Index

10/07/2020-12:19

Deborah Castellano Lubov

Pope Francis Names Mario Draghi as Member of Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

Pope Francis has named Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank,  as an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

This appointment, along with those of Professor Pedro Morandé Court and Professor Kokunre Adetokunbo Agbontaen Eghafona, to the same Academy was published in a bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, today July 10, 2020.

Born in Rome on Sept. 13, 1947, Mario Draghi graduated in Economics from the University of La Sapienza and obtained his doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1981, he became Full Professor of Economics and Monetary Policy at the “Cesare Alfieri” Faculty of the University of Florence. He was Executive Director of the World Bank and later General Manager of the Treasury of the Italian Government. He was Governor of the Bank of Italy from 2005 to 2011 and President of the Financial Stability Board from 2006 to 2011 when he became President of the European Central Bank until 2019. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and the Gruppo dei Trenta (G30).

He is also author of numerous publications, with contributions ranging from macroeconomics to international economics and monetary policy.

Professor Pedro Morandé Court is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Born in Santiago, Chile, on Aug. 3, 1948, he would go on to get his degree in Sociology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC) and a doctorate in Sociology from the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). In the UC, he was Full Professor and then Head of the Department of Sociology (1987-1990), Pro Rector (1990-1995), Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (1995 to 2014) and is currently Professor Emeritus. He specialized in Sociology of culture and religion and in Sociology of the Family with particular regard to the Latin American people and its social history. He has published numerous articles concerning the family and cultural identity of Latin America.

The distinguished Prof. Kokunre Adetokunbo Agbontaen Eghafona is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and was born on Oct. 1, 1959 in London.

She studied at the University of Benin, in Benin City, obtaining a degree in History and subsequently a Master of Arts . He also obtained a Master of Science in Archeology and Anthropology from the University of Ibadan, in Ibadan, Nigeria. In the University of Benin, she has been Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology since 1992; has become Senior Lecturer in 1996, Associate Professor in 2003, Full Professor in 2008; and has also held numerous administrative positions including: Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (2009-2013) and Director of part-time programs (2016).

She was also responsible for sustainable development within the United Nations Sustainable Solutions Network (2012-2017). She is the author of numerous academic publications. Her current scientific activities include measures to combat human trafficking in Nigeria.

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10/07/2020-10:52

Deborah Castellano Lubov

Cardinal Bo Mourns Executive Secretary of FABC’s Office of Social Communications

“As we thank the Lord for the gift of Fr Raymond Ambroise to the Church, particularly to the FABC, we commend him to the Lord who has called him to the eternal banquet He has prepared for his faithful. May He Rest in Peace…”

This is the prayer Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, as he expressed, as President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, and on the FABC’s behalf, their grief and sorrow at the sudden demise of Rev Fr Raymond Ambroise, former Executive Secretary of the FABC Office of Social Communications and consultant to Radio Veritas Asia.

Fr Ambroise passed away on July 7, 2020, after a heart attack at the Home for the Disabled, which was his home too for many years, in Secundarabad, India.

Below is the full statement of the Archbishop of Yangon:

***

Rev. Fr. Raymond Ambroise

RIP

On behalf of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC), I express our grief and sorrow at the sudden demise of Rev Fr Raymond Ambroise, former Executive Secretary of the FABC Office of Social Communications and consultant to Radio Veritas Asia. He passed away on July 07 after due to heart attack at the Home for the Disabled, which was his home too for many years, in Secundarabad, India. We express our deepest sympathies and condolences to his dear ones, particularly to his elder brother Bishop Yvon Ambroise, Chairman, FABC Office of Human Development.

Fr Raymond has been a quiet and calm missionary priest with deep love for the Church. He devoted all his energies to serve the Lord. He was a trail blazer and luminary in the field of social communication, social development, innovative educational programs and numerous other forms of pastoral ministry. An able administrator and meticulous planner, he was calm, unassuming, gentle and above all deeply spiritual in all that he did.  He handled lots of funds and projects but lived a very frugal and austere life. His deep insights and progressive thinking helped Radio Veritas Asia (RVA) migrate from Short Wave to an online service. He guided the process of transition with diligence. He was a visionary and his efforts have borne abundant fruit.   

He loved the poor as is evident in his painstaking work to found and nurture the Andhra Pradesh Social Service Society (APSS) which ensured sustainable livelihood and economic development for thousands of families. He loved to live and be at the Home for the Disabled together with hundreds of people who had no homes or relatives of their own. For the inmates of the Home, he was their Father.  

Fr Raymond celebrated his 75th birthday a few days  ago. He never retired from any work, but those who had known his abilities continued to seek his support and advice. He was always ready to render any service with utmost commitment. We never expected he would leave us so soon, but we believe that in the Lord’s reckoning he had faithfully completed the work entrusted to him. We bow in gratitude to God for the life and witness of Fr Raymond. We trust the Lord to reward him with eternal life.

In March 2019, when he completed his assignment with the FABC-OSC in a letter he addressed to many of us, he wrote these words in which we can recognize the man of God and the Church, truly and fully committed to his mission: 

As I returned to India after completing my assignment at FABC-OSC, my heart was exuberant with Joy for what God has done in my life and particularly in the last nine and half years in the field of Social Communication and Radio Veritas Asia; further with a heart filled gratitude to God for having fulfilled my desire through RVA to be a missionary in my life to bring Jesus to the teeming millions of Asians all over the world; with gratitude for the commitment that gave me a sense of fulfillment in facing all the challenges, the work entailed not only to keep up what was being done earlier but to scale it up to new heights like digitalization and migrating from SW Broadcast to Online services involving also Social Networks.

 

Back in India, I will continue with my assignments to provide alternative ‘home’ to over 420 who lost their ‘own home’ by no fault of theirs and because physically and mentally challenged, working with 250,000 rural landless women spread over 2000 villages to empower them and my third assignment as manager of a multicolor offset press belonging to Telugu Catholic Bishops’ Council to enrich the Telugu Catholic Literature. Like Mary my heart rebounds with joy and sing the grateful song of Mary. 


I thank God for having selected me to serve RVA as a Consultant from 2003 to 2009 and from 2010 to April 2019 to serve the Asian Church as the Secretary of FABC-OSC. As I always acknowledged, I consider the selection as God’s plan to use me in spite of my inadequacies. But since I was serving the Lord and it is He who selected me, I was confident that He would complement and empower me to achieve His plan for all my assignments and in particular to Radio Veritas Asia as per the demands of the new technological innovations. In all these I had to be only an instrument in His Hands. I thank God for the manifold ways by which He accompanied me to fulfill my assignment.

