Mirror 0814 by Aid to the Church in Need

Aid to the Church in Need

Being Missionaries of Joy

Strangers in a Strange land 14 - 8

and Father of us all, G od in Jesus, your Son and our Savior,

you have made us your sons and daughters in the family of the Church.

and love M ayhelpyourourgrace families

in every part of the world be united to one another in fidelity to the Gospel.

www.worldmeeting2015.org

of the Holy Family, M aywiththetheexample aid of your Holy Spirit,

guide all families, especially those most troubled, to be homes of communion and prayer and to always seek your truth and live in your love. Through Christ our Lord.

amen.

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Contents

Page

Strangers in a Strange land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J F Declan Quinn ....................... 2 Crisis in the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Martin Barta ........................ 4 Faith, hope and shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 6 A source of renewal in Slovakia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 8 The Church is Mother to all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pope Francis........................... 10 Refugees and Migrants are our family . . . . . . . . . Pope Benedict XVI................... 14 The Catholic counter-culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Archbishop Charles J. Chaput ... 18 No room for pessimism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Archbishop Charles J. Chaput ... 22 On becoming a true radical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Archbishop Charles J. Chaput ... 24 Praying in the darkness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pope Francis........................... 26 Finishing Well......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Michael Shields .................. 30 Parcels of hope for children in Syria and Iraq . . Johannes Freiherr Heereman ... 30

editor: JĂźrgen Liminski. Publisher: Kirche in Not / Ostpriesterhilfe, Postfach 1209, 61452 KĂśnigstein, Germany. De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae. Printed in Ireland - ISSN 0252-2535. www.acn-intl.org

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strangers in a strange land A chairde,

trangers in a strange land’ is the title of a 2014 lecture given by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia. In his lecture, part of which is excerpted herein, Archbishop Chaput refers to how today practising Christians in the West, far from being regarded part of the cultural mainstream are now considered as strangers in what were once Christian lands. Sadly it is the case that when Chaput refers to the ‘collapse’ of ‘an entire Catholic culture’ which has taken place in Quebec, he could just as easily be referring to Ireland. The spiritual desertification of onceChristian lands is an incontestable reality.

elated to this truth is the accompanying reality that quietly, steadily and almost inexorably the Western world is becoming hostile territory for anyone who professes to be Catholic and who seeks to publicly express their Catholic identity. This said the suffering and persecution of Catholics in the West, unlike our Christian brothers and sisters in the greater middle east, Africa and Asia, is not (yet) bloody but it is no less real or less serious on that account. Yes it is true that today on account of their faith thousands upon thousands of Chris2

tians are losing their mortal lives and their livelihoods throughout vast swathes of Greater Middle East, Africa and Asia. Equally true and equally serious is the fact that in the West, in our countries, millions upon millions of baptised Catholics are losing their souls to Relativism, Consumerism, Indifference, Idolatries and New-Age Paganism. The faith of our fathers is strangely no longer the faith of our children. It is into this ‘altered reality’ that you and I have been placed and it is into this reality that we have been called to be Witnesses to Hope and missionaries of Joy.

dditionally a significant and rapidly developing part of this our ‘altered reality’ is the fact migrants are increasingly numbered amongst our neighbours, these include people who have come to better their economic prospects as well as those people who have come to flee persecution in their native lands. Here the Church teaches us to welcome the stranger, the immigrant, the refugee as a brother / sister as well as a contributor to the realisation of societies’ future. Secular authorities on the other hand are much less sanguine and regard immigration as a problem which needs to be managed and indeed tightly controlled. In their respective articles (see hereunder) Pope Francis and Pope benedict XVi help us better appreciate the Church’s

teachings with regard to migration in general and immigration in particular.

n ireland we have deep and painful memories of the ‘forced’ migrations of previous generations which resulted on foot of the political, economic and cultural injustices suffered by our forbearers. Equally in Ireland we are familiar with the ‘pull’ factors which contribute to the world’s almost 250 million migrants. For many well-skilled and educated people foreign lands offer better economic and social development opportunities than what are available in their home countries. Indeed the fact is that migration both within countries and internationally is an integral facet of modern day life, it affects every family and touches every person. The pastoral implications as how to care for the souls of the migrants and of the families are complex and challenging. While these challenges vary greatly depending upon whether one is dealing with ‘forced’ or ‘voluntary’ migration, none of the challenges are trivial.

n every case however as Christians, the Gospel calls each of us to welcome the migrant and the refugee as our brother and sister in Christ and to demonstrate a preferential option for the poor amongst them. In today’s world there is widespread and growing persecution of Christians. Cultur-

ally, politically, socially and economically Christians are suffering. Aware of this fact let us do what we can to ease the suffering and limit the damage through our prayers for all those who are forced to migrate and for their broken families.

et us also pray for all those generous missionaries to these poor and abandoned souls who bring them comfort and support in their hours of need and in doing so continue to humanise our increasingly inhuman world. True Christians are the true friends of humanity, the real defenders of what it means to be human and the frontline troops in battling the Culture of Death and the Tyranny of Relativism.

n today’s world Christians are destined to be Strangers in a Strange land, let us thank God for this privilege. Beir Beannacht

J F Declan Quinn Director, Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland) to view soMe of aCn’s eMergenCy aid proJeCts please sCan Code Below or visit aCnireland.org

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Crisis in the Middle east Dear Friends, ome Lord and redeem us, do not delay!’ We pray these and other similar words during the Advent liturgies. These urgent prayers have little to do with the romantic kitsch of the traditional Christmas markets.

This is also the country where the tower of Babel was built. Today, once again, man seeks to raise himself above God and to expunge Him and His law from his mind. Yet the biblical Iraq is at the same time a land of promises.

