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Gambia. A bridge for development.

Monday, 1 July 2019 8:00

The long-awaited bridge spanning the Gambia River will open in July. The facility, which is set to revolutionise travel and trade in the region, will also improve the relationship between Dakar and Casamance.

It took almost 50 years, decades of discussions and a strong contribution from the African Development Bank. But eventually the bridge, which connects the north and south banks of the Gambia River, is there, ready to be crossed by next July.The Gambia is a strange geopolitical reality, one of the most striking results of the European colonialism in the continent. This small country is 48 km wide at its greatest width, it is a narrow strip of land that winds its way along the banks of the homonymous river, creating an enclave in the Senegalese territory. This territory was the British colonizers’ commercial base to access the slave market in West Africa.

According to legend, the distance of the borders from the Gambia River corresponds to the area that British naval cannon of the time could reach from the river’s channel. Today the colonial empires no longer exist, but an uncomfortable legacy often characterized by lack of infrastructures has remained. This is the case of the Gambia, whose homonymous river could only be crossed by using extremely dilapidated car ferries. This means that, before the opening of the bridge, despite there are several ferry crossing points along the Gambia River at many small terminals as well as the main one at the Banjul Ferry Terminal on the Atlantic coast, and the Farafenni Terminal in the inland, it could take hours depending on border checks and ferry wait times, or even weeks for trucks and heavy vehicles to cross the tiny country.

Casamance: less isolated at last
The bridge is a safer, quicker, and alternative route to the risky ferry crossing or the long detour between the northern and southern parts of Gambia and Senegal. The facility is expected to reduce travel time, boost trade and unite communities that were previously isolated. For years, many Senegalese living in the capital, Dakar, and other parts of the north had to drive for hours to skirt around Gambia or wait in long lines for a ferry to reach the isolated southern region of Casamance, which has always been affected by the physical and administrative ‘distance’ from the Senegalese political centre, due to the cumbersome presence of the foreign enclave and its chronic lack of infrastructures.

The Casamance region is the southern region of Senegal which, although connected in the East to Senegal, is separated from the rest of Senegal by The Gambia. In 1982, resentment about the marginalization and exploitation of Casamance by the Senegalese central government gave rise to a still ongoing low-level conflict between the government of Senegal and the independence movement in form of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC). The 1.9km bridge near Farafenni connects the two halves of The Gambia, while allowing the inhabitants of northern Senegal to easily reach the Senegalese region of Casamance to the south.
Until now, the crossing was done with an unreliable ferry or it was necessary to take the almost 400 km road to circumvent Gambia. Truck drivers could spend days, and sometimes a week, in a queue to cross the river, which meant a huge loss on perishable goods. “It is now possible to travel from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, to Ziguinchor in Casamance in about five hours, instead of a full day or more”, explains Modou Mbaye, driver of one of the several seven-seater collective taxis, the most popular public transportation among locals.

The bridge, was started in 2015, and cost a little over 75 million Euros. The facility was financed by the African Development Bank, and in a smaller part by Saudi and Emirate funds. The hypotheses and proposals for its construction date back to the time of the independence of the country from the United Kingdom, in 1965. Its realization has also important political implications, marking a very significant step forward in the relations between Gambia and Senegal, as well as a relevant political and economic recovery of the Gambia, a nation which is still affected by the 22-year authoritarian regime of former president Yahya Jammeh, in exile since 2017, who was accused of having plundered the state coffers. “Commencement of this bridge dates as far back as 1970. However, due to several political and practical problems, construction didn’t start until 2015,” explains Mamadou Samba Diallo, head of the project division of the Senegalese infrastructure ministry. “I wonder if former president Jammeh really wanted the bridge… fortunately, the facility is now there”, he concludes.

Stefano Fasano

The Future of the Natural World.

Monday, 1 July 2019 8:00

We humans, the species on this planet with the large brains, so-called intelligence and abilities and power to change the face of our planet, are doing so with a huge negative impact. We are endangering ourselves, our children and grandchildren and generations of children to come will be harmed by our wasteful and negligent ways.

The human species is the most dominant, aggressive being that stalks the planet. We are the T-Rex species of today, devouring all before us with an insatiable appetite for destroying most of the natural world around us. “Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history,” a U.N. eye-opening report on the state of the natural world said and it shows how humans cause much of the destruction. It is the most scientific and accurate assessment to date on the health of the planet. It is sickly and we must heal it.

The extinction of a million species is very likely if human behaviour and life style does not evolve to something better and more protective of the planet, it says. It is upon this natural environment that we humans depend for our survival. The soil produces our food, clean water is essential for life, insects pollinate the trees and plants, and the once balanced climate make it work but the climate is changing and global warming is upon us and most people are unaware of it.

The natural world and environment is collapsing before our eyes yet we humans ignore it and go on killing each other and life all around us. It is the natural biodiversity that is greatly endangered and almost a million creatures are facing extinction. Some extraordinary species will be gone forever in just a few decades. The pollinators are the most important insects on the planet and they are dying out. Certain species of bee colonies are in a state of collapse from some pesticide-induced disease.

In China, people go through orchards pollinating fruit trees. In California, truckloads of beehives are hired to drive across the US and pollinate the almond orchards in California from where most bees are gone. We humans depend on nature for our survival yet it is in a dire condition because of our destructive, uncaring ways. Humans are so absorbed with their own desires and pursuit of comfort, prosperity, power, wealth and pleasure that they are ignoring nature and destroying their own habitat.

Uncaring capitalism is behind most of irresponsible and indiscriminate logging, mining, overfishing and burning fossil fuels non-stop. These corporations are pouring pollution, toxic chemicals, CO2, methane and pesticides into the atmosphere and soil .The industrial chemicals and human waste is being washed into rivers and creeks. Creatures are dying and so are we. Plastic waste is filling the oceans. There is the great Pacific garbage patch, an island made of floating plastic, a vortex the size of France floating in the Pacific ocean. Plastic is contaminating fish and humans that eat them. There is even micro-plastic particles falling in abundance in pristine areas far from cities and industrial factories.

The very air we breathe is filled with micro-plastics, poison gases, smog, fumes and particles from smoke stacks. Millions of vehicles spew monoxide and other poisonous gases and millions of humans and animals are affected. The earth’s biodiversity is impacted.

The poison gets into everything causing cancers in human and animals. Bill Chappell, in his recent article made a list of the most important findings of the report:
• 75 percent of land environment and some 66 percent of the marine environment “have been significantly altered by human actions.”
• “More than a third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75 percent of freshwater resources” are used for crops or livestock
.• “Up to $577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss.”
• Between 100 million and 300 million people now face “increased risk of floods and hurricanes because of loss of coastal habitats and protection.”
• Since 1992, the world’s urban areas have more than doubled.
• “Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980,” “300-400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge” and other industrial waste are dumped into the world’s water systems.

