Juba, South Sudan, May 4, 2019 / 05:00 am (CNA).- They were founded three decades ago in southern Sudan, and named the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But in a region dramatically affected by the South Sudanese civil war, they are usually known by … […]
Yambio, South Sudan, May 3, 2019 / 05:10 pm (CNA).- The president of the Sudanese Bishops’ Conference said he believes peace in South Sudan is possible, but the process will take patience and humility from both the leaders of the country the loca… […]
Pemba, Mozambique, May 2, 2019 / 05:29 pm (CNA).- Catholic Relief Services is appealing for additional aid after Cyclone Kenneth struck northern Mozambique last week, the second such storm to hit the country in recent months.
“Entire villages have been flattened. Roads have been washed out. And bridges have been destroyed,” Erica Dahl-Bredine, CRS’ country representative of Lesotho and Mozambique, said April 30. “We’re just beginning to fully understand the extent of the damage. In fact, the number of people who have been impacted by this storm continues to climb.”
Cyclone Kenneth struck northeastern Mozambique April 25, killing 38. It destroyed 35,000 homes and left homeless tens of thousands. Cyclone Idai had hit the country’s south in March, killing at least 900.
“The local Church is doing an incredible job of helping the people of Mozambique in both regions and has mobilized an enormous army of volunteers to assist in these dual relief efforts,” Dahl-Bredine commented.
“But additional support will be needed from the international community before more people lose their lives.”
Landslides have destroyed numerous roads, making it difficult for humanitarian groups to access vulnerable areas, and a lack of resources and immediate aid is a concern, according to CRS.
Cyclone Kenneth particularly damaged the coastal districts of Cabo Delgado Province. Even after the cyclone passed, heavy rainfalls have continued to devastate the provincial capital, Pemba.
Catholic Relief Services said there are more than 168,000 people in urgent need of help. Mozambique is one of the poorest African countries, with 65% below the poverty line.
Dahl-Bredine said some areas are more at risk: “On Sunday, landslides triggered by a torrential downpour were reported in certain low-lying neighborhoods. In one case, a landslide dumped so much trash on top of people’s houses that the ensuing debris caused several reported deaths.”
“This is a part of Mozambique that is already more vulnerable to these types of storms because of its relative lack of resources.”
Beside a lack of food and clean water, one of the major concerns is waterborne diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, and malaria.
“When a storm like this hits with so much devastation, ensuring proper hygiene and sanitation practices becomes vital to stemming a deadly disease outbreak,” she further added.
CRS is working with the local government to provide support to some of the hardest hit areas in Pemba, including temporary shelter, food, and other necessities. The country has also received aid from Caritas, Save the Children, and the UN, who recently offered $13 million to Mozambique and Comoros Island.
Maria Auxiliadora parish in Pema is housing nearly 1,000 people displaced by the cyclone.
As the area has a large Muslim population, Father Ricardo Filipe Rosa Marques told the Associated Press that the Catholic Church is open to all.
“We don’t ask about people’s religions, human life is all we value,” he said.
Although some Muslims have refused help because they have not wanted to enter a Catholic church, he said, a large portion of people have appreciated the support and banded together in solidarity.
“People here have suffered a lot. They have been through (Portuguese) colonialism, civil war and the recent killings. They have been living with scars for years yet their love and sense of sharing is amazing,” he said.
Harare, Zimbabwe, May 2, 2019 / 10:24 am (CNA).- The bishops’ conference of Zimbabwe approved Wednesday the opening of the cause for canonization of John Bradburne, a lay missionary to the area in the 1970s, according to a report.
Independent Catholic News reported May 1 that the bishops had given their approval unanimously, and that the cause will be launched Sept. 5.
Bradburne was born in 1921 in England, the son of an Anglican clergyman. He served in the British army in World War II, and he converted to Catholicism in 1947 after staying with the Benedictines of Buckfast Abbey.
He wished to become a monk at Buckfast, but had not been long enough in the Church, and he became a wanderer throughout Europe and the Middle East. He was a prolific poet. He stayed at other Benedictine abbeys, with Carthusians, the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, tried living as a hermit on Dartmoor in England, and became a Third Order Franciscan in 1956.
Through a Jesuit friend in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), Bradburne came to serve at the Mutemwa Leper Settlement, spending the last 10 years of his life there.
