JUNE 28, 2015, Vol 65, No 13

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

SINGAPORE $0.70 CENTS / WEST MALAYSIA RM$2.10

MCI (P) 005/08/2014

PPS 201/04/2013 (022940)

VOL 65

NO. 13

INSIDE

Learn from past, build peace, says pope in Bosnia

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SARAJEVO – Pope Francis said

Upcoming symposium on these issues

he came as a “pilgrim of peace” as he made a one-day visit to the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a nation still scarred by ethnic and religious divisions.

During the June 6 trip, he called on government of¿cials and civilians to be “artisans of peace”, religious leaders to be dedicated to dialogue, consecrated men and women to be sowers of hope, and young people to be seeds of peace willing to renew the land that gave them life.

Speaking to hundreds of young people of different faiths who volunteer together at Sarajevo’s St John Paul II Centre, he said, “<ou are the ¿rst generation after the war. <ou are Àowers of a spring... that wants to go forward and does not want to return to destruction and things that make us enemies of one another.”

“You want to walk together” in joy, he said.

More than 100,000 people died and millions more were displaced during the 1992-1995 war, which saw a Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims after the mostly Muslim nation declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992.

Earlier in the day, he told leaders representing the Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox and Catholic faiths that they had the duty to dialogue with one another and to see diversity as a resource, not a threat.

Remembering the past is important in order to learn the lessons of history, he said.

He repeated the point also when he met with priests, Religious and seminarians gathered in Sarajevo’s Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

People have a right to remember and share their past, not in order to feed hatred and revenge, but as part of the process

Pope Francis arrives for a meeting with priests, Religious and seminarians in Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sarajevo on June 6. &16 SKRWR

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– Pope Francis to young people of different faiths

of building peace, he said.

Bosnia-Herzegovina has experienced “a history of cruelty” and one that is seen in many conÀicts around the world today, the pope said. The best response is to show “tenderness, brotherhood, forgiveness and carry the cross of Jesus Christ”.

Two priests and a nun shared their experiences of being captured and tortured by militants during the conÀict.

Walking to the lectern slowly and unsteadily with crutches, Fr Zvonimir Matijevic of Banja Luka said his Serb captors beat him so hard, their military com-

mander sent him to the hospital where doctors and six pints of blood helped him survive. His wrists still bear scars from handcuffs squeezed too tight.

However, the priest, who has since developed multiple sclerosis, said he forgives those who hurt him and prays that God help them live a life dedicated to good.

After he ¿nished, the pope bowed deeply before him, kissed his wrist and held him in a long embrace.

Another priest, Franciscan Fr Jozo Puskaric, told the pope he gave up hope at one point during his captivity and begged one of the guards to kill him and put him out of his misery. The priest’s voice quivered with emotion as he fought to hold back tears.

He said when he found out he was worth more alive in a possible prisoner exchange, he regained the will to live, and said God sent “help through a Muslim woman” who gave him food.

Lastly, Daughter of Divine Charity Sr Ljubica Sekerija, who served the elderly and sick in the Muslim-majority region of Travnik, said foreign ¿ghters swept in from Arab countries and took her prisoner. She said some residents cheered on the militants and jeered at her as she was taken away.

After a priest held captive in the same room refused orders to crush her rosary, the militants smashed it themselves, she said.

They took the ring given to her at her ¿nal vow ceremony, ordered her to convert, and humiliated and beat her along with the others they kidnapped, she said.

Sr Sekerija said despite the cruelty she experienced, she still felt an abundance of God’s grace throughout the ordeal. CNS More stories on Page 14

Divorce, separation, annulment Page 3

Bonding over soccer Altar servers, dads play in Archbishop’s Cup Page 7

ASIA Tiananmen anniversary China should face truth: bishop Page 8

WORLD 2016 US presidential elections Record no. of Catholics running for of¿ce Page 12

JUBILARIANS A tribute to priests and Religious celebrating special anniversaries Page 18-19

2 HOME

Prayers for Sabah earthquake victims The Archdiocesan Liturgy Commission has issued prayers for possible use for the Day of National Remembrance for victims of the Sabah earthquake:

The commission also offered additional Prayers of the Faithful for the families of the quake victims, that they may ¿nd “comfort”, “compassion” and “understanding”.

Another prayer Lord our God, is “for those who You are always are still grieving for the loss of their chilfaithful and quick dren” that God give to show mercy, them strength and the Sabah earthquake the grace to overvictims come their anxieties, discouragements were suddenly and confusions. [and violently] A third prayer taken from us. is for “all who have Come swiftly to their aid, died, especially those of our comhave mercy on them, munity, that with all and comfort their family and friends the saints, they may by the power and protection of the cross. have happiness and We ask this through Christ our Lord. peace and life eternal Amen. with the Lord”.

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

$5.8 m raised for Charities Week 2015 SOURCE: CARITAS SINGAPORE

Catholics and their friends continued to give generously to Charities Week 2015 which raised more than $5.8 million to help the less fortunate. This amount is about $248,000 more than the funds raised in 2014.

Charities Week is the annual archdiocesan fundraising campaign that is organised by Caritas Singapore during Lent each year.

In a statement, Caritas said it was “very encouraged by the generosity of the Catholic community. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who supports the work of Caritas Singapore and our Catholic social mission groups, enabling us to continue the work of serving those who are in need of help.

“Donations received for Charities Week 2015 will bene¿t Catholic social mission groups in running their programmes and services.”

New programmes include Morning Star Community Services’ once-a-week respite care service for stressed parents; and Montfort Care’s YAH (Young-at-Heart) in the Community programme for seniors and their families.

Through YAH, Montfort Care hopes to bring its Àagship Transformation Course to lower-income, home-alone seniors.

Montfort Care’s chief executive of¿cer Samuel Ng commented: “In the end, it’s not about how much they can absorb from the course, but about having the chance to express themselves and to make friends. The joy you see on their faces makes it all worthwhile.”

Catholic AIDS Response Effort (CARE) also needs continuing funding of their shelter for destitute and homeless people living with HIV/AIDS. Said executive director Michael Loh: “We started a cottage industry about two years ago

where our residents make rosaries, cruci¿xes and candles which are sold at parishes when our CARE team visits to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. “One of CARE’s residents said he found much peace from making these articles. Our hope is that people do not judge but embrace them as Jesus taught us.”

Even though Charities Week 2015 has ended, those who still wish to donate may do so by making out a cheque to “Caritas Singapore” and mailing it to 55 Waterloo Street #08-01, Catholic Centre, Singapore 187954. Donors who require tax deduction are to provide their NRIC numbers.

HOME 3

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Coming up: symposium on divorce, separation, annulment Many people are aware of the biblical teaching on the permanence of marriage: “Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Mark 10:9).

However, when crisis hits and a civil divorce looms, some couples lose not only hope but also faith. How then can one remain faithful to God and in full communion with His Church if a civil divorce happens?

The Archdiocesan Commission for the Family is organising a symposium titled Divorce, Separation & Annulment – Understanding the Church’s Teaching, on July 25 at Catholic Junior College.

The symposium aims to help participants understand how the Church applies its teachings on marriage and divorce in a spirit of compassion to the real-life situations faced by Catholics.

It will also cover legal requirements involving civil divorce, legal separation, ancillary matters and annulment, including dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation and collaborative resolution, thus helping participants to understand the relationship between civil law and canon law.

As separation from a spouse and going through a civil divorce are deeply painful experiences, the symposium aims to help participants identify signs of unhelpful ways of coping and ways to minister to hurting or traumatised hearts to facilitate healing.

Symposium speakers include Fr Terence Pereira; Ms Peggy Yee, who is in active legal practice focusing especially on family law; and Ms Kelvyanne Teoh, principal therapist with Morning Star Community Services.

The symposium is for those wanting a deeper understanding of the complexity of the issues related to divorce, separation and annulment. The event will start at 9 am and end with Mass at 4 pm.

Lunch will be provided.

To sign up for the symposium, go to www.catholicfamily.org.sg.

Registration fee (excluding handling charge) is $25 per person.

Archbishop William Goh celebrating with priests and parishioners of the Church of the Holy Trinity during its anniversary dinner.

Tampines parish marks 25 years The Church of The Holy Trinity marked its 25th anniversary with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop William Goh, a food and funfair, and dinner.

The May 31 celebrations on the feast day of the parish were the culmination of a series of jubilee activities.

These included Bible talks, a

day of recollection led by Archbishop Goh, a blood donation drive, family fun walk, movie nights, and a spiritual event titled “25 hours of prayer and devotion”.

Parishioners also received a special silver jubilee souvenir during the feast day celebrations.

The church used to have a fountain along its aisle.

Church history The building of the Church of the Holy Trinity was commissioned by the late Archbishop Gregory Yong in 1998. Fr Paul Tay, the ¿rst parish priest, saw to the design and building of the church, which of¿cially opened its doors on Oct 28, 1990.

The Parish Renewal Experience (PRE) was used as the key instrument in building the community.

The three-storey church is built in the shape of a ¿sh and had skylights over several sections.

The interior of the main church was designed to illustrate salvation history. Its stained glass panels feature scenes from

the Old and New Testaments.

There was even a water fountain that lined the middle aisle of the church.

The sanctuary was also surrounded by lush greenery and stuffed wildlife animals.

As the years progressed, so did the church’s population. The church went through a major renovation in 2006 to accommodate a crowd of 14,000.

When present parish priest Fr Edward Lim was posted to the parish in late 2009, he decided to restart the PRE programme to build a more vibrant community.

Currently, about 40 percent of parishioners are migrants, mostly Filipinos, living in and around Tampines.

4 HOME

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

God never promised you a rose garden, archbishop tells priests

By Lorna O’Hara “What happened to that zeal when we were ¿rst ordained?

Where’s that joy?” Archbishop William Goh asked priests on June 11.

At least 100 priests and Religious attended the Day of Prayer for Sancti¿cation of Priests at St Joseph’s Church (Victoria St).

The three-and-a-half hour event comprised spiritual input by the archbishop, Holy Hour which included Benediction, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Mass.

During Archbishop Goh’s input, he spoke about how St Paul thought about the love of Jesus and this made him want to give up his life for God. Just like how St Paul gave up his life to serve God, we as priests “also want to give our life for others”.

But “this depth of experiencing God’s love is dependent on our own unworthiness of His love”, he added.

Many priests have a “wounded heart”, said Archbishop Goh. “We get hurt. We are angry.

We are bitter. We are resentful.”

“As if Jesus was always understood. As if He was truly appreciated,” he pointed out.

“God never promised you a rose garden,” he said. “The call of priesthood is also to suffer.”

“Many of us are carrying woundedness in our hearts. If we

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don’t acknowledge our woundedness, then no forgiveness can take place,” he said.

So “if you really want to be an effective priest, make sure that your own wounds are healed before you help others. If not, you will hurt them.”

In order to be an effective priest, “don’t just spend time with the Divine Of¿ce. Don’t have a shallow prayer life. One Photo: BRYAN ONG

really want to be an effective priest, ‘If youmake sure that your own wounds are healed before you help others.

If not, you will hurt them.

’

– Archbishop William Goh

hour is not enough,” said Archbishop Goh. “You must spend time every-

lorna.ohara@catholic.org.sg

University students learn to be ‘shepherds’ at leadership school

By Amanda Lee

Students from different universities leading in praise and worship.

day to preach. Preaching comes from deep prayer and it will make you more enthusiastic” when

spreading the Good News, he said.

“You must also minister to the wounded,” he said.

“When you personally heal the wounds of others, it will help you know the love of God.” Holy Hour, Benediction and the Sacrament of Reconciliation then followed.

Priests were seen confessing their sins to fellow priests, while nuns and laypeople also approached priests to confess their sins in the main church hall.

Archbishop Goh in his homily during Mass reiterated what he said earlier. He also said that “we need to regain our priestly ministry through preaching, teaching and governance.

“But we are the worst in governance as we are not meant to be CEOs. We don’t live in the corporate world.”

He ended by suggesting that “we can get the lay people to help us in administration so that we can focus on preaching and ministering.”

At the end of the Mass, Archbishop Goh thanked the Religious for their prayers and support.

He also gave special thanks to Fr Andre Christophe for playing the organ during the celebration.

Special mention was also given to Fr William Lim, who attended the Mass despite being on medical leave.

A group of 38 university students from seven tertiary institutes attended the School of Christian Leadership (SOCL) from May 29-June 6.

The camp was held at Lorong Low Koon.

During the programme, organised by the Of¿ce of Young People (OYP), the students learnt what it meant to lead with a shepherd’s heart.

Fr Jude David, chaplain of OYP, started off by challenging the participants to put God ¿rst in their lives and seek His wisdom above all other things.

This was followed by Ms Christina Chua, a full-time staff, leading the ¿rst session, based on “The Father’s Heart”. She af¿rmed participants’ intrinsic worth, reminding them that they

are worthy of God’s love.

Another OYP staff spoke about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Mr Edwyn de Souza said that going to heaven wasn’t a matter of “being a good guy” but rather the constant recogni-

I really feel ‘ liberated to pursue Jesus and do greater things with my life in His name.

’

– Participant Stuart Peter, 22

tion and truth that “Jesus died for me and rose for my justi¿cation.”

Several other sessions led by OYP staff included topics such as wholeness and forgiveness, prayer and the Word of God,

community, discernment and Christian leadership through discipleship.

The participants also took part in daily Mass, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, prayer sessions led by several priests, praise and worship, games and fellowship.

The stay-in event ended with Kickstart, where more than 50 university freshmen were welcomed by their seniors – those who attended SOCL. Together, they participated in Mass which was followed by a prayerful procession with in the compound of OYP in honour of the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Mr Stuart Peter, 22, from the Church of the Risen Christ said that SOCL “taught me so much about forgiveness and love, and I really feel liberated to pursue Jesus and do greater things with my life in His name”.

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Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

2nd vocation booklet available now Fr Louis Loiseau celebrates his 65th anniversary as a priest this year. He talks about his calling in the latest vocation booklet published this month by the CatholicNews.

Coming from a big family that had raised 15 priests, the 89-year-old missionary said that during his youth, it was normal for young men and women to want to become priests and Religious.

Born in 1926 in France, he was in primary school when he heard his parish priest talk about vocations to the priesthood during his visits to the school. He also heard of the thousands of priests and Religious being killed during the Spanish Civil War and the Mexican war. Such stories fanned his desire to join the priesthood, and at 11, he joined a famous minor seminary in Angers.

Joining the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP) Major Seminary in 1944, he was ordained in 1950 and almost immediately posted to Myanmar, where he ran a seminary and ministered to the people in far-Àung villages.

As he was able to communicate in Burmese, he and his missionary community were so loved by the people that an insurgent group evenfetched him once from his home, to travel through a deep jungle over two days, so he could celebrate Christmas Mass with them.

Fr Loiseau was later posted to the United States to be an assistant procurator of the society.

From there, he was posted to Sin-

Missionary priest is Crossings Café bartender

By Mel Diamse-Lee

Paris Foreign Missions priest, Fr Louis Loiseau, is featured in the second booklet promoting vocations to the priesthood. gapore for a short while before going back to his homeland.

He returned to Singapore in 1971, where he would spend a great part of his life ministering to parishioners.

Until recently, Fr Loiseau was involved in archdiocesan movements, such as Marriage Encounter, Engaged Encounter and Choice. He also used to be the chaplain of the Francophone Community in Singapore.

In his typical frank and amusing way, Fr Loiseau answers other questions on vocations and other topics. Catholics are encouraged to get their copies of the vocation booklet together with this issue of the CatholicNews.

Walk into Crossings Café between seven and 10 o’clock on Friday nights and you will be greeted by the warm hospitality of a Belgian missionary priest.

Scheut Missions Fr Paul Staes will make you his signature Manhattan cocktail if you are an adult willing to try an alcoholic drink. He will even give you a complimentary bowl of homemade Belgian rice pudding, a family recipe he learned to make from his mother.