 

As we thank the Lord for the gift of Fr Raymond Ambroise to the Church, particularly to the FABC, we commend him to the Lord who has called him to the eternal banquet He has prepared for his faithful. May He Rest in Peace.  

 

Cardinal Charles Bo SDB

President of FABC

 

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10/07/2020-00:50

Archbishop Francesco Follo

Archbishop Follo: To be Sowers like Christ

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A –  July 12th, 2020

Roman rite

Is 55.10 to 11; Ps 65; Rom 8,18-23; Mt 13.1-23

Ambrosian rite

5th Sunday after Pentecost

Gen 11.31.32b-12.5b; Ps 104; Heb 11.1-2.8-16b; Lk 9.57-62

 

1) Outgoing sowers.

Going out is the movement of love. Commenting on Psalm 64, Saint Augustine of Hippo says: “Those who begin to love, begin to go out (Incipit exire qui incipit amare)”. Those who love go out, do not worry about their tranquility, are not self-referential, and know that they are not self-sufficient. They go towards others to make sure that everyone can experience God’s mercy listening to the Word of life and truth: Jesus Christ. Without bothering to judge, those who love sow with abundance and trust because they are aware that the whole of humanity yearns for Christ, the Word made flesh.

With the Redeemer, let us carry out our vocation as sowers “throwing” into the world the seed of the Word, which alone gives life. Although and unfortunately often, man finds difficult to perceive the need for God, in each of us there is a need for life; we need consolation and hope, things that only the Lord is able to give. The sowing of Christ, and ours with Him, is to put the divine seed of life in the earthly heart of man, increasing the awareness that God lives and wants us to live. God is glorified when man lives and when there is a positive and rich experience in our life. God is not glorified when man is mortified, when man dies. God is glorified when man lives. “I  came that they might have life – says Jesus – and that they might have it more abundantly”. This is why the Redeemer sows life in us and calls us to do the same for our brothers and sisters.

The seed, the Son of man, which descends into the heart of the earth and into the heart of man, at a certain point finds a soil that is propitious,  good, and fertile. In us, in each human being, each heart has at least one area of ​​good and beautiful soil to receive the seed. Every heart has the possibility of generating the Son, that Son who belongs to God but that is also rightly called Son of man.  As we read in the final of chapter 12, 49-50 of the Gospel of Matthew, this happens because we are given to be brothers and sisters of Jesus but also mother to him, because we can welcome him in the Word and generate him in the flesh.

When Jesus sows and seems to be experiencing difficulties and to make unnecessary efforts, he knows that his sowing will produce one hundred percent or, at least, thirty to one. So, instead of being discouraged, he takes into account the difficulties, knows how to look beyond the cross, and sees the glory. He is not stopped by fatigue because he knows that there will be an abundant harvest. On the part of Jesus, it is truly an act of trust in God the Father and in the power of the Word. He invites each of us to this trust, and he involves us in this “work” of sowers.

Going to meet others without judgments and distinctions, as Pope Francis testifies and urges the church to do, is to sow following the style of the parable, the evangelical style of simplicity and gratuitousness

2) The words of the Word that must be seeded.

The parable of today’s Roman Rite liturgy speaks of Jesus, our Savior, who wants to introduce his mission and the sense of his presence among us using the comparison of the sower.

In an earlier passage, the Evangelist St. Matthew writes: “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom” (9:35). Jesus sees himself as the one who is sent to “preach the Gospel of the Kingdom.” When Jesus begins his public ministry, he refers himself to a text from the prophet Isaiah that says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … He has anointed me to proclaim glad tidings to the poor … to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Lk 4:17-19). Jesus says that these prophetic words come true in Him: He was sent “to announce a beautiful and happy news”and to “preach the acceptable time.” This is the deep meaning of this “autobiographical parable” (Benedict XVI). As the sower goes out to plant the seed, so Jesus exits the house of Nazareth to sow in all men the good news that God saves humanity.

When Pope Francis speaks of a Church which goes forth (Evangelii gaudium 24), he is inspired by the Sower who, without succumbing to fatigue, runs through the field of the world to the places of its fragility, its worthlessness, its weaknesses, and its contradictions, even up to the point of blasphemy against Him. The Sower never ceases to throw the good seed. We might think that he throws the seed at random[1]. However, I think that we can interpret this way of sowing as the teaching of Jesus on the way to be missionaries. Mission is not about strategy or a particular activity to add to our daily existence. Mission is, above all, a matter of spreading a word full of a Presence and nourished daily by an experience of fraternity that once again, every day and to every single human being, asks the questions “Who am I?”, “Where do I come from?” and, especially, “Where am I going and why?”

Unavoidably, from these questions it emerges that the world of planning, of the exact calculation and experiment that is the knowledge of science, though important for the human life, is not enough. We need not only material bread but we need love, meaning and hope, a sure foundation, and a solid ground that helps us to live with an authentic sense even in crisis, in darkness, and in our daily difficulties and problems. We need to believe and to look at life with the eyes of faith.

Faith is not a mere intellectual assent of man to some particular truths of God. It is an act by which I entrust myself freely in a God who is our Father and loves me. It is adherence to a “You” that gives me hope, trust, and love without measure.

Faith is to believe in this love of God that never fails in front of the wickedness of man, evil or death but is capable of transforming all forms of slavery giving the possibility of salvation.

To have faith, then, is to meet the “You,” God, who sustains us and gives us an indestructible love that not only tends to but gives eternity. It is trust in God with the attitude of a child, who knows that all his difficulties and all his problems are safely in the “you” of his mother. This possibility of salvation through faith is a gift that God gives to all men.

I think that in our daily life -characterized by problems and situations at times dramatic- we should meditate more often the Word of God sown in us. This will allow us to understand that believing in a Cristian way means to abandon ourselves with trust to the deep meaning that sustains us and the world, the meaning that we are not able to give to ourselves but only to receive as a gift and that is the foundation on which we can live without fear. We must welcome this liberating and reassuring certainty of faith to announce the Word with our words and to testify it with our life as Christians.

