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August 2011

August 10

‘Looking for a refill’ in Madrid

August 10, 2011

TORONTO - Krystal Pereira was a pilgrim from Abu Dhabi who came to Toronto for World Youth Day in 2002. Almost 10 years later, she is gearing up for World Youth Day in Madrid as a Canadian pilgrim. And just as her home has changed over the years, so has she. Her goal this time around? To have an open mind and heart and to be ready to learn from the experience. “My last World Youth Day experience was kind of like a gas station for my life,” said Pereira. “It fuelled me up with hope and excitement to face the next part of my life. So I guess I’m looking for a refill.” Pereira won’t be the only one. She will be joined by an estimated one-million pilgrims at the gathering together of Pope Benedict XVI with youth and young adults from around the world. The 11th international World Youth Day officially begins Aug. 16 and ends Aug. 21.

Jesuit congress marks four centuries in Canada

August 10, 2011

About 200 Jesuits and their lay collaborators gathered at Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, Ont., from July 27 to 31 to “remember and renew without counting the cost.” The congress for the Jesuits in English Canada celebrated the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Jesuits to Canada on May 22, 1611. “We decided that we would use this celebration not only to remember this foundational event but also to gather all the Jesuits from English Canada plus those who work with us in significant roles in our ministries across the country,” said Fr. Erik Oland, a member of the organizing committee which began meeting about two years ago to plan the congress. In addition, a substantial delegation of French Canadian Jesuits and one member of the Hungarian Jesuits in Canada were in attendance.

Into the darkness, where we can let go

August 10, 2011

In a retreat I led, we talked about healing broken relationships: not just fixing something, but the new life that can come out of broken places. In the process, a real life is established, for underneath the relationship that broke is a life in need of deep healing. Forgiveness can’t happen unless we’re willing to let go of winning or losing, being right or wrong. (Fortunately, God forgives — thereby unlocking the door to the process.) This is not to say there isn’t hurt and responsibility, and we may need to sort out what we’re responsible for and what we’re not. What needs to be let go of? It’s almost never what you think; the surprise of it is part of the joy. Some hours after this discussion, I was in the garden weeding, during free time after lunch. A participant was on the porch changing a diaper. She lingered, enjoying the beauty of the woods, the sunshine, others’ presence. She broke a long silence by asking me, across the garden: “But how do I let go?”

Authority must be exercised with justice, integrity

August 10, 2011

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) Aug. 21 (Isaiah 22:15, 19-23; Psalm 138; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20) People and institutions do not readily or easily relax their steely grip on power. Like this shadowy figure Shebna they come to believe that they have a right to office and position and that power once given is eternal. Shebna was denounced by Isaiah for arrogance, pride, court intrigue and engaging in power politics to counter the Assyrian threat. Those addicted to power have not yet learned the lesson that our friend Shebna is about to learn: all legitimate authority is from God but it is conditional. The condition is that it be exercised with justice, integrity and mercy and that it always be above reproach. If it is not, God can and often will raise another person or group to power. We have seen this played out in our own lifetimes: dictators sent packing, brutal regimes brought low and corrupt officials disgraced. No one is exempt or immune — this applies equally to the political, economic and religious spheres. And when an institution, political or religious, fails to live up to God’s expectations it too must suffer and be purified. The key is accountability, not only to the people but to God. All power or authority is given for service to humanity and the common good and is not an innate or unlimited right. In this passage power was transferred to David and his descendants but they all fell short of God’s expectations, sometimes egregiously so and with catastrophic consequences.

Navigating the tropic of cancer

August 10, 2011

No one who can help it stays in Rome in August. Romans flee to beaches; Canadian expatriates go home. Seasoned travellers know not to go to Rome in August. The heat is terrible, and many shops and restaurants are closed. However, some Romans and expatriates have no choice and cannot escape to cooler climes. One such ex-pat is my friend Hilary White, Vatican correspondent for LifeSiteNews. She has had two rounds of chemotherapy and is now waiting for a third. She is, in a word, stuck. She has no family but many friends among the expatriate community: priests, seminarians, theology students, tour guides. Most of these, however, have left Italy for the summer. Thus, one of the priests began to phone Hilary’s other friends and cajole them into visiting. So here I am in Italy again. Thankfully, Hilary does not live in Rome proper but in a seaside town a short distance away. It is crowded with darkly tanned people. The sun bites down on pale skin like a carniverous beast. We stay indoors as much as possible.