Fr Staes, who is the spiritual director of Crossings Café, volunteered to be a bartender once a week as part of his commitment to the social enterprise. His stint began on Valentine’s Day last year.

The 78-year-old’s role does not stop at the bar there however, as he moves from table to table sharing stories and exchanging jokes with guests. He also offers information on the various drinks available in the cafe, such as the Belgian Trappist Beers, Belgian fruit beers and others.

While a psychology student in the United States from 1963 to 1965, Fr Staes came to like the Manhattan cocktail and learned to

Scheut Missions priest, Fr Paul Staes, prepares his signature Manhattan cocktail.

concoct it perfectly. “Up to now, Manhattan is the only cocktail I serve,” said Fr Staes. “But I’m thinking of adding a less potent aperitif [pre-dinner drink],” revealed the priest, who came to Singapore 21 years ago.

Crossings Café, on the ground Àoor of the Catholic Centre, opens daily from 8am - 10pm. mel.lee@catholic.org.sg

6 SG50

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

All set for

Mass!

Prime Minister to attend event; young clergy in musical segment Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will be the guest-of-honour at the archdiocesan’s Joy SG50 Thanksgiving event on July 4.

Mr Lee, who was educated in Catholic High School, will be accompanied by his wife, Madam Ho Ching. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, a former student of St Joseph’s Institution, will also be attending.

Besides the Thanksgiving Mass, one of the highlights of the Indoor Stadium event is a musical segment involving a group of young priests, nuns and laypeople.

The audience can look forward to the group showcasing their vocal and musical talents, including on the keyboard or with the saxophone or electric guitar.

According to the organisers, the programme Àow will gain momentum progressively from being reÀective to participatory and then to being spirited, with much of the dynamism left to the ¿nal 30 minutes when the “younger members of the Church” will take over with a high energy musical segment.

That’s when the motley band of sporting priests, nuns and lay-

Mr Lee Hsien Loong will be guestof-honour.

people will perform a few songs including Matt Maher and Ed Cash’s “As It Is In Heaven”.

The group, affectionately named Band of Brothers and Sisters, comprises Franciscan Friar Derrick Yap, Redemptorists Frs Eugene Lee and Terence Wee, Carmelite Friar Edward Lim, Jesuit Fr Mark Aloysius, Scheut Missions Fr Kamelus Kamus and diocesan priests Frs Joachim Chang, Valerian Cheong and Samuel Lim.

The post-Mass musical segment is about ‘the laity, Religious and priests praising the Lord together in song, and the earnest interaction between these three groups is the future being realised’.

– Friar Derrick Yap

Priests and laypeople rehearsing for the SG50 celebration.

The singing nuns are Canossian Srs Christine and Josephine, Sr Linda from the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood, Verbum Dei Sr Monika and Daughters of St Paul Sr Wendy Ooi. They will be supported by a 60-strong symphony orchestra from the Church of the Risen Christ and an 80-member choir

SG50 Mass to go ‘live’

By Damien Teo The SG50 Thanksgiving Mass, expected to draw more than 10,000 faithful and guests to the Singapore Indoor Stadium on July 4, is likely to draw even more attention now that it will also be aired “live” via video streaming.

Those who may not be able to get tickets can now watch the event from the comfort of their homes as long as they have Internet access.

The Mass will be broadcast on YouTube, and viewers can access it on different platforms, such as on smartphones and tablets.

Viewers can also interact with one another in a comment box.

“Any ADSL (from 4 Mbps) or ¿bre broadband would be good enough broadband speeds

The Mass will be broadcast on YouTube, and viewers can access it on different platforms, such as on smartphones and tablets. to watch the SG50 Mass live.

If you are currently able to enjoy YouTube videos, you can watch the live stream,” explained Mr Michael Vong, who handles technical matters for the Archdiocesan Communications Of¿ce.

How to watch Those who wish to watch the

live stream can easily ¿nd it embedded on the of¿cial SG50 Mass website (sg50.catholic. org.sg), or simply type keywords such as “SG50”, “Catholic”, “Singapore”, “Thanksgiving”, “Mass”, Indoor stadium”, into YouTube’s search bar.

The “live” stream will be aired in the same way as the recent 28th SEA Games was broadcast on YouTube. Viewers are also able to select a range of video qualities they prefer, from 144p to a high de¿nition of 720p.

“We encourage groups to gather to watch the event together or at your parish hall if it is being organised at your church. The human soul needs to celebrate: to remember with grateful hearts, to bond as a human family, to dream together the future,” said Friar Derrick Yap.

from various parishes. Some of the songs will be livened up by a dance team made up of young adults including seminarians.

According to the organisers, the vibrancy is choreographed to reÀect the joyous promise of tomorrow’s Church.

Friar Derrick, who is overseeing the archdiocese’s Joy SG50 celebrations, said that the future is

one of hope “because we consecrate our nation to our Lord who is the Good Shepherd”.

“This post-Mass segment is also about the laity, Religious and priests praising the Lord together in song, and the earnest interaction between these three groups is the future being realised, the priestly prayer of Jesus bearing fruit.”

Info for ticket holders The organisers of the Joy SG50 Mass are advising those who are going to the Indoor Stadium to take note of the following: Use public transport as car park spaces are limited. Those who are driving should park at either the National Stadium or Kallang Leisure Park. The carpark at the Indoor Stadium is reserved for those with labels.

Those who are going by chartered buses should follow the directions of traf¿c marshals to the designated drop-off points.

The dress code for the event is smart casual. Attendees are advised to take their lunch before going to the event as it is expected to end at about 4.30 pm. Only food and drinks sold inside the Indoor Stadium are allowed to be consumed on the premises.

Doors will open at noon. Guests are requested to be seated by 12.45 pm.

The congregation will be the ¿rst to sing some new Mass parts, like the Lord’s Prayer, Gloria and Lamb of God. The words remain

the same but the melodies are cowritten by Jesuit Fr Mark Aloysius and singer-songwriter Corrinne May. “They are written to make it easier to sing and to pray the Mass better,” said Fr Mark.

Those attending can visit sg50.catholic.sg to learn these new Mass parts.

Programme 12.30 pm: Praise and worship and pre-Mass programme (including a sharing by Fr Simon Pereira on his pastoral work among Catholic adults and youths in Singapore).

1.30 pm: Arrival of the guestof-honour, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

1.35 pm to 4.15 pm: Celebrating the Past (multimedia production) Sanctifying the Present (songs

by Corrinne May; Mass) Envisioning the Future (young clergy, Religious and laity) See also story on Page 17

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Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Above: Archbishop William Goh launching the Archbishop’s Cup with a kick of a ball.

Right: Altar servers battling it out in a futsal court.

Queen of Peace church dominates in Archbishop’s Cup SINGAPORE – It was a day of fun and fellowship on June 6, as 12 parishes with a total of 31 teams battled it out in futsal courts at 8 Mattar Road for one goal – to bring home the trophy.

Before the event began, Archbishop William Goh addressed the servers and insisted that the results of the game

did not matter.

Instead, he told the participants that what mattered most was enjoying themselves and the game.

Archbishop Goh then launched the event by taking the ¿rst kick of the day.

Unlike previous Archbishop’s Cups, this year’s competition was unique.

Fathers played against each other, and even football legend, Mr David Lee, could not resist getting into the game.

However, the spotlight of the day’s event was on the altar servers.

They were grouped into three age groups – Under 12, Under 16 and Under 19.

Everyone played their hearts out and there were times where emotions ran high.

Some of the altar servers were seen crying tears of joy after winning their game and their efforts showed just how much training they put in prior to the cup.

But in the end, there could only be one winner.

For the Under 12 category, servers from the Church of Risen Christ went home champions.

For the Under 16, Under 19, and the Dads categories, Queen of Peace church dominated, bagging the ¿rst place in each group.

Congratulations to the winners!

Participants learn more about the Eucharist at Focolare event JOHOR BAHRU – About 150 Catholics from Singapore, Malaysia and at least 10 other countries learnt more about the Eucharist through talks, testimonies, games and group activities.

They attended a Mariapolis (City of Mary) gathering, organised by the Focolare Movement at Majodi Centre, Johor, from May 30-June 1.

Mariapolis began in the 1950s, when the Focolare Movement founder, Chiara Lubich, along with several companions, travelled to northern Italy during the summer vacation to share their experiences of how they lived the Gospel.

Her initiaitive was so infectious that now, thousands take part in such Mariapolis gatherings held all over the world.

During the recent event centred around the theme, Eucharist – Mystery of Communion, children and youth played games and participated in group activities. To help the young participants put into practice the idea of encountering Jesus in the Eucharist, they also visited a home for the elderly.

We must have the ‘ great desire of union with Christ and with our brothers and sisters, which the Eucharist achieves.

’

– Ms Nars Plaras, regional director in charge of the Focolare Movement in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore

Young people engaging in a sharing.

The participants also attended spiritual talks held every morning by the regional directors who are in charge of the Focolare Movement in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

One such talk was from Mr Caloy Adams from the Philippines. He shared about Ms Lubich

and what she experienced, as well as how the Eucharist is the cornerstone of the Focolare.

He added that Ms Lubich was able to consecrate herself to God as she wasn’t afraid to be alone with Jesus in the tabernacle.

Ms Nars Plaras, also from the Philippines, said that in order for

the Eucharist to be applied to daily life, “we must have the great desire of union with Christ and with our brothers and sisters which the Eucharist achieves,” she added.

“We honour the Eucharist more through giving and loving our neighbours than with beautiful ceremonies, even if the latter is necessary.”

In the afternoons, there were different activities such as cooking class, drama, Brazilian dance and health talks. Even though the activities were not fully linked to the theme, it gave participants a chance to put into practice what

they learnt in the morning – to encounter Jesus after receiving Holy Communion through loving one’s neighbours and listening to them.

On the last night of the threeday Mariapolis, participants showcased what they learnt during an activity called the Mariapolis Fest.

Participants said they bene¿ted from the event.

Mr Gerald Kong from Singapore said that he “was reminded that the joy and radical simplicity of living out the Gospel through concrete acts of love is infectious and has the capacity to touch and transform lives”.

Ms Renato Gatsinga, a medical student in Singapore, said that the Mariapolis gave her a boost to “go back into the world and do my best to spread His love”.

Ms Martina Ng from the Church of Christ the King, shared that from the event, she learnt “how to forgive who made me angry in the past, not to bear grudges and to see them with new eyes”.

To follow the activities of Focolare Singapore, visit https:// www.facebook.com/focolareSG

8 ASIA

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews CNS photos

Pope remembers Chinese ferry tragedy victims VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has expressed his closeness to the people of China, in the wake of a ferryboat capsizing recently.

During his weekly general audience, while giving his greetings to the Englishspeaking pilgrims, the Holy Father said: “In a particular way I wish to express my closeness to the Chinese people in these dif¿cult moments after the ferry disaster in the Yangtze River.”

On June 6, the Eastern Star’ cruise ship, carrying 456 people, capsized in stormy weather in the middle of the Yangtze River, reported the of¿cial broadcaster China Central Television.

About the same time as the disaster, a tornado struck the area, Chinese weather of¿cials said.

“I pray for the victims, their families and for all involved in the rescue efforts” Pope Francis said. ZENIT

Indian police arrest man who sent death threat to cardinal NEW DELHI – Police have recently arrested a man in connection with a death threat against Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi.

Ms Jaya Roy, superintendent of police in Ranchi, in the eastern state of Jharkhand, identi¿ed the suspect as Mr Devesh Kumar.

“He will be presented in court today [on June 16] and then brought to Ranchi,” Ms Roy told ucanews.com.

Cardinal Toppo received a letter early in the second week of June. It demanded a payment of 50 million rupees (S$1 million) and threatened death if the amount was not paid.

The letter claimed that the Church has ¿nancially prospered through evangelism.

“You have made moolah by spreading religion, which is why you should give some cut to the organisation,” it stated.

It also claimed that turning to the police would offer little protection.

“The police do not have the capacity to arrest our men,” the letter stated. “If you do not pay, you will be killed.”

Expressing surprise about the threat, the cardinal said that Maoists have normally been appreciative of the work of Church missionaries in India’s remote interior villages. He said there have also been no communal tensions in his area.

“Why on earth they have taken this step, we are wondering,” he said in an interview with ucanews. com.

The cardinal said that he recently met a person from the People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI), who claimed that the organisation was not behind sending the letter. The cardinal declined to identify him or her.

Either way, the cardinal said he did not feel threatened by the

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing of Hong Kong speaks during a June 4 prayer service to support the family members of those killed in the1989 military crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

HK bishop: China should face June 4 anniversary HONG KONG – Bishop Joseph

Cardinal Telesphore Toppo Ranchi, India. CNS ¿le photo

of

If you do not pay, ‘you will be killed.’

– A letter allegedly sent by a Maoist group in the eastern state of Jharkhand

letter, which was waiting for him when he returned home from a trip to Germany.

“Even if the threat is real, we won’t pay primarily because we don’t have money,” he said. “If we don’t have, how will we pay?”

Ms Roy said the suspect sent the letter to settle a personal score with a man identi¿ed only as Amit.

“Kumar mentioned Amit’s name and telephone number in the letter so that Amit would face police investigation and arrest,” Ms Roy said.

She added that police are continuing their investigation.

Police have beefed up the cardinal’s security.

“We have given him a personal security guard, and ¿ve armed police personnel are deployed at the cardinal’s house,” Ms Roy said. CNS, UCANEWS.COM

Ha Chi-shing, auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong, said that Beijing should face the truth of June 4, 1989, which wounded the people.

He said this at a prayer meeting with more than 800 Catholics at Victoria Park, Hong Kong Island, on June 4, for the victims of the Tiananmen Square event.

The prayer meeting was held before a candlelight vigil, which gathered some 130,000 people.

At the prayer meeting, Bishop Ha, a Franciscan, said that the voice of commemoration should continue, even if this voice in Hong Kong might be small in a country of 1.3 billion people.

“Let us make this voice heard to the family members of the victims,” Bishop Ha said. “We want to tell them: You are not alone, we are here to be with you.”

“We also want the authorities to hear this voice of conscience, telling them that the wound needs to be healed,” he said. “The

People hold candles during a prayer service at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mourn those who died in the 1989 military crackdown.

26-year-old wound has turned to be a moral burden of a rising nation.”

At the end of the prayer meeting, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired bishop of Hong Kong, linked the struggle of democracy

in China to that of Hong Kong.

Cardinal Zen asked the faithful to continue to ¿ght for a true democratic election system in the city, while Beijing is trying to impose more restrictions on a possible suffrage in 2017. ZENIT

Bishops urge voters to reject ‘corrupt’ politicians MANILA – Catholic bishops in the Philippines recently issued a pastoral letter calling on voters to reject “notoriously corrupt” politicians running in next year’s national elections.

In the pastoral letter, which was read in churches on June 7, Church of¿cials sought to remind the electorate that voting is not merely a political right, but “a moral obligation”.

“While politicians plan and strategise [and] ¿nd ways of circumventing the law against premature campaigning, the Church

cannot be remiss in its obligation of forming the consciences of... Christian voters,” the bishops said in the letter, which was signed by Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

The letter called on the public to “vote for the right reasons... not because you have been paid... but because you trust a person to lead the community and to lead the country.”

The bishops also urged voters to end political dynasties by not voting for candidates from the same family who want to perpetu-

ate the family’s hold on public of¿ce.

“There is no monopoly on ability for government, and truly no one in government is indispensable,” the bishops said.

The bishops cited criticisms that previous Church efforts to educate voters had come too late to be effective.

“It may never be again said that we spoke too late,” the letter stated.