The parable of the sewer, that is, the Lord who sows abundantly helps us to grow in the awareness and commitment to accept the Word of God and using it productively. There are many risks and many situations in which the Word of God bears no fruit, not because of the action of God, who could not be more abundant, but because of our distractions, superficiality and temptations. The sower Jesus plants the seed everywhere (it seems even wasting it), not discarding any soil but considering each one worthy of trust and attention. Thus the Church, through the Bishops, the Priests and all the Faithful, should give the Word to all and should do it tirelessly.

This is the vocation of every Christian. We are all sowers of the Word, from the Pope to the last baptized person. Not all of us are sowers to the same degree and with the same responsibilities, but we are all responsible to bring the Word to the world, knowing that the Word is our life even before being our voice.

Every morning every Christian should leave home not just to earn a material living, but also a spiritual one “going out to sow Christ, wheat that becomes Bread”, without being discouraged if some seeds were to fall on bad ground.

3) The seed and the soil.

The figure of the sower appears at the beginning of today’s parable and then disappears. The protagonists are the seed and the soil and the situation presented by the parable is the one where it seems that all is lost, and the failure of the Kingdom and of the Word is total or excessive. With this parable, Jesus tells us that it is not so. It is true that there are many failures, but it is certain that somewhere there is success. It is a lesson in trust.

In addition, it should be noted that, in this parable, Christ turns his attention to the “soil” of the souls of men and of human conscience, and shows what happens to the Word of God according to the various types of soil that make the field of humanity. Jesus speaks of a seed that was taken away and has not grown in the heart of man because he has succumbed to the evil and did not understand the Word. Then, he talks about the seed that fell on rocky ground, the hard ground where it was not able to put down roots and therefore could not resist the first test. We hear him talk about the seed that fell among thistles and thorns and was choked by them (these thistles and thorns are the illusions of well-being). Finally, He talks about the seed that fell on good fertile soil and bears fruit. Who is this fertile soil? The one who hears the word and understands it. It is not enough just to hear the Gospel of the new and eternal Covenant, which is the word of this Word made flesh. It must be accept with the mind and the heart.

Over the course of two thousand years the earth has already been thoroughly sown with this word. Christ as the Word has made fertile this ground of human history through the redemption with the blood of his cross. In the Word of the Cross his sowing continues initiating “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21: 1). All the sowers of the Word of Christ draw the strength of their service from the unspeakable mystery that has become – once and for all – the union of God the Word to human nature and to every man (such as the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in Gaudium et Spes, 22). The words of the Gospel fall on the soil of the souls of men, but  above all the Eternal Word itself, generated from the Virgin-Mother by the work of the Holy Spirit, has become a source of life for humanity.

May the Virgin Mary help us to be like her, “good soil” where the seed of the Word will bear much fruit.

The consecrated Virgins in the world are among those who have, in a particular way, taken to model the Virgin Mary. Following the example of Mary, their word becomes prayer, gratitude, and gift of love. With this gift of love their word becomes a proclamation of the Word of truth that unites man to the loving life of God. In the virginal gift of self they recognize that Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, is King of Love in whose merciful goodness it is reasonable to have a complete trust. With their lives they prove the truth of the sentences of Saint Ambrose “Your word is kept not in the tomb of the dead, but in the book of the living” (see patristic reading below).

 

          Patristic Reading

Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (340 – 397)

On the Mysteries Nn 1-7

SC 25 bis, 156-158)

We gave a daily instruction on right conduct when the readings were taken from the history of the patriarchs or the maxims of Proverbs. These readings were intended to instruct and train you, so that you might grow accustomed to the ways of our forefathers, entering into their paths and walking in their footsteps, in obedience to God’s commands. Now the season reminds us that we must speak of the mysteries, setting forth the meaning of the sacraments. If we had thought fit to teach these things to those not yet initiated through baptism, we should be considered traitors rather than teachers. Then, too, the light of the mysteries is of itself more effective where people do not know what to expect than where some instruction has been given beforehand. Open then your ears. Enjoy the fragrance of eternal life, breathed on you by means of the sacraments. We explained this to you as we celebrated the mystery of “the opening” when we said: Effetha, that is, be opened. Everyone who was to come for the grace of baptism had to understand what he was to be asked, and must remember what he was to answer. This mystery was celebrated by Christ when he healed the man who was deaf and dumb, in the Gospel which we proclaimed to you. After this, the holy of holies was opened up for you; you entered into the sacred place of regeneration. Recall what you were asked; remember what you answered. You renounced the devil and his works, the world and its dissipation and sensuality. Your words are recorded, not on a monument to the dead but in the book of the living.There you saw the Levite, you saw the priest, and you saw the high priest. Do not consider their outward form but the grace given by their ministries. You spoke in the presence of angels, as it is written: The lips of a priest guard knowledge, and men seek the law from his mouth, for he is the angel of the Lord almighty. There is no room for deception, no room for denial. He is an angel whose message is the kingdom of Christ and eternal life. You must judge him, not by his appearance but by his office. Remember what he handed on to you, weigh up his value, and so acknowledge his standing. You entered to confront your enemy, for you intended to renounce him to his face. You turned toward the east, for one who renounces the devil turns toward Christ and fixes his gaze directly on him.

[1] To  well understand the parable, it should be borne in mind that this is not an incapable sower who sows the seed where it happens. At the time of Christ’s earthly life, the fields were not like the current ones, especially those in the developed world. They were barely polished and not homogeneous soils with stones, brambles etc. So Jesus refers to this type of field, which was not plowed before sowing but after: the seed was spread in all parts of the field, even on the paths that crossed it and in the stony or brambled areas. For this reason a lot of seed was lost (three quarters according to the parable, which intentionally accentuates the situation). But the end result, that is, the yield of the seed that fell on the good earth, compensated for all the losses.

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10/07/2020-07:23

ZENIT Staff

Algeria – in the Steps of Charles de Foucauld

On May 27 this year Pope Francis recognized the attribution of a second miracle to Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), thereby paving the way for his canonization. Murdered in Tamanrasset in the south of Algeria, deep in the Sahara, this celebrated French hermit and former cavalry officer, converted radically at the age of 28 and thereafter lived a contemplative life abandoned to the will of the Father and centered on the Eucharist.