Instead these heartfelt pleas and petitions correspond perfectly to the horIt was here, in the rific situation of the city of Ur, that AbraMay our hearts world. The season of ham, our Father in awaken this Advent! Advent leaves no room faith, was born. for illusions; rather it points to a profound In Nineveh – today’s reality – to God who is coming into Mosul – the preaching of the Prophet the world. Do we truly believe this, or Jonah brought about the miraculous is faith sleeping within us? May our conversion of the whole city. hearts awaken this advent. May we seek God and the truth of our human In Babylon, close to the capital city condition once more. Baghdad, the Prophet Daniel once lived, who in his great vision saw the coming he crisis of our world, which of the Son of Man. it was here in iraq is most clearly evident in the that Advent began. ‘Cradle of Civilisation’, as Iraq is often called, reminds us just how reldvent reveals to us that God evant and necessary our journey to the is not some remote being who manger in Bethlehem is. It is something plays no significant role in ‘real’ of a prophetic sign that Iraq – the loca- life. God is near; He became man, He tion, so it is thought, of the Garden of became one of us. Eden – should have become the theatre of a war that has overshadowed the This coming of God implies the transwhole of our world. formation of the world. It demands a complete rethinking of our lives.

The second coming of God – Advent – leads us via the path of conscience. And conscience is not a subjective capacity that can decide, independently of objective truth, what is good and what is evil. Rather it is the capacity to recognise the truth and follow it. Without the capacity for discernment between good and evil human co-existence would be impossible.

third path of Advent is that of humility and poverty taken by God. God empties Himself and descends among us in all our darkness and sinfulness. Such love as this has the capacity to sanctify and transform every kind of suffering and to make the Earth into a consecrated place – into a Christmastide ‘Garden of Eden’. Dear friends, let us open our hearts to God’s coming, to the Advent of the Lord, who as the Son of Man has come for all and desires to lead us all to the Father. A Blessed Christmas and a joyful New Year for 2015 to each one of you and to your families!

Father Martin M. Barta, Spiritual Assistant The Prophet Jonah.

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faith, hope and shelter

or five years now, moe has been living in the refugee camp in Thailand, on the Burmese border. Her village in burma was destroyed, her husband and her brother murdered. ‘My daughter was just seven days old at the time’, she recalls. Moe is too frightened to return. And if she did return, where would she go? Many of the fields in her former home are now scattered with landmines. How could anyone cultivate these fields? And have the guns finally fallen silent? Like Moe, most of the 130,000 refugees from these landmined areas near the border are asking the same question: Where shall we go?

he Catholic Church in Thailand has an answer – both for the Christian refugees and for those of other faiths. As long as they remain, the Church will provide them with social

Faith means belonging – Holy Mass for Burmese Catholics in a Thai refugee camp. 6

Education for a future – Eritrean Christian children in a Sudanese camp.

and pastoral care. However, one problem is the language.

ix Burmese priests celebrate Holy Mass in the nine official refugee camps and also in a dozen or so smaller places. They also administer the sacraments, teach the catechism, organise prayer groups, give spiritual counsel and visit people in their huts and tents. A number of Burmese religious sisters are helping them. And so the refugees can at least preserve their cultural and spiritual identity. For the social part of the Church’s aid work there are many different sources of funding available to her, but for her pastoral work there are very few – except for ACN. We have promised the bishops to support them for the next three years. The provision of faith, hope and shelter must continue.

n equally pressing concern for all refugees, after the question of where they will get their daily sustenance and a roof over their heads, is the question of their children’s future. What will happen to them, so far from their home, without a chance to go to school or get an education? Education is a source of hope, if only of a better future. Consequently, the Christians who have fled to Sudan from the oppression in Eritrea have set up schools, with the help of the Franciscan Capuchin Fathers.

hey continue to hope, despite the hos-tility of the Sudanese regime. With 2,500 children in three different schools, there is considerable expense involved – €4,000 for paper, pencils and electricity alone, and over €20,000 a year for the salaries of the teachers. Then there is the rent, water, copying facilities, all of which come to another €20,000. We have promised the Capuchin Fathers to help. •

a speCial gift – for the Children hildren who were unaBle to flee ‘And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh’ (Mt 2:11).

any children in Syria were unable to flee. They also need your gifts. They need food, clothing, blankets for the coming winter – and perhaps a present, to help them forget. And they need love. Their parents have loving hearts, but empty hands. Father Ziad is making up Christmas parcels for 5,000 children in Homs and Marmarita – warm trousers, pullovers, a woolly hat, and also a little Crib with the Child Jesus, like the one

Father Ziad’s helpers – packing up the little treasures.

in Bethlehem, together with the Christmas Story and a little Bible as well.

hey will be real treasures for these children in their bombedout houses; they will help them to smile and forget the thunder of the guns. And perhaps the parents’ eyes too will light up again, for the first time in a long while… •

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a sourCe of renewal in slovakia

he goal is a simple one – to promote marriage, the family and relationships on the basis of Christian values. But in a country like Slovakia, where these very values were attacked for decades by the power of the state, it is often necessary to start right from the beginning – by explaining the meaning of marriage, showing how precious fidelity is, recognising forgiveness as the summit of love.

ope Francis speaks to us again and again of ‘the cure which God offers... to spouses who “have become impatient on the way” and who succumb to the dangerous temptation of discouragement, infidelity, weakness, abandonment…’ It is the gift of ‘His Son Jesus, not to condemn them, but to save them: if they entrust themselves to him, he will bring them healing by the merciful love which pours forth from the Cross, with the strength of his grace that renews married Source of strength for renewal: open-air Mass in front of the centre.