Joy, hope at WYD

August 10, 2011

It is an unfortunate reality that when “youth” and “Church” appear in the same sentence the words too often relate to revelations about abuse or to laments for a time when young people flocked to the sacraments. So it is important now to pause and reflect on the remarkable story unfolding in Madrid where more than one million young pilgrims (including some 6,000 Canadians) are about to gather at World Youth Day for six days of prayer and worship. There are few, if any, events that can attract so vast a world-wide gathering. Lady Gaga and other pop icons only dream of pulling in such crowds. The headliner for Madrid is Pope Benedict XVI and, like Blessed John Paul II before him, the Holy Father will deliver a message that is counter-cultural in many ways.

The light of Providence shines through Auschwitz’s inglorious past

August 10, 2011

AUSCHWITZ, Poland - It was 70 years ago this Sunday, Aug. 14, 1941, that St. Maximilian Kolbe was martyred here. It was nine years ago that I was here last, on a pilgrimage just before my priestly ordination. I wanted to come and pray at the death block of Auschwitz, to kneel at the threshold of the bunker where Maximilian Kolbe died. I came again this year, to the horror of this hell on Earth, made into the antechamber of heaven by the man — a writer and publisher who sent millions of words into print — whose most famous words were: “I am a Catholic priest.” Is it possible to be a pilgrim in Auschwitz? In 1998, in preparation for the great jubilee, the pontifical council for migrants would suggest exactly that: “Among these (pilgrimage) cities should also be included those places desecrated by people’s sin and later on, almost out of an instinct of reparation, consecrated by pilgrimages. Let us think for instance of Auschwitz, emblematic place of torture of the Jewish people in Europe, the Shoah....” What does the Catholic pilgrim say in this place, emblematic of the six million Jews who died in the Shoah, three million of whom were Polish — half of all the six million Poles who died in the Second World War? In this place of great evil, is it possible to speak of Jesus Christ?

Media fundamentally wrong on Norway shooter

August 10, 2011

Truth and logic were ejected from the media mindset and the borders of public debate long ago. So it came as no surprise that as soon as it became clear that the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik was not a Muslim, and not part of some Islamic gang, the usual suspects would insist that his actions were typical of Christianity, and that all religions were capable of senseless violence. It’s utter nonsense of course. All people are capable of senseless violence in the name of their religion, but only some religions allow such horrors in their primary texts and through orthodox interpretation. Next came the revelation that Breivik was, in his words, a “cultural Christian.” All of us who take faith seriously know that this is shorthand for “only a cultural Christian” or for someone who is “supportive only of Christian culture.” I, for example, like French culture, but I’m not French. I adore English rural culture, but I’m from London. The statement establishes him as a non-Christian, but journalists who knew no better, or wanted to think the worst, used it to identify him as a Christian.

Fr Stan Chu Ilo: World must step up for drought-stricken Africa now

August 10, 2011

A woman walks past carcasses of cattle in the drought-stricken Eladow area in Wajir, northeastern Kenya, August 4. The drought, the worst in decades, has affected about 12 million people across the Horn of Africa. [images/stories/international/internation11/famineafricaaug10_11.jpg]Africa is facing another humanitarian crisis as the worst famine in recent memory grips Somalia’s Southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions. According to the United Nations, tens of thousands of Somalis, mostly children and women, have already died and an estimated 3.7 million people — more than half the country’s population — face starvation in the next year unless relief is provided. Mark Bowden, the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Somalia, said the country has the highest malnutrition rates in the world, reaching 50 per cent for children under five. In some cases, he said parents have thrown away children during the punishing trek to the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. Oxfam President Mary Robinson has called the humanitarian crisis an international disgrace. The situation is more painful because experts saw it coming and it could have been avoided. Many Somali women and children are crying for help and waiting for the rest of the world to save them from death.