At the age of 32 he became a Trappist monk, then seven years later left the Cistercian life and worked for three years in Nazareth as a general handyman for the Poor Clare nuns. He divided his time between manual work, Eucharistic adoration, and meditating on Scripture, especially on the Hidden Life of Jesus in Nazareth, deciding to imitate Him in his silence and discretion. He later felt called to become a priest in order to be able to reach the remotest people. Ordained on 9 June 1901, he settled first in southern Morocco in Beni-Abbès. Here he built, not so much a hermitage, but a fraternity, a «Khaoua», a place open to all, whether Christians, Muslims or Jews. Always attentive to the poor, ransoming slaves, offering hospitality to all who passed by, he divided his time between long hours of prayer (especially at night), manual and agricultural labor, and hospitality towards all who visited.

In 1905 Charles de Foucauld finally settled in Tamanrasset, in the Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, in order to live among the Tuareg people, isolated from the world by the desert. He wanted to live as a brother to all, giving freely, without preaching, respecting all and making no distinction as to their religion or origin, while living a very simple and austere life.

“Having been living in Tamanrasset for the past 20 years and more, I was filled with an interior joy on hearing of the forthcoming canonization of Charles de Foucauld, which has renewed my faith and given new life to my presence in this Muslim country,” Sister Martine Devriendt told ACN recently. A member of the congregation of the Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart, whose spirituality is inspired by the saint-to-be, she added: “The news of this canonization confirms officially in the Church the intuitions of this man, and the more so since these intuitions seem to me to be extremely relevant in the place we are living – prayer, austerity of life, closeness to all who are vulnerable.” And indeed, here in Tamanrasset, no more than a little village at the beginning of the 20th century but now grown to a sizeable city of some 150,000 souls, the vocation of the sisters, like that of Charles de Foucauld in his time, is manifested by a spirit of fraternal presence, discreet and contemplative, and a life of service in the midst of the Muslims of the country, and without any shadow of proselytism. In the authentic spirit of Charles de Foucauld, who wrote in his Notebooks from Tamanrasset “My apostolate is to be the apostolate of kindness. In seeing me, people should be able to say, ‘Because this man is good, his religion must also be good’. If people ask me why I am kind and gentle, I should be able to say, ‘Because I am the servant of one who is far more good than I am. If only you knew just how good he is, my Master JESUS’.”

The congregation of the Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart is one of a dozen or so religious congregations informed, as lay institutions, by the spirituality of the future Saint. Contemplatives, while living in the world, the Little Sisters were founded in 1933 and settled in Tamanrasset in 1952, very close to the original hermitage of Blessed Charles, where he spent the last 11 years of his life.

As Sister Martine explained to ACN, the female Christian presence in Tamanrasset is important, because women can go into the families and thereby have access to all levels of the Muslim population, particularly the poorest and most needy – the women, the children and especially those suffering various handicaps, of whom there are very many. Their work includes counseling and supporting women, home visits, hospital visits, prison visiting and even helping in administrative and medical matters or at times of funerals and festivities.

Moreover, Tamanrasset, in the far south of the diocese of Laghouat-Ghardaïa, has become a crossroads where all of Algeria and Africa meet. The local people are Harratins, Tuaregs, and they rub shoulders with other Algerians from every region of the country – Arabs, Kabyles, Mozabites… The years of terrorism (1992-2000) drove many people from the North of the country to seek a quieter life in this region, which also has many migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Those from Niger and Mali come here to work and the «other sub-Saharans» are hoping to be able to get to Europe. Many among these are Christians and for them, the sisters are a source of comfort and spiritual support, «a mission we share with the three Little Brothers of Jesus in Tamanrasset and shortly a new priest, who is waiting for his visa. It is 15 months now and we have had no priest for the parish», Sister Martine explains to ACN.

For the past five years, Sister Martine has been the only member of the community living here, after the older sisters have to return to France. For the congregation, it is a priority to re-establish a real presence and spirit of Christian and feminine fraternity in Tamanrasset.  «As with many other congregations, especially in remote frontier regions, we can no longer maintain these communities on our own, owing to the shortage of vocations. We can no longer think of communities of sisters of the same congregation or the same spirituality. We now have to achieve a fraternity and diversity of the charisms of the various congregations and of lay religious women who are willing to commit themselves for a greater or lesser period», wrote the sisters in September 2019.

At that time they were appealing for donations for rebuilding their existing accommodation, in order to be able to offer a better welcome, in terms of autonomy and security, to those women who might feel called to live the life of their apostolate in Tamanrasset. ACN has decided to co-fund this project. «Your positive approval coincided with the announcement of the forthcoming canonization of Charles de Foucauld – which is providential and which makes our project even more relevant», writes Sister Isabel Lara Jaén, the General Prioress of the Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The original building, built in mud (toub) had to be abandoned since it was inconvenient, difficult to maintain, complicated to renovate, lacking comfort (smaller rooms, lack of light and air, outside toilets…), and has now been completely demolished. The construction of four studios will give the necessary independence to women coming from a very different background, and while guaranteeing a considerable degree of autonomy will also have a common missionary project in the form of a life of prayer and solidarity in the midst of the Muslim population and among the Christian migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

The major work on the project is now complete, while the finishing work should be done by the beginning of autumn. In parallel with their search for aid on September 19, the sisters had also launched an appeal in the Catholic journal La Croix, inviting both lay and religious women who might wish to live for at least a year in the fraternity. «Some people were due to come and see, but the Covid-19 pandemic has stopped all travel in recent months. But the appeal is still very much alive!» Sister Martine is in no way discouraged by this setback.

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10/07/2020-08:38

Fionn Shiner

Farewell to the Fearless Good Samaritan

A priest, who is retiring from a leading Catholic charity after 14 years risking his life to bring aid to the Church in need, has been named a modern-day Good Samaritan by Iraq’s most senior Christian leader.

Monsignor Andrzej Halemba served as Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) projects coordinator for Asia-Africa, covering hot spots including Syria, Iraq, and Eritrea – countries across the Middle East and parts of South Asia.

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Cardinal Raphael I Sako of Baghdad honored the 65-year-old Pole with the title Chorbishop, equivalent to monsignor in the Western (Latin) Church.

Describing the monsignor as “the Good Samaritan of today”, Patriarch Sako said Mgr Halemba “was always present with us, building housing caravans for the displaced, polyclinics and schools and everything.”

Dr Thomas Heine-Geldern, Executive President of ACN (International), said that he “has repeatedly put his life on the line, going to places of acute danger in the service of the suffering Church.

“His faith, his courage, his organizational ability, his good humor, his language skills, and his professionalism – these qualities, and many more he has harnessed for the good of persecuted faithful. When they needed somebody for them, he came to their aid.”

