in its periphery regions, the Sudanese government has always relied on a plethora of militia groups to counter insurgencies. The RSF is one of these militia groups. It evolved from the disparate Janjaweed militias that carried out the genocidal counterinsurgency policy of the Sudanese regime in Darfur that began in 2003. However, in its functions and evolution, the RSF differs significantly from other militia groups employed by the government.

The RSF first evolved from a strike force deployed against insurgents in Darfur into a national counterinsurgency force under the operational command of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) that was tasked with fighting the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (SPLM/A-N) in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Then, in September 2013, the RSF was deployed against peaceful demonstrators who were protesting the Sudanese government’s removal of subsidies on basic commodities. More than 170 people were killed in September 2013, in incidents that unmasked the Sudanese regime’s dependence on the militia to quell political dissent and marked a new evolution in the role of the RSF.

Starting in 2015 and 2016, and convinced of the RSF’s effectiveness as a counterinsurgency force, the regime designated the RSF as Sudan’s primary force tasked with patrolling Sudanese borders to interdict migrants’ movement. The Sudanese government made this designation within the framework of its partnership with the EU for the control of migration. As such, the RSF is positioned to receive EU funds for reducing the flows of migrants from Sudan to Europe. The Sudanese government enacted a law in January 2017 that integrated the RSF into the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF, national army). The 2017 law (conflictingly) made the RSF autonomous, integrated into the army, and under the command of President Omar al-Bashir (see below).

The EU and the EU member states that are most engaged with Sudan in the actual programmatic partnership on migration flows should scrutinize the record and conduct of the RSF as the partnership unfolds. By “building the capacity” of Sudan’s newly minted border force with funding and training, the EU would not only be strengthening the hand of the RSF but also could find itself underwriting a complex system of a “militia state" that Sudan has evolved into since the current regime came to power in 1989. In so doing, the EU contradicts and undermines the overriding objectives of its own founding treaty. EU members cannot advance peace, security, and human rights and they cannot stem irregular migration from Sudan and the Horn of Africa by directly funding a government that deploys a militia group that stokes violent conflict, commits atrocities, and creates massive displacement of populations within Sudan.

The remainder of this paper synthesizes public information about the RSF’s activities and argues how EU support for this group could ultimately worsen irregular migration to Europe, escalate violent conflict within Sudan and the Horn of Africa, and embolden a regime and militia force that acts with impunity and now faces even fewer checks on its criminal behavior. This paper aims to highlight the latest developments from Sudan and examine the record of earlier engagements of the RSF, lest one or all of Sudan’s EU partners claim, at a later date, that they were unaware of the perverse incentives at play.

Read the full report here.

Source: Enough Project… 

 

Remains of Ancient Pyramid Found in Egypt

Yahoo News || By AFP || 03 April 2017

The remains of an Egyptian pyramid built around 3,700 years ago have been discovered near the well-known "bent pyramid" of King Snefru, the antiquities ministry announced on Monday.

The pyramid from the 13th dynasty was found in Dahshur's royal necropolis, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Cairo, it said.

"An alabaster... block engraved with 10 vertical hieroglyphic lines" was among the finds, the ministry said, citing Adel Okasha, director general at the necropolis.

It said granite lintel and stone blocks were discovered that would show more "about the internal structure of the pyramid".

Excavation is still in its early stages and the size of the pyramid has not yet been established.

Blocks of stone and the beginning of a corridor which were discovered can be seen in photos provided by the ministry.

The corridor "leads to the interior of the pyramid, extended by a ramp and the entrance to a room", the ministry said.

"All the discovered parts of the pyramid are in very good condition and further excavation is to take place to reveal more parts," it said.

Egypt, home of one of the world's earliest civilisations, boasts 123 ancient pyramids, Zahi Hawass, former head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP.

Hawass, who took part in the last discovery of a new pyramid in Egypt in 2008 at Saqqara, just south of Cairo, said the remnants in Dahshur appeared to indicate that the monument belonged to "a queen buried near her husband or her son".

"The hope now is to find any inscription which can reveal the identity of the owner of this pyramid. To find the name of a previously unknown queen would be an addition to history," the archaeologist said.

Egypt's ancient treasures include the world-famous Pyramids of Giza, constructed around 4,500 years ago.

The Khufu pyramid, or Great Pyramid, is the largest of the three in Giza, standing at 146 metres (480 feet tall), and the only surviving structure of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Khufu and Khafre in Giza along with the Bent and Red pyramids in Dahshur are part of Operation ScanPyramids, with teams scanning the structures in search of hidden rooms and cavities.

The project to unearth still hidden secrets of the pyramids applies a mix of infrared thermography, radiographic imaging and 3D simulation -- all of which the researchers say are non-invasive and non-destructive.

In October last year, the team announced that two additional cavities had been found in the Great Pyramid after another scan a year earlier found several thermal anomalies.

At a conference in 2015 dedicated to King Tutankhamun and his world-famous golden funerary mask, Egyptian authorities said new technology was needed to determine whether his tomb contains hidden chambers which a British archaeologist believes could contain Queen Nefertiti's remains.

Source:  

 

Working on Trump’s Border Wall would be Treason, Mexican Church Tells Companies

Catholic Herald || By Associated Press || 27 March 2017

‘Any Mexican company that intends to invest in the fanatic Trump wall would be immoral,' the Archdiocese of Mexico has said

The Archdiocese of Mexico said on Sunday that Mexican companies expressing interest in working on a border wall in the United States are betraying their country.

The archdiocese said in an editorial that Mexican companies have expressed willingness to supply materials or work on the wall proposed by US President Donald Trump. Mexico opposes the wall.

The editorial was titled, Treason against the Homeland, and said that “what is most surprising is the timidity of the Mexican government’s economic authorities, who have not moved firmly against these companies.”

In a meeting with steel companies in Mexico last week, economy secretary Ildefonso Guajardo said the government did not plan restrictions on businesses, but warned that Mexicans would judge and base future buying decisions on “which brands are loyal to the national identity, and which are not.”

“I think your prestige will align with your own interests in not participating in the wall,” Guajardo told the companies.

It is unclear how many Mexican companies have expressed interest in the wall.

The archdiocese said Mexican companies have expressed interest in supplying cement, paint, lighting and other materials.

“Any company that intends to invest in the fanatic Trump wall would be immoral, but above all, their owners and shareholders will be considered traitors to the homeland,” the editorial said.

Source: Catholic Herald…

 

East Africa Food Crisis: Humanitarian Aid is More than Food. It is a Sign of Hope

The Tablet || By Michael O’Riordan || 22 March 2017

Last Tuesday, as I was leaving Yirol in central South Sudan following a food distribution, an elderly gentleman in his late 60s kept asking why he wasn’t on the list to receive food. He couldn’t work and therefore couldn’t earn a living. Clearly disabled, and using a walking stick he kept pleading "why am I not deserving?". This haunting refrain has echoed in my ears ever since.  It is not that he is not deserving; we just don’t have enough for everyone.

Having returned to this community after just a few months since the last food distribution, we found a bad situation far worse than we could have imagined. Although we are responding as best we can, it is beyond our ability to meet all needs.

I have witnessed several famines and it is never easy to turn someone away. The only way to deal with this situation is to tell people the truth; to tell them we don’t have enough and work with them, as a community, to identify who is most in need and should, therefore, receive aid. 

Cafod and our Irish equivalent, Trocaire, are working together, as the only agencies providing food in Yirol. We are working alongside a number of other agencies, each focusing on their own expertise by providing essentials like shelter and health and medical facilities, to meet the need. This coordinated approach is so integral to meeting the needs in the most efficient way, but there is still so much more to be done.

To date, Cafod and Trocaire's local Caritas partners have reached 12,000 people in Yirol with food supplies but it’s just a drop in the ocean. The need is so great. In neighbouring county, Adior, 26,000 people are in need including internally displaced people from Unity State where famine and conflict collide in catastrophic proportions. But we can only reach 1,000 households there because we simply don’t have enough. 

Across parts of South Sudan, famine is taking hold. In Yirol, where our main food distribution programme is, the effects of famine are more visibly evident. In Juba the same hunger exists – but people wear western clothes that conceal their skeletal frames. However, in Yirol, people look very thin and gaunt. Their complexions are sallow. People are walking slowly everywhere; even children are moving slowly because they do not have any energy because of lack of food. It is heart-breaking.

Out of desperation, people are going to the forest to find wild vegetables and leaves. Women are boiling up leaves so they have food to give to their children. It is edible in the sense it won’t kill you but it has minimal nutritional value. Mangoes are just starting to come into season but people are picking them off prematurely because of hunger.

The markets, which would usually be buoyant with fruit and vegetables including staples such as maize, beans and sorghum at this time of year, have next to nothing available. And what little is available, are out the reach of ordinary people because of sky-rocketing prices.

There is no choice but to import food, which is costly both in terms of transportation, tax, and the most precious thing of all: time. This is why a sustained commitment to international aid is absolutely necessary – so that people can have enough to eat and get the food aid distributed swiftly.

We are working through the local Church and their diocesan networks to respond to the need. Their partnership has been key. They are widely respected by the community because they treat every single person with dignity, and this commitment to the people shines through. This same welcome and respect is shown to us which is truly humbling.

Right now, food is undoubtedly our greatest need, closely followed by clean water, to prevent vulnerable communities from getting sick. This is why all our emergency projects are combined food, water and hygiene projects.

It is clear from my last visit to Yirol the situation for families as rapidly deteriorated - put simply people have gotten much hungrier. Yet, these very same families I meet again despite their hunger, now had a sense of hope because we had responded to their basic needs, this has built up trust which in turn opens up the possibility of hope.

And here lies the heart of the matter; humanitarian aid is more than food. It is a sign of hope. It is a sign someone is watching and listening to what they are saying. It is a sign someone cares, that they are not forgotten.

The people of South Sudan are longing for peace and security. To return to a sense of normality to return to their homes, for their children to return to school and to go back to farming their land….

But the truth is that conflict is the main barrier to progress. South Sudan is a beautifully fertile land naturally irrigated by the white River Nile, even with the difficulties brought by the current drought.  It is simply just not safe for people to tend to their land due to the violence.

This July will mark six years since South Sudan became the world’s newest nation. My prayer for the world’s newest country is that peace will be restored to the land and that communities will be allowed to flourish once again.

Michael O’Riordan is Emergency Programme Manager for CAFOD and is based Juba, South Sudan.  CAFOD is a member of the DEC and supporting the DEC’s East Africa Crisis Appeal. For more information,  

Source: The Tablet…

 

Where are the World's Happiest Countries?

CNN || By Katia Hetter || 20 March 2017

Norwegians have more reason than ever to celebrate the International Day of Happiness.

After ranking fourth for the last two years, Norway jumped three spots and displaced three-time winner Denmark to take the title of "world's happiest country" for the first time.

Denmark dropped to second place this year, followed by Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and Sweden (which tied for ninth place), according to the latest World Happiness Report, released Monday by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations.

Denmark has won the title three of the four times the report has been issued, while Switzerland has won the title just once.

The United States came in 14th place, dropping one place from last year.

Other superpowers didn't fare better than Northern Europe either.