The many faces of motherhood: breaktime after the lecture.

couples and families and sets them once again on the right path.’ Grace that renews and strengthens – through love: this is the simple essence of the programme in Rodinkovo and its Family House.

n this house, married couples can make a fresh start, families can come together again, couples and parents can relearn ‘the creativity and power of love’ – a love which, as Father Roman can tell us after two years running this centre, ‘God is always willing to give to families, to spouses, to consecrated

persons and indeed to all of us’. Together with the lay group Familiae Locum, which regularly works in collaboration with the family and youth apostolate services of the diocese of Žilina, he runs this centre, which was established a good two years ago by the diocese under the name of the ‘Open House for Families, Rodinkovo’.

ut this house is much more than a counselling centre for couples and families with problems. At the same time, it is a formation centre for priests, laity and catechists from all over Slovakia. With the help of its working seminars on the family apostolate within the parish, on Catholic social teaching, on the ‘Principles of Christian Democracy’, on motherhood and fatherhood; through its courses on marriage preparation and pastoral outreach to schools and universities, the house is becoming a place of renewal, in a Christian spirit, for the entire region. For, as Pope Francis puts it, ‘It is impossible to quantify the strength and depth of humanity contained in a family: mutual Usefully occupied: the youngsters rehearsing for a play.

help, educational support, relationships developing as family members mature, the sharing of joys and difficulties. Families are the first place in which we are formed as persons and, at the same time, the “bricks” for the building up of society.’ The centre is normally able to fund itself through the course fees and contributions from visitors and participants. But now that winter is here, this warm-hearted old house is feeling the cold – and needs new windows and doors to better insulate against the outside wind and cold.

he heating costs are enormous, and they estimate that by replacing the 154 windows and doors they could save a quarter of the cost – and then reinvest the money saved in the formation work. The only problem: they do not have the money to replace them. ACN has therefore promised to help – so that this wellspring of renewal can continue to flow. • “Building bricks of society”: young families ready for an outing.

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the ChurCh is Mother to all by Pope Francis1

esus is ‘the evangeliser par excellence and the Gospel in person’2. His concern, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalised, invites all of us to care for the frailest and to recognise his suffering countenance, especially in the victims of new forms of poverty and slavery. The Lord says: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me’3.

he mission of the Church, herself a pilgrim in the world and the Mother of all, is thus to love Jesus Christ, to adore and love him, particularly in the poorest and most abandoned; among these are certainly migrants and refugees, who are trying to escape difficult living conditions and dangers of every kind. The Church opens her arms to welcome all people, without distinction or limits, in order to proclaim that ‘God is love’4. After his death and resurrection, Jesus entrusted to the disciples the mission of being his witnesses and proclaiming the Gospel of joy and mercy. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples left the Upper 1 Adapted from Pope Francis meSSAGe FOR THe 101st WORlD DAY OF miGRANTS AND ReFUGeeS (2015) 3rd September 2014. 2 Evangelii Gaudium, 209 3 Mt 25:35-36 4 1 Jn4:8,16 5 Lumen Gentium, 14

Room with courage and enthusiasm; the strength of the Holy Spirit overcame their doubts and uncertainties and enabled all to understand the disciples’ preaching in their own language.

rom the beginning, the Church has been a mother with a heart open to the whole world, and has been without borders. This mission has continued for two thousand years. But even in the first centuries, the missionary proclamation spoke of the universal motherhood of the Church, which was then developed in the writings of the Fathers and taken up by the Second Vatican Council. The Council Fathers spoke of Ecclesia Mater to explain the Church’s nature. She begets sons and daughters and ‘takes them in and embraces them with her love and in her heart’5.

he Church without frontiers, Mother to all, spreads throughout the world a culture of acceptance and solidarity, in which no one is seen as useless, out of place or disposable. When living out this motherhood effectively, the Christian community nourishes, guides and indicates the way, accompanying all with patience, and drawing close to them through prayer and works of mercy. Today this takes on a particular significance. In fact, in an age of such vast movements of migration, large numbers of people are leaving their homelands, with a suitcase full of fears and desires, to undertake a hopeful and dangerous trip in search of more humane living conditions. ften, however, such migration gives rise to suspicion and hostility, even in ecclesial communities, prior to any knowledge of the migrants’ lives or their stories of persecution and destitution. In such cases, suspicion and prejudice conflict with the biblical commandment of welcoming with respect and solidarity the stranger in need.

are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length’6.

he courage born of faith, hope and love enables us to reduce the distances that separate us from human misery. Jesus Christ is always waiting to be recognised in migrants and refugees, in displaced persons and in exiles, and through them he calls us to share our resources, and occasionally to give up something of our acquired riches. blessed Pope Paul Vi spoke of this when he said that ‘the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others’7. The multicultural character of society today, for that matter, encourages the Church to take on new commitments of solidarity, communion and evangelisa-

On the other hand, we sense in our conscience the call to touch human misery, and to put into practice the commandment of love that Jesus left us when he identified himself with the stranger, with the one who suffers, with all the innocent victims of violence and exploitation. Because of the weakness of our nature, however, ‘we 6 Evangelii Gaudium, 270. 7 Octogesima Adveniens, 23

Blessed Pope Paul Vi.

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tion. Migration movements, in fact, call us to deepen and strengthen the values needed to guarantee peaceful coexistence between persons and cultures.

chieving mere tolerance that respects diversity and ways of sharing between different backgrounds and cultures is not sufficient. This is precisely where the Church contributes to overcoming frontiers and encouraging the ‘moving away from attitudes of defensiveness and fear, indifference and marginalisation… towards attitudes based on a culture of encounter, the only culture capable of building a better, more just and fraternal world’8. Migration movements, however, are on such a scale that only a systematic and active cooperation between States and international organisations can be capable of regulating and managing such movements effectively. For migration affects

everyone, not only because of the extent of the phenomenon, but also because of ‘the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises, and the dramatic challenges it poses to nations and the international community’9. At the international level, frequent debates take place regarding the appropriateness, methods and required norms to deal with the phenomenon of migration. There are agencies and organizations on the international, national and local level which work strenuously to serve those seeking a better life through migration.