In Canada, the warmer climate is pushing deadly insects to attack the caribou. The caribou migrate higher to a colder climate but leave behind the rich nutritious grassland. They are eating less and dying off quickly. From a herd of 80,000 ten years ago, there is now only 30,000. The indigenous Canadian tribes are facing an end to their way of life. We are soiling the nest, losing precious creatures that will never be seen again and soon it will be a more dangerous, unhealthy, and insecure planet for all humans, plants and creatures.
The human race is continuing to grow and is demanding food, housing, more land and the people conflict with the natural world and they damage the environment. For them, it is survival.

As of April 2019, the population of the world was estimated to be 7.697 billion people . By 2050, it will be 9.9 billion, an increase of 2.3 billion more mouths to feed and use the planet’s resources. Solutions are known: family planning to reduce populations, social equality to reduce poverty, stop burning fossil fuels, invest in technologies to clean CO2 from the air and education to bring a great change in human attitudes to end wastefulness and irresponsibility. Many creatures on the planet including ourselves will have a chance to survive in dignity.

Fr. Shay Cullen

Madagascar. Poverty can be beaten.

Monday, 1 July 2019 8:00

Pope Francis is going to Madagascar in September. During his stay he will visit the Akamasoa Humanitarian Association. Its Founder, Father Pedro Opeka speaks about it.

With the help of a group of young people, Father Pedro founded the Akamasoa Humanitarian Association – in the local language it means “The Good Friends” – to help those in need and contribute to the eradication of poverty. Father Pedro Pablo Opeka was born in Buenos Aires, in Argentina, in 1948. At the age of eighteen he entered the seminary of the Congregation for the Mission of Saint Vincent de Paul, in San Miguel (Argentina), and three years later went to Europe where he studied philosophy in Slovenia and theology in France. At the age of twenty-two he went to Madagascar where he spent two years – his first missionary experience.

In 1975, he was ordained priest in the Basilica of Luján (Argentina) and, in 1976, he returned to Madagascar where he became a parish priest in a small town in the south of the island.
Father Pedro spent fifteen years in that parish and took in hand not only the formation of the youth (both in spiritual as well as sporting matters) but built schools, dispensaries and churches. In 1989, suffering from malaria, he moved to Antananarivo, the capital.

Beating poverty
While in the capital city of Madagascar, Father Opeka was shocked at the sight of such extreme poverty: there were people living on the streets and in the dumps where children fought with the pigs over a scrap of food. He felt that God did not want those people to live like that. He just had to do something.
One morning in 1989, Father Pedro went to visit the Ambohimahitsy Hills. There he found many people living in cardboard shelters close to the municipal landfill, in conditions that could only be described as “hellish”. The poor, having been sent away from the cities and the fields, saw those mountains of waste as their last resort. They would search through the rubbish looking for something to eat.

The children slept covered in flies. Both young and old died there with no one to give them a decent burial. There, daily life was filled with violence, prostitution, drug addiction and alcoholism. “One man took me to his home. It consisted in a box about a metre high.” There, surrounded by a group of people, Father Peter told him: “If you are willing to work, I will help you”.
With some financial help provided for the first time by local religious communities, Father Pedro was able to start work on his original idea of “helping people to help themselves”. “Their struggle became mine: in order to combat the extremes of poverty that lead to exclusion, to disease and the death of children from malnutrition, we created jobs for people since the government does not take responsibility for this injustice “, said the missionary.

Solidarity in action
With the collaboration of a group of university students, the Akamasoa Humanitarian Association was formed. They were given some land and financial aid to meet the cost of materials, food, tools and seed. A group of families were moved to the countryside to begin a new life where they started what was the first city of the association called “Gift of the Creator “. The families who were still in the city worked together to build the second city called Manantenasoa (“Place of Hope”), using stones from a quarry to build decent houses for the people.

Financial aid from abroad, combined with the work of the people of Madagascar produced results. The numbers speak for themselves. Today, Akamasoa is a city with eighteen quarters, 3,000 houses have been built and 13,000 children attend school. There are schools, clinics, welcoming centres, sports centres and workplaces for the elderly. About 3,500 people work at the various activities of Akamasoa, ranging from, quarries, furniture and crafts, community services, especially health and education. Each village has its own clinic and hospital.
During these years, more than half a million people have passed through the welcoming centres where they receive temporary assistance and advice on how to get on with their lives.
The dream of God and His concern for the poor is what guides Father Pedro: “I am living among people who live in extreme poverty; with dignity, faith and compassion we rise above this grinding misery.”
This is one missionary who rejects paternalism, even if assistance is justified in the case of children, the elderly or people with disabilities, because it creates dependence and God wants people to be free, not slaves. For this reason, every donation received by Akamasoa is for a specific purpose and may be checked by the benefactor. “Our aim is to be self-supporting through work and this motivates the entire community to live in hope as they see what they achieve, where every stone, every door, room or ceiling has been made by the efforts of the people involved in the project,” Father Pedro told us.
Father Opeka also remarked that to combat poverty, it is necessary to reduce inequality and injustice. Nevertheless, he does not believe there is a magic formula that enables the poor to emerge from their poverty but that they can emerge “by the strength of their hearts, their will and by much work and commitment “.
He underlined that “All the different countries, with their cultures and civilizations, will have their own different ways and approaches, but everything must be governed by love. When we are moved by love, we know we have taken the right path “.

In Father Pedro’s view, the only way for the poor and the excluded to regain their dignity is through work and education. In Akamasoa, everything follows this vision. “Akamasoa is based on joy, brotherhood, work, effort and, most importantly, on the happiness of our children”, Father Pedro said.
The secret of the success of this humanitarian work is that it channels resources received into concrete and lasting works, and at the same time it creates work for the inhabitants of the villages but without closing the community in on itself. This is why many members of Akamasoa work outside the association and thousands of external children and sick people are helped and educated by them.

A prophetic voice
Father Pedro joyfully announces the Gospel. He emphasises that “Sunday Mass is a real celebration for everyone and everyone participates. We all pray, dance and sing together. This is an expression of gratitude to God for all the help he has freely given to these people”. Evangelisation also takes the form of denouncing injustice and of working for the human dignity of all, especially the Africana.
The missionary dreams that: “In this world, on this planet, we may be brothers and sisters and help one another “. He stresses: “We must not permit that, in this world of so much riches, that there be so many people living in hunger.
This is an injustice that cries to heaven “.Therefore, the missionary emphasises: “I raise my voice and cry out: enough! We have had enough of talk, we must complete the work, we have to act and help the continent that today has millions of children in danger of dying for no good reason!