Germany came in 16th place for the second year, while the United Kingdom moved up four spots to 19th place and Russia moved up seven spots to 49th place. Japan moved up two spots to 51st place, while China moved up four spots to 79th place.

People in the Central African Republic are unhappiest with their lives, according to the survey of 155 countries, followed by Burundi (154), Tanzania (153), Syria (152) and Rwanda (151).

Happiness is many things

Happiness isn't just about money, although it's part of it.

Real gross domestic product per capita is one of the key measurements, said the report.

Others include generosity, a healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices and freedom from corruption, the report's authors argued.

They said it's a better measure of human welfare than analyzing education, good government, health, income and poverty separately.

"The World Happiness Report continues to draw global attention around the need to create sound policy for what matters most to people -- their well-being," said Jeffrey Sachs, the report's co-editor and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, in a statement.

"As demonstrated by many countries, this report gives evidence that happiness is a result of creating strong social foundations. It's time to build social trust and healthy lives, not guns or walls. Let's hold our leaders to this fact."

Not just about the money

Norway rose to the top of the rankings despite declines in oil prices, demonstrating that what countries do with their money -- not just the increase in finances -- matters.

"It's a remarkable case in point," said report co-editor John Helliwell of the University of British Columbia.

"By choosing to produce oil deliberately and investing the proceeds for the benefit of future generations, Norway has protected itself from the volatile ups and downs of many other oil-rich economies."

"This emphasis on the future over the present is made easier by high levels of mutual trust, shared purpose, generosity and good governance," added Helliwell, who is also co-director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

"All of these are found in Norway, as well as in the other top countries."

Happiness at work

This year's report also focused on happiness in the workplace.

"People tend to spend the majority of their lives working, so it is important to understand the role that employment and unemployment play in shaping happiness," said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, a professor at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School.

"The research reveals that happiness differs considerably across employment status, job type, and industry sectors."

De Neve, who co-authored the report's chapter on happiness at work, added that people in well-paid roles are happier, but money is only one predictive measure of happiness.

"Work-life balance, job variety and the level of autonomy are other significant drivers," said De Neve.

"There is a clear distinction in happiness between white and blue collar jobs with managers or professionals evaluating the quality of their lives at a much higher level than those in manual labor jobs even controlling for any possible confounding factors."

The report focused on other factors affecting happiness.

"In rich countries the biggest single cause of misery is mental illness," said Professor Richard Layard, director of the Wellbeing Programme at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance.

The birth of 'Gross National Happiness'

Credit goes to the tiny country of Bhutan for shining a light on happiness. Its prime minister first proposed a World Happiness Day to the United Nations in 2011 and launched an international focus on happiness.

The U.N. General Assembly declared March 20 as World Happiness Day in 2012, recognizing "happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world."

The first of five World Happiness Reports was first published in April 2012 in conjunction with the U.N. High Level Meeting on happiness and well-being. Since 2012, many governments and governmental organizations have made well-being or happiness a priority.

In February, the United Arab Emirates held a full-day World Happiness meeting. There was World Happiness Summit in Miami on March 17-19, while Erasmus University in Rotterdam is hosting three-day meeting on happiness research and policy starting Monday.

Source: CNN...

 

What Does It Actually Mean for a Priest to be 'laicized'?

Catholic News Agency (CNA) || By Elise Harris || 15 March 2017

When reports came out recently about Pope Francis’ decision to modify the penalties for several priests found guilty of abusing minors, the question arose as to whether the Pope was being too merciful in his decision.

Another concern was whether priests found guilty of abuse of minors would continue to be dismissed from the clerical state, or “laicized.”

To address these issues and clear up some of the grey area on this topic, CNA spoke with a canonist, Fr. Damián Astigueta, SJ.

A professor at the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University with a specialty in criminal proceedings, Fr. Astigueta offered insights on what dismissal from the clerical state is, why the Church doesn’t always choose to dismiss from the clerical state priests who are guilty of abuse, what those condemned to a life of prayer and penance actually do, the role of bishops in abuse cases, the lessening of sentences, and more.

What is dismissal from the clerical state?

While frequently used in the media, the term “laicization” doesn't really exist anymore among canonists, Fr. Astigueta said, and has been widely replaced by the term “loss of the clerical state.”

When a priest loses his clerical state, either because he requested it or because it was taken from him, he is “‘dismissed from the clerical state,’ because this is a juridical status,” Fr. Astigueta explained.

“He remains in a situation judicially as if they were a layperson. This is where the term ‘laicization’ comes from.”

He clarified that when this happens, it doesn’t mean that a priest is no longer a priest: “the sacrament of Holy Orders isn’t lost; it imprints an ontological sign on the being of the priest that can never be lost.”

What happens instead is that exercising the rights proper to the clerical state are prohibited, such as saying Mass, hearing confessions, and administering the sacraments; as are the obligations, such as that of reciting the Liturgy of the Hours and obedience to their bishop.

However, since a man dismissed from the clerical state remains a priest, there are times at which the Church continues to oblige him to act as a priest.

For example, if he finds someone in danger of death who asks for the sacraments, even though he is no longer in a clerical state, he “must hear (the person’s) confession because the most important thing is the salvation of that person.”

Fr. Astigueta also emphasized the importance of not misinterpreting the process to mean a “reduction to the lay state.” This phrase is not correct, he stressed, since it inaccurately treats laity “in a derogatory way, as if they were lesser.”

Why not all priests guilty of abuse lose the clerical state

For Fr. Astigueta, the answer to the question of why not all priests found guilty of abuse are dismissed from the clerical state has two primary components: not all acts of abuse are the same in terms of severity, and the situation of the priest himself varies.

“Why doesn’t the Church dismiss from the clerical state all abusers? Because not all abuses are the same entity,” he said. Even civil law recognizes a difference in severity between pedophilia – which involves prepubescent children – and ephebophilia – which involves mid-to-late adolescents. In other cases, there may be the appearance of consent with an older teen, he said, which can further complicate the matter. The penalty assessed to the priest takes these factors into account, he added.

When it comes to priests who are found guilty of abuse, there are different types of punishments, including dismissal from the clerical state, or a life of “prayer and penance,” depending on the situation.

“There are certain cases in which dismissal would be the just punishment,” Fr. Astigueta said.

But there are also cases – even with several instances of serious abuse that have caused a lot of damage – when the Church decides against this dismissal, he said, pointing to Legion of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel as an example.

Fr. Maciel was a person “who was proven to have committed a series of very serious crimes, a person who when one knows what he did truly realizes they are in front of a very disturbed person,” the priest said. “Can a disturbed person be punished with the maximum penalty?”

At times the Church prefers to use a different system, prohibiting the person from ministry, particularly in public. Instead, the person is isolated at home, dedicated to prayer “and nothing more.” This means no visits from people, at times not even friends or their congregation.

In the case of Fr. Maciel, even his funeral, whch should have been large and public, was instead closed to the public.

“Is it a gilded prison? In a certain way, yes,” Fr. Astigueta said. However, he said the Church at times chooses this punishment, which is less strong, because at a certain point, “when I give a person a sanction that destroys them, it’s not a sanction, but revenge.”

Fr. Astigueta also spoke of the importance of mercy in the process, particularly when it comes to elderly priests and the Church’s own responsibility toward her members.  

Even in a tragic case when a child has been abused, “the Church is still a mother, and mercy is used for the victims and the priest,” he said, noting that abusers often have serious psychological problems that require treatment.

If a priest chooses to renounce his clerical state, he is often inserted into society without a problem; but when it comes to those who have been dismissed, it can be a lot harder, Fr. Astigueta said, explaining that there is a canon (c. 1350 §2) establishing “that there exists a duty of charity toward them.”

This means “helping them and taking care of them in the measure that the person lets themselves be helped,” he said.

If an 80-year-old priest is dismissed from the clerical state, “where do we send him? Can he find work? He’ll end up living on the street as a homeless man. How long will he last? He won’t last anything,” he observed.

To put a man on the street in this circumstance, unless he has relatives ready to take him on, “is practically to kill him.”

Often, despite the harm done, something good in the person remains, he said, explaining that because of this, sometimes a more just penance is to let him “live with his conscience.” While a life of prayer and reflection might sound comfortable, Fr. Astigueta asked: “reflecting with whom? With your memories before God, with your regrets.”

He noted that in order to avoid pressure from the media in these cases, the Church “is obliged at times to punish, in my view, more seriously than it should.”

Offering help to victims and bringing about justice is always the Church’s top priority when it comes to clerical abuse, but concern must also be shown to the sinner, he said, explaining that if the Church were to immediately dismiss from the clerical state every abusive priest, it could cause more harm.

“Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that if these people are thrown out on the street, I am leaving a possible serial killer,” Fr. Astigueta said, referring to pedophiles. The Church, he said, must also take this into account.

Fr. Astigueta stressed that when it comes to mercy in abuse cases, it “never goes against justice,” and that the first act of mercy is “to tell the truth.”

Once the truth is known, the measure in which the offender can be sanctioned must be taken into account “in order to avoid that the penalty is a revenge,” because this helps no one.

“The pain of the victim is never cured with revenge; the only way to heal the victim’s pain is forgiveness offered freely,” he said, noting that “this can never be forced on anyone; but certainly neither can the spirit of revenge be forced.”

What a life of prayer and penance actually means

Many priests found guilty of abuse, instead of being dismissed from the clerical state, are instead sentenced to a life of “prayer and penance.”

But while the sentence is fairly common, among elderly priests in particular, what it actually involves is at times a bit obscure to the public eye, and it can seem like the priest is getting off easy despite committing heinous crimes.

Fr. Astigueta explained that on a practical level, “the person is isolated, sometimes more, sometimes less.”

Often “the person is isolated, possibly without having direct access to the telephone or the TV, and must dedicate himself to reading, praying and walking around inside the house.”

At times the person might even be barred from leaving the house without permission, under pain of incurring further punishments.

He pointed to the recent case of Luis Fernando Figari, a layman and founder of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, who was found guilty of an extreme, authoritarian style of leadership as well as several accounts of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse.

As a punishment, the Vatican didn’t expel Figari from the community, but ordered that he live alone, and barred him from any contact with the community's members and from receiving people.

If a priest who receives this sentence doesn’t want to follow the rules, the Church in this case “can impose the full dismissal” from their clerical status, Fr. Astigueta said, noting that many priests who choose this life are people who “want to be helped and recognize that this penalty is a table of salvation for them.”
 
“It’s strong, yes, but at least I have something to eat and I can live my final years in peace,” Fr. Astigueta said, noting that in general it is elderly priests who end up in this situation, whereas younger ones with some sort of major mental health disorder are typically sent to a therapeutic communities.

At times they are able to celebrate Mass with others, but “always with the very clear ban that ‘from here, you cannot go away without permission.’”

The Church, Fr. Astigueta said, “is not a prison … it doesn’t have penitential system like a state, but someone must keep watch over those removed from ministry.”

And this implies “a very heavy duty for the Church, because who is the one that supervises? Who is responsible for him? It’s not so easy, it implies a lot of obligations.”

Fr. Astigueta also noted that there’s a different canonical process for lay founders such as Figari, versus priests who abuse.

“Technically speaking, the case of a layman doesn’t enter into the canon on abuses like the priests,” he said.