otwithstanding their generous and laudable efforts, a more decisive and constructive action is required, one which relies on a universal network of cooperation, based on safeguarding the dignity and centrality of every human person. This will lead to greater effectiveness in the fight against the shameful and criminal trafficking of human beings, the violation of fundamental rights, and all forms of violence, oppression and enslavement. Working together, however, requires reciprocity, joint-action, openness and trust, in the knowledge that ‘no country can singlehandedly face the difficulties associated with this phenomenon, which is now so widespread that it affects every continent in the twofold 8 Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2014. 9 Caritas in Veritate, 62.

movement of immigration and emigrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;10.

t is necessary to resglobalisapond to the globalisa tion of migration with the globalisation of charity and cooperation, in such a way as to make the conditions of migrants more humane. At the same time, greater efforts are needed to guarantee the easing of conditions, often brought about by war or famine, which compel whole peoples to leave their native countries. Solidarity with migrants and refugees must be accompanied by the courage and creativity necessary to develop, on a world-wide level, a more just and equitable financial and economic order, as well as an increasing commitment to peace, the indispensable condition for all authentic progress.

ear migrants and refugees! You have a special place in the heart of the Church, and you help her to enlarge her heart and to manifest her motherhood towards the entire human family. Do not lose your faith and hope! let us think of the Holy Family during the flight in egypt: Just as the maternal heart of the Blessed Virgin and the kind heart of Saint Joseph kept alive the confidence that God would never abandon them, so in you may the same hope in the Lord never be wanting. â&#x20AC;˘ 10 Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2014.

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refugees and Migrants are our faMily by Pope Benedict XVI11

he Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, recalled that ‘the Church goes forward together with humanity’ (No. 40); therefore ‘the joys and the hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts’12.

blessed Pope Paul Vi echoed these words when he called the Church an ‘expert in humanity’13, as did Saint John Paul II when he stated that the human person is ‘the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission... the way traced out by Christ himself’14.

n the footsteps of my predecessors, I sought to emphasise in my Encyclical Caritas in Veritate that ‘the whole Church, in all her being and acting - when she proclaims, when she celebrates, when she performs works of charity - is engaged in promoting integral human development’ (No. 11). I was thinking also of the millions of men and women who, for various reasons, have known the experience of migration. 11 Adapted from Pope Benedict XVI’s MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES 12 October 2012. 12 ibid., 1. 13 Populorum Progressio, 13. 14 Centesimus Annus, 53. 15 ibid., 62. 16 ibid. 17 Spe Salvi, 1.

Migration is in fact ‘a striking phenomenon because of the sheer numbers of people involved, the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises, and the dramatic challenges it poses to nations and the international community’15, for ‘every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, Inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance’16.

aith and hope are inseparable in the hearts of many migrants, who deeply desire a better life and not infrequently try to leave behind the ‘hopelessness’ of an unpromising future. During their journey many of them are sustained by the deep trust that God never abandons his children; this certainty makes the pain of their uprooting and separation more tolerable and even gives them the hope of eventually returning to their country of origin. Faith and hope are often among the possessions which emigrants carry with them, knowing that with them, ‘we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey’17. In the vast sector of migration, the Church shows her maternal concern in a variety

of ways. On the one hand, she witnesses the immense poverty and suffering entailed in migration, leading often to painful and tragic situations. This inspires the creation of programmes aimed at meeting emergencies through the generous help of individuals and groups, volunteer associations and movements, parochial and diocesan organisations in cooperation with all people of good will.

he Church also works to highlight the positive aspects, the potential and the resources which migrations offer. Along these lines, programmes and centres of welcome have been established to help and sustain the full integration of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees into a new social and cultural context, without neglecting the religious dimension, fundamental for every person’s life. Indeed, it is to this dimension that the Church, by virtue of the mission entrusted to her by

Christ, must devote special attention and care: this is her most important and specific task.

or Christians coming from various parts of the world, attention to the religious dimension also entails ecumenical dialogue and the care of new communities, while for the Catholic faithful it involves, among other things, establishing new pastoral structures and showing esteem for the various rites, so as to foster full participation in the life of the local ecclesial community. Human promotion goes side by side with spiritual communion, which opens the way ‘to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the only Saviour of the world’18. The Church always offers a precious gift when she guides people to an encounter with Christ, which opens the way to a stable and trustworthy hope.

here migrants and refugees are concerned, the Church and her various agencies ought to avoid offering charitable services alone; they are also called to promote real integration in a society where all are active members and responsible for one another’s welfare, generously offering a creative contribution and rightfully sharing in the same rights and duties. Emigrants bring with them a sense of trust and hope which has inspired and sustained their search for better opportu18 Porta Fidei, 6.

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nities in life. Yet they do not seek simply to improve their financial, social and political condition. It is true that the experience of migration often begins in fear, especially when persecutions and violence are its cause, and in the trauma of having to leave behind family and possessions which had in some way ensured survival. But suffering, great losses and at times a sense of disorientation before an uncertain future do not destroy the dream of being able to build, with hope and courage, a new life in a new country. Indeed, migrants trust that they will encounter acceptance, solidarity and help, that they will meet people who sympathise with the distress and tragedy experienced by others, recognise the values and resources the latter have to offer, and are open to sharing humanly and materially with the needy and disadvantaged.

t is important to realise that ‘the reality of human solidarity, which is a benefit for us, also imposes a duty’19. Migrants and refugees can experience, along with difficulties, new, welcoming relationships which enable them to enrich their new countries with • their professional skills, • their social and cultural heritage and, not infrequently, • their witness of faith, which can bring new energy and life to communities of ancient Christian tradition, and invite others to encounter Christ and to come to know the Church. 16

ertainly every state has the right to regulate migration and to enact policies dictated by the general requirements of the common good, albeit always in safeguarding respect for the dignity of each human person. The right of persons to migrate – as the Council’s Constitution Gaudium et Spes, No. 65, recalled – is numbered among the fundamental human rights, allowing persons to settle wherever they consider best for the realisation of their abilities, aspirations and plans.

n the current social and political context, however, even before the right to migrate, there is need to reaffirm the right not to emigrate, that is, to remain in one’s homeland; as Saint John Paul ii stated: ‘It is a basic human right to live in one’s own country. However this rights become effective only if the factors that urge people to emigrate are constantly kept under control’20.