This is why he is the voice of the voiceless and asks people to be united, “so that the riches we have received may be shared. Things kept needlessly are lost. There is an Indian proverb that asks why I should keep anything when a brother or sister needs it? ”
Last year, Father Opeka was received by Pope Francis and this provided the missionary with an opportunity to invite the Holy Father to visit the project.”I knew that the bishops had invited Pope Francis to visit the beautiful island of Madagascar in 2019, so I took the opportunity to invite him to visit the village of Akamasoa, well known for the way it faces up to extreme poverty through work, education and discipline. The Pope smiled in agreement, and there he will see the joy of all our children and young people who will receive him with open arms “, Father Pedro informed us.
Father Pedro was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on three occasions but “God’s bricklayer” (one of his many nicknames), believes that “the prize should go to the people” with whom he is journeying as they continue with their struggle and their dream of bettering themselves in brotherhood. (B.F.)

Africa. Millions still have no papers.

Monday, 1 July 2019 8:00

According to the World Bank, 41% of the inhabitants of the continent do not exist in law. They have no identity documents issued by state civil offices. A problem affecting human rights, it fuels illegal trafficking and slows the economy.

According to Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund), 95 million children born in Sub-Saharan Africa are ‘invisible’ since their births
are not registered.
The World Bank states that there are one billion people in the world who cannot demonstrate their identities: more than half of these live in Africa and amount to 41% of the population of the continent (1,2 billion).

The countries most affected are Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania. In the DRC, the birth of a child within a year is declared only in one out of every five. The fact of being registered is no guarantee of a birth certificate since, to obtain one, the fees required are beyond the means of the poor.
The Universal Declaration on Human Rights, adopted in 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, says that each person has the right to their own identity. This right is recognised by the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and by the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, these principles are not applied to everyone in Africa.

The lack of registration can be attributed to many factors: the distance to the office in question, ignorance of how to register and what it costs. In many cases, and the UN itself confirms this, the sum demanded for registration also includes a fine for any delay. It must be noted that, in ten African countries, it is obligatory even to register marriages. It is clear that young people under eighteen receive no protection. In Sudan, there is no minimum age for marrying; neither is there any legal framework for registering civil acts – a bottomless administrative pit.
This situation has serious consequences. It undermines the quality of democracy itself since the absence of registration places creates restrictions on the right to vote or be elected. “The creation of electoral lists must reflect the population of voting age so as to promote free and fair elections”, observes the Beninese André Franck Ahoyo, a consultant to the World Bank.

This situation, instead, condemns millions to uncertainty and exclusion. “Having no ID card means one cannot avail of health care, education, social protection or other essential services”, affirms Kristalina Georgieva, Director of the World Bank and former European Commissioner for humanitarian affairs. These ‘unknown people’ cannot open a bank account, obtain a loan, start a business or obtain a Simcard. It is important to register ordinary citizens so as to prevent the excessive growth of the informal sector that is fuelled by illegal or forced labour, and to establish a fiscal base.
Consequently, people try to improvise somehow. In West Africa, primary schools admit children with no identity cards but documentation is required to enter university. Having a large number of young people with no documents has, of course, consequences in the field of security: it makes it easy to recruit child soldiers in central Africa, for example, and there are many Jihadi candidates, especially in the Sahel area,
not to mention human trafficking, illegal adoptions, prostitution and illegal marriages.

An improvement in civil services would make it possible to relieve congestion in the courts where 90% of the cases are land ownership conflicts due to the lack of property deeds. Amina Mohammed, Vice Secretary General of the UN, believes that identification can definitely play a decisive role in the creations of sustainable development.
Since, September 2018, the World Bank has created a fund of one billion dollars to finance the process of identification for one billion people in 30 countries, 23 in Africa. Africa alone would need six billion dollars. Unicef is working together with health services to make sure each new-born child is legally registered. (F.M.)

Niger. A culture of tolerance.

Saturday, 1 June 2019 8:00

The problem of immigration. Relations with Islam. Education as a means for spreading the values of peace and tolerance; Caritas helps everyone. We speak with Msgr. Laurent Djalwana Lompo, Archbishop of Niamey.

Niger is a transit country for migrants. Many come here to try and cross the Sahara. A good number succeed but others are stopped and brought back to the border. For a number of years, the Church has been providing help to migrants.

“Both in the diocese of Niamey and in that of Maradi – Msgr. Laurent Djalwana Lompo tells us – we have created ‘listening rooms’ for migrants in transit because Niger is a transit country. Many migrants are sent back by Algeria and Libya. They are wounded people who believed that, by emigrating, things would change. They return demoralised and disappointed. Many of them continue trying to cross the Sahara”. “The phenomenon of migration – Msgr. Lompo continues – is increasing in our countries and is a clear sign that social and political policies have failed. Even if everyone has the right to emigrate, we ought to help them to stay at home. Our job is also to help them return to their countries of origin. Some find work here but it is difficult because there is unemployment in Niger. Whatever the case, we try to accompany them, helping them especially to regain some equilibrium as human beings.
Niger is a country with a Moslem majority (97%) and Christians are a tiny minority (0.10%). The total population is 23 million. The Church is committed to developing dialogue from below. Msgr. Lompo adds: “We start with ordinary people so that we may have good co-existence between Christians and Moslems and so that we can get to know and respect each other. This we do, not only at the basic level but also nationally through a commission for interreligious and intra-religious dialogue, which has intensified its work in recent years.
The members of the Commission are Catholic, Evangelical and Moslem.
We need to spend time together because we are all children of this land and, the more we respect each other, the more our hearts and all of Niger society are at peace”.

Emphasis on youth: “We are holding various meetings for the youth. We believe they are the most vulnerable social group. We believe that, if the youth are integrated and understand their own faith and if they are open to dialogue, then we can build up peace in our country. The majority of teachers in our schools are Moslem and this has never caused any difficulty. By means of teaching, we seek to educate towards values that enable us to respect each other and to life-values that will enable these children, once they have finished school, to possess this openness”. Msgr. Lompo remarks that, through Caritas, efforts are being made to provide help to the people in need, regardless of race or religion.

