Browse past isues
Help the mission
Support the mission
Get in touch
September 2007
Each year, more than two dozens of missionaries are murdered. With the exception of a few, little is reported of them beyond the facts of their abduction or martyrdom. The majority are killed because of their commitment to justice and peace; some, because of religious intolerance.
Southeast Asian foreign ministers have agreed to set up a regional human rights commission. They have also urged military-ruled Myanmar to make quick progress on its repeated promises to implement democracy and free political prisoners, above all Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still under house arrest.
In a message marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Pope Benedict pleaded for nuclear disarmament but backed the increased peaceful use of nuclear energy to promote development for the world’s poor. The pope noted that, among its objectives, the IAEA seeks “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health, and prosperity throughout the world.”
Beijing has applauded the UN Security Council’s decision to send a new peace force of 26 thousand troops to Sudan to stop the Darfur massacre. Just after the decision, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi commented: “This is the result of concerted effort and should be fully recognized and encouraged.” The Security Council also voted on the use of force in protecting Darfur civilians. Sudan said it considered the decision to be “practical” following changes brought in shortly before the vote; among them the withdrawal of the power of peace forces to requisition arms.
Saying that the “time for simple promises has passed,” the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has supported a call from new British PM Gordon Brown to mobilize governments, business and faith-based organizations in a bid to cut poverty. Mr. Brown called for an international United Nations summit in 2008 to pressure governments to meet their commitments for reducing poverty and promoting development.
For the Holy See, eradication of poverty is a priority for the benefit of rich and poor countries alike. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said this recently at a session of the U.N. Economic and Social Council in Geneva. In his address, the Archbishop called for a re-examination of the reasons why developing countries are unable to rise above poverty, noting that the number of people living on less that $2 a day continues to rise.
The faithful can now partake in Sunday Mass and other rites on solemn occasions in the many shopping malls that dot the landscape of the Philippines, this according to Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, Archbishop of Manila.
The death seven years ago of an American missionary priest, Fr. John Kaiser, who had helped teenagers pursue rape allegations against a former Kenyan government minister, was murder and not suicide, an inquest has found.
Kidnapping has plagued Colombia since 1933. But, since the 1990s, it has become widespread, as common criminals, drug-traffickers, guerrilla groups and paramilitaries use kidnapping as a means to attain their economic or political goals.
In Iraq, priests are being abducted, often ransomed, and sometimes killed. Families are being thrown out of their homes without notice or forced to abjure their faith and embrace Islam. The biggest part of the Christian community has already fled the country.
In spite of the killings or kidnappings in Mindanao, we missionaries, priests and bishops have to be in the front line to raise the voice of hope and to build a culture of dialogue, a path to peace.
Fr. Giancarlo Bossi was kidnapped in his parish of Payao (Mindanao) by armed men under orders – he believes – of a supreme, Mafia boss style, and spent 39 days in captivity in the forests. He was prepared to endure a long captivity, but was confident that, eventually, he would be freed by his captors.
Words in Africa have weight, there is strength in them: “They create and give you life.” Some words are as solid as the yam (roots) and as sweet as kola (nuts), especially those spoken by the ancestors, who have handed them down to their descendants: for them … to eat. And to make them tastier,
they have flavored them with the oil of proverbs. The proverbs are like the oil with which we eat the words, the Igbo used to say.
There are proverbs about almost any situation that affects people’s life. Let us see some about youth, friends, thieves, justice and love:
For a poor Catholic from a rural area like me, it was not easy to come to the big city and study in a communist university. At first, I felt so bad that I wanted to quit. But my father reminded me that we, Christians, are different. And things began to change. Following Jesus changes our lives, even in communist China.
Hero of the French resistance, member of the French parliament, Abbé Pierre embodied in himself the courage of the saints and the stubbornness of the social reformers. But, above all, the tiny Franciscan priest recognized and honored in the poor our common humanity.
The trafficking of women and children and men, too, as modern slaves is the third biggest earning illegal business in the world today after illegal arms trading and drug. It is a problem that is getting worse as global poverty grows in poor countries and millions more are vulnerable to any kind of false promises of a good job.
October 2023 Issue
The latest issue is reserved for paying Subscribers only.