T • • • •

oday in fact we can see that many migrations are the result of

economic instability, the lack of essential goods, natural disasters, wars and social unrest.

instead of a pilgrimage filled with trust, faith and hope, migration then becomes an ordeal undertaken for the sake of survival, where men and women appear 19 Caritas in Veritate, 43. 20 Address to the Fourth World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, 9 October 1998.

more as victims than as agents responsible for the decision to migrate.

s a result, while some migrants attain a satisfactory social status and a dignified level of life through proper integration into their new social setting, many others are living at the margins, frequently exploited and deprived of their fundamental rights, or engaged in forms of behaviour harmful to their host society. The process of integration entails rights and duties, attention and concern for the dignified existence of migrants; it also calls for attention on the part of migrants to the values offered by the society to which they now belong.

n this regard, we must not overlook the question of irregular migration, an issue all the more pressing when it takes the form of human trafficking and exploitation, particularly of women and children. These crimes must be clearly condemned and prosecuted, while an orderly

migration policy which does not end up in a hermetic sealing of borders, more severe sanctions against irregular migrants and the disadoption of measures meant to dis courage new entries, could at least limit for many migrants the danger of falling prey to such forms of human trafficking. There is an urgent need for • structured multilateral interventions for the development of the countries of departure, • effective countermeasures aimed at eliminating human trafficking, • comprehensive programmes regulating legal entry, and • a greater openness to considering individual cases calling for humanitarian protection more than political asylum.

n addition to suitable legislation, there is a need for a patient and persevering effort to form minds and consciences. In all this, it is important to strengthen and develop understanding and cooperation between ecclesial and other institutions devoted to promoting the integral development of the human person. In the Christian vision, social and humanitarian commitment draws its strength from fidelity to the Gospel, in the knowledge that ‘to follow Christ, the perfect man, is to become more human oneself’ 21. • 21 Gaudium et Spes, 41.

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the CatholiC Counter-Culture by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput22

n the 1950s, Quebec was deeply Catholic; one of the most profoundly Catholic cultures in the world. The province had 90 percent church attendance. Catholic education, health care and social services pervaded daily life. I mention this for a reason. A young Catholic friend recently moved to Quebec from Washington, D.C., with her husband. And when she asked some of her new friends if they’d like to join her for Mass, the answer she got was: ‘What is a Mass?’ • In 2014, barely 6 percent of Quebeckers attend Sunday services. • Only 9 percent of high-school age young people identify as Catholic. • About 38 abortions occur for every 100 live births.

• Nearly half of newborn children go unbaptised. And many of those who are baptised will grow up without seeing the inside of a church. in just 50 years since Quebec’s ‘Quiet Revolution’ of the 1960s, an entire Catholic culture has collapsed.

one of this is news. But for anyone coming from the United States for the first time, the wreckage of Quebec’s Catholic life - a once-great Church almost completely expunged from a people’s daily environment - can be a shock. And that shock ties us to our theme: in the developed world, more and more people of faith, people for whom God is the anchor of their lives, people who once felt rooted in their communities, now feel like strangers, out of place and out of ‘sync’ in the land of their birth.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. 18

ne can argue that Canada and the United States have very different histories. And within the Canadian experience, Quebec is unique. For 200 years, the Church sustained a French-speaking minority in a Protestant, English-speaking culture. In doing it, the Church acquired influence over nearly every aspect of Quebec’s life, to the point where Protestant street preachers were often banned from operating or even 22 Adapted and edited from +Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Erasmus Lecture October 20, 2014.

jailed. The trouble with any habit of power is that service becomes privilege. Privilege becomes entitlement. And entitlement breeds abuse and resentment. Catholic life in Quebec became formulaic long before the Quiet Revolution. When the world began to change, people shed the Church like dead skin.

merican Catholics have never come close to dominance in our country. So it’s tempting to feel safe from the kind of disaster that happened in Quebec. Religious belief and practice remain high in the United States compared to any other developed country. But that’s changing. And the change has implications. The purpose of our lives isn’t politics. It’s the privilege of knowing, loving and being loved by God; of serving his people and being his witnesses. That’s the narrative we belong to. Only God is God, and God is good. And God’s goodness invites us to remember three things.

Saint Anne, Patron Saint of Canada.

irstly, we are a people of worship first, and action second. That doesn’t excuse retreating from the world. It’s not an alibi for quietism. But for Catholics, there’s no real Christian political action, no genuinely Christian social service, unless it flows out of the adoration of God. Romano Guardini said that adoration is humanity’s greatest instrument Aid to the Church in Need

of truth. It’s the safeguard of our mental health and integrity. Adoration breeds humility, and humility is the beginning of sanity. Adoration grounds our whole being in the real reality: the fact that God is God, and man is his creation.

econdly, there are no unhappy saints. Pope Francis says that ‘a Christian without joy is not a Christian.’ But we’ve really known that all along. Joy is the mark of a person who’s truly found God. Chesterton wrote that joy is the ‘gigantic secret’ of the believer. He said that ‘man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial.’

hirdly, we are in the world but not of the world. We forget that at our peril. Henri de Lubac wrote many years ago that when the world worms

its way into the life of the Church, the Church becomes not just a caricature of the world, but even worse than the world in her mediocrity and ugliness.

he Church has no interest in power for its own sake. Nor does she have an investment in any political system. Nor does she reject any political system so long as it respects • the authentic dignity of the human person and • allows communities of faith the freedom to worship God and to act, preach and serve their mission without interference in the public square. The problem we face at the moment is that, in the United States, that freedom is more and more constrained.