Salvadoran soldiers indicted for deaths of Jesuits surrender

August 10, 2011

SAN SALVADOR - Nine former soldiers in El Salvador's army have surrendered to authorities, three months after their indictment in Spain for the 1989 killings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter during the country's 12-year civil war. The ex-military members turned themselves in at a military base Aug. 8 and were transported to a Salvadoran court, the government said. They were among 20 former soldiers indicted by a Spanish court for their role in the deaths on the campus of the University of Central America in the Salvadoran capital, where the priests taught and lived. Five of the priests were Spanish. Spain's courts have used the principle of international jurisdiction to prosecute the killings.

Silence is needed to hear God speak, pope says

August 10, 2011

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - Getting off the grid and leaving behind the city is a great way to bring some much-needed silence to one's life, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Silence is the condition of one's surroundings that best fosters contemplation, listening to God and meditation," he said Aug. 10 as he held his weekly general audience in the courtyard of the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo. "Just the fact of being able to enjoy silence, to let oneself, as it were, be 'filled' by silence, predisposes us to prayer," the pope said. Many people spend a few days at a monastic community or spiritual center, which, as "places of the spirit, are a backbone of the world," he said. Monastic communities have been built in beautiful places that are close to nature, he said.

August 11

School Sisters of Notre Dame celebrate Jubilees

August 11, 2011

On July 30, 2011, fourteen Sisters from the Canadian Province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame celebrated their jubilee anniversaries of religious profession at the Motherhouse in Waterdown, Ontario. In addition, ten Sisters from the Atlantic-Midwest Province joined them for the festivities. The Atlantic-Midwest province is located in the United States. Shown in the photograph below are 14 Sisters of the Canadian Province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame celebrated their Jubilees on July 30, 2011. With them are ten sisters from the Atlantic-Midwest Province (indicated by the asterisk) who also celebrated their Jubilees this year.

Faith, human spirit of rescued Chilean miners key in Smithsonian exhibit

August 11, 2011

WASHINGTON - The dramatic and uplifting story of survival and a rescue that captivated the world one year ago unfolds in "Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine," a new exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The exhibit opened Aug. 5, exactly one year after the mine collapse in Chile, in which all 33 miners survived and were rescued 69 days later. The technical skill of the rescuers can be seen in the drill bit that cut through nearly one kilometre of rock, and the Fenix rescue capsule constructed by the Chilean navy in consultation with NASA. That capsule was named for the phoenix, the legendary bird that is a symbol of rebirth. But the human spirit and faith that helped the miners endure is also on display, in the form of a small Bible, about the size of a hand, labelled Santa Biblia ("Holy Bible"), and the exhibit notes, "Miner Jose Henriquez, a committed Christian, read from this Bible when he led the men in daily prayer."

Nuns help London residents displaced by rioting

August 11, 2011

LONDON - Catholic nuns who live near London neighbourhoods hit by riots are working with local authorities to help -- and even counsel -- homeless victims. Members of the Sisters of Marie Auxiliatrice, a French-based community, made their decision after attending an ecumenical prayer vigil amid smouldering ruins and husks of burned-out vehicles in the British capital's Tottenham district. Dublin-born Sister Sylvia McCarthy told Catholic News Service Aug. 10, "The shops were burned out completely, and many people lived over those shops, and they had very little time to get out of their apartments. "The people were in an awful state," she said. "They are short of everything."

August 12

Vatican spokesman 'astonished' Croatia repossessed church property

August 12, 2011

VATICAN CITY - A tract of disputed church property in Croatia was returned to the Croatian government after a justice minister annulled a series of past property decisions that had given the property to a diocese. The justice minster's action has caused "great astonishment," the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, told journalists Aug. 11. The center of the dispute is a monastery located in Dajla, Croatia, along the Adriatic coast. The monastery was built by the Benedictine monks of Praglia, Italy, who were given the property in the mid-1800s by a nobleman. The property, which included vineyards and an olive grove, was used by the church until the then-communist government of Yugoslavia nationalized all church property in 1948 and turned the Dajla monastery into a home for the aged.