Clerics who commit sexual abuse are charged under a canon (c. 1395 §2) which criminalizes those offenses against the sixth commandment which are committed by force or threats or publicly or with a minor below the age of 16.

But when it comes to the laity specifically, “this lack in the code must be thought of,” because unfortunately “the times are those in which we can’t only think about priest founders, but of many laity who have a position in the Church … who can abuse minors,” such as school directors or professors.

In these cases, he said, the Church applies a canon (c. 1399) which covers the situation in which the criminal “goes against a divine or ecclesiastical law with harm or danger of grave scandal.”

Cases in which the victims are mentally disabled must also be taken into consideration, he said, as well as many other forms of abuse “that should be considered crimes,” and are in many states.

The role of the bishop in cases of abuse

When it comes to the responsibility of bishops in abuse cases, Fr. Astigueta said that while expectations might have been murky in the past, they are clear now, and require the bishop to act immediately.

“When the bishop is informed, when he receives the news that an abuse has been committed, he has the obligation, a serious obligation, to intervene.”

A bishop must first intervene on a judicial level, alerting civil authorities, but also on the pastoral level, he said, explaining that the process looks different for every nation.

On a pastoral level, bishops must from the start turn their immediate attention to the victims “in order to welcome them and to help them understand that we are not against them and we are looking for the truth,” he said.

After the initial investigation has begun, the bishop may, but is not obliged to, apply a “precautionary measure,” which is a type of disciplinary measure enforced in order to avoid “the process from being polluted.”

Giving a theoretical example, Fr. Astigueta said a priest might try to pressure a victim into retracting their statement, so the bishop could decide to “distance” the priest from the process. This choice might also be made in situations where there is risk of a serious scandal, he said.

Once a priest is found guilty, the bishop will have to carry out the sentence, and it may even be the bishop himself to enforce the decree of dismissal from the clerical state with the authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fr. Astigueta explained.

Victims must be helped to live a “process of reconciliation, of accompaniment” and one in which they are made to feel that “they are part of the Church,” he said, but stressed that this is at a pastoral level, which must always remain separate from the judicial level.

Fr. Astigueta also spoke on cases of negligence on the part of a bishop, which Pope Francis in his 2016 motu proprio Come una madre amorevole established as grounds for removal from office.

The canon behind the rule (c. 1389 §2), the priest said, states that “A person who through culpable negligence illegitimately places or omits an act of ecclesiastical power, ministry, or function with harm to another is to be punished with a just penalty.”

The issue is also dealt with in a canon (c. 193 §1) which speaks of removal from office “for grave causes.” Removal from office, he explained, is “the act through which a person loses a series of rights which are part of an office.”

“So this person who was the bishop had rights and duties regarding the community. As he has not fulfilled them, this office is removed,” Fr. Astigueta said.

Removal in this sense can either be for disciplinary or penal reasons, Fr. Astigueta said, explaining that in the case of penal removal for negligence, the bishop is dismissed because “he didn’t act as he should have.”

While in the past bishops moved abusive priests around in part because they didn’t understand the severity of the problem, “today no one can say that they don’t know what abuse is and the magnitude of the problem.”

In cases of abuse, then, “it’s already so severe that there is no need for another cause, negligence is enough.” Part of this negligence, Fr. Astigueta explained, could be moving priests, not acting immediately, or letting time pass until more accusations arise: “Here we would have a case of negligence.”

Another instance, he said, would be failing to take precautionary measures against a priest accused of abuse, and it is later discovered that the priest had committed other abuses during that time. Other reasons for removal of office due to negligence could be that the bishop didn’t follow the protocol requested by the state.

He noted that there are a variety of situations, but “the Pope wanted to say that this negligence in itself so important because the damage to the other produced due to negligence, which is almost – even if it can’t be said in a clear way – an act of complicity due to negligence.”

Stronger punishment isn’t always the best way to prevent abuse

No matter the situation of the priest or the bishop, Fr. Astigueta stressed the importance of pursuing the just punishment given the particular situation, and warned against the temptation to immediately impose the maximum punishment – dismissal from the clerical state – on all cases.

To do so, he said, “would be an injustice, it would be a type of witch hunt, and this produces fugitives. If everyone is punished with the maximum, with this you resolve nothing.”

It’s a fact, he said, that all states which have attempted to toughen the penalties in order to prevent further crimes “have failed to do so.”

The only thing that actually makes the crimes diminish, he said, are preventative measures and “the consciousness of the people, the intervention of the people,” specifically through education.

“If the people within the Church were all to work so that there were a healthy environment, not one of suspicion, but healthy and prudent,” these delinquent act would diminish. “Not because the maximum penalty is applied.”

Source:  Catholic News Agency… 

 

Priests and Marriage: Pope's Response Not So New After All

Catholic News Service (CNS) || By Junno Arocho Esteves || 13 March 2017

While Pope Francis' recent comments on the subject of married priests made headlines around the world, his response falls clearly in line with the thinking of his predecessors.

In an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit, published in early March, Pope Francis was asked if allowing candidates for the priesthood to fall in love and marry could be "an incentive" for combatting the shortage of priestly vocations.

He was also asked about the possibility of allowing married "viri probati" -- men of proven virtue -- to become priests.

"We have to study whether 'viri probati' are a possibility. We then also need to determine which tasks they could take on, such as in remote communities, for example," Pope Francis said.

Expressing a willingness to study the question of allowing married men to become priests was hardly a groundbreaking response given that the topic was explored in two meetings of the Synod of Bishops and by both Pope Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II.

During the 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, the possibility of ordaining men of proven virtue was raised as a way to provide priests for areas of the world where Catholics have very limited access to Mass and the sacraments.

"Some participants made reference to 'viri probati,' but in the end the small discussion groups evaluated this hypothesis as a road not to follow," a proposition from the synod said.

Eight years before he was elected pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that while married priests in the Catholic Church were not on the horizon in "the foreseeable future," it was not an entirely closed subject.

In "Salt of the Earth," an interview-book with Peter Seewald published in 1997, the future Pope Benedict said, "One ought not to declare that any custom of the church's life, no matter how deeply anchored and well founded, is wholly absolute. To be sure, the church will have to ask herself the question again and again; she has now done so in two synods."

The question of mandatory celibacy for most priests in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church has been debated heavily in recent years, with some people seeing it as a way to encourage more men to enter the priesthood since they would be able to serve without giving up marriage and the possibility of having a family.

Pope Benedict said celibacy in the priesthood is difficult to understand today "because the relationship to marriage and children has clearly shifted."

To have children, he explained, was once viewed as a "sort of immortality through posterity."

"The renunciation of marriage and family is thus to be understood in terms of this vision: I renounce what, humanly speaking, is not only the most normal but also the most important thing," he said.

The celibacy rule is a church discipline, but its roots are found in the Gospel when Jesus speaks to his disciples about the possibility of remaining celibate for the kingdom of God.

"Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it," Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew (19:12).

In his apostolic exhortation, "Pastores Dabo Vobis" ("I will give you shepherds"), written in response to the 1990 Synod of Bishops, St. John Paul II wrote that Jesus wished to not only affirm the "specific dignity and sacramental holiness" of marriage, but also to show that another path for Christians exists.

This path, he said "is not a flight from marriage but rather a conscious choice of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven."

Expanding on the subject, Pope Benedict told Seewald that to view priestly celibacy as a way for priests to have more time for ministry without dealing with the duties of being a husband and a father is "too primitive and pragmatic."

"The point is really an existence that stakes everything on God and leaves out precisely the one thing that normally makes a human existence fulfilled with a promising future," he said.  

Pope Francis response to the question of allowing young men thinking about the priesthood to marry as an "incentive" followed in the same line.

"Voluntary celibacy is often discussed in this context, especially where there is a lack of clergy. However, voluntary celibacy is not a solution," the pope told Die Zeit.

In the book "On Heaven and Earth," originally published in Spanish in 2010, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, acknowledged that while he is in favor of maintaining celibacy in the priesthood, it "is a matter of discipline, not of faith."

St. John Paul II had said the same. During a general audience July 17, 1993, he said that while celibacy "does not belong to the essence of priesthood," Jesus himself proposed it as an ideal.

Similarly, then-Cardinal Ratzinger said the celibacy requirement "is not dogma" but rather a "form of life" that involves the priests' faith and not his dominion over his own nature.

"I think that what provokes people today against celibacy is that they see how many priests really aren't inwardly in agreement with it and either live it hypocritically, badly, not at all, or only live it in a tortured way. So people say," he said.

When all is said and done, Pope Francis' openness to considering an expanded possibility for married priests is not revolutionary at all, but is a continuation of a conversation that has gone on for decades and is likely to continue for some time.

 

Women Aren’t Victims but Drivers of Peace, Vatican Meeting Says

Crux || By Inés San Martin || 09 March 2017

The storytelling event took place at the heart of the Vatican on the UN-sponsored International Women's Day. Father Arturo Sosa, Superior of the Jesuits and key-note speaker, said: “If we are honest, we acknowledge that fullness of women’s participation in the Church has not yet arrived.”

As they’ve done for each of the last four years, women of all walks of life gathered at the heart of the Vatican this week to remind the world that they’re not just victims of abuse or gender bias in various parts of the world, but also “proactive drivers of peace.”

Though there was no actual talk about female ordination during the summit, keynote speaker Father Arturo Sosa, head of the Jesuit order, said that “the fullness of women’s participation in the Church has not yet arrived” and supported a recently instituted papal commission to study the question of female deacons.

A second participant, a non-Catholic peace expert from England, expressed her sadness over the fact that women are not fully included in the life of the Catholic Church. According to Scilla Elworthy, this is why the Church, “is being left behind.”

Organized by Voices of Faith, the Fidel Gotz Foundation and Jesuit Refugee Service and featuring women from all around the globe, the story-telling event took place on March 8, day of the United Nations-sponsored Women’s Day, at the heart of the Vatican: the Casina Pio IV, home of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences.

“Women’s voices must be heard,” said Chantal Gotz, managing director of Voices of Faith, in her welcoming remarks.

“I’m often asked if I’m angry with the world, the Church, the political life … I’m often told that women are not allowed to be mad. But the world is in crisis. We look at the XXI century, when so still have to claim that women’s voices must be heard, when there’s still so much violence, when girls are not allowed an education because they’re women,” she said.

Everyone should be angry, Gotz said, because in her experience, “it brings about change.”

“We’re using our voices, our courage, our passion, and our leadership to support a global conversation about peace,” she continued.

As it’s been the case for the previous three years, no Vatican official took part in the event. The majority of them are currently on retreat with Pope Francis. However, according to Gotz, they have the support of the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

After a short video in which women were presented not only as victims of war, violence, sexual abuse, poverty, hunger, domestic violence and modern-day slavery but also as drivers of peace, and Gotz’s welcoming words, the opening remarks were given by Sosa.

He praised women’s resilience, which allows them to move forth, think about the future, and is an essential quality to make the impossible possible. He also underlined their audacity, which is “often undervalued.”

According to him, peace would be more easily achieved in the Central African Republic, South Sudan or Colombia if more women were brought into the peace dialogues. He praised Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, for her courage, compassion and vision.