In 2015 there were some episodes of violence and some churches were burned down. Radical Islam is spreading in the region and is also affecting Niger. The Archbishop of Niamey tells us: “We see that there is a certain type of Islam that is becoming radical. The most of those people come from outside the country and are connected to certain Koranic schools. Both in the Church and in the government we are struggling to make sure the general form of Islam does not become radical, so as to avoid conflict. We are committed to this. After the events of 16 and 17 January 2015, we did not accuse the Moslem community. Those responsible were totally manipulated. We are working to prevent radicalisation, whether among Christians or Moslems, because there is a radical element in all religions. It is the extremist understanding of our religions that closes the door to others. It is the denial of respect to others that leads to conflict. We are making every effort to prevent this from happening and that radicalism does not enter the various social classes. We take great care, in both our dioceses, to see to it that Christians have an open attitude to Islam. Radicalism, no matter where it comes from, becomes unsettling and disturbing”. For years now, Niger and the entire region have been threatened by Jihadists, community militias and international crime. There are pockets of violence along the border, from Nigeria, with Boko Haram, to Libya at war, to nearby Mali and Burkina Faso. Niger has become a crossroads for the drugs and arms trades.

It was in this context of insecurity that, on the night of 17 September 2018, a group of armed men broke into the house of Father Pier Luigi Maccalli, parish priest of Bomoanga, a few kilometres from the border between Niger and Burkina Faso. Having stolen his personal effects and making him follow them, the robbers made him board a vehicle which took him across the border. Since then, nothing has been heard of the SMA (Society of African Missions) priest. Msgr. Lompo comments: “We are very concerned at this prolonged silence. The authorities have told us to do nothing that might disturb possible negotiations. However, there are those who would have us believe Father Luigi is still alive”. Looking to the future, Monsignor Laurent Djalwana Lompo recalls that: “Living according to the Word of God today in Niger has its challenges, especially interreligious dialogue, the training of Christians in a culture of tolerance, to have a sound faith and to root oneself even more in the Word. We also need to equip the laity to take up with great energy their important responsibilities in the local Church.” (M.B.)

The Philippines. Constant Threats.

Saturday, 1 June 2019 8:00

The 13 May 2019 elections in the Philippines have been correctly seen most of all as a referendum on the Duterte presidency, half way through his mandate. In this regard it was a confirmation, and not only because the opinion polls that accompanied the long-drawn-out results showed that around had 80% preferred the president.

The Senate was also won by Duterte, who already had a majority in the House of Representatives through his PDP-Laban party in an alliance with others in the informal Kilusang Pagbabago (the Coalition for Change), and this gave him full control over Parliament.
On 22 May, nine days after the election-day, despite electronic voting, the upper house clearly moved to side with the president, ensuring that nine of the twelve seats available for the senate (half of the total of which 50% are renewed every four years) would go to candidates openly siding with Duterte. The remaining three seats went to candidates prepared to support the policies of the president from outside, which left only four senators out of 24 who opposed him.

Almost all of them are exponents of the political dynasties that have marked the history of the country since the war and during independence regained after the Japanese occupation and the end of United States domination, including the daughter of the former dictator Marcos, Aimee.
One of those elected and among those who received most preferences, about 19 million, is Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, the former head of police who, up last year, led the “war on drugs” declared by Duterte in 2016 which cost the lives of thousands of drug addicts, drug-pushers, common criminals and – it is claimed by many in Philippine society – squatters, street children and critics of the regime. Officially, there were 5,300 deaths but, according to Catholic and civil organisations, there were at least 12,000. There were many who disappeared or became victims of extra-judicial killings approved by Duterte who declared an amnesty for killings during law and order operations.

Inability of the Electoral Commission
There have also been about twenty deaths during this electoral campaign and accusations of fraud, corruption and illicit manoeuvres multiplied with every day that passed. This also included the inability of the electoral Commission (COMELEC), whose silence only increased doubts as to the legality of the counting operation.
On the other hand, with so many unanswered questions, some sectors of the opposition, NGOs and the Catholic Church itself have asked that the publication of the results be delayed until the accusations of buying and selling votes and irregularities in the workings of the vote-counting apparatus, are resolved.

Even Edwin Gariguez, executive secretary of Nassa/Caritas, the organisation for social action of the Catholic Philippine Conference of Bishops, has criticised the slowness and lack of transparency in the counting procedures. His criticism was not at all for political reasons, even though, during the electoral campaign, the Catholic Church clearly supported the opposition, but a personal opinion based on hard facts.
The view of Kontra Daya, the group that monitored the elections was more critical, describing them as “the worst ever” due to the evident errors in the automatic counting and the “massive purchase of preferences”. These criticisms were completely denied
by the electoral Commission.
The fears of the opposition are not unjustified, given the precedents and the ability of Duterte to exert pressure, but they are mostly fuelled by fears about the results of this consultation, almost a plebiscite in favour of the Filipino “strong man”, that will enable him to continue his government agenda which includes reintroducing the death penalty and rewriting the Constitution.
Furthermore, the door may be opened to his remaining in power at the end of his period in office, hitherto limited by law to only one term, through a constitutional change with serious consequences
for the future.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio

Neither must we ignore that his daughter Sara, in her turn mayor of Davao, the large southern city of which her father was mayor for a score of years, who makes no secret of her aim to be president, with the possible danger of a dynastic succession.
The guidelines published by the local Church before the elections asked the 66 million-strong electorate to choose their representatives according to two levels of selection. The first was that the candidate should be a believer and an opponent of the federal state structure promoted by Duterte. The second was that he or she should meet a series of requirements confirming his or her “character, integrity, competence and trustworthiness” so as to guarantee public service and the rule of law.

There is long-standing opposition between the Catholic Church – which occupies a broad neutral or even favourable position towards presidential policies – and Duterte. Contrasts have often been bitter, motivated by serious statements against the Catholic hierarchy and the Catholic faith which spared neither Pope Francis nor God himself.
The face-to face meeting held on 9 July 2018 between the President of the Philippine Catholic Episcopal Conference Mons. Romulo Valles, Archbishop of Davao, and President Rodrigo Duterte, was certainly of symbolic importance, both because it came soon after the closure of the Plenary Assembly of the bishops and because of the tensions created by the blasphemous declarations of Duterte in the preceding weeks. “The President has accepted a moratorium on his criticisms of the Church” the presidential spokesperson announced after the meeting, but nothing more was revealed except that both parties expressed a desire for dialogue. (S.V.)

Young People. The Voice of the Planet.

Saturday, 1 June 2019 8:00

The students are on the streets, waving banners, banging drums, singing, chanting, and calling for an end to the causes driving climate change that is wrecking the planet.

They see the global warming caused by huge amounts of CO2 and methane gases heating up the environment and causing the melting of the ice cap on a gigantic scale never seen before.
They want to close coal-fired power plants and governments to install renewable wind and solar power farms and geothermal generators to provide the electricity we need.