his trend has been building for a long time. Gay marriage is only one of the many issues that have transformed our culture. But given the intimate and embodied nature of the relationship in every genuine marriage, and the traditional procreative implications it has for making or closing off a nation’s future, gay marriage has a uniquely powerful sign value. The most disturbing thing about the debate around gay marriage is the destruction of public reason that it accomplished. Emotion and sloganeering drove the argument. And the hatred that infected the conversation came far less from socalled ‘homophobes’ than from many gay issue activists themselves. People who uphold a traditional moral architecture for sexuality, marriage and family have gone in the space of just 20 years from

mainstream conviction to the media equivalent of rac-ists and bigots.

his is impressive. It’s also profoundly dishonest and evil, but we need to acknowledge the professional excellence of the marketing that made it happen. We also need to thank God for the gift of this difficult moment, because conflict always does two things. • It purifies the Church, and • it clarifies the character of the enemies who hate her. Conflict is good when the issues matter. And very few issues matter as much to the course of a nation as the nature of marriage and family.•

‘From my point of view, God is the light that illuminates the darkness, even if it does not dissolve it, and a spark of divine light is within each of us’

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no rooM for pessiMisM by Archbishop C. J. Chaput23

elievers don’t have the luxury of pessimism. Our job is to be the healthy cells in a society. We need to work as long as we can, as hard as we can, to nourish the good in our countries and to encourage the seeds of a renewal that can only come from our young people. Looking back on the last 60 years, one of the Scripture passages that stays with me most vividly is Judges 2:6-15. It’s the story of what happens after the Exodus and after Joshua wins the Promised Land for God’s people. Verse 10 says that Joshua ‘and all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord or the work which he had done for Israel.’

very generation leaves a legacy of achievement and failure. In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege of knowing many, many good men and women of my generation – Christians, Jews and people with no religious faith at all; people who’ve made the world better by the gift of their lives and their joy in service to others. But the biggest failure, the biggest sadness, of so many people of my generation, including parents, educators and leaders in the Church, is our failure to pass along our faith in a compelling way to the generation now taking our place. We can blame this on the confusion of the times. We can blame it on our own mistakes in pedagogy. But the real reason faith doesn’t matter to so many of our young adults and teens is that - too often - it didn’t really matter to us. Not enough to shape our lives. Not enough for us to really suffer for it.

know there are tens of thousands of exceptions to what I’ve just said, but what I’ve said is still true. A man can’t give what he doesn’t have. if we want to change the culture of a nation, we need to begin by taking a hard look at the thing we call our own faith. If we don’t radiate the love of God with passion and courage in the exam23 Adapted and edited from +Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Erasmus Lecture October 20, 2014.

what the setback or suffering - sustains the virtue of hope.. Melancholy kills. Hope gives life. Hope keeps the human heart beating.

ut why should we hope? We should hope because God loves us. And that’s more than an empty piety. The proof of it is sitting right next to you in the friends who believe, as you do, in the goodness that still resides in our world and in those who want to fight for it.

ple of our daily lives, nobody else will - least of all the young people who see us most clearly and know us most intimately. The real problem we face isn’t that we believers are foreigners in our own lands, it’s that our children and grandchildren are not believers.

In Christian belief, God’s Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The world changed. Our job is to echo his Word by helping our witness become flesh in the structures, moral imagination and bloodstream of the world around us. If that happens, the world will change again. •

here’s a chapter in The Brothers Karamazov where the monastery’s elder, Zosima, urges his young friends to flee from despondency and ‘ask gladness from the Lord. Be glad as children, as birds in the sky. And let man’s sins not disturb you in your efforts.’ That might sound like Pope Francis, but it was written by Dostoyevsky, a man who was never confused with a spring breeze. Yet for both men, both Francis and the great Russian author, the discipline of joy – the conscious choice to be grateful, to be joyful, no matter Aid to the Church in Need

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. 23

on BeCoMing a true radiCal

by Archbishop C. J. Chaput24

he late Saul Alinsky called himself a radical, and he was clearly good at what he did. But I’ve always felt that his book, Rules for Radicals, was a kind of ‘Machiavelli for people with short attention spans.’ Alinsky’s rules, his pressure tactics, his deceits, manipulations and organising skills, are finally based on a fraud. They are not ‘progressive’ at all. They are in fact the same tired grasping for power that made the world what it is. The truth is, Alinsky wasn’t nearly radical enough. Radical means: • Blessed are the peacemakers. • Blessed are the merciful.

• Blessed are the pure in heart. • Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. • Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. • Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven; for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. s Christians we don’t need to ‘succeed’ in living the Beatitudes, but we do need to try - every day, consciously, with all our hearts.

The Beatitudes irresistibly transform the world by transforming us... radically. • 24 Excerpted and edited from +Charles J Chaput.

over 200 Million Migrants world-wide

there are over 200 million T oday international migrants world-

wide.

The industrialised world has taken a schizophrenic position to migrants: on one hand there are those who would want to expand the flows of arriving migrant workers for the economic benefits - and those countries with ageing populations - and those who harbour various fears of immigrants to local culture. ACN’s mark Riedemann interviews Professor Stefano Zamagni, a global authority, on this topic. view the interview By sCanning the Code Below or By visiting

www.aCnireland.org

Lord, by Your Cross and Resurrection, You have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world.