In May, Church leaders launched a campaign against “vote buying” and “vote selling”, called Thou Shall Not Steal. UCANEWS.COM

ASIA 9

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Indian bishop uses cartoons as a ‘powerful tool for evangelisation’

Bishop Stephen Rotluanga of Aizawl, India, explains his cartoon during the February assembly of the Indian bishops’ conference focusing on the theme of Liturgy and Life. CNS photo BANGALORE, INDIA – Not every

bishop is a cartoonist.

But Bishop Stephen Rotluanga of Aizawl in northeast India is. He has become known as the “cartoonist bishop of India”.

That’s because at the end of every major gathering of the Indian bishops, Bishop Rotluanga would summarise the proceedings succinctly and strikingly in a large cartoon.

And he uses his artwork in his ministry in Mizoram state, where he is the only bishop.

“Drawing and painting is my God-given talent and I have a duty

to use my talent to spread the word of God,” Bishop Rotluanga, 62, told Catholic News Service (CNS).

“Cartoon is a powerful tool for evangelisation. You can give a strong message in a very pleasing and palatable way. It is a visual form that gives shape to the faith narrated in abstract words,” explained the bishop, whose art has been published in several leading magazines, including India Today.

“Nowadays, everyone is busy and may not have the time or patience to read the lengthy books and documents. But if the same message is conveyed through a

Pope helps homeless, poor in Rome make pilgrimage to Shroud of Turin VATICAN CITY – With ¿nancial

assistance from Pope Francis, a Rome parish led 50 homeless and poor people on a pilgrimage to see the Shroud of Turin on June 4 and has provided the money needed for another Rome parish to do the same a week later.

Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, said the pope supported the pilgrimages particularly as part of the preparation for his own trip to Turin from June 21-22 to venerate the shroud, which has been on public display since late April.

Addressing pilgrims at the Vatican just before the exhibition of the shroud, venerated by many as the burial cloth of Jesus, Pope Francis said he hoped seeing the 4.2-m by 1.2-m linen cloth with a photonegative image of a bearded man would “help us all to ¿nd in Jesus Christ the merciful face of God and to recognise it in the faces of our brothers and sisters,

especially those who suffer most”.

The group of homeless, poor and sick people who visited the shroud on June 4 went on a pilgrimage organised by Rome’s Santa Lucia parish, where they regularly eat and receive other assistance.

The pastor, Fr Antonio Nicolai, said Pope Francis offered his help with “the conviction that, like the shroud, they represented the suffering face of the Lord Jesus”.

The papal donation helped pay for the bus – Turin is about 700 km north of Rome – for meals and for lodging at the church-run guesthouse of a local hospital. Archbishop Krajewski said the pope also provided a little bit of cash for each of the pilgrims so they could buy coffee or a snack during the trip.

The other group of poor or homeless pilgrims in Rome were participating in a mid-June pilgrimage organised by the Parish of Sant’Eustachio. CNS

cartoon, it will catch the attention easily,” said the bishop, who has pursued drawing as a hobby since his childhood.

In fact, the 1.8-m by 1.8-m cartoon that Bishop Rotluanga drew at the end of an Indian bishops’ conference assembly in February on the theme of Liturgy and Life left many of the 140 bishops astonished.

“His sense of humour, astonishing capacity to draw lifelike sketches of the speakers and participants, and compress conference proceedings into a cartoon is wonderful,” Bishop Thomas Dabre of Poona said. CNS

Rebels lay down arms in Church-backed process COTABATO, PHILIPPINES – The

mean to give in this event today, Philippine government on June one big step in the gradual process 16 started the Catholic Church- of decommissioning that is so esbacked process of decommission- sential to the peace process.” ing members of the country’s largCardinal Quevedo is former est Muslim rebel group. president of Notre Dame UniverThe process was to bring the sity in Cotabato City, which some Moro Islamic Liberation Front of the ranking rebels attended.

(MILF) a step closer to its goal He has been a strong advocate of self-determination, after more of helping in their efforts at selfthan four decades of ¿ghting. But determination. The cardinal said the effort still must contend with the Cotabato Archdiocese is 47 Christians who are percent Muslim and 48 anxious about a propercent Catholic.

The process posed law that would He told Catholic create a self-governing was to bring the News Service that he region in the counsees the rebels’ sincerMoro Islamic try’s Muslim-majority ity in the decommisLiberation Front sioning process. south.

Cardinal Orlando a step closer to “They want to fulQuevedo of the Co- its goal of self¿l that they no longer tabato Archdiocese, the guns, so why determination. need which includes the bear guns,” he said.

MILF stronghold, The MILF’s ¿ght shared the opening prayer prior to with the government has left more the decommissioning ceremony than 120,000 dead and millions with the rebels’ grand mufti, Abu displaced. Both sides negotiated Hurraira Udasan. off and on over 17 years until they “Your peace, almighty God, is signed an initial peace agreement the peace of the heart, the peace in 2012. That was Àeshed out into that reconciles heart with heart, a comprehensive pact signed last the peace that is based on mutual year. The decommissioning is respect, understanding and total among its terms. trust and fundamentally the peace More than 10,000 members that is based on love,” Cardinal of the Moro Islamic LiberaQuevedo prayed. tion Front’s armed forces will go “This is the meaning that we through the programme. CNS

Laotian priest recognised as martyr VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis recognised the martyrdom of a Laotian priest together with 40 other priests, Religious and laypeople, who were killed in the 20th century “in hatred of the faith”, clearing the way for their beati¿cation.

The pope approved the decrees during an audience June 5 with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.

Among the soon-to-be blesseds are: Fr Joseph Thao Tien, a

young Laotian priest, along with 10 French missionary priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, as well as four lay catechists who were killed in Laos by communist guerillas between 1954 and 1970.

Capuchin Fr Federico da Berga and his 25 companions, all Capuchin priests or brothers, who were killed in 1936 by Marxists in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. CNS

10 WORLD

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Denying faith a public voice opposes freedom VATICAN CITY – A society that does not include religious views and challenges in public debate becomes an “enemy of freedom”, said the Vatican’s foreign minister.

Especially when it comes to talking about human rights, “we must avoid the temptation to exclude arbitrarily cultures or worldviews that are religious, or to accuse them of not respecting determined standards, or to reduce the understanding of the human person to the lowest common denominator,” said Archbishop Paul R Gallagher.

By failing to listen to the concepts and challenges offered by world religions in important discussions together with secularist perspectives, a pluralistic society

“will never be authentic pluralism, and will instead risk falling into a uniform single-mindedness, the enemy of freedom”, he said.

The archbishop spoke on June 8 at a high-level seminar in Strasbourg, France.

The event was titled “Building inclusive societies together: Contributions to Sarajevo’s exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue”, and organised by the Vatican’s permanent mission to the Council of Europe.

The seminar was meant to offer ideas in the run-up to the council’s annual “Exchanges on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue” which will be held this year in Sarajevo from Sept 8-9.

Religious freedom is like a barometer ‘ which indicates accurately the true level of freedom within a society.’

– Archbishop Paul R Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister

The Vatican released a copy of Archbishop Gallagher’s speech on June 9.

ConÀicting interpretations exist regarding the world and the human person, speci¿cally in understandings of marriage and family, the defence of human life and responsibility towards those in need, he said.

No one should be excluded from public discussions touching on those issues and on ways to

build a common culture of human rights, he said.

“A religious understanding of the human person can and must make a speci¿c contribution to this common culture, in dialogue with philosophies of man that tend to exclude any reference to transcendence,” he said, otherwise “the entire culture of human rights, even those of nonbelievers, would be greatly impoverished”.

A healthy exchange between reason and religion, he said, “is an antidote to all forms of fundamentalism” and helps reason “avoid simplistic forms of reductionism”.

“No one has a monopoly on the culture of human rights. To deny or to conceal differences serves nobody,” he said.

“What is important, however, is to make concerted efforts to rediscover that which we hold in common,” and values “for the survival and genuine advancement of each society.”

Religious freedom is a key factor in the development of a democratic society, the archbishop said.

In fact, “religious freedom is like a barometer which indicates accurately the true level of freedom within a society”. CNS

WORLD 11

Sunday June 28, 2015 Â&#x201E; CatholicNews

Archbishop from Iraq asks West to step up efforts to oust IS Syriac Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Moshe of Mosul, Iraq. CNS photos

Syriac Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Moshe of Mosul, Iraq. CNS photo NEW YORK â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Syriac Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Moshe of Mosul, Iraq, called on the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s government to oust Islamic State militants from northern parts of the country so thousands of displaced Christians can return home.

Speaking with the pontiÂżcal foundation Aid to the Church in Need on the Âżrst anniversary of the Islamic Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s takeover of Mosul, Archbishop Moshe said that forcing out Islamic State forces was the â&#x20AC;&#x153;best solutionâ&#x20AC;? for the 120,000 displaced Christians who Ă&#x20AC;ed the city on June 10, 2014, and nearby towns and villages that were seized in early August. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The only solution that will make them happy and give them dignity is to go back to their homes,â&#x20AC;? he told the agency. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We ask everyone to put pressure on the people who have the responsibility to free the [towns and villages] as soon as possible so the people can come back and live in peace in their... homes and continue their lives there,â&#x20AC;? the archbishop said.

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calling on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;theI am international community: If they cannot protect us, then they must open their doors and help us start a new life elsewhere.

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Syriac Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Moshe of Mosul, Iraq

Archbishop Moshe, who also was forced to flee Mosul, asked for prayers for the displaced Christians and â&#x20AC;&#x153;especially for our political leaders to help them find the solution that will allow us to go back to our citiesâ&#x20AC;?.

The agency said the archbishopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comments reĂ&#x20AC;ect the continuing frustration among senior Middle East clergy about what they perceive as the Westâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reluctance to commit to a full-scale intervention against extremism in the region.

The Syriac Catholic prelate

also suggested that if Western nations were unable to oust Islamic State forces, they should welcome Christians and others seeking asylum. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am calling on the international community: If they cannot protect us, then they must open their doors and help us start a new life elsewhere,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But we would prefer to be in Iraq and be protected in Iraq.â&#x20AC;?

Archbishop Moshe expressed concern over reports of the destruction of religious artefacts and historic buildings by the militants in the occupied Christian communities. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All our heritage is in Mosul, in Qaraqosh, but especially in the monastery of St Behnam, which dates back to the fourth century AD,â&#x20AC;? he told the agency. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have heard that some parts of the monastery, which is quite famous and old and contains thousands of Scriptures, were destroyed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But we have no news about our churches and monasteries because we have no one left in Mosul to report on it.â&#x20AC;? Â&#x201E; CNS

Polish bishops vow to resist change at synod on family WARSAW, POLAND â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Polandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Catholic bishops pledged to resist changes to Catholic teaching on marriage and family life at Octoberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s synod on the family at the Vatican and rejected demands for reform by German-speaking Catholics. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Polish Church delegates will certainly stick to the understanding of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II,â&#x20AC;? said Msgr Jozef Kloch, spokesman for the Polish bishopsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conference. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As the vicar of Christ, the Holy Father will decide what can

be accepted. In this sense, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve nothing to fear. At the Second Vatican Council, there was also intense debate, so arguments and conĂ&#x20AC;icts are quite normal,â&#x20AC;? he said.

The priest spoke after the bishops approved a position paper for the synod during meetings on June 9-10.

In a June 12 interview with Catholic News Service, he said the Polish Church was determined to resist calls for reform on issues such as homosexuality and Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.

Synod preparations have provoked controversy in Europe, where some Catholic bishops, notably in Germany, have argued for a more liberal approach to marriage and family issues.

On May 9, the Central Committee of German Catholics voted unanimously to demand that the synod bless same-sex partnerships and second marriages, as well as support a â&#x20AC;&#x153;reassessment of contraception methodsâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;a clear positioning against the stillexisting exclusion of homosexuals.â&#x20AC;? Â&#x201E; CNS

Vatican suspends donation agreement until soccer investigation ends VATICAN CITY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A charity for

youth established by Pope Francis has suspended a donations agreement with a South American soccer federation, following the corruption scandal that erupted in May with the worldwide soccer federation, FIFA. The South American federation CONMEBOL had pledged to donate $10,000 (S$13,500) to the Vatican charity Scholas Occurrentes for every goal scored during the America Cup, which began in Chile on June 11. The federation had signed the agreement in the presence of Pope Francis at the Vatican on April 21.

Scholas Occurrentes was founded to promote social integration of youth through sport and operates under the PontiÂżcal

Academy of Sciences, which is headed by Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo.

The charity issued a Spanishlanguage press release on June 11, signed by Archbishop Sanchez, saying it â&#x20AC;&#x153;will refrain from receiving any funds until the ongoing judicial investigation is clariÂżedâ&#x20AC;?.

Venezuelan Rafael Esquivel, who was among the seven FIFA ofÂżcials arrested on May 27 to face corruption charges in the United States, sat on the CONMEBOL executive and was among those signing the Vatican agreement.

Two former presidents of CONMEBOL, Mr Nicolas Leoz and Mr Eugenio Figueredo, are also among those being investigated by the FBI in the corruption scandal. Â&#x201E; CNS

New Catholic church opens in UAE VATICAN CITY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A new Catholic

church has opened in the United Arab Emirates.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, travelled to the capital, Abu Dhabi, to celebrate the inaugural Mass at St Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Catholic Church on June 12. The church was built on land granted by the municipality.

According to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, about 900,000 Catholics live in the Middle Eastern nation; most are domestic workers from India and the Philippines.

In his homily, Cardinal Parolin said the permission granted for new churches is â&#x20AC;&#x153;a concrete sign of hospitality that the Emirates has now shown towards Christiansâ&#x20AC;? and testiÂżes to the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to â&#x20AC;&#x153;a society based on coexistence and mutual respect.â&#x20AC;?

The inaugural Mass was concelebrated by Bishop Paul Hinder, apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia, and Bishop Camillo Ballin, apostolic vicar of Northern Arabia.

During a civic ceremony one day earlier, Mr Nahyan bin Mubarak, the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s minister for culture, said St Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s represents leadersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x153;religious toleranceâ&#x20AC;?.

St Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is the second Catholic church in Abu Dhabi and the eighth in the country. A chapel dedicated to St Teresa was opened in the capital last year. Daily Mass at St Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s will be in English; weekly Masses will be in Arabic, Malayalam and Tagalog. The parish territory numbers about 60,000 Catholics.

The Âżrst Catholic church in the country, dedicated to St Joseph, was established in Abu Dhabi in 1962. It became a cathedral in 1983. Â&#x201E; CNS

12 WORLD

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Record number of Catholics seeking US presidency in 2016 WASHINGTON – A record num-

Florida Republican Governor Jeb Bush (inset), a Catholic, will be running for US presidency in 2016. He is the younger brother of former US president George W Bush. Above: The White House.

ber of Catholic candidates have declared their candidacy or expressed an interest in running for the 2016 presidency in USA. Twelve Catholics have said they are interested in running, of whom ¿ve have already declared their candidacy. Several others are clearly making moves that indicate they will announce a bid soon.

“It’s going to be a Catholic year for candidates running for the presidency,” said Mr Stephen F Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington. “So, it’s historic.”

Catholics who have declared their candidacy include Florida Republican Governor Jeb Bush, who is the younger brother of former US president George W Bush; Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, former Maryland Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley, former Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum, and former New York Republican Governor George Pataki.

“There’s never been a [US presidential] election with this many Catholics running as this

year,” Mr Schneck told Catholic News Service in an interview.

“Historically, there’s been a gradual increase in the number of Catholic candidates for the of¿ce, but 2016 is going to be a Catholic year.”

There was a time in the US when a Catholic candidate for national of¿ce had a slim to no chance of winning the election based on his or her religion.

President John F Kennedy was the ¿rst Catholic to be elected. No other Catholic has won the presidency since.

Catholic scholars often agree that Kennedy’s presidency helped reduce Catholic discrimination nationally, allowing them to take a more active role in all aspects of American life.