Mgr Halemba’s ministry had been largely confined to Europe and Africa until 2010 when ACN appointed him to lead the charity’s project outreach to the Middle East at a time of unprecedented upheaval in the run-up to the Arab Spring.

Traveling repeatedly into Syria and Iraq during the height of the Daesh (ISIS) invasion, the monsignor significantly up-scaled the charity’s work, providing emergency relief as well as pastoral aid for hundreds of thousands of people, especially Christians.

His task was to enable persecuted Christians to find refuge and in due course enable – where possible – their return home once occupying Islamist forces had been forced into retreat.

The monsignor’s aid programs are credited with slowing the exodus of faithful, in a region where Christianity has been threatened with extinction.

Mgr Halemba worked to bring closer cooperation between the many different Catholic and Orthodox Church communities and was frequently commended for his emphasis on ecumenism.

ACN (UK) Head of Press and Information John Pontifex, who traveled with him extensively in the Middle East and Pakistan, said: “In every respect, Mgr Halemba has made a huge impact – his capacity for work is matched only by his unfailing compassion for those he serves.”

Mgr Halemba, who stressed that he was always inspired by Father Werenfried van Straaten, the founder of ACN, said: “What always needs to be stressed is the spiritual character of ACN as we can never become a secular, humanitarian agency.

“Instead, we are a Catholic charity, helping people to live the life of Christ – we enable people to respond to the needs and suffering of humanity, and above all we are there to dress the wounds of the bleeding Church and dry the tears of the God who weeps.”

Last year, the President of Poland awarded the Polish priest with the golden cross of merit.

For his work helping refugee Christians fleeing from Syria to Lebanon, in 2015 Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Issam John Darwish of Zahle and Furzol in eastern Lebanon, named Mgr Halemba an Archimandrite, an honorific title.

In his first four years with ACN, starting in 2006, Mgr Halemba was project coordinator for English and Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa, drawing on more than 12 years as a missionary in Zambia.

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10/07/2020-08:46

ZENIT Staff

Cinematographic Work to Tell Story of Copts Killed in Libya by Jihadists

The first cinematographic work dedicated to the 20 Coptic Christians beheaded in 2015 by the jihadists together with their Ghanaian workmate will be entitled “Martyrs of the faith and the nation”. The initiative starts with the blessing of Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros and will be carried out under the supervision of Anba Pavnotios, Coptic Orthodox Bishop of Samalut, reported Fides News Agency.

In a recent press release issued by the same diocese of Samalut, the imminent start of filming was announced, already last January and postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic. The collection of testimonials and materials useful for the drafting and revision of the script, entrusted to the writer Mina Magdy, already started a long time ago. The text of the script is also based on the stories of the family members of the martyrs, almost all natives of the Samalut region. Before reaching the climax of the scenes concerning the martyrdom, the discovery of the bodies in a mass grave and the return of the remains to Egypt, the text to be transformed into a film traces the lives of young Copts killed by jihadists, caught in the warp of their daily and family life, marked by efforts, hopes, and desires for a better future. The same desires that had pushed the martyrs also to emigrate to Libya, looking for a decent and useful job to support their families.

The direction of the work is entrusted to the filmmaker Yussef Nabil. The announcement of the plan of the work and of the beginning of the works – explains on Wataninet.com Nader Shoukry, member of the commission charged with reviewing the script – also aims to seek subsidies to support the ambitious work plan. The press release issued by the diocese of Samalut also reports the message released by the filmmakers involved in the project, who ask everyone “to pray that the Lord will complete the work with us, helping us to make the film in the best way, so that it becomes a testimony of the strength of the martyrs, for all future generations”.

The 20 Egyptian Copts and their Ghanaian workmate were kidnapped in Libya in early January 2015. The video of their beheading was put online by jihadist websites on February 15th. Just a week after the news of the massacre, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II decided to register the 21 martyrs in the Synaxarium, the book of the martyrs of the Coptic Church, establishing that their memory is celebrated on February 15.

The mortal remains of the Copts killed in Libya by the jihadists were identified at the end of September 2017 in a mass grave on the Libyan coast, near the city of Sirte. Their bodies had been found with their hands tied behind their backs, dressed in the same orange suits that they wore in the macabre video filmed by the executioners at the time of their beheading.

This year, the “Coptic martyrs of Libya” were celebrated in a solemn form in the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Samalut on the fifth anniversary of their martyrdom. The celebrations, which took place from 1st to 16th February, took place at the church and at the museum-shrine dedicated to martyrs, built in record time in Samalut with the concrete support of the Egyptian government.

“The video depicting their execution – said Anba Antonios Aziz Mina, Coptic Catholic Bishop Emeritus of Guizeh after the massacre of the 21 martyrs, to Agenzia Fides – was built as a horrendous film staging, with the intent to spread terror. Yet, in that diabolical product of fiction and bloodthirsty horror, it is seen that some of the martyrs, in the moment of their barbaric execution, repeat ‘Lord Jesus Christ’. The name of Jesus was the last word on their lips. As in the passion of the first martyrs, they entrusted themselves to the One who would soon welcome them. And so they celebrated their victory, the victory that no executioner can take away from them. That name whispered in the last moment was like the seal of their martyrdom”.

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10/07/2020-09:26

Anita Bourdin

At Bambino Gesu, Siamese Twins Joined at the Head Are Successfully Separated

The headlines on RAI’s television news program on July 7, 2020 reported the successful operation of Siamese twins, joined at the head, at the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Paediatric Hospital in Rome.

The case, of the two little girls from the Central African Republic, was studied for a year before the operation took place.

What is their mother Erminia’s dream now? That the girls “become doctors and give back to others what they received.” She would also like the girls to be baptized by Pope Francis.

This “extraordinary intervention” was prepared for over a year of study and in several surgical phases, specified in Italian a press release of the Hospital. The little girls, who arrived in Rome from Africa, were conjoined at the head, with “one of the rarest and most complex forms of cranial and cerebral fusion.” They “shared the bone of the posterior area of the cranium and the venous system. They are fine now.”

We translate the greater part of the press release, except for certain technical details. The remarks of specialists that point out our errors on the technical terms will be welcome.