They are the voice of the planet; they are its feelings and its cry for help. The planet is, in many ways, dying and the human species, its magnificent creation, is a vengeful child killing its parent by savage greed. The warmer atmosphere is evaporating more water from the oceans, causing more frequent powerful rainstorms as never before.
They, the youth, want and demand a clean planet free from poison chemicals and pollution and the burning of fossil fuels.

They say enough, stop it and give us and our future children a clean planet. They want to stop the acid rain. It is poisoning the fish and the land and the people that eat the fish. They are demanding the skeptical reluctant politicians to take political action to cut CO2 gases and stop the damage to the planet.

I saw the negative and damaging impact of climate change on the lives of ordinary Filipino people when I went to visit the Aeta indigenous farmers in our Preda fair trade mango project. They live on the mountains of Zambales and they were once forest dwellers, hunters and gatherers. They survived for 30,000 years, anthropologists say.

They are an amazing people with a culture and customs that would put many a Western community to shame. They have more gender equality- women as tribal leaders, men that carry the children on their backs, a plant based medical practice that has kept them alive for thousands of years. They are under threat from climate change. They have lost their rain forests and the climate will never revert again to be a balanced harmonious influence for growth if we do not stop the warming. The greed of the ruling elite families with international corporations devastated the rain forests by cutting and exporting logs to rebuild Europe and Japan after the Second World War.

Only 3 percent of forest cover is left in isolated areas around the nation. The bare hills were stripped of their topsoil by the increased rainfall and the brown earth was eroded and washed into the sea. This soil covered the coral and the smaller fish died out and the bigger fish migrated to deeper waters. Coastal fisher families were catching less and in the deeper waters foreign fishing fleets raided the Philippine seas as the Chinese do today.

Only rough grass and bushes grow on the bare mountains. The climate has changed as a result. The rice harvest that should feed millions of people has been lost in recent years. Prices have risen through corruption and mismanagement.

Rural poverty has increased and the poor have abandoned the land and the shores and migrated, like refugees, to the slums of the big cities. There they live in squalor, a once proud self-sufficient people, reduced to barely surviving. They squat in the shadows of the rich that live in luxurious condominiums. They eat ‘pagpag’ to survive- that is the boiled left-overs scraped from the food plates of the rich that eat in the posh restaurants and hotels.

But the Aetas have not become refugees in their own country. They have struggled to survive by continuing to adapt to climate change by planting and growing their own root crops, vegetables in a natural and organic way. They produce fair trade organic mangos, the only such group to do so internationally certified by Naturland. They live in poor villages but eat and produce healthy, nutritious natural grown food.

Susan, an Aeta village chief, a woman, explains how they experience climate change. She tells of the unexpected rainstorms that destroy the mango blossoms. There have been no mango fruits for three years in their mountains. It is the rebuke of a wounded and hurt nature. It feels the pain of neglect and convulses in agony with the death of plants and forests animals driven to extinction. Landslides scar the hills, rivers are polluted, chickens die, children cry and sickness is more frequent.

We are destroying our own habitat and eliminating our role as the planet’s self-awareness. When we are at war with the earth, we are at war with ourselves. When we hurt the planet earth, we hurt ourselves for we are one with it. We humans have evolved from its soil, its chemistry, and its life forms. The earth is our mother that gave us life and we are its consciousnesses. Through us, the planet and the universe reflects and contemplates its own self because we are its brain, the thinking being and the planet is conscious and self-aware through us.

Every one of us has to redeem the failures of the human race that is destroying ourselves and the earth. We must cry out and take to the streets in peaceful non-violent protest and claim our rights as belonging to a clean healthy planet of which we are an intimate part.

Fr. Shay Cullen

War on drugs.

Saturday, 1 June 2019 8:00

The tension between the presidency and the ecclesial hierarchy has considerably affected baptised Filipinos. The general elections that brought Rodolfo Duterte to power on 30 June 2016, and this was the choice of the majority of Catholics, have not been substantially rejected by them; on the other hand, the contemporaneous adherence to presidential policies and the principles of the Christian faith creates not a few problems of conscience.

Duterte, who abandoned Catholicism for sectarian Christianity, proclaimed the “irrationality” of the faith and even made a direct blasphemous criticism of God regarding creation.
On 22 June of last year, he launched an attack on the Biblical narrative, speaking openly of the “stupidity” of God for having given life to a perfect condition only to later provide humanity with the power to destroy its own eternal happiness. We may well imagine how many Filipinos reacted, all the more since this time Duterte did not attack exponents of the Catholic Church but the Creator himself.

The social media were flooded with a storm of protests, anger and reactions even abroad and some political allies of Duterte said they were alarmed by the insults, seemingly unlimited, directed not only against anyone identified as an adversary but even against the Creator, the first reference point for all Catholics.
The president again succeeded in shocking his adversaries and increasing unease among his supporters when, a few days later he said he was “ready to tender his resignation” if “a single witness” was able to prove the existence of God; better still if he could provide a photo confirming his ability to see God and speak to him. Significantly, he was, at the time, in “his own” city of Davao.
Duterte may well be seen as a man with confused religiosity and an unusual personality. Nevertheless, under his administration the rule of law is being constantly violated and the resistance of the “least important”, supported by civil society and the Church, fights for survival against the expropriation of lands and resources which takes place, often ignored by, or with the connivance of the authorities and
even the security forces.

This tension is to be added to that created by the “war on drugs” and its estimated twelve thousand victims, of which only one third are acknowledged by police to be the result of actions against traffickers and drug-pushers or to the militarisation of vast areas of the country, including the South where martial law is in force. They ones who pay the price for all of this, often with their lives are the dissident administrators, journalists, activists and priests.
The continual verbal aggression against religious “may unwittingly provoke further crimes against priests”, said the Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, Socrates Villegas, after assassins had killed Father Richmond Nilo on 10 June, 2018, in the province of Nueva Ecija, and before him, Father Mark Ventura, on 29 April in the province of Cagayan and, on 4 December 2017, Father Marcelito Paes in neighbouring Nueva Ecija.Of the many fronts on which president Rodrigo Duterte is fighting to impose a rule which his critics believe aims at dictatorship and which imposes questionable solutions to the many “evils” of his country that of the control of civil society is not the most controversial but is certainly that which most places the leadership in danger. This tension has already claimed many victims, including men of the Church and Christian leaders, but it has failed, up to now, to silence especially activists for human rights and independent mass media

Rappler CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa.