A call to service in Catholic social teaching also may have inspired such a large ¿eld of Catholic presidential candidates in this election cycle, Mr Schneck said.

Since more than half of the 12 potential Catholic presidential candidates attended a Catholic high school, Catholic college or both, it’s likely that Catholic values were instilled during the educational process, he said.

CNS

Catholics, evangelicals urge Senate to adopt anti-torture amendment WASHINGTON – Catholic and evangelical leaders in separate letters have urged US senators to support a measure that would prohibit all US government agencies and their agents from using torture as an interrogation technique.

Senators John McCain and Dianne Feinstein, have sponsored an anti-torture amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for the ¿scal year of 2016.

“In Catholic teaching, torture is an intrinsic evil that cannot be justi¿ed under any circumstances as it violates the dignity of the human person, both victim and perpetrator, and degrades any society that tolerates it,” Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico, wrote in a June 10 letter as chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.

He said the McCain-Feinstein amendment “would help to ensure that laws are enacted so that our government does not engage in torture ever again”.

In a June 8 letter, Rev Leith Anderson, president of the Na-

tional Association of Evangelicals, also backed the McCainFeinstein amendment.

Writing on behalf of his organisation, he said the group “opposes the use of torture as a violation of basic human dignity that is incompatible with our beliefs in the sanctity of human life”.

“The use of torture is also inconsistent with American values, undermines our moral standing in the world and may contribute to an environment in which capture US personnel are subjected to torture,” he said.

Last December, Democrats in the Senate released a 500-page executive summary that outlined acts of torture it said were carried out by the CIA. The full 6,000-page report remains classi¿ed but the summary slammed US tactics used against detainees in the so-called war on terror. It said some of the tactics were more brutal than ¿rst described, produced little information that prevented an attack and often resulted in “fabricated” information. CNS

POPE FRANCIS 13

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Parents transmit Church teaching on marriage by example, pope says VATICAN CITY – Children need to see their parents kiss each other, complement each other and resolve arguments peacefully, Pope Francis said.

“Dear parents, your children need to discover by watching you that it is beautiful to love another,” the pope told parents participating in the annual pastoral conference of the Diocese of Rome.

Parents with their children preparing for ¿rst Communion and con¿rmation, catechists and priests joined the pope for an evening meeting in St Peter’s Square on June 14. The event marked the beginning of the diocesan conference, which focused this year on transmitting the faith.

As the pope entered the square, he pointed to two boys wearing yellow shirts and invited them to climb into the popemobile to help him greet the crowd.

Although he had a prepared text, he made long impromptu additions to his speech, including recounting the story of a little boy who told the pope he had seen his parents kiss. It is a “beautiful witness”, the pope said.

Children watch their parents carefully, the pope said. “They watch a lot and when they see that dad and mom love each other, the children grow in that climate of love, happiness and security.”

And they suffer when they see “dad and mom every single day screaming at each other, insulting each other, maybe even hitting each other,” he said. “Dad and mom, when you fall into these sins, do think about the fact that the ¿rst victims are your children, your own Àesh?”

A man and a woman who love

Children ‘watch a lot and when they see that dad and mom love each other, the children grow in that climate of love, happiness and security’, said Pope Francis

A young girl smiles as she embraces Pope Francis during an audience for families participating in the pastoral conference of the Diocese of Rome in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on June 14. CNS photo

one another and decide to marry and start a family, the pope said, have the exulted vocation of being similar to the triune God: loving one another in their differences and creating new life.

“Being parents is based on the diversity of being male and female, as the Bible reminds us,” he said. “This is the ¿rst and most basic, constitutive difference in the human being.”

Pope Francis insisted parents must attentively counter the “ideological colonisation” of their children, including when they are told by teachers or informed in their school books that differences

between male and female are unimportant or are invented social conventions.

Marriage, he said, is a call “to love one another with their differences” and to help the other become “more a man and more a woman. This is the artisanal work of marriage and the family each day: helping one another grow, thinking of the other, the husband of his wife and the wife of her husband. This is communion.”

In a world where people often are afraid of differences, Christian couples need to show ¿rst their children and then their societies that differences are a source of en-

richment because it “becomes complementarity, but also reciprocity”.

Growing up, children need to see what it means to be a man or a woman and to have proof that their parents’ differences are something positive, Pope Francis said.

“We men learn to recognise, through the women we meet in our life, the extraordinary beauty that

women bear. And women make the same journey [of discovery], learning from men that man is different and has his way of feeling, understanding and living,” the pope said.

Pope Francis also told the families gathered for the evening meeting that when they experience real dif¿culty, they have an obligation to their children to seek help and support.

And if they get to the point where “separation seems inevitable,” he said, “know that the Church holds you in its heart and that your educating role does not end: you are and will always be dad and mom.”

Even if couples are unable to live together, the pope said, they must ¿nd a way to work together harmoniously.

“Please, do not use your children as hostages!” he said. “Never, ever speak ill of the other to your children! Never! They are the ¿rst victims of this battle between you.” CNS

Helping poor is ‘not sign of communism’ VATICAN CITY – Focusing on pov-

erty and sacri¿cing for the poor are the heart of the Gospel, not signs of communism, Pope Francis said at his morning Mass.

Furthermore, if Christians don’t dig deep and generously open up their wallets, they do not have “genuine faith”, the pope said on June 16 during the Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

He said people often hear, “Oh, this priest speaks about poverty too much, this bishop talks about poverty, this Christian, this Sister talks about poverty. Well, they’re a bit communist, aren’t they?”

But “poverty is precisely at the heart of the Gospel. If we were to remove poverty from the Gospel, people would understand nothing about Jesus’ message,” he said, according to Vatican Radio.

Being fully Christian means being rich in spirit, faith, the Word, wisdom and zeal – things

CNS photo

A poor child leans against a wall on the streets of Manila, Philippines.

that Jesus has taught and offered all people, he said.

Make sure, however, that this huge amount of “wealth in the heart” also impacts the wallet, he said, because “when the faith doesn’t reach your pock-

ets, it is not a genuine faith.”

Pope Francis said the “theology of poverty” is based on the fact that Jesus – in His divine richness – became poor; He lowered Himself and sacri¿ced Himself to save humanity.

The Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” means “letting oneself be enriched by the poverty of Christ and not wanting to be rich with those riches that are not from Christ,” he said.

Christian giving goes beyond plain charity, which is good, but isn’t the “Christian poverty” believers are called to embrace, he said. “Christian poverty is: I give to the poor what is mine, not the excess, but also what is necessary” for one’s own well-being.

Christians do this because they know that sacri¿cing in such a way enriches them, he said. “And why does the poor person enrich me? Because Jesus said that He Himself is in the poor.” CNS

POPE FRANCIS TO VISIT SOUTH AMERICA IN JULY: Pope Francis will visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay during a July trip to South America.

14 POPE IN BOSNIA

Vatican ready to decide on Medjugorje ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM SARAJEVO – Pope Fran-

cis said the Vatican was ready to make an announcement concerning the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met recently to discuss the issue and “we’ve reached the point of making a decision and then they will say”, he told journalists on the Àight back to Rome on June 6.

The expected announcement will include “just some guidelines [the congregation] will give to the bishops”, he said in response to a reporter’s question.

An international commission of cardinals, bishops, theologians and other experts, working under the auspices of the doctrinal congregation, was set up in 2010 to investigate the claims of six young people who said Mary had appeared to them daily beginning in 1981.

The apparitions purportedly continue and thousands travel to the small town each month to meet the alleged seers and to pray.

After a few years, the commission completed its study in which the members “did a beautiful job, a beautiful job”, Pope Francis said at the end of his one-day visit to Sarajevo.

While the Vatican has said dioceses should not organise of¿cial pilgrimages to Medjugorje, it has said Catholics are free to visit the town and pray there, and that the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno and the Franciscans there should organise pastoral care for them.

CNS

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’ pope to 60,000 at Mass SARAJEVO – To overcome fear, discrimination and conÀict, people must have a deep desire to open themselves up to God and his mercy, and work actively for peace every day, Pope Francis said.

God’s plan for creation is peace, “which always meets opposition from humanity and the devil”, he said during his June 6 visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The cold reality today is that the world is facing “a kind of Third World War being fought in piecemeal” amidst “an atmosphere of war” worldwide, he said on the 71st anniversary of “DDay,” the World War II anniversary of Allied forces landing in Normandy marking the liberation of Europe.

But the “ray of sunshine piercing the clouds” is Christ’s appeal to work for peace, the pope said during an outdoor Mass in the capital’s Kosevo sports stadium, where more than 60,000 people gathered from different parts of the Balkan region under a hot, hazy sky.

“War means children, women and the elderly in refugee camps; it means forced displacement of peoples; it means destroyed homes, streets and factories; it means above all, countless shattered lives,” the pope said in his homily.

While there are those who foment war and pro¿t from it by selling weapons, he said, there are those who hear Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

“He does not say, ‘Blessed are the preachers of peace,’ since everyone is capable of proclaiming peace, even in a hypocritical or

Pope Francis (left) arrives in procession to celebrate Mass at Kosevo stadium in Sarajevo. CNS photo

Peacemaking requires putting justice into practice every day, ‘step by step’, said Pope Francis. indeed, duplicitous manner,” the pope said. “No. He says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’ that is, those who make peace.”

Peacemaking requires putting justice into practice, and it takes patience, passion, experience and the tenacity to never give up, every day, “step by step”, he said.

A vital step, one that cannot be skipped, he said, is personal conversion since nothing in the world

can change without a change in the human heart – one that makes room for God, His love and mercy.

Only with such change can a person see that former enemies “really have the same face as I have, the same heart, the same soul”, he said.

Signs of unity were seen throughout the Mass. An ecumenical choir of 1,600 people from Catholic and Serbian Orthodox Churches and the country’s national choir were accom-

panied by the nation’s military band.

Behind the altar was an intricately detailed chair for the pope, hand carved from dark walnut wood by a Muslim father and son.

A large cross placed near the altar still bore the punctures of ammunition from the three-year long conÀict.

In the ¿rst hours of his visit, the pope said he saw signs of hope in the joy and smiles of the Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox and Catholic children who greeted him at the airport.

He told government and religious leaders during a morning meeting at the presidential palace, that “I saw hope today in those children... That is hope. Let’s bet on that.” CNS

POPE FRANCIS 15

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Pope pushes Putin to work for peace in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin.

CNS ¿le photo

VATICAN CITY – The ongoing

crisis in eastern Ukraine was the principal topic of conversation when Pope Francis met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vatican on June 10.

Mr Putin arrived at the Vatican more than an hour late. He and the pope spoke privately, aided by interpreters, for 50 minutes before the Russian president introduced the members of his entourage, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“The meeting was dedicated principally to the conÀict in Ukraine and to the situation in the Middle East,” said Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

“The Holy Father af¿rmed the need for a commitment to a sincere and serious effort to reach peace and there was agreement on the importance of restoring a climate of dialogue” and on adhering to the promises made in the cease¿re agreement, Fr Lombardi said.

The “serious humanitarian situation” in eastern Ukraine also was discussed, the spokesman said, as was the need to assure humanitarian workers have access to the region.

Dozens of Ukrainians attended

Ukrainians at St Peter’s Square hold a sign which says, ‘Holy Father, Pray for Ukraine.’ CNS photo

The Holy Father ‘ af¿rmed the need for a commitment to a sincere and serious effort to reach peace.

’

– Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman

the pope’s general audience earlier in the morning, waving blueand-yellow Ukrainian Àags and holding up a sign saying, “Holy Father, Pray for Ukraine.”

In March 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine and about a month later, ¿ghting began along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia. Although Mr Putin denied it, there were widespread reports that Russia not only was supporting separatists in the region, but that Russian troops had crossed into Ukraine.

An internationally mediated cease¿re agreement was signed in mid-February but the ¿ghting has not stopped.

Fr Lombardi said the pope

and Mr Putin also spoke about the continuing crises in the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Iraq, and the need for the international community to ¿nd ways to promote peace and protect “all components of society, including religious minorities, especially Christians”.

The two men also exchanged gifts. Mr Putin gave the pope a cushion embroidered with gold thread; the design was of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which Mr Putin explained had been “destroyed in the Soviet era”, but has been rebuilt.

The pope gave Mr Putin a medallion of the “Angel of Peace,” who, he said, defeats wars “and speaks of solidarity among peoples”.

The pope also gave the Russian president a copy of the pontiff’s apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), which the pope said, “has many religious, human, geo-political and social reÀections”. CNS See story on Page 28

Dealing with bishops who don’t act on abuse VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has

approved new procedures for the Vatican to investigate and judge claims of “abuse of of¿ce” by bishops who allegedly failed to protect minors and vulnerable adults from sex abuse.

The procedures will include a new “judicial section” within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that has a papal mandate to “judge bishops with regard to crimes of the abuse of of¿ce when connected to the abuse of minors”, the Vatican said in a

written statement June 10.

The announcement came at the end of a series of consultations the pope had with his international Council of Cardinals, which met at the Vatican on June 8-10.

A speci¿c procedure now allows for an investigation and judicial process to be carried out in a more timely manner, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters.

The new process also means people who want to make a claim

– and anyone can do so – will know more clearly whom to go to if a serious crime of negligence is suspected, a source told Catholic News Service.

The Vatican statement said the three Curia of¿ces that have oversight of the world’s bishops – the congregations for Bishops, for the Evangelisation of Peoples and for Eastern Churches – were now authorised “to receive and investigate complaints of the episcopal abuse of of¿ce”.

CNS

Being Christian is seeking Jesus, not looking for ‘seers’ VATICAN CITY – Being Chris-

Gnostics”. The Gnostics belonged tian is looking for, following and to sects that arose in the second imitating Jesus Christ – nothing century, that emphasised special more, Pope Francis said at his knowledge over witness. morning Mass.

The danger of losing the proper Being Christian is not look- focus of Christian identity can be ing for those who always have seen with “those who always need something new to reveal, saying, some novelty” and don’t realise “‘Where are the seers who will tell it all begins and ends with Jesus. us today about the letter that Our They have “forgotten that they Lady will send at four o’clock in the have been chosen, anointed”, and afternoon?’ for example,” he said. have the Holy Spirit, not seers, to “This is not Christian identity. guide them, said the pope.

God’s ¿nal word is called ‘Jesus’ He did not speci¿cally refer to and nothing more,” Medjugorje, the site the pope said on June of continuing alleged The danger 9 during the Mass in apparitions. Yet, the of losing the the chapel of the Dopope told reporters on mus Sanctae Marthae.

6 that the Vatican proper focus June Christian idenwas getting ready to of Christian tity is “beautiful” and make an announceconcrete, he said, acment concerning an identity can cording to Vatican Rainvestigation into the be seen with dio; it is seen in a livclaims of six people ing witness to Christ, who have said Mary ‘those who the Beatitudes and the began appearing to always need “Judgment of the Nathem daily in 1981 and tions”, which refers to some novelty’, giving them messages. feeding the hungry, is also the said the pope. riskThere clothing the naked of being too and the other actions open to the world mentioned in Matthew 25:31-46. and “widening the conscience so However, because of human much that everything ¿ts in there. sin, Christians may not be faith- ‘Yes, we are Christian, but this is ful to their identity and may be OK,’” Pope Francis said. tempted to weaken or misplace it, Being too much of the world the pope said. and too ambiguous is seen in The danger of a weakened Christians who “cannot and do identity is seen when someone not know how to give witness to “goes from witness to ideas, wa- Jesus Christ”. Jesus “became man tering down witness: ‘Well, sure, and died out of obedience,” the I am Christian. Christianity is pope said, and “this is identity and like so, a beautiful idea. I pray to there lies witness.”

God,’” the pope said.