“It’s the first case in Italy — and probably the only one in the world (similar operations aren’t described in the literature) — of a successful intervention on a pair of total posterior craniopagus, one of the rarest forms of fusion and the most complex at the cranial and cerebral level.  Joined at the back of the head, they had the cranium in common and a large part of the venous system. More than a year of preparation and study, with the aid of advanced imagery systems and surgical simulation, ended in three very delicate interventions. The last, the definitive separation on June 5 of this year, was an 18-hour operation involving more than 30 persons, between doctors and nurses. A month later, the little girls are doing well. The have just celebrated their 2nd birthday and are hospitalized in the neurosurgical service sector of the Holy See’s Hospital, in two beds next to each other <and are> with their mother.”

The Pope’s Meeting at Bangui’s Hospital

“In July 2018, the President of the Vatican’s Hospital, Mariella Enoc, was on mission in Central Africa, in the capital Bangui, to follow the extension works of the paediatric facilities desired by Pope Francis. It was there that she met the newborn twins and decided to take them in hand, bringing them to Rome to give them a better chance of survival. . “When you meet with lives that can be saved, that must be done. We cannot and must not look the other way,” said President Enoc during a press conference on July 7.”

“Ervina and Prefina were born in the Medical Center of Mbaiki, a village 100 kilometers from Bangui. Their mother, Erminia, and the doctors only discovered that they were Siamese twins at the moment of the delivery by cesarean. However, the small health center was not equipped to handle the case, so the family was taken to the Central African capital.”

Arrival at Rome’s “Bambino Gesu”

“The mother and twins arrived in Italy on September 10, 2018 in the framework of the international humanitarian activities of the Holy See’s Paediatric Hospital. After some months at the Bambino Gesu of Palidoro, where they began a course of neuro re-education, the children were transferred to the neurosurgical service of the Janiculum for studies on the feasibility of the separation procedures. The first studies confirmed that the twins were in general good health; the neurological and clinical parameters were normal. However, there was a difference of arterial pressure: the heart of one of the little girls worked harder to maintain the physiological balance of the organs of the two, including the brain.”

Conjoined but Different

“Ervina and Prefina were joined in the parietal and occipital region of the cranium., that is, a large surface at the back of the head which includes the nape of the neck. They had cranial bones and skin in common; at a deeper level, they shared the <sickle> and the tentorium (fibrous membranes that separate the two cerebral hemispheres and those of the cerebellum) as well as a large part of the venous system (the network of vessels in charge of transporting the blood used by the brain to the heart to be re-oxygenated) which represented the most difficult challenge, for the neurosurgical team of the Bambino Gesu, in planning the interventions. From the fact of this particular conformation, the little girls entered the very rare category of “total” craniopagus twins, joined, that is, at the cranial and cerebral level. They had many things in common, except for different and distinct personalities: Prefina <is> playful and animated, Ervina more serious and attentive. A system of mirrors was used in the framework of the process of re-education to make them <get to> know each other and recognize each other, also by visual contact, before the separation.”

A Study that Lasted Over a Year

“The case of Ervina and Prefina was very difficult. To have them survive separately, all aspects had to be studied, planned down to the least detail.  With this objective, a multi-disciplinary group was formed, made up of neurosurgeons, anesthetists, neuroradiologists, plastic surgeons, neuro re-educators, engineers, nurses in different specialized domains and physiotherapists.

The Ethics Committee was involved and shared a therapeutic course that could give the two girls the same chances of quality of life. The Bambino Gesu team developed the program on the basis of experience acquired with previous cases of successfully separated Siamese twins. Over the month, the twins were also prepared for the separation: with neuro re-education, they attained a level of cognitive and motor development similar to that of their peers. With the aid of numerous postural systems, which helped them pass their days in the best position possible, they faced the complex phases of the treatment. Thanks to a system of mirrors, they learned to recognize each other’s face and expressions and to establish a visual relationship. “

“Before passing to the surgical phases, the complex case of the Bangui twins was also presented and discussed at the international level, at New Delhi in India, where the first world conference was held of Siamese twins surgery in February 2019. In the Hospital’s history, it was the fourth case of separation of Siamese twins: in 2017, Algerian twins were joined at the chest and abdomen (thoraco-omphalopagus twins) and little Burundians joined at the sacrum (pygopagus twins). The first operation of this type took place in the 80s on two boys joined at the chest and abdomen.”

The Three Stages of Separation 

“The great challenge for the success of the separation was the cerebral venous — the network of blood vessels (sinus veineux) system that the twins shared in several places. The surgery of the venous structures of the brain is complex and the risk of bleeding and ischemia is high the Bambino Gesus’s neurosurgical team decided to proceed by stages: three very delicate interventions to reconstruct progressively two independent venous systems capable of containing the flow of blood that circulates from the brain to the heart.”

“The first intervention: in May 2019 the twins entered the operating room to begin to fashion new autonomous venous structures: the neurosurgeons separated a part of the tentorium and the first of two common transversal sinuses that will affect each of the girls; then, with bio-compatible materials, they reconstructed a membrane capable of maintaining the divided cerebral structure before the definitive separation.”

“The second intervention was in June 2019. The team, assisted by an anesthetist group separated the superior sagittal sinuses (the posterior half of the venous channels that extend between the two cerebral hemispheres) and the point of junction of the venous sinuses of the brain (. . . ). It was a crucial phase: the operational space is of some millimeters and the neurosurgeons proceeded under the direction of a neuro-navigator. “

“A year later, June 5, 2020, was the moment of the definitive separation. The little girls had grown, the new venous architecture was consolidated and functioning; the portion of skin necessary to cover the cranium of each of the little ones was enlarged with “expanders,” positioned some months earlier with a series of plastic surgery operations and <then> the last phase could be launched. A team of over 30 persons was ready in the operating room, including doctors, surgeons and nurses. The operation lasted 18 hours: first the skin “expanders” were removed, then the second transversal sinus and its tentorium were separated; finally, the bones of the cranium that kept the two little girls together were divided. Once the twins were separated, the operation continued in two different operating rooms, with two distinct teams, to reconstruct the membrane that covers the brain, remodel the cranium’s bones and recreate the mucous skin.”

“It was an exciting moment, a fantastic and unforgettable experience,” said Carlo Marras, Head of Neurosurgery at the Bambino Gesu, and of the team that cared for the twins. “It was a very ambitious objective and we did everything possible to attain it, with passion, optimism and joy, sharing each stage and studying each detail together.”

The Role of Technology: 3-D Reconstruction and Neuro-navigator.

