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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mar 16, 2017 / 08:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A diocese in Argentina has decided to transfer a priest after a series of threats he’s received for protesting the death of a man who had been killed by a drug cartel.
The Diocese of Merlo-Moreno in Argentina relocated Father Eduardo Farrell, who has been serving for nine years as pastor of Sacred Heart Church in the Cuartel Quinto municipality in Buenos Aires in order to “protect his physical integrity in face of repeated threats and intimidation.”
The events trace back to Dec. 15, 2016, when the People’s Dignity Movement activist, Cesar Mendez,
from the Cuartel Quinto neighborhood, was shot dead by “transas,” persons connected to the drug world, who had taken over a house.
A week later, the neighbors organized a peaceful march in the Buenos Aires area locality to call for justice for the death of Mendez. Fr. Farrell was the only speaker on that occasion, and from then on the intimidation began.
The statement from the Diocese of Merlo-Moreno released March 13, said that “in recent times numerous persons, believers or not, Church activists or not, have received clear signals that their actions and preaching entailed a nuisance to sectors which operate outside the law.”
“With great concern and deep pain we observe how violence, in its most varied manifestations, is being normalized in our communities. Every day we learn of violent incidents, some extremely serious, such as the loss of human lives,” the statement read.
The message, signed by the Bishop of Merlo-Moreno, Fernando Carlos Maletti; Auxiliary Bishop, Oscar Eduardo Miñarro; and Vicar General, Fr. Fabián Sáenz, warned of the rise in “in the illegal drug trade” along with the “dangerous deterioration of the health of our youth,” and the “brutal confrontations for the control of territory.”
The message noted that work in the prevention of “drug addiction” often “collide with the petty and evil interests of those who only seek territorial power and income at any cost.”
The National Justice and Peace Commission expressed solidarity with the people being threatened “because of their brave opposition to evil” and joined with “those who honestly and disinterestedly seek to overcome the evils in our society.”
In this regard, “the voice of the Diocese of Merlo-Moreno is brave and prophetic because neither indifference nor fear closes their eyes or silences their words in the face of injustice.”
The drug trafficking problem in Argentina already claimed a victim from the clergy of this country in October 2016.
Fr. Juan Heraldo Viroche, pastor of Our Lady of the Valley in Tucuman, was found hanged to death in the rectory after he started publicly denouncing in his homilies the drug gangs in his locality.
The incident led the priests who work in the shantytowns of Buenos Aires to state that “Father Viroche was killed by the mafia he denounced and who threatened him.”
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Juba, South Sudan, Mar 16, 2017 / 03:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid war, displacement and hunger, South Sudan’s day of prayer must lead to true repentance, a leading Catholic bishop has said.
“Our call to prayer must be sincere and honest!” Bishop Barani Eduardo Hiiboro of Tombura-Yambio emphasized. “For this prayer to become historical and meaningful for us today we must repent and sin no more!”
Bishop Hiiboro, president of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, spoke in Yamibo on the March 10 day of prayer.
The country has been embroiled in civil war since December 2013, when South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy, Riek Machar, of attempting a coup. The war has been fought between their supporters, largely along ethnic lines, and peace agreements have been short-lived.
The conflict has created 2.5 million refugees. At present an estimated 4.5 million people face severe food insecurity, a number expected to rise one million by July.
President Kiir had called for the day of prayer. A three-day national dialogue on the country’s future began March 15.
Bishop Hiiboro said the whole country will be watching the president closely to see whether his attitude will trend towards peace.
The country’s people should also watch themselves, the bishop said: “All of us who have prayed today will also be watched whether we renounce our sinfulness of hate, violence, tribal difference, for love of South Sudan and peace.”
Bishop Hiiboro said South Sudan must commit itself to God every year as a way to unite the country.
“Continual prayers help us in stepping forward to embrace the su ffering of our country, through unified, concrete action animated by the love of Christ, to nurture peace and build bridges of communication and mutual aid in our own communities throughout South Sudan,” he said.
He encouraged efforts to explore other ways to nurture open dialogue on issues of ethnic relations, justice, forgiveness, poverty, cultural power, mental health, economic opportunity and a “pervasive culture of violence.”
“The suffering is not somewhere else, or someone else’s. It is our own, in our very homes,” the bishop said.
After the day of prayer, people should walk like penitent sinners. They should stop their hateful and vengeful attitudes and free prisoners. They should reach out to refugees and the South Sudan diaspora in other countries and create a ground for all South Sudanese to dialogue, he said.
The president’s call for a day of prayer had drawn some criticism.
Bishop Santo Loku Pio Doggale, Auxiliary Bishop of the national capital Juba, characterized it as “a political prayer” and “a mockery.”
“It is a joke to hear the president of the country calling prayers while at the moment, the soldiers are hunting people across South Sudan,” he told Voice of America, according to the Sudan Tribune.
He charged that the government army has displaced many people from their ancestral homes. The bishop said that President Kiir, who is Catholic, does not even go to church anymore.
Geneva, Switzerland, Mar 16, 2017 / 02:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Health care access is a human right, not just a matter of philanthropy, the Holy See told the United Nations last Friday.
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Madrid, Spain, Mar 16, 2017 / 01:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Spain-based branch of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has issued an urgent appeal for aid to continue its “Drop of Milk” project, which benefits more than 2,800 children in the city of Aleppo, Syria.
This initiative began in 2015 among various Christian churches to provide milk every month for children under 10 years of age.
Even though the fighting has ended in eastern Aleppo, ACN reported that “living conditions remain deplorable.” Some 80 percent of the population of Aleppo is displaced, and 70 percent live below the poverty line, the group said in a statement.
Dr. Nabil Antaki, coordinator of the “Drop of Milk” project, has made an urgent appeal to keep it going.
“Every month we distribute milk to some 2,850 children: 2,600 get powdered milk and 250 servings of special formula milk for infants, including babies that can’t be nursed by their mothers,” the doctor said.
The charitable group also highlighted the testimony of Georgina, one of the project’s beneficiaries, who is the mother of two daughters, 10 and 6 years old.
“Both Myriam and Pamela receive each month a kilo (2.2 lbs.) of powdered milk. Pamela’s situation was critical after being struck in the back with shrapnel, and now that she’s recuperating, she needs milk to get her health back. This project is very important for us, I want it to keep going,” the mother said.
Aid to the Church in Need highlighted that a child in Aleppo can get milk for an entire month for $7.50 and for a whole year for $89. The foundation has committed to maintain this project during 2017 at a cost of $239,000.
The pontifical foundation has been sending funds for diverse emergency projects and support to the Syrian churches since the start of the war. In 2015, they allocated $5.9 million for Syria.
Vatican City, Mar 16, 2017 / 11:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With the 6th anniversary of the start of the Syrian war as backdrop this week, Pope Francis met Thursday morning with the President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun.
Their discussion centered on the large… […]
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