Speaking about the way society at large treats women, he acknowledged that in the West, women make 70 cents for every dollar men make, and the gap grows in developing countries.

Quoting an essay from American journalist Cokie Roberts in the Jesuit-run America Magazine, he said: “the U.S. Congress needs more women. Then maybe, just maybe, Washington would work again.”

He also said that “If we are honest, we acknowledge that fullness of women’s participation in the Church has not yet arrived,” to the applause of those present. That inclusion, he continued, would bring the gifts of resilience and collaboration even more deeply into the church, yet it remains stymied on many fronts.

Sosa praised Pope Francis’ call to promote a “theology of women,” adding, however, that in his opinion, an “ecclesiology of women” is also necessary, so that they’re included in the Church “as they should be.”

“Indeed, the inclusion of women in the Church is a creative way to promote the necessary changes in it,” Sosa said. “A theology and an ecclesiology of women should change the image, the concept and the structures of the Church. [It] should push the Church to become the People of God, as was proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council. Women’s creativity can open new ways of being a Christian community of disciples, men and women together, witnesses and preachers of the Good News.”

Sosa was not the only one who brought up the role of women in the Church during the three-hours long event. Many spoke about the need to include them in leadership positions and at the “decision making table.” But some went even further in challenging the status quo.

Elworthy, founder of the Oxford Research Group, said she’s both “deeply impressed by the rich of the Catholic religion,” but also “very sad.”

“My sadness is, I believe for the reason of not including women fully the Catholic Church is being left behind,” Elworthy said during a panel. “All the major institutions that we live with now, the military, politics, business, even banking, have all acknowledged, and used and allowed to populate the top [positions] with females. And I’m just really sad that there’s this restriction in the Catholic Church.”

Elworthy was speaking at the last panel of the day, “Building Effective Leadership for Peace,” which included three women from three continents: American Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Flavia Agnes from India, a women’s right lawyer and the European expert.

It was moderated by Kerry Robinson, founder of the U.S.-based National Leadership Roundtable, dedicated to promoting excellence and best practices in management development of the Church.

According to Robinson, one of the central reasons why Voices of Faith came to be is to shine a spotlight on women all over the world who’re making a profound difference in the area of peace, justice and human rights, and are doing so from a profound sense of conviction and faith.

“When I look at our institutional Church, it’s absolutely essential, for everything that we’re learning in these four years, that women must be included at the highest levels of leadership and at the table of decision making,” she said.

This including women in the table is not so much for the sake of our women, “[although] it’s what women deserve.” Robinson argued that it’s “for the sake of our Church,” since it could render it more effective, a better advocate of human rights, increase its ability to alleviate human suffering and further advance justice and the Gospel.

Campbell offered four virtues as a “good Catholic sister”, which she described as very simple but very needed and are part of the female genius: being joyful, having holy curiosity- listening to people’s stories- and sacred gossip, meaning sharing those stories so they get multiply.

“What came to me in prayer is that my role is to be stomach acid in the body of Christ,” she joked. “That is because I’m called to nourish, bring down food, release energy, but I can be toxic in grand quantities, so I need to be contained. But if you’re part, then the body is whole, and everything is done.”

The storytelling event also included the witness of several women who’re actively working as peace makers. One such woman was Australian Stephanie Lorenzo, CEO & Founder of Project Futures, an organization she created to help women who’ve been victims of human trafficking and modern day slavery, inspired by a book she’d read from a slavery victim in Cambodia, The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine,  by Somali Mam.

“This world cannot ever heal from human trafficking, violence and war without you and I taking action every single day,” she said. “Your voices matter, but more importantly, your actions matter, because they have the power to change someone else’s lives.”

Then there were twin sisters Nagham and Shadan from Homs, Syria, who were forced to flee their country in 2015, travel along the dangerous Balkan route- including crossing the sea from Jordan to Greece in a dingy boat. Today, resettled on Ghent, Belgium, they’re working with the Jesuit Refugee Service, as they did before fleeing Syria, to help educate children affected by war.

Shadan said she understood why some people don’t have the ability to welcome refugees: “Because the media show that they’re terrorists.”

“What I ask is for people to get know them before judging,” she said, which also applies to their country: “I’m sad when people think Syria is only a desert. It’s a very beautiful country, much more than these five sad years.”

Source: Crux… 

 

Trump Signs New Executive Order on Refugees, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, still Included

Catholic News Service (CNS) || By Mark Pattison || 06 March 2017

President Donald Trump's new executive order temporarily banning refugees from certain majority-Muslim countries, signed March 6, now excludes Iraq from the ban.

Iraq had been one of seven nations in the original order, issued Jan. 27 but the implementation of which was blocked in the courts. The new order will not take effect until March 16.

Citizens of four of the countries still part of the ban -- Iran, Libya, Somalia and Syria -- will be subject to a 90-day suspension of visa processing. This information was given to Congress the week prior to the new executive order. The other two countries that remain part of the ban are Sudan and Yemen.

Lawful permanent residents -- green card holders -- are excluded from any travel ban.

While the revised executive order is intended to survive judicial scrutiny, those opposed to it have declared plans to mobilize their constituencies to block it. Church World Service and the National Council of Churches announced March 2, that they will unveil a new grass-roots ecumenical initiative in support of refugees.

Catholic immigration advocates were on tenterhooks waiting for the revised executive order, the issuance of which had been long promised but slow in coming.

Bill O'Keefe, vice president for government relations and advocacy at Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international aid agency, told Catholic News Service that he had seen communications from "senior White House officials" that would retain the ban, but indicated the indefinite ban on Syrians would be lifted.

Religious preferences found in the would be original order would be erased, but green-card holders would be exempt from the ban. O'Keefe said. The halt of refugee admissions to "determine additional security vetting procedures" would stay in place, he added, and the number of refugee admissions would be cut for the 2017 fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30, from 110,000 to 50,000; an estimated 35,000 have already been admitted since October, according to O'Keefe.

"Some will argue that simply sectioning out the seven Muslim-majority countries is a form of religious discrimination," O'Keefe said. "What is clear here is that's it's within the prerogative of the president to lower the threshold of refugee admissions."

One effect of the order would be to further strain the refugee-processing system at its biggest point. "The bulk of the system and the biggest part of it are those countries like Lebanon, Turkey, which are taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees," O'Keefe said. "When we don't do our part, it's tough for us to tell other countries to make the sacrifices we need to play their part. The risk of the system collapsing and of governments that are already strained not being willing to keep their doors open is very serious, and we're very worried about that."

In Syria, he added, "some people have been (refugees there) for five, six years. They've had the hope of resettlement in the United States as one of the things that keeps them going."

Kim Pozniak, CRS' communications director, spent a week in mid-February in Amman, Jordan, where untold thousands of refugees are living -- two and three families at a time -- in small apartments in the city.

"I've met with people that are worse off than they were three years ago (when she last visited), simply because they've started losing hope," Pozniak told CNS. "One woman, for example, said they're so bad off they're considering moving back to Syria." Pozniak said the woman's sister, who still lives in Syria, told her "Look, even if it's so bad that you have to eat dirt, don't come back here."

"When I visited three years ago hope of (things being) better in Jordan, being resettled somewhere, or even going back to Syria," Pozniak said. Now, none of those options seem to be on the table.

Even without a ban, the uncertainty can eat away at people, Pozniak said. "I talked with one 74-year-old woman who together with her son has been in the resettlement process in the United State4s. They had the interview with UN (High Commissioner for Refugees), the interview with the Embassy, had the iris scan taken, now they have no idea when they'll be resettled. They're never given an answer as to when, where, how, and that's the really frustrating part -- being in limbo and not knowing where you're going to be next."

Even though Jordan prohibits refugees from taking jobs, "desperate" people "find a way somehow" to provide for their family, Pozniak said. CRS is offering modest help to some refugees. "We support some cash-for-work projects through Caritas Jordan, teaching refugees and Iraqis some new skills they can use and make a little bit of money," she added. "For example, we have people in workshops who create mosaics and create packaging, and create handicrafts."

Pozniak said refugees were incredulous when she told them Americans are afraid of refugees, especially those from Syria. "They had this look on their faces, uncomprehending. 'What are they afraid of? We're fleeing the violence. We want the same thing, peace.' If people could listen to their stories, I think the reactions would be a lot different."

A Rasmussen Reports telephone poll of 1,000 American adults released Feb. 24 said 54 percent of all voters believe increasing the number of refugees from Syria, Iraq and other countries included in the Jan. 27 executive order poses an increased national security risk to the United States. This is down from September, when 62 percent said President Barack Obama's proposal to increase the number of Middle Eastern and North African refugees allowed into the United States posed an increased national security risk. The poll was conducted Feb. 20-21.

A Pew Research Center poll released Feb. 27 found Catholics opposing the ban, 62 percent-36 percent. White Catholics were very narrowly in favor, 50 percent-49 percent, while Hispanic and other minority Catholics opposed the ban 81 percent-14 percent.

Members of black Protestant churches (81 percent) and religiously unaffiliated Americans (74 percent) also opposed the ban. Protestants overall supported the ban, 51 percent-46 percent, with 76 percent support from white evangelicals. The Pew survey interviewed 1,503 adults by phone Feb. 7-12.

 

In South Sudan, Catholic Sisters are Beacons of Faith, Hope, Love

Global Sisters Report (GSR) || By Sr. Jane Wakahiu || 27 February 2017

In the midst of human suffering, spirituality seems to be the best means to cope with trauma and difficult situations. It is a dynamic and fundamental way for us to connect with something bigger than ourselves, helping us to have meaning and purpose in life, as well as hope for a tomorrow.

Catholic sisters are planting the seeds of faith, hope and love as they walk with the people of South Sudan — the youngest country in Africa — one step at a time. Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Juba, South Sudan, and see the effects of the African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to higher education for Catholic sisters in Africa. Since 2014, ASEC has supported Catholic sisters in South Sudan through higher education and training in leadership development.

In Juba, I met with two ASEC partners, the Catholic University of South Sudan and the Religious Superiors Association of South Sudan (RASS), stakeholders and beneficiaries of ASEC programs the war-torn country. The visit provided me with new perspectives, understanding and hope for the future in spite of uncertainty. It renewed in me the meaning of Saint Paul's passage, "And now these three remain — faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is Love" (1 Corinthians 1:13). Faith, hope and love strengthen and sustain sisters, missionaries and expatriates serving in South Sudan.

I met with Catholic sisters and people who are tirelessly working to transform South Sudan into a place of hope, aptly symbolized by the river Nile flowing through the city of Juba. But despite the fresh water provided by the river, many are starving. I thought of global newscasts providing, time and time again, details of the issues facing South Sudan. But the sisters are working on the margins of society, creating schools, hospitals, social and pastoral care centers.

In 2016, for the first time, 34 sisters working in South Sudan, including some congregational leaders, participated in two four-week training sessions through the Sisters Leadership Development Initiative (SLDI).  (Both the SLDI and the ASEC are funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, which also funds Global Sisters Report.)