He asked that people pray for The person goes from con- God’s gift of identity and not try to crete Gospel commandments to water it down, put it on the wrong “this religion that’s a bit ‘soft’, track or mould it to the things of in the air and on the path of the the world. CNS

Mission societies warned against becoming NGOs VATICAN CITY – The mission-

oriented agencies of the Church must guard against operating like non-governmental organisations, empty of Christ’s presence, Pope Francis said.

“Please, guard against falling into the temptation of becoming an NGO, a distribution of¿ce for subsidies, small or large. Money can help, but it can also be the ruin of the mission,” said Pope Francis in an audience on June 5 with members of the ponti¿cal mission societies.

The societies, who were holding their annual meeting in Rome, are the four missionary awareness and mission-funding agencies coordinated under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

The agencies support the Church in developing countries, as well as the formation of seminarians, priests and Religious in ponti¿cal colleges, the pope noted.

However, he warned the groups’ members that “when

functionalism becomes central or takes up a lot of space, as if it were the most important thing, it will lead to ruin; because the ¿rst way to die is to take for granted the ‘sources’, that is He who moves the mission.”

The work of the ponti¿cal mission societies belongs to Jesus, he continued, urging members not to “remove Jesus Christ” from their “many plans and programmes”.

“A Church that reduces itself to the ef¿ciency of a ‘party apparatus’ is already dead,” he said, even if those involved think they are setting up lasting “structures and programmes for ‘self-employed’ clerics and laity”.

The pope also emphasised that the Church’s priority is its “evangelising mission”. The “true renewal of the Church, its structures and pastoral activities” comes from the “intensity and ef¿cacy” of its evangelisation, he said.

“Humanity today greatly needs the Gospel, source of joy, hope and peace,” he said. CNS

16 OPINION

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

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Families – the hidden heroes of this world VATICAN CITY – Family members

who still go to work after staying up all night tending to a sick loved one are the hidden heroes of this world, Pope Francis said.

In fact, the family “has always been the closest ‘hospital’. And still today in many parts of the world, a [real] hospital is a privilege for a few, and it’s often far away,” he said at his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square on June 10.

As part of a series of talks about the family and problems they face, the pope looked at illness – a sign of the human frailty that spans infancy to old age “when those aches and pains start coming”.

Often it is more dif¿cult to see a loved one suffer than to deal with one’s own ailments, he said, because “it is love that makes us feel” the suffering and anxiousness of others even more.

In fact, “how many times do we see at work – we’ve all seen it – a man or a woman whose face looks tired, they act tired” and when asked what’s wrong, they explain how they got little sleep after tending to a loved one who was ill, he said, straying from his prepared text.

But despite all that, they go on with their day, the pope said.

“These things are heroic. This is the heroism of families; this is the hidden heroism that is done when someone is sick ... and is done with tenderness and courage,” he said to applause.

The Gospel is ¿lled with accounts of Jesus encountering and healing the sick, he noted.

“It’s truly moving,” the pope said, to see how so many people would bring those who were ailing to Jesus. “If I think about today’s big cities, I have to wonder, where are the doors where the sick, hoping to be healed, can be brought?” he asked.

“Jesus never denied them care.

He never walked by them, he never turned his face away,” the pope said. He even put healing before

A family reads the Bible in their living room. CNS ¿le photo

‘How many times do we see at work... a man or a woman whose face looks tired, they act tired,’ said the pope, referring to those who forego sleep to tend to a sick family member.

‘This is the heroism of families.’ the law, when he healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.

“The doctors of the law reproached Jesus because he Healed on a Saturday. He did good on Saturday. But Jesus’ love was to give health, to do good and this always takes ¿rst place,” he said.

Jesus gave His disciples the power to heal the sick and be near them. However, they got caught up in a blame game when they wondered whose fault it was that a man was born blind – was it caused by the man’s sin or his parents?

But Jesus corrected them, saying neither had sinned and He cured the man.

“Here is God’s glory! Here is the church’s task! Help the sick and not get lost in gossip. Always help, console, alleviate, be close to the sick,” the pope said.

Jesus also healed those who did not belong to the people of Israel, like the pagan Canaanite

whose child was possessed. Jesus tested her by saying He was sent only to tend to the lost sheep of Israel and asked whether it was right for Him to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.

But “we all know that mothers ¿ght for their children”, the pope said, and the woman fought for her child, telling Jesus to let some scraps fall from the table. This proved she was of great faith, and her daughter was healed.

The pope asked people to teach their children to be caring towards those who are suffering.

He urged people to pray for those who are ill and their families, and to offer concrete assistance.

“This Christian closeness, from family to family, is a real treasure for the parish, a treasure of wisdom that helps families in dif¿cult moments and helps people understand the Kingdom of God better than lots of speeches,” he said. “They are caresses from God.” CNS

The deepest secret inside wisdom EVERYONE longs to know something that’s secret, to know something that others don’t know, but that you know, and the knowledge of which gives you some insight and advantage over others who are outside the inner-circle of that secret. It has always been so. Historically this is called Gnosticism, which forever makes an appearance in one form or another.

Today we see this in society at large in the immense popularity of books like The Da Vinci Code and The Celestine Prophecy. Their lure is precisely in the hint that there are secrets that a few elite persons know that contain important, life-altering, information which we, the unenlightened, are ignorant of. Our itch, of course, is to be inside these special circles. We see this paralleled sometimes in religious circles in the over-fascination people have with the private revelations of various self-acclaimed mystics, in special books claiming to disclose critical new revelations from the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the undue interest shown in things like The Third Secret of Fatima. Gnosticism has many cloaks.

At ¿rst glance, Jesus, in Mark’s Gospel, seems to be hinting at just this sort of secret. He tells us there is a secret that is open to us which, if known, puts us into a special circle of enlightenment and community. In Mark 4:11, He tells His disciples: To you is given the secret of the Kingdom of God, but to those outside everything is in parables. Clearly here Jesus is distinguishing between two circles, one which grasps the secret and is then “inside”, and the other which does not grasp the secret and is then “outside”. Jesus seems to be saying that in following him we can be either “in” or “out”, depending upon whether or not we grasp a certain secret. Genuine disciples are those who (in today’s terminology) “get it”, and those who “don’t get it” remain outside. But what are we inside or outside of? More importantly, what is the secret?

For Jesus, the secret is the cross; that’s the deep wisdom we need to grasp. If we understand the cross, all the rest of what Jesus teaches will make sense. Conversely, if we don’t understand the cross, all the rest of what Jesus teaches won’t make sense. Grasping the meaning of the cross is the secret to everything. But how, more concretely, should this be understood? What is the deep secret that lies inside the cross of Jesus? What, in essence, do we need to understand?

Various biblical commentators answer this in different, complementary ways. For some, it means grasping the wisdom that’s revealed in the cross. For others, it means understanding the brokenness of Jesus on the cross. Still, for others, it means understanding the invitation that is inside the cross which invites us to live out the demands of the cross. Each of these, in its own way, points to the most profound secret of all inside human understanding, namely, that in giving love away in total self-sacri¿ce, at the cost of humiliation, brokenness, and death, we ourselves come to what’s deepest and fullest in life.

But, unlike all Gnostic secrets, ancient or contemporary, this is an open secret, available to everybody and, paradoxically, more accessible to the “little ones”, the poor, and more hidden to “the wise and the clever”. Jesus makes the point that He has no hidden secrets by emphasising again and again that He only speaks openly and in public, never in secret, but in synagogues and market places. Jesus has no hidden secrets, only open secrets that we fail to grasp.

Interestingly, we see that, in the Gospels, grasping the secret of the cross is not something we do once and for all. Sometimes we grasp it, and we are inside the circle of understanding; and sometimes we don’t grasp it, and we are outside the circle of understanding. For example, after Peter denies Jesus during the passion, the Gospels tell us that “Peter went outside”; and they are referring to much more than simply stepping outside through some courtyard door. In denying that he knew Jesus and in not stepping forward to assume the weight of what would happen if he remained faithful, Peter was stepping outside the circle of both true discipleship and of a true understanding of life. His denial of Jesus took him “outside”.

We too, in our following of Jesus, sometimes step “outside” when we give in to temptation or adversity. But then, if we repent of our betrayal, like Peter, we can step back “inside”.

There are various ways that we can enter into an understanding of Jesus’ message and try to appropriate it for our lives, but few, perhaps none, take us so immediately to the centre as does the invitation from Jesus in the Gospel of Mark to grasp and accept the wisdom of the Cross.

SG50 17

Sunday June 28, 2015 Â&#x201E; CatholicNews

Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contributions in education and public service The Catholic Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in nation building started long before Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s independence in 1965. In the previous issue, the archdiocesan SG50 team presented some views of Catholics on the Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contributions in healthcare and social service. Today, we look at education and public service.

Education

4

How would you describe the Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contribution to education these past 50 years?

Dr Koh Thiam Seng, principal of St Josephâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Institution:

Because of the wide range of Catholic schools in Singapore, the Church is able to educate young people from a wide range of academic abilities as well as faith traditions.

While education at Catholic schools is founded on the Gospel values and is a living witness of our Christian faith, our schools continue to remain inclusive in their mission.

Perhaps the value of our Catholic education is that it is holistic and strongly emphasises the inculcation of values.

This enables our schools to form the character of our graduates who leave our schools with a heart to serve the less fortunate, the public at large, and to make a difference in the lives of others.

Besides our current president and prime minister, the other familiar names who have had the experience of Catholic education include Mr Teo Chee Hean, Mr George Yeo, Mr Lim Boon Heng, Ms Janet Ang (managing director of IBM Singapore), Ms Jessica Tan (MP and managing director of Microsoft Singapore) and many other luminaries.

Sr Maria Lau, provincial of the Infant Jesus Sisters:

The La Salle Brothers responded to the invitation by Fr Jean-Marie Buerel in 1852, as did the Sisters of the Infant Jesus who set up their Âżrst CHIJ school in Victoria Street in 1854, known later as Town Convent.

Like all pioneering efforts, setting up a school for girls in CHIJ demanded much hard work.

From the start, the Church of the period took a great interest in all that pertained to the faith formation and practice of the CHIJ students and children of their home.

The Catholic cathedral opposite the convent was the focal point for all religious ceremonies for the convent community.

In the 1980s, the Church became aware of the need for a more proactive policy with regard to the 31 Catholic schools, recognising the diminishing number of Religious leading and teaching in schools.

It reassessed its role in terms

The Catholic Church has contributed to Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education scene for more than a century.

Dr Koh Thiam Seng, St Josephâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Institution principal: Catholic education emphasises values.

of the guidance and support required for sustaining the Catholic ethos of schools and the quality of faith and ethical formation required for its studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; growth and development.

The Catholic Education Task Force was set up to look into this, to be followed by the Catholic Education Council, later to be replaced by a centralised service known as ACCS [Archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Schools]. These Church organisations progressively set about offering training for teachers taking on the leadership of Catholic schools and of those actively involved in faith and ethics formation.

Resources were placed at the disposal of schools and presently greater use of the media for resources is being offered to schools.

Sr Theresa Seow, provincial leader of the Canossian Sisters:

Over the years, what we have no-

Sr Maria Lau: The Church reassessed its role in sustaining schoolsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Catholic ethos.

ticed is that there are a number of needy girls with NO learning issues falling through the cracks simply because they do not have the skills to help them succeed.

Free tuition is not the answer as it is merely a solution to helping them pass examinations but not developing the appropriate life skills to teach them to help themselves to live their lives effectively and meaningfully.

What is important for the less fortunate girls is to help them build good habits, structures and/ or routines which will raise their self-efÂżcacy and self-management skills so that they will be able to succeed in Âżrst small measures then big. Empowering them with these life skills and self-discipline, these girls will eventually develop the volition to succeed in life and hopefully, move out of the poverty cycle.

Our Canossian schools in Singapore continue to do this pur-

Mr Barry Desker, non-resident ambassador to the Holy See: Catholics have responded to public service.

poseful work, especially with our needy, in order to respond to our foundress St Magdaleneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s call to serve them.

Public Service

4 How do you think Catholics

have responded to the call of serving in the public sector, as part of nation building, since the early years?

Mr Tan Chok Kian, retired top civil servant who served as permanent VHFUHWDU\ LQ WKH ÂżQDQFH VRFLDO DIfairs and national development ministries, and helmed the CPF and POSB boards:

At about that time when a generous scheme for the compensation of British colonial civil servants in Singapore for loss of career was in progress, the Âżrst batches of graduates from our national university were about to graduate.

These were the Âżrst Singaporeans, among whom were Catholics,

who were the Âżrst lot of young public servants to serve the Âżrst locally elected government in Singapore in 1959.

It should be remembered that before self-government, there was a handful of senior civil servants in the public service. The most prominent was Stanley Stewart, a Catholic, who rose to the highest rank as Acting Chief Secretary.

Others included Hon Sui Sen and K M Byrne.

These were outstanding public servants who later continued to contribute to the early phase of nation building as cabinet ministers.

Catholics were in all sectors of the public service, whether in the civil service proper, the statutory boards, the foreign service or other public bodies.

They played a crucial role in the administration of the government and helped signiÂżcantly in the building of our young nation in the last 50 years. Because of the growth of our nation, some held senior appointments in the public service which gave them a challenging and fulÂżlling career as part of our nation building process.

Many belonging to the pioneer generation have since retired but some are still soldering on with heavy responsibilities, not least of which will be to point the way and guide our young generation into the future of our nation.

Mr Barry Desker, who has a distinguished career in the public service and is the current Non-Resident Ambassador of Singapore to the Holy See and Spain, and former Ambassador to Indonesia and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations:

Catholics have responded positively to the call of serving in the public sector. Most did so Âżrst as Singaporeans, and, then as Catholics. I would suggest that their willingness to serve was inĂ&#x20AC;uenced by the ethos of service nurtured by Catholic schools and the emphasis on serving your fellow man, which has been a feature of the missionary outreach of the Catholic Church in Asia and elsewhere.

In the years immediately after independence in 1965, the representation of Catholics in politics, the civil service and the Singapore Armed Forces was well beyond our numbers in Singapore. This was even more so if you included those who had gone to Catholic schools. Â&#x201E;

18 JUBILARIANS

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

In honour of our Jubi

CatholicNews gives special mention to priests and Religious celebrati

SILVER: 25

DIAMOND: 60 YEARS

Fr Andre Christophe, Paris Foreign Missions Paris Foreign Missions priest, Fr Andre Christophe, 85, learnt the pipe organ just before entering the minor seminary in 1942.

On June 29, 1955, Fr Christophe was ordained a priest. He became an assistant parish priest in a church located in an industrialised region in the north of France.

During that time, he also worked in several textile factories and learnt more about the Young Christian Workers (YCW) movement.

After nine years of mission work with YCW, Fr Christophe came to Singapore on March 30, 1964.

He was assigned from 19671969 to the Tamil-speaking com-

munity at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes (OLOL).

To reach out to blue-collar and migrant workers at OLOL, Fr Christophe took up English and

Tamil. In half a year, he could celebrate a Tamil Mass.

While at OLOL, Fr Christophe was also active in the formation of the apostolates for youth, adult and family. Moreover, he was involved in the Christian Family and Social Movement (CFSM).

From 1970-1976, Fr Christophe was posted to the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, and from 1979-1985, he was in the Church of St Michael. During his time in these parishes, he continued to reach out to blue-collar and migrant workers.

Fr Christophe is now a priestin-residence at St Joseph’s Church (Victoria St). He continues to be involved in CFSM.

Fr Michael Arro, Paris Foreign Missions Paris Foreign Missions priest, Fr Michael Arro, was ordained on July 3, 1955. After his ordination, he studied Theology in Rome and took a course in English in the United Kingdom.

On June 7, 1957, he was posted to Malaya.

Shortly after his arrival, Fr Arro taught at the Penang College General from 1960-1961 and 19631968.

He also continued studying Mandarin and English in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore respectively.