Of particular importance was the arrest, on 13 February 2019, of Maria Ressa, founder and director of the information website Rappler, and her release under caution the following day. The journalist had been condemned in 2017 following a Rappler enquiry in 2012 into relations between borderline profiteering, drug trafficking and human trafficking. She described her condemnation as “groundless” and “amazing”, made possible only by the law on defamation which came into force after the publication of the enquiry. Maria Ressa, released under caution, and her website are accused of tax evasion, a crime punishable with a maximum of ten years in jail. Her lawyers and supporters believe these accusations are in response to criticism of the “war on drugs” which has so far claimed between twelve and fifteen thousand victims and of the authoritarian tendencies of Duterte. Known for her commitment, in December 2018 the activist was included by Time magazine among the “people of the year”. (S.V.)

Afghanistan. A Tiny Seed.

Saturday, 1 June 2019 8:00

A small community in an Islamic world. Witness and service
to the poorest.

“The contribution which the small Christian community can make to pacification and the reconstruction of this country is limited, but the signs of its presence in this land are, in their poverty, still meaningful: the service of the poorest of the poor; assistance to the most needy and the education of children”, says Father Giovanni Scalese, a Barnabite priest and head of the Missio sui iuris in Afghanistan.

On Palm Sunday, in front of the Catholic chapel at the Italian Embassy in Kabul, Father Scalese chose to plant an olive tree from the Holy Land. “Let this olive tree be the proclamation of the end of a dark period and the beginning of a bright era in the history of Afghanistan. For this we have named it the Olive Tree of Peace”, Father Scalese prayed.
Returning to his hopes for “the beginning of a better future for Afghanistan”, Fr. Scalese emphasised that: “This desire is still there, alive and well. We know we do not yet have peace in Afghanistan but, at least the process of change, with reasonable hope of success, has begun This does not mean it will be easy. In effect, we are very concerned about the future. Obviously, when negotiations start, each side must understand the points of view of the others and be prepared to compromise to a degree”.There has been one concrete result from the peace talks that began in Doha last April. It does not consist only in the fact that the Taliban have agreed to talk to Kabul, but also in the fact that this partially legitimised the government of Ashraf Ghani, something which, up to recently, would have been impossible. It represents an important step forward.

Father Scalese comments: “Even if, the Taliban have already said they will not accept the present constitution, imposed from without, and that they want an Islamic constitution instead, I nevertheless do not believe we can expect a return to the pre-2001 situation as if these past 18 years had been in vain. Many young Afghans who never knew the Taliban regime have grown up with a different lifestyle; would they be willing to abandon it? Of course, nothing in this world is impossible but it would seem to me very unlikely that such achievements as the rights of women, for example, will again be questioned”. It is significant that both delegations have women members.

A land of legends
Afghanistan is a land of legends and a bridge between the Middle East and Asia, a land where Islam is the official religion but with Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist minorities scattered throughout the country. Tradition even tells us that the apostle Thomas passed through it and that, in the early centuries of the Church (in 334) it had, for example, an episcopal see at Merv in Central Asia.

Legend also has Afghanistan as the native land of the Magi. However, for more than 1300 years, Christianity never again set foot in those latitudes, until in 1921, when King Amanullah, to please the western diplomats present in that country and who were asking for Catholic religious assistance, contacted first of all the Italian government which was among the first to recognise the independence of Afghanistan, and then the Holy See. A contract was signed, still in force until this day, between the Vatican and the governments of Italy and Afghanistan which allowed for a single priest to be sent, with two conditions: the avoidance of any form of proselytism and the construction of a chapel within the Italian diplomatic seat.
In 1931, Pius XI assigned the mission in Afghanistan to the Barnabite Fathers. It was Christmas night of 1932 when Father Egidio Caspano and Ernesto Cagnacci (incognito), after a long journey from Europe to central Asia, through the Khyber Pass, arrived in Afghanistan. Father Caspano, the pioneer of the mission (1933-1953), was succeeded by Fr Giovanni Bernasconi (1953-1957). He was followed by Fr Raffaele Nannetti (1957-1965) and by Fr Angelo Panigati (1965-1990). More recently, in the early nineties, the post was occupied by Father Giuseppe Moretti and, from January 2015, by Fr. Giovanni Scalese.
These priests were able to adapt to a situation in continual change, earning the respect not only of the population but also of the governments and even of the Taliban.

The work of the Barnabites turned out to be extremely varied in the Afghan capital: they managed schools, took charge of the liturgy (on 18 December, 1960, the first church in Afghanistan for thirteen centuries was officially inaugurated). In the sixties and seventies they had the dolorous task of assisting those westerners who sought an artificial paradise in the land of opium: they had the unwelcome duty of informing parents and families of the deaths of their dear ones in that foreign land due to the misuse of various drugs. Many famous Church personalities visited those regions: Father René Voillaume, Founder of the Little Brothers of Charles de Foucauld, who arrived there incognito in the fifties, to see if he should open a house for his congregation there. It would not be him but Sister Madeleine who, in 1955, would reach Kabul and obtain permission to send four Little Sisters – still present – to serve the poor and the forgotten. The Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa, would dedicate themselves to that same task in 2006, when, with permission from the Islamic government, they established their Congregation there for the service of the poorest. It was Pope John Paul II who entrusted the mission, set up sui iuris, to Father Moretti. Having been in Afghanistan since the sixties, Father Moretti took up permanent residence in Kabul after 1985, living under the dictatorship of the Soviet regime and that of the Mujahidin.

One Church
The church is located inside the Italian embassy. It is a small white building, twenty metres long and dedicated to Our Lady of Divine Providence with its two paintings by Ulisse Salvini (The Annunciation and the Baptism of John) and a modern fresco depicting Saint Catherine and Saint Francis, and a crucifix on the wall above the altar.

The church within the embassy of Italy is still the only officially recognised place of Christian worship in the whole of Afghanistan. The church has been through some difficult times: from the seventies, a time of peace, when Afghanistan was a popular international tourist destination when mass was said in four languages (French, Spanish, English and German), up to the turbulence of the Soviet invasion when communism was openly hostile and many foreigners left the country. In the early nineties the Italian embassy was closed but Father Giuseppe Moretti, nevertheless, decided to remain. The Taliban never did anything against the church and also respected the three Sisters who were helping Father Moretti, even after the American attack in 2001.

Besides the parish of the Italian embassy and the military chaplaincies in Afghan territory, there are also some Sisters working with the Kabul children and the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Up to 2016, the Little Sisters of Charles De Foucauld were also coming to the capital. The Indian Jesuits of the Jesuit Refugee Service are involved in social and educational work and there are also other organisations inspired by Christian values.
The three religious communities present in the country: the Jesuits, the Sisters of Mother Teresa and an inter-congregational community, remain alongside the people. The Jesuits work in education. The Sisters of Mother Teresa run an orphanage for abandoned children and assist about a hundred needy families. The Pro Kabul Children Community runs a small establishment for children with psychological disabilities, to prepare them for ordinary school. “These are small but meaningful signs – Father Scalese says – of the presence of the Church in this reality”.
“Tradition tells us that one of the Magi was actually from Afghanistan and was, perhaps, a Zoroastrian. Here in Kabul we have always hoped that that bright star might once again shine in the heavens above this splendid nation, once again at peace”, Father Scalese concludes.(Open Photo: Cheap Ski Gear – Mens
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(L.A.)