In prior years, sisters had to travel to either Kenya or Uganda for this; now they have training on their own soil. It is a dream that has come true, a hope I  always had for South Sudan. Meeting and interacting with these sisters in their own country and with the missionaries from other countries who work with them, was a real learning opportunity. It was a time to see, listen and make sense of the challenges they have to endure in rebuilding broken lives and giving people a hope for the future. They, too, need the same gifts they are giving.

As mutual trust and friendship developed, sisters from a variety of congregations interacted with and learned from each other. Observing them, I learned that to rebuild a nation, the first step of the long journey of the healing process is to have faith in those living and serving there; this has yet to occur in South Sudan. But the sisters' presence is a sign of that to come! To continue being in solidarity, ASEC staff formulated a prayer that they continue to use: a prayer for peace and healing for the nation, and for a future full of hope for the people living there.

Both local and missionary sisters are serving hand in hand, building people's faith and hope for the future yet to be realized. Trauma is one of the challenges they face each day as they support the communities there. I keep wondering what keeps these sisters ministering there amid challenging uncertainties, but the answer is simple; it's love. One sister told me that despite the fragile environment, walking out and leaving those who have nowhere else to call home is not an option. Daughter of Saint Paul Sister Ann observed, "You cannot know what is happening in someone's mind, yet you have to keep hope alive; yes, hope that there is a future."

I think having an open mind as we encounter and immerse ourselves in a new culture is important. The African proverb, "He who has not traveled widely thinks that his mother is the best cook," illustrates this well. It encourages us to travel, to be aware and to explore other cultures with an open mind and heart — and not to interpret or judge those cultures through our own cultural lenses. If we have open minds and are ready to learn and engage effectively with the local people, new cultures will shape our opinions. It is easy for people who live in peaceful circumstances to tell others living in volatile and vulnerable regions to "just leave;" but for those working in those regions, providing essential services to the sick, poor, children, women and elderly is a priority.

I was deeply touched by the faith, hope and love demonstrated by the Catholic sisters as they navigated difficult terrain to provide desperately needed services. The sisters' commitment and desire to make a difference in the society and lives of the people they serve is nourished by faith and hope for a better tomorrow. Above all, it is love that leads them to wake up each day to serve.

Each day that we travelled in the South Sudan, I thought of St. Paul's letter to the Galatians: "My children," he wrote, "I am going through the pain of childbirth all over again, until Christ is formed in you. I wish I could be there with you and find the right way of talking to you. I am quite at a loss with you" (Galatians 4: 19-20).

We have a duty not only to pray but also to be active for these people — for the women, the girls, the boys and the elderly in this troubled country. Peace is indispensable for sustainable human development in South Sudan; and there is a dire need for humanitarian assistance! The need for trauma healing cannot be underestimated. It is essential to develop mutual trust and to impart positive values to the next generation. The road to recovery is long and precarious, but we must not lose faith and hope; the people there are depending on us!

Are you ready to walk with us?

[Jane Wakahiu is a member of the Little Sisters of St. Francis and is the Executive Director of the ASEC and SLDI/HESA.]

Source: Global Sisters Report…

 

One-woman Play Uses Biblical Mary's Life to Tell Story of Black Mothers, Sons

National Catholic Reporter (NCR) || By Retta Blaney || 16 February 2017

Angela Polite had little awareness of the Blessed Mother when she was growing up in the African Methodist Episcopal tradition in South Carolina. Now, though, some three decades later, she is about to open off-Broadway in "Mary Speaks," a world premiere one-woman play — inspired by Holy Mary — that she has been developing over the last decade. 

"We were not exactly in love with Mary as our Catholic brothers and sisters are," Polite said during a telephone interview with NCR. "I knew she was a young girl and pretty special. As I began to think of Mary more as a mother and modernize her voice, I started to fall in love with her."

Having Mary for inspiration isn't the only unexpected element in Polite's journey to Theatre for the New City in New York's East Village, where "Mary Speaks" runs from Feb. 16 through 26.

The "very proud native of Charleston and descendant of Gullah people" was a TV producer in Washington, D.C. She had been part of the drama club at school, played clarinet and sung in choirs but had never performed professionally until she took a sabbatical to study acting in England in 2004, which led to some television commercials and an uncredited part on the HBO drama "The Wire." Three years later she decided to "take the big leap" — quit her job, sell her car and move to New York to pursue acting. 

Newly arrived in the city, she joined the First AME Bethel Church in Harlem. When the pastor, the Rev. Henry A. Belin III, learned she was an actress, he asked her to take part in the annual combined parishes Advent program, Caring and Sharing, for about 200 people. Even though she had never written a show and had little perception of Holy Mary, she decided to modernize the Mother of God as the prototype of all mothers who had struggled to keep their sons alive when their very existence was deemed a threat to society.

"I saw her as a regular mother," she said.

Although she has no children of her own, Polite kept that image of Mary in mind as she appeared in several off-Broadway plays, including "Outcry," in which she played the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for reportedly flirting with a white woman.

"Outcry" was performed in 2012, the same year that controversy was swirling over the death of another African-American teen, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old youth fatally shot by a neighborhood watch coordinator for a gated community in Florida. Parallels were repeatedly made during audience talkbacks and Polite started thinking about how she wanted to respond as a performer. She pulled out her old work from the Advent program and began fashioning her play.

"It's been a big journey, a very big journey," she said.

In addition to her off-Broadway engagement, Polite has been invited to perform "Mary Speaks" on March 4 as part of the International Human Rights Festival at Dixon Place on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. 

Polite set her "passion play" in Charleston so she could write authentically. It begins in the early 1900s when her Mary, an African-American of Gullah descent, is 13 and conceives and gives birth to a son after a spiritual encounter in the wilderness one night. It continues through the Jim Crow South until Mary is 46.

"I wanted to look at a timeline of African-American women and their sons," she said.

While her Mary is post-slavery, Mary's grandmother remembers those days well. Polite sees a connection between her character and the mother of Jesus, who was a Jewish girl and part of a special people, a group set aside.

Through narrative, monologues, music and dance she uses the life of the biblical Mary to create characters, black and white, to tell a story of black mothers and sons. Polite wrote the play's final song after the 2014 death of Eric Garner, the 43-year-old African-American man who died on Staten Island after a New York City Police Department officer placed him in a chokehold while arresting him. Her lyrics span the sorrows of the centuries:

A Saviour on a cross

A Man swinging on a tree

A Dead boy on the street.

She wrote several songs as she developed the play. "Telling a story in the African-American tradition, it would be unnatural not to have some music in it," she said.

The first reflects Mary's Magnificat:

I didn't choose this fate. I was picked from among the girls

Not yet touched and not yet opened to the bruises of this world.

Polite relates to that openness to God.

"She was a young, innocent girl with the level of faith to say 'let it be unto me as you will.' My life is guided by God in the things I do." 

As she worked on the show, which runs 65 minutes, she sought advice from one of her ministers, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary who offered a "womanist perspective," and her pastor who counseled her on scriptural references.

"It was very important to me to keep the story along the timeline of Mary and for the writing to come from scripture," she said. "Mary only speaks four times in the Bible. I wanted to make sure I stayed true."

The final scene ties all grieving black mothers together with Holy Mary. 

"It's quite overwhelming to me," Polite said, adding that pain and mourning are universal.

"I hope mothers grieving in South Africa, India, China and any race can feel the same pain as Mary felt. We connect it to the cross, to connect to the pain of others," she said. "I hope people understand that that's what we need to get back to.

"In the last year, politically and socially, there's been a danger that we stop looking at each other as human. It's been Republican, Democrat, black, white, millennials, baby boomers.

"I hope the audience will come away with the idea of remembering the humanity of us all and remembering we are one and should be one. We are here to witness the pain of others and to be open to it and have more peace in the world."

[Retta Blaney is an award-winning journalist and the author of .]

Source:  

 

For African-Americans, New History Museum 'tells our story'

Catholic News Service (CNS) || By Mark Zimmermann || 15 February 2017

Washington's newest monument -- the National Museum of African American History and Culture -- opened in September 2016 to wide acclaim.

Its dedication was attended by dignitaries including then-President Barack Obama, the nation's first African-American president, and former President George W. Bush, who had signed the 2003 act of Congress creating the museum.

Located near the Washington Monument, the new museum designed by architect David Adjaye has a three-tiered shape inspired by a traditional Nigerian column and crown, with 3,600 bronze-colored cast aluminum exterior panels inspired by ornate ironwork fashioned by enslaved craftsmen in 19th-century New Orleans.

In its first four months, the museum has become one of the most popular attractions in Washington, as it welcomed nearly 750,000 visitors, and its allotment of hourly timed passes reserved online months in advance, with a limited number of passes available online and for walk-up visitors each day.

The museum with its more than 36,000 artifacts tells a story of a history that has been often hidden, but resonates today with Americans of all backgrounds.

One week after the museum opened, two friends from St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Washington, Donna Grimes and Charlene Howard, toured its exhibits together. Both have deep African-American Catholic roots.

Grimes is the assistant director for African-American affairs in the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Howard is a religion teacher at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, where she teaches a social justice class.

Both women said they were profoundly moved by the experience.

"I'm just glad we have it now. All the things our parents told us about, or we had to read about" or go find at certain places, "the truth is now there for everyone," Howard told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Washington Archdiocese. "I felt like, it's about time!"

Grimes was impressed by the crowds of people who, like her, were taking it all in.

"I was watching parents with children, grandparents, young adults and young couples. I was watching their impressions too," she said.

One of the first exhibits that caught her eye was about Queen Nzinga, a 17th-century leader of what is now Angola, who converted to Catholicism and was known for her diplomatic skill and fought wars and negotiated peace with the Portuguese who were engaged in a brutal slave trade in that region.

"The first thing I see from the motherland is an African woman who is Catholic," said Grimes. "She was a significant person and advocate for her people."

The USCCB official said she was moved by the displays on the geography of slavery -- the nations involved in the slave trade, and where the slaves lived.

Metal shackles used to restrain children and adults are displayed, and a display notes that the trans-Atlantic slave trade involved tens of thousands of ships and "the largest forced migration in human history" -- with an estimated 12.5 million slaves brought from Africa to the Americas from the 1500s to the 1800s.

Another display notes that the average life span of enslaved Africans working at tropical sugar and rice plantations was seven years.

The museum's five levels of exhibits are replete with ironies. Thomas Jefferson -- who penned these words of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." -- is depicted in a statue, surrounded by bricks containing the names of the 609 slaves, including some of his own children, whom he owned in his lifetime.

"American independence brought liberty for some, but not all," the exhibit notes.

That gallery also points out that enslaved African-Americans mined sandstone from local quarries and helped build the U.S. Capitol, the White House and the Smithsonian Castle.

"There were things I knew, but things I didn't know," said Grimes. "I think the part that got to me the most was the separation of families."

One of the most searing items on display is "Ashley's sack," a cotton sack embroidered with the story of a 9-year-old girl who in the mid-1800s was sold and separated from her mother, who gave her the sack to keep and put a lock of her hair inside along with a few handfuls of pecans, telling her "it is filled with my love always." They never saw each other again, but in 1921, Ashley's granddaughter sewed that story onto the sack, which had remained a precious family keepsake.

As a teacher, Howard was inspired by the "multiplicity of ways to get information" at the museum, from photos to paintings to artifacts to videos and audio recordings. They trace the story of the nation's African-Americans from times of slavery and reconstruction, to segregation and the rise of the civil rights movement, to current struggles for racial justice and equality.