Southern Rhodesia declared independence in 1965, and the Rhodesian Bush War was fought from 1964 to 1979 among the white minority government, the Marxist Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army, and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).
As ZANU forces approached Mutemwa, Bradburne was urged to leave, but he insisted on remaining. He was kidnapped, and murdered Sept. 5, 1979.
He had confided in a Franciscan priest that his wishes were to serve leprosy patients, to die a martyr, and to be buried in the habit of St. Francis.
According to Independent Catholic News, two people have claimed miraculous cures through Bradburne’s intercession: a woman in South African who regained the use of her legs, and a man in Scotland cured of a brain tumor.
The Jonn Bradburne Memorial Society is supporting the an investigation into his life and viritues. It wishes to raise GBP 20,000 ($26,600) for the investigation. The group was led by Bradburne’s niece, Celia Brigstocke, until her death in August 2018. Brigstocke’s eldest daughter, Kate Macpherson, now leads the efforts.
Kigali, Rwanda, Apr 25, 2019 / 11:47 am (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Rwanda have apologized for calling for the release of old and ill prisoners convicted for crimes committed during the country’s 1994 genocide.
“We wrote to Christians, encouraging them to continue promoting unity and reconciliation, while also seeking forgiveness,” the bishops said in an April 7 statement signed by Bishop Phillippe Rukamba of Butare, the president of the Rwandan bishops’ conference.
“This letter caused a lot of hurt, especially for what we requested on behalf of the elderly and sickest who are still in prison for the crime of genocide. We are saddened it offended people – this was not what we intended,” the bishops said.
The bishops had issued a pastoral letter March 25 commemorating the victims of the genocide, urging reconciliation and forgiveness in the face of violence, but including a sentence exhorting those responsible for older or sick perpetrators to “examine whether their sentences can be reduced.”
Twenty-five years ago this month, ethnic tensions in Rwanda boiled over as members of the Hutu ethnic majority took up machetes and turned on their minority Tutsi neighbors, friends, and colleagues, killing them based on the color of their skin and the width of their nose.
In the 100-day genocide that followed, it is estimated that 1 million people were slaughtered.
Rwandans marked the anniversary of the tragedy April 7 at the Genocide Memorial Center in the capital city of Kigali. President Paul Kagame and leaders from Africa and the European Union were in attendance, the Catholic Information Service for Africa reported.
The bishops apologized for issuing the pastoral letter during the period of commemoration.
“After this tragedy of genocide against the Tutsis, the light of the Lord’s resurrection was not quenched –asking and giving forgiveness can become a means of building a tomorrow for everyone,” the bishops said.
In the 1994 genocide, clergy members were included in the ranks of both perpetrators and victims. In some cases, Hutu priests, bishops. and religious helped to hide and protect Tutsis. In other cases, they took up arms against them, ushering them into church buildings with false promises of security and then trapping and betraying them, facilitating their massacre.
The Church has since played a large role in helping to promote reconciliation and forgiveness. More than half of Rwanda’s population is Catholic.
The country’s bishops in November 2016 issued an official apology for Christians’ role in the genocide.
“We apologize for all the wrongs the Church committed. We apologize on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed. We regret that church members violated (their) oath of allegiance to God’s commandments,” they wrote.
Aleppo, Syria, Apr 16, 2019 / 02:58 pm (CNA).- The number of Christians in Aleppo, Syria, fell dramatically during the civil war, from 180,000 before the war to 32,000 today. Maronite Archbishop Joseph Tobji of Aleppo is the shepherd of a small communi… […]
Kigali, Rwanda, Apr 9, 2019 / 12:37 am (CNA).- The story of Cyprien and Daphrose Rugumba is a story of atheism and devout faith, of a strained marriage and a love that overcomes obstacles, of a powerful conversion that was able to change an entire life… […]
Mosul, Iraq, Apr 8, 2019 / 10:01 pm (CNA).-
Archbishop Petros Mouche heads the Syriac-Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which was captured by ISIS in the summer of 2014.
Today, with ISIS ousted from Mosul and the… […]
Homs, Syria, Apr 8, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- During a visit to Homs last week, the superior general of the Society of Jesus said that he would be happy to open a cause of beatification for Fr. Frans van der Lugt, who was killed in the Syrian city five years ago.