Mining Resources in Africa. Curse and Opportunity.

Saturday, 1 June 2019 8:00

Mining operations and global consumption of natural resources continue to increase annually.

However, while developed countries and regions such as the European Union protect their natural resources with sustainable development policies and high social and labour standards to protect the environment, the economies of developing countries are increasingly becoming dependent on export of its natural resources.

The developed countries import and transform these natural resources for the benefit of their increasingly digital and clean (green) societies; the developing countries see their wealth plundered with the destruction and contamination of their environments.

Africa has found in the boom of mining and the exploitation of natural resources an economic model that provides great benefits without an investment effort of its own. The majority of the mining companies installed in Africa are foreign investments to which the local governments demand only a small share in the profits that varies according to the countries.

Despite national mining codes and United Nations guidelines on business and human rights, these companies systematically breach their obligations of established international standards. In addition, government officials have a lax attitude towards the behaviour of these companies in their territories.

The European Union, together with other economically powerful countries, have taken advantage of these circumstances to access mining resources in Africa without an environmental and social cost to their member states.
EU citizens live in digital societies and we are not worried about the origin of these natural resources we consume that are present in our daily life, such as car batteries, mobile phones, computers, tablets, microwaves, glass-ceramics, aircrafts, phosphates, etc.

Most of these electronic devices need an endless number of minerals that, because of their scarcity or because of the high social and environmental cost, are not produced in the European Union. The need to have access to these minerals triggered the campaigns of the European Union of public private investment in which the companies of the Member States struggle to monopolize the extraction of natural resources in Africa.

This model of development would be legitimate under certain premises that are currently not met, such as respect for human rights (workers’ social and labour rights, child exploitation, social protection,etc.), care for the environment, payment of fair taxes by companies, the restoration of damage caused to the environment and fair compensation to the affected local communities that are the legitimate owners of the land.

By contrast, countries in Africa rich in minerals suffer the so-called curse of natural resources.[5] Lack of arable land in Senegal, hairless children with respiratory diseases in Zambia, contaminated water wells in South Africa, child exploitation in DRC, human rights violations in Madagascar, environmental pollution in Nigeria, financing of armed groups in Rwanda … the list it is innumerable and in many cases those violations of international treaties are simultaneous in the countries of Africa with the implicit consent of the new colonizers.

Mineral wealth in African countries should be an opportunity to create job opportunities, increase revenues, promote sustainable development and fight against extreme poverty. But this requires firmness on the part of the African governments in the respect to the law, the prevention of corruption as well as the ethical commitment of the companies, preventing illegal financial outflows through the tax evasion of profits by companies and their managers.

Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN) calls on governments both in Africa and Europe to ensure that extractive companies respect human rights and the environment in their operations, meet standards of transparency and are held to account when they do not respect National and international legislations. The responsibility and supervision of the extractive industries necessarily falls on their governments, but we, the citizens of those countries, also have the responsibility to make rational use of the consumables that promote mining operations.

José Luis Gutiérrez Aranda,
Trade Policy Officer,
Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN)

The Church in the Amazon. A new way of being present.

Saturday, 1 June 2019 8:00

Bishop Emeritus of Xingu, Erwin Krautler, traces the history of the Church in the Amazon. “With its feet on the ground”.

The history of the Church in the Amazon differs greatly from the history of the Church in other parts of Brazil. Half of Brazil’s area was forgotten for centuries by the dioceses of central, south-eastern and southern Brazil. At the same time, the Church in the Amazon was a pioneer in embracing the Spirit of the Second Vatican Council. The Latin American bishops at the Medellin Conference in 1968 tried to ‘Latin Americanize’ the constitutions and decrees of that historic event; the bishops attending the meeting in Santarém tried to ‘Amazonize’ Medellin. Since 1954 the bishops of the Amazon had met periodically, but the Santarém Document generated a new spring for the entire Amazon. The bishops spoke of ‘a Church with an Amazonian face’. They were inspired by the words of Pope Paul VI, ‘Christ points to the Amazon’.

The Interregional Meeting of the Bishops of the Amazon, which was held in Santarém on 24-30 May,1972, was a milestone in the journey of the Church through this immense region. The ‘Priority Lines of the Pastoral of the Amazon’ constituted a Copernican turn in the pastoral and evangelizing action.
The bishops renounced all triumphalism. It was recommended to all dioceses and prelatures that they descend from any throne so that our Church could really become a Church ‘with its feet on the ground’.
The Church of the Amazon follows two basic guidelines: the Incarnation in reality aimed at the knowledge and coexistence with people, and a liberating evangelization. These guidelines brought to the option for four priorities: the formation of pastoral agents; the Base Christian communities, first and fundamental ecclesial nucleus; the indigenist Pastoral; and other pioneer fronts.
Two years later, at the meeting in Manaus (1974), another priority was added: youth. It was a true Pentecost.
A ‘new way of being a Church’ was crystallized forever, which implied a new way of carrying out the Christian mission by bishops, priests and religious people, in simplicity and sharing with others, in the Samaritan and prophetic dimension. It also meant embracing the concept of the ‘preferential option for the poor’, and solidarity with the excluded ones, in the live and participative celebrations that unite faith and life, in the generous commitment of women and men, youth and adults, in the various pastorals.

Lay people stopped being mere consumers of what the clergy presented and assumed their responsibility in the building of the Kingdom of God in the Amazon. We ask ourselves today, what the Church in the Amazon would be without the commitment of the laity, mainly of women. The priests and bishops of the Church in the Amazon, until recently, came from Europe or North America. At the time of the so-called Romanization of the Amazon that began in the second part of the 19th century, the missionary activity in the area was carried out by several orders and congregations, whose headquarters were in other continents.
The National Conference of the Bishops of Brazil, (CNBB) itself, founded in 1954, did not focus on the situation in the north of Brazil, since it was considered a missionary area. Until, in January 1972, Monsignor Aloisio Lorscheider, president of the CNBB, Monsignor Avelar Brandão Vilela, vice-president, and Monsignor Ivo Lorscheiter, secretary general, realized the precarious situation of the Church in the Amazon. Therefore, the project ‘Sister Churches’ was created in order to promote solidarity among dioceses or regions. Monseñor Estevão Cardoso Avelar (+ 3.12.2009), announced in a press conference that the Brazilian episcopate would promote a program of mutual aid among the Brazilian dioceses. “All dioceses, even if they are poor, can always contribute in favour of poorer ones”. It was a laudable initiative, but what the Churches of the Amazon hoped for was only partially realized.