People can walk by an actual slave cabin from South Carolina and a segregated Southern Railway rail car, and look up and see a plane that was once flown by the Tuskegee Airmen. They can hear the voice of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama. Other displays show cultural artifacts, like Louis Armstrong's trumpet and Muhammad Ali's boxing robe, and people can see and hear the impact that black Americans had in music, sports, television and movies.

Visitors also can sit at a replica of the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth's lunch counter, and touch screens to link with various aspects of the struggle for civil rights.

The artifacts include the casket of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy whose lynching in Mississippi in 1955 helped galvanize the civil rights movement. His murder inspired the activism of Rosa Parks, who was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama.

Also on display is a drinking fountain with the sign "White/Colored," showing the everyday indignities that black Americans endured during segregation.

"By seeing history, it will answer questions people have about the roots of problems we're confronting today," Grimes said, adding, "People need to know that history, what the struggle has been."

Grimes noted that in the mid-1950s, her mother wrote a report on the Underground Railroad, but her teacher, a Catholic sister, "would not accept it, and said it was not true."

Harriet Tubman, an escaped Maryland slave who later helped lead people to freedom through the Underground Railroad, was announced last year as the person who will replace Andrew Jackson, the nation's seventh president, on the $20 bill. Tubman's artifacts at the new museum include her hymnal and a lace shawl given to her by Queen Victoria.

The exhibit described Tubman as "a fiercely religious woman" and added that "the wear and tear on this hymnal suggests that she must have loved it and used it frequently."

The National Museum of African American History and Culture highlights the important role that churches and people of faith played in the struggle for freedom and civil rights, and the artifacts on display include an oak church pew, a podium and organ.

"Many schools, local social agencies and other organizations that emerged after the Civil War had their beginning within the walls of African-American churches," the exhibit notes.

A photo of John Lewis -- the civil rights leader who now serves in Congress -- shows him marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and a Catholic woman religious in full habit can be seen walking beside him in the crowd.

Noting the museum's recognition of faith in African-American history, Howard said, "That underscores the nature of our cultural heritage. Faith is interwoven with who we are. It's in our DNA. That comes from Africa, (where) people don't separate faith from life."

That devotion to faith, she said, links today's African-Americans to their ancestors, and to their family members who are not yet born.

For visitors to the National Museum of African American History and Culture like Grimes and Howard, the wait has been worth it -- the years it took to plan and build the museum, and the wait involved in getting a timed entry pass and standing in the line that snakes around the building every day.

"I felt our story was being told by us," said Howard. "It was driven by an African-American world view, by people of color who come from that experience. That is a first. Now on the national stage, we are telling our story from our perspective, and that's huge."

She added, "It's truth. It's our story."

 

Valentine's Day 2017: What has it got to do with love? And who was St Valentine?

The Telegraph || By Cameron Macphail and Saffron Alexander || 13 February 2017

What day does Valentine's Day fall on this year?

St Valentine's Day, happens this Tuesday on February 14. It's a day where people show their love and affection for another person - usually in the form of cards, flowers, gifts and messages.

Who was St Valentine?

The details are sketchy. Some say St Valentine was a priest from Rome who lived in the third century AD.

Emperor Claudius II had banned marriages, believing married men made bad soldiers and St Valentine is thought to have arranged marriages in secret.

He was imprisoned and sentenced to death for his crimes. There, St Valentine apparently fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and sent her a love letter signed ‘from your Valentine’ on February 14th, the day of his execution, as a goodbye.

The name 'Valentinus' is found in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, a book which was compiled between 460 and 544.

The feast of St Valentine of February 14th was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among all those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God."

Wearing a coronet made from flowers and with a stencilled inscription, St Valentine's skull now resides in the Chiesa di Santa Maria in Cosmedin, on Rome’s Piazza Bocca della Verità.

What's Cupid got to do with it all?

Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the war god Mars.

Cupid is also known in Latin also as Amor ("Love"). His Greek counterpart is Eros and he is just one of the ancient symbols associated with St Valentine’s Day, along with the shape of a heart, doves, and the colours red and pink.

He is usually portrayed as a small winged figure with a bow and arrow which he uses to strike the hearts of people.

People who fall in love are said to be ‘struck by Cupid’s arrow’.

When did Valentine's Day become so commercial?

It was during the middle of the 18th century that Valentine's started to take off in England, with lovers sending sweets and cards adorned with flowers, ribbons and images of cupids and birds.

Eventually huge numbers of printed cards replaced hand-written ones. In 1913, Hallmark Cards of Kansas City began mass producing Valentine's cards.

Now about a billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged every year and it's the second largest seasonal card sending time of the year.

What to write in a Valentine's card

What message will you be writing to your loved one this Valentine's Day?

If you're thinking of just putting "Happy Valentine's Day" and leaving it there - well, that's fine. Not all of us can be poets. But if you wanted to go for something a bit more elaborate, why not take inspiration from some of the greatest love letters ever written?

Alternatively, if you're not a fan of the over-commercialised, Hallmark holiday that is Valentine's Day why not have a look through our gallery of some more cards that prove romance is dead after all.

But why do some people leave anonymous cards?

This trend was started by the Victorians, who thought it was bad luck to sign Valentine's cards with their names.

The Victorians also started the rose-giving trend. They were the favourite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and have come to indicate passion and romance.

Nowadays, more than 50 million roses are given for Valentine's Day every year.

Every year, there will of course be some people who do not receive any cards, flowers or gifts on Valentine's Day.

One teenager solved that problem by buying 900 carnations and giving them to out to all the girls at his school.

Oysters, a legendary aphrodisiac, are the epitome of Valentine’s Day luxury.

Back in the nineteenth century they were the food of the poor, but these days with prices reaching £30 and more for a dozen, they’ve been out of reach of all but the most cash-rich Casanovas.

Last year, Morrisons democratized the oyster in time for Valentine's Day selling them for a positively Victorian 25p each, a tenth of the price they fetch in London’s historic Bentley’s Oyster Bar. Will they do the same this year? Only time will tell.

The best romantic recipes

A Valentine's Day meal needs to be both delicious and impressive. Here is a selection of the most romantic recipes for your Valentine - including this heart-shapped pizza.

James Martin has also come up with a delicious winter feast to get the cockles warming...

The best romantic drinks

Kay Plunkett-Hogge suggests a cocktail or three to get you in the Valentine's Day mood - or to get you through it, depending on your romantic state of mind...

If you are giving an alcoholic gift, Ableforth recommend their 'Rumbullion' rum drink as a gift for men (£35.95). Each bottle is wrapped in crinkled brown paper, wound with twine and sealed with black wax.

Still looking for love? We evaluate the best online dating tools...

There's still some time to get yourself a date before Valentine's Day. Any stigma which may have surrounded searching for love online has been banished, and meeting for a mid-week Tinder date is no longer something people feel they have to lie about.

But given how much choice is out there, how can you separate the wheat from the chaff? We've tried and tested some of the biggest dating apps for ease of use, design and, crucially, the likelihood of setting up a date for Valentine's Day.

In brief | How is Valentine’s Day celebrated around the world?

In parts of Europe lovers give each other St Valentine’s keys as romantic gestures and an invitation to unlock the giver’s heart.

In Finland, Valentine’s Day is called Ystävänpäivä, which means Friend’s Day and focuses on remembering friends.

However, in Mexico, February 14 is a day of national mourning.

In countries like Pakistan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia celebrating the day can result in severe punishment and is seen by conservative Muslims as un-Islamic.

Japanese Valentine’s Day is about all about the men. Women give chocolates to them, and hope favour is returned later in the year.

In South Korea, February 14 is one of 12 ‘love’ days that fall on the 14th of each month. Women give men presents and they reciprocate on 'White Day' a month later. If the gift isn’t returned, singles celebrate White Day by eating jajangmyeon, a dish made from white noodles and black bean sauce.

In Brazil, Valentine's day isn’t celebrated in February because it usually falls on or around Brazil Carnival. Instead, Brazil celebrates ‘Dia dos Namorados’ on June 12. Brazil’s celebration honours Saint Anthony - the patron saint of matchmaking and marriages.

Source: The Telegraph… 

 

An African Former Slave, St Josephine Bakhita, is Patron of Trafficking Victims

Catholic News Agency (CNA) || By Hannah Brockhaus || 08 February 2017

As human trafficking continues to be a supremely important issue during Pope Francis’ pontificate, with an estimated 20 million victims worldwide, St. Josephine Bakhita, enslaved during her own childhood, has emerged as a patron not only for her home country of Sudan, but for all victims of trafficking.

St. Josephine was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of 7, undergoing immense suffering throughout her adolescence before discovering the faith in her early 20s. She was baptized, and after being freed entered the Canossian Sisters in Italy.

Feb. 8, St. Josephine’s feast day, marks the third international day of prayer and reflection against human trafficking. This year the day focuses on the plight of children, with the theme: “We are children! Not slaves!”

The first year, celebrated in more than 154 countries, was strongly supported by Pope Francis.

If Pope Francis visits the African countries of South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in November, as he is rumored to do, the focus of  the trip will likely be on the issue of human trafficking, a growing problem the Pope has highlighted over the last four years.

South Sudan and the D.R. Congo have high levels of trafficking, both as a source and destination, due largely to the two countries’ ongoing conflicts and high numbers of internal displacement, creating a prime environment for traffickers to take advantage.

Both countries have received less-than-stellar reviews from the U.S. government based on the seriousness of their trafficking problems and their governments' efforts to curb the practice.

The U.S. government, in cooperation with embassies around the globe, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations, researches the practice of trafficking worldwide and ranks countries in a tier system.

Tier 1 countries meet the “minimum standards” of fighting trafficking, set forth in a 2000 law, which include prohibition of and sufficient punishment for trafficking. Tier 3 countries, the lowest tier, not only fail to meet the U.S. government’s trafficking standards but are also considered to not be doing enough to prevent trafficking.

According to the U.S. State Department’s latest annual report, released June 30, South Sudan is considered a "Tier 3" country, while the D.R. Congo is considered to be on "Tier 2" or the "Watch List."

Regardless, if the Pope visits, he will likely reference in some way the example of St. Josephine Bakhita, who is highly regarded in South Sudan.

Born in 1869 in a small village in the Darfur region of Sudan, Bakhita was kidnapped by slave traders at the age of 7. So terrified she could not even remember her own name, her kidnappers gave her the name “Bakhita,” which means “fortunate” in Arabic.

This was the last time she saw her natural family, being sold and resold into slavery five different times.

She was tortured by her various owners who branded her, beat and cut her, suffering especially during her adolescent years. Despite not knowing Christ or the redemptive nature of suffering, she bore her pain valiantly.

Bakhita recorded having a certain awe for the world and its creator: “Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself: ‘Who could be the Master of these beautiful things?’ And I felt a great desire to see Him, to know Him and to pay Him homage,” she wrote.

Eventually she was purchased by the Italian consul Calisto Legnani, who later gave her to a friend of the family, Augusto Michieli, who brought her to Italy as a nanny to his daughter. In the Italian families was the first time she was not mistreated.