“I would be happy, God willing, to work for the opening of the cause of Fr Frans van der Lugt so that he may serve as a model of self-giving and holiness for this country, Syria, and for the whole Church,” Fr. Arturo Sosa said April 6 during a trip commemorating the April 7, 2014 death of the priest.
Fr. van der Lugt, a native of the Netherlands, was killed by an unknown gunman. He was caring for the fewer than 30 Christians who then remained in the Old City district of Homs, which had been blockaded by the Syrian government for nearly two years as part of the Syrian civil war.
Fr. Sosa visited Homs April 5-6, and Beirut April 7, in memory of Fr. van der Lugt, delivering and address and celebrating Masses. Fr. Ziad Hilal, a Syrian Jesuit, told La Croix that Fr. Sosa was accompanied by Fr. Pascual Cebollada, the Society’s general postulator.
“According to the rules of the Church, it is necessary to wait for five years after the death of someone before introducing his or her case for beatification. It is time now to begin the process,” Fr. Hilal said.
Fr. van der Lugt served in Syria nearly 50 years, 30 of them in Homs, and was involved in interreligious dialogue and had built a spirituality center that housed children with mental disabilities.
During his April 6 address, Fr. Sosa said: “Being here with you in Homs on the eve of the 5th anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr Frans van der Lugt is a particularly important and moving moment for me … To come to Syria, to know this place where Fr. Frans lived for many years, to be one of the so many pilgrims who give thanks for what his life has meant, even without knowing him, was for me a wish, indeed a burning desire ever since I first heard about him.”
Fr. van der Lugt “loved this country, Syria, and the many and diverse people with whom he was in contact for almost 50 years, and to whom he gave himself by speaking their language, receiving everything from them and presenting himself to them with empty hands,” the superior general said.
“His whole life was in perfect harmony and in tune with these principles, and his martyrdom was the natural result of all that he had experienced.”
During the siege of Homs “Fr Frans gave himself to everyone, enduring famine and sometimes persecution. He refused to leave this place while others were still confined there. He had to give up everything except his hope and faith in life and resurrection,” Fr. Sosa reflected.
“May the Lord give us the grace, through the intercession of Fr Frans, to continue our mission with courage, determination and hope, especially in this country where there have been so many trials and so much suffering and where the challenges of reconciliation and peace continue to be so urgent and immense,” he concluded.
During his homily at a Mass in Homs April 5, Fr. Sosa said that during the blockade of Homs “Frans’ first concern was to ensure that bread would be shared to feed the few who had stayed behind.”
“He could have fled from this hell on earth so many times. However, he freely and voluntarily chose to show solidarity with each of these little ones, whom he considered to be his brothers and sisters, not wanting to abandon any of them.”
To foster interreligious unity in Syria, Fr. van der Lugt would organized multi-day walking tours to sites in the country, and days of work and activity for handicapped persons in the countryside outside Homs.
Wael Salibi, a young friend of Fr. van der Lugt, told CNA shortly after his death that “we didn’t know when we (were) suffering, when we lost the road, who was walking with him, whether he was Christian or Muslim, we are just sons of God and sons of this land, Syria … that was his target, to put Muslims and Christians together.”
“We never felt like he wasn’t Syrian. I think he’s Syrian more than anyone I know,” Salibi added. “He changed the lives of thousands of people… he taught us the meaning of love not just with words, but with life.”
In the week following Fr. van der Lugt’s death, Pope Francis said he was a man who “always did good to all, with gratuity and love,” and who was “loved and admired by both Christians and Muslims.”
Two months before his death Fr. van der Lugt told AFP that “the Syrian people have given me so much, so much kindness, inspiration and everything they have. If the Syrian people are suffering now, I want to share their pain and their difficulties.”
In the homily at his first Mass, said May 30, 1971, Fr. van der Lugt said: “It is only when my hands are empty that I can really receive the other; to fill my hands with him, to give him space in my arms, to call him by his name, speak his language. (…) I found all this in one who fascinates me to the depths of my being, a man who was able to live simply, with empty hands: Jesus of Nazareth. Knowing how to live with empty hands, he always made room in his life for his Father and for his fellow human beings”.
Jerusalem, Apr 8, 2019 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he will declare sovereignty over existing settlements in the West Bank if he is reelected prime minister. Parliamentary elections in Israel will take… […]
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