In defence of life in the Amazon
As a consequence of the scarce number of missionary vocations among the orders and congregations based in Europe or in North America, the bishops of the Amazon finally began to invest more in indigenous vocations and that effort managed to significantly change the percentage of the diocesan clergy in relation to the clergy from other countries. But, due to the great migrations to the Amazon and the vertiginous population growth, the number of priests continues to be insufficient. It is interesting to note that in the oldest riverside cities, Catholics constitute more than 70% of the population, and in the more recently founded parishes, composed mostly of migrants, the presence of evangelical communities becomes increasingly significant and in some cases they constitute more than half of the population.

Another meeting of the bishops of the Amazon had even international repercussion; it was the meeting of Icoaraci in 1990. The bishops wanted to share ‘a concern that affects all of us: the destruction of the environment in the Amazon’. They defined as ‘sowers of death’ those who ‘violently and irrationally attack nature, destroying forests, poisoning rivers, contaminating the atmosphere and killing entire peoples’. They questioned big projects such as the construction of new roads and dams, or indiscriminate agricultural, extractive and logging activities that put native peoples’ survival at risk and cause massive internal migration to urban areas. The Bishops of the Amazon denounce both: the evils that afflict the region and those responsible for these evils in the document ‘In Defense of Life in the Amazon’. They feel it is their duty to make public those mechanisms that can cause ecological disasters with consequences that become ‘catastrophic for the entire ecosystem and surpass, no doubt, the borders of Brazil and the continent’. The document is an unequivocal denunciation, but at the same time it is a vigorous profession of faith in the God of Life.
The bishops of the Amazon were the first among those of the Church of Brazil to demonstrate ecological sensitivity and became pioneers in the defence of the environment. Their appeal reverberated on 23 and 24 May, 1990 in Assisi (Italy) as a proposal for an Ecological Manifesto called, ‘The Scream of the Church in Defence of Life in the Amazon’. All these themes are also among the main issues of the Pan-Amazon Synod.

Special Assembly for the Pan-Amazonian Region
On Sunday, 15 October, 2017, Pope Francis, addressing the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, said he had decided to convene a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region to be held in Rome in October 2019. He revealed that he took the decision in response to “the wish of several Episcopal Conferences of Latin America”, and to “the voice of various pastors and faithful from other parts of the world”. He explained that its main aim is “to identify new ways for the evangelization of that portion of the people of God, and especially the indigenous peoples in this region of the world who are often forgotten and without the prospect of a serene future, also because of the crisis of the Amazonian forest, which is a lung that is of capital importance for our planet”.

The Preparatory Document for the 2019 Pan-Amazonian Synod, has been an invitation for the Church to ‘See’ the identity and cries of the Amazon Basin, to ‘Discern’ a path towards a pastoral and ecological conversion, and to ‘Act’ or walk along new paths for a Church with an Amazonian face. It also provides a questionnaire for the region’s bishops to share their pastoral and ecological concerns ahead of the Synod.
The Pope did not want just a scientific analysis of the situation, but insisted that the people speak, express and loudly express their “joys and hopes, sadness and anguish”. The traditional Seeing becomes Listening.The Pope wants to know what the People of God think about “the threats to life, territory and culture; about the aspirations and challenges of the Amazonian peoples in relation to the Church and the world; what hope the presence of the Church offers to the Amazonian communities for life, territory and culture; how the Christian community can respond to situations of injustice, poverty, inequality, violence (drugs, sexual exploitation, discrimination against indigenous peoples, migrants, etc.) and exclusion.

Only 70% of the communities in the Brazilian Amazon have the chance to participate in the Eucharistic celebration three to four times a year. Therefore, the Eucharist, instead of being “the source and apex of the whole Christian life” becomes a liturgical act of exception, “a thing for priests”. That is why the Pre-Synodal Council, of which I have the privilege of being part, asked the people of God the following question: ‘One of the great pastoral challenges of the Amazon is the impossibility of celebrating the Eucharist frequently and everywhere. How to respond to this situation?’ There are high expectations not only for the church in Amazon but also for the Universal Church.

The Lion, Jackal and Man

Saturday, 1 June 2019 8:00

It so happened one day that Lion and Jackal came together to converse on affairs of land and state. Jackal, let me say, was the most important adviser to the king of the forest, and after they had spoken about these matters for quite a while, the conversation took
a more personal turn.

Lion began to boast and talk big about his strength. Jackal had, perhaps, given him cause for it, because by nature he was a flatterer. But now that Lion began to assume so many airs, he said : “See here, Lion, I will show you an animal that is still more powerful than you are.”

They walked along, Jackal leading the way, and met first a little boy. “Is this the strong man?” asked Lion.
“No – answered Jackal – he must still become a man, O king”.

After a while they found an old man walking with bowed head and supporting his bent figure with a stick. “Is this the wonderful strong man? “asked Lion.
“Not yet, O king – was Jackal’s answer – he has been a man.”

Continuing their walk a short distance farther, they came across a young hunter, in the prime of youth, and accompanied by some of his dogs. “There you have him now, O king – said Jackal – Pit your strength against his, and if you win, then truly you are the strength of the earth.”

Then Jackal made tracks to one side toward a little rocky kopje from which he would be able to see the meeting. Growling, growling, Lion strode forward to meet the man, but when he came close the dogs beset him. He, however, paid but little attention to the dogs, pushed and separated them on all sides with a few sweeps of his front paws. They bowled aloud, beating a hasty retreat toward the man.

There upon the man fired a charge of shot, biting him behind the shoulder, but even to this Lion paid but little attention. There upon the hunter pulled out his steel knife, and gave him a few good jabs. Lion retreated, followed by the flying bullets of the hunter.

“Well, are you strongest now? “ was Jackal’s first question when Lion arrived at his side.
“No, Jackal – answered Lion – let that fellow there keep the name and welcome. Such as he I have never before seen. In the first place he had about ten of his bodyguard storm me. I really did not bother myself much about them, but when I attempted to turn him to chaff, he spat and blew fire at me, mostly into my face, that burned just a little but not very badly. And when I again endeavored to pull him to the ground he jerked out from his body one of his ribs with which he gave me some very ugly wounds, so bad that I had to make chips fly, and as a parting he sent some warm bullets after me. No, Jackal, give him the name.”

(Folktale from Kikuyu People – Kenya)

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