In 1968, Fr Arro was posted to the Church of the Sacred Heart in Singapore, where he was an assis-

tant parish priest and the diocesan chaplain of the Young Christian Students.

In 1973, he was posted to the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual

Succour and was the parish priest.

He was also the Regional Superior of the Paris Foreign Missions priests based in Singapore and Malaysia for 29 years.

From 1997-2001, he was parish priest of the Church of St Michael.

He was then posted to the Church of St Teresa in February 2002 and was a parish priest for 12 years.

Even though Fr Arro will be a priest-in-residence at the church from July 1, he is actively involved in Marriage Encounter and Engaged Encounter.

He is also a member of the Archdiocesan Catholic Council for Ecumenical Dialogue.

GOLD: 50 YEARS

Carmelite Fr Thomas Michael Curran Carmelite Fr Thomas Michael Curran, recalled that the boarding school he used to study in had a “strong Catholic atmosphere”.

In 1958, the Irishman joined the Discalced Carmelite Novitiate in Loughrea, a town in Ireland. In 1959, he left the novitiate to go to Dublin, where he spent seven years as a seminarian. He was ordained on Dec 18, 1965.

After his ordination, Fr Curran was sent to Rome, where he spent four years studying Christian Spirituality at the Teresianum, an institution of higher education. He also studied Church History at the Gregorian University.

In 1970, he returned to Ireland,

and for the next 14 years, he taught Church History. During this time, he also travelled to USA and Aus-

tralia where he taught and held retreats.

From 1991, Fr Curran spent three years in Nigeria, Africa, where he was part of building up the diocese and Carmelite order.

Following that, he spent six years teaching in Nairobi, Kenya.

On Sept 29, 1997, Fr Curran came to Singapore. He spent two years at the Church of Sts Peter and Paul, helping out in the planning of its restoration project.

He currently teaches in the seminary, is involved in the prison ministry, and is the spiritual director of the Singapore Archdiocesan Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Note: Not all who are celebrating their jubilees are highlighted here as some have declined to be featured.

Compiled by Lorna O’Hara

Franciscan Friar John-Paul Tan Friar John-Paul Tan studied at the major seminary in Singapore between 1983 and 1990, and also in Australia’s Yarra Theological Union in 1987.

Of the 25 years that he has been a priest, he has spent 15 years in the parish ministry.

He was an assistant parish priest and parish priest at the Church of St Mary of the Angels.

He shared that he also has “been blessed with the opportunity to be involved with different Commissions at the General Curia [Headquarters] of the Franciscan Order”.

This includes being a member of the Franciscan Custody Council from 1992-2013, the secretary for Formation & Studies (Custody) from 1998-2004, and a consultant of Franciscans International at the United Nations from 2006-2009.

Friar John-Paul has been actively involved in the archdiocese as well.

Between 2002 and 2010, he was the chaplain of the Catholic Lawyers Guild. From 2011-2013,

he was part of the committee of Catholic Bishops’ Conference on Guideline and Protocol for Clerical Sexual Abuse of Minors from 2011-2013. He was also chairman of the Safe Environment for the archdiocese from 2010-2013.

Friar John-Paul has also been archdiocesan chancellor since 2013, a member of the Senate of Priests since 2011 and a member of the board of directors for Caritas Singapore and Catholic Foundation.

Fr Michael Chan, Opus Dei Opus Dei Fr Michael Chan was ordained on Aug 26, 1990, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Torreciudad near Lourdes.

After his ordination, the Malaysian priest stayed in Spain to complete his doctoral thesis at the University of Navarre while engaging in pastoral practice.

In June 1991, he was posted to Manila, where he served as chaplain to a Students’ Centre of Opus Dei at the University of the Philippines.

The following year, Fr Michael returned to Singapore to help the Opus Dei pastorally and in their spiritual activities.

Over the years, he has been involved with the spiritual formation of young people and students, working people from different

walks of life and helping them live out their faith in their daily lives.

He is also a spiritual director in the Legion of Mary, a member of the Priestly Life Commission and the Senate of Priests.

Fr Michael currently lectures at the Catholic Theological Institute of Singapore (CTIS).

Fr Romeo Yu Cha

‘You are a

priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’

– Hebrews 7:17

Scheut Missions Fr Romeo Yu Chang, of Filipino-Chinese descent, was ordained a priest on Sept 8, 1990.

After his ordination, he was a missionary in Hong Kong for seven years where he also studied Theology at the Holy Spirit Seminary there.

In 1993, he was recalled and served as the Provincial Treasurer of Scheut Missions in the Philippines. During that time, he ¿nished his Master of Arts in Business Ad-

JUBILARIANS 19

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

bilarians

ating their jubilees this year

: 25 YEARS

Fr Michael Sitaram Fr Michael Sitaram joined the seminary in 1978 and spent a year in the major seminary in Penang.

While pursuing his seminary formation in Singapore, he was sent to India for a year and was attached to a parish in a slum area.

On Jan 7, 1990, Fr Michael was ordained a priest.

He was posted to the Church of Christ the King for two years where he was assistant parish priest. He was then posted to the Church of St Francis of Assisi for two years.

Fr Michael was appointed youth chaplain in 1993 and was sent to the University of Loyola in Chicago, where he obtained a masters degree in Religious Education and the Youth Ministry. Returning in 1995, he resumed his role as youth chaplain.

From 1997-2002, Fr Michael was a resident priest at the Church of St Francis Xavier.

In 2002, Fr Michael suffered six heart attacks but recovered.

It was “divine providence”, he said, recalling how the doctors at Mount Alvernia Hospital tended to him.

Since Jan 15, 2003, Fr Michael has been the parish priest of the Church of St Vincent de Paul.

Fr William Lim Fr William Lim was a former student at Montfort Junior and Secondary Schools.

He later entered the St Francis Xavier Major Seminary, Singapore, where he studied Philosophy and Theology for seven years.

On May 20, 1990, Fr William was ordained a priest.

He was appointed assistant parish priest at the Church of the Holy Cross from 1991-1994. He was then transferred to the Church of St Francis Xavier and became an assistant parish priest from 19952003.

From 2003-2009, Fr William served as assistant parish priest in the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace. In 2009, he was parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In the same year, he was also appointed to be the spiritual director of the Archdiocesan Divine Mercy Apostolate, Singapore.

On Jan 3, 2011, he collapsed while jogging at the Serangoon Stadium. He was rushed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and doctors determined that he needed a triple bypass operation.

Due to his health, Fr William Lim has been unable to be involved in any parish ministry.

He is currently on medical leave.

hang, Scheut Missions ministration at La Salle University.

He then spent a year on sabbatical at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Boston, USA, before coming to Singapore in August 2001.

He was appointed port chaplain at the Stella Maris Catholic Seaman’s Mission at the Church of St Teresa.

Since 2007, he has been the regional Coordinator of the Apostleship of the Sea for East and South East Asia coordinating the maritime apostolate in the region.

20 FEATURE

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Priest ministering to Iraqi Christian refugees: ‘I’m living with saints’ MARKA, JORDAN – Hearing a beloved voice, a little boy hurriedly hobbles down the pale stone steps of the church hall to greet the priest with a tender hug. Fr Khalil Jaar chuckleS when he sees the sandy-haired child, Misho.

The boy and his parents are among the 600 Iraqi and Syrian refugee families Fr Jaar has been serving with the love of Christ and practical help such as food, housing and educational assistance in an eastern suburb of Amman, the Jordanian capital, where those Àeeing conÀict in neighbouring lands have found shelter.

For Fr Jaar, the daily experience of his church hosting a dozen Iraqi Christian families – about 60 people – who Àed Islamic State (IS) attacks last August, has deeply affected his own spiritual journey.

The Arab priest ¿nds his own life has been forever changed by aiding the refugees.

“They have become my family,” he said. “I am living with saints. They left everything for the Lord,” he said of the Iraqi Christians who were forced out of their ancestral homelands of the past 16 centuries by IS brutality and now shelter in his parish, Our Lady Mother of the Church.

“I am so happy. We are like a real family,” said the soft-spoken, energetic diocesan priest, who himself experienced early life as a Palestinian refugee.

Fr Jaar recounted a recent visit by his bishop from Jerusalem to illustrate his point.

“The bishop looked at my of¿ce and told me, ‘This is strange.

There are no pictures of saints on the walls,’” he told Catholic News

When was the last time you had fun?

Day of Consecrated Life, celebrated at the Church of St Mary of the Angels on Feb 2, 2014. Seeing all the other Religious congregations, I felt united with them and felt that we are heading in the same direction – for the Church, for the people – though we all are in different mission ¿elds.

What do you like best about being a Religious/consecrated person?

Having more time to pray in order to serve God and His people.

What has sustained your life as a Religious, especially in the face of challenges/changes?

Prayer, especially adoration in

These people left ‘ everything in the world... just to remain Christian.

What do you call these kinds of people?

Saints. So I don’t need [holy] images as long as I am living with such people.

’

– Fr Khalil Jaar

what you have given to me.”

Sharing meals together, starting an informal school for the refugees and seeing them take up income-generating projects has transformed the priest’s life and challenged his own spiritual walk.

“As a priest, I live like an aristocrat. My food is ready, my house is clean. If I need something, I go to my bishop or church.

These people almost have nothing and they are always happy,” he said.

“They gave me a very basic lesson to feel and to live with the other. And to always say, ‘Thank you, God!’ They are better than so many people that have so much more.”

Recognising the priest’s work, Pope Francis commissioned him to travel earlier in the year to Colombia, Mexico and San Diego to share stories of the plight of Christians caught in the crosshairs of Mideast conÀicts and Islamist extremists with a call to stand beside them and provide help in their hour of need.

“As Christians, this is our moment to be witnesses for love, respect and to accept each other,” he said.

The priest has registered 60 Iraqi children in the Jordanian school system last year, but would like to establish an informal

How would you summarise your life today as a Religious/consecrated person?

pathise with them) and I am all for the poor (I will try my best to help by all means).

Above: Fr Khalil Jaar speaks with Iraqi Christian refugees at his church near Amman, Jordan. Below: Fadi paints religious icons to help generate income for his family. CNS photos

Service.

Fr Jaar told him, “I have a picture of my mother who died last year.”

“Yes, but you need ...,” the bishop started to say, until the priest interjected.

“No, I don’t need pictures because I am living with saints,” he responded.

“These people left everything in the world – houses, cars, factories, money – just to remain Christian. What do you call these kinds of people? Saints. So I don’t need images as long as I am living with such people,” Fr Jaar said.

“I tell them: Thank you for

front of the Blessed Sacrament.

What was one of the biggest challenges you have faced as a Religious and how did you deal with it?

To start a new mission is the biggest challenge among all. By surrendering all the purposes/goals/ missions in the hand of God. How would you make vocations attractive to the youth today?

By being a living witness of the Gospel.

What aspect of Religious life has brought you most joy?

Good relationship in the community and the success of the mission.

I am serving God with gladness and joy.

What are the usual distractions during your prayer time? What do you do about them?

Worries about my work distract me. I pray for the people in my work individually and put them in the hands of God. Pope Francis calls for a Church for the poor, by the poor. How do you live that in your vocation?

I am poor (but I am happy), I am with the poor (striving to understand their problems and em-

What is the Lord calling you to do/ be in this period of your life as a Religious?

I feel that God has prepared me for this ministry since I was in the Philippines for my formation.

He has enabled me to be strong in order to face the challenges in Singapore and Malaysia, where I am now serving.

Our charism is educating children, caring for the sick and Myanmar Sr Maria Goretti Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition www.stjoseph-apparition.org

school to teach 320 of them on church grounds so that they need not lose out on another year of schooling.

He also encourages refugees to take up income-generating projects. He shops for colourful beads, which the refugees transform into delicate bracelets.

Meanwhile, a 12-year-old Iraqi Christian boy named Fadi has shown a talent far beyond his years for painting religious icons.

Fr Jaar said the boy’s family is now living from what he sells.

But the biggest concern facing Fr Jaar is providing food for the refugees and having funds to pay apartment rents.

Fr Jaar has organised a coupon system so families can purchase food, rather than organise a food distribution program.

“It’s better for the children to see their father pay using the coupons rather than having the priest deliver food. This preserves the dignity of the father,” the priest said.

Working with the refugees has opened up opportunities for God’s miracles to happen, in Fr Jaar’s view.

“A Jordanian man came yesterday and said, ‘Father, I sold my house. We are going to live in London. Could you accept this gift for the refugees?’ the priest said.

“It was US$1,400. The exact amount we need to pay the refugees’ rent,” Fr Jaar said with a smile.

“When I am in a dif¿cult situation, I say, ‘Lord, please take care of your children. They are your children, not mine. I am the administrator for you.’” CNS

other works of charity. Currently, we are ministering to Myanmar migrants based in Singapore and Johor-Melaka under the Good Shepherd Sisters.

FEATURE 21

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

On the 100th anniversary foundation of the Pauline family worldwide

Daughters of St Paul lauded for ‘visionary’ work

By Mel Diamse-Lee Presiding over the centenary Mass of the Daughters of St Paul, Archbishop William Goh, during his homily, af¿rmed their apostolate as “not simply missionary, but also visionary”.

Founded on June 15, 1915, the archbishop noted, “these 100 years, they have been very much involved in the work of the New Evangelisation.

“Even before Pope John Paul II spoke about the New Evangelisation, you were already into the New Evangelisation. That is why I believe that your order is really the work of the Holy Spirit.

Your founder could foresee what was going to happen 100 years [ahead]… indeed no one ever thought that today, actually, the world is a world of media.”

The Good News today is proclaimed not so much through traditional means or books, the prelate said. While books remain important, today’s “younger generation are using ebooks, Youtube, apps, Internet. These are the ways that the modern generation communicates,” Archbishop Goh told those present at the Church of St Bernadette on June 13.

Referring to the inspiration behind the founding of the Pauline family by Blessed James Alberione, Archbishop Goh, said, “St Paul, if he were alive today, he would have used the same means because in the heart of St Paul was to proclaim the Gospel to all men and women, to all peoples...

“That is why I really thank God for you all because the Daughters of St Paul, in fact the whole Pauline family, were not simply missionary, they were visionary.”

It is through the work of the Pauline family, to which the Daughters of St Paul belong, that the Gospel is being spread the hitech way, he said. Through the media, there are “so many ways to reach out to the world”, he added.

Revealing that he went to the Internet to ¿nd out about the work of the Pauline family, Archbishop God said the secret behind their work is their spirituality.

Just as St Paul’s desire to be identi¿ed with Christ fuelled his passion for proclaiming the Gospel, the Pauline spirituality drives the Sisters “to proclaim the Gospel, to ¿nd ways and means” to do so.

He also praised the Pauline practice of spending an hour daily in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Archbishop Goh was joined by Vicar General (Administration &

Archbishop Goh praised the Pauline practice of daily devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, which is part of their spirituality. Photos: VERNON LEOW

The Sisters with the archbishop and priests who concelebrated at the centenary Mass at the Church of St Bernadette on June 13.

Even before ‘ Pope John Paul II spoke about the New Evangelisation, you were already into the New Evangelisation.

’

– Archbishop William Goh

The Sisters have a yearly outreach at the Jurong Point shopping mall with their push cart of books and other items.

You know, your mission is more important ‘ than ours because we help the bodies, but you help the souls, which is more important.’

– Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, as told to Sr Wendy Ooi by a Pauline Sister

Religious), Msgr Philip Heng, SJ, Franciscan Friar John-Paul Tan and 14 other priests at the concelebrated Mass. A good number of Religious Sisters and Brothers, as well as laity, were also present.

In her address after the Mass, Sr Wendy Ooi, the local superior, singled out the late Archbishop Gregory Yong for welcoming the Sisters to Singapore and providing them a convent to live in 21 years ago. She also thanked the many priests who understood the “value of their mission”.