While she was with the Michieli family she discovered the Crucified Christ through the gift of a small silver crucifix, given to her by the family’s estate manager. Looking at it, she felt something she could not explain, she would later say.

This was her first introduction to Jesus, whom she called “The Good Master.” In 1888, when she was almost 20 years old, she and the Michieli daughter were sent to be guests at the Institute of the Catechumens run by the Canossian Sisters in Venice. There she began her journey of faith.

Soon after she was baptized, taking the name Josephine Margaret. Desiring to dedicate her life to God, she won a legal battle to remain in Italy (though her master wanted her to return to Africa with him) and entered the Canossians in 1896.

She dedicated the rest of her life to assisting her community and teaching others to love God, and she died on Feb. 8, 1947.

St. Josephine was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2000 by St. John Paul II. She is the first person to be canonized from Sudan and is the patron saint of the country.

Source: Catholic News Agency…

 

Collaboration Boosts Sisters' Anti-trafficking Efforts

Global Sisters Report (GSR) || By Michele Morek || 06 February 2017

A woman code-named "Blessing," a Nigerian victim of human trafficking, was working as a prostitute on the streets of Italy in the fall when police arrested her and took her to a detention camp because she had no documents.

Italian sisters who belong to an anti-trafficking group called Slaves No More visit this detention camp every Saturday and encourage the young women to come to them for assistance upon their release from the camp. While at the camp, the Italian sisters gave Blessing the contact information for St. Louis Sr. Patricia Ebegbulem, director of Bakhita Villa, a safe house in Lagos, Nigeria.

On Oct. 12, Blessing learned she was to be unexpectedly deported that day. She managed to get word to the Italian sisters, who called Ebegbulem. The next morning, Sisters of St. Louis met Blessing at the cargo section of the Lagos airport. There were about 40 deported women and 60 deported men in the plane.

Ebegbulem took Blessing to Bakhita Villa, where she still lives, receiving counseling, taking computer classes, and building the skills she will need for a productive life. In 2016, the Bakhita Villa sisters rescued nine victims, including Blessing.

Women religious have been working collaboratively against slavery and trafficking in persons for centuries, and the way the sisters in Italy and Nigeria work together against trafficking is a wonderful example of how sisters are collaborating today.

Looking back on my 14 years in community leadership and five years of working with anti-trafficking groups at the United Nations, I think the work against trafficking and the support of its victims are the most powerful issues that unite women religious today. It is all of "one piece" with issues of migration, violence against women and children, and many of the other social justice ministries we pursue.

According to the U.N., there are 2.4 million trafficking victims worldwide at any given time. However, exact numbers are difficult to find because trafficking is "chameleon-like" and overlaps with forced marriage, migration and other social phenomena. Sometimes people don't even know they are trafficked.

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime recently published its Global Report on Trafficking in Persons for 2016. In the preface to this report, Yury Fedotov, executive director of the office, said, "Perhaps the most worrying development is that the movement of refugees and migrants, the largest seen since World War II, has arguably intensified since 2014. ... Within these massive migratory movements, are vulnerable children, women and men who can be easily exploited by smugglers and traffickers."

The report states that in 2014, while most victims of trafficking were still female (71 percent), the percentage of trafficked men and boys had risen in the last 10 years.

One of the sisters' key initiatives is raising awareness. At an international meeting at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in April 2014, a gathering of church leaders and law enforcement representatives from all over the world heard the testimony of trafficking victims and five religious sisters who worked with trafficking victims. As a result, Pope Francis designated Feb. 8, the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, as the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.

This year, the focus is on children who are exploited through trafficking. The United Nations estimates that almost one in every three victims of trafficking is a child; UNICEF reported that 30 million children have been sexually exploited over the last 30 years.

Long before trafficking became widely known as a "popular cause," sisters were forming local, national and international networks against trafficking. In the 1990s, they began integrating their networks. In 1998, the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) agreed to initiate "greater collaborative efforts against trafficking in persons."

They studied the issue, produced training materials for member congregations, and developed more joint efforts against trafficking. A training program developed in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration led to regional networks being established in Italy, Albania, Nigeria, Romania, Thailand, Brazil, Portugal, Philippines and South Africa, according to the UISG website on anti-trafficking efforts.

In 2009, UISG created an organization called Talitha Kum (from Mark 5:41, when Jesus says, "Little girl, get up") to serve as "the International Network of Consecrated Life Against Trafficking, with a representative at the UISG," according to the Talitha Kum website. Talitha Kum continues to provide training courses and materials, to set up new networks, and to collaborate with other organizations working against trafficking in persons. There are 17 regional Talitha Kum member networks in more than 70 countries and on five continents.

The sisters' regional and national organizations provide a supportive network for many smaller groups and ministries of sisters already engaged in a variety of anti-trafficking activities. One example of how the networks resulted in stronger advocacy groups is the Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans, which has allied with the Australian government and receives government funding for its activities against human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

"One of the most positive results of our work ... is the breadth and depth of collaboration that is now taking place," said Humility of Mary Sr. Anne Victory, a member of the national U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking working in the Cleveland area.

"What started as a collaborative effort of seven religious congregations in the area to raise awareness through education and advocacy," Victory wrote in an email to GSR, "has extended to a wide variety of social service providers, health care systems, law enforcement, the courts and others who share in awareness-raising and also address the real needs of victims along with efforts to prevent this crime."

There have been some positive international gains, such as the adoption of the U.N. Agenda for Sustainable Development, with some goals and targets directed at trafficking in persons. In 2016, the U.N. Summit for Refugees and Migrants produced a groundbreaking New York Declaration that addresses the consequences of large movements of refugees and migrants.

The U.N. has taken many steps to bring attention to the crime of trafficking in persons and designated July 30 as the U.N. World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The Vatican also has been actively working against human trafficking: Pope Francis dedicated his message for the World Day of Peace 2015 to this theme, making it a priority of international diplomacy for the Holy See.

In focusing on the causes of trafficking, he identified "the rejection of another person's humanity" and "poverty, underdevelopment and exclusion, especially when combined with a lack of access to education or scarce, even non-existent, employment opportunities."

The pope has spoken about trafficking to international religious and church leaders, diplomats, police chiefs and mayors, social scientists and scholars, judges, and various conferences throughout the world. And he has not just been talking. He has hosted conferences, spearheaded the 2014 Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders Against Modern Slavery, and catalyzed the creation of the Santa Marta Group, which brings together Catholic leaders and international law enforcement officials to battle trafficking.

Anti-trafficking days are also observed in the United States. In 2012, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration designated Feb. 8 as an annual day of prayer for survivors and victims of human trafficking. Former President Barack Obama designated January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and the U.S. National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is observed annually on Jan. 11.

Individual sisters continue to work quietly at their local level. They operate safe houses, rehabilitation programs, educational programs, and public campaigns. They also promote slave-free goods and services as well as advocate for legislation.

One sister I know makes a point to talk to flight attendants on airplanes, telling them how they can recognize trafficking victims. Other sisters participate in training programs for taxi drivers, truckers, hotel employees, nurses and emergency-room workers, and others likely to come in contact with trafficked persons. Some post the number of the POLARIS hotline for trafficking victims inside rest stops along interstate highways.

Religious communities write letters to hotel chains before they agree to bring conferences there, ensuring that the hotel has signed the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism. Women religious pass out information on trafficking at major sporting events — the Olympics, the World Cup, the Super Bowl — and provide training programs for young people. They do advocacy work with mayors and state and federal legislators.

"People are now less apt than five years ago to deny that human trafficking is happening," Sr. Marlene Weisenbeck, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, wrote in an email. Weisenbeck served on the Obama Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Community Partnerships and works on anti-trafficking task forces in Wisconsin. "They are more willing to acknowledge it as a crime against human rights, to talk about it with others, to pray about it and get involved in doing something about it."

[Ursuline Sr. Michele Morek is Global Sisters Report's liaison to U.S. sisters. Her email address is .]

Source: Global Sisters Report…

 

Catholic Sports Not Just about Wins, but the Common Good

Crux || By Father Patrick Kelly || 31 January 2017

A Vatican conference called “Sport at the Service of Humanity” in October was a heady experience. It poses the question of whether scholars in Catholic universities can partner with others to learn from youth playing sports about the realities of their lives and the challenges they face.

A Vatican conference called “Sport at the Service of Humanity” in October was a heady experience. Just at the opening ceremony itself, Pope Francis, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach all spoke.

Artists from several cultures gave stirring dance and musical performances and Olympic, Paralympic and professional athletes discussed their experiences in sport.  During the rest of the conference, Lang Lang played a piano concerto in the Vatican gardens, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi gave a talk in the Sistine chapel about the election of Pope Francis, and we had dinners in the Vatican museum.

The music, dance and the art in the Vatican museum reminded me of the ways the Catholic church, at its best moments, has embraced what is good and beautiful in cultural traditions and expression.

The same mentality has also led the Church to celebrate play and sport throughout history, a fact that is often overlooked by historians of sport.  While some clergy have had their more Puritan moments, the mainstream tendency in the Catholic church has been to accept play and sport and provide time and space for their practice.

Practically speaking, this approach led to the development of religious cultures in medieval Europe in which games and sport were engaged in on feast days and Sundays, and to their incorporation in the schools of the humanists and early Jesuits during the Renaissance.

This heritage influenced Catholic schools in the United States, which incorporated time and space for young people to play games and sports from the start in the mid-nineteenth century.

The theological underpinning for the acceptance of play and sport had to do with the understanding of the material world as good, the person as a unity of body, mind and spirit and the notion that virtue had to do with moderation.  With respect to the latter, this meant that a person should not be working or studying all the time, but also needed time for play and recreation.

But with this groundbreaking Vatican conference, we are at a new moment with respect to the Church’s engagement with sport.

And so what was emphasized?  In continuity with the longer tradition, conference organizers started with the premise that sport is a human good. They highlighted sport’s association with joy and that it can be a context for personal growth and transformation.  They also emphasized that sport can help people to encounter one another across borders and boundaries.

Of course, if sport is a human good, justice requires that it is available to all who wish to participate.  It is a paradox that in the midst of such seeming extravagance and luxury, one of the main themes of the conference had to do with making play and sport available to those who often do not have opportunities to engage in it - persons with disabilities, displaced youth or youth from poorer communities, and girls and young women.

I was charged with facilitating a breakout session of twenty five leaders brainstorming how we could help bring this about.

After the conference, I was wondering what more I could do in my own work in the United States with regard to issues of accessibility and inclusion in sport. Fortunately for me, I didn’t return directly to the United States because I was teaching this Fall at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua.

It was in Managua that I was introduced to a wonderful example of how to do just what the Vatican conference was encouraging us all to do.

I was invited by some colleagues at the UCA who are also members of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Christian Life Community to attend a football game (Americans, read “soccer”).  For six years, the Guadalupe CLC has run as a pastoral work a football league of 28 teams for boys and young men (about 15-25 years old) from Santo Domingo, one of the poorest barrios of Managua.

The game I attended was the championship contest between Street Soccer and Bethel. It was great fun to watch, as players competed with great passion and considerable skill.  In a closely contested match, Street Soccer eked out a 2-1 win over Bethel.