“Each phase of the twins’ itinerary was studied and planned with the help of advanced imagery systems available at the Hospital: computed tomography and three-dimensional magnetic resonances, 4D angiography, 3D reconstruction software, neuro-simulator. Thanks to these technologies, combined with one another, the little girls’ cranium was recreated in 3D with all the internal anatomic details, including the vascular network. As things progressed, it was possible to evaluate the functionality of the individual cerebral structures, to quantify the blood flow and to make a prediction on the functioning of the new system after the interventions. The most advanced neuro-navigation systems were used in the operating room. Particularly useful tools, in such complex and rare cases, which point out to the surgeon, with millimetric precision, the position of the most delicate structures.”

Ervina’s and Prefina’s Future

“A month after the definitive separation, the twins are doing well. <After> a few follow-up days in intensive care, they returned to their room, a room with two simple beds. On June 29 they celebrated their second birthday, looking at each other in the eyes, moving their small hands to the rhythm of the music, in their mother’s arms. They went through very difficult operations; the wounds will take time to heal; the risk of infection is always present. The neuro re-education program continues and in a few months they will have to wear a protective helmet. However, the post-operational controls indicate that the brain <in each one> is intact. The recreated system is functioning, the blood flow has adapted to the new way. The doctors of the Neuro-Sciences Department explained that <the girls> are in a state that will give them the opportunity to grow normally both from the motor as well as the cognitive point of view, and to lead a normal life, as all girls of their age.”

“Moved, after today’s press conference, their mother, Erminia, thanked the Hospital and all the persons that took care of her children: “Ervina and Prefina were born twice. If we had stayed in Africa, I don’t know what fate they would have had. Now that they are separated and doing well, I would like them to be baptized by Pope Francis, who has always taken care of the children of Bangui. My little ones can now grow, study and become doctors to save other children.”

Total Posterior Craniopagus Is Very Rare

The birth of Siamese twins is a very rare event and, among the different types, the twins joined at the head (craniopagus) are the rarest: one case in 2.5 million live births, five cases out of 100,000 twins, in particular for girls. In the scientific literature, only some ten cases are described. Craniopagus is defined as “partial” when the contact point between the two heads is limited to bones and skin; “total” when the fusion includes the cerebral structures and, in particular, the venous system.  There are also differences among total craniopagus: the most “common” are twins joined at the top of the head <vertical craniopagus), rarer are those joined at the nape of the neck (posterior craniopagus).”

“According to the available data a few years ago, 40% of craniopagus <twins> were dead at birth. For the remaining 60%, the hope of life has not surpassed 10 years. Up to the 60s, the attempts at separation of total craniopagus <cases> had a mortality rate close to 100%.  Thereafter, with the development of technology and the introduction of phased surgery, the survival, the attempts and the quality of life have increased. In the course of the last 20 years, there have been in Europe two total craniopagus <twins> separated successfully: they are two pairs of twins joined at the top of the head (vertical) operated on in several stages in London. No case is described in the literature, however, with the characteristics of the Bangui twins, with total craniopagus joined at the base of the neck (posterior).”

 

 

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10/07/2020-11:38

ZENIT Staff

Central American Bishops Support Nicaraguan Bishops During Pandemic

The Church of Central America has given strong support to Nicaraguan bishops who speak and act to protect the most vulnerable population facing the Covid-19 pandemic. In a message, the Presidency Council of the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America (SEDAC) expressed closeness and full support for the actions of the Nicaraguan Church in the context of the health crisis, reported Fides News Agency.

“We express our closeness and solidarity with the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, for their great concern and generous action in favor of the health and life of the beloved Nicaraguan people”, says the Council, represented by Mgr. José Luis Escobar Alas and Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, both from El Salvador.

In a message released on July 3, the Church in the region also invites governments and citizens to join efforts “in favor of people’s health and life”. “Nobody should be forgotten!” stresses the Bishops’ text, remembering that “we are all in the same boat” and “we all must get involved. Governments and citizens must join together in a common effort in favor of health and people’s lives. In addition, we all must comply with the health security measures to protect the lives of our brothers and sisters”, they say.

Since April 2018, the administration of President Daniel Ortega has attacked the Catholic Church and, in particular, priests who make harsh criticisms of repression, crimes, and violations of rights and freedoms.

Mgr. Rolando Álvarez, one of the most respected voices in the Catholic hierarchy, had announced a plan to allow prevention and medical care centers to deal with suspected cases of coronavirus in Matagalpa, which was prohibited by the Ministry of Health. The institution is criticized for centralizing information and blocking all types of help that organizations or individuals seek to provide to the most vulnerable, taking into account the limitations of the public health system.

In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega has ruled out a quarantine declaration and defended “normality” with the argument of protecting the survival of the poorest. However, he limited his few public appearances to television messages. To date, the Ministry of Health does not recognize that Nicaragua is experiencing a health emergency. The official figures reported are minimal: 83 deaths and 2,519 cases. While the Covid-19 Citizens’ Observatory, made up of independent experts, registers 7,402 suspected cases, according to data as of July 1. The total death toll is 2,087.

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10/07/2020-15:02

ZENIT Staff

Pope Appoints Metropolitan Archbishop of Santiago de Guatemala

The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Gonzalo De Villa y Vásquez, S.J., as metropolitan archbishop of the archdiocese of Santiago de Guatemala, Guatemala, transferring him from the diocese of Sololá-Chimaltenango.

Archbishop-elect Gonzalo De Villa y Vásquez, S.J.

Archbishop-elect Gonzalo De Villa y Vásquez, S.J., was born on April 28, 1954, in Madrid, Spain. In 1974 he entered the novitiate of the Jesuits in the Dominican Republic. He studied philosophy in Mexico at the “Instituto Libre de Filosofia” and obtained a civil licentiate in “Humanidades”. He specialized in philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua. He carried out his studies in theology at the “Instituto de Teologia para Religiosos” in Caracas, Venezuela. In Canada, he obtained a master’s degree in “Pensamiento Social y Politico” at the University of York in Toronto, and, subsequently, a diploma in Latin American studies.

He was ordained a priest in Panama on August 13, 1983. He gave his religious vows in the Society of Jesus on 6 February 1993.