She noted however that there are still those who do not under-

stand their mission. “They see our apostolate as a business, but that is part of the ongoing challenge for us the world over.”

She shared that Blessed Teresa of Kolkata af¿rmed their work during one of her visits to the nuns’ media centre in the United States, telling one of the Sisters, “You know, your mission is more important than ours because we help the bodies, but you help the souls...”

Singapore community In Singapore, the Daughters of St Paul conduct regular media out-

reach in parishes and maintain a media centre at the Church of the Risen Christ. They also visit schools and conduct media literacy sessions for youth and adults.

During the Christmas season, they can be seen at Jurong Point shopping mall selling books and other items on a pushcart. It is also a platform to reach out to nonCatholics.

The community hopes to revive the publishing side of the apostolate with one or two new titles a year and develop their audiovisual work using new media.

There are currently six Sisters in Singapore. The seventh, Sr Karen Eng, was in Rome for her ¿nal profession on the same day as the centenary Mass. Two other Singaporean Sisters are in Hong Kong (Sr Grace Lee) and Taiwan (Sr Lynette Chan).

Asked about their impending move to a new convent when the lease on their current one expires in April 2017, Sr Wendy said in an email: “We still have a long way to reach our goal of $5 million but we continue to rely on God’s providence through the generosity of the Catholic community. Unlike churches though, it is much harder for us to raise funds.”

The Daughters of St Paul also work with laypeople, whom they

call “collaborators” and “cooperators”.

Ms Alice Choo, a parishioner of the Church of the Holy Family has been a collaborator since 1994. “The long collaboration is surprisingly unexpected and gave me the opportunity to know so many overseas Sisters,” she said.

“I am therefore very happy to join them and the Daughters of St Paul all over the world in their centenary celebrations.”

As a cooperator since 2005, Ms Theresa Khoo said, “We are called to bring to life the apostolate through all means of social communication, such as book displays, movie retreats and ¿lm festivals, while remaining rooted in the Pauline spirituality.”

On the daily practice of the Eucharistic adoration, she said, “Through the years, I’ve come to love this practice where I’ve experienced a deepening of my relationship with God. I’ve also become much more aware of my media consumption habits...” mel.lee@catholic.org.sg

Centenary celebrations Centennial Dinner – Singapore Expo, Aug 15, 7.30pm Pauline Treasures – a talk on the spirituality of the Daughters of St Paul; Oct 3, 9am-5pm at Church of Sts Peter & Paul Praise Concerts – Sisters from Singapore, the Philippines, the United States and Kenya will sing and dance with some of the local priests; on Nov 13 at Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and Nov 14 at Church of the Risen Christ; both at 8pm.

22 FAITH ALIVE!

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Celebrating a father’s love on Father’s Day, June 21

A dad’s role is not easy Fathers struggle, not always certain when to say ‘no’ and when to say ‘yes’ to a child.

By David Gibson I became a father only 42 years ago, so I still am discovering all that this role encompasses. Perhaps after 10 years of additional experience I’ll be able to tell you precisely what “fatherhood” means.

The fact seems to be, however, that every earthly father is a work in progress. Furthermore, each father is unique. There is no one-size-¿ts-all pattern for fatherhood.

Fathers-to-be often develop a fairly clear sense of the kind of parent they intend to become.

They know, at least, what kind of parent they don’t want to be.

But even in the ¿rst days after a child’s birth, these mind’s-eye notions yield to the realisation that fatherhood is a real-life role inÀuenced by the unexpected.

From the moment a child is born, it is clear that new fathers are called, like new mothers, to learn not only what a child is in terms of wants and needs.

From his intimate vantage point, a father soon realises that his child not only is growing but changing. Over time a father sees that his child possesses genuine talents, as well as personality traits that, alternately, are enjoyable or hard to handle.

As a child grows older, a father repeatedly is challenged to understand, support and always love his child, who, it turns out, is nothing less than the complex web of humanity that all of us are.

So a new father embarks on a pilgrimage of sorts. Like the patriarch Abraham in the book of Genesis, he journeys with hope

A three-year-old waits patiently with his dad at a church. CNS photo

and expectation into a future that in many ways is unknown.

“A child changes our lives,” and parents cannot “predict what a child will require” from them, Bishop Daniel E Flores of Brownsville, Texas, USA wrote on April 25 in his diocesan blog.

“When a child comes into our world,” he said, “the world as we know it changes.”

Bishop Flores af¿rmed that, indeed, children at all ages want their parents’ time. He also pointed out that “unexpected” developments and dif¿culties may arise in family life, possibly altering some plans the parents had made.

But “life is not only or even

primarily about what our plans are and what I want”, the bishop said. “Life is also about what God gives us, about what opens up when the unexpected happens.”

The people in our lives are God’s gift, “designed to mold the course of our lives for the better”, Bishop Flores believes. He wrote: “Sometimes people are a blessing by being a burden. We are blessed when God calls something out of us, to be generous to someone else. It does change us.”

Fathers experience unnerving frustrations, not sure what a pleading nine-year-old really needs, as opposed to what he

wants. They suffer over not seeming able to “get through” to a volatile 15-year-old. Often they wonder what to do next.

There are happy times for fathers, moments of resurrection when parent and child rise above some dif¿culty that threatened to build a wall between them. But there can be as-yet unresolved parent-child power struggles, too, as well as times when a parent exclaims inwardly, “Someone has to be the adult here!”

Fathers struggle, not always certain when to say “no” and when to say “yes” to a child. But those are only two key words in a father’s vocabulary.

Pope Francis suggests that all family members need to utter these three little words with some regularity: “please,” “thank you” and “sorry.”

The pilgrimage into fatherhood has one big starting point followed by a thousand new starting points along the way. The journey is long. Over time a father ¿nds himself tugged at and urged along both in welcome and unwelcomed ways.

Inherently, the journey into fatherhood challenges a man to grow and change in ways he could not imagine on the day of his ¿rst child’s birth.

A father’s pilgrimage may not be easy, but, yes, it can be distinctly God-like and Christian.

Jesus’ followers, after all, are not meant to stand still in life as if carved in stone. Like Abraham, they repeatedly listen for God’s call as their journey advances.

A father’s pilgrimage is a vocation, calling him to discover each child as a unique individual and to nurture that. But he discovers something else, too.

Little by little, and pretty astonishingly, he discovers himself – someone whose hidden gifts have been unearthed by his children. CNS Gibson served on Catholic News Service’s editorial staff for 37 years.

Father’s Day lessons from God As my dad would do – God makes clear how much He loves His children.

By Mike Nelson Scripture tells us very little about St Joseph, the patron saint of fathers (and of much more, including the universal Church), but Scripture certainly shows us a model of a good father.

That discussion generally begins with the prodigal son, and his father’s forgiveness, often cited as perhaps the best example of what being a loving father is all about. I won’t argue that point, but the biblical passage I most connect with, as a father and as a son, comes from the book of the prophet Ezekiel.

In Chapter 36, God speaks (through Ezekiel) to His people just as many real-life dads speak to their children. In this case, after they have acted up yet again.

Not only is God not pleased; God seems more than ready to give His earthly children what they have asked.

Stained glass of St Joseph carrying Jesus.

“When the house of Israel lived in its land,” said the Lord, “they de¿led it with their behaviour and their deeds... When they came to the nations, where they went, they desecrated my holy name.”

But then God’s tone changes, as if talking Himself down from His anger – just as my dad used to do when I had “acted up” for the umpteenth time, and He had let forth His umpteenth rant upon my chastened ears. Not that God is letting His children off the hook.

“Not for your sakes do I act, house of Israel,” said God, “but for the sake of my holy name,

which you desecrated among the nations to which you came.”

Then – again, as my dad would do – God makes clear how much He loves His children, promising to “bring you back to your own soil,” to “sprinkle clean water over you to make you clean; from all your impurities.”

Finally, in His most loving, fatherly tone, God pledges to place “a new heart and a new spirit” within His children. “You will be my people,” He says, “and I will be your God.” In 35 years as a dad, and 62 years as a son, I have yet to see a more compelling job description for a father than the one Ezekiel shares with us: No, children, you cannot do as you please, and I will step in when I see you stepping out of line, but I am going to be here with you, and help you, and love you always, because I am your father.

And that is what loving fathers do. They offer their children the security of unconditional love that is everything to a child, no matter how old he or she is. Jesus certainly felt that with His divine Father, but we can be equally certain that He felt it with His earthly father Joseph.

I have been blessed with a father who understands this, even when he wonders (sometimes in no uncertain terms) about my choices in life.

I must add that, like Joseph, I am blessed to have a wife who exempli¿es unconditional love and generosity in the care and raising of our son. That, too, is a lesson for all fathers, and all children – a lesson that we need not rely on Scripture to tell us. CNS Nelson is former editor of The Tidings, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, USA.

23

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Jesus and His apostles crossed the Sea of Galilee in a boat. A large crowd of people gathered on the shore to greet Him. They wanted Jesus to cure them of their illnesses.

One of the people who wanted the Lord’s help was Jairus, the synagogue of¿cial. Jairus’ 12-year-old daughter was so sick that she was close to death.

Jairus had come to ¿nd Jesus and bring Him home to cure His daughter.

As the crowd pressed around Jesus, Jairus saw the Lord and fell down before Him. “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live,” Jairus begged.

Jesus started to follow Jairus to his house. But it was hard for Jesus to move because there were so many people trying to get close to Him.

One person who wanted to get close to Jesus was a woman who for 12 years had suffered with haemorrhages – which means bleeding. She knew that if she simply touched Jesus, she would be cured. She squeezed her way through the mob of people, touched Jesus’ cloak and was instantly healed.

Jesus felt that power had left His body.

“Who has touched my clothes?”

He asked His apostles as He looked around.

The woman fell down before Jesus and told Him what she had done.

“Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your afÀiction,” Jesus told her. Just then, people from Jairus’ house came to say that his daughter had died and not to bother bringing Jesus home.

Jesus went anyway.

SPOTLIGHT ON SAINTS:

St Withburga Withburga was the youngest daughter of King Anna of East Anglia, which is now England. She and her sisters were very devout.

King Anna died in battle in 654, and after that, Withburga moved to Dereham, where she started to build a church and a nunnery. She died on March 17, 743, before the work was ¿nished.

In the place where she was buried, a spring of water gushed forth. To this day, the place is called Withburga’s well. We honour her on July 8.

“Do not be afraid; just have faith,” He assured Jairus.

Jesus brought Peter, James and John with Him into the house, where people were crying loudly. “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep,” Jesus told them.

The people made fun of Jesus.

He told them to leave, then went into the daughter’s room with her parents and His three apostles.

“Little girl, I say to you, arise!”

Read more about it: Mark 5

Q&A 1. Who were the two people who wanted Jesus’ help?

2. What did Jesus tell Jairus to have?

Wordsearch: SICK

ROOM

ARISE

HELP

SHORE

CHILD

ASLEEP

GREET

HOME

CURE

FOOD

DEAD

BIBLE TRIVIA: What town did Jesus travel to where people had no faith in him?

(Hint: Mark 6:1-6)

Bible Accent:

Answer to puzzle: 1. James; 2. Jesus; 3. John; 4. Peter; 5. Jairus Answer to Bible Trivia: His hometown of Nazareth.

There are several places in the Bible that talk about people who had died and were brought back to life.

Before He raised Jairus’ daughter, Jesus was in the city of Nain (Luke 7:11), where He saw a funeral procession for the only son of a widow. He saw the weeping widow and felt sorry for her, so He touched her son’s cof¿n and told him to arise. The man sat up and began to speak.

Not long before His own death, Jesus raised His friend, Lazarus (John 11), who had been dead four days.

Some of Jesus’ apostles also could raise the dead. In Acts 9:36, Peter prayed over Tabitha, a follower of Jesus who had died. He told her to rise, and she did.

In Acts 20:7, a young man named Eutychus fell to his death from a third-Àoor window as he listened to Paul speak.

Paul threw himself on the man and embraced him. Then the man got up and walked away with his friends.

Some of the Old Testament prophets could raise people as well. In 1 Kings 17, God commanded a poor widow to feed Elijah. When the woman’s son died, Elijah prayed to God to bring him back to life, and God did. And in 2 Kings 4, Elisha prayed to God then raised the young son of the Shunammite woman, who believed the prophet was a man of God and had always treated him well.

Jesus commanded.

The girl got up and walked around. Jesus told her parents to give her food and not to tell people what had happened.

PUZZLE: Unscramble the following words to reveal names that were mentioned in the Bible story. (Hint: Mark 5:21-43) 1. m e s j a

__________________

2. s s u j e

__________________

3. o j n h

__________________

4. t e e p r

__________________

5. a j i s u r

__________________

Answer to Wordsearch

By Jennifer Ficcaglia

24 WHAT’S ON EVENT SUBMISSIONS We welcome information of events happening in our local Church.

Please send your submission at least one month before the event.

Online submissions can be made at www.catholicnews.sg/whatson CATECHISM FOR THE ELDERLY Catechism classes for the elderly are held in English, Mandarin, Peranakan, Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese on Thursdays from 1pm-2.45pm at Church of the Holy Family and on Saturdays at St Joseph’s Church (Victoria Street), parish hall from 9.30am-11.30am.

Register T: 9115 5673 (Andrew).

RISEN CHRIST YOUTH SYMPHONY IS LOOKING FOR MUSICIANS TO PLAY AT SG50 MASS ON JULY 4 The Risen Christ Youth Symphony is currently recruiting instrumental players (strings, winds, brass and percussionists) to play for the SG50 Mass at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Register E: dr.al.leong@gmail.com.

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART COLUMBARIUM – UPDATING OF NICHE APPLICATION RECORDS The Church of the Sacred Heart is currently carrying out an exercise to update the records of all niche applications. If you have purchased a niche for yourself or for a loved one, we would be grateful if you could obtain a copy of the ‘Niche Update Form’ at the bulletin stand or from our Parish Of¿ce. Kindly return the form to the Parish Of¿ce before Aug 16.

For queries, E: columbarium@sacredheartchurch.sg.

REGISTRATION FOR CANOSSIAN CONVENT KINDERGARTEN – A SANCTUARY ON THE HILL TOP Registration for 2016 classes (N1 to K2) is open. For children born between 2010 and 2013. Come, explore and discover!

We will be running a comprehensive ¿ve-and-a-half hour programme with daily meditation and prayers led by the Canossian Sisters. Organised by Canossian Convent Kindergarten. At 100 Jalan Merbok, off Jalan Jurong Kecil. Enquiries T: 6469 2201; E: cckggeneralof¿ce@ gmail.com: W: www.canossian.org.sg.

MAGDALENE’S KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION FOR 2015/2016 Magdalene’s Kindergarten registration for 2015/2016 is now open! For parents whose children are aged between three and six (those who are entering nursery one and two and kindergarten one and two), learn more about our school.

Our kindergarten’s niche is faith and value education. Organised

by Magdalene’s Kindergarten. At Magdalene’s Kindergarten, 1 Sallim Rd. Enquiries T: 6747 6554/ 6747 5122 / 9012 4778 (Sr Margaret Goh, supervisor); E:magkg@singnet.com.sg; W:www.magdalene.canossian.org.sg.

EVERY FIRST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH PIECES OF APRIL 9am-6pm: Pieces of April is a Canossian green initiative to save the earth and give new life to used items received to bene¿t the poor. Our thrift shop opens every ¿rst Sunday of the month. Do drop by to show your support!

Organised by Canossian Sisters. At Canossa Convent, 1 Sallim Road, Gate 1.

Enquiries Email: pcsofapril@gmail.com.

JUNE 25 SUPPORT GROUP FOR CATHOLICS WITH LOVED ONES IN PRISON 10am-7pm: Clarity Singapore and RCPM Aftercare are starting a support group for Catholics, both young and old, with loved ones in prison.It will be a day of engaging activities. For adults, it will be a time for restoration, renewal and prayer. For children, it will be a time for interaction and expression. Meals will be provided.