Christians fearful, but hopeful for Egypt's future

August 12, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In the wake of the revolution that toppled Egypt's authoritarian government last winter, the country's Christians remain fearful, yet hopeful, said Cardinal Antonios Naguib, patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church. "I think that (the people) are afraid," said Naguib during a recent visit to Nashville. The revolution has provided a historic opening for equality and freedom for people of all faiths in Egypt, but the prospects for Christians depend on the future government, he added. "At the same time we have much hope it will be better than before," Naguib said. The cardinal is the leader of the Coptic Catholic Church, based in Egypt and one of the Eastern Catholic churches.

August 13

Re-examining a 400-year relationship

August 13, 2011

TULITA, N.W.T. - Felicia Bravard and her friends Brendan, Stacy and a girl too shy to give her name to a stranger are passing a summer day in classic teenage style. I found them moseying the gravel roads of Tulita sharing a joint at 10 in the morning. They offered me a toke, an offer not often made to middle-aged Church journalists. I declined. If Felicia was a third-generation Canadian with an Italian or Irish background, this would probably fall into the category of teenage misbehaviour — a phase. In a First Nations community in the North, where nearly every adult is either an active alcoholic or counting the weeks, months or years of their sobriety, the 10 a.m. marijuana is more troubling. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is in fact trying to shape a different future for Felicia and her friends. The commission is in the midst of a five-year mandate to create a public record of the tragedy of Indian residential schools and to examine the ongoing fallout of a 130-year policy that separated 150,000 native children from their families. By witnessing the stories of many of the 80,000 survivors and documenting the cultural and societal devastation to families torn apart, the TRC hopes to cultivate reconciliation between aboriginal people and the rest of Canada. Over time, they hope to build a better life for teenagers like Felicia.

August 14

For generations, Sr. Celeste is connection to the Church

August 14, 2011

TULITA, N.W.T. - When Sr. Celeste Goulet was nine years old her dad died. She grew up a fat, lonely kid in Guelph, Ont., who was paradoxically good at sports. Badminton was her game. When she was first attracted to religious life, Goulet went looking for an order that ran an orphanage. By the 1970s there weren’t many of those left. Some mostly Polish Franciscans, the Felician Sisters, were the last women’s order in North America that still owned an orphanage. By the time Goulet arrived in Tulita 32 years ago, the young sister had a degree in early childhood education and a conviction that what happens to children matters. She spent a year talking over options with Tulita parents — do you want a day care or a pre-school? She carefully explained the difference. The parents opted for education that would increase their children’s chances of success in school.

Sr. Tromblay tries to bridge Tuktoyaktuk’s rich-poor divide

August 14, 2011

TUKTOYAKTUK, N.W.T. - Kedra and Destiny Kimiksana got to try cherries for the first time at the Catholic mission house in Tuktoyaktuk with Sr. Fay Tromblay. Once they had been warned about the pits, I tried teaching them “Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor...” Of course the seven- and eight-year-old girls didn’t know what a tinker or a tailor was. In fact, beggar man and thief were also new vocabulary. After a couple of tentative bites and discovery of the first pit, both girls decided cherries were pretty good. They also got to try a bit of avocado, which Tromblay added to their salad. Salad is something they only eat at Sister’s house. They liked the avocado, but found it difficult to pronounce. Kids in Tuktoyaktuk are familiar with traditional Inuvialuit foods. They love tingmiaq (goose), pipsi (dried fish) and muktuk (skin and blubber of a whale). They eat a lot of imiraq (soup made from caribou, goose or fish).

Youth in search of hope in Tulita

August 14, 2011

TULITA, N.W.T. - On the edge of turning 22, Chad Bonnatrouge doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, hasn’t touched drugs, lives with his grandparents and sticks to himself. He graduated from high school in Tulita a couple of years ago and is uncertain what his next move should be. He’s got family in Vancouver and they have invited him to join them. He’s been there once and is unsure whether he wants to go back. For now he stacks firewood and fetches groceries for his grandparents. He volunteers for the Tulita Land and Financial Corporation. The volunteer hours qualify him for payments from the corporation, which administers funds from the 1994 Sahtu Dene and Metis Land Claim Agreement. Sr. Celeste Goulet remembers how at his graduation ceremony the whole village roared in approval when Bonnatrouge’s name was called. Graduation for this quiet, lonely kid was perhaps not a sure thing.