According to Juan Jose Sosa, the director of the sociology department at the UCA and a member of the Guadalupe CLC, the “jugadores” in the league are socially excluded.  In their barrio there are few opportunities. Some of the players have attended primary school, but only a few have attended high school. Most have to work instead, selling items that they carry on their backs to the market. They don’t have hope for more meaningful work in the future either.

Sosa points out that the young men struggle with self-esteem and with maintaining a sense of meaning in their lives. They are vulnerable to becoming addicted to drugs or to reacting to their circumstances with the use of violence.

The CLC members said the league is a way to engage these young men, by starting with something they enjoy. According to Talia M. Valverde, the president of CLC in Nicaragua, if you just say “read this” or “come to a workshop,” the young men aren’t sure what to think.

“But if you say ‘Let’s play football’,” he said, “they all come.”

In addition to playing football, all of the players are required to attend workshops on topics such as leadership, emotional intelligence, masculinity, violence, and spiritual growth. Sosa said leadership is a popular topic with the players, in part because it is easy for them to understand in the context of playing on a team.

The players at first find emotional intelligence a difficult subject, but they end up liking it very much and even requesting it.  In this case too, there is a direct connection with playing football in that during an intense game they have to learn how to be aware of and control their emotions.  If they become angry during a game, for example, they need to learn “how to think first, then act.”

There is also Mass before every game. While every player is required to attend the workshops, only representatives from each team are required to attend Mass. Since life in the barrio can be chaotic and stressful, Mass is an opportunity for the young men to get into a relaxed frame of mind before the game.

Evangelical young men play in the league along with Catholics. Sosa said the Evangelical players are very open to the themes treated in the workshops and especially appreciate the emphasis on spiritual growth.  They even attend Mass regularly.

After each season the players fill out a thorough evaluation (63 questions) created by Sosa and his sociology colleagues, with questions about such topics as health, socio-economic conditions, violence in the barrio, the helpfulness of themes treated in the workshops, their experiences of playing on a team and spirituality.

According to Sosa, some themes that players commonly emphasize in the evaluations are: a) that it is important to play football because it is one day less to consume drugs or experience a violent situation; b) that it is helpful to them that, in addition to football, there is an emphasis on personal formation and growth; and c) that they value a great deal that they make very good friends in the league.

The Guadalupe CLC does not yet sponsor a league for girls and young women.  When asked about this, Sosa said that there are many barriers to overcome to be able to do so.  In part because the barrio is not viewed as a safe place, most parents want their daughters to stay close to home, for example.  And so girls are not as likely to go out to play sports.

Sosa says that in order for girls and women to be more involved in sports many things would need to change in terms of the harsh reality of life in the barrio and people’s mentalities.  The CLC league is trying to take the first steps in changing the way people think by addressing issues associated with “machismo” culture and gender relations in its workshops.

There is much for Catholics in the United States to learn from the Vatican conference and the example of the CLC sponsored league in Managua.

It is true that Catholics in the United States already have a track record of making use of sport as a way to reach out to children from poor communities. The Catholic Youth Organization was founded in the early 20^th century to provide experiences in sport for poor children from immigrant Catholic communities and was associated with education in the faith, in particular.

Because the CYO is present today in most Catholic parishes and elementary schools in the United States, it continues to provide opportunities for children from poor communities to play sports in faith based contexts and to experience themselves as a part of the wider society.

On the other hand, there is another more dominant strand with regard to the way Catholicism and sport have been related in the United States.  In the late 19^th and early 20^th century, when many Catholic immigrants were experiencing discrimination, Catholic schools started fielding varsity athletic teams to compete against other schools.

Catholics in these schools viewed success in sports as a way to show that they were as physically skilled, capable and smart as any other Americans, and in particular members of the Protestant majority.

Catholic high schools were remarkably successful at this endeavor all around the country.  And competitions between Catholic and public high schools attracted much attention.  Gerald Gems points out that in the early 20^th century as many as 80,000 people would gather to watch the championship football games between Chicago Catholic and public high schools.

At the intercollegiate level, the women from Immaculata College won the first three women’s national basketball championships in the early 1970s.  Catholic universities such as Notre Dame, Georgetown and Villanova have become household names in part because of the success of their athletic programs. It is appropriate to be proud of accomplishments such as these.

In our time, however, Catholics tend to be viewed as an accepted and influential part of mainstream US society rather than as the “other.”

Given this new context, we are now at a moment when we can begin to reflect in a deeper way about the relationship between our sport practices and our faith, in dialogue with our Protestant brothers and sisters and all people of good will. Catholic high schools and universities can play an important role in this regard because of the rich cultural and intellectual traditions they draw on to reflect on contemporary experience.

To take just one example, as was mentioned earlier, Catholic theologians understand the human person as a unity of body, mind and spirit. All Christians would share this understanding, and members of some other religious traditions would have a similar understanding (although perhaps with different terminology and conceptualization.)  But this is very different from a Cartesian understanding of the person, which separates body and mind and discards spirit entirely.

While contemporary philosophers have moved beyond Descartes, the Cartesian understanding all too often still influences the way we educate.  In our universities, for example, it is common for the athletic (body) and academic (mind) sections of campus to have little or nothing to do with each other.  Apart from physical education classes, we rarely if ever ask our students to think about what they are experiencing in their bodies in terms of play and sport.

This approach makes sense if we think that our bodily experiences do not impact our consciousness, and if we have already ruled out spirit.

On the other hand, if we understand the person as a unity of body, mind and spirit, it follows that bodily activities such as sport impact young people at the level of consciousness (insight, meaning making, etc) and even at the spiritual dimension of their lives.

The important work the CLC league does in Managua is based on this presupposition. Of course, it is the quality of the experiences young people are having in sport that will determine whether sport participation has a salutary effect on them in mind and spirit.

This is why it is important to pay attention to these experiences, whether they take place in intramural sports, other recreational activities or varsity sports.  The quality of experiences in university varsity level sports is especially important to pay attention to in our time, given that Division 1 intercollegiate athletics are becoming more commercialized than ever before.

We could also take inspiration from Juan Jose Sosa and the sociology department at the UCA, which has invested so much in time and resources into the league for the young men from the barrio Santo Domingo.

We live at a time when wealth inequality is a fundamental social problem in the United States and gun violence is taking the lives of many young people in poor communities and in predominantly African American neighborhoods of our cities.

Can scholars in Catholic universities partner with others who are providing young people in these contexts the opportunity to play sports, and take the time to learn from the youth about the realities of their lives and the challenges they face?  Can scholars work with community leaders and policy makers toward the end goal that these young people will be meaningfully included and have increased opportunities in the wider society?

If Catholic universities were able to do so, they would be distinguishing themselves in sport not only by their wins, but also by their commitment to the common good and especially to those who are poor and marginalized.

Fr. Patrick Kelly SJ, PhD, is associate professor of theology and religious studies at Seattle University.  He is the author of Catholic Perspectives on Sports: From Medieval to Modern Times (Paulist Press, 2012) and the editor of Youth Sport and Spirituality: Catholic Perspectives (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015).

Source: Crux… 

 

What Will Happen When Trump and Pope Francis Finally Meet?

Catholic Herald || By Fr. Raymond de Souza || 26 January 2017

The US president is likely to get an earful, but on one topic he might receive a word of thanks

The massive Women’s March against Donald Trump was billed as being open to all, but they would not have made room on the podium for the Little Sisters of the Poor as they did for Planned Parenthood. And I doubt the Little Sisters would have wanted to march – whatever they think of Donald Trump – against an administration that will end their persecution at the hands of the healthcare bureaucracy.

Donald Trump is personally irreligious, vulgar, mean-spirited and fond of the smack of firm government – against illegal Mexican aliens, Muslim refugees and outsourcing corporate executives – but he might save religious liberty in the United States for another decade or more. While most political attention is focused on whether President Trump will undo President Obama’s healthcare programme, his moves on religious liberty bear close watching too.

A priority of the Obama administration was to make religious liberty, the free exercise of which is secured by the first amendment in the American Bill of Rights, a secondary liberty. In the early days of the administration, “religious liberty” or “freedom of religion” was dropped in Obama’s foreign policy in favour of “freedom of worship”, a narrower concept which excludes the right of religious citizens to participate in civil life precisely as religious believers, in concert with their co-religionists. At the end of his administration, Obama’s state department had to be cajoled and threatened into declaring the obvious, that a genocide was underway against Christians by ISIS.

Yet it was at home that Obama most dramatically sought to reduce religious liberty to a right secondary to sexual liberties. Obama unleashed the considerable force of the American bureaucratic state against religious institutions. Had he handed over power to Hillary Clinton, religious schools in America would have faced government sanction for any dissent from the entrenchment of the sexual revolution, including transgender bathrooms for children.

The critical flashpoint was the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. In 2011, Obama’s department of health and human services (HHS) issued a mandate that required all employers to include contraceptives and abortifacients in their health insurance plans. There was a narrow exemption for religious employers, but the HHS mandate limited the definition of such employers to the parish itself. A Catholic soup kitchen, because it did not serve only Catholics, would not qualify.

Dozens and dozens of lawsuits were filed against the HHS mandate by private businesses, religious employers and churches themselves. On this issue, more lawsuits were filed against the federal government than at any time in American history, including racial discrimination suits during the civil rights era.

Opponents of the HHS mandate thought they had a politically powerful case when the Little Sisters the Poor filed suit. Would the federal government really go to court to force the Little Sisters to pay for contraceptive and abortifacient services, threatening them with non-compliance fines that would mean an end to their care for the indigent elderly? Yes. The Obama administration took them to the Supreme Court, where the justices told it to find a way to implement its mandate without forcing the Little Sisters to compromise their religious beliefs.

For the Obama administration the publicity for its extreme position was a feature, not a bug. The government made an example of the Little Sisters pour encourager les autres. In his 2012 re-election campaign, Obama blasted his opponents for waging a “war on women”, suggesting that those who insisted upon their religious liberty wanted to take contraceptives away from women using them. The Little Sisters and others only baulked at being forced to pay for them, but no matter, the campaign was effective in casting a foundational American liberty as a threat to the freedom wrought by the sexual revolution.

In his second term, Obama championed a gay rights agenda and, after the Supreme Court created a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, authored a wave of regulation that whittled away any religious liberty claim which dissented from the new regnant sexual orthodoxy. In the new environment, a state initiative in California failed only at the last minute to force Christian universities to embrace gay marriage, or risk their financial solvency.

In June 2015, Obama lit up the White House in rainbow colours to celebrate the court decision on gay marriage. A few months later, Pope Francis departed from his official Washington itinerary to visit the Little Sisters of the Poor, clearly signalling his support for their protest against the HHS mandate.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly promised not only a repeal of Obamacare – and its associated mandates – but also to protect religious liberties. The latter was one of the critical issues on which the contrast with Hillary Clinton was most stark.

When President Trump first meets Pope Francis, he will get an earful from the Holy Father about immigrants and refugees. But he might also get a word of thanks on behalf of the Little Sisters and other Catholic agencies who seek the freedom to care for the poor.

Fr Raymond J de Souza is a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario, and editor-in-chief of Convivium magazine

Source: Catholic Herald…