All calls will be treated with the strictest con¿dentiality. Organised by Clarity.

At Good Shepherd, Lorong 8 Toa Payoh.

Register T: 6757 7990 (Lyn).

JUNE 26 TO JUNE 28 MARRIAGE RETORNO 8.30pm (Friday)-5pm (Sunday): Calling all couples. Spend a weekend away from the daily hustle and bustle of life. Fee (per couple inclusive of lodging and all meals): $250. Organised by Marriage Encounter. At ME House, 201B Punggol 17th Avenue. Register T: 9655 3708 (Susize) / 9011 2795 (Esme).

JUNE 26 TO JUNE 28 A PERSONAL CALL – VOCATIONS IN LIFE 7pm (Friday)-4pm (Sunday): Ever wondered about your vocation in life?

Come for a weekend stay-in retreat to explore and discover God’s invitation to you as you listen to a panel who will share on how they discovered and lived their vocations in these contemporary times.

Facilitators: Celine Lin, Lance Ng and Diana Koh. Fee: $180 (non-aircon) / $220 (aircon). Organised by Kingsmead Centre. At Kingsmead Centre, 8 Victoria Park Road. Register T: 6467 6072; E: cisc2664@gmail.com.

JUNE 27 FINDING GOD IN POPULAR MUSIC 9am-6pm: Discover who you are in God with tools from the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius and aided by the music of Sam Smith, The Script and other popular artists. Presented by Fr Mark Aloysius, SJ and Mr Anthony Siow. Organised by CANA. At CANA The Catholic Centre, 55 Waterloo Street. Fee (including lunch): $45. Register E: canatheplacetobe2013@ gmail.com / seek.anthony@gmail.com.

WEDNESDAYS FROM JULY 1 TO NOVEMBER 25 BIBLICAL PORTRAITS BY MSGR AMBROSE VAZ 8pm-10pm: God’s people were blessed with men and women of amazing faith and strength. Msgr Vaz will highlight their character strengths and weaknesses, and the lessons we can learn from their lives and from the accounts of other ¿gures from the Old Testament. Organised by Discover! Ministry at Church of the Holy Spirit. At Church of the Holy Spirit, 248 Upper Thomson Road, 4th Àoor.

Register T: 9010 2829 (Angela); E: kim_f_ho@yahoo.com.

FOR 12 WEDNESDAYS FROM JULY 1 TO SEPTEMBER 23 LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINAR 7.30pm-9.30pm: For those wanting to have a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Join us for 12 Wednesdays where you’ll

hear sharings on God’s love and salvation, receiving God’s gifts and Holy Spirit, new life, personal growth and transformation. Organised by Charismatic Renewal Community (CRC) of The Church of St Ignatius.

At the Church of St Ignatius, 120 King’s Road) Register T: 118 4737 (Theresa) / 9664 5788 (Aloysius); E: st.ignatius.liss2015@gmail.com.

THURSDAYS FROM JULY 2 TO AUGUST 20 CATHOLIC FAITH EXPLORATION – SAINTS HELPING US TODAY 7.45pm-9.30 pm:Join us for a six-part video series. Learn how the age-old wisdom and teachings of the saints can be a practical help to us today.

Organised by CaFE. At Church of Christ the King, 2221 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8, Room 105. Register / Enquiries T: 9777 9109 (Stanley); E: ChristTheKingCaFE@gmail.com JULY 5 PRISONS WEEK 2015 MASS 11am: We will be gathering to pray for and raise awareness of the needs of prisoners, their families, victims of crime, prisons staff and volunteers, and all those who care for this cause. There will be a Mass to mark the start of Prisons Week in Singapore. All are welcome. Organised

by RCPM. At Church of St Mary of the Angels, 5 Bukit Batok East Avenue 2.

MONDAYS FROM JULY 6 TO AUGUST 24 LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINARS 7.30pm-9.45pm: This series of seminars is for all who desire to live a renewed Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit. Organised by AÀame! Charismatic Prayer Community. At Church of the Risen Christ, 91 Toa Payoh Central.

Register W: www.risenchristcpg.org.

Enquiries T: 9139 5518 (Jess) / 9005 4511 (Maria); E: jess.francisco.63@gmail.com / m4trinity@gmail.com.

JULY 12 MEDITATIVE PRAYER USING THE SONGS OF TAIZE 8pm-9.30pm: Join us in meditative prayer using the Songs of Taize.

All are welcome. No registration required.

Organised by Taize. At The Armenian Church of St Gregory the Illuminator 60 Hill Street. Enquiries T: 9837 7256; E: bennycah@gmail.com; W: http://www.taize.fr/en.

JULY 14 QUIETING THE SOUL – IN SINGAPORE Come join us for a ¿ve-day vacation with the Lord in Singapore. Spend time to rest, recollect and pray. Organised by Cencale Sisters. At Lifesprings Canossian Spirituality Centre, 100 Jalan Merbok.

Register E: cenaclesing@gmail.com.

THURSDAYS FROM JULY 16 TO NOVEMBER 26 GUIDED TOUR OF THE BIBLE 8-10pm: Join us for an easy to follow programme of 15 lectures starting from Genesis to Revelation. It will be free of charge. Presented by Sundaresh Menon. No registration needed.

Come and enjoy the living word of God! Organised by Bible Apostolate Team.

At Church of St Ignatius, 120 King’s Road, Annexe Hall Level 2.

Enquiries E: henrywu@lucas.com.sg.

RCIA/RCIY A journey for those seeking to know more about the Catholic faith.

Baptised Catholics are also invited to journey as sponsors.

TUESDAYS FROM JUNE 30 CHINESE RCIA @ CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY OF THE B.V.M 8pm-10pm: 1259 Upper Serangoon Road.

Register T: 9696 9374 (Augustine).

FRIDAYS FROM JULY 3 RCIA @ CHURCH OF CHRIST THE KING 8pm-10pm: 2221 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8.

Register T: 9889 0027 (Joey); E: rcia@ gmail.com; W: www.christtheking.com.sg.

TUESDAYS FROM JULY 7 RCIA @ SJI JUNIOR WHILE CHURCH OF ALPHONSUS (NOVENA CHURCH) IS UNDER RENOVATION 7.30pm-10pm: St Joseph’s Institution Junior, 3 Essex Road. Register T: 6255 2133; E: rcianovena@gmail.com; W: http://www. novenachurch.com/rcia-form-01.html FRIDAYS FROM JULY 24 RCIA @ CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART 7.30pm-9.15pm: 111 Tank Road.

Register T: 6737 9285; E: sacredheartchurch@catholic.org.sg.

JULY 24 TO JULY 26 JULY 2015 CHOICE WEEKEND It takes that one weekend that will inspire you for the rest of your life. Come away for a Choice Weekend. It is by the choices we make that will de¿ne what our life is all about. Register T: 9790 0537 (Hillary) / 9424 2606 (Jacqueline); E: registration@choice.org.sg; W: http:// www.choice.org.sg/registration.htm.

FRIDAYS FROM JULY 24 TO SEPTEMBER 4 CaFE SAINTS – HELPING US TODAY 8pm-9.30pm: Join us every Friday to listen to CaFE speaker David Payne as he goes on location to the places changed by the lives of St Patrick, St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi, St Catherine of Siena, St Ignatius of Loyola and St Therese of Lisieux. Don’t miss this endearing and inspiring six-session programme on the lives of these saints. Do take note that there will be no screening on Aug 7.

It’s free! Organised by CaFe. At the Church of St Francis Xavier, 63A Chartwell Drive. Register T: 9664 2127 (Ignatius) / 9688 5867 (Vincent) E: cafe.sfx@gmail.com.

JULY 25 SYMPOSIUM ON DIVORCE, SEPARATION AND ANNULMENT 9am-5pm: The theme for this symposium is, What does the Catholic Church actually teach about Divorce, Separation & Annulment? Keynote speakers include Fr Terence Pereira, Catholic lawyer Peggy Lee and principal therapist Kelvyanne Teoh. Registration starts at 8.30am.

Fee: $25. Organised by ACF. At Catholic Junior College, 129 Whitley Road.

Register W: http://catholicfamily.org.sg.

JULY 16 FEAST OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL Join us to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. There will be Mass at 6.30am, 2.30pm in Mandarin, 4.30pm and 6.30pm. Organised by Carmelite Monastery. At Carmelite Monastery, 98 Bukit Teresa Road.

JULY 26 MAY AWA ANG DIYOS 10.30am-4pm: A Day of Recollection for Filipino friends to come together for prayer, quiet and reÀection. There will be presentations, personal prayer and group sharings. Fr Lester Maramara, SJ, will lead participants in discovering their call to love and mercy in their daily lives.

At Kingsmead Centre, 8 Victoria Park Road, Singapore 266492. Fee (inclusive of lunch): $10. Register T: 6467 6072; E: cisc2664@gmail.com.

JULY 24 MEDITATIVE PRAYER WITH THE SONGS OF TAIZE 8pm-9pm: Come join us in this ecumenical meditative prayer with the songs of Taize, every third Friday of the month. All are welcome. No registration needed. Organised by Taize Group at Good Shepherd Place. At Good Shepherd Place Chapel, 9 Lor 8 Toa Payoh.

Enquiries T: 9859 0769 (Ms Adeline Tay); E: a.quiet.time@gmail.com.

W: www.taize.fr/en.

SATURDAYS FROM JULY 25 TO AUGUST 22 SELF-WORTH WORKSHOPS 11am-1pm: Join us for a four-session workshop to understand self-worth, its importance and impact in your life. Learn how to love, approve and accept yourself in spite of your imperfections to improve and add meaning to your life. Organised

by Clarity. At Clarity Singapore, 854 Yishun Ring Road #01-3511. Fee: $10.

Register T: 6757 7990 / 9710 3733; E: registration@clarity-Singapore.

28 WORLD

Sunday June 28, 2015 CatholicNews

Clergy help Ukrainian soldiers overcome pain of war LVIV, UKRAINE – The lives of

many Ukrainians switched into emergency mode 18 months ago when riot police brutally beat a peaceful gathering of students protesting in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev against the government’s refusal to cement closer ties with the European Union.

In those days, the goldendomed Orthodox St Michael’s Monastery became a shelter for students and that gesture of service became prophetic as the Ukrainian Churches stood by the people in what became known among Ukrainians as the Revolution of Dignity.

During the darkest days of the protest, when police started shooting at demonstrators, local Kiev churches – Roman Catholic, Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Orthodox alike – became ¿eld hospitals as emergency care and surgeries were carried out next to church altars. Priests and lay ministers became spiritual counsellors and psychologists.

The work of the churches goes on as ¿ghting has continued between Ukrainian troops and separatist forces in the eastern part of the country, claiming the lives of more than 1,800 Ukrainian soldiers while leaving more than 7,000 wounded. Civilian casualties number in the thousands as well.

Fr Petro Terletskyj, professor of theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, started visiting injured soldiers in August after ¿erce ¿ghting erupted between government troops and separatist forces in Ilovaysk.

In addition to his pastoral work, he joined volunteers at the military hospital in Lviv to help treat the injured and organise medical supplies and equipment. He said he also

We are privileged. ‘ We are not part of the military system.

We are the Church.

We want to help, and soldiers know that they are truly valuable to us.

And that makes them more open.

’

– Fr Petro Terletskyj, professor of theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv

Fr Taras Mykhalchuk gives holy Communion to Ukrainian soldiers in Yavoriv, Ukraine, in March. The Church is KHOSLQJ 8NUDLQLDQ VROGLHUV RYHUFRPH FKDOOHQJHV WKH\ IDFH LQ WKH FRXUVH RI ¿JKWLQJ CNS photo

helps soldiers who must be transported abroad for treatment of their injuries and negotiates with clinics and doctors, cuts through paperwork and raises money for their care.

“Soldiers need to know that the Church is a community that supports and heals,” he told Catholic News Service. “This support requires concrete solidarity, not just theory. Pastoral ministry is closely interconnected with psychological assistance and social work.”

Priests often work with psychologists, but Fr Terletskyj has noticed that clergymen gain more trust among patients.

“We are privileged. We are not part of the military system. We are the Church. We want to help, and soldiers know that they are truly valuable to us. And that makes them more open,” he said.

Fr Terletskyj explained how he has heard searing testimonies of faith from those to whom he has ministered and that their stories strengthen his own faith.

“Soldiers often say, ‘You know, Father, God helped us. By all the laws of physics and ballistics we would have to be dead.’

In those sufferings there is a challenge and a call to the whole soci-

ety. It is a call to seek the truth in your life and ¿ght for it.”

Fr Andriy Lohin, administrator of the Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky Hospital in Lviv, helped the injured at Kiev hospitals during last year’s protests in Kiev.

He started a special programme to treat soldiers and their families as well as volunteers who may have not been wounded, but were in need of general medical care.

“They have spent months in very hard circumstances, obvious that their health deteriorated,” he explained. “They simply need the attention and due respect. For us

this ministry is the embodiment of Christian love in concrete actions.”

In March, Fr Lohin opened the Centre for Psychological Health at the hospital, saying mental health needs often are as great as physical needs.

Similar initiatives exist in other cities. In the central Ukrainian city of Khmelnytsky, Christ the King Roman Catholic Parish established a rehabilitation centre for internally displaced persons, military, volunteers, relatives and friends of military.

Fr Ihor Boiko, rector of Holy Spirit Seminary in Lviv, focuses his ministry on helping families of soldiers killed in action. His ministry started with spiritual support of families of the “Heavenly Hundred,” the protesters who were killed in February 2014 on Kiev’s Independence Square, known as the Maidan. As the conÀict evolved, the ministry expanded to include families of fallen soldiers.

“Our idea is to create the mutual support groups. The Church has to be close, listen to them,” Fr Boiko said. CNS

Addicted to porn? Here’s an app to help WASHINGTON – Mr Matt Fradd, a

popular Catholic speaker who said he has dedicated his life to ¿ghting pornography, teamed up with longtime youth minister Mark Hart, known as the “Bible Geek,” and LifeTeen to develop an app designed to assist young people ¿nd victory in their battle against porn.

“I worked as an apologist at Catholic Answers for three years and I would travel the country and give many talks, and I couldn’t help but feel that while I was up there proclaiming the basic Gospel message to thousands of teenagers, a good number of these young men and women were looking at hardcore pornography,” Mr Fradd explained in a phone interview with Catholic News Service.

The app, Victory, is based

on a calendar system where the user can mark the days they were victorious over porn, or had a setback, using colours. White represents the days they were victorious, and gray represents the days with a setback. A date with a green square around it signi¿es a day the user went to confession.

“One of the reasons this app is so helpful is that it enables people to view freedom from porn not as a destination, but as a daily choice.

This app enables us to daily track our progress and reÀect upon our victories. ‘Look at that, I had ¿ve days in a row that I was victorious,’” Mr Fradd said.

After the setback is logged on the calendar, the app assists you in pinpointing what the trigger was so you are more prepared to log a

white day the next time that trigger occurs. Users can choose from various “trigger” options – boredom, loneliness, anger, stress or tiredness.

According to Mr Fradd, this helps a person to gain self-knowledge.

The app includes a section for journalling, and there’s a prayer request button that will notify up to three “accountability partners”, as the programme calls them, to pray for you. The app is private and requires a four-digit passcode to log in.

Ms Rachel Penate, the assistant to the executive vice president of LifeTeen, said: “Not everyone struggles with pornography, or even the sin of lust, but everyone struggles with sin. It may require a bit of adaptation, but Victory can suf¿ce as a tracking tool for any

The ‘Victory’ app as displayed in the App Store.

struggling with a particular sin.”

Victory was launched on May 28, and since then it has been

downloaded over 4,500 times, which is a testament to its popularity. The app is free. CNS

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