O God, bless every step that I am taking, and bless the ground beneath my feet. A Dhia, beannaigh an chéim a bhfuil mé ag dul. Beannaigh dom an chré atá fém’ chois. aMen

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praying in the darkness by Pope Francis25

uring morning Mass on the 20th September 2014, Pope Francis called for prayer,

• for ‘those of our brothers and sisters who, in order to be Christians, are driven from their homes and are left with nothing’, • for the elderly who are left aside and the sick alone in hospitals: • for all those who are living through ‘dark times’.

he Pontiff’s reflection arose from the day’s First Reading from the Book of Job26, which contains ‘a prayer’ which the Pope deemed ‘a bit special; the Bible itself says that it is a curse’, he explained. In fact, ‘Job opened his mouth and cursed’ the day he was born. He complained ‘about what happened to him’ in these words: ‘Let the day perish wherein I was born.... Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?... For then I should have lain down and been quiet.... Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth, as infants that never see the light?’

these things after he ‘lost everything’. He was put to the test: he lost his whole family, all his possessions, his health, and his whole body had become afflicted. In other words, ‘in that moment he lost his patience and he said these things. They were bad! But he was used to speaking the truth and this was the truth that he felt in that moment’. To the point of saying, ‘I am alone. I am abandoned. Why? Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which said, “A man-child is conceived”’.

n Job’s words, the Pope recognised a sort of ‘curse against his whole life’, highlighting that it is declared during the ‘dark moments’ of his life. And the same thing also happens in Jeremiah, in Chapter 20: ‘Cursed be the day on which I was born!’. Words which beg the

The Bishop of Rome pointed out in this regard, that ‘Job, a rich man, a righteous man who truly adored God and followed the path of the Commandments’, said 25 Pope Francis Morning Meditation mORNiNG meDiTATiON iN THe CHAPel OF THe DOmUS SANCTAe mARTHAe 30th September 2014 as adapted from L’Osservatore Romano, Weekly ed. in English, n. 40, 3 October 2014). 26 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23.

Noah, Daniel & Job.

question, ‘Is this man blaspheming?’ This man, all alone, with these words, ‘is he blaspheming? Does Jeremiah blaspheme? Jesus, when he laments - “Father, why have you abandoned me?” - is he blaspheming? This is the mystery’.

he Pontiff confided that many times in his pastoral experience, he himself hears ‘people who are living in difficult, sorrowful situations, who have lost so much or who feel alone and abandoned and come to complain and to ask these questions: Why? They rebel against God’. And the Pope’s answer is: ‘Continue to pray in this way, because this too is a prayer’. As was that of Jesus, when he asked the Father: ‘Why have you abandoned me?’, and like that of Job. Because ‘to pray is to become truthful before God. One prays with reality. True prayer comes from the heart, from the moment that one is living’. It is ‘prayer in moments of darkness, in the moments of life where there is no hope’ and when ‘the horizon cannot be seen’; to the point that ‘many times our memory is lost and we have nowhere to anchor our hope’.

deprived of everything, who wonder, ‘But Lord, I believed in you. Why?’. Why ‘is it a curse to believe in you?’. It is the same for ‘the elderly left aside’, for the sick, for people alone in hospitals. It is in fact, ‘for all these people, these brothers and sisters of ours, and for us too, whten we walk the path in the dark’, that ‘the Church prays’. And in doing so, ‘she takes this sorrow upon herself’.

n example in this sense comes from another of the day’s Readings, Psalm 87, which reads: ‘For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am reckoned among those who go down to the Pit; I am a man who has not strength, like one forsaken among the dead, like the slain

Hence the relevance of God’s word, because today too, ‘many people are in Job’s situation. So many good people, like Job, do not understand what has happened to them. So many brothers and sisters who have no hope’. The Pontiff’s thought immediately went ‘to the great tragedies’ such as those of Christians being driven from their homes and Aid to the Church in Need

that lie in the grave, like those whom thou dost remember no more’. In exactly this way, Francis stated, ‘the Church prays for all those who are in the trial of darkness’.

n addition to these people, those ‘without illness, without hunger, without important needs’ also have ‘a bit of darkness in the soul’. There are situations in which ‘we believe we are martyrs and we stop praying’, saying we are angry with God, to the point of no longer even going to Mass. On the contrary, the passage from the day’s Scripture ‘teaches us the wisdom of prayer in the darkness, of prayer without hope’. And the Pope cited the example of St Teresa of the Child Jesus, who, ‘in her last years of life, tried to think of heaven’ and ‘felt inside her, like a voice that said ‘Do not be foolish, do not make believe. Do you know what is waiting for you? Nothing!’.

The Holy Father recalled that Jesus himself had journeyed on this path: from the evening on the Mount of Olives to the last words on the Cross: ‘Father, why have you abandoned me?’.

he Pope offered two concluding thoughts ‘that may be useful’. The first was a call to ‘prepare yourself, for when darkness comes’. Darkness ‘will come, perhaps not as it did to Job’, perhaps not as difficult, ‘but we will have a time of darkness’. Everyone will. This is why it is necessary to ‘prepare the heart for that moment’. This second closing thought was a call ‘to pray, as the Church prays, with the Church, for so many brothers and sisters who suffer being outcast from themselves, in darkness and in suffering, with no hope at hand’. •

any times all of us, ‘experience this situation. And many people think of ending up in nothingness’. But St Teresa protected herself from this pitfall: she ‘prayed and asked for the strength to go on, in the dark. This is called “entering with patience”’. It is a virtue that is cultivated with prayer, because, the Bishop of Rome admonished, ‘our life is too easy, our complaints are complaints for the theatre’ when compared to the ‘complaints of so many people, of many brothers and sisters who are in the dark, who have almost lost their memory, almost lost hope, who are outcasts, even from themselves’. 28

St. Theresa.

religious freedoM RELIGIOUS in the worldFREEDOM report 2014 Religious Freedom in the World 2014 – Executive Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

IN THE WORLD – 2014

the period autumn 2012 he report examines the degree C overing to summer 2014, the Religious T to which nation states uphold

Freedom in the World Report – 2014, compiled by in-country experts – journalists, academics and commentators – includes analysis on 196 nations; almost every country around the globe. The publication is the most comprehensive report on religious freedom by a Catholic charity.

‘Religious freedom is a right and a responsibility that involves everybody; all of us are entitled to express our beliefs respecting the faith of each other.’

the principle of religious freedom – as enshrined primarily in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – and the impact of destabilising extremist groups within society.

view the report By sCanning the Code Below or By visiting

www.aCnireland.org Religious Freedom in the World 2014 – Executive Summary

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE WORLD – 2014

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

DR PAUL JACOB BHATTI, Former Federal Minister of National Harmony and Minorities Affairs, Pakistan.