As a priest, he held the following roles: professor of philosophy at the Universidad de Centro América in Managua, Nicaragua, and professor of religion in Saint Ignatius College in Caracas, Venezuela. In Guatemala, he was: professor of philosophy and political science at Rafael Landívar University, professor of philosophy in the National Major Seminary of Guatemala, vice-dean and dean of the Faculty of Political Science at Rafael Landívar University, delegate provincial superior of the Society of Jesus for Central America, parish priest of the Saint Anthony parish, Superior of various religious houses of the Society of Jesus in Guatemala and Rector of Rafael Landívar University.

On July 9, 2004, he was appointed titular bishop of Rotaria and auxiliary of the metropolitan archdiocese of Santiago de Guatemala, receiving episcopal ordination the following September 25. On July 28, 2007, he was transferred to the diocese of Sololá-Chimaltenango.

From October 2, 2010, to July 14, 2011, he was apostolic administrator of the metropolitan archdiocese of Los Altos Quetzaltenango-Totonicapán.

In 2017 he was elected president of the Episcopal Conference for a three-year term, and in 2020 he was reconfirmed in the same role for a further three years.

 

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10/07/2020-15:24

ZENIT Staff

Kidnapped Pakistani Christian Girl Now Pregnant from Rape

By Massimiliano Tubani and John Newton

A kidnapped Christian girl in Pakistan has phoned her parents to say she is pregnant after being raped by her abductor, who has imprisoned her in one room of his house.

Tabassum Yousaf, the lawyer fighting for the freedom of 15-year-old Catholic girl Huma Younus who was kidnapped in October 2019 and forced to convert to Islam, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the abducted teen had managed to contact her parents and update them.

Yousaf said: “Huma has telephoned her parents, telling them that she has now become pregnant as a result of the sexual violence she has been subjected to.

“Asked by her father if she could leave her abductor’s house and return to her parents’ home, she told him that she is not allowed to leave the house and that her life has become still more difficult since she is now imprisoned within the walls of one room.”

The lawyer added that Mukhtiar – the brother of the kidnapper, Abdul Jabbar, and a member of the Pakistan Rangers, the federal paramilitary security force – had threatened the family.

Yousaf said: “This man has contacted Huma’s parents via video telephone calls and threatened them directly, showing them his weapons and telling them he would kill them if ever they should come looking for their daughter.

“This same man, Mukhtiar, has added in audio messages that even if all the Christians should band together to bring Huma back, he would kill both her parents and anyone who tried to help them.”

The case was due to be heard on appeal at Sindh High Court on Monday (13th July) but the court is shut because of COVID-19 and the hearing has been postponed.

Previously the case had been dismissed by a magistrates’ court in Karachi, but following the appeal the magistrate had contacted NADRA – the official public records’ authority – to obtain Huma’s birth certificate.

During the original case, Yousaf had submitted a sworn statement from Huma’s school and a baptism certificate from St James’s Church, Karachi both showing Huma Younus’s date of birth as 22nd May 2005.

She said that Abdul Jabbar’s lawyer is exploiting every legal loophole to gain time because in three years the teenager will be 18 years old – at which point the case will be probably be dismissed as Huma Younus will no longer be a minor.

According to the Younuis family’s lawyer: “Justice delayed is justice denied, hence every delay in reaching a judgement on the defense of the rights of religious minorities represents a denial of these rights.

“The court has delayed and continues to delay justice on behalf of Huma, solely because she is an underage Christian girl.

“If a similar case were to happen in regard to an underage Muslim girl, all the authorities would act immediately.

“As a lawyer, I am certain that the president of the Pakistani Supreme Court could grant justice to the parents of the girl and to Huma herself, however, at every other lower level of the judicial system justice for the minorities will not be possible.”

As a charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, ACN is supporting victims of injustice in Pakistan, providing legal and paralegal aid and support for individuals, especially women, forced into hiding following false accusations and threats of violence and kidnapping.

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10/07/2020-15:39

ZENIT Staff

English Bishop Likens Carers to Stonemasons

Bishop Tom Williams, Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool, England, celebrated a special Mass for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with a particular focus on those caring for and helping the sick and vulnerable in society.

Bishop Williams, who worked as a hospital chaplain for many years, used his homily, preached in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, to herald the tireless efforts of frontline carers.

Listen

You can listen to the homily here.

Full Homily

This evening’s Mass from the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral is an invitation to all who are sharing and joining in to pray – and pray the prayer of Psalm 50.

This is one line: “Dear Lord, indeed you love truth in the heart, then, in the secret of your heart, teach me wisdom.” Now, those of you who are carers and have cared for others in these COVID times, you may have asked yourself the question that my mother frequently posed in times of frustration, difficulty, and stress – and there were many of them in her life. She’d raise her eyes to heaven and simply say, “Dear God, why, oh, why do I bother?” She had a strong faith – a faith that never wavered. But that didn’t stop her from continually asking the same question. I am certain that there are many of you, me included, and particularly those on the front line of caring, who have expressed, and often, exactly the same sentiment.

There’s a well-known tale which many of you may have heard before, and it may be fictitious, but it’s still worth telling. It was during the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London when the architect, Sir Christopher Wren, visited the site in the middle of the construction. He approached a workbench where three stonemasons were busily carving away. To each one, he asked the same question: What are you doing and why?

He received three contrasting answers. The first replied, “I’m carving this piece of stone as best as I am able. It’s my job. I have a wife and three children to feed. And this is how I do it.” The second said, “I am a stonemason of forty years experience, and it’s a privilege to be able to use my skills and crafts in this way with the gifts that God has given me.”

The third mason simply said, “Thanks to you, I’m building a beautiful cathedral.” Now, they were three excellent answers, but only one had that extra vision and understanding of the whole picture – and especially of his own small but essential part in what the architects’ wonderful design was to become. If that story is true, and I hope it is, I hope also that Sir Christopher Wren gave the job of carving the cornerstone of that cathedral to that same third mason.

As people of faith, we believe that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, our seat of wisdom and understanding is our cornerstone. And we are His great design – His cathedral.

A special thank you tonight to each and every one of you that form the Caritas network of England and Wales. This Mass is especially for you. It’s a network made up of 48 Catholic, diocesan, and specialist Christian charities serving the poor and the vulnerable. Thanks to all of you. Each of you is working on that same workbench of our cathedral. Each of you has been stonemasons, carving the presence of Christ to those you meet – whether you know it or not. Whether you’re stonemason one, two, or three, it is in the secret of your own hearts that you will find the wisdom of your actions.

Thank you and God bless you all.

In the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

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