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finishing well by Fr. Michael Shields

s my birthday approaches (and I am no longer young), the question as to how I want to finish this life takes on ever greater significance. While some of us may have had bad ‘starts’ in life the Gospel tells us that all of us can have ‘a great finish’. So it was that while praying about this over the past few months I met a friend, the Venerable matt Talbot (1856-1925). Matt was an Irishman who was a chronic alcoholic but at the age of 28 he found sobriety through devotion to the Eucharist, Prayer, Self-discipline and Spiritual direction he remained sober for the next 41 years.

att is the saint for the addict, the alcoholic, the ‘down and out’ and the rest of us who need a little hope to keep on the straight and narrow as we journey towards our eternal home.

Fr. Michael Shields.

In life Matt was a simple man who painfully taught himself to read and write so he could read the Bible and the lives of the saints. He would often be found kneeling in front of the church door waiting for the church to open for the early Mass. He found a deep relationship to Jesus through Mary as he made the consecration of St louis De montfort. When he died on Trinity Sunday 1926 he was going to Mass and would have been terribly embarrassed that others would have found out that he was wearing a small chain to remind himself he was a servant of the great King and Queen of Heaven.

particular story I love about Matt was how he spent seven years trying to find the blind fiddle player from whom he stole a fiddle to pay for his drinking habits. Unable to find the fiddler Matt gave the amount of money that the fiddle would have cost to a priest to pray for the man’s soul. In short Matt was a simple man who started life badly saint. but finished it as a saint So it is that I now find myself before the Lord asking ‘Lord show me how to live out my remaining days in this life’. And it is here that Matt’s simple life as taken from the pattern of the Irish monks (‘Pray daily, Fast daily, Work daily, Study daily.) resonates with me. I confess that this is the best description of the life I want to lead as I finish my life on this earth here in the

cold isolation of Magadan. In Matt I find a call to run with him to the end and St Paul’s words to the Hebrews comes to mind, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’ (Hebrews 12;1)

ord, in your servant, Matt Talbot you have given us a wonderful example... of triumph over addiction of devotion to duty and of lifelong reverence for the Holy Sacrament.

May his life of prayer and penance give us courage to take up our crosses and follow in the footsteps of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Matt we are coming, pray for us. •

read aBout Matt talBot at www.acnireland.org A Lenten Journey

Fr. Brian Lawless

Aid to the Church in Need

parCels of hope in Children in syria and iraq Dear Friends,

his year we have a special gift for those children in Homs who were unable to escape the violence. We want them to be able to associate Christmas with a feeling of joy. The Star of Bethlehem, the Wise Men from the East, the joy of redemption through the Child in the manger, the peace that the angels promise – all this is no more than a remote yet heartfelt longing for the Christians of the region where this feast was actually born.

ut the hellish side of Homs is very near, and it typifies many other similar places as well. That is why we are also preparing

Children in Homs Syria.

Christmas parcels for all the uprooted children in Iraq. Pope Benedict XVI’s words in Regensburg still hold good: ‘It is not violence that redeems, but love’. We can find this love as a Child in the manger, and we can help this Child in his work of redemption – for example with these Christmas parcels.

he theme of the international meeting of families in the coming year is ‘Love Is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive’. It could also be our motto, when I see how much you have done throughout the past year for so many of your needy brothers and sisters in the Faith. I offer you my heartfelt thanks for this and want to tell you – if you will permit me a touch of sentimentality at Christmas time – how happy I am to be a member of the family of ACN.

Johannes Freiherr Heereman, Executive President of ACN International

we want to Be a little help... We too were refugees After WWII in Germany we received a lot of help from Father Werenfried. We are refugees ourselves. So my heart hurts when I hear and read about the people of Syria and Iraq and their suffering. Thanks be to God who always sends help in many ways. We want to be a little help to our brothers and sisters for whom we pray daily for protection and relief from all this terrible suffering. So accept our donation for Father Khalil in Jordan and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Lebanon that they will be able to feed the children and help the refugee families. May the Lord in His Mercy turn all the tears and fears of these children of His into joyful songs and dancing. A married couple in Australia A message of hope This donation is not so much a Christmas gift as a message of hope. We are deeply moved by the poverty of the people in the war zones, and by their suffering. We admire their faith, their steadfastness in the face of evil, suffering and sickness. They have left their homes with almost nothing in the way of money, clothing, mementos – what terrible deprivation! We pray for them all. A married couple in France

...thank you

Dear Friends,

AMGD

Heartfelt thanks for all your prayers and support. Last year thanks to the • Mass offerings • Legacies and • Donations ACN was able to: • Provide sustenance and the means of survival to over 40,000 priests • Support the formation of over 15,000 seminarians and religious and • Distribute more than 2 million catechetical books and bring hope to many thousands who have been abandoned and live in despair. May the Good Lord continue to bless you and your family, past and present, now and always.

J F Declan Quinn Director, Aid to the Church in Need (Irl) Where to send your contribution for the Church in Need: Please use the Freepost envelope. Aid to the Church in Need, 151 St. Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. Tel (01) 837 7516. emAil info@acnireland.org Web www.acnireland.org Registered Charity Numbers: (RoI) 9492 (NI) XR96620.

If you give by standing order, or have sent a donation recently, please accept our sincere thanks. This Mirror is for your interest and information.

Stand firm in the faith, be strong. (1 Cor. 16:13)

‘May our hearts awaken this advent!’ ACN Spiritual Assistant

‘The season of Advent restores this horizon of hope, a hope which does not disappoint, for it is founded on God’s Word. A hope which does not disappoint, simply because the Lord never disappoints! He is faithful!’

Christmas in Kazakhstan: Holy Infant so tender and mild...

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151 St. Mobhi Road, Dublin 9.

01 837 7516 info@acnireland.org www.acnireland.org

Saint Peter’s Square, Angelus greeting for the beginning of